#know im late

[xatsperesso]

Sleepover: Gambling edition

It all started with a knock on the door, with a lot of demon children hanging out, and with three adults diligently watching over them.

The atmosphere was kind of tense, and for good reasons at that. Lied took a glance at the adults in the room, and scooted over to where iruma was sitting.

"Hey," he whispered to Iruma, loud enough that the rest of the class will hear, but the adults on the other side of the room won't "Not that I mind or anything, but why are Kalego-sensei and Balam-sensei at the sleepover?"

--

"Why am I here again?" a very tired Kalego asked Opera who all but kidnapped him into the kids little party. He imagines Shichiro was also kidnapped by their senpai too.

"Last time Iruma held a party it got a little out of hand, so I brought you here-" Kalego snorted at that. "Brought" like he isn't here against his will "-to help me keep this one in check"

"Ah, but Sullivan-sama told me that he wanted me here to help you relax a bit , Opera-senpai" Kalego whipped his head so fast he swore he heard a crac.

"Did you just say that you willingly came here??"

--

"Well, that sucks," Lied sighed at Iruma answer. "Last time was a mistake! we didnt know that it was supposed to be diluted!"

"You knew and yet you drank it"

"Purson!"

Iruma had to agree with what Lied says. It is a bit awkward with the adults being here. There's no rowdy talking or friends daring eachother, they're all just awkwardly trying to quietly make conversation

Except for Jazz, whos's looking very thoughtfully at the adults.

"What are you thinking about, Jazz-kun?" Everyone in the room (except for Kalego-sensei and Balam-sensei, who seem to be having a very lively conversation) turned to look at Jazz.

"Well, I've been thinking," he quickly threw a glance at Kalego-sensei before moving to the centre and lowering his voice even further "isn’t it kinda unfair that the teachers get to gamble over which of us is dating, but we don't?" If anyone wasn't interested before, then they sure are now.

"I bet some of the teachers are dating each other. They all seem pretty close to each other" Allocer nodded as everyone scootched even closer to better hear each other.

"Woah woah wo-" Everyone quickly shushed Lied as to not grab their unwanted companies attention (unfortunately, several kids collectively shushing one of them is very suspicious to not watch closely)

"Sorry!" Lied whispered sheepishly "but are we seriously going to gossip about this in front of them?"

"True. We're going to need someway to distract them while the others places their bets" the second Kerori uttered the word 'bet', a very excited smile carved it's way through every demon's face (ah, purson thinks, this is what everyone felt during the music festival)

"But who knows how to distract Kalego-sensei, Balam-sensei and Opera-sensei?"

Collectively, all the young demons looked at a very not ready Iruma.

--

"They’re planning something"

"Kalego-kun, let the kids play. We're just here to make sure they don't injure themselves"

"Or drink too much, mess up the house beyond recognition and pass out leaving me to deal with thirteen teenagers having their first hangover"

"...that too"

--

"I mean, they all seem to watch me intensely whenever I use my spell to float, so maybe that?"

"Alright," Lied took the pencil and paper he asked from clara a second ago "since we all don't have money right now, and because some of you don't trust me-"

"You still haven't paid me back-"

"We're all going to write our bets down here. Do you want to write yours down before your very important mission, Soldier Iruma?"

"What?!" Azz exclaimed very loudly, and right behind him Iruma shook his head showing everyone that he doesn't want to place a bet

"How dare you suggest that Iruma-sama would participate in such cheap-"

"Do you have any bets to place, Azz?" Lied asked, handing the notebook to Azz mainly to spare his ears from one of Azz-kun's lengthy lectures

"Kalego-sensei is married to his work" Azz said with a serious face.

"Ooo! Me too, me too! I think-"

"Guys!" Ix clapped her hand to grab everyone's attention.

"Didn't Iruma want to show us the trick he's been working on?" She continued loudly, to allow the adults to clearly hear what she's saying

"Oh, yeah!" Iruma’s face lit up, as he quietly cast the spell and his body kept rising and rising, far away from hus friends so they would be out of the view of anyone who’s watching him, while Azz-kun and Sabro-kun stood below him in case he fell.

--

As Kalego watched Iruma floating further and further away from the ground, a question popped into his head.

