#but what i have done is flesh out her character so much. and also documented so much of their life together lol

[mercuryislove]

55k words into this writing exercise that was only intended to be at most 2k words........

[dragon-communion]

Okay so. Not to toot my own horn, but I am generally really good at lore and fleshing things out and stitching plot holes together. Maybe I just need to actually beat Mohg and play the DLC, but like. My favorite thing to read and write is high fantasy politics, okay. I love succession complications and noble infighting and the conflict between hubris and actual resource management. I've had way too much fun arguing with myself about the logistics of Malenia's march to Caelid. I read pre-Byzantine legal documents for fun.

So.

Miquella's decisions for the DLC are so ass backwards to me that I am chewing on the goddamn walls. I'm not even getting into the character decisions (though those are also baffling), but the logistics of it. Necromancy is cool, go for it, but in terms of how he's using propaganda and his resources in general?

Miquella. Sweetheart. Where's your fucking regent. There are still pilgrims coming to the Haligtree. Your sister was going to war. Who's in charge when you're gone, Loretta??? What's the chain of command?

I will hold back on my rant about food because this is a videogame, but also. He's running a city-state at the edge of the goddamn arctic, where's the farms, did he just plan on growing hundreds of thousands of grains of wheat from his own head or something?

The lordship thing. Ranni makes it clear that she doesn't need or want a lord, so we can assume her apotheosis does not require one. Marika has two lords- Godfrey, who is being chewed on by the leader of all beasts to restrain his bloodlust, and Radagon, who is part of her in one way or another. We also have another textual Elden Lord before them, Placidusax, who seems to have been intersex but that's really the only note I have.

So all of the true Elden Lords in game have something a little odd about them, but between the three of them (and us) there's no true pattern beyond "armed and dangerous". And, as stated, Ranni seems convinced she can do her business without any lord at all.

So with four Elden Lords to compare against, the whole vessel thing has to be a lie. It's unnecessary. Hell, he could've picked Leda and had done with it, she fits the Red King archetype just as well as his other options.

I can see Miquella wanting to cover his bases by making sure he has a lord so the godhood thing works- he's probably more worried about his curse getting in the way than Ranni is- but like. Unless he's so immature that he's unable to adapt his plans and insists on marrying for love, the shitshow with nuking Radahn and seducing Mohg just does NOT add up.

With all the resistance Radahn put up, sacrificing soldiers and forcing Malenia to bloom, I cannot believe he was willing by the end of things. And if Mohg has the perfect body for pandering to the preferences of the country Miquella wants to rule, why not just stick with that?

I am. Really frustrated. It is very difficult to apply logic to this when his very actions counter every reason I come up with. We could handwave it as him being a child but... that feels really cheap and somewhat unsupported by the fact that he was clever enough to figure out exorcising gods. I don't know.

[mrsbsmooth]

20 questions for fic writers

Thanks for the tag @rebelrayne! @longbobmckenzie tagged me in the body of hers too so I’ll take it.

How many works do you have on ao3?

82 right now, but I’ve orphaned a few recently

What’s your total ao3 word count?

1,220,982. I’ve got about another 30-40k words in WIP documents right now, so almost one-amd-a-quarter million words 😨

What fandoms do you write for?

Love Island the Game, Too Hot to Handle game, Harry Potter (Dramione exclusive), Romance Club (Heaven’s Secret)

Top five fics by Kudos

Tell Me What You Want (HP)

This Time, I’m Serious

Jaded

Unhealthy

Kinktober 2022

TIL that my Harry Potter fic has overtaken TTIS even though TTIS has more hits.

Do you respond to comments?

Yes! There were a few on TTIS I missed that it would be awkward to reply to because it was so long ago, but I make a point of trying to reply to every comment.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The only sad ending I’ve ever written was the first chapter of Jaded which was originally done as a oneshot.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably Welcome To Racers. They got the whole shebang. Love me a happily ever after.

Do you get hate on fics?

Not recently. I’ve had hate for my portrayals of Alex, Lucas, and Suresh. But I haven’t had any nasty anon comments in ages which is lovely.

Do you write smut?

Yeah it's kinda my thing.

Craziest crossover:

I don’t know if I’ve done many crossovers… maybe Bruno and Miri Make a Porno or All I Want for Christmas is You which is a hetero take on Red White and Royal blue?

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No but I think I would probably die of happiness.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I HAVE! All’s Fair in Casa Amor was written with my beautiful friends @i-boop-you and @crimswnred !!!!!!

All time favourite ship?

Dramione (new fave) but for LITG? Hard question because our fandom is so built around an MC. But with two canon characters? I secretly love a Bruno/Valentina. Also love Hope/Lucas. They just WORK.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

It’s gotta be Recovery. I have the whole thing planned in my head but I just have no motivation to write it at all. Other than that, I don’t see myself finishing Famous Last Words any time soon. If I was going to finish it I’d take it down and rewrite it to make it fully OF.

What are your writing strengths?

Smut probably, I’m not bad at it. I feel like my narrative pacing is alright, and my prose is decent despite it being really inconsistent.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I rely too much on dialogue. I miss all the little body language bits leading up to an important line that could take it from an ‘aww that’s sad’ to a ‘holy fuck I’m sobbing’. Luckily I have wonderful beta’s who help me with this.

But more than anything, characterisation. Forming a fully fleshed out character before I start the story. I struggle with it. I’ve always felt like I’m more of a storyteller, (a plot person) more than a deep dive into a character’s psyche kind of person. I love reading character driven stories though, but I think it’s something that comes with writing experience. I haven’t actually been writing for that long and I think I’m getting better at it, but it’s still a weak point.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I sometimes forget that people don’t like this. I LOVE it. I do try and use it sparingly though. It’s so nice to see a character conversing with someone in their native language. I try and put the English dialogue in brackets or italics unless it's rather clear what they're saying (like swearing).

First fandom you wrote in?

LITG

Favourite fic you've written?

I, like Sarah, absolutely hate this question. My fics are my children. I like some of them more than others, though (I never claimed to be the world's best mother). But I love them for different reasons.

I love Welcome to Racers because it was my first AU. I loved The Only Two Things because I got to create an entire world, an entire city for my characters (Yes I'm aware Waterford, Ireland is a real place but God, I loved that story so much). TT,IS was the first fic I started and it gave me the friends I have today and the amount of people who tell me it's S4 canon just makes my whole life. Jaded was something different. It was a challenge to myself and I'm so proud of it. Unhealthy has been the most difficult to write, but it's also pushed me the hardest in my development of characters. FLW has been so much fun because I get to dive back into my music roots, urghhhhhh. Love.

I don't care if it's narcissistic. I re-read my fics on a regular basis. They're perfectly tailored to my taste. I love doing a nice re-read and sprinkling in a few extra details with liberal use of the edit button. If there was someone who knew my fics as well as I did, they'd get something a little bit different on every read. Might just be a line or two, might be a thought or a reaction, but I love to add and tweak and tinker with them all.

Love.

tagging: @i-boop-you @crimswnred @ellegreenwxy @tammyisobsessedwith @operationnope @sparxaf @eskiix

[veneritia]

when comes the dawn monthly update { 9.30.23 }

And here's to the revival of WCTD and the first ever WCTD monthly post! But first things first, let's get some basics out of the way

↳ WHAT IS WCTD?

FENICE VI AETIER, a portent of ill omens and the estranged daughter of the Vasilier, ignites a dangerous succession game between her and her half-siblings, where losing means death and winning means an empire. But to compete in this game requires the acknowledgement of the Vasilier himself, one that he isn't willing to give Fenice unless she gives him something in return: the head of the deposed king of Hesperia.

When Comes the Dawn is a new adult fantasy court intrigue novel featuring succession battles, an aro/ace lead, shifting alliances, cut-throat relatives, and a family that's torn themselves apart in the name of ambition for eons. You can find the wip intro here or follow the wip's main tag (#series.wctd)

↳ WHAT IS WCTD MONTHLY?

I've had this wip for a long time but have never made much significant progress before shoving it to the side because of work, school, life, or just being burnt out. WCTD Monthly is my way to try and motivate myself by giving myself a space to talk about all of the different work I've done on this wip. (And to pressure me into actually working on it so I have something to talk about.) You can follow along with my updates with the #wctd-monthy tag

↳ NOW, ONTO THE SHOW

outline → the first 9 chapters have been outlined. outline document is currently at 4k+ words. The main plot beats for Act 1 and Act 2 have been outlined

notion → I rebuild and organized my wip notion, as well as all of the character pages

series → because of the different character arcs and plot beats that I wanted to explore, I decided to officially make WCTD a duology as opposed to a standalone like originally planned. No official title for book two as of yet, though Crowning of the Sun is a tentative one.

worldbuiling → realized that the majority of book 1 takes place in the now subjugated kingdom of Hesperia as opposed to Aetier, where I focused the majority of my worldbuilding. This means that I'm starting to worldbuilding from...almost the ground up. It helps that I'm mostly focused on the province of Isidore.

characters → the vi Aetier family has been expanded! Fenice and Charles now have 3 other half-siblings (Euphemia, Konstantine, and Basil) as well as their siblings' respective mothers. I've added 9 noble houses to form the unofficial oligarchy of influence in Isidore, and I've given Leda a rival-turned-girlfriend-turned-ex to help flesh out her character.

extraneous content → attempted to make the vi Aetier family tree starting from the beginning of the vi Drochona dynasty (I'll probably clean it up and post it separately at a later date). I also added another god to the pantheon (Heleia, goddess of the wild nature, the hunt, liberation, and childhood), and finally re-introduced wctd (linked above)

events → I participated in WTW's character event week! You can find all posts here: protagonist / tropes / representation / antagonists / relationships / traits / wildcard

↳ WHAT'S NEXT?

I'll be using preptober to outline as much as I can for nano! My goal is to finish outlining act 1 and my stretch goal is to reach half-way to act 2

posting 1 or 2 character intros or worldbuilding posts

Find more WCTD content with the series tag #series.wctd and keep an eye out for monthly progress updates with #wctd-monthly

↳ Taglist under the cut (ask to be +/-):

GENERAL → @charlesjosephwrites | @bearunicorn154 I @seasteading| @writting-in-blood | @trapped-inadystopianovel | @inky-duchess | @thats-my-type-writer | @serpentarii | @myhusbandsasemni | @aphaimaniis | @writinglyra | @belialwrites | @amoranza | @pseudepigraphic | @mel-writes-with-her-dragons | @uppoffringar | @fantasydisease | @sourrcandy

WCTD → @zmlorenz | @andiwriteunderthemoon | @ryns-ramblings | @marchdove | @cielnocturnes | @wren-is-writing | @lord-fallen | @tragicbackstoryenjoyer | @bloomingwrites | @kaatiba | @writerjodie | @worldbuildng

[wizisbored]

Saw you say you were still going insane about Running Iron. Is there anything else you’d like to share about it since it’s on your mind so much? 👀

yes.

a significant point about the running iron is that im going to be writing it in american english. theres a number of reasons i usually write fic for american media in british english that i wont get into right now but since im chosing to make this one about the american old west i thought it would just be too at-ods with the genre. like, usually in my fics the character/setting being american isnt really that significant but in this one it is. the authors notes, tumblr ramblings, and my lore document will all still be in my usual dialect (tho this might change for the lore doc). this also means that for the first time in several years, im going to have a beta reader, purely to check my dialect - im sure theres differences i have no idea of.

anyway, that quick note ended up longer than planned. in other news, ive been building up a lore doc to flesh out the 'western but with centaurs' setting, so im going to grab an entry and then explain how it applies to the story.

lore doc entry: brush boxes

For the purposes of grooming, almost every centaur owns a personal brush box, and they are considered important cultural items. The box itself is most often made of wood or leather, and the contents will vary slightly based upon the preferences of its owner. However, they are not intended for use by the owner. Due to the shape of a centaur and their inability to comfortably reach all areas of their body, they rely on their herd to groom them, and so will use the grooming partner’s box for them. It is a reciprocal task, often with both centaurs grooming one another simultaneously. Usually this will be family members, but for those on the move it is not uncommon for two centaurs who met that evening in the saloon to groom one another.

The most common contents of a brush box include:

Hoof pick, sometimes having a secondary smaller point for the fingernails

Nail clippers

Curry comb

Dandy (hard) brush

Body (soft) brush

Wide bristle brush for mane and tail

Comb (more common for those with feathers)

Scissors (for those who like to keep mane, tail, feathers or beard trimmed)

Razor (for stallions who prefer to be clean shaven or feathered taurs who shave)

Soap and washcloth and/or sponge

Small water basin, usually only slightly smaller than the box with other items placed inside

Ties or wraps for hair, tail and feathers

so, in the running iron, lydia of course packed her brush box when she left the maitlands. shes never done grooming with someone other than her parents or foster parents before and is still a bit unsure of living with beetlejuice so she doesnt ask him, but he sees her struggling to pick her hooves and offers because hes kina desperate to interact. lydia accepts but does the polite thing and asks for his box to reciprocate. he doesnt have one. he lost it a while back, and has trouble finding people to groom with. explains why whats left of his tail after it was trimmed is so fucked up. so, they share Lydia's, on the condition that he cleans everything. and that's the arrangement they keep.

[shaemeful-illustrations]

Final Poster

After receiving class feedback I knew I wanted to continue developing my second concept but knew there were many things I wanted to change.

I wanted to make the presence of the mob-father feel more ominous and looming, and I wanted to include the siblings in some way. While trying to pick the direction I wanted to take this poster, I took inspiration from the Godfather movie posters with the hand holding the puppet strings. I thought it would make for an interesting composition to have the mob-father holding the puppet strings but the strings are coming off the Y in her name.

Below are the three concepts I came up with using the puppet strings as my starting point.

The first idea has her being hoisted up by the strings while she clutches a family portrait. In the family picture it would be them all when they were much younger with the father having been torn from the picture.

The second concept has her stealing rings while being attached to the strings. In both the first and second concept the siblings are up above next to the fairy mob-father.

The third concept has Feya sitting on a pile of stolen goods looking down at her siblings playing at the bottom. Above is the mob-father looking down on them alone.

I felt like the middle concept had the strongest composition but I still wasn't happy with the characters pose. I was given advice that the rings on the table felt like a separate element and I should try have her interact with them more.

Taking the idea of her interacting with the rings I sketched out the following concepts:

I felt like the bottom pose made the most sense and went through and mapped out some values to help me visualize the final poster.

Moving onto constructing my final image, the first section I wanted to get right was the mob-father holding the Y because this was one of my main elements of the poster.

I got my flatmate to take a photo of my hands as I made a Y shape with one and grabbed it with the other. This allowed me to visualize how his hands needed to look. I also used this reference image of a man in a suit looking down to know how his body would look.

I then grabbed a reference image of a child from online to get the correct proportions, and then used my own arms for the poses. Because the siblings are twins I used the same child for both drawings, flipping the reference for the left side.

The next element I wanted to flesh out was Feya down the bottom. This was where I really started to struggle. I used a picture of Tom as my reference, but this ultimately ended up working against me as I was using a male human as a reference for a female fairy.

I tried a few different goes at sketching and outlining her but every attempt felt wrong. I was using Tom's proportions when I had originally designed Feya to have very long, slender limbs so she had lost her dainty nature.

After a lot of frustration I finally did what I should have done in the beginning and loaded a copy of my refined default pose into my document. This allowed me to see her exact proportions and I was able to more accurately draw her in this new pose.

Once I had her proportions right I was able to see that her line weight was also too bold, and this was throwing me off. One I had the initial outline I dropped the opacity and redrew her at a thinner line weight.

I decided to keep the ring at this heavier line weight as it helped add visual weight to the ring. The rings scale tells us that it's bigger then Feya, but by having this bolder line it looks like she is really struggling to hold it up.

After seeing how much better Feya looked in this lighter line weight, I decided I needed to go over the twins as well. This was when I really started to feel more confident with my poster again. I chose to keep the mob-father at a heavier weight (although I did re outline him in the next weight down eventually), and also chose to experiment with making his wings look more battered and torn.

