#ended up getting lost in the sauce oops

[cerastes]

Now and then I think about how the nature of temporality in Arknights apropos of the main story relative to side stories (events) means that with a little effort, you can make a really good SRW-style SRPG with Arknights: There’s the myriad storylines, there’s the myriad characters, there’s a good combination of objective mechanical information and lore fluff for a lot of characters that would let you make really good, complete characters in terms of gameplay.

You could easily make something like:

1st Game: Main Story from Chernobog up until Faust and Mephisto; Break the Ice (can be a sizeable arc, allows for a lot of maps across the game’s length, likely early game until start of endgame); Maria Nearl (same as Break the Ice, midgame until the endgame); Under Tides (shorter than the previous two, end of midgame until the endgame, plus you get temporarily playable Irene in the vein of SRW giving you guest units for one or two maps in one game before they are fully recruitable in the next); Grani the Knights’ Treasure (you can cover this in one, maybe two maps);  Twilight of Wolumonde (medium length arc and due to its structure, perfect for sprinkling maps about it across the early to midgame); Heart of Surging Flame (one long map-two maps); Code of Brawl (easy two mapper); Children of Ursus (SRW-style revised to be mixed in with Chernobog part of Main Story); Who Is Real (you can squeeze 2-3 maps easily; start of endgame upgrade for units like Lava and Kroos).

2nd Game: Main Story from where game 1 left off up until Talulah and the Deathless Black Snake, effectively ending the game with the end of the first arc; Beyond Here (AKA Archetto; short arc); Both Gavial Events (you can make big maps with Great Chief, whereas Ideal City would be interspersed with other plots to give it meat in terms of combat, a common event in SRW); Pynus Sylvestris & Near Light (you can get either some real long maps out of this or several medium length maps), Stultifera Navis (around the early midgame, you can squeeze 2 to 3 maps easily, and Seaborn can make for versatile enemy types elsewhere), Mansfield Break (you could put this anywhere, and you can milk it for a number of maps); Invitation to Wine (same as Mansfield Break); Guiding Ahead (you can go crazy with Guide Ahead thanks to the setting of Laterano and the structure of the event plus Andoain fits the “fucking HARD endgame RR boss” archetype with strong attacks and high dodge to a tee); Lingering Echoes (same as Guiding Ahead, really); Dorothy’s Vision (you can squeeze out some 3 maps out of it easily and a lot of new enemy types)

In SRW fashion, the Main Story in general would find itself slowed down and modified with downtime much like the main arc in an SRW tends to be a slow, game-length affair that finds itself entwined with many of the other arcs in the game, and likewise the arcs with the main story and between themselves. Of course, this also diverges from actual canon in that a lot of people that Shouldn’t Be There canonically, in this game’s canon, Would Be There, and that goes for the good guys as much as it does for the bad guys, which is always part of the appeal of a good ol’ SRW. It’d also be cool to see secret recruitable characters that you can’t get in canon or that die in canon join you if you satisfy certain secret requirements, like getting playable Big Bob and Monch and Viviana/Candle Knight, or being able to save FrostNova and/or Faust. Hell, sometimes SRW likes to throw curveballs and give you unexpected characters, so catch me with my endgame maxed out Jesselton (unlock: Defeat Jesselton exclusively by using Mountain, Robin and Kafka in the final Mansfield Break mission) and my #KHAGANQUEST (unlock: Every time Tola appears, defeat him with Blemishine).

I think the main challenge of the game would be to have a cohesive roster; SRW games tend to have massive rosters but that’s due to the sheer amount of stories they tend to cover in one single game, it actually tends to be few characters from each individual story, except the “featured” stories, which get more screentime and roster slots. In regards to some of the arcs, this is pretty easy: Abyssal Hunter Arc characters aren’t many (Skadi, Specter, Gladiia in the first game, plus Irene and Lumen in the sequel) and some of them are universal (Kal’tsit and Elysium), but then you have to make a decision of what 3*s, for example, make the cut as fully playable and not just NPCs, so as to not have bloat: Lava and Kroos are easy picks, for example. Break the Ice can give you a lot of people (SilverAsh, Courier, Matterhorn, Pramanix, Cliffheart, Kjera, Gnosis, secret Monch, secret Degenbrecher), which would make sense if you make it a meaty arc in the game overall, plus there’s a good variety of units you can get outta that.

I think the cast also lends itself to the usual SRW archetype of units: Amiya fits the “RR” type of unit that has low health but high evasion (based on her moves in the trailers, she’s highly agile), Blaze on the other hand seems like a perfect fit for the “SR” type of unit that has very low evasion but instead has huge bulk and just tanks the attacks instead (based on her duty as a Centurion, catching a ton of enemies at once and dealing with them while holding them and tanking them). Other RRs that come to mind are Ch’en, Irene, Whislash, Kroos, among others, while other SRs that come to mind are Specter, Blemishine, Mudrock, Matterhorn, among others. Then you have the less common archetypes, like Getters, AKA glass cannons with average bulk and low evasion but BIG damage, which can be units like SilverAsh (with S3 specifically in mind, giving him huge offense but making him quite fragile) and Skadi (very high HP and damage but low Defense means that HP goes down fast). You’d also have plenty of characters that would make sense to have innate Leadership (buff aura for nearby units), such as Amiya, Kal’tsit, Gladiia, SilverAsh, Big Bob, among others.

It goes without saying that you can make full use of the SRW tradition of giving units specific, very powerful team attacks, some of which could be pure fanservice, like Amiya and FrostNova having a team attack, and others which simply make sense, like the Sui Sisters (Nian, Dusk and Ling), the Abyssal Hunters, Pramanix and Kjera, Big Bob and Mudrock, among many others. The possibilities are legitimately really cool to imagine.

The setting and cast just works for an SRW style game, man.

[xyfanficarchive]

dragon belly burnt ends

laios touden x gn! reader

no warnings, except fluff and manga spoilers :)

————————————

“There you are! I see your feet under there!”

It makes Laios startle - his eyes come back into focus right as your smiling face parts through the green curtain surrounding him. Oh, it’s just you. He uncrosses his arms, comes away from the tree trunk he was leaned up against with a stretch and a grunt, and you step through the branches of the bush. He smiles at your awkward attempt to do so gracefully, without displacing the branches too much or getting scratched up. There’s a leaf and twig in your hair, he reaches up to pluck them out and discard them to the side.

“I walked all over to find you - god, there’s so many people around. Hey, why are you just here in this bush anyways?”

“I’m escaping,” his sentence broken by a yawn, “-from all the people for a little while. I’ve never had so many people trying to talk to me…” You close your eyes and nod along in acceptance.

“That’s fair- I’ve had to escape the crowd quite a bit myself these past few days.”

The little hollow is small, just enough for two people to stand in intimate quarters. There’s dappled sunlight on your face, a warm green glow all around, and the sounds of the great feast, voices in revelry, are muffled. Only a scant few inches separate your bodies - though his heart still quickened, Laios would have been much more nervous in this situation only a matter of weeks ago. But after his experience in the dungeon, all that he went through with you and the rest of the party, he feels changed. He sees it in you, too - the way you meet his eyes with ease and a gleam of confidence that was not there before. Significant enough that even he could tell the difference. It made him happy to see you this way.

So why are you looking at him like that, now, with your eyebrow raised, head cocked to the side?

He looks down and finally notices you’re carrying something in your hand; a square of waxed paper with two pieces of meat on top, thin strips rolled up into bite sized spirals and pinned with wooden skewers, glistening with brown glaze. A third one is poised between your index finger and thumb, being held out in offering.

“Are you alright, Laios?” You question, and he blinks back into focus, rubbing his eyes.

“Yeah, just lost in thought…” He feels heat on his face. “I must be more spent than I thought.”

“Maybe this will help you feel better!” You beam at him, and your smile strikes him right in the heart. “I bet you haven’t tried it yet- actually I know you haven’t because I just watched it come out of the smoker… But I bet you’ll love it!”

He lifts his hand, but you’ve already started raising your own hand up towards his mouth to feed it directly to him. His fingers go back to his side to fidget with the leg of his pants as he leans in, mouth wide. You bump the corner of his mouth, leaving behind a spot of sauce.

“Oops,” you giggle. But he has no time to think about how vibrant you are, because his mouth explodes with rich flavour when he pulls it from the skewer with his teeth, sweet and tangy spiced glaze covering the savoury, fatty deliciousness of the meat. He expects to chew, but his tongue pushes into the meat easily and the fat and muscle disintegrate equally in his mouth as his eyes widen.

“What is this?” He asks incredulously around his mouthful.

You grin at him. “Dragon belly! Other than that, I don’t know.”

Laios swallows, sad that it’s over so soon, though he’s already eyeing the next two pieces in your hand. “It’s so rich! And the way it melts in your mouth! This is great!”

“Right?!” You say in enthusiastic agreement, and offer up the remaining two bites from the palm of your hand. He takes one and devours it, forgetting to even savour it for its deliciousness, and his desperation to get it into his belly. “Take the other one, it’s all for you. I’ve had a lot already, I just wanted you to try it.”

All for you. He takes it from your hand. You crumple the wax paper, shoving it in your pocket to dispose of later, and watch him, gleaming in the filtered sunlight. He eats this one with intentionality, looks down at you with warmth, his mouth full. “I love you,” he thinks. It startles him to hear the words, even in his own head, the weight of that realization gripping his heart in his chest. His expression drops, but you don’t seem to notice.

In fact, you lift your hand and swipe your thumb across the corner of his mouth, and Laios freezes before you draw it away. And then you look down, pondering the spot of glaze with pursed lips. “Hm.” Evidently you hadn’t considered how you were going to get it off your own hand. You settle to just lick it off, and his heart flips in his chest. He feels electrified, swallowing the delectable bite down thickly. So close, so close…

He grips your wrist, still staring at your thumb before he raises his eyes to meet yours. Only a half step forward and he can feel your bodies touching. He is overwhelmed by his want.

“Laios…?” You question softly, smile fading, though he cant quite read the expression it faded to. But you’re not nervous, by the way you haven’t broken eye contact - at least he hopes. His heart is pounding. But if there’s any time to be bold, to take action, it’s now, right?

He leans in, a crawling pace that belies his trepidation, giving you every chance to back away. But you don’t push him or jerk back, so he tilts his head, eyes slowly fluttering closed - this is how you do it, right? Yet something catches him, right as he feels the breath from your parted lips on his own. Your eyes - he realizes you were still staring at him wide-eyed as he drew near, as his own eyes closed. Why were you staring at him?

He pulls back, eyebrows drawn, and yours go to match as he searches your gaze, heart sickly thudding under his sternum as his stomach tightens. He feels out of control now, internally cursing his correction, agonizing in the span of a second over whether he should’ve just gone with it. His options now are to retreat, or to question:

“Is this… Is this okay? Can I…” But the words falter. He can’t make the words “kiss you” leave his throat. His face and ears are burning, and he is starting to sweat under his collar.

You sigh and tilt your head, though your face doesn’t relax. He feels a spike of sick, cringing panic in his gut, until you open your mouth: “Please, Laios,” you insist breathily, “please kiss me…”

He blinks; with a sigh he is flooded with cool, sweet relief. “Oh…” He lets go of your wrist and raises his hand, tucks a wayward strand of hair behind your ear, presses his calloused palm into your velvet soft jawline, fingers wrapped gently around the nape of your neck. Your eyes soften at his touch, your hand goes to rest on his bicep.

“It’s real now…” He thinks, feeling you gently squeeze his arm. “It’s actually happening…” But the look in your eyes feels wide open, he blinks into your warm gaze before finally shutting his lids and leaning in to press a stiff, chaste kiss to your lips, holding for a heart racing moment against your plush mouth, until he finally pulls away.

He can see you looking between each of his eyes, and suddenly you break into a smile and laugh. Both of your hands go to cradle the back of his head. He doesn’t have time to wonder why you’re laughing at him before you pull him towards you and meet his lips again, different now as you kiss him, this rolling and sucking motion that stokes up a fire in his chest. It’s an unfamiliar rhythm but he catches on, if a little sloppy and ungraceful, as he presses his face into yours with increasing fervour. The sensation of your fingers through his hair prompts him to cross his arms around your back and hug you close to his own body, a vain attempt to crush you into him and meld together.

He only pushes into you harder when he feels you retreat, chasing your mouth as you pat the back of his head. But finally you grip his hair and force him off, he whimpers in pain as you gasp for breath.

“What was that?” He questions, a little hurt and confused, though your bodies are still pressed together.

“Maybe you can breathe with that big nose between us,” your chest heaves, hungry for air, “but I sure can’t.” You smile, and your whole mouth glistens with your mixed saliva. You wipe it with the back of your hand. “Your mouth tastes like the dragon belly,” you muse, laughing breathily, and you lean into him. The feeling of you against him is nice.

“You just taste like saliva,” he remarks, and ponders for a moment because, it tasted almost like nothing and yet he only wanted more, more, more. “It’s very very subtle. Mostly tastes like nothing. Kind of like skin, kind of… mineral? Almost sweet, even,” he elaborates unprompted, fingers ghosting absentmindedly up and down your back. Almost sweet, because while it wasn’t necessarily sweet, there was a sensation of sweetness that exploded in his mind… who knew the taste of someone’s spit could be so addictive?

He finds you still looking at him, this time with a clear streak of amusement in your expression. He’s almost embarrassed, most people don’t exactly ask for the taste profile of their own saliva, but the feeling is dispelled when you trail your hand down his arm, to interlace your fingers in his.

“You make me want more of that dragon belly…” You sigh.

“Me too,” he nods, eyes closed to recall the flavour. and after a beat, he feels you pull him gently.

