#*my listening comp is bad so i understand i mean. do not worry. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ladylynse · 3 years

Text

Dimensional Displacement [FFN | AO3]: Danny has a love-hate relationship with the Fenton Booo-merang. This time, it didn’t do him any favours. This time, it knocked him through a portal—and from what he can glean from the Water Tribe siblings he meets, odds are, there’s a reason for that.

-|-

For @geronimo-alonzi as a thank you for donating to my ko-fi. (Yes, they won my fic giveaway, but I finished this one first.) Loosely based on this three sentence fic.

-|-

Danny had been clobbered in the head by the Fenton Booo-merang more often than he’d like to admit, let alone count, but this was the first time it had knocked him through a portal.

That wouldn’t have been a particularly bad thing if the portal hadn’t immediately closed behind him.

One minute, he’d been minding his own business in the Ghost Zone, coming back from a visit with Frostbite that Jazz must have forgotten about if she’d sent the Booo-merang after him. (Sam was stuck with her parents at some fancy dinner party thing somewhere and Tucker was working on designing a computer game for his comp sci assignment, a class neither Sam nor Danny was in, so it had to have been Jazz.)

The next minute, Danny was…. He didn’t even know where he was. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere. He’d caught the Booo-merang before either he or it had hit the ground, but once he’d righted himself to look around, there was no familiar skyline or something equally useful to him. There were only trees and rocks and dirt roads as far as the eye could see, even from a considerable distance up in the air.

Well.

That wasn’t quite fair. He could see a silver river cutting through the trees in a path roughly parallel to the road, but in terms of helpful things, he was coming up empty.

He didn’t even know which direction he’d need to fly to get to a city. It was too light out to see any distant glow of city lights against the scattered clouds, and all he could smell when he breathed in was fresh air and pine needles and something else—moss? The general mix that was pretty much mulch on the forest floor?—that was decidedly natural, not the signs of human activity he’d been hoping for. Sure, following the road or even the river would get him somewhere sooner or later, but what was he supposed to do, pick a random direction or go eenie meenie minie moe?

Danny did another loop above the trees, looking for some sign of anything, and came up with nothing.

“Come on!” Danny yelled at the patch of blue sky where the portal had closed. He spun in a circle, the Booo-merang clutched tightly in his fist, but it didn’t pull in any direction, and he didn’t catch so much as a glimmer of the familiar green of the Ghost Zone. “Just open up again already!” It was as effective as he’d expected it to be, which was not at all, but screaming out his frustrations made him feel a bit better. “Now! Please?”

Unsurprisingly, the portal didn’t listen.

Out of appealing options, Danny threw the Booo-merang. Logically, he knew it wasn’t the Infi-Map. Logically, he knew that the universe did not often do what was convenient for him, even if he sometimes got incredibly lucky in a fight. Logically, he knew that the chances of the Booo-merang deciding to reprogram itself to find portals just because it had done it this one time (likely coincidentally) were slim to none.

Illogically, he didn’t expect the stupid thing to circle around and hit him in the back of the head again.

Danny cursed and landed to retrieve the fallen Booo-mang from the roadway, muttering under his breath about how much he’d like to just dismantle the thing and hide the pieces. He wouldn’t, of course. It worked too well to risk Sam, Tucker, and Jazz losing the ability to find him if they really needed to. It had been dicey enough the few times his parents had decided to try to ‘fix’ it, only for disaster (Vlad) to strike in the meantime.

That didn’t mean Danny couldn’t fantasize about bashing it against a rock, though. There were plenty of those around.

“That’s a weird looking boomerang,” someone said from behind him, and Danny nearly jumped into the air right there.

He didn’t, mostly because he was getting used to Sam and Tucker trying to surprise him, but it was a near thing.

He wasn’t used to people sneaking up on him. His ghost sense was reliable, Dash made more noise walking around than even Jack Fenton, and, well, most of the people who hunted him couldn’t be subtle if they tried, especially since a good chunk of them liked hearing their own voice. He’d only ever really had to worry about Jazz, and self-preservation in the face of tickle attacks had given him the ability to be extra sensitive to her presence whenever she was in a certain mood.

The two who’d caught him by surprise now must have come from the trees on the other side of the road, and he hoped that meant they hadn’t seen him do anything particularly ghostly. Granted, neither of them was screaming, so he should be safe. They didn’t look terrified, either. Wary, maybe, but not scared.

Danny guessed that they were both somewhere around his age. Siblings, by the looks of them, but probably not twins even if they’d both decided to leave the house wearing oddly styled blue clothes today, at least compared to the usual jeans and T-shirt combo Danny was used to seeing. Unless he wasn’t anywhere near the States anymore? Or unless he’d been flung through to a different time. But the boy had spoken English, and it hadn’t sounded funny to Danny’s ears, no lilt of a foreign accent or strange phrasing that he associated with Shakespeare or something.

The girl was his height, the boy a bit taller, and they were both staring at him.

They probably thought he was the one who was dressed strangely.

The boy pointed. “Your boomerang,” he repeated. “It looks weird.”

The girl elbowed him in the gut—none too gently, judging by his immediate wheeze—and hissed, “Sokka!”

Yeah, those two were definitely siblings. And even if the girl wasn’t older, she definitely had the annoying (and annoyed) sister tone down pat. Danny had heard (and been on the receiving end of) the same from similar exchanges with Jazz more than once.

“Sokka’s going to apologize, right, Sokka?”

The boy frowned and then threw up his hands. “Right. I apologize for saying your boomerang looks weird. It looks interesting.”

The girl stepped on his foot, and he yelped. “What was that for?”

“You know what that was for!”

“It’s fine,” Danny said. He still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. Maybe the portal had dumped him out in the middle of some historical re-enactment thing. Granted, there should really be more people around if that were the case—or at least hidden cameras. He was better at spotting them now. Vlad and his creepy spy tendencies aside, Danny had gotten good at noticing (and avoiding) cameras so he didn’t let his secret get caught on tape. (There were a surprising number of places in Amity Park not under video surveillance, or at least not under real video surveillance even if they had fake cameras out; he could practically transform in the middle of the street sometimes.)

Still, nothing about this felt staged. It didn’t even feel like one of his enemy’s tricks, some giant setup that was meant to trap him or whatever. That’s not to say Danny was wholly convinced this meeting, whatever it was, was merely chance—he didn’t particularly trust Clockwork not to arrange things as he saw fit without warning anyone—but it didn’t feel overly contrived, either. There was just….

Something felt off, and he couldn’t explain what it was.

“It’s fine,” Danny repeated, since the two were looking at him dubiously, but the familiar phrase felt strange on his tongue, almost like—

Wait.

“Okay, this is going to sound like a weird question, but where are we?”

The boy, Sokka, blinked. “Did you hit your head or something? We’re in the Earth Kingdom. Or, wait, do you mean where in the Earth Kingdom? Look, if you need new supplies, there’s not much in the last few villages, but we’re about a day from—”

The girl elbowed him again, and he fell silent. Danny could see the growing suspicion on her face for what it was, could see suspicion settling on the boy’s face as well, but he wasn’t sure if it was because he’d asked the wrong question or because he’d asked something at all. He’d been paying attention this time, watching Sokka’s lips, and Danny didn’t have to be a good lip reader to know that he hadn’t been saying the words Danny had heard.

Well.

More accurately, he hadn’t been saying them in English.

And Danny, in answering, had somehow not been speaking English.

That was not, as far as Danny was aware, something Clockwork could do to him.

He didn’t know a ghost who had power over language, though, unless the Ghostwriter had something else up his sleeve and this mess was it. Nocturne would be able to pull anything in a dream, but Danny couldn’t see why he’d bother including something that would be an obvious tell like this, so it shouldn’t be him even if he had decided to come back. More likely, it was someone he hadn’t fought before, someone who had targeted him, seen an opportunity when the Booo-merang had hit him and seized upon it to throw him…here.

Wherever here was.

The Earth Kingdom, apparently.

“Um.” The girl still looked like she expected him to start fighting, and her stance…. Danny didn’t recognize it, but he did know that she looked ready to move at any moment. Her brother had taken her cue and, while Danny hadn’t been paying attention, pulled out a boomerang of his own. That couldn’t be good. “Look. I know how this sounds.” How he sounded, more like. If he had some accent he couldn’t hear because he wasn’t speaking their language properly, whatever it was, this had to be a setup after all.

Someone had sent him here to be dealt with. By this world, this dimension or construct or whatever it was, if not necessarily by these two people.

Granted, Danny wasn’t sure why someone would go to the trouble of letting him understand and be understood in the first place if that were the case, since he could get in just as much trouble without speaking the native language.

Surely he wasn’t actually supposed to help someone here, right? This wasn’t even his world. Or the Ghost Zone. Whatever was going on here was most definitely not his business.

Except now he was in the middle of it, so if there was something going on, it would be beneficial to find out what it was sooner rather than later.

This wasn’t some Jumanji kind of thing where he’d been tossed into a game and had to do whatever it was to get out again, was it? It didn’t feel like the time he’d gone into Doomed, but that had been intentional, and this….

Okay, no, he didn’t have enough information to speculate, which meant he needed to get some information out of these two in order to get somewhere. “I just…. I was kidnapped and dumped here for some reason, and I’m trying to find my way home.” That was close enough to the truth that it shouldn’t raise any red flags. Hopefully. “My name is Danny.” Introducing himself as Phantom, even in ghost mode, wasn’t something he wanted to do when he had no idea how these people felt about ghosts. Besides, it wasn’t like they’d ever see him as Fenton. He just needed to stick to the ground and pretend to be a normal human being, which he could most definitely do—at least when the sun was bright enough that his slight glow was basically nonexistent. He doubted it would be terribly noticeable even under the cover of trees.

“Danny,” the girl repeated, not relaxing her stance. “That’s an unusual name.”

Sokka just cocked his head at Danny. “Why would anyone kidnap you?”

It was spoken like it was an innocent, thoughtless question, something that could be brushed away with a laugh, but Danny could read an underlying tension in each of their faces. Sokka was waiting on his answer, and so was his sister. Danny’s response might very well determine what happened next.

Consequently, Danny didn’t miss the fact that Sokka didn’t offer up any potential explanations that he could jump on.

Another lie wasn’t going to do him any favours, not when he knew so little. “I don’t know.” He could guess, but he didn’t know. From the looks of it, though, these two wouldn’t be satisfied with that. Chances were good they wouldn’t be particularly satisfied with his suspicions, either, which was that someone wanted him out of the way for whatever they were planning—or maybe that someone had decided they wanted to have a little fun with him at his expense, if world domination wasn’t on the table. “My parents are inventors. Maybe that’s why?”

“That doesn’t explain why whoever took you would leave you here,” Sokka pointed out, and Danny wished these two weren’t so smart. “If you were taken because you were valuable, you wouldn’t have been left behind unguarded.”

“So maybe they kidnapped the wrong person and realized that I wasn’t who they wanted?”

Sokka exchanged glances with his sister before murmuring, “We can ask Toph. I mean, it’s possible they found us, but if he is really a Fire Nation plant picked solely for his eye colour, they’d have at least dyed his hair and given him some normal clothes.”

Danny decided not to ask who the heck picked people for something based on eye colour and not skill or merit or experience or something normal like that. Aside from derailing the conversation from anything potentially useful, Danny was pretty sure Sokka hadn’t realized he’d been overheard, and it wouldn’t be in Danny’s best interests to let them know how good his hearing was.

Still, he took the opportunity to tuck away the Booo-merang before they could ask any questions about it that he wasn’t up to answering. Maybe it would make him seem like less of a threat if they didn’t think he was ready to use it as a weapon—not that he knew how to use a boomerang as a weapon, but he was pretty sure Sokka hadn’t pulled his out to see which of them could throw it farther or throw it properly—and maybe then they’d trust him enough to answer his questions. Hopefully. He was perfectly willing to meet this Toph if it meant figuring out where he was and how to get home, especially since it would be easy enough for him to cut and run later.

The movement was enough to draw the attention of the siblings, though, and both pairs of eyebrows rose. Had they not expected him to make what he hoped would be taken as a gesture of trust or were they wondering how the heck he’d gotten it into his pocket? Maybe they thought he was trying to hide it, which wouldn’t help matters at all. Then again, if they thought that he thought it had been a subtle move, then maybe—

No.

He had to stop doing this. He didn’t know enough about these two to try to guess their thoughts, let alone what actions they might take against him.

Danny shifted on his feet, glad they hadn’t jumped to attacking and that they weren’t even asking questions about the Booo-merang, since practically anything about it would be difficult to answer. At least they hadn’t seen him flying. Even for people familiar with ghosts, unknown ones tended to be cause for concern until their threat level was assessed, and Danny didn’t want to invite trouble and immediately find out what this world had that messed with ghosts. Sure, he wanted to know what could hurt him here, but finding out while it wasn’t actively being used against him was infinitely preferable.

“Where did you say you were from?” the girl asked after a beat, even though they all knew he’d never said anything about that.

“Nowhere you would know,” he hedged, which was true enough.

“We travel a lot,” the girl said, and her brother snorted.

“What Katara means is, try us. If we can help you get back to your family, what do you have to lose?” Sokka offered Danny a grin, and his stance had visibly relaxed, even if he hadn’t put his boomerang away. It might be just for show, especially since he still had a weapon out, but at least the girl hadn’t drawn any knives or something like that. “Look, from one guy to another, you don’t need to make up some crazy story if you’re a runaway or something like that. We’re basically runaways.”

“We’re running towards something, not away from it.”

“We were almost runaways.” To Danny, Sokka added, “Gran caught us, but she let us go.”

Katara rolled her eyes, and Danny looked between the two of them as Sokka continued talking. It was obvious that they’d changed tack for some reason, no doubt trying to get him to trust them, but the blatant switch made him uneasy. Did they not realize how obvious that was or was this just their usual dynamic?

“I’m from Amity,” Danny eventually interrupted. He knew from the way that they were looking at him that neither of them had forgotten he had yet to answer the question. He’d already told them they wouldn’t know the place, so technically he could’ve said Amity Park, but for all he knew, these two had been sent to get information out of him, and the less he told a potential enemy, the better.

Come to think of it, maybe he shouldn’t have told them his real name, and maybe he should’ve just made up a village name rather than dropping heavy hints about his hometown.

“Which is near—?”

Danny ignored Sokka’s prompt. He didn’t even have a good enough idea of the geography of this place to make that up, especially when there was a chance they knew the area, runaways or no. “Do you know where I could get some water? I haven’t found any since I woke up.” That wasn’t true, but they wouldn’t know that unless they were getting some more intel about him from someone unseen.

The siblings looked at each other again, and then Katara faced him and said, “We’re headed to the river. Come with us. You can get your water, and we can share our catch if we get anything.”

“Wait, I didn’t agree to share my meat!” Sokka exclaimed. Katara’s only answer was a dirty look, but it was enough to have Sokka subsiding into grumbles.

“I’m not hungry yet,” Danny said, which also strictly wasn’t true, but he knew he didn’t need to eat much.

“You might be hungry by the time we’re finished,” Katara said over Sokka’s griping.

Danny hesitated, trying to figure out how weird it would be if he made up some excuse not to go with them. What were the chances that this was a trap when he’d brought up the river—or at least water—before they had? It wasn’t that he thought they’d be able to take him out if it came to that, even if Jazz had more experience fighting normally than he did, since he typically relied a lot on his powers when he could.

These two might be better fighters than him—there were almost certainly better hunters, given how silently they could walk—but he’d always have something like intangibility in his back pocket if it came to it, and they wouldn’t. Still, when it came down to it, he wasn’t used to fighting humans. What if he didn’t pull his punches enough and seriously hurt one of them?

“You can tell us about Amity,” Katara added. “We’ve never been there.”

Danny really hoped that was true and that there wasn’t a place in this world called Amity that they knew well. Still, when they started walking, spreading out so he was always in sight and they never had their backs to him, even when they hit the trees on the other side of the road, he kept pace with them. “It’s pretty much like you’d expect.” Except for the ghosts. At least his ghost sense hadn’t gone off here. Yet. “This is probably the farthest I’ve ever travelled from home.” He couldn’t get much farther away than a completely different dimension that (probably) wasn’t as connected to his world as it was to the Ghost Zone, anyway—unless he counted when he’d time travelled, but he wasn’t about to bring that up.

Katara opened her mouth to ask another question, maybe to press him for details, so Danny cut her off. “What about you two?”

They looked at each other again. How many times were they going to do that? Hadn’t they already decided how far to trust him? Danny knew it wasn’t very far, but they’d clearly decided he wasn’t going to straight up attack them at this precise moment, so even if they didn’t tell him the whole truth—

Sokka gestured at their clothes. “We’re Water Tribe.”

