#will try to get the fourth and last episode done soon

[sturniozo]

Savage Love

Matt Sturniolo x reader Mafia AU

Summary: After a night out with her friends, Y/n wakes up in a hotel bed with a handsome stranger with no memory of the night before. Pieceing together what she can, she finds the man she woke up with wasn’t just some stranger, but the most powerful man in New York.

A/N: I’m basing all of my mafia knowledge on watching the god father when I was six and that one episode of community with the chicken fingers. Other than that I have no clue how mafia works so this might not be as good as you hope but hey I tried. Tell me if you want me to continue this though! I had fun writing it!

Masterlist

I never go out with my friends and I felt bad about it for a long time. But today, Emma convinced me to go dancing with her at a club in New York. I’ve been in the city many times, as I live just outside of it, in a small apartment above a bookshop. But the city of New York still terrifies me, especially at night. There’s a rumor of a secret organization that controls just about everything in the city, and if you cross the man at the top then you’re done for.

Of course, these are just rumors and haven’t actually been proven. I have nothing to fear, right?

Now I’m sitting in front of Emma’s vanity mirror getting ready as she does my hair.

“Oh you should totally wear it down! Curl it a bit, let it hang over your shoulders. You might hook up tonight, you never know.” Emma teases as she messes with my hair. I finish curling my lashes and then turn to her.

“I don’t think I’ll hook up at all. I’m just not the type.” I shrug and stand up, switching places with Emma as she sits in front of her vanity mirror to do her own makeup.

“Well, I am the type.” She says as she starts with contour. I walk into the bathroom and plug in the curling iron to heat it up.

“You can hook up with any guy you want.” I say to Emma. “Just make sure he wraps it. I don’t want to be an aunt so soon.” I laugh.

Emma and I have been best friends since fourth grade. She’s my polar opposite, although we have the same dreams. We’re both journalists writing for a small newspaper outlet right outside of New York.

Emma’s the type to do things we’re doing now almost every day. She always tells me about all the big parties and exclusive events and venues she’s attended. She’s talk to, and slept with, many of the biggest people in multiple industries to get information for her articles.

I take a different approach. My stories come from the smaller people. The homeless and the struggling. I try to bring attention to the lower class of America.

I bet you can guess whose stories get published. Hence why I live in a small apartment above a bookshop, and Emma has a penthouse.

“God, I know. I can’t handle having a baby now. I’m only 20 for Pete’s sake!” Emma laughs and sets down her makeup brush. She turns to me and says “But I need to sleep with someone big and important tonight. I’m dying here, I haven had a story published in almost two weeks!”

I sigh. Two weeks is nothing. Try five months. I’m basically just a consultant at this point.

Emma turns back to the mirror to finish her makeup. I check the curling iron and it’s nice and hot, so I begin to curl the ends of my hair. Just a little curly at the edge.

Emma gets up from the mirror and starts shutting off lights and electronics around her penthouse. I unplug the curling iron and walk into the front room to put on my shoes and grab my purse. Emma shut off the last light and we walk out of the penthouse. She locks the door and we get into the elevator, going down to the front desk.

Emma has an Uber waiting for us. The great thing about Emma is, no matter how much more she has than me, she always gives and never asks for any in return. It’s always been this way. She’s the sweetest friend I’ve ever had. She’s also the most ruthless journalist I’ve ever met.

We get into the Uber and the driver starts for the city. It’s a long drive, one that me and Emma use to our advantage and try to find out who’s the most important person attending the party.

“Oh my god!” Emma says after a long silence of us just looking at our phones.

“What is it, who will be there?” I ask frantically.

“Matt Sturniolo!”

I look at her, confused. “Who’s that?”

“Who’s that? WHO’S THAT? Matt Sturniolo is only the most powerful guy in New York!”

“That can’t be true, how come I’ve never heard of him?”

“Because you focus on who can help the lower class. He can’t help them, it’s not in his power.”

“Then he doesn’t have much power.”

“Oh, he has power. He has all the power. It’s his rumor that he’s the one who controls all the important somebody’s in New York. I gotta make it my mission to sleep with him. God, I bet he’s good in bed.” She says to herself.

I let out a laugh. “What story do you plan together by sleeping with him?”

“I want to know if the rumor is true, duh!” She laughs and lightly hits my shoulder.

We arrive at the venue. It’s large and the music is blaring. We step out of the car and I lean to Emma and say loudly so she can hear me over the music “The most powerful man in New York is gonna be here?” I laugh. “This doesn’t look like a scene you’d catch someone so important in.”

“Trust me, he’ll be here. Steph said so, and she’s always right!” Emma says back. She takes my hand and drags me through the line, showing the bouncer a VIP pass for both her and I. They let us in and Emma immediately drags me to the bar.

“Two vodka martinis!” She says to the bartender. The bartender nods and begins our drinks. I turn around to look at all the people dancing. Men in half dressed suits grinding on women in the shortest dresses. This is what Emma does every day? I understand the appeal, but the loud music and the flashing lights just aren’t for me.

We get our drinks and Emma takes me to a table to sit down at. “So what do we do now?” I ask.

“We mingle!” She shouts and raises her hands in the air.

The rest of the night that I can still remember was filled with drinking and Emma talking to numerous people, always asking about the guy who’s name I can no longer remember due to my copious consumption of alcohol. The last thing I remember was talking to a tall, handsome, dark haired man with beautiful light blue eyes.

~

I awake with a pounding headache. I raise my head from my pillow and slowly open my eyes, groaning from the pain. I look around and realize, this is not my bedroom. This is not Emma’s bedroom. I have no clue where I am. I scan the room and my eyes fall on a strange man sitting on the couch. I gasp and he looks up at me.

“Good, you’re awake. I was wondering if I’d have to drop you at the emergency room.” He laughs to himself.

I sit up fully in the bed. “Who are you? Where am I?” I ask frantically.

“My names Matt, and-“ I stop him

“Oh my god.”

“It’s fine just-“

“Oh god what happened?”

“Nothing, I-“

“I was drunk!”

“I know, that’s why I-“

“Tell me I didn’t. We didn’t.”

“Would you let me fucking speak?” He yells. “I didn’t fucking touch you, okay? You were dancing on a table and your friend had gone home with some guy so I got you a hotel room. You could barely stand and you just passed out on the bed.” He finishes with a huff.

I stare up at him in shock. “So we didn’t”

“No. We didn’t.” He pauses. “But we could.” He says with a smirk.

A blush appears on my cheeks and my breath shakes “What?” I ask

“Well you’re an attractive girl, I wouldn’t mind it.” He laughs. “But I have a meeting in an hour, so it’ll have to be another time. Want my number while you think about it?” He asks and before I can answer he hands me a card. “I got an Uber waiting for you whenever you’re ready to go home, it’s already paid for. Just do whatever you need to before you leave.” He says, clearly insisting I shower and eat. “And tell the driver where you need to go. Don’t forget to call, doll face.” He says before leaving and closing the door behind him.

I look down at the card he had handed me.

‘Matt Sturniolo.’ With an address and phone number.

Tags: @stargirlsturniololover (the one who came up with the idea for Mafia!Matt) @sturniolobessed

[rose-sophia-isabella-rogers]

A Tale of Stolen Hearts: Chapter XVI - Neither of Us Has to Be Alone Anymore

Chapter Summary: What will happen with you and Aleksander, now that everything is over?

Pairing: Aleksander Kirigan/Reader, David Kostyk/Genya Safin, Ivan/Fedyor Kaminsky

Characters: Aleksander Kirigan, Reader, Alina Starkov, Nikolay Lantsov, David Kostyk, Genya Safin, Ivan, Fedyor, Nina Zenik

Word Count: 4655

A/N: lapushka – darling, honey, sweetie moya milaya – my sweet girl Smut alert. If you don't like it or are underage, don't read from: "You undress each other swiftly." to: "A few rounds later you are lying in bed, cuddling. " Enjoy! Also, there are some lines from the last episode from the eight episode of season two.

Tag list (let me know if you want to be added or removed):

@budugu

@intothesoul

@mizelophsun11

@pansexualwitchwhoneedstherapy

@zeeader

You open your eyes slowly. You see an unfamiliar ceiling. You just hope it's not a hallucination this time. Especially when you turn your head and see Aleksander sitting on a chair, staring up at the ceiling thoughtfully.

'I've just looked at this ceiling and didn't see anything worth looking at it so much,' you speak up. Aleksander flinches and looks at you with wide eyes. He lunges forward and suddenly he's at your side, his hands clutching one of yours.

'How are you feeling?' he asks, anxious. You smile reassuringly at him.

'I'm fine,' you answer. 'So? How long was my nap in the end?'

'One full day,' Aleksander answers, smiling in amusement. 'No noise could wake you up. I don't think even a screeching Volcra would have.'

'What happened to the Volcra with the Fold gone?' you ask, frowning. Aleksander blinks.

'I honestly have no idea,' he answers. You reach out and touch his face. Only now you've noticed his scars are gone.

'I did not do that,' you say.

'Genya did,' Aleksander answers and you notice a guilty look in his eyes. 'With merzost gone from my body she could finally fix it.'

'I kinda liked them,' you admit, confusing Aleksander. 'They were showing what you being without me ends up like.'

Aleksander barks a laugh. You grin at him. You try remember who can Genya be.

'Which one is Genya?' you ask, giving up.

'She was the fourth person who helped you along with Nina, Fedyor and Ivan,' Aleksander answers. You think about this moment. You remember the redhead girl with an eyepatch and scars on her face. You think about Aleksander's guilty look.

'The scars… You did that to her, didn't you?' you guess. 'With merzost.'

'She wanted to leave my side and I… I didn't want that,' he admits. 'I felt betrayed. And angry. But now I know I shouldn't have done that.'

'Once I feel strong enough I will try to fix her up,' you say after a moment. 'Since she wasn't using merzost, it should be easier. And quicker. By the way, never amplify me again with your mother at the same time. If not for the fact I was quickly using my amplified abilities, I would be like on high. Really, I would be there twirling and giggling.'

Aleksander snorts. You grin at him. It's so good to see him happy. It's good to see him.

'Do you regret it?' you ask suddenly. 'Agreeing to leave all of this?'

Aleksander stares at you for a moment. Finally, he cups your face.

'No,' he answers, his tone of voice sure. 'Because it means I get to spend the eternity with you. Because that's how it's going to be, you know? You're my true equal.'

'So, immortality after all, huh?' you ask and sigh. 'I can do that, as long as it's with you. Because if I'm really going to live forever and you leave me, then Saints help you. Except for me. I won't help you run away from me.'

Aleksander bursts out laughing. This laughter is contagious and soon you're both doubling over from it.

Outside, Alina, Nikolay, Nina, Fedyor and Ivan are standing still. Alina and Nikolay exchange a cautious look. Nina raises her eyebrows. Ivan sighs, exasperated. Fedyor grins.

'I really did miss her,' he says happily.

'I don't think I have ever heard him laugh like that,' Nina says.

'I didn't know he can laugh like that,' Nikolay says.

'Yes, the case of [Y/N],' Ivan says. 'She can make him laugh like a madman, just to make him frustrated a moment later. Or the other way around. Honestly, it was maddening to watch them dance around each other.'

'Yeah,' Fedyor agrees, nodding. Suddenly, the door opens. They jump away from it, startled. They see you in the door, raising your eyebrows at them.

'You are aware I can hear you, right?' you ask. Fedyor and Alina have a decency to look at you sheepishly.

'How good is your hearing?' Ivan asks, curious. You look at him.

'When I'm not blocking sounds, I can hear things from really far away,' you say and focus. 'Like, right now I can tell you that David is speaking with Genya- Oh, he's proposing!'

You beam happily. Behind you Aleksander smiles. Alina, Fedyor and Nina look at you attentively.

'And she accepted him!' you say and take a deep breath. 'DAVID, CONGRATULATIONS!'

You snort and cover your mouth. You grin.

'I just almost gave them a heart attack,' you say. Aleksander sighs.

'Stop listening to conversations of others and go back to bed,' he says. You turn to him, place your hands on your hips and stick out your tongue at him.

'I told you I'm fine,' you say and turn back to others, not missing the annoyed look on Aleksander's face. 'Now, how can I help you?'

'We just wanted to see how you are,' Alina answers, eyeing Aleksander. 'And if you need some more help from Heartrenders or Healers.'

'No, no, I'm fine,' you deny, shaking your head.

'Wouldn't hurt if you let them take a look,' Aleksander says. You sigh deeply. But then you remember what a fuss he did when he was injured. So, graciously, you allow your Heartrender friends to take a look at you. But you are fine. Like you said. But it did make Aleksander feel better, so you don't say a word.

'Well, we won't make a crowd so not to tire you,' Nina says and shoos others out. Only Aleksander, Alina and Nikolay stay behind. Aleksander and Nikolay stare at each other, both tensed. Finally, Nikolay turns his eyes to you, a smile on his lips.

'I would like to assure you that your life is not in danger, your banishment has been revoked,' he says.

'That is a relief,' you admit. 'I wouldn't fancy being saved just to be executed in front of more people.'

'I promised anything for the help in getting the Neshyenyer and I am a man of my word,' Nikolay says, nodding. You nod. Alina elbows him to the side. Nikolay clears his throat and glances at Aleksander.

'After we take care of everything here, there is going to be a coronation,' he says. 'You are of course invited.'

You can almost feel Aleksander tensing up even more behind you. You also see how nervous are Nikolay and Alina. No one wants the Darkling there, but they already know he will follow you everywhere now. So, you smile slightly.

'You seem nice enough and certainly better than your family, but I'm still not a fan of the royal family,' you say. 'Nobility even less. Me being there would end badly for all. So, thank you for the invitation, but I have to decline.'

'I understand,' Nikolay says. He tries to contain his relief, but you see it anyway.

'What are you going to do now?' Alina asks, glancing at Aleksander. 'Are you going to stay in Ravka, since your banishment has been revoked.'

'We're going to Novyi Zem,' Aleksander answers and looks at you fondly. 'To start a new life.'

'Yes,' you confirm, nodding. 'It's really good to know I can now come back here anytime, but we plan to settle somewhere where our presence isn't going to cause trouble. Too much, anyway. Although, we may have to visit my sister before we leave Ravka.'

'You have a sister?' Alina asks, interested.

'Yeah, a twin,' you answer. Nikolay sighs.

'Yes, Elizabeth [L/N],' he says. 'She gives us so much trouble.'

'Hey, if you ever put her in prison, I'll send you a really nice basket of expensive things,' you say. Nikolay eyes you.

'Would those things be stolen?' he asks. You blink.

'Maybe,' you answer and grin cheekily.

'I take it you and your sister don't get along,' Alina says, confused.

'That's an understatement,' Aleksander sighs.

'Hey, it's still better than it was when you met us,' you say to him and exhale. 'Anyway, don't worry. We'll be out of your hair soon. Promise.'

Nikolay and Alina nod. They eye Aleksander one more time, say their goodbyes and leave. You turn to your beloved. He stares at the door with a faraway look.

'Alina?' you ask, trying and failing to hide the hurt in your voice. Aleksander's gaze snaps to you. He shakes his head and walks to you. He cups your face.

'Stop it, lapushka,' he says and you flinch at the name. 'I have no feelings to Alina. I promised you, remember? My heart will always beat for you.'

You smile at him. He smiles back and presses a kiss to your forehead. Then he joins your lips. When you part, he hugs you tightly. You rest your head on his chest.

'Aleksander?' you ask and he hums, letting you know he's listening. 'We're going to be alright now, yes?'

'Yes, moya milaya,' he confirms. 'You and I are going to be alright now. We're finally together. No one will tear us apart again. I won't let them.'

'I love you,' you whisper, hugging him tighter. He returns it.

'I love you, too,' he says. 'So much. And I promise to try to be the man you see in me. To be worthy of your love.'

You smile softly and look up at him. Your heart flutters at the look of love and adoration in his eyes.

