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theharrowing · 2 years

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The Hooksborough Demon 🤍 7: Oddly calm

You and two friends ventured into the location of an urban legend with the intention of exploring an abandoned building and having a laugh at small town lore for clout.

But after a series of mysterious events, you have turned to a forum a year later to try to piece everything together, and to find out what the fuck happened to Yoongi & Jimin.

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🤍 Yoongi x Female Reader 🤍word count: 2.1k + comments 🤍 paranormal au, urban legend au, found footage horror, gore, poly, smut, nsfw, 21+ 🤍 warnings: haunting imagery, mild gore & blood 🤍 beta read by @neoneunnajimin 🤍 posted jan. 2022 | read on ao3

Home / Local Legends / The Hooksborough Demon / The Hooksborough Three

77:11 - 110:44 (posted by TH3 on 01/14/2021)

Timestamp 77:11. We are examining the Polaroid of what looks like the café that only I have previously seen photos of, when we hear a loud noise come from upstairs. It sounds like something large has fallen onto the floor of the main or upper level.

"What was that?" Jimin asks, looking toward the escalator.

Yoongi pans the camera around, and there is nothing of note down here—no dust or anything falling from the ceiling, which is what I had expected to see. The camera comes back to us.

"Should we investigate?" Yoongi suggests.

I am visibly unsettled by the idea, and I remember feeling frightened.

"What if it's another person?"

We stand in silence but do not hear anything else for about twenty seconds, and then Yoongi starts making his way back to the escalator. Jimin and I follow behind.

I hear Jimin's backpack unzip and zip, and then he is holding a flashlight. It just occurred to me that neither Jimin nor I had been using them at all, which seems weird. We both used the lights on our phones, which are way dimmer. I doubt it means anything; it is just an observation.

The three of us go up the escalator, and Yoongi pans around for a little while before scaling the next escalator to the upper level. We go slowly this time and more spread out—I'm three steps behind Yoongi, and Jimin is several behind me—just in case any of the steps are broken, but we get to the top without any problem.

Timestamp 84:34. The upper level is a big round area that overlooks the main level, and all around that circle are storefronts. There are no hallways to the left and right, but rather large department stores. To the right is the JC Penny that connects to the end of the hallway all the way downstairs, and to the left is supposed to be a sporting goods store, but instead is still just a wall.

So, the layout would essentially be a large square of store on the top floor, and then on the main and lower levels, they are much smaller rectangles at the ends of hallways. I cannot imagine why; how do you have so much stuff for one JC Penny that you need one giant level and two lower ones? For a town this small, especially. The sporting goods store would make sense, at least, if it were actually there.

In the last chapter, I said that there were more stores up here than in the lower level hallway, but now that I am watching the footage, it seems I misremembered. It looks like there are about the same number of stores. Maybe because it is a large, open area, I imagined there were more. Just an observation; probably does not mean anything.

We walk around the circular area to the right. I think Yoongi is still angry to see a wall where the sporting goods store should be because he pans over momentarily, huffs, and then turns to the right. We look into the storefronts, and everything is just as it was before the mall was abandoned. There is a Build-a-Bear Workshop with a bunch of seasonal bears on display, two shoe stores, a toy store that specializes in board and tabletop games, and so on.

I was too busy looking into the storefronts to notice it, so when Yoongi says, "Holy shit," under his breath, it takes me a moment to follow his line of vision. But once I do, I take off running. To the end of this circular area, across from the top of the escalator, was the café kiosk.

"What the fuck?" I am heard saying as Yoongi and Jimin catch up.

My hands are clenching my hair, and I recall they were sweating like crazy; I remember feeling dizzy and nauseous from the sight of it.

"Why didn't you tell me that this was up here?" I say, turning to Yoongi.

The camera is on me, but I remember the wide-eyed look on Yoongi's face, gazing past me.

"I didn't remember seeing it," he mutters.

"You didn't remember seeing it?" I respond, stepping toward the camera with anger in my eyes. "You? Who studied the floorplan, who threw a fit and screamed at Jimin because of a wall, are going to tell me that you missed this detail?"

Yoongi walks around the kiosk, studying it.