He said it like it was obvious, like Danny should’ve known already, but of course it explained absolutely nothing.

“Southern Water Tribe,” Katara added unhelpfully, despite Sokka’s frown. “We wanted to see the world, and now we are.”

As cover stories went, it was better than Danny’s. Barely. “Right,” he said, wondering again why he’d been dumped in the path of these two. “It’s a nice world to see.”

Somehow, that was the wrong thing to say, because they were both looking at him like they’d expected him to say anything but that. “What?”

“There’s a war on, you’re supposedly kidnapped and dropped off somewhere in occupied territory without any of the proper paperwork, and the best you can come up with is it’s a nice world to see?” Sokka turned his incredulous look from Danny to Katara. “He cannot be Fire Nation. This kid is more sheltered than Toph was supposed to be.”

Danny, who had stumbled at the word war, kept walking and hoped they hadn’t noticed. If they had, maybe they’d think he’d tripped over a tree root or fallen branch or hole or something. They weren’t following a trail, so that was a perfectly reasonable explanation, right?

“It’s all right,” Katara said as she reached out to touch his arm, and, okay, from that gentle tone, which was a complete change from anything earlier, it must mean she had noticed, knew he hadn’t tripped over anything in the terrain, and—from how she was looking at him now—thought it wasn’t surprise that had tripped Danny up, either. “Trust me, I know what it’s like to be a little naïve until you have a chance to leave home for the first time, but unless you’re got a camp around here, you’re not prepared at all.”

Sokka finally put his boomerang away and smirked at Danny. “We at least left home with supplies.”

“Did you have to run without any warning?” Katara asked, giving her brother a pointed look.

“Oh, uh, kinda.” Danny winced, knowing that had to sound like a lie. “I…I didn’t really plan on leaving when I did. This just…happened.”

Sokka raised an eyebrow, but Katara said, “You don’t have to worry. We’re the last people who would turn you in to the Fire Nation.”

Right. So the Fire Nation were the bad guys, at least according to the Water Tribe and, if he was putting things together correctly, the Earth Kingdom, where they were. Meaning the Fire Nation had invaded the Earth Kingdom if this was occupied territory. Danny thought about asking why these two had come into occupied territory themselves and then decided he didn’t want to risk getting into a discussion that would show off how little he knew. If they had decided he was a runaway who knew practically nothing about the world, well, that worked in his favour.

“Thanks.” Danny wasn’t sure what else to say. “Why are you helping me, though? Won’t that put you in danger?” That had to be a fair question in this situation.

“We can’t help everyone,” Katara said quietly, “but we can help some people, even if it’s just a tiny bit. Sometimes, that has to be enough.”

Danny really didn’t know what to say to that, because she certainly wouldn’t understand if he said he knew the feeling, so he smiled weakly in thanks and let the conversation drop.

They were still watching him, but they were more subtle about it now, and it didn’t look like they were watching him more closely than they were watching everything else.

Being downgraded from a threat was a win, though. Danny hoped he didn’t do anything to mess it up.

“There’s no shame in being a refugee,” Sokka said after a moment. “Being from a richer family might’ve bought you an isolated childhood, but it wouldn’t guarantee your safety.”

“We won’t try to hold you for ransom if you tell us where you’re really from,” added Katara.

Danny glanced at her. “I said I was from Amity.”

“I could say I have a platypus bear as a pet,” Sokka interjected. “That doesn’t make it true.”

“We know what it’s like, thinking you understand the way things are and then realizing how little you know,” Katara said quietly. “It can be overwhelming.”

“And it would explain why you’re in your nightclothes,” Sokka said. He’d come in range of Katara’s fist, but he danced out of the way as she swung in his direction. He hadn’t even needed to look at her to know it was coming. “You didn’t know enough to keep your valuables hidden and got robbed your first night on your own, didn’t you?”

“I—” Danny knew it was an excuse for his ignorance being handed to him on a silver platter, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep up with a lie like that when he knew so little. “These aren’t my pajamas,” he said instead. Let them believe what they wanted to believe; that would make his life easier. Even if it blew up in his face somehow, he could truthfully say he’d never said they were right.

They might be suspicious that he hadn’t outright denied it, but then again, he’d already told them something a lot closer to the truth.

“Uh huh.” Sokka glanced at Katara again, and she gave a slight shake her head that Danny didn’t understand.

“Let’s get you some food and water first,” Katara said. “Then we can see about finding you other supplies.”

Danny decided not to point out that they’d already told him it was slim pickings for supplies around here. Not that he had the money to pay for anything, but Sokka had already guessed that. Besides, they thought he was running around in his pjs.

Judging by the sour look on Sokka’s face, he’d evidently translated his sister’s words to mean that she wanted to give him some of their supplies, something Sokka clearly wasn’t sure he approved of.

Katara must have had similar thoughts on Sokka’s expression, since she murmured, “It’s this or bring him with us, and you know what’s safer.”

Katara might not have minded that Danny could overhear her last words, but Sokka closed the distance between them, pulling his sister farther away from Danny before hissing, “It’s not the only option, and you know it. We can’t afford to give away any of our supplies, and just because Toph can make sure he’s not coming in with the intention of stabbing us in the back, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t blab to anyone once he figures out who we’re travelling with. You know as well as I do that that wouldn’t take very long.”

“He’s just kid.”

“Technically, like Aang keeps reminding us, we’re just kids. Who very much cannot afford to so much as drop him off in the next village. Show him the river and teach him how to catch and cook his meals? Fine. Picking him up as a stray when he’s not bringing anything to the table? Not fine.”

“He’s lost.”

“So? He’s not hurt. He’s already in a better position than some refugees. He’ll survive until he can walk to the nearest settlement. Then he can try to get help from people who can actually give it.”

Katara bit her lip and slowed to a stop. “There’s something else.”

“What?”

Danny very much wanted to know the answer to that—what had Katara figured out?—but he tried not to react so they didn’t know he’d been listening in. He deliberately turned away and stared around the trees instead, a mix of deciduous and evergreen. He couldn’t pick out any specific types of trees—nothing distinctive like oak leaves that he could see—and, as far as he could tell, the woods were utterly devoid of critters. He had no idea if that was because this world wasn’t real or if it was simply because all the animals in the region had had warning of their coming and hidden accordingly.

Danny knew his disinterest wouldn’t be very convincing, but if he was lucky, they’d think he’d given up on trying to eavesdrop.

“There’s something…off about him. Not necessarily something wrong, but something different. I can’t…. When he asked about water, I wanted to make sure he wasn’t hiding any on him or nearby in case it was a trap, and— He didn’t feel the same as you or me. I can’t explain it. Toph might have a better idea than I do. Or…or Aang.” The last word was a barely audible whisper.

“You think this might be a spirit thing?” Sokka’s response was closer to a suppressed shriek than anything else, and Danny winced.

“I think he might be spirit touched,” Katara answered, and Sokka’s sharp inhalation was painfully audible. “I wasn’t good enough back then to notice anything about Yue, but—”

“Fine.” Sokka’s voice had gone flat. “I don’t want to shun someone and accidentally anger the spirits. I’ll teach him to fish. You go back and interrupt advanced earthbending practice and pick a meeting place, but make sure everyone’s packed in case this doesn’t go the way you think it’ll go.”

“I know to be careful.”

“We all know to be careful. Some of us just need more reminding than others.”

Katara didn’t say anything else, but she must have nodded or done something similar because Danny heard Sokka stalk back over to him. “Katara’s going back to talk to the rest of our group about what we might be able to spare,” he said as Danny turned back to face him, “and I’ll show you how to fish in the meantime. If you don’t catch anything, I’ll give you one of mine.”

Danny wasn’t about to admit that he’d overheard their entire conversation, so he smiled and said, “That sounds great, thanks.” It didn’t stop the uneasiness from settling in his gut, though. Sure, now he knew these people believed in ghosts, and Sokka’s response made it clear he didn’t want to get on their bad side, but Danny had no idea what being spirit touched meant. He didn’t know if that was seen as a good thing or a bad thing.

More to the point, if it was a bad thing, he didn’t know if these people had something suitable with which to attack spirit touched people, since if they did, chances were good that it would work on him.

He was not lucky enough to get a free pass here.

Still, the odds were good that he’d be able to escape if they did attack since he’d know to be on watch for something, and he wasn’t about to turn down an offer of food. He had no idea when a portal would open and he’d be able to go home. Until then, the best he could do was survive.

He’d survived this much, and his life had hardly been a walk in the park since the accident, let alone before. He wasn’t about to let some ghost fling him into an unknown world and succeed in taking him down. He needed to get out of this to kick their butt and prove to them that they couldn’t get rid of him that easily.

Assuming this wasn’t all a series of genuine coincidences and not the result of the careful manipulation of events.

Danny didn’t want to think about that, though.

He had a much better chance of getting home if there was someone he could beat, and he was going to get home.

Somehow.

(see more fics)

#danny phantom #atla #avatar the last airbender #danny fenton #sokka #katara #crossover #fanfiction #dp fanfiction #atla fanfiction #my writing #ladylynse #snippets #crossover snippet #geronimo-alonzi

167 notes · View notes

jessamine--lovelace · 3 years

Text

i have nowhere else to put these so here. grishaverse au where the darkling is a woman and Alina is a closeted lesbian

they’re all queer idc

edit: this is zoyalina btw even if it doesn't seem so from the beginning

aleksandra morozova was raised amongst so much misoginy and prejudice against grisha that she wanted to gain power and make a good life for everyone like her clearly she got lost along the way lol

anyway. Alina and mal are still bffs gay lesbian alliance

mal has a comp het crush on alina and Alina on him, they get over it quickly tho

Alina is taken to the little palace, she gets an immediate crush on the darkling clearly she thinks Zoya is hot, but just admires from afar bc she s so mean and cold

the darkling is even hotter as a woman u can't change my mind

everything goes mostly like canon, the darkling seduces alina and alina is all about worshipping this powerful woman who wants to give her power. she helps alina realise she likes women, manipulates her in the process, makes her think that the darkling is the only one who could offer her security and other bullshit

the night that baghra tells alina the truth about the darkling’s plan, zoya is waiting alina at her door because she wants to confront her about how she fall out of the darkling’s good grace because of her idk. and baghra finds them both in alina’s rooms so she makes both of them leave, zoya helping alina to get lost in the country baghra makes up a lie about how zoya went to visit her family/is in a mission so no one suspects zoya is a “traitor” except the darkling and genya who know the truth

mal is still looking for alina but he doesn't know Zoya is with her so it's a big surprise when he finds them both huddled up in a big coat together, freezing their asses off, zoya bitching about how alina better be grateful that she s helping to save her glowstick ass

Zoya calls mal alina s boyfriend exactly once before both mal and alina strongly let her know their disgust to that idea

so yeah Zoya is a bit weirded out bc they are so close to each other and yet they're not together??? but she is kinda starting to get along with alina and maybe she s not so bad, and just maybe she starts to like her

they find the stag blabla Zoya is taken back to the little palace while Alina and mal are taken to expand the fold or whatever the darkling has in mind

alina and mal escape and run off as in canon, except they pose as siblings in novyi zem. Mal finds a cute boy there and develops a crush but he s too devoted to keeping alina safe to risk getting into any relationship

Alina doesn't agree and makes him go on a date with the dude before everything goes to shit

the darkling comes back, takes them, Nikolai happens etc.

as soon as Nikolai gets them back in ravka, he tries to woo alina and propose to her like in canon. she s not really out yet tho she s not ready for it, not even Mal knows yet even if he suspects something from their time spend with zoya and the looks alina gave her, and the hurt look she has whenever the darkling is mentioned/she explains what the deal is with her evil plan, but he lets her take her time

Nikolai is all about flirting to the sun summoner and she s nice about it, polite, but clearly trying to get away because she s lowkey uncomfortable. declines his marriage proposal, and nikolai thinks it's because of Mal but he s wrong. mal tries to have a talk with alina about this, but alina panicks and says “he seems like your type, not mine” and mal is lost like ?? he s a prince?? and probably straight?? and he asked YOU to marry him??

and alina realises she is tired to keep this up, so she tells mal about her liking women. mal hugs her and she confesses that the darkling helped her come to terms with it in a way, and it messed with her and she feels shame that she fell for the manipulation

so when they're on the way to os alta, and Nikolai kisses her for the public, she just says "I like girls please never do that again or I'll use the cut on your face." as soon as they are alone in their couch and Nikolai is stunned and apologises to her a lot of shit starts to make sense for nikolai now lol

so after that tiny incident, Nikolai knows it's pointless to pursue Alina so he only keeps up his show for the public and becomes really good friends with alina and mal

nikolai would still very much like that political alliance and he sometimes jokingly tells alina “you’ll have lots of women at your feet if you become queen. aren’t you interested in that?” and alina is just done with his ass

clearly nikolai and mal hook up at some point and it's kinda awkward afterwards bc they both have a bit of a crush on each other but don't want to admit it Alina is amused

so they go back to os alta, and Zoya is there!!! and Alina literally hugs her bc she was so worried and she missed her and "I shouldn't have let her take you away, I'm so sorry I left you behind zoya" and Zoya is so surprised she doesn't respond to the hug for a while before crushing alina in a tight embrace without saying anything

everyone is a bit shocked bc Zoya is hugging Alina?? since when are they getting along??? what is happening???

they have a talk when they are alone and zoya tells alina about her aunt and how she doesn’t blame alina for what the darkling did, alina tells her about the second amplifier. they hug again and maybe some tears are spilled but that’s between them and no one has to know

they prepare and train and alina and zoya get closer and closer. mal, being the captain to alina’s guard, kinda has to stick around with her when she meets with nikolai and it’s awkward and their conversations aren’t as lively as they used to be and it lowkey breaks alina’s heart a bit and annoys her until she explodes one day when she s alone with a miserable looking mal waiting for nikolai to appear at a meeting “saints mal just talk to him”

and mal being mal just straightens his back and ignores her like a stubborn idiot which infuriates alina she totally tries to annoy him by reflecting some light into his eyes

“i know something happened on the road between you two. you’re both acting weird. would it kill you to talk to him?” but mal doesn’t get to answer because nikolai is walking in talking about some plan, totally oblivious to what is happening. Later, after the meeting is over, alina gets nikolai alone and tries to talk to him, but he s just as stubborn as mal and tells her that there’s nothing to be done bc mal avoids him everytime he manages to get near him and got the message “my ego can’t handle another rejection”

therefore alina finds herself in need to fix this thing between nikolai and mal because the tension is getting on her nerves and she is stressed enough as it is with everything going on

little side note, the darkling still comes to her in visions and she thinks she is going insane before she starts talking to zoya about it and zoya takes in the habit of spending the evenings in alina’s rooms, both of them searching in books for more information about the amplifiers or sometimes talking. zoya isn’t soft and she never will be, but alina likes that. a lot. ANYWAY zoya is the one to come up with the plan to somehow lock nikolai and mal in a room together. they get tolya and tamar in on it too.

alina makes sure she sets up a meeting with nikolai under a false pretext when mal is on watch. alina and mal arrive first and as soon as nikolai enters she gets up “oh saints i left the book in my rooms” and leaves before mal or nikolai can react. and then one of the twins closes the door and they can hear it being locked and then alina’s voice from the other side “we’ll let you out after you have a talk. the tension between you two is getting insufferable”

they talk and sort things out a bit. everything gets less stressful for everyone

one night the darkling comes to alina, and zoya is about to leave. alina freezes because it’s not the darkling she sees, but zoya “she’ll never want you. i am the only one who can love you, who understands you.” it’s the darkling’s voice and alina can’t move, can’t breathe, just stares at the darkling as she takes back her own face. zoya can only see alina’s face getting paler and her expression more terrified even as the darkling disappears

zoya tries to shake alina, calls out her name, but alina just looks at her with such a sad expression that it unsettles zoya even more. “she’s right” alina whispers, barely audible, over and over again

“what did she tell you?! alina you can’t listen to her! she lies. she manipulates everyone, you can’t believe anything she says. it’s not the truth. anything she tells you”

alina shakes her head “you’ll never- i’m such an idiot.” tears are welling up in her eyes

“i’ll never what?” “want me”

and zoya freezes, just staring at alina, shocked. alina takes it wrong, she tries to put space between them, tries to run in embarassment, but zoya catches her hands, holds her still and looks into alina’s eyes. alina can’t look her in the eyes, can’t seem to find it in her to do it. “you really are an idiot if you think i would just spend my evenings and risk my ass for just any friend” and then she cups alina’s face in her palms and she kisses her.

alina is so surprised she doesn’t respond to the kiss for a second, but then she kisses zoya back and they both just melt into each other. zoya feels a tear run down alina’s face, into her cheek and breaks away with a “don’t go soft on me now starkov” and alina laughs through her tears and goes to kiss zoya again just because she can.

wow this turned out way longer than i intended, but damn did it give me serotonin coming up with it. i just want to say that, if the darkling was a woman, the character would be more hated, but sexier and i’m alright with that. also everyone is queer because i said so. i have more zoyalina headcanons that i’ll probably post bc now i’m investedTM so come and shout about them to me i won’t mind

56 notes · View notes

elsewhereuniversity · 4 years

Text

Mellow was reading a murder mystery when the knights crashed through the door to her tower. She closed the book and listened to the voices on the stairwell, smiling when she heard the tone: giddy, drunk on relief, the kind of dazed wonder that only comes after the adrenaline stops. She recognized one- Magpie, if she wasn’t mistaken.

