#No threats just fax

[mafiasliege]

I dare you to let me go

(this is part 2 of my fic. Enjoy reading!)

Part 1 ↓

JAMESON

Jameson was standing in a maze. Green bushes everywhere. And whichever way he went, the end was green too. Except now. Now, a 5"6' hazel-eyed brunette was standing there.

"Heiress." He tried taking a step toward her, but the distence seemed to stay the same, maybe it was getting bigger. "Where are we?"

"Not we. You. You seem… stuck."

"I'm not stuck. I'm-"

"-fine? Is that your latest lie? Then why am I here, Jameson? again?"

Where was he? And why did Avery seem younger?

"It's not a lie, heiress." Jameson was starting to get angry now, he turned around and started walking away. Avery- or the girl who at least looked like her- spoke louder.

"I'm not her, you know. Maybe the real one doesn't even exist anymore."

"Shut up."

"Maybe she just-"

"Shut up!-"

"Jamie, I'm gonna start yoddling loudly until you get your ass out here!" That was Xander, but Jameson had no regard for a yoddling threat between his gasping for air like a drowning man. Apparently, the things that plagued him during the day had started following him into his sleep now.

He pushed away the sheets and picked up his shirt from the night before. Under it was that box. They same green box. How long had he had it now? An year? Two? And did it matter, really?

You're fine. Just get this done.

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

Jameson got dressed and got to the room. He was surprisingly on time, the only reason being Xander making good on his threat to yoddle. He was actually decent at it, but annoying, nonetheless.

"Do you believe you're being paid to arrange a funeral?" Grayson's tone walked the line between a question and an accusation.

"I need this entire-"

"That's enough! Thank you" Lyra inserted herself in the conversation and dragged Grayson away by his arm from the event planners, who went back to doing their thing.

The dinner last night may have been non-existent the last straw a disaster, but this party's going to be epic. Besides, Avery would at least be home for at least a while on her own birthday, right? She'd promised.

Jameson helped himself to one of the appetizers on the long table covered in platinum and shades of violet. He hadn't had breakfast. After everything was set, he excused himself to the garage and tried calling Avery.

"Your call has been-"

"You're call has-"

"You're ca-"

He plunked his phone down with force. Luckily, it landed on the soft leather of the Valkyrie's seat.

"You alright there?" Nash. It was Nash. Why was everyone so concerned all of a sudden? Avery had just missed her own birthday that he'd planned for days. Not a big deal. At all. Janeson rolled down the car's window glass.

"I am fine."

"You're staying to sound more like Gray than Gray used to himself," Nash took that as his cue to get in the passanger seat.

"Whatever you and Avery have going on, just talk to-"

"Do you think I haven't tried?" It came out slow with a hint of frustration. They were face to face now. "There's always another call, there's always another problem, there's always another person expecting the most from her and she's trying to live up to them more and more."

To that, Nash had no answer. They just say like that for a while.

"Try talking to her today. She might just listen." He patted Jamie on the shoulder and got out.

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

"I can't feel my faxing legs," Max whispered, sitting in a crouch. After a long day of planning Avery's party, everyone was sitting in a crouch waiting for her to come and surprise her.

"Sit on me, then," Xander whispered back to her.

"Oh, get a room you two!" Libby whisper-yelled at them, just as the door rattled.

"SURPRISE!!"

"Oh, my God!" Said… Mrs. Laughlin, who almost dropped the tray of crab cakes in her hands.

"Ugh. I can't crouch for much longer! Where is this beach?" Max whimpered, kicking her feet.

After two hours, all the dishes were half-empty, the wine half-drunk, and half the people previously in the room had dispersed.

"So-"

"Before you say what your about to say, Gray, just like everyone else in this house, I'm okay, and so is Avery."

Grayson frowned. "I've been where you are, Jamie. If you have to keep telling yourself you're okay, you definitely aren't."

Jameson felt Grayson call out to him as he stormed out walked away.

He was done. He was so done. With his brothers' concern, with Lyra's unnecessary inputs.

With Avery.

The floodgates were open now, just like the door of his bathroom as he slammed it back shut. He was angry, no, frustrated. He was frustrated at the dinner, he was frustrated as he threw the green box from his pocket at the sink, he was frustrated as he felt the mirror shatter beneath his knuckles. He could suddenly see a thousand reflections of himself. But every reflection in every piece of the shattered mirror was a shell of what Jameson Hawthorne used to be. How he used to be.

He staggered back, still staring at his reflections until his back hit the door as he slowly sunk to the floor. And just like that, the tears and the memories came rushing out to the surface.

"Maybe the real one doesn't even exist anymore."

"She told me she's going to make it up to you"

"If you have to keep telling yourself you're okay, you definitely aren't."

"How many times have you had your heart broken over the last five years?"

And with the painful memories and the exploding bottled up feelings came crystal clarity, for the first time in a long time.

I can't do this anymore.

Loving Avery had made him love himself too, it made him realise his self-worth. He got to see what he deserved. But this, right now? He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to pretend to be happy. He didn't deserve to settle for a shell of what him and Avery used to be. He always says he can't imagine a life without Avery, maybe that was never a good thing. He had to start living for himself.

And there was only one way to do that.

#the inheritance games #tig fanfic #the grandest game #jameson hawthorne #tig #averyjameson #avery grambs #javery #IDYTLMG

[direwombat]

a wip wednesday? on my birthday? it's more likely than you think 🎉

tagged by @adelaidedrubman and @g0dspeeed to share some wip (tysm~! <3)

enjoy the first little bit of katc chapter 6/interlude ii

Hope County, MT. September 13, 2018. St. Francis Veterans Center, Whitetail Mountains. 10:35pm.

Toiling away by the light of a single desk lamp, Jacob Seed sits hunched over his desk, going over the day’s reports. Throughout the course of the evening, his reading glasses have slipped down the bridge of his nose and now perch at its tip. His neck and shoulders ache, but the night isn’t over yet.

Years of meticulous planning and intense preparation have gotten them this far, but all that time, they were operating in the shadows. They were outcasts by choice, keeping to themselves and biding their time until given the order to strike. Joseph had taken care to amass an army, just as Jacob, John, and Faith kept them well trained, motivated, and dumb. But now that the Reaping has begun, now that they’ve declared war, they need to act fast

Victory is never a guarantee, and the longer the fight goes on, the more likely it is that the Resistance will start gaining ground. The element of surprise is gone; now, he and his soldiers are digging in for the long fight. 

This is his final stand against the world who wronged him. His swan song. His way of ensuring a better future for his brothers and sister to make up for the way he failed once before. 

He will not fail again. He can’t. 

Just as Noah survived the flood, so too will they survive the fires of war. 

And when his family is safe -- when they’re underground, hibernating in the safety of their bunkers, he can finally rest. He’ll watch the world burn, and when the smoke fills his lungs and his body gives out from exhaustion, he’ll lay his head down and close his eyes one last time. 

His work will be done. He’ll have served his purpose.

But until then, he must remain vigilant and on guard. He is their sword and shield. He has a purpose, and he can’t allow himself a moment’s weakness until that purpose is fulfilled. 

He sits up and groans as his spine realigns and a series of violent pops sound loudly in the silence of his office. With a heavy sigh, he lets the report he’d been reading float back down onto his desk. His hand reaches for the mug that rests off to the side and lifts it to his lips. The coffee inside has gone from tepid to cold since he last took a sip. His face scrunches involuntarily, the acrid bitterness too much, even for him. 

Rising from his desk, he takes a moment to stretch before moving over to the coffee maker resting on one of his filing cabinets for a refill. What’s left in the carafe is still warm, and he stops pouring only when the surface tension threatens to break. Carefully lifting the mug once again, he takes a sip. It burns his tongue and he breathes a small sigh of relief. That’s better. 

His attention turns to the bulletin board on the nearby wall and regards it with a critical eye. He’d been adding pins and grainy photographs to it as he’s been getting reports in. Overall, the Reaping has been going according to plan -- at least according to his Chosen. He holds an iron grip over the Whitetails, and according to the faxes he’s received from the Valley and Henbane, the infantry has done well to overpower the average citizen of the county.

His men are all in position and the outposts are secure. Roadblocks are in place at all entrances and exits to the Whitetails and there are regular boat patrols along the shores. Radio jammers are blocking all non-Project frequencies, cutting off enemy communication. Jess Black has been captured and is being held at the lumber mill, and Deputy Pratt is set to be shipped to the Grand View for conditioning at dawn. 

And with the rogue Deputy currently in John’s custody, he can focus his attention on neutralizing the one threat that’s his own damn fault. 

Eli Palmer knows too much.

Jacob should have known it was a mistake to trust him. Bringing in outsiders is always dangerous, but he’d been so sure he could convince Eli to join the cause. He was a former soldier and current prepper. He saw the state of the world; knew it was only a matter of time before it came to an end. It’s how he’d convinced the man to help build the bunkers in the first place. He never said anything to confirm or deny, but he’d allowed Eli to think that the bunkers were meant for everyone in the county. Or, at least he did up until a few weeks ago when he’d asked him to join the project; fight as one of his Chosen. 

After all Jacob had done to give Eli purpose -- especially after his wife took the kid and ran -- all he got in return was betrayal. The other man had all but spit in his face before sneaking away in the dead of night not just with the blueprints for the Armory, but his siblings’ bunkers as well. He’s been hiding somewhere in the Whitetails ever since, and if Jacob’s intel is to be believed, then it sounds like Eli’s trying to piece together his own army to fight back. 

The very man who helped build their arks -- their salvation -- could just as easily destroy them. Jacob needs to stop that before it happens. He needs to nip that little problem in the bud before Eli gathers enough bodies to launch a counter-attack. 

Eli Palmer needs to die.  

tagging: @wrathfulrook, @harmonyowl, @ivymarquis, @jillvalentinesday, @cassietrn, @poetikat, @confidentandgood, @strafethesesinners, @afarcry5fromstraight, @miyabilicious, @simplegenius042, @inafieldofdaisies, @josephslittledeputy, @aceghosts, @madparadoxum, @socially-awkward-skeleton, @voidika, @strangefable (taglist opt in/out)

#wip wednesday #wip: kneeling at the crossroads #i love writing jacob's pov he takes himself so comically seriously #syb'll humble that out of him eventually

[requiesticat]

Everybody's gotta learn sometime

Chapters: Completed Fandom: Ace Attorney; Miles Edgeworth: Investigations Rating: Gen Notes: Post-Canon; Oneshot

Summary: Blaise has recieved a lot of mail during his tenure as the head of the Prosecutorial Investigation Committee. Not all of these letters are pleasant. Sebastian became privy to it eventually, and it's only now that Blaise realizes what it means.

-

I was thinking about how the general public would potentially react to corruption in the Ace Attorney universe. What would happen if the villains got death threats? Hate mail? Etc. Would they handle it well? It lead me to write a short fic with that premise.

This was partially based on a scene from Koe no Katachi, a manga that has similar themes.

Two o'clock had come and gone. That was when a courier passed out deliveries around the cell block once a week, ensuring letters were distributed to their recipients. Some inmates got packages that had been weighed and stamped, to detect that contraband wasn't overlooked by censors. You were lucky if you did, but most received plain envelopes from family and acquaintances.

Blaise only had one relative left.

He sat at a wooden, government-standard issue desk, staring down at the pile of unopened messages that slowly built up day by day, threatening to topple off onto the concrete floor. One envelope lay crumpled, torn next to a folded sheet of beige stationary. Whoever the sender was, they'd used force when scratching haphazard cursive with a pen, causing ink to bleed in spots. The words swam as he went over them again, reading line after line in silence, face impassive. There should have been anger. And on some level, there was. Blaise could easily have crumpled it up and tossed it in a small trashcan with the others, sent by disgruntled citizens who'd been following recent news. He felt none.

