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theres-an-impulstor-among-us · 3 years

Note

I have returned with writing prompt number two once more! If you have inspiration for it, of course. A quick refresher if you forgot:

Team ZIT play among us. Tango and Impulse get impostor, and decide to tell Zed. He third impostors for them, helping them win the game. Somehow, he finds a way to kill someone even though he’s a crewmate. Everyone is effectively terrified.

I really wanna write Zed playing Among Us more often; this was great to write! Hope you enjoy :)

...

Zedaph is doing his first task of the round in medbay on his own, when Impulse and Tango enter the room. He turns, smiling at the sight of his best friends. “Hey, guys. Got a task here?”

The two exchange a look. Their lack of an immediate response worries Zedaph.

“Zed…” Tango hesitates. “We, ah… We decided we have to tell you. Impulse and I are… We’re the imposters.”

Zedaph’s stomach lurches. His breath catches in his throat, but he quickly recovers and nods resignedly. “Okay.”

Impulse frowns. “Is that it? You know we’re gonna have to kill people, right…?”

“Then why did you tell me?” Zedaph demands. “Why not just kill me?”

“Because we didn’t think it would be fair,” Tango says. “We want you to know that we’re not going to kill you. You can report us if you want, but… we…”

“We just wanted you to know,” finishes Impulse. “Do with that info what you will.”

With that, they turn and leave as quickly as they arrived.

Zedaph clenches his fists. Fair? What isn’t fair is that his two best friends are going to spend the entire game viciously killing people, and now Zedaph knows about it. Does he tell the other crewmates? Or does he keep it a secret? Were they even being serious? What if they’re just playing a practical joke on him?

But deep down, however much he wants to believe it, he knows it’s not a joke.

His thoughts almost overwhelm him as he makes his way to reactor and starts the manifolds task. He can hardly concentrate on counting to ten.

Finally, a body is reported. When Zedaph turns up at the meeting, he sees Tango and Impulse standing together. He knows them well enough that he can tell by the looks on their faces that they are the ones responsible for Scar’s and Skizzleman’s deaths.

Grian is the one who reported the body. “I found Scar and Skizzle both in communications. All I know is that it has to be a pretty recent kill, cuz I saw Scar alive only a minute or so ago. And it has to be a double kill, obviously.”

“Ren, Bdubs, and I were together in electrical,” reports Pungence.

“Grian, you and I saw each other by comms a few minutes ago,” adds Etho. “I don’t think it’s you.”

“Oh, gee, if it’s a double kill, I wonder which pair would know each other well enough to pull off such a well-coordinated move,” says Bdubs sarcastically, pointedly raising an eyebrow at Tango and Impulse. “Lemme guess, you’re gonna alibi each other?”

Tango and Impulse exchange a slightly panicked look, causing Zedaph to make a very quick decision.

Before anyone else can speak again, Zedaph blurts out, “They were with me in reactor.”

All eyes turn to Zedaph. Tango and Impulse frown at him. They know they haven’t seen Zedaph since they told him that they are the imposters.

Zedaph simply raises an eyebrow back, and they understand. Their best friend is offering them an alibi.

“Yes,” Tango says quickly. “Zed, Impulse, and I were together in reactor. I messed up Simon Says several times and they waited for me.”

Zedaph knows the others are judging their alibis. It’s only natural for the group of best friends to stick together, but he knows what the others are thinking: “there’s only two imposters, so they must be telling the truth.”

Sure enough, the crewmates accept Team ZIT’s alibi and decide not to eject anyone this round.

Impulse and Tango try to take their friend aside after the meeting but Zedaph refuses. He heads to admin to do his card swipe task but when he spots Grian alone in there, standing at the admin screen with his back to the door, he gets an idea.

He runs back out of admin and hits the emergency meeting button.

“I saw Grian vent,” he says.

“What?!” yelps Grian, his eyes wide. “No I didn’t! What are you talking about?!”

“He popped up in admin,” says Zedaph, avoiding everyone’s gazes. “I was doing the card swipe and I saw him do it.”

Grian frantically shakes his head. “No, I swear, it’s not me! I didn’t even see you in there!”

“Would Grian really be that careless?” asks Etho dubiously.

“Remember he doesn’t vent a lot,” Impulse says, taking a risk. “It’s entirely possible he didn’t mean to pop up in admin when Zed was in there. Or he didn’t notice Zed.”

“No, guys, really, it’s not me!” Grian tries hard to defend himself. “Zedaph is lying!”

“Why would he do that, though?” Ren asks. “We’ve already established he isn’t an imposter. Why would he need to lie about you venting?”

Grian’s mouth opens and closes as he tries to think of a response. All he can think of to say is, “He’s protecting the real imposters.”

“Come on, he wouldn’t do that,” Bdubs says dismissively. “No matter who the imposters are, no crewmate in their right mind would help them. Sorry, Grian, but it looks like you’ve been rumbled this time.”

Zedaph is pleased that his lie has fooled the other crewmates.

As everyone votes, however, he spots Etho shooting Impulse a suspicious look. When the votes are revealed, he sees that Etho has even voted for Impulse.

Zedaph knows he has to do something; Etho clearly suspects his friends. His opinion holds weight in the group, so he can easily turn the ship against them.

Etho has to go.

After Grian is ejected, Zedaph pickpockets Impulse, stealing the gun he knows is in Impulse’s pocket, before his best friends head off together towards navigation.

Zedaph spots Etho leaving in the opposite direction, so he discreetly follows him all the way to security, where Etho starts to do his wires task.

Without hesitation, Zedaph shoves Etho to the ground inside security. Etho stares up at him with fearful eyes. “Zedaph…” He clears his throat as his voice almost fails him. “You… You’re one of them?”

Zedaph shakes his head. “I’m not. But two people I love are, and I once made a vow to always protect them, no matter what. I can’t let you hurt them.”

He takes out the gun he took from Impulse. His code fights against him; it’s not right for a crewmate to have such a weapon. The game doesn’t like one crewmate turning on another.

But Zedaph fights back. His finger tightens on the trigger.

With a single shot, Etho is dead.

As Zedaph is staring down at the body he killed, Tango and Impulse appear at the door to security. When Impulse realised his weapon was missing, he knew there is only one person who could have taken it. Their shocked eyes flicker from Zedaph to Etho’s body, then back to Zedaph. They can’t believe what they’re seeing.

“H-How did you do that...?!” chokes Tango.

Zedaph turns to face his best friends. He knows that for them to win, he must die, regardless of whether one of them kills him by their own hand. As there are only five people left on the ship, there is a very easy way to ensure his best friends’ victory.

He hits the report button.

Zedaph, Tango, Impulse, Ren, and Bdubs are the only people left on the ship. He looks at the faces around the table and says, “I’m the imposter.”

Everyone stares back at him in shock. “What?” Ren gasps. “You’re just… confessing?”

“Tango and Impulse both walked in on me killing Etho,” says Zedaph. “There’s no point in denying it. And there’s no way I can throw them both under the bus.”

Ren and Bdubs both turn to Tango and Impulse, whose gazes are fixed on their best friend.

Finally, Impulse nods. “It’s true. We walked into security and saw Etho’s body fall. Zedaph was right there. Right, Tango?”

Tango isn’t happy. As imposter, he’s not supposed to care about anyone except his partner. But nothing will ever change the fact that he loves Zedaph, and for him to be willing to sacrifice his life for theirs, despite their sole objective on the ship being to kill people... It hurts.

But he also nods. “It’s true.”

The crewmates seem satisfied by this. After all, why confess to a crime you didn't commit?

The decision is unanimous. Everyone has voted for Zedaph.

A grin slowly spreads over Impulse’s face. “You lose.”

Bdubs and Ren glance at each other in a panic, realising now who the real imposters are. “Wait, what?! How?!” spluttered Ren. “Why did he take the blame for your kill?!”

“He didn’t,” says Tango. “What we said in that meeting is true. We walked in on Zed killing Etho.”

“But- But- But-!” Bdubs can hardly speak. “He’s a crewmate!”

Tango grins. “Exactly.”

Bdubs and Ren look to Zedaph, absolutely terrified. They wish they could retract their votes, but it’s too late. It’s way too late.

Zedaph is ejected into space. He lies back and lets the darkness take him, rapidly chewing its way through his spacesuit and into his body.

And as his eyes close for the final time, despite being surrounded by the cold and unforgiving vacuum of space, he smiles. His best friends are alive and they’re safe.

That’s all that matters to Zedaph.

#hermitcraft among us #hermitcraft #hermits among us #team zit #impulsesv #tangotek #zedaph #Vaunna writes

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hashtagdex · 3 years

Note

ok ok angst 18 and/or fluff 11 for nurseydex?

thank you so much for these! have Both prompts!

“Leave! Me! Alone!” and “I think I’m in love with you”

Usually, Nursey prides him on being a chill guy, but right now he feels like he's going to lose his mind.

He skips the tenth song in the past minute, Tango's knee bumping into his under the table for the third time. It's not like it matters, though. He can hear Tango, Whiskey and Chowder's conversation about last night’s Falcs game against the Devils clear as day even through the music.

His head is throbbing from squinting down at his notes to try and decipher them, his hand is starting to cramp up as he finishes another page, and he can’t get any damn peace.

With a sigh, he puts his pen down, takes his glasses off, and squeezes the bridge of his nose. Studying in the Haus kitchen really wasn’t his brightest idea, but people would’ve come up to him at the library to talk to him and he wouldn’t get shit done upstairs either.

All he wants is to make it up to his room, crawl under his blanket, and not come out again for the rest of the week. But he can't do that, because he has more than twice as many notes left to copy as he's already gone through.

"Woah, Nursey," Tango starts as he wrestles open a protein bar, and the noise of the struggling wrapper grates even more on Nursey's nerves, "you okay? You look really unchill right now."

Tango's knee bumps against his again. Nursey's head snaps up to look at him, scowling as he forces out, "No, Tony, I'm not fucking okay. I have about a million more pages to do, all of my music fucking sucks, and I can still hear you guys through it! And then you just keep fucking knocking into me!"

Chowder reaches out to touch his forearm. "Nursey—"

"Please just leave me alone!"

The moment the words are out of his mouth, Tango’s expression crumbles and Nursey’s heart sinks. Chowder draws his arm back with a sigh. He knows he has no right to snap at Tango, but now the words are out there and his frustration is still running sky fucking high.

Chowder sends him a hard look as he herds the Tadpoles out of the kitchen. He’ll apologize to Tango later, once he’s calmed down, but right now he's stressed and annoyed and there’s still a never ending pile of work left for him.

He swallows the guilt that rises up, slips his glasses back on, and returns to the next page of notes.

He gets about half a page in before he feels strong hands touch and then squeeze his shoulders in a way that's grounding instead of grating.

Dex. It has to be. No one else really knows how to help him when he's overwhelmed like this.

Nursey pulls out one of his earbuds and turns to face Dex. "I really have to get this done, man."

Dex takes his hands off Nursey’s shoulders—Nursey kind of, embarrassingly, misses the pressure—and fixes him with an unimpressed look. “How long have you been studying?”

Nursey’s eyes flick over to the clock on the wall and, wow, alright. “Uh, five hours, give or take?”

When he started, the sun was still up and the kitchen was deserted. Sometime around hour two or three, Chowder, Whiskey, and Tango showed and asked if it’s fine for them to join him. He grunted out a sure, deep in the notes he took in class earlier. Now it’s dark out.

Dex shifts his weight. “And how much of it are you actually absorbing?”

“Not much,” Nursey admits, crossing his legs under the table.

“Okay,” Dex says with a nod, “time for a break then, c’mon.”

“No, Dex,” Nursey protests, “I need to get this done.”

“Nursey, you’re stressed out,” Dex reasons, and yeah, no shit. “If you keep going now, it won’t do you any good. If anything, it’ll make you even more miserable.”

Nursey huffs. “When did you start making sense?”

Dex just sends him a small, soft smile that Nursey only ever sees when they’re alone. “I know your next exam isn’t until next week. You have time, I swear. You can finish tomorrow. Or later, at least. Self care, y’know?”

Nursey tries to say no, he really does, but in the end, he’s weak when it comes to Dex. Yeah, he’s surprised too. “Fine,” he finally relents. Dex’s smile grows and Nursey has to look away.

With a defeated sigh, he collects his stray pieces of paper, puts his pens back into his case, and lets Dex pull him out of the chair, up the stairs, and all the way into his room.

Inside, Nursey drops his stuff on his desk, then pulls his phone out of his pocket.

“Do you want me to go? I can get you something for your headache or maybe a snack. I bet you haven’t eaten the whole time,” Dex asks, lingering by the door.

To his surprise, Dex has become one of the most calming presences in Nursey’s life. Dex and calming should be an oxymoron in and of itself, but here he is, craving Dex’s company. “Actually, could you stay?”

Dex’s smile returns. “Sure,” he agrees and steps back into the room as Nursey turns his attention back to his phone.

Nursey starts typing a text to Tango and out of his periphery, he notices Dex pulling something down from Nursey's bunk and settling down into his old bed.

"C’mere.”

Once he’s sent the I'm sorry for earlier, it wasn't chill of me to lash out at you like that, I’m just mad stressed right now to Tango, Nursey looks up. He finds Dex sitting against the board with a pillow behind his back, his legs spread apart, and Nursey’s comforter at the foot of the bed. "What?" Nursey asks as Dex pats the spot between his legs.

“I’m gonna help you relax, c’mon,” Dex says and pats the mattress again.

Nursey quirks up an eyebrow, but he drops his phone and glasses on his desk and makes his way over to the bed anyway. “Don’t massage my face, you’ll just clog my pores,” he warns.

Dex laughs and Nursey feels more tension drain from his shoulders. “I won’t, I promise.”

Once Nursey’s settled in, both of their legs under his comforter, Dex pulls him against his chest. “Is this okay?”

Nursey nods and leans more of his weight against Dex, pillowing his head near Dex's shoulder.

"Good," Dex says and Nursey swears he can hear the smile in his voice.

Dex takes Nursey's right hand into both of his and starts massaging it, applying just the right amount of pressure to ease the pain. Nursey allows himself to sigh and Dex begins to talk.

He launches into a story about his first time on his uncle's lobster boat, five years old and just barely taller than the traps. His voice is softer than it usually is, quiet and soothing close to Nursey's ear, as he tells Nursey about the gentle rocking of the waves. Listening to his steady heartbeat, it keeps getting harder and harder for Nursey to keep his eyes open.

Nursey lets him get halfway through the story, until Dex switches to his other hand, before he interrupts him.

"Dex?"

Dex pauses in the middle of his sentence and hums, but his hands don’t stop moving.

It gives Nursey the courage to go on. “Why are you always doing this? Helping me when I’m overwhelmed? How do you always know what to do?”

“I guess,” Dex starts quietly, it sounds like he’s hesitating, arranging his words carefully, “I guess I’ve been paying attention.”

The thing is, Nursey’s been paying attention too. He’s been paying attention to Dex frowning when he’s working at a particularly vexing project, to Dex’s hands kneading his stress into pie dough, to Dex looking so proud of the team after games and practices, to Dex’s loud laughter when Nursey or Chowder crack a joke, to Dex’s blush spreading across his whole face when Nursey winks at him.

Nursey thought he was the only one paying attention, though.

“Why?” he presses.

Dex’s hands still.

When Dex stays quiet, Nursey prods gently, “Dex.”

“I think I’m in love with you,” Dex whispers then.

“You think—”

“No, fuck that,” Dex interrupts, voice louder and more powerful, “I know I’m in love with you.”

Dex doesn’t move to leave and Nursey is grateful for it. His heart is beating in his throat, the words of I’m in love with you too on the tip of his tongue, but they’ll have to talk about this. Like, have an actual adult conversation about their feelings and what they want it to mean for the future.

Nursey also knows he’s way too tired to have it the way they really need to, so he just tangles their fingers together and makes sure Dex feels his smile as he presses a kiss to the back of his hand. After he pulls back, he squeezes it, and Dex squeezes right back.

“Tomorrow,” Nursey promises.

“Okay,” Dex agrees easily, running his thumb along Nursey’s.

“Do you have any more dumb stories?”

Dex digs out a story about a prank he pulled on his older brother when he was ten for Nursey as Nursey drifts off to sleep.

#nurseydex #dexnursey #william poindexter #derek nurse #omgcheckplease #nursey is Stressed and in dire need of a nap #if you wonder how dex knew to show up? frog to frog communication #did i make the falcs play the devils bc bruins played them tonight? yes #i also edited a good chunk of this during the game and my god i forgot how stressful bruins hockey can be #this visual has haunted me for a Long time #i hope you like it!! :)#very sorry it took 2 and a half months #bi-ginny-weasley #answered #my writing

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silyabeeodess · 3 years

Text

Going to take a moment to brag about a Webtoon comic that I’ve been reading lately called “The Remarried Empress.” Honestly, drama isn’t one of my favorite genres, but this story does so many nice things that make it an enjoyable read through-and-through.

