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umeumeumee · 1 year

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affection

ahsoka tano x fem! reader

ahsokas tried eyes flutter shut as you caress her Lekku; fingers running up and down gently. her nerves were being sent into a new place, a place of relaxation.

the low humming emitting from your mouth was a help as well, a tune you sing to her when she’s sad, tears falling down her cheeks. your voice always helps her heal.

your hands travel up, twisting around the top nubs of her Montrals, sending a shiver down her spine, a sigh escaping her.

you laugh, “is it truly so relaxing?” your question makes ahsoka nod, no words able to come out from her state of euphoric satisfaction.

“Ahsoka,” you say, stopping the touching of her lekku for just a moment.

“whenever you want me to do this, I want you to let me know. no matter what i’m doing, i will always have time for you.”

ahsoka’s heart beat was rapid, her eyes not daring to open as she debated an answer. did you truly have time for her? would you really stop anything to just hold her? she was doubting it— but only out of fear.

“…okay.” she says, and you smile, kissing her cheek, staying by her ear. “I love you, ahsoka.”

she opened her eye just a crack to meet yours. “i love you, too.” she all but whispered, barely noticeable as she met your eye.

a rather harsh knock at your door startled you, causing you to jump— sending ahsoka into a rapid state of defense, standing up quicker than you’ve ever seen, arms sprawled to protect you.

“Ahsoka, it’s okay— i’m sorry, i just wasn’t expecting a knock at the door,” you say, reaching for her hand as she shakily breathes through her nose. You stand from the couch, ushering her to sit back down on her pillow that rests on the floor, so it’s easier for you to reach the top of her head.

“I’l be right back, have some bantha milk, my love.” you say, handing her your warm glass of blue milk before walking to the door; feeling her gaze in your back.

your hand covers the handle, twisting it and pulling it open. “oh, hello again!” you say, amused, your voice chippy and happy as always. “hello ma’am! here is your weekly news paper.” The delivery man says, Nq-io, as you’ve learned his name to be.

“thank you! ah, i was just thinking about this.” you muse, gently taking the paper from his extended hand. “Good! that’s what i’m here for. Have a nice day!” he says, “you too!” you say, waving before closing he door, shuffling through the paper.

“was that the mail delivery?” Ahsoka pipes up, and you look up, smiling. “you know it. although it is strange he came so late. i mean, 8? eh— as long as we get our mail.” you chuckle, walking over to her. “Here, i know you like the current stories for some reason, silly.” you say, handing her the paper and taking the spilled bantha milk from her when she extended it for you, placing it on the couch side table.

she rummaged through the paper as she always does, looking for a certain page. why? you are unsure.

You hobble around the couch and make your way to the kitchen, taking out the sweet Wookiee Cookies— you had recently found the recipe to— out of the oven, nice and fresh.

You placed them on the counter, sprinkling some sugar and honey on the top, just like how Ahsoka likes them.

transferring four to a plate, you let the rest cool slowly as you make your way back to her.

“here you go,” you say, placing the cookies beside her newspaper busy form. she looks down at them as you sit behind her once again, humming a tune that, somehow, burrowed itself into your head.

“thank you..” she says lowly, and you lightly bend down to kiss her cheek, a chippy ‘you’re welcome’ slipping out as well.

you know how tense ahsoka can be, especially her shoulders; which gave you an idea.

You lightly moved her lekku out of the way, hands resting on her rough shoulders as you began to massage her with utmost care. she instantly relaxed, arms dropping with the newspaper in them, making you hold back a small giggle.

You moved your hands around nicely, making sure to massage the rough parts especially. Ahsokas head began to lean back, and you saw that her eyes were closed shut, which made you smile once again.

The massage continued for quite a while, and you were happy that she finally got the relaxation she deserves so much.

Ahsoka eventually sat up more, and you pulled your hands away from the massage.

“Are you going to eat your cookies?” you question, “no pressure, if you don’t, i will!” you reassuringly say, and she looks back to you with a smile. “No, i’ll eat them. they look delicious, thank you.”

“you don’t need to thank me, ahsoka. it was my pleasure, you know i love baking for you.” you reassure, scooting over to make room for her on the couch, patting the spot beside you.

she stands, moving her shoulders a little bit before taking a seat once again, next to you; but, she never sits close enough. You frown as she sits a foot away from you, still nervous for all the physical contact, especially being the one to initiate it.

So you take the lead, scooting over to her and taking her arm, wrapping it around your waist as you kiss her lips shortly, moving your head to rest on her chest after.

She tightness her grip on you, unnecessarily tight, considering you are right next to her; but you know it’s her fear, the fear of you vanishing.

it’s happened many times before, you’ll wake up before her, leaving her tucked cozily in the bed to go to the bathroom, make breakfast, get a drink— and she’ll panic, quickly shooting out of bed, knocking things over to find you— she’s cried, she’s screamed; it’s heartbreaking. but, you know you have to make sure she knows you’ll never leave her, that’s why you get up in the morning. because no matter how much she panics, cries, screams and rushes, she always finds you, every single time. you’d never leave her, and you need her to know that.

her heart beats roughly against her chest, and you can feel it against your face as you rest into her, both of your breathing synchronized, calming.

ahsoka began to adjust, leaning back more and adjusting you to what’s comfortable for her, and it made you happy. Yes, it was a simple thing, but it was a massive step for her.

you hummed as you wrapped your hand around her free one, bringing it to your lips. you stayed like that for a while, and slowly but surely, slumber came to you as you fell asleep in her arms.

—♡—

your eyes cracked open at the sound of a morning dove, the light from the new morning suns shining through your cotton curtain and creating a warm spot on your face.

You began to move- but a pair of strong arms tightened their unnoticed embrace on you. You froze, glancing over your shoulder to find Ahsoka’s head in the crook of your neck. You smiled, the gesture taking half your face. she had carried you to bed last night, resting with you, beside you.

You sigh, satisfied, as you shuffle around so instead of little spoon, you and ahsoka are resting stomach to stomach , her head still between your shoulder and neck. you wrap your arms snugly around her neck, legs wrapping lightly around hers. Her warm, fanning breath was dreamy, her light, relaxed snores was a sound you oddly loved.

your right arm moved from its recent position to gently grasp her lekku, caressing it softly as she slept.

You knew all about her past, about order 66, months and years in hiding from those she once trusted; the look of utter heartbroken betrayal written as clear as day on her face when she told you about her Master, Anakin Skywalker.

the times you both live in are not peaceful. The war has just truly begun, with the reign of the Empire and Ahsoka knows that. you know that. but, you hope you can spend as much time as possible with her before she has to go.

you know that day will come.

she’ll have to leave, and you’ll be left here, alone.

again.

it wasn’t like you did not have fears of your own; your parents sold you into slavery from an extraordinarily young age, raised and beaten, abused and sold over, and over again like some kind if.. pest.

you’ve been through your own hard times, not that you would ever tell ahsoka; she has been through so much more. you understand how memories come back to haunt you. But you never, ever let them overcome you. and no matter what you’ve been through, how many people have left you, hurt you and done you wrong, you never look back to them. You continue forward; to your future. and right now, your future lays in your arms.

Your beautiful, wonderful, talented, brave ahsoka tano, who you would risk absolutely everything for. She is your suns throughout the day, your moons throughout the night, the summer breeze and the winter air, she is your blossom and you are the butterfly. nothing could ever stop you from loving her as much as you do, even when she leaves you.

leaves you alone, in this house, with these memories and thoughts. no doubt you’ll cry, sob even. but eventually, you’ll move on. just like you have with the friends and family before. focusing on the fact that she is happy, she has moved on and she is living her best life; even if it is without you. even if you don’t get to see her like that, you will be happy knowing you helped her get there.

you began to hum your signature tune as ahsoka began to shuffle, you released your grasp on her Montrals, untangling your legs from hers in order to give her space to awake; though her arms didn’t leave your waist.

her closed eyes are level to your open ones, watching as they begin to flutter open and meet yours.

“good morning, my love.” you whisper, her eyes blinking a few times due to the bright light. you bring your hand to caress her cheek, humming softly as she leans into you.

“how did you sleep? good, i hope. you looked so wonderful.” you mused, and a smile landed on her lips.

“i did sleep well,” she said, being interrupted by her own yawn, momentarily looking away from your gaze.

“you.. looked wonderful last night, too.” she whispered bashfully, recalling the moments from last night she observed your sleeping figure in her arms.

you laughed, riding your finger up to get the light sleep from her eye. “i’m glad you think so, although nothing can ever beat your sleeping face.” you replied, and she let her eyes flow shut again as your hand brushed against her cheek.

she hummed, her throat vibrating.

its moments like these that your thoughts of her leaving begin to flood your mind. You don’t want to only be the woman who helped her heal.. you really do love her, and you know it will hurt much more than any friend when she leaves you. you retract your hand, placing it onto your chest alongside your other one. You don’t want to become too attached, her leaving is inevitable, you know it, and you want to support her— be there for her when she decides to move on without you by her side.

“are you okay?” she asks, and your eyes flicker back to her now open ones, icy blues filled with concern.

You smiled, “of course, it’s just morning, you know?” you ask lightly, staring into her eyes as the concern dissipates.

“yeah.” she says, shuffling and beginning to sit up, leaning against the beds head frame as you follow suit after.

“would you like me to make some breakfast?” you question, “I bought fresh porg eggs and some fresh vegetables from the market yesterday.”

ahsoka looks to you, her eyes filled with nothing but love. “yes, please.” she says, and you begin to get out of bed, lightly yawning as you do so, putting on your slippers and making your way to the bedroom door, when her voice stops you.

“I love you, y/n.” Ahsoka said, as loud as day, her voice strong and meaningful.

you froze, heart beat skyrocketing, breaths deep. “I love you more, ahsoka.” you say, sending her a loving glance and continuing your walk to the kitchen.

she’s healed so much, and you suppose it’s time to begin saying goodbye.

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rpclefairy · 2 years

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updated tutorial on trimming posts on mobile

reply formatter mobile edition:

i’ve been trying to figure out a way to adjust the roleplay formatter to be used on mobile but unfortunately tumblr just does not render blog themes well on mobile browsers (my guess is to force people to use the app but i digress)

so i made a mobile friendly version with carrd. the only differences are the box size option and the night mode toggle, which the carrd version doesn’t have.

if you don’t use either of these you can use the carrd version on desktop as well, everything else is the same. for the purpose of this tutorial i’ll be using the carrd version as it is optimized for mobile screens.

if you can consider tipping my ko-fi or using my carrd referral code ( DPY34V1H ) to help me keep hosting the formatter ♡

this is a very easy level tutorial

even if you’re not comfortable with html!

this post may be long because of the screencaps, but the method itself is only a handful of clicks and it shouldn’t take you more than a minute.

this method technically works on any browser, but it works best on firefox as it is the only browser i’ve tested that keeps all formatting (bold, italics, color text, etc).

i encourage you to install firefox on your phone to at least cut replies, you could technically use the tumblr app to write and format your reply once you get the code of the trimmed reblog.

what you will need:

a mobile browser (can’t stress this enough i strongly suggest firefox, specially if you don’t want to have to manually add your partner’s formatting. it will make your life easier)

the mobile friendly reply formatter.

that’s it.

tutorial:

step one:

first thing you’re going to do is copy this line of text:

?redirect_to=%2Fdashboard%3Frestore%3D1&avoid_redirect=1

time saving tip! depending on your device you may have a “pin” or “lock” option in your clipboard, use it so you can keep using it without looking for this post and copying it all over again.

if your device does not have a pin / lock option, you can create shortcuts assigning a short word or symbol and when you type it the saved line of text will be suggested.

here is a tutorial for android and ios.

step two:

save the post you want to trim as a draft.

you can do this on the app.

step three:

open your draft on your mobile browser. click to edit the address bar.

the url of this post will look like this : https://www.tumblr.com/edit/USERNAME/POSTNUMBER

now delete the part with your username and one of the brackets (either the first one or the last one, it doesn’t matter which one, just don’t leave 2 brackets.

then add “?redirect_to=%2Fdashboard%3Frestore%3D1&avoid_redirect=1" (without the quotes) at the end of the link, then click on the link and load the page

thanks to this anon who figured the link trick out💗

step four:

select everything and copy

then click on the x to remove the previous reblogs.

step five:

now go to the reply formatter here, click on the paste button and you’ll get a pop window.

there tap your screen until you get the options “paste” and “paste as plain text”. use the regular “paste” option.

step six:

select the blockquote text you want to delete trimming the reply like you would on desktop with editable reblogs.

and that’s it ! you’re done.

from here you can either write and format everything on the formatter

or you can copy the html code from trimming the post and paste it on your trimmed draft on the app

ir order to do that, on step 4 add anything to the body of the post so you can save the post (it can be just a comma or a keymash)

then write + format everything on the app. just remember to switch the editor to html on the app!

bonus tip + tutorial: uploading icons

save your icons folder to your phone / google drive (and then save to your phone the icon you want to use)

on your browser (NOT THE APP) create a new post

upload your icon

switch the editor from rich text to html

copy everything, paste it in the source code of the formatter.

you’re done!

