Me being totally normal: I can surely figure out what page he's at if I stare at it for too long
Also me, staring at it for too long: Wait...is he reading....the foreword...?
I can't believe it took me this long to realize Vegas is reading the first page here. It might not even be the foreword, it might be info about the author, it's so funny.
But don't worry, the good news is that he's actually reading the book in this scene:
which, of course, you can make the claim that beforehand, he was not in a good mental state (Vegas? not being mentally well? No fucking way right?) so he was trying to distract himself from whatever the fuck the whole thing he's doing at the safehouse is, but after him and Pete talk and bond and all of that good stuff, his mind can focus and actually read the damn book.
Sidenote
Because I'm a bit insane and very committed in finding things to obsess over with my hyperfixations, I estimated the possible percentage of the book he might be currently at, then went to the appropriate page and found this line there:
"He felt very gay and light-headed, and quite forty years younger, as he walked to the door."
I swear to God, it was there, and I laughed so hard they must have heard me over in Thailand.
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Margo opened the file and closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath before flipping up through the pages as she had earlier that day. The post-it. She had almost convinced herself it had been a dream, a sudden madness, but there it was just as she remembered it and her heart once again skipped a beat. Sergei’s handwritten equation called to her comfortingly like an old friend.
Careful not to bend or curl it too much, she lifted it from the page and held the equation between her fingers, feeling the grooves of the figures made by the pressure of his hand through the pen. She recalled the gentle yet urgent pressure of those same hands on her face, her neck, her body, and a heated flush climbed out of her memory and up over her chest and neck. Shocked by the intensity of the feeling ten years on and after everything that had passed between, she started, her back straightening as she willed herself back into the moment and to the task at hand.
Replacing the post-it on the page, Margo set about solving for Sergei’s message.
It wasn’t long before she had a time and a location… This is a secret place for you?
Frank’s was adjacent to 11:59, she’d had many a hurried meal there before or after a set over her years with the house band. At least until the club closed up well over a decade prior in the years following the Apollo-Soyuz broadcast. Soyuz-Apollo…
Did he truly want to unearth their meager past? Surely he must have moved on by now?
She had forgiven him years ago. Mourned what might have been. God knew he must have done the same, believing along with everyone that she had died with her colleagues. Wildly she wondered if he had shared a memorial borscht with his family in their honor, in hers? She’d eaten a lot of borscht that first fall in Moscow, learning the true meaning of cold before winter had even officially started. Her nightly memorials did little to warm the chill of grief. She shifted in her chair and swallowed down the old guilt that rose like bile in her throat at thoughts of the bombing.
She had to get up, had to move, shift her weight, her perspective.
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small update I guess
This AI bullshit is getting to me a lot.
In case anyone doesn't know there's a new toggle setting where you have to opt out of Tumblr giving AI companies your data. I don't even know how well that will even work, I feel like they're just going to give the data/images over anyway.
You need to go to settings, blog settings and then scroll all the way down till it says "Prevent third-party sharing" and toggle it to opt out.
I'm getting quite sick of all this tbh and I also only just fucking realised that Tumblr doesn't actually delete the posts you make if it has re-blogs? So if it has a re-blog your deleted post will stay on that other blog?? This upsets me a lot actually, I just had no idea. I take a fair bit of comfort in being able to delete my own stuff.
I really don't know how to feel anymore. I get so much comfort from the tags on the re-blogs and I don't want to stop people from sharing my art and enjoying it. But not owning my own things is just .... confusing and tiresome at this point.
as of right now I have no idea what I'm going to do with my account here. I want to stop posting but I don't know if I can as I love sharing my stupid drawings. It's hard to tell when I'm very upset so we'll just have to see.
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After sending off her latest piece, Harper wandered over to the cafe for a latte and some people watching.
Clara: I'm not lending you money to open a grilled cheese restaurant.
Gaius: But it could be revolutionary for this town! I have a whole business plan!
Clara: I'll think about it if you come up with a whole business plan that isn't grilled cheese themed, kiddo.
The grilled cheese restaurant didn't put Harper off introducing herself and asking Gaius if he'd like to get to know each other. As far as manbuns go, he's kinda rocking the look.
Gail: Hello, Gaius.
Harper: Who is that and why are they spitting your name like that?
Gaius: Oh, that's Gail, she's my ex-girlfriend.