“Well, we ought to hurry, cause that stuff was going fast,” you say, already parting through the branches again and pulling him along, “but I’m sure they would spare whatever’s left for the King himself.” You turn your head and give him a sly smile.

Oh yeah, that’s why he was hiding. He cringes a little into the back of your head. Being king is cool and all, but he’s been feeling the weight of everyone’s lofty expectations.

Yet, the feeling of your hand is soothing, and he stares down at your interlocked fingers. With your hand in his, maybe he could face anyone.

[tomorobo-illust]

See hi-res version here: patreon.com/posts/97620966

Piccolo from Dragon Ball for JKBetti's reward! I meant to only choose one Piccolo sketch I did, but I ended up getting lost in the sauce while rewatching TeamFourStar Abridged series and cleaned up all the fav ones I did lskdfjsdf OOP.

I love this green dad, if you couldn't tell XD

[procrastinatingattorney]

my book of bill reactions!

Ford making regular appearances in the book like the fucking drama queen he is, complete with disapproving dramatic selfie god damn

Fucking ‘cipherholic’ and god damn jack skellington moth

Bribe me properly with a stan twins spinoff, old man

(listening to ghost tricks ost at the same time and this truly is a chicken kitchen page)

–

That square image better not be fucking loss

–

These codes with tiny font are such a pain lol, i’m using someone’s incomplete cipher on twitter and its kinda fun filling in the blanks

"Between lives"… so this is before the axolotl reincarnated him

Not the parallel universe where mabel OD-ed on smile dip

Kinda fun using the reflection on my phone to read the mirror page

--

The first dream page and not ford and soos having light hearted shit while everyone else has nightmares (stan seeming to have a mix of the portal incident and the science fair) no mcgucket on that page for some reason tho– oh wait nevermind there's a full page for him and it freaks bill out

Oh there’s the oracle as an ex henchmaniac i think

bill's license plate being a ciphered ‘suck it’ …. So close to saying fuck

--

“My hole could be yours”

--

got to the advertised "extra journal 3 pages" and im fucking losing it omg

also the sixer nickname being used so much in the books and comics is almost funny when you realise that it was only used twice in the actual show

we finally got proper paranoid ford era content and its so painful its great

also god damn even before the paranoid era theres an entire section where bill was like "haha you should've eaten your twin" "haha if you ever met the monster who destroyed my dimension it'd eat you alive" mY GUY THE RED FLAGS

Not ford being told to see therapy way back in college omgggg

Baby stan twins in an ugly hannukah sweater omggggggggg

Oh wait i just realised the first page has some stuff cut from the leaked preview :((( rip no twins kicking the shit out of the statue and hitting it with a crowbar-- oop nevermind my pages were stuck together so i missed the first goddamn page

NO NOT THE FUCKING CRINGE ASS ANTI BILL SUIT WITH THE BRAIN,, FORD NO

SAHDSDHSAK THE EX WIFE JOKE- BUT NO NOT THAT BEING ANOTHER THING FROM THEIR FUCKING DAD

so glad that theres an entire section expanding on paranoid ford era

The joyride section holy fuck

Aw hell yeah the fucked up section which probably bumped this book to an older audience rating

Ford thinking that stan wouldn’t last if bill got into his mind when we have evidence that he has ridiculous amount of control over his mindscape….

Also him remembering what exactly stan looked like when he was begging for help and him using their childhood code…..

--

Is the first fucking reference to the axolotl a coded hot sauce message ‘hotxolotl’ near the end of the fucking book

Been having the ghost trick on loop and the ending song playing as i get to the family section was great timing lol

Me throughout the entire book: boo there’s only a few pages mentioning stan

Me at the stan page:

but also then immediately going “oh shit he has the same handwriting as the bill font in the lost J3 pages” 

Also weh decoding stan’s cartoon censor swears which translates into ‘love ya bro’

(another weh at him signing off as stanley pines)

boo at the lack of acknowledgement of the ridiculous amount of control stan has over his mindscape tho

bill only mentioned him like once before the journal page sections because he's so mad lmao

--

finished it!!! was worried too if it was gonna somehow ignore the whole axolotl being the one to let bill reincarnate thing but the ending really was it going rip bozo go to therapy

attempting the ciphers was pretty fun altho im sleepy and missed a few

(also same coin theory isn’t dead so im a-okay with this lol)

[tuktukpodfics]

Hi! I'm thinking about making a podfic of one of my favorite fics and I wanted to ask for a couple of tips because I adore your podfics and I have run into a couple problems very early on.

how do you do deeper voices? my voice is fairly high (I'm a soprano that can occasionally deep down into lower alto) and most of the voices in the fic are male. I also always sound about twelve in recordings lol

how do you make distinct voices? again, I have a lot of different voices (probably 5-7 that talk the most, with many many other reoccurring characters).

pacing of reading. I tend to speak/read very quick and in my practice recordings, it sounds like I'm talking much faster than I felt I was. any tips on that?

what recording programs are best? currently I'm using voice memos on my phone. which. is clearly not going to give me the best sound, regardless of the app I use, but I don't have many options.

I am living in a dorm right now and live in fear of my suite mates hearing me (my roommate not quite as much as she likes to dub and does a lot in our room--though she does it in mandarin so I cant understand it). not to mention background noise of doors opening and whatnot. if you have any tips on that as well, that would be great!

I love your podfic, you put so much soul into them, and I hope that I could do that too!

Hello fellow podfic-er! I’m so excited for you to make a podfic!

The nice thing about podfics is that I usually don’t have to create characters from scratch, they already exist in the TV show. If I’m struggling with a character, I just rewatch some clips of them talking and imitate it!

Deep voices: I, too, have a high, childish voice and struggle with deep, Manly Men. I guess the main tip I have is to...give up. What I mean is focus less on pitch and more on tone. If you speak too low, it’ll be less expressive and will probably hurt your throat. It can work for minor, 2D characters, but don’t do it for main characters that have a wide range of emotions (you may notice that my Mighty Oaks Fire Sage Zuko voice swings higher when he’s emotional oops). Instead, use your normal pitch, and make a character sound adult by using an authoritative tone. Another thing I do is play up the childish and feminine voices. We might not be able to make the adults sound adult, but we can make the kids sound extra kiddish by comparison.

Distinct voices: I’m a tactile learner, so for me, it’s all about the physicality. Every time I do Azula’s voice, I make a pinched face like I’m eating a lemon. When I record Ozai, I sneer. For Sokka, I jut out my chin and flail my arms. It looks silly, but no one is around to see. There’s lots of YouTube tutorials about how to make different voices by varying speed and tone and nasal quality, but I get kinda lost in the sauce with those theory lessons. The only way I can really get myself to do different voices is if I’m working off of a reference. I just watch videos of other cartoons and live actors and then copy them.

Pacing: Pacing is hard. I especially struggle with the editing and often end up cutting things wonkily. Audiobooks tend to be slow because you’re less likely to get tongue tied that way. If I have a big hunk of text that I find myself racing through, I slow myself down with physicality again. I’ll lean in on important words or mime out the actions. For example, on the line, “Zuko turns, grabs the bar at the side of the ship, and throws himself back over,” I'll turn my body on the word “turn,” grab an imaginary bar on the word “grab” and then lurch forward on the word “throw.” Adding in movement can bring variation to those big blocks of text.

What recording programs are best: I don’t know! I use Audacity because it’s free. Adobe Audition is great too, but it’s expensive. I am very lazy with the podfics. I don’t have a professional set-up. Basically, I make a comfortable nest of pillows in bed or my closet, use an iPhone VoiceMemos app to record straight into the phone mic, send the audio file to my computer, convert the audio to a WAV file, put it in Audacity, add a Noise Reduction effect, and then cut it down. Once I’m done editing it, I export the Audacity file as an mp3, upload it to archive.org and Spotify, and then embed those links into Ao3. Feel free to DM me if you have other tech questions. I am not particularly savvy, but we can Google it together? If any voice actors on Tumblr have professional advice, please chime in.

Silence and privacy: Background noise is a big headache for me too. I live in a noisy area with lots of planes and a squeaky elevator. I usually record now in my closet surrounded by pillows and blankets, so it’s fairly soundproof. If there’s a noise, I usually wait for the sound to stop, record the line again, then edit out the mistake in post. At the end of the day, though, sounds will slip in. It’s just a podfic; we’re doing this for fun not professionally, so it doesn’t need to be polished. I think most listeners’ attitudes is that something is better than nothing. If you’re in a school dorm, there might be music practice rooms, a radio recording booth, or empty classrooms you can use instead.

Storage: Something I didn’t realize going in was how much storage the audio clips take up. Make sure you save and delete projects as you go. One time I finished editing an Audacity project, but it wouldn’t let me save it because I ran out of storage and I had to start over.

I’m so glad you like the podfics I’ve done and that it could help inspire you to make one too! I started making podfics because I fell in love with @pixieinthesky’s fantastic Salvage podfic (it's an absolute gem). Keep the chain going!

Have fun!

[quitealotofsodapop]

Yellowtusk, due to his change of heart, ended up with a lighter sentence. Community service, which for the Heavenly Court, is basically babysitting SWK and his troop of murder children. This is also the first time since the New Years debacle any child of SWK has been in the Celestial Realm, and it only proofs their point in not wanting SWK's spawn to have a reason to visit (unfortunately Nez Ha, Gold Star, and Guanyin are good reason as well as Lao Zu dye to being the only person capable of handling Stone Monkey medical checkups)

referencing this post.

Ha! Considering Yellowtusk was the only one able to calm Yuebei down when she was in the Brotherhood's custody ("She likes elephants." Wukong explains), he's a fair choice to keep an eye on SWK and his brood whenever they enter the Celestial Realm.

And even if SWK and his kiddos are heavily monitored whenever they go to either Lao Tzu or Gold Star for Stone Monkey advice, some slip ups are bound to occur.

Macaque: "Wukong... where's the baby?" Wukong: "Oh, the girls said they'd watch her while we're being seen to." Macaque: "Girls? Do you mean the Peach Mai- oh sweet buddha." Yellowtusk, sighing tiredly: "I turn my head for one second, and you let loose the hungriest maw in all of the Three Realms into the Orchard." (meanwhile in the royal Orchards) Yuebei: *completely shredding through a basket of peaches bigger than her whole body. Is covered in peach juice and pulp* Peach Maidens: "Aww!" "Reminds you of anyone?" "You can really tell who her baba is!" Yuebei: *loud wet burp!* Peach Maidens: "Oops! Looks like someone is eating a little too fast!" "That was certainly was one of didi's [little brother's] noises!" Other Celestials in the Orchard: *all sharing looks of familar horror*

By the time Yellowtusk gets there all he sees is a bunch of celestials curled up in a corner while a baby monkey is just lost in the sauce of all this celestial fruit. The Peach Maidens don't even try to defend themselves, they're only concerned with Yuebei getting in trouble, she is only a baby after all.

Yellowtusk just laughs, as if he'd fault the little monkey princess for eating her fill. The Queen Mother doesnt need to be told about this. He knows the little monkey would be able to do far worse if she actually felt threatened.

[deceptive-daydreams]

ok I may have just had a slight meltdown over having to drive and order food which has prompted me to think about Eddie comforting you when you start mouthing off about how your brain works. These are just thoughts spewed out so nothing too crazy.

T/W - talks about how being neurodivergent makes you feel alienated

So it’d start with you not being able to process what the person at the speaker in the drive thru was saying. Like they’re asking you questions but your brain is literally lagging behind so hard and you can’t comprehend what’s going on. They’re getting annoyed with you and you just blurt out something in hopes that it’s what you wanted to order in the first place. Pulling up to the window only makes you more anxious since you’re going to have to be face to face with them. The whole experience is just awful and you have trouble speaking up to ask for sauce but do so anyway in the most timid way which makes you want to slap yourself. When they hand you the receipt it nearly flies away and this elicits little “oop!” Noises from you along with a stream of sorries which immediately has you cursing yourself cause why did you react like that? In summary, the entire experience from beginning to end, from driving to the place and driving all the way back home is miserable.

On the drive home you just berate yourself in your head. Why did I react like that? Why does my brain work the way that it does? Why am I not normal? How come I can’t process things like everyone else?

Its literal hell, even the act of driving is a whole commotion in itself. The way you will plan out which streets you take just so you can avoid certain complicated turns that you know will cause you grief. How you’ll make the right turn at certain lights just fine but at others you’ll just about start crying from overstimulation of everything happening around you. All you can describe it as is that your brain lags behind and you think about things differently than the average person. Your thought process is way to complicated but that’s just how it is, you can’t change it.

Fast forward to a little bit later when Eddie comes over and he senses that you’re having an off day more so than usual lately. You look like you’re lost in thought, he swears there are tears in your eyes as you stare off at nothing. You’re just listening to music in your bed with him but he catches the way you’re not relaxing but you’re spiraling. He’d turn off the music and scoot to sit right next to you, thigh against yours. “Hey, you okay?” He asks, fully knowing the answer but not knowing how else to initiate the conversation. Your lip kinda wobbles and at first you try to contain it and tell him you’re fine so you can move on but it fails. A few tears spill over and you quickly wipe them away hoping to recover but Eddie just pulls you into his lap and cradles you to him. “What’s going on, huh?” He says softly into your neck. You sniffle, tightly holding his shirt in your fists.

You decide to just go on a tangent, pulling your face away to look at him, he awaits patiently, eyes gentle and welcoming. “I don’t know why I can’t be normal.” You tell him through blurred vision. “The way I think isn’t normal, it’s so hard to do anything—I don’t—I don’t get it. I don’t know why I HAVE to think so hard about everything and I don’t know why my brain short circuits every time someone in public talks to me.” It breaks his heart that you feel so disconnected from everything. He understands because he relates in his owns ways, having his own behavioral patterns that weren’t necessarily ‘normal’. He knows what it’s like to feel like an outsider in this reality just because your brain is wired differently, something you can’t control.

