#weird stuff i’ve found or seen in the woods

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Minecraft

Alien: What is the point of this game? Human: It doesn’t have one; you can do whatever you want. Alien: Can I burn this world and leave nothing but ash? Human: Disturbingly specific but go ahead.

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

Alien: How do I get wood? Human: Punch some trees. Alien: ……….. Alien: Punch some trees. Human: Yup. Alien: Are you mocking me? Human: What? Alien: Do you think I’m some sort of joke? Alien: An object of ridicule for your amusement!? Human: Okay, before you over react let me just show you. Alien: *Starts reaching for sword when they see the human literally start punching trees for wood* Alien: Oh. *Puts sword away* My apologies. -------------

Human: Why aren’t you playing? Alien: There is a monster in my home. Human: Is it an ender man? Alien: No. Human: Skeleton? Alien: No. Human: Creeper? Alien: Nope. Human: ………… Human: Zombie? Alien: Thwarp no. Human: *Takes controller and goes inside the house* What could it possibly be- *Sees creature* Human: That is a pig. Alien: It is the stuff of nightmares. Human: What the hell is scary about a pig? Alien: Look into its eyes. Alien: It has no soul; no remorse. ----------------

Alien: What are you making? Human: A doomsday device. Alien: Are you allowed to build that on a public server? Alien: Surely the admins would seek to stop you. Human: They can’t stop it if they can’t find it. Alien: What did you build? Human: I placed a claim block, fifty blocks down, and started a cow farm. Alien: That doesn’t sound so bad. Human: There are currently five hundred cows in a four block pen. Human: I have seen the amount of lag it generates drive men to madness. Alien: You are the worst of your species. ---------------

Alien: How goes it? Human: I’ve created a massive creeper farm. Alien: Dear gods why?!?! Human: I want to see what happens when one of them is hit by lightning. Alien: Why? Human: I heard that it turns them into a super creeper. Alien: Why would you want to make the sentient explosive even deadlier? Human: To leave as a surprise for that griefer who blew up my chicken farm last week. Alien: Ah. ----------------

Alien: What are you building today? Human: A nether portal Alien: Is that the purple doorway thing in front of you? Human: Yup. Alien: What does it do? Human: It’s a portal to this world’s version of hell. Alien: WHAT?! Alien: Is that not dangerous? Human: I mean, I want glow stone for my city; and the only place to get glow stone is in the nether. Alien: I weep for this world that has you as its caretaker.   ---------------

Alien: Why is all the sand from my beach gone? Human: Needed it. Alien: For what? Human: Copious amounts of TNT. Alien: Do I even want to know why? Human: Remember that village that I defended only for the golem to attack me? Alien: Yeah. Human: Good. Human: Because that memory of yours is all that is left of it. -----------

*stumbling down extensive mine network to find human friend deep underground.* Alien: You ever coming topside again? Alien: I just found these things called “Pandas” and they are adorable. Human: Not until I find a diamond. Alien: Oh gods, here we go again. Human: There’s only fucking copper down here! Human: What the hell can I even use for copper!?! Alien: I think you can make lightning rods out of them. Human: Oh yeah, sure, lightning rods. Human: I’m sure those will be useful SIXTY BLOCKS UNDERGROUND!!!! ------------

Human: What’s this? Alien: I’ve created an elaborate rail system that will allow me to transfer the citizens of one village to another village to make it a super village! Human: Isn’t that considered kidnapping and human trafficking? Alien: ……….. -------------

Alien: I have created these five iron golems to protect my home. Alien: Nothing shall destroy it while I am away! *Alien leaves into mines* *Returns after an hour of mining to find the entire home destroyed by creepers* Alien: What the flarp! Alien: Where are my go- *Turns to see all five golems distracted by some flowers* -------------

Alien: Something just occurred to me. Human: What’s that? Alien: If you can use the portal to this nether, why can’t things down there use it to escape? Human: Pfft. Human: That’s impossible. Alien: Is it? Human: *Dramatic pause before sprinting over to portal with alien behind him* *Both arrive to find legion of pigmen pouring out from the portal* Alien: Congratulations, you created the end times. Alien: I hope that glow stone was worth it. Human: *draws sword* It really was.

#HUMANS ARE WEIRD #humans are insane #humans are space orcs #humans are space oddities #funny #writing #original writing #niqhtlord01 #minecraft

[bots-and-cons]

What type of soulmate AU do you think Optimus prime would have (timer, red string, tattoo, first words, etc), what are his opinions? Would he be opposed to meeting his soulmate? Would he try to avoid them? (Gn human reader preferably ^^)

Uuu, I’ve maybe done one soulmate thing in this blog, but I’m not sure. I really like soulmate AU stuff though and I feel like this was sort of funny to write. Idk if this is actually funny to anyone but me but hey, at least I had fun. Pretty long for HCs and might have gone a bit off track also, but eh. If you want to me to find the other soulmate thing you can ask but you can also just check the masterlist in the pinned post and look for it yourself, I’m pretty sure it’s an OP or a Ratchet one

•I think I like the whole first words thing for him

•Optimus was incredibly confused when he read the words etched onto his wrist for the first time

•To his surprise he didn’t understand a word, because it wasn’t cybertronian it was some language that was foreign to him at the time

•When he eventually came to earth and learned english he was quite perplexed by the fact that it was of a human language, a single word in english that decorated his wrist

•”Quack?” was what it said

•He of course soon realized this either meant his soulmate was a human, or some autobot or a decepticon he had yet to meet that was also on earth and was using english

•The sentence itself had him quite convinced that his soulmate was indeed a human

•Optimus of course turned out to be right about that

•You’d been wondering your whole damn life what the hell the words on your wrist meant

•What situation could you possibly get yourself into, where someone had to tell you “Duck!”

•There was an exclamation point and everything, so were you going to get attacked by a duck and someone was going to warn you or something

•A lot of people made fun of you because of the word you had, many people came up with all kinds of crazy/stupid scenarios for it, but you never really found any of them funny or realistic

•But none of them would come even close to how crazy it was when it actually happened

•Optimus honestly wished he wouldn’t meet you, he didn’t want another person he cared about for Megatron to hurt

•He got really anxious about it for a while, and when he did eventually meet you the anxiety got even worse

•So, how did you actually end up meeting your soulmate?

•It was just about the worst day of your life, you were out for a walk, because your head couldn’t handle being cooped up at home anymore and you ended in some remote part of a park on the edge of town

•You saw some weird lights in the woods nearby and your curiosity got the better of you so you went to investigate

•You had no idea what you were looking at at first

•There were these light projectiles going back and forth and the sound of metal scraping on metal

•Then you heard it, someone yelling “Duck!” at you, you didn’t realize it was a command to move so you just meekly went “Quack?” because of course that’s a reasonable reaction

•Then you got swept of your feet by something very big and got pushed to the side

•Optimus just froze when he heard you say that, because he knew what it meant

•He’d found his soulmate in the first possible moment, in the middle of battle

•The autobots had to retreat and Optimus grabbed you to take you with him, because he couldn’t just leave you there with the cons, you were just a tiny human and they would’ve surely hurt you

•At some point you’d just closed your eyes and the next time you opened them was when you were set down on something soft

•You were sitting on a couch, in some place you didn’t recognize and surrounded by some huge robot looking things

•Since there was no one else around, you figured your soulmate had to be one of them, but since you’d closed your eyes, you hadn’t seen who’d talked to you before

•So you go taken in by the autobots, but it was weeks before Optimus admitted he was your soulmate, because he was terrified or the consequences 

•Optimus felt like if he didn’t tell you, you would be safer, that maybe you wouldn’t be targeted if nobody knew

•He most definitely did not want you to get involved with him, but of course fate had other plans

#transformers #tfp #transformers prime #autobots #optimus prime #tfp headcanons #transformers fluff #reader insert #tfp x reader #transformers x reader #soulmate au

[littlestarlost]

Yellowjackets is a show about trauma. I don't know what else to tell you.

Alright, blood hive, here we go again.

We're about halfway through season 2 at this point, and I remain more convinced than ever that a large portion of the viewing public is not fundamentally listening to what the wilderness the showrunners are trying to say. If you're looking for a singular capital-R Reason for everything we see in the show, you're looking at the wrong stuff. So here are some more thoughts.

(Spoilers for all of Yellowjackets up to S2E5, "Two Truths and a Lie")

One: Yellowjackets is a show about trauma and its relationship to magical thinking.

I get another grey hair every time I see someone trying to puzzle out just what is in the woods.

There's nothing in the woods, y'all. Nothing. Until I'm proven wrong by the show itself, this is the hill I will stubbornly die on. But show has been EXTREMELY consistent this whole time in its ambiguity, and in my opinion anyone using the red string and thumbtacks approach to Yellowjackets is being played for a fool. It doesn’t matter if there’s actually an entity in the woods (there isn’t), or if Lottie actually has powers (she doesn’t); what matters is that the survivors are clinging to any answers they can grasp in a situation full of unknowns, and so are we. Part of what’s so devastating about their plight is that there’s no real reason for any of it. This is the basis for literally every religion humans have ever had; we’ve been grasping at ritual and magical thinking for millennia. We are observing the growth of that dependence and ritual right now, in the second season. We are also seeing the consequences of that situation in the future. We are seeing how the power of thought can provide both comfort and further trauma.

I suspect that we will never learn the meaning behind the mysterious symbol. I've seen theories that it's a witch's mark, or even that it's a miner's signal and that all the weird stuff happening to the Yellowjackets is the result of mercury poisoning because they're inadvertently on top of an old mine. That's a nice theory, but I don't think it's correct, and I also don't think it should be revealed anyway. It doesn't ultimately matter what the symbol meant to the dead guy or his cabin; what matters is what the symbol represents for the Yellowjackets themselves.

Two: Yellowjackets is a show about trauma and the way it twists the unknown.

I am fascinated but frustrated by the apparent age split with fans. It seems to me that there's a pretty good-sized gap between the older fans of the show, who would have been kids/teenagers in the 90s (including me), and the gen Z viewers, the latter of which seem unable to really really understand just how wild the wilderness is. The generational split here is with those who remember how VCRs work because we had them and those who have never needed to know. It's a split between we who went through our primary school years without access to Wikipedia and those who have had the wealth of human knowledge in their pockets since they were children.

I’ve watched people do all sorts of questioning and speculating, and it almost always traces back to whether or not you understand how the world worked before smartphones, AKA most of human history. Let me answer some of those questions right now off the top of my head:

How could the Yellowjackets not be found for 19 months?

People used to just fucking vanish, fam. We did not have GPS, we did not have trackers, we barely had battery-powered walkmen. People vanished all the time, and were never ever seen again. Sometimes they did it on purpose, and a lot of the time they disappeared by accident or malice, and a lot of times they died. 1996 doesn't seem that long ago in terms of technology, but it is. People still go missing to this day, even with all our tech tracking us everywhere. Canada is fucking huge and a lot of it is mostly wilderness. Here's a photo I found from Statistics Canada with the population density of Ontario; the black areas represent places where there's basically goddamn nothing but wilderness.

