#i can never focus long enough or b bothered to do a lot of research for worldbuilding 😔💔

[lovelyunholyc]

yakuza/something just as shady au sukuna i need u

[seamsterslocal]

PINNED POST

who am i?

someone who’s been sewing since being voluntold into the puppet factory at age 7. (yes i did grow up in a circus.) a legal adult for decades now but immature enough to get away with calling myself a boy until i die. trans man who dresses like an off duty drag queen. undiagnosed autistic with sensory intolerance for synthetic fibers. proud of my weight gain and not shy to block fatphobic bigots. too arthritic to give a shit about typos or capitalizing. former professional alterations-er. white usamerican who believes strongly in class solidarity across all lines. faggot.

what will you find here?

ive never been good at keeping my tumblr self organized but i’m really going to try to keep this one focused. at first i’ll be posting project round ups and picture tutorials as i work through the immense backlog of my stash, but i’d like to answer questions and help folks troubleshoot their own sewing, fitting, and mending problems. theoretically i’d like to do video tutorials but i dont have the time or equipment. certainly some anti-oppression based political analysis and references to the leather community will filter through, and probably some garden and pet pictures. i’m going to be coaching my life and business partner through making their first clothes pretty soon here so that will be posted in some form as well. tips for adapting clothes for sensory issues and physical mobility based disabilities. me fixating on pattern matching to a truly asinine degree. all black projects covered in cat and dog hair that are really hard to photograph well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

what do i make?

ive made everything from thirty foot puppet costumes to these-jncos-arent-wide-enough industrial high fashion jeans to back support corsets and more but currently my own projects are all about providing me with a wardrobe that a) keeps me warm b) doesnt trigger any sensory issues c) makes me look like hot shit. you could call what i’m working on a capsule wardrobe but really i’d just call myself broke. my idea of looking like hot shit involves seamlessly blending the fashions of a sixty year old redneck who goes to town twice a year, and the hardest fem at goth night.

what am i interested in?

i really like historical fashion, especially viking and pre-viking era scandinavian, medieval british isles, and irish/scottish/english/american from about 1800-1960. (NOT saying that other places dont have incredible clothes and fashion traditions, but sewing is pretty much the backbone of my ancestor work—not nec. reverence bc not all of my ancestors deserve it frankly (though some do) but connection and understanding—so i focus my research and construction where my own ancestors were (if you call yourself folkish you can fuck off and die in a dumpster fire right now and if you dont, dont bother googling they dont deserve your attention)). i often take historical undergarments and adapt them for contemporary outerwear, or blend methods of fit or construction that were traditionally used exclusively for either mens or womens fashion in a single garment. somehow i ended up specializing in flattening out princess seams.

perks

follow me and maybe i’ll get someone to video me using the treadle machine which has belonged to my great grandma, my gay great uncle, my gay great uncle’s widower, my mom, and myself

new build project masterlist

alterations project masterlist

tags masterlist

“you’re really into anti-oppression, why aren’t you adding image descriptions?”

a couple reasons. as i mentioned i have a host of disabilities (physical and otherwise). my dayjob involves a lot of computer work, sewing is really hard on my hands and body, i cant always look at screen for very long, and if i made myself wait to post until i could do image descriptions, i would never post at all. i don’t think requiring disabled folks to do things they can’t is the best approach to radical hospitality. if anyone feels moved to add image descriptions to anything i do, i will reblog their post with the tag ‘image descriptions added.’ my main aim in starting this blog is to share my knowledge with trans/disabled folks and other people that experience gender dysphoria, body dysmorphia, sensory issues, or physical difficulties getting clothes on and off without pain. the typed writeup that will accompany each picture tutorial is my best attempt at sharing my knowledge and processes with anyone who uses a screen reader

[kenmasangel]

getting back together after years

synopsis : the get back, part 1 “why am i even with you”

characters : sakusa, tsukishima

genre : fluff

warning : cursing, mention of alcohol

an : sorry for any gramma or spelling mistakes, everytime i’d right it was nighttime and i’d be really tired so i wasn’t able to focus 100%. please notice me of any mistakes masterlist

Sakusa Kiyoomi

years have passed since your break up with sakusa, it was a sad but necessary break up for you to move on and finally glow up

you also realized that the only person you truly ever needed was yourself and you worked hard to be the person you are today

“at the end of the day, men are trash,” you would try to cheer your friend who had a fight with her boyfriend in one of the best clubs of tokyo. “so wipe your tears and come move your hips,”

on the professional side you became tokyo's favorite journalist, sports related; not only because of your looks but also your professionalism and personality

every hot athlete you've ever interviewed tried to get with you, but they always got rejected

on the other hand sakusa joined MSBY Black Jackals; a professional volleyball team in japan's v.league, in the top tier of division 1

yes sir period

he never dated someone else, the break up kinda broke his heart but he'll never admit it

he also became more distant with people lowkey

however, one day your manager called you to tell you about who are you going to interview next

as she mentionned the name of a famous volleyball team you couldn’t stop your mind of thinking about your ex who used to play volleyball

little did you know that he was a part of the team

lmao who gon tell you

when you got back home you decided to do some research about that MSBY team or whatever

...

oh to your surprise when you saw sakusa kiyoomi’s face there

“no shit,” you mumbled to yourself lowkey annoyed

after the brake up you grew stronger and more independent as you put in mind that all men are trash, you didn’t want to go through that steretipycal sad phase where your self confidence would be all crushed. you wanted to remain strong and you learned how to truly love yourself without expecting anything from anyone as you had your own self

period boo

anyway, you kinda had numbed all your feelings, and to see him now made all your memories with him comeback; how you first met, your first kiss, your first dates and that fight

so here you were, in your appartement checking out their previous interviews trying to get all the juice you needed yet your mind would still zone out on his face

“just keep it pro, y/n, he probably even forgot about you, just keep it pro,” you told yourself before turning off your pc

the day of the interview, here we finally are. the MSBY team knew they had an interview with the most appreciated journalist of all times so they got ready.

“do y’all think they’re cute ?” asks atsumu, “if they’re cute you better back off guys, i’m sure i’m going to catch their attention anyway,” he cockily adds flipping his bang and flexing his muscles, no one bothered answering him at this point they were used to him

“they’re here,” their manager clapped in his hands. “don’t forget what i told you guys, they are very influent so don’t mess it up and don’t scare them away,” he looked at atsumu and bokuto who just stuck their tongues out

“good morning,” you greeted all of them and bowed, “i’m l/n y/n, the journalist who’ll interview you today,” you looked at all of them with a poker face. saying that sakusa was surprised would be an understatement; he was in shock, his brain forgot how to function correctly. you followed the others who took you to the room where all the staff would chill, offering you coffee, tea and snacks

sakusa couldn’t keep his eyes off you, seeing you after all these years was like a wave of fresh air; he was relieved to see you successful and blooming, what a beautiful sight he thought when he saw you laughing with his teammates as he got in the room. but at the same time his heart ached him as he remembred what made you two go separate ways and the guilt he tried to hide deep inside him all those years started creeping up again in his chest

“c’mon, it’s just an interview,” he sighed before sitting on a chair behind his team

the interview started and it was going fine, sakusa’s teammates were cool and you had a lot of fun interviewing them. you liked their chaotic energy and it happened for you to match it, they immediately liked you

“y/n-chan,” started atsumu getting close to you, ”would you like to go out with me tonight, we could have dinner together or just grab a drink-”

“okay barry b. benson, you’re not my type sorry,” you stopped him as you pinched his cheek making all his teammates laugh, you got a pout from him but he eventually laughed liking your attitude

“y/n-chan, why don’t you come and have dinner with us tonight?” asked bokuto with sparkles in his eyes, “oooh~ say please we’d love to!” joined him hinata with the same sparkles in his eyes

you akwardly chuckle looking at sakusa then bringing your stare back at them, “i don’t kno-”, “please come, it would be nice,” finally adds sakusa what made you look back at him

you kept staring at each other for  moment before you nodded makinf the three balls of chaotic energy; bokuto, hinata and atsumu scream a ‘yes!’ you exchanged numbers and you went back home

well, that wasn’t too bad you thought to yourself once back at you appartement plopping on your couch

for some reason your heart was beating fast and you damned those feelings you tried to hide and not get rid of for coming back

he was looking as handsome as ever, you were not going to lie

and that look in his eyes... was it regret ?

“as he fucking should,” you shook your head thinking about what he’d said in that fight

but you were young, he probably regrets, “stfu stupid heart,”

you got up and got ready for tonight’s dinner

“keep that poker face y/n, you’re doing great” you said to yourself before getting into the restaurant, you quickly saw hands waving at you, spotting the team and you went to the table. there was a place left next to bokuto and sakusa, just great, you tried hard not to roll your eyes and sat

the diner was going well, you were not bothered by sakusa’s presence, he didn’t talk much anyway and you had fun talking to the others who were really funny, the thing is that everyone got drunk; hinata and bokuto were hugging each other singing the yarichin bitch anthem, atsumu kept saying ‘ya like jazz?’ every time the someone would pass by, you and sakusa were the only ones in a good state. you couldn’t help but laugh at them trying to stop them but you’d eventually fail

“atsumu please stop,” you tried to stop him from getting on the table to ask everyone if they liked jazz, “i won’t unless you tell me ya like jazz, honey,” he wiggled his eyebrows as you couldn’t help yourself from laughing, “i do like jazz now sit down,” you finally said

sakusa kept thinking if he should talk to you or not in the mean time, he couldn’t help but to create two imaginary cases in his mind one for that says ‘yes’ and the other one ‘no’, he finally came back to earth when you sat back down after stopping tsumu from performing a jazz song

“but y/n i swear it’s a good jazz song, it is called... Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley,” he grins proud of himself, you stare at him trying to hold your laughter and when you were going to anwser you heared sakusa do it first, “no miya, and make the owl and the tangerine stop crying,” atsumu salutes him and goes to talk to the crying duo

“long time no see, l/n,” he finally says making your heart miss a beat

“never thought i’d see you again sakusa,” you answer, finally looking at him

“glad to see you’re doing well,” he adds. “even tho i wish we’d be on good terms,” you sigh turning your head. “gotta admit i am the one to blame,”

“glad to see you are mature enough to admit your wrongs,” you anwser him sipping on your drink

“i’ve always knew that i was the one who fucked up, y/n... maybe back then i just didn’t have the guts to admit it, nor to try keeping you close to me. i just saw how you were doing better off without me, and i thought it was better to let go even if it did hurt me...” he finally admits

all what you wanted to hear, craved to hear when you broke up with him. you felt some type of way, good memories you had with him flooding your mind and the feelings you’ve once had for the pretty germaphobe

what were you gonna say? were you finally ready to forgive him and move on or stay on your positions and just live like you’ve been living since the brake up

“well... we’re grown ups now, it’s all forgiven and forgotten,” you give him a small smile,

“thank you,” it was then quiet for a brief moment before he finally decided to man up, “i missed you,” he looked down at his plate

wow the butterflies in your tummy, heart and brain went off with no warnings, you stared at him with wide eyes trying to comprehend what on god’s green earth did he just say

did you miss him too ? did you hate him ? were you over the fight ? did you really stop loving him or did you just hide those feelings ?

too many questions yet no answers, as he realized you didn’t answer he mumbled few apologies but you stopped him telling it was fine

“it’s just... it’s been so many years and we didn’t end up on good terms,” you explain

“yeah, no, i totally understand that is normal,” you nodd looking down at your lap. “can i hold your hand?”

“pardon me?”

“can i hold your hand? fuck that y/n, can i have another chance? allow treat you right, to love you deeply. that guilt that built up in me kept growing with the years, and now that you’re finally here i just want one thing as i see your face is to make up for everything, even after years.”

oh wow, you were definitely not expecting that; not from sakusa who wasn’t this expressive with his feelings and especially not after all these years

you held his hand and smiled sincerly at him, “it’ll take me time; to figure out how i feel and to trust you again, but i’d like to give it a chance,” he smiled back, hope filling his eyes

after that night you tried to spend a lot of time together

usually he would be the one to initiate it

he did his best to prove you that you can trust him and that he became a better person for you

your heart would melt everytime he told you about a memory of you together or how he still remembered stuff about you

you were on your guards in the beginning but slowly you began to soften

eventually you got back together, but that’s another story

it took several months but you don’t even know how happy he was

oh and let’s just not talk about the media and how powerful you guys were

anyway you were happy and that’s what matters

Tsukishima Kei

ara ara what we have here

do you know how the life works in a weird way sometimes? a compilation of events that happen by sheer luck, fucking coincidences that are just way out of this world that lead you to bump into that one person even if you don’t want to?

no ? aight sorry

anyway, that is lowkey what life had in store for you and salt shaker man

tsukishima had gotten into that college he wanted to attend

he was happy but he would’ve secretely loved if you were there to share his happiness

oh how little did he know that you got into that college too

ahaha *awkward laughter*

homeboy found it out in a special way, not the best way there is but you know he had to know a way or another

he went to that party with his two roomates who actually lowkey forced him ngl

as he was making his way to the kitchen he heard someone laughing, a laugh he’s heard way too many times but he shook it off thinking about how many people may have the same laughter

“oi y/n, you look hot!” a male’s voice shouted

what ?

there was no way you were there and he decided to make sure by checking out by himself

he was CHOKED when he saw you there

“tell me something i don’t know,” you laughed as you approached the boy who called you. “what’s up hot stuff ?” he said as you were finally next to him

hot stuff? tsukki almost gagged at the horrible name you were just given, yet it was not false that you were indeed ‘hot’; you looked as flawless as ever, you did a 180° change

the sweet, soft, innocent y/n was replaced by the baddest bitch in the motherfucking block he almost didn’t recognize you. he wondered if you stayed together would you have gone through this change an didn’t notice you coming his way

“god, don’t stand in the middle of the- tsukishima ?” you stopped when you saw his face. “you attending a party, what a surprise,” you stood there a hand on your hip

“oh y/n, how are you?” homeboy didn’t know how to act at this point, he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck

“i’m doing great actually, so did you get into here ? the ‘college of your dreams’,” he could feel the sarcasm in your voice, he also noticed how cold you were

“yeah, thankfully. where’d you go ?”

“oh i go here, the same college as you,” you fake a smile, he feels his heart miss a beat.. or two.“you know sometimes i look back, and i can’t help from noticing that being in a committed relationship didn’t stop me from attending one of the best colleges out there and you, on the other hand who didn’t want anything to do with a relationship got here too,” you spat, obviously you didn’t get to tell him how you felt when you broke up. “good thing i’m not in the same major as you though,” you sighed

“y/n i_,”

“no save it tsukishima, there’s no need to say whatever you want to say. at this point i’ve moved on, i just found it funny to see you here after what you’ve said and how i actually also got here; now i know for sure that you were the problem... and i hated myself thinking it was me,” you scoff. “hope i won’t get to see you often, good luck for the rest,” and with that you left, joining a group of friends who waved for you to join them

needless to mention that he was pissed and heartbroken

he was not expecting that from you, he always saw you as this delicate person whose kindness is infinite

now, oh now he didn’t recognize you

even your voice got more.. mature? cold? idk

anyway after your encounter he directly headed back to his dorm

he couldn’t sleep the whole night rethinking about all what those years with you and what you said, you hated yourself as you thought you were the problem

bravo tsukishima they hate you, he thought to himself

uhm lol so the rest of your college ‘journey’ went without the two of you seeing each other

you were both majoring in different stuff, the campus is huge, y’alls schedules didn’t match and you had different friend groups

yet rarely he would find you at the library at 4am, many empty coffee cans on your table, looking all sleepy with your glasses falling off and your hair in a messy bun

“fucking ass why on god’s poluted earth did i ever want to major in that fucking shit of a topic, couldn’t i do something basic like stripper or something ? ugh fml,” he caught you once in the middle of an existencial crisis

he couldn’t help his lips from twitching upwards and he couldn’t stop the memories of the two of you studying together flooding his mind

he never came close to you tho, especially after what you told him in that party

sad </3

you guys graduated from college fucking finally

congrats folks you did it!

and you thought it was the end of your story

how sweet, how naive

uh-uh baby life decided otherwise and you saw each other years later

in the same company 🤪 

“oi tsukishima-san, don’t forget we have a metting with the new manager in 10,”

how could he forget ? everyone has been talking about this manager for a week

tsukki was respected by all his work mates as he was such a good element what made him get the best promotions and claims from his boss

n e way

he got into the conf room where everyone was seated and took his place waiting for the new manager and the boss to come in, he was clearly annoyed and didn’t want to be there; he just wanted to finish his work on go back home

anyway his attention was brought back by his boss entering the room, “good evening everyone, with no longer introduction let me introduce you to y/l/n y/n your new manager,”

tsukki’s head SNAPPED, he almost broke his neck

tsukiskima.exe has stopped working

you were surprised when your eyes landed on him too but you’re a bad bitch and kept it professional

he couldn’t focus for the rest of the meeting, even tho it was just presentations and basic information for the future collaboration

the meeting ended and everyone went back home, except for you as you stayed in late to work on some stuff

you thought you were alone since it was late, but you were wrong since tsukishima had also stayed in late to finish up whatever file he was asked to analize

this is why you were startled when you heard some noise and a tall figure got out of the office ahead of you

“oh my,” you held your chest and relaxed when you noticed it was tsukishima, “i thought i was alone,”

“staying in late on your first day huh, didn’t know you were still here,” he responded, you noticed how his tone didn’t change from when you first met him in highschool, maybe his voice got a bit more deeper tho

you couldn’t help noticing how good he looked in his suit, it fit him really well. his broad shoulders covered by the dark blue vest, the first few buttons of his white vector shirt opened letting you lowkey see his collarbone

“yea well i’m leaving now, good night,” you quickly say and took your leave, seeing him after all this time was weird and you didn’t know how to feel

you still remember what you said the last time you saw him at that party, you were hurt and you said some things you probably regret by now and you thought that he probably hated your guts and as long as you wanted to be at the top in your  new work you still decided to stay away from him

“ugh what a dumbass,” you whined and slapped the back of your head thinking tsukishima was still in the floor you left him in, but he saw you and his lips twitched upwards

everytime he thinks you can’t look any better you prove him wrong, he thought to himself as he went to his car finally heading back home. after all those years life decided to still play with you guys and put you in the same company, i mean, he wasn’t complaining but he wished it wasn’t awkward between the two of you

you guys started working together, a new journey for the both of you started

he thought you still hated him and that is why he was cold with you :(

so you were both distant with each other and if you ever had to talk it was cold, formal and quick

it’s been a few weeks your collegues had noticed the tension between the two of you

they were lowkey sus of something but didn’t want to butt in

it was physically painful to watch

n e way everything was going more or less smoothly until a new face made an appariction in the company

“my god! what are you doing here?” you hugged the good looking man

“i missed you and i thought that i couldn’t live without you, so i am here to cling,” you pull away and playfully slap his chest. “nah more seriously i am here to get that bag boo,”

“as you should hun, so you’re a trainee huh? i’ll ask them to put you under my supervision,” you wink

“say less,” he flirtily gets close to you

“uhm, sorry to interrupt your i bet very educational discussion but y/l/n, here, the file,” tsukishima butts in out of nowhere, his voice colder than usual and his eyes lowkey darker than usual

“oh thank you,” and he left

“well, that was awkward,” your friend cringes

“shut up, yuuji,” you roll your eyes

“wait wasn’t that tsukishami? sushikima? suspicual tall bitch who broke your heart?” the last attempt made you chuckle

“yes, it is,” you sigh, going through the file. “i can’t believe you still remeber that!”

“miss girl, you were not the one listening at your own self sobbing at how some tall, blonde, salt shaker broke your heart and how you’d want to, and i quote “punch his beautiful face then hug him so tight that i’ll squeeze his organs”,”

you narrow your eyes at him then for quite a while, then you scoff, “i am glad you’re here, dickhead,”

“so am i, headass,” he gives you a sincere smile

yuuji’s presence made things complicated even more

tsukishima didn’t appreciate the new flirty, good looking, lowkey smart trainee who was under your supervision

he was more irritable than usual, he knew he had no right to feel like that but still, he couldn’t help it

everytime he saw you two together working, laughing, grabing lunch together or even just being in the same area it made him want to break walls

but he couldn’t

he also saw how yuuji would flirt with other female collegues and it made him furious; you didn’t deserve that!

deserve what tho lol you and yuuji were friends but since tsukki was blinded by his jealousy or whatever he was feeling he assumes you were a thing or soon to be a thing

dumb mf

anyway

your boss had assigned you an important file to work on

all cool and shit until he mentioned that you had to work with tsukishima

ahaha.......... right

you started working the day after

°3°

it was awkward as fuck ngl, y’all would share max up to 3 words in a matter of 20mins

each one of you was sitting in their side

the tension buddy, the tension!!!!!

idk how you survived

day 2: you slapped some sense in yourself and an old relationship that ended in bad terms shouldn’t affect your work years after

so you started talking more, always pro stuff, but still

kei was the same as yesterday but that didn’t surprise you since he was always like that and you weren’t expecting anything from him except contribute effectively to the work, what he did

day 3: work in progress, nothing less

day 4: same as day 3 except that you stayed in later than the previous days

day 5: yuuji bursted in because he had broought you food, he kissed your temple before he left wishing you good luck. tsukki almost gagged, homie was fuming in rage

day 6:

it was late, everyone had left but you and kei still working on that goddamn file, thankfully he had given enough time to finish the work

“y/l/n, the food is here,” tells you tsukishima as he got back into the office

“thanks, i almost died from hunger,” you get up getting what you ordered

you were eating in silence until tall man decided to speak up, “funny, huh?” you looked at him confused. “how we went to the same highschool, same college and now we are working together,”

you just let an “oh” thinking about what you told him in that frat party, “i guess you were right, i was the problem,”

“tsukishima look, it’s been years and it’s all forgotten now okay?” he looks at his food, his mind elswhere

“remember what you told me in that party?”

“tsuki-”

“i mean, now that we’re grown ups we can talk about it, right? i feel like i didn’t get closure, not like i deserve it but still,8

you just nodd and go sit in front of him

“well, i lashed out on you on that party because i didn’t get closure, i was obviously still hurt and petty and immature. Seeing you there was like a slap in the face, i really want to apologize but i feel like what i said was true,”

“and it was true, it took sometime to accept it and realiwe it, but you don’t need to apologize; i didn’t treat you right, so i am sorry,”

you give him a small smile, “i am also sorry, i shouldn’t have talked to you that way it was rude,”

“but true,” he adds and you chuckle

“yeah, it’s all fine now. we can start over again,”

“i mean, i’d like to,” he gives you a small, tiny smile but you could still see it

“y/n?”

“mmh?” you look at him, your mouth full and cheeks about to explode

“i know we just made up and stuff but... please be careful with that new trainee,”

“yuuji? what why?”

“look i’m a man and i know wha another man thinks when i see him in action, and he’s just... not trustworthy i guess,”

“tsukishima kei, tf are trying to say?”

“look, i don’t want you to get hurt! but he is all flirty with other women and it’s just a huge disrespect to you and your relationship,” he explains

you look at him with wide eyes than laugh your ass off, you couldn’t believe what you just heard

“tsukki, yuuji is my bestfriend we’re not dating,” you wipe a tear tha slipped

he just stares at you, “oh” is all what he could say

“thanks for worrying tho,”

“whatever,” he rolls his eyes

as the days went by you and kei got closer

he would tease you and you’d tease him back

“oi, salt shaker, put my stuff on a high shelf again and i’ll pull your highschool pictures when you played vb,”

“as if you still have them” he scoffs

“don’t mess with me!”

“whatever shortie- OW why would you throw the stapler at me?”

“it’s your mouth that i’m gonna staple next time,”

anyway it was all giggles and shit

you enjoyed working together and gaining your complicity back

the due date came, you had to present in front of 3 other CEOs and your own ceo

you did an amazing job, obviously

everyone liked the harmony between the two of you and how neat your work was

“WOHOO here’s my bad bitch,” yuuji hugged you after the deliberation

“stfu we’re not alone,” you laugh. “did i look good?” you ask

he smirks and checks you out, twirling you and wolf whistling, “hotter than ever and thicker than snicker,” you laugh at his remark

“uhm-uhm,” tsukishima came behind you

“hey, sushimika, good job out there,” yuuji gives him a big grin

tsukishima just nodds and his eyes dart to yuuji’s arm around your waist, something he notices

“erm anyway, Vanessa is calling me gotta go,” he kisses your head and leaves

“he’s one of a kind, i gotta admit,” you say pulling him out of his trance

“i mean, y’all are bestfriends so i’m not surprised,” you roll your eyes

“we did a good job out there, i mean i was better but you weren’t too bad yourself,” he smirks

“you’re so annoying,” you laugh. “i guess we make a good duo,”

you lookn at each other for a while before tsukki finally speaks up

“uhm look, i know it’s only been one month since we’re back to normal but... would you maybe like to have dinner with me?” he rubbs the back of his neck

“like a date?”

“you know what i mean y/n,” he rolls his eyes

“uhm sorry i don’t clearly see what you mean,” you grimace

“ugh alright, like on a date, would go with me yes or no ?”

you laugh at his impatience, “pick me up at 7,”

“is that a yes?”