"No, there's not supposed to be anything here," he finally says.

"Uhhhh, guys," Jimin says, picking something up from the kiosk counter. He is standing on the outside of the kiosk, near the open and empty cash register.

Yoongi makes his way to Jimin, and in his hand is the photo of the slide.

"Very funny, Jimin," I say from behind him.

"W-what? I just found this here."

"Yeah, right, show me your pockets," I command. "Where is the swing photo?"

"Hey," Yoongi says to me, "we can't keep fighting over silly shit, okay, let's just leave it."

To explain the anger that occurs within this place, imagine there is a constant noise just in the periphery that you cannot find a solution to, and you cannot shut out. Like somewhere, in the corner of your mind, there is a faucet drip, drip, dripping, and it is slowly driving you crazy. You cannot think straight because it will not stop drip, drip, dripping, and you are becoming more and more frustrated, more and more confused, more and more agitated. Somewhere in the back of your mind, it is almost as if there is a voice whispering, "Kill him, kill him, kill him," and you stand seething, seeing red, wanting nothing more than to reach out, wrap your fingers around his throat and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze the fucking life out of him.

That is how I felt, looking at Yoongi while he told me there was meant to be nothing, that he had never seen a café kiosk in any of the floorplans, much less in the location where I thought it should be, nor the location where it is now.

And Jimin, standing there with a Polaroid between his fingers. Jimin, who had his fingers on two photos but never set one of them down in front of me or on camera. I wanted to bash his head against the counter, watch as his skull cracks and his grey matter and blood seep out, painting the laminated wood of the countertop.

Whatever this surge of anger was caused by within the walls of this building was swirling inside me, pouring from my mouth and eyes, and I wanted them both dead from my bare hands.

And then it stopped.

I blinked, and it was gone. As if a mist within me had dissipated, and my mind was clear.

On camera, I bury my face in my hands, sit on the floor with my back against the counter, and start to cry. I remember feeling exhausted, confused, regretful. I try to explain to them what is happening, and Yoongi understands, but Jimin does not; Jimin takes several steps away from us, eyes wide, and stays quiet.

There is a shift in the moods in our group; a crack has formed that never repairs itself because Jimin is the only person between us who has not experienced this anger yet, and he never will, and it is clear that he is afraid of us.

Four minutes pass where I sit on the floor and cry before I decide that this is not productive, and frankly, it is a little embarrassing, and I get up. I wipe tears and snot onto my sleeve. I feel strange knowing that Yoongi is filming all of this, panning between Jimin and me, while his arm is outstretched and he is consoling me. I remember wishing he had just shut the fucking thing off for a moment but did not say anything because I was already too overwhelmed by everything else happening, and I did not want to be bathed in darkness.

"We should just go," Jimin mutters. His flashlight is turned to the floor, and he has his arms around his chest.

"Yeah," Yoongi agrees. "We should just end this and get out of here."

I nod my head. My arms are also wrapped around my chest.

"Cool," Yoongi says, "gaja."

Jimin and I both stand, waiting for Yoongi to go. I can tell Jimin wants to keep his distance, so I am also waiting for him to move, but once he does not, I begin to. I walk in front of Yoongi to be in frame, but Jimin stays behind. It takes several minutes to get to the top of the escalator.

Timestamp 98.07. We hear the same loud crash as before, and it sounds like it is coming from the other side of the big wall, which is now to the right of us because we are at the top of the escalators, looking down. I decide to just run, making a break for it. At this point, I am too fucking stressed, and I just want to get the hell out of the mall.

Because I ran first, the light from the camera stops part of the way down the escalators, and I cannot really see ahead of me, but I keep running because I know that there should be a large empty area leading into the cafeteria, where we will find the hole in the window through which we can escape.

I fumble to get my phone out of my pocket, and when I switch it on at the bottom of the escalator, I stop dead in my tracks. The large empty fountain, the one from the lower level, is on the main level, right in my way. What is more, I realized that after seeing this fountain in the lower level the first time, that I had never seen it again. When we walked through the corridor that stretched between the wall and JC Penny, it should have been there, but it was not.