2. How was there no road to the Cabin Guy's Cabin? How did he get there? How did he get supplies there?

He had a plane, and also, once again: people used to disappear all the time. In his case, he seems to have done it on purpose.

3. How could Shauna possibly deliver a child in those conditions? How could the baby be getting the nutrients it needs?

People did this successfully for tens of thousands of years, you guys. You're literally reading this post because our ancestors successfully birthed children in the middle of fucking nowhere with zero medical aid or support.

4. How could Lottie know about the bear or the starlings or or or...?

Easy: she doesn't. Not entirely, anyway. She's an empathetic person who's really good at dealing with the emotions of other people and has a sense of spirituality that appears brave and confident, and people in dire situations with a lot of chaos will depend on that with their lives.

And speaking of Lottie...

Three: Yellowjackets is a show about trauma and how it forces you to transform.

At the end of last season I believed that we were going to get a Lottie Villain Era, just like everyone else. I do not believe that now.

Everything we have seen of Lottie shows a girl who was subjected to medical abuse and/or neglect from a very very young age. Regardless of her actual powers or lack thereof, she was placed on medication by her parents and didn't come off of it until she was in a super traumatizing situation in the wilderness. During this most recent season, we have seen both Teenage and Adult Lottie struggle with her role as a spiritual leader and advisor; she's good at it, but it drains her. It isn't something she's doing out of a desire for power or control: it's something she's doing as a trauma response. That trauma response is helping others, so she keeps doing it, but it's still a trauma response. Trauma transforms you into somebody new, over and over again. The scars you bear become your armor, and then your mask, and then it's hard to know where you end and the trauma begins.

Taissa, too, is transformed by trauma. Her other self is a trauma response, similar to alters in a DID system. It comes to the front when Taissa can't deal, and it's both helpful and harmful. I'm willing to bet a lot of her college years were spent sleepwalking, as the Other One dealt with exams and soccer games and law school. Any one of us with dissociative trauma responses can speak to the way that dissociation can be a savior and an abuser in the same breath.

Four: Yellowjackets is a show about trauma and how it compounds on itself.

This most recent episode showed Natalie coming to a realization about the last time she saw Travis, and she says the words we've heard in the season trailers: there was something in the woods, something they brought back with them. Or maybe it was in them the whole time.

In my previous essay I talked about how each Yellowjacket arrived in the woods with her own traumas strapped to her back. In my mind, that's what Natalie is talking about. There is no entity in the woods to blame for all of this, no ghost or witch who can be credited with the trauma the girls experienced and inflicted. There is only the trauma itself, in all its many shapes and sizes, in all the ways it fills in the gaps and makes shadows dance by firelight and drives us to the very brink of madness, holding us back by a fraying tether.

Yellowjackets is a show about trauma. The show's theme song rings out every episode: No return, no return, no reason. There is no return to the way things were. There is no return that can erase what you've been through. There is no reason for all of this, except for the one that's been very explicitly outlined via themes and story and dialogue and flashbacks and framing.

Yellowjackets is a show about trauma. It's the only answer we have, and I suspect--and hope--that it's the only answer we're ever going to get.

#yellowjackets

[yxami]

I’m just bored so why not write a random yandere stuff, my brain gave up at the end 😭

・includes nsfw

・❥・

You could feel cold winds brushing against your face. It was getting chilly, great weather for your job though. You walked inside the cafe you worked at, the strong smell of coffee and sugary sweets entered your nose. You actually liked working at the coffee shop despite hating all other jobs you did prior to this one. It was nice and you didn’t get too many bitchy customers so it was all a-okay for you.

You would see customers come and go or those nice regulars that would always stop by. Everyone seemed normal and happy. Except for one suspicious person. He would always sit at the same spot right in front of where you worked, order the same simple black coffee, and every single time you would work that shift. You asked your coworkers on time if he ever sat there on their shifts but he never did, just yours. You found that odd but maybe he was just some weird guy who found you cute or something.

You would eventually find out who he was and what he wanted. He was definitely weird like you first assumed.

Today, you weren’t awoken by a loud ass alarm that vibrated your whole table. Neither were you able to register where you were once you woke up. This definitely wasn’t your bedroom and it didn’t look like anything familiar.

“What the fuck where am I??” You said as you looked around and finally saw the hundreds of photos plastered around. You squinted to see what exactly they were and they were pictures of you??? “What kind of fucking creep am I dealing with?” You thought it quietly.

Your body instinctively tried to get up and escape, but you saw restraints on your wrists and legs, even your torso to make sure you didn’t go anywhere. You started to panic and wonder how you made it here.

Your ears detected wood creaks as someone placed their weight on the squeaky stairs. You looked up and saw a nervous shaky individual walk down. “h…hello..” He whispered.

“What the hell am I doing here??”

“To live with me” The male individual finally started to speak with confidence.

“Are you fucking crazy?!? Let me go! I wanna go home, I’ll call the cops on you!” you yelled so loudly you could hear an echo in what you immediately assumed was a basement.

“No, you don’t understand. You have to live with me, I love you. I’ll give you everything you need to be happy in life! I stocked my kitchen with your favorite foods and drinks. I cleaned the whole entire house before your visit, and more! I love you so much” He held his hands together in-front of him trying to compose himself.

“I don’t even fucking know you, I’ve never seen you before in my life. How could you love me if I’ve never uttered a word to you in my life!” You argue back. This guy must be level 10 insane if he thinks he loves you.

“You’ve seen me! Every time you were working, I would sit in-front of you! Do you not remember? I would always order the same thing! It’s okay if you don’t remember, you’ll love me soon enough like I love you. I’ll always love you more though” He giggled blissfully.

“You’re so fucking delusional, go away! You DON’T love me, and I DON’T love you! Let me go now!!” You yell with the most booming voice you can. You can feel your throat quickly giving up on any other attempt for a loud scream.

“I do love you! I love you so much it makes me sick to my stomach to even let you out my sight for one moment. I can’t live without you, it’s like my heart refuses to pump unless you’re in my mind. Please, I love you so much.. I’ll hurt anyone for you, I’ll kill anyone for you, I’ll do anything! Just say the word and I’ll do it”

“Okay, then let me go” You glared at your captor. “I… uh, that’s the only thing I can’t do. Sorry, I’ll do anything else though! Just not anything that allows you to run away from me” you could hear his voice falter in the beginning.

“I fucking hate you” You slouched as much as you could in the uncomfortable chair you were tied to. You could see his face wince when he heard those words. Did he actually love you or something? He’s a creep for thinking you would reciprocate back.

“So.. would you like food or anything? I’m really sorry you’re not happy with this arrangement” His tone was kind but you could sense feelings of sadness in it. “I don’t want anything, I just want you to GO AWAY” You insisted.

“As you wish” Your captor seemed very hurt by this request but he still listened. Was he actually serious about doing anything for you? Maybe you could get actually escape if you gained his trust.

❥.

2 weeks have passed since you saw your captor, when you had to receive food, you were handed it through the door opening.

He did trust you to be walking around in the basement since he took away anything dangerous that could be used to escape. Still kept you locked in the basement though.

You were at your breaking point, you needed to talk to someone, you were bored. Really bored… You lost your immediate aggressive responses and you became careless. So what if you died? Oh well..

“HEY, CAPTOR come down here” You yelled out for the man who’s name was unknown to you.

“What kind of infatuated stalker doesn’t introduce himself to his “soulmate” but keeps her in his basement” you whisper to yourself.

“Yes? Is there something you need? Did I do something wrong? I’ve been trying my best to not bother you..”

If he had a tail, it would be down and between his legs. You wondered why he was somewhat scared of you. You were in HIS basement so what kind of power did you have.

“I’m bored. How do you expect me to love and be happy with you if you’re keeping me trapped in a gray boring basement” You stared at him with curious eyes.

He has nice green eyes, with long eyelashes too. Longer than yours even. “Sorry, what would you like to do?” He stood awkwardly in the basement unsure of what to do. Your eyes bore into his as you observed him like some item.

“You never even told me your name, why is that? Aren’t you supposed to be my number 1 fan or whatever” You tested your dominance and yanked him by his shirt to sit on the bed.

The bed creaked when he was forcibly sat down. “It’s Dominic..” He softly scratched his chin. He didn’t want to seem nervous in front of you, he was supposed to be confident and loving like he acted in the beginning but the way your eyes not only stared but fixated on him made it nerve wracking to speak.

“So, Dominic. Why’d you decide I was your soulmate?”

“Your eyes, I thought they were really pretty when I passed you in the a street. I couldn’t help but continue to follow you even though I was on my way home. I loved how you smiled at customers, even with the ones that pissed you off. The way you would zig-zag back home as soon as you clocked out. I like everything about you, I hope you can return the same feelings I have for you” Even though he spoke with confidence; you could see him squirm a bit and the way his eyes couldn’t stare back at you.

“What if I don’t?” You test his patience, to see if he snaps or not.

“I’ll continue trying, even if you don’t, at least I have you to myself, even if you don’t love me the same way”

❥. ❥.

Even with your insistence that you won’t ever love him, he continued to try and try. And one day, you actually let your guard down…

Or maybe it was the stockholm syndrome finally kicking in. Either way, you trusted him enough to touch you.

You had only let him hold your hand and cuddle. Today, was different though. You craved intimate human interactions. The only seemingly way you could get that was through Dominic.

Maybe Dominic wasn’t so bad, he was pretty after all, his birthmarks made him a little more cuter than you noticed before, his soft shaggy dark brown hair and bangs that you ran your fingers through didn’t seem so bad either. His green eyes seemed like they were meant to be staring back into yours. Dominic always respected your boundaries so maybe you could ask him for a little more than you expected.

While you and Dominic were cuddling, as usual when your human needs insisted you needed human touch. Your hand seemed to wander around a little too close to places that made Dominic squirm. He tried pretending he didn’t notice you getting close in between his legs. Maybe you were just stretching your arm. You looked up at his bright green eyes that seemed to glisten with emotion.

Your hand reached under his pants and underneath his boxers. His cock twitched while his thighs squirmed feeling your warm touch. “Are-.. are you sure?” His eyes looked doubtful. He didn’t ask you do anything but he didn’t want you to force yourself to do anything in return for something. You shushed him and continued anyways.

You observed his cock as it rose slowly with every rub you gave it. Dominic already looked extremely flushed.

It leaked with pre-cum as you teased his pink tip with little rubs. You felt heat in between your legs, your natural body instinct was likely craving for something to go inside of you. You kept teasing it though, his hips tried rolling to get more of his cock into your palm, trying to receive more than what he was getting. “pplease.. can you touch it fully?” he whimpered for an actual handjob and not the teasing you were doing.

You grabbed his hips which made him shudder. “No way, I’m giving you a full experience. Don’t try to speed it up”

You fully took off his pants and left yourself in shorts and bra.

Your hand gave long faster strokes to his cock. He leaned into your shoulder while your hand went up and down. You pushed him a bit and picked his chin up with your available hand to see his expression. You saw his eyes full of lust and a little bit of drool slipping from the corner of his mouth.