All he does is lets you voice your frustrations, you were right to have them after all. His hand rests on your shoulder, thumb affectionately grazing up and down while his other hand holds yours. He wants you to know he’s there even if you feel alienated by the world. “A-and the way people look at me sometimes after I say something—l—god I can’t stand it! I know I look like an idiot but they can’t at least pretend to be nice?” There’s a hint of anger behind your eyes which is justified. “I’m so sick of being like this, I feel like I’m broken—like I’m some kind of recall item!” You finish, wiping a glob of snot away from your nose with your sleeve.

Eddie could just scream. Scream at the world for being the way that it is, so unfriendly toward those who might think even the slightest bit differently, their brains being built in a way that didn’t accommodate the norm that was established by some men in suits. He could scream at you that you’re perfect the way you are, that this world needed to change and you didn’t. But he doesn’t scream. Instead he cups your cheeks in his hands and wipes away the rolling tears with his thumbs, quietly speaking but he holds such passion. “You are not broken. You are not a recall item. You are perfect the way that you are even if this fucked up world can’t pull its head out of its ass and understand that you are not like everyone else and that it’s okay not to be like everyone else.” He’s looking at you with his big brown eyes with such love and admiration. “You don’t need to change a thing, do you hear me? I know everyone else may treat you differently, hell they treat me differently too so I understand. But we don’t need to change a thing or prove a thing. I know it’s hard, it’s so fucking hard sometimes because they treat you like you’re below them, like some species that wandered up to them from the wild. But don’t let them take anything away from you. This is how you are and they can eat shit if they don’t like it.” He’s starting to tear up slightly, the subject has always been something he’s advocated for. You can’t help but cry a little more at his words, they really sunk into your heart and it just aches that you even had to feel bad about being you just because people couldn’t comprehend anything different. He continues holding your cheeks in his palms, thumbs caressing the apples of your cheeks. “I will always love you for who you are and I know you love me for who I am and I think that’s what matters the most, okay? If some dirtbag makes you feel bad because your reaction isn’t instant or you go blank and maybe say something that doesn’t make complete sense, they aren’t worth your energy. I know it’s easier said than done but just get in and do what you needed to do, let them be shitty people if that’s what they desire, and then leave with a smile. And even if you feel too overwhelmed to leave with a smile, that’s okay too. Just know that they are not some blueprint for what you were supposed to be. You are you and you were made exactly how you were supposed to be.” The tears keep coming but you’re grateful for his insight, he speaks so highly of you even though you feel everything you do is wrong.

You nod, speechless as he pulls you in again, cradling you to his chest. “You aren’t broken, okay baby? Never.” He affirms, you sniffling into his chest. He didn’t give a damn if you used his shirt at a tissue, he just wanted to make you understand that you weren’t some pest to society like you made yourself out to be. “I’ll kick anyone’s ass who wants to yell at you or judge you just because you didn’t react according to their script.” You let out a wet giggle against him, his hand rubbing up and down your shoulder as he holds you tight. “You never have to prove anything to anyone, not even to me, do you understand me?” He’s stern but in a soft kind of way as he pulls back to grip your chin. “Okay.” You whisper with a tear stained face, snot leaking into your mouth. Even then, he thinks you’re so pretty and he would mop up all your snot just to see you happy and feeling safe.

[invisiblewille]

20 questions for fic writers!!

How many works do you have on Ao3?

12

What's your total Ao3 word count?

233,384

What fandoms do you write for?

only young royals so far but i've been thinking about writing for another fandom lately too

Top five fics by kudos:

Gold and Silver

The Frog Prince (unfortunately lol)

Honey, You Look Like Gold to Me

Lost in the Sauce

Bronze

Do you respond to comments?

yeah, unless they're super weird or a response to my response i guess

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The Last Dance was MCD and most people sobbed while reading it so... i guess that one. Most of the rest of mine have happy endings even if they're super angsty in between

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

What exactly is the "happiest ending" lol... idk i guess in terms of like payoff maybe Bronze? I really don't know lol

Do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten a bit of stuff that's made me feel bad/upset on Thou Wilt Whisper, "No Pang Shall Be Mine" but not really, no

Do you write smut?

depends on the story but yes. I have a lot without it though too. I try to make sure my stories don't need it and that I'm not using smut to cover up a weak plot

Craziest crossover:

Jesus Christ x Wilmon (/hj)

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

no but Mano was joking about stealing one of my fics the other day lmao bc I was thinking of changing something in it

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah, I think gold and silver was translated into Russian? I don't remember but I think so

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, I beta for some friends but I'm not huge on co-writing bc my work style is so odd

All time favourite ship?

I actually prefer reading rwrb Alex and Henry fics oops but I guess Wilmon is still technically my favorite

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

i have one on Ao3 that I abandoned but I have no desire to finish it. But I do have a trans simon canon rewrite in my docs that I wish I could finish, but I just don't love writing canon no matter how much I try. I'm an AU writer through and through

What are your writing strengths?

sadness, making people cry, imagery and metaphor maybe, and symbolism? and angst but ya know...

What are your writing weaknesses?

I use "as" too much and also sometimes don't use enough names

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

i try to stick to English these days, but there are times where i think it can work in fics

First fandom you wrote in?

young royals. I don't think I ever wrote in my previous fandoms. I think I only ever made art.

Favourite fic you've written?

Thou Wilt Whisper always and forever. Like I love a lot of my fics or they wouldn't be posted, but that one truly means so much more to me

Stole this idea from @glassdollls thx bestie

[gabagoulie]

Currently finishing Bioshock Infinite and I Have Opinions.

The first game is still my favorite in terms of mechanics, the UI was nice, the powers were nicely spaced in acquisition and in order, the powers themselves made more sense then in Infinite, and I like that you have access to all of them whenever you want (so long as you have all the slots unlocked). Dame thing goes for the weapons, I like having access to all the guns, I only ever used the shotgun, machine gun, and pistol (in that order) but I liked having options. Being only able to carry two gund at a time and having to hunt for a new gun is just a pain in the ass. The only thing it's done is discourage me from switching weapons, because when will I find another carbine?

IN CONTRAST Infinite has confusing controls, the salts and powers are fairly useless (to me, the only one I ever want to use is the ravens, but that's just me) and the inability to save up health kits and salt bottles to use on command when in battle vexes me to no end.

The navigation system as well just wasn't uo to part with the first game. That stupid glowing arrow that you have to press several times while running to know where to go. I have gotten lost several times, usually when I get stuck it's bc the arrow is telling me to take the rails forever and I just run around forever until I manage to stumble into the goal.

I WILL SAY in FAVOR of Infinite, the story is much better. The "twist" doesn't really come out of left field, it flows so much better than in the first game where it all of a sudden tells you "oops, youre actually a mind controlled super baby! Lol, go fight a DIFFERENT man with a god complex, not just you're bio dad in a cutscene. For realzies this time!" And then makes you become a big daddy and babysit a malicious child for no reason and for way too long. I wanted to punt that stupid thing.

I loved the first game a lot up until Andrew Ryan and the twist of whats-his-face not being Atlas. It felt like the writers couldn't figure out the ending and got lost in the sauce trying to make it dramatic. But the controls and mechanics were far better. The fear that grabbed my soul every time I heard the deep moans of a big daddy and not knowing where is was, but knowing it's near? Unparalleled. The stupid bird thing cannot come even CLOSE the the ambient big daddy's. Even late game when I figured out that the big daddy's aren't actually a big threat (unless attacked)

Obviously my opinion is my opinion, people who play this kind of game on a different system (I'm playing on switch bc I'm funny like that) or because they like the challenge of fps games will think differently. I am playing these games for fun, not challenge. I just want to run around these funny little cities and find out what's going on.

[ikemenomegas]

Hey!! (animeomegas here <3) I don't know anything about jjk, but I love actor AUs and I was wondering if you have any fun ideas for Naruto, the arcana or Mystic messenger? For some reason I've been imagining how a Mystic Messenger TV show would work and sketching out poster ideas for it 😫 This isn't really intended as a request, I just want to hear your stream of thought haha. Hope you've been having a wonderful day! <33

Hi @animeomegas I actually had a really long day but it was nice! I got a lot of things done. I hope you also had a good day ^^. So, okay okay okay you know I love casual stream of thought... and talking ahaha, and I also love behind the camera drama (I am also avoiding any wip work because 9+ hours at work fried the thesaurus bit of my brain)

Naruto

Naruto is such a specifically anime show. The budget for a complete 1:1 live action remake would probably make people so mad, there would have to be so much CGI for the final battle.

I feel like it could work for actors au as either:

1. Make Naruto a movie series. It's probably got a cult following like Star Wars and started off as some kind of original idea in the 70s and then got acquisitioned by a huge conglomerate in the 90s-2000s era, and had enough films (like the fast and furious franchises XD, so... eight at least) that it was able to cover all the material up until our time lol.

I actually went and reviewed the arcs because I love procrastination through research oop, but if you cut out/combine the filler arcs/turn them into serialized shows for streaming, you're left with enough material for about 3 movies from genin-days (when the actors Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura age from 11-14) and 5 movies from the shippuden era (there the main trio actors age from 16-24)

Playing off that nostalgia factor, Jiraiya's actor either played Minato or Naruto in the 70s film. He's since become a very famous actor/producer/director. Kakashi's father also played Kakashi's character in the original 70s film, so having him return as Sakumo for the Pein arc was a little Easter egg. There's a couple of instances of this throughout the series. For example, Madara is actually played by the same actor who played Sasuke in the og series, and the makeup used to age him in the flashback arcs gets high praise. Hashirama is played by the same kid who played Rock Lee in the first films too. Tsunade was played by the same girl who was either Ino in the original, etc.

Kind of like marvel, there's a ton of actors who are only sort of or not very famous when the films start, and the kids are certainly no-name actors (kind of [Sakura reads to me like a former disney-channel kid lol]), and then as the films get wildly popular, the franchise gains the Midas touch and even all of the recurrent minor characters get arcs/spinoffs/or see further success in their careers.

And as with marvel, it truly becomes like... everyone famous in a certain generation was in the Naruto franchise.

Sasuke had some actual industry connections prior to casting, but that was only because his brother was a young up-and-coming model. They sort of spring-boarded one anothers' careers. Playing the franchise characters traumatized them oop, and irl they're very close. There's a noticeable uptick in viewership for compilation videos of the Uchiha brothers being best siblings after about movie 6 when Sasuke finally kills Itachi and movie 7's fight with Kabuto is one of the most watched clips ever.

Also marvel-esque, I think people have mixed opinions about the ending lol (just like they do the anime) because on one hand, explosions! amazing visual effects! the whole ensemble ready to assemble! stacked nostalgia value! answers to some of the most asked fandom questions! amazing physical feats (Naruto and by extension Sasuke mostly insist on doing their own stunts)! and on the other... you have some of the thousand story threads being lost in the sauce, lackluster characterization for a some of the ladies, leaning perhaps too much on nostalgia value, complete obliteration of power scaling, suddenly there's almost too much content, and you have to have watched all three spinoff series to understand some of the in-world references, also fighting between the original concept creator and head writer and the production teams :p (yes this is Io being too literal haha)

2nd option: The Naruto characters all belong to the same representative entertainment company (think SM or YG /pulls face because cabal culture disturbs me/). I think this is more like an idols AU, and the relationships are significantly more catty and have more drama, but they're all actors/other entertainment related career lol so it's also kind of actors au?

The company probably tried for a ninjas/powers theme during recruitment and promotion so that's where you get Kakashi associated with dogs and lightning, Sasuke associated with snakes and later hawks and fire, Naruto associated with frogs and wind, Sakura associated with slugs and healing, Itachi associated with crows and dreams, Haku associated with ice and mirrors, Sai associated with tigers and ink, Tenzo/Yamato associated with trees, Gaara associated with tanuki and sand etc.

Itachi and Sasuke have an infamous rivalry that never really "resolves" so much as disappears because Itachi retires for a few years to deal with physical and mental health issues. It would be during this time he goes public with a relationship and he gets married before making a comeback. Even after the brothers reconcile and do projects together, people still bring up their Fighting Era and it pisses Sasuke off because the public doesn't really know what happened and he hates the speculation. Part of the controversy is that Sasuke left the company only a few years after signing on, joined a small rival company that was later embroiled in scandal, and then returned to the same company as his brother right around the time Itachi took a break.

Kakashi is the oldest of the "new generation" that's promoted during that time, but he's a very successful child actor turned model and adult actor. He did a bunch of shows that have great repeat value though so he basically lives off residuals and picks his projects and is very obvious but rather quiet about the ways he critiques the current entertainment industry. He's very good friends with Tenzo, stagename Yamato

Haku is a musician first and an actor second. He made his debut as part of a short lived idol group before going solo and starting musical stages. He's an up and coming favorite for historical dramas.

Gaara and Naruto are child actors who have been best friends for ages and help one another work through the inevitable industry challenges. They separately become really popular role models for kids from their hometowns. Kankuro is Gaara's personal rock in the working world, even though Kankuro's bad-boy image and slightly freaky aesthetic don't surface level seem to match with Gaara's more reserved and authentic method of dealing with the constant press.

Shikamaru and Nagato both separately give me musician/model vibes, but in different genres. Shikamaru quits the music thing very quickly to become a producer lol because more math and less fighting with fickle public opinion.

Mystic Messenger

If you sketch the the poster idea you haaaave to post it, please pretty please Amy?? Because you're so right, the whole plot is absolutely like a thriller/romcom kdrama. (Because the characters are well fleshed out it could also work with preserving the character backstories but have them all have entered acting later on.)

