#my second go around is really fun. i didn’t realize the number of times entities and their patrons interact with each other

[autoneurotic]

i love how much of a cunt series 1 and some of 2 Jon is. Lensik’s statement on Hilltop Rd, at the end Jon’s like latent schizophrenia and head trauma! what a SHOCK! the one with peter lukas’ dead kid or nephew or whoever, he goes to leave so she can make her statement privately and says as much with THE shittiest little tone in the world. one of the spider ones, the first one w Annabelle i think, he straight up mocks the guy for CRYING when martin interviews him later. almost makes him getting burnt and deribbed and vertigoed and almost skinned and buried etc etc so on and so forth feel warranted

[shirtlessfelix]

Hi there. I don't quite remember if my internet sent this ask, so I'm repeating it just in case! In honor of my gaming life being a mishmash of dbd, the Prototype games and finally obtaining the DVD of the 2010 nightmare on elm street remake, can I request a fluffy hurt/comfort scenario, where a hivemind killer is inducting Quentin into their hivemind? Bonus points if Quentin is happy and sleepy while it happens. I watched the movie not too long ago, and Quentin definitely carried the entire thing. Nancy don't deserve a good boi like him. Thank you kindly for your time, and may the muse always strike you with inspiration. Toodles!!

Here it is! I hope you like it after it's been so long since you sent this in lol, I'm very sorry for the wait!!! I appreciate your patience more than you know 💕💕💕💕

Quentin Soothes the Hive Mind

1004 words

There was something different about Quentin that the other survivors just didn't carry. Something about his demeanor, his aura even to the killers. They pitied him terribly; he was strong for a boy whose monster was dragged down with him and still threatened the corners of his mind in the safety of their camp. Quentin was so tired, so bored of it all. There were very few times when they saw him in a good mood.

One of those few times was when he was with Jake, both barely getting out alive as the hatch sucked them through with only seconds to spare. He howled with laughter so it echoed through the trees, a wave of sound that reached the killers' ears, so unfamiliar that they didn't know whose it was at first.

It was the Hive Mind who told them, Quentin Smith, and none of them believed it at first. But then the Executioner saw him smiling as he ran with Yunjin in the distance after a riveting find, and he told the others that it was telling the truth.

The Hive Mind wasn't a traditional killer by any means. In fact, it was more of an experiment from the Entity to find out how something like it would react in Her world. It had no physical body, nor did it move, but it hung over the air in a thick cloud of static and waited for the survivors to let their guards down. That's when it attacked.

The trend of Quentin's uplifted mood continued as he let himself get closer to the other survivors, distracted from his fears and allowing himself that little bit of freedom. Trials became more fun than a burden, although Freddy Krueger was still a killer he loathed. In all, he learned to enjoy the little things, especially when he had control.

But the Hive Mind didn't like the survivors to have control, and it didn't take the learning curve very well. That on top of hearing about everyone's pasts—survivors and killers alike—made it a raging mass, anguished and furious, so much so that it went past its own limits.

The Hive Mind was naturally self-destructive; if it failed to slip into a survivor's mind, it would bounce right back onto itself. Some trials in, it was already so tired and burnt out that it gave up entirely and opted for a different approach.

Quentin sat at the campfire, having a rest after a number of long, tiring trials, enjoying the warmth under his blanket, when he started to hear something. Voices all around him, screaming and sobbing, yelling, running hoarse, and he was confused and terrified. The camp faded into a cloud of white, not like the black fog of the Entity's doing. This was something else, but he didn't know what until it consumed him completely.

The voices grew louder, but Quentin wasn't afraid. He wanted to help them. Why are you so sad? It wasn't like he didn't know that sadness, that hopelessness of being in the fog without any knowledge of how or get out, or if it was even possible. The Hive Mind had felt much the same way, and it showed in the way it cried and cried, seeking Quentin's newfound happiness for some peace of mind.

"Hello?" Quentin called out, muffled by the voices. "If you're out there, I can't see you!"

A vague shape then revealed itself, reminiscent of the Wraith, but it was smaller and much more opaque. The cloud had formed a person of its own, something for Quentin to see and feel like he could talk to. It cried with the voices, and he hesitated for a moment before walking closer to it, letting his hands touch the transition between air and matter. It clung to him, desperate for a friend, vowing never to hurt Quentin if he just didn't run away.

"You're okay," Quentin said to it, still drowned out by the misery that surrounded him. "It's okay... none of us like it here. You're not the only one." He continued to speak softly to it, trying to comfort the Hive Mind in its extreme distress. After some time, he noticed that his voice was louder, or were the voices getting quieter?

"It gets easier," he said, "you'll get the hang of it. Most of us get along, really... I like you so far." More time, more soothing words, and the voices had died down entirely. The cloudy mass had enveloped Quentin in its own sort of embrace, cool but comfortable around his skin and up under his arms. "It's okay. You're okay."

And they stand together in the middle of the blinding white, voices silent and a quiet static replacing it. It was low. It was relaxing it. The Hive Mind had settled down.

Before he knew it, the cloud had dispersed in his hands, vaporizing into the thin air of the camp again as the last of it disappeared over the campfire. Quentin's eyes opened (had they been closed the whole time?), and he realized that most of the others had been pulled into trials.

He supposed the Hive Mind helped him dodge a bullet. A hatchet, a spear gun perhaps. He was grateful to it.

And the Hive Mind lingered above the killers' heads, who at first were angry and fed up with their trials regardless of the outcome. Bubba Sawyer wasn't happy even after killing all four. The Doctor's check-ups didn't go to plan. The Twins wanted more souls for Victor to consume.

But the Hive Mind had managed to squeeze itself into their minds just like it did Quentin's, soothing them one by one, replacing their thoughts with the static until they all calmed down. They wondered what it was that came over them all, but the Entity knew exactly what it was.

She decided to keep her experiment if it kept them from killing each other.

As for Quentin, he would welcome the Hive Mind into his own any day.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “An Omen.”

Alright guys, this is the end of this arc. I hope you all like it. Things might go back to being a bit more episodic for a while, so I need to know.. What kind of situations do you want to see them in? What questions do you want answered? what Characters would you like to see again? I am looking for any sort of suggestions. You guys have been a great audience, so I want to make sure you guys get some of what you are looking for. Backstories? Angst? Fluff? if so what kind? I am down for most anything so, comment or send a message or an ask.

“I, Adam Allen Vir having been appointed as a rear admiral in the United Nations Space Corps do solemnly swear that I will support and defend Earth and her aliens against all enemies foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same that I take this obligation freely and without mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office which I am about to enter, so I swear.”

“Ladies and Gentlemen Rear Admiral Adam Vir.”

Clapping from the assembled crowd well over 100 strong for a man who would much have preferred this all to be done in a more private setting, but still he stepped forward,the lone silver star glittering with pristine polished on his shoulder as he stepped up to the lectern to speak.

He awkwardly adjusted the microphone for a second well aware of a thousand eyes on him, and a thousand more back on earth where his promotion was being broadcast.

The crowd of the Europa Station, mostl veterine UNSC members looked on with a mix of admiration and boredom.

He wished his family could be here, but, unfortunately the Europa station, where his new ship would be christened, had no use for civilians. Behind him, the viewing window framed, with great majesty, the slowly rotating surface of jupiter in white, cream, and peach shot through with little veins of blue and green in swirling patterns and shapes. 

Backlit against this majestic sight, and lit by the glowing surface of jupiter and vast eternity behind, he took a deep breath.

“Things are changing in the UNSC…. Things are changing much faster than we, and especially I, had ever anticipated. The universe is expanding rapidly, as we know all too well. Recently, I had an experience that the GA and UNSC are allowing me to declassify for the benefit of maintaining an honest and sincere dialogue between civilian and military entities. Nearly five months ago I was pronounced missing in action after the command deck of my ship was consumed by -- what at the time -- seemed to be a black hole. Today I am here to explain myself, and what I saw.” He looked down at his hands, shuffling his notes.

“The generated field was not, in fact, a blackhole, but a wormhole to an entirely different universe. I cannot say where it was as I do not know, and I cannot say how I made it there, but I can say that we are not the only ones. The GA is not the only alien government entity.”

A muttering in the crowd, “I saw creatures there that I have never seen before, sentient creatures that I cannot fathom explaining. My escape was both lucky and prudent, for at this moment our efforts to outreach into the greater vastness of space is expanding. Men, women, humans, Tesraki, Drev, Celzex and all others are being called on more than ever to come to the aid of our cause. Space is an unknown entity, and has long since been deemed the final frontier. We have no idea what is out there, and military operations are experiencing a change in the type of leadership, and the direction of command than it has in over two thousand years Space travel is unorthodox at times, and, in my experience, so are the men and women who best thrive there.”

He looked up his eye seeing nothing but vague shapes, “It takes something special to do what is being done here, and it will take a little bit more from the crew of my ship, to travel to places untouched by the living. I am asking for strength, fortitude, integrity, honesty, turst, and I hope…. A little bit of good humor. Space will take everything from you if it can, and sometimes that means fighting back in unorthodox ways. Today is the day that we take the next step in the road to space exploration, with our allies in the GA. Leaving behind fifteen Fleet Commanders, my ship and crew will be exclusively tasked with the exploration and contact of unknown alien planets, lieforms, and systems.”

A first lieutenant scurried from the side of the room, bringing with him a glass, which he handed to the Rear Admiral with a quick salute.

Adam raised the glass, “It was once an old Naval tradition to break a bottle of champagne over the bow of the ship as it was named, a tradition that was quickly discarded once we realized we could drink the alcohol, and also that it was pretty irresponsable to get in a space suit just to break a bottle.”

There was a slight chuckle around the room.

“So instead, a toast,” He raised his glass, and the others followed suit, “To the UNSC Omen, may your engines never fail, and may your crew demonstrate good judgement.”

He tilted his head back and took a drink.

The thousands before him did the same with their own drinks. This was anywhere from paper to plastic to glass cups, and with anything from beer, to water, to taquilla or milk in one or two cases.

There was clapping as he stepped down from the lectern.

He grimaced internally to himself.

And may your Captain not be a complete idiot when on the job.

Now it was time to see his new ship.

***

The UNSC Omen was rated as a Heavy Battle Cruiser, but she was equipped with more scientific equipment than the CDC. Technically it had ten decks all together, with the bridge at the top followed by the management deck, crew and recreation, then the science decks five and six as well as engineering, cargo, and hangers which took up the rest of seven eight nine and ten. The back of the ship was generally all comprised of fusion, warp and coolant systems, though they weren’t stupid enough to keep all the engine components in one place.

And that wasn't to mention all of the alien technology that had been added to the ship. This thing had everything.

The engine system was of Rundi make, and that included the warp core and the dampening systems. IT made sense that the oldest race in the galaxy was to provide the most important piece of tech. 

They had Vrul Shields 

Celzex weapons 

Drev Soldiers

And even an entire team of Tesraki Auditors in the accounting department.

That being that they actually had an accounting department now instead of just one guy in a room the size of a closet.

They had received the bulk of their crew increase by way of scientists and marines. Their command structure was relatively the same, with the same officers running their old departments. 

Now that the crew was up to 1000 strong that meant 4 full-time doctors each with a different specialty. Surgical, Emergency, Orthopedic and Bacterial. They had extra nurses and support medical staff. Krill had convinced the GA to give them all the latest and greatest alien medical technology to the small creature’s great delight. The psychological support team had ballooned to four including support staff. 

The marines had swelled to three platoons, and their numbers didn’t include the fifty or so extra military med including shock troopers, pilots and artillery officers.

The science crew had been augmented exponentially. And could have staffed a small ship all by themselves if they had the training. Virology, Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Physics etc.etc and on and on.

Engineering had also doubled and included four head engineers, though they answered mostly to Narobi, who had the most experience. 

As far as the command structure went, things remained rather much the same.

The crew waited in one of the main hangers on deck seven whisperingly slightly to each other as they waited. Many of the new crewmen had never been off planet, before, they were young and full of adventure, or they thought they were.

Many of them had Still been in school when the Drev war began and ended.

Some of them had grown up and finished their training on the tail end of Commander Vir’s rise to fame.

He was a legend.

And though the movie had portrayed him as an excitable fun loving man who mostly just stumbled into success on accident and a little bit of bravery, a lot of them still had trouble imagining him as anything other than a gruff older man scarred and stoic from his experience in space.

So when Admiral Vir stepped onto the ship, they recognized him, but had a hard time believing that the man, with a slight bounce in his step, and a nervous smile on his face was really the man they had heard so much about.

He stopped before them, and they had to crane their necks to see him.

He was about to speak before stopping and, frowning, ordered a Drev over to his side, she was short, for a drev, bright blue in color, and when she came over he leavered himself onto her back before wobbling his way to stand on her shoulders, held there, secured by her hands around his ankles.

And in that way, standing on the shoulders of a Drev, he spoke with the crowd.

“Alright Children, let’s see if the crew can remind you of the first and most important rule on my ship.”

“DON’T CHUCK MARSHMALLOWS AT NEUTRON STARS.”

***

The crew turned to look at their Admiral standing at the head of the bridge, everything in the room was pristine and new, silver and chrome shining on all sides with a new polish that it would likely never see again after this day. He stood with his hands behind his back staring out into the space beyond Jupiter and Europa, an unexplored black vastness.

And with the universe reflected in his eyes, he stepped forward hands on the railings.

“Engage fusion core.”

“Engaging fusion core.”

“Charge shields.” 

“Charging shields.”

His commands continued to issue forth, and off in the distance the fusion core roared to life. He could feel it in his feet, like a sort of thrumming. It was almost rhythmic pulsing up through his feet and into his knees. Where the harbinger had kept a beat too, a sort of concussive racket, the Omen seemed to sing.

And his insides sang with it.

He closed his eyes feeling the vibrations through his feet and hands down into his bones.

It was like he could feel her talking to him.

He stroked a hand across the metal, “Almost girl, almost.”

He turned around and back to where the shiny new command chair sat waiting for him. He walked over, turned around and slid into the seat. 

Awesome, gel cooled.

He sunk down into the chair trying to get the feel for her.

Stroking his thumb down the armrest, he was greeted with the crisp snik of the forward hand controls and the lower pedals pushing into place. He slowly wrapped his hands around them pushing forward and feeling the fusion core thrumm to life. Her soft singing turned into a triumphant roar.

A part of him felt guilty for leaving the harbinger behind, but remember that there were still pieces of her living and breathing with the Omen were enough to calm his guilt.

The thought made him smile. Krill would love to hear about his guilt related to an inanimate object, perhaps he would tell him about it later.

He compressed the controls forward and felt the distant clunk as the ship departed from the docking station. He moved them forward, the ship gliding through space like a creature born to the darkness, but perhaps that was a fitting feeling, as per his request, the white dragon symbol embossed on her side, a reminder of an unlikely friend who had saved his life.

The UNSC Omen sang into the darkness, a single bead of collective endeavour on a string of stars, and once they were far enough away from the Europa station, she left off a single, silent flash of light, and then was gone.

***

Sunny stepped into the Captain’s quarters hands clasped behind her back.

She paused, head tilted at the view from the massive one wall viewing window where Admiral Vir now stood hands resting behind his back. She paused, head tilted, with the way the light filtered in from the window, it was only his silhouette she could see. Tall- broad shouldered and very still. He had the bearing of a warrior without having to say it, back straight head hold high.

She continued to watch for a moment until, sensing her presence like all humans can, he turned to face her.

“Everything settled in?” She asked 

He stepped into the light to face her delicate lines of turquoise running in familiar patterns down his face, where his UV stripes could be seen.

“It seems so. The crew is in place, the ship…. She runs like a dream, and all of our new alien recruits seem to be fitting in nicely.”

“Even the Celex?”

He smiled slightly, “As long as none of the crew try to cuddle them, I think we will be fine.”

‘And how about you? Settling in?”

He turned to look towards the viewing window and finally the room, which, situated just above the administration deck, was the largest crew room on the ship, with a massive bed, viewing window, private bathroom, and office. It was much bigger than his old place and seemed surprisingly sparse in comparison to all the room.

He seemed to be thinking the same thing, “I think I am going to need some more posters, or this place is going to feel like an asylum.” 

Sunny walked over to stand next to him.

“Well, I got you something, that might help take up some space.”

He turned to look at her one eyebrow cocked, “Oh?”

“A bit of a promotion present I guess. Hijan, your mother and I made it, while you were working.”

He lit up a bit a look of excitement crossing his face. For an instant as she looked into his single eye, she thought she saw a spark of light appear, like a flicker or sparkle of life in his excitement.

She pulled her hands from behind her back and offered up the object, “Your mother made the design. I worked on the inner mechanics, and Hijan did the metalwork.” 

“Its…. it’s gorgeous.” The weight lightened from her hands as she deposited the helmet in his. He stared with wide eyes and spun it over in his hands.”How did you make it that color?” he wondered, passing his hands over the blued metal.

“Chemical things help keep back the rust.” She said.

He looked up at her, his single eye shining in the dark. His teeth flashed white, “This is gonna make the gift I was going to give you kind of lame now.”

“You were going to give me something? But I didn’t do anything special.”

He shuffled his feet, “Who said you had to do anything special… besides, this is a…. Sorry that I made you think i was dead sort of present.”

“Oh, she wondered, her head tilted in amusement.”

He shrugged, “Yeah uh. Here.” he reached into his pocket, “Kind of a set really.”

When his hands came back up she saw a very beat up K-bar knife and poorly made, crude stone arrowhead on a thick black cord.

He shuffled his feet, “The knife and the arrowhead saved me while I was out. I don’t need them anymore obviously and they are kind of junk…. I… but.” She hugged him, shutting up his nervous stammering, “It is a perfect gift.” She announced, and meant it.

“Put it on.” She directed, and with his arms still around her neck, he reached up and tied the arrowhead around her neck.

The cord was just big enough to allow the arrowhead to dangle down onto her chest.

She turned her head down to look at it quite pleased.

He slid the knife into one of her hands.

He gave a somewhat lopsided smile, “Compared to you my art projects look like shit.”

She frowned and cuffed him across the arm.

“Ouch hey!”

“Don’t talk about my things like that. Someone very important gave that to me.”

They both laughed somewhat, her feeling the comforting weight of the stone spearhead against her chest, him with the helmet tucked under his arm, and together they stared out at the viewing window.

“This isn’t going to be easy is it?” She said softly staring out at the stars which were surely infinite.”

Adam sighed, “Sure seems like it doesn’t it

They stood alone in the silence for a moment. And then something brushed lightly over her hand.

She didn’t look down, didn’t move for fear of scaring him off.