"Why doesn't Iruma ever use his wings?"

Balam and Opera both slowly turned their heads, one looking at Kalego cautiously while the other looked exasperatedly.

"Kalego..humans don't have wings" now it was kalego's turn to slowly turn his head to his friends

"...what?"

"Yeah," all three adults jumped at a very quiet Purson appearing from nowhere "they also don't have horns or tails"

"Oh yeah," Balam looked at Purson, remembering a very embarrassing week "Purson also knows of Iruma’s nature"

Opera looked at Balam with shock. Their ears were flat against their head as he asked a question they very much feared the answer of.

"How, how many demons know?"

"Know what?" For the second time, the adults were startled this time by Gaap's appearance.

"That Iruma is an imaginary being" Purson answered

"That Iruma’s a human? I'm not sure about Azz and Clara, but I've figured it out during our first year so surely they have"

"Mhmm. By the way, why are you here and not with them?"

"Ah, right! Kerori had an idea for you, Purson!" The little demon quickly whispered to his classmate's ear before both of them went to join the rest of the class.

Kalego pinched his nose and let out a sigh as he foresaw the amount of headache this will cause him.

"We're gonna have to find out who knows of the boy's nature and who doesn't"

"How long have you two known?"

"Kalego discovered it last week, and I've known since the first year"

"...I'm going to have to relay this information to Sullivan-sama" Opera sighed as they watched Iruma descending carefully back to his friends. Sadly, they missed Iruma’s new trick. They’re going to have to ask Iruma-kun to perform it later so they can get a chance to see it.

--

"Robin-sensei and Kalego-sensei will obviously win!"

"Are you blind?! Kalego-sensei and Balam-sensei know each other since school! Plus, Robin-sensei is obviously with Orias-sensei!"

"I don't care as long as we all agree that Dali-sensei and Suzy-sensei are completely a thing"

"Are you kidding me?! There's no way Suzy-sensei would ever-"

"Hey, Iruma!" Lied waved at Iruma as he quickly floated towards Iruma "we still need more time. Do you know more ways to distract them?"

"Well, I know opera always watches anyone who plays with the hell-kitties like a hawk" Lied snorted, causing Iruma to tilt his head in confusion which Lied quickly waves away (he can’t believe anyone at this age still calls Infernal cats hell-kitties)

"I'm on it" Agares sped past them towards the two cats laying around on the fluffy carpet, adn proceeded to throw himself facedown on the floor, waiting for the cats to lay on him.

In less than a minute, Opera was watching a sleeping Agares who has two purring cats batting playfully at his hair.

"...alright, I didn't get to ask him if he want to bet or not but whatever. Do you know how else to distract them?"

"Hmm, oh! Clara, can you make chainsaws that can't actually hurt?"

"Of course! I can make them like rubber or plastic or-ooh! I can make chainsaw balloons that works!"

"Yes! Those will do great! Does anyone know how to juggle?"

"I do!" Gaap excitedly ran to them, happy that he gets to show his juggling skills

"Can you juggle chainsaws?" That seemed to make Gaap pale a little

"I-I can try?" Iruma beamed at his friend which helped soothe the poor scared boy

"Great!" Iruma took six balloon chainsaws from Clara, Gaap has never been more relieved to see a balloon, and handed three to Gaap "can you help me start them before we juggle? Oh, and let's go juggle over there"

--

"Is there anything else I need to know about Iruma?" Kalego knew that he should’ve picked up Balam's books on humans, but he was swept with correcting so many assignments that he didn't have any chance to read anything else (he should stop doubling the abnormal class's homework)

"You do know that he's a human, right sensei?" Kalego should really stop being startled by these hellions, or better yet should stop talking about Iruma all together around them (since when can these kid's sneak up on him?)

"Sabro, why do you know this?" A tired Kalego asked

"During our flying test Iruma told me that he healed the leaders leg using his blood, so I did some research on that and found out" That grabbed Opera's attention from the sleeping teens and the cats

"Pardon me, but how did Iruma get injured?"

"He went through the cutthroat valley-wait" something in the back of Kalego’s mind kept nagging at him that something's wrong

"Kalego," Balam's worried voice called him "did Iruma participate in the flying race last year?"