#indie rp #rp resources #rp help #dearindies #rpc #rph #roleplay resources #tutorial #rp tutorial

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chasseurdeloup · 5 months

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Four's a Party || Kaden, Eithne, Angelina, and Jade

TIMING: April 27th; After Jade and Van's Banshee run in and Jade's slaying sprees, and before the Trial LOCATION: Regan's Jade's Cabin PARTIES: @screadqueens, @highoctanegem, and @chasseurdeloup SUMMARY: Kaden goes to the cabin to return Regan's shirt, convinced that she might be hiding out there somewhere, and runs into a lot of women, none of them Regan. CONTENT WARNINGS: Head trauma (knocking someone unconscious), taser use

Something strange was happening with Kavanagh, Kaden knew that much. Sure, she had said she was leaving the country, and yes, Nora claimed she was in Ireland with her, and yeah, she wasn’t responding to messages with anything other than something about bog lemmings and peaches, but that didn’t mean anything for certain. Not really. Nora was prone to pranks and that status on its own was too strange to be one indicating that she crossed the Atlantic ocean. Not to mention she didn’t say goodbye. That deer leg was just an early birthday gift or some shit. Couldn’t be some kind of weird parting gift.

Right, the odds weren’t on his side but Kaden couldn’t leave it alone all the same. For all he knew, she was stuck in a bog hunting for lemmings. Likely dead ones, now that he thought about it. Or dealing with some kind of illness from eating a really bad peach. Not to mention he had a feeling that most people who knew her didn’t know about her strange cabin in the woods, secluded and secret. If anyone was prone to hiding out there and pretending they were in another country to keep people away, Kavanagh seemed like the type. For all he knew, she was there right that second. Plus, he owed her a shirt. She wouldn’t have left without that or the bones, right? Not that he thought he was important, he just figured she was too stubborn to leave the country before getting them.

Which is why he was trekking out through the goddamn woods to find that same strange little cabin again. It was harder to find now that he was looking for it, oddly enough, but it was nestled right where he remembered it. It looked as abandoned as ever but that didn’t mean much with Regan. Sure didn’t look different from the first time he encountered it.

Kaden walked up to the door and rapped his knuckles against the wood before leaning in to listen for any signs of life. He knew too damn well that even if she was in there, she would try and pretend she wasn’t. With his ear to the door, he heard shuffling, objects moving and clattering, footsteps. “Kavanagh, I know you’re in there,” he said, knocking again. “I have your damn shirt. I even brought my own blindfold this time.”

—

Eithne was glad to be working with Angelina on this. Even if it was thankless work, which was exactly what it was today. Scourging through the contents of an abandoned cabin was dull and disappointing. How could it be that Regan had left nothing of note behind? There were the weapons, of course there were the weapons, but she could think of no reality where a banshee would debase herself to use such crude things. They were a point of interest and confusion. (She had, however, pocketed a knife. It might come in useful.)

But there was nothing of note. A few receipts, stacked on the kitchen counter. Most of them contained boring food items, none of them bearing the proof of Bone-ios being purchasable in the area. This too, was disappointing. She kept rifling, though. Dutiful. Not every day in this town could be spent following Fate’s will and ensuring the secrecy of their home, after all. There was investigation to be done too, to wipe out these traces. It seemed Regan Kavernagh and Siobhan Dolan alike were like muddy mutts, leaving earthy tracks around everywhere. At least they didn’t need a mop to clean it. Banshees had different instruments.

And then there was a knock. Eithne rose to her full height, eyes inky black as they had been for much of the attempt at investigation. She looked at Angelina, moved towards the door but did not open it yet. Her wings were glamored away. The voice followed the knock, gruff and grating and masculine. Kavanagh. She had a man-friend who had her shirt, who knew where she lived. She swung open the door and took him in. “Come in,” she said. “We can get the shirt where you need it to be.” She’d sooner burn it than bring one of the child’s belongings home with her. The space in her bags could be better used. She stepped aside to let the stranger in, as if it was completely normal that she and Angelina were here. It was, of course. There was tidying to be done. Perhaps this was just another track of mud.

—

Angelina didn’t quite like the new world as much as she thought she would, the town was charming in its own way - plenty of death and decay around that she could appreciate - but it seemed rather odd. Still, she knew that the younger banshees needed a steady hand, and so she had gone with them to make sure that this experience was a good learning experience. After all, it was likely something like this might happen again.

So she had gone with Eithne to check on the child’s cabin carefully considering the place. It was rather banshee like even while empty of banshee things, but it wasn’t especially helpful on their mission. Still, she watched the other banshee examine it nodding along approvingly.

It was important to encourage good behaviors after all, and Eithne was shaping up to be a wonderful reliable banshee. While Angelina could help more, she figured it was a good lesson in duty and Eithne was at the age she should be getting a little more responsibility.

She was about to suggest that they head out of the cabin when they heard a man speaking. Her eyes flashed to the door standing quietly to the side considering when Eithne decided to speak. Nodding to the younger she said, “Oh dearie - It does seem to be something she would want. Come in, - whoever you are. I think we have some things to talk about.”

It wasn’t a suggestion on Angelina’s part as she tilted her head slightly her smile vaguely off putting. “Do you like bone cookies? I have some. It does look like you have bones on you.”

—

When the door swung open, Kaden was surprised, but ready to poke fun at Regan for being so eager to welcome guests for once, especially while she was pretending to be across the ocean. Only it wasn’t Kavanagh there on the other side of the door – the door that was now wide open, displaying the interior of the cabin for the world to see, as if it wasn’t the hotbed of secrets (and likely sex toys) that Kavanagh had made it out to be.

Instinctively, he took a step back, his foot now resting on the lower stair. “Oh, uh, sorry. I must have the wrong place.” His brows furrowed at the eager invitation from the two women waiting inside the sparse cabin. He couldn’t say if any of it even belonged to Kavanagh in the first place, he’d never seen the inside of it, but it didn’t alleviate the disappointment sinking into his stomach. She really had left. After all that talk and what he thought was bullshit postering and pranks from that kid, she’d left. And he didn’t even say–

Right, whatever. They weren’t friends, she’d made that clear. He was just some guy who she occasionally patched up. “Sorry, did you just move in or something? I’m looking for Reg– Dr. Kavanagh. I just wanted to drop these off,” he said, holding out the shirt and the bones it was wrapped around. The further invitation from the second woman made him hesitate once more, frozen in place and debating if he should take a step forward or back.

It was stupid of him to go out into the woods without any real weapons but, for once, he wasn’t out there to hunt. At least he had a few knives on him, never left home without them, and he caught a glimpse of what looked like an ax or two leaning against the back wall. Kaden wasn’t sure if it was comforting to know he’d have access to a weapon once he was inside or if it made the whole thing more concerning.

Both. It was both. Either way, he carefully stepped over the threshold and into the cabin. “Bone cookies?” he asked. “Uh, can’t say, never had any.” The lines of confusion only deepened on his face as she continued. “How do you– I mean, I do, yeah. I promised Kavanagh I’d give them to her if she went on the stupid moose tour with me.” It felt foolish to say aloud and he was glad he’d left the antlers tucked in his back pocket instead of holding them in the bundle he’d brought with him.

—

Angelina had a lot going for her, but she was not being particularly productive when it came to digging around Kavanagh’s cabin. It mattered little though, now that one of the young banshee’s associates had shown up. Eithne eyed the man curiously, though also with a hint of judgment. Her head shook. “How can it be the wrong place? We know Kavanagh — though we call her Regan.” Well, usually they called her a leanbh, a disgrace, an embarrassment, dirty spot. But it was probably better to sound like they had some fondness for the other, rather than pure disdain.

How strange, that a human man would bring bones to the house of a banshee who’d abandoned her post. She should not get to enjoy the fruits of fate’s labor like that! She should not get to enjoy anything. If she wanted to be surrounded by decay and death she should have remained where she was supposed to, rather than swap their home for this horrid place.

(Right, admittedly — there were some good parts about this town. Like the pit of death that was her temporary home. It reminded her of Ireland. It reminded her of their own death pit.)

“Well,” she said, “If you promised her, you must come through. Promises are very serious.” Eithne doubted that Regan Kavanagh was clever enough to trap human men into binds that had them delivering bones to her. It was quite a good ploy, though. Perhaps she would use it in the future. “I would take the cookies, they are delicious. What is it you did on this moose tour? We are always interested in …” A pause. “Recreational exploits.” She held out her hands expectantly for the shirt, assuming that she’d simply be handed it as well as the answers to her questions. She was a servant of fate, this was a human man. It was to be expected.

—

Angelina was proud of the younger banshee although perhaps she was being a little forward with the human. Still, she quietly observed eyes flickering between them. She wasn’t one to interfere with others, unless needing correction. She could see the scowl on Eithne’s face on the idea of Regan getting bones, perhaps she was right to have it. Regan after all had caused quite a mess in town, and they were here mostly to fix her mistakes. Angelina had less anger towards the young banshee than many of the others, partially perhaps because she was a ‘mothering’ figure - but it didn’t change the fact that they were here to right terrible wrongs. At least however, Eithne had gotten to stay in a death pit. It had seemed rather novel, but alas there weren't very good options for baking cookies in a death pit. Alas some dreams weren’t meant to be.

“They are good, here - have a scapula you’ll like it I’m sure,” Angelina said slightly brightly, putting the plate of cookies closer to the man trying to tempt him to drop the real bones and shirts. After all, they might be clues to what Regan had been doing. Also there was a bit of pity that he never had such a cultured treat - but only a little. Doing so she moved subtly to the side of him. “You didn’t tell us your name.” She was trying to play good cop to Eithne, moving him in to get into grabbing distance if necessary.

—

“You do?” Kaden felt foolish for saying it as soon as the words left his lips. They said her name, they were in her cabin, it wasn’t unreasonable to think they knew her. “Right. Promises.” Something about the way the first woman said the word was concerning. It tickled the back of his mind, begged for him to pull on some threads of memories from his hunter training, but Kaden shrugged it off. It didn’t matter, he was sure of it. And even if there was some supernatural bullshit happening here, he had no intention of killing anyone. Didn’t. Matter.

“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather give these to her myself. If– when she comes back.” He held tightly to the shirt and the bones wrapped within. There was no damn reason to assume Regan would come back, not with the current scenario right in front of him. Kaden wasn’t about to give these strangers her shirt, though. Even if they did know her name, that just meant they could read a deed. It didn’t mean they knew her. If they did, they wouldn’t have let him walk right through the front door.

The second woman offering cookies didn’t make the whole thing any less strange, that was for sure. “Uh, sure. I guess.” He reached out and took a cookie, hesitating to bring it to his lips. Kaden took a small nibble to be safe. It wasn’t bad but there was something a little off about it. The same way Kavanagh was always just a little off kilter. And the way these women were much farther off than that. He couldn’t put a finger on what it was but there was a familiarity to them that he couldn’t place. Accents that he couldn’t quite place, either. They sounded like they were from somewhere in the UK but damned if he could identify the subtleties of different accents when speaking English. It was all from that area-ish.

Then again, Regan was apparently in Ireland, right? So why had Ireland seemingly come to her instead?

Better yet, why wasn’t she in her own damn cabin while these Irish freaks were digging around in it? After he swallowed back the last bite of the cookie, Kaden clenched his jaw and started to angle himself towards the back wall where the weapons were so casually leaning. That ax looked pretty nice. A few more steps and he could reach out and grab it but he had to be subtle. ��Kaden,” he said, eyes locked with the cookie-woman as he shifted to the left. “That’s my name.” They probably figured that out.