I looked up some Kdrama posters and the one where the leads for "because this is my first life" are standing in a stylized apartment balcony reminded me somewhat of thee game, mostly because the MC is stuck in the apartment for a good portion of the seven days lol.

If the whole Mystic Messenger plot were a drama...

MC is probably a rookie actor with one or two well done but not widely distributed productions under their belt.

Yoosung was maybe a child-actor which makes the whole ingenue thing kind of funny for his fans. Like yes, this is his first "adult role" (his baby face means he otherwise plays a lot of high schoolers) but it's this odd mixture of experience meaning he plays the role perfectly, but lack of experience with normal people resulting in a lot of blushing and stammering and totally tunnel vision flirting during the press tour haha.

I'd love for Jumin to come from a similar but less severe situation as game-Jumin. Like maybe his father has remarried a bunch of times, but he actually gets along with the stepmother who's been his mother for most of his life and he takes her to premiers with him. He grew up poor so he finds playing a lot of wealthy heirs type characters because of his looks to be a very strange turn of events, but he overall doesn't talk about his past much in public.

Hmmm, Jaehee seems the type to play a lot of severe characters in her usual roles because of her appearance, but like game-Jaehee she's got a very cute and adorable side that's coupled with a very genuine personalty. The interviewers probably make her do a lot of aegyo T.T poor Jaehee. She probably also worked her way through a prestigious drama school, either in-country or abroad, so she loves to read.

Zen always offers to do the aegyo with Jaehee so she doesn't have to suffer alone haha. He on the other hand never went to drama school, he's been acting since he was about 17 so all his training was in-company, although his company helped to put him through college where he did an advertising and media degree. He didn't have the exposure Jaehee did to classical media and arts, so they are irl very good friends who bond over their interest in business and Zen's interest in gaining a deeper understanding of acting and theater.

I see 707 as the person who was probably an idol musician before he started acting and mostly left group music behind. I've never played his route through, but he seems like the kind of person who is sometimes frustratingly talented lol. He is a natural at almost everything he tries which sometimes stresses him out because he wonders if there's something else he should be doing besides acting.

V seems like the kind of person however who was maybe a model first, and then turned to acting? I hate to say this, but it's the kind of situation where his incredible looks and sweet irl personality have garnered him a very devoted following but his parts in dramas tend to be second-string or somewhat minor or... kind of weird lol, and when he is the lead the show is usually only "okay" because the writing will be strange 😅 which is technically not his fault, but to be honest most of his income comes from promotional deals.

You like Saeran, right? so I won't leave him out! He's got this doe-eyed look that makes me think of a new debut actor! This is also one of his first major roles so he and MC lean on each other a lot and have to work hard to make sure their relationship off-screen is comfortable because they have so many scary intense scenes later on. He and 707 are either irl siblings, or just because so close during filming that they're truly like brothers now and 707 is always seen supporting Saeran, especially when Saeran decides to venture into the music scene and his vocal style and color means he explodes into popularity almost right away.

The Arcana

Somehow I can see this becoming an HBO drama? or maybe an Akuzon special because it's very good about placing lgbtq themes in-world (which was sort of groundbreaking when the game debuted). This one is so hard because each route gradually ended up diverging so much and in such different ways and expanding on the world in such a rewarding diversity of directions that you could truly have a beautiful, successful show no matter what route was filmed.

You could potentially have a Witcher-type situation where you really do have multiple routes and timeline splitting. If someone who's got a really good editing team working with a really tight writing team I think they could do it.

But otherwise, this is another situation where the main cast has had friend configurations for a While and doing this project brought them all closer together!

Ilya and Asra have known one another probably the longest industry-wise. They did a smaller well received indie film once about five years before Arcana with the vaguest of nods to brokeback mountain (I've never seen it, sorry) but a much happier road trip lovers plot, so having to play disillusioned, one-sided pining ex-lovers who had a very toxic last year to their relationship is... something XD.

Asra and Muriel have been personal friends since their days as students - they went to the same camps and programs to study acting and in their interviews, they have a fun time talking about some personal anecdotes (like the fact they did indeed frequently camp at a lakeside together as children) which made it into their own characters' backstories.

Nadia and Lucio are very Nikolaj/Gwendoline during their press and off-screen interactions. They find their characters' personas to be sort of hilariously poorly matched.

Portia is a famously hard working actress who clawed her way through the world of cinema and still managed to stay a decent, well grounded person. She's not actually related to Ilya irl but they got along really well from the beginning so there's lots of videos of them acting like siblings off screen.

Because the on-site shoots for Arcana required so much travel, the cast got to spend a lot of bonding time together, and saw a ton of unique places. The cast always has stories of swimming and hiking or trying new food or pictures of each other at famous sites during their days off. Muriel is actually the one who plans the outdoor adventures the best, he was an athlete and had military training before becoming an actor and he loves being outside so he'll lead these kinds of outings. People adore his social media because he's got that outdoors guy vibe but he's very sweet and he smiles a lot more irl than his roles usually do.

Portia and Julian are the most likely to get lost in any place, but they're also super fun to travel with because they always find interesting people and places that are off the beaten path.

Nadia and Asra have the most normal but also most aesthetic social media feeds. They always seem able to catch the golden hour light somehow...

After Arcana, they each often end up cast in or around the same movies/franchises/series as well, because they do work very well together. The show also helped them break out of some type casting, to their delight.

Lucio trends towards action and romcom films, he does often get typecast as some kind of villain, but his redemption arc in Arcana actually helped him break into more of the antihero type roles. He can be adorably goofy at times.

Nadia used to play the femme fatale quite frequently but since Arcana she's been able to take on softer roles, still often playing a woman in power, but she's been able to mix and cross genres. She also has been working on a screenplay and wants to try directing.

Portia was famous before Arcana but the show helped enter her into some of the more mainstream conversation and she has her first action-type role soon after Arcana ends.

Asra has a delicate physique and had some trouble in the past with being passed over roles that required more "force of presence" in the past. However, since showing his side as the secretive, enigmatic, manipulative magician, he's been able to try on the hats of villains, return to some roles on the true stage (his first love), and play the lead in a more serious political thriller.

Muriel had the opposite problem with his large build often precluding him from anything but action films. Since Arcana he's been able to try a few romantic lead parts, and has embraced his popularity by searching out meaningful mid-budget films where he can broaden his talents.

Julian is very tall, so he used to play quite a few more domineering, dastardly types in the films he did before Arcana. The show also brought him into the spotlight. He still does well as the sneering, dangerous, tall and dark type, but he's found that he can and is willing to push for playing something softer, someone who follows instead of leads in the on-screen dynamics. You and Ilya end up in a bodyguard type of drama at some point where he spends a lot of time on his knees swearing his devotion and playing a lot of subtext lol.

MC in this seems like they would have been a more experienced actor before taking on the linchpin role for Arcana, but the show granted you the experience to step into other roles both in front of and behind the camera and we'll probably see an MC directed and produced short film or indie film within the next few years!

[fantastic-mr-corvid]

hmm i think the reason i always end up needing to wait for my friends to catch up is bc i run ahead and get so wrapped up in msq and get so invested i just... keep going until i hit a dungeon<3 crow is lost in the story sauce and oops did till the next dungeon<3

[pbandjesse]

I felt better in some ways today. Worse in others. The same in the rest. It wasn't a bad day. I am just tired.

I slept. Fine. When I woke up I wasn't thrilled but I was trying to remain positive. I slept with my hair in a braid last night and that made my hair looked really nice so I was pretty pleased. I really liked my outfit. This is my new denim/chambray romper and my denim shirt I got a few weeks ago. I felt real cute.

James would give me hugs and some cold medicine and I would get ready to go. When I got outside though I was very surprised that there was containers of tomato sauce all over and a bunch of it was splattered on our car??? Very very strange. I called James and they came outside to see and we were both very confused.

I would drive to camp and grabbed some baby wipes to clean the sauce. It was very strange. But it's cleaned now.

I was not having fun. I didn't feel great. The medicine would eventually kick in and I was a lot better but my body was really tired. And I had to push myself a lot today.

My parents chaperones started showing up and they were all so lovely. We had some confusion with some parents going to the lodge by accident. But I would walk my first group over to their station, and then back to collect the other half.

It was fun. They were all so nice. And they would do such a good job!! I was really thrilled with this group of parent volunteers.

While I was showing my last couple parents their station I got called on the walkie that the school was here. So off I went. I was a little annoyed because I am only one person and it is pretty hard to get the parents sorted and the kids sorted but I got over there and Elizabeth had directed them into the building. I thanked her and went to find the teacher.

I was a little frazzled and went through my intro to quickly. Oops. But it was fine. I would realize I went to fast and since I actually remembered to bring the story book I was able to read that and fill some time. And while this group was really big (77 students!) they were a really sweet group.

I would walk them to their stations to use some more time. The first block has 10 extra minutes but it was fine. My parents volunteers were rockstar and didn't complain at all.

I would have to take a lot of breaks. I sat on the office porch. I sat on the bench near arts and crafts. I sat on the field stairs. I would make my rounds but overall everyone seemed fine and didn't need me. So I didn't bother them to much. They seemed like they were doing good.

And I was thrilled about that. It makes my life a lot easier.

It was tense in the office though. I think it was known how upset I had been that I had to come in. But it felt very very awkward in the office. I would later on talk to Heather about how the tone of the texts I got on Friday upset me. And she said maybe the tone wasn't intentional. And maybe that is true. I was still a little upset. But I was trying to let it go.

Elizabeth would ask if I wanted Friday off. Yes. So I agreed to do the other field trip this week. Which I was going to do anyway but since I lost my day off today I am glad I will still have one this week. Even if it isn't with James.

At lunch there was an issue with the toilets just continuously flushing. Heather would walk with me to learn to turn the water pressure lower. And now I know how to do that so that's neat.

The last hour of the day went fine. Except when a kid didn't listen to my warnings and ran down the hill and ate shit. Absolutely destroyed the skin on her knees. I felt terrible. Her teachers cleaned her up and got her ice and bandaids but man did I felt bad. Poor girl. And right at the end of the day! The worst.

During the last half hour I was sitting on the stairs and the pollen in the air was crazy. It was making the world hazy. And while my sore throat has gone away, the pollen is still making me snotty and coughing. Really obnoxious. It's wild so thick it was in the air.

At the end of the program everyone came back to the hacienda and I gave them a short quiz. And thanked them all for coming. And then they were off.

And I needed to be as well. I would collect the trash. And then off the lights. But I didn't go and check anything at the sites because I had to go to the doctors and I didn't have a ton of time.

The rhumatologist is actually about 40 minutes away. But it always takes longer. So I was in the car by 215. And would arrive at 305. So now the worst but not the best. The traffic was only slightly stressful because the ETA kept creeping up. Thankfully I had given myself the full hour. And was on time.

I got taken back pretty quickly. They had the new will and grace show on the TV and it is just so cringe. Like I really liked will and grace when I was a kid but the humor just doesn't hit right in the modern world. Felt icky. But whatever.

The girl who did my injections was fabulous. I didn't feel it at all!! 10/10. And then I had to get labs done so they took my blood. Which hurt slightly but was fine. I joked with the receptionist about them taking my money and my blood. And then showed her some pictures from Africa. It was nice to see everyone again. Been so long!

I went home after that. I had texted James and asked if we could go to Mathews for dinner. And they said yes. So when we got home I changed shoes and put some lotion on my face and we were off.

We walked around the park and talked. It was nice. I was really thirsty and was very excited to be at the restaurant.

We got our normal order and had a quiet meal. Just chatting and sharing recipes and making a grocery list. It was a nice afternoon. I was happy and with my husband.

The walk back was a little harder. I got a hard core pain in my stomach. James distracted me by started a game where we tracked window animals. James got a point for dogs, I got points for cats. The final score was 11 dogs and 8 cats. So they won. It was a fun little game. And while I wasn't having the best time walking, a little to hot, a little to much hurty, I was happy and having fun.

When we got home I went and quickly took a shower and washed my hair and I have basically been resting since then. James brought Ruby upstairs and I was amused by her getting stuck on stuff. I painted my toes and picked some outfits for this week. We have two dinners to go to! Charlotte's birthday on Thursday and then Paul and Sam are hosting a dinner on Friday. I am looking forward to them both.

James came to lay with me. And we have just been watching TikToks and having a nice time. My stomach still hurts but it's not as bad. I think I just would like to sleep.

I have another Native American field trip tomorrow. This one starts a little early. I really hope it goes smoothly. Its a much smaller group so I have high hopes but you never know. Fingers crossed.

Now I am going to go rinse off my face because my allergies are bothering me. And then sleep. I hope you all sleep good. I love you all. Goodnight!

[flydotnet]

Bad Things Happen Bingo! The event where I give myself stupidly niche requests according to this marvelous card... or something. It's been three years dawg. (Red cross is the completed prompt, character headshots are prompts I’ve already filled).

You dislike me, Princess Ivy? We each have our tastes, I suppose, but…this makes me sad.

It's a bit of an unorthodox take on "Take Me Instead" that's tailored to my tastes, but what is fanfiction if not an expression of a thing you like? Yeah, exactly.

I may have lost myself during the making of this fanfic. Got lost in the sauce, you could say. It's very verbose and static, and I lost sight of what this fic was originally going to be about. Or was it ever about anything that wasn't writing an interaction vaguely based on a bond conversation that amused me? I'm not sure of either.

This is probably super OOC because I already don't write Camilla in a canon-compliant way, so… watch out for that! It was fun to write anyway. God I love Kagetsu so much, he truly is babygirl-coded.

The title is a bit random. I honestly didn't have better that wasn't a title I saw used elsewhere, so… oops.

