#i finished this a while ago but i have been waaay to busy to post...

[kokomalls]

vishnal art for vishnal enjoyers

[heheohfck]

18.07.22 - 19.07.22

I'm still alive. The spring was really tough on my mental state, that's why I didn't post anything since early March (even though I have a couple of posts in drafts).

It's kinda weird to see how your future is crumbling right in front of you, yet no one else around you is seeing it. As if you're the only one who's going insane.

In September, the last year of my university education will start. And I don't know what to do after I finish it...

Before 24/02 I was thinking of practicing at drawing while working at a random store/cafe after I finish my uni, so that in a couple of years I'd be able to work as an artist for people from all around the world. But now...

It's hella painful to see how my parents approve the war, yet they have close relatives in the Ukraine. As if they're trying to deny their roots.

And they don't understand my frustration. Seems like they killed any empathy that was left in their minds.

I don't see any future for me here, and I most likely won't be able to emigrate. I'm not "smart" enough, and shoe designers are not needed in the West, sadly.

And if only that was the only reason I decided to write this post...

A couple of days ago there was a new law proposed.

I guess, many people have already heard about the "anti-LGBT-propaganda" law that was implemented in 2013. The law was centered around "protecting minors (= people under 18 years old)" from the "gay propaganda", though it didn't clarify what was considered as such. But as long as you had an "18+" mark on your content, you'd be somewhat fine.

Now, people in the government decided to extend the law in order to ban ANY depiction or even mentioning gay people, no matter the rating. Their reasons are the same ("we have to protect the kids!!!!! and traditional family values!!!!"), yet it's clear that they don't care about neither the said kids, nor the values. They just want to discriminate and censor people.

I'm at loss.

I'm not "gay" enough to ask for asylum in other countries, and I'm not "straight" enough to live here if the law will be passed. Ah, a truly demisexual bi experience...

Today, I was making a letter draft to the Duma deputies with explanations on why the law shouldn't be passed. I still have to finish it, and then send it to my twitter mutuals for a proof-read, since my ability to write business-styled letters severely degraded over the past years. I'll send it tomorrow. It's the middle of the night and I'm waaay to drunk and tired to finish it now.

It would've been logical to end this long post with something like "let's hope that the law won't be passed", but honestly, I have no hope left.

As a well-known GULAG saying goes, "Не верь, не бойся, не проси"("Don't hope, don't fear, don't ask"). Isn't that bitterly ironic that t.A.T.u has a song with the same name?

[pinkyshy101]

Hi tumblr, Maria here

I'm busy right now, but when I get the chance I want to watch a show. What show? That's why I'm writing this post that will probably get very few, if any, notes. So, my options are:

- rewatch a show

- watch a new show

(Tl;dr: I'm thinking of rewatching Gravity Falls, She-Ra, or possibly The Owl House, Kipo, Infinity Train, or maybe Steven Universe, leaning towards one of the first two. I'm also maybe thinking of starting a new show, which could be the Legend of Korra, Adventure Time, Clone High (I say half jokingly), the Tangled show whose name idk cause I think at one point it changed?, Glitch Techs, or maybe Carmilla. Any ideas? Lemme know!)

Lets start out with that first option, rewatching a show. Now with shows I want to rewatch, there's a few categories. There's 1) shows that I've watched for years and have seen numerous times, but I want to rewatch them because it's been a while and I like them and they make me :) and 2) I've only watched them once, probably binge watched it so maybe I don't remember all the details, but I liked it and I want to rewatch it just cause.

What are some of these shows I want to rewatch, you probably aren't asking? Well, there's

- Gravity Falls - I first started watching this show around Thanksgiving/late November 2014, and I've loved it since. I've tried to rewatch it every year since it ended around the date of the last episode airing (February 15, 2016), but last year for whatever reason I didn't. And now that somehow it's about 2 weeks since the 5 year anniversary of it ending somehow, I'm thinking I may want to rewatch it at some point

- She-Ra - this is fairly different from my experience with Gravity Falls - I had heard about it and wanted to watch it for a long while, but for whatever reason put off watching it until.. About a week or so after it ended, so probably May 20something? 2020 of course. I binge watched all 5 seasons in about 6 days, and I haven't fully rewatched it since (I've rewatched a handful of early s1 episodes with a group I'm in at school, but we don't get to do whatever things super often). Also, when I watched it the first time I was dming my friends who had already watched it the whole time, so I'm sure I didn't soak everything in. I've just really been wanting to rewatch it lately, and I don't have the time at the moment to really binge anything, but regardless, it's up there on things I want to rewatch.