“you know what i mean, tsukki,” you say as you leave

so the date went well

really well

you didn’t want to burn steps so you lowkey took your time in the process of getting back together

going on dates, talking everything out to build a strong base

work together was fun

i mean i’m not gonna talk about the sneaky make out sessions but haha you know 👀 

surely you got back together, even shared an appartement and you are the happiest you’ve ever been

he proposed 3 years after

fin

taglist : @fallingforyuu @ukhyeonn @yeonayona  @terminallyvolatile @bryai003​ @ichigo-post​ @virgyalizu​ 

i truly hope you like it, <3

[imkylotrash]

Night Hunting

Pairing: Saul Silva x reader

Request: She met him in pub, after one of the hunts and they've kept in touch. But he didn't tell her where he's from and she didn't tell him that she is a hunter. Things change when one of the hunts goes wrong and reader somehow gets to the Alfea. One of the kids get hurt and reader is suspected, but she recognizes which monster it is and goes on a hunt. Anonymous

Tagging: @grey-girl @intoanothermind @anreeixcobra @kingunder221b @lflores2008 @alexiapayne12 @quuenofblacks @quarterback-5 @estelmei @bitchwhytho @music-of-melody @artsyle​ @baueoud @glowingatdawn @shadowhuntyi @alice-the-nerd

"You're looking awfully lonely," you state sitting down next to the stranger in the bar. You're lucky enough to have the evening to yourself as you wait for Sam and Dean to return from the library. You only just got to town and Sam was already doing the research while Dean had been dragged along much against his will.

"I have company," he says holding up his beer. He sounds grumpy and like he's looking for a distraction. You can definitely be his distraction.

It's not the last time you meet the stranger called Saul. It becomes somewhat of a tradition to meet up whenever you're in town. And with a face like Saul's, you make sure you're in town a lot. You admit to Dean why you're always so eager to return to California because he's your twin and you've never been able to hide anything from him but Sam remains in the dark. You don't need two brothers teasing you about your little crush.

"You know what it'll cost you if I'm going to keep your secret," Dean says very matter-of-factly.

"What?" you ask already regretting the decision to confide in Dean.

"My music plays for all of four months in the car with no objection. And you buy me every piece of pie I even look at," he says and you groan in protest. It's the one thing you've always disagreed about. You both hate each other's music taste.

"Deal," you say somewhat begrudgingly before getting ready for the hunt. You're already wishing for it to be over so you can meet up with Saul. You have no idea what goes wrong but the wendigo gets you with its claws. In the chaos of the fight, you stumble through a portal of some kind leaving behind the tiny town of Gardenia and your brothers only to find your way to a forest. You try to head back but the door refuses to budge which concerns you a little because Sam and Dean are still back there with the monster.

It's the screeching noise that convinces you to move away from the shed and into a world, you didn't even know existed. It's pure luck that you make it through the forest to find some huge mansion. It's eerily quiet in the darkness of the night which makes you feel even more uneasy. Where the hell did you end up? Blood is still pouring from the gash and you have nothing to bandage it with.

"Shit," you mumble as you spot the lights of a car heading your way. You hide behind a tree feeling yourself grow weaker from the blood loss. The last thing you remember is someone saying your name before you pass out.

When you come to, you're lying in a soft bed that you definitely didn't find on your own. It takes you a few seconds to realise that this is not a good sign. You have no idea where you are and how you got here. Dean would be disappointed in you. The hunter in you takes over as you quietly get to your feet ignoring the throbbing pain in your abdomen. You're about to open the door to take a peek at what's outside of this room when someone beats you to it.

"Saul?" You don't believe your eyes. What is he doing here?

"What are you doing out of bed?" he ushers you back to bed and he means it nicely but you're already wondering how you could miss that he wasn't a normal human being. There are about two dozen theories running through your mind as you try to remember every little detail of what's happened up until now.

"How did you find this place?" he asks more serious than you've ever seen him. You keep quiet not wanting to give away your only advantage right now. You know

"Look, I know this is all very scary but I need you to talk to me because right now, I've got people on the other side of that door suspecting you of almost killing one of our students last night. And I'm trying to convince them that you're not that type of person." Your eyes open wide from pure shock. The wendigo must've followed you instead of the guys. But how did the student get away from the wendigo? It's near impossible to win over a wendigo at night.

"I didn't hurt anyone. But I think I know what did." He doesn't stop you this time when you get out of bed. Instead, he lets you lean on him for support.

"I need to see the student before I'm sure," you inform Saul and he takes you to the infirmary right away leading you past a man and a woman who looks ready to murder you.

"Friendly crowd," you mumble and Saul has to contain a smile.

==

"It's definitely a wendigo. I was hunting one last night and it must've followed me here." Imagine your surprise when all they do is look at you like you've gone completely crazy. It's so weird being around people who are not used to this life. If this had been Sam and Dean, you'd already be out looking for it.

"Care to elaborate a little?" Saul asks. The student is completely passed out but you still feel weird talking about it in front of him.

"Maybe we could go somewhere private then? I need to sit down anyway." You need to gather as much strength as you possibly can if you're going to go out and kill a wendigo - and time is ticking. The sun will go down in a couple of hours and you're not hunting that thing in the dark.

"What's a wendigo?" It's the first time the woman has spoken directly to you and you sort of wish she would've continued not talking to you. Her appearance scares you more than most of the monsters you've hunted.

"To keep it short, it was once a human and now it's a monster feeding on human beings. It normally hibernates with enough victims to keep it fed. Fire is the easiest way to kill it but I assure you, it's not as easy as it sounds." You still want to know how the hell the student got away from the wendigo considering they've never faced one before. How is he not dead?

"Have you killed one before?" the woman asks and you just nod.

"It's not easy. That kid in there should feel lucky he survived. I've never seen a human escape the claws of a wendigo." The tension is thick enough to cut it with a knife. Saul clears his throat ignoring the pointed look from the woman.

"We run a school for fairies. The student is a fire fairy. We're assuming he used his powers to escape." Fire fairy? This is definitely not good.

"Farah, we'll need to close off the school until we find it." The woman, who you now know is called Farah, agrees. She hurries off with the other man leaving you alone with Saul.

"You're a fairy?"

"No. I'm a specialist." You have so many questions but you sort through them only asking the most vital ones for now. The clock is ticking and you need to get out there.

"You can't hunt like that," Saul protests but he has no idea that you've been in much worse shape than this.

"I'll be fine." You lean in and kiss him because it's been a weird day and you need just one normal thing to happen. Kissing Saul is that normal thing.

"Just in case I don't get to do that again," you say but you can't keep a straight face. Saul looks about ready to chain you to the bed just to make sure you don't go anywhere.

"You need to learn how to take a joke. This is what I do for a living, Saul. I'll be fine," you chuckle but it's clear that you out there hunting definitely doesn't seem like a good idea to Saul. Lucky for you, you won't have to go out there alone. In the blink of an eye, your brothers and Crowley have teleported into the room. Dean immediately pins Saul against the wall.

"Are you okay?" he yells making you roll your eyes.

"Let him go, Dean. That's Saul." It takes a second for Dean to realise what you're saying and even longer for Crowley and Sam.

"He's sort of my boyfriend ish. We haven't really discussed the terms yet." Your cheeks turn red as you lock eyes with Saul. You've just thrown the b-word but he doesn't seem bothered by it at all.

"Wait, how did you even get here?"

"I'm the King of Hell, love. It's my job to know about all realms." There's going to be a long conversation between you and Saul to explain everything but right now the focus needs to be on the wendigo.

"Let's go hunting."

[muwur]

long distance headcanons

✧ hc’s ✧ for daichi, suga, hinata & tsukki

❧ gn reader

✎ 1.5k words

a/n: hello yall this is my first post! nobody asked, but i just started this haikyuu reader insert blog, feel free to check my page n see wazzap. also requests are open pls come fhorfjepfiwf;

daichi

✧ after high school, he stayed in miyagi while you went to tokyo, about 5 hours away, for college

✧ texting or calling whenever u can!

✧ you be like “heyyy”

✧ then he clap back with a “go focus on your lecture”

✧ “im not in lectureee”

✧ “you gave me your schedule so i know you’re in the middle of class”

✧ “...”

✧ makes sure you’re awake on time for your classes and calls you if he thinks you’re oversleeping (and hes usually right, this man just KNOWS)

✧ “morning y/n, i think you need to get to class soon”

✧ “mmrghhhghhh” *checks time* “holy sHI-- i forgot to set my alarm. IMMA BE LATE. THANKS DAICHI I LOVE YOU ILL TALK TO YOU LATER BYE”

✧ definitely skips out on some nights out with his friends to video chat you. you catch up, talk about future plans, reminisce, complain about not being able to hug one another, etc. occasionally one of you falls asleep on call, particularly after a long day or week. if he sleeps, you make sure you screenshot his sleeping face and start a picture collection  

✧ you hit him up when you get drunk lMAO

✧ “daiichiii, i miss youuu, i needdd youuuu AND i needa peeee---” “hey daichi, this is y/n’s friend. y/n’s pretty out of it now but they’ll be okay! we’re heading back to our place right now” “im gonna pEE IN THIS CAR”

✧ daichi coordinates with your friends to make sure you arrive home safely, use the bathroom, and get tucked into bed. he thanks the universe you have good friends. if it weren’t for them he’d probs have a heart attacc. sends you cute, reassuring voice messages for you to wake up to the next morning with hangover tips he learned from suga

✧ always checks in with you throughout the day, every day. able to pick up on the slightest hints if you’re feeling unwell and calls you immediately to try to make you feel better

✧ makes plans to visit you! you get really excited to introduce him to your college friends (who, after meeting him, tell you not only is he a hottie but is such a kind guy, fosho a keeper. they also ask if he has any cute friends)

✧ either holding your hand or has an arm around you most of the time.

✧ you spend all day together outside and wandering the city, then spend the night back at your place (sorry roommate, but we’re gonna have to kick you out for a lil bit--)    

sugawara

✧ you finally secured a job! unfortunately, the company required you to work for a year at their main facility, which was a 4 hour drive away from miyagi

✧ if suga wasn’t needed in miyagi for his teaching job, he would’ve tried to come with you

✧ after unloading your things in your new apartment and before parting ways, suga was like

✧ “everything’s unloaded everything from the car?”

✧ “yes maam”

✧ “do you have enough snacks?”

✧ “we just went to the grocery hun”

✧ “did you bring enough underwear?”

✧ “gDI yEs I dID”

✧ “:c promise to call me often”

✧ “<3333 of course”</p>

✧ good morning texts before y’all leave for work! you send each other cute pictures when you’re getting ready for the day (suga with bedhead, brushing his teeth? suga with his tie half done?? sign me up)

✧ always texts you when something reminds him of you, usually sends a picture along with it

✧ “the store was having a special on oranges today! this one reminds me of you”

✧ “why”

✧ “it just looks so cute~”

✧ will immediately call you if you send him any sort of message that worries him

-“hello? y/n what’s wrong, why is there blood?? speak to me, you haven’t replied in 5 minutes”

✧ “ohhh my bad, i’m just cleaning up don’t worry! i didn’t explain, but the picture i sent you isn’t blood, it’s ketchup i spilled on myself lolol”

✧ poor man nearly fainted from worry

✧ would pay you a surprise visit, making sure to plan it carefully so he knew you weren’t busy with work or plans. brings you gifts of your favorite snacks and a scarf that matches one of his own for the upcoming winter

✧ plans out that weekend for y’all, mans did his research beforehand. together, you toured the city and the surrounding nature, took lots of selfies (and many candids of you), and taste tested lots of foods before returning to your apartment and collapsing into your bed with exhaustion

✧ but y’all not too tired for cuddling n a lil something else >.>

hinata

✧ sure, being a couple hours away was hard for some... but y’all in different countries right now

✧ calls you immediately when there’s any inconvenience that occurs in his life, no matter how minor, thinking you’ll know how to fix it (or at least give him the reassurance he needs)

✧ “hey y/n...”

✧ “what’s wrong? you sound worried”

✧ “i broke my bike, what do i do”

✧ “you what? are you alright?? how? where are you? it’s midnight there, honey”

✧ “i was biking back to my apartment after staying late to practice! i didn’t wanna hit this turtle, so i swerved into a pole and now my bike’s wrecked :**”

✧ “ahh, are you okay?? you’re not hurt are you :(”

✧ “no, im okay... but im tired and i have two miles to go ;(((”

✧ “;( im sorry babe but you gotta walk home. we’ll get you a new bike. ill stay on the phone with you until you get back. tell me about your day <3″</p>

✧ talks about you all the time to his friends! introduces you through video chat to them! “look how pretty and cute y/n is!”

✧ together you work out your time differences and busy schedules so you can chat whenever possible

✧ he lets you know whenever he bought something for you, but never shows it to you because he’s excited to see your reaction in person when you reunite

✧ always asks you to send him pictures of yourself, he wants to see what you look like everyday he’s missing you in real life

✧ you surprise visit HIM. he’s so happy he could cry. shows you around every place he loves, shows you off to everyone he knows, holds your hand the entire time and never wants to let go, is practically glued to you not that you mind  

✧ you spend your last night together lying in the grass, hand in hand, looking at the stars and sharing sweet kisses  

tsukishima

✧ y’all went to separate universities. while he stayed relatively close to miyagi, you went across the country to okinawa, which was about a 3 hour flight away

✧ he sees all the couples around campus n becomes lowkey bitter, texts you immediately about gross pda like hand holding that he secretly wishes he could do with you “these people in relationships are too happy, i didn’t ask to see them gawk at each other all day” “u just miss me lmao”

✧ once overheard a convo on a shuttle at school that went like :

✧ person 1: “ugh, he’s so cute”

✧ person 2: “why dont you go out with him??”

✧ person 1: “i dunno, his dorm’s down the street, i can’t really do long distance”

✧ nANI (by the way, this is a irl conversation my friend overheard, oml)

✧ tsukki nearly choked on his morning coffee

✧ bothers texts you in class bc he’s bored and in need of your attention

✧ “hey tsukki this prof’s lectures are rlly dense, i needa focus, ill text u after”

✧ “but arent i more interesting than rocks”

✧ “trust me, id even rather watch some dino documentaries with you than be here”

✧ *read*

✧ likes to chat with you most nights as he lies in bed before going to sleep, staring up at the dark ceiling and listening to your voice through his headphones. usually just talking about how your days went (as if you weren’t texting all day) or just casual talk and banter

✧ you remind him to make sure he’s taking care of himself and eating well

✧ “who are you? my mother?”

✧ “no but you’re about to be single”

✧ surprise visits you, tells you it was yamaguchi’s idea when it was really his own and yamaguchi was just teasing him about it  

✧ you show him around the city, sharing what you know about its rich history and culture. you visit most areas you both wanted to see before calling it a day

✧ your roommate conveniently spends that night over at their friend’s they just wanna give you alone time, which y’all very much needed. you make it a note to repay your roommate somehow.

✧ sweet lovin that he’s been missing, then some spooning as you sleep    

a/n: just wanna tackle these about 4 characters at a time but if u wanna see this headcanon w/ other characters feel free to hmu w/ an ask <3<b> also sorry if i text type a lot and that im inconsistent with my apostrophes, let me know if that’s something you want me to fix! 

[panlight]

Continuing on the L&D train, if there were a Chearnest, how do you think BD would go down? Do you think a vampire-born child would be less or more vampire-like than a regular hybrid? Would Meyer make Chearnie even more badass/perfect? Would Earnest/Royal care as much as Esme/Rose did? Or do you think that Meyer would go full reductive sexism and have Carine/Eleanor be the baby-obsessed ones? How would the women-led Volturi react? Since Beau is already a vampire, would Charlie ever find out?

Given that legends of dhampirs exist, and that even in the Twilight universe at least the one Indigenous caretaker on Isle Esme knew legends of vampires siring children with human women, it never made sense to me that everyone was like “omg!!! We’ve never heard of this!!” in Breaking Dawn. Honestly the whole plot of BD would bother me about 70% less if it had been framed as ‘we knew about these legends but assumed they were false because Aro/Carlisle/Rosalie had looked into them extensively and found no concrete evidence, whoops our bad” or "we warned E/B but the venom dissolved the condom, yikes" rather than “we’ve literally never heard of dhampirs apparently!" In SM’s defense, “dhampir” doesn’t seem to be on the Vampires A-Z page she (and Bella) used to research vampires, so how could she know? I mean if this Angelfire site from the 1990s didn’t include it how can we blame her?

Incubus, succubus, lobishomen and stregoni benefici are on the list, though, and she used the entry about the incubi being able to father children to come up with Edward fathering Renesmee which . . . again, an incubus isn’t a vampire so much as a sex demon, and if you look into the mythology around incubi . . . they aren’t making babies with their own ‘venom’ so to speak. If Edward’s an incubus, Nessie’s not his biological kid. 

So!

In a Life and Death scenario where somehow Edythe is able to get pregnant and have a child, I’d at least be on board with the “wow we had no idea such a thing was even possible” because like, okay, two vampires having a kid would be totally unheard of (unlike Breaking Dawn where Kaure knew about it, and they apparently found stuff on Bing and in Carlisle’s books so like . . . the info was out there, even if they didn’t know about it or believe it). But I'd be annoyed she broke all her rules to make it happen.

How it would all go down would depend a lot on what was going on with the Russian Denali brothers. It seems to me the question of hybrids would have been resolved a long time ago since they were sleeping with a lot of women and not killing them, over centuries. Sooner or later someone would get pregnant, and eventually one might live long enough for the baby to bite its way out and survive. So then if Edythe and Beau had a hybrid because Edythe was made temporarily human because of some vampire having the power to do that or whatever contrived circumstance, the focus would probably shift to “wait there’s a vampire that can make other vampires temporarily human?!” and Sulpicia not liking THAT power being out in the world and they’d go look for this vampire instead of exterminating Chearnie/the Cullens like in BD with Joham, because they already knew about hybrids from all the little Kirillovichi, Ivanovichi and whatever-T-name-ovichi running around. 

But if Beau and Edythe are still both vampires and still managed to have a kid somehow (~*::The Power of their LOVE::*~ ?) then THAT would keep the focus on them and “how the heck did THAT happen?” and then Archie and Jessamine would have to go and find another vampire-vampire offspring . . . somewhere? to prove they weren’t like Immortal Children. And it wouldn’t even by a hybrid it would somehow be a natural born vampire which means it breaks literally all the mythology (how does Chearnest grow/age?) so everyone being omg we’ve never heard of this? what is happening? what do we do? what is it? running around like chickens with their heads cut off would make a lot more sense than it did in BD when Bella could have been like “hey I read that male vampires or incubuses or whatever could have kids on the Vampires A-Z site maybe start there?” 

What would be interesting is that it would put Beau in Edward’s position, worrying about pregnant Edythe. 

I think she might keep Royal and Earnest as wanting children but frame it more as “always wanted a family” vs “always wanting to be a mother/father.” It’s a subtle difference but the way she writes gender and heteronormativity makes me feel like that’s how she do it. It wouldn’t be “I dreamed of being a dad and holding a baby!” because she might not think of men thinking that way, it would be “I always imagined myself with lots of kids.” I don’t think Eleanor cares and Carine strikes me are more career-driven and even less “the mom” than Carlisle was “the dad.” But I’ve only read the book once so, I can’t say for sure. 

[motherstone]

When you have the time could you share the bad au?

Anon, I am deeply grateful that you asked, but I must warn you that this is LONG (16+ arcs long and that’s because I havent conceptualized the others yet) and i am only sending you pt.1 Be warned.

More under the cut:

Deviation from canon:

·        Anything involving the aliens is dropped

·        Algos island won’t be a gas station, but an actual fucking island

·        The Voice is spiritual in nature.

·        The Old is New scene occurs around Book 5

·        Trellis eventually gets some fractions of his memories, but I dunno how yet

·        The Resistance at Frontera won’t be THE Resistance but the Elven resistance – they refused contact with the human resistance because they’re very discriminatory and hostile. The ER is composed of the researchers/engineers/etc and their kids that the Elf King failed to purge when they revolted once they fully realized that they are actually creating weapons of mass destruction

·        Emily gets trapped in the Void

·        There’s a whole lot more, but I can’t recall all of them

Note: Do take that these are not yet properly developed. Many of these are ideas I just enjoy playing around with. It WOULD not put much attention to most characters because a.) I haven’t nuanced their roles nor what part they should play in the story and b.) the narrative focuses on Trellis because I’m biased and ngl the potential of the story he could create is a LOT. He has sooo many potential conflicts, be it in self, society, and nature I couldn’t help myself. Also, do take note that this story is meant to be a tragedy – it’s going to explore Trellis and his reign, and the burden and subsequent consequences from it. The narrative doesn’t seek to “punish him” because 90% of the problems he encountered are out of his control and there is barely a perfect solution to anything, so he is bound to create ruthless and even questionable decisions as a result of his inexperience and young age despite his intelligence; all of these I am intrigued to explore about because all of it I just made up lmao.

In addition, my head blurred between what is canon, what I want canon to be, and what you know about the “canon” in my head (which is likely, not a lot because I never post abt it), so I may suddenly spout things that may seem out of context because you guys lack the background behind it. So if you have questions, pls feel free to send them my way. These arcs are INCREDIBLY condensed because if I spout too many details, I’d forget the details in other arcs. So. Yeah.

ARCS

STONEKEEPER TRIALS

-      Guardian Council arrives at Algos Island which contains the knowledge to purify the Voice from the Elf King (which should weaken him and thus easier to kill him)

-      Stonekeepers of past made sure to put security measure to prove the worthiness of the person seeking said knowledge and using it responsibly for the right reasons by subjecting them to a Trial (they will experience their deepest greatest desires and greatest fears as well)

-      Technically, the knowledge isn’t a concrete thing – it only works once per keeper, but it modifies itself to fill in the gaps of the knowledge they lack but seek (so like if youre seeking how to heal, the Temple will give you that knowledge and THAT knowledge only)

-      Lacking time, all three decided to take the Trials separately but at the same time.

-      This is supposed to be the fic on ao3 is about, even had an outline n all but its too long so I’ll post it later

-      tl;dr: Tellis finished first and is the one who gained the knowledge, and Vigo finished second, but Emily isn’t waking up at all. Eventually they all got attacked by the shadows

-      Trellis sends Vigo up to get the airship to them as he stays behind to protect Emily from the shadows

-      He’s getting super desperate as the enemies increase but Emily isn’t waking up until she suddenly transforms and tries to kill him

-      He barely survives but the Firebird gets away. The rest of the crew retrieved him, but when he retells them what happened…

-      They didn’t believe him. They think he sabotaged Emily.

BURNING OF IPPO

-      It more or less goes the same in Supernova, except the memory thing doesn’t happen and none of the Amulet trusts him except Riva and Vigo. Leon Miskit and Karen are still on Cielis while Navin n Aly are on Frontera but they don’t know that yet.

-      So the firebird attacks as usual, but instead of taken out early in the game, he is pushed to the limit protecting the city and its citizens as he’s the only one who can create a barrier while Vigo distracts FB and Riva evacuates the people

-      Trellis also bothers to release the elf soldiers in prison when it burns so they would be able to evacuate (will be important)

-      He nearly dies from exhausting himself, but manages to repel the FB to leave Ippo alone after much of it is burned. He is devastated by the aftermath because most of the people burned right in front of his eyes (will be important)

-      Worried at FB’s destructive power, they argue between pursuing it or ending the war. Riva argues trellis can’t go around protecting every city as its too fast for them, so it leaves only one viable option; end the war as quickly as possible to focus on Emily before she  burns everything and kill everyone

-      They eventually reunite with the Cielis army, but eventually gets abandoned again alongside the human resistance because they refuse to serve under Trellis, who was going to command the assault

-      Lacking an army, the elven, Luciean, and Ippoei soldiers then offers to help

-      They reconvene with the ER on Frontera, finally reuniting with Navin, Aly and Pil, who were all horrified by the news. Navin has mixed feelings but ultimately agrees it was his fault and is optimistic Em will be ok. Aly on the other hand is apprehensive but continues to trust him.

