#i got covid the third

[corvophobia]

vague au from last week

[depravedangelbaby]

oop this is a reminder to self/others to get up to date on the covid vaccine n stock back up on kn95s!!!!!

[lestresmiserables]

I have arrived at my other favorite part, the university. Again a section with a lot of lore to be uncovered if you go looking for it. Again a section where I wonder a lot about what happened, what were they thinking, how were they spending their days?

My emotions already start with the memorial. The 'in loving memory' with all the pictures and the candles. There are three beds with made up dividers between them. Was it where they holed up after the dorms got overtaken by infected? Were they the last survivors of the students? Did they make it?

Then you enter the dorms and there is so much personality in each room. Posters, little trinkets. Outbreak day was september 26th. Beginning of the schoolyear. They probably finally finished making their room their own. Maybe they could still barely remember the name of their dormmates. Maybe they're freshman, moved from across the country and did not know anyone yet. They held out for atleast 10 months in those dorms. 10 months of not knowing if your family and friends back home are alive, dead or something worse. 10 months of being terrified and trying to survive with people you have maybe seen around, people who are completely strangers. Maybe with some friends, maybe with some who absolutely hate your guts.

After a while the cracks start to show. Infected are getting through the barricades and it is getting harder to get them out. Personal relations are getting tense. Rationing food. Who makes the calls. Who risks their life to go to town to try and find supplies. You find out no one is coming. You are on your own.

You are presented with a choice. Either you spend the last of your (probably short) life in the dorms. Trying to survive another day. Or you venture out, risk the relative safety of the dorms, and see if you can make it out in the big, brutal world. Maybe you will even make it to a QZ. Maybe you won't even make it out of the university grounds.

Maybe you will find a group of survivors, you join them. The group grows. You create a town. Sometimes life almost feels normal. At some point rations start to get low. There are little to no provisions left in places nearby, and the situation gets desperate. You start doing something you never would have thought an option when all of this started, all those years ago in that stupid dormitory. It feels like several life times ago when you were young and innocent, excited about the poster you were going to put up, wondering what your dorm mate would be like. But the years of survival have hardened you and you don't think about pulling the trigger and seeing the life leaves someones eyes anymore. You have stopped wondering if they have a family, if someone is waiting for them to get back when you drag their body back to base. You don't throw up anymore after you get served an extra serving of meat at dinner that night.

It was never an option to overtake the group that stationed themselves at the university. They are always too well manned, too well armed. But out of nowhere they seemed to have left. No one is sure why, it seemed like they had a good thing going in the science building. After staking out the place for a while to make sure they are not coming back you and some others go in. See what they left behind. But instead of finding it empty, you find a man and a little girl. A little girl who doesn't hesitate to shoot you to protect the man.

Maybe you were always fated to die in that cursed university.

[raineandsky]

#98

“And lo! Here approaches my best knight,” the king announces to the jester as the knight squeezes through the door. The poor jester looks thankful to see her as he hurries out of the king’s gaze. “Come, show me your skill.”

The knight throws a few carefully angled swings for the king. He watches with a delighted expression, but she can see the soullessness in his eyes. Her stomach flips uncertainly.

“You are an excellent swordsman, knight,” he says flatly. “Now, tell me, why should I allow you to stay within my walls?”

The jester averts his gaze awkwardly. Is she about to get fired? “… Because I’m an excellent swordsman and your best knight,” she tries, and the king huffs in his telltale way of saying WRONG.

“Perhaps that was on me for being unspecific.” He picks up a wine glass from the golden table next to his throne, swirling it idly. “I hear you liaise with dragons.”

The knight’s attempt to keep her expression neutral fails miserably. The king watches with keen interest as her eyes widen and her mouth moves in an abysmal attempt to form some sort of defence. She’s acutely aware of the jester watching curiously too—whatever she says next will be the castle’s gossip for the next month. Maybe two if nothing of interest happens before then.

Well shit. Might as well fall into treason headfirst.

She reaches a hand into the front of her breastplate, earning a soft squeak from something inside. The king leans forward on his throne. The jester peers as close as he dares.

Her hand comes back with a short purple string laced around her fingers. Or she does at first glance, and closer inspection reveals her ribbon to be a tiny dragon, yawning and digging tiny claws into her fingers.

The king roars so loud the dragon startles. The knight and the jester don’t fare much better. “Beast!” he howls.

“Beast! Beast! Beast! Beast!” the room echoes back to them.

“You bring this creature within my walls?” he demands. “You slander my name—my rule—with your disregard to my kindness for you?”

“She’s harmless!” the knight cries over him. The dragon isn’t a fan of the racket, and is making a great effort to slip up her sleeve. “She looks after my finances.”

“Disgusting beast,” the king spits.

“The dragon,” the jester says quietly, valiantly ignoring the way the king’s stare snaps to him, “is your accountant?”

The knight fishes a coin from her pouch, gently tapping the dragon with its edge. Its gaze snaps to her gold, its past endeavour with her sleeve forgotten as it grapples for her coin. It twists its body around it excitedly, gnawing at the edge like a toddler, a quiet hum emitting from it as it does.

“That noise it is making,” the king shrieks, “it is going to attack!”

