#because his farmer is dead. and he’s going to live forever

[kagoutiss]

pelican town, ‘72

[black-is-iconic]

When The Past Comes Knocking

There wasn't a single day Tengen didn't think about you, you were a constant in his mind like a persistent itch he couldn't scratch. His first love, his soulmate his……everything.

And then like sand through an hourglass you were gone in a single breath, leaving a gaping hole in his heart where your presence was supposed to be.

He waited for you, day and night, searched all the corners of the continent for any sign of you or even just the slightest whiff of you but never found anything. For weeks, months…..a lifetime of waiting. Begging, praying to a higher power for your return….but it was all for naught.

You…were gone, vanished into thin air dead, gone forever. His world came crashing down around him as he fell into a deep depression, unable to go on living without you.

There was no hope. Despair consumed him, his world, everything he loved, gone in the blink of an eye….and all because he was feeling lazy, because he wanted a little more sleep.

He'd practically signed your death warrant when he passed the mission onto you and rolled back over to sleep. And it's haunted him ever since, every waking moment, ever dreamless sleep.

But he moved on…taking up demon slaying…he married…three times…three beautiful wives…..each and everyone of them perfection their own right, but….even with their beauty, kindness compassion and love he couldn't find solace within them.

He had so many regrets…so much regret. None of them held a candle to your visage, they were beautiful distractions, a means to an end that didn't satisfy. But it would do, it would have to.

The past is the past and nothing can change it, so imagine his surprise when he locked eyes….with the very person who plagued him for the last past six years…..

Your only thoughts were of Tengen from the moment you locked eyes as children, to each day spent chasing each other around the village…you were inseparable. And you always thought it be that way, except his father….for all intensive purposes…hated your guts.

He was always trying to pluck you from Tengen's life like a farmer pulling a weed from his precious harvest.

He'd gone out his way to ruin your relationship with Samui (meaning cold) one of the younger Uzui brothers, and even tried to get Tengen to drop you, but Tengen was unrelenting sticking to you like glue. Which only pissed of his father to a much more extreme level.

His father didn't approve of you lingering around his sons or daughters, despite you also hailing from a pretty well known ninja clan, and you being better than half if not most of the kunoichi in his own clan.

He could never let an exotic (a derogatory term for foreigner or non native) delude his family. You were a stain, your dark skin a flaw amongst his pure 'noble' clan, and he constantly tried to cleanse your presence away by ostracizing Tengen whenever possible.

But it was inevitable, you were both ninja. Sneaking around was kind of your whole schtick, and whenever he would cut you off one way you'd just find another.

You we're deeply in love with each other and nothing would get between you, your actions clearly proved that….and nothing did come between you…until that one fateful night. You should've known, once a snake always a snake.

But you were so relived when he dropped his obsession with weeding you from Tengen's life…..that you ignored the warning signs, were….glaringly obvious the wide smiles gentle touches and sudden interest in your every movement.

The way he suddenly opened his arms to you as if you were new found daughter. That's why you didn't see it coming, that night……but it didn't matter.

Because you were back, back in Japan, back home…and you had a surprise…well actually two.

Two little surprises clutching the hem of you kimono, [Son/Name] and [Daughter/Name] just barely five years old, it would seem your family's twin gene struck again.

But apparently…Tengen had surprises for you as well. Three of them in fact, when you knocked on the door to his home…you weren't sure what you were expecting but two women wasn't exactly it.

"Um, sorry I think this is the wrong house" you murmured turning away as the strange woman stared at you wide eyed and gasping like a fish out of water as you turned to leave she snapped out of it.

Grasping your shoulders roughly and shouting "WAI-" but she never got to finish because you swiftly grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm behind her back, hooking your leg under hers and sending her toppling to the ground.

In one swift movement you had placed a kunai against the soft flesh of her throat, her mouth open in shock and terror. "DO. NOT. TOUCH. ME."

You hissed coolly and she nodded slowly "I'm sorry I'm sorry, it's just you're….her" she said almost in reverance…..as if you weren't…..holding a deadly weapon to her throat.

You sighed releasing her and placing the kunai back in it's pouch [S/N] tugged on you're sleeve "Mama I'm hungry" he whispered as [D/N] nodded along always the silent one out of the two.

The woman before you, a heavy chested, pale skinned blue eyed bimbo looked ecstatic as shed eyed your two toddlers who felt uncomfortable under intense gaze and hid behind your frame.

"I CAN MAKE YOU SOMETHING IF YOU LIKE, YOU'RE SO MUCH CUTER THAN THE PORTRAITS" the woman shouted lunging at you and earning a swift kick to her ribcage sending her sliding across the ground.

"What do you not understand, about do not touch me?" You asked brow arched as she looked at you with wide eyes, she looked down slightly ashamed pressing her fingers together "S-sorry sorry, you don't know me" .

She said anxiously rubbing her arm "of course it would be weird to just hug a stranger, um I'm Suma Uzui" she murmured in a calmer sheepish tone.

Offering you her hand to shake, you looked down at it slightly hesitant to take her hand and ultimately deciding to ignore it all together.

"Um I'm sorry did you say, Suma Uzui? I thought all of Tengen's sisters died…", the woman- Suma tilted her head and began laughing as if you told a joke but when she saw you were serious she stopped laughing rubbing the back of her head.

"O-Oh I'm um not his sister, I'm his wife" she murmured softly watching your facial expression keenly for the slightest change…but there was none besides the slightest parting of your lips. Wife……that word echoed in your mind like a broken record.

"Wife, huh?" You spoke after what felt like an eternity, your lips twitching slightly as you fought off a slight frown, you swallowed harshly…..Suma shuffled in place awkwardly watching the slight emotion slip through your quivering lips.

"U-Um would you like to come in for some tea?" She offered reaching out for you, but you backed away. It was like if suddenly the breath was stripped from your lungs and the world began to spin the only thing grounding you, was the warmth of your son and daughters tiny fingers wrapped around yours.

"I-I see" you whispered in a hushed voice before looking back at her "no… I mean….thank you for asking, however, I need to be going now, sorry for intruding" you whispered backing away slowly "w-wait Y/N please stay he misses you so much, he'll be so happy you're back".

Suma pleaded clutching your hand you simply looked down at her hand on yours and she flinched back. "Ah yes, he missed me so much he remarried" you spoke bitterly venom coating your words as your lashes blinked back tears.

Suma looked down at the ground "h-he was in a really rough spot when he married me and the others, but not a day goes by-" she spoke but stopped when your brows raised and eyes sharpened "Others, plural?"

You asked in a cracked in a whisper, and she took a deep breath clutching her scantily kimono hem. You shielded your children's eyes from such depravity the kimono barely came past her lower thigh- don't be rude….don't…be bitter.

It's not her fault, you rehearse slowly. Suma looked at you with pity, and it only added fuel to the flames of bitter anger inside of you and a sense of betrayal as your eyes narrowed and jaw clenched.

"Yeah, there's two others Hina and Makio" she murmured "b-but you're clearly the favorite" she said quickly trying to comfort you but it felt more like a stab to the heart than anything. you wanted to cry and laugh at the same time.

Laugh at your own stupidity for thinking he'd wait six years for your return, and cry cause you thought you were special enough to warrant the waiting.

"The favorite, my aren't I lucky to be the kings favorite whore". You snap sarcastically and she flinched, "I'm sorry" you started taking a deep breath as the tears finally raced down your cheeks, "I-I'm sorry…I'm just" "It's okay, this is a lot, I can see why you might be angry" "Um, I think I'll take you up on that tea".

Your eyes never leave her as she makes the tea, and your hand never leaves your kunai.

If you've learned anything from your past mishaps its trust no one and always be prepared so when she came to you with the tea pot, you opened it and checked it's contents just to make sure it wasn't an assassin's tea pot.

And for extra security you made her sip the tea first and waited a couple of minutes to see if it had any effects, the tension in the air is palpable and awkward.

The house was almost exactly how you remember it last only more colorful and vibrant you busied yourself with preparing a meal for your Son and Daughter who clung tightly to your side, it's clear they too were uneasy you made something simple. Stuffed dumplings and pot stickers you even made some for the bim- Suma….for Suma.

You couldn't take your anger out on Suma, she was entirely innocent in this. She eagerly accepted the plate with a wide smile "sorry for the earlier hostility" you murmured shyly and she gushed waving it off.

"No no, it's completely understandable you were gone and then you come back and there's a random woman in your house, trying to touch you and ranting how they know everything about you, it's um…it's a normal reaction I just got a bit carried away" she muttered softly.

she muttered softly an awkward silence falls between the two of you as you just kinda look anywhere but at each other.

Her eyes kept flickering to [S/N] and [D/n} and you seriously hoped she wouldn't ask about them because you really, really didn't want to talk about it….at least with her….no offense she seemed nice and all. But she was a total stranger….and Tengen's wife a voice whispered in the back of your head and you clutched the fabric on your knees tightly.

It was unfair of you to be mad at Tengen, you told yourself, six years is a long time…..he probably thought you were dead. You're okay with this, you reassured yourself this is okay….you repated in your head while cradling [S/N] on you're lap and [D/N] snuggled your hip resting her head on your thigh, "what are their names?"

Sumas asked softly, and you smiled "[S/N] and [D/N]" you answered softly and she smiled. "Those are lovely names, their beautiful" she spoke scooching slightly closer.

You pulled away a bit and smiled awkwardly "yay", another intense bout of silence followed….before suddenly the door open and in walked two more woman who you presumed to be the other wives, your chest ached and your skin crawled slightly as they quickly made their way over to you and suddenly you were uncomfortable.

You were antisocial, always have been, probably always would be. It took a bit of pestering from Tengen for a friendship to blossom, "um, hi Y/N is it?"

A woman in a purple kimono spoke and you gave a single nod, she looked just as stiff and anxious as you felt long lashes fluttering softly "hi I'm Hinatsuru, um how are you?"

She asked softly, uncertainty laced within the octaves of her voice "fine" you responded briskly with a little more hostility than you intend as your hand clutched tighter around your babies who watched on curiously, Hinatsuru didn't flinch but she looked slightly flustered "s-so um" "I'll leave" you spoke after another awkward pause, "w-wait maybe we should talk?"

Hina tried as you scooped up [D/N] and [S/N] "about what? We don't know each other, this is painstakingly awkward, you all seem lovely but um…….I'll try a little later" you murmured walking towards the door and opening it only to come face to face….with Tengen.

