#i could probably do a full part 2 of this poll

[lucalicatteart]

Poll adventure (paventure? lol) Day 6: read the small story tidbit below the poll for more details, OR just vote based on initial impression

(✦ see past poll results + further information HERE (link) ✦)

The winning option of yesterday's poll was that the adventurer should ask the Innkeeper about the suspicious egg he got from the Well Creature….

-

After finishing his food scraps, he awkwardly creeps back over to the main counter, pulling up a stool and just hoping the Innkeeper will eventually make eye contact with him... She finally looks to the side whilst cleaning a glass, his chance to blurt out whatever he can.

"SO!- uh,, I um... I found something weird, or uh.. I didn't find it actually, I guess, I..... s-someone, or something.. gave it to me, as maybe..? a reward, or.. oh, well i-it doesn't matter why.. but UH, but so, I was just wondering, d-do you think you might know anything about it? about like, uh... stuff? Objects.. perhaps.....?"

She stares with equal parts amusement and concern, crossing her arms and letting out a soft chuckle, "Well, I've seen quite a variety of things while working here, so - Yeah, I could try to help you identify an item, if that's what you're asking."

"G-good. Okay. Well.. It's, uh..... this." He's barely even placed the little wooden egg box up on the counter before she's already slamming the lid shut and reaching over to force it back into his bag. Suddenly serious, her eyes dart around the room, scanning to ensure no-one else happened to notice.

"Don't EVER let anyone see you with that, okay??". Abrupt tone shift making him even more nervous, he just stares blankly, muttering a few gibberish noises whilst nodding at her in confirmation.

"I mean, I'm not absolutely certain," her voice lowers as she speaks, "but to me it looks exactly like a Caiploras egg. Those animals have been nearly extinct for at least a hundred years. Only tiny groups of them still exist here and there, and even those eventually get wiped out as soon as they're discovered. Kings and nobles used to hunt them, especially for the eggs, 'cause of all the theories - unique magical properties, uses in enchanting, shit like that.. I don't really know, I'm not that experienced with magic.... But.."

She pauses for a few seconds to stare him down (this does not soothe his anxiety at all), examining intently, as if to determine whether he's actually trustworthy before continuing..

"...My brother is. He's a mage, and a scholar, and he specializes in stuff like this, all these rare animals and whatnot. He'll hate me just sending a complete stranger over there, but.. I think you should go see him. He'd definitely be able to identify it- hell, he'd probably even pay you for it, if it really is what I think it is. And, he'd know how to take care of it properly, raise it well, not just cut it up for fucking potions or whatever...", she scoffs bitterly.

Grasping at a nearby napkin to fan himself with, he shifts sweatily in his seat, "W-wh... but,.. How would I do that?"

"What do you mean? Do what?"

"F-find, him.. IHhh... I just.. I don't, know the area well.. is all, I uh...."

"I'll give you directions, obviously.. Are you okay? Do you like... need some water? You look-"

"NHnnnou, I'M FINE! I just, haha.. uh... Maybe, am.. not very good at....uh.. this.." He gestures around himself nonspecifically.

With a brief confused glance, she pours a cup of water anyway, then casually plucks a small notebook from her pocket to begin scribbling messily. "Well, look, I'll give you the information, and if you feel up to it, you can go. I really think you should, but, eh... your choice, y'know."

As he fights his shaky hands to maintain control of the water glass, she lays out the paper on the table, pointing at parts of her sketch. "He's over in Fargahel, which should be a few days travel from here. See? The roads kind of go like this, but it's mostly a straight path. Look for the ruins of an abandoned castle. He's holed himself up in there, the underground part, repurposed into some sort of 'sanctuary' for rehabilitating injured birds or whatever the hell he's up to now. He probably won't attack you or anything, but I signed a little note on the back of this so he knows I sent you.. just in case."

Neatly folding up the map, she slides it towards him as she leans closer to intensely meet his eyes. "Just remember, no matter what you do, do NOT let anyone know you have that egg. There are plenty of folks out here still hunting for them. You don't want someone recognizing it and coming after you. Especially with how, uh...", it feels like she might mention he doesn't seem he'd be very good at combat, but she simply lets the sentence trail off, shrugging with a smile and politely patting his hand as he takes the paper.

"Just get some sleep, yeah? Think about it. And talk to me in the morning if you have any more questions."

He slumps over to lean on the counter, resting for a moment after she walks back to the other end of the room, just trying to wrap his head around all the new information.. He only took the egg because it looked pretty! He just wanted it to hatch into a cool chicken or something! Why does it have to actually be some big stinky scary secret rare item?... With a heavy sigh, he resolves to never again trust mysterious creatures that pop out of abandoned wells....

Eventually trudging up to his room for the night, he flops onto the lumpy mattress that seems to just be hay stuffed into dusty old potato sacks. As he rustles around waiting to fall asleep, he considers all of his options... What should he do with the egg?

[tavina-writes]

A Practical Discussion of Eligible MDZS Bachelors During the Second Life

So I keep seeing discussions floating around about like "why aren't any of these people married" and "are JC's standards too high?" and other assorted nonsense, so I have decided to put together a ranking of like "if a practical minded historical* woman wanted to get ahead politically with the LEAST amount of #suffering, what rankings would she give these guys." Because I've been really fond of @dangermousie's poll options, I'm calling this girl Potato.

*Historical fantasy more or less given that we assume that Potato is also a cultivator.

Jiang Cheng There are many reasons for this but 1) Jiang Cheng's in-laws consist entirely of (1) bratty nephew who doesn't even live at his house full time, 2) there are no other meddling in laws or sect elders given that Jiang Cheng is the only one! 3) he is reasonably good looking, well off, and has social status by this point in the story. Potato can probably win over a bratty nephew! Downsides include: if Potato doesn't like spicy foods oh dear, but honestly we don't know what Potato's spice tolerance is so it could still work out!

Nie Huaisang: Being married to NHS would be an exercise in perpetual embarrassment, and it's unclear if his budget line items ever since Da-ge died are any more detailed than "Summertime Sadness." There are worse people to marry, but why anyone (including Potato) would willingly choose to marry NHS for political benefit eludes me. He is ranked higher on this list than any Lan largely for the sake of "his mom was probably not in solitary confinement" and "there are likely no dietary restrictions present in his house." but the other downsides include "he's probably going to go INSANE" at some point but silver lining on that front is that he's really not a very good cultivator, so it probably won't be as bad as NMJ's insanity bender? Potato could rank him lower than any Lan options tbh.

Lan Xichen There are also many reasons why Mr. Zewu-jun is not an ideal marriage candidate for practical reasons but this largely has to do with his family. There's 33 favorite grandpas who seem to have opinions on the regular. The in-law trouble would suck tremendously. There's 5am wakeup calls and 9pm bedtimes and no meat or alcohol. There's like between 3000-4000 rules Potato will have to remember and actually follow! His mom spent her entire married life mysteriously in solitary confinement. #Yikes!

This seems like an unwise place to marry into. Potato could do better.

Lan Wangji See above except for the part where he doesn't even like Potato and only thinks about WWX all day.

Lan Qiren I am uncertain about Potato's investment in #HotDilfsInLocalArea but 3000-4000 rules and many of Zewu-jun's problems.

Jin Guangyao He's already married and he's never cheating on his incest marriage, and he has his ex's head in his bedroom closet. Also #Yikes. Potato could do better than this too.

Basically: Potato should either aim to marry Jiang Cheng or go to live as a hermit in the woods.

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

Round 2 Group C Match 2

ATTENTION VOTERS WE ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE A TIE ON THIS POLL. MARGIN OF 0.2% OR SMALLER WILL MEAN JONNY AND MIKE MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ROUND TOGETHER.

expand for propaganda ↓ (major wall of text warning + videos. very.)

Jonny Greenwood:

"Every art girl's (and boy's) wet dream"

"He wrote the tourist. That's all you need."

"Repeat from my Thom propaganda but he was a part of it so anyways. I had a dream once where I met him and Thom on the street and asked them to sign my Pablo Honey CD, so Thom pushed me into open traffic and I got hit by a car and died and Jonny laughed his ass off. 10/10, my last sight before death was his beautiful face laughing."

"I could probably snap him like a twig but I want to marry him and have 3 children with him before I do that"

"Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose 1/5 of Radiohead. Choose 1/5 of In Rainbows. Choose the man who wrote weird fishes, both Greenwood sisters ,the man in South Park, his telecaster and the stickers on it. Choose the bug Jacqueline Kennedy, his love for literature and poetry, and his lovely lisp. Choose his sublime score for Phantom Thread and his husband Paul Thomas Anderson. Choose the weird amount of straight men who thirst over him in the YouTube comment section. Choose his jawbone. Choose the most pretentious, unpretentious member of the band. Choose his silky hair and his (probably) Dove shampoo. Choose his great knowledge of music theory and how he often disregards it. Choose Astroboy's biggest fanboy (minus maybe Thom. Choose a very hot Alex James who eloped with a fish. Choose Jonny Greenwood. Choose your future. Choose life… Involuntary Trainspotting reference but please vote Jonny over Wario. Oh, and( even though Jonny lives in Italy at the moment), I live in Oxford and if I meet him, I'll tell him that he won."

"He keeps chickens guys, CHICKENS"

"I'm a straight guy but no joke Jonny is hot tbh maybe it's cuz he looks like a chick but like damnnnn"

"He's so gorgeous....kinda like an ant 😍😍😍😍"

Mike Patton:

"Mike didn't consistently wear BDSM masks matched with boiler suits and lick Trevor Dunn on stage just to lose this bracket. Also, if you don't think he's hot in every which way, you clearly haven't seen this: https://youtu.be/gjEbHBafvm0 or this: https://youtu.be/i9_hCjcFNO0 or this: https://youtu.be/Kfq7wHJu21c"

"Mike Patton collaborated with basically everyone who's anyone in music, and he speaks Italian too. He's great in a live show. And Mr. Bungle is unmatched and unparalleled, full stop."

"HEE HEE HOO HOO HA HA FUNNY WHITE MAN SCREAMS IN MY EAR AND BUSTS IT DOWN SEXUAL STYLE"

"I'm a lesbian but I find him insanely attractive which I think says a lot"

"whenever mike arches his back and screams a part of my soul leaves my body and is shattered by the soundwaves."

"all you need to do to love mike is watch this: https://youtu.be/0gq_Jn41iMM&t=1375 the fact that he blurts that out and then super casually goes into the song leaves me crying with rage and hormones every time I see it"

[read-write-thrive]

part 1 (both girls in their full outfits) ; part 2 (Edwina in several other outfits/sketches) ; part 3 (the companion to this piece aka Edwina getting ready :)

part 4 of my fem!payneland fanart series!!!! as I talked about with the poll, I have quite a few variations of this piece as I couldn’t make up my mind on a few of the elements, but I listened to your feedback and have included them all here !! the winner of the poll is above the cut with the rest of the variations below to hopefully make this not take up too much of your dash lol

lmk what you think - especially people who voted on the poll!! I’ve also included my thought process below the cut since I know y’all are interested :)

- first and foremost: I have absolutely no idea what order someone would get ready in with all these outfit components, so if you’re sitting here like “why is her makeup done when she has to pull a shirt over her head?” or something like that: you’re probably correct but my getting ready process is always chaos and there aren’t exactly articles on this sort of thing

- along with that: her straightening her hair is probably not accurate to how hair works but again I’ve got v little experience to pull from and trying to find a proper reference was a pain in the ass

yes her bra is fully rendered and then got covered up by her arm. I'm still mad that I did that to myself but I like the pose too much to change it so oh well

- (onto actual historical stuff!!)

- her hair is being straightened here despite straight not being in style during this era for several reasons:

1. I based her hair (and a lot of her style, as per part 1) on Rhoda Dakar of the band The Bodysnatchers, which was an all-female band that was part of the ska revival in the late 70s/early 80s. Rhoda Dakar in particular is a British artist (who’s still making music!) with an English mother and Jamaican father—so not only was she one of the only women of color I could find as part of this subgenre/in ths era/with plenty of photo references, but considering Jayden Revri is Jamaican and English (alongside Indian) himself I thought it was fitting! Her Bodysnatchers look is also much more femme leaning than the rest of the band, as well as her hair styled in a way that suggests straightening, so I carried that over to Charlotte here as well.

2. On a related note, there is a clear historical and modern difference in hairstyles worn/made popular/deemed fashionable by non-white versus white individuals and I thought it only appropriate to acknowledge that in my design of her. I even went so far as to research how her mom’s hair may have been styled since I assume that’s who would’ve been teaching her how to care for her hair in the first place. With that, I looked at popular Indian hair trends from the 60s (figuring that’s when Charlotte’s mom could’ve still been in India and following those trends) which also involved a preference for straight/wavy hair, with soft fringe made popular by Sadhana and the styles ranging from long and luscious to styled up into a very 60s beehive. Charlotte could easily also rock a beehive, especially since the 60s revival was a part of the ska revival movement and Dakar herself styled her hair as such, but I figured Charlotte is a little too much of a rebellious teenager to go for a look she’s seen her mom wear!

- her makeup is based off of the different members of The Bodysnatchers as well as other punk/ska fans at the time. The look usually required more blush that what I gave her here, but I wanted to make sure the eyes were the feature (since Charles wears eyeliner himself) and then the lips being any less just looked weird to me. Also, Dakar doesn't seem to wear the same heavy blush that the other members do, which could be a stylistic choice but could also be the potential lack of blush shades that would work well on her skin tone, so I went that route for Charlotte here

- her underwear is all based off of meticulous searching of historical advertisements, though I will admit the sources are (presumably) American since I couldn't find British equivalents (I'm hoping the styles were similar enough...) in particular:

1. Her bra is based off of: Playtex’s New Made for Me, Playtex’s Right For Me, and Playtex’s Thank Goodness It Fits (which are seriously the names of these as per the ads—how creative /s)

2. Her panties (or pants or underwear or whatever term you want to use) are based off of: Sears Best’s Nylon tricot panties, Sears Very Impressive Panties Nylon panties, and JCPenny’s eiderlon fashion panties

3. (In the below variations) Her pantyhose are theoretically based on L’eggs and Spirit by Stevens’s Slim & Slender pantyhose. But, honestly, they’re mostly based on my own experience wearing hose bc almost none of the ads showed how the gusset of the pantyhose actually looked so I needed to fill in the gaps (one of the many reasons I’m still unhappy with them—plus the wrinkles would not look right no matter what I did !!)

