#mr. h may i have another :0

[gunpowderdtim]

perks of my mom working in a majority jewish area: they sent her home with work with challah bread. i have never had that before today. it's so fucking good. i love bread so much. i hope so much this isn't offensive or anything but you jewish people have really good bread. 10/10. i love bread.

[lawluenvy]

something a lot of people dont understand:

multishipping is just more fun!!!

why the fuck not? don't you love your little buddy? aren't you so in love with x character yourself that you imagine that everyone else must fall/be in love with them too?

like i know that lawlu will never happen but i love it anyways. cuz why the fuck not? why the fuck not imagine that law has fallen head over heels for the monkey boy that barelled into his life and saved it asking for nothing in return and trusting you when all logic says he probably shouldn't? why become invested in your pirate rival's future and wellbeing enough to go to the war you happened to hear he started and save him before he kills himself out of recklessness? you met exactly once before this. why do you care law??? WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!?!

you know what other one piece ship i love that has real concrete basis for? (altho censorship and heteronormativity may still prevent it of course) --- zolu!!!! undying love and devotion and trust in one another??? captain and first mate???? the only man Mr. Greedy Gut Luffy himself would ever/has ever offered to share his food with????? incredible.

multishipping is just fun y'all! shipping isn't/shouldn't be all about what is actually realistic or has basis or is the most "moral" based on real world modern standards

it's just fun to take two or more characters you love and try to imagine "hm how would this happen/work?" cuz WHY NOT?

just because i believe that zolu is legit and beautiful and endgame does not invalidate my wholehearted belief that law is in love with luffy and my desire to imagine "what if luffy liked law back?"

alright?

it's just fun y'all. fandom is supposed to be fun and an escape from the terrible disappointment that is real life - i'm so tired of people trying to bring real life into it. get your ugly ass reality out of here alright!? i'm here for the fantasy!!! i'm here for the "anything is possible!!!"s not the "actually this ship makes 0 sense for x and y reasons so you shouldn't be shipping that- people should be shipping my monoship only cuz it's more valid" like stfu no one cares you sound like a conceited loser

by all means if multishipping isnt for you cuz you just LOVE this ONE SHIP SO MUCH you can't picture anything else (so valid tbh) then alright you may ship what you wish how you like it of course buuuuut:

don't shit on other people's ships like fandom engagement is just some contest of moral superiority??? like??? who the fuck?

get out of here with that. so boring- if we wanted real life post-modern late stage capitalist "everything is a competition" and the heteronormative christian monogamy that simultaneously condemns but endangers individuals to manipulative and toxic relationship dynamics that is embedded within it --- why would we be here in the first place??? if that's what you want then why are YOU here?

i wish i lived in a world where it didnt fucking matter that luffy is only 18 because why should that matter? of course i know why in our reality it would be something to be concerned about but in one piece? on the grand line? where people can be made entirely of rubber or metal blades or goddamn smoke? and where law and luffy are in the same pirate generation and have obvious and clear respect for each other???

why on earth would i ever want to and choose to view lawlu in the problematic light of our fucked up contemporary where by its standards if luffy is only 18 and law is 26 then one would assume law must clearly just be taking advantage of luffy's naïvety cuz that's what people in this reality are most often like --- when the ONE PIECE REALITY is that law views luffy as his equal and is a MUCH BETTER REALITY! like why would you want to bring what sucks about our world into theirs??? it's not like luffy's pubescent like what is your problem??? y'all infantalize him so much when you do this and it's gross. he's a whole ass man with big dreams and a big ship and a big destiny - get outta here with that real life bullshit.

anyways.

i could rant about shipping discourse literally forever cuz its a subject that sadly never ends.

this applies to so many different ships in so many different fandoms but im just using lawlu vs. zolu as an example because the absurdity of one piece is just such an excellent demonstration of why applying our world's standards on fantasy worlds is a stupid waste of time

stopping forcing things into your black and white boxes of good and bad. shit's "grey" and rainbow as fuck. i look outside the window of my office right now and i see a world that is literally not black in white - there is colour everywhere. your rigid standards don't even work here despite the machinations of society demanding it must be so- and they definitely don't work in worlds that dont exist

fuck your real world problems when we're talking about fantasy worlds

i choose to spend my time in fantasy worlds cuz i fucking hate it here on our doomed planet earth

fantasy is so much better than here

let people have their fantasies - it is literally harming no one

[indigozeal]

Kei Shigema wrote up a proposal for a Lunar 0, and other Lunar news

I've been systematically translating the Lunar interviews from Beep21, but there's news that I think can't wait.  In the second part of his Eternal Blue interview, series scriptwriter/visionary Kei Shigema talks about having drawn up a treatment for another Lunar—and it's not the story you might first think.

- Do you think you'll be able to be present the tale of the Four Heroes era (the so-called Lunar 0) touched upon in the PSP version of Silver Star in a game or other media?

Shigema: Lunar 0 has become a story of a bit different era!   As for the tale of the Four Heroes: the emotions and conflicts and fated bonds involved are released and resolved in Alex's story, so I don't think there's any need to depict it independently. However, I'd like to write a little bit about Laike's story after the end of the game.

- Be honest: is there even a 0.1% chance of Lunar 3 in the future?  I'm on pins and needles!

Shigema: I think the statute of limitations is up, so...  (Actually, about 21 lines of grown-up stuff was deleted here...)   ...So several years after the above was suspended, there were talks about whether we could now create a Lunar 0 about the details of how humanity moved to Lunar, and for consideration, we created a simple plot and characters.  Mr. Kubooka even drew up rough sketches of the main characters.   These were just for consideration; they didn't go to production. That means that, as for as the 0.1% chance goes: I don't think it's zero. However: an extraordinary amount of manpower and funding is necessary to create an RPG from scratch in this day and age, and when I think of getting to the point of getting that all together, I think it would be enormously difficult. I myself still want to hold out hope, so let's give Game Arts our support!

He also talks about his ideas on what may have happened after EB, which include a number of surprising concepts...

- What happened to Hiro and Lucia afterward?

Shigema: Welllll, I don't know—I suppose they went on a variety of adventures together? Lucia may have awakened the Blue Star, but I don't imagine it would have revived immediately just like that.  I wouldn't be surprised if an exhausted Hiro & Lucia had two or three more adventures on the level of Eternal Blue!  Making new comrades from people sleeping on the Blue Star—maybe everyone on Lunar coming to help, of course.  I also kind of doubt whether that would've really been the last we saw of Ghaleon-sama.   And perhaps at the end of Hiro and Lucia's adventures, the frozen earth would have changed to green...

Shigema also thinks that the spiritual successor to Lunar has already been made:

Incidentally, while it's not a sequel to Lunar, Tales of Destiny 2 (TOD2) is its spiritual successor—its emotional heir.

I'd wanted overseas Lunar fans to play it, too, but, alas, there was no overseas release! Abroad, Tales of Eternia was sold as "Tales of Destiny 2".

The role of TOD2's lengthy animated cutscenes; the expressions; the characters and story construction; the thematic material; the position of the heroine; the music production; and on and on—I think they're all connected fairly directly to Lunar.  The element of romance between the characters etc. too is that way.

Particularly thematically, Lunar is, as an action-adventure tale, thoroughly about how the hero fights to save the girl he loves and saves the world in the process. With TOD2, we tried to go further and depict the decisions and growth of a hero forced to choose between the girl and the world.

Shigema is credited as a “script producer” on Tales of Destiny 2.

So, to recap:

Kei Shigema spoke with an unspecified somebody (Game Arts seems likely, but it's not explicitly specified) about making another Lunar game, to the point where he drew up a rough plot and characters (for which series character designer Toshiyuki Kubooka drew up rough sketches).  Nothing’s gone to production, and he thinks funding would be a major obstacle.

This proposed Lunar game, "Lunar 0," would be about how humanity came to live on Lunar.

Shigema does not want to do the Four Heroes story as a standalone work.

Shigema thinks Hiro and Lucia might have had adventures after Eternal Blue in order to revive the Blue Star fully.

There are other people sleeping on the Blue Star, apparently.

Ghaleon might have shown up in some manner after his passing in Eternal Blue.

Shigema considers Tales of Destiny 2 (the Japanese title, not Eternia) to be the spiritual successor to Lunar.

[seconds-not-decades]

Mornings With You {Five Hargreeves x Gn!Reader}

Summary: Five is a morning person. You are not. However, this is a perfect situation for Five (and you). Why? Because it gives him another opportunity to take care of you.

Pairing: Five Hargreeves x Gn!Reader

Author's Note: May I offer you some tooth-rotting Five Hargreeves fluff featuring the impeccable Mr. Pennycrumb? Please feel free to reblog/comment! Shoutout to @shadowisbored for the idea!

Edit: STOOOOPPPPPP 612 NOTES?! I love you all so much!!!

Word Count: 1086 words

Warnings: N/A

Requested: Yes

ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : Glad You Exist

0:00 ───|────── 0:00

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

Taglist: @shadowisbored @m4nd0l0r @magicalxdaydream @superbreadsoul {Please let me know if you'd like to be added or removed}

*Edit below is mine, please give credit if you use it*

~ * ~

The sunlight streamed in through the curtains, waking Five up first. He slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He looked down at your sleeping form with a soft smile. You were tucked in beneath the covers and your breathing was light and even. He bent down to kiss your cheek before slipping out of bed. Mr. Pennycrumb was curled up next to the foot of the bed. Five smiled and bent down to scratch his ear. That woke him up from his slumber.

"Hey, buddy," Five knelt down. "Ready to go outside?"

Mr. Pennycrumb perked when he heard the word. He laughed quietly, clicking his tongue and the dog happily trailed behind him.

Here came the same routine: he would let the dog out and make himself his usual cup of coffee. For you, he made your favorite drink to wake you up. He got the coffee started, figuring it'd be a while before you woke up. So, he decided to surprise you. He started getting ingredients out to make breakfast with. He picked out several things, really wanting to go the extra mile. Besides, it's been a while since you've had breakfast in bed.

Before he started, he let Mr. Pennycrumb inside and fed him. After he was taken care of, Five softly hummed as he made breakfast for the two of you, trying his best not to be too loud and disturb you in the process. He didn't want to ruin the surprise and/or your rest. He slid out two plates from above, putting them on the fancy silver platter you got from your grandmother for Christmas. He carefully put the freshly cooked food on all the plates, as well as the cups and the two empty plates. With that, he swept up the platter and headed into the bedroom again. Mr. Pennycrumb trotting beside him, hoping for a crumb or two to fall.

When the two came inside the bedroom, you were still asleep, cozy beneath the covers.

"Oh, Y/N," Five quietly hummed in amusement. He set the tray down on the bedside table.

The smell of food didn't even stir you awake and that was when he knew you were really asleep. He perched on the edge of the bed next to you, careful not to move too much. He gently swept some of your soft h/c hair out of your face and let the back of his fingers lightly trail down your cheek.

"Hey, it's time to wake up," he lovingly shook your shoulder.

You didn't budge.

"Y/N? Love of mine, it's time to wake up," he shook you a bit more.

You let out a small groan, starting to stir awake now. Although you were having a nice dream.

"Hm, what?" you slurred out sleepily.

Five softly laughed, brushing some more fallen hair out of your tired eyes. "Good morning, my love," he greeted, taking your hand and kissing it.

"Hi," you smiled, rubbing your eyes and blinking to clear your vision.

"Did you sleep well?" he shifted some to let you move around a bit.

You nodded. "I think so. Did you?"

"As much as I usually do," Five got up and kissed your forehead.

"Goodness, what is that amazing smell?" you breathed in.

He grinned, sliding the tray off of the table. "Why, our breakfast of course, my darling."

"Oh my gosh, are you serious? Five!" you gasped, seeing all the delightful food.

"What can I say? Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," he carefully placed the tray down.

"You arranged it so nicely I'm almost afraid to eat it," you admitted almost shyly.

He laughed. "Don't be. This is for you."

"It looks amazing," you didn't even know where to begin.

"Good. I just hope it tastes as good as it looks."

"Oh, hush. Your cooking is delightful," you kissed his cheek and then proceeded to help yourself.

After you got what you wanted, Five fixed his own plate. The two of you ate in comfortable silence as Mr. Pennycrumb jumped onto the bed, curling up near the end and away from the tray. You smiled, setting the tray on the bedside table to let the dog join the two of you.

"You know what we need?" you looked to Five.

Five frowned some. "What?"

"Music," you grinned, going over to the record player. You slid in your favorite vinyl and soft music began to fill the air.

Five opened the curtains, letting more light pour into the room. You smiled. Despite having to wake up, you secretly loved mornings. You loved the peaceful atmosphere you and Five shared. You loved just co-existing with him in the same room, even if you two never exchange a word. Mornings were always so relaxing and tranquil and calm. Five really did know the best ways to start off the days.

After the two of you finished breakfast, you two cleaned up the dishes and finished getting ready for the day. Though the both of you returned to the bedroom. You picked up a book, beginning to read. Five was busily throwing a ball for Mr. Pennycrumb and keeping him entertained. You laid back on him, feeling his arm lazily drape over you.

"Ooh," you perked up when your favorite song began playing. "This is a good one!" you eagerly closed your book and popped up to your feet, grinning at Five.

"Yes?" he returned with a slight frown.

"Dance with me?" you requested shyly, holding your hands out for him.

"Oh…uh…" Five turned red. Despite being forced to take ballroom lessons at the Academy, he wasn't much of a dancer.

Mr. Pennycrumb barked at Five as if to further urge him.

"Please? Just this once?" you gave him your best pleading face. You puckered our your bottom lip ever so slightly.

Five sighed, not being able to resist. "Okay, okay. Only for you, my angel."

You squealed happily as he got up and went over. You looped your arms around his neck and his snaked around your waist, pulling you closer to him. You smiled softly, hearing him softly sing under his breath. His lips lightly brushed against your ear and his words traveled from your eardrum to your heart.

As the song faded out, Five smiled down at you. "You're incredible, did you know that?"

"Awww…I try…" you blushed bright red.

He smiled and kissed you lovingly as you returned it. The two of you pulled apart a few moments later.

Oh how glad you were that he existed.

~ * ~

[schlatt-love-bot]

skyfall - jschlatt x reader pt. 2

now listening: skyfall - adele 0:56 ─❍───── 4:46 ↻⊲ Ⅱ ⊳↺

[part one, part two (currently reading), part three]

_____________________________________________

For this is the end, 

Wanting to stay far away from the actions of today, you had stayed at your’s and Schlatt’s home. You didn’t want to see your past friends and current business partner fighting on opposite sides, better yet you wanted to completely avoid the near chance of fighting against the people who made you love this country so much. You knew, though, that this was the end of Manberg itself, and Schlatt’s reign of power was soon to come crumbling down along with it. 

If the timing was right, Schlatt could’ve been one of the best leaders this country had seen. He won the election fairly, and he executed actions that he thought would best fit his citizens to keep them safe. Although some of his actions were a bit extreme, like the exile of Tommy and Wilbur, you had to agree with him that sometimes a little extremity was needed to keep the people safe. 

You had missed Wilbur and Tommy dearly at the start of Manberg—life didn’t feel the same without their constant brotherly discourse going on around town. Tubbo had missed them as well, expressing it a bit more outwardly than you had, which was something that drove Schlatt insane behind closed doors. 

“Why can’t he just...just forget about them? He would be having such a better life as my right hand man if he would simply forget all about them! It’s not that hard! They didn’t have this country and it’s people in mind ever!” He shouted, slamming the nearly empty bottle on the table, before going to rest his head in his hands. Coming behind him, you rubbed his shoulders as a signal that you were there for him. Although Schlatt never wanted to admit it, you could see in his eyes the sincere love he held for the kid—seeing him almost as his son in a way. He didn’t want Tubbo to head down the wrong paths in life, he wanted to set him up with a prosperous lifetrack that wouldn’t ever do him wrong, and to see him yearning for the times without Schlatt in his life absolutely devastated him late at night when no one was around to witness him at his lows—other than you. 

“Tommy and Wilbur mean a lot to Tubbo, Mr. President. Even though he loves this country, and will do anything in his power to keep this country on the right side of history...he loves his friends more than anything else. Not being able to see them is absolutely breaking him apart.” You tried your best to console the tipsy ram man, but nothing at this time could take his mind off of the thought of Tubbo betraying him. 

“While I know you’re right...it just hurts to think that he would be happier with them. They were awful leaders, if I knew they were fit for this country I wouldn’t have even bothered running in the election. I knew that this country deserves better, though—it needed a capable leader. Why….why….why can’t Tubbo just see that?” By this point the bottle was empty, and the horned man was heading to the fridge to grab another. You grabbed his arm and pulled him closer, before he could get the chance to get to the fridge. 