So I did what anyone else would do. I screamed. Yoongi and Jimin caught up and were equally bothered, swearing and searching around to make sure we were on the correct floor, despite only having gone down one flight of steps.

There is no plausible explanation for things to shift like this. Humans can not do this in this kind of timeframe. There is no way this could really be happening, but it is. We make our way around the fountain, at this point just eager to get the fuck out and through the cafeteria. Everything looks as it had, with the untouched neon signs and the tables and chairs.

Only, rather than the doors and windows greeting us at the end of the room, it is just a big cement wall, similar to the one where the sporting goods store was.

"What the fuck!" I scream.

Jimin and Yoongi shout similar exclamations, pressing their hands against the wall in disbelief.

"We have to go to the sporting goods store," Yoongi says frantically. "Maybe the store is there now that this wall is here. We need to try."

"We should split up," Jimin suggests. "I will stay here while you go there, just in case the wall tries to move again."

Yoongi tries to talk Jimin out of it, but I agree with him.

"Wait, yeah, Jimin is right. We never see anything move in front of us...if he stays here, then maybe the wall won't move."

"Okay...I'll go, Jimin stays here, and you?" Yoongi asks.

"Go with Yoongi," Jimin answers for me.

There is still something in Jimin's eyes, like he is distrusting of me and possibly of Yoongi.

"Yeah, okay," I say. I do not want to argue. "I'll go with Yoongi."

Timestamp 110:44. I will end here tonight, I am getting exhausted.

I know how all of this sounds. I know you will probably not believe that things are moving like this. I do not know what to tell you, though. It happened.

Be safe, and stay away from the mall! I'll be back soon! 🤍

Comments:

j.m on 01/14/2022 i was afraid of you two because every time you had that angry feeling, i was shown images of what you wanted to do to me. it was like i was astral projecting, watching you from the corner of the room as you bashed my head into the counter and screamed. even when the blood was pooling and splashing you wouldn't stop. you were covered in it, streaks of red on your face and your teeth were razor sharp. you thought about tearing my flesh open and consuming me just as that place was beginning to consume you. and even when you snapped out of it, even when your mind was clear and the images stopped, i couldn't get it out of my head. i couldn't stop seeing your eyes black as pools of abyss staring down at my broken form. i dreamt about it every night for weeks. i still see it sometimes, when i'm awake.

TH3 [author] on 01/14/2022 @.j.m please stop

ladycubes on 01/14/2022 i understand you not wanting to show the video to the public in the event that there is some type of curse, however, there seems to be some sort of portal with all the shifts you three were seeing on all of the different levels in the mall. maybe your friends are trapped in the other dimensions.

TH3 [author] on 01/14/2022 @.ladycubes that is one of my theories, actually. since we all escaped the mall, and nothing happened to jimin until he started looking at the tapes. i guess i'll find out soon enough, right?

squishycat on 01/14/2022 ok so you clearly wanted to kill your friends and went into graphic detail and they're missing, do we have proof you were locked up when they disappeared bc this is sus. fuck the mist, we don't even have proof that what you're telling us is what you're seeing on tape!!! this is too much.

giriiboyy on 01/14/2022 @.j.m & @.y.g stop pretending to be jimin & yoongi! what are you even doing??? they disappeared so obviously you guys are playing a prank and it's not funny!

kira_kurosaki on 01/14/2022 @.j.m either you're jimin and @.TH3 is having a great time freaking everyone out with this little tale, or you're one hell of an attention seeker. wtf, man

gemah on 02/28/2022 @.j.m yo, not cool impersonating ain’t nice, my dude

// Tonight, you feel oddly calm.

Of course, you know that this is really just the calm before the storm and that things are going to become a lot stranger and more unexplainable.

Sometimes it feels like Yoongi is there with you as you watch these tapes. You imagine him sitting beside you, drawing circles on the small of your back. You can feel him watching you as you watch the recording, as if he is eagerly awaiting your reaction. As if he is just out of your periphery.

How wonderful it would be to see him again. //

Tag list: @dasexydevitt13, @giriiboyy. @mwitsmejk 🤍 Comment or DM to be added to the tag list!

