#just bits and pieces of things. mostly junk food.

[cursedcola]

Prompt: "Will You Marry Me?" - Proposal Headcannons Characters: Everyone :) Part(s): Heartslabyul, Savanaclaw, Octavinelle, Scarabia, Pomefiore, Ignihyde(here!), Diasomnia(Pt.1)(Pt.2) Fandom: Twisted Wonderland Warning(s): The relationship is kinda toxic because it's Idia and I have to be realistic - but it gets better as you read. Just know that there are themes of miscommunication, self-sabotage, self-neglect, and insecurity in both Idia and the MC. I gave him some character growth at least and some maturation to the character. Note: All Ignihyde has is Idia so I gave his piece some extra love(super long. Like, this isn't even considered a headcannon set anymore. I really went overboard, I'm so sorry). Not proofread for grammar since I'm a bit lazy right now. Also, I haven't finished his chapter in game because I'm too weak (seriously wtf is up with these fights). I know the plot mostly but forgive me if there's an inaccuracy in a reference

Idia had it made during his youth - and deep down he knows it despite all his complaining. He knows that he won the introvert lottery. For three years he was able to live in a reclusive dorm room with no expectations beyond showing up to class (via a tablet of all things) and doing his work. Sure, he had to return home at some point and deal with that hot mess...but it was a displaced problem. One to be dealt with whenever. As a full-time 'student' he had junk food readily available, his brother down the hall, all the games and tech he needed, and somehow managed to land himself a loving partner despite his quirks.

The Ramshackle prefect - someone he initially wanted nothing to do with. Chaos seemed to follow their every move and Idia wanted no part of it. He never expected to come within a twenty-foot radius of them without force.

For the record, force indeed was used. Unfortunately they had a nasty habit of being nosy. Very 'main character complex' of them, if you ask him.

Yet it worked in his favor. Their stubbornness and intrusive ways wormed a place in his stone-cold heart. It fueled his ego much to everyone's chagrin. Out of everyone - princes, busy bodies, future doctors and the literal fish mafia - you picked him. The noob cursed to lose all his 50/50s and rot in bluelight. Idia seriously questions your tastes, but hey! He beat the normies and that's all he cares about.

Well, at least that's how he phrases it. Underneath that god-tier ego is an inferiority complex that he tries to keep down for your benefit. Something about your mood dipping by 20% when he talks trash? He'd need Ortho to run another test on that. Just to be safe.

Unfortunately, he still can't reign it in all the way. Victories can be temporary and who's he to say that your relationship isn't a one-shot story? Nothing worthwhile is ever that simple. Good games always get sequels...so the question lingers, will he still be a main character in yours?

When Idia graduates, he fully expects for you to walk out of his life. He returns to S.T.Y.X and leaves NRC to fulfill his role back home. You have no reason to care about him when he's no longer nearby. Life isn't like an isekai manga. You won't wait for him - no, you'll get a taste for how life is without him and indulge. Slowly you'll stop texting him, calling him, playing games with him - well, he'll do it first! He refuses to be the second male lead that gets dumped when you finally find your prince. That's for chumps.

He'd rather you just up and leave this world! At least then he wouldn't be in this pitiful situation...but he's seen that crow's shitty work ethic. You're stuck.

Idia's scared to say the least. One could say that his self sabotage was in action before your relationship even began. Old habits die hard, and no one could stop his spiral. Not even Ortho. Idia left his little brother behind as well. The boy sent him off with a smile, promising to take good care of you in his big brother's stead. After all, you both were in the same year.

It's not surprising that he reverts to his old ways. A hard battle is even more difficult to win when you don't have the motivation to fight it in the first place. Idia loses his drive...and in turn his already negative outlook grows worse.

Needless to say, Idia ... neglects you.

Your relationship has always been more of an 80:20 than a 50:50 - with him taking more than he ever gave. You always set aside time and made sure he was comfortable. You respected his anxieties and dealt with his temper on more than one occasion. His jealousy. You indulged his hobbies, always tried to include him in on activities with your friends (even though he rarely ever accepted), wore your heart on your sleeve and always took the lead. You were always too good to be true.

Two years. Two years with him at S.T.Y.X and you at NRC. Not a day passed where you did not text him or call. Not a week passed where you did not video-chat or play a game with him. You made time. You checked in. Told him stories about your life an friends. Ortho often would send him recordings and clips as well. During vacations you'd make plans to see him and always invited him to come to campus for events. Even though he never accepted, you still always offered. Throughout it all he kept you at a distance, yet unable to fully let you go at the same time. He needed you to do it. He needed his inner thoughts to shut up and to have someone else to blame.

You. You. You. When would you stop? Why weren't you tired of him yet? On a good day he can be frustrating, so how were you not mad when he was physically trying to make you hate him? Were you waiting until graduation to drop the bomb on him that you'd leave for good? On another's arm or back to your world?

Imagine his surprise when neither happened. On the dawn after Ortho's graduation ceremony, Idia came out of his cave to greet him at the S.T.Y.X entrance. He would no longer be as lonely, and perhaps without Ortho around, you'd finally put distance between yourself and the Shroud family. All would be as it should.

He did not expect to see you at the gate as well. Ortho flew up to him with a bright grin and twirl in the air - babbling on and on about how he arranged for you to come work as a research assistant in the lab. After all, you had an extensive knowledge of blot as well as field experience. It was a win-win situation for the company and your relationship! You could now be a happy family! Isn't that just amazing?

"It was extremally difficult to keep this a surprise!...Brother?" Ortho halts mid-rant, his receptors going haywire, "Brother, your heartrate has increased and your temperature is dropping below stable levels. You must regulate your breathing pattern!"

White noise rang like television static in Idia's eardrum. He watched you thank one of the guards while handing off your suitcase. His pulse increased and mind went under water. How long had it been since you were together longterm? You looked different. More mature. Meanwhile he was still the same - physically and emotionally. Still the pasty shut-in with dark eyebags and energy drinks running through his veins instead of blood. He wasn't used to seeing you in person. How should he react? Should he hug you? Do you want him to? That's weird. He hasn't held you in a while - yeah, it would be creepy. Does he even deserve to? What made you want to work here anyways?! You could have gone anywhere. ANYWHERE. - Shit. You're looking this way. What should he do?! aHH! You're walking over!

He does what he knows best. Shuts down. You receive a disgraceful greeting. No affection. Not even a smile.

Idia's brow furrows at your approach and he buries his hands deep into the pockets of his lab-coat. When you lean in to kiss his cheek, he catches you by the forearms and holds you in place. "Since when were you going to work here? You do remember what S.T.Y.X is in charge of, right? Once you're in, there's no going back. Are you a masochist or something?" Ah. There goes the heartfelt reunion. Being home did bring out a more harsh and cut-throat side of him after all.

Despite his poor treatment, you don't react upset. Now the relationship has now become something of a 90 : 10. He knows you have no reason to come here other than for Ortho and himself. You really are an Otome protagonist, jeez. Willing to do all that for him? Giving up your future and friends just to be at his side...dammit. Don't give him hopes! Don't undo all the work he's put in to survive without you! Stop welcoming misfortune for his sake! You're stupid. Stupidstupidstupid .... man he loves that stupidity. Gods he missed it.

Shit. Not even an hour in and he's reverting.

You don't realize it but you're heading straight for a bad ending. He does though. He's read the guides and played more visual novels than he can count. As a pro, he needs to steer you off this villainy ending and towards the true route.

After all ... what was that one saying? Heroes will sacrifice you for the world, while Villans will sacrifice the world for you? He heard it from some normie bookworm...but it seems fitting right now.

Idia's no hero. He'll destroy his world if it means you get to be happy. Not that he had much of one to begin with. You...gave him a life beyond fiction while all he's offered is a curse. Literally and figuratively. Its time he returned what he so greedily stole. He'll make you move on through force.

The months are slow and difficult. Despite being nearby, Idia only ever seeks you out for work-related reasons. Even then he is very cold and dismissive . He also does not turn you away when you take the initiative. Just like old times, you linger around his room and prod him for attention. He wants you to leave, but also doesn't want to be cruel. So, he maintains this impassive position and lets you do whatever you please. Yet the situation is scarily similar to how you both were at NRC. Except instead of using his past as an excuse, he now uses your work dynamic to enable his noncommittal ways.

There really is only so much one person can take. After Idia left NRC, you pinned his switch in behavior on the lifestyle change and distance separating you both. You knew Idia would be someone you had to work hard for when you started to date, and so the situation was one you viewed as an obstacle to overcome. The solution was simple - you would go to S.T.Y.X and prove to him that you were willing to make it work. Without the physical distance, you hoped that he would let you in again. That you wouldn't have to hear reassurances from his brother anymore, and instead hear his feelings from his own mouth instead. Then you both could work out the details together in time. Seeing him reject you at first was discouraging, but you did not let it rest there. Perhaps he needed time and to get used to your presence in his home. After all, these were new waters. You would be patient. You would prove yourself capable.

Life becomes a time capsule. As the days went by, a bitter feeling grew in your stomach. Why wouldn't he laugh? Why wouldn't he look in your eyes anymore? Why is he retreating even further? What were you doing wrong? How could you fix it? Is it you? Your performance in the lab is outstanding according to your supervisors, and your work friends seem to find you agreeable enough. Can't he see that you've adjusted well and are happy here? There's nothing to worry about. How else can you prove yourself?

These thoughts plague your mind to an extend that Ortho felt the need to preform psychiatric evaluation. You dismissed his concerns with a long list of things about your new home that make you happy - including him. It pacifies his panic and somehow mitigates your own as well.

Until one fateful day, when you decided to take your lunch early and overheard a conversation between two senior S.T.Y.X employees

"Isn't the boss' partner kind of pitiful?" One technician spoke in a hush whisper, taking a bite from her salad, "He doesn't give them the time of day. I can't believe they've stuck around this long. Screw the job, I would have been out after the first week," "Shhh! Quit gossiping, it's bad. Especially about the one who pays our bills," The other scolds. "I know....but isn't it just sad. They're clearly being taken advantage of. I can't help but feel sorry" "It's not just you...to tell the truth, I had no clue Director Idia had a partner up until recently. If anything, I thought he disliked Assistant MC and kept them around for Director Ortho's sake. Imagine my shock..." They both snicker at the notion. "Yeah. I give them a few more months...maybe a year. Despite being smart in the lab, they clearly can't read the room:

It was the last straw. Like ice water being dunked over your head after a hot shower. The lunch pale in your grasp suddenly felt like it weighed ten times heavier, and a cold sweat dripped down your back. They were right. He didn't want you here. It was time to move on or else you'll just be living out an endless loop. Nothing has changed since your youth aside from the location. No matter how long you wait, no matter how much effort and time you offer ... the relationship is doomed to fail. You gave him everything...and it was time to stop waiting. To stop expecting and hoping. Time to accept reality.

Your lunch goes discarded in a nearby bin and your shift abandoned. You would not work another second for S.T.Y.X despite the facility not being the source of your anguish. Your shoes clack loudly against the tile flooring as you speed-walk to Idia's office, where he was lazily reviewing data on a recent experiment. His phone set off to the side with some automated gatcha daily playing.

You use your 'special' pass (curtesy of ortho) to get in. The metal door swings out as you march inside and turn off his screen without asking.

"H-h'-hey! What are you-" He shrieks and turns in his chair. "We need to talk" "Can't it wait until later? I'm busy working, if you can't tell" "No" Your tone is demanding. Definite. You all but yank the badge from around your neck and drop it in his lap. In that motion, he knew. Your eyes scrunch tight and teeth grind together. He was prepared for this. For you to lash out and yell at him for your suffering. Make him the bad guy in your story and finally beat the game for good. Not for you to deflate. Not for the glassy, disappointed stain on your eyes. Or the shallow breaths as you calm yourself - not letting your emotions frighten him like a spooked cat. "I'm quitting," "S.T.Y.X? You know you can't just quit. There's a process," He refutes, lazily pushing his chair back with an anxious fidget. "Not just S.T.Y.X...I'm quitting us. I can't do this anymore," "Oh. Alright. Let me get the paperwork," "Alright?" You whisper, gaping at him "...just alright? That's all you have to say to me? Not even 'why' ?" He pauses typing on a holographic keyboard, cocking an eyebrow at the question. "What? You want me to beg you to stay or something like that? We're not in an anime," His words die out at the end, and had it not been for your disbelief you would have caught the note of sadness in them, "you want to go? Then go. I warned you about this place" "No...you warned me about the facility. It's not the facility I have a problem with. I actually like it here" "So it's me then, huh? I warned you about that too," He grumbles and continues to type, "I'm not whatever it is that you saw in me. It's your fault for sticking it out this long. I knew this was how it would end from the start" A silence follows aside from the occasional noise from his computer. That's it. The nail in the coffin. You finally realized the truth. He was no good for you. He couldn't be 'fixed'. With an approving chime, he finally has all the departure paperwork pulled up for you to sign. "Alright. Sign these and I'll get you an escort," He holds out a tablet in pen without looking from his computer. You don't take it. "Hello? I said - " he turns to face you, irritated "....here" Silent tears stream down your cheeks and pool at the tip of your chin, dripping to the tile below. Wide eyes lock in his general direction. Your hands tremble slightly at your sides, as if your mind was thousands of miles away. His heart breaks. "You never even gave us a chance, did you?" He says nothing. "It wasn't about 'making it work' for you. It was always a matter of 'how long'. You've been waiting for me to leave you, all this time?" It wasn't a question. "All this time, I've been trying to prove myself. I've been thinking that I did something wrong...that I needed to be better" the word stings your tongue and seems to strike him, " but I was never even close to enough" we were never enough

With languid movements, you take the pen from him and sign the papers. You would not hide your sadness. Your grief. Your pain for a relationship that was never actually one. For a battle that only had one party fighting.

He lets you go, the metal door swinging shut and rattling him to his core. Idia's hands shake as he tries to return to his work. They tremble over the holographic keyboard, making his blue nails look like moving neon streaks in the air.

He had always thought you ere just being kind. That your self-sacrificing nature was natural, and that someone else was more deserving of it. He failed to consider the possibility that all the things you did...you did for him alone. You did out of the same anxieties and fears he felt.

In a way, you both were at fault. He led himself down a self-fulfilling prophecy - letting his anxieties and what-ifs become reality. And you? You thought everything could be fixed with time. With sacrifice. That eventually he would grow. You both were plants, one overwatered and the other left parched in the sun.

He did get one thing right. This was defiantly a bad end. Just not in the way he originally believed...

Somehow, life becomes worse than before you arrived at S.T.Y.X. At least when you were around, people did see him more out of his office or room. Seeing him revert to his previous ways without so much as an inkling of sadness for losing you....yeah, it did not look good. Worse than people not even knowing you were his partner at first. After your departure, rumors began to spread that you had finally snapped. The pity felt for you morphed into judgement towards his character. Others saw him as a heartless recluse, and the pity was extended to Ortho of all things. If Idia could toss out a loyal partner of years, what about the little robot? Perhaps despite all the gossip, the others at S.T.Y.X did not fully believe that he would let you leave so easily. That he wasn't as detached as the Shroud name dictates.