Ah, this is what was nagging Kalego.

"...shit"

"Kalego-IRUMA!" Everyone suddenly looked at Iruma, who was juggling chainsaws with Goemon?!

"IRUMA AND GOEMEN! LET GO OF THESE CHAINSAWS RIGHT THIS SECOND OR I SWEAR TO DELKIRA I WILL-"

--

Sure, Iruma and Gaap got lectured for thirty minutes over safety, common sense and what acceptable pranks to pull, but it was really fun juggling the balloon chainsaws. They actually brought Iruma so many memories.

And surely his classmates are all done-

"I just feel like Suzy-sensei and Raim-sensei would make such a cute couple!"

"And you're willing to bet actual money because of a feeling?"

"I bet Ifrit-sensei and Marbas-sensei are together"

"They're literally wearing wedding rings no one would bet against you on that one"

"So I'm gonna win the bet!"

"That's not how bets work, dumbass!"

"Are you sure this is what you want to bet on, Azz-kun?"

"There’s literally no one who would voluntarily put up with him"

So, they’re still not done.

But Iruma saw Jazz handing money to Purson, which puzzled him. He thought they were gonna write down their bets and hand over the money to the winners directly?

"Hey, Lied-kun," he looked over to a very sulking Lied who's playing in his ds alone on a bean bag "why are they giving money to Purson?"

"Apparently!" Lied threw his arms in the air as he huffed annoyingly "Purson is a much more trust worthy demon than I am!"

"I'll trust you with my money when you pay me back!"

"And I'll pay you back when I have money!"

"You literally bought three new games two days ago"

"Anyways," Lied turned to look at Iruma "they're still not done, so we're going to need some more time"

"Well, if I pull anymore stunts they might actually ground me, but maybe Sabro could tap dance? I saw him do it once and he's very good at it! What do you think, Sabro?"

"Sure, I don't have any bets to place anyway. A cool demon king doesn't place bets on people's love life"

Sabro walked to the centre of the room. He crossed his arms, and jumped into the air clacking his heels three times.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to look curiously at what Sabro is doing. He turned to look at his classmates and yelled at the top of his lungs "CHOOSE A SONG!"

"Gyari's new single!" A very excited Kerori screamed

Sabro smiled viciously as Iruma played the song on the room's speaker, and Sabro started dancing. He captivated everyone with his dancing, except for Purson who went around the room asking the demons what they bet on.

"Woah. He really is good" Lied exclaimed, before a very curious question popped into his mind

"Hey, Iruma, how did you learn how to juggle chainsaws?"

"I used to do it at the circus when I was young! But they insisted I use real chainsaws, I almost lost a finger that one time!" Iruma laughed at the fun memories before continuing to watch Sabro who's footwork was starting to get really intense.

Lied was left to watch Iruma in horror as he digested what was just said to him.

"...what?"

--

"He really is good at this" Balam mused as he continued watching Sabro smoothly dance to the peak of the song

"He is," Kalego commented, watching Sabro a second longer before turning to Balam "Do you know anyone else who knows about Iruma?"

"I know of Iruma’s nature, if that's what you mean, sensei" Kalego closed his eyes and took a deep breath, because really, he should have expected this. At this point it'd be better if he asked who doesn't know.

"And how, pray tell, do you know?" He turned to look at Caim, the fourth person to admit that he knows that Iruma is a human (after this is all done he's gonna have a talk with Iruma this is truly getting ridiculous)

"I was having a chat with Jazz's familiar and he told me that Jazz has been stressing over what to do with such sensitive information" at this point Balam is just trying his hardest not to laugh at Kalego's tired face. He does feel sorry for Opera though. They don't seem to be taking all of this information too well.

"And how does Jazz know??" It's getting too hard not to laugh at Kalego. He shouldn’t laugh at his friend's suffering, but it's just so funny.

"Iruma accidently told him at the last slumber party when he drank too much relax juice"

"Told me what?"

"That he's a human"

"Ah, yeah that. I'm cool with that and all but he told me when he was drunk, you know?"

Opera is just looking sadly at the ground. All this time they've been going under tye assumption that only they, the chairman and Bachiko know of Iruma’s origins. Are they really fit to be called Iruma’s bodyguard if they can't keep track of who knows his most intimate secret?