First off is the name alone and opening chapter, which gives you the major spoiler that Empress Navier remarries immediately after her husband, Emperor Sovieshu, divorces her for his mistress, Rashta. I feel beginning the story in this way is pivotal to how successful it is, because we’re then brought back in time to the events leading up to said point--which include numerous struggles and emotional hardships for our heroine. When it comes to these types of stories, where the main character is basically unfairly treated like someone’s punching bag, it’s very easily to get frustrated on their behalf. Take, “Rising of the Shield Hero” for instance, where Naofumi is forced to clean up the messes of the other heroes and in return gets blamed for crimes he didn’t commit. Another example is “Tess of the d’Urbervilles,” in which Tess is forced to face society’s harsh judgement and support her awful parents at the cost of her own happiness. While the reader does garner a lot of sympathy for the main character, that sympathy can easily turn into a heated anger for the string of unjustices playing out in the story--with both a hope and uncertainty if there will even be a pay-off for it all. This opening reassures the reader that, yes, everything will turn out alright in the end, instead replacing those feelings for a giddy anticipation of sweet, sweet karma.

Spiraling off that point, this also plays a little into Navier’s character as well. She doesn’t know what we, the audience, does; however, she’s a very strong and witty person who navigates herself through the worst of situations with a poker face that would be the envy of any gambler. Yes, she suffers, but she always does whatever she can to rise out of the problem she’s in in the moment. As much as we sympathize with her, we don’t have to mourn with her, because we know she can pick herself up again just fine. Therefore, it’s very easy to root for her as a kind of champion. It makes following her story very calming and refreshing as opposed to the tale of the typical underdog.

Rashta’s character also has its own flavor to it. A sad thing about a lot of modern day villains is that they often get split into two categories: Those who are rotten to the core and those who are merely misunderstood/need redemption. Neither is necessarily bad: It’s moreso the collective whole of villains we see that make the lot of them stale, tiring, and even unbelievable. Rashta finds a nice balance between the two. Without giving anything away, her backstory is sad. We understand that she’s also suffered and is looking for her own happiness. It’s difficult for her to trust others and she feels very alone, like she could be thrown away at any moment. However, she clearly enjoys stepping on other people--even those who don’t have anything to do with her current situation. She expects that other people sympathize with her even as she antagonizes them, such as Navier--the woman who’s husband she’s sleeping with. The slightest, verbal slap-back can make her burst into tears, and she’ll manipulate others not just for her benefit, but also purely for her entertainment--even when the suffering she causes has grave consequences for those individuals. Yes, she has been a victim in the past, but it’s a role she refuses to let go of even when things are going well for her. Yes, we understand Rashta, but her actions make it impossible to feel sorry for her.

While the main conflict is between Navier and Rashta as of the current update to the comic when writing this, don’t think they left a certain insect out of the mix! I’m glad that this story doesn’t just focus on two women fighting over a truly worthless guy as other stories have. A homewrecker is terrible, but it takes two to tango and Sovieshu plays the role of crappy husband perfectly. While it’s addressed that he clearly still “loves” Navier in later chapters, it’s really just an ideal image of her rather than her herself that he projects onto Rashta--and he constantly gaslights/blames Navier for any fault that occurs on his or Rashta’s behalf. He thinks he’s perfect, and wants both Navier and Rashta to follow his “perfect” vision of a single person without paying attention to his own faults. His “love” has turned to possession, and it will be a beautiful day when he wakes up and realizes he’s well past the point of being able to fix his mistakes.

As for Prince Heinrey, the last of our four main characters, I don’t know how much I can say as of right now since I’m also reading the Webnovel, which is much further ahead in the story than the comic. Therefore, I won’t go into too many details. I’ll just say that I do think he is an ideal guy for Navier to turn to, and while the audience can root for the both of them, there’s something a little uncomfortable about it that can tickle the back of the mind. Don’t get me wrong, Heinrey truly loves Navier and comes across as a real prince charming, but the mystery element of a potential conflict between his kingdom and Sovieshu’s/Navier’s makes me wonder if any feelings she has for him will immediately fade due to the danger he poses to her people--even after the remarriage. It’s easy to feel bad for Heinrey too since Navier is just coming off her bad relationship with Sovieshu while he’s already head over heels for her.

That being said, it adds an extra element of suspense that might’ve otherwise been quashed by the opening’s reveal. As much as I praised it, there would be a concern of just giving away the ending of the story like that--but that’s the gem: It’s not the end, it’s the end of an act/arc. There’s so much more to “The Remarried Empress” that we’re only just being given spoonfuls of at a time, and with the focus being on the build-up to the divorce, I get a feeling it may lead to a blindsiding reveal in the future.

Lastly, while this doesn’t have anything to do with the story itself, I have to say that reading the comments of it on Webtoons or posts about it on sites like this are just as entertaining. Everyone’s so sassy that I think the fanbase just keeps riling itself up behind these characters as much as the plot itself. I think if something big did happen in the story, I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone forgot for just a moment that it was fiction and rallied behind Navier all while screaming, “For our beloved queen, we ride at dawn!” because we’d just all be so swept away in our own energy. XD I don’t condone mob mentality, but this is one thing I could get behind.

#the remarried empress #webtoons #webcomic #review #analysis

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writing-the-end · 3 years

Text

LoL Chapter 49- The Underground

Masterpost

A Wizard Hermits tale (AU, designs, ideas belongs to @theguardiansofredland)

Ecto belongs to @cooler-cactus-block (new computer and I still can’t fuckin at you)

Turns out the hermits aren’t the only ones who wish to get rid of Magistrate Dolios.

____________________________________

Etho drops into the canal below, water rippling without a single drop to disturb the silent cave. Heterochromatic eyes rove across the dark, dank tunnel, waving one hand for the others to follow. Scar comes next, much less gracefully as he misses the last rung and tumbles into the canal with a heavy splash.

They were beneath the noble district of the city. Grown above the canals like most of Milliara, they built up beyond the lifeblood of Lairyon. Left it behind, to pass through in these underwater canals, until they lead to a fountain, messenger canal, or the rest of the city.

Once Xisuma’s boots are in the water, he sloshes forward without pause. He knows who he saw, he’s just not sure if he believes it. Ex never gets involved with anything. He always waits, watches from the sidelines. When X wanted to fight, it was Ex that stayed behind. When X wanted to be a guild, Ex went on his own.

He continues on, following the distance sound of scraping and scuffling, harsh against the soft patter of water and trickle of running water. Xisuma rounds the corner, white light reflecting in the distance off the damp walls. He’s so focused on the light at the end he doesn’t notice the movement in the shadows. At least, not until it’s too late.

A warm hand claps over Xisuma’s mouth, muffling any attempt for him to cry out. Another arm drags him into the darkness, and a wave of fear keeps Xisuma from trying to escape. A warm, low voice growls in his ear, full of menace. “You had your chance, now let the big kids play.”

“Tris, we’re just supposed to stop the guard, not-” A second, similar voice fractures through the darkness, and Xisuma notices a lock of pink hair, bright against the stone wall.

“I’m Nightshade!” The one holding Xisuma snaps, loosening his grip on him. “Do you want half the city to know who we are?”

Xisuma manages to wriggle free, and instead the twin faces wrestle each other into the water. Tackling and pulling hair, calling each other names that grow louder and louder. Loud enough for the other hermits to find them.

Stress realizes who she’s looking at first. “King Sor?”

“What am I, chopped liver?” one of the two growls, his blue scarf soaked.

“The king?” Tango splutters, snapping his fingers. A flame appears in his hand, and he raises it higher. Sure enough, wrestling in the muck and mud of the swampwater was the King of Lairyon and his twin brother. Yin and yang, dark and light. Their tan skin and rainbow hair- though the king’s much brighter- was instantly recognizable, even if the all white and black suits weren’t enough.

Grand Advisor Tris, currently holding King Sor in a headlock, glares at the hermits. “Do you mind?”

“We are in the middle of something.” Sor adds, looking at their audience as he grabs hold of Tris’s fingers and yanks.

“What are you-” Xisuma starts, confusion clouding his prerogative. Why is the Twin King, monarch of Lairyon, in the canals beneath his own city, tackling his brother and arguing over codenames? Xisuma shakes his head, trying to avoid the fact that he’s standing in front of the king. “Where did he go? My brother?”

“Where’s Doc?” BDubs adds, bouncing from foot to foot. They have to find their friend. Is he still alive? What do the kings want with a criminal? Why all this, when King Sor has more power than even Dolios?

“Three lefts then a right, there’s a staircase carved into the wall. It’ll take you to-” Sor has gained the upper hand, sitting on top of Tris, but the advisor isn’t afraid to kick his brother into silence.

“You are, by far, the worst spy ever.” Tris hisses, but the hermits leave the twins to their squabble in the sewer. Following Sor’s directions, they wind through the secret caves, Tango, Grian, Ren, and Iskall illuminating the darkness. Jevin can’t help but think about when they first began this journey, way back in Gildara. How they wandered dark, wet caves like this. Only to become enraptured into something so much bigger than they could ever have known.

But rather than a corrupted crystal at the end of this dive, they find the carved steps Sor had mentioned.

They also find the trail of blood up the rough hewn stairs. Every step up is slick with the ochre, a different size and shape from the one before. At the top of the stairs, a hatch remains closed. Xisuma presses up against the metal hatch, but finds it too heavy to lift. Looking up, he notices a symbol burnt into the metal.

Ex still uses their shared mark. Even after their estrangement, the swirl and the star remain easily visible. Not like how Xisuma scratched it off everything he owned. “It’s blocked. Stress?”

“Not a problem, dearie.” The ice mage squeezes her small, limber body between Xisuma and TFC, rolling up her sleeves. Without even breaking a sweat, she forces the hatch open. Light blinds them for a second time, though this much softer than before. Lamplight, enough to illuminate the wooden building, but still soft enough to cast shadow. A chest full of books has been tossed aside, the rug covering the hidden hatch flipped over.

The hermits crawl out, like an army of ants from the seams in the wood, filling the small bookstore. Ex’s arrival surprises no one, and neither does the twenty something mages in his bookshop. The twin brother of Xisuma looks up, purple eyes meeting the hermits. A lock of pure white hair covers over one eye, and the red fabric of the cloak covers Ex from the nose down. But even with his face covered, the hermits can see the discontent in his expression.

“He’s in the back. I’d… I’d be prepared.” Ex’s voice remains low and tempered, a bit deeper than Xisuma’s own. He turns away, running fingers across the shelves of books around him, before pulling free an encyclopedia of medicines.

Scar doesn’t wait, bursting through the curtain into Ex’s living quarters. He follows the trail of ash and blood, until he stops dead. The other hermits crowd in behind him, desperate to see their friend. For a week, he’s been in jail. Just being able to be in the same room was a blessing.

Doc was rested on a cot, bandages covering his legs, his arms, his chest, his face. Blackened skin beneath white gauze. He lays still, eyes closed, clothes in burnt tatters. For a minute, everyone holds their breath, waiting to see Doc breathe his own. When a shallow rise of his chest, followed by whisper of an exhale, escapes from the puppeteer, relief floods the hermits.

Doc is alive. Hanging on by a thread, but alive. Scar grabs Grian, yanking him to the front and shoving him into the room. “Fix him!”

“Don’t need to tell me twice.” Grian may be rivals with Doc, but they’re still friends. Family. He walks across the silent room, each step a loud creak through the wooden building. The hermits follow in after, a concave audience watching, hoping for a miracle.

Grian’s eyes begin to glow, and another set of wings appear from his back, and another. A halo rings above Grian’s blond hair, sharp shafts of light piercing the air around him. The archangel kneels beside Doc, lost in the overwhelming power of his magic. A mere pass of his hand over the unconscious criminal begins to heal him. An angelic miracle, Grian simply brushes a wing, and it eases the blackened burns across their friend.

Doc’s breathing deepens, though he doesn’t wake. Brought back from the brink, from the precipice of death. Mumbo carefully sidles up beside Grian, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Grian, you can let go of your aura.”

The soothing voice does the trick, as light fades and wings disappear. Grian’s exhausted but forces the glow and sleep from his eyes to see his success. Doc was alive. Doc was stable.

Doc was safe, with his family again.

Ex appears in the doorway, hands full of books, potions, herbs, and crystals. But when he sees his patient, no longer bleeding out and struggling to hang on for dear life. He looks at Doc, then Grian, then Xisuma. Dropping his armful of supplies, he waves his hand. “You really have one of everything, don’t you?”

Xisuma takes a deep breath. He hasn’t spoken a word to Ex in years. What does he say, after so long? What does he tell him, or yell at him, or cry to him? But only one word manages to escape from X’s lips, through his mask. “Thanks.”

The word surprises both twins, blinking back in surprise. Ex’s lips press into a thin line, and he turns his head away. A white ponytail of hair cascades over his shoulder. “Never say I didn’t do anything for you, brother.”

“Xisuma, this is your brother?” Keralis questions. They were almost identical twins, in fact. From the structure of their face, the intensity in their eyes. The only difference between the two was Ex’s snow white hair. Hell, they even had them both in ponytails.

“If he still considers me a brother.” Ex snips, picking up the mess on the floor and carefully placing the books in a stack.

“I thought you said getting into things would only lead to trouble.” Xisuma looks down at his friend, then to Ex.

“And by the looks of it, I was right.”

“But you saved Doc. You used your magic in front of half the city, to save him from burning at the stake.” Xisuma shakes his head, still in disbelief. “Why?”

Ex stops moving, going silent. His shoulder tense forward, until his head drops. “Because he means so much to you. You may not consider me a brother, but I still care about you. Whether or not this disaster could have been avoided, we’re all in on it now.”

“We?” Cub picks up on Ex’s words, raising an eyebrow. Of course, there were the royals, but he also remembers the water magic appearing from nowhere, the cactus growing from the woodwork, the black wings in the smoke.

Ex snorts. “What, you think you guys have been this lucky the whole time? That it was only you idiots taking on the magistrate?”

He turns, walking out of the room. Assuming the hermits will follow. He assumed correctly. Only a few stay behind to keep watch over Doc, the others squeezing through the aged wooden shop, up the rickety stairs and into a dining room.

They aren’t alone. Inside, three people are sitting. One with short brown hair, cropped to the side and laying on the top of the table, earthy colored clothes and scarves wrapped around her. Sitting crosslegged in the seat is a small kipling, rocking in place with curious eyes as he looks upon the large group entering into Ex’s study. Finned ears flick against black and orange locks, a slight glow appearing under the kipling’s clothes in the dark room. And in the corner, perched on the flat booth’s backrest, a blonde mane drapes around a serious face, and a pair of jet black wings rustle against the wooden walls.

The last faces they expected to see were those of the Wanderers.

“Red? Ecto?” Zedaph tips his head to the side, surprised. The last time they saw the three of them, it was before the labyrinth challenge. When the hermits celebrated with Team Crafted, they had already left. Disappeared just as fast as they appeared. And now, they’ve reappeared. Sitting in the middle of Ex’s kitchen, sipping on tea. As comfortable there as they were in that ratty old inn. ‘How do you guys know Xisuma’s brother?”

“It was you three who rescued Doc.” Scar whispers, his voice soft and almost reverent. Water, desert, and dragon.

“Ex approached us while you and Team Crafted were within the labyrinth. He told us about things we already had suspicion of, but no connected dots.” Avon tips her head back, looking down her nose at the hermits. “We decided the best way we could help Lairyon was to cause as much nuisance to the magistrate as possible, as well as handle certain missions.”

“This entire time, you were helping us?” Xisuma turns, looking at his brother. They’re the exact same height, purple eyes locked in some years long argument.

Ex snorts. “What, you think you idiots did that all on your own? But it wasn’t just the wanderers that have been helping. Team Crafted has had their hand in this underground rebellion as well. Turns out, they make a lot of trouble all over the place for the arcane guard to deal with, as well as encourage people to tell their stories and speak out against the magistrate.”

“But then that leaves…” Mumbo trails off, and he turns around at the sound of bickering behind them. Sure enough, the twin rulers are still arguing over their codenames. Mumbo bows, his hands shaking as he remembers all the rules he was taught when in presence of the king.

King Sor presses one hand over his twin’s mouth to shut him up, and uses the other to wave off Mumbo’s bow. “Please, there’s no-” Sor’s interrupted when Tris retaliates, licking his hand. The king curses, rubbing the spit on his white outfit. “You’re disgusting, brother.”

“Go on, finish the story. Don’t forget to tell them who’s idea it was to reach out to the mysterious white haired man with connections to Eremita.” Tris scoots in beside Red, and Ecto pours tea for the royal advisor.

“It was Tris’s idea to contact Ex. I honestly don’t know how he found out about him, but he’s been the conductor of it all. We help fund in any way we can, and he does the research before sending the wanderers and Team Crafted to play support roles.” King Sor doesn’t look like the man the hermits are used to seeing. The king, the ruler of Lairyon. He’s thriving with people, just another person, another friend.