There's possibly a few other things I might want to rewatch, like The Owl House, Kipo, possibly Steven Universe, maybe Infinity Train but I feel like its been recent enough since I watched them that they're still in my memory, and a few I watched more than once (Steven universe doesn't really fit in the same categories as those other 3 lol those all I started watching I suppose fall 2020 and SU I've been watching since 2015, its just... Wow I haven't rewatched it since future ended, and I binge watched the whole show up to that point, finishing within a few hours or less of the finale airing... Wow. I haven't watched it since then though, but that's also longer than the other shows I listed, so that's probably not as much a priority at the moment. Plus, I've rewatched it a ton.

Ok, now onto shows that for some reason or another, I still haven't watched. Maybe it's something that I've been meaning to watch for years and years, maybe it's something that would have made sense to watch when I was younger, but I didn't grow up with cable so I never had the chance to watch it, maybe it's a newer show that's been on my radar but I still haven't gotten around to watching it. Regardless, here's my list,

- The Legend of Korra - this and ATLA were on my list to watch for SO LONG, and finally, through a few irl friends convincing, I watched ATLA last october/november. I haven't really binge watched anything since then, except Hilda when season 2 came to netflix, so Korra is definitely pretty high on my list of things I want to watch; I know waaay less about it going in than I did about ATLA, but I'm still excited to watch it eventually!

- Adventure Time - I know I know, how have I not seen this show? Well, there's where the "I didn't have cable growing up" category comes in. I know it's pretty long, cause it aired for what almost 10 years? And I know theres that newer thing on hbo max too; idk exactly how long adventure time is, I just know it's probably gonna take me a very long time to watch. At one point a few years ago I tried to start watching it on hulu, but I got maybe a dozen or so episodes in before whatever reason I stopped. I do still wanna watch it though! I think the episodes are like steven universe where they're only 11 minutes long? I could be wrong. Who knows. But since they were both on cartoon network... I'm willing to bet that probably the majority of the episodes are around 11 minutes. Can't say for sure though. Either way it'll take a long time to watch... Which I think I already said but it's late 😂

- Clone High, I say, mostly as a joke - some of my more chaotic memey friends have wanted me to watch this, especially when memes from it were going around, so I suppose it's on my list, as far as I know it's short but eh. Not insanely high up on my priorities at the moment, but it's there

- and now, a few others that I don't feel like writing in depth because it's 4am and I've been typing this way too long and just want to hit post 😂

- Glitch Techs (watched the first episode, liked it, got busy and so far haven't continued)

- Carmilla - not a cartoon, but same people from group I watched some she-ra with (it's a wlw/nblw group at my college, thus the gay lol) have been wanting me to watch - I've seen some of it with that group similar to how we watched she-ra, but it's easier for me to watch new things on my own at my own speed, so I'd have to rewatch it

- whatever the Tangled series is called - I've seen a handful of the first episodes, but I keep getting too busy to continue it

- oh yeah, one other one that I'm eh about watching idk, some volleyball anime two of my friends are trying to get everyone else in the friend group to watch? Haikyu or something like that is what it's called, idk. I've only seen one anime, ouran high school host club, and recently while doing some art assignments for school I had it on half watching it for the first time in years. I didn't make it all the way through, but eh. I'll finish it eventually, I've seen it all the way through at least 2 or 3 times since I first watched it in like 7th grade lol)

I'm sure there's more, but like I said, it's 4:05 am as I'm typing this, so I'm very no thoughts head empty right now. Any suggestions on what to watch/rewatch when I have time? Lemme know!