“I understand that, sir, but maybe...for tonight...it might be best if you head to bed, okay? I’ll clean up down here, you get settled. I’ll tell Quackity that his services are done for the night, now go upstairs and get some rest, okay?” You gently spoke, not wanting to infuriate him even further than he already was. He slowly nodded his head, before grasping your hand and leaving to head upstairs. Though he may have a stone cold dictator exterior, the man appreciated any care he could get—not many people cared for him, after all. 

I’ve drowned and dreamt this moment.

Alcohol was one of the only things Schlatt felt he could turn to in these few final days. Even if he knew he could trust you, he still felt that deep down inside everyone had turned their backs on him, and that no one, not even his first broad could help him. It was almost as if he unconsciously knew that the rebellion was going to occur, as he began to care less and less about what was going on in Manberg, and started to care more and more about the contents of his bottles. 

“Schlatt c’mon. This is starting to get pathetic! You’re the president around here, how do you think they’ll react upon learning that the one ruling this land has succumbed to a drunkard?” You grumbled, having been increasingly annoyed lately at the number of tasks you had to complete related to his new found alcohol problem. 

“It’s easy for you to say that, huh sugar tits?” He hiccuped, once again reaching over to the half empty bottle placed by his side. “If you were in my p-position I’m sure you’d be doing this t-too! They all HATE me! They don’t have f-faith in me!” He stumbled over a couple of his words as he screamed at you, increasingly getting angier with every second he had to stay awake. You sighed, cleaning up the remaining bottles on the floor, trying to swiftly put away the sixth six pack he was about to go through for the night. 

“Maybe if you put the bottle down and started to care again you would have people on your side Schlatt! All you have now is me and Dream. I want to see you be the president you were the day you got elected again, and all it would take is to be fucking sober for once!” You cried, your voice beginning to waver due to the oncoming tsunami of tears. He scoffed and threw his hand to the side, his signal that he was done dealing with you for the day, and for you to come back in the morning to his hungover self, begging for another nip from the nearby bottle of beer. 

So overdue, I owe them.

And so you sat, Schlatt having left the shared home of yours early this morning saying that Dream had asked to speak to him, without giving you a chance to say goodbye. Despite all the faith you had in Dream to keep Schlatt safe for the sake of power, there was an unnerving amount of anxiety you had felt surrounding today. Dream is a powerful man, however, there’s a feeling in the air that has been giving you a gut feeling all day—Schlatt might not make it out of this one living. 

You tried your best to keep your mind off of those thoughts, though, having an early morning visit from Tubbo didn’t help that clause any. 

“(Y/N)! Is Schlatt home?” He peeped through the window, trying one last time to not be seen. 

“No, Tubbo, Schlatt’s not here. He has some business to do...for once. It’s been a while since he’s left to do some business around here.” You said, opening the door for the child to come in, signalling him to sit on one of the dining room chairs. Tubbo quickly rushed in, still afraid of being seen, but this time from Tommy and Wilbur as they were preparing for the inevitable.

“I decided to drop by and see if you had changed your mind! We still have an open spot for the rebellion, and we have some spare armor and weapons! We would absolutely love your help out there, (Y/N)!” The boy was buzzing with excitement, hardly able to sit still on the chair. Once his eyes noticed the undereye bags you were wearing and your tired demeanor, he had seemingly gotten his answer.

“I’m still not joining in, Tubbo. Though I do wish you and the rest of Pogtopia the best, you all have a piece of my heart, there’s just…” Your voice wandered off, as you looked out the window to see Schlatt and Dream heading off into the caravan in town, though it looked more so as though Dream was lugging around a lifeless body with Schlatt’s horns, his now signature bottle of beer adorned in his hand.

“There’s just...what, (Y/N)? You know what will happen to...him...after today.” He said, his voice beginning to calm down some, as he tried to convince you one last time to join the ‘right side of history.’ 

“I can’t leave him alone, Tubbo. Schlatt means a lot more to me than you probably think...I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for him. But say, do me a favor,” You said, getting up to go to the cupboards, where you had stored some of Schlatt’s favorite food and liquors. Picking up a bundle of baked potatoes and golden carrots, you handed them to the child. “Here, give these to everyone from me. My contribution to the rebellion.” 

So Tubbo happily left, the bundle you gave him snugged tight in his arms, ready to feed the other members of the revolution. You watched as he ran in the direction of where Pogtopia was meeting up to storm Manberg, leaving you with an unsettling feeling in your gut. Your heart wanted you to head directly to the caravan, take care of what seemed to be a drunken Schlatt once more before Pogtopia found him in that state, but your mind knew better than to get involved in that sort of business. Schlatt had always promised to keep you safe from any wars, any attacks, anything that could potentially end up in you getting hurt. 

“No one hurts my First Broad, got that, Alex?” Schlatt barked in response to Quackity’s question of why he always gets stuck with doing night patrol around Manberg, and not you.

“Understood, Schlatt, I just think that (Y/N), as First Lady, should be doing more to help with the security of the country! Why leave it just to me, we can both do it! I’ve seen (Y/N) fight, she’s good!” Quackity insisted, to which he met himself slammed against the wall behind him. 

“He’s right, Mr. President, I could be doing more for security-” You began to insist, not wanting to see Quackity get stuck in a tricky position, but Schlatt was relentless.

“She does enough around here, don’t you think Quackity? Security is not where she belongs, for as long as I’m alive she will never have to touch the handle of a sword ever. No one hurts her. No one puts her in a position where she could get hurt.” Schlatt slyly says through his gritted teeth, getting a nod from Quackity before letting the poor boy go to do his nightly rounds.

Swept away, I’m stolen. 

By the time you had got your mind out of your memories, you had realized you missed the entire start of the rebellion—arrows were spewed all around the ground, you saw many of your friends running across the fields, fighting against Dream and the people he had collected to protect Manberg. You gasped, suddenly feeling the urge to go out and fight—not for yourself, not for the country, but for Schlatt. You knew that this country meant a lot more to him than it did to you, and you didn’t want to see him spiral any farther than he already has. Something, though, was preventing you from going out to the battlegrounds, something was telling you that even though you wanted to do it for Schlatt, he wouldn’t want to see you put yourself in a situation where you could get killed. So you sat in the front yard and watched as Pogtopia ran back and forth, shots were taken, blood was shed, and chaos had ensued. You saw Dream emerge once again from the caravan, without Schlatt to your surprise, as he headed directly to the group of Pogtopia’s fighters, hands in the air and sword hung around his side. Unsure of what was going on, you knew there was no way that Dream would surrender power that easily, but that’s exactly what it seemed to be. Not wanting to watch any farther, you decided to go inside and wait for Schlatt’s arrival. 

Going upstairs into his room, yours was across the hall, you had seen the mess he made this morning trying to make himself presentable for Dream—ties scattered all across the floor, his closet doors wide open, different pieces of suits thrown about, not to mention the collection of empty bottles he had begun to have on his window sills.

“It’s gonna be a long day for him...the least I can do is clean this up a bit so he can lie down when he returns. That’s what I’ll do.” You muttered to yourself, swiftly entering his room to clean. You started with the bottles, knowing that the recycle bin was almost filled anyways, and the sooner you filled it the quicker you could take it outside for someone to gather. You then stripped his bed and threw it all in the wash, leaving to vacuum a bit before remaking the bed. After having organized his closets, you came across something—the planner you had gifted him on his first day in office. 

“Huh? A book? Do I look like the kind of person who reads to you?” Schlatt asked, after opening the election victory gift you had given him. Tubbo began to laugh quietly, before instantly stopping as Schlatt gave him a glare. 

“Well, not exactly Mr. President, but it’s not just any book—it’s a planner! I’m sure there’s many things you’re going to want to do around here, to make this the best nation it could be, so to keep track of your schedule and your plans I figured you’d need something like that!” You said, trying to maintain the level of confidence he always had, but faltering at certain words since you were unsure if Schlatt liked this gift or not. The book was locally made, by your own hands (but of course you could never tell him that), with the words “President Schlatt’s Mastermind Agenda” written in a quaint gold font on the leather cover. You had paired it with one of your favorite fountain pens and hoped that he would at least appreciate the gift even if he didn’t use it.

“I don’t think Schlatt’s the kind of person to use something like that...sorry (Y/N).” Tubbo spoke up to break the silence, giving you an empathetic smile as an almost ‘I’m sorry.’ You nodded your head and waited for the ram to speak up—it was his gift afterall. He had been thumbing through the pages, seeing the different contents that you had included in there for him, seeing the thoughtfulness of this gift had almost made the man go soft.

“I appreciate it, (Y/N). You clearly know that a busy business man needs someplace to keep tabs on things. I may begin to use this sooner or later.” He smiled, opening a drawer on his desk to place it within. 

You found yourself thumbing through the book, just like he did when you had given it to him, seeing that he actually did use it—he kept track of things like the festival, different plans and ideas that had come to mind, and even using it to keep track of the good things he remembered day to day. Seeing your name in there a handful of times was a bit shocking—you didn’t really think he appreciated you as much as it seemed he did. 

Breaking you out of your thoughts was the sound of loud stomps entering your home and heading up the stairs. 

“(Y/N)?!?” Tubbo shouted, frantically as he panted, trying to recollect himself.

“Oh my God Tubbo! What’s wrong, boy? Breathe, is everything alright?” You asked, as you dropped the book and ran to the child, grabbing his shoulders to try and calm him down.

“Schlatt…the caravan....you’re not gonna like what you’re gonna see, but I think you should come with me.” Tubbo spewed, his thoughts going a mile a minute as he took your hand and began to run faster than you had ever seen him run before, dragging you along with him.

“Tubbo! Wait! Wait! What? What’s wrong with Schlatt?” You said, the feeling of panic starting to bubble up from your gut. Tubbo stopped, leaving skids in your front yard, before quickly turning to look up at you.

“Schlatt’s...not doing so well. We need to hurry!” He said, returning to his sprint once more. 

_____________________________________________

even though i didn’t receive much feedback on part one i had already completed part two and wanted to share it ! i’m currently working on part three, which should be the final part, so expect to see that sometime in the future ! i really enjoy writing these, so i hope you all like them too . thank you all so much for reading, i hope you stick around ! 

[lesvegas]

My Mod List for Fallout: New Vegas

Some months ago, I answered an ask regarding FNV mods I’d recommend. Over the past few months, I’ve tried many more mods since, and have even removed several mods from the original list. I decided to remake the list, both in this post and also in this doc for the sake of documentation.

These are both for my own reference and for anyone who’s looking for mod recommendations. Keep in mind my preferences for mods tend to be smaller-scale, quality of life and immersive mods, and I’m not super into big story mods.

This is a long one, so I’m putting it under a readmore.

You’re gonna wanna start with this mod configuration menu, which helps to manage mods in-game. 

Fixes & Script Extenders

Most of these are necessary for a stable game and for the rest of the mods listed here.

New Vegas Script Extender (NVSE) - You’ll need this for most of these to work at all.

Yukichigai Unofficial Patch (YUP) - A compilation of vital bug fixes with no further additions. Just bug fixes.

Unofficial Patch Plus - A collection of supplementary bug fixes to be used alongside YUP. Includes improved versions of popular NVSE bug fixes.

New Vegas Anti Crash (NVAC) - Says it right there in the name.

JIP LN NVSE Plugin - An extension of NVSE that restores broken features and supplies bug fixes; read through this one before toggling anything.

JohnnyGuitar NVSE - Another NVSE extender.

FNV 4GB Patch - Simple patcher to make Fallout New Vegas 4GB Aware.

Throwable Weapon Fixes - A collection of fixes for throwable weapons and projectiles.

Overhauls

New Vegas Character Expansions (NVCE) - Probably the only character overhaul that just makes everyone look a little less potato without making them look hollow inside. (NOTE: This may make some characters have white faces. If this happens, the fix that worked for me is at the bottom of this post)

Water Overhaul - Overhauls various aspects of water, making radiation-free water more scarce and allowing you to refill bottles anywhere with a water source.

Starting Gear Overhaul - Adjusts the gear you start with to be more sensible and catered to your tagged skills. Recommended using along with JSawyer Ultimate.

Mojave Raiders - Adds more raiders to fight and balances their loot.

Mojave Wildlife - Adds hundreds more levelled, vanilla-friendly creature spawn points throughout the whole Mojave, based off unused vanilla levelled lists.

Mojave Arsenal - Adds ammo variants, reloading parts, and weapon mods as loot; fixes item naming conventions; improves recipes; and adds options for configuring GRA.

The Living Desert - Adds hundreds of NPCs and several scripted events; people patrolling the roads, travelling between towns, occupying locations.

Faction Map Icon Overhaul - Changes faction-related icons on the Pip-Boy map, for example Camp McCarran and the Mojave Outpost’s icons are the two-headed bear, the Fort and Cottonwood Cove are the bull, etc.

Immersion

New Vegas Enhanced Camera - Enables visible body and player shadow in first person, will let you remain in first person when you would otherwise be forced into third person (death/knocked down/etc).

Barton Thorn Acts Normally - Barton Thorn seeks out the player himself to ask for help with the geckos.

Clarity - Removes orange/blue tints.

Harvestable Cave Fungus - Self-explanatory.

Better Pickup Prompt - Makes several improvements to the HUD pickup prompt that appears when you look at an item. (NOTE: This mod has been discontinued, but seems to still work).

Realistic Safehouse Upgrades - Gives every safehouse a workbench, reloading bench, camp fire and more containers to make them feel like home.

Eddie Hears And Explosion - Fixes one of the clunkier moments in the game, near the end of the Powder Ganger questline.

Neck Seam Concealer Necklaces - A wide variety of necklaces that perfectly conceal the seam connecting characters’ heads and torsos. 

Vanilla Hair, No Shine - Makes the default hairstyles have less obnoxious white shine.

Light Step ED-E - This mod gives ED-E the Light Step perk, preventing him from setting off mines and floor traps.

Hi-Res Vanilla Posters and Graffiti - Posters and graffiti have x2 upscaled resolution, with no ugly blurring or sharpening.

Mojave Nights - Mojave Nights combines my Enhanced Night Sky mod with a brand-new, highly detailed moon replacement for complete night-time realism.

Functional Post-Game Ending (FPGE) - Adds a fully functional post-game world to the game, where you will realise the consequences of your choices.

Just Vanilla Sprint (JVS) - A simple vanilla sprint mod. Requires JIP LN Plugin (scroll up to Fixes & Script Extenders).

Animated Maize Fields, Park Equipment, Poseidon Energy Signs (personal fave), Sunset Sarsaparilla Rotary Entrance, Rotating Brahmin Rotisserie, and Foliage. This mod maker has tons of immersive little animation mods; I recommend looking through all of them.

JSawyer Ultimate Edition

JSawyer Ultimate Edition - JSawyer's popular mod, fully re-implemented from the ground up. A ‘meant-to-be’ mod which changes elements of the game to how they should have been from the start.

JSawyer Ultimate Edition Patches - Patches for using several popular mods alongside JSawyer Ultimate Edition.

JSawyer Mod Vanilla Number Of Perks - Changes the final total number of perks acquired by level 34 from the JSawyer default of 17 to the vanilla default of 25.

Perk Every Level, Cap at 100 - JSawyer Ultimate Edition caps the player at level 35. Once I reached level 35, THEN I installed this mod, which was the only increased level cap mod that worked for me. It doesn’t add perks after that, though; I have to add perks manually.

Restored Cut Content

Uncut Wasteland - Restores a huge amount of scenery and little random things which were patched out of the game post-release.

The Moon Comes Over The Tower - Restores the rest of the quest given by Emily Ortal, which requires you to go H&H Tools Factory, Camp Golf, and North Vegas Steel.

Vanilla Intro Plus - Restores the bit of the intro where Victor pulls the courier out of their own grave.

Classic Fallout Floaters - Adds Floaters into New Vegas based on information and cut content found within the files. Can be found where Centaurs lurk.

The Strip Open - Removes the gates and excess loading screens within the Strip.

Legion Quests Expanded - Provides more Legion content by adding or expanding several Legion quests. Needs compatibility patches.

Karma and Reputation

Karma Changes - Changes the karma alignment of some NPCs, like making Caesar Very Evil instead of Neutral.

Lonesome Road True Faction Allegiance - The parameters for your allegiance has been altered to reflect on your quest status, rather than reputation. This is reflected in Ulysses’ dialogue and the courier duster.

Powder Ganger Rep Fix (Ghost Town Gunfight) - A quick and easy fix that removes the Goodsprings Powder Gangers from the PG Faction.

Negative Karma for Gravedigging - Gives the player bad karma every time they dig up a grave.