4. Her socks are called slouch socks! I don’t have a specific brand for them but the style was all the rage in the 80s-90s (and I want to own some so bad ngl)

- the hair straightener is just a blob based on the reference photo since trying to research historical hair tools was beyond me at the time apparently, but the style of outlet/plug is accurate to Britain in 1989 so there’s that at least (I have no idea why my brain works like this)

- since I talked about it in the poll I feel like I should address it here: technically having a bush was well out of fashion by 1989 due to the grooming boom and new types of hair removal popular throughout the 80s and 90s. However, she’s wearing multiple layers over it and is technically a teenager (in an abusive household and a catholic all-girls school, at that) so I kept going back and forth on it. It won the poll so it’s in the main post, but you’ll see in the below variations that I really went back and forth on it. that being said I do think it’s interesting given her nylon pants being semi-sheer besides at the gusset, so I’m not mad at it. plus I figured she was definitely shaving her legs/underarms, so maybe that balances it out ?

and finally here’s the other seven variations of this piece :) lmk what you think!!

[connorsnothereeither]

So like, a while ago I did a little update on the Brink fics, and I figured it was worth giving a kinda sad update on my other Fable fics as well.

At this stage, there are no plans to continue or finish Your Skin Beneath My Teeth (the second book in the Blood series).

I know this is probably disappointing, because I know a lot of people really loved the Vampire AU. But from a personal writing level, I’m just sort of unhappy with the direction of the books, and I don’t have the time to commit to rewriting them. I’m not invested enough in my own story, and while that’s a shame, I don’t know if there’s much I can do without just giving myself time to stew on it.

There’s also a logistical side to things as well. Fable is coming to an end in less than a month. I feel like it’ll probably take me months to finish the Brink series still first, which are the fics I’m personally more passionate about. And at a certain point, I don’t want Fable to be the only thing that consumes my writing for the next year+. Not to mention the time I want to dedicate to other SMPs and creative projects I’m involved in, like Cantripped, Bound SMP, and Terramortis, with even more stuff in the works.

On top of all that like… I’m just a guy, ya know. I’m a full time student, work part-time most days of the week, commute between 2 major cities regularly, and I have other things that just deserve my time more.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been in fandoms for years, I know it’s shitty when fics you enjoy never get an ending. But I hope that like, people get where I’m coming from with discontinuing it, I guess.

Besides, there is, technically, an ending for Blood. I’ve had the ending written since the end of the first book (it’s just getting there that’s the problem) and so if people would like, as some sort of closure for the story, I would be happy to release that here on Tumblr or on my Kofi or something. Maybe I’ll make a follow up post with a poll.

I might as well mention that there is likewise no plan to “finish” the Band AU, but since that was always a collection of one-shots, there was never really a plan or end for any of it. It was always kinda disjointed without an end in sight lol.

I’m not saying that I’m NEVER going to go back to these fics. Just that it’s unlikely. But who knows, maybe someday I’ll crawl out of the dirt to finish them-

If you did only follow my Fable fics for the Blood books though, I’m sure some elements of my other fan works might appeal to you, if you want to give them a go! The horror/contemplations of humanity are the key theme of Brink, and the mystery/thriller, high stakes political conflict mixed with interpersonal melodrama is the focus of Cascading Skies, my new Bound fic. And of course those and so many more things are just key elements to like all of my storytelling my canon characters lol. But if none of that ticks your boxes, it was great to have y’all along for the bloody vampire ride :D

Anyway this was me getting sappy about setting aside a project I worked really hard on lol. Sometimes you gotta do that and sometimes that’s okay, and that’s an attitude I struggle with but am getting better at. I know don’t owe y’all any kind of explanation for this, I could have just stopped and let it die, but I wanted to give one. More for me personally really; I needed to say something about it publicly to like… fully cement in my mind what I decided on a long time ago. Anyway, catch y’all later when I’m not incredibly tired, and hopefully with a more silly goofy post ✌️

[megumishousewife]

Megumi x Chubby! Streamer Part 2

A/N: I'm so sorry I kept yall waiting for part two, college life was kicking my butt but (double butt) please enjoy bae🫶🏽

It wasn’t even a full 24 hours and you were trending on Twitter overnight. You saw that you had gained at least half a million subscribers on all of your platforms, not to mention how you were tagged in many videos about Megumi. Ignoring your growing fame, you opened your Twitter page and saw the poll that you had uploaded last night to see that over 95% of voters wanted you to meet your favorite streamer. You were shocked by how many people were so engrossed with your little crush that it caused you to laugh.

“Wow, it’s 10 AM and Twitter is losing their mind,” You mumbled to yourself.

You knew that you were not exactly ready to meet Megs in person because you already know with no established meeting of any kind is just bound to cause an awkward interaction. You thought about another solution while you handled the business portion of your day, responding to emails and accepting sponsors. While answering after answering an email from an Indie horror game creator, you stumbled upon a message in your inbox that you were not expecting. The sender read Megumi Fushiguro with the subject topic being “possible collab?”. You felt your heart drop to your stomach. The feeling of the world closing in on you was prevalent in this moment. Your YouTube crush….WANTS TO COLLAB?! You took the time to thank your fans in your head as you read the email, trying to contain your need to burst into tears of joy. The email reads:

Dear Y/N,

I’m pleased to see that our fans are interested in us growing a bond with each other. I, as well, was interested in you and your content so I wanted to ask if you were interested if you would like to do a video together. Let me know your answer and please follow up with ideas. Thank you for your time!

Sincerely,

Megumi Fushiguro

You tried your hardest to not squeal in excitement. You read the entire email all over again, just imagining it in his voice and you gushed about how cute he would probably sound trying to be serious. You took a moment to respond, gather your thoughts and try to be as professional as possible.

Dear Mr. Fushiguro,

Sorry for being so formal, but I would love to do a collab with you! I’m sorry for the social media uproar, I bet you're not used to THIS kind of attention. I would like to play “It Takes Two” since it’s more of a duo game anyways. If you could tell me a day that is good with you, I can clear my schedule. Thanks!

Sincerely,

Y/N

You flopped on your bed and kicked your feet giddily for a split second. You looked at your clock and decided to do an early morning stream to thank your audience and tell them your surprise (you couldn’t wait because you would have tweeted that you're doing a video with your crush). Getting back into influencer mode, you started setting up your lighting for your stream as the intermission screen was on for your viewers so they couldn’t see you and your nervous jitters. Sitting down, you took a quick breather before clicking your fans over to see your facecam.

“Hi guys! There’s about 5,000 of you guys here. I know I just saw you guys yesterday but I missed you all! Welcome back, welcome back. As you can tell by the title of this stream, I have a special announcement for all of you! Let’s allow a few more people to come in and I will make my announcement.

While you and your fans waited, you said hello to a few people, some asked you how your morning has been so far. Others asked about your Youtube content and you replied holding a finger over your lips, smiling. After ten minutes of friendly chatting, you decided to drop the bomb.

You began, “Before I tell you my announcement, I just wanted to thank you guys for even making this possible. For all your hashtags and tweets to bring attention to little ole me, I thank you all. Sooo, yo get to the point for you guys… I am currently working on collabing with Megs and I can’t wait to start filming for it!”

You saw your chat blow up with “Let’s go” or “you finna get your manz” and all you could do was giggle at how supportive your fans were.

“Guys, relax. All we are doing is playing a game and no, you won’t find out until I release the video.”

You got an email notification and saw that it was from Megumi and it said: “Open it on stream ;)”. Your mouth dropped open and you looked at your webcam.

“Megs wants you guys to see his recent email.”

Your chat was going crazy, asking if you read it yet or just straight up telling you to read it.

“No, I have not read the email yet. We can all read it together.”

You shared your screen with your chat and began reading the email to them. It reads:

Y/N, I’m pleased to work and get closer to you in the future. When you’re done with your stream, send me an email with your number so I can call you.

~Megs

All you could do was scream in the mic while your fans spammed W’s in the chat, probably having the same reaction as you.

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

Nobara smiled hard at the screen watching your priceless reaction.

She said, “My god, Yuji, I think you made this girl lose her mind over Megumi. Gosh, she’s so cute.”

Behind her, Megumi had Yuji in a chokehold while Yuji tried to wiggle out of his grasp.

“Look, Megumi,” Yuji said, “She’s happy about the email and you’re overreacting! Don’t get mad at me because I tried to add a little rizz to your emails.”

Megumi released Yuji, “ I was trying to be professional and you-”. Megumi’s face was turned by Yuji, forcing him to continue to look at your blushing face on stream as you spoke highly about him with a smile on your face, admiring your chubby face radiating on his big screen. He slapped Yuji’s hands away and walked towards his kitchen, blushing.

Nobara high-fived Yuji and whispered, “Good job, Cupid!”

-

-

-

taglist!: @definitely-notalissa (as promised babes🤞🏽)

[meowmeowriley]

Changes: a Poll-Fic

Chapter 7: Side With Ghost: End

The Fic on Ao3

Ch. 1 Ch. 2 Ch. 3 Ch. 4 Ch. 5 Ch. 6

Ghost must know something he didn't, and Gaz had never tried to interfere. Soap decided to side with Ghost, give him a moment to explain himself.

Aheh… hahah… ahahahaaa….

"Cap, let's hear him out."

Price looked equal parts surprised and concerned. At first continuing to hold the canister away from Ghost, before finally narrowing his gaze and slowly proffering it back towards the man he'd swiped it from. "Talk first." He demanded.

"It's an antidote." Gaz cut in before Ghost could speak. "Of sorts..." he added hesitantly.

Heheh… mmhmhhmhm…

"I just wanna fix what they did to my mouth." Ghost said quietly, voice barely registering over the roar of the engine and the sounds of the truck bouncing along the uneven dirt road. "We don't have enough to fix everythin'. Just let me fix this."

…Monstrous…

Hah… ahaha… ahahahahahahuhhhhh…

Price seemed to be shocked into silence. Or at least he had been, but he quickly rounded on Soap, and snapped at him. "Would you stop fucking laughing, Sergeant, this isn't the bloody time!"

What? "Ah'm no-"

Heheh… huhhhh… ahah…

"Dammit, Soap-"

"I don't think he can help it, Price." Once again, Gaz seemed to know more than the rest of them. "Doesn't seem to know he's been doing it. Must've been exposed."

"Exposed?" Soap asked dumbly.

Oh, so he didn't know… I'm sorry, Johnny…

"Gas born... something, that gets into you not through your lungs, but through an injury." Gaz gestured towards his arm with his head, where he had his free hand clamped hard over the wound. "Like a bullet wound or," he gestured towards Ghost. "His... everythin'."

"Your hand?" Price asked with a gentleness that he hadn't had since he'd picked the three of them up.

"He was laughing before they lopped off his fingers though." Ghost pointed out.

And that tracked. Soap had been hearing, no, apparently he had been producing the laugh since he'd entered that cursed spiral hall in the basement. Since he'd picked the locks... since he'd-

"I rubbed my eyes?" That couldn't have been it, could it?

"Before or after being exposed to the gas?" Ghost prodded.

"When was I exposed?" Soap hadn't noticed a gas, it must've been odorless, invisible.

Gaz confirmed that, then continued. "There were symbols painted on the door to where they were keeping Ghost, painted in this stuff." He kicked the backpack at his feet, full of canisters or the mystery substance. "The gas was the bio weapon we were sent to investigate. They've been testing it for a while. You would've been exposed to it when you broke the seals, and after, it spread throughout the entire facility."

"The laughing started after I opened that door, yeah. I didn't know it was me." Ghost put his left hand on Soap's shoulder, and Soap was grateful for the contact. He leaned his head on the other man's hand.

Mmmmmhmhm… hmhmhuhh…

Price seemed to make up his mind suddenly, as he grabbed his radio. "Laswell, you are clear for your airstrike."

"You all are danger close, John." She cautioned, her voice crackling through comms.

"Don't care, bring it all down." He sighed heavily. Then, "The research. What'd you find?"

Gaz looked at Ghost, then looked down at his feet. "They had a ton of test subjects. Every one of them developed some sort of insect-like features after exposure. Depending on the wound and the person, it could be more or less disturbing." He winced a bit, probably realizing how his words could hurt Ghost.  "Some of the changes caused by a lengthy exposure seem to be irreversible, even with the yellow stuff." He continued avoiding eye contact with the Lieutenant.

Ghost leaned back and let his head knock off the side of the truck. "Fuuuuuuck." He closed his eye. He let his arm fall from Soap's shoulder.

Gaz continued. "It's suspected that there's a short window of effectiveness for this stuff. There was one guy, poor bastard, who was basically made of roaches. They'd cut him open and the bugs would pour out. Don't know how long they kept playing with the poor guy, but eventually they dropped his entire body into a huge vat of the stuff, and all that came out was a swarm of thousands of 'em. It didn't fix him." He took a shaky breath.

It occurred to Soap then that Gaz must've read about, or worse, watched, what had happened to the countless men who'd been tested on. What's more, he'd swiped the research data, so they had with them whatever he'd seen. Soap wasn't sure if he wanted to see it himself.

"I'm sorry, Ghost-" Gaz started, shakily, but Ghost cut him off.

"Pour it on your arm, Sergeant." He ordered.

"What?"

"Were there timestamps on those videos?" Ghost asked.

"I, erm... I had it on double speed, and wasn't really lookin'-"

"I was there. I saw what they did to him. It's too late for me." Ghost looked so dejected.

Aa Gaz did as he was instructed, Soap reached for Ghost. He brought up his right hand, the injured one, to place on Ghost's shoulder in support, to return the gesture, and it was then that he noticed it. His ring and pinky finger on that hand seemed to have been replaced.

Heheh���

He hadn't felt it happen, but something tore through the bandaging and was filling the fingers of his gloves. Slowly, Soap pulled the glove off. What appeared to be the pincers of a stag beetle were jutting out of the nubs where his fingers had been. He flexed his hand, and the pincers went up and down with his fingers. Tentatively, Soap tried and succeeded in opening and closing them as well.

Gaz started speaking again. "There was one scientist who theorized that it wasn't time based, but instead had to do with whether the person had all of their body parts back, as to whether or not they could be fixed. They took a lot out of that roach guy- oh shit." Soap looked up to see the others all watching him play with his new appendages.

Silently, Ghost handed him a canister.

"I don't have the fingers..." Soap whispered sadly.

"All we can do is hope you don't need 'em. Pour it on." When Soap took the canister and did as he was told, Ghost smiled. It was half hearted, but full of affection. "There's a good lad."

The odd not-quite-liquid, not-quite-gas flowed slowly over Soap's arthropodic digits. It chilled his entire hand, and sent electric tingles through his blood stream.

"Your eyes too, Soap." Price instructed. "Just to be safe."

Ghost took hold of the canister in his left hand, and cradled Soap's chin with his right. "Lean back." He instructed gently.

