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ancient-cats-unite · 2 years

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Lighthearted Goodbyes (pt.3)

Gamatoto says goodbye to one of his longest expedition helpers.

Elmo kept staring at the ground. He knew this was going to happen. He saw all his friends leave due to spacing issues. He never knew it would come this soon.

"It's how the cookie crumbles, buddy. You'll leave around dinner time. Please try to pack up soon."

Gamatoto left a sniffling Elmo to gather his belongings. Everyone felt terribly bad while Derp full on cried. Tiny Peggy tugged on his uniform shirt.

"Can't we do something for him, Mister Gamatoto?"

Gamatoto pondered. He can't just let his best intern go like that! Slowly, a plan started to form. His confidence returning bit by bit, he declared his grand plan. Everyone was going to throw Elmo a suprise goodbye party!

"Alrighty folks! We have tons of work to do! Lets get it rolling before lunch!"

"YES SIR!"

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Elmo finished tucking up his bedroll with his blankets. He sighed, looking through old photos with his fellow campers. Gamatoto playing god at a childrens birthday party, Derp joining a ritual in Jizo's Moving Castle, recruiting Peggy... it just won't be the same. He went to go put his stuff outside to prepare for dismissal.

Instead, Elmo was met with colorful streamers and a giant banner hung from two trees. "GOODBYE ELMO" was written by Rocky, the best writer at camp, in puffy yellow writing. Ladders and props were adorned over the camp, courtesy of Ototo's development group. Elmo was shocked.

Soon the glum from the morning was washed away by fun activities! Pin the tail on the Doge, Guess the Cat Unit, Hide and Seek, and a suprise visit from Showoff Cat! They ate yummy Cat Food sandwhiches with tuna spread. Elmo didn't want this day to end.

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

Sadly, it did. Everyone lined up to give Elmo a souvenir. To remember the fun times.

Augustus gave Elmo a pretty crystal he found in some caves. It glows with green energy.

Rocky gave Elmo a drawing of the two playing with beetles. He wishes they would meet next summer.

Pete gave Elmo a collection of marbles with yellow swirls and blue twirls. Very mesmerising.

Yuta gave Elmo a carrot for vitamins. Elmo liked the taste of them when sautéed.

Sophie gave Elmo a handmade bracelet for their shortlived friendship. She thanks him for saving her.

Lily gave Elmo a pretty flower she found on a frog. The browning color resembles the bronze of his hat.

Noah gave Elmo a slingshot. Just in case he needed to hit something down.

Morty gave Elmo some sea sand for good luck. Came from the future, he says.

Peggy gave Elmo a kiss on the cheek to confess her love for him. She had a crush on him for quite a while.

Derp gave Elmo a picture frame that had a group photo of everyone. All his friends signed it with Gamatoto, Derp did a little squiggle instead.

Last but not least, Gamatoto gave him a notepad to document his own adventures. Elmo always wanted to be his own Gamatoto.

"When we meet again, you can tell me all about your journeys alright?"

"Got it. Thank you Gamatoto. Thank you everyone!"

Everyone lined up at Gamatoto's whistle. They took off their caps and bowed. Gamatoto saluted. Elmo saluted back.

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

As Elmo loaded up his things into his van, he remembered when Gamatoto found him. Lost in some field, he could remember when his warm mentor's paw helped him up. Goodbyes were always the hardest because he never thought about it.

"Hello Elmo."

Elmo jumped in suprise. A tall cat with gagets and gears greeted him. A couple engineers surrounded him.

"Say, we do have some space open at the eevelopement team. You could stay for a project before finally leaving. We aren't all that far either so you can visit if you want. Are you up for that?"

Ototo extended his paw, his other paw holding a wrench. The other engineers were brimming with excitement. Elmo's smile grew wide.

"Its a yes yes YES!"

He hugged Ototo, the leader chuckling and hugging him back. The helpers all joined in on the hug.

Maybe he didn't have to say goodbye just yet.

_____________________

//First story done! Woohoo! What a happy ending, huh? This was based off my actual Gamatoto helpers. The only difference was that Elmo actually went home instead of going to Ototo. Let me know what you think!//

#the battle cats #battle cats #tbc #feline fanfics

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the-firebird69 · 1 year

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I look like her because it was the same Fair food and the same people and she was changing her look and she had to to survive and it's not too good but I'm actually doing it too the max are doing it too but we're far more aggressive. And what happened is we're taking over slowly the max figured it out 20 years ago and started an aggressive campaign the morlock kept refilling with clones and the max plan to ride the morlock against Tommy f was also a morlock. From the get-go I mean it's from the beginning in a long time ago. And they plan to have a steward doing to a degree and some fashion shape or form. But more professional and more in the open but it's not happening and they say they plan to have me make mutants and I think that was George who made them retarded by putting retard brings into their bodies into the brain cavity and switch to the frontal lobes and more so I don't believe them and my husband doesn't really and they plan to make mutants but on their own time and with their own stuff doing it themselves but I did crawl into the basement and I did look like this woman and Frank who was also Louisa May Alcott but they're different people and I don't think I'll see him but there's rumors of losing me I'll call its ghost and yeah that was me and partially cloaked and not too long ago last year. The point of the story is that we had children and starting there and they're human babies you don't know about them cuz I know where they are and what they're doing. And we also made demons we're not supposed to do it either one and these people are clueless, the first demon we made is below stow, waiting for you to return I'm picking you off in small groups or bunches and most of you don't return after you go there especially after the missile strike I have an excuse and so does he.

They're huge by the way westroads 15 mi across and that's the head and you've seen the kraken in the movies and not the Krake

Hera Zues

Good ok I hear you say it good

Hera

Yes it's good. And it said anything westboro in southborough but what's in stow

Zues

The couple is still and Concord, there's the third which is a child which is bigger under Lexington

Hera

And as a fourth and it's next to Concord and it is my goddess wife oppress

I'm here too and I get to say stuff we are working all the time this is the hardest project I've ever had I'm doing tons of things and I see is seeing what we're doing trying to get these bugs off him there's a lot of bugs around here. And it's gross a lot of people get killed by them they pass out and don't wake up. Sr or my father in law did and find out later that he is being evicted as for non-payment of rent and so if he's evicted he's going to try and come back if you can't they try and mess up his rent and it's horrible and the other one you got evicted already and they're not supposed to be there and so they're going to do the paperwork and get the sheriff to get them out what's going on shortly

Oppress

You do hear him he says who's going to be here and that's an issue that's going to be a big fight and that will actually help you get stuff

Savage Oppress

We agree and it's wonderful let me go out there and check and as our son says and daughter and grandson and granddaughter but all sons and daughters are of ours it is a slight and an insult to them in a very big one and potent too it is a very powerful insult because what it says is we have been killing you the whole time even before they got here possibly long before it but not with an active cracking but they're there and they will try and research it

Olympus

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awkwardgtace · 3 years

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Secret Brother Pt2

Continuing Ian and Mikhail gonna keep the same tws unless someone's asked for changes

TW: mentions of abandonment. Later parts will have mentions of a borrower being treated like a pet this is entirely painted in how fuckin wrong it is and how it added to the trauma.

Part 1 Part 3 (Final)

Secret Brother Part 2

Mikhail started living a double life after that. He was making good progress with Ian. He wasn’t sure how Ian had made any kind of home before, he seemed to struggle with basic bits of borrowing. It was becoming the highlight of most days to go home and sneak in to his own house the size of a borrower. Ian seemed almost nervous to be left in a house with a human alone, it didn’t make a ton of sense. The thing that started his move before must have been pretty bad.

The last few months had been a bit stressful too. At least one of his students seemed aware that the dorm ‘ghost’ had left with him. She claimed it was discussing her thesis, but it seemed to be highly focused on borrowers. Although she kept calling it a hypothetical idea of small beings. A study on the folklore of creatures like that which pop up in a lot of cultures. Finding ways to push her to new topics was becoming hard. Mikhail was looking forward to his afternoon with Ian.

“Ian, you around bud?” he called out. Ian rushed at him, covering his mouth. Mikhail looked at him curiously. Ian slowly slid his hand off him, seemingly happy with the silence. “What was that about?”

“I, uh, I thought I heard the human before,” he said nervously. Mikhail had been quiet, he hadn’t even opened his door. “I figured we should be extra quiet today, or just stay here, I have enough supplies for at least a week.”

Mikhail studied him, this wasn’t normal. Even if he made noise on his way, he can’t hear the noise in the walls as a human. Well he couldn’t hear them this far in, he made Ian move to make sure of that. Ian was jumpy, looking around like something would show up out of nowhere. He’d go with it for now, they’d hang out in the walls. He could teach him better sewing and they could work out the paths a little more.

“All right bud,” he said, hoping the smile would calm him. “We can stay in the walls just get some chores done in here, set up some extra paths you may need.”

Ian visibly calmed hearing that. He grabbed Mikhail’s arm and dragged him to the makeshift table. He had plenty of projects he started and needed guidance on. Mikhail was happy to oblige. They worked in a casual silence, Ian showing the parts he struggled with and Mikhail guiding him. It was a pretty normal day as far as life for a borrower is concerned, but Mikhail couldn’t ignore how terrified Ian was. It couldn’t just be that he thought he heard Mikhail, or well the human sized Mikhail, in the house. He was trying to think of how to bring it up when Ian dropped his project.

“Mik,” he started. “You’ve been coming to this house for a long time right?”

“Yeah it’s a normal stop,” he answered. He didn’t think he wanted to know where this was going.

“What do you think of this human?” Ian looked at him, his eyes had something in them he couldn’t read.

“I’m not sure what you mean bud,” he knew the right responses, but didn’t want to give them. He didn’t want to encourage Ian to be afraid of him.

“L-let’s say, there was a human you knew was bad, like really bad. If you had to pick between them and the human here, which would you pick?”

“I mean, as far as I can tell with this human, they wouldn’t do anything bad,” he started slowly. “I don’t know how bad the bad human would be in this scenario, but I’d pick the human who lives here. I’ve known them for an extremely long time, they don’t seem the type to do anything cruel.”

Ian nodded solemnly. Something was going on and he wasn’t telling him. Mikhail was tempted to push, but there wasn’t a good way to ask. He didn’t like leaving like this, but he had some work to get done this weekend, he couldn’t stay. He ruffled Ian’s hair standing to stretch, then started gathering the few things of his he brought with him. Ian grabbed his shoulder tightly.

“Mik, can you stay? For a few days?” his voice was small. Mikhail wanted to stay, to help him with what he wasn’t saying, but he couldn’t. He had to grade assignments and review thesis topics. He turned with a sad smile to Ian.

“I’m sorry Ian, I can’t. Honestly I may be gone for about a week this time. I can’t put off this work much longer. It won’t f-”

“Can I come?”

Mikhail sighed, “Ian I can’t take you with me for these trips. It won’t feel that long promise.”

Ian let go of him. Mikhail turned and saw he looked close to tears. He pulled Ian into a hug, holding tightly. Ian melted into it, seeming to need some sort of reassurance. Mikhail was more reluctant to leave, but he had to work so they could keep this up anyway. He let go and moved towards the exit, relieved to see Ian sitting back down at the table. He’d tell Ian the truth next time, he had to know he wasn’t as alone as he thought when ‘Mik’ wasn’t around.

“We’ll talk about some important stuff when I come back too all right?” he asked. Ian perked up, nodding with a look of relief. Things like that seemed to calm him, promises that meant he’d return without that being the promise. Once outside the house Mikhail waited a few minutes before shifting back. He needed to make sure Ian wasn’t planning to follow him. Once sure he focused and the world returned to its usual view. He took slow steps toward his car, climbing in to move it. Next time he saw Ian wasn’t going to be easy. He pulled the car off to the side, hidden completely from view for the weekend.

He sighed as he walked in, far from excited to deal with the guilt he’d be feeling. He went straight to his desk, if he could make it through the papers fast enough he could talk with Ian sooner. He pulled out the first and got to reading, blocking out the world around him. Ian wouldn’t come out for a while based on how he was acting. Hours passed as he worked through the assignments, a number of which would need to be completely redone. The black ink on white paper getting to him, he walked out to get a drink. The house was dark, he never bothered to turn on any lights when he came in. He reached the kitchen and flicked the light on, nearly screaming.

Sitting at the center of the table was Ian, his hook placed clearly out of reach. Mikhail couldn’t believe his eyes. He decided to act like he saw nothing, continuing on to get his water. He would go back to his desk and then Ian could keep up whatever crazy thing he was planning. Unless this had to do with the question earlier about trusting the human here. Did he know it was Mikhail who lived here? Ian must have figured it out. He turned to leave, trying so hard not to let his concern show.

“H-human!” Ian called out. There went any hope of pretending not to see him. Mikhail locked his eyes on Ian, the boy flinching as he gained the attention he wanted. Mikhail crouched down, getting himself eye level with the borrower. He was barely ready for whatever this meant.

“Hi?” he said. He had no idea how to do this. Wait he called out human, does Ian not know?

“I-I want to make a deal with you.” Ian was trying to be confident. Mikhail felt a lot of pride at that. He was so much more confident than he was a few months ago.

“What do you need?”

“I-if you’ll keep the bad human from me and my friend I’ll stay with you.”

“Wait what? What bad human? What do you mean stay with me?” Mikhail was utterly lost. Ian was here in front of him when he was human. Offering to stay with him in exchange for protection from the bad human. Now he really needed to know what was going on. He leaned down on the table, arms as a pillow, to be a little closer.

“I-I ran away from a human. They were keeping me as a,” he paused a mixture of fear and disgust on his face, “as a pet. I’ll stay with you as one if you’ll keep the bad one from me and my friend.”

“First no to that whole pet thing, you’re clearly a person. Second, I need to know about this bad human to help.”

“I-I can be good. I won’t run from you. I’ll be the project thingy for you they were talking about. I can-”

“Whoa slow down buddy, I just need information.” Mikhail was trying hard to stay calm. This is what scared him so much. Some human kept him as a pet and brought him to the school. Mikhail was going to deal with this, later though for now Ian had to calm down.

“I can do tricks, I won’t complain really. You can go get a cage now and I’ll wait right here. I won’t move at all. I won’t fight if you try to show me off either. I’ll be a good pet just as long as you protect us.”

“Kiddo, I just said the pet thing isn’t happening. I’ll just help you if you talk to me about this bad human.”

“I’m not stupid. I know you’ll want something eventually. I’m giving you something. I know you spend time at the place the bad human had brought me. I’ll be obedient for anything you need just keep the bad one away. I put the only way I can get down far enough away. Just admit you like this idea and-”

“Ian, knock it off! I’m not entertaining you talking about yourself like that’s all you’re good for. You’re a person, damn it!” Mikhail shouted. He hadn’t meant to, but hearing Ian thought he’d like this idea hurt. Over the last few months Ian felt like a younger brother, he’d do anything for him.

“H-How do you know my name?” Ian’s eyes were wide. Mikhail didn’t realize he used his name, he’d gotten lucky until now. Ian seemed far more scared than before hearing the human knew his name, starting to back away. Mikhail stood up and backed off. This wasn’t what he wanted to happen. He was going to have to show him as much as he hated it. He made his way back over to the table gripping the edge with both hands. He focused on them as he willed himself smaller. He pulled himself onto the table then sped up how fast he shifted. Focusing his gaze on Ian once he was done.

“This,” Mikhail gestured to himself, “would be why you couldn’t come with me.”

#gt writing #gt #giant/tiny #gianttiny #g/t #g/t writing #OC:Ian #OC:Mikhail/Mik #OC:Mik/Mikhail

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kenkamishiro · 3 years

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20210317 Nintendo Switch News Interview with Ishida Sui for Jack Jeanne’s release

This interview was posted exclusively in the Nintendo Switch News section for Jack Jeanne’s release. Highly recommend reading it, as there’s new content regarding the production for JJ!

[Jack Jeanne] Exclusive Interview with Ishida Sui!