I didn't get many screenshots throughout this part as I was feeling very under the pump so was just trying to push forward but I played around with a few different wing shapes until I settled on a look I was happy with.

With this concept we have the extra symbolism of the mob-father taking the kids "under his wing" (for his own personal gain).

I would eventually go on to flip Feya as I felt it make more sense to have her looking over the other shoulder, I would also go through and refine the lines and where they connect on her.

Adding the ring shadow was my favourite addition to the composition thus far as it placed Feya within a context while still maintaining the vast amounts of negative space around her. It also helped with the interaction between Feya and the ring.

Once happy with my outline I went through and experimented with my values. This helped me figure out the direction I wanted to take the colouring in stage.

My first go at colour saw me playing around with a split complimentary colour palette and a gradient background. While I don't think this was a bad colourway, it's just not how I envisioned it looking. I also pictured the ring being gold to tie in with the description I had of Feya being in green and gold.

While I enjoyed the dark cloud around the trio up the top, I pictured significantly more white space to be surrounding them.

To create more white space while keeping the darker cloud around them I made a copy of the wing, enlarged it, and then made a layer mask - filling in the gaps made from enlarging it.

I would then go on to change this gradient to red and black to increase the ominous feeling. Because I always saw Feya in green and I made the outer wing shadow red I decided to lean into a complimentary colour palette so that the gold would still pop.

I expanded the outer wing layer mask down into a curved spotlight on Feya and finished adding in my other colours.

My title font is hand drawn and hand shaded. I followed the same process when colouring in the ring - I made my base layer the mid-tone and then added a highlight and a shadow layer using two different shades of the golden yellow to create dimension.

To add texture to the clothes, I used different texture brushes in various shades of green to create the fabric weave.

Here is a close up of both the twins clothes and the title font. I have also at this stage changed the mob-fathers wings to a lighter grey and changed the blending mode to screen so make them slightly translucent. I also added details along the wing edge to create more visual interest - although this would eventually change to a red outline.

I then moved on to creating my characters faces and adding in shadows in places like the mob fathers hands.

I am personally disappointed with my characters faces as I know I could have done better if I'd allowed myself more time to explore expressions. This was one of the areas I had intended to focus on, and while I spent a lot of time throughout this entire course working on things outside of class, after tripping on a couple of the middle hurdles and balancing work commitments at the same time - I really struggled to claw back that lost time.

To create the faces I created a layer for shadows and one for highlight, and then using two different tones I drew on where I wanted them. Once mapped out I used the blur tool on each layer to soften these lines until I had a seamless contour and highlight. I then went onto a new (named) layer to create the eyes, mouth, and other facial features

I followed the same process to create the mob-fathers face. I also went through and added very subtle shadow and highlight to his shirt and tie.

Feya was shaded in the same fashion, but with her I also added very subtle shadow and highlight to her whole body.

The final thing I did for my poster was add a light grey gradient behind the whole image to reinforce the initial idea of there being a darker cloud behind them while still maintaining the stark negative space.

While I am relatively happy with my final poster result seen above, I am disappointed I didn't get the chance to add extra shadow and highlight using layer masks like I did with my TV dude at the start of the course.

Once I had added the ring shadow, I had planned to add more distinctive shadow and highlight from a more established light source to really emphasize the ring shadow. Considering how stuck I was in the final couple of days, I am very proud with what I was still able to create. In future I will aim to have things like composition locked in much earlier on to buy myself more time for when things don't work or when things aren't well received.

[wil-is-done]

When You’re A Mystery Kid - Chapter 16: The Initiative

Summary: "There was an idea..."

Word Count: 9.009

-

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a repost.

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters featured here.

Raz paced restlessly up and down the corridor of the Psychonauts HQ. Occasionally, he would shoot a glance at the metal door with the Psychonauts symbol emblazoned on it as he passed by it, stationed in the middle of the corridor. Beyond that door is a meeting room commonly used only by Psychonauts High Command, if they ever need to discuss matters of extreme importance and secrecy. So, being told to ‘standby and wait for further orders’ outside of it made him understandably agitated.

Lili was also there with him, given the same orders as Raz by her superiors. While Raz opted to pace in an attempt to calm his nerves, Lili sat on a metal bench near the meeting room door, clasping her hands together and staring daggers at the floor, deep in thought.

As he passed by Lili again for the umpteenth time, Raz paused in front of her, and sighed. 

“Are you sure we didn’t do anything wrong?”

Lili looked up at Raz, then back at the floor again. She rubbed her hands together, considering the question.

“We shouldn’t have.” Lili started slowly, still wracking her memory even as she answered the question. “We’ve been stuck with desk duty ever since we were pulled from our posting at Gravity Falls. The worse we could have done was misplacing some documents. I don’t think that would warrant… this.”

Raz started tapping his foot rapidly, an adequate substitute from his endless pacing. He began searching through his memories as well, for something, anything, that would explain why they were summoned.

“What if the document were super important? Like, top-secret, highly classified stuff?” 

Lili looked back at him with an expression usually reserved for when he said something stupid. “Documents like that won’t even get into our hands in the first place.”

“Then why are we here?”

“I don’t know, Raz!” Lili suddenly exclaimed. “My dad tells me a lot, but he doesn’t tell me everything, okay?!” 

Raz took a step back. Lili breathes out a long sigh, deflating, looking away with a hint of regret on her face.

“Sorry. This is just-“

“It’s okay. I know.”

Silence hung between them. Eventually, Lili stared off into empty space again, going back to her thoughts. Meanwhile, Raz resigned himself to a few more rounds of restless pacing.

He only managed two and a half before the silence is broken by the sound of an opening door.

For a split second, he thought it was the meeting room door opening. He thought it was finally time for their questions to be answered. However, he quickly realized the sound came from behind him, not beside him. The only door in that direction is the entrance to this corridor. 

He whipped around, and his jaw hit the floor.

“Guys? How are you-?! What are you doing here?!” 

Lili stood up from her seat, but stayed silent. Just looking at her expression, it’s obvious she is just as surprised as he was. 

As she marched up to the psychic pair, eyes a mix of stoicism and confusion, Coraline replied, “I was hoping you’d have the answer to that question.”

Raz could barely believe his eyes. Standing in front of him is Coraline Jones herself, in the flesh. Someway, somehow, she’s here, in the Psychonauts HQ. What’s more, marching up behind her, following her, are Wybie, Dipper, Mabel, Norman, and Neil. 

All of the Mystery Kids. Here. In the Psychonauts HQ.

On the one hand, Raz is ecstatic. He’d always wanted to bring the other Mystery Kids back to HQ and show them around the place. Just… not like this. 

Something’s up. He can feel it.

Right now, they all seem to just be taking in their new surroundings. They all look nervous, on edge. He can practically feel the trepidation around them without too much effort.

“So.” Coraline started again. The men in black that picked her up have not been great conversationalists on the way over, and she’s starting to get sick of unanswered questions. “Mind telling us why your jets just… snatched us off of the streets?”

Raz balked. “They what?!”

“Not literally, of course.” Wybie quickly chimed in, stepping in between Raz and Coraline. “But it is kinda surprising when you’re, y’know, just walking home from school and then suddenly there’s just. A jet. Hovering. Above the Pink Palace.”

“’Kinda surprising’ would be putting it mildly.” Coraline scowled, crossing her arms. “After the shock went away, I admit it’s a bit amusing at first, watching Mr. Bobinsky yell at it for a few minutes. But then my mom and dad stepped out of the house, and they… well, they freaked.”

“Can confirm. It was not pretty.” Wybie added. It was all kinds of weird and awkward watching them get so… hysterical.

“Not to mention Wybie’s grandma.”

“Especially my grandma.”

Raz is completely lost on how to react to their story. Psychonaut jets just going to their houses in broad daylight? He’s not an expert on protocol, but he’s pretty sure doing that is in direct violation of many.

He looked back at Lili, hoping that she can make some kind of sense, any kind of sense really, of what they’re being told, but unfortunately, she looks just as lost as he is. 

“That’s… pretty much the same story as ours.” Dipper piped up, sharing a look with his sister. “We saw the jet fly by while we were on the bus on the way home.”

Mabel took hold of Dipper’s arm, continuing. “Seeing that… we know right away that weirdness just followed us back home.”

“Sure enough, when we got to our street, there’s a jet on top of our house and our parents are talking to some government agents on the driveway.” Despite himself, Dipper couldn’t help but chuckle just the slightest bit. “Must have been the weirdest thing to see for the other kids on the bus.”

“The agents look super legit, too! Fancy suits, sunglasses, those Psychonaut badges; the whole deal!” Mabel explained, complete with extravagant hand gestures.

Even feeling as lost as he is right now, Raz can’t help but smile seeing Mabel just being Mabel. Despite everything, the one thing he is sure of is that he’s glad to see the others again, even if it is under this kind of situation. 

Norman, who has been silently listening in on this conversation this entire time, decided now is the time to speak up. “Mine is kind of like that too.”

“I was helping my mom prepare for this big dinner.” Norman shot a quick glance at Neil. “Neil’s family was coming over.”

Neil energetically nodded. “Our car just pulled up, and then suddenly, bam!” he pointed to the ceiling with both hands. “Jet! Right on top of us! I thought my mom was gonna have a heart attack again!”

Norman nodded along to Neil’s story. It was… definitely not what he expected to see when he opened the door. Definitely not what his parents expected, either. Courtney was still weirded out - because who wouldn’t? - but his parents…

“You know…” Norman started slowly, rubbing his arms, “My parents… I never really told them about the stuff that happened in Gravity Falls.” Now, he kind of wished he did. At least then the flight here wouldn’t be so painful. “They were… surprised. They had questions. A lot of them. They asked most of them on the way over. I mean, hopefully that was most of them.”

“I told my parents everything, and they’re still surprised. Apparently, they thought I was just making stuff up.” Neil finished with a pout and a huff. “I mean, I’m a creative boy, sure, but even on my best day I couldn’t make up half of the stuff that actually happened.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,” Lili interrupted, pointing a finger at Norman, “you said your parents asked you questions ‘on the way over’?”

Norman nodded.

“You parents are here?!”

It took a few seconds for that sentence to fully register in Raz’s head, but once it did, his jaw fell open again. It seems that being left speechless is becoming a trend today.

“Mine too.” Neil spoke, unprompted, with a hand raised.

Raz wordlessly turned to the rest of the Mystery Kids. No questions were asked, but they quickly answered. 

“Ours are too.”

“Mel and Charlie Jones are giving some poor government stooge the worst day of their life even as we speak.”

“My grandma kinda threatened to burn the jet down if she didn’t come, so…”

This is… all of this is getting a bit much. He feels like he needed to sit down. Getting summoned here, Psychonaut jets appearing in public in broad daylight, agents picking up his friends and their parents? Honestly, what the hell is going on?

“So?” Coraline asked again at Raz. Frustration and agitation are now visible on her features. “What’s this all about?”

“Why do you think I would know?!” Raz asked back, his voice raised. With how he’s feeling currently, he couldn’t help it.

“Because that’s what the agents told us!” Dipper replied, his voice rising as well.

“’Agent Aquato and Agent Zanotto needs to see you for some urgent business’. That’s what they said.” Norman kept his voice normal, but he still delivered a pointed stare at Raz as he repeated what the agents said to him.

“That’s- what?! I- we didn’t do that!”

Raz is at a complete loss for words. Now Psychonauts agents are straight up lying to his friends?! And they used him and Lili as part of the deception?!

“That’s what they told us!”

“Then they’re lying! Wh-why would they…?”

“Okay, okay, hold on!” Lili stepped in, hands motioning for everyone to calm down as she marched to the center of the group. In the next few moments, the group settled into silence and some semblance of calm. Lili then continued. “Listen, we - Raz and I - were told to wait by this door,” she pointed at the nearby meeting room door, “until we were given further orders. You guys were picked up by Psychonaut agents and brought here, and you were told that it was apparently because we called for you.”

“So, it can be safe to assume, that we will get our answers when that door opens.”

Coraline sighed. More waiting. Exactly what she wanted. “And how long would that be?”

Raz nervously scratched the back of his neck. He’d waited with Lili for what seemed like forever.

“I don’t-“

Raz heard the sound of a door sliding open. From beside him.

“Now.”

All of their attention is now focused on the door. They watched as a figure stepped out, one that Raz and Lili immediately recognized as one Milla Vodello. The others recognized her as well, though only barely, from when they met her after Weirdmageddon ended.

No, scratch that, after the Mystery Kids ended Weirdmageddon.

Milla was not the person Raz expected to emerge from that door.

“M-Milla…?”

“Hello, darlings.” Milla greeted with a smile, striding over closer to the group. “I hope you’ve all reacquainted yourselves with each other? It must be nice to be together again, yes?”

“Yeah, I mean- I guess it’s nice… it’s just-“

“You all do remember me, don’t you?” Milla cut him off, addressing the others in the group. “We met a few months ago, at the end of summer? I hope you do. I do make an effort to make myself memorable, after all.” she ended with a small chuckle.

No one else found that to be chuckle-worthy.

“We do.” Coraline curtly replied.

“We just… have questions and we want answers, is all.” Norman stated, positioning himself at the front of the group, surprising even himself.

Raz never noticed it before, but behind that kind, motherly smile she’s wearing, he can see… trepidation. Nervousness. Fear.

“Milla, what’s going on?”

Milla’s smile almost falters. “I suppose you all have waited long enough.” she sighed, turning towards the door. “Come. Let us enter.”

Milla walked away, disappearing beyond the door to the meeting room. The Mystery Kids all took a few moments to look at each other, reassuring themselves and their fellow friends, before, together, they followed.

The meeting room is large, was Raz’s first impression of it. The door leading to it did not prepare Raz of how large it is. Banners representing the different divisions within the Psychonauts hang from the walls, along with one banner larger than the others bearing the Psychonauts emblem. On the side of the room opposite to the door, a large screen has been installed on the wall, with the screen currently displaying a map of the world. A large, round table sits in the center of the room. On that table, on the side opposite of Raz, he saw Sasha Nein, sitting calmly as he watched the group enter. On Raz’s side of the table, he can see a few empty chairs.

Raz did a quick count. There are eight chairs. 

Eight. One for each of them.

Milla briskly crossed the room, placing herself beside the seated Sasha, but Raz noticed she herself did not sit down. 

“The Mystery Kids.” Sasha started. “A pleasure to meet all of you once again. Please, take a seat.” 

They all looked at one another again, before they wordlessly took a seat at the table. Raz and Coraline sat side by side at the center. Lili took the seat next to Raz, and beside her sat Dipper, and beside him sat Mabel. Wybie took the seat beside Coraline, and next to him Norman sat, and lastly Neil took the seat next to him.

“So… what is this all about, Agent Nein?” Raz asked, careful to address Sasha properly. With everything that’s happening, this seemed like the right time to do so.

It is at this point that Raz noticed that Sasha has a very faint, thin smile on his lips, while Milla is openly frowning, almost staring daggers down to Sasha. 

Raz shot a quick glance at Lili. 

Is this opposite day or-?

Lili kept her gaze on the two senior agents in front of her. 

I know. This is weird.

“First of all, I would like to thank you all again, in behalf of the Psychonauts organization, for foiling the apocalypse that Bill Cipher attempted to unleash to the world.” Sasha stated. 

A silent, collective shudder passed through all eight of them at the mention of that name. 

Bill Cipher. Now that’s a name they all would like to forget. 

If Sasha noticed it, it didn’t stop him from continuing. “You managed to do this - even with limited resources, with the odds unfairly stacked against you - through ingenuity, camaraderie, and teamwork. To be perfectly frank, you saved the world. You are all heroes. Not many can call themselves that. You should be proud.”

Raz had to suppress a grin. Looking back, what they pulled off was pretty cool.

Sasha’s posture shifts as he leaned forward in his chair, steepling his fingers together. “However, we have recently discovered that, even on your own, you have managed to do some remarkable things in the past. Each one of you is… a force to be reckoned with, so to speak.”

“Agents Aquato and Zanotto,” he said, his eyes focused on Raz and Lili, “you two… well, we know very well what you did for this organization and the world. Your deeds are exemplary.”