You couldn’t help but smile at the attractive sight. But this wasn’t supposed to be satisfying for him. It was just supposed to be fulfilling for you.

Your strokes sped up and gave his tip faster rubs with your thumb. You could see it jerk with every little press on it. His let out breathy moans, you could feel his hot breath on your neck.

Since he was leaning on you, you could hear the little whimper he uttered with every stroke. It turned you on but you’re not going to give him that satisfaction of giving your body up to him completely for him to touch.

After all, he was still your kidnapper. A kidnapper that was never going to let you go because of his eerie obsession with you.

As you were lost in thought about this kidnapper that you’re currently jerking off. He was close to cumming, he was too dazed to notice the fact you weren’t even paying attention to him anymore.

Your train of thoughts were broken when you could feel his body spasm and he came out a warm sticky cum on your hand and stomach, it slowly ran down your stomach.

He panted so close to your ear with such a flushed face that you’ve never seen before.

“Ha… thank you..!! I love you so much.”

“no problem”

..

・❥・

#yandere #yancore #idk man #yandere scenarios #yandere x you #yandere x y/n #yandere x darling #yandere x willing reader

[forthesanityofstorytellers]

Writeblr Battle Royale - Casper Vs Kashi!

Joined the @writeblrbattleroyale event put on by @your-absent-father and entered Kashi as one of my OCs to fight to the death!! She was put up against @garthcelyn's Casper and stuff ensued.

TW for death

Wordcount: 2,244

As the whiteness made way into colour, the outline of an area filling out with greys and browns of concrete, Casper found himself standing on one end. Blinking heavily from the shining light, ears ringing from the speakers above, he had never felt so willing to die on dry land.

Clutching his bow in both hands, wringing them over the polished wood as he took a deep breath in before moving awkwardly across the sand(?).

“Dreadful, isn’t it?” he said, vaguely in his opponent's direction. Any air of superiority he had(or thought he had) had vanished, but it didn’t stop him from pretending. “Not sure how I got here, can’t say I fancy murder but that is what is asked of us, yes? Can’t say I want to get my hands dirty.” He winced, before holding his hand out rather forcefully for a handshake. “Lord Ton Pen Gaumor, but please, call me Casper.”

It slowly dawned on him that this was a strange introduction to a death match, but kept his hand out nevertheless; schooling his expression to be as neutral as possible.

Kashi pulled the knife from her belt and smacked his hand with the flat of her blade with a growl. Sounded like this was supposed to be a death match and she didn’t want any tricks.

She glanced around and started sniffing. The arena, the sky, the land, her opponent. He smelled…different. Odd. Not from her world. Not from a world she’d likely been to, either. But he smelled…like a lycanthrope.

Well at least it was interesting. He wasn’t moving or talking like someone that was going to try and trick her or kill her on the spot…although she’d known plenty of smooth-talking murderers before.

Even so, she pointed the tip of her knife at him, bearing her teeth. “Kashi,” she growled. Glanced at their surroundings. “And right now I’m more concerned with escape than murder. Especially since you’re…” she gestured at him with her knife. “Well, you smell like a wolf at least. And I’m less inclined to kill ones like me. Although I’m not opposed to it if it means I get out of here faster.” She glanced around at the arena for another moment. She hated the idea of someone pulling her strings.

“...what say we try and get out first. Leave the killing each other as a last resort.”

Shoving his hands into his pockets, he gave a stiff nod. “Sounds like a plan. Can’t say I want to die, but I’d rather not kill.”

The idea of the smell of blood made him want to gag but he held back, focusing instead on what he could smell. The air was not at all what he was used to, lighter, not as filled with the salty tang of the sea nor the heaviness of smoke. He couldn’t in the slightest narrow down what it felt like filling his lungs, and that very fact made the hairs of his arms stand on end.

“None of this seems right, I’ll be honest,” he said, barely above a mutter. “Not just the murder thing, I mean. You aren’t - I’m not -” he cut himself off, frustrated. He prided himself on his words, it was the only thing going for him after all, but now that he tried to draw upon them they were nowhere to be found. Finally, after a long hesitation he settled on “this isn’t like anything I’ve seen. Wrote about, maybe, but nothing else. Have - are you familiar at all?”

Let it be known, to any of his Gods that still listened, or to whatever kept him here, that Casper Young was out of his depth.

“With this?” Kashi shook her head, sliding her knife back in place before trotting over to the wall. “Nope. Been pulled into weird things before. Nothing quite like this.”

She gave the wall a sniff before balling a fist and ramming it into the wall. It cracked but not like it should have. She growled and glanced up at they sky. She couldn’t tell if that light was sun, moon, star, or just…white. There was a strange sort of magic around this whole area…and it was like it was trying to pen her in.

“But you’re right,” she grunted, taking out two more reliable knives and making an attempt to dig them into the wall. They went in sure enough, and she started working on handholds. “None of this seems right.”

Kashi climbed up the wall as best she could but halfway through one of her handholds broke and she fell back to the ground with a thud. She got to her feet and kicked at the wall, growling when it made barely a dent.

She’d seen walls like this before. It smelled like simple construction. She should have been able to break it no problem. But it wasn’t giving.

She pulled out another knife and bent it, snapping the metal in half. So her strength was fine. The wall was strange.

“Climbing is out,” she grunted. “Punching is out.” She glanced at the ground. Back at Casper. “Two options left, then. Try and dig our way out…or try and kill each other.”

“Digging is good,” squeaked out the man who had never got his hands dirty in his life. “I can dig. Probably.”

He rubbed at his neck, the collar of his shirt itching his skin. He didn’t think he’s ever sweated so much in his life, but now that his life was on the line his stomach twisted in on itself.

“Ah, if it’s digging I guess I should-” he paused, thinking of the best words. “Dog mode! I should dog mode it. Do you mind turning around though? Can’t do it when I’m watched, it feels… invasive.”

He waited a few beats before unbuttoning his shirt and folding it tidily, and then with his trousers, both finding their place in neat squares on the ground. His shoes were next, and then, with some effort, he began to shift.

Bones cracked audibly as they broke and reformed, a pained grunt left his mouth, one that quickly turned into a low howl. Dark brown fur broke out in patches across his tan skin, filling out until he was just brown fur. Face elongating, and ears lengthening and finding a new place on the top of his head.

All in all, he did not look threatening. More of a dog than a typical lycan. Four legged, with dopey brown eyes and the pattern of some kind of rottweiler on the body of a retriever with the big paws to match.  He whined softly, shaking himself off as the pain resided, and started to dig straight down from where he stood. Dirt flew wildly behind him, but he paid it no mind. It was only his life on the line, after all.

Kashi faced the wall as requested and studied it once more. Thought about trying to punch it again. Thought about trying a sneak attack on her opponent and take him out when he wasn’t expecting it. Thought about the hairs on the back of her neck raising, likely the one that brought them here glaring and thinking they weren’t getting their money’s worth. Or whatever worked for currency in this place.

Oh moons. She hoped it wasn’t blood. She’d played that game before and lost.

She continued staring a the wall and playing with one of her blades. She could probably get away with attacking him. She didn’t mind fighting. She didn’t mind bloodshed. But she’d left her band of merry assassins when they tried to tell her to tone it down because she hated – hated – others telling her what to do.

Finally she swore in her own language, slipped her knife into it’s place and reached up to her face. Began singing in her native tongue, activating the magic that kept her in a two-legged form and feeling the edges of her bone mask start to peel away from her face. It hurt, the pain cascading down her form as her song increased in speed and tone, the magic peeling her two-legged shape away and warping her form into that of her four-legged one. Gnarled, twisted horns began to grow from her head as her ears twisted into place, her nose and mouth stretching into a snout. Her arms were pulled in and her knees were bent as she fell to all fours, fur wrapping around her shape and covering everything. Hard bone-like plates grew from her spine and flattened themselves against her fur, and her newly-made tail thrashed as it grew half the length of her body.

Her paws hit the ground, the long middle one clicking as she shuffled away from her mask, grabbing it in her jaws before she walked over to where Casper had started digging. She was easily 5’ at the shoulder and broad enough to match the height, her form wolfish and alien at the same time. She tilted her head at the shape Casper now had, ears forward. That was…interesting.

Regardless, the dirt was shuffling under his paws and so she joined him. Maybe they could get out of here after all. It would be a hilarious middle finger to the game master if they could manage it.

Casper panted, digging as if his life depended on it - and funnily enough it did. He had never felt so gross in his life, from his dog drool to his paws caked in dry, dusty dirt. 

Digging and digging and digging, until between them a sizable hole sat beneath them, growing ever larger. He whined loudly, body shaking with exertion but he dared not stop for breath. He would prove himself, he had to. To show he was more than the foppish little lordling he was, that he could be more.

Finally it became too much. Casper flopped onto the ground, body cracking as he became human once more. His blonde hair now closer to a brown, every inch of skin covered in a thin sheet of dirt.

“We have to be close,” he panted, “we have to.”

He did not know how many minutes, hours or days he had dug, but it felt like a lifetime for the man who’s hardest work he had ever done was type up local news stories. Both, naturally, could end with a knife at his throat. The wonders of life.

“Do you think we can escape this, truly?” 

Finally he looked at Kashi for the first time since they’d shifted. He raised an eyebrow, but decided against asking. There were stranger things to be concerned with, namely his very probably untimely death.

Kashi had been straining her ears for sounds beyond the dirt. A tunnel system. A waterway. Anything. And she’d heard nothing from their digging but solid earth. They could keep digging, but she doubted they would get anywhere. Plus there was the growing ire of the one watching. The spectral game master wasn’t pleased with this attempt, and she could tell it was getting close to its own call to action. Blood was going to be spilled, one way or another.

She glanced at Casper across from her. Took a breath between her teeth that still held her mask. Dropped it in order to speak better.

“I’m sure escape is possible,” she finally answered, voice rough and grating. “So long as you don’t give in.”

She sniffed a few times and decided upon which impulse she was going to follow. Looked back at him. “Stay here. I’m going to make sure we haven’t been spotted.” She took her mask and dropped it in his hands. “Keep an eye on this.”

Then she turned and leapt her way out. The dirt slid under her paws as she worked towards the surface, finally coming to the top and giving herself a shake to free her fur of the dirt.

The ghostly mirage of a creature stood opposite her.

“The only way out,” it repeated, “is to kill or die.”

She stared him down. “Elo’nekim Mb’ehol,” she growled. Your shadow will rot on the mountain path. She took another long breath before stating, “Absimykrhe.” Death it shall be.

With a roar, she charged the specter. Her jaws snapped around nothing, yet something grabbed at her neck. She swore, struggled, fought with everything she had. She was a wild Onishiki and she would not be controlled. There was no shame in choosing freedom over control, even if it resulted in death. And she was going to do her best to drag this ghost down with her. Even as her world went dark.