Hello! This is Chami from Nintendo’s Otome Game department. This time, we have an exclusive interview with Ishida Sui, who served as the general supervisor for Jack Jeanne!

By the way, the image above is from the early stages of development. How cool is it to see how different the characters look from their appearance now!

This special content is only available here, so I hope you continue to read 𝅘𝅥𝅮

The game’s core revolves around a tug of war battle between school and performing.

How did you come up with the core of the game when the project was first launched?

At first, the offer I received was solely for the character design.

I accepted it because the boy revue theme seemed interesting to me, but the character profiles BROCCOLI came up with were a bit too far-fetched for my liking...which is to be expected from a company that makes otome games. “Can I really do this...no, I can’t, but I still want to anyway,” I thought.

So I decided to try proposing character profiles I thought I could work with, and it’s probably from the moment I created those profiles that Jack Jeanne’s core development began.

To create the characters you need the school’s background, and for that you need the history of the area, you also need to keep the game system in mind, the music for the performances has to be a certain way, the dances need to give off this feeling...the scope of my proposal grew and grew, and before I knew it, I was organizing the entirety of this project.

At any rate, I was only working on bits and pieces in the early stages of development, so I reviewed the balance of the entire project, thinking it would collapse if the game’s core values weren’t consistent.

There aren't a lot of works revolving around acting and performing in the first place, so there wasn’t much I could refer to, so it was a matter of trial and error. I read a ton of books about acting, singing and dancing, and manga-wise I used “Rising!” (Author: Himuro Saeko, Illustrator: Fujita Kazuko) as a reference in particular.

I tried to create the story from beginning to end in my mind, and after getting Towada the scenario writer to put it into writing, we got rid of any problems and unpleasant developments that arose...I spent an entire year laying down the foundation for Jack Jeanne.

After finding a good balance between the seasonal performances and the everyday lives of Univeil’s students, the path to creating Jack Jeanne finally became clear to me.

While working on this project, I slowly came to the realization that the game’s core revolved around a tug of war battle between school and performing.

I gradually realized that the core of the game was the tug of war between school and performing.

This is the player’s story.

Are there any particularities of the character design or script that’s unique to the game?

How important the player’s choice is.

One of my favourite parts about the game is that the player decides how the story goes.

I believe the appeal of this game is that you can have different outcomes depending on the choices you make, events occurring at different times for each player, and thus have different experiences.

The biggest difference if you compare it to manga, is that there’s only one story from start to finish in manga, but games give players a choice.

Because this is an adventure game*, at times it was really difficult creating a wide range of choices while maintaining consistency, but I tried to widen the range of consequences for each choice as much as possible.

[T/N: Adventure game, or ‘ADV game’, is a visual novel but with more gameplay elements that gives the player more agency.]

I’ll be vague since it might be considered a spoiler, but after a certain point in the story, the effect of this particularity becomes stronger. It’s like even though you’re doing the same thing, it’s still a different story. It took a lot of work to make it happen.

Writing as if I was possessed by the character.

You were also responsible for writing the lyrics. What kind of feelings did you put into them?

I specifically kept in mind the character’s situation when the music is playing, how the play’s worldview is expressed, and so on. I also asked myself if it felt good to sing, and I had a lot of fun incorporating weird and silly things into it.

After that, I tried to write as if I was possessed by the character. The character Neji-kun is supposed to write everything, but I actually wrote the lyrics with that thought process in mind. Neji would use these words, or Neji would do it like this, stuff like that.

It’s difficult for me to write the lyrics for the students as myself, so I used the characters to help me on that front.

So, rather than writing the lyrics myself, I wrote them while keeping Neji’s thoughts and feelings towards his classmates in mind.

This is not the colour of Ishida Sui alone.

Please share with us your recommendations about Jack Jeanne’s fun and appeal.

That it’s not the colour of Ishida Sui alone.

Since my name is in the forefront, no doubt I’ll stick out like a sore thumb, but I think the appeal lies in the fact that it’s not just myself who worked on this game.

The story, the cast acting to convey those words, the music playing in the background...all these colours blend together on the game screen to create a single work of art, which I think is the greatest appeal of all.

The appeal of manga is that it’s as close to monochromatic as possible, but I think the fun of combining different colours is something only a game like Jack Jeanne can offer.

Jack Jeanne is a gentle story.

Please leave a message for everyone who’s excitedly awaiting the release of Jack Jeanne.

If I were to do this again now, I’d like to write a gentle story. I was depressed about a lot of things prior. But I wonder if this story I’ve been working on for several years turned out gentler than I expected.

I worked hard to create Jack Jeanne. I hope you try playing it in your spare time.

#Ishida Sui #Jack Jeanne #Translations

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chaosangel767 · 3 years

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Business Vs. Pleasure Pt. 2

Fandom: Obey Me

Pairing Lucifer/ MC

Type: Angst

Pt. 1 Here

Warning: Swearing

*****The next Morning*****

You wake up slowly, a massive headache forming from all the crying last night. You felt like you had been hit by a truck. You locate your DDD to see tons of messages from the night before when the brothers found out you went home sick and Belphie telling them that you were sleeping and to leave you alone. Almost all the brothers personally texted you to make sure you were okay. Lucifer called you a bunch of times too. There was a lot of commotion in the group chat as well.

House of Lamentation Chat.

Lucifer: Y/n wake up, breakfast

Beel: Lucifer she wasn’t feeling good last night let her sleep

Asmo: Y/n what happened? Are you up

Belphie: Clearly not or she would have responded by now.

Mammon: I’m going to wake her up, it's almost afternoon

Beel: MAMMON LEAVE HER ALONE SHE IS SICK

Lucifer: Mammon I will hang you upside down if you disturb her

Y/n: I’m up guys, why are you screaming Mammon

Lucifer: hey sweetheart how are you feeling

Y/n: Like I got hit by a truck, my head is pounding

Beel: Want me to make you anything?

Lucifer: Take it easy Y/n don’t push yourself to much

Satan: Lunch will be ready in a couple hours if you feel hungry

Y/n :I’m not hungry right now, maybe I’ll come down for lunch

After confirming you were okay you crawled to the shower and started it. While waiting for the water to warm up you look in the mirror and notice your mark missing on your neck. You shake your head before calling Jack. As soon as he picked up he knew something was wrong, I told him everything that happened last night and he just sighed heavily. He talked to me and offered to make me a new dress so that I didn’t have any memories. I gladly accepted and sent him pictures from last night that Asmo had taken of me dancing with the brothers. He got me laughing like he always does and encouraged me to keep my head up. I hung up with him and took a shower feeling better now that my emotions were straightened out. I threw on a comfy outfit ( your choice) and noticed that Satan had announced lunch was ready. I walked out of my room and went to the table slipping in the free spot between Asmo and Beel. Lucifer looked up at me and shot me a smile. I attempt a smile back, but it comes out strained. I drop my head in my hands.

“Y/n would you mind going on a date with me tonight?” Lucifer asked, bringing me out of my daze. I struggle to think of an excuse, not ready to face him.

“She can't, we had a meeting with Simeon and Luke” Beel cut in quickly. I sigh and look to Lucifer.

“Beel is right, I have to head over to Purgatory hall.” I muster my best apologetic smile to Lucifer.

“Don’t forget we have a spa night planned” Asmo sings to me leaning over and cupping my cheek. “ It will help you relax since you aren’t feeling well” I nodded at him, feeling a little upset that I have to keep smiling. I stood up from my Lunch and took my plate to the kitchen.

“You barely ate Sweetheart. Are you sure you don’t want more?” Lucifer asks, catching me as I walk by. I look at him and shook my head, being with him was hurting too much. Beel and Belphie stand up.

“Ready Y/n we should head over soon if we want to get done before dinner” Beel tells me and I nod. We rinse our plates and Belphie whispers to me

“Let me know if you need anything okay?” I nod back and Belphie heads towards the attic while Beel and I head out of the house.

“You okay?” Beel asks once we are away from the hall. I shake my head and feel tears start to form.

“ I have no idea how I am going to make the next 6 months, all I see when I look at him is him pounding a Succubus. It won’t go away.” I said the last few words in a whisper, tears threatening to fall.

“Wait, why do you see that?” I hear Satan behind us, he was walking behind us to Purgatory hall. I gasp and Beel throws eyebrows at Satan.

“What are you doing following us?” Beel asks and now its Satan’s turn to raise his eyebrows at us.

“Solomon and I have to work on a project, so I am going over.” Satan explains. We travel the rest of the way in silence until we walk into Purgatory hall. Simeon and Luke greet us.

“Y/n how are you feeling, are you okay, did you talk to him?” Luke fires questions at me as he hugs me looking worried. I shake my head and sigh, Simeon takes my coat and Satan looks even more confused. Solomon comes in.

"Y/n why did Jack call me threatening murder and wanted me to go check on you?" Solomon looked concerned and I look at him sadly, trying not to cry right here.

“Y/n were you really sick last night or did something happen at the dance?” Satan questions me hanging up his coat and glaring at me.

“Perhaps we should talk about this over something to drink in the living room.” Simeon offers you shoot him a grateful smile and nod. We go to the living room and Simeon and Luke sit with me on a couch while Satan and Beel sit on the other couch. Solomon comes in with some tea and cookies for us and sits in a chair.

“What happened last night Y/n” Solomon breaks the silence first. Luke takes my hand and rubs circles into it calming me. Taking a sip of my tea I look up and meet everyone's eyes.

“Beel and I went looking for Lucifer last night during the party and found him doing some things with a couple of Succubi. I have some evidence and left without me seeing him. I ran into these two and they stayed with me until Beel and Belphie took me home. My mark kept burning last night too, but when I woke up this morning it was gone.” I explained, my voice starting to crack again. I couldn’t control the tears starting to fall down my face. My neck felt strange without the usual buzz from Lucifer’s mark. Usually when I touched it I could feel his warmth and heartbeat, but now my skin was cool to the touch and was like any other piece of skin. Simeon placed his arms around me and served as my anchor until I could control my emotions. Satan and Solomon looked at me shocked.

“Y/n are you sure your mark is gone?” Satan asked wide eyed, I nodded and pulled down the shoulder of my shirt showing that the mark was missing. Satan shook his head and swore. He was shaking trying not to switch to his demon form, a battle he quickly lost. He got up and was shaking in fury. You get up and wrap your arms around him.

“Satan please calm down, it was my fault for believing him” I quickly try to calm him down and Simeon walks over and places a hand on Satan’s shoulder helping calm him down. Satan calms down slowly and sits back down, fury still prominent in his eyes. You know he cares about you and has proven to be insanely protective of you in the past. You and Simeon sat back down on the couch with Luke.

“How are you feeling now?” he asks, looking worried at me.

“Drained and betrayed” I replied honestly,Satan looked at me sadly. “It's going to hurt more than normal for some time, your body is also dealing with losing his mark so you will be a lot more tired than usual.” Satan explained, he sighed heavily. “I’m so sorry Y/n, I can’t believe he did this, I wish there is a way to help.” Solomon just sat there and watched what unfolded with sympathetic eyes. After talking for a little bit longer, Solomon and Satan went off to work on their project and you watched movies with Beel, Simeon and Luke.

Suddenly your phone starts to blow up with texts from Lucifer.

Luci

Luci: Sweetheart are you feeling okay?

Y/n: I’m fine

Luci: Are you sure, something in our bond doesn’t feel right

Luci: What are you doing?

Y/n: We are studying with the angels

Luci: Why not study with Mammon or me?

Y/n:Simeon wanted to study with me and Luke made sweets

so Beel tagged along

Y/n: now excuse me I have work to do

Luci: Do not take that tone with me Y/n

Y/n: I have stuff to do Lucifer

Luci: Y/N!

Luci: We will talk when you get home

Y/n: Goodbye Lucifer

Luci: I love you Y/n

Y/n: …

5 missed calls from Luci

“Everything okay?” Beel whispered and I shook my head leaning on his shoulder.

“I may have just told Lucifer off, there is going to be hell to pay later” I reply, he groans and took my DDD reading the messages. He shuts off my DDD when Lucifer doesn't stop calling me. We continue to watch movies until Satan comes down from Solomon’s room.

“I’ve held off Lucifer for as long as possible. We need to go home” Satan informed us. I growl and stand up, Beel stands up a little slower.

“ If you need a place to get away Y/n you can always stay with us. “ Simeon offered and Luke nodded giving me a hug. I nod at them gratefully

“ I’ll keep that in mind, but for now I am going to confront a cheater” I told them, putting on my coat and walking out of the dorm with Satan and Beel. While on the way home I filled Satan in on my fight and he snorted at Lucifer getting possessive.

We walked into the house and it was eerily quiet. I walked into my room with Satan and Beel to see Lucifer sitting on my bed.

“Beel, Satan please leave.” Lucifer commands rising from my bed. Both brothers look at me and I nod, they turn around and walk out of my room shutting the door. I sigh and look at Lucifer. He closes the gap and grabs my shoulders.

“How dare you talk to me like that” He growls out, I glare at him and slowly feel anger built up.

“How dare you cheat on me and act like everything is okay the next day?” I growl back, I saw him visibly tense.

“ What did you say?” he asks again. I look him dead in the face.

“You heard me Lucifer” He pinned me against the wall.

“ DO NOT TALK LIKE THAT!!! I WOULD NEVER” He yells at me. My door flies open and the other brothers come in.

“Lucifer let her go,” Beel said warningly, and Satan is pissed. Luci released me.

“I SAW YOU LUCIFER. IT WASN’T ONE BITCH BUT TWO” I yelled back letting my anger finally go. I didn’t care that the other brothers had entered not knowing what was going on.

“YOU SAW NOTHING!” Lucifer grabbed you again.

“ I FUCKING SAW YOU, YOU WERE FUCKING ONE BITCH AND KISSING ANOTHER” I yank myself out of his grasp, tears finally spilling over. Lucifer looked at you shocked.

“What are you talking about human?” Mammon asked me. He and Levi looked so confused, I sigh and decide to tell them what happened.

“Last night I saw Lucifer cheating on me with 2 succubi.” I filled them in.

“ Y/n dear that doesn’t sound like Lucifer” Asmo was quick to defend Lucifer breaking my heart a little. Mammon and Levi quickly agree with him, clearly not believing me. Lucifer smirked at me.

“Enough Y/n, you need to calm down and tell the truth. You have been cheating on me with Beel.” Lucifer crossed his arms and the brothers all looked at me. I snapped, seeing red and realizing that he was enjoying himself.

“I have done no such thing” I defend, Lucifer’s eyes go narrow and he transforms into his demon form. He goes to hit me but Beel blocks the hit. Belphie and Satan transform into their demon form and stand protectively in front of me. Belphie wraps his arms around me. The other brothers look in shock. Lucifer looked shocked that they would stand up for me.

“I was there last night Lucifer, I saw you cheating on her. I don’t know why you did it and I don’t care, but you do not hurt her because you couldn’t keep it in your pants.” Beel told him as he released his hand and Lucifer backed up.

“ Wait, Lucifer is this true?” Asmo asked in doubt, the fact that the twins and Satan are defending you is making them rethink. I decide to tell Lucifer about my mark and then escape to the library before things escalate more.

“You told me you felt something was wrong with our bond, well it's true, funny you just did not realize it. My mark is fucking gone because you of you. But now i know what it means when my mark burns, you have never been faithful.” I pulled down my shirt revealing the healed spot. Lucifer’s eyes widened and he sits on my bed, clearly dazed by the fact my mark had left and that I found out his secret. I turned and left my room with Satan and the twins.

I fled to the library and Satan put up his hexes so that no one could enter and made the library soundproof. I sent the group the video of Lucifer cheating just to make sure everyone knows and turned off my DDD. I tried to keep the tears at bay, but eventually they spilled over. The twins pulled me into one of the library nooks and let me cry. Satan looked at me sadly and sat in the nook with us. Beel pulled me onto his lap, Belphie was on one side and Satan as on the other. Satan started to read poems to me and Belphie started to play with my hair. The boys held me until I fell asleep.