“But...you’re the king. Why can’t you just depose of Dolios?” Beef questions, the confusion in his voice matched by all of the hermits. Only Ex and the wanderers act as if this was evident.

They expected Sor to answer, being the king, but with a loud crash of a metal teacup against the wooden table, all attention is turned to Tris. “That monster, that....bastard has been using us all against Sor. Especially me.” Tris grits his teeth hard, jaw tight and set. “You’re too damn soft, Sor.”

“Soft?! Tris, he was going to kill you!” Sor gasps, tears beginning to streak from teal eyes, across tanned cheeks. His breath hiccups and catches in his throat. “Dolios made sure he had control over everything, including me. In order to do that, he… he tortured Tris. My brother. Threatened both our families. Hurt our closest friends in the royal guard. Sometimes… I had no choice but to let it happen. The things he would have done to the kingdom were so much worse but...at what cost? Did I make the right decision, letting him do that to my own brother?”

Sor’s knees fall out from under him, and in the aged wooden floor of a bookstore, the King of Lairyon is brought to kneel. Tears fall, all he’s been forced to endure breaking down. And the hermits, despite hardly knowing King Sor, understand and sympathize with him all the same. His family is at risk, the same way their own is. Dolios will stop at nothing to tear both families apart, all for his gain and rise to power.

Red clambers over Tris’s lap, breaking every taboo and rite to approach the king. She runs over, and hugs the king tight and close. A warm hug, like a mother’s embrace, just enough to calm down the monarch. Such a young man, forced to make so many horrible decisions. After a moment, the king recollects himself. Through puffy, tearstained eyes, he looks to the hermits. “Lairyon needs a hero. There are no chosen ones, there is no prophecy. No knights in shining armor, no kings and our awesome power. This time, the heroes need to be made. And you, the Order of Hermits, were the brave souls to choose to be heroes.”

“Dolios is using his darkness to gain power. After what you dealt with, we were sure you’d give up.” Tris adds, standing and placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder. Now, the scars on the royal advisor’s body are clear as day. “But you really are the heroes that will bring back the Light of Lairyon.”

Silence falls over the room. The hermits, heroes? Just for wanting to help, to do what no one else knew to do? They were caught up in all of this, and multiple times death waited to claim them- if Dolios had his way. They weren’t heroes, just people who chose to fight back. Who chose to make the stand.

“Dark magic isn’t new.” Ex breaks the silence, hefting a massive, ancient book onto the table. The wood rocks, dumping Avon off it and into Ecto’s lap. “There have been insurgences all throughout history, though the past thousand years have been relatively quiet. Unfortunately about that, almost all information how the dark magic was defeated has been… lost to time. To make matters worse, no reported insurgence has ever been so prolific as this time around.”

“Alright, how does this help with anything?” Xisuma rolls his eyes. His brother always has such a flair for the dramatics, always getting way too deep into history and his books. Next to the massive tome that Ex is flipping through, Avon stops pestering Ecto. She goes still, even when the desert wizard dumps her onto the floor. A look of fear spreads from her eyes, rippling like a drop of water across a lake.

“Well, if this happened before with the ancient ones, then it’s likely the answer may lie with the history of Lairyon itself. Perhaps if you-” Ex is interrupted when a massive black pair of wings extends, one smacking him in the face.

“The spirit dragons are in danger.”

#hermitcraft #hermitcraft au #hermitcraft fanfic #light of lairyon #wizard au #wizard hermits #lol #wizard grian #wizard ex #wizard doc #wizard scar #wizard bdubs #wizard etho #grianmc #evil xisuma #docm77 #gtwscar #bdoubleo100 #ethoslab

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snowdice · 4 years

Text

Folds in Paper (Chapter 3: Eye of Gold; Thigh of Blue)[Folds in Time Universe]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Janus/Patton, Remus & Roman, eventual Logan/Virgil (maybe more)

Characters:

Main: Janus, Patton, Remus

Appear: Remy, Emile, Virgil, Logan, Roman

Summary: Janus, a disillusioned senior agent working for the Time Preservation Initiative, struggles to find meaning in a world where time travel could change everything about your life’s history in less than a moment. When time distortions start popping up, threatening the timeline and the fabric of reality as he knows it, it becomes a race against the clock to fix the damage before everything unravels. And the problem with time travel… you never how long you have before the clock strikes 12 and your time is up.

With a partner who has more mysteries in his past than Janus had anticipated and an enigmatic free agent time traveler mucking about time always with a clever pun or a time appropriate pet name on his lips, Janus will need to figure out what went wrong with time, and more importantly, how to fix it.

Chapter Summary:

Eye of gold Thigh of blue True is false Who is who?

Notes: Time travel AU, mystery, enemies to lovers, alcohol

This is a fic I’ve been writing on study breaks that you have probably all already seen at this point. I’ve slightly edited it for wording and grammar, but not for content from my previous posts. Feel free to send in asks to direct it because I’m not 100% sure where this is going and you can help decide if you feel so inclined! You can see the process I went through to build this at this link.

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted).

AO3 Part 1 Part 2

Janus and Remus both appeared at the same moment a couple of feet apart in what looked like the inside of a garden shed. There was already a man waiting for them a few feet away. “Sup babes,” Remy said, just like he always did. The T-Agent looked their costumes up and down and whistled. “Now that,” he said, “almost makes me want to be one of you time jockeys.”

“They wouldn’t let me have a gun or a canister of moonshine,” Remus pouted.

Remy snorted. “Sorry, babes, but that makes my job a lot easier. If I’ve gotta fish you outta the 1920s criminal justice system, I’d rather it not be because you shot someone on accident ‘cause you don’t know how to use the safety.”

Remus groaned dramatically. “Everyone is lame.”

Remy just shook his head. “Meet back here when you’ve got the necklace,” he said. “Don’t make a move until after 11:05pm and before 11:17. That’s your window.”

“We know,” Janus said. “See you then.”

“Have fun at the party boys,” Remy said and then lowered his shades to look at Remus, “but not too much fun.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Remus, already towing Janus out of the garden shed. The way had been specifically cleared for them, so they met no other people before they’d rounded the house the party was taking place in and had gotten onto the driveway in front of the house.

Without missing a beat, they strolled up to the front of the house, just as a car pulled into the end of the driveway. Janus rang the doorbell, and a few moments later, a man who was clearly the butler answered the door. They handed over their invitation, and the man immediately let them in.

The party had already started when they slipped into the medium sized ballroom that had been decked out in streamers and other decorations. Janus’s nose immediately wanted to scrunch as the smell of sweat from all the dancing already going on as well as the too strong perfume meant to cover said stench wafted over him. It was by far not the worst smelling time period, but he was pretty sure some people still weren’t aware deodorant had been recently invented.

He checked his time piece which had been disguised as a fancy wristwatch for this trip. “Okay,” he said. “We have about two hours before we need to make our move. We should…”

Remus’s attention was already being dragged away by a young man who seemed to be providing guests with food. “I’m going to go ‘mingle’,” he said, winking.

“No!” Janus hissed. “Re- Richard! No!”

Yet, he was already disappearing into the horde of stinky bodies, likely to go scandalize a bunch of rich folks, and leaving Janus alone. Janus mumbled a curse under his breath that he was sure no one around him would understand even if they could make it out.

Unsure what to do with himself, he wandered over towards where the live musicians were playing jazz music, being sure to keep out of the way of the dancers. He was edging around the makeshift dancefloor, when one of said dancers must have misstepped and knocked into another one. The second man stumbled right towards Janus, arms pinwheeling. Janus reached out on instinct to catch the man as he fell.

There was a moment where the two of them just stared at each other, surprise evident on the other man’s face. He was wearing a mask that just covered the area around his eyes and the top of his nose, revealing a smattering of freckles across his cheeks that Janus imagined extended to his nose. The mask was a light blue velvet with a flower stuck on the side near his right ear, and a trail of curled golden ribbon bobbed down around his chin. The party continued on around them, a blur of movement and sound.

“Are you alright?” Janus asked.

The man blinked up at him and then tilted his head slightly to the side as though confused, before a smile slowly grew on his face. “Oh, I’m fine, Dove.”

“Dove?” Janus asked.

He giggled. “You have dove feathers on your mask,” he explained, reaching up a hand to touch one. His finger brushed the tip of Janus’s ear, “and I don’t know what else I’m supposed to call you.”

“My name is Lee,” he automatically lied.

“Is it?” he asked, sounding amused. “Doesn’t seem to fit you well. I like Dove better.”

“Oh?” asked Janus. “And what’s your name so I can not call you that?”

The man chuckled. “Call me Pat.”

“Hello Pat,” Janus said.

“I thought you didn’t want to call me by my name.”

“I changed my mind.”

“Hmmm,” Pat said, finger tracing idly across Janus’s forearm which was when Janus realized with a start that he was still holding the man in his arms. He quickly went to release him, which Pat allowed with clear amusement. Yet, instead of completely stepping away, Pat grabbed Janus’s arm. “What are you doing all the way over here by the way?” he asked. “Don’t you want to dance.”

“Oh,” Janus hesitated. “I don’t really dance.” Or at least not in the way the people around him were. He’d had basic training for this style, but it had been a while and he was a bit rusty.

“Everyone dances Dove,” Pat claimed. “At least if they know the steps and have the right partner.”

“But I don’t know the steps,” Janus said with an eyebrow raise.

He hummed. “Well, I know the dance pretty well by this point,” Pat said. “Why don’t I teach you how it goes?” He was agreeing with the soft beseeching tone before he even realized it. Pat pulled him into the middle of the throng of people. He seemed to think, bopping his head to the music playing for a moment, before looking back at Janus. “Heard of James Johnson?”

Janus inclined his head.

“Well, have you heard his new song? Because there’s a dance that goes with it.”

He took a few steps away from Janus and started to dance. Despite his claim to know the steps, he wasn’t particularly good, but he made up for any loss of rhythm with pure enthusiasm.

Janus found himself smiling at the man, and after a few moments, joined in with the dance. Despite his lack of practice, he ended up having a better natural rhythm than Pat. Pat didn’t seem to mind that he was being outperformed, however. On the contrary, he giggled at himself the couple of times he stumbled.

When he fell into Janus’s arms for the second time that night, Janus decided he’d probably had enough dancing for the moment and pulled him off to the side to get something to drink and cool down a bit.

He watched the man take a snack and some punch from one of servers with a happy “Thank you!” before turning back to Janus. Pat was easily able to keep Janus’s attention as they chatted. He was bubbly and soft, and Janus found himself enchanted as they talked.

He was explaining the steps of a different dance, a couples one. “Knowing how to perform the tango will entrance any girl you want,” Pat said, something mischievous sparkling in his eyes. “Assuming you’re that type of fella.”

“As opposed to what?” Janus asked.

Pat leaned in a bit closer. Not too much, but enough that he was definitely in Janus’s space. “A different type of fella,” he said simply, before smiling and leaning back.

Janus let out a shaky exhale and took a sip of punch. He glanced over at Pat. “Tell me about yourself, Pat,” he said.

Pat hummed in contemplation. “Well, I went to France recently.”

“You did?”

“Oui, but I ran into some trouble”

“What kind of trouble?” Janus asked curiously.

“Oh, the kind with a pretty boy and crepes that were way too sweet. Anyway,” he continued. “Other than that, I mostly help out my friend. He’s an inventor.”

“And how do you help him?”

He shrugged, “Running errands mostly, and making sure he gets enough sleep, because otherwise he gets distracted and forgets. And you?”

“I’m a banker,” he said, remembering his cover, but felt compelled to add, “but I like to travel as well.”

“You do look the type?”

“And how is that?”

Pat shrugged. “I can always tell a wandering spirt from the masses, and you are easy to spot.” Pat looked at him then with a secret smile on his face, and Janus felt suddenly known, like the man in front of him had known him for years even though they’d only just met. Looking at him then, he wanted suddenly for that to be fact and not a flight of fancy.

He was brought firmly back to reality in the next moment. “Lee,” a pointed and familiar voice said. Janus’s head snapped up to see Remus, staring at him. He tapped his wrist. Janus glanced at his own wrist: 10:58pm. He just barely managed not to curse.

“I,” he said looking up at Pat. “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

“That’s okay,” Pat said easily. “It is getting rather late.”

“Yes,” Janus agreed. “Well… goodbye.”

Pat, titled his head, a half smile on his face. “I’ll be seeing you around.”

Janus nodded, and turned away from him towards Remus. He didn’t look back as they excited the ballroom. They snuck into a small side closet for coats that wasn’t being used as it was summer.

“So,” Remus said when the door closed behind them.

“Don’t,” warned Janus.

“I’m not one to judge,” Remus said.

“Shut up.” He glanced at his watch. It was 11:02. “We’ll go in 5.”

“I have to give it to you. He was very cute.”

“We’re not talking about it.”

Remus just laughed joyfully, and Janus did his best to halt the blood rushing to his cheeks.

At 11:07, well into their window, they slipped back out of the closet, and towards the stairs as the party raged on.

Despite how Remus usually never shut up, he was able to be quiet when it counted. They snuck to the master bedroom of the home’s owners in silence. The door was already wide open by the time they got there, and Janus didn’t think anything of it. At least, he didn’t until they entered the bedroom, and there was someone already there.

The man turned from the dresser he’d been standing in front of to face them, sending Janus the same smile he had down in the ballroom. Janus and Remus both froze. “Sorry, sweetie,” Pat said. “Were you here for this too?” he held up the necklace they’d been sent for. He closed his fist around the charm made out of time travel tech.

“What?” Janus said.

Pat giggled and winked. “Unfortunately, I need it a bit more than you at the moment. So, I’m gonna have to go.” Janus stepped forward, not really sure what he was intending to do, but Pat just smiled. “See you some other time, my Turtle Dove.” With a snap of his fingers and loud crack, he disappeared. The mask he’d been wearing fluttered to the ground.

Want to read more? Click below!

AO3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9

#sanders sides #moceit #janus sanders #patton sanders #remus sanders #remy sanders #time travel #adriana writes #folds in paper #folds in time universe #logan sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #emile sanders #analogical #(eventually)

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chicgeekgirl89 · 4 years

Text

Happy Coronaversary

Fandom: NCIS LA

Characters: Marty Deeks, Kensi Blye, G Callen, Sam Hanna, Nell Jones, Monty

A/N: So this fic is Corona related but it’s a very fluffy, not-so-serious take on it. I would like everyone to be aware that I absolutely understand the severity of the situation and this is just for fun. Also I feel like the team is considered essential personnel and wouldn’t necessarily be at home. Anyway, enjoy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“Deeks, what the hell are you doing?” Sam asked, his face arranged in that particularly annoyed look he saved especially for the most dramatic member of their team.

“Social distancing,” Deeks said, or rather, called, from halfway across the room.

At some point before everyone’s arrival that morning he’d dragged his desk as far away from the rest as he could get it and then taped off a large circle around it. “It’s for everyone’s safety,” he told them.

“It’s six feet Deeks, not a football field,” Callen said. “Besides, we’ve been together every day this week. If one of us has it, we all have it.”

“Tell that to Eric. He locked himself in Ops and won’t open the door for anyone except Nell. And even she has to wash her hands three times first,” he said.

“I sing the chorus of ‘Cell Block Tango’ from Chicago,” Nell said from where she was leaning against the corner of Callen’s desk, flicking through her tablet. “He’d better knock it off soon or he’s going to have it coming.”

“Is he doing this at home too?” Sam asked.

Kensi rolled her eyes. “He’s slept in the guest room every night this week. Only Monty is allowed to visit.”

“Isn’t it your anniversary today?” Callen asked.

“Yes it is.”

“How are you…never mind,” he said.

“Oh that’s right! Happy Anniversary you two!” Nell said. “Are you doing something fun to celebrate?”

“Well we were planning to go up to San Diego this weekend, but I guess we’ll be doing take out at home instead,” Kensi told her.

“What are you guys talking about?” Deeks hollered.

Kensi turned around and gave him a look. “We’re questioning why I decided to marry a crazy man a year ago!”

“Daisy land? Do you mean Disneyland? That’s closed because of the virus!” Deeks yelled back.

She turned back and looked at her colleagues. “Do you think it’s too late for an annulment?”

“Considering what you two get up to in the burn room I think that’s out,” Nell said.

“You think that’s bad, you’ve never caught them at the bar after hours,” Callen said with a smirk.

“Your lease doesn’t extend to the bar so I don’t know why you come down in the first place!” Kensi said with a glare.

“You have good snacks down there. Deeks said it was fine.”

“During business hours! Not in the middle of the night!”

Sam stood, grabbing his bag. “Yeah I’m going to social distance from all of you. I’ll be in the upstairs office if anybody needs me.”

“Sam? Where ya going?” Deeks yelled. “Are you getting coffee? Can you get me a latte? One of those ones with the little happy faces on them? From down the street? Sam? Buddy?”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kensi had had absolutely enough of this charade. Sometimes Deeks took his performance art too far and this time the humor had worn thin about the time he started insisting they take separate cars to work. So tonight, she was taking matters into her own hands.