[ask-dcf]

*There is silence… in the air… Frisk looks absolutely horrified…*

*Frisk has the face of absolute trauma and fear… as this almost sounds similar to their life before they met Data… While Chara stares… and looks ready to burst*

*She gets up*

*Before she could continue they spoke once again*

”Once upon a time. There was a colony of cats. They lived in a cave. All of them black and not allowed to be apart of society. They hunted anything from bugs to tiny animals. They were so many that they even hunted bulls and humans. The worse offense, was they ate their own kind. These black cats were the most hated creatures. But they lived in a society where they believed they were above the rules of Mother Nature. One day. A gentle kitten born from this colony who’s as destined to lead this clan, was quite a coward. And so she ran from her cave. She ran and ran and fell off a cliff. When she came to she found herself on a farm. A baby goat found her and brought her to his herd. The goat herd did not know of the evil cats and lived in peace. So they took her in as their own. They taught her to leap, they taught her to bump heads, and taught her to play. However, the cat only ate grass… and she could not live off it. A hunger grew inside her, foam frothed at her mouth. She tricked the goat who saved her to go on a hill. And tell him she was dying of hunger. She said that if he let her eat him, they would be together forever. The baby goat naively believed her. And as she ate the goat, she cried out in anguish. As this hunger she blamed on her own kind. And so. She went back to her colony. And began killing every cat in the cave. The males, females, kits, even the unborn from the females in labor. The more she killed the bigger she became. Until there was no cat left. She couldn’t be satisfied. She hated them. She hated herself. And she hated the world. She left the cave in hopes the herd would take her in. But when she came back. The herd was all but dead. As the baby goat they had held a cure to a disease they had. That the farmer who tended the land was preparing. The cat now finally realized that she was cursed. Everything she touched did nothing but destroy. And so she lost herself in her anger and hate. She prowled the farm. Eating some mice she found. One of which fell in front of her. She did not care. She ate. She killed. It was all she knew now. Until a loud bang was heard upon the farm. The cursed kitten was shot. By the farmer. And so she was buried. But it is said that she still prowls on the farm. Hunting and eating. Because for her…. It was now fun to her…. Because she knew what she did… was for LOVE.”

*Chara stares. With her eye twitching*

*She looks up in horror realizing she may be next*

*Meanwhile Chara grits her teeth and her wings turn sharp like knives again. Her claws come out slowly as she scrapes the ground with them in an angry grip*

*she slashes at the two eggs but they turn to fog and reappear in the air, looking a bit different, as if puppets dangling by strings*

“There was a baby rabbit. Who was left on the porch of a human family. The mother was sick and was dying. So she left her there all alone in the rain. The humans took her in. But they had many other pets who were mean. And the children handled the pets poorly. The snake would choke the rabbit. The hamster would bite the rabbit. And the chicken would peck at the rabbit. The human kids were not smart when it came to handling the baby rabbit. Holding her by the ears. Tossing her around. And dressing her up clothing that was too tight around her. One day the family bought a goat. The rabbit was treated fairly by the goat. And so the rabbit believed foolishly that he was her father. For she did not know what love was until this goat took care of her. However. One day… the goat disappeared. As he was sold off to a farm. Leaving the rabbit all alone. The rabbit soon died as she was thrown at a wall by one of the human parents in a drunken fit of rage. The baby rabbit died crying out for her fake father to come find her. Only to never see him again. As he had died during an accident at the farm. He grew sick as the rabbits mother did. As the disease took them both. In the end. The rabbit was reunited with her mother and father. In the beyond of the void.”

*Alice couldn't quite understand it, but the story hit her personally. The way it was worded… It struck a nerve. She could feel tears streaming down her face as she absorbed the story, trying to process it all. Alice soon broke down into a heaping, sobbing mess on the ground, clutching her head. She couldn't understand why the story was effecting her this way.*

*These stories… Were clearly… about our young heroes…*

[tic-toc-clock77]

The Scarecrow Girl - Dwellers Version

Cw: abuse, religious, physical and emotional abuse/trauma, suicide, mutilation, sacrifice, force feeding, starving

The Scarecrow Girl formerly lived in a small town as a regular young girl with brown eyes and black chin length. She lived with her average mother, father and was an only child. She grew up admiring the town farmer's son and they went to the same school and the same church.

At 15 years old, she began developing a crush on the farmer boy, she was utterly obsessed with him after a short while. Because her parents didn't want their young daughter dating and getting her heart broken, she had to hide her feelings until she couldn't take it anymore...

She told her parents she was in love but they were terrified for her and her overprotective father forbade her from ever seeing him again, going as far as to keep her locked away in her room for 4 years.

She tried to fight back but only ended up being abused for it, she couldn't escape the house and when she tried, she was tied down to her bed. From then on, she had to be force fed. When she screamed for help, she would be hit until her body was covered in scars and bruises.

Her screaming would last all night, every night until her mother called for the local priest to exorcise her. He came daily, screaming things at her while she begged for help, nobody ever came...

After 4 whole years of being abused, either force fed or starved, screamed at, beaten black and blue, tied down and mentally destroyed...her bonds came loose, randomly it seemed and finally, the hope she held onto, to finally confess, gave her strength.

Pale arms, bruised with long black hair reaching down her sides, she climbed out of her window in the dead of night and went to see the boy who looked at her in horror when he saw her and claimed she was a witch that came back from the dead.

Rejected and dejected, she made her way out to the farmer's field, took a pitch fork and stabbed it into her chest, letting her blood soak into the ground of where she and the farmer's son used to lay as children...

Days later, the farmer's son found the girls body. Instead of properly burying her, he thought that she was scary enough to be a new scarecrow and heartlessly, he dragged her body to his shed, mutilated her by stuffing her open wounds with straw, when the straw was pushed past her organs and through her mouth her once closed eyes opened again which he did not notice, he wandered out to the field, stuck her up on the post and nailed her rotting arms into the wood.

The boy had been, much more demented than the scarecrow had ever known when she was alive. He talked to her daily, she only wanted to talk back, like they used to but her eyes could still, her ears could still hear but her body, could not move.

One day, the boy came to the scarecrow and explained, he'd met a girl named Lily. He planned on bringing the young woman to his home and introducing her to the rotting corpse nailed to the wood. Enraged and jealous, the scarecrow screamed in front of the boy but he kept talking to her, ignoring her scream.

That night, a creature of mist and fog coloured in black and red appeared before the scarecrow, the creature named Zalgo explained he'd released her bounds and that he could more for her. The scarecrow begged for life again, she begged to have the chance to get rid of Lily and Zalgo granted it.....at a cost.

She swore she'd work for Zalgo forever if she could just live again and he granted that wish. Able to move again, she found a scythe and anxiously hurried toward the farm where she watched, seething with jealousy, as Lily and the farmer boy ate together with his family.

Finally, she broke the window, scaring the entire family which the scarecrow mercilessly slaughtered until it was just her and the boy, who was terrified of her. Just as she went to confess her love again, she was taken away by Zalgo and forced into the underworld...

As a Zalgoid minion, Scarecrow gave up on love and fully dedicates herself to Zalgo and her job as a minion. She, along with Stripes and The Rake, are always working and coming up with plots to take down the Slenderman and his workers...

[raggydraws]

This Reminds me of College

Surya and Tabatha attempting to teach themselves Merikih to varying degrees of success Tags: Surya & Farmer, Potentially OOC, Tabatha has ADHD and is HYPERFOCUSED on Merfolk, Surya and Tabby are best friends, Author doesn't write often please be nice, HC: Surya knows about the Merfolk because that lab is small and there's no way he doesn't, an attempt at Indonesian words, Gen Fic, Surya and Tabby are both smart individuals but hanging out with your friends can and will kill brain cells for the lols, No Beta we die like Pufferfish, Merikih is italicized

If Dr. Jiang had tried to keep the existence of merfolk from Surya; she hadn’t tried very hard. Given the fact he’d been standing right behind her, also looking through the monitor eyes of Kibble, when Tabatha had stumbled upon two of them didn’t help.

Of course he immediately swore himself to secrecy about them, Dr. Jiang, er, Ling as she insisted, hadn’t even gotten the chance to argue why they shouldn’t go blathering about it to the whole island. It just made sense not to. Her entire research basis, the solar pillars and the super corals, hells, the oil spill itself and the presence of the monstrous company that caused it in his new home alone kept his mouth shut.

Talk and innocent people would probably die. Morbid.

Plus it would’ve really put a dent into the bet about Dr. Ling he had going with Tabatha.

The farmer in question had also resurfaced and crossed town in record time to come yell their own arguments about keeping a closed lid on the existence of merfolk. How they had done so when Surya had seen them get winded walking upstairs would forever be a mystery to him.

But they’d all gotten through it, swore themselves to never speak of it again, especially if this were a one off thing, although Dr. Ling took Tabatha’s diving suit in for an upgrade in the off chance this wasn't a fluke. 

Which eventually led to Surya standing on his friend’s porch with a pot of lodeh and his old college textbook on dead languages. He let himself look over their garden plots as he waited for the brunet to answer the door, marveling at how much automation they’d managed to set up in such little time. Six plots with small, albeit makeshift, sprinklers with two much larger plots that Tabatha likely had to water by hand themselves, all with little budding plants just waiting to grow and be harvested. Surya was impressed, remembering his Paman Joko mentioning that their neighbor had either already had a hand in farming or at the least had gardened quite a bit before moving here. He mentally took note of the plot with young melon vines just beginning to sprout, wondering if he could convince Tabatha to part with one or two once they were fully ripe, before the door to the cabin swung open.

“Surya! Welcome, welcome, come in watch your step-” Tabatha ushered him inside with a bright smile, quickly shutting the door behind him. “Sorry, don’t want all the cold air getting out.”

“Oh, did your walls not get re-insulated when Bibi and Paman gutted the place?” Surya asked, setting his pot of lodeh onto the rickety fold out table set up in their small living space.

“Oh no I’m sure they did, it’s just a habit from living in shitty Pokyo apartments.” 

“Ah.”

Tabatha locked the door, likely another habit from previously living in a crowded metropolitan area, and joined him at the table with an eager grin.

“Thanks for bringing food by the way, I would’ve made something but,” They gesture sheepishly and vaguely to their barebones cabin. “I still don’t have a lot to work with at the moment.”

“Of course, it’s no trouble. Hopefully Bibi can get a kitchen set up for you soon.”

“Fingers crossed.”

The two sat down to eat, exchanging pleasantries and talking about their days apart. Tabatha only volunteered part time at the lab, carving out time for cleaning sights around coral reefs between their farm and also getting used to their new community. Surya would go days without seeing the tall brunet, only for them to show up to the lab soaking wet and with enough kelp to power a small generator, and the two would easily slip back into jokes and banter before disappearing from sight again. It was safe to say that Tabatha was one of the two friends that he had, and he was honestly all the more glad to have them. Soon enough they finished their dinner and tucked away any leftovers in whatever tubberware Tabatha had laying around, finally moving onto the actual reason Surya had come over in the first place.

Teaching themselves a presumably dead language, because Dr. Ling refused to do so.

Because it would be useful! Because you never knew what could happen and what if Surya needed to dive with Tabatha one day and didn’t have a built-in translator? What if the merfolk came to them? It totally wasn't because this was the most unbelievable thing that's ever happened to anyone, ever. Or the fact that Dr. Ling knew way more than she was letting on but wouldn’t tell them.