These three boys and the angels become my anchors the next 6 months, as I heal and finish the exchange program. Luci tried multiple times to get back with me, but I held my ground against his advances. Even Lord Diavolo told him to give up. I had learned my lesson, never mix business and pleasure, even though the lesson came too late.

#obey me #obey me fanfic #lucifer obey me #hurt #angst

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fallowdoe · 4 years

Text

All roads lead to Hell

MC gets kidnapped and has to make their way through Hell to reunite with everyone.

GN!reader x everyone (can be treated as platonic/romantic)

Trigger warnings for this chapter: none

I apologise for the quality of writing however this is a translated version of my fic.

If anyone is interested in that I was listening to Casey tells the truth, the whole Split soundtrack is my big inspiration for this story. I’d advise onto playing it in the background while reading.

Chapter 1 - Prolouge ⇒

A few candles lit up the room. The gentle light was adding to its already mysterious aura. Solomon’s dorm was filled with all kind of grimoires and spellbooks. The floor was covered with tons of torn-out pages and patterns drawn on a yellowish paper.

Trying out one spell after another MC seemed to grow more and more annoyed. The upcoming exam was one of the most important ones and Solomon’s constant teasing wasn’t the most helpful.

"Focus or you won’t get anything done, MC." The sorcerer stated while leaning against a wall. He wasn’t even trying to hide the amusement in his voice.

"I am focused" They mumbled irritated. It was their ninth try of casting this, so-called easy, spell. A marble laying on the table seemed to look at them pitifully. It was a one bastard piece of glass. Even more irritated MC moved their hand above it once again.

"Neque ultra intuebitur eum" they mumbled. The space around them seemed to start drawing energy towards their hand. A quiet electric buzz filled their ears and they could feel their cheeks heat up. But just as they were about to direct the energy towards the toy it would suddenly unload. The marble remained untouched, and MC could bet that if it was possible it’d poke its tongue at them. Or maybe even raise a very specific finger up. "Neque ultra intuebitur eum!"

Nothing.

"No! It’s impossible! It’s impossible and that’s it! You gave me a broken marble." They grunted and dramatically sat on a chair pouting.

Solomon snickered at them and approached the table. He muttered the words of the spell and the marble was gone immediately.

"Cheater. I bet it was enchanted or something."

"Maybe." He smirked. "Try again."

MC groaned under their breath but stood up again. The sorcerer walked up to them and placed his hand on their arm giving them a reassuring look. "That’s gonna be seriously lame if you fail again tho.”

They replied with a huff and tried to refocus. Closing their eyes, MC began collecting energy again. It was a weird feeling. Suddenly they’d notice that the whole room was in fact like a river full of it. Their task was to change its current toward themself. This spell didn’t require a lot of effort, only a bit of thought. Stronger spells could even sweep someone off with an uncontrolled current.

They’d never admit it but sorcerer’s touch was rather helpful. It made them feel grounded. Goosebumps rose on their hand. They cast the spell again.

"Lame." He chuckled.

"Huh?!” Their eyes shot open searching for the marble but the table was empty. They laughed and playfully punched his chest, making him laugh. "Asshole.”

Content, MC threw themself on the bed as a mark of their victory, Solomon was quick to follow.

"You realize that this was shit compared to regular magic?” watching them struggle was incredibly amusing to him, apparently.

"Like I don’t know" They frowned. He smiled in response and laid back next to them.

The silence of the room, moving flames of the candles and its overall aura was really comforting.

"You should be able to pass the exam tho" he mentioned.

"It’s a lot, you know? Everything." MC wondered.

"I know."

"I just can’t wrap my mind around it.” They began playing with their hair.

"You could do much more without a hassle.” He stated like it was something obvious and leaned on his elbows while looking at them with a smirk.

"Wow, thanks for being an asshole.” They muttered, the hair they were playing with fell on their face.

"A supportive asshole.”

"I’m not sure if I could do more.” They spoke trying to blow the curl off. Hesitation making its way in their voice. "It’s still too new and…”

”Overwhelming?”

"Yeah… Convincing someone that hell is real is one thing but throwing them inside is something else.” They followed gentle shadows of the flames on the ceiling with their eyes.

"Why? You’d prefer a flaming river and little red devils instead of your seven demon boyfriends?”

Both of them laughed at the image of the brothers' with spiked tails and tridents.

"No, I don’t think I would.”

Empty walls of RAD were enhancing every sound, making every single word echo for a few seconds before disappearing.

"MC, ya comin’ or what?" Mammon was standing at the end of the hallway talking with Beel.

"Just a second!" they screamed while taking stuff out of their locker and putting it in a bag. They were planning on returning to the House of Lamentation as soon as the school day was over to prepare for an exam. But their Devildom History textbook was nowhere to be seen. "Ugh, I left a textbook in the classroom. Wait for me, I’ll go get it!"

"Just hurry up! I’m not explainin’ to Lucifer why we’re late again!"

The palace garden was full of exotic flowers, nothing like what they’d seen before. The number of colours and shapes worked wonders, some of the plants were gently glowing and lighting up the eternal night. Some had spots and some seemed to move on their own. MC could swear that they could even hear glassy sounds of a few.

"No matter how many times I see those flowers they always amaze me.” Diavolo was lazily examining the garden grounds. "Some of them only grow here. I’m doing what I can to keep them from going extinct. The species come from all of the three realms. That’s why you can spot some familiar ones.” He explained. ”I’m hoping to replant them one day on its original grounds.”

"Thanks to magic?” MC was sipping on some tea.

"Thanks to a good gardener, actually.” Barbatos smiled.

"Oh.” Both men laughed at their confusion.

The quiet evenings in Lord Diavolo’s castle were a nice change from their usual ones. Their small chats quickly turned into a regular thing, always accompanied by a nice tea made by Barbatos.

"Magic definitely helps as well.”

The wind was shyly blowing between the palace columns. Moth-alike creatures were roaming the garden, their wings glooming in the soft darkness.

"I don’t think I can get used to it. The magic.”

"Maybe, it’s a good thing. Living in constant awe of something." The Demon Lord smiled and gave them a soothing look.

They quietly hummed in response.

Lucky for them, the classroom was open. They entered not bothering to turn the lights on. The lost textbook was waiting for them on their desk. A dark and empty classroom felt really heavy, MC grabbed the book and just as they were about to return to the hallway they noticed an envelope that must have been hidden underneath it.

"What? " They muttered. An elegant paper and a wax stamp made it look important. If not for their name written on the back they’d probably leave it alone in fear of getting hexed or pranked. Instead, curiosity made them break the stamp.

"Geez, what is taking ‘em so long?" Mammon huffed. They were gone for only a few minutes but making HIM wait was quite an offence.

"Maybe we should go and check on them" Beel mumbled from between his sandwich bites.

"Hm, to get lost on your way for a textbook. Dumb human." Mammon stated annoyed. He was energetically tapping his foot.

"Come on, they probably locked themself in the classroom or something."

As soon as MC fished the sheet of paper from inside the letter, they started shivering. Cold air began circling them, their vision fading. All the sounds of the world around them suddenly gone. Sudden exhaustion taking over them, an empty void. It was a calm, soothing sensation. Like falling asleep…

"It’s empty” Beel stated exiting another classroom.

"Ow, come on! They gotta be somewhere ‘ere!" anxiety was slowly making its way in Mammon’s voice.

"Try this one – he pointed at the door on the other side of the hallway."

"If they’re not in the…" a powerful charge of energy went off when he tried to reach for the doorknob leaving both demons in shock for a second.

"MC!" Mammon bailed inside an empty classroom.

Loud voices filling the House of Lamentation kept the atmosphere tense.

"So they forgot a textbook…" Lucifer tried to keep calm, but his furrowed brows showed how tense he actually was. "…and went to get it…"

"Yeah!"

"…alone." He shot his brother a disapproving look.

A guilty nod.

"So, you went after them and discovered a sudden burst of energy in the classroom." The whole situation was more than inconvenient. It was a tragedy to be specific. An exchange student disappearing on the grounds of the academy. The exact one who couldn’t protect themself from any magic. The foreign trace of a powerful spell didn’t make the situation any better. The eldest took a quick glance across the room.

"We found this." Beel pointed at their textbook laying on the table.

"Are you sure that they just didn’t go somewhere?" Satan uttered.

"I’m tellin’ ya how it went! They’re just gone like that!”

"They sure can’t be far, right?" Asmo’s question was left unanswered.

A motion of loud voices filled the room, everyone discussing what might have happened.

Lord Diavolo approached the table with a stern look on his face. If it was true that something happened to MC while they were at RAD then he was the one at fault for not keeping the academy grounds safe for them. He took the book and examined it. Devildom history. It had MC’s name written on the first page. Nothing appeared to be wrong with it. Just a regular textbook. "It’s just a textbook if anything had to do with their disappearance it couldn’t be it. Is Solomon on his way here?"

"Yes, I called him a while ago he should be here anytime." Lucifer confirmed.

It wasn’t even about the project anymore, MC was missing and it filled all of them with an unpleasant feeling of guilt.

"Can’t Barbatos use his powers and find them?”

The butler sadly shook his head.

What previously was a state of anxiety, now was slowly shifting into a panic whit every passing hour. As long as they were alone in Devildom, they definitely weren’t safe.

"Something happened to MC?!" Luke’s voice caught their attention.

Both angels and Solomon were standing in the entrance to the dining room, looking rather startled.

"We don’t know yet." Diavolo stated calmly.

They joined everyone by the table and Solomon took the textbook. He gave Diavolo a specific look and the demon lord nodded in response. He started studying it.

"Are they safe?! Why aren’t you worried?!" the young angel kept questioning.

"I’m sure that MC’s okay." Simeon’s white lies weren’t exactly suited for an angel.

"Of course, everyone is worried." Belphegor stated irritated. "That’s why we called you!"

Solomon tried to quiet out the rambling and kept examining the book, but just like Diavolo confirmed, there wasn’t anything extraordinary about it. That was unless he opened it and a single sheet of paper fell out.

#obey me! shall we date?#obey me!#obey me simeon #obey me luke #obey me #obey me lucifer #obey me leviathan #obey me diavolo #obey me barbatos #obey me mc #obey me mammon #obey me asmodeus #obey me satan #obey me solomon #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor

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sirskinwalker · 3 years

Text

Title: Truth or Dare

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Ship: Prinxiety (Roman x Virgil)

TW/CW: N/A

Original Prompt: Virgil knows how to sew, and he hand-made his puppet in the Puppet Vid. He may or may not have some plushies of animals who bear resemblance to each side.

Prompt Credit: @chaoticandidioticsidesaus

Story:

It has been a very tiring day for Virgil. Roman is being an ass, Logan is being a smartass, and Patton… Well, Patton hasn’t done anything wrong.

In the end, Virgil is exhausted, anxious, and wants nothing else than to be away from the others and to just chill out in his room, watching Disney movies with his comfort pillows and stuffed animals.

After a moment, Virgil picks himself up from the living-room couch, and starts to drag himself to his room. Before he can fully escape inside, though, Patton begins to call after him. When the anxious side doesn’t respond immediately, he hears Morality telling off the Creative and Logical sides for being rude and inconsiderate of the people around them.

Although it was meant to be a nice gesture, it had the opposite effect. Instead of appreciativeness, Virgil instead feels annoyance. He doesn’t need someone to defend him, nor does he want to start a situation between them. It’s just better to leave it be, Virgil thinks.

Slipping behind his dark purple door, he takes a deep breath. He closes the door slowly behind him, pushing until he hears a soft click. Moving hastily, he makes his way to his bed, where a box that is filled with an assortment of coloured yarn and crochet needles sits, just barely peeking out between the tons of pillows.

Carefully, he picks up a project he had spent the last few days working on. A small black cat, with bright purple eyes and stripes. Virgil works quickly and efficiently, and with each stitch he does another worry fades away. Being so caught up in his work, he doesn’t hear someone knocking on his door. Or he does, and he just doesn’t care.

