#except for like One (aforementioned tree guy)

[klonoadoortophantomile]

why do all of my mutuals who played skylanders when they were younger only care abt swapforce this is so sad

[dixons-sunshine]

Hiii! First of all i love love love your writing i get so excited every time i see you’ve posted ❤️ i was wondering if i could request a daryl x fem!reader where they’re just chilling out watching a silly cartoon and he’s finally relaxing and happy to be with his girl, maybe it could be young daryl it’s up to you. Thank you for producing such good work for us all to read!!! 🫶

Selfish | Young!Daryl Dixon x Young!Fem!Reader

*GIF isn't mine.*

Summary: When you woke up and walked into the kitchen, you didn't expect to find your mom sitting there with a man you didn't know. And you certainly didn't expect the man to go off on your boyfriend when you didn't even know who he was.

Genre: Fluff, teeny bit of angst.

Era: Pre outbreak.

Part of the Shopping Spree, Hangout Dreams AU.

Warnings: Swearing, suggestive themes.

Word count: 2.7k.

A/n: I hope you don't mind, but I already had an idea for my next installment to this universe, and thought this idea would work well with an idea I already had. To be honest, this isn't my best work and I feel like the plot is all over the place, but I hope you like this nonetheless!

➳༻❀✿❀༺➳

The moon was shining brightly in the night sky, surrounded by the twinkling of millions of beautiful stars. Crickets were chirping outside in the grassy areas and owls were hooting from their spots in the trees. All the inhabitants of the trailer park were in their homes, tucked in and ready for a good night's rest.

Everyone except you and Daryl.

“M'tellin' ya, this cartoon ain't all tha'. S's'posed to be 'bout a talkin' dog helpin' reveal the culprits tha' ain't actual ghosts, yet him and tha' green shirt guy still believe in ghosts. Even after all the mysteries they solved, they still believe in 'em. S'fuckin' ridiculous.”

You rolled your eyes at him, crossing your arms over your chest and letting out a huff, albeit a playful one. “So you're telling me, real or not, that if a guy who looked like a ghost was threatening to kill you, you wouldn't run?”

“Nah, I'd run fer the fuckin' hills, I ain't denyin' tha',” Daryl stated, lazily picking at the dead skin on his thumb. “But c'mon, these guys are s'posed to be professionals. They unveil criminals tha' dress up as monsters fer a livin'. Ya can't be a fuckin' pussy durin' somethin' tha's yer job.”

“Okay, then, smartass,” you replied playfully, lightly shoving his shoulder. You giggled when Daryl wrapped his arm around you and pulled you tightly against his side, pressing a soft kiss to your temple. “How about we watch that roadrunner cartoon you like?”

Daryl's eyes lit up. “Yer serious?” he asked, excitement lacing his tone.

You nodded and nuzzled your head into his chest, flicking through the channels with the remote until you found the aforementioned cartoon. Daryl pressed a kiss to the top of your head, before wrapping his arms around you and resting his chin on top of your head. The two of you sat there, cuddled up under the blankets, simply enjoying the serene moment.

Daryl couldn't believe how lucky he got with you. After nearly a year together, the two of you were still going strong. The so-called "honeymoon phase" that people said wore off after a few months into the relationship didn't falter between the two of you. What you and Daryl shared ran much deeper than just a phase. The two of you worked hard at your relationship, making compromises and being open with one another. Daryl wasn't the most open person, but for you, he tried. Likewise, there were things you didn't normally do that you did for Daryl—you weren't the most keen person on catching fish, but you did it for him, just because he liked it. Your love for one another ran deep, so it was unlikely for the happy, giddy feeling to wear off. That spark between the two of you would never burn out.

Your laugh suddenly echoed through the trailer, soon followed by Daryl's own chuckles at a particularly funny scene in the cartoon. Daryl looked down at you in awe, marveling at how beautiful you looked. Your eyes sparkled in the light that the television emitted and your smile was more radiant than anything he's ever seen before.

Yeah, Daryl Dixon knew he was the luckiest guy on the planet.

Before he could fully register what he was doing, Daryl cupped your cheek and turned your head to him, pressing his lips against yours in a firm, passionate kiss. You were surprised at first but ultimately sunk into the feeling of his lips on yours. The kiss soon escalated from loving and sensual to heated and lustful. Daryl picked you up and helped you onto his lap, quietly groaning when you lightly grinded your hips against his, putting a pleasurable amount of pressure against his growing erection.

You pulled away slightly, resting your forehead against his. “Do you want to take this to my room?” you asked in a whisper.

You giggled when he stood up while holding you firmly against him, not saying anything. You wrapped your legs around him, and he walked the short distance to your room, kicking the door shut behind him when he reached it.

The cartoon playing on the television was forgotten of for the rest of the night.

➳༻❀✿❀༺➳

Soft, feathery light kisses all over his face, shoulder blade and arm was what Daryl Dixon awoke to the next morning. Blinking away the last remnants of sleep from his mind, he turned over in the bed and locked eyes with you. You looked like a goddess to him at that moment, the sun gleaming through the window giving you a golden-like aura. You were wearing your shorts from the prior night, but you were wearing his shirt instead of your own. However, he didn't complain.

“Good morning, handsome,” you greeted him, giving him a cheerful smile.

Daryl gave you a lopsided smile in return, adjusting his head on the pillow. “Would be a better mornin' if I got a kiss,” he spoke in his raspy morning voice, sending shivers down your spine at the sound.

Complying with his not-so-subtle request, you leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to his lips. You pulled away after a few seconds, bringing your hand up to brush through his hair.

“I'm gonna make us some breakfast. Throw on a pair of pants and come meet me, okay?” you told him, your hand lingering on his cheek for a moment before withdrawing.

Daryl nodded as he watched you stand up, adjusting the sheets around him as he became painfully aware that he was as naked as the day he was born under them. “Alrigh',” he started, his eyes slowly trailing over your form, appreciating the way you looked in his shirt. “Ya look good, sunshine.”

“Thank you,” you replied, sending him a smile, before finally making your way out of your room.

You closed the door behind you and made your way to the kitchen, but stopped in your tracks when you saw your mom sitting at the table with a man you've never seen before in your life. The two were engaged in a heated argument, not even noticing your presence.

“For the love of god, Henry! You can't just come here and demand to see her after seventeen years of nothing! We've been doing just fine without you or your money, so you can leave, just like you did all those fucking years ago!”

“She's my daughter too, Cecilia! I have every right to see her.”

“Mom?” you questioned confusedly, finally making your presence known.

Your mom turned her head to you, her eyes widening in horror. However, before she could say anything, the man called Henry stood up, sending you a strained smile.

“Princess?” he questioned you, taking a step towards you.

You took a step back, unexpectedly making contact with someone behind you. You stumbled but a familiar pair of arms encircled you, steadying you. You turned your head and locked eyes with your boyfriend's beautiful blue ones.

“Wha's goin' on?” he asked you, slightly standing behind you to hide his bare upper body from your mom's and the unknown man's view. He was suddenly painfully aware that his scars were on display to a person who he did not know, and that made him want to shrink into himself and disappear.

Instantly picking up on what he was feeling, you moved to stand in front of him. You eyed the man standing in front of you warily, sending questioning glances to your mom.

“Mom? What's going on?” you asked her, feeling extremely uncomfortable under the man's intense stare. It wasn't uncommon for your mom to see you and Daryl walking out of your room in the morning—she was well aware of why he stayed over most of the time—but it certainly was the first time that she had an unknown man with her in the morning.

“Who's this?” the man asked, a slight bit of anger lacing his tone. “What the fuck are you doing sniffing around my daughter, boy?”

“What?!” you exclaimed in surprise, your eyes widening. “What the actual fuck are you talking about?”

“Sweetheart, please calm down. I can expl—”

“Shut up!” the man cut her off, turning towards you. “I come over to meet my daughter and this is what I walk in on? A fucking orgy? You couldn't even find someone better than some redneck?”

Daryl visibly stiffened. He ducked his head to avoid the man's harsh glare, uncomfortable with the way he dissected him with his eyes. The man had taken one look at Daryl and decided that his worth was nonexistent.

“Leave him out of this,” you warned him, snapping out of your confusion. Nobody had the right to target Daryl, especially not some man who, if he was your father, ran away seventeen years ago. “You don't get a say in who I date or not. And if you really are my father, what the hell makes you think that you can come in here after seventeen years and expect me to welcome you with open arms? What makes you think that you get to come into our home and play the man of the house? I don't know who you are, and after the last few minutes with your behaviour, I have no interest in getting to know you. You can go to hell.”

“Henry,” your mom jumped in, lightly shoving him back. “Get the fuck out of here before I call the cops.”

The man glared at you and your mom, before shifting his attention to Daryl again. “Well,” he started, scoffing and turning around to leave. “Like mother, like daughter. Seems like trying to get knocked up in high school is a hereditary gene.” He paused before turning back to you. “If you're smart, you can come find me at that motel near the bar. I'll be staying there.”

“Get the fuck out!” your mom yelled angrily, pushing him out.

Shutting the door once the bitter man was gone, your mom turned to you and Daryl. She looked at you sheepishly, a deep frown on her face.

“Guys, I'm so sorry,” she apologized sincerely.

“Mom, what was that?” you asked, allowing Daryl to pull you into his side, your boyfriend instantly recognizing your anxiousness. “Was that really—?”

“Your father?” she finished for you. “He is, but I really wish he wasn't.”

Your breath got caught in your throat. Unwillingly, you felt a lump form in your throat, the recent play of events turning your whole world upside down. For years, it had just been you and your mom. Your father was practically a ghost story, only being regarded as your "sperm donor". Yet there he had been mere minutes ago, standing in front of you. You felt overwhelmed, and you could feel your throat constricting.

You had to get out of there.

“I have to go,” you weakly mumbled out, withdrawing from Daryl's hold and pushing past your mom and heading out the door, walking in a familiar direction.

“Sweetheart, wait!” your mom called after you, but to no avail—you were already gone.

Daryl placed a hesitant hand on your mom's shoulder, bringing her attention to him. “I'll get her. I know where she's goin'.”

Your mom offered him a weak smile. “Thank you, Daryl,” she thanked him, vaguely motioning over to the laundry hamper at the other end of the room. “You left one of your shirts here the other day. It's in there.”

Nodding, Daryl walked over and grabbed the shirt, slipping it over his head—he was glad that his scars were once again hidden from plain view. Sparing your mom one last glance, Daryl ran out of the trailer and in the direction where you had disappeared.

A few minutes later, Daryl ended up by the river. There, just as he had predicted, you sat, your knees brought up to your chest, your bare feet resting in the cool water. You were staring straight ahead, clearly deep in thought.

“Figured I'd find ya here,” Daryl spoke softly as he sat down next to you, successfully gaining your attention.

You turned your head to him, tears falling from your eyes. The sight broke Daryl's heart. It was extremely rare to see you crying; you were always so happy and never let anything get you down, so the whole ordeal must've been too much for you.

“I'm sorry,” you brokenly whispered out, wiping the tears from your eyes.

“Fer wha'?”

“For leaving so abruptly,” you explained, tracing mindless shapes and figures into the sand beneath you with your finger. “You were probably so uncomfortable. I know how you feel about people seeing your scars and I just left. I'm really sorry, Daryl.”

It amazed Daryl how, even when it was something that didn't directly affect him and quite obviously took a huge toll on you, you still worried about him more than yourself. You were selfless and hated making just about anything about you, and even though Daryl loved that about you, in that particular moment, he wanted you to be selfish. He wanted you to make this about yourself. He wanted you to cry, to scream, to throw things. He wanted you to be mad at what happened. He didn't want you to worry about him in a moment like that.

Daryl wrapped his arms around you, pulling you into his side. “Dun' worry 'bout me,” Daryl whispered into your ear, pressing a kiss to your temple. “How are ya feelin'? And dun' try and pull tha' "m'alright" shit with me. I know ya better than tha'.”