When they still lived together in the townhouse, Blaise had caught Sebastian lighting the fireplace multiple times, to discard envelopes under the guise of fueling flames. Not all. Only a handful from the mailbox, dutifully brought inside and hidden when the teen assumed noone was present. Blaise had yelled at him each time, demanding furiously that he stop - but threats weren't enough to keep it from happening. Sebastian had just stood there each time, head bowed, crying and apologizing profusely as he faced punishment. Did as he was told, for awhile. Then the disappearances continued. Never bills, documents faxed from work, or bribes. Sifting through ashes after the fire died down revealed half of them were addressed to Blaise, though some had been intended for Sebastian, according to the addresses that were included.

Now, he understood why. 

All Blaise could think of was how much of an idiot he'd been.

Blaise Debeste, it read: You are disgusting! Why are our tax dollars used to prolong your execution? Your whole lot is disgusting, and it would be better for society if the whole operation collapsed! I hope you rot in jail. GO DIE!

Most of them were like that. People poured out their hatred for the Committee on paper every week, sending graphic death threats, obscene epithets, ransom notes, all calling him every name under the sun. It should have been obvious, but he had never realized it, not until the very end. These were the ones that got discarded. He'd been so used to getting them initially - even expected it to happen, as his career plummeted into ruins - that the sudden lull seemed almost too convenient.

Sebastian had been trying to protect him the whole time. It stopped when Blaise was arrested, and now noone was left for him to hide behind, or use as a scapegoat. He was stuck living with it; the knowledge of all that he had done. But more than that, he was alone.

Disgusting.

Monster.

How could you?

Coward!

GO DIE-

A tear splashed, marring ink so that it blurred into the paper like watercolor paint. His vision was blurring, now, making it impossible to discern anything legible. Blaise hadn't realized he'd been crying until wetness slid down his cheeks, dripping off his nose. He'd taken off his goggles to prevent them from fogging up, even if there was no point to wearing them.

Slowly, he wiped at his eyes with an arm that hid the letters from sight.

"That kid really... pisses me off."

#seyu talks #my fics #fanfiction #ace attorney #aa investigations #blaise debeste #sebastian debeste #this could be considered part of the reformed villain au i'm working on #sort of a prequel to it #i originally intended for this to be a comic but did a written version instead #will make that in the future though

[fate-motif]

say what you will about prodigy being a kids’ show, i think drednok is unironically the scariest villain in star trek.

sure, the design helps, because you can’t get away with making a drednok type design without some serious special effects budget for live action shows. but it goes beyond just the fact that he looks like the terminator meets general grievous. drednok’s a slave overseer, and among the slaves he is terrorizing we have the child main characters. the fact that we’re in the kids’ POV means that drednok feels scary out of our minds even though he’s no existential threat like the borg.

there’s also how drednok just. we only ever see him express two emotions: apathy and disgust. he approaches every atrocity he does with apathy and disgust and maybe even hatred. gwyn wasn’t even one of the unwanted, and yet he turned on her so quickly. it’s even pretty clear he was hoping to do this someday. he doesn’t even like his master! we have no idea what he thinks of solum! he’s just so filled with hatred that i think i’d pay a cool hundred just to see jimmi simpson recite the AM “hate” monologue from i have no mouth and i must scream in the drednok voice. i’m pretty sure i’d get nightmares about it.

also, can we talk about jimmi simpson’s voice performance? it genuinely reminds me of how brent spiner managed to walk a perfecf line doing data’s voice between “not capable of experiencing emotions” and “drawing reference from what emotions are like”. jimmi simpson does that but drednok just. he’s so full of some kind of AI hatred but he’s aware it’s not convenient to express it every single moment of his existence. so he just sounds…empty in an extremely sinister way.

though what clinched it for me was time amok, of course. time amok is a horror movie in so many ways but gwyn’s storyline in that ep goes under the radar when it’s just bone-chilling. you’re desperately trying to save your friends in under ten minutes when the sins of your past have managed to fax themselves to your ship in the form of the terminator. he wants to drag your friends back into slavery and most likely kill you. he’s killed the only ever kind adult you’ve met in your life. you’re all alone. and even when you manage to kill the terminator, you’re not going to save the ship from exploding. so you just record a goodbye message and die.

literally what the fuck, prodigy writers.

#star trek #pro #fandom #save star trek prodigy #30 days of prodigy

[samanitamuscaria]

PALESTINE MASTERLIST

A collection of resources for learning about and helping Palestine, on and off tumblr

(I will be editing this post as I find more resources)

Last updated: 02/14/24

LEARN:

Decolonize Palestine - A site made by Palestinians. Contains the full history of Palestine (pre and post Israeli occupation), debunks common myths about Palestine, and has lists of resources for learning more and taking action

Al Jazeera Coverage - Al Jazeera is a news site based in the Middle East. They have live updates and go into depth on everything going on. (I personally listen to their Live broadcast while I do stuff to stay updated)

Free Ebooks About Palestine - 3 free ebooks from Haymarket. If you’re willing to pay, Haymarket has a lot of non-free books about Palestine as well. They also host events about Palestine - just go to the ‘Events’ page and see if there are any you can attend. Many are free and available online.

Google Drive with 2700 ebooks on Israel/Palestine

Even MORE free ebooks

Yet again more free ebooks

The Palestine Directory - A compilation of free-to-access links to learn about Palestine and its history

Palestine Academy - a website with tons of info about Palestine and what you can do to help

B’tselem - an Israeli human rights organization dedicated to documenting the ongoing Palestinian genocide

Advocating for Palestine - A free pdf of a booklet supported by Bisan explaining and debunking common Israeli propaganda tactics

PDF of South Africa’s application to the UN to investigate Israel for genocide - Provides a TON of info and facts about the genocide, before and after October 7

Here’s a post compiling EVEN MORE resources to learn more

ACT:

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights - If you go to their ‘Act’ page, they have a variety of actions you can take. They provide a script for a phone call to your reps and will patch you in to a call with them, have a list of upcoming protests, and more. You can also donate to them.

Jewish Voice For Peace - Similarly to USCPR, they have several ways you can take action, with campaigns, scripts for your emailing/calling your reps, and more. You can donate to them as well

Donate E-sims to Gaza - Gaza’s communications is under constant threat. Donating e-sims helps Gazans connected.

Archive what you can - Archiving info so that it’s available no matter what happens on Social Media is its own form of activism

Boycott, Divest, and Sanction - There’s a lot of huge lists out there with hundreds of brands to boycott. This isn’t feasible and isn’t what Palestinians are asking for. BDS, run by Palestinians, has its own shorter list of companies that have the greatest impact on Palestine. If you want to boycott other companies, go ahead, but please focus on the ones on the BDS site!

Take to the Streets - the link leads to a constantly-updating calendar of protests for Palestine all around the world

Fax Your Reps - 5 free faxes per day

Join/Donate to Palestine Action - Palestine Action is an organization focused on using direct action to bring down Elbit, a weapons’s manufacturer that sends weapons to Israel

Donate to Palestine Legal - Palestine Legal is an organization that is dedicated to protecting protestors. This is a great way to help with protests if you can’t participate in them for any reason

Petition to investigate Israel for war crimes

Sign a strike card to join a general strike for Palestine

Operation Olive Branch - a spreadsheet compiling a list of gofundmes from Palestinians trying to escape Rafah

If you have any links you think I should add or have an issue with any of the links I currently have, please let me know!

#free palestine #palestine

[limerental]

ficletvember 2023 - day 2

thronebreaker corporate modern au

gen but implied meve/reynard and implied gascon/reynard

Under pressure to compete with Nilfgaard Industries, Meve must hire a social media manager to save her company from bankruptcy. Unfortunately, the only applicant is Gascon.

Meve got into the office later than she'd like, having slept through several alarms after a night's sleep as poor as usual.

If she hadn't been urged home by her well-meaning assistant, she would have stayed up half the night and slept on the horrible sofa in the corner of her office and oken just as sore and grouchy.

But at least on time.

The drive in on her motobike, ordinarily enough to lift her spirits, served only to remind her that summer would be over soon. 

The morning air had taken on a chill, her curled fingers wind-beaten and stiff as she parked in the garage. Every month that passed only served to remind her of the sorry state of her company's finances. She dreaded the next quarterly report.

If they didn't turn it around by the end of the year, then everything she'd worked for could be lost.

She startled Reynard at his desk as she dropped her bag and helmet in a haphazard pile. 

The man had donned his mustard yellow office cardigan that lived draped over the back of his chair. Another sure sign of fall approaching. He looked as exhausted as she felt, eyes bruised beneath the wire frames of his reading glasses.

Must have slept here. The hypocrite. She'd have to remember to urge him home tonight before he could urge her.

"Morning, ma'am," Reynard greeted with his usual grimace of a smile, "your interview is waiting for you in th' board room."

"My what?" 

"The social media manager position, ma'am. Your only applicant."

Meve groaned.

She'd hoped to grab an espresso from the temperamental machine down the hall before even thinking of speaking to anyone. 

Wordlessly, Reynard interrupted her downward spiral by presenting her with a steaming cup he'd had ready. Sixth sense for any small thing she needed, that man.

"I'd crash and burn without you, love," Meve said and did not miss the man's flustered fiddle with the tidy papers on his desk. She hid a smile against the rim of her espresso. A smile that faded as she prepared mentally for the task at hand.

An interview. For a social media position that didn't seem wholly necessary.

The company'd gotten on just fine for years without any accounts and with a bare bones website updated once a year. 

Or maybe not.

They were facing potential bankruptcy after all. Mostly thanks to the looming threat of their main competitor, Nilfgaard Industries. Nilfgaard likely had a whole office dedicated purely to managing their internet presence.

She and Reynard had briefly given it a go themselves, hunched together over Meve's aging laptop, but neither were anything approaching technologically savvy. Or sociable. Meve had last logged into her Facebook years ago after tiring of bigoted relatives, and Reynard's tech knowledge began and ended with a bizarrely intimate relationship with the office fax machine.

In other words, they'd both floundered and given up quickly.

Meve glanced at the portfolio handed over by Reynard, her brow furrowing.

She tipped back her coffee, grimaced, and made for the board roam.

*

The man who waited for his interview had kicked his feet up on the conference table, wide-brimmed cap sifting askew on his head.

It was maybe a little generous to call him a man. His resume claimed he had a degree in Public Relations from a reputable university, but he looked no older than her own teenaged sons.

He also appeared to be sleeping, his head fallen against his shoulder.

Meve cleared her throat.

A small, shaggy dog suddenly began to bark as it leapt at her from beneath the table, which nearly startled Meve into dropping the dregs of her espresso and prompted the boy to wake.

"Down, boy!" he called, laughing, and the little beast gave up on bouncing against her legs to skitter back under the table.

"Um," said Meve, dumbfounded.

The boy stood to greet her, dimpled grin more charming than it should have been given the circumstances.

"Gascon," he said with a vigorous shake of her hand. "And you've met Knickers. I'm his emotional support dog." 

"Right," she said. "Pardon me a moment."

*

Reynard grimaced at her in sympathy.

And yet, he'd failed to warn her. The bastard.

"Reynard, there's an imbecile in the board room. Are you certain that–?"

"Yes," said Reynard morosely.

"And do we really need–?"

"Yes, we do."

"And he was truly the only–?"

"Unfortunately."

Meve sighed.

*

Gascon had returned to his presumptuous lounge, his boots dirtying the conference table. He waggled his fingers at her in greeting.

Intent on getting this over with as quickly as possible, Meve sat across from him, lips pursed. Rarely one for rigid formal office decorum, she sat prim and still with her legs politely crossed for once.

The boy didn't take a hint.

He tipped back his chair onto two legs, clasped hands folded across his chest. He'd deigned to wear a dress shirt at least, but one so wrinkled and buttoned so haphazardly that he may as well have worn a track suit and appeared more put together.

"May we begin?" Meve asked and didn't wait for Gascon's sweeping gesture to go on before cracking open the folder before her. 