She stopped outside the guest room door a little after nine. Monty wandered into the hallway and looked up at her hopefully. “Sorry buddy. Mom and Dad need some alone time tonight.”

Opening the door she stepped into the room and closed it tightly behind her. “Baby, I told you we—“ Deeks’ protest died immediately as she dropped her bathrobe to the floor to reveal one of his favorite nighties, the one with a whole lot of lace and not much else.

“Happy Anniversary,” she said. “I know we can’t go away for our weekend like we planned, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun anyway.” She batted her eyes at him. “Do you want to make a quarantine baby with me?”

“Oh heck yes,” he said, throwing aside the book he’d been reading.

She smiled and took a step back. “It’s too bad we have to keep a social distance of six feet.”

“You’ve been saying all week that it doesn’t apply to couples who live together. I think maybe you’re right.”

“Mmm…I don’t know. I’m starting to think you’re right. Better safe than sorry.” She reached behind her back for the doorknob but Deeks bounded out of bed and caught her hand, pressing her up against the door.

“Don’t toy with me Fern,” he growled.

“I’m not the one who’s been playing games all week,” she told him.

“Do I look like I’m playing now?” His eyes were dark and she felt a shiver of pleasure down her spine.

She cleared her throat, not ready to give in so easily. “I don’t know, you’ve been pretty difficult to deal with lately. Maybe it’s my turn to social distance.”

He leaned close, hands trailing slowly up her sides. “I bet I can find a way to make it up to you.”

“Oh you think so?”

“Mhm I do.”

His lips found hers, hot and wanting, and she gave in completely, letting him pick her up and carry her to the bed. He set her down and then knelt in front of her, pulling off his t-shirt before he ran a hand up her leg, toying with a ribbon by her hip. “You picked this one on purpose.”

“Yes I did.”

“You know how I feel about this one.”

“I do.”

“You played dirty.”

“I got what I wanted didn’t I?”

“Will you still love me when the Corona gets me?”

“Deeks.” She grabbed his arm and fixed him with an extremely serious look. “Shut up.”

“Yes ma’am.”

#NCIS LA #Densi #Some fluff #With a little smexy #Smexy light #Corona Virus #Covid-19 #Happy Coronaversary #Marty Deeks #Kensi Blye #G Callen #Sam Hanna #Nell Jones #Monty #NCIS Los Angeles #Densi Anniversary #Till Death Do Us Part #Densi Fanfic

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chrissyutimagines · 4 years

Text

AUs Skeles Headcanons Part 3

Please keep in mind that most Sanses and Papyruses share the same traits as the original, except for the swaps, which share the same traits of the other. Also, the brackets will be the nickname for each of the skeles.

Horrortale

Sans(Sansy)

The big famine in the Underground made everyone crazy.

And he's no exception.

But as they left it, everyone became more stable. Much more stable.

The experience left some aftermath. From fighting, duh.

For him, it's the giant hole in his skull, and memory problems.

He could never forget the terrible things he done tho. Killing.

Because of that, he has a serious case of depression.

He doesn't forgive himself. Even if it's for survival.

Often times he will just sit there staring into space, making no movement, reacting numbly to everything. Depression phase.

He's, of course, touch starved.

His extreme depression made his hp stay at 1 while his lv is really high.

He has become physically bigger, stronger and more sturdier.

His magic is stronger too.

When he's irritated at himself, he will scratch his hole. It's a lil painful.

Still puns and jokes, but is unable to keep track of his jokes for long.

Quiet and afraid to scare people.

Papyrus(Sweets)

His aftermath is broken teeth. He has to wear braces.

His hands are not clean, and is scarred for life.

He's terribly worried about his brother.

He has accepted the terrible things that had happened. He hates it tho.

He accepts his brother's puns because it's the rare times he can see his brother's old self after all that happened.

Talks a lot quieter due to the teeth problem.

His hp and lv are high, but he's not happy about it. Duh.

He he has minor depression. He needs affection, badly.

He is a lot taller and stronger. But his legs aren't built to withstand the strain, so he has supports.

Dancetale

Sans(Dance)

His genre is Hip hop, and is best at Break dance. Knows a thing or two about freestyle.

He's really shy and insecure.

Always dances with his hood up. Practices in a clearing in the woods.

He's a romantic. A really sweet romantic.

He's actually an elite in his art.

He's easily flustered. And it's adorable.

He taught his brother the art of dancing.

Only dances without his hood in front of his brother.

His insecurity comes from his shyness.

Need affection, and affirmation.

Papyrus(Tango)

His style is Latin, and his favorite is Tango. Knows a thing or two about Ballroom.

Always has a rose thorns cut off with him.

Unlike Dance, he is really confident.

And like to participate in Dance battles and Dance offs.

He's often seen at Grillby's Dance Club and Bar, participating in Dance events. And not eating the food there.

He knows little to none about Dance's insecurity or lack of confidence.

Mostly because Dance never says anything about it. And partially because he is excellent at it.

He is also an elite at his art.

He practices with his brother. Despite their styles being worlds apart.

He's a lil dense. At times.

Altertale

Sans(Alter)

He is excellent at healing. And care taking.

He likes to bake as well. He has to eat something.

He still loves fast food. Toriel brings him some.

His relationship with his brother is a lil tense. Because he took innocent souls.

He's depressed because of that.

He's quite gentle and sweet.

He loves kids. Period. No, he's not a pedophile.

His depression is actually pretty bad, seeing that he loves his little brother, and didn't want to leave him.

At night, he cries to himself. Desperately wanting Papyrus to just stop.

He loves dank memes. Toriel introduced it to him.

Papyrus(Belief)

He has terrible depression as well. Due to the killing.

He once went troops to find Sans, but to no avail. He gave up in the end.

His hands are not clean, and he feels extremely guilty.

He has to stay strong, for his people.

He's tired of it all. Tired of killing and isolating himself.

Yes, he isolated himself.

He reads science books from time to time. Even if he doesn't understand it. Because it reminds him of his brother.

He also reads joke books, but don't call him out, he hates it. It's just for, memorable purposes.

He needs comfort. And affection.

Cries to sleep every night.

Outertale

Sans(Comet)

He's a sweet, shy, insecure boi. And adorable.

He's also a huge romantic.

He knows a lot about planets, stars, constellations... Just anything about the vast universe and its stories.

He also knows astrology pretty well.

He's mostly quite quiet. Due to his shyness.

But if you let him, he could geek out and start talking about everything he knows about one thing.

It's pretty adorable 'tibia' honest.

And he will definitely have a bunch of space puns. Puns knows no bounds.

He also studied geology. Mostly because he wants to know more about space rocks. And partially to make rock puns to annoy Captain.

"SANS, COME EAT DINNER!" "Sorry bro, I don't have the 'apatite' for it." "SANS, IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS?" "It's an apatite." "NYEEEH!"

Papyrus(Captain)

He dreams of being the captain of an spaceship. Hence the nickname.

He studies more of engineering and robotics.

His knowledge ranges from fixing machines to building and programming a robot.

He also studies space and spacecraft.

He's quite practical.

He likes to get his hands dirty. I mean hard working, not killing.

He likes to use his knowledge to help others.

He knows his brother's vast knowledge in multiple areas, and often goes to him for information he needs.

And getting to see him geek out every now and then.

He wishes that if he gets the chance to be the captain of a spacecraft, Comet can be with him as one of the scientists.

#AUs #Headcanons #Sans #Papyrus #Horrortale #Dancetale #Altertale #Outertale #Sansy #Sweets #Dance #Tango #Alter #Belief #Comet #Captain

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kokaizhu · 5 years

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Hi there :) I was wondering if you could write head canons with Inosuke, Tanjirou and Sanemi about their daily life with their s/o? Some cute fluffy stuff x3. Thank you so much, love your writing btw :D

Everyday Life Hc' s

Author Note:

Took awhile but, here it is. Hope you enjoy!!

Also, last headcanon in each section is just a little special. Of course Inosuke and Tanjirou is aged up and there's implied smut but nothing really happening. :3

Much love!💗

Inosuke:

🐗To say the least, there's never a dull moment with this one.

🐗He challenges you with the most basic activities. For example: Cleaning, Cooking, ect.

🐗But of course, you have to secretly do some things over and let him bask in his 'accomplishments'.

🐗You're literally a saint with this man... You're so patient.

🐗But you have your moments, moments that even Inosuke himself is terrified and he literally forces himself to stay in one place as to not piss you off further.

🐗He's learned his lesson after last time.

🐗24/7 access to style him up as you please.(24/7 is a little exaggerated, but ya get it... Right?)

🐗He loves to rest his head in your lap while you brush your fingers through his locks. It helps him relax after training or fighting.

🐗Teaching him things that he might not get.

🐗One day, walking through a village, Inosuke spots another couple with a kid in between them. He huffs as It gets him thinking; Why don't we have one? He's taking it as a challenge.

··For male:

He faces you all of a sudden, startling the hell out of you. Inosuke aggresively points to the other couple as smoke came from the nose of his boar mask,

"We're getting 10 of those things!!" He squealed loudly.

Your gaze shifted over and sweatdrop. "Inosuke-kun, I don't think-"

"10!!!!" He shouted in a challenging manner, dragging you back to your home where you then had a long, long talk with him.

He still tries it with you, in denial that you, yourself can't have children.

He's depressed for a week.... It doesn't help when Tanjirou came over with his s/o and their newly born baby.

··For female:

Same thing as he aggressively points at the other couple's kid as he brought you close to his body by your kimono. You put your hands up, a nervous smile in place with your features turning completely red.

"U-Um... I don't think that's- wah!"

He's carrying you over his head with a snort and sprinted home to do the tango of love~. Seriously, he went on with the mating process until you announced that you were with a child. Which you're kinda glad for, HE CAN FUCKING STOP NOW! Your body was not made for how much energy this man has.

Take it to a few months later, your stomach grown and the boys come over, Tanjirou with his child and Zenitsu with his. Simply put, Inosuke's pissed he wasn't first and tells you to give him the child now, to which you respond with the most deadliest glare the trio has ever seen.....

He's sleeping outside until further notice. ❤

Tanjirou:

🌊Supportive and helpful in every way he can be.

🌊Eveytime he goes out, he'll bring you something. Even if it's just for a little bit.

🌊Dislikes leaving you alone, afraid something would happen to you, but you'd assure him that you'll be fine.

🌊Loves to watch you do (Your favorite hobby/activity). He admires your passion.

🌊When your alone, you take the liberty to fix up his clothes from past, recent missions he went on.

🌊Nezuko visits, either to give you company when alone or to take your entire attention, leaving Tanjirou flabbergasted as he's easily forgotten by his own s/o.

🌊Holding hands and cuddles for comfort if you have some sort of break down: Anxiety, panic, ect.

🌊Help each other train; He helps you with self defense training and you help him to progress his breathing and sword skills

🌊As someone who is so kind-hearted and gentle, he can be... Threatening. If anyone said anything about you or something, he's onto them.

🌊Being lonely when Tanjirou is off somewhere or when you walk through the village, you end up getting the baby fever everytime your mind would wander off or see the children running around and playing.

You brought it up to Tanjirou one day:

··For male:

It was over dinner, you guys conversed normally until you looked him dead in the eyes. Which worried him a bit.

"Let's have a child."

He blinked, slowly processing what you just demanded before his face burst into a bright red. "(Y-Y-Y/n)! it's.. W-We can't-"

"We can adopt...." You deadpan.

"O-Oh..." He looked wide-eyed beforeblooking off in embarrassment. "Right..."

You burst laughing, furthering his embarrassment even more as he slouched.

The next day, you went to adopt ONE child.... You guys end up with a few extra.

Whoops-

··For female:

You were shy about it, staying quiet during dinner as he tried to converse with you. Of course he can smell your nervousness and knows you want to tell him something, but he's not going to push you into telling him. He's patient with you.

It wasn't until bed, when you guys were laying in your futons that you made a move. Poking his shoulder until he groggily turned to you is when you declared it.

"I want a baby..." You mumbled with a slight blush.

Tanjirou blinked at you, clearly tired to process. "Okay.." He unknowingly agreed sleepily as he pulled you close into his embrace and dozed back off. But you, being excited, rolled him over onto his back to straddle him in which it startled him back up.

"Then let's get started, Tanjirou-kun~!"

"G-Get started with what, (Y/n)-chan?"

"Making the baby, ya silly!"

"Ba-Baby!?" He surely wide awake this time to understand that he agreed to do the deed, causing him to burst into a bright red. "W-wait, don't you think-"

He's cut off with your giggles as you get straight to it...

Sanemi:

🌪Tsun-Tsun Alert!

🌪Doesn't admit it but, he loves that you're always by his side, even if he does 'complain' a lot, he enjoys your company.

🌪He rants about things that might've pissed him off during the day while getting ready for bed.

🌪Every morning, he'd pretend to stay asleep just to lay on your chest while you brush your fingers through his hair. You don't know that.

🌪Each night,you love to trace his scars and place gentle kisses on them. It sends a comforting chill through him.

🌪Watches you closely around the estates whenever he's there, he becomes jealous when you talk to the butterfly estates men. Although you're just asking for medcinal advice or something...

🌪When asked about you, he dismisses it and continues on with whatever the hell he was doing.

🌪Gets 'pissed' when you display affection in front of the other pillars, to which he turns a blind eye to it asking you to stop it. Secretly wants you to continue on though....

🌪Privately, he returns all the affection behind closed doors.

🌪This time, it's not you to ask for a child. He does and is quite straight forward with it in his own way.

··For male:

He stared at you with a glare that barely wavered you as you'd stare back boredly.

This has been going on for awhile now, he called for you for something and this is how it ends up. Sanemi hasn't said anything or moved at all. Anyone could tell that he's conflicted by something just by looking into his eyes.

"We're getting a brat." He finally spoke.

You just continued to stare with the raise of your brows and an amused smirk. "Oh? Are we going to do the.... Process of conceiving now?" Then you wiggled your brows suggestively.

He narrowed his eyes, unamused. "It doesn't work that way for us, (Y/n)!"

"Doesn't hurt to try~" you turned with a chuckle, causing Sanemi to glared intensely since you didn't really take him seriously. But jokes on you, your new child was coming the next day.

··For female:

You two stood side by side in the garden, admiring the view of flowers and trees peacefully.

Your gaze went towards Sanemi when you felt a full hand grip your thigh. "What.. Is it? Something wrong?" You immediately questioned with the tilt of your head.

He looked straight at you, leaning in closely, resting his forehead onto yours.

"Will you... Give me a child?" He whispered, barely audible. But you heard it.

Your eyes widened and blushed. He sounded so sincere and genuine about it. It's so surprising that that Sanemi of all people would ask for such a thing.

Though, he got inpatient.

"Well, would ya!?" He gritted his teeth as he held onto your thigh tightly.

With a smile, you place both hands onto either side of his face and gently thumbed his cheeks.

"Anything for you~" you pecked his lips.