“The moose tour was just–” Putain, Kaden didn’t know how to explain the moose tour to anyone else. Well, at least it might give him time to keep shifting his position in the room. “She seemed really fixated on these screaming moose and shit like that so I suggested the tour because I knew she’d hate it and it would be funny. Which it was. For the record. And strange.” Which was par for the course in this town. He figured he’d leave out the mention of bies and the actual honest to god screaming moose for the moment. Especially while the ax was just a stone’s throw away.

—

If or when she came back, the stranger said. Humans often spoke in ifs and whens, didn’t they? Eithne found it rather amusing, especially when they said if you die, as if there was anything uncertain about their fate. She found it amusing, but she also found it offensive. Just like it was in regards to Regan Kavanagh. There was no if, nor when she returned. She would not return. She would remain at home and get her senses together and otherwise, perhaps something else awaited her.

“She won’t be coming back,” she said decisively. It was the truth. It was so very simple. “If you want to give it to her, you must give it to us. You wouldn’t want to break your promise.” She wouldn’t stop him, though. Maybe he’d start convulsing. She’d be interested to witness it, even if she kept her hand outstretched expectantly. Just as she was certain that Regan would not return, she was certain that the shirt and bones (mostly the bones) would be hers.

Eithne watched the man chew on the bone biscuit, wondering if he could appreciate the wondrous cooking of Angelina. She wasn’t much of a cook herself, but she appreciated the elder’s baking. The bones looked very anatomically correct, which not every bone-biscuit maker was capable of doing. “Enjoy it.” She didn’t add as it might be your last, but the sentiment was hanging in the air. “I am Eithne.”

She was puzzled by his answers, but the fact that the mooses were said to be screaming was some kind of pointer. “Did you learn anything of the screaming creatures?” Her arm was starting to hurt from leaving it stretched out for so long, but she had endured worse and longer pains. “Did she find it funny?” Her fingers danced, expectant. “Are you her friend?”

Angelina nodded at Eithne’s words. Regan, no matter what her fate was now, would not be returning here. “You should hand them over,” she said simply, an almost smile on her face. She had heard that humans liked it when you smiled when asking for something although she couldn’t quite remember the last time she had met a human that wasn’t about to die. Well, she supposed she still hadn’t. If Kaden was making promises to Regan - he might very well be fated to die too.

Such was death.

Still, she looked expectantly at the man to see if he liked the cookie but didn’t mention it. “I am Angelina.” She said simply following the younger words, her eyes carefully following the man to see the tension in the room. “Yes? Are they still around?” She wondered if that would make a good learning experience for the younger banshees. “Yes, are you Regan’s friend? We heard she has many friends. ”

There was a tension there that wasn’t quite on Angelina’s face as it was on Eithne’s, as if she was preparing but not quite wanting it to show.

___________

Jade was thankful for the cabin. She totally was! It was nice having a place to finally keep all her weapons without worrying about any of her nosy roomies getting a peek at them. As if they didn’t think she was a weirdo already. (And like, she couldn’t keep excusing it as a sex thing, they might end up calling the police). So trust her, she was thankful for it. Especially now when she was constantly hurt and couldn’t abuse Elias's place like that.

The cabin was way better than nothing, so she’d make the annoying trek as much as needed. Plus, Snickers. She couldn’t forget Snickers. Jade’s aching body carried a candle in her hands for the pixie this time around (it smelled like toffee). A bribe for another snippet of Regan’s first goodbye letter. The last one she got, which included a paragraph on her eyes and purge fluid, sure made an impression on her, so she was eager for more. (And then she was moving on!) (Last one, she promised!)

As she neared the cabin, she picked up on what were definitely murmurs coming from inside. Huh… That was so not Snickers. Okay… how did anybody get in when she had the key? She probably left the window open, yup. She wasn’t used to being the only person at a place and like, checking all that stuff before leaving. What went on inside sounded like a normal conversation anyway. Jade fidgeted with the ring on her finger, deciding to just, screw it: she entered like she owned the place cause, well, she did.

One good look at the small gathering was enough to pick up on the tense vibes. Why were the ladies giving her a familiar feeling? And why was that guy carrying something behind his back? He was like, exuding nerves. “Um, hi! Are you guys throwing me a party? My birthday isn't until October,” she offered a tentative smile, placing the candle on the table. “Unless it’s so not that, then… maybe it’d be nice if you could like, maybe leave my cabin? Wait, you didn’t eat my snacks did you?” She shot a look at the woman carrying cookies. Those weren’t hers…So maybe it was a party.

—

The question they asked, “are you her friend,” somehow sounded like a threat. Kaden wasn’t sure what the hell was going on here but he was pretty sure Regan wasn’t here and that he probably shouldn’t be here either. His grip tightened around the shirt and the bones it was wrapped around and pulled them closer to his side as he took a step back. “You know, I think I’ll just head out, if that’s okay. I’ll mail her the–”

He was practically hit with the door as it swung open to reveal another woman. Putain de merde, if she was also Irish he was going to start to believe that Ireland really did come to Kavanagh. Was there a fucking portal between the places or some shit?

Once she spoke (no accent to be found), Kaden couldn’t say he was relieved. Not yet. “Your cabin?” His brows furrowed as he looked over at the dark-haired woman. “What the hell is going on here? And where the fuck is Regan and what the hell happened to her?”

—

Someone else entered the cabin. Eithne whipped around, eyes boring into the stranger. She spoke as if this was her cabin, which it was not. It was Regan Kavanagh’s, just another part of her horribly dull and very annoying legacy in Wicked’s Rest. At least this Kaden-figure also seemed surprise by the other’s declaration, which was one measly point in his favor. (Not enough to save his life.)

“Regan is in Ireland,” Eithne stated simply, “And this is her cabin. We are here to collect her things for her.” Her hand made another grabby motion towards Kaden. She considered the other for a moment. There were a lot of people on their shared to do list, a fair amount of people to get through (both literally and figuratively — sometimes after blowing someone up with a scream Eithne liked to walk through the viscera). She didn’t recognize the person in front of her just yet but she was ringing a distant bell, “And you are? Besides the not-owner of this cabin?”

Angelina was fairly sure that this was getting out of control, as her head tilted at the newcomer. It seemed like Kaden didn’t know who she was either. “Yes, why do you know, Regan?” She said curiously looking at the new woman offering the plate of cookies. “And of course this isn’t a party there’s no amusements here. This town is lacking most of the things to make a proper birthday environment.”

Still, keeping an eye on both of the strangers Angelina tilted her head. To Kaden she said simply, her voice loosing her attempt to be cheery - or at least as cheery as a banshee could get,“No. Give us the things for Regan, we will take them to her. If you leave now I assume that you are hiding something, which would be rather unfortunate.”

“She’s in Ireland,” Jade answered the man, speaking simultaneously with the first woman. (Jinx!). A woman who had to be… she didn’t wanna say it, but she was already doing the math in her head. Ireland. Regan. Yup, she’d heard this story before, and she didn’t like the ending. She thought she’d have a third part with the twins, but she was actually getting her own spin-off. Jade reached for one of the cookies the other woman offered, cause like… she had manners and all, but before she could take a bite, her gaze moved tentatively around the room. Until it landed back on the first lady. “I don’t think I wanna give you my name. Or my phone. I’m not getting you an Uber. Cause you’re gonna… you’re like the murder twins, aren’t you? You’ll…” hazel eyes darted between the women, already fearing for her ears. Her head whipped to the man, who, if Jade had to guess, was the only one who didn’t get the memo about this. “Don’t give them your name,” she warned him, lifting a hand.

Mind you, Jade wasn’t scared about anything but her ears, but her belly did feel all kinds of sick thinking about Van, and how it could’ve been her opening the door to these strangers. So really, maybe it was for the best that she didn’t wanna talk to Jade anymore. (It kept her safe, and that mattered the most). That didn’t mean it wasn’t rude to have intruders again. Education in Ireland was really lacking. “You should give them what they want though… cause then they’ll leave, right?” she lifted her eyebrows at the women. Could they strike a deal, maybe? “You’ll leave us alone and go find bones or… have you seen the death pit? Must see for banshee tourists…” Oh. Crap. The B word slipped past her lips accidentally. She forgot not everybody was caught up with the plot. Her eyes flickered to the man, gauging his reaction.

—

Kaden rolled his eyes at the fucking mention of Ireland, like that answered all his questions. No one wanted to say where in Ireland or why or who the fuck they were or why they were here. Before he could try to ask again, the woman who just burst in was holding her hand up to stop him. Putain de merde. This was—

“Banshee tourists?” he repeated, brows raising as he looked back at the supposed cabin-owner. His gaze drifted back to the Irish visitors. “Putain de merde,” he grumbled, ironically wanting to scream. Of fucking course. Fae. Screaming. Weird death obsession. It was tempting to curse again but he didn’t have time to unpack all this shit or what it meant about Kavanagh and all their past interactions.

Putain. Was she the screaming moose the whole fucking time? Or was she a banshee and a were-moose?

Right, not now. He furrowed his brow at the suggestion of this newcomer to hand over the shirt and bones. What the hell made her think they were gonna strike a deal? And even if they did, fuck that. He didn’t want to hand over Regan’s shirt to these fae. He didn’t trust them. For once, he was going to lean into past prejudices. It felt appropriate all things considered.

Kaden almost tucked the shirt and bones into his back pocket, ready to get the fuck out of there, but he thought better of it. He still was unarmed. And he didn’t know if he could trust a single fucking person in this room. He had to get closer to one of those weapons without getting a literal earful. What a great fucking time to have super sensitive hearing.

“Fine,” he said as he stepped towards Eithne, holding out the shirt. “You better make sure she gets this, got it?” Kaden’s hand reached out, about to drop the belongings into her hands, but instead he let go right before she could grab it, the shirt and bones falling to the floor. He slammed his heel on her foot and it gave him an opening to jump past her and snatch one of the axes leaning up against the wall.

Kaden didn’t hesitate to line up the blade with Eithne’s neck. “Might want to take her up on that deal. This isn’t my usual weapon of choice but I’ll make it work.”

—

Eithne glowered at the newcomer. “I did not ask for you to give me your name. I am not so lowly that I take people’s names — I asked you to introduce yourself as a polite human. Did they fail to teach you manners?” Sometimes binds were useful, certainly, but she was an agent of Fate. A servant. She did not entertain herself by taking people’s names for her own amusement. Amusement was not one of her preoccupations. Her preoccupation right now was cleaning up a mess made by a child, who has grown to be friendly with humans who acted as childish as she did.

But the new woman said two things that interested Eithne. First there was, “The death pit, yes. I am familiar. I have made it my temporary home. Your town lacks in proper hotels.” Secondly there was the fact that she’d called them banshees, which got a reaction out of the man called Kaden. So she knew what they were, but he did not — though he seemed familiar with the concept, which made him just as much of an issue as the woman.

At least it seemed to stir something in the man, as he finally reached out with the things. It was probably because he respected her for what she was — an agent and servant of Fate, above him in the food chain and general hierarchy of the world. It was not the first time her general arrogance over her position in the world got in her way. As the shirt (and bones, most importantly) crashed on the floor and his foot connected with her toes she let out a roar.

Before she could return the favor in some kind of way her neck was met with a blade. An axe, by the looks of it. Eithne breathed against it, not minding that with the expansion of her neck her skin grazed the sharp blade. “I have already seen the pit. I have aligned some of the bodies. I have arranged its bones. I have seen it. You are a fool if you think you can kill me. I’ll scream before you do.”

—

Jade got hit by two giant realizations at the same time. One, had they been together (hypothetically, as together as two people who exchanged meaningful jewelry could be), she should’ve taken Regan on a date to the death pit. How come she never thought of that before? That totally would’ve saved them months and months of will-they-won’t-they! Alas… It didn’t matter, she couldn’t beat herself up for it. That ship had sailed. Er… the plane had flown? Cause Regan was gone and she’d totally find way nicer pits in Ireland, and she was definitely having so much fun in them and Jade had missed a great chance, and yup. Fine. Mhmm.