Little do they know that he's become a shadow of his former self. He can't even act self-depreciative. Pleasantries don't hit like they used to. Having you at a distance...well, was still considered as being with you. Now that you're never coming back, it's harder. Everything reminds him of you. Your favorite snacks are still stocked in the cafeteria, and there are blankets in his room that still have your scent. Occasionally a file will pop up with your work in it while he's doing reviews...and then there's Ortho. When you left, he was crushed. He pestered Idia for days - the security cameras giving him full knowledge of what happened. Yet no matter what the robot said about the situation, Idia didn't want to hear it. Eventually he took away Ortho's access data to his personal spaces.

That didn't stop the bot from talking through the door and spamming his brother's inboxes. Despite cutting off contact with his big brother, you still spoke to Ortho regularly. He refused to let his big brother lose all connection to you, and updated him on your well-being. Regardless of what Idia said, hearing about you made a difference. At first it increases his anxiety and drops his mood...but every time, like a scheduled delay, his serotonin levels will spike. Be it from a clip of your voice, a picture, or even just the mention of your name.

"Brother! I just finished a call with MC. Today they decided to adopt a cat! Would you like to see a picture?" His computer beeps with an incoming missive. Idia clicks it, and the screen displays a photo of you with a small white kitten in your arms. "They've decided to name it Grimm Jr. From what I heard, the predecessor was not pleased to be 'replaced,' as he calls it" Ortho laughs from the other side of the door, but Idia is too focused on the image on his screen. The curve in your smile and the way you gently cradle the kitten. You seem...happy. Much better than how he is doing. He fails to hear the door beep, granting access, neither the bot fly up next to him to look at the picture. "Big brother, why don't you apologize to MC? They would listen," Idia startles, clutching his chest as his hair flairs cherry red for a brief moment. He swivels in his chair and closes the image quickly. "I'm not apologizing for nothing. It's not like I miss them or anything. My life's great without having a normie relationship to manage" "Your body language suggests that you are lying" Ortho states, his eyes squinting cheekily. Idia hunches over, glaring at his keyboard and fiddling with his sleeves, "It's not like they'd want to see me anyways. I blew it. Only an idiot would forgive what I did," "That's not true! MC loves you!" Idia glares at him from the corner of his eye, "Yeah? They look pretty happy without me. They were miserable here" "Because you purposefully made them miserable! You are very smart brother, but even I understand emotions better than you and I am an artificial lifeform!" "Then what should I do, Ortho? Go beg them to take me back like some cringe sitcom?!" "Yes!" Idia blanches at the thought, but doesn't entirely dismiss it. Ortho glares holes into his head, causing Idia to shrink into his chair. "You are always afraid, brother. You lost them to your fears once...do you want to regret that? Are you really satisfied with pictures and stories? Why deny yourself wonderful things! We are not trapped anymore!"

Ortho leaves him with one piece of information - an apartment address. He sends it to all of Idia's emails and even somehow makes it the background of his tablet. He can't change it or take it off.

He stares at it long and hard. Searches the place up and even uses virtual reality to scope out the building. While perhaps a bit creepy...he hacks the security cameras and watches feed of you coming and going over the past moths. Some days you look perfectly well, and others you look worse for wear. If he went...would you even want to see him? Would you let him in? Kick him out? Is he willing to even try? What if you already moved on...no, Ortho wouldn't set him up for that if he knew you were happy with someone else.

Idia leaves S.T.Y.X for the first time in months. His request for leave shocks other employees. Yet he's gone the moment it's approved, afraid that he'll lose his edge if he thinks too long on it.

He finds himself at the door of a middle-class apartment in the Kingdom of Roses. Second floor, third door to the left, just like he memorized. He knows its yours from the ribbons tied on the doorknob, themed after one of your favorite animes. One he introduced to you...

In his hands is a small box of candies - a peace offering, just in case you want to kill him on sight.

His boney knuckles wrap around the doorknocker and thwack it three times. Sweat pools in his palms and he jolts away. The seconds like hours as his painted nails dig crescents into his palms. The door opens. "Hi, how can I -" You pause mid-sentence, your mouth going dry. Grimm Jr. snuggled in one of your arms while the other holds the door open, "I-idia?" "T-that's my name," He grimaces, looking anywhere but at you. "What are you doing here?" His tongue feels heavy and the tips of his hair fade to a pale orange. He studders and fumbles with the box of candies, holding them out to you with a grimace. "I wanted to see you...urk. I hope that's not weird! Can ... I come in?" You eye the box in thought, before reaching out to take it and opening the door further. It was a start.

You hear him out - through the stuttering and the self-depreciative comments that he hastily retracts. This isn't just about him. It's about you and everything else in-between. Shockingly enough, you agree to give him a second chance. It wasn't entirely his fault after all ... and you did still love him. Although now there are ground rules. You would not be returning to S.T.Y.X. You've finally created a stable home for yourself and have a life in this new city. You have a career, friends, and a life that doesn't include him. You need the individuality. You would no longer try to morph yourself for him or be placid. If he wanted to spend time with you, he would have to leave S.T.Y.X and come stay at your apartment. You would no longer be the one always reaching out, he would have to start showing initiative and making time for you. You would see how things progress from that point. He was not a child, and you would not beg for basic needs to be met anymore. Words would not be enough, you need actions. It was time for 50 : 50.

Weirdly enough, he agrees to all your rules without a single complaint. Not a normie comment or slang filled statement leaves his lips. He's still that nerdy dork you fell in love with at heart, but these 'normie' things? Well, Idia's accepted that he wants those things. As much as it is difficult for him to admit, they only grossed him out so much before because he always believed they were unattainable

He's true to his word. He calls you every day, first thing when he wakes up (in the late afternoon. He still is a hermit at heart). At first it made him anxious, and he'd hover over the contact for fifteen minutes before dialing. Yet it soon became easy, with his heart only beating fast from happiness. He takes the weekends off and comes to spend them at your apartments. Sometimes he brings Ortho and it becomes a sleepover with games - and at some point you start inviting your other heartslabyul friends from back in the day too. Eventually you do come around the compound again. It's awkward to say the least, considering how you left. Yet at the same time, it's a breath of fresh air. The others are shocked to see him out of his office, and he eats IN THE CAFETERIA. Woah. He calls you by your name and not 'assistant' when in public. Homie scares some people. That's what he does. He gives you a special watch for your anniversary. It's paired with on he has and solar powered, so you can contact him at any time. As a natural born worry-wart, he can't help but worry for your safety. Since watching the appartment CCTV is 'creepy,' he just asks that you wear the watch if you're going out anywhere. It won't die and with the click of a button he'll be alerted. In exchange, you can use it to contact him whenever you want. He'll always get back instantly since it might be an emergency. The watch is also directly linked to Ortho's system, so you can contact him as well. Who needs Cortana when you have Ortho?

For the first time, Idia feels secure in a relationship. He can't count Ortho since the boy is technically his creation. Ortho would always be there...and now? Idia's confident you will too.

Does that mean you should get married? Isn't that the next step in all this?

Well....shit (pleasant connotation)

He never would have tinkered with this idea before considering his 'family'. Who the hell in their right mind would marry a Shroud? A fool. Are you a fool? Maybe.

It's late evening on a Sunday night when you're both walking home together after hitting up a local diner for hearty eats. Wow. Look at him. On a date. So weird...pshh.

Idia walks at your side, forcing his pace to match yours. Not everyone is graced with his long stickman legs. His hands are buried deep in his hoodie and his posture is slightly slouched. Classic scary dog privilege for a nighttime walk - well, if his hair didn't scream valentine's day pink to the world. Although no one else has flaming hair other than the Shroud family, so he doubts anyone would interrupt.

You decide to take the long path home and through a nearby park. The night was still young for nightowls such as yourselves, and fresh air was always crisp at this hour.

Along that path you decide to stop at a cement bench by some vending machines and chill out for a bit. Despite having just ate, Idia gets you each a can of coffee.

He'd be leaving to go back to S.T.Y.X tomorrow. Like he does every Sunday. His gaze drifts to the watch on your wrist and thinks about adding some new features - maybe video chat? So he can see you throughout the day. He wonders what you'll be up to while he's stuck in the lab. Maybe you'll go shopping, or play a new game. Maybe you'll try out a new recipe or take Grimm Jr. out to play. He wishes he could see you during the week.

Ah. You're talking. He should probably tune in or you'll get mad at him. Why's it so hard to focus? He hasn't felt this uneasy in a while...

Why is he having these kinds of thoughts? It's weird.

"You okay? You seem a little spaced," You pull him from his thoughts, a concerned crease wrinkling your temple. "Eh. It's nothing. Just not looking forward to the week," he chuckles weakly. "I know that feeling. It's always a bummer when you dip. Not to sound clingy or anything" His golden hues spark for a moment, a pale pink dusting his cheeks as he whips his head to look at you.

"W-wait - really? I was just thinking the same thing...." "You were?" "Yeah. It's...kind of weird without you. Everything's emptier. Wow. That was pretty cringe. Sorry." He grimaces, internally screaming and knowing that this was going to replay when he tried to sleep later. You tilt your head at him, a slight frown on the cusp of your lip. Something tickles at his fingers and he looks down to see you lace your hand with his. "I miss you too," your words are soft. Genuine. He feels his neck grow hot, the pink glow radiating off him betraying him. Idia looks between your interlaced fingers and the drink in his hand. There...wouldn't ever be a 'right' time for this. Would there? You've waited long enough. He pulls his hand away and pops the soda tab off with deft hands.

"Hey..." he twiddles with the soda tab in his hands, "on a scale of 1-10, how are my odds of getting a yes?" "A 'yes' to what?" "To this, " he sighs through his nose, holding the tab out towards you with a shaking hand, "will you marry me?"

{A soda tab from canned coffee. Not the most charming offering, and it barely fits around your pinky finger. Yet, Idia's always been impulsive at his core. Had he not acted in the moment, he likely would have ran countless possibilities over and over in his mind. While not your forever ring, the tab will remain a sentimental piece}

{Idia is not a man with a keen eye fore jewelry - but he knows quality. Combine his eye for perfection with his craftsmanship and behold - a ring made from purified blot. The center gem is a piece of magestone in it's most refined state. The band is titanium and there are small sapphires along the molding. Since he would be wearing a matching band, Idia decided to keep the design simple. He prefers functionality over all. Yet he does want you to feel proud of his handiwork, so he includes vintage molding on your band only. He wears a smooth black band on his ring finger, and never removes it}

[marlynnofmany]

Just a Rock

For all the time I’ve spent traveling through space, I haven’t spend much of it actually out in space. It’s unsettling. Inside the ship, I can forget how close the airless void is, how small our precious bubble of air. But outside, everything is black like some vast creature ate all the color in the universe first, then the air, and is now hungering for life forms too.

Sometimes those distant stars look like teeth.

These are the thoughts that tend to pop up when I’m in my exo suit, hoping that my thruster pack doesn’t run out of fuel before I make it back to the ship. But then an empty pack of chips will float by my visor, and I can refocus on business.

That’s how it happened today, at any rate. (And yes, “day” is a silly concept in the blackness of space.) We’d made a detour to see if we could pick up some extra funds by gathering salvage from a museum ship that had gone kablooey, but so far all we were finding was trash.

Paint jetted past in her own exo suit, upside-down to my frame of reference, then stopped to pull apart a jumble of carpet fragments. “They really did clear out the good stuff already,” she said over the radio. She swatted aside a drink cup with her tail, looking like a little space-suited dinosaur, a thought that kept me entertained for a good few seconds.

Captain Sunlight’s voice said, “Keep an eye out for scrap metal. That may already be gone too, but it’s worth a shot.” She was somewhere else in the drifting junk pile, or maybe back near the ship; I couldn’t tell. There was too much stuff in the way. This was a mildly alarming thought — out of sight meant out of safety — but I caught a glimpse of the Frillian twins posted as safety guards at the edge of the cloud, and my heartbeat settled a bit.

“Do you think anyone will buy some mildly used carpet?” Paint asked the captain. “It’s only in several pieces.”

“Let’s go with ‘no.’”

“What about some very exotic — what is this — napkins? Made with authentic Earth wood fibers!”

I looked over at that. “How can you tell?”

“Oh, I have no idea,” Paint said. She held up half of a wall placard. “But this is from the Earth exhibit, so maybe the napkins are too.”

I looked around at the trash in a new light. “Man, it’s a pity we weren’t here for any of the good stuff.”

“Yeah, and all these food packages are empty! We can’t even get you a slightly exploded taste of home!”

I waved my hand through a cluster of soda bottles. “I appreciate the thought.”

Paint jetted over to a different pile of whatever. “Hey, do you think any of this food trash was actually an exhibit? Packaging from olden days?”

“Uh, maybe,” I said. “Probably not. That’s not the sort of thing I’d expect on a multi-species museum ship. A janky little humans-only one, maybe. But even then, most people aren’t going to care.”

Something clunked against the back of my helmet. I hate that. Nothing like a reminder that I can’t see behind me like some species can. I toggled the jets to rotate in place, so I could find the offending object.

It was a rock.

“What’s this doing here?” I asked, closing a gloved hand around it and bringing it in for a closer look.

“What’d you find?” Paint asked, sticking out sideways from behind a twisted bench.

“A rock.”

“A meteorite rock?” she asked. “Oh hey, do you think it pierced the hull?”

“No, it doesn’t look like a space rock,” I said, turning the small gray-and-white lump over. It was mostly smooth, with a divot that would have fit a fingertip if I hadn’t been wearing the gloves. “Weird. I wonder if it was part of some Neolithic exhibit or something.”

“Can I see?” Paint jetted over to park herself in roughly the same orientation as me. She was very good with that jetpack.

I showed her the rock. “It doesn’t look like any gemstone I know. Maybe some kid had it in their pocket, then threw it away.”

Paint cocked her head. “Is that normal, for your young to carry rocks around?”

“Sure. You never picked up something you thought was neat as a kid?”

“Not a rock,” Paint said with exaggerated disdain. “A sweet-smelling seednut or herb, absolutely.”

“But look: it’s even got a little finger groove,” I pointed out. “You could stick it in a pocket and rub it for luck.”

“Could you?”

I smiled. “You could. You probably wouldn’t, but…”

“Why?”

I looked at the rock again, already fond of it. “I get the feeling that I couldn’t explain this to a point where you’d agree.”

Paint shrugged. “Probably not. But hey, we found you a souvenir after all. From probably the Earth section of whatever museum this is.” She grabbed a handful of colorful pamphlets drifting by. “The ‘Galaxy in a Bottle Museum Tour Ship.’ Who named that?”

My smile turned into a wide grin. “Humans.”

Paint grumbled about the unflattering comparison of an elite starship to a simple bottle. When she moved to toss the pamphlets away, I held out a hand.

“What’s that white one?” I asked. “It looks like a display sign.”

Paint flipped over the stack and separated the one I meant. “You’re right. Hey, it’s about a rock!”

I reached out a grabby hand. “Gimme.”

She passed it over. “Is it that rock?”

I read the title, then was gut-punched by familiarity. I’d heard about this. “Yes,” I managed, skimming the rest of the sign and holding the rock close. “This is Bethan’s Rock.”

“What?”

I fumbled to explain. “Ages ago, a kid visited a museum — a human kid — and learned what museums were for, then offered her favorite rock as a donation, so other people could appreciate it too.”

Paint cocked her head in the other direction. “And they took it?”

“Yes!” I must have looked a little wild at this point, but I didn’t care. “The adults agreed that it was a fine thing to donate, not to mention adorable, and the only one of its kind that I’ve ever heard of. More museums should house the occasional favorite rock, though I suppose they wouldn’t be as special if they did.”