Her suspicion was confirmed when the pair stumbled through her door, soaked to the skin, dripping what she sincerely hoped was water onto the floor. Magpie was all in plate armor, except her torso was bare, which seemed to defeat the purpose somewhat. The other girl, unfamiliar, was dressed in what appeared to be a bathrobe, and was looking around with undisguised suspicion. Mellow smiled, did her level best to appear nonthreatening.

“Magpie, you’re back,” she said lightly. “I’d say it’s good to see you again, but if you’ve found me, that only means one thing.”

Magpie’s smile turned crooked, a familiar mixture of bashfulness and pride on her face (like a hundred other knights before).

Mellow didn’t entirely understand how it worked. She wasn’t sure if it was a curse or a gift. She didn’t even really remember what she was before she became… well, whatever it was that she was now. She distantly remembered climbing the tower stairs, but even that was foggy, and before that… well, just fog, and the distant sound of the Unsea.

Mellow didn’t try to remember things very often.

But, for better or for worse, people found their way to her tower. Not just people- knights, those recently returned from their quests. And never whole ones. If she was lucky, she got people like Magpie, who would bear scars with pride. If she was unlucky, she’d be sitting with someone with less fingers than expected, or short an eye. The kinds of wounds that even she couldn’t fix, just take the pain away.

The worst ones were the silent ones, or the crying ones. The ones that told her through words or otherwise that dear ones hadn’t made it back, or that they were not as they were.

“How did we get here?” asked the newcomer, jolting Mellow back to the present. Her suspicion was fading into curiosity as she looked around, peering out the window. “I swear, I’ve gone past here a hundred times, and this wasn’t here.”

“Beats me, love,” Mellow said, smiling wryly. “From what I understand, it won’t be here unless you’re, ah…"

"Oh.” The girl looked out the window to the swirling fog, then asked, “Are you a ghost?”

“Lark!” Magpie looked mortified. Mellow just laughed.

“Not on my good days.” She looked at her hand in spite of herself, a little self conscious. She shouldn’t have worried- you could barely see the floor through it.

“And on bad days?” Lark asked with genuine interest. Magpie looked about to die of embarrassment.

“On bad days, you could read a book through me,” Mellow admitted cheerfully. “But enough about me. What happened?”

The two women shared a look, and having met hundreds of knights over the years, Mellow could read the where to begin without trying.

“Let me put it this way,” she said, pulling two chairs to the floor and gesturing for them to sit. “Where are you hurt?”

Magpie immediately held out her right arm, and Mellow winced. There were a couple of shallow gashes along her arm. Something twinkled in the longest one- glass, she realized.

“What did you do, punch a window?” she asked sardonically.

“Something like that,” Lark said, and held up her left arm. It was similarly injured- actually. Looking between the two of them, the cuts were exactly the same size, same length- just mirrored. Mellow raised her eyebrows.

“All right,” she said, “I’ll admit I haven’t seen that very often.”

It was only the work of several minutes to retrieve the shards from the girls’ arms. The unsettling thing was that when the matching shards were closer together, they vibrated and then snapped together into one. Mellow did her level best not to think too hard about it, particularly after hearing the story- something about a trap, a thrilling duel between Magpie and some-random-fae-or-another, and a particularly belligerent library book with the solution to escaping. After hearing about the tome’s quest, Mellow supposed she couldn’t blame them for trying a more, uh, direct way out.

“But,” Lark said brightly, “I did find Escher.”

“What?” Mellow asked, confused.

“Escher. He’s been gone for like, two years now. Turns out there was some to-do about his comp sci project, and one thing led to another, so he got thrown in there same as me.” Lark held up her other arm, where the wrist was surrounded by a ring of bruises. “After I was taken prisoner by the frogs, we managed to set the place on fire and escape. He’s fine.”

“The- I’m sorry, where do frogs come in here?” Mellow pulled a bottle from the top shelf, squinted at it, added a few drops to the bowl of water she was carrying, and brought it over to Lark’s chair.

“It’s kind of a complicated story,” Lark admitted.

“I’ll say,” Magpie said, glaring at Lark. “You didn’t tell me about any frogs.”

“It’s been a weird couple of days,” Lark said defensively. Mellow grinned, wetting a clean cloth and gently dabbing the liquid on the worst scratch, her hands as gentle as she could make them. Despite that, Lark winced.

“I’d say so,” Mellow said, talking to distract, moving onto the second one. “There are frogs in a mirror?”

“I mean, not really the mirror,” Lark said, watching with interest as the first cut slowly healed, leaving a pink line of new scar. “The mirror was the portal, not literally where I was. Admittedly, I was put in a gladiator’s arena to fight my own reflection to the death, but I think that’s just a coincidence. Also, to be clear they weren’t really frogs, they were… frog-like.”

She didn’t elaborate, and after seeing the shadow cross her face Mellow was wise enough not to ask her to. The relief was clearly wearing off, and Lark looked like she wanted nothing more than to dry off and go to bed. She moved on to Magpie, doing her best to make small talk, smiling, keeping her hands gentle. This is what she was good at.

As the last cut sealed shut, and Mellow tipped the faintly-pink water down the drain, Lark sighed and got to her feet. Mellow couldn’t help but notice she had no reflection in the mirror.

“Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but unfortunately I’ve missed half my midterms and I need to make them up tomorrow, so I really need to sleep.”

“Skip physics,” Magpie said, but she was yawning as well.

“Out,” Mellow said, handing each of them a small bag. “Freely given,” she clarified. “Just like my aid.”

Lark visibly relaxed, and Mellow kicked herself for not setting her at ease earlier. “What is it?”

“Tea,” Mellow said. “Don’t waste it. It’s my favorite.”

“Are you sure you don’t want it?” Lark asked. Mellow did her best to keep her smile light.

“Don’t drink much tea these days,” she said, and out of habit looked down at her hands. She could distinctly see the floorboards now through them. She closed them into fists, tucked them behind her back- don’t scare her, don’t unnerve her. This is a safe place, healing and kind words and careful hands.

“We should go,” Magpie said into the awkward pause. “Come on, Lark.”

They were at the door to the room when Lark turned around, narrowing her eyes in that quizzical way that Mellow had learned meant she was about to ask a question that Magpie would cringe at.

“I have one more question,” she said. “The stairs, they end here.”

“Yes,” Mellow agreed.

“But if this is the highest room,” Lark said, cocking her head to the side, “Who keeps the light lit?”

The sharpest ones generally did ask. Mellow thought maybe she had asked someone once, the day she had entered the lighthouse, beckoned by the steady glow of the beacon at the top. She didn’t remember who, or where they had gone.

“I couldn’t say for sure,” she began. She paused, looking at the two knights who she sincerely hoped she would never see again (for the right reasons, of course.), at her careful, gentle, see-through hands.

“But do you know? I think it’s me.”

-Bean

#stories #bean #long post #oh i LOVE this #the lighthouse #the unsea #lark #magpie #mellow #everything about this is great #the non sequitors about their quest #are fantastic #submission

194 notes · View notes

potentially-lemongrass · 3 years

Note

hey! um i wanted to ask a bi queerstake member whose dated about this, um I want to marry in the temple and I know that means I'll have to marry a AMAB person, is it bad that I want a nb/nb aligned masc person or at least a bisexual or asexual partner? i feel like i wont find someone like that, I just want someone who understands and is also queer but also fits kind of with the church narrative. is that weird? you dont have to answer this I just wanted to ask since no one talks about it i guess

honestly my perspective on dating has changed a lot since meeting B so I might say something completely different to what I was saying in previous months. (and of course, as always, this is just Ryn’s Opinion TM so take what you will). Also, looong post incoming as this is also a bit of a life update/journal entry since it’s been a while. I’m using B to respect his privacy and as always, I know that i’m super personal on here but please don’t try to doxx me or find out more than I’m willing to share <3 I’m slightly paranoid so I feel like I always need to say that.

ANYWAY, I am still decidedly bisexual ✌ and so I’ll fight against bi erasure all day long since I’m a cis woman dating a cishet man. I will never be a straight woman and B totally understands and respects that. However, it also doesn’t exactly matter?? since I’ve chosen him so I’m not dating any men OR women.

Before meeting him, I was thinking about dating in the abstract especially since I really never had a serious relationship with anyone. I was fantasizing about dating girls and feeling deeply cheated that the Church was robbing me of that opportunity. I was angry, deeply depressed, and just generally not in a good mental place.

Coming to college was when I decided I wasn’t mentally going to “do” Church anymore. I skipped a few Sundays, and still signed up for Institute but I was angry and very determined to distance myself from the Church. I had to know if I even wanted to do this with my life and part of my master plan was getting a girlfriend. (although with the caveat that dating a girl, *just* to date a girl and not a guy, isn’t the best plan and I should have been more focused on romance)

I didn’t expect to meet B and when I did, I was deeply worried about getting a man who was “Peter Priesthood” and I would never be able to share my queer identity with him. B isn’t at all like that. He spent enough time around the queer kids in high school to really get a feel for the struggle and he’s never ever made me feel weird about it. He’s even encouraged and asked me to talk about it so I didn’t feel like I had to hide anything.

I came to two conclusions (well, maybe two and a half). 1) I’m definitely bisexual. Over the summer, I had briefly wondered if I was a lesbian and comp het was just taking its toll. Nope. Men are hot and my bf is absolutely a snack. So if anyone is looking for advice about figuring out sexuality, just try dating someone. I totally believe that you can know your sexuality without experience but it most definitely helps if you know what you’re talking about.

2) I missed church. I hadn’t realized it until I walked away but I truly do have a testimony and I longed for the presence of the Spirit in my life. So I chose to turn back. I read my scriptures and prayed sincerely and listened at church. No, I’m not entirely happy with the Church. There are things that make me cry and cringe and grit my teeth, but I have decided that I want to be here.

Part of that realization was B. My friend asked me if I could see myself getting married in the temple and I realized suddenly that I could. Suddenly it wasn’t a faceless man dragging me into a suburban life of mommy minivans and LDS conformity. It was the thought of B and I, holding hands and promising each other forever in the most eternal sense and it was me, making covenants with Heavenly Father. He and I both know that I’ve always had real joy in my life when I was doing my best to keep His commandments.

What I really needed was to accept my queer identity and feel like I could date girls if I wanted to. Finding B and finding my testimony were linked, as wild it is to say.

Not to say that that road would be easy. I’m not even close to being ready for marriage. B and I are figuring things out, both between us and with the Church. If faith was neat and simple, it wouldn’t be such an enduring theme throughout all of history.

But maybe sometime in the next 5 years? Maybe in 2-3 years? I might be Mrs. Lemongrass. (pffft yes we’ll assume we’re taking my tumblr url as a last name lmao)

SO now you’re wondering about how that applies to your actual question. There will definitely be people in the Church who match what you’re looking for. My philosophy is that there really is someone out there for everyone. You’re trying to forecast for the future which is great and necessary but love doesn’t happen in the abstract. A Relationship TM isn’t some nebulous concept or a copy and paste letter. It’s what happens when you and a specific other person like each other a whole lot and it goes from there. Your relationship won’t look like mine or your parents or anyone else’s because you and your future partner are unique people.

So you totally may find someone in the Church who is queer and down for a temple marriage. Keep in mind as well that you may also find someone in the Church who is cishet and that works too. Just because someone isn’t queer doesn’t mean they can’t understand--assuming no one will ever understand you has always felt arrogant and dismissive of the power of empathy imho--so a cishet guy could be just as amazing.

So there’s no need to feel bad about wanting a specific type of person but don’t close yourself off! Enjoy the journey and put yourself out there with confidence. No one is good at relationships; they’re inherently awkward. You’ll say dumb stuff or fart in front of them or they’ll overshare and you’ll panic. Just trust the process, laugh at yourself, and realize the only thing you can really do is live in *this* moment. I hope this doesn’t sound condescending at all! This is just all my big sister advice that I can think of. Remember that you are loved, always, always, always by our Heavenly Parents and They’ll help you figure stuff out.

#b tag #ryn rambles #ryn.text

8 notes · View notes

sapphicsylvari · 4 years

Text

Lights

@tyrias-library Hope it’s okay to tag you, even though this doesn’t fullfill a prompt!

On AO3

SUMMARY: The pirates of the Chimaera are well aware what eerie lights on the Open Sea mean - Krait. Their prisoners using these lights to wave down ships, begging for help. Every sailor worth their salt knows to avoid these dreaded towers, for their own good.

The fog lies heavy on the surface of the Unending Ocean, making navigation fort he Chimaera nigh impossible. The ship glides slowly through the waves, as distant thunder cracks, lighting up the impenetrable blanket of mist.

“Lights! Lights on the Horizon!” calls Cariyen, the ship’s only Sylvari from the Crow’s Nest, then swings over the small platform’s railings and descends the mast. “Starboard side, Captain.” She elaborates, when she is down on the main deck.

Captain Asha Gaets, flanked by her loyal First Mate Snezz, is already peering through her spyglass, brows furrowed as she strains to make out anything. “I see ‘em. Very faint. Think they’re moving a little.” She says, lowering the spyglass from her eye and looking down to her asuran companion. “Mh, bad idea, Captain.” Snezz remarks. “We’re too far out to be encountering anything friendly.” “I know.” Asha responds. “Krait.” “Those lights mean that they have prisoners, trying to wave down ships.” Snezz speaks up a little, as the crew gathers around. “We’d do best to avoid them, unless we want to join them in their cages.”

“Prisoners?” a sharp voice enter the conversation, as Farris Nightrunner, a young Charr, squeezes her way through the small crowd. “Boss, we gotta help them. Who knows what the greasy snakes are doing to them!” “That’s a terrible-…” Snezz begins, but is cut off quickly by Farris’ growl. “Coward! If we leave them, their blood’s on our hands. Your hands!” she snarls at the small Asura, who does not even flinch. “These waters are their domain, Farris.” He calmly argues. “If we engage, we will all suffer their fate. There’s courage, and there’s recklessness.” “Are you calling me a fool, you sniveling runt? You might run from a challenge, but we-…” Farris stops mid-sentence, interrupted by the Captain firing a gunshot into the skies.

“Good thing that decision isn’t up to you two.” Asha says, stowing her flintlock on her belt again. Snezz looks up to her with hope in his eyes, but she only graces him with a crooked grin. “Farris, you’re right. We’re going in.” “Captain-…” “No. Zip it up, Snezz.” Asha raises her hand for emphasis. “I’m not leaving these people.” A brief beat of silence occurs, in which Snezz leans back against the mast and huffs in exasperation, wondering how Asha Gaets even stayed alive before she met him, but elects not to further defy his Captain. Not out of respect, but because he knows her well enough to understand when she won’t budge on a decision.

“Cariyen, Liamu, Farris and Auri.” Asha calls again. “I want you with me on a rowboat. Snezz, you have command of the ship. Bring us in, but stay out of visual range.” “Aye.” Snezz says, and makes his way to the wheel. One of their deckhands is already pushing in a crate for him to stand on, while another two begin lowering the rowboat. Asha steps forward, her striketeam in tow. Her eyes narrow as she gazes at the lights.

There’s a tense silence among the rowboat’s passengers, as it approaches the Krait Deeps. Asha sits in front, staring on ahead, while the two Charr, Farris and her mother Auri are busy rowing behind her. Cariyen, the Sylvari is behind them, carrying a magical light in her hands to illuminate their immediate vicinity. At the back end of the boat sits Liamu, the tiny asuran necromancer, currently in the process of summoning a selection of horrors to aid in the fight to come.

“Cariyen.” Asha says, and the Sylvari snuffs out her light. She looks up, now much closer to the lights she’d spotted and feels oddly nostalgic, reminded of the glowing pods in the Pale Tree’s boughs she used to look upon from below. But that is where the similarities end. The closer the rowboat gets to the Deeps, the more the area’s eeriness is replaced by horror. Pained cries pierce the silence, the sound of whips and hateful voices taunting. Farris’ upper lip pulls back in a snarl.

“Get ready.” Asha order in a hushed whisper and draws her rifle. A splashing sound briefly draws her attention, but it’s just Liamu’s minions jumping overboard and swimming ahead. The group holds their breath and listens. Minutes go by, and Asha’s gaze rests on Liamu’s face.