“No!” the knight shouts over him. “It’s like a cat—she’s purring. It means she’s happy.”

“Dragons do not purr,” the king retorts, but the dragon is undeniably making a noise that sounds remarkably like purring. The jester takes a cautious step closer.

The knight tucks her finger under her chin, giving it a hearty scratch. The dragon’s humming gets louder, her eyes closing blissfully at the touch.

“How does it… work?” the jester asks. The knight offers him a smile that she hopes conveys how grateful she is for his interest in the face of the king’s disgust.

“She takes my coins—my salary, my earnings, anything.” The knight adjusts her hand so the dragon sits more comfortably in her palm. She doesn’t seem to mind, too busy clamping her jaw around the gold to notice. “She keeps a hoard no one but her can find. I earned her trust, and whenever I need money she gives it to me.”

“She is a thief,” the king spits, but the rage is losing momentum in the face of such a cute little thing. The knight doesn’t miss how she’s suddenly not an ‘it’.

“I give her all the money she has. She’s just better at keeping money than most humans,” the knight says with a grin, “because she doesn’t spend it all in a tavern.”

The jester snorts. The king raises his eyebrows. Silence falls for a moment as they all watch the dragon get comfortable in the knight’s hand, her tiny body choking her coin, a claw wrapped around her thumb as she nestles in and closes her eyes.

The jester lets out a short “aww,” that’s louder than he probably intended.

“Tsch,” the king says. He leans back in his throne like he’s lost interest. “A beast is a beast. I am most displeased you were disloyal to my word, knight.”

“I apologise, your majesty,” the knight says. It’s all she can say, really. “I will fix things.”

“You… may keep the thing,” the king continues after a moment of intense deliberation. The knight attempts to not to look too surprised. The jester doesn’t even try. “But it is your accountant and nothing more. If I discover it torching my palace I will execute both it and you.”

“Accounting is what she’s best at, your majesty,” the knight says brightly. “You’ll never have to see her again.”

The king nods shortly, though his gaze is traitorously locked onto the purple ball in her hand. “I would not be adverse, knight,” the king says slowly, like he doesn’t quite want to, “if you felt it right to study. We did not know dragons purr, or like coin.”

“Your majesty?”

“Gather your resources and come back to me with knowledge of the beasts.” He waves a hand dismissively. “I will reconsider your treasonous actions if you can prove that your creature poses no threat to my rule or my people.”

A lot of questions are rattling through her brain. “Your majesty, what do—”

“That is all. Jester!” The king turns his attention away from her and back to the jester as he takes centrestage, looking a lot less stressed than before. He gives her a subtle nod and the lightest smile—a small gesture between the servants of the castle, a simple well done.

The knight leaves the hall with the king’s uproaring laughter following her. The dragon stays curled in her hand, and she runs her thumb over it carefully, the dragon’s body warm and prickly to the touch.

A knight to a scholar in one conversation. She doesn’t even know how to write.

[d4isywhims]

once i update all my sdv mods and start a new farm for the 100th time and reach perfection it's all over for everyone

[weafurry]

ykw tumblr gets me gushing about this too. SUMMER SCHOOL CLASSES OFFICIALLY DONE!!

Im so fucking happy man . this is genuinely the first time since MIDDLE SCHOOL that I've gotten through an entire school year without failing a single class. if all goes according to plan i start school back up in august and graduate in december of 2024 :)

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Things that sillily make me happy: the fact that in the official Buffy chess set they released, Buffy and Angel are queen and king chess pieces.

And, I mean, it just makes sense that they would do this, of course. As it looks like this set was based on early season two, as Spike and Drusilla are the king and queen pieces for black.

But Buffy and Angel being king and queen pieces works so well, since they're paired together, of course. And equal to each other... and a battle couple. And more than anything, this is great because the queen's the most powerful piece on the board and Buffy's the most powerful character in the series, of course. And her being more powerful than Angel just tracks. Because she canonically is. And this makes me think of the many times where she saved him and he was the damsel.

Anyway...

[the-last-dillpickle]

Reminder for all my beloved followers that if you're like me and maybe forgot about or put off getting your latest covid vaccinations because making appointments and attending them is a drag, you can still do that and save yourself (and others) future suffering.

[disasterhimbo]

Being marginalized, especially in multiple ways, is just learning most people don’t give a shit about your happiness, health, or safety. It hurts the worst imo when even people in one marginalized group you’re a part of don’t give a shit about you bc you’re part of another marginalized group they don’t care about. And they’re not even honest about it, they pretend to care, and they think they’re good people as they’re hurting you.

[vitalconviction]

plane drawing from a few days ago :)

[gaygollum]

sorry guys i just pray on this mans downfall harder than anyone else

[coastercrushed]

maaaaaan, my throat is hurting, and my roommate just informed me that covid is going around the unit again.

[stars-inthe-sky]

UGH.

[megasceptile001]

i smell a new special interest coming on

[sourkitsch]

My girlfriends have covid and I’m apparently capable of feeling loneliness

[crowcryptid]

had a cold that refused to go away 100% for over a week. Finally start getting over it on Monday.

suddenly start feeling worse yesterday

this morning 👍👍👍👍