-----------

Rice Vinegar

Summary: Camilla has a discussion with Kagetsu after a very rough battle against the Corrupted - out of concern and misunderstanding. Self-sacrifice is a truly ugly thing.

Fandom: Fire Emblem Engage

Word Count: 2.8K words

AO3 version available here.

Event hosted by @badthingshappenbingo.

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

Camilla has never been a stranger to death and bodily harm – quite the opposite, really. When she was alive, she often was the one inflicting this harm onto others, either in self-defence or in a genuine attempt to take down her enemies. It was her father’s overly ambitious mistresses, it was a mindless shell of a soldier threatening harm on her brother, it was – they all died, or died again, to her hand, her axe, her wyvern. And she had no regret about it whatsoever.

Nothing and nobody was ever sacred, when she was alive. Even alliances could fickle and she’d draw blood again. She had grown up in an environment where it made it all too easy to justify violence for all sorts of reasons, selfish or selfless, with or without consequences. It never came to pass, thanks to her dear Corrin, but the fear was here until the end of her days.

Camilla has, however, never been a stranger to self-sacrifices – mostly from other people.

She gets it, in essence. She, too, felt unconditional love for her siblings and her children, knew when to risk in a hit to save a friend, heard all of the speeches – a brother sacrificing his health for his country, a sister always ready to help anyone out of the kindness of her heart, a neighbour country’s values of honour and solidarity at times trampling a need for self-preservation. Duties and passion, abnegation, causes worth losing a life for.

It’s a noble feeling, even if noble isn’t exactly… what she’s been known for. But she gets it, she truly does – the urge to sacrifice something, that is. Her own life, though? That’s another thing. How could she protect her siblings and fight for her kingdom if she was dead? Sacrificing someone else was fine, as long as it wasn’t someone she had to protect, including herself.

Evidently, the person to who she’s been assigned doesn’t see it the way she does.

She came to learn that when in the heat of battle. They were all surrounded by flows of the Corrupted, unrelenting, the distant cackle of Griss coming to her hears. Kagetsu himself was flanked by Prince Diamant and Princess Ivy, his own liege, sword drawn and ready to strike, while flames burned in the distance and smoke stung his eyes. Despite the fact he had just exhausted his power to engage with her, she could still feel the way his legs cramped, the twitch in his sword arm after using it for so long and, most of all, the pain of the one injury he had sustained.

She couldn’t communicate with him much in this context, so she could only worry about him and the way he wouldn’t ask Princess Ivy for a quick heal with the staff she carried on her back – while she was busy blasting away with Bolganone in hands, Diamant could keep the Corrupted away for long enough so Ivy could patch her retainer.

He then froze. An archer had his eyes set on Ivy. She had her eyes somewhere else. A bleeding wound adorned her right thigh.

She couldn’t quite see Kagetsu’s face with the smoke and the way she had to hover without obscuring his vision, but what she felt spoke more than enough for him. Adrenaline pulsed in his body, so did an urge to protect his friends, and no thought was spared to his own safety. Like a good retainer, he’d throw it all away for the sake of his liege, exchanging his life for hers.

No, don’t take Princess Ivy! She heard his heart cry. Take me instead!

He rushed ahead, what was left of his ponytail dangling in the wind, blood already flowing from his left leg yet leaving no limp behind.

Diamant’s voice acted before his body ever did.

“Kagetsu, wait—”

But it was too late. His blade had already struck the archer, and an arrow had already lodged itself in his abdomen.

It’s since then all crashed down on poor, poor Kagetsu, who got sternly recommended to keep the bed by a child maybe half his size. Unable to protest in his state, he was no match for the youthful resilience of Jean, doctor in becoming, with assistance from stubborn Steward Framme. It’d have been cute, if she didn’t feel concern and so much of Kagetsu’s shame through the bracelet he was still holding on to.

Even now, watching over him in bed, she feels the shame, watches him try to toss and turn, only for his teeth to grit together. It’s an upsetting thing, even with her experience; they’re friends, and friends don’t ever like seeing their friend suffer in any way.

“I don’t understand it,” he tells her, even if it comes off as thinking out loud.

“What don’t you understand?”

Through their bond, she can tell he is upset – anxious, even, which comes off as a foreign concept to someone like Kagetsu. Moral pain like this is something that clashes with his usual personality. Perhaps there are more layers to him than she’d have thought?

“I don’t understand why Princess Ivy and Prince Diamant were so… upset. It’s like I did something wrong and it’s hurt them!”

Ah, figures.

Camilla did easily read the anguish on Ivy’s face, yes. She could tell with one insisting gaze that she was going through a lot of emotions, and while she isn’t able to tell with perfect accuracy due to not being linked to her at the moment, she can hazard a very solid guess as to what she was thinking – if just because their experiences haven’t been so different and because Kagetsu, ever the social butterfly, sees his liege a lot of the time and chats her up into unveiling some information about herself.

Although, there may be very little guessing on her part required to begin with, when she had the aftermath of the seemingly senseless sacrifice play out before her very eyes.

As soon as Ivy had finished defeating the Corrupted obscuring her view and flanking her, she had glanced back at her retainer, who now had an arrow in his side – a feat rare enough to be cited, both for the very fact it wasn’t in an easier area to reach, and for it to have lodged itself between two ribs.

She was about to scream his name, from what Camilla could see near the bracelet; but her voice was caught in her throat before she could, right as Kagetsu folded like paper onto himself.

The staff she was clutching in her hands was on the verge of rupturing, Diamant was bleeding from what Camilla could guess to be a deep gash in his side, but he insisted on her using it on Kagetsu, by virtue of him still standing and the swordman not, spotting the arrival of Framme.

So Ivy used the remaining energy left in the staff on her retainer, the tool breaking into dust as his eyes fluttered back open, an extraordinary weight to his eyelids preventing them from opening fully. His leg wound was now doing better, but the arrow remained in his chest. Right as she asked him, almost without a breath, how he was doing, his sole answer was smiling.

“I’m glad you are fine, Princess Ivy,” he said before falling back asleep.

Ivy wasn’t handling it as well as one whose father and concubines led a life of debauchery and deadly power games should’ve, in Camilla’s eyes, but she understood it. Beruka and Selena were far more important to her than political games, at the end of the day. Associate a name, a voice and a personality to a body, and then you’re suddenly much more affected by their blood flowing from their wounds. Figures.

Still, she carried on nonetheless: she brought Kagetsu on top of her wyvern to safety, watched the battle end by Diamant’s side, asked about the way he limped, scrutinized his denial, asked Framme to look at it. Kept an eye on Kagetsu. Almost refused treatment to be bedside vigil. Discussed his stillness with Zelkov, who didn’t even bother hiding all sorts of concerns. Let Jean take a look at her wound, in silence. Remained there once it was bandaged. Still watched over Kagetsu, stoic anguish never vanishing.

“Why did he do such a thing?” She asked, thinking out loud, at long last. “Putting himself in harm’s way on purpose… How reckless of him.”

There was no surprise in her voice.

“I suppose he did so to protect you,”

There was also no surprise in Zelkov’s as he replied.

“I can defend myself just fine.”

Diamant stared at the scene in silence from where he sat, nearby, face distorted.

“As any retainer would do,” he commented, eyes squinted, nailed into the form of his colleague.

“Then may he never do that again,” she immediately retorted, clutching her arms even closer to the rest of her body. “I’d have survived that without issue. He didn’t need to kill himself over me.”

The protest wasn’t a matter of pride, or else, Zelkov might’ve commented on it.

“I’m afraid it might happen again in any upcoming battle,” he told her instead. “Kagetsu and I have the mission to serve and protect you.”

“Even at the cost of your life?”

“Yes, even if it might cost us our lives.”

“Absolutely repulsive.” She was on the verge of crying. “Is he going to be fine…?”

“He should be,” Framme chimed in, now that she was done with Diamant’s leg.

“Should be?”

Framme’s shoulders shot up, stiff.

“It’s, uh… never certain. But he really should be okay! Jean’s just gonna check him over once he can and he’ll be able to go on his merry way! After some rest, of course.”

“He better be fine after this is all said and done. I won’t let him throw his life away for… such pointless reasons! I can’t… lose anyone again. Not after Hortensia and I had to…”

She didn’t finish her sentence, but judging by Zelkov and Diamant’s reactions, she didn’t need to.

Grief may’ve been the one thing linking the three of them together.

Once more, this doesn’t seem to be how Kagetsu views it – or perhaps he lacks knowledge of it. Losing blood and going through intense pain does tend to tinge someone’s memory or even bleach them away. Let her see how he conceives it, then.

“You didn’t do something wrong per say,” she starts explaining, for a second picturing a sister’s confusion at their brother’s upset. “But you did something that would bring pain to those who’re closest to you, dear.”

“In what way?” He sounds so genuinely confused, and in that moment, Camilla can only understand Ivy’s pain even further. “All I did was defend my friends. Princess Ivy could have been severely hurt.”

“What about Prince Diamant? I recall you being injured as well even before the arrow struck, Kagetsu.”

“He could have gotten hurt too.”

He ignores the second part entirely, then.

“But he was just as qualified as you were to take the enemy down before they could struck Princess Ivy.”

“I’m Princess Ivy’s retainer,” he chews back, even if it lacks strength (very much because his body has all sorts of protests against the exertion). “It’s my mission to keep her safe. It is not Prince Diamant’s mission.”

Camilla wants to ask if this could apply to Zelkov as well, only to bite back on it because asking seems to be a bit of pointless endeavour.”

“Then I suppose I can only hope to make you understand why they both were so upset, Kagetsu.”

His face lightens up.

“Oh, pray and tell! It sounds like very useful information to know.”

She shifts, crossing her arms and float-sitting on the empty chair next to the bed. Framme left a little while ago, but not without a promise to come back soon. It was something about a potion and reinforcement, if she recalls correctly, but this isn’t the focus of her thoughts.

“I too had retainers in my lifetime. They were both very dear to me, to a point where it pained me when they’d get hurt, especially on my behalf.” She sighs. “Of course, protecting one’s liege is the most important mission of a retainer, and both Princess Ivy and I understand that. Still, it didn’t mean I didn’t feel guilt for letting them get hurt on my behalf – or getting hurt at all, come to think of it.”

“You would feel… guilt?”

“Among all sorts of negative emotions, yes.”

“But then, why feel upset?”

“Because they were people who I cared deeply about, and like you, I didn’t like seeing my loved ones hurt in any way. I’ve killed for them, and I’d do it again even today.” He looks slightly horrified, which prompts her to let go a little of the bloodied details of a life long past gone. “Princess Ivy cares about you in a similar way, so even if you think you did good protecting her, she’s been upset to see you hurt – just like you’d have been would your positions have been inverted.”

“So, I caused Princess Ivy pain because she cares for me?”

“Indeed.”

He remains silent for a moment, leaning back into the pillow. He looks defeated.

“Then, if I had avoided that arrow… She would not have been hurt.”

This really isn’t what Camilla wanted him to conclude. What a stubborn soul.

Unfortunately, before she can disprove his flimsy theory, he continues.

“I wish my strange powers would not be so useless. If they were not, then perhaps… perhaps I could have seen it coming, and I could have protected Princess Ivy without upsetting her by getting hurt.”

“This isn’t what I wanted you to understand,” she replies. “Your powers may’ve stopped it from happening this time, but it wouldn’t fix the issue.”

His eyes, which are still slightly glazed over, grow wider, before his face hardens again.

“What would fix the problem, then, Camilla?”

He asks that with a flame in his eyes and no chill going down his spine – a far cry from a moment ago. The bright smile has always hidden a sharp blade underneath, and now, it’s pointed towards her, light lining its edge.

“Sometimes, you can’t avoid getting hurt, especially in combat. Ivy understands that as much as you do. However, what hurt wasn’t that you were in pain.” She marks a pause. “What hurt her was that you got hurt in her stead, when you were already hurt and actively hiding it from her. She blames herself for what happened, and combined with the concern it caused her, it was painful to go through. I’d even go as far as to say she’s wondering if you trust her.”

“Oh…”

The lack of bite tells her this is finally dawning on him.

“I know you tried to do good, and deep down, I know Ivy understands that as well. She only got concerned, but that’s why you can’t always jump in front of danger and take hits for other people. What if you had been more grievously injured than you thought? Or worse, what if the blow had been fatal?”

“I see… how that would cause a lot of bad things.”

“Ivy cares about you as a person, and by doing that, you hurt her by accident, just like she would if she got injured in front of you. It’s a fine line to walk, because while you had good intentions, most of the consequences were the complete opposite of what you wanted. You also need to think of your self-preservation, when you think of taking a hit for someone else.”

“I am starting to see…”

“I don’t expect you to learn all of this in one go. If your culture is anything like Hoshido’s, it promotes sacrifice for the sake of the greater good. At least, this is what I got from fighting alongside Hoshidians.”

“Oh, please tell me more! I am curious to know about-”

A knock on the door.

“It’ll have to wait until next time, I’m afraid. It seems like you’ve got a visitor.”

“Oh!” He lightens up. “Come on in, friend!”

The door opens to unveil a slightly less anxious Ivy: her shoulders are hanging lower, her eyebrows are unknitted, and her hands aren’t fiddling as much as they did when Framme was looking over her retainer.

“It’s good to see you’re awake, Kagetsu,” she says with a timid smile. “How are you feeling?”

“A little sore, but I am alive, and soon enough, I will be full of vigour again!”

“I’m certain you will,” she chuckles, but the laugh disappears quickly. “There are things I want to discuss with you.”

She sits down, gaze unfaltering, at which point Camilla decides they deserve some privacy.

[jennawynn]

Chronotrek TOS to series finale

oops, I did it again... I forgot to update. got lost in the sauce. or something.