His gaze shifts to Coraline. “Miss Jones; you, with some help from Mister Lovat, managed to defeat the creature known as the Beldam. I can tell you that that is no easy feat.” 

Coraline tensed. She shared a look with Wybie, wide-eyed. The slack-jawed look on his suggests that he shared Coraline’s surprise. A question quickly springs into mind.

“You… know about the Other Mother? How?”

“We know that it exists, yes. We had… difficulty in locating exactly where it is, but thanks to you, we don’t have to worry about that creature anymore.”

Coraline fisted her hands. She knew what he did there. He purposefully didn’t answer the ‘how’ part of that question. Though, she already has a guess on how. She sent a pointed, accusing glare at Raz. For his part, Raz seems to be too invested in the conversation to notice.

Sasha’s attention turned to Norman. “Mister Babcock; you appeased the centuries-old wrath of a vengeful spirit, and with it, lifted the curse she has placed upon your town. Mister Downe assisted you, of course.”

Norman frowned, but otherwise stayed silent. The question of how the agent managed to know came to him, but he decided to store it away for now. 

Neil smiled proudly at the mention of what Norman did. He looked at Norman, expecting a sheepish smile from him, only to see that he is… frowning? His smile faltered slightly.

“Lastly, the two of you, Mister and Miss Pines.” Sasha continued, now looking at the twins. “You two have fended Bill Cipher on your own before. Multiple times, even. Not to mention, you two are related to Stanford Pines, who has… returned, shall we say?”

The twins shared a look, and in that instant, they both knew they had the same question: how did he know?

“Okay, Agent Nein, you can cut the crap.” Coraline suddenly announced, leaning forward to the point that she’s practically rising from her chair. “You plucked us off of the street, whisked us and our parents here, lied to us saying that Raz and Lili are the ones that called for us, all so you can, what, lecture us about stuff that we already did?! Just get to the point!”

A silence washed over the room after Coraline’s sudden outburst. From what Raz can see, even Sasha seems taken aback. Any other day, Raz would not have let anyone, not even Coraline, talk to Sasha like that, but for now…

“She’s right, Sasha.” agreed Raz. “Please. We just want to know why we’re here.”

Sasha remained silent for a while, his expression unreadable. He glanced to his side, to Milla, who gave him a silent nod, before addressing the group again. 

“Very well.”

He shifted slightly in his seat; his posture straightening, his fingers steepled in front of him again. The thin smile he’s been wearing this whole time disappeared, replaced with a stern, almost grim, expression.

His hard gaze fell on Mabel. She couldn’t help but squirm in her seat, reaching for Dipper’s hand under the table.

“There was an idea…”

His gaze slowly shifted to Dipper as he spoke. Dipper, while still tightening his grip on his sister’s hand, leaned forward ever so slightly. Listening to what the Psychonaut agent is saying, he found himself intrigued.

“…to bring together…” 

Wybie can feel the gaze slowly moving to fall on him. This Agent Nein is still very much intimidating for him, but he couldn’t help but cock his head to the side in curiosity as the agent continues to speak.

“…a group of remarkable people…”

When Sasha’s gaze fell on her, Coraline stared back with a hard gaze of her own. But still, she fidgeted. Her palms are getting sweaty. The more he spoke, the more nervous she became.

 “…to see if they could become… something more.”

Raz leaned back, eyes wide. As Sasha’s gaze passed by him, he began to realize of one possible reason to why Sasha had gathered them here. This idea; Sasha had mentioned it before to him, once. If it really is that… it couldn’t be, could it?

“So when we needed them…”

Lili remained neutral as Sasha turned to him. She knew he was not finished talking yet, but… they, the Mystery Kids, are made to gather here, and he spoke about a gathering of remarkable people. Lili only has a guess, but if she’s right, then she is all in for it.

“…they could solve the dilemmas…”

Norman averted his gaze as Sasha focused his attention on him, just from force of habit more than anything else. He’s been intently listening to every word the agent has said so far. What Agent Nein has been insinuating, if he’s correct, is… insane, but… it has its benefits and detriments, so he is… considering.

“…that we never could.”

As Sasha’s gaze reached Neil, he couldn’t help but feel like… that idea Agent Nein said about the gathering and all that stuff… that kind of sounds like what the Mystery Kids are?

“This idea; I submitted it to Psychonauts High Command, nearly twenty years ago. The naïve fool that I was.” Sasha chuckled slightly. “It was immediately rejected, discarded, and I was told to be grateful that I was not demoted.”

“And you surely did not have children in mind when you proposed this idea of a gathering?” Raz blinked in surprise. After being silent this whole time, Milla suddenly spoke up, uncharacteristically glaring at her partner.

Sasha glanced up at Milla, his expression surprisingly neutral. “I did not… exclude the possibility.” His eyes narrowed. “We’ve had this conversation, Milla.” 

Milla placed a firm hand on Sasha’s shoulder, leaning closer to him. “Sasha, this is insane. You’re talking about dragging children into-“

“Agent Vodello.” Sasha suddenly stood up, meeting Milla’s height, sending her a stern stare. Raz is immediately reminded of how scary Sasha can be if he wanted to. “That’s enough. I only offer a request. Nothing more. They are free to decline should they wish to.”

Milla glanced at the kids, her expression briefly shifting to worry, before glaring back at Sasha. “You know they won’t.”

“So,” Coraline cut in, because seeing the two agents square off with each other is getting uncomfortable, “what’s that failed plan of yours have got to do with us?”

This caught Sasha and Milla’s attention. The two broke off; Sasha sitting back down in his seat and Milla crossing her arms, still scowling and staring daggers at Sasha.

“Miss Jones, I think you misunderstand.” Sasha’s fingers returned to its steepled position. “The plan itself did not fail. I simply chose the worst possible time to propose it. Back then, the organization did not have a need for such a group, I was not one of the best Psychonaut agent in this organization’s history, and most importantly,” he leaned closer as that thin smile returned to his lips, “I did not have an example.”

The Mystery Kids shifted, glancing about each other for a moment. Most are glances of reassurance, but some are of discomfort.

“But now, twenty years later, the world has changed.” Sasha picked up a remote - one that Raz never noticed before - pointed it at the screen behind him, and clicked.

The screen, which up to this point has simply been displaying a world map, changed, now displaying a world map but with dozens upon dozens of red dots decorating it. Raz wasn’t sure how many dots there are, but it was surely in the upper hundreds.

Dipper quickly noted the dots seemed to increase in number the closer it gets to Oregon.

“Behind me is a map displaying every recorded supernatural event in the twentieth century.” Sasha explained. 

Sasha clicked the remote again, and the screen shifted again to… the same thing? That seems to be the case. It’s another map of the world littered with red dots. Though - Raz squinted - the placement of the dots looks a little different?

“Now this is a map displaying every recorded supernatural event, within the last ten years.”

Raz’s breath was caught in his throat. Silence reigned in the room as all eight of them processed the news. Raz always knew there was some sort of a rise happening, but he never knew it would be this high.

“But… those two are pretty much the same?” Neil finally broke the silence. He’s not sure why that sounded like a question. He was just voicing out his nervous thoughts.

“Exactly my point, Mister Downe.” Sasha replied. “Ever since the turn of the millennium, there has been an exponential rise of supernatural occurrences. A rise that, as much as the Psychonauts and other organizations like us would hate to admit, we are not prepared for. The team proposed by my idea; the Psychonauts need it now, more than ever. Not to mention, thanks to you, we now know it is possible to for such a team to form.”

“This is where you all factor in.” Sasha gestured to all eight of them with a wave of his hand. “I plan to resubmit this idea, this team, to Truman and his council, in the hopes that they will approve it this time.”

“Additionally, with your consent, I would like the Mystery Kids to be its founding members.”

There it is. Raz has been guessing it this whole time, ever since Sasha started talking about an idea. Now, his guess has been confirmed. His guess is correct. Sasha wants the Mystery Kids to be some sort of supernatural elite task force. A million things buzzed in his mind right now, but right now the only thing he can focus on is that this team needs a cool name, fast. 

Raz looked around at his friends, curious to see how they would react. Dipper and Mabel are staring at each other in surprise, though he can see the delight clear as day on Dipper’s face. Lili seemed to be restraining her reaction, but he can see that she is practically bursting with excitement. Coraline tightened her lips, looking tense all over; Raz worriedly took note of that. On the other hand, Wybie’s eyes and mouth are wide open, almost to a comical degree. Norman doesn’t even look like he’s in the room, staring off into the distance. With a small amount of effort, Raz can sense the millions of thought rushing through Norman, and took note of that as well. Neil looked to be breathing heavily, one hand on his chest and another holding an inhaler at the ready. Raz took note of that too.

After allowing them a few moments to process the news, Sasha continued forward. “This team will be fully funded and backed by the Psychonauts. As members of this team, you will receive a base of operations, you will be allowed to use our facilities like any other member of the Psychonauts, and what resources the Psychonauts can spare are at your disposal. Within reason, of course.”

Raz noted that both Dipper and Wybie now have the biggest grin ever on their faces. 

Sasha looked like he noted that too. “Not that I would like to curb your enthusiasm, but it is important to note that the approval of this team is far from guaranteed. Psychonauts High Command could very well reject this idea again. Which is unfortunate, but such is bureaucracy.”

Raz glanced around. Most of them don’t seem to be affected by that, but he does notice that Coraline relaxed as he said that.

“Milla and I will now leave you to discuss what your answer will be.” Sasha glanced up at Milla, whose expression finally softened. “This is… to say that this is a big decision is an understatement. Feel free to discuss this matter for as long as you need. We will wait outside. Simply call for us when you have reached a decision.”

With that, Sasha rose from his seat, and the two senior agents began to make their way out of the room. As they walked, Raz met Sasha’s gaze, who gave him a resolute nod and continued walking. Raz shifted his gaze to Milla, who offered him a weak, yet sympathetic smile, not breaking her stride. Their footsteps are the only sound to be heard in the deathly silent meeting room. The sound of a door sliding open, a few more footsteps, the sound of a door sliding shut, and the room fell into complete silence.

The silence remained for a few, long, tense minutes. It’s almost deafening, the silence. Raz didn’t think such a thing was possible, but that’s exactly what it feels like. 

After far too many minutes of silence, Wybie is the first to speak, his voice ringing across the room, breathing out the words, “Holy shit.”

Raz snorted, which turned into chuckling, which turned into full-on laughter.

That pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?

Coraline leaned forward against the table, fingers clawing through her hair. To think that, just a few hours ago, she was simply walking down the dirt road back to the Pink Palace, wondering which movie to watch after dinner. But now… this all felt unreal.

“What the fuck just happened?”

Raz turned to her. His laughter hasn’t ended just yet. “What happened? I’ll tell you what just happened!” he stood up from his seat. Still grinning, he looked around at the others. “Sasha wants us to form some sort of… supernatural elite super team!”

He rubbed his forehead, a little winded. The rush he is feeling is making him a little breathless. “Man, it feels like we’re in a movie or something.”

“A really specific type of movie.” Wybie added under his breath.

“He… he said we can use Psychonauts resources.” Dipper stated breathily, more to himself than anything. “Their facilities, their equipment, their… information.” his grin grew larger on his features, and he started giggling.

“I… I don’t think we should get too excited just yet.” Norman spoke up. “Agent Nein did say that this… it might not be approved.”

“Ah, r-right, yeah…” Raz coughed, taking a few moments to just breathe. He turned to address Lili. “S-so… how open do you think your dad is to the idea of a super team?” 

Lili, who has been silent this whole time processing the news, looked up to meet Raz’s gaze. “I… don’t know? We don’t really talk about work in our free time.” She frowned for a moment, gathering her thoughts. “Though, I will say this; I don’t think Sasha would have brought this up if he thought my dad would reject it immediately.” 

Raz nodded. That makes sense. The rising possibility of this team forming caused a small chuckle to escape his lips. The giddiness he felt hasn’t quite left his system. “Out of all the reasons… I can’t believe this is why Sasha gathered us here. Never thought he would even talk about this idea again.”

The second she heard that, Coraline snapped her head at Raz’s direction. “You know about this?” 

When Raz saw the look on Coraline’s face, he put his hands up defensively. “Well, yeah, technically, but- okay, he mentioned it me once. Like, in passing. I asked him about it, but all he said is that it’s something stupid he did early in his career. That’s it, that’s all I know.”

Coraline visibly relaxed after that, much to Raz’s relief. He addressed the group again. “Okay, seriously guys, first things first; we’re gonna need a new name.” he said. “Mystery Kids is fine and all, but this new team is on a whole new level. We’re gonna have to put more effort into naming it.”

Coraline was about to lean back in her chair, but upon hearing what Raz said, she went rigid. Immediately, she practically shot out of her chair, meeting Raz’s gaze. “You think we’re saying yes?” 

“Why not? This is amazing!” Raz exclaimed. Just thinking about it made him this close to being a giggly, giddy mess.

“This is insane!” Coraline exclaimed back, incredulous to Raz’s excitement. She whipped around to the others. “Am I the only one that can see how insane this is?! Am I?!”

The others shifted, looking around at each other for a moment, but if any of them thought of the same thing, then they didn’t voice it. 

“Alright, let me put it this way,” Coraline continued on, “an international secret agency, made up mostly of psychics, is getting overwhelmed because supernatural happenings are multiplying by a fuckton, and Nein’s solution is to make our little club, made up mostly of teenagers,  into, what, the protectors of the Earth?! Against that?!” 

Coraline pointed at the screen mounted on the side of the room, still displaying a map of the world riddled with red dots, each dot representing a supernatural event. The room went silent for a moment as they all realize just how many there are, and they can’t help but feel a little smaller.

“Each one of those dots could be another Bill, or another Aggie, o-or another…” Coraline gulped, her breath quickening slightly, “another one of her…”

Raz felt like he needed to say something. What Coraline said had shaken something in him, but it didn’t dissuade him from the idea. He’s not sure about the others based on what he can sense in the room. “W-well, I guess, yeah, we’re all just teenagers, but… but we’re not just teenagers. We all know what we can do, what we’re capable of. We’re amazing, and we have the record to show for it.” Raz found his confidence growing the more he spoke. “Guys, we ended Bill. He’s been around for trillions of years and we ended him.”

“Plus, it’s not like the Psychonauts are going anywhere. They’re not just gonna dump every case on us and then just pack up and leave. They’re still going to be there, with us, helping us.”

Raz focused on Coraline, who he can sense is baffled that Raz would defend the idea. He needs to be very careful moving forward. “S-so, it’s still big; don’t get me wrong, but… I think you’re making it out a just a little bit worse than it actually is, Coraline.” 

Coraline leaned closer, and in a low voice, said, “You think I’m exaggerating? We barely survived Weirdmageddon. We beat Bill using a ritual that we didn’t know exist until the very last minute. We are not forming a super team.”

“But the point is we survived and we beat Bill!”

“And most of that was because of pure, dumb luck!”

“Are you even hearing yourself?! You know what we‘re capable of!”

“I know exactly what we’re capable of, and this is beyond it!”

“Coraline’s right!” Another voice rang out, interrupting their argument. “I don’t think we should do it.”

All heads turned, surprised, to the source of the voice. Dipper is especially surprised.

“Mabel?” 

While everyone else was busy with the argument between Raz and Coraline, Mabel has stood up from her seat. She looked around at the others, making sure that her eyes meet everyone’s gaze. “Guys, I know we’re amazing and all, but I feel like… I feel like we should just stick to what we are right now. Just busting mysteries in the woods and having fun, you know?”

“See?” Coraline said, gesturing to Mabel with a hand. “Even Mabel agrees with me.”

Raz briefly shot Coraline a look that was part anger and part annoyance, before he turned his attention back to Mabel.

Mabel met Dipper’s gaze, a hopeful smile on her face. “Dipper, you’re all about sense and logic, right? You think that we shouldn’t do it, right?”

Even though… she did see how excited Dipper looked… but this is still Dipper. He had to disagree with the idea. There’s no way he would agree with something as crazy as that. Out of all of them, Mabel could always count on him to take the logical path and not the bonkers path. 