The little woman has her eyes closed, and an expression of deep concentration on her features. “Twenty, maybe more.” She reports. “There will be many under the surface. I am drawing their attention to my minions.” “Cause some chaos.” Asha orders. “Once they’re busy with your little friends, we jump into the fray.” Liamu nods, digging a tooth into her lower lip, as she coordinates several individual undead at once.

An angry hiss sounds, then a battle cry and a cacophony of combat noises breaks loose. Asha stands up in the boat. “Auri, element of surprise.” The Mesmer nods and hands her oar to Farris. The air distorts around the boat as she raises her hands, channeling her magic, cloaking the group in a veil of invisibility. “Let’s give ‘em hell.” Asha growls and steps off the boat, just as it comes to a stop on the Deeps’ surface gangplanks.

The rest of the team follows her, Cariyen leaving last and pulling the boat onto the wooden planks. They stick close together, watching Liamu’s minions maiming and being maimed by their serpent enemies. Asha assumes a crouching position and levels her rifle on the largest Krait she can see, aiming directly for his head. When her shot rings out, her invisibility falls off her in a flash of purple magic. A barrage of bright blue arrows arches over her head and comes down on the Krait with the fury of a god. The group swarms out from behind their Captain. Cariyen seeks high ground, while raining her magical arrows down on the enemy. A cloud of toxic locusts ascends the tower, gathering around the heads of a group of Krait that were about to come to their brethren’s aid. Shrill cries fill the air, broken up and distorted by time itself warping and twisting from Aurelia Sharpwit’s shield. Clockhands made of ethereal light spin in reverse, rewinding the Krait into their previous positions, opening them up to attack. That attack being a jet of fire from the mouth of Farris’ flamethrower. Those that do not immediately die, shriek and try to slither away, into the water, but Auri’s magic freezes them in motion and her daughter’s flames consume them entirely.

While the battle on the central platform rages, Asha makes her way upward, rifle at the ready. The prisoners are all in the upper levels of the tower, locked up in crude cages. There are some stragglers in her way, most of which she can dispatch at range, or punt off the ledge with the butt of her rifle.

“Help! Please! Please help Quaggan!” cries a prisoner as Asha approaches the first set of cages. They’re unguarded, as most of the Krait are currently down, fighting her crew. Only one of them has movement inside, a little quaggan, all alone. Left and right are only putrefying corpses, picked at by birds. Asha rushes over, pulling her crowbar out of her backpack, and getting to work on levering the cage open. “Don’tcha worry. That’s why we’re here.” She assures the prisoner inside. The poor quaggan is beaten and bruised, and holding one of its hands close to its chest, clearly broken. It takes her some elbow grease, but Asha manages to wedge the doors open, and the quaggan limps out, fearfully looking up at its savior.

“It’s okay. Stick with me. My friends are distracting the Krait.” Asha explains. “I’m going further up. There’s more prisoners there.” “Quaggan will follow you.” They reply. “Too wounded. Nowhere else to go.” “I’ve got a ship. We’ll patch you up and take you home.” Asha promises as she moves on up, mindful to reduce her speed, so the quaggan can keep up with her.

Another voice addresses her as soon as she comes in view of the next set of cages, one platform up. “Hey, you! Let me out right now!” demands an Asura, with enough spirit in her to rattle at her cage’s bars. She wears black and red, tattered, but still very much recognizable as Inquest. Asha pauses, but shakes her head and jogs over to her, then gets to work on the door. “How’d someone like you end up so far from Maguuma?” she asks while she works, and the Asura huffs and puffs for a moment before responding. “We were on our way to Orr. That’s all I’m classified to tell you.” “You the only survivor?” Asha inquires, and the door creaks open under her assault with the crowbar. “I think so. I haven’t seen any of my krewemates.” The Asura steps out of the cage and Asha positions herself protectively between her and the quaggan. “Great. Well, I saved you, which means you owe me. So keep your mouth shut while I free the other prisoners and we all get to go home alive.” She states and moves on the next cage. Inside is a humanoid creature Asha cannot discern. They’re blue, but clearly breathing, clad in a full-face mask and adorned with a pair of luminescent wings.

“She’s put up a good fight.” The Asura comments. “And the Krait pressured her tenfold for that.” “She’s alive, though.” Asha says and gets to work on the door. “That’s enough for me.” “Quaggan knows her.” The quaggan adds. “She got captured near Quaggan’s home.” “When?” Asha asks. “Quaggan does not remember.”

“They were here when I was locked up. So, more than a week ago.” The Asura contributes. “Hey, do you have a ship or something? I’m not a good swimmer.” “I do. She’s circling the Deeps just outside of view.” Asha responds and gets the door open. She casts her crowbar aside and crouches down to inspect the creature. She looks horrible. There are deep gashes all over her arms and back, likely caused by bladed whips. Her wings have holes and the left one’s main bone is completely shattered, as if intentionally crushed. Under the creature’s heavily damaged armor, Asha gets a glimpse of greenish black flesh, an ugly infection, or a necrotic curse. She presses two fingers against the creature’s neck, feeling a slow, but steady pulse. Relying entirely on the mechanical exoskeleton around her left arm, Asha lifts the creature up and takes her out of the cage.

The rest of her team is luckily just ascending the planks. “Ah, good. We’ve got wounded.” Asha says and hands the creature over to Cariyen. “You and the Quaggan can go back to the boat and row over to the Chimaera. Tell Snezz to bring ‘er in, then take care of these two. Be ready for more wounded. The rest of you, spread out and gather any survivors on the central platform. Me and my new friend here will establish a perimeter.”

While she speaks, Asha pulls one of her pistols from her belt and hands it to the Asura she freed. “Don’t try anything funny. You’re outnumbered.” She hisses to her as she passes. “C’mon.”

Cariyen, and the Quaggan accompany them down to the platform, before getting on the boat. “I will see you soon, Captain. Be safe.” The Sylvari says, before grabbing the oars and starting to make her way back to the ship. “You too.” Asha calls after her, then turns back to the Asura.

“What a massacre.” She comments, as she steps over the piled up Krait bodies, burned, pierced and rotted away by Liamu’s magic. “They deserve worse.” Asha simply justifies. “You don’t look too hurt.” “I’m not.” The Asura admits. “They were too busy beating the living daylights out of my neighbor. I thought I could use that to slip away, but… Where would I go?” “Fair.” Asha says. “You got a name?”

The Asura hesitates visibly. “It’s Mhido.”

It took a good twenty minutes to reach the ship, but once she is back on the Chimaera, with Asha’s command passed on to Snezz, Cariyen has time to care for the wounded. She already cast a mild regeneration spell on the quaggan’s superficial wounds while on her way back. “Let me see your hand.” She asks, and the small creature shyly extends their arm to her. It causes them obvious pain, so Cariyen already has a numbing spell ready on her fingertips when she makes skin contact. The bone is, thankfully, cleanly broken. Cariyen closes her eyes, gently nudging the bone back into its regular place, and funnels healing into the quaggan’s body. Both bone fragments slowly connect again, a fragile connection, but with time and care, the injury would mend fully. She puts the arm in a splint and wraps it in a bandage for good measure.

Then, she turns to the unconscious creature. Her hands brush lightly over her whip marks, closing the open wounds and rejuvenating her body’s natural regenerative powers. Likely awakened by that energy, the creature jolts and grabs Cariyen by the wrist. “Where am I?” she asks in a sharp, heavily accented voice, attempting to sound menacing, but her fear shimmers through. “Be at ease.” Cariyen soothes. “You are safe. We attacked the Krait Deeps you were held in and rescued you. You are badly injured. Will you let me mend you?” A few seconds pass, and the creature’s grip loosens. “You defeated the Krait?” “Not alone. My crew and I did.” Cariyen responds and gently frees her hand from the creature’s. “I have to set your bones straight before I can mend them. This will hurt.” “Do not hold back. I can endure.” The creature says and Cariyen gets to work on the mangled wing. It is entirely limp, and the creature is likely unable to move it at all. One by one, Cariyen reconstructs the shattered bone, making her way from the base to the tip of the limb. The entire time, the creature is completely silent, only the odd, sharp inhale hinting that she feels pain. “What were you seeking among the Krait?” she eventually asks, while Cariyen begins mending the wing. “Their victims. We saw the lights from afar and decided to intervene.” The Sylvari explains. “In exchange for what?”

Cariyen pauses and looks up at the creature’s mask. “We did not do this for a reward.” She states and the creature falls silent again, in quiet contemplation of what altruism might be.

The sounds of a second rowboat being returned to the ship has Cariyen looking up. The Inquest Asura, Farris and a number of freed prisoners step onto the deck, in varying degrees on injury and weariness. There is more work to do.

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #my writing #gw2 fanfiction #tyriaslibrary

45 notes · View notes

sluttyprincessinarizona · 4 years

Text

Holy shit, alright.

So, first off, hi. I’ve been having a tough few days because of various reasons that I may or may not get into in this post. I’ve been bottling up all of my feelings for too long and writing things down has always been easier for me than talking about them. Basically, this is me spilling a lot of my secrets so I can get them out of my head. I’m sorry if this isn’t what you expected or wanted from me, please skip this if you’re not okay with a post like this.

TW//: Talk of anxiety and depression, mental and emotion manipulation(?), mentions of death and suicide, and just dark shit in general. Proceed with a lot of caution.

Hello. My name is Malachi. That’s not my birth name but it is the name I choose to go by. I am a non-binary African American person that is trying their absolute best in the life I was given. Admittedly, I’m not fairing very well but I continue to try everyday.

I come from a fairly large family. 8 siblings in total, 1 on my moms side and 7 on my dads. My mom and dad never married, they broke up when I was five years old, and when my dad moved out, I stayed living with my mom. My mom is bipolar and manic depressant and my older sister, my moms daughter, was a spoiled brat until I was born. From very early on, my sister would constantly tell me that I ruined her life, that she wished I was never born, that she hated me, etc. Unfortunately for me, my mom wanted me and my sister to get along so I was always around her. She would read books to me and have me around all the time. Because of this, I’m pretty sure anyway, I grew up to be very gifted. I entered kindergarten a year early, and all of my school life felt easy. I was never challenged. Even the gifted classes I was out in were hardly anything to me. Now, I know this sounds like I’m bragging, but I take no pride in these words or my talents. I’ll tell you why later.

Growing up was surprisingly difficult for me. My mom was struggling to support both of us so we moved house a lot. We moved into our grandma’s house at one point. That was when it was the worst. My sister would constantly tell on me, but when I turned the tables on her, she’d beg me not to. She’d promise that she’d ever tell on me again, and then turned around and threw away said promise as soon as I let it go. I was the “problematic” child. My sister berated me constantly, telling me that I was bad at dancing and singing, which is still one of my passions to this day. It stuck with me. Everything does.

Fastforward to middle school. I had spent the last few years of my life with a less than agreeable sister and a difficult to approach mother. I’ll get into my father’s deal in a little bit. Elementary school hadn't been good either. I was at a higher level than lost of people, so I would occupy my free time with books. PE and outside activities never intrigued me as much as most kids, and so I was then deemed the class outcast all the way until about 7th grade. Up until 5th, I trusted others way too easily. Someone could walk up to me, tell me their name and say they wanted to be friends and within a week I'd be telling them all my secrets and family troubles. It was stupid really, but no one taught me any different. I was betrayed a lot, and everyone in our grade knew things about me that I'm embarrassed to admit. It was heartbreaking to 5th grade me. Why was everyone so mean?

I was always more of a tomboy, even as a child. The girls were too "girly" for me and the boys didn't converse with girls so I was, again, alone.

By the time I got to 6th grade, I had already adapted a system. Go to school, do well, read in your free time, go home. No friends, no acquaintances, nothing. It was how I kept my heart safe. And it worked for a while. Luckily, I moved schools when I came up with the system, so no one was too keen on approaching me in the first place. Then, 7th grade came around. And holy god, was it horrible. For some reason, I made a friend. Now, she was nice. Very nice. We bonded over Undertale, she was great. We're still friends to this day. But I kept her at arms length, cause I had just broken the system. That wasn't apart of the plan. Even worse, I made two more friends. And worse than that, I developed my first ever crush on someone. All of my plans were failing, my walls were crumbling. But when these walls fell, my heart grew weaker still, cause having friends isn't as great as it should be. Especially in middle school.

Our small group was riddled with mental illnesses, and we'd joke about wanting to die at least twice a day. It was how we coped, even though none of us made any effort to get better. It wasn't the best, but 8th grade was somehow worse.

Our group split right down the middle. Half of the group wanted nothing to do with the other half. And I was stuck in the middle. I liked everyone, they were all my friends. How could I possibly choose between them?

And then, as if things couldn't get worse, one of my closest friends in that group called me out. Apparently, I had become so dependent on them, on her, that I was becoming "too outgoing" and annoying, and she stopped responding to me. I had let her inside my walls and she still hurt me deeper than anyone else. I apologized profusely. I had gotten so used to not being a bother that losing her trust was one of my worst fears. It scarred me. I spent days sulking, just wanting to properly apologize to her. I wanted to hear from her, I needed to. Eventually she forgave me, but the damage had been done. That was when I had come up with a new idea. Another system. I didn't execute it, but the idea sprouted in the back of my mind.

8th grade was the year of my first panic attack. It was dumb, really. I woke up, got ready for school, and realized there was an assignment I forgot to do that was due later that day. I had had a perfect record. My homework was never late, and it terrified me to no end to think that my streak would end like that. I sat against the wall of my bedroom, covering my mouth and hoping that I was crying quietly, so I wouldn't wake my dad. No one to help me, no one to ground me. I was spiraling for too long. The only thing that snapped me out of it was myself. I had to go to school or I'd be late, that was how I got myself out of that darkness. Pathetic, I know.

High school was a different battle field in and of itself. Sophomore, Junior and Senior year were pretty good, so I'll only talk about Freshman year.

I was very scared of high school. All the middle school teachers said high school teachers were ruthless, mean and impatient. They kicked people out of class, out of the whole school. School had been easy but high school was different. The mere mention of it made me nervous. Oh yeah, I haven't mentioned it before, but I have pretty bad anxiety. It's primarily social anxiety, but it gets bad at the worst possible times. I think I might have depression but I'm too scared to bring it up with my therapist, so that'll probably stay unsolved.

Freshman year wasn't very bad. It wasn't worse than 8th grade at least. What really got me was the workload. Self discipline, time management, all the mature people things that I had to learn. It made my anxiety skyrocket. I would be finishing assignments during lunch, mere hours before they were due. I was a rightful mess, on all accounts.

I had a big fallout with my dad, and that just made all of my problems worse. I'll get into that another time, seeing as this post is already too long.

Finishing high school was a breeze compared to earlier years. I made a small group of friends, many of which are onto bigger adventures in life. I haven't started college yet, but I haven't talked about what it is that I really wanted to talk about. The thing that's really been on my mind.

I'm nobody. I'm not just a nobody. I'm nobody. I honestly don't know who I am. My entire life, I had forfeited finding myself in favor of catering to others. I relinquished my personal freedom to make others life easier. I listened to everything my parents told me to do. No question, no complaints. I bend and broke myself to make my sister happy. I gave her so much of myself that I didn't have any left for me, yet she's still not happy with me. My friends don't know who I am. My mind is constantly thinking, I'm constantly drowning in dark thoughts and harmful words but they don't know. I hide it from them, I hid everything from them. I told them not to worry about it. And eventually, they did. It hurt. It stung. But it was my fault entirely.

My dad called me a robot once. I followed orders with feeling or hesitance. He was right. My constant thought process is all of my responsibilities. All of the things I need to do for someone else. Taking a break is impossible. Mt family needs me to function properly so they can live freely and without regret. I can't do that.

I can't eat what I want without making my mom angry in some way. I can't say or do or buy or receive anything without getting into an argument with my sister about how I'm somehow the spoiled one. Hell, I take a nap for too long and my mom gets upset at me. My dad is another ball game all on his own, so I won't talk about him right now.

What I'm trying to say it that my life isn't mine. My life is spent caring for others. Listening to other people over myself.

I'm horrible at taking compliments. I brush them off, deny them, pretty much anything other than saying thank you. It's not that I'm not grateful. I'm just tired of them. I've been showered with praise all my life, but it's bittersweet when you're taken advantage of every day. Taken for granted endlessly. They start to fade together.

Generic, everyday praise infuriates me to the highest level. Don't you dare say that cookie cutter bullshit to me. You think I haven't heard "oh you're so smart" before?? You think I haven't heard "you're beautiful" before??? I understand that you're just trying to be nice, but fuck off with that run of the mill fuckery.

Compliment me

How about you say, thank you for trying so hard for us?