Heh…

Soap brought up his hand, making sure to cover Ghost's replaced digits with his own. "If it doesn't work, we'll be okay, yeah?"

Simon smiled at him. "Yeah, Johnny. We'll be alright, love."

Huhmmmmmm…

Behind them, Soap could see the fireball as the base was struck by the rockets.

***

Somewhere, deep within the jungle, a stag beetle with human fingers where it should have pincers followed closely a centipede with an eyeball for a head.

The pair made their way out of the burned rubble of a base that had come crumbling down on top of them. They made their way into the undergrowth, homing in on where they were meant to be, an entire world away.

The two were succeeded by a veritable army of roaches, dozens of them carrying teeth, and one a tongue. 

[runnning-outof-time]

Birmingham | Tommy Shelby x Reader (Part 20)

Previous Part

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x reader

Summary: Plans of taking over the tracks get thwarted quickly for the Shelbys as trouble makes its way into Birmingham. Tommy tells (Y/N) to stay away, but of course she can't for too long. Everything gets laid out on the table after a scary experience shakes the both of them.

Warnings: drinking, series typical violence, canon death, injury, blood

Word Count: 4426

A/N: here it is everyone…the final chapter of Birmimgham! Thank you so much to those of you who have stuck with this story…through the break and the drawn out postings. I finished it for you. I’d love to know what you think of how it ended (since I went with the winner of the poll; which was giving a ending that felt finished). Enjoy! :)

A/N 2: the italicized dialogue is taken from the show. I’d also like to give a special thanks to @alicent-targaryen for making the amazing gifsets that helped me write this chapter so quickly — they gave me so much inspiration! :) also if you’d ever like to know what the original ending for this was…feel free to reach out to me…if I get enough interest, I may just write it as a short.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

The story is finished! — I hope you enjoyed!

"Is Tommy here, or has he left already?" (Y/N) asked Polly after she entered the Watery Lane home. She found the older woman working on cleaning the mantle in the living room, and she couldn't stop herself from blurting the question out.

"He should still be upstairs," Polly answered, not even bothering to turn and properly greet (Y/N). It seemed as though she was deep into working on something.

"Can I go up?" (Y/N) asked hesitantly, not wanting to cross any lines.

Her question made Polly turn and look at her. The older woman quirked an eyebrow, probably wondering why the question was even being asked. "If you wish to. His door is at the end of the hall," she answered (Y/N)'s question. (Y/N) nodded, saying a quick thank you before she made her way to the stairs of the home.

She walked down the hall, stopping at the last door and taking a pause before she knocked on it. "Come," his voice came from inside the room, making her twist the knob and open the door. She saw him standing at the dresser, finishing up shaving.

"Hi, Tommy," she said softly, making him stop what he was doing and turn to face her.

"It's early, (Y/N)," he commented, surprised by her presence.

"I know, but I was unable to stay away...ever since you told me today would be the day; my mind won't stop," she explained her reason for being there. She'd been worried about everything that would happen today and couldn't stop herself from going to see Tommy before he left for the races.

Tommy finished up what he was doing, grabbing a rag so that he could wipe his face off before he then gave his attention to (Y/N). He could see the slight bit of worry behind her eyes, and he hated that it was there. For a moment he felt bad that he'd been the one to create it, but worry or not, he knew that she understood what had to be done.

"When will you go?" she asked him, breaking the silence that had fallen in the room.

"In a few hours," he gave a vague estimation, "I need to touch base with my brothers. There'll be a family meeting at half ten; there we'll discuss what will be done. I'd say that we'll be leaving shortly after that," he explained what had been on his list to accomplish. "You can come to the meeting, if you'd like," he then extended an invitation.

"I'll come," (Y/N) nodded, making her decision rather quickly. She figured that hearing his plan in full might serve to give her some solace.

"Good," Tommy nodded, a ghost of a smile teetering on his lips, "we'll be set after this, (Y/N)," he said to her then, his words riddled with confidence. (Y/N) smiled upon hearing it. She loved how self-assured he was; it was almost contagious.

"I'm worried," she said then, retreating back to her own way of thinking. She was itching to reach out and take hold of him from the second she'd walked in, but she didn't know if that would be received well or not. The last thing she wanted was him upset with her as he embarked on this big scheme.

"You shouldn't be," he assured her, "we've got the Lees on our side thanks to John and Esme, and Kimber will think that we're going to fight that family instead of taking to the pitches. He won't expect what'll actually happen," he gave her the rundown of his plan, still holding a great deal of confidence in it. Things were going to go his way today; he could already feel it.

"Ok," (Y/N) nodded along, trying to switch her thinking for his, "and I'll stay here...with Pol to make sure everything runs well on this end," she addressed her part in the plan.

"Good," Tommy nodded. He paused then, pulling his timepiece out so that he could check it. "Love, I should go now," he said as he slipped the watch back into its pocket.

"Ok," she repeated what she'd just said, "I just wanted to see you before you left."

"Come to the meeting," he said to her, a slight smile on his face.

"I will," she assured him, smiling also as she nodded her head.

"Come on," he said then, moving forward and placing his hand to the small of her back as he led her out of the bedroom and over to the stairs. She descended them first with him following behind. "I'll see you at half ten," he told her, walking to the door as she decided she'd stay back and see if Polly needed any help before then. It wouldn't be long until the time for the meeting came anyway; she might as well stick around.

Polly did in fact need help with minor things, and the women quickly got busy with them, passing the time between the meeting like (Y/N) hoped they would. It wasn't long until everyone was gathered in the empty betting shop; all eyes focused on Tommy as he explained the plan (Y/N) had got a preview of in full detail.

"Any other questions?" Tommy asked once he was finished explaining the plans. He looked around the room, waiting for anyone to speak up.

"Yes," it was Polly who answered as she made her way to the door that separated the betting floor from the home, "does anyone object if I bring a newcomer to the meeting?" she asked, looking around the room. Silence came in response, making her move over to the door so that she could open it slightly and whisper "come on," to whoever it was on the other side. She then opened the door wider to show Ada, who had Karl in her arms. "I'd like to introduce the newest member of the Shelby clan," she announced, a smile on her face.

(Y/N)'s cheeks were hurting from the wideness of her smile as her friend took a step further into the room. It was so good to see her back with her family again. Arthur was the one to start the clapping, and soon the room was filled with applause as Ada walked into the room. She stopped where (Y/N) was standing and gave her a smile, to which (Y/N) sent one of her own back.

"Welcome home, Ada," Tommy said to his sister, a smile forming on his lips. It warmed (Y/N)'s heart to see the progress being made.

She then explained the baby's name, earning some laughs from the group that was gathered around her. Arthur then went over to see the baby, taking him from Ada's arms and placing his peaked cap on top of his head. (Y/N) laughed along with the rest of the group as John poked fun at his older brother. Ada sent (Y/N) a smile before Tommy addressed her, asking if he was forgiven. (Y/N) stayed behind and watched Ada move over to him, telling him he was. She felt her heart swell as they shared a hug.

"It's so good to see you back with your family," (Y/N) said to Ada once she'd come back to her side. Tommy and the other men had gotten together to talk finer details of what would be going down. (Y/N) decided to stay with the women instead of learning more of the plan, feeling more comfortable watching Esme make exaggerated faces at the baby than hearing about how they were going to take over the races.

—

After things were finished at the shop, Tommy and the men decided to go to the Garrison to have a drink before they hit the road for the races. (Y/N) offered to join and help out, knowing that things would go smoother if there was another set of hands - hands that knew what they were doing - behind the bar pouring drinks.

Things were going well. (Y/N) was pouring with Tommy and the two had slipped into a comfortable routine. She wasn't going to lie, she quite enjoyed working in these close quarters with him. All was well...until it wasn't.

Arthur entered the Garrison with Jeremiah trailing close behind him. Both men were walking like they were on a mission. "Tommy," Arthur called for his brother, his gruff voice making just about all of the celebrations stop. "I need to talk to you," he said, his seriousness holding as he nodded his head to the stockroom that was behind the bar. Tommy glanced at (Y/N), who was becoming more confused by the second, before he followed his brother and friend into the room.

They were only gone for a matter of seconds before coming back out. "(Y/N)..." he started, coming right over to her, a sense of urgency in his movements and vocal tone. "(Y/N), I need you to leave now, ok?" he said to her, his eyes wide as he spoke; a tell-tale sign that he was now under pressure and needed things to be done timely and in a certain way.

"Wha...why?" she asked, her brows furrowed in confusion.

"Billy Kimber and his men are coming this way," he told her, "I need you to stay clear of here, you understand me?" he searched her eyes then, his hands blindly searching for hers. It didn't take much to find them, and when he did, he squeezed them for added effect, "stay away from here," he told her again.

"Ok. Ok, I will," she nodded her head, sensing his urgency and falling in line with it, "I'll go and be with Pol and Ada, and I'll wait there for you," she then told him where he could find her.

"Good," Tommy nodded lightly, feeling relieved that she wasn't going to be mixed up in the middle of this developing plan. He was going to need to fight Kimber on his own turf now. It was something he could do, but he wanted to make sure that the people he cared for the most were out of harm's way. "Go on," he said then, dropping her hands so that he could let her leave.

(Y/N)'s heart dropped slightly at the abrupt loss of warmth his hands were giving her, but she didn't have much time to dwell on it as she was following his orders, exiting the Garrison at a hasty speed so that she could get to Watery Lane before all hell broke loose.

Tommy watched her as she went, keeping his eyes on her until she was out of his sight before he focused on the men that had gathered in front of him, waiting for their leader to give them direction.

—

(Y/N) was out of breath when she finally got to Watery Lane. She entered the house promptly, hoping that either one, or both, of the women that she was looking for would be present. To her relief, they both were sitting in the living room.

"Where have you run from?" Polly questioned her, a look of confusion forming on her face.

"I...I just came...Tommy told me to..." she stammered out, resting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath, hoping that doing so would allow her to get out a complete sentence.

"Come, sit down, love," Polly coaxed her over to the open chair and (Y/N) listened, moving over to sit and take a few more calming breaths. "Tell us when you're ready," she said to the younger woman, both her and Ada waiting intently for the news it seemed she had.

"I ran from the Garrison. The plans have changed...Billy Kimber's on his way here to make a stand. Tommy told me to stay away from the tavern. He thinks that it's going to happen there," (Y/N) explained once her breathing was normal again.

"Bloody hell," Polly hissed, exhaling a sigh as she heard the news, "they're going to get themselves killed."

"I don't know any of the finer details...I just know that they're going to fight them here now," (Y/N) stated, trying to push down the worry that was bubbling up inside of her.

"I've got to go," Ada finally spoke in the midst of her rushing to stand from the couch.

(Y/N)'s brows furrowed as she watched her friend move around the room, grabbing the carriage she'd brought with her so that she could transfer a sleeping Karl into it. "Ada, wait...what are you doing?" she asked, confusion present in her tone.

"I'm going to go make these bloody men see sense," Ada spoke through gritted teeth, making it apparent that anger and frustration were coursing through her. She moved over to the archway that led to the door before stopping and looking at the women, "because I know the finer details of the day, and I refuse to stand by and let this happen," she didn't wait for a response to her pointed statement after uttering it, instead turning and walking through the archway and out the door.

"What does she mean?" (Y/N) asked Polly as soon as the door shut. She was so confused right now. Polly just looked defeated.

"Freddie was to be broken out of his transport earlier today...he was going to come home and help with the effort at the races, and this was all to be done in accordance to Tommy's plan," Polly filled (Y/N) in on what Ada was getting at.

(Y/N) sighed as she heard what the older woman had to say. "She's going to go and confront them, isn't she?" she asked in a blank tone.

"She very well may," Polly didn't give a straightforward answer. Ada was a Shelby after all...Shelbys did what they wanted and rarely cared about the dangers that stood in their way.

(Y/N) knew this all too well. Ada was going to go and confront these two gangs of men. She stood from the chair with an exasperated sigh. Tommy's voice echoed in her mind as she stood; warning her not to go anywhere near the Garrison. She pushed it back, knowing that that was exactly where her friend was going. "I'm going to go and try to stop her, Pol," she informed the other woman as she walked towards the archway.

"Be careful, (Y/N)," Polly offered some words of advice, making (Y/N) nod before she walked through the archway and out of the Watery Lane home.

—

"I want you all to look at me!" (Y/N) heard Ada's voice echo through the empty streets as she ran as fast as she could to the Garrison. Upon turning the corner, she saw two lines of men, the groups facing each other. Ada was smack-dab in the middle, addressing both lines as they had their guns pointed at each other. She's going to get herself killed! (Y/N) thought to herself as she picked up her pace. "Who will be wearing black for you? Think about them. Think about them right now...and fight if you want to, but that baby ain't moving anywhere, and neither am I," she continued, her voice raw and full of emotion.

"Ada!" (Y/N) called to her friend as she made her way through the line of men whom she recognized to be the Peaky Blinders. "Ada, you can't be doing this!" she exclaimed, her eyes frantic as she rushed out into the middle of the standoff in hopes to get her friend to see some sense. "This isn't your war to get into the middle of. This isn't the place for you, or for your baby," she insisted, her eyes locked onto the other woman's as she tried to get her out of the middle of it all.

"I won't move, (Y/N)," Ada stayed persistent.

"If not for your own safety, do it for Karl," (Y/N) didn't back down, "this isn't your war to try to stop," she repeated her previous statement, trying to keep her voice steady as adrenaline started to fill her. She tried so hard not to think of what was standing on either side of her at the moment, putting her sole focus on her friend. "Come on...move for Karl," she said again, her voice softer now as she nodded to the carriage that was off to the side. They held each other's gaze before Ada just barely nodded her head. (Y/N) saw it though, and she moved Ada off to the side, hyper-aware of all of the eyes following her.

"She's right you know..." Billy Kimber was the first to speak up once the women were off to the side, "why should all you men die?" he asked the men surrounding him before looking forward, "it should just be them who've caused it," he accentuated his statement by brandishing his weapon and firing it twice.

(Y/N) squeezed her eyes shut and spun to shield both Ada and the carriage as best she could as pandemonium broke out in the street. Several men were screaming and Karl's cries had intensified before there was one more gunshot.

Tommy was the next person to speak. "Enough!" he yelled, causing everything to halt at once. (Y/N), even though her eyes were still closed, felt relieved that he was still speaking, because that meant he was still alive. "Kimber and me fought this battle one on one. It's over. Go home to your families!" he addressed the men standing across from him.

Nothing else was said as the sound of footsteps rang out, signaling to (Y/N) that people were walking away. She heard Tommy mumble something to someone, and more footsteps were heard then. She stayed by Ada and Karl, unable to really move as she took some steadying breaths.

"Ada..." a man's voice came from the women's left.