"By the way, sensei wants to know who else knows"

"Knows what?" Allocer asked Caim curiously, much to Kalego’s chargin

"That Iruma’s a human" and with each kid coming closer, curious as to why their classmates are surrounding their teachers

"Wait, didn't we agree that we won't talk about this until Iruma tells us himself?" Kalego felt his patience running thin

"Talk about what?" Until he just snapped

"Alright!" His voice boomed across the room, startling all the younglings in the room (serves them right for almost stopping his heart multiple times)

"How many of you brats know of Iruma’s nature?!" He screamed at the twelve demons in front of him, and to his annoyance, Balam's amusement, and Opera's Alarm, almost all the kids raised their arm, save for two very confused demon's and one mortified human.

"Iruma-chi's nature?" Clara asked, feeling very left out as she saw that almost all her friends knew something about Iruma that she doesn't.

"Excuse me, but what do you mean by this statment, Kalego-sensei?" Azz felt embarrassment as he asked this question, because almost everyone knows what sensei means except for him! And it's a question about Iruma-sama! How does he not know?

"You know, that Iruma’s a human" Gaap said, unaware of the dumbfounded looks Azz and Clara are throwing him, nor the fact that Iruma’s near tears "I apologise, Iruma-kun, for not informing you that we know sooner, but we thought it'd be better if we waited until you trusted us enough with this information"

"...what?" Azz and Clara asked very, very quietly as everyone in the room slowly realized that Azz and Clara, tha two demons that are glued to Iruma at the hip, are the only ones who don't know.

"Huh?!" Poor stunned Iruma doesn't know how to deal with the fact that all of his classmates mow know of his identity.

He really doesn't knows what to do now?

--

Deep in the castle, Sullivan sits alone in his room contemplating whether it'd be better to let the youth have fun on their own or if he can go and join them.

He really wants to have a slumber party with Iruma, it's not fair that Opera and his friends get to be there and he doesn't! So not fair!

[nonebinary-leftbeef]

DEVASTATING the lyric you've been mishearing is better than the real one

[tizzymcwizzy]

im ill about them. for the record.

[sonicrainbooms]

im going to implode <3

Edit: guys stop tagging this as billford. It's literally Bill physically threatening Ford while he's already under duress and Ford clearly knows Bill is serious. This isn't #toxic yaoi it's literally abuse imo and I don't want it tagged on my post.

[the-holy-ghosted]

Girls will say "this is my beautiful wife" and their beautiful wife is just a weird looking man

[beatcroc]

Alright everyone you've had your fun. You've had the senshi bulge and pantyshots. You've had the falin monstergirl booba and marcille bathtime yuri. We're all very happy about that. But now this is very important and i hope you are listening. Trigger. You better keep the lategame vore. You better keep those shots appropriately vorny. Trigger. Do not mess this up. Do not coward out on me. Ryoko Kui did not draw those like that for you to pretend it's normal.

[kuni-kuun]

Happy Birthday Kunikida! Love, the Agency

[inkskinned]

at some point it's just like. do they even fucking like the thing they're asking AI to make? "oh we'll just use AI for all the scripts" "we'll just use AI for art" "no worries AI can write this book" "oh, AI could easily design this"

like... it's so clear they've never stood in the middle of an art museum and felt like crying, looking at a piece that somehow cuts into your marrow even though the artist and you are separated by space and time. they've never looked at a poem - once, twice, three times - just because the words feel like a fired gun, something too-close, clanging behind your eyes. they've never gotten to the end of the movie and had to arrive, blinking, back into their body, laughing a little because they were holding their breath without realizing.

"oh AI can mimic style" "AI can mimic emotion" "AI can mimic you and your job is almost gone, kid."