Honestly, I thought I had been updating at least once a season, but I guess not. Also got distracted binging the entire series of The Expanse in about a week over the holidays. BUT I just finished the Original Series. So I guess we'll go broad strokes since the play by play is pointless.

TLDR: How fucking disappointing an end.

Season 2-

Unlike much of TOS to new!Trek, T'Pring is spot on for appearance. Not that I think it's important or even a _good_ thing for most of them to be beholden to the original, but I was impressed by that. Though the whole 'property of the victor' thing is very squicky. I thought the Vulcans were 'evolved'. And then I guess he didn't gotta fuck after all.

By 2, Uhura's actually doing work. She's not just eye candy on the bridge. But then they have Jim say that finding a girl on the ship is losing an officer. Because women can't fucking exist without being partnered and can't be partnered and still work. This bullshit was actually still happening in the Navy when I was in. Men were unwilling to invest time and training in women because we'd just get married and get out to have babies anyway where a man is likely to stay in and retire. The men in my class in boot camp were told by their instructors that women join to find men, not because we actually wanted to serve or excel.

8- (Jim across the intercom) Scotty! Scotty! Stop getting your ass kicked and respond so I can tell you there's an intruder in your area! Scotty! Scotty, respond!

I hate this so much. Like when Jim and Uhura were in cells and the dude was obviously assaulting her and Jim kept shouting 'what's happening? are you ok? what's happening? what are you doing? are you ok?' like Jim, ffs, use some context clues, some deductive reasoning, and stop shouting for people to acknowledge you and DO SOMETHING.

Rainn Wilson was a good choice for Mudd in New!Trek though.

Why would they have to pay royalties? I thought this was post-currency? Post-scarcity? Is there still money?

9- This one was also squicky. So obsessed with gender. Body takeover, "love" that isn't recognized as such until it's wearing a pretty face. But of course one is a man and one is perceived as a woman so therefore let's change everything we thought so we can stay together and call it love.

10- Amanda's a pretty good reconstruction too, if aged down in New!Trek.

14- I wasn't expecting them to go the "Jack the Ripper is an immortal alien" route.

It always cracks me up when they cut to a super wide angle shot of a fight to sub in stunt doubles who are really obvious, though I suppose they wouldn't have been on a 60s tv.

19 Heeeey Dr. M'Benga!

This whole thing with the exotic witch women and how sexual she is and how she's dressed. Like that's not dumb enough, she lets herself get grappled more than once posturing with the phaser but defaulting to the dagger. Shoot one and they'd fall in line! But gotta keep reinforcing the idea that men are stronger than women.

21- Jim's look of indignation at Spock's statement that he would fit right in as a Nazi lmao

22- I don't know why I never realized that Trek is all (at least so far) in the Milky Way, that they don't even get as far as Andromeda.

26- so they can just. time travel. at will. what?

Season 3

3- hold up, roll that back. there's an ancient pregenitor superrace that seeded humanoids everywhere? This is the first I recall it being mentioned in Trek (though the trope or a version of it is also in the expanse, mass effect, etc.) "Preservers". Is it ever explored more? It's a surprise to Bones and maybe Spock too- certainly not common knowledge.

This is from before 3, but I really like the way Bones and Spock have this begrudgingly respectful relationship, like brothers. They tease and pick at each other, but have each others' backs against anything (besides Jim maybe)

4- Kirk can see the kid doing the thing. Fuckin' ground him.

Spock says fuck them kids.

Ugly = Bad was alive and well in the 60s.

5- And then they somehow have a discussion that Good =/= Beautiful in the very next episode.

Gen Obs- It feels like TOS spends more time on the bridge than other shows. The Bridge or the planet they're on. The other shows so far show more engine room, hallways, ready rooms, bunks, etc. Other places on the ship than just the bridge. They have them in TOS, but they seem underutilized. I don't have the data to back it up and couldn't find it (which was surprising to me).

Another obs- they overcommunicate for the audience's sake, but rarely with each other. Kirk never explains his thought process or orders to the people he leaves in command. When something planetside affects the ship, he doesn't tell them, he just says 'I'll take care of it down here'. His crew and his backup are often left in the dark.

13- There's so much in this one I don't like but the line about Kirk being into spanking made me smirk. Canonically in love with the Enterprise indeed.

14- Jim: Mr. Spock and I are brothers! Spock: Captain Kirk is speaking figuratively and with undue emotion Kirk: *offended face* Spock: However, what he says is logical and I do agree with it.

19 Kirk did seem to become more of a manwhore the longer the season went, no? Why did they all lose their shit so much around women? It's exhausting.

22- I love that Scotty gets to wear tartan/kilt in dress uniform.

heeeyyyy Kahless

24- And the disappointing end. In this idolized utopian setting, not only is it not permitted for a woman to be a starship captain, but then they "prove" that women are too emotional to command.

The last line of the whole series: "Her life could have been as rich as any woman's if only...."

Not as rich as any person's. And if only she'd been content to her 2nd class status and not pushed for equality. How fucking disappointing.

Everyone always points to 'the actresses WANTED to wear miniskirts because empowerment' when they talk about the sexism of the original series, and I tried to watch with that in mind, but that just feels like a smoke screen for the actual shitty sexist takes.

The show equates a woman with emotion and sexuality. She's a good officer right up until she falls in love (or someone falls in love with her), then she's just a woman- a liability and a pleasure object. They only use women in episodes that require someone to be or fall in love with them. Even Uhura and Chapel aren't completely immune, though they are the biggest exceptions and the only recurring female characters. Though of course Uhura's the comms officer (cause women talk) and Chapel's a nurse (not a doctor).

Like even if you remove the miniskirts and the gross inappropriate touching from the equation, there's still a lot of ick happening. They can imagine a future where the races are equal but not the sexes.

[rivalsforlife]

Kay and Tracy being Christmas FIENDS, like full on blasting Mariah Carey the moment the clock hits midnight post Thanksgiving. They both have always loved the holidays (maybe as a form of escapism for 2 lonely girls who have wanted a loving family for so long and made do with what they had) and the first year (Christmas #1) they are in their lawyer’s lives they were all to busy putting out fires* to properly celebrate or notice anything odd around the holidays in regards to each other

*(literally in Nick and Trucy’s case, girl was trying some advanced fire based tricks and oops, so they had Christmas at Kurain Village and it’s lovely if not the traditional Christmas Trucy wanted. Edgeworth got caught up in a marathon case that ended up chaining into a 3 week slog, crossing so many continents and time zones he ends up in locations that don’t really celebrate Christmas and he’s so lost in the investigation sauce he doesn’t even notice the date until (unless it’s clue based) like January 4th and he’s so tired he crashes in some hotel in Morocco for 4 days. Kay got sent back to Germany to stay with Fran after week one seemingly wrapped up and had to hunt Edgeworth down to help him in the last 4 day of week 3 and went sight seeing while Edgworth slept and lived off of room service at a 4 star hotel in Chefchaouen)

But this year! Christmas #2! Edgeworth and Nick are talking again! Trucy and Kay have meet and are basically sisters at this point! (Nick and Miles may or may not be dating yet??). Anyway, this year there’s going to be so much festive cheer and celebration and togetherness and it’s going to be awesome!!!!

And then Nick has to be like, ahhh girls maybe don’t include Edgeworth in your plans for…reasons? I don’t mind a crazy Christmas, go nuts decorating the office/apartment, but ummmm…yeah.

(Or worse, the girls kept their extensive holiday plans a secret to surprise Nick and Edgeworth and so they get their hopes up WAY high and have so many expectations that involve Edgeworth and uh oh)

In anycase, either they learn about the why, or they don’t because Edgeworth isn’t up for it at this point. Do you think:

They have a good, if less full Christmas that year while giving Edgeworth space

They have a quiet Christmas that does it’s best to accommodate Edgeworth

They have essentially trapped Phoenix and Edgeworth somewhere to celebrate Christmas (think remote cabin for some daft reason) and now they’re all stuck and it’s not going well and they have to confront lots of emotions…

Oops Edgeworth heard about their plans and doesn’t want to disappoint them and tries to force it, and the fallout of when he just can’t anymore taking up the rest of the season

CRAZY CHRISTMAS full of so many called in favours from both Phoenix and Edgeworth that involve magic and circuses and “fine” dining and cop car rides. And everyone is around all the time like Maya and Gumshoe and Larry, all except Edgeworth who is doing his best to rest and heal at home, who called in the favours but won’t partake and it’s for the best. And maybe after all the madness they have quiet 1 on 1 visits until Edgeworth works his way up to having a nice, sedate family night and dinner with no holiday trappings but all the famil he needs? (Maybe this will be Christmas #3 or 4 with them haha)

Unfortunately the first thing I was thinking of is that Trucy's second Christmas with Phoenix would be. um. 2020. so probably nothing asdgffdsfgh

BUT in a perfect world where the pandemic did not happen. Kay is at least a little bit aware of Edgeworth's Trauma, though maybe not likely to directly connect Christmas to it, but I feel like Trucy has so much emotional awareness that as soon as she would start bringing up Christmas around Edgeworth, and he was uncomfortable with it, she would immediately be able to clock that. I don't think Edgeworth is good enough at disguising his emotions to be able to get around most people, much less Trucy with her incredible perception skills. So I think for anything to happen they would have to not bring up Christmas around Edgeworth at all until their plans are in place.

Honestly I'm probably biased because I'm not big on celebrating holidays myself, but I think they'd settle with something more around 1 or 2 of your options. I think Edgeworth's trauma is less Christmas-centric and more Christmas being the big warning sign heralding the beginning of misery about DL-6 which lasts until the end of the year, so he could probably handle Christmas better than the 28th. I also think he does not like processing his trauma around other people, but over the years would be able to work his way up to small gatherings with the people he cares about to take his mind off of it, though I'm not sure he'd be there right away by year 2.

[echantedtoon]

A Champion Time For The Heart Ch9 Travels To Hulbury

(This chapter will contain a small time skip of events as well as a past fight between y/n and her mother in the story.)

You swore you needed both a doctor and a nice bed to sleep away the pains of soreness racking your body.

Ever since you four left Turffield it had been like the time you left Motostoke except a bit longer. Walking, camping at night, taking time out for resting between walks and gathering food. Mostly from berry trees or snacking from whatever nonperishable foods Leon had given you. Some night Victor managed to make one form of curry or another. Mostly bean or apple curry which you didn't mind too much but the apples tasted a bit strange in the curry sauce, so you fed them to your sobble which you noticed had now taken a habit of laying in your lap any chance you were sitting and expected to be fed whenever you held any kind of food. Oops. You might have ended up spoiling it a bit. Oh well. You didn't mind too much. It's smiles and noises were pretty cute, and at least Gloria was able to add a few more curry entries to her book. After what had happened at the pokemon Nursery back in Truffield you decided to fill in Gloria and Hop about the mysterious band of rock star wannabes, but they seemed to be as confused as you were about who they might've been working for and who they were. Hop even suggested that maybe the eccentric costumes were disguises to they're real identities, which seemed a bit farfetched but hey. You were transported into the video game world of pokemon, traveling along with a few of the characters, and for all you knew could still wake up at any moment to your mother scolding you for being late for college. It wasn't really too out there to rule out yet. While you four traveled every so often you'd rest and Hop and Gloria would scamper off to have a battle or more likely try to catch some new pokemon from where you were at. So you weren't all too surprised to find out Gloria caught herself a wild Dottler and Hop's Grookey evolving from the....seventh or eighth day now as you four traveled. You lost count or couldn't remember how many days had past after seven or eight. You were mostly tired now a days with a heaping dab of soreness in your back and neck from your uneasy sleeping schedule and the rocky ground poking you from the floor of the test. Or the fact the only thing you had for a pillow was your backpack, but you never complained. If it meant getting to Hulbury faster then you could deal with it. It was like when your mother insisted you stay up a few extra hours to study or when you had to work late at the radio station after that. You yawned more, movements slowing a bit, and you had gotten noticeable bags under your eyes. Buuut the three teens must've noticed because on what was the ninth day Gloria decided to point it out to you.

"Hey, Y/n. I really didn't want to say anything but are you feeling ok?" She pointed at your face. "You've been yawnin' ever since we left Turffield like a week ago. And you've gotten bags under your eyes big enough to carry luggage for a full week's vacation. "

In response you yawned again before looking to her. "M' fine. Jus a bit tired I guess." You stretched out your back as you walked making it pop. "Haven't really gotten much sleep just laying on the ground like a rock."

"Hey. I have good news." Victor all of a sudden held up his phone. When did he pull that out? And held it up to all of you. "There's a small town up ahead about another day's walk. It has a convenience store, hotel, and a few other things." He looked at you. "I think we should stop by. We can restock up on supplies and rest for the night at the hotel. That might help out Y/n's situation and prevent her from dropping from exhaustion anytime soon."

"Hey. I-I'm not that tired," you lied stifling another yawn....But the promise of a bed tho- "But you're right about needing some more supplies. I don't know how much food and necessities we have left, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to stop by and restock."

The food Leon lent would only last so long anyways. It was best for all parties involved. So it was decided the four of you would stop by the upcoming small town. It took another day and night of walking and resting (giving you another night of uncomfortable sleep) and then shoving off he next morning for the town. It took half the day but the four of you managed to happen upon the small town. And you do mean small. It couldn't have been much bigger than Postwick actually. There was around maybe twenty buildings and most of them were homes or doubled as homes as well as stores. As the four of you walked through the small town a few people walked by or waved, and you could hear a few children laughing. It certainly was very peaceful wasn't it? The peace made you even more tired- You were shaken awake when your sobble chirped loudly and smacked you with it's tail, making you stumble as you walk and if it weren't for the two boys catching you you would've faceplanted the road again. Which ended up in the three kids making up a decision for you.

