#posts that take minutes off my lifespan

[gremlinmodetweeker]

Bellowing Bull Calling Home

Please forgive me for not posting any stories in a hot minute! I've just been super busy and tired. I had a whole issue with my meds (thankfully it's been sorted out) and since I'm so angry I wrote something about König getting mad. I really like the idea of being yelled at by this man, so once I get to 500 followers, I might post some snippets of smut.

Also, I'm thinking about opening a Kofi soon. I don't make much money, but it would be a good place to post some more... Interesting drawings, so to speak. I could also take some comissions if anyone is interested. However, I'm not sure yet. I'm just floating the idea.

Anyways, enough about me! Time to read König getting mad because that's super hot.

TWs: König yelling and insulting recruits, slight allusions to degradation kink, allusions to a horrible government secret contained in a suitcase (you never learn what it is)

Wordcount: 4.1K

Art from This Post

Story below the cut

Bellowing Bull Calling Home

 Normally, visiting König at work was a laughable concept. A PMC base was no place for a simple civilian such as yourself, yet here you were with König’s (supposedly) very important briefcase that he’d been directed to hold close to his chest for the foreseeable future. You’d begged König to let you read them, but he had simply laughed you off and changed the locks on the briefcase again. He then politely hid it out of view to keep you from trying to break into it. You had no intentions of doing so, but apparently whatever was in there was important enough for König to go to such lengths to protect it.

Unfortunately, by hiding the suitcase to keep it out of sight and out of mind from your curious fingers, König had forgotten about it entirely when he left that morning. You wouldn’t have known were the suitcase not sat proud and regal on your humble dining room table.

Sipping your drink and leaning against the counter, you realized you had the perfect opportunity to try and hack the damned thing open. Whatever was in there had König muttering darkly under his breath and leaning away from your touch. Those accursed documents were driving a wedge into your relationship the size and depth of a canyon. Of course, you knew the case was tamper-proof. You knew that if you so much as cracked it open as much as a millimeter, it would most likely set off some sort of alarm if a proper code wasn’t punched in the top. You had the strange feeling, based on the hefty weight in your hands, that the case wouldn’t even so much as dent if you took a simple butterknife to it.

You swung it back and forth as you left the home, the weight of your relationship hanging with the suitcase in your hand. Making your way to the main gates of the base.

A soldier checked your ID before waving you through, getting another soldier to help make your way to your husband.

“So, I don’t know if he’ll be in his office right now, but we can swing by there first,” Horangi chirped as he followed behind you to a long, grey building that sat close to the entrance.

You passed through a series of doors under the judgemental stares of low-ranking officers as Horangi brought you down the linoleum floors to come to a plain wood door, its only decor being a brown and white plaque reading ‘LEICHENBERG’ in big block letters. Horangi flicked the back of his knuckles against the doors twice before rolling back onto the balls of his heels. He looked at the door expectantly, then to you, then knocked again.

“Sometimes I knock and he thinks he’s going crazy,” Horangi explained before turning back to the door, “what he doesn't know is that sometimes I’m walking by and I’ll knock on the door and leave before he can answer it. I don’t think he’s caught on yet.”

You shook your head tiredly. That would at least explain some of König’s strange tendencies as of late, at least. Friends like Horangi tended to shorten lifespans, so if König dropped dead on his next mission, at least you knew who to blame now.

Horangi pulled out a set of keys and unlocked the door to step through into the minimalist office. You balked at his gall, but the way the soldier swaggered through the doorway had you thinking that Horangi was far too comfortable with pushing his way into your husband’s office.

You barely got a chance to see your wedding picture on König's desk before Horangi cleared his throat.

“Whelp, looks like he’s not here,” Horangi sighed as he turned to face you, “guess I can just hand that over to him myself, if you’d like.”

You sighed, “I was really hoping to hand this over to him personally…”

“Why?” Horangi snorted, “so you can go fuck in a closet or something?”

“No!” you gasped, “I just… I wanted to see him. I never get to see him at work so, you know... I thought this might be a good chance to see what he's like at work.”

“Well who am I to deny such a fine and noble venture?” you could hear Horangi’s shit-eating grin through his mask, “if we’re gonna track down König, we gotta use plan B.”

“Plan B?” you asked warily.

“Plan B!” Horangi cheered before sauntering over and slinging an arm over your shoulder, “looks like we’re going on a goose chase today.”

“Please not a wild one.”

“It’s gonna be a wild one.”

You groaned as Horangi’s laughter echoed off the empty walls of König’s office. It figured that the one day you had to go to König’s work he’d be squirreled away into the farthest corner of the base. He had a habit of being in the wrong spot at the wrong time, which made you all the more anxious every time he was sent on deployment. It also had a tendency to haunt you in your daily life when he returned home to your awaiting arms.

Horangi trotted down the halls, conveniently pushing you past anything he considered a bit too explicit for civilian eyes and ensuring you were in front of him to prevent you from skiving off to some derelict corner of the base.

“König usually likes to go to the gym when he’s frustrated about something,” Horangi explained as he brought you from the main building to a separate section of the base. Once inside, Horangi rounded on the help desk like a tiger on a deer.

“So, Matrice,” Horangi drawled as he leaned his chin on the heel of his hand, somehow exuding smugness through his mask and sunglasses, “you wouldn’t happen to know where ol’ Col. Leichenberg is, would you?”

“Uh…” Matrice darted her dark eyes between Horangi and you, then down to the suitcase fearfully.

“König’s my husband,” you offered.

“König has a wife?” Matrice shook her dark curls as she tapped away on her archaic keyboard, “nobody ever tells me anything around here...”

“Well maybe if you actually came to the staff parties, you might get to know us a bit better,” Horangi slyly slid the dig into the conversation with serpentine ease.

“Horangi, last time I attended a KorTac hoedown you threw up in my car,” Matrice grumbled, “I’m never gonna be your DD again.”

“I don’t remember it being that bad,” Horangi snorted, then turned and muttered, “not that I remember that much anyways…”

“And that’s why I’m not your DD anymore,” Matrice scrolled through the page a couple of times before shrugging and turning to you, “sorry ma'am, but you’re outta luck here. Maybe try checking the cafeteria? It’s nearly lunch. Big boy's gotta eat."

“König would be the first out to lunch,” you grumbled after you thanked the woman. Horangi paid no mind to your whinging and simply turned you back around to head back to the main building.

“If it makes you feel better,” Horangi offered as he firmly pushed you across the road, “I think I saw him cut down on red meat the other day.”

“We’ll see how long that lasts,” you rolled your eyes. 

Horangi only laughed as he opened the door for you.

“I’m serious! He needs to watch what he eats!” you insisted as Horangi led you into the belly of the PMC.

“You know, sometimes I think about what your grocery budget is like, and then I think I'd rather go back to South Africa than have to pay your bills for a month,” Horangi chirped as he stopped you from missing a right turn, “watch your step.”

“You know it would be easier if you were the one in front,” you huffed as you swung down the bland corridor.

“I don’t like the thought of you being out of sight,” Horangi explained as he guided you around yet another corner, “König’s said some interesting things about you.”

“You guys talk about me?” you cast a glare over your shoulder at the tall Korean man.

“What else are we gonna talk about?” Horangi shrugged, “living on base isn’t exactly exciting. Dunno if you civvies got the memo, but there’s only so many times you can talk about special secret missions before it just gets boring.”

“Special secret missions?” you perked up.

“Cleaning duty assigned to whatever poor fucker got the shit end of the stick,” Horangi clarified.

You groaned, then complained, “Please tell me he doesn’t say bad things.”

“Not really,” Horangi replied, “but he tells me a little bit. Just the juicy bits.”

“Really?” you scoffed, “like what?”

“Did you actually forget your own birthday this year?”

You flushed, which seemed to be enough proof for Horangi to laugh at your humiliation.

“He told me you nearly had a heart attack when he told you,” Horangi snickered.

“Oh really?” the cafeteria came into view, “well has he told you he eats other people’s lunches as snacks?”

Horangi sighed, “I figured it was him. It’s not hard to guess that one.”

“Has he told you that he ate Stilleto’s cake?”

Horangi paused, “I thought he was a better man.”

“We both did,” you shook your head morosely, “but I guess she stole his evening snack or something?”

“Oh my God he didn’t try to justify it, did he?” Horangi groaned.

“I tried to explain it to him but he wouldn’t have it,” you pushed the door to the cafeteria open.

The massive room was empty save for a table of sergeants playing poker and a couple of officers sharing a coffee. The room was notably absent of any giant men with a propensity for malicious snacking. The warm and inviting smell of the room made you want to grab one of those dishwater coffees they served and kick up your feet, get a taste of the military experience, but the suitcase felt hot in your hands.

“Looks like he’s not here,” Horangi pointed out the obvious, “so maybe he’s outside training one of his teams? I hope not…”

“Why don’t we check?” you offered.

“But it’s so far…” Horangi trailed off weakly as you marched past him, “hey! Where are you going!?”

“To see König!” you called back.

Horangi rolled his eyes, but followed behind you regardless.

The outdoor training area had been split into three squads of men, each squad being led by a different officer. The first leader Horangi brought you to had looked you up and down suspiciously before promptly turning a shade of milk white when he spotted the suitcase in your arms.

“What the hell are you doing with that!?” the portly man squawked as he jabbed a finger at the offending black pleather suitcase.

“My husband forgot it before going to work,” you spoke softly, taken aback by the man’s animated reaction.

“Wh-König just left it at home?” the man’s pale skin was steadily flushing to a beet red the longer you let him sit with your answer.

“Can you show me where he is? I need to get this back to him,” you tried to calm him but he only grew steadily more upset.

“You’re telling me König left that suitcase in the hands of a damn civilian?” the man scoffed, “König’s an idiot, but he can’t be that stupid!”

“She’s probably telling the truth, Baker,” Horangi interjected.

Baker steamrolled over him with the grace of a bulldog chasing a rat, “So where the hell did you get that?”

“It was just on my kitchen ta-”

“It was on your what!?” Baker howled.

“Baker!” Horangi barked, finally making the man pause to let you breathe, “this is König’s wife.”

Baker’s eyes widened as his mouth dropped into a perfect ‘o’. He turned to you with a sheepish smile, “Sorry, ma’am, I… I should’ve put two and two together but just seeing a random civilian with that in their hands and… Well… You gotta understand, right?”

You tried to steel your nerves as you replied, “It’s alright! Don’t worry about it.”

“I really should apologize though,”  Baker blundered on, “I mean if I’d only known you were König’s wife I never would’ve-”

“Baker please,” Horangi pinched his nose bridge, “cut the shit. I’m really not in the mood to listen to you kiss ass for an hour straight.”

“Understood sir,” Baker snapped his jaw shut before subtly turning to you, “please don’t mention anything to König.”

“I won’t,” you assured him kindly.

“Thank God,” Baker quietly made the sign of a cross before returning back to his platoon.

Horangi dragged you along to the next platoon, quietly ignoring Baker’s inability to direct you to König. Instead you were brought before a short man with notably thick dark eyebrows, accentuating his severe browline as he scowled at his soldiers.

“G’day Horangi 'ow are what the hell is she holding,” the man glared at you as though you were but dirt beneath his steel-toed boots.

“This is König’s wife,” Horangi cut you off before you could even start, “she’s here to deliver what he forgot at home.”

The man’s dark eyes darted from you back to Horangi, “You’re tellin’ me big boy over there forgot the damn-”

“Don’t say it,” Horangi interjected harshly, “don’t you dare.”

“She don’t know?” the man whispered.

“Not a word,” Horangi’s threat was nearly lost under the shouts of men and the screams of whistles.

The man looked unnerved, but nodded along begrudgingly.

“Right, well, you’re lookin’ for the big guy?” the man glanced between you both.

“Sure are,” Horangi nodded.

“Well yer in luck!” the man’s face lit up, “big boy’s just over there.” With that, he pointed out into the distance at one big man sitting in a navy blue folding chair whilst commanding the smallest group of soldiers, no more than a squad in number. His back was to them, but it was clear it was none other than König. If nothing else, the mask on his face in the sweltering hot sun was a dead giveaway. It was a miracle you didn’t see him earlier.

“Damn,” Horangi spat, “you really think it would be easier to find him, but he’s damn good at getting lost in a crowd.”

“When ‘e’s in that chair it’s hard to spot ‘im,” the man chuckled, “now get outta my sight with that damned thing. Gives me the heebie-jeebies just lookin’ at it.”

You glanced down at the suitcase and back at Horangi.

“You don't want to know. Seriously,” Horangi muttered as he urged you onwards.

Instead of taking in the weight of Horangi's ominous utterances, you focussed on making your way to König with a skip in your step, eager to see your beloved husband. You were so eager that you didn’t notice how he tensed up as you drew close. Just as you were about to greet him, he slowly rose from his seat with a blood-curdling howl sent straight from hell itself.

“YOU!” König bellowed like a brazen bull, “JEFFERSON, YOUNG, MANDULU! GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW.”

You stopped dead in your tracks. You had never, never, in your life ever heard König yell like that before. Sure he could curse up a wicked storm when he stunned his toe on the corner of your table, but this? This was another beast entirely. The mere thought of König yelling like this had been completely foreign to you.

“YOU USELESS ANIMALS,” König raged as he rounded in on the three cowering soldiers, “I have never, in my entire life, seen such incompetence,” König drew himself up to his full height, making even you shiver in your shoes, “and yet here you three are before me. What gives you the right to call yourself soldiers!?”

“I’m sorry sir, it won’t happen again,” the middle man’s voice quivered as he stepped forward for the others.

König’s laugh sounded downright demonic, “You’re apologizing for what? I haven’t even told you what you did wrong!”

You looked back at Horangi, who only threw you two thumbs up as he smartly backed away. You glared at his retreating form before König forcefully grabbed your attention.

“All three of you have been nothing but DEAD WEIGHT to the rest of your team. I’ve seen better performances from drunks moping up their own VOMIT!” König snarled as he drew close to the men, circling them like a hyena stalks its prey, “fucking Aziz is doing better than any of you. And Mandulu!” König clucked his tongue as the terracotta skinned man quivered like an aspen tree when König's voice dropped to a lull, “I expected better of you. You’re supposed to be up for promotion, yeah?" König leaned in close to scream, "DOES THIS PERFORMANCE WARRANT A GOD DAMN PROMOTION?” König’s face wasn’t even a foot from the man’s nose, leaning down and coating him with hot breaths from his draconic lungs.

The man, Mandulu, slumped as all fear left his body, totally replaced with encroaching shame. He dropped his head down, before tearfully admitting, “No sir.”

“THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?” König screamed.

A part of you wanted to intervene. You felt like you were witnessing a torture session with how König rounded on this poor man, but something held you back. Maybe it was fear, but maybe, just maybe… It was arousal.