Gail: Excuse you, I'm not just an ex-girlfriend, I have a rich inner life and a career. And a hobby!
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I unfortunately find myself unable to work on my current Soriku fic today due to my mental state, but I was able to make a bit of a teaser for the next big Soriku fanfiction that will be coming sometime after JTSYS is finished.
You can read it under the cut, but TW for blood, death, and uh, general misery. This has been cathartic for me to write but the whole idea of this fic is that things are impossibly doomed, so be warned - this is not the happy fun zone.
Blood. There was so much blood.
He had smelled it before even seeing it, the metallic scent thick in his nose before he had even rounded the corner. He had tried to convince himself that it was his own bleeding wound that he smelled, or maybe the blood of something else, someone else, but in his heart, he knew the truth. He picked up his pace, sprinting at top speed now, his sneakers splashing through shallow puddles on the wet pavement.
When his eyes finally came to rest on the crumpled form at the end of the alley, the breath was knocked out of his chest as though someone had taken a baseball bat to his sternum. He knew, of course he knew, but he had hoped-
No. It didn’t matter what he hoped for. Hopes and wishes weren’t for people that walked his path. He had been denied the right to hope for anything ages ago. When he had signed that contract, signed away his soul, he forfeited all the cushy pleasures of a normal life. He had given up his chance of knowing peace.
But it had been worth it. If it was for Sora, anything was worth it.
Standing over Sora’s blood-soaked body, Riku tried to remind himself of that truth, the one thing that he had tethered his heart to all this time. It was worth it. Even if the chance of Sora making it out alive were next to none, there was still a chance. He could still fight.
One of these loops, Riku would get it right. He would figure out how to keep Sora safe, how to protect him from this accursed dimension where everything was designed to end his life. They would break out and live a normal life together, just the way they had always planned.
There was a happy future waiting somewhere for the two of them. There had to be. Riku had gambled everything on it.
He crouched down, his shaking fingers gently brushing Sora’s tear-stained cheek. He could hardly stand to look at his face, but the sight of his broken, bleeding body was no better. The wounds were precise and lethal, and Riku was far too late.
No matter how many dozens of times he had watched Sora die, it never got easier. It never stopped feeling like his chest was a black hole caving in on itself, his heart squeezed until it was nothing more than dust.
He couldn’t look. He couldn't look away.
Riku kneeled and placed both of Sora’s hands over his heart. He was about to speak and begin the incantation that would throw them both back to the starting point again, but Sora suddenly stirred, weakly reaching one hand up towards Riku’s face.
“Riku…” his voice was barely more than a whisper.
“I’m here,” Riku said, the words catching in his throat. “Don’t speak. You can rest now. It’s okay.”
He hated to say it. He wanted to plead with Sora, wanted to beg him to stay. But if Riku had learned anything throughout the loops, it was that nothing came of begging. There was no one to answer his prayers; benevolent forces did not dwell here. At best, all it would accomplish would be making Sora sad in his final moments. At worst, future loops would be impacted by Riku’s words to Sora, twisting the knife further. He had seen it enough to know what to avoid now.
“I don’t want…” There was a weighted pause. “...Don’t want to leave you.” The pool of blood continued to grow. Riku knew - though he wished that he didn’t - that Sora wouldn’t be able to maintain consciousness for much longer at this rate. He could hardly believe Sora was awake even now.
“We’ll meet again.” he assured Sora softly, trying to keep his voice steady. “Don’t worry. It'll be okay.”
“You…” This pause was longer, much longer, and Riku was all but sure that Sora would not speak again. Finally, with a wet cough, Sora continued. “You promise?”
“I promise.” Riku lied. He leaned forward and kissed Sora’s forehead, his lips lingering there for several long moments as he took steadying breaths.
“Mm… ‘kay.” Sora managed. “Love you… so much.”
“I love you too.” Riku said, clenching his teeth so hard his jaw popped. He wanted to scream. After taking a moment to compose himself, he sat up and offered his best imitation of a smile to Sora. Better for him to see that than to see how broken Riku really was.
The all-too-familiar faraway look settled on Sora’s face as the last of his breath left his body. Riku collapsed over him, the tears finally coming, the weight hitting him all at once with the force of a tidal wave. Even knowing that he would see Sora alive and well again in mere moments did nothing to comfort him.
It didn't matter how many times Riku had seen it. It never got any easier to watch Sora die.
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