On paper, he seemed well-qualified for the position, as far as she could tell. A sizeable following on several platforms Reynard had suggested they target. Several internships and professional references.  

Unfortunately, his list of accolades veered increasingly into the absurd the further down the list she scanned. A successful SoundCloud. Viral TikToks. Under managerial experience, he had listed–

"It says here that for the past five years your only source of employment has been," Meve adjusted her reading glasses, stolen from Reynard's stash of extras, "moderating a Minecraft server."

"Oh yeah, and th' discord," said Gascon. "Hard fuckin' work. Full-time gig."

"Right," said Meve stiffly, regretting every decision she had made in her life up to this point, most chiefly in choosing to take over her late husband's company after his untimely passing rather than doing something more sensible and less likely to leave her most likely forced to hire this idiot.

She flipped through several more pages of the boy's portfolio.

Only to go still as she was greeted with an elaborate drawing of a cartoon dog with truly alarmingly large breasts stretching tight its shirt, its tongue lolling out and eyes crossed.

"Oh, I can design a mascot," said Gascon cheerily. "Figure this boring old joint needs one. Could print somethin' like that on your business cards."

Meve breathed slowly through her nose.

She focused very intently on imagining the fate of the company if something couldn't be done to bring in more revenue. Forget her own income and livelihood, her employees and their families relied on her. Nilfgaard's recent monopoly on the industry meant if this place went under, there'd be no choice but settling for its appalling labor practices and questionable ethics.

She had very little choice.

Unfortunately, this overgrown child of a man with his yappy dog and utter lack of professionalism might be their last hope to break into new markets and turn the company around.

Even worse, as Gascon chattered on happily about his several step plan to build their platforms, she noted that nothing he said sounded overly absurd.  

She had no choice but to hire him.

Much whooping and ridiculous howling followed her announcement. The little dog danced on its hind legs like a circus act, and the boy stopped to film it, cackling.

Meve sighed even more deeply.

*

Though Meve feared she would regret her decision, some of her reservations were tempered by the amusing sight of Reynard flushed pink as Gascon leaned flirtatiously across his desk to speak with him, mussing carefully organized documents.

Her reservations returned tenfold when Knickers lifted its leg on the edge of the desk.

#my fic #this is deeply silly lmao #don't think too hard about what the company does. idk either #witcher fic #thronebreaker

[myalgias]

From the article:

The timing was perfect for a devil-driven moral panic, according to experts and journalists who studied the phenomenon. America was just starting an evangelical revival led by Ronald Reagan’s return to purported conservative values after the chaos and hedonism of the 1960s and 1970s, as the economy was also mired in a deep recession. At the same time, more women were joining the workforce, leading to the rise of the “latchkey kid” phenomenon and children needing full-time daycare. The institution of the nuclear family seemed to be under threat

It’s the same conditions as today, with an economy that never fully rebounded from both the Great Recession and the COVID pandemic and a famous celebrity political leader pushing for a return to traditional American values. All while fears about LGBTQ parents destroying traditional families flood the internet. 

When Michelle Remembers came out and made lurid claims about secret Satanic sex abuse cults snapping up children in daycares and alone at home, it became a bestseller. Combined with the general unease of evangelicals about women in the workforce leaving their kids in the hands of strangers, the conditions were set for a moral panic. 

The book was, essentially, an early form of the Libs of TikTok account. 

But things moved slower in the era of chain letters and crank faxes. While the claims about a “Satanic” fashion line or rap performance can become national news in hours, it took three years for the claims in Michelle Remembers to drive a cultural panic. 

But it finally did, starting with the baseless accusations of Satanic ritual abuse against the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California in 1983.

edit: pls see the comments for some important feedback from @bananapeppers wrt misinformation within this article pertaining to the claim of "baseless accusations" by the author and wrt the interviewing of Lucien Greaves of The Satanic Temple.

#satanic panic #csa -

[rapturousdivinity]

Vox Nihili

I typed up one of the documents I have at my disposal. It is one regarding myself, I think it was sent originally via a fax machine? No fucking clue. I don't want to share any of 01 or 02s, it feels like a breach of their privacy. They can do it themselves if they want, since they seem to be using my account anyways.

The document cuts off a little bit at the end, as the bottom of the paper is burned. The one we got this paper from (deceased) tried (key word being "tried") to go out on his own terms, the burns on the paper reflecting his methods. There are multiple sketches on the paper itself, not to my standards, but I suppose the old geezer needed to get his psychological distress out somehow, especially since he was one of the only ones to survive the.. "Accident", let alone keeping any of the debris left behind. Transcript of the doc below the 'keep reading'.

~ Ira

Re: Psyche Evaluation for 000 Date: April 4th, 1982. 

Greetings Barron, this is Doctor Vasquez. I wanted to touch base on your patient, 000. I truly wasn’t expecting the negative response to my boundary regarding where the appointment was to take place, but you seemed to transport the patient safely to my office, so I cannot complain. 

However, there are some concerns I had regarding 000, and his development. I’m sure you know he cannot speak, right? The child is seven, and in my professional opinion, he should have learned a while ago. He was overall quite hostile, but not in a way I was made wary of. 000 isn’t violent in any capacity. He seems more like he’s trying to protect himself. If he truly has hurt one of your staff, I would suggest looking more into the case, as he may have lashed out due to a perceived threat. 

(Note: "Fucking brat" is hand-written between these paragraphs.)

I would like to bring up a few concerns regarding the child’s health. During our appointment, he was very fidgety, and he seemed nervous. I offered 000 a box of crayons and paper, but I was not expecting the confused expression when he was presented with the drawing implements. He tapped the box multiple times, and I opened it for him, and I drew a smiley face on the paper to show how to use them. I got the impression that 000 didn’t know what crayons were. Does he have access to them at your facility? Has he used them?  

000 seemed to be unable to uncurl his fingers for the first quarter of the evaluation. I would have preferred your staff to warn me that he was mute before he was brought in, although I do keep communication flash cards on hand for patients with similar needs. He used the cards to talk to me, but he was overall quite distant. I would recommend more enrichment, and perhaps more interaction with peers, if possible. 000 seemed to mimic my body language through the entire appointment, minus the facial expression. As for that, he stayed blank. He seemed to have a flat affect, and just stared at me. His eyes would not track when I held objects in front of his face. 

I had to turn off the lights in my office, his answers being more rushed and less genuine when the stimuli was added. 000 was constantly shivering, and when I offered a blanket, he flinched away. It took me a few minutes to coax him back out of the corner he had retreated to. I had concerns relating to how pale he seemed, along with the strange texture of his skin, which I had the displeasure of feeling when my hand brushed his wrist to check the bruising there, and the dark circles under his eyes seemed to tell a story of neglect. I don’t believe I was supplied with a record for 000 before I evaluated him, so I assume your foundation had just found him?

He seemed to have dark marks along his wrists, I spotted them when he reached for a piece of paper, his sleeve rode up slightly. I also saw the bandage o

(Note: The rest from this point on is burnt beyond recognition. Any time my name is mentioned, it was covered with Sharpie.)

#entry #arg #slenderverse

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 41 Review

Originally posted March 12th, 2016

Small moments with the androids and heroes.

It’s tempting to say that nothing much happens in “The Trouble with Time Travel,” but that couldn’t actually be further from the truth. While the episode itself is fairly scattered, plotwise, it holds itself together using the same tool as the last episode, character motivation, but unlike “16, 17, and 18 Things I Hate About You,” instead of using character motivation to show the aftermath of a battle, it uses that motivation to give us many small scenes that expand our knowledge of the characters and their relationships.

The episode opens with the Androids, who provide the two funniest scenes in the episode. In their opening scene they nonchalantly steal a pink van from a pair of deliver drivers, and in this scene 17 and 18 play off each other like natural siblings, bickering with each other without ever taking things too far.

Simultaneously 16’s naiveté is played up, as he lifts the van to transport it and calls “shotgun” for a seat in the back, and in his next scene, where the Androids are stopped by the police, and his insistence on having “shotgun” leads to the officers attempting to threaten the trio. This is cut short, of course, when 18 decides to throw their police car into a mountain1, and she joins her brother in the joys of messing with the police.

The rest of the episode is devoted to our protagonists’ retrieval of Goku, with the exception of Chiaotzu, Tien, and Piccolo. Chiaotzu’s character admittedly isn’t developed much here, but he gets to cook pork ramen for a talking pig, so all is forgiven. Tien then arrives to pick up Chiaotzu and reaffirm his status as the only serious character in the show, and Piccolo has a grunting match with Kami, who apparently hasn’t fused with him yet for some reason, despite his insistence last episode that the earth was facing a very grave threat.

Our other protagonists actually get their first hint at this new threat when Bulma breaks the most awkward silence ever put to webseries with a fax of a mossy old time machine, and Trunks freaks out at not knowing how a time machine exactly like his own could be found in the middle of nowhere, opening his capsule inside a flying vehicle to prove his distress valid.

Rating: 4/5

If you enjoyed this review, consider supporting me on Patreon.

Stray Observations

1Actually, it looks more like a plateau.

“So Jones, how’s the wife and kids?” “Still dead, Chuck. Been four months.” “Oh. I am terrible at small talk.” “Yes. You are.”

Oolong: “I’m delicious…”

Krillin Owned: 31, because he was about to call Chi-Chi a bitch.

Gohan: “Where are we going?” Krillin: “Kame House.” Gohan: “Isn’t that literally the second place they’ll look?” Krillin: “Less lip, more ship!”

Tien: “I’m here for Chiaotzu. We need to train.” Chiaotzu: “But Tien! The doctor said if your shoulders get any bigger-“ Tien: “That’s why we don’t see him anymore.”

Nail: “Oh, just fuse already.”

Trunks: “How can you understand time travel?” Gohan: “I’ve been studying theoretical physics. Though I guess at this point it’s just physics.”

Krillin: “You don’t have country music in the future?” Sounds like an excellent future.

#dragon ball z abridged #dragon ball z #team four star #tfs #dbza #dbza ep41

[purplesurveys]

1732

When someone sneezes, do you say “Bless you,” or “God Bless you?”  I'll say 'bless you' if I can remember to/feel like it but otherwise I just act like I didn't hear anything.

Do you ever look at someone cute, and automatically make a move?  No, I'm just not interested in seeing people.

How many times have you been to Wal-Mart/K-Mart in the past week?  I've been to neither of these places my entire life.

What are two things you are excited to do in the near future?  Well I've given myself an actual personal deadline to resign, so it's feeling more and more real now and I feel a certain weight being lifted off my shoulders. I've even talked to Trina about it, so she knows, and that just adds to the Realness of it all.

Another thing is that my family is planning a trip to Sagada this December, and if it ever becomes set it'll be really exciting to go back after 8 years.

Have you ever seen the movie A Walk to Remember? Cliche’ or worth watching? I have seen it but by golly could I not stand the acting/script. I think I lasted all of 20 minutes with it before I turned it off.

Do you ever put condoms in old people’s buggies at the store?  No. I just don't fuck around with condoms or with old people at all...

Name one reason you go to a pharmacy regularly for?  I don't, at least not regularly. When I'm in one it's usually to get something I'm prescribed to take, and this only happens every few years.

What radio station could you not resist turning it to in the vehicle?  93.1 is pretty generous with the BTS airplay so they've earned an even bigger fan in me haha.

Do you live in a house, apartment, or another type of arrangement?  House.

Do you wear sweaters in the winter or hoodies, more often?  We don't get winter, and I don't have a preference between the two.

Are you kind of a loner? Do you like being alone?  It depends on the group. There've definitely been situations where I feel 'stuck' with people and my introvert mood comes out so that I barely talk and just feel like going home.

In any case I do try to put myself out there as much as possible, but if it REALLY can't be helped then that's the time I start to tune out.

Are you one of those people who like to spell out numbers?  If the situation calls for it then yeah.

Is there an animal in the room with you right now? What kind? Yes, the dogs are in front of me sleeping away.

Did you or do you still have a Furby? Was/is it annoying?  I never had one.