#kimetsu no yaiba x reader #tanjuro kamado #kamada tanjiro #inosuke hashibira #hashibira inosuke #shinaguzawa sanemi #sanemi shinazugawa #x reader #anime reader insert #reader insert #headcanon #imagines #scenario

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kathasgotyourtongue · 4 years

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Unpredictable Jokers (A Hermitcraft Fanfiction)

See previous chapters: Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

Chapter 3

~~~~~~~~~~~~

After that, hermits started to report more instances left and right. Things would go missing, turning up at random later. Someone might catch sight of somebody they didn't recognize before that person disappeared. Mobs would be seen following the movements of someone who wasn't there.

The server became paranoid. Nobody knew who would be next to catch a glimpse of the mysterious figure. Who would witness the next bizarre thing. Some started to believe they were going crazy...

X let out a yawn and leaned back to stretch in his chair. Being an admin of a server was exhausting, and now to top it off, he had multiple reports of hermits seeing someone that wasn't there.

He found it coincidental at first that both Grian and Bdubs seemed to have seen someone, but then he heard that Joe also spotted someone around. After that, multiple strange things had taken place that had left the hermits puzzled and freaked out. It didn't make sense.

They hadn't added anyone new to the server, and from what Xisuma heard, this person was extremely stealthy. Somehow managing to appear in places quicker than usual, disappearing and reappearing... it was puzzling to say the least. Not to mention, the times, places and people seemed to be picked at random as well. From a jungle, to open plains, to then the Shopping District? And those were just the first cases!

X let out a groan and rested his chin on his palm tiredly. He had no idea what to do about this.

"-Xisuma? X? Hey bro, I was wondering if you were going to be restocking your honey blocks soon- Oh! Hey X! Didn't see you there!" Iskall said as he came through the doorway. X leaned up to look at him.

" 'Afternoon, Iskall. You need something?" He asked, a tired tone apparent in his voice.

"Yes.. I was going to ask if you were gonna be restocking your honey blocks soon.. but never mind that now! Dude, you look terrible, what's got you so stressed?" He asked, coming closer. X glanced back at his messy desk and sighed.

"Well there's admin stuff regarding the new update soon, but aside from that..." He paused, unsure of how to explain his troubles. "Right, I'm sure it's gone around by now... A bunch of the hermits have been seeing somebody sneaking around lately. Not a hermit, either. It makes no sense, but all of the reports seem legit." He groaned, picking up papers and looking over them.

Iskall came up to his desk. "Oh yeah, I guess I do recall a few things here or there. I have been working on my Omega Base, so, I am a bit behind on the news..." He confessed and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

X chuckled. "I noticed. It looks great man. And, from the amount of progress, I can almost guarantee that you haven't used the time to be messing with anybody. The whole thing just has me exhausted! There are no leads or significant clues to go off of either. Blimey, it's like the Jingler mystery all over again, now in'nit!?" X whined. Iskall chuckled at his outburst. Sure, you could easily tell the guy was British, but when X got angry it stuck out more.

"Yeah, with the whole sneaking thing going on and all. Plus, as you mentioned, haven't they been messing with people too? I heard Bdubs got pretty bent out of shape the other day." Iskall pointed out.

X hummed in confirmation.

"Yeah, mate. I was one of the only people active when it happened. He was going to meet up with Tango to check out a new machine for their shop, and a few minutes after Tango asked, Bdubs messaged us, telling us to stop messing with him. We all were in the Shopping District at the time, so I told him that. Few more minutes pass by, and suddenly he has just flown to us from his base, totally out of breath and messed up from a rough landing, claiming that someone was messing with him! Honestly, I felt bad. He had to do breathing exercises with Stress..." X recalled. Iskall gave him a concerned look.

"Wow, poor guy. Well, what else has happened?" Iskall asked, becoming curious. Of course being out of the loop, the most he knew was that weird things had been happening to people all over the server. Only him and a few others were left to have seen nothing yet thenselves.

X let out a sigh, and turned to some papers scattered amongst his desk. Except for a few admin documents, most of them were little notes and letters he had received to inform him of the weird occurrences. He picked up a few and scanned over them, already having read them all top to bottom.

"Well, Bdubs is the best example. Grian was the first to ask about it, but let me see... Here. Cleo, "noticed tools she had just put in a chest disappear and reappear in a totally different spot minutes to hours later." That could have been result of a buggy server, but she also mentioned that "one time she caught the object disappear right in front of her and be carried in some invisible person's hand. They had no indication of a potion effect, and the tool disappeared for an estimated three hours before returning with full durability." On that note she also stated, "the durability sometimes ends up lower or higher than before." He finished. Iskall leaned on the desk to look over his shoulder.

"That is totally insane, dude! Do you think it really isn't a hermit, but like some other worldly person? Or do you believe that the server is just down?" he asked skeptically. X shrugged.

"I'm not sure. I mean, we deal with a buggy server often. Plus, with the new update comin' up, I haven't had the time to manage all of the littler bugs around here. That being said... I'm not convinced it isn't a person. It's just rather off putting with the evidence to think that..." He paused, his eyes widening slightly at the confession he was about to make.

"...That perhaps it is a person... but they aren't a hermit."

Grian laughed at the sight in front of him. Scar was currently bugging out, and stuck in flight mode. He didn't even have anything on him, which made the sight even more hilarious. Scar jumped again, awkwardly floating back down into the floor, making Grian cackle once more. Scar chuckled himself. He had to admit, this was hilarious even from his point of view.

"Dude, I asked you here for help! As funny as this situation is, I can't do anything like this!" He whined jokingly. Grian contained himself, and walked over to try to assist his neighbor.

They tried taking damage, placing him under a trap door to use the mechanics to set him straight, and even tried to kill him. Nothing was working, and by now, the funniness of it had worn off. Well, for Scar at least. Grian still held back his giggling every time Scar flew back into the floor face first.

Grian pondered any new ideas to help, but ultimately came up with nothing. He was about to give in and message Xisuma, when he noticed movement over by the treeline. Naturally, he looked over. His heart skipped a beat as he saw someone shift back behind a tree.

He blinked. He knew he wasn't crazy anymore, from what he heard going around the server. Multiple sightings had led him to believe that something- no someone, was truly out there. And Grian knew in his gut that the person he had ran into in the jungle about a week and a half ago was the culprit. But the fact that this was his second sighting...

Scar noticed after a moment that Grian had stopped and gone silent. He looked up to see Grian concentrated on the jungle's edge. "Grian?" he asked. Grian snapped back to him, seemingly disturbed. Scar couldn't help but notice the almost frightened, likely startled look Grian gave him for a second.

"Oh, right. Sorry, just... thought I saw something..." he muttered, glancing back to the trees once more. Scar's brows furrowed in concern. Grian really seemed fixed on whatever he just saw.

"What'd you see out there? If it's a meanie bear then we are both in trouble, heh..." Scar joked, hoping to lighten the mood. Though, the zero change in expression from his friend led him to grow more serious. "You.. look uncomfortable." Scar commented. Grian noticeable swallowed. As nice as Scar's constant banter was, he was still feeling rather uneasy.

"Ah, well it could have been a mob, but.... It.. looked like a person. T-They shifted back behind a tree though...! I-It was probably nothing! I might just be on edge from all the gossip going around.." he concluded, but still watched the jungle edge wearily. Scar tried to follow his line of sight, but was inconvenienced by his situation.

"How about this, dude? We get my situation worked out, and then together we can go look for the person you and everyone else keeps seeing! I feel a bit left out to not be crazy! I mean, I am the crazy wizard of the server after all!" he chuckled. Grian looked to him hopefully.

"Really? I.. don't want to keep you from your work..." he said, feeling guilty. He honestly felt bad to inconvenience Scar in any way.

"I'm down to help! I mean, we are neighbors!" he pressed. Grian gave him a small smile.

"Right. Thanks, dude. Let me just message Xisuma and then we can get you sorted out." he said with a smile, going back to his usual self. Scar smiled awkwardly in return.

"Sounds good!... Man, this is starting to become uncomfortable..." Grian looked over at his floor-bound neighbor, and found himself giggling once again. Scar glared playfully, glad to at least have Grian back to usual- even if the usual meant Grian laughing at him.

"Right. Well, never mind that eerie thought. Anyway, this whole situation is quite bothersome. I mean, I don't have the time to be worrying over this! I still have plenty to do before the update, and I-" X was cut off of his complaining to Iskall by the buzz from their communicators. Simultaneously, the two pulled out their devices to read the new message in the community chat.

Grian: Hey, X? Scar and I could use your assistance over here. Scar is bugged out and we can't fix him lol

The two raise a brow, Iskall chuckling. "Looks like you have some business to attend to. Well, I'm headed that way myself since I already hit up the Shopping District before I came over. Mind if I join you, dude?" he asked. Xisuma gave him a smile.

"Yeah, we'd better go assist those two idiots before they make it worse." he grinned as he responded to the message with an "Omw." Iskall chuckled.

The two entered the nearest portal, taking the quick way through the nether. Locating the portal leading to Scar's base, both X and Iskall hop through.

Xisuma hadn't really visited the others' bases lately, so it took him back a bit to see Scar's magnificent village coming together so far. He shouldn't have been surprised, since this was the terraformer's specialty, afterall. But, he had to give credit where credit was due. This place truly looked and felt magical! And he put it all together remarkably quickly!

"Man, this place never ceases to amaze! Oh, I see Grian over by the center crystal!" Iskall pointed out. Grian, overhearing them, waved them over.

Upon seeing poor Scar, both X and Iskall broke out laughing. It wasn't everyday you saw a man in a wizard outfit stuck face first into the ground. Grian joined in on the laughter.

"When you guys are done, can you please help me?" Scar begged, only prompting the boys to laugh harder.

#hermitcraft fanfiction #hermitcraft grian #hermitcraft iskall #hermitcraft #long post

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ctrl-shift-esc · 3 years

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It Takes 2 to tango

Hi!

It’s been a while since I sat down to write. Between Instagram & the now Podcast (Not Here To Hide) I found it to be a lot of sharing... I didn’t think I needed to spiel on here as much as I used to. (let’s keep the spam down to a minimum amiright?) I’ve been sharing most of my daily thoughts on Instagram. But today, my topic was just too long. I felt it deserved to be as long as it needed to be. This topic is dear to my heart. If you know me, you know that I’m someone who loves; love. You’d also know that I’m someone who’s devoted to working through her own shit and making sure I level up in life.

So today I want to chat about Relationships. It’s a big one for me. Relationships have always shaped me into new versions of myself. They allow me to grow and they hold a mirror to the parts of me that still need some TLC. But I don’t want to talk about just any kind of relationship, I’m specifically targeting; Conscious Relationships.

Let’s just come out and say it: Conscious relationships are hard.

I also don’t doubt it being a foreign concept to most people. Since most of us were never taught how to effectively communicate our needs, makes it even harder.

This is the Direct definition:

“A conscious relationship is a relationship that's created purposefully, decisively, and with intention. It requires clarity and choice around how you want your relationship to feel, how you like to love and be loved, and what your boundaries and non-negotiables are.”

Ultimately, it takes extreme self-awareness. Something that doesn’t come naturally. It takes curiosity, self-reflection & commitment to achieve. It’s hard to find because both individuals would need to either come into it with prior knowledge of it or be willing & committed to growing along the way.

In a Macho world; where men are men. Tough, strong and bullied by buddies if they talk about their feelings and women are supposed to be nice, smile and be sweet without any baggage — conscious relationships disrupt the programming. We disrupt the status quo by waking up and speaking up when we’re otherwise systematically trained to keep things surfaced. Practicing this type of deepness isn’t for the faint of hearts, let me tell ya!...

But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Learning to live with another human who gets you for you. A partner who understands your deepest, most raw vulnerabilities and who says I’m here to heal with you & to grow with you — is a level of connection most people don’t get to experience. There’s nothing more safe & satisfying than for 2 people to have the freedom to be in their entirety but also hold each other accountable to a better, more fulfilling life.

The misunderstanding is that this kind of connection should happen easily: outgrowing bad habits, showing up when you feel like being defensive, taking the time to understand when you otherwise want to be selfish, taking feedback that isn’t pleasant to hear but so necessary, listening to your partners needs even if maybe they don’t involve you — are all things that are uncomfortable to either witness or bear. They’re tough conversations. They require maturity & tons of patience. Hard doesn’t mean wrong and it definitely doesn’t mean; not worth it.

Hard means out of practice. There are some quirks to work through and more bumps along the road than if it had been two people experienced with practicing conscious relationships for decades. Hard isn’t impossible unless you want it to be.

Impossible happens when one or both, give up. When the will to grow and the commitment to getting curious with one another no longer exists. This is when impossible happens.

Hard means we’re growing. Hard means we’re having the tough conversations. And on the flip side — Easy doesn’t necessarily mean good or even balanced... I’ve always been weary of relationships that are “easy going”.

I always feel like asking : what’s missing in your relationship? I know I’ll trigger some people here; rightfully so! We work really hard to save face. To keep everything together by avoiding anything that could possibly rock the boat. But I’m okay with asking the tough questions. I’m okay with making you think... So what needs haven’t you expressed to your partner? What feedback haven’t you given? What are you keeping to yourself that is eating you up inside? Are you being honest, real, and challenging one another? Or are you just settling to avoid confrontation?

Avoiding confrontation to me, is a roundabout way of giving up. It’s a coward response. It does not fix or change the situation — it only deflects conversation and successfully delays the inevitable. Which is misleading. This is how you end up one day, waking up to a partner you don’t recognize.

Conscious relationships absolutely do not mean : let me drag you through the mud with my shit and you better be able to handle it (although sometimes it can definitely feel that way when you’re in the midst of expression, before you reach a point of understanding the others point of view!) But there’s tactful ways to communicate. Respectful ways to communicate. Conscious relationships are the commitment to growing the awareness of ourSELF and how we can better show up — with a never ending craving for a deeper, more vulnerable connection. It’s a practice. A messy one but a practice nonetheless — which means it isn’t perfect.

Navigating an unpaved road can be bumpy, but the views at the top are sure to be breathtaking. There’s accomplishment waiting for the devoted. As long as both deeply love each other, abundantly respect one another & stay committed to getting curious about their partner enough to walk through life side by side — the journey will most definitely be worth it.

Don’t be afraid to have the convos — don’t be afraid to take up space — don’t be afraid of the bumps — get curious — try to understand, go deeper and when all else fails, try again. Together.

Until next time

CTRL + SHIFT + Get conscious !

#consciousrelationships #couplegoals #relationships #authenticity #vulnerability #innerwork #inspiration #growth #goaldigger

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lefaystrent · 5 years

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That one time Deceit played hero in the mindscape

Fandom: Thomas Sanders, Sanders Sides

Pairings: none

Summary: Deceit goes to the common rooms to find that everyone...is acting too much like themselves.

Notes: This was written when I was very drunk. I wasn’t sure whether to post it or not, but I went back to reread it and laughed hysterically, so here ya go. I’ve corrected the typos for readability’s sake, but left the content as a whole untouched.

Deceit needed to go to the common rooms to grab some cucumber slices for his face mask. He walked in and had the startle of a lifetime.

Roman assaulted his ears with the choir of Disney. His voice reached highs and lows of majestic content the likes of which could never be seen anywhere outside of the whole Thomasfere. Dee wasn’t even down the last of the stairs when Roman threw a bunch of roses at him.

“insert Spanish here,” Roman said suavely, an acoustic trill accompanying his every word, like as if there was a Spanish guitar dude following him everywhere just for the aesthetic.

“I understand that you’re flirting with me but not much else,” Dee said honestly, because even he had to be honest at least two times out of the whole year.

Roman, unbothered, tangoed away. That’s when Dee could really take in the rest of what was happening.

The others were there, but they were in varying phases of manic frenzy. Patton was standing on the couch, bouncing on the cushions and crying as he angrily recited that Kant dude. Yeah, he was smart. And Logan was standing in his usual spot between the couch and stairs, but he had like, futuristic holographic computer screens in front of him, like in some fanart shit, and he was gleefully going through all the tabs. Like, he probably was the sort of nerd who had fifty tabs open. His eyes were wide to take in all the screens, and despite the giant ass grin on his face, he was also crying like Patton.

“But where art Virgil?” Dee wondered aloud, scanning the vicinity until his snake eyes rolled onto the shadowed figure huddled by the wall near the entertainment center. He too cried tears of great sadness, but he was doing a funky shake that let Dee know that anxious behavior was really overwhelming. Dude.

“Is he okay?” Dee asked. Roman was still dancing, so Patton had to answer for him.

“My son is fine if you only squint at him.”

Dee looked with eyes wide open.

Virgil gave a sob of despair and shoved his head through the wall.

“That looks serious,” Dee commented.

“It’s a phase,” Patton shrugged off and began doing jumping jacks. With hoola hoops. It was a whole competitive sport by this point.

Logan snickered evilly from the side. Not used to this much emotion, Dee turned to him next. Before he could ask, Logan told him, “We’re all half banana.”

Logan was Logic, a being of truth that denied all falsehoods. He knew his stuff, and because he spoke the absolute truth, Dee screamed in horror. He didn’t want to be a banana, half or otherwise. He just wanted to be his snakey self, do a slither, smell the air with his forked tongue, bedazzle his cape maybe. Oh, and like his bowler hat. His bowler hat is really cool. It’s hat shaped.

“What has gotten into everybody?” Dee screamed in confused frustration. By now, Patton had bounced so strongly on the couch that his body had tried to breech the atmosphere itself. Sadly, a ceiling was in the way and he was currently stuck.

“Patton, mi amor, are you Gucci?” the prince asked.

“Just hanging out,” Patton said, hanging there, legs the only thing they could see.