There in the hole, Casper fought against his tired body. One heavy arm over other heavy arm, paddling against the dirt before grasping it, dragging himself up wearily. The first day of real work in his life, and he was ready to die. His muscles burned, and he was almost ready to give up again, to do what he was told and stay in the hole, but he was never really one for rules and he didn’t want to die a coward.

Finally, he scrambled to the top, flopping on his front of the ground before rolling over. Staring up at the sky above, the whiteness. The nothingness. The hairs of his arms stood on end, on edge. Pushing through his tiredness, he stood on shaky legs, looking around until he saw what scared him more. 

Nothing.

#writeblr battle royale #Kashi #Casper #escape attempt

[quaranmine]

Utah Resident here- I’ve lived p much my whole life in Utah, and nearly every summer here has had one bad fire or another. I have vivid memories of watching smoke billow over the tops of the mountains I lived next to, or driving past massive columns of the stuff while on the way to a trip in southern Utah (we lived in the north, but have a cabin in the south and visited frequently). The Brian Head fire was just over the mountain from our little cabin, and I remember having to leave a trip there a few days early for fear of our whole campground being overtaken by the fire. There were a lot of evacs that year, and a lot of the trees on the north side of the Brian Head Ski Resort are still charred black from where the fire hit the worst.

There was another time a few years later, back in Utah valley this time, where we had to evacuate for a night bc the mountain that was just behind our house caught fire. It was much smaller, and the evac wasn’t official, but it still scared me. The fire had gotten under control before it really took hold thankfully, but it really scared me at the time.

There were another two massive fires that happened at the south end of Utah Valley, near Nephi and on the west side of the lake. They happened on separate years but I have vivid memories of both- even a picture floating around somewhere of my little brother and I watching the west lake one burn from a healthy distance.

Not to mention all the days I’ve seen where the sky was completely clouded over with smoke from massive fires in California. It was terrifying to wake up to the smell of smoke and a gray fog that persisted for days, covering up the sun enough you could look directly at it without hurting your eyes.

I’ve seen…. So much fire, and I’m not even that old (early 20’s). I’m thankful most of these fires were put out within a couple of days/weeks, but I think these kinds of fires always gonna be part of living here tbh.

OUGH i'm so sorry you had these experience but also so many of these experiences. you need a break! that sounds so scary!

anyway i looked up the Brian Head Fire and HELLO??? I DID NOT KNOW THIS WAS A THING????

Unbeknownst to Lyman, the fire he started wasn’t just burning the pile of branches above the surface of the ground, it was also spreading underground, creeping through what’s known as duff, a thin layer of composting organic material just above the mineral soil. Lyman said he noticed the “weird looking” burn, which he described as “kind of a drippy burn, like oil or kerosene.”

(source) i've unlocked a new fear lol. no but seriously, despite doing sort of research on the subject for a few months now, I didn't know until I looked up the fire in your ask that fires could burn underground. Even when I googled it, I got a lot of articles about coal seams burning, which I did know about. But I found this article out of Canada that explains the phenomenon well. Basically: "When this happens, it's because there are just enough tiny spaces in the soil and between pieces of wood material to hold oxygen and keep the combustion going. These fires can smoulder metres below the surface."

Fascinating. Some fires can survive the winter like this and pop back up the next season and keep burning.

Anyway, I'm sorry you've had to experience so many fires. I think you are right, though, that fires are always going to be part of living there. Utah is geologically, geographically, and ecologically part of the region that experiences wildfire as a regular part of its natural life. There's a lot of dry montane forests, basin brushland/plains, etc. Now, humans certainly exacerbate this in more ways than one. Humans can cause out of control wildfires through negligence or arson, and humans can more indirectly impact wildfire prevalence through climate change. As the seasons get hotter and dryer, the more severe and common fires might be. But yeah, fires in general cannot (and should not) be eliminated completely. So fire management is a complex task in order to balance natural ecology with (unnatural/extensive) human impact.

in other news, big fan of your state's geography and nature by the way. utah is devastatingly beautiful and i haven't seen enough of it! i also headcanon utah to be basically the same environment as the badlands biome in minecraft, and therefore base my headcanons about Tumble Town in ESMP2 off of it.

#quara asks #hc_firewatch_au #tagged for research etc etc

[lostnfounder]

[The following is a transcript of a conversation that took place between Lostfield Reporter Ruth Shirbon and Mikayla Du-Silva behind the Lostfield Denny's.]

M: Well, I’m going to assume you’re Ruth. Nice to meet you in person!

R: Yep, that’s me, uh. Hi. Mikayla, right?

M: Yours truly! Now, I guess I’ll start by asking what made you go to the forest near Showfall?

R: … Ah. Right. Normal… forest… things…?

[Brief pause.]

R: [Sigh.] Okay, well. Up until I found… I was going on, uh, adventures in the woods. Treks. Hikes, I guess was the word I should’ve used first? But, uh. That specific day I was looking for a sp… birthday present for my roommate Chase. 

[ A soft laugh can be heard.]

M: You're weird. But I kinda like that.

M: So, I won’t press further into your forest escapades, but I would like to know details that led to you finding Adeline, such as environment and the like.

R: Oh. I’m… Glad it’s likeable, at least, uhm. Yeah. Well, uh… your average forest in summertime, I guess. Lots of plants, wayyy too many bugs. I nearly tripped and fell in poison ivy, like, twice. But I did find a present for Chase in some mud from a seasonal riverbank, so I remember that part. Uh. Oh. And… there was a hill. Right before I found…

M: Ah, alright. Then, I guess we’ll get straight to the point.

M: I would like you to explain what you saw that made a blood loss related death unlikely. You don’t have to go into too much detail, but if you can, it would be helpful.

R: Right. Yeah, I. I explained this to the police already, uhm. Shouldn’t be too hard.

R: I… I went down the other side of the hill. And I smelled rot. Uhm. So I went all the way down the hill and- at the bottom there was a ditch, and, uh. That’s… where she was. There- There- I don’t remember a lot of it, to be completely honest, uh. I… I didn’t black out, it just. Gone. Like. It’s blurry. Uhm. T-There was glass, though, I remember- I remember a lot of glass. And metal. And- And blood. There was dried blood everywhere, all over the sand and the dirt and everything. The debris too. It- It looked more like she got in a car accident, but there weren’t any cars anywhere. 

M: Odd. I sadly had a glimpse of her before we had Adeline cremated- she looked like her jaw had been ripped clean off, but other than that she looked like a “normal” skeleton with a bit of flesh.

M: The only thing odd I noted was that the remaining bit of her jaw looked like it got sharpened into points, kinda like tusks.

R: [Quietly.] … Oh, shit. Yeah. Uhm. That’s the other thing. I… mentioned it to the police, but they… didn’t… react. I guess that’s kind of their job?? To be all aloof and shit??? But. It felt… off. I don’t know. It- It scared me really bad. I didn't even tell Chase about that part. [Awkward laughter, quickly trails off.]

[Brief pause]

M: Shit, I have an idea on what probably happened.

M: So- I have the knowledge that Adeline was going to her first day of work at showfall before she disappeared without a trace.

M: I- I think they may have some kind of thing going on with the full depth of their horror shows, and how they sometimes have monsters and stuff.

M: It worries me. My sister must’ve done, or SEEN something, that made someone at showfall do… well, y’know. And because Showfall is a pretty wealthy company, they bribed the police to keep quiet?

R: YE- [Throat clearing.] Yes, ah. That’s what I’ve thought for FOREVER. Uhm. Along those lines, it’s--uh. I don’t know. I’ve never trusted them, and no one believes me, and. It’s a nice change of pace to have someone else bring it up, at least. What else makes you think so?

M: Thanks. I’m sure were not alone. But, anyways, I’ve looked into the actors who’ve joined Showfall, and I literally can’t find anything. The best I tend to find is their names in a few census, and the occasional promotional material.

M: I also think that the “beautiful acting of genuine fear” in some of the more darker shows is, well, too real. Like the final scene in “The Social Experiments.” 

R: The… Oh, yeah. That one. Ugh. I remember when the first trailer for that dropped. Everyone at my highschool lost their minds and I was the only one who… well, not the only one, but one of the only people who wasn't exactly thrilled about it. I… I kind of blocked all the tags though, so. I’m not exactly sure what happened. Not sure if I want to know.

M: I won’t give you a description on the death… but, the audience got to vote on whether they lived or died. Originally, they begged everyone to vote live, and thats what they did, but then the host said something along the lines of “we’ll be able to play with you forevermore should the audience declare it” and then they began to beg for death.

M: They died, credits rolled, I threw up in a nearby trash can.

R: Jesus. I knew this was the start of them going in a different direction with their productions but I didn’t know it was… that. 

R: But- what, you think they aren’t actors? I mean Showfall’s definitely haboring de- evil, but I think at the end of the day it’s, uh. Y’know. A media company. Just with… more evil. Uh.

M: We haven’t heard anything from Ranboo since that occurred. And the twitch account that I swear he’d stream on has been completely wiped.

R: That’s… odd. I’d never heard of them, but. It could just be a publicity stunt, I suppose. Or, like, they’re under some sort of contract. I dunno. 

M: Whatever. But, back on the topic of Adeline and what happened to her, I won’t be able to investigate much as I do have other things going on, but I think you should try. Maybe you could start with contacting people with connections to Showfall?

R: But where would I even find…?

M: Not too sure, but I trust you to look. Send me a text if you find anyone, or anything, alright?

R: … Okay. Yeah, okay. I'll, uhm. I'll try. Thanks, Mikayla. I hope I could help.

M: No problem. See ya!

[Transcript end.]

#showfall ask blog #encoreverse #encoreverse blog

[flower-biter]

19-25 February 2024

Just a lot of internal screaming, but in a quiet and exhausted way.

Monthly uterus horrors. Why has my body synced to the moon cycle? Full moons are weird enough already, especially this week, when apparently my “danger: do not approach” face was disabled without my awareness.

Weird corporate team building stuff. Mostly frustrating because the problem person in the group doesn’t seem to realize they’re the problem. The utter lack of self awareness would almost be funny if the rest of us didn’t have to deal with their messes and attitude all the time.

My eye exam was somehow cancelled on me???? I made this appointment in December and called to confirm and apparently it just…didn’t exist for them? And they’re booked up through May. Rage rage rage. But the next day the optometrist’s office called to offer me an optician job that I’d applied and interviewed for over a year ago that they’d ghosted me on. WHAT. (I’m not even licensed but they’re apparently so desperate they didn’t care about that, yet not desperate enough to have called me back in December 2022 when I followed up after the interview??)

So tired of screens. I just wanna take a walk in the woods and then come home to bake bread and make tea and crochet with my cat by my side. But no. I cannot.

I was sitting at a coffee shop to do some work and one of the gentlemen who cuts hair at the barbershop across the way said he liked my hair and invited me (a white woman) to go get my hair cut at the Black men’s barbershop. He was very sweet and I can’t quite tell if it’s a compliment to be invited, or a “oh honey, your fade needs HELP.” Probably a bit of both. I kind of want to check it out because I’m sure they’d do a great job, but I feel weird going into a space that is soooo not meant for me (even invited, I do still feel like I’d be imposing).