You hated to admit it, but something about watching König’s muscles bulge in his neck as his mask swayed forth when he leaned down over men who easily dwarfed you excited you. You almost wished that you were in their shoes, but watching was more than enough. He was a glorious sight, rage burning like the sun as he lorded over his men like a god. He was a mountain of a man with how he held himself up above his victims. You wished to lay before him like Prometheus, let him rip you apart with his talons.

“And you two,” König spat as he turned to the others, “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING ON YOUR PHONES? What are you doing twenty feet off looking at the others while they work like ACTUAL FUCKING SOLDIERS.”

One meekly spluttered, “Sir we were just-”

“Just what? Laughing at Goetz?” you could see König whipping himself up into a frenzy as he hurled his next insults, “GOETZ HAD KNEE SURGERY THREE MONTHS AGO AND IS STILL HAULING YOUR USELESS ASSES ACROSS THE GODDAMN FIELD. AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING? PLAYING ON YOUR GODDAMN PHONES!!!”

You shuddered. If there was one thing König hated, it was soldiers on their phone during training. You gave a silent prayer for the poor men.

König stalked around them slowly, “I should have you thrown out. What would I be losing? Nothing! Not a single thing! I might actually gain something without you two dragging us down!”

The men cowered miserably. You couldn’t help but feel sorry for them, despite knowing the abuse was more than well deserved. From the sounds of it, it was a miracle König hadn’t beaten them to a pulp. Now that… That would be a sight to witness…

“ALL OF YOU,” König snapped as he finally stood to face the three men directly, “Mandulu! Give me a ten page report on all the reasons you’re still worthy of a promotion today at eighteen-hundred exactly, or you’re up for recycling. For the next half hour, you’re running laps around the yard. Maybe think how you'll structure your points, ja?” he turned to the other two, this time with a sadistic gleam in his eyes. You knew that under his mask, he was grinning from ear to ear through the fury etched into his face. “And you two!” he cackled, “give me your phones. For the next week, you’re going to be putting your phones in lock boxes. You’re going to carry those fucking boxes from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. If you’re good little boys, you’ll get your phone for an hour before lights out. Are we clear?”

“But sir, my wife-”

“I DON’T GIVE A GOOD GOD DAMN ABOUT YOUR WIFE,” König roared.

The man shrunk into himself like he’d been burned by the flames of König’s fury.

“You are to carry your phones in lockboxes for the next two weeks! Are we clear?” König snapped.

“Yes sir,” the two miserable whelps squeaked out before König finally relaxed.

The goliath finally stood straight before them, “All three of you! Dismissed!”

“Yes sir,” the three men saluted and slunk off miserably.

Just as Mandulu looked like he couldn’t be in any worse of a state, König called out, “And Mandulu?" the man raised his dark for eyes, "I’m disappointed.”

The poor man looked like his whole spirit had just been crushed to dust. His face crumpled in just briefly before he quickly turned his face and quietly left.

You watched the poor man leave with his tail tucked between his legs before turning to look at König. He was shaking his head slowly as he turned his back on his soldiers, all of whom were watching him for further instruction. He quietly turned to them, barked a couple of commands that had the soldiers scurrying into actions, then turned back to stare off into the distance. Incidentally, that was right at you.

“Ah!” König stiffened slightly as he locked eyes with you, “meine liebe! What are you doing here?”

“I brought this for you,” you held up the suitcase that had been weighing you down all day.

“Oh mein Gott,” König gasped as he rushed over, “ohhhhh mein Gott meine leibe I can’t believe you found this. I can’t believe I forgot oh mein Gott.”

“I figured you might need it,” you laughed as you handed the suitcase over.

“I knew I was forgetting something, but this? If one of my superiors saw me without this,” König shuddered, “I don’t even want to think about it.”

“Well it’s a good thing I got it for you!” you smiled brightly before scowling, “it was really hard to find you though.”

“Oh?” König put the case down and put his hands on your shoulders, “where did you think I was?”

“Well, first Horangi took me to your office-”

“Please tell me he didn’t take you inside,” König groaned.

“He did,” you chirped, “but he did knock twice at least.”

“Well that’s something,” König grumbled, “so where did you go next?”

“We went to the cafeteria afterwards,” you placed your hands on König’s hips and shifted from side to side.

“You went to the cafeteria? Why didn’t you come here first?” König scoffed in mock offense.

“König,” you cupped his masked face in your hands, “I know you too well to not check the cafeteria second.”

König sniffed indignantly but let you continue your regales of your odyssey.

“So anyways, when you weren’t in the cafeteria, Horangi took me out here to find you! It took us a couple of tries, but we got here in the end!” you lightly kissed the inside of his wrist, making him chuckle sheepishly.

“So you saw all that?” König grimaced.

“All of it,” you told him, “I feel kinda bad for them though…”

“Ach,” König scratched the back of his head, “Jefferson and Young are fucking idiots, but Mandulu is usually one of my best. I don’t know what got into him today…”

“Maybe he’s going through a tough time?” you asked.

“I really hope not,” König winced, “if he is… Well, I can’t apologize. And if he were out on the fields it wouldn’t matter, so this is a good experience. Still,” König paused as he looked off to where Mandulu left, “I hope tomorrow is better.”

“Can't you go easy on him?” you asked hopefully.

“It’s because I like him that I have to be harder,” König patted your head lovingly, “if I’m soft, he’ll never be what he wants to be. If I’m hard on him, he might get to my rank in a couple of years.”

“That fast!” you whistled, “he must really be something special.”

“I was the one who put him up for promotion,” König brought his hands back to his hils, “but… You weren’t upset by any of that, were you?”

“Not really,” you shook your head, “if anything, it was kinda hot.”

“You thought me going red in the face is ‘hot’?” König shook his head in disbelief, “you’re a strange woman.”

“It’s cool to see you when you get all angry and stuff,” you chirped, then quietly added, “it would be hot if you yelled at me like that.”

“I don’t want the neighbors to know about your kinks,” König drawled as you blushed, “but if you really want, we could always try something when we get home.”

“Could we really?” you grinned eagerly.

“Well, not like that,” König pointed over his shoulder at where the three men had stood, “but I’m sure we can figure something out. Now,” he picked up the suitcase, “do you need a lift home?”

“I’ll be alright,” you assured him, “do you need me to go?”

“I'd hate for you to go so soon. If you like, I can meet you back in my office, but as you can see I’m a bit busy just right now,” König gestured over to the soldiers hauling a massive log over their shoulders from one end of the muddy field to the other.

“Can you at least give me a kiss before I go?” you asked.

“Of course,” König laughed.

Without missing a beat, König lifted his mask up to lean down and press a kiss against your lips. He held you tight briefly, then let you step back from his grasp. His eyes shone with an undying warmth as he took in your form once more.

“Colonel König has a face!” a soldier screamed in the distance.

König closed his eyes as he let out an exasperated groan.

“They’ve never seen your face?” you asked.

“They’ve never been on the field with me,” König explained before ruffling your hair, “now go to my office. I’ll be there soon, okay? I love you.”

“I love you too,” you blew him a kiss as you walked off back to the main building.

As you did, you could hear König raging and roaring at the soldiers from behind you. You felt bad, but you knew you’d be on the receiving end of König’s rage soon enough. Funnily enough, you looked forward to it.

Story Masterlist

[doberbutts]

Also just because I've been getting some harassing anons and replies on my post ever since that one self-identified Zionist blog got BIG MAD at me for posting the Palestinian flag (ironic considering like 3 days later when I reblogged something Jewish I had people then BIG MAD at me for that too.......)

Skoll, I took on knowing I would probably have to euthanize him for his aggression. From the very beginning the deal was that I was his last stop since he was a known abuse court case dog who was taken from his most recent owners and languishing in a kennel environment but deemed otherwise unadoptable due to severe aggression. The agreement was that I would have him for however long it would take to determine if he was fixable and then either I'd fix it and keep him or I'd euthanize. He bit me three separate times when we were still learning each other, and then attacked me randomly for the crime of petting his head, an act of affection he normally would approach me to request. I euthanized him at the advice of literally everyone involved with his case, and a few days after I euthanized him I got a letter from the state telling me either I put him down or animal control would take him and do it themselves. Pennsylvania is very strict on what they consider a mauling or a maiming and the resulting bite from his attack was very severe. I have had multiple people, including vets, neurologists, and behaviorists, tell me that they think he had rage, a seizure disorder which causes uncontrollable aggression, when I describe what his random bouts of attempting to attack literally the first thing he locked eyes on looked like.

Tiki, I rescued because I wanted a tiny dog and a dog that would live longer than a doberman, because dobe lifespans are hideously short due to their health problems. Within about 5 minutes of driving away with her, I realized she was very, very sick. We stopped at the vet before we even got her home. Over the next several months and constant ER visits we discovered she had hydrocephalus and also an immune condition that was slowly eating her lungs. She crashed during a procedure that was supposed to be our last attempt at fixing the lung problem as by then we knew the hydrocephalus would kill her anyway and we were trying to extend her life as long as possible. I dropped her off for the procedure, they called me on my way home, and I turned around so I could be there to say goodbye.

Creed died from cancer 🤷‍♂️ mast cell cancer is THE most common cancer in dogs as a species and it's a genuine coin toss if removing the initial tumor fixes it or if it's too late by the time you notice, because it forms on scar tissue so it hides by looking like a regular scar. Creed had a bunch of nicks and scrapes from running around in the woods on our hikes. One of the earliest scars he ever got is what killed him in the end. Losing him is what turned my blog from what it used to be, all dogs all the time, to what it is now. Ironically, he lived roughly the average lifespan for a doberman at 7.5 years old.

Phoebe, I was not involved in the decision to euthanize her. She came to me once again very sick, and I did my best to fix the problem, but it seemed to be a lot bigger than me or her other owner had expected. Her other owner took her to multiple specialists more local to her, and finally we came to a tentative diagnosis of a liver shunt. Her condition degraded rapidly and she went blind and began having seizures, and her other owner made the choice to say goodbye. Surgery was not an option due to her already bad condition not being certain she would actually survive anesthesia. I knew that she was not doing well, but I was not informed that she had died until several months later, despite my asking for updates because I suspected she'd passed. I don't disagree with the choice, I just wish I'd known when it happened. What we thought was just a chronic hookworm infestation and possible pancreatitus from the long-term damage from the hookworms turned out to be much more serious, and deadly, when it stopped responding to treatment.

If you have any questions on my capability as a dog owner to actually keep dogs alive, I'd like to direct you to the fact that Creed and my other actually-purchased-from-a-breeder dogs have lived good long lives. I keep getting sick dogs in rescue despite being told they are healthy, and that is exactly why I refuse to rescue dogs anymore. I'm tired of breaking my heart while cleaning up a problem someone else created. This is the part of rescue that doesn't get shared- what happens when someone loses the rescue lottery again and again and again with sick and mentally unwell dogs that are doomed to die before they've had a chance to truly live? I'm tired of being that someone. I'm tired of loving dogs and hemorrhaging money in a desperate attempt to fix them and feeling the weight of their bodies in my arms when that wasn't enough and they die anyway.

At least I can say Creed had a good fulfilled life as my constant companion, even if he didn't live nearly long enough compared to what I wanted.

[cerastes]

That Cracker Barrel post reminds me, I was visiting my then-girlfriend in Tennessee years ago and she took me to my first ever Cracker Barrel. I was completely unfamiliar with it as an eatery and as a temple of racism, and thought it had a funny name, so I was like “oh is it like a DK barrel full of white people?” and my girlfriend chuckled and then said “kind of but if you say that out loud over there you might get killed” and she didn’t use that inflection that suggests facetiousness or intends comedy, so it got me a bit concerned. For context, I’m latino but I’m white passing.

So we get there and, yeah, she was not exaggerating, it was like a little sundowner town in a box. Table next to us briefly but cheerfully and without really minding their volume scheduled what I’m not sure if I heard completely right over the loud country music about Muh Flag And Muh Freedom but seemed to be a KKK meeting or at least somewhere where it can just be “us good ‘muricans” without the “thieves” sooo that was cool and also highly concerning.

The gravy slapped, though. They don’t eat bad at the HQ of Racism, I can confirm that at least. Also they clog their arteries, god damn they’ll fry everything up there. I thought my ex was feeding me a fib when she was like “oh yeah we can get fried Oreos at a fair, too” and it turns out, yeah, they fry Oreos at fairs and it’s delicious but each bite takes 30 minutes off your lifespan and also I’m sure at least a couple holy scriptures around the world have their Messianic figure explicitly say “Don’t fucking fry Oreos - Psalms 4:20”.

[da-shrimping-station]

I'll never let you go...

CW: mentions of death, corpses, obsession and such (this whole post covers morbid topics)

⛧˙–––——⋆☠︎︎⋆–––——˙⛧

Demons are used to having their human pact masters perish in such short periods of time that they never get to make the most out of pacts. It's expected. It's the norm. No one would really bat an eye once the human soul leaves the body and the pact is severed.

But what if the demon dies first?

That would be a very rare case. Demons don't really have a fixed lifespan. They would either succumb to deep slumber, almost like a comatose, or they are killed.

What would the human do when their beloved demon dies before they do? Can they handle the grief? Can they bear to feel the pact severing?

What if they can't? What if that human takes the corpse and flees?

What would they do when they find out that the body still reacts to pact commands?

Hack job taxidermy, playing dress up with a corpse, finding any and all means to pretty up their demon (especially if the cause of death was gruesome and left the body barely recognisable), making sure to care for them now that they can't do it on their own, exhausting themself due to constantly using commands because otherwise, the truth seeps in little by little, chipping away at the illusion.

They ignore that their demon can't speak anymore, that they aren't even remotely warm. They have to constantly use magic to make sure the joints don't stiffen too much or that the smell doesn't get too awful. They bring gifts, offer food, share a meal. They talk about their day and how excited they are for future plans, smiling like the dead silence isn't what they're hearing after they stop talking.

At some point they have to procure glass eyeballs to replace the eyes but none can do justice to their beloved's!

"Don't worry, darling. It's my turn to take care of you."

It's morbid. It's disrespectful. It's mocking the dead with every syllable uttered in command.

So the demons wait. Eventually, the human will pass, and their kin can receive the send off they deserve. Even after the human reaches the end of their minute lifespan, they'll probably rot first than the demon corpse they've puppeteered around for decades.

And even if they're too stubborn to die, the Reapers aren't hard to get a hold of.

⛧˙–––——⋆☠︎︎⋆–––——˙⛧

[misc-obeyme]

i think satan is just basically a cat at this point. when i look at him i dont think unicorn i think "where are his cat ears". i think his skeleton tail is a cat tail. probably enjoys being scritched in the same places a feline does.

if he were cursed to be a catboy or just a regular cat i feel he'd make 0 effort to undo the curse.

which, honestly same

🐈‍⬛

As it turns out, I fully agree with you that Satan would be perfectly content being a cat. While I'm sure everyone has seen this headcanon post about the boys turning into cats, here it is again just in case.