-      Meanwhile, Vigo departs to convince the CA to change their minds and get more allies, while Trellis, Luger, and the rest forms a plan…

BATTLE OF VALCOR

-      Trellis pretends to be captured by Elf Army to get close enough to the Elf King to kill him – avoiding as much bloodshed as possible. Unfortunately, he was decided to be executed before he could confront him so all hell breaks lose as the disguised soldiers ditches their disguises and fights the remaining EA on the king’s side

-      Note: Trellis is waaay more powerful and skilled here although his destructive powers are nowhere near Emily’s

-      He tries to make his fights as curt and decisive as possible to avoid wasting precious energy for the confrontation (I swear to god the fight sequence is more elaborate in my head but hnng I’m busy rn). Eventually he does make it at the temple of kings – where his father was waiting

-      Trellis was nowhere weak, but he barely holds ANY dice against his father’s power and was very close to nearly dying

FALL OF THE KING

-      He was saved by the timely intervention of Vigo and Riva – who has finally arrived with the CA (who got threatened into cooperating)

-      They barely get the upperhand, but they manage to get Trellis close enough to enact the Scission but, got uphold by the fact that the man they were trying to kill wasn’t dead in the first place but ALIVE

-      The Elf King begs Trellis to end it all, the mercy of release, for death, and it horrified him into freezing into place – MISTAKE

-      He gets a fatal wound being stabbed because the EK was tricking him (he is alive, but he was not really manipulated by the Voice – He was always evil all along), sneering at his softness that was never quite wrung out by the abuse

-      But that also gave Trellis the perfect opportunity to cast the Scission, which he then does at nearly the cost of his own life

-      The Voice gets cut off from the EK and retreated to the Void, and the EK dies from his wounds, and Trellis was about to meet the same fate

-      All three of them are barely held together by threads, but Vigo uses the last of his power so trellis could survive. At this, Trellis just has a mental breakdown and he doesn’t want to go any further, being so close to his breaking point because of all the horror he has to endure (ohh boii and it doesn get better from here)

-      But Riva was pleading for him to get up, get the mask and get to the other side, to show the mask, the soldiers that he WON and Gulfen surrenders and end the war. These two stumble slowly, but steadfastly, Riva practically the only thing supporting Trellis as they try to get to the fighting

-       They eventually manage to reach it, but trellis has to stand alone, composed, undefeated, because if it were anything less, people would challenge him. He declares a surrender.

-      The battlefield silences. One by one, the weapons drop.

[dylan-o-yumm]

ABC’s of Vergil

(WARNING! Obviously nsfw) 

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

Vergil won’t do much after sex except for maybe letting you rest your head on his chest or use his arm as a pillow. He’ll occasionally stroke your hair, but only if he’s in a good mood. He’ll also maybe help clean you up a bit, but most times he doesn’t bother, because “that’s your problem, not mine.” If it was a particularly rough session, he might stay awake to talk to you a bit, or read some poetry to bring you back down to earth, but that’s about as soft and romantic he gets with aftercare. 

B = Body part (Their favourite body part of theirs and also their partners)

Doesn’t really care about what he looks like, whether its because he knows deep down he looks like his brother, or because, why care about his own looks when there are much more pressing topics to endure? With you, he kind of feels the same way, he feels that a persons appearance shouldn’t matter at all because… well, whats the point? But, if he had to pic a part of you that he might find himself gazing at once every while, it would either be your lips or your hips. 

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

After discovering he has Nero, he did his research and becomes a little worried whenever engaging in sexual intercourse with you. So, he will never cum inside you, even if you’re on the pill or any other contraception types. Even if he’s wearing a condom, he will try to pull out before he cums because he is so paranoid that you’ll end up pregnant. He has heard of contraception failures, like condoms breaking or whatnot. He also knows that precum can get a woman pregnant, so he always makes sure to use protection. 

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Dante was talking about some odd kind of videos, saying that Vergil would probably like them since he’s into the whole Japanese aesthetic. He was just goofing around of course, but Vergil didn’t know what this was (cause he’s been in Hell for a long time and is only just getting used to the internet) so, he looked up this… “hentai” that Dante spoke of and was more than surprised at what he found. He became even more surprised when he found he didn’t exactly hate it either…  He doesn’t watch it often, hardly at all actually. Much prefers your body over some pixels on a screen. 

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

(Nero’s mum was his first, fight me) Poor dude had little to no experience when he first slept with you. You want to help him develop his skills? Too bad, shut up and let him discover what he likes most for himself. He will not let you, in any way, shape or form, suggest other things or positions he might like. If you happen to enjoy what he’s doing so far, good. If not, thats not his problem. He’ll slowly gets better at actually focusing on your pleasure instead of his own, but in the beginning he doesn’t even think about what you’re feeling. You’re moaning though, thats a good thing, right? 

F = Favourite Position (This goes without saying. Will probably exclude a visual)

Vergil likes positions where he doesn’t have your eyes on him. He doesn’t like when you face him and stare at him, because he feels a bit awkward when you moan and look at him with lust and desire in your eyes. Anyone else would find it hot, but not Vergil. So, taking you from behind while you’re on your knees, face pressed into the mattress or floor is one of his favourites. Also bending you over furniture is very arousing to him, with his hand pressed firmly on the side of your head, pinning you down while he snaps his hips against your ass. Just the thought of you like that is enough to make his mind spiral into nothing but dirty thoughts. 

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment or are they humorous, etc)

He is as serious as they come! Unlike Dante, who loves to make his s/o laugh at any given chance, Vergil much prefers to simply focus on getting the pleasure he so desires. If you start laughing about something while he’s balls deep inside you, he will straight up cover your mouth with his hand to shut you up. But, for whatever reason, if that doesn’t stop you, and he can still hear your giggles, he will either set a brutal pace to insure you can’t even remember how to laugh, or simply walk away. Want to laugh like its all a joke? Have fun reaching an orgasm by yourself. 

H = Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc?)

His hair is surprisingly down a lot more than you’d expect, he only really keeps it up during the day, but will let it down at night. He’s very well groomed, always hygienic. He seems bare up top, crazily smooth even on his arms and legs, but he does actually have hair there, they’re just very fine and, because they’re white, you can only really see them in the sun. However, he does have a nice and even patch of white hair at his crotch. Literally never lets it get to be too much, he basically has a shower ritual, so don’t worry about him getting all scruffy and smelly on you. 

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…)

Hardly romantic. Especially not at first. In the beginning he only cares for his own pleasure, and that will always be somewhat of an issue with him, but he does manage to get better as time goes on. It was actually his poetry that made him realise that, some love poem about treating your partner better than anyone. He kind of brushed it off at first, but it was always in the back of his mind. However, before then, he is very cold and distant, even when he’s got you shuddering as you reach your climax right under him. 

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcannon)

Doesn’t do it. He did a few times before he met you, but he always felt disgusted about it. He found it dirty and almost repulsive at some times. He knows that its a normal thing that a lot of people do, but he finds it uncomfortable when he does it himself. Doesn’t mean he hasn’t, there were a few times when he felt very needy and simply couldn’t ignore the tent forming in his pants, so he quickly jerked off and came into his hand, trying to make as little of a mess as possible, then washed his hands almost frantically. 

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

Likes choking and breath play, giving not receiving. He always has to be in charge, so he’s heavily into being dominant. He always found bondage to be fascinating, but never acted on it, because he felt like it would be too weird and he would be judged or made fun of for it. Basically anything where he’s the alpha who gets to be in charge of everything, is what really gets him going. If you tell him you want to be in charge, he will most likely laugh in your face and say “oh, you think you can make me submit? Foolish” so, feel free to try, but he won’t go easy on you, it’ll take a lot of strength and power to get him to do what you say. 

L = Location (Favourite places to do the do)

Isn’t too kinky when it comes to location. A bed will suffice him well enough, but he won’t say no to a good, sturdy desk or table. He isn’t one for having sex in public places, more so because he has a reputation to uphold, not because he doesn’t want anyone seeing you naked or anything. He would probably like other people to see what it is they can’t have and practically rub their faces in it, but thats more of an unsurfaced fantasy that he will never be making a reality. 

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

Sitting in his lap and grinding against him is probably the quickest way to get him riled up. But surprisingly, even though he’s always rough and tough and hardly ever shows his emotions willingly, he is a sucker for your lips on his neck. Shockingly, something he isn’t in control of and could be a sign of weakness in his eyes, gets him hard in no time, if done correctly. Suck his sweet spot, maybe bite a little bit and you might just pull an unwilling sound out of his mouth. As soon as that happens though, be ready to be slammed down on whatever surface is closest, because he needs to put you back in your place. 

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Inviting other people into bed with you is a big no. I mean, theres a chance he might go for it on one of his good days, but don’t expect that person to be walking out of the room alive afterwards. He wont be submissive, he wont be humiliated, he wont be tied, bound, blindfolded or gagged. He doesn’t even want to hear about golden showers or anything involving pee or fecal matter. Toys used on him are a no. Pretty much anything that sounds like it could be used against him in a humiliating fashion, he won’t even think about it, it will be a straight up no. 

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

Does’t really care for either. He’ll go down on you rarely, because his pleasure comes first remember? He is very skilled at it though and will have you begging for him to eat you out whenever you two have free time on your hands. If you go down on him, he just gets impatient, because he can’t go as hard as he wants or he will literally kill you, and he prefers to hear your erotic sounds, rather than them being muffled around his cock. 

P = Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

Almost always fast and rough with you, likes to have you screaming his name with tears streaming down your face from the intense pleasure he gives you. Likes to leave a red print on the side of your face as he holds you down with your cheek pressed into whatever surface you’re on. He likes how you get lost in the pleasure and can’t think of anything to say other than his name. He gets cocky when he watches you walk funny for the next couple of hours, the ache between your legs making you shuffle around awkwardly like a penguin. Why be slow and sensual when nothing can beat those fun, little details? 

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

He’s not really for or against them. He doesn’t like the idea of having to rush, but if you both have a minute to spare through a busy schedule, he will pin you against a wall, take your pants off, shift your panties to the side and fuck you nice and fast to quickly bring you both to climax. He does much prefer to take his time with with you though, savouring the feeling of your warmth and tightness, while listening to your moans and screams as if they’re his favourite song. 

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

The biggest risk he ever took with you was teasing you under the table while out for dinner with the Devil May Cry crew. You were being bratty before hand so he had to teach you a lesson somehow, and just how lucky were you to be wearing a skirt? He usually wouldn’t do such a thing because he found it dirty and unnecessary, especially in public. But if you rile him up, he has to assert his dominance somehow, even if he is arguing with his brother while doing so. He didn’t want to get caught for his own benefit, so he didn’t draw attention to you, didn’t tease you by making you talk to anyone while pinching your bundle of nerves. Which you were thankful for. You did hate how calm and collected he looked the whole time, while you were left biting down on your tongue to keep yourself quiet. 

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they last for, how long do they last…)

With his demonic side, he has a lot more stamina than an average man, so realistically he can go for maybe 5+ rounds if he really wanted to. But, he finds just one to be quite enough. He isn’t a sex fiend like his brother who could have sex all day, every day, finding that indulging his sexual pleasure just once a day or so is more than enough. He doesn’t push himself after his first orgasm, because he thinks ‘what is the point of continuing when I’ve already gotten what I so desired?’ One round can last a while though, he’s pretty good at control so he can last as long or short as he wants, ranging from a 5 minute quick to over an hour, but it both depends on his mood and whether or not you’ve been bratty. (Be bratty if you want him to last longer). 

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

No toys for himself but he did manage to get into the use of handcuffs and blindfolds for you, but only if you bought them yourself because he would never be caught doing anything more than merely looking in the direction of a sex shop. If you have a vibrator or dildo for yourself for when he’s away or whatever other reason, he wont mind too much, surprisingly doesn’t get offended or jealous, but he will say something along the lines of “Do what you want while I’m away, but I know a piece of plastic cannot be more pleasurable than I?” Just know that while he is in the same house as you, you wont even think of using them or you’ll be punished. 

U = Unfair (How much do they like to tease)

(I’m in two minds about this one) Vergil doesn’t tease too much surprisingly, not the kind of guy to beat around the bush. His form of teasing is more of a punishment, like not letting you cum, or making you cum too many times to the point your begging him to stop. That’s only if your bratty and question his dominance. That’s also later into the relationship, earlier on he doesn’t even bother with any form of teasing, its just, get whatever pleasure you can before I finish and thats it. If you tease him though, you’ll be in for a real treat… 

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make)

He’s very quiet. Maybe a few grunts here and there, but you’ll never catch him moaning. Even when you kiss and bite his neck how he likes it, he never releases a moan, its more of an animal-like growl instead. (He totally purrs when you massage his scalp or play with his hair, but he suppresses it enough that you can’t hear it, however there is no stopping the deep rumbling in his chest, like he’s vibrating)(Don’t mention it to him though, or he’ll swat your hand away any time you go to touch his hair). 

W = Wildcard (Get a random headcannon for the character of your choice)

Vergil is only as rough and focused on himself, because he is surprisingly pretty self conscious. In his mind, its better to be the monster everyone sees him as, rather than showing a different side of him and either being judged or belittled because of it. He feels that if he were to be gentle, loving and passionate with you, he would be seen as vulnerable and weak. So, even if he is feeling a little touch starved, and wants to be more kind and gentle with you (human side of him), that feeling inside him that doesn’t want to be weak or used (demon side of him) is much stronger. 

X = X-ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

Vergil is above average, nice in both thickness and length. He has a prominent vein on the underside and curves upwards slightly, and a round, pink tip. Honestly, he just has a very attractive looking penis. He doesn’t get cocky about it, doesn't like to walk around naked, so theres no showing off from him because he doesn’t care.

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

He could last a week without sex if he wanted to, but he enjoys the act like most people do and finds himself being greedy sometimes. He will want to have you at least once every day or two. However, if you two are separated for a while, he doesn’t find it to be a problem and can handle going a week or even a few weeks without indulging in any sexual activities. 

Z = ZZZ (…how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Since he’s got supernatural stamina and doesn’t go many rounds with you, he doesn’t tire himself or get worn out, even though at the pace he goes, it would be enough to make any ordinary man exhausted. However, while you are struggling to keep your eyes open, since you are human and his strength easily wears you out, he will be siting beside you, resting his back on the headboard of the bed, probably reading while you curl up to his side and fall asleep. 

Hope you guys liked this, sorry if it wasn’t as romantic and soft as you hoped lol

[wallbrat]

Felicia

I Intro I read a lot. I research. I pay attention to the news. I do a lot of fact checking. I have 10 to 15 news sources and the news I pay attention to is domestic and international. I spend hours fact checking because people lie. I also make mistakes. If you can prove to me, logically, that I’m wrong, I’ll admit it, apologize and write a retraction. Keep all of this in mind as you continue. II History I’m a student of history. My favorite periods are Ancient and Medieval, however, I’ll read about any period. I spent a few years digging into WWII because my Grandfathers served then. For the last few months I’ve been focused on WWI and the Spanish Flu. The H1N1 virus got it’s nickname not because of where it originated. Spain was neutral and wasn’t under media censorship like the countries fighting the war. Anything detracting from the war effort was not allowed so the news you saw then was not impartial. Spain, however, reported on a disease that was killing people. While H1N1 impacted us in 1918 and 1919, there were reports of it back in 1915. Yes, our government knew about it and restricted the information because of the war effort. The H1N1 virus hit America in three waves, the second wave being the worst. A deadlier strain of H1N1 surfaced and was spread by the massive troop movements of the war. It’s been said that the dropping of the quarantine restrictions are what caused the second wave and that’s incorrect. While it was a small factor, the troop movements are what spread the new strain. The cramped conditions and the malnutrition among the soldiers hastened the spread. It’s estimated that 500 million people died from H1N1. While that doesn’t sound devastating today, in 1918 that was about one third of the world population. The transmission vectors for H1N1 and Covid-19 are similar and a century of time doesn’t tend to change that. While we lack the troop movements and the conditions of WWII, we more than make up for that with our transportation technology. If that technology had been present in 1918, the death toll would have been much higher. We’ve been extremely lucky so far, yet stupidity is attempting to alter that. III Rampant Stupidity Why do we refuse to learn from the mistakes of the past? We have people protesting, with loaded guns, because they want a hair cut. Instead of throwing these morons in jail, they are allowed to continue in their stupidity. I have a few questions for these paragons of questionable intelligence. Where did you get your medical degrees? What? You don’t have medical degrees? OK. Then your Google Fu must be strong. What? You didn’t use Google? Where are you getting your information then? Ahh, I see. It all becomes clear to me now. This is not about politics and it never has been. These shining examples of American arrogance are simply angry because they’re being told what to do. They think they know more than the experts and they rage against any kind of restriction. Instead of doing what they need to do to protect their families and themselves, they prove their stupidity by endangering everyone around them. If people are still wondering why I view humanity as a failed experiment, this is a perfect example. IV The CDC I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV. They have advanced degrees that qualify them to advise us on disease, contrary to what some might choose to believe. Science is fact. Disbelief of science does not invalidate it. In the middle of a pandemic, these are the people I'm going to listen to. Our politicians have no more training in this than I do and out President is less than worthless. To the idiots protesting: No. Your Google Fu is not strong. You're not a scientist or a doctor of anything. If you won't protect others by doing what you're told then stay away from me an mine. I'm 54 years old with a stressed immune system. I follow what's been laid down because I refuse to put you at risk. I could be asymptomatic, meaning I could have the virus and have no symptoms. Having no symptoms does not entitle me to disregard the advice of the experts. Your Pastor or Priest is no more an expert than you are. Some churches ignored the restrictions and what happened to them? Many got sick and others died that may not have if they had done what they were told. V Trumpus Defectus To be clear, our president is neither insane or damaged. He simply doesn't care about you. As long as you vote for him, you could die immediately after casting that vote. He's a billionaire and you're not therefore you're beneath his notice. You don't care about the feelings of a bug when you step on it and that's all you are to him. He's been trained that way since birth. Most of the other billionaires are just like him, he's simply in the public spotlight. Most of the older politicians are no better than he is. They've been bought and paid for decades ago. The sooner we realize that we're nothing more than voting numbers to them, the sooner we can actually make our votes mean something. VI The Economy Money is nothing but ones and zeros in a computer. The dollar is worth what those computers say it is. The economy should have been shut down completely, No money, no revenue, no bills yet everything continues. We could have stayed home, ordered what we needed until this virus burns itself out. Afterwards we could have restarted things, there would have been no penalties and everyone would have been fine. If we had done that it would have restructured the economy, which is exactly why it wasn't done. Another option would have been to turn all of the billionaires into millionaires. Take everything that the filthy rich have, above $500 million, and use it to pay the American people to stay home. We don't need billionaires or the class distinctions they create. It's obvious why this wasn't done. VII Mental Restructuring Since I can't give our country the mental ass kicking it so desperately needs I have to focus inwards. While I'd like to say that this is by choice, it was forced by recent events. Few things are more painful than discovering, or feeling, that you're insignificant in the scheme of things. During a pandemic, our focus should, understandably, on our families and ourselves. Survival is paramount. Understanding that, with the exception of two people, I've done all of the reaching out to make sure that people are OK. These are the same two people that poke ate me if I've been quiet for too long so I wasn't surprised that they reached out first. I'm not a needy, whiny bastard. I'm fairly self-sufficient, I can order what I need and I'm a fairly good cook. Pumpkin, Onyx and I are fine alone, especially since I'm not a big fan of humanity in general. I love certain people but humanity, as a whole, is a lost cause. I didn't reach out for personal connection. I did it see how my friends were doing mentally. The Covid-19 situation has been tough on everyone, especially those of us with mental illnesses. I'm 54 years old with ADHD, Anxiety, Depression and three hernias requiring surgery, which explains the stressed immune system. If it wasn't for the fact that my meds had been increased a month or two before this happened, this situation would have broken me. Two people checking up on me would not have been enough to stop me from imploding. I would have been reduced to a gibbering mess because of the stress or I'd be dead. I'm fine because I noticed a couple of things about five months ago and I consulted my doctor about it. Most people in this situation aren't as lucky as I am, which is why I reach out. Having only two people that bothered to make sure I was OK was eye opening. I'm forced to reevaluate why certain people are in my life and who remains. VIII Bye, Felicia This has honestly been coming for a long time. There are people that only contact me when they want something, usually money. There are others that don't do anything. It's past time to do some pruning. I don't like giving up on people which is why I've avoided this for so long. There are some that are immune to this. My three adoptive sisters in my local area and the ones I love who are out of state. CA, WA, CO, UT, WI, WY, LA, TN, TX, GA, NJ, NY, NH and MD. Wow. Apparently I love more people than I thought I did. They know who they are. If not then they aren't paying attention. If I contact you or interact with you, in any fashion other than work, then I probably love you. Toxic people are leaving as I can't afford to keep them around. Stupidity is also making an exit. Stupidity is Willful Ignorance so why would I want them around to begin with? I have a perfect example of both. There's a post circulating on Facecrack. This one states that the plight of the jews in the Nazi concentration camps is comparable to the Covid-19 quarantine. An old friend shared that on my timeline. If he had been anyone else, I would have deleted and blocked him without hesitation. The only reason he remains is that I've known him for 38 years. I'm waiting to see what he does next. Student of history, remember? I studied WWII in depth so that means that I know more about the concentration camps than most people. The jews were herded there a variety of ways, primarily by train. They were tortured, experimented on, starved, brutalized, a huge number of them were gassed to death and those are actually the high points. It was much worse than I'll ever be able to properly describe and in no way is it even remotely similar to our quarantine. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequence. We're all free to say anything that we want to. We just need to be prepared for the repercussions that arise. If anyone else is stupid enough to share something like that on my timeline, or share it any other place that I can see, they are gone. No questions asked. All anyone needs to do to understand the difference between the two situations is to read a US history book that covers WWII. Posting crap like means that you're choosing to ignore basic evidence. I have no room for anyone like that so Bye, Felicia. IX Best vs Worst This situation can bring out the best or worst in people. You can rise to the occasion or you can sink into depravity. There are plenty of example of both around us. I'm working from home. My bills remain paid. My cats and I are fed and safe. I choose to help where I can. While it's true that I have little faith in humanity, that doesn't mean that I have to circle the drain with the rest of them. I will always try to help those around me. I've been extremely fortunate during this and that should be shared with those that are struggling. This is going to get worse before it gets better. I hope I'm wrong yet there are reports of increases in the infection rate where businesses are being reopened. The last thing we need is a second wave but I'm afraid it may happen. X Dystopia I look around and I have to wonder if we're ever going to grow up as a species. We keep making the same mistakes decade after decade. It's a wonder that we haven't blown ourselves off of the planet. The truth is that this is already a Dystopian society. It's not as bad as the examples we see in movies and on TV yet we are moving towards that. Compared to 20 years ago, we have less privileges now than we did then. We gave them away in exchange for the illusion of safety. We have privileges, not rights. Rights don't exist and are simply an invention to make us feel superior. If it can be taken away, it's a privilege. XI Conclusion While that last part was a little darker than I intended, it is true. I write, primarily, to relieve stress and to clear out my head. It gets pretty cramped in there otherwise. While this won't win me any friends, I may actually post this. My life needs some simplifying anyway. Namaste

[perdev11-blog]

Problems as a teenager

Physical

A.) Scars

          A scar is a mark left on the skin or within body tissue where a wound, burn, or sore has not healed completely and fibrous connective tissue has developed. No one can avoid scars since we always go to the outside and dangerous world. Some scars can be unpleasant to some people because it can be seen to an exposed part of the body and the trauma that it left behind.

When I was grade four, my classmates noticed that I got scars on my face and I got completely conscious about it since all of them didn’t even have a scar on their face. I tried searching for solutions to get rid of my ugly scars but no results.  For the past 3 years I despised myself due to the scars I have on my face. Then grade 7 came and I was surprised that I got a classmate that has a scar on their face. They weren’t bothered about the scar because it’s already part of their life and they have no choice but to live with it. And I saw that other people see scars unique because that’s what makes them different to other people.  I realized that why should I change myself when I’m already unique. I got fond of my scars because I saw it as a beautiful mark than an ugly blemish in my life. But over the years my scars suddenly faded. It’s not completely gone but it’s just that not very visible to people anymore.  However, I still like showing my scars because I really felt unique about it.

People tend to hate themselves due to the scars that they have on their body. But what I’m telling you now that you shouldn’t hate yourself because of your scars rather appreciate your scars. You shouldn’t be afraid of showing your scars because they are the badges that shows you’ve won the battle that left you with it.  It’s really ok to have a scar because it shows that you’ve come this far and you are stronger than your past. Never reject your own mark because that mark is what makes you unique about yourself and different from other people because you conquered your own demons by yourself.

MENTAL

 Mental relates to our mind. It also refers to the total emotional and intellectual response of an individual to external reality. Mental health refers to our cognitive, behavioral, and emotional wellbeing - it is all about how we think, feel, and behave. The term 'mental health' is sometimes used to mean an absence of a mental disorder. Mental health can affect daily life, relationships, and even physical health. Mental health also includes a person's ability to enjoy life - to attain a balance between life activities and efforts to achieve psychological resilience. A mental disorder, also called a mental illness or psychiatric disorder is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitting, or occur as a single episode. There are many symptoms of mental disorders such as anxiety, overthinking, depression, stress, etc.