"Freddie," Ada breathed, moving from the carriage to go to the man who had approached them.

"Don't scare us like that," he said to her, allowing her to fall into his arms and cling to him. He closed his eyes and rested his chin on the top of her head as he held her tight against him.

(Y/N) smiled softly as she watched them reunite, feeling the emotion radiating off of them. She finally looked back at the street then, seeing that everyone else had cleared off of it. Worried about the rest of the men - especially one in particular - she left the couple's side and hurried to the doors of the Garrison.

She was met with agonizing screams as she opened the doors, and immediately realized that they were coming from Tommy. Hearing them made her heart drop to her stomach. Had he been shot? she wondered, worry immediately filling her body.

Arthur was the one to notice her presence amidst trying to help get the bullet out of his brother's shoulder, "go and wait in the stockroom, love, you don't want to be seein' this," he told her and she nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat and not asking any questions before she made a b-line to the stockroom behind the bar.

She waited there as time passed painstakingly slowly. Hearing Tommy scream out in pain was breaking her heart. She wished there was something, anything, she could do to help.

Then everything became quiet again. She heard some talking, but it was muffled by the door that she'd closed. She decided to stay in the room even though it seemed that the worst of it was over. A few more minutes passed before the door opened to reveal Tommy.

(Y/N) didn't wait for another second. She was walking over to him the second she saw him, her hands raising so that she could take his cheeks into them and bring his lips to hers. She kissed him passionately and with everything she had in her. Tommy's hands found the sides of her waist so that he could hold her against him, prolonging the kiss...as if she was going to pull away anyway.

"What was that for?" he breathed out once they'd pulled away.

"For scaring me," she answered him, an involuntary shudder coursing through her as she let her eyes drop to the bloody shirt that he was wearing. He's ok...he's standing in front of you, she told herself, her eyes finding his again.

Tommy chuckled at her statement, squeezing her waist slightly before he leaned in and kissed her again. (Y/N) happily accepted it, slipping her hands from his cheeks to the back of his neck as she reveled in the feeling of their lips moving together seamlessly. Nothing ever felt this good.

"And that was for?" she asked once she pulled away, breathless this time. She couldn't stop the smile from forming on her face as she looked at him again.

"An apology for scaring you," he told her, his words making her tip her head back slightly as she let out a laugh.

His eyes were still on her when she looked at him again. His gaze made butterflies dance around in her stomach, and she couldn't help but encircle her arms around his neck so that she could hug him; her head resting against the uninjured side of his chest as she did so. She brought one of her hands down from the back of his neck to gently lift his jacket where the blood was present on his shirt. She couldn't see much, but she still had to ask: "you're ok, are you?" Her voice was much softer now, worry creeping back after the excitement of the kisses faded.

"I'm fine, love," he answered her, his voice coming out in a similar tone. "Come on...have a drink with me," he said then, loosening his hold on her waist. She got the message, dropping her hands from his neck so that he could step away and lead her out of the stockroom and back into the bar area. "Under the bar should be a bottle of champagne..." he started off as he walked around to the opposite side of the bar so that he could stand across from her.

"Going for fancy today, are we?" (Y/N) couldn't help but grin as she grabbed the unopened bottle from one of the lower shelves.

"Figured we should...since we're celebrating," Tommy grinned right back at her, watching as she set the bottle on the bartop before going to grab two glasses. As she did that, he turned and rested his back against the bar, taking some of the weight off of his feet. He let out a sigh as he tipped his head back, reveling in a moment of peace after so much chaos.

"Is everything ok?" (Y/N) asked after she turned around and found him.

"Yeah," he breathed, pushing himself off of the bar and turning around to stand straight and face her again, nodding his head then for extra effect. (Y/N) nodded back at him before she uncorked the bottle and worked on pouring it into both of the cups. She tried her best not to mess up under his gaze. She smiled at him once she was finished, handing him a glass before she picked her own up and took a sip from it. "How is it?" he asked, his eyes not leaving hers.

"It's good," (Y/N) answered with a nod and a soft smile.

"You know..." he began then, pausing a moment before continuing, "someone I trust once told me, and I believe they told me here; in this very spot...that people fall for people that they know; people that they've been around and feel comfortable with..." he trailed off, and (Y/N) felt her throat go dry. Those words sounded all too familiar...like the words that she'd told him when he was grappling with Ada being with Freddie. He took a deep breath before continuing, "I want you to help me, (Y/N). With the business, the family, with the whole fucking thing. I want you, no, I need you in my life."

"Tommy this is, wow..." she couldn't finish her sentence, taken back by what he'd just proclaimed. All of the dancing around her feelings for him had led to this...the moment she'd been secretly hoping for for so long. But now that it was here, she was fumbling. "I'm not sure of what to say..." she blubbered out, her nervousness shining clear in her words. She'd never wanted something more in her life...why had she chosen this moment to be awkward?!

"Yes would be a good thing to say," he said, cracking a grin as he noticed her trying to fight back her nervousness, "it'd be a great thing to say, actually."

"Then yes," she breathed, a smile breaking onto her face.

"Then yes," he repeated what she'd said, smiling also as he leaned across the bar to kiss her. She caught his chin, holding him there and making the kiss longer than he intended...not that he was complaining.

"I think we'd ought to leave," (Y/N) said after they'd pulled away from each other, "we've had enough excitement for one day...you should get home," she suggested.

"And what will you do?" he asked her, wondering if they'd now be parting ways after all that just happened. He really didn't want that to be the case.

"I thought that maybe I'd come with you...someone's got to make sure that you keep clean bandages on your shoulder," she answered him, unable to stop the smile from creeping onto her lips.

Tommy caught that, knowing what else she could be thinking that would make such a smile form on her face. "I like the sound of that," he said to her, also grinning before she walked around the bar to come to his side.

The day had truly been won. Not only had Tommy defeated Billy Kimber, but he'd finally let (Y/N) know how he felt about her...and to his relief, she'd felt the same about him.

And for (Y/N)...she had a feeling that she wasn't leaving Birmingham any time soon. That was something she was perfectly ok with.

Tagged: @mgcldydrms @the-anxious-youth @cloudofdisney @look-at-the-soul @elenavampire21 @mrsalwayswrite @julkaamazing @evita-shelby @lilyrachelcassidy @notyour-valentine @shelbydelrey @december16-1991 @onlydeadcells @peakyswritings @just-a-blackhole @watercolorskyy @strayrockette @peakyduchesss @alexxavicry @captivatedbycillianmurphy @yummycastiel @dark-academia-slut @tommystargirl @stevie75 @lyarr24 @signorellisantichrist @zablife @anotherblinder @midnightmagpiemama @cillmequick @l1-l4 @chlorrox @lostgirl219 @woofgocows @bdudette @mrkdvidal1989 @stephhevring @fictional-hooman @httyd-marauders @nataliewalker93 @rangerelik @thecraziestcrayon @cilliansangel @shaddixlife @tracysnook

SERIES MASTERLIST

[heelycular-manslaughter]

I've been working on a ttrpg inspired by Hades and Kill 6 Billion Demons, modifying my Lumen game, Luminous Vein. It's definitely still early in the process, and I have so many projects that this one is a bit on the backburner, in part because I hate figuring out random generation and it'd feel more right to have a more official vibe to it with art & stuff. Anyway I do however think some of it is cool as hell so I put out a poll asking people what they'd like to hear about; you guys chose my problematic trans rep, who I dont have much to say about that I didn't already put in its description, so I'll just put it in full:

Hollow, Goddess of Rot

It/its, she/her, they/them

Feared among mortals to its elation, Hollow is a heavy shadow of positivity in the pantheon of gods. It loves trying to find new ways to disgust and horrify mortals, sometimes going so far as to create minor planes to trap them in and play with them. It, however, is not a real threat to anyone; her domain only ever affects those that have already died.

While plenty of wildlife loves her, human cults are rare to form, but those that do are often social outcasts, finding beauty in not just the way rot provides new life, but to death on its own merit.

Hollow is the shambling corpse of the first dead god, born in the abyss that could not be filled by anyone else. Its skin is grey and thin, tearing at the joints; its eyes have long been forgotten by physical existence; its form is too old and rotted to make out what the dead god once looked like. There's a gaping hole in the center of her neck, leaving its voice whispy, almost pained. They have a series of spindly, metal legs modeled by Eralth, the God of Craft, to support their slowly withering divine legs. Smaller beings of rot reside in the fungi and holes growing around their flesh. Hollow is extremely proud of the body they claimed, and, even as the gods respond to her presence with discomforted silence at best, they will all admit that she shows more joy than the first dead god ever did, or most other gods in the pantheon, for that matter.

Hollow loves dead things and is, therefore, happy to help runners escape hell so they can fulfill their full potential as dead things. She only shows confusion when asked for clarification.

Core Mechanic: Rot

When enemies inflicted with rot die, their bodies will remain to fight alongside you, becoming undead. Undead have the same actions made on the GM turn, but directed at enemies, and their health is based on how much rot you inflicted on them.

Boons of Hollow:

Rotting Wounds: Your weapon attacks inflict 1 rot

Trail of Death: Inflict 3 rot when you move away from an enemy

Decay: When you kill an enemy with an attack requiring 2 actions, they are given 1 rot

Spores: Your cast inflicts 2 rot to all enemies in Close range of the target.

Contagion: All undead attacks inflict 1 rot.

Self-Actualization: You can choose to target actions or casts on yourself, dealing harm but giving you any included rot effects as well.

Angry Dead: All undead deal +1 harm

Slough: Living targets inflicted with rot will take +1 harm.

Probably should've guessed the website with all the freak transgenders would vote for the freak transgender, now everything after her is gonna be a letdown. This is my best girl and also literally me so if anyone is mean to her I'll kill yo u

I'm not entirely sure how many possible boons I want the gods to have, Hades has a massive swathe of them but it turns out that can be kinda hard. I might add more mechanics to the core combat system to play with, the big issue I'll have to deal with is the randomness and the fact that the upgrades aren't weapon specific

Congrats! You read this far! or scrolled down and clicked words! You are now granted voting rights on what I should bring up next. if you want

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Hiya, I feel like I’ve not been doing as much analysis in here recently and I realise that’s probably why most of you follow me so sorry about that, I have quite a lot of ideas but the analysis posts tend to take a long time to write and so I thought I’d do a quick poll to see what you guys would prefer I focus on :)

My intention is to do all of these at some point but if I know which one people are most interested in then it gives me something to focus on

Explanation of options beneath cut

1) I’ve posted a quote-by-quote analysis of chapters 2, 3, and 4 of Six of Crows and have started but not yet fully written one of chapter 5 so I’d love to carry that on and I would also be happy to go back to chapter one if anyone wanted to read that. I love writing these and I would also say that my Crooked Kingdom Bathroom Scene analysis post is quite similar to these ones since I went quite by quote for the second part of that analysis.

2) Fairly self explanatory I guess but I have a lot of asks that have been sitting in there for a long time now and I’m so sorry to have kept people waiting

3) I have talked about minor characters in detail within posts, such as Rojax and Alys, and I have written a full analysis on Bajan but I think it would be really interesting to do a fully structured series on minor characters, you guys could vote for who you wanted next, and also being able to expand in more detail than I have done before on some of these folks might be really fun

4) Honestly I expect this will continue alongside anything else anyway because I feel like there’s always more to discover in these books and I’m always realising something new, it’s wonderful

Also: would people be interested if I brought my fan-written Soc spinoff script back? I had so much fun writing it but I’ve had a lot in and been focused on writing my fic so I’ve not written anything beyond the first two parts I already posted, but I really love the idea so yeah if anyone’s interested I’m more than happy to bring that back.

Thanks guys! 🖤

[da3dm]

In the deep blue sea, there isn't a place for me

—

Yeah I got that title from the same thing sloth sent brick...but I changed it a bit! Here's the result of that mystery poll from before—Sloth kinda half helped with editing this...this is a oneshot with two parts to it bc it'll be super long otherwise and then brick would never read it

It feels rushed to me but maybe not to you guys! Also my askbox is always open

Taglist: @brick-a-doodle-do , @i-am-beckyu , @justarandomsloth , @awkwardgtace , @rosewriting-ao3 (and look rose, gentle giant!!)

If you want tagged you gotta tell me or I can't

TW: Unintentional fearplay, character believing they'll die, begging to die (won't die), blood, mild cursing there's like one curse word bc Irza is Irza, character thinking they might be eaten, mention of suicide. (If there's more please tell me)

Word Count: 4.3k

Part 1/2

Well, this was by far not how he expected his day to go, but...he never did like boring things. But maybe even this was a little too far a stretch to be seen as boredom relief. His time would've been better spent not getting in this situation. Honestly, the last thing he remembered was the pod of mer he lived with outcasting him by using a prank. He was brought out to the middle of nowhere and ditched. With that sort of result he didn't even bother trying to return…he'd had enough and been planning to leave soon anyway. Seeing as he didn't have any possessions, he simply swam away.

Then everything had started to darken. It hadn't been too concerning because looking around…there really wasn't anything there. No predators. So he continued on his way to the shore, hoping to travel through the shallows to find a new home rather than the open ocean. Only a pod could somewhat safely be in the open like this, not a lone mer. It hadn't been too long after until he discovered the water was shoving him around strangely. Lightly, at first. Then it quickly started to increase and his panic rose rapidly. If only he'd noticed that the oncoming darkness was the omen of a storm.

It swept him away helplessly, flailing through the water like a loose piece of kelp. He could faintly recall that it pushed him roughly in the direction of shore, yet another thing only making the water's abuse even worse. It was fully expected that the water's torrent would smash his rather frail body into the rocks lining the edges. Leave him stranded in a tidepool where he'd be picked at by predators. Maybe bury him in the sand where he'd have no hope of escape. It was at that point he'd crashed into something big and smooth, with a lot of clattering sounds all around him. Then it had gone black, the impact too much to withstand.

And that brings him to now. The sun was hot on his exposed skin, the water level steadily getting lower, and hotter. It felt like he was being boiled alive. He was trapped inside something. Something clear, that shifted and crinkled when he moved, and was rather uncomfortable. Sure, it had probably saved him from outright dying, but now he was too far from the water to even attempt tipping the thing over to escape. This was a rather precarious situation to find himself in. After waking up in here it had looked to be sunrise and the container was half full…but now the sun was directly above him, beating down on his vulnerable form while the water was so low he couldn't even fully submerge.

While half his body was in the water, he shifted around to try and rearrange a few more times and only got the same results each time. It was hopeless, so he worked on keeping his tail in the water as much as possible, refusing to believe he'd simply die here. There had to be a way out, even if that meant waiting for night to fall, when the tide would be higher. He might be out of water by then, but…it was likely his only chance of survival. Being out on the sand in the hot sun would both cook him and let his predators see he was there. That would be his end right then and there with how far he was. He may want out, but he wasn't suicidal.