“Mabel, I…”

The hopeful smile on Mabel’s face faltered. 

Dipper had to pause. The sight of that smile disappearing from his sister’s face is just heartbreaking to see, but he eventually pushed on. “This is an amazing opportunity for us. For all of us.”

Dipper pushed himself off of his chair, rising up to Mabel’s height. He gently grabbed both of his sister’s shoulders, and said, “Think about all the things we can do with what the Psychonauts has in their disposal. All the things we can find, discover, and learn, all around the world. We can know so much, Mabel.” 

Dipper is practically grinning as he said those words. Mabel couldn’t believe what was actually happening; Dipper is agreeing with the idea. He’s actually thinking of saying yes. 

“N-no… w-why would… Dipper, please, no!” Now it’s Mabel’s turn to grab his brother’s shoulders, her grip tighter than his was, shaking him desperately. “Dipper, you can’t! You can’t actually be agreeing to this!”

“Really, Dipper?  You decide to go crazy now?” Coraline said with a look of both annoyance and disappointment. 

“But he’s right.” Raz cut in. “Just think about all the things we can do! And it’s not just for us!”

“Maybe you,” Coraline emphasized the statement with a jabbing finger to Raz’s chest, “should stop thinking about what we can do, and start thinking about what can happen to us.”

At this point, Lili rose from her seat, glaring up at Coraline. “We’re not kids anymore, Caroline. Anything that happens to us, we’ll handle it.”

“’We’re not kids anymore’, she says, while calling me names.”

“You’re being stubborn and difficult!”

“Well, someone had to, because this is crazy!”

Norman silently watched as his friends’ arguments descended into what is essentially a shouting match, the room becoming so noisy he can barely hear himself think. Beside him, Neil slouched onto the table, sighing deeply.

“This looks familiar.” he commented. 

Neil glanced at Norman, giving him a knowing look. Norman frowned, but he still replied with a nod. He’s not exactly happy about having to resort to this, but he understood that this is something that needs to be done. Slowly, Norman rose up from his chair. He turned to his bickering friends, and prepared.

“Guys.”

Norman’s voice was calm, but stern, echoing throughout the room, bouncing off of its walls, causing the banners around the room to start swinging ever so slightly. The arguments ceased almost immediately, as the voice washed over them, rumbled through them, somehow shaking them to their very core. A moment passed in silence, before they all turned, rather hesitantly, towards Norman. 

Now sure that he has everyone’s full attention, Norman continued.

“We’re not getting anywhere. I know Agent Nein said we can take all the time we need, but we’ll be doing this forever if we keep doing it like this.”

Coraline is the first to fully shake out of her stupor. “Alright. Yeah.” she said, her composure and demeanor quickly returning to her. “He’s right. Now, here’s an idea; how about we just do this?” 

Coraline then began moving, walking briskly around the large meeting room table until she reached where Sasha sat before, standing directly against them.

Coraline addressed the others at the opposite side, arms crossed. “Alright, everyone who actually has a brain in their skull and thinks this idea is crazy, move over to this side.”

Raz sighed. He realized what she is doing. “Coraline, come on, we’re not voting for this. Let’s just all take a breather, and-“

“No.” Coraline cut in sharply. “We’re going to decide, and this is how we’re doing it. Now, pick a side.”

Raz’s shoulders visibly sank. He breathed in deeply, rubbing his forehead for a moment. He doesn’t want to do it like this, but if she insisted, then… “Well, you already know where I stand.”

Coraline was not surprised. Her eyes darted over to Lili. She, in response, moved closer to Raz. “I think it’s obvious which side I’m picking.”

Again, Coraline was not surprised in the slightest. Her eyes scanned the group in front of her, before she eventually settled on…

“Wybie?”

Wybie immediately perked up upon hearing his name. He had been mostly silent throughout the whole argument part, watching while fiddling with the sleeves of his coat. He didn’t expect to be asked for his decision so soon. “I, um, well, I mean… you’ve got a point, Jonesy, about this whole thing being maybe a bit too much for us, and I get that, but…”

His thoughts drifted back to the hangar, where he first stepped off of the jet. He’d only caught a glimpse of it, spending barely five minutes there, but he’d already fallen in love with it. That entire section looks like his own personal heaven. The best part about it is that the hangar is surely just the tip off the iceberg.

“I-if we get to play around with government-grade equipment and we get the money to do it… what I can do, and make, and- just, all of that, for me, it’s a fair trade, so.” Wybie stood up from his chair and walked closer to Raz. “I-I’m sorry, Coraline, but I’m staying here.”

Coraline had to pause for a moment. She kept her expression perfectly neutral, because that is fine, that is Wybie’s decision, and she is definitely not feeling betrayed right now.

Her eyes darted over to Dipper. He looked like he was about to say something, but he stopped. He looked over to Mabel, his face falling upon seeing the glassy-eyed look on her face.

“I… Mabel, this is-“

That was all Dipper could say before Mabel stormed away from him, almost running around the table to join Coraline at the other end of the table. Dipper simply sighed deeply, quietly moving over to join the group forming around Raz.

Coraline’s gaze fell on Neil, who quickly piped up when he realized all attention is now on him.

“Okay, I know getting involved in things that we really should not be getting involved in is kind of a hobby for us at this point, but I feel like this is too much, even for us.” He stated. “Plus, I’m sure we’ve all got school and clubs and stuff like that, so I’m not sure how that’s gonna work with us being a super team? I’m… I’m saying no.”

Neil stood up from his chair, quietly moving over to the opposite side of the table with Coraline and Mabel. “Sorry.” he shrugged, addressing Raz’s group.

Coraline blinked. She never even thought of her school before. That is actually a very valid point. 

Her attention shifted to the last remaining member of the Mystery Kids. Raz’s group has four people, hers has three. This is it. His decision will be the decider.

“Norman?”

Norman looked at Raz’s group for a few moments, and then looked at Coraline’s group for a few more moments. He looked deep in thought, quietly regarding, deciding, which side he will join. Suddenly, there’s a shift in his demeanor, and Coraline can tell that he has reached a decision. Without a word, Norman moved.

To Raz’s group. 

Coraline sucked in a breath. She can feel her fingers growing cold as the temperature of the room felt like it dropped by a few degrees. Her arms, while before was in a crossed position, turned into something more like a self-hug, fingers digging into her sides. She closed her eyes tight and ducked her head, trying to block her face from view, as she felt all eyes in the room focusing on her. The room is completely still for the next few seconds as she struggled to barely maintain her composure.

“Fine.” Coraline finally spoke, though she couldn’t fully hide the strain in her voice. “It’s decided then. We’re going to agree to the idea.”

Raz, who had sensed his friend slowly descend into a dark place, firmly shook his head. “No. We are not doing it like this. If we are going to say yes, then we all have to agree to it. If even a single one of us doesn’t want to go through with it, then we’re saying no. We are going to talk this out until we reach a decision. Together.”

Coraline sent him an intense glare, one that caught him off-guard. “Good luck changing my mind.” she practically hissed. 

Raz sighed. Truth be told, he really has no idea how to get Coraline to do just that. He glanced at Lili, hoping that she would have at least a suggestion. Lili responded with a simple shrug, so it seems they are both on their wit’s end on trying to reason with Coraline.

“Norman.” Neil suddenly said, his voice ringing clear throughout the room. His head is cocked curiously. “Why are you picking that side?”

Norman met Neil’s questioning gaze. “Well…” his gaze shifted over to Coraline, who was slightly surprised, “you said that one of those dots could be another Aggie?”

His expression hardens, the next words spoken with determination. “If even one of those dots means that someone like Aggie is out there somewhere, then I want to be there to help them, in any way that I can. I want us to help them, in any way that we can.”

“With the help of the Psychonauts, maybe we could even get to them before… before they could even become another Aggie. We can do a lot of good, to a lot of people. That’s why I’m on this side.” Norman finished.

Neil quietly nodded. “Alright. Cool.” Without another word, Neil began walking around the table, coming to a stop next to Norman.

Norman blinked, surprised, but a smile quickly formed on his face. Neil replied with a wide smile of his own. “If you want to help people, then I will do anything I can to help you help them.” Neil said, his determination matching Norman’s. “Whatever happens, I’m with you till the end of the line.”

Raz can’t help but crack a smile at the exchange between Norman and Neil. A quick glance around revealed that everyone else has the same reaction. Well, everyone gathered around him, at least. He can see Coraline and Mabel at the corner of his eye, and they are pointedly not smiling. 

Dipper’s smile faded away faster than the others. While the conversation between Norman and Neil was heartwarming and all around pleasant to witness, he still has an important matter in mind. Mabel’s reaction earlier was… extreme, to say the least, and unexpected. To make matters worse, he is genuinely drawing a blank on what could have caused it. Mabel is adventurous, always has been and always will be, and while this idea admittedly is on a far larger scale than anything they have experienced, he’d known Mabel long enough to know that even this would not faze her. For Mabel to reject, and to do in such a manner, is baffling to him.

“Mabel?” Dipper gently called out.

Dipper waited for the few moments it took for her to actually meet his gaze, then continued. “Why don’t you want us to form this team? You’ve never turned your back on a good adventure, and this could be the start of our biggest one yet. Our biggest one ever, even.”

“Dipper, I…” Mabel paused to take a steadying breath, “I almost lost you, Dipper.”

“Back in Weirdmageddon, Bill literally had us in his grasp and he was about to kill one of us. If it wasn’t for Norman… I could’ve lost you, Dipper. And even before that, there’s so many times when you could’ve… died.” Tears are now rolling down her cheeks despite her best efforts to hold it in. “I still like adventures and mysteries. I wanna keep doing them, but if it means I have to worry about losing you all the time… I can’t do that.”

Dipper was stunned. He had no idea Mabel felt that way. “Mabel…” he paused to gather his thoughts, “Alright, I’ll admit, if we form this team, we’re going to be risking our lives a lot more than usual. But we all have each other’s backs, don’t we? You said it yourself; I could’ve died if it wasn’t for Norman. When I do something stupid, you won’t have to worry about me alone. There are at least six more people that will do that with you.”

Lili smirked.

Make that five.

Lili!

Yeah, I know. Sorry, Raz. Not appropriate. 

Mabel looked at the group around Dipper, who started to stand up a little straighter, offering her smiles of confidence and assurance. Smiles that say ‘we have your brother’s back’. She looked back at Dipper.

“Promise me something?”

“Of course.”

“Don’t do too many stupid things?”

“For you, I will.” 

Mabel nodded, rubbing away her teary eyes. She shot Coraline a quick apologetic look, before she walked away. She slowly walked around the table, returning to Dipper’s side. Dipper reached over, smiling, gently wiping away some of the tears still on her cheeks. Mabel giggled, a small smile appearing on her face. 

Raz had to force himself to pull his attention away from the twins, to focus on the remaining issue standing on the other side of the room. Said issue still has her arms crossed in front of her, a scowl on her face, and upon noticing that all attention has returned to her, had averted her gaze to the side.

Thankfully, during the time needed for Neil and Mabel to be convinced to switch sides, Raz had formed a plan. It’s not a very good plan, if he’s being perfectly honest, but if it works…

“Hey Wybie,” Raz started, purposefully raising his voice so Coraline can hear it clearly across the room, “did you notice anything weird on the flight over?”

Wybie, who had not expected to be called upon, responded, “Uh, besides the jet itself? No, not really.”

“Really? That is strange.” Raz rubbed his chin thoughtfully, making sure that the motion is as exaggerated as possible. “Because I’m pretty sure, somewhere on the way here, Coraline must have gotten replaced with a clone.”

The entire room, besides him, froze. He can sense the group around him is now staring at him, dumbfounded. Across the room, he can see that Coraline has gone rigid. So far, so good.

“And this clone is not even the type that’s better and deadlier than the original. No, this one’s worse.”

He can hear a couple of gasps, as well as a few nervous squeaks, from the group around him. He can see Coraline is now meeting his gaze, and she is sending him a glare that could be described as downright murderous.

Razputin Aquato, what the hell are you doing?!

It’s okay, Lil. Watch.

Raz leaned forward, his hands propping him up against the table. 

“You said that even one of those dots could be another her? That something, or someone, like her could be out there right now, doing things like what she did?”

Coraline’s eyes narrowed, but Raz did not back down.

“The Coraline that I know, if she ever found out about that, she would never just stand by and let that happen. She would do anything that she can to stop it, even if it means risking her life.”

Raz leaned back, his posture relaxing.

“Too bad you’re not actually her.”

And that was his plan. Hopefully, hopefully, that actually worked and he didn’t just utterly destroy his friendship with her.

The glare on Coraline’s features lingered for a few moments, until it slowly shifted into an even, neutral expression. The others waited with bated breath, watching Coraline as she closed her eyes, took in a deep, long breath, before slowly exhaling it all out. Her eyes snapped open again.

Everyone slightly flinched when she took her first step.

The muffled sound of her sneakers against the meeting room floor is the only thing to be heard as she made her way around the table, still wearing that neutral expression. The few seconds it took felt like an eternity, but she eventually reached them, coming to a stop in front of Raz.

It wasn’t until she smirked that the group let out a collective sigh of relief.

“Fuck you, Aquato.”

“Hey, as long as we get to form this team, you can go a lot worse than that.”

Coraline chuckled dryly, rubbing her face for a moment. “This is going to be a pain to explain to our parents.”

“Not to mention my grandma.”

“Especially your grandma, Wybes.”

-

The door slid open, and the approaching sound of a pair of footsteps signaled the return of Sasha and Milla into the room. The Mystery Kids have now returned to their original seats, sitting straight, each of them now wearing a look of determination. 

Milla couldn’t help but worry about their path forward.

Sasha knew he could count on them.

The pair of senior agents moved towards their previous spot. Sasha sat back down on his chair, Milla behind him.

“I will admit, you all reached a decision much faster than I thought you would.” Sasha began. He leaned forward, fingers laced together, a thin smile on his lips. “So, what is your decision?”

For a moment, Coraline looked at Wybie, Dipper, and Mabel, and Raz looked at Lili, Norman, and Neil. The two then looked at each other, one final look of reassurance, before they faced forward.

Together, they replied.

“We accept.”

-

Quick, someone figure out the Mystery Kids equivalent of ‘Avengers Assemble’! 

Holy shit, I can’t believe I actually managed to write this. I’ve wanted to do something like this since two years ago or something, but I keep putting it off, because I keep thinking that I need to write some build-up stuff leading up to it and stuff. But, with Infinity War coming up, I thought to myself ‘screw it’ and went ahead and wrote the whole damn thing.

And hot damn, what a thing it is. This is officially the longest piece of writing I have ever written in my life, but when you think about what it is and what inspired it, I think it’s appropriate. Plus, with this, this fic can have an actual overarching story now. I hope y’all are excited for that.

I think I’ve said enough at this point. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go see Infinity War five more times.

Have a good day, y’all!

[khal-ulti]

Rolands Town 2.2 - MySims inspired neighborhood for The Sims 2!

Rolandstown is a TS2 almost-cc-free neighborhood based on the MySims games for PC and consoles.

You will find an enormous amount of lore to explore with your favourite characters from MySims!

Info and download link under the cut

Rolands Town is a big, fully fleshed out neighborhood with a lot of content for you to discover. The features of Rolands Town are:

◉ A big neighborhood which takes advantage of the whole map. Rolands Town is shipped with more than 50 LOTS INSPIRED BY MYSIMS LOCATIONS, mixed with real architectural styles from around the world;

◉ MORE THAN 100 SIMS based on MySims characters! Play with your favourite florist Poppy, work on incredible inventions with Dr. F, help Pinky become a real fairy and so much more.

◉ 14 HOUSEHOLDS + 2 SIMS IN THE BIN, all intertwined by MULTIPLE DYNAMIC PLOTLINES AND MYSTERIES for you to unravel! Who will inherit the Boudreaux Mansion? What happened the night Rosalyn Marshall's parents died? Why did Skip Rogers drastically change behaviour after being elected mayor? Every household has something for you!