Quests

Autumn Leaves - A DLC-sized quest mod in a centuries-old library inhabited by sentient machines with a mystery to solve.

Boom to the Moon - A short but sweet quest investigating a moon base featuring some of the best interiors I’ve ever seen in a video game. Walkthrough required, though, and be sure to install the failsafes.

Snow Globe Quest - Adds quest markers to all the snow globes you find for Mr. House.

Benny

Benny Returns - Returns Benny to the game as a companion. Be sure to read through the mod description carefully before saving him from the Fort.

Bi Benny: The Re-Bennying - Edits Benny's Black Widow dialog to work with Confirmed Bachelor couriers, with altered working voiced + lip sync dialog. It’s a little rough but it works.

Save Benny Without Angering The Legion - This mod makes you able to save Benny at The Fort without angering the Legion or breaking their questline.

Less Serious Mods

Benny’s Aid - Funny Simpsons reference.

Mr. House Portrait Fix - Gives the portraits of Mr. House the Platinum Drip.

I Got Spurs - Adds a set of lucky spurs to Doc Mitchell's house that can be worn with any clothing. They can be found on top of the Vigor-Tester.

Legate Caravan Showdown - Allows you to duel Legate Lanius in a game of Caravan rather than combat.

NVCE Pale Face Fix

Literally copied from some forum, the usual .ini fix didn’t work for me but this one did:

Another .ini fix, but this time the file is FALLOUT.INI, found under "C:\Users<your Windows username>\Documents\My Games\FalloutNV". Open it up in your text editor of choice, and search for the line:

bLoadFaceGenHeadEGTFiles=0

and change the 0 to 1, so it looks like:

bLoadFaceGenHeadEGTFiles=1

In the page on the Nexus it actually says to change that value in both a Fallout.ini file AND a FalloutPrefs.ini file, both in the My Games\FalloutNV folder.

[myster-tea]

YES HES YASSIFIED AGAIN LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

GO AWAY ANGRY MAGIC LADY STOP BEIN HOMOPHOBIC-

OMG HER BESTIE

SISTER?????

IG SLAY AND OWN UP TO YOUR MISTAKES???

TBH I DONT CARE ABOUT YOU SISTERS I JUST CARE ABOUT THE GAY PRINCES-

(ALSO THAT SIREN WAS PRETTY I WOULD HAVE BEEN DROWNED BY HER-)

WHY IS EVERYONE’S VOICES SO P R E T T Y-

JOANNNNNNNNNNN YESSSSSSSSS SLAYYY

MHM SUREEEEEEE SURE YOU WERE ACTING-

porridgegorawr

I hate Percy sm

That cake would suck- my guy, you cant bake I already know-

Every time they say Malkia or whatever her name was all I hear is IKEA-

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH- MMMMM THEY ARE SO CUTE-

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS THEM THEY BOIS YES YES YES YES YES

At this point I may be able to memorize the credits-

MORE CHAOS???-

I wanna pet the dog- and the dragon

✨Musical✨

HE SOUNDED SO HAPPY WHEN HE SAID AMIR IS BACK-

I need to draw them-

Wait- DID HE MAKE PANCAKES???? AWWW-

I think something is going to happen-

“Tragedy, is for single people!! :D”

“Spoon is to death”

“We do have some very suspicious salad forks 😒”

SUUURE IT WAS A SMALL MISUNDERSTANDING-

Mm porridge will get some chopped fingers

A pan queen? Slay ig????

“It’s JOAN >:/“

Oop-

Joan be tellin the truth-

I mean you are awesome-

“I DID IT IN H E E L S >:)”

OOO JOAN BE PROTECTIVE-

%5 of the heart-land is homophobic >:T

ELDERLY GAY?????

I swear if it goes downhill again I’m going to go insane-

“Chamberlain >:0”

WOW OK MR. RUIN RELATIONSHIPS THATS RUDE-

He w i l l be in their way-

“I don’t want to brag because that’s what these thighs are for-“

IF HE WASN’T BEING SHITTY I WOULD LOVE HIM-

Him and double trouble would be bestie-

Yeah he’s mean-

He’s gonna betray u bestie-

Everything

Everything will go wrong

“Revenge of the Chad”

WHEN A KID SAYS YOU HAVE TO GO, YOU HAVE TO GO-

Amir shouldn’t have jinxed it

OMG INTRO DUDE IS FRUITY FOR DARLING???????????? 🤯

Bro u ain’t taking his fiancé-

Oh nooooooo the end of the world-

Not a good example of something “real”, kid-

Is this just that musical about hating musicals all over again?-

Sure you are-

NOT ANOTHER SONG-

“He’s not the only one 😒”

SURE YOU DO, PERCY-

Omg dad?????????

Wow a piece of shit dad-

She’s never going to go with a pig farmer bro she has STANDARDS-

“I’m a vegetarian!! >:(“

WAIT IS SHE ARO-ACE?????

No one would want to be your kid-

Wow mr. super spy over here

He found a map wow so cool

HES THE END OF THE WORLD???

HOW DARE YOU CALL AMIR A 6-

NO ONE IS SAYING THAT EXCEPT YOU, DARLING- DANG-

Is that charm or not-

He show da map

Yeah after HE LEFT-

Am I taking a break from this? Yes yes I am because I’m to stupid for all that information-

[whatdoesshedotothem]

Wednesday 4 November 1835

8 ½

1

A- at Cliff Hill - ready in 50 minutes - arranging and dusting my books till breakfast at 11 10 in ½ hour had James Howarth lengthening 2 or 3 more of my book shelves - a little while with my aunt in the drawing room - she was brought down there to breakfast and is much better today and was much better yesterday than she had been for sometime before - then a little while with my father and Marian borrowed £5 of the latter meaning to go to the Conery to settle about Luke Greenwood’s widow but Robert Mann came to me - talk about Spiggs Loose - 3 or 4 sovereigns wagered that I should now let it alone and not make another attempt to stop it - Holt for stopping up the Whimble holes - I said this required consideration - I did not feel inclined to give this order but I should say nothing to Holt - thought he had best not name it to me - well! then said Robert but if he gives the order we will follow it - very well said I, but you need not tell me - I am for beginning in my own ground - Robert and his 3 men had been at the cascade bridge this morning but were going to the tail goit this afternoon - I went with him to the cascade bridge and kept him and his men busy there puddling about the head of the drain, and finishing the drain and covering the head of it with 3 caping stone from the roadsize wall - staid with Robert till 5 20 except a few minutes in the farmyard Mawson’s 3 men walling there (no mason) and Frank filling up the bottom of the shed - called in at 5 10 to Mr Freeman and his son - the former brought his account of the Upper Place quarry opening - he now says Hainsworth will not lose by it - will neither lose nor gain - the quarry has turned very well in yielding a great deal of thin slate much called for this summer -

SH:7/ML/E/18/0124

no rubbish at present - but the rubbish he (Hainsworth) has had he has put on to the heap F- threw up instead of taking off and laying by the soil in the hole [anciently] quarried wheeling the rubbish there and then soiling it over - besides, he has made no breastwall [a wall built to sustain the face of a natural bank of earth] as was put in the conditions that he should do, up against Mrs Machan’s wall, so that sometime her wall may burst in, and I shall have damages to pay - the Balance of the account is in my favour = £26.1.7 ½ - I said he must have something for his trouble - he would leave that to me - would give me a check for the money now or at the rent day - I left it to be settled then - the expense of opening this quarry = £155.1.5 Receipts = £181.3. 0 ½  .:. clear gain £26.1.7 ½ out of the 181.3.0 ½ Mr Freeman debits himself £107.8.6 so that he himself was my principal customer - I thanked him for opening the quarry for me and for mentioning about the breastwall not being made, and for his hint about laying the rubbish - his son particularly named the breast wall,  saying Mrs Machan’s wall might fall in 2 or 3 years time when Hainsworth was no longer tenant and then somebody else would have to wall it up - this would fall to me - but from his manner I thought there was an idea that H- might not have the rest of the stone - on this I let slip not one word for or against - F- said there was not much stone to get more than the 300 yards now let - I think F- regrets having let H- take it and as H- has taken it he will stand the best chance for the rest -  Perhaps F- will not get another quarry of me in a hurry - he said he said he should be very happy to open another for me - I said I was very much obliged to him - I had come in in the dark and went straight to the fire and so avoided shaking hands and he did not particularly offer so I got off it also on parting  I have some thought of not going to the rent-day I can be away and leave Washington to settle with Mr F- Mr F- staid an hour till 6 10 - then I had Mark Town about Charles H- whether to employ somebody else to finish the job Charles so dilatory and whether to pay by job or day’s work - told Mark to do exactly as he liked best - said I should consider him to enter to the house on the 1st of this month - asked if he would give me a conservative vote or not - wanted him to ask Mr Akroyd but he did not seem to like to do this - so I said, I would not take a new tenant who would not give me a vote - I did not wish him to offend Mr A- I should consider whether to make him Mark a vote or not - if I did make him one, and he voted against me, I should take away his vote as immediately as possible - Mark staid till 6 50 - then copied the whole of my letter to Vere on a separate half sheet and at 7 40 sent off my letter written yesterday 3 pages and ends and under the seal and 2 or 3 lines reserved at the top of page 1 to ‘the Lady Vere Cameron Brafield house, near Olney Bucks’ - dinner at 7 40 in 25 minutes then coffee with my father and Marian and staid till 9 when note from Greenwood to say his Park farm cottage at liberty if I wanted it - rent 50/ a year - if I did not want it, he had a tenant ready for it - told his young man to tell G- I was much obliged and would send an answer tomorrow - then ¾ hour with my aunt (during which time skimmed over the newspaper) till 9 50 - then till 11 ¾ wrote all but the 1st eleven lines of yesterday and the whole of today - dampish morning till between 9 and 10 - afterwards fine day and evening - F45° now at 11 50 pm

[foryouthegays]

spreading propaganda [Dream SMP] liveblog yall lets go. this is so long i am sorry but the end is an actual summary of what happens asldkfa

sellout timer pog: 00:30:20, 01:00:40, 01:31:35, 02:02:03 (for like a second), 02:03:00, 02:34:35

time spent reading donations: 10 minutes, 20ish seconds. 

fanart credit he puts up (all from twitter i think): snumkt, reinneart, lihnsu, sestqr, jester_u, Brigade_Lost, natonyy

also taggin @antarctic-empire-technoblade​ :) theres an actual summary at the end that isnt just me ramblin so,,,,,,ye. i am so sorry its so long a;dkfja i dont know how to condense things 

00:00:35 “i stole a lot of sand recently,” ah yes, a casual conversation starter, the admission of theft 

00:03:55 hE HAS A VILLAGER TRADING HALL CHAPEL IN THE VILLAGE SIR THAT IS ILLEGAL 

00:04:13 

tubbo: -..--...--- 

ranboo: that means beans right

no, ranboo, not it does not (i put it into a translator and it just. it doesnt mean anything. i didnt see any spaces so im just. what was mr tubbo trying to say

00:04:35: relationship advice with technoblade! [reading donation] “‘techno, my boyfriend said he’ll never sub to you, how do i handle this travesty?’ uh, clearly you need to break up with him, and send me more money, is the most- that’s the most unbiased opinion I can give you, it’s just a good life decision, alright? It’s just a good life decision.”

00:16:00 ranboo hi!!!! him garden :D 

HOUND ARMY HOUND ARMY 00:18:10

00:20:15 ‘i have not made a tier list [for dinosaurs] yet’ Y E T? ? ? ?? ? 

00:20:55

“‘Hey, are you uncomfortable with being part of the SBI family dynamic?’ Uh, I don’t really- it’s not a matter of being uncomfortable, it’s just a matter of people making massive revisions to my character and the lore three months into the story without telling me, and it’s like, ‘no, that doesn’t- the story doesn’t- so many things don’t make sense now! What?? What???’ but if you want to make like, fanart of it, it’s fine”

00:21:25 imagine believing in airplanes, couldnt be me

00:21:35 SKLDJFAK a dono is like, hey can u call my new cousin a nerd, and technos like [claps] yOUVE COME TO THE RIGHT MAN im all about bullying infant children 

lakjshdfl 00:26:15 ‘philza this does not sound lore at all please’ poor techno

00:27:30 HKJSFDL :crab: TUBBO IS GONE :crab: also i cant tell if techno says ‘KILL HIM DEAD’ or ‘KILL HIM, DAD’ 

00:30:20 ‘we should have a grinch episode, where i go around stealing presents from l’manburg’ DO IT

also i was in chat at 00:31:25ish and i said ‘subscribe to technoblade’ and RIGHT AFTER techno said ‘did i hear subscribe to technoblade?’ and i felt so heard 

00:33:25 why is his only response to being seen in enemy lines to just stay realllyyyyy still a;lkdfjasf 

00:39:45 ‘this is crucial information coming to you live from anarchy news’ A;LSDKFJA;LSDF

00:46:25 :CRAB: RANBOO IS GONE :CRAB: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES 

alkdfja; 00:47:55 techno talks (sarcastically) abt how great it is when chat tells him where his stuff is

00:48:50 awww techno showin his not-dad his hound army!!! so cute 

00:55:30 techno specifies that theyre all characters/roleplayin!!!

techno talkin to phil is literally like a kid talkin to his dad after not seein him for a while. like yeah yeah family isnt canon in this but KSJDFLA hes like ‘phillll tommys being annoying also look at this new poster!!!!’ its so cute

01:09:20 A;SDJFADSL THE VILLAGER JUST. FALLS THROUGH THE FLOOR

techno nd phil reference smp earth at 01:19:50!!!!

(ik some people dont like enbyctechno so heres ur warnin, its just for this line tho) techno says ‘no one man should have this power’ but he HAS that power. therefore. mr c!blade is not a guy 01:35:00ish idk im not goin back to check

01:38:35 alright gang lets split up and look for clues 

01:45:20 ‘my chat’s sayin theres a 0% chance this is gonna work,,,,thATS A CHANCE I’M WILLING TO TAKE, CHAT’ skjdflasl;dfjaf (also, bit after, after readin the wiki say its 0% chance: ‘i like those odds’) 

01:48:15 [abt the zombie villager baby] 

Techno: on the bright side, we may have inflicted the optimal amount of trauma onto this child for it to become funny? 

Ranboo: ooooh yeah! it can become a minecraft youtuber!

techno: yeeeeeeah!!

pls get some therapy

a;ldkfassa the mental image of techno ownin an orphanage,,,,paldkfajslfasf 01:51:35

a;ldsifjasdklf ranboo is canonically a villager now, pog 01:56:50

01:57:50 ranboo: ‘they say that im built different, i am built different, in the fact that i have no moral backbone.’

01:58:30 BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD also why is techno so good at the bow like WHAT he looks in third person and turns nd shoots in like a second and hits most of the time its scary literally look at ranboo a;ldsjkfadsf hes like a porcupine 

ASKLJDFASLDF RANBOOS ‘OH NO HE KNOWS HOW TO OPEN DOORS’ AT 02:02:25 JUST HAS SUCH TECHNO SKYBLOCK VID VIBES ADLKJFALSDFJA OH MY GOSH

02:06:35 “i feel there has been an attempt on my life,” "no thats just how we greet each other in our country” nether lore pog?

02:08:45 why does techno casually type at 120 wpm?????  god i hate him so much why is he like thisssss ugh (also it took ~3 seconds to type 7 words (34 characters) which is 140 wpm and 680 cpm if i know how to do math i hate it here) /lh

nd then he types ‘punz we’re all outside your house get over here’ which is 47 characters nd 9 words nd it took him 5 seconds to type which is 564 cpm and 108 wpm so his average (from these two samples which. isnt a lot. should i do a post abt this in the future?) is 124 wpm and 622 cpm. hes so fast. 

SDA;FKJASDF PHIL WHY R U SO VIOLENT 

02:17:00 PUNZ POG ALSO MANIFOLD KILLED IN THE HOLY LAND

technos complainin bout the fights bein boring,,,,,,,fight them all, techno. do it. 1v8. do it, coward. 

02:24:02 ‘maybe the real combat was the friends we made along the way’ 

02:25:16 i love that technos first instinct when someone dies is to check what sword/axe killed them nd what enchants r on it aldskfjads

i love how techno calls the manhunt music ‘dream music’ its so funny to me

right before he ends the stream he says ‘p e r h a p s’ to techno plushies and i just,,,, wa n t 

if ya just want an actual summary and not that MESS:

Technoblade starts the stream in his house. the first thing he does is put another piece of fanart in his house, this one by snumkt on twitter. he goes to l’manburg, where he sneaks around very sneakily (/s) and replaces anti-techno propaganda with pro-techno fanart, stating that “If they take it down, it’s ‘cause they hate fanartists.” (00:09:18). 