What's one event your town has that you don’t like to participate in?  Just...any kind of religious pilgrimage.

Are any of your siblings married? What are their spouse’s names?  None of us are married.

Do you hate nosy people who ask too many personal questions?  Not really, unless they become persistent in an irritating way.

Name one lyric from the song you’re listening to/the last one you listened?  "Never laugh at the controversies that befall others because that might be you one day."

Do you have a fax machine? Do you ever use it anyways?  We don't. I used to only see those in hotels but I don't think even they have them anymore.

Does your kitchen table have placemats? If so, what colors are on them?  We put the placemats away when they're not in use, but yeah we have brown ones. They're just not permanently on the table haha.

Do you know how to sew? What's your favorite thing to sew?  I don't, actually. I dabbled in embroidery before but that's it.

Have you ever owned a turtle? Did it ever bite you when you owned it?  We've never had a turtle.

Does your father have any creepy or scary friends you don't like? Fortunately no, and I can say the same for my mom.

Who was the last person (if anyone) you said Happy Birthday to?  My mom. It's her birthday today! :)

Do you have Photoshop? If so, how often a day do you use it?  Nope.

What color are the walls in the room you’re in right now?  White.

Has your school ever had a lockdown? If so, for what reason exactly?  As far as I can remember, no. There was once a bomb threat at the university beside mine, but we were unaffected and I do remember going to school that day even though I was majorly freaked out.

Do you enjoy it when your school has drills? (ex/fire or tornado drill?)  They're necessary so I didn't mind them, but it was mostly irritating because nobody took it seriously. Everyone kind of just used it as an opportunity to stroll leisurely and finally get to chitchat; and since we were a lot it wasn't like the teachers could tell us off either.

Do you watch any shows that you know your parents wouldn’t approve of?  I don't.

Do you have any siblings who still believe in Santa, and are over age ten?  All of us are in our 20s and none of us believe in Santa. I don't think any of us did? or idk maybe it was just me lol.

What color were the last pair of headphones/earphones you bought?  Black.

Do people call you a big mouth sometimes? Or more than sometimes?  Not to my face, at least.

Has anyone ever stolen your survey questions before, if you make surveys? I've never made my own survey; I prefer to be on the answering side of it haha.

Leggings with denim shorts; yes or no?:  Naw, let's leave those in 2007.

Do you like to burn candles?:   Not really. Too hot.

Are Yankee Candles really all that?:  Idk I've never used one.

Do you think any bands/artists are trashy?:   I honestly don't have much of an opinion on this.

Have you ever started typing something and then someone spoke and you ended up typing what they said? All the time.

What type of white-out do you use: bottled liquid, tape or pen?  Tape.

What would you put on your perfect sub?  I don't have those often, so I don't really know what I'd want in them.

Do you have anything that’s limited edition?  Yeah.

[openheart12]

Fool For Love

A/N: filler fic

Summary: After finding out about Jen, it leads the two of them finally having a talk they so desperately needed.

WC: 1,319

The last few hours had been tense between the two of them and with the threat level escalating, so were the stakes. She was still hurt that he accused her of sleeping with Bill while they were married. Leave the past in the past, that’s what he had told her. 

Right now, their focus had to be on work and stopping Marwan. 

“Anything new?” She asked, walking up to him.

“Yeah, White House just authorized adding Iowa army reserve units to the ground search.”

“Have they widened the perimeter?”

“Yeah, they locked down a 60-mile radius around the area where the warhead was stolen, but I’m concerned Marwan’s people might’ve managed to sneak it outside that perimeter.”

“Well, we closed all major roads and air traffic immediately, but there is a chance they got it through.”

“Homeland Security’s faxing over casualty projections based on that possibility,” he said just as the fax started to ring.

“That’s probably them right now.”

“Yeah, I’ll get it.”

Another phone started to ring and she answered it, “CTU.”

“I’m calling for Tony Almeida. Who’s this?”

“This is Michelle Dessler, a colleague of his. May I ask who’s calling?”

“The woman he happens to be living with. Is he there?”

She felt as if she had just gotten kicked in the stomach. “Yeah, hold on. It’s for you,” she said, handing him the phone.

“Who is it?”

“The woman you’re living with.” 

“Jen,” he answered with a sigh. 

“I’ve been calling everyone we know going crazy looking for you. Then finally I thought maybe Jack Bauer took you back there. God, do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I should’ve called earlier. I’ve been really busy.”

“Really busy with Michelle Dessler?”

“I’m working, Jen.”

“Oh, for CTU?”

“On a provisional basis, yeah.”

“I thought you hated that place.”

“Things have changed a little.”

“Yeah, I guess they have.”

“Look, Jen, we can talk about this later. Right now, I gotta go. All right?”

“Tony, what’s your ex-wife doing there?”

“Jen, I’m sorry, but I gotta go,” he said before hanging up. He rubbed his face, knowing how big of a jackass he had been earlier. “Michelle, um, I’m sorry you had to find out like that.”

“It’s really none of my business.”

“Yeah, it is,” he countered. She started to walk away and he followed after her. “I should’ve told you I was living with someone else.”

“I don’t wanna talk about this right now.”

“Yeah, well, I do. Listen to me,” he gently grabbed her arm, turned her around, and backed her into the wall. “When you left, everything fell apart. Jen happened to be there for me.”

“You don’t have to make excuses for your relationship.”

“I’m not making excuses. I’m just telling you how it is.”

“You accused me of sleeping with Bill while we were married and here you are living with someone else.”

“I realize how much of a jackass I am for that and I’m sorry, it’s none of my business. It’s just that, well, I was blindsided by that I guess and that doesn’t excuse me for reacting how I did.”

“Do you think it’s any easier for me? To find out you’re living with someone else?”

“You left me!” He said and regret immediately set in. 

“Oh, yeah, because our marriage falling apart was my fault, right?”

“I went to prison for you, Michelle. I come home and you serve me with divorce papers six months later. What did you expect to happen? Did you want me to wait around until our marriage was magically fixed?”

“You were pretty good at sitting around the house all day not doing anything except drinking.”

“I couldn’t find a job, no one wants to hire a traitor.” 

“You could’ve tried, all I wanted was for you to try and you didn’t. You gave up.”

“You gave up on me, Michelle. Don’t try to make this all my fault, we both made mistakes.”

“You shut me out. You didn’t talk to me, or touch me, hell, you barely even looked at me, Tony. You should’ve just let me go that day because none of this would be happening right now.”

“And let you die?” He asked incredulously.

“Look where it got us. You wouldn’t have lost your job or two years of your life if it hadn’t been for me.” 

“Michelle, I never once regretted my decision to save you. If I had to, I would do it again because I love you. If it hadn’t been for you, I never would’ve had the best three years of my life. The only thing I regret is letting you go, watching you walk out the door and not coming back has haunted me every night since then.”

“I can’t talk about this right now, Tony. We need to get back to work.”

He wasn’t going to drop the conversation especially when he was so close to her. “Yes, you can. If anything happens, Edgar or Chloe will update us.” 

She reluctantly agreed, walking up the steps to her office with him in tow, all eyes trained on them. 

Tony had been too caught up in his own emotions after his release to even realize how Michelle was dealing with everything or not dealing. The aftermath of him getting shot and finding out that he had kept something from her and she didn’t notice, their fighting throughout the day, when she went inside the hotel against his orders, watching Gael and hundreds of people die in front of her, getting kidnapped, him going to prison after saving her life, were things that the two of them had never gotten the chance to talk about. 

Not to mention everything that happened after he got out. 

“You wanna talk, so talk.” She said, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“First, I’m sorry I reacted the way I did about Bill, it’s your life and I have no right to interfere with it. I’m sorry you had to find out about Jen the way you did. I’m sorry for drinking and shutting you out. I’m sorry about everything that happened on the day of the virus, the way I treated you, lying to you for months. I’m sorry for everything and I can’t even imagine what you had to go through by dealing with what you saw at the hotel and to do it by yourself…” She looked away, trying to fight back the tears she felt. “You’re one of the strongest people I know, Michelle, and you never deserved the way I treated you. I could never apologize enough.”

She took a shaky breath, “please… don’t apologize for anything. I should be the one apologizing.”

“No, you shouldn’t be.”

“I left, Tony.” Using his argument from earlier. “Nobody forced me to, I did that on my own and there’s not a second that goes by that I don’t regret it, but I didn’t know what else to do.”

“I know and I don’t blame you, I never should’ve made you feel that way.”

She had to look away because she felt her resolve starting to crumble. This was the first time in months that he was letting her in, telling her what he felt. God, she missed him so much. “Do you love her?” She asked all of the sudden.

He didn’t hesitate before answering. “No.” 

Of course the phone had to ring, interrupting the moment. That goddamn phone. 

“Ms. Dessler, the new protocols from DOD just came in. Should I send them to your screen?” Edgar asked her. 

“Send them to station 16, I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Michelle…”

“We have a warhead to stop and after that, we can have a real talk.”

She didn’t know what the future held in store for them. They had to survive the day first, one step at a time. 

#michelle dessler #tony almeida #tony x michelle #24 #24 fanfic #24 fox

[star-shooters]

Dearly Departed Brother

Gold found herself staring into space, watching the numerous stars passing by as the ship, Faxed Sterre, made its way back to their home, Stellaron. She rarely left herself to reminisce about her past, maybe share bits of her history with her teammates when they shared their own. She was the one that lost the most: freedom, innocence, trust, and family.

Out of all the things she lost, her family was the most important thing she wished to get back. Gold may lose everything and not care if she could return to her siblings who were lost to time and circumstances. She mostly missed her brother Saffron, who instilled so many good morals into growing up and inspired her to name her team Star Shooters.

She asked, “How long has it been since his passing? Days? Months? Years? Decades?”

“No,” she said, trying to shake the growing sorrow off. Gold remembered that day like it happened yesterday, yet it happened long ago. “It had been centuries since Saffron was killed. No one aside from the Geminorum and Centaurus families remembers him. Yet aunt Stellar Sunflower Omicraus just so happened to ‘forget’ Saffron’s existence.”

They had shared the same element, pure iron, in their cores that emitted a goldish color on their skin. They may have a significant age gap, but their sibling bond was strong compared to the rest of their siblings. Despite Saffron being a perfect brother to her, he was not perfect internally. His core was weak and prone to malfunctioning, leading to incompatible parts used to make his body. Even if new and better parts replaced the old, Saffron’s core would refuse them, only working with subpar components.

“Never found out why your core came out the way it did,” Gold walked closer to the window, looking out to an exceptionally bright cluster of stars. The color was wrong, but the bright white light emitted from the burning balls of gas reminded her of Saffron’s light. “You never had any injuries like Silver’s brother, Ghost White. Nor were impure materials used to fuel your core like Yellow. But you didn’t volunteer for experimental coding like me; you were born with it.”

“I wonder,” she said, focusing on a stray floating cloud of debris far away. Her hand itched to grab a rock or something from that debris, but she didn’t and walked closer to the large window. “Should I read the rest of that book, Saffron? Your love for that series inspired me to name our team after it, Star Shooting Cowboys.”

Saffron read many books to Gold, but his favorite series were space cowboys saving towns from corrupt people while saving the main protagonist’s love interest from a new threat. At first, Gold didn’t like the series for its cliché plot and poorly named characters. But with Saffron spending more and more time with her, she had grown to like the series. She waited for the next part. Aside from their older brother, Bone, Saffron was a constant presence in her childhood that she now missed dearly.

“I still have that book after all these centuries,” she whispered to her reflection. She imagined her brother in front of her. Saffron never changed after all these years, staying the same despite how his body was left after his death. “I haven’t read past the part we left off. I promised to finish it with you when you returned, but neither Ube nor our friend, Bone, could find you within the crowd of long-passed Stars and Stellars.”