“I don’t know how to fix this,” Logan admitted. His manic despair increased. He broke his glasses he was crying so hard. Holy crap, there’s a lampshade on my floor. It’s just sitting there, next to a santa hat? I just wanted y’all to know this. My sister used to eat lampshades too. Anyway, that has nothing to do with the story. Here we go.

“It looks like I’ll have to be the one to clean up this mess,” Dee observed. “Not that I want to,” he lied. He actually really cared for them a whole lot, and seeing them like this, losing their minds to their inner insanity, kinda made him mildly disturbed.

Dee left them where they were and went in search for a solution. He went to Patton’s room. Not because he thought there’d actually be a solution there, but because he wanted to steal some of the moral side’s clothes in case he wanted to masquerade as him again. But inside, he saw that the lights were flaring red, like if it’s world war two and you’re on a submarine and the hull has been breached and you’re not gonna make it back to that gal you swore you’d marry when the war was over. Sad face.

“This is perfectly normal,” he mused. He looked around the moral’s side’s room, thinking back to how all the sides were acting like downstairs.

They were themselves, but like . . . more so. Themselves times ten, as stereotypical as they could be. And like they wanted to damage the infrastructure. Seriously, what were they going to do about the holes in the walls afterwards?

If Patton’s room looked like this, then perhaps the problem originated from here? Each room did influence the other sides whenever they were in there. So what if . . . what if the influence had spread outside of the room? And everyone was experiencing the intensity of it?

“But why aren’t I affected then?” Dee wondered. He didn’t know that he had plot immunity. At any rate, he carried on to find a solution.

Almost too easily he found a giant lever on the wall. To the side of it was a bar reading ‘high’ up at the top and ‘low’ at the bottom. Currently the lever sat at the ‘high’ position.

Dee tutted ruefully and pulled the lever back down to a mediocre level. The red light stopped blaring and the usual fairy lights came back on. It was nice.

“That should do it,” Dee nodded to himself and went back downstairs.

Everything was back to normal except Virgil was still in the wall. Patton was out of the ceiling like normal, but Virgil was just unlucky like that.

“Sometimes I can still hear his voice,” Patton mourned his dark strange son, as if nobody could see him desperately slapping the wall where his head was embedded.

Dee sighed and went to help Virgil out like old times.

General Tag List: @spectralheartt @a-pastel-pan @notalwaysthevillian @rose-gold-roman @ijustrealizedhowdumbmynamewas @katie-the-noble-fangirl @yourroyalydramaticanxiousness @aroundofapplesauce @merlybird500 @beach-fan @jemthebookworm @whats-going-on-kiddos @randomsandersides @gamerfreddie @unring-this-bell @that-royal-ravenclaw @analogicallythinking @lilygold23 @punsterterry @naw2702 @levy-the-b00kw0rm @iolanomsgranola @tacohippy56900 @lottavic @camariechris @accio-hufflepuff-power1 @just-another-rainbowblog @georganabanana @grey-says-heck

#sanders sides #deceit #sympathetic deceit #roman #roman sanders #patton #patton sanders #virgil #virgil sanders #logan #logan sanders #funny #humor #writing #fanfiction #that one time

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sapienveneficus · 5 years

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Elsie Fest 2019: A Broadway Music Festival Sans Broadway

Another year, another Elsie Fest. This year marks the Broadway festival's fifth anniversary, and it also happens to be the fourth Elsie Fest I've been able to attend. Coming off a the high of 2018's festival, this year's event had some mighty big shoes to fill. Did it succeed? In a word? No. I had fun last night, don't get me wrong, but I couldn't help but be disappointed by several aspects of the event. Let me break it down for you.

For those who haven't been to Elsie Fest, there's a rhythm to whole thing that's important to explain right at the top. The seating at the venue is, for the most part, general admission so people line up well before the gates open to secure the best spots near the stage. I joined the line about 2 hours before opening and, therefore, managed to snag a pretty good spot. I laid out my blanket, sat down, and took part in the hour-long showtunes sing-a-long lead, once again, by our favorite dynamic duo from Marie's Crisis. This hour of fun was a highlight for me; it always is. But this year especially it proved to be one of the few celebrations of Broadway to be found at this Broadway music festival. More on that later.

As the hour came to a close, and the guys from Marie's Crisis were wrapping things up on stage, I took a look around the venue. I couldn't help but notice that it wasn't as full as it had been the year before (or the year before that). That observation got me thinking, why was attendance down this year? After a bit of brainstorming, I came up with a few potential causes.

First up, timing. Elsie Fest has always been on a Sunday. Since the show moved to Central Park back in 2017, it has specifically been the Sunday smack dab in the middle of Columbus Day Weekend. For any international readers, Columbus Day is a federal holiday (like a bank holiday) here in the US that falls on the second Monday in October. So, for the past two years, Elsie Fest was been held in the middle of a 3 day weekend. Which meant it was generally easy for folks in the tri state area to make the trip into the city. Also, falling on a Sunday evening meant it was easy to get Broadway folks (even those currently in shows) to stop by since most shows only run a matinee on Sundays and typically have Mondays off. By choosing a Saturday this year, the organizers made it harder for some regular attendees to come out (people tend to have things to do on Saturdays plus, for some, it's the Sabbath), and they cut down on their talent pool significantly because they wouldn't be able to get anyone currently working on or off Broadway.

This segues nicely into the second reason for the potential dip in ticket sales, namely the featured performers. There weren't really any big names this year. Last year, for example, we had Sutton Foster, Joshua Henry, Grant Gustin, Matthew Morrison, Alex Newell, Nick Jonas, Zachary Levi, Casey Cott, Rufus Wainwright, Jodi Benson, and performances from Be More Chill and The Prom. This year, up until about a week before, the only big-ish name attached to the show was Gavin Creel. I say a week before because last week they announced Cynthia Erivo. I'm guessing she was added last minute in a desperate attempt to sell tickets. Which sort of worked, the venue wasn't empty, but kinda proves my point. By having this on a Saturday they weren't able to bring in the talent that they had in years past and, without those big names, they weren't able to bring in as many attendees.

Finally, the third reason for the lackluster ticket sales was New York Comic Con. This doesn't require much in the way of explanation. This weekend was New York Comic Con. Lots of the big panels, sales, and cosplay events fall on Saturday, and it's not a stretch to assume that NYCC and Elsie Fest are drawing from similar, if not the same, pools of people. So that probably hurt sales a bit as well. Though I suspect the two other reasons were larger contributing factors.

Okay, back to the show itself. After the sing-a-long, we were shown a quick trailer for High School Musical: The Musical – The Series. (You are not misreading what I wrote, that's the show's actual title) After the trailer, two of the kids came out to sing Breaking Free. Their performance was super cute, and I was reminded of the fact that HSM debuted in early 2006. Which means that all the tweens and teens who grew up with this film series are now fully-fledged adults. And they were out in the audience, in full force, singing along. It was a sweet moment to witness. And, not going to lie, I was singing along as well. I have a soft spot for the series myself. It'll always remind me of my first year of teaching. My students were obsessed HSM, and I was right there with them.

Next, Dyllon Burnside came out and performed an RnB version of Luck Be a Lady from Guys and Dolls. This number was okay. Dyllon's got a great voice and the woman who came up with him to dance as Luck was talented. But the performance had a rocky start because there wasn't an introduction. Someone just said into a mic, here's Dyllon Burnside, and then it started. I remember standing there thinking to myself, “Who's Dyllon Burnside?” I googled him today and found out he's on that Ryan Murphy show, Pose. It might have been a good idea to give that info up front. Anyhow, like I said, his performance was okay. RnB is not my cup of tea, but he had a good voice and a commanding stage presence so I could put up with that style for a single song.

After Dyllon, the composer of The Lightning Thief, Rob Rokicki, took the stage with a few backup singers. He performed Good Kid, The Lightning Thief's opening number. This performance was an example of how the timing of this year's festival hurt its lineup. Rob's a composer with a passable voice, not performer. And this song needs a cast of performers to be done properly. Unfortunately, Rob’s talented cast couldn't be there because it was Saturday night, and they had an evening show to do over at the Longacre. So we, the audience, were stuck with Rob. No offense to Rob, he seemed like a sweet guy, but he's not a performer. He should have been there to introduce his cast, not perform in their place.

After Rob, came the first set of the evening, a series of songs performed by Anais Mitchell, the composer/creator of Hadestown. I should probably begin this paragraph by explaining that I have not drunk the Hadestown kool aid. I have seen show, I did not like the show, but that is a matter for another post. Going into this set, I figured Anais would do a song from Hadestown and then take a few other Broadway tunes and put her folksy spin on them. That is not what happened. She sang 4 songs from Hadestown, and then a medley of songs from her newest album. To put it bluntly, her set was bad. Even if I liked Hadestown, which I do not, I would still have to be honest and say that she really missed the point of the festival. She was there to celebrate Broadway in general, not her show in particular. It'd be like Lin Manuel Miranda showing up and performing a whole bunch of songs from Hamilton. I mean, that'd be AMAZING, but I would have to be honest and admit that he would also have missed the point. What she should have done was a song from Hadestown, probably at the beginning, and then pick other Broadway songs. She could have told stories about showtunes that evoked special memories for her or demonstrated how certain showtunes might have folk elements hidden within them. What we didn't need was an ad for Hadestown/her latest album, but that was what we got. It was a real shame.

After Anais, Ariana DeBose took the stage. Thankfully, they gave her an introduction this time. Ariana's not a name yet, but that may change after Spielberg's West Side Story opens next year. (She's playing Anita) She kicked off her set with an RnB version of Shall We Dance from The King and I. Ariana is one of the artists who's been working on the R&H Goes Pop project on YouTube. Again, RnB is not my genre, but it was a good way to raise the energy there in the venue (as it at plummeted during the previous set) and to showcase her talent. Ariana has great tone, an impressive range, and real stage presence. So while I didn't enjoy the song itself, I was impressed with her performance overall. The next song she did was Invisible by Jason Robert Brown. It's a song off his latest album that he wrote for the Ronald McDonald House. This song was also done in an RnB style and, at this point, I started to worry that her whole set would be like this. Her next number was a medley of pop songs that dealt with cheating. It was fun, high energy, but again, it wasn’t Broadway. She could easily have used this to transition into Cell Block Tango or any other showtune about cheating (there are quite a few), but, alas, that wasn't the case. Instead, she covered Cold Play's Fix You. It was a great cover, don't get me wrong, but still not a Broadway song. At this point, I'd gone from starting to worry to full on worrying. Where were the showtunes? This is Elsie Fest, it's the one music festival for Broadway fans where their music is celebrated. That's why I love it so much and keep coming back year after year. So when her next number started off with All That Jazz from Chicago, I thought, “Finally!” but then she mashed it up with a few other Broadway/pop songs all sung by various “Divas” and my excitement diminished. Despite all of that, I held out hope that she'd close out her set with a song from West Side Story. It only made sense to get the crowd excited for next year's remake, right? Nope! Instead, she mashed up Donna Summer's Love to Love You Baby with Beyonce's Naughty Girl and I think an third song I didn't recognize, who knows? At that point, I was just glad to see her leave the stage; what a disappointment.

Gavin Creel was up next. He began his set with a mashup of hits from all the shows he's been a part of. I heard Put on Your Sunday Clothes, What Do I Need With Love, Ilona, Bad Idea, You and Me (But Mostly Me), and a moment of I've Got Life. This was a great way to kick things off; a reminder of all he's accomplished on Broadway thus far. Next, after a joke about always finding your light onstage, he performed Moving Too Fast from The Last Five Years, a personal favorite of mine. Then he did a song he wrote for a showcase he'll be putting on sometime next year. After that, he sat down at the piano to do Something Wonderful from the King and I. He ended his set with The Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine In. Now, I knew he'd do something from Hair. I'd been hoping it'd be either Going Down (if you really want to hear someone gush about his version of that song, check out Seth Rudetsky's review on YouTube, it's delightful) or Where Do I Go?, but he chose the closing number instead. Not a bad decision, but it's not a song that can be performed solo. So, as it came time for the female lead's part in the song, I figured Cynthia or Ariana would come out to join him. That's the sort of thing that happens a lot at Elsie Fest. People will pop into each others sets to help out. Last year, famously, Will Roland, Grant Gustin, and Darren Criss teamed up to do Sincerely, Me during Grant's short set. And who could forget Aaron Tveit popping up during Leslie Odom Jr.'s set to duet with him on What You Own? But, for some unknown reason, Gavin tried to do the whole song by himself which just didn't work. So his strong set ended on kind of a sour note. I will say, Gavin's approach to crafting his setlist was perfect. He chose a good variety showtunes (old and new) and gave us a taste of what might be coming next for him. People working on set lists for next year ought to take notes. My only critique would be the lack of a female voice during his last number. Other than that, flawless.

Next, the cast of the upcoming show, Jagged Little Pill, took the stage. I had been looking forward to their performance as the show's been generating quite a bit of buzz since its out of town tryout last summer in Boston. At last year's Elsie Fest, both The Prom and Be More Chill performed two numbers a piece. So, with that blueprint in mind, I figured Jagged Little Pill would do maybe a lesser known Alanis song first and then end with a big hit. They started their set with Forgiven. It was a lesser known song that utilized the entire cast so it made for a strong opening number. I figured they'd end with something more well know like, You Learn or You Oughta Know. So I was genuinely shocked when they left the stage after only performing one song. What happened to their second song? Did they run out of time? Or, if for some reason they were only allowed one number this year, why did they choose such an obscure song? This was their chance to get the audience fired up for their new show, and by only performing Forgiven, they failed to do that. It was such a bizarre choice.

Cynthia Erivo, the lady of the hour, was up next. I'd missed her set at Elsie Fest 2016 so I was all the more eager to see which songs she'd choose to perform this time around. I figured she'd have to do one from The Color Purple, but the rest was anyone's guess. Would she go modern? Classic? A mix of both? There was no way of know, but I was excited to find out. She came out on stage, full of poise and grace, wearing these adorable cat-eye glasses and greeted the audience in such a sweet way. She seemed genuinely thrilled to see us all. She kicked off her set with Elvis's Can't Help Falling in Love. She sang it beautifully, but it was an odd choice. Then she sang Ain't No Way by Aretha Franklin. Again, she sang it flawlessly; this is Cynthia Erivo we're talking about. Everything she sings could be recorded and used as part of a master class in vocal performance. But where were the the showtunes? We were 0 for 2, and I was starting to get that worried feeling again. Then Darren came onstage with his guitar and accompanied her on Miss Celie's Blues by Quincy Jones. Also not a Broadway song, but it was featured in the film version of The Color Purple so it was a sort of nod to Broadway, I suppose. Then she did One Night Only. Finally, a showtune! Not one that I happen to like, but that point, I was desperate for something, anything. Next, she did a slowed down version of I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston, and I sighed internally. It's not that I don't like the song, I do, but it was yet another pop song. Clearly, no one had given the night's performers any sort of guidance so they were just singing, whatever. Cynthia followed up the Whitney Houston number with Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. If you're thinking to yourself, that's not a showtune either, you would be correct. The Lauper tune was how she ended her set. Again, like everything she performed, she sang it beautifully. My issue with her set was the overall lack of Broadway. This is Elsie Fest, a celebration of Broadway music. As a Broadway fan, that's what I want to hear. If I wanted to hear nothing but oldies, I'd go to an oldies music festival, if I wanted to hear all rock and roll, I'd go to one of those festivals, and so on and so on. I come to Elsie Fest for the showtunes, both old and new.

The last set before Darren's was Michael Feinstein's. Right off the bat, saving Michael's set for so late in the night was a very bad idea. He should have gone first or very nearly first when the audience was fresh and more forgiving. Michael is a very wealthly older gentleman. I don't know how he made his millions, but he was able to buy and open the cabaret club 54 Below so he's clearly got a few pennies tucked away. Maybe he flashed a few of those pennies to get such a prime timeslot, but that was a mistake. The audience was bored to tears by his set. Standing there while he performed I started to feel like the whole night up to that point had been a bit of a lousy dichotomy. Either listen to pop and RnB sung beautifully when all you want to hear are showtunes, or listen to showtunes sung poorly. I was standing there thinking, “Isn't there an option C? Didn't I pay to attend option C?” Yeah, Michael probably had a lovely voice back in the day, but that day has long since passed. He started his set with A Lot of Living to Do and then gave the audience a lecture on why Bye Bye Birdie is so important to the history of musical theater. Next, he did I Only Have Eyes for You from 42nd Street. He'd lost the crowd at that point. People were BORED. Then, after another lecture, he did the St. Louis Blues, badly. Then he put together I Don't Want to be Lonely Tonight with One Less Bell to Answer. The next song he did cannot, apparently, be googled so it will have to remain a mystery. Finally, at long last, he closed out his set with a Frank Sinatra medley. Darren came out to join him, which woke the audience up (some had literally laid down and gone to sleep). Looking back over his set, all 6 songs (5 too many if you ask me), I can't help but draw the conclusion that he gave the organizers of Elsie Fest an inordinate amount of money for a chance to perform. I hope they spend it wisely next year.

At long last, it was time for Darren's set. He had to go on 20 minutes late so we'll never know which songs he was forced to cut from the lineup. All I do know is that the 7 songs he chose were all winners. He kicked things off with a Glee song, Everybody Wants to Rule the World. It was excellent, pop at its finest. Next, he did Waving Through a Window and the crowd lost their minds. Fear not, I was right there with them; cheering and grinning like an idiot. If the crowed seemed keyed up during the Dear Evan Hansen number, they found a new stratosphere of joy to reach when he next performed Wait for It from Hamilton. It felt like suffering through all the bad sets that night had been worth it, almost. Next he pulled out his guitar and started to perform Wig in a Box and, I kid you not, I almost started crying. It had been a long night, full of disappointments, and Darren's set was pure perfection. He then paused, midway through the song, to bring out Lena Hall. What a treat! She sang her verse powerfully and then, Darren paused again to introduce John Cameron Mitchell, and the three of them brought the song home. I felt so euphoric at that point that I lack the words to properly describe it. What a historic moment! How do you follow something like that up? By taking things back to Hogwarts! First Jamie Lyn Beatty joined Darren on stage to perform Harry from AVPM. Next, Joey Richter and Lauren Lopez performed Granger Danger to riotous applause. Then, for the final number of Elsie Fest 2019, the entire Star Kid crew came out do do Goin' Back to Hogwarts. It was such a special moment; being in that crowd of fans singing along 10 years after the musical blew up online. After team Star Kid took their final bows, Darren thanked us and said he hoped to see us back next year.