'You already are,' you say. He smiles and kisses you again. You felt happy. Complete. And if someone ruins this for you again, then Saints help them, because you're going to burn the world if you have to, to keep Aleksander by your side. Forever.

*

You enter your small house in Novyi Zem and roll your shoulders back. You inhale the smell of delicious food that is in the air and head toward the kitchen with a smile. Aleksander is standing by the stove, cooking dinner. You stand in the doorway for a moment, admiring the view.

'Smells good,' you finally speak up. Aleksander tenses. He sighs and turns around.

'How do you always sneak up on me?' he asks.

'Well, I am a Heartrender and I was a thief,' you say, walking to him. 'Old habits die hard and all of that. I'm not even aware anymore I'm not making a sound.'

Aleksander shakes his head but puts his arms around you. You sigh, content, cuddling into him. Safe and sound. And happy.

'How was it today?' Aleksander asks. He pushes away and returns to cooking dinner. You sit up on a chair.

'The usual,' you answer, shrugging. 'Still getting used to being called "blessed".'

'Be glad they don't know you are Sankta [Y/N],' Aleksander says, amused. 'Yet.'

'Believe me, I am,' you sigh. 'And I hope it will stay that way a really long time.'

You look at Aleksander. He seems more relaxed and content than when you were reunited. Even more than when you met him.

'Are you happy here?' you blurt out. Aleksander stops. He turns to you with a serious expression. He sighs and walks to you. He grabs you by the arms.

'While I admit that there are certain things that I miss… I know I finally found what I was looking for,' he says, smiling softly at you. 'And I start to think that maybe you were right and it's time someone else make sure Grisha are taken care of. Right now… I have someone more important to take care of.'

You chuckle. Aleksander feels your body relaxing. He's glad. He hates seeing you like that.

'Don't doubt your meaning to me, lapushka,' he says, tilting your head up by the chin. 'You are light that disperses my darkness. You stole my heart and saved me from myself. And death. I love you and nothing that happens will ever make me regret my decision. Because thanks to it I can be here with you. Forever. So, don't fear I hate my current life. It's with you. I can't hate it.'

'You can't blame me for thinking you're bored,' you say, pouting. 'I mean, your life until now was very much not boring. And here you are… cooking dinner. How can that compare to the life you had before?'

'Well, it's peaceful and with a woman I love, so I think it has a really big chance to win this race,' Aleksander says, amused, and sighs. 'Besides, there's a chance that I have found something to keep myself busy with for some time.'

You frown. You don't like the way he said it. You're worried.

'What is it?' you ask.

'There's a new weapon about to hit the market,' Aleksander says after a moment. 'It's a drug called jurda parem. Highly addictive. And if Grisha take it, their power is amplified a thousand times over.'

'Oh wow,' you say, your eyes bulging. Aleksander nods.

'The chemist who created it fled to Kerch once he realized what he'd done, but the Fjerdans caught him,' he says and exhales slowly. 'He now awaits trial. If the Fjerdans weapon this drug, the consequences would be unimaginable.'

'And you just can't leave this alone,' you guess. 'Can't you leave this as well to others? I can find you some less dangerous problem to figure out, if you want.'

Aleksander chuckles. He kisses the top of your forehead.

'The problem is, milaya, that I heard rumours,' he says. 'It is already known what happens once a Grisha with average amount of power takes it. But Fjerdans wonder what happens to one extremely powerful.'

You remember how you felt when Baghra and Aleksander amplified you. You shiver.

'I dread to imagine,' you say. Aleksander nods. You notice his jaw is clenched. He's looking at you with that famous intense stare of his.

'What is it?' you ask, frowning.

'Most of the powerful Grisha are at Landsov's side,' Aleksander says. 'Alina. Zoya. Genya. David. Others. Impossible to get to for Fjerdans. But they know of one that isn't there. And they would love to test it on them.'

'You?' you ask, puzzled. 'But thanks to Nikolay and Alina the world believes you died.'

'Yes,' Aleksander says and exhales shakily. 'But tell me, who did steal from Fjerdans a certain device and changed the outcome of a battle?'

You freeze. You look at Aleksander with shock.

'They're looking for… me?' you whisper.

'If the rumours are true,' Aleksander answers. 'That's why I want to make sure jurda parem is gone before it's even here. I don't want to see you in Fjerdan hands. Or worse.'

'I can take care of myself, you know,' you say after a moment. 'I also spread rumours about me. For the world I'm still in Ketterdam. Only a few people know I'm actually here.'

'I know you can take care of yourself,' Aleksander says. 'But you're not alone anymore. Let me take care of you, too.'

You smile. He smiles back and you share a sweet kiss.

'I still don't like the idea of you getting involved in this,' you say. Aleksander chuckles.

'How about this?' he asks, returning to his cooking. 'I will hire the Crows to look into it and I will monitor their actions. If they are going to need my help or jurda parem will hit the exact place we're in, only then I will step in.'

'Fair enough,' you agree after a moment. 'Now, are we going to finally eat?'

'We will if you let me finish cooking it!' Aleksander chuckles. You gasp, pretending to be offended.

'Are you saying I'm distracting you?' you ask. He looks at you. He eyes you up and down.

'You have no idea,' he says, his voice low. You gulp as he focuses on dinner. Well. At least you know how you two will spend your evening.

*

It's another evening. You're sitting by the window, reading a book. Aleksander enters the room and stares at you, smiling softly.

'Do you want supper now or later?' you ask. Aleksander sighs.

'You always know when I come in,' he says and walks to you. He kisses the top of your head, then goes to sit in his armchair.

'Powerful Heartrender, remember?' you ask, pointing at your ears, then smirk at him. 'Besides, your heartbeat I can hear and feel from miles. But I like its sound the most when it's close to me. It speeds up so nicely. Same as mine around you, to be honest. Sometimes I fear it will jump out of my chest.'

You smile at him, slightly flushed, and return to your book. He stares at you in silence.

'You didn't answer me,' you say after some time. 'Dinner?'

'I'm not hungry yet,' Aleksander answers. You nod and continue reading. He observes you. How light from the setting sun falls on your face, illuminating it. The way your lips curl, whenever you read something funny. The way your eyes shine, because you are reading, doing something nice. You're the most beautiful person in the world to him. No one else will be as important to him as you are.

'Marry me,' he suddenly says. You jump, startled. You look at him with wide eyes.

'I'm sorry… what?' you ask, stunned. Aleksander stands up and walks to you. He kneels in front of you and takes your hands in his.

'Marry me,' he repeats. You frown.

'What brought this on?' you ask. 'Is it because of those gossiping old ladies? That we live together even though we're not married? Because I don't mind. I don't care about what other people think. I don't have to be married to you to be happy.'

'What if I need it?' Aleksander asks. 'What if I need to be married to you?'

'But why?' you ask, still not understanding. Aleksander gently caresses your hands. You shiver because of his gaze. He looks at you with such awe and adoration… It takes your breath away.

'Because I love you,' he answers. 'And I want the world to know I'm serious about it. That I can't imagine my life without you. I also want everyone to know you are taken permanently. I saw how those men in the market were looking at you yesterday and it made me livid. You are mine. Forever.'

'Oh, am I?' you ask, smirking. Aleksander almost growls. He knows you're provoking him and he wants to show you a lot how much you are his. But that can wait.

'Yes,' he says and kisses your knuckles. 'So? What do you say, [Y/N] [L/N]? Will you marry me?'

You stare in his eyes, your heart beating fast. You used to think of marriage as a faraway dream. Same about love. Can you really have it? You look into Aleksander's eyes and see the answer. You smile.

'Yes,' you answer softly, nodding. 'I will. Make an honest woman out of me.'

'For that I'm afraid it's to late,' he says. You smack him on the head and he laughs.

'Cheeky,' you say, sticking your tongue at him. 'I may take away my consent, you know.'

'No, it's too late,' Aleksander says, smirking. Suddenly, you feel something on your fourth finger of your left hand. You look at it and gasp. There is a beautiful ring with onyx on it. You admire it in awe.

'How?' you ask. Aleksander chuckles.

'I have my ways, he replies smugly. You roll your eyes at him.

'Arrogant as ever,' you say and throw your arms around his neck. 'Now show me how much I am yours.'

Aleksander's eyes are set ablaze with desire at once. He presses a quick but strong kiss to your lips.

'As my lady wishes,' he says and picks you up. You grin and hide your face in the crook of his neck. You start kissing it. He groans.

'As always you drive me crazy,' he says and carries you to your bed. Just then there's a knock on the door. You both freeze.

'I swear to Saints,' you growl. 'Timing perfect as ever.'

'Why did we take them with us?' Aleksander sighs.

'They insisted,' you remind him. 'They're basically your bodyguards. And you agreed that having more eyes on me wouldn't hurt.'

'Hello?!' you hear Fedyor's voice and another knock. 'Anyone home?!'

'Oh, for…' Aleksander grunts and marches to the door. Your eyes go wide.

'What are you doing?' you ask, panicking.

'Throwing them out,' Aleksander answers and before you can free yourself, he opens the door. Fedyor and Ivan stare at you, surprised at your position. Your face is red from shame.

'Is whatever you came with important?' Aleksander asks. 'We're a bit busy here. [Y/N] here needs a reminder how much mine she is. We're also having a celebration.'

'Aleksander!' you huff, hitting him on the chest. 'Stop it! And put me down!'

'Is it important?' Aleksander repeats, ignoring you.

'We just wanted to ask if you want to join us for supper, but it appears you have other dishes in mind,' Ivan says, raising eyebrows at you. Oh, so you can be even more embarrassed. Thank you, Ivan.

'What sort of celebration are you having?' Fedyor asks, as always very interested in your love life.

'We just got engaged,' Aleksander answers. 'See you tomorrow.'

And he shuts the door in their faces. You want the ground to swallow you whole.

'Finally!' you hear Fedyor's happy voice. He says something more, but you mute him, too embarrassed. Aleksander turns and carries you to your bedroom.

'I will not look them in the faces tomorrow,' you mumble.

'Yes, you will,' Aleksander denies and lays you on the bed. 'But for now, the only face you're going to look at is mine.'

You smile. You reach out and caress his cheek.

'Good thing it's my favourite face, then,' you say. Aleksander grins and kisses you hard. You moan and return it with passion. You undress each other swiftly. Then, Aleksander's lips move and travel down your body.

'Aleksander…' you whisper.

'Milaya…' Aleksander grunts. He reaches your womanhood and starts kissing, licking and sucking it. You inhale sharply.

'Aleksander!' you gasp and move your hips. Aleksander chuckles and holds them.

'Patience, lapushka,' he says and returns to devouring you. In seconds you're gasping and moaning.

'That's not fair!' you groan. Aleksander just chuckles. A few minutes later you feel you're about to come. But then he moves away. Obviously. And he's smirking. Well, not for long.

Before he can do anything, you grab his shoulders and turn you both around. He's very surprised to find himself under you. You smile mischievously.

'My turn,' you say and start pressing kisses on his body. He sighs and closes his eyes. He has to clench his jaw when you get lower.

'[Y/N]!' he exclaims, his eyes shooting open, when you lick his manhood. You smirk and torture him the same way he was you. Your revenge is sweet. Well, maybe a bit salty.

Aleksander's breath is fast. His manhood twitches and he groans, when you take it in your mouth. He watches with wide eyes how you move your head up and down. He shivers every time your tongue licks him.

'What?' you ask, pulling away for a second. 'It's not the first time I'm doing it.'

'Yes, but it feels different now,' Aleksander says and gulps. You smirk.

'Because now I'm taking revenge for your teasing,' you answer and return to your interrupted activity. Rather quickly you have Aleksander groaning, grunting and moaning under you. He's not surprised, though, that when he is close, you pull away.

'You're a terrible tease yourself,' he sighs. You hover over him.

'You started it, dear,' you say and peck him on the lips. Aleksander uses this to his advantage and changes your positions again. You can't help but laugh.

'As always, you have to be on top and in control,' you say, amused. Aleksander sucks on your breast for a moment, causing you to inhale sharply. He smirks and looks up at you.

'And you love to give over the control to me,' he says. Well, you can't deny that. However…

'Well, are you going to do something with that control or are you just going to torture us both slowly?' you ask, raising your eyebrows. Aleksander shakes his head.

'For something like that I should torture you more,' he says and positions himself at your entrance. 'Luckily for you, you are right and I would be torturing myself with that as well.'

You smile smugly at him. But he quickly wipes that smile off your face when he thrusts into you. You gasp and close your eyes.

'Now, I remember this was supposed to be about me showing you how much you belong to me,' Aleksander says, his voice a bit dark. You shiver.

'Um… yes,' you confirm, a bit afraid though. Aleksander leans to your ear.

'I am going to mark you both inside and outside as mine,' he whispers. Your breath hitches. Aleksander starts kissing your neck. When he bites it, you gasp both from it and because he pushes inside you at the same time.

'Aleksander…' you whisper. He kisses the place he's just bitten.

'I've got you, milaya,' he murmurs and starts moving. From the way he said what's he's going to do you, you assumed it will be hard, fast and deep. But no. He's very gentle, loving and hits you at all the right places.

'Saints!' you gasp, throwing your head back. You moan when Aleksander starts kissing your body, leaving occasional bites. You move your hips a bit, wanting to match his thrusts. He groans.

'My little Saint,' he whispers. You're surprised by the way he looks at you. Vulnerable. Scared. Love. Longing.

'Don't let me be alone,' he whispers. You cup his face and caress his cheek.

'Never,' you say, your voice strong with conviction. 'Understand? You and I are forever.'

Aleksander smiles. He puts his arms around you and presses you close to himself. You return the embrace. Your lips join and you kiss passionately.

Some time later Aleksander's moves become sloppier. He's close. And so are you.

'[Y/N]…' he groans.

'Together,' you whisper. You smile at each other. Aleksander thrusts a few more times until he buries himself deep inside you. He fills you and you come undone around him. You moan loudly into each other's mouth, as you have returned to kissing.

A few rounds later you are lying in bed, cuddling. Aleksander plays with your hair and you trace patterns on his chest. You stare at your new ring, admiring it.

'I love it, by the way,' you speak up. 'I don't think I've told you that. It's beautiful.'

'Only the best for you, my love,' Aleksander says and kisses the top of your head. 'You are my everything.'

You smile and hide your face in his chest. He hugs you tightly.

'No matter what, from now on it's you and me against the world,' he says. 'You know that, right?'

'I know,' you answer and look up at him. 'And I couldn't be happier. As long as I have you, I'm going to be very happy.'

'Then since my goal is to always make you happy, I can't leave your side,' Aleksander says. You grin.

'Good,' you answer and snuggle into him more. 'I love you, Aleksander.'

'I love you, too, [Y/N],' he says. 'So much.'

You both fall asleep, hugging and smiling. Maybe he didn't rebuild Ravka how he wanted. Maybe you didn't get to live in your home country like you wished. But you have each other. And that's more than enough for the both of you. You're going to spend the eternity together. A general and a thief. A love story that is going to be told forever.

A/N: And this is the end of this story! Whew! I hope you enjoyed reading it. I know I enjoyed writing it. Thank you for every comment, like and reblog. I'm sad to see this story go, but I am working on another one with this pairing. It's going to be a second part to "A Drop That Wore Away the Stone Around His Heart". It's going to focus on events in two seasons of the show. Not sure when it will be out, though. Anyway, see you there! Please like, reblog and comment if you could.

This story can also be found on Archive of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47256868/chapters/120881701

[laf-outloud]

https://www.tvinsider.com/1092684/walker-season-3-finale-cordell-geri-jackal-renewed-jared-padalecki/

I kind of told them yesterday, I talked to Brad Schwartz [the new CW president] and they totally tricked me. I was doing hyperbaric chamber stuff…after my TBI last year, I try to get hyperbaric [therapy] when I can for brain health and I got out to all these missed messages, like “Hey, we need to do some press for the finale,” and “Hey, will you call into The CW because they have some reporters that want to do this.” And I was like, “Oh, s**t, sorry! On it!”