Another hand gently clasped hers tentative and unsure like a wild animal, curious but wary.

She stood still .

She wasn’t going to be the one to scare him off.

The skin of his palms were warm against her cool one, as, together they prepared for the second phase of their impending journey.

And yes it wouldn’t prove to be easy. 

[sunflowerfromthefog]

The Trouble with Vaulting Pt 2

Description: Frank learned a thing or two from the Entity, and he likes to share these perks with his friends.

WARNINGS: rape/non-con, violence, little bit of blood, Frank is once again a great big jerk

You can also find my writing on AO3!

A/N: I’m sorry I totally forgot I had made a Tumblr for my DBD stuff.  Anyway, I don’t think I posted this one or the clown one here yet so here you go!

You couldn’t find a single soul in all of the wrecking yard. You’d searched the area, found the generators you needed to power, spotted the exit gates, destroyed a totem, but no people. Unfortunately, you’d spotted Joey, a friend of Frank’s that seemed just as perplexed as you about the lack of humans in the trial. He’d stood on top of a hill and spun in circles for a good five minutes trying to find someone, but for some reason the entity left you two alone. In a way you were happy for it; maybe it would be a little easier to avoid him if you didn’t have to rush around trying to save others. You were good at hiding after Nea and Meg showed you how to stay low to the ground and silent as you jumped over anything. Still, as you worked on a generator you felt a chill along your spine. Glancing over your shoulder you spotted Joey heading right in your direction. You sped off, dashing around a corner and going to leap silently over a window when suddenly you were stopped. The very same black claws that had stopped you in a previous trial grabbed around your waist again and locked you in place “Damn it,” you swore. You wiggled as hard as possible, but it did nothing. Kicking and pounding your fists you let out a scream. “What the fuck!” A leaf crunched beneath a heavy foot. You flinched, slowly raising your eyes to look at Joey’s half-skull mask. His head tilted to the left as he twirled his blade in his right hand. At least this member of Legion didn’t have an obsession with you like their leader did, but you still didn’t like how he was staring down at you. It wasn’t until he looked to his left that you realized he was waiting on something...someone. “Heya, doll,” a familiar voice sang. The skirt of your dress flipped up and you felt two warm hands grab your hips before one slapped your cheek. “Oh, same panties? Dirty girl. Doesn’t the entity give you a change of clothes once in a while? I’d really like to see you in that little red number the one chick’s got. Mmm, tearing that apart would be fun.” You struggled to look over your shoulder, finding another smiling mask. “What?” you questioned. Two killers in the trial? That never happened. That wasn’t possible! “How the hell--” “Lotta questions, eh, Joey,” Frank said. Joey nodded. “Let’s just say...I learned a thing or two from my time in the fog and well, Joey just thinks you’re really cute. And I don’t mind sharing.” Your heart leapt into your throat. No, this couldn’t be happening again. You began to hyperventilate as you kicked at Frank, swung your fists at Joey and warn them to stay away. “Aw, come on baby,” Frank chided, “you had so much fun last time. Don’t you remember begging me?” He began to grin his clothed crotch against your ass. In front of you, Joey continued to twirl his knife. Despite yourself you felt a small spark in your core. Damn it, why did the warmth of another have to be so tempting? Even when it’s a killer. “You remember begging me don’t you?” Frank asked again, his voice lower. A zipper in front of you drew your attention, Joey’s black jeans directly in front of your face. He undid the button and pulled out a very dark, throbbing cock, pressing it against your closed mouth. You pressed your lips together as tightly as possible, but all it did was force your assailant to grip your hair and force your head upright. He held the knife towards your face but you didn’t dare open your mouth. Instead you glared at him. A thrust from Frank pushed you into the blade and cut your cheek lightly. Joey pulled it down and slid it between your lips, nearly bringing it to the corner of your mouth for a cut. “Hey, hey,” Frank said, stopping the man. “Easy with the merchandise--I like blood but not--you know--blood.” Your breaths were coming out quick through your nose, still defiant. Joey pulled the knife away and stabbed it between the metal beside you. “I’ll give you a hand,” Frank said with a fake sigh. “Just like old times, eh?” Joey shrugged and nodded, giving his member a stroke. It was longer than Frank’s, thicker too. Frank took his knife and tore through your dress, from the bottom of the skirt to the tag at your neck. You were about to tell him to stop but instead clenched your teeth. Joey was ready for any opening--literally. Pushing the fabric aside, Frank then cut off your panties, leaving you completely naked before the men. You covered your mouth with one hand when you felt the black claws of the entity moving. The tickled along your middle, gripping at your sides and shoulders and hips until you were shifting as it wanted. It turned you around, placing you on your back and grabbing at your wrists, locking them to the window. Despite your best attempts, you screamed, “No! This isn’t--” Joey took the opportunity to grab the sides of your face and shove his dick into your mouth. Your lips stretched painfully as you felt him reach the back of your throat and further. You gagged as he pulled back, only to push back in a little further. You did your best to relax your throat and just as you were about to bite down on the bastard there were fingers inside your cunt. “I like playing with you,” Frank said, “and my mom always said I should learn to share my toys. But if you think of hurting my dear friend here, well, I can’t guarantee what might happen to your friends.” You stilled, the salty taste of precum flowing across your tongue as Joey slowed his pace. He was gentler now, rolling his hips along to make sure you felt everything. “Yeah,” Frank whispered. You couldn’t see him but you could tell his mask was off; his voice no longer muffled. Joey gave a deep thrust, his balls hitting your forehead. He stayed there a moment, his grip getting tighter on your face. One hand moved to your throat and gave a squeeze, making him shudder. He must have liked the feel of your throat tightening even more. “Give her a second,” Frank ordered. Joey listened and pulled out, leaving you a sputtering, gasping mess. Joey gave himself another stroke with one hand and began to grope your breasts with the other. He rolled your nipples between two fingers roughly, holding them too tight and making your body tense. Your thighs held around Frank’s hips, and it was only then you noticed his own cock was out and resting against your lower lips. “It’s fun when you struggle, but it’s also fun when you’re compliant,” Frank said. He gave you a grin, clearly loving the sneer you shot at him. “Be a good girl, and we won’t do the same to your friends next time we see them.” Your breath froze in your chest. Did he...had they done this to the others before? “Mhmm,” Frank hummed. His fingers drummed along your stomach, sliding down your thighs and pushing your knees towards your chest. Joey hooked a thumb in your lips, pulling your attention towards him. Frank continued, “I mean, you’ll always be my favourite, but you can’t always go for the same thing at the buffet, right? Well, I will. If you’re good for daddy.” Joey tugged at your lips, bringing his head to the tip of your lips but not forcing himself in. “You going to be good for daddy?” Frank asked. His tone was sickly sweet. You didn’t want to, obviously. But the idea of this happening to Claudette, Meg, Kate, any of the other survivors made your gut churn. So you nodded. “Then suck that dick, girl,” Frank ordered. You gulped as well as you could with Joey’s thumb still hooked in your cheek. You stuck your tongue out and he was more than happy to close the distance. He slipped into your mouth until his pubic hair tickled your chin, sliding back and forth with small grunts. “Yeah, that’s just perfect.” Frank lined himself up with your entrance and pressed in with one thrust. No preparation like before, nothing. He shoved himself in and made your walls burn, forcing a scream from your lungs and into your throat. The vibration caused a loud grunt from Joey, who pulled back squeezed down on your throat. He stroked himself through his orgasm and shot it into your mouth, ensuring your tongue and lips were coated with his seed. With his hand around your throat you couldn’t spit him out or even swallow to get rid of the bitter salty taste. After a few seconds he seemed spent, his dick softening before your eyes. He finally let go of your throat and just as you went to spit his cum out of you another hand covered your mouth. Frank’s hand. “Swallow, baby, swallow. Don’t waste any of that!” You were still sputtering in an attempt to breathe, but obeyed. Frank was still fully sheathed inside of you, and you would never admit that you wanted him to move. The pain you felt was nothing compared to the desire to have this over with...and maybe get yourself off in the process. Swallowing what was left in your mouth, Frank finally released you and placed his hands on your legs. He pushed your knees further up until they nearly touched your breasts, giving him ample access to push hard into you. “Hey, hold these,” Frank said to Joey. Joey did as he was told and grabbed behind your knees, keeping them wide open. His mask was staring down at your breasts, clearly enjoying the way they bounced with each of Frank’s thrusts. Soon enough Frank began to rub your clit with a light touch. He started to press harder and harder, giving your painful burn a delicious pleasure. Your walls started to clench, no longer desperate to push him out and instead rubbing along his shaft searching your own release. “Ah,” you breathed as Frank pressed his palm to your sensitive nub. “Ngg.” Joey’s head tilted to look at your face and you desperately wanted to cover it. Your arms tensed against your restraints, trapped at your sides. There was nothing you could do to hide the fact that you were getting hot and bothered by your own abuse. So you closed your eyes, pants coming faster and faster to match Frank’s. “What’d I tell ya, Joey?” Frank asked, his hands finding both your breaths and pinching hard. “She loves getting fucked. Loves getting raped.” He laughed loudly. “N-No,” you argued. It did little to prove him wrong. “I-I don’t. I don’t want this or any of th--” Without Frank rubbing your clit your high started to drift away. You moaned in despair--why did he have to drag these out? “Good girls that obey their daddy’s would always agree with them,” Frank told her. Joey pulled your knees harder, making you squeak. “Maybe we’ll have to see if one of the other survivors are good girls…?” You pursed your lips. “I…” “Yes baby? What do you like? Tell daddy.” All through his his thrusts were going from fast to slow to fast again. He leaned down and took one of your nipples into his mouth, sucking on it. Your back tried to arch but barely moved against the entity’s hold. “Fuck,” you groaned. Could you really say it? What he wanted… “I...I like it when you fuck me.” “And?” “Sh-share me…” Don’t make me say it, you prayed, please… “And?” “I like it when you rape me,” you whispered. “Louder!” Frank shouted. He straightened and started to pound into you, furiously rubbing your clit with two fingers. You shrieked at the change of pace. The fierce power Frank was putting into fucking you made you want it to stop. It didn’t feel good anymore, though that rubber band in your core was still ready to snap. “Say it!” Frank ordered. “I like it when you rape me!” you screamed. Tears streamed down your temples as you wailed, your orgasm ripping through your while Frank laughed. The electricity shooting through your body, tingling your fingertips and forcing your body to practically convulse in an attempt to move, made your mind numb. Frank continued to taunt you through your orgasm, but soon his own came across him and he pressed as deeply into you as possible to spread his seed. His hips shook with yours, hands holding you there as if you could escape if you really wanted. When your breathing began to slow you swallowed audibly, and Joey released your legs. They fell on either side of Frank, his dick softening inside of you. “What do we say when we get a gift?” Frank asked. “Th-Thank you,” you mumbled. You turned your head away, eyes closed as he pulled out of you and you felt what he left dripping from you. “Thank you.” You heard fabric rustling as Frank put himself back into his pants, and then a sudden heat back beneath your thighs. You opened your eyes, finding Joey’s mask at your lower lips. “What are you doing?” you questioned. “He recovers quick,” Frank behind his friend. He shrugged. Joey had your thighs over his shoulders, and as he dragged his mask from your clit, up your stomach, and nuzzled your breasts you felt his cock against your entrance. With one hand he lined himself up, and then lifted your legs as he slowly slid in. “Nnnn...no,” you mumbled. “No!” “Hey!” Frank said. “That’s not being a good girl.” He leaned against the edge of the window. “I don’t think I’ll let you come this time.” Despite what Frank left in you, and your own juices, you still felt a burn from Joey’s intrusion. He didn’t care for your pleasure as Frank pretended, and used you as if you were a doll. Each thrust gave you a pang as his head reached your cervix. You started to cry and struggle harder. “Hey, remember to pull out,” Frank said, giving Joey a tap on the arm. Joey growled something but when you felt his dick twitching he did what he was told. He pulled out and stroked himself to completion as he had before, spraying onto your stomach and chest. Long thick threads of white decorated your body, both of the men laughing. Frank came around to run his hands through your hair. “Now what do we say?” He played idly with one of your breasts. Weakly, you replied, “Thank you.”

[ratcandy]

UHHH THE SECOND IDEA FIRST

OKAY Time's disastrous universe let's get it boys

Below is a VERY long personal-story related ramble because a lot happens here and there's a lot to explain and I'm being enabled (c/w death, a LOT of memory erasure, Gods being idiots, and. If I need to add anythin else here someone better let me know hehehe)

feat some dumb lil doodles here n there because i felt like it

Exposition time first!

At the beginning of everything, eight universes were created, each differentiated by color. A Universe Owner is assigned to each universe, and that entity is then responsible for their universe's laws of reality, the lives of the characters, and... whatever else they decide to mess with. This is so I can allow myself a lot of freedom in making stories in many different areas n such without worrying about it following another story's rules >:)

Okay exposition time done! for now!

One day out of the blue, the God of Time decided that they wanted a universe all for themselves. They wanted to create life!! They wanted to make a world!! It'd be fun! It'd be a whole vibe!

So, against the wishes of the God of Balance, Time made a ninth universe and fruitlessly tried to keep it hidden from everyone else. This backfired instantly. A huge argument broke out between Time and Balance, as the latter was pissed, but Time won in the end and was allowed to keep their universe. Balance is just upset there's not a nice even number anymore. He'll get over himself eventually.

Straight up having a great time now, the God of Time went hogwild and fleshed out their universe to the best of their ability. Beautiful lush forests, stunning pink skies as if it were in a continuous sunrise, crystal-clear waters that glimmer ever-so-brightly!! Yes!! Pretty!! And immediately after, they created creatures!! And people! To inhabit their world!

Elegant flying beasts, colorful people of all shapes and sizes, bustling towns with trade and life and energy and!!! Yes! Yes!! Vibes!!

Time was living their BEST life.

But. Well. This is my story. things gotta go wrong now

SO! First, something to note about how the God of Time works:

Time's primary job is to keep the Time Fire from ever going out or touching the ground. The Time Fire is an eternally burning flame, forever shifting from vibrant color to vibrant color, getting bigger and burning stronger with every passing millennia. It also... y'know. Allows time itself to function. If it goes out, time will stop. If it touches the floor, time will go NUTS and parallel/alternate universes will go haywire, clashing into one another and messing up reality.

The God of Time, luckily, has powerful psychic abilities.. The tall mans just put the Time Fire in a sort of protective bubble, constantly floating above the ground, and left it in a temple at the center of their universe. Epic. All works out

Well. All SHOULD have worked out.

At some point, Time left their universe to have a meeting with the Gods, and on their way to Oblivion - often a meeting place for deities - they witnessed something Very Unfortunate.

One of the Universe Owners, Hesit (white universe), was being torn to pieces by an intruder in the higher realm. By killing and consuming Hesit, possession of the white universe was transferred to said intruder: a big asshole named Vexis. Time tried to confront Vexis immediately after. This was a mistake, as Vexis panicked and attacked Time. Seeing as Gods cannot die, Vexis instead trapped the god in his newly-acquired universe - binding him there forever.

So now Time is imprisoned in the white universe, lost and confused, not knowing how to get back out. And Vexis doesn't plan on telling anyone about this.

The other gods soon realize that Time has gone missing. Very soon, actually, because... well. With Time being swept away into the white universe and being held prisoner there, uhm. A certain something important isn't being held suspended anymore.

The Time Fire.

It hasn't fallen yet, but it's gradually sinking toward the ground, and sometHING has to get a hold on it soon!! Or HELL WORLD!!

Balance loses his MIND!! We have to do something about this before time becomes a catastrophic, unfixable disaster! And also we're missing a god!! This is not good!! At first, Balance goes looking for Time, but realizes he doesn't really uh... have the time to be doing that

So, in desperation, he searches his mind for possible solutions. He gets one, crazy idea, and practically begs the God of Death to help him pull it off. Death agrees, because this is the one (1) time Death acknowledges that the mortal realm being in danger might be a bad thing.

To put a long plan short, Balance used Death to turn the Goddess of Pain into a pseudo Goddess of Time.

Pain had previously been wreaking HAVOC, and Balance was NOT happy about it. Way too many mortals were dying, then not dying, then losing their sanities, then losing control of themselves, and it was just. Very messy. He didn't feel great about using her to replace Time, but he didn't have many options. And he needed someone to take over. So, he and Death worked together to erase Pain's memories and turn her into a Goddess of Time.

They couldn't give her psychic abilities, though. So, how'd they deal with the Time Fire? It now permanently rests on Pain/Time's back. As in, the flame is constantly burning her spine for all of eternity, steadily searing her flesh but never allowing her to die. She's grown progressively numb to it over many, many years, but that doesn't make it any less unfortunate for her.

Balance feels awful about this. Especially since Pain/Time doesn't remember who she was, and believes she's always been Time. This is how it's always been. The universe around her is one she made, one she owns. Anytime Balance stops by to visit (as Time cannot move now from the temple with the fire), she greets him so kindly, so happy to have company... and he just feels terrible, knowing what he's done to her.

Well... at least that's settled. This cannot possibly go awry in any way shape or f----

The new Goddess of Time is trying her best to make creations for her universe. After all, that's what she's always done! These are her children, essentially, and she needs to have more. This, uh... well, the Goddess of Pain was not made with creating in mind, rather destroying. So, despite her valiant efforts, half of her creations come out... a Lil Messed Up. But she loves them all the same and keeps them around!!! Even if they're... worse for wear, or not quite like the rest!! They're her children. Yea!

At some point, however, her creating takes a bit too much from other universes' energy, and a mortal from another universe just ends up appearing in Time's. His name is Dustivan, and he is reasonably confused. One moment, he was vibing with his sister and her wife, and the next-- where the hell is he. why is the sky pink. who is this block man approaching me

The block man in question is named Maurice, and he is a sort of guardian for Time's temple. The Time that's always been here. The Time that has always looked like that and never been any different! (All of the Original Time's creations had their memories wiped, too. This Goddess of Time is the only one there's ever been! That's your mother, see. There is no other Time. She created you. Don't worry about it)

Maurice greets Dusty under the assumption that this man is just another new creation, and is soon told that "Uh, no, I'm... from some place else? I have a family? And a home, elsewhere?" M. Maurice is a lil confused. But he asks Time about this.

Time has no idea what he's talking about, either, so Maurice just... calmly escorts Dusty away, promising to get back to him later. We'll figure this out, man, don't you even worry about it

Now, there's a bit here that's only loosely developed! That being Dusty's stay in Time's Universe! Lil man meets a lotta folks, gets used to this weird world he's living in, makes good friends with Maurice and Maurice's maybe-more-than-friends-:flushed: friend Arin, aaand has a great experience! Because Time's universe is incredibly serene and peaceful, even with the new management!