Final thoughts, I hope to see him back next year too. But I also hope the organizers of Elsie Fest take a good hard look at how things went this year, and make some changes. First off, the festival needs to be held on a Sunday. To put on a festival, you need attendees and performers, and you're not going to get enough of either on a Saturday, you're just not. Second, they need to start booking talent now. They need names to bring people in. Because, even if fans are available, they're sure as heck not making the trip to see Michael Feinstein, someone who will be in a Spielberg film next year, and a kid from Pose. I'll even leave a few suggestions here: Ben Platt, Jonathan Groff, Lin Manuel Miranda, Jessie Mueller, Alex Brightman, Ethan Slater, Renee Elise Golsberry, Telly Leung, Eva Noblezada, George Salazar, Jenn Colella, etc. Third and finally, they need to have a good long think about what they want Elsie Fest to be. If they want it to remain a celebration of Broadway, then they need to book performers who are committed to that vision. If they want to change the vision, they need to let the audience know ahead of time so they can make an informed decision when buying tickets. To be perfectly honest, I felt a bit duped this year. I had paid for one thing but had gotten something else instead. So, there you are, Elsie Fest organizers. Do those three things between now and next October, and you'll have a successful festival in 2020.

#elsie fest #Darren Criss #HSM #anais mitchell #hadestown #ariana debose #gavin creel #jagged little pill #cynthia erivo #avpm #star kid #broadway #2019 #the lightning thief

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zallano · 5 years

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The HereAfter, Chapter 11

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, read on AO3!

Make sure to join The HereAfter discord server!

The entire chapter is under the cut

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The ticking was back.

Not the regular ticking from Mumbo’s clock. That had never left since that one time at night. Though, Mumbo was fairly certain now that he had just tuned out the ticking in a moment of panic. This ticking was the ticking he heard the day Tango left. It was just as loud as it was the first time, though, Mumbo didn’t feel very affected by it. Maybe that was because he had already felt the ticking and passed out. He didn’t know and he didn’t really care. He was able to ignore it so it was fine.

It was a clear sunny day in hermitcraft. Mumbo had spent his morning mining and was finally able to find a few diamonds. Now that he had diamonds, he wasn’t exactly sure what to do. He paced around the stone room of his underground base thinking. He could make more redstone contraptions and try to figure out more things. He glanced around. He could also decorate his base a bit better.

When he climbed to the surface, he was not surprised to see that no new trees had grown on his island. He also didn’t want to destroy his first base for the sake of wood. His eyes darted around to everything on his island. Redstone, sand, grass, a tree, more sand- a boat. He had docked his boat on the beach.

Mumbo walked over to his boat and didn’t hesitate before getting in. He was going to venture off to other places and find new types of wood and possibly more things to decorate with. He pushed himself off the shore and into the water. He swayed back and forth for a few seconds before taking out a shovel as a makeshift paddle and began to drift away.

His T-chat buzzed, signifying that someone was talking. He pulled the little device from his pocket and checked what was going on.

WelsKnight: anyone got coords for the shopping district? I went out a bit too far out in the opposite direction of Hermitville

Stressmonster101: I don’t but I have the ones for my base

WelsKnight: can I have them?

He didn’t really know Wels or Stress all that much so he put the T-Chat back into his pocket and began rowing again.

He didn’t even make it a few hundred blocks away into the ocean before he was stopped by a shout coming from the sky. He looked up and to no one’s surprise, he saw Grian. Grian dived down into the water next to him, causing a massive splash. Mumbo wasn’t sure how such a small person was able to make such a large splash- though he was more concerned about the water now filling his boat.

“Gah— Grian! Why-“ His boat was slowly sinking. Grian floated in the water and tutted. “I can’t take this no more,” He said. Mumbo looked at him confused. “Yeah? I can’t either. My shoes are soggy now.” Mumbo complained. Grian rolled his eyes. “Not that. Well not exactly- I’m talking about you taking your boat everywhere. It’s honestly quite sad. You need to learn how elytras work,” Grian laid over on his back in the water, his arms and legs spread wide so that he could float better. Mumbo shook his head. “Nope. Not doing that. Thanks.” He said. Grian chuckled.

“Nah, it’ll help you in the long run. Plus once you learn you can try out my elytra course! Only a diamond per every two tries!” He pointed out. Mumbo continued to shake his head. “I have a few elytras at my base. Head over there and we can learn to fly,” he smiled.

“No thanks. I’m staying here.” Mumbo replied. Grian shrugged. “Then I’ll stay here,” The waves pushed his body up and down and whatever Mumbo would say would cut off as his ears went under the water.

“And I'm okay with that. I wasn’t going anywhere anyway. I’m happy in my usually dry boat, thank you very much- Grian? Are you even listening to me-?” Mumbo leaned over and cupped water into his hands before tossing the water at Grian’s face. Grian coughed and rolled over, spitting out water in the process. “What was that for? I’m trying to help you!” He laughed.

“Will flying on an elytra actually be better?” Mumbo asked. He had to admit, as much as elytras scared him, it was cool seeing other hermits flying around with them. Grian nodded. “It’s so much better! It’s the best way of transportation in this time. They’re 100% better in the future though,”

Mumbo sighed. He had to make progress eventually. “Okay fine, I’ll put one on. Only put it on though. I’m not flying around with it.” He chuckled. Grian grinned and took out some fireworks, careful not to get them wet, and took off to the skies. Mumbo sighed and began rowing his still slowly sinking boat over to Grian’s base.

It didn’t take very long, considering Grian’s base was close. Mumbo jumped off of his boat and onto one of the bridges of the base. Grian leaned against one of the entrances and waved. “Hah! This was all a trick for you to figure out how to fix my farm!” He exclaimed once Mumbo had walked over.

Mumbo glanced over at the farm. “Really??” He shook his head, laughing. “Nah, but since you’re here, maybe you can check it out? Honestly, I have no idea what I’m doing and every good redstoner is off doing something and don’t want me near redstone,” Grian huffed and tossed Mumbo a shulkerbox worth of redstone items.

Mumbo placed the shulkerbox and briefly took a look at the items and then back at the farm. Automatic farms felt oddly familiar- though he had never made one before. “I suppose I can try. What seems to be the problem?” He asked. “It isn’t producing any potatoes. They’re supposed to end up here-“ he pointed to a chest with a hopper on top of it. “-but they aren’t and I don't know what’s wrong.”

Mumbo hummed and walked over to the chest. He noticed a bunch of potatoes and carrots were resting on top of the hopper and not going in. He had learned that items usually go into hoppers- unless they were full. He looked inside the hopper and more vegetables were stored inside it. “Have you bothered checking your chest?” He asked, breaking the hopper in the process. Stacks upon stacks of vegetables flew everywhere, along with the hopper. Mumbo opened the chest and sighed. The chest was filled with eggs. “Huh, no wonder.” He said.

Grian walked over and looked inside the chest. “Oh, I do have more eggs! I thought I must’ve. I don’t usually run out of eggs, you see,” he began taking the eggs out of the chest and into his inventory for whatever reason. Mumbo replaced the hopper and watched as the carrots and potatoes began to fill the chest once again. “Well that was easy,” he chuckled.

“Now I feel stupid. Of course, the chest was full. Hmph.” Grian shook his head and emptied the eggs from his inventory into another shulkerbox. “I’ll make sure to come to you next time I need something redstone related fixed. You live so close by so it'll be great. Now, let’s get into the elytra, hm?” He looked over and smiled. “Oh, I thought we weren’t doing that-“

Before Mumbo was able to protest anymore, Grian tossed him a spare elytra and a few rockets. It took a few tries figuring out where the straps were, though, he found them and strapped the wings onto his back. “How does this thing even work?” He asked, picking up the rockets.

“You take some rockets and pull on this little string,” Grian grabbed his own rockets and pointed to a string that was dangling from the bottom. “Once you pull it, you want to jump, and then the rocket will fire. That’ll get you into the air. It may take a few rockets.” He explained. Grian tugged onto the string and then the bottom of the rocket shot off. He immediately jumped and was quickly shot into the air.

Mumbo watched in amazement as Grian glided around in circles above him before landing nearby. “Let’s see if you can do the same. Try and make it to the top up there!” He pointed through the center of his base to the very top.

“You don’t really expect me to do that, do you?” Mumbo looked over at Grian. He was nodding and smiling. Mumbo sighed. It couldn’t hurt to try.

He grabbed hold of the string of one of the rockets and tried pulling it. The string wouldn’t budge. “Oh, sometimes they do that, you just gotta pull harder.” Grian chimed in.

Mumbo pulled down the string as hard as he could manage and the rocket exploded into his face with a loud ‘pop!’ “What the?!” He stepped back in alarm. White smoke and rocket powder covered his face. Grian was laughing like a mad man. “Did you plan this??” Mumbo questioned.

”Ye-yeah, here’s some real rockets,” he said in between laughter and gave Mumbo some of his own rockets. Mumbo squinted his eyes and inspected the rockets. “Is everything a trick today?” He asked. Grian snickered. “No, but you have to admit, that was so funny.” He stepped back. “Oh ha ha, yes, soo funny.” Mumbo rolled his eyes and tried pulling the string again.

This time the bottom of the rocket fell off easily and Mumbo tried to time it by jumping. Before he knew it, he took off into the air. Although he didn’t get very far. The elytra didn’t open and he fell to the floor, tripping on his feet. “Ow-“ Mumbo fell over on the ground, the elytra sliding off his back in the process. Grian walked over. “You Okay?” He asked and helped him up. “You have to jump sooner,” he laughed.

“You really like helping me, huh?” Mumbo adjusted the straps of the elytra back to fit him. Grian shrugged. “I just like helping people. It’s what I used to do where I come from. Plus, it’s hilarious seeing your reactions to stuff,” Grian snickered. Mumbo huffed and ignored Grian’s laughter. So what if he didn’t fully understand anything that wasn’t redstone.

He took out a new rocket and tried doing the same thing again, this time, he jumped in unison when he pulled the string. The elytra decided it wanted to work this time and it opened, allowing Mumbo to glide.

Being in the air was a lot more fun than Mumbo had expected. He zoomed around on the first floor of the base, unable to get himself up through the hole in the center. Though, he didn’t mind. “I did it!!” He exclaimed and looked down at Grian. “I’m in the air!” He shouted. Grian waved his arms. “Great, but watch out!!” He yelled.

Mumbo looked back in front of him and saw that he was getting close to the walls. He quickly turned but was met with the giant glass wall of the farm he had previously fixed. He face-planted into the glass. The impact caused the elytra to close and for him to fall. Grian watched as his friend fell. “Mumbo, the rockets!” He tried to tell him but it was too late. Mumbo had no armor, and he especially didn’t have any feather falling boots.

MumboJumbo hit the ground too hard

The text flashed across the screen of everyone’s T-chat and Grian’s vision.

WelsKnight: rippp

JoeHillsSays: Ah yes first death. I remember my first death

Iskall85: LOL rip

Grian: I warned you to watch where you were going!

Iskall85: someone separate those two. Grian is a bad role model.

Grian: I warned him!

Xisumavoid: you literally died yesterday due to not watching where you were going lol

Grian: >:(

Mumbo woke up at spawn. He hadn’t checked his T-chat to see what the hermits were talking about. He wasn’t even aware he still had his t-chat in his pocket. Though he couldn’t think properly enough to check.

The ticking that he had been ignoring all day was louder than ever. It forced itself into his mind. His own clock was going insane. It was ticking in unison to the other, much louder, ticking. “Gah!” He covered his ears and tried to stand up but the sand was caving in into a large hole next to him.

Glancing into the hole, he saw another clock. Though, this one was different. It was blue as if the colors of a regular clock got inverted. What would normally be the sun, was a royal blue, and the sky was yellow. The clock seemed familiar- as if he had seen it before long ago. He felt the same familiarity he got from building complex redstone. It felt like one of the memories he could no longer remember. It seemed familiar... and he didn’t know why.

Mumbo moved back away from the clock in the hole and stood up. He finally checked his pockets and pulled out his T-chat. He didn’t question how it even got back into his pocket in the first place, especially since he died hundreds of blocks away and all his other stuff was there. He briefly looked over what everyone was saying, though the ticking made it difficult. Mumbo could see his vision slowly fading.

WelsKnight: Nice base, Stress! I can see it from here. I love castles

StressMonster101: haha yeah I can tell you’re dressed as a knight. Mind if I give you a tour? Been working really hard on this build

He didn’t read that much before typing out something of his own.

MumboJumbo: Hey guys, I found a weird blue clock

Almost instantly, Grian replied.

Grian: Where?? At spawn??

Mumbo quickly replied with ‘Yeah’ and waited. He glanced over at the clock. The ticking seemed to worsen when he was looking at it. He felt like his ears were bleeding. Despite the ticking hurting his head, he walked toward the clock, reaching out for it.

Before he could grab it, he heard fires of rockets. He glanced up, pulling his hands away. The ticking had worsened even more with the company of Grian and his clock. Grian quickly landed. “Where is it-“ his eyes looked in the hole. He darted over, nearly pushing Mumbo out of the way, and went to grab the clock for himself without saying a word.

Mumbo watched as Grian began to shake violently with the clock in his hands. “Grian!” He tried to reach for the clock to take it away. Grian shut his eyes, he still didn’t stop shaking. All three clocks were glowing now. The blue clock glowed the brightest.

Mumbo grabbed onto the blue clock, trying to pull it away. Though, touching the clock was a mistake.

��-

Stress was showing Wels around her base. “I love this project so much! I tried bringing some foxes here but I couldn’t find any in Hermitville.” She sighed. Wels nodded. “Oh, I’ve been exploring out in the new area a bit. I’m going out again so I’ll let you know if I find any,” He said. “Okay, thanks! I’ve also been exploring. I found something really cool in hermitville!” She led him down a hall. “What you find?” Wels asked but Stress kept walking until she made it to a room where the clock is hanging on a wall.

“What’s that?” Wels questioned. “A clock. I found it in the ground. It’s very pretty, isn’t it? I thought it would go perfect right there.” She smiled. Wels nodded and walked closer. He noticed how it was hung up by a string and not in an item frame. “It looks like some sort of necklace or amulet,” he pointed out. Stress nods. “Oh, it is, I put it on a few days ago but I wanted to put it up here,” she explained. “Mind if I put it on?” Wels asked. “Sure go ahead, just put it back please,”

Wels nodded and took the clock down from where it was hanging and put it over his head. “Look at me, I’m-“ he paused. “Do you hear that-?” He asked. A loud ticking came from all directions. He brought the clock next to his ear, trying to tell if that was what caused the loud noise. Though, the loud ticking wasn’t coming from the clock at all. “No-?” Stress shook her head. “I don’t hear anything,”

Wels fell silent. “Really? It’s this loud sound- this intense ticking. I swear it’s coming from all directions,” he spun around, listening and trying to find the source of the ticking. “You must be joking, you’re wearing a clock, of course, you’re going to hear ticking,” She giggled. Wels shook his head, “No- that isn’t it-“ he pulled the clock over his head, immediately the ticking stopped. “It’s gone,” he hung the clock back onto the wall. As soon as he said that, he heard the ticking again.

Stress shook her head. “Okay,” She laughed, she wasn’t taking him seriously. “Can I have my clock back? I think it’s messing with you,” she chuckled. “What-? I just put it-“ he looked down. The clock was back around his neck as if he had never taken it off. “What the-“ he took it off again and put it back on the wall. The clock appeared back around his neck seconds later. “I’m trying-“ he handed the clock to Stress. “Thanks,” she went to hang it up but it vanished out of her hands. “How-?” She stared at the clock on Wels, bewildered. Wels shrugged. “I’m not doing anything, I swear-“ he told her. “My goodness- the ticking- it’s so- I can’t-“ he covered his ears. The ticking was so painful. Before he knew it-

WelsKnight Has left the world

Stress’s eyes widened in horror. Her friend had just vanished right before her eyes. The clock appeared around her own neck. “No! Get off!” She panicked, pulling the necklace off and tossing it as far away as she could. It hit a wall and shattered. “Oh no-“ Stress looked down. The shattered clock was back. The ticking was violent. It seemed angry at her. She had made a mistake. A big one for that matter.

StressMonster101 has left the world

#Hope you guys enjoy #3000 words again #got any theories or questions? i wanna know!#The Hereafter #minecraft #hermitcraft #grian #mumbo jumbo #welsknight #stressmonster101 #iskall85 #joehills #mumbo and grian #w0ah writes #hereafter au #hermitcraft fanfic #wanna yell at me? go for it!

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triple-a-enderdragon · 4 years

Link

How many times can you say the clock is ticking? Because now it’s

TWO MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

First | Previous | Next

Biffa was living. The rush of battle was one he'd missed, even if he had felt it not that long ago. It was too long, in his opinion. He never thought it was fair that Python and especially Iskall got to face world hoppers. But at the same time, he trusted False's judgment enough to follow her direction. The thrill of the fights she did leave to him were well worth it.

In his anticipation for the next skirmish, he almost missed False's signal, pointing him to where their target was.

Landing in the torch-lit clearing, Biffa took in two things: Grian was alive, if a bit worse for wear; and his assailant had their back exposed. Swiftly crossing the clearing, he laid into the intruder, leaving a deep rent in their back. Biffa was a bit surprised they didn't drop, and followed through with a vicious blow to the head. That did the trick.

"Grian." False had also crossed the clearing to check on the builder. "Are you badly hurt?"

"Nothing that's too serious. I'd managed to avoid most of it," Grian said, checking himself over. Sure enough, he had a cut on his left arm and a nasty bruise developing on one cheek.

False gingerly brushed the bruise. "You took a head blow," she said. "A visit to Joe, if he's still awake, would be a good idea. When you're done with that, Impulse wants you to go to Tango's base."

"Tango's base? Did he say why?"

"He did not. I'm sure you'll find out when you get there."

Biffa interrupted them. "It's gotten dark. Mobs will start spawning, and I don't want to be here when they do."

False looked at him, amused. "You had no problem fighting just now."

"Yes, against a limited foe." Biffa looked her in the eye. "I remember the dangers of a hardcore world, mobs being the biggest one." He knew she did too. She nodded and wordlessly took to the skies, leaving Grian and Biffa to follow.