Right… Her second realization, far more relevant to the plot, please excuse her, she was gay and depressed: This guy knew how to wield a weapon. His movements were swift and smooth, and like… like someone might have trained him for it. So, like a lumberjack, maybe. Totes. But no matter how impressed she was by him, she really wished he hadn’t put an axe against that lady’s neck. They didn’t have Van with them to melt the floor when the banshees decided to scream the cabin down. Cause they would try. That was all they did. She had already lost Regan’s knife, plus Regan herself, she couldn’t lose the cabin. And Van would probably never wanna bail her out of this type of situation anyway, so like… rubbing salt in the wound. It would’ve been better for everybody involved if they could just… chill out. Count to ten, then maybe discuss a way to make everybody inside the cabin happy.

And nope, hold on, wait. Jade looked at the women who had literally barged into her place. Why was she exercising caution? Screw that. She was tired of banshees walking into places demanding things, that little trick only worked for one banshee and one banshee only. This was her place. She reached for the loyal crossbow she carried on her back, pointing its nose toward the banshee holding the plate of cookies. And when tension kept everyone from acting, she stepped forward, inching toward the table. There was a holster taped underneath, a taser gun inside. She’d brought that for Van, technically… that first night they stayed here, after it became clear she wasn’t comfortable with a gun or a knife. But now it was looking super useful in Jade’s eyes. How did you stop a banshee from screaming? (A non-lethal way, please) A blade wasn’t gonna do it, a gun could’ve done but she was not gonna put a bullet in a living being. So, taser. If only she could grab it, if she could tell the guy…“I would love it if you guys could leave. Step out of my cabin, pretty please. I want nothing to do with Regan. I’m just… a homeowner.” She could’ve left it at that, but she had to make a point. She fired a bolt toward the woman, aiming just high enough for it to graze her shoulder. “That’s a warning. Next one goes into your throat,” she lied, but the good thing about Jade, those came out more convincing than the truth.

—

If there was any doubt about who these weapons belonged to before, that was wiped away the second the “homeowner” in question shot her crossbow. Kaden had to assume she was a warden given how quickly she knew the women were banshees and how prepared she was. It would make sense. Not that this fucking town was one for making sense.

Kaden noticed her gravitating toward the table and tried to see if there was anything there that might be useful. Nothing that he could see at first glance. Best not to let his eyes linger unless he gave away whatever the hell plan the other hunter (presumed) had.

“Putain de merde. What is with you all and bones?” Before the banshee beneath the blade of his axe could answer, Kaden lifted it and slammed the hilt down on her head. He hoped it would knock her out and spare them the screaming, maybe even give the maybe-warden a chance to grab whatever it was by the table.

—

The new woman was quick. It was impressive, for a human, to shoot into action so quickly, and Eithne would have given her the credit, had there not been an axe at her neck. It was a bit of an insult, really — axes to necks should be reserved for the undead, should they not? She did not know an awful lot about killing them, but she knew that beheading them was a prime and well-loved method. She refused to go by axe by head. One day, Eithne hoped to die slowly and respectfully, letting herself enjoy the process created by Fate with her full attention. Not like this.

Things went fast, as they were wont to do in situations like these. The fast woman shot a bolt through Angelina’s shoulder, the man lifted the axe and Eithne wielded her own weapon. The superior one, mind you — the one that had been granted to her through her father’s death, the hard work that had followed and her subsequent and continued dedication to Fate.

She opened her mouth and screamed, not loud enough to kill the man in front of her — just loud enough to make him stop in his tracks and subdue him so she could put more care in his inevitable death. But before the scream could fully leave her lungs and finish, the hilt of the axe hit her against the head. Eithne’s world went black as she fell, her scream continuing to ring in her ears.

—

It was gonna take some quick feet and precise hands to reach under the table, draw the taser gun, shoot either of the intruders and somehow keep their hearing intact. Cause any fumbling would allow the banshees to give them an earful, which, since her encounter with the murder twins, Jade wasn’t too big of a fan. Luckily, she had always received compliments on how skillful her fingers were. And luckily (?), she had nothing but reckless confidence. So of course, she was gonna go for it. What was the worst that could happen? (Rhetorical, thank you).

At least the foreign lumberjack (where was that accent from?) had stepped in and had the other banshee one under control, for a moment. Cause she screamed and he reacted (or he attacked and she reacted? Not now, conscience!), and it was like one second of distraction, but one second enough for Jade to reach the edge of the table and feel the holster underneath. The banshee’s scream was cut short before they were reduced to a million little pieces (whew!), then the thud of her unconscious body hitting the floor earned her a few more extra seconds. The other banshee grappled with her buddy being knocked out by the lumberjack, but she would soon howl about it, no doubt, so Jade was speedy, hoping to get ahead of her.

She drew the gun, aimed the little laser dot at her body, and fired the probes that struck the target. Electricity crackled and Jade watched it do its thing. Then came the thud of a second body hitting the ground, incapacitated. But also worth noting, the plate had cracked, cookies spilling on the floor. Yikes. (That did make her a little sad). At least neither of the banshees could scream at them anymore? She left the gun and her crossbow on the table, and let out a breath. (Ouch, her ribs). Her gaze found the tall lumberjack. “I’d like them out of my place,” she repeated. She didn’t care how exactly. But if the guy had been here before her, then he had to be followed right? And actually, why was this guy at her place too? Her eyes dipped to the shirt. “Is that for Regan? She really isn’t here, trust.” And it was so chill. So fine. So not life-altering. “I’m her… associate. I can… could hold it for her if she…um, comes back.” She thought of that one message, Regan made it sound like something had gone wrong. Like they were gonna attempt an escape. So maybe…

—

The same pain that pierced his ears the day that Kaden and Regan had faced off that bies with the screaming moose shot through them now. It was all he could do not to throw his hands up to his ears and scream himself, but he managed to clench his jaw and whacked the hilt of the axe against the fae’s head one more time. Just for good measure.

Before he could check to see if the warden needed help with the other banshee, there was a gun in her hand and electricity surging through the fae in question. “Taser?” he said, nonchalantly now that both of the bodies on the floor were silent. “Weird place to keep it but nice job.” Kaden leaned the axe back against the wall where he’d found it and then, finally, rubbed his ears. Putain, he could still hear her but it sounded like he was listening through cotton swaps that had been shoved into his ears.

He leaned down to grab the shirt and bones he’d brought with him, carefully wrapping it all up like a small package again. “Okay,” he said, looking up at her with furrowed brows before he could even finish gathering his (well, Regan’s) belongings. Was she asking him to take care of the bodies? Or what?

Actually, he had a whole lot more questions for this apparent “homeowner,” now that he thought about it. “It’s hers, yeah.” Once again, Kaden found himself holding onto the shirt a little tighter as he stood back up. “I’d rather get it to her myself.” Somehow. He didn’t know how. Not like the bratty bugbear was going to help him out. Wynne, maybe? That wasn’t the point. “If you don’t mind. I know it’s important to her.”

The weapons, the fact that she knew these were banshees before Kaden had a clue they were even fae, it still led him to believe she might be a warden. And it sure was interesting for a warden to move into Kavanagh’s cabin, confident that she wouldn’t ever return. “How do you know here, anyway? And how’d you end up, uh, here? You said it was your cabin. Did she give it to you?” Maybe he shouldn’t be quite so suspicious of this woman. It was possible (if not likely) that Regan cared a lot more about her than she did about him. If nothing else, it seemed like Kavanagh had informed her that she’d left, which was more than she’d said to him. This was assuming she wasn’t a warden who killed the medical examiner, of course.

—

“I am a little unconventional,” Jade dismissed with a small hand wave. She didn’t think this guy wanted the tea on Van and the banshee twins anyway, which is why the taser even existed in the first place. And again, it felt like Van was keeping her safe, in a roundabout way. (The sting was harder to ignore now that there was no imminent threat) (But, forget about her).

Jade only noticed the bones as he bent down to grab the shirt and… wow, okay. Something rubbed her the wrong way. This guy really must’ve known Regan well. He knew she liked bones and he knew where her super secret cabin was? And on top of that, he had one of her shirts? Hello? Why was that? Who was he? Her eyes shot daggers at him, a sudden urge to get his kneecap burning through her. “Uh… huh,” plus he was tall, and had nice hair. Nope, stop it. What was the point of getting jealous when Regan wasn’t even here anymore? “Right. Um. I get it, wanting to keep something of hers.” She closed her hand, wishing she could feel the fabric of the shirt. (Did it smell like her, too?) Instead, she felt the ring on her finger press against her palm.

He seemed to be similarly curious about her, at least. Which, all kinds of fair. Cause she had all these weapons and she knew about banshees and… yup. Her throat felt a little tingly as she tried to find the right words to answer the lumberjack’s question. How did she even begin to describe what she and Regan had been to each other? “She gave the cabin to me, before she left. We… Ulcers, you know? And then… one thing led to another and we found bog lemmings… and oh, the hotel,” she let out an anguished sigh. He was following, right? She couldn’t make it any clearer. It wasn’t easy talking about all of this now that she had that message in her inbox. What if someone had gotten to Regan? She blinked her allergies away, and sniffled softly. “I’d like to get these ladies out of my place, please? They’re not the first banshees to come after me. I think… they might know we… collaborated”.

—

The creases between Kaden’s nose and brow deepened as he watched the woman, warily. She looked angry. Was she angry at him? Why? And why would she think he wanted to keep something of Reg– oh. “Uh, no it’s not like that,” he added, holding his hand up like a surrender. “I mean, yeah, I took my pants off the first time I met her but that was because of the wound. She had to treat it. I mean she didn’t have to but she insisted because, I mean you met her, you know how that–” Right, he was rambling and definitely making things more awkward and fucking weird. “I have a boyfriend.” Great. Definitely didn’t make things any more awkward by spitting that out.

Kaden cleared his throat, hoping it would also clear the air a little. “I just know the shirt is important to her. And I told her I’d give it back to her. So I’d feel better if I could make sure I got it to her myself. Things usually go sideways when you get a middle man involved. No offense.” Putain, he really should just hand it over to the maybe-warden in question. There was no reason for him to hold onto it. What did it matter if he was the one to return it to Kavanagh or not? She probably didn’t care one way or another so why the hell did he? Stupid. There was no good reason to think that stitching him up a few times meant they had any kind of bond. If that were the case, there were plenty of people out there he should be checking in on a lot more frequently.

One of Kaden’s brows rose higher and higher the longer little miss homeowner spoke. Ulcers, lemmings, hotel? Right, no clue what those had to do with each other but it was weird enough in succession that it almost made sense for Kavanagh. Hotel made at least a little sense. They had gone to a hotel and then Regan gave her the cabin. “Right. Sure. I… ” He couldn’t lie, he didn’t understand. “Sure.” He had no idea what the fuck she was talking about but he got the sense that Kavanagh gave a shit about her and vice versa if she knew where this place even was. Hell, he’d just stumbled upon it by accident and she’d been invited there. Not to mention the tears welling up in her eyes. “I take it you were close.” Or at least whatever that meant in Regan’s world given her “no friends” bullshit. There was no way they were dating. Couldn’t be. How the hell could you date if you only had acquaintances? Must have been one hell of a crush this woman had. Kaden almost felt sorry for her.

He should just hand her the fucking shirt. But he couldn’t force his hand to reach out in front of him to hand it over. Instead, he tucked it into his back pocket along with the moose antlers he’d nearly forgotten he had with him, too. Merde. Hopefully he wasn’t going to have to try and explain those again. Once was bad enough. It was only funny when he got to tease Kavanagh about the whole ordeal, not when other people tried to poke fun at his expense. Nora and her friend did more than enough of that.

“Yeah, alright. I’ve got you.” Kaden gave a quick stretch and then hooked his arms under the armpits of the first banshee, dragging her out of the cabin. Wasn’t like this was his first time moving bodies. “Wait, there are more of them? Putain de merde. I thought banshees were supposed to be incredibly rare. And now they’re fucking coming out of the goddamn woodwork. Going to get reports and stupid calls about more fucking screaming moose, too, I’m sure.” He continued to grumble to himself as he pulled the body down the stairs as gently as he could manage. Kaden paused at the last step, banshee still at an incline. “Uh, where are we putting them?” Probably a good thing to figure out. “I’ve got a truck way back there.” She had to know how long a fucking walk it was. “We could drag them to the middle of the woods or maybe load them up, drive them and dump them somewhere on the other side of town.” Somewhere that was nowhere near either his cabin or the farmhouse, ideally.