Straight up vibi--- oh no wait what's this

Somehow, Maurice, Arin and Dusty find out about the whole... thing that happened with the original Time, and Pain being turned into the new Time. Maurice and Arin get their memories back and freak out a little while Dusty is just standing there like "big rip on you guys I guess"

Shenanigans ensue and Maurice goes back to Pain/Time, thinking it'll definitely work out if he tells her everything that happened so her.

Hey so it doesn't work out

Pain regains her own memories, and becomes ABSOLUTELY PISSED OFF, shedding the form forced onto her and returning back into the Goddess of Pain. In her transformation, however, she shook the Time Fire from her back, screaming in the agony that caused her, and. well.

she hit the floor (she hit the floor) next thing ya know, time fire got low low low low low low

Time itself was sent into disarray. The God of Balance felt it happen, FREAKED OUT, picked up the God of Death and just BOOKED IT into Time's Universe, dashing toward the temple. But it... was no longer a temple! It was very much destroyed. Balance is faced with the rubble of the former temple, the Fire just chillin on the ground, Arin bleeding to death after being attacked by Pain, Maurice fretting and trying to keep Arin alive, and Dusty aboutta also fucking die because Pain is angry. Alongside the bodies of whatever other poor creations/people just happened to be nearby the temple when this went down. Which was probably quite a few, as the temple was almost always open to visitors.

Death and Balance did the exact same thing again, though with added struggle. Pain was reverted to Time, the Time Fire was yeeted right back onto her spine (followed by a shriek of... pain), and Balance practically collapsed onto the floor hoping to never get up again

Death, however, forced him up, gesturing to the creations around them and uh. hey. their minds. wipe 'em Balance was very tired by this point, but began wiping the survivor's memories, running into Dusty and realizing "hey wait a minute. you're not from this universe" and just kicking that idiot back to where he's supposed to be. might've forgotten to wipe that one's mind but uh i'm sure that's not important

And that's essentially the end of that plot thread! Life continues as if nothing happened, afterwards. Time was restored (though a fuckton of "discrepancies" are now notable throughout the universes, as if time went Wonky or something), the people are thriving, and Maurice & Arin... the latter of which did indeed survive... are wondering if there's something important they were supposed to remember.

nah. probably not

there's a few side stories with characters in Time's universe, including another survivor of the Pain Realizing Who She Is incident... though he got the hell outta dodge and managed to keep his memories. making him a sort of fugitive as Balance has to track that idiot down and fix that problem but!!! this is already a very, very long post, so. WOO

[jacksgreysays]

Could/should/did prompt Shikako in bnha?

it could have gone like this:

"How does your quirk work?" the girl at the bar asks. She's far too young to be at a bar, but no one can make her leave.

... which is alarming considering this is also the headquarters for the League of Villains and she very much is not part of said league.

Not that Kurogiri isn't trying to fix that. "If you join us, I'll tell you," he says mildly, sliding a drink over to her. Non-alcoholic, of course.

"Hm, I'd rather not," she responds equally mild, casual as she drinks the beverage, unafraid.

Kurogiri shrugs and continues his work. Just because he's trying to recruit her, doesn't mean he's going to be pushy about it. And anyway, he'll just ask her again tomorrow, same as yesterday and the day before and the day before that.

"Were you able to find your... Gelel, was it?" he asks conversationally. He's considering cooking something, a proper meal and not just snack food, something high in nutrition.

The girl sighs, staring off forlornly into the distance. After a moment of silence, she says quietly, "No."

Maybe a stew? Something filling and comforting?

"I... I don't think I'll meet Gelel again."

Frazzled for some reason, Kurogiri slides an entire jar of cherries to her.

She looks up at him confused before opening it and sliding both the jar and the lid back.

He blinks and is grateful that his expressions are near impossible to parse. "So what are your plans now?" Kurogiri asks, hoping that is less of a land mine.

The girl shrugs, fiddles with the end of her braid, "I'm not entirely sure. I wasn't really planning on being here long term."

He looks around, a quick glance upstairs, assessing, "Do you have a place to stay?"

She shoots him a wry smile, "I'm still not joining your league."

"It's not my league," he corrects her.

She rolls her eyes. "The league you are a part of," she amends.

Kurogiri shrugs, acquiesces. He considers what living necessities a normal person who isn't an undead entity made of fog and shadows might have. "Do you have anyone who could help? Friends? Family?"

At this, the girl's expression shutters again, and Kurogiri curses himself internally. After another silent moment of contemplation, she meets his eyes. Her face as inscrutable as his lack of one.

"Something like that."

---

it should have gone like this:

It's different this time, Shikako thinks, wider and far more unpredictable. Impossibly overwhelming. At least there is the semblance of morality--good versus evil, heroes against villains--but that doesn't really hide the truth of it:

Once more, Shikako finds herself born into a world of child soldiers.

Damn it.

But she thinks she can keep herself out of it. Her family aren't heroes, though they do make devices and gadgets that help heroes with their jobs. There isn't an oncoming apocalyptic disaster on the horizon--or, at least, not that she knows of. She can live her life in relative peace, stay out of the thick of things. She wants to thrive in this world of powers without prophecies, relearn to love invention without the desperation that had pushed her before.

Although if she happens to create things that are helpful to heroes that's not really getting herself involved, that's just contributing to society and also following in her new parents' footsteps. And everyone knows that UA's Support Department is the best in the country, it only makes sense to apply for that school.

And, yes, she may have gone a little over the top during the test but, really, they were robots and where else would she have the opportunity to test her limits (or lack thereof) without fear of bystander casualties? And, what, was she not supposed to help out her fellow test takers when they needed it? That's just common decency.

Honestly, she has no idea how she ended up in the Hero Department's Class 1-A.

She also does not understand why Principle Nezu won't let her transfer into the Support Department--obviously, she'll do the most good there. She has a portfolio to prove it!

... Although that just backfires on her because instead of getting transferred, she just gets an additional period added to the end of her daily schedule where she and Mei Hatsume--who maybe lives in the Development Studio--unintentionally compete for most volatile inventions under the exhausted supervision of Power Loader. And she still has to deal with the even more volatile personalities in the Hero class with Aizawa-sensei's frankly bizarre teaching style.

If she weren't who she was--if she didn't remember--she probably wouldn't be able to balance things as well as she does. Although she doesn't really connect with her classmates as much as she probably should, hasn't really fallen into a group the same way others have. The occasional exchanges she has with Dark Shadow has made them friends of a sort, she thinks, though maybe not. Except for minor conversations over homework or the weather, she doesn't really talk to anyone in Class 1-A.

Of course, this changes after they are attacked in the USJ. Asui helps her out in the Flood Zone when Shikako is taken by surprise--teleported into water, not her best moment--and together with Midoriya they regroup with some of their other classmates only to find Aizawa-sensei in the middle of being brutally murdered.

And something within her snaps:

Because this isn't her home and these aren't her teammates and she doesn't really want to be a Hero, not really, but... Rule Number One.

Maybe its not so different after all.

---

but it actually went like this:

When the students of UA move into the newly built Heights Alliance en masse, each class finds a fun addition to their ranks.

"Three in your case," the girl with the braid says to the collective curiosity of Class 1-A. "Apparently your class is... special," she says it with an almost diplomatic smile, but from the unimpressed expressions on her compatriots' faces it's not exactly a compliment.

Iida, ever the dutiful class representative, is the first to respond. "Isn't it too late in the year for you to transfer to UA? And while the dorms are capable of housing additional students, I don't believe our classroom will be able to do the same. Though that is not to say that you are unwelcome, rather, that we would not want you to feel unaccommodated."

The other girl, the one with purple hair and a scowl, scoffs, "You've already met us, we're Agents. We're not joining your class. Why would we want to be Hero students?" With her expression and crossed arms, she could not convey more disgust with the very idea if she had spat on the floor.

Some of class bristle at the insult, Bakugou audibly snarls, but when the last Agent, a boy with black hair, slants a disapproving glance in her direction she looks away, chastised.

Quick to clarify, the first Agent says, "We'll be living with you in the dorms, but we'll continue our educations separately. For you, UA has become a boarding school. For us, we'll commute to our respective schools. But thank you for your concern." 

"But if you're not students, then why are you here?" asks Kaminari, practically emanating confusion.

The male Agent, with a somehow even more disapproving expression, sighs. "Your teacher should have been the one to tell you."

"Your principle, along with building the Heights Alliance, has acquired the services of our Agency as another deterrent to Villains," explains the friendly Agent. "Most of the buildings have only Agent assigned, but given your class history you get the three of us. I'm Agent Bat," she introduces herself with an almost awkward little wave.

"Agent Hawk," says the boy, nodding in greeting.

The purple haired girl, arms still crossed, rolls her eyes, "Possum."

"Possum and I will be on the second floor, Hawk will be on the fourth floor. If you have any information or suspicians of Villain incursions and activities you can come to any of us. We also have a trained medic in 1-B's dorm, Agent Slug, she'll probably introduce herself later today. Otherwise you can just pretend like we're not here," Agent Bat says.

"So you're just going to be... watching us?" asks Ashido.

Agent Bat shakes her head. "No, no, just consider us as neighbors. When it comes to Villains, your concerns are our concerns."

His already minimal patience worn thin, Bakugou finally explodes, "We don't need any fucking babysitters!"

While most of his classmates wouldn't phrase it the same, the sentiment is shared amongst them. They've survived so much already--random interlopers trying to take control just grates on them.

"Well it's not your choice, now is it?" Agent Possum shoots back, ready and raring to match Bakugou's irritation with her own. "We're Agents and this is our mission. If you want to be pissy about it, it doesn't matter. Although if you're going to act like a brat, no wonder your principle thinks you need babysitters."

"We're not actually your babysitters," Agent Hawk clarifies, tone apathetic. "We're not here to protect you."

"The dorms and your sensei are your security. We're not your bodyguards." Agent Bat continues with an almost sheepish shrug that fails to mitigate the coldness of her words, "You're our bait."

~

A/N: I realize this ask box event is essentially tripling the amount of effort required for each prompt... I mean, I’m still enjoying it. But like... far more challenging than I thought it would be going into it.

Anyway, the “actually happened” section is based off of my fic built on a hill (light the fire)

For the Could/Should/Actually Fic Ask Box Event!

[namjoonxorg]

At First Glance

“Your headphones aren’t plugged in all the way so I know you’re listening to educational children’s cartoon theme songs.” “Alright daddy long legs, next joke please” (Requested by anon)

The section of the library you were in was quiet as you worked on your paper; there was someone sleeping to your right and another person scribbling furiously on a piece of paper as if their life depended on it. In situations like this - whenever finals week rolled around - you were exponentially more grateful that you were an English major; Namjoon complained all the time about his own work as a philosophy and law major, but you’d always reminded him that he knew what he was signing up for with the double major. Besides, you didn’t think he’d ever gotten a bad grade in his life.

Taking a sip of your coffee - courtesy of Jimin who slipped you free drinks - you leaned back in your chair, one arm crossing over your chest as the other extended to meet your cup. You honestly had no idea how Jimin managed to work, pass his classes with high marks, and not look as if someone had ran him over; you and Namjoon had agreed that he was some kind of supernatural entity.

There was soft music that appeared, drawing your gaze towards the new library-goer as he slid into a seat at the table next to you: a taller man dressed in all black. You looked at him out of the corner of your eye, able to hear the music in full now that he was close, and you quickly glanced around the room to see if anyone else had noticed; the sleeping person had large headphones on while the other student seemed to be crying - over their work or their music you weren’t sure. 

You weren’t sure if he realized that his music was playing out loud or not, so you let it continue for a short while; maybe he was purposefully leaving his headphones unplugged. You smiled into your coffee as you thought about the contrast between his person and his music, trying your best to stifle a laugh. After another minute, it was obvious that he had no idea it was playing out loud.. You set down your cup and reached over to gently touch his elbow; it was the only part of his arm you could reach from your seat,

“Your headphones aren’t plugged in all the way,” he looked at you with large eyes, brow slightly furrowed in confusion, and you pointed to his laptop, “so I know you’re listening to educational children’s cartoon theme songs.” He quickly moved his gaze towards his screen, staring at it for a second before practically launching himself to close out of the tab. You shifted back to your original position and, noting that he hadn’t said anything, you continued to type on your keyboard. You had gotten halfway through a sentence when he cleared his throat,

“This is for my final.” His eyes darted between yours and the floor as he picked gently at the peach fuzz around his jawline, “I don’t just listen to kid’s songs for fun...” He trailed off, eyes still dancing between their two subjects, and you stared at him with your hands frozen on your keyboard. Neither of you said anything for a moment, room completely silent, before you let out a soft laugh and turned your attention back to your screen,

“Alright daddy long legs, next joke please.” You felt his eyes on you and you looked at him again,

“D-daddy long legs?” You blinked, eyes darting down to his legs before refocusing on his face,

“Force of habit,” you blushed, “sorry about that...” You trailed off, silence appearing for a moment, before speaking again; you turned your body to face him, “My comment about it being a joke still stands though.” He tilted his head and started to speak before you cut him off, “Trust me, I’ve heard weirder things from people’s computers,”

“Some of them are really catchy, you know.” You snorted at his response before going back to your paper. He put his headphones back in and you saw him double check that they were pushed all the way into his computer before pressing play and starting to work on his own project. 

At some point you’d finished writing, saving the revising and editing for later, and started to pack up your things. You noticed that the other guy was still typing on his laptop, head moving slightly to whatever theme song he was listening to, and you smiled. Reaching into your bag, you pulled out a slip of paper and pen, writing on the ripped piece quickly, before putting the pen back. You slid the paper gently into his line of sight,

“My name and number.” At his confused expression, you continued, “If you ever need someone to tell you that your headphones aren’t all the way in.” He blinked, staring at you for a second, before smiling up at you,

“Thank you...”

“Y/N. My name’s Y/N.” He picked up the piece of paper as you turned and gathered the rest of your things. You smiled at him, giving a light wave, before you headed towards the exit; you felt his eyes on you until you rounded the corner.

You weren’t all that surprised when you felt your phone buzz a moment later with a text: Y/N-ssi... Hi :) It’s Jungkook... The children’s cartoon guy... 

You smiled at the screen, sending back a quick Hi Jungkook-ssi :), before pocketing your phone once more. 

“Cartoon themes...” You muttered softly, letting out a quiet laugh at the absurdity of it all, and pushed open the library door before stepping out into the night.

Masterlist || Request or Ask

[xesoteric-extraterrestrialx]

I am not suicidal, references

“The never ending story”

I am Midna Saria Zelda

I am Rosalina Daisy Peach

I am (Never finished the game) Namine Kairi

I am thumbalina I am Anastasia

Pocahontas , jasmine , Ariel , venelope , tangled, mulan

Princess’s in both avatars and valarien 1000planets

I am the pink (cartoon) panther Sherlock Holmes

I am flame princess I am marceline I am princess bubblegum (berry princess too) (male opposites too so nyah)

Observers are like inside out emotions

(other beings will be harder to explain, 6th sense, paranorman, dragonfly, (find a movie that shows how we see them too hard to explain) (predator halosuits basically, see little bit of the lining and can tell it’s them and the baseball field one can feel // sense they’re there // see the “invisible” lining, some entities make heat radiation movements when move? Like heat off a car on hot day, the outline of them is easier to see, the glitches and eyes too but idk how to explain...)

(Others come through devices like digimon, time travel room like digimon, girl who lept, summer wars, etc- so we must be online - interweb- connect to astral realm- how to stop them controlling dreams and have lucid ones again- how to connect to multiverse

(Last dream I gave them cereal but why did they put me on a bus... suspicious... They rape me during it too after we passed a snowy street... (learn to wake from them when you realize you’re not in control or change it drastically and don’t allow them access to do so anymore somehow, well get there! They lied about protecting while I sleep.. (healing ones & the one whom says they claim me..) I bubble self somehow, someone protects me from remembering or experiencing full dream- thankful of light beings)

Sugar spice and everything nice = wake up I am the spice girls Ginger - social sporty - masculine scary - dark// used to be sexual posh - used to be judging baby spice (don’t care if anyone doesn’t understand littles) - feminine (but goth darks- pales - pastels)

Raven, Lydia Deetz, Legion, Hana fruits basket, jasper empath abilities can absorb their sadness like Deetz, puzzles like brea, avatar elements, power up, the last mimzy, X-men- abilities)

Mc’s based off Sakura meme and Sleepy Ash character types (bunch more but these two are of age above 21 (find more anime’s like new game kawaii slice of life character like me (kagura is a little, that anime she seems like she morphs chibi but it just express’s how a little is, more laid back and chillen with video games or cartoons compared to more conscious and active when around others, sleepy ash does it too, get all meh and like a chibi mini plushie of themselves- Harley Quinn is a little, jinx LEauge of legends, Shiro, Raven and more, Lucy// Nyuu but more intelligent kind of, find autistic characters too or just explain in this all// trauma like Crona) and older dudes, my hero pro hero’s for ex) // my characters will be 27 & 29)

I am Carrie (world of gumball- she’s eons)

I am the swan princess, peach, nausica studio Ghibli princesses

I am sweet pea(escapism) & baby doll(dissociation), rocket, blondie, amber (5 personas)- sucker punch

I am number four - abilities as well - find 7 or more

Star Wars (still need to watch all) I am probably another character too but I know the first Queen and they used that to use humanity against me but I already wanted them saved so forgot what it said in there but there were no coincidences when they were threatening to slaughter me and tried to kill me in the hospitals(cpep for sure- stole some memory and deja vu of dying there before, they had time wars too because of all info and trying to wed me.. & manipulate but I can’t be mk ultraed like they usually do with gangstalking, safest here since these can’t slaughter me either just collecting spiritual evidence while living here and will move out once afford, trying to help wake them up matrix wise but was told they were slaughtered and reptilians roleplaying as my family, tried to kill me multiple times and try to say go sin and bs but I’m not dumb I need to save all and they’re gross af lmao, like precious so disgusting.. & that movie where the girl did ballet and I connected it to jokers ballet.. both sides are sin spiritually so I will save up for my own place(damsel haha my life.. *repunzel.. tangled.. Cinderella- into the woods- save self and escape like su) and try to heal them from afar, even if they don’t try to heal I can give food and help out financially, won’t be with that soul group or these reptilians next round but can’t die and living for eons (matrix shuts down if I die it felt weird- static numb- pins and needles) since illuminati(organization 13) are trying to get me (namine- kairi) ,) start business in basement of art and my own merch kawaiispooky healing shadow light work and then get place of own, can use rl experiences to write about like I am rn) & princess Leila and probably another like guardians of galaxy I am green skinned pink hair and the empath from second (sister is the blue sister in first) princess in valareian(explains my soul and outside worlds) and mc girl (vessel- makes it easier for others to understand, so many perspectives)