Or, I see you helping out. I appreciate it.

Or, god forbid, you cab relax for once, I can take care of it.

Because god knows that I need a fucking break sometimes!

Oh, take a day off? Unless you want to come over here and handle my 101 responsibilities for this day alone, I suggest you shut that shit up right now.

Telling to take it easy doesn't fix the fucking problem.

One thing I know I do have are some major anger issues. That's not easily solved. None of my problems are.

At this point, I feel like I am my problems. Without my anxiety and my anger, who am I?

Who would I be?

Would I be better? Worse? Who would I have become?

I don't want help because help would change me. Help would get rid of me.

Whoever that me may be.

2 notes · View notes

antivanruffles · 5 years

Text

Perfect

For @ellorgast who donated to the Rainbow Railroad during my fic drive! I’m sorry this is so late, but I hope you enjoy U/M Ballroom!Verse Honeymoon Shenanigans!

Also up on AO3, and many thanks to @antivanonmytongue for help!

Edmond rubbed his temple where a pounding headache was starting to flair to life. Heaving a tired sigh, he pulled his out his cellphone and scrolled his contacts until he found the one he wanted. Selecting the name, he put the phone up to his ear as it rang. It was oddly tinny and hollow to his ears.

As Edmond waited for them to pick up, he paced where he stood in front of the Champ de Mars, with the lush green lawns and flowering plants on full display while the Eiffel Tower rose behind them, completing the picturesque scene. The sun was starting to dip toward the skyline, setting the sky on fire with streaks of orange and red and pink, when a familiar voice finally picked up the phone.

“Edmond?” Kam sounded rightfully confused. “Is something wrong?”

“I have lost my wife.” Edmond sighed again and wondered how this had all gone so wrong.

***

The day that Edmond and Sylvia wed was as beautiful and perfect as a postcard. Sylvia spent months planning it down the smallest detail, and all of her diligence had paid off.

In the end the whole affair was a lot grander than Edmond had expected, but that was what happened when one was a marrying a Lord’s daughter. The final guest list was shockingly large and full of many notable names. It was a little unnerving knowing that royals would be attending his wedding, but all in all it was good seeing as Edmond’s side was rather sparse.

The estate gardens were in full bloom, awash with a riot of colors and the air full of the heady scent of roses. Perfect for the reception. The church they had chosen was done up in shades of shining silver and blushing pink.

Edmond’s tuxedo had been perfectly tailored and Syliva had been like a dream come true in layers of taffeta and tulle. Edmond had never been happier in his life as they had danced late into the night. Everyone and everything else forgotten for the brief, perfect moment.

Unfortunately the perfection of that day did not translate to their honeymoon. It all started with arrival at their lodgings in Paris.

The place was a quiet little inn, romantic and private, and hidden away from the more touristy areas. Edmond knew it would be the perfect place to spend their honeymoon. The only problem was that there had been a mix-up with the reservation, they had gotten the dates wrong. After a back and forth with the manager, who apologized profusely for the inconvenience and offered to comp them a champagne breakfast for the duration of their stay, he offered them the only room available.

With a resigned sigh, Edmond turned to Sylvia. Room keys in hand.

“How much of that did you understand?” he asked. Sylvia’s French was passable, and she was improving leaps and bounds every day, but she wasn’t quite fluent yet.

“Enough. I did hear the word champagne though!” She smiled sweetly, as bright and happy as ever, and that helped to ease some of the tension coiling inside Edmond.

He knew their room would be nice enough, but it wouldn’t be the honeymoon suite he had arranged for with rose petals and candles and a bottle of wine. Unfortunately there was little he could do about it at the moment. Not if they actually wanted a room for the night.

They made their way to the room with their luggage in tow. The inn was everything Edmond thought it would be, and that was something good at least. Sylvia appeared enamored with it, marveling the paintings on the walls as they went, gushing over the brightly colored geraniums visible in the window boxes.

There was a particularly lovely red geranium outside the window across from their door, and just beyond that was a small, well tended garden with a rainbow of roses. Edmond decided to take that as a good sign as he opened the door to their room and stepped inside.

At a glance everything appeared in perfect order, meticulously clean, with a view of an ivy covered wall -- not the view of the Eiffel Tower he had been hoping for, but pretty nonetheless. The furniture was antique and extremely well cared for, the bedding looked plush with stacks of gold tasseled throw pillows and burgundy accents.

Although that was where the problem with the room lie: the bed. Or rather the beds. They had been given a double. Edmond sat down their bags and started muttering to himself. Sylvia entered behind him and shut the door with a faint click. Turning around to fully take in the room, she started giggling.

“It’s sweet, like they used to do in old television shows.” She looked up at Edmond, trying to smother down her laughter. It wasn’t working.

“Yes, perfect for a honeymoon, hm?”

“We can always share,” Sylvia said, looping her arms around his waist. She tilted her head back to look at him. “I don’t take up much space, and besides it’ll be cozy. Nothing wrong with cozy.”

She had him there, and so Edmond once again did his best to shove aside his disappointment with the mix-up. He wrapped his arms around her, and drew her closer.

“You are right, of course” he said. “It is only that I had things planned a certain way. Now they are not going as planned.”

“It’s all right, it can be like adventure we figure out as we go.” She grinned widely, eyes sparkling as one cheek dimpled.

“And you are right again.” He dipped his head, intending to kiss his new bride when there came a knock at the door. Edmond untangled himself from Sylvia and answered it. A young woman from the front desk held up an ice bucket with a chilling bottle of champagne, and two flutes.

“Compliments of the manager,” she said and handed the items off.

“Thank you.” Edmond nodded kindly -- it wasn’t her fault she had interrupted them after all -- and kicked the door shut. He turned back to Sylvia. “Well, at least now you have your champagne.”

***

After enjoying their champagne they settled into their room before deciding to have a meal at a quaint cafe near the inn. Their meal was delicious, their service attentive, and of course Edmond’s dining companion was without compare. It appeared things were finally looking up despite the earlier headaches, and Edmond intended to put it all behind him and fully enjoy his honeymoon.

Unfortunately their bad luck soon reasserted itself. The strap on Sylvia’s shoe broke on their way back, and she twisted her ankle. They iced it, and though the swelling wasn’t too bad, it was quite tender. Because of that they spent their first night in Paris in their separate beds as Sylvia propped up her ankle and refused to even put a sheet over it.

By morning Edmond was on his guard against more ill fortune. It was of little consequence. Sylvia’s ankle meant their itinerary must be put on hold.

“I’ve ruined everything, haven’t I?” She was pouting, and that would never do. He dropped a kiss to the top of her head.

“It is hardly your fault the strap broke.”

“But now I’m stuck here for the day instead of sightseeing.”

“Well, we can spend the day drinking champagne in the garden. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? If we keep ice on your ankle, I’m sure it will be better tomorrow.”

That pacified Sylvia for the meantime, and once again she was all smiles. A marked improvement over the pouting. With a quick call to the front desk to arrange their day, they made their way to sit in the small gazebo in the gardens.

Truly, it wasn’t a terrible way to spend their day. Even if it wasn’t what had been planned. Although as they sat in the sunshine filtering through the ivy canopy Edmond decided he would make new plans. Something extra special to make up for the disastrous start to their honeymoon.

***

“What do you mean you lost your wife?” Kam sounded incredulous.

“He lost Sylvia?!” Mina cried before there was an odd muffled sound, almost like Kam was covering the phone.

Edmond listened to the sound of muted rustling of something brushing against the mouthpiece, and hissed words he couldn’t quite make out. Now worried, Edmond wondered if he should try to call someone to check on Kam. Before he could act Mina’s voice sounded clearly in his ear.

“Edmond, what’s wrong?” Her voice was soft with concern, and as earnest as always. So Edmond relayed the mishaps that had befallen them since arriving in Paris, plus his current predicament.

“Her ankle was finally better, so I sent her to the shops for a bit while I arranged for a surprise picnic in Champ de Mars. It was going to be so romantic with the sun setting as they turned on the lights on the Eiffel Tower. But now I am here, the sun is nearly set, our food is spoiling, and she will not answer her phone!”

“She probably got waylaid shopping, it is Sylvia after all. Or she forgot to charge her phone. I wouldn’t worry too much yet.”

“That does me no good, Mina. The surprise is ruined and I am worried regardless.”

“Gimme a second. Here’s Kam back.” The phone went quiet again, but it no longer sounded like Kam was being accosted.

“What’s going on?” Edmond asked.

“Hell if I know, she just bolted from the room.” Kam snorted. “She’s right though, you shouldn’t worry. There are plenty of perfectly plausible reasons why Sylvia might be running late.”

“I know that. It’s only that--” It was only that Sylvia had spent all of her time and attention on the wedding, and it had been beyond perfect. In every way. Edmond had imagined the honeymoon being just as wonderful. Only Edmond wasn’t sure how to explain that to Kam without sounding like a complete sap.

“Ah ha!” Mina’s triumph cry saved him from having to try at all.

“What was that?”

“Putting you on speaker,” Kam said.

“What is it?” Edmond asked.

“Well, it was a combination of things. She did get sidetracked shopping, then she dropped off her things at the hotel, and then she got a little turned around trying to find the park.”

“How do you know all of that?!” Edmond stopped his pacing and pulled the phone the away from his ear to glare at it.

“It’s Sylvia, she never has her ringer on. She didn’t hear you calling or texting.”

“Then how did you get hold of her?” Kam sounded just as incredulous as Edmond felt.

“I commented on her newest Instagram post asking her to DM me ASAP. Come on, it’s totally obvious. I’m surprised you two didn’t think of it.” Mina sounded so nonchalant, as if she had just told them the time of day.

“Mina, you know I’m old and Edmond is technology impaired. Neither of us have any clue what you just said.”

“It doesn’t matter. Sylvia will be there shortly, I promise.”

“Right,” Kam drug out the word.

“Don’t give me that look, Kam. It’s fine. They’ll be fine. I think at this point it’s a proven fact all of you Ryan men, be they blood or adopted, are all cursed to have bad honeymoons.”

“That’s not tru--”

“It is!” Mina cut him off. “Jaden and Ramona almost got divorced as soon as they eloped. Neven nearly broke an ankle, which isn’t just bad luck for him but absolutely the work of a curse! And don’t even get me started on ours.”

“Our honeymoon was mother nature’s fault, not mine!”

“Yes it was, because you’re a Ryan! Now poor Edmond is suffering the same fate because you decided to adopt him.” Mina’s voice got closer to the phone. “Don’t worry, Edmond, it’ll work out in the end.”

“Perhaps this was a bad idea….” Edmond trailed off, wondering if Mina was right. Maybe everything was destined to go wrong no matter how hard he tried?

“Edmond?” Kam’s voice sounded closer, more clear, and Edmond guessed he had been taken off speaker. “Are you all right?”

“I think so.” Edmond sank down on the low wall lining the entry to the park, shoulders sagging.

For a brief moment he entertained the idea of fleeing Paris before he further incurred the curse’s wrath. He imagined grabbing Sylvia’s hand the moment she turned up, dragging her back to their room and packing their things before it was even full dark.

“There’s not a curse, you know. Mina is just off her rocker.”

“I HEARD THAT!” Mina cried in the background.

“She does make a good point, however,” Edmond said.

“She does not. Even if she did, what difference does it make? So the honeymoons are shit. Jaden and Romona are still happily married, bickering and making up as the wind changes. Neven has full use of all of his limbs. And Mina and I were not blown away by a hurricane in Miami. Now it’s all happy marriages and good times.”

“ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT, BABE!?”

“Do you wish you had married Anton instead?” Kam yelled back.

“OH MY GOD! EW!”

Despite himself Edmond cracked a smile at their antics. Kam was right, everyone was happy now. Things were good. Life was good. That was what was important.

“Look--” Kam started but Edmond cut him off when he caught sight of a familiar head of blonde hair.

“She’s here. We’ll talk later, yes?”

“Yeah, mate. Go enjoy time with your wife.”

“You too,” Edmond said laughingly as he hung up. He managed to get his phone into his pocket just before the whirling dervish that was his wife slammed into his side. It was a good thing there was no one around to comment on such an unladylike demonstration.

“I’m so sorry! I completely lost track of time so I didn’t even think to check my mobile until I got the notification from Mina and she said you were worried.”

“It’s all right.” Edmond wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and rested his cheek against the top of her head.

“It’s not all right! I didn’t mean to worry you and I’m sorry I keep ruining things--”

“You haven’t ruined anything.” He didn’t want to tell her that he believed Mina when she said they were cursed, because it sounded crazy in his own head. And yet…

“What was your surprise anyway?” Sylvia pulled back in order to look him in the eyes. Her eyes were shining with curiosity, bright and blue.

“A picnic,” he said as he started to turn her around. The lights on the Eiffel Tower were just starting to burst into life, the sky turning to deep navy while the horizon beyond still glowed a brilliant pink. “And that.”

“Oh, it’s beautiful!” They stood together watching the lights, Sylvia resting her back against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. “This is perfect, Edmond.”

“Are you sure? There was supposed to be a picnic under the trees with all your favorites and chilled champagne.” He pointed to the blanket near them, and a wicker basket sat atop it. “I fear now everything is less than perfect. It seems nothing has gone according to plan.”

“So?” she asked with a shrug as she turned to face him.

“So?” Edmond frowned at her. “I wanted this to be everything you deserve. I tried to make it absolutely perfect, and now everything has gone wrong in some way.”

“It is perfect, Edmond.” She glanced back at the Eiffel Tower. “We’re in Paris and I’m with you and we’re married. If that isn’t perfection I don’t know what is.”

Edmond knew she truly believed it was perfect, and how he loved her for that. “I think the only thing here that is perfect is you.”

“That’s not true!” Sylvia giggled, her cheeks growing dark. “I forgot the time and got lost on my way here. I’m hardly perfect.”

“Doesn’t matter.” He shook his head. “To me you are.”

Sylvia didn’t hesitate before lifting up onto her toes to kiss him. They stayed together a moment, her arms around his neck, and his circling her waist. Eventually Edmond withdrew and offered her his hand with a slight bow.

“Will you dance with me?”

“There’s no music,” she laughed.

“So?” He shrugged. “We are young and in love and in Paris. What else are we supposed to do but dance?”

With a glowing smile Sylvia slipped her hand into his, and together they fell into a slow waltz on the sidewalk in front of the Champ de Mars, bathed in the light from the streetlamps. They danced until dawn, completely lost to the world, before finally retreating to their inn and the waiting champagne breakfast.

It was utterly perfect.