... how do i explain to you - you can make AI that does a perfect job of imitating me. you could disseminate it through the entire world and make so much money, using my works and my ideas and my everything.

and i'd still keep writing.

i don't know there's a word for it. in high school, we become aware that the way we feel about our artform is a cliche - it's like breathing. over and over, artists all feel the same thing. "i write because i need to" and "my music is how i speak" and "i make art because it's either that or i stop existing." it is such a common experience, the violence and immediacy we mean behind it is like breathing to me - comes out like a useless understatement. it's a cliche because we all feel it, not because the experience isn't actually persistent. so many of us have this ... fluttering urgency behind our ribs.

i'm not doing it for the money. for a star on the ground in some city i've never visited. i am doing it because when i was seven i started taking notebooks with me on walks. i am doing it because in second grade i wrote a poem and stood up in front of my whole class to read it out while i shook with nerves. i am doing it because i spent high school scribbling all my feelings down. i am doing it for the 16 year old me and the 18 year old me and the today-me, how we can never put the pen down. you can take me down to a subatomic layer, eviscerate me - and never find the source of it; it is of me. when i was 19 i named this blog inkskinned because i was dramatic and lonely and it felt like the only thing that was actually permanently-true about me was that this is what is inside of me, that the words come up over everything, coat everything, bloom their little twilight arias into every nook and corner and alley

"we're gonna replace you". that is okay. you think that i am writing to fill a space. that someone said JOB OPENING: Writer Needed, and i wrote to answer. you think one raindrop replaces another, and i think they're both just falling. you think art has a place, that is simply arrives on walls when it is needed, that is only ever on demand, perfect, easily requested. you see "audience spending" and "marketability" and "multi-line merch opportunity"

and i see a kid drowning. i am writing to make her a boat. i am writing because what used to be a river raft has long become a fully-rigged ship. i am writing because you can fucking rip this out of my cold dead clammy hands and i will still come back as a ghost and i will still be penning poems about it.

it isn't even love. the word we use the most i think is "passion". devotion, obsession, necessity. my favorite little fact about the magic of artists - "abracadabra" means i create as i speak. we make because it sluices out of us. because we look down and our hands are somehow already busy. because it was the first thing we knew and it is our backbone and heartbreak and everything. because we have given up well-paying jobs and a "real life" and the approval of our parents. we create because - the cliche again. it's like breathing. we create because we must.

you create because you're greedy.

[ruushes]

my hof was born to be a griffon rider, if they could've given him a griffon at the start of dao the blight would've been over in a week

[starry-bi-sky]

don't you want to be a cult leader? - danyal al ghul au

this is mostly a joke post but i thought it was funny and had to share so--

his first mistake was, obviously, inheriting his father's inability to see an injustice and stand still. -- actually, danyal's first mistake was his lair being so big. a mountainous island with a large temple in the center resembling his old home in Nanda Parbat? With sprawling foliage and rivers and streams and waterfalls galore? What was he going to do with all that space? Let it go to waste? He had plants there! Native trees of the ghost zone growing from the soil! He couldn't let it all be left unchecked!

So naturally after helping a fellow teenage assassin ghost -- who he later learns is named Akihiko, -- from Walker of all people, he sent them over to hang low at his lair until it was safe enough for them to wander around the Zone. Walker couldn't get through Danyal's astrofield if his life depended on it, and trust him -- he's tried. Danny was clearing out debris from his stupid transport vans for weeks.

Honestly it wasn't so bad, he and Aki really quickly became fast friends and Danny loves having a sparring partner close to his level again -- he hasn't had this much fun fighting since he left the League. Aki was very dedicated and levelheaded, the both of them clicked really well because of it.

Nonono, the real trouble began after Danyal met some long-passed League members and allowed them to come join his island as well. Apparently they had made a few enemies of the zone, and maybe Danyal still felt some loyalty to the League. He couldn't just let them be left to rot. Their zealotry could be overlooked so long as they kept it contained and helped him take care of his island.

And it.. snowballs from there? He meets a teen squire aptly calling himself Ambroise -- whether that was his living name or not is yet to be seen -- who died during feudal france, who is just about as dramatic and passionate as every french stereotype makes them out to be. He calls Danyal "my moon and great muse" -- which is both flattering and little uncomfortable, but Danyal's grown up in the League as the Grandson of the Demon Head, he is used to mild worship. he passes it off as nothing more, nothing less. -- and while his energy is overwhelming on the worst of days, he helps Danny draw out of his shell more in ways that Sam and Tucker still struggle with.