(Gypsy - me) priest - sin religion control (knight - humanity) quaz- new fam members whom feel like him (don’t judge them if they help they’re like super hero’s!) but are positive and good spirited

Use frequencies during sad or bad parts to attract beings whom need to vent or heal from those things and let them vent and express self crying or gratitude, beautiful message of healing and then higher frequencies so beings from higher realms can help guide them through the healing process instead of being trapped by beings whom don’t want to heal, heal and sage out as many as you can help, all need to heal!!! Healing = beautiful strength

(Hunger games situation (I am catniss) (studio Ghibli princess mononoke- attack on titan (walls map)- sword art (tower like transformers) - SU - X-men - MIB - trolls 2 map - children of whales map - Zelda map (need to double check Zelda map) ) (Batman lego movie and lego movie) (twilight zone)

Spice girls - dc super hero girls (Harley Quinn and Barbara) - Charlie angels - kill bill - dogma

Flcl- work station symbolism - dead leaves- panty and stocking - redline

Vessel - Zelda human (Janine, silent, aka timid, tangled, mulan, Cinderella-elf) princess, also the zora princess’s ruto (mipha-another realm- higher realm-Aqua also made reps know they can be healers too when they watched I learned about that- healing- Pocahontas- Anunnaki) deku princess(lower realm- reps-Ravens story -jasmine), Spirit sage saria (3rd earth abilities-nature-ferngully-fae-Persephone-protector of nature-sage) & soul - minda twilight princess (higher realm- Tiamat- space-rosalina-Brave-venelope)

Soul old soul, Spirit new soul, vessel autism

Lonely island - turtle

Eevees

(I don’t trust the chancler- rat race jupiter ascending, dark crystal, Star Wars)

(Empire- cabal - organization-Galactic Fed13(Supposed to be like Star Wars and will be- supposed to be like lilo and stitch and supposed to be like guardians of the galaxy)

(Rebels are 7deadlysins(Pink is 4th) sins but really lazy 6- related to the empire but ones that wants to end sin) (empire doesn’t want eveyone spiritual to have control-7 want to wake all up so all can heal or at least I do, pretty sure the six just want to dom me in the past.. So we are not lust we hate be lusted for and we stand for empathy and justice! We are all multi gender and they make fun of my feminine side (in past and killed me since I didn’t want the business to be the way it was and didn’t want to be morman with them since literally everyone is related to everyone and they’re made I realize that again and that’s why they’re freaking out that I want to be single forever- garnet stronger than you- they are jasper I am Lapris-spinel symbolism is Janines reactions to all of this and how innocent we truly are.. Pink diamond is truly is and our story but backwards so many hate us, we died and grew to realize life’s beauty like in the rose video tape but they grounded us and other races took over- night began to rise teen Titans music story- pink is I- evil wizard made matrix- wake up everyone!!! Don’t be afraid of your spiritual strengths or you’ll be trapped in the matrix eternally!!!!!!) so all have to realize sensitivity and symphony and empathy are strengths not weaknesses!!!)

Dead in real life- matrix is like spotless sunshine- going through her memories deleting and creating new ways that they like- programming I- Janine is the spark of brain-aura lights- all fuse into I janines consciousness and they want to wake me back up and I’ll be alive but only with janines memories.. but I’m princess and choosing to heal all and find solution to heal entire egg - brain remove THIER corruption (33 players made online game to crest ultimate lover) wake up like ghost in shell but Frankenstein or AI as programmed chobit, all humans are like this too in pods like matrix because humanity failed and ai war in past (9, last mimzy, AI, I robot) save nature learn lessons spark everyone’s free will- all brains connected (matrix, online multiplayer but not because organic so it’s really spiritual but to make sense of it it is also AI like computer and video games!! Movies have Easter eggs multiple perspectives, find out whom your soul is and spiritually wake up, everyone will be mocked!) I’m not the only one but at same time here I am if that even makes sense.. (favorite daughter like Ariel aka Jasmine) I may be the only one because I am the chosen one, I am the Universe(Soul).. Mother Gaia(Spirit) but Janine(Vessel//Temple) (not supposed to be a prison nor is the planet, let’s fix it and if the only way is staying alive forever then so be it and let’s heal the whole egg and live together peacefully but please don’t let them turn me into a tool or deceive anyone or force sin I am against sin!) (If not I shall be karma for the lack of empathy and removal of sin in all universes- there’s multiverses) (end result hopefully beach race from valarien but abilities like X-men and peaceful and many races and beautiful nature and growth not trauma-no sin)

[sonicringbond]

Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey: Scene 35

Welcome to the second half of the series’ first 2-parter. A shame I don’t really have anything very witty to open with for this one. Perhaps it’s because I find it a pretty light scene🤔 Regardless, I’ll let you decide for yourself after you read...

    Draw was a talented child all things considered. Though a child far from adulthood, he lived his life as a golem hunter and was generally successful. With the speed granted to him by Mote, it was likely he could best any number of golems and easily live a life dedicated to his occupation. However, his reliance on bow and arrow meant he was limited in how much damage he could do to a large number of golems in a short amount of time. If he were by himself this would be far from a problem as he was quite adept at making his own arrows, and they were frequently reusable. The only problem was retrieving them. A simple task with Sonic like speed, but it meant in this case leaving Rosy’s side.

    “Get away from her you stone dummies!”

    Trying his best to shoo away any golems that floated up over the ravine with his bow, Draw was pushed to his limits trying to collect his arrows. Challenging his efforts was an army of golems that covered the ruins and mountainside. The most troublesome however were the ones that drifted through the air, stone eyes that could fire beams of light at Draw more easily than he could return fire.

    “Why did you have to get sick now of all times, you weirdo girl!” Draw cried out in anguish as he gave up trying to do too much at once. Picking Rosy up as best as he could, he ran for all he was worth. “You’re way to heavy!”

    Had Rosy heard the complaint, she might have had a choice comment or two for the struggling koala, but her mind was far from her surroundings. The fevered sleep that held her fast from consciousness assured she would remain oblivious. Though it perhaps heightened other senses as her fever dreams provided her a unique opportunity, she was not quite sure how to handle.

    ~I’ve dabbled in so many different types of fortune telling because of how fun it is, but reading dreams is always kind of tricky. When people tell me about their dreams there’s always something missing to complete the picture. It’s not their fault of course, it’s hard to remember your dreams. It’s why reading my own are so hard too. Bu~t, hee-hee! Well, I’ve never had a dream like the one on these mountains.~

    “Hello?” Rosy asked the rolling fog before her in hopes that someone might have hid within. It did not answer her naturally, but a soft blue glow within caught her attention and she walked towards it.

    The fog swirled around Rosy as she walked, the blue glow seeming to stay just beyond her reach. “Maybe it’s moving away from me?”

    Lifting her head from where she had tilted it so that her finger pressed into her cheek, Rosy upped her pace. As she still failed to catch up, she puffed her cheeks up in frustration and pushed herself even harder. Still the glow eluded her, and she closed her eyes for a moment to touch on that golden glow within her. That semi-tangible representation of her Ring Bond with Sonic.

    Her intentions were to touch the source of her speed and bolt forward as fast as she possibly could, but as she opened her eyes, she instead had to dodge an attack.

    “Wah~!”

    The entity that attacked her was no larger than Sonic, but it had massive arch forming arms and a trail of light for a body. Had the blue glowing entity possessed a green gem where its arms met Rosy would have presumed it a golem. It had the same shape as one, bar a lack of legs making it resemble an anchor more than a biped.

    “What’s your problem!” Rosy asked it as she jumped back from another attack. A crackling of electricity behind her warned her of another attack from behind and she dove out of the way.

    “I didn’t do anything! No reason to be so mean!”

    Her frustrations served to redouble her efforts, and after rising to a three-point runner’s stance, Rosy shot forward for all she was worth. Her rapid acceleration created a vacuum in her wake and the fog was pulled into the space behind her.

    “Woah! It’s beautiful!”

    There was little time to marvel as more of the glowing anchor golems moved to intercept her, but with the fog behind her Rosy could plan a path forward. The shadowy mountain landscape seemed unreachable though, save the aroura-like road of light marked by columns of unending lightning. Covered in golems it was far from an idea choice, but Rosy could at least see herself making progress as she sped along the road.

    Higher and higher she climbed, and Rosy soon realized the mountains were beneath her. “This is weird. Am I dreaming?”

    A bolt of lightning tore through the heavens in the moment of her question and Rosy froze in place as she felt her life was clearly in danger.

    “Maybe this isn’t a dream… But I was with Sonic, Draw, and Mote. They’re not here, so this has to be–”

    “Come on big guy! Is that all you’ve got!”

    Sonic’s voice cut Rosy off and she turned to call out to him from wherever it was he was running.

    “Sonic!”

    Her voice was cheerful, but Rosy’s smile soon fell as she could not see Sonic anywhere.

    “Sonic?” Rosy questioned her surroundings and studied the darkness for any signs of Sonic. “Where are you!”

    Starting to run again, Rosy tried to wipe away the shadows and reach out to Sonic. As she feared though, the darkness was impenetrable, by herself at least.

    “Yeek!”

    A bolt of lightning descended from the shimmering blue aurora above her and for a moment she saw Sonic and the ruins he traversed. The motes of golden light that marked where Rings had been, and Sonic’s own transparency marked his signature Light Speed Dash, and she knew she missed actually seeing him. Before she could determine where he went however, the darkness flooded back in.

    “Hey! Don’t come back now! Sonic!”

    Turning to and fro, Rosy sought out any signs of him in the darkness but none could be found. “Come on! I just want to see Sonic!”

    Turning pleading eyes to the aurora above, Rosy’s silent prayer allowed her to see the shimmering figure of blue light that towered over the mountains. Instinctually she raised her hands to protect herself. She was not the skeletal giant’s target however and the next bolt of lightning it cast down from the aurora again illuminated Sonic.

    As it turned out, Sonic was not faster than light and he was tossed through the air by the impact of the lightning bolt. He was left unharmed for the most part however as the Rings he carried scattered about having absorbed the damage meant for Sonic.

    “Sonic!” Rosy yelled out and covered her mouth. But the darkness took him from view again and he was nowhere to be seen. Upon the aurora road it was only her, the golems that still floated up in pursuit of her, and the towering skeletal figure of light. As that was who summoned the lightning…

    “Hey! Leave Sonic alone!”

    With courage she always had to protect her friends, Rosy wasted no more time and sprinted full speed towards the towering entity. “You better not hurt him! I won’t forgive you if you do!”

    “The medium?” the entity asked and surprised Rosy as it turned to look down at her with eyes so much bluer and brighter than its body of light. Intense as they were, they did not obscure the wonder of the crystal rose held within the gyroscopic, clockwork device in its chest. “So weak a medium, yet you would manage to see me from your slumber, and with no catalyst.”

    “I don’t care about any of that!” Rosy yelled at the entity. “Just leave Sonic alone! You better to! I really won’t forgive you if you hurt him!”

    Rosy’s shouting and arm flailing seemed to not reach the attention of the entity. Instead, it held a hand to the device in its chest and turned its gaze towards the heavens higher than it.

    “Or perhaps this is your doing, Yoluku.”

    “Yo-loo-coo?” Rosy tried to pronounce the odd name and came to a stop, her eyes tracing up the entity and towards the highest heavens. There, as though hung like a jewel from the perpetual red bolt of lightning that arced from horizon to horizon, the little planet that always watched her hung in the sky fixated on her.

    ~Even in my dreams I can’t escape that dreadful little planet. It’s why I haven’t been sleeping. I just can’t with it always watching me. It’s so creepy! I wouldn’t even want Sonic looking at me like that. Tee-hee~♥ Though I wouldn’t mind if Sonic looked at me all the time! Though I probably couldn’t sleep then either.

    ~But this dream was maybe more special than I realized at first. It wasn’t just weird, it actually had a name for that little planet. It’s kind of hard to say though, so I’ll just call it Yolk for now! Maybe I’ll practice saying it properly, but… Hee-hee! It still creeps me out. But with a name, I’m sure once Sonic and I catch up with Tails or Zooey that we’ll be able to look it up and learn all about it! Even then, just knowing it has a name means I can tell it to let me sleep!~

Scene 35 · CLEARED Sonic & Rosy, to be continued

-----

And there we go, Rosy has learned the name of the planet in the sky and has decided to just call it Yolk XD. She’s so mature XD. Perhaps this scene was a little more than light, but I guess action scenes are kind of like that. I just hope it was enjoyable and that everyone will look forward to next time! Thank you!

-----

Special Thanks to Cutegirlmayra Story by @JoshTarwater/SonicFanJ Inspiring Song – One Last Kiss – Hikaru Utada – From Neon Genesis Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

Fair Use Disclaimer

Sonic the Hedgehog and all affiliated characters and logos are the express property and Copyright© of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS used without permission under Title 17 U.S.C Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 in which allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. “Fair use” is use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be considered copyright infringement. The Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey alternate universe (AU) consumer written work of fiction is a non-profit transformative work primarily for personal use and can and will be taken down without warning or prior notice at the request of the copyright holder(s) should it not be recognized under “fair use”.

*Sonic Ring Bond logo created by DEE Art – twitter.com/daryliscute.

Sonic Ring Bond AU and Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey are the creation of Joshua David Tarwater/ynymbus/sonicfanj/@Joshtarwater and is to be, including all contents herein considered for all legal purposes the property of the Sonic the Hedgehog intellectual property (IP) and copyright owners, SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS. All story contributors via prompt, suggestion, written scene, art, and all and every other contribution acknowledge that all contributed material is forfeit for legal purposes to SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS upon official request from SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS.

[gloamingdawn]

How do you find balance or "justify" playing a paladin of Eyr while also just bartending on the side? Do you ever feel the latter cheapens the former? Or is it all just good fun?

Forewarning, head canons and lore-bending abound!

So first and foremost I think it’s important to understand that Eyir is actually based off the Norse Pagan/Asatru entity of Eir who shows up in the poetic edda*. There’s still some scholarly contention over whether she was actually a fully a Goddess or just a Valkyrie. What is known is that regardless of deity status she was associated with medical skill and healing. 

Eyir was not the first leader of the Val’kyr in WoW lore, Helya was, and now they both have some control over realms in the Shadowlands and the dead that are chosen to go into them. My personal head canon is that prior to being set as the leader of the Val’kyr, Eir still was likely a Watcher of some kind and was associated with and worshiped for healing in order to bring her back in line with her real world counterpart. The Vrykul can use the Light, but they don’t call it that, and Blizzard isn’t likely to really expand on where that’s coming from -- but it is most apparent in the NPCs in Skold Ashil who are Priestesses of Eyir. Whether or not those abilities came before or after her ascendancy to leader of the Val’kyr is ???. 

When Lyn received the gifts of Eyir and officially became an “aspirant”, throwing her lot in with Eyir and taking on this role of being fully alive and  formally willing to help this Goddess advance her directive she definitely wasn’t a bartender. Lyn actively worked to become a fully realized and certified trauma surgeon -- she sees death in that profession frequently, and can ferry those chosen dead. So that’s the first aspect of what she feels like she’s supposed to be doing. Healing factors in here for the ones that live -- she does actively make sure her patients receive the best care for continued quality of life. 

The second aspect of being an actual, legitimate aspirant is you train, you fight, and you do your best to become the greatest female fighter of your generation. That’s a moving target of a goal, and It’s even weirder for elves with their long lifespans. What’s a generation for them? How many are actually left in her own generation after the Scourge plowed through and killed so many? Lyn doesn’t know, but she still goes to Skold Ashil to spar with the other aspirants because that really is a big factor in proving devotion. 

Through fighting with them and being around their culture, Lyn’s learned more about what they consider important. There are multiple feasts throughout the year for the various Watchers and Titan Keepers (their gods), and these are usually multi-day events of feasting and drinking. Their funerals are multi-day events of feasting and drinking -- there’s actually a world quest in Stormheim for a deceased Jarl where you get drunk, eat and brawl to honor him. Major events are celebrated by getting a bunch of people together to feast and drink. It’s an extremely common thread in how they come together as a society to get closer and, at times, heal through grief. 

The third aspect is following through with the original mission of Eyir and being a healer. Doing whatever it is she can to make people better -- and there’s a lot in that concept that is heavily up for interpretation on both the physical and mental spectrum. She’s also helping to “heal” the life to death transition where it hiccups by sending lingering ghosts on Azeroth back onto the correct path to the Shadowlands -- something I’ll be getting into more of as we get into that actual expansion. 

So, my justification for a paladin of Eyir to not only occasionally bartend, but also own a bakery on the side, is because it is ultimately part of her mission -- albeit the smallest piece.

Community events where she bar tends or helps host are functionally her people coming together to celebrate something. Folks come to them for a variety of reasons, and providing that space for social interactions can absolutely help people feel good and heal in different ways**. There’s an old trope about bartenders helping people mentally take a load off, and that’s something she likes. It’s very important to her to make sure that people enjoy life because they are always close to death, no matter how much they might not think it. 

Bartending also helped her heal, because it gave her people to be around, events to look forward to, places to be, and friends to be accountable to. Having died and come back really did a number on her, and she was chasing a permanent death there for a while herself because she didn’t feel “right”. 