While placing posters, Techno checks in on his hound army, and reveals that he thinks someone had been in the area, because a wolf teleported to him while he was home. He thinks someone placed water, the dog stood up, and then teleported. (00:18:25)

After breeding the dogs, Techno reads donations and one of the questions is about the SBI family dynamics. Here’s what he says at 00:20:55 

“‘Hey, are you uncomfortable with being part of the SBI family dynamic?’ Uh, I don’t really- it’s not a matter of being uncomfortable, it’s just a matter of people making massive revisions to my character and the lore three months into the story without telling me, and it’s like, ‘no, that doesn’t- the story doesn’t- so many things don’t make sense now! What?? What???’ but if you want to make like, fanart of it, it’s fine”

He then meets up with Philza, who is being escorted by Tubbo. Techno goes to Philzas house, and hides in his new basement. He joins their VC and finds Phil, Wilbur, Tommy, and Tubbo. talking about birthdays. Tubbo goes to the basement and sees Technos invis particles, hits him, and he is revealed. Techno kills tubbo, and declares it canon as a joke. 

He goes back outside, deafened on Discord, and puts down more propaganda. Philza joins his call, and they meet up to try and find Technos stolen items. They don’t find the barrel, but they do find a hidden room under the podium. Techno puts a piece of propaganda in the room. (00:43:30)

While Phil is killing an enderman, Ranboo finds them, and is killed by Techno. (00:46:25) 

Techno takes Phil to see his Hound Army, but they’re stopped by Tubbo. Techno tries to pretend to be Ranboo, but Ranboo goes up to them, so his cover is blown. Techno’s chased to the portal. Phil and Techno meet again in the Nether, and they go back to the house. 

At the house, Phil and Techno talk about the SBI characters, the sellout timer goes off, and then they go downstairs to cure a zombie villager. While it’s curing, Techno gathers books to make a new bow, with Power V, Punch II, Unbreaking III, Flame, and Mending. 

Philza reveals that Ranboo is coming over to give Phil a present. Techno seems excited at this, mostly at the fact that Ranboo can be his new bows test subject. 

Before Ranboo arrives, the villager is cured, and they find out it is a nitwit, meaning it can’t trade or get a job. Techno and Phil start working on a tunnel to bring the villager to a lava pool, so the other villagers won’t gossip and raise their prices. 

Ranboo joins the call at 01:15:35, right before they’re going to bring the villager to the lava pool. He gifts Techno and Phil four Netherite ingots.

After struggling to get the villager to the right height, Techno forces Ranboo to boat the villager into the lava. Ranboo escapes by throwing a pearl, and the villager dies.

Ranboo, Techno, and Phil talk about duping Netherite, and the current plot, and then Techno finds a zombie baby villager. It’s caught in a boat, and Techno nametags it ‘Orphan.’ They talk about the cobblestone tower, Philzas’ death to a baby zombie, and how if you don’t see a child's parents, you should assume that they are an orphan and attack them. 

Techno talks to Jack Manifold through chat about his axe. Techno, Philza, and Ranboo go around and look for zombie villagers. Techno finds an igloo, with two villagers. Techno was going to try and turn them into zombie villagers, but decides to not when he finds out that theres a 0% chance of that happening on Easy mode. 

They all go back to Orphan, and bully it when they find out it still hasn’t grown up. Techno and Ranboo make a joke about how it’s traumatized, so it’ll be funny and can be come a minecraft youtuber. please get some help. (01:48:15)

After Orphan grows up, Techno trades and gets the Bottle of Enchanting trade for one emerald. They all joke about Techno owning an orphanage at 01:51:35.

Phil, Techno, and Ranboo decide go to the Hound Army, but Techno remembers that Ranboo is part of L’manburg, and tries to kill him (with his new bow) when they enter the nether. He doesn’t succeed, and he continues fighting until he drinks and invis pot on the Prime Path. Techno and Phil meet up in the Bee Dome, where Ranboo finds them. Techno tries to kill him, but runs out of arrows. 

After reading donations, Techno, Ranboo, and Phil are back together at the Bee Dome, and they decide to team up in case someone finds them. They go outside of the Dome, and chase Jack Manifold out of his own country.

Manifold joins the VC, and they try to blame Punz on his attempted murder. After Manifold says “i feel there has been an attempt on my life,” Techno says that that’s how he greets people in his country.

Manifold asks if they want to help him get revenge on Punz, and Techno agrees. They gather more people, and by the time they get to Punz’s tower, their party is Manifold, Techno, Phil, Ranboo, Fundy, and Antfrost. Punz is in the Nether, so they wait until he gets back. 

Ranboo and Techno have a whisper conversation:

Ranboo: are you just going to jump fundy

Techno: no im gonna make jack 1v1 LMAO

Ranboo: good plan

While Fundy is taking a screenshot of Techno for his thumbnail, Philza attacks Fundy with a crossbow and his sword. He claims it was because he was getting bored. 

In the same spirit, Techno asks if they could kill Manifold to pass the time. The mob, which now includes Fundy, chases Manifold. He runs to the Holy Land, and the mob boos him.  Techno tells Antfrost to kill Manifold, and that the mob won’t tell that he was killed in the Holy Land. Manifold hands Antfrost his sword. 

While Antfrost debates killing Manifold or not, the mob chants ‘peer pressure!’ at him. Techno quickly realizes that Antfrost isn’t in the VC, and is extremely confused. The sword gets handed to Fundy, who gets into a battle with Manifold. Philza tells Fundy that he’s forgiven, if he can kill Manifold. The battle calms, and neither of the contestants die.

Techno convinces the mob to go to the pit trap, and tries to lure someone onto the trapped blocks using rotten flesh. Fundy takes the bait, but moves out of the way before the button is pressed. Antfrost sneaks up behind him and punches him into the pit. Fundy survives the fall, but is shot by Manifold to death. 

During the commotion, Punz makes his way back to his house, and the mob moves towards him to end his life. Manifold says that he’s going to kill Punz, and Techno says that the mob’ll have his back. He tells the mob to not have Manifold’s back. 

at 02:17:00, Punz joins the call, and is confused as to why Manifold wants to kill him. Manifold explains that Punz tried to kill him, siting his source as Technoblade. 

also, 2:17:15 technoswear!

Techno encourages Punz, saying “Punz, he actually dropped his sword by accident and now I have it, so it’d be really easy to beat him up,” and “he also just killed in the holy land, so you have a sort of...religious motivation to take him out.”

Punz tries to fight Manifold without armor (Manifold is wearing a full enchanted set of armor, with a Netherite chestplate and everything else Diamond), which fails miserably, and Manifold is killed. 

Techno decides to fight Manifold with his goons (the mob) for the audience retention, and Manifold’s quickly killed. The final hit was from CaptainPuffy. Ponk rushes in and grabs some of Manifold’s items. Puffy takes the rest.

Manifold complains about getting bullied, so Techno gives him his sword back and tells him to avenge himself. While looking for Ponk (or Punz? this is kinda unclear), Punz swoops in and kills Manifold in two hits. 

Manifold finds Ponk and chases after him, trying to kill him. The mob follows, and Ranboo kills Ponk with thorns. Manifold takes Ponks stuff. 

Right after respawning, Ponk was blown up by a creeper, and Techno claimed both as canon. 

The mini fights continue, and Manifold is killed by Punz. 

Ranboo changes the ‘Days since last war crime’ sign to 0.

Phil tells Techno that he’s going back to the base, and the L’manburgians question him as to what base he’s talking about. Phil tells Fundy that he ripped off his ankle shackles and left. While they talk, Techno starts running back to the base, and Ranboo whispers “lets run back” to him. Ranboo follows Techno, but quickly looses him.

Phil and Techno join a separate VC together and they go back to the base. 

At 02:29:15, Phil says “I trust you” to Techno and I am going to cry. 

Right before getting to the base, Phil drinks some honey, and Techno says “that’s the only thing we have honey for, now that we’ve uh...uh I guess you don’t know about that.” He’s referring to the Vault, I think, because the redstone required honey to work properly. 

Philza responds, “the honey- wait, what did you use the honey for?” 

“uhhh....food.” Techno, for some reason, doesn’t want to show Phil the vault. 

Ranboo whispers to Techno: “My alliance isnt with lmanburg, its with the people who help me. phil helped me.”

out loud, Techno laughs about it with phil, saying, “well, I’ve stabbed him like twelve times this week, so, I [laughs] I don’t know if that entirely qualifies here.”

Techno messages Ranboo back with “new phone who this” 

Ranboo replies, “no one,” and then, “:)”

Going back to the honey talk, Philza asked if Techno had been hiding anything diabolical from him, and Techno asks if he would do such a thing. Philza guesses several things he could use honey for, such as a flying machine, TNT dupers, and a door.

Techno takes him to the vault. 02:32:00. i LOVE peoples reactions to the vault, it’s always so good. Philza responds with a surprised ‘HOLY SHIT’ and some laughing. Techno also confirms my math of 55 withers. 

02:34:10 “i’ve seen this government, on the server, and everything to do with government is just bad. I’ve watched it completely destroy and tear down people’s wills and change people, I’ve seen it change the nicest people into complete and utter tyrants, so...I think it’s about time--”

“We need revenge. [sellout timer goes off] and more importantly, we neED SUBSCRIBERS ON YOUTUBE DOT COM” phil joinin anarchy pog? 

anyway that was it ;alskdfjas;f

[yunho-es]

Member/s: Wooyoung (ATEEZ)

Genre: soft

Warnings: swear words

Words: 2043

Before reading, I want you to know that I don't use any names or Y/n's because I know many people don't really insert their names, they read it as Yin 😂 I also write in first person pov because I think it's easier to read and imagine yourself in that situation

Beads of sweat slowly rolled down my forehead as I pulled out a piece of paper from my sleeve. I knew that the exam would be hard, but I wasn't expecting it to be this detailed. Thank God my friend made me write it all on a small piece of paper. At least I will get a positive grade. Of course he made me do it, he passed the school with those. Thankfully, he didn't go to medicine school. If I ever ended up on his surgery table, I would die.

Three more minutes until the end and one more question unanswered. The teacher noticed me shifting in my seat, but she knew I always get good grades. She finally stopped looking at me and gave her attention to a group of boys trying to switch their papers. I glanced one more time at the piece of paper and put it back in my sleeve. Just as I finished the answer, the bell rang. Half of the class groaned, probably because they didn't manage to finish in time. I took my backpack and left the paper with my name on the main table.

"Good job! Honestly, your exams are always my favorite to grade. I'm really happy to have a student like you."

"Thank you, Mrs Johnson. See you on Monday."

Once I got outside I noticed the sky already getting dark. It was just 5 pm and winter was already doing it's job; the roads were wet and slippery from mixed rain and snow and it must've been under 0 Celsius. Usually I walk home because it's not far away, but my school uniform, rain and cold weather didn't go well together. I was just about to call my roommate when I felt car lights on me, followed by a familiar voice.

"I think quicker than you do." Wooyoung smiled as he opened the door. "Get in please I don't want to spend the next week taking care of an annoyingly picky roommate. I have plans to get drunk and do something stupid."

"You do stupid things anyway without drinking. So save the money and the time. And oh, save me from embarrassment." I get in the car sticking my tongue out at him. "Did you cook anything? I'm starving."

"No, of course. I slept the whole day." I look at him, hoping to see a smile on his face that would give me a sign that he's joking. "Don't look at me like that, I was tired from the night shift. I'll take you to McDonald's." he drove out of the school parking.

"I don't want trash, Wooyoung. I want food." I groaned. He told me that he would try cooking something, but it's been a week and he didn't do anything. "Please buy some pasta and tomato sauce I'll make something."

"Honestly, I really don't feel like waiting. And McDonald's is f**king awesome!" his hand reached out to turn on the radio. "How can you not love the little purple box full of 12 golden beauties?"

It did sound good, but we haven't eaten any "real" food for a month and my stomach started to ache. Living with Wooyoung has its bad and good sides, the bad sides mainly being his laziness and stubbornness. Speaking of stubbornness, of course he took the left turn towards McDonald's.

"What do you want?"

"What a polite way to ask me. You've loosened up I see." I frown at him. He rolls his eyes dramatically and turns towards me with his whole body.

"Your Highness, what do you wish to consume today?"

"That's just too much."

"What the h*ll do you want? I'm taking 3 burgers and fries and you aren't touching them." the brown haired boy points his finger towards my face. I squint my eyes at him, then bite his finger. "Crazy woman."

"Hello, may I take your order?"

"Hello, yes. I'd like a..."

***

"Is this place good enough for the Queen?" Wooyoung spoke with his mouth full of fries and ketchup. We sat on the roof of his car on a parking lot near a river. The place is good enough for the Queen.

"Eat before you speak, what's wrong with you?" I laugh at him, seeing that he spilled the ketchup on his t-shirt. "No girl will want you like this."

"To be honest I'm not interested right now." he replied immediately.

I'd lie if I said that my heart didn't sink a bit. Whoever said that boys and girls can't be friends was right. One side always catches feelings, big or small. In my case, I believe it's a small crush. He's the only boy I hang out with, so that must be why.

"Why?" I allow myself to ask.

"I had a little crush on a girl but I had to give it up." he kept stuffing his mouth with food, trying to avoid the conversation.

"And...?" I look at him expecting more. But he keeps his mouth shut and folds the paper of the burgers in his hands.

"Are you thirsty?" Wooyoung offers a can of soda, still looking at his fingers.

"Yes, thank you." he opens the can for me, first taking a sip himself, then giving the green beverage to me. I drink the whole can almost immediately.

"You could've said earlier that you were thirsty, I had water in the car." his tone visibly changed. He sounded more serious now, as if he just wanted to go home and lock himself in the room. "Want another one?" he reaches for another can.

"I think I have one more sip here." I throw my head back trying to drink every single drop of the refreshing juice. I slowly started to lean back, forgetting that I'm not in the chair but on the roof of the car. "Sh*t!" I curse as I almost fall on the rocky floor.

"Hey!" Wooyoung quickly reacts and grabs my hands, pulling me towards him. All the empty cans rolled down on the floor, making loud noises. "You good?" he asks, eyes on my face.

His hands felt so warm around mine. I really didn't want to let go. "I'm good." I pull away, trying to get down to collect the cans.

"Leave the d*mn cans there. You almost fell down. Do you see those rocks down there? What if you hit your head? What would I do?"

"I'd pay to get your car cleaned from my blood, Wooyoung." I laugh, but when I notice that his face didn't change, my smile drops. "What's wrong? Why isn't it funny when I say something like this?"

"Behind all these jokes you have to understand that you are very important to me and I have a soft spot for you. If anything happened to you my life would stop. I'm a serious man behind all my sarcastic jokes. Please watch yourself, because I can't do it all the time. It takes a second to turn a peaceful situation into a disaster."

I stare at him with my mouth a little open. I'm surprised at his words, I never heard him talk like this. I manage to say a sorry, turning my head away from him.

After a few seconds of silence, which seemed like hours, he got down and picked up all the cans, then offered me his hand. "Be careful." I put my hand in his, slowly getting down on the floor. "What dumbass even puts these rocks on the parking lot?" he picks up a few of them and pushes them away, leaving the bigger and heavier ones where they were.

"I think because they don't want someone else to have the spot." I watch as he tries to move a few more rocks. "Leave it, you're gonna hurt yourself. Let's just go back home, please?"

"Alright." he leaves the rocks and opens the door for me. Then he proceeds to enter the car himself. "But just for the record, I could've moved those rocks." his lips curved in a small smile. He can't help himself.

***

It suddenly became quiet in the house. Wooyoung layed on the sofa, watching the TV, and I sat on the floor behind the coffee table with my back leaning on the sofa.

"I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't take any photos." I pouted, scrolling down my Instagram feed. He didn't respond. I kept quiet for a few more minutes, then broke the silence again. "Do you think you could pick me up tomorrow from school again?" again, no answer.

I turn around towards him and see that his eyes are closed. He fell asleep while watching the TV. I took a blanket from my room and layed next to him under it. It's not my first time napping with him, but most of the time he refuses. He says that he is a kicker in his sleep and that he doesn't want to hurt me.

The sofa in our living room is quite small so I have to basically lay on Wooyoung. Just as I close my eyes, I feel his hand around my waist, bringing me even closer to him. Now my head was on his chest and I was surrounded by his scent and warmth. This must be what heaven feels like. Usually when we sleep like this together, it takes us a few hours to fall asleep. Mainly because he can't stop making jokes and I can't stop laughing. But this is different. It's calm. It's beautiful.

I couldn't tell if he was asleep or just pretending. He held me close and rubbed my back slowly. "Wooyoung?" I tried calling.

"Hm?" he responds sleepily.