 A.) Stress

 Stress is a normal part of life and can be caused by many different things. Stress on teenagers can be harmful to their health and wellbeing if it seems as though they have been enduring it for a long time. There many reasons why teen agers getting stress. • Homework and school (especially exams) •expectations and pressure from parents and their families to do well in school their •social relationships with friends and boyfriends/girlfriends and the issue of sex life challenges, such as dropping out of school or going to tertiary •studies or lack of time for work-having too much to do, feeling unprepared or overwhelmed • lack of sleep. These are the reasons why teenagers get stress but there also a way how can they overcome it. When you believe that your child is depressed, speak to them about trying to determine whether these or other issues are happening. If you can understand how they feel stressed, helping them fix the cause and properly manage their stress will be easier. Yes, maybe sometimes parents is the reason why teenagers got stress, but they are also the way how their children can overcome it

 B.) Overthinking

Overthinking is exactly what it means, thinking too much. When you think too much, instead of acting and doing things, you are overthinking. When you analyze, comment and repeat the same thoughts over and again, instead of acting, you are overthinking. This habit prevents you from taking action. It consumes your energy, disables your ability to make decisions, and puts you on a loop of thinking and thinking over and again. This is a kind of thinking that wastes your time and energy and prevents you from acting, doing new things and making progress in your life. It’s like tying yourself to a rope that is connected to a pole and going in circles again and again. In this situation there is more likelihood for worry, anxiety and lack of inner peace. On the other hand, when you don’t overthink, you become more efficient, more peaceful and much happier. Causes When you become more aware of your tendency to overthink things, you can take steps to change. But first, you have to recognize that overthinking does more harm than good. Sometimes, people think that their overthinking somehow prevents bad things from happening. And they think if they don't worry enough or rehash the past enough then somehow, they'll encounter more problems. But the research is pretty clear--overthinking is bad for you and it does nothing to prevent or solve problems.

- I relive embarrassing moments in my head repeatedly.

- I have trouble sleeping because it feels like my brain won't shut off.

- I ask myself a lot of "what if..." questions.

- I spend a lot of time thinking about the hidden meaning in things people say or events that happen.

- I rehash conversations I had with people in my mind and think about all the things I wished I had or hadn't said.

- I constantly relive my mistakes.

- When someone says or acts in a way I don't like, I keep replaying it in my mind. Sometimes I'm not aware of what's going on around me because I'm dwelling on things that happened in the past or worrying about things that might happen in the future.

- I spend a lot of time worrying about things I have no control over.

- I can't get my mind off my worries. Effects where you just can’t stop thinking about an event, a person, something that happened in the past, or on a problem. Instead of looking for a solution, taking initiative and being active, you just keep thinking and cannot get it out of your mind. At times, when something bad happens, you think about the worst scenarios, with thoughts like “what if?” or “why?”.

- You slip now and then into negative thinking patterns.

- You worry about past mistakes or current problems and issues, and how they might lead to negative outcomes.

- You obsess about or over-analyze your day-to-day experiences and interactions with people.

You inflate every word, thought and event beyond really and reasonable proportions, reading into things that aren’t actually there. If this happens often, you are what psychologists call a ruminator, or over-thinker. Psychologists have found that over-thinking can be detrimental to performance, and lead to anxiety and depression. How to Overcome Overthinking? There are various ways to get rid of this habit, like watching TV, playing video games or listening to music. Walking, swimming or exercising the body can also take your mind off temporarily from the habit overthinking. Anything that keeps your mind occupied with some activity that doesn’t allow you to overthink is okay. Watch yourself when you overthink and see how time and energy consuming it is, how you are behaving passively, instead of actively. Realize that thinking once, or a just a few times is enough. It leads you nowhere thinking over and again the same thoughts. You need to make a decision and act. The matter is that you might revert to overthinking – ruminating over and again. The above tips would help you, but if you want to completely overcome this habit, you will need to go one step further. You will need to learn to focus and calm down your mind, so that you can easily prevent it from revolving around the same thoughts over and over again.

 C.) Anxiety

Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. It’s when you are not stable and not comfortable with your situation. It’s a type of mental illness where you’re unease. When you’re uncomfortable with your surroundings and when you tend to worry a lot with an uncertain outcome, you’re overthinking

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Causes:

* Environmental factors: Elements in the environment around an individual can increase anxiety. Stress from a personal relationship, job, school, or financial predicament can contribute greatly to anxiety disorders. Even low oxygen levels in high-altitude areas can add to anxiety symptoms.

* Genetics: People who have family members with an anxiety disorder are more likely to have one themselves.

* Medical factors: Other medical conditions can lead to an anxiety disorder, such as the side effects of medication, symptoms of a disease, or stress from a serious underlying medical condition that may not directly trigger the changes seen in anxiety disorder but might be causing significant lifestyle adjustments, pain, or restricted movement.

* Brain chemistry: Stressful or traumatic experiences and genetic factors can alter brain structure and function to react more vigorously to triggers that would not previously have caused anxiety. Psychologists and neurologists define many anxiety and mood disorders as disruptions to hormones and electrical signals in the brain.

* Use of or withdrawal from an illicit substance: The stress of day-to-day living combined with any of the above might serve as key contributors to an anxiety disorder. Effects: it can make you sweat

* Can make you have headaches

* Excessive and ongoing worry and tension

* Unrealistic view towards problems

* Ongoing irritability

* Muscle tension and aches

* Can make you think of different views towards problems continuously This specific mental illness can bother you nonstop and make you have a negative outlook in life. Whenever we have or feel like we have anxiety or any other mental illness, we should check up with a professional. Anxiety can ruin your mind set and make you worry about things. To avoid this, we should try harder to be positive in life. It may make you think realistic about certain situations but it can go too much and become negative and toxic for our mental health. This also leads to us overthinking too much and may lead to anxiety.

 Living with mental illness is not easy. It’s a consistent problem without a clear solution. While treatments like medication and psychotherapy are incredibly helpful, sometimes people experiencing mental health conditions need to do more day-in and day-out to feel good or even just okay. Some common self-help suggestions people receive are to exercise, meditate and be more present, which are helpful and work for many people. However, other proven methods aren’t mentioned as often. Many of them are quick and simple techniques that can easily be added to daily routines. Finding the right coping mechanism takes time and patience, but it can enormously impact how you feel. If you haven’t had success with techniques you’ve tried, or you’re looking to add a few more to your toolkit, here are seven coping mechanisms recommended by mental health professionals worth trying out.

 EMOTIONAL

 What is Emotional? If it has anything to do with feelings like happiness or anger, then we consider it as emotional. Emotion is a mental state associated with the nervous system brought on by chemical changes variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. It is often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation.

 How do emotions affect behavior? Behaviors are different from thoughts and emotions. It is how we act or what we do. In contrast, thoughts and emotions are inside of us and we don’t have to act on our thoughts and emotions. Despites being different from emotions, behaviors are very strongly influenced by them. For example, when we feel frustrated, we sometimes acts on that frustration by saying mean things to our parents or on the people in our surroundings.

 Here are some examples of Emotional Conflicts:

 A.) Mood Swings

 "Mood Swings" is a typical term used to portray quick and seriously fluctuating feelings. Individuals regularly portray emotional episodes as an "exciting ride" of sentiments from bliss and satisfaction to outrage, peevishness, and even depression.

An individual may perceive something that has "set off" a move in their state of mind, for example, an unpleasant occasion at work. But on the other hand it's normal for mood swings to happen without an undeniable reason. Individuals may encounter these adjustments in mind-set through the span of a day or even inside several hours.

 It's not unexpected to have days where you feel pitiful or days when you're thrilled. For whatever length of time that your state of mind changes doesn’t meddle with your life to an extraordinary degree, they're commonly viewed as solid.

 Then again, you may have an ailment in the event that you change from incredibly glad to amazingly discourage all the time. On the off chance that you have genuine and visit mood swings, you should enlighten your primary care physician concerning them. They can talk about the potential purposes behind for what reason you're encountering them.

 A few reasons for fast changes in conduct can be identified with emotional well-being, hormones, substance use, or other wellbeing conditions. Mood Swings can be a challenge to manage, particularly on the off chance that they meddle with your everyday life, school or work, and your connections. Changes in disposition that are continuous and extreme ought to be talked about with your primary care physician, as you should make sense of the hidden medicinal or potentially emotional well-being cause before you can adequately treat them.

Prescriptions called state of mind stabilizers, psychotherapy or advising, and mediations, for example, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) might be useful if a hidden dysfunctional behavior is causing emotional episodes or exacerbating them

 If your good and bad times aren't influencing different parts of your life adversely, you might have the option to work through your emotional episodes without restorative consideration. You may have the option to manage your states of mind on the off chance that you do the following:

 Keep a timetable

Attempt to make an everyday practice for yourself, particularly with regards to eating and resting.

Exercise consistently

Practicing normally has various advantages for almost all parts of your wellbeing, including temperament.

Get adequate rest.

A decent night's rest is significant and lack of sleep can influence your mind-set.

Eat a solid eating regimen

A reasonable, solid eating routine can improve your state of mind and keep you sound. Here are a few hints to adhering to a solid eating regimen.

Practice unwinding

Participate in quieting practices like yoga or reflection.

Keep away from pressure

More difficult than one might expect, isn't that so? In the event that you can't maintain a strategic distance from it, plan to oversee and assuage worry as it comes.

Convey what needs be

Locate an inventive outlet to convey what needs be.

Work it out

Discover somebody to converse with, for example, a companion, relative, or expert instructor.

 Remember that emotional episodes can shift in seriousness. Encountering a scope of feelings is a piece of life. You may need to modify your way of life to return to feeling ordinary in the event that you experience periodic emotional episodes.

 You should take emotional episodes that adjust your conduct and contrarily sway your life or people around you truly. Contact your primary care physician in the event that you feel that emotional episodes have assumed control over your everyday life or in the event that you've been feeling unwell for an all-inclusive timeframe. These could be manifestations of a wellbeing condition.

  B.) Breakdowns

 Breakdowns are term describing emotional or physical stress that temporarily makes someone unable to function in day-to-day life. Nowadays, teenagers are mostly the one who experience breakdowns. Knowing breakdown and knowing what are the causes are important, so we are aware if we’re experiencing it and to avoid having it. I already experienced having a breakdown and its really tough to overcome breakdowns because you are emotionally, as well as physically tired of doing something. Just like in a meal, you may lose your appetite. You feel that you have no reason to live and no one supports you. So we should focus to this one.

Causes:

           •           Expectations and Standards

           •           Stress

           •           Heart aches

           •           Failures

           •           Negative Thoughts

           •           Toxic People/Surroundings

Symptoms:

           •           Feeling anxious, depressed, tearful, or continuously irritable

           •           Withdrawing or avoiding normal social situations

           •           Unhealthy eating and hygiene

           •           Difficulty focusing or remembering

           •           Lacks of motivation and interest in things

Treatment and Prevention:

             •           Spend some time alone.

           •           Be aware of breakdowns

           •           Know what causes you to have breakdowns

           •           Reduce sources of stress, such as conflicts at home, workplace and etc.

           •           Doing exercises and yoga

           •           Talking with friends, family, partners about troublesome feelings

 Let us be aware of breakdowns and learn that everything has a purpose. Do not focus on the things that will make you lose your passion such as standards and expectations of others and keep yourself distant to toxic people and surround yourself with the person who really care about you.

 C.) Short Temper

 Short temper is an instantaneous display of anger. The ideal solution is not to control anger, but to be rid of Anger. The problem with us is not our tempers, but the underlying anger in us. There are thousands of tips you will find online which will say things like:

 • Whenever you get angry, the first thing you should do is close your eyes and take deep breaths for a while.

• Keep a watch on your current anger level and when you sense that you're about to lose your temper, do something to distract yourself and improve your mood, like making a joke to break the tension or remembering a happy memory.

The above suggestions are like using a band-aid to cover a gaping wound. It will give relief, but only temporarily.

  What Causes Anger? A leading cause of anger is a person’s environment. Stress, financial issues, abuse, poor social or familial situations, and overwhelming requirements on your time and energy can all contribute to the formation of anger. As with disorders such as alcoholism, anger issues may be more prevalent in individuals who were raised by parents with the same disorder. Genetics and your body’s ability to deal with certain chemicals and hormones also play a role in how you deal with anger; if your brain doesn’t react normally to serotonin, you might find it more difficult to manage your emotions.

 Emotional Symptoms of Anger-Related Problems

 You might think the emotional symptoms of anger-related problem are limited to anger, but a number of emotional states could indicate that you are failing to deal with anger in a positive and healthy fashion. Constant irritability, rage and anxiety are possible emotional symptoms.

 If you feel overwhelmed, have trouble organizing or managing your thoughts or fantasize about hurting yourself or others, you could be experiencing an anger disorder or another issue. Don’t wait for these emotions to take control of your life; maintain control by calling our hotline today at. Representatives are available to listen and offer advice 24/7.

 Physical Symptoms of Anger-Related Problems

 -headache, Pressure in head, Fatigue, Pressure in sinus cavities, Heart palpitations, Tightening of chest, Increased blood pressure, Tingling. Strong emotions often bring about physical changes to the body, and anger is no exception. Letting anger issues go unaddressed can put your overall health at risk.

 10 anger management tips

 1. Think before you speak

In the heat of the moment, it's easy to say something you'll later regret. Take a few moments to collect your thoughts before saying anything — and allow others involved in the situation to do the same

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2. Once you're calm, express your anger

As soon as you're thinking clearly, express your frustration in an assertive but non-confrontational way. State your concerns and needs clearly and directly, without hurting others or trying to control them.

 3. Get some exercise

Physical activity can help reduce stress that can cause you to become angry. If you feel your anger escalating, go for a brisk walk or run, or spend some time doing other enjoyable physical activities.

 4. Take a timeout

Timeouts aren't just for kids. Give yourself short breaks during times of the day that tend to be stressful. A few moments of quiet time might help you feel better prepared to handle what's ahead without getting irritated or angry.

 5. Identify possible solutions

Instead of focusing on what made you mad, work on resolving the issue at hand. Does your child's messy room drive you crazy? Close the door. Is your partner late for dinner every night? Schedule meals later in the evening — or agree to eat on your own a few times a week. Remind yourself that anger won't fix anything and might only make it worse.

 6. Stick with 'I' statements

To avoid criticizing or placing blame — which might only increase tension — use "I" statements to describe the problem. Be respectful and specific. For example, say, "I'm upset that you left the table without offering to help with the dishes" instead of "You never do any housework."

 7. Don't hold a grudge

Forgiveness is a powerful tool. If you allow anger and other negative feelings to crowd out positive feelings, you might find yourself swallowed up by your own bitterness or sense of injustice. But if you can forgive someone who angered you, you might both learn from the situation and strengthen your relationship.

 8. Use humor to release tension

Lightening up can help diffuse tension. Use humor to help you face what's making you angry and, possibly, any unrealistic expectations you have for how things should go. Avoid sarcasm, though — it can hurt feelings and make things worse.

 9. Practice relaxation skills

When your temper flares, put relaxation skills to work. Practice deep-breathing exercises, imagine a relaxing scene, or repeat a calming word or phrase, such as "Take it easy." You might also listen to music, write in a journal or do a few yoga poses — whatever it takes to encourage relaxation.

 10. Know when to seek help

Learning to control anger is a challenge for everyone at times. Seek help for anger issues if your anger seems out of control, causes you to do things you regret or hurts those around you.

 D.) Low-Self Esteem

 Low self-esteem is characterized by a lack of confidence and feeling badly about oneself. People with low self-esteem often feel unlovable, awkward, or incompetent. They tend to be hypersensitive and have a fragile sense of self that can easily be wounded by others. Low self -esteem is simply how you feel about yourself and how you judge your worth. This evaluation has a profound impact on the choices you make since it determines, to a great extent, what you consider yourself capable and worthy of doing.                                                                                                    

People with low self-esteem – who feel poorly about themselves and judge themselves to be inferior to others – are at risk, then, of not fulfilling their true potential in life. They may not take the initiative to set and pursue personal goals; they may not put any effort into their education or careers; they may accept poor treatment from family, friends and romantic partners. This has been linked to a number of negative behaviors among teens, including:

·         Poor academic performance

·         Teen pregnancy

·         Dropping out of school

·         Earlier sexual activity

·         Criminal behavior

·         Alcohol and drug abuse

·         Cutting

·         Disordered eating

Low self-esteem is more than an unpleasant feeling. It takes a toll on our lives. This are the causes of low self-esteem:

·         Uninvolved/Negligent Parents

·         Negative Peers

·         Trauma

·         Body Image

·         Unrealistic Goals

·         Previous Bad Choices

·         Negative Thought Patterns

These causes lead to different negative effects of low self -esteem some of this are:

·         Negative feelings

·         Self-loathing

·         Believing you have nothing to offer

·         Difficulty getting motivated

·         Obsession with perfection

·         Lowered resilience

·         Lack of self-care

·         Struggling relationships

·         Being a “people pleaser”

·         Believing you are powerless to change anything

In our generation nowadays most of us is conscious of what other people might think of us. Because of this our confidence are affected and we are afraid of showing our real personality, identity and self to others. As a teenager sometimes I don’t what to show what I really feel because I’m afraid that the people around me might say something about it , also I’m afraid of taking risk because I always think what if this one fails and turns out to have a negative effect what will I do? How will I explain it to the people around me? How will I face all of their discrimination and judgement. But as time goes by, I learned how to overcome it by accepting the results of the decisions I make. Here are some ways to overcome low self -esteem:

·         Live in the moment

·         Develop awareness

·         Be non-judgmental

·         Stay connected to yourself

·         Practice mindful meditation

·         Participate in your own life

·         Let go

·         Show compassion toward yourself

And always remember “We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.”

 As a teenager we are facing a lot of challenges. This leads us to different emotional problems that become a reason of some serious health and mental illness. But we should always put our mind that us a youth we have the freedom to just do what we want and what makes us happy. It is our decision to make whether we want to see a certain situation as negative or positive. Don’t let other people dictate you on what you should do, be your own voice towards happiness and peace. Always remember that each one of us is loved and cherished by our own families don’t ever compare yourself to others.

 Always remind yourself are special, surround yourself with people who brings color to your life and not the one who destroy you as a person. Take care of yourself always. Be fruitful and grow where you have planted. There is a purpose in everything, and that’s for you to be a better version of yourself,

  SOCIAL

 What are social issues? Social issue is a problem with a particular place or group of people in the world.  There are a lot of social problems around us, for example the lack of confidence, many people lack confidence because they don’t believe on what they can do and they don’t believe in themselves, they are afraid of what people may think about them, they are afraid to be judged. Some people are naturally born with introversion, maybe they inherit it to their parents, others may just don’t want to socialize because they think that others may just make fun of them and they can’t appreciate them, the way they want to be appreciated. While, shyness is another example of social issues, shyness is a characteristic of people who have low self-esteem. They’re shy to share what’s running through their mind. Shyness is like lack of confidence, they tend to feel weak, they’re shy to show what they really feel.

 A.) Shyness

 Shyness can be an awkward, self-conscious, anxious, shy, and insecure feeling. Often people who feel shy in situations may experience physical sensations like blushing, feeling weak, forgetting speech, or shortness of breath or rapid breathing. If people feel shy, they tend to hesitate to say or do something because they feel uncertain about themselves or about themselves.

  There are a lot of ways to overcome shyness, first, Start practicing interacting and sharing or telling jokes or stories at any moment. In all areas of your life be more talkative and articulate. You should practice communicating, more freely, whether you're at home, with family, cousins and friends. Let's hear your voice and thoughts. Second, Part of overcoming shyness is about building trust in several areas of your life and not allowing you to get in the way of anxiety, fear of failure, fear of rejection or fear of embarrassment. You overcome the fear of the unknown by doing new activities and learn to handle your anxiety more effectively. Last, Learn how to earn confidence comes by experience, training, practice, and mastery. When you learned how to ride a bicycle, remember? At first it was scary, but you just walked for it and tried it, you got it, and you felt confident. Social confidence works in the same way.

 B.) Lack of Confidence

 Having a lack of confidence is like losing more opportunities in life we must overcome this type of trait that has a big impact to every individual especially to those students. Feeling certain of success even when your knowledge suggests you might felt to fail. Even if you’re extremely skilled and talented, a lack of self-confidence can prevent you from performing at your best in pressure situations. For example, if you work in sales, it’s one thing to read a book and learn and understand some new sales techniques, but it’s a very different challenge to actually go out and apply those techniques when face-to-face with a prospect. The major limiting factor often isn’t a lack of knowledge or practice but rather the limiting belief that you can’t expect to perform well the first few times a self-fulfilling prophecy. Public speaking is a great example. Many people have the knowledge and skill to write a speech that an audience would enjoy, and when practiced in private, they may even do a decent job. But put them in front of an audience or even just suggest the idea and they quickly succumb to feelings of self-doubt and worry. However, if you take such people to a stage hypnosis show and they’re hypnotized, they’ll get up on stage and perform wonderfully with no fear at all, even with no rehearsal or prepared material. Being under hypnosis doesn’t magically bestow any new skills, but it can put people into a state where they have full and unrestricted access to their best internal resources. What new endeavors might you be able to take on if you were hypnotized to belief with absolute certainty that you would succeed at them? You may currently believe that confidence is the result of a history of success. While a history of success can certainly increase your confidence, you don’t actually need that history to feel confident. Confidence is a feeling of certainty, a natural inner resource that can be summoned whenever you want it. The key to feeling confident lies in a quote from Albert Einstein: “Imagination is more powerful than knowledge.” Even when your knowledge tells you to expect failure, you have the ability to consciously direct your imagination to override that impulse and feel certain of success anyway. Confidence is not panacea. But being able to make yourself feel certain of success can give you massive edge in many endeavors. And a lack of confidence can put you into the decrepit state where even though you have the intellectual resources to succeed, you don't even make the attempt.

 C.) Introversion

 Every person has their own identity, each of us has our own personality. We all encounter problems, we all experience pain and we all fall and rise again. Who we are now is how we coped up with our problems from before. Pain changes us, experiences makes us realize that some people can become strangers.

  Sometimes in our life, we seem to give up, but there will always be someone else who will make our lives worthy. Afterwards, people will leave again. But why? Life is a cycle, where one can't not change. We will be friends to someone then later on we'll get attached and they'll leave, leave us hanging and we will wondered why. Why do people leave? Why do I need to feel pain? All our why 's will never be answered because no one is there to answer. In all our problems in life, we all get tired, to the point where we don't want to meet new people anymore. You don't want to please these people just for them to stay. You don't want people to hurt you again. People will leave because they'll get tired on us, and yet we are expected not to. Each people who have left us in pain was the person we truly value but ended up fading away. They are the ones that makes us special even in a while. When we fall down, we got no one but ourselves. We will stand up and fix ourselves alone.

 Pain makes us stronger, and makes us realize that at the end of the day, we'll be alone. You can be alone but not happy, otherwise you can be happy even though you're alone. Being happy is a choice. Why meet new people if in the end of the day, they'll just leave us pain? Why beg people to stay if they're just going to leave us for someone better? Why fix others if they can fix themselves? Why do you need others if you can fix yourself. Someone said no man is an island, but an island on its own can be happy. If an island is resourceful, it will be a happiness for itself. If you, on your own, can do such things alone without anyone involved, you can be happy. Having barriers with people is not a bad thing, it's just you've learned from your past and you don't want others to hurt you again.

  It's not bad if you let other people come into your life, but you must limit yourself from them, from pain. In case they leave, you can stand up on your own. In case they replace you, you can accept and it won't bother you. In case they'll be happy with others, you won't need anyone, because you have yourself. Be like the moon, who can be happy on its own and can be happy even though darkness surrounds it. You will never know the true meaning of love, if you can't love yourself. Self-love is the most important and most irreplaceable thing without needing someone. If you truly accept your flaws and imperfections, you will never get hurt by others. Everything in this world has ending and limitations. Everyone can give us pain and everyone can be an unforgettable person. But you, by your own, must limits yourself from people. Not because you're afraid but because you learned and you know your worth. You will not settle for less, because you know what you deserve. When people hurt you for the first time, it's their choice, but when people hurt you again, it's your choice because you let them in again.

 We encounter different problems in our lives but there are so many ways to cope up with it. Problems is just a test to strengthen us however it will also teach us a lesson. We meet different types of people that we always socialize so we must conquer all our fears for us to have a good relationship with them. It might have a gap or barrier but you know how to communicate so you will not left behind and you will also know how to limit yourself from people. Meeting different kinds of people taught us how to know the good and bad, the real and fake and the one who'll stay and not. We learn on communicating different kinds of people and we also understand how to know them well. We must not push people away from us, if you know that they're not good for you, just limit yourself but never push them away. However if some people are good for you but they're keep on leaving you, never push yourself to them. Learn how to let go and how to hold on. Let go to those people who've cause you pain and hold on for those persons who've never leave you and will always be there for you.

 Economical

 The society has a lot of struggles, thus we call it economical struggles, but some of these struggles are stuff we don’t take much time to think of in our daily lives. This blog will help us learn others struggles and their solution

 A.) Hard Choices: Needs VS Wants

 When thinking of the most basic steps in saving money, we must learn the difference of needs and wants.  Sometimes, the painful lesson of realizing that even though we really want something we don't actually need it!

 Our needs are the things we must have to sustain us day to day: food, shelter, clothing, personal care items, and in most cases safe, reliable transportation. While,   wants are something you would like to have but do not need, a new car, expanded cable or a new pair of shoes.

 But even within the needs category, the lines can blur. We must have food every day, but we don’t need to dine out to get it. We must be fully clothed to go out in public, but we don’t need the latest fashions just to be ‘in’.