At any rate, I finally ordered my own clippers so I can just do my buzz cut at home instead of attempting to keep it trimmed with scissors between salon visits.

What is it this week? A guy from high school saw I moved back to town and asked me to coffee. I’m gonna go for the coffee and the laugh (I’m not really open about being gay, mostly for safety reasons, but I think I do look queer). Maybe we can be friends, god knows I need more of those around here.

Day trip to Charleston on Saturday for work; tried a new tour route, had a really good lunch, visited our new office, and took lots of pictures and videos for the company instagram.

WHAT IS IT THIS WEEK I was just sitting on a park bench in Charleston and an elderly gentleman dressed to the nines (polished shoes, cufflinks, matching pocket square and tie, full Sunday best at 9am on a Saturday) sat next to me and wanted to have a conversation about economics (in a relatively normal way). Very old southern, strong “Chah-leston” accent; had that polite way of complaining about politics where everyone knows where everyone stands, but they don’t make it personal or try to pick a fight or convert you, they just want to vent. He was very kind, tried to give me investment advice, then heaved himself up with his cane and left with a “thanks for letting an 84-year-old man ramble a little bit in your day!” before hobbling off. I didn’t even get his name.

My boss for my side job introduced me to a tour group with they/them pronouns and. I’m having a lot of feelings about it. We never even really had much of a conversation about it, she just noticed that I have “they/she” in my social bio and asked if I had a preference (depends on the day but either’s fine) and I’ve noticed that when I dress masc she uses “they” more readily, but still will sprinkle it in when I show up in a dress and lipstick. It just feels really good to feel seen, accepted, no questions asked, and for someone to make the effort. It’s not surprising - I found this job because I was looking for queer stuff in Charleston and she does LGBTQ+ history tours - but that easy acceptance is something so rare in my life so I really treasure it.

Forever curious at the success rate of the unhinged evangelical billboards on the interstate. I wonder what it would have been like to grow up (in general, but especially queer) in a place where these are not the norm.

Currently reading Stone Butch Blues and oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. I don’t think I’m eloquent enough to put all these feelings into words.

Anyway. This week was exhausting. Haven’t gotten to crochet or socialize with friends as much as I’d like. Well, onward.

last week

#i'm very wordy this week oy #catalog of little joys #and little frustrations #and big frustrations #anyway

[sometimes-sleeby-octopus]

Dhmis - BAKING (fan script 2)

Disclaimer: Once again, I am not British

Content Includes: Violence and the usual DHMIS shtick, also it’s like 1k more words than the last one-

Dedicated to a lovely anon, @/sr-sra-00, and @/enby-creature-feature, who inspired me to make another one

And so it begins:

(Like usual, a new version of the intro song plays; however, the order of the lyrics has been distorted while the tune stays the same)

There’s three of us

Just three of us

It’s him and you and me

There’s three of us!

There’s three of us!

Look closely and you’ll see

To find out what we talk about

And everyday we all hang out

Y: And we’re in a circle in a circle in a circle and in another circle!

R: *gradually quieter, hoarse voice* And we’ve been stuck in it forever…

(The music plays instrumentally for a bit. Red puts his faces in his hands and shakes his head in anguish, groaning. Duck’s tone is quiet, attempting to be comforting.)

D: It’s alright, I’ll figure something out, I think I’m pretty smart.

R: *slumps in his chair, exasperated* Oh my gosh, just shut up, mate…

(After a beat, the music picks up again suddenly, making the characters gasp before finishing the song on beat.)

There’s three of us!

Just three of us!

Us three

(The episode title screen says BAKING with various baking utensils surround it like a spoon and a bowl full of batter.)

(Initials for all characters are as follows: R = Red, D = Duck, Y = Yellow, C = Chef Hat who is the new teacher)

(The trio is in the living area, all silent. While they have forgotten some things about the last episode, they remember an evil butterfly, very vague positive feelings and dying.

The sound of breaking glass is heard in the kitchen, making everyone jump and yelp.)

D: Can we not go over there?! I bet it’s that awful butterfly!

Y: Yay! We remembered!

R: While that is very good, I don’t this will end well if it is!

D: If only we still had the computer that Yellow broke so we could find out how to kill it!

Y: Hey! That’s not nice!

D: Boohoo, sorry I’m mad cause’ we’re going to DIE!

(A distant voice has started shouting from the kitchen. The three have yet to notice.)

R: You’re remembering all the past stuff too? Interesting.

D: Could we throw a chair at it perhaps?

C: Hello?! Is anyone here?!

Y: It’s not the butterfly?

R: I guess not?

D: Who is it then?

R: ……Let’s find out?

(Duck and Yellow agree at the same time.)

D: I don’t see why not, that sounds fine.

Y: Oh yeah! Fun time!

(The three casually walk to the kitchen door, fears mostly forgotten, but Red hesitates to open the door. Duck just opens it instead. A chef hat with stick legs, a blade of grass stuffed in its main fold, and blue thin-string bows around its hat base is seen on the other side of the doorway. It waves one of its hands slightly frantically.)

C: Oh thank goodness! Some friendly faces! Call me Chef!!!

D: Why are we friends if we’ve never met?

C: *cheerily* I watched you die!

(The camera pauses awkwardly close on Chef’s smiling face. It pans back to the trio’s blank faces.)

C: And I’m yellow’s hat!

(Red relaxes. Only him though.)

R: Oh, the funeral!

D: Funeral?

(Yellow also relaxes.)

Y: Oh yeah, the funeral for you!

D: That’s rubbish, I think I would remember my own funeral.

R: To be fair, he wasn’t really dying quite yet when you were there, Chef.

C: *sheepishly laughs* My bad! The forest will do things to you!

Y: What kind of things?

C: *laughs more* I don’t want to talk about it!

(After staring at him for a while, Duck has a suddenly realization.)

D: Is that why you look like that?

C: *smiles weirdly genuine* Disheveled? Haha, yeah! Got some grass on me when I was thrown and found my legs in the woods!

R: Oof, sorry about that, mate.

C: It’s alright! I had plenty of time to recuperate!

Y: Wait, if you were in the woods, where’d you get the blue?

C: Your head, good sir!

Y: *touching his hair* That’s kinda weird..

R: Anyways, how can we help you? You’re here for…something, right?

C: Oh right! I’ve got to give you lesson before I get thrown back into the woods!

(Chef is still happy and smiling somehow. The trio all turn toward each other thinking about it. The music for Chef’s song slowly fades in.)

C: Anyways, let’s do some baking!!!

Take some flour

Or a mix

Do it plainly

Or with tricks

Like with a crack

And then a flip

Of the egg!

Into the trash

Once it’s been used

Use a whisk

Or use a spoon

There are many ways to bake

And I’ll show

You

The way!

You can bake a cake

And you could also bake your friends

Just don’t do the latter

If you don’t want them to be dead

It seems real obvious

But please follow the instructions

Upset the lobbyists

And they just ban what we’re doing!

…

I kid I kid I kid

But whether outside or within

Take your soul and mix it in

To your creation!

(The song ends as Yellow brings a mix so the baking can actually begin. Everyone is suddenly in baking attire with everyone wearing an apron and Red wearing a different chef’s hat.)

R: What are we making, Chef?

C: Your mum’s-

R: Is that a joke or-

C: cupcakes!

(Chef turns the box that yellow brought around. It literally says “Your Mum’s Cupcakes”.)

R: Ohhhh, alright.

C: (to yellow) Would you like to pour the mix in?

Y: Yeah!!!

(Yellow opens the mix bag and tries to flip it into the bowl. It hits the counter and explodes onto everyone. Duck grips his eyes in pain. Red attempts to brush the powder off himself with little success.)

D: ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT?!

Y: I just wanted to do a trick...

R: (to duck) Put your eyes in the sink. We’re all gonna need a bath after this. (to yellow) Come here, you.

(Red tries to dust off yellow with more success than himself. Duck scoffs and curses to himself as his washes out his eyes.)

C: (to Red) Could you help me? My arms aren’t quite long enough.

R: Um, okay.

(Red awkwardly dusts Chef off. Chef somehow smiles wider and giggles.)

C: Thanks! I guess we’ll just have to bake from scratch.

(Duck suddenly bolts up from the sink and runs toward the fridge.)

D: I’ll go get the butter!

(The other three wait around in silence until Duck hurries back and chucks the butter into the bowl from about three feet away. It lands perfectly.)

D: Ha! I’m better than all of you! I actually got it in!

R: I’m actually mildly impressed.

D: Really? I hope you’re not being sarcastic because that would be very rude!

R: Oh hush, let’s just make the cake.

(Everyone bustles around in a montage of pouring in ingredients while singing another song!)

D: We’ve got the butter!

R: And now it needs some flour

Y: And also some water!

C: And also some powder!

All: We’re all making due!

Y: And now we need some sugar!

D: (in a very high note/belt) Some SUGAR!~

(The music suddenly fades as Red waves his hand in a semi-frantic way.)

R: EVERYONE STOP!

(The whole room goes quiet, except for Duck who scoffs.)

D: I was doing my solo!

R: While it was alright, we don’t have any sugar.

Y: Huh?? But that doesn’t make sense!

D: For once he’s right, we usually have most of what we need for a lesson.

R: Most is the key word there. We’ll have to go look for something else.

C: Oh, I know! While I was in the forest, I made syrup from the sap in the trees!

Y: We have those cool trees!!!

D: They’re called maples, idiot.

Y: Oh, maples!!!

R: I didn’t know we had those.

C: One of you could go find some! I’d rather not go back to the forest again if you don’t mind.

R: If the three of us go, it might go fast-

(Chef quickly drops his smile and becomes panicked.)

C: NO!

(He realizes his mistake and quickly smiles again. The others just stare.)

C: I mean, I don’t do well alone, sorry.

R: (to yellow) Hey, you. Would you mind staying here with your hat while we go find sap? It’s uh…an important job, I guess.

Y: Alright! I will do my best.

(Yellow salutes for some reason. Red awkwardly salutes back, not sure why Yellow did that. Duck swats him and properly salutes, speaking smugly after the fact.)

D: You’ve got to do it right! Or at least I have to since I was in the military. He probably learned it from me!

R: We ought to be going now, hmm?

D: I hate it when you’re right.

(Red laughs quietly at that. Duck crosses his arms, looking somewhat flustered as they leave out the kitchen door.)

Y: (to chef) Would you like to color?

(We see Red and Duck walking dramatically through the forest. They suddenly slow upon noticing that fact.)

R: Why are we marching?

D: I don’t know, let’s not.

(We switch back to Yellow and Chef coloring away on the kitchen floor for a moment. Chef looks over at Yellow’s paper.)

C: Whatcha drawing?

(We see yellow’s drawing as he point to each figure drawn next to the pink house.)

Y: Me and my family! There’s me, my dad, the red one, and the green one!

C: How nice! You have a lovely family.

Y: Thank you! What about you?