—

“That’s gay,” Jade pointed out with a frown, one she immediately fixed when she finished processing. Cause, the lumberjack was taken. So he couldn’t steal Regan (already all the way in Ireland, mind you) from her. “Okay,” she breathed out a laugh, a twinkle of amusement finally reaching her eyes. Whew! What a relief. “Good on ya, I hope he’s cute,” she offered her hand for a fist bump, but ended up bumping into his shoulder when the gesture wasn’t returned.

She eyed the shirt once more, and this time Jade stayed totally chill despite the fact that it had been near a half-naked man at one point. She agreed with his comment though. Fine. The middle man was definitely tricky. But also? One of the funniest parts of playing the telephone game, actually. Chaotic neutral, in a way. Her eyes prickled again when he pointed out the obvious. She and Regan were close. (Keyword, were). Her bottom lip quivered. It was fine though, she could get through this without making a scene. “Mhm, yup. So close. We were like Jack and Rose. The lemmings, not... They died banging, you know? That’s what Regan told me,” and apparently both of them looked ecstatic.

Maybe this rugged lumberjack was uncomfortable with big feelings on display, or maybe he realized having a convo with two unconscious bodies was kinda awkward. (Not to her, though. She still remembered kissing Regan while Mark Whatshisname chilled on the ground). But he was finally ready to do something about it, and she was so excited to get her cabin back. Weird. “Yup. I got stabbed by one of them. They were like, Gen-Z twins, so be careful. I’m pretty sure they’re in some kinda Men in Black business in town,” and they were definitely coming from Ireland. But why? When the best of Wicked’s Rest was already gone. She joined the man’s efforts, grabbing the other unconscious banshee. Her poor plate of cookies. Not even the five-second rule would save them. And she was definitely not offering them to Snickers.

The idea of dumping them somewhere while unconscious filled her belly with dread (for no reason at all, not like… she’d been there, done that a couple days ago). But at least they wouldn’t be tied and… okay, fine. “I was gonna ask you to help me get them to the road, and I’d get them an Uber to the death pit. But I like yours way better, ” she lied with a tight smile. “Alright,” she also pretended every freaking muscle didn’t scream with the effort. And as she watched both of them do this thing with a little more ease than your average person, Jade concluded the foreign lumberjack might have a little of that special sauce, too. Which kinda filled her with excitement, but she wasn’t in the mood to sell him on the group chat yet. Peace and a warm shower were at the top of her priorities. (Plus a snack) But she’d track him eventually. They were bound to cross paths anyway, this town was freaking small. Maybe then, they could chat not only about his ability with the axe, but what Regan really meant for the other.

#writing #wickedswriting #para #c: jade #highoctanegem #screadqueens #four's a party

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justicerikai · 5 months

Text

Charisma House - Superhuman Sharehouse Story “Charisma” - #103 You're needed

Please read alongside listening to the drama track on Youtube.

Let me know if I missed something!

Iori’s sister: ….

Rikai & Amahiko: …

Fumiya: ‘Scuse me, but why did you come here, miss

Terra: She said it's because she saw Iori-kun at the Shinto shrine

Fumiya: Aah, back then. So, you followed us afterwards?

Rikai: Fumiya-san! Watch what you say! You’re being impolite!

Fumiya: Eh?

Iori’s sister: …I’ll take my leave.

Rikai: Ah please wait a moment! Just what could Iori-san be doing right now

Rikai: Maybe he’s being bashful? We’ll go fetch him immediately!

Iori’s sister: Ah, that’s-

(Nakagami keeping watch from the second floor)

Nakagami: Someone came over? I can’t quite grasp what’s happening from here

Nakagami: I must get a little closer

Torahime: Eeeh…! Sensei, you know they’ll seriously find us out at some point…!?

Nakagami: No need to worry

Torahime: Someone’s coming

Nakagami: Eeeeh…!

(The two of them run away)

(Sarukawa calling out to Iori infront of Iori’s room)

Sarukawa: Io! Ain’t this going too far!? Just get outta there already

Iori: ….

Sarukawa: Sigh…. Nothing will do when he’s like this~

Rikai: How is it?

Ohse: It’s no use, Rikai-san

Rikai: Good grief

Ohse: But, maybe there is some kind of reason for this. I think we shouldn’t really force him to…

Rikai: ….Yeah

The three of them: …..

(Terra making a bee line and opening the door)

Terra: Iori-kuuun?

The three of them: EEEH!?

Terra: Coming in~

Sarukawa: Dude, you’re already in!

Terra: What’cha doing? Your sister is waiting, hurry up

Rikai: Iori-san… Even for just a second.

Ohse: Io-kun

Amahiko: Iori-san?

Iori: …

Terra: You listening??

(Iori has a puzzling smile on his face)

Iori: ….

Terra: What’s with that face, it’s kinda pissing me of

(The five of them trying to take Iori with them)

(Iori doesn’t move a single inch)

Terra: Huh, you’re kidding!? You like, gotta be kidding!?

Rikai: Iori-san? Don’t make us repeat ourselves!

Ohse: He’s not moving at all…!

Amahiko: You were this powerful the entire time!?

(The five of them keep trying to take Iori with them)

Fumiya: Oooi, your big sis is gonna leave, y’know?

Terra: Fumiya-kun, perfect timing

Terra: Iori-kun isn’t listening to a single thing, do something

Fumiya: Fufu, leave it to me

(Fumiya standing in front of Iori)

Fumiya: Iori, hurry up and get out. This is an order

Terra: Alright

Ohse: This will work

Rikai: I don’t approve though

Iori: ….

Sarukawa: Hm? Huh?

Iori: …..

Amahiko: It wasn’t effective at all

Fumiya: No way!

(All of them start complaining)

Fumiya: No, no, you got it wrong, listen you bozos

Fumiya: That totally wasn’t for real just now, he’s definitely going to listen once I get serious!

Fumiya: Oi! Stop!

Ohse: Then please get serious

Fumiya: Just you watch

(Fumiya clears his throat and rotates his neck)

Fumiya: Oi, slave, get it done. Or no more orders for you, got it?

Iori: …..

(All of them start complaining)

Fumiya: Eeeeh!?

Fumiya: N-no way, this isn’t it, something’s just not right, it’s a conspiracy

(Fumiya getting pushed out of the room)

Fumiya: Ah, wait, stop screwing around, I’ll remember this, you lot…!

Terra: And stay out!

Fumiya: Aaah!

(Sound of door getting slammed shut)

Rikai: …..So what now

Ohse: Um…

The four of them: ?

Rikai: Ohse-kun?

Ohse: Io-kun… You might feel like it’s killing you but you can’t run away, I think

Ohse: Let’s face it properly? Okay?

Rikai: ….! Ohse-kun…!

(Iori smiling happily)

Amahiko: !? Iori-san reacted!

(Iori starts moving)

Sarukawa: He’s moving! It’s a miracle!

(Iori strangles Ohse)

Iori: …..!

Ohse: Uaghgh….!

(The four of them try to stop him)

Ohse: If you wanna kill me, kill meee~....!

Terra: Hey! Ghost-kun don’t make it worse!

(The four of them still trying to stop him)

(Sound of door opening)

Fumiya: Oi, coast’s cleaar

The five of them: ?

Fumiya: She left

The five of them: Eeh!? Haah….

Rikai: Geez… Iori-san…

Fumiya: She left some cookies as a gift. We’ll eat ‘em together, ‘kay?

Fumiya: Iori, pour some tea

Iori: Very well sir~!

The four of them: WHAAA!?

Iori: Phew~ I’m beat~ Let’s take a break

Iori: ~♪~♪

(The four of them complaining)

Sarukawa: That’s the kinda guy he is.

Iori: Sorry everyone~ Also her dropping by out of nowhere was so annoying, I dunno what got into her, geez~

Iori’s sister: Iori?

Iori: She’s still here!? You tricked me, Fumiya-san!

(Iori grabbing Fumiya, the others try to pull them apart)

Fumiya: Hahahaha, that’s what you get for underestimating me

Fumiya: Ha ha ha ha ha!

Iori’s sister: Iori…

Iori’s sister: I’m leaving, so… Sorry, for suddenly showing up

Iori’s sister: It’s not for any kind of reason, I just wanted to see how you were doing

Iori’s sister: Father and mother won’t be saying anything else either.

Iori: ….

Iori’s sister: It’s just… I think they’re also worried. So get in touch with them even if it’s just a call, okay?

Iori: …

Iori’s sister: ….

Iori’s sister: Well, excuse me for disturbing you all.

(Everyone giving confused responses)

Terra: (His sister left. Iori-kun hadn’t said a single word until the very end.)

Terra: (We wondered what made him like this…)

Terra: (Maybe there’s some kind of difficult situation back at home.)

Terra: (And just as we were speculating along these lines…)

Sarukawa: Hah? Ain’t no way, they’re just a regular ol’ family

Sarukawa: Dunno what’s there to complain ‘bout if I was in his shoes

The five of them: ….

Sarukawa: It’s just…

Sarukawa: One day, he dropped all his lessons outta nowhere

Rikai: Lessons?

Amahiko: What was Iori-san learning?

Sarukawa: Kinda lil’ bit of everything, like piano

Terra: Eeeh?

Sarukawa: Calligraphy, drawing too

Ohse: Eh…

Sarukawa: Also went to cram school, he’s a smart fella

Sarukawa: Polar opposite of me, hehehe

The five of them: ….

Sarukawa: ….But he dropped it all. He didn’t wanna do anything anymore

Sarukawa: That’s when it started, him coming over to my place and all…

Iori: Saru-chan, what are we doing today? You decide, Saru-chan

Sarukawa: As if I care, stay away from here

Iori: Where are you going today? Meeting someone?

Sarukawa: Listen to me!

Iori: I’m fine with anything

(Iori smacking Sarukawa)

Iori: Hey, hey hey hey

Sarukawa: Aaagh!!

(Iori chasing after Sarukawa)

Iori: Ah! Wait! Saru-chan!

Sarukawa: (“Decide for yourself!”)

Iori: ….

(Sound of knocking on the door)

Iori: !

(Amahiko drinking tea)

Amahiko: How delicious, truly one of a kind. It wouldn’t even come close if I were to pour it myself.

Amahiko: The cookies are enjoyable too. What do you think, Iori-san?

Iori: …….

Iori: ……..Sorry

Amahiko: …?

Iori: I caused trouble for everyone….

Iori: But… I had nothing to say even if I went to see her.

Iori: I have nothing, I’m doing… nothing…

Amahiko: Doing nothing? You, Iori-san?

Iori: ….?

(Amahiko smiling)

Amahiko: ….

Amahiko: Iori-san, remember when we were at my house?

Amahiko: You said this to me back then.

Amahiko: “Y-your parents, aren’t they who are distancing themselves from you?”

Amahiko: It all clicked in my head, you were right.

Amahiko: But you know, I can believe that because of where I am right now.

Amahiko: I was hopeless at the time, yet I was able to do it.

Amahiko: Why do you think that is?

Iori: …..?

(Everyone sleeping peacefully)

Amahiko: Because of where I belong.

Amahiko: I found myself in a new place to belong to, thus I changed.

Amahiko: And when looking at who’s kindly sustaining this precious place…

Amahiko: (Iori-san, it’s you.)

Amahiko: (You’re the heart of this house.)

Amahiko: (Your sadness, is also our sadness.)

Amahiko: (Your bright smile, is also our bright smile.)

Amahiko: (This house, you see, is all of you, Iori-san.)

(Iori happily doing the laundry for tomorrow)

Iori: ....Fufufu

Iori: (Thank you, Amahiko-san.)

Iori: …..

(Iori touching the cookies his sister left behind.)

Iori: (But…)

(Sound of tableware falling)

Iori: !? Who is it?

Iori: Ah, has to be Ohse-san. Geez~ If you’re hungry, just tell--

Iori: !? You…! You’re…!

(Iori tries to run away)

Nakagami: Wait…! Motohashi-kun…!

(Both of them jostling)

Iori: …Let me go!

Iori: Let go!!!!

(Nakagami being pushed away and falling)

Nakagami: Uwagh!

Iori: What are you doing here!

Nakagami: I beg of you, don’t make a scene…! Please….!

(Nakagami clinging onto Iori(s leg)

Iori: Hieeeh!?