You inhaled deeply and sniffled. “I just... Never expected to meet my father like that. I've always dreamt of meeting him, y'know? And now that I have, I don't know how to feel. On one hand, he's my father and I wanna get to know him, but on the other hand, he's clearly a fucking dick and he needs to fuck off. And my mom... Oh, god. I left my mom. She probably thinks—”

“S'okay,” Daryl reassured you, wiping away the tears that had fallen from your eyes again. “She ain't mad. She's jus' worried 'bout ya.”

“I'm overreacting,” you mumbled, shaking your head in disappointment at yourself. “A few harsh words with that man and I bolt. It's ridiculous.”

“Listen to me,” Daryl began, pulling back and cupping your face in his hands, gently forcing you to look at him. “Yer not overreacting. Everythin' tha' happened was unexpected fer ya. Ya jus' met yer dad in the worst way possible and ya were overwhelmed. Nobody blames ya fer needin' a moment to process everythin', alrigh'? Ya deserve to take a moment fer yerself, a moment to be selfish. Ya hear me?”

You nodded, allowing the tears to fall freely now. Daryl pulled you into a proper hug, allowing you to sob into his shirt. He didn't care that your tears were soaking his shirt—his only concern was you. He whispered sweet nothings into your ear, rocking you from side to side until you calmed down.

“Thank you,” you whispered after a while, sniffling softly.

“Ya dun' have to thank me,” he told you, pressing a kiss to your forehead. “M'always here fer ya, jus' like ya are fer me.”

“I love you, Dar.”

A beat of silence passed, until Daryl whispered into your ear. “I love ya too, sunshine. I love ya so fuckin' much.”

[utilitycaster]

look, I know polls are silly and fun and so I want you to understand writing this rant is silly and fun for me but EMON? Emon is the Critical Role Entry for Most Place of All Time? I must call bullshit. And so:

Friends, fellow critters, and people who have me blocked but hate read my blog each morning over breakfast: Emon is not even the Most Place on the Material Plane. It is not even the Most Place in Tal'Dorei. Hell, it's not even the Most Place on the fucking Bladeshimmer Shoreline, which includes a destroyed city now overtaken by bandits, and a cave system that hosts both a rift to the Far Realm and a different rock than residuum that can make a different magical drug than suude. Emon is if you took the aggressively mid vibes of Washington, DC and transplanted them to the inconvenient location and city of refuge for flaky people who avoid gluten for non-medical reasons of Los Angeles. The second Percival Frederickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III invents the motorcar that sumbitch is going to have traffic bad enough to summon Tharizdun. Also there's a literal pit of fire that's been burning for 30 years that both hasn't been adequately addressed but also doesn't really seem that interesting. Like oh a bunch of dragons destroyed your city? Big deal. Draconia got so fucked up it doesn't exist anymore, and at least Westruun has some fucking charm. At least Pike and Grog actually lived there, whereas Vox Machina got a house in Emon and proceeded to spend their time literally anywhere else.

Here is a brief list of places on the planet of Exandria in the Material Plane - not even across Critical Role's main campaigns/EXU, which includes such non-Exandrian places as "living city of people who mind-melded and escaped to the Astral Sea during a century-plus-long war of the gods"; "Ligament Manor"; "Ryn's groovy pied-a-feu, man I wonder what made the scorch marks on that furniture, anyway", and "THE MOON THAT IS ACTUALLY AN PRISON FOR A THING THAT EATS GODS AND IS POSSIBLY HATCHING" - that are more of a place than Emon:

Jrusar: 5 spires no waiting, sweet cable car system, city almost entirely destabilized by goo creatures as part of an overly complicated plot to blow up the aforementioned moon

Bassuras: (literally "garbagetown") Run by Mad Max gangs and everyone is cool with it; regular sandstorms; one of those gangs apparently sits atop a hive mind and NO ONE has examined this (except for them)?)

Whitestone: has a tree planted by one god over a buried temple to another god that was corrupted in the name of a third, shittier god; overrun by zombies but it's fine now; streetlights and two bears that are allowed to do whatever the fuck they want.

Yios: The canal system of Venice meets the colleges per capita of Boston meets the orcs from your fantasies, also there's some kind of kitchen-based organized crime ring so intricate it could be its own campaign (so, also like Boston).

Vasselheim: literally no one understands what the fuck its government system is. Old as balls. Temples everywhere! Temples full of trees. Temples full of blood! Temples full of an old guy who will kick your ass. A sphinx that regulates the monster hunter mini-game. Presumably the giant titan full of the ancient cannibal dwarf city is like, still there, as a new fixture, since I don't see how they're moving that.

The arctic: where teleportation doesn't work, there's a river of lava in the middle of the snow, ancient ruins full of snow globes full of actual people, and the Chaos Bisexual Emerald - and that's just a smattering of what Eiselcross has to offer.

Since this is about space and not time we can toss Aeor and Avalir too, since they once were places, and while we're at it whatever the fuck is going on with the Shattered Teeth and its permanent fog cloud and fish dream cult and capitalist shipwrecked merchants.

And, of course, any arbitrary square millimeter of Wildemount, frankly, has more Mostness than the entirety of Emon could muster under absolutely ideal conditions. But for the sake of one place per region, let's hand it to Rosohna (city of eternal night for practical purposes, built over the Evil God Headquarters); Uthodurn (underground! Giant goats! Elves and dwarves, living together, mass hysteria!); Hupperdook (steampunk gnome party city); Nicodranas (Fjord, Jester, Veth, Marion, and Yussa literally all live there at once; plumbing used to be courtesy of an imprisoned marid...but watch out); and Blightshore (Blightshore).

In conclusion: Emon is boring, nominating it was a mistake, there are literally sealed gods in other parts of the world and also way better taverns, good night, and what the fuck.

[www-jungwon]

between the lines . yjw

[fall_ing for the cute guy who works at the bookstore]

pairing ! jungwon x bookworm!gn!reader

1/7 of elena’s autumn enhypen series !

genre ! strangers to lovers, bookstore trope, mainly just fluff

summary ! the love story between you, a bookworm, and jungwon, the cashier at your local bookstore. (it starts with a book recommendation)

tw ! mentions of drinks (coffee), addictions (only to caffeine), money, jungwon actually being the cutest thing ever

wc ! 3k

ft. coworker heeseung

୨♡୧

the guy behind the desk is unfairly pretty. he must be new; you’ve never seen him working at the bookstore before and you definitely would’ve remembered the way the autumn light highlights the details of his face, teeth sliding over his plump lower lip. his elbow rests on the wooden desk, silver cash register gleaming to the right. he leans his chin on his fist, head tilted forward interestedly as he reads his book on the desk. you watch him flip the page, delicately resting his fingers on the side with less pages to hold it open. he reads something that makes him smile softly, eyes round and innocent, and you wonder how someone can look so ethereal just reading a book.

turning back to the new releases shelf with your heart racing slightly, you scan the rows of books. this past month has been one of the worst months of new releases you’ve seen since you started coming to this bookstore. against your will, your hand hovers over the shelf, sliding off a romance book. you can’t talk to him without a book, right? that would be weird. you pretend to read the back even though you already did when you came here last week, eyes retracing the same dull words. you drag your thumb over the paperback cover, sneaking a glance at the desk again.

he’s talking to a customer now, smile soft and easy on his lips as he hands them their book.

you swallow, trying to look away as he opens his book again, the customer leaving out the windowed door. he settles back into the same position with his chin resting in his fist, following the words like a cat chasing a laser pointer, eyes big and focused in a way that makes you want to scream into your hand. taking a deep breath, you walk over to the desk, weaving through the large number of people squeezed into the bookstore and gently place the book onto the counter in front of him.

he looks up, eyebrows raising naturally and you try not to smile at how cute he looks. 

“oh, sorry, would you like to buy this?”

“yes, please,” 

he nods, sliding the book over the scanner and your eyes fall onto his nametag. jungwon, it reads, handwritten letters traced on. it matches him, you decide, the way he writes, the way the script slants to the left and how the thin lines that indicated the way he didn’t pick up his pen drag between the letters.

“is that everything for you today?”

you startle out of your thoughts slightly, “oh, um, yes, thank you.”

“it’s, um, a good choice.”

“sorry?”

“it’s a good choice.” he nods at the book. “i liked that one.”

“oh,” you say, “oh, um, really?” it’s confusing, the way he makes your thoughts mix, in thrall of him, but it’s also the most lovely feeling you’ve ever experienced.

his smile envelopes you in softness. “yeah, it was really good. i liked the character dynamic and…yeah.”

the back of the book described the main character to sound stupid and unlikable, but you nod anyway.

leaving the store with your unwanted purchase, you step into the fall-kissed street, swipes of red and orange littering the tops of the trees. as a leaf falls through your view, softly swaying from side to side in the breeze, you think of him, a smile falling onto your lips almost involuntarily, except you want to smile, thinking of him.

୨♡୧

you didn’t read the book. in fact, you came back to return the book, which was bought under duress. sure, the duress happened to be wanting an excuse to talk to the prettiest person you’ve ever seen, but duress is duress, right? it’s not until you see the aforementioned pretty cashier from last time that you realize it’s a thursday. his shift day. this is not good. 

“oh, um, hi again,” he smiles.

your eyes flick down to your book bag, which is holding the book. the one he liked. the one he said was a good choice.

“hi,” you smile.

“did….did you like the book?”

“oh, uh, yeah, i- i did. i really liked it. the character dynamic was really good, like you said.” 

you hear a snicker, gaze shifting over to his coworker, who grins at jungwon teasingly and then turns to look at you.

“sorry, just ignore me.”

jungwon’s gaze snaps over to him, glaring.

“heeseung, don’t you have to go restock one of the fantasy shelves?” he narrows his eyes.

you and heeseung look back at the fantasy section simultaneously, which is completely full.

heeseung laughs, furrowing his brow in fake concern,“definitely, yeah, no, totally. i mean, how could i forget? gotta restock the fantasy shelves because they’re so empty.” he strolls off to the shelves, grinning at you as he leaves.

“um, sorry about him, so, how can i help you?”

you open your mouth, and your lips stay parted for a few seconds as you realize you don’t need help with anything.

“oh, uh…could you give me a recommendation?” 

“sure! so,” he pauses, blinking. “you liked that book?”

“um, yeah, i- did,”

he pauses, thinking about something.

“well, the author has written a lot of other books that are kind of similar-”

absolutely not. “oh, i was looking for something a little different, just because i’ve kind of been reading a lot of books like that recently.”

“well, in that case, this is my favorite book, which i recommend to everyone, but it’s almost incomparable to that, uh, book.” 

“oh, that’s totally fine. how much is it?”

he opens his mouth, then pauses. “oh, uh, we’re- we’re actually sold out…but you can have my copy…”

he holds out a worn paperback to you, golden lines stretching over the cover. 

“sorry, i know it's kind of old..it’s okay if you don’t want it, but i thought i would offer it to you. we’re getting another shipment next week.”

“oh, i can’t take your copy, that’s-thats yours-”

“no, it’s totally fine, i have other editions, but this one i was just rereading at work, ‘cause i like to read my notes.”

great. so he’s smart and pretty. not a big deal or anything.

his fingers fidget with the pages as he pushes it closer to you.

heeseung walks back behind the desk at that moment, freezing when he sees the book on the countertop.

“jungwon?” he asks, tone incredulous.

“what?” jungwon sighs.

“is that- your copy?”

“obviously?” he raises his eyebrows exasperatedly. 

heeseung gapes, laughing slightly in shock, gaze sliding over to you. you shrink slightly in embarrassment, although you’re not sure of what.

“go. away.” jungwon hisses.

“what do you want me to do, restock the sci-fi section?” he grins, and you glance back at the sci-fi section, packed full of people.

“shut up,” jungwon slides his hand over his face and heeseung holds his hands up, turning and going into the back of the store.

“sorry about him. again.” jungwon slides the book towards you again.

“oh, i-” you hesitate, knowing how sacred your own books are to you, but your fingers close around the edges. “thanks, i’ll- when do you want it back?”