◉ A HIDE&SEEK GAME! Elphaba the Wicked Witch has turned the poor fairies of the forest into marble stones and placed them in hidden spots around the neighborhood. That's why they call her "wicked"! Can you help Pinky the muggle find all the statues of the fairies of Rolandstown? Start this game by reading the letter in Pinky's inventory.

◉ A HUGE POOL OF TOWNIES and SERVICE SIMS with meaningful stories: they have families, friends and relationships, many of them even OWN BUSINESSES! Send your sims to Cedella's Café to buy some baked goods, or hangout at Flipper's Swimming Pool and get buffed! Townies will manage their businesses autonomously.

◉ 5 STARTER HOMES + 4 APARTMENT BUILDINGS to give you a big array of options for sims fresh out of CAS! The starter homes are very unique and can be great prompts for storytelling. You will find a cabin in the hoods, a small Japanese house on Forest Street, a warehouse for rent near the Train Station... You will also find SMALL UNOWNED BUSINESSES in the Town Centre if you want to open your own shops! There's also some empty residential lots if you want to start from scratch.

◉ EXPENSIVE RESIDENTIAL LOTS for ambitious sims to earn through sweat and hard work... or motherlode, I won't judge! You will find 2 farmhouses in the Bayou (one of them was home to a dreadful witch!), a big warehouse in the Industrial District... Have fun exploring and furnishing them all!

I have to give you a pair of warnings now, before downloading:

⚠ My plan is to add storytelling pictures to all the households' albums to give you a better grasp on the plotlines, so consider this neighborhood "almost" finished. Everything is done except for the albums. This will take a lot of time though, probably months.

⚠ You need a CAMERA MOD. The neighborhood is big and there are lots on the borders of the map, so without a camera mod you would not be able to play the hood as intended.

⚠ DO NOT put or move lots on the road near the Radd household. You will deform the terrain, trust me. If you see a palm tree, then it is not safe.

Below you will find two download links:

"RONT" is the neighborhood folder and it must be extracted in Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Neighborhoods.

"RONT_CC" is the folder containing a small amount of CC (10 files, 15 MB) required for the neighborhood to appear as intended. It must be extracted in Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Downloads.

ROLANDS TOWN 2.2:

click!

ROLANDS TOWN CC FOLDER (10 FILES, 15 MB):

click!

I am extremely curious to know what's your experience with the neighboorhood. If you encounter a bug, message me and I will fix it as soon as I can. If you want to play this neighborhood on Twitch or share gameplay pictures, let me know and I will follow you because I am very curious to see what you do! Bye bye!

[venfx]

magnus fic roundup

as tma comes to a close, i thought i'd post some of my favorite fics to come out of this fandom. most of these are classics, listed in no particular order.

A Weather In The Flesh by @cuttoothed​ | 3K | S1-S4 | Jon/Martin | Complete

"There is a span of years where Jon doesn’t touch anyone other than the occasional hand shake. It’s not so bad. He’s never been someone who’s needed physical affection."

Jon has never been any good at making people want to stick around.

↳ this is such a well-done exploration of jon’s character and his relationship with touch, and i’ve re-read it at least five times. sweet and sad and phenomenally well-written.

in the chillest land and on the strangest sea by imperfectcircle, singlecrow | 20K | Safehouse, S1-S4 | Jon & Daisy, Jon/Martin | Complete

Jon remembers a statement he read years ago given by a Jesuit priest, who said that the shortest prayer he knew was, just, fuck it, as in fuck it; it's in God's hands. He takes Daisy's hand and trails on after her.

or; hope is a thing with feathers.

↳ hey, you wanna fuckin..... feel things? read this.

The Magnus Institute vs the 21st Century: a series of emails and IMs by shinyopals | 26K | Series | S3 | Pre-Jon/Martin | Complete

The Magnus Institute hires a Data Protection Officer. He sets about diligently booking in meetings, writing policy documents, and training all the staff in the importance of confidentiality. Now if only he could get hold of the Head Archivist, who seems to have vanished again...

(Jon is only trying to save the world, but apparently some people think he should still be doing his day job.)

↳ i’d be surprised to find people who haven’t read this series, but it’s the definition of “the magnus archives is a workplace comedy”. also, alasdair stuart has actually read some clips of this on Twitch, so that’s a fun bonus.

Bell, Book, and Candle by yellow_caballero | 102K | Series | S3 into S4 | Jon/Martin | Complete 

In accordance with the Ride or Die Pact of 2009, Jonathan Sims can call upon Georgie Barker at any time for aid with no strings attached. Despite their rocky history, their childhood friendship, and Jon’s barely recovered alcoholism, this pact is sacred and must be upheld.

Georgie Barker may regret this. She may regret it when she discovers that the world is full of monsters and eldritch gods and dickhead managers. She may regret it when a punk rocker who should be dead collapses on their doorstep, a teenager again who needs their help. She may regret it when her stupid ex-boyfriend starts selling his soul for knowledge and the ability to keep his new family safe.

But she probably won’t. Georgie isn’t scared of anything - not a Clown’s apocalypse, not the apocalypse that Jon is destined to begin, and not Jon’s own loss of humanity.

Maybe she should be.

↳ if you’re looking for an everyone-lives-no-one-dies-happy-ending fic that also happens to be massively chaotic, look no further. 

The Reverb in These Holy Halls by @wolftraps​ | 98K | AU, S1-S4 | Jon/Martin | Complete

Undoing the apocalypse would have been enough for Jon, if all his people survived. Without them, Jon's only recourse is making it so it never happened in the first place. He's going to do better this time.

↳ quintessential time travel AUs. plot-wise, i feel like these can be difficult to write, but op does a fantastic job of tying things together in a way that makes sense. plus, it’s just fun to read.

jon sims v the nhs by @thoughtsbubble​ | 12K | Series | S3 | Complete

Joan Bright has a new patient. He's carrying an old tape recorder and is covered head to toe in scars. Jonathan Sims looks dangerous, but Dr Bright has dealt with all sorts of atypical individuals. She has no reason to be nervous.

Right?

↳ if you’ve ever thought “hey, jon should probably go to therapy”, then 1) you’re absolutely right and 2) this is... probably what would’ve happened. prior knowledge of The Bright Sessions is not required. also, apparently, this fic is written by the showrunner of The Underwood Collection? wild.

Family, Found by Dribbledscribbles | 9K | S4 | Complete

It’s Basira who catches onto it.

The collective shift that seems to come over them when heading in or out of the Institute. Not just the oppressive sensation of being observed, their every move catalogued for the voyeuristic cravings of some unseen Eye(s). That feeling remained with them even when they left the Institute these days, but it was always stronger inside its walls. That wasn’t the change. Nor was it the point.

The point was: making life worse for Jonathan Sims.

↳ i think being part of the avengers fandom circa 2012 has given me permanent found-family-trope brainrot, but you know what. jonathan sims can have a little happiness, as a treat. 

Road to Damascus by @titanfalling​ | 107K | Series | S4 | Jon & Tim | Complete

n. an important moment of insight, typically one that leads to a dramatic transformation of attitude or belief

Or, in which Tim becomes an avatar for the end of all things.

↳ tim dies and then he doesn’t. there is catharsis and world building. just....read it.

Come, Change Your Ring With Me by @backofthebookshelf​ | 29K | S3 | Peter/Jon, Jon/Martin, Peter/Elias | Complete

The Lukases demand the Archivist marry into the family, and the Institute relies on them too much to say no. Peter is smug. Elias is fuming. Martin is suffering. Jon thinks this might be tolerable if only Peter would hurry up and leave him alone already.

OR, the soap opera we call an Archives revolves around Peter Lukas this time.

↳ superb evil-bastards-in-love content, feat. martin pining, tim being obnoxious, and jon being... well, tired, mostly. i will literally never get tired of how op writes peter. 

creatures that i briefly move along by @dotsayers​ | 16K | Series | AU, Post-S4 | background Jon/Martin 

Mr Sims was so weird, was the thing. Miss Grant always said calling people weird was rude, and Anna sort of agreed, but she didn’t know what other word to use to describe Mr Sims.

He’d only been in with the class for a few days, really, and half of that he just sat at the back listening, but that didn’t stop her from making a swift judgement. 5BG had had student teachers before, back when they were 3ST, and they’d been uniformly normal.

Mr Sims was… actually, Anna had a better adjective. He was interesting.

↳ i just.... love teacher!jon fics. this series delivers. 

Once Bitten by @apatheticbutterflies | 1K | S4 | Jon & Daisy | Complete

Jon Sims has always been a jumpy kind of guy. Nervous. Twitchy. Daisy used to think it meant he was guilty. Turns out he was. Just not of what she’d thought.

Daisy learns how to peel an orange.

↳ daisy and jon’s relationship is an example of an instance where i’m happy to say “fuck what you wrote mr. jonny ‘chocolate torte of tragedy’ sims, i want them to be friends”.

pins and needles by mutterandmumble | 13K | S1-S4 | Complete

He’s got a reputation to uphold anyways; an uptight, rigid reputation that dictates the way that he interacts and functions and is such an integral part of him that he can’t let go of it anytime soon. He likes his safety nets. He likes his contingencies. He likes his privacy, and everything around this place right down to the walls seems to have ears, so he’ll stay tight-lipped up to and beyond the threat of death.

He’s good at that.

In which Jon takes up embroidery and bumbles through life the best that he can.

↳ out of all the introspective jon pieces i’ve read (and there are many), this one stands out. maybe it’s the symbolism or the characterisation, or maybe it’s the fact that i have an embroidery kit lurking in the back of my closet along with a hundred other half-pursued hyperfixations. whatever. this is excellent.

sleeping in by @ivelostmyspectacles | 5K | S2 | Jon/Tim | Complete

“Who are you trying to convince?”

Jon gives up, letting his head sag against Tim’s shoulder. “I don’t know.”

aka Elias gets tired of Jon and Tim's bickering, sends them away for a "team-building" weekend trip, and is sure to book them a room with only one bed

↳ this has everything you’d need from a “oh no there’s only one bed” fic. someone please get these men therapy.

if you try, sometimes (you get what you knead) by @ajcrawly​ | 3.5K | S1-S4 | Jon/Martin, Tim/Sasha | Complete

It starts with an abundance of boeuf bourguignon and ends up as a team tradition.

Food and love in uncertain times.

↳ more found family fic, this time with a diverse og!archival staff and food as a metaphor for love. hurt in all the right ways. made me hungry in the process.

[fellowshipofthefics]

Hey Fellowship of the Fics! Please welcome @bodysnatch3r​ !! 👏🥳 Matty decided to share his thoughts and impressions on their fic: Collateral Damage (An Unexpected Heist). 

Question 1: What about this story stands out from other stories with the same trope(s)?

This is, simply put, a Modern AU/Thriller AU/Human AU retelling of The Hobbit. However, rather than treating it as a standalone story, I went into it from the start knowing it would (probably) lead to an expanded universe. As such, it is teeming with references and allusions to past and future events. I took care to make sure I knew exactly what these allusions were and fleshed out as much backstory as I could without spoiling any potential sequels or prequels. I'm planning on eventually adapting the Silmarillion and LOTR as well.

The pairings are somewhat uncommon as well: Dwalin/Thorin is the main pairing, followed by Tauriel/Thranduil. I wrote/planned most of the story before DoS had even been released, and as such had to make up Tauriel and Thranduil's relationship basically from scratch, as her age, bond with Legolas and eventual love story with Kili were virtually unknown at the time. It also takes some very distinct liberties with characterisation. Bofur, for example, is quite different from his canon counterpart, while still keeping core parts of his personality intact, such as his sense of humour and friendship with Bilbo.

Question 2: What was the most emotionally-charged scene to write?

The final chapters of the story (barred the epilogue) take place over a few tension-filled, ultimately tragic hours. It's "my" version of the BOFA, and it ends exactly as it does in canon, with the deaths of Thorin, Fili and Kili. It also marks the emotional culmination of a few important threads: Dwalin and Thorin's past relationship, Dwalin and Nori's rivalry, Fili and Kili's closeness and love for each other, Bilbo's kindness and loyalty to Thorin. I wrote it all in one go, and broke it up into individual chapters before posting. I also write Thorin as, like me, having Borderline Personality Disorder. Though his story ultimately ends in tragedy, writing him this way helped me cope with my condition as a young teenager while I was writing CD.

Question 3: Do you have dreams for a sequel/spin-off from this story? If so, what would it be about?

This question isn't a hypothetical for me! I'm currently finishing the first part of the main prequel to CD, which is "Possessed by Light", telling the story of Thorin and Dwalin's relationship (as well as a number of other characters, such as Balin, Dain, Frerin, Dis and Thrain) from when they first met as teenagers to, eventually, a few weeks before the events of CD begin. I decided to divide it into two parts because Dwalin leaves for two years and another story, "Killer Karma", takes place in between. Other than that, the Heistverse version of the Silmarillion, "Origins" is currently in the plotting stage. And the grand finale of the series will be "Cities of Night", my version of LOTR.

Question 4: I feel like every writer has an "original intention" for how a story's going to progress. Has this story stuck pretty well to that original intention, and if not how has it veered away?

Well, the scope and size of it has certainly changed. I knew it would be a large universe, I just never knew how large, involved and in-depth it would be. I began Collateral Damage in January 2013, a few weeks after the first Hobbit movie came out. The Heistverse has been with me ever since, either on paper, online or in countless notebooks and Word documents, for almost a decade now.

Question 5: If there was a Dedication section for this fic, who would you dedicate it to?

To Vee, Nessa and Seb, without whom this never would have happened at all.

If you haven’t read this story yet, go back up to the top and be sure to click the link. Also if you haven’t seen Matty’s works before, here are some other fics that they have done that are worth checking out as well:

Possessed By Light (Part One)

Killer Karma

If you would like to get you and your story featured in Monday Mentions, please click the Application Link! If you have any questions/concerns with the form, please feel free to leave an ask or DM one of us! Questions will be updated each month so repeat writers and stories are welcome. New writers will be prioritized.

[achairwithapandaonit]

the naming system of your wip document is a true wonder. love it though. now im scared, how many untitled document do you have? any you wanna speak about?

:'D i counted 11 before i hit the bottom of the page and it had to load more. i don't know what's in any of them. i'm just far too lazy to name documents, so either they get left without a name or i click on the title and it auto-fills with the first sentence i put in the doc.

a lot of the documents are just me attempting to plan fics and then forgetting about them within an hour.

i guess if there's any i want to talk about i think the mogami remnant world wip is pretty neat, though i haven't done much more than plan and write a few parts that i wasn't happy with.

i've talked about it before in eeby deeby but in case anyone's interested it's a mob psycho au where the world that mogami made sort of gets left behind or becomes it's own thing.

“Everything leaves it’s mark. Nothing can be completely wiped away. And that’s what this is - the remnants of something that once was.”

is something i wrote for it. just a little sentence. that i think sort of describes the au.

gonna put the rest below the cut cause i really like this fic and am now gonna talk about it non-stop

the world that exists doesn't make complete sense. there are blanks that characters don't understand. why does mob live alone without a parent or a guardian? why was mob so unnoticeable to people like mezato or his other classmates who don't bully him at first?

the fic starts from the LOL cult arc, and mezato is really confused by this. and it sort of gets answered in the fact that they're real now - this world is real - but it wasn't always real. as time goes on the world builds itself into something with more sense, but at first those blanks are just blanks.

mob and ritsu become acquainted through circumstances, and through that acquaintance the blanks need to be filled in more fully. they weren't brothers when the world was made, but now suddenly (that ritsu's parents have seen his friend) mob is ritsu's brother who he's never heard about, who his parents gave away when he was young. even they don't know why they did that, because it doesn't make sense and can't make sense.

it's not something mob knows in this au for a long time, but ritsu becomes aware of it around when his parents do and his arc in the au really centres around his anger at them giving mob up. as well as jealousy at him seeing other people becoming closer to his brother when he has no idea how to actually do that himself.

reigen also gets wrapped into things pretty quickly. i'm not sure yet what his character arc will be, but he's a PI in this universe and happened to also be there at the LOL cult arc. it takes a while for him to actually meet mob again but he and mezato end up being people that mob is close to pretty quickly. and mob slowly starts living with reigen.

mob's own character arc comes from the fact that he suddenly has psychic powers. he's been alone for his whole life and suffered a lot, especially lately. he ends up lashing out against asagiri as his own choice. i guess he starts out with his character going in a bit of a darker route because he suddenly has the power to protect himself and no one protecting him in his life, but he learns to care and feel properly again later on. i guess it's not wrong of him to lash out as asagiri, but later on his own perspective of it changes when he decides he doesn't want to hurt people, especially because he really injured her.

there's also gonna be a sub-plot somewhere with mob and ritsu's parents and connecting as a family again? tho i think that would probably come later to the end of the fic, after the conclusion that the world doesn't make sense for a reason and that their parents didn't really make that choice to give mob up.

and hanazawa + the body improvement club + tome and her club + onigawara are all people i want to include in some way.

this whole thing is basically so fleshed out in my head but it's so hard to write that i attempted it once and then forgot about it in amongst my looming deadlines. i'll definitely have to write it one day tho.