Virgil doesn’t bother saying anything when Roman tries to apologize for calling him paranoid. He stays silent when Logan tries next. They aren’t worth his time right now.

~~~

Hours pass, and Virgil is left staring at the plushie he has made. It’s purrfect, he chuckles. He admires the crocheted cat in his hands a minute longer, happy and proud of himself. Then he kisses the animal on the head softly, before uncrossing his legs and standing up from where he sat on his bed.

Virgil’s back pops loudly, and his legs ache. The anxious side doesn’t let this ruin his good mood, though. He just smiles, and walks over to his desk. He is greeted by a familiar sock puppet, along with all of his other hand-made puppets.

A black raven is perched upon a stack of books, with a striped tie and thick glasses. A German Shepard with a red sash with gold accents defends an ever-growing eyeshadow collection. A pastel blue bunny with hearts on its cheeks looks up at him happily.And a yellow snake with emerald green eyes curls around a dark green octopus with mischievous grin and black sash.

Placing the black cat amongst the other animals, Virgil felt light, light and happy. Only when his stomach growls does he realize how hungry and dehydrated he is. Though they had passed like minutes, Virgil realizes that hours have passed, with no breaks for food or water. He curses himself before sneaking out from his room, silently hoping that the others are off in their rooms, or at least somewhere they won’t notice him.

Virgil makes it to the kitchen without being caught, and only when he grabs a water bottle and ham does he notice someone watching. He almost drops everything in his arms in surprise, but manages to collect himself before that could happen. He turns to come face-to-face with Roman, who still has a stupid smirk on his face at being able to spook Virgil.

“Need something, Sir. Sing-A-Lot?” Virgil growls, taking a glance at the prince in annoyance. He grabs the rest of the stuff to make a sandwich, not stopping to wait for a reply. “I want to apologize,” Roman starts, watching him. “I tried knocking earlier, but you might have been asleep. I’m sorry for calling you the bad guy, and paranoid. I was being a dick without good reason.”

Virgil looks up and stares into Roman’s eyes. He searches for any trace of dishonesty, but only finds true guilt.

The anxious side shakes his head, as he says: “I accept your apology. Now, if you would leave me alone, it would be great -”

“Virgil!” Patton bounces into the kitchen, a bright smile on his face. His smile wavers as he looks between the two others, a silent question on his face.

“We’re okay now, Patty Cakes,” Roman answers, giving a nod for him to continue.

“Oh! That’s good,” Patton’s smile comes back, somehow brighter than before. “I was going to invite you guys for a game!”

Virgil bites into his sandwich, hiding his frown. He casts his eyes down, “that would be great, but, uh, I have something already…” he trails off. The anxious side glances up, and regrets his words immediately.

Patton’s eyes are filled with disappointment, and Virgil swears he sees tears forming. Roman seems to notice, too, because he quickly speaks up, saying: “you’ve been in your room already, Stormcloud. You can take a break, can’t you?”

Slowly, Virgil nods. He silently thanks Roman for the save, and lets Patton drag him by the sleeve into the living room. There they join Logan, who stands up once he sees Virgil.

“It’s cool, Logan. I accept your apology.”

The logical side nods and sits back down, relaxing. “So, what are we going to play?” He asks as the others sit down around him.

“I was thinking Truth or Dare,” Patton responds, looking around the room in case anyone has a different idea. When everyone was in agreement, he started, asking Logan, ‘truth or dare’? Rounds pass quickly, and Virgil is smiling and giggly. When Roman asks, “truth or dare,” he responds quickly, choosing dare.

“Show us a secret talent.”

Virgil pauses. His eyes widen a little in surprise, but before he can change his mind he gets up and goes into his room. The others look between each other, thinking that he just ditched, but understand when he comes back.

In his arms are the plushies he had made for them. Patton squeals, and Logan gives a rare smile. Roman’s mouth drops, and his face holds an emotion unreadable.

Virgil passes the stuffed animals around, laughing as Patton proudly announces: “I’m naming her Sugar!”

“I love them.” Roman whispers, stroking the German Shepherd’s back slowly. Virgil blushes, hiding his face with his jacket as he shakes his head at Logan.

“Keep them,” He says, stopping Logan from giving him the raven back. “He’s yours, now. I kept meaning to give you them, but I kept thinking you were going to hate them. So, they just stayed on my desk.”

“Thank you, Creepy Cookie,” Roman speaks quietly, standing up and kissing the Anxious side on the cheek. “I love that smile of yours almost as much as the German Shepherd.”

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fairyoftbz · 3 years

Text

[02:51]

🎄Day 3 of the Christmas project🎄

You had invited your friends over to spend the Thursday night together, whether it was to play video games, chill and talk to each other. It was around 3 am, and some of your friends were passed out on the couch or the floor, while the others kept on acting like it was the middle of the afternoon. The fairy lights were changing colours, creating an even cosier atmosphere than your living room was already into on the daily. You were resting your head against Kevin's shoulder as you absentmindedly watched your friends play Rocket League while reading a book. You had a romance novel in hand, sometimes pouting and cooing as you read beautiful, romantic scenes that happened throughout the pages.

"Earth to Y/N. Having fun in your imaginary world?" Kevin asked for the second time, and you chuckled, slightly embarrassed that you didn't hear him the first time since you were too immersed in your book. "Uh, yeah, it's a great novel," you stuttered, and Kevin shook his head. "If you're waiting for someone to be as cheesy and cringe as the main character, you'll end up left on the shelf," he blankly stated, and you opened your eyes wide, shocked at his words as you slapped his forearm. "You're so mean," you pouted as you readjusted the book in your grip. "I'm just saying," he raised his arms in surrender as you were about to it him again, this time with the book. "Stop fantasising about random characters and become the main one of your story! You're going to struggle to find one as romantic as the one in your book, it's not the type of our generation anymore," he argued, but you shook your head. "You're wrong, I have tons of friends that are in happy, cheesy relationships as you call them," you crossed your arms on your chest, frowning as some of your friends were already sighing at your avid exchange. "Quiet back there," Jacob said as he quickly controlled the joysticks of his controller, "we're in the middle of a match," he stated, and you rolled your eyes, amusing Kevin. "Let me read and dream," you gently shoved your friend away and kept on reading as if nothing had happened.

The living room had become quiet again, the only sounds came from the TV and the grunts of your friends playing. Eric, who was playing Zelda on his Nintendo Switch with Changmin's head on his lap, put his console aside and stretched his arms above his head, careful not to wake his friend up. He managed to extract himself from the couch without disturbing anyone while slowly walking to your kitchen. You let him do, focusing on your book again.

"Y/N?" you heard Eric shout-whisper from the kitchen doorway, making you look up at your name. "Yes?" you murmured, and he gestured you to come, which you did. You slid your bookmark in your book and closed it, laying it on the coffee table before standing up. "What's up?" you said as you arrived in the kitchen, only to find Eric shyly looking through a cabinet. "Would you let me make myself some tea or hot cocoa? I'm craving something warm," he pouted, and you smiled. "Of course. It's there," you said as you opened the cabinet next to the fridge, handing him your teabags container and the cylindrical box of hot cocoa powder. It was the only thing that you managed to find to make some hot chocolate this early in December. Other people had already bought all the powders from the market.

"Do you want anything? I wanna make myself some hot chocolate," he asked, and you thought for a few seconds before agreeing. You've been busy the entire time reading your book to make it yourself, so you seized the opportunity that Eric was kind enough to make you one. "I'll have one as well, please," you said as you grabbed two mugs while Eric went to the fridge to get the milk, "I'll probably go to bed after that, I'm tired," you stifled a yawn, a soft smile tugging on Eric's lips as you hugged yourself to keep some of your body warmth. "Same. I just hope that they won't be too loud while playing," he poured the powder in the two cups, nodding his head towards the living room as he talked. You help him prepare your drinks while talking about everything and nothing, getting out the warmed milk from the microwave. "It's not the way I usually prepare some hot cocoa, but that will do. I don't wanna clean everything in the middle of the night," you said as you handed your friend his cup of milk to stir it. "Will you show me one day how you do it?" he asked, surprising you with his question. "Of course I can. We can do that next time y'all come around if you want," you smiled as you both made your way back to the living room, Kevin eyeing the two of you.

"Do what?" Kevin asked, a smirk plastered on his face as you sat back on the couch, careful not to spill anything. "Why so curious?" you teased as you gulped a few sips of the warm drink, reading your book until you were met with an empty cup. Your friends started going back home as the clock displayed 4 am, and you could barely keep your eyes open. You started feeling extremely drowsy due to your hot beverage and being up so late in the night, you felt like moving around your apartment in slow-motion. Eric and Sunwoo were the two that lived the furthest from your apartment, so you had agreed on letting them stay over; one taking the couch, the other a mattress.

You woke up a few hours later, guessing that it was 10 am when the bin lorry cleaned the rubbish in your street. None of the two boys seemed to be awake, so you discreetly made your way to the bathroom to get freshened up before heading to the kitchen. As you walked past the living room, Eric was reading something on his phone, silently waving at you as he pointed as Sunwoo, who was still passed out on the couch. You lifted your thumb before pointing to the kitchen, asking him if he wanted to have breakfast with you. He locked his phone and stood up, carefully tiptoeing to the kitchen to not wake Sunwoo, closing the sliding door behind him.

"Did you sleep well?" you asked as you opened the small sideboard and got out some clean crockery, giving them to Eric to set the table. "It was alright. I thought the couch would be less comfy," he said, his morning voice low and raspy, placing three plates at different spots on the table. He then rested against the counter, watching you turn on the stove, getting a pan and a few ingredients for some scrambled eggs. "Fancy any?" you offered, and the food looked so tempting that he couldn't say no.

You put the pan in the sink after dividing the eggs between you three, placing Sunwoo's plate in the microwave to keep it warm. Eric was a young man easy to talk to, but just not with you. He was always laughing and telling jokes when his friends were around, but when he was with you, he had a personality switch. He was polite and a bit on the awkward side, as if you were making him shy. And due to his behaviour, you also became shy when you were alone together, red spreading from your cheeks to the tips of the ears whenever your fingers brushed or made eye contact with each other.

"Oh what, I have to go," Eric said as he wiped his mouth with the napkin you had given him, eyes glued on the clock above the door frame. "My morning lecture starts in about two hours, but I wanna freshen up and go back to my dorm before heading there, I have some stuff to take," he explained, and you nodded, imitating him as he got up from his chair. "Oh no problem, go ahead," you said as you emptied the table, putting all the tableware in the sink. "Are you sure you don't want me to help? I can stay and do the dishes," he suddenly realised that his departure was quite hurried and abrupt, leaving all the dirty work to you. "No, no, I don't want you to be running late, go!" you reassured him with a smile and a small pat on the shoulder. "Thank you for everything. Breakfast was amazing, and I had fun last night," he said as he got closer, his face slightly came nearer as if he was about to kiss you on the cheek, but he hid his intentions by quickly hugging you.

"You're very welcome, Eric!" you said, trying to conceal your confusion, "I'll be happy to have you over again!" you said as you realised that your words could have a double sense and awkwardly smiled. You hoped that he would understand it all the boys and not only him, even if deep down, but you wouldn't mind. You just didn't want to sound desperate.

An illegible smile appeared on his face as he looked at you, something between surprise, embarrassment, and happiness, but he didn't raise it. He said goodbye and walked out the door, acting like good friends. That's what you were, friends. Even if the rest of your group noticed that you were both oblivious that you wanted each other to be more than just what you currently were, you remained like that, secretly hoping that the other would make a move.

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axemetaphor · 3 years

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augh i kept forgetting to post this because i kept wantgin to draw mroe for it but i really suck at emulating Animal Crossing Art Style so im just going to go on a rambling explanation about this under the cut but the basic concept is. they deserve a vacation. and whats more relaxing than animal crossing? probably several things but let me have this ok

id had a bunch of ideas for mroe drawings in this style but Clearly, i am not very good at it, and every time i sat down to Try Again it ended up shitty. this is from literally months ago by now lmao

my Basic Concept was just. take the 3 of them and dump them on an animal crossing island, cause while ive been sick ive been playing a lot of new horizons to try and stay stable, and my brain likes to mush together whatever 2-or-more things im invested in together all the time. here’s some bullet points!

-john really loves diving for sea critters and frequently pulls up those bigass lobsters and eels and shit, he’s got an unnatural knack for it. loves to startle the shit out of dave by just whipping an eel out of his pocket. no thats not an innuendo stop that-- -amy loves planting/watering the flowers but shes not like invested in getting All The Different Types (although that Would be neat) she’s just having fun building a large flower patch. it’s slowly overtaking the island. also dave likes to just kinda sit in the flower patch -speaking of dave he kind of doesnt do much, i think he’d like fishing with john and/or amy and maybe hed like digging up fossils but for the most part hes just chillin, as he deserves to be, -amy likes the DIY recipe stuff though and will frequently politely ask dave to go fetch stuff for her. this has led to most of the villagers/islanders/whateverthetermis, the animal citizens, to have their Main exposure to dave be him wandering around with an axe at 3am because amy’s out of hardwood -speaking of the animal citizens, because i just really like them as a concept, i have no solid concept of who-all would be on their island but whoever they are, john is “friends” with All of them (and by that i mean he says theyre all his friends; whether or not they find him obnoxious Varies,) and amy is genuine friends with most of them/has spoken to all of them at least, and dave rarely if ever speaks to them. hes not very social. most of the animals are a little scared of him until they Actually get to talk to him and then they realize hes just an awkward misanthropic bastard -also in case it wasnt clear id think the 3 of them would all be in one little cabin i mean you can upgrade the shit out of those so they could all feasibly have their own spaces. but also i like polyamory and id say they all 3 share a room because fight me they do itd be cute. also of course the decor of their cabin is absolutely bonkers like listen not only does animal crossing have some weird items but nearly any living space john inhabits most likely has some very strange decor in it ! -tbh actually i think john would do Most of the decor stuff cause like based on the way his house is described i think he’d go NUTS for animal crossing’s Theme Decor Shit i dont know i dont actually do a bunch of that but i sure do think he would! amy would help out esp since she likes the DIY stuff, and i think dave is just kind of ..... allowing this nonsense to happen. letting john be free. probably convincing him to not change the theme every day, maybe every week, if only because it’s a bit of a hassle to have everything Constantly Rearranged. -hang on wait i just thought of the 3 of them wandering along the beach and picking up seashells and now im like emotional over it bro pls. lovely. -also i jsut realized if daves the guy who digs up fossils he definitely talks to blathers a lot and thats an extremely funny thing to contemplate. the dude who seems to not really liek talking to people and the chatterbox owl. fantastic. you know dave is probably too awkward to tell blathers he doesnt want to hear all thsoe archaeopteryx facts! (also tbh maybe dave would actually like learning stuff) -also. john catches bugs just to give them to blathers and watch him freak out just a little about it. -john always ends up buying fake art from redd but it’s fine because he just puts it somewhere in or near their cabin. amy however has the uncanny good luck to somehow always find the real artworks! dave doesnt talk to redd, he doesnt really care. -this ones definitely projection because my animal crossing island is a mess (And I Like It That Way Thank U Very Much) but john definitely is the guy who will dump extra furniture at random spots on the island. too much shit in storage? don’t need that Harmonious Chair right now? holding it in ur pockets just because u dont know where else to put it? just dump it on the ground! uncannily, john fuckin Always remembers where he’s put that shit when he happens to need it again. however this does mean sometimes the animal citizens will just ... find a mysterious new chair in their front yard. -i know that terraforming is a new thing in acnh but i havent done it yet because i dont care about the whole 3 stars rating thing like listen im jsut here to run around and fill the museum if i feel like it but mostly pick up pumpkins and hoard bells for no reason and let my island be taken over by wildflowers. if any of the 3 are into that tho its john or amy--john just for the hell of it, amy would actually like try to Make Stuff of it -their front yard (and back yard if their cabin is put somewhere to allow that) is full of unused furniture as well. and also sometimes random dropped fruits or something, if dave is already carrying a ton when he sees something to dig up. -i think im out of shit to say right now but i might reblog to add mroe so. yes. if youve read this far then holy shit youre dedicated or really bored or something but whatever your reason is i hope this was A Fun Read and if it gave you any ideas Please Tell Me my inbox is open im sick and still in quarantine and i crave human interaction from literally anyone who isnt my parents. thank u

#jdate #john dies at the end #crossover #im not gonna put it in the animal crossing tags but it is mostly animal crossing new horizons stuff #my art #old art at this point though ngfgbn #not sonic #rambles.txt #i seriously went on one in the readmore. i think its pretty great though #p epic that ive found Old Content To Post while im still like. a bit too Fucked Up to make anything new !!