She sat cross-legged in front of the large porthole, feeling smaller and younger. Gold smiled as she imagined her words being heard by her late brother, pretending that he was there with her. “We aren’t cowboys, but the name stuck after we knocked ex-lieutenant Coquelicot down a few pegs. You should have been there, the look on his face when Stellar Blood came to bring him back home, along with his band of sycophants.”

“We now have his brother, Copper, in our team. Copper is nothing like Coquelicot, and he’s like a big angry version of our brother but red and with hair. Copper reminds me of Bone – our brother, not the friend – he cares about those weaker than him and would sacrifice himself if it meant saving those he cared more about.”

She leaned back, hands keeping her up from behind her, “Kind of like you, Saffron.”

She could already see him sitting the same way across the surface of the reinforced glass, the same as ever. Saffron was like her but with more prominent horns, one protruding from his forehead, while four more were at the sides of his head, front and back. Unlike Gold, Saffron had pale yellow hair tied in a bun with a short bang. He didn’t wear his armored uniform, having a casual shirt, pants, and boots.

“I only wish you hadn’t left that day,” she brokenly said, curling into herself as her arms wrapped around her knees. “You would have still been here having you and Orange Red weren’t left for battle. Maybe if you had backup earlier, you would still be here and collected the complete book series.”

The memory of that dreadful day flooded her mind, dropping her in the last fight she had with her brother before his demise.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ.･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ.･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───

“You can’t leave me and the others behind, Saffron,” Gold sobbed, standing at the doorway to his room as large tears threatened to spill from her dark orange eyes. In her tiny arms, she held a well-loved book that Saffron regularly read to her, the final chapters bookmarked a waiting to be read.

Saffron’s room was packed with memorabilia of Star Shooting Cowboys, having collected them since its first publication. Small figures and plush dolls lined the shelves; posters lined the walls that changed between two or three different scenes; sealed packages of collectible toys; and some incomplete figurines on his work desk. On his bed was an open tote half-filled with medical supplies and weaponry, while Saffron stood with a green set of armor adorned with Sunflower’s crest.

“You promised to finish the book before the end of the month,” she screamed, tears falling like rain. “You plan to leave before reaching the part where Teale Deer defeats Abbey White to save the town from chaos? Teale was to ask Alice Blue to form a binary with her, as our Stellars did after making me.”

“Goldie bug, I will finish that book for you,” Saffron said, leaving his still-open tote to pick his little sister up. He wiped the tears from her now orange face, picking her up before hugging her tightly. “I can’t reveal the ending to you, but I keep my promises. Didn’t Bug-Bo tell you so after I had his arm fixed when some of his threading broke?”

She buried her face into his shoulder, holding onto his as tightly as she could, “Bug-Bo sometimes lies. I can tell when his glass bead eyes shine a certain way.”

Saffron hummed before answering, “Maybe he lied about lying. Sometimes our Stellars tell double lies. Our progenitor, Tangerine, does it to tease our originator, Dandelion. So long as it’s in good fun, double lying won’t harm anyone; it is when others do it for malicious purposes when double lying turns bad.”

“Stop trying to confuse me, Saffron,” Gold exclaimed, turning from her hiding place and scowling at her brother. “You are to teach me good things, not confusing things.”

Saffron chuckled, causing Gold to join in his joy, “Alright, Bug-Bo is a liar. However, I am needed elsewhere. There is a Darkening spot near Aunt Sunflower’s district. She’s not happy that the Darkening came to her territory when most of her defenses are being re-trained by Stellar Blood’s forces.”

Gold grimaced; she hated the Darkening as much as Sunflower did. Gold would instead not let her brother leave, too afraid of what would happen to him. She had nightmares of the shapeshifting creatures since they began to appear near the tunnel systems underneath. She heard rumors that they came from the Stygian Woodlands. The same place where the demented General Icterine eradicated a large hoard before more came and tore her apart.

The Darkening, having grown bold for taking done a once powerful Star, began to creep towards populated territories. As beings with an insatiable hunger for their life force and frustrating ease for taking any form. The thought alone made Gold tighten her grip on her brother again, wanting him to stay and not leave the safety of their home.

Gold never saw a Darkening before, but sometimes Tangerine would have reports lying around that the young child stumbled upon and read. The first time seeing the pictures and videos resulted in many sleepless nights. Gold remembered that she was given a beetle doll, Bug-Bo, and a story that the plush would protect her from lurking Darkening. So far, she hadn’t had a nightmare since Bug-Bo and Saffron told her that story.

However, someone was trying to take her brother away for something stupid.

“Auntie Sunflower should stop being lazy and deal with the Darkening herself if she wants it gone so badly,” she muttered, burrowing herself into her brother’s embrace. Sunflower could learn about dealing with her problems without relying on others to do the dirty work for her.

“Sorry, sis, Sunflower doesn’t want to get her hands dirty,” explained her brother, pattering her back as he kissed the top of her green-haired head and avoided the short horns.

“I can come with you,” Gold said, squirming out of his hold. “I want to help you like the others.”

Saffron set her down, and the little child quickly left the room before he had the chance to respond. As Gold left the room, she weaved between their other siblings, quickly apologizing as she ran towards her room. Gold placed the book under the bed, and the large, to the child, beetle plush was in orange-sleeved arms.

“If I were stronger and braver, I would go out and defeat the Darkening like our progenitor,” Gold claimed, hugging the doll before she made her way back to Saffron’s room.

Running in, she found that he wasn’t there. She looked under his bed, his closet, and his work desk. She didn’t see him and darted out the door. She passed by many halls and rooms to the front of their home. She finally found her brother about to leave with her other siblings.

Gold ran towards the doors, dodging the grasp of Tangerine and Dandelion, who stood over them all at the entrance. “Saffron, wait! I want to come too. I have Bug-Bo to come to protect you.”

She wasn’t given an answer when Tangerine finally caught the slippery child in her grasp. The horned child looked up at the multi-eyed, horned Stellar, noticing the stern look on her face as she was scolded, “Young child, that is enough from you. You are barely old enough to control your abilities and far too young to join your siblings in combat.”

Dandelion joined Tangerine’s side, her two horns towering over the other Stellar’s, “Gold, dear. You can’t join your siblings, nor can we. Sunflower has clarified that she only wants our family to deal with her issue. Otherwise, the little vulnerable Starlites will be in danger of the Darkening. You have seen how frail they are; you were one before you were strong enough for a vessel.”

“But I want to help,” Gold said, holding her plush beetle close.

“Sorry, Goldie bug, but this is just for grownups,” Saffron said through cupped hands.

The brother Bone entered and glanced around the room, “Gold, if this is about you wanting to join, you know you can’t. This situation is not like the Darkening in the stories or tales.”

The pale Star looked at his pale blonde brother, and both left without a word. Gold could do nothing but cry as Dandelion took the child into her room. Her other siblings came to cheer her up, yet Gold hid under her bed with Bug-Bo until they all left.

Gold had known that the likelihood of Saffron surviving the attack was slim. His corrupt coding and defective components would stall him in combat. She wanted to help him in any way she could. Gold went to his room, digging in her closet until she found what she was coming for, her telescope flashlight.

It was a gift from her Stellars, a weak weapon but otherwise applicable against Darkening. Gold took the telescope and packed a small backpack full of other toys. She packed metal jacks, steel-tipped darts, and Bug-Bo.

She snuck through the large vents of her home, finding the upscale layout of it helpful when she needed to escape. Though the palace was anything but small, it was comfortable enough for many of her siblings to remodel one huge room into many comfortably sized spaces. She shared a room with the few sisters that still lived there, the rest having gone off to defend the numerous moons of Stellaron from invaders. So far, the only enemies are the Darkening, but no alien invaders yet.

Gold made her way to an open truck of a hovercraft; she overheard Dandelion and Tangerine talk about the subsequent transport for her remaining older siblings as the child traveled through the vents. She squeezed herself into the smallest crevice she could fit behind many tied-down boxes of ammunition and other supplies. As she made herself comfortable, she removed Bug-Bo from her backpack and hugged him.

“This is for Saffron,” she said before placing Bug-Bo back into the backpack and holding onto a crate as the hovercraft moved toward its destination. “Saffron owes me a few stories when I save his behind from the Darkening. Or, at least, from making me worry about him so much.”

Gold knew that her other siblings would take care of him. They were all family, aside from a few. But something in her stirred uneasiness as she thought about the what-ifs, especially when she heard her siblings conversing.

“Golden Yellow reported that there are multiple Darkening there,” said a deep voice, followed by the shuffling of a heavy metallic object. “We can either support Saffron with Orange Red or Bone with Almond. Who do you think, Amber?”

Amber didn’t respond for a few moments. Gold heard them sigh before they answered, “I wish to go with Bone and Almond, Sunshade. Saffron would fare better with Orange Red than you, me, and the rest of the team. Besides, I don’t want to sound rude, but I don’t want to deal with Saffron’s glitches and weaknesses. It would be more merciful for him to fall in battle than to continue living the rest of his days as he is now.”

A heavy thud followed a few seconds of silence. Amber yelped in pain and colorful expletives that Gold covered her mouth in shock. As the child craned her head towards the source of the sound, Sunshade decided to respond.

“If Gold found you were talking like that, she’d do more than go to our Stellars,” Sunshade chided, lifting the heavy weapon from where it fell. “Be thankful that this was only my lighter mace, or you would have more than a dented head. I want you to drop half the team and me where Saffron and Orange Red are. I am not letting our brethren be slaughtered by those things like they did with Stellar Cardinal’s.”

“Whatever, Sunshade,” Amber sneered. “When the glitching mess is dead, don’t come crying to me about it. Sunflower’s my true Stellar, and neither Tangerine nor Dandelion can change that. I am here because Sunflower made too many Stars to house in her grand palace. If the Darkening could cull a portion of the forming Starlites, then I wouldn’t be in your domain for very long.”

Amber stormed away, muttering many other things Gold wished she’d forget after all this. Sunshade sighed, muttering something Gold couldn’t hear before leaving somewhere else. Gold sat where she was for a while, digesting what she heard.

She looked at the open backpack with Bug-Bo staring at her. She gulped as she realized the gravity of things, turning back towards her plush companion, “W-what do you think I should do? I don’t think I remember all that when we return.”

Bug-Bo said nothing, but she saw the twinkle in his glass-bead eyes. She nodded before turning back towards the wall, “You’re right. I need a paper trail if I want Tangie and Lia to believe me. I just need to find paper and something to write with.”

The child stood from her spot and searched through any crates she could reach. She eventually found a stray journal full of supply notes and a few pens. She wrote down names and what was said, knowing she would need this later when she returned. She tore a few pages from the journal, along with her notes, and placed them in an empty pocket of her backpack with one of the spare pens.

She looked at Bug-Bo for a moment before sharing her thoughts with him, “Bug-Bo, if Amber were so comfortable to say those things to Sunshade, then the others wouldn’t have any trouble sharing their thoughts. I don’t want Tangie and Lia to think I was making stuff up if I can’t remember what was said. What if they still don’t believe me even with the paper trail?”

Bug-Bo only stared at her with his enormous black bead eyes, falling further into the backpack before settling in his new position. Gold stared at the plush a little more before nodding at him.

“You’re right, Bug-Bo. There are traitors within the family. We may be small, but we don’t lie like them. I want to be as good as Teale Deer, never telling lies but still deceiving the enemy with the truth. Maybe we can get a conversation recording if we find a camera or microphone on the walls. This situation calls for vent exploring.”

Gold looked around the trunk for a moment before finding an opening at the bottom portion of the wall. She would fit if she crawled on her abdomen, dragging her backpack behind her.

“It’s not like the vents at home,” she said, slowly making her way under the wall vent. Gold quickly put on her backpack and found a camera a few feet from the wall, facing to her left. She looked at the camera for a moment, puzzled that it only faced a wall and not anywhere else.

Usually, cameras faced something important, but this one stared at a dull wall leading nowhere. It would have made sense if it met the vent since it was the only “entrance” other than the door. Still, Gold knew nothing about “strategic security camera placement” like whoever worked on it.