Him and Aki butt heads a lot, but the two seem to hold the other in at least some positive regard, so Danny doesn't worry too much about them fighting while he's gone. It only becomes a mild issue when Aki also begins calling Danny "my moon". It's a little sweet, so Danyal brushes it off.

Then he takes in a troupe of ghosts some time after he defeats Pariah Dark and they begin calling him "great one" just as the yetis do in the far frozen. This is where he meets the twins -- a pair of sibling ghosts who call themselves Trixie and Missy (short for Trick and Mislead) -- who aren't quite as passionate as Ambroise but more energetic than Aki. Eventually they also start calling Danyal "my moon" and attach themselves to his hip, even within the living. They like to hide in his shadow and cause trouble for the rest of the students. He makes sure they don't hurt anyone.

He's pretty sure Aki is jealous, same with Ambroise, but he can't be too certain other than the fact that they become much more lingering (re: clingy) whenever he visits the island.. Something he's trying to do much more often these days due to the increasing amount of people living there now. Since when did he become so popular?

Then there's Pēnelópeia from the Greater Athens, who ran away from home and joined his Island after he ran into her while she was being chased by Skulker -- and he's pretty sure the reason was because of her chimeric appearance. Her strange eyes and mismatched wings and lion's tail and talons. She assimilates into his friend group very easily, she gets along well with Ambroise and Trixie and Danny usually finds the three of them climbing the trees to pluck the most fruit from the top. They can fly and he knows it, but they prefer to climb.

Then finally there's silent poet Akkara who comes from ancient mesopotamia, who gets along most with Aki -- which is no surprise there considering their similar personality dispositions. he watches Aki and Danyal fight each other and leaves comments on this or that that he notices. He writes Danyal poems on clay tablets and leaves them by his room.

They're one big mismatched group of outcasts, and Danny's got the other ghosts on his island to tend to, because they're living on his island and he wants to be hospitable even if he struggles with that. But he spends the most of his time with them.

Sam and Tucker are making fun of him. Tucker jokingly tells him 'careful Danny, at this rate you're gonna start a cult'. Danny really wishes he had taken that joke more seriously.

He just. keeps. collecting people. Wayward souls lost in the zone, looking for shelter or refuge from something or other -- whether that be another hostile ghost, or a past afterlife, or just a purpose. Danyal finds them, he takes them in, offers them a place on his island until they are ready to leave. Many seldom do. He's not complaining -- he has the space, and it feels like it's only ever growing.

His close friends, his "inner circle" as he's heard the others call them, keep insistently calling him "my moon". He starts calling them his stars, because then it only feels fair. They're his stars, this is his constellation. It becomes a thing; little star halos begin forming behind their heads, picking them out from the rest. He loves them so much, it's hard to place. Sam and Tucker are also his stars, but they reside in the living realm, they're his tie to Life. Meanwhile, his friends here know what it's like to be dead, and sometimes its nice to relate.

Those living on his island keep calling him "Great One" and he's beginning to notice zealotry in their care for his island. He really, deeply appreciates it. His close friends gain nicknames -- as his stars, it's only natural for him to pick them out from the cluster in the skies. Akihiko, his Sirius and bright star. Trix and Missy, Castor and Pollux, the twins and troublemakers. Ambroise, his zealous Antares and close friend. Penelopeia, chimeric and loyal Vega. And Akkara, his Arcturus and strength.

It's ridiculous how long it takes for him to notice; he is, of course, a deadly trained assassin. He is meant to be observant -- and normally he is! But somehow this becomes a blind spot. One that becomes too big to be dealt with by the time he realizes it.

He should've noticed when Aki, his Sirius, stood beside him one day while Danyal looked over his island and saw the sprawling spirits carrying on about their afterlife and bowing to him as they saw him, and said: "I looked down into the depths when I met you; I couldn't measure it." They aren't one for flowing prose, it took him so off guard he was silent for over a minute before he finally spoke.

Danyal should've recognized devotion for what it is, and yet he didn't. He should've recognized it when Antares began spouting praises about him, crowing about his radiance and resplendence to the heavens. He just brushed it off as Ambroise being Ambroise. He should've recognized it when Trix and Missy nearly broke Dash's leg after he knocked Danyal's books out of his hands, he excused it as them being protective. Of them coming from times where such violence may have been customary -- after all, that's what he used to be like. What he was still like, sometimes, when his emotions nearly got the better of him.