And it definitely wasn’t because Surya was a man of science and Tabatha was riddled with ADHD and this was their new, shared hyperfixation. 

It wasn’t.

Neither of them knew what the language was actually called yet, and Surya hesitated to dub it “Atlantis” due to their location, which spurred Tabatha into giving a surprisingly informed rant about how Atlantis was actually more likely to be based on a mix of a volcanic event in the Mediterranean and Plato spouting bullshit than a real civilization that fell below the waves. It reminded him that Tabatha was a lot more smart than they let on, somewhat downplaying their intelligence for the sake of their self imposed title of ‘Lab Thembo’.

Tabatha retrieved the regulator mask of their diving suit, strapping it into place as Surya began flipping through his old textbook and getting out a fresh, blank notebook. They wouldn’t be able to write down any actual words or an alphabet, as all the pictures they did have of the language were on Kibble’s hard drive and the little robot was sitting in the lab at the moment. But they would write down similar vowels or repeating patterns and also have it for the excuse that this was for science and not shits n giggles, should Dr. Ling happen to stumble upon it.

“Alright, you ready Suri?” Tabatha asked, fitting the regulator over their mouth as Surya gave them the go ahead. The brunet breathed deeply, making sure the gear didn’t interrupt their airways while not attached to any tanks before speaking as clearly as they could.

“Can you hear me?” Their voice cycled through the speaker with a warm crackle, and Surya frowned in disappointment.

“Loud and clear…in English.”

Tabatha grimaced in confusion and removed the regulator, eyebrows lifting into their hairline once they realized that they had forgotten to turn the translator on. Flipping the slider to ‘ON’ the brunet put their gear back into place and Surya eagerly waited to hear the elusive language of real life merfolk.

“What about now?”

The words were strung together in a lilting, rhythmic pattern and it made Surya pause, blinking in surprise at how pretty it sounded. It also almost sounded familiar somehow, his first thought being something akin to Latin or even his own native language. It definitely was different enough for him not to pick it up right away but close enough that it pinged in his brain as something he should recognize.

“Oh wow.” 

“Is it working, Surya?” 

“No idea what you just said!” He cheered, practically beaming as he scribbled down their first new findings. Tabatha cheered as well, their voice coming out of the translator as a bright, elongated tone akin to a lofty held note in a song. 

They sat on Tabatha’s floor for what felt like hours, simply babbling sing-song like words back and forth between themselves. At some point the young man found himself sprawled across the wood floor to stretch out his legs, while Tabatha happily rambled on about something he couldn’t understand, only the occasional word standing out as it went untranslated. Surya recorded some of the basic sentences, sending them to Tabatha’s phone for the two to practice later when the mask started hurting for the brunet to continue wearing. They shook their head after peeling it off, huffing in annoyance as fluffy brown hair fell into their eyes. Surya snorted.

“I need a damn haircut.” Tabatha said, blowing a raspberry at Surya while simultaneously spitting hair out of their mouth. Their eyes then widened for a second, scrambling to their feet in haste and practically running over to their wardrobe. Surya lifted himself off the floor, leaning back on his hands with a laugh at his friend.

“Dude, what are you doing?”

“I got an idea!” They exclaimed, pulling the rest of the diving suit from the sparsely occupied dresser. “Did you bring a swimsuit or anything?”

“Uh, no?” Now sitting cross-legged and watching with a bit of worry as Tabatha ran into their tiny bathroom. “Why?” The plan had just been to see if they could glean anything from the translator and hang out while doing so. The thought of needing his swimming trunks or his own diving suit hadn’t crossed his mind once.

“You’ll see!” Came the muffled reply from the bathroom. A minute or two passed and Surya used the time to pick up the small mess of paper and pens they’d made on the floor. “Alright get in here! Bring the mask too!”

“Uh,” Surya lifted himself from the floor, scooping up the regulator as he did and reluctantly walked over to the bathroom door. “Are you decent?” He felt silly for asking and sillier for the probably obvious flush creeping up his neck.

This was probably why his Bibi Dinda and Paman Joko kept throwing him ‘looks’ every time he went to hang out with Tabatha. The farmer had no time or formality with social cues or implications. It was impulses and ‘I’ll deal with it later’ all the way down with this one.

The door opened and Tabatha’s head poked out from the threshold with a wry grin.

“No, I'm completely naked Suri.” They deadpanned as they spread out an obviously full covered arm from the doorway. Surya threw his hands up in mock surrender.

“Hey, I’m trying to be a gentleman here.” 

“Be a gentleman somewhere else we don’t have time for that,” Tabatha grabbed the mask from him and disappeared back into the bathroom. “Now. Get. In. Here.”

Surya rolled his eyes fondly and stepped into the bathroom.

He burst out laughing immediately.

Tabatha stood in their small, honestly kind of sad, shower in their full diving suit, sans air tanks, with their hand on the faucet. Surya immediately knew what they were going to do. He’d seen an old college roommate do the same thing to clean his diving suit after accidentally swimming into a cloud of algae.

Tabatha’s eyes crinkled with a tell-tell sign of them grinning, as well as they could, with the regulator covering their mouth and turned the faucet on.

Surya couldn’t fucking breathe.

“W-wha-what are you doing??” He managed to gasp out between bursts of laughter, wiping the tears forming in his eyes at the sight before him. Tabatha shrugged, answering in that sing-song language again that now sounded a little like they were gargling with the shower head on. Surya gasped for air, intermittently broken up by short fits of giggles as he tried to calm himself down. The brunet turned the faucet off and pulled the regulator away from their face, spitting out any stray water that had found its way past the haphazardly put-on mechanism.

“So,” They asked after giving Surya another moment to gasp down air. “Did that sound any different?”

“Is THAT what you were doing?”

“Duh!” The brunet gasped, absentmindedly tossing a hand out and covering Surya’s feet in water. “I remember it sounding different when I was fully submerged.”

“So you got into your shower to test that?”

“...I might’ve only just now remembered that I have a pond…”

“Oh my goddess Tabby,” Surya looked down forlornly at his now wet socks. “Is that why you asked if I brought my swim trunks?”

“...yes.”

“And you immediately got into your shower??”

“YES, SHUT UP!”

Surya was very lucky he was near the door when he started laughing again as Tabatha flung as much water at him as they could. After calming down again and much apologies, the two gathered up some gear and wandered outside to the closest pond on Tabatha's property. The summer evening was warm enough to be comfortable even without a proper wetsuit on, but Surya still lamented that his socks were now uncomfortably squishy. Tabatha offered to hang them out to dry and he declined, deciding that if he stepped on something hard then that was just how it had to be.

With towels, water-proof recording gear, an old pair of swim trunks Tabatha let him barrow and the brunet all put shoving their diver’s goggles over his head, the two sat on the small wooden platform that hung over the nearest pond. Even though it was attached to one of the many streams that ran through Coral Island, they determined that current wouldn’t be strong enough to pull himself or Tabatha in and therefore deemed it safe enough for a little free diving. 

Surya let Tabatha fall backwards into the pond first and followed suit when a thumbs up broke the surface. The water was cool against his skin and the pond, while small, was big enough and deep enough that the two of them could stand with only having to squat a little bit. He sat for a moment to enjoy it before Tabatha called over to him with the sing-song language.

“Hello! Fancy seeing you here~” Their eyes crinkled, smiling under the mask as Surya recognized the ‘Hello’ but not the rest.

“Hello!” He replied back clumsily, water filling his mouth briefly. The language carried through the water just as well, if not better, than it did in the air and still with the same pretty, melodic tone. They both resurfaced briefly, Surya to spit the water out of his mouth and Tabatha mostly to gather more air and ask if he was alright before they submerged again.

Once again they swapped words back and forth, practicing simple ‘hellos’ and ‘goodbyes’, ‘how are you’ ‘thank you’ and ‘you’re welcome’ until they could repeat the words without having to think about strange rising and falling of the vowels. Eventually they resurfaced for the last time, as the sun began to fully set and their muscles ached from keeping themselves in place under the water. But they continued without the translator, practicing their tone and pronunciation without the safety net of Dr. Ling’s mysterious handiwork. By the time the two saw fit to finally towel themselves dry and head back to Tabatha’s cabin, it was late and Surya felt fairly confident in his barebones basics of the merfolk language.

“Did you wanna take the rest of the lodeh home with you?”

“No, that's for you! I don’t want my friend starving before they get a kitchen.” 

Tabatha huffed a small laugh, wrapping their arms around his middle and squeezing him tightly, butting their head gently against his shoulder. Surya returned the hug, patting them on the back before stepping away and heading towards his Bibi’s and Paman’s home in the forest. He’d return home later than intended with still damp hair, wet socks and borrowed board shorts, staving off Archie’s questions for the next morning and rolling his eyes at another one of his Bibi’s ‘looks’ before heading to his room and collapsing into bed.

He dreams of song-like languages and fish-tailed people below the waves.

[thedummycattoartist]

AYOOO People how it's going? :D

I hope it's good anyways

I bring up with this like 3 days ago

I have this idea about at what if Mac have two Adoptive dad's before Mac got sell to the Tweedy farm in a young age

Well here's some details about them:

Their names are Mariano and Demian

They are both roosters at they live once in a farm on Scotland

Mariano's parents were from different countries (his dad it's a Italian rooster and her mom a Scottish hen)

Mariano meet Demian in a young age when they were born (Mariano's mom was friends with Demian's mom) and they became friends when they were little baby chicks

The years past and around on their mid teenagehood (closely on their adulthood)

They both started to have feelings for each other but had the fair on being in a relationship due of the farmers finds out about them (the farmers will think this is un-natural about a rooster being with a other rooster)

But 2 years later Mariano and Demian finally they confess their feelings to each other and finally become a couple

Few years later Mariano's friends (it was a hen and her name was Lola) was about to have a baby chick with his husband Ferguson and decided to named her Mcnugget (Mac for short) which she announcement to her chicken friends in the Chicken farm and her friend Mariano

Which makes Mariano happy because he always wanted to be a God-father (including Demian)

1 month later Lola finally had Mac after she got hatched from her shell

Which makes Lola so happy to have her baby but it didn't last forever for Lola and her husband's happiness

2 weeks later, the owners of the farm one night, accidentally left the door fence open by no reason which it make the dog got inter to the and accidentally kill Ferguson (who got out from his hen house to get some fresh air) by the neck, which it make the owners of the farm got it wake up to see the whole situation, Lola heard it and saw dead on the floor, she was sad about her husband's death

10 days later the owners of the farm decided to sell Lola to some chopper in somewhere in the city of Scotland to order on make more money, this news make Lola chocked and sad because she will never see her daughter Mac again but before she leaving, she told her friend Mariano to take care of Mac and she gave her scarf to her daughter Mac so she can remember her and after that she leaves to get into the chicken truck

And that moment Mariano was so sad about at her only friend was now gone and not with him anymore, for that time he's now going to promise her friend on taking care of Mac for now on