She took the plush and the darts from her backpack, throwing Bug-Bo at the camera to dislodge it and the darts to cut the wiring off. Somehow, her plan worked, and the camera fell onto the plush with a muffled thud. Gold quickly grabbed the camera, Bug-Bo, and the darts from the floor into the backpack. She heard footsteps approaching and quickly escaped through the wall vent and hid behind a few crates. Gold held her breath, listening to the unknown person as they entered the back of the hovercraft and looked around. She heard the shuffle of papers and covered her mouth with a shaking hand as the person looked around for something. The child silently sighed when the threat returned the way it came, and silence greeted her.

“Bug-Bo, I am so happy they stuffed you with Argentum pellets,” Gold said as she looked at the plush. “You may be soft to hug but heavy enough to take down a camera all on your own.”

She congratulated the doll some before settling down for the remainder of the trip. Bored out of her mind, Gold took the jacks to play with and used the pen as the ball. It lasted until the end of the trip. She dropped her jacks and held on to anything for the rough landing. Gold thought she heard a stream of curses before the hovercraft no longer felt like bouncing around her.

The truck opened, and no one was there to greet her. The child darted out of there with all her items aside from a few missing jacks. The child fled to hide in the shadows before taking out her telescope flashlight and powering it on. The weapon may not be powerful enough to kill an enemy, but it inflicts enough pain to make others think twice.

Sunflower’s domain was far more elegant and elaborate than Gold’s home. A garden maze held various species of flora outside of this specific region. Some fountains had their food source, englowon, flowing through plumbing and wasted simply for vain beauty. Despite being a distant relative, Sunflower was not concerned with the waste that came from her worldly ways.

“Bug-Bo, are you seeing all of this,” asked the child, trying not to let her anger get the best of her. “Auntie Sunflower said that she didn’t have enough sustenance for her Stars but used it to fill the decorative fountains. I wish I had my camera, not the security camera.”

Before Gold could think of pouting, she heard the shouts of battle coming from the maze. She ran as fast as her legs could and went through the walls of vegetation. Gold was most thankful that her time studying the layout of mazes would come in handy, only she went through the walls instead of maneuvering through them. The child found it easier to go through the bushes than around them, especially if it meant ruining her aunt’s property with the excuse that it was damaged in battle.

Every so often, the flashlight was used when a particularly suspicious shadow was around. So far, the shadows were just shadows, but one can never be too sure, especially when one’s mortal enemy can take the appearance of anything but always something shade related. Perhaps it was Gold having too much time to think, but she believes that the Darkening could be better hunters if they decided to take the form of non-shadowed people and objects. However, she’d rather not have the enemy know that when infants were on the line.

Flashlight in hand, Gold finally made it to the source of the commotion: Saffron fending off an enormous Darkening from a fallen Orange Red. Somehow, the proclaimed strong Star was under a pile of stone rubble, once a stone mural of their true originator Hestḗr. The child saw that her brother did not have his favored sword in hand, using a stray piece of wood from a broken bench as a weapon.

Still within the bushes, Gold looked around before she found the beloved sword. She found it meters away from her brother but close to her. Saffron didn’t stand a chance without his trusted sword against their enemy. Gold was only a young Starlin, barely old enough to pick up the heavy sword Saffron lovingly called Fe. The only weapon she could give to her brother was not strong enough to fend off that large of a Darkening. It had to be as large as Bone, if not larger.

Gold was frozen with fear, unable to take her eyes from Saffron when the improv club broke, and his foot slipped from a random stone. The Darkening pounced on him and began to tear off chunks of his vessel. All the while, the child just watched as her brother was mutilated. Saffron fought to survive, clawing at the creature and trying to shake it off. The Darkening clung to him tighter, smelling the spilled life fluids pumped through their circulatory tubing.

Saffron fought even more, when the creature managed to slice his chest open and revealed the orb within was his life force. Gold could do nothing as the sphere shone brighter than the stars in the sky, giving off an ethereal light in an otherwise morbid scene. Time seemed to stop when the light grew so bright that it hurt to stare, so Gold continued to stare at that bright light to the bitter end.

Saffron’s coding and hardware ceased working, his vessel spasming as he desperately tried to get out of the evil being’s grip. His head jerked in her direction, and he locked eyes with the only person he wished never was here to see him die. There was a realization that they would never finish that book together nor share moments of making theories in the night when the newest book came out.

Saffron opened his mouth to say something, but his core was ripped from his vessel, making the body limp without a power source. Gold just stared lifelessly as the Darkening finished him off then and there by consuming his core in one bite. Tears streamed down her face. She could not warn him, too afraid to make a sound as she watched the frightening creature take the form of her now-dead brother.

The thing faced her and started approaching her with a blank stare that was alienly plastered on her brother’s borrowed face. Gold’s vision tunneled as her core tried to make sense of the reality that her brother was no more and there was a pretender in his place. She began to crawl backward, trying to get away from her not-brother and her hand shook when she lifted the flashlight.

Gold remembered what Lia warned her about the Darkening, “A being who craved nothing else but their cores. A being who also takes the form of anyone or anything. The Darkening’s weakness is concentrated hard light weapons. Your flashlight can be a weapon if you can fuel it with a bit of englowon. Now come and rest my child; it is getting late.”

Englowon is the very substance that flows from a Star’s core to fuel its body. Gold crawled back as fast as she could, turning towards another wall and going through before the Darkening noticed. She slowly and quietly made her way to Orange Red, knowing they would help her. Not to mention that she would not want another sibling to be a victim of an awful being.

Gold turned away from Saffron’s broken vessel, knowing that it would never be her brother even if they m it would never be her brother. The core is essential. In comparison, the frame protects the soul from the outside elements and maneuvers without wasting energy. Without a power source, an empty body cannot come to life independently nor act like a sapient being. Yet few believed otherwise or never cared to acknowledge the individuality Stars had.

Gold looked around for something, anything, to open her flashlight. She had englowon but needed to know where to put it in if she made her toy into a weapon. Rummaging around Orange Red’s tote, she found a screwdriver and a sizeable sharp dagger. Gold placed the blade on the ground while the child unscrewed a section from her precious gift.

Inside she found the liquid energy cells that removed them from their spot. The child looked at how the mechanism worked, trying to remember the blueprints and instructional manual. The toy used two liquid cells at a time. The cells fed the specialized toy fuel that kept it as a stun weapon. Yet the toy had two openings where the power was taken in and converted into light and energy.

Gold didn’t have enough time to think about the marvel that her toy was when she heard the bushes rustle. The Darkening had returned with friends, all taking the form of her brother and prowling near her. She looked at the dagger for a moment before taking it and running towards Saffron’s leaking corpse. Gold cut the appropriate-sized tubing and connected it to the telescope.

The Darkening started to run towards her. The child quickly aimed at the coming crowd turning the power knob to max. At first, nothing happened. Gold stared at the approaching force in acceptance of her demise. She prayed silently that the ever-merciful Hestḗr would grant her a quick and painless death. Her life was only beginning, not too far from getting new parts when she reached her next stage.

She felt the telescope shutter, turning her attention towards it and seeing it begin to power up. Whirring loudly and growing hot, the telescope started to glow a bright yellow. She barely had enough time to aim at the Darkening before the toy emitted a concentrated and powerful beam of light. Gold braced herself as she held onto the toy with two hands. It felt like it went on forever but quickly subsided as it had started.

The child looked up at the damage, seeing that it had eradicated the Darkening and left their shadows on the ground. The maze was wholly obliterated, only the parts missing from the beam having survived. Gold sat back in relief, tears spilling again from her eyes as, once again, she was reminded that Saffron was no longer with her.

“Remember,” said a faint voice, sounding just like Saffron. “When a Darkening eats a Star’s or Stellar’s core, a quick kill may save the core if they were swallowed whole. That is why we must kill them as quickly as possible to have a higher chance of saving the victim.”

Gold quickly got up, dropping the improvised weapon as she ran toward the Darkening’s shadows. She searched for a whole core, trying desperately to see something shiny, round, and glowing. There were shards on the ground, not round but shiny and glowing.

“Where’s his core,” she asked with desperation, searching through rubble as her core ached with anxiety. “It has to be here somewhere, but where is it?”

The child searched, finding more and more shards that started to lose their glow. At some point, she began to collect them, pocketing the fragments into her dress until there were no more. Gold stared at the destruction, at the shadows, and finally, at the barely shining pieces.

“He’s dead, Gold.”

The child whipped her head around and found the only standing figure by Saffron’s broken body. Orange Red dusted themself of any lingering debris on their armor, taking care not to jostle a leaking wound in their side. Gold quickly was at his side, taking a roll of gauze from a discarded tote and stopping the injury from leaking anymore.

“He’s not gone,” Gold said, sure that Saffron could still be saved. She needed just to find the core and keep it safe until they rebuilt his body. It happened to many other Stars, loved ones having been eaten by a Darkening but saved, rebuilt, and reunited.

It had happened before. Why couldn’t the child find it? Why couldn’t she find her missing brother; why couldn’t she find her brother?

She looked at his corpse, his powerless body, still finding the cavity empty. The child ran to the abandoned, lifeless body, taking the dagger to open the carcass further. Various fluids spilled like a broken dam as she tore through tubing and circuitry. It was all replaceable. It wasn’t a part of Saffron, an empty moveable frame that protected the core, their soul, from outside dangers.

She tore through the flesh, knowing she was hurting the being it was made of, not Saffron but his Brightening. Gold only stabbed through the creature and body once more before the very skin slipped off and slid away.

A hand stopped her from raising the dagger once more, and the child turned to scowl at the only other living being with her. “Let me go, Orange Red. Saffron’s core must be here if it’s not with the Darkening. I know it must be; there’s nothing left of him if I can’t find it.”

Orange Red took Gold into their arms, holding her close even when she struggled to escape their embrace. The scarlet individual had the smaller being close, removing the dagger from her grasp, which resulted in an angry yowl. Orange Red kept the now crying child in their embrace and turned away from the gruesome sight of a fallen comrade. Saffron may not have been the scarlet veteran’s brother, but he acted like one despite being a distant cousin to the Gemitaurus family.

Gold tried to look for her brother’s body, noticing the soft yellow blob of her brother’s flesh returned to them, taking residence in the orange Star’s tote. She knew it would eventually return to them. The clump of skin was just a Brightening without a host to protect, now taking residence in Orange Red’s tote for its protection. She found some relief that it was still alive, usually hearing the Darkening also consuming their Brightening and their core.

Unlike Darkening, the Brightening fed on the liquid energy Stars and Stellars produced, exchanging sustenance for sheltering the mechanical and electrical bodies from rusting and corrosion. They were protected and cultivated by the Stars and Stellars, making them better, more resilient Brightening to use less energy and hardware. Saffron’s lone Brightening meant that it would be reassigned to another brother or sister whose Brightening was close to the end of its lifecycle.

So far, Gold was the eighth batch of Golds with the fifteen-generation of Brightening that gave her a nonchromatic color scheme. Her green hair and orange blush were not things that came from her core; it was from the Brightening that acted like her flesh. Saffron’s Brightening was a seventh-generation one that was monochromatic and weaker than Gold’s. It was the only thing Saffron cherished as much as Fe, refusing a newer Brightening when enough were bred to give to a select few.

Gold clung to Orange Red, realizing that the Brightening didn’t try to find its host, having hidden inside the opened tote instead. She looked at the older Star, who loosened his firm grip on her. The child didn’t say anything about the broken glass in his eye nor the single broken horn between two others.

“I only found these glowing shards,” she said, trying to snuff the growing comprehension that she may know what they were. “I didn’t find anything else from them. Did Saffron have the shards near his core before, and the Darkening ate those and hid his core somewhere else?”

She saw the array of expressions on his face, changing from confusion to understanding, denial, and acceptance. Orange Red said nothing and held her close as their chin rested on the top of her head, careful of the protruding horns. It took a moment for Gold to grasp what it meant, but now she was aware of the shards.