Nakagami: S-save me….!

Nakagami: Motohashi-kun… I need your salvation….!

Iori: …

Iori: Eh…

#charisma house #charismahouse #kusanagi rikai #tendou amahiko #motohashi iori #ito fumiya #terra #sarukawa kei #minato ohse

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thewhumpcaretaker · 5 months

Note

Saluti, sono io! :)

Influencing you with Santino x John AHAHAH-

I found an interesting sentence, and I'm curious about your opinion, "Hold my hand. You're going to be fine." Like, whatever you have in mind with that sentence with Santino and John

Bella come sempre!! Wonderful prompt. Guess I’ve been bamboozled into writing angsty drabble, oh noooo…

TW: mention of past physical abuse

“Santino?” John came into their bedroom looking for him, almost done preparing dinner. He found him staring out the window, the setting sun flaring against the edges of his curls.

Santino didn’t turn to face him. “I will be with you, I’m just…trying to return a phone call.”

“From who?”

He cleared his throat and attempted to sound casual. “My father.” Four months ago, Santino had lied and told his father he was moving to New York on business. In reality, he came to live with John. They had barely spoken since. Santino had asked for space to focus on work, which, for once, his father had accepted. He was no doubt glad that Santino finally seemed interested in making a mark on the world, and relieved that things were so quiet and untroubled on Santino’s turf. But he would call eventually, and now he finally had.

“You don’t have to talk to him.” John’s voice had gone suddenly flat and hard.

“Yes I do.” He sighed, fidgeting with his tie. “If I ignore him forever, he’ll cut me out of the will. Besides, it’s ridiculous to be upset over this. I’ve talked to him for most of my life. Moving out, talking to him less and less…it made me soft. I should suck it up like I used to.” He made a small, choked sound that should’ve been a laugh. John made him soft, honestly, that was the truth. And he liked it. John made him care about himself, about his own wellbeing. Put him in touch with his emotions. After all that had passed between them over the last few months, to return to being degraded and belittled hurt more than he could explain. To talk politely to the man who had beaten him…after confessing to John how much those beatings had destroyed him…it made something twist inside his gut.

“Hey. No you shouldn’t ‘suck it up’.” John could no longer hold back from embracing him. Santino finally turned towards his lover and curled into him, his face crumpling against John’s shoulder.

“Why did you have to go and make me love being alive, mio caro? I was good and numb before you came along. Now it will hurt so much more to talk to him. I don’t know if I can do it.”

Again, John said, “You don’t have to.”

“No. I have to. And I will.” He pulled back and straightened his vest, composing himself. John hesitated, knowing deep down that this call truly could not be avoided. The best John could do was to comfort him.

“Can I stay next to you?”

“I would like that very much.”

“Good. Hold my hand. You’re gonna be fine.” John held up his palm to Santino, waiting patiently. “No matter what he says to you, I’m here.”

He swallowed, and looked at John with a small glint of confidence growing in his eyes. He took his hand and squeezed it. “Okay.” Then he dialed.

John didn’t let go or take his eyes off of him for the entire call. Whenever Santino felt misery building in his chest, he just remembered the steady pressure of John’s hand in his, grounding him, and knew that John cared for him. What else really mattered? Whenever Santino had to agree to something, or apologize for something, a look of protective rage passed over John’s dark eyes, making him feel so very loved. The old fool on the other end of the line would never understand the kind of happiness they had. He rubbed his thumb over John’s fingers in a gesture of gratitude. "Ti amo,” he mouthed silently to John, during a particularly vicious speech that he was hardly hearing, and squeezed his hand again. John squeezed back.

#john wick drabble #john x santino #santino d'antonio whumpee #john wick caretaker #caretaker x whumpee #// abuse

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a-study-in-sepia · 1 year

Text

Manually Decoding DTMF Through A Spectrogram

While working on a recent CTF, I came across a challenge that required participants to extract a credit card number from a recording of a touch-tone telephone. If you pull your phone out now, turn on your ringer (because it’s almost definitely off), and click on some random numbers on the phone app keypad, you’ll hear the product of what’s known as DTMF, which stands for dual-tone multi-frequency.

I won’t go into the specifics of DTMF and why it exists — the important thing to know is DTMF uses a combination of two distinct tones to create one sound. There is a low tone and a high tone. Today, I’ll be showing you how to decode DTMF by sight through a spectrogram. There are decoders available for free online, so if you come across a problem like this in a CTF, or otherwise, I highly recommend using one of those, purely for speed and convenience. All that being said, this is an interesting process, and just generally a cool thing to know about. It’s the equivalent of converting binary to hexadecimal by hand instead of using an online converter — basically useless — but a great party trick (in the event of attending one, which I highly doubt given you’re reading this — so yeah, basically useless… on that note (or should I say tone (my musically inclined friend has informed me that I should not)), on with the article!)

Note — Standard DTMF — two tones, four levels per tone.

As of iOS 15.7, this tutorial is still relevant. I am looking for more samples (other phone brands and software models) to determine how accurate this is cross-platform. If you’re interested in contributing, there will be some information at the end explaining how.

I’ll be using this audio file - https://voca.ro/1dr1J1gbyw5B

(This is from the CyberSoc Wales “personalbanker” challenge)

The first thing I did was put the recording through a spectrogram program. There are plenty available for free online; personally, I like using Academo, because it includes lines that will help with quick sight-reading later on. (https://academo.org/articles/spectrogram/).

You may be better off downloading software (Audacity is fantastic), should you require a spectrogram for a longer recording. Academo is not scalable beyond 10 seconds, so you can use it, but you’re going to be taking quite a few screenshots.

The first thing I did was drop the recording from the challenge into Academo.

A spectrogram is a visual representation of the frequency content of an audio signal as it changes over time. In the image above, I’ve isolated the beeps produced by the clicking of the phone keypad. This section of the recording is longer than 10 seconds, so I also spliced together two screenshots. Any discrepancies you may notice in the image above are a product of that.

Each vertical line of dots represents one beep, and thus, one number. You’ll notice that there are two horizontal rows per beep, this is the magic of DTMF. There are 8 total frequencies involved in the DTMF system. The original DTMF keypad was laid out in a 4x4 format (below). The letter keys (A, B, C, and D) are no longer used for personal telecommunication. For digital decoding purposes, you will almost certainly not come across the letter keys, although they are still used by amateur radio operators, payphones, and the occasional equipment control system.

I was starting from scratch, with no knowledge of how a spectrogram worked with DTMF, so the first thing I did was create two recordings of myself clicking each number in my phone app (I am using iOS 15.7 on my iPhone XR).

What you’ll begin to notice is that each number has its own combination of low and high tones. If you want to try to figure out the system on your own, now is the time.

Each variation in height represents a tone at a specific Hz. In order to decode this manually, you do not need to know the specific Hz of each number, you just need to understand the relational position of each tone, informed by its Hz.

I ended up throwing the original audio into Audacity so that I could create my own lines on the spectrogram for demonstration purposes.

First, I’m going to turn down the contrast to make it a little easier to see.

Now, I’m going to add some lines to match up the similar tones.

At this point, we have 6 layers of lines, there are no 0s present in this recording, if there were, we would have another line just above the bottom three. The use of the original DTMF structure with the ABCD keys would give us another line above the top three.

The simplest way to proceed is to categorize each set into Low, Medium, and High. You could choose any system — 1, 2, 3; a, b, c; whatever works for you. I recommend the LMH system because it’s visual and easy to keep track of.

I filled out the table below to show each numerical combination.

Two letters per number, each representing Low, Medium, or High (ultra High in the case of 0).

The first letter represents the top layer, and the second letter represents the bottom.

The corresponding Hz are listed in the third row for your reference.

I’ll walk you through the decoding process for the first two and then you can try the third.

We’re going to look at the first column of tones (boxed in yellow).

This represents one number.

The first tone is crossed by the lowest of the top lines, it is marked L.

The second tone is crossed by the medium bottom line, it is marked M.

Together, they are LM — which, upon referencing the chart, is 4.

The second one is MM, which is 5.

Now try the third. (full answer at the end, scroll up now if you’d like to try it on your own — try it with lines or without!)

Once you get a feel for this, the process becomes much faster. The lines are purely for demonstrative purposes, with a little practice you’ll be able to quickly do this without lines.

And that’s how to decode DTMF manually through a spectrogram! Is it useless? Yes! Is it fun? That’s debatable!

If you’d like to help me compare cross-platform DTMF signaling, take a screen recording that captures you pressing 1234567890 on your phone keypad. Send the file to me through one of the methods outlined below. Please include your phone model and its latest software.

Discord — Adler#7210

Email me — [email protected]

If you’re seeing this on Tumblr, send me a DM!

Medium link - https://medium.com/@adler7210/manually-decoding-dtmf-through-spectrogram-562e4b0b99c3

The final answer to the CTF challenge — 4562 6598 4585 2366

Anyway, thanks for reading, enjoy decoding!

#osint #ctf #ctftool #ctfwalkthrough #deduction #a study in sepia

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diedraechin · 1 year

Text

Bear Your Soul on the Ice Sneak Peek (as promised)

Personal life update was a separate post this time... Don't know how long it's going to take Io to edit, but remember, we're always nice to Io because he's a sweetie who tolerates so much nonsense from me.

So I was thinking this time our sneak peak would be some Chris and Viktor in Sochi for Euros!

Chris winked at the waiter who set the cosmo on the small, low table in front of them in the lounge. “The view outside might be a bit lackluster, but the one in here isn’t so bad.”

Viktor shook his head and took a sip of his own drink. “They have a year to finish the construction, but still need to have test events at the venues. We’re just some of the lucky guinea pigs.”

“I did notice a distinct lack of fainting couches in my room. I’m disappointed.” Chris leaned back and watched the bustle from the lounge bar as skaters and their entourages arrived. “Am I not VIP enough?”

“Different hotels. That was an old health resort that they’re remodeling that’s even further from Olympic Park, but Yakov insisted that we stay there for nationals because he didn’t want to stay in the middle of a construction zone. I think a couple of the smaller federations chose it for this competition as well since it is listed as one of the official hotels, but the Russian fed picked this one for us.”

“Well, remind me to send a thank you note to the powers that be in my own federation for realising that the reigning European Champion needs access to a modern bar and his best friend.”

Viktor smiled.

“Unfortunately, Yuuri isn’t European and skates in the Four Continents, but you’re a good consolation prize.” Chris laughed at his own joke which was terribly uncouth, but he really didn’t care at that moment because the look on Viktor’s face was priceless. Without a second thought, Chris grabbed his phone and snapped a picture.

Chris [img] His face when I said it was a shame that my best friend skates at 4CC

Yuuri You didn’t

Chris I did

Yuuri I can’t believe you

“I can’t believe you.” Viktor unknowingly echoed as he took another drink, much to Chris’s amusement. “I haven’t had nearly enough to drink to be teased like that, and I can’t have that much until after the competition. I promised Yakov I would be on my best behavior.”

“Well, that’s awfully dull.” Chris returned the wave of the German skater, Andreas, with a wink as the other skater headed to the elevator. A slender, elegant woman in a smart black turtleneck and dark gray fitted trousers exited the elevator forcing the German skater to take a step back and let her pass. Sensibly dressed with her incredibly pale blonde hair pulled back into a twist and small teardrop pearl earrings hanging from her ears, she radiated that no-nonsense demeanor of an official.

“Мама!” Viktor waved his hand in the air.

“That is not your mother,” Chris said. “There is no way that is your mother. She’s not nearly flashy or ostentatious enough. She’s wearing FLATS.”

#bysoti(d)#bear your soul on the ice #yuri on ice fanfic #yuri on ice #i love the three musketeers #I love Chris and Viktor and Yuuri's friendship #and yes Chris finally meets Viktor's mother

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copperbadge · 2 years

Note

Sam, a weird question. To you mostly because the French Republican calendar was your fault. Is there any other finite, oddly arbitrary list of Things to randomize a template (like a magical or power system)? I'm not keen on using the tarot journey, and Sailor Moon did it much better with the planets. I could venture into other zodiacs, but there are so many cultural layers that I'd rather incorporate them elsewise. Like if there were the Seven Beers of Chicago I might even consider it

Lord, the French Republican calendar happened to me :D

I'm not sure I'm following your meaning in terms of "arbitrary list of things to randomize a template". I've never encountered “the tarot journey” (it looks like it's a book, but I sense possibly you’re speaking of an abstract concept?) and I haven't seen Sailor Moon in probably....25 years or so. I know the Sailor Scouts each had their own planet, and there are certain values assigned to various zodiacs....anyway I suppose what I mean is, and this sounds snippy but I promise the sentiment is genuine, without knowing what you’re trying to achieve, recommendation can be difficult.