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camilieroart · 3 years

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Testimony of a French person during the pandemic.

I’m the french person. This testimony is featuring my school’s pressure and a lowering mental state.

I have been quarantined at home since March 2020. I have gone out maximum 20 times, always being really careful. For me and others.

I have a constant source of informations on what is going on in France and the world, and this causes a big flow of anxiety. I spent the entire summer vacation in my house, working on my project and being really productive. I didn’t see anyone, didn’t go anywhere. Just me, my parents and our two cats.

My classmates, however, aren’t as worried nor careful as me, and most importantly not as informed or free to act as they wish. So, they have gone out, and been to beaches and seen people, like the government said. Because yes, as soon as the summer vacation started, the French government declared that the virus was gone and that everyone had to go out and pay for stuffs, and spend money, to “keep the economy rolling”. Of course the Covid was still there.

As the start of the school year was closing in and that people in France had been getting sicker and sicker due to the craziness of the summer holiday, we thought that they would cancel, or at least push back the day. But no.

Around that time, I had also lost my uncle and my grand-mother (not due to the coronavirus), and the pressure of staying home this long, and having constant awful news about outside and how there wasn’t a glimpse of hope was having terrible effect to my mental state.

As back to school day arrived, we had made the decision to not send me back, although the government had said it was “mandatory”. However, I have worked hard all my life to get a diploma and go to a good college and have a degree, and I wasn’t giving up yet. So, we lied. Well, not really. We said we had to bury my grandmother and it was true. So I didn’t come the first week. The second, I catched a cold, and couldn’t make it due to the coughing. The third, I had a stomach ache...

My mother hates lying. She loathes it. It was incredibly hard for her to do so. But she did because if I went, I would probably kill my other grandma and maybe kill my parents. And have scars for life. And contaminate strangers.

What about my classmates, you ask ? They all went. I was the only one, of my whole class, to not have gone back. And boy, was I glad I did. I kept talking to my friends, and I heard how the teachers didn’t respect the safety distances nor put the masks correctly. I heard how in the cafeteria they were all sitting at the same table, pressed against eachothers without a mask. At that time, I already had heard horrible things and how poorly it was handled.

One week, as she had one of the CPE (head of the supervisors) on the phone, my mom had the first breakdown I have seen her have in years. She started crying and explained everything. She cried, and argumented and I was so shocked to see her like this. The truth was out ! I didn’t go to school because the safety stuffs the government put in place was bullshit.

We expected me to be kicked out in the following minutes. But, they couldn’t. I had been giving back all the homeworks and assignments I could, showing I wasn’t quitting. So, they couldn’t kick me out for being a quitter, and they couldn’t kick me out for trying to keep myself, my family and them safe. So they didn’t. Instead, they tried to push me into resigning.

At that point, it had been 5 months since I had really gotten out for something else than groceries. I hadn’t seen anyone, friends or even acquaintances for months. The school and news had been horribly stressing me out, and I had my first breakdown. Around a day after, we had a call from the school’s nurse. She asked me if I was okay, how I was doing, if I was sick... And that I should really go back to school. It’s senior year after all. I told her I heard they handled it badly. She called nonsense and stupid rumors, telling me lies that I immediatly understood were lies, selling bullshit and trying to force me to come back. I was very polite, made her understand that I would be trying if the situation got better, and hung up. It took us a minute to understand that she was trying to get evidence of me being kept home against my will and called social services. She didn’t call for my health at all. Thankfully, I handled it very well and we never heard back from her.

Not long after that incident, I heard of something that happened in my school that made me mad beyond understanding. Since the interns at the boarding school were forbidden from going out, the school decided to put a movie for them Wednesday afternoon. They said they asked students about what they would like to see but I highly doubt it. So, that Wednesday afternoon, when my classmates, seniors in highschool, with TONS of homework they had been working on where called in the auditorium for “informations” they had no choice but to go. The informations were given, and they were about to leave to resume working when the CPE and the deputy director stopped them.

They said my classmates HAD to see this movie, it was mandatory. Let me insist on the fact that they were around a hundred, all in a closed space, in the middle of a pandemic. Yes ? Great. So, my friends protested, saying that they had to work and didn’t want to stay. The deputy director started cutting them off to keep repeating some bullshit like “we made that for you” “we listenned and gave you this” “we worked hard on this”, like 5th graders. Until they said “I’m your superior and I order you to stay. Now shut up and take a sit”. My friends were astonished but did as asked. Which was incredibly unsafe and even dangerous (closed space, no safety distances...). And that movie that was “for the students” and “they worked hard on” was a goddamn movie about the Shoah. And I SWEAR TO GOD, there was panic attacks in the room, breakdowns, terrible reactions, and they didn’t give two shit about it.

And a day or so before, the nursed called to say I had to go back because it was “safe and everything was ok”. I was boiling.

After that incident, one of my teachers requested a call with me to talk about the class I had been missing. Very aware of the manipulative state of my school at that time, we were really careful, and a bit worried about it. Turned out it was a call of a genuine teacher that actually wanted to talk about the classes I had been missing and the homeworks I had been giving ! Of course he quickly tried to get convince me to come back, but I handled it well, once again. It was the highlight of my day.

At that point it had been 8 months since I had last been really out.

I had severals other breakdowns, mostly due to the ungodly stress I had been under because of school and news. I had been stressed out for 8 months now, and what had to happen, happened.

I had a burn out.

My mental state was so low I couldn’t even do what I love. I couldn’t write, I couldn’t draw. All I could do was watch shows and movies, or stare at the ceiling for hours. This was incredibly frustrating and scary. I couldn’t do my homeworks, and we feared I might get kicked out.

Then a miracle happened. Which is sad it got to that, but it was one. My teacher got quarantined, and started online classes. I had my first class of the year on November 14th. And I was there ! I answered tons of questions, and it kind of shocked everyone in class to realize I existed and was still trying to follow the classes.

It allowed to get better, and keep a very small following of school.

A week ago I have been able to do my Spanish homework. I am slowly getting better, trying to avoid stress and work as much as I can.

What I haven’t been able to talk about but did happen :

-One of my classmates caught the virus and she realized it a week later. The school said it was useless to quarantine her now and let her go back to class. The first thing she did was take off her mask and lean in everyone she was talking to. -I haven’t got any of my art classes since the beginning of the year. My teachers made the class believe they were giving it to me when they didn’t. I am specialized in art. -One of my classmates have been diagnosticated with depression. We’re 17. Several others have depression tendencies. -The school is trying to ignore us by not responding to anything we send, hoping we’ll resign. The pressure is still there. -We learned recently that many other parents and students had done the same thing and the schools have put pressure on them too. Some threatened the family. We hadn’t hear about it until now because schools are covering it up -Schools are covering numbers even inside. Most teachers doesn’t even know if a kid has Covid or not. If the teachers get sick, they are forced to immediatly go back to school.

This has been written the 22 november of 2020, in France.

Linked to this post

#history #testimony #true #pandemic #france #france handling the pandemic #covid-19 #coronavirus #school #situation

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ethelphantom · 4 years

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Things a Pet Name Can Reveal

Scroll down to the end for the art btw, don’t miss it! Also, you’re getting pure fluffy humour again, you should consider yourselves lucky. Maribat March day 13, Pet Names. Also, this is your friendly reminder that yes, I can tag you to stuff if you ask me to do it. This month or all my Maribat content or a specific series... You decide.

Ao3

This is Maribat -- don’t like; don’t read

_________________________

So, maybe, looking back on it, Tim regretted wanting to come over to see how Marinette was doing. He really hadn’t wanted to see and know what he did now and while it wasn’t honestly that bad, he kind of wished he’d found out some other way. Such as, maybe someone actually telling him with words.

The only good thing about any of it was that he had knowledge about Marinette none of the others except for maybe Alfred and Cass had. Scratch that, the two of them definitely knew, but the rest.

Marinette had gotten commissioned by many big names in the movie industry, as well as by a lot of the Wayne Industries’ partners, and yeah, she was definitely drowning in them. Of course, she had wanted to take them all as they paid well, they were good publicity to her, and they were okay with waiting as they knew she had a ton of people wanting to commission her at the same time. Tim would have felt bad for talking so much about his favourite designer to them because he was proud of her and how far she’d come, but Marinette had said it was okay and that she greatly appreciated it.

That was why he decided he wanted to come over to see how she was doing, maybe help her if she needed take-out (because yeah, he couldn’t cook to save his life), coffee (because at least he knew how to brew actually good and strong coffee), or really, anything. She would only need to ask and say the word, and he would do whatever she asked.

As he got to the door, the one that had opened it had been Jason. Which, okay, he could understand, they were close and Jason was the reason the rest of them knew her in the first place, but it still surprised Tim. Jason hadn’t even blinked an eye and let him in. And told him were Marinette was. And was that dark turtleneck Marinette's design he was wearing?

Marinette was, as Jason had said, sitting at the kitchen table (okay, to be precise, she was sitting on top of it), biting her pencil as she had a sketchbook in her hands. Some of her hair fell on her face and shoulders though most of it had been pulled up in space buns to stay away from her eyes. She didn’t even notice Tim had come in.

There was a huge pot on the stove, and the smell hanging in the air was wonderful. It was possible Marinette was cooking — that would explain why she was in the kitchen instead of her study — but somehow Tim found that unlikely. Marinette wasn’t focusing on any clock, didn’t check the food even once, and looked a whole lot like she’d stayed in one place for the past hour or two. There were chopping boards and knives behind her, as well as a whole lot of still untouched vegetables.

Yeah, so it wasn’t her cooking. Then who…?

The answer came in the form of a six-foot man with a white streak in his hair and a scar splitting his lips. “You gonna eat, Timbo?” Jason asked, crossing the kitchen easily with large strides before getting to the food he started stirring. “We’ve got quinoa.” And, as an afterthought, he added, “And avocado, tomato, corn, tuna, carrot and a ton of spices.”

Only then did Marinette realise there was someone else in the room as well. She lifted her head, looked at Jason, and then turned to Tim. The smile that had appeared on her face when she saw Jason widened and she abandoned the sketchbook and the pencil on the table in favour of getting down to give Tim a hug. “Hi Tim, it’s wonderful to see you. Sorry I haven’t texted you or anything, I’ve just been so—”

“Busy, I know. It’s alright, I didn’t really expect anything less from you,” he replied laughing. “You’re you, and you’re like me, and neither of us really knows how to stop working. That’s why I came over as soon as I had finished the biggest projects going on at the WE. I wanted to see you and thought that I could maybe help, even if it’s only in the form of providing you with strong coffee or snacks or something.”

Marinette snorted and covered her mouth with her hand. The ring in her hand glimmered in the light and her eyes crinkled. It was only then that Tim noticed the dark circles around her eyes that were so easy to see now that he paid attention. When was the last time she’d slept?

Not that he really had any say in it, he didn’t remember the last time he’d slept more than four hours at once. The last week had gone cat napping so much Selina would be proud of him. Dick would be horrified and disappointed. Well, who cared about that, that man didn’t know how to eat anything but takeout and cereal, so he had no right to judge the rest of them. Absolutely no right.

...Honestly, Steph, Cass or Jason were probably the most stable of them at this point. Maybe Duke. It was, the least to say, disturbing.

“Well, I appreciate that. You still remember how to make that death coffee you made for me like, a year ago when I was drowning in schoolwork?”

“The one that would probably kill any normal person with the amount of caffeine it contains but that both of us crave for because of the sweet, sweet caffeine?”

“Yes, that one.”

“Definitely. Where’s your coffee and coffee grinder?”

Marinette pointed him to the direction — to the left, the topmost shelf, hidden where neither of them could actually reach. When Tim asked why, Marinette’s sharp response of “Guess once,” and pointed look at Jason had told him everything.

Which meant, he needed to either get Jason to give the things to him or climb.

His dignity wouldn’t let him ask for help with this (after all, it wasn’t a life or death situation, or even an actual mission or job they had, simply his own personal need to be able to do something without anyone’s help on the line), so he climbed.

Eventually, he managed to reach the things and set them on the kitchen counter, careful as to not damage either of them.

After that, the coffee was soon finished, and he set a cup of scalding hot coffee in front of Marinette, who inhaled the strong smell of coffee into her lungs and sighed with satisfaction. He was rather sure someone else had sighed as well, and when he turned around to look at Jason, his suspicions were confirmed. He shook his head and looked at Tim like he’d ruined something personal.

“I was tryna to keep her from coffee. Just like you should be kept away from it, Baby Bird. Neither of you needs it, especially not the amounts I know both of you are drinkin’. God.”

“Yeah, we do need it,” Marinette and Tim chorused, followed by, “It’s the liquid of the gods”, “You can’t stop us”, and “stay away from our fountain of fortune.”

Jason just pinched the bridge of his nose but refrained from saying anything more even though it was clear he wanted to. That was alright with Tim — he didn’t, contrary to popular belief, have a need to fight Jason over every single little thing. No, the one he had the need to do that was Damian, even if he got along with the little brat significantly better these days.

When it seemed Marinette didn’t need him to do anything anymore and just wanted to concentrate on her designs again, Tim took out his laptop and set to work alongside her, just on the chair instead of the table. After all, just because he didn’t have that much work to do didn’t mean he didn’t have any or a lot of work to do.

Later, he was alerted back to the real world from his work by Jason who informed him food was done. A quick glance at the clock told him it had been forty-six minutes since the last time he checked it, so a little bit after he started working.

Reluctantly, he put his laptop away and accepted the plate full of the quinoa thing — whatever Jason had done — that was set in front of him. Marinette didn’t even move.

“Sweet Cheeks, you’ve got to stop working on that design before you burn yourself out. At least eat something.”

Tim’s gaze literally snapped at Jason. Sweet Cheeks? What was even going on?

Marinette groaned and let her face fall into her hands, but she missed and hit the table instead. That must have hurt. Then she gave Jason the finger, somehow perfectly aware where in the room he was located. “See, you started off saying that as a joke to annoy me and now I think you got so used to it that you're saying it unironically, and it's getting to be a problem.”

Jason just raised his eyebrow. “Does it still annoy you, Sweet Cheeks?”

“Yes!”

“Then I fail to see the problem here.”

“You are an asshole, Jason. Asshole.”

“No shit. We’ve been married for, what, half a year and you’re only noticing now?”

Tim’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. He could not believe his ears. The fork in his hands falling to the floor, he finally got his brain to cooperate and asked, slowly, as to make sure he didn’t say something wrong and would actually be able to understand what was going on, “You’re what now?”

“We’re married, I just said so. You seriously didn’t know? I thought that out of all of the people B’s trained in his life, you would have been able to figure it out on your own.”

“And you — neither of you — thought to invite us to the wedding?”

“Nah. It kinda happened in the spur of the moment and well. I mean we did have a suit for me and a dress for her so maybe it wasn't that impulsively done but yeah. Forgot to tell you after that and then we started betting on who would notice and when.”

“Of course you did. I shouldn’t probably be surprised even, now should I?”

“No, no you shouldn’t.”

Marinette, that little shit, just laughed. Tim sighed.

“Well, congratulations, you two. I hate you both.”

“We love you too, Tim.”

The rest of the visit was spent discussing the hows, whens and whys of their relationship and marriage. It was cute, he supposed. He was most definitely sure that he was happy the two of them were happy together, though. They clearly deserved one another.

Also, it would be fun to see the rest of the family’s reactions because they told him that if they didn’t figure it out by the end of the month, the two of them would come over and tell them, in some way or another. Tim kind of hoped the family would not figure it out.

A week later, Marinette received a package that contained a card and a framed picture of herself and Jason, taken by Tim on the day he had visited. Under the picture, there was a quote from one of the few plays Tim knew for certain Jason favoured. What the card said was lost in the wonder that was the gift Tim had sent them.

“Soul meets soul on lovers’ lips.”

_________________

@kris-pines04 @thethirdwheelfriend @daminett4life @abrx2002 @persephonebutkore @rebecarojas07 @corabeth11 @freshbark @maribat-march2020 @catsandfanfic @fertileleaf @eat0crow @cutechip

#jasonette #jason x marinette #ml x dc #dc x mlb #maribatmarch2020 #maribat #miraculous ladybug #DC #Jason Todd #marinette dupain cheng #Tim Drake #fanfiction #fanfic #Fanart #art #digital art #ethel's art #ethel's writing