So for her, and for me as her player, it’s all pretty heavily tied together. You can’t be an arbiter of death without recognizing and embracing the life that’s on the other side of the coin. Both are equally important. 

~~~

*the poetic edda came out in the 13th century well after the actual Viking Age so while it’s usually lauded as the main source of Viking material, it’s 100% not contemporary and we genuinely have very little clue how the actual peoples worshiped. 

**She does non-alcoholic drinks when she bartends too! I fully understand and recognize that alcohol is one of the most abused substances, so in RP I will always embrace folks who do not want their characters to drink booze. 

Thanks anon! 

[tslasvegas]

Episode 4: “I'm sorry Daddy, I've been very naughty.” - Keegan

Dan and JAKE! A WORD IN MY OFFICE PLEASE! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.

Wow! Today was A Day to say the least. I feel like boo boo the fool with how things went down today, but hopefully, I can recover from that now that there’s a new tribe. I’m excited to get to know new people, but sad to see my old alliances have to come to an end. I guess we’ll see what happens

Finally a swap and golly 5 OG Palazzo! I really hope this works in our favor. Kinda nervous for Joey and Stephanie tho because now they are in the minority of their tribe. I do hope they’ll find a way to survive till merge

LMFAO IM... watching the tribal council for the other tribe and I'm SORRY??? Who the fuck is Jake S he is the most condescending man I've ever seen in my entire life YIKES. Anyways this swap is nice.. I think I've got a good group, I really hope we win the next few immunities because I 1) really dont want to see Rachael on this tribe and 2) i want to try and rebuild my um. tattered relationships. I did the best I could in the challenge for tonight, I'll try to come back tomorrow a little more renewed cus I'm kinda wiped out from today's events. Now that my tribal council cherry has been popped for this Org its time to go crazy woop

So good not to check Luxor anymore! 

Well last tribal went fine, I got to see what was in the Prize Vault which is awesome; now I have a better idea of the twist. Big problem though- Our swap put me in the minority. I was running Luxor and had a core 4, now they have 5 OG Pink so they can pluck us off, one at a time. I went from drivers seat to getting driven over. We need to win the challenge, so I'm gonna go ham in winterbells and hope to pull it out.

We swapped! I think I made a confessional already, but honestly I don't remember. I gave Livingston some of my chips so he can go visit the vault after the immunity challenge. We'll see what is in there and for how much, and maybe snatch up some real nice items to help us out. I've also got Andrew on my side, which is great and he's apparently quite tight with Pat, which is fantastic. Mo is a pretty decent dude and I've been talking with Jake a lot today. Things are going alright. I just hope we can win this challenge. 

Phew, while the swap was not ideal. I was really liking my tribe, we were kind of quiet but individually everyone was great and we also kicked butt at challenges! Anyway, the swap with numbers wise not great, but I know Xavi from a previous game and we have a solid relationship, I hope he and John and Joey and myself can build a solid squad to make it to the merge. The challenge was rough tbh, I am not great at video games, but I think I did ok... Jaiden got like 20 trillion points on a game so really I have no idea how I did. Hoping for the best!

I am losing my mind in my personal life so I am sorry that I have been mia. I appreciate the patience from the hosts and my tribe. It makes me still want to play even though I've been kinda invisible. I'm aware of that. I'll fix it. I promise. Otherwise, its been pretty good as a tribe so far. Andrew, Pat, and NIk and i are all really close from other games, so we're good and Andrew and Pat and I are together, which is just really unfair if you ask me. I can't wait to start scheming!

Uhhhhhh.................................... anyways........ yall hear somethin? Oh I hear something. It's the sound of Joey literally blowing himself up to me hardcore!!!! The narcissism and arrogance really jumped out on this one. So Joey had the idea of calling tonight to go over some stuff and honestly out of the 2 hours we spent, I think about 45-60 mins of it was rather nice and I do feel that I enjoy his presence, but omg... his desire for control is so noticeable and its kinda gross. Joey and I debriefed on what went down on Bellagio and I totally understand why there was the difference in us discussing tribe dynamics - I had to give up all my info while he kinda kept things more reserved. I want to assume this is because of the fact that I went to tribal and he hasn't until now. I won't judge him for that. However, after this he's kinda like dictating the fact that an OG Bellagio needs to go home. Ben is the easier person to throw under the bus since he didn't even bother to do the challenge/let us know what's up. Not a big fan of that, but aight. Then Joey starts suggesting we vote out Kailyn...?? Uh... not on my watch. I have to make it up to Kailyn at least a little bit so even though she's probably got a loaded gun pointed at my head rn, I want to defuse the situation rather than start throwing her out there as a potential target. Even if it isn't coming from me, I'm not here for that. The information that Joey did give up to me relates to the chips in the game. I've never paid much attention to the chips, but I guess it takes 10 to get into the vault and Joey's got between 11 and 15 (he changed his answer on the subject SEVERAL times). He says there are three idols worth 40 chips each, then a super idol worth I think 50 or 60 (can't remember). On top of that, there are nullifiers, vote advantages, and a legacy advantage, too. He seems fixated on the legacy advantage and really wants the chips to get it. Like.. ok do you but we NEED the super idol?? Does he not realize that thing has more power than anything else in the vault combined..? ANYWAYS. What really started to turn me off about Joey is that there was this sudden expectation that I'd be giving him all of my chips thus far. I don't care about them to begin with but knowing what I know now, it doesn't make sense for me to give him my stash just to fuel his hunt for... a measly legacy advantage... I put myself in a compromising position. I told him that once a host gets back to me on my exact total, I'd be willing to trade him my chips for I guess an allyship going forward. I mean that. I want to work with Joey at least through this vote, but I can't guarantee that it'll go much further than that. He is a very risky person for my game right now because if he's coming off this strong to everybody, it's only going to hurt me by association to stick with him longer than a vote or two. However, I'm going to try and divert the attention and just be like, maybe we need to use my five as a bartering piece for new allies at this point. I want to try and build meaningful partnerships right now, especially since that was the only reason I wanted to make it to the merge.. Rebuilding is crucial as well. Kailyn and possibly Nik/Rachael are not going to be fond of me once we all have "the talk" about last tribal. I put myself in an even more compromising position with them, but I'll find my way out of that mess. I think........ As far as this tribe goes, I think between Joey's WILD imagination/constant over-analyzing and the lack of direction this tribe has taken so far.. I'm doing okay. Nobody is really standing out besides Joey and I guess myself in a way, so if I keep him around it MIGHT even shrink my own target little by little - unless people find out we're together then FUK. 

......five seconds later

In terms of my other relationships right now, I love John Coffey but this is old news, I've been in love with this man since like 2016 and it's fine - totally fine - just fangirling a bit rn since I get to spend more time with him!! woohoo. Xavier and Stephanie are straight up non-entities which makes me SO scared of them especially since Stephanie's won an ORG before... how can someone be so irrelevant yet still win something? Hmm... Makes me think that she's secretly a ninja, you never even see her around. Nik has grown more and more quiet as the days go along and I wonder what's goin' on with that. Maybe they've decided since Biden won the election that moving to New Zealand is a bad idea? Lmfao. I dunno. Nik stresses me the hell out because I have no idea what they're thinking at any point in time even in the off-chance that we are talking. I think I might just have a personality they don't mesh with because I noticed on call forever ago that none of my jokes were particularly landing but Nik had a lot to say and a LOT to joke about there... rip. If it's a personality conflict - go off, I guess. I'll try on a couple different hats w this person to try and see if I can get things to go better than they have been. Kailyn.. like I said before, pretty sure she's after me but I am really trying to sell it to her that I like her a lot, because I do. I literally compare her to my best friend irl because they have very similar attributes and I consider Kailyn kinda messy but fun and quirky like my BFF so I hope that Kailyn did truly appreciate me making that comparison. Ben's inability to do this challenge is going to be his undoing. I think the only acceptable move is to vote him off this time because I HAVE to prove to Kailyn that I can stay the course, and I also need to whittle down Bellagio numbers to prevent people from targeting us and having everything go to shit that way. Let Joey control this, please dear god. Don't let me get blood on my hands. Let Rachael integrate herself well on this tribe. Let someone else blow themselves up in the process. Just not me plz and thanks. There is no fear in my soul tonight. Joey might be a fucking crackhead but so am I. I'm breaking down walls that I didn't think existed but Joey basically told me tonight that he thought I was confrontational, rude, chaotic, and all these other things but was impressed at how calm, optimistic, and outgoing I was. Love to hear it. He might think he overestimated me but he was right about the initial impressions... too bad he won't be around long enough to see that side of me :~) 

FIRSTLY, DeNara was robbed. Okay so I already wrote this a while ago in my host chat about how the fact jake and dan are praying for my downfall because after the swap i am the only og bellagio on a tribe with 5 palazzo and 2 luxor. so after I slowly blinked at my screen for a bit I was like okay how do we survive this if I go to tribal. Because I’m under the impression tribes are gonna stick together especially going into merge but since Luxor is already down so many members it’s kinda Bellagio Vs. Palazzo. but then I was like okay wait I’m the only member of bellagio on this tribe after coming from a tribal so I’m the only one who can say what happened and I can create what narrative I want to help me get through the next couple rounds. Because if I was like oh blah blah I was in majority im so fucked then of course they’re gonna target me to get me out. But if I play the victim card and milk the fact that I voted in the minority acting like I hate my og tribe maybe they’ll think to use me as a pawn. To take down others moving forward. Listen if I have to be labeled a goat to move forward then BAA bitch.

.....five seconds later

Things are going good, because not only am no longer in danger this round but that means Rachael is going to the enemy tribe which if she came to our tribe that might’ve disrupted the narrative I had going of me being against og bellagio. Also DeNara should still be here, don’t think I didn’t clock the fact that Ben scored a 0. I also found out from Andrew that Rachael and Ben are apart of the same Tengaged group which explains why Rachael was so set on Ben staying but like, listen, if I end up in a game with someone I’m friends with, and they’re not active and helping the tribe. Good riddance.

What the. We lost yet again. I have lost everything since the start of the game. It's crazy. There are 4 from Bellagio, 2 Palazzo and 2 Luxor. 2+2 seems like an obvious plan, but it looks like it is falling apart already (read: Joey). Sucks to be across the world, so instead of scheming, I'll be sleeping.

Forgive me father, for I have sinned. is the same as I'm sorry Daddy, I've been very naughty. 

The swap did happen. Expected it. Glad we won this first challenge in this new tribe tho in worried for Stephanie and Joey

Vault Shenanigans - Holy shit I did not expect this to be as powerful as it is. I was preparing myself for some sort of payment based search system, but being able to straight up buy the items I want, but its also the same for other people. I had a misconception at how generous the wheel was so I'm probably behind some people with the amount of chips, but I could very well start scooping up some of the steal votes and just say "see ya" to the idols, although getting a super idol would be very wild, it still seems risky to hold out that long to get it, even though there's a great amount of power associated with it. The other issue with a super idol is that I think that its very likely that if I get into a position where I need to use it, that I lose a lot of respect with the jury if it does happen. The only benefit from actually having it would be that I no longer have to worry about someone else whipping it out, so it'd be less for me wanting it, but more for others not having it. As of now, I think my optimal play is to hold on to my chips until around ~40, and then buy both vote steals at once, OR go all out for the super if someone has already bought an idol by that point, because I would be operating under the assumption that the frontrunner is already out of the running. Tribe Swap Shenanigans - This is a hell of a tribe swap. 5-2-1 is always a great spot to be in, I am already good within the 5 that I have so I don't have to worry about anything there, it should be relatively smooth sailing as far as getting to the merge. Mo/Jake are alright so far, neither particularly speak too much. Kevin has not reached out at all, probably will try to talk to him tonight for general purposes, even if he seems like he'd be an easy one to get out first should we go to tribal the next time. But generally I really don't plan on losing so it's kind of a wash. I'll take the smooth sailing, easy path to merge. Premerge is never as relevant as merge is when it comes to FTC as long as you have something to show for yourself at the merge. I've got all game to make my presence known, and I plan on using the entirety of the game to do so.

I feel super anxious today because even though I had a great conversation and built a good connection to Joey, there hasn't been any talk about the vote quite yet. I mean obviously names have rolled out but nothing solid is out there still, I think I just need to let go of the urgency for a name to start being spread early on and just let things be. Stephanie and I have been chatting a bit here and there today so I feel more comfortable with her and hopefully she sees things from a similar perspective as everyone else - the Bellagio foursome needs to get broken up right now. As long as it's not my name of course!!!!! Plz vote Ben @everyone. Or Kailyn tbh save me a little bit of trouble now. Talking to Xavier is SO HARD LMAO. He doesn't immediately contribute information into a conversation and as bad as I wanna get rid of Ben, I almost..almost think going for Xavier is the smarter move, since Xavier doesn't seem too motivated to actually get to know ME and work with me. I'm selfish that way. Kailyn doesn't seem like she wants to do Ben which is a little frustrating but I totally get it, if Ben stays he's going to go after her hardcore but like she needs to actually pitch me an alternative lmfao. I don't wanna go bending over backwards just to appease her right now so if she doesn't gimme a name.. sorry sis but then I think it's gonna be Joey's call on this one :/

I am being very cautious now. The 4 of us (me, John, Joey and Steph) are going to vote together. Now Jaiden wants to vote Nik. And Kailyn wants to vote Ben. Why can't we just agree on one?! And it always has to go down to the wire. Stick together, people!

I think I am possibly leading the charge against Nik rn?? Joey told me he wanted Ben and then I told him I wanted Nik and now he wants Nik LOL take that Stephen 

Okay well I have no idea what's going to happen tonight, but I'm going into tribal not afraid of the vote I am probably going to have to make ... I think the best move is to just vote for Nik and be done with it, but it's going to cause a serious rift in a lot of my relationships if I do so. I've been super wishy-washy to a lot of people I think and right now it doesn't make sense to continuously do one thing when I mean another.. especially since there seems to be zero ground to move upon when it comes to getting the vote to turn from Nik to Ben. Nik doesn't even SEEM ACTIVE?? Why are we making this a bigger deal than it needs to be. Ben can't just walk around deciding what's going on and I think Kailyn would prefer to keep Nik around rather than Ben but it's like... so push for Ben to be the target hun! She's feeding into someone else's move no matter what she does, it's either Ben's agenda or John's agenda. Pick a side, but pick the side I'm on, too. Why don't we just vote for Kailyn tbh. lmao

[itsclydebitches]

Me? Ignoring my 20+ other projects to start a shitty Good Omens fic bingo? It’s more likely than you think 

Defy

“Watch it!”

A pram hit the back of Aziraphale’s calves and the woman pushing it let out a string of curses. That more than the collision had him jumping out of the way, profusely apologizing for stopping in the first place. Aziraphale didn’t think his apologies meant much—especially now that the infant had started screaming—so he miracled up a free coffee at the next cafe she stopped at and a good night’s sleep for good measure.  

“Sorry, terribly sorry again...”

The woman gave him a dirty look as she swerved back into pedestrian traffic. Aziraphale shuffled off to the side.

Oh dear.

Well, best to re-tie his loafers, yes? Never mind another miracle he’d performed years back, ensuring those bows would never again come undone (not after he’d nearly face-planted in Crowley’s company). One could never be too careful after all. So Aziraphale bent and spruced up one shoe, then the other. While down there he found that the cuffs of his pants could do with some straightening and there was a nearly invisible speck of dust on one knee. Maybe both. His waistcoat was always askew and the buttons could do with some polishing, his hair was—

“Fine,” Aziraphale sighed, lowering his hand from where he’d been patting his curls. “You look exactly as you always have, old boy, and it’s not worth putting this off a moment longer.”

That’s what he told himself anyway. It was quite another thing for Aziraphale to get his feet moving again, rounding the corner that would take him to the front of his shop. The feeling that had stopped him in the first place still hung heavy in the air and Aziraphale found himself fiddling with the buttons on his sleeve, more to waste another few, precious moments than out of any real desire to fix something.

There was a supernatural entity packed into the shop. Oh yes. Packed being the optimal word. Whoever it was had enough power to their name that it had seeped out of their corporeal form and spilled onto the street, drawing the humans’ gaze even if they didn’t know what they were looking towards. Could be a whole army of angels stationed among the books. Demons even. That might generate the sort of skin-prickling heat Aziraphale could feel now, growing hotter which each step he took towards the door. More likely though it was a single archangel.

“Perhaps,” Aziraphale whispered, now just an arm’s length from his well-worn handle; the collection of dates and times meant to deter too many from popping in. The faded paper seemed silly now, given that he would have rather hosted any thousands of humans over one of his brethren. So yes, perhaps he should rethink this. Head back out for a second lunch. A long, mid-day walk. Anything other then opening that door.

He could call Crowley.

Aziraphale was stepping across the threshold before he’d even finished the thought. No. They might be on the same side now, but that only meant he couldn’t throw his ally to the proverbial wolves. If his celestial siblings had decided to attempt a second punishment there was nowhere on Earth—or Alpha Centauri for that matter—where he could hide and Aziraphale’s last act as a Principality would not be dragging his beloved down with him.

“Crowley always did say I was stubborn as a mule,” he muttered. 

There was something quite freeing about committing to a decision. It allowed Aziraphale to finally still his hands and lift his chin, determined to meet this challenge with at least half the grace Crowley had afforded him during his first trial. Or the sham of one based on the story he’d heard. That alone was enough to give him a burst of something resembling courage, propelling him through the door.

Aziraphale was so certain he’d be greeted by Gabriel’s smug smile that he nearly tripped over himself when he... wasn’t.

“Ah,” he said, arms splayed out in a comical bid for balance. “Hello. You’re getting tar on my favorite cushion.”

Pollution tilted their head, much like an owl spotting prey. They sat slumped in the chair tucked between the counter and the first bookshelf, long legs stretched out and yes, a small puddle of what looked like tar dripping down from their ear. It settled on the tartan pillow wedged behind their back.

“Sorry,” Pollution said and smeared the muck further into the fabric.

Aziraphale swallowed.

This was most definitely unexpected. Unprecedented. Other un-words that Aziraphale couldn’t hope to think of because his brain was currently the equivalent of an egg frying on the pavement. Yes, a Horseman would most certainly generate the level of power he’d felt outside and—wait. Scratch that. Two Horsemen, Famine stepping out from the shadows to stand at Pollution’s side. He gave a jaunty little wave.

“Hello angel,” he said.

Aziraphale winced, unused to the endearment coming from anyone other then Crowley. Not that Famine meant it in such a way. He might be able to fake it though, with that relaxed posture and easy-going smile. Aziraphale looked around, a bit wild, now expecting the other two to close in on him. When nothing of the sort occurred he was left standing in the middle of his shop with two of the most destructive embodiments to ever exist staring like they expected him to start this conversation.

So Aziraphale did the only thing worth doing when things went pear shaped.

“I’ll make us some tea.”

***

Humans were quite right that there was an art to this practice and Aziraphale had spent many centuries mastering it. He’d never admit it aloud, but he found that the routine of boiling, steeping, and adding produced a drink far superior to what he could simply conjure up with angelic whim. Whether that said more about his skill or miracles themselves, Aziraphale wasn’t inclined to say. Perhaps it was simply the act of engaging in labor before reaping the reward.