Watch I bet this is gonna get no notes/interaction at all, then I'll just look silly

[bibliophilicwitch]

Alright, enough of you would like to see my likely long rambly post about my 3-day weekend away so let’s do this.

About a month ago a friend of mine connected with me and asked if I would be interested in a girls’ weekend because there’s a loud music festival that happens practically in her backyard every year and she didn’t want to be in town for it. This friend lives in Appleton nearly 2 hours away from me and we rarely have reasons to be in each others’ neck of the woods anymore so I don’t really visit with her much anymore. So when she asked I really wanted to say yes, but she just so happened to be suggesting a 3-day trip the same month as my 6-day vacation to travel to North Dakota to see family and attend my cousin’s wedding. We planned a budget accordingly and I just gotta be conscious of money the next couple of weeks.

The music started on Thursday and ideally we would’ve left town that evening, but I ended up being scheduled to work until 9 PM closing time at the pharmacy that night… of course. We had plans already scheduled for midday on Friday, so I had to pack everything before work and then left immediately from work for my nearly 2 hour drive and arrived at her house at about 11 PM. I listened to some of the first campaign of Critical Role - time well spent.

So our Friday morning was spent running a few errands and finishing prep to leave Appleton before heading out to Milwaukee including running her pup to a friends’ house, getting groceries, and picking up coffee to fortify ourselves. We headed out around 11 AM I think and arrived early for our massage in a Milwaukee suburb with time to spare. It was my first massage and it was pretty good other than too much on my neck which led to a light headache. I really should’ve said that it was hurting too much, but I wasn’t sure if it would or would not be beneficial as I had never had a professional massage before.

Our hotel was in Wauwautosa and we arrived a good two hours before check in so we went and got food at Dave and Busters which, for those that don’t know, is an arcade for adults - meaning there is a bar. It was fun, but 3 of the 5 games we played didn’t work correctly or at all and then it was time to head out. Kinda wish we had had the opportunity to go back for another hour since I had plenty of credits still and would’ve really liked to play Mario Kart and check out one or two more games. I did play a Star Wars game with the wrap around screen which was pretty wicked cool.

That evening, after we checked into our hotel and washed off our oils from the massage, we went to a suburb to participate in a Paint and Sip class - this one was a paint your pet class and they even had little gift bags with goodies for you pet. I picked a picture of Binx that was low lighting which they oversaturated so you could see both his eyes, but since they oversaturated the picture he no longer looked like a true black and white tuxedo but like he had shades of grey and black all over which would not have been my kitty. Since I was not following the picture exactly it was proving impossible to distinguish his features, so I gave up and just used my time to fill in the areas I knew I could and plan to ask another of my friends, who works with me for the library Paint & Sip classes, to help me finish it some time. No idea when that may actually happen since she is super busy, but I have plans that meant I was okay with my experience. Not thrilled since it was a $35 class not including our wine, but eh. Meanwhile my friend was frustrated because even though she asked a few times for help with colors she never got close enough to be happy with her picture. On top of that she had chosen a picture of her goofy dog with his tongue lolling out of his mouth, but they CUT OFF HIS TONGUE and then didn’t make the picture as large as they could’ve so she had a lot of negative space. She was unimpressed to say the least. At least our wine was good. Really the class should’ve had prerequisites such as having participated in their other classes to be sure customers would get the best out of their experience. They did see that I had not finished and were offering a free session to join their free paint classes for help finishing… which we couldn’t do since we both live too far away (in my case a good 4 hours). I do really wish it had been a more standard paint class with the fast blended background and straightforward foreground. Ah well.

We finished day one at the Cheesecake Factory, a first for me! My friend commented that she was never very impressed by their food and she wasn’t surprised do be unimpressed yet again (though I didn’t mind my food at all), but we finished off with cheesecake, obviously, and that was delicious. Unfortunately I forgot my leftover cheesecake at her house in Appleton.