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life Review

Happy Birthday To Me, as I continue my birthday celebration by taking a look at comics that have a personal connection to me.. And for our main feature, i’m taking a look at the first volume of a series that was vitally important to a teenage me, Scott Pilgrim.

Scott Pilgrim is the brainchild of Brian Lee’O’Malley. O’Malley came up with the concept from a number of things. Being a fan of the band Plumtree, O’Malley was curious about the name of their song “Scott Pilgrim” and wondered who this Scott Pilgrim guy was. So over the years he slowly built the guy up in the back of his mind using bits of his life and what not. As for why he ends up fighting 7 evil exes, that came from a discussion with his then girlfriend, later wife and currently ex-wife Hope Larson, where he threw off the joke that her exes should form some kind of League. After finishing his first solo work Lost at Sea, O’Malley decided Scotty would be his next project and the rest is history. To date while O’Malley has written two works since, Seconds which is delightful and Snotgirl which didn’t grab me but I intend to try again, Scott remains his most popular work, in large part due to it’s SUBLIME video game and movie adaptations, the former of which is finally getting a rerelease next month.

The series charm is in it’s style: A manga styled comic that combines two desperate kinds of story: Shonen Fight Manga and Slice of Life Indie Comics. The story shifts from Scott going through normal life stuff while trying to make his new relationship work and get his shit together and Scott getting into big bombastic fights with his new sweetie’s exes for the right to keep dating her and to you know, stay alive. The series effortlesly blends a video game like world with real grounded characters and is wonderful for it. As for where I came in, one Free Comic Book day I found a little comic named Free Scott Pilgrim, which I genuinely loved and was instantly charmed by it’s humor and well done art. So I picked up the second and third volumes of the series proper and the first once I could find it and the rest ,as they say, is history. For my high school life, this was one of hte most important things in it and I wrote fanfiction, which I thankfully never put online and in general enjoyed the hell out of the series. Then I just kind of.. let it sit on my shelf for a while. It wasn’t BAD, I just never got back to it and as the franchise went dormant I just sorta slept on it and the movie and that part of me...

Cut to a few weeks ago, when Comixology did a massive sale for black friday that marked a ton of Graphic Novels down to just 1 buck each, and the color editions of Scott Pilgrim happened to be part of this, though only volume 1 was that cheap. But thanks to my best friend micheal and an early christmas/birthday present I got the rest and got to revisit the series as a whole, with me rethinking my previous thoughts of volume 1 and thus.. wanting to review it and share both why this series is so damn special and what’s good, and what’s not so good about it. I’ll also be covering the game, once i’ts re-released, and the movie once i’m finsihed with the comics so look out for that. And get ready to take a trip to the glorious land of canada...

As a heads up and as you can tell i’ll be using the color version as while I could get scans of the black and white, I prefer the color version. While the black and white was fine and always will be, I think the impressive coloring job really adds to thing and makes the already great fight scenes pop more, as well as making certain background elements stand out a bit. While it does negate the black and white gags, the tradeoff is more than worth it. That being said either version is fine so if you can get the black and white cheaper that’s fine and i’ve kept my original copies, with volumes 4 -6 having been picked up as they came out.

So as our story starts we meet our hero: Scott Pilgrim Age 23, a charming but jobless and kind of sketchy possible college graduate whose really been adrift in his life since a breakup about a year ago. And when our story opens he’s taken a turn for a worse and decided to date sweet but naive and inexperinced Knives Chau, a 17 year old girl. And why yes the power dynamics there are messed up and why yes Scott is pretty damn sketchy in this moment in time, and while yes I am aware the age of consent in canada is 16, it dosen’t make this any less greasy and the story knows that. And how it knows that MOST of his friends aren’t on board. The only ones who seems to is Stephen Stiles, leader of Sex Bomb-Omb, the band scott’s in with one of the best names ever and even then it’s hard to tell if he’s being sarcastic or just a total douche. The other, Young Neil Nordgraf, Stephen’s roomate, is well 19 or 20 and kind of a dipshit so we just ignore him. I used to use him as kind of a projection, to put myself in the adventure when I was younger as Neil kind of lacks personality in the comics but in the comics.. he’s not hte best or most complex character. He is great in the movie though and Edgar Wright did an amazing job fleshing him out. The rest of his circle are .. not so permissive. His best friend, roomate and king of all gays for all time Wallace Wells very much does not want to come with Scott to school to pick her up because every part of that sentence after hurt to type. Granted Scott gets him to come with him with promises of boys, but frankly knowing wallace he was probably just playing along/wants to protect this poor child. His ex and fellow bandmate Kim is clearly bothered by it and is flat out worried Scott is taking advantage of her. Kim and Wallace are easily my faviorites both for personality and because I have a massive crush on both. With Wallace it just didn’t manifest till the reread. Finally Scott’s kid sister Stacey chews him out over it before genuinely wondering if he’s gone insane or he’s actually happy. For my two cents: he’s not. He WANTS to be, but he dosen’t know how. And as someone whose both neurotypical, which given Scott’s troubles with empathy and relating to people like yours truly I strongly suggest he is, and has struggled with depression I can relate to that. He wants to move on but he just.. can’t, he just wants to get past the haze he’s been in since Envy dumped him.. but he dosen’t know how. So instead of doing someting constructive or finding a job or anything .. he just took the first and easiest way out of his depression he could. I’ve done that with video games and stuff. Scott did that by entering a relationship that’s really easy, requires only so much effort, and is with someone who utterly adores, looks up to him and will never expect better. Being with Knives makes him feel better.. but it dosen’t MAKE him a better person. As i’ve made clear dating someone just for a boost makes him actively worse and had fate not intervened, I shudder to think what Scott might have become. That being said his actoins are still creepy and since Scott has a habit of landing ass backwards into being an asshole here’s a counter to track that. That’s 2 for doing this overall, one for tleling her to be good, and 1 for trying to ply wallace with underage boys.

Your the Scum of the Earth Scott Counter: 1

Thankfully fate does and Scott’s dreams, ones of him crawling through a desert alone, are interupted by a mysterious pink haired girl on skates. The next day he’s just sort of in a daze, kind of confused, and even more so when he sees her IN REAL LIFE, while at the library with Knives. He’s understandably frazzled but ends up finding out he’s not hallucinating when talking to MIcheal Cormeau. Micheal is a minor character and another artist and friend of o malley’s who represents that one guy in social circles who knows everybody. And indeed he knows the mystery girl, Ramona Flowers and that she’s there. Scott TRIES talking her up but just creeps her out, so Scott goes with plan b and decides to ask around about her. Enter Sandra and Monique, two college aquantinces of Scott, who just sorta show up at major events and aren’t that developed or intresting. They turn him to Julie who forbids him to date her. To which I say.

Naturually we’ll aslo be needing a counter for this.

Shut Up Julie Counter: 1

Scott however did find out she’s a delivery girl for Amazon Canada, and thus orders some CD’s on Wallace’s Credit card to hopefully see her. And while his behavior IS obessive.. it’s understandable. I’d be weirdly obessed with finding someone too if they showed up in my dreams every day and were apparently a real person. I’d probably play it cooler but still i’ts kind of understandable. So after a day with knives in which he’s clearly checked out she kisses him, he freaks out and it’s very clear that while Scott’s good at attracting women he’s just.. not good with his emotions and has finally woken up to how messed up this is, but has no idea how to get out now he’s intrested in someone he actually has a future with maybe. Speaking of Scott’s package and Ramona finally arrive. Scott’s move is to.. ask her out abrubtly but after he mentions her Dreams, Ramona finally puts two and two together and explains things: She’s been using Subspace, a seris of highways connected by the subconcious and apparently more common in america, though it’s later revealed she was taught this but being the first book with a lot of the lore and what not ironed out this is fine. Point is she was just using his dreams as transit and didn’t mean to get him obessed. Scott continues to try his schtick and eventually gets her to agree to hang out with him. Why she does I generally do not know, as SCott basically fell ass backwards over himself conversationally, but whatever. If he didn’t succeed we wouldn’t have a plot.

That being said things pick up a bit with the date though. The scene is really good and simply just the two.. talking. Having plesant conversations getting to know one another. That good stuff. it’s just really nice to read and it’s hard to explain why. Highlights include Scott’s x-men patch, Ramona not wanting to talk about her last job and Scott admitting he hasn’t been obessed in a long time.. and it comes off sweet rather htan creepy like that sounds. It just means he hasn’t fell this head over heels felt like this. As I said Knives was easy.. but this is hard.. and this.. feels right. So as things Snow Ramona yanks scott through subspace to escape the blizzard.

So we end up back at Ramona’s place and she offers some tea which leads to one of the best gags of the volume as she lists them off:

So Ramona goes to get Scott a blanket, Scott ends up following finds her changing, and she decides to warm him up another way.. by embracing him... cue.. the inevitible really.

It feels organic though: The two are clearly attracted to each other and while Scott came on as strong as freaking colossus, he still rebounded well once they hung out and he could relax a bit and show the scott underneath the lairs of dumbass. The two end up cuddling in bed and Scott seems..genuiley happy saying he needed this... awwwwwww. They part the next morning with him asking her to his band’s performance.

So Scott finds Wallace at home who says what Scott needs to hear “You need to break up with your fake highschool girlfriend scott’ Granted the entire first 40 pages could’ve been titled that but now he’s actively cheating. He’s also got a letter.

youtube

It’s a death threat Scott barely grazes through, just like an email earlier.

But scott’s more concerned with his emotional distress.. i.e. the consequences of his throughly shitty actions finally hitting him in the face.

Scott heads to practice for his gig and can’t bring himself to break up with knives, but does find out about the opposition: Crash and the Boys, based on an NES game title because of course it is. Crash, their leader, Joel their baseplayer who scott hates because he hates all other baseplayers (”I don’t hate myself kim) and Trasha, an 8 year old progedy they found playing Drum Mania. Don’t ask me what that is, i’m not going to get every refrence.

So at the show Scott runs into Stacey and her new boyfriend Jimmy with Stacey being supportive. And then Knives shows up and then RAMONA SHOWS UP. Oh no scott’s cheating might be discovered!

So Scott books it while we’re introduced to Crash and the Boys. Wallace heckles them, to the band’s annoyance, until they eventually get fed up and we easly get the best gag of the volume. I was wrong this clearly tops the tea thing.

So Crash and The Boys continue to play their set, including a song that supposdely kills the audience but really knocks them out.. which of course bothers kim because they play next. Meanwhile Ramona and Stacey meet and the two really get along.. and come back to find the audience ko’d and Wallace Making out with Stacey’s boyfriend. Oh no! Which is a dick move, no question. But Stacey’s next move is questionable even for a 19 year old: She says “You won’t steel another guy from me and tells wallace to sit over there”. Okay Stacey even if he is bi, and this series has trouble with the concept of bisexuals we’ll get into that later trust me, he made out with someone else entirely while on a date with you. Wallace is still an asshole, it’s part of his charm.. but it dosen’t change the fact your date kissed someone else seconds after you were gone and has been eyballing him all night, as seen even above. He’s not into you as you thought, just accept it, move on, and kick Jimmy in the balls and then wallace like a proper lady. So Scott prepares to play and this happens

And it’s here, at the very end of the comic the series main premise finally kicks in and the world takes it’s true shape. It’s a world where an indie comedy about a mess of a being putting his life together after finding his dream girl.. also has said mess being forced to get into fist fights with wizards, movie stars, vegans, half-ninjas, twin roboticists and a katana wielding douchenozzle record exec in order to continue to have the right to date his girlfriend.

It’s where the series charm comes from and really what made it a huge sucess so it’s no suprise this volume perks up immensley for the climax. I’ll get more into it’s pacing problem at the end. For now it’s fight time and as we find out in a hilarious and awesome turn.. Scott is the best fighter in toronto.. which just makes me REALLLY want a Scott Pilgrim version of letterkenny. I mean who wouldn’t want to see wayne fight some guy who can turn his hands into dragons or see Squireely Dan do E.Honda’s hand slap move from streetfighter or see the skids all fuse into one mega emo. It’s just.. the possiblities are as endless as they are wonderous and I want this now.

But yeah as Patel is both the first boss and Scott’s first real opponent Scott.. handles him really easily. This was by design as O’Malley wanted a shonen progression to the fights.. and honestly it’s a great way to do things. Since the fights are styled after shonen and video games, and both have power based progression in bad guys and threats, it just made sense. Patel.. is just pathetic even with his magic powers, and his habit of sending letters and emails just pounds it in. Though he is right to be a bit pissed Scott didn’t read a letter he hand delivered in a snowstorm. That’s just a tad rude.

Mid-Fight, Scott, now he knows the whole evil ex boyfriend thing, wonders what Matt and Ramona’s past is and while Matthew refuses to tell.. Ramona spills easily. It was midddle school, all the jocks wanted her for whatever reason, likely because from experince in high school, guys really like indie girls. Matthew was the only non-white non jock, so they teamed up and with her strength and his mystic powers they beat them.. but since his use had dried up, she flipped him off and left. Matthew dosen’t take this well and summons demon hipster chicks to fight while Scott and co, minus ramona, fight back with a finger gun routine and block his fire balls before propelling Scott into matthew somehow, and landing the KO Evil Exes Left: 6 Matthew bursts into coins though fun fact, O’Malley says the Exes all respawned back at home afterwords and learned their lesson. With Pattel I genuinely don’t think he did... but clearly given his penchant for formality what with the letters and emails, he probably felt it’d break protocol to attack before the rest were done. He probably jsut formed a hipster emo band and found more sucess using his magic for that instead and just forgot about the whole thing. Could be wrong but that’s what i’m going with. So Scott asks Ramona to go out with him then make out with him, both of which she says yes to. Nice one scotty boy. Ramona then explains the whole evil exes thing: He’ll have to defeat each one as they come after him, and while Scott wonders if they’ll come one at a time Ramona’s not sure. As time will bear out, Scott is MOSTLY correct as most exes take him one on one, with the exception of the twins. But since as I said earlier the twins are basically one person, and as we’ll find out by choice, so it’s an exception. Plus their the last step before the final boss, so by that token it’s a bit fairer to have the penultimate boss get an unfair advantage. Scott is fine with that, he and Ramona share another moment and a kiss.. but Scott makes the mistake of asking if gideon is one and Ramona’s head starts glowing with her dodging the subject, though still going out with SCott and him worried.. it just feels.. off. not a bad ending but the only one of the series three cliffhanger endings that just dosen’t work for me, especailly since it is a bit before the Gideon mystery really picks up steam again. But with that we close this chapter

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Precious Little Life is a decent start to the story. While Scott is loathsome at first, he’s still a compelling character and does get more likeable as things go, the humor when it is there shines and is one of the series best assets and while the fight is short and only at the end, it is oh so glorious especailly in cover with the impacts taking cues from the movie. It’s a good intro to Scott’s world and ther’es a reason the movie adapts this book the closest as it sets up the cast and premise well, with only Stephen Stiles feeling a bit off and ONLY for the first few chapters. The volume is only really held back by it’s pacing, as before Scott runs into ramona in his dream the story feels a bit sluggish as we’re just watching some douche date a high school kid. While it is necessary to set up the world, it just dosen’t have the snappy pacing the series would be known for and that makes the rest of the series more charming. it’s nto BAD.. but it’s not FANTASTIC like the series would become. What keeps it from being bad is simple: These aren’t general badness signs but more just O’Malley coming into his owna nd getitng better and better as the book goes, to the point that by the next book the pacing is much better and by book 3 onwards he has it down pat. Overall not a BAD volume but certaionly the weakest of the bunch.. which given it’s still really good says something about the ride we’re in for. I’ll be back sometime in the future, likely january. Yup i’m taking on YET ANOTHER PROJECT. but since this one, while clearly exausting and time consuimg, is much shorter in overall length, and i’m still proritizing the three I have running over this, I think i’ll be just fine. Until next time, have a happy holiday.

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrims precious little life #ramona flowers #wallace wells #kim pine #stephen styles #knives chau #neil nordgraf #julie powers #matthew pattel #gideon #crash and the boys #reviews #comics #oni press #micheal comereau #stacey pilgrim

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jjba-hell · 3 years

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Fate and Fortune

Aight so now we gettin’ angsty... (I must beg for forgiveness in advance, I am not the best at writing shock or action ʅ（◞‿◟）ʃ

Part 2 of the series and again, the context I give you in the piece is all you’ll need for now. Except maybe for my anime exclusive watchers (not that there’s anything wrong with that)- Vera does undergo my interpretation of the stand fever which is something that Avdol (Abdul??) is very well acquainted with.