"Are you okay?" I look up at him. His eye are still closed, but his fingers are still drawing tiny patterns on my waist and back.

"Mhm." again, I receive a short answer. When I try to move and give him some space so he can sleep peacefully, he opens his eyes to look at me. "Please don't move. I want to sleep like this." one of his hands moved my hair from both of our faces. "Please?" he asked, almost whispering.

I have never witnessed this side of Wooyoung. His voice was different, his movements were different, his eyes were different. This is the Wooyoung I wanted for myself, but couldn't have him. It took me a few longer seconds to realise that we are staring at each other, doing nothing but breathing quietly. Once his hot breath fell on my lips I couldn't help but close my eyes and sigh. Right now, I hoped for one thing to happen.

"Why can't I have you like this every day?" his soft voice whispered. I try to speak, but as soon as I move my lips, I feel something soft brushing against them. My breath stops and I force myself to open my eyes. He's looking down at my lips as if thinking if the next step is smart to do. I allow myself a moment of bravery and I put my hands on his chest, getting closer to him. "F**k it." he mutters, finally putting his hands on my cheeks and pressing his lips against mine.

His lips must've been the softest thing to exist on this planet. I tried to move, but my body was frozen. I couldn't do anything, just lay and enjoy the softness and the warmth of his lips. He pulled away for a second, trying to say something, but when he didn't succeed, he went back to the older position. Then, again, he pulls away.

"You are so sweet. You taste like I always imagined." the red cheeked boy whispers, brushing the tip of his nose against mine.

"More, please." I manage to say. My lips and throat are dry, my mind is going crazy, and my stomach is witnessing fireworks. Wooyoung smiles, still not letting go of my cheeks. "Please." I get impatient.

He leans in again, this time kissing me with more passion. It stopped being sweet and soft, now only one word existed in my mind: more. And he happily listened.

[nanoland]

new chapter (supernatural fic)

(Also on AO3.) 

Clean Hands, part 4 

Crowley/Dean Winchester/Castiel 

Warning: Demon deals, violence, mention of abuse and torture. Also: Crowley is an abuse + addiction survivor and also a cold-hearted arsehole with very little respect or empathy for abuse + addiction survivors, and this story is written from his POV. 

0 

What was there to be done when you were enamoured of a man who hit you?

Leave him! the whole world cried back in one voice.

Which was a bit like telling someone trapped in a burning car to get out of the car. Yes. Quite. Thank you. Fully agree. But what if, for a moment, you assumed I wasn’t as stupid as a fucking dog?

That, incidentally, was one of a handful of ways the world had worsened since Crowley last drew breath.

Back in the fourteenth century, the women in the marketplace had noted his black eye and torn dress with immediate understanding. Instead of insisting he pack his bags and walk out of the house belonging to his wealthy shoemaker husband, the father of his child, the man on whom his safety and good reputation and continued ability to eat depended, the man he, for some fucking reason, still loved, they’d actually tried to help.

Sybil had given him willow bark for the pain. Rose had engaged him in long, rambling conversations, stretching the minutes until he had to return home. Jane had walked across the village and rapped on his door every evening she could, always armed with solid excuses, just when the bastard was well and truly in his cups and looking for something to damage.

If ever analytical minds were to try to account for Crowley’s misanthropy and sadism, they couldn’t honestly conclude that either was due to his never experiencing true, heartfelt human kindness.

Yes, Sybil and Rose and Jane had all thought he was a woman and addressed him accordingly, and it had hurt. But that wasn’t their fault. He’d not had the courage to tell them otherwise.

Crowley didn’t regret much. Regret, in this game, was a slow-killing poison.

Still, he did occasionally wonder how things might have turned out if he’d accepted Jane’s invitation and fled with her to London that one warm night, rather than hanging in for years until he finally snapped and beat his husband’s skull into tooth-sized pieces with an iron kettle.

Returning to the present:

As Crowley watched Dean’s fist barrel towards his face, and not for the first time, he reviewed the pros and cons of incinerating him with hellfire.

When fist and nose were one millionth of an inch apart, he teleported across the room.

“Squirrel,” he sighed, “this has nothing to do with you.”

Dean charged and took another swing at him. “Fuck you! He worked so hard! Clean for four years, you piece of shit!”

This time, Crowley reappeared sitting on top of the dead man’s wardrobe, where Dean couldn’t reach him. “Good for him. His family and friends won’t remember him as the thieving, lying wretch he was ten years ago when he sold his soul for a pound of meth. They’ll probably give him a nice funeral.”

“Why couldn’t you make an exception? Just once?”

“That’s not how this works, Dean! It wasn’t even my deal! The contract is in the hands of a relatively inexperienced subordinate and honestly, I’m glad that she pulled it off. She’s got potential. This is her first real win. It’ll increase her standing in Hell and make her more powerful, which will be useful because some older demons have taken to bullying h-…”

“I don’t give a damn about your minions,” he snarled, picking up a lamp sprinkled with blood and throwing it at him. Crowley ducked. “Every last one of you can take an angel blade to the face, for all I care. You’re fucking parasites.”

Evenly, Crowley replied, “Yes. We are. You know that. You’ve always known that. Why are you having a fit about it now? Good people get dragged to Hell all the time.”

Dean stared down at what remained of Martin Booke, now that the hellhounds had left. “He worked so hard. Christ. You could have made an exception. He came to us and I swore I’d help him out.”

“Well, you shouldn’t have cocking well done that, should you?” Crowley cried, throwing up his hands.

Eyes wet, Dean sneered at him. “Parasite. Get out of my sight before I wring your evil neck.”

Crowley left.

Upon arriving back in Hell, he went to the Admissions Department.

The soul of Martin Booke was sitting in one of the cheap blue plastic chairs, knees drawn up to his chest. Probably still reeling from the trauma of the hounds ripping his throat out, though no damage was evident on his form now.

“Mr Booke,” Crowley said, sauntering up with his hands in his pockets. “Could you come with me, please?”

A door appeared in the nearest wall and swung open silently.

Once they were both standing inside Crowley’s office, it swung shut and dissolved into nothingness.

Moving to his liquor cabinet, Crowley said, “I hear you’re a Harvard man.”

“Um… y-yeah. Yes. I was.” Thin voice. Midwestern accent.

“Promising career ahead of you before things – ah – went awry.”

Booke swallowed. “Tom. First boyfriend. Got me into meth. Got me into a lot of stuff. I figured it was okay because we were gonna be together forever and as long as I had him, I’d be fine. Then he went and died and I had to pick up the pieces on my own.”

Smiling thinly, Crowley said, “Isn’t romance grand? As it happens, you may still get your happily ever after. Thomas Abbott is currently waiting in the eternal queue – which, ordinarily, is where you’d be headed.”

“Yeah. Dean told me. Although… um…”

“You have a question? Spit it out. Cowards bore me.”

“Dean said that when you sell your soul, you go to Hell and demons torture you until you become a demon. But he also told me about the queue thing. So that’s confusing. I mean, queuing sucks but it’s not torture.”

Crowley poured himself a glass of bourbon and sat down behind his desk. “Clever boy. Yes; when I became King of Hell, I restructured things. Most of you end up in the queue. The hot knives and whips are a speciality service and, as such, are reserved for our elite clientele. The pedos and Nazis and so forth – and, of course, anyone who pisses me off too much. As for the process of becoming a demon; that doesn’t actually require torture. I know! Surprised me too! We always thought it did, back when Lilith was in charge. Then I started running some tests and it turns out that becoming a demon is a bit like catching a virus; it’ll happen to anyone who hangs around other demons long enough. Everyone in the queue will have black eyes by the end of their first century.”

Booke took off his glasses and nervously rubbed them on his sleeve. “You said that ‘ordinarily’ I’d go to the queue. So am I an – uh – ‘elite client’?”

“Hah! No. Your little life was staggeringly boring and barely impacted anyone in ways either negative or positive. No, the reason you’re here is Harvard. See, I had a snoop and it seems that before you dropped out, you were getting bloody good grades.”

A wistful smile. “I guess. Had big dreams, once.”

Sipping his bourbon, Crowley said, “On track for a Master’s in aeronautical engineering, I believe.”

“Yep. I wanted to work for NASA.”

“Cards on the table, Booke: I might have a job for you. There is, at present, space in one or two of our departments for a man with your talents. But first I need to ask a question.”

He cocked his head. “Um. Sure? Anything’s better than what I was expecting. Shoot.”

“Do you know how to crash a spaceship?”

[evolsinner]

⊱┊7

with the moment past {definitely not mentally}, i make my way to the lounge.

“hey, rosé?”

i see him seated on a 3 seat sofa.

a, i hope he didn’t see the way i shaved my hair down there into a love heart... b, he def saw my boobies!!

“y~yes, mr killian?”

“you hungry or something? i can order you some pizza.”

hell, i’m famished, can’t remember the last time i ate.

“no, aha…”

“you sure?”

“actually, yeah, i am, a little... sorry if that’s an inconvenience.”

“no, not at all! don’t be silly. i’m starving.”

i restrict a smile.

“here,” he shifts to the side, patting the middle seat, “make yourself comfortable. i’ll order some now.”

i place his hoody on the armrest and sit on the other end instead; don’t have it in me to sit right next to him. we would be like idk touching and whatnot. amongst the remote and his wallet, he grabs his phone from the middle seat, dialling a number.

“pineapple on pizza?” he faces me, holding the phone to his ear.

i fucking love pineapple on pizza.

“100%,” i reply confidently.

he grins.

i have just found my soulmate.

i admire how laid back he looks: his white untucked dress shirt, sleeves rolled up to reveal thick veins and a dark tan, tie tossed on the table. is this how every male teacher looks after work?

‘cause, yummy!

“takeaway. one large vegetarian and one large hawaiian...with extra pineapple, please,” sir glances at me adorably. “cheers, sweetheart,” he hangs up after giving his number and address for the order. “should be here in 40 mins,” he informs me, “catch,” and tosses the remote at me. “pick a movie. make it a good one. i’m gonna go freshen up quickly.”

can i come?

-ˋˏ ༻🍷༺ ˎˊ-

i struggle to find a goddamn movie!

sir’s phone vibrates and i look across at it. why does that thing be buzzing and ringing all the time? i mean... hmm… i lean all the way back, peeping down the hallway. i listen to see if the shower is still on.

🚿pshhshhshhshhshhshh

oh good, it’s still on. i sneakily pick up his orange google pixel 4 xl mobile phone. okay, let’s see, what’s his passcode? says his pin contains at least four digits. hmm...

1 2 3 4

incorrect pin entered

4 3 2 1

incorrect pin entered

6 9 6 9

incorrect pin entered

his birth year, maybe?

1 9 8 1

incorrect pin entered

it’s definitely mine, then.

2 0 0 0

try again in 30 seconds

fuck, what is it?!

now i’m adamant.

a while later, i listen for the shower again. no sound. fuck me! i also haven’t even picked a movie yet! i grasp the remote and quickly flip through the movies. in ‘newly added’ a film that goes by the name ‘barefoot’ {2014} appears. this’ll do. i haphazardly click on it, put his phone back in the middle seat and swiftly bring my knees up on the sofa.

bathroom door opens and mr killian returns, setting himself down.

and ohhhh boy, oh jesus h. christ, he is wearing grey sweatpants. grey. sweatpants. oh my goddddddd!!!!

🎵dun da daaaaa! dunda dunda da dun dadada oo oo oooooo dun da da

i cringe, really should have skipped the first 10 mins or something.

sir looks at me with an amused expression, “just started?”

i nod, embarrassed.

then he cracks up a little, “how long did it take for you to pick a film?”

“i paused it, was waiting for you.”

“yeah?”

“yeah.”

“alrighty then,” he slumps down, letting me get away with the white lie. “this better be good or else you’re held accountable.”

the professional teacher’s vibe is disappearing and transforming into a perky one.

he’s wearing a loose t~shirt with long sleeves and it’s even rolled up. his hair is damp and floppy, making him so much more attractive. he runs his hands through it, flipping it back as the stray droplets of water roll down his neck. i would gladly lick them off for him if he doesn’t mind...

“why’s my phone locked for 60 minutes?”

“huh?” i snap out of my daydream.

“my phone, why’s it locked?”

*ding dong.*

“maybe...you put the wrong password in?”

“pretty sure i didn’t, and you’re the only other person in this house, no?”

*ding dong!*

“aha..ha,” i giggle nervously.

“does it look like i’m laughing?” he asks me condescendingly.

my smile disappears.

*ding dong! ding dong! ding dong! ding dong!*

“ight, i’m coming!!” sir shouts, grabbing his wallet. “..jesus christ, break my damn doorbell, will you..” he mutters under his breath angrily.

bit hot...

-ˋˏ ༻🍷༺ ˎˊ-

i only ate 2 slices of pizza so i wouldn’t look like a fat bitch in front of sir. he, however, didn’t even eat any. so much for being ‘starving’. he was just casually watching me eat. i could feel his eyes on me each time i took a bite and the odd olive or pineapple went rolling down into my lap. it was so awkward!

we’re halfway through the movie and i felt the need to say something because jay, the character, was such a jerk.

“i mean, it’s actually rather heartbreaking. daisy was locked away for most of, if not, her whole life. and now she is finally free, finally able to experience the pleasures of the real world. she put all of her trust in him and he abandoned her. that’s so not cool.”

as i’m analysing the film, i feel his eyes analysing me.

“well, you can’t blame him,” sir counterattacks. “jay had his own life, his own problems to deal with. she was just another added problem to that.”

“then he should’ve led her back to the hospital again instead of taking her on this joyride purely for his own greed.”

“remember, she chose to take part.”

“he was being selfish.”

“he was lending her a hand.”

“which is what ultimately made her fall in love with him in the first place,” i state like a full stop.

sir’s whole face just speaks wow. “so why didn’t you do my analysis homework then, huh?”

“because it’s boring,” i look him boldly in the eyes, his slicked back hair has me feelin’ oozy and woozy.

“oh, it’s boring?” he emphasises, raising his eyebrows. “is that so?”

“yup,” i purse my lips.

“what was it again?” he grabs my arm, pulling me into his lap. “‘boring’, did you say?”

i’m trying to escape and he’s trying to hold me still. gradually, our laughter dies out and we become aware, so much more aware.

“got some on your mouth,” he says in the heat of the moment, running his thumb over my bottom lip.

there was definitely no pizza sauce or whatever on my mouth, but i play my part. somehow, his thumb finds its way inside my mouth and i instinctively wrap my tongue around it. his green eyes glimmer like shiny marbles as he watches me

suck

on his

thumb.

i feel pressure underneath me, something building up in stiffness. i shift his hand away, glancing down and then back up again. his marble eyes, they just look at me. look through me.

no way in hell did i imagine this moment to actually happen. i mean, most of us girls had these insane crushes on teachers, but never did i think it’d unravel like this.

he firmly places his hand on my lower backside and pushes me closer to himself. “what, you scared now?” he whispers, dominance combined with confidence, topped off with lust.

i gulp, trying to sound brave, “and why would i be scared?”

“you should be,” he replies.

i am lost for words. this kind of intimidation is seductive. all i wanna do is kiss him! though i won’t make the same mistake of glancing at his lips twice.

he speaks in a soft tone, “has anyone ever told you how captivating your~”

“my eyes are?” i finish his cliché line off for him.

“...your lips,” he corrects, casting his gaze down at them.

i bite my bottom lip, flustered for acting like a smartass.

“you know, on some occasions, i’ve noticed that you bite your lip when you’re nervous. it’s cute,” he grins, “i like it more than i should,” and waits patiently for me to fall into his devilish trap.

believe me when i say i’m trying goddamn hard to not sink my teeth into my flesh! which is why i replace it with a mere innocent gulp.

“but on most occasions, you gulp,” he says as i’m gulping.

he removes the hair from my neck.

i get hella anxious, hella aroused so i..

“nuh~uh,” he shakes his head and pulls my bottom lip down with the pad of his thumb. “‘nough biting from you, sweetheart. those are mine to bite now.”

am i dreaming right now?

i try to reposition myself by moving a little back so that i’m not directly on him. as i do this, his erection rubs further into me and i slightly moan kinda too evidently. my eyes open super wide and i instantly shut my mouth. it surprises me that it doesn’t faze him one bit.

“your t~t~thing is p~poking me..” i gesture with my eyes to his manhood.

his orbs shine like someone has stabbed an apocalyptic emerald sunset multiple times. it’s glorifying. magical. the stuff dreams are made from. and instead, he pushes me further down onto his sculpture. he leans his head in, his mouth millimetres away from mine.

“and do you like it?” he questions seriously.

our noses touch, our lips brush...

“answer the question.”