Saturday was our busiest day. We started at the Milwaukee Public Museum which was excellent though it really is a whole day affair not the two hour filler we planned for it. About halfway through my friend started to get anxious about her car and concerned it had a ticket or had been towed and I think she was also just getting tired of being on her feet. I think I was overall more interested in the exhibits too and she seemed to only be truly interested in specific things. I’m also a reader and wanted to actually read some of the shit while she just breezed through exhibit after exhibit. Like I said, we really didn’t have the time, but it was disappointing to be rushed so much.

Then we went downtown to The Safe House which she had wanted to check out. She did not realize it was literally right downtown and there was some anxiety, but we made it! For those that have not heard of Safe House, it’s a restaurant where the servers are in-character as secret agents and guests are also secret agents. There is a password to get in and if you don’t know it you have to prove you aren’t a spy by acting out some silliness. The interior is a wild and zany pieced together hodgepodge with references to spies in popular culture. Guests are given a list of missions (clues) to wander about and try to figure out the password. If you figure it out you are able to get a discount on their merchandise.

It was more confusing than my friend was expecting and not as engaging as she had expected either. She was pretty sure she figured it out, but neither of us were really worried about the merchandise, so we just didn’t even bother. They had a pen listed that we both kinda wanted, but they didn’t have any in stock.

After that we went to the North Point Lighthouse which is a lighthouse museum and I really enjoyed that little attraction. After that we finally headed back to the hotel for a short break and to get bandages because she wore strappy shoes that were trying to eat her feet. We discovered there was some sort of convention going on so the hotel was packed and TOO busy for only two slow elevators.

Next we went to Water2Wine, a winery in a suburb that imports their grapes and then makes their own wines in house. It was cute and pretty decent, but we weren’t overly impressed tbh. Next door to the winery was a Half Priced Books which my friend suggested instead of going to Barnes and Noble in the mall. So we wandered around, which was the first time I’d been to a Half Priced Books, but she got bored relatively quickly and dragged me out well before I would’ve like saying I could go to Barnes and Noble instead and then if she got bored she could wander the mall. So then we ended up at the mall and I was ready to settle into browsing for nearly an hour before wandering around the rest of the mall until close, but again she dragged me out likely because it isn’t that fun to wander by yourself. I did pick up a book at both places, Of Fire and Stars and Spinning Silver. I could’ve stayed in the bookstore all evening and likely only bought the one book, but nooooo, I ended up in the game store and bought an expensive gorgeous metal dice set. Pft. I also bought macarons which I had never been able to try and the ones I got were disappointingly too sweet for me to enjoy. We were both ready to be done, so we grabbed Chipotle, another first for me, and just curled up with a little TV before bed.

Sunday we got brunch at the ludicrously hipstery Cafe Hollanders. Very good and excellent atmosphere, but I couldn’t get over how chique it was being. The cafe was located in this ritzy area filled with high end stores that neither of us could afford, but we wandered around and gawped at insane prices before heading out to the Milwaukee County Zoo which I have WAAAY too many picture of to share here, so just check out my Instagram. I mentioned a few times, because I was seeing merchandise, that we hadn’t seen the red panda and my friend said she thought it might be a seasonal exhibit. After I was home I checked… it wasn’t. We literally missed it and I kinda wanna cry tbh.

We left Milwaukee around 4 and I ended up home around 7:30, but I tossed some gas in my car, washed it, and ran to the grocery store first so idk exactly how long my drive was. Though not everything was amazing I still had a pretty damn good time, my friend on the other hand seemed to get bored and/or impatient and/or disappointed/frustrated on a regular basis and I swear she didn’t enjoy the trip nearly as well as I did which just makes me sad. I also realized that since the last time we had really hung out we have both changed. Whereas I am online a lot and am fairly socially conscious she was not and she made a few borderline racist jokes (okay, not really borderline at all). Nothing nasty, just those ingrained stereotype jokes that are just not funny when you recognize how hurtful they can be. It also became more apparent that our interests do not overlap much at all. Which is another post to ramble about later. I loved the lighthouse and the zoo and wish I could’ve had just a bit more bookstore time and arcade time. It was nice to get out of town and not think about work while getting to catch up with an old friend though.