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#fic: the hooksborough demon #paranormal au #urban legend au #found footage au #yoongi x reader #haunting #paranormal activity

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bitch-i-migth-be · 4 years

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Crash Course | Chapter 04: A Busy Queen Bee

Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman,

Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton,

Characters: Danny Fenton, Jazz Fenton, Ghost Writer, Clockwork, Observants, Pariah Dark mentions, Random ghosties mentions *boo*

Words: 2′549

Tags: BAMF Danny, BAMF Jazz, Sibling bonding, Shenanigans, Swearing

Summary: He swore his sister was trying to make him go into cardiac arrest - considering his halfa status that was quite the accomplishment-

But there was no other explanation to his sister’s stubbornness, and if he knew her at all there was just no talking her down from interning at goddam Arkham.

A/N: The academy location is what the Gotham Academy Comic brought up to the table on it’s pages. Gotham Academy IS across the road on that comic.

Complete madmen, I’m telling you. That’s child endangerment right there and like HELL I’m passing up this opportunity HAHAHAHA.

This is going to be a disaster.

CHAPTERS: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7

-.-.-.-

Danny was quickly writing down on his journal every single little thing that could be helpful to deal more efficiently with his workload, had been rather busy lately, and normally he would just wing it and be done with it, but this time there were some things he had to take into consideration before he started to poke bears with sticks.

One of the most important?

When you are dealing with ghosts, you have to take into account that they have a thing called obsession.

It’s their drive. The reason behind their actions and continual existence upon this world, and as such, a good way to guess what makes them tick.

Danny liked to pretend he was not a slave of a fucking obsession, but considering he was still fighting the ghosts, with no payment to speak of, and after the massive amount of times someone had used his face to scrub the streets-

The fake it ‘till you make it ideology only carried you so far in life.

His friends called it a hero-type obsession.

Danny didn’t think that fit quite right.

When he couldn’t turn a blind eye on one of his, particularly reckless, actions he preferred to describe it as a protection streak.

Obsessions were ‘born’ the moment of one’s death, after all.

And there had been nothing heroic in the way he had died.

He had been scared shitless.

The moment it had clicked in his head that he would most definitely die right there, all the reasons why he didn’t want to die yet flashed by his mind, all those places left to visit, his dreams of going to space, going out with his friends, his family- My god, Jazz …

He would leave his sister behind.

He was leaving her alone in this godforsaken house with their parents.

Even after all the years the Fenton siblings spent calling living in the Fenton household ‘survival’ they had only been playing around. It was supposed to be just a joke. Something to lighten and make fun of their weird family dynamic.

It wasn’t supposed to escalate like this.

And now- n-now their parents had demonstrated that they were apparently more than capable of killing off — if accidentally — one of their children, what the fuck would prevent them from murdering the other one?

Who was going to protect his sister?

The fear for his well being had rapidly transformed into dread for his sister’s future. A tremendous and sudden rush of protectiveness had inundated his being.

And that was it for him.

The next time he had recovered some semblance of coherence he had awakened as a fully minted halfa and there was no going back.

Some months later, after learning more about his situation and what it meant, he had been capable of identifying what was the drive behind his ghost half. Jazz had been the catalyst, but apparently the sheer feeling of protectiveness had been what his soul had latched onto. So while his sister was a big priority, he recognized that he still felt somewhat inclined to protect in general.

He still refused to call it an obsession, though.

So Protection Urges it was.

Apart from keeping a constant watch on their house —for both their sake’s, truly—, when the ghosts started running wild all over the place his new ghost instincts had come to the conclusion that a safe town meant a safe sister — and a happy sister. Jazz would blow a fuse worrying about getting lynched by the town when they realized the older Fentons were at fault of the destruction of their homes. And he would worry about his sister getting skewered. An intervention was in order —, so, most of the time this protection was reserved for the humans, considering the weak things tended to get trapped in the crossfire between the ghosts and their obsession or even other ghosts.

There were also moments when humans would turn against other humans. But in a place like Amity — where the citizens felt a certain level of kinship against the ghostly invaders and tended to stick together — those tended to be scarce and far between.