#fic drive fic #ellorgast #mamoru chiba #usagi tsukino #ballroom au #sailor moon #sm fanfic #usagi x mamoru

5 notes · View notes

canaryatlaw · 6 years

Text

well, today was okay. kind of in a crappy mood due to a couple of different things, nothing serious, just the same lingering bullshit I’ve been dealing with for weeks now, yet it still manages to feel like betrayal....I don't know why I keep putting myself up to this. but, anyway. Last night I’d left off with our family friend (whose name I’m okay with using because she was definitely on tumblr and following me at some point though idk if she still does but also because her name is also Rachel) about meeting for breakfast at like 9:30, so I set my alarm for 8:30 which is way more time than I would need to get ready by myself (I’m generally 25 minutes max) but since I was with my family and everything I knew it would be a whole production and we’d need time. So it went off and we started to get ready, eventually ubering to our final destination, where we met up with Rachel (other Rachel, of course). Our families have been friends for years and years, her family is back in New York where mine is normally but she lives out here, but she works managing a restaurant and logs like, 75 hour weeks, which is insanity by any measure really (when I was working 50 hour work weeks I was constantly exhausted) so we don’t end up seeing each other very often, but since the family was here we made it happen. It was a really cute little place, I got corned beef hash with eggs which is a non-traditional breakfast choice for me because when I’m at a restaurant I tend to be more of the pancakes/french toast/waffle type than eggs, but I really like corned beef hash (I discovered it on one of our childhood trips to dutch country Pennsylvania in the buffet bar) and never really get to eat it, so I thought I’d take the opportunity here and it was super delicious. It ends up that the restaurant was in the same restaurant group as the one Rachel manages, and because of that they decided to comp all our meals, which was very generous given that there was six of us haha so it was not an insignificant amount. my dad was like so confused though. he loves buying things for other people (like legit, he does) and he was just like what, you mean I don’t get to pay?? 😂😂 he figured it out soon enough though. after breakfast we ended up walking a bit towards the hotel and the loop, and walked along the river for a while which was very nice. There was a ton of kids on one of the river tour boats (definitely like a field trip) that passed us and literally all of them were waving at us and screaming HIIIII and it was really cute. We ended up walking back to the hotel, where we hung out for a bit until the shuttle came to take my family to the airport. so we said goodbyes, and they left, then Rachel and I decided to get go ice cream haha because we could. we took the bus a few stops up and then walked a little to a Jeni’s ice cream store, which I think I’ve been to with Rachel once before but I’m always down for ice cream of course and this was insanely good (apparently they sell pints in whole foods if you’d like to try for yourself). I got one scoop of cream puff (which was like, the most heavenly thing, it was even better than an actual cream puff because it was ICE CREAM that tasted like one) and one scoop of brambleberry crisp, which was of course also delicious. They really like, also mastered getting the scoops to be perfectly round so they fit in your cone perfectly and it’s not like a constant challenge of trying to eat the ice cream before it melts (these are the things I worry about when eating ice cream). So we ate our ice cream and talked for a while before parting ways, I walked back to the bus route and took that the rest of the way north as it got me pretty close to my apartment (it’s the second closest bus stop/route to me), I could’ve done the red line but that was a little further out of my way and I still had my big bag of stuff from staying over with me which was gonna be a real pain in the ass to carry around. When I had to get off the bus, while I was trying to pick it up one of the straps broke, so I had to carry it from the bottom and goddddd was it heavy, I would walk like 20 feet and then have to put it down and rest my arms lol (again, I am so, so weak). Eventually I made it all the way to my apartment, my right hand is like bruised on the inside right below my fingers, not like a traditional bruise but it’s red and tender lol and I’m trying not to add any suspicious marks because I already have a super noticeable bruise on my forearm from carrying a too heavy shopping bag for too long (either that or my too heavy purse, could be either one, did I mention the strap of my purse also fell off?? that was like March though) and like, just dealing with all the stuff I see at the DV clinic I’d rather just not give people reasons to speculate about such things, lol. for some reason it reminded me of when I was observing a trial and there were domestic violence allegations, i.e. mom was getting beaten up by boyfriend and that made her an inadequate mother because it meant she couldn’t keep her kids safe (a premise which is of course flawed but that’s an entirely different conversation we’d have to have) and her public defender decided to argue that she believed it was the 15 year old son who was actually hitting his mother, and the mother wouldn’t say anything because she was protecting him, and I just remember sitting there like what the actual fuck, and the judge very much did not appreciate what she was trying to argue by essentially maligning a child on no evidence whatsoever other than her opinion, definitely not an argument unfamiliar to public defenders in juvenile court, because if a kid comes forward with accusations of abuse, of course one of the arguments you’re going to use is saying the kid is lying, which I still think is awful, but I understand why it is used (but I still hate it). Anyway, tangent. I got home and like, laid down on my bed for like 20 minutes with my eyes closed while also listening to the latest legends of tomorrow podcast episode for their season 3 wrap up. when that was finished I just went on my laptop for a bit, doing a few random things and looking up some recipes so I’d find something to make. I decided I really wanted brownies, but I knew I didn’t have any actual chocolate, just cocoa powder and different types of candies. so I looked up what happens when you melt m&ms (which just sounds like an amusing premise to me) and it looked like it would work out pretty well, so I used those for the chocolate that was to be melted, and then used a combination of m&ms and rolos for the part of the recipe that called for chocolate chips. they turned out pretty good, the bottoms were kinda hard and somewhat plasticy because of the candy pieces, but the parts with the caramel from the rolos were super great, so that was good. I made a quick parmesan pasta soup recipe for dinner (which as heavenly) and sat down to watch Supergirl. Again, my feelings are mixed because I’m somewhat invested in the whole Sam/Ruby/Lena plot but at this point really do not give a flying fuck about most of the other characters at this point. I liked the Alex helping take care of Ruby plot, and I did really get a kick out of them using Lex’s old mansion (which has an invisibility cloak on it???) as a hideout, that was pretty cool. I felt so bad for Ruby of course throughout the episode but especially at the end, having to deal with seeing her mom like that in something that is so unexplainable and horrific. The fact that they’re giving Alex and Ruby more interaction makes me think they’re gonna go the route of something happening to Sam and Alex then taking care of Ruby, which, as much of a sweet plot line that would make for Alex, I really do not want to happen because I very much want a happy ending for Sam and Ruby and for Sam not to end up killed over something that was very much not her fault (see, now I’m thinking about season 8 of Smallville and being like but did I blame Davis for what he couldn’t control??? but most of his objectionable behaviors were choices he actually made, not the monster, especially culminating in that one character death that I am never going to forgive the writers for, ever, so as much as these plots are similar the characters outside of the monsters are very different). But yeah, that was all I really got from the episode, I could not care less about Meh-El returning to help them fight Reign, essentially with a go fuck her pass from his wife, which was really the only way they could justify it being okay for him to have feelings for Kara. Anyway. When it was over I tuned right into The Resident for their season finale, and hooooooly shit man, it was so good!!! I’m actually really impressed with the show so far, they've been consistently knocking it out of the park for pretty much the entire season, which is no easy feat, as I’m sure plenty of one season shows could tell you. I thought they did an excellent job of wrapping up what was really a very complicated plot within one episode, when it looked like it was going to take longer than that, but they did it in a way that didn’t actually feel rushed or forced, just very well done. Of course Bell is going to stay in power for now, he’s more of a long term villain (”villain”) when of course Lane is going to be the one to take the fall. When he was talking to her about it I knew he was setting her up, the cold son of a bitch that he was, but I mean it certainly worked out well for him. With the twist at the very end involving Conrad’s father, I was VERY glad we got a season 2, because that is wayyyyyyyyy too good of a hook to just have been dropped. I’m quite excited for what next season will bring us. When that was over I went to last night’s Brooklyn 99, which was excellent as always, we’re so close to Jake and Amy’s wedding!!! and of course, watching it this week after everything that happened over the past couple of days felt that much more satisfying, knowing that they tried to end it but the show and its fan pulled through and gave it new life. like man, if there ever was a question about the influence of social media, this incident surely should have answered it. So that was good of course. But then I watched Designated Survivor, which I had to watch with the knowledge that they did not get renewed, and that we only had two episodes left 😔😔 I was very sad about this because I really do love this show so much (and not just because it’s made my Gugg’s brother and I’d much rather support him over Guggs) because of Kiefer and how much I love his acting, and of course Italia is a gem, and I had such a lovely time talking to her about it back in San Jose in December. Hearing her talk about Kiefer and him telling her how she needs to watch 24, it was just so sweet, I really liked it. I did hear from a source that the reason for the cancellation was more about behind the scenes things than ratings or anything, which is disappointing of course because you want to think that everyone making a show gets along swell, but of course that’s not always the actual case. Oh well. As far as the actual episode, it was pretty quality, I died at the opening scene with Kendra, this show really writes its female characters so well in that I absolutely adore all of them, they’re all just these brilliant strong women who don’t take shit from anybody and I love them all. The main plot was kinda meh, I know they said Michael J Fox would be around for the rest of the season but they really should’ve just given him an official role, as opposed to finding a way to shoehorn him into the plot every week in increasingly ridiculous positions, and it just gives me way too many good wife feelings, not just because he’s playing the same exact fucking character, but also because they had a way of shoehorning characters into plots with about as much tact as they showed here. When it got down to the whole special counsel thing and Kendra was like “it’s not even clear if any charges can be levied against a sitting president” which made me LOL because way to be relevant and throw little pieces of current events in there, even when the people in their government are really superior to ours in pretty much every way, and that I will for sure miss. President Jack Bauer.....I will always have a special place in my heart for you, lol. After that I watched the news for a few minutes before watching Jimmy Kimmel, then catching the opening monologue of Seth Meyers, who is always consistently funny, and then finally getting ready for bed. Tomorrow I have PT at 2 but nothing to do before then so I’ll probably sleep (it is already 2:30 am right now) and then maybe get some groceries. My bar prep course doesn't officially start till next Tuesday, so I have a week to myself, though I’m starting at the DV clinic on Friday for one day a week, so that should be good. I really, really hope I hear from the NY job in the next few days so I’ll at least know where I’m standing with all of this. Okay, that’s enough for now, my eyes are getting droopy and I think it’s a good time to let them stay shut. Goodnight friends. Sending you lots of love.

#daily journal #May 2018 #Rachel watches Supergirl

1 note · View note

intimatevoid · 6 years

Text

Shamelessly stolen from @notfinlandjosswhedon because I have time to kill

Do you ever sit with your legs open? Not much anymore, but sometimes when I’m alone.

Have you ever been offered drugs on the street? Been asked for, many times. Offered, no.

What is one place you have been to and hated? Any place where the temperature reaches 30 degrees, really.

Have you ever seen a jellyfish? Not in person!

What’s your favourite kind of soup? The soy broth that they make at the ramen shop near my place :D

Do you ever put bread in your soup? Like dipping? Yeah. Not, like, dropping it straight in.

Is there anything in the USB key slots in your computer/laptop? Um, let’s have a look. Mouse, keyboard, external HD, microphone, and 360 controller. I actually thought there’d be more.

What advertisements are on your screen at the moment? I’m going to try out Star Wars: The Old Republic today, so that’s downloading now, and the launcher has some ads for premium content on it.

Do you ever get a really itchy nose when you’re unable to scratch it? Way too often.

Has anyone ever randomly licked your face? Dogs, and Ash, although that was probably in retaliation considering I licked their face earlier that evening ^^:

When was the last time you bought a book? Not too long ago? I think I picked up an ebook recently. But an actual, physical book? Fuck, I have no idea.

Are you upstairs or downstairs at the minute? I am on the one and only floor that my unit has.

Have you ever been asked for directions? I get asked every now and then, yeah. Last time I was pulled up a a traffic light and a woman on the street approached my car and asked which way to the shops.

Are there any farm animals near you? There are plenty on the edges of town. Like, within a few km for sure.

Are there any lakes near you? Nah, the closest would be Wivenhoe Dam and that’s like an hour and a half away.

Was there ever a time when you felt absolutely terrified? Yeah, it happens sometimes.

If so, why? Existential horror and anxiety. It’s veeeeery rarely from a tangible source. Oh, and my memory loss is pretty fucking scary too.

Have you ever been in your local newspaper? lmao nah

Have you ever called your mother ma or mammy? I just call her “Mum”.

Can you imitate any other accent? I’m really bad with accents, but if you have no idea what an Irish accent sounds like then I might be able to fool you. Oh and if I just speak English using Japanese sounds and form then I can probably do what passes as a Japanese accent.

What is your funniest memory of the 6th contact in your phone? It’s one of my D&D party. Our funniest memory – which happened during a game, naturally – would be either the time she tried to get the party druid to sling her over a high wall and onto a room, or she led the group in playing Lute Hero at a pub.

Were you ever chased by an animal? … Huh, I don’t actually think so.

Are you single/or taken? I resent the binary implications of this question, haha. I am in a relationship, and simultaneously on the market.

^Are you happy with that? Of course ^_^

Do you make the first move or do you prefer it the other way around? Depends on the situation! I mean, I’ve only ever had one other person make the first move, so usually I have to take the lead, but I’m fine with that. Still, it would be nice to be hit on every now and then.

What is the most painful thing you’ve experienced? The time I jumped a fence on a job site and turned my ankle. My boss threatened me not to report it for worker’s comp and just stay home while he paid me, because he was a skinflint and didn’t want his insurance premiums to go up. The month off was excruciating, and yet I still ended up being pressured into going back to work long before I was ready My ankle is still quite weak to this day. And I have CPTSD from that god damned job lmao

Do you hug someone whenever you see them? If I know they’re comfortable with it. If not, I’ll ask them first.

When was the last time you bled? What happened? I squeezed a pimple a few days ago. It emptied nicely, and then blood came out afterwards of course, so I guess that counts as bleeding.

When you look behind you what catches your attention the most? The sun coming through a crack in the curtains. Today is going to be disgustingly hot. :(

Have you ever had a controlling boyfriend/girlfriend? No. I think I’ve been that, though, back in my very first relationship :( How many true heart breaks have you had in your lifetime? A pretty rough breakup I had about a year and a half ago. Learned some solid life lessons from that one, haha. Who last grabbed your ass? Ash, I’m pretty sure.

Do you have any gay family members? More than half my siblings are queer. It’s just that I’m the only one who’s publicly out, so nobody knows about any of them except me. I guess I don’t mind pulling that attention, but it’s lonely without their solidarity. Where did you get the shirt you are wearing? Just target , for a costume party. I painted the Wonder Woman logo on the front myself, because a bottle of fabric paint and a cheap shirt were cheaper than trying to find an actual license top in the style and size I needed. Do you feel like everything is falling apart around you? They is literally life for me. Everything is always falling apart. The only was to survive is to stay vigilant and rebuild as fast as things crumble, while simultaneously trying to support what is still currently stable so it doesn’t collapse too. Was your first kiss romantic? Yeah, I guess. In hindsight I cringe. But at the time I guess it was. Do you know anybody whose last name is a color? The person I’m stealing this from. Half of her last name is a colour. What are you most likely to go to jail for? Probably for being queer in a place that doesn’t allow it Do you ever feel like life is going by too fast? Fast, yeah, but not too fast. I can’t wait til I’m older. Who was the last person to sleep over at your house? Sage, and they brought their beautiful dog too ^_^ Is there someone that always intimidates you? I think so, though tbh I can’t really remember right now. Have you ever liked anyone that was in a relationship with someone else? I’ve dated multiple people who were in relationships at the time. I’m dating one right now. Would you ever get a boob job? At this rate I don’t think I’ll need to. My family’s genes are finally coming through for me :O Did your last relationship end because of you or the other person? I’m not entirely sure I understand the phrasing of this question, but I broke up with him, because I could not tolerate a certain thing he did. Do you ever ignore texts from some people? If I’m in a bad headspace and can’t answer, then sometimes I delay answering til I’m ready. Have you ever tried to break up anyone because YOU liked the guy/girl? Why would anyone ever do that when polyamory exists? That’s so petty and awful :( When is the last time you felt left out? Yesterday. Not going into detail. When was the last time you flirted with someone? Yesterday, I think. But I flirt with people on most days. I flirt with practically everyone. What would you think if you found out your ex was gay? Most of my exes are queer. That’s, like, kinda necessary considering that I am queer. As for my one straight ex, I’d be surprised as hell but also glad he was doing what made him happy. Would you ever take someone back if you found out they cheated on you? Nope. Anyone who felt they needed to cheat, while dating my polyamorous self, is clearly not someone who I need in my life.

What does your last text message say? “Haha, well you can always try it on my floors! I shall keep you updated.” A friend of mine is trying a new mop. We are exciting people. What colour is your hair right now? Brown. Do people ever compliment your eyes? Actually, yeah. Apparently they’re my best physical feature. Do people ever tell you that you’re funny? Sometimes, yeah. Would you be upset if you caught your boyfriend looking at porn? I would send him more. How many people has your best friend had sex with? Zero, I’m pretty sure. What’s the last song you listened to? I was going through old music and I think the last one I played was Hats Off To The Bull by Chevelle. Who’s the last person that hung up on you? Not a clue. Four days from now, will you have sex? Four days, four weeks, for months – not happening unless something drastic changes in my life. (grey ace yo) Do you look intimidating? I have been told that I do. What does your second to last text say? “Behold, my floors will SPARKLE!” What makes you laugh? People being people. What were/are you most looking forward to today? When the sun goes down and it starts to get cooler. How is your hair? Desperately in need of a trip. The split ends are running rampant. When was the last time you had a conversation with an ex? A couple of days ago. Are you worried about anything right now? It would be easier to list the things I’m not worried about. My life is one long series of worries and anxieties. Living in poverty is great. How do you think tomorrow will be? Exactly the same as today. Is there a guy who knows everything or almost everything about you? Yeah, Seb knows a fair bit about me. If you could pack your bags right now and were given a plane ticket, where do you go? Canada, to visit @aelwen. How far away are you from the person you have feelings for? "have feelings for” is such a VAGUE way of putting it, haha. But there’s a cutie I know who lives roughly 13,500km away from me. Your last ex calls wanting to hangout, what do you say? “Yeah, sure, though you’ll have to travel to see me cause I am not travelling all the way to Brisbane on this notice.” Where were you at 2 this morning? Watching Stranger Things 2 with Ash. Only the first ep, though, and then I passed the fuck out. Have you ever kissed anyone who’s name started with a K? … huh, I don’t think so! Have you accidentally sent a text to the wrong person? Occasionally, haha. Last time you were TOTALLY happy? A few weeks ago, I was having a really bad day. Ash took me to get bubble tea and Japanese. I nearly cried with gratitude. Could you go the rest of your life without drinking alcohol? I could but I’m not going to. Is there anything currently hurting on your body? Yes. A lot. Ever kissed someone with green eyes? Ash has green eyes ^_^ When you are home alone, do you still close the door when you shower? Yeah, cause it keeps all the warmth in. Are you mad at anyone right now? Nah. Do you like your music loud or at a reasonable level? Depends. If I’m in the mood for it, loud can be good. But usually I need to to be quieter. Loud noises fuck me up. Have you held hands with anyone in the past 30 hours? Multiple times ^_^ How often do you sleep in? Every day. It’s the only way I get anywhere near a reasonable amount of sleep. Will you be in a relationship next month? I don’t see why not. Do you stay up later than ten o’clock on a week night? Always. Who’s the last person you told a secret to? Hard to say. I am kind of an open book about myself. Do you think someone is thinking about you right now? Doubt it. Would you rather have big or small dogs? Medium dogs! Will you cry tonight? Possibly. Depends on how badly my brain fucks me ^^; Do you have respect for people even if you don’t like them? Depends on why I don’t like them. What’s one fruit you love in drinks? Lemon goes well with a lot of things. Have you ever tried wine? Yeah. Not a huge fan, but sometimes it can be nice. In your life, do you plan on visiting other countries? Eyyyup. At the very least I want to visit Canada, Japan, and NZ. Is there an ex you want to make up with? If my second-to-last ex came along, apologised for everything, and showed that she was sincerely trying to be a better person, I’d accept that.