Trying to think of what to do, more time was passing and the water was getting lower. It was maybe an hour or two later of him attempting to figure out freedom when there was a change. He was noticing that it was a little cooler, sparing him of losing all of the water, but that wasn't all. There was a new tremor motion the water reacted to. He blinked at the tiny, extra ripples his body wasn't causing. The ripples stayed that way but soon he realized they were getting bigger. Not long after, it came to his attention that he could feel a vibration traveling from the ground through the rest of his body. A rising dread filled him and he scrambled to try and see, holding himself up.

He couldn't see anything. Well…to be fair it looked like he was in a ditch, it'd be hard to see anywhere from this angle. The vibration stopped and he held his breath. Nothing. Was it gone? In his distraction however, he failed to notice that all his movement had drawn something after him. All of a sudden something crashed into his prison and he barely avoided calling out, biting his tongue and flailing for balance. He looked up in a hurry to face his attacker and froze. A bird. What even was this thing?? It was white but he didn't recognize it from the usual pelicans he'd seen where he used to live. Still, it was eyeing him like a new meal.

Stopping to wonder what it was might not have been his brightest idea as it was now sticking its beak inside the small opening, wings flapping wildly. The webbed feet pushed at the clear walls as he hurriedly pushed himself down, away from the threatening beak. He bared his teeth uselessly, but it made him feel a lot better. Truthfully all the motion was sickening and too chaotic to make right from left. It even made a loud, overbearing sound that made his head ring painfully. The noise echoed in this small space way too much and he slapped his hands over his ears reflexively. This was too much for him. He hadn't even started to escape yet…and he was being attacked.

Then the vibration from earlier came to his attention, much heavier than before. It made him bounce in place and even the bird reacted, looking at the cause and calling out again. Before much else happened, a new sound came to him, sounding like words, but way too loud to be words. It made the space around him shudder and the bird had left. He had to breathe for a moment before he even dared look up, bracing himself against the slick walls and gazing up just as a new shadow fell right before his clear cage. In some ways he'd wished he'd never looked up.

The owner of the massive shadow was just as huge, towering over him in a way he'd never seen before. His mind immediately supplied the word human. He'd been told about them, seen them from a distance…he knew they were bigger, but not like this. Why would he get stuck on the beach and run into one of them?! Did the world really hate him that much?! Unfair! Not to mention, humans were supposed to stay away from the area he'd been heading for. Had he really been swept so far off his intended path?? Anything was possible at his size in a storm that nasty, but going from stormy waters, to a bird, to a human, wasn't even bad luck. That's like an outright curse.

His thoughts were cut short when the giant being took a step closer to him, shaking the entire space and making him scramble to prevent faceplanting. It was coming closer. His dread didn't have time to build up before a hand came rushing towards his trap, one way too big for what seemed natural. Though he clawed at the smooth surface surrounding him, it was hopeless, the hand closing around it. He shuddered at the realization the hand went all the way around the bottle…he could see the fingers nearly connect. That was to say…he forgot what would happen when it's being grabbed.

Not even a second later, he was hoisted off the ground, making his stomach do a wild flip while he forced himself to stay calm. What if it wanted him to be scared? But when the space was tilted and the water began to flow away from him, he gave an involuntary yelp of surprise and looked around frantically. The tilt suddenly stopped and it went back to how it had been before, the water returning. This time when looking at the human, he found bright green, huge eyes that were both locked right on him. He fought back a shiver, meeting that, admittedly, intimidating gaze. The eyes widened and he froze up.

Way too dizzying fast, he was racing skyward, stopping only once level with the way too big face. Out of pure instinct he bared his teeth with a growl, pushing himself back against the opposite side. He pointedly ignored that the hand was on that side of it and that he could feel the warmth it gave off from inside. Except when he growled, he noticed a responding movement from above and his eyes snapped to it, only to go stiff and regret showing aggression. Those weren't the right ears. They were like triangles and kept swiveling around. Listening, he thought. He suppressed another shudder, instead choosing to glare at this giant and those horribly observant eyes.

He knew he was being stared at, his every move kept track of, but he was trying to wrack his brain for why those ears and unnerving eyes were familiar to him. There wasn't much time to think as that loud sound came at him again—the voice. Definitely a voice. He ignored the words. They were too distorted and loud to understand while stuck inside this thing anyway. Besides, he didn't want to hear the taunts or what it might be planning to do to him. He'd rather seem boring and be tossed back to the ground and ignored.

Except those eyes changed and almost looked…worried? He scowled at it, but the voice returned and everything was turning sideways at an agonizingly slow pace. His slow slide felt like torture, especially with how fast the water was already pouring past him, tugging him along faster than it was tipping. At this point all he could do was weakly scratch at it, feeling like he was being played with on his way towards the only opening. The last thing he tried was spreading his arms too wide to fit while trying to turn to keep his tail inside. If it fell out, the weight would just drag him down.

When he hit the opening he stuck, just as intended. A grim, victory smile plastered on his face as he fought to keep himself in this same position while looking to the side at the human. What he found was a look of surprise, but nothing happened. It was held in the same position, not moving even slightly. He thought he'd be shaken or something, but it never came. Instead, the voice came again, still not understandable from his position. It got quiet and motionless, as if the human was just waiting for him to change his mind or something. Not happening! That was when he noticed he was slipping. The giant jerk was waiting him out.

He growled in real anger at being treated this way, noticing those creepy ears moving as he made the sound. All he could see in those big eyes, was patience. A steady, calm, patience. Like this human already knew they'd win this. And they would, which only upset him even more. The problem was that he was still slipping, and steadily feeling like he needed to catch himself. Was he just going to fall to his death or what? Was the human dumping him out of the way? It was hard to say, but he was about to find out for himself. There wasn't even a shred of hope in his mind of holding on for longer than the human could wait…the surface and angle were simply too much and only half his body could be used to prevent it.

With one last squirm in an attempt to stay inside, he finally couldn't stay splayed anymore and fell headfirst out of the thing. His eyes screwed shut, certain he would plummet to his death…only for the result to be much less dramatic. The impact was muted, interrupted maybe only a second later by something soft that smelled heavily of herbs. For a moment all he could do was breathe, his heart racing painfully as his chest heaved from the scare. He didn't waste much time and after only a few breaths, he moved to figure out what exactly happened. Seeing it made him freeze up, his eyes landing on the tan colored, patterned floor beneath him. Skin.

Looking up while already know what would be there, his almost weary gaze trailed up the length of an arm all the way to the human's face. He was in the damn thing's hand. He inwardly groaned and pushed himself up while taking a deep breath, glancing at the fingers towering over him. A threat. It was mostly behind him and he let his head hang so he could simply see past his arms without it knowing where he was looking. It was hard to know what would happen if he was caught staring, and honestly? He'd rather be ended because he fought back, not for looking at something. That would be even worse than having been abandoned by his own pod using a prank. So he held his breath and looked up at that face again.

Then he immediately bit the hand beneath him. Hard. His aim was to draw blood at the very least, and he needed to do it before the human could stop him. The only response he seemed to get was a quiet whine of pain and a harsh flinch that nearly sent him off the hand. What stopped such a fate were the fingers, curling up over him. Without delay, since the other bite was already bleeding, he whipped around and sunk his teeth into one of those massive digits instead, his arms wrapping around it so his claws could dig in as well. He was fully aware that he couldn't win this, but that didn't stop him from trying.

What did make him pause was that finger separating itself from the rest slowly, followed by that much too loud voice ringing out above him. "Uhm…will you please let go…? That…it kinda hurts?" The voice was still too loud for him, but he could for the first time understand the words being spoken, even even what sounded like hesitation in the tone. Of course, his response to this comment was to bite even harder and snarl while he did, moving his head a little to trying twisting and make it worse. The human winced in pain, those ears drawing back as it instead muttered, "Yeah, okay, that's fair." He wanted the human to feel pain, why was it saying this was fair?!

His anger was boiling over and he grabbed onto it, using it to bury all the fear as he snapped his head to the side with an angry hiss, clawing at the finger he'd been biting before it bending forced him to let go. He fell back onto the palm, not really able to support himself with his tail. Wait. The human had a tail too. He narrowed his eyes while keeping his teeth bared as a few things clicked into place. He remembered an animal that had those ears, eyes, and tail. It was also very sharp in his mind that he'd seen it swiping fish out if the water and chasing any mer that got close. He didn't know the name, but this human looked like they were part animal. That animal. That eats fish. And probably mer too.

A very brief look of terror flashed through his eyes and he dug his claws into the palm a whole lot more to hurriedly turn it into anger. He looked this giant in the eye with as much Hate and rage as he could muster, his mind simmering as he ignored how the sun was slowly making his skin itch as it dried him out. With one deep breath, he practically screamed out, "THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN GOING TO DO?! STOP STARING AND JUST DO SOMETHING DAMNIT! YOU'RE TOO LOUD AND TOYING WITH ME! IF YOU'RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING TO ME, JUST DO IT!" His sudden volume was plenty loud enough to make those freaky animal ears go down and it felt like his own personal victory.

Until the hand finally moved. He was going up, being brought right to that face. It was impossible to fully get rid of a shudder as his eyes widened. Was he going to die now? His mouth did usually get everyone mad at him. He'd actually asked for this one though, but…he looked at the closed mouth of the face he was rapidly approaching. Was the giant going to eat him like that animal did that fish? He turned his head away to hide his face while not wanting to see what would happen to him. It was over. He'd purposely yelled at the human and said to get it over with. It was only a moment later that he felt the huge digits behind him start to close in on him. He didn't even flinch.

He was expecting to die somehow, but the human decided to speak again. "What?? You…do you think I want to hurt you? I'm sorry I was too loud…did I really scare you that badly? I wasn't trying really hard not to—" Why was this stupid giant prolonging his death? But they just continued their ramble. "—but I…I messed up? What did I do? How do I fix it? Is there something you want?" The voice was growing increasingly higher pitched and they were talking way too fast. He growled inwardly, despising that he had to listen to such idiotic lies after begging to die. Did it really thing he was that stupid? That he wasn't just some fun creature to toy with and leave to die? Lies.

He raised his head back up to stare his likely killer in the eyes, only to find out they were right in front of him. He had soared past the mouth and even the nose, being held so perfectly level with the eyes that he couldn't avoid noticing their emotions. With a shiver he didn't even try to contain, he scrambled backwards only to realize those fingers were holding him in place. His eyes were rounded at this revelation, merely glad to see his tail was at least still against the palm and not just hanging. If relieved was the right thing to feel, rather, when he was terrified. What else could he feel when staring into eyes each bigger than his head. Happiness??

Finally though, the hand moving snapped him out of it right as the human softly asked, "Hey, are you okay? Can't you speak?" Alright, so now he was going to be seen as some stupid animal that didn't even have intelligence? Like he'd allow that.

With yet another ferocious snarl, he growled, "Get the fuck away from me." His voice felt despairingly weak and he swallowed hard. Having to meet these eyes like this was…so uncomfortable. It frayed his nerves and played with his mind. The eyes looked too guilty. He leaned away. "Just…just leave me alone or kill me already. I don't want to play these games anymore." He was scared, but his tone still came out full of rage.

The huge eyes only got bigger as they widened, full of what looked to borderline horror. "Kill you?! I'm not going to kill you!" The human shouldn't be sounding so scared of his words. They should be getting mad, yelling at him, hurting him. But nothing was happening. Instead, he rapidly found himself tumbling back down into the hand, which now became two, simply cupped together. It wasn't right to be held like he was breakable. He glared at the human. They just wouldn't stop trying to mess with him.

Without thinking it through, he snapped, "Why not?! You're bigger than me, you're a predator, I shouldn't even still be alive except to be a handy little plaything for your own entertainment!" Nothing was said in response, everything going quiet. The human was…silenced? By his worthless and weak voice? This game was getting absurd and the look of pity he was receiving only served to make him retaliate with anger. He bit the hand again, trying as hard as he possibly could to be dropped or finally killed or something.

A wince of pain, but then nothing. He growled and twisted his head, eliciting a gasp and a following whine from right beside him. "Please don't do that…" Not long after, the other hand stopped being a floor for him and tilted up to cover him from above. He stopped and bit a different spot, feeling his eyes burn from tears he refused to allow free. This was it. The human was finally going to end it, by…crushing him. He finally got what he wanted…why did it make him want to escape from it? To never have asked for this? But no pain came. It was darkened, but stopped there, the other hand harmlessly held over him, making it almost reminiscent of a cave…if the walls were made of tanned flesh that kept moving around him. A muffled voice came to him next with, "I'll just put you back in the ocean…"

A spike of fear at the thought of returning, and yet he could already feel the human moving, making him roll slightly while struggling to stay in place. He stopped biting, now more intent on keeping himself still and not being given back to the ocean. Sure he'd been planning to escape there, but if he was for some reason getting free transport he wanted something else. A river or stream, something to make his boring life have some sort of meaning to it. This felt more like he'd be discarded this way than freed into it. He wasn't going to say or do anything, but his racing heart won. "WAIT WAIT WAIT!"

Everything immediately stilled and he had to cling to the skin under him to not go rolling away. He wanted to relax and maybe try to figure out why he'd said to wait, but the human of course had to butt in on it. "Don't you live there? I'll put you back, are you sure?" He inhaled sharply, thinking about being in the exposed shallows with the sheer number of those strange birds from earlier hanging around. He'd seen how many there were already. If he was put back in, not only would he be back in the place he'd grown to hate, he'd become food. Dying by the hand of a giant sounded much better than temporary, fake freedom, followed by being eaten.

He moved a bit, wincing silently at how dry his tail was feeling. "...I don't want to be in the ocean. Do whatever you want with me, just get rid of me already, but not the ocean…" He should've been asking for the ocean, not to stay away from it. This was stupid. Why would the human even listen? All he did was give it a new way to hurt—

"Okay, I won't." He stiffened greatly. Won't what? The voice sounded almost resigned with those words, making his already raised guard bristle with discomfort. Before he could demand an answer though, they spoke again, "I'll just…take you home. You're probably needing some water about now and my skin can't be helping that, not to mention it's really hot out today, huh? And it's not like there's any other water sources around…I don't even know what else you want if you don't want the ocean. Maybe you'll tell me once you're not so dried up?" He blinked at the half darkness as he listened to the disembodied voice from beyond the walls of hand.