I think the thing is that to my mind all of these things are systematic within their own understanding of existence, so they wouldn’t randomize, they’d systematize within themselves. Like, the zodiac is based on a progression of stars -- the meaning of those stars in patterns is perhaps arbitrary, but the progression is based on observation of the natural world. I'm pretty sure the Sailor Scouts are all assigned major planets, like nobody's got Io or Europa or anything, and while the naming conventions may be arbitrary, the planets were chosen because they were, well, planets, which is again a function of the natural world.

If you're just looking for like....sets of things to work with in a magical system, I suppose you could use pretty much anything, but I'd go with stuff close to you. Like, for me, there are 77 neighborhoods in Chicago, and four major flavors of Coca Cola (Regular, Zero, Diet, Caffeine-Free Diet, before you get into the esoterica of flavors and fountain machines). You could use the Chicago neighborhoods in place of tarot cards (with perhaps the lake for the unnumbered Fool or similar), or use the Four Cokes instead of cardinal directions when, say, casting a circle. If you’re just looking to build a magical system from the ground up, you can make your own sets, even -- taxonomy is iffy at best and there’s nothing saying you can’t, for example, base your magical working in the Three Ritual Memes of Woman Doing Complicated Math, Guy With Butterfly, and Galaxy Brain Progression.

Anyway I hope this is helpful rather than just nonsense! I have a feeling you're reaching for something interesting but I'm just getting bogged down in some of the terminology.

#magic #tarot

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shivamthakrejr · 1 year

Text

Users will have to opt-in to both Labs and the SGE feature to use it, however.

Back in the olden days of last December, we had to go to specialized websites to have our natural language prompts transformed into generated AI art, but no longer! Google announced Thursday that users who have opted-in for its Search Generative Experience (SGE) will be able to create AI images directly from the standard Search bar.

SGE is Google’s vision for our web searching future. Rather than picking websites from a returned list, the system will synthesize a (reasonably) coherent response to the user’s natural language prompt using the same data that the list’s links led to. Thursday’s updates are a natural expansion of that experience, simply returning generated images (using the company’s Imagen text-to-picture AI) instead of generated text. Users type in a description of what they’re looking for (a Capybara cooking breakfast, in Google’s example) and, within moments, the engine will create four alternatives to pick from and refine further. Users will also be able to export their generated images to Drive or download them.

What’s more, users will be able to generate images directly in Google Images. So, if you’re looking for (again, Google’s example) “minimalist halloween table settings” or “spooky dog house ideas,” you’ll be able to type that into the search bar and have Google generate an image based on it. What’s really cool is that you can then turn Google Lens on that generated image to search for actual, real-world products that most closely resemble what the computer hallucinated for you.

There are, of course, a number of limitations built into the new features. You’ll have to be signed up for Google Labs and have opted-in to the SGE program to use any of this. Additionally, the new image generation functions will be available only within the US, in English-language applications and for users over the age of 18. That last requirement is a just bit odd given that Google did just go out of its way to make the program accessible to teens.

The company is also expanding its efforts to rein in the misuse of generative AI technology. Users will be blocked from creating photorealistic images of human faces. You want a photorealistic capybara cooking bacon, that’s no problem. You want a photorealistic Colonel Sanders cooking bacon, you’re going to run into issues and not just in terms of advertising canon. You’ll also be prevented from generating images of “notable” people, so I guess Colonel Sanders is out either way.

Finally, Google is implementing the SynthID system developed by DeepMind announced last month. SythID is a visually undetectable metadata watermark that denotes a generated image as such, as well as provides information on who, or what, created it and when. The new features will be available through the Labs tab (click the flask icon) in the Google app on iOS and Android, and on Chrome desktop to select users today and expanding to more in the coming weeks.

#ai #artificial intelligence #technology

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incendiorum · 8 months

Text

azzy waits until he hears prolonged silence behind the door, and then elects to shove his way in. col doesn’t even look up from behind his desk, unbothered or distracted or both. the man in one of the other chairs, however, jolts in surprise. “ sir - ”

“ you’re done, ” azzy tells him, picking up the back of the chair and dumping him out of it. “I need the room.”

“ sir, ” the man tries again, flustered.

“ my associate told you to leave, ” col says, toneless, as he flips a pen between ink-smudged fingers. distracted, it is.

brows furrowed and mouth thin, the man leaves. azzy doesn’t bother watching him go. instead, he slams himself down into the empty chair (still warm. gross) and drapes his arms over his bouncing knees.

“ stop that, ” col tells him, finally looking up. he blinks, as if realizing who it is, and then promptly hands over a yellow legal pad with a list of names. “ they’re building a new ship. some of your handlers would like to retire permanently from the field. ”

azzy takes the pad, leans forward to grab the pen out of col’s other hand, and immediately crosses out three names. “ none of them have experience in venator, ” he explains. col just hums.

“ why are you here? ” he asks, turning his attention instead to a pair of computer monitors. azzy sits back, knee starting to bounce again. he’s gathering his thoughts, and he knows that col knows this. the sound of a mouse clicking fills the room.

“ four of my hunters are dead. ”

the clicking stops. “ four? ”

“ dead, ” azzy snaps back. a cool blue gaze slides towards him, and azzy doesn’t shy away from it, even if he really, really wants to. col has a stare that could stop a bear in its tracks. “ what the fuck is with your parent lately? ”

“ io, ” col corrects. “ we aren’t related. ”

azzy rolls his eyes towards the ceiling. “ uh-huh. ”

col leans back in his chair. “ what happened? ”

leaning forward, azzy sets the notepad down, abandoning his current side-project of trying to remember everything that samwell morris currently does for the hounds (everything…? and a frowny face is scribbled in sloppy handwriting in the margin). “ I wasn’t even there. I couldn’t help them or save them or anything. ”

“ azzy, ” col says, softer.

azzy takes a deep breath and looks away, staring around the room, instead. it’s a cluttered old office, which always surprised him. col always seemed like the kind of guy to have a clean, white office with nothing in it. instead, there’s bookshelves laden with books stacked right-side up and sideways both. the cherry-wood desk is banged up and scratched and the leather cushions of the seats are so old and well-used that they seem to have permanent dips in them. there’s a ship-in-a-bottle on the desk, too. supposedly, it’s a replica of the first ship col ever bought for venator. the full-sized version still exists, somewhere, but azzy has never seen it. he stares at it now, following the curves of the gold name painted on the side with his eyes.

“ rose called me, ” azzy starts. “ she said she had iovita practically in their hands. that they were really going to do it this time. I made her go over the plan with me five times. she said it the same way every damn time. ” she had laughed the third time he had said run me through it again. and sighed heavily on the fifth. “ it sounded solid to me. I told her to go ahead. ” he looks up at col for this, and sees no change in expression. “ I tried to call her later and she answered, but I didn’t hear anything on the other side except for… noises. ”

“ what kind of noises? ”

“ I don’t know! noises! shuffling and groaning, I think. a word or two, but I couldn’t make them out. ”

col nods. “ and then? ”

azzy takes a breath. “ she called me again ten minutes later, and said she’d lost damian and nathan. throats burned out. both of them. so, iovita picked them off at some point. ”

“ evidently, ” col agrees.

azzy squints at him. col doesn’t look surprised. instead, he looks resigned, as if he already knows where this story is going. pulling the legal pad back to his side of the desk, col rips off the top page and sets it aside. in careful print, he writes the fulls names of both damian and nathan. “ was it an ‘i’ or a ‘y’ for damian’s last name? ”

“ ‘y,’ ” azzy replies. his voice sounds far away.

“ his mother is catarina. ”

“ yeah. ”

“ I’ll be in colorado next week. I’ll visit her, personally. ”

“ thank you. ”

col sets his pen down. “ alright. continue, please. ”

“ I didn’t get a call back until the next day, ” azzy says, lacing his fingers together and squeezing them so hard it hurts. “ rose was in the hospital and barely coherent. I told her I’d fly out immediately - and I did. but by the time I got there she had already died. burn wounds, of course. ” his voice feels stuck in his throat. he swallows, but it doesn’t help. “ fuck - you should’ve seen how bad they were. I don’t know how she made it away. ”

col’s gaze is carefully blank. “ and the other three? ”

azzy gestures, vaguely, his own gaze sliding away to fix onto the corner of the desk. “ scattered across the city. found in two different alleyways. best I can tell is that iovita led them on a chase. or… chased them, I guess. ”

he hears col lean forward, pen to paper again. “ rose, damian, nathan…? ”

azzy finishes the list for him, “ TJ. ”

col sucks air through his teeth. “ I was hoping to promote TJ. ”

“ he would have made a good handler, ” azzy agrees, voice heavy. silence falls for a moment, but he’s quick to break it. “ what the fuck was their problem this time? usually they don’t tussle with four hunters at once. my hunters, at that. ”

col gives him a look. “ and what would you do, if four witches were coming after you? ”

azzy sits back. “ I’d do my goddamn job. this isn’t iovita’s fucking job. ”

the withering glance col gives him is enough to make azzy blood boil. his voice rises.“ four of my hunters are dead, col! four! and you know who gets to tell their friends and families? do you know who gets to bury them? do you know who gets to be at every single one of their funerals? ”

col puts a hand out. “ do you really think they would have taken out io? ”

io. col always calls them io. it’s annoying. azzy grits his teeth. “ this time? yeah. yeah, they would have. ”

“ stop that, ” col’s voice carries an edge this time, “ and tell me the truth. ”

“ I’m not delusional! I really think they would have. ”

col lifts an eyebrow. when azzy doesn’t back down, he nods. “ alright. I believe you. ” he taps his fingers against the desk. call it a gut feeling, but azzy knows he doesn’t actually believe him.

and why should he? four of azzy subordinates are dead. he knows that when he closes his eyes tonight, the police reports are going to flash behind his eyelids. every burned corpse and every unseeing pair of eyes.

azzy takes a long, slow breath. it doesn’t help. “ you’re… busy with that superpack in the states, right? ”

“ mmhm. ” col’s gaze slides towards his monitors. “ two-thirds should be gone by december, if everything moves smoothly. will you make an amendment to io’s file? make the entire thing on hold. I don’t want to lose more hunters right now. ”

“ you know some will still try, ” azzy points out.

“ I don’t want to lose more of our good hunters. ”

“ oh. ”

col doesn’t say anything else. azzy shifts in his seat, but he knows col’s dismissal when he sees it. standing up, he goes to leave.

“ azzy? ”

turning around, he sees that col has leaned sideways to fix him with a hard look. “ that means you, too. I need you. ”

“ I won’t do anything stupid, ” azzy promises. col raises an eyebrow, but says nothing else.

as he closes the door behind him, azzy pulls out his phone, scrolls through his contacts list, and taps on a name.

[ sms sent , 16:15 ] newest location for iov s?

[ sms received , 16:18 ] pending.

[ sms received , 17:21 ] one lead. will know tomorrow if good or not.

#❝ 𝚆𝚁𝙸𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶 (𝙸. 𝙼𝙰𝙸𝙽). bitter blood builds our prison cell. ❞ ⌟#⌜❝ 𝙰𝙺𝙰 𝙰𝚉𝚉𝚈. now i just wish that you’d send me off that ledge so i can finally fucking take you with me. ❞ ⌟#⌜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻 𝚂𝙰𝙻𝚅𝙸𝙴𝙽𝚄𝚂. how did we get so dark? ❞ ⌟#reposting this one #with some rlly minor edits

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choiceofgames · 2 years

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New game! A Crown of Sorcery and Steel by Josh Labelle is now available on Steam, iOS and Android. It's 33% off until November 3. Please reshare this with friends!

https://www.choiceofgames.com/crown-of-sorcery-and-steel/

Will you overthrow the queen and her clockwork iron army, or join her as a spy? The relics you recover from the elven dungeon will change the course of history!“A Crown of Sorcery and Steel” is a 450,000-word interactive fantasy novel by Josh Labelle. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

For centuries, the kingdom of Kanda has been at war with Queen Nidana and her infernal clockwork machines. Each day, further reaches of the kingdom fall under her boot, overwhelmed by her enchanted army of iron constructs.