Anyway, I think he'd be better off as a catboy because I think he'd be a terror if he was an actual cat. At least in catboy mode he'd just be himself with cat ears and a cat tail, right? I just can't help but think he'd take the opportunity to be a total menace if he was just a regular cat lol. He could get away with so much!

Though I think being a pampered house cat would be the best thing ever. Like give me my cat's life, please. Sleeping all day, having a servant that feeds me and brushes my fur and cuddles me, and whenever I want anything all I have to do is yell for a minute and my servant comes running. Spending afternoons on the patio chasing lizards in the sun. Bringing my servant a dead one sometimes just to remind them how much I love them. Ah yeah, that's the life.

Though Satan also has an unusual lifespan so would that mean he'd be a cat for thousands of years? That would be next level.

I kind of like the idea that he can switch between full on cat form and an in between catboy form. That'd be so dang cute. I'd adopt him as a kitty on the spot and then he can be a catboy whenever he feels like it. I just think that would be so fun.

[arttrampbelle]

Dunno bout y'all but shang tsung would be soft for his s/o

Sorry not sorry but shang tsung to me IS somft for his beloved.

Because your probably the only person he's been with for like how long,you put up with him,and honestly would he find anyone like you ever again? Probably not.

So no. His s/o don't NEED to be like him to be with him. They just need to accept him and he's gonna be well....a dark sorcerer. Plain n simple.

Sure it would be nice to find like minds. But i dunno shang doesn't strike me personally to go after someone that is an exact copy of him or tries to be like him. He like genuineness above all else. Ironically.

If you can be yourself. And who you are honestly. And are absolutely undyingly loyal to him.

It doesn't matter how cunning or "intellectual" you are. It doesn't matter what your personality is.

He values loyalty,honesty,and genuine people. Because those people he can actually fucking keep around and not stab him in the back when plans go off the rails.

Which unfortunately he tends to hire or associate with.

So to have you,who is loyal,trusting,and bound to him. Soul or not.

Is a fucking treasure.

Look man i get it. You wanna be like shang. He one cool dude. I feel you. But there is only one room for a cunning binch. And thats him.

So if you're trying to match him,good luck. Because he'll see right through that and walk away.

But if its genuine. He'll stay. But dont be fake.

There is a difference between him with business partners or friends/allies and romantic partners or even a spouce.

Like for anything closer it needs to be something worth keeping yes. But again it doesn't NEED to be like him to catch his eye.

In all honesty.

Someone who he can be genuinely domestic with and take off the evil sorcery mask around would be a breath of fresh air to him. He could let down his walls for fucking once.

He is happy to be around you. And only you.

Could he be clingy,sure. Possessive? Sure. But you are well taken care of. Nobody's gonna fuck with you on his watch.

Also if you cant fight,he'll teach you. You wanna learn magic. Become the sorcerer's apprentice. No. Not the movie.

Just also make sure its not soul magic or anything heavier. Because he's very particular about that. But thats out of protection for himself AND you.

But any of invocations of magic is perfectly acceptable. Elemental is the easiest and most likely.

But yeah,he'd happy to teach you anything he knows. Tbh shang tsung would totally take in an apprentice he can mold to his desires. Especially to take down a certain thunder god. Hee hee.

Some of y'all have a decent idea on him. But miss the point he doesn't need someone to be like him.

In fact.....thats boring.

He would want someone he can cherish. I wouldn't put it past him to slowly unbeknown to you. To slowly increase your lifespan or slow your aging with magic. Sure you may not know it at first. But after maybe a decade or so....you question some shit and go "hey wait a minute"

I dunno man.

Shang i honestly don't think gives a fuck about superficial crap much. He acts like it. But thats not what keeps him.

He's over 500yrs old. Do you honestly believe anyone that long lives gives a fuck about superficial crap?

No. Not even the vainest mofo would give a damn after a while. It would get boring.

I know my villains honey. And i know these archtypes.

But all in all.....at the end of the day.....does it matter?

No. Because you,reader,you are the special exception.

Shang would totally love you no matter what the hell your personality is like. As long as your genuine about it.

Thats all he'd care about.

So dont listen to these x readers that have "oh he wouldn't like so n so" or "he wouldn't like x this type person" like hell. He would totally love you. Im sorry but i hate people who say in x reader type posts to say. They wouldn't like this type of person. No. Thats wrong. And bad x reader writing.

Like at the end of the day,its your writing. Write however you want. Its your city. But for me. Shang tsung don't give a single rats ass what you look like,what your personality is,if your soft n sweet or cunning like him. (Bonus if you both) but at the end of the day he's just happy that he's finally found someone to share life with. However brief if may or may not be. Fr.

You need to be open minded about this type of writing. Dont alienate reader like that.

I have learned its best to write less about what reader is or is like. And more about character in question. And less about "types" and more about what keeps them. And most of them. I hate to break it to you. Especially villains.

Wants some damn loyalty and peace n quiet. Do you how stressful it is to be evil bad guy all the time? Dont you think they deserve a damn break once n a while. Like come home from a long day of scheming "honey im home,i love you. Lets take a bath together" type shit.

Like bruh come on

Like shang tsung just wants to chill and be on his island n have souls to "drink" is that hard to ask for?

And he would absolutely cherish you. Like a dragon coiled around his treasure.

You are precious to him. And if he could,he'd clutch you tighter,hide you in his pocket from the cold dangerous world of kombat.

But alas. He cant.

Because thats not how it works. Even if the odds are in his favor.

A mastermind like him would also needs to be gentle with his beloved,to keep them in his favor or keep them beholden to him anyways. I feel it would be genuine,but also shang tsung is gonna well....shang tsung.

But even when he's being a bastard,he isn't gonna shy away from making sure you're absolutely comfortable and well loved.

You don't need to be just like him to be loved by him. You just need to be genuine.

Anyways. Shang tsung loves you. Ok? Dont you worry your precious heads my fellow shang tsimps,self shippers,and fic writing community.

[lostsneeze]

Some Blue Forum Thoughts

TLRDR: It's only going to get worse so keep being sweet to each other everyone, here and discord are gonna be all we have

While not the most active member, I was on the forum for a pretty long time, long enough to notice some of the ways it's changed that I've been thinking might have subtly eroded the culture it fosters. Way back in the day, the Sneezing In Media subforum was used mostly to hunt down clips of shows or movies on youtube and share alerts of when particular episodes were going to come on TV in various regions. Y'know, so you could set your VCR to record them, a thing people used to do.

Nowadays though, movie/show media is a lot easier to find. So instead it's a lot of questions about if clips of particular celebrity individuals sneezing at all exist, and shares of youtubers, streamers, clips off tiktok, etc. That's not surprising, the media landscape has changed a lot since like 20 years ago. But it's...kinda weird, right? Streamers aren't really like movie actors or show characters, celebrity-wise. And most people on TikTok are just, like, regular people.

Hey you know how we have a persistent problem in this community from creepy folks behaving with a deranged sense of entitlement towards the videos and wavs other people make, obsessively collecting them, and even harassing creators for more in perpetuity?

Somewhat of an aside, but if you've seen my age in bio you might've noticed I was talking about 20 years ago on the forum and thought to yourselves "hey wait a minute, wouldn't that have made you a..." YES! Minors used to just be allowed on the forum! Maybe most people know this but until relatively few years ago there was a "youth" subforum where only minors were allowed, and all explicitly 18+ stuff like talkin' about sex and drugs was relegated to the "adult" board. Anything else was just open to whoever. Minors could "interact" as is said here.

And that was an upgrade, btw. Those segregating boards didn't always exist, for much of the forum's lifespan you could just...be 13 years old. And post observations, like about your classmates, in the general board. And click on art topics with full frontal nudity (honor system not to!). And get DM'd by middle-aged adults. Pretty bad!

The point of that digression is to say that the staff, even though it's different people by now I'm sure, has a tradition of moving slowly on even fairly glaring community issues. If something's not technically immediately a problem for anyone, it's probably something they don't feel is their place to do something about, as long as they're taking care of the few "bad apples" or whatever.

Do you feel like it might be a problem, though? Does having an entire subforum dedicated to collating voyeuristic cam footage of strangers seem like it might be...bad? Like the kind of thing that normalizes, facilitates, even encourages specifically one of the worst types of people this community produces? I do, personally! I think it would be hard to prove the exact effect it has, and there's always going to be creepos, but it demonstrates a cultural attitude that I think is a bad omen. The kind of place that just lets that slide without examination or regulation, probably ends up letting a lot else slide too.

So just as I said in the tldr, let's all continue to be mindful about keeping this place a different kind of place than that!

[egg-emperor]

Question: Would you believe Eggman would consider the possibility of replacing his vitals with machinery to continue living on into the future, or maybe perhaps downloading his mind into a mech or robobody so that he essentially achieves immortality?

Or would he remain, as that one post put it, childishly narcissistic and simply say 'RIP to everyone else but I'm different' because he thinks he's too good for death?

Personally i think he'd probably remain in denial that he'd die at all, until he's actually at that stage where he knows he's about to and won't let something as inane as death do him in so he fixes up a lil something so he could live longer.

Yeah I imagine Eggman wouldn't even think about it most of the time, he'd just be in subconscious denial that he could die from old age and just think of himself as living forever like children do but he never grows out of as the manchild he is. It's a case where his egotism and childishness works against the logic of science as he refuses to believe that he will, he doesn't deserve it, he's too good for it, he's built different lol. He can't bear to imagine that anything can ever be completely out of his control.

And with all the brushes with death that he has constantly but always survives almost completely unscathed, it makes him feel even more confident, untouchable, and invincible and after all that, he doesn't want to think of time being the one thing that can finally beat him. Very occasionally when he's thinking about the passage of time and aging like on birthdays, he almost has a brief moment of oh fuck time to conquer the world is slipping away but he keeps pushing it down for as long as possible.

During that entire time he'll keep a mindset of "I'm not running out of time to conquer the world, build and rule my empire," "I'm not writing a will because I'm going to be there and I'm not passing the empire down to anyone because it's all mine." He's not planning on dying, so how dare anyone make such ridiculous assumptions and suggestions! XD Does he know exactly how he's going to live forever? No, he has no real logic yet but comforts himself by telling himself he just won't because death is beneath him.

I imagine that he doesn't consider the options of what he can actually do in terms of science and puts it off for a very long while for another reason too. That while doing such would at least still prove his genius in being able to pull it off, he actually values his superior natural body and strength and he wouldn't want mechanical or digital aids to downplay and take away from that and make it seem less impressive in any amount, as it would essentially be replaced by it. If he finds that's the only way he can go about it.

And I do imagine that he'd leave it until last minute to actually do something about it as a result. His determination to never give up on his dream is no joke, there's no retirement as long as the world is still in need of conquering because that would be giving up. He'll just keep fighting and working as hard as he can to the end. Any signs that he's getting too old, he'll push through no matter the strain on him, when the truth starts to seep in he'll keep trying to ignore it and deny and refuse it as hard as he can.

I can imagine that he'd be on his very last legs when it really hits him that if he wants to live forever, he has to finally do something to ensure that and he accepts it and gets to work. His intelligent mind will still be going strong no matter how old and he'll be able to use it to go about extending his lifespan and hopefully immortalizing himself. It would be his very last resort to alter himself and that he'd want to keep it as faithful to his already perfect self and appearance as he can but he'd explore all of his options.

He could go about that by downloading his data into a program or a robot or some other secret to immortality he ends up discovering. If he somehow found a way to turn himself/store his mind in a robot, I'm sure he'd keep his handsome likeness that he clearly adores so much and all of his admirable abilities of intelligence and strength! Though he may add some cool bonus enhancements here and there to show off. I could imagine him looking a lot like the unused Metal Eggman in Runners if he is robotic.

And whatever way he ends up going about it, I bet he'd be sure to boast about how he found the trick to immortality and managed to apply it to himself as a human in the ways Gerald never got to try with Maria. He'd use it as yet another reason to say that he's superior to the both of them, as the undeniable proof. He wasn't kidding when he said he was built different, as it would be thanks to his genius. He's never going to die like them, he'll always be the best living scientist and emperor of the world forever and ever hehe! >:)

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Is feeding pigeons bad? I don't feed them from my hand, I just leave out food and they eat it all up. Other animals don't get to the food because I place it on my window and the pigeons heavily populate my street and finish it in minutes.

In a post you mentioned that having animals gather close to one another can cause easier spread of diseases.

I am just wondering if that also applies to pigeons considering that they are domestic and if there are more ethical ways I can feed them or if I just shouldn't at all.

@uselessfish - Good question! So, this is sort of a weird situation. Pigeons are technically a domestic version of the rock dove (Columba livia), sort of how the house cat is the domesticated version of the African wildcat (Felis lybica), so this isn't like feeding native wildlife. Nor is the pigeon strictly an invasive species since they are synanthropes that mostly (though not exclusively) stick to human-dominated areas. While there is likely some risk of pigeons spreading diseases to other birds simply through proximity, they aren't like European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) or house sparrows (Passer domesticus) that actively compete with native North American birds for nest sites and other resources. Most of the complaints about pigeons have to do with the fact that their feces ends up all over public places because, well, that's where a lot of them live. They can occasionally cause crop damage in rural areas and in those cases I can understand control methods being brought into case, but urban pigeons don't really seem to be hurting much of anyone. Plus they are a nice reminder that nature persists in spite of our urbanization.

To be honest I feel bad for pigeons because we domesticated them and then when we no longer needed them we basically abandoned them. People will spend scads of money feeding feral outdoor cats that, even when neutered or spayed, decimate native wildlife for the remainder of their lifespans. But pigeons? Pigeons get kicked, chased away, treated like the scum of the earth, even by people who claim to love animals. They're more than just "rats with wings", and I think they deserve a P.R. boost.

Also, in recent years native species of falcon, hawk and other raptors in urban areas have been using feral pigeons as a steady food source. In Portland, for example, there are several active nests of peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) in the city limits. Would it be better if they were in wild habitats eating native prey? Sure. But the city isn't going away anytime soon, and the pigeons provide food for these once-imperiled predatory birds that are taking up the niche that's offered to them.

So personally? I see no issues with you putting some food out for the pigeons on your windowsill. Just sterilize the surface they eat on on a regular basis so that you aren't promoting disease transmission, and keep an eye out for more potentially troublesome critters below the window if the food gets knocked off on a regular basis. Also, I don't have personal experience caring for pigeons, but I would recommend doing some research as to what a proper diet for a pigeon would be. There are still folks who keep them as pets so I'm sure you can find plenty of information on what's best for their nutrition and digestive systems.

[bainofjustice]

The Game Credits Suggest There Is A Cut Scene/I found Episode 7… In a way.

Hello everybody, if you are just joining me let me briefly catch you up on how we got here, I decided to rewatch the web series that was made early into Payday 2's lifespan to advertise the game to take notes, I am working on a retelling of Payday 2 with a friend so am researching everything I can.

While I was watching I got curious about the identity of a series of very similar characters, which lead to me researching their actresses for my wrap up post on the Notes posts I had been making. 