“yes,” i squeak. “i like it.”

i try to remain as calm as possible, but it’s impossible due to the nerves causing havoc inside me, particularly the nerves between my thighs. i don’t know what to focus on. that mouth? his eyes? or down below...

“may i let something be known, luv?” sir requests politely.

i nod.

“i can see your tits...through that shirt...” he whispers sexily.

my breath hitches up.

kiss me! why won’t he kiss me? just fucking kiss me! shit, it’s impossible not to look. i give in and look at his lips. the corners curve slightly into a wayward grin. i see... he wants me to initiate it.

welp, sorry, no can do, mister.

he literally places my bottom lip between his teeth and lightly tugs at it, his breaths hitting my mouth like rose petals. this act is enormously enticing, but i know he’s teasing me.

my turn.

i purposely grind in his lap and he suppresses a hoarse groan. then he scoffs. very conceited. he’s so gonna lose. i keep my lips impossibly close to his for when he forfeits which should be right about...now.

he shakes his head smugly.

i frown, pouting.

he half~smiles adorably.

fine, i have a better idea. one he doesn’t see cumming coming.

i lift away the waistband of my borrowed sweatpants and grip his hand. his body automatically tenses up. i can feel him getting harder from just the thoughts i’m giving him. i bring his hand closer to me. he’s losing and it’s hella entertaining to watch.

unexpectedly, a phone goes off and i jump in fright. i rapidly get off him and he returns to his usual, rigid ways. he aggressively clears his throat before answering that stupid device.

whilst pacing up and down and holding his forehead, he stares at me intently like i’m that fucking maths problem again!

[unironicduncanstan]

the “Tangodeltaindia” blog explained,

aka my brain has cringe spots on it and needs to be inspected by the FDA

hi my names randi/uni and i created a total drama island themed ARG two months ago on a whim that almost no one interacted with bc i started off way too niche and difficult, so i kinda just went increasingly off the rails because i knew most likely no one was monitoring my posts and i could just make a real cursed hidden tomb that could one day be discovered by someone in a goonies esque unveiling. but then i got lice and now im sad and uncomfortable so i’m just gonna explain the entire damn thing in one shot. its absolutely batshit and theres a reason no one uncovered it ok here we go;;;

first of all the name. its so stupid but. ‘tango delta india’ = ‘tdi’ in the NATO phonetic alphabet. it just felt like a funny place to start that implies its gonna be a puzzle blog idk,

moving on to the actual content tho; some of the earlier posts mean p much nothing and were just an attempt to draw people in, such as the mr coconut ‘like if you agree’ or the ‘let him inside hes cold’ posts. 

then theres the cipher (x). it was posted shortly after the height of the ‘using total drama reference pictures to make an alphabet’ meme. in case anybody didnt see that; for a while it was a joke in the fandom to take the transparent references of total drama characters, and line them up, using them like hieroglyphics to make translatable pictures. its supposed to correspond to the alphabet, based on the first letter of their first name. an example could be, alejandro = a, bridgette = b, and so on. there was no solidly set alphabet amongst the fandom though, it was self explanatory most of the time so i made my own solid personal cipher key for that blog to make the whole thing easier.

NOW ONTO THE FIRST PUZZLE POST,,,, (x). theres a scene, a string of text, the cipher key, and a link to a decoder. the way to decode it all is to plug the characters on screen into the tangodeltaindia cipher key, and then plug That translation into the decoder website, and then finally paste in the text under the photo. 

the website linked is to a Caesar cipher decoder. the Caesar cipher is just a code where the alphabet is assigned to numbers (a=1, z=26), and to encode something with it you can move this pattern however you want as long as you keep the regular sequence of alphabet and numbers. so you could scootch over One letter, and “abc” would now say “bcd”. so on and so forth.

looking at the scene + my own total drama reference cipher, alejandro = A, and the beaver = 1, which gives A1. so you could now follow the link to the website, press ‘decode’, and paste in the text under the picture. the ‘shift’ in the middle is automatically set to ‘7′, or as it shows, a -> h, meaning ‘a’ has been moved over by 7 letters. so if you set the shift to just 1 over, or A1, now you can translate the text. it reads;

“lets start simple. after all, a trail of breadcrumbs begins with a loaf. whats the harm in another long winded fandom meme. another inside joke. and arent you curious whats truly lurking inside?”

edgy! simple! kinda just a test to see if people would do it or not. which they didnt so of course i tried to make it weirder-

puzzle 2; (x) using the exact same translation rules as above. we have alejandro and the snake, which with the tangodeltaindia cipher key means A6. going to the website, putting it in ‘decode’ mode, pasting in your text, and setting the shift to ‘6′ gives you this translation.

“in his eyes are an island. nothing but a dream, born out of going to bed angry. sink or swim.”

this was just hinting around at where the story was gonna go so it’ll make more sense later. something else to note; if you zoom all the way in and look into alejandros eye (’in his eyes’), you’ll see the word ‘Thera’. ~thats a surprise tool that will help us later~

so after this one, there are two non-puzzle posts that are also just hints (i was just tryna see if i could get people hyped), the first is a close up picture of chris with red eyes that simply says “those arent his eyes”, and then a post that says “his real names not chris :)”, they’re again referencing his eyes, and this time further implying theres something fake or wrong about them, or with chris as a person. again, it’ll be explained better later on.

moving on to puzzle 3 (x), another test to see if anyones keeping up (which also failed josdfjsdfkjs), using the same translation rules, dj = a dash or minus, and the snail = 5, “-5″, shift the letter ‘A’ BACK five instead of forward, and you get the simple translation of; “getting harder now.”

puzzle 4 and 5; at this point, there are two images posted within hours of each other that i’ll explain together as they line up. (x) (x)

These are some of the only ones that can be translated from just the tangodeltaindia key directly. They end up a string of numbers, which are latitude and longitude coordinates. The first post, labelled “the lie”, translates into “45.57394802102744, -81.46817207492494″. googling that will take you to maps and show you to a place called Lonely Island in Canada.

The second one, “the truth”, translates into “36.404663113177534, 25.39605673375295″, taking you to Santorini, Greece.

This is where the hints got really out there bc i realized nobody was following along but i still wanted to paint a picture. so this is the set up;;; the idea that the ‘island’ (camp wawanakwa) existing somewhere in canada, is a lie. the ‘true’ location being santorini isnt meant to be taken at face value though. the mythology behind santorini is that a man impregnated a goddess and to escape the wrath of her father (triton), she formed the island (santorini) by having her lover throw clay into the sea, and then she gave birth to her son, Theras, on this island, giving the island it’s Other nickname, Thera.

this is again just a vague implication that the island might not be real at all, or that it was formed through cosmic means.

the next two posts are more non-puzzle hints, the first showing the definition of the word ‘fresh’ (new), and the second being images of total drama backgrounds with no characters and the text reading “they were always empty.” more, admittedly very outlandish implications that the island is some kind of illusion, but again mostly just another try to drag people into the blog.

puzzle 6. (x) this one introduces a new concept to the regular translation rules, some of the characters are laying down. its kinda supposed to imply they’re “dead” and that you need to take their corresponding letters out of the alphabet given on the Caesar cipher page, below the shift. The upright characters translate to “-9″, so you shift ‘A’ back 9 letters. Then remove the letters; “TH-E-R-A-S”, and with those letters taken out, you can finally translate the text.

“he creates life solely to destroy it. to crush it in his hands. he births chaos so that he may have something to control. the power has given him madness. the isolation, arrogance. don't try to stop him, he's already chosen to be unstoppable. his mind is a perfectly crafted prison, one we will all soon be living in.”

this is where the story gets more on the nose. it’s talking about chris, and about him being an unstoppable cosmic force, a diety who can create worlds within his own mind, and he does so maliciously just for power. hes created the campers through mental energy just to torment them. it also hints that his plan is to expand the world of total drama island and engulf the whole universe.

puzzle 7. (x) same as the last puzzle. beaver and moose translate to ‘1-0′ or ten. the characters lying down to remove from the caesar cipher alphabet are “T-U-L-P-A”. this doesnt have anything to do with the modern way some ppl interact with tulpas but just the actual idea of creating thoughtforms, or willing your thoughts into real life creations, referencing how chris has created the entire island and everyone on it solely through his mind. with those letters removed and the shift set forward 10, you get this:

“his psychic power is unfathomable. the reality he bore was just a passing thought. an idea that became so dangerous. he predates the idea of a mind, the minds own ability to recognize itself, his synapses are paradoxically ancient. the island exists only within himself, to torment the souls hes created, and damned from the start. will they ever be free?”

it states that chris is more than a man or even just a diety, hes an all powerful god already, yet he craves more power. the final line, “will they ever be free” is in reference to the campers, which segways into the next arc;;; freeing the campers from chris’ psychic island imprisonment.

puzzle 8. (x) to solve this one you have to translate the top image with the tangodeltaindia cipher key, and add it to the text given, which creates a link. this leads to a PDF, a page from a book written by terence mckenna. he’s a famous ethnobotanist known best for his studies on DMT, the strongest hallucinogenic drug in the world, its also known as the spirit molecule. many people on this drug (without any prior knowledge of this phenomenon) will recount meeting strange fractal beings that can create things in the universe just by speaking them into existence, theyve come to be known as ‘machine elves’, a term coined by mckenna. ill show the most important excerpt from the page;

this is less about the psychedelic drug part and more about the words and ideas, like “punching a hole through a dimension so it pours through” and “if god didnt exist man would invent him”. its more worldbuilding towards chris’ power and cosmic abilities

then come 2 more clues. a picture of chris holding his own body captioned ‘ego death’, and the meaning behind the name ‘chris mcclean’. the latter is another “please look over here” post, but the first is another minor reference to the previous puzzles answer involving DMT and terence mckenna. ‘ego death’ is a term again used with strong psychedelic drugs, its the sensation that your spirit as you know it is literally Dying, and you are instead connected to and a part of everything around you. another reference to chris’ power and how he may look like a man but his body and spirit are connected to the world hes built in unfathomable ways. at this point im cementing the idea that chris mclean is not a mortal man and cannot be fought with mortal weapons

puzzle 9. (x) this one was an attempt to make easier to solve puzzles, and comes with a visual of chris looming over the island. the text is in wingdings, which can be translated through multiple websites found through google. it says;

“s︎o︎o︎n︎ h︎e︎ w︎i︎l︎l︎ s︎l︎e︎e︎p.︎ h︎e︎ w︎i︎l︎l︎ d︎r︎e︎a︎m︎ a︎ n︎e︎w︎ h︎e︎l︎l︎,︎ a︎n︎d︎ t︎h︎a︎t︎ w︎i︎l︎l︎ b︎e︎ o︎u︎r︎ o︎n︎l︎y︎ c︎h︎a︎n︎c︎e︎,︎ t︎o︎ s︎a︎v︎e︎ h︎i︎s︎ c︎r︎e︎a︎t︎i︎o︎n︎s︎,︎ a︎n︎d︎ f︎r︎e︎e︎ t︎h︎o︎s︎e︎ w︎h︎o︎ w︎e︎r︎e︎ n︎e︎v︎e︎r︎ d︎e︎s︎i︎g︎n︎e︎d︎ t︎o︎ b︎e︎ f︎r︎e︎e︎.︎ t︎h︎i︎s︎ m︎a︎y︎ c︎o︎m︎e︎ a︎t︎ a︎ c︎o︎s︎t︎.︎ t︎h︎e︎ n︎i︎g︎h︎t︎m︎a︎r︎e︎ m︎u︎s︎t︎ e︎n︎d︎,︎ t︎h︎e︎ o︎u︎r︎o︎b︎o︎r︎o︎s︎ o︎f︎ h︎i︎s︎ s︎y︎n︎c︎o︎pe︎ m︎u︎s︎t︎ c︎l︎o︎s︎e︎,︎ b︎u︎t︎ i︎t︎ m︎a︎y︎ t︎u︎r︎n︎ o︎u︎r︎ e︎f︎f︎o︎r︎t︎s︎ o︎f︎ s︎a︎l︎v︎a︎t︎i︎o︎n︎ t︎o︎ d︎u︎s︎t︎.︎ o︎u︎r︎ f︎i︎g︎h︎t︎ m︎i︎g︎h︎t︎ e︎n︎d︎ i︎n︎ s︎a︎c︎r︎i︎f︎i︎c︎e︎,︎ r︎e︎n︎d︎e︎r︎i︎n︎g︎ h︎i︎s︎ l︎a︎s︎t︎ i︎n︎v︎e︎n︎t︎i︎o︎n︎ b︎u︎t︎ a︎ c︎e︎a︎s︎e︎l︎e︎s︎s︎ v︎o︎i︎d︎.︎ w︎e︎ m︎a︎y︎ s︎e︎e︎ h︎o︎r︎r︎o︎r︎s︎ t︎h︎a︎t︎ c︎a︎u︎s︎e︎ t︎h︎e︎ s︎t︎a︎r︎s︎ t︎o︎ s︎h︎u︎d︎d︎e︎r︎,︎ b︎u︎t︎ w︎e︎ m︎u︎s︎t︎ t︎a︎ke︎ t︎h︎i︎s︎ c︎h︎a︎n︎c︎e︎.︎ w︎e︎ h︎a︎v︎e︎ n︎o︎t︎h︎i︎n︎g︎ t︎o︎ l︎o︎s︎e︎,︎ a︎n︎d︎ a︎ w︎o︎r︎l︎d︎ o︎f︎ n︎o︎t︎h︎i︎n︎g︎n︎e︎s︎s︎ t︎o︎ e︎n︎d︎.︎ m︎a︎y︎ t︎h︎e︎ s︎e︎a︎ s︎w︎a︎l︎l︎o︎w︎ u︎p h︎i︎s︎ i︎s︎l︎a︎n︎d︎ o︎f︎ l︎i︎e︎s︎.︎ g︎o︎d︎ pr︎o︎t︎e︎c︎t︎ y︎o︎u︎.︎”

this is essentially saying that the island, the campers, werent all just created from his mind, but from his dreams. this confirms that he Sleeps, and claims hes going to sleep again soon, and during that time period theres a chance to kill him before he can dream up another world (or season) to control and torment. its also saying that theres a chance killing him will destroy the island and campers, but that its the only choice we would have to end the cycle. hey guys i am so bored and over the years i have been on every stimulant and anti depressant doctors are legally allowed to prescribe and its still just not quite there yet huh

puzzle 10. (x) the video, the title translates to “the island of his eye”. its just meant to encapsulate everything ive already been hinting around at but with real footage and some audios taken from the show, and again, it was me tryna make some lore that was easy to digest and also terrifying to an audience with no other context. the final images are the only new clues, if you pause fast enough you can barely make out the characters that (paired with the tangodeltaindia cipher key) would say “set them free”, and you can also see an aerial view of what is actually called “the eye of argentina”. it is a real island that rotates atop a swamp, it is geometrically perfect and no one really knows for sure why it rotates the way it does or how it was formed. this clue is simply related back to the idea that the island of wawanakwa’s location is not in canada, and that it does not function like a normal island.

puzzle 11. (x) what td blog is complete without a uquiz? anyways, it doesnt matter how you answer the quiz, theres only one possible result. the title is a link to a mega file, which is protected with a decryption key. the image attached to the result, when deciphered, is the randomly generated key to the unlock the file. the image you see from the file is this; (TW for mentions of self harm and eye trauma)

in case this is too hard to read ill transcribe what it says;

“How to escape the dream - accept that there is no dream to escape, and no you to escape it. - believe in it anyways. - sleep on your back. - cover your eyes. - hide a nail under the pillow. - wait for the ringing. - when you first see him, dont call his name. dont speak. - keep your eyes shut. - on the second night, ask where the camp is. he wont respond verbally. - on the third night, you’ll see his eyes. - on the fourth night, you’ll enter them. - you can’t turn back after the fifth night. - don’t try to hide your fears. he knows them before you arrive. - don’t shut your eyes for too long when it becomes too much. you risk losing them. - find chris mclean. - don’t stop till the nail is through the socket. - repeat on the other side. - repeat on yourself. - congratulations. they are free”

this is, believe it or not, an idea that comes from my very own sleep paralysis experiences. ive dealt with it a lot, so why not make a weird ritual thing for an arg based off it ig. so whenever i’d fall asleep on my back, i’d eventually hear this ringing in my ears (or it’d happen upon waking up), and then the sleep paralysis would begin. i only ‘saw’ stuff a couple times but the fear for me was really more about the overwhelming sensation of pure dread that always came along with it even when i was aware what was happening, and i Always got this feeling too that if i opened my eyes in that moment, something was gonna stab them.