Does cuddling freak you out? I freak out unless I’m cuddling (okay not really but you get the idea) How much time do you take to get ready in the morning? Depends on how much prep I did the night before. I usually take between half an hour to an hour, though. Do you love where you live? Yeah, it’s okay. :) Will your next kiss be drunk or sober? Sober. Ash will wake up soon, come into my room, and I’ll kiss them. Do you wear high heels everyday? Nope, I rarely wear heels at all. Are you an aunt or an uncle? Yes, I have a niece! Were you texting someone right before you fell asleep last night? Yeah, a couple of people. Did you have any unread text messages when you woke up today? How many? A couple of messages from the group chat, and a few from Chloe. Are you happy? With myself, yes, more than ever. With the way I’m treated because of who I am? Absolutely not. Are you an alcoholic? Nah, I don’t drink much. Can you go a day without thinking about the person that’s on your mind now? I assume that "the person that’s on your mind now” means “the person you’re most attracted to right now”? Cnsidering we talk almost every day, I guess the answer is no. Could you go the rest of your life without a cigarette? Yes. Does anyone know every little detail about you? Not really, not even partners or exes. I mean lots of people knows lots of little details, but they’re just the ones I wear visibly.

What’s one thing you really want right now? A steady income. As it is, I have to choose between paying bills and buying medicine. Who was the last person you took a picture with? I think it was @aturinfortheworse, at Riverfire. Did anything “cute” happen today? lmao no Are you wearing shoes right now? Nope. Have you ever just laid outside and looked at the stars? Yeah, it’s nice when I go out of town to do it. Are you currently wanting any piercings or tattoos? Yes! Mostly tattoos at this point. I already have a ton of piercings and can only thinks of a couple more that I want. Do you smile everyday? Um, yeah, I suppose. Who are you more like, mom or dad? I look more like my mum, and have a personality that’s kind of a mix. Could you date someone shorter than you? That is, indeed, what I Am currently doing. Where do you wish you were right now? Somewhere that wasn’t fucking 30 degrees Have a crazy side? *snerk* Something you do a lot? I probably game way too much.

What is your natural hair color? Brown How many people have you kissed? I count 12, but I’m like 99% certain I’ve missed some people.

Ever kissed someone you weren’t dating at the time? Most of them. Ever kissed someone you’d met less than an hour before? Sure have. Were any of them in relationships with someone else at the time? Helloooooo. Polyamorous. How old was the oldest person you’ve kissed? 35. How young was the youngest person you’ve kissed? 15. I should clarify that I was 16 at the time. Since her, I've only kissed people who were older than me. Ever been kissed by a legal adult when you were a minor (or vise-versa)? No. Ever been walked in on while you were making out with someone? Yes, and then he joined me with kissing her. It was a good time lmao Weirdest place you’ve kissed someone? (geographically, not physically) I can’t really think of anywhere. I mean, there was that access corridor through the inner city shops in Toowoomba, where I got pushed up against a wall and made a peace sign at the dude who was staring like 8O from outside the glass doors? But even that wasn’t really, like, weird. Ever kissed someone and had someone else get really mad about it? i mean there was the (multiple) time(s) i caused a couple to break up by showing one of them what a good relationship could actually be like, does that count Ever stopped kissing someone because they had bad breath? Eyyyup. I can’t stand morning breath kisses. They taste awful D: Ever not known the name of someone you kissed? I can’t remember the names of four out of those twelve people. Ever kissed someone on a dare/as part of a game? Sure have. Kissed someone you didn’t really like just to make someone else jealous? Nope. Ever had a really horrible kissing experience? haven’t we all Ever been called a bad kisser? On the contrary ^_^ Ever called someone else a bad kisser? I don’t think so. Where’s the most public place you’ve ever made out with someone? Probably at the shops or something similar. Where’s the most private place you’ve ever made out with someone? Bedroom I guess. Ever thought of someone else while you were kissing someone? What about the person I’m kissing, and someone else, at the same time? Do you usually kiss on the first date? Sometimes. If I’m definitely attracted to the person, and know they seem to have positive feelings as well, I’ll ask to end the date with a small kiss. It makes my intentions and interest unequivocally clear.

#tumblr games #this was a long one #but it killed enough time that my download finished #mission accomplished!

2 notes · View notes

amythoughts · 5 years

Text

9/15/19 02:48

Okay so it’s been a while. I got a Finsta so some of the stuff I would’ve put on here is on there instead but I will try to still do both. I’ll probably just put my shorter rants there and keep my longer stream of consciousness stuff here. Anyway I have updates on the Daniel situation. So to recap: last time I talked to him about his dating life it was complicated and Abby was being kinda weird, like they didn’t really get to meet up much during the year. So tonight, the ILR and Connect leaders and friends all hung out at Lizzie and Lauren’s for a party. Lauren is good friends with Abby so she came with her boyfriend. The important thing to note is that her boyfriend is not Daniel. So that means Daniel is not seeing Abby anymore (and Abby never really saw it as dating apparently) so my dumb heart is like “yes you have a chance now” and my brain is like “no he has given you literally zero signs that he’s into you besides maybe looking at you randomly.” It’s definitely a tough battle between the two (as it always is). Just when my heart was starting to understand that it needed to move on and give up, this little ray of hope comes in and says hey. Fuck feeling though for real. They really fucking suck.

I still feel like I’m never someone’s priority when I’m in a group of friends. I love Avery and I know when I really need her she’s always there, but even if she’s there I still feel left out whenever I’m in a group. It does seem at times that she’d rather talk to someone else than me, and I honestly feel like that with most of my friends. It really sucks and I wish I wasn’t this insecure, but I can’t change it at all. Maybe it comes from years of always being on the outside of groups. I don’t really know. Tonight I had a couple moments where I really felt like I was on the outside of the group. We played paranoia and I wasn’t chosen for any answer, good or bad. A similar thing has happened with Most Likely To and it really sucks. It feels like they don’t really know me or just don’t really think of me when it comes to these things. The first time I played Most Likely To (with the comp sci group) I got less than 5 cards and half of them were about study abroad. The other time tonight where I felt really on the outside was when I did open up and share the fact that I’m worried I’ll never fall in love (meaning I don’t think I’m really capable of falling in love) and they basically made me feel like I was lying or my opinion was invalid because I’ve been in relationships. I feel like that makes me know more about how I am in a relationship and if I am able to fall in love. It honestly really scares me how quickly I have lost feelings for guys I’ve dated. Like I go from thinking they could be the one I fall in love with to I only think of them in a friend sense in a week. I’m really worried that that will happen with my future husband. How can I stay married to someone if I fall out of love with them? How can I marry someone at all if I never fall in love? Am I even capable of real romantic love? Does having relationship experience really make me more or less likely to know if I’m capable of falling in love? I think they didn’t understand me because they weren’t really listening.

I also have been wondering a lot lately if I made the right choice continuing to live in the catholic houses. Maybe I would thrive better living alone or with one other prison but with my own room. I do love the girls in the house but I don’t think living with them is good for my relationship with them. For example, we have a house maMMA every day who cleans the kitchen and runs the dishwasher each night. Last night was my night and I came home at 1am from the back to school party to a sink full of dishes and a full clean dishwasher and drying rack. The counters were also full and dirty. So basically just a mess in the kitchen. Katie mentioned last year that doing the dishes or not can seem really personal to her, even if her brain tells her it’s not. I finally understand what she means because that’s how I feel now. Coming home to a full sink really makes me feel like people don’t care about everyone else in this house, especially since I have brought it up multiple times. We also have a giant pile of shoes by the door right now. It just seems like everyone looks out for themselves and doesn’t really take others’ feelings into account. And stuff like this definitely becomes a mob mentality, so one or two dishes or shoes quickly becomes twenty. I haven’t even walked into the kitchen tonight yet because it wasn’t good at dinner time. Let’s find out if people actually did their job. Okay the kitchen is kinda clean now but someone is soaking beans(??) in a big bowl and I’m really confused about it.

I should probably go before this becomes a full novel of rants.

<3 Amy

0 notes

inadarkdarkroom · 7 years

Text

I Told You So

In the late ‘80’s I moved to a small town called Mercer Island just outside of Seattle to live with my aunt and her three daughters. I had just gotten out of one of those “troubled kids” institutions that I still blithely refer to as a reform school, and needed to enough credits to graduate.

I was totally cool with it. My aunt is a lovely woman and I did not want to go back to England where my dysfunctional immediate family lived. Fuck Margaret Thatcher, you feel me? I’d gotten used to living in the states after spending my entire life as an ex-pat.

When I first moved in with my aunt she’d been living in Winthrop, Washington, a small town in a county the size of Rhode Island but with only one stop light. But my aunt was getting her degree at the University of Washington, and Mercer Island has one of the best high schools in the state and she wanted to make sure her kids had a better chance of getting into the colleges of their choice, so we moved there soon after I moved in with her.

Mercer Island was, and is to this day, a very insular, wealthy, and tony community. And the people who lived there(not all of them, but most), were very pleased with themselves that they lived in a little John Hughes movie-type neighborhood. Which meant that there was fuck all for the local kids to do.

There had been bowling alleys and video arcades and an all-ages venue, but the parents had complained that these places were not in the Mercer Island spirit of making sure their kids were staying at home and hitting the books and making them proud. So pressure was placed, letters were written, complaints were filed, and one by one all these places went out of business. Then the parents would loudly bitch and moan and wonder why all their kids were dying in drunk driving accidents on the floating bridge coming back from keg parties held in Seattle eight miles away. It’s amazing how adults’ cogent thoughts and logic reasoning tend to disappear once they can afford a BMW...

What this meant was that there were two places for teenagers to congregate on Mercer Island. One was the parking lot at McDonalds, and the other was the local Denny’s. Years later, after I’d moved to Seattle, the local Parental Fun Police decided to take on this particular den of iniquity as well, with the end result that Mercer Island wound up as being one of only two places in the US where the Denny’s wasn’t open 24 hours, closing at 11 on weekdays and midnight on weekends.

So I’m now a senior at a real American high school after spending my entire life overseas. Sure, it’s in the middle of a overprivileged white ghetto, but the school is top notch and I’m making friends. And my friends and I would go and hang out at the local Denny’s, drink endless amounts of cheap coffee and smoke Camels and bullshit.

So one night my friends and I go down to Denny’s and I wind up meeting George Russell, who is hanging out there as well, and we sit at his table with him.

George Russell is charming. George Russell is loquacious. George Russell is well read. George Russell makes eye contact when talking to you, his handshake is firm. George Russell is also one of the very few black people who live on the Island, and all my friends who are quite sheltered are glad to have their One Black Friend to prove they aren’t that quite sheltered.

I could care less about his ethnicity or my friends’ attempts to gain street cred. I’d just spent eighteen months in a reform school after being kicked out of a British military academy I hadn’t wanted to go to in the first place, I have nothing to prove.

And like I said, George Russell is quite a fellow. That night we talk about comic books, and the publishing houses of Dark Horse and Fantagraphics, literature, movies, politics, foreign policy. George Russell’s a smart chap, and quietly self-effacing. Purposefully harmless.

But George Russell is also in his thirties, and while I understand the allure of associating with an older individual, especially if that older individual can buy your underage ass beer, that older individual is still hanging out with your underage ass.

And George Russell also has a police scanner on the table in front of him. Every now and then he would cock his head to the side to hear what was coming over the airwaves, pausing the conversation to hit the squelch button and fine-tune the frequency. Later that night, two cops wandered into the joint for some comped coffee and they give George Russell The Nod. George Russell gives The Nod right back. I ask him about it. Quite pleased with himself, he informs me that he does “some side work” for the local PD. My friends assure me that George Russell is cool. Don’t worry, he’s not a narc. He just helps them around the office. Also, he gets all the chicks. George Russell is the man.

But this sets my spidey sense tingling. I’m only eighteen, but I’ve already been around the block a few times in quite a few different neighborhoods in several different countries. And I’ve just gotten out of a reform institution. I can judge body language and vocal inflection and eye movement, and there’s something about George Russell that doesn’t add up. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s so self-effacing and purposefully harmless. Maybe it’s the fact that he screams Cop Groupie. And trust me, people who are Cop Groupies should set your antenna twitching. But no matter. As a minor acquaintance, he’s a good conversationalist.

So George Russell would buy my friends beer, hook them up with whatever shitty brick weed they were desperate enough to smoke, sometimes hang out with us at parties. We would chat a little bit, the two of us. But in the back of my mind I thought him an unctuous creep with a bad case of the smarm so we didn’t associate.

After I graduated I would still spend time on the Island, and I would run into George Russell here and there. By this point I was using my Swiss passport as a “fake ID” and my gift of the gab to get it past the liquor store clerks’ limited understanding of French and German so George knew he couldn’t sidle up to me and be all like “Hey bro, you need a half rack of Rainier? I can totally get it for you.” So we’d just give each other The Nod, and that was it.

One night I was hanging out at the Bellevue bus station waiting for the #220 to arrive. I looked over to the side and saw this girl nearby. Poor thing. She was probably barely seventeen and covered in makeup and her slumped posture and guarded body language just screamed “Get me out of here. Please. Take me away from this godforsaken dump and knock me up with two brats to beat in the double-wide while you’re working triple shifts at the brewery to pay off your Camaro lease, I don’t care. Just get me out of here.” My heart went out to the poor girl. Even though I was barely out of my teens myself I remembered how awful they could be.

Just then a voice said “Hey Dude. What’s up?”

I look over and there’s George, all smiling and harmless. He bums a smoke from me and we take in the night. He notices my pitying look at the sad case off to the side and apropos of nothing busts out with “Yeah, I noticed her too. Wanted to go over and say something and cheer her up, you know? But you know how it is. A black man in a town like this talking to a white girl? I’ve got to watch myself..”

The bus arrives. We stub out our Camels and get on board, he in the front with a magazine, me in the back with my Walkman and my thoughts. And my thoughts were this: What the fuck?

First of all, while Bellevue was another well-to-do white neighborhood on the East side, it sure as shit wasn’t Alabama. And yes, by this point I’d been living in the States for a few years and had realized that outside some cities it was kind of a racist shithole populated with really spiteful ignorant cunts who didn’t know jack and hated anyone that did. But it didn’t mean that if you needed to pull that Ralph Ellison Invisible Man shit, that Bellevue was the place to do it.

Second, every single other brother I knew would not for a moment have said something like that, much less to a white boy like me. Public Enemy was king, Malcolm X was years away from hitting the movie theaters but Africa medallions were omnipresent, NWA was pissing off both the cops and Tipper Gore in equal measure, no way somebody with any kind of self respect would up and announce that statement. Unless it was something they thought it was what you wanted to hear.

I remember looking at George Russell in the front of the bus and thinking to myself that yes, he was an unctuous creep with a bad case of the smarm. But there was something else. Something I didn’t like. I scanned my thoughts for racist overtones, but honestly could not find any.

Look, I understand if you’re a diplomat or a spook(Note to readers: Spook as in the pejorative of a member of the Clandestine Services, not that other pejorative. Please take a short fall off your high horse) or a diplomat who’s a spook or you’re an undercover cop and you want to blend into the background and not attract attention. I get it. But if you’re a normal citizen, a citizen, and you’re going out of your way to be unseen? There’s something going on.

And there was something going on with George Russell. And it made me suspicious that he told me what he thought I wanted to hear. Moral of the story here, if you’ve got spidey sense, listen to it when it tingles. It’s there for a reason.

A few months later one of my friends had a party at his apartment. He was one of the few of us who had one and because it was on the quiet white East side instead of Heavily Armed Hobo Junkie Alley where my warehouse was in Pioneer Square, all my friends would go there instead.