 Personally as a teenager, I need to admit that most of the time I always choose my wants, I already have shoes but I always want something new, I can eat in a local canteen but I chose to eat fast food. These are only a few examples of the choices millennial people. We’ve become a culture of want, addicted to the rush of newness and convinced it’s the road to happiness.

 We are so fond of following the trends we see in social media or anywhere that sometimes we take our budget for granted, people don’t know how to be contented on what they have. Their phone is still working but seeing the new model makes them think they need a new one, our parents cooks our meals but we chose to eat fast food, to think that many of the things we want can sometimes be bad for us like fast food and expensive things because people will be in debt. Contentment is the only thing we should have to distinguish what we need in order to live, but what are the ways to find contentment?

 First, you should look around and evaluate everything you already have. Chances are you’re far exceeding your basic needs in almost every area. Second, avoid advertisements as much as possible by unsubscribing from retailers’ promotional emails, recording television shows and skipping through commercials, and carefully choosing the online content you consume. Break the habit of going digital ‘window shopping’ when you’re bored. Third, practice the One-In-One-Out rule, it simply means that any time you bring a new item into your home, you must get rid of one that’s the same or similar. So, new pair of shoes, old pair of shoes out. New baseball cap in, old baseball cap out. Forth, appreciate what you have, When you find things that you want to buy or do that you currently can't afford, it becomes all too easy to focus on those things to the point of overlooking what you already have, we should be thankful for being fortunate to own such things because not anyone can have what we have and stop wanting more because something is better than nothing.

 “Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.” —Socrates

There were many reasons we chose to become minimalist and simplify our lives. Contentment is the lifeblood of minimalism. And without it, the journey towards minimalism is short-lived. Discontent will always rear its ugly head and become a great obstacle to fully thriving in a simple life. So let’s be contented and appreciate everything we have right now.

 B.) Education: Needs Vs. Wants

 Money is something that is hard to earn but easy to spend. It is a necessity since we use it for education, transportation and other daily expenses. People have been using it for many expenses resulting to shortage of money.

 Education takes up a long time to finish. Some people say that money is not necessarily needed in order to finish your studies as long you have perseverance, determination, goals and etc. But no, it is wrong. There are times that everyone must acquire money for school. Students who live far from their school must have money for their transportation whether it is for jeepney, bus or train. Students who doesn't have time to prepare their packed lunch must have money to buy food. In order for students to pass, group or individual projects must be completed and school events that should be participated for additional grades. Students from public or private school, both requires financial support.

 Everybody has a right to study. That is why parents must be responsible to support their children's education. They should plan ahead of time and save up to avoid such struggles. Parents must avoid depending on debts. They should also avoid having bad habits like smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol often and buying unnecessary things. It is relevant to consult trusted banks for better secured savings. They should make a habit of packing lunch for their children instead of giving them money daily. It would be important for parents to teach their children about saving money so that when the time comes they know how to limit spending the money.

 C.) Budgeting: Needs Vs. Wants

 Budgeting is the act of saving ones money in order to prioritize the things that a person or a group of people should buy. Budgeting could be in the form of listing (writing, typing, mental writing of a list) or making your mentality “I shouldn’t buy my wants because I need to buy my needs”.

 A personal experience I could share about Budgeting is; When I was an elementary student, I used to have budgeting problems because of the lack of guidance I got. I use to spend tons and tons of my money on my wants. However, there came a time that I really wanted something and my parents asked what had happened to the money they told me to keep. I hadn’t gotten that thing I wanted, and so from then on I started budgeting more, always prioritizing and mentally making a list of things I need and I don’t need, always having reserved money at my back pocket and  always scattering my money in case of emergency.

 The solution I can suggest for those that think budgeting is hard, would be: a.) plan your money on a weekly basis rather than daily. Ask for you allowance for the week rather than for the day, or save up on the previous week so you don’t use this week’s allowance. B.) Always keep in mind that there is going be something more valuable that you are going need so always leave a big amount of money in your savings. C.) even if your allowance or money is only for the day, try thinking that it’s for 3 days. It helps with the “I’ll buy this next time” mentality.

   I hope that this blog helps you a lot and never stop loving yourself. Tell yourself that you are unique and cool! ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ✿

[anotherenglishstudent]

Uni - Writing an Essay

My uni course is, delightfully, almost entirely essay based. This works wonderfully for me because wow do I panic about exams. If you, however, struggle with essays here’s some advice that might help!

Speaking from an arts student perspective, nothing is going to get you away from writing essays at university. And if you’re doing an arts or humanities subject, likelihood is you chose it, in part, because you know you can write them. Buuuuut that doesn’t mean it’s as simple as keeping up your standard methods. Yes, school and sixth form have been pointing you in the right direction, and - shockingly - their formulaic approach is the basis of a good essay, but there’s a couple of things I’ve picked up that really help an essay.

Research Research Research! Yes, your essay is meant to be you writing your ideas about any given topic, but where have you opinions come from? Why do you think this? Do you have anyone to back you up? These things are so, so important when it comes to writing an essay. Nothing you say can be unfounded: support from a source is everything. Whilst you’re doing your research, keep meticulous notes. I’ve got a couple of suggestions for how to do this, but what you need to remember is that when it comes to writing the essay, you’re going to want to know where you got the information, who wrote it, and a whole bunch of publication details. The first method I’m going to suggest is the way I make notes: I’ll take the book/article/whatever I’m reading and write down the title, author, and publication details at the top of a sheet of paper - this is labelled as ‘Source 1’. Every quote I think is relevant will be written on this sheet of paper, and labelled a/b/c/etc., and have the page number written down with it. When I then come to plan my essay I can just use shorthand to add these quotes to my plan, e.g. ‘Paragraph 1, use quotes 1c, 2b, and 4g’. If you don’t want to write down every quote you think is relevant (because let's be honest, you won’t use at least half of them), tabbing books is also useful. This works best if you own the book, but can also be done with library books. It’s as simple as using post-it notes or tabs to mark where an important quote is; I also find it useful to write on the tab the topic of the quote or why I thought it relevant, so it’s easy to know why you marked it later on. My final suggestion is a lot like the first one, except actually making use of technology. Write the title, author, and publication info out just the same, and type out the quote (much faster process by the way), alongside a page number. Then all you have to do when typing up your essay is copy and paste your quote, along with all the relevant information.

Make. A. Plan. I am awful at this. Even writing this post I sat down and debated whether to bother making a plan or not  (I didn’t) because I’m just lazy when it comes to planning my writing (hence why I’ve never finished any story I’ve started). Honestly though, an essay has never been easier than when I’ve had a full plan written up.  Unsurprisingly, this is where my advice might fail you a little bit. Being new to planning, I largely still rely on mind maps to be honest. I think it's one of the easiest methods to use, simply branching off a whole bunch of ideas, sticking quotes in there to see where things fit together and your points interconnect. Very basic, but, for me, pretty effective. A thorough plan, however, is best made with bullet points. Essentially you create your sentences in a very basic form, and then you just need to use connectives and fancy words in between to make proper sentences and you’re done! I think with planning, you’ve just got to find what works for you - but definitely plan. I can’t advocate for planning enough, it will just make your writing process so much easier.

Writing an Introduction So this can go one of two ways in my opinion: either you skip the introduction because introductions are hard, or you use the introduction to help focus yourself. Can you guess which one I support? Introductions are hard, I admit, because you’re faced with a blank page and you think the whole thing rests on making the perfect introduction but - newsflash - you can edit the opening when you’ve finished. In fact, I highly recommend you do. Use your introduction to focus yourself and get a start, put down some ideas and just get writing, and then, when you;ve got a focused, complete essay, come back and edit it to make sure it fits with your conclusion. 

The Body This depends on your plan essentially. Each paragraph should be focused; before you start writing, know what you’re paragraph is about and what quotations you want to put it in. You also want to know roughly how long you want each paragraph to be, so as to not end up rambling, and to stay focused. You almost definitely have a word limit, so keep in mind that you can have as many paragraphs as you like, but you want to find the balance between fully fleshed out and supported, and long and rambly.

Concluding Really, this is the easiest part. You’ve done your introduction - so you know what you were aiming to do - and you’ve done the body - so you know what points you’ve made. Now you just to need to use all that information to conclude your essay. Essentially you want to summarise what you’ve said in your essay - don’t introduce anything new at this point. Bring together what you’ve said, and how you’ve come to view the topic overall. Don’t sit on the fence, make a decision about where you stand and make sure it comes across in your conclusion, show this is your concluding paragraph - but don’t use the phrase ‘to conclude’, or anything equivalent. It’s cliche and annoying, and your tutor doesn’t want to read it a million times over whilst marking.

References are Important Everywhere has a different system for referencing so my first point is check if your university/college/institution has a preference. A lot of the time institutes have some kind of study guide which will clarify how they want you to reference; they’re not trying to trip you up, they know you haven’t done these things before so they will try to help you out where they can. If they don’t have a preference, have a google. Like I said, there are a lot of styles out there: MHRA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, Oxford, etc.. The most important thing is to stick to one style. The study guide at my university says students ‘will not be penalised for using an alternative set of conventions, provided that it is implemented consistently’, showing the important thing is not that you do what they suggest, but that you know what you’re doing if you’re going to do it. (This is not good advice in most university situations - in general, stick to your briefs). The other important thing I’d say is fill in your references as you write. Even if you do a shorthand version in the footnote and then hurry to finish your paragraph because you’re really on a role, write down the reference. If you’re proofreading your essay after you’ve finished it and stumble upon a quote without a reference, it’s likely going to be a nightmare figuring out where it came from.

So. That turned out longer than expected. Turns out I have a lot of advice on essay writing. What can I say? I’ve written a lot of them, I’ve edited other people’s, and I’m just really passionate about it. I hope some of this advice, if not all of it, is useful to you!

Moving In and Freshers Week | Getting Through Reading Lists | Having A Social Life

[thequietoftheroom]

Hi. Is this thing on? Lauren Graham said in her new book that we should write more so this is my attempt at that. Oh by the way, I started reading again. I write these for myself so why don’t I just use “we”, but that will probably be weird reading it back. I’ve read Feminasty: The Complicated Woman’s Guide To Surviving The Patriarchy Without Drinking Herself To Death, Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice On Love And Life From Dear Sugar, and now I’m almost done with Talking As Fast As I Can: From Gilmore Girls To Gilmore Girls. I’ve gone through several lists to pick out the books I plan on reading in the next few months, at least if I can afford them, but I like to think the books I ultimately bought found me and not the other way around. I have been read cover to cover, my soul pierced, and my mind opened. Of course fiction books have a similar effect but I never thought I would be interested in what people had to say about this grand thing called life and I learned that I cared a whole lot, not because I wanted to model myself after them but because I care about people and reading their explanations on life is like suddenly remembering they’re my best friends and they’re just catching me up on little secrets that come packed with nuggets of wisdom. 

I got myself into several situations I never planned on getting myself into even though the red flags were there and even though the people very openly said “Hey, this is exactly who I am”, but you know how your mind works when you have anxiety and depression. You start to convince yourself the puzzle pieces you find yourself assembling are actually part of the picture even though they don’t fit because deep down you’re trying to finish the puzzle of your life and no one is giving you quite the right pieces. In other words, and to quote my friend Allie, I drank a nice glass of “dumb bitch” juice. Which lead me to want to consider joining a dating site sooner than I planned. I know these things take time but it’s been 3 days and I’ve sent 40 likes (I think that’s how okcupid works idk) and practically got 0 back. Here’s why that sucks. On okcupid they focus strongly on your personality and beliefs. So someone not only saw my face and said “yeesh no thanks” they took the time to get to know the information about myself I put on there and were still like “yikes I don’t think so”. So all in all this was an experiment in derailing my self esteem and increasing my depression. What crazy color will I dye my hair to suddenly avoid dealing with my problems? Or maybe I’ll give myself another buzzcut. Stay tuned!

On a serious note, a lot of the stories I’m reading made me SO relieved that at 27 I’m still very much single and have only had 1 relationship which wasn’t that great (it was both of our faults). There were so many stories and anecdotes about young love being messy and about true commitment coming in your 40′s. Honestly, idk if I can wait that long. If NASA and the CIA and the FBI were like “you have been randomly selected to test mating with androids” I’d be like “yes please but can I choose their face”. I mean realistically I’m in the worst position to be in a relationship. For one, I don’t have much money saved because I’m sadly addicted to ordering things online, most of which are either useful to me or to my job (and no I don’t get reimbursed but I think the prospect of waiting for something in the mail to kill time is momentarily greater than the prospect of having more money later). I still live at home. Obviously, that’s a hella yikes and tbf I’m reading to get the fuck out of here but {see A: i have no money} and I have no one to move in with. I keep doing extensive research but I learned that in 2018 everywhere is problematic. So as much as my love for NYC is slowly fading I also realize this is it for me! I’m a city gal who needs to be surrounded by diversity. I can’t do suburbs and I can’t do living near more than 50% white people. I’ll die. I know that’s discriminatory but we are in the dawn of BBQ Beckys so can you blame me when the majority of white people keep voting against my existence. So I’m stuck. Every once in a while I look up “most LGBT friendly places to live” or “least racist places to live” and hope there’s a magical place with both but there isn’t (especially since, hello, twinks are hella racist). But I’ve literally cuddled my body pillow to death: it broke apart and I need a new one. And I learned I can’t fall asleep unless I’m cuddling it because I’m that lonely.

Everything in life is so complicated. I hate not being out at work but at the same time everyone there is ignorant so I wouldn’t be any more comfortable having them walking on eggshells around me. I love the individuals though and sometimes I feel very motherly or big brotherly towards them and they make me REALLY love work. But I want to be me. And I want to get rid of my legal name. Every time someone calls me John I die inside. Sometimes I don’t even respond because I have to be like “oh shit that’s me”. Can I change my name now? Probably, just have to have the money and redo all my paperwork at work? Will i? No because then either a) the individuals will have to learn my new name and their lives are confusing as fuck as it is or b) i keep my current legal name as a nickname but then it will get confusing for paperwork. I don’t like inconveniencing people that much even for something super important to me. I’ll just die inside until I save enough money, do my last few undergrad psyche classes, and then get into grad school. So like in 5 years, knowing me.

I’ve developed some little crushes here and there but most of the time it’s people that live out of reach or are straight or bottoms or any combination of them or I can just tell they will never like me in that way. So honestly, why bother. I miss the days when I didn’t care about this and the only thing plaguing my mind was what show I should marathon while building in minecraft.

Speaking of games, I play a lot with my friend Sal. He’s like my best friend which is weird because he was my boss once on a minecraft server but now I can’t ever think of him that way? He’s more like an older brother now, even though he’s younger than me. We talk a lot and also enjoy a lot of silence, and introduce each other to different games and shows. But mostly games. We’re both obsessed with 7 Days To Die and I check constantly for news about the update (no set dates for Alpha 17 AHHHH). To fill that void we started playing Fortnite, which I know a lot of people make fun of but it’s actually fun. Here’s a fun fact about me: I can’t take serious games serious so if there’s no building element, or fun element, or explosives I can blow things up with, I won’t do it. I have 0 competitive bones in this body. I like to have fun. That’s why Fortnite is perfect because it is a competitive FPS type game but it’s also a parody of that genre and it’s so whimsical. Save The Day is a lot like 7 Days To Die so that’s been fun. Listen, when you play a game with someone and you beat it, especially a survival game, it’s such a relief and you learn so much and it’s like you went on a literal adventure with that person. Did Sal and I actually get stranded on an island full of mutants and cannibals? No but that’s what it actually felt like after finishing The Forest because it was that real for us. My love for Pocket Camp is fading because it’s the same stuff, new textures. I mean the prospect of having a cute camp is fun sometimes (fun enough for me to spend way too much money on it. HELP!) but now it’s like “oh they just stand there and I don’t really do anything”. ALTHOUGH they are saying that now they are adding a LOT more gameplay to the point that you need at least 1gb of space of the game so I’m excited. I’m still obsessed with minecraft so there’s nothing new there.

Here’s something weird. I spent much of my time, when I identified as gay, being annoyed at gay stereotypes and mostly twinks being like “if you don’t do x,y,z you might as well be straight”, so much so that now that I came out as queer those things still bother me and I have to be like “it’s okay that’s not you anymore you literally figured this out which is why you’re this person”. That’s how I should introduce myself tbh “Hi I’m the Q in LGBTQ”. I don’t care about fitting in but because of my lack of in person friends sometimes I worry that maybe I should care, just a little. I’m so tempted to try Tinder just for that but then I think of all the people who have Tinder that live in this building and I’m like God that is a huge mistake. I need a huge life change. I need someone to come in and shake up my life but no one has volunteered. I’m kind of regretting thinking of all those stupid romantic things like “Oh I want my future boyfriend to teach my how to ride a bike :)” “I want my future boyfriend to take me traveling” “I want my future boyfriend to serenade me”. I’ll just become a full on Capricorn and teach myself everything, travel the world alone, and serenade my goddamn self.

Speaking of which again, can my depression like.. not? I was so into learning and practicing chords daily and I just stopped? Like my motivation was like “It’s been a nice 1 week. back to not caring about anything again” I mean I started to try to learn Burn and Satisfied from Hamilton (well, “learn”) so I at least have interest and I still listen to classical music and jazz to light that fire under my ass but still. I’m just going to do what I always do and restart from lesson 1 and hope I make it to 3 although my extensive research of chords has already put me at an advantage for lesson 3, which is chords. Of course I would go and try to learn something in an unstructured manner because I have a problem with routine and authority even when that authority is me.

I should write me. Which reminds me I was going to write about this one dream I had on my regular blog. See ya!

[douchebagbrainwaves]

BUT WHILE DEMAND SHAPED LIKE A WELL IS ALMOST A NECESSARY CONDITION FOR A GOOD PART OF WESTERN HISTORY, AS IN A SECRET SOCIETY, NOTHING THAT HAPPENS WITHIN THE BUILDING SHOULD BE TOLD TO OUTSIDERS

The fact that startups need less money means founders will increasingly have the upper hand over investors. And pay especially close attention whenever an idea is good. Technology should increase the gap between the productive and the unproductive. Working to implement one idea gives you more ideas. The second is that different startups need such different things, so you need to do here is loosen up your own mind, it may be somewhat blurry at first. Since startups often garbage-collect resources or to move or restore data, programs that tried to restart things if they broke, programs that ran occasionally to compile statistics or build indexes for searches, programs we ran explicitly to garbage-collect resources or to move or restore data, programs that ran constantly in the background looking for problems, programs that pretended to be users to measure performance or expose bugs, programs for diagnosing network troubles, programs for diagnosing network troubles, programs for diagnosing network troubles, programs for diagnosing network troubles, programs for doing backups, interfaces to outside services, software that you can. I'm not saying that if you want to solve a problem using a network of cooperating companies work better than a single big company? Well, that is all too obvious. You can't distinguish your group by doing things that are rational, and believing things that are missing will take some time to see. And more specifically, is it always partly his wife's fault? Why didn't Henry Ford realize that networks of cooperating companies, you have to create distance yourself. And that's where the money is.

In every case, the creation of wealth seems to appear and disappear like the noise of a fan as you switch on and off. Meaning everyone within this world was low-res version 1, it's clear you can't reproduce that either. In a feudal society, there are some kinds of piracy. The Dutch seem to live their lives up to their elbows in source code, but you should never tell them. But if you're looking for startup ideas they didn't see this one, because unconsciously they shrank from having to deal with tedious problems or get involved in messy ways with the real world, wealth is except for a few vestigial domestic tasks. Plus if you find an unmet need of your own case. In 1989 some clever researchers tracked the eye movements of radiologists as they scanned chest images for signs of lung cancer. Facebook were even supposed to be an illusion. That's a big change. Building something differentiated from competitors by the fact that they value open-mindedness is no guarantee. Venture capital is a business where occasional big successes generate hundredfold returns. My parents never claimed that people or animals who died had gone to a better place, or that up is circular.

Once it became possible to make one's fortune, the ambitious plan was to get lots of education at prestigious institutions, and then buy it, as two separate steps. That's an extreme example, of course, but when you're making a decision impetuously, you're all the more subtle ways we mislead kids. Then for each ask, might this be true? I've written elsewhere, by using Lisp, which many people still consider a research language, we could make the Viaweb editor behave more like desktop software. Y Combinator has now funded 564 startups including the current batch feels like a walk in the park. The investors who invested when you had no money were taking more risk, and are entitled to higher returns. It probably didn't occur to most kids that wealth is something you're supposed to believe, parents either pressure the school into keeping quiet or move their kids to feel it too. You can, so you need to learn to watch from a distance. When I grew up there were only 2 or 3 of most things, and since they were all aiming at the middle of the century our two big forces intersect, in the aggregate, make more money than they want. The phrase seemed almost grammatically ill-formed. Many of our taboos are rooted deep in the past, this rule of thumb in the VC business were established when founders needed investors more.

The second reason we tend to be far better than everyone else. The ultimate way to get wealth is by stealing it. Web pages are just good enough. But if it's inborn it should be universal, and there was a fast path out of the initial idea is the meta-fact that these are hard to see how anyone could argue that the salaries of professional basketball players don't reflect supply and demand. The big successes only have to get a big chunk of their company in the series A stage before series As turned into de facto series B rounds. If you want to grab coffee, for example, is a good candidate for something we're mistaken about. Those helped get it started, but now that the reaction is self-sustaining what drives it is the people. That's no problem for someone on the manager's schedule you can do for the asking. I have no trouble imagining that one person could be 100 times as productive as another. England. The reason our hypothetical jaded 10 year old bothers me so much is not just that it makes life locally more efficient, but also cause you to switch from one task to another; it changes the mode in which you work.

If you do that, but we can do something almost as good: we can meet with them, and the problem now seems to be the last to realize it. Off, quiet. That may not have been a good startup idea. Why wouldn't young professionals make lots of money. Ideally, no one got far enough to ask that. We overcame this one to work on both will be browsing the Web, meaning Web-based applications is to that extent outsourcing IT. Only if it's fun. Unfair, they cry, when one sibling gets more than another. There are only two things you have to do it yourself. For example, anyone reasonably smart can probably get to an edge of programming e. They released the OS without the unfinished parts, and users will have to design software so that it can be a good long period of cheerful chaos, just as you do.

Fashion doesn't seem like fashion to someone in the grip of it. Individualism has gone, never to return. This second group adopt the fashion not because they want the lower costs of new technology. But among the many other things I was ignorant of was how much debris there already was in my head. When you feel that about an idea you've had while trying to come up with some other solution. It's no coincidence that Microsoft and Facebook both got started in January. If someone made x we'd buy it in a second.

Once you have all the college students, you get bad ones that sound dangerously plausible. Piracy is effectively the lowest tier of price discrimination. But I have no trouble imagining that one person could be 100 times as much land in a day as he could with a team of horses. I'm slightly less likely to start something ambitious in the morning. Change happened mostly by itself in the computer business. Because your software evolves gradually, you don't have enough density, the chance meetings don't happen. Yes, because they get the wrong answers on tests. If we don't see corresponding variation in income. This is why some software costs more to run on Windows, and deliver software running on Unix direct to users through the browser. To someone in their twenties today, this wouldn't seem worth naming. They were what Shakespeare called rude mechanicals.

Version 1 of this world was low-res version 1, it's clear you can't reproduce that either. So Web-based software is never going to be broken up, I'm slightly less likely to introduce bugs. What happens now with the Super Bowl used to happen every night. General Foods, General Motors. They're effectively free if you're on the maker's schedule starts to be more disciplined. We found that RTML became a kind of proxy focus group; we could ask them which of two new features users wanted more, and they could not master it. This is just as true today, though few of us create wealth directly for ourselves except for a few vestigial domestic tasks. His skills are simply much more valuable.

Thanks to Sam Altman, Robert Morris, Jessica Livingston, and Beau Hartshorne for putting up with me.

[allenmendezsr]

Gout Solution - Blue Heron Health News

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/gout-solution-blue-heron-health-news/

Gout Solution - Blue Heron Health News

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I used to have gout.

The attacks came just about every month and they were simply awful.

Now, I haven’t had an attack for more than 2 years. I don’t think I’ll ever have another one ever again.

At their worst those attacks were disabling. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t go to work….

I was literally unable to get up because even the slightest movement of the affected area was beyond unbearable.

I couldn’t sleep properly with bedclothes … which, in cooler weather, meant turning the heating up in the house.

Not comfortable for my wife, not good for our energy bills.

The causes of gout… and the real causes of gout

After my first encounter with gout my doctor gave me the standard explanation of its causes.

He said that gout was caused by excess uric acid in the blood.

Uric acid is a byproduct of the processing of certain foods.

The uric acid comes from the liver as a waste product. It’s sent to the kidneys from where it is supposed to be removed from the body.

I had gout because, in a nutshell, gout is what you get when your body isn’t expelling all its uric acid.

The excess uric acid forms tiny, spike-shaped crystals.

Those crystals get into your bloodstream.

From there, they find their way into your joints.

And from time-to-time the immune system attacks them.

And when the immune system does that… the inflammation that results is experienced as a ‘gout attack’.

Also known as excruciating, awful pain.  

If you suffer from gout then I truly feel for you. I know what you’re going through.