The occasions where his protection streak would show up in favor of ghosts weren’t as numerous, but they existed. They tended to be either when the G.I.W. got their imbecility involved, his parents were hell-bent on getting subjects for dissection or when other fucking ghosts insisted on being fucking assholes.

After all the time he spent dealing with ghosts it was undeniable there were good ghosts out there, and no matter the reason, when he helped these ghosts out most of them tended to be openly grateful. Some promised him their allegiance, others gave him their respect, and a good bunch of them would find subtle ways to stay under his protection.

Once the almost disaster that had been Pariah Dark was over, some of the ghosts had started to actively request his protection.

Some of the most aggressive ghosts had started to back down, shit, even Walker was not bitching at him as much as he used to these days. He would think he was going soft, but he still looked at him like something the dog had dragged in — which, ok, that was true sometimes because Wulf, or even Cujo, but there was no need to be rude —, Danny didn’t really mind, Walker wasn’t his favorite person either.

So things were a little better for him when he visited the Ghost Zone, and he could make things somewhat better for the weaker ghosts that relied on him for protection. As far as Danny was concerned he was doing fine in his protection duties. Fast forward a pair of months and the Ghost Writer was kind enough to inform him that while he was doing an excellent job with the fighting aspect, he sucked in all the others.

Apparently, when a ghost asked for the protection of another ghost they were requesting a lot more than just a ‘fight for me’. — And how the fuck was he supposed to even know that? — This, of course, also meant that they were willing to offer a lot more in exchange. But Danny wasn’t as focused on what he could get in return as in the fact that he was apparently lacking on his role as protector.

Not on his goddamn watch.

Damn his fucking urges.

Later on, with more time and experience to sort through this wreck waiting to happen and after he finally got the chance to met more of the sovereigns of the Infinity Realms and personally witness their interactions with their people, he would start to understand what exactly this new role he had stumbled upon meant.

For the moment the only thing he deemed as the first priority was supplying the ghosts under his care with a safe space to exist.

According to the Ghost Writer, giving them a safe space would normally translate into welcoming them into his lair, because the weaker ghosts that normally requested protection didn’t have the proper energy levels to make one of their own.

The problem with that was that he didn’t have a lair.

…Not necessarily.

GW hypothesized that, as he was so attached to his hometown and spend the most part of his time in there, it was likely that his ghost half recognized the entirety of Amity Park as his lair, and as such his instincts hadn’t seen the construction of one for his own use in the Zone as necessary. Or something along those lines.

That had been a bump on the road for his plans.

Nonetheless, a Fenton does not know when to fucking stop, so he kept at it.

When he nagged clockwork about it the older — or younger, whatever he was at the time — ghost had said that winning a fight against a ghost king meant inheriting their lair by right of conquest. So technically speaking, Danny did have a lair now, no matter how creepy the thing was.

That was all good and dandy but didn’t quite resolve the main problem.

Because now the problem was that Pariah’s goddamned keep — now Phantom’s —, was ‘guarding’ one sleeping murderous king, and two fucking powerful artifacts. And opening the doors to what amounted to a small army of random ghosts while those things were there was not a good idea.

But, seeing as Danny was not about to expose ghosts or humans to each other, there was no way he was letting his ‘people’ into Amity, so the castle it was.

Considering the significance the crown, ring, and even fucking Pariah held for the zone, the Observants would have to get involved for decision making, because of course, they had to shove their nonexistent noses on everything.

As anyone would have predicted, it was a goddamn pain to reach some kind of agreement when such uptight guys were involved. The halfa acknowledged that finding a place to these things was important but after two hours of debating back and forth over it, the situation was getting ridiculous.

Danny, being pretty annoyed already, had asked if they could just melt the damn things and be done with it.

The Observants nearly had a coronary.

Clockwork would have succeeded in looking chastising if he hadn’t been so busy trying to hide the smirk blooming in his face from witnessing the eyeballs’ ruffled distress.

They explained to him exactly why doing something like that was completely foolish, Phantom retorted that leaving two ancient artifacts of immeasurable power, and a psychotic slumbering ex-king in a creepy castle guarded by fear factor alone was fucking foolish.