Mariano and Demian became now mac's officially Adoptive dads who taking care of her now

Those 8 weeks was the best time for Mariano on taking care of Mac like it was he's children and promise to her friend on being a great dad for mac

Those days every night before sleep Mac always ask it about how her real parents looks like due of she has less memories of them when she was a only a newborn chick, then Mariano always tell her about it

For Demian he was an great for childrens, he always plays with Mac and enjoys roaming around the big grassy fields on the farm

It was full of Joy for the two of them (Mariano and Demian) but every good days comes to a end

One day in the sun rise

The owners of the farm decided to to sell Mac to the Tweedy's make some money to keep their farm

Which it makes Mariano and Demian worried and sad for them (around that time Mac was only a young chick)

So the farmers decided to put Mac in the Chicken truck along with the others chicks, the chicken truck was start to turn on, but Mariano along with Demian decided on saving Mac from there, but the truck was so fast and then the two rooster got left behind, but Mariano never give up and decided on finding Mac all the way till England on Yorkshire

With the help with some stuff who robbed from the farmers they decided to build a giant balloon to travel the world to England to find Mac (in the middle of the travel they faced up danger place and mean creatures who try to hurt them)

The years past (in the early 1960's after the events of the second movie/Mariano and Demian are now on their early 60's)

They were keeping finding Mac there's not Sign but then they see some hens, two roosters and two rats try to save some chickens from a other farm and they decided to take a look at it but they crashed down into the woods

Some hens of the island (on the middle of the rescuing) heard it and decided to help Mariano and Demian (while they were unconscious)

Now in the Chikin Sanctuary (aka the chicken island), Mariano and Demian woke up and they see Some couple of hens at they see them if they are okay and then Mariano ask them who health him and Demian and the leader of the hens (Ginger) told them at Mac health them and she said at Mac it's already it's bringing them some tea to calm them down, once Mac got arrived with the tea for Mariano and Demian, the two roosters got chocked and surprised on seeing Mac and they were tear up and happy on see her again, Mac and the other hens tell Mariano and Demian what's going and Mariano introduce him and his partner (aka husband) and tell them the whole thing and then Mac sees them and she remember then and she gaves them a big hug of the happiness

That's all my fellow I hope you enjoy about, feel free on make them fanarts! ^_^

Bye, have a great day/night :]💐

TAGS🐾:

[gh0stsp1d3r]

hey i just read lemon x reader “echoes” and it got me thinking similar

so its a lemon x dead wife reader as well but lemon gets mad at ladybug for killing his wife just like how he got mad at him for killing tangerine

I love this sm, I’m gonna make it echoes part 2 cuz I loved it sm

𝐄𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐨

Part 1

After a while, when he realized he wouldn’t be able to hold your hand forever, lemon stood up. He looked at your body once again, before turning around, wiping the tears falling from his eyes.

Tangerine and him walked silently back to everyone else. They sat down, knowing who had done it.

“Fellas, we need to come up with a plan.” Ladybug started.

Tangerine gave lemon a weary look, knowing what he was gonna do.

“You killed my wife.” He whispered to himself. “You killed my wife, you piece of shit!” He stood up, facing ladybug and taking strides towards the man.

There was anger in his eyes. That much was visible. He wanted revenge, he wanted to kill him. Any good man would do such things for his wife.

Yuichi stood up, blocking lemon.

“Yeah, you fucking shot me!”

“I’ll shoot you in the fucking throat next time, and your fucking partner Keira Knightley!”

“Hey! Hey!” Ladybug grabbed rolls of toilet paper.

“She is not my-“

Ladybug t threw the rolls at them, telling over them.

“Fellas! When we are so quick to anger, we are slow to understand.”

“I’m fast to kick your ass, though, I swear to God.” He pushed Yuichi out of the way, launching himself at Ladybug.

Yuichi tried to hold him back, but lemon had ladybug pinned on the ground, landing multiple blows to the man’s face.

Tangerine watched in the back, not shocked at all by his brothers actions.

Lemon always loved you, since he set eyes on you. Tangerine knew it all, Lemons thoughts, and just how much he loved you.

Tangerine saw the love in his eyes, when he looked at you from across a room, or when you were right next to them. You always had managed to put a smile on his face.

———

“God, could you both stop being so gross next to me?” Tangerine groaned in annoyance, rubbing his temples as you both giggled drunkenly in the backseat.

“No. Don’t think we want to.” You said back with a giggle.

Maybe going to the bar with two lightweights like you both was a bad idea, tangerine thought.

“Why do we live together, I ask everyday.” Tangerine mumbled to himself.

“Because… you love us.” Lemon said, slurring his words slightly with a smile.

Tangerine rolled his eyes, and smiled a bit. As much as he hated how couple-y you both were, he was glad his brother was happy.

———

“Fucking piece of shit! I shoulda put a bullet through your fucking ass! As a matter of fact-“ he pulled out his gun.

“Hey! Hey now!!” There was multiple protests in the car.

Yuichi successfully pulled him off, lemon pointed a finger at Ladybug, he shrugged Yuchi off of him.

“When you point a finger at someone in blame, there are four fingers pointing back at you! Or three. That’s weird.”

“Fuck it! That’s it! You know what I could do?” He was going to attack ladybug again before Yuchi stopped him again.

“We before me!”

“You before fucking God!”

Everyone started arguing, including tangerine who threw Yuichi off of lemon.

“Gentlemen!” The elder shouted, standing up and stopping all of them.

“A plum does not resent the hungry man, but the farmer who planted the tree.”

“He resents the farmer..?” Ladybug said confused.

“So how do plums have fuckin’ resentments? So how can it resent-“

“Listen. The white death is the farmer.”

“So.. we’re the plums. That makes no fuckin’ sense.” Tangerine said.

“It doesn’t make sense. Why are you motherfuckers using metaphors? Look, he shot my fucking wife!” Lemon shouted.

“You shot my son!”

“He’s still alive, ain’t he?” Tangerine pointed at yuichi, now sitting down.

“Exactly. But he’s not gonna be in a second!-“ he looked back at ladybug, pulling his gun out once again.

“Look.. we prepare together, or we die alone!” The elder shouted, lemon stopped for a moment.

“That’s all I was trying to say.” Ladybug pointed.

—————————————————————-

Lemon still didn’t like Ladybug, ignoring the man the whole time.

Tangerine stood up, along with lemon. Lemon sighed, looking at his brother.

“We’ll be fine.” He pat his back. “Let’s do this, for y/n, yeah?”

[eyes-of-mischief]

weekly fic recs | 48

fandoms: genshin, mdzs, sxf, tgcf

genshin

the earth shudders at the tower asunder by caelitea

Not all gods have long memories.

(Primordial!Travelers AU, in which Lumine and Aether are not just gods, but amongst the oldest ones.)

a geo archon's guide to the modern era by Erina

“Morax,” Xiao says after Zhongli finishes his retelling of the incident. “He thinks you’re a weirdo.”

“No, don’t say that,” Barbatos snickers. “You’ll give him hope that this is salvageable.” He lowers his voice. “Morax, he thinks you’re a boomer.”

(In which Zhongli hibernates for centuries and wakes up in the modern world)

mdzs

we could turn the world to gold by butterflylungs

He does not have a family. All he knows is this satellite. He must have been somewhere else before, he thinks. But ever since he can remember, he has been here.

It did not feel like imprisonment, when he was younger and naïve. Wen Ruohan and his children were all he knew. He wanted to make them proud. He thought, maybe, he would get something like family in return. Maybe they’d let him go to Nightless City to live with them.

-

Lan Zhan has been trapped in a satellite his whole life, unable to escape, rebelling quietly against his captors. That is, until Wei Ying comes along.

Winter Bloom by Niitza

When lotuses bloom in Wei Ying’s pond in the middle of winter, he recognizes them at once for what they really are: an auspicious sign. It cannot be meant for him, though. He is nothing but a modest farmer. Such a miracle has to have appeared for someone else: a cultivator, a nobleman, a king.

And so, he sets off for the capital, with the sole aim of letting the royal family know about it.

Little does he know that this decision will start a chain of events that will help expose a dark scheme against the crown—a fact that will earn him the gratefulness of a king…and the love of a prince.

Bring Your Wonder (Lose Your Faith) by kianspo

(mature)

Canon divergence starting from after the Xuanwu Cave. What if it wasn't Wang Lingjiao who came to Lotus Pier? What if Wen Ruohan had sent Wen Zhuliu instead? The respectful, sensible Wen Zhuliu, who knows how to work the room...

In which Wei Wuxian loses his hand (he gets one better), Lotus Pier is saved, the Lan Clan is said to be dead to the last man, there's a horrible banquet in Nightless City, someone accidentally plays Sleeping Beauty, and there's that awkward moment when you realize Meng Yao is the sane one (except not really). It's a dark, dark night, but the sun will rise eventually.

sxf

hidden by glacialdawn

"Opayshun Sticks gonna fail?" Anya mumbles, fast asleep.

Loid freezes on the spot.

The Woman in Red by nightofnyx8 

(mature)

WISE enlists the help of Thorn Princess to seduce a certain client, much to the displeasure of her husband.

tgcf

say you love me tonight by cangji

(explicit)

disowned heir xie lian is desperate for a job. so desperate that even though he gets hired for a position he’s suspiciously underqualified for, he takes it anyway.

(xie lian is pretty sure the ceo of crimson rain only hired him because he wants to fuck him. he’s not sure he minds.)

Blood and Ashes by sprx77

(explicit)

Four hundred years before canon, Xie Lian wanders into Ghost City. He finds a blood donation center that pays quite well for contributions, and learns that private donors make even more! That's an amazing deal! Xie Lian has So Much blood!

He asks tour guide San Lang, a friendly vampiric ghost native to the city, if he knows anyone looking for a personal blood donor, and San Lang-- who is definitely not a whole entire Ghost King-- jumps on that shit like white on rice. What's he supposed to do, let Xie Lian go to someone else!? Over his dead body!

Or: In which Hua Cheng finds his god four hundred years early, accidentally winds up in the position to (blasphemously) drink his holy, delicious blood, and tries to Pspspsps him into staying forever the night at Paradise Manor while he's at it. This is fine! It's totally fine. He can be cool. He can be so cool.

Ignorance is Bliss by KingfisherPrince

It had happened. The worst had come to pass. Heaven had failed to prevent the birth of a new Calamity, and soon, a new Ghost King would be born.

The last time this had happened, Hua Cheng had felled 33 gods in a single night, made a mockery of the Heavens, terrorised them ever since. A repeat of such an event, possibly even an alliance between the two could be devastating. Who knew what further terrors could be wrought? Blind fear struck the veins of all who heard the news, windows and doors were barred, lights snuffed out in hopes they’d think nobody home.

It was all moot of course. It was now too late to put a stop to. This new horror would find them eventually, just like before. All they could do was hide up in the clouds and wait.