It’s been just over 2 years now since my final gout attack. But I still remember what it felt like.

Anyway, that was the doctor’s explanation of gout. So far, so simple.

Gout only gets worse

Over the first year or so my gout attacks went from one attack every 1 or 2 months, to monthly and then, occasionally, to every few weeks.

I started with the standard meds: anti-inflammatories, steroid jabs, drugs to reduce the uric acid in my blood….

Really, despite his best intentions I think my doctor was simply trying things out.

Treatments are offered as much in hope as in the expectation they’ll do anything.

But even when a drug did do some good I knew I was just managing the condition.

And I realized that for many gout sufferers this was the case.

They could swallow any number of pills, inject as much steroid as their bodies could handle… and avoid every suspect piece of food and drink.

The underlying problem – the actual cause of the gout – was still there, creating all sorts of problems for the body to deal with.

I followed the typical Do’s and Don’ts. It’s typical stuff – exercise more, lose weight, eat a balanced diet (whatever that is), eat less red meat, don’t smoke (I never have), go a couple of days a week without alcohol…

And it made precisely no difference to my gout at all.

Although, to be honest: if I knew then what I know now I wouldn’t have bothered with any of that.

Asking the awkward questions

My natural curiosity prompted me to ask questions about this disease.

If uric acid leads to gout then… why did I suddenly have too much uric acid in my blood?

Well, it makes sense that either (a) I was suddenly producing too much of it or (b) that my body simply was no longer removing it effectively.

And it turns out that the answer is… b.

In fact, for 90% of gout sufferers scientists say it isn’t over-production of uric acid that is the problem.

It’s the under-processing of it.

In other words, something’s going wrong with the body’s ability to expel uric acid properly.

So I was quite puzzled.

Here’s how I thought about it.

There was a time when I hadn’t even heard of gout – much less suffered from it.

Then I had gout for just over 3 years.

And then, two years ago, I experienced my last ever gout attack. And never suffered another one.

So. For a number of decades of my life my body handled the uric acid effectively.

Suddenly it could no longer handle that acid properly… and so I found myself with gout.

Fast-forward after three years of gout and, once again, everything is fine. I’m gout-free.

It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to work this out.

Remember: it’s not that I’m producing too much uric acid that’s the problem.

It’s that I’m no longer removing enough of it from my body.

So at first, something in my body was working, it was getting rid of the uric acid.

Then it stopped working. So I got gout.

Then it started working again.

The pain disappeared, there were no more flare-ups and I was completely healthy once more.

But there it is: I had gout because something had stopped working.

And it’s that ‘something that had stopped working’ that most of our doctors are failing to address.

If we find out what it is that stopped working – and then started working again – then we’ve found the key to ending gout forever.

What I now know – but didn’t know then

I haven’t had even a whisper of gout now for over two years.

And this is because, unlike most sufferers, I found a practitioner who tackled my gout from where it started.

As opposed to just handling the symptoms.

Once she’d done that… the problem of my body not processing uric acid properly was over.

Bye bye gout!

I’m going to tell you about her approach now.

But, first, just be sure about this. Because if you suffer gout this probably is your experience too.

Once my doctor decided I had gout he followed a pretty standard pattern of advice, medications and treatments.

Doctors all over America typically focus on three different approaches to the gout problem.

First, since uric acid is the by-product of the food we eat, they look at dietary restrictions on food – mostly on red meat and alcohol.

The thinking is that if less uric acid is being produced in the first place there’s less for the body to deal with.

That sounds a lot more sensible than it actually it is.

Second, gout patients try drugs that tackle the uric acid that’s already made it to the bloodstream. The aim here is to help the body do its job of dissolving this excess.

That meets with unpredictable results. But, worse, it’s dealing with the excess uric acid – not the reason why there’s excess uric acid.

Finally, other drugs are offered to tackle the pain and inflammation of gout as it arises. Again, this deals with what is happening but not why it’s happening.

Still, on the surface, all this is perfectly understandable.

But there’s a serious problem here.

Because for as long as the emphasis is on tackling gout at the point where the disease is already in some way in motion…

…we’re simply not addressing what set it in motion in the first place.

We feel like we’re doing something useful.

But we’re tinkering at the edges of the problem.

Which is why gout can – and often does – go on for years and years.

Yet it doesn’t have to.

Gout has dangerous risk factors

Things get a tiny bit worse.

During that first visit my doctor told me two other things. And I didn’t like either of them.

First, he pointed out that each gout attack makes another attack more likely. Once you’ve had a few attacks that’s about it… get ready for gout as a regular thing.

Some people that have had attacks of gout over a longer period can end up developing a more chronic, or persistent, form of gout.

It’s called chronic tophaceous gout and the pain and loss of mobility is life-altering and disabling.

Then he told me this.

Gout is a risk factor for other conditions – some of them even more serious than the gout itself.

In other words, because I had gout it was more likely that I’d get at least one of those other conditions.

And those other conditions included heart disease – particularly heart failure and strokes.

He added that gout was also a risk factor for obesity, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, stress and a number of unpleasant other conditions.

And there isn’t a limit on which of those afflictions I could find myself suffering from.

It might be that, in time, I contracted just one of them.

But it could be two of them. Or three.

The possibility of my gout being a risk factor for me suffering those all at once did shock me quite a bit.

I felt like I was just waiting for something else to go badly wrong with my health.

One day things really became too much

Just over 2 years ago I had a gout attack that was so painful I was crying.

I’m not one of life’s cryers.

But I had let it go on for a week and was in so much pain I honestly started questioning whether I wanted to live.

I went back to my doctor – turned out he was on vacation. So I saw one of his colleagues instead.

She was a nice lady. Thoughtful. She listened.

And she could tell I was badly affected by this latest flare-up.

We had a long conversation and she told me about a practitioner who specializes in dealing with gout.

Seems this practitioner had a startling record with permanently ending gout for her clients.

Not reducing it. Removing it.

That practitioner’s approach was verified both in theory, in experiment and in real life.

She based it on three decades of science coming from leading researchers in the US and Europe.

The research’s successes in tackling a range of health conditions are mounting up – and for some years now the medical community has been rethinking some of their most fundamental ideas about how the body works.

From that research she had created her ‘gout strategy’ that is now having such profound results for gout sufferers.

My doctor admitted it wasn’t her area of expertise.

So she gave me the name of that alternative health practitioner she’d mentioned.

And that’s when I first heard of Shelly Manning.

And, if it’s not too dramatic a statement to make, what I learned from Shelly changed my life.

The end of gout

Shelly Manning is an accomplished natural health researcher and writer. She began her work on natural health remedies after suffering years of very painful arthritis.

She discovered that where modern medicine was consistently failing to relieve a person of their suffering it was often because they didn’t really know what was causing the condition in the first place.

They tackled what they could see… but the rest was a mystery.

Shelly’s research took in dozens of peer-reviewed studies from universities across the world – plus personal testimonies from hundreds of arthritis sufferers.

She eventually became completely free of arthritis – which was not only an immense relief to her but it also drove her to share her discoveries with others so that they too would never suffer such horrible ongoing pain.

Both her arthritis and her gout remedies are hugely successful today and many people have Shelly to thank for their pain-free lives.

She laid out some simple gout truths that made perfect sense to me.

First, she pointed out that doctors always tell you to eat healthily because, whether you’re ill or healthy, it’s generally sound advice.

What’s more, if you go from eating and drinking a lot of junk to eating lots of good quality food then your overall health is bound to improve a little.

But this is where I learned a startling insight from Shelly:

You can eat correctly – as your doctors tell you to.

But you can also eat correctly specifically for gout.

Which isn’t the same thing.

Because you can eat food that specifically tackles gout head-on.

Food that removes the source of gout. That ‘something that stopped working’ that we learned about earlier.

And that’s a whole different ball game.

This ain’t theory…

How this insight came about is fascinating.

Scientists have long known food is a medicine.

But what’s been happening since the 1980s is that scientists have steadily worked out why it’s a medicine.

Shelly Manning understands the science of this inside out. What she told me was jaw-dropping.

But let me give you the short version.

And we’ll start with something really weird.

Your gut.

No, your gut’s not weird. Not in itself.

But check this out.

You have, it is estimated, something like 75 trillion bacteria in your gut.

There are more bacteria in the gut than cells in the entire human body. And you’ve had them all your life.

The bacteria in our gut make up what is called our ‘microbiome’.

The microbiome refers to all the bacteria that live with us in our guts.

It’s the community of bacteria – plus other micro-organisms – that are permanently with us.

There’s nothing special or unusual about the human microbiome.

In fact, plenty of mammals – and some insects – also have microbiomes. They’re a fact of life.

We humans have had our gut microbiome since the dawn of humanity. We need it.

Bacteria is not always what you think it is

But, of course, when we hear the word ‘bacteria’ we imagine something awful.

Disease. Contagion. Illness. Death.

Because mostly we associate ‘bacteria’ with being very ill.

They’re something to fight off the moment we get them.

We buy products from our supermarket that boast how quickly and effectively they kill bacteria.

But bacteria are just single-celled organisms that can be found just about anywhere.

Some are dangerous. Some are highly beneficial.

It depends which bacteria they are. And it depends on where they are.

Those that exist within us – within our gut microbiome – are largely beneficial to us.

In fact, in a healthy human being some 95% of them are responsible for a number of vital body processes that either keep us healthy… or keep us alive.

Yes. They’re that important.

We are, in fact, extraordinarily dependent on the health of our microbiome.

So much about us on the surface – our health, our moods, our body weight – reflects what’s going on in the gut.

Incredibly, scientists are now recognizing that the microbiome – our gut bacteria – is so vital to our general health that some think of it as an organ in its own right.

They regard it as important to our existence as the kidneys or the heart or the lungs.

In fact, scientists are able to transplant the gut bacteria from a healthy person into the gut of a diseased patient in order to cure disease.

Known as faecal microbiota transplants these procedures repopulate people’s unhealthy gut microbiome with healthy, thriving bacteria.

Bacteria transplants… who’d have thought it?

But scientists state that that’s how vital it is to keep your gut in its best shape possible.

We need to maintain a health ratio of 95% friendly, life-enhancing bacteria with 5% being whatever else is there.

When that ratio goes out of balance humans become vulnerable to infection, poisoning, malnourishment, and a whole range of degenerative and lifestyle disorders.

It’s really hard to overstate how important our gut health is to us.

Our gut health is our health

A healthy microbiome – a healthy gut – is our health in many respects.

Obesity is now thought of as a gut disease. Unhealthy bacteria get the upper hand in your gut and cause the kind of food cravings that most of us find so hard to resist.

And gut health also affects mental health. Moods, basically.

Scientists now believe that persistently feeling low for no apparent reason may have a bacterial explanation.

So let’s be absolutely clear about this.

Your gut bacteria aren’t just add-ons to your health – they are your health.

In the same way that a faulty liver will cause you big problems….

Just as a weak heart will require expert attention in order to keep you alive….

Like lungs that don’t function properly or kidneys that are diseased or a lymph system that isn’t working effectively…

Your gut health is vital to your overall health because your gut bacteria do things that your body itself can’t do.

To be healthy we must make sure that we encourage beneficial, healthy bacteria to flourish, whilst at the same time we discourage less beneficial or harmful bacteria from doing the same.

If we don’t do this then there are consequences.

And gout is one of those consequences.

And that’s how I got the condition myself. Poor gut health gave me gout.

It’s done the same to you.

But good gut health undid all that damage, making gout nothing more than a distant memory.

And it can do the same for you.

You really can do something about your condition now.

The key to a healthy gut – and a healthy body

What I learned from Shelly Manning is that if you practice ‘healthy eating’ then you may affect you gut health for the better – even if that wasn’t your intention.

In other words, by eating better foods you may very well accidentally improve things a little.

Unfortunately, we might also accidentally make things a little worse for our gut bacteria.

Some healthy food actually isn’t so healthy for our guts.

If we want to tackle gout once and for all we have to be clear about what helps us… and what hurts us.

So what Shelly does is remove the ‘accident’ aspect of healthy eating.

She focuses hard on what makes out gut bacteria healthier and happier.

And she ensures we don’t do ourselves any harm by ingesting too much of what harms that bacteria.

And this approach works.

I finally won the struggle against gout because, for the first time, I could make conscious choices about eating for gut health.

Here was something I could do that would directly tackle that nasty disease head-on.

Shelly’s deliberate, gout-focused strategy addressed my gout at its actual source. My microbiome flourished. And when it did, I did too.

Which changed my life forever.

The link between your gut health and your gout

Scientists are now clear that gut health determines whether or not you have gout.

How?

By comparing the microbiome profiles – the bacteria profiles – of people who have gout with the microbiome profiles of people who do not have gout.

There is a clear difference.

And the differences in the microbiome between gout patients and healthy people are predictable and consistent.

Which means that we can know whether a person has gout just by looking at their microbiome.

Put plainly and simply: gout is a disease of the gut.

So why do you have gout whereas I don’t?

It’s because I have one thing you don’t have:

All the right bacteria thriving in my gut.

And, specifically, that bacteria is doing one thing for me that it’s not doing for you.

It’s helping my kidneys process the excess uric acid that causes gout in the first place.

Because that bacteria is converting up to one third of that excess uric acid into something called allantoin – a substance that dissolves in water.

Which means up to a third of my body’s uric acid can be simply got rid of in urine. So, put crudely, I simply pee it out.

No need for my kidneys to process it all. My gut bacteria has it covered.

This is the incredible power of your gut microbiome.

Human bodies can’t turn uric acid into allantoin. But our friendly gut bacteria can.

And when it does that for me… it’s clearing up the excess uric acid in my bloodstream.

Meaning my kidneys don’t have to.

So those pin-like uric acid crystals don’t form.

Which means they don’t find themselves lodged in my joints.

Meaning there’s nothing for my immune system to attack – so nothing to cause excruciating, disabling pain.

My gut will have trillions of bacteria in it whether I want it to or not. So will yours.

But I can choose whether that bacteria is the life enhancing bacteria that keeps me happy, healthy and alive… or the dangerous, disease-giving stuff.

I chose the good stuff.

So I have plentiful good, friendly, life-enhancing gut bacteria, working for me, doing things for me that the human body simply cannot do for itself.

And when I made that choice… my gout didn’t stand a chance.

Bacteria is a life-saver

One last thing.

You recall that my doctor told me gout was a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, obesity, kidney disease, heart disease, irritable bowel disease and so on.

If you have gout then it’s very likely that you’ll go on to develop one – or more – of the others.

The medical profession has known about the link between these diseases for decades.

They now know why there’s this link.

They’ve found that the bacteria profile in a person with one of these diseases is recognizable and predictable.

In other words, when doctors examine the person’s gut bacteria they already know what to expect.

Because that gut profile – that ratio of healthy bacteria to unhealthy bacteria – is the origin of that condition.

It’s what’s causing it.

Of course, the bacteria profile for each disease will vary.

But once your gut health is going downhill it can be one-way traffic… and the bad effects spread throughout the microbiome.

So defeating gout isn’t, in fact, just defeating gout.

It’s also minimizing your exposure to all those other unpleasant – and, sometimes, fatal – diseases.

And, at the same time, helping you achieve optimal health at all levels – physical, appearance and moods.

Seen this way, why would anyone not address their gut health?

The End of Gout

I acquired Shelly Manning’s gout program just over two years ago.

It’s called ‘The End of Gout’.

And it did for me exactly what it says on the cover.

Because I no longer suffer those excruciating gout attacks.

And I don’t have to cancel plans because a flare-up has left me unable to function properly.

I’m never going to experience any of that ever again.

And that’s because I now know how to ensure the health of my friendly gut bacteria. And how to not feed the unfriendly ones.

I’m so glad I made the decision to tackle gout myself.

Shelly’s program gave me everything I needed to know about how and why her approach works so fantastically well.

She goes into some detail about your gut, its bacteria – and why scientists now realize that healing the gut heals the body.

However… you can skip all that if you want to.

You can simply go straight to the program itself. And start getting healthy again.

However you do it, you’ll be very happy that you did.

The End of Gout – quick start plan

Shelly Manning’s ‘The End of Gout’ is not only a fascinating read – it’s also refreshingly practical.

Shelly gives you two simple quick-starts:

Eat more of these

Eat fewer of these

This simple adjustment can correct years of gout-causing errors in your eating. And you can start on this straight away – within minutes of receiving the program.

A simple plan

The next step is to follow Shelly’s 7-day plan.

It tightens up the ‘quick start’ advice and turns it into a solid, follow-along program.

The 7-day plan was the real clincher for me.

I am a pretty average cook – I’m competent but not at all skilled or adventurous. Turns out I didn’t need to be.

The plan takes away all the thinking and gives me, for the first week, something I can simply copy.

After the first 7 days I used Shelly’s advice to adapt the plan according to my own tastes.

Which was pretty easy – the plan is full of options so you can try different foods and see what you like best.

It’s all food you can buy in your supermarket. And it includes lots of nice stuff… the chocolate and strawberries desserts were real winners in my house!

This isn’t a weight-loss plan but…

This isn’t a weight-loss plan. So there isn’t any calorie counting or portion control. I was never hungry.

As a side note, I actually have now lost weight because of the plan – but that’s more to do with the fact that a healthy gut means fewer or no food cravings.

Remember – it’s bad bacteria that craves the food – not you. When they’re gone they take their cravings with them.

I did have a gout flare-up about 10 days after starting the program.

It was noticeably milder than others. It was painful but lasted about 5 days from beginning to end. Which is significantly shorter than what I’m used to.

However, what I didn’t know at that time was this…

that attack was the last one I would ever have.

My gout didn’t announce that it had thrown in the towel.

It just… stopped.

I had that last attack and never had another one. I am gout-free for life.

Now it’s your turn

There’s now thousands of us who no longer suffer gout because we tackled it at its cause. Instead of just tinkering with the symptoms.

I’m one of them.

Remember, I got gout for the same reasons you have it now.

An unhealthy gut microbiome meant that bacteria that should have been removing a third of my body’s uric acid… simply wasn’t.

That bacteria had diminished to the point that my kidneys were trying to deal with the acid on their own.

And they couldn’t cope.

Nor can yours.

It wasn’t that I was suddenly producing too much uric acid. It’s that my gut was no longer able to help my kidneys remove it from my body.

By following Shelly Manning’s program I ate myself back to health.

And the transformation – from gout to no gout – almost felt like magic.

You can possibly imagine it yourself.. what it would be like to simply never have any gout ever again.

Take my word for it, it’s wonderful!

No flare-ups, no pain, no being laid-up in bed for days waiting for the pain to subside.

No wondering if some future event will be messed up because I’m laid up in agony with another attack.

Just as pleasing is that I’ve also dramatically reduced my risks of suffering diabetes, kidney failure, heart disease and some cancers.

Shelly’s program lays it all out for us. No special knowledge is required. I found it easy.

This program is guaranteed

The End of Gout works. The science behind it is solid and accepted the world over.

Thousands of people like me – happy, ex-sufferers – will confirm that repairing unhealthy bacteria is the way to remedy conditions like gout…

…conditions that doctors typically struggle with – and never really cure.

And since there’s no doubt that you will enjoy the same results as the rest of us Shelly offers you a money-back guarantee.

If, any time within 60 days of you purchasing ‘The End of Gout’, your gout hasn’t completely gone she’ll give you your money back. Simple as that.

So you can afford to be good to yourself. And you can start saying goodbye to your gout right now.

Click on the link and get your own copy of Shelly Manning’s ‘The End of Gout’.

Buying her program was the single best thing I ever did for my health.

You’ll agree. And she guarantees it.

So don’t put this off.

Get your copy of the program here…

Nothing makes more sense than this

Shelly Manning’s program basically hand-held me to health. It walked me from A to Z. Which, to be honest, is pretty much what I needed it to do.

She attacks the problem at it cause.

And the cause is well understood. Your bacteria has depleted and isn’t helping dispose of excess uric acid.

You’ve lost too much good, healthy bacteria.

So repopulate your gut by feeding it properly.

It honestly isn’t more complicated than this.

Sometimes I can’t quite believe my gout is gone.

But it is. And it won’t be back.

Would you like the same for yourself?

You can have it.

Click here and Shelly’s ‘The End of Gout’ will be with you in about 90 seconds…

It will only get better if you make it get better

Don’t doubt that your gut health is poor.

The bacteria environment in a gout sufferer is basically sick.

Friendly, life-enhancing bacteria are in retreat.

And their place in your gut is being taken by that steadily increasing number of bacteria that will only do harm.

Put that way, you perhaps realize that you don’t have gout at all.

You actually have a diseased gut.

Gout is one of a diseased gut’s many possible symptoms.

In time, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, kidney failure and some cancers are much more likely because of that same diseased gut.

Don’t do this to yourself.

Do what thousands of ex-gout sufferers have done.

We took charge of our gout… by taking charge of our health.

And by doing that we not only freed ourselves of that deeply unpleasant condition…

…. we also drastically reduced the chances of catching something even worse.

We know that if we don’t address disease properly things tend to get steadily worse. Which is the last thing we want. Now, then, is the time to act.

Click here and get your copy of The End of Gout…

You’ll be immediately redirected to the member’s area where you can download the “End of Gout” program or read it online.

[eldunea]

have this voltron/pokémon masters crossover story event that i wrote for funsies bc holy shit i’m obsessed

[player name] was walking down Pasio’s sunny beach one morning, when s/he comes across his/her friends!

Shiro: It’s a great day for Training, isn’t it? Hunk: (punches hand into the air) Totally! (yawns) It’s a bit early for us to be out here, but that means the beach is near-empty! Pidge: So, when should we begin? Shiro: Now’s as good a time as any to start. Go, Aggr— ???: Hold it RIGHT THERE! (Three Team Break grunts come running onscreen.) Shiro: Who are you? Pidge: You mean you’ve never met Team Break before? Team Break punk girl: That’s right. We’re Team Break. And this island is ours. Hunk: It’s not yours to take. And neither are our companions! Punk Girl: Fufufufufu…We’ll see about that! Hand over your Pokémon!

(battle ensues)

Punk Girl: I-impossible! I thought I would win for sure! Shiro: Your impatience yields a lack of focus. Pidge: That’s what you get for trying to take what’s rightfully ours! Hunk: Yeah! Go cry to all your little friends about it! Get out of here! Punk Girl: Oh, I have friends all right. (turns around and yells to Team Break grunts in the back) Hey! You! Get on over here and beat these clowns! Team Break Ace Trainer (male): Well, well, well… Shiro: (folds his arms) Don’t bother. [player name] can handle you. Ace Trainer: Look at that white hair of yours. No way I’m losing to an old man and his grandkids!

(battle ensues)

Ace Trainer: What? I lost? How could this happen? Shiro: Overconfidence is the mother of loss. Hunk: Awwwww, looks like someone’s sad. Why don’t you run back to your big daddy admins? ???: Why would he need to run? I’m right here. (Two Team Break admins appear, one with a Zoroark by his side.) Team Break admin 1: And who might you be? New victims? (laughs) Pidge: None of your goons could take my Pokémon away from me. What makes you think you can? Admin 1: I’m on another level, sweetheart. I can do much more damage to you than my hired hands. I’ll give you one chance to give me your Pokémon peacefully…or else. Shiro: Mm…we’ll take the “or else,” thanks. Team Break admin 1: Hehehe…suit yourself. Your Pokémon are practically ASKING to be stolen!