“So just to clarify,” Paint said. “There isn’t anything valuable about this rock, except that one of your youths decided there was. And all the adults played along.”

I smiled down at it, careful not to let it drift away. “It’s the most precious non-precious stone I’ve ever seen.”

Paint stared for a moment. “It’s not even one of those shiny ones you like.”

I laughed. “I know!”

The captain called us back in at that point, having found one decent chunk of metal among the mountains of trash. We had a schedule to keep.

I folded the sign and tucked it into my suit pocket, but held the rock tight in my fist as I jetted toward the ship, working the controls with one hand. I was already thinking of the safest place in my quarters to keep it until we got ahold of the proper Earth museum authorities. Other humans would want to see Bethan’s Rock, after all, but it would be my honor to watch over it until they could.

~~~

(Inspired by this post. Long live Bethan’s Rock.)

These are the ongoing backstory adventures of the main character of this book. More to come!

[slexenskee]

I'm just curious. Can I ask more about JJK/GOT? It’s just that as soon as I saw the Satoru/Robb couple I immediately became interested 😅

Sure haha I have a few plot points I could use feedback on

The backstory is where I'm??

Idk if I want Satoru to be reborn as Viserys and start his life just vibing as a pampered prince kinda ambivalent about his life / couldn't care less about the rebellion or his batshit father until he gets shipped off to Dragonstone and eventually Essos. Then he kinda realizes A) his little sister is literally relying on him to exist and they're situation is pretty rough and B) he has no more fucks to give and now he can really do whatever tf he wants. Kinda goes a bit wild, takes over one of the free cities (casually), gets worshipped by the Dothraki as a god (accidentally), ends up creating something of an empire in the Disputed Lands/takes over the Stepstones and now all the pirates and traders pay him for safe passing like sailors paying tribute to the altars of gods. Mostly he's just bemused by it, and doesn't care what they do so long as they don't bother him or his sister, who's raising her dragons (a gift from Illyrio) and just living a nice happy life.

OR he's not Viserys at all, he legit transmigrates adult body (and powers) and all and becomes a wandering god around Essos just sort of feeling his way through this random new world - definitely goes to Valyria just because he can, makes a fortune selling all the random junk he picks up there and becomes something of a master on the topic just bc he ends up learning so much about it as someone who regularly hangs out there, and one way or another ends up the accidental god of the Stepstones like he is the first scenario. Except this time he's cajoled to Pentos at the behest of Illyrio Mopatis, who wants to know more about the Valyrian freehold, and while he's there he meets Dany and Viserys. Immediately clocks Viserys as a nutjob and Dany as abused but honestly doesn't really care about either of them until he sees the dragon eggs + his Six Eyes see Dany has magic and it's reacting with the eggs. He pays Illyrio/Viserys a veritable king's treasure in exchange for Dany as his 'bride' and gets the eggs as her bridal gift... which he does not bc he wants a bride but bc dragons are, in his opinion, the only cool thing in this world and he wants to have one as a pet and Dany is his ticket to that.

EITHER way he's the god of the Stepstones and Westeros tries to push their weight around and fails regularly. Gojo eradicates probably like 3 Redwyne and Lannister fleets and lets them wash up to Dorne in pieces before Westeros finally gets the picture to leave him the hell alone. Robert Baratheon comes personally a few times mainly because he has a total hard-on for Gojo and frankly just loves the fighting (his adoration is not returned), Oberyn becomes one of his favorite drinking buddies. They probably fuck multiple times, let's be real.

He's not interested in taking over the world or anything - honestly if it wasn't for Dany he'd have like zero purpose for existing so he's lowkey happy to have her in his life, but it's definitely a brother and sister relationship no matter which way I go with his backstory. It's all very wholesome.

By the time we get to S1 Gojo is an undisputed world power that's also something of an eccentric recluse.

He doesn't get involved in the plot until one way or another he's notified of Shit Happening™ in the far north. Idk how yet - maybe he senses it himself, or one of the Red priests/priestesses tells him?

He goes to the wall, meets Jon Snow, learns some of the Northern history, feels bad for the Night's Watch - who are actually doing the lord's work up in this damn place, what is wrong with westeros, smh - and sends men and plenty of food/supplies as he can see the magic in the Wall and knows it's not just there to look pretty. Especially not when his Six Eyes can see that the Land of Always Winter has more magic and is more active than old Valyria. He jokingly propositions Jon Snow, who to his surprise is not actually gay, and then afterwards when he's summarily rejected casually propositions his 'sister' for him instead- who's going through a romance phase and wants a handsome man and Gojo, being a good brother and also a fucking troll, decides to help out. Whether Gojo is actually Viserys or not, at this point everyone assumes he's Valyrian and also related to Dany no matter what he says, so he just rolls with it. Jon still declines, because he's still all up in his duty and honor phase. (He notices Jon has magic, like Dany, but assumes that's just because of the Northern magic)

He becomes fast friends with Maester Aemon, deeply interested in his stories of the Far North. He's actually interested in the North, in general, bc its one of the few parts of the world he hasn't yet gone to, and also has a history that's almost as old as Valyria. The Free Folk are downright unfriendly to him, so he decides to try his luck with Winterfell.

Idk what the route is but basically from the Wall he ends up in The North and finally meets Robb smack in the middle of the War of the 5 Kings. Maybe he goes to Winterfell with a letter from Jon, and then from Winterfell to Robb? Or from Jon straight to Robb? Basically no matter which way he ends up going, he gets a warm intro from one of Robb's siblings (or both). He also gets tasked, by one or both of them, to look for the Stark sisters. Gojo's all like, 'LOL look for them? Bruh I could blast down the Red Keep and drag them out within the next hour, but sure ok I'll 'look' for them). It's especially easy because he realizes all the Starks have more magic than most, so his Six Eyes can pick them out easily.

So Robb and Gojo kind of have immediate chemistry. Robb has obviously heard a lot about him, most of it mysterious, all of it dangerous, so he's shocked when this stupidly good looking guy comes out of literally nowhere (teleports) and has some messages for him, and is also going to go fetch his sisters as a personal favor. That last one he's a bit cautious about, because he's heard plenty about this Valyrian god or devil or both, and he doesn't believe for a second such a powerful being would offer such a boon for free.

Gojo's only response is 'I've got a little sister too ya know, I understand how it feels to be an older brother that wants to see them safe and sound' and Robb's all like, blushy and flustered, but plays the hard line and sort of just dismisses him and denies his help. And Gojo's all like, 'damn this guy's hot' also 'if my gaydar isn't wrong, which it usually isn't, he'd totally be into me' and also 'he'd be even more into me if I really did rescue his sisters'. Which he was going to do anyway.

He obviously finds both of them. Arya gets a free assassination teacher that doesn't come with the price tag of her soul, Sansa doesn't have a tragic few years ahead of her.

Idk haven't figured much else out after that. Robb pines but refuses to act on his feelings, but Gojo is swapped in for Talisa so we all know how this ends. There'll be plenty of consequences for that though, but no Starks are going to be injured (aside from Bran lo siento) in the making of this fic.

[starsurface]

Hiii again since you did cg fujin and regressor nightwolf how about regressor fujin and cg nightwolf hehehe - @plankydreamingcorner

I love them both it makes me sick. 🥺

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

CG Nightwolf w/ Regressor Fujin Hcs

☁️ There are some differences between smaller and bigger Fujin

🐺 Smaller Fujin isn't as active for one, he likes going outside still but he'd rather sit down and have a nice picnic or play with the flowers :3

☁️ Bigger Fujin is much more active, using his wind powers for kite flying, climbing trees, running around

🐺 (^ Quick note that kite flying doesn't always end . . . well. He'll over do his powers and will get dragged like in his MK11 Fujin's friendship)

☁️ If Fujins smaller, he'll call Nightwolf Papa or Dada

🐺 If he's a bit bigger, Nighty Wolf (pouted when Nightwolf laughed at the nickname the first time)

☁️ (^ He didn't mean to laugh!! He just found it funny that Fujin was trying to act big and pronounce his name, plus he adores the nickname)

🐺 Nightwolf's main nicknames for Fujin are Little Cloud, Little One, Baby Bear, Sweet One, Sweetie, and many more

☁️ When Fujin's smaller, he likes nursery rhyme stories from like, a fairytale book

🐺 If he's bigger, he likes hearing about Nightwolf's stories (which Nightwolf loves to share)

☁️ Fujin actually really likes more ‘healthy’ snacks compared to junk food

🐺 Like, he'd ask for a bowl of carrots and TWO pieces of candy (very picky on what he eats sometimes)

☁️ He'll actively watch Nightwolf make his food, and tell him if he ‘screws up’

🐺 Nightwolf will make snack time fun by making things like Ants on a Log and Fujin LOVES them (also officially his favorite little snack)

☁️ When Fujin gets really really angry, he'll go silent

🐺 Not necessarily because he wants to, but because he just can't speak, his words just won't come out of his throat (I'm projecting, hush)

☁️ Nightwolf's very patient when this happens, both when Fujin's big and little

🐺 He'll have Fujin point to whatever he's angry at

☁️ If it's Nightwolf himself, Nightwolf will start slowly naming things he might have done until he gets a response that isn't an angry headshake

🐺 If it's something or someone else, he'll take Fujin into another room to calm down and cuddle (holding him tightly until he feels better to speak again)

☁️ Fujin likes really soft things and will mainly gravitate towards things, even if it isn't his

🐺 This does include full on snatching Nightwolf's nice blanket from his bed and stealing it alllll the way to the living room

☁️ Nighwolf can't get too mad, mostly because Fujin's face just screams :D and his little ‘Lookie Papa!!’ when he's all wrapped up or tightly holding it

🐺 Will playfully scold his mother or Auntie or letting Fujin steal his stuff (they adore Fujin, both big and small)

☁️ Fujin's bunny will travel with him everywhere when he's small

🐺 He'll be very pouty if he's somewhere in public and can't use his winds to go rechieve it

☁️ He's very careful with it because he knows it can get hurt really easily

🐺 He’ll insist it stays on Nightwolf's head so it can also watch when Fujin is paying something that can get it dirty (Nightwolf's chill with it)

☁️ The first time they ever watched Tangled and the braiding scene came up, Fujin's face screamed 🥺 but didn't bring it up because it looked like a difficult hair style, especially with how long his hair is

🐺 Nightwolf's new mission was to learn how to braid Fujin's hair like that, and luckily he has a couple nieces that let him practice

☁️ Fujin was very giggly when Nightwolf braided his hair like that and regressed on spot

🐺 (^ Also dragged Nightwolf around to either all his family or the monks so they could appreciate his new hair style)

☁️ Actually broke down into tears when Nightwolf had to take it out so Fujin could take a nap

🐺 He didn't want it out!! It took so long to do, don't take it out pease Papa 🥺

☁️ Might even go hide behind Raiden or Nightwolf's Mama and glare at Nightwolf across the room

🐺 Nightwolf gently informed him that we've gotta take them out! Otherwise the pretty flowers will get hurt in bed, and he can always do the style another day, Little One

☁️ Fujin will moop and drag his feet but eventually let Nightwolf undo his hair

🐺 But he better get a thousand kisses in consepcation!! (Nightwolf laughs but does so)

☁️ Fujin likes nap time, but he likes cuddle time more

🐺 Luckily Nightwolf also likes cuddle time so this works out perfectly

☁️ Fujin also likes taking naps in the Wind Gardens, probably after a picnic they had and maybe some running around so now he's all tired and sleepy

🐺 Nightwolf makes the best picnics!!! He makes all these yummy foods and brings a big blankie and any toy Fujin wants to grab :3

☁️ Fujin has a habit of getting dragged by his kite, or having it get stuck in a tree

🐺 If it's like his MK11 one, Nightwolf will ask Fujin to calm his winds down and help him have a sturdy grip on it

☁️ If it gets stuck in a tree, he'll go up to receive it

🐺 (^ it's going to grt stuck again in another five minutes, no one knows how it hasn't broken yet)

☁️ Fujin will crawl and cling onto Nightwolf even when he's bigger

🐺 Some people think he actually regresses younger because of how dependent he acts but he doesn't, he just likes the affection he receives :]

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

[electricopolis-net]

Life in Exile Pt. 2: You & I

The question of what to do still loomed over the two exiles. Percy was determined to save the coin he had, and Bob had nothing more to trade, save his phone, which he figured he should keep, though it had long since run out of power. So that meant finding a job.

Unfortunately, Bob was terrible at manual labor. The farmer from before (a fellow by the name of Gon) invited Bob to help out in the fields, but his back started hurting almost immediately, and he was so unused to the strain that it was easier for Gon to do the work himself. Still, he did acquire a small turnip for his troubles, but it mostly just added insult to injury.

Working at one of the food stalls in town was only a little less disastrous. Bob did fine when things were slow, but tended to freeze up under pressure, and more than once his shaking hands had tipped over a glass or gotten burned on the grill. It went better than the farmwork, and maybe with more practice Bob would have overcome his nerves, but he wasn't exactly feeling inspired to persist in his work.

As a last-ditch effort, he decided to play to his talents that had originally landed him a job at Top Tier in the first place: entertainment. He danced (decently), sang (not very well), and told stories of the city in the valley. It attracted children, who relished the chance to learn anything they could about the cursed city, but the adults turned them away and guided them past the mysterious man with the long nose.

Dejected, he found himself on the beach, poking at the sand with a stick. "This is harder than I thought," he sighed. "Man, if there were a television camera on me, things would be different."

The stick bumped into something under the sand. Bob paused, then began to shovel away the sand with his hands curiously. He pulled out something rectangular, made of plastic and metal: a pocket radio. "Oh, huh, a radio," he remarked, banging it in his hands to get the sand out. "I wonder if it works?"

It did not. "Ah, well. Oh hey, there's batteries in it, though," Bob observed, taking a few double A batteries out of the rear of the machine. "Maybe they're still good?"

He wandered along the beach, bending down to look at the machines and other junk washing up on the shore. After about twenty minutes, he had assembled a collection of geegaws and gadgets: the pocket radio, a hand-crank-powered flashlight (lucky!), a cracked set of binoculars, a kitchen scale, and more.

He brought them into the house, sat down at the table and began to tinker with them, with Percy watching from nearby. The batteries were usable, if not fully charged, and he slotted them into the kitchen scale. By some miracle, it turned on, the LCD screen displaying 0.0 grams. He could have jumped for joy.

"This'll be great!" he exclaimed, turning the scale back and forth.

"Clean it up a little bit and I bet we could get something good for it," Percy offered, impressed.

The sound of the Cursebreaker's voice made him jump. "I see you've done exactly what I hoped you would," the man laughed raucously, appearing from behind Bob. "Sorry, boys, I let myself in."

"What do you mean by that?" Percy asked. "You hoped we'd repair these?"

"Of course I did. They're from your town, after all. You two are in the best position to reclaim these. Clean them, make them usable. Take responsibility for them," the Cursebreaker intoned, gesturing with his staff to each item. "I could have just told you all this at the start, but I wanted you to learn it on your own."

"By the way," the old man added, "there's one more thing we have to do before these are fit for trade." He pulled out a small plastic bag full of paper bits shaped like the amulets he had hanging around his neck. "They have to be purified, you see."

Bob and Percy watched. The Cursebreaker sat down at the table, examined each item in turn, and made the upwards-arrow sign he'd used before to welcome Bob and Percy into the town. Afterwards, he took the small pieces of paper, licked the back of them, and stuck them onto the items, one apiece. "There," he said. "Now they're good to go."

"This 'curse'…" Percy ventured carefully. "Do you really believe there's such a thing? It seems preposterous to us, being from the city itself. Do you really have to go to such lengths to even use our trash?"

"Eh." The old man shrugged. "The folk around here are always superstitious. They barely trust me more than they trust you," he laughed. "But they live by rules, and the rules they live by make them happy. So why not play along?"

---