And wait.

...And wait…?

…This was probably too much waiting.

--

In which Xie Lian becomes a Ghost King completely by accident and doesn't realise until after he's ascended for the third time.

[biggerbetterbat]

WITH YOU [38] GUT FEELING

Daryl Dixon x OC!Charlie Reed

Summary: The prison is being attacked again…by a virus. Rick considers whether he wants to be a farmer or an officer. Charlie makes a promise and feels that something bad is close.

Warnings: language, mention of death

Song

Words: 1962

"Can I ask you a question?" asked Glenn as they were sitting under the guard tower. He was waiting for the right hour to wake Maggie up, and Charlie was waiting for her morning chores with Rick.

"Yep."

"Would you like to have kids?" he asked and immediately felt her eyes on him.

"I don't know," she said. "Would you?"

"I almost did," he looked down.

"Almost?" she furrowed her eyebrows. "Why do I feel that you're disappointed?"

"Everything is just so hard," he sighed. "I panicked when Maggie told me she's late. I still panic when I think about it, but...I don't want to be scared. I want to live, not just survive."

Charlie furrowed her eyebrows and looked away from her best friend. Maybe he was right? At the end, what was the point of surviving? She never focused on having a family of her own because her own family was toxic and difunctional. However, now she had a real family - a bunch of strangers who cared about each other, helped each other, wanted to share happiness with each other, and loved each other. Maybe she would start to see his point, but then her eyes fell on the Walkers. She saw blood going down their cheeks - bloody tears. They were getting uglier with every month. What person she would be to bring a whole new person - innocent person on this world, knowing very well that it can be dead or grow up as an orphan? "I'm never having kids."

Glenn looked at her.

"But I see your point," she nodded. "We shouldn't be scared of living."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "But I hope you know that I'm the God mother, right?"He scoffed at her words, bumping their shoulders.

"I promise."

"Got to go," Charlie patted his back and ran towards the woman with a horse as soon as she appeared on the horizon with Rick. "Hey!"

The woman turned to her and stopped for a second before smiling."Any wishes?!" Michonne called, looking at her direction.

"Just come back!" Charlie answered, sneakily pointing at Rick with her finger before saying: "We miss you when you're gone!"

Michonne rolled her eyes but nodded her head. "I'll find booze!"

Charlie smiled back at her, showing her teeth in a result. "So? What's planned for today, Farmer Rick?" she asked as the man approached her.

"The same as always."

"Oh, I'm starting to hate the always," Charlie sighed as she bend to pick up a bucket so they could fill it with food for pigs. "Carl's been trying."

"Yeah," Rick said. "Friendship with Patrick is doing him good."

"Not the one to judge," Charlie said with a silly face and Rick chuckled. "But..." she looked around when the fence started to make noise again thanks to Walkers. "He asked me about my usual task, and I probably said too much."

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"That means that Carl may or may not ask you to let him help me with that," she explained and pointed at the fence with her chin. The truth was that Carl begged her to convince Grimes to let him have whatever weapon in his hands, as she was the one who made his father ban him from that. But Rick didn't have to know about that little conspiracy. He looked at the fence and at Charlie.

"I have plans for us," Rick said and they came back to feeding pigs.

"Isn't it too perfect?" asked Charlie after a moment.

"What do you mean?" he furrowed his eyebrows.

"A gut feeling," she answered.

"What now?" he smiled looking at her.

Charlie had a gut feeling. Whenever it was in the quarry, or on the farm, there always was a moment when something was going down. She always felt it in her guts first, and she was never wrong. "Oh, you should have this thing...It's a feeling before something goes wrong."

"Why would it?"

"It always does."

"But what if it doesn't?" he asked. "What if this is our forever."

"Hmm," Charlie nodded. "Maybe you're ri..."

A sudden gunshot cut the air. A sudden gunshot cut the air. Rick ran towards the building, while Charlie ran the other direction to open the gate. Michonne whistled to let everyone know that she was coming back. “Carl!”

A sudden shoot, and chaos that bursted around made the Walkers to accumulate around the gates. In a fear Charlie watched the woman fell to the ground with a Walker gripping her. She didn't have any weapon on her as she was supposed to play a farmer that day, so she was frantically looking around in a need of something. Then she heard the gun again and saw a head of the dead one blowed up. Carl was standing with a big gun, shock on his face, but not bigger than hers as the bullet flew right next to her ear.

Together with Maggie, she walked out and helped Michonne got up from the ground as she must have done something to her ankle while falling down. All three of them wanted to get to the cellblock as fast as possible; however, it was really hard to carry someone and hurry. At the end they met with scared Rick outside of the building. The boy immediately ran round his father.“Hey, you might want to stay back," he spread his arm, but his son hugged his waist either way. "Carl.”

“Dad, I'm sorry…”

"Back away," Rick repeated and that was the moment when Charlie saw bloody shirt and hands.

"I had to use one of the guns by the gate," Carl tried to explain, not noticing his father appearance. "I swear I didn't want to."

Rick looked up at Charlie. She nodded in confirmation, but she was still distracted by the blood, so Michonne answered. "I was coming back. I fell. They came out and helped."

"Are you all right?" Rick asked

"What happened in there?"

"Patrick got sick last night," he explained.

“Is he good now?” Charlie asked, honestly concerned about well being of a teenager. However she wished she didn’t asked that question.

"It's some kind of flu. It moves fast. We think he died and attacked the cell block,” he struggled to answer. Then he leaned in and looked Carl in the eyes. "Look, I know...I know he was your friend and I'm sorry. He was a good kid. We lost a lot of good people,” he said and Carl nodded his head. Then he looked back at the three women. “Glenn and your dad are okay, but they were in there. You shouldn’t get too close to anyone that might have been exposed,” he said. “Carl! All of you.”

She met eyes with Rick and nodded her head as a promise to keep an eye on him. They started moving again, and entered their cellblock where they placed Michonne down. “What happened?” Beth asked. She was bouncing Judith on her hip as the baby kept fussing.

“She fell down from horse,” she answered. “Could you take care of her? Your dad is busy.”

“Yeah,” Beth nodded. “Would you like to hold her for a minute?”

Charlie looked down at the baby. Judith was growing bigger every day. Her hair were longer, and she even started looking like a human being - not an alien. However, she was still bringing painful memories whenever Charlie was around her. “No.”

And with that she passed younger Greene and headed to the cell that was right next to hers, full of comics and posters.

He was sitting on his bunk, looking down on the floor, something in his hands. “He liked those.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, leaning on the frame. “He was a good guy.”

Carl sighed. “A friend.”

“A friend,” He sighed, looking in her eyes. Charlie entered and sat down next to him. “We should be grateful for every person we met. Even if they were so shortly in our lives.”

“Can you promise me something?”

“I can’t,” she said, shaking her head, remembering that her promises never ended good. “But I can try to make your wish come true.”

“Never leave me,” he said immediately. Charlie looked at him surprised and he looked into her eyes. “I don’t want you to be my memory. I don’t want to tell someone about the girl named Charlie, who saved the life of my sister.”

Charlie felt her lip trembled, so she blink away the tears, and stuck her hand out with a pinkie raised. “I promise…” she looked at Carl again and took his hand to intertwine their pinkies. “But I want you to promise the same,” she threatened. “I don’t want to tell about the boy named Carl, who saved my life.”

“I promise,” he nodded his head.

High grass was tingling her elbows as she was sitting down on the grass. Daryl didn’t want her to help him or to get close to him, as he could be infected. A gut feeling. She knew that something would go wrong, the helicopter yesterday was just a sign of it, but she didn’t know that it would happen so quickly. Besides, she didn’t know it would be an extremely dangerous virus that would kill a whole cell block in one night. So she was just sitting there, stabbing ground with her axe out of boredom. "Maybe I will help you?"

"As a member of council I say, better not risk it,"

"Funny thing," Charlie scoffed. "Last night you said you're tired of losing people and today we're losing the whole cell block. Life is strange."

“Life is strange for some time, now,” Daryl said digging, but his voice was muffled through his bandanna. “Were you friends with any of them?”

“No,” she sighed. “It’s still scary. One moment and you’re gone…And there’s nothing we can do.”

"You shouldn't be here!" Charlie heard a stern voice of Rick.

"I'm in a safe distance, Officer," Charlie smiled.

“Still not far enough,” he said. “We don’t know what it is, Charlie.”

“Look at him, Daryl,” Charlie scoffed. “You’re a farmer now. I don’t take orders from farmers.”

Rick shook his head with a smile.

“There is our smiley boy,” she spread her lips wider.

"Thought my smile is like Jokers."

"It is," she nodded her head. "But I rather have you smiling like Joker than have you acting like one."

"I wasn't much use without my gun, back there," Rick sighed, changing his subject.

"No, you were," Daryl argued. "All this time you've been taking off, you earned it."

"We wouldn't be here without you," Charlie nodded.

"It was all of us," Grimes said, taking a spadel.

"You gonna help?"

"I screw up too many times," Rick said. "Those calls you got to make, I start down that road. I almost lost my boy, who he was. Whatever else this place needs, I'm here for it."

"Like I said, you earned it," Daryl shrugged. "But for what it's worth, you see mistakes. I see when the shit hits, you're standing there with a shovel.”

"Guys!" Maggie yelled.

"Oh, holly shit..."

“Stay here!” Daryl yelled at Charlie, and she abruptly stopped running.

With a fear she saw a fence coming down and Walkers flooding inside. Then she heard something scarier than any Walker’s snarling, than any gunshot, or fence coming down…She heard a whistle. A particular whistle that was impossible to be truth. Charlie started to look around her, but she saw nothing. More precisely, she didn’t saw a person she wanted to, one of few that knew the melody.

And that was raising her anxiety, because it couldn’t be a good sign.

And a gut feeling was never wrong.

previous masterlist next

[meganphipps]

AAF concept DLC

Andy Apple (Reality)

Andy Apple (Nightmare Disorders)

Andy is a last gala apple and a first and only apple farmer from, he’s scopophobic and he’s scared of being looked at.

At his apple farm, Andy got kidnapped to the void by the entity (Peter Pumpkin) while his right shoe slipped off because it’s already untied by itself and he stuck in the underworld forever with his arms tied up behind his back, he has no choice but to live and survive in here because there’s only darkness, coldness and emptiness and Andy must survive sickness, starvation and thirst without food or water. when he’s insane or distressed, he pace back and forth while standing up and bite one of his legs while laying down on the ground and he throws his tantrum, he crying and screaming while pacing back and forth and bite one of his legs. He's not ready to go back to home yet

Andy gets lost in his daydreams of being back home and reunite with his friends, being in hospital while being healed and covered in bandages, back in his apple farm and farming, delivering and saling apples but still covered in bandages

Friends: Melody Moon, Felix Fish, Margret Mole, Claus Clock

Age: 24

Fears: Scopophobia, The Entity (Peter Pumpkin), The void, Demons, monsters

Skills: delivering apples, farming apples, sale apples

diet: pears and cherries only (he don’t eat apples)

Strength: weak

Occupation: Apple Farmer

Home: pumpkin county, Pennsylvania

Homeworld: Utah

Headache: tension

Phobia: Scopophobia

Personality: sadness, depression, anger, pain, insanity, stressed out (pacing back and forth and bite legs)

The void is a dark, cold and empty realm with no portals, doors, entrances, exits, food, water, light, weapons, tools, laundries, cleaning stuffs or supplies, only darkness coldness, emptiness and shadows and that’s where The Entity and Monsters live

The Entity is a black monster in a appearance of humanoid black widow with a pumpkin head

Abilities

Possession

The Entity can possess human beings, a notable victim being Thomas. It seems that one can be possessed when one feels extremely negative. The Entity forced Thomas to pick up an axe to kill Arthur.