so moving on to how that applies to the arg, the first few lines are about how, obviously, the island is not real, even in the lore being given its a figment of chris’ imagination, but you have to enter it anyways, and the only way to do that is to believe its real. then it tells you how to ‘enter’ that world, (btw i didn’t expect anyone to actually follow these instructions if found, but even if they did, the whole ‘sleep paralysis being caused by sleeping on your back’ thing usually only happens if you’re predisposed to having it and only happens to Some people who have it, so the intent was like. never to bring that upon anybody. but if you are prone to sleep paralysis plz do not attempt even as a joke or anything thx)

the parts about hallucinating chris then are as follows, “ask about the camp / he wont respond verbally” , meaning he will show you through a dream instead, one that might look a lot like the video from before. “on the third night you will see his eyes”, meaning you will see the island but not be able to interact with it, or basically, how we see total drama on tv right now. “on the fourth night you’ll enter (his eyes)” references the island existing ‘within his eyes’, meaning you will enter the actual island. the next night chris will sleep and you will be able to enter the island again and find him. the idea with the nail is that, if you destroy his eyes you destroy the ‘island’ within them. wrapping back around to sleep paralysis, the idea of stabbing yourself with the nail afterwards is because sometimes, the only thing you can move during sleep paralysis is your fingertips and toes, and wiggling those can help bring you out of the paralysis. so at first how i used to wake myself up, but it didnt usually work fast enough so oftentimes id just pinch the shit out of my fingers and use pain to make my muscles start up faster.

the next post is a link to a countdown. again, i knew nobody was rly following at this point, but i wanted a little more build up before just dropping the ending. it was set up to end 5 days after the last post, aka the one that mentioned a 5 night dream ritual.

puzzle 12. (x) going all the way back to the normal multi step translation puzzles. the coloring of the cipher is a bit different, and its missing chris, but its meant to be used the same as it was before, these changes are only for dramatic effect. and chris is gone because well. we mentally offed him in the inception dream land last time. so anyways the snake = 6, shift A to 6, take out the letters “R-I-C-K” of the characters laying in their graves, and you get this translation;

“its almost time. we must now crack open our minds like a crowbar to a sealed chest. like an egg to a pan. to find our way into camp wawanakwa our ego cannot remain intact, and to traverse it we must stay strong. to escape it, we must glue the pieces back together. now we sleep. dream. end the nightmare.”

this is a final message before ‘entering the island’ to kill chris and free the campers from the island. it acts like a pep talk.

the next post is just the countdown ending.

puzzle 13 (the finale). (x)

this post sends you to a new blog entirely, called @awakenfromthenightmare​. there is only one post on it. the post has another link to a mega file, and the link is attached onto a string of text. follow the link by clicking, then copy the text and paste it in as the decryption key. now you have another image to translate with the tangodeltaindia cipher;

when translated, the text is another link to a youtube video. 

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

so there you have it, that video is the ending to the entire arg. it didnt really end the way i wanted at first, i got burnt out from no engagement about halfway through which isnt anybody elses fault, but i still felt this was a well crafted and fitting finale. thank you all for reading.

[dd20century]

Trailblazing Hollywood Architect Paul R. Williams, Part One

“I wanted to prove that I, as an individual, deserved a place in the world.” – Paul R. Williams

Architect Paul R. Williams is usually noted as “Architect to the Stars” because of the many Hollywood Stars on his roster of clients. To remember Paul R, Williams solely as the builder of elegant mansions would do his legacy a great disservice. Williams was the first successful African-American architect in Los Angeles, and first African-American member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) (1), and “the first African-American of its gold medal”(2). He faced the same prejudice that talented, ambitious members of his race faced in the United States early part of the Twentieth Century. Despite this he was responsible for some of the most recognized and important buildings and homes in Los Angeles. Williams’ legacy is endangered, as many of his buildings have been demolished, his working papers tragically destroyed, and the architect himself, unfortunately, is now mostly forgotten.

Charles Alston, Paul R. Williams Illustration (1943). National Archives. Image source.

The Early Life of Paul Revere Williams

Paul Revere Williams was born in 1894 in Los Angeles to Chester and Lila Williams. The Williams moved to Los Angeles the previous year with their young son, Chester, as Mr. and Mrs. Williams suffered from tuberculosis and were searching for a cure (3). Chester senior’s efforts running a fruit stand were unsuccessful; he died of his tuberculosis in 1896. Lila succumbed to the same disease two years later when Paul was only four years old. Now orphaned, Paul and his brother were sent to live in separate foster homes (1,4). Although separated, Chester and Paul remained close until Chester also died of tuberculosis in his early twenties (3).

Paul was later adopted by “C.D. and Emily Clarkson, who were highly supportive, educationally and, later, artistically, of him”(4). Young Paul helped his adopted family financially by working as a newsboy selling papers in downtown Los Angeles.3

Young Williams’s Education and Early Challenges

Paul attended the highly selective Polytechnic High School” (3) where “a teacher advised him against pursuing a career in architecture because white clients would not want a Black architect” (6), and he would not be able to find “enough Black clients” (4) in Los Angeles to provide him with a decent living (2,4). Paul believed in himself and his talents, securing internships and jobs at prominent, local architecture firms immediately after high school in 1912, despite prevailing racial prejudice (1).

Williams first studied at the Los Angeles Beaux-Arts School and then went on the University of Southern California’s School of Engineering to study architecture (4). In 1919 he became the first African-American graduate of that institution (1).

During this time, Williams met Della May Givens through a church youth group. Della had previously dated William’s older brother. In 1917, Paul and Della married and eventually had two daughters. Della took full responsibility for running all aspects of the household and for raising the girls, allowing Williams to focus all of his energy on his career (3).

Paul R. Williams Begins His Career

Williams gained recognition for his work by entering several architectural competitions, winning The White Pine Architectural Competition in 1918, and The Los Angeles Brick Company Competition the following year (1). The competitions gave Williams the opportunity to promote his work without a link to his identity as a Black man (3). Williams worked for architects “Wilbur Cook, Reginald Johnson, Arthur Rolland Kelly, and John C. Austin” (1). Austin was influential not only creatively, but also socially, Austin’s powerful contacts in Los Angeles society of the time allowed his young protégé networking opportunities (3).

Paul R. Williams, Design for a White Pine House (1918). Unbuilt. Image source.

William’s first influential position came in 1920, “struggling to gain attention, he served  on the first Los Angeles City Planning Commission (6). The following year he was licensed as an architect in California (5), and in 1922 Williams opened his firm, ten years after his high school teacher tried to discourage him to become an architect (3). He “became the first Black member of the national [American Institute of Architects]  AIA in 1923” (5).

During the 1920s, the local economy was booming due to the film industry in Hollywood. Many of the stars and movie executives had come from other locations to working Los Angeles, and some, like Williams, had belonged to ethnic groups that been looked down upon by white Anglo-Saxon America. They were willing to give the brilliant architect the opportunity to design their dream homes. The iconic silent film star Lon Cheney was one or Williams’s first Hollywood celebrity clients. Sadly, Cheney died of pneumonia before he could move into the home. One of William’s most notable homes designed in this period was the Jack Atkins House. Since the house was heavily influenced by English manor houses, it was rented out often for use in films. The home appeared in the film Topper (1937). Tragically, the house was destroyed in 2005 in a fire that occurred during renovations (3).

Paul R. Williams, Jack Atkins House (1930), Pasadena, CA. Image source.

Williams Becomes the Master of Many Styles

Williams’ often received criticism for not embracing the architectural styles of the day, much like another California architect Julia Morgan.  The main reason was that he felt fortunate to have his clients and wanted to build homes for them directed by their needs and tastes. Also during that era, it was very unlikely that his white clients would tolerate being dictated to by a black architect. Williams, therefore, became adept at many styles and mastered them all, much like Julia Morgan had done (3).  

Paul R. Williams, Clark H. Edwards Duplex (1925), Los Angeles. Photo credit: Michael Locke. Image source.

“Modern interpretations of Tudor-revival, French Chateau, Regency, French Country, and Mediterranean architecture were all within his vernacular” (6). The 1922 George Holmes Kinsey house was built in the Spanish Mission style, as was the 1923 John B. Browne House and the 1924 Frank Putnam Flint House. Williams’ Jay Paley House (1935) was influenced by English Georgian architecture. The Douglas Mitchell House (1924) is a fine example of Williams’ mastery of American Colonial architecture. Williams built several homes in 1926 that exhibit English Tudor influences: The Howard T. Wayne House, The Crowell and Katherine Havens Beech House, the Philip Rothman House, and the John L. and Janette Adams Garner House (4).

Paul R. Williams, Jay Paley House (1935), Los Angeles, CA. Image source.

Although Williams’s homes reflect many styles, there are features that are unique to his homes. Many homes feature elegant grand staircases (for stars who wish to make a dramatic entrance). Circle and curve motifs appear in most homes, and can be seen in the use of curving staircases and circular windows. Williams liked to employ tall narrow windows in many homes in order to bring more of the southern California light into the interiors (3).

Read about Paul R. Williams’s community activity and commercial work in the 1950s and 1960s in part two.

References

LA Conservancy, (2020). Paul Revere Williams,  FAIA (1894-1980), https://www.laconservancy.org/architects/paul-r-williams

Budds, D., (13 December, 2016). The Overlooked Legacy Of Pioneering African-American Architect Paul Revere Williams, Fast Company (online), https://www.fastcompany.com/3066503/the-overlooked-legacy-of-pioneering-african-american-architect-paul-revere-williams

Public Broadcasting System, (6 February, 2020). Hollywood’s Architect [Documentary Film]. https://www.pbs.org/video/hollywoods-architect-3prwsa/

Brane, K.D, (15 January, 2020). Paul R. Williams, Black Listed Culture, Issue 2. https://blacklistedculture.com/paul-r-williams/

US Modernist, (n.d.).  Paul Revere Williams,  FAIA (1894-1980), https://usmodernist.org/pwilliams.htm

Wikipedia.com, (10 December, 2020). Paul R. Williams, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_R._Williams

For Further Reading

Hudson, Karen E. (1993). Paul R. Williams, Architect: A Legacy of Style. New York: Rizzoli. p. 240. ISBN 0-8478-1763-6. LCC NA737.W527 H84 1993

Hudson, Karen E. (1994). The Will and the Way: Paul R. Williams, Architect. New York: Rizzoli. pp. 64. ISBN 0-8478-1780-6. LCC NA737.W527 H85 1994

[papermoonloveslucy]

THE MARRIAGE LICENSE ERROR

January 21, 1949

“Marriage License Error” (aka “Marriage License”) is episode #27 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on January 21, 1949 over the Armed Forces Radio Network (AFN). 

Synopsis ~ Liz and George find their marriage license and discover that instead of "George H. Cooper," it says "George C. Hooper." Now Liz is convinced that she and George aren't legally married!

Portions of this radio show served as the basis for “The Marriage License” (ILL S1;E26) filmed on February 28, 1952 and aired on April 7, 1952, on CBS-TV.  On television, the Ricardo’s marriage license mistakenly read “Bicardi” instead of “Ricardo”. 

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benadaret was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

REGULAR CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born as Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his  roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.”  From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz (above right), a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Announcer Bob LeMond is not heard in this episode as it is part of the American Forces Network and has a different announcer. 

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) and Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) had not yet joined the cast as regular characters.

GUEST CAST

Frank Nelson (Joe Ridgley) was born on May 6, 1911 (three months before Lucille Ball) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He started working as a radio announcer at the age of 15. He later appeared on such popular radio shows as “The Great Gildersleeve,” “Burns and Allen,” and “Fibber McGee & Molly”. This is one of his 11 performances on “My Favorite Husband.”  On “I Love Lucy” he holds the distinction of being the only actor to play two recurring roles: Freddie Fillmore and Ralph Ramsey, as well as six one-off characters, including the frazzled train conductor in “The Great Train Robbery” (ILL S5;E5), a character he repeated on “The Lucy Show.”  Aside from Lucille Ball, Nelson is perhaps most associated with Jack Benny and was a fifteen-year regular on his radio and television programs.

Doris Singleton (Hotel Biltmore Telephone Operator) created the role of Caroline Appleby on “I Love Lucy,” although she was known as Lillian Appleby in the first of her ten appearances. She made two appearances on “The Lucy Show.”  Singleton played a secretary in the first episode of “Here’s Lucy” and was meant to be a series regular, but her role was written out to concentrate on Lucy Carter’s family life. She did two more episodes of the series.

Ted de Corsia (Police Officer) was an actor in touring companies and on radio before making a memorable film debut as the killer in The Lady from Shanghai (1947). De Corsia's New York street demeanor and gravelly voice assured him steady work playing street thugs, gang leaders or organized-crime bosses. On radio he starred in the CBS series "Pursuit" (1949-50). Two years after this episode of “My Favorite Husband,” he appeared with Lucille Ball on the radio show “The Golden Touch.” 

The actor voicing the role of Paul Buchanan is not credited and has not been identified.

EPISODE

The Coopers are spending the evening in the living room reading the newspapers. Liz is doing the crossword puzzle, while George scans the headlines. 

GEORGE: “Well, it looks like the inauguration came off alright.” 

George is referring to the second inauguration of incumbent President Harry S. Truman, which happened in Washington DC the previous day. It ushered in Truman’s second term in office. It was the first televised U.S. presidential inauguration and the first with an air parade.

Liz insists that crosswords build her vocabulary. George quizzes her on current events. 

GEORGE: “Where did the President take his oath of office?” LIZ: “On a special platform built in front of the capitol building.  GEORGE: “How did you happen to know that?” LIZ: “It showed through the hole when I cut out the crossword puzzle.” GEORGE: “Try this: who administered the oath?” LIZ: “What?” 

The familiar trope of husbands being engrossed in the morning papers to the dismay of their wives takes a slightly different spin here, but was continued well into “I Love Lucy.” The answer that George is looking for is that Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson administered the presidential oath of office that day in 1949.

Through the hole, Liz recognizes the name of Paul Buchanan, who is in the paper because he was elected president at the jewelers convention. Liz recalls dating him in high school. He played tuba in the school band. Liz says she might have married but for his tuba playing.  Liz says that if she had married Paul she might have gotten an engagement ring. Instead, George couldn’t afford a ring and gave her a sweat shirt with his initials on it. George says the initials actually stood for Gym Class!  

LIZ: “I was lovely!  I was engaged!  I was dressed like Maxie Rosenbloom!”

Max Everitt Rosenbloom (1907-76) was a professional boxer, actor, and television personality. In 1948 he played a truck driver in the Paulette Goddard film Hazard. Nicknamed “Slapsie Maxie”, he had appeared in the film Muss ‘Em Up (1936) in which a blonde Lucille Ball was a background performer. She posed with him for the above publicity shot, helping him apply his make-up!

Liz senses that George is still upset about the ring, so she sits on his lap and they cuddle and kiss.  Liz opens their scrapbook, looking at their wedding photos.  She sees her marriage license. 

LIZ: “On this date, Elizabeth Elliott was married to George C. Hooper!” 

Liz panics thinking that their license may be invalid - and they might not even be legally married!  As soon as the Sheridan Falls City Hall opens, Liz intends to go down there personally and find out for sure! 

Unbeknownst to Liz, George calls his friend at the license bureau, Joe Ridgley (Frank Nelson). He tells Joe that he wants him to play a joke on Liz, and tell her that they are not really married!  Joe agrees. 

Liz arrives at the bureau and explains to Mr. Ridgley about the error.  He tells Liz that it does indeed matter. He refers to her as “Miss Elliott” and confirms that she hasn’t been married to George for ten years! 

Liz returns home. When George goes to kiss her - she says that she is no longer his to touch! 

LIZ: “The man at the license bureau put the padlock on our wedlock.”

Liz insists they go right down to the license bureau and get re-married. George - having some fun at her expense - hesitates. Liz is as upset as she is angry!  Just then, Katie the Maid takes Liz aside into the kitchen to tell her that it’s all a joke between George and Joe. Liz decides to get revenge for his prank.

Liz goes back into the living room and George suddenly confesses to his joke - but when he describes Joe Ridgley, Liz says that he is not describing the man she spoke to at all!  Which means that they really aren’t married after all!  George wants to go right down to City Hall and re-marry, but Liz (teasing him along even further) says not so fast - she wants to be single a little longer! Liz picks up the phone to call Paul Buchanan to ask him out on a date. She reminds him that she was called “Queen of the Rumble Seat”! 

A rumble seat was an additional padded passenger seat that popped up from the rear of the vehicle, usually just big enough for two. This led it to becoming synonymous with romantic trysts!  

Liz knows that George can’t hear Paul on the other end as he protests that he is married with six kids!   He abruptly hangs up, but Liz continues her staged phone conversation with the hotel operator (Doris Singleton).  Liz says that she will meet him at the Flamingo Room of the Biltmore. 