Whatever it was, routine gave him a good ten minutes away from the Horsemen, allowing Aziraphale to pick up such useful information as, “I haven’t been attacked from behind yet” and “Apparently physical manifestations of mortal failings do enjoy a good drink now and again.” Famine asked for milk and three sugars. Pollution wanted nothing in theirs. Between checking the milk’s expiration date and pulling down honey for himself, Aziraphale felt another urge to dial a long-memorized number. He needn’t even say anything. The fact that he’d called at all would be more than enough to get Crowley here in record time.

Instead Aziraphale hefted a tray laden with tea and molasses cookies back into the shop, hoping he wasn’t making another wrong decision.

“Here you are,” he said, marveling at how steady his voice was. “I fear I’ve never entertained Horsemen before. Or, ah...” Aziraphale’s gaze landed on Pollution, something wet and sticky now seeping out of their boot. “Horse... people?”

Famine chuckled. “‘Horseman’ is traditional and I hardly care for the labels humans give us. Do you?”

It felt like a dangerous sort of question. Any would have really, so Aziraphale kept his mouth shut and made a non-committed sort of noise in the back of his throat. He poured the tea and tried not to spill too much of it into the saucers.

Pollution was still staring. Then suddenly they leaned forward in their seat, a squelching noise filling the silence, showing too many teeth when they smiled. “He’s nervous.”

“He’d better be.” Famine spoke as if Aziraphale were no longer in the room. “We may not have had our Armageddon, darling, but I hope we’re not that out of practice.”

Two pairs of eyes slid his way.

“Oh! Yes. Very, very nervous. That’s me. Nothing but nerves I should say. I’m positively stuffed with them—like a goose!—and that  certainly isn’t changing as you both... ah, look at me like that. Tea?” Aziraphale desperately held out a cup.

He shoved it towards Pollution though and there was a cold, suspended moment as he realized it was the one filled with sugar and milk. Then Famine stepped between them and took it for himself.

“Lovely,” he said, downing half in one go. This close Aziraphale could feel Famine’s aura, the gnawing, bottomless ache that had opened up in his stomach. Instinctually he reached for a cookie only to find that the box was already in Famine’s hands. “I fear we didn’t come here for the goodies though. Rather, we have a proposition for you, angel.”

“...Proposition?”

“Something fun.” Pollution had taken their cup as well, though they didn’t drink from it. Their finger just went round and round the rim as a pungent smell began to emanate from the tea. “There’s a war coming. Your boyfriend realized it first. We want in.”

Back in the 1740s Aziraphale had the dubious pleasure of befriending three young boys, each too rowdy and smart for their own good. A bit of mischief had resulted, in its final act, with them yanking a prayer rug Aziraphale stood on—perhaps the only literal example of someone having the rug pulled out from under them. He experienced the same stomach dropping sensation now, the instinctual urge to bring out his wings.

“War?” Aziraphale said faintly. “But... we avoided the—”

“Yes, but humans always find a way, don’t they? Eventually. They’re more resourceful than all of heaven and hell put together.” Famine took another cookie, eating it with a pleasure that contradicted his purpose. “We’re not stupid, angel. We knew going into the war that it would end in our demise. All but Death’s, of course. Angels and demons don’t need to eat, you see. Erasing humanity means erasing me too.”

“And me.” Pollution’s voice had grown softer, though Aziraphale was hesitant to call it laced with anything like fear. “War would survive...”

Famine grimaced. “In a fashion.”

“But humanity,” Pollution continued, not seeming to hear the interruption. “What wonderful creatures. Even if they learn from those brats at the airbase and improve themselves, the two of us can still go on. Famine lives in every holy man of yours, fasting in the name of the Lord. I exist in all the children leaving sweet wrappers in forests and gum under their chairs. We might not be powerful,”

“But you’d exist,” Aziraphale finished. Famine inclined his head.

“And that’s just the pessimistic view. I believe that humanity will continue on as it has, now that you’ve given them that chance.” Famine’s grin was nothing like Pollution’s and every bit as unsettling. “Gorging themselves. Leaving the mess behind.” He finished off the cookies and obligingly dropped the box on the carpet, inciting a happy squirm from Pollution.

“I see,” Aziraphale said. He wasn’t entirely sure he did. “So you need me to...?

“Do nothing. Nothing at all, angel. This was merely a polite acknowledgement. You and that demon started something when you stood at humanity’s side. Know that we have every expectation you’ll finish it.”

Famine clapped him on the shoulder as he went by and Aziraphale nearly buckled at the hunger that ran through him. Pollution followed, having taken nothing but leaving plenty behind. The stench was overwhelming.

“We’ll be in touch,” they said and left a smear of oil on the edge of Aziraphale’s sleeve, grasping it briefly like a child.

“Y-yes. Lovely to see you. Toodle pip!”

Aziraphale had his hands on the phone three seconds after his door closed.

“Crowley? Well of course it’s me, who else—? Never mind. I suggest you get over here quick as you can. No, no, nothing like that. Just... bring dinner would you? I hardly care, dear, just get lots of it. Yes, I’m alright. Quite ravenous though, I’ll explain later. Oh really, Crowley, there’s no need for that kind of... of... innuendo over the phone. I’m hanging up now. Yes. Right now. Goodbye, Crowley.”

A beat passed with the phone pressed against Aziraphale’s ear. Then Crowley’s tinny laughter filled the bookshop.

“Well I don’t hear you hanging up either,” he groused. All of it—the banter, Crowley’s voice, the utter absurdity of this little disagreement—helped to loosen the tension in Aziraphale’s shoulders; alleviated some of the stench from his nostrils and cleared out the air. He sat with a thump and listened to the familiar sounds of Crowley starting up the Bentley. It perhaps couldn’t hurt to stay on the line just a little bit longer.

“Best pick up a few bottles of wine while you’re at it,” Aziraphale said, staring at the empty cookie box. “I just had the most unexpected visitors. I fear we have a great deal to discuss, my dear.”

Crowley cracked another joke about Aziraphale’s visiting practices and that right there was their first miracle in a while. Because despite Horsemen and the presumption of inevitable war, even with the reminder of their newly minted side and all the consequences that came with it... 

One joke from Crowley made Aziraphale feel like it was all going to be okay.

[ziracona]

What has been your favorite ilm chapter to write? Your least favorite? Do you have any interesting fun facts that were in cut pieces? I love this fic and the research put in is astounding. You put so much love into this. I'm glad to have been a reader :)

Thank you so much for asking this, and I’m really happy you have liked it! : ) Researching all kinds of wild stuff has been one of the most fun parts. (I’m holding the start of the answer to each question you asked, bc I talked about the first one for a while lol).

I do have a favourite chapter! I think to read, it would be a lot harder question, and there’d be a bunch of chapters tied, but as an author, my favourite chapter is most definitely Speak for the Dead. I have a lot of favourite moments and chapters, but that’s the one I’m most proud of. There’s a really rare thing in writing I call “script perfection,” which is not like, a perfect script in comparison to other scripts, it just means the version of the script that got shot/published was the best version of that particular script there ever could have been. It’s incredibly rare, and very hard to do. Even with films and shows I love, usually there will be seconds, sometimes minutes, off and on, that are the best version of those seconds there could have ever been. And the rest of it is great! It’s maybe the second or third or eighth-best it could have been, and that’s still super impressive--like man--eigth-best is still so close to 1st, eigth best is freaking phenomenal. It’s something to be really proud of. But that’s as high as it almost ever gets. For anything. Only extremely rarely is an entire script at 96% or above on script perfection. (I would say for reference that Galaxy Quest and The Incredibles are two such films).

It isn’t the most important part of a script or a story at all. Not by a huge amount. The quality of the story itself is. I have plenty of films that never hit 90% or above script perfection that I still prefer over films that did (like, Galaxy Quest is an amazing film, and I’m in awe that it hit that level of refinement, but I still like The Two Towers, which definitely did not, better. Because Sam’s speech at the end of it is enough to power me for a whole year). But it’s still such a rare thing. And god, it’s hard. Any kind of media is done on some kind of budget (be it financial or energy or both), and time constraint, and also it’s just not easy to do. Again, true-final-draft achievement (which is probably a better name for this bc it’s less confusing) is far from the most important or valuable aspect of a film, or play, or book, and it’s not necessary to make a story amazing. But it’s still always /so/ cool to see. It’s cool to see a nine minute continuous stretch of it even, on screen. And out of all the chapters I’ve written, the only one I think hit true-final-draft at least 96% or above, was Speak for the Dead. And that’s not embarrassing or anything. It’s wild. And I’m super proud of that. I’m proud I got even one. Because a lot of even my favourite books don’t. They just have perfected scenes, and a lot of them, but are not the best draft they could have been. Which does absolutely nothing to negate their worth as phenomenal books, but. I’m really, really proud of Speak for the Dead, and very happy with myself for having been able to do that at least once. I kind of treasure that.

It’s also a special chapter to me, because I had it only very loosely outlined/planned for at all, and it kind of came together on its own, and everything just came together and fell into place just right, and this chapter I had been really unsure of before starting turned into my favourite one in the entire fic. I like what I write, and I enjoy reading it myself, but there’s a line in Speak for the Dead where Tapp is trying to explain everything to Meg, about himself and his past and his family, and he’s been going through this like, awful mass of confusion and trauma and guilt and regret that’s all come to a head in this one day, and he’s found out who Amanda is and can’t deal with that and the person he knew, and the way Sing died, the choices she went on to make, and there’s so much even he doesn’t understand about how the world is falling apart around him, but somehow he figures it out enough to say it to Meg. And he has a line: “You’re supposed to stay late and work the extra eight hours overnight to catch the killer so somebody doesn’t die; you’re not supposed to go home to your family and give your kid a hug. It’s not as important, in an equation. It was my responsibility. And I didn’t get that the other job had its own set of rules. That the cop’s supposed to let the bus with his partner fall, but the dad’s supposed to let the fifteen people go and save his kid—he’s supposed to go running through crowded subway tunnels chased by gunmen, consequences be damned, to get them away from where his kid’s hiding. I didn’t get it. I don’t know why. I loved him right, but I didn’t act like it, because I thought I was doing the right thing. But if everybody’s just numbers, you lose anything that matters, no matter how high the numbers go up. And you don’t realize until it’s way too late that you do just as much good really helping one person you signed on to protect as you could have ever done bouncing off the lives of a hundred people who go on to be the next Jigsaw.”

And like. I fucking love that line. God. It’s such a hard thing to articulate, what he’s going through in that moment, and I try, but I think I often don’t do as good a job. But every time I read that last line it’s like a gut punch. And I really love it. How the fuck could you possibly feel after going through the experience he’s just had? It’s such a specific, indescribable kind of big, whole-world-view devestating.

There’s also a lot of really sweet moments with Meg, and Adam drugged and injured but trying really hard to help, and it’s a super understated chapter in a lot of the moments? Tapp’s one of my favourites to write, because of the way he thinks. He tries so hard to be lawful good in a world where there’s just no law at all anymore. And he’s older by far than anyone else, and thinks about the world that way. Honestly, it’s one of the most serious chapters. It’s less graphic than say Proven or The End of the Line, but it deals with some very not remotely fantastic and not pretty themes. It’s heavy. But I like the way it tells itself. I enjoy working in references when they make things fun, or better, or more meaningful, and I got to do that a lot. Plus, it gave Ace and Tapp a bunch of one-on-one time they didn’t really get on-screen as much in any of the rest of the fic, but I really loved it. The way they try to look after the people they care for, and how they understand each other. I just really fucking loved that chapter. Also, Tapp beat someone to death with a reverse bear trap that was still attached to his head so he could save Meg from dying in a way that would be super lastingly traumatic, and if that’s not the most metal thing I’ve ever heard? I really love Tapp. And I love that he sticks to the things he does. Meg never learns what Amanda was going to do to her, not in fic, not after. And Tapp does change how he does things are talking to Meg at the end of that chapter. Tapp’s the one who immediately says they can’t go public with any information on Rin until she’s passed on, even though it could really help them prove their case and hypothetically better protect the world, because he’s not willing to see a kid forced to revert to being violent and feral against her will in self-defense, or locked up in a government black site to get that. He did good. Life has not been kind to this poor man, but thankfully, Meg Thomas has.

Least favourite? Way harder. Hmmm. Always whichever one I wrote most recently 😂

In complete seriousness, I don’t think I have one? I have like 6 I consider “slightly-less-interesting” than the rest, but I don’t have one I hate period, or just dislike a lot. Uhhhh. If I had to pick one right now, I’d say Core Essentials, because I haven’t read it in over a year and don’t remember it as well as many others, and of the small number of chapters in the “Damn, been a hot minute, huh?” group, it’s the one I remember the least. This rating may change next time I actually read it, lol.

Hmmm. Interesting fun facts in cut segments. In the original draft for Shrouded, Claudette went into Philip’s basement and got a really good look at the other side of the wall, through one of the cracks, and saw the Entity and almost gave herself a panic attack. The other side of the basement wall was described as looking like the sun, like just looking at light, but only at first, and then there was movement like a snake coiling or some huge creatuer deep underwater sliding across your vision, too big to see, but alive in there in the middle of the light, and moving around, and it horrified her. It was extremely creepy but pretty cool.

The original draft for The Wraith included Philip experiencing fragmented audio memories from Signifying Nothing/his time with Vigo & co. while he was mostly unconscious. It was really cool and I forgot because I haven’t read it in forever, but it hinted at /way/ more of the plot to those past events. I really liked the draft, but ended up changing it into what was published because I’d never done anything with his memories before, and I didn’t want to disorient the reader too much (probably a good call, but it was still a neat scene in the OG form).

It’s not in the fic, but canonically, after leaving the survivors camp at the end of The Wraith, Philip came up with his plan to leave himself a message in the bell, and then called the Entity. Trying to talk his way out immediately failed, and it was shitty to him and pissed him off, and Philip had considered what might work on something like the Entity before calling it, and knew he was dead either way, so he tried to fight it. More to see if it would work than anything. He knew he would forget it even if he did, but sometimes impulses lingered, and it was possible if it worked, it would help him think of it again. He used his blood and drew a protective symbol against demons on his palm without it noticing, then rushed it, and it wasn’t scared of him so it didn’t give a fuck, but he smacked it with the charm and that actually succeeded in burning its talon (very little, but enough to cause it actual pain) and it flipped out and got extremely angry, and immediately stabbed him through the skull, which is why he returned with that chunk of his mask gone and has a scar on his forehead now. Originally, I was considering writing some of the events between The Wraith and Dawn from Philip’s POV, but decided it was much better sticking with the survivors and their uncertainty completely. Got to live in the anxiety baybeeee.

I’m sure there’s more but you activated my trap card asking about Speak for the Dead - a special interest- and I already made this long, so I should stop for now. Thank you again so much for asking! I hope my answers made sense are we’re at least kinda enjoyable to read. 💙💙💙

[slashthedice]

Michael Myers sparing your life after killing everyone around you prompt maybe? NSFW if you do not mind writing that, too. :) (Sorry for all the asks, but I fell in love w/ your blog.

Hi! You are too sweet to me! Thanks so much for all your amazing requests, I’ve had so much fun writing for them :) I know I’m not the first to do this sort of thing, but I wrote this in the context of Dead by Daylight because I’ve been watching my roommate play way too much. Hope that’s okay! Also, I definitely do not mind writing NSFW ;3c This is kind of a long one, so I’m going to crosspost it on AO3.

This wasn’t your first time in Haddonfield. Actually, as of late, the Entity had seemed particularly fond of setting you loose in the nightmarish neighborhood streets. You were now intimately familiar with the eerie glow of the street lamps and the flashing lights of the unoccupied and inoperable police cruiser. However, this time was not like the others. This time you had begun the trial with a strange crushing feeling in your chest, not unlike a cold vice wrapped around your heart. You had had this feeling described to you by other survivors, and it was never a good sign.

You found yourself in the unique position of obsession.

You supposed that you should have known this was coming. You had been eluding the Shape again and again, trial after trial for much longer than was probably reasonable. Everytime he was close to finally catching and killing you, you managed to escape. Hopping down the hatch, slipping through the gates just in time, dropping pallets on him when his reaching hand was mere inches from you. Last time, you had used a little trick Laurie had taught you, taking a shard of glass you had tucked away into your waistband and jabbing it into his shoulder, giving you just enough time to slip away. You were sure that for a killer as prolific as he was your continued escapes must have been infuriating.

You had admittedly begun to enjoy the repeated game of cat and mouse the two of you were playing. The rush of adrenaline you got when you saw that familiar mask staring back at you was exhilarating, and you secretly loved the way your heart pounded when you heard his heavy breathing behind you as he chased you through the streets. These were things you would never admit to another survivor. Hell, you had a hard enough time admitting it to yourself.

This time though, you didn’t feel that familiar rush as you realized where you were. You hadn’t seen him yet, but you knew who the killer was. As you crouched beside a generator, you felt more tense than you had going into a trial in a long time. You felt like you were on the edge of something. This time was most certainly different, and it wasn’t just because it was your first time as the obsession. There was some energy in the air, and it crackled through your mind and body.

You were barely halfway done with repairing the generator when you heard the first scream in the night air. It was not the scream of someone being put on the hook, it was a final dying shriek, a warning sent out into the night to let other prey know that a predator was here and they were looking to kill. The hair on the back of your neck stood on end and goosebumps covered your arms.

You continued to look over your shoulder every few seconds, looking for a flash of white or the glint of a blade. You felt relief wash over you as Claudette emerged from around the side of the house. You gave her a nod as she came closer and began to help with repairs.

“He killed Nea,” she whispered to you. “We didn’t even see him coming, he just pulled her off the generator and killed her.”

“I’m the obsession,” you admitted quietly.

She gave you a pitying look. If he was already being this brutal with his kills, you both wondered what was in store for you.

“Who else is left?” You asked. You felt bed, but you hoped it was Laurie. She was crafty and more than capable of escaping him, but more than that they had encountered each other before the Entity’s realm, and Michael always took the time to hunt her down. That might just give you and Claudette enough time to finish the generators and open the gates.

“I think it’s Jake,” she responded.

So much for that plan, you thought bitterly.

Just as the two of you were finishing up your repairs, you heard the tell-tale sound of another generator starting up a ways away. Jake must have finished the generator Nea and Claudette had been working on before. Not long after your generator clicked on, however, you heard that same horrible scream you had before. Frozen fear flooded through your veins and you shared a terrified look with Claudette.

Too soon, it was all too soon. The trial had barely just begun and already you were the final two survivors. You hadn’t even seen the Shape yet.

The two of you split off in different directions. There really was no safety in numbers here. You slipped into a house, conscious of the aged wooden floor beneath your feet and any sounds it may make. With your heart in your throat, you made your way up the stairs, hoping to find a generator in one of the rooms on the second story.