Percy traded the goods in town the day after, and came back with a much better haul than before. The kitchen scale netted them some more food and a few heavy blankets for their beds. The hand-cranked flashlight was especially lucrative: not only did he manage to trade it for a slightly worn woolen coat and shirt for himself, but he also managed to snag some clothes for Bob as well. The clothes off their backs had gotten dusty, dirty and--frankly--didn't smell so good, so it was time to learn how to do their own laundry for once.

The small shack was equipped with a water pump, and it wasn't too hard to barter for soap. A barrel that washed up on the beach made a passable washtub. It was a far cry from the luxuries of Top Tier HQ, but Bob tried his best not to complain. Percy, for some reason, didn't complain at all.

Actually, Bob found it interesting. Percy was in the best position to rant, rave and moan about his fall from grace, but he took everything in stride. Maybe he considered it what he deserved, or maybe he simply didn't want to appear petulant in front of his ex-employee. Whether it was washing clothes, bartering in town, or even learning how to cook food from a can, Percy just shut up and did the damn thing. It was honestly kind of impressive, though Bob would never admit it.

Gradually, and with the two of them working together, things settled into a sort of routine. Bob would wake up early in the morning, comb the beach for refuse before anyone else could take the good stuff, and return home to clean and repair them. Percy would take the items and barter them in town, then return with sundries that they used to improve their quality of life: food, wood for the stove, pots and pans to cook in, a sewing kit, even things like magazines and books.

"Magazines? Really?" Bob asked, flipping through them. "These are old style magazines and TV guides. Not exactly worthwhile reading material."

"It's not enough to simply survive," Percy explained. "You have to give your brain some kind of stimulation that isn't work. Enrichment for your enclosure, so to speak."

"Enrichment for my enclosure," Bob groaned. "You really have a way with words."

Percy shrugged. "It's just like running a business. You have to keep your workers happy if you want to earn their trust, and earning their trust is the only way they'll feel compelled to contribute to the best of their ability. It's the difference between 90% efficiency and 95%."

"Is that so," Bob yawned, reclining in bed. "Well, I'm not your worker anymore."

"That's right," Percy said. "You're more like a housewife now, don't you think?"

"That's not funny!" Bob yelped, turning bright red. "I am not your housewife!"

---

The first week or two of exile had been filled with novelty, but it was starting to wear off by now, and the boredom was driving Bob insane. He tossed and turned in his bed, tinkered on his gadgets throughout the night, and went for walks along the shore in the early morning, but nothing seemed to make his restlessness abate.

It wasn't long before he blew up at Percy again. "I can't stand this!" he shouted, throwing a broken something-or-other onto the table. "I can't do this anymore! I want to go back to town!"

"Stop complaining," Percy said, refusing to raise his voice. "You know very well we can't do that."

"We could do that if you hadn't run the damn place into the ground!" Bob yelled. "If you hadn't let the power run out--if you'd done something--"

"Done something? Done what?" Percy retorted. "Shift the entire city to an alternative source of energy all at once? It would have taken decades to do that. If I'd been president twenty years earlier, it still wouldn't have been enough time," he insisted. "The infrastructure wasn't built for anything else!"

Percy sat down at the table, rubbing at his temples. He was sweating. It was the first time Bob had seen him lose his cool since they'd taken up residence in the town. "You don't understand," he groaned. "You don't know what it's like to inherit a dying city."

Bob blinked, processing this. "Is that true?" he asked. "Electricopolis was already on the way out?"

Percy nodded.

"Why didn't you say anything? Why didn't you do anything?"

"What could I have done?" the other man moaned. "Tell the entire town to pack up and leave? There was nothing for miles around--just dust and mountains. I couldn't simply turn them out to the wilderness." He buried his face in his hands. "I just…wanted everything to go smoothly. I wanted everyone to be happy…up to the very end."

Bob looked at him, then turned away. "That's not how it went, though."

"I know." Percy rubbed at his nose and eyes. "I must apologize for that. I…took your resignation far too personally."

"That's putting it lightly."

"Can you blame me?" Percy sighed. "We had such a good thing going, you know. Look at this," he said, motioning to the items they'd stockpiled. "Even hundreds of miles away from town, with nothing but the clothes on our backs, we've scraped together something for ourselves. You can't deny that we make a good team."

Bob sighed. "That's the problem," he mumbled. "We do make a good team."

[senjuushi]

You can choose whichever Antiques you'd like for this one!

Taking them to a store (Walmart style or a department store with a bit of everything), giving them a hundred dollars, and telling them that they can buy whatever they like within that price limit.

Who takes advantage of it and what do they buy?

Enfield — He happily buys food, medical supplies, and other necessities. Although he can't see it as anything other than a normal supply errand, he's at least content to find useful things to buy for both of you. And to try to show how competent and helpful he is.

Snider — He'll buy anything that he thinks can be used as a weapon, and is openly irritated about the lack of actual military supplies in the department store. He's also trying to make a "point" about why the whole idea is stupid, so his choices are intended to piss you off.

George — His purchases are mostly food (will you cook burgers for him???), and he doesn't have the slightest second thought about spending the full amount. However, there's at least one surprisingly sweet gift for you mixed in with the junk food and impulse buys.

Kentucky — He mostly gets various craft and DIY supplies, fully intending to make gifts for you later. There might be an accessory for himself included too, though— one that he asks your opinion about before buying it, just to make sure Master likes his style.

Pennsylvania — He feels kind of bad about spending your money (he really doesn't need to be spoiled...), so he tries to buy things that will be useful to both of you. It's mostly practical items and things he knows you like, and he spends far under the full amount given.

Charleville — He's both deeply insecure about being too "high-maintenance" and unsure of what he should want, in the first place, so his purchases end up being little more than a piece of flattering clothing and some sweet wine. He gives most of the money back.

Chassepot — The main thing he gets is a showy, "romantic" gift for you, but if you pay close attention, you'll notice him smuggling a couple of bags full of cheap alcohol (an emergency emotional control measure) past you when he thinks you aren't looking.

Tabatiere — All he gets are cigarettes and some nice things to cook with, like new utensils or food he knows you like. He's deeply uncomfortable with the amount of money you gave him, so he's trying to make sure you get something out of this too.

Dreyse — A mixture of whatever practical supplies he needs (such as non-perishable food or exercise equipment) and Herme management tools, such as a belt that takes some coordination to remove. He'll also give you a good portion of the money back, in the end.

Jitte — His main purchase is nice sake for the two of you to share! Depending on what's available, he might also get Japanese candy, a little potted plant, or an interesting novel, but he's thanking you profusely for being so nice to him, regardless. Master is so kind!

Karl — He gets a fair amount of nice chocolate, and that's it. The rest of the money goes back to you. It's partially a dignity thing and partially just that he doesn't want to look needy, but he can't make himself spend very much. A small treat is plenty, really.

Lorenz — There's not much in a department store that interests him, so his selection ends up being an eclectic selection of objects that he intends to experiment with somehow. He'd also get a book or two if there's anything available that seems worth his intellect.

Cutlery — He spends the full amount, and it's all food. Specifically, non-perishable food that he can hide in his room and hold onto for the next few months. He tries not to let you see exactly what he's getting, and is concerningly protective over the bags when you leave.

[skuntank]

I like the idea of Diantha branching out into more villainous roles to take a break from her usual Pure Angelic Knight typecast. Especially makes sense considering the other two canon actors in Pokémon are best known for their villain roles, and could potentially play heroic roles alongside her. I’m curious, though, what sort of film villain do you see her being cast as? Noir, science fiction, fantasy, etc, there a lot of compelling options.

Oohh my god id love to see a role reversal sort of situation with Diantha being the villain and Brycen and Sabrina playing the heros ..... That's absolutely something I'm gonna chew on ....

Tbh I see her having an interest in all sorts of genres but she most often finds herself in dramas and romcoms, most often as the protagonist. I feel like those are the roles she's most expected to play, and like. I'm sure she loves dramas, and romcoms are like. Ok. In the junk food kind of way. But I think if she were to stick with one or two genres a lot she'd find herself itching to do something different.

I'd love to see her in a scifi flick. I think her audience would be very divided on her performance, some adoring it and loving her going so far outside of what she's usually in, and some thinking it's one of her worst roles ever (mostly just bc it's so different for her). Regardless of reception, I think she would have a blast with it or anything else entirely different from what she normally does.

This isnt really answering the villain part lmao sorry dbdjdb

The type of villain I see her really getting into in my head is like ..... The kind where their unhinged energy is just bubbling under the surface. I know I said it before but I really wanna see her go absolutely apeshit. I wanna see her lose her mind and like tear a scene apart and throw chairs and claw at her costar's character's face. I think it would be maybe a little startling when working with her to see her embrace such energy so easily and passionately and those who have worked with her on stuff where she's done stuff like that for a role come away from it with a bit of fear of her I think lmao

I think genres that might suit this best would be horror/thriller/suspence, tragedy, again drama, black comedies, and whatever a more introspective study on a specific character/person might be considered. Noir would be interesting for sure. Also just historical pieces, especially those focusing on the Victorian and Edwardian eras, the 20's, and probably the 50's? Idk btw I'm not a movie buff by any means lmao

I think these sorts of roles could probably be like your typical "woman scorned" archetype, I have a harder time seeing her in roles where the antagonist is evil just for the sake of being evil, unless it's like a children's movie or something. Tbh I think she would REALLY enjoy the roles where she can argue and debate that the character she plays isn't a villain at all despite them being listed as such. Or at the very least, even if they are outright a villain, they are either still an empathetic character to some degree, OR swing wildly into extremely over the top unhinged territory. I also see roles like fucked up matriarchs that are far too set in their ways and are an unfortunate part of the cycle in passing on trauma, black widow-types, vengeful spirits of those trapped in tragedy, ruthless criminals with a deceptively pretty face, characters driven by desperation, and the like being things she'd be stellar with....

The movie that keeps coming to mind for me is Pearl. Maybe not so much in terms of straightforward plot/character comparison, but absolutely in terms of raw energy. Or maybe you could make a one-to-one comparison and say "yeah I'd love to see Diantha in that specific role." She'd fucking kill it I think. Also fucking cast her in a movie about Lizzie Borden. God what a dream that would be. Also SUNSET BOULEVARD WITH HER AS NORMA DESMOND .... SIGN ME THE FUCK UPPP

[lokifreign]

Deathrock in the south in the 80s was its own universe, but it was tightly interwoven with all the other alty music scenes, all the way from squirrely Rush fans & lugnut metalheads to bliss hippies and just whatever. You could show up in a small southern town and have a place to stay by just hanging around the right bar and letting it be known you needed a place to park. Usually, people's parents would be completely cool with you, if you were cool. I was blown away to discover that my own mom was equally cool in that same way; she'd host out of towners or just pals of mine readily. Honestly, I think she liked most of my scene better than she liked me! Understandable. I had cool friends.

Deathrockers in the deep south were a solid sort, not exactly political but leaning hard toward ruthlessly moral communism as it overlaps with hard drug use. "Health food and heroin" ha, ha. I miss a lot of the people deeply, but looking back I can see how much I've changed in all that time, and how intolerable I'd find any of those scenes today.

I wouldn't mind it if elaborate head shaving and ruffles would come back. The looks were better before they got hard-categorized & resold. I liked the thing we used to do of turning random stuff into jewelry - faucet knobs, hardware junk drawer bits, weird doodads rammed through ears. I had a nice "ax embedded in my ear" piece for a few years. My thing was always nails. I still get the urge every now and then, to push rows of nails through something but… the energy goes elsewhere.

I was thinking earlier about how … the people I identified with the closest, the people I then thought of as being the most central to my understanding of self and the world … mostly died. If it wasn't AIDS it was heroin a/o booze. By the end of the nineties murder had ended a mind-shattering number of loved ones. Punks, hippies, goths, none were spared.

Tyger Tyger, burning bright

It surprises me, what did or didn't survive the millennium turn. It is fucked how angelic the dead seem now, how fucking sainted they feel in my head. I'm not eager to die, but damn… I'm not afraid of it either. I wasn't in my streetwise hard outer shell place when covid kicked in - I'd thought I was past the part of life where people are dying dying dying. It's been chill now for over a year, in my personal space -

a lot of that pressure is starting to escape

[violetnerves]

The Rise and Fall of Jenny Hopkins, Aged 15 - Chapter 2: The Setup.

Ok, so this took me about a month and I feel bad about it. It really shouldn't have taken me that long since this chapter is mostly about the actual mission from the game plus some bits of Jenny's backstory. But here it is, and the editing on it is minimal at best. Constructive criticism would be appreciated.

Anyway, Content warning for some ableist language and sexism.

Word Count: 8799

My eyelids fluttered open as sunlight peeked through the blinds of the dorm windows, hitting my face and rudely waking me up. Just to really rub it in, my alarm clock went off. The ring rattled my ears, and I slammed my hand down on the stupid piece of junk.

I let out a grumble, sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, followed by a yawn. Then my back started acting up, and I grumbled.

A single thought came to my mind.

'Why does school have to start so damn early?'

I heard Trisha sit up, obviously awoken by my loud alarm clock since her side of the room didn't have the sun shining on it.

It was odd that she looked more put together than she did yesterday, despite having bed-head that would put Bob Ross' afro to shame.

We met eye to eye, and for a bit, there was an awkward silence in the room. The only sounds I could hear were the outside movements of the other girls in the dorm getting ready for the day.

Trisha looked down, then back up to me again. She bit her lip. She gave me a pair of finger guns, in a bad attempt to, I assume, be funny to make the obvious tension in the room disappear. It didn't work.

"Hey... Jenny, right? Can we... talk about yesterday?"

I shook my head, getting out of bed and opening up the large dresser next to it. I tossed a white button-up shirt with the Bullworth Academy crest sewn into it on my bed, along with the blue plaid skirt, socks, and a bra.

I turned to give her the nastiest glare I could muster, mainly as a warning. Just to rub it in that I didn't want anything to do with her, I added in a small warning as I focused on putting on my uniform.

"Not interested, don't even bother."

"Aw... C'mon..."

I heard her get off the bed and start walking closer to me. Before she could get too close, my head snapped in her direction.

The sudden movement caused her to hop back a little, holding her hands up in front of her. I'd assume I looked pretty pissed off since the way she put her hands up was clearly defensive.

The only thing I could see her wearing was a long t-shirt with the name of some emo boy band that swamped her rail-thin body just above her knees. I didn't know if she was wearing any shorts underneath since the length of the t-shirt hid her hips. For some reason, she still wore those arm warmers from yesterday. Does she just not take those off at all?

"Look... About yesterday..."

I spat my reply out in the rudest way I knew how.

"Yeah? What? Oh yeah, no big deal. You were gonna record me getting my ass kicked by your buddies so you could all chuckle at it later over whatever crappy take-out food this dump of a towns' got! I already know about that, I don't need you to remind me, ya freak!"

This girl stared at me, lip trembling with those big, obnoxious, and freaky green eyes of hers looking like they were about to start bursting into tears at any second. Before I could tell her to just fuck off, however, the door to our room opened.