~~~

"Well, I would advise you from doing anything too ridiculous, but I've heard what you have to do tomorrow. Ridiculous definitely, even a bit cliché." Joe looked at Grian, then at Cub. "Then again, we can't have Concorp at half capacity, can we? Besides, I do want to see this for myself, seems delightfully absurd."

Grian looked a little confused, though it may have been the head injury. "What about Xisuma?"

Joe raised one eyebrow. Confused enough to say X's name more-or-less right. "Right! Can't forget about him. Anyway, I'm sure you're needed elsewhere to restore balance to the scales," he said as he herded Grian out of the Ministry. "Thanks for stopping by, Grian. It can get lonely with only the undead and the actual dead as company."

"Is Cleo the only one visiting? Shouldn't you get out more?"

"I understand your concern, but— while I'm no Scar— I'm no stranger to death. I'd rather stay in relative safety until I can risk being surprised by a creeper again."

Watching Grian go, Joe's thoughts wandered to a certain person intimately linked to death. He would have to see if Cleo was interested in watching what would unfold. And, Joe admitted, he would be too scared to do so alone.

~~~

There was only so much of the Nether that Python was willing to take at one time, and he felt he was getting mighty close to that limit. He'd already spent quite a bit of time gathering quartz for his ambitious builds in Tower Bay over the last few months.

Gathering quartz turned out to be the distraction he and Iskall set out for themselves. Keeping a watch on the temperature, they were able to ignore the frustration and unease with their situation. A careful trip to the gold farm kept their gear and tools in top shape. Food was not yet a concern, water was managed through the careful melting of ice.

The pigmen turned out to be less of a threat than the two thought; the hostiles still swarmed on sight, but always seemed to get distracted long enough for Iskall and Python to make a hasty escape.

So they mined quartz. Hours passed, with rests intermittent, before they found another problem.

Iskall was in front of the array of double chests, laden with quartz, trying to find space for the latest haul. He wasn't finding any. Rubbing his left eye, he walked to his ender chest and started looking for some wood. Which he didn't find. He looked at Python, also rummaging around his ender chest. "Python?" he asked.

"Hm?"

"You have any wood, by chance? I'm all out, and I need some for more chests."

Python's rummaging increased, shulker boxes opening and closing, before he said, "No, sorry man. I'm out as well."

"Dang it! I guess I'll be carrying around a bunch of quartz."

"You don't have any empty shulker boxes, or any empty spaces, at least?"

Iskall scanned his ender chest again. "Well, there's a bit of space, but still not enough. Ah, that's fine, at least I have some inventory space now," he said as he put the now full shulker box into his ender chest.

"If you're up for it, we should take one last trip to the gold farm," Python said. "Some of my gear's running low."

Iskall, feeling a headache coming on, said the wrong thing. "Yeah, I'm up for it."

~~~

Tango spent almost an hour, pacing his base, listening for the rockets that would signal Grian's approach. Since he and Impulse learned where the winged man was, they were on edge; even more than they already were. It wasn't until Grian landed in front of him with nary a whisper, startling him to the high heavens, that Tango remembered.

"Grian! You can't do that to me, man! Give a hoot or something, you about gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry about that; I forget how silently I fly now," Grian said sheepishly.

"It certainly woke me up." Tango was about to brief Grian, but he saw the colorful bruise Grian was sporting. "Oh, ow. That looks like it hurts. Didn't get out of the skirmish unscathed, huh?"

Grian poked at the bruise, wincing. "No, but frankly, I'm lucky it's not worse. By the way, what are we doing? It has something to do with the Nether, I hope?"

At this, Tango was all business. "Yes. The thing we need is at X's base, coincidentally. Stress and TFC are already there."

"What's going to happen?"

"Honestly? I have no idea. I'm just going with the flow here, man." Tango was very unsure of himself, but continued, "When it gets down to it, I'll know."

As they look to the skies, Grian looked unconvinced.

~~~

If anyone was near the stock exchange, they would have heard shouting. A lot of it. As it happened, "anyone" turned out to be Mumbo, heading to the shopping district for some last-minute supplies.

He stuck his head into the station and, in between the bursts of surprisingly expletive-free fury, said, "Doc? You ok in here?"

A pause, a concerning crash, and Doc huffed his way into view. "Everything's fine."

Mumbo didn't take his hint and came closer, hopping the turnstile easily. "It doesn't sound like it. Besides, I asked if you were ok, and you didn't answer."

If looks could kill, the redstone contraption in the corner would have exploded. Mumbo briefly wondered if, with a few tweaks, Doc's eye could produce that effect. Or something similar. But it didn't, and the redstone build stayed in one piece. Doc sighed and walked over to an overturned shulker box spilling comparators, droppers, and other redstone bits and bobs over the floor.

As he shoved all the items back in the shulker box, he said, "Something is going on. Something's happening to me." He pointed at the build in the corner. "You know what that's supposed to be?"

Mumbo walked over to it and inspected the innards of it. Not even half a minute had passed before he answered, "I would think it would produce a sort of vending machine effect. Is that what you were going for?"

"Yes! It's supposed to dispense one stack of ender pearls or cookies when a diamond is deposited, but something is always wrong. Either the wrong item is dispensed, the wrong amount is, nothing happens; I know what's wrong each time. I fix it each time. But something else always pops up!" After a pause, Doc said, "I don't know what to do, and I'm at my wit's end here."

Now that Mumbo knew what Doc was trying to achieve, it took him all of a minute to find and fix the problem. He went back in front and said, "Try it now."

Doc put a diamond in the input chest and pressed the ender pearl button. He then stared at Mumbo in resignation as sixteen ender pearls hit him in the chest one by one.

"I guess it works now."

Doc kept staring at him. "What was it?"

"The timing of one repeater was off, giving only a partial stack," Mumbo answered, a bit concerned.

Doc placed a hand on the vending machine, lights flickering on his cybernetics. "I don't understand. Every time I fixed the timings..."

"Well, it's all working now. Really neat design, by the way."

"Heh. Thanks. Are you going to the event happening soon?"

"Yeah," Mumbo said, "I have to really see this stuff to believe it; this whole Elemental thing. I would say it's exciting, but..." He stopped. "Anyway, are you going?"

"No. I've got a bad feeling about it. Besides, I have," Doc looked down the tunnel, "other things to do."

"Well, good luck with those. Hopefully, they're not as stubborn as the vending machine," Mumbo said as he prepared to leave. "I'll see you around, mate."

As he left, he saw a curious scene: Doc, standing in the middle of the rail line, didn't seem to hear him. Staring down the tunnel, he was muttering and scratching his right arm. Mumbo didn't know what to make of it, and so took his leave.

Shopping driven from his mind, he had somewhere to be.

"Something's happening to me."

~~~

Getting to the gold farm was never as bad as getting back from it. Every hermit had forgotten to reequip their elytra at least once, some more than others.

Knowing this, Iskall and Python took extra care to double and triple check, to cross-verify, that both had their elytra equipt.

However, every time Iskall went to descend, something stopped him. He couldn't really explain it, like some internal force keeping him rooted to one spot. And the fear. There was nothing to be afraid of, he knew. He could hear the distant sound of Python, next to him, trying to get his attention. But it wasn't as loud as the voice.

Do not jump.

Iskall never saw the ghast.

~~~

Impulse was waiting; if you could call it that. Grian and Tango had arrived about an hour ago, and the latter said he needed to wait for the sun's zenith before he could continue. Impulse had asked what the zenith had to do with anything, Tango couldn't answer him. Said it was a 'gut feeling'. And since Impulse couldn't speed up the sun, he waited.

Various hermits had filtered in over the past hour. Zedaph was there, giving much-needed moral support to Impulse and Tango. False and Wels were ready to jump into X's Nether portal as soon as they were able. Mumbo had given Impulse a thumbs up when he arrived, too anxious to speak.

A few hermits weren't there. Joe, Cleo, and Scar were at the Ministry watching over Cub. Biffa, Jevin, Doc, and Ren all said they weren't coming, and Impulse didn't blame them. If he didn't have to be here, he most likely wouldn't be here.

Impulse heard movement; Tango was showing the other three 'avatars' to their corresponding spots around the altar. Stress to the North, Grian to the East, TFC to the West, and Tango himself to the South. They were interrupted by a buzz from their comms–

iskall85 fell from a high place

–and the world exploded into brilliant diamond blue light.

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spruceplank · 5 years

Text

Glitch04

First // Previous //Current // Next >> -------- Also on ao3!

At first it wasn’t noticeable. Maybe the blocks you just broke would suddenly go back to where they had been. Maybe your hits wouldn’t connect with the mob you were hitting. Then it slowly got worse and worse. And then the world around them started to vanish.

And that was only the beginning.

Things were getting weird. There was a while where he hadn’t been actively involved with the others trying to deal with some things on his own, but now that he was back it was clear that something beyond normal was starting to happen.

And he wasn’t talking about whatever was going on with the build off. He was talking about the actual world itself. The holes straight to bedrock, the strange redstone torches in caves, the half carved out strip mines that randomly appeared, the mobs spawning even if the area was completely lit up, the portals breaking or connecting strangely, and now, now it had been night for three whole days in a row.

Phantoms screeched above the skies of Hermitville. Most of the hermits in Hermitville hadn’t been able to sleep in over three days. Because not only had sun not risen for three days in a row now, but the beds they had also placed there would never actually let them sleep the night away due to the fact monsters kept spawning no matter the light level. Plus for the past four days the nether portal had been broken so that was also fun.

The fact of the matter was that the longer they stayed up though, the more phantoms kept spawning. Thankfully X said he was trying to fix the portal issue for first so at least they could hide from the phantoms there.

The strangest thing was that apparently the main islands were completely unaffected by the broken day/night cycle. Which was strange in itself, granted a lot of the hermits were out in Hermitville currently. Then on top of all of that were the raids.

Cub and X had flew inside the walls carrying Scar and Jellie respectively a few days ago looking tired, ragged, and wounded. Behind them was a group of ravagers and then several raid patrol parties chasing them. No matter how many patrols they took down, two more would come and take their place.

They had holed up in the portal tower. Xisuma was in his church messing with the code, hiding away from the rest of them in hopes that the patrols that managed to break through the walls and constant swooping phantoms would go for the larger group. It seemed to be working for the most part, but there was only so long they could hold up there before their barricade downstairs was broken through from the sheer number of things trying to kill them.

It would be death to peak out and try to shoot down some of the mobs outside so they were stuck in here, cluttered together, just waiting for Xisuma to send word the portal was fixed. He knew a lot of the other hermits had also come out to build and explore in and around Hermitville, but now that they were all clumped up here together it was strange to see so many of them gathered in one place for once. It was worse because of the situation they were in.

Scar sat across from him, curled up around Jellie. No one asked about what had happened that required Scar to be carried instead of flying on his own. Granted amidst all the chaos that started right after the three of them flew into the village, he doubted many people had even noticed that fact. If he watched closely, he could see Scar shake silently with every breath he took.

Another thing why the others may not have asked was because Cub sat between Scar and a majority of the other hermits that were here. Though most of the others seemed to be talking about something, but he really wasn’t listening too much. It was too hard to hear over the screech of phantoms and general chaos outside. Well that and the fact that he was exhausted from a general lack of sleep and annoyance at being constantly blown up by creepers trying to build his manor. That and now things like what happened to Stress and Tango kept piling up.

He was pulled from his thoughts when the portal next to him lit up and his communicator beepeed.

XisumaVoid: The portal should be working now, head in and I’ll make my way after you once most of the mobs dissipate from a lesser population.

The others were also reading the message, gathering up their things, and - there was a loud explosion from below them that shook the whole tower. Fumbling from the tower shaking as he stood up, he nearly crashed into Scar. Another explosion shook the tower and Scar went tumbling into the portal. Without second thought he dove in after him.

The transition between the overworld and the nether was always something he could never get used to. It was disorienting to go from the gentle and usually calm air of the overworld to the harsh heat of the nether. The loudness of the nether now seemed quite compared to the warzone they had literally just come from. Standing up slowly he brushed his clothes off and looked around for Scar. For a second he was nowhere to be seen and Wels couldn’t stop the fear that started weighing down on him.

Then he saw something shift from the other side of the portal. Crouched behind the portal, Scar sat curled up in on himself, shaking violently. Rushing over to help Scar his heart jumped out of his chest when the portal shattered right next to him. Scar gasped loudly and shuddered at the sound. Throwing away his fears about the now broken portal he dropped to kneel next to Scar.

“Scar, Scar can you look at me?” he asked as quietly as he could over the sounds of the nether.

Scar slowly turned to look at him, breathing heavily. He didn’t need to look closely to see the tears in Scar’s eyes nor the dried tear tracks on his face. Just what had happened before all this?

“Just breathe with me okay? We’re going to be fine, just breathe with me right now okay?” he explained slowly. Making sure to breathe deeply so that the movements of his chest would be easily visible. “Breathe in, one two three, hold it four five, breathe out, six seven eight. Okay? In, one two three. Hold, four five. Out, six seven eight.”

He repeated the cycle several times until Scar’s breathing was only occasionally hitching. At this point he could faintly hear several pairs of footsteps nearby. Slowly getting up, he looked around he saw the other hermits rushing over to them. Maybe they managed to relight the portal, or had to find another one. Looking closer it was easier to tell that the latter option was the one they had done. Most of them were bruised and covered in phantom bites with tattered and torn elytra. Only Grian looked mostly unscathed which made sense because he was probably the best flyer out of the bunch.

Cub rushed up and immediately took the spot down next to Scar. He couldn’t hear what they were saying because they were whispering too quietly but Scar was whispering back so he took it as a good sign.

“Are you two okay?” Joe asked as he jogged over not far behind Cub. Doc not far behind him with the architech boys trailing behind them both as Grian held onto Jellie, and Iskall helped Mumbo along who wasn’t putting weight on his left leg.

“Better off than the rest of you I’d say, though I can’t speak for Scar. He’s still affected by whatever had happened before the past few days.” He explained looking back to where Cub was helping Scar up.

“What do you mean?” Doc asked looking the two Convex over.

“Well Cub and X came flying into town like four days ago and Cub was carrying Scar like he couldn’t fly on his own. I couldn’t see any scars on him though so I don’t know if he died or if they just faded away by the time they went and found him. But whatever happened, its shaken Scar up pretty badly. When we fell through the portal I had to get him to copy my breathing to stop him from hyperventilating.” He said. Behind him someone said something he didn’t quite catch. Turning around to face Cub and Scar, he caught most of what Scar was saying thankfully.

“.... There was a glitch. I was walking through the forest out near another village I had just renovated. Then the chunk I had stepped into vanished beneath me and I was stuck there until X and Cub came to find me.” Scar admitted. He looked down at Jellie whom Grian had handed off to him. He held Jellie a little bit tighter as he continued, “For three days I was stuck there. It, I, it was the worst. There was this awful static noise that nothing else seemed to be affected by. The worst part was -”

Scar was cut off when his, no everyone’s communicator dinged. Pulling out his own out, he read the message. It was in that moment he felt it deep in his soul, that they were in way over their heads.

Renthedog was slain by falsesymmetry using [¡!フㄣㄣĿㄣㄣ:フリ]

#hermitcraft #hermitcraft fanfiction #the hermit collective #gltichau #:)#Things kick off next chapter kiddos #and its going to be a long long ride #:) :) :)

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