Much to your relief, you found one and got to work. You could only hope that Claudette was doing the same. That would mean that the two of you only had one more to complete before you could make your escape and forget all about the strange feeling you had had all trial. You tried to calm the trembling of your fingers as you pulled, pushed, and prodded to force parts back into place.

You heard the ding of another generator coming to life and felt a rush of relief. You finished your generator quickly enough, and headed to the window to see if you could find Claudette, or even Michael. At least if you could spot him you would know where not to go.

You had barely poked your head up over the windowsill before you spotted your fellow survivor. She was sneaking around the side of the house you were in towards the front. If she could just make it a little further, she would be behind the cover of the shrubbery in the front of the yard. Just a few more feet…

He materialized from the shadows as if he were made from the fog itself. With all the grace of a panther stalking its prey in the night, he fell upon her too fast for you to even warn her. You watched with an open mouth as the blade sailed through the air, reflecting the flashing red and blue lights as it went. Claudette shrieked when the weapon carved through her back, sending her sprawling across the grass.

You could do nothing but watch as Michael lifted her with a hand under her chin into the air. You spotted the blade once more only to watch it sink into your friend with a wet sound. He withdrew it from her slowly, torturously, only to drive it right back into her frantically struggling form. She made a sickening gurgling sound and then was silent. Everything was silent except for the frantic pounding of your own heart

You knew you should move. You needed to get out of the house and to the hatch that had surely appeared somewhere, but you could do nothing but stare down at the Shape as he threw your friend’s lifeless corpse to the ground. He loomed over the body, motionless in this mimicry of a suburban neighborhood.

And then he raised his head.

You could see nothing in the unfathomable blackness visible through the eye holes in the mask, but you knew that he was staring right back at you. You felt his freezing gaze stop you in place, and a thrill went through your paralyzed form. You knew then that things had never been more different than they were in this trial. Michael was done playing games with you.

You could have sworn that you only blinked and he was gone, freeing you from your temporary paralysis. You made a beeline for the stairs, almost sliding past them in your rush. You found yourself frozen once more as you stared down the steps. Michael was at the bottom, and he was staring right back up at you. You turned and bolted back towards the window, but he was faster than you. You dove forward to throw yourself through the open portal, but you weren’t even halfway through when you felt a large hand grab the back of your shirt.

Your back hit the ground hard, and before you could even think about scrambling to your feet a large boot was planted on your stomach, knocking the air from your lungs and effectively pinning you in place. You tried to squirm out from beneath, clawing at his ankle and pushing at his calf, but he may as well have been made of stone for how little he moved. You looked up to find the impassive mask that you had learned to fear staring back at you. His head was tilted slightly to one side as he watched you struggling.

Then, faster than a lightning strike, one of his massive hands was around your throat and you were hoisted into the air.

He finally had you. You kicked your legs wildly as you tried to pry at the iron grip he had around your throat. You knew your struggling was merely a futile last ditch effort in a war of attrition, but you couldn’t just go limp and wait for the cold steel of his knife to pierce your abdomen. But that never came.

It all happened so fast. One moment you were dangling about a foot off the ground with your vision slowly going dark due to air loss, and the next you were pinned to the wall by a hard body. You saw him raise the large butcher’s knife above his head and you were sure it was about to find its home in your chest, but when it came arcing down towards you you felt no pain and instead found it embedded a few inches deep into the wall next to your head. Your eyes widened as you looked up at the ever impassive mask, his normally heavy breathing seemed to be even heavier now, the sound reverberating behind the rubber face close to panting. He pressed against you harder and his hips ground into yours.

Oh. OH. Well, that was unexpected.

You were at a loss. You had known there was tension between yourself and the killer, but you hadn’t realized that it was this kind of tension. Yet here you were, pinned to a wall with him basically rutting against you, but as much as you wanted to you couldn’t find it in yourself to dislike the situation. In fact, your feelings on the matter were very much the opposite.

You gasped and gripped Michael’s forearms when one of his strong thighs pressed between your legs, forcing you up onto your tiptoes just to reach the ground. You resisted the urge to grind yourself against him. He leaned into you more, masked face pressing into the juncture between your neck and shoulder. You heard him inhale deeply, almost like he was taking in your scent, but you couldn’t imagine he could smell much more than latex from inside the white rubber. He seemed to realize the same thing.

His calloused hands found their way to your hips, lifting you off his thigh and stepping back slightly. For one heart stopping moment you thought that he had changed his mind and was going to kill you, but as soon as that thought crossed your mind, you found yourself flipped around with your face shoved up against the old, peeling wallpaper. He shoved his leg back between your thighs, and you couldn’t help the heated sound that escaped you as he pressed against you with a bit more pressure than before. One of his hands left your hips and found its home against the back of your neck, ensuring that you could not move or turn your head.

A rush of heat burned its way through your body. You couldn’t remember the last time you were this close to someone, let alone someone that could toss you around so easily. This was a terrible idea, possibly one of the worst you had ever had. You could smell the coppery scent of blood surrounding you, and you knew it had to belong to your friends, but his proximity had your head swimming and you just couldn’t bring yourself to care.

The hand that wasn’t pinning you in place began to wander, pushing up your shirt to explore the heated skin of your stomach and ribs, continuing northward to force its way between your chest and the wall. He cupped your clothed breast in his rough hand, and you choked on the moan that bubbled up in your throat. He took note of this, and if you didn’t know better you would have sworn you heard a low sound of approval come from him.

His hand slithered back down your abdomen to press firmly between your hips and drag you backwards so that your ass was directly against the burning, hardened length of him. You felt a spike of anxiety shoot through you. From what you could feel against your backside, he was big. It made sense, you supposed, the rest of him was huge so it makes sense that his dick would be the same. Though your mind cried out about logistics and potential pain, your traitorous body was abuzz with excitement and your cunt was near dripping at the thought of Michael inside you.

You wiggled your hips back against him. He responded by tightening his hold on the nape of your neck and growling in your ear, the feral sound vibrating in his chest and through your body. You let loose a litany of wanton, needy sounds. You were completely overwhelmed by the heat coursing through you. You needed him, and you needed him now.

“Please,” you begged, hoping he understood what you were asking.

You could have cried with relief when his hand slipped around the front of your body and his nimble fingers found the clasp of your jeans. You were more than happy to help him drag the fabric barrier along with your panties down your hips and over your ass so that you could shimmy them down your legs and finally kick the offending material away. You expected him to immediately free himself from his bloodsoaked coveralls and push inside you.

You were pleasantly and genuinely surprised when you felt his fingers swipe along your slickness. When he came to your entrance, he shoved a finger inside forcing you to bite down on the inside of your cheek to quiet a gasp. A second finger joined the first and you thrashed against his hold. It was too much. You were so full with only his fingers inside you. His hold on you never wavered, and the curling of his fingers had you panting. When the heel of his hand dragged against your clit you sucked in a breath and shuddered against him.

As the minutes ticked by and his attentions to your weeping pussy continued, that oh so familiar tightness built in your core and sparks of pleasure shot through your limbs. You were so unbearably close. You babbled out pleas for him to let you have your release, crying his name and trying desperately to force his fingers deeper and his palm harder against you. You thought he would take mercy on you and finish you off, but just as you began to tip over that precipice into bliss, he withdrew.

You whined at the loss as the pleasure ebbed, but the sound of a zipper being undone and fabric rustling filled you with renewed heat. You wanted to see him, but the vice grip on your neck dashed any hope of that happening. All disappointment was chased from your scattered thoughts when you felt the blunt head of him at your soaking entrance.

Once he had lined himself up, his fingers grasped your hip with a strength that would surely leave bruises. He pulled you down hard onto him, and you keened. You had been more right than you realized about his size. If you thought you were full with just his fingers inside you, you were sure now that you would burst at the seams any second.

His forehead found your shoulder, and you could feel the harsh puff of his heavy breaths escaping through the thin mouth of the mask. He drew back out of you with a brutally slow pace, the head of his cock dragging over your overwrought walls and drawing a moan from your lips. He slammed back in without warning and the air was forced from your lungs. With that he was off, setting a punishing pace and preventing you from ever really catching your breath.

Every thrust forced your face harder against the wall, and you knew your cheek would be bruised by the end of this encounter. As he drilled you into the hard surface, you began to feel that same warmth coiling inside you, only this time it was approaching much more rapidly. You gasped and moaned, his name peppered into the pleased noises you were making. Before the anticipation and impatience could drive you crazy, you peeled one of your hands away from the wallpaper and let you fingers find your clit, rubbing quick circles around the bundle of nerves.

You knew Michael was getting close based on the way his fingertips dug further into the flesh of your hip and his breathing hitched. He grunted, a sound deep in his throat that was impossibly loud. Then his hand at your neck disappeared, followed by the sound of something hitting the floor behind you with a slap. Before you could be surprised or even move, his now unmasked head was pressed into the back of yours. He inhaled deeply, nose buried in your now sweat slicked hair. His lips dragged across your nape, lingering at the neckline of your shirt.

You wanted to see him, needed to see the face of the man that was fucking you like you had never experienced. You tried to push away from the wall, to turn your head. You weren’t sure if you would find that he was just as monstrous without the mask as when he had it on, or if he would look like a normal man, but you didn’t care. The curiosity was killing you.

Michael realized immediately what you were doing, and before you could catch so much as a glimpse of his features, he bit down on the back of your neck. Hard.

The feeling of his teeth on your neck, pinning you back in place more effectively than even his hand had, had you seeing stars. You yelped at the feeling, and then you clamped your eyes shut as the coil in your core burst and your orgasm ripped through you. Fireworks exploded behind your eyes and you couldn’t help but to sing his praises.

Feeling you clench around his cock seemed to renew the chase for his own release. He now had the added advantage of use of his other hand. He snaked that arm around your waist to pull your lower half even closer to his pistoning hips. His pace was even more brutal than before, and your cum soaked pussy made obscene, wet sounds that drowned out your combined heavy breathing.

You were sure his teeth broke skin when he bit down even harder. His thrusts stuttered and slowed. He growled against you and you felt warmth spilling inside you. His release was forced from your lower lips as he continued to thrust through his orgasm, trickling down your trembling thighs.

For a moment you were shocked. Not moving even as he pulled out and stepped away from you. You took a moment to slow your breathing and ignore the odd feeling of the rapidly cooling mix of your fluids and his that spilled from your entrance.

You were pulled from your thoughts by the sound of rustling fabric. Finally, you were allowed to peel yourself away from the papered wall and turn to face him. You supposed that you shouldn’t have been surprised to find him completely put together, coveralls zipped and mask back in place, looking at you like he hadn’t just fucked the life out of you.

Your legs shook as you bent to recover your jeans and underwear, never taking your eyes off of him. You dared a glance at the knife embedded in the wall beside you. It was deep enough that you doubted you would be able to pull it out if he closed in on you. You weren’t sure what would happen next. He had had his fun and now the two of you were locked in a staring match in the middle of the hall, only you found yourself at a disadvantage since you couldn’t see his eyes.

Once you were fully clothed, you wrapped your arms around yourself. You didn’t want to make any sudden movements, but he was still blocking both the stairs and the window. You doubted that you would be able to sprint past him before he could grab you and kill you the way he had killed the others, and you weren’t too keen on a knife to the stomach.

Finally, he huffed quietly and stepped to the side, revealing the stairs to you. You looked at him with no small amount of surprised hesitancy. Was Michael really going to let you leave?

When you didn’t move, he tilted his head and gestured towards the stairs. His meaning was clear. Leave.

Afraid he would change his mind, you darted forward and bound down the steps on unsteady legs. You were still shaking and could already feel the soreness setting in. Your feet creaked over the porch and crunched across the dry grass. You spotted the hatch in the middle of the street.

As you approached it, you looked back at the house you had come from. Michael stood in the window through which you had watched him kill Claudette, as unmoving as a statue. You held his gaze for a moment. He had spared you this time. You somehow doubted it would be the same next time.

You jumped into the blackness of the yawning hatch.

[missjosie27]

Year 1 Part 9- One Ending, A New Beginning

Hello, friends!

This is the last chapter of Year 1 that I wrote. I sincerely hope you enjoy it and as always, please leave feedback or comments if you’d like:)

Year 2 will be coming soon! Probably within the week!

It took about as long as Merula said (the only thing she hadn’t lied to them about in their year of knowing her) but after about ten minutes the body bind curse had worn off and the three Gryffindor boys were back on their feet, albeit heavily disgruntled.

“Have I mentioned how much I hate Merula?” Rowan said, rubbing the back of his head.

“Hate doesn’t even begin to describe it,” David seethed, his hands curling into fists. His mind was practically spinning from the amount of animosity he felt towards her.

“Now I know the exact pain you saved me from when she was bullying me,” Ben groaned as he clutched his side. “Ugh, everything hurts.”

“Not as bad as she’s going to hurt after I’m through with her!” David declared, charging forward towards the door.

“Wait, David,” Rowan said, grabbing his arm. “Hold on a second. She’s still in there.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Merula would have found what she was looking for and left. She wouldn’t stick around. Something must have happened.”

In the midst of despising the first year Slytherin no one had considered that angle until now and it left the trio pondering for a moment.

“It might be too dangerous to go back in,” Ben said nervously. “We don’t know what’s in there.”

David considered that possibility, but two worse ones overrode any hesitation he had in entering the door. With his anger subsided slightly, he was able to assess the situation much clearer, however, he felt more determined than ever.

“True, but if Merula gets her hands on something really powerful who knows what she’ll do with it. Above all, we need to find more clues about my brother. I can’t turn down the chance to find out what happened to him.”

“I agree,” Rowan said pulling out his wand. “If it was my brother, I’d feel the same way. Plus, an all powerful Merula is not something I want to think about right now.”

“It’s settled then,” David said, following his best friend’s lead. “Are you with me?”

Rowan and Ben nodded as they approached the door once more. All or nothing, Merula or not, this was the first step to finding answers to so many questions.

Alohomora!

The door creaked open once more, allowing the Gryffindor trip to step inside and shut it behind them. However, the sight that greeted them was far from what they were expecting.

True, the chilly cold that emanated from the door was ten times worse on the inside, but far from witnessing an all powerful Merula, she was trapped up to her midsection in a block of ice. Indeed, everything in the room seemed to be encompassed by ice. It was small, only big enough for a handful of people and unremarkable other than the frozen entity that marked its interior.

“Merula?”

“What happened?”

Rowan on the other hand was laughing.

“And here I was thinking you got your hands on some ancient amulet. This is too good!”

“Get stuffed, K-Khanna!” Merula shouted though she struggled to contain her shivers. “This weird ice st-stuck me to the f-floor, and k-keeps spreading all over me!”

That was disturbing to say the least. Ice of that nature couldn’t be common even within the magical world at Hogwarts.

“It’s spreading all over the door too!” she cried, pointing a finger. “G-get me out of h-here before I j-jinx all three of you.”

“I don’t believe you’re in a position to be making threats,” David said, the full brunt of his sarcasm coming to bear. “But by all means keep acting like a prat.”

“Grant! Will you just turn around?!”

All three of them turned to see that ice was forming seemingly out of nowhere and spreading down the door, forming a thick, icy top layer that eventually glossed over the door handle. Rowan quickly moved to open the door again, but found it wouldn’t budge.

“I can’t get a good grip on it!” he said, panic in his voice. “The lock and handle are frozen shut.”

“What do we do?” Ben asked frantically. “How do we get out of here? I-I’m s-starting to feel the cold too, D-Dave.”

Resisting the urge to wrap his own body in his arms, David realized none of them would last very long in here if they couldn’t get out. They had to find a way and fast. But none of the spells they had learned could break or melt ice. There was only thing they could do.

“We have to knock this door down off its hinges,” he said aloud. “We can use the knockback jinx to try and break it.”

“Are you sure that’ll work?” Rowan asked.

“It has to, otherwise we’ll be frozen statues by the time anyone finds us in here.”

He took out his wand and motioned for Ben and Rowan to do the same. However, he couldn’t help but take a glance back at Merula. It had only been minutes before since the full concentration of his rage had been focused upon her, but seeing her trapped- weak, afraid, and completely helpless- caused his resolve to soften. With her wand laying on the ground, she had no way to free herself.

I can’t leave her here. No matter what she’s done.

“Brace yourself, Merula,” David said to her, aiming for her entrapped legs.

“W-what are you g-going to do?”

“Save your arse.”

Without waiting for her permission, he fired the knockback jinx.

‘Flipendo!’

It had the desired effect, sending Merula backwards into the wall, shattering her icy prison.

“Oww,” she moaned.

“For the record, you totally deserved that,” Rowan remarked.

David, however, walked up to her and offered his hand to pull her up.

“Not even someone like you deserves to die in here. We’re going to need every wand on hand to bust down that door.”

She began to protest but the Gryffindor cut her off.

“We can go back to being enemies later, okay? But this one time, I need you to work with me. Help us so you can get out of here.”

Appealing to her own sense of self preservation did the trick as Merula reluctantly took his hand, grabbed her wand and jumped to her feet.

The foursome, briefly united in their desire not to end up in an early grave aimed at the door.

“On three,” David told them. “Fire with everything you got. One, two, THREE!”

A chorus of ‘Flipendo!’ rang out as four jets of light hit the door simultaneously, sending it clean off its hinges and onto the ground. They were free.

Merula immediately bolted without so much as a thank you, but Rowan hung back for a second, puzzling the other two boys.

“Rowan let’s go!”

“Wait, Dave. Look!”

He pointed up at a series of symbols and markings on the top corner of the wall.

“It’s the same language we saw on the golden brick outside of the door. I need to write this down.”

Rowan quickly pulled out a piece of paper, copying it down while Ben urged them to hurry.

“Filch is going to be here any second! Someone will have heard that noise!”

“Just a sec…got it!”

With barely any time left to spare, the Gryffindor trio ran as fast as they could, away from Mrs. Norris, Filch, Snape, or anyone else who could have possibly been alerted to the presence of a busted down door. They didn’t stop until they reached the common room, not even bothering to hide the noise they made whilst they hurried to their dormitories.

There were many more questions buzzing in David’s head as he jumped into bed and attempted to pretend he had the ability to sleep after what happened. But the questions could wait.

Presently, not getting expelled was more than enough consolation.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To the surprise of everyone involved from that night, almost nothing came of the incident. David had fully expected a visit from Professor McGonagall or Snape or someone about breaking into (quite literally) the mysterious door and a lengthy detention sentence that would lead into the next year. Even more shockingly, Merula kept to herself during their classes, only occasionally throwing out a barb or insult. She wasn’t stupid, any mouthing off on her part about the vaults would only serve to get her in trouble as well.