Mrs. Peabody walked in, dressed in what looked like the same outfit she'd worn yesterday - more than likely, she was one of those weird people who had multiples of the same clothes. She took one look at me, then over to Trisha. Compared to how she eyed me, it was similar to how you'd look at a dirty mutt compared to a disease ridden rat.

Sure, I wasn't very happy with Trisha... but the way the older woman looked at her in disgust just rubbed me the wrong way. She barely even tried to hide her contempt for the girl. Shit, even I don't think anybodys' has ever even looked at me like that, and i've been enough of a bitch in my life to warrant it.

"Is there something wrong, Miss Jane?" Mrs. Peabody's eyes were firmly on Trisha even though she was clearly talking to me. "Is she bothering you?"

I looked her in the eye and shook my head.

"No ma'am, we just... disagreed on something. S'not anything that important."

Mrs. Peabody didn't seem entirely convinced, but in response, she simply nodded and closed the door. I could hear the sound of her footsteps fading as she walked away, her muffled voice talking to one of the other girls in the building.

I sighed, shaking my head and slipping my pajama shirt off.

While tugging my bra on, I looked over to Trisha, who seemed a bit confused at the fact that I hadn't bothered to tell on her.

"What is it? What's with the face?"

It took her about a minute to actually say anything, and in that time, I was already halfway dressed.

"...How come you didn't tell on me?" Trisha asked, circling her fingers together nervously. I had to wonder why this girl was hanging out with those jerks. You'd think she'd be just another girl to pick on for them.

I shrugged, buttoning up my shirt with my neck tie undone and hanging around my neck. I didn't want to talk to her for longer than I needed to, so I kept my answers short.

"I don't like you, but with the way Mrs. Peabody was looking at you, I think she's way worse." I haphazardly tied my neck tie sloppily, not caring much for how it looked, nevermind what other people would think about it. "She seems like a nasty old hag."

Trisha seemed to chuckle a little at that.

"Oh, you have no idea... We can barely do anything in the dorm without old Peabody riding our butts about it... Well..." Trisha looked over at the door then back to me. "Unless you're Mandy Wiles, then you can basically do anything you want. The favoritism is unreal!"

Oh, of course Mrs. Peabody's got favorites. Old, bitter women like her tend to have them, mainly as a weird projection kind of thing. Some weird way to relive their youth.

Hm, well, since the girl is already blabbing, I might as well get some info about the other girls out of her. Gary had been more than generous with telling me all about the boys of the various cliques yesterday, but he'd been pretty quiet about the girls.

Which was odd, surely the girls around here had some kind of influence?

"Who's Mandy? Should I be concerned about her?"

Trisha didn't hesitate to nod and replied back, "Ooohhh, yeah, definitely! I wouldn't start anything with her. Not only is she Mrs. Peabody's favorite, but she's also a part of the most popular clique in the Academy! You'd be committing social suicide if you try and even push back against her picking on you!"

I rolled my eyes as I tied my neck tie, which ended up looking sloppily done by the time I was finished. Meh, if I get yelled at for it, then I get yelled at. I've been yelled at so many times for the dumbest things that it got to the point where I barely acknowledged it anymore, even if I had genuinely done something wrong.

"Yeah... she sounds real threatening. Look, if she tries anything with me, I'm giving her a swirly. It's pretty much my go-to method for knocking morons like that off their high and mighty pedestal. Getting your head shoved in a toilet can be a real humbling experience, lemme tell ya."

Trisha laughed nervously, fidgeting with her hands.

"Yeah... I mean, that's not a good idea, and I don't agree with you doing that... buuuttt, if you actually go through with that, can you make sure to tell me?" The blonde girl eyed me, almost pleadingly, and in a tone that seemed... oddly joyful in a sinister way, said, "I wanna see."

I shrugged half-heartedly, slipping my socks on.

"Eh, sure, why not?"

I shit you not, the girl squealed right in my ear, opened up her side of the dresser, and sprinted over to her bed to get dressed for the day. All in the span of what felt like a second.

"Ooohhh, I'm so glad we're friends now!"

I was taken aback as I stared at her, the abruptness of it all irritated me.

"Hey, hold on, no we aren't! Your buddies still attacked me yesterday and you were completely fine with filming it! I'm not letting that crap go!" I said, shaking my head at the audacity to try and act so casually given what happened.

Seriously, did this chick have the memory of a goldfish?

Trisha was in the middle of tugging her undershirt on as she looked at me with a sad "deer in the headlights" look. She did this odd mix of a groan and a whine as she did this overdramatic move of faceplanting on her bed.

She looked back up at me and clasped her hands together pleadingly.

"Can I please just make it up to you then? I can't have my roommate mad at me for the entire school year! It'd be so annoying!" Trisha replied, her night shirt getting waved around in the air as she gestured her arms wildly. "Please! I don't even have footage of you getting beat up! It was mainly footage of you beating them up!"

I tried to just blow her off, but... Trisha did have a point. Besides Trent and obviously Russell, I don't think any of those other bozos actually ended up getting a hit on me. Then again, none of them seemed to be particularly good at fighting anyway. In fact, they all seemed a bit caught off guard when I'd decided to fight back.

Hell, just from the bullshit i've had to deal with at my last 7 schools, I probably had more experience actually tussling with people than them, and that didn't even include those boxing classes my third step-father let me tag along to and watch about 3 years ago.

I sighed, rolling my eyes and grabbing my purse.

"Okay... Fine," I said, slinging my bag over my shoulder as I slipped my shoes on. "You can make it up to me... just don't be weird about it..."

I left the room, hearing Trisha yell out something that sounded like a hurried, "Don'tworryIwon'tbeweir-!" as the door shut behind me.

'Man, I think I might've been a bit too lax on her...' The thought popped in my head as I made my way down the double set of stairs, right past a red head and another girl with glasses gossiping about something I didn't care too much to listen into.

As I passed them, I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched, and I turned back to look at the two. They were still talking, though they were turned away when I definitely remembered them facing my direction as I walked past. Huh, weird. Had they been talking about me?

I wouldn't be surprised if they were, what with what went down yesterday. The new girl beating up an entire group of boys and only getting a bruise and a bloody nose out of it was definitely something that would get gossiped about for a while, maybe about a week. On one hand, it'd probably mean people would leave me alone, at least for a bit... but on the other?

Well, I didn't actually know, but it couldn't have been good for me. That was usually how things went, I'd always get the worst of it.

It was why I started to believe in the concept of past lives, as well as karma. I was probably a real ass in a previous life, and I was only now getting all the negative karma from it.

Mrs. Peabody stood by the front door with a piece of paper, clearly about to go on some spheel about something I didn't too much care about. I ignored whatever she was telling me as I grabbed the paper and stepped through the double doors of the building to the outside... only to be met with a loud, burly voice yelling in my direction.

"HI JENNY!"

The voice was bellowed out by Eunice, a girl I'd helped out yesterday during Gary's tour.

Some doofus with an overly long name that I couldn't be bothered to remember had stolen some chocolates from her that her folks gave her as a gift, so I offered to get them back free-of-charge.

It wasn't difficult, hell, I probably could've done it blind folded. I tracked the thief to the first floor boy's bathroom by following some tossed chocolate wrappers, gave him a swift punch to the gut, and swiped the box of chocolates back as the guy was left heaving on the floor. I guess there were worst places to blow chunks, even though his puke never actually ended up in the toilet bowl.

My "reward" for that simple errand was a hug. Not so bad, maybe just a bit awkward right? Wrong, my back still hurt like hell. I think she might've cracked something in my spine while doing that crap. If I were her, I'd consider a career as a chiropractor... Then again, she'd probably be terrible at it. That kind of stuff was supposed to make you feel good... and I definitely didn't...

I gave the heavy set girl a nonchalant wave, and she walked over to me.

Now... I had to give her this. She did have a nice smile, but man, that voice... I wonder if losing weight would make her sound normal...

Then again, probably not. There was a girl at my 5th school who sounded similar to Gilbert Gottfried without any real effort, that was just her natural voice, and that girl had been as thin as a twig. Some girls really did just get the short end of the stick.

The first one being that they were even born a girl in the first place. Seriously, why did being a girl have to suck so much? Not only do we have to deal with periods, but nobody takes us seriously at all!

Man, sometimes I wish I was a dude, not because I was "confused" about my gender or some crap like that, then people would actually respect me for once. Then they'd take me seriously when I knocked their teeth out.

"There's my main squeeze! How's it going, Jenny?" Eunice said cheerfully, clasping her chubby hands together in front of her chest.

We stood to the side of the archway leading into the large space around the building of the Girl's Dorm, and I noticed some of the younger, middle school girls passing by and giggling about something followed by them not-so-subtly glancing in my direction. Word really was getting around about yesterday, huh? But then, why were they laughing? Wouldn't they be in awe of me instead?

I shrugged, blowing a bit of air as I huffed and looked Eunice's way.

"It's Bullworth, so I guess it could be a lot worse."

Eunice nodded, giving a small smile.

"Yeah... I guess it could be worse, but... y'know, it could always get better too!"

"Uh huh..." I replied, leaning against a nearby stonework wall. I propped my foot up on the wall as I relaxed and just let her talk... up until she snapped her fingers in front of my face. "Yeah?"

Eunice put her hands on her hips, looking a bit frustrated. Shoot, how long had I zoned out?

"I said, do you want to go to class together? It'd be cool if we had the same one for first period, y'know, Chemistry? Mrs. Peabody should've given you your schedule by now."

My gaze shifted to the paper in my hand and, sure enough, it was my class schedule. Conveniently, Chemistry was the first class I had today.

"Yeah, I got Chemistry too. I guess walking together doesn't sound like a bad idea," I said, stuffing my schedule inside my purse, not caring if it ended up a little crumbled.

It's not like I had anything better to do, besides, if those Bullies bothered me again, Eunice could've been some nice backup to have for dealing with them. Or a good meatshield. Either way, there really was no downside to it. For me at least.

Eunice seemed pretty happy about walking together.

"Great! Let's go, I think the bell is about to ring!" Without hesitation, Eunice grabbed me by the hand and, with a ridiculous amount of strength, pulled me with her to Chemistry. Now, usually this would've put somebody in a bad standing with me, but with how strong she turned out to be, I was kinda reluctant on bitching at her about it.

Chemistry class wasn't anything out of the ordinary... Aside from the teacher being blazed out of his mind. Dr. Wattz was clearly high on his own supply, but I didn't know what he was even on. It could've been anything. There were a hell of a lot of chemicals in the room to choose from. I had to wonder if some of them were even allowed to be used around and by a bunch of inexperienced teenagers, especially the kind that attended Bullworth Academy.

You'd think a stoner teacher would be pretty nice, but Dr. Wattz was the opposite. I screwed up by pouring the wrong chemical into my beaker and causing it to blow up in a puff of grey smoke, so the old guy threw a hotplate at me. It didn't end up actually hitting me thanks to a personal lifetimes worth of having to avoid flying objects. Instead, it flew towards that big doofus Russell and shattered to bits the second it connected to his skull. Oddly, and a little bit horrifyingly, Russell didn't give much of a reaction to the heavy metal piece of machinery cracking against his head. Seriously, was that guy even human?

So yeah, Chemistry was kind of weird now that I think about it. If there was any proof that Crabblesnitch was in some pretty heavy denial about the actual state of the school he was running, then that teacher was a damn good example. I mean seriously, what's next? An alcoholic teacher barely hiding the fact that he's chugging a 40 out of a paper bag as he's clicking through a presentation shown on a projector?

...Ok, maybe that was a bit too outlandish.

The bell rang for lunch, and as I left the classroom with Eunice, she and I split up. She wanted us to eat together, but I wasn't really interested.

She tried her hardest to get me to go with her, but I told her I wasn't that hungry. That wasn't really true, but I heard there was gonna be chicken for lunch today, and judging by the state of the food I'd choked down yesterday, I wasn't keen on getting salmonella and God knows what else from eating potentially undercooked chicken.

I headed outside, beelining towards the vending machine. If there was anything still keeping me on this bitch of an Earth, it would probably be Beam cola. Nectar of the Gods.

I shoved a dollar bill into the money slot and pressed the first button, and a can of Beam cola dropped down the machine. The sight of that chilled blue can was like looking down at a clear pond after trekking through a barren desert for miles.

Well, ok, maybe not that great of a sight, but it was still nice to be able to drink one of these again. I hadn't had one in weeks, not since mom had refused to keep buying them since she thought they were the cause of me being overweight. Which... well, she probably wasn't wrong, but it's not like it wasn't her fault since she introduced me to these things in the first place.

Back when I was barely a toddler and being forced by mom into participating in those glitzy beauty pageants, she would pour about half a can of Beam Cola into my sippy cup for me to drink in the morning so I wouldn't act cranky or fall asleep. It'd do the trick, probably since an entire can of Beam cola had about 40% of the daily recommended caffeine. I had a lot of memories that were just of me sitting in front of a mirror and chugging it while mom got me prepared to go on stage.

Yeah... those were the days, when it was mostly mom and me after my grandparents passed.

I felt a frown form on my face as I pulled the tab on the can, and that familiar hiss of the pressure releasing stuck solidly in my head. Whenever I heard it, I didn't know whether to consider it a pleasant noise or a bad one. On one hand, I honestly hated having to do those stupid pageants, hated having all that crappy makeup plastered on my face and those dumb outfits I'd be forced into... But on the other hand?

At least back then, mom actually seemed happy spending time with me. Nowadays she'd rather be with her rich boyfriends or the occasional millionaire she managed to sucker into marriage way more than me.

A little, niggling thought that seemed to shrink by the day tried to convince me that mom was doing it for my benefit, that she was just trying to find the right guy that could take care of the both of us financially.

After all, if it had really been about the money, surely mom wouldn't have told me to pack up and leave with her after she actually saw the last man she'd conned cornering me in the kitchen to do god knows what? The guy ran a goddamn fast food franchise. He was loaded.

She had to care a little. I needed her to.

I'm not sure how I could take it if it turned out she didn't.

The can met my lips and I drank. Leaning against the vending machine, I was thankful there wasn't anyone around at the moment. I could already start to feel myself breaking a bit emotionally, and I was struggling just to keep all the cracked pieces together to put everything back to normal. It was like I was trapped in a constantly shaking room, trying desperately to fix this broken vase that just kept getting cracking into smaller and smaller pieces from all the force.

When I got to being reminded about what my last "step-dad" tried to do to me, it always screwed up my entire day. I was so used to being able to kick the ass of anybody that was dumb enough to cross me that the one time I couldn't fight back...

"Ah Hopkins, I've been meaning to talk to you about what happened yesterday."

I jumped a little and spilled some cola on the ground, turning to see Dr. Crabblesnitch walk out of the front door of the school building. He seemed to glance disapprovingly at the soda in my hand, though I wasn't sure whether it was because he thought I shouldn't be drinking it for whatever reason or because I'd spilled it.

'Wouldn't be surprised if it was the first one.'

"Something wrong sir?" I asked, holding the cola can by the top and casually letting it dangle at my thigh.

"Well no, not really. I wanted to speak to you personally about an incident with some of the male students that you were involved in yesterday, among other things..."

'Alright, here we go..'

"Yes sir? What about it? Am I in trouble?" I said in a slightly disinterested tone.

I already got this guy's gist the day I'd met him. He was just another old prick too stuck in the old days to even see what was going on with the younger generation.