(We see Chef’s drawing of themself surrounded by baking materials and also some brown blobs with green specks. It’s a bit creepy in a way.

C: I drew myself baking with my mud friends! I’ll have to write them letters now that I won’t go back into the forest.

Y: Uh…that’s…nice?

(We’re back to Red and Duck who have found trees with spouts in them.)

R: These must be the ones with the sap, ey?

D: I’d say so! But how can we take it back to the house?

R: Oh, I’ll just carry it in my hat.

D: Alright then.

(As Duck reaches to turn the faucet, a branches reaches and touches his hand. The two slowly look up to see the very angry face of a tree. They both scream.

It pans back to Yellow who hears them. He jolts up and Chef follows suit.)

Y: My friends are in trouble! I have to go help them.

(Chef’s almost permanent smile strains as he starts to get nervous.)

C: I’m sure they’ll be fine! Let’s just stay here!

Y: No, I have to go!

(As Yellow tries to leave, Chef grabs his arm, almost losing his grin.)

C: Please don’t leave me! I couldn’t bear it!

(Yellow shakes him off and regretfully runs out the front.)

Y: I’m sorry!

(We see Chef, who is reaching out his hand, lose his grin from the outside of the front door and watch as his pupil dilate before the door closes.

Yellow quickly runs through the now stormy forest in the rain, panting and looking around until he sees Red trying to negotiate with a tree holding Duck hostage, waving him in the air.)

R: We promise we won’t take your sap, just please let him go!

D: GET THIS PLANT OFF OF ME THIS INSTANT!! AHHHHH!!!

R: I’m trying, it’s not listening!

(The plant starts to stab Duck repeatedly, with Duck starting to bleed. As Red jump up to attempt to free Duck, the tree stabs his head, chest, and arms, making Red fall to the ground. Yellow was panicking until he saw Red fall. His expression shifts.)

Y: (suddenly very angry) LET THEM GO!

(His shout echoes through the forest. The tree recoils before dropping Duck. Yellow helps Red up, who in turn, carries Duck as Yellow supports him. They all run back through the forest back to the house and Red somehow kicks down the door.

The house is a mess with crazy writings in chocolate syrup and chuddle dollops all over the walls and furniture knocked over and covered in ingredients. The clock has been smashed and the kitchen is even more of a mess. The table and chairs are sprawled on the floor, a dead toast family is on the counter, and a more disheveled than ever Chef with tears in himself and his bows in a tangle dragging behind him is in the middle of it all. The additional ingredients, chuddle dollops, and glass on him give away that he is the culprit. He cries in front of three lumps of batter that look vaguely like the trio melt into the floor. He mumbles to himself.)

C: Please come back, please come back, please come back…

(The trio decides not to enter the kitchen. Red leans into the room against his better judgement.)

R: …hello?

(Chef looks over in shock and runs toward Red, gripping his leg and sobbing.)

C: You came back! I knew you would!

(Red does not know how to handle it and the other two are also very uncomfortable. Yellow looks very guilty.)

Y: This is all my fault.

D: Don’t be dumb, you didn’t WRECK OUR HOUSE!

(Chef suddenly looks scared and lets go of Red, holding his hands up in surrender. He tries to smile, barely succeed.)

C: I’m so sorry! I’ll fix it! Just please don’t kick me out! Please don’t leave!

R: How about we all just calm down-

D: (to Chef) You suck at your job and we don’t want you here!

(Chef becomes hysterical, crying as he fails to keep smiling, frantically grabbing ingredients from the floor.)

C: W-we can still make some! Look I’m making something! I’m making something!

(The hat throws the stuff into a mixer and tries to turn it on. The mixer is stubborn and will not turn on. Chef keeps desperate slamming the “on” button. He even climbs onto the rim of the mixing bowl. He finally succeeds and laughs in relief before losing his footing and falling into the bowl. He gurgles and screams as he drowns and gets torn apart, becoming part of the mix. We see the aftermath with a mix full of dirt, hair, and fabric scraps with a bit of blood as well.

The trio simply stares in horror, with Duck’s and Yellow’s jaws wide open.)

R: I think I need to sit d-

(Red passes out into a puddle of his own blood, Duck falling out of his arms and onto his side. He has also passed out. Yellow still stands in shock, tears pricking his eyes.

After a moment, he shakily sits down next down next to Red’s body and curls up beside his friend’s corpse, weeping into his knees. We’re in front of the house again and the door closes on the disastrous scene.

We suddenly see Lesley pulling out new Red and Duck dolls as she tidies up her doll house.)

Lesley: Shame I have to keep replacing you two.

(The credits rolls for a moment before a cheery but quiet song plays with a ukulele backing.)

A cake without sugar

Is just bread

A body with no soul

Is just dead

A path forward

Is just ahead

And a neck without a skull

Isn’t.

#dhmis #fan script #don’t hug me i’m scared #a bit ooc but eh #I like this one even better than the last! #mild fluffybird

[theneighborhoodwatch]

Ok actually I initially just thought of this as a funny observation on the new wally halloween art but like. Hey wally's mouth viewed straight on looks like an eye. is there enough grounds for the theory that it is /actually/ an eye? He eats things with his mouth closed, what if that mouth is not meant for eating..

i am a little bit obsessed with the mental image of this. i’m gonna say i don’t think it actually is an eye because we’ve seen similarly drawn mouths on other characters before (sally’s character art on the neighborhood map comes to mind.) if anything, i think it’s the inverse - wally’s eyes are also functionally mouths. though i think it’s fun to note that if either of those turn out to be true, wally wouldn’t be the first character to have some weird physiology going on - frank has multiple pieces of concept art in which he is built like a cartoon owl, for example. (though frank’s physiology probably does not correlate with any reality warping abilities.)

EDIT: oooh, hey - i don’t remember if clown’s actually posted about this anywhere on social media, but i do remember some stuff he said on a stream implying the neighbors’ relationship with food and eating is Very different from ours. stuff like how food “doesn’t go bad the way we expect it to”/”time does not rot food,” among other things. i think there was something about how the neighbors don’t eat??? i’ve never seen that last bit anywhere else, though, so take that with a big big BIG grain of salt. i can’t remember the specifics of the discussion bc the streams are not recorded and this was back in like february but like i Do remember it being discussed bc i jotted down a bunch of related stuff that was brought up in relation to it. just thought that was interesting.

also, this is a tangent, but this ask reminded me of a dream i had once - i keep a dream journal, and a couple months back there was a point where every dream i wrote down turned out to be welcome home-related - but i’ll put that under a read more.

it was about welcome home as like an rpgmaker game. the only sequence from it i remember is like. playing as wally and exploring the woods and then finding a staircase leading underground. so i enter bc what else are you gonna do right?

and the room it leads to is like. this library? archive? place. it has an upper floor i never got to see bc i just kept exploring the lil papers and books that were scattered across the floor. the whole place was lit by this Very yellow overhead light and the notes i found were like, editing notes basically. like “dub over this line, sounded weird/the character would never say that,” “edit this shot bc theres a hand in view” etc etc. at some point i remember wally picking up one of the notes and writing in it to put in a good word for poppy over. Something? something about not using a name/phrase that he knew she didn’t like. i remember thinking it was sweet. But Then,

i - we? - find this huge ass ladder that i assume leads up to the second floor so i have wally scale it and this cutscene plays:

very grainy filter, very fluid animation. wally’s climbing up the ladder and he finds like increasingly weird/fucked up shit along the way. at some point i remember seeing what i think was an un-stuffed sally puppet? with no eyes. anyways wally reaches the top of the ladder and finds a crown on a nearby shelf. he puts the crown on. he turns around and perches himself on the ladder and goes limp. then the screen gets Super static-y and everything goes black and white and - this sounds like some 2000s creepypasta shit but wally’s eyes and mouth are like completely blacked out for this sequence. there’s an open book on a shelf nearby and a. glowing figure? slowly emerges from it. 

this figure turns out to look like wally except like. i dont know how else to say this. its eyes are tongues? and it’s all white. and it looks at wally. climbs down the ladder. looks at the loose sally-skin and says something in this very high sing song-y voice. it sounds like that fucked up doll reciting the “now i lay me down to sleep” prayer kinda. but for the life if me i cannot make out what it says. and that’s all i remember

#grunklestanofficial #ask #welcome home #wh speculation #kinda

[spiremire]

6 months in Interior Alaska

In August I moved 3500 miles north from Los Angeles-ish to Interior Alaska for a PhD program. This was the most nerve wracking thing I’ve ever done and also one of the most exciting. When I talk to friends and family about having moved up here, it’s pretty clear they’re picturing me living in a cabin in the woods, fending off bears and somehow a university fits in there, somewhere. Like Alaskan Bush People, with a random college campus thrown in.

Sometimes, they’ve got the right idea. But never for the reasons they think. There’s lots of stuff that’s hard to get up here. That means everything purchased in the state of Alaska comes with a hidden shipping cost built into the market price of the item. When you’re paying nearly twice as much for fresh meat and produce in the stores than the folks living in the lower 48, it’s no question why so many locals turn to hunting and foraging to stock their pantries. Yes, even the ‘city folk’. (I live in the largest urban center in Interior Alaska, but there’s only like 33,000 people living in the city limits. I think that’s what most people would qualify as a small town.)

In terms of hunting and foraging, I wouldn’t even know where to start. No one is ever willing to share where their berry spots or mushroom spots are, and I can’t eat fish and have no interest in getting a hunting license for something bigger. I don’t even have hunting experience to make something larger feasible.

Regardless of price, there’s still some things that I just can’t get up here. Furniture stores like Ikea and Wayfair make no selfsame effort to get their products up here, not even for exorbitant shipping costs. (Usually you have to pay exorbitant shipping costs to a third party package forwarding service, or something similar, instead.) There’s a Target in Anchorage, but Anchorage is 7 hours away on a good (not icy) day. I’ve been making do with Wal-Mart, but it’s not the same and I’m not thrilled about it. Amazon usually charges extra for shipping, because I never buy anything on Amazon I can get in a store, and that usually ends up being weird, bulky items because I am perpetually unlucky.

Speaking of big grocery chains, we only have 4. We have Wal-Mart, Fred Meyer, Safeway, and Costco. These are all the biggest single stores I’ve ever seen in my life and have enough departments they’re almost individual mini-malls. Except the Costco. Costco is the same everywhere. I think I’ve already mentioned being afraid to go into the Wal-Mart and that I just use online order pick-up instead? Yeah. Yikes.

A related aside: Over spring break, which was a couple weeks ago now, we had a few researchers from Portugal visit us so they could get samples at a few of the thermokarst lakes nearby, and they had a pretty miserable mishap with their luggage where all their clothes got lost in Frankfurt, Germany (their first connection), but all their sampling materials arrived just fine. So we ended up taking them to Wal-Mart to get them a few basics, and they’d never been in a Wal-Mart. They also found it entirely overwhelming and I feel vindicated. Anyway.