George Russell was there, doing hot knife hits off the stove and flashing that famous smile of his. Making small talk and minor physical contact, little pats on the back or touching your forearm when talking to you, like a waiter angling for a bigger tip or Bill Clinton hitting you up for a campaign contribution.

I remembered that night at the bus station and kept my distance. Just gave him The Nod, got it back in return. So far, so good.

George Russell soon left to go on a date, leaving behind the better part of a case of Henry Weinhardt’s for my friends to toast his early absence with. That was the last time I ever saw him. I don’t think I even touched a drop of his beer bribe, I just concentrated on the Afghani Blonde I had smuggled back from overseas the year before, so cut with henna it was like smoking designer shampoo.

Once again I voiced my personal opinion of his character to my friends, but they were white kids barely out of high school and so stoked to have a homeboy to high-five with, that they assured me I was just paranoid and definitely not as def and down with it as they were. My manners dictate that I don’t mention that they live in a fucking Disneyfied suburb where the most dangerous thing they have to deal with is drunken frat boys at TGIFriday’s.

The next morning a man walking his dog spotted what looked like a body by a dumpster near a nightclub noted for it’s blond and brainless clientele. The local homicide arrive in their unmarkeds and discover a twenty three year old female vic, naked and strangled and raped and most unsettling of all, posed. Laid out on the sidewalk like Jeebus on the cross, legs folded over each other, arms akimbo and outstretched with a pine cone carefully placed in each open palm. She’d been kicked so hard her liver had split open against her spinal column.

This is one was not a crime of passion. This one had had time spent on her. This one had been used like an object to send a message. This is not good.

Even though it’s a singular instance in a small town with a small police force, to give them credit they wise up quick. They swallow their pride and send an assistance request to Behavioral Science at Quantico.

But the Feds have a backlog a mile long and two miles wide. Everyone knows Washington State has the highest number of serial murderers in the nation, but the hard-ons in wingtips have been burned before out here. They’re still smarting from the fact that the Green River Killer has evaded capture for decades, burned up countless man-hours with nothing to show but the occasional awkward press conference. We’ll look into it. We promise.

About a month later a man broke into a woman’s apartment that she shared with her two young children. He raped and beat and strangled her to death, then placed her corpse on the bed posed so that when her kids came into the room the next morning to find out why she hadn’t made them breakfast before taking them to kindergarten, that the first thing they saw was the shotgun he’d inserted into her vagina and left there.

The suspect was a secretor, and the semen samples matched those of the woman found in the parking lot the month previously. The press dubbed him The East side Killer, and noted the two victims were habitues of local nightclubs where popped-collared douche bags flashed cell phones the size of bricks to impress the type of women easily impressed by a fucking cell phone.

Less than two weeks later, The East side Killer struck again. This one also was caught napping. Beaten with a baseball bat so badly her brains splattered all over the bedstead, he had then taken a knife and stabbed her almost three hundred times from her head to the soles of her feet, left her corpse with a dildo in the mouth and a copy of The Joy Of Sex tucked under what was left of her right arm.

By this point the Boys From Virginia With No Sense Of Humor had come on the case post haste. They sent out John Douglas, whose character Scott Glenn in The Silence Of The Lambs was based on. Overworked and seriously underpaid, he wound up with brain fever caused by exhaustion and almost died in a cheap hotel room in Seattle. But he recovered and continued to work the case. Posited that all three murders were the work of one man. Definitely a Cop Groupie. Maybe an African American, skilled at blending in white society, maybe brought up in white society.

This was big news. Serial killers go on the hunt inside their own ethnic backgrounds, at least, that was the given up until this happened. Douglas discussed how white American mono-culture had become so entrenched in media that it had become easy to imitate for outsiders. He was proven right when forensics found the pubic hairs found on all three vics were African American.

Meanwhile, good old George Russell was still being good old George Russell. Cheerful and good-natured and pleasant. But chinks were appearing in the armor. Ex-girlfriends now found him hostile towards them, whereas before he had always been Mr. Smooth. Whereas before he had always been modest, now he was cocky and arrogant.

One of the reasons George Russell had been doing “some side work” for the PD on Mercer Island was because he had been arrested a lot as a kid for petty crimes, and the local police had taken him under their wing to try and straighten him out, give him errands to run and a vision of a possible future that didn’t involve a vision from behind bars.

But it hadn’t taken hold, and they knew it. When the word was being spread around cop shops from Bothell to Bellingham that the suspect was an African American perhaps brought up in white society, they just knew. After all, Mercer Island was pretty much white society.

When they arrested him they found personal belongings of all three victims on his person. And although DNA testing was still considered science fiction, and expensive science fiction at that, they put up the scratch to have it done and it came back positive. He smiled and joked with them as they put on the cuffs. This is all a big misunderstanding fellas. Don’t worry, we’ll all have a good laugh about this later at Denny’s. Ha ha, you guys....

Good old spidey sense. It saved me from being subpoenaed. Because we didn’t associate I never had to stand up on the witness stand and point him out to twelve tried and true. A neighbor of mine with whom he’d had a relationship later told me he once confided to her that I scared the shit out of him. He was probably lying. If he wasn’t then it was probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about me. Friends, acquaintances, they weren’t so lucky. Summons servers slapped paper on them and they had to go to King County courthouse and see the glossy technicolor close-ups placed on an easel for evidence, Kodachrome enlargements showing battered bags of meat that had once been mothers and daughters. Human beings turned into bloody mush out of rage and anger and hatred hidden behind a smile they’d all fallen for.

And there, in front of them in a snazzy sport coat and tie, seated grinning by his grimly aware public defender, was George Russell. Giving them little waves of encouragement. Hey fellas. Sheesh, can you believe this? What a world, eh?

In Washington State they still hang you, you can decide between the noose or the needle if you get the death penalty. Fucking barbaric either way, I suppose. George lucked out with three consecutive life sentences. No possibility of parole.

Walla Walla isn’t the worst place to do time, but prison is prison and inside your word is bond. Some chancer who fancies himself a smooth mover with a fancy line of patter isn’t going to get much credibility no matter how brutal the crime. Last I heard he’d been attacked while in the yard, had his throat sliced ear to ear with a piece of broken light bulb. Whatever genius for a day trying to make his rep wound up missing both carotids, so George survived. Probably still trying to weasel his way into the upper incareration echelon. Hey Dude, remember when you tried to kill me? Ha ha, good times, Bro. Good times..

My friends were astounded and creeped beyond belief. None of them had known any of the victims, but George Russell had been their buddy, man, their bro, and their bro had turned out to be a fucking great white shark in their very small pond. They were lucky they were minnows, they just didn’t realize it. I’m not a cynic, I’m a realist. Very few cynics get to say I told you so as often as I do, but in this case I kept my mouth shut and didn’t remind them of the times I had warned them about him.

At this point I’m working two jobs while taking night courses at the UW in filmmaking. Evenings I’m bouncing at the Moore Theater to feed my concert habit, but by day I’m back at Mercer Island working at a video store, pretty much getting paid to get a filmmaking education of another sort. And the housewives would come in and chatter about the local boy turned serial killer, getting a slight frisson as they discussed the case over little cups of overpriced frozen yogurt.

I’ll never forget a comment made by one of these people that sort of made me see it from George Russell’s perspective, which was really creepy in and of itself. These two women were talking, and one of them said: “Well, you know he was never reallyfrom Mercer Island. He just moved here as a child.”

I almost wanted to scream at them what fucking idiots they were. They were so soft and suburbanized and stuck up that one of their own had started hunting them for sport and taking their lives as trophies but hey, at least he wasn’t really from the neighborhood. Their property values weren’t compromised. Hooray for them.

If you don’t believe me google George Waterfield Russell(Because remember all serial killers have three names, natch), but be prepared to see blurry cop polaroids of a dead and naked woman with a shotgun inside her.

But the point of this story is, is that Bundy was arrested in Florida, Bianchi was tried in California, at the time this all went down Green River was still considered a bad place to turn tricks, this means that I used to hang out and get high with the first convicted serial killer in Washington State.

And he was a total creep.

#serial killer #serial killers #George Russell #George Waterfield Russell #scary story #scary stories #true stories #true scary stories #serial killer story #true serial killer story #i told you so #washington #green river killer #ted bundy #mercer island

17 notes · View notes

ts-nightingaleislands · 4 years

Text

Episode #5- “I forgot Austin has a date with Mary Jane daily so Im gonna have to cut him some slack”- Chris

holy fucking shit! i cant believe i jumped ship like that! it could be a great game changing move or i could be the next damn boot . gotta play hard or go home....just hope i dont go home lol

GIVE ME A R, GIVE ME AN A, GIVE ME A T I N G S! The ratings jumped out last night! I literally slept on the craziness and had to get a skype call from my pal Gwen to get up an hour after the challenge. We quickly felt that it was best to just throw the challenge but that didnt stop a lot of unexpected ish happening: Steven jumping ship, AnnMarie/Sara/Kyle/Steven alliance chat expose, Austin coming to our tribe pleading for a hero like he was the reincarnation of Bonnie Tyler, Rizo making the Friends chat I kept forgetting to with Gwen/him/me/AnnMarie/Sara/Liam, us deciding to blindside Tim, Liam telling Austin about it who then proceeds to tell Tim and Kyle, Liam getting exposed for having connections to the other tribe, Liam in the hot seat, Austin in the hotseat, and the realization that we finally get to start playing woo.

youtube

So I'm feeling a lil better now with time passing. I have talked with everyone at least some and I think I made a few strong connections that will carry me through this first tribal . I trust chris , gwen, and annmarie the most but who knows if they are blowing smoke up my ass . Only way to find out is wait for tribal tomorrow . Tumblr survivor gods be with me

So Im in the chat with Rizo/Kyle/Gwen and it seems the target has shifted completely off of Tim and its just like huh this was convenient. Gwen/Rizo and I talk of how we kinda control this but that maybe a split vote is better because of the idol and it seems to be a go...then it is shot down. See, I don't see why its not as beneficial. Even if Austin got votes we have the numbers. Its kinda interesting that these guys do not want to maximize safety supposedly but I also notice they arent as like flexible as they should be

I think this went well. We finally won a challenge, which I lowkey never expected. Austin mutinied, but he did what he had to do for us to win. I think he'll be ok on Petrel, after all this time they have to have some sort of target. Steven mutinied here bc Austin put in a good word for us (as is my understanding), so operating under that assumption means voting him out is a bad idea. As everyone now knows (bc my last cf was leaked), voting out Noah is still a bad idea, so it's between Cheatham and Amy (if we lose again!) Amy knows she's on the bottom. Can't be any more explicit than having an alliance with literally everyone else in the game leaked. So if I were to be loyal to my alliance, obviously she goes next. However, Cheatham probably got an idol from the pool. And he lied about it. So maybe not the most trustworthy ally. If he didn't tell us about the idol, then what's he got planned for it? He has plans for the future, and those plans don't seem to involve me. Also he has a very acerbic attitude, and if we merge having him would make us much less appealing to work with because he makes it very obvious whether or not he wants to work with someone. So if we lose again (which i lowkey hope we do), Cheatham is hopefully being blindsided! (has to be a blindside bc he has an idol)

I know everyone is trying to act oblivious now but come on now lol Austin saying he hasnt heard a name? Boy we all heard names 24 hours ago, its just a question if those same names are still out. I just claimed I made little progress for the tribal so he tells me to inform him and Im like? Inform what? That the ground is now wet when it used to be dry? This sleep schedule sucks

(LATER)

I forgot Austin has a date with Mary Jane daily so Im gonna have to cut him some slack

(LMFAO)

So tbh Austin, Liam, and Tim have reasons to go but I also notice Kyle and Tim didnt want me and Gwen in until after we lost, and now they have us wanting Austin out. Again timing is important in this game. If we won I doubt this would happen. Right now Im not decided yet but I see the gears shifting, its just a question of where

(OMG CONFESSIONAL KING)

In my talks with Austin I kinda feign ignorance but I notice EVERYONE is doing that so I dont think that stratrgy is gonna work longterm. I know for a fact Austin has talked game to people so when he says he hasn't then oop. Id say a strength of mine is reading people at times and that is why I feel I can't do it as much unless I play dumb with these people. Too bad they seem to be doing the same!

Tim is a sneaky motherfucker and needs to be voted out like, yesterday. Getting the target off his back so fast. Ha. I’m onto you Timothy! Austin said that Tim said to watch out for me. I knew it. Thank you leaky Austin!! If I get voted out at tribal, let the record show that I did everything in my power to get Tim out. And if I go and he stays, these people are screwed. Love you all (especially my #1 Chris)!!

So I dont really think being in a group which has Tim and Kyle is gonna work. We were literally the only ones (Tim, Kyle, Rizo, Gwen) who talked of voting Austin in that chat and all of a sudden, Austin knows his name is out and Rizo/Tim/Kyle want us to not be "paranoid" and just split? Uh insert Tasha 'we got a rat' gif because WE GOT A RAT

This is so damn stressful! I really have no clue if I'm going tonight or what . I really like the tribe tho and hope I can make it past this first tribal . Find out in a few hours 😥

Oh my this is really messy LMAOO. I’m doing exactly what I wanted to do build a relationship with everyone and get included into multiple groups. Now I can pick which way I wanna go. I’m in 2 trios Chris and Gwen then Tim and Kyle. I also have Sara and Annmarie that trust me so I can do what I want. It’s crazy cuz I was the first person to suggest Tim to go and it was in fruition until Tim and Kyle came to me. I realized why vote him out when I’m getting info from him and he wants me to stay. So boom change the target to Austin because he is talking to everyone and told Kyle Tim name is brought up. So Tim got scared so then I changed my target to Austin and majority wanted him gone. But Kyle and Tim want Liam gone and I don’t mind him leaving it’s just he is a nonfactor. I lowkey want annemarie gone because she is leaking info and seems close to austin. Preferably I want austin gone but we are scared he has an idol so I want to split votes but Tim is scared. So Kyle recommend Annmarie and I’m going to make sure she goes cuz I was going to do Liam for the split. But then I worried annemarie would reveal to Tim I wanted him out and that would be bad. So I would like austin to go hopefully he misplays his idol and Annmarie goes home. And I will be in the majority. Out of the trio I’m more loyal to a Chris and Gwen but I do like Kyle a lot. Let’s see how tonight plays

The lil snakes Tim & Kyle threw my name out so one of them has to leave, it's just that simple folks. I'm confident I've got a majority behind getting Tim to leave so I'm faithful that he's gonna be gone tonight.

Something smells sorta fishy... That first hour or so after losing the comp was utter chaos. Chats were everywhere and I had no clue who I was even talking to half the time. Now lately, it's been quiet so that's nerve wrecking. Anyway...Austin. Bruh, he told me at first that Amy was in the pool and then a day later that cheatham was. This honestly a mistake or?! I know he's talking a lot to others and spreading info because Kyle told me that he told him that Liam knew he mentioned his name. Honestly, this was great because now Kyle thinks that AnnMarie leaked..which is true..she did. Lulul! So anyways, Austin mentioned making a majority alliance after this of me/Gwen/Rizo/Chris/AnnMarie...which is odd because that's already a group. Coincidence or?? Regardless, that group is way too powerful and something's gotta give at one point here!

I just made a massive move And it couldn’t have worked out any better I decided to mutiny to the other tribe. I somehow managed to convince my tribe to let me go without anyone realizing that I would be bringing the victory with me to Thrush. I talked with Austin after he came over Petrel before I left, and we made a plan for me to work with Noah and cheatham to take out Amy. Things started great with those two, and we had an alliance chat within 15 minutes. Cheatham even revealed to me that he was the one in the pool, which he hadn’t even told Noah. I also found out that Amy has the self vote, which works out perfectly. Things are looking good. I just made possibly the biggest move of the season so far, and things seem to be working out great

youtube

(LATER)

youtube

SO WOOOOW. I am truly shocked by what is going on. So obviously we threw the challenge, but afterwards, things went insane. I was up for at least an hour, talking to everyone in the tribe. We threw to get Tim out. He is definitely someone I don't want to keep, he could really mess up my game. Kyle and Steven were way out of the loop, and honestly, it was sorta obvious that Kyle and Tim were working together. Both Tim and Kyle threw out the name liam due to their inactivity, which sucks, I hate when that is the reason for someone getting voted out. Surprisingly, Tim doesn't know his name is out there, or at least I don't think so. He is suspicious that he's missing something, but I won't be the one to tell him. I am working with austin. He's lovely and we click well. That is all I can think to say.

I wish there was a swap. If I'm gone I'm gone, i guess 4 people are voting me so my best hope is if gwen rizo kyle chris dont vote me ;(

i just have been listening to noah tbh

youtube

5 votes Tim, 4 votes AnnMarie.

#announcement

0 notes