So the CW President talked to Jared directly and asked him to do interviews/make statements and Jensen got..... nothing?

Um, they got a generic thank you directed towards TW and Kung Fu casts, lol! I guess Jensen could have gotten a phone call from the president, but since he's not talking to the press, who knows!

What's especially awesome is how casual Jared sounded about their conversation. He's already established relationships with the new leaders, which I'm not surprised by. I just love this whole exchange:

So, I call Brad Schwartz and some of the gang at The CW and [was like] “Hey, I’m so sorry. I haven’t had my phone for the last two hours, I’m here, I’m ready to answer whatever.” And they were like, “Well, we’re sure you’ve heard the news.” I was like, “The news? What?” They imagined maybe Anna [Fricke] had called or my manager Dan Spilo or whatever. And I was like, “No, I saw a bunch of missed texts and phone calls, but I figured I’d try and call back soon as possible.” [Then they’re] like, “So you don’t know that we’re picking up Walker for 13 episodes?” “What?! No, I don’t know that. I literally thought I was going to answer some questions about what the finale was about and what I’m excited for the audience to see and whatnot.” [laughs] I was certainly not in the headspace to think I was having a work conversation. But they told me how excited they were to have Walker back and have us back once all the negotiations are done with the unions and AMPTP, and get working on what will be our fourth and best season so far.

I had asked Brad Schwartz on the call, “When is this going to be announced?” And he said, “Well, we’d love it if you could add a quote or a statement in the press release.” And I was like, “Of course, I’ll grab my computer right now.” And so they were like, “Well, once you send back your quote, we’ll give it to trades.”

[mollybecameanengineer]

Incubo

Summary: The week before Scully goes on maternity leave, she and Mulder head to New Jersey to investigate a series of suspicious deaths. However, neither of them could have predicted how personal it would become.

word count: 7686 | Teen | MSR | @today-in-fic

Read on AO3 or check out the first chapter below the break

This is part of an episodic series called A Second Chance. All the episodes are collected, in order, using AO3’s series feature. The concept of the series is to rewrite seasons 8 and 9. It deals with Mulder’s return from the dead, the birth of William, and Mulder and Scully trying to juggle family life with impending doom.

If you don’t want to read the whole thing, but want to read this story, here is what you need to know…

Previously on A Second Chance: Mulder has returned to the living. Scully is pregnant with what she believes to be their child, but Mulder has doubts. However, he has publicly acknowledged the child. Mulder and Scully are now living together. Since he was declared dead, Mulder had to be re-hired by the FBI, rather than having a job to come back to. Reyes has been partnered with Doggett since This Is Not Happening.

Chapter 1

Today was Mulder’s first day back at the FBI – and it wasn’t going well. 

He and Scully had gone back and forth about him starting before or after the baby was born. But after the debacle with the oil rig, he wanted his badge back. When he’d received his official offer, he filled out the paperwork and requested to start as soon as possible, though it meant he’d have to take unpaid leave when the baby came.

But now that he was sitting at his desk (or Scully’s desk, he wasn’t sure who had ownership at this point), trying to log on to the computer so he could do hours of mandatory trainings, he questioned why he had been in such a hurry. 

Glaring at the screen, he tried again: 

username: fmulder 

password: tru5tn015cully 

The computer told him, yet again, that his username and password weren’t recognized. 

If it had been just him and Scully in the office, he would have been cursing and possibly kicking the trash can by now. But with Doggett and Reyes quietly typing away at their desks, he felt like he had to restrain himself. 

Scully came over and started looking through the file cabinet. She was wearing loose pants, a sweater, and flat dress shoes – all concessions to being 36 weeks pregnant. Whenever she was near, he wanted to reach out and touch her, caress her stomach. He didn’t understand why this was – before he had been abducted, he’d liked to touch her. But now it felt like more of a compulsion. He chalked it up to evolution. He was trying to possess or protect his mate, or some such crap. 

Again, he wished Doggett and Reyes would get out of his office, so he could hold her.

“Why aren’t you doing those trainings?” Scully asked, glancing at his computer screen. 

“The stupid thing won’t let me log on.”

Scully came over and leaned against the desk. She looked uncomfortable. It was probably a good thing this was her last week at work, before maternity leave. Mulder didn’t relish the idea of weeks in the office without her, though she thought it might give him a chance to bond with Reyes and Doggett. 

Maybe he could convince Skinner that four of them in this office was two too many. Though maybe he should also lay low, because his boss had done some fancy finagling to get a fourth agent assigned to the X-FIles. 

Scully looked at his computer, then down at his onboarding paperwork. “That isn’t your username anymore.” She pointed to the paper. There, clear as day, it said his email was fwmulder@fbi.gov.

“They changed my email?” 

Reyes spun around in her chair. Evidently she’d been listening. (All the more reason to get the interlopers out of their office.) “I just sent you an email. It’s fmulder, right?” 

“It was,” Mulder replied.

“It didn’t bounce back. Let me check the directory.” Reyes turned back to her computer, while Mulder typed in the new username. This time it worked, he was in. He started up Outlook, and waited for the emails to load. 

Scully had gone back to her rummaging (he wondered what she was looking for). He was half watching her, half looking at Outlook, when Reyes spoke again. “Um, Agent Mulder? I think you have a problem.” 

For a moment he thought she was talking about his staring at Scully, but then he saw she was still looking at her computer. 

“What is it?” Scully asked, walking over to Reyes.

“There’s two Fox Mulders.” 

Mulder joined them. Sure enough, in the directory, there was him, with his picture from 1986 and fmulder email, and then him again, with the picture he took this morning, and his new fwmulder email. 

Scully looked up at him, smirking. “What do you think? Doppelgangers? Alien Bounty Hunters?”

Doggett spun around in his chair. “Well, whichever Mulder you are, I think we have a case.”

-----

Doggett and Reyes had left for New Jersey several hours ago, leaving Scully and Mulder (who was still doing trainings) behind. They had asked Mulder if he wanted to come along, but he’d declined. Scully wasn’t surprised. A man had shot himself in the head – it didn’t seem like an X-File.

“Six down, two to go, Scully,” Mulder said, making a show of closing the window on his computer. 

She gave him a fake smile and a thumbs up. He’d been announcing stuff like this ever since Doggett and Reyes left. 

He seemed more himself once they were gone. She understood that Mulder was protective of their space, but at some point he was going to have to accept that the X-Files wasn’t just them anymore. Scully viewed the inclusion of Reyes and Doggett as a good thing, particularly with the baby on the way. She didn’t know how else she and Mulder could keep the X-Files open. 

“Hey Scully,” Mulder called to her, already clicking through his next training. “Did you know that the videos that aren’t mine that used to be here is a type of sexual harassment?”

She looked up. “Yes. You didn’t?” 

He shook his head. 

Scully was surprised. “You actually thought it was appropriate that they were here?”

“Well, no, I guess not. I never thought about it.”

Scully sighed. For an intelligent man, he was oblivious sometimes. 

“Did you feel harassed?” Mulder asked, seeming genuinely concerned. 

Scully considered his question. At the time, eight years ago, she hadn’t felt harassed by the porn. She had thought of it more as a concession to being in a male dominated field. She had been much more bothered when her co-workers tried to touch her or called her ‘honey’ and ‘sweetheart.’ Or the hundreds of ways they excluded or belittled her. A little porn had been low on her list of grievances. 

But that didn’t mean that she had been totally comfortable with its presence. 

She tried to distill her complex thoughts. “I thought it was unprofessional, but I wasn’t offended.”

Mulder, looking appeased, turned back to his computer. “Actually,” he said, scrolling, “we do a lot of the things on this list.”

“It’s only harassment if it’s unwelcome.” 

He playfully leered at her. “Oh, so you welcome my,” he turned back to the computer, “aggressively asking you out on dates?”

She rolled her eyes. “Mulder, you’ve never asked me out on a date, aggressively or not.”

He stood, and came over to where she was sitting. He leaned down, invading her personal space. “Well, maybe I thought you’d think it was harassing…”

“Why don’t you try and find out?”

Her lips were on his before he could respond. Though it was wildly inappropriate for them to be making out at work, Scully figured some light fooling around couldn’t hurt anything. Mulder had just started kissing her neck when they were interrupted by the phone. 

“Scully, I’m pretty sure that was sexual harassment, but I’m not sure who was harassing whom,” he said, as he returned to his desk to answer the phone. “Mulder.” He paused, then said, “Hold on, I’m going to put you on speaker.” Mulder pushed a button, hung up the phone, and said, “Ok, go ahead.”

Doggett’s voice came through the phone. “Like I was saying, this body is pretty weird. The ME can’t make heads or tails of how a man was shot in the head but there isn’t any sign of a firearm being used.”

Scully stood, and joined Mulder. “You mean there isn’t any powder residue?”

“Not just that,” Doggett replied. “There’s an entry wound, but no exit. Yet the ME couldn’t find a bullet.”

Scully exchanged a look with Mulder. “That is odd.”

“That’s what we were thinking. Look I don’t know if you can, but getting your insight on this one would be a real benefit, Agent Scully.”

“Can you send the body here?” Mulder asked.

“It probably won’t get here before I go out on leave,” Scully cut in before Doggett could reply. “It’s only a four hour drive to New Jersey. We can leave after my doctor’s appointment this afternoon.”

“We’d really appreciate it,” Doggett said. 

Mulder shrugged. “If you think you can make the trip.”

Scully nodded and after making arrangements with Doggett, Mulder hung up the phone.

“This reminds me of that man from Nevada–”

“Crump,” Mulder interrupted. “Mr. Crump. Do you think the military is testing those radio waves again?”

Scully shrugged. It was possible. Though if they were, she hoped it ended better than last time.

Keep reading on AO3

[gren-arlio]

Folks, one and all, Welcome to Episode 4 of (Waku) Puyo Extras, along with some fairly big announcements again.

(There's no real context for these images. They're basically title cards and the table of contents.)

Hello everyone, and welcome to the fourth installment of Waku Puyo Extras, the filler series before I start Arle's route where I post things about this game, what I can find, and maybe even another game sometimes if I really feel like it. The more lore, the better, eh? After getting verified into the English Puyo Puyo Community Discord, I've been speaking there while doing this sort of stuff.

I'll start off with a quick announcement, a time change, if you will.

Yes. I will translate Arle's route. WHEN though is a bit...in the air. I know I said in a week or so, but... School is starting soon, and obviously, I won't be having as much time as I usually do making this stuff, so I decided ahead of time to prepare.

It's basically certain that I won't be posting every week. Maybe sometimes, but there might be a post every 2 weeks, or longer if needed. School and home life is more important after all. Even in a rare case of me not posting for a while, I'll still be quietly working. In that scenario, I'll again mostly, if only, post on weekends. I don't want this stressing me out, after all.

There's a chance I may be taking a hiatus during that time. Even I need breaks sometimes, and I also want to make time for my friends, family, and my education.

Basically, expect my schedule to be fucked up from now on. Hope you'll understand. I'll try to keep a schedule though.

So with this, what're we covering today? Simple, really.

A new video. About the latter half since I've done the first half on Episode 1 of Extras.

This really won't be factual stuff, but me talking about Lagnus as a whole. (Madou Saturn, Puyo Chronicles, etc) Consider the 2nd parts of these to be...random trivia, games, etc. Spices things up. The manga section will be for next time...didn't have enough time.

With that, let's talk about what'll happen today.

Whole new video.

Thing is about this video, I did...half of it already. It's the first Extra episode actually, the one where Witch sees Schezo and blasts him and me with the ♡'s. The latter half is with the OTHER 2 protags, which is the part I'm properly translating.

(Also the song for the Battle Castle is actually alluding me to an annoying degree, I'm still trying to find the song.)

Timestamps:

Satan 1 (Rulue): (22:13)

Battle Castle Explanation (Rulue): (22:44)

Succubus Boss 1 (Rulue): (23:12)

Witch Trade (Rulue): 25:25)

Satan 2 (Arle): (26:03)

Battle Castle Explanation 2 (Arle): (26:32)

Succubus Boss 2 (Arle): (27:05)

Witch Trade 2 (30:15)

God, Witch acting normal is gonna be so uncanny to me now after like 6 months of working on Schezo Story. I'm used to her being a menace to society.

With that little remark, hope you enjoy.

Satan 1 (Rulue): (22:13)

Rulue:

What the!?

Minotauros:

Umo!? (God I still do not like this bozo)

Satan:

Well...there's the last tower.

Rulue:

Oh, Satan!? (Here I believe she says the one honorific with someone who's highly respected/they like. San? Kun? Don't fully know.)

Satan:

The magical item is in that tower.

Rulue:

Is that so?

Satan:

W-well, I think so...

Rulue:

...?

Satan:

No, hahaha...it must be in there! (Can also be interpreted as "Must've been the wind!")

Rulue:

If I can get my hands on that magical item, I'll finally be able to have magical powers...

Minotauros:

Master Rulue?

Rulue:

Darling Satan... ♡♡ (And thus, they return...)

I'll certainly come back with the magic item!

Satan:

Oh, you're motivated. Keep it up, and do your best.

Rulue:

Yes, Satan. ♡ (again an honorific here. I think San?)

Minotauros:

...

------

Battle Castle Explanation (Rulue): (22:44)

Succubus:

Welcome. Nice to meet you in such a place.

Rulue:

Oh...who are you? Are you the boss of this place?

Succubus:

I'm a Succubus. I guess I'm the boss of this place here.

I'm not trying to lure in people...I'm an usher.

Rulue:

Well...let me ask you this, what is this place?

Succubus:

Huh? You haven't heard? Eh, I'll explain.

This is a special attraction where many of the bosses you've fought wait.

The guys there are at least level 50, and at their very best, well over level 100.

If you're good, you'll make it halfway through, but if you're not confident, don't go.

Rulue

Heh...do you really think that'll stop me?

Succubus:

If you want to go in, be my guest. Do as you please. ♡ (With Succubus it feels much more normal because...she's a Succubus.)

Rulue:

(Who is this woman...?)

------

Succubus Boss 1 (Rulue): (23:12)

Rulue:

Oh? You're here this time?

Succubus:

Fufufu...♡ Yes, I'm surprised you made it this far.

Rulue:

Heh? Who do you think I am? It was easy.

Succubus:

Heh~ I really don't care... (Man she's different compared to her talks to Schezo.)

Rulue:

You don't care? What is there not to care for!?

Succubus:

Your face, your voice, the way you talk, everything!

Rulue:

Oh, now you've done it!

Now that you've said all that, you ready for this? It's far too late to apologize...

Succubus:

Hm...you seem rather ready.

Rulue:

Oh, you're unforgivable!

[Putting these here, I've translated Succubus loss quote too many times for my own good, and when Rulue gets to the chest at 22:10, it says Rulue got a book.]

-----

Witch Trade 1 (Rulue): (25:25)

Rulue:

Oh my goodness! All of that hassle for a book. (She can also say my god.)

And I got no clue how to use it! (...By reading it, genius. Granted it's Meteor but still.)

Minotauros:

Master Rulue...

Rulue:

Ugh! What do I do with this junk!?

Witch:

Hey!!

Rulue:

What do you want!?

Witch:

It's outrageous that you would try to destroy my grimoire!

Rulue:

"Your Grimoire," you must be joking! It's mine.

Witch:

What're you talking about? Aren't you unable to use magic? (Harsh, but true.)

It's like giving a pearl to a pig, so give it to me! (The Pearl to a Pig thing is something I'm a lil unsure about but yea.)

Rulue:

What the hell!

(Either way she gives it.)

Witch:

...Finally, I got my hands on the "Meteor Grimoire" I've been searching for.

...yes, in return, I'll give you the "Ultimate Queen's Secret Manual".

Rulue:

Huh...

Witch:

Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go.

Rulue:

I see. Even with that special manual, that girl wouldn't be able to use it.

That's her "Pearl's to Pigs".

Minotauros:

Good for you, Master Rulue.

------

Satan 2 (Arle): (26:03)

Arle:

W-what!?