"No, actually. I'm just curious as to why you went near the Boy's Dorm. You weren't trying to go in there, were you?" Dr. Crabblesnitch replied, his tone dripping with suspicion. It's like he was eager to get me in trouble for something.

Been there, done that, and got expelled from my third school because of it.

"I got my directions messed up, that's it. Shouldn't you be getting onto the guys who did this to me?" I pointed out the bruising on both my right cheek from Trent and the punch from Russell that had my nose swollen and inflamed. "It was Trent and Russell by the way. I don't know if Dr. Lamb told you, but it was them."

Crabblesnitch eyed my face, though I got a feeling of disinterest from him.

"She did inform me of those two in particular, and they've been given suitable enough punishments, however..." He went on, and the next thing he said made me want to wring his neck. "I don't entirely believe that you didn't purposefully walk to the Boy's Dorm because you weren't familiar with the layout, as Mr. Northwick informed me that you headbutted him the second you walked onto the school grounds. Is this true? I wouldn't put it past you looking for a fight... given your record..."

I got caught up trying to respond, the audacity of his statement leaving me absolutely perplexed.

"Yeah I did! Because he tried to take money from me!" This guy was seriously trying to tell me I was looking for a fight! It was my first day! The only thing I'd been looking for was the Girl's dorm! "Look, I know my record makes me sound like a real tool, but this place is full of bullies and maniacs!"

Dr. Crabblesnitch, again, seemed to wave off my criticisms.

"Oh nonsense. I'm sure he was just showing a bit of school spirit! Hijinks. I'm sure he was simply just trying to mess with you. Boys will be boys after all. It's perfectly understandable that you didn't quite get it, being a girl and all."

'UUUUGGGGHHHH. Thisplacewillbethedeathofme.'

I felt as though my brain was starting to leak out of my skull after hearing that, I nearly didn't catch the rest of his sentence.

He continued on as I took another sip of soda, the overly sweet liquid bringing me some respite from the bullshit spewing out of his mouth.

"Now, I want you to stop with this nonsense. It's unbecoming of a young lady to be so violent. I want you to behave yourself. Now, I've had a talk with Dr. Lamb, and we've both decided it would be beneficial if you visited her for counseling, starting tomorrow. Understood?"

'Ok. Good. Great. Just treat me like a nutcase I guess. As if i'm the problem here.'

Of course, I couldn't actually tell him that. I'd rather not get the world record for the quickest school expulsion in American history.

...Even if it was kinda tempting...

"Understood, sir. Can I go now?"

I wanted to just curl up in bed and yell into my pillow.

Crabblesnitch gave me a curt nod and straightened out his neck tie. As I waited for his response, I got the odd feeling that we weren't alone, as if somebody else was just around the corner. Odd.

"Good, be on your way then."

The Headmaster walked right back into the main building, and after the door shut behind him, I stuck my middle finger in his direction for a second. It was stupid, but it did make me feel a little better. If only I could do it to his face.

Alas, it simply couldn't be.

"Pfft, 'Good, be on your way' yeah, i'll be on my way..." I muttered to myself, mocking Crabblesnitch's tone, "I'll be on my way to putting my foot up your stupid a-"

"Hey!"

I turned my head to see Slingshot kid standing in front of the small set of stairs leading up to the main school building entrance. His nose had a gauze patch on it, with another one slapped on his forehead, underneath it was a large reddish purple bruise. I tried to remember exactly what I'd done to cause that, until I thought about when i'd pushed Tom into him. Must've landed on his face pretty hard when he fell apparently.

Gary gave me his name yesterday, during the tour. It was Davis White, I think?

Along with his name, I knew at least two things about him from what Gary had told me.

The first was that he was in his senior despite looking a bit on the younger side, he was even pretty short to boot, he couldn't have been taller than 5'4. In fact, he was supposed to graduate last year, but he was so deep into his bullying obsession that he'd purposefully gotten himself held back. Gary doubted Davis even wanted to graduate at all, which was bizarre to me. Being able to bully freshman couldn't have been worth spending yet another year in the hellscape that was an American high school.

The second was that he was basically the "brains" of pretty much every plan the Bullies had. Whenever they'd pull something, it was usually his idea. Another kid, Troy, was supposed to be the second-in-command since Russell liked him the most. But more often than not, when Russell wasn't around, it was either Davis or Trent leading, not him. An easy way to tell whether the idea came from Trent or Davis was fairly easy. For one, Davis wasn't nearly as straightforward with his schemes compared to Trent.

He had his clearly homemade wooden slingshot on hand, giving it a firm grip as he glared at me. Obviously, he was pretty mad at me, but at the same time, there was a sort of confidence to it, like he had something planned out.

"Oh, great. You again. Look, I don't-" I didn't get to finish my sentence before he started talking, his tone accusatory and aggressive.

"I saw you talking to Crabblesnitch. Trent and Russell already got detention because of you, you tryin' to get the rest of us in trouble?" Despite his aggression, he seemed to avoid getting any closer to me. That showed, to me at least, that he had some kind of common sense.

"What?" I said, turning toward Davis. "Shut up. They got what they deserved. Maybe take the hint and-"

He again didn't even let me finish. I saw him lift up the wooden slingshot in his hand, grabbing the rubber band with his other hand.

"Screw you new kid, this is what we do to snitches around here!" Davis lifted up the slingshot and aimed it at me, a pebble stuffed in the middle of the rubble band as he pulled it back.

"You better not-AAow!"

He let the band go, and the pebble struck me in the head. I dropped my Beam cola, which spilled on the ground at my feet.

Son of a bitch, I wasn't done drinking that!

As I got myself together, Davis had the biggest shit eating grin on his face as he let out a snide chuckle.

I grunted angrily, kicking the can away as my shoes were slightly saturated with soda.

"You-!" I snapped, and in response, Davis turned and began to book it to the right of the main school building, yelling back:

"Yeah! Come and get me fatso!"

Well shit! I might as well!

"Get back here!" I yelled back at him, sliding down the stairs railing as he ran ahead.

Was this guy in track? I'd barely turned the corner as he was already past the parking lot. At first, I'd figured that's where he'd been headed, as I recalled Gary mentioning that the Bullies tended to hang out there. They seemed the type to gang up on one person anyway. Instead, I followed him as he turned right again, headed to the path that led to where the Gym, Harrington house, and Shop class were.

Davis pushed past a kid in his way who I realized was actually Pete, who was sent toppling down the small set of stairs along with the stack of books and papers he'd been carrying. Surprisingly, Pete didn't seem much affected by the fall as he yelled out to me from the ground:

"I saw him! He went towards Shop class! To the right of the fountain!"

"I saw. Thanks anyway!" I shouted back at him as I ran past.

Pete could pick himself up. He didn't seem that hurt.

I took another turn and spotted as Davis ran through the gate that led into the Shop area. Just before it shut behind him, Wade ran through and confronted me.

"I'VE GOT HER!"

We collided with each other and ended up in a grapple, grabbing at each other's arms to stop the other from hitting them. As hard as he tried, he couldn't wrangle his arms away from me, but neither could I. The most I could do was try to knee at his gut, but my short legs either didn't connect or barely did so. My height was really biting me in the ass here.

"OHHHHH I'VE BEEN LOOKIN' FORWARD TO THIS!" Wade tried kicking at me too, but I was able to back off a little and avoid it, but only barely. I was stuck on how to get the upper hand until I noticed the nearby trash can that we just so happened to be slowly making our way towards.

Hm... That'll work.

"Yeah... So was I..." I said as a wide grin spread across my face. The unhinged glee Wade had had on his own face turned into a worried confusion as we were right beside the trash can. Without hesitation, I tossed him into the can ass first.

"HEY! I-I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU!" Wade cried as he tried to pull himself out of the metal trashcan. He didn't seem to be making much headway, though, in fact he seemed to be accidentally digging himself deeper in his attempt. Clearly, he wasn't used to being on the receiving hand of getting tossed into a garbage can.

"Better luck next time!" I called back, heading towards the metal doors into the Shop class area. Thankfully, it hadn't been locked, but it took me an embarrassing amount of time to realise the doors were supposed to slide open to the side. As they did and I sprinted in, I spotted Davis behind a fence taunting me.

"You're too slow! Hahaha!"

He took off again when I ran into the fence, grabbing it and seething in frustration until I realized it wasn't enclosed. There was an opening to the right of me, and without hesitation, I ran for the turn and followed after him.

It was odd to see the shop not be surrounded by all those Greaser dorks. Yesterday, after the tour of the main school building, Gary showed me around the entire campus. Those guys were scattered around the entire place like they owned it. We didn't stick around the area long, since the Greasers clearly hadn't wanted us there... well, aside from the fat one whose name escaped me at the moment.

That guy gave me some serious bedroom eyes as I walked by, and when I pointed it out to Gary, he laughed and told me about how that Greaser in particular was into fat women.

After learning that, i've considered going easy on the Beam colas from now on.

I heard the loud sound of a garage door slamming down and looked towards the source. At the back of the shop building was some kind of smaller building, presumably another garage. I figured I'd have a hard time trying to get it open, but surprisingly, the shutter door slid upwards without much effort.

I quickly found out why.

A 2x4 wooden plank was swung at me, and I barely managed to dodge it with a clumsy roll that ended with me stumbling back into the nearby brick wall of Shop class.

Ethan, the kid obsessed with ninjas that i'd gut punched yesterday, was the guy who'd swung the board at me. As I got up with my back flat on the wall, Ethan swung the board around in the air like he was swinging a sword, complete with making swishing sounds with his mouth. How the hell was this guy a bully? He's acts like a complete dork!

"Man- Ethan! Knock it off with that crap and just hit her with it!" Tom said from a back corner of the room. He seemed to be distancing himself as far as possible from me and Ethan, I'm assuming he was reluctant to get near me due to what happened the last time he did. Good, let him be afraid. If a lot of the jerks around here were smarter, they'd do the same.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Ethan turned his head and yelled back, stupidly holding the board right in front of me within grabbing distance. I grabbed for it, yanking the plank of wood out of his hand. As he whipped his head back to face me, I swung the board and hit him in the stomach. He doubled over, and I hit him with it again, this time in the back with enough force to break the board in half.

Ethan crumpled to the ground, and I threw the piece of wood I'd been holding to the back of me.

I looked up at Tom, and whatever expression I'd had on my face must've been threatening because instead of trying to fight back, he had decided to shove himself into the corner of the room.

I took a few steps closer, and without missing a beat, Tom grabbed a nearby wooden ruler and held it out in front of him defensively.

"S-stay away from me you crazy bitch!"

"You know, this really could've been avoided, but no. Maybe you should've thought a bit more before thinking it was a good idea to jump me with your buddies."

"It wasn't even my idea! It was all Davis!"

"Wow. I really don't care."

I ran up to brunet and smacked the ruler out of his hand, clocking him in the face. He fell onto a nearby wooden crate that shattered into a heap of wood. Barely had to break a sweat with that one. He laid flat on the concrete floor, moaning and whimpering.

I rolled my eyes and walked over to the other garage door that Davis had gone through, opening it as easily as the last one.

I stepped into the open area, getting confronted by Troy, the ginger kid who had absolutely no inside voice to speak of. Possibly the most absurd thing anyone has ever said to me came out of his mouth, and I was split between laughing or just smacking the shit out of him. Maybe both.

"I'M GONNA HIT YOU HARDER IN THE OVARIES THAN YOU HIT ME IN THE BALLS!"

He charged toward me, and without hesitation, I took the lid off of a nearby metal trashcan and held it out in front of me.

As he neared, I whacked the lid across Troy's face, and he anticlimactically fell to the ground with a loud thump.

That was easy.

I went further along and finally found Davis standing on top of a structure made up of what looked like garbage. He seemed far less confident than he had after launching that pebble at me.

He kicked away the ladder he'd used to climb up the structure, which left me unable to get up to him on foot without risking something going wrong. That structure didn't exactly look all that stable, and trying to grab on it probably would've caused the whole thing to fall over.

"You stay away from me!" Davis said, his tone betraying how scared he actually was.

I threw the trash can at him like a frisbee, and it hit him in the arm. He stumbled a bit but managed to balance himself, the structure creaking and shifting as it was on the verge collapsing on itself.

"Get away, you psycho!" Davis yelled, voice cracking mid-sentence. His hand grabbed onto the wall behind him for balance. I scooped a nearby brick off the ground and prepared to throw it at him.

"What's wrong? Can't take what you dish out?! Huh?!" I didn't give two shits if he was scared of me. Let him be. Maybe he and his buddies'll learn to finally not fuck with me after this. I didn't care how much I would end up hurting these jerks. If they insisted on bullying and harassing me, then they were pretty much asking for anything that happens to them.

I wound up my arm and threw the brick, which hit him in the jaw. That was enough. Davis stumbled back, and the structure couldn't take anymore of it. It collapsed in on itself as some of the trash that kept everything together tumbled out in multiple directions. I saw Davis jumping away from the collapsing structure with a yelp as the entire thing fell apart, falling on his face to the asphalt below.

As everything settled, Davis laid flat on the ground, letting out a quiet groan as he rolled onto his back. I walked over to him, and as I looked him over, I noticed the slingshot he'd shot me with in his front left pants pocket. Without hesitating, I grabbed it. Davis noticed this, though didn't seem to bother with getting up. I didn't doubt he was actually hurt. Hell, I'd probably broken something in his face just from tossing that brick at him. Given that entire ordeal he and his buddies just put me through, I personally couldn't muster up the care to feel bad about it.

Clutching at his face with one hand, Davis tried grabbing for the slingshot with the other, giving a weak protest to go along with it.

"H-hey!" Davis said with a pained groan, "That's mine y-you jerk!"

It clearly hurt for him to talk, and the part of his jaw I'd hit was starting to redden and swell up.

So I kicked Davis in that same area and swiped the slingshot from his hands. He began yelling and soon crying as he grabbed at his face.

I simply turned and walked out of the Shop area, passing by the other boys on my way there.

'I'm sure this'll come up during my talk with Dr. Lamb tomorrow...' I thought as I neared the fountain.

I was just about to sit down on the base of the fountain when I felt a pair of hands on me.

With a yelp, I was pulled back, feeling my back hit what felt like a guy's chest. His breath hit my ear, and that was enough to freak me out. In my panic, I kicked back at whoever it was and connected with what felt like his kneecap.

"Yow! Hey! What's wrong with you?!" From the voice I realized it was Gary of all people, and as I backed away and turned around, I saw him clutching his left leg. I wanted to slug him in the jaw, but since my energy was spent from earlier, I yelled at him instead.

"W-what's wrong with me?! What's wrong with you?! Do you just grab girls like that all the time?!" I yelled back. What even was his thought process? Did he think I'd just be ok with it or something because I didn't hate him?

I was really starting to regret letting this guy off easy calling me a cunt. I couldn't even remember why I'd let him off the hook in the first place.

Gary winced a bit as he rubbed at his leg, clearly still a bit miffed. He straightened himself out and glared at me.

"Geeze Jen, I was just trying to scare you a little, you know, to be funny. I didn't think you'd freak out about so much," Gary put his hands up in a lax but defensive way. He got right next to me and casually put a hand on my shoulder. "Anyway, what's up? You're a bit jumpy today. Did something happen recently?"

I moved my shoulder to get his hand off of me, and before he could respond, I replied to his previous question.

"Those douchebags jumped me again because Trent and Russell got in trouble for what happened yesterday, Davis shot a pebble at my face and lured me into the Shop area where the rest of them were waiting to gang up on me," I showed Gary the slingshot briefly before stuffing it into my purse, "I also took Davis' slingshot. Mostly because I could."

"Aw, you beat them up again? And I didn't get to see it? You know, that's really inconsiderate of you Jane, you should've told me so I could've watched. I probably hate those morons the most out of every neanderthal in this place."