The familiar-national-chain pickings are slim, whether I’m looking for groceries, fast-food, or another specialty store. This isn’t to say that everything I need isn’t available. Because it is. If you can’t get it for closer-to-lower-48 prices at a national chain store, you can definitely get it from some local supplier. Only problem is, the local suppliers can charge whatever they want, because there’s no competition. Is that good for them? Yes! Absolutely. I love small businesses, and I love that this area allows them to thrive. Is it good for me? Hell no. I don’t make enough as a student to justify going out to eat more than once a month, or once every two months if I’m going to a sit-down restaurant, where the cheapest plate is somewhere between $20-25. Which is rough.

But I don’t only have complaints! There’s so many things I love about here, so far, and in the big picture, I feel like my complaints don’t even begin to outweigh the benefits. I’ve gotten a million opportunities I’d never have gotten anywhere else to do cool stuff. I got to go ice climbing, touch three million year old dirt at the bottom of a permafrost tunnel, see so many excellent showings of aurora borealis, dodge moose and bears and caribou with my car, feel -45F, or experience a full 24 hours of darkness.

I’m having a blast, but sometimes the little things make me feel more like I’m living in the woods. (Don’t get me started on the dry cabin situation up here.)

A lot of it can be mitigated by simply going to these places while I’m visiting my family in the lower 48, but I only see them once a year because I’m so busy and flights are so expensive.

#feel free to ignore #this is just me word vomiting about my new location

[magicjesuscup]

Joel Thoughts

Spoilers below for Grayson's Book 1.

Joel is possibly the biggest karma houdini I've ever seen. I don't think we were told what his punishment was (I’m hoping that’s in Grayson’s book 2), but we know he escaped execution (and note to self: capital punishment is a thing in Invidia), which seems weird to me considering all the things he's guilty of (or at least I think he's guilty of).

In general

Two Counts of Procurement, Possession, and Use of a Magical Artifact

I'm counting this as two since the magical artifact came in a pair.

In Avari

Unknown Counts of (probably first degree) Murder

No one can convince me that Grayson was the first person Joel used his magical artifact on. He seemed to have too good a grasp on how it worked for that to be his first time. So who else could he have used it on? We're told he was stationed in Avari before coming to Colde, so I'm guessing he practiced on Avarian thaumaturges.

In Colde

Two Counts of Destruction of Property

He dropped two buildings.

Unknown Counts of Assault and Attempted Murder

I think the first building he brought down was a test. I think he wanted to see if he could do it and then tried to cover it up by pretending to be the hero. Students and possibly instructors did get injured in that, hence the assault. The second time though? I think he was trying to kill the people inside.

Happened in Colde, but is probably more important to Invidia

Possibly 1 Count of being Absent Without Leave

This depends if you believe Joel was legitimately sent to Colde. I don't for a few reasons:

If Roy's parents were sending a second valet, I imagine they would've sent a woman to look after Sherry, or at least pick up the stuff that made Grayson uncomfortable (washing Sherry's underwear for example).

MC found Joel wandering around the woods. If it were an official assignment, would've someone have given him directions and told him where to go? Better yet, told Grayson to meet him at the pier? Which brings me to my next point...

I think somebody would've told Roy, Sherry, or Grayson (especially Grayson) that a second valet was on the way rather than just surprise them with Joel.

At the very least, Joel should've had paperwork or some kind of proof of his new assignment. When he was first telling Roy, Sherry, and Grayson about being the new second valet, I was expecting him to pull out a document or something and say, "Look? See? I'm not making this up." But he didn't.

A bit unrelated, but I'm equally concerned nobody checked. Nobody in their right mind would've blamed Grayson for sending a letter asking, "Hey, did you send a second valet? Because I didn't hear anything about that, and Joel doesn't have any of the required paperwork." Roy or Sherry could've also sent a letter to their parents saying, "Thanks for sending a second valet. Joel's a good friend." The response would've been, "You're welcome," or, "What are you talking about? We didn't send anyone." Either way, they would've had their answer.

One Count of Attempted Murder

He tried to kill Grayson.

No fewer than 4 Counts of Treason

He tried to kill Roy in the cave. Joel also tried to kill Sherry 3 times. Once when he took down the building she was in, a second time when he realized that attempt failed, and a third time in the cave.

I'm surprised he wasn't considered a criminal internationally and tried in multiple kingdoms. Aside form the stuff that may have happened in Avari, students from all over Salagia were in the buildings he caused to collapse. He also fought with Fenn and Lynt. I imagine that should have consequences, even if was just community service.

#Joel #Grayson Hotz #Roy Invidia #Sherry Invidia #Court of Darkness #NOT FATE RELATED

[officialleehadan]

In the Food

Hello darlings! Today's story was brought to you by Stacey! Darling thank you so much for all your support!

Prompt: Monster of the Isle with more of Charlie and the crew.

+++

“We all signed a release form when we hired on for this mission.”

The new claws are useful. I use them to climb higher into our tree-camp, well above the walkways that link the shelters together, but still within the safe, protective bubble of the lights that fend of the giant birds. The camp is always quiet. No one wants to draw more attention than we have to, and that means making sure most of the monsters don’t even know we’re here.

It’s even quieter up on top of our metal shelter, where I can see the stars through the veil of leaves overhead. Now and then, I see the glow of the giant birds as they pass overhead. Hunting, I guess. I’m glad they don’t pause over us. Looks like the lights are working. I don’t look over as Zack climbs up and takes a seat beside me. He’s armed as always, but it’s just a sidearm clipped to his belt.

“They told you whatever I’ve got would probably hit you too, huh?” I ask. Another of the birds flies over, with two smaller ones in its wake. I wonder if those are the babies that almost ate me last time I was here. “Scared?”

“A little, but I knew it was gonna happen, so I’m not too freaked out.”

“Better than me I guess,” I sigh and hold up one of my hands. I’ve been practicing with the claws so I can figure out how to use them, or not use them, when I want to. I flex my fingers and extend my claws. “I’m gonna have to buy those claw caps for dogs if we make it off this island alive. I’ll be hell on wood floors.”

“Toes too, huh?”

“Shredded my socks.”

“Think we’re gonna get those too?” I can’t tell if Zack is pleased by the idea or nervous. I can hear his heartbeat, but it’s as steady as always. Not much seems to spook any of my four. The only time they get nervous is when something’s actively trying to eat us. “I was talking to one of the scientists. That specialist they sent along to try and figure out what’s going on here.”

“She does genetics, right?” I haven’t bothered to learn most of the names of Team Science. After the Vampire Frog incident, we found out that we lost two of the scientists today. Not to the frogs. One of them discovered a snake in a puddle. The caught the snake without getting bitten, but didn’t realize that what he thought was algae growing on its scales was actually hairlike venomous spines. The other tried to save him. She did her best to pick the spines out of his arm. She missed one that left an almost -invisible scratch over her wrist. They were both dead in minutes. “Any interesting thoughts?”

“She thinks there’s a viral symbiote on the island. Probably lives inside the animals here and is responsible for the mutations in the local flora and fauna.”

“That was a direct quote, wasn’t it?”

“Word for word. I shoot things for a living, bud. Science isn’t my job.”

I chuckle. He’s not being entirely honest. I’ve seen how he handles the team here on Hell Island. We lost most of the dumb thug types that first day. Everyone who’s lasted this long has a brain.

Even if the science team is still learning that when someone starts to die, the only smart thing to do is get tout of the way. It’s a hard lesson to learn. No one wants to let a colleague die right in front of them, even if there’s no  way to save them. In a weird way, I’m glad my first visit to this godforsaken place was alone. At least I didn’t have to watch anyone else die while I was here.

Jury’s still out about this trip. I knew most of them were going to die. I’m just hoping it’s not the ones I like.

“So the thing that’s changing me is a virus that got into me the first time I was here?” Science isn’t my strongest subject either, and virus stuff is way more complicated than my half-forgotten college courses can handle. “If she’s right, you four have been eating more of the local fare than everyone else. No wonder it’s hit you faster.”

“And you’re getting a second dose, with your system already primed, if I understand what she was mumbling. It was after she took that blood sample from each of us.”

So the strength, and all the other mostly invisible stuff was all from the first trip, and the new stuff, the claws and fangs, those are from this visit.

A faint scrape from the side of the shelter announces the other three members of our little group. They climb up onto the top of the shelter one by one and make themselves comfortable on the flat, sun-warmed metal. Even at night, Hell Island is comfortably tropic, but it does get cool enough to want a coat. Or, well, I used to think so. Maybe I don’t get cold anymore, either.

One more reminder that whatever is happening to me is taking my humanity with it.

“I could hear you talking,” Siggi explains. He takes up a place with his back against Zack’s so they can watch in every direction at once. Mariska actually sits on the next branch up from us, and Círce sits below her as she methodically starts to clean her rifle. “Figured out what’s going on?”

“We’re all turning into mutants because we ate the giant spiders,” Zack says with a grin. “Wanna go get another one? I don’t think I can stomach more MREs.”

+++

The Monster of the Isle:

Isle of Monsters

Return to the Isle of Monsters

Monsterpedia   (Subscriber Only!)

Doom in the Distance (Subscriber Only!)

Eight Down

In the Trees (Subscriber Only!)

Specimen Hunting

First Changes (Subscriber Only!)

Croczilla

Flying Vampire Frogs (Subscriber Only!)

Unsettling

In the Food (New!)

+++

MASTERLIST

#Write #writer #written #writing prompt #prompt #prompts #story #novel #fantastic #romance #romantic #love #spilled ink #spilled writing #spilled romance #spilled feelings #supernatural #writeblr #lee hadan #pretty #art #artistic #music #inspiration

[fernetic]

An Animal You Have Never Seen

Somewhere, right now, in this very moment, there is an animal nobody has ever seen before. People discover thousands of new animals each year, so it might not seem like a big deal to you, but trust me, this is different.

Well, if this animal is just so special, then what’s it look like? You’re wondering that, right? Well, I don’t know! It wouldn’t be an animal that nobody has ever seen if I’d seen it. Duh.

I was hanging around the woods near my house after school, not doing much of anything. I didn’t want to go home, I didn’t really feel like being anywhere, and the woods were the closest I could get to that feeling—of being nowhere, I mean. Mom says not to go in the woods because I might get murdered by an insane person or something, but I haven’t died yet so she might be lying. I’ll have to gather more data. Either way, I didn’t find a murderer in the woods that day, I found words. Scratched right into the dirt, which was soft and damp from recent rain, they read: 

I AM THE ANIMAL NOBODY HAS EVER SEEN. I WAS HERE.

Huh, is what I thought. Weird. Then I went home. It was a long way back to my house, longer than I had realized. For one brief electric moment, I was afraid I was lost. 

What if I’m lost forever and have to live in the woods and eat acorns like in My Side of the Mountain? And grow a beard! One so big and bushy that if someone I knew saw me, they wouldn’t even recognize me! 

But then there was my house in front of me again, appearing like magic from behind a tree, and that fear-worry-hope-fantasy was crushed like a blueberry between someone’s fingers. I felt real stupid right then. I didn’t even know anything about wilderness survival, would’ve died within days. Girls don’t grow beards either.