“oh, you can just bring it back whenever.”

you smile, and it isn't until you’re long out of the store that you realize he remembered you, out of the huge crowd of people from last time and the specific book you bought. and that today was the last day for returns, so you just wasted 10 dollars. but talking to jungwon is worth it, to you.

୨♡୧

you haven’t stopped thinking about his book the entire week, or him.

you watch him blow hair out of his eyes, lower lip folding over the upper one. he curls his fingers into his cheek, chin resting in his palm as he serenely reads another book on the counter. 

you read his book in one sitting, curled into your couch for three hours as you pored over his little annotations, thoughtful notes penned into the margins in his perfectly messy handwriting. there was something so personal about seeing his notes on his favorite book, like a piece of his soul, and they make you want to protect him with your whole being. they were so intelligent, your mind keeps drifting back to your first encounter, imprinted in your brain.

 “i liked the character dynamic and….yeah.”

odd, for someone who wrote about the symbolism of the wind in specific contexts for each chapter and small hints of foreshadowing that built throughout the novel, but maybe it’s harder for him to say his thoughts then write them.

you set the book down on his counter, watching the way he blinks cutely in surprise as he looks up, being taken out of his book.

“oh, hi,”

you smile, “i brought your book back,”

his eyes widen in excitement, although he tries to mask it, “did you like it?”

you take a deep breath, the power of the book consuming you. “i need a moment.”

he laughs at your dramatics, putting his chin back into his hand so he’s looking through his lashes at you. 

“you liked it, then?”

you nod wordlessly, watching his eyes light up.

“oh my god. finally. i’ve been trying to get my friends to read it forever but they won’t because it’s so long. it's so good, right?”

you laugh at his excitement, something about it seeming so precious, “i read it in one sitting.” 

he grins. “me, too, the first time i read it.”

you rest your hands on the counter, becoming enraptured by your conversation, ranting over your shared opinions and the absolute crime it was for the author to kill off that one character. you’re not sure how you end up sitting behind the counter next to him, talking in between him checking out customers’ books.

he laughs at your sarcasm over details of the book, grinning so cutely when you become passionate about the decisions of certain characters, and you watch the way his eyes light up when he talks about the genius moves of the author. at some point the conversation shifts, and you talk about everything. your hobbies (aside from reading of course), how autumn is both of your favorite seasons, why the author absolutely needs to release the sequel sooner than the scheduled date, and you’re so swept away by the conversation that you don’t notice the time. 

you’re not sure how long you’ve spent talking to him when you leave, the sky having dimmed into the glow of dusk. 

୨♡୧

you step into the bookstore, eyes landing on jungwon sitting at the counter, watching as he flips through a book again, looking up at the sound of the door clicking behind you. he makes eye contact, catching you staring at him and you turn away quickly, hiding behind the new releases shelf again. you don’t actually have any books you want to buy, you’re really not sure why you even came to the bookstore today. you definitely didn’t go out of your way to make sure you could go on a thursday, his shift day, and you’re only holding the coffee that he mentioned he wanted to try last week because you were going to the coffee shop anyway. but now that you’re in the bookstore, you can’t even get a book off the shelf because you’ve got both hands holding coffees, so you shyly step around the shelves, walking over to the counter.

“i was, um, i was gonna get a book- well, i brought you coffee, and now i can’t get a book because, my hands are, um, full,” you set down his coffee on the desk.

he gasps, “pumpkin spice latte! you remembered!” he looks up at you, eyes big and innocent and precious. “i have a gift for you, too,” he pulls out a new copy of his (and your newly) favorite book from under the desk, “we got the restock, and they tend to sell out pretty fast, so i saved you a copy.”

you blink, “oh my gosh, thank you so much,” you reach for your bag.

“oh, i- um, already paid for it.” he pushes the book towards you and you look at him incredulously.

“let me pay you back!”

“no, it’s okay, you bought me coffee,”

you shake your head at him resignedly, watching his softly cheeky grin expand. “now i have to buy you coffee, like, every day, though,”

“i mean, it’s only actually worth, like, two coffees-”

“books are worth ten coffees, especially books that someone saves you when he thinks they might sell out, those are worth at least twenty.”

he grins at you, “it’s okay, i promise! you’re going to get me addicted to caffeine,”

“how are you not already?”

୨♡୧

you stretch up to the top of the shelf, fingers grasping at the book, but you can’t pull it off, letting your hand drop to your side as you lean back onto the ground off your toes.

you feel a warm arm wrapping around your waist, fingers tightening into your hip securely, causing you to fall back into the figure behind you in surprise. you look up to see an arm effortlessly sliding a book off the highest shelf. your book. you turn around, gaze falling on the nametag in front of you, and it’s jungwon, the one handing you the book. he smiles shyly.

“hi,” he mumbles, cheeks flushing slightly.

you swallow, “hi,” you say, breathless. his face is so close to yours you can feel his breath falling over your lips.

 his arm slips off your waist like an afterthought, his proximity lingering on your mind the rest of the week.

୨♡୧

“you weren’t, um, here last week,” he closes his book softly, your eyes drifting distractedly to his fingers slipping off the edge of the cover.

“oh, um…” you snap back to him, “oh, yeah, i was sick,” you had tried to go but you literally couldn’t get out of bed, and when your friend came over she looked at you like you were crazy when you said that you wanted to go to the bookstore, insisting that you were much sicker than you actually were because there was no way you in your right mind you would want to go to the bookstore while ill.

recently you can't be sure whether you're even coming to the bookstore for books anymore.

he nods at you. “well, i’m glad you’re feeling better now.”

you nod, “thanks, it was kind of a rough week.”

he nods, swallowing and then looks down at the counter. he fidgets with his book, running his finger over the edge of the pages. “i, um, i was wondering-” he looks back up at you, licking his lips. 

“god, finally!” 

you jump slightly, looking over at heeseung. “i’ve been waiting for this moment this whole month. it was so annoying, hearing him go on about you every single shift. and last week he was so worried-”

“heeseung!” jungwon hisses.

“wha-oh,” heeseung says, seeing your confused expression. “sorry, i only heard the first part of your sentence and got excited. go on,”

jungwon glares at him until he leaves, slipping into a crowd of customers.

“um, what were you gonna say?” you ask.

“oh, um, i was wondering,” he pauses, “i mean- i actually really hated that book.”

“what?” you squint slightly in confusion.

“the romance one. when you first came in, i just wanted to talk to you. i really hated the character dynamic, but for some reason it was the first thing i could think of to compliment” he blurts, “and- and heeseung was making fun of me for giving my book to you, because i guard it with my life, i won’t even let him touch it, and i- i just gave it to you, which is kind of crazy, i’d only talked to you once before but i memorized your eyes and your smile and then i just gave it to you, and i think you’re really pretty and i really, i’ve really enjoyed our conversations? and i was, wondering if you- if you maybe wanted to go out with me? maybe to a cafe? or something?”

butterflies rush into your stomach, warmth enveloping you comfortingly.

“i would love to,”

he smiles, wide and genuine, and you melt, drowning in him, in the eyes of the pretty guy behind the desk.

end. 

୨♡୧

a/n ! OMGGGG i stayed up late so many nights to write this and now i'm sleep deprived so if no one reads this i will shed actual tears also i think im in love with bookstore trope jungwon/this readerwon dynamic 😭😭😭😭

this fic is part of my enhypen autumn collection ! send an ask or comment to be added to the taglist <3

taglist :

@mrchweeee @aureliaxuuu @miyseung

[finluz]

TOTK Rant: How Much Better Than BOTW?

//major totk spoilers ahead

The Good

Ultrahand is amazing, it's a simple idea with few limitations leading to a lot of complexity and flexibility

Ascend is fucking awesome. im not even gonna like, critically analyze this one. i wish i could jump through ceilings in real life

Being able to throw items is extremely useful, meaning you don't have to waste arrows to get certain effects

Zonai devices are all amazing, same principle of Ultrahand where they all have simple uses with few limitations, meaning that you can create really complex machines very easily

The Music™ 🎷🐛

Rauru's sopping wet man vagina

There's a shit-ton of new enemies, including like-likes, gleeoks, evil rigby mfs that crawl on the ceiling, floormasters, phantom ganon, the assorted zonai creatures, froxes, baby froxes, yigas with driver's licenses, battle tali, damn those trees are WALKIN

Depths exploration is fucking amazing

Depths atmosphere

Sky Islands when they have anything on them

Air travel

60 new side adventures, which are waaay fuller in good content than the side quests or even the main quests lmao

build your own house

the boss fights

the final boss fight

shrine puzzles with Ultrahand

Proving Grounds shrines

Master Kohga

the guy that walks around continually failing to demonstrate any degree of professional signage

the side dialogue is really funny and well-written

the isolated vibe of botw has been traded in for a feeling of togetherness as a kingdom

large-scale battles with tons of monsters and friendly npcs

muddle buds

zonai architecture

did i mention the ost yet

skyview towers > the ubisoft towers

link has his hair down

tauro

purah

short-hair zelda

rauru

ganondorf

mineru

been spending most our lives living in a bisexual's paradise

the lightning temple

the construct factory

the quest to obtain the master sword

dragonhead island

the dragonhead island music

fusing items to arrows and shields

the yiga clan expansion

do the earthwaker link come on quake that shit

the all-clucking cucoo

froggy armor

the lucky clover gazette

all of the new outfits

the dragon-themed outfits

horns on enemies

link let his hair down

the plethora of armor effects that are now also cooking effects, like slip resistance, swim speed, weather-based attack, and more

railgrinding

princess monoke themes doubled down on

gloom

robot arm

I think a common theme in this list is that rather than being different from Breath of the Wild, there is just more of Breath of the Wild.

"No shit, it's a sequel."

Yeah I get that, but this is the first time a Zelda sequel specifically has failed to really distinguish itself from the game before it.

Tears of the Kingdom has everything that Breath of the Wild had, including its flaws. The fact that it's just "more of it" and "better" kind of makes the previous game completely obsolete, which is a first in the series.

Majora's Mask, Link Between Worlds, Adventure of Link, the Oracle Games and Link's Awakening are all direct sequels of previous games, and yet their identity is so distinct that they become standalone entries in the series.

Majora's Mask is not Ocarina of Time 2.

Tears of the Kingdom is 100% Breath of the Wild 2.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and considering the series has been almost rebooted entirely I'm not even opposed to the direct serialization of these games,

but if they are going to go this route,

and there's going to be 6 and a half years between the two games,

You need to do better than the last game.

And so we arrive at,

The Bad.

With the exception of the aforementioned Lightning Temple and Construct Factory, the dungeons, and subsequently main areas and story in this game blow ass.

The Dungeons in this game are just Divine Beasts but with somehow even less creativity. Say what you want about the lack of interconnectedness between and the quality of the puzzles, but they provided a feeling of controlling and manipulating a huge, moving being that sets the game apart.

In comparison, TOTK's dungeons are completely devoid of any original ideas, instead opting to be divine beasts without the movement gimmicks, meaning that they're just "go hit the four or fie switches in any order"

Breath of the Wild traded in the unique and distinct atmospheres of the franchises temples to capture a different feeling that sets it apart. Tears of the Kingdom tries to return to the old temples, but without committing all the way and missing the mark completely.

The Water Temple in particular stands out as completely fucking lazy to me, since it is literally just a bunch of blue platforms in the sky with 4 un-themed and not even water-related puzzles and a boss that is treated as a joke. There's almost no buildup in Zora's domain as well, as you just do a couple of short tasks to unlock the path up and then beat the dungeon in 30 minutes.

It's the worst kind of Zelda dungeon, with generic elemental themes but none of the art to tie those into actually unique places. And considering that there's no dungeon items, no double-backing, or any sort of semblance of an idea of you completing an actual dungeon and not just four shrines in a meat grinder, I would say it's ultimately WORSE than the divine beasts from Breath of the Wild.