Carbuncle:

Guu!?

Satan:

Oh...that's the final tower.

Arle:

Eh!?

Satan:

There's a great magical item in that tower.

Arle:

What? I thought you didn't know about any item.

Satan:

What's so funny? I was upset at the time...

Arle:

...This place is weird. You sure you're the owner?

Satan:

I'm for sure the owner of "Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Land."

Arle:

Then why...

Satan:

Well, I've been busy with a lot of things.

A person like me can't check every single attraction.

Arle:

You...I guess you really don't know anything about this, do you?

Satan:

N-no, that's...

Arle:

Guess I have no choice...Let's go, Carbuncle!

Carbuncle;

Guu!

-----

Battle Castle Explanation 2 (Arle): (26:32)

Arle:

Huh? What's a castle doing here... seems like a new attraction.

Let's go for now, shall we?

Carbuncle:

Gugu!

Succbus:

Welcome. Pleasure to meet you.

Arle:

Hello...who are you anyways?

Succubus:

Im a Succubus. (Hm...haha...) [I wasn't able to find the parentheses text out. Sorry.]

I'm not here to lure you in... I'm an usher.

Arle:

Hm...my goodness...

Succubus:

Why don't you go into this place without sounding so harsh?

Arle:

Well? Can I enter?

Succubus:

Yes, you can. ♡

Arle:

So, is this a new attraction?

Succubus:

Huh? You haven't heard? Well, let me make this easy for you.

[She then explains the same thing she told Rulue.]

Arle:

What? I didn't know enemies could get that strong...

-----

Succubus Boss 2 (Arle) (27:05)

Arle:

I met you outside...

Succubus:

Fufufu...well, we're finally here...

Arle:

Err...

If we're talking now, by any chance, are you the boss here?

Succubus:

Well, you're right, I am the boss here.

But don't talk to me like I'm just a boss, talk to me like I'm a queen.

Arle:

Queen?

(Her and Rulue share a lot in common...)

Succubus:

Did you say something?

Arle:

Uhh, it's nothing...

Succubus:

Then I'll make you my special servant.

You should be honored, I usually only take very good looking men. (THAT explains Schezo's Route...)

Arle:

A servant!? I don't want that!

Succubus:

Oh...you're a funny girl. You're missing out on a lot.

Arle:

Are you...is your head okay? I think you need to see a doctor...

Succubus:

Shut up!

I think people with your attitude need to be taught a lesson...prepare yourself!

Arle:

Ugh, what a mess!

[Once again at 30:05 it says "Arle got a book."]

-----

Witch Trade 2 (Arle): (30:15)

Arle:

That was fun, Carby!

Carbuncle;

Guu!

Arle;

...But I don't understand what this grimoire is for.

Witch:

Hey!

Arle:

Ah! Don't just appear like that randomly!

Witch:

Oh, sorry about that. (WITCH? The horrors beyond my comprehension? Apologizing? I'm too used to Schezo's Route...)

But I'd like to ask, may I have that grimoire that you have right now?

Arle:

W-Well...

(They give it.)

Witch:

Finally...I got my hands on the "Meteor Grimoire" I've been looking for.

...Yes, in return, I'll give you the "Jugem's Grimoire." (Idk what Jugem means...Probably just call it the Great Mage Grimoire.)

Arle:

Huh...

Witch:

Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go.

Arle:

I'll do my best to use "The Jugem Grimoire"!

Carbuncle:

Gugu!

------

And that's translations. I won't deny, I delayed them a good bit, but they're done. Expect Part 1 of Arle's Route within'...maybe a week or two depending on how long the first episode is. Might split it in half like Schezo's.

And with that...We're on Random Puyo Extras. Filler INSIDE of filler where I speak about a Random Puyo thing very unprofessionally.

Today, it'll be on Lagnus/Ragnus Bishasi.

So, my boy Lagnus. Top 3 character in Puyo/Madou IMO, and I'm just kinda here to talk about the man, and how different he is COMPILE vs SEGA Era Puyo, least personality wise. And since I don't want this to JUST walls of text...I'll throw in a few images.

Let's start with SEGA Era, shall we?

Let's begin with Puyo Sun, his first introduction.

(Concept art of Lagnus, along the Puyo Sun cast as a whole.)

In Sun, he's portrayed as a bit of a fool. He's trying to become stronger and all that, which power to him, powerscaling in Puyo seems mad fun, and you see him in Arle's route first killing a Puyo to transform into his teenage self. He then challenges Arle...only for his pants to fall down. This is why we wear belts.

You then see him in Schezo's route next, fresh off his loss against Arle. He notices Schezo is a Dark Mage, and rushes in to attack, only to fall down when Schezo dodges, reverting back to a kid, before throwing a temper tantrum...Not the best showcasing of the man. However, in the novels, it IS said that he only turns into a kid due to Satan being a bit of a jerk.

Minna De Puyo Puyo has a similar beat with SUN Lagnus. Here, he offers to help out Arle out with her journey, but unfortunately, guy is still a kid, so Arle assumes he's joking. Guy can't catch a break.

Oh. But Chronicles got you covered, right?

No. It doesn't.

He appears in Purplune Aqueduct, basically gaslighting himself into thinking he's The Great Hero, when it's Arle...and he's stupid pissy about it. He challenges Arle, loses, and runs into the final dungeon alone. Arle sees him again, is still annoyed with him, and beats him again, before joining your team.

I genuinely don't like how he's portrayed here at all, probably my least favorite version of him ever.

But COMPILE got you covered. For real this time.

(Concept Art of Lagnus and art showing the major characters...and Witch/Draco.)

In Madou Saturn, he's basically the 3rd protagonist of the game, next to Arle and Rulue. You start off the game playing as the man, who's kinda cracked, before he uses all of his power to slay Yoggus, the main antagonist, before he realizes that a portal opened up and that the Yogs (Main villain group) are in other dimensions, before the portal sucks him in. Thankfully, Satan saves the guy and traps him in a crystal to prevent the man from dying.

However, not all was lost. He's able to transfer his soul into Schezo's body, and be able to control it for a small period of time, though he does get removed due to the large amount of darkness in Schezo. It's the reason why Arle and Rulue were so confused when Schezo decided to help them sometimes. He even fights Satan with you in Schezo's body.

When Arle finally meets the guy fairly late into the game, he's turned to a child due to his curse, before telling Schezo that he had to keep controlling him for his own good, annoying Schezo. He starts to tell Arle and Co. about what went down in his world.

(This happens after, but it's always fun to throw in.)

After tons of trials and tribulations, they finally reach Yoggus, and...win the first time around, and Lagnus gets his Reactor Blade back, turning him back into his teenage self, and he fights Yoggus as his full power with Arle and Rulue, and slay Yoggus.

As the place they fought in begins to collapse, Arle and Rulue run off, and Lagnus and Satan...stay behind. Least for a bit with Satan. At that moment, Arle wonders where Lagnus is, and Satan breaks the news: He went back to his own world.

However, what went on was slightly different. Lagnus decides to stay in the collapsing area, saying he'll go back home, as he thinks he was one of the main causes for the problem, and risks being sent to another dimension just for a chance to get home. Satan says otherwise though, as not only did he remove the curse, but indeed was helping Lagnus, pulling things behind the scenes, like deliberately putting important things in obvious spaces.

Satan did this...mostly because we wanted to show the people of his world a reason to defend it. That and he was bored. After that, he gives Lagnus the Azorecrack, a pendant that allows him to transfer between his and Arle's world, saying he was intentionally hiding it. Lagnus, quietly cursing Satan, thanks him, and says he'll be back another day.

With the plot synopsis of SATURN for Lagnus, it shows that not only is he fairly smart and has a strong sense of justice, but he's pragmatic to boot, never going too far with everything, besides the start of the game. He develops a good friendship with Arle and even Rulue, and Schezo kinda hates the guy. He even develops a small acquaintanceship with Satan, thanking him for a lot but also cursing him for not stopping everything. In a game like Saturn, where a lot of characters are hit or miss, Lagnus stands out as probably the best written one out there...until Chronicles kinda messed him up badly.

With this little image, I think I did the man a tad bit of justice.

That'll be all. Thanks for reading.

[tippenfunkaport]

WIPs Status Update

I am fairly confident no one cares what I am up to, but I haven't done one of these in ages so I figured I should.

In Progress Fanfic

Outlaws of the Whispering Woods

This fic is on temporary hiatus because I'm working on finishing it as part of the @wipbigbang. Participation in that event means I can't update that fic again until the posting period starts on September 8th BUT that once that posting period begins, I should have both art for the new chapter as well as regular updates through November until the fic is done which should be exciting. 

That said, there is still like 60k ish to go in that story so if it looks like I'm not going to be able to get it all done in time, I might swap it out for the Chipped Glimmer fic which has also been languishing in WIP hell because it's shorter and easier for me to get done on time. I'd prefer to use the event as a kick in the pants to finish OotWW, though, so we'll see.

Prince Glowyn the Fourth

This fic is 100% complete at last, I just have one chapter left to post and will be doing that sometime within the next week.

Going There

Just about four years after I started it, Going There is finally done as well! (Literally just finished it today!) "Done" in this case means I finally rewrote the back end and filled in the missing connecty bits I never wrote the first time so everything's written, it's just going to take me an unknown quantity of time to edit and post each of the chapters. But less time than rewriting it all took so I expect those last few updates to come fairly regularly once I get them started.

Coming Home

I have always said that I wanted to wait to continue this fic until Going There was done so now that I have finally finished it, the sequel can get my attention more regularly again. That said, with everything going on with the WIP Bang, posting the rest of Going There, running the Big Bang and posting my own Bang fic (plus, like, all the other IRL stuff i have to do this summer), I really don't anticipate getting it updated anytime before the fall at the earliest and even then who knows.

Also, because this is my last in-progress canon fic I'm not in a huge rush to get it out there, I'd rather take my time with it, so I'm fine with that timeline. It'll get updated when it gets updated.

Area First Ones

In my head, this is episodic and while i have five chapters written, I have some things I want to add in between so it's not as simple as just cleaning and posting those. So basically, this one will be one of those fics I update when I update here and there with no set timeline other than my whims.

Coming Soon!

My Big Bang fic is called Horse Girl Everyone and it's the long awaited Riding School AU! 

That one is going to be longgggg and basically never-ending and episodic (seriously, we're over 50k words and while Catradora have been circling each other for chapters Glimmer and Bow literally only just met and you KNOW how I feel about Glimbow). I was hoping to write enough in advance that I could do some kind of regular update schedule at the start but because I'm also running the Bang and having some annoying medical stuff going on, I think that's not happening.

I've written a ton in advance, don't get me wrong, I just don't see myself having time to revise it all and post weekly with everything else going on. But we'll see!

Anything else?

Well, yeah, lots of stuff but it's not fandom related so I can't tell you about it. ;-) Though maaaaybe I might have the chance for some of you to help me beta some of my original stuff in the near future if you're willing so keep an eye out for that.

I'm trying to have less things in progress at once so, though I have other fanfic projects in various states of completion, I'm purposely not going to even think about posting any other multi-chaps until GT and OotWW are done. 

One shots and shorts? Yeah, I'll be throwing those up randomly as the mood strikes, you know how I roll. I'm eyeing up the Domaystic 2024 prompts to see which ones call to me right now.

So I have other stuff planned for later but I'm not even going to tease it because we'll see how everything shakes out.

This year has actually been absolutely horrible health wise but weirdly productive writing wise so it's been a mixed bag but at least nice to get some stuff done!

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 5- Part 5

Well, while I don’t think Xera will be using Kricketot right away, it’ll still be good to have in case we need extra Bug-types in the future.

She has been named “Viola”- you know, the musical instrument.

Gym? You have a Gym? Gym Leader?? Bug-type Gym Leader??

Hey wait get back here, you can’t just drop that you’re a Gym Leader and then leave without elaborating! And besides, neither Xera nor this other lady gave you their names, does that really count as meeting them in that case?

Oh, mark my words, Xera will…eventually.

Alright, well- with that event done, let’s hear what the child has to say, then we’ll get going.

Well, that’s one way to hammer in the idea of “stranger danger.” And after wandering around in the rain all last chapter, I don’t think Xera’s changing that kid’s perception any time soon.

Now, we keep going east, and…

That…just looks like an entirely new area. Yeah, I looked at the map, and it looks like this path just leads back to somewhere in Opal Ward- so, not where we need to go.

But I’ve looked around everywhere else in Peridot Ward, didn’t I? And there’s still no way up to that upper area- did I just miss something? That area looks like it’s still in Peridot Ward, so?? Hello??

HOW DO I GET UP TO YOU PEOPLE!?

Maybe I really did just miss something somewhere- I’ll look around a bit more. Maybe it really is somewhere in Opal Ward?

No, didn’t find anything except for this.

Ah man, I’m gonna have to grind on wild Pokémon, aren’t I? Can I at least train on Pokémon from the dumpsters? Gullet was semi-high-leveled at the time, so??

No dumpster Pokémon either, but I found that instead.

Okay, well- no more Trainers to fight, then. So that means it’s time to battle some wild Pokémon instead. I admit- while I’ve been trying to go through this game as blind as possible, I did decide here to look up something. Namely, I looked up the wild Pokémon encounter areas in Peridot Ward and Lower Peridot Ward to find where the highest-leveled Pokémon could be found, sue me.

And from my brief research, it seems like the best places to train will first be by Headbutting the tree in Seacrest’s Garden (which we can do, Streak knows Headbutt), then by fishing in the indoor pool with the Old Rod.

Well, no use putting it off anymore. Time for some level grinding! Oh, these poor wild Pokémon…

One VERY long grinding session later…

Anyways, after almost two hours of wiping out Reborn’s Swablu population and finishing with a nice fish dinner, the team looks like this:

And I know it was almost two hours, because I had these two episodes of Saltydkdan’s Season 3 Friendlocke playing in the background, and they both played all the way through by the time I was done grinding!

All that time aside…it’s time, folks. We leave the Pokémon Center, and we go west to-

To…find that scared Teddiursa again, apparently. I guess it also doesn’t come out during the Rain?

But just in case this is the time we can catch the Teddiursa, I did go and buy one (1) Poké Ball.

And it didn’t even matter because we still can’t catch it…for some reason! Well, alright then.

So now we keep going west to-

…To…see Teddiursa again. Alright, maybe fourth time’s the charm?

No it is not! Yet again- how am I supposed to catch it?? Does Xera need to encounter it five times before she’s allowed to catch it?

But in coming up here, I noticed that there’s a house up there that I didn’t go into before. So, let’s fix that before going back to Fern, shall we?

And get ourselves another free Potion! Yeah!

A Protein, huh? Not sure when or if I’ll be using these stat-boosting items, but like- good to have I guess?

But more importantly…

I think it’s time we showed Fern what Xera and her team can really do, shall we?

Previous

Next

[crystalelemental]

“books-are-my-life-stuff: I haven't even read Alola VA part 2! But it's hard to bring myself to read it. Hoenn VA gave Zinnia an important role and established her dynamic with Steven post Delta Episode, so that's at least good. Unova I think is still kinda cool too for focusing on Hugh and N's friendship. But I agree, I feel like Johto VA is the last objectively good VA story-wise. The rest of the VAs are either good to okay to "don't care", at least for me.

Unova was the last VA that I read immediately after release, starting from Kalos I just don't care. Maybe because of my general indifference towards the region, but even when I do read it, it doesn't do much to make me like it. I'll give Alola VA a credit for making Hau got his moments and approval from his grandpa, but other than that...yeah, I'm finding difficulties in bringing myself to read it.”