[idi0twizard]

Sunny-Side Up (1)

hm, i’ve never posted any fics before haha

i have other parts planned that i’ll probably post...eventually

feedback/comments/reblogs/likes all incredibly appreciated

Angus Mcdonald was 11 years, 3 months, and 6 days old. He’d calculate down to the very second, but he had other matters to attend to, and just didn’t have the time. He had things to check, crimes to solve, and clues to crack. In his short, short human life, he’d dealt with a lot more than an average 11 year old should, and some days he felt more like an adult than a child. Still, Angus Mcdonald was a kid, and kids will be kids no matter what.

The Bureau of Balance moonbase was an incredible feat of science, and Angus could respect that, but it could get awfully boring living on a fake moon day in and day out when everyone else got to touch back down planetside at least once in awhile. And the Bureau definitely hadn’t been built with any children in mind, even a child as reserved as him, so there wasn’t much around to keep him occupied. So today he decided to do some investigating, or as others liked to call it, snooping. An even more correct term would be “eavesdropping,” and hoping someone had a mystery on their hands that needed solving.  

Sure enough, a mystery showed itself in the form of the Bureau’s sole reclaimers, the uh, Tres something Boys. Perhaps eavesdropping hadn’t been the proper term, since the three (actually, only Magnus) invited him to sit with them in the cafeteria, but they had been ignoring him and speaking huddled up ever since Angus sat down. Their attempts at secrecy were admirable, but their idea of hushed conversation was speaking at room volume while pretending to whisper.

“It's an object just….made of zone of truthing,” Merle said, placing a hand against his mouth as if he still wasn’t just talking as loud as ever, “That’s like...my whole deal, ya know? We gotta find it!”

Taako leaned back in his chair, dropping the pretense of pretending to talk quietly, and stared dismissively at the ceiling, “Sounds like waaay too much effort for Taako. Probably just a bust anyways- count- uh, count cha’boy super out.”

“But Taako,” Magnus cut in, “If it’s lame, we can just lie and make up a story about it and pawn it off for some cash. You’re like, crazy good at that! ...aaand we might need your super cool magic stuff?”

Taako paused for only a moment before leaning back into the huddle, “Okay, flattery's getting you everywhere” he whispered, “So when we going?”

“Um, Sirs?” Angus chimed in for the first time since he had sat down. He immediately had three pairs of eyes on him, all looking like they had entirely forgotten he was there, “Do you..do you even know where this thing is? Or what it's actually called? You’re going to need some leads if you’re going to find it.”

“Thanks Pumpkin, but the grownups are talking right now so-”

“No, no, Ango’s got a point. Do you even know what it’s called, Merle?”

“Uh,” Merle scratched at his beard, his brow furrowing in thought, “The..er..Fab Egg? The Fad Ed? The uhh...”

Magnus rolled his eyes, “Okay cool, so we have no idea what or where this thing is. Taako’s right, too much work.”

Angus’s eyes lit up and he bolted up in his seat, “I can help! I can ask around and see if anyone’s heard of anything like it! I can even look through Leon’s book and see if there’s any magical items similar to it listed to get some clues and-”

“No fuckin’ way, ki-”

“Great, Angus! Can you go do that for us? We’ll start lookin’ too, meetcha back in a hour, ‘kay?” Taako gave the young detective a wink and Angus beamed, leaping from his seat and practically sprinting out of the cafeteria.

Merle huffed and crossed his arms, giving the elf a pointed look, “Why’d you let the squirt help out? We can figure it out.”

Taako smirked and rested his feet on the table, reclining back in his chair, “Less work this way, Gramps. Now all we gotta do is chill for an hour and Agnes will have all the answers.”

The dwarf still wasn’t convinced, but relaxed further into his seat, “Ya really think he’ll figure it out?”

Taako gazed at the door Angus had just ran through, suppressing his grin that threatened to show, “Yeah, he’s got this.”  