But the thing is that I found a site that had posted the credits of Payday 2 because the thing is, there is a section for The Payday Web Series, covering all the main characters, and then all extra characters scene by scene they are introduced though episodes one to six. And then there are scenes with names and credits that I never saw, there has been rumors of a episode 7 that never was publicly shown and I think I stumbled into the credits for this episode, so I will share these and give my best guess as to what was happening in these scenes.

Here is the site (also you can check this out in game) and here are a few notes on how it seems the credits work which will color my theories

The credits do not go over people multiple times, and there are two types of sections for the cast of the web series, there is the “Cast” section which consists of what could be considered the main cast, and then it goes scene by scene with minor characters with no repeating, for example Yuri's actor is not credited multiple times only for his first appearance.

The credits are not perfect, characters with names such as the news reporters are not credited with those names but just a title.

The minor characters section seems to be in chronological order of how one views the show, the last section with a scene we can actually watch is crediting the girls in the safehouse with Houston, Chains & Dallas, after this in episode 6 we don't meet any more minor characters, so everything after the Poker Credits Section is likely from episode 7

If a scene only has recurring characters I have no way to know about it, so my theories definitely going to be missing things in the episode such as Bain's monologs.

Now onto the scenes, again remember my theories can't really account for what other scenes could be in the episode with only recurring characters and I also don't know how long the episode would have been, I am going to assume like the later episodes it will make it to the teens of minutes at least. Also I am gonna assume you know the plot of the Web Series, if you don't then watch it and perhaps read my notes on the episodes on this blog

Payday: The Web Series - Gun Range

Hamilton - LeVar Burton

Firearms Instructor #1 - Bill Beasley

Firearms Instructor #2 - Sean Arli

Hamilton's Posse - Tomek Kosalka

Okay so my best guess is that this is

follow-up about The Haitian buying several guns from Gage & maybe testing them? 

The instructors could indicate this is a scene about training someone? Though the posse presence is throwing me off. For this option my beat guess is Dallas taking Houston here as petty revenge by implying Houston needs shooting lessons?

This could also be connected to Lukas's movie as later credits indicate we were going to see a bit more of him, so this could have been him procuring the weapons Bain mentions Lukas smuggles for Crime.Net. To me this seems the most likely since it relates to other scenes and other credits we have for episode 7.

As for the characters I think Hamilton was in most likelihood a alternative weapons dealer to Gage or otherwise the owner of the gun range

Payday: The Web Series - Guitar Warehouse

Don Elias - Carlos Gallardo

Tiago - Bill Hudson

Elias Bodyguard #2 - Ken Gust

Forklift Operator - Jeff Moore

Okay doing this one definitely as HOLY SHIT DON ELIAS! For those who didn't actually watch the series or read my notes before this, Don Elis is repeatedly mentioned in the web series as a dangerous criminal enemy of Crime.Net/Bain but we don't actually meet him in canon! Another fun fact is Carlos Gallardo's Wikipedia page incorrectly credits him of playing Don Elias in episode 6, but as someone who has watched that episode at least five times at this point let me tell you there are no guitar warehouses that show up after the Poker Game in episode 6.

Anyways my thoughts on this

Okay so really I think it's what is on the tin, probably a scene actually establishing who Don is, what is he doing, what the warehouse is a front for since I doubt it is actually guitars, that sort of stuff. 

This might be a meeting between Don & a established character given he has two body guards with him, the named guard Tiago and a unnamed one, given it's only two in likelihood some sort of ally? But right now I couldn't point to who this early in Payday 2 would have been shown as a traitor.

Payday: The Web Series - Outside FBI Office

FBI Agent DuJuan - DuJuan Johnson

Okay my only guess is this would have been another Jordan Griffin scene, possibly with Agent Riker also present but as for what would happen I earnestly don't know as Jordan is the only character in the web series to like have a ending that remotely works as a ending to her story in it, so another scene without any chance for followup would really really open a can of worms. But we only see the FBI HQ from Jordan's eyes so we can assume it would have been a scene with her.

Also I checked and none of the other names on Jordan's network match Agent DuJuan, so outside of that I don't have anything to base guesses off, I can assume they were spoken with at least once but as Dallas's bank assistant Sam whose lack of name being mentioned in episode made me so confused on who “Sam” was until the game credits can tell you: name in credits doesn't mean important or one's name being mentioned.

Payday: The Web Series - Additional Cast

Rami - Amir Perets

Noah - Tal Berkovich

Lukas Starlette #1 - Sue Ann Pien

Lukas Starlette #2 - Amber F. Rose

Lukas Starlette #3 - Heather P. Cohn

Gage Video Singer - Michelle Lewis

Okay this one doesn't give any context to the scenes they were in and I suspect these are actors from multiple scenes, possibly unfinished ones? Which would explain it being in this larger sections instead of scene by scene.

When it comes to the Starlettes that's why I guessed we would have seen more of Lukas in this episode and likely some stuff focused on his movie.

Rami & Noah could be anyone, Rami is played by a martial artist so perhaps would have been either in a fight scene or like a different characters bodyguard/goon, and then Noah's actress doesn't seem that notable, though given the trends in the show & her having brown hair she probably won't have been a girlfriend/arm candy character.

Now the “Gage Video Singer” is sadly not a dub actor for Gage himself, no it's a female singer either a folk singer or a lady that made some of the music for dc super hero girls. So either Gage was meant to listen to a song or a scene with him was going to have a song playing over it.

My Thoughts On This

I am left wondering who the episode would have been titled for, we had:

First World Bank Heist

Elephant 

Hector

Gage & Vlad

Greta

So we are mainly missing gang members, Bain and perhaps Don Elias? My main guesses are either Don Elias or… A Bain backstory episode? Which I doubt would have ended well but uh is possible in the fever dream of a web series.

Right now there isn't enough for me to like tell you what the episode would have been, but I think this is a pretty big step in knowing since before I haven't seen these credits unconnected to the unreleased episode 7.

If you have any theories or thoughts please send them my way! I would love to hear it!

[beautifulsnake2162020]

Beautiful Anomaly (Part 6): Morpheus x FReader

(Gif by hopeidontgetaddictedtothis from : https://at.tumblr.com/hopeidontgetaddictedtothis/dreams-subtle-sarcastic-smiles-throughout-this/dbi9r2a65h65)

Morpheus x FemReader (present day, its a little hard to explain)

A couple of disclaimers:

1.) This is all based on the Netflix show and I have 0 background on the graphic novel it is based on (so don't expect it to be faithful);

2.) This is a fan work, the only benefit I derive from this is sharing it with the community.

AN: So as usual the original text is too long to be in one post so everyone who is following Beautiful Anomaly will get Parts 5 and 6 divided up so that it can withstand the tumblr textbox limit. Also fyi I will be using the same Morpheus gif because I am too lazy to find a different one when I was writing this. These will be my last posts before I officially go on tumblr hiatus for my midterm exams. Once again thank you to everyone who has been following so far.

For those of you who are new. I highly recommend reading the previous parts first because I don’t know if you will understand everything without first reading those.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Taglist (if you want to be a part of the taglist just comment requesting so) : @winxschester @true-queen-of-mischief @laydreams @memento-mora @daydreamin1220 @kuchokitty @fate-huntress @igotanidea @mikariell95

You awaken just a few minutes before your alarm could go off from your phone. Sitting up you take a moment just to briefly meditate and think about his offer. On one hand you already have a lot on your plate, with balancing your social life, your studies, the rescue of Ana and the investigation of what Mark Gal Lanes wants from you. But on the other hand, once those things are over and once you’ve managed to return Ana to her parents in this lifetime, maybe then you can be more attentive to his needs. Rebutting that is that before taking any endeavor to help others, you need to prepare yourself mentally since who knows what can happen. But on the other hand, knowing Morpheus he might take more drastic approaches to either persuading you or to waiting for you to accept his request. On the other hand.

“Unlike other beings, he can’t just directly or indirectly force you to comply with his request.” Death said as you converse with her through her sigil. This was one of the few times wherein she wasn’t free to go to your apartment and so you hold her sigil similar to how you would hold a cellphone on speaker mode.

“Even then, do you think I’m the best…for his request?”

“Oh yes, he and I agree there. Honestly you’re overqualified for it, and he must be really opening up to you for him to ask for your help after confiding in you.”

“I see.”

“He needs you, more than you need him. I have no doubt that without his help you would have found some way to investigate and rescue your daughter but with his involvement, things are not just more convenient but also faster.”

“You’re right.”

“By any chance, if he had not offered and had you refused – what would have been your plan?”

“Contact one of my former lovers and ask for his help.”

“In this lifetime or from the last lifetime when you were there?”

“This lifetime, contrary to popular belief their species are not immortal, but they do have a longer lifespan than a human lifetime.”

“They meaning singular or they meaning plural? Just to clarify.”

“Plural, I’m referring to their semi-humanoid species who can shapeshift into a regular human appearance and have been successful in integrating with human society.”

“Wait, why did the two of you break up again?”

“We had different priorities. And we loved each other too much to try and force it to work when we both know that it’s better to break up amicably than stay together and end up resenting each other.”

“How very mature of the two of you for your first romance in this lifetime.”

“Although depending on what we learn more about Mark Gal Lanes and what he wants from me, I might need to call him anyway.”

“Morpheus might be peeved by that.”

“Huh why?”

“You know how possessive he is.”

“He has no reason to be possessive. I’m not his lover and even if I was, he’ll have to learn to accept my sometimes polyamorous nature and that me being his lover won’t stop me from being attracted to other people.”

“Have you not learned anything from his romantic history?”

“You said it yourself, he needs me more than I need him. But if he wants to court me, he will also need to accept me for who I am just as I am going to learn to accept what he is in essence – how is this connected to my ex?”

“All I’m saying is before doing so, inform him and be honest about your feelings. He may not need you, but I know you well enough that you are going to be his guide and to prevent him from doing anything dramatic, you will need to tell him of this.”

“I will, hopefully that will give him second thoughts if he wants someone like me to be his guide. But for now I’ll focus first on rescuing Ana and investigating Mark Gal Lanes.”

You end the call and from your smart tablet you see that Nadia has sent some files in the GC.

Nadia: My hacker brother has found this information about Lanes. Only child of an American soldier assigned here during WWII. Stayed and married a Maria Catalina Fernandez Y Lopez, an heiress. Based on the lack of records after he was born we can infer that she died during childbirth. His father didn’t remarry but he did have plenty of illegitimate children. He managed to eventually bring all of them into the US but he died three years later and all of them were separated by the foster care system.

(Y/N): Any connections to magic or the occult?

Nadia: Based on the internet, not really. He hasn’t finished formal school but he got a job as a clerk for a local comic bookstore in Little Rock, Arkansas. He became friends with a single mom through San Diego comic con. She’s Ferdinand’s mother and I’m guessing that she is Ferdinand’s mother.

Tala: What happened to her?

Nadia: Officially she died from an accident. Unofficially she might have been murdered or at the very least a homicide. (Y/N): Based on what?

Nadia: The facebook and twitter posts from her friends. No remaining family relatives, so that’s probably how Lanes got Ferdinand Garcia.

(Y/N): That’s his legal name?

Nadia: Yeah, his mom is hispanic. Which makes it all the more puzzling how Lanes got custody over him knowing how community oriented the hispanic community in the U.S. is.

Tala: So how did they end up here?

Nadia: I don’t know how but he managed to get a 3 month long visa here. And he brought Ferdinand with him as his ward. The time when you first felt pain coming from Ana that was during their first week here.

(Y/N): So before then he probably somehow placed a coma spell over her parents to prevent them from going after her. And then used Ferdinand to lure Ana into his premises. Tala: And then you felt her as she was tortured or was transformed by Lanes.

(Y/N): Exactly. And now she’s a ball python in a drawer receiving minimal care. Tala: Has she even eaten since turning into a snake?

(Y/N): Sadly no You feel your hands almost smashing the message in your phone as you channel how angry and upset you were upon what you learned from the bond.

(Y/N): Ana has only been given water and from what @Lucy has told me, she looks underweight for a snake. Lanes has only changed water and hasn’t given her food and she doesn’t know why. My guess is that he thought he could get away with not feeding her for a long time because ball pythons are known to sometimes go on fasting periods that could last for several months. That’s still not an excuse to actively neglect feeding her. I feel her hunger, and it is only because she has been dwelling in the colder part of the drawer and she has nearly drained her waterbowl that she has been able to cope.

Tala: Oh fuck him.

Nadia: @Tala let’s pass by the pet store before going to her apartment later. I know they have frozen thawed mice for pet snake owners.

Tala: Would she even eat it? She could still talk so maybe she still has her tastebuds.

(Y/N): At this point she’s so hungry I think there’s a higher chance of her eating an already dead mouse. Btw I think you should buy two since I don’t know if Lanes plans on actually feeding her.

Nadia: Oh don’t worry it’s a set of 12 so we’ll probably have enough. But I’ll pack 3 for the mission tonight.

Tala: We’ll hopefully gather more ground since all 4 of us will be in the residence.

(Y/N): Be sure to bring your masks. I’ll see you both later when you arrive here.

Nadia: Geros Ilas!

Tala: See you later. @Nadia I’ll just finish my lunch and then I’m on my way to our meeting spot.

Nadia: Sure, see you Moirail!

That evening after you’re finished with your classes and after everyone has had their dinner, you all gather in the living room to recap the plan, back up plans in case something goes wrong, and what to do what to prioritize when having to choose between all the possible goals that you aim to achieve.

“Like before, this is an information gathering mission. The goal is to find out what magical barriers or spells that are either active or may be set up as a trap if I were to step foot in it or if it would be a hindrance into rescuing Ana. Like before, your safety is paramount but if any of you would want to risk your life prioritize rescuing Ana over attacking Mark Gal Lanes. Thanks to Nadia’s brother we have confirmation that both Mark Gal Lanes and Ferdinand will be flying out of town and won’t be back until the week after next.”

“For a vacation?” Nadia shook her head at Matthew’s question.

“That’s what it looks like on the surface to those who are not in the know. But the locations that they are visiting are known to be areas that are supernatural in nature or at least areas where magic users are known to visit.”

“It’s possible that he framed it for Ferdinand to be a vacation. And when the boy has exhausted himself playing during the day time, he meets with the magic users and possibly other magical beings in the evening.” Lucy added, knowing how generally speaking her fellow magical beings tend to be more active during the night time.

“Possibly even cast a spell or slip something into his food or drink to make him sleepy.” Tala added before taking a gulp of water. You face Morpheus.

“What did you find out about Ferdinand?”

“He’s lonely, he feels neglected by his mother and his father abandoned them. Nobody in his neighborhood wanted to play with him and instead they bullied him for not wanting to join in on their more extreme games like jumping down from the top of the jungle gym. Mark Gal Lanes was the first one with whom he bonded with and who actively protected him. That was until he and Ana began playing together when they arrived here.”

“How long have they known each other?”