The human was…just going to keep him? Probably to be able to toy with him better. Tools and other gadgets at their home to make his fate even worse. With an air of defeat over knowing he couldn't possibly claw his way out of the prison of hands, he hung his head. "...fine." His voice was quiet but with those ears? No doubt the human heard him. Fine. He'd accept this fate, but he'd go down fighting. He could already feel this giant moving again. For now however, he let his eyes drift shut, exhausted from his struggle and not sure if he'd even wake up later. Not without digging his claws in for good measure, smiling in grim satisfaction at the pained response he got.

Words rang out above him, "Alright, then let's go! I'll take and get a good look at you to make sure you're not injured and try to find a good place for you to stay!" That cheery voice was going to be the death of him, in more ways than one. Yet, that was the last thing he heard before his mind shut itself off. Oh well. Time to leave his fate to the mercy of this strange, giant being…even if it meant he'd die.

Maybe he wouldn't.

———

Part 2

[rmedgg]

The human who didn’t know Pt. 2

Pairing: Normie male reader x Enid Sinclair and Wednesday Addams

Chapter 2: Trip and New friends

I apologize for taking so long on getting the second part on here link to the first part is right below this so read that before this or don’t (I recommend you do) also any poll on the author notes can be disregarded as the story is already on chapter 14 so until I catch up on here they can be disregarded anyways enough ranting please enjoy

Y/n pov

"So what exactly did you mean when you said I'd be someone worth following behind? I asked Blake as he lead me through a patio area

"Exactly that, you see my pack has its own rules and traditions we follow. When we meet someone we deem strong wether it be by there character or, by their strength we follow them. As those people are usually the best leaders." He stated in a matter-of-factly tone.

"So I'm your leader now? And what's with this pack your talking about." I asked incredulously 

"Yes. My wolf pack when as I'm a werewolf or could you not tell? Either way when we turn 16 we are allowed to start or join our own packs. All you need to do is acknowledge me and we'll even get a mental link." He said with some underlying excitement in his usual monotone voice.

"What the hell am I even supposed to respond." I thought as we walked in silence for a couple of minutes to our dorm room.

Bland and boring is how I would describe the room, it was made of some sort of dark wood, the room layout itself was basic just two full size beds, two dressers and, two desks. One of each on either side of the room. On the back door there was a door that opened up to a bathroom. The front wall that you saw when entering the room was taken up by a big circular window that opened up to a balcony.

Stepping outside and onto the balcony looking out I saw that it overlooked the patio area we had walked through to get to our dorm hall. Nodding in approval.

"Hey I'm going to look around campus alright. Maybe see if I get to know some of our neighbors." I told Blake as I walked back into our room from the balcony and made my way to the door.

"Ok, just be back in an hour, as Ms.Weems is taking us along with Richard and Tommy to get stuff for our rooms." He told me

I nodded having forgotten of the other two as I exited the room, I noticed the door across from ours was open and there was music playing. I made my way across and knocked on the open door.

A 6' 2" Caucasian boy with brown hair walks towards the door.

"Can I help you?" He asks

"Ah sorry to bother you, I just wanted to introduce myself since it seems that well be neighbors."

"Oh I'm Xavier Thorpe, and you are?"

He said with a smile as  extended his hand

"I'm Y/n nice to meet you Xavier. I responded and shook his hand

"So what are you?" He asks curiously

"What do you mean?" I asked confusion probably written all over my face.

"Yeah like what type of outcast are you? What else could I mean?"  He said with a chuckle

"Oh well I guess a nerd." I said while smiling

Xavier's expression then went from a smile, to confused

"No your not understanding what I'm asking you. Like what are you? A werewolf? A siren? A vampire? A gorgon? A psychic? Or one something else?" He said

"Just a normal human just like everyone else is. " I told him annoyed

He stared at me then suddenly burst into laughter "Oh man you almost got me, no way a normie could make it into nevermore. What are you seriously?" He asked again while still laughing.

"I already told you I'm a regular human." I told him annoyed that he was laughing

He then looked up and saw that I was serious "You're actually just a normie?!" He shouted in surprise

"What the hell is a normie?" I asked

"It's a person that's just a human and not an "outcast" you know like the people this school is made for." He said now getting irritated

"Yeah outcasts like people who were bullied for being different" I responded irritated by the conversation that seemed to circle around.

"No not that type of outcasts you moron, did you even look up this school or it's history? Never mind it  doesn't matter this school is for "outcasts" such as werewolves, vampires, psychics, etc."  he said

"Well no I didn't read it I just saw outcasts and assumed it meant kids who got bullied for being different or quirky. Either way those things aren't real your just delusional." I replied quickly

"Me delusional, come on then I'll show you." He said confidently

"Alright then." I said not believing him at all.

We walked into his room. The set up was like ours, each side of the room was decorated differently. Xavier made his way to his desk, sat down and drew a spider.

"Oh man you showed me man." I said trying to hold in my laugh

"Oh shut up, and give me a second." He said focused on his drawing, his hand hovering over it, a couple seconds later it moved,and started crawling around his desk.

"Oh shit! What then hell! How'd you do that?!" I asked surprised making my way closer to his desk to get a better view.

"Ah shit man, sorry for doubting you. That's dope as hell though man." I apologized while staring at the spider

He then snapped and the spider dissolved into dust. "What your not going to freak out and insult me like others do? He asked shocked not looking at me

"Bro let's be realistic even if I wanted to do that, it would be stupid to. Since I don't know the extent of your powers for all I know you can make that shit venomous and kill me in my sleep. Plus that was dope as fuck I wish I had powers." I said awestruck as to what I just witnessed.

"Wait if he has powers does this mean that Blake was telling the truth, and was being serious. Awe shit." I thought

"Wait so your serious about being a normie?"

"Uh yeah, no powers from me. I'm able to attend since I won the scholarship. I also didn't bother reading the website as I thought it meant like Emos, goths, otakus and those types of outcasts." I said

Then I heard it laughter first soft then booming, Xavier turned to face me and he was laughing. "Oh man your a total riot, what type of dumbass applies for a school without reading its history. I can tell we'll become great friends." He said as he wiped away a tear

"Alright man I'll leave you to it I'm going to go and explore the campus and see if i can make any more friends." I said as I waved at him and left his dorm

"Alright man, I'll introduce you to my roommate whenever he gets back from town. Before I forget careful of who you go telling your a human most here have bad experiences with them and would probably put you on some sort of kill list. " said Xavier seriously

"Thanks for the heads up man, but it'll probably be announced when Ms.Weems announces the winner of the scholarship. " I said

"Well if she does I've got your back." He said seriously

"Well thank you." I said as a smile painted itself on my face

As I made my way down the hallway to the staircase, and then subsequently down the stairs into the lobby of the residence hall. Which seemed like the lobby of some high end hotel only without a receptionist. I looked around looking at the furniture. There was 2 sofas and 4 arm chairs which all seemed comfortable enough to sleep in. Along with 2 round tall tables with 2 chairs each meant to be used for studying as there were wall outlets easily accessible. At one of those tables there was a tan short male with black hair and square framed glasses. He seemed to be watching a video of some sort. So I made my way over to him.

"Hey sorry to bother you mind if I take a seat?" I asked

"Huh, you asking me?" He asked seemingly confused with a stranger coming up to him

"Yeah." I responded "my name is Y/n L/n by the way." Stretching my hand out for a handshake

"Ah sorry I'm not used to being approached, but I'm Eugene Ottinger." He said while taking my hand to shake it seeming to have relaxed a bit

"Nice to meet you Eugene, would it be fine if I take a seat?" I asked

"Likewise. Yes please be my guest." He responded quickly "if you don't mind me asking what are your thoughts on bees?" He asked enthusiastically

"Well I like the honey they make, I have also wanted to try honeycomb but I've never had the chance too. Other than that I don't have any real opinion on them. Why do you ask?"  I replied 

"Oh I just love bees, I actually want to see if I'll be allowed to make a beekeeping club." He told me passionately

"Oh that sounds cool if you do I'll be your first member if you wouldn't mind having me. So if you don't mind me asking,why you're so passionate about bees?"  I asked him

"Really that would be great Y/n. Well you see I've never really ever fit in anywhere, or had friends. Well bees have always been there for me ,it's as if they can understand me and they're very good at keeping secrets." He said a bit downcast

"I'd assume they are good at keeping secrets. Well you won't have to worry about not having friends as you've already made your first." I said smiling

"Really we're friends?" Eugene asked surprised

"Of course, why else would I have approached you." I asked chuckling

A phone started to ring  "It was nice meeting you Y/n but my mother is calling me. I'll see you around." Eugene said as he got up from his spot at the table.

"Well see you around" I replied

"Ok so I've made 2 new friend not bad Y/n not bad at all, I still got 20 minutes to go and explore might as well" I thought to myself

Getting up from my spot in the table, and walking towards the entrance doors. I push one open and make my way outside. Taking a nice deep breath of fresh air and look around taking in the surroundings. There seems to be groups of people around this patio area.

"Yeah two friends is more than enough for today." I thought, as I needed an excuse as to why I shouldn't approach any of the groups. 

Looking around I see an open table, as I make my way over to it I observe each group. There seems to be 4 main groups, can't really tell what they are maybe Blake or Xavier can tell me later. When I eventually make it up to the table I take a seat and put my head down the weather is perfect for an afternoon nap. As I'm starting to doze off a excited voice greets me.

"Hi there, I'm Enid Sinclair." Said a blonde girl with blue and pink highlights with an infectious smile

"Huh, oh nice to meet you, Enid I'm Y/n." I said trying to purge the drowsiness from almost falling asleep.

"Oh I'm sorry did I wake you? She said looking concerned

"Ah no it's fine it's probably better that I don't fall asleep I have something to do in like 15ish minutes. So I should be thanking you." I said trying to reassure her

"Oh that's good, mind if I take a seat?" She asked

"Oh you're fine." I responded

"What happened for you to get that scar?" Enid asked looking at the scar on my left eye curiously

"A bit direct aren't you?" I laughed

"Oh I'm sorry if it's a sensitive topic. I was just curious." She said panic evident in her voice

"Don't worry bout it, I actually got this somewhat recently,. I was in a fight and he got me good but I got him back." I told her

"Woah, why were you fighting him? She asked leaning in closer

"Well we were fighting in the tournament for the scholarship." I answered

"Oh right that's a thing. So what are you? I'm a werewolf" She asked changing the subject abruptly

"I'd rather keep it a secret. Sorry." I told her looking away as to not make eye contact

"Don't worry." She responded happily "Do you have an Instagram? I could get so we can stay in contact? She asked eagerly

"Yeah let me just type it in." I said as I grabbed the phone she was handing to me

"Well I have to go." she said as she got up "I'm going to go get lunch, unless you want to come with me" she smiled

"I would love to but unfortunately I have to go with my roommate, to see Ms.Weems." I stated

"Oh that sucks" her smile faltering for a second "Maybe tomorrow then?" She asked

"Yeah why not, I shouldn't have anything planned." I said

She nodded as she got up from the table we were sitting at, and walked away.

"My goodness my eyes have been blessed with this beautiful woman." I thought as I watched her walk away.

Getting up from the table, I stared to walk about towards the residence hall, as I still had 5 minutes left before I needed to be there but I think I've had enough exploring for one day. As I made my way upstairs and into my room I saw Blake laying down on his bed with his headphones on.

"You're back earlier then I expected you to be, in all honesty, I thought I was going to have to hunt you down." Said Blake with a smile.

"Oh ha ha." I said as I took a seat on my bed

"We should make our way to Ms.Weems office, no?" I asked Blake

He nodded and got up

"Let's go then" he said

Background conversations was all that was heard as we walked towards Ms.Weems office, as we walked in silence. We approached a door that had a name plate on it which stated principal's office. Blake then knocked behind the door we heard a muffled voice that told us to enter. After entering Tommy and Richard where there sitting while on there phones. Richard was the first to look up, his face immediately turned from bored to a wide smile.

"Y/n how are you man, it's as if you disappeared on us after the tournament" Richard said excited to see me

"It because he was in a coma remember idiot Ms.Weems even told us." Tommy told him without skipping a beat or looking up from his phone.

"Oh right." Richard said sheepishly

During our interaction I could see Ms.Weems was staring at us smiling happily at the bond we seemed to have made after knowing each other.

"Ok, we'll be headed down to Jericho so you guys can get decor for your rooms, please remember that you are representing Nevermore so do try no to get into fights." She said looking towards our group seriously.

Opening the top drawer of her desk she pulled out four envelopes all numbered one through four in Roman numerals

"These contain the prize money for each of you." She said as she handed them to each of us Blake receiving the one numbered 1, Tommy the one numbered two, Richard the third and me the fourth and final one.

"You guys can get whatever you may need or want. Just know towels, and other basic toiletries will be supplied for your as your dorms are the only ones with private bathrooms." Ms.Weems told us

"Will you accompany us ? Or will you just be dropping us off?" I asked

"I had planned on accompanying you, but I have a faculty meeting so I will have to drop you guys off and then when you feel your done you can just call me." She said as she got up from her desk and made her way to the door  "Let us go before it gets any later"

As we followed her to the van, I could see that the other students were staring at us as we walked through the patio area. We got into the car after walking for 5 minutes and Ms.Weems started to drive towards town. After 30 minutes of driving I saw a sign that read welcome to Jericho.

"Remember guys do not cause any trouble." Ms.Weems said in a very serious tone

"Ok." we all said practically at the same time

She then stopped in front of a furniture store. We all thanked her for the ride as we got out of the car. The town had a very creepy feel to it, it looked like a old style town that would be in a "Friday the 13th" type of movie.

"Alright let's go get furniture." I said walking towards the stores entrance

"Oh do you actually need furniture?" Asked Richard

"Yeah, you don't?" I asked looking at him incredulously

"Nah our families just bought us the stuff and sent it to us like 2 weeks ago man." He said nonchalantly

"well all I'm getting is clothes, since I didn't even have my own room back home." I told him

"So your not like us?" He said confusion on his face

"What rich? No or why else would I have applied for a scholarship?" I asked looking at there faces to see if they were joking

"Well that, and you didn't join it just to fight? Everyone who joins that scholarship is usually just to fight not for like actual financial help." He said

"Obviously he didn't idiot, he didn't even know what "outcasts" were." Said Tommy as he pulled one of Richard's rabbit ears

"Alright I'm going in, to look for a lamp and see what else might be interesting." I said as I walked into the store

"We're right behind you." Said Blake

As we wondered the store looking around I could tell that the employees were watching us intently, as if we were criminals with a record of being thief's. Eventually finding a nice desk lamp that reminded me of the one that crushes the I in Pixar movies, and paying for it. As we were walking out Blake, Tommy and Richard were looking at a couch. Without even turning around Blake asked "Do you think it would fit in our dorm?"