He should've noticed it when the people living on his island followed his word like gospel, looked at him like he hung the stars in the sky. When his friends gifted him a shawl with the moon phases delicately embroidered into it, with silver, shimmering thread and moving stars lovingly stitched into it. Their constellations seen clear as day in the dark fabric. When he found small shrines dedicated to him -- but they lacked any image of him beyond stones carved to look like moons, so he ignored it. When the religious imagery began popping up.

He really, really should've noticed it when a bunch of cultists accidentally summoned Antares, and Antares had turned to him when he arrived and called them heretics. But he was so centered on the fact that they had kidnapped one of his stars, that he hadn't paid much attention to what Ambroise had said.

Sages say that faith is blind, they should also say faith in you is even blinder.

It really only hits him one afternoon while he's sitting in Sam's room studying with Tucker, Missy and Trixie lounging at his feet, Aki sat on his right, Penelopeia braiding his hair, Ambroise draped against him, and Akkara lurking over him. Its one of the rare few times they're all in one room together.

It hits him like a bolt of lightning. He looks up from his textbook. "Oh Ancients," he says in no amounting shock. Everyone looks up to him.

"I've become my grandfather."

[deanwinchesterwebsite]

"This is uh. When I was growing up me and my dad used to go at it all the time. Over almost anything, but uh, I used to have really long hair way down past my shoulders, I was 17 or 18, oh man he used to hate it. And we got to where we were fighting so much that I'd spend a lot of time out of the house. And in the summertime it wasn't so bad, 'cause it was warm and your friends were out. But in the winter I remember standin' downtown and it would get so cold, when the wind would blow. I had this phone booth that I used to stand in and I used to call my girl for hours at a time just talking to her all night long.

"And finally I'd get my nerve up to go home. I'd stand there in the driveway and he'd be waiting for me in the kitchen. And I'd tuck my hair down in my collar and I'd walk in, and he'd call me back to sit down with him. And the first thing he'd always ask me was what did I think I was doin' with myself? And the worst part about it was I could never explain it to him.

"I remember I got in a motorcycle accident once and I was laid up in bed and he had a barber come in and cut my hair. And man, I can remember telling him that I hated him and that I would never ever forget it.

"And he used to tell me 'Man, I can't wait until the army gets you. When the army gets you they're gonna make a man outta you. They're gonna cut all that hair off, and they'll make a man outta you.'

"This was I guess in '68 and there was a lot of guys from the neighborhood goin' to Vietnam. I remember the drummer in my first band comin' over to my house with his marine uniform on, saying that he was goin' and that he didn't know where it was. And a lot of guys went and a lot of guys didn't come back. And a lot that came back weren't the same anymore.

"And I remember the day I got my draft notice. I hid it from my folks, and three days before my physical me and my friends went out and we stayed up all night. And we got on the bus to go that morning, man we were all so scared. [Laughs]. and I went, and I failed. [Crowd cheering.]

"And I came home, — [laughs] it's nothing to applaud about — But I remember comin' home after I'd been gone for three days, and walkin' in the kitchen and my mother and father were sittin' there, and my father said, 'Where you been?' and I said, uh, 'I went to take my physical.'

"He says, 'What happened?' I said, 'They didn't take me.'

"And he said, 'That's good.'"

-Bruce Springsteen, on Live/1975-85

[that-one-ao3-writer]

Basically what's happening, right?

[beckyblah]

[kairennart]

*bi lights your king*

for @aeonthedimensionalgirl <3<3

[ruvigapo]

Run boy run!! The sex monsters eat salmon!!

In which i arrive Fashionably Late to the fishssek party

[fauchart]

I miss being able to make art and post it. And I miss when doing those things brought you interactions and friends

Idk, someone recently liked an old piece of mine from a bygone era where even sharing an OC of all things had people react. It brought me back to those days where you'd make a whole community and happily include newcomers and draw for each other and send asks etc, all for simply existing on this platform

Now it feels like you post in an empty room and the best you can hope for is a vague echo in return. People will see your art and move on without barely touching it at all

Why have we gotten so stingy with our comments and interactivity?..