The rewards for dungeons

In every dungeon, you get an NPC follower that fights with you and has an ability that you press A on to use. These are used pretty well in their respective areas. When you beat the dungeon, your reward is a blue clone of them that does less damage.

I get what they were trying to do, I really do, and on paper, it's a really great concept.

It's the champions from the last game, except they are actually there and fight alongside you, using that togetherness theming i mentioned earlier.

However, having them out is pretty much a straight downgrade since they are annoyances 24/7.

Their abilties range from mildly useful in some contexts at best to "i would only press a on you by accident."

and trust me. you are going to accidentally press a on them a LOT.

Somehow, they manage to both be in your way when you want to do literally anything else and also never there in the rare circumstance that you actually want to use your ability.

Their AI is complete dogshit, and they rarely swing at enemies, and when they do, the damage is pitiful. Tulin flies through the air, and is mostly behind you when you need him, but everyone else paths along the ground and will often get stuck on rocks, river edges, or random patches of grass sometimes because they lack any intelligence whatsoever.

It's such an easy fix too, just have a "sacred stone" rune in the radial menu where the useless map one is and let me manually select which ability I want. Bam. No more blowing big hearty truffles off cliffs or setting them on fire when im just trying to pick them up.

Fuse does not affect the durability of weapons.

Rather than opting to have the interesting choice of being able to repair your weapons at the risk of losing a rare quality of them, rehabilitating them using items from your inventory,

Nintendo instead opted to have the durability not change at all when you fuse something.

Also, every weapon in hyrule has "decayed," which, as well as being extremely contrived, means that fusing is required for weapons to be viable.

So not only does this not improve the weapon system from Breath of the Wild, it actually makes it more tedious, since now you have to collect not just a weapon, but two parts of a weapon and then fuse them into a weapon.

It's taken every weapon in hyrule, broken them in half, and made you go find the pieces.

This also means that fusing funny stuff like minecarts or logs like they suggested in the trailer isn't viable, since it will only add a few damage points and waste a weapon slot.

In Conclusion

Yes, Tears of the Kingdom is the better game. It not only has more content, but the content is also just better, more experimental, and memorable.

And don't let my huge rant about The Bads misconstrue my thoughts on this game.

This is easily a 9/10, and probably my favorite game of all time.

But it certainly isn't a 10/10.

Breath of the Wild's flaws set it apart, it was easy to forgive them because they played into its unique experience.

Six years later, with an almost identically structured game, it's not as easy to set those aside.

Anyways, this has been World's Biggest Zelda Fan Finluz, and I want to raw link

[disorganizedkitten]

Climbing The Louvre

Miraculous Ladybug | 2018 | 508 | Ao3

Kim took Ondine to meet some of his friends. That should be a good thing! Except it turned into a huge back and forth between him and Alix, until they decided to something stupid. What did they get themselves into?

 Ondine had not known how much more of a redneck Kim was around his classmates than his swim friends. Seriously, he was a lot more daredevil charlatan. A lot. And the small pink and green fury that was Alix Kubdel just fueled the flame.

 “You can’t even climb a tree!”

 “I can too! You can’t!”

 “Please, I could climb the Louvre.”

 “I dare you to climb the Louvre!”

 “Do you really want me to? I’d do it so fast you won’t even see my technique!”

 “Guys, is that even safe?” Ondine interjected. “Or legal?” They were going to get themselves hurt or arrested or killed or Akumatized from losing or some other thing that would not be a good outcome. Honestly, she didn’t want to mentally explore all the options. Kim and Alix ignored her, instead choosing to insult each other some more.

 “You’re technique? On what? Losing?”

 “Climbing, sir runs-a-lot!”

 “Kim, as much as I hate to step in while you two enjoy yourselves with your wordplay, Alix did beat you a couple of months ago. Therefore, there’s a 39% chance that there will be a crowd uprising if you say the word ‘Dare’ one more time.”

 Alix, Kim and Ondine turned to the kid who had spoken. Ondine knew his name, but which one was it? Max? Yeah, Max Kante. Kim’s best friend. Ondine actually remembered him!

 “Oh burn! You can’t dare me to do anything Mister I-can-do-anything-you-just-have-to-do-it-first!”

 Ondine winced. She had known Kim had a competitive streak. Of course she knew this, she competed with him at the pool every now and then. But this was bad. Very very very very bad.

 “Max, what’s the most commonly known synonym for dare?”

 “While there is a large amount of such synonyms, I believe the one you’re looking for is simply challenge,” Max answered without pause.

 “Thank you. Fine Alix! I challenge you to climb the Louvre!”

 “Kim are you sure-”

 “Oh it is on Kim! I know that place like the buckles on my rollorblades! You’re going down .”

 “Race you there?”

 “You mean you’ll meet me there. It’s already been proved I’m faster than you.”

 “Oh? Ready, set, go!” Kim took off running, and Alix kicked off less than a second later. Oh boy.

 “Max, how do get them to call off a dare?” Ondine asked hopefully.

 “There’s a 56% chance that an Akuma attacking the Louvre could get them to postpone, but also a 44% chance that they’ll start challenging each other to see who can be the most helpful to Ladybug and Chat Noir in beating aforementioned Akuma.”

 “So pretty much, you can’t?”

 “Just about.”

 “Siren teeth.”

*****

 Alix won.

 Kim won.

 It was a tie.

 Technically? Alix won. Due to her smaller size, she went farther up, despite tying with Kim as to how high they went.

 Also technically? Ondine convinced Max not to tell either of them that it was a tie, for fear of them coming up with another da- challenge as a tiebreaker and not getting anything else done that day.

[phiixomath]

fics i read this week | 20-26/02

i was briefly sick and unable to do anything except read fanfic, so, as a result of the consuming-fic-like-air phenomenon, i present: firtw! after a year!

enjoy :)

organised by rating, then length favourite is marked with an *

strip tease @2towels rating: g | word count: 1k | 1/1

"Oh my." Lance began, scandalized and waving a hand to fan his face, "Keith. You can't just go around stripping." --- Keith gives Lance a show.

this is truly adorable. i love simple but significant moments like these, and it always inspires my own ideas for fun banter and how they'd grow into being in a relationship.

.

*flatlands @noero rating: g | word count: 1k | 1/1

Years and years into their tenure as paladins, Keith and Lance fell in love without realizing it.

i love this fic; the soft and very evocative writing style, the dynamic the author establishes with the two of them, the intended message. it's one i personally love and often think about in regards to voltron's semi-fate of everything falling into place in such a way as well as the retrospectively monumental choices that line their path to falling in love, getting together. short and very sweet, save this for an end-of-day treat.

.

just take it in @quidhitch rating: t | word count: 4.3k | 1/1

When Lance agreed to stay after school to help set up decorations for the dance and eat pizza with the rest of ASB, ‘oh, I should re-park my car’ wasn’t really the first thought that popped into his head. Maybe it should’ve been, because Lance is chronically late and gets stuck with the shittiest space in the sketchiest corner of the lot every day, but he’s never been a very good planner. Sometimes that’s served him well - he made the 7 o’clock news when he was 9 and decided to scale a tree without considering how he planned to get down. The fire department was called. He got to wear their hats. His abuela still has the clipping. Keith Kogane getting tossed like a rag doll against the side of Lance’s truck - well, it’s a slightly less illustrious experience. For a second all Lance can do is watch Keith spit a mouthful of blood onto his brand new tires, give the boy who threw him a red-tinted smile, and rasp “is that all you’ve got?”

this one is, firstly, painfully good. the angst hits, the fluff hits, and it's all delivered in a writing style i've fallen head-over-heels for. secondly, as a writer, it also makes for a great study, primarily for the aforementioned writing style where there's so much development and emotion packed into short, effective punches. just really, really fucking good. be warned, it's not sad exactly, but it did require me to take breaks to get through in my anxiety-addled state and process just how evocative the writing can be.

.

okay i know that you are not my type (still i fall) @quidhitch rating: t | word count: 5.7k | 1/1

The door swings open and Lance's stomach does a sickening drop. He closes his eyes, thanks the good lord that his dark skin hides most of his flush, and prays for the universe to open up and swallow him whole. "Wow. Keith," says the guy standing next to Lance's bane of existence slash brief and minuscule crush slash TA's younger brother, "you could have told me you had a boyfriend, I would have laid off." Keith, who is not as fortunate as Lance, is pink all over as he stutters out an, "I'm not— he's not—"

this one's a perfect follow-up to the former once you've (i) recovered from the first. it's cute, heartfelt, and so, so funny, again in that writing style that's captivated me. if you enjoy a character getting into strange situationsTM, the other discovering them and the two bonding after the embarrassment fades, then i guarantee you'll like this. and perhaps re-read like i have several times already.

.

i hope you enjoy these! if you do, consider dropping the author a comment/kudos on ao3 and let me know your thoughts here :)

[tsaomengde]

Starfield thoughts

Finished Starfield. If you like Bethesda games, you will like Starfield. If you don't, then you won't. Pretty simple.

More detailed thoughts:

I finished Oblivion's main quest, finished Fallout 4's main quest, and bounced off of Skyrim. Starfield was distinctly the most fun I've had with a Bethesda game. Partly because it's in space and I'm a slut for spaceships and sci-fi. Partly because the combat finally felt - well, look, it's still bad combat. Like, objectively, it is clunky and flat compared to dedicated shooters like Halo or Doom. But it's clunky and flat in a way that feels a little retro to me. Kind of brings me back to FPSes in the 90s.

I also really enjoyed going down the science skill trees and the ship skill trees and crafting myself an OP ship and OP guns. I was playing on Normal and never felt the need to spec into combat stuff. I did not need to put points into Rifles to have them do 20% more damage when my custom-crafted sniper rifle, "That Guy In Particular," could put a penetrator round into someone's head with 85% accuracy from half a kilometer away.

I liked fucking around with the outpost stuff a little bit, but the attempts at giving you the ability to automate production of crafting materials are very clunky. I have not played Factorio or Satisfactory, but I have played an indie factory game called Dyson Sphere Program that is in a very similar vein, and Starfield's ability to set up supply lines between star systems and link stuff up inside outposts is poorly implemented and kind of anemic. Once you spec far enough into science you also get the ability to just make the shit yourself at a crafting table. And the various merchants in the hub worlds sell all the raw materials you ever need, so while setting up outposts to mine the shit yourself is nice, ultimately it is entirely skippable. Which, like, is fine! It's an RPG, you should be able to play the bits you're interested in and leave the rest. But the flip side of that coin is that I respect developers who are like, "You want to be Good at this game? Learn the mechanics." Putting in this big outpost system and then saying "but you don't actually have to interact with it at all if you don't want to" is like if Sekiro said "you can get by without learning parrying."

Spoilers below:

I appreciated that the game picks out the companions you have the highest affinity with at a crucial point in the main plot and says, "You can only save one." It's like the Kaidan/Ashley dillemma from Mass Effect 1, only dynamic instead of static. I did feel bad when my then-BFF Sarah died. Not, like, *super* bad, since none of these people hold a candle to the classic companions from Dragon Age or some of the new hotties from Baldur's Gate 3. But I really did like Sam Coe, mostly because he's voiced by Elias Toufexis, best known as the voice of Adam "I Never Asked For This" Jensen. So I would have been sadder if he'd died, but I put the main plot off until super late and you only get him halfway through it so my affinity level with him wasn't high enough yet to put him in the crosshairs. Ha!

The main plot having to do with multiverse theory, and the NG+ just being the next universe you enter once you finish collecting the macguffins that open the multiverse portal, is clever. I liked that the multiversal travelers you come into conflict with over the macguffins are alternate-universe versions of people you've already met, including whichever character died in the aforementioned choice. Overall, pretty solid writing. Nothing exciting or exceptional that I haven't seen before, but just enough of a twist and a little spice to keep it interesting. It does take a while to build up, though, and everyone who's said "the game only gets good x hours in" is correct. The main plot takes a *lot* of time to heat up. I did a bunch of random Bethesda fucking around and a couple faction questlines before I touched it, and I only went to the main plot when my brain was telling me "I am about to start experiencing diminishing dopamine returns from this game so you might as well finish it up."