I think in my case, the issue is the later we go, the most the antagonists skew to lost potential rather than good or bad.  Like, Maxie and Archie I can look at and just go, these two are morons, do not take anything seriously.  Cyrus and Ghetsis I can look at and go these were really cool I hope they keep that up.  And they can, because they just continue to do what they’ve been doing, kinda.  Cyrus is toned down and Ghetsis basically defanged once everyone knows his deal, but they’re still something.  But as soon as you hit Lysandre, it’s suddenly man, I hope they do something different.  But they can’t.  They’re constrained by what the series is going to push.  And for Lusamine, that’s extremely devastating, because USUM Lusamine does not do it for me in her current iteration where they refuse to let her be interesting as a former antagonist.  So I can even say I know what I truly expected here, because what would’ve satisfied me was impossible, and it’s kinda the same for Rose, who I cannot image being adjusted to actually matter and have an interesting view.  So I’m kinda just over the VA and ready for the next thing, which hopefully will happen shortly after fourth anniversary.  Galar should be set for August just before. 

“I did say that Alola characters are great as a group, but not great individually, and this problem really shows, especially now that only some of them got alts and are separated from their group that they usually hang out with, they have to do something individually, and it...doesn't do much. I tried, but I can't. At least Hau is still great because he's one of the rivals, but the trial captains aren't.”

Yeah, I can’t even say they did anything as a group in the main games that hooked me, so seeing them here on their own hasn’t exactly been that exciting.  Like, at one point, I did kinda like Acerola as like the weird ghost girl.  And I find myself actively losing interest in her when she’s not like...playing off Nanu.  She’s a lot more bland without that dynamic.

“I doubt this will change even after I read part 2 of Alola VA, but my VA rankings so far: Johto > Kanto >> Unova > Hoenn >> Kalos > Sinnoh >> Alola.  I'm not holding out hope for Galar. Better keep my expectation on the ground or I'll be disappointed.”

I think for me, it’s probably Johto, Kanto, Kalos, Unova, Sinnoh, Hoenn, Alola.  Kalos ranks high because they let Lysandre ice those dudes.  Unova is fine but doesn’t really captivate me, and had what I consider the worst spread of new alts.  Sinnoh outranks Hoenn and Alola for me, because Hoenn and Alola were the most nothing events.  Borderline nothing was accomplished.  I’ll put Hoenn above Alola because it had some stuff with Zinnia and Steven’s dynamic, and because of how bad Alola was, but I think the real issue is I specifically should not be putting Kanto anywhere near the top.  But so long as Giovanni is the focus for the whole region, it gets to be good, because the story is focused.  It knows what it’s doing and it gets it done, because there’s nothing extraneous they’re trying to tie in, like other non-Kanto characters.  And that really sucks, because it’s just self-fulfilling prophecy at that point.  Oh, everyone likes Giovanni so much now?  Probably because he’s the only antagonist you let goddamned do anything.  If literally anyone else actually got spotlight to be the villain, he’d lose, because Giovanni is inherently boring an uninteresting, being just some mob boss guy interested in power and money compared to the absolute lunatics in the rest of the teams.

[loreweaver-universe]

And that’s the episode.

Well!  Now Amity’s got something to ask Willow about, doesn’t she.  She’d already seen Willow’s power before--back when she unleashed green hell all over the school--but she may not have properly processed that, and she DEFINITELY wasn’t expecting a mere human to be able to take part in a magic ritual like that, even if she was able to draw little fiddly spells on paper.  I wonder what’s going to come of that; it’s got to be burning her up inside, and I REALLY want to see that confrontation.

That’ll be it for tonight, sorry.  I’m sick and tired and anxious and I just want to relax and go to bed now that I know I’ll at least have my rent paid.  I’ve got an appointment with my doctor on the fourth; during that I’m going to ask them to set me up with a therapist to help me work through my blogging-related anxiety.  I’m also going to try to do short liveblogs in the early afternoon a couple times per week, see if taking it in more bite-sized chunks will help me work through the backlog more easily.

In the meantime, thank you all for tuning in, and thank you to my 48 patrons, who help me make it month to month!  I’ll see you all again soon!

IN OTHER NEWS:

I have an ongoing blind playthrough of Final Fantasy XIV that I’ve been streaming on Twitch!  If you’d like to tune in when I’m live, I stream it every Saturday at 1 PM EST, and I upload my stream VODs to my Youtube channel!  If you’d like to see that playlist, click here!

I recently completed my blind playthrough of Stray!  You can see the full playlist of those streams by clicking here!

I recently completed my blind playthrough of Soul Hackers 2!  You can see the full playlist of those streams by clicking here!

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You should also go pledge to Gio’s Patreon, or his Sponsus–our Discord server maintenance tech and creator of Rubybot deserves far more than I can afford to pledge to him by myself.

If you’d like more of me and my content:

My Episode Lists master page, where you can find every show and liveblog I’ve done!

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It’s your kindness and support that lets me do this stuff, and I wouldn’t be where I am without all of you to do it for.  Thank you all so much for your support, and for tuning in every episode!

OTHER PEOPLE YOU MAY ENJOY:

I may have been one of the earlier Steven Universe liveblogs, but a whole community of livebloggers has sprung up over the last six years!   I linked to a bunch individually for a few wrap-ups, but honestly, this end-slate is already eight billion miles long, so I’m just gonna link to my links page.  Click here if you want recommendations of other livebloggers, or other neat people, or webcomics and podcasts that I recommend.

[allwaysnighthere]

Devaluation and invalidation.

I cried myself to sleep last night and will probably do it again. I rescheduled my therapy appointment to next week. I am hopeful that this episode or phase will pass. Eventually, I can look back on it and figure out what triggered it. For now, I'm sitting here wanting to throw up.

I have a meeting in 15 minutes in which I will put on a charade to pretend that nothing is bothering me, my work has gone fabulously this week, and I am so strong. I'm all business. Truth be told, I am passionate about my career choice and it provides some relief. Still, there's an emptiness as I think about what it would mean to cocoon myself in work and school. It's easier to think and discuss a concept that isn't anchored in emotions and trying to figure out what someone else is trying to convey in roundabout ways so it's left up to interpretation.

I saw it. I read it. It's wrong and it's been wrong. I'm not surprised. As many times as I maneuvered myself into being an enabler under the belief that I was doing to the right thing to be supportive rather than be on the brunt of the anger, it only makes sense that I'd get to play the part of the fool again by joining the incinerator with the others. There are too many times to count that I let something slide despite knowing it was a lie and that it hurt me, but if I were to bring that up now that then reinforces the fact that I am a villain. That's where this almost always ends up. They're never going to admit to any wrongdoing, not when doing so is far more difficult than finding any reason to justify whatever was said or done. It's all or nothing.

Lately, it's as if everything I do is wrong. I'm supposed to know the ins and outs of all things, no matter the subject. What the fuck is wrong with you? Why is it that you can't get it right the first time? We know it, why don't you? Why can't you act, say, and do the things we expect from you? How dare you have any reaction to what you're told?

All I can focus on is my heart breaking. I grieve every day for so much of what could have been. If I've always meant so little to others, why did they bother with me at all? Why am I so inept at recognizing who doesn't care an iota about what happens to me or only cares to see that I take all responsibility for everything that goes wrong? I'm kept in the dark and fed shit, and then when I don't do exactly what someone wants me to do or I dare share my feelings/thoughts, I get the axe. Other people are worthy of redemption, grace, and honesty. Not me. And I'm so fucking stupid that I give out second, third, and fourth chances because I want so badly to believe that there is humanity in other people.

I cannot share my feelings with anyone else in my life anymore unless it's my therapist. What I've learned recently is that nobody truly gives a fuck about mental health and they will leave as soon as you mention any word of fighting a war in yourself. You're damaged goods. Who wants anything to do with garbage? Even when I was at my lowest and I put the gun in my mouth, I was still lower than dirt to them, all because I should have known from the start how to handle everything perfectly. I should have known it was time to lock up a box of memories of being repeatedly beaten, raped, and torn down, of not being wanted by my own dad, and being ostracized by my peers because I wasn't normal and I never fit in. There was never any justice. Why didn't the jury just say it outright that everything that happened to me was justified? I have tried so hard to be what everyone else has wanted me to be and I'm still rejected. They know. They will always know.

I have never felt more alone in my life than I do right now. All I've ever wanted was to be loved and valued and listened to instead of being so easily discarded, like I don't have any right to feel anything or be my own person. It will never be enough for me and never enough for anyone else.

[solardick]

Card И. The next step is equaleving it to the & card. As it stands for the same letter. As and. The addition.

And it looks like they captured the last episode and externalized it as someone else. Stilled smoked half a pack though. Because i’m a dumbass but, that’ll never change. And that also showed that am i not alone in the way i react to. BS. Though on a small scale for my level of experience to causes.

Though i also found it curious about the И card image i used resembles the letter & to a high degree. No? I think so.

Naw, starting to not like russia. Chechen and the letter X. Becomes a general. In his prime. Good bye child, good graces to you.

My advancements on the tarot have been, suppressed by something else. Lately.

Kind of just want the calm before the storm. Its a quiet. Sombering. Well, heres the outcome of all those years conditioning. Disease.

Thats where ive been, grew out from it.

Oh, wise one i bow. The special forces are an A. Though, there’s this queer moment. For the letter V of an image of a feminine body gracing the subject with water. As strength is in truth. Read it from wiki. Must be true.

But as we explore and i’m given new information. One finds a window to the exclusive. And where that strings leads.

“The unit i, also known as imaginary number i, represents the value of the square root of -1 and part of the number system called imaginary numbers. An imaginary number is the value of the square root of a negative number. The numbers are not fake just simply have no place on the number line like real numbers.”

At any rate. Going yo resign from being a part of the health and safety comity. Can’t do it. Not if i have to come home and be alone. I can’t function. I’ll just drift from any responsibilities and not have a head in the game. And with Pluto moving in. Knowing i don’t own my own life. Just gonna fuck it all up anyway. As soon as i open that door. Its silence. Nothing else. No words. No sound. No movement. The same as its been all my life. Even when coming home to house full of assholes. Never been any communication at home. Bever will be.

As for the present time. I can sit there and game for 16 straight hours or sit behind my phone. And let words speak for themselves. It’s not like anyone has ever had anything to say to me anyway.

Fucken stupid fucken country abd stupid fuckrn healthcare systwm. Fuck you. Dont call me at work. I cant answer. Called bavk after work. No sound. A dead line. Well i tried. Leave the infection to fuck my insides. After 3:30 or on the weekend. Whem? Monda6 fucken morning. Thats ehen. Its bad enough. Im not even allowed to go t o a clinic.

Hello operator from anoyher country. That has a hard time soeaking my fucken language. Fuck you.

Maybe it’ll get so bad that i’ll have to go get surgery and waste a hundreb thousand dollars instead of a 20$ bottle or anti biotics instead. Sounds like aplan. Fuck i hate canada.

Ivr done a couple hours on duo-lingo. Think im qualified enough to get a job working for the russian helarhcare system behind a phone.

They are so fucken with me. Fourth call…. Hello do uou speak french. Not functionalyl enough to describe anything. Ok. Give me your number my colleage will get back to you. Its fun spendign an entire lifetime being fucked with. 39 tears and counting. They’re never going to stop.

Hello suicide. Welcome back. Whats up buddy. My longest known friend.

Cheers to tyranny. Theres more of it than not. Always was. Always will be. Well go to the hospital wait in the E.rmR for another 13 hours. For them to tell me to come back another day. Pray. I cant go through the proper channels.

Get me out of this horrorscope prison cell you’ve put me in.

I dont want to pay for health insurance anymore. All i get is the opposite. If i cant even get my rights fulfilled. Image trying to do a privilege.

Its like driving is a privilege. That i have to pay for even if i don’t drive.

Though i can smoke, cigs and pot, and game and watch tv buy alcohol. No problem. Its handled with curtesy and a smile. I even have a guy, that will give me methadetamines. For free! Wow. Not that i’ll do it willingly. Doesnt mean i havent been drugged with them. To make me unstable. Went to go get a cup of coffee. Recently. They put speed in it. I expect canada to make that legal soon too.

As for the health and safety comity, that i got roped in applying for. I declined it. Everytime i did that as a kid. People did it anyway. And i got shot in for it. So nope. Not with pluto moving in on it.

The world is designed for people wirh engeneered stress disorders. To get fucked by life. I do t look forward to the day wheb im completly dependant in the health care system. When im old. Holy fick.

Fifth call. From an unknown number. Hi, my colleage didnt soeak french yesterday. So we’re calling to be evil degenerate fuckers of humanity and rub in as much as we can. While tour supposed to be at work where you have zero reception. And cant take calls. Told her to suck to evil out of my ass.

Well since im goign to be waitingn here for anothe r ten hours. Go smoke some smokes. Study russain if the drowsiness doesnt go away.

Too bad the words for “bad language” or “abuse” is seemingly identical to “Mother”. Being мат and мать. I cant tell the difference. Being being explained that ь succeeding the previous letter combines them to a y sound. And yet. Listenign to audio recordings of both мат & мать. They sound the same.

These are what you’re looking for. The differnece for here at the moment is passive abuse versus active abuse. Is there a difference? There is. One gets away with it and the other doesnt. Because we’ll bred to be passive and receptive. The same go for the abuse. It wasnt eliminated just changed gender. It safer to abuse people with passivity than activity. They’re no consequemces involved.

Looking for things like this. When it comes to the power of symbols. And attached meaning. As for the russian to english equates abuse with the mother. Beign abused by “caretaker” “authorities”. Or abusing the mother. And not by the mother. And these cockskrs here fucken with me.

Im not allowed to have a non-abusive mothet. Or father. Or sibblings. Doesnt matter. Its all мат to me. But one continues on with the passivity until the other explodes or implodes. Or kills themsleves. Somehow. And vents out the frustration. And then you go active abuse. Beat them down for callign you out. Thats life.

Other than that. The A-fool should be feminine. And the E fool masculine. All life starts with the feminine. And the play on words. Like beauty vs booty. They sound similar. Amd yet not at all different. A booty is beauty. And eau brings it all back to the caressing of the mother and the lion. Other wise we have two male fools each besides the devil card and associations to carnality. Which works beautifully. Because. An upside down A. Represents inclusion. A one for all. But doesn’t add them. As a sum total. Because it’s all about the individual. At this point. Which is fitting also for eau is litterally to word for water in french. But we’ee trying to be ignorant like most of these other fuckers. And detach the tarot script from its perversion of its designed rape of mankind.

For example. This little girl is being repeatative about calling out for daddy, dah, dah! Da dah da da. I put my book down. Look her right in the eyes. Gave her the attention she was missing with a detached/attached sense of silence. And she quieted down completely. Little girls are like that with me. They reach out and call me daddy. The breeding ones. Do nothing about abuse me. And the older ones are usually super chill.

And i come back in and the guy that was beside me is gone and a woman took his place. Both of is chewing on jerky.

It’s interesting that the russian letters change their pronunciation as another letter when it comes to them being placed to hard and soft consonants or at the beginning of a word to the end of a word. D turns into k. V turns into F. This seems like a fun area to explore the use of imaginary/complex numbers and bridging them to the real. If i understand that right. Theres not much difference between the russian words for water and vodka. And vodka is supposedly pronounced as votka. Wheres as the D changes form to a T.

Hey look, my conscience is back and the fear of reprimand. But, you know what? Y’all right. I don’t need one.

The tragedy of the baltimore bridge collapse happened at the same time as health service canada called. While not being able to respond. Down in the water. People died. But only the construction workers minding they’te own bussiness. But save for there not beign andingle car on the bridge because authorities where given a warning. They just left six people on the bridge anyway? Yeah ok.

Checked my phone. That be 10 calls to or from the gap. With nothing. A dead line and bs.

Well thee goes three hundred dollar cause im not allowed to go to a clinic.

That was a waste of everyones time. Sorry wewont help you. Come nack when your dying.

Well time to go home and chain smoke.

Does it hurt? Sometimes. But since there aint any pain receptors there. You dont feel much at all. Do you have reason to beleive its an std? What?! Ive been single for twenty years. (She gave a suppressed gasp of astonishment)( i know im super sexy and all) women give me fuck me eyes all the time. If their not trying to fuck me over. If i habe an std its because someone purposfukly gave me one.