I’ma just link Part 1 over here...

Content warning is: violence, blood and gore, some themes of death and rebirth but not particularly explicit in either. (Lemme know if I missed one)

For the moots: @risottoneroo (welp I guess you’re stuck with me) @giogio-gucci-gangstar @rat-makes-stuff @uttertrash and @dongiovannaswife (omg hi thanks for following me)

2.1 K words

Vera returned home after another pleasant shift at the shop, dropping her home keys into the ceramic bowl at the front door. “Mom, Dad. I’m home.”

She unraveled the traveling scarf from her head and locked the door behind her, finding the silence and the slight chill to the house a bit suspsicous. The sun had already set so a chill wasn’t uncommon but...inside? Her mother always kept the thermostat warm- she couldn’t stand the cold.

“Mom?”

There was no smell of food from the kitchen.

Panic rapidly clawed its way up Vera’s spine, setting every nerve in her body on fire. The continued silence did nothing to ease the worry in her body.

“Dad?”

More silence- she broke out into a sprint towards the kitchen, turning into the kitchen to find…

The dark, slick blood of her mother running along the marbled floor of the kitchen- her face covered with her own black tresses. The shock only electrified Vera’s nerves further- her breath coming in ragged huffs as her feet stepped closer to her mother’s body, sprawled on the floor on her back, eyes gone pale and glassy already. Vera was desperate to crawl closer and check for a pulse or a breath, anything to deny the reality of what she was seein. But deep within her, she knew her mother was gone- there was no way she’d be able to survive her throat being ripped into bloody shreds like that.

Her body stopped its dazed walk as the reality set in and soon her hands flew up to cover her mouth, the scream getting caught in her throat as she backed away- as if walking away was all it took.

Dad. Where’s dad?

Vera scattered towards his study, running to the other end of the hallway, ignoring the carpets sliding underneath her feet to find a scene not much better than the kitchen- with her father’s head bleeding out over his desk, face down on the desktop.

The cold ran through her body like ice, every nerve once on fire now turned stone cold as the tears sprung to her eyes, knees giving out underneath her. Her lungs burned for air in her chest but whatever breath she took felt like it wasn’t reaching- like she couldn’t get her body to obey her long enough to breathe and not even so much as a wheeeze would escape her lips- the tears flowing freely.

“My my my. What a pretty little thing.” A deep sultry voice purred and in an instant her breath was back with a gasp, her neck craning around to see a figure cloaked in the darkness of the hallway. A man. Tall and sturdy in stature. After the shock passed for a moment the realization hit her like a ton of bricks. Vera scrambled frantically back in fear, her back hitting her father’s office desk, heartbeat in her ears overwhelming the question she asked the man slinking closer to her. “Did- did you do this?”

The figure stepped forward to reveal a sickeningly handsome face framed by golden hair. Red eyes- hypnotically alluring as he slowly moved closer to her cowering form on the floor.

His smirk turned into a pleased smile and suddenly she was overcome by fear once again, knocked from the little daze of admiration. The glinting fangs in his mouth connecting to her mother’s bleeding throat. It had to be him. Who or what else could have done this?

“It’s such a shame you parents had to perish for your sake, my dear. They seemed so shocked when I asked them where their little magician in training was. I assumed they were lying until their very last breaths- if only you had…”

As he continued taunting her, the wheels in Vera’s head were spinning. Her initial reaction was to book it out of the nearest window, but those thoughts were quickly interupted by the blonde monstroity kneeling right in front of her and a black lacquered claw digging into her cheek as he pinched her jaw in one hand. “Now now, no need to make a fuss, darling. It will be over soon, I promise. You’ll be meeting your parents soon.”

Her eyes continued to water at the pain in her cheek. He gripped her chin harder, feeling as though he was aiming to crush her lower jaw between her thumb and forefinger- the immense strength of his hold stretching her neck impossibly wide, bringing his lips to her neck.

Something inside of her, from the deepest recesses of her chest, felt like it snapped at the mere inclination of the blonde’s head toward her neck. Her eyes shut and what felt like nothing but the sheer force of her own desperaion, fear, and shock all turned into one thing- the wish that this bastard be thrown out the window in the room opposite the hall. To her, that was all it was, a refusal for it to end like this. Whatever adrenaline was running through her system in that moment, it made her bold- having her grab hold of the intruder’s blonde locks and with a force she didn’t even know her own body was capable of producing- she shoved him back- aiming for the hallway and beyond. All the energy expelled form her body threw the bastard back, beyond the hallway and through the glass window of the room opposite the office.

Now was her chance, she knew she had no time to lose. She grabbed hold of her father’s business phone off the table and threw herself out of the window while that same surge of energy moved through her veins, projecting a few inches from her skin like armor. As she sprinted down the street she came from, without so much as a pause, she called the police first. Her body seemed to know where it was going better than she did, it took a few turns for her mind to catch up to her body. She was running towards Avdol’s shop- thinking it’s the only place she’d feel safe at that moment. To the police, out of breath and straining to speak, she detailed what she had seen until they confirmed that they would check out what was going on soon. She was about halfway to the shop when she called Muhammed.

“Muhammed, please meet me at the shop. I’m scared and I’m....I’m...”

“Are you on your way here?”

“Yes!” The relief spilled over in tears over her cheeks. “Please tell me you-“

“I’m still here Vera. I’ll be here.”

Time seemed to escape her after she tossed her dad’s phone to the street and sprinted toward the shop where Abdul opened the door for her after the first knock. “Vera! What happened?”

Out of breath and now feeling like she was on fire from the running, the tears streamed down her face and with the most painfully forced exertion her body could manage, she sobbed. “A man. My parents. They’re both dead. I- he wanted me. He-“

“Did he lay a hand on you?”

“Wanted to but I...Something happened and- I don’t know what’s going on. I called the cops and just ran-“

Her breathing became more ragged as her body tore itself between sobbing and breathing- her world growing dizzy as she leaned against the tarot table. “Vera, please take a deep breath, you’re going to-“

Avdol tried to get her to sit down, grabbing her shoulders to steady her into a seat, trying to guide her back to gaining her breath back but it was too late. Vera’s knees buckled and the dark corners around her vision overwhelmed her completely- the floor being the last thing she saw before her body forced itself asleep. Only to be welcomed with fire.

This fire within her bones- it felt physical and yet not. It gave no light, nor reprive like a flame licking at firewood. It was dark, pitch black with the heat only growing steadier- rising higher and higher. And then, as if to reward her for surviving that far- she regained some consciousness.

When she woke up, she frantically gasped for breath under heavy covers and a cold compress to her forehead. She opened her eyes only to be welcomed with unfocused, dizzy vision. Her whole body seemed to sit on the precipice of two extremes. Unbearable cold and sweltering heat. She felt her breathing labored, the control over her own body growing weaker the longer she strained her eyes to see. Avdol soon came into her field of vision, peering down at her with immense concern.

With a hoarse voice that didn’t even seem like hers, she croaked out. “Muhammed, what- I-“

He hushed her, bringing a bottle of cold water her lips which she drank happily with chapped lips.

“Remember the death card we spoke on the first day we met?”

She nodded, the effort making it feel like she’d already exerted herself.

“I’m sorry, Vera but it seems to have come into effect. Your life is making a turn bigger than either one of us can even begin to understand. I will do my best to keep your physical self alive but this battle is within you. Your fighting spirit is all you have to take you through this.”

She regained her strength for a moment, his words of ominous premonition being forgotten as she remembered why he was the one helping her drink water instead of her mother...

“Muhammed, my parents. My parents they-“ the tears started to leak from her eyes once more. “They’re dead, aren’t they.”

Avdol didn’t answer, as he offered her another sip of water.

Vera felt as though she had cried yourself to sleep once more, the puffiness of her eyes making it feel like her eyes were swelling themselves shut and the ache behind her eyes growing more intense.

She had no idea how long the battle within the heat of her own body would take.

She saw nothing for the entirety of her struggle- a battle waged in the dark. Her body felt like it was constantly on the precipice of either boiling blood in her veins and extremities feeling like they were frozen stiff. Through it all, questions and choices started to bubble up and swirl in her delusional little mind.”

“Stop fighting it- let it happen.”

“You’ll find peace if you stop fighting your body.”

“Let go.”

“Find the middle.”

“Use them against each other.”

Somewhere among the chaos of her own pain, one voice seemed to hold the strongest- a voice much like her own but perhaps a bit more warped and echoed. Its sound soothed incredulously and helped her make the choice. She had understood that at that moment, her body was a battlefield and with the most stubborn refusal to die like that- she put an end to the war raging inside of her.

It brought on even more pain- splitting these two opposing forces from one another like pulling skin from flesh. Until she had control over both, separtetly. That intense heat now feeding into something that moved outside of her body and laid dormant when out of use.

By the time she re-emerged from consciousness for good, her breath was strong, feeling as fresh and free as she was taking her first breath again.

Her body was sore but it felt like the kind of sore you felt after a good work out. Her head on the other hand, was the only part that was throbbing like she had had too much wine. The room was dark- moonlight gently streaming over the sheets covering her legs. Vera got up slowly, stretching with a few crackles of protest from some of her own stiff joints before walking off towards the door- looking for something to drink, preferably with alcohol.

It took her a moment to recognize the decorations up and down the hallway. She was in Avdol’s house.

To her luck Avdol’s kitchen was only a few steps up from the room she was staying in. His drinks cabinet located oh too easily in a glass case above the fridge.

He had refused her the first time he welcomed her into his home- when he ushered them both into his home when an unexpected sand storm blew through town and he didn’t want to risk her getting home on time. Now, she’d be damned if she didn’t get something to help ease the ache in her head.

Her fingers found the cheap vodka and then tiredly sighed as she cracked open the bottle and took a few gulps. The taste was intense- and perhaps not the most desirable taste straight from the brink of death.

Muhammed came into the kitchen, baring only a black tank top instead of his usual robes. “I see you survived.” Was all he said groggily.

“You seem to be hiding things from me, Mr Avdol.” She croaked through her hoarse voice. “How much you know about the man that took my parents from me is up for debate but...you seem well acquainted with that awful fever I had to endure to acquire this-”

Vera let the manifestation of her ‘lucky feeling’- that intense heat she had separated and tamed from her physical body- emerge freely from her body.

“Because strange as it may seem- I feel like you knew this would happen.”

#jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #jojo part 3 #muhammed avdol #Fate and Fortune

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twiststreet · 3 years

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Stuff done in 2020

Work: I’m a little worried how this year’s chaos reverberates for the next few years. Rough, strange, rough year. But it was at least nice to be classified as “Essential labor” though throughout all this-- I’d have fallen apart completely if I’d been stuck at home-- I really don’t know how people have managed.

Politics Stuff: I did more this year than I have since high school-- going door-to-door, calling people on the phone, etc., which meant I spent the middle of the year drinking and taking pills and I don’t know what, trying to do stuff to feel okay when it all went how it went. (Like, the whole world shutting down in some ways was good for me not getting weirder with it... I’d have misbehaved...)

Not that I was super-convinced it could work out, even when things were going well-- I was cynical enough to know it could go badly-- it wasn’t like “Oh I got my hopes up” because I’m not a child but... The alternative was so obviously going to be (and is) so awful. You could see so much of this coming. The alternative was just so ghastly that I hoped we could push against it.

Anyways: couldn’t.

There were points in trying that at least felt really good, at least. A lot / most of the DSA-type candidates I donated to did well-- I had a pretty good track record on donations! You can already see the District Attorney race in LA meaning something; winning at the City Council level felt meaningful; there are people out there who seem to get that the establishment has abandoned them that are building their own thing-- it’s not hard to find good charities lately haha oh wait.

But boy, things got kind of dark around March-to-August and/or March-to-Next-March.

Write ‘Em Ups: Oh god. So. Haha. So, yeah: I started the year in January writing about Scott Adams for the Comics Journal print edition. I think I’m okay with how that turned out-- I think it could’ve been clearer in the point of the architecture of the piece, and I think using a world event as a pivot point was a mistake in retrospect. But given the limits on space and how much craziness there was to talk about, I can live with how it turned out. Not a fun one, on the process side. It’s weird to spend all January writing about civilization disintegrating and then have the rest of 2020 happen. And an absolute misery on the research side-- all the research plus I read four years worth of Dilbert comics on top of that.

Bringing us to the summer! Hhhhh. I don’t know. I wrote five days of essays (four? five?) and conducted a series of interviews, for the Journal on the online side, which came out shortly after a brief spate during the summer where people wanted to talk about abusive and unprofessional conduct in various nerd industries. That one was an experience, though one that was not entirely unanticipated, so. (Though there are always surprises haha oh god!). There’s not a lot I would allow myself to say there. I’m a believer in “don’t engage in the subsequent conversation” as a rule-- I think there’s no good that can come of it, regardless of what you agree with or what you disagree with, how kindly you might see something, how valid, or how much under-diagnosed mental illness is transparently being manifested (.... *wink*); you put out whatever you put out and, then let people have at it. It’s the only way to do things, even if I think it has its consequences.

I like some of the work itself (loved and am grateful for the interviews); the process was not a good time (spending that much time just thinking about how people are is baseline not-healty); there is a core of it that I feel was necessary; not a lot I will allow myself to say besides that.

Special Projects: Bringing us to the fall and the Kickstarter for Gangland Allstars, comics I helped make with other people in 2019. Money was lost; laughs were had; people were hired and paid to do things that I had to tell them we weren’t going to do because I didn’t want them to get mixed-up in all my crazy, after the Journal stuff happened (there was more planned, not a ton, but). I still have to re-format the comics for a Comixology release which is taking me a while (Comixology, it turns out, has standards!). And i have a behind-the-scenes financial bit I have to finish up on. But: I think that went well...? The comics could be better written (or when I did the colors, colored) but when I look at them, I think I can say, they were as interesting as I could make them when I made them. I don’t see a lot of What If’s there.

And then the Kickstarter itself was a really joyous thing, just that as many people were willing to give it a chance as gave it a chance. God only knows how many people looked at what they got, but no one complained. Though I did kinda feel like I was doing a bait-and-switch because... you know: the comics present as “normal genre comics” and I talked about them in that way, but I don’t think that’s what they’re actually built to be. It’s just you can’t tell people that without giving away the game and spoiling them. I don’t know-- I had my head up my own ass on the project a little-- I got pretty high-falutin’ in terms of what I wanted to do, but when it came time on the sale side, it was like “oh, people just want to hear it’s about a robot solving a mystery and then you give them a robot solving a mystery and then they’re happy”-- it felt a little bad that I wasn’t doing that. I kept the money, though. Vegas after the vaccine,baby!

Anyways: in the “now what” place again after that wrapped up, even with finishing touches. The “now what” place is never any good. I could make more comics like Gangland Allstars but I already made Gangland Allstars, so what’s the point? Or making comics is already negative-rewarding in so many ways, that after the Journal thing, making more comics or just being comic-facing, when I know the audience online is a certain way... I don’t know about that. Obviously most dudes just put that out of their heads but I’m not there yet. I still want to try to make a computer game but I really don’t understand the language of those-- I’m not a writer on top of that, so that makes making anything hard because you always need something written, to start with. I don’t know. Struggling there. Feels bad! I do have another special project, though, kind of, but that one’s just for me and kind of not really the same thing and that’s going along slowly...

This time last year, I thought having the Adams thing wrapped up and GA out in 2020 would make this year feel like a really fun one. I guess... I guess it didn’t hurt, but. It added at least some color. All the “good parts” just kind of felt muted though just, which I think is given ... everything else. Or I hope... Otherwise I am very depressed, ha ha. Ha. Hrm.

Cooking: I feel like everyone got better at cooking during quarantine and I got better at ordering food, and spent all my money this year doing that. Can everyone bake things now??? I don’t know how to bake anything-- I was scared of grocery stores-- this is bullshit.

Physical Self: I was getting in shape in 2018, then 2019 kind of went wrong on me because liberals were like “your expensive gym does bad politics” and I stupidly was like “I guess I should care about that” and cancelled my gym but then those same exact people were like “Me Too doesn’t matter if it’s Joe Biden, and people who want their student loans cancelled are selfish” so it’s like I should’ve kept giving that expensive gym all my money. But they’d have been closed anyways, so anyways, I’m a shambles. My whole body area is basically a shambles. Sometimes I still see hot people on the street though because Los Angeles, and that’s... pretty remarkabe to me... I guess people are doing body things off Youtube?? I just watch video essays about Metal Gear-- there’s not a lot of workout tips in those...