At the end of the game, you activate the macguffins, step into the multiverse portal, and are presented with a choice: go on to the next universe (NG+), or stay in the one you have. I liked that there was a choice. My character, Skade, decided to stay in the one they have. They've built a good life for themselves here. They have friends here. They wrested the macguffins from the hands of the multiverse travelers who thought they knew better than everyone else what to do with them. They're not ready to leave. Maybe someday they will be, if and when I come back to Starfield and want to do a NG+. But for now, I, Gabe, am moving on from the game in this universe. In the universe where Skade is a real person, though, they're still going off having adventures with their buddy Sam and his daughter Cora. And I think that's a nice thing indeed.

[fandom-frenzy]

I haven't done one of these in a while. but we did our hallmark christmas bingo last weekend so it's only fair I let you know the results of this movie. which I don't remember the name of.

I'm fairly certain the lead was the same one as the winter palace (please don't watch it) so let's see if I can find it. okay, here we go: my christmas dream.

first bingo square: a horrible boss! ✔️ as in the main lead. she's a horrible boss. she is the manager of a department store, and the store is supposedly known for it's christmas displays that get unveiled the week of christmas (to bring shoppers back into the store). this is the 25th year of the store, so this is not a new concept. and a store manager would know this is a big deal. which means a store manager who is still coming up with the concept for the display three weeks before christmas doesn't know what they're doing. she also, once she starts to fall in love, stops doing her job✔️ and leaves all the time during the day to see the adorable child✔️during the busiest season of the year, leaving her best friend/assistant manager to do all the work.

the leads hate each other at first ✔️because he was hired to do some sort of handyman work, didn't finish on time, and was getting fired by the guy who hired him. in the course of this he spilled paint on her dress (right before meeting the big boss!) so she wasn't happy. the other employee tried to then bring her into it to say the hiring/firing was up to her and she said no, it's up to the guy who is doing the firing. so main lead was angry at her for not saving his job.

aforementioned child✔️who wants to ask santa to make his dad happy. eventually this turns into "make his dad and his new bestie the store manager get together" ✔️(alas his mom is not dead, only divorced and in australia. we definitely debated for a while if "she went to australia" was some sort of euphemism like "the dog went to the farm")

christmas tree shopping✔️

she has no christmas spirit.✔️unclear if it's ever actually found though.

her one goal in life is to manage the new store that will be opening in paris because she went to paris once and "it felt like home". having an amazing display will get her the job.

she ends up having to work with main lead ✔️because he's a good artist and so can be creative for the display

they don't go with some clever play on 25 days of christmas utilizing all the old decorations from all the old displays showing the history of the store, but instead decide to do a theme of christmas in the town.

the store owner shoots this down because "it doesn't have anything to do with the store". after some heartfelt advice from an old guy✔️they decide to recreate the first display from the store before it became the owners, to show her her own history and what her dream was. which meant it also had nothing to do with the store because literally no one would know except for the old people who had seen that display 40 years ago, but the store owner knew and that's all that mattered

she must fly out on christmas eve✔️to get the store ready

the child is distraught

but surprise! they are now her new home✔️and she made up a new role at the company so that she can stay

2/10 ultimately forgettable and if you work in business at all you will be triggered. all of us 30-somethings yelling often at the tv because she was such a bad boss

[eviltransswag]

Bloodraven Information Post

if yall have better pictures of him send them in pls

Bloodraven is a real pioneer, starting up a magical Nixonian style police state in ye olde pseudo Early Modern times, aided by his ability to project his consciousness into animals (usually ravens, he's the ultimate goth, wears only red and black).He got the name Bloodraven bercause he's got a red birthmark that he says looks like a raven (but is kinda just blobby). Favorite hobby is killing usurpers, immense hater swag. No real canon basis for his trans swag except vibes and the fact that I like him

he becomes an EVIL TREE. probably helped commit election fraud

take me back to the days when goth trans people reigned, when the autocrats ruling the realm with an iron fist had maximum sorcerous slay.

uhhhh also dragongender certaintly is a thing that kinda exists in canon, there's not any evidence that ol' Bloodraven subscribed to it, but I think it would add to his character.

he canonically has access to magical glamours, AND uses them, you cannot prove that he is not trans.

"How many eyes does Lord Bloodraven have?... A thousand eyes, and one"

Has a personal army called the Raven’s Teeth, imprisons those who criticize him. Advisor to the king, but is the real power behind the throne.

Bittersteel’s propaganda will call him a spindly nerd, but Bloodraven’s favored weapon was a hugeass longbow, so if he’s a spindly nerd, he’s one with shoulders so built that he can’t fit through normal doors

Really puts the slay in kinslayer. Plus he allegedly used dark sorcery to help with the aforementioned kinslaying.

literally invented the weirwood police state.

unfortunately toppled by his own haterism (he did nothing to stop the kingdom being raided because he was so focused on preventing the possibility of his usurper half-brother coming back to seize the throne. which made everyone hate his ass more than they already did, leading to his downfall)

Ominous fog accompanies all his spooky meddling, unsubtle but swagful

Google isn't super helpful, so here's an image of him from The Mystery Knight graphic novel, he's the guy in the front mod note: i used the picture first

[agentnico]

Shrinking - Season 1 (2023) Review

“What kind of a person hugs and tells!?” is a great line! I get that out of context this quote means nothing to the passive reader, however within the moment and Harrison Ford’s delivery of that line is pure hilarious perfection. If you’re intrigued, it’s the more reason to watch this show!

Plot: A grieving therapist starts to break the rules by telling his clients exactly what he thinks. Jimmy has lost his wife and wants to try a new approach to his loss, but it is unclear how this will help others.

Amongst Apple TV+ aim of dominating the streaming realm, we have been given the pleasure of receiving a new comedy drama series from the writers of Ted Lasso. That’s it - stop there. You sold me this one. As for anyone who hasn’t seen Ted Lasso, it is probably the one main reason to subscribe to the Apple streaming platform. Ted Lasso may just feature the most outright positive set of characters to ever grace television screens. Especially the titular Ted, played charmingly by Jason Sudeikis, offers compassion, humility and decency, even in the face of insults and abuse. His unshakeable good mood could have been an irritating trait in the wrong hands, but Sudeikis gave the character an endearing quality which lifted viewers' spirits. And the surrounding cast around him is for the most part delightfully lovely. Except for Nate. I mean f*** that guy, am I right?? So the writers set out to repeat the magic with the new series titled Shrinking. Does it have the cult status set out by its older football-themed brother? Well...

What Shrinking reminds me of is those early 2000s Judd Apatow comedies, that always featured one outlandish (commonly raunchy) plot point however within that were a set of immature characters who have some growing up to do, featuring earnest themes about love, relationships, friendship and family. With Shrinking there isn’t much raunchiness, however it is very much a show about flawed characters who have some growing up to do. Jason Segel, who previously appeared in a few aforementioned Judd Apatow films, leads the cast here as the grief ridden therapist who has lost his way in life after losing his wife. His growth is as obvious as apples on trees - he needs to let go of the past and learn to appreciate the good things surrounding him in the present. His daughter on the other hand needs to learn that her dad is so much better and supportive than she makes him out to be. And so on forth with the rest of the characters. 

I would say Shrinking is nowhere as remarkable nor memorable as Ted Lasso, however what works in this show’s favour is that it is an easy watch. All the characters are super likeable and watchable, you get plenty of solid humour as well as enough dramatic heft too. Jason Segel as always looks like a lost beat down dog, but that’s weirdly his most appealing charm. If you’ve liked Segel in How I Met Your Mother or Forgetting Sarah Marshall, he’s the same Segel of guy here who’s constantly having a midlife crisis and can never amusingly do anything right without frustrating someone. Harrison Ford gets to stretch out his comedic chops here and receives some of the script’s funniest lines, delivered wonderfully by his regular grizzly grunt-filled voice. Jessica Williams also brings a lot of fast paced energy and excitement to her role, and then I also wanted to give a shout out to Ted McGinley. He plays Segel’s neighbour’s husband, and he’s not in the show much, but whenever he did, he’d always be this overly positive happy go lucky bean. Just so happy and delightful. Love that guy.

In terms of problems, I’d say the show suffers a little from an identity crisis. It’s pitched as a story where a therapist begins to break rules and starts telling his clients exactly what he thinks and telling them what they need to do. And for the first couple of episodes that is somewhat present, but after than this concept if for the most part completely dropped, whereas I wish there could have been more done with it. Additionally, there are certain characters here that are blatantly unlikeable, and I don’t think the show realises this. For example, Ford’s character is suffering from a developing Parkinson’s disease. So he begins reconnecting with his daughter, however she is an outright despicable self centred human being who is absolutely horrible to her dad. Yet the show tries to justify the daughter’s actions by seemingly making it seem like Ford deserves all the berating and neglect from her. Same goes for Segel’s daughter - at times she was annoying too. Basically, it seems like Shrinking makes it seem like all daughters are terrible, which seems a tad perplexing. 

Overall I enjoyed this new Apple TV+ comedy series. I’ve heard they’ve already greenlit a second season, which I am perfectly okay with as it’s a perfectly apt sitcom that one can tune in to on a weekly basis for 30 minutes of giggles. It doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s an easy watch, and sometimes an easy watch is exactly what ones needs.

Overall score: 7/10

[john-peter3]

Day of pray

Terrence Baker, hunter, September 28, 2023. - Terry said to his therapist

Sorry if that sounded robotic - he continued - I don't know how to do this very well. I'm not the most social guy you'll find out there. My father taught me to hunt when I was… 15. I started hunting on my own when I turned 18. That's as much as I would like to share.

Don't worry Terrence, - explained Erica, his first-ever therapist - this is a safe space, and for this to work, might I add, you'll need to be open about why you're here.

I know. -affirmed Terry as he stared into the soul of Erica. even if his intention wasn't to intimidate her, she couldn't help but wonder for a bit if this 6'1 man with huge bags under his eyes and a beard he clearly didn't took care of for some time now wasn't dangerous. The fact that all of his credentials checked out and he had no run-ins with cops calmed her down.

So - said Erica, in an effort to continue the conversation as she noticed Terry was spacing out - what happened in this date you've set?

Well, I.. I… - Terry fumbled. She noticed he was showing signs of fear just at the recollection of what happened

How about you start from… well, the start? - Erica suggested with weak laughter whose only purpose was to brighten the mood a bit. it failed its purpose

Terry then explained: I'm a hunter. but that's part-time. I'm also a butcher on the outskirts of Arkham.

Arkham is a beautiful city - Erica spoke - No luck finding help there?

I can't stand being there anymore. if you would let me continue. - Terry asserted himself without necessity.

Well, go on then.

Ricardo and I butcher animals other hunters bring in. We sell meat to some grandmas too. Particularly one called Rachel. I like Rachel. She likes to talk about her family and politics. She always starts the politics talk with the same points. She's at that age where they start to forget things. Voted for Trump, regretted it, voted for Biden, doesn't know if she can trust him but finds him cute. Shes my best friend. my only other friend is Ricardo. We don't talk a lot outside of work stuff and living situation, although sometimes we talk a bit about politics. Not the usual stuff, more immigration stuff.

One day, Tony walks in, asks me to finish up a black bear, and talks a bit too much for my liking. He said it was a shame how things were going with me. You see doc, I haven't been hunting for a while now, about two years. Things were rough with this corona shit. Business almost went down. Don't know what I'd do if it did

"So, no more hunting from you hum?" he said, "it's a shame really" "Your father really knew how to hunt." he said, "waste." The prick said.

Eventually - Terry continued, looking at Erica's eyes as if he had to assert himself in this sentence - I felt like going for a black bear. And I did. it all went normal, except for when I hit this part of the forest… - Terry hesitated - I don't know how to describe it very well, you'll have to forgive me.