Gold shook her head, looking at the other with pleading eyes, “You don’t mean-”

The child choked as her core ached in despair. Her brother, whom she was very close to, was the pile of shards that had stopped glowing long ago. She wailed into the other’s shoulder, clinging onto them as if they were a lifeline. When Sunshade came with reinforcements, checking over the scene and ensuring the area was free from stray Darkening, Orange Red said nothing.

Gold was carried through the destruction, not even bothering to tell Sunflower off when the large extravagant Stellar scolded them for destroying her beloved maze. She didn’t know what Orange Red said or Sunflower’s offensive response. Neither did she remember having her special telescope flashlight cleaned up and in her hold.

The little Starlin was silent when she saw her brother, Bone. The pale-hued and tattooed general ran towards her and the scarlet veteran, taking her into his strong embrace as he spoke with Orange Red. Gold heard something about returning the broken vessel and Brightening after recording Saffron’s death.

“The body,” Orange Red said, thickly swallowed as they tried to think over his words. “It’s not a pretty sight, have it covered before it's loaded in the Flicker, Sunshade’s hovercraft.”

“Brother Bone,” Gold finally spoke, not looking up from staring at her now ordinary toy. She heard the shift of mesh as her brother turned to her. “In my backpack – Amber said something that makes him a traitor to the family. I made a paper trail – the camera can back it up.”

Bone looked at his sister, trying to make sense of what she said, “What do you –”

A backpack was trusted to him by the auric Starlin, her beloved plush beetle nearly falling out before the pale veteran caught the items. Inside were her toys, a torn security camera, and loosely written paper pages. The Starlin curled towards the warmth of Orange Red’s core, trying to imagine that it was Saffron’s.

“I- I’ll look through these, Gold bug,” Bone gently said, fixing the backpack onto his shoulder. He looked at the other, taking a calm demeanor despite the emotional turmoil in his core. “Orange Red, take her home. Use my Radiant Flare; it’s the fastest hover around here. I will get the- Saffron’s vessel transported in the Flicker; stay safe.”

Gold felt the veteran salute with their free arm. The child curled as close as she could toward the source of warmth. She could pretend that Orange Red was Saffron, pretend that this was all a nightmare, pretend that when she woke up, her brother would be in his room finishing one of his figurines.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ.･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ.･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───

Gold shook her head, remembering that even pretending her brother was with her would never bring him back. It has been centuries since his passing, his murder. She still held the glass-like shards of his core in a pouch in her pocket. The young adult had held on to them ever since, refusing to give them up despite her other siblings wanting some form of memento, a souvenir.

“The others have your keepsakes, Saffron. You left more than the trinkets in your room; I found a room behind your closet filled with even more Star Shooting Cowboy merch. There were even signed original copies from the author that I had to keep before the others ruined them. I let them keep the newer copies, not the first published but the republished ones.”

She laughed as she remembered the utter chaos when siblings fought over the few trinkets in his room. Orange Red was there to keep the peace, ending up thrown through the far wall of the closet and discovering the rest of Saffron’s belongings. Everyone had calmed down when Gold shouted for everyone to stop fighting, scolding those that tried to get first dibs on the original Star Shooting Cowboys.

It was weeks until Tangerine and Dandelion finally decided to gather all of Saffron’s belongings and let Gold have the first pick. The two Stellars silenced any naysayers, reasoning that Gold was the youngest in their family and spent the most time with Saffron compared to others. The Starlin took a while trying to choose between collecting all copies of the series or letting her siblings have a chance to get a few. She ended up with the signed manuscript and the first published books missing from her collection. There was no point in taking anything else when the books were the most precious to Saffron.

“The series ended after I turned nineteen centuries,” she said to no one, looking past her reflection to stare at the changing scenery of an approaching planet, their home. “I was just thirteen decades old when that day happened, a total of over a thousand five hundred years. There were over two hundred books before the author ended the series. I heard it ended with all the loose ends tied, but I only collected them and never read past the third book. I stopped where we left, hoping Ube and our friend Bone would find you. The spirits haven’t seen you there. I got to meet our grandfather, Red. He was delighted to see me, even when we couldn’t hug each other.”

“I turned twenty-three centuries a few months ago,” she added, looking up at the metal ceiling before looking towards the window again. Gold knew she was rambling. She wanted to fill the silence before getting called to the deck and buckled up for landing. The Star didn’t hate her friends. She loved them like they were siblings from a far distant family. It’s just that she needed time alone.

“We now celebrate by the century instead of years. Tangerine and Dandelion can’t celebrate so many birthdays anymore. It was always chaos trying to manage twenty to eighty different parties for different age groups. Brother Bone finally reached a millennium, it happened a few days ago, and all our family came together just for him.”

She smiled melancholically, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to sleep soundly tonight in her empty apartment. “I miss you, Saffron. The world seems emptier than it is when you cease existing. I moved out when I turned 17 centuries. I had a relationship with those Stars you disapproved of and got hurt trying to make it work. The bruises healed as if nothing had happened, and she replaced the broken parts with the newest one Tangie and Lia could afford. Maybe if I had listened to you earlier, I wouldn’t have to keep running into so many Exes; at least I didn’t settle into an unhappy binary.”

“I tried to be like our brother Bone,” she said in a watery tone, wiping away forming tears from her eyes. Her core ached, and her body was tired and heavy. She wanted just to lay down there and dream of Saffron with her and their family. It was unfair. She should have saved him when she had the chance and not stalled. Gold can now kill Darkening without that fear, having hunted down all that popped up from her home district.

“I tried getting that Logical coding and all that,” she sniffled, drying away her tears as she looked away from the porthole. “Only the program was wrong, and everything goes black when it is on. I am unsure how it can be better when I lose myself to the automatic controls of the code. I lost my hair when they added the code deep into my core. Something about not having enough space in the data tree. I am like brother Bone; only horns decorate my crown while my glow marks shine brighter than before.”

She could almost feel the numbing sensation when the programming took over. It was waning as she grew older, worrying her that she would no longer be warned when she wasn’t in control. She knew what happened to the other victims of the experimental coding, turning into mindless war machines that no one could save. The lone Star was thankful for the patches in her coding, adding commands that prevented the program from taking complete control over her.

“There’s still time to stop it from I am completely lost to Detachment,” she quickly added, hugging her knees tightly towards her chest. “I haven’t fully matured yet, still needing a few centuries until I reach two millennia. The doctors said that, for some reason, I mature a lot slower than you and the rest of our siblings. Maybe it's because of the coding, or maybe, I came out differently. I don’t have an answer for it like you corrupt coding, Saffron.”

“Gold, who’s Saffron,” Gold scrambled to get up, nearly falling over when she saw Silver at the end of the hallway.

The usually quiet silver-tone Star was usually with Ube; seeing him alone here was startling. Gold was unsure what to make of him. They never really spoke since their training on Sauv. Silver never talked with anyone unless it was either Ube or Copper. The auric-hued Star tried to respond, but it felt a lump in her throat rendered her mute.

Unaware of her inner turmoil, Silver tried to fill the silence, “Um uh, s-sorry, Gold. You were talking a lot about someone named Saffron. And I know so little about your family besides General Bone and Stellars Tangerine and Dandelion. You don’t have to share. You’re allowed to have secrets like everyone else in our crew.”

He continued rambling, beginning to stutter as he tried to explain. Gold took a breath, reminding herself that these were her friends, not strangers, that would use her. Silver wasn’t like her bullies at school, the rowdy gang that used to stalk in the dark alleyways, or the toxic exes she once dated. This kind person cared how she felt and reminded her a little bit of her late brother. Gold went towards Silver as he babbled apologetically and wrapped her golden-hued arms around him.

The pale-blue member stopped talking, body stiffening from the sudden hug, “G-Gold?”

“I will tell you when I am ready,” she said, burying her head into the fabric of his shoulder. He was not warm like Saffron, instead emitting a gentle coolness. “I can’t tell you much. But he was my brother.”

Silver turned towards Gold, placing his arms around her upper back, “Hm? Who?”

“Saffron was one of my brothers,” she answered, holding him tight, grounding herself as a sea of emotions threatened to drown her. Gold had cried enough to refill the ocean moon, Apinar, twice. She trusted Silver as much as she trusted Orange Red long ago; hopefully, her streak of bad luck would end with the caring person holding her.

“He and I were very close,” she continued, feeling better in the other’s embrace. “Like you and Ube, Saffron and I were rarely apart. We shared the same likes and dislikes, almost sharing the same creation day by day.”

Gold smiled to herself as silence fell over them. She took a deep breath, fortifying herself, and turned her head away from the pale-hued Star, “I lost Saffron to a Darkening when I was but a Starlin. I miss him dearly, Silver. I miss him every day that passes. I never want you or Ube to experience this grief. Ube and Bone tried to help me find him but never could find his essence among our long-passed kin. It’s like he never existed in the first place.”

Silver didn’t say a word, knowing Gold needed to vent her frustrations and sorrow. He held her as she cried, ugly sobbing riddled with the crackles of a burning fire. Gold needed this, having pretended everything was fine while, inside, grief was eating away at her fragile core. Both spoke no words, slowly returning to silence and occasional sniffling. The two stayed there, holding each other close as the Faxed Sterre drew closer to Stellaron.

Before the others called them to the cockpit, Gold nudged the other off her, smiling at him. Silver smiled back, happy that his teammate was no longer sad. He told her to come with him, to join the others. She quietly nodded, following him back to the front of the ship and whipping away stray tears from her eyes.

Gold finally broke the silence, grateful that Silver comforted her selflessly, “Thank you, Silver. You didn’t have to hug me or hear me spill my grief. I guess it’s because I remind you of Ube.”

Silver looked back at her, staring for a moment before finding a response. He turned towards her and took her hands into his colder ones, a face set with resolution as he stated to his teammate, “Gold, I don’t see you as Ube. I see you as yourself. Someone who is kind, bold, sometimes too ambitious, and stubborn. But, otherwise, you are a champion among others for abating the non-combative Stars of the Darkening threat.”

Gold took a moment to compose herself, surprised at how bold the pale Star suddenly became. His words sunk in, and Gold tried to reason with the other, “But, Silver. I didn’t save Saffron as I did with the others. Had I known what I do now, I would have saved him before the Darkening got to him.”

“You were a Starlin,” Silver responded, taking care not to yell at her. He knew that Ube had spoken low of herself many times before but never would let his cousin let those thoughts fester. The younger Star would not let his older teammate “A young child when the Darkening took your brother’s life. You could only do what your vessel was capable of, which wouldn’t defeat a Darkening alone. I may not know what you did or how Saffron’s murder happened, but I will not let you be so guilt-ridden that you have continued atoning for a sin that wasn’t your own. You killed your brother's murderer. You were an innocent child forced to kill, perhaps to save yourself or another from a horrible fate.”

“You are Gold Gemitaurus: young survivor of a Darkening attack, of malicious coding, of numerous Darkening ambushes, and even of debilitating grief.”

“M-my grief isn’t debilitating,” Gold countered, denying that her mourning was bad enough that a sweet person like Silver had to point it out. “I just tend to talk to myself. Alone. And out loud.”

The bluish-white Star cocked a white eyebrow, and hands rested on his hips. “You were gone for an hour, Gold. Then I came to get you, and you clung onto me like a barnacle on the underside of a boat. That does not sound like normal grief to me.”

“So what of my grief is so bad that it’s got me out of action for a while. At least it happens when we’re not fighting off the shape-shifting creeps. I haven’t lost my luster yet, so what right do you have to tell me what to do?”

“I like you, Gold,” Silver whispered, suddenly feeling his mouth dry and face beginning to warm a bright blue. “I adore you so much that I don’t want to see you hurting yourself. I admire your strength, your passion for justice, and your righteousness. So much so that it hurts to see you down.”