“About 5 days, she would play with him after she gets home from school. Her family was invited into their house on the fifth day. And the following day when they played together she was lured into staying with them. You know the rest of what happened.” You feel your heart sink and you feel your stomach turn at how Mark Gal Lanes had essentially betrayed the trust of not just Ana, but possibly also Ferdinand for harming the only friend he had outside of him and also her parents may now become overprotective to the point of hindering her social growth once she reaches puberty.

“What probably happened is that Lanes slipped the coma spell while her parents was in their residence, and soon placed them into a coma. And that removed Ana’s last piece of protection making her ripe for the taking.”

BZZZT BZZZT BZZZT

Your phone rings, your eyebrow raises as you see the caller ID.

“Sam?”

“(Y/N) I have some news for you. There’s someone after you.”

“I know, his name is Mark Gal Lanes right?”

“Yes but there’s more. I’d rather tell you in person. Someone could be listening in.”

“Where are you right now?”

“In the Coffee Bean café that we used to hang out in.” So the same one wherein you formally introduced Morpheus to Emira.

“Can you come to my place? There are other people here but they also know of the situation.”

“Sure, just give me a few minutes.”

“See you Sam.”

Well this will be interesting. It turns out you didn’t need to call him when he was the one who called you.

“Sam will be joining us. He has some news which may be useful. And if he’s up for it he might be able to join the four of you in the mission tonight.”

“Aw he still cares.” You roll your eyes at Lucy’s implication.

“Um who’s Sam?” Matthew asks with a tilt of his head clearly puzzled.

“Her ex and first lover.” Nadia said nonchalantly.

“Yeah not gonna lie, I thought they would eventually get married but oh well.”

“You never know Tala, maybe they might reconnect, he becomes the unofficial stepdad.”

“Guys your shipping tendencies are showing.” You feel yourself smirking as you shake your head.

“There’s still time. And the best part is unlike other men, you don’t have to hide your magical supernatural connections cause he’s one of us.”

“Um what do you mean he’s one of you?”

“He’s a creature called a Tikbalang, like us the Manananggals they are one of the magical creatures that have adapted into blending in to human society.”

“What are they exactly?”

“Matthew imagine a reverse centaur. Head, legs, and height of a horse and human torso. But out of the need to survive they’ve managed to shapeshift into regular humans.” Morpheus says as he straightens up in his seat. His voice neutral, calm but there’s an underlying emotion that you couldn’t pick up on.

“They are notorious for being very fast and very skilled in battle. Especially in their actual forms. If you manage to win against one fairly, you get three wishes.”

“Did he grant you any wishes when you two were still a couple?”

“I never had them, that was never a factor between the two of us.”

You hear a knock and went to welcome Sam in.

“Who’s here?” His deep baritone voice that you haven’t heard from in awhile asked you accompanied with a concerned expression.

“The coven and two other beings that I’ll introduce you to.”

“Are you sure they can be trusted?”

“In this case, yes. Did you use your Tikbalang form to come here or did you use your motorcycle?”

“Motor, I don’t want to risk my actual form with the news I got for you.” His six feet tall reverse triangle torso’d frame which still carried his cross bodied messenger bag, entered the apartment and you fight your urge to roll your eyes at the amused expressions from everyone except Morpheus and Matthew.

“Kaluasam, amusing to see you with our best friend again.”

“Oh hahaha Tala, laugh yourself out if that makes you feel better.”

“Sam this is Morpheus, Dream of the Endless, and his raven, Matthew.”

“Nice to meet you, I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.” Morpheus nods, you see him scanning or inspecting Sam. Given the situation and how it now seems that there was a hunt for you, you couldn’t blame him.

“Likewise Sam, you say you have information that concerning (Y/N).”

“Yes, Mark Gal Lanes is visiting various tribes and groups within the magical community to put a bounty on (Y/N). Whomever could capture her alive first and deliver her to him would receive some sort of award.”

“What’s the award?”

“I don’t know Luce, he was vague about it. Said something about something you’ve always wanted. My father and the other Tikbalangs didn’t really believe him and probably thought it was a scam to exploit us. But I’m not sure if that will be the case for other tribes.”

“Do you know what he wants to do with her?”

“All he said was the she was the key to making his dreams come true. I don’t know what he means by this.”

“Dreams coming true?” You see a change appear in Morpheus. Almost as if some of the pieces has now matched up.

“What are you thinking Morpheus?”

“I have a guess, but because I do not entirely know how your powers may factor in to this, I could be wrong.” He takes a breath before continuing.

“Given what we know, it is possible that he wants you to bring something to life. It would explain why he has been targetting you specifically and not me, the King of Dreams.”

“Someone must have informed him to come after me and not you. But who?”

“Look, as much as I want to also have answers to these questions, it’s almost 8:30, the sooner we go to his residence and possibly rescue Ana, the sooner we could leave that place.” Lucy says as she looks up from her watch.

“Who’s Ana?”

“My past life child reincarnated in this time. Mark Gal Lanes kidnapped her, abused her, and transformed her into a ball python snake to lure me into rescuing her and possibly trapping me through those means.”

“That motherfucker.”

“I know.”

“Would you like to join us Sam in our investigation slash possible rescue mission?” Nadia asks as she starts unloading the devices to be used for the mission.

“What are you guys trying to do?”

“Find out what spells, magical barriers, are in place to possibly trapping (Y/N), or preventing Ana from escaping, or what could be the possible counter spell or reverse spell that could change Ana from ball python back into her human form.”

“Count me in, Luce will you be flying?”

“Yeah, I’ll be leaving my bottom half here for safety. But just to be safe you may want to transform when we arrive there to avoid breaking anything here.”

“Just give me some space then I’ll transform here. It’s better that no one knows my human form. If they see me in my actual form then they could dismiss it as their imagination.”

“Before you two transform let’s settle who’s going where and what Nadia’s new gadgets could do.” You say after glancing at the clock at the time running out.

“Okay Team 1 will be Matthew, Sam, and Lucy, the three of you will be investigating the main house – particularly the second floor – of any magic or information that could shed light on the plans of Mark Gal Lanes. Team 2 will be Tala and Nadia who will check up on Ana and investigate the premises that she’s trapped in. Each team will have a teleportation device, and the medical flashlight thanks to Lucy borrowing her father’s flashlight for tonight. Your safety is paramount. But if it is safe to do so then rescue Ana.”

“Shouldn’t I be in the team with Ana? Since you’re also seeing through me?”

“My bond with Ana has been restored. Before you all go I’ll be informing her through the bond that she should be expecting some people to visit her.”

“We need to know also what Lanes wants to do with (Y/N) that he would go to such lengths to try and capture her. For tonight focus on that.” You sense that Morpheus was mentally sending a message to him. Your guess was that he should also keep an eye on Sam since at this point you can’t blame him for not entirely trusting him yet. You would be skeptical too if someone suddenly appeared to help out of nowhere. This was also why you placed Sam into the team investigating for information, because if he does turn out to have other plans the risk would be on you and not Ana.

“Any other questions?” Without any dissent you let Nadia take the floor to explain some of the new devices that she’s handing out. A device that looked like a hand held super market scanner was made to quickly scan any books or contents without needing to open the pages. The drawback is that said books or stack of files should be scanned facing towards the scanner and it can’t be scanned through the sides.

“I’m currently working on that, but for now this will do. I call it the Content scanner.”

“Does this need wifi?”

“No need Luce, the base also has a hard drive and we’ll see and study the contents when I upload the files in my laptop. It requires a special program that I had to make specifically for this.”

“How are you just a Psychologist?” Tala asked as she placed the Content scanner in one of their deep pants pockets.

“I don’t like mixing work with hobbies. Next is the Invisibility ring.” She produces 4 adjustable silver rings.

“This allows the wearer to become invisible. I made this just in time for tonight so that (Y/N) won’t have to drain herself from making invisibility charms.”

“Thank you for that Nadia. How does it work?”

“This groove right here is how it is activated. You put it in the underside of your finger. Move the switch to the left to become invisible and to the right to become visible. The adjustable parts are also there to make sure you know how to position it. The “key” part should be on the right side.”

“So you essentially made the ring of power from Lord of the rings.” Matthew said with a hint of concern.

“A time sensitive one. The invisibility only lasts for 15 minutes, before it needs another couple hours minimum for it to be replenished so use it wisely. Also as a check and balance mechanism, others who are also wearing this type of ring will still be able to see the wearer. So it’s more of a group effort kind of thing.”

“So a more dangerous ring of power because now it’s not just one ring.”

“I guess you could say that. But that’s all from my part for now. And don’t worry Matthew Luce will make sure to also protect you.”

“I – I don’t need it.”

“Don’t worry Matthew, I’ll make sure you stay alive.”

“Okay okay let’s go there now please.” And with that Lucy and Sam transformed with Lucy leaving her bottom half in one of your guestrooms. You informed Ana of the visitors she should be expecting tonight through the bond. Then divided into their respective teams they made their way to the Lanes residence.

“Do you still have feelings for him?” Huh? You turn towards him as he seats himself next to you.

“Huh? No what made you think that?”

“I am just unsure of where you are with him.” You give him a pointed look of annoyance.

“He’s only a friend now, we’ve outgrown each other. It’s similar to you and Calliope. We’re still in each other’s radar because of me checking up on the magical communities here in this region.”

“I see.” He’s relieved. Why he was relieved you aren’t completely sure.

“Are they here yet?” Ana asks.

“They’ve just arrived, you’ll be meeting two new people and they have something for you. Their names are Nadia and Tala.”

“Okay.”

“Do you know that Mark Gal Lanes and Ferdinand is going to be out of town?”

“No, is that why he gave me two water bowls?”

“Probably, has he fed you?”

“No, I’m hungry but somehow I can endure it? It becomes less painful when I’m in the cooler part.”

“Okay just hang on, they’re coming to you okay.”

“Okay.”

In retrospect, that evening was on the surprisingly boring side of things. Team 1 had essentially scanned almost every single document located in the master bedroom. And after checking and double checking every single magical barrier and spell in place, everyone concluded that while it wasn’t safe for you to enter the premises, it was safe enough to rescue Ana the following evening. Based on the documents recovered it seems that Lanes was also a world building writer, and had several ideas that he has written in his journal. Largely inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and other literary world builders like Tolkien and George R.R. Martin. His journal did indicate that he at the very least harbored genuine love for Ferdinand and saw him as a fellow outcast rejected by society.

“Other good news is that the grimoires contained in the basement floor with Ana also contain the spells that was used to transform her as well as the counter spell to turn her back. But I highly recommend doing a magic check up on her first when she’s here in the apartment before transforming her back.” Nadia says as she uploads the files obtained from the Content scanners into the GC.

“I agree, we’ll also need to make a decoy to switch her with just in case there’s a hidden trap from rescuing her that we couldn’t detect.” Tala says as she starts putting energy to form Ana’s decoy.

“This weirdly seems too easy and convenient. Don’t get me wrong I’m thankful that it seems to be easy but if I were him I would put some sort of security over his grimwears and other magical tools.”

“It’s grimoires not grimwears. And actually he did Matthew, the security he placed was touch based. I suspected that the moment some stranger touches his tools, it will activate some sort of trap. Which is why after feeding Ana I asked Tala to levitate the books and used the Content scanner on them.”

“Sadly none of the documents provided any answers as to who informed him of the bond between (Y/N) and her children and her abilities.” You hear him lament as you pour everyone a cup of black coffee.

“We’ll settle that later Morpheus. Once the decoy is finished the goal is to rescue Ana, and once she is here I’ll use the counterspell to change her back to her human form.”

“How long will it take to make a decoy?”

“Reasonably speaking, about 5 days.” Morpheus looks at Tala with disbelief.

“I thought you were going to rescue Ana tonight?”

“Without a decoy I wouldn’t risk it. Besides Mark Gal Lanes is still out of town, we have time.”

“Every moment she stays there, it becomes more dangerous for her.”

“You think I don’t know that Morpheus? Everyone here wants to rescue Ana and beat up Mark Gal Lanes, but you heard (Y/N), safety of everyone is paramount.”

“Just a suggestion.” Sam says after finishing his coffee.

“What if I capture Mark Gal Lanes and interrogate him?”

“Sam!”

“I’m serious (Y/N), I’ll just get the magic cancelling handcuffs, handcuff him, gag him so he won’t make any verbal spells. And the only way he could be allowed to communicate is through mental projection.”

“I actually agree with you on that one.”

“Morpheus not you too.”

“Think about it, if we would take the fight to him, and take control over the anxiety he is causing you then maybe this would all be resolved faster.”

“If the two of you are going to pursuit him, you will need one of us witches to make sure he can mentally project his thoughts.”

“Everyone let’s calm down.” You say loudly as you speak with no room for dissent. There was a pause as everyone turns to you. By the look on their faces you realize that they are going to pursuit this whether you like it or not.

“I can tell that no matter what I say some of you are going to pursuit him. I can’t control what you do, but I do request that you be careful and if you are going to do this we’re going to do this as a team and step by step. Nadia, Tala, keep working on the decoy. The only traps in the residence are for me right?”

“Yes, but with us it’s not responsive.” Tala says as they pours their second cup of coffee.

“Good. You two will work on decoy and rescuing Ana. Everyone else who is going to pursuit Mark Gal Lanes, make sure that you stay safe while pursuing him. You are to bring him to me restrained and gagged. I’ll be the one to provide for his mental projection communication.”

“Are you sure?” Lucy asks with concern.

“Yes, I’d rather finish this sooner than later. And finally settle this.”

“Well if you’re sure.”

“For the pursuit I recommend Sam and Lucy take charge. When in doubt follow Lucy. Oh and Morpheus, may I speak with you?”

You lead him to one of your guest rooms to have a private chat with him.

“What is it?”

“I’ve decided to accept your offer of being your guide.” You see the subtle relief in his expression that no one else would see if they didn’t know him very well.

“Thank you.”

“I’m feeling a little bit drowsy. After you talk with Sam and Lucy can you bring me to the dreaming with your voice?”

“Of course.”

And soon you found yourself in the dreaming.

More specifically in the same conference room within the library that was near the throne room. With Morpheus sitting across you from your preferred place at the seat against the wall.

“What made you decide to accept my offer?”

“Let’s just say I have a feeling you would find some way to persuade me into actually doing it and that you wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

The expression on his face confirms your statement as he shows no remorse with a hints of relief and an almost smile from his lips.

“However there are a few things that I would like to discuss before we even begin.”

“And what are your demands?”

“I’d like to think of them more as reminders rather than demands. Number 1: While we may have some similar experiences we still have differences in our overall experience with you as an Anthropomorphic being and I as Life incarnate. I will not be able to understand everything because even I am simply limited from what I know among my many lifetimes. I am simply a guide to this journey of yourself, I am not here to provide answers.”

“You need not worry, it is because of this difference that factored into me asking for your guidance.”