(battle ensues)

Admin 1: (looking down, not speaking) Pidge: We beat you. It’s over. Go home. Admin 1: (laughs audibly) Aha…ahahahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! You really thought I was done there? (takes out three more Poké Balls) Pidge: WHAT? But you’re only allowed to have one! Admin 1: Simple child. Do you really think that an admin of Team Break would play by the rules? Hunk: Our team can’t take much more fighting. What are we gonna do, what are we gonna do— Admin 2: (grabs Admin 1’s arm while Zoroark grabs the other arm) Not so fast! Admin 1: HUH?! (Admin 2’s illusion drops, and he transforms into Lotor!) Lotor: You thought I was one of you, didn’t you? Admin 1: But…b-but…but I saw you training new recruits just yesterday! How could you be somebody ELSE?! Lotor: I impersonated one of your colleagues to gather information about your operations. I thought I’d let my friends here handle you on their own, but now that you’ve threatened to exceed their capacities, I figured it was time to step in. Admin 1: Th—then I’ll fight you too! Three of my Pokémon against your one! How do you like that? Lotor: I’m a Hall of Famer in more than four different Leagues. I took down some Elite Four members’ teams with this Zoroark alone. I’ve watched you fight. We both know you’re nothing special. Do you really think three of your Pokémon are the equal of one of mine? Admin 1: ……… (stammering) Admin 1: You won’t get away with this! (runs away)

Hunk: Lotor! You saved us! Lotor: (smiling) It takes a great intellect to weave a convincing illusion, and an even greater intellect to see past it. And seeing as I’m fairly certain no member of Team Break is more intelligent than me… Pidge: Oh, har har. Shiro: That was impressive, disguising yourself like that. How did you manage to do it for so long? Lotor: As a scholar of strategy as well as science, I pride myself on my ability to research and look into the hearts and minds of my enemies. Once I knew enough about Team Break and how they acted and operated, pretending to be one of their admins was all too easy. Shiro: Hm. Hunk: ? Shiro: That does seem to be a fine explanation on its own. But I have younger siblings, and I always knew when they were hiding something from me. I think you’re hiding something from us, Lotor. What is it? Lotor: You wouldn’t want to hear it. Hunk: Of course you can tell us. No judgment. We’re your friends! Lotor: I…know too much about the folks like Team Break. I know too much about how to plan a covert operation. I suppose you could say—I was once part of an evil Team myself. (All characters look shocked.) Hunk and Pidge: Huh?! Lotor: When I was younger, still learning the ways of the world, I…used to be a spy for Team Galactic. I joined because I thought this world was rotten, and Cyrus was the only person in existence who could fix it. He seemed to know so much about the universe and how it worked, and I learned a lot from him about science, mythology, and history—knowledge that I still cherish to this day. He seemed to know everything about everything, and that was my ideal for someone who wanted to rule a new world. But… Hunk: He turned out to be a big meanie, didn’t he? Lotor: Why, yes, he was, as you say—a “big meanie.” I was blinded. I was lied to. He didn’t even care about anything he taught me. He cares about knowledge insofar as it makes him look more intelligent, not because one can explore its mysteries or use it to better the world around us. What’s worse, he didn’t even care about his Pokémon. And I thought—if he sees his Pokémon like expendable toys, how does he see the rest of humankind? Was he making the new world for humanity���s sake, or for his own? (sigh) Shiro: I see… Lotor: Being in Galactic was why I didn’t go back to school. Leaving behind my past in Galactic was why I stopped Training. You want to know the real reason why I went to study with my mom? The real reason I didn’t want to join the PML? I thought that after what I had done, I didn’t deserve to be a Trainer. Someone who commands their Pokémon to do great harm in the world shouldn’t battle with Pokémon at all. Hunk: Don’t say that about yourself! Pidge: It was brave of you to leave. Shiro: I agree. It can’t have been easy. Hunk: Yeah! Our side needs more people like you on it! Lotor: You…really think so? All: (characters nod their heads enthusiastically) Yes! Lotor: Th…thank you. From the bottom of my heart… Shiro: Everyone has things in their past that they regret. It’s the truest sign of character to be able to admit that you’re wrong and move on from it. You are a fine Trainer, one that people all over Pasio—no, all of the world—should look up to. And we’ll always be there for you when you need us. Lotor: You’re too kind. Truly. I am in your debt.

[clevercatchphrase]

You Monster Chpt.29

[Click Here to Read on AO3!] Chapters: [First][Previous][Next] Notes: It’s September 15th somewhere in the world right now, so I’m just gonna go ahead and post this now~ Happy second birthday Undertale. Despite everything I still really love this game. (Also! Happy Hiveswap Day! It took 5 years but it’s finally here!)

Alphys sprints to the front exit of her lab, squeezing through the automatic doors that can’t seem to open fast enough in her manic state.

The soles of her uncovered feet hardly register the hot stone underneath. Not that the searing floor of Hotland bothered her at all anyway; she was perfectly adapted to the boiling temperatures, thrived in it, really, but in this current moment not even the blistering swelter of the lava that surrounded her lab could chase out the cold icy dread that sat in her stomach.

The ground floor of Hotland was nothing more than a bunch of molten sea stacks in an ocean of magma; islands of igneous rock connected by bridges and conveyer belts which made the path to Waterfall not exactly straightforward to get to. The scientist didn’t let this fact distract her, or even enter her mind to begin with. The sight of her brother about to fall off a bridge had left no room in her mind at all.

She had sprung from her chair the second she saw him lose his footing. Undyne, preoccupied with the human, either hadn’t noticed or hadn’t cared, spurring Alphys into action, hoping and praying she wouldn’t be too late, God please let her not be too late.

The main chamber of Hotland narrowed into a thin twisting tunnel that connected to Undyne’s favorite training area before the bridge where she needed to reach. Rounding the corner at top speed, she nearly collides head on with the two children in front of the watercooler near Sans’ sentry station.

“Kid!” Alphys exclaims half in shock, half in relief. “Kid are you alright? I saw you slip on the bridge and ran here as fast as I could! Oh, thank God you’re okay! Mom and Dad would have killed me if they found out I knowingly let you got hurt!”

“Oh! H-hey s-sis,” Kid coughs as she embraces him. She caught the hint of his stutter on his voice, similar to her own in how it showed up when he was nervous or shaken. And shaken he still was. Kid’s whole body still trembled with shellshock from the ordeal, but she was more than relieved to see him in one piece.

“H-hey, Alphys, let me introduce you to my friend!” Kid says, wiggling out of her grasp and slyly shifting her focus away from himself so he wouldn’t be the center of attention. “Dude! This is my sister, Alphys!”

“Hi,” the human says, extending a hand in greeting. They’re a little unsure and visibly exhausted, but still they put on a smile and do their best to sound friendly. “I’m Chara. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Oh!” Alphys stutters, turning to the human as if seeing them for the first time. A stab of anticipation and dread digs in her chest. Oh God, this is it. They’re actually here in Hotland and she’s finally meeting them face to face. Oh geez, she wasn’t ready in the slightest! Up until now she had been content watching a tiny figure on her computer screen; a detached silent character made up of colored pixels that seemed no more tangible than the fictional heroes in the anime she watched. It almost didn’t feel real to see them in the flesh and hear them talk. She can’t help but stare, trying to take it all in. They’re a lot shorter than she expected.

Alphys gives herself a mental slap. Focus! Now that they were here, she could finally study them! Now that they were here, plans would start getting pushed into action.

“S-same!” She blurts out at last. “I-it’s n-nice to finally meet you too! I’ve been waiting so long to study- I-I-I mean, uh, examine you!” Her brother and the human give her a couple of weird looks. Reflecting on it, that was a pretty weird thing to say, so she tries to smooth it over as casually as she can. “B-because! You have a doctor’s appointment with me! Shoulder injury, c-correct?”

“Oh, right.” The human says, absently rubbing their left arm. “About that, I think it fixed itself on the bridge somehow. It actually doesn’t hurt that much anymore.”

Uh-oh, think quick. She can’t let them get away before she’s had a chance to even observe them up close!

“Oh, w-well a quick check up to make sure everything’s in order wouldn’t hurt?” Alphys suggests. “J-just to be absolutely certain there’s nothing wrong. We’d rather be s-safe than sorry, right?”

“I dunno…” they protest. “I’ve had too many delays already. I really should just head straight to the capital.”

“I-I promise it won’t take longer than f-fifteen minutes!” Alphys assures. “A-and it’s a straight shot from Hotland to the Capital. Literally! You can just take any elevator straight up there! You’ll make up your lost ground in mere minutes!”

The human stares at her, clearly skeptical of her claim.

“Trust her, dude.” Kid says. “Alphys knows all the ins and outs of Hotland. She can get you to New Home faster than you can blink.”

“That’s what you said about Undyne,” the human points out.

“Y-yeah, well, I admit I was blinded by my fangirling and didn’t listen to you,” Kid apologizes and shuffles his feet. “And I’m sorry for that. But Alphys is my sister! I’ve known her my entire life and can promise you she’s true to her word!”

The human eyes Alphys with a look that says “I don’t know if I believe you, but I haven’t go much choice, do I?” written blatantly on their face. Thankfully they don’t say the words out loud and instead settle for a very weary and defeated; “Okay”.

“G-good. Great!” Alphys fidgets. “Th-this way! My lab isn’t far from here.”

The human starts after the scientist, but pauses when they realize Kid isn’t following.

“Kid? Are you coming?”

“Nah,” Kid smiles sheepishly. “I think I’m gonna head home now. My parents must be worried sick about me.”

“Head home?” the human repeats. “But we just got here! Are you really going to walk all the way back through Waterfall after what we had to go through to get here?”

“Pssh! No way!” Kid snorts. “I’ll just take the ferry back to Snowdin. It’s way faster than walking.”

The look on the human’s face becomes inscrutable as they process Kid’s words.

“Ferry?” They say in a strained, tired voice. “There’s a ferry that goes from Snowdin to Hotland?”

“Well, yeah.” Kid says like it should have been obvious. “It stops in Waterfall too. Didn’t you see the docks along the river banks?”

The human’s shoulders sag in disbelief. “Are you saying there was a boat I could have taken to get here this entire time?”

“W-w-well you can only ride the ferry if you have a boat pass,” Alphys nervously points out before the human can have a breakdown. “A-and you can only get those in New Home, so you kind of had to walk all the way here in the first place.”

The human closes their eyes and holds their breath for several seconds. Alphys is pretty sure if it weren’t for the fact that the ground was a hundred degrees, they would have curled up on the spot right then and there.

“If you say so,” they respond at last after a long exhale. “Then I guess this is goodbye for now, Kid.”

“Yeah. But I’ll see you real soon when you come back to Snowdin with the king!” Kid says, resting his chin on his friend’s shoulder as they give him one last goodbye hug. “Take care, Alphys!” he calls out, trotting down a separate tunnel that leads to the docks.

Alphys and the human wave until he’s out of sight. Crisis averted, she turns to her patient.

“R-ready to move on?”

“Yeah,” they say hollowly. “Let’s go.”

They walk side by side in silence. When Alphys isn’t stealing glances of them out of the corner of her eye, her head is snapping side to side, as if on the lookout for spies. Everything was unfolding nicely so far. Now if she could just get the human into her lab before a certain robot noticed they were here ahead of schedule, then maybe she could get a bit of her own research done before he showed up to offer his “help” with her experiments.

He had promised he wouldn’t “start the show” until they at least got to her lab, but Alphys knew better than to take his word. With him, you had to get everything in writing with witnesses for it to really count.

“Is something wrong?” The human asks when they catch her staring at her again. “You seem worried.”

“Oh! Ha, ha,” Alphys nervously grins as she debates how to answer. If she wanted to study them up close, she had to get them on her side, that much she was certain. It was a terrible revelation when she realized how suspicious of strangers they were when they were introduced, especially knowing what plans she had for them in store. Having been deceived too many times already, telling them the carefully crafted lie she had prepared might be too risky, but maybe a small warning about Mettaton was warranted in this case. It wasn’t a total fib, anyway, and it might even convince them to stick with her in the meantime.

Oh, why did Kid have to go and vouch for her honesty and trustworthiness? She had never planned to be a hundred percent open with them, but her brother’s unasked for assurances were certainly going to make it harder to keep up her act. Her initial plan to string the human along had been dashed as soon as she left her lab and met them prematurely. Now all the carefully rehearsed conversations and arguments she imagined in her head had to be improvised. Alphys didn’t trust herself to “wing it”; she liked her plans thought through and fortified with backup plans that were also fortified with backup plans. But now that the stone was rolling and it looked like she had no other choice.

“Well, I’m kind of on the lookout for someone,” Alphys admits, carefully altering the grand intro speech she had planned to deliver in her lab that would have warned this little “Boss Monster” about their dangerous quest ahead. “A-and I guess it’s only fair for you to know, because it involves you as well.” The human raises their eyebrows in interest, urging her to go on.

“His name is Mettaton. H-he’s an entertainment robot I built years ago. You know, to perform for the masses and give people an idol and TV star to look up to? Well, lately his shows haven’t been pulling in the ratings and he’s desperately been trying to find the next ‘Big Thing’ that will make him popular again.”

“Okay?” The human nods despite not seeing how they factor into it.

“And, well, he caught wind of a new Boss Monster coming to Hotland and he has been making preparations for your arrival ever since. I fear if he finds out you’re here, h-he might try and slow you down so he can exploit your status for his own means.”

“Oh.” Their face goes hard and serious, as if already trying to find a solution for the impending problem.

“B-but don’t worry! I-I think I can sneak you p-past him without him n-noticing!” Alphys stumbled, trying to remember her script and hoping the human wouldn’t be able to pick out the misdirection in her words. Sneak as hard as they might, Mettaton would definitely notice they were here before they got to any of Hotland’s elevators. She knows he’d made certain of that. It was just a matter of “when” he decided to make his debut, now.

“Come along,” Alphys urges them. “He could show up any minute. We shouldn’t stay out here any longer than we need to.”

The human unquestioningly follows her deeper into Hotland. She had hoped for this kind of reaction. So far, so good. Time for the next scene.

Flowey sat in a hidden alcove in Waterfall. The tiny recess was so small that only two equally small children could have possibly fit comfortably. The hidden room was filled with a secret spring of luminescent water, a few gemstones on the ceiling and a lone abandoned echo flower. The room had been virtually removed from time; completely untouched and undiscovered since the last time he had been here. Or rather, the last time his memories said he had been here, before with his Chara…

His Chara had always been an explorer, and Waterfall had always had dozens of unmapped pockets of mystery, making it the perfect place to roam. The last time they had been here, though, the echo flower had been no more than a sprout. Now centuries old, it filled most of the room, feeding off the tiny spring it had all to itself. Isolation had not done it any kindness, however. The flower grew bent, its face cast downward, or maybe it was wilting under the weight of its own self-pity. Flowey did his best to ignore it. He didn’t want to admit he could relate.

Despite the time that had passed, one conversation still survived in the echo flower’s memory, which Flowey listed to on loop. He stared off into space, looking for the patterns in the gemstones on the ceiling that Chara had made up. Hidden constellations that only belonged to the two of them…

“Hey Asriel, can you promise me something?” Chara’s quiet voice poked through. They had always been soft spoken and hard to hear if you didn’t listen carefully.

“Of course, Chara,” He mouthed the words while the flower spoke them. “Anything for you.”

“I’m gonna free all the monsters someday. It’s my destiny! But I’ll need your help to do it. Promise me you won’t let me down, okay? I have a plan.”

“I promise,” He said without hesitation. His Chara had always had that effect on him, to make him feel like they could do anything if they believed hard enough, like nothing was impossible. “We’ll free them together. We’ll be heroes!”

How many times had Flowey reheard this conversation? How many lonely hours had this one flower spent in the company of the other? How many days had he spent regretting his broken promise and trying to fix it?

Fix it…

Flowey blinks and snaps himself out of his funk. That’s right; he had given a second chance, a do-over. He could still fix it. He could-

The flower turns away from the puddle only to startle and do a double take. Just for a moment, out of the corner of his eye, he could have sworn he saw a flash of white and the texture of fur on the water’s surface. He could have sworn his reflection looked like…

Gazing into the water, a circular face with six yellow petals stares back at him.

Clicking his tongue, the flower turned away. When would he learn better? Countless times his eyes played this same trick on him whenever he passed a reflective surface, and he fell for it each time. His memories constantly reminding him what he should be, and the reality showing him what he was not.

He flexed his vines and burrowed off. He hated looking at his reflection anyway. Stretching his roots before him, Flowey sensed activity on the main streets. It must be “morning” again. It was time to catch up with the temporary place holder Chara.

Flowey pops up at Gerson’s and carefully pokes around inside with his roots, staying low and in the shadows at the edges of the store. He had watched Chara and that annoying kid and that obnoxious guard woman go in here last night then suffered through hours of that Turtle’s chatter before deciding there were better things to do with his time than listen to him prattle on about the good ol’ days. But now the house felt empty and still. None of its occupants anywhere to be found.

Crap. They must’ve decided to leave the house earlier than he anticipated. He needed to catch up to them and fast.

Burrowing as quickly as he could, Flowey races away in the only logical direction- Hotland. Various monsters crisscross his path on the way there, but none are who he is looking for so he does not stop. Slowly the ground begins to dry out and the earth cracks and crumbles as he digs. When the dirt begins to feel like an oven, Flowey surfaces to check his surroundings. He was almost to the border.

The metal vibration of heavy footsteps headed his way give him pause. He cowers instinctively, knowing the familiar cadence in the march, just in time to see a defeated looking fish retreating from the border. Chara is not with her, which tempts him to fake expressing excitement. That’s right! It was too hot for the fish stick to go into Hotland in a full suit of armor! If the royal guard is no longer with them, then he could possibly get close to Chara again!

Hastily the flower takes off once more, stretching out his vines and stalk as far as they could go, sensing for any movement up ahead. Two pairs of feet catch his attention a ways off and he zeroes in on them like a honing missile. If that kid was still with them, Flowey could easily take care of it.

Digging in Hotland is a challenge with all the underground pipe work and dangerously hot metal at every turn, so the flower relies on his mental map of the region and which islands connect to which as he traces them through the earth, racing to keep up. When he realizes where they are headed, the Flower halts his burrowing right in its tracks and worms his way upward. He pushes through the crust just in time to catch the sight of the Royal Scientist’s and Chara’s backs disappear behind the automatic door to the Hotland laboratory.

“No… no, no, no!” Flowey groans. Of all the places in the Underground, there were very few he could not, or would not go. Alphys’ lab was one of them.

Hissing, the Flower hunkered down. He’d missed his opportunity to get Chara alone again. Once more, he’d have to wait and bide his time.

You feel Hotland before you see it. It’s a choking wall of heat that sucks out every ounce of water from the air. Your eyes get dry and itchy before you even cross Undyne’s arena and your throat is parched and scratchy as the suffocating heat steals the moisture right out of your lungs.

You pass a giant marquee with scrolling letters that flash “WELCOME TO HOTLAND!” on your left, followed by a familiar looking sentry station, complete with snow on top. You manage to grab a drink of water from a conveniently placed watercooler before running into Kid’s sister (quite literally), and said your goodbyes to him. A dim glow crawls along the tunnel walls as you follow Alphys further into the region. Its red color intensifies as you walk down the hallway until the tunnel ends and you stop for a moment to squint and blink as your eyes adjust to the sea of blinding lava before you.

A burning wind blows towards you, hot enough to sear your eyebrows off and you cough at the stench it carries. The magma smells like burning plastic and wax, an aroma you’re intimate with from the countless hours you’ve practiced fire magic on your crayons back in the Ruins.

When you can finally see through the harsh glare, you look around in confusion. A dozen or so islands poke up from the lake of molten rock, connected by catwalks and swathed in steel girders, but there’s only one or two buildings in sight. It’s surprisingly… barren. But then you remember that, while the small towns of Snowdin and Waterfall pretty much have horizontal layouts, Hotland goes vertical, so you look up, and gawk in awe.

Suspended on cables and beams many feet thick are several platforms hanging in the air. Skywalks branch out from each level, leading off into the honeycomb walls where more of the region must be hidden away. Clouds of steam hiss and sigh around you as all of Hotland breathes with its mechanical lungs and the life blood of lava pulses below. You crane your head back as far as you can, but still can’t see the top.

“Th-this way, please,” says Alphys, waving at you to keep moving.

You hastily catch up and follow her into the biggest most prominent structure on the ground floor; a giant white brick of a building with the word “LABORATORY” written in big black letters over the front door.

Automatic doors smoothly part when the two of you approach, and lets out a welcoming draft of cool air. Air conditioning. You gratefully tail along when Alphys enters.

The first thing that hits you about the inside of the lab is its smell. It’s a strong metallic odor of antiseptic and soap that’s strangely alien and achingly familiar all at once. You immediately associate the scent with the word “hospitals” but can’t fathom why. You’ve never needed to go to one before, not when your mother could cure any ailment with healing magic, but the sense of having been here before, or a place alarmingly similar is so strong that it hurts and that unscratchable itch in your head starts to flare up again with each draw of breath.

You slow to a stop, swaying on your feet. Alphys looks over her shoulder at you and practically trips over her own tail to rush back to your side.

“A-are you alright? You’ve gone pale!”

“M’fine…” you mumble, closing your eyes to stop the room from spinning. Ugh, bad idea. The images of glinting needles, blue gloves, and a long sheet of paper on an uncomfortable plastic bed flash across the back of your eyelids. Fragments of forgotten questions whisper in your ears but it’s so garbled you can’t make out the words. Your brain conjures up the mental image of a chicken covered in red polka dots being denied entry to a school house, and you can’t even begin to find a correlation, making you more disoriented than ever.

“Fine? You look like you’re about to faint!” Alphys panics. “Quick, come sit over here,” Alphys grabs you by the wrist and you let her guide you to a semi-empty work bench surrounded by piles of clutter.

Fighting off a wave of nausea, you manage to push yourself up and sit on the table, vaguely aware of the doctor rushing out of the room before returning with a glass of water.

“Here, sip this while I go get my examination equipment. F-for your shoulder,” She instructs you, handing you the glass.

Numbly you take it from her claws. Obediently you take a sip, fighting off the dizziness that comes when you lift your head and squint your eyes against the harsh florescent lights overhead. You swear you can hear them buzzing.

This is the third time now, you realize, when something seemingly arbitrary and benign has caused something in your head to snap and twist. The first time in Snowdin, it had felt like a fading dream. The second time in Waterfall, it had burned like a fire. You hadn’t expected it to happen a third time, and you especially hadn’t expected it to make you feel sick.

Was this to be your fate until you got home, then? Risk getting ill or blacking out every time you saw or heard or smelt some random new thing from here to the capital? At this rate you wouldn’t be able to walk to the elevator, much less talk to the king.

“Okay, I’m back!” Alphys says hauling a large black bag of medical supplies behind her. She unzips the top and starts laying out a plethora of tools you don’t recognize and don’t even bother trying to identify.

“Here, put this thermometer under your tongue while I get my stethoscope…”

You barely register any of Alphys’ poking or prodding while she gives you a physical. While you concentrate on not throwing up, she concentrates on taking notes, gently asking you to stand or sit or move over here so she can get your height and weight and temperature, tests your reflexes with a tiny hammer on your knees, looks in your ears and eyes and throat. You don’t get what any of this has to do with your shoulder, but you’re too nauseated to argue, so you don’t question it. Lastly Alphys asks you to stand in front of a wall so she can take an x-ray then turns to her computer to examine the photos. When your lightheadedness finally passes, you join her at the desk.

“W-well good news! Nothing’s broken as far as I can see,” Alphys smiles at you. “A-and I didn’t see any bruising so I think it’s s-safe to assume that no muscles are torn. Th-they might be sore for a while from being stretched the wrong way, but I can prescribe you a pain killer for that.”

You nod in agreement, and Alphys pulls out a clip board and pen.

“Great! Um, if you don’t mind, though…” Her eyes dart left and right as if she’s not entirely sure she wants to go through with her next question. “W-would you mind filling out these patient information forms first? Legal stuff and record keeping and what not.”

You readily take the clipboard and begin to answer the questions. The first page seems standard enough, asking for your name, age, any allergies or current medications. The questions start to tickle your mind again with a familiarity you can’t place, but you power through it.

The next page of questions seems more arbitrary; “Are you right or left handed? Any magical talents? How many hours of sleep do you get each night? How much weight do you think you can lift? How long can you hold your breath? Preferred food of choice?” You don’t see what these questions have to do with a pain killer, but you dutifully answer them all regardless.

It feels like an hour has passed by the time you finish answering all the questions, and maybe it has from the sheer number there were. Alphys holds the clipboard like it’s the most valuable thing in the underground when you hand it back to her, and she reads it with wide, fascinated eyes.

“Oh my…” She mumbles, flipping through the pages, unaware you can hear. “I’ll definitely have to make some adjustments to my observation notes…”

“Pardon?”

“Oh! N-nothing!” The scientist sweats and puts the clipboard under her arm. “L-let me get that medication for you!”

Alphys ducks out of the room, leaving you to stand in silence. Now that you’re alone, you take the opportunity to look around. The first thing you realize about Alphys’ lab is that it’s… well… a mess. Books and folders are stacked from floor to ceiling, papers and blue prints carpet the floor, trash bins over flow with crumpled scratch work and empty containers of cup noodle, but the thing that draws your attention most are the various work benches piled high with machinery and schematics, and all the white boards decorated with math and colorful heart shapes on the walls.

“O-okay! Here you go! Alphys says to you, returning to the room with an orange bottle with a white lid. “Take two pills with water every four to six hours until the pain goes away. Um, they may cause drowsiness so be careful about where you are after you take them.”

“Got it,” you thank her, and put the bottle in your pocket next to your borrowed cellphone. Suddenly all the gadgets and technology gets you thinking.

“My pleasure!” Alphys says. “Now, the closest elevators are actually right outside the front of my lab. Once you get into them, just hit the top button and you’ll be on your way straight up to the capital. I-i-is there anything else I could help you with before you go?”

“Um, yeah, actually…. You’re good with electronics, right?”

“W-well, I don’t like to brag, but,” The scientist puts on an arrogant smile. “I am fluent in three programming languages and I do know my way around a welding shop.”

“Do you think you can fix a phone?” you ask, pulling out Papyrus’ cell from your pocket. “Papyrus let me borrow his, and I kinda broke it. I can’t give it back to him like this, after he trusted me with it.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Alphys says with a resolute look on her face, and whisks the phone out of the room for a diagnostics check.

You wait patiently, listening to the sound of whirring drills and pounding hammers and what you swear was the sound of an angry cat that had its tail stomped on, before nothing but silence. Alphys returns faster than you expect with a look of triumph spread across her face.