Gold felt the full-force whiplash between anger and perplexity at full force. It took her a few seconds to realize what he said, trying to make sense of everything. Still unsure if what she heard was true, she tentatively asked, “I’m sorry. But what?”

“I love you,” Silver proclaimed, throwing his arms out to emphasize his point. “I had a crush on you that grew as we stayed as a team. The way my core shudders when you laugh or smile is nothing I have ever felt before. I never felt this way before, and it only happens when I am with you.”

He prattled on about his affection for the yellow being, steam rising from his face as it heated up into a powder blue on a normally grayish face. Gold could only watch as the now blue Star professed a speech of his affection for her, stuttering as he got more and more flustered until he finally finished and panted from his confession. The still-silent Star waited until his face cooled to a softer blue, taking a few breaths before finally giving him an answer.

“I,” she began, trying to come up with an answer, but nothing came. Questions started to form in her mind, trying to make sense of everything only to become further confused

Did she want to be with Silver? Would Silver turn out like the others, pretending to love her before showing their true colors? What about the rest of the team? Would Ube approve, or would she try to sabotage everything?

Wait, she thought to herself. Ube wouldn’t do that, nor would the rest of Star Shooters try to take advantage of her. Silver never posed himself as dangerous. Shy, yes. Manipulative, a solid no. The other Stars Gold attempted to form a relationship with never comforted her at her lowest. So, perhaps this was different.

She finally spoke, noticing the growing worry on the other’s face, “I am not saying yes.”

“But,” Gold interrupted with a firm voice. “I am not saying no, either. Let’s try to start slow while I do not have emotional whiplash. My core can handle so much stress, and I hate to disappoint you when we try this when I am not at a hundred percent.”

Silver smiled, saying nothing but the cooled hand wrapped around Gold’s was all the answers she needed. They walked together in silence, joining the rest of the Star Shooters team for landing. Gold sat behind Yellow, while Lapis navigated the ship, and Copper watched the ship’s status on the terminal screen. Silver sat to her right, along with Ube.

Despite knowing that Silver liked the older, amber-tinted Star, he was closer to his cousin. Gold wasn’t jealous. She saw the scene as her sibling relationship with Saffron; it was different and bittersweet, but otherwise, it reminded her that Saffron was there. Somewhere, someplace, perhaps everywhere. Saffron was possibly waiting for her to reveal himself among the sea of Lumens, the spirits of their loved ones. It would take some time, but Gold was always ready for a challenge.

“Star Shooters,” she quietly said to no one, smiling at the approaching station where she could see her brother, Bone, there. “Illuminate the sky for justice to rise from the ashes of battle and lost lives.”

“And may those lost be remembered until our cores no longer burn its precious light.”

#Gold Gemitaurus #Saffron Gemitaurus #Silver Kentaurus-Sirius #Star Shooters #SS #long fic #writers of tumblr #writeblr #science fiction #original fiction #original characters #science fiction literature #one shot #abuse mention #character death #my writing

[aaric-s-haven]

Rocky vs Ramika

aka my overactive imagination trying to imagine this thing I'm stuck at.

So in my version of kgf 2, Reena would have died in that kidnapping scene itself. Rocky would still have been shot. The movie continues on the same way as before, just Reena's death causes Rocky to be more ruthless. Shetty is killed with rightful vengeance. Adheera still escapes but not because Rocky lets him go.

Rocky meets Ramika before the elections to scope out her threat. She doesn't recognize him, nor does she really know who Rocky is. The meeting is brief and doesn't stay in Ramika's brain until the second meeting, which happens the way it happened in the movie.

I want conversations over private meetings (where they are totally not trying to show each other the bigger middle finger) over whether KGF even belongs to India or not. After all, for 20+ years nobody had even looked at the missing villagers and the ghost towns when the slaves were kidnapped. I want Rocky to give her respect when she outmaneuvers him. I want Rocky to smirk when he ties her in difficult positions using the sway he has in her party. I want her to make a move on KGF that borders on gray. I want Rocky to get fkn pissed and be the protective king I know he is from the too few glimpses we saw in the movie.

I want Ramika to scream in frustration as she tries to hunt down any charge they can lay on him. Khasim Chacha still gets worried seeing the reckless pace he hurtles along to. I want the recklessness he displays to be exploited by Ramika. She nearly manages to corner him when he goes on his "I fight alone" drives. I want his people to rush in screaming vengeance for their king and for Ramika to fully understand the power Rocky holds over a good portion of the population. Either they are in his pocket or they willingly have sworn their life to him. I want him to mock her over the differences of his kingdom and hers (Really, in three years man had built a whole ass city for his people, meanwhile the govt doesn't even have proper shelters for the poor in most cities.)

Gurupandian kills Khasim Chacha using Adheera. Rocky kills Adheera, he then kills Gurupandian. For the first time Ramika sees the monster in his eyes, at first her alarm bells had rang due to the amount of power he held, now they rang cuz she saw just how he held that power. There is no legal signing of a death warrant. Having learnt her lesson, she plays behind the scenes. Instead of the missiles firing on KGF and the army trooping in legally, she arranges a gigantic training accident. Except she still finds an empty city. An empty mansion, the city destroyed before she said fire. The only sign of anyone living there ever is a half burnt doll of some little girl.

Rocky had relocated his people. He sends that fax to Indian Navy, the ship gets blown apart. But Rocky is never seen, neither is the gold. In a true El Dorado fashion, any sign of existence of Rocky is gone from the surface of the earth. All they have left is a journalist and the mouth of word of the thousands of ex-slaves who talk reverently of a Sultan who moved through life at the speed of a stormy wind.

Anyway, this sucks but I had to vomit my unending supply of alternate storylines before they drove me crazy.

#kgf #kgf 2 #yash kgf #south indian movies #kannada film #ao3 #fanfic #I need help #yash #sanjay dutt #kgf chapter 2 #somebody stop me #or uk ignore my content vomitting #desiblr

[lastlycoris]

I may or may not have added to the fire at the hospital by sending faxes to all the work rooms stating about our rights to strike as doctors, particularly that it's illegal to state that we don't have that right. Athena helped out with the whole set-up, so it won't get traced back to me either.

Of course, I also forgot to tell my sister not to get mixed up with this business, which is somewhat problematic as my family's a bunch of actors and actresses with some degree of fame. And Athena is particularly loud and vocal on her social media, particularly when it's something involving the little guy. And she went off.

So I got pulled into the administration office for a third time. This time around, I wired myself aka hid a small microphone underneath my white coat.

A lot of yelling. Some threats were thrown around about kicking me out of the residency. I told them I can't promise anything as my older sister is rather willful, but I can always tell them that we had this discussion and that she might understand.

I never thought myself a sadist, but I think I took a rather perverse pleasure in seeing those old fogies' faces turning red and angry.

Anyway, the whole social media thing may have gotten things moving. The residency accreditation program finally took action, and the hospital is just realizing how much they screwed up. Because the main thing about having a residency is that it means the attending doctors, the ones making the big bucks, do not have to take overnight call. And if the hospital loses the residency, it's those doctors that will suffer.

Sure, they can hire mid-levels such as NPs and PAs to cover the nights, but they have unions of their own. And none of them will be willing to be treated like a resident. Ultimately, they will be paying a premium compared to having a resident.

I think the hospital stalled for this long because they were trying to pressure the surgery residents to going back to work under the yoke, but I think the administration hasn't realized how bad the conditions are. I think it'll take a few more days, but I think things will start moving in the right direction.

#🌹~ [ left blooming alone ] || ic

[starrystrawb]

Meet Sky Mother Nature! She is the embodiment of the sky, obviously. Her body represents clouds. Her mane and tail are the sunrise and the night sky! I kept her eyes grey and simple so most of the attention is on her hair!

Sky is one of the oldest epithets. It's often argued that Water is older, but when asked, Sky and Water will tell you they are the same age. Despite her ties to the air, Sky prefers walking. She is often seen flirting and dancing with Water. Though, when pressed, both deny having a relationship.

I just wanna clear up real fast that the Epithets are NOT related unless explicitly stated! Magma and Volcano are sisters, and Wetlands and Water are siblings. Peaceful also has a sibling we have yet to meet! Also, while I use mainly She/Her pronouns for the the Mother Nature Epithets, you can also use they/them! I really have fallen in love with this series and really enjoy making each little pony! Now for our eco-tips!

Many people have probably heard that being vegetarian or vegan is good for the planet. It is (as far as I know)! But there are lots of reasons you may not want to, or be unable to change your diet. And know you don't have to change your whole life to help! You can do one day a week with out meat, like doing meatless Mondays, tofu Tuesdays, etc. You can also buy your meet from small, local farms if you're able! And remember, friends! YOU eating a hamburger is NOT the big issue. The meat industry is.

Speaking of food, lets talk about bulk buying! If you have jars, bags, or containers, you can take them to a bulk-buy store, or to a grocery with bulk buy options, and fill them! Some stores have things like dried fruits, nuts, candy, or granola! Others have things like flour, pasta, sugar, and seasonings. There are also refill stores! Where you can bring your own container and refill it with beauty products like lotion or soap. Of course, not everyone has this option. For me, there aren't stores near me that offer these options, for others the cross-contamination can be deadly, and sometimes these stores can be expensive compared to their regular groceries. Do not feel bad!

If you don't really do the bulk-buy or refill thing, thats fine! When you're doing your regular shopping, try to avoid plastic when you can! Buy pasta in cardboard boxes, look for packaging that can be recycled, or just try to cut back on your plastic bags! There is no reason to feel shame about not keeping up with the bulk-buying insta girlies. They are on their journey, and you are on yours. Both are valid and important!

Speaking of grocery stores, if you don't have reusable bags, ask for paper if you can! Where I live, I often bag my own groceries. So if I ever forget my reusable bags, I ask for paper! Paper is compostable, curb-side recyclable, and is super easy to reuse in your every day life! Sometimes, companies that have recyclable packaging can up their prices just because they're "greener". Other times, plastic is just unavoidable. You are never the villain just for providing for yourself!

You know who the villains are? Politicians! I (very obviously) don't like or trust politicians. Even the "good" ones have their secrets and their own agendas. So contact them! Phone numbers, emails, fax numbers, and other communication pathways are often public information for public offices! So absolutely blast their inbox! Call them! Email them! Write them a letter! DM them online! Fax them! Make yourself clear and be direct. To be VERY clear, do not send threats, harass, or harm these people. They are still people, at the end of the day. I just want everyone to know, there are several ways to make your voices heard. Talking to each other online is amazing. But we must talk to our lawmakers too.

Base

#lol #digital art #drawing #my little pony #base art #base edit #friendship is magic #mother nature #earth month #ecofriendly #eco tips #epithet oc

[thecrimeofmans-laughter]

Hi! Answering your question about what to do if your Representative doesn’t take faxes! Some offices straight up don’t have a fax machine, so if that’s true I would recommend calling, sending snail mail, emails, or online forms (in that order of importance).

I know it can often feel like calling/sending mail doesn’t actually do anything & is ignored, but the offices do internally track that stuff! Every advocate call & letter received from constituents is logged and that daily log is shared with all staffers in the office & the elected official!

Also, while there’s nothing stopping you from sending mail outside your state/district, Elected Officials tend to care most about what they hear from their constituents, as those are the people voting for or against them. So feel free to contact other offices, but be sure not to do so at the exclusion of your Rep.!

Constituent advocacy really does work. I’ve seen offices get a single meeting request about a bill that led to the Rep. signing onto the bill. Not even a meeting, just a meeting request! So yeah, call and mail your Representatives & Senators!

- A Political Staffer

P.S. Please don’t yell at/threaten whoever takes your call. I know emotions run high, but if you get aggressive you’re more likely to be taken as a threat than a citizen advocate, which is a great way to end up on a watchlist (not a joke). Also, a lot of the time the phones are answered by interns, and they don’t deserve that.

thank you so much kind soul! this is very helpful!

#i will add a screenshot of this to my rb so other people see it too #received an ask #life tips