I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, ok, Gary. I'll be sure to let you know beforehand if I get jumped again. I'll even set out a nice chair for you to sit in too. Would you like that princess?"

"Yeah, that sounds nic- Wait, what did you just call me?"

"Huff huff JENNY!"

Trisha came running from the single back door of the main school building, barely avoiding bumping into me and Gary. She bent over to catch her breath for a second. Her hair was messier than it usually was, presumably from her sprinting.

She looked up at me with her makeup smudged face and spoke at a mile a minute... which, as a claim, only made any sense if you were around to hear her while she was talking.

"Jenny!Theguysaregonna-!" Trisha went quiet as soon as she spotted Gary, who, as he had laid eyes on her, sneered in disgust.

"Ugh, what is she doing here? Hey, short bus, don't you have something better to do other than polluting my air? Like whoring yourself out to those Preppies to buy all those dumb anime figurines you have!" Gary said, practically shouting out the last part of his sentence for anyone nearby to hear... At least they would have if Trisha hadn't starting screaming after Gary uttered the word, "whoring".

I covered my ears and yelled:

"Trisha! Gary! CUT IT OUT! GEEZE!"

Trisha stopped with the screaming, but Gary was more than happy to continue talking.

"Why do I have to quit talking? I didn't do anything, I just asked a question, come oooonnnnn Jenny," Gary visibly pouted, as if he thought he could guilt trip me or something. I wasn't having any of it. Instead, I turned back to Trisha.

"Lemme guess, you were gonna warn me about your buddies jumping me near Shop class, am I right?" I folded my arms, tilting my head quizzically at her.

She seemed amazed by the fact that I was already aware.

"Uh... Yeah? How'd you know?"

"Because I literally just beat them all up. Again. Look."

I turned and pointed in the direction of Shop Class, and the first thing I noticed was Wade still being stuck in the trash can. He'd seemingly given up on trying to get out of it, pitifully looking down and probably waiting for one of his friends to pull him out. But instead of it being one of his friends, it would end up being Trisha.

I turned back to her.

"The rest of the boys are inside the Shop area, so have fun dragging them all out of there I guess..." Suddenly, a realization came to me, "Trisha... How come you only just now tried to warn me about what the Bullies were planning? Seems like a weird coincidence that you got here right after it all went down..."

Trisha suddenly appeared a bit nervous, but before she could speak, Gary decided to butt in again.

"Yeah... What is it, Trisha? Upset that my good pal Jenny here caught onto your act? C'mon, answer you whore!" He prodded Trisha in the shoulder, which only seemed to make her even more nervous than she already was. It was also clear that Gary's slut shaming was also getting to her, and it drew a line with me that I knew I had to put a stop to.

"Gary, knock it off, seriously."

Gary groaned and turned away.

"Finnneeee..." He turned his head briefly to talk over his shoulder, "Trisha should explain herself though. I'm telling you Jen, she might be hiding something."

"I do have an explanation actually Gary! So shut your gap-toothed, wannabe know-it-all ass up!"

I was at my limit. Without an ounce of hesitation, I grabbed the two of them and knocked their heads together.

"Yow! What was that for?"

"Ow, Jenny, stop! My old therapist told me I have enough brain damage!"

"Just. Talk. Trisha! And shut up, Gary!"

Gary, for once, seemed to be able to stay quiet as Trisha began explaining herself.

"Ok, so I got in trouble for drawing during Algebra 3 class, so I got sent to lunch detention where Russell and my brother Trent were because of that whole thing from yesterday. Well... the teacher watching over us, Mr. Burton stepped out for a little bit, so we all started talking and stuff. I mentioned to Trent about how you ended up as my roommate, and he told me about how Davis planned to lure and jump you at the area around Shop class during lunch with the rest of the guys. I tried to sneak out to warn you, but Mr. Burton came back, and he wouldn't let me leave even though I'd already finished my lunch. But then Russell got mad about something, and so got Burton was distracted by that. So here I am!"

Huh, yeah I guess that made sense. So Trent is her brother then? I thought those two looked a bit similar. I guess that explains why she even hung out with those bozos.

"You really expect us to believe that? Don't be so gullible Jen, she's clearly trying to cover her ass."

"Gary!"

"What?"

"I'm telling the truth! Seriously!"

"I know! Ugh, just... just go pick up your buddies off the pavement and leave!" I pointed towards the Shop area, then looked over to Gary, "We need to talk..."

Trisha seemed more than happy to leave, even giving Gary a quick glare as she jogged away towards Wade. I gave Gary a glare of my own, but just like with Trisha's, it didn't seem to bother him much.

"Gary, what the hell was that?"

"Whatever do you mean, Jane? I'm just looking out for you. You'd do the same for me, wouldn't you?" he tilted his head, his face looking almost like a whipped dog. It didn't make him look all that sympathetic, though. I actually wanted to slug him in the face even more than I previously did.

I shook my head, still looking up at him angrily.

"Gary, she's my roommate. I can't just start beef with the girl i'm sharing a room with," I responded, trying to relax a bit. Gary was making that a bit hard though, what with him making probably the most punchable face possible at the moment. He was really bad at trying to look innocent.

He let out a defeated "tsk" and folded his arms.

"You really got stuck with her as a roommate? You have my pity, Jane, seriously... But fine, I won't agitate her, in fact... she could probably be a bit useful to us later... As long as you can stomach being nice to that spastic attention whore..."

That last bit of his sentence before the insult gave me a bit of pause. Useful? What for?

"Useful?" I asked, "For what? You make it sound like you're planning something big. Mind tellin' me about it?"

A knowing smile stretched across his face. I'd been a bit preoccupied with... uh, "admiring" it that him touching me on the shoulder as he guided me down the steps and towards the direction of the parking lot hadn't registered at all.

"Yes, useful. I can't say much since i'm still working out the details, but there's no need to worry your little head about all that... Now, c'mon, how's about we work on your aim with that slingshot you've got there? I know just the perfect place to practice..."

[multifandomlover01]

The Truck (rubbish title, I know)

Bull Randleman x Reader (female implied but could be read as gender neutral)

Traveling/Stargazing

October 2022 writing prompts

I’m getting tired of and lazy with these 😳😬 oh no

Word Count: about 734 (more than I thought it was, I guess)

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own writing

Tags: @cody-helix02 @georgelust @immrsgeorge-luz @emmythespacecowgirl

A/N: I guess I’ll post this but it feels empty and low effort, I kinda just had ideas and wrote them down. It doesn’t really have that much of an ending.

When Bull had mentioned traveling in his truck with you, you didn’t think much of it at first. He’d gotten a pick-up truck from someone and had been working on it all Spring and Summer and now that it was Fall and the weather was nice, he wanted to go traveling with you. It was amazing to see the transformation the truck had gone through in those months.

When he first got it in March, you wondered why he had gotten the beat up piece of junk. But you let it go when he said it’d be his little pet project for a while. You knew Bull loved to work on vehicles so you were glad he’d found one. Because he’d also been wanting a truck for literally the longest time.

By the time October rolled around, the truck was looking like it was in very good condition. And Bull was anxious to test it out. He’d suggested a day trip across state, just a few hours there and back, he’d said. You and Bull hadn’t spent much time together lately (mostly due to how busy the two of you were with different things). So you agreed as it seemed special to both of you.

Bull insisted you two leave at a certain time to get there and get back at a certain time. It involved coming back in the early evening when it’d be dark, so you worried about that a bit, but Bull was a good driver and he was the one driving so if he was ok with the times, so were you.

You got ready for the trip (what little you had to for a day trip) and set out. You didn’t miss Bull sneakily trying to put blankets and pillows in the bed of the truck when he thought you wouldn’t notice. You decided not to say anything though, figuring if he obviously didn’t want you to know about it (at least something as innocuous as blankets), then you should pretend that you don’t.

You settled into shotgun while Bull settled into the driver’s seat.

“Ready, darlin’?”

“Ready.”

He started up the engine and you half expected it not to work. But it did. And off you went.

You two chatted and caught up on life for most of the drive there. You admired nature as it passed you by. You got an early dinner at a diner you two loved when you arrived at your destination (which in reality just was the diner itself). It was a lovely dinner. The food at the diner was as delicious as the last time you ate here when you’d last passed this way. Then you headed back home. As the sun was setting, you admired the colors in the sky.

As you were headed home and darkness fell upon you, a few miles out from home, Bull stopped on the side of the road.

“Is something wrong?” You asked, afraid something might very well be with the truck. Though you hadn’t heard anything and Bull hadn’t said anything. You’d had such a good time so far that you’d actually completely forgotten about the blankets.

“Nothin’s wrong darlin’. I wanna show you somethin’.”

“Okay.”

He exited the truck and you followed his lead, walking to the back. That’s when you remembered the blankets…when you saw them on the truck bed with some pillows. Bull lowered the gate and jumped into the bed of the truck. He offered his hand and helped you up into it.

“I know how much you like stargazing and I thought this seemed like a good spot.”

“You know we could’ve done this in our own backyard, right?”

“This seemed more special for my special little lady.”

You blushed and hugged Bull tightly.

“Thank you, Den. I really did enjoy today and this is kind of like the icing on top of the cake.”

“I thought you’d like it.” He smiled down at you. He leant down and kissed your cheek.

You two laid down on the blankets and rested your heads on the pillows. You looked up at the stars in the sky. You huddled closer to Bull and cuddled up against him. You pointed out constellations to him. Everything was right with the world. You laid there for hours watching the stars. You eventually fell asleep cuddling with Bull. He carried you into the truck and slowly drove the rest of the way home so as not to wake you. He picked you up gently and carried you into the house and tucked you into bed.

[peachypede]

😶🐯🍯🔐 for Pecha and Rawst?

Ask meme is here

Pecha

Tbh she doesn’t have a lot of control on what her face is doing. It’s a trait she inherited from her dad. When she tries to show an expression, such as smiling, it looks forced even if she is genuinely happy at the moment. She tries to keep a smile on her face most time because she doesn’t want to chase people away.

Often her face blanks without her realizing it. She’ll space out during a conversation and become very stoic faced or bored looking without meaning to. When she’s concentrating hard, her face goes between blank to glare that can kill. So during pokemon battles she either looks ready to murder you or completely unfazed by the battle…works in her favor though since it makes her hard to read.

Rawst

Has the same thing as Pecha and his dad, though he doesn’t try to force expressions. He doesn’t care if people have a hard time reading him or if he seems unfriendly. He believes it’s up to people to not make too harsh of first impressions of him.

He’s extremely blank faced while watching horror movies or playing horror games. His deadpan humor and inability to be phased by even the scariest of jumpscares is what attracts people to his streams and let’s plays. It’s hilarious watching a guy react to a creepy monster by saying “oh you silly little rascal! Come here…”

Pecha

When she used to have a battle training schedule, her first song on the playlist would be Kick in the Door by Xenia Pax and if her Pokemon hear this song they instantly go into battle mode. (From sweet house pets into battle machines lol)

Nowadays, she needs songs that get her into creating mode. Oresama- Morning Call has a nice snappy feeling to it that helps her focus on her work whether it’s making concept art or actually creating the pieces.

Rawst

He prefers soundtracks over songs with words, especially since he’s mostly trying to get pumped during a stream. Lights, Camera, Action! from Sonic Mania is a nice one to start off the stream. Any royalty free 8-bit music would be nice as well.

For more chill, just chatting streams some soundtracks like Lori M from Night in the Woods has really nice chill vibes to hang out to. (tbh I feel like this also would be kinda Rawst's theme as well. Mellow and chill.)

Pecha

Has a weakness for sweets but also a very sensitive tummy so if she overindulges, she's in pain town. She loves cakes, pies, cookies...especially home baked goods. Since she was taught by her tita to bake, it's kinda hard to avoid temptation when she knows she can just whip up her own cake or something.

ice-cream though has to take the top. So many flavors! So many toppings to add! Also romantic in a way cause you can share a milkshake with someone all cute diner style~

Rawst

Junk food eater. Eats a lot of candy. Also a freak though so his favorites are probably the extreme sour candies that would make a normal person pucker but with Rawst he has some extra citric powder that he adds to them to make them even more sour. (which if you consider that he ALSO has a sensitive stomach, he is always in pain and feeling like shit because of this)

His all time favorite is the sour gummy worms. He rolls those in the extra citric powder and eats a whole bag. Gremlin man.

Pecha

Her closet holds a secret...she has a furry suit. It's her own original character called Webby whose a Galvantula. She's got sparkles in her eyes and the main arms connect to a second lower pair of arms , having four arms like a Galvantula does. And yes. Pecha made this herself after watching tons of tutorials. She's remade and redone it for years until it looks really well made. And yes. She goes to convention incognito with it. She just likes furry stuff and thinks they're super cute! All the colors! All the cute mascots!

She doesn't like showing people due to all the stigma. If a friend or lover stumbles onto it, she'll get very embarrassed...

She really wants to make a Ribombee character next, though.

Rawst

He writes songs, poetry, and also draws people he thinks are attractive. All these journals are kept in one of his drawers at his computer desk. He's only lately started sharing some of his music online, but he'll never show off his poetry or drawings to people. They, um...hold his secret feelings for some certain people that he doesn't like to show

Might someday sing a song for his lover but that might also be something he keeps hidden away forever...

[moody-b1tch]

Rambling about my (improving) relationship with food.

Since, like a month, I've been living alone with my boyfriend. And not everything is nice (I miss my old city, my friends, my pets and overall hate this city) one thing I love is that I can choose what we're going to eat.

I like cooking. I just usually don't have the executive function to do it, but living with my boyfriend, my (barely there) survival instincts help me to Start Doing The Task.

And I probably never enjoyed food like at this point in my life.

My mom was Weird about food. Trauma + Schizophrenia are not a good combo lol. So, when I was a kid I was forced to eat stuff I hated (and, later I discovered that my rejection for some dishes was mostly due to sensory issues) , and there was a lot of shame around stuff that my mom didn't consider "good". She always made a lot of comments about my weight and body, too, and blamed my size on my eating habits.

Then, I moved with my grandma. And HER FOOD WAS DELICIOUS. And, better yet, we share a lot of sensory issues, so she cooked in a way that avoided all the things that made eating a nightmare (like little pieces of tomatoes, boiled onions, entire pieces of garlic and other stuff that made me gag). The best part was that she never forced me to eat stuff I didn't like. I never had to ask. If she noticed I avoided some dishes, she always made something extra for me every time she cooked one of those.

Sadly, my bulimia was on its peak around those years, so eating always involved a lot of guilt. And, all the shitty things that bulimia implies.

Then, I lived alone for a few months and I was always too busy to cook, so I ate a lot of junk food, alternating with avoiding eating.

During the pandemic, I moved with my boyfriend's parents. And, I love them. I would probably be dead or in a really shitty place without them. But my boyfriend's mom has this tendency of trying to "fix" picky eaters. I just opted for junk, or not eating, or praying for having something on the menu that I could eat without gagging. And occasionally, started to cook to have control over the food. It wasn't an everyday thing, but it was pretty constant. After the pandemic it got a little bit worse.

During this time, thanks to therapy and a lot of free time I started to reflect about my relationship with food, and also tried to express it better. I used to say "I don't like chicken" because it was easier than explaining that I like the flavor, but gristle and fat disgust me, that the texture of boiled chicken makes me gag, that finding bone splinters on a bite makes me gag too, and that during years, I ate roasted chicken without salt almost on a daily basis, so my brain goes "nope" when I hear the name of the food.