“We’ll see once you hear all of my reminders. Number 2: I am neither a psychologist in this lifetime nor a psychiatrist. If I feel like some of your questions is better suited for either one then I shall recommend you to ask Nadia since she is highly more equipped than me to tackle those concerns. Don’t worry she’s happy to help but just ask her ahead of time first.”

“Very well. You aren’t finished yet I presume?”

“No definitely not. Number 3: Somewhat related to my first reminder I need you to remember that my nature as Life incarnate may sometimes be biased towards that and there’s no shame in asking for the second opinions from other beings you feel comfortable with.” You didn’t need to wait for him to ask you as his confusion was visible on his face.

“Such as you being mainly monogamous in your romantic history and I am sometimes polyamorous. Of course a lot of times I have also been monogamous but I also want to bring up that when it comes to potentially romantic concerns I give my love to whom I deem worthy of it. That doesn’t mean I always act upon it, but you should know that I will be biased towards that system. Same with potentially sexual concerns since I wasn’t in love or even loved everyone with whom I have slept with which is a sharp contrast to your experiences.”

An expression on his face shows you that he is finally starting to understand the reason why you wanted to discuss these things first before embarking on any self-explorations with him. You couldn’t recognize every micro-expression he has shown you nor all the emotions blended into it but at least you were bringing this up at the earliest possible time.

“And lastly you will be doing most of the work since I won’t always be available. A task like this requires energy and emotional and mental stability on my end. If I feel like I am not in the proper headspace to journey with you, you won’t be exploring it with me. But you may still ask me questions and I’ll get back to it when I am again in the proper headspace to actually address it. We will also be working around my schedule since I also need to actually live out my life in the waking world.”

You take a breath studying his face now in contemplation.

“If you accept all of these reminders then we can formally begin. None of them are negotiable. You don’t have to make a decision now, this is technically a counter offer for the contract we are trying to establish. I recommend you take your time to think it over before you give your answer.”

He sighs before replying that he will take your suggestion and contemplate it for awhile.

“While you’re still here how are you going to assist Sam and Lucy in pursuing Mark Gal Lanes? Remember he has a subconscious barrier similar to the ones the occultists had in their minds.”

“I’ve managed to locate the counter spell from the files Nadia has downloaded. Before you have asked me to speak privately with you, Lucy has asked if we could meet in her dreams since she has to work to do. I have instructed both of them that for that to happen they need to be asleep at the same time, but her request is well within my power.”

“I see, be careful okay? I’m not sure what your backup plan is but I don’t know how I will rescue any of you if something goes wrong. And please cooperate with them, they are two of my most trusted people within the magical community.”

“Even Sam?” He asks with concern mixed with a bit disdain.

“Look I know you’ve just met him so you don’t know our history. But trust me when I say that there have been multiple times in the past that he could’ve had the chance to hurt me but instead he went the extra mile to protect me. You may even check his dreams if you have any doubts.”

He wanted to say more but he restrained himself as he looks into the corner.

“I’m sorry for interrupting my Lord but she wanted to see her.” Lucienne enters guiding Ana in her human form as she rushes to your side.

“What may I call you? Mommy is already for my mom in this lifetime.”

“Oh you may call me Muña, it’s High Valyrian for mother.”

“What’s High Baleryon?”

“Va – leer – yan, that’s how you pronounce it dear. Altogether it is Valyrian. It’s a new language that I am also learning to speak.”

“Oh from what country?”

“It’s not from any country, it’s from a fantasy series.”

“Huh?”

“What your mother means is that someone made this entire language. Usually languages has an entire group creating it. But in this case someone made this language from their own mind.” He adds with his expression a lot more softer than before.

“COOL! What other words are in High Baleerion?”

For the rest of the dream you spent it slowly teaching the little High Valyrian you’ve learnt from Duolingo and dining on her new favorite food Spanakopita, and her favorite drink Wintermelon Milktea. Morpheus had to leave midway giving the two of you to time to bond.

“Where is he going?”

“He and two of our other friends are going to plan how to capture the mean man who did this to you.”

“Is that why your friends visited me?”

“Yes, there’s another friend of mine whom you haven’t met yet but you’ll meet him soon once you turn back into a person.”

“Oh it’s a he?”

“Yes. Why are you asking?”

“Is this he your boyfriend?” Thankfully you didn’t choke on the boba that you were swallowing.

“He was once my boyfriend. But he and I are just friends now.”

“Do you still like him?”

“Yes I do still like him. But now only as a friend.” She breathes a sigh of relief.

“Oh good. I like Morpheus with you.”

“Hmm why?”

“I think he has a crush on you. You make him smile a lot and he loves talking about you.”

“Well he is a friend of mine and he has helped the two of us restore our bond. I couldn’t tell you about myself yet.”

“But he looks at you the way my daddy looks at mommy. And the way he talks about you feels different than when I talk about my friends.”

“And while I do like the way you think, there are still plenty of things that needs to happen before Morpheus could be my boyfriend.”

“Like what?”

“Well for one thing he needs to be aware of his tendencies to overreact sometimes and why or what causes him to overreact. That’s one among other things that he needs to take a look at what needs to be done.”

“Oh…but what does that have to do with being your boyfriend?”

“Think of it this way, when you meet new people and children and you want them to be your friends, why do you want them to be your friends?”

“Because I don’t like having friends because I feel lonely.”

“And would you want them to be your friends because of your toys, or for yourself?”

“For myself. Because I don’t need toys to have fun.”

“Exactly, I feel the same way if Morpheus wants to become my romantic partner, he should also want to be with me for who I am, just as I would want to be his partner for who he is. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement for the two of us to grow since I also make mistakes. But if he couldn’t love me for who I am then we are better off as friends.”

You can tell that she is following along though she herself may not have experienced romantic love yet.

“But enough about my non-existent romantic relationship with Morpheus. What is ‘Please’ in High valyrian?”

“Kostilus.”

“Good. And what is ‘Thank you’?”

“Kir…Kir…um.”

“Kirimvose (Y/N) Ana kimívagho.” [Thank you (Y/N) for talking to Ana] Morpheus says with his voice on the deeper end of his range, reminiscent of the tone he would use to calm your mind and bring you to sleep, as he leans against the doorway of the conference room with a hint of a smile on his face with his arms crossed. With an eyebrow raised you respond in kind.

“Jiōrna āeksio ēdrurys [Welcome Lord Dream]. Join us as we are conducting our High Valyrian lessons together.”

“I’ll only come there if Ana could say please in High Valyrian.” He was feeling lighter you could tell from his tone that there was a relaxed softness to it.

“Can I practice first?”

“Of course Ana.”

“Muña what’s his name in High Valyrian?”

“Āeksio ēdrurys. It means Lord Dream. Āeksio means Lord and ēdrurys means dream.”

“Kirimvose muña. Kostilus āeksio ēdrurys?” She asks as best as she could.

“Issa, drēji sȳz Ana.” [Of course, very good Ana] He goes to the two of you and once again he retakes his seat across you.

“I thought you had other business to attend to.”

“It was finished surprisingly early, and so I decided to come back here while the two of you are still in the dreaming.”

“Āeksio ēdrurys what do you think of ñuha muña [My mother]?” Ana asks as she practices some of the High Valyrian words she just learnt during your time together in your mutual dreams.

“I think you are very lucky to have her as your mother. Even if she didn’t give birth to you during this lifetime.”

“But do you like her?” He gives her a smile, but from how you see it there’s a hidden deviousness underneath it that you’re not sure if Ana has noticed.

“Issa [Yes] I really like her. It’s why she and I get along so well.”

“Though sometimes he and I also disagree on various things.”

“If we agreed on everything we might as well be the same being.”

“You have a point there.” You look at Ana who now has both of her elbows on the table with her hands holding her face.

“So when are you going to be her boyfriend?” Your feel your heart stop and you are hoping that Morpheus won’t take it seriously.

“What makes you think I could be her boyfriend?”

“You make goo goo eyes at her and there’s something weird about your smile like what you’re doing now.”

“Is that so?” Ana begins to fade as a sign she is starting to wake up.

“NO! I don’t want to be a snake again!”

“Ana don’t worry, a couple of my friends will rescue you tonight okay. Just hang on.”

“Okay muña.” Then she was gone and was once again in your domain in her snake form.

“Out of curiosity was that your doing or was she genuinely waking up?”

“She was genuinely waking up. I wanted to talk to her more about her thoughts about being your partner.” You couldn’t help but roll your eyes at this.

“There’s a lot of things that will have to happen first before that is even a possibility.”

“Such as?”

“A lot of negotiation on many things. Discussion of what are our priorities. Things we are willing to negotiate and what cannot be negotiated. Discussion of our own issues with each other.”

“You make it sound like a contract.”

“It is a contract. Not one regulated by law but by social mores. I know I’m making it sounds so formal, but I find that many relationships fail because of lack of communication so I would rather settle anything and everything I could right at the start. That doesn’t mean I’ll be closed off once it has begun but I’d like to settle all that I could. Besides.” You get up to take a brief stretch of your body.

“We have other things to think about first such as rescuing Ana, pursuing Mark Gal Lanes, finding out why he wants me in the first place, and your own self-exploration of your thoughts and psyche.”

“True.” He replies with a neutral tone. Once again he has retreated, but you also couldn’t blame him for someone who is just so used to keeping things to himself and only confiding in people when pushed by either Death or other close confidants.

“So what have you, Sam, and Lucy discussed?”

The rest of the time in your dreams was spent discussing the plan on pursuing Mark Gal Lanes including on improving what you’ve already suspected they plan on doing.

Since Lucy and Sam were also from wealthy families it would also be believable that they would travel around through more private means. Sam is going to borrow his family yacht that will serve as transportation in tracking down Mark Gal Lanes. Lucy and Sam will be in charge of restraining him both physically through magical handcuffs made to remove the wearer’s ability to use magic and verbally just in case the handcuffs were not enough since the handcuffs only prevent mostly non-verbal magic but the loophole around it was simply saying the spells out loud. That way he couldn’t actually say any spells and the only way he could communicate is through mental projection. This not only allows Lucy and Sam’s minds to remain secured but will also allow communication to happen without any possibility of injuries to anyone involved.

Afterwards, Lucy, but in case she was indisposed then Sam would do the honors, would do the counterspell to break the subconscious barrier guarding his subconscious thoughts against Morpheus. Once the barrier was broken, Lucy will either say a sleeping spell or Sam would knock him out, but somehow some place, they’ll make him fall asleep allowing Morpheus access into his dreams and his subconscious and to do his own investigation and interrogation as to why Mark Gal Lanes wants to capture you.

That was the plan but you bring up one crucial logistical issue.

“In order for them to be able to get those kinds of handcuffs they’ll need to file the case first with the Datu of the magical judicial community of Laguna since Ana’s domicile is there. He is the one that regulates access to them.”

“Then what’s the issue?”

“It could take days if not weeks before they could get access to them and we don’t have that much time. They’ll have to prove to him that this is an urgent case.”

“Who is the Datu presiding?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never had a reason to know it. But Sam might know.”

“I’ll see if Lucienne could locate any documents or books that might show who it is. Maybe I could help make their journey a little more faster.”

“Whomever the Datu is, don’t threaten. Just make it more memorable than usual so there’s a lesser chance of whomever they are of forgetting it the moment they awaken.”

“I will see to it.”

As you predicted it took 5 days for Sam and Lucy to finally have access to the magic restraining handcuffs and two more days for the yacht to be prepared to leave. In the yacht Sam managed to get his motorcycle into it which will serve as their on land transportation which Lucy will be riding along with for the sake of efficiency. Fortunately or unfortunately there was a strong typhoon that entered and while it had passed where you were living in, by the time it got to the general area that Mark Gal Lanes was currently in, it became strong enough for electricity to be cut – off and as confirmed by Sam and Lucy’s network of contacts, he and Ferdinand were forced to stay in that area until the electricity would return. Conservative estimates was at least two days or three days.

“That means there may be more time for Sam and Lucy to capture him?” Ana, now in her little girl form, although you took a picture of her as a GHI ball python before Tala and Nadia did the counterspell for reference, who was currently eating peanut butter spread on whole wheat bread as her brunch meal after the two of you have devoured a large batch of scrambled eggs.

“Yes, they are currently on their way to him. Hopefully everything goes to plan and nothing happens to either of them.”

“What happens if something does go wrong?”

“Then Sam, Lucy, or Morpheus will contact me, Tala, or Nadia and we’ll use the teleportation device to go to them and help.”

“Three of you together?”

“Hopefully just one or the two of us. But yes, if it is dire then all three of us will have to travel to wherever they are.”

“Oh” She’s concerned but at this point it would be more dangerous for her if she were involved in it anymore than necessary.

“On the bright side, Tala and Nadia will be visiting your parents tomorrow and will start removing the comatose spell from them.”

“Should I go with them so that everything will seem normal?”

“Oh don’t worry, the magical community has already been informed and have already made preparations for that.”

“Memory editing?”

“Of many people. They won’t do it to you because you are my daughter and our bond cannot be ignored, but they will have to do it to your parents and to the people around them so that the magical community will be protected.”

“So how long will it take?”

“According to them, it’s at least going to be one week since the spell used on them either had no time limit or had a very long one. And that will take awhile to safely remove it from them.”

“Can’t Āeksio ēdrurys just say ‘The dream is over’ and make them wake up?”

“He can, but it won’t be without harm. If they wake up immediately from a long sleep, their brain could be damaged from the sudden rush of activity. To do it safely, Tala and Nadia will have to carefully remove the spell from their minds and it is only then that they can actually begin to sleep.”

“But I thought they were already sleeping?”

“Hmm how do I explain this. They are sleeping but only lightly, in order to get proper rest, we also need to have very deep sleep. It is only in very deep sleep can our conscious mind really rest and allows our body and brain to repair itself. This is also why it’s only in deep sleep that you are able to enter the dreaming.”

“Ooh so my parents haven’t been in the dreaming this whole time?”

“Yes, they are not totally in the subconscious but they are in between being conscious and the subconscious. Āeksio ēdrurys can still access them but only very little because they aren’t in deep sleep. And because they aren’t in deep sleep, that means their bodies are working extra hard to keep them alive rather than bringing them to sleep. That’s why Nadia and Tala have to be very careful in doing the counterspell because they will also be feeding them magically to help their bodies get fuel.”

“And that fuel will help them actually rest by bringing them into a deep sleep?”

“Issa, sȳz riña.” [Yes, good girl]

“Kirimvose muña.” [Thank you, mother]

“Biarvose Ana” [You’re welcome Ana]

“So that means if they’re busy doing that, you’ll be the first to go to Lucy and Sam if something goes wrong.”

“Issa [Yes], it seems so. Let’s hope that they won’t need to call any of us or that they stay safe doing so.”

“Issa muña.” [Yes mother] The doorbell rings and you hear Emira call out to you.

“Ana, it’s time I introduce you to your sister. She’ll be staying here through the weekend.”

“Is she the one you told me who is also in Law School with you?”

“Issa.” [Yes]

You open the door and was surprised to see her not only with her backpack and duffle bag for her weekend clothes, but also with three boxes of Pizza hut pizzas.