Intelligence & Manipulation

The Entity is a very intelligent and manipulative creature. It is evident when it was most likely the one that burned Thomas's home and made it seem like Arthur was the culprit, and when it made Thomas think that Isabella was behind Louis' death.

Invisibility

Most of the time, The Entity lacks a visible form or is simply not able to be seen by others while it's stalking.

Soul Imprisonment

It can imprison dead souls in the CSMPC and put them in the characters of a game. It seems that the more souls it has, the stronger its power will be.

Game-Switching

It can switch between games at any time (or also switch in the real world). It used this ability to transfer Jeffrey from Rabbit Knight to Andy's Apple Farm (From Rory the Rabbit to Sammy the Sunflower).

Telepathy

The Entity utilizes a game's code to display messages (usually in the form of hexadecimal, Caesar password, Atbashi password, and other codes), Especially when coming into contact with Thomas. This may also force him to relive his memories and demise.

Shape-Shifting

The Entity has been shown to have various forms. When it is disguised as Peter, it can distort itself by lengthening its neck, giving itself a realistic eyeball, and giving itself sharp teeth. It can also become a huge black blob composed of eyes.

Disguise

Peter Pumpkin

Peter is a 37 year old scary anthropomorphic pumpkin stranger and Andy’s abusive fake friend who appears to be helpful, friendly, kind and charming when he first meets Andy at the abandoned barn in his Apple Farm. He introduces himself kindly but remains mysterious in not answering any of Andy's questions. Peter's sentences can also be described as blank and off-putting, such as the instance where Andy asks how long he's been inside the barn, to which he blatantly responds with "That doesn't matter". turns out, He quickly reveals himself to be terrifying, abusive, sadistic and merciless towards only Andy when nobody around by terrorizing him and chasing him. He torments and slaps Andy, hits him with a whip, literally beats him up, grabs Andy by one of the limbs or overalls straps and drags him around or punches him in one of any body parts to knock him out and is secretly a malevolent being that may or may not be responsible for all the tragedies in Andy/Thomas' life. Andy didn’t say his name or know who he really was, He continues with this behavior towards only Andy or Rory. Aside from his callous behaviors, he still acts smug and happy around Andy.

He plays with his favorite toys, humans the same way a 6 year old plays with Barbies, he removes hair, limbs, etc from humans and throws them at the wall.

He has a makeshift Barbie house out of wood for his humans.

he really likes pumpkin pie and he has a boyfriend named Bauhaus bat

In overworld

Meanwhile, after Andy’s friends found Andy’s right shoe in his Apple Farm and take care of it, Margret in charge of Andy’s Apple Farm, she can deliver apples to houses, schools, hospitals and stores and sell them to customers at the Fun Faire and farmers market in pumpkin county for Andy by placing missing posters of Andy in casual clothing on to a front of a apple boxes, back of apple cider bottles, etc. she and her friends puts up missing posters of Andy on walls or poles with tapes

[syngrafaes09]

Strange Nights | Vampire! Dr Strange x Y/n

Logline: After Y/N gets imprinted by a vampire Dr Strange, living under a fictive identity, they must unravel the cause behind her constant misadventures before their hopes are crushed forever.

Masterlist

Chapter 3 : The Rochesters

With every passing week, Y/N felt life was just the way she had wanted it to be dull but normal – calm and peaceful – and not tormenting. When Matt didn't push her to get into the university, she felt more than grateful for understanding what she was going through.

'Well, maybe next year. Or you can get enrolled on some courses during the Spring. They do that, don't they?'

And Rachael- she was much pleased to be relieved of the domestic duties. She was happy when she didn't have to return home from her tiring shifts at the hospital to work at home. They even spent her day off – Wednesday – either going grocery shopping or at the reservation.

Most of her afternoons were spent curled up on the couch or in her bed, reading e-books. When Uncle wasn't quite pleased with her friendship not extending beyond books or the Bartons, she found some tolerable companionship- more appropriately the companions found her. The latter was quite apt for towns that had just a few thousand people, where most of them knew anything and everything that happened in the neighbourhood.

Emily Harriet was the girl next door while Janet Wells lived quite on the other end of the town. Emily was in her senior year of high school; she was one of those shy girls that open up their wild side once they become comfortable with you. Janet, on the other hand, had just made it out of high school and was helping her mother in their convenience store. She and Mrs Wells were probably the greatest gossiping duo of – Rockport, Van Hoff reservation and Concrete combined. She enlightened Y/N with essential knowledge of the neighbourhood when they took walks along the forest trails on the rare fine, sunny mornings. At times she wanted to ask her about those mysterious strangers but felt it was stupid to pry into the lives of some nameless people.

It was nearly after six weeks after her arrival that strange events started occurring, implicitly foreshadowing the thrilling turn her life was about to take.

Like any other rainy Saturday night, she was setting the table for dinner and Rachael was cooking the steaks. Matt had stomped down the hall, leaving a wet trail behind. And when he came up to the table to eat, he looked as if he was about to throw up.

"Is something wrong uncle?"

"Yeah, you look sick dad."

He let out a sigh in response.

"Y/N. You and Janet should no longer go anywhere near the forest."

It wasn't until they were cleaning the dishes that Matt told them about two missing hikers.

"The boys were missing since last week. We told the family that they might have just lied about the hiking trip and had probably left home because kids do that when they have a row. We had thoroughly searched the area and no bodies or any campfire or tent was found anywhere near the trail or camping grounds. We searched the river after we found their truck abandoned near the highway. And today, a bunch of high school drugers, found their bodies inside the cave near the nuclear plant."

Disgust was spread across his face when he spoke the last part of the sentence. He further continued:

"Their bodies were badly mutilated. Completely ripped apart. Scalp torn, claw marks and bite marks. Consumed."

"So was it a wolf or a bear?" Racheal was worried. Could this be from any one of those packs? But Nat had been clear whenever they held meetings. No one was allowed to hunt in their area. And no mistake of being spotted.

"Don't know."

"Must be the black bear. There aren't any wolves around here, are they?" Rachael concluded.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"But this wasn't the first one." He remarked.

"A Saxon farmer was found dead in a similar animal attack. It was two weeks ago. So be careful around the trails. Better not to venture deep."

"Okay. I won't." Y/N promised.

Y/N rocked herself on the chair that was lying in one corner on the open terrace of the cottage. Not much of an effort was necessary to make changes to their Sunday routine. The attacks had all the townspeople on their toes. And hence their crash site changed overnight from their usual spot in the forest to Janet's grandmother's cottage.

The afternoon was nice and warm, and so was her mind. Lily, Emily's visiting cousin, sitting at the threshold, was leaning against the doorframe. Her hazel eyes and auburn hair reminded Y/N of the boy that sat next to her in the English classes, in her early days of high school. He had a hard time making her converse but after a month he realised that she wasn't worth it and gave up trying to win over her.

Ambry lay sprawled across the wooden floor, on the other end of the terrace, while Emily pillowed his chest. Colin and Janet sat on the stairs with their backs cushioned against the railings. Colin adjusted the guitar on his lap and strummed it once. He adjusted the tension on one or two strings and strummed it again. This time it sounded about perfect. His fingers plucked the right chords and soft music filled the atmosphere.

If fine afternoons were to be described, then this scene would depict it to the utmost perfection.

Y/N opened her eyes as the humming of tyres intruded the peaceful ambience. Her eyes met the sight of them. They were a jeep, which sped along the road in front of the cottage.

"Who are they?" she asked, no one in particular.

Ambry had drifted into a nap and Colin was too lost in his music to be distracted. Emily, knowing that whomever Y/N was asking about, would have left by the time she got up and inspected, didn't bother to move. Lily opened her eyes only to find the vehicle out of her view. Janet, shot up her head, in the direction of the road and recognized the strangers.

"They are the Rochesters." She answered.

When Y/N gave her a quizzical look, Janet continued:

"Behind the wheels, the big one was Thordon Rochester; the woman beside her was his wife Jane Foster; the tall brunette girl was Wanda and the short one was Morgan. And the bronze head was Peter. They are all adopted children of Mr and Mrs Rochester."

"Umm...Isn't there another blond man with them?"

By now Colin had stopped playing and Ambry had finished his nap.

"No, there wasn't anyone blond over there," Janet answered confused about who had missed. She could miss any face but not one which was a Rochester. The odd family had charted the gossip for over a year.

"She must be talking about Paul DeVis Rochester," Emily said.

"Oh. Yeah. Well, you see these aren't the only ones in the family." Janet said.

"Girls, enlighten the newbie with your case study of the Rochesters." Ambry huffed. He wasn't fond of the way every girl in their school swooned over Peter. To him, he was just a guy whose father could afford as many plastic surgeries as needed to make him look the way he did. Maybe he didn't need to afford it, after all, that uncle of theirs would have done for them. But Janet had got the push she needed to babble her heart out.

"Well... the Rochesters moved in here just two years ago from Nome, Alaska. Mr and Mrs Rochester moved in first, they came down to look into the completion of the nuclear plant near Darrington. The rest of them came six months later."

Lily groaned.

"Enough of their arrival tales."

"Okay... Let's start with Mr Anthony Rochester the director of the nuclear plant. Then there is Mrs Virginia Pepper Rochester. She is the sweetest and friendliest among all. Their biological daughter, I say biological because the rest of them are adopted, is Morgan Rochester. She is the youngest. Then there is Peter, a year older than Morgan. Ne-"

"They both are gorgeous but don't waste time over them. Nobody in the town is good-looking enough for them." Emily interjected.

"Next is Wanda Rochester. The eldest. I don't know whether it is legal or ethical, but she is kind of together with Mr Rochester's distant cousin Paul DeVis Rochester." Janet said with a jealous scoff.

"Then there is Donald Thordon Blake. He is simply ripped. The reason behind many high-school girls taking gym classes. It's a good thing that he is married, else we would have lost count of the scandals that would have been committed. I'm not sure, but I have heard from mom that hr grew up as a foster child in the Rochester family. He was a nephew or something to Anthony's mother. So they are kind of brothers. Jane Foster, as I have said earlier, is his wife. Finally, there is Dr Stephen Rochester. Your sister must have definitely told you about him."