Okay, Angus, you’ve got this! Angus had stopped running after leaving the cafeteria, but his pace was still brisk with the excitement of having a mystery on his hands. He began to think of all the possible people who could know about a magical object. There was Leon, obviously, and he was for sure visiting him, but who else if that turned out to be a dead end? Killian and Carey have seen their share of magical objects, but Angus doubted they’d have much knowledge of them or their whereabouts. The same went for Avi or Johann, and Davenport...well, Davenport wasn’t much of a conversationalist. He continued his trek down the hallway while pondering his options, head down and fingers on his chin in deep thought. The Voidfish could know something, but as far as he knew there was no way of communicating with it. Maybe he could come up with a system where it could hum once for yes or twice for no, or motion with its tentacles? No, no, that wouldn’t work…Completely absorbed into his thoughts, Angus ran right into something solid and flew backwards, landing on the ground with an ‘oof.’

“Oh, Angus! I’m so sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going. Are you alright?” Madam Director was standing over him, her hand outstretched for him to take.

Angus stared up at her with wide eyes, “Madam Director,” he grinned and took her offered hand, “Can I ask you a few questions?”

“Got any fours?”

“Nah, go fish. Merle, ya got any eights?”

“Mmf, yeah yeah. Taako do y-”

Heaving a dramatic sigh, Taako slammed his cards down on the table, “Okay, this chill sesh is boring as hell, my dudes! Won’t- Can’t stand another minute of this, I will die for reals.” The elf stood, crossing his arms over his chest, “Are we seriously gonna let boy detective do all the dirty work while we just play old lady games?”

Magnus stood as well, pointing accusingly, “You’re the one who came up with that! You’re the one who suggested we play cards!”

“Yeah whatever,” Taako waved his hand dismissively, “Had a change of heart or something, totally wanna track down the Fat Eggplant or whatever it is. Let’s go do that before I kill over.”

Merle hopped off his chair and strode over to Taako, “The kid did say there might be somethin’ useful in Leon’s book. Maybe we can go check in with him?”

“Yeah, I do that.” Magnus replied, already heading towards the door. The remainder followed suit, and together the trio made the familiar trek across the quad to Leon the Artificer’s office.

Leon threw out a warm greeting as he heard the door to his office open, but his cheerful demeanor was struck down instantly when he looked up from his book and saw who his guests were, “Oh, goddamnit.” He closed the book and paced around his desk, “You three haven’t been sent on any missions,” He stalked over to stand in front of the trio, “You have no tokens, I have no patience, now please get the hell out.” He glared up at the three of them, eyes narrowed almost challengingly.

“Hey it’s okay man, we’re not here to mess with you-”

“Much.”

“-We just need to look at your book real fast.” Magnus finished, elbowing Taako in the side. Taako elbowed him back forcefully, and the two broke out in a seconds long elbowing match. Merle attempted to cut in and end the spat, but instead got himself dragged into it as well.

Leon made no attempt to hide his exasperated sigh, drawing the trio’s attention back to him and promptly ending their duel, and hesitantly stuck out an arm to gesture towards his book, “Just make it quick, okay? No funny business. I don’t even care what you need it for, I don’t want to know.”

“We’re looking for a truth orb or something,” Magnus replied helpfully.

“Truth egg,” Merle corrected.

“I just said- wait a what?” Leon’s interest was visibly peaked. He returned to his book before the other three had a chance to look at it themselves and began flipping through it’s many pages, “There aren’t many magical truth items out there..hm..ah-ha!” He slapped his small hand down on the page opened before him, “Here it is!”

“Well,” Merle pressed, “What is it?”

“The Fiberge?” Angus was sat across from the Director in her office. The desk between them was hand-carved and looked worn and old compared to everything else in the room, save for the madam herself. Like the desk, the Director looked worn with age, and the wrinkles on her forehead creased when she smiled in response.

“Yes, I believe that’s what it is, given the, erm, vague description.” She shifted a few files she had set in front of her and read, “The Fiberge is a collectible faberge egg that’s been enchanted with a zone of truth spell, or at least something of similar nature. Completely unsurprising that word of it would catch Merle’s, uh, scattered attention.” Angus noticed her focus shift for a moment, her gaze distant and a soft smile on her lips, before turning back to Angus, “We found it years ago on a bad relic lead. It seemed harmless enough so we decided to give it to Leon for the Fantasy Gashapon. I haven’t any idea if it’s still there or not, though.” She returned the papers back to their proper file and slid them into one of the desk’s drawers, “Sorry, I wish I could be of more help.”