In the kitchen, Liz tells Katie that while George thinks she is on a date with Paul Buchanan at the Biltmore, she and Katie will actually be watching Humphrey Bogart at the Strand movie theater.   

In January 1949, Bogart’s most recent film would have been Key Largo, released in mid-summer 1948. It went on to win an Oscar for Claire Trevor.  Humphrey Bogart never appeared on screen with Lucille Ball. However, in “Ricky’s Movie Offer” (ILL S4;E5) Desi Arnaz does an impression of Bogart and in “Lucy and the Andrews Sisters” (HL S2;E6) Lucy blows a kiss to a large poster of Bogart from the movie Casablanca.

Coming out of the Strand later that evening, Liz and Katie notice a crowd in front of the Biltmore Hotel. Katie thinks it might be a wreck! 

LIZ: “When you see a crowd in front of a window these days, it isn’t a wreck, it’s television!”  KATIE: “Oh, well maybe they’re showing a wrestling match!” 

Before television sets became affordable to the general public, it was not uncommon to find people gathered on the sidewalk in front of a store window to view it from the street.

LIZ: “Katie it is wrestling!  There’s gorgeous George!” 

Liz is referring to her husband, George but wrestling matches were very popular on early television, producing such colorful wrestlers as Gorgeous George. George Raymond Wagner (1915–63), was known as Gorgeous George because of his long blonde hair. He was mentioned on “I Love Lucy” in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25) and “Ricky’s Movie Offer” (ILL S4;E6). In 1949, Republic Pictures released a film starring Gorgeous George.

A Policeman (Ted de Corsia) is breaking up a brawl between George Cooper and Paul Buchanan. Paul is nothing like Liz remembered: bald, fat and with a black eye. Paul remembers George from school. Liz is delighted having two men fighting over her. George spots Liz in the crowd. When George insists Liz is his wife, Liz claims she never saw him before.   When the cop wants to arrest George, Liz pretends to be from Brooklyn (Myrtle Avenue) to talk him out of it. She insists that George buy her an engagement ring (from Paul) to get out of going to jail. The office gladly agrees - if George will properly propose on one knee first!  Liz insists he use her ‘pet’ name. 

GEORGE: “Will you marry me... toodly-woodly-ums!”  COP: “When you gonna get married?” LIZ: “Ten years ago!”  COP: “Why that’s impossible!”  LIZ: “Who cares!  I’ve got back my favorite husband!” 

In the bedtime tag, Liz asks George to get up and get her a glass of warm milk. After bickering about it for a moment, George reluctantly agrees, stubbing his toe on the chair.  By the time he finds his slippers, Liz is snoring, fast asleep. 

GEORGE: “How do you like that? Goodnight, Liz.” 

[garbotuesday]

Spontaneous

Went through my computer and found this half-finished WIP, and decided to un-WIP it. I like writing one-shots lol. Also this is the first time I’ve ever written any stevetony or superfamily. I’m surprised how much I liked it!

The moment the door slid shut behind them and Tony heard the sweet hydraulic kiss of the door's edge meeting the wall, he could've cried. He was tired deep down in his bones, in a way that only a full day's rest could fix. Steve fell into step next to him, and the two collapsed onto the couch and leaned into one another.

“Welcome home, sirs,” Jarvis intoned, dimming the lights without needing to be instructed.

“I'm going to rest here for a sec,” Steven said, toeing off his boots and letting them fall to the ground. “Then I'm going back to our room to sleep for another seventy years.”

“I'll join you,” Tony said with a soft sigh. The two men sat on the couch quietly and just breathed for the first time in almost three days.

“Jarv,” Tony slurred out, already half sleeping. “Peter?”

“I'm sorry, sir?”

“Peter. Where is he? I want to say hello and goodnight to the little squirt before I sleep the rest of my life away.”

“Peter instructed that you should call him when you returned home,” Jarvis said. “He isn't in at the moment.”

Steve grunted. “Probably out with Ned.”

“Alright.” Another ripping yawn tore through Tony's face. “Jarvis, call Peter. Put him on speakerphone.”

Both men settled more comfortably into the couch, stretching their legs out onto the glass table in front of them as the sound of a ringing phone echoed overhead. Tony deliberately scooted into Steve's space and rested his head on Steve's shoulder. Steve snorted and lolled his head to the side, laying his cheek in Tony's hair. Tony resolved that as soon as they hung up with Peter, they were going to shut their eyes and sleep right then and there on the couch, his back be damned.

Peter picked up after three rings. “Hey, Dad,” he said casually. “Welcome back.”

“Hey, kiddo. Jarvis said to call you when we got back. Where ya at?”

“Where's Pops?” Peter asked. “I'm here, Pete,” Steve said.

“How did the mission go?”

“Well enough,” Steve answered flatly. “Fury was pleased, at least.”

“You sound dead on your feet,” Peter said with a light snort. “You been debriefed yet?”

“Debriefed, fed, and showered,” Tony answered. “Now the only thing keeping us from going into hibernation for a season is you, kid. Where are you?”

“Wow, showered already?” Peter asked. “Fury must have been very pleased to roll out the red carpet like that.”

Tony opened his eyes. Peter had pivoted off of the question twice now. “I notice you haven't answered my question yet, Pete.”

Peter was silent for a moment. Steve heard him take a slow, shaky breath. “I'm not ignoring it, I just...wanted to make sure you didn't have to go back to work first.”

“Peter,” Steve said, raising his head off of the back of the couch a bit. “Where are you?”

“I will tell you,” Peter said slowly, his voice rising in the verbal equivalent of holding up a finger. “But first I need you to know that I'm fine, okay?”

Tony and Steve were both sitting up now. “Peter,” Tony said, more sternly this time. “This isn't funny. Where the hell are you?”

“I'm at St. Olga's Hospital,” Peter answered reluctantly. “My, um...my lung collapsed.”

0-0-0

There were undercover SHIELD agents in the hallway of the hospital guarding Peter's room when Tony and Steve came barreling toward them. To their credit, they didn't flinch away from the furious gazes of the two men while they staunchly asked for identification.

They both rocketed inside the room and stopped short just at the edge of the bed. Peter was there, sitting up slightly but looking absolutely spent in his blankets. He was wrapped in the hospital blankets, but also his favorite blanket from the Tower, the soft one with the big yellow duck on it. Someone had got it for Steve as a joke and Peter had never given it back.

There was a pulse monitor on his finger leading to a machine that loudly counted the beats, a nasal canula that went into Peter's nose, an IV, and an ominous looking tube that disappeared into the blankets. Tony felt bile rise up in his own chest. His kid was sitting here covered in a million fucking wires and he hadn't even been given a phone call. A glance at Steve's stoic face told Tony that he was feeling much the same.

Peter looked blearily at the two of them. “Sorry,” he said softly.

Tony took a step forward and grabbed the railing of the bed, forcing himself to breathe and not pass out. “Why sorry, Bambi?” he struggled to get out. “Not your fault.”

Peter shrugged. “You both look pissed. Usually saying sorry does the trick.”

Steve came forward and ran his hand through Peter's hair. Some defensive part of Peter's expression melted and he leaned gratefully into his father's touch.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Steve told Peter. “You're not the one we're angry with.”

“I'm going to strangle Fury,” Tony said, voice thick. “There's no way that one-eyed bastard didn't know you were laid up in a hospital room, and he just let us get on with the debrief without telling us.”

“I would advise against making such idle threats in a hospital, Mr. Stark,” Fury drawled, looking bored in the doorway.

“Idle?” Tony asked, giving Fury a look that would have made a lesser man flinch. “If you would like to see things get very fucking real, continue to stand in the doorway like this isn't your fault. I dare you.”

Fury rolled his eyes and took a very bold step inside the hospital room. “For you information, Tony, this isn't my fault. It isn't anyone's fault, as this gentleman is willing to explain to you if you're willing to stand down.”

Only then did they notice the small man in the lab coat so slight and unassuming he'd been completely eclipsed by Fury's presence. Tony didn't break eye contact with Fury, but he did make the effort to unclench his fists.

“Hey, Dr. Watkins,” Peter said in a voice that was little more than a whisper. Tony and Steven both looked at Peter in concern. Their son was clearly exhausted and very pale.

The doctor smiled at him as the came forward and looked over the monitors on Peter's left. “Hello, Peter. Dads, it's nice to meet you.”

Tony was in no mood, but Steve made polite effort and shook Dr. Watkins' hand. Dr. Watson gave launched into a quick rundown of what was going on. It was called a spontaneous pneumothorax. Apparently a hole had opened in their son's lung, and thus far, there was absolutely no telling what had caused it or if it would happen again.

He left both men to wrestle with that while he turned to Peter with a wizened smile. “ And how are we feeling this afternoon? Better or worse than yesterday night?”

Before Peter could answer, Tony's voice whipped across the small room at the doctor furiously. “What happened yesterday night?”

“Oh, another small hole opened up on the left side, a few centimeters below the first one,” Dr. Watkins said, taking a step forward and pressing two fingers gently into Peter's side. Peter's face went even whiter and he let out a sound so pitiful Steve instantly reached for his hand.

Dr. Watkins' made a small noise of disapproval. “I had hoped that would feel better by now,” he said gently. “If it's still causing you that much pain, we can up the drip a bit more.”

Peter shook his head, keeping his eyes closed. “It makes me dizzy,” he said with a grunt. “Don't want to throw up any more today.”

“Okay,” Tony said, clapping his hands together once. Vomiting, IV's, not one but two holes in his son's lung – it was enough. Tony wanted him home, now. “No need to worry about the IV, Peter will coming home with us now.”

Peter looked up at him and blinked owlishly the way he did when he was sick, one eye at a time. Dr. Watkins' brow furrowed. “I can't sign off on that currently-”

“We have our own private medical facilities,” Steve said, gripping Peter's hand tighter. “And an ever-present rotating staff of medical personnel.”

Dr. Watkins lifted a brow and looked over to Fury, who nodded once. Dr. Watkins nodded slowly and turned back to Tony. “Then may I speak with these doctors before I release him? There are a number of delicate points they must be aware of to treat him effectively.”

Tony robotically rattled off a phone number that would go straight to Cho's office. Dr. Watkins promised to be back in no time, heading out to make the phone call from his office. It wasn't necessary, there was a phone right by Peter's head, but a man smart enough to get a medical degree was certainly smart enough to read the rising tension in the room.

Tony turned to Fury, who still looked unimpressed in the face of Tony's anger. “I just want to know,” Tony said slowly, “why we weren't informed.”

Fury made a bitch please face at him. “I'm not the one to ask,” he said, pointing at Peter with his chin.

When both men rounded on their son, Peter flinched. “Um-”

“In any case,” Fury said, cutting Peter off. “I just wanted to be sure you were still alright. Romanov and I have to go through the flash drive to see if anything else needs to be done to secure the information they took.” He tipped his head at Steve and Tony. “I'll be in touch if we need you.” Then Fury, too, was gone.

Peter, cold though he was, began to sweat when the door shut and it was just him and his parents. They both stared at him, jaws set, waiting for a well thought out, rational explanation he didn't have to give. He gripped the gown he was wearing underneath the covers in a tight fist.

“I'm not sure what to say,” he finally said when far too much time had passed.

“Apologize now,” Tony snapped. “Be sorry now.”

“How did you even manage to keep this from us?” Steve asked.

Peter shrugged helplessly. “When I woke up here, Fury was sitting there. He told me they were going to put together some kind of task force to find you guys, but I...I told him not to.”

Tony put his hands on his hips and looked down at his shoes, a sure sign he was holding onto his patience by the skin of his teeth. “Why?”

“Because your operation was delicate,” Peter said desperately. “You couldn't have communications anyway, that part of Greenland being so remote, but you wouldn't have been safe if he had tried to get someone to you. What if someone followed the task force and then the mission was compromised? I was in a hospital, Dad. It could wait.”

Tony slammed his fist into the guard rail of the bed. Peter jumped, then winced. Tony seemed not to notice.

“Perhaps its slipped your mind, or perhaps you need to be reminded, but in either case, allow me to explain; you are our child, not the other way around. You don't get to decide what we know about your health when it goes sideways, and you sure as shit don't get to withhold something like this.”

“Do not swear at him,” Steve said, low and dangerous and so suddenly ferocious everyone in the room flinched back. Tony blinked at Steve, stunned, before swallowing and looking away.

Steven turned back to Peter, who also looked mortified, and put a hand on his son's cheek. “Pete,” Steve said tenderly. “Please. What your father is trying to say is that you don't need to worry about us when we're on missions. You are our first priority, and you always will be. It isn't your job to keep us safe, but it is our job to keep you safe. We have each other's backs out there so we can both have yours when we come home. Do you understand?'

Peter's lip trembled, and a few tears managed their way out before he could swallow them back, but he nodded. Steve pulled a soothing hand through Peter's hair and stood. He gave Tony an indecipherable look.

“I'm going to talk to the doctor,” he said. “Be nice.”

Steve walked out to find Dr. Watkins, and Tony and Peter looked at each other uneasily.

“I didn't mean to yell,” Tony said, eyes down as he tapped the guardrail of the bed. “I'm not angry with you. Well, I am, but I can't be right now.”

Peter hiccuped a laugh and then winced again. Tony took Peter's hand. “What is it that's hurting you?” he asked, concern pulling at his features.

Peter sighed a long sigh that seemed to deflate his whole body. “Everything. I'm so tired.”

Something in Tony twisted at hearing how his son was so clearly miserable. “We're gonna get you home soon,” Tony said, squeezing Peter's hand. “Dad and I can make you dinner, and we'll all get to sleep in our own beds. How's that sound?'

Peter snorted. “Fucking excellent.”

“You know how your dad feels about that kind of talk.”

“Let me get away with one, I'm sick.”

0-0-0

They brought him home in an ambulance.

It didn't matter that Peter was coming home, nor did it soothe Tony to see the woman he'd handpicked coming toward them with a confident, determined look on her face. It was still Peter coming out of an ambulance on a stretcher. Tony's world still didn't make sense yet.

A team of doctors moved Peter from one stretcher to the other and whisked him away to the medical level. There Peter was hooked up to the same bevy of machines he had been attached to in the hospital, but he didn't look quite as small and scared as he had at St. Olga's. Once all the tubes and wires were in place, they replaced all Peter's blankets and put Discovery channel on the ensuite TV. Peter was out in minutes.

Steve collapsed into the second bed next to Tony. They had set Peter up in the only double occupancy bedroom they had, so everyone could sleep at the same time. “Have I ever told you how brilliant I think it is to have a medical facility in our house?” Steve asked, slurring his words with sleep. “Because it is.”

Tony smirked. “Do you remember when we used to do this when he was a baby? He'd fall asleep and we would scramble for our own blankets and pillows so we could drop next to the crib, get a snatch of sleep before he woke up again.”

He felt Steve shake the bed with silent laughter next to him. “The good old days,” he said.

They both sobered for a moment, both thinking it but unwilling to say it; and now their son was old enough to keep them out of the loop. Now their son would hide the truth from them, if he thought he needed to.

“What did we do wrong?” Tony asked softly. “To make him think he needed to keep this a secret?”

“Nothing,” Steve said with a snort. “We raised a good kid. Not only a good one, but a self-sacrificing one. We can be mad at him all we want, but even we can't deny he was only following our examples.”

“I fancy myself a rather selfish man, and I'm sure most would agree,” Tony said with faux haughtiness. Steve snickered into Tony's shoulder.

“We've both made plays to save a city that could have ended with us dead,” Steve said quietly. “I went down and you went up, but we both were willing to sacrifice to keep them safe. Fight me on it all you want, but he gets that from us.”

Tony thought about one of the last calls they'd made in Greenland, to split up instead of staying together. Tony had been against it, and if it had been his call to make, they've have kept the unit together, but he hadn't wanted to hamper the mission with his need to keep Steve close. They'd split, and they'd found the enemy, but each team of Avengers had been outmatched by what they found and they'd nearly lost the battle. Steve had a neatly healing line of stitches across his back for their trouble.

If they'd done it Tony's way, how many fewer days would it have taken to find what they needed to come home? How many fewer days would their son have spent in the hospital, scared, small, and cold against  hospital sheets?

“I want to make a motion,” Tony said, bringing up one hand. “The three of us need to be a little more selfish.”

“I second that,” Steve said with a sigh.

“Thirded,” Peter slurred, surprising them both into quiet chuckles. “Th'motion passes.”

Steve put his head on Tony's shoulder and they both watched their son slacken back into sleep.

“Look at him,” Tony murmured to Steve just before he himself went down for the count. “Asleep like his ass isn't grounded for the next six months.”

“Be nice, he's sick.”

“Fine. Four months, then.”