“You carried this all the way to this floor?”

“I wasn’t about to let anyone else steal anything in these bags. And also the pizza is too precious to be trusted with someone else.”

“You could’ve called me.” You say as you immediately take the boxes of pizza to allow Emira to put down her bags and introduce herself to Ana.

“I didn’t know which kind of pizza you liked so I got 3 of the flavors that our mom and I eat all the time whenever I’m staying here.”

“What flavors are they?”

“Cheese lovers, Pepperoni, and Supreme.”

“Oh I like Pepperoni.”

“Me too. Our mom prefers only cheese.”

“That’s how I appreciate the pizza.” You respond as you set up the three pizza boxes on the dining table and prepare three dinner plates. That evening to your relief surprisingly went well and as you were devouring your Cheese lovers pizza, and your daughters sharing the other two pizzas and even made a game of mixing each of their toppings together, it turns out there is one topic that they are more than happy to tease you about.

“Well he said he likes her. Muña was there to see it.”

“Let’s not read too much into his replies first Ana.”

“Oh my gosh mom even Ana sees it. How are you still blind to it?”

“I’m managing my expectations.”

“She says that there are a lot of things that need to happen before he becomes her boyfriend.”

“Oh like what?”

“Like making sure that he knows where I stand on certain things and what I require from my lifetime before that happens. Establishing boundaries here and there. Being open about what our issues are with each other and if given all of that he would still want to become my partner. You know those things.”

“But muña what if he’s doing all of this because it’s his way of showing you that he wants to be with you?”

“Yeah mom, like why is he suddenly all super helpful when it comes to me, Jared, and Ana?”

“Wait he has been helping Jared? How?”

“Jared hasn’t told you yet? Morpheus has been helping him learn or rather re-learn Hebrew.”

“Who’s Jared?”

“Our brother. Mom was his father during their lifetime together.”

“That’s why he calls me zaza because it’s a gender neutral term for parent and it’s obscure enough that it could be mistaken as a nickname.”

“How many siblings do we have?”

“Reincarnated? Just Emira and Jared so far.”

“How about if you and Morpheus have babies muña?” Oh this is getting ridiculous.

“Woah woah woah that is too far ahead. There’s still plenty of time for that.”

“Plenty of time for what?” You pray to the fates that he hasn’t heard any of what your daughters have said.

“Lord Morpheus rytsas! Would you like to join us for dinner?”

“Oh so that’s how you say it? Wait how do you have time to study both law and High Valyrian?”

“High Valyrian is my break from law.”

“Children.” They quiet down but you stand up and walk towards him.

“Has something happened?”

“Sam and Lucy have managed to capture him as planned. They have teleported to the Datu presiding over the case in Laguna.” You were thankful that it was sooner than you have hoped but you’re also bracing yourself in case something goes wrong.

“Are you here to pick up Ana? Tala and Nadia haven’t begun the counterspell process for the coma –“

“It’s not Ana they want to summon. It’s you. Datu Sali has asked me if I could convince you to be present.” So he’s here for you. On one hand at least Ana would be spared from any further encounters with Mark Gal Lanes but on the other.

“Do you think it’s safe for me to go?”

“That was also my concern, which is why if you’re going I believe we should include Tala and Nadia to protect you. I will also do my part in your protection.”

“Kirimvose Morpheus.” [Thank you Morpheus]

“Biarvose (Y/N)” [You’re welcome (Y/N)]

After making sure that Emira knew what to do now that she was the legal adult in your apartment and after making sure that Nadia and Tala went there first to put some protection spells and charms for you, you arrive at the tribunal.

“Out of curiosity, where’s Matthew?”

“He’s with Emira and Ana. I have instructed him to guard them while you were away. I have a feeling that he won’t be needed here and I wanted to do my part to make sure they were safe while you and I are here.”

“We should’ve checked if Death was available to baby sit for the evening.”

“She will be there.” Surprised and impressed you turn towards him.

“She was the first person I checked with since I have a feeling that you wanted to be here. Once she has finished with her duties, she will swing by your apartment to make sure Matthew did not cause any irreparable disaster.”

“You have little faith in your new raven. He’s at the very least more cautious than Jessamy, we both know how that turned out.” You see his quiet acknowledgement at the expression he gave you.

“Besides, if anyone is going to start the disaster it would probably be either of my daughters. Matthew will be the one who is trying to talk them out of it, only to be ignored. Chaos ensues, Death arrives to Matthew desperately asking for her help as he is hapless in the midst of the chaos. Then depending on her mood she will either join them or make another type of distraction to at least help Matthew out.” His smile with his expression he now bears towards you shows that the situation you’ve painted is the more likely comical one to happen.

Before stepping in to the area where the tribunal is being held you take this chance to turn towards Morpheus.

“I don’t know what’s about to happen when we both join there. But I just want to say thank you for everything you’ve done for me. And I know I may be harsh for giving you those reminders on what to think on before actually guiding you into your self-exploration, but those come from a place of love and good will. And if something were to happen – “

“Life, have hope.” He says as he steps closer to you. Almost touching but not really.

“You have been able to endure so much through many perils, many joys, sorrows, births, deaths, suffering, pleasure. You give yourself so little credit sometimes that you forget how much you have benefitted everyone around you including yourself. I and many others will be there to protect you. But you yourself are a powerful being.”

“Similar beings have also fallen.”

“And yet you persist against all the odds.”

“And yet there has to be a balance for life to exist and continue to exist.”

“And yet paradoxically, once life exists you still find a way to come back over and over again. Relentless towards the end.”

“Even when I am lazy?”

“Even then.” He says to you with a reassuring look. And you didn’t know that this is what you needed just before entering into the tribunal.

“Thank you Morpheus, for this.”

“Biarvose.”

You two enter the tribunal surrounded by various magic users and magical creatures that everyone thought was mere superstition and with your presence now in the forum the adjudication over Mark Gal Lanes has begun.

Datu Sali was among the humans who practiced magic and his title of Datu was bestowed on him by the magical court that was hidden away from the non-magical world. His background on political science helped in him being selected for arbitration and mediation.

“Don’t I get a say in this?” Lanes says through his mental projection since he is physically restrained by his hands in the magic restraining handcuffs, feet tied to the chair that he is sitting on, and his mouth sealed with ducktape reinforced by magic to prevent any spells from being verbally said even without moving his lips.

“Yes you will. Now that the person you’ve attempted to capture has made her presence known, you may now tell everyone around here why.”

“Tsch. My reason was simple enough. I wanted to make a new world outside of this one.” You and Morpheus slightly turn to each other to see that the two of you shared the same look of being disturbed.

“All my life, I have been neglected, and been abused by this world that I was born into. You don’t have to know about them, because I want to keep this short. I prefer action to words. When I connected with Ferdinand, a little boy who was a kindred spirit of mine also neglected by his own creator, I took him as the son I never knew I wanted.”

He looks at you in your eyes.

“And he was like a son to me, when we were back in the fucking United States, he was bullied almost every day. And I didn’t want him to endure it for any further. And so I decided to try telling him stories and together we’ve build a world where no one would do any harm to us. But I knew that we couldn’t stay in this fictional world together forever. If we wanted to live, we needed to endure the cruel world that seemed to hate us for reasons that neither of us could understand. Then one day a person came to me and informed me of the being of Life Incarnate, how she had the ability to bring to life the world we would escape to. Away from the cruelty of this one, wherein no one was cruel to us anymore. So I ask you, would you penalize someone for wanting to make their dreams come true?”

“If that was the case then why didn’t you just go to (Y/N) and ask her directly if she could grant your request?”

“Because the same person told me that not only would Life Incarnate reject me. But if I wanted to get what I desired, I must forcefully bring out her immortal aspect by subjecting her into pain and suffering. As was recommended I pursued her daughter given to me by the person informing me of such things.” You have a sneaking suspicion as to who this person is but you’ll need to settle this issue first.

“(Y/N) would you like to respond?”

“Yes, thank you Datu Sali. Mark Gal Lanes, I don’t know who informed you of this but I cannot bring your dreams to life.”

“Why not? Haven’t you also endured such hardships in one of the many lifetimes you’ve experienced? Surely a part of you has sympathy for my tale.”

“Bringing life to a new universe, what more of a universe of your own creation, would mean destroying and shattering my current self in both the physical and the spiritual aspect.”

“Why would that be an issue?”

“Because if I do, all current life on this world is going to die as a result of it. If I force it and it doesn’t happen organically through the eventual path towards entropy, all life will be extinct. It’s one thing to ask me this back in my early days as bacteria wherein I could still have more room to play around. But to ask this of me while I am in my current form with complex thoughts, is another.”

“No, It – it can’t be. You’re lying!”

“Am I? You forget that life is all about balance and maintaining that balance. If one part is out of place, this leads to death or the failure of life to exist in the first place.” You take a breath and a moment to gather your thoughts.

“There is also one other thing you are forgetting Mark Gal Lanes. I presume in this new world of yours you also want me to bring to life sentient beings?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Do you realize that you cannot control them once they have life within them and that they will eventually become something you’ve never intended to create because they have their own thoughts and feelings?” He doesn’t reply. But he doesn’t have to for you to know that he hasn’t considered this.

“While not all life will be capable of sentience, granting life to such complex beings will result into their own consciousness and therefore their own will to live and act whether you like it or not. Any parent could tell you that. You say you wanted to truly escape this world into a world of your own because of the neglect you and Ferdinand have endured. Have you maybe considered that you have taken away from him a dear friend of his and have taken advantage of how vulnerable he is to your suggestions? We are social beings by nature, and you have been negligent in fulfilling this need by abusing my daughter who opened her heart out to Ferdinand to be her friend.”

“She was just a tool to get you. The moment she knows more about him, she’ll leave.”

“Then let it happen, heartbreak is a part of life. And you’ve failed in providing no other perspective other than your own.” He became silent after that. It was clear that whomever provided him with this information was either just messing with him or he was a tool for another purpose that he doesn’t know about.

“I think we can all agree that it’s time to wrap this up?”

“With all due respect Datu Sali, may I ask him a few questions?”

“Go ahead Dream of the Endless.” Morpheus turns toward Mark Gal Lanes.

“Who was this person who gave you this information about Life Incarnate?”

“The person didn’t give me their name. But the pronouns are they them their and had golden eyes.” Suspicions confirmed.

“And this person provided you with everything you know about Life Incarnate?”

“Yes. I should’ve known better than to fucking believe that fucker.” Oh he has no idea.

“You may pass your judgment now Datu Sali,”

“Thank you, Mark Gal Lanes, you are hereby penalized for your attack against (Y/N). Your powers and magical abilities will be taken away from you and you will have a restraining order to not go anywhere near (Y/N), her children or her family and their respective biological families. This is just the first part of your penalty. But I want to discuss the reason behind it. While I do sympathize with the pain and struggle of being neglected and bullied, this gives you no excuse for the harm you’ve caused (Y/N), her children and their families. No one here will blame you for wanting to dream for a better world and to use this as a means to escape from the harsh reality we live in. But if the cost of that dream means to actively bring harm to others then it is worth questioning if that dream is worth turning into reality. As for the second part of your penalty -”

Your mind tunes off as you turn towards Morpheus.

“See, nothing has happened.”

“It’s only because you are here with Nadia and Tala.”

“Speaking of which, we will have to inform them that we will be leaving soon. The sooner you can get into the dreaming, the sooner we can settle this.”

“Could I pass through if I’m also in the Dreaming?”

“Yes, but you must take my hand when it happens.”

“Of course.”

Before you know it, the two of you stand in his gallery about to approach the mastermind behind all the suffering you have endured recently.

AN: And that's it until after my midterms.

1.) Yes I know the last part (the capture and the tribunal) is really rushed. I was racing to finish it before starting my week long devotion into remedial law;

2.) I've used various High Valyrian dictionaries for words I didn't learn yet in Duolingo, if any of it is off, sorry about that I'm still in unit 3;

3.) I've aslo used several sites to find Filipino names to fit in with the characters and I've even consulted with online Friends on what could be the appropriate ones for them. And since this is a fictionalized version of them I let them pick;

4.) I wanted to put a Maliksi figure after falling in love with him in the Trese animated series but I don't want to put in another fandom with this work. So that's Kaluasam "Sam" Life's first boyfriend in this lifetime. Don't worry he's not a threat, but he does still care for her.;

5.) Lucy the Manananggal (I hope I spelled that right) was inspired by SB19's song called Mana and the background character in Trese that my friends like to call "Mommynanggal";

6.) The Ball python morph that Ana was turned into is a GHI ball python. I wanted to find a melanistic ball python morph that could still have some contrasting patterns so that the light could still be reflected on it and would show what specific creature Ana was transformed into. It looks like this:

or this:

Both pictures are from : Ghi Ball - Morph List - World of Ball Pythons

[adarkrainbow]

So, the thing I have been hinting at since a few posts is that - if you are not aware, Bill Willingham, the creator of the big DC comic book franchise "Fables" (a landmark in the history of both fairytale media and urban fantasy), decided to make "Fables" public domain. And everybody is losing their mind.

I am not sure of the details of the matter, but from a quick glimpse around the boiling Internet, Willingham was fed up with how DC handled their ownership of Fables and kept reinterpreting the contract Willingham had with them, ranging from DC chosing cover artists Willingham had not approved of, to him receiving apparently no money for the video game adaptation "A Wolf Among Us". So, tired of having to constantly battle with a DC company that apparently wasn't "playing fair", he decided to "cut the grass under their feet" as we say in France, and to make Fables public domain so that now everybody can make Fables work and sell them legally.

I am not sure if this will actually be happening since I am fact-checking my info while writing, and DC Comics has published a response explaining they will do everything they can to prevent this from happening - so this seems to be the beginning of another legal battle between Willingham and DC.

I also see a lot of posts heralding Willingham as some sort of hero for standing up against the "big company" that is DC and all that, I'll take a minute to remind you how before this all happened, Willingham had gotten a more ambiguous, if not unsavory reputation. I do like Fables (or at least I like the core of it, after a moment it really dragged on too much and tried to live way past its natural lifespan), and I am thankful it exists - but it doesn't change the fact Bill Willingham hasn't proven to be the greatest guy. His most recent dark note being his rudeness at the "Writing Women-Friendly Comics" convention, where he participated as a member of the panel, but apparently kept interrupting, mocking and disagreeing with all the women participating in a very rude and stubborn way. The guy certainly had cool ideas - but it doesn't mean he is a good guy, and given the series of accusations against him, and bad behavior incidents he got into, the whole "public domain" thing doesn't surprise me. Willingham has been giving off "petty diva" vibes these recent years, and this "public domain" move can be read in this direction.