I realized a lot of the things around the food were texture-related. That I wasn't just "a picky eater": there was Something Else.™

Then there was this period when I was left alone for one or two months and I developed allergies due to stress and eating basically only instant soups with cheese lol. And then more "trying to fix me."

But now, I think I'm free of most of that bullshit. I'm a bit overweight due to years of lots of junk food, but I don't feel like I have to "fix it immediately" or punish myself for eating, and that's wonderful. I'm trying to have a balanced diet, but I'm playing a lot with the ingredients. Chop the onions on tiny pieces and caramerizing them before adding the rest of the ingredients to avoid texture. Blending or crushing other stuff to incorporate the flavor without having the pieces there. Baking a lot of stuff to get this crunchy texture I like.

And. Is great. I'm actually enjoying eating. I'm not at my best moment, but at least my relationship with food is improving, and I think that's keeping me sane.

But also, it makes me wonder why people (mostly adults) are so mean to kids/teens about food when making eating a bearable experience is just about communication and trying a little. Fooling around with the cooking process. Removing some ingredients, adding others. Arranging the dish/lunch box in a way that doesn't let some stuff touch the rest of the food. Looking for new recipes.

"Extremely unhealthy processed food" and "making eating a traumatic experience" are not the only two options.

Anyway. I just know that, if one day I have my own kids, maybe I won't be the best mom, but at least I'll try to make eating a nice experience for them.

[pbandjesse]

I'm at the museum right now for the end of the bowl and oyster roast. And it's been such a fun night. I'm very tired. But not in the normal way. Mostly cuz I have had multiple caffeinated beverages in the last hour.

Today was really nice. I did not go to sleep last night until like 2:00 a.m. I was really sweaty and I couldn't get comfortable. But once I did sleep it was pretty good. I woke up and was not thrilled. James went for a bike ride and I was able to get back to sleep and was in bed until 9:30. James came in bed with me and that's why I wanted for breakfast. I requested an omelette and hash browns. And eventually I got up.

Once I get up I went and decided I was going to wash my hair. James said that I have plenty of time so that's what I did. Make me feel a lot better. I got dressed and felt very cute. My hair is kind of being weird today but it's fine. I probably need to use a clarifying shampoo next time. And I might diet later this week. We will see.

I was tired though. Once we had breakfast I felt a little bit better but I wasn't my best.

But I was really looking forward to spending some time at the art museum with James. We were going to the Walters where I haven't been since I think 2019. And I was really looking forward to it. I was slightly disappointed when I found that the third floor was closed. It has one of my favorite exhibits. But it was closed because they're doing a new install and they took some of the pieces for a special exhibit on the 19th century.

And that ended up being my favorite part of the day. I loved going to Mount Vernon one which is the home part of the building and I like the religious artwork good enough. But it was fun listening to James and talking and James had weird energy. We kept joking that they were let out of their enclosure for a rare Saturday and so their energy was weird. But they were still fun to be around and once we got to the 19th century exhibit I was really excited about the way they curated it. It was all based around themes rather than time period or artist. So they had a section about greenery and peace and more and home and children and animals. And it was just the best. And there was pieces I've never seen before. So that was really cool. And I hadn't really nice time looking at everything.

We were there for a while and once we finished looking at everything we wanted to see me and James decided we would drive over to the craft store so I can get the dye for my resin to try coloring it that way. And then we would go to five guys.

It's kind of a long drive to that Target shopping center. Honestly you could make it to the one on the county and the same amount of time. But we got over there and we found The guy I wanted pretty quickly. I had a good time looking at all the other junk and we ended up finding peppermint peeps on 90% off clearance. So they were 34 cents. And James had a coupon so my dye was only $11.

We went over to five guys next and we ate our food and talked about our honeymoon and things that we wanted to accomplish. Packing goals and things like that. We still need to get our plane tickets for Chicago and that's supposed to be a wedding gift from Brandon and I'm not sure what his plan is but it's making me very stressed out that I don't know yet. It's not until May so we definitely have time but I am still worried. But I'm always worried when it comes to travel. I need everything to be planned so that I don't have to think once it actually happens.

It was the middle of the afternoon though and we needed to be at the museum at 4:00 so I really wanted to get a little bit of rest. We went home and it was very windy. But James decided that they still wanted to go for a bike ride. And I would lay down.

For an hour. And when I woke up I felt kind of groggy but a lot better. I got dressed again and fixed my eyeliner. Tried to get my hair to be less fluffy and then James made a coffee and we headed out.

We got to the museum and everything was already in full swing setup wise. Museum had been closed today so that they could get all of this ready. And we got our instructions and soon we were rolling. I was paired with Deborah's husband Jonathan and we were in charge of the wagon of Cheer. Which is a wagon filled with alcohol. And it was a raffle and people got to bid on it and it was super fun because I got to yell all night trying to get people to buy tickets. And dragging the wagon around and I got very sweaty doing that but it was really fun. We had some time before the event actually started though so I was wondering around and troubleshooting things and trying to help out and I got to see Stanley all dressed up and looking snazzy. And it was really nice. Everyone's great.

Even though they're very stressed. I had one point tonight where someone talked to me a little snappy and I was not thrilled so I just walked away. But everybody else has been wonderful. And Jonathan was nice enough to swap dinners with me so me and James could have dinner together.

The event itself was supposed to start at 6:00 but we haven't early bird in at 5:30. And I was surprised by the amount people that came in that early. Let me and Jonathan stay by the door and we would carnival call getting people to come and buy tickets for the raffle. And then people would head around to actually bid on the auction items. And it was cool seeing all the stuff that people donated. I told Deborah I was surprised no one asked me to donate any art and she was like we didn't even think of that and now they want me to donate art next year. So that's cool.

And for your life had a really good night. People have been wonderful and I've had some really nice talks with people. I've met quite a few board members. I got to explain to them what I do and all of my workshops that I want to leave and that I have been leading successfully for the museum. And I got to talk to some of our friends from around the neighborhood that I know from the market. And some just awesome guests that I got to tell fun facts too. I got to walk around with the wagon which was very heavy but it was fun to pull up and down and just kind of be a good business person. And I had fun

7:30 me and James got together to have dinner. I had a salad and a roll and mac and cheese. I tried to have a pickle but it didn't taste good. Not even sure what the flavor was supposed to be but I did not enjoy it. But mac and cheese was really good and I had a soda and felt a lot better.

Kristen and Brandon were in charge of the other raffle which was a 50/50 raffle and they were a little overwhelmed by how many tickets they had. And they had to tear them all so they brought them to the table that we were eating dinner at and we helped tear them so that they wouldn't fall so far behind. And beyond that I've been having really a lot of fun.

A little bit but we're nine I ended up talking to some people about the museum and my workshops and I got to have some cake. And I did one last walkthrough and had a really nice conversation with a couple. Who said they're very interested in doing my workshops and that was really cool. I was really excited to be done. That it was successful and it was great.

It's after 9:30 now surprise that there is music still happening and there are a bunch of people here. I was supposed to be done at 10:00 and it doesn't look like what's going to happen. So I'm sitting in the back doing this post so that I can go and help clear all the tables off once the people are gone.

And once everything is cleaned up me and James will go home and try to get some rest before they have to wake up at 7:00 to come back here to the museum for the church. And I will work on cleaning the apartment and I have a bunch of selling I need to do. I also want to try some of my bears with the new dye and see what happens. And then I just want to enjoy my day because I have a very busy week this week. I'm lucky this month that even though I'm busy every single day during the week most of my weekends are pretty open for the first few weeks. I tried to build in days off for myself so that I'm not overwhelming my entire person.

So wish me luck and I hope that you all have a great night. I hope you sleep well and you take care of each other. Good night everyone. Until next time!

[meditating-dog-lover]

Health update

I'm feeling much better. I have some inflammation and cuts on my left palm. My neck is still inflamed and I'm applying ketoconazole. There's some redness on my face, but it isn't too bad. My skin care products arrived today, so I'll be using those. They are gentle and soothing and do not cause inflammation and itchiness. Over the counter drugstore creams and moisturizers and lotions cause so much itchiness, stinging and discomfort. I have to resort to more expensive non-drugstore (sometimes non-American) brands with more natural and gentle and anti-inflammatory ingredients.

But I am seeing overall improvement in my skin, thankfully. It does not hurt to have a thick, high-quality anti-inflammatory cream for my face, neck and hands. I've been scared of using anything besides Vaseline, but this product was gentle and soothing on my skin. Plus it's anti-inflammatory, making it a steroid alternative (Vaseline isn't anti-inflammatory, it just helps prevent moisture loss from the skin). I'm going to couple the gentle skin care products with washing/cleansing/showering when needed and hormone balancing.

I've been reading online about how to eat, exercise, and fast based on a woman's cycle. Fasting is fine on day 1-10 and day 16-19, loose fasting (13-15 hours) from day 11-15 to support hormone production for ovulation, and no fasting during day 20+ (luteal phase). For women, fasting disrupts hormone production and can cause imbalances if done incorrectly, as well as inflammation and fatigue. Which was the case for me. For exercising, it is best to do gentle workouts like yoga and walking during week 1 and 4, and more intense workouts like cardio, HIIT, pilates, and strength during week 2 and 3. I haven't been exercising much recently, it's a bit hard to do when you feel fatigued and stressed.

I'm confident these new skin care products and hormone balancing are going to heal my skin. I do expect to experience more inflammation on week 1, but even so my skin recovered quickly. It's nice to see that my skin is getting better. My energy levels have been getting better too. I had a busy, energetic, and productive day at work today. I worked overtime and got groceries afterwards. No fatigue. I'm so happy.

My anti-inflammatory diet has been great. I had some nut butter this morning before work. I'm still trying to be loose with my fasting after all the stress and inflammation my body went through as a result of longterm rigid fasting. But the anti-inflammatory eating style has gotten easy. I haven't had a lot of junk and sugary foods in a while. I had some dark chocolate caramel pieces today, because I felt like it. But I had 2 small pieces and that was it. When it comes to "junk" and "sugary" foods, I'd rather have a small portion and eat my regular meals instead of having a larger portion as my main meal. I want to minimize the amount of sugar and inflammatory foods I'm eating, but I want a balance. I've gotten myself less used to sweets and sugar and junk in general. Sugar is hidden in a lot of foods, even if they aren't sweet. I know eating less inflammatory foods in general, even if they aren't sweet, reduced my cravings for sugar for this specific reason. I don't believe my skin inflammation was due to eating inflammatory foods, I think it's mostly due to my hormone imbalances due to my fasting. But an anti-inflammatory diet does absolutely help me feel better and healthier, even if it doesn't pertain to my skin. Same thing with my gut health. It may not be the ultimate cause of my inflammation, or at least it doesn't contribute as much as my hormones do. But it's important in the context of digestion and absorption of key anti-inflammatory nutrients like vitamin D, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids.

[more-than-a-princess]

"My dark queen? I require your opinion on something regarding my appearance." One look and it would become clear what it was he wanted her opnion on: There was a tasteful bit of stubble on his face, the breeder having been so busy while at his mother's that weekend, he'd completely forgotten to shave.

And, well...he kinda liked it, but he still wasn't sure.

"Do you...believe I should keep this?" Even with the salt and peppered stubble (his vitiligo affecting even the hair along his jaw as it did his head and eyebrows) there was a clear blush hiding underneath. //im trying something out hdsjkgd

Unprompted IC asks - Accepting from mutuals!

She'd nearly put the first piece of chicken karaage in her mouth when Gundham had approached her table in the cafeteria. Often, Hope's Peak insisted on varied yet healthy meals for their students, leading many to frequently patronize the nearby convenience stores and cafes for indulgent meals and snacks. But every once in a while, the school cafeteria blessed their students with something that provided questionable nutrition. The traditional fried chicken was one of them, and for someone so deprived of junk food at home, it was a rare gift that she intended to savor. With a side of rice, salad, and pickled vegetables, but savor nevertheless.

Until Gundham had inquired after her opinion. Sonia blinked, setting down her chopsticks and the piece of chicken between them. It could wait a short while, if he needed her help. "Yes?" Sonia asked, smiling and trying not to be seduced by the scent of deep fried oil when he'd asked for her attention. "What about your appearance? Is it a question regarding your choice of attire, because I like your clothing style as it is."

It was the hunger, surely, that made her admit something so embarrassing. Hopefully he'd be so focused on her answer to his actual question than what had just come out of her mouth. Even if friends often complimented each other on personal style, Sonia's particular sense of appreciation for Gundham extended far beyond what was platonically appropriate. At least she was able to keep such opinions to herself, mostly: the last thing she wanted to do was make him feel uncomfortable with the knowledge she was infatuated with him. 

Shit. She needed to stop thinking about how much she wanted to kiss him and focus on his actual question.

"Keep your facial hair...?" She repeated. Truthfully, she hadn't noticed it until he'd pointed it out. The multi-colored stubble looked a little patchy due to the difference in hue, but that didn't really matter. What did matter was how Gundham looked with it on: if her eyes weren't deceiving her, he stood a little straighter, held his head a little higher. As if anyone should take that away from him. "I...I think if you enjoy the way it looks and feels, then you should keep it. Does it make you happy, Gundham?"

At least she addressed him with her full attention, meeting his gaze. Maybe he'd ignore the faint pink blush that had crept over her cheeks.

@the-ultimate-muses

[blahandwhatever]

There is only one god, and his name is sushi

I had kind of a meh day, and then a few hours ago, I had some sushi. Since then, nothing has been the same. It was so amazing, I had to turn off the TV show I’d just turned on because it would be sacrilege to not give this piece of heaven my undivided attention. It was so delicious, I think I may have died and been reborn into a world of pure bliss. I mean, I have yet to feel anything else.

It makes me kind of understand people who are really into food. Maybe they experience a lot of foods the way I experience sushi. For me, it’s a rare thing to feel so passionately about food. It’s mostly a practical thing for me, a necessity that can be enjoyable but can also be a bit of a chore - especially since I started caring about eating healthy and ensuring I tick off daily checkboxes of nutrition. I like the things I eat. Some things I even love, some things I get a little excited about eating, and I have a few absolute-favorite junk foods I treat myself to here and there. 

But there is nothing that compares to the ecstasy of really good sushi. It’s a goddamn peak experience. It’s a pinnacle of flavor, aesthetics, being easy and fun to eat, and nutrition (fish and avocado and seaweed! - and a nice inoffensive carbohydrate to round things out - and some amazing not-so-healthy toppings sometimes). It’s the perfect health food and the perfect junk food. It’s the great Hegelian synthesis.

And I have yet to even go to an actual sushi restaurant! What new heights await me still?!