Sorry im going to touvhc your prostate. You may feel uncomfortable…… ok. Whatever. That’s my prostate? Feels like every other partof my ass. (Uncomforatble. And raw. And like its infected. Goes with the stages of the moon. Like an infection does) People say that feels good? Know what feels good. Taking a huge shit. After youve been holding in it all day. Am i right?!

Oh Ну, ar leat i learned soem russian grammar while waiting these last ten hours. Djould hav eyet to the pot store first. Now its closed. Maybe i’ll

Find a big roach in the ground. Well if all the children didnt get to them first.

It’ll go away on its own. Its been over a month. Yeah sometimes it takes longer. Ok then. Probably something i got drugged with.

An dnow its time to wait for my jailers to mentioned exactly what i told to nurse today. And then ill punch them in the nose as hard as i can. Still need to get my hunting permit for a quick painless way out.

Wahts it mean when you find a dead goffer before spring? That sunmer isnt gonna come at all? Can. You imagine everyday being fall? Wakenup in the morning put on a winter coat fo home in the evening wearing shorts and a wife beater. There

hasnt been a winter. This year. Its perma fall.

Well its 1 am. Got to get ul in four hours. Guess im not going to work. All i can feel is the sicknessnin my ass. And even agter going to the hospital. I walk out. Not knowing any better than i did. Not having a diagnosis. And a cheap quicky look. I fucken hate life.

[greysbed]

When did mafia 4 come out

This looks like a nice little town perfect for me to resume operations. And maybe when I'm done I'll come back here. I was careless last time but now I know and soon he'll know. Then I'll track down that ranger and gun him down. Shouldn't matter I'll rest up find myself a new gun. The stranger reaches for his gun before remembering he lost it in the escape "That's right no gun. "He got lucky" he thinks to himself in anger "he won't be able to track me here." The stranger thinks back to how this happened replaying in his mind over and over how he narrowly escapes the sheriff with the big iron on his hip. The stranger looks ahead and sees the town "Looks like a mighty fine outpost to recuperate at" he thinks to himself staring down at a bloody wound in his side. The horse appears to be near death just looking at it you can tell this horse has been ridden hard over the last few days. Obviously it will be necessary to extract all this information with tweezers, while awaiting the potential formalization of Mafia 4 on the side of the Hangar 13.On a dusty road in the dead of night near the outskirts of town approaches a tall handsome stranger on a horse. The next Mafia will it come to pass as we expect? Only the future will tell us. This is largely a vicious circle where you have to do the same thing over and over. With a challenging gameplay in terms of contextualization, the title doesn’t try to make us believe we’re doing differently. Sal Marcano then did the irrevocable by killing Sammy Robinson and Ellis in their own bar, as well as Lincoln Clay, who was left dead. Our character is also accompanied by Sammy’s son, i.e., Ellis, but also by Thomas Burke and Giorgi Marcano, who successfully manage the heist, except that it’s clear that everything isn’t going as planned. The latter also has a debt problem with the Italian Mafia’s Don, Sal Marcano, and to erase it, he sends Lincoln Clay to carry out a heist. The character finds his adoptive family none other than the Black Mafia, run by a Sammy Robinson. Sa Mafia 3, we represent a Lincoln Clay who has just returned from the Vietnam War. Fans of the franchise often complain about always doing the same thing: interrogation, destruction, murder … Mafia Shootout 3. Unfortunately, the developers of Hangar 13 had a hard time achieving their goals Mafia 3. A new opportunity after the failure of Mafia 3 She pulled out into the street and the warm air blew our hair we drove past the colorfully painted Victorian storefronts of Briarville. The journalist also says that the next installment of Mafia will not be an open world, but something as linear as the first games of the franchise may be. The story should focus on Don Salieri, the head of the Salieri crime family where the main character Tommy Angelo works in the first episode. Hangar 13 will therefore take down the Mafia 3 engine, which was recently used for remasters of the original games. Mafia 4 (Whiking name) seems to have codenamed Nero and should run on Unreal Engine 5. The game is only in early development, according to the same report from Kotaku. Mafia.įans hoping to get their hands on the next stage of the franchise will fail. However, according to a recent report from Kotaku shared on May 5, 2022, Hangar 13 studios in Brighton, UK have spearheaded the development of an upcoming and new game. After the departure of studio head Haden Blackman and chief operating officer Matthew Urban, uncertainty reigned over the future of their projects. Recently there have been a lot of changes within Hangar 13 – the developer behind the franchise Mafia. He also announced that the fourth season of the game will focus on Don Salieri’s family. Speaking on the show, Nick said the next game could be set in Sicily. The next Mafia will he agree? Nick Spheshal, co-founder of Xbo圎ra, shared on a new rumor about the new game Mafia on the Xbo圎ra Podcast. Gameplay-wise, this one will focus on more linear storytelling, similar to the first two games in the franchise. The next game Mafia occur in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

Possibility Of Whats Going On With A24 Isn’t Rumors...

[Edit Of June 11, 2022: Just Skip This And Don't Read It At All, and Just Go Read the Post that says "Let's Stop The Drama And Misunderstanding (And About The Helluva Boss Fan Song I Wrote)" ]

--------------

I mean even if I did want to try to trust them before, but after the stuff I learned, I just hope someone replaces whoever is running A24.

earlier like I guess it’s been a few hours, I just wanted to just watch some videos first before I play one of my video games.

and I found a video that talked about certain topic, and well even if there are other problems that might not have to do with A24, it doesn’t mean they aren’t still part of the problem.

well it most likely the ones who are in charge.

hopefully there will be some form of karmic justice, and even if there should be some form of agreement between creators of a original show or movie, where A24 is NOT allowed to steal claim to the work, it is likely those who run that place, will not see reason....hopefully everything will get better soon and there be some form of justice...also some Toxic-Fans aren’t really helping, and hopefully they will learn this lesson soon and get Detoxified...

I really just wanted to take my mind off of it all, but I saw a video and I had to watch it....I wont say what video it was or the name of it...

but there were some comments that showed from some Toxic-Fans from some place, and I might be able to remember what they all wrote that showed in a video....but I know they were being jerks....

at least some Fans who might say that the wait is killing them, or wonder when the movie or show’s new episodes or seasons are going come out, can say that it will be worth the wait and they need to try to be patient.

also a Ad pop up, and I was just relaxing watching some other videos after seeing some video that did kind of burned me up, you know got me a little mad where it feels like your body gets all warm, but in a mad type way....

anyway the Ad that pop up, had been talk about Abortion, I thought I stop that type of Ad from popping up the last time...?!

and you know, even if I don’t agree with Abortions, at least those who do them aren’t heartless to do it when their baby is almost fully done and ready to be born.

or like when the baby is a few weeks along, I guess in that time the soul of the baby would of been fully bonded.

it’s gonna be one of those good and bad days, hopefully things will get better and those who have been hurt by Toxic-Fans and even the other stuff....

will be able to recover and take all the time they need to heal. 

I know that some fans can take it too far when complaining about the wait for a new episode or video game or even a movie....

but it takes time and a lot of energy, and Toxic-Fans who cross that line aren’t really helping, and it can be possibly annoying to many other Fans who support the creator of a series and their team.

 to hear the bad mouthing, and the name calling that isn’t really needed...

yes a person could feel frustrated in the long wait, and even say “it feels like it’s taking forever” but even say “it will be worth the wait.”

those who use to be Toxic-Fans and who are Detoxified Fans who are just called Fans now...

might fully understand how they acted wasn’t helping and was doing more harm than good.

hopefully there will be some episode in some show in the future that points that kind of things out, and when it does, the character who says it will look right at the fourth-wall right at the audience watching....

like the whole “calling you out” type of thing.

sometimes that does happen in some shows, and possibly some movies.

I hope what I’m talking about doesn’t get misinterpreted, and some really understand about my thoughts and feeling about all this.

like I said before, some misunderstandings can be okay and can be worked out, but sometimes there be some misunderstandings that can cross a line and end up with hurt feelings.

plus it is possible there is some other problems besides the whole Toxic-Fans and A24 thing, but what those problems are I’m not going to say...

what I can do is try to hope that everything does work out.

and there is some form of justice and those who have hurt someone past the breaking point, will not get away with it.

even if it is different, but I know how it feels to be pushed past the breaking point, and it isn’t great.

and I know there was a lot going on during that whole Hillary Clinton running for President, but I can tolerate Presidents, but it doesn’t mean I will fully trust them....so long as they don’t do anything evil or bad, it will be okay.

also there was some other stuff that went on too.

I know right now, I have even more reasons to not fully trust Presidents in Real Life, and one can only hope things get better and work out...

I think I will check out a few fans arts on here before I go back to my Xbox One.

also even if Youtube can be good, it does have it’s down side...

like when other Youtubes steal other Youtubes Original content, and don’t bother to ask, or the whole false reports that happen because the ones who does this don’t bother to check the description.

we can still be a part of Youtube, but there should be a alternate place that doesn’t have well a certain algorithm, and places the day, month and year of a upload for everyone to see, just in case...even if Youtube can show that, but the false reports can still happen, and has happen.

it happen to a Undertale Amv, some jerk probably saw the sub video, and didn’t even bother to check the description for the original link, and might of thought that was the original video, even though the person who did the sub did give some form of credit and asked first, it doesn’t change the fact that some jerk did that false report and got away with it.

we all can get peeved for different reasons, we can just try to do something to calm down and try not to think about it for a little while and try to hope for the best....

which is what I’m going to do right now, by checking out some fan art and then after I do a little of that, I will go back to my Xbox One and in a little while, I will play one of my video games after checking out some videos on Youtube. 

also no matter if it is a misunderstanding or if the rumors about A24 is true or not, hopefully we will see if things get better with them or not.

I’m going to try not to talk about them for a while online on here, and just try to take my mind off of them and the Toxic-Fans.

I hope everyone who reads this, understands and not misunderstand my feelings or thoughts about well everything I said in this post.

I rather not have my words get misunderstand in a bad way...

I might not be the only one who feels that way, that had bad experiences like that.

and might of even had a chat with someone who betrayed their trust, because they couldn’t tell they were being sarcastic and not really agreeing with them about what they were saying about their other friend, and the jerk goes behind your back and tells the other friend, and it almost ruins everything.

if you going to say something you don’t mean, even if it is sarcasms to some jerk you ended up chatting with, make sure they know your not serious, and don’t really agree with their bad mouthing, because they will be a two-face backstabbing jerk who will possibly try to turn your friend against you.

it’s possible it can cause you to get some trust issues, like you can trust but at the same time you still have trust issues.

and there is some other stuff that I want to talk about, but I will save it in another post...I’m just going to check out some fan art now...                                          

[violettelueur]

— JUJUTSU KAISEN EPISODE THREE || GIRL OF STEEL

↳ featuring : itadori yuji + fushiguro megumi + kugisaki nobara + gojo satoru from jujutsu kaisen

↳ warnings : swearing and EXTREME grammar issues

↳ form : story

↳ published : 10 february

↳ pronouns : she/her

↳ word count : 5.7k

↳ synopsis : within the jujutsu world, there were three famous clans to be aware of, the Kamo clan, Zenin clan and the Gojo clan. However, unknown to many sorcerers there was one last family that was known to be apart of the three, only for them to disappear after the golden era leading some to speculate that they had died in battle after the sealing of ryomen sukuna, but....

↳ previous episode : for myself 

↳ next episode : curse womb must die

↳ barista’s notes : i am back again with another episode of jujutsu kaisen everyone ʕ •ᴥ•ʔゝ☆ this will be the last update for now since i want to get some of your requests done due to my pushing them back to get the first three episodes done! i hope you enjoy this cup of classic black coffee (jujutsu kaisen) and come again ʕ•ᴥ•ʔﾉ♡

BEFORE READING, I NEED YOU TO BE AWARE OF THIS:

1. the whole story belongs to Gege Akutami and the credits go to them and them only

2. the spell curses used belong to Tite Kubo due to them being the ‘Kidos’ being used on the manga and anime ‘Bleach’ - but none is mentioned in this chapter

3. this whole thing might be confusing and please don’t expect a part four soon because i will do it when i am ready or feel like i can at the right time ʕ ᵒ ᴥ ᵒʔ

4. i don’t know, if i am going to add this onto my masterlist since this was just for fun to be honest!

Taken back to his discovery, you turned back to look at Gojo will a deadpan expression leading him to then carefully suggest, “Since you are part of the lost L/N clan, I won’t tell the higher-ups about your existence but rather have you twist your name slightly when you enrol, how does that sound?”

Glancing at the teacher with suspicion, you tried to hide the gut-wrenching feeling that there was not a possible chance of you now escaping from this. You had been caught and found and there was no way to lie yourself out of this situation you were in, not when Gojo had discovered who you really were while Fushiguro seemed to look clueless on what was going on between his teacher and the female sorcerer in front of him.

Letting out a sigh of frustration once again, you looked up at the sky, letting the same moonlight bathe your face as it did for Sukuna a few minutes ago.

“What a drag”

                                              ꕥ

‘What the hell did I get myself into you?’

While sipping on the straw of your orange juice carton, you were currently leaning against a railing in the city of Toyko within the Harajuku district in front of a train station, where you were supposed to meet with the new student that had enrolled in the school.

Between you were both Itadori, who was eating an ice lolly while sitting on the same railing, and Fushiguro, who was just standing while facing towards you both, as they were waiting for the same person as well as a special someone who was supposed to be here with the three of you.

“How are there only three first-years? Isn’t that too few?” Itadori curiously asked as he turned to Fushiguro for the answer to his understandable questions, since he was in shock that a year group could be so small for a large school like Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College.

“Well, have you ever met anyone who can see curses before?” Fushiguro questioned, as he was trying to make his new classmate get the answer he was looking for.

“Hm, expect for L/N, who hid it from everyone, nope,” Itadori than answered, leading Fushiguro look at you for a second, only to discover you still continuing to drink the orange juice that you had bought earlier while looking at the entrance of the station in a daze, it was like you were ignoring the two of them.

“That just proves how small a minority jujutsu sorcerers are,” Fushiguro explained before reminding Itadori about a really important piece of information that the vessel seemed to have forgotten. “Remember, that L/N is now Gojo Y/N, since Gojo-sensei changed her name for privacy reasons,” Fushiguro stated, leading to your classmate to look at you with a more surprised look.

“Why are you now referred to as Gojo rather than your last name?” Itadori queried as he leaned forward to get a better look at you. This reminder of your changed name led to your eyes to squint in annoyance as you steadily but furiously began to scrunch your carton since your situation, in your opinion, had gone from bad to worse.

“Ah….I’m not really sure, to be honest,” you answered with a lie, as you moved the plastic straw away from your lips as you then stirred the box around like it was a glass of wine.

‘Ugh….Gojo...’

                                              ꕥ

“Stareeeeeeeeeeee”

Looking down at the document sheet that was handed to you, you were taken by sudden surprise at the name section that was on the top left of the sheet, as there was a subtle change made from what you could recall from your birth name.

“Gojo Y/N…” you muttered under your breath leading to your teacher to clap his hands in delight before presenting you with his classic cheeky smile.

“Ah~ you are now my adoptive daughter~” Gojo cheerfully confessed, leading you to pause for a second before looking back up at the special-grade sorcerer with widened eyes - like a deer caught in headlights - once you processed the information in your head.

“How is everyone going to believe that is true? There is no way, people will believe that if they see the documents were signed yesterday or today,” you argued, trying to convince him that the excuse he gave to hide your identity was ridiculous. However, before you could even get a second word in, you unexpectedly felt a finger being pressed lightly onto your lips as if to tell you to hush yourself.

“Don’t worry, I manipulated the documents to say that I had adopted you five years ago, so your secret is safe with me and the principle, none of the higher-ups knows and none of the other students as well except for Yuji and Megumi,” Gojo informed you with a smirk, as if telling you that you had been proven wrong. Sighing in frustration, you finally gave up with the argument and handed the sheet back to Gojo as you began to fully take in where you were right now.