"Let's go find the Inn first."

The inn turns out was one of the first buildings you came across when you took the small side road off of Route 5 here and the only building in the town that had three stories. It was more like a tall house than an Inn when the three of you entered, Gloria helping to steady your sleepy self. The inside looked very similar to Professor Magnolia's house. Very homey and welcoming. The elderly lady looked lightly surprised when the four of you came in with you fighting to keep awake for a little longer. Ok. So maybe the little sleep over nine or ten days was starting to get to you a little bit you haven't been this tired since studying for college entry exams in high school.

"Oh my. Are you children alright?," she ended up asking lightly standing from her seat seeing you lightly sway a bit.

You waved her off. "I'm fine. Just really tired."

"We'd like to book two rooms please with double beds," Victor explained to the lady throwing you a worried look. "Do you have any available?"

"Oh. Yes, we do. Come. I'll show you to your rooms. By the looks of your friend there, she's in dire need of a good rest." Whelp. No argument there. Luckily the rooms she had the four of you follow her towards a long hallway a little aways from the front desk before stopping and opening one door. "Here's the young mens. Bathroom's through the door on the left. And as for the two young ladies." She turned to a door right across from Hop and Victor's room and opened it. The room was pretty much as you suspected. A simple large room with two beds on each side of it, a shelf, window looking out onto a field, Tv, and a white door that you supposed led to a closet. "This'll be yours." She pointed at the door. "The bathroom is through there. We also have a laundry mat attachment in the adjacent building to the left if you youngsters need it. If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to ask."

"Uh yes actually. Do you happen to know where your town's convenience store is?,'' you heard Victor ask but you were too busy to deduce what else was said.

You managed to stay awake enough to take a quick shower and change before walking to the closest bed to you and just flopping face first on it. The soft cushions hugging your tired and sore body, and it was natural for you to fall asleep almost as soon as you hit the mattress. So it was no wonder that by the next time you woke up it was night time. Confused and dazed you managed to sit up blinking confused at the darkness around you, the only source of light coming from the moon shining through the window outside. Vaguely in the dark you could just barely make out Gloria's sleeping form on the other bed on the other side of the room. Her baby toxel at the foot of her bed. Your body was still tired with it being night so it was easy for you to fall back into slumber when you slowly laid your tired self back down, barely registering your sobble squirming next to you as you fell back asleep. And came to a strange sight. A sight you witnessed before in your life. One you were all too familiar with too. ....You...You were back in your room. Well a younger you at least. You were about sixteen then just minding your own business sitting there and playing games. Couldn't remember which one just that you were enjoying yourself playing and sitting on your bed playing the day away. Until younger you looked up at footsteps approached your room, the next thing your younger self knew your door flew open with a bang and it started the younger you so much you ended up dropping your old switch on your bed jumping from the sound. And there she was. Your mother standing there with an angry scowl on her face.

"You're playing those stupid games again!?," she snapped at younger you, stomping over and quickly wrenching the switch from your bed.

In an instant your hand was reaching out for it. "HEY! Give that back."

But instead of that, your mother only held it up higher with her angry face. "Is THIS what I work to provide for you!?"

You had stopped. Frozen in surprise at the words foaming at your mother's mouth and the game she waved at your face.

"Is THIS what you think is fair to me!? I work day and night to provide a roof over your head, food in your stomach, and clean running water for all you do is to sit on your behind and play these mind rotting things!? To make the electricity bill higher than Mount Everest with you staying up all night playing this day in and out!?"

"M-Mom! C'mon! I'm sorry," younger you backpaddled.

"You should be! I'm not raising you to be lazy and unresponsible!" The game was tossed back onto the bed with a small thump before she pointed at you. "Work and studies should be your number one priority right now! I don't want to catch you slacking off wasting time again! Do I make myself clear?"

Younger you looked at your mother's angry face for a long moment before looking away and nodding. "Yes, Mom."

"That's good. Make sure it doesn't happen again. Alright, Y/n?"

.....

...........

"Hey, Y/n!," a distant girl's voice called, "Are you awake?"

"I dunno. Maybe we should just let her sleep? She was really tired when we got here yesterday," a young boy's voice said worried.

"Hop's gotta point, Glory. Let her sleep in. She'll need all the rest she can get for traveling."

"Ah. You guys are no fun."

Silently the world of younger days faded away to black and the voices became murmurs in the dark abyss that was sleep until you finally woke up from your now dreamless slumber. Which wasn't too long. You slowly woke from your sleep and was greeted with the sunlight making your tired eyes blink as you rubbed them and blinked at the surroundings around yourself at the simple room that wasn't your younger self's from the dream. What the-....Where were you? Did you finally wake up from the pokemon world dreamland you formed up? Were you back home? Did you move into the college dorms and forgot you did? Is that why this room looked strange to you? That hope was all but dashed in a moment when movement under the blanket next to you caught your attention and you looked. A small lump under the blanket the size of a small cat moved around until it moved towards the end of it near your arm and your sobble poked it's head out blinking tiredly and gave out a yawn crawling the rest of the way out. You gave a sigh, shaking your head before smiling and holding out your arm and letting the sobble crawl into your hands. You were still tired but rather than go back to sleep, you opted to tossing the blanket off yourself and got up with your sobble in your hands holding him up to your face.

"Well, I guess it's time to start the day huh?"

You managed to get a few things done. Morning shower, got dressed, and made your first stop the laundry mat across from the hotel after asking the elderly woman at the front desk for directions. Just something to do to help take your mind off the strange dream that had happened. You had started to wonder where the three children had run off to now but it was only after you were coming back with your now cleaned clothes and your sobble curled upon your shoulders did you run into them. Or Hop at least. He was just walking past the door when you opened it and almost ran into him. Thankfully stopping at just the right moment as he paused and blinked.

"Oh. Hey, Y/n!," he greeted with a smiling and shifting the box in his hands, "Glad to see you're awake now."

"Hi," you greeted back before raising a brow at the box he held. "What's that you're carrying?"

"Oh this?," he asked holding up the box and you nodded. "The old lady needed help clearing out her old storage room. She offered to pay me to help out so Im taking this to the broom closet down the hall here. Glory and Vick are doing some Pokejobs too." The confusion must've doubled on your face because he seemed to take notice. pokejobs?? What the heck are pokejobs?! "OH! Right. There's no possible way you could've known what those are. I keep forgetting you're not native to Galar. Pokejobs are jobs people upload into the rotomis."

".....Say what?," you asked still totally confused to what Hop was even saying.

He sighed. "Pokejobs. How do I describe them?....It's kinda like how newspapers have ads. If someone has a job they need help with they send a post to their rotomi profile, then if someone wants to make some money they can look on the Pokejobs Rotomi Forum for a job in their specific area. There was a few listed in the Rotomi at the town's covience store." He held up the box again. "Like this one. We figured it wouldn't hurt to make a little bit of money in case of emergencies too."

"That...sounds like a great idea. But where are the other two now?"

He shrugged. "Glory took a job that involved babysitting and I think Victor's helping someone here with a garden."

Well that sounded like a good way to earn a bit of money while you were waiting. As to pass the time you decided to help Hop once you had finished returning your clothes to your bag. The elderly woman seemed rather grateful for the help provided. In the manner of speaking it wasn't too difficult work. Most of the boxes were pretty light mostly filled with cleaning supplies or old blankets. That explains why she was having Hop move them to the big supply closet down the hall. When you asked about it she explained she had wanted to turn it into another bedroom for the busier traveling seasons, makes sense. One extra room to rent means one extra way to make some money. You helped rehome the boxes and cleaned it out by dusting and sweeping to pass the time away. When it came to paying you declined the money offered and made sure Hop received it instead. After all it was originally his job, you just helped to pass time, and it'd be wrong to piggyback on his hard earned money after all. But you did however accept the free room service for later when she offered instead. Free food was a reward you had no trouble accepting, especially considering you hadn't eaten anything since you woke up and all the exercise you had done in helping to clean out the room. Hop though was thankful for your help and expressed so as much. It was when the two of you were heading out did you finally bump into said twins. Gloria was carrying two large paper bags but you had to do a double take when you noticed Victor looked....well remember how dirty you were after being bowled over by Milo's wooloo? Victor looked like he got ran over by ten wooloo during a sand storm.

"Whoa. What happened to you?"

He grabbed his hat and shook the grey beanie out letting dirt fall to the ground. "Well. As it turns out the ad for 'helping to remove unwanted weeds and debry from the garden' also happened to include a wild munchlax who didn't want to leave. I had to half wrestle half chase the thing out."

"Oh wow. Glad to see you got paid tho."

He huffed but Gloria smiled holding up the bags in her hands. "But on the bright side we managed to stock up enough for the rest of our trip to Hulbury! Glad to see you're up and feeling better too, Y/n!"

You nodded. "Yeah. Feeling better thanks-"

"OH! That reminds me!" You were cut off when Gloria suddenly shoved one of the bags into your arms as you blinked. The inside held food and other things you'd have to use in order to get to Hulbury. She went digging through the other bag, eventually pulling out a rolled up, sleeping bag looking thing that must've made up half that bag's weight. "Here! I noticed you probably weren't sleeping well cuz you didn't have one of these here. Turns out the convivence store is also a supply store, so I was able to get you one of these."

You slowly took the rolled up sleeping bag from Gloria and gave it a look over before looking back to her. "I-...Thank you. But you didn't have to get me this. I would've been fine without it."

"I know but you would've just kept getting bad sleep if I didn't, and it won't hurt me from what I earned from winning against Milo's anyways. Besides, I can now call it even from when you saved our hides back in Postwick."

You smiled and decided to accept this gift with a nod. "Alright. We're even. But have you decided when you wanted to leave yet?"

"First thing tomorrow morning. After seeing you stumble 'round like a zombie with a headache, we decided to let ya sleep in since you were so tired. But since it's getting later anyways, we figured we'd spend one more night here and leave early in the morning."

"Oh that's a great plan cuz Y/n got us some free room service from helpin' out around here."

Gloria's eyes widened at her friend's words. "Wait. REALLY!?"

"How about we let Victor get cleaned up first before we do anything?"

The four of you did just that for the night. Packed away all the goods they brought back with them. Hopefully it'll last enough for the rest of the very long walk to Hulbury. And after everyone was done packing their share and Victor was cleaned up, you ate. No surprise it was more curry but you chose to accept that at this point that curry was a very important part of Galar's culture and hey. Free food was free food. Nothing to complain about here. And if Gloria could fill in more of her Curry Dex book then it was good enough for you too. Luckily it seemed with the new sleeping bag things might get easier for you when you all start traveling again. Which is exactly what happened. The very next morning the four of you set off as soon as Victor paid for the two day stay at the front desk, and it was back onto Route 5 the four of you went walking. And walking and walking. It was basically the same as before until night came and the four of you set up camp in a small clearing, giving you the chance to use the new sleeping bag Gloria had gotten you. And it worked like a charm. You still had to use your arms as a pillow but otherwise it was much more comfortable to sleep now. And then the next day the four of you were at it again. This time listening to Victor's adventures traveling around since he had started his own journey at least a year before Gloria's. Mentioning of all the different places and events around Galar he had been so far and you were impressed at his tales of capturing so many wild shiny pokemon in his photos, going so far to show you all a few places he took photos of. One being the giant clock tower back in Motostoke.

"So does that mean you've been to Halbury before?," you asked curiously glancing at the pictures in his hands.

He nodded. "I've been there once, but not for long. I did see the Hulbury Water-Type Aquarium and Research Center. They have every water type pokemon you could imagine, some of them are from different regions as well. That's where I got most of the photo's of water type pokemon I gave to Glory. Nessa was a huge sponsor for it's development. It's also a research department to study water-types as well as their environments and biology." He hummed and looked up. "I think it's also where most Professors get their sobbles for starting trainers."

You gave a look to your sobble. "You hear that? Looks like we're heading to your home town." In response it smiled and gave a small chirp. "Does that mean you've seen Nessa before?"

He shook his with a sigh as you all walked. "Sadly no. But I've heard she's so busy between her modeling and gym leader duties she'll only do one gym battle a day due to her busy schedules, and that's considering if there's nothing important going on for her."

"So depending on the time and amount of trainers heading for Hulbury right now, we could end up waiting longer than we did for Milo's gym battle."

"Ah man!" Hop leaned back putting both arms behind his head. A habit you learnt he did whenever he was annoyed or thinking about something. "That could take forever then....but considering Nessa's Gym would've been one of the farthest from the Turffield Stadium, I'd like to bet not a lot of people would go for hers first and instead went back to Motostoke to challenge Kabu or someone else who was closer....Hm. I wonder if that's why Mr. Milo suggested we go see Nessa after our battle with him. We haven't run into any other Gym Challengers yet. Route 5 is less trafficked."

"Or those rockstar blokes," you thought as you gave another look around at the half field half forested areas you four were traveling past. But that was probably a good thing you hadn't seen them. You wouldn't want them causing you more trouble.

"There Hop goes all smart again!"

"H-Hey! Im just makin' an observation!"

"Well make an observation on that map. How much longer until we get there?"

Hop answered that after pulling out his phone and turning it on, pressing a few buttons. "...About two and a half weeks left."

This...Was going to be a long trip.

And you weren't wrong. Most of the trip was the same day in and day out. Eat, sleep, make camp, walk lots, stop for breaks, maybe a battle would happen every once and a while between Hop and Gloria or maybe they'd try to catch a pokemon every now and then. And you watched her start to carry around that baby Toxel more, usually in her arms like a cat but sometimes in her bag too with his little head poking out looking around. Victor making the comment that now the both of you would be pokemon taxis. It took quite a while of this old routine before you four even got to another town, with a train station. Breaking out of a small wooded area there was clearings now of flat land and Route 5 lead you all to a crossing across the railroad tracks and lead into a small town...Well you weren't sure if you could call it a town per say. It was more like a few homes a little bit a ways from the obvious train station the four of you took refuge in for a break. In the mean time Victor took out his phone once more and decided to flip through the rotom phone he had on your four's location.