"Isn't she working in the hospital as a nurse?" Lily questioned her.

Y/N shook her head firmly. Nearly all of their mouths fell open.

Everyone talked about him. They still talk about him.

"She does," Y/N confirmed.

"Then how...?" Janet trailed off.

"Rachael was already with Jade by the time Dr. Rochester arrived," Ambry remarked.

"And Anne told you," Janet said, disbelievingly.

"Nah... She was ranting about the Doctor to mother. I had overheard saying that only Rachael was one who could work around him without making any stupid mistake. None can hold themselves together and he bites their head off every time yet they're infatuated with him."

"Guys... I'm still in the dark," Y/N complained.

"Umm... If Donald is ripped then Dr. Rochester is captivating. The fact that he isn't married just makes him more alluring. You should see the doctor."

[eco-friendly-ecology]

My struggles with the label vegan :

I don't eat meat, I don't purchase any animal products brand new in supermarkets and I avoid cosmetic products tested on animals. However I will butcher my own roadkill occasionally, and I will buy secondhand leather and vintage furs, I also buy ethically sourced animal bones/taxidermy/pelts/feathers etc from people I personally know or from people they trust.

I own horses, I ride my horses, I spend most of my time working to pay for my horses. I have spent 2 years building trust with my rescue racehorse who was abused severely once he came off the track, I have done everything at his pace and I listen to him when he says no, he used to be terrified of saddles and bridles due to the previous abuse. With painstakingly slow desensitisation training he can now wear a light saddle and bitless bridle without any signs of fear. He wouldn't let me stroke him when I first got him but now he seeks out affection and is confident/has positive reactions when I ride him (mostly bareback). Including tack I don't weigh more than 15% of his bodyweight, and i don't use spurs or whips (i would be dead if i tried to hold a whip on him). I ride him out on hacks as a form of enrichment and to boost his confidence when dealing with new things, I will school him in both flatwork and jumps on occasion to keep him occupied and to help build up more of his muscles and keep him in shape. Yes, I could lunge him or handwalk him to do the same thing but I can't run as fast as he can, working him on a lungeline will cause him to focus more on one side (the inside) than the other and not use all of his body correctly, and it's near impossible to assess a horses canter when you're the one leading them in a straight line and there's very rarely anyone to help me. Does this mean I'm 'exploiting an animal for my own benefit' ?

It is possible to farm animals with high welfare standards, it is possible to have meat/dairy/fur/wool farms that treat their animals with the kindness they deserve. Sometimes it's not the farmers abusing the animals, sometimes it's the actual slaughterhouses and abattoirs that are cruel and cause unnecessary suffering. I am not against farming/farmers, I am against the industrialisation of agriculture, I'm just not in a position to be able to support the farms I want to because they are more expensive and harder to trace.

I will forever put animal welfare above animal rights. You can't have animal rights that are beneficial for all animals without having a strong foundation of animal welfare legislation that is specialised to each species. (I am aware of the five freedoms but there's too many loopholes in them for me)

I own rescue snakes, geckos and frogs. They need to eat other animals to have a healthy life, so I have a section of my freezer dedicated to frozen rats/mice/quails and I have boxes of live cockroaches/crickets/mealworms.

I would rather kill an animal than force them to go through painful surgeries and treatments that reduce their quality of life.

I don't support most honey brands, because of the impact domestic bees have on wild populations (spreading diseases, purposefully putting hives in ecologically fragile locations such as lowland heathland etc)

Deforestation isn't inherently bad, it depends on the location and the type of forest. Huge man-made monoculture forests should be removed, and yes it will look like a post-apocalypse for a while but you soon see a variety of native plants sprouting (especially in areas where it used to have a dense canopy)

I will never call farmers evil and I will never advocate for the abolishment of all animal farms in the uk. I will advocate for more transparency in slaughterhouses, for easier tracing for the consumer so we know exactly where the animal products came from (not just a red tractor certified farm), for putting the animals welfare first, for paying farmers fairly, for more economic help for farmers to encourage sustainable and ecologically friendly methods (cover crops, woodland pastures, hedges>fences)

It is not beneficial to encourage human-wildlife interactions but understanding human impacts on wildlife is essential. Having foxes and badgers come to your back door isn't cute, it's an accident waiting to happen. Releasing 'rescued' invasive species ,like grey squirrels and mink, doesn't make you a wildlife warrior, it means you're uneducated and don't understand basic ecosystems.

(There's alot more but I needed this off my chest rn, so will be making a part 2)

[florenceisfalling]

ok wait i gotta ask bc i got like,, a real tiny mushy pea brain but do u have some kind of masterpost for ur ocs and stuff? i wanna learn abt them but im unsure where to start kinda thing !!

hey anon sorry this took me forever! you do not have a tiny mushy pea brain, and even if you did peas are yummy. not that your brain is yummy, though i bet its scrumptious. we at florenceisfalling dot tumblr dot com advocate for cannibalism ^_^

anyway!

i am so honored u asked and again im sorry ive taken foreverrrrr. but the best place to start right now is the website im currently working on :D

the website includes trigger warnings for everything !!!

i am an insane person and have been doing it all via carrd pages even tho thats a horrible idea.

it's a work in progress still, but the most complicated one (love and war) is nearly done! i just need to add the raiders and farmers to the people tab, and draw icons. its best viewed on desktop! my favorite part is that on places, theres an actual map, and you can click on the labels to learn more about the place - i recommend following the trail from the cabin, it tells some of the story.

i also have kiddo! basically complete, except for the image refs (theyre just picrews for now).

however i still have yet to add the other stories so here's a tl;dr for those :"D

extra-normal: almost everyone has a third eye on their forehead which allows them to see into a physical manifestation of their mind called the "second sight." vonnie is a nurse who works in a hospital ward dedicated to third eye injuries, and is particularly attached to a patient named avalon who is blinded and trapped in her second sight. she also works with a few regular volunteers, a trio of young friends (or perhaps lovers???) - daisy, who has no third eye; august, who is blinded in one of his normal eyes and thus has hallucinations and seizures related to his second sight; and tripp, who believes she's able to see into other people's minds.

living dead: the plot on this one is still not really my focus right now. theres a cool tv head oc named jacob, though. and a currently unnamed mad scientist.

pressed flowers: currently remaking this whole concept so anything ive posted here before is pretty much outdated!! now the story is this: theodora and oliver were childhood sweethearts, until teddie washed up dead on the beach. oliver still saw her ghost for a few years, but now that he's grown up and finally healing and dating a new girl named jessica - teddie shows up again and reveals that she was actually murdered. and the killer is on the loose, hunting again.

the mermaid's blade: this one i'm not gonna go into because i'm literally gonna try and film a lot of it next semester so y'all will hopefully be seeing it in that format soon enough 👁👁

you can find all of my story and character tags, as well as my general oc tag on my navigation page! however ive been posting for a long time abt these guys and the stories have all changed a lot so like.. dont trust the posts the further you scroll back lol

ty again for asking sorry my shit is so longwinded and complicated >_< lemme know if u have any questions or want more info on a specific story!

[warningsine]

When I was little, my mother told me the same anecdote several times. It was from when she’d just married my father. They married very young, at sixteen and eighteen, because my mum was pregnant – a pregnancy she lost at six months. They hadn’t been dating long, so they didn’t know each other all that well. Soon after moving in together, while they were eating lunch, they had an argument, some silly teenage spat that ended up getting heated. My father raised one hand as if to slap her. And my mother, not messing around, plunged a fork into his other hand, which was resting on the table. My father never tried to play the big man again.

Every time she told me the story, I found myself wondering which of those forks – and I loved that cutlery set with acrylic yellow handles they’d been given as a wedding gift – had tasted my father’s flesh. 

I don’t remember a specific conversation about violence against women, or any particular warnings from my mother on the subject. But the topic was always there. It was there when we talked about Marta, the neighbour whose husband used to beat her, and who in turn knocked her own kids about, especially Ale, a little boy who only ever drew spiders. Sometimes we lay in the grass to look at the sky, and if we saw those long, thin, lumpy clouds, bunched together, like waves, he’d say: Look, my dad’s been ploughing the sky. His dad was a farmer. Ale died in a motorbike accident when he was sixteen. 

It was there when we talked about Bety, the lady from the corner shop who hanged herself in her garden shed. The whole neighbourhood said her husband used 

to hit her, and that he knew how to do it so you never saw the marks. No one reported it. After her death, word got around that he’d killed her and covered it up, making it look like a suicide. It was possible. It was also possible that she’d hanged herself, sick of the life she was leading.

And it was there when we talked about the wife of López the butcher. Her daughters went to my school. She reported him for rape. For some time, as well as beating her up, he’d been sexually abusing her. I was twelve years old, and this news made a big impression on me. How could her husband have raped her? Rapists were always unknown men who grabbed hold of a woman and dragged her off to some patch of wasteland, or who broke into her house by forcing a door. From a very young age, we girls were told not to speak to strangers, and to watch out for the Satyr. The Satyr, in those early childhood years, was a figure as magical as the child- snatching Solapa or the Sack Man. It was the Satyr who could rape you if you went out alone at the wrong time or strayed into desolate places. Who could appear out of nowhere and carry you off to some building site. They never told us you could be raped by your husband, your dad, your brother, your cousin, your neighbour, your granddad, your teacher. A man you trusted completely.

And it was there when Cachito García would disturb the whole neighbourhood’s siestas by yelling at his girlfriend. Cachito was a petty thief and he was dating the eldest daughter of our neighbours the Bonnots. Don Bonnot worked building roads and was away from home most of the year. His wife and numerous female offspring, all very pretty girls, lived by themselves. Cachito, a jealous guy, was forever having a go at his girlfriend because she wore make-up or tight clothes or he saw her talking to another guy. One time he went a bit further. The Bonnot house was a wooden prefab and Cachito sprinkled the sides with kerosene and threatened to set it alight. The neighbours stopped him before everything went up in flames.

Alongside these situations sat other, more minor examples. My friend’s mum, who never wore make-up because her husband wouldn’t let her. My mother’s colleague, who handed her whole salary over to her husband each month to take care of. The woman who couldn’t see her family because her husband looked down on them. The woman who wasn’t allowed to wear high heels because they were for whores.

I grew up hearing grown women discussing situations like these in whispers, as if they were embarrassed by the poor woman’s plight, or as if they too were afraid of the man who hit her. 

My mother discussed these stories loudly, indignantly, and it was always her fellow gossiper who signalled for her to lower her voice, or who gestured at us children, murmuring in the usual code: Careful, there’s laundry hanging up… as if saying those things were like saying dirty words, or worse, as if they were a source of unimaginable shame. 