Being a Jock: I decided to be a jock who read all the Spawn comics in 2020. I didn’t manage to read all the Spawn comics, but both my teams won their respective world series. Being a jock is easy and fun! 10/10.

Consumer of Culture: I feel like everyone in quarantine started watching all the Criterion movies but I’m not welcome with Criterion after I said a bunch of R-rated angry things at them one time (I snapped after a long day once), so I’m watching, like, Dark Shadows reruns on Tubi, and am almost through the first season of the hit CW show Hart of Dixie, which I’m watching slowly because I’m “savoring” it. Things are not going great. I just paid for the extremely-broken HBO Max though so I might end up watching Weird Science again at 2 in the morning; I got that to look forward to. HBO Max has both Casablanca and Meatballs 4 on the service-- for a man for all seasons.

I also started taking photographs inside videogames, which is slightly less acceptable behavior for a man of my age (or success!) than running through an elementary school naked. (I liked the Last of Us 2, I was really happy KR0 ended in a satisfying way, and I didn’t think the Keanu game was good at all even past the breaking constantly-- the pretty-racist game that inexplicably has a lot of Jesus Christ-related content that somehow went unremarked upon also has very messed up ideas about sex, though I did like riding the Akira bike a lot).

I tried to make a Top 10 movies of the year list and it was just an embarrassing collection of movies. I’ll try again after I watch some prestige movies this week. Every movie I’ve really liked has been an old movie this year that I hadn’t seen-- and even there, like, I really liked Adam Sandler’s The Week Of, but I’m not sure it’s a classic end-of-the-year list choice. (The worst movie was I’m Thinking of Ending Things-- I didn’t fuck with that). I sent a best list for comics to the Journal for their year-end wrap up (it was Stages of Rot, though, easy); worst comic for me was ... I didn’t really dig the Department of Truth but I didn’t hate it-- I just thought it was very boring; nothing else coming to mind, really. Maybe I’ll try a TV list but I don’t even remember anything sticking out. The best thing I saw this year was a Helder Guimaraes magic show on Zoom-- but magic’s weird and those tricks still fuck me up to think about...

I mostly spent the year doomscrolling. There was a lot to doomscroll.

I’m not expecting much of 2021.

#year in review

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skywillsometimeswrite · 4 years

Text

Grian's Awful Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

Read it on AO3

Grian has not had a very good day, let alone week, and he is at the end of his rope. He hasn't slept well, he has little inconvenient injuries that won't heal from respawn for some reason, and he can't keep his thoughts in order. He is about to break but he refuses to let that happen.

Grian was tired. He was tired. He was sore. And he was covered in undoubtedly numerous new scars that he hadn’t taken the time to care for. He was just done, really. He wanted to lay down and sleep for the next week, except even that would be unrestful cause both of his main sleeping areas were either surrounded by loud villagers or a loud pesky bird that demands more and more food from him every day.

He let his eyes rest for a split second too long while flying, gravity taking hold of him in the narrow corridor of the temporary Nether “hub.” He yelped, rolling and getting tangled up in his artificial wings as he ungracefully scraped against the rough netherrack. He let himself lay there in an uncomfortable ball and he glared at the red rock around him with a hatred he had never quite had for it before and was sure wouldn’t last. When he finally stood back up he gave the wall a swift kick, gritting his teeth at how the vibration reverberated up his leg. With a grumble he entered the portal to the shopping district.

On any other day, the nauseous swirling effect of the portal would not have bothered him, but today it felt like another thing that just added onto his ever growing migraine. Add on the bright sun of the Overworld and he was tempted to jump off the platform so he could respawn in his bed and sleep the rest of the day away, his items be damned. But, fortunately or unfortunately you decide, Grian was too stubborn to do that and when he stepped off the platform he glided gracefully to the ground, for once not tripping over his own feet.

Rubbing at his drooping eyes Grian lazily looked around the shopping district, trying to remember what on Earth he came here for. His eyes landed on his barge and he couldn’t suppress the groan that rose as he was reminded once again how much he had to do for it. Sure, he was making tons of diamonds from it, but now that gravel was a hundred times easier to get that means he would have to find something new to stock. Not to mention how much he already has to restock since he’s been neglecting it in favor of his other projects. That’s the part he misses about Sahara the most, not all the work fell on him. If he needed help, at least he could ask Iskall or Mumbo.

Sighing he dragged his feet onto the uneven, rocking floor that was his shop and began checking the chests, slowly making a list on his communicator of things he needed to restock as well as things that weren’t selling. He was pulling the last of the diamonds from the TNT barrel when it hit him. He wasn’t in the shopping district to deal with his barge, he needed Impulse to break the nether roof for him.

Slightly reinvigorated at this realization, and the idea of getting out of one overwhelming project and into a more manageable one, he flew out of the top and up into the sky. He surveyed the island beneath him, looking for some sort of obvious landmark that would dictate a bedrock shop. Squinting against the sun, he didn’t see anything stand out so he glided downward, circling and trying to see if there was anything he didn’t know what it was.

After about ten minutes of circling the shopping district he aimed to land on one of the billboards that had popped up on the island, but when one foot landed the other caught his heel and he went tumbling off the back. He held his arms out, trying to cushion his fall the best he could, but all he managed to do was end up in a scraped up heap with a throbbing wrist held to his chest. He bit his lip as the pain of his wrist (despite not being nearly the worst pain he’s felt all day), his frustration of trying to find this stupid shop, and just the overall stress of the past week started to finally spill over and tears pooled in his eyes.

He tried everything to push them back, to blink them away, to close his eyes and wait for them to leave. He took deep breaths, embracing the sight of nothing for a few blissful moments as he pushed the weight of everything away. Like this he could almost enjoy the slight breeze of the ocean, or the pungent smell that he had learned to be a hybrid of mycelium and grass, or how nice it felt to just lay on his back and close his eyes, even if he wasn’t necessarily comfortable.

“Grian?” His eyes snapped open and he stared right into brown ones of his mustached friend. Mumbo was bent at an almost exact 90 degree angle, looming over Grian with an eyebrow raised in a mix of confusion and concern. “You alright mate? You seem to have a little something here.”

Grian felt the spot on his cheek that Mumbo had indicated on his own and hissed at the slight twinge of pain that came with the poke. Withdrawing his hand he saw his dirt covered hand with a hint of red and winced at the sight. Another scar to add to his collection this week, it seemed. And of course it was on his face. He sighed, unfocusing his eyes to a point of the sky past Mumbo’s head.

Mumbo stood up straight, his eyes still fixed on Grian. Grian didn’t have nearly enough energy to try and figure out what the taller man’s thoughts were, and he was still quite enjoying laying in the grass. His mind had fully zoned out, and he didn’t register the fact that Mumbo must have been speaking, his voice mingling with the breeze. He only started paying attention again when Mumbo tried to pull him up by tugging on his sprained wrist.

“Ow! What the hell?” Grian’s voice was high, pulling his wrist away from Mumbo far too quickly to roughly land on his back and causing him to cough a few times to catch his breath.

“Oh! Sorry, Grian. I didn’t- are you okay? I just thought you were tired or, or I don’t know. You weren’t answering me and so I thought I’d just-”

He really hoped Mumbo would just leave him alone after this, but he didn’t seem so lucky as his friend kneeled down beside him. “Grian, is everything alright? What happened to your wrist? Heck, what happened to all of you?” He waved his hand up and down to gesture to Grian’s body.

“I get it. It’s fine. Sorry I didn’t answer you.” He didn’t mean to snap at Mumbo, but he couldn’t get much else past his gritted teeth as he sat up, cradling his wrist to his chest once again. He took a few deep breaths to calm his returning and ever-rising stress. It wasn’t Mumbo’s fault. The last thing you need to do is yell at him.

He didn’t look up to meet Mumbo’s gaze, instead staring down at his chest and his probably swollen wrist that was bent in a very uncomfortably looking way. The longer he stared, he started to notice what Mumbo must be referring to. His jumper looked more brown than red at this point, tears in the fabric revealing the once white undershirt underneath. If that’s what his clothes looked like, he could only imagine what his face and hair must look like.

He really was a mess, huh?

With a sigh he glanced through the unwashed strands of his even dirtier blonde hair to look at Mumbo’s face. “I’m just… having a rough day, is all.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Grian felt his head shrink into the neck of his sweater at the question. He didn’t do talking. Not like this. He was happy-go-lucky Grian that was always playing pranks on people or setting up fun events for everyone. He was never angry or upset unless it was in response to a prank he no doubt deserved, and even then that was all in good fun. He remembers Ren trying to get him to open up to him as hippies, saying it was great to get things off your chest every now and then. But Grian just… couldn’t. He dealt with his negative emotions on his own for years, thank you very much, and he could continue to do it for as long as he needed to.

So he shook his head, using his good wrist to push himself up. He took one more steadying breath and moved to take one step past Mumbo. “No, no. I’m fine, Mumbo, don’t worry about-” His words were cut off by a high-pitched yelp as he stepped on his elytra, the straps around his chest pulling him painfully backwards. He would have fallen over again if Mumbo hadn’t caught him and kept him somewhat upright.

“You were saying?”

“You’re okay.” Grian blinked a few times. “Swears let out stress. At least, I’m pretty sure they do. Doc mentioned something about that a few years back to me when he was helping me with a redstone project. I was getting really, really frustrated and he told me to just… let it out! And I did, and it felt great.” Mumbo’s smile was blindingly bright as he walked over and placed his hands on Grian’s shoulders. “If you need to get something out, just do it. No one else is around.”

Grian dropped his facade, face drooping into a small scowl at his recent fortune. “Okay, maybe I’m not fine. But I don’t need to talk about it, okay? Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go find Impulse’s fucking bedrock shop.” He pushed himself off of Mumbo’s shoulder, taking a few steps away from his friend before he realized exactly what he said. He glanced back to see Mumbo’s wide eyes and internally scolded himself. He hasn’t cursed that openly in years. He hasn’t been this upset in years, either. And it’s all over such stupid stuff. God, he’s an idiot. “Ah, I’m sorry, Mumbo I didn’t mean to-”

Grian looked around, noticing the setting sun in the distance. Other than a few stray villagers from Stress’ campaign, Mumbo was right. They were the only hermits in the shopping district. He glanced once more at Mumbo’s face, contemplating it, but ultimately shook his head.

“No, I, I’m fine. Well, I’m not, I won’t lie to you, but I don’t need to ‘get anything out’ or anything.” A tight smile appeared as he avoided eye contact. “I-I haven’t cursed like that in ages, and I don’t exactly want to fall back into that old habit.”

“You used to curse?”

“Like a sailor.”

Mumbo’s laugh was bright before he cut himself off with a hand over his mouth, his eyes betrayed his amusement, though. “Sorry, that’s just really hard to imagine. I don't think I’ve ever seen you genuinely upset, let alone angry enough to swear.”

Grian found himself smiling despite himself. “Yeah, well, I’ve gotten a better hold of my emotions before I came here. I would get pissed off-” he covered his mouth quickly as he realized his wording, groaning slightly before he continued with muffled words. “-I would get angry at very little annoyances.”

Mumbo snickered at him, leading him with a friendly arm over his shoulder to a hill nearby they could sit on and watch the setting sun. “Quite the gentleman you are now then, huh?”

“I try to be.” He shrugged, letting himself fall roughly onto the dirt beneath him with a grunt.

Mumbo gave him a softer, concerned glance, resting his head on his hand. “So are you going to tell me what’s wrong or not?”

Grian let the question stir inside his mind as he picked at some grass that was trying to poke through the hillside. After a few moments he answered with a reserved grumble: “I’ve already told you what’s wrong.”

“You’re not seriously this worked up over Impulse’s shop, are you? And what about all your cuts and bruises? Your wrist? Not to mention you are never this clumsy; I almost mistook you for me a moment ago with you bumbling over yourself.”

Once again Grian sunk into his jumper. He looked up at the darkening sky and how the soft lights of the shopping district began illuminating the area. Something about the peacefulness of it all and Mumbo’s comforting presence made the overwhelming feelings come back. He tried to bury his face in his hands, but doing so only made his wrist sting and get dirt in his eyes and the more he tried to rub it out the more irritated they became and then the more irritated he became too.

And so what if he was worked up about not being able to find Impulse’s shop? Impulse should make it more obvious where it is if he wants any customers! And if the land in the shopping district was taken better care of maybe he would have landed softer. And maybe if everyone had put more time and thought and effort into making a better nether hub then running off to explore everything than he wouldn’t have fallen and scratched himself up on the netherrack. And maybe… And maybe…

“Grian, Grian, it’s okay. Breathe. I’m sorry, you don’t have to talk about it.”

Mumbo’s voice was a knife through the spiralling mess that was Grian’s thoughts. He took a gulping breath of air and pulled his hands from his face, only to realize his face was freezing, but why- oh, he was crying. Fantastic. Exactly what he needed. He was holding himself together so well until Mumbo came along and just had to be a good friend and check up on him.

A sob shook his body as he curled in on himself, hugging his knees. Mumbo seemed to stutter for a moment, unsure of what to do, but eventually settled on gently wrapping Grian up in his arms. He reminded Grian to breathe as his thoughts kept forcing him to forget such an important thing out of his mind. Something far more important than all these stupid suffocating thoughts-

“Grian, you’re okay. It’s okay. Whatever’s got you worked up, I’m sure we can fix it.”

Mumbo’s gentle, comforting words seemed to have the opposite effect on Grian. Because it wasn’t. He couldn’t. He shouldn’t. This was Grian’s problem, not Mumbo’s. It was Grian’s problem that he couldn’t handle all of his projects, it was Grian’s problem that he couldn’t watch where he was going, it was Grian’s problem that everywhere he tried to sleep was either too loud or too dangerous.

“No!” He tries to yell, but it only comes out as a croak in his closed throat as he rips away from Mumbo’s hug to stumble out into the small grassy-mycelium clearing. His hands were balled into fists as he rubbed his eyes with his good arm, trying to get the frustrating tears to stop fucking flowing.

“No?”

“No! You can’t fix it. These are my problems! And they aren’t even problems! They’re just me being stupid, or not paying attention, or complaining and all I’m doing is blaming everyone else for my own dumb assery, which isn’t fair, but god dammit if it doesn’t get on my nerves! Like this fucking shop! I just need help to get rid of one, one, shitty bedrock block so I can stop hitting every single fucking overhang that could exist in the god damn nether. But I can’t. Fucking. Find it! And that’s not Impulse’s fault, not really, but it’s so tempting to blame him for it because I haven’t slept in five days because my fucking villagers are too noisy and Professor Beak acts like I don’t feed him and I can’t fly straight anymore and I’m pretty sure it’s fucking up my respawn because I’ve died at least fifteen times within the last 24 hours I’m sure--I haven’t exactly been keeping count, but I know it’s a lot--and I’m so sore and tired and I won’t regen naturally anymore and I’m pretty sure I have, like, twelve new scars that I have no clue if they’re gonna heal. I-I mean, I should probably go see Stress or even maybe Scar about it but they don’t need to worry about this because it’s my own fucking fault for being so god damn stupid and I just… I just…” He slumped down again, his legs giving out beneath him and letting him fall on his butt. He had given up trying to stop the tears at this point. “I’m just so tired but I can’t stop or I’ll get behind. But I feel like I’m barely moving forward.”

He let himself fall backwards on the grass, feeling his elytra crumple beneath him. He sniffled. “Motherfucker!” He slammed his fists into the ground and whimpered, holding his injured wrist once again to his chest. “Fuck…”

The air next to him shifted as Mumbo took a seat. When Grian dared to glance at his friend, Mumbo’s eyes and smile were soft. “How do you feel now?”

Letting out a shaky breath he closed his eyes and considered the question. Physically he still felt awful, like he could fall asleep right here and now, but mentally, well, he was still tired, but there was a lot less fog. “Better. A little bit.”

“Told ya it works.”

Mumbo’s smug tone was enough to cause Grian to burst into wet laughter, new tears streaming down his face as he weakly swung a punch at Mumbo’s knee. “Shut up. And don’t you dare tell anyone about this. I have a reputation to uphold.”

“Sure you do. Y’know, Xisuma used to swear all the time. Keralis did too. Actually, almost everyone did. I don’t know when we all started caring about that.”

“Sorry, but I can’t physically imagine X, let alone Keralis, saying ‘fuck.’” He giggled at the thought, wiping away the last of the tears that remained in his eyes.

“It is quite funny to think about nowadays. Although, I’d argue Keralis is easier to believe.”

They carried on like that for a couple minutes before Grian’s exhaustion finally caught him with his guard down. Mumbo didn’t know how long his friend would be asleep for, but he’d be there when he woke up. Then maybe, just maybe, he could convince him to let him help.

#work: grian's awful horrible no good very bad day #has a lot of cursing #sky's writing week challenge #its late but i wrote this all in one go #this isn't what i meant to write today #hermitcraft fics #hermitcraft #grian fic #grian #mumbo jumbo #yes i get it it's grian angst 850 but listen i was filled with inspo and I wanted to let this poor man let off some steam #sky writes

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