You’re an adventurer, caught in the middle of a war that began before you were born. Perhaps you’re an elf from the Sanctuaries to the west, which the queen’s machines long ago burned to the ground. Maybe you come from Ridgebank, one of the last human strongholds. Wherever you’re from, now you make your living helping people, plundering dungeons, or following the coin wherever it leads you.

It’s not long before you’re invited to join the resistance, recovering ancient elven artifacts from the sunken elven library. These artifacts could turn the tide of war, defeating the dark empress, or crushing the resistance. But will you lead the resistance to glory, or ally with the queen and snuff it out?

• Play as male, female, nonbinary; gay, straight, bi, asexual, or poly. Or choose among the genders of the elven, dwarven, and orc cultures. • Explore the realm as a human, elf, dwarf, or orc, with four distinct backgrounds that change your adventure. • Wield a sword, master magic, or disarm traps as you travel Kanda, a fantasy kingdom struggling against a brutal occupation. • Battle side by side with a party of fighters, spellslingers, and rogues. • Broker peace between the human cities and the dwarven mining colonies, or side with the dwarves and take control of the mountains. • Delve lost ruins to uncover ancient elven artifacts, and restore the elves to their former glory... or sell the artifacts off to the highest bidders. • Navigate palace intrigue in the orc empire, and decide who should take the throne. • Turn against the resistance and become the queen’s best-loved spy to experience another side of the story. • Romance a human resistance leader, an elven Scribe, a dwarven bard, an exiled orc prince, a halfling thief... or the dark queen herself.

Will you unite the realm and end the queen’s reign of terror, or rule by her side?

#choiceofgames choice of games interactivefiction interactive fiction

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ecl0wn · 2 years

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a totally un-biased review of amnesia: memories

AMNEƧIA: memories

Release Date: 25 August, 2015 (North America) | 11 August, 2011 (Japan) Developers: Idea Factory, Otomate Publishers: Idea Factory Platform(s): PlayStation Vita, PlayStation Portable, iOS, Android, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch

Amnesia: Memories is an unforgettable otome experience. Before I start, I need to mention, this is covering the game and not the anime. The anime is a trainwreck - mostly because it tries to cover every route in it and it becomes a mess, leaving you feeling confused and having little attachment to the characters. If you want to watch the anime, go ahead, but I personally wouldn’t recommend it. The only saving grace of the anime would be the OP, “Zoetrope” sung by Nagi Yanagi (stylised as “yanaginagi,”) which is just beautiful.

Unlike other otome games, where you would have to build up your affection with a certain character to enter their route — Amnesia starts off by selecting a “World.” The world you pick determines which route you’ll be on, only once you enter a route do you have to worry about gaining affection.. amongst other things.

STORY

It was the 1st of August. That morning, when she awoke, the heroine found herself without any memories from before August 1st. Everything, from the sort of life she lived, to the relationships she had, was a blank...... A young boy named Orion appeared in front of her, referring to himself as a "spirit." Under Orion's guidance, the heroine began the struggle to regain her memories. She searched her house for clues about her everyday life, and received a message on her phone... What was displayed on the screen was an unknown name to her. Now, she is asked to meet with him, a boyfriend whose name and face she doesn't know. In a position where who to trust is uncertain, the heroine must move in a way that her memory loss remains undetected by her partner. Because of this, the story becomes tangled in complex ways. With no memories of "him," our heroine will write a new love story starting today... — Game Description from the Official English Website

Yup. Amnesia is the name of the game (literally,) while trying to recover your memories, you deal with your love interests and have to try to play it cool, so they won’t notice that you’re missing your memories.

One of the things I found interesting when I first discovered Amnesia back in 2016 was the parameters.

You have three parameters to focus on:

Affection: The heroine’s favor toward the chosen character Trust: How strong your relationship is with him Suspicion: Suspicion elicited by the heroine’s memory loss

Actually you have four in one route but I’ll touch on that later.

Since each route takes place in a different world — the story background varies depending on which world you’re in, but for the most part things are pretty much the same.

In the prologue of the game you’re introduced to Orion, who serves somewhat as a tutorial figure and a voice of reason throughout most of the routes. His goal is to help you recover your memories and live a normal, happy life. The more you delve into your chosen route, the more you’ll see how difficult that can really be.

LOVE INTERESTS

Shin ♥ Blunt, Earnest

Shin is the main love interest of Heart World. Childhood friend turned lover, and also a tsundere.

Shin’s route feels like a murder-mystery V/N rather than a romance V/N, which is fine actually. He speaks with harsh words (as any tsundere does,) but as they say, actions speak louder than words; he is very protective of you and it’s clear, by behaviour alone, that he cares about you. Despite the romance in his route not being as focal as in the other routes — it’s still handled well. His route doesn’t really get too emotional until the end but that’s alright. During my first playthrough, it left me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out who the culprit was, however the further you get into the route, the more obvious it becomes (at least to me.)

Ikki ♠ Alluring, Fascinating

Ikki is the main love interest of Spade World. Co-worker turned current boyfriend... with a time limit?

I can say this; when I started Ikki’s route, I did not expect to like him as much as I did by the end of his route. He is the flirtatious playboy character of the love interests, incredibly popular — so popular in fact, that he’s garnered himself his own fan-club. The fan-club is so incredibly annoying to deal with, however, during his route you find out how and why he has a fan-club and why you two got together in the first place. His route feels a lot more... sexy? Than the other ones, which has to do, in part, to the incredible voice acting of Taniyama Kishō. The route starts off feeling weak, and in all honesty, annoying — but as I got further along, I found myself intrigued and enjoying it.

Kent ♣️ Cool, Logical

Kent is the main love interest of Clover World. Complete relationship-noob with a pure heart.

Kent is the shadow MVP of Amnesia, to be honest. He is blunt and speaks without a filter (he’s unaware when he’s being rude,) but he tries his hardest in this relationship of yours, and he’s just so precious and cute. His route is pretty vanilla but can get some emotions out of you when the time calls for it. Considering the other suitors of the game, his route is unexpectedly refreshing; mostly because even though he tries his best — the outcomes of his endeavours are usually awkward as all hell, which is cute in it’s own way. The only thing I have to say negatively about his route; is that he makes me do math. Not even kidding. Kent is a graduate student in mathematics, and although the questions he gives you are relatively simple, I still feel stupid every time I have to do them while replaying his route. A simple and cute route about Kent letting go of all his apprehension while learning how to fall in love.

Toma ♦️ Affectionate, Intense

Toma is the main love interest of Diamond World. Miscommunication: The Route! Also yeah, “Intense” is one word to describe him..

I’m going to be completely transparent: I like Toma. His route? Pretty meh, in my personal opinion but, as a character I like him, and apparently, so do a lot of other people considering he won 1st place in the 2011 Amnesia Popularity Poll.

Spoilers Ahoy!

I just want to get it out there real quick, that Toma is a character who fits with the yandere trope. Here are the trigger warnings for his route if you need them: drugging, isolation, imprisonment.

Oh yeah, remember how I briefly mentioned one of the routes has a fourth parameter? ...Yeah! Doubt: Measure of doubt felt by the heroine In his route, you need to actively doubt the things he does, which is just another thing to worry about on top of all the other things you’re currently worrying about.

If you can look past those things, or in fact, if you enjoy characters like this; Toma’s route will be a breeze... maybe. The thing that annoyed me the most about his route is how short it could have been and how many problems could have been avoided with proper communication. However, since the Heroine lost her memories, it’s unavoidable on her end. His route is Intense. With a capital ‘i.’ However, I found it enjoyable enough. More enjoyable, however, is his routes in the other games post-Amnesia.

Ukyo 🃏 Mysterious, Enigmatic

Ukyo is the main love interest of Joker World. If you’ve played any of the above routes, you might recognise him.

Spoilers Ahoy! This entire route has spoilers so proceed with caution.

Upon successfully finishing your fourth route, and moving on to replay the game once again, you might notice a fifth world option: Joker World. Welcome to the final frontier!

That strange green-haired guy who makes appearances in every route? This is him! Complete with all the questionable behaviour he’s shown in the past — however this time, we get backstory. Joker World is often considered the “True Route” which you’ll understand why upon finishing the good ending, however, I personally don’t believe that there’s any “True Route.” However, this route is the best one (not biased.)

You get backstory onto what really happened before you lost your memories, who you were, what your real life was like before picking a random world to continue into. If you thought Toma’s route was intense, just buckle up; this is one hell of a ride.

Even now, with over 99 hours put into the game — I still cannot blind my way through Ukyo’s route and will have to resort to the walkthrough. Why is this? Well, because if you mess up even one line of dialogue; it can ruin the entire route somehow — just, trust me, okay? The difficulty level skyrockets — if Kent’s route was 10% difficult, Ukyo’s route would be 90% difficult. So, what’s there to gain from such a difficult route? Is it worth playing through it?

Yes. (Not biased.) No matter how difficult his route is, it is always satisfying to complete it and get that good ending. Always. (Still not biased.)

There is something, however, I will briefly mention: despite his behaviour — Ukyo is not a yandere, and if I have to say that again I might implode.

Spoilers Ahoy! No going back.

Upon finishing his good ending it should be completely apparent on why he isn’t a yandere; but I’ll spell it out anyhow.

Ukyo has travelled across different worlds — either dying in horrific agony, or killing the love of his life, causing him to jump to another world to try again. Repeating this cycle over and over, the amount of trauma he inflicted upon himself, caused a new personality to be born.

The definition of yandere is as follows: A character who has an obsessive and possessive side in regards to their crush, ready to use violent and murderous means to maintain an exclusive bond.

Anyone can see clear as day, that this isn’t Ukyo. As his alter-ego is only violent and murderous towards the Heroine because if she doesn’t die, he will. It’s a fight or flight response, and his response is to fight.

OK. Rant over, let’s proceed.

SOUND & VOICE ACTING

Amnesia’s score is good, albeit often forgotten. Amnesia’s OST is composed by MANYO. Known for composing the Collar×Malice OST and also worked on the STEINS;GATE 0 OST and HIMOUTO! UMARUCHAN OST.

youtube

Both themes for Amnesia are sung by the incredibly talented Oda Kaori, both taken off from her fourth single “Reverberation.”

The voice acting is immersive! Each actor really did their best and you can tell, the quality is superb and suits each character really well!

“Orion” — Hiromi Igarashi (五十嵐裕美,) known for: Anzu Futaba (IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS,) Aoi Hyoudou (Kaichou wa Maid-sama!)

“Shin” — Tetsuya Kakihara (柿原徹也,) known for: Subaru Akehoshi (Ensemble Stars!,) Azuma Yukishiro (A3!,) Natsu Dragneel (Fairy Tail)

“Ikki” — Kishō Taniyama (谷山紀章,) known for: Shinomiya Natsuki (Uta no Prince-sama,) Chuuya Nakahara (Bungou Stray Dogs,) Jean Kirstein (Shingeki no Kyojin)

“Kent” — Akira Ishida (石田彰,) known for: Shun Kamiya (TRIBE NINE,) Byakuya Togami (Danganronpa,) Aru Akise (Mirai Nikki)

“Toma” — Satoshi Hino (日野聡,) known for: Kyoujurou Rengoku (Kimetsu no Yaiba,) Momonga (Overlord,) Noiz (DRAMAtical Murder)

“Ukyo” — Kōki Miyata (宮田幸季,) known for: Chihiro Fujisaki (Danganronpa,) Hanataro Yamada (BLEACH,) Aiichirou Nitori (Free!)

FINAL SCORE

I give it a good out of very. Go play it.

...Hey. If you enjoyed this incredibly-not-biased review, I run some twitter bots of otome characters, so follow them if you’re interested. This was less of a proper review and more the ramblings of a hyperfixated teenager, sorry about that.

MY BOTS: Ukyo Quote Bot, Ukyo Pics Bot, Zen Bot

#amnesia #amnesia: memories #amnesia memories #otome #otome game #game review #otome review #amnesia review #amnesia memories review #ukyo #shin #toma #kent #ikki #mint.exe

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