It was such a quick process. The day your schoolmate Itadori Yuji became the vessel of the King of Curses, was the same day that both Fushiguro and Gojo took you to Jujutsu Tech to attend and become a student at their school. In your mind, you were still supposed to be back home in Sendai. Back home in the empty house that used to be shared with your mother. Back home where you were away from the city life and peacefully in the countryside away from the hustling capital while blending into the crowd as if you were just a normal student with a normal life. 

If you hadn’t come back to school that night. 

If you hadn’t noticed the curse back at the rugby field.

If you hadn’t even looked out that window, to begin with.

All this wouldn’t have happened. 

None of it. 

You still would have been hidden like you were supposed to be.

“Oh! L/N, you’re staying here as well?” 

Snapping out of your daze, you quickly turned back around to find the source of the voice that called out for you, only to discover both Itadori and Fushiguro walking towards you leading you to then slowly close your dorm door before greeting them with a small wave.

“Ah, ah, it’s now Gojo Y/N boys, make sure to not say her last time,” Gojo quickly stated, causing both of the boys to look at their teacher with such bewilderment before turning their head towards you as if you were going to explain to them what was the reasoning behind this sudden change. 

To be honest, there was no point in your opinion. Itadori had no idea or clue on who the three families were in the jujutsu world and it was such effort to explain to him the reasons why these families were so famous and as for Fushiguro, he could probably discover that on his own so, once again, there was no point on giving them an answer.

“Well, it’s all good!” Gojo suddenly stated, as he once again clapped his hands together with a gleeful expression displayed on his face leading you to look to the side with an annoyed glance, as you didn’t need nor want the happy-go-lucky enthusiasm after discovering you were now ‘part’ of the Gojo clan as someone’s adoptive daughter. “Most importantly, we’re heading out tomorrow, we’re gonna go pick up the fourth first-year!” Gojo declared to the three of you causing a total of three pairs of eyes to look at him as you, Itadori and Fushiguro began to process the information.

‘Another one huh?’

                                             ꕥ

“By the way, didn’t you say I was the third and L/N was the fourth?” Itadori questioned, as he suddenly remembered that you and him unexpectedly enrolled in the sorcerer school leading him to wonder how long has it been since the ‘second’ student had been enrolled and why they were only just arriving now.

“Their entry was decided a while ago, you know what our school’s like, everyone has unique circumstances and remember it’s Gojo, not L/N,” Fushiguro answered while trying to remind Itadori of your new name, leading him to place his hand on the back of his neck before informing you and Fushiguro that he was just used to calling you by your original last name.

“It’s fine, just call me Gojo when we are around other people excluding Gojo-sensei, okay?” you reassured Itadori, causing the cheerful boy to nod at you, informing you that he understood your statement.

“Sorry for the wait!” Gojo shouted at you three as he was walking towards you before noticing a change of look between his two new students. “Your uniforms made it in time, I see,” Gojo uttered as he peered at both you and Itadori before giving an approving nod as if he was a fashion designer looking at his models before hitting the runway.

From what Gojo has stated, Itadori was wearing the classic blue uniform with the noticeable two pins sewed onto the left side to indicate that he was a sorcerer at jujutsu tech with a red hoodie that added a hint of colour compared to his counterpart Fushiguro, who had a high neck. On the other hand, you were sporting a short jacket with a white dress shirt underneath while wearing a long skirt that had a slit on the side to give your legs some room, revealing the thigh-high black socks you were wearing to cover some of the skin from the gentle winds that were coming while your katana was resting in a bag as you were carrying it on your left shoulder to conceal your weapon from the other citizens around.

“Yeah, it’s a perfect fit,” Itadori said while showing his teacher the thumbs up before suddenly commenting, “though it’s slightly different from Fushiguro’s, it has a hood for one,” as he started to point the differences between his uniform to his new classmate’s to which caused you and the mentioned sorcerer to look at him while he tugged on his red hoodie.

“That’s because the uniforms can be customised upon request,” Gojo mentioned, leading you to discover and finally understand why your uniform looked completely different to the one another student was wearing, all you remembered about her was that she had greenish hair while wearing a pair of glasses.

‘So, he was the one that put the request in huh?’

“But I never put in any requests,” Itadori commented, as he was confused on why there was an alteration to his uniform without his knowledge.

“I was the one who put on the custom order, as well as my daughter new uniform~” Gojo said with a smile as he playfully decided to pull on your cheek leading you to smack his hand away, resulting in him pouting while rubbing the back on his hand like your smack had caused him some pain.

“Whatever, I guess,” Itadori remarked, as he looked down onto his hoodie.

“Be careful, Gojo-sensei has a tendency to do things like that,” Fushiguro warned both you and itadori before looking back to the mentioned sorcerer with a question in mind. “Most importantly, why are we meeting up in Harajuku?” Fushiguro curiously asked since it was a bit strange to him that a student didn’t just arrive at the school like all three of you did.

“Because it’s what she asked for,” Gojo answered before Itadori randomly noticed a popcorn stand before declaring that he wanted some to enjoy leading you to walk behind him to make sure he didn’t get lost within the city that was crowded with the ongoing shopper as well as tourists that decided to take a break away from their work or lives to experience a new setting.

“Oh hello there, are you on the clock right now?” someone randomly asked, causing you to turn back only to discover what seemed to be a businessman with a green suit paired with a unique purple tie decorated with teal polka dots.

“Sort of but not really,” you uninterestingly answered, giving the man a bored expression leading his nervousness to increase further due to the anxiety of talking to a random stranger in the middle of the streets of Tokyo.

“You see, I’m looking for potential models, this is who I am,” the man explained as he processed to pull out his business card to which you didn’t give a day of time to look down at. “Would you be interested?” the businessman processed to question before you lifted an open palm while giving the man a polite smile.

“Sorry, I’m not really interested in modelling at all but thank you for the opportunity,” you politely declined as you noticed the deflated look the worker had given you. However, before the modelling scout could apologise and thank you for your time, a hand violently grabbed his shoulder before he was pulled back to face the opposite way.

“Hey, you, what about me?” a girl asked, causing you to look behind the small businessman’s figure to see a girl around the same age as you point to herself with the thumb. From what you could observe, she had short orange hair that seemed to be dyed due to the slightly darker colour of her eyebrows but it wasn’t obvious while carrying what seemed to be many shopping bags around her arms while her carrier pink backpack on her back. However, the uniform she was wearing was saying something as the buttons gave an indication of what she was.

‘Ah, so she’s the new student’ you thought before processing to continue looking at the scene right in front of you. 

“For the modelling gig, duh, I’m asking what you think about me,” she commented leading you to give squint your eyes in confusion, what was the point of being a model when you were already a jujutsu sorcerer at Toyko Metropolitan Curse Technical College. 

On the other hand, what you were concerned with was the three males who were standing on the sidelines watching the situation unfold leading you to give them a bored look before walking towards them with your left hand in your skirt pocket since the slit on the other side made it not possible for another pocket to be made.

“We’re about to go talk to her? That is kinda embarrassing,” Itadori commented while lifting up what seemed to be more than popcorn in his hand leading to a confused look to appear on your face, while Fushiguro gave an irritated side glance as he tutted.

“So are you,” Fushiguro mentioned, due to the silly ‘rook’ tourist glasses he was wearing before glancing to the other side where Gojo stood as the teacher called out the female student to come their way, while some female passersby commented on the white-haired sorcerer’s blindfold to which was quite understandable.

                                               ꕥ

Slashing the metal locker door shut, the new student then inserted the needed amount of coins to make sure the door was completely locked before turning to the three males that stood right in front of her.

“Okay, once again,” Gojo mentioned as he raised an arm to indicate to her that she can introduce herself.

“Kugisaki Nobara,” Kugisaki introduced herself before continuing with, “be happy, boys. I’m the one woman in your group,” leading to some confusion to float around within the group.

“Where’s Y/N?” Gojo curiously asked the boys as they continuously turned around the area to find where you were before turning back to look at Kugisaki. Suddenly, behind Kugisaki, the boys had found you heading towards the group while casually sipping on another carton of orange juice that you had bought out of the blue once you saw it while passing by a vending machine when you were walking to the nearest locker station for the student that had arrived.

“Ah, sorry, I got a bit thirsty,” you commented while lifting the carton up before finally standing next to the new student, who you just found out was named Kugisaki Nobara as you were able to still hear what she was saying while you were coming back to them. However, it seemed like you weren’t what she was analysing right now as you noticed her looking right at Itadori and Fushguro with an intense glance.

“I’m Itadori Yuji, I’m from Sendai,” Itadori introduced himself as he used his finger to indicate to himself as well.

“Fushiguro Megumi,” bluntly stated, as he turned to look at Kugisaki.

Letting out a sigh of disappointment, Kugisaki proceeded to complain about the circumstances she was in, leading the boys to look at her with a really awkward expression on their faces.

“She took one look and sighed,” Itadori commented, as his face turned into a sulk while Fushiguro wasn’t making eye contact at all.

“I’m Gojo Y/N, I hope we can get along,” you quickly stated, while trying not to cringe at your name, leading Kugisaki to look to her side to find you looking at her before a hint of glee and joy processed to manifest in her eyes.

“Maybe the circumstances aren’t that bad! But why do you have the same name as your teacher when you don’t even look alike?” Kugisaki mentioned while giving you a small smile to which you gave her the same trying to be friendly with the new classmate that you had just met.

“Ah it’s a drag to explain fully, but I’m his adoptive daughter,” you quickly answered as you didn’t want to slip up the lie that was concealing your whole identity which seemed to convince the sorcerer since she gave you another nod, telling you that she understood what you had just mentioned.

“Are we going somewhere from here?” Fushiguto asked his teacher, as he turned to look towards the direction of the tall man leading to a light laugh to emit from his mouth causing you to get suspicious of what Gojo was planning.

“We do have all four of you together and not to mention, three of you are from the countryside,” Gojo suddenly mentioned, leading all his students to look at him, anticipating what he had planned. “So of course we’re going on a tour of Tokyo,” Gojo suddenly announced, leading to excitement between Itadori and Kugisaki to burst out while Gojo joined in, to hype the moment up.

“Tokyo! Tokyo! Tokyo! We love Tokyo!” Itadori and Kugisaki cheered, leading you and Fushiguro to look at the two with such confusion expressed on your faces.

While you looked at the scene with such confusion, Fushiguro was more confused at the fact of why you weren’t enlivened at the fact about this ‘tour’ while the two started arguing about the structure of Tokyo as they were getting some places confused with other places.

“Why ain’t you excited?” Fushiguro commented as you continued to sip on the citrusy drink that you had brought earlier leading to another question on your obsession with orange juice to pop up in his head.

“I’ve already been to Tokyo for some business trips with my mother from time to time and what I mean by that is exorcising curses here with her,” you answered before continuing with “also, I have a suspicion that we ain’t going on a tour, it is Gojo Saturo after all,” before going back to drinking on the carton drink you were craving for.

“I will now announce our destination,” Gojo stated, leading both Itadori and Kugisaki to kneel down in front of your teacher, only for you to give them a strange look before Gojo proudly announced where everyone was heading off to. 

“Roppongi!”

“Ro-ppong-gi!” Itadori and Kugisaki said with glee as they turned to each other with the same exciting look.

‘Well, let’s see how this goes’

                                               ꕥ

‘I knew it....’

“There's a curse here,” Fushguro stated as you gave a slight nod while inspecting the large abandoned building that was surrounded by a large ominous dark purple hues indicating that there was just more than one curse in the building or maybe just a single one - you couldn’t sense it due to the amount of cursed energy being released out of the building.

“You liar!” Itadori and Kugisaki screamed in anger while complaining at the fact that they both were deceived on where they were heading off to before Kugisaki shouted something about ‘toying with us country folk’.

“There’s a big cemetery nearby, the double whammy of that and an abandoned building brought out a curse,” Gojo informed everyone like staring up at the building as well.

“So they really do pop up more often around graves?” Itadori questioned after his little tantrum, leading you to realise that he had no knowledge on how curses appeared or anything to do with the jujutsu world to start with.

“The issue isn’t the cemetery itself, it’s the fact that people associate cemeteries with fear,” you explained to the noobie while swirling the now empty carton in hand.

“Oh, it was the same for schools, too, wasn’t it?” Itadori then asked as he turned to look at you for any answers causing Kugisaki to pause her ranting to look at Itadori with a perplexed look on her face.

“Hold up. He didn’t even know that yet?” Kugisaki questioned, leading you to give off an awkward laugh while looking to the side away from the group which only led to more confusion to emit from her.

“To be honest….” Fushiguro started before explaining the situation that had brought Itadori to where he was now causing Kugisaki to give an extremely disgusted look on her face - and to be honest, you couldn’t blame her at all.

“He swallowed a special-grade cursed object!?! Gross! Unbelievable! That’s so unsanitary and disgusting! No way, no way, no way, no way!” Kugisaki yelled out before running away from the three of you as you looked at her with nonchalant faces.

“What?!” Itadori shouted in confusion.

“I agree with her,” Fushiguro mentioned in a blunt tone, leading you to completely ignore your classmates as you continuously looked up at the building in front of you.

“I want to know what all of you are capable of, just think of this as a field test,” Gojo informed everyone with a smile on his face before calling out Itadori and Kugisaki to tell them they were going to exorcise the curse inside the building themselves leaving you confused since you were also a new student here as well.

“Huh? But I thought only curses could exorcise curses, right? I can’t use any jujutsu yet,” Itadori asked before indicating his lack of ability to the teacher.

“You’re basically half a curse already, there cursed energy flowing throughout your body,” Gojo stated as he pointed at the vessel before continuing to explain “though controlling that energy isn’t something you can learn overnight, so use this,” before taking out what seemed to be a cursed weapon in front of you and the rest.

“It’s the cursed tool, Slaughter Demon. It’s a weapon imbued with cursed energy, it’ll work on curses, too,” Gojo explained while Itadori gazed at the weapon in amazement.

“Like Gojo’s sword? And why isn’t she taking part in this test?” Itadori then asked as he pointed at the bag behind your back leading to Kugisaki to look at it in shock since she thought it was just a normal carrier bag that you just had.

“Yeah, kind of like that and to be honest, this test isn’t good enough to test her abilities, she wouldn’t need to take the katana out and probably use it with the wooden hilt on,” Gojo explained as he turned to you with a cheeky smile of his face.

Suddenly, Kugisaki turned her back towards all of you before fastening a brown belt around her waist which had a small pouch to keep whatever she needed in there, leading Itadori to follow behind her.

“Oh, one more thing,” Gojo suddenly shouted, causing Itadori to turn as Gojo then stated, “don’t let Sukuna out, if you use him, you’ll get rid of all the curses nearby in a flash, but you’ll also drag everyone around into it.”

“Got it. I won’t let Sukuna out,” Itadori assumed his teacher before Kugisaki turned back around to complain to her classmate to hurry up while you quickly took a seat on the stone platform that was right behind you before setting your bag down onto the side making it lean against the same stone you took a seat on while Fushiguro and Goj followed behind.

“I think I’ll go, too,” Fushiguro mentioned, causing you to give him a side glance as you wondered if he was worried or just not hopeful that the two will actually exorcise the curse.

“Don’t push yourself, you’re still recovering,” Gojo reminded his student before saying “if I needed to put someone in for backup, it would be Y/N since she seems to be in a better condition than you.”

“But someone needs to keep an eye on Itadori, right?” Fushiguro questioned in a concerned tone.

“True,” Gojo answered in a dazed tone, indicating to you that he wasn’t worried one bit.

From your perspective, you understood why Fushiguro was worried about your new classmate since he didn’t have the ability to take on a curse from his lack of experience but from what you could recall from that night, it seemed like you didn’t have to worry at all.