School the next day passed in the same mindless blur it always did. I’m in the fifth grade and there’s really not a lot to say about it. I don’t have any friends, but it’s not like that bothers me. Sometimes the boy behind me pulls my hair, which wouldn’t even be a problem if my mom let me cut it short like I want to. That day I didn’t think about the words in the dirt; people do dumb stuff in the woods all the time, and after the bell rang I went straight home. 

My sister was back from college that week, so Mom was being weird again, like, happy-weird. So cheerful I wanted to punch something. Maybe I’m just a bad person, I don’t know. My sister’s okay though, I barely see her anyways. She and Mom mostly just talk about Dad, who she remembers more, or her boyfriend, or life in the city and how awesome it is. Mom loves it when she talks about that stuff, gets all wide-eyed. Me, I don’t get the big deal. What’s wrong with where we live now?

During dinner I sat crouched on my chair, with my legs pulled up under my shirt and my shoulders hunched, pretending to be a gargoyle. I’ve seen pictures of gargoyles and yeah, they’re weird looking, but I think they’re kind of cool. They just get to hang out on buildings and watch people, it’s not too bad of a life.

I was still thinking about gargoyles when I noticed Mom talking to me, something about getting my knees out of my shirt because I was stretching it out. Whatever. I don’t care about those things like Mom does, and I think it makes her kind of mad. She’s afraid if I’m ‘the way I am,’ I’ll get bullied, but really, I’m not! I’m good at keeping to myself. So what if I don’t like to wear pretty clothes or care about boys or know how to make people like me? The world doesn't make any sense, people are always hung up on stupid things that don’t matter! 

I pretended to listen to Mom so I could go to my room, and then tried to draw the bug crawling on my windowsill. It’s hard—bugs are really complicated for being so tiny. I’m not the best at drawing, but if I keep at it I might be able to become a professional bug artist when I’m older, if that’s even a job. I hope it is. The bug was a beetle, I think, with a glossy black shell like volcanic glass and six thread-thin legs. How does something with such delicate legs support itself? Are beetles not subject to the same laws of gravity we are? I’ll have to look into that more. 

I was so focused on that bug that I didn’t even notice the pouring rain that had started outside, splattering blobs of water on my window and covering the inside with that fine mist windows always get when it’s cold and wet out. I made a little squiggle on the glass with my finger and the line stood out bright and clear, before slowly filling and blending back into nothing again.

For some reason, I thought about those words in the woods. They weren’t very deeply scratched into the dirt, and the soil was all soft and loose. In rain like this, they were probably getting washed away right as I sat on my bed. This really freaked me out, I can’t explain why. I felt like the sun was gonna explode if I let those words disappear. So, I grabbed my raincoat and my sneakers and went out the back door, so quiet nobody even saw me, and bam! I was gone. 

Running through the forest, dim in the evening light, that was the first time I felt awake in a long, long time. I could barely see where I was going, just had to dodge on instinct, let myself be moved around in the spaces between the trees and trust my legs to take me where I needed to go. Before long, I came to that spot in the woods again, more of a bald patch than clearing, panting and heart racing. The words were still there, but barely. They read: 

I  M TH   AN M L NOB DY  AS EVE   S  N. I WAS HE E.

I got an idea then, and took out my knife. It’s just an X-acto knife I stole from school, but it's sharp, and I bet it could do some real damage. Into the trunk of a nearby tree I scratched the words, whole again. Not super neat, but hey, they’re not missing any letters and will probably last a lot longer than lines in the dirt.  

I waited a moment, just standing there, admiring my work. Then I went home. I hung up my raincoat, which was my dad’s and gigantic and warm and I took off my shoes, which were squishy with rain, and Mom yelled at me for running off and dripping water everywhere, and how ‘sometimes it feels like she only has one daughter,’ and I ran up to my room and I shut and locked my door and I didn’t even care, I swear I didn’t care at all. Then I saw the words. Written in the fog on the window, in small neat letters, they read: 

I AM THE ANIMAL NOBODY HAS EVER SEEN. I DO NOT KNOW WHEN I WAS BORN AND I DO NOT KNOW WHEN I WILL DIE. I HAVE NO NEED FOR HUMANS TO SEE ME, THEY WOULD NOT UNDERSTAND. I HAVE NO DESIRE TO HELP THEM UNDERSTAND. BUT YOU HAVE MADE YOURSELF MY RECORD KEEPER AND SO I WILL MAKE MYSELF YOUR OWN. I AM THE ANIMAL NOBODY HAS EVER SEEN, BUT I HAVE SEEN YOU AND I WILL REMEMBER YOU, UNTIL THIS EARTH HAS GONE TO DUST.

I stared at those words. I read them over and over again until they were engraved into my mind, until I was sure they wouldn’t budge, and then I watched as they faded back into fog, and the glass was milky and blank once more.

Now you know my story. Do what you want with it—you can forget it for all I care. For as long as I’m alive, there will be someone who remembers.

#Short story #Fiction

[angsty-prompt-hole]

Heads Up, Seven Up

Thanks for the tag, @onthetipofmyquill!

I’m just gonna post an excerpt since my seven make absolutely no sense without context lmao. And also I have been dying to post Winter Hollow stuff on this blog and I had this little short story thing I’ve been working on involving it.

There’s an urban legend where I’m from. I’m not sure how it started or when, but most everyone in my small town knew the story. It was almost uncanny how well everyone’s different versions matched up, and I wondered for a long time whether that was because of how small our community was, or if there was something else going on here. I don’t ask myself that question anymore.

The story goes something like this:

Somewhere deep in the forest, there’s an old mining town. It’s not like any of the other old mining towns though. This town, called Winter Hollow after the founding Winterholler Mining Company, was burned to the ground in the winter of 1974. Yet, some people have reported that when they went to explore the town, all of the buildings were intact. In fact, there were even people living there. However, something seemed off, and it all got even worse the longer you stayed in Winter Hollow. You would start to see the landscape changing around you. A highway would appear going through the center of town, and the woods you had hiked through to get there were now desert plains where cattle and other livestock grazed. Some of the residents in the town would start urging you to leave while you still could, but you would catch others watching you, almost hungrily. And then…

The story can end in only one way, obviously. The townsfolk kill you, sacrificing you to their great horned god. Sometimes they would also eat you. Some people would embellish the story, giving the townsfolk names, or adding in a radio station that broadcast out weird messages that made no sense. When I was younger, the parents of the community would tell a version of the story where there were weird animals lingering in the woods, waiting to snatch you up. None of us kids ever admitted to believing it, but I know some of us were successfully scared out of solo adventures in the woods for a while.

This legend was just that for most of my life, a legend. When I hit college, though, it became much more than that.

I’d always been passionate about the outdoors, and the forest was one of my favorite places on earth, so when it came time to pick a degree, obviously I picked natural resources. However, it turns out natural resources involves a lot more math than I was anticipating, and since I had nearly failed all of my high school math classes, I ended up having to take a bunch of extra math classes in order to meet the prerequisites for the stuff I actually cared about.

The first semester of my sophomore year the math class was statistics. Around the 5th day of the semester this kid sat next to me in class, a guy I had never seen before. He was about average in every respect except for the fact that he looked like he hadn’t slept in a week and that his eyes were the most vivid green I’ve ever seen in my life.

This is an open tag for anyone who wants to do it!

#tag game #my writing #winter hollow is my absolute favorite thing but it's not actually technically a writing project and it makes me SO SAD #i mean do ARGs count as writing projects?

[sugarbundust]

updates; blurb; semi-rant

ᕙ( •̀ ᗜ •́ )ᕗ At the home-stretch! Wanted to try to post early, but the last few days have been a bit chaotic.

tl;dr til next bold point - Money issues, and a random ass deer deciding it wants to live rent-free in my yard lmao

So many job interviews while being on/off sick, and then got sent bills for additional things we didn’t anticipate having to deal with (like a giant tree in our front yard the township decided it wants to cut down, but the law in our State is we have to pay??? I’m;??;). So I had to try and sell a bunch of things for quick cash, because they won’t work with us for a payment plan.

Goodbye special edition Pokémon Nintendo Switch, and majority of our games and manga. 😑 (Also why are these town services so expensive????) 

I’m incredibly salty. I keep telling myself it’s only monetary goods we can rebuy when we’re not hurting financially, but it’s still upsetting. I hate having to sell stuff. Our savings are pretty much depleted by now, so that’s a looming cloud that’s just the best. /s 

Got some positive news about one potential source of income, though, so knocking on wood that that works out. 🤞🏻

Then today we found out a pregnant deer somehow got into our gated backyard and had a baby, and it was in the middle of a rain storm so bad you could barely see. 😵‍💫 

For context, I live in a town. Deer like this don’t ever wander around here. I can count on a single hand the amount of times I’ve seen them (and never in our yard!). They’re way, way more common farther up by the river, which is like a half-hour drive, so I guess it wandered and got lost? They just... they don’t live here lmao it’s too many people/cars, no shelter or trees for them to hide, etc.

And I don’t say all that because I’m enamored by the fact that they exist—I’m actually very used to deer being around, due to living in areas where they’re far more common. They would run in huge herds through my parents’ property when growing up, along with bear and the like. 

It was just super weird to see one at random when our gates are too tall for them to normally jump???? Like, we don’t even know how she got in?? The baby deer couldn’t get out on its own, we had to help them both leave and stay united, and also panic that they don’t go running into a street with cars. @w@

So that was fantastic way to start the day, being in the heavy rain with a dog that I had to walk, and being surprised by and then advanced on by an angry/panicked mother deer. I don’t need to be trampled lmao and right after I woke up, sans coffee 😂 It was a good thing I had my dog on a leash for all parties involved lmao 

It’s one of those weeks where it’s like, what else can happen?

Also, for those wondering, yes, both deer are fine. 

Now, the positives! Got a lot of editing done last night. Went through over half of the chapter, making it more coherent and trimming fat. Only a small chunk left to go, and then I can post and start drafting the next chapter. Got a bunch of ideas for that, but I’m trying to figure out how far I can stretch things before the fighting/action-scenes begin again. I don’t want to have another mini arc turn into a full-blown ten chapter episode (thank you again, Shinsou). 😂 But there are a few things I want to touch on before we get to the 1-VS-1s. I hope it will be entertaining!

Also had to redo my embedded blockquotes all over again (Thank you AO3 for not following my inputted HTML every time I Save Draft.) lol, so I’m really hoping mobile-readers are going to be okay 🥲  It’s actually worse than the chapter with Aizawa’s learned packet breakdown. OTL If it’s not easily legible when posted, I sincerely apologize!! I tried for a ridiculously long time to make it work 😭 

I’m not going to do deep-set blockquotes going forward. This was it lmao. I understand now why most people just create graphics and embed them into their work 😭💀 Rich Text to HTML conversion was hard enough already. (Why did I make so much more work for myself? lol I always seem to do this. 😂)

But alas. Gonna try to finish tonight! ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ I hope it will be worth it! ❤️

#updates #blurb