No worries - affirmed Erica

So I found tracks. I followed them. Just the usual: broken twigs, stepped-on leaves, trees he had clawed, and things of that nature.

But when I hit the aforementioned part of the forest I… started to hear something stepping just behind me. when I checked, nothing, and this kept repeating itself. sometimes I would see fellow hunters in the distance with odd clothing as far as I could tell. And I couldn't tell very well as they were behind tree lines. But none came close to me. They were mostly just standing there. So I didn't pay attention to them.

Except for when I noticed they weren't tracking anything at all. They were just staring at me.

Now, I don't know much, but I know when I'm not wanted somewhere, so I decided to leave. wasn't having much luck with the bear either. tracks seemed to just go on and on with no signs of me getting any closer.

Doc I started to feel bad, nervous y'know? Like I had to keep my head down just like when we feel like vomiting. Like my blood pressure was off.

Now I couldn't go back, I had to camp. Didn't feel like I was good enough to walk back alone through a forest to civilization. But that feeling that I was not wanted? Turned to a different, more intense feeling: the feeling of being watched.

It took me a while to realize that was what I was feeling but when I did I didn't feel safe anymore. You see Doc. I know how to track, I know how animals behave when they realize they're being followed and for as much as I didn't want to I was acting just like them. I was scared, but it was too much: the sudden unwellness, the feeling something was wrong, and to top it off, this, taste… weird taste hit my mouth. It reminded me of blood. so I just got partially into my sleeping bag and held my rifle up close.

And then it happened: I heard a loud growl, and what seemed like hundreds of footsteps in my direction. I didn't recognize to what creature that growl belonged to. It was a weird one.

I shot at the air above me, maybe the noise would scare them. It didn't. So I ran.

I ran very fast never letting go of my rifle and.. and… and the damned things seemed as if they were one step behind me. I think I heard laughter?

during this monologue, Erica tried to interject many times in order to help him express himself or understand what was happening to him at that time but he would not let her so much as make a sound. He was frantic.

Doc, this is gonna sound like I'm lying, or at least hallucinating, since there aren't many of those in this region but I ran into a cliff. A huge one. I couldn't stop, I wasn't crazy, I wasn't gonna jump off a cliff, but they were right behind me, even though it seemed as if I had gained a bit of space. So I turned around and tried to aim at whatever it was and doc… it was…

Terry then stopped talking suddenly, as if the words didn't want to come out anymore.

Erica tried again to help him by saying: whatever description you can come up with will help a lot, try not to be so exact.

Terry then spoke loudly, as if it was right in front of him:

It was a bunch of shadows…doc. it was like the night had come in an instant and I could barely see all the legs and arms coming at me. they were as if they all shared one massive horizontal body… and the faces… moving back and forth either too happy or too upset.

I don't know what came over me. but I jumped. it was either that or whatever these people were going to do to me.

as I fell, I would close my eyes and wish with all my strength that the laughter stopped and I got back to the cliff.

I lost all my strength as I fell, doc. when I opened my eyes again I would immediately shut them again.

and then I finally hit something. I remember at this one time that I opened my eyes I saw this… structure that seemed to expand from one point down but I didn't see the rest of the shape, it was made out of stone and it was covered in moss and I was falling right in a hole on top of it.

I don't know what I hit, but it didn't break anything, right after that I hit my head.

I don't know for how long I was out but when I woke up I felt like I had just left hell.

I cried and drooled during my unconsciousness.

I felt phantom pains all over my body. just sensations that those body parts had been twisted and tortured and that my blood had been forced out and shot back in with enough strength to pierce bone.

To be honest, doc: I don't know why this description popped into my head. But the more I think of it the more i… recall? it is as if I can smell the memory but not see it.

What helped me slightly to remember was looking up and seeing that the hole I fell into had its interior walls infested with flesh. sometimes I could distinguish a body part going through another but the only thing my damn memory won't let go of was a faceless mouth in that sea of flesh. so twisted from the pain… its muscles seemed to be at their limits but still, just like the rest of it, it was static.

The silence was deafening doc, the whole place was dark and I was completely shocked. I wandered through it but it was almost pitch black. my head hurt so much and I think I saw and felt the very darkness move around me at times, like water on the beach, resisting your movement by going in the opposite direction but this felt more like a cocoon forming around me, trying to make me stay put.

I heard voices but I couldn't understand what they were saying, and I didn't want to, I just wanted to get the fuck out of there.

At this point, Terry didn't realize it, but he was crying.

I was never scared like that, sometimes when I hit a wall I would lean against it, to rest a bit, but I would feel like I was merging with it so I couldn't even rest.

Eventually, I found my way out. but I don't know for how long I was there, but when I descended those huge stairs I didn't even turn back to look at the god-forsaken place, I just ran.

3 days later I was found in a catatonic state at the edge of the forest. The doctors said it looked like I was fighting against a terrible disease but they couldn't detect anything and it went away suddenly and After another week I was let go. I left Arkham and haven't come back since.

Terry then, in tears, asked: what do you make of this doc?

[joelwindows7]

LBRY Murdered Part 6

Previous:

There is no meeting today.

We are getting close to the final day. I thank you for all your contribution in this event as we speak. Great luck, & God Bless you.

Dismissal instruction is in progress. We are currently analyzing situation whether or not it is safe to get out now after we have finished here. While you are being subsidized for the stays, it is recommended that we all can come back to our homes and return to our workplace normally. The Saorfa hotel is not yet ready for normal commercial use at the moment, and was designed for emergency safe keeping purpose for entities under threats. Therefore we hope for the best.

As usual, any concern post this event, and any other question are always open for submission.

Oh yeah, one more.

We have just received a good news depending on how expectful you are. Today, it is the day, that we introduce you: Polycentric.

What this does is to link all your social medias in one place. Well, you can say that there is already a linktree, so why this?

Good question. **It adds verifications** beside of just adding your account URLs to your tree! If it goes to that Polycentric, that mean this channel & accounts on other platform is confirmed, **belongs to one**. Therefore should be more difficult to impersonate other accounts, if you cannot have access of editing it, since you have to place the token in the account description / bio.

Is there is already application of this protocol? luckily, yes! The Grayjay (video here & here)! This is to play videos from the channels ones claimed in their polycentric (and if haven't, it shows as a separate own channel name until claimed). Now, you can play video **ONLY JUST IN ONE APP**, and **even download every single of them!!** No need to jump to YouTube, jump to Odysee, jump to whatever video social app idk my disk full & they could brick my phone soon.

GrayJay also features its own social features such as Like Dislike, Comments and soon others. With your Polycentric account, you can interact with others and more, right here. Plus, **There is no crypto hurdle**, and in fact, **it is not crypto**. All you have to do, is to generate yourself a Polycentric account if you haven't made one already, and start your adventure. If you have channels in your platform, You should also link them all together with Harbor app. Login with the same Polycentric, and start claiming all of them.

**STORE YOUR POLYCENTRIC URL LIKE A PASSWORD!!!**

Perkedel nor FUTO will not be responsible for act of neglect, contributing loss or stolen of your Polycentric accounts and all your claims. I have a suggestion, that they should also add password field to decrypt everything, just saying. like Username Password something2.

This is not sponsored of course. In fact, I currently have a difficulty to buy this app, due to limited & unfamiliar payment system choice (and for obvious reason, PayPal I think they also believe that they are a bunch of bad guys). Worry not, like WinRAR, there is no loss of features for not paying it, although again, if you are in US and has the money, **pls buy it**. They earned it. All and all, I have already concluded this worthy for you to trust now. Unlike WinRAR, they are also Source Available (despite the license being not standard due to sheer amount of scam modifying other open source video social projects & putting bunch of nasty stuffs in it). *Open Source*, that you can fork it and do anything, except the aforementioned scamming, which the license forbids. Again, you do not need to edit the source code, because as far as I have tried, there is no visible nor significant of feature loss detected. Until I find, you may trust this system now. Pay whenever you can.

I really wonder if pressing go to Stripe would open up a single time payment page like as if we purchasing something from a website powered by Shopify (insert card no need login & go). I hope for this. I shall explore further later, I promise.

The steps and instruction on how to participate in these new systems are later to be written. You may for now visit my Harbor page at

https://harbor.social/CAESRwokCAESIEO0rnpfJZ2ckTDNbO1rIuR7DigDaNi9yXw5m4bMFUyiEh9odHRwczovL3NydjEtc3RnLnBvbHljZW50cmljLmlv

by JOELwindows7 Perkedel Technologies CC4.0-BY-SA

[altontowersfireworks]

BLOG ENTRY 14.

"Hey guys, it is Urbano-Explorer200 here with a new blog entry! Today i found something quite unusual and i need you guys to see it, it is unlike anything else i have found."

"I was exploring around this forest near Staffordshire. The thing is, when i was heading deep into the forest, something caught my eye, specifically a very strange structure.

It looked like a shed of sorts with broken and poorly-fixed windows, the roof was covered in wires, signal antennae, leaves and there was even a small tree sapling growing on it. I thought to myself it could be some abandoned shed, however...

You guys know how i am, so i decided to inspect it if i found anything interesting besides my aforementioned first impression.

When i got closer, i began hearing faint static, like the ones you hear from a broken or silent radio. My curiosity grew stronger so i decided to enter, weirdly enough the door was completely loose.

What i saw left me completely puzzled and perplexed...

I saw a bunch of TVs stacked together, plus two players (CD and VHS), a laptop and some sort of radio transmitter and receiver.

Was this a radio pirate in middle of the forest? i thought to myself.

I looked around and that thought was completely discarded when i saw a strange logo* painted in one of the walls with the phrase 'RESISTANCE, CLOSELY OR AT DISTANCE.' under it, plus what seemed to be posters and files of something, strangely enough most were about being happy, joyful or smiling with a specific smiley-face logo or mentioned something along the lines of 'Smiler' or 'Ministry of Joy', they were flooding two boxes and an old drawer. Some of them were pinned on a small board, a few were on the floor.

*It looked like a broken spiral, this logo was nowhere to be found except for that previously mentioned wall, here is what it looked like, i tried to replicate it but im not good at drawing so it isn't that perfect, lol.

I noticed that there was also a bunch of VHS and CDs on the table the players were in, i curiously looked at their labels.

All of them had weird names, in a very creepy and oddly cryptic way.

Some started with 'ADVCT-TST' and a serial number afterwards (or were just serial numbers with no letters), while others had names like 'EXPERIMENTAL PROCESS' or 'IT'S TIME.' There was others that had the name of a person followed by testing or test, for example '-Name Here-'s Tests.'

It was definitely eyebrow-raising, my curiosity wanted to see more, unfortunately i began hearing two people talking that seemed to be approaching the shed, to avoid any awkward moments or even problems i just sneaked out the fastest i could.

I returned back home after that but i had a strange feeling about what i had seen today, like if it was something i shouldn't have seen or discovered at all. It still kinda keeps me up at night.

I have explored places with creepy or strange things before but this one takes the number one spot.

Anyway, i hope you guys enjoyed this entry, if any of you had any similar experiences or stories, let me know in the comments!

This is Urbano-Explorer200, signing off!

[magicdreemurr17]

Chapter 9: "End Of The Icy Road"

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

"Can you reach it yet, little human?" asked the deer monster before them desperately.

"You've asked that same question three times in the span of a minute. Try to take it easy." Magic pointed out as she was untangling some decorations from his antlers.

The two humans had been through hell and back with Papyrus and his never-ending puzzles. Every corner they had turned in this wintery hellhole, they would be led into another puzzle that was almost as tedious and time-consuming as the last. That wasn't even counting the number of times that they'd stop their progression simply because of the dumbest things like Papyrus leaving out a plate of spaghetti for them, although it was an incredibly tempting offer that the humans were upset they couldn't actually take (thanks to the cold climate causing the plate to become frozen and stuck to the table). The illusion of choice was such a cruel inconvenience.