“That Yuji..he’s missing a few up here,” Gojo randomly stated, as he pointed his head to indicate his brain. “He has no hesitation, when it comes to killing these things, take that the form of living creatures, albeit bizarre-looking ones, to try to kill him,” Gojo explained to his long-term student while you were just resting the back of your head on the wall before your teacher continued with “and it’s not like he’s been familiar with curses for a long time, like you. This is a boy who used to live a normal high school life, you’ve seen plenty of jujutsu sorcerers, even though with talent, give up in frustration because they couldn’t conquer their fear or disgust, haven’t you?” leading to Fushiguro to look down to his hands as he thought about the statement while you looked up to the sky to question your own thoughts.

‘Is that one of the reasons why the L/N clan decided to disappear? Nah, they were able to seal Sukuna, there is no way that could be the reason’

“So today I want to confirm how crazy she is,” Gojo mentioned, somewhat giving you a slight idea on what he was trying to inform you both.

“But Kugisaki has the experience, right? Little late for that now, isn’t it?” Fushguro asked as he was still unsure about what Gojo was trying to tell him.

“Curses are born from human minds, so their strength and numbers grow in proportion to the population, curses in Tokyo are on a different level than those in the countryside,” Gojo said in a low tone to which Fushiguro understood but still had some uncertainty lingering in his head.

“What he is trying to say that ‘level’ doesn’t mean the amount of cursed energy one curse may have but their cunningness, what he is testing is how one reacts to cruel choices that are forcibly handed to them like the weight on a human life in danger balancing upon your shoulder,” you casually explained, leading Fushiguro to look at you while Gojo had a bright smile on his face, glad that you understood what he was talking about.

However, before you continue with your explanation, there was a loud crash being heard from above with pieces of broken glass falling to the ground leading to the three of you down below to look up, only to find the curse causing the purple hue trying to escape.

“I’ll exorcise it,” Fushiguro quickly said, as he clasped his hands together ready to summon a shikigami. However, he felt a tug on his arm leading him to look down to find you tugging onto the sleeve of his uniform.

“Hold on, have some confidence in your peers,” you muttered, before letting go of the fabric as you processed to lean your head back onto the wall while closing your eyes. “I don’t know how long you have been alone but understand you have teammates now, so rely on them as well, okay?” you stated as you slowly opened your eyes to peer up at the curse, only to suddenly see large metal strikes come out of its body before disintegrating into nothing, while the purple aura that was surrounding the abandoned building disappeared with it.

“Nice, she’s crazy, all right,” Gojo mentioned with a gleeful smile on his face, happy with the results that had just come in from this field test.

                                          ꕥ

“I live over there! Thanks again!” the kid mentioned as he pointed towards the direction of his house before running off.

From what you could recall, at the end of the field test, Itadori and Kugisaki came out of the building with a child before explaining that he was in the building during the test and he was caught in the middle of it all. 

Observing the boy running to his house, you wanted to make sure he got home safely from a distance to which he did once you saw him enter through the gates to what seemed to be his house before being greeted by an obviously worried mother, who scolded him for wondering about before being pulled into a hug.

‘I wonder what’s it like to have a normal childhood?’ you wondered before small but vivid memories began to appear in the back of your mind.

“I’m jealous,” you whispered, before turning around to find both Fushiguro and Gojo already walking back to Itadori and Kugisaki, who both were sitting on the stone steps impatiently waiting for the three of you to finish the task that needed to be done.

‘In the end, I’m alone with the responsibilities of the L/N clan upon my shoulders but I have you, dear. Even with this world being full of curses and impurities, I feel like I have a normal ordinary life with you by my side. I wish I could have given that to you, I’m sorry….’

“It’s okay,” you whispered again, this time leading Gojo to turn back to you with a confused look on his face which caused Fushiguro to look back as well, finding it strange that you haven’t left your stop since the kid was already back at his home, safe and out of harm’s reach for now.

“Did you say something Y/N?” Gojo asked, only for you to shake your head to deny that you had before making your way back to the group.

“Good Joseph! We made sure the kid got home,” Gojo shouted while giving a small wave towards the two students, who suddenly jumped up on their feet which confused you slightly since they had such a determined look on their faces.

“Now shall we go grab some food?” Gojo kindly questioned leading the same two students to now express two huge grins while shouting out their preferred meal for tonight.

“Beef!”

“Sushi!”

“Leave it all to me!” Gojo excitedly stated with two thumbs up before turning to his two other students, who were waiting on the sidelines. “And you guys?” Gojo asked with the same huge grin that Itadori and Kugisaki were expressing.

“I don’t really mind,” you answered in a casual tone before turning to look at FUshiguro, who was suddenly randomly scrolling through his phone with a bored but somewhat irritated expression on his face, causing you to wonder what he was reading or finding that made him have a scowl on his face.

Taking you by the arm, Gojo started walking off with you, Itadori and Kugisaki leaving Fushiguro behind, who had just realised that you all were walking away once he heard his teacher say ‘okay, let’s go’.

“Oh, I forgot about my biggest haul of the day. Hey, you, go fetch my things,” Kugisaki said in a demanding tone, as she decided to be the leader of the group since she was walking in front of everyone.

“Huh? Why should I do it? I thought we were even,” Itadori complained, as he didn’t want to get the items that were left in the coin locker back at Harajuku.

“We won thanks to my cursed energy. Got a problem with that?” Kugisaki countered back, as she confidently continued walking in front of all of you like she would know where the restaurant Gojo was taking you all was.

“What about my raw strength?” Itadori argued, leading you to wonder what he did during the time he was the at the abandoned building with Kugisaki to mention about his immense but strange strength.

“Your monstrous power from eating weird shit?” Kugisaki shouted as she was implicating the cursed finger that Itadori swallowed as a reason for Itadori’s strength.

“It’s not just that! Right, Fushiguro, Gojo?” Itadori asked as he turned to you and Fushguro, only to find the male student with a frown on his face as he looked to the side.

“Huh? What’s the matter, Fushiguro?” Itadori questioned, as he wasn’t sure on why Fushiguro seemed to be moodier than he originally was.

“Nothing,” Fushiguro bluntly answered, not making his answer very convincing for you, Itadori, Kugisaki and Gojo leading your teacher to think it was the best time to tease his shikigami-user student.

“He’s pouting because he didn’t get to join in,” Gojo mentioned with a sly smile, which caused Kugisaki to lean back with her hand on her lips to cover her laugh.

“What a child,” Kugisaki teased, causing Fushiguro to groan in frustration before giving the female sorcerer with an irritated glare which led to Itadori laughing at the facial expression, leaving you to stay silent as you watched the scene in front of you.

‘But I’ll make sure you have the most normal life as you possibly can, so make sure you’re not alone in this world like I am Y/N, I want you to be happy even when we’re both stuck with this burden!’

“Yeah mother, I’m trying,” you whispered before continuing to walk with everyone to wherever you all were heading off to without realising the events that will occur in the future.

© violettelueur 2021 : written and published by violettelueur - do not steal or repost

[primrose-path-of-dalliance]

psa: trent ikithon is not as competent and powerful as he makes himself seem.

(cw: discussion of abuse)

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i'm not sure how to get into this in a way that's natural, so i hope you don't mind if i go for the straightforward route.

trent ikithon is an abuser. that means his tactics all center around—and rely upon—making vulnerable people believe that he has far more power than he actually does. and when it comes to our pov, the m9's pov, ikithon is trying his damnedest to accomplish the same.

now, i don't know everything that's in matt mercer's head when he has played or characterized trent ikithon. i'm sure there's some depth to his motivations and intelligence, and i don't doubt that ikithon ideologically believes in strengthening the empire. but this is not relevant to the abuse tactics i want to discuss.

because the reality is this: abusers do what they do because they enjoy victimizing and controlling the vulnerable.

that's why you get abusers like archivist zeenoth who are attracted to positions of authority. those positions facilitate structural imbalances of power between them and their potential victims. trent ikithon, too, is doing the same thing—as an archmage of the cerberus assembly, he is exploiting the authority of his position to gain victims for abusing. he is not doing what he does because he's a brilliant mastermind focused on a goal. if he was, he wouldn't abuse his students.

think about it in terms of effectiveness. no matter what people like ikithon try to assert, his volstrucker are not in any way stronger or more capable from his 'tutelage'. caduceus clay roasted the man in his own dining room for this lie. what the volstrucker are are an organization of ruthless, skilled spies built from deeply abused and damaged people. they aren't healthy; they aren't stable. caleb widogast spent eleven years in a sanatorium because he was one of many recruits who broke under the abuse (see EGtW), and then five years as a solitary, paranoia-ridden mess in a filthy coat. he spent months trying not to self-sabotage his growing friendships and had a panic attack as soon as he left ophelia mardun's mansion in shadycreek (e27, 2:55:21). he has ptsd from using fire magic to burn people to death—considering his statement on executing traitors to the empire as a trainee (e18, 2:48:12), it was probably an everyday part of the job.

even the minority of volstrucker that do get through the training stage aren’t functioning well. only a few episodes ago, we watched astrid finish a conversation with caleb and then duck into an alleyway so she could curl up and have a five-minute breakdown before putting the composed mask back on (e126, 1:50:47). abuse makes being alive harder; good luck being a sustainable espionage program at that point.

so that's one lie. how about another?

at the dinner in ikithon's tower, ikithon implied that he has guided every step of caleb's path to recovery and ever-growing power. that caleb's plans to murder ikithon are exactly what he wants; that he even arranged his escape from the vergessen sanatorium (e110, 2:52:58).

i think enough people have recognized that ikithon's first claim is utter bullshit, considering that caleb and the m9 had just arrived from a random island on which they hosted a cult gathering festooned with phalluses. but the implication that he arranged for caleb's escape from the sanatorium was just that: an implication. he never says outright that he did so. he only couched what he knew in gaslighting platitudes and handed over the holy symbol of the cleric that healed him. you won't sense a lie that hasn't been spoken. he let caleb and the m9 make their assumptions, and the assumption worked in his favor.

let's consider the actual circumstances of caleb's escape (e18, beginning 2:51:54). a fellow inmate of the sanatorium who was a cleric suddenly grabbed him and healed him of his madness before returning to her own ravings. caleb then pretended he was still insane for two weeks before killing a guard, stealing the amulet that kept him hidden, and fleeing. how would any of these events work in trent ikithon's favor? the number of absurd assumptions here are off the charts.

first, you would have to believe that a cleric could permanently heal a man who'd been insane and probably experimented on for eleven years.

second, you would have to assume that this man would still be competent enough to pass general scrutiny and break out.

third, you would have to believe that he'd totally survive on his own without any resources whatsoever,

after eleven years of being institutionalized,

while first beginning deep in the pearlbow wilderness—

all without raising the suspicion of this apparently still hypercompetent ex-patient that his escape was too easy.

and fourth, you would have to believe that this man would actually accomplish something in your interests instead of, say, dying or remaining a vagrant beggar forever.

if this was all on purpose, then trent ikithon is really an idiot.

another truth: caleb was not special. both liam and caleb have said so (talks for e88, beginning 28:00; & e110, 29:06), with the examples of other volstrucker supporting this. all of them are talented mages and good at spycraft! they have to be to graduate in the first place! ikithon's assertions that caleb was extra special (e110, 2:52:11)? also a lie—specifically, a great tactic for convincing a victim of abuse not to think about it further. of course they're being hurt again. of course they're being targeted again. not to mention how abusers selectively compliment in order to confuse the people they’re hurting (relevant here: e88, 3:28:25). caleb having an unhealthy amount of hubris and thus open to being diagnosed with protagonist disease doesn’t help.

ikithon would have easily deduced the details of what happened and obtained the holy symbol after an investigation of the break-out. not too hard to piece things together if you simply ask about unusual events prior to the escape and learn that he'd had an altercation with another patient two weeks ago—and oh yes, that patient used to be a blasphemous cleric.

caleb widogast basically reappeared next door healthier, much more powerful, and more capable than ever. ikithon doesn’t have control over caleb’s entire past and future—but he wants him to believe he does. it’s a gaslighting attempt to make caleb question his own accomplishments and attribute them to ikithon so that ikithon can regain some control over his ex-student.

another truth: trent ikithon is already on thin fucking ice. no one in the cerberus assembly likes each other, of course, but a consistent point was made again and again that everyone deeply dislikes ikithon. he's stayed because he made himself useful, but he could and would get taken care of should he be a detriment instead (see e88, 3:19:27; & e97, 3:19:32).

any sort of thorough investigation into the volstrucker and the vergessen sanatorium would reveal exactly how fragile all of his agents are and how frequently he fails in conditioning his recruits. ikithon gets the pick of the crop when it comes to nationalistic, talented students that enter the soltryce academy. to find out that he drives a significant number of them insane? well, that's a pure waste of unrealized potential. and for what—a program of spies who are paranoid enough and opportunistic enough to turn on each other if prodded the right way?

and now... trent ikithon, as part of the traitorous beacon research, has been under heavy investigation from two fronts: the augen trust and the cobalt soul (e125, 2:31:10). and he has been getting very nervous recently (e125, 2:41:42).

the final truth i want to point out: trent ikithon is just as control-obsessed as any other abuser. we got the most obvious example of this yet from e128—his pursuit of the m9 to nicodranas and tidepeak tower. think about the circumstances again.

he was apparently so curious and so annoyed by caleb rebuffing all of his attempts at ‘conversation’ that he made his excuses before teleporting directly to nicodranas,

through a circle implied to be arranged diplomatically between the empire and the clovis concord,

with a plan to break into the lavish chateau, one of the most high-profile locations of the city, to potentially kidnap or kill everyone,

including the famous and beloved ruby of the sea.

he then chased the m9 and their families to the equally high-profile tidepeak tower on the open quay, all of which is owned by yussa errenis, an archmage himself who’s learned far more about local politics than he ever wanted to know,

intimidated his “man”servant,

and broke in.

and they did all of this possibly with some very confused members of the zhelezo following right behind them.

other people have gone through the potential political consequences of this more thoroughly than me, so suffice to say that trent ikithon has gotten himself into some deep shit. you can’t negotiate or magic yourself out of being witnessed by hundreds of people breaking into the tower of an archmage who is infamous among the locals for being a bitchy recluse.

if he was smart, and clever, and a brilliant mastermind, he wouldn’t have done any of that. what he could have done: continue to handle caleb from an ominous distance through spells like sending. allege to the cerberus assembly and king dwendal that the break-in was an underhanded cobalt soul mission because of beauregard’s association with the m9. or just straight-up say that the m9 broke into his facilities because they have a vendetta against him and have them at least investigated the next time the empire can hold onto them for a second.

but he didn’t do any of those much more clever possibilities. he acted impulsively and rashly and may well be on the way to a lot of trouble now. all because ikithon just could not handle caleb being saucy.

with all this in mind, i want to go back to one last detail: astrid and eadwulf. because these two would suffer terrible consequences if they ran away—allegedly.

because i want to ask... what exactly could ikithon do to them?

they’ve already killed their own parents. so far, we’ve had no sign either that they have anyone else important to them in his reach besides each other. they have nothing tying themselves to him besides years of abuse and the crimes they’ve committed as volstrucker. they might want some power of their own, sure, perhaps they want to kill him while they’re still close. but we certainly know that eadwulf and astrid are not invested in the volstruckers as it stands. they doubt ikithon. and they already have their own amulets.

so what else could make them so terrified by the idea of leaving with the m9 except the way that trent ikithon has abused them and convinced them that he’s powerful enough and capable enough to catch up to them?

don’t be fooled. he hosted the most embarrassing excuse for a dining-with-the-enemy scene (seriously, i hope someone reading this cringed the entire time as well from all the long pauses and terrible topic transitions) and then teleported away to flee caduceus clay’s scalding tea. no retort, no blackmail. he acted recklessly in nicodranas and appropriately pushed two of his own volstrucker to betray him, losing his one opportunity to capture the m9′s family there. and now ikithon is between a rock and a hard place in terms of political standing, with a spy network he has openly encouraged to turn against him.

there is no terror waiting in the wings anymore, no more strings he can pull. just an abuser playing up his own grandeur. at this point, the only thing he hasn’t reached his limit in yet is his high-level spell slots.