"I don't think it fitting in the room would be the issue, but rather how would you get it up the stairs." I told him

"Me and Richard should be able to jump it up to the balcony" Tommy said matter-of-factly

"What is our room going to be the hangout spot?" I asked

"Obviously it's bigger than our room."  Said Tommy

"Then sure go for it we'll make it fit if it doesn't." I said chuckling

"Ok." Said Blake before walking to an employee to purchase it and have it delivered to the academy

"Thank you come again." Said an employee as we left

"Well we have an hour before Weems comes and gets us. Let's get tattoos?" Said Richard looking excited

"Of what carrot muncher." Said Tommy

"Hey I'll have you know that's offensive, demon spawn." Richard said quickly "Anyway we could get our Roman numerals tatted on us. Hell I'll even pay for them." He continued

We all looked at one another and silently agreed. So we made our way to the conveniently place tattoo parlor across the street, because I mean who doesn't want to go get a tattoo after buying some furniture. As we walked in the man who was sitting at the desk, immediately smiled when he saw Richard.

"So you were able to convince them eh Richard?" The man said with a smile

"Something like that." Richard replied

After discussing where we would get the numbers we each sat at a different tattoo artists table. As we all sat down and the artists started there prep work Blake turned towards me and asked if I had though about what he had told me earlier that day.

"Look man do as you please, if your happy following a "normie" do as you please. Just think it through I wouldn't want you to be ostracized. After all I'm weaker than you" I said seriously

His laughter boomed in the small shop "Oh man you worried about me. I doubt my family would care in all honesty. Being a leader doesn't mean bring the strongest it just means you'll do what needs to be done, when it to be done."

"Normie?!" Everyone besides me and Blake yelled surprised

"Yes. I'm just a normal human being who was dumb and didn't read anything about the school." I said while smiling

"Oh man your a crazy son of a bitch man." Said the owner of the shop as his employees nodded there heads in agreement

I just laughed, and shrugged, and the artists just smiled and started to tattoo us. Tommy got his number on his trapezius, Blake got it on the left side of his neck, Richard got it on his arm, and I settled to getting it on the back of my right hand.

"Man Y/n not bad you only cried for 3/4th of the tattoo." Laughed Richard

"Yeah we'll I'm just a human, with normal pain tolerance." I responded eyes red

"Did you cry when getting all those earrings you have? Tommy said laughing

"As if these were way less painful." I responded chuckling

After Richard payed the tattoos and we tipped the artists. We decided to go to a cafe for the last 20 minutes before Ms.Weems was set to pick us up. As we walked up to the cafe named Weathervane and a bell jingled as we entered it.

"Welcome in." said a dirty blonde teenager wearing a brown shirt and red apron behind the counter.

"Hi, can I get a black coffee" asked Blake turning his head to ask what we wanted

"I'll take an ice coffee" said Tommy

"Me too" added Richard

"I'll take some green tea please." I said

"Ok coming right up." the cashier replied

We decided to take a seat at a booth with Blake and Richard on the inside, while Tommy and I were on the ends. I got up to use the bathroom quickly. After getting back and waiting a bit longer the server came over with our drinks, we thanked him as he placed them on the table. As we were silently enjoying our drinks, a drunk adult approached our table.

"Hey everyone! Look at these freaks thinking they can come to our town and act as if they're one of us." said a man as he put his hand on Tommy's shoulder causing him to tense up and turn towards the man

“Hey would you mind moving your hand from my buddies shoulder.” I asked trying to not sound as scared as I felt

“Oh tough guy aye?” He said having moved his hand from Tommy’s shoulder to the table and leaned in closer

“Hey leave those guys along Mr.Rodgers.” Said the cashier

“Oh stay the hell out of this Galpin! You fucking brat!” The now identified Mr.Rodgers yelled

Motioning my head for us to get up and leave, getting small nods from the other three as we started to get up

“Hey no need for problems sir we were just leaving anyways.” I said as I got out of the booth allowing Blake to get up too

“Oh you don’t want problems yet you had no problems coming to our town? He said as he grabbed my shoulder seeming to have gotten angrier by my statement

“Ah shit how are we going to get out of this one?” I thought as I something Blake told me earlier came to mind please work “Blake can you hear me?” I thought hopefully

“So you were paying attention to what I told you earlier.” Blake responded mentally looking at me from the corner of his eye for a split second with a small smirk

“I don’t know if it’s possible for you to communicate with Tommy and Richard somehow, if so do it and get out there’s a second exit they can use straight back and to the right. I saw it when I went to the bathroom earlier.” I relayed to him mentally

“I’ll let them know, and link them in as they’ve been part of my pack since middle school.” He reported “I was able to link them successfully sir.” he said with the tone of a solider

“Can you all here me? If so bend your right index finger in order ascending.” I said as I glanced at each of them trying to not make it obvious to the drunken older man

I looked down to Blake’s hand first and saw his finger bend, then Tommy’s and finally Richard’s. A subtle smirk made its way onto my face as I sharply exhaled trying to not laugh out of joy

“Something funny you punk.” Said the man as he shoved me back

“Run now, your all faster than me go and find Ms.Weems, or actually give me 5 minutes if I’m not out by then go and find her otherwise wait across the street.” I told them through the link

“Will you be fine?” Asked Blake mentally

“Oh please who gave you that scar? So now go!”

In the blink of an eye Blake turned around and ran towards the front door, while Richard jump over a table and ran, and Tommy turned and ran out both making there way towards the back door as the man went to grab Tommy I spartan kicked him in his stomach causing him to stumble back and focus on me.

“You’ll be fighting me.” I said with newfound confidence

“Oh I’m going to enjoy killing you, fucking freak!” He shouted as he rushed towards me

Quickly grabbing the mug that held my tea earlier I swung it and it hit him on the face landing a solid hit causing the mug to shatter against the left side of his face. Causing him to stumble the right, which i immediately followed up with a kick to the face that missed since I slipped on some drops of the tea that spilt when the mug broke. Catching myself from falling, I was able to push him down as he was trying to stand back up as he hit his face against the tough wooden flooring of the cafe a sickening crunch was heard. The empty shop was silent besides the heavy breathing of Mr.Rodgers, getting on one knee, and raising his head by his hair.

“You damn monsters thinking your superior to us, normal humans!” He said as blood pored from his obviously broken nose hatred in his eyes

“Unfortunately for you I’m just a human, I dumb normal human who didn’t know.” I whispered to him with a smile

A laugh escaped my lips as his eyes widen in shock at my statement. Know that no matter who he told they’d doubt him

“Oh and if I ever hear you talk shit about one of my friend or classmates, I’ll make sure you regret it. So I hope this makes you change your views on the Nevermore students. Since we’re 10 times more monstrous ” I said looking down at him with a smirk

“Now I hope we can put this behind us, and start on the right foot. Don’t forget to apologize to Mr.Galpin here. Sorry bout the nose.” I said as I pat his back and he just nods

“How much for the mug I destroyed?” I ask the cashier

With a surprised look “uh $4 bucks should be fine.” He replied not to sure what to say

“Sounds good I say as I put a ten on the counter. Take the change as a tip and sorry bout the mess.” I said as I turned to leave checking the time on my phone

“Oh thank you, please come again; don’t worry about the mess” He said smiling

As I made it out with 30 seconds left I made my way across and nodded towards the three boys, and motioned my head as for them to cross the road and join me

“Let’s not keep Ms.Weems waiting boys” I said as they patted my back

“That shit was dope man!!” Said Richard as slapped my back

“Ah shit that hurt you asshole!” I said while shoving him with my shoulder

“What did you tell him?” Asked Tommy

“Just that I hoped he would treat Nevermore students with respect, and that I’m a “normie” and I hoped we could put this all behind us. Oh and apologized for the broken nose.” I said as that last thing caused them to stop mid step and look at each other as I continued walking

“Oh man your rugged, where’d you learn to fight like that man?” Asked Richard excitedly

“Oh I just used to play a lot of MMA on the xbox 360 with my brothers and well play enough and having brothers you just start mimicking what you see and do in game.” I said laughing at the memories of my brother and I playing and play fighting

As we walked they just looked at me as if I’d grown a second head

“I look fine right?” I asked them

They just nodded still shocked at my earlier statement of where I had learned to fight. Ms.Weems was in her car waiting for us. I waved at her as we approached her car and got in. I was up front and the other three made there way to the back.

“So how was the trip?” Ms.Weems asked smiling

“It was fun I got a lamp and Blake ended up getting a couch for the dorm. We got tattoos and went to get something warm at the Weathervane.” I said smiling

“Oh that’s nice…. WAIT TATTOOS?!” She yelled while looking at us shocked as we just smiled and showed her

“Oh are you going to want to left over money back? I think I have like $100 bucks left.” I asked disregarding her worries about the tattoos

“No you can keep it, it is yours after all, I will be needing an explanation on the tattoos, so don’t think you’ve gotten away with it.” She stated looking at me

“When will your furniture be delivered?” She asked

“Tomorrow.” Blake stated

We pulled up to the school, thanking Ms.Weems as we exited the car and made our way to the dining hall to get some food. As we walked I noticed that Blake was to my right, Tommy to my left and Richard directly behind me, almost as if they were knights protecting a king. Causing me to smile, and make our way to the serving area and got our food I decided on some ground beef tacos with tomato, lettuce, cilantro,onion, salsa and sour cream. The others got more basic foods like two slices of cheese pizza for Richard, two chicken sandwiches for Blake and a grilled chicken salad for Tommy. As we all sat down and started to eat, I noticed Enid walking by and looking towards me so I wave at her and she does the same. At the same time I see Eugene walking with his food towards the exit.

“Eugene come and eat with us man!” I shout across the hall

He turns and walks towards us and sits down.

“This is Eugene guys, Eugene the guy with the werewolf ears is Blake my roommate, Richard is the one with the rabbit ears and Tommy is the one with the horns.” I said introducing them to one another

As the meal progressed Eugene started to open up more and more getting more comfortable as time passed. Talking more about himself and bees as we just listened and asked questions and joked around with one another. After an hour and a half of eating and conversation we decided to make our way to our dorms. As me and Blake enter our room we fall onto our beds exhausted from todays events. Then we realized we didn’t lock the door so we had to play paper, rock, scissors to see who would get up and I lost. Getting into my bed I fell asleep as soon as my head touched my pillow.

__________________________

Thank you for reading the second chapter of my book. 

There will be one more chapter that takes place prior to Wednesdays arrival and it's going to basically be the next day, then some school related things and probably building the relationships between Y/n, Enid and Xavier and possibly Rowan.

Or let me know if there's someone specific you may want to make a relationship with

[coffeetailor]

GTober Day 2: Acorn

"Nuts in a Tree"

To die and be reborn in the world of his own novel, Proud Immortal Demon Way, was bad enough luck as it was. To be sent into the frozen northern wastes by his ever uncaring system was even worse. Add that all to the steaming dung heap that was the fact that he'd been reborn tiny, and Shang Hua was having a very bad time!

[Mission: Retrieve northern frozen acorn. Time limit: twenty-nine minutes.]

"I know!" he whispered angrily under his breath, waving a hand at the floating blue square that'd been counting down since he'd been given the stupid quest. The screen flickered before growing brighter out of spite. "Don't you give me attitude."

[Host is running out of time.]

"Only because you took off two days for 'punishment,'" Shang Hua hissed. "I'll get the acorn. Just give me a moment. If I go out now, I'll get seen!"

[...]

[Twenty-eight minutes.]

If he ever got his hands on a keyboard and computer, he was going to find a way to uninstall that stupid system. Or give it a virus! He'd invented this world, so why couldn't he have been born into a good position?! Like some lofty immortal cultivator, or a wealthy lord who could have tearfully sent his beautiful sister off to join Binghe's harem and gained his benevolence in return. But no! He'd been born as some kind of demon borrower, with a tail even!

He'd thought about writing about tiny people once or twice in the story, but it'd never won the polls. Readers couldn't imagine a proper papapa scene with a woman smaller than the heavenly pillar, so they weren't interested. (Unimaginative rocks, all of them.) But other than one or two silly scribbles, he'd never even drafted them, so why were they in his story?!

Trouble with needing to get specially a northern frozen acorn was that they only grew in a few places. The trees were very slow to grow, because they only grew in the northern desert. Shang Hua only knew of three places they could be found. One, the top of a mountain even further north, which was probably full of monsters who'd love a snack, and was even colder. Second, in Huan Huan Palace, growing in sealed container of never-ending winter in the Old Palace Master's lab. Third, within the walls of the Northern Palace of the Mobei clan.

Somehow, because he'd pissed off the fates at some point, the third was the most accessible. Especially after he'd asked for a scenario pusher to help and nearly been eaten by a demon hawk before it'd dropped him inside the walls. And into the tree he was now clinging to, holding as still as he could.

Because he wasn't the only one in the small courtyard he'd fallen into.

Pale skin, dark eyes, long, blue-black hair twisted into braids, and a face to stop anyone with fear or desire, the demon didn't need an introduction. Shang Hua knew his own favorite creation. None of the fan artists had been able to do him justice. He was beautiful.

And he was excruciatingly deadly, especially when you were six inches tall and intruding into his personal garden.

Still, Shang Hua couldn't resist the urge to learn forward, trying to get a better look at him as the leaves of the tree he hid in blocked part of the view. Arguably the best part, as his king walked beneath the tree, his chest out and exposed.

He heard the twig he'd put his weight onto snap a moment too late. His eyes flew wide and as if in an old cartoon, he felt weightless for just long enough to realize what'd happened before he plummeted down towards the ground. Nooo, he was too young to die, spattered on the stones below!

The tiny demon's scream was abruptly cut off when he hit something. It felt about as hard as the ground, but was a whole lot closer, leaving Shang Hua to bounce off and land in a softly, spongy surface and lay back, dazed. The tree wavered far above, looking so harmless considering it'd just dropped him to his probable death. When a face leaned in to block his view of the traitorous branches, he smiled. "Pretty..."

The curious expression abruptly vanished, the tips of pointed ears darkening blue. If he'd died, maybe this was actually heaven, if he got to look at such a pretty face all day.

[Twenty-five minutes.]

Shang Hua jerked at the sudden count down reminder blaring in his ear, brought back to sharp reality in an instant. Which brought his attention to some very, very dangerous facts. He'd landed on Mobei-Jun's chest. He'd bounced off that chest. And he'd been caught in the demon prince's hands. The very hands that were olding him now as Mobei stared down at him.

The author scrambled to his feet, ready to try and jump the rest of the way. If he died, oh well. Better than being killed by a pissed off ice demon who'd been violated in his own garden!