I already highlighted how when it comes to actual variety in genders and sexuality, we have to wait for the spin-offs of Fables rather than the comic itself, spin-offs not written by Willingham - and there is also the whole thing of how he wrote one of the most perfect and heart-touching metaphors in Fables for the experience of being a trans person (the story of the wooden soldiers who wanted to become humans of flesh), but from what I heard he actually is not at all a trans-ally in real-life, not to say he might be transphobic? (Note: as I am writing this I discover he might also be doubtful, if not actively denying, climate change? Really?)

I am not sure of it all, again there's a lot of drama going on I have not spent my life documenting. But all of that to say... if Fables ever becomes public domain I would be so happy, because the original Fables truly exhausted its run in Willingham's hands (the recent revival has proven to be very disappointing, furthering my point), and only got breaths of fresh air within other writer's hands so far, so I would be very happy to see the franchise being explored and remade by other people. Again, Fables is a great concept and has been a big influence on so many things - it deserves to exist without the shadow of Willingham's dramas behind it.

At least that's my personal opinion. And with DC making all it will can to prevent the entering in the public domain, it might as well not happen...

[hunniedmilk]

Thank you so much for your tags ;; it's been fucking forever a minute since I posted anything. so if you wish, this is absolutely a request for some word vomit. and if you don't want to get into it, it's a heartfelt 'ehehe the tags are very nice, thank you' to keep your ask box warm

walks in with a book with like fifteen different annotation stickies I’m so ready pls bear with me if I sound incoherent .. have no clue if this'll be a lot but i'm going 2 put read more just in case ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

i could probably comment on literally every sentence like no exaggeration but i'm like containing the silliness as much as i can as to sound coherent so i just wanna point out small parts i really really like ^^

“Yet there’s a smile that glitters in the corner of his eyes, and as he steps down onto the pebbles he offers you a gloved hand.”

GHJHKL It just makes me explode ,,, I enjoy descriptions of understanding without a character having to verbally express it . It kills me every time regardless because it feels like you can understand the amount of trust between the two characters in the scene . Like in general , it could be an action that can appear like such a small , insignificant detail but you can tell that it means so much more than that and I just adore it so so much ???

“The butler simply… couldn’t let you go just yet. There’s a shimmer of gold in his eyes, a little greed shining through when he thinks of parting from your company.”

Bangs my head against the wall I ALWAYYYS REALLY LOVE IT WHEN PPL MAKE A SLIGHT REMARK ABOUT BARBATOS AND GREED IT’S JUST SOOOOO<333333 IT GETS ME SO EXCITED BECAUSE I START REMEMBERING LIKE THE SMALL REMARKS IN GAME ABOUT HIM RESTRAINING HIS GREED ETC AND HIS CHARACTER SONG . It’s just like so fun seeing different sides of characters expressed it’s just like AHHHH but I digress

The entire scene feels like it’s a moment that’s quiet and reserved away from other people but between the two characters it’s such a loud expression of emotions ,, especially because of Barbatos and how he is as a character too ?? ☆ｏ(＞＜；)○ 

I’m a bit new to the fandom so please bear with me a bit with explanations but I’ve read him as like a character that’s detached from personhood as a result of his profession and when there are moments when he clearly wants to pursue something he holds himself back from indulging into his greed but when it comes to MC he allows himself to finally take . To allow himself to enjoy their presence when they’re finally alone and able to …

SIDENOTE BUT ESPECIALLY SO BC OF HOOOW HARD THE OTHER CAST OF CHARACTERS GET SIDELINED HARD IN GENERAL SOMETIMES ,,, LIKE IN BARBS LATEST BIRTHDAY UR HOW DO U LITERALLY GET DOOMED BY THE NARRATIVE IN UR OWN DREAM.. BUT THAAAT’S LIKE AN ENTIRE RAMBLE I’VE HAD FOR A MINUTE AND THAT’S BESIDES THE POINT )))

“Of everyone, he knows keenly how precious your time is.”

Im literally vibrating off the walls rn I cant describe it any better than that and especially the next sentences that follow it ohhhg idk if it literally wasn’t late as hell rn I’d def just print this out n’ scribble a bunch of hearts on this like omg 

____

THE ENDING … I am literally pacing I don’t usually enjoy angst all that much and try to avoid it altogether but the way you wrote it I’m like a little crazy actually. like a little bit insane. A humans existence is such a fleeting moment to a demon and it’s like AAAA YOU JUST LIKE FEEL THE TENSION FROM THE PREVIOUS SCENES THEN THE WARMTH FROM THE ENDING IT’S JUST LIKE A BITTERSWEET ?? FEELING THAT MAKES IT SO ENJOYABLE AND IT’S SUCH AN INSTILLING FEELING THAT’S LIKE SOOOO BEAUTIFUL ?? HIM HOLDING THE AIR ??? I sound so insane I just really really get excited when I read that it’s such an infectious feeling but that’s what your writing feels like. I’m not the best at English so I’m hoping this comes off well enough but I feel like the idea of living on in another persons memory despite all the years to come, especially with a demons lifespan IT JUST FEELS SOOO /pos

This is going to sound absolutely cornball cheesy but ur writing style , and I haven’t checked out ur other works yet but , from this alone it reminds me of a nice sweet . Personally I’m thinking of a Mexican dessert as I’m Mexican myself and I enjoy food analogies as compliments but the way you describe your scenes feels like taking a bite out of a concha (insane person rambling but please stick with me) . it’s such a sweet feeling that like , you don’t really forget the first time you experience it ?? I know I’m def going to be giggling abt ur writing for like a fat week honestly . i could probably reread it more than I already have while typing this and still find things to comment on even if it's just a keysmash

idk idk just the way you present scenarios stick so nicely ? It’s just something so handcrafted with love that I can tell that you enjoy what u write ?? I don’t know :,)

IF LIKE ANY OF THIS DOESN’T RLLY SOUND RIGHT LIKE , CHARACTER DESCS ESP OF BARB ive been in this fandom for like not super long so im still info-diving rlly slowly and its so difficult </3 I get so nervous posting stuff but like I wanna get this out of my system SOO bad

Plus I don’t think I could type out any of the info I do know about him in an orderly way lol I’ve tried for months but it ends in so many side tangents in rambles bc I just like his character so much 

I just think he’s such an interesting character y’know ??? There’s so many ways people can interpret a character and when you see other peoples ideas and some of them just HIT like getting all giddy thinking wow this is so cool ,,, I have to eat what I’m reading because there are no words in my lexicon to verbally express how much I love this 

[howlinglucas]

Time: Post plot drop stuff Location: Outside Lucas’ House Characters: @muertevelasco & @howlinglucas

Lucas did not visit graveyards. He didn’t so much as look at them, reminded too easily when he did of Dia de Los Muertos that he hadn’t celebrated since childhood or the mass and unnamed that graves he’d seen at war. He’d also been oddly and happily accepting of a mortal lifespan and fate since the seraphim had cured him of his Volatile nature, unsure if it was leftover madness or some peace of mind built in him after over a century of living that made him so unafraid of death. Then sometimes he remembered how his mother had always taught him death was not something to fear and hate, that it was a natural part of life as blessed as birth. He taught her it was okay to mourn and cry but also to celebrate the life that had been lived and the memories made. 

He didn’t like thinking about her either, or any of the family he lost. So he didn’t visit graves.

Rome was an enormous city and Lucas was not the observant sort. He kept his eyes where he needed to go, and didn’t let his keen senses distract him. So he felt somewhat unlike himself that day as he took in the nature around him in his new home. He was thinking of how much had changed, and how much was still to change. He remembered Mateo’s words: ‘We’ll be wild and free.’ Lucas was wild now, he was free now. Every day the lycans got closer to even more freedom. It felt strange to realize this and not thank his brother for what he had taught him and what he had given him before he died. And now that he had his own place... it reminded him of home. Lucas didn’t visit graveyards and his family was buried across the sea, but he remembered how they’d place fruits and flowers by candles. He remembered honoring the death that way, remembering them that way. Lucas didn’t have any photos of his brother but he had sat alone in his newly furnished home and made sure no one would come around as he knit together a small circle, hardly the size of a cup holder, with all of Mateo’s favorite colors and the symbol of a wolf in the middle. Then he placed that outside in his new garden. He wasn’t ready to go through the whole ritual again, so he just placed a small candle next to the piece, one that he had carved symbols into. Symbols that he hadn’t seen in over a century, symbols of the ancients of their country that his mother had taught him so, so long ago.

He didn’t think of how it was a lighthouse to any nearby spirits, a welcoming of the dead. Lucas left the candle burning there and came out to the edge of his garden, standing there for a few minutes with his thoughts as he looked out at their new forest. The sun was bright and warm in this place; he put on his sunglasses and debated taking a run out into the woods again when he heard footsteps coming up the edge of his new house. He only made out a vague shape at first, but the smell of them was not lycan or fey. Lycan could not tell the presense of spirits, so Lucas just stared, wondering why there was something vaguely familiar about their outline as they approached from the shadows of the trees. Fucking fey and their weird little creatures. He wouldn’t put it past them to have spooky human-looking things. “Get off my lawn,” he called out. Then muttered to himself, “Not in the mood to fucking fight kelpies.” He didn’t even know what kelpies were, but it sounded like something fey would have.

[enigmaincrimson-personal]

Internet rebooted just when I finished that post... Scared me for a bit.

To be honest, transitional periods are always messy, even if you somehow preempt them.

Like... It turns out that you have to replace the battery in a phone every 18 to 24 months, but unless you have the proper tools or a repair shop is a available in the area, there's no way to just pop the thing open and put in a new one as they're basically sealed containers.

Most android phones have an 18 month support lifespan with Samsung's 5 year and Google's 7 year being the exception...

Sure, you can do some weird hacky stuff to install Windows 11 on an unsupported old laptop, but even Microsoft admits that is basically a ticking time bomb. Win 10 has only a little over a year left to live at this point as well... And the cost of extended support exceeds the cost of the machine.

Providing the thing doesn't start to come apart on its own before then. Old rubber seams tend to give way and crumble with age after all.

And there's even weirder forms of support lost... While Open Source drivers are technically forever, it just takes some very poor timing to make life miserable for years.

You see... This particular laptop is a dual GPU model... With an Intel HD 4600 running most of the time and an Nvidia GTX 950M that can take over if needed.

First, the Intel GPU is one hardware revision short of proper vulkan support, so running Proton for Windows gaming on Linux on it is... Some what questionable. It isn't what I'd call fast either.

The Nvidia GPU has full Vulkan support, but... You have two main issues... The drivers and getting applications to utilize the GPU when needed.

By default, they use the Noveau drivers, which does technically work, but runs like a car stuck on first gear... And I'm not sure if the switchover works at all. It will catch up eventually, but it could be years.

The proprietary GeForce drivers are fully functional, but unless something changes in later drivers, I'm stuck with the older Proprietary Kernel hooks... Which makes addressing the GPU more complicated than it should be. And while there are official Open Source Kernel hooks now, they only work for newer Nvidia GPUs.

The proprietary kernel hooks cause all sort of problems... Like it makes updating more complicated, the system isn't as fine tuned or integrated together as it should, and more. That also leads into the other annoyance... Optimus support.

As I can't address the secondary GPU directly, I have to use a supplied tool known as prime to get it to work... And as simple as Prime-run application-name might sound, it can be a hit or a miss.

Oh and I can't just run an up to date version of Ubuntu or Linux Mint either... Since the kernel version they use doesn't like my wifi adapter... And even more frustrating is that it's like one version number off from being compatible.

Otherwise, it just shuts off after a few minutes... Gotta be 5.9 or greater, but they use 5.8 by default.

To make it even more annoying, the new Wayland window manager requires the Nvidia drivers to be set to 550 or higher... And those use 530ish by default.

I mean, the Noveau drivers do have Wayland support, but as I said... Stuck on first gear.

KDE on Wayland feels very comfortable to me, but... I have no idea how to address the secondary GPU reliably...

No idea if the backlight on the keyboard is gone because it's old or some sort of Asus firmware shenanigans.

I mean, it's ten years old at this point... And keeping this thing running is all I can afford unless some miracle happens.

[liebermintz]

a peculiar comorbidity, part three

And to close this off, I want healthcare providers to do a few things. There are going to be a lot more cases like me. There are people out there who are fucking struggling. In fact, I'm sure most of the diabetes-related suicides out there were from late-in-life diabetics with an autism comorbidity. this shit isn't easy to deal with, especially when your comforts are now lethal. and it's not like you can just say "well, don't do it." do you have any idea how super-ingrained these comforts, these stims, these safe foods are to an autistic person? they run deep. and they run deep even when you're a kid. it's the main reason why applied behavior analysis is straight-up considered psychological torture in the autistic community - people suggest that just to rip an autistic person away from bad actions, only to realize way too late they're making them miserable. and right now, I'm going through one hell of an ABA session, only that it's my fucking pancreas that's playing pretend-psychiatrist. combine that with the "gotta keep you alive no matter what" mindset of every type 1 resource, endocrinologists, diabetes educators, and PCPs and you have yourself a system that is designed to kill neurodivergent late-in-life diabetics in a short amount of time. in a way, it's genocide. you're getting rid of one group of people in order to not have to deal with them down the line. in another way, it's a form of eugenics since it's designed to weed out the undesirables from the health pool, so they can take their time delaying closed artificial pancreas loops, fool-proof insertion kits that can't be ripped out during sleep or strenuous activity, 10/20-minute-peak insulins with two-hour total lifespan, seven-day patch pumps, stuff that doesn't exactly benefit a neurotypical diabetic at the moment since they're easily adaptable (plus there's this dogged "can't teach an old dog new tricks" mindset you see a lot in diabetic circles) but benefits a neurodivergent diabetic who has way more to worry about than high and low blood sugars. the healthcare industry doesn't give a shit about me. in fact, i'm pretty sure it wants me to die either by my own hand or by theirs.

but here I am, asshole. and here's my final demand: I want Tzield to be approved for honeymooning patients NOW.

I want late-in-life diabetics (priority going to those with neurodivergences) to automatically be added to pancreas and islet cell transplant lists upon diagnosis. you will see significantly less suicides, less deaths, less eugenics, less murder, less mistakes, less meltdowns, less burnout - if you let them on those lists and not just relegated those to life-long diabetics whose organs are starting to crap out on them.

I want all next-gen ultra-rapid-acting insulins to be released now. again, they're just Humalog with more shit.

I want insulin to be totally free. Forever.

I want, upon diagnosis, all diabetics to receive lifelong healthcare from the government, even after remission and surgical intervention. In fact, I want all healthcare to be free.

I want all clinicals for stem-cell effective-cures to widen their criteria to include cases like mine that are way more susceptible to early-onset DKA and euglycemic DKA. those are as lethal as severe hypoglycemic events, but you just wanna blame DKA on not having enough insulin in your system. that way, you can see if stuff like VX-880 and VX-264 have an Awakenings effect (works for a bit before it stops working) or if manages to stick around for longer. I want all clinicals for immunotherapies to have their ages expanded to 35.

And I want Beyond Type 1 to publish all three of my posts - uncensored - on their website if they ever run into it. No edits save for some basic proofreading.

Anything else is genocide.