[kosmosguk]

5 days of spooktober~ #2: carnal

day #2: vampire seokjin x reader

word count: 1.4k

summ. midnight is a horrific hour to be awake, and it is at midnight in which you open the door to the ceo’s office and discover the bloody monster that lurks underneath his gentlemanly disguise.

warnings: mature themes (cunnilingus, bloodplay(ish?), mindbreak), dubcon themes, death, violence, gore, yandere, 18+, near-death experiences, explicit language

a/n: the fact that i managed to get part 2 out ?? on time ??? this is a whole celebration- hoping to make up for my inactivity thru this spooky series. also the rough draft was delirious so i had to rewrite it and i vibe with this version so much more. ty for 3.5k babes and happy halloween (10 days early) <3 lemme know if i made any mistakes because i never review my work before posting oops

You remember as a little girl how your grandma would gently stroke your hair, tucking locks of it behind your hair, and look outside at the night. She would hum a lullaby as she lulled you to sleep, and before you could close your eyes, you would hear her say aloud:

“Never be outside at midnight.”

As a little girl, you had thought it to be a serious remark, the kind that settled into your nightmares where beasts would emerge from the shadowy depths of your closet when the clock struct midnight. As an adult, you now viewed it as a doting relative’s overprotective instinct coming out at as an unconventional comment.

But now, you couldn’t help remembering those moments as you opened the door of your boss’s office, and as the grandfather clock in the room struck midnight, your eyes fell on your boss’s teeth buried in the crook of the new intern’s neck.

You froze, the files in your hand dropping like the overdramatic, overplayed scene of some cheesy low-budget horror movie, and you made eye contact with the man…no monster…in the room.

There was blood, the deep crimson color of mortality, stained over his features, soaking his jaw and the collar of his black shirt, and you could feel the images of him kindly smiling at you as you handed him his coffee shattering in your mind and being replaced with images of the true monster he had been hiding all along.

You were one of the only few people left in the building, and you clasped a hand over your mouth before you could scream. You could not risk anyone else being in danger.

You watched, petrified, as your boss dropped the intern onto the floor, and her body made a hollow thud as she hit the ground. You heard a low moan of pain come from her, and a part of you was grateful that she was still alive, but a majority of you was terrified of what fate you were to undergo.

“Secretary (L/n),’’ his voice was like a purr, and he wiped the blood off his chin and lapped it up, his eyes refusing to wave from the strong hold they held over yours. You were lost in the depths of his eyes, the sheen of red that replaced his normal gentle brown, and your unconscious attempt for a scream strangled in your throat. “Overtime?’’

God, this was the bad pinnacle of some B-grade horror blockbuster, and it seemed like you were the unfortunate side character. If you had been watching yourself from the comfort of your sofa, you would have laughed and commented on how shitty the movie was. But it was different when you were that unfortunate character.

“Yes, sir,’’ you regained your composure and tried to ignore the elephant—or in this case, the unconscious girl—in the room before gesturing at the scattered documents on the ground,’’ I was wondering if you could sign these documents, Boss Kim, but it seems like you’re…preoccupied.”

Come on, a few more words, and you would be out of here dialing the number of the nearest emergency provider. Your boss was nuts, and that should have been capitalized and dotted with an exclamation mark.

“Should I get some help for your…dinner date? Or may I leave now?’’ your voice sounded wry, a sure distance away from the inner panic you were feeling. Your boss looked taken aback, and for a moment, you almost thought you could see the gentle him of the day return. But then he opened his mouth, showing a glimpse of brutally sharp fangs, and laughed.

“That’s what I love most about you, Secretary (L/n). You never seem surprised at anything,’’ he took steps closer to you, stepping over the paperwork on the ground and leaving bloody footsteps on them. He sounded pleased…too pleased.

“I want to see what it’s like for you to unravel. Don’t mind the mess, Secretary (L/n), or may I—?’’ he was close now. You couldn’t move as he reached behind you and shut the door behind you and locked it with a resounding click. He tucked a lock of hair behind your ear, and his voice was like a domineering taunt as he fondly stroked your still cheek with his unusually cold hand.

“I’ve always kept an eye on you. You’re…quite different from my previous secretaries. They fell like easy prey when I wanted them to, all for some money that wouldn’t even be worth much once they’re dead. But you...,” he chuckled and took your hand, pressing a frigid kiss on the curve of your knuckles,” For some reason, I don’t quite like the idea of you being dead…even though you just smell so tempting.’’

He held you closer to him, and your voice felt trapped in your throat. He slid his palm down the curve of your waist and held you tightly as if you were the lover of a beast. And perhaps, in that moment and in every moment from then on, you were.

“I imagined her as you, but it didn’t seem the same. Even when I ripped my teeth through her neck, all she did was plea to me to take her as my lover. But now…Now I have you.”

He was smearing blood on you again as his teeth sunk into the soft curve of your neck, and you felt dizzy as he drank from you. It hurt. It hurt so, so much. But you could feel a buzz, tingling underneath your punctured skin and spreading down into a heat in your stomach. You tried to fend him off, but…

Your eyes were glazing over now. You felt him take his fangs out of your neck and lower to the ground, and you were being pressed to the door as he spread your legs and fervently lapped at your clothed pussy before ripping through your stockings and sinking his tongue into your trembling hot walls.

“Mmph!’’ your attempt to speak came out as a muffled moan, and your fingers tried to claw at the edge of the door as each movement of your boss’s tongue stroked a churning fire in your stomach. He pulled away one step before you could come, your slick coating his tongue and snapping as he went lower to your inner thighs and sunk his teeth into the flesh.

It should have hurt this time. You should have been screaming. But for some reason, the tinge of pain added a new edge to your dazed high, and you were panting as he sucked at the blood. You felt his finger probe at your soaked walls and then they were stroking your clit, rolling over the hardened bud in light strokes that left you trembling. You could feel your eyes roll back, and your voice broke out in lewd moans of his name.

“Boss Kim…ngh…Boss Kim, I want you…please, please,’’ you were close to sobbing now, every fear drained from you along with your blood, and you gripped his soft hair in tight fists as you sank into a toe-curling climax.

He was back on his feet now, and you could feel how hard he was as he pressed closer against you, his tongue dragging against the wounds on your neck. Your clothes were soaked with a mixture of your own blood and the intern’s, but you could hear the unzipping of Boss Kim’s slacks. He wasn’t done, and as you cupped his sculpted jaw with shaky hands, your eyes still glazing over as the burning heat of your trembling walls seared your insides, and pleaded for him to fuck you, you realized you weren’t done either.

Perhaps, if you had listened to your grandma’s warning for you to never come outside after midnight, you would have been safe, oblivious to what truly transpired on behind the closed doors of your boss’s office at night. Or maybe the outcome would have remained the same, with a blood-soaked you pinned underneath the rutting hips of your ravenous boss.

A part of you hoped for the latter. And as you held onto him tightly, you heard the clock strike half past midnight.

[angelanimedesaray]

Wings in the Dark Chapter 2: Suspicions

AN:  Yeeaaahhh this one’s pretty much all from Levi’s POV.  Get ready for some cat and mouse, guys.

Also I’m working on a playlist.  hehehe. I love my playlists.  Some songs just fit SO WELLLLL!!!!

Characters:  Levi, Vampire!Reader, Erwin, Various BG Characters

Pairing:  (Eventual) Levi x Reader

Warnings:  Language

Word Count:  5102

<----Previous Chapter    Masterlist    Next Chapter---->

*Levi’s POV*

Levi leaned against the stone wall beside him, arms crossed over his chest and the shade of the roof mostly hiding him from view as he stared pensively out at the open field.  The horse training was finished for the days, and the horses were being allowed time to roam in the open field for the time being.  One individual, however, was spending some one on one time with a mare, walking through some common techniques to get a horse to trust you.

At first, he’d wondered why she was using such a long rope, since he was fairly certain the distance between a horse and a potential rider during this exercise wasn’t supposed to be that far.  Quickly Levi realized that if she got much closer, the horse was not having it.  It was truly afraid of her, though she appeared to be making some headway, if she was able to lead the horse around on the long rope while the other horses stayed clear.

Horses that had been trained and bred to retain nerves of steel and ignore their fears, especially in the presence of Titans and the chaos of a battle, and apparently all of them were at least skittish around her.  That’s what he’d heard from the stablemaster, anyway.

Not a minor detail to be overlooked.  And a problem, if she couldn’t get around it.  Clearly, though, she was putting in the effort and time to fix it, and she didn’t mind going at the proper pace instead of trying to rush it.  From what he’d been able to observe, she was also approaching the situation with an admirable amount of patience, no outward signs of frustration or anger when she reached a setback and had to back up a foot or so on the rope instead of shortening it a little more.  Her approach changed slightly each time, too, attempting to adjust to fix whatever she’d done wrong the previous try.

Well, at least she had some positive character traits to be discovered alongside the worrisome fact about the horses he wasn’t going to ignore.  So he could give her some merit while his suspicion raised a little more.

“Captain.”

Levi turned at the sound of his title, noticing the individual approaching him from the main building, a file in hand.  He snapped a salute when he reached Levi, then held out the file for him to take.  “You asked for the file on Cadet Y/N L/N.”

Levi nodded and took the file from him.  “Thanks.  You can go,” he said in a distracted tone, already opening the file as the soldier walked away.

His eyes scanned the information in the file, which was surprisingly scarce.  Her place of residence was formerly Wall Rose, there was no living family, no record as he thought there might be after their spar.  She ranked sixth in her class--which didn’t at all match the spar they’d had, and gave further credit to his belief she was purposely holding herself back even when it mattered for placement.  Maybe she wanted to avoid the spotlight?  She wanted her talents to be recognized, but she didn’t want them front and center since she was still trying to scrape by without her full potential being noticed.  She excelled in individual evaluations, especially the physical and instinctual, but seemed to have some problem with others.  It was noted in her file that she was a loner and outcast during training, suggesting teamwork might be a point of issue with her.  The opinion of her classmates might shed some light on that matter--it could have easily been the other party and not necessarily her that was the issue.  Some of her classmates had joined the Scouts as well, if he remembered correctly, so there were some around that could be asked.

Levi reached the end of the file far sooner than he expected.

There weren’t any official documents giving age or place of birth, just an inked in note marking that she was in her early twenties--older than most new recruits, strangely enough--and the name of the town she was born in.  There weren’t any legal documents, and no visible records of her existence before she started leaving a trail behind in Wall Rose two years ago, with a rented space in her name and her official application to join the Cadet Corps the only real official documents here.

That shouldn’t have been possible.  Of course, if she lived in the Underground beforehand, it would make perfect sense for her to have no trail until she surfaced, but it was right here in ink that she was born within Wall Rose.

Had she lied?  Had she somehow managed to get topside without official immigration and slipped right through the fingers of the authorities?  The Underground would have fit a little comfortably in his working picture of her--loner, exceptionally skilled in combat and other physical areas, not having a record before two years ago, the street fighting skills…

He wasn’t going to write off the Underground yet, but how she might have gotten topside needed some fleshing out before he could consider it more seriously.

Appearing out of the blue and an unknown past only made Levi’s unease grow.  Maybe if there was more, he could have deduced what her reason for joining the military--hell, joining the Scouts--was.

More questions, and not much in the way of answers.

Dissatisfied, Levi returned to his position resting against the wall with the file now tucked under an arm, watching as the speckled grey horse with the black to white mane gradually came closer to her as the rope slowly shortened, but it’s caution and unexplained fear still kept it out of her arm's reach.

The new recruit in front of him was so nervous he was trembling.  He might have thought he was hiding it well, but it was plain as day to Levi, who was leaning against the wall sipping on his cup of tea with eyes fixed forward on the recruit sitting on the other side of his desk.  He’d called the young man in as a sort of character reference for L/N, asking him to state his opinion on the young woman’s abilities and if they were an asset to the Scouts.

His final question, however, had caused the recruit’s suddenly shifty demeanor, and Levi’s gaze narrowed slightly at him when he hesitated.

“Are there any qualities you feel she possesses that would be harmful to the Scouts?”

The recruit across from him couldn’t look Levi in the eyes, on the brink of saying something, but for some reason holding himself back.  Levi waited for several moments before there was a spark of impatience starting to grow in him.

“Spit it out.”

The recruit’s shoulders hunched slightly, and he started to haltingly speak.  “She doesn’t exactly get along with other people.”

Well, that could mean a lot of things.  Levi wasn’t the friendliest person in the world, but that didn’t stop him from doing his damn job.  Antisocial didn’t necessarily count as something that negated her ability to perform in the field.  This kid needed to be more specific.

“Does she start fights with her comrades?” Levi asked bluntly.

“No, but she has been in a few--”

“Does she fail to communicate in the field?”

“Never, though--”

“Is she incapable of working as part of a group?”

“Not really--”

“Does she take actions that could cause harm to other members of the team in the field?”

“I haven’t--”

Levi let out a slow sigh.  He kept interrupting the recruit because he didn’t need long winded answers that spun the narrative a certain way.  He already knew he couldn’t entirely trust the feedback this kid was going to give him, because either he would downplay her abilities and up-play her flaws to make himself look better, or vice versa to make her look better, all based off the assumption Levi was asking because Levi was looking to have her join his squad.

It wasn’t too far off the mark, but Levi was considering adding her less and less the farther he dug into her background.  And while he knew he couldn’t trust much of what the kid was going to say to his face, that wasn’t the point.  It was what came after this that mattered the most, and it still gave him something to work with to get a little further in his investigation.

She communicated and worked just fine in a group, and while she had been in fights before, she hadn’t been the one to start them.  It was starting to look more like harassment of some degree on the other side that kept her from interacting much with her peers.  Aside from the pretty much confirmed antisocial behavior outside of the field, of course.

“You have to be more specific than ‘she doesn’t play well with others.’  I don’t always get along with other people--that doesn’t keep me from doing my job,” Levi deadpanned.

The recruit was really struggling to get it out now, his face all twisted up as he tried to rework his words.  “While her skills are undeniable, socially, her relationship with her peers is...poor.”

Is that really what this amounted to?  No one liked her because she wasn’t friendly enough with them?  “Your complaint is that she’s not a social butterfly?”

“It’s more than that, sir, she’s not…”

Levi waited another five seconds before he decided this wasn’t being productive anymore.  Time to kick him out of the office and go on to the next part, then.  “Either come up with a solid answer, or I’ll take your silence as a no so you can leave to take care of that constipated look on your face.”

The recruit looked put out and frustrated, but he ended up standing from the chair and leaving, Levi watching him silently from over the rim of his cup and eyes lingering on the door after it had closed.

This sneaking around behind the scenes getting dirt on people was usually more Erwin’s speed, but Levi had been around Erwin long enough to pick up a few tricks of his own to use when necessary, like in moments like this.  Levi could be subtle when he wanted to.

A few moments after the recruit walked out his door, Levi finished his tea, set down the empty cup on his desk, and followed after him, keeping far enough back that he wouldn’t be noticed.  Just as he’d suspected, the recruit found his way back to another pair of recruits and proceeded to go about cathartically bitching about the situation.