Or, at least, he tried to get to his feet. The moment he tried to sit up, a claw tipped thumb stretched across his chest and pushed him back down to lay across that palm.

"Who are you?" Mobei-Jun demanded, studying him with narrowing eyes that Shang Hua felt with every sweep over his tiny body.

"I'm no one!" Shang Hua sputtered, his heart pounding under the trapping finger. "No one important at least, worth spending any of your attention on. If you let me go, I'll go and you'll never have to lay eyes on me again!"

[Host must still attain the acorn.]

You think I don't know that?! I can't retrieve anything if he decides to pop my head off as easy as picking a grape!

Somehow, that face was still handsome as Mobei's frown deepened into a scowl, his fingers curling around Shang Hua's whole torso, holding him tightly. Tight enough to make him gasp before those fingers relaxed just enough to keep his ribs from creaking.

"Please be more gentle, my king! I'm small and fragile, and my bones break easily," he begged, arms trapped at his sides. "I'm sorry for breaking into your garden. I didn't take any of the magical herbs, I promise!"

System, if I can have another pusher to let me survive this, I promise to talk nice to you. For... a week!

[...]

[...]

[...]

[Scenario pusher activated. Punishment for not upholding payment will be a loss of 10,000 B-points.]

One handsome eyebrow arched as Mobei continued to look down at him, and Shang Hua could feel a cold sweat running down the back of his neck. Of course it was cold. Everything was cold here.

"What were you doing here?" the ice demon asked at last, apparently willing to listen to his excuses before deciding whether or not to kill him.

His brain spun as he tried to figure out a plausible reason that wouldn't sound like the bullshit it was. Because not having written these tiny demons, he'd already figured out that no one, practically no one knew anything about them!

"It's for a courtship ritual!" he blurted out at last, before Mobei ran out of patience. "My people, we gift little items for the home when we want to court someone! Dishes, tools, that kind of thing. And we make bowls out of acorns! The rarer and harder to find ones the better! I don't have anyone, but that doesn't mean I can't be ready! And your garden is one of the only places where the northern frozen acorns grow! The other places, I'd get eaten or used in some cultivator's magic potions! Please forgive his lowly one for intruding without asking!"

Squeezing his eyes closed, Shang Hua waited for the inevitable decision that'd determine just how much longer he lived.

And waited.

And waited some more.

When there was a rustle of branches, he peeked his eyes open cautiously. Mobei-jun brought his free hand down from the low hanging branches with something held in his hand. The demon relaxed his grip a little more, which allowed Shang Hua to free his arms carefully. When that other hand came near, however, he felt a flash of worry that he was going to get slapped between them, right up until the point where Mobei-Jun opened his other hand.

He was holding an acorn. Specifically, a large northern frozen acorn, and one of the clearest one's he'd ever seen.

"Will this do?" Mobei-Jun asked when his tiny handful didn't respond.

"Will- what- Oh! Yes, it's a very nice one!" Shang Hua sputtered as his brain caught up. He reached for it, missing the satisfied smile and nod from the demon looming above as he took it. "Thank you, my king!"

"Then you accept this lord's courtship."

"Well of course I- wait, what?!" If he hadn't still been being held in place, he would have dropped the acorn and fallen on his ass. As it was, he turned a bright red as Mobei's words sunk in. "You don't mean- you can't-"

"This lord has presented you with your people's gift of courtship. My father's court has been bothering me to line up a mate. You will do nicely. Unless you find this lord ugly?"

"Of course not! Anyone with eyes can see you stand far above the rest in looks, and I'm not just talking literally! But we only just met and I'm not nearly important enough for someone like you!"

System!!!

[Mission: retrieve northern frozen acorn is complete. Reward: chance an easy life.

Good luck, host!]

You're not helping!

[theworldvsyoshiko]

I realized how I'd wanna handle it while laying in bed last night, and the poll still seems to be going in this direction too, so...

The problem with the really straightforward 'become a vampire' option is that there's no drama to it. Becoming an immortal feels like the kind of thing that should take some effort, but that quest is essentially: trick a vampire into crashing on your front lawn, beat him to the ground, and then force him to convert somebody while his legs are still broken. The sheer fucking chutzpah of it is very funny to me, but it's something you can do in one afternoon.

And with the vampire catgirl route... I realized I don't have to do developer mode. There's a way to make it happen in-game, naturally. There's a way to make Yoshiko work for it. She's gonna have to shed some blood and tears if she wants to achieve her weird uber nerd ideal.

Alpha Genes introduces several new items that mess with genes, but the two we're interested in here are the endogenifier and xenogenifier. The first moves a randomly-chosen gene from somebody's xenotype to their endogenes/germline. The second does the opposite. When I first found them I was confused why you'd ever want this, but now they're exactly what I need, because they mean that I can:

[optional] create a new xenotype that only has the cat ears and tail, and apply that to Yoshiko. If I skip this step, the rest is possible, but just requires some tedious saving/reloading. This is probably faster than step 2 anyway.

get two endogenifiers, and use them to make those into endogenes. Now being a catgirl isn't part of Yoshiko's xenotype, it's an innate part of who she is, and inheritable.

become a vampire. Now that those are endogenes, they won't get overwritten, and she can be a legitimate vampire catgirl.

[optional] acquire two xenogenifiers and use them to transfer the cat ears/tail back to Yoshiko's xenotype. Now she can bite people and make them into vampire cats too.

[very optional] do all of this with the Female gene too, so if they'd be catboys instead, no they wouldn't. Get trans'd, idiot.

Even if I use the very simplest version of this (get two endogenifiers, save/reload until they transfer the catgirl genes) it could be a days-long project, because those things are rare and only really come from exploring genetics labs. The full version here could potentially take like a week before she's ready to go vampire. So yeah, Yoshiko's gotta work for it.

This also means that I'm going to have to shoot down the vampire and then keep them prisoner for all that time. She will be feeding the vampire with her own blood.

Once she's a vampire: no blood from the kids unless it's an emergency situation, no killing anybody with blood-drinking. Executing prisoners occasionally is unavoidable with the ripscanner, but completely unnecessary if you just need blood. It's about ethics in game vampirism.

[chevvy-yates]

WIP WEDNESDAY

Decided it is time for another update so here's a longer post to what I've been up to and stuff that circles around in my head lately.

tagging:

@medtech-mara, @imaginarycyberpunk2023, @itzsassha, @humberg, @kittenchrissy, @rosapexa, @cinnamon-mey, @heywoodvirgin, @dreamskug, @drunkchasind, and everyone who sees and wants to do as well.

No pressure as always!

—

1. CHARACTERS & LORE

Let's begin with sth. first I have on my mind for a while: As this fandom (sadly) seems to fall more and more apart, I would like to know if there are still people interested in reading actual lore content or not. As some of you know my dear friend @nervouswizardcycle and I are continously building up some sort of our own expansion after the main game events with rp/fic, character builds, backstory lore and support by vp and it eats a lot of time. The lack of interactions on tblr during the last few months and in several discord servers has led to me not posting a lot anymore either (beside my mental exhaustion phases that come and go). It seems more active again though, as majority already played Phantom Liberty by now or are right into it, so they slowly come back bc they presumably avoided spoilers. —————— So, here is me wondering how many following my blog are 'really' interested to see me sharing all lore of the boys (including story parts) or does the majority prefer just to see pretty pics and that's it? —————— (I've wanted to add a poll here but it doesn't let me save my post so I might do it in a seperate one a bit later) I know: it's my blog, I post what I like in the first place, and I'll likely continue that way but somehow I would like to know if it's worth the effort of formating and thinking about how the posts could look or if I can take that time to do something else with it instead if there's less interest. So, I would just keep it in my tiny discord server I share with my rp partner(s)/in private chats with those interested bc it's gotten to be a lot and we are still at the very start it feels.

2. SKILLS, CYBERWARE & HUMANITY LOSS

As I'm the type that can't have ocs with no background/lore, I sat down the other day and did a build for each with their skills, wrote down what chrome everyone got (incl. additional c-ware from the lore books plus I'm reading e.g. into what programs my runner twins are likely to make use of). It went this far that my friend used the amount of the game's 'cyberware capacity' as 'humanity loss'. It is used in the lore books/ttrpg anyways. So I've counted all my boys possible capacity* and use it as humanity loss (HL) now which led me to thinking about which one of my ocs goes to get treatment and how often they go to see a MedTech on regular base. I thought I could give them a certain minus amount to reduce the HL for each depending on how much or less c-ware they got — e.g. Thyjs as soldier has most (but all is good Militech chrome) and used to go and still goes regularly so his HL gets a huge reduce — whereas Ryder's gets always nulled no matter how often he gets threatment, because BEAST (rogue AI) eats it away each time (to understand that in full you probably have to know the story). Ry must have most HL loss as he often walks along the edge towards cyberpsychosis, so I'm forced to reduce Thyjs' with most c-ware installed a huge amount. And that's how I made it now. It's probably far away from canon ttrpg as my 'canon cp world' consists of 75% game, 20% lorebooks and 5% own added ideas I haven't seen on the lore yet. And I like it that way I gotta say. On a little side note: It also had me thinking about creating a new support character for the team that could be in fact a MedTech. But I won't do that anytime soon.

* some things might still change as I slowly started playing their playthroughs and skill them for real now. I love each build so far because it's a whole different experience! And playing someone with noe netrunning ability is hell as I was only usedto paly netrunner before.

3. FIC SNIPPET TIME

I decided to give you an insight of what I've roughly written yesterday about Ryder and Thyjs having a talk about how they feel for each other:

“Ik ben eerlijk. I liked that accidental kiss we shared a-and i-ik find je leuk, Ry. Probably more as— a friend is supposed to do.” De Wit instantly starts feeling nauseous and something tightens around his stomach but he needs to get it off of his heavy feeling soul. “I-I guess I have stronger feelings for you than I had expected and it’s confusing me.” He frowns, “It’s not usual for me. Never felt any kind of such an attraction towards other men. I-It’s just you— I think I might be into you, Ryder.” The last sentences came in a mere murmur than spoken and Ryder’s name was only a light whisper. Thyjs didn’t dare to look to his left. He feared he would lose his new gained friend now because he said his stupid thoughts aloud. Instead he continues staring at the distant horizon feeling the lump in his throat only getting heavier. The sun was already half arisen and the sky was painted in a bright orange and yellow fading out into never ending blue. After de Wit seems to have finally finished his long talk, Ryder realizes the pack has fallen out of his hands. He needed to repeat in his mind what Thyjs just told him. Did the man really pour out his heart to him at this very moment? He couldn’t believe it at first. The pale soldier he obviously secretly fell for just told him he was having feelings for him that reach further than friendship? It took him what seemed like an eternity to get out of his frozen state. Ry moves up into a straighter position, still supporting his body with his right forearm, turning more towards Thyjs, who is still watching the rising sun with a rather sad look on his face blinking every once in a while. Eventually Scharfenberg brings up his left hand to reach for the older man’s face and de Wit suddenly feels two fingers under his chin making him look at the younger man again. He sees a tiny smile on those dark lips he caught himself looking at so many times in utter secrecy. That tiny smile that’s usually the base for a brighter even more heartwarming smile baring dangerous fangs who make the man look frightening, but smiling like that? Thyjs often caught himself thinking Ry looked cute with these fangs as well. Ry sees Thyjs’ confusion as his eyes look questioning right back at him. So Ry better says something now. “I-Ich äh—” he clears his throat, “—I don’t know where to start. How to talk feelings in the first place.” Letting Thyjs talk himself off seemed to be right for Ryder and it was worth it, because he thinks it’s the most earnest confession someone has ever made to him, yet he doesn’t know how to answer to all this best. So he decides to place himself into a sitting position, to look the soldier boy straight into the eyes. His gaze gets distracted by Thy’s slightly opened lips for a split second. It is the same situation as earlier downstairs, only that Ry has his fingers still under de Wit’s chin and starts to lead his face towards the other man. Just a few inches are left between them and Thyjs can feel the younger man’s warm breath on his skin. He also has this incredible sight at those beautiful male black eyelashes again the very moment they cast down and then he feels those same lips from before on his own with such a soft pressure that again he closes his eyes in an instant and starts to revel in that same electricity running through him but also the revenant paralyze surrounding him again.

It is just a brief kiss, similar to the one in the apartment downstairs but shyer in its move. As soon as it happened it ended. Ryder opens his eyes afterwards immediately because he fears somehow the man in front of him would get up, step back and turn away but instead he still feels his chin pressed softly against his fingers. It casts another tiny smile onto Ryder’s face as his now racing heart skips a beat or two, seeing that Thyjs didn’t make a move nor a sound. His eyes open now as well and Ry swears he’s never seen heterochromia looking so soft but also surprised at the same time at him like Thyjs does right now. He waits for a reaction but Thyjs just keeps looking at him, lips parting shortly just to close again. “What? — Did that make you that speechless now?” Ry asks with nearly the same surprisement. Thyjs lets out a heavy breath and nods, eyes totally lost looking at him which lets Scharfenberg put on a warm smile. “Want to— try again?” Thyjs swallows his unspoken words that gathered in his throat he couldn’t speak aloud and nods again. Heavier, his lips turning into a smile as well and his eyes are suddenly filled with happiness and relief, like he’s telling Ryder that he cannot wait to have their lips meeting once more and to feel that intense buzz from before as it spreads through his entire body like when he’s powering up electricity. This feeling right now? It’s strong and sends an entirely new sensation through him. Is dat het gevoel van vlinders in je buik? He wonders but doesn’t get much more time to think about it because Ryder choses to lean in for a second time.

It can and probably will be rewritten or changed but I definitely want to have it this way! Thjys starts talking and talking almost doing a monologue instead of a dialogue until he comes to the final point and Ryder wants to respond with words but doesn't know how to (he may find them a bit later) and just does what's best: kiss this soldier. I'll max out this kissing scene for a lot more pages just because I can.

I love the idea of Thyjs as war machine being totally romantic and getting super takative when alone with Ryder. And Ryder definitely is a soft romatic boy, alsways was bu Beast made his life harder to show this side more but Thyjs gets to see it also in private.

4. VP

Since I do more 'actual play the game' now even though I have installed most of all mods back, I rarely do pics atm. If I do, they are just rather nice pics where I try to use the ingame light rather than to spawn spot lights. here's a preview of what comes next:

I have so many ideas I want to put into reality. Especially pics that underline the rp/fic chapters mentioned above. But I'm not going to force myself. I'll see what I can realize for the rest of the year and what gets to be stamped as a New Year's resolution. I'll probably focus on a few blorbo pics this weekend because Ryder's birthday is around the corner (31st October) and Jay's boyfriend Enzolino has just a day prior. So if I can manage, I'll do that in the first place.

Thanks for reading! <3