Mirta, Sarita Mundín’s sister, suspects that Dady Olivero used to hit her. Sarita never told her outright, but she was scared of him. In private, the two of them used to call Olivero the Randy Pig. Towards the end, whenever she knew he was coming over, Sarita would fill the house with her friends, guys and girls her age, so she didn’t have to be alone with him. Olivero would hang around for a bit, hiding his annoyance, drink a few mates and then leave in a huff. 

The last day she spent with her sister, as if Sarita knew it was the last and wanted to teach her something that would stay with her, they had a conversation that Mirta will never forget.

Her sister told her: Don’t let anyone push you around. You have to make people respect you. Never let a guy lay a finger on you. If they hit you once, they’ll hit you forever. 

Sarita was pregnant when she got married at fifteen. Mirta was following in her footsteps, single and expecting a baby at fourteen. Soon after Germán was born, Sarita’s husband started demanding she bring in some cash. Sarita turned to prostitution. She was picked up by Olivero, who would be first her customer, then her lover and protector, and the last person she was ever seen with.

From hustling by the roadside, she went on to build up a client list among the local branch of the Radical party. She and her friend Miriam García were party activists, two pretty young girls who soon caught the eye of the elderly men, distinguished members of society with the hypocrisy to match. Perhaps because of her fresh, girlish appearance, she was a hit with the old guys. But although things were going pretty well with the Radicals, and she had Olivero’s protection, too, there was one customer Sarita didn’t stop visiting. Another elderly, single man who lived in Oncativo, a city forty miles from Villa María, and who, according to Miriam García, helped her out with money. 

José Bertoni, a bachelor uncle of my mother’s, also had a woman, La Chola, who visited him at home. José owned a dumper truck and transported sand and stones short distances from a nearby quarry. He lived in a very nice house that he’d built himself. My cousin and I always went there to play because he had a huge garden with swings and because he let us do whatever we liked. Some afternoons, we’d see La Chola turn up with three or four kids around our age. She went inside with my uncle and we carried on playing. We knew that on no account were we to go inside or call them while they were in there. After a while they came out and had some mate, and La Chola fixed us a snack. 

One of her children was a girl not much older than me. I don’t remember her name, but I do remember she was pretty and turned into a little woman overnight, with large breasts and wide hips that stretched the child’s dresses she still wore. And that on one of those afternoons she was the one who went inside with José Bertoni, while La Chola stayed on the patio drinking mate and we carried on playing as if nothing was going on.

Visiting a single man who slips you some cash in return is a kind of prostitution that’s normalised in provincial towns. Like the maid who meets her employer’s husband out of hours to add a few pesos to her salary. I saw it with girls in my family, when I was little. In the night, from the street, you hear a car horn. She’s been waiting, she grabs her purse and hurries out. No one asks any questions.

After Sarita’s disappearance, Olivero went on visiting the family. He took them cash, and packets of meat from his processing plant. Although the mother suspected he’d been mixed up in what happened, that he’d done something to her daughter, she accepted the gifts, swallowing her fury and pride. They were so poor that sometimes they had nothing to eat. Mirta was pregnant and they were raising Sarita’s son. The mouths needed feeding somehow. 

It was Mirta who put a stop to Olivero’s charity visits. That last conversation with her sister was what gave her the courage to call time, on the afternoon when the Randy Pig showed up with the packets of meat and asked her to step into Sarita’s shoes. 

Dead Girls by Selva Almada (translated by Annie McDermott) is published by Charco Press.

Selva Almada is an Argentine writer of poetry, short stories, and novels. Her work has been translated into French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Swedish and Turkish. Dead Girls is her first book to appear in English (being published in collaboration with Graywolf Press, US).

Annie McDermott translates fiction and poetry from Spanish and Portuguese. Her work has appeared in publications including Granta, World Literature Today, Two Lines, Asymptote and Alba.

[boombambaby]

Drabble; Walk the Llama

Let me fill you in on a little secret. Come here.

. . . No, closer.

I don’t actually mind the whole ‘living like a peasant’ thing as much as I thought I would.

I know, I know. You’re probably thinking: ‘but Kuzco, you’re the Emperor! You should be treated like royalty at all times! Because you are!’

And you’re absolutely right! But sometimes, it’s nice to get away from the city.

Chicha’s been teaching me how to do– what’d she call them again, OH! Right. “Chores”. Like, the laundry and dishes and stuff. Turns out, peasants have to do that sort of thing for themselves all the time! Without any help. Can you believe that?

I offered to bring Chicha some of the palace servants to do it all for her, and she just gave me the evil eye ‘Chicha-stare’ and told me to ‘shut up and start scrubbing’. Pfft.

Talk about ungrateful.

Anyways; point is, I don’t mind it! Saying that I like it is . .. probably going a little too far, but. It’s not the worst thing in the world. Which brings me, and you– my loyal subjects– to what’s happening right now! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kuzco draws the poncho over his head with a smile, carefully moving his hair out of the way and brushing his hands down the front of it to make sure everything is laying right. The fabric is coarse, as one would expect from wool, but its hands down the nicest gift he can ever remember receiving. 

The stark red color of the llama icon on the front contrasts with the muted green coloring of the rest of it, and he can remember how hard he laughed when Chicha first presented it to him as a birthday gift. He’s just sliding his sandals on when he hears it, what sounds like. . . singing? Coming from the direction of Pacha’s hill. It’s so out of place it takes him a moment, and he strides over to the window to see if he can figure out who’s responsible before realizing it’s coming from the other side of the hill, behind his hut.

He was heading up to Pacha’s anyways to help him with. . . something to do with ‘muck’, he isn’t even sure– so he finishes getting ready and heads out to check it out for himself. A short time later and Kuzco arrives at Pacha’s hut, and he heads straight for the back where he was expected to meet Pacha anyways. He stops dead in his tracks at the sight that greets him, mouth hanging open for a moment before he remembers himself and moves closer to the wall so he can lean against it and watch. “Walk the llama llama– “ (Pacha) “Walk the llama llama!” (Chaca & Tipo) “Take in the panorama!-- ” “Walk the llama llama!” “Don’t have to be a drama–” That would be Pacha– the big, fat llama herder he’s privately come to think of as a father figure– SINGING. Out loud. In public. With Chaca and Tipo. The three of them are out in the field, in the middle of a herd of llamas they’re corralling towards the fenced in area. Chaca and Tipo are holding some kind of instruments in their hands as they sing the chorus, with Pacha guiding the llamas as they walk and making sure the kids are following along with him. Kuzco leans up against the huts wall with a grin on his face, content to just watch for the moment and amused beyond belief. He’s going to have joke material from this on Pacha FOREVER. “Cool in the summer, warm in the cold– a perfect fashion statement for the young and the old!” “Walk the llama llama– “ “A cloak for the priest, a hat for the farmer– you could be looking at the Emperor’s pajamas!”

Chaca and Tipo laugh at this, and he can see now that they’re brandishing shears as they start in on collecting the wool from the first few llamas they managed to gather up. “That’s why the llama walks so proud, that’s why the llama holds his head up in the crowd. All of us applaud his generosity, he’s more than just a passing curiosity. He covers up our pride–” “-- and all those things we have to hide!” “In any civilized society!” By the time he ends the song on a purposefully low note, Kuzco has already pushed himself off of the wall to make his way over to the trio as they dissolve into fits of laughter. “SOOOO–” He calls, announcing his presence in as grandiose a manner as possible, just to see if he can make Pacha jump. He does. “You’re the ones making my pajamas for me, huh? Always wondered where they came from!” “Kuzco, you’re– how long have you been here?” “Long enough to know you couldn’t carry a tune with a bucket, old man.” Chicha and Tipo laugh at his joke, and Kuzco stops in front of them all with a grin, folding his hands behind his back. “Okay Kuzco, that’s enough.” Pacha tells him in his best stern ‘dad’ voice, with a roll of his eyes. “Are you here to criticize me, or to help us out?” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Turns out Pacha has been singing that song to Chaca and Tipo for months, in an effort to make shearing llama's fun, or something. And despite how off-tone he is, it seems like it’s working! Shocking, I know. I learned another thing that day, too! A very important lesson I will keep with me forever. . . . The next time someone asks me to help them with ‘muck slinging’, the answer will ALWAYS be NO. Or that I’m out of town. Or busy with. . . stuff. Important Emperor-type stuff. Muck slinging? That’s for the peasants. No thank you.

[warsawmountain]

Four Mistakes

i kept losing Mario Kart 64 because of the stolen glances to yr fishnets, olive chubby skin bulging out, This seems like my first mistake— to be in love with the sound of the blue shell defeat in the room with the broken window. i was a kid and it seemed like there was always a storm, so i turned off the TV but the moment of my defeat & yr victory—still there like an aftershock. i look to history to explain & this is really my first mistake when i say history i mean the stone half-buried by the roadside, which has witnessed more tragedy than a filthy glass of a water. i look to the water In the glass on my end table, but all i see is dust. i look to the dust & all there is is history. here’s a feather & a well of blood to write radical movements across the fractal back of infrastructure. here’s a father leaving home to build railroads with his bare hands. write the laws Clawing the eyes out from owls, building a wall between the river & the thirsty, dragging families from their homes & into the streets. write a treaty between the horse & the bird, between the wolf & the lamb & make them dance to the sound of yr voice. A visual-novel D ending. This is my second mistake.

as I grow the Turnips for Stardew Valley & peach trees for Animal Crossing, careful to make sure everything is just right for her in the deep valley of her eyes.

but she does not understand that when a farmer dies, he dies forever. there are no more crops after he's dead. or trees for that matter. and all of the things I've put so much care into will wither away.

Pause. Stopping to take a break to take a walk to 7-11 we are the tenderness of the lies we tell ourselves; We are the appetite— for something other than what is staring us in the face.

Swishing the Cherry-soda Mountain Dew Slurpee, in Winnipeg, on the inside-cheeks of my mouth, sugary & cold & shoplifted, just to get a little more red, pulsing freezing, just to feel something but it makes my stomach feel like glass & I can’t drink it This is my third mistake

my street is 29th SW, a few blocks away, where the fruit-picked trees, hearty bark, Make sitting for the neighborhood teenagers To smoke a joint or break-up or fuck.

how many times are we slow dancing with everclear or sourpuss? orange & blue in the dark, & though it brings us down by the roots, the sky is always blue: the red birds that circle in a vortex, screaming

there’s a poster on a streetlight, for missing cats the Calgary Zoo, of prehistoric birds; bird fossils from China; the fossilized remains of a saber-toothed cat. live animals— a baby panda, a zebra, a polar bear.

She has told me I’m going to be a writer, that I do everything right, that I take care of my animals and my plants and my villagers like they are my own children. I’ll write for you, she asks, & maybe one day I will, if only I ever saw the blacks inside of her eyes.

to be in love with the sound of the blue shell defeat ends. i had to finish this poem & there is no room for love in a basement where the only thing that keeps me from losing my mind is the sound of my skull trampling on concrete, the emotion of someone else's pain, & the feeling of never being good enough. This is my fourth mistake.