The local monsters also didn't make things any easier with how they constantly kept blocking the way. Every couple steps, their journey would be interrupted by a Snowdrake, one of those damned Icecaps who couldn't keep their ego to themselves, or a combination of the aforementioned monsters accompanied by everyone's favorite local slob, Jerry. The monsters were stretching this journey out way more than it needed to be, and this "Gyftrot" was no exception... but the two siblings could let this particular monster slide, as he didn't exactly block their path on purpose.

The whole reason they encountered Gyftrot was because he came barreling out of the trees in utter distress, startling the two humans at first because of the googly eyes that were blinding the poor guy's vision. Apparently, he was being tormented by some local teenagers earlier, and they decorated him as if he was a christmas tree. When the humans realized that was what was causing Gyftrot such intense stress, they offered to help him take the decorations off, much to the deer monster's delight. Frisk was currently reaching for a pesky candy cane that was stuck at the top of Gyftrot's antler as Magic proceeded to remove the christmas lights on his other antler. Gyftrot even knelt down slightly to help them. Finally, they snatched the delicate treat off.

"Ah, much better..." sighed Gyftrot in relief, turning to the older human slightly to see how her progress was going.

"These things are tangled to hell..." Magic muttered in frustration, "How do kids intentionally manage something like this? It's like they didn't even try..!"

"Need some help?" signed Frisk.

"Nah, I think I got it now." she replied, gently tugging a bit on the lights as she finally got them untangled from Gyftrot's antlers, making the deer monster very happy.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Freedom!" he exclaimed joyously, galloping around in delight, "Finally, no more stupid accessories! I need to give those little miscreants a piece of my mind one of these days..!"

Gyftrot's words pierced at Magic's conscience.

One of these days? Implying that this has happened more than once to him? That's rough, she thought. She felt a bit of sympathy for the reindeer. After all, it's not a great feeling to be disrespected by anyone, especially not by your own kind.

Gyftrot turned over to the pair of humans, bowing his head slightly in gratitude, "I can't thank you two enough. It feels like a weight's been lifted off my shoulders!"

Magic and Frisk exchanged glances as they turned down towards the discarded accessories, trying to be polite and hold in a desperate laugh. A weight had indeed been lifted off his shoulders, quite literally with how much junk was wearing the poor guy down.

"Here, it's not much, but you guys can have it..." Gyftrot lowered his head and, to the disgust of the older human, spat out some gold coins in Frisk's hand, giving them about 18G before he gracefully galloped away.

"There may have been another way to distribute those..." Magic muttered, earning an elbow from her sibling, "What?! I'm just saying..."

"Don't be so rude. How else was he supposed to give it to me?" Frisk signed to her, "It's not good to have that spoiled mindset."

Magic huffed, "Are you calling me 'spoiled'? Frisk, I'm utterly hurt that you would say such a thing." There was a hint of playful sarcasm in her voice that nearly made Frisk fall to roll around in the snow in a fit of laughter. They loved how dramatic Magic was, even if sometimes her attitude got them into unnecessary trouble.

"You're a silly goob, that's what you are." they replied.

Magic giggled, "Remind me to help you learn a stronger vocabulary when we get out of here."

After exchanging a few more harmless laughs, the two humans found themselves crossing a narrow bridge from one cliff to the other. Despite there being no one in sight, Magic felt this strange, prickly sensation of something (or someone) monitoring them upon setting foot on the bridge, the unnerving feeling making her skin crawl.

"You think there's some sort of hidden security installed down here that we don't know about?" she asked, receiving a nonchalant shrug from her younger sibling.

"I don't sense anything..." They signed to her, minding their footing since there were no ropes to hold on, which already made Magic paranoid enough.

You're not the one with heightened instincts, Magic thought, grumbling in discomfort. She was certain of it; something was watching them, but who and from where, she couldn't necessarily pinpoint. It wasn't a person, otherwise she'd know right away where they were hiding. Maybe there was some sort of hidden camera or something?

Her thoughts were abruptly cut off when Frisk tugged on her arm to get her attention, pointing frantically in front of them. Magic's eyes followed their pointer finger, only to cross looks with the two skeleton brothers that had been bothering them over the course of their journey through Snowdin. As if they couldn't be delayed any more than they already had been. It's not like they'd been stopped by literally everything in the area but the weather itself: an aggressive hooded monster, Papyrus's puzzles, a group of highly energetic canine guards, Papyrus's puzzles, Sans being a cryptic sack of potatoes..- had Papyrus's puzzles been mentioned yet?

"HUMANS!! YOU'VE FINALLY ARRIVED!" shouted Papyrus gleefully as he held a suspicious looking remote in his hand.

Magic took a firm hold of Frisk's shoulder as she forced them to come to a halt, eyeing the device in the taller skeleton's hand warily. Only someone as frivolously naive as Papyrus could make something as harmless as a remote look scary all on its own.

For all I know, that damn lunatic could collapse this bridge with a push of that button, she thought while looking at the big red button, and he probably wouldn't even realize the fall could kill us.

Magic looked over the edge of the bridge, assessing their altitude. She couldn't even see the bottom, let alone any ledges they might be able to reach for on the descent. All that stood was an ominous black abyss, glaring back from below. If there was any sort of ground level, it was far too dark down there to see it, and they would likely hit the ground floor with a loud splat if the bridge collapsed. For all she knew, there was no ground level, and if they happened to fall, they would probably just be swallowed up by the void. Was that even possible? She certainly didn't want to find out.

"Hey, uh... that remote control you've got in your hands..." she began, clearing her throat anxiously, "You wouldn't happen to be plotting to make this bridge fall while we're still on it, right?"

"NYEH? WHY IN THE UNDERGROUND WOULD I DO THAT, TALLER HUMAN?" Papyrus asked, his face deadpanned, "IT'S OUR ONLY WAY FROM TOWN TO THE FOREST TO GO HUNTING FOR HUMANS!"

... Oh.

She hadn't even considered it, but he had a point. The Underground, as they had learned from exploring through the Ruins and now Snowdin, was very linear. There were almost no branching paths that led to the same area, so it would be very inconvenient for someone to destroy their only method of crossing into another location, like a bridge or a staircase. Wait, did he seriously end that sentence with 'go hunting for humans'?

"My bad... I guess I didn't think about that." she laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of her head as she felt embarrassed.

"BESIDES, WHY WOULD THE GREAT PAPYRUS EVEN THINK TO HURT YOU HUMANS!?" continued the young skeleton, pressing the button on his little remote.

As soon as he activated the remote, several strung objects came down from the ceiling, and some even from the cavern wall, a fair distance away but still relatively close to the bridge they stood on. Among these objects included some extremely deadly weapons, such as a canon, a flamethrower, two harpoons, and a spiked ball on a chain. The very sight of the artillery at this guy's disposal made both humans feel very threatened.

Oh, sure. You don't want to hurt the humans, that'd be too gruesome. Only mutilate us til there's nothing but a sack of burnt flesh in the middle of a blood puddle, Magic thought begrudgingly, eyeing each weapon with her paranoia and distrust towards the tall skeleton growing more lethal.

Frisk looked around at the gauntlet of weapons nervously, clinging to their older sister in fear until something caught their eye. Beside Papyrus and his brother, something hung from the ceiling strung up by some standard rope. The something in question... was the little white dog that saved them from Red earlier on. The sight of the little canine perked Frisk up a bit with familiarity as they tugged on Magic's sleeve and pointed at the ball of white fluff frantically.

"What the..-?" It took a second for her to register what Frisk was pointing at, "Hey! We know that weird little dog!"

Papyrus's eyes shot up in surprise, "YOU DO?"

"huh, that's a surprise..." Sans chimed in, "usually only us locals are familiar with this rascal... he's so quick, it's almost im-paw-sible to catch him."

"SANS!!! STOP IT WITH YOUR PUNS!" Papyrus screamed in outrage.

The Annoying Dog yipped and yapped, seemingly content with just being strung up on one of Papyrus's traps, even though he served no inherent purpose. Magic started to smile a bit, her stubborn facade threatening to break. The opportunity was just too good after Sans's pun.

"Well, he doesn't seem to mind hanging around." she responded, grinning with smug pride.

Both the skeleton brothers and Frisk looked at the older human in complete shock. They couldn't believe what just came out of her mouth.

"You made a bad joke!" Frisk signed, grinning from ear to ear.

"I thought it was half decent. You guys should be barking with laughter right about now." she replied.

"UGH, SANS!! YOU'VE ALREADY RUINED THIS HUMAN!!" Papyrus exclaimed in anguish, his brother unable to respond as he was actually rolling on the snow in a fit of laughter, unable to contain himself.

"it's alright, bro," Sans spoke through his hysterical wheezing, "just hope you're not havin' a ruff time with all the dogs puns being thrown around..!"

Papyrus let out an exasperated sigh, shaking his head in disapproval as both humans shook with laughter. The taller skeleton eyeballed the two siblings across from him, looking back at his trap in contemplation.

"YOU KNOW WHAT? I CHANGE MY MIND! I'M NOT USING THIS TRAP!" he responded, clicking the button on his remote again to put away the deadly gauntlet of weapons (and the poor little canine).

Magic and Frisk looked at Papyrus, surprise and bewilderment in their expressions. It wasn't like him to just admit defeat like that; he literally goes by 'the Great Papyrus'.

"you sure, bro? you spent a lot of time working on that one..." Sans reminded him, still recovering from his laughing fit as he hugged his own ribcage.

"WELL, YES, BUT THIS JUST FEELS WRONG!" Papyrus complained, gesturing to Magic and Frisk, "THESE HUMANS ARE FAR TOO CLEVER FOR A PUZZLE AS SIMPLE AS THIS! IT WOULDN'T BE FAIR TO TEST THEM THIS WAY!"

... Simple? He calls that mess of a gauntlet SIMPLE..? Magic thought, dumbfounded as she facepalmed. With every moment they share with the two skeletons, Papyrus finds new ways to utterly baffle her.

"YOU GET A PASS THIS TIME, HUMANS! BUT NEXT TIME, YOU WON'T GET PAST THE GREAT PAPYRUS SO GENEROUSLY! NYEH HEH HEH!!" he cackled as he spun away dramatically.

Well, if there's one thing he has a true knack for, it's unnecessary theatrics. I don't think I've met anyone who was such a drama queen, Magic thought as she shook her head.

The two humans crossed the bridge over to where Sans was standing, each breathing a sigh of relief that they didn't get broiled alive or impaled by the deadly contraption. That was almost as bad as the spike trap walkway from way back in the Ruins. Frisk snapped their attention up when a small screen suddenly appeared in front of them as a feeling of rejuvenation washed over them.

* The worst of it is finally over. You have reached the end of Snowdin Forest. Knowing you will reach the next area soon fills you with DETERMINATION.

Did it though? Frisk wasn't too sure if what the messages from this voice in their head were entirely accurate, but they couldn't shake aside the security they felt in those words. They should've been feeling alarmed at this awareness, but for some reason they didn't. They trusted this voice because they had no other choice.

"you two really gave my bro a run for his gold." Sans spoke up, walking over to the two humans.

"And thank you for being of absolutely no help through any of it." Magic responded sarcastically, glaring at Sans slightly.

The stout skeleton shrugged with an innocent grin on his face, "just doin' what i do best, kiddo. it's my job." he turned away, glancing back at them over his shoulder, "come on. i'll show you guys around town."

The two humans exchanged nervous glances as they hesitantly followed the lackadaisical skeleton to the next chamber. What came in sight was a beautiful snow-covered town laced with Christmas lights, wreaths on every door, and monsters of all sorts bustling about as if it were the holiday season already. What really made the setting shine was the gentle snowfall that blanketed the entire area. It truly felt like Christmas in September.

"Woah. Nice place..." Magic complimented, her hostility melting away as she looked at the delighted expressions of the passing monsters as they followed Sans.

"this place is snowdin town." he gestured to each important landmark as he explained their purpose to the two humans.