"......Hey!," he shouted making you all look at him as he held up the phone all towards you. You leaned closer to get a better look at the screen he pointed to. "According to the map we're a four day walk away from Hulbury. Nearly there!"

"Oh thank Arceus!," Gloria sighed, "I was getting so tired of just walking around like a migrating murkrow."

"And you wonder why I was worried about you rushing into your journey."

"Hey!"

The next few days weren't very eventful or memorable. Just the same rinse and repeat scenarios your small group had been experiencing for the past month or so, until you FINALLY saw it. Well smelt it first would be more accurate. You all were walking up a steep hill that the path was connected too and that's when you smelt something like salt air. You had only been to a beach a few times but there was no mistaking it. Saltwater. And then you heard a very loud horn. It was loud enough to startle your Sobble into ducking behind your head and you perk up. If one had to guess, you would've said it sounded either like a train's whistle or a boat horn. Blinking as shadows flew overheard, you realized they were wild wingulls. ...Wait. Weren't those bird pokemon always like close to water?? You blinked. Shaking your head and hurrying your pace up the hill until the four of you finally made it. From the high point the view was high enough to let the four of you look a good ways ahead and still far but much closer now, maybe a day's travel. What was unmistakenly the glistening blue of the ocean as far on the horizon as you could see, that lead to the coast that clashed with the beginnings of it. The horn you heard was most likely one of the many boats you could faintly make out on the glistening blue and the unmistakable town that was nestled up against it all. It wasn't too big by the looks of it. Definately not Motostoke size, but it was definately bigger than Turffield and Postwick and you could make out the unmistakable structure of a stadium way over there.

Victor pointed with a smile towards the faint town. "There's Hulbury! We're nearly there!"

"Good. Let's get stepping before it gets too dark. If we hurry we'll be there by tomorrow."

And indeed you all were. Traveling until it was sundown, and you decided to set up camp for the night, only to pack up quickly and leave at the first sign of light the very next morning. It was somewhere around ten in the morning when you all finally made it. Seeing the town and beautiful ocean coming into view and getting closer, and closer the more and more you walked. Until you all finally arrived. First walking under a bridge connecting between two large hills, on top of one hill leading to a train station, the familiar pink building of the pokemon center greeted you next as the dirt path of Route 5 changed into concrete streets. Another loud horn shot off to the right of you and as you all looked over there was a giant port with as you suspected lots of ships and boats. Bigger than in game you imagined too. You inhaled a long sigh, the taste of salt on your tongue. If it wasn't for the many boats near the port and other people, you wouldn't have minded just standing there for a moment in the road. But since you didn't want to waste anymore time you sighed and turned to Gloria.

"So." She looked at you and blinked. "What's the plan here?"

"We go to the gym-"

"We head to the hotel-"

Both twins looked at each other for a moment, before Victor cleared his throat.

"I think we should head to the Hulbury's residential hotel first. Just in case one of us have to wait for a gym battle to open we'd have somewhere to stay tonight."

"Well I think we should head to the gym before anyone else gets here," she countered back one arm holding her Toxel and the other placed onto her hip. "It's still pretty early in the morning. If there's a chance no one got there yet one of us could get a spot! Right Hop?"

"Actually, personally I'm kinda hungry and wanted to check out that famous restaurant Hulbury's supposed to have." he mumbled but got ignored by the scowling twins.

You sighed again shaking your head. Teenagers. "How about this?" You held up a hand catching the three's attention. "We'll split up." You suggested. "If we do that we can get things done faster. You two can check out the gym and your brother can get us situated for the night because personally I'd like to take a break from camping, and then Victor can check into the gym as well. Then we can meet back up and get some breakfast..." You looked up towards the sky. "Or lunch depending when we're done."

Victor hummed. "...That doesn't sound like a bad idea actually and it could actually save us time. Now that I think about it, we're probably low on supplies anyways. While we're doing that Y/N can take a list of what we need and get it from the local super market here."

"I like that plan! We can meet up at the Light house."

And so it was agreed. After going through your inventory, and having Victor quickly scribble down a list of things you all needed, the four of you split off. Victor heading in the same direction as the other two with his phone's map out (you guessed the hotel and the stadium must've been down the same road) and you towards the docks list and borrowed money in hand. In all honestly you were just as hungry as the others but that could wait. It didn't take you too long to find Hulbury's local convenience store, it didn't take you all long as well to fill up the considerably large bags of travel foods and start carrying them off back off towards the direction of the light house. ....Only...there was one problem. You had absolutely no idea which direction the lighthouse was in, and with the giant bags of supplies to be split between the four of you obstructing your view, it made it harder to see by all accounts as you tried peeking around and over the large bags. Stumbling a bit and almost bumping into a few people walking past you, they gave you an odd look before carrying on. Certainly didn't help when your sobble gave a small chirp before literally climbing into one of the bags to which you panicked a little. The last thing you needed was him eating the food you just bought especially since it wasn't bought with your money!

"Hey! Bad pokemon!," you shouted jiggling the bags a bit, "You get out of there right now! You're not supposed to be in there!" The sobble peeked itself out over the edge of one of the bag's hearing it's master's voice as you frowned, and you didn't see where you were walking as you walked. "I'm serious! You can't just crawl in there! Out no- Oof!?"

"HEY!?," shouted a woman's voice.

You rammed into something or someone solid and you stumbled back, by some miracle not dropping the bags, and up righted yourself for a moment. Blinking you turned sideways to look at who you bumped into and were met with another woman who was looking at you with a bewildered look like everyone else who saw you walking around like this. The woman had a dark skin complexation with dark black hair with pretty blue streaks and eyes that were bluer than the ocean. What looked like a sports uniform adorned her body. She blinked at you as you stared before you seemed to blink and shake your head.

"Oh. Sorry about that, Miss," You apologized shifting two off the four bags in your arms. "I didn't see you there."

"Uh..Yes, I could tell." She ran an eye over the two bags in your arms and the other two hanging off your elbows. "That's a lot of groceries you're carrying there." Her eyes stopped at the little blue pokemon poking out of the top of one of the bags as it shoved a blue berry into it's mouth.

"Oh. It's not just for me actually. I'm traveling with some others and we needed this stuff." You followed her gaze and you gained a frown when you saw the sobble shove another berry into it's mouth. "HEY!" It fell back into the bag startled with a chirp....but slowly peeked the top of it's head and eyes back over to look at your scowl. "I said NO. Now you get out of there right now! If you're hungry I'll get you something else."

"Oh. Is this little one yours?," both of you looked over as the woman attempted to reach out and pet the sobble. Which resulted in your sobble giving off a sound of fright and immediately scuttle out from the bag in a hurry.

"HEY-" You leaned your head back as it jumped on your head and clung to your hair giving the other woman wide eyes of worry. You grumbled...but sighed and nodded. "Yeah. Sorry 'bout that. He's not used to strangers I guess."

With a smile, the woman placed a hand on her hip and studied the two of you. "Most sobble are, but it seems this one has become very attached to you."

You blew the sobble's tail from your face. "Believe me you don't know the half of it. Say. Could you tell me where I can find the lighthouse? I'm supposed to meet my friends there."

"Sure. I was actually heading towards the stadium actually. The light house is right next to it," she gestured to your bags. "I could even help you if you'd like."

You gave a relieved sigh. "Really?! Yes, thank you. That'd be a huge help."

You happily let the woman take two of the bags you were carrying and you followed her as she motioned for you to follow her. Gloria and Hop were most likely already waiting for you as they had first gone to the stadium and possibly Victor if he hadn't gotten side tracked or anything. As the two of you walked you took the chance to look around at the town. Seemed like the beach down you had gone to before the few times you went to the beach. As you glanced at the woman helping you out you couldn't help but...notice something. Did she seem familiar to you somehow?....You shook your head. Nah. Must've just been your imagination. She must've just looked like someone you've seen before. That's all. The both of you walked from the docks, past what looked like a restaurant of some sort, back towards the Pokemon Center before taking a right and heading down the same path the teens took when the four of you parted ways. From that point the two of you walked down a road with houses on one side and a fence overseeing the ocean on the other. There was a LOT more houses than you remembered in game so it took a good twenty minutes before you even saw the stadium as both of you passed a flight of concrete stairs leading up the hill towards the train station. You looked up and at the stadium as it's shadow loomed over you as you both walked past it. Unlike Milo's stadium this one seemed rather quiet right now even if it was as HUGE as his was. The gym leader mustn't be battling anyone right now where ever she was. As you two continued to walk past it, you blinked seeing a tall structure up ahead which was unmistakably a light house, letting you sigh in relief. FINALLY!! You sighed in relief at seeing the structure and sped up your pacing a bit as the two of you rounding the corner the path lead towards the lighthouse and that's when you noticed the figures standing there. One or two strangers were there taking a picture next to the statues or the ocean view, but there was three you recognized easily as the twins and Hop. They all seemed happy to see you at first. But soon those happy faces turned into surprised and shocked ones the closer you walked. Victor even shaking his head and blinking as you approached.

"Uh...Hey, Y/n. Whatcha got there?"

"Our supplies," you replied arms all sore and tired from the long walk over. Victor blinked as you shoved the two bags you were holding into his arms. "Here. Take these. Im beat." They continued to stare at you even as you turned to the woman and take the other two heavy bags from her. Your brow rising as you turned and saw their wide eyed looks. "....Are you three alright? You all look like you've seen a ghost."

"...Y/n. Do you even know WHO that is?!," Gloria asked pointed towards the woman and you turned to look at her again..before shrugging.

"She helped me out. Thanks by the way."

She nodded. "It was my pleasure."

"Don't you even know who that is!?" Gloria groaned at your utterly confused face as you blankly stared and as a result pointed right at the smiling woman next to you. "You literally don't know!? THAT'S NESSA!! Like the Gym Leader Nessa! The person we traveled all the way here to see!"

You blinked before looking back to Nessa as she glanced at you. "...Oh. Thanks for the help again. It was very nice of you."

She nodded again. "Your welcome. And you." She glanced over to Gloria who still stared in disbelief at her. "You must be a gym challenger right? You're one of the ones endorsed by Leon right?"

Gloria stared at her a little longer before Hop nudged her making her flinch. "HUH!? I mean- Y-Yeah! O-One of them." She gestured to Hop next to her. "And he's one o' the other ones."

"Hello, Ma'am." Hop smiled and waved. "I'm Hop and this is Gloria and that's Victor. You uh...Weren't at the stadium when we went there."

"My apologies," Nessa apologized as you turned back to her. OH! Now you could recognize her easily. She was on the cover of that magazine Gloria showed you and you vaguely remembered seeing her back at the entrance ceremony. "But I just got back from a boating shoot and I've already promised someone else a battle for later today. But I must say, you've become something of a hot topic among the gym leaders."

"Wait. We are?"

She chuckled. "Are you kidding me? Leon never stops talking about how awesome his little brother is and how he's just the smartest kid ever to come out of Postwick."

Hop coughed and scratched at his head in embarrassment. "Well...I wouldn't say that."

"I mean. He's not wrong. You're pretty smart."

"Glory! Don't embarrass me like Mum please!," he begged red faced.

You decided to help give him a break. "I had no idea he spoke so highly of Hop." You spoke to Nessa. Although you wouldn't be surprised considering how hyped up Hop got about Leon, and how loving Leon was to them.

She chuckled again before reaching behind her and pulling something out of her pocket. Well two somethings. "Here you go, Ms. Famous. I already heard about you, so you should learn more about me too." She held out what you made out as cards to Hop and Gloria as the two wide eyed teens took them in disbelief.

"OMG! Another League Card!! Thank you so much, Ms. Nessa! Does this mean you'll be able to battle one of us tomorrow?"

She nodded. "Sure. Just speak to one of my staff at the stadium and we can schedule a battle in the next two days for three." She then pointed behind her. "But I had better head to the stadium. I can't delay my scheduled battle anymore than I've already had."

You nodded in understanding. "We understanding completely, Miss. Thanks again for the help."

She nodded towards you. "I love fishing, but I love pokemon battles even more and I'm itching for a battle with you. Hopefully we'll get to battle real soon." With a wave towards you four, Nessa turned on her heel and began to walk away.

You waved back before turning back to the three teens staring back at you. ".....What?"

"HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW WHO THAT WAS WITH YOU!?,'' Gloria shouted gesturing to where Nessa walked off to which you shrugged again.

"Sorry? I was a little busy with something more important at the moment and I guess I wasn't paying too much attention to her. But she seemed very nice. But how did your guys' lil trip go?"

"I managed to book us a hotel here for a couple nights," Victor answered before gesturing his head over towards the other two. "And we're all set up to fight, but someone already beat us for a spot today."

"Oh. Who?"

"The Mareep Head!," Gloria huffed one hand one her hip and the other waving the small League Card in the air. Mareep Head- OH! She must've been referring to Bede. He must've been the one Nessa was rushing off to battle then. "We just waltzed on in and there he was acting all smug like he jus' won the whole challenge already. He even asked if I "Got Hatenna's good side' on camera. Psh! He's such a stuck up mudbray!"

You could only nod juggling the groceries in your arms. "I...see. Well since there's nothing we can do right now for the moment, why don't we just go back to the hotel Victor mentioned and take care of these?"

Victor nodded in agreement tugging his own bags along as you both turned with Gloria mumbling behind you all the way to the hotel.