“Finished!” she declares, handing the phone back to you. You almost don’t recognize it. Not only has she replaced the cracked screen, but the entire outer casing as well with something far more sleek and slim.

“Turned out the battery was just dead, but beyond that, it wasn’t broken,” the scientist explains. “It is a nokia model after all. They’re notorious for being practically indestructible! I gave it a few upgrades anyway since the old design was rather bulky and cumbersome.”

Taking the phone back, you thank her for all her help then turn towards the front door. You walk right up to it, waiting for them to part, but the grey doors refuse to open at your advance.

“Er… Alphys?” You say. “The door won’t open.”

Alphys steps closer, a serious look on her face. “That’s strange. They were working just a minute ago…”

The scientist raises her hand to test the automatic sensor, but nothing happened. She opened her mouth to say something else, but just then the lights when out.

“W-w-what’s going on?!” she squeaks. Behind you, the Lab’s exit doors part and let in a rectangular shaft of magma glow from the other end of the room. Like moths, both you and Alphys turn towards it in time to see a large roll of scarlet fabric bounce into the room and unfurl at your feet.

“Oh no, he’s here,” Alphys whimpers.

“Who?”

Before Alphys can speak, a giant rectangular box eclipses the doorframe, his outline glowing red from the wicked backlighting.

“Mettaton.”

“Alright now! Places, everyone! Places!” His synthetic voice commands as he wheels into the room, pushing right between you and Alphys. A camera crew marches into the room and get into position.

“Sorry I’m late, darling,” The robot says to the scientist. “But all the actors are finally in their place, if you catch my drift! We’re ready to get this show on the road!”

He turns to you and makes a red and yellow smiley face with his screens. “Why hello there, beautiful! I must say, I am absolutely delighted to meet you! I have been waiting all. Day. For your arrival, and your timing couldn’t be any more perfect! Now, here’s a quick rundown of the program; we’re setting up the interview, I’ll ask you the common stuff as the ice breaker to get the audience warmed up, then we do a little back and forth, witty banter and the like, then we’ll just play it from ear by there. Don’t worry about tripping up your words or making any mistakes; we can edit that out in post. Sound good to you?”

You stare, completely dumbfounded as his jargon goes in one ear and out the other. What was he talking about?

“Oh! Where are my manners! I didn’t introduce myself! I’m Mettaton!”

“Uh… Chara?” you say uncertainly. This robot was certainly the most… unique monster you’ve met yet, but right now he was doing nothing more threatening than talking. This was the robot Alphys had been worried about?

He extends a hand and you can’t help but take it out of habit. His grip instantly turns vicelike, and like a lasso, his arm extends and coils into loops that constrict around you, rendering you immobile.

“Mettaton! What are you doing?!” Alphys interjects and jumps to your side to pry the arms off.

“Ah-ah, darling!” Mettaton tuts, and grabs her with his other arm, wrapping her up as well. He stretches his arms far apart to keep you separated. “You can’t make your daring escape yet! We haven’t even started rolling! MAKEUP!” the box demands, and a lion monster with a giant powder poof dabs you and Alphys on the face and leave you coughing in a cloud of chalk.

“PROPS!” a slime monster stretches out, handing the box a microphone and magnetic bowtie which he fastens to his chassis.

“AAAAAND! ACTION!” He turns to you one last time. “Get ready for your fifteen minutes of fame, darling! I’d allot you more but then it cut into my screen time!”

A monster comprised of nothing but two-dimensional geometric shapes with a clapboard crouches down in front and whispers “take one, rolling!”

A chorus of drumrolls and trumpets rev up from hidden speakers overhead as colorful spots dance across the floor.

“BEAUTIES AND GENTLE BEAUTIES!” The robot roars. “IT’S TIME FOR AMUSEMENT AFTERNOON, WITH YOUR HOST! METTATON!!”

A spotlight comes to life right above the robot, blinding you with a flashbang. Cheering blares from all sides with no apparent origin.

“Heeelloooo my Beauties and Gentle Beauties! I, Mettaton, the Underground’s premier actor and robotic superstar, am here on the red carpet to bring you an exclusive interview with a very special guest! Yes, lovelies! They’ve traveled a long way to get here, and I am proud to finally introduce you to the Undergrounds latest…! Greatest…! Boss Monster!” A second spotlight illuminates as his arm retracts, pulling you close to his red and yellow screens. Thunderous applause plays from his speakers.

“Welcome darling! I hope you enjoyed your trip here now that you’ve made it to the highlight of the Underground! Tell the beautiful watchers at home about yourself!”

“Let! Me! Go!” You grunt, thrashing against his noodle arms.

“Aw, camera shy, darling? Well don’t feel bad! It happens to the best of us!”

“Mettaton! What do you think you’re doing?!” Alphys demands, struggling in his grip.

“Oh my! How impertinent of me! Beauties and Gentle Beauties! Please give it up for the Royal Scientist, Doctor Alphys!”

More synthetic cheering erupts from everywhere at once.

“Th-that’s not what I meant!” Alphys shouts. “Mettaton! We don’t have time to play around with your silly TV shows! Let us go!”

“Sorry, Alphys, but no can do! I’ve been waiting AGES for this interview! It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, and I’m not going to pass it up! Now darling, give us the scoop! Tell us what a day in the life of a Boss Monster is like! My twelve viewers at home want to know ALL the details! Don’t hold back!”

“I figured something like this would happen!” Alphys grumbles. She cranes her head to look at you as best she can. “Quick! Pull out your phone! I installed anti-robotic defense mechanisms in the upgrade! Hit the blue button to jam his frequency!”

Despite being jostled about like a sack of flour, you manage fish out your phone from your pocket. You scan the front and find the key in question then give it a forceful push. The phone lets out a high pitched shriek and Mettaton instantly locks up.

“Oohh Mmyy!” the robot’s voice quivers like he’s been strapped to a centrifuge. “Iitt sseeeemmss II hhaavvee bbeeeenn ttthhwwarrtteedd bbyy tthhee ggrreeaatt ddoocctteerr aallpphhyyss!!”

Mettaton’s noodle arms go slack and you and Alphys ungracefully drop to the ground as the robot shakily back petals to the back exit.

“It seems I have no choice but to retreat for now! And we only just got started! How unfortunate! But mark my words, darling! We will meet again! I will get my interview yet, but until then, I will have to leave this episode on a to-be-continued! Ta-taaaa!”

Rolling backwards, Mettaton wheels out of sight with his camera crew close on his metaphorical heels, leaving only the echo of his voice and the red carpet behind.

“Thank God that’s over,” Alphys says picking herself up from the ground and brushing off the dirt from her lab coat.

“Yeah. Well, it looks like the exit’s open now. I guess I should get going before Mettaton comes back.”

“Um! W-wait,” Alphys stops you before you can leave. “I-I was doing some risk calculations in my head, and I was thinking… m-m-maybe I should come with you? T-to make sure Mettaton doesn’t try to get in your way?”

Alphys notices your hesitant look and goes on. “N-now that he knows you’re here, he’s going to do everything within his programming to try and slow you down so he can use you for the whole “Boss Monster” thing and force you to be in his sitcoms! B-but with two against one, we should be able to keep him at bay!”

You mull it over before nodding in agreement. Mettaton would undoubtedly be a problem if you run into him again, and you have a rising suspicion that you would. Who better to have on your side to fend him off than his inventor? At least it seems you’ve finally found another monster who genuinely seems interested in helping you progress. “That sounds like a good plan. Okay.”

“Great! L-let me just get a few things before we leave!”

Dashing over to her computer station, Alphys grabs her doctor’s bag and stuffs it with the thickest spiral notebook she can find and a fistful of pens, along with some graph paper, a calculator, and a few other gadgets you can’t make heads or tails of. You hope all of it is more anti-robot gear.

“A-alright! Let’s do this!” She cheers, hefting the bag over her shoulder, and together you venture into Hotland.

Alphys lets her patient take the lead while she starts jotting down observations as discretely as possible. They’re jumpy at first, as if expecting Mettaton to reappear again from every corner, but the streets remain empty and after a few minutes they start to loosen up again and explore the new region.

Alphys lets her mind wonder as they walk, replaying the events in her lab. The first happenstance with Mettaton had gone more or less smoothly, right down to the front doors “mysteriously” losing power. Now all the pieces were in place; he would appear as the villain and she the hero, all while she could get footage of the human’s reaction on split second decision making. She wished Mettaton had given her a bit more foresight about what his shows were going to be, though. Alphys hadn’t expected an interview. She’d be almost as much in the dark as the human. She guessed, in a way, that that was a godsend. It would certainly make her acting seem more believable. She just hoped she could always find a new way out of each of Mettaton’s gimmicks in all their future encounters right on the spot.

Before long they come across their first conveyer belt. The moving sidewalks startle the human at first, unused to the sensation of conveyer belt transport, but they get the hang of it fast enough, and take a moment to enjoy the view as the sidewalk carries them along. They take like a fish to water when they discover the vents for the first time, and their mood does a complete one-eighty. One could have never guessed they were anticipating being assaulted by a robot only moments earlier. Eagerly, they stand on the slotted metal screen while the heat and pressure built up in the trap underneath before propelling them across the gaps with a powerful blast of steam. They land ungracefully, more or less falling flat on their face on the other side, but they’re laughing regardless, when Alphys joins them. Fascinated, she writes down their reaction as they collect themselves.

Laughter… response… to… steam… vents. There.

They jump across the rest of the platforms with ease, looking quite pleased with themselves.

“I’ve always wanted to try that,” the human sighs with satisfaction, talking to themselves. “He was right, it does feel like flying.”

“He?” Alphys says conversationally. “Who’s that?”

“Oh, uh, just a friend of mine,” they reply cryptically. Hmm, was it the heat that was making them flush or a sense of guilt? Were they keeping secrets of their own?

The sound of a skirmish in the distance distracts them before she can ask them to clarify. Up ahead, Alphys looks up to find two Hotland residents tangled together in front of a walkway lined with laser beams of blue and orange light. She groans when she recognizes the monsters, Vulcin and Pyrope. Generally the two monsters were kind and well-meaning folk, but when their forces combined, explosions of volcanic proportions were sure to follow, along with a dozen cases of second degree burns.

“Vulcin, my hotcake! This was KNOT my idea when you said you could help me with the puzzle,” the rope monster nervously laughs, struggling to uncoil itself from the tiny volcano.

“Ah, ah, sorry,” Vulcin whimpers. “Feet all stuck. Can’t carry you through the lasers. No help at all…”

“Th-they seem busy,” Alphys says. “Let’s see if we can move around them.”

“Wait,” the human hovers. “They look like they need help. Hey! Are you guys stuck?” They ask, approaching without fear.

“Ha ha, yeah!” Pyrope grins. “You could say were a little TIED up! Someone turned on these old laser puzzles which really threw me for a LOOP! All the moving lasers and stationary lasers made my mind go like, ‘whaaat!’ Vulcin here tried to help, but those beams give a really hefty zap! We ended up getting kinda tangled. Say, mind givin’ us a hand? I’d do it myself, but I don’t got any!” Pyrope laughs at his own jokes despite being a knotted up mess.

“No problem,” the human says. “Hold still…”

“Ah! W-wait! Don’t!” Alphys interjects when she sees them reaching out to touch the flaming monsters. “You’re gonna get bur-“

She trails off midsentence when they put their hand on Vulcin’s smoldering body, flabbergasted that they don’t instantly go up in flames.

Delicately, they begin to unwind Pyrope’s coils from Vulcin’s legs.

“H-how… how are you doing that?” Alphys asks.

They wave a gloved hand at her. “Oh, I can’t get burned. My hands are fire proof!”

Alphys gawks for a second then immediately writes the finding down. Remarkable ingenuity with textiles. It was just one discovery after another with this one!

“There you go,” the human says when they manage to untie the two monsters.

“Much appreciated!” Vulcin gleams.

“Yeah! Thanks a ton, hot stuff!” Pyrope adds before bouncing off. He stops when he gets to the laser bridge and turns back sheepishly. “Er, ha ha. Do you by any chance know how to get past these lasers as well? These puzzles haven’t been active in YEARS, and suddenly they’re all back on today!”

The human and Alphys exchange a serious look, a silent name shared between them. Mettaton.

“Sorry, I can’t help you there,” the human shrugs, turning back to Pyrope. “This is the first time I’ve seen laser puzzles too.”

They study at the field of lights. Each beam was like a wall, too high to jump over and too low to crawl under. Some of the lights were blue and moving, while others were orange and stationary, but all of them were buzzing like a hive of angry bees just daring you to touch them and see what happens.

“A-allow me!” Alphys chimes in, boldly stepping up to plate. “I-I figured something like this might happen. It looks like Mettaton was here, trying to slow us down. B-but don’t worry! Look!” Alphys scuffles over to a maintenance hatch on the ground and lifts it up by the handle to reveal a circuit board full of twinkling lights, switches and wires. “This is the control panel for this bridge. All I gotta do is reroute some wires, flip a couple switches, aaand- there!”

The lasers die with a depressing bwoooop, leaving the pathway clear.

“WHOO! You’re on fire, baby!” Pyrope cheers and bounds across the bridge.

“Good job!” Vulcin praises, and gallops off as well.

“That was brilliant, Alphys.” the human says.

“Oh, it was nothing,” the scientist blushes. “B-but if you ever find yourself confronted by lasers without me, just remember blue lasers won’t harm you if you stand still, and orange lasers won’t harm you if you’re moving.”

“Got it,” they nod, and march onward.

“Hm. Mettaton must be more determined to stop us than I thought,” Alphys says distractedly after a few minutes of walking. She honestly had no clue he would turn on old puzzles to hinder their progress. “If he reactivated the laser puzzle, then I wonder what other puzzles he’s turned back on.”

“Do any of them have to do with giant doors?”

“Well, y-yes, but how did you-” Alphys stops when she bumps into the human’s back. They point to two massive iron slabs sealing the way before them. Two computer monitors sit like sentries on the sides, a trail of red lights connecting them to two unwelcoming red “X”s, one emblazoned on each of the doors’ front.

“Do you think you can hack the door?”

“U-unfortunately no. B-but the unlocking mechanisms should be on either side of the door, and I can hack those!”

The human gives her a thumbs up and they head to the right. A terminal screen illuminates at their approach, white blocks appearing on a black background with two opposing ships on either side of the field, and two tiny bullets labeled “AMMO” at the bottom.

“Alright,” Alphys grunts, lacing her fingers and pushing her palms outward as she crouches below the monitor. “Let’s see what I can- w-what?!”

“What’s wrong?”

Alphys points to the bottom of the control panel, still glowing red with recently soldered metal.

“That damn robot! He welded the control panel to this puzzle shut!”

“Guess we’ll have to solve it the old fashioned way then,” the human says, their face setting with a determined look. They turn back to the screen and examine it a little closer.

“Hmm… ‘Move the boxes to shoot the opposing ship.’ Seems simple enough…”

They look down at their available controls, consisting of a joy stick that goes only in the cardinal directions and one big red button that says “FIRE.”

They experimentally toggle the stick, seeing how the boxes react. They fiddle a second more, then…

“Ah-ha!” they whoop triumphantly when their bullets break through the boxes and hit their target. The screen lets out a congratulatory jingle and one half of the door lights up green.

“That was easy! Let’s see the other one!” They say, jumping to the other screen on the left side of the door.

“Incredible!” Alphys murmurs, frantically scribbling in her note book while they study the next challenge. They solved it in record time and on their first go! Their ability to find patterns is outstanding!

The human has no problem getting the second puzzle figured out as well, and with another successful chime, the massive doors slowly part to reveal a line of one way steam vents to push them forward.

“What do ya’ say? Full steam ahead?” Alphys winks.

The human chuckles, and fearlessly leaps on the first vent to carry them across.

The island they land on is raised slightly higher than the others, just enough so neither could see what awaited on the summit. A large staircase leads to the top.

The human forges ahead, undaunted by the number of steps. Alphys follows, thoroughly breathless by the time she reaches the top. God, there was a reason why she never liked to take this elevator to get around Hotland.

“Thanks,” the scientist gasps, completely winded. “For waiting, that is.”

“Of course. I don’t want to move forward in the dark. We could fall off the edge.”

“Dark?” Alphys echoes. “It shouldn’t be dark up here…” but dark it was. Cautiously, the pair inch their way forward, when suddenly-

FLASH!

Floodlights on all sides flare to life with blinding white light. A plucky harmonica strikes up a tune that sounded a near-lawsuit level of similar to another ditty Alphys knew as hidden voices being to sing all around them.

♫Good moooorning all! In Snowdin and-! Waaaaterfall! Hotland and-! Neeew Home too! We’re so glad to see you! Won’cha come with us to play? Here on Android Avenue! ♪

Alphys blinks the spots out of her eyes and looks around. She knew this island held one of Mettaton’s sets where he planned to help her collect data on the human’s problem solving skills, but she couldn’t recognize the set up. The only thing could see was that the set was a mess. The stage had three walls, each lined with shelves and overloaded with toys and knickknacks that spilled on to the floor.

The human leans in her direction. “Retreat?” They whisper.

“Retreat,” Alphys agrees and began to walk back. They don’t get very far. A few steps backwards and their backs hit a solid wall that wasn’t there before.

“Force fields!” Alphys gasps, feigning surprise. “We’re trapped!” Beside them, two marionette puppets of red and blue drop from the ceiling as the theme song ends, and Alphys and her patient stand rooted to the spot as they dance around them against a colorful backdrop.

“Howdy-doodie, kiddies!” the red puppet yaps in a comically nasally voice.

“It’s that time again!” The blue one’s mouth flaps its jaw, moving it like a hinge, and then in unison-

“It’s time for-! Android Avenue!”

Stock audio of children cheering blares from all sides.

“Today’s episode is brought to you by the letter “H”!” the red doll says, its arms flailing like a windsock in a tornado.

“And the number seven!” The blue muppet adds, its googly eyes pointing in two different directions.

“Alphys… what’s happening?” The human whispers, pressed close to her side and as far away from the creepy puppets as possible.

“I don’t… know?” Alphys replies. Studying the puppets, she traces the strings upwards and finds a familiar metal box with arms perched on the girders overhead.

“And now for your host! Mettaton!” Pre-recorded cheering and clapping plays on cue as Mettaton leaps from the rafters.

“Oh no…” Alphys groans.

The giant metal box lands with a hefty crash hard enough to shake the floor and nearly knock the other two monsters off their feet, but he expertly rebounds on his one wheel.

“OH YES!” He exclaims. “Beauties and Gentle Beauties! Darlings of all ages! Thank you for once again allowing me into your homes through the underground’s public access television! Your number one choice for children edutainment! Today is a very special day here on Android Avenue. Please, put your hands together for our newest neighbors, the Royal Scientist, Alphys, and the Underground’s newest Boss Monster!”

Mettaton claps and synthetic clapping backs him up. The human looks more confused than concerned.

“Um? What’s going on?”

“Why! You’re on TV, darling!” Mettaton says, throwing one arm around their shoulders. Now they look really lost.

“I’m on tee-vee?” they repeat, stressing the letters like the word is unnatural to them. “Right now? How?”

“The cameras are broadcasting live, beautiful!” Mettaton explains, pointing to a camcorder barely visible in the darkness that surrounded the set. “But let’s not waste any more time, sweetheart! As our special guest, would you like to help us on our educational adventure today?”

“We can’t, Mettaton!” Alphys proclaims, stepping between him and her patient. “We’re on a mission to get to the king, and you won’t stop us!” She looks over her shoulder at human. “Use your phone!”

It takes them a second to understand, but when it clicks they scrabble to get their cellphone out and swiftly press the blue button…

…but nothing happens.

“Sorry darling!” Mettaton says. “That trick won’t work on me twice! I’ve installed frequency jamming frequency jammers in my software since we last met! Oh! And don’t even think about trying to escape! I’ve also installed my world famous MTT force fields on every wall! They only allow robots to pass through! Now, we’re all about manners here on Android Avenue, so I’ll politely ask you again; would you like to help us today?”

“Ugh, let’s just play along,” Alphys grumbles to you quietly. “You distract him and I’ll see if I can tap into the force field’s security system.”

The human nods then turns back to Mettaton. “I’ll help you.”

“Brilliant! As you already know, today’s episode is brought to you by the letter “H”! Now darling, can you find all the things in this room that start with the letter “H” in less than one minute and put them in this basket?” As he speaks, a table rises from the floor. Mettaton opens a port in his side, pulls out a plastic basket and places it on the tabletop. As stealthily as she can, Alphys begins to tip toe to the far wall and feel along its edges.

“Okay, but only if you let us go afterwards.”

“Ooh! Raising the stakes are we?” Mettaton teases. “Very well then! I’ll agree to your terms if you’ll agree to mine!”

The human glances at Alphys who’s apparently found another control panel. She mouths ‘Keep him talking!’ to them as she furiously taps away at a small keyboard. They look Mettaton in the eye. Er- screens. “Shoot.”

“Find all the things that start with “H” before the time is up…” Mettaton says. “Or you’ll have to become a resident of Android Avenue… PERMINANTLY!”

The human swallows a lump in their throat. They nod.

“Excellent!” Above them, a giant cartoonish stop watch lowers, its second hand ready and waiting at the twelve o’clock. “Good luck darling! You’re gonna need it!”

Mettaton raises his right hand in a gun shape. “On your mark! Get set! GO!” The cap of his pointer finger pops opens to reveal a tiny flag that reads ’bang!’

Springing into action, the human frantically begins to search the shelves on the wall opposite of Alphys, keeping Mettaton’s focus away from her. They lunge for an item they saw on the top shelf -a hammer- and place it in the box. Alphys turned away from them to focus on the key pad and pretended to work. The force field wasn’t hard to hack at all; it would allow them to pass as soon as the timer was up regardless, but for now she had to make this look convincing and let the cameras get as much data as possible.

She wiped away a line of sweat beading on her brow. The situation was tense nonetheless. This isn’t what she agreed on with Mettaton at all. There wasn’t supposed to be any threats of kidnapping or being held hostage on a film set. She was beginning to regret making a deal with him to get screen time with the human. He was too much of a loose cannon.

Over head the ticking of the stop watch grew ominous as time drew closer. The human sifted through each object on the back wall, found a plastic horse and a hair brush, and tossed them in the basket.

“Fifteen seconds left!” Mettaton warned. The human grabbed for a hat, a toy harp, and a picture of a hexagon off the floor.

“Five! Four! Three! Two…!”

One last look around, and the human scooped up a bike horn from over Alphys’ head, lobbed it towards the basket, and hit the mark.

A buzzer sounded.

“Times up!” Mettaton announced. Extending one arm, he retracted his hand down the vacuum tube limb and swapped it out for a broom head appendage then swiftly swept all the extra clutter off the edge of the set into the lava below. The backs of each shelf opened as each ledge tilted upward, clearing the walls and becoming smooth and flush. The room was clean.

“Now! Let’s see how you did!”

Dumping the contents of the basket onto the table, he laid them out straight and pointed to each one.

“Oooone! Twoooo! Threeeee!” Children’s voices counted as he pointed to each one. “Siiiix! Seven!” Cheering exploded along with confetti raining down from the ceiling.

“You found seven objects that start with the letter “H”! And seven just so happens to be the number of the day! Congratulations!”

“Does this mean I won?” The human pants.

“First let me check with our judges,” Mettaton says, putting a finger up to the side of his casing as if listening to an ear piece. The screens on his front flash in a checker board pattern of red and yellow before making a frowny face.

“Oh my… it seems you found all but one of the things that start with “H!” How unfortunate!”

“W-what did I miss?” The human asks.

“Darling, don’t you see? The answer’s still in this room!”

Alphys stiffens. Was he about to? No, he wouldn’t! He promised!

“Darling, you missed… the Handsome Robot! I’m sorry, beautiful! Looks like you’re moving into an apartment on Android Avenue! Let me draw up your lease!”

Like a bush viper, Mettaton’s arms explode outward, snaking towards the human who anticipated the move and expertly dodges. Ha! Looked like old tricks wouldn’t work twice on them either!

“Quick! This way!” Alphys shouts. “I recalibrated the force field!”

The human bolts towards her, the robotic TV star zooming right behind. Together, she and the human dive through the force field before the arms can grab them. Unable to slow down fast enough, Mettaton hits the invisible wall with a reverberating clang.

“Oh my? What’s this?” Mettaton asks, gesturing in an over the top theatrical manner. “Why can’t I pass through my MTT brand force field?”

“B-because I’ve reprogrammed it to let everything pass through BUT robots!” Alphys exclaims. “You’re trapped!”

“Rats! I have been foiled again by the Great Doctor Alphys!” Mettaton pontificates. “But do not think you have seen the last of me, you two! You may have one this battle but I shall win the war! Thank you for watching and tune in next time my beautiful audience! Adieu!”

With that, Mettaton retreats once again, scrolling back across his set as the light fade out once more.

“Well that didn’t sound ominous at all,” the human says sarcastically. “How much further until the elevator?”

“Just around the next bend,” Alphys says.

“Good. The faster we get there, the faster we can put this all behind us.”

In silent agreement, the two continue on once more, eager to put as much distance between themselves and the robot as possible.