“No, no, Ma’am, you’ve helped a lot!” Angus grinned up at the woman with a look of both an excited child and a detective with a lead, “Now I’ve got a name to go off of, and a susp-- person of interest! This has all been very valuable information for my investigation!”  

The Director chuckled at Angus’s enthusiasm, “I’m glad I could be of assistance. Just take it easy, alright? Those three goofs can be a handful to deal with when they set their minds on something.” If Angus noticed yet another change in demeanor, which he absolutely did, he didn’t draw any attention to it. Everyone up on the quad seemed to be fond of the trio of reclaimers at least somewhat, but the Director’s fondness towards them was something else entirely. Angus noticed it constantly; when they visited her office, when they cracked jokes at her or others’ expense, and especially when they returned home from their missions. Her eyes would always light up and the creases of a smile would appear by her mouth, all undetectable by untrained eyes. But Angus didn’t mention it. It was a mystery for another day.

“Oh, I know how they can get, Madam Director. I did spend quite a lot of time with them on a train! I’ll be sure they don’t almost get themselves killed again, don’t you worry!” Angus slid out of his chair and extended a hand over the desk, “Thanks so much for your help! I’m going to go talk with Leon right now.”

The Director took Angus’s extended hand and shook it with a grin, “You’re welcome, Angus. Don’t hesitate to come see me again if anything comes up. And don’t let the boys pick on you!” She called after him as he practically sprinted out of her office. Shaking her head, Lucretia stood and faced the portrait hanging on her wall, longing for her own days of adventure.

Well, they had some idea of where to find The Fiberge, and a pretty good one too. Leon had told them all about it, and with some light threats revealed that the late Liam Kessler had won it a couple years ago. “We’re pretty good at this detective shit, huh?” Merle mused as they made their way through the quad to return to their quarters, “Didn’t even need the squirt.”

“Oh shit,” Taako replied, “I uh, forgot all about him, actually.”

“Do we still want to...go meet up with him? See if he found anything out too?” Magnus suggested.

“Nah, we got this all figured out. Just gotta go do some grave robbing and we got our egg,” Taako shrugged, “‘Less you jokesters are cowards.”

Magnus made a face and stopped walking, “Aren’t there like, mystical consequences over disturbing the dead? Like curses or hauntings?”

“Not worried about that.” Taako responded plainly, continuing ahead. They were well across campus when they heard a tiny voice calling out for them from behind. “Ah fuck.”

“Sirs, sirs! I know what it is!” Angus jogged up to the three, all besides Magnus hurriedly walking away from him, “I ran into the Director in the hall and she had a bunch of files and information about miscellaneous magical items and she told me that it was called the-”

“The Fiberge,” Taako cut in, “Yeah, Agnes, we figured that one out already, catch up.”

“Oh. That’s um, very pro-active of you guys, I’m proud! Well, I’m on my way to Leon’s right now to-”

“No need, kiddo, we already got that covered!” Magnus beamed and pat Angus on the back. The force sent the detective stumbling forward before righting himself, “He told us that Liam Kessler had it.”

“O-oh…” Angus visibly deflated. He had been so excited to help them out with their mystery, but it seemed like they hadn’t needed him after all. He willed his pouting expression down and cleared his throat, “Well, okay, I’ll just, leave you to it then.”

Taako let out a long, dramatic sigh and looked up towards the heavens. Gods forsake his totally generous and bleeding heart, “We might still need your help, pumpkin. We- we have no idea what they did with Kessler’s shit after he bit it. We were, uh, just gonna go check his grave out.”

Angus brightened, “That’s very ill-advised, sir! Grave robbing is super punishable by law, not to mention highly unethical!” Taako rolled his eyes and ruffled the boy’s hair, “I can look into what they did with his estate. Um, if you...if you want me to.”

Merle grumbled to himself for a moment before speaking up, “Okay, kid. Where do you want us to start?”