Levi missed the part where the other two asked why Levi wanted to talk to him in his office, but since that wasn’t the important part, Levi wasn’t too concerned, stopping just around the corner and pressing his shoulder against the wall to listen in to what they really had to say about L/N when it wasn’t being filtered by the intimidation of speaking with a superior.

“Of course miss ice princess is being considered for Captain Levi’s squad.  Why wouldn’t she?” the recruit who had been in Levi’s office was fuming.

“I don’t get why you two are so upset--if Captain Levi’s already asking about her, surely that’s because she has the potential, right?” asked the young woman in their group.

“You didn’t train with her--you didn’t see how downright infuriating she was!  If it wasn’t for the occasional lost spar round or missed question on a test, or a margin behind someone else in an endurance test, whatever it was, she still somehow managed to look perfect.  Even if you were ahead of her, it was like she was right there behind you!”

“Not to mention she didn’t even seem to try,” the third one muttered.

“Exactly!  We’d work our asses off, and then she would waltz in and do whatever they asked her to as if it was as natural as breathing!  It was so--so--so infuriating!”

“Sounds like you’re jealous,” the woman surmised.

“Wouldn’t you be upset?  She didn’t even try!  Then to make matters worse, she always acted like she was above us.  Yeah she usually beat us all in everything, but she didn’t even try to be nice about it.”

“Yeah--I know this girl who tried to be friends with her part way through training.  But she was always treating her like a plague--she’d move further away from her, or she’d ignore her attempts to talk to her or actively dodge her.  She made it pretty damn clear she wasn’t in the Corps to make friends.  And she was like that with everyone--she never let anyone get closer than necessary to her.  Sure, she’d give you some tips in the middle of training, but it was always just what was necessary, and she never let the conversation move to anything personal.  She’s a bitch,” the friend added.

“I figured all that time spent by herself, she was just focused on her training.  It got me certain that she was going to be top of the class--some say she should have.  Hell, I thought she’d be pissed when she got sixth, but I swear she looked pleased.  Pleased!  And I thought she wanted to at least make the top five with how fucking perfect she seemed.”

“Okay, so she was antisocial in training and she’s good enough at what she did that it made you all jealous.  I still don’t see anything that would make you hate her so much.  I’ve seen her around a few times and she doesn’t seem nearly as frigid as you all say.  Distant, yeah, but she seems...warm, if a bit melancholy,” the woman said thoughtfully.

“Don’t let it fool you.  She’s probably just trying to make a better impression now that she’s where she wants to be and is about to get placed--possibly in the best squad, now, too, apparently.”  There was the sound of a boot scuffing the stone, then a thwack of a broom handle being thumped against the offender’s head.  “Ow!  And she’s not warm and she’s not innocent.  I don’t know what she was doing, but she was up to something during training, even if we couldn’t prove it.”

“Oh?  And what was it?  She managed to get an extra loaf of bread on her plate?” the woman asked almost mockingly.  Clearly she wasn’t convinced by their ranting.

“One of the most infuriating things about her was how she could break the rules and still get away with it!  She used to sneak out all the time at night while we were in the Cadets, but no one could ever catch her.  Even when we gave the instructors a warning that she would be sneaking out again soon, she still wouldn’t get caught, and we’d get in trouble for lying about a classmate.  Not once was she caught, and we had classmates that could attest to her not being in bed at some point in the night, so we knew it was happening!  But we could never prove it.  It still drives me nuts to this day!”

“If you kick this floor again, I’ll hit you even harder--you are not messing up the cleaning job I’ve been working so hard on!” the woman fumed suddenly, and there was a bit of a scuffle before things calmed down again.

“I swear, if Captain Levi puts her on his squad I’m going to be so fucking--”

“Look at the bright side, you probably won’t have to deal with her anymore if that happens, because you’re nowhere near that league,” the friend teased.  It sounded like there was going to be another scuffle breaking out, so Levi finally stepped around the corner to make himself known.

“Oi.”

The two boys immediately panicked, while the woman snapped to attention, eyes flickering to a fresh scuff mark on the stone with a clearly upset face to see the two were already back to mucking up her hard work.  Levi ignored the two who were scrambling to their feet and trying to snap to a salute, walking past all three without even glancing at them.

“Get back to cleaning.  And find another place to bitch about superiors,” he added before he continued down the hall and out of earshot once more.

Idiots.

There was nothing wrong with a little bitching to get it out of your system, but at least have the decency to do it somewhere less public where anyone could find and hear you.

However, Levi officially had some honest first hand accounts of her relationship to her peers, and a lead he could follow further into this mystery.

She snuck out a lot at night when she was in the cadets, huh?  He wondered if she was still doing that now…

It seemed he had something to do now in the hours insomnia kept him from sleeping.  He could keep an eye out to see if she was sneaking out, and try to figure out where she was going on these little escapades if they were, in fact, continuing after leaving the Cadets.

The more he looked into her, the more uneasy he became.  He was already at the point where he knew he was going to have to bring up his concerns to Erwin, but he was going to make sure he’d gone as far as he could with this investigation of his before he went to Erwin.

For the first few nights after hearing about L/N’s nightly escapades in the cadets, Levi didn’t catch anything amiss.  He was well aware of the best spots in this building to sneak out at this point, and had several points he liked to retreat to for some alone time that just happened to give him a good view of the surrounding area.  He was fairly confident that if she tried to sneak out, he would be able to spot her as long as he was looking--which he was.

By the fifth night, he seriously considered the possibility that if she was doing something shady such as meeting a co-conspirator in the the night, the wise thing would be to cut all communication once she was inside the Scouts.  If her nightly actions were something dastardly like that, then it was entirely possible that he wouldn’t see her sneak out because she wouldn’t make the attempts now in such a high risk area.

Still, Levi kept an eye out, always near a window at night so he could peer out into the darkness and see anyone trying to slip away if it did happen.

At long last, almost three weeks after the recruits had first arrived, he managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of a hooded figure moving in the darkness away from the building.  Believing it to be L/N, he got up from his seat immediately, taking the less forgiving but more direct route of climbing out the window and down to the ground so he could close the distance before she left his sight entirely and he lost track of her.  Going through the building down to the ground floor and to a proper exit would have taken him too long, so his unconventional route was one he didn’t second guess.

Landing quietly on the paved stones, Levi crept forward at a walk that was barely restrained from becoming a jog for the first few moments, keeping to the shadows like his quarry as he attempted to follow after her.  He wasn’t armed in case there was trouble, mostly because he didn’t get the luxury of enough time to grab a weapon--he’d only caught a fleeting glimpse, so he’d had to act instantly.

Levi managed to catch up to where he would want to be on a tail after two streets, feeling himself settle down internally once he was the desired distance away.  She didn’t slow down, plowing forwards with a purpose that told him she knew exactly where she was going and she was going to waste no time getting there--he just had to keep up.

Yes, she.  He didn’t have confirmation that it was her, but he was operating off the assumption it was between the story he’d heard and the fact he’d been waiting for something like this to happen and her to be the culprit.

He continued to follow her street after street, taking several corners, occasionally losing sight of her before he caught movement again and continued on the path.  After a few minutes, however, he realized these direction changes weren’t exactly pointed and purposeful, but random.  They happened too suddenly and without warning for them to be planned.

She knew he was following her, and she was trying to shake him.

Hoping to make her think that she lost him, Levi slowed down his pace, allowing her to pull a little further ahead, far enough away it would be more difficult for him to follow, but at the same time it would give her the impression that he was too far away and that she lost him.

Levi managed to make it a few more streets this way, catching the edge of a cape or a flash of movement as she turned a corner to give him a direction, until suddenly, he realized he couldn’t hear footsteps or any other sound in the night, and he no longer had even a fleeting visual on her in order to give him a sense of direction.

That wasn’t possible.  Pulling back had been risky, yes, but he’d been sure he could still keep track of her.  And he should have at least been able to hear footsteps in the distance, because she would have had to speed up to lose him so suddenly.

Did she have ODM gear hidden under her cape?  Had she taken for the skies to get out of visible range of the streets?

Wanting to test the theory before she could get too far, Levi used window sills, boxes by stalls, wooden awnings, whatever he could to climb up to the roof of one of the buildings, turning around swiftly with his head on a swivel as he tried to catch a glimpse of movement, a figure moving through the night either on ODM gear or on the streets down below.

Nothing.  It was just him standing alone on this roof in the night’s silence.

Where the hell had she gone?

“Levi...why didn’t you bring this to my attention sooner?”

Levi scowled, meeting Erwin’s serious expression head on before he turned to move again, occasionally crossing the floor at an extremely slow pace, stopping for a while before he would turn around and move again.  Considering Levi usually remained stationary, it counted as a sign of unease.

He had just come to Erwin with what he knew about L/N, which admittedly wasn’t much.  For the most part, he was simply telling Erwin about his concerns and a bad feeling that he’d been harboring since meeting her.  He did have some legitimate red flags, like her apparent trips out into the night that were continuing here at the Scouts and her lack of a record from before two years ago with nothing to show she might have been from the Underground.

“Because it was just basic curiosity at first, but the more I heard, the more I had to be concerned about,” Levi said pointedly, lips pulled down in a prominent frown as he mulled over everything in his mind.

“Well, based off what you’ve been able to find out, if she is a threat, how much of a threat would she be,” Erwin asked patiently, his eyes continuing to track Levi as he moved about the room.  Levi stopped, turning his head slightly in Erwin’s direction.

“Erwin...she had me.  In that spar on the training grounds.  But at the last second, she shifted and threw the match,” Levi explained quietly.

“...I see.”

Levi turned around all the way to see Erwin sitting forward in his chair, hands laced together in front of him and pressed against his lips, eyebrows furrowed together in contemplation.

“Don’t mark her as an enemy in your mind, yet, Levi.  Let this play out a while longer, first.  This may be a situation where we need to spring the trap after it’s set to truly know the situation.  So far, she hasn’t done anything to hurt humanity’s mission regarding the Titans.  I don’t like how many unknowns there are with her, either, which is precisely why we have to approach this correctly.  There’s as much a chance we could be wrong as there is that we can be right about her intentions.”  Erwin’s hands carefully folded back over one another on top of the table, Erwin turning his gaze on Levi with that expression of his that usually appeared when he was mentally calculating a gamble.  “Continue your investigation as you see fit, so long as you don’t outright antagonize her.  We don’t want to risk driving her off, if these skills your glimpsing are as strong as your intuition tells you they are.  She could still be a great asset if she’s truly on our side.  Keep an eye on her, try to figure out at least if her intentions align with our own or run against them.”

“And you?” Levi asked suspiciously, looking to see if that gambling air about Erwin was tipping over into the dangerous side of things.

Erwin hummed.  “I’ll do some digging of my own, see what I can find.  Of course, if you can’t find anything concrete by the next expedition, going beyond the walls will allow you to get not only a stronger grasp on the skills she’s bringing to the table, but will help with figuring out her general intentions.”

“I don’t like the thought of having to babysit while we’re out there,” Levi returned flatly.  Expeditions were far too unpredictable as they were without adding a mysterious woman of unknown capabilities and intentions along for the ride with the task to keep a sharp eye on her and evaluate her every move.

“Then perhaps you’ll want to find out if you can trust her out there or not, first.  I know you can’t guarantee finding the answers to all of your questions in such a short amount of time, but you could at least find out if she will have the back of her fellow scouts on the first expedition,” Erwin said with a pointed look.  Levi could already tell this mess might get a little ugly, but at the very least, knowing he could trust her not to turn and kill someone on the expedition would go a long way in making his job digging into her background a lot easier.

After Levi gave a nod of confirmation, Erwin continued.  “In the meantime, I’ll make sure she’s placed in the formation so that she’s within your sight at all times.  Considering the rumors you’ve stirred up that you might be looking to recruit her to your squad, it would only make sense for you to be watching her out in the field to see how she does.  It’s also a nice excuse for you to make a few more direct inquiries to L/N, herself.  You’ve done plenty of work in the background, I think it’s safe to say you can start approaching her as well.  Subtly, of course.”

“After she shook me last night, she might already be on edge,” Levi pointed out.  She had to have known someone followed her.  There were no guarantees that she knew it was Levi, and he didn’t think she’d had the chance to confirm who was following her any more than he’d had a chance to confirm if he was following her.

“Then be careful about it.  But whenever you come to a decision about whether she’s a danger or not, I want to know.  This will go a lot smoother and faster if we’re sharing information.”

“I’m not stupid, Erwin,” Levi said with a long-suffering sigh, straightening up.  “Anything else?”

Erwin’s lips twitched upwards towards a smile, his hands moving to a drawer to pull out some paper and ink.  “Have fun making a new friend.”

Levi scowled again, turning to leave after it was clear Erwin was ready to move on to the next thing.  He was a little worried about this task to test L/N’s intentions to help the scouts before going out into the field, especially because he knew that look of Erwin’s meant he would set it up and Levi would simply have to observe.

But, he did have his own ways of testing her out as a person, and some people he could get to help without having to inform them of everything behind it.  He was already observing her from a distance and could safely continue to do so.  With the rumors going around he was looking to take her in under his wing, he could use that to his advantage to ask a few questions and approach her at the right times.

Yet, despite the fact he knew he would have help in prodding at her to see a bit more of what she was made of, he couldn’t help but notice that his sense of unease that had been tickling in the back of his mind was not shrinking.  If anything, it only seemed more prevalent.  As long as he continued to have this feeling of unease about her, he wasn’t going to let the matter rest.  He was going to figure out what she was hiding, if only so he could assuage or confirm his suspicions before they grew wildly out of control.

At least it seemed Erwin shared his concern, confirming it wasn’t all in his head, and there was cause to worry.  He only hoped they could figure out what was going on here before they had to spring the trap, as Erwin had suggested.

Levi shook his head.  He could worry about that, later.  First, he had a recruit to get a feel of before they went outside the walls, and he had to make sure he didn’t spook her while learning what made her tick.

Thankfully, he already had a pretty good idea where to find her in her down time, with all the work she’d been putting in to fix the one glaring flaw in her ability to go outside the walls.

The stables.

Next Chapter---->

Levi Tags:  @clary-quinn @humanitys-hottestsoldier @whalerus @sunny-flo

Wings in the Dark Tags:  @regalillegal @animeluver23 @theshylittleelfgirl @queenthorin1 @dilucs-thighs

[ndconceptarchive]

Interview with Nik Blahunka and Cathy Roiter

I don't have much to comment on here, just that I found an interesting interview with the respective writer and designer of these games circa (and I believe post) 2011. There were some images on the same page, but they're not visible as of now. (Or even on the WaybackMachine).

This was posted on the Dare to Play blog on March 9th, 2011 here:

We interviewed our game designer Cathy, and writer Nik!

Her Interactive: How do you come up with the game ideas?

Cathy: "We look at the recent games for the types of mysteries, characters, and locations used in them and then start to brainstorm ideas that would be a nice contrast or haven’t been done before. We also try to alternate spooky/adventure/mystery among titles, so if the last one was spooky, we don’t tend to pick a spooky one again. Then we’ll pick our crime and start building from there."

Nik: "We have a lot of material to draw from, and so many great ideas floating around the office that it’s less “Oh no, quick we need an idea!” and more “Which one should we do next?” At any given time we know what the next few games are going to be, and I can tell you honestly that I am really excited about the next couple of games, and I think you will be too. But for now, they’re totally top secret, my lips are sealed. I wouldn’t tell anyone, not even if he or she were to send a large box of chocolate addressed to “writer” to our offices. Not even then."

Her Interactive: As writer, what all do you write? (Characters, script, written assets, anything we wouldn’t expect?)

Nik: "As the writer, I write all of the dialogue and many of the written assets (the notes and letters you find while playing the game). The overall story of the game is a collaborative process. I bring my knowledge of how stories work, Cathy brings her game design experience and together we hash out the overall game. Throughout the entire process, we look to the office for input. If anyone has a good idea, it goes in!"

Her Interactive: How do you prepare in creating a new game? What are the early steps from inspiration?