"that there's the shop. you can buy all sorts of goodies from there to help you with the road ahead. one of our royal guards in particular loves going there for cinnamon buns. the lady who works there is very nice, both with the locals and any tourists that we get. 'course, the only tourists we get are the ones who don't live underground and come here by accident."

He means humans, Frisk thought, a concerned frown cracking its way onto their face.

"that building next to it 's the inn." Sans continued, "you can rest up there if you need, but the rooms offered there are so bad, the receptionist always gives you a refund, even if you somehow manage to enjoy the experience. it's not much but it's better than the inn run at the uptight, fancy resort over in hotland, at least in my opinion... that box there in front of those buildings is for storage, and free for everyone to use... if you got any items you don't need at the moment, just put it in there."

"Why is it just sitting there..?" Magic asked as Frisk went to check the contents of the box.

"it's a magic box." he replied with a smug grin, noticing the unamused expression of the older human, "tough crowd, huh? well, really, we call that little tool a 'dimensional box'. there's other boxes like it scattered through the underground, none in hotland though, at least not from what i can remember... been a while since i've been to hotland."

As Frisk opened the box, they were disappointed to find only a muggy, old, worn-out glove. They decided it would be best to store the spider bakesale products they bought from the Ruins a while back. After all, those items might not be easy to come by, and who knows if they might need them in the future? It was then that they noticed a familiar yellow glow over by the box, a faint glimmer they had seen throughout Snowdin and had interacted with in the Ruins. Reaching one hand out, they touched the shining object before choosing to follow Sans and their sister again.

* The sight of such a friendly town fills you with DETERMINATION...

There it was again, only this time, that feeling of rejuvenation was much more potent, as was that voice from before. It felt like the warm glow of the sparkling object was healing the human, but Frisk's own thoughts were clamored by that voice's persistent ushering.

"over here, kiddo..." Sans turned to Frisk, snapping them out of their thoughts.

Frisk waved to their sister and the short skeleton, "Coming! Sorry, I just got distracted."

"don't worry about it. i know there's a lot to see and do here, bucko." Sans gestured to a nearby igloo, "see that igloo there? you can use it as a quick shortcut to get to the other side of town... that is, if you don't like walking a couple extra steps on your little human legs."

The two humans turned their heads to the igloo curiously. Was everything in this town laced with magic enchantments? Next thing, for all they knew, he'll be saying the buildings have some sort of secret behind them or inside one of the rooms.

"over past this way is the library..." the stout skeleton pointed out the building as it came into their view. It sure enough did look like a normal library, but something was very wrong with the sign, as both Frisk and Magic noticed.

"... Why does it say 'Librarby'?" asked the older human.

The skeleton monster merely shrugged again, "our librarian doesn't know how to spell."

"Then why are they working in a library, numbskull..?" Magic seethed under her breath, absolutely baffled, but also getting slightly irritated with Sans's mediocre responses... not that she wanted him to know that. Getting on the skeleton's bad side was still far off her agenda.

They continued through town at a casual, but somewhat quicker than average pace, as if Sans was trying to shorten the tour to get the humans moving in the right direction... literally. There was a bar and grill, appropriately named 'Grillby's', which was apparently run by an old friend of Sans. The monster in question was a fire elemental, who always let Sans in despite the fact that he never paid his tab, as he told the two humans beside him. Sans mentioned it had been so long, he'd forgotten when was the actual last time he had paid his tab.

So he's lazy and irresponsible. I'm starting to feel sorry for his brother, Magic inquired.

It wasn't long before the short skeleton showed the human siblings where he and his brother lived: a cozy little house on the far side of town, with a smaller shack built next to it that was apparently designed to host captured humans, but once again, Papyrus overestimated the size of humans. The bars that were meant to act as a prison for any humans hosted within the cabin were too wide, so even an adult human could easily crawl right through. The house itself was like all the others: a snow-covered roof, a wreath on the door, and some Christmas lights decorated here and there.

"my brother's waiting for you guys up ahead," he mentioned, gesturing to the snowy pathway ahead of them with a lazy grin, "he'll probably try to capture you both one last time. that means you might have to fight him... don't worry though. ol' sans has got you both covered... i'll even give you a healthy tip about fighting my brother."

Though they expected a bit of heartfelt and friendly advice, both of them were quite taken aback when the pupils from his eyesockets disappeared, giving off an uneasy tension between them as his baritone voice got deeper and sounded more threatening.

"don't."

He cleared his throat (as if he even needed to) before he returned his eyes and voice to normal, "in all seriousness, you remember when you fought doggo? keep that in mind when you confront my bro, and watch out for his blue attack. stay still if you see it." he walked past the two humans as they stood frozen in place, eyeing him with looks of discomfort and unease while he just chuckled slowly in response, "see you on the other side, kiddos."

With that, Sans the skeleton left the two humans, still shaken up by his so-called 'advice', to face the end of their road in Snowdin, unaware of what kind of confrontation would be waiting for them up ahead. Little did they know, it would be one of their most unsettling encounters thus far in the Underground.

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

Author's Note: You may notice that this looks a bit familiar. Well, that's because I went out of my way to update all the older chapters in celebration for the release of Chapter 10, as well as add in an extra data entry by W. D. Gaster. I hope you guys will decide to look back and read the old chapters as you prepare for the release of Chapter 10, (and appreciate all my hard work for you guys).

Take care lovelies, and remember! Stay determined! <3

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[wowbright]

Fic: Let's Talk About Love

Klaine Spring Fling: tricky

Words: ~1200 words

Rating: Teen and up

Summary: In English group, the discussion centers on optical illusions and love.

This is part of my Mormon!Klaine universe. It takes place immediately after the scene I posted yesterday, Straight Guys Can Tell.

My Mormon!Klaine Masterpost. (More recent posts are in bold.)

Note: Thanks to @coffeegleek for help with this scene!

––––

When they got back to the classroom, Harmonie and Dolcezza had arrived. They were sitting at the table with Chandler, making introductory small talk in English, Chandler's legs thankfully obscured by the table, and his arms by a zip-up hoodie he had pulled on over his workout clothes. “Dolcezza, so glad to meet a fellow traveler who enjoys fashion as much as I do, though you obviously can't tell from my current outfit. I mean, that headband—” Chandler brought his fingers to his lips and gave a chef's kiss.

Dolcezza tilted her head flirtatiously, the large butterfly on the aforementioned headband seeming to flap its wings as she did so. “Thank you, Chandler. You are such a gentleman. Also, what is ‘fellow traveler’? We are not on holiday.”

“Oh, it's something like … a person who has similar interests?”

“Ah,” said Dolcezza. “Your English is so good, Chandler. I have envy.”

“What can I say? I’m addicted to American TV. That's what happens when you are named after a television character, I guess.”

“Oh! Like Chandler from Friends? He is so handsome. Like you.”

Harmonie rolled her eyes. “May I pretend I am an American and ask something personal, Chandler? Not to be rude—no, that's not the right word, what is it in English?—Presumptive? But because Dolcezza often … oh, I know just the idiom! ‘Barking up the wrong tree’! Yes, Dolcezza often goes barking up the wrong tree, so: Are you gay?”

“Oh, yes. One-hundred percent. Definitely.”

“I did not presume he was straight!” Dolcezza whined. “I am nice to all people!” She leaned closer to Chandler. “You are cute, though. Did you know Elder Hummel is gay? He is cute, too. Is he your type?”

“I'm standing right here, Dolcezza,” Elder Hummel said.

“I know. I hear you enter.” Dolcezza spun around in her seat and flashed the two missionaries a huge smile. “Good evening, Elder Anderson.”

“Actually, Dolcezza,” Elder Hummel interjected before Blaine could return her greeting, “in this context, you can say, ‘Hello.’ We don't really say ‘good evening’ in U.S. English except in formal situations.”

“OK,” Dolcezza answered cheerily. “Hello, elders. Nice to see you. Is that a new cravat you wear, Elder Hummel? I love the— oh, I do not know the English word. Ippopotami, Nilpferde, Flusspferde—river horses?”

“Yes.” Elder Hummel beamed.

OK, that wasn't fair. Chandler could see the hippos, and now Dolcezza? Blaine had now seen his companion wear that tie multiple times and still couldn't make out any hippos. "But in English, the word is more like the Italian. Hippopotamus.”

“Hippopotamus,” Dolcezza repeated.

“You know, that's the tie he was wearing when I met him!” Chandler announced to Dolcezza and Harmonie. “I saw Elder Anderson and Elder Hummel in a music store, and when I noticed his tie, I felt I must say hello.”

Harmonie looked at her two language-learning companions in bewilderment. “Hippopotamus? I don't see.”

Thank goodness. Blaine was not alone in this room. “Don't worry, Harmonie. I can't see them either. It's some sort of optical illusion.”

She stared at him, uncomprehending.

“It’s tricky to see. Like… optische Täuschung?”

“Ah, OK.”

And so the first good chunk of English group was spent with Chandler and Dolcezza trying to instruct Harmonie and Blaine in seeing the optical illusion. Elder Hummel quickly tired of everybody staring at him and temporarily hung his tie over the flipboard so they could discuss it without staring at him. Otherwise, the elders let the conversation flow—their lesson plans weren’t all that important, but mostly served as a backup in case the participants were shy or couldn't think of enough to talk about. Blaine even learned a new English word from Chandler —autostereogram, which was the type of image that created the illusion on Elder Hummel’s tie—and did his best not to be bitter that Chandler was apparently both sexy and smart.

“I see it!" Harmonie squealed after 15 or 20 minutes of this. She bounced up and down in her chair and clapped her hands vigorously in a manner that was reminiscent of Dolcezza, then immediately went to work trying to show Blaine how she had done it.

“I give up. I still can't see it," said Blaine after a few more minutes of this visual torture.

“Maybe your eyes are different,” said Chandler.

“Not maybe,” Dolcezza said, twisting a length of hair around her index finger. “Elder Anderson’s eyes aredifferent. I see many brown eyes in my life, but the eyes of Elder Anderson are his own. What color did you say they were last time, Elder Hummel? Hazelnut?”

“Hazel,” said Elder Hummel.

“Stop hitting on Elder Anderson,” said Harmonie.

“Yes, hazel. Like the thing in Nutella. I love Nutella. And I do not hit on Elder Anderson, I just say how I see his eyes. I know he is not, how do you say in English, accessible?”

"Available,” corrected Harmonie. “And you do not love Nutella. You can love parents and children and husband and wife and girlfriend and boyfriend and brother and sister, and maybe even cats or dogs, but you cannot love a thing. You like Nutella. Nutella pleases you.”

“But that is how Americans say,” insisted Dolcezza.

“Yes, I know. But it is stupid.” Harmonie looked directly at Elder Hummel, then at Blaine. “This is not personal, it is just true. Americans say”—here, Harmonie took on the cadence of a Valley girl— “‘I love my car, I love my phone, I love this new song, I love my sandwich, I love my nail polish.’ How do you love all these things? If you say to someone, ‘I love chocolate,’ and then later you want to say, ‘I love you,’ does not the person feel that maybe the love is not so good? Because chocolate and the person are the same in your heart?”

“I never thought of it that way," said Blaine. “But … no. If you say it about a person, they know it means something different than if you say it about food.”

"I wouldn't,” said Harmonie.

“That's because you’re German," said Chandler.

"So are you,” Harmonie answered defensively.

“I know. But German rules don't apply to English.”

"I still don't like it. It sounds…” Harmonie drifted off, at a loss for words.

“Superficial?” Elder Hummel offered.

“Yes.”

Blaine felt uneasy. He loved things with abandon. Did Elder Hummel think he was superficial? “But it’s good to love things. If you can learn to love the small things, the bigger things come more easily.”

Harmonie examined him skeptically. “I am not so sure.”

“Why not?" Blaine asked. “It's like any habit. The more you do it, the more easily it comes to you. If I've never run before, I can't do a marathon. But if I run a little every day, I can build up to that over time.”

“I like that," said Chandler. "Elder Anderson has won the argument.”

Harmonie glared at him. Blaine felt a sort of swooping pride in his chest.