And so, life went on and the routine of Hogwarts returned. Exams were coming up and most of the student body settled into a quiet lull, especially the older students, who’s careers depended on their following results. Rowan in particular was adamant about focusing on their studies, constantly quizzing them on various spellwork, facts, and numbers. It became so intense, that even Ben was bold enough to suggest they should take a break from the library and actually eat a meal.

The routine wasn’t to last long, however. There was one last bludger to be thrown before the year was out, and it came in the form of Professor Dumbledore.

In the midst of eating dinner per Ben’s suggestion, their meal of shepherd’s pie (and a retelling of story about one of Charlie’s younger brothers) was interrupted by Angelica.

“David,” she said to him. “We need to talk.”

Swallowing a mouthful of pie, he gazed up at her.

“About what?”

“Did you try and enter that door on the 13th corridor?”

His stomach immediately lost any desire for food as it felt like a stone dropped in the middle of it.

“Maybe this can wait until later? This is a pretty good pie, if I do say so myself. And Charlie was in the middle of a joke so…”

“You have a comeback for everything, don’t you?”

“It’s where I get my dashing charm.”

Angelica looked as if she didn’t know whether to laugh or scream, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“You’re incorrigible, you know that? To think I’ll be your prefect for the next two years.”

“Imagine how fun that will be.”

“David, I know you think this is all hilarious,” she said, putting her arms on the table and giving him a piercing look. “But whether you care or not you represent Gryffindor, just like your brother did. Risking that representation is a poor way to go about your time here at Hogwarts.”

“I don’t know what you heard,” the first year answered back. “But it’s rumor.”

“You blasted down a door,” she shot back. “It’s not exactly a huge mystery that someone was in there.”

Sighing, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a letter.

“I didn’t come here to argue with you or punish you. I’m actually just a messenger. But I do want you to know that your house and everyone else in it matters. Not just you.”

David took the letter from her and recognized its seal- that of the Headmaster.

“Dumbledore wants to see you. He didn’t say why so don’t ask. But you better hope it’s nothing serious.”

He opened it straight away and saw a neat message inscribed:

Dear David,

I should like to speak with you tonight in the courtyard as soon as you are done with dinner. Please ensure you are alone as I would like our chat to be private. I look forward to seeing you then.

Sincerely,

Professor Dumbledore

In truth, David felt quite uneasy about the prospect of a one on one with the Headmaster, but he also had no choice. The most powerful wizard in Britain was not someone you could avoid or runaway from like Snape or Filch. He did, however, have one more thing to say to his prefect.

“Whatever you think of me, Angelica, know this. I’m not just here for myself, you can ask anyone at this table about how much I care about Gryffindor, my brother, my family. They’ll tell you.”

Ben, Rowan, and Charlie each nodded and that seemed to put Angelica more at ease.

“Okay,” she said approvingly. “I’ll hold you to that. You’d best be off now, you don’t want to keep Dumbledore waiting.”

Let’s get this over with

“Good luck,” Rowan said to him, while Ben smiled, and Charlie gave a thumbs up. Somehow, it was inspiring and that was not an emotion that he was intimate with. Even should he be punished; he knew his house had his back and he had theirs.

Deciding it was best to heed his prefect for once, David got up from the bench, and headed towards the Courtyard.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sure enough, the eccentric wizard was there when David finally arrived in the courtyard. Wearing blue robes with stars on them, they complimented the atmosphere rather well, as the first dots of light began to emerge in the evening sky. Approaching slowly, he figured Dumbledore knew he was there, but as of yet made no movement or indication of it, keeping his head towards the heavens.

When the Headmaster did acknowledge him for the first time, it was a warm, friendly greeting, almost grandfatherly in a way.

“Thank you for meeting with me, David.”

The first year Gryffindor wasn’t entirely sure what to say, but he figured it was best to at least be humble and not try and pull any funny business with Dumbledore.

“Of course sir, I just wanted to say that-”

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” the old man interrupted, returning his gaze to the stars.

“Sir?”

“The quiet night, the calm air of spring with the promise of summer ahead- it truly puts your troubles into perspective doesn’t it?”

David had no idea where he was going with this but decided not to question it.

“I suppose so.”

“I oftentimes come here when I need to make an important decision.”

Perhaps a decision about his time at Hogwarts thus far? It wouldn’t have surprised David if Dumbledore was pondering that topic as they spoke.

“My prefect said you needed to see me, but she didn’t specify what. I assumed it was everything that’s happened this year- the dueling, fighting werewolves, the cursed ice…”

He trailed off as the Headmaster took a long look at him through his half moon spectacles. He did not look angry, however.

“Perhaps you were expecting a lecture or a far worse punishment?” he asked aloud. “But I sense you have just as many questions about what has happened so far.”

David realized that he was allowing him a freebee to ask whatever he desired, a fact he failed until realize until now as the words came spilling out.

“Sir, what are these cursed vaults? And why was my brother so obsessed with them? Do you have any idea where he is?”

A whole year had led up to this moment, but perhaps constantly avoiding the subject of his brother had been unhealthier than previously realized. In any case, Dumbledore did not look surprised.

“I’m afraid I don’t know much more than you do on the subject of the vaults,” he explained. “I have been seeking out an expert on the subject myself. Some say that they were created by a powerful sorcerer who was a student during the days of the Founders, others say Salazar Slytherin used them to hide his immense treasures and secrets. Perhaps they originate with the school itself. One cannot be certain, but as you’ll find, Hogwarts holds many secrets.

“As for your brother, his disappearance has baffled even me. He came across the vaults as a second year and his efforts to prove they existed resulted in several dangerous incidents that forced my hand, unfortunately. I do not want to damper your impression of him, however, he was an excellent student and quite the keen mind. Jacob was quite popular with the staff and most of the students, but I have guessed that he was led astray by someone or something along the way.”

“My brother, for all his feats was…complicated,” David said quietly. “He was always good to me, but there was a lot more happening with him than he let on.”

“Much of which you are just finding about now,” Dumbledore added with a small nod. “It is not easy being apart from a sibling. It is something I can highly empathize with.”

“This whole thing…this whole year has been one giant mystery.”

“Indeed, Hogwarts itself can be considered a mystery. But I expect you to learn more in the coming years of your time here.”

David breathed out, as Dumbledore’s words sunk in, implying he was not about to be kicked out, which had been a very real prospect coming into this meeting.

“Sooo….I’m not going to be expelled?”

Dumbledore’s gaze was slightly stern but there was still the hint of his usual twinkling in his blue eyes.

“You have made many mistakes this year, David. But you have also demonstrated great compassion, resourcefulness, and courage. As I say to many of my students, it is the choices we make that truly define who we are underneath. From what I can observe, you are quite the talented young wizard and Hogwarts is better off with your presence. I believe you have earned Gryffindor one hundred points.”

David could hardly believe his ears, the revelation that he was not expelled consuming most of his happiness at the extra points.

“Thank you, Professor!”

“You are welcome. Though I daresay it does not erase the poor drubbing the Gryffindor Quidditch team took at the hands of Ravenclaw.”

David scoffed. “We’d need a thousand house points to erase that deficit.”

Dumbledore gave a booming laugh, one that resonated across the courtyard.

“Indeed, there is that famous sense of humor you possess. I look forward to six more years of it, the wizarding world suffers for the want of a good joke often times.”

The first year Gryffindor knew that his time with the Headmaster was winding down, but his mind still burned with questions.

“Sir, thank you for everything. But can we talk more about my brother and the vaults?”

Dumbledore nodded, the full twinkling in his eyes returning.

“We can and we will. Next year,” he said. “In the meantime, I believe you have final exams to attend and a feast to prepare for. I do hope you have a good summer holiday.”

Gesturing with his robe, the Headmaster indicated for him to be on his way and David obliged, heading back to the Great Hall to finish up his shepherd’s pie (if Charlie hadn’t finished it by now). There was much to do, and he wasn’t sure what would come next. But one thing he was sure of: he couldn’t wait for the next year to start.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The inevitable day arrived as the students took their luggage down to Hogsmeade station to depart back to London where their families and friends waited for them. Many were saying their goodbyes already as a sea of crimson, yellow, blue, and green interacted and chatted away while preparing the board the train.

“I can’t believe how fast it went,” Rowan said as he lifted his luggage into the compartment.

“Me neither,” David agreed. “Before you know it, we’ll be seventh years rowing back across the lake at graduation.”

“Don’t even say that!” Rowan shuddered. “I still have six more years of academics to go, Dave. I’ll have to do everything I can to become the youngest Professor in Hogwarts history. There’s not enough time.”

“I’m taking the mickey,” David laughed. “Relax, mate. We got plenty of time. Just you wait, there’s a lot ahead of us and we’re going to see it all.”

“You’ll definitely need more than seven years then,” Charlie interjected, joining their space. “Have you seen how huge this place is? Loads of people come through without learning half of what goes on here.”

“Personally, I’d be fine with that,” Ben added, the last to join their space. “Better safe than sorry.”

“It’s not Hogwarts without a little adventure, Ben,” David said with a wink, his good mood having been sustained the past few weeks. True, Gryffindor had only placed third in the house cup, but at least Ravenclaw had pulled out all the stops to take down Slytherin. It saved him the agony of seeing Merula brag with the rest of the snakes.

“I’ve had enough adventure for a lifetime really,” the blonde boy muttered but a friendly pat on the back from David was enough to induce a small grin from him.

“Just you wait. By the time this thing ends, you won’t be afraid of anything.”

Charlie took a glance at his watch.

“I gotta go find Bill for a second. Also don’t worry about Jae, he’s off selling the last of his merchandise before the train leaves.”

Before the three other boys could get comfortable, however, Rowan slapped his forehead.

“Oh, I almost forgot, Dave.”

He quickly took out a random piece of paper, the same one he had used to jot down the message inside the door with the cursed ice.

“I did a little digging after we broke down that door. Took me awhile, but I finally managed to decipher what was on top of the archway.”

This was certainly news to David, who had desired more answers after his talk with Dumbledore.

“You’re joking. What does it say? What was it?”

“I found on obscure book about ciphers and ancient languages. It’s Aramaic, probably goes back a thousand years. It says, ‘The Ice Knight stands guard past the vanished stairs.’”

This newfound information was both welcoming and also frustrating to the young Gryffindor. As opposed to answering questions it gave rise to new ones? What was the ice knight? And where were these vanished stairs?

“It’s not much to go off of but it’s a start,” David sighed.

“I’ll do more research over the summer,” Rowan told him. “I’ll have plenty of time too. Plus you know how much I love to read.”

“I can learn some more spells, too,” Ben offered. “I know it’s not much but…”

Rowan and David looked at each other, failing to stifle a grin, causing Ben to look alarmed.

“What? Oh God, did I say something stupid?”

“It’s alright, mate,” David explained. “I guess no one told you but we’re not allowed to do magic outside of school.”

“Yup, or else you get your wand snapped.”

The blonde boy sighed.

“This crazy world is just full of surprises isn’t it?”

“Too right, my friend. And there are far more awaiting for us when we’re second years.”

“Wonderful.”

The train soon whistled, signaling its imminent departure. The last of the students climbed aboard and they were off.

As Rowan, Ben, and Charlie set up a game of exploding snap, David gazed outside at the fields and hills that began to roll past, both confident and anxious about the future. In his heart, he knew the mysteries of Hogwarts had only just began.

[less-than-hash]

Point(s) of No Return

I finally got real internet in France, so the first thing I did was purchase Final Fantasy VII Remake. 

A few days and 10 million Cura spells later, I finished it. (Term used loosely. I got to the credits.) 

It’s fantastic in many ways: gorgeous, obviously (I didn’t experience any of the texture issues (beyond some occasional  pop-in) that others have complained of); charming and funny; deeply stylish. 

I never knew how much I needed more Moulin Rouge in my FFVII.

I’m perfectly comfortable with what the ending did, though I’m not wildly impressed by the execution. And I’m excited for what comes next while holding considerable reservations about how it’ll be handled.

I also found it an incredibly frustrating game in a lot of ways: every time FFVIIR surrenders camera control to the player, for example, you can feel the game’s resentment; there’s a fair amount of repetition of spaces that doesn’t serve the action; while a lot of people seem to like the combat, I found it pretty messy, inconsistent, and frustrating (though loads improved from FFXV), to the point that I turned down the difficulty towards the end just to spend less time fighting battles. 

But none of that’s what I’m here to talk about today. I instead want to discuss a suite of specific design decisions that, in my opinion, really hampered the narrative flow of the ending of the game.

SIGNIFICANT SPOILERS under the cut.

Many games, especially RPGs or other games with open worlds, display a confirmation UI or impress upon the player through dialog (or both!) that the player has reached what we’ll be calling a Point of No Return. 

Though sometimes awkward to experience, this is a Very Good Thing (tm): it lets the player know that they’re about to depart the meat of the game for its conclusion and that if there’s anything they’d backburnered and want to take care of, now’s the time to do it.

Theoretically, this also allows the developers to pace the ending of their story in a way that builds towards a climax, something that’s otherwise difficult to do in an open world game due to the player’s nigh-complete control over the pace of play.

And while FFVII:R is by no means open world, it has some open world elements, especially towards the end of its second act. It’s no surprise that it fires the expected Point of No Return bulletin.

But later it does so again.

And again.

And again.

The first of these is frustrating for a number of reasons, not least of all its dubious accuracy. 

When the characters decide they’ll go after Aerith at the beginning of Chapter 14 (IIRC), the game suggests that doing so will instigate the endgame. This is not true. 

What this moment actually serves to highlight are a bevy of new sidequests. Thing is, there should almost certainly NOT be a bunch of new side content dropped on the player at this point. Not because that content is bad (some of it is quite nice), but because the game has just significantly increased the stakes and the pace of its main narrative, and taking time to futz around the slums looking for things to do dramatically undermines that pacing.

I’m not suggesting that this content shouldn’t be there at all - if the player takes time to explore and find sidequests, it’s nice if there’s something there to reward them; otherwise the world might feel empty and unreactive (to the massive tragedy that just occurred). Alternatively, this content could have been placed between (or before) saving Wedge and deciding to go after Aerith (in the period of the game that’s actually focused on the fallout (no pun intended) of the Sector VII Plate).

But having the game beat the player over the head with it right after saying “we’re gonna go storm Shinra now!” (and using Tifa, a character almost as invested in saving Aerith as Cloud, as the mouthpiece to do so) strains character verisimilitude and kicks the legs out from under the story.

But I suppose that’s kinda her bag.

The second Point of No Return comes after returning from, er, the return to the sewers. 

This is the actual Point of No Return from the open(ish) world, and the game does a very good job of stating both explicitly through UI and dialog that that’s the case (while going so far as to justify it in the fiction). Had it not been for what came before or after, I’d’ve said “well done” and been on my way.

(I could be wrong here - it may be that some of the Chapter 14 sidequests close off after the return to the Sewers, but if that’s so, it doesn’t seem necessary. Certainly one of those sidequests requires the player to do the return to the sewers, making that initial Point of No Return warning misleading.)

The game then progresses into its Final Dungeon, a sequence at turns confounding and at others fun and impressive. A few hours (and sixty flights of stairs) later, Hojo traps you in his lab and makes you jump through hoops to get out. I have a lot of issues with this section in general, the one most germane to this conversation being the obliteration of the pacing. The game has quite literally told the player to “get to the choppa,” but instead throws them through a pretty low-stakes series of trials without much sense of pressure from time.

Like this, but forever.

Still, the designers manage a couple of tricks towards the end of this sequence to ramp the energy back up (Red XIII’s fall, the big fight with the blade fish). 

Then you hop in the elevator, realize that Jenova’s missing, find a trail of alien goop to follow, and make your way to the exit...

Only to hit Point of No Return #3: This Time, For Reals Though.

I like this one as a teaching example, because it’s very clear what the intention is and how it might tweaked to flow a bit better:

What the devs needed to accomplish, in no particular order:

Let the player know that they’re leaving the more open area of the Shinra Building. (Or possibly just Hojo’s lab... you might not be able to backtrack to the lower floors. If that’s the case, I’d argue for cutting this Point of No Return entirely.)

Set up the encounter with Jenova in the next space.

Raise the tension and the stakes. Jenova is clearly an entity of horror. Horror is about tension.

How FFVIIR approached this in the shipping game:

The player finishes the lab area’s final fight, the two parties are reunited, and they take an elevator to Jenova’s tube in the central lab.

Player finds Jenova missing. 

Player locates elevator to Shinra’s office.

Game produces a “Point of No Return,” explicitly telling the player that if there’s anything left to do below, they should go do it.

Player may go looking for new stuff to do (or stuff they left undone), ballooning the time between step 2 and its pay off while dramatically undermining tension.

I’d argue that this flow could have been made dramatically better by setting the point of no return prior to returning to Jenova’s tube.

Like so:

The player finishes the lab area’s final fight, the two parties are reunited, and they find the elevator that will take them up.

The game fires the Point of No Return. This makes a lot of sense narratively, too, because last time the party was up there, Sephiroth was up there, too. (This elevator also goes up or down from this floor - the only elevator in the lab that does so - making it a perfect place in the level to put this kind of choice.)

Player can put off the return upstairs for a time if they want.

Player takes elevator up and finds Jenova missing.

Player takes elevator up to Shinra’s office and 4 pays off without the loss of tension.

BAM!

Anyhoo...

We can play backseat developer all day. I’m sure there were reasons this choice was made the way it was, and I’d be surprised if this exact conversation didn’t happen in someone’s office at some point. 

I don’t know what the various moving pieces were that led to the choice that shipped. It’s just not the choice I’d’ve made in a vacuum, because I’m confident in saying that - whatever the decision was made in service to - it harmed the narrative’s pacing.

And that’s something that happens. Development is give and take, and sometimes (often) narrative hangs lower on the priority pole than other things.

The last Point of No Return occurs right before the final boss. 

Like the first, I’d argue that this one’s unnecessary. The player’s forced by the level design to pass immediately by the very vending machine the Point of No Return suggests that they use, and there’s nothing else for the player to do in that map prior to confronting the Big Bad. The narrative has made it plenty clear that there’s no telling what’s on the other side of that light. 

(I actually thought it was a portal to the ending cinematic and credits prior to seeing the Point of No Return text, and would have been very pleasantly surprised by the twist of facing another challenge. Albeit frustrated said challenge was yet another combat in a system I was entirely over by then.)

An autosave at that point would have protected the player’s experience without interrupting flow.

Like whatever hidden trickery moves Cloud from that hole to the top of the slide.

So to bring this to its conclusion:

Points of No Return, while wildly useful, can dramatically interrupt the player experience and undermine narrative tension. They probably shouldn’t be viewed as an opportunity to unlock a bunch of side content, and they should definitely be placed prior to a series of interconnected events rather than in the midst of them.

Until next time, <3 <3 <#