Cathy: "Once we have our basic plot and rough character guidelines, my first step is always research. I’ll start online to get general ideas, then head to the library for more in-depth reference material. During this time, I’ll come across lots of great ideas and inspiration, both written and visual, that help build the world and the mystery. Those elements are then used as building blocks for the mystery to keep things real. For example, in ASH the gas chromatograph was a direct result of researching arson investigation techniques. I’d never heard of such a technique before then. And, fun fact, kept mispronouncing it for ages since I didn’t realize chromatograph and chromatography aren’t said the same way (turns out they’re like photograph and photography)."

Her Interactive: What are the steps in the design process? For the story?

Cathy: "We start with the high-level concept (eg. Nancy’s framed for arson) and rough characters. We’ll then start adding major plot points and choose our villain. The design and story are then further fleshed out with the minor steps needed to reach those milestone moments. Once the main outline is complete, puzzles start getting implemented and shortly thereafter script begins. To complete design, all the elements are combined in a logic document that maps out the entire gameplay."

Nik: "We usually start with a location, a theme, and one or two Nancy Drew books. Then we talk. And talk. And talk. And argue. And talk. And take hack breaks. And talk some more. Before we begin to flesh out the game, I like to spend a few weeks researching. Sometimes the research involves watching movies that have a similar feel to what we’re aiming for, sometimes I raid the giant stack of books on Cathy’s desk. Research can be the most fun part of the job, and it’s when I learn the most. For SAW, I spent a lot of time watching, Japanese horror movies since we wanted to have that same type of atmospheric scary feel in the game. But, since the game wasn’t just about the scare, the research didn’t stop there. I went to see a tea ceremony, read a ton about traditional arts in Japan, and got the chance to meet with a cultural consultant.

Once I’ve got all of the raw material for the story, it’s time to write. I know from peeking at the message boards from time to time, that many of our players love to write too, so I won’t go too far into something that most of you are very familiar with. In a nutshell, the process is best summarized as failing forward. The first draft is terrible and wrong. The second draft is hopefully less terrible, and less wrong. I keep this up until I end up with a draft that feels good. Writing is a lot like dying Easter eggs, if you quit after the first dunk, no one is going to respect your ugly egg. You’ve got to keep dunking and dunking until you’ve got a nice, richly colored egg that would be exciting to find hidden away on a bookshelf. This metaphor is not topical… okay, writing is like carving a pumpkin… it… umm, you put a candle… never mind, let’s just use that egg thing. I redraft often, and love getting feedback from around the office."

Her Interactive: What is your favorite step in the writing process or another task?

Nik: "Recording. The script isn’t done until it is recorded. The recording session is like a live, final polish on the script. We get to hear if the jokes work, and see if the story beats carry any emotional weight. When they don’t, we prod and poke at the material until it’s just right. We’re lucky to work with a pool of extraordinarily talented actors who are able to really make the lines come alive in ways that I sometimes don’t even expect. Recording Nancy is always a blast, as well. Lani, who plays Nancy, is hilarious and always full of great suggestions and Nancy-isms."

Her Interactive: What do you do when you hit a snag/error in the design?

Cathy: "First I have to identify the type of problem (missing object, infinite logic loop, story plot hole, motivation, etc.), then decide if it’s a small or large fix. The small ones are easy, but the larger ones have occasionally resulted in massive redesigns. In the end, it’s all about identifying the issue and finding the best solution for everyone involved, including our players’ experience."

Her Interactive: Have there been any characters that you found difficult to bring to life? Is there a character you would like to bring back?

Nik: "Yes. Every game has one character that I end up rewriting again and again. Miwako, Lukas, and Alexei frustrated me to no end when I was writing the drafts, but now they’re my favorites.

I don’t know about bringing characters back, I’m more interested with discovering new villains and pranksters and scientists and deranged librarians and mad scientists and robots and agoraphobic house painters… That being said, my favorite reoccurring character is Bess. (Spoiler alert – she’s coming back. Often 😀 )"

Her Interactive: What has been your most favorite puzzle to design? Which was the hardest to design?

Cathy: "My favorite was Bento. I love creating logic puzzles and Bento needed multiple levels using a really fun design. Plus, I got to look at a lot of amazing real-world animal bento while looking for reference images.

The hardest would be Raid. Not only did it have a computer opponent that needed the AI rules designed for how it played, but it was also supposed to be inspired by German board games/card games, which I’d never played before. Top that off with a deck of cards, and their balanced against each other power rankings, that also affected three other puzzles, and it meant one minor change to any element caused major trickle-down problems. But it was a great learning experience and I was quite pleased with the end result."

Her Interactive: Do you have a favorite written in-game asset you have done? Second Chance note?

Nik: "One of my favorite non-dialogue writing assignments was actually Yumi’s blog. At first, the idea of keeping up a blog for a fictional Japanese girl seemed like it was going to be a nightmare, it certainly was not something I’d ever imagined myself doing. But after a few entries, I started to have a lot of fun. I spent the month the blog was running keeping a camera ready in case I saw anything in the Seattle area that might pass for something you might see in Kyoto, I made bento in my kitchen (it was gross, but it looked… it looked gross, let’s face it.) By the time the blog ended, I was sad to wrap it up. My absolute favorite part of the blog was interacting with the fans. I was really surprised and excited that so many readers were willing to play along. Each day I found comments that showcased what a clever, fun-loving, and interesting group of fans we have."

Her Interactive: Have you read any Nancy Drew books? If so, do you have a favorite title or theme?

Cathy: "Yes. I’ll read the book that each game is based on and I read the Mystery Files when I was younger, along with the occasional old yellow back when I could find one. I liked the older books for their prevalent use of the supernatural and gothic, but they often felt rather dated, which is another reason I read the Mystery Files more frequently instead."

Thanks Nik and Cathy for taking the time to answer these questions and for giving us insight into the making of the games!

If anyone is curious, the old posts from Yumi's blog are still up on blogspot/blogger. Also, here's a related promotional post on the Amateur Sleuth blog that I found while looking for other behind-the-scenes things.

[literaryfic]

Chapters: 1/?
 Fandom: 빈센조 | Vincenzo (TV) 
Rating: Explicit
 Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Vincenzo Cassano | Park Joo Hyeong/Hong Cha Young
Characters: Hong Cha Young, Vincenzo Cassano | Park Joo Hyeong
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Italian Mafia, (i know nothing about the mafia so this will be very inaccurate!!!), basically vincenzo & cha-young being mafia bosses in italy


Summary: When Vincenzo Cassano came back to Italy, no one expected to see someone by his side. Or how Cha-young and Vincenzo became the head of the Cassano family. a mafia couple au inspired by a discussion with @ourgalaxybangtan @ghostrights & @whovie-reloaded

  Vincenzo had been handling most of the family business since their adoptive father’s health had started to decline. As the consigliere of the Cassano family, he was Fabio’s most trusted man, his advisor, his lawyer but also his second-in-command.

It hadn’t been easy, all these years, to climb the ladder. He wasn’t a native, he wasn’t blood, and so not many people had welcomed him at first. That’s why he had to become ruthless, so that no one could deny his authority or even dare to try. He had killed and tortured many men, broken their minds and their bones, burned their flesh and cut off their limbs, ashes and screams trailing behind him. If he wasn’t proud of the blood on his hands, he was at least proud of his work. All the hours he’d spent training, fighting, preparing, scheming, studying, all his efforts to erase Park Joo-hyung from the face of earth had paid off. The scared, weak little kid was gone, buried with all his other victims. ‘An eye for an eye, and then some’, Vincenzo lived by that, and he would stop at nothing except killing the innocent. There was no doubt he was the best at what he did and anyone who did not respect him feared him enough to not threaten him. His success was the Cassano family’s success, yet he knew that members of his own clan would not hesitate to have him killed if they could. Two clear factions had formed in the past five years, those who supported Vincenzo as the next head of the family, and those who supported Paolo, his brother. Paolo and Vincenzo had never gotten along, and Paolo’s inferiority complex and jealousy grew deeper every time his older brother had to clean up after one of his rushed job. Paolo had a particular taste for violence. Whereas Vincenzo killed and tortured because he had to, Paolo got a kick out of hurting others, be it children, women or elders. He loved to assert his dominance, to feel almighty. Vincenzo didn’t think himself much better than him, (regardless of the reasons behind his murders, he’d probably killed way more than him), but he wanted Paolo to be punished for his sins. It was only a matter of time before some influential family members whispered plans of assassination and of ‘restoring the rightful heir’ into his ear. Paolo was an angry, frustrated man who wasn’t particularly good at his job, an easy puppet to control. He’d been watching them carefully but he knew that as long as his father was alive, no one would dare to touch him. Back then he had thought he would take care of them when it came to it, become the head of his family, and continue to rule the underworld. Then, the incident happened and everything changed. He hadn’t been able to sleep for weeks, his victims’ screams haunting his dreams. He started avoiding mirrors, his reflection taunting him. He barely ate anymore, and Fabio had reminded him to get a grip. So he had done just that. He drank himself to sleep or took sleeping pills, and he went on. He knew, however, that he could not go on like this much longer. He had to get out before he buried himself next to Park Joo-hyung and all the others whose lives he’d taken. He’d started to plan his escape secretly. He would wait until his father died, staying loyal to him as long as he was alive. When the time came, he knew Paolo would try to kill him. The power struggle between them would start as soon as the head of the family would die, but instead of destroying his opponents, Vincenzo would seize the opportunity to leave. He would go back to South Korea, get the gold and leave to an island, where he would spend the rest of his days. The death of his previous Chinese client was perfect timing. As expected, Fabio, his boss and adoptive father, had named him the next head of the family in his will. It came to no surprise to most members, but murmurs spread quickly, “Can you imagine? A foreigner, as the head of our family? What has the world become?”. After wrapping things up in Italy, Vincenzo promised himself to never return, throwing away the key to the graveyard of his sins. …. There’s no going back from this, he thinks. Vincenzo is still holding Cha-young’s face, unable to look away from her lips, still wet from the kiss. Her pink cheeks, her smeared lipstick, the freckles under her fondation. Her. Hong Cha-young. His heart is soaring in his chest, all the emotions he had desperately tried to silence erupting all at once. There was no point in denying it, he had fallen in love with her. All he could do now was break his own heart, hoping it would heal. …. He realises he can’t live without her after she gets injured. They’re trying to get more information on Jang Han-seok’s paper company, and this time they’re trying to prove that some of the transactions made to European bank accounts were bribes. They’re breaking into none other than the Minister of Economy and Finance, Cha Do-won’s house. Miri had made sure to deactivate the security system and cameras, and Vincenzo was in charge of securing the place while Cha-young searched for the secret ledger the Minister kept hidden in his office. Cha Do-won was making a speech right now, and they had assumed most of his personal security would be with him. Vincenzo had quickly incapacitated the few men around the house and Cha-young looked for the ledger. After a few minutes, she found a hidden drawer in his desk. There it was, a thick documents labelled 'Accounts’. Subtlety wasn’t one of his strong points, apparently. They were about to leave when suddenly, a dozen men started to raid the place. Vincenzo fought them off as best as he could, and he was grateful that Mr. Lee barged in to help. They thought they had them all beat, and so Vincenzo made a mistake. He turned his back to the door to look for Cha-young, who he thought was behind him. “Vincenzo!”, he heard her shout his name. He sees her across the room, about to get struck by a man. He rushes to her and knocks him out quick enough. “Oh my God”, she says, “Did you see that? I almost died! He had a knife as well, and I dodged it, and then I ran—”. She keeps rambling while they get out of the house and into their car, clearly in shock. She’s getting paler as time passes, and he only notices the blood that pooled on the seat when she tries to get out of the car. She was stabbed, but the shock and adrenaline had prevented her from feeling any pain. “Oh”, she says, looking down at her wound. Vincenzo jumps out of his seat and rips the bottom half of the T-Shirt he’s wearing. “I don’t think now’s the time for that, Darling.” Even in a life-threatening situation, Cha-young is joking around. Vincenzo’s mind stops, he feels paralysed by fear, the fear of losing her, of her dying in his car, because of him. He pushes those thoughts away as he holds the fabric to her wound. “Hold this, as hard as you can.” The rest of the car ride to the hospital is a blur of running red lights, speeding in between traffic and repeating “Hong Cha-young, stay with me.” Vincenzo had faced death everyday for the last 20 years. He had killed, had seen people kill and had almost died countless of time. “There’s no limit to fear”, he’d once said to Jang Han-seok’s informant. Only now, waiting for Cha-young’s surgery to be over, does he understand what those words truly mean. During 6 hours, Vincenzo pleads and begs God, the devil, anyone willing to listen (Don’t take her. Everyone but her). He makes empty promises (I’ll do anything. I’ll stop hurting others, I’ll disappear from her life) and meaningless threats (Don’t you dare take her. I’ll kill you, too). In the end he doesn’t know who answers his prayers, and what promises seals the deal, but Cha-young wakes up and he doesn’t care. He holds her hand, stays by her side, and vows to never leave her. He starts to plan for an escape route shortly after that. In case they can’t stay in South Korea and need to take off. First, he thinks of Malta, or another island. But they would need to go somewhere they have allies, somewhere with an easy access to emergency money and resources. Italy. He contacts Luca and sets everything up, a two bed-room apartment, two bank accounts, and everything they could ever need like cash, some guns, and a car. “Consigliere, will there be another person with you?”, Luca asks. “Hopefully it won’t come to that”, he avoids the question. He knows he promised not to come back, but some promises need to be broken out of necessity. He needed to make Cha-young was safe, at all cost. His brother’s betrayal had made it easier. He’d been caught in the crossfire of their fight against Babel, killed by Choi Myung-hee in order to frame Vincenzo. But they had proved his innocence, and sent back his corpse in Milan. After Fabio’s death, Paolo hadn’t been the best replacement, and after he was killed in South Korea, they’d put in charge one of their cousins who had neither Fabio’s experience, nor Vincenzo’s mastermind. The family was in a crisis, which didn’t go unnoticed by their rivals. Soon, business started to slow down, their clients stolen by the competition and their allies started to switch teams. Money ran low. For that reason, Vincenzo didn’t run into much opposition when he came back. Most members and people in their business thought he had killed Paolo after he’d unreasonably followed him to South Korea and tried to finish him. Paolo only left disappointment and resentment behind him, and so no one missed him much. What they had not expected, however, was for Vincenzo Cassano to come back with someone.

[theoriginalladya]

Camp Nano - July 6 update

Only tiny bits of spinning here and there today, which may change later, but I DID manage to get some writing done!

So, since day one my muses have been poking, prodding, and otherwise just causing mischief and mayhem inside my head. Sadly, this didn't end up as actual words until late last night when I scribbled down about 750 by hand.

Today, as I transcribed it into Word, they started playing around with it...and promptly got me all twisted up into knots with where on Earth we're going with this thing! For the first time in forever, just copying words I'd already written was more difficult than coming up with them in the first place. I think it took almost an hour and a half to get those 750 words down in some shape that I was relatively satisfied with. After that, though... they sort of went to town. I'm still not sure where some of it came from, to be honest.

I have also finally figured out a bit more of the direction to take with them. Tweaking my original idea a tad bit, just enough to give it a decent plot. A third character who was only a passing NPC on day 1 may now become the antagonist of this fic, too. Depends on how that part of it fleshes out.

Also, may have been a bit influenced by seeing the Tumblr post flitting around where the cats in the middle ages (and around the world) have walked over handwritten documents...

(pardon the really rough draft - this was part of what the muses wanted to add this morning that was giving me difficulty)

A soft mew at his feet was the only warning before the black, orange, and white cat leapt up onto his desk.  Nicholas, quite used to these antics, lifted his quill before he could drip or make an errant mark upon the page, but Thomasina – thus christened by Brother Thomas, the gatekeeper of the monastery – had other ideas.  Glancing down, he found several paw prints traveling across the page on which he’d been writing.

Sighing heavily, Nicholas set the quill aside, rested his elbow on the desk and his hand on his hand as he eyed the feline critically.  “Thomasina, why must you do that?  Are you aware how much work goes into one of these pages?”

“Mrrwrr.” Huffing softly, he reached over to scratch behind her ears where he knew she liked it best.  It always amazed him how she would simply melt into a furry puddle on his desk as a result.