The Observants countered saying that if the new high king would just fucking accept his position and wear them then they wouldn’t have to worry about the artifacts. Phantom disagreed in principle because the new high king would have to be as imbecile as the last one to let himself get possessed by a fucking ring.

The halfa dutifully ignored most of the implications thrown in that particular conversation.

Happiness belongs to the ignorant.

In the end, they had all acquiesced

A good thing, because Danny had been more than prepared to throw the tantrum of the century if any of them tried to get that goddamned cursed ring anywhere near his fingers, and there was no fucking way he was going to parade around wearing a fucking crown on fire — or otherwise—, he had an ice core for ancients’ sakes.

In the middle of the ghost-catfight, Danny had stated that he would only agree to use the damn artifacts as long as they found a way to get rid of the goddamn curse of the ring and make the gaudy crown less of a fire hazard.

The Observant sniffed pompously, saying that the notion of them not knowing how to do such a simple thing was ridiculous, Danny’s eye twitched as he sneered, because ‘Why the fuck haven’t you done it already then?’

The Observants shifted nervously. Danny sneered harder. Clockwork stopped trying to pretend he was not enjoying himself.

One of the Observants finally disclosed that the issue was not the knowledge but the power needed to pull off such a thing. With newer things, transferring powers from a thing to another was relatively easy. With millennia-old artifacts with such amount of power inside, though? Near impossible. Not even taking into account that the artifacts Danny wanted to ‘mess with’ were — however cursed — an ancient heritage of the Infinity Realms.

“Then we ask for help.” Phantom said curtly, crossing his arms over his chest.

This declaration resulted in a row of rapid blinking among the Observants. It was fucking weird to watch.

“Ask who for help, exactly?” Came the uneasy reply.

“Isn’t it obvious?” he drawled, pushing his hand through his already messy white hair and massaging his aching temple while he was at it.

“I think what Daniel is trying to say is,” Intervened ClockWork after letting Phantom loose on the Observants as long as he could get away with. The boy was a real wonder. “If we need power and permission to ‘ mess with the ancient heritage ’ then the better option would be to consult with the Kings and Queens of the Infinity Realms. Wouldn’t you agree?” the ghost of time finished sending a playful little smile to the ruffled Observants.

At the end of the day, all this chit chat resulted in the official formation of the High Council of the Infinity Realms.

For Danny, the best thing about this Council was that most of them, like him, had a bone to pick with the Observants.

Which didn’t mean that they agreed with him on everything he put forward, but it still makes him quite satisfied, all things considered.

Once established the first order of business had been, of course, dealing with the artifacts and Pariah.

Phantom suggested from the get-go stashing pariah into a more discreet, less flashy location than his previous castle, and transferring the powers of the ring and crown into new non-cursed-or-flaming-and-better-named jewelry.

These things had been a trademark of the ruthlessness of Pariah’s reign, after all.

Taking into account that all of the ghosts sovereigns had either been present for Pariah’s carnage or were more than aware of the repercussions it caused, it was not much of a surprise when it was an almost unanimous vote in favor of the notion. It would have to be discussed further to decide on the precise details, but for the most part that was the general sentiment.

The Observants had seethed for a while, but they couldn’t do more than resign themselves after the majority of the votes cast were in favor of a complete change.

They had still insisted on keeping a goddamn crown as mandatory, and he could have kept going with his bitching but Jazz had been trying to teach him how to pick his battles, and this one was not worth more of a sore throat.

All of this hassle because he wanted to give some homeless ghosts safe heaven into his previously non-existent lair.

Once done, with the artifacts and Pariah taken out of the keep, he realized some redecoration was in order before anyone lived in this place. He thought about asking ClockWork but decided to let him deal with the Council Shenanigans and went to bother the Ghost Writer instead.

The dude sure had some strong opinions on color schemes and furniture.

Danny shook himself out of his daydreaming, he had gotten carried away.

He put his pen down, taking advantage of the little break in writing to stretch his cramped limbs and back like a cat before looking over his chicken scrawl spread all over the journal’s pages.

If he dealt his cards well a single chat with the High Council and a visit to the castle would be more than enough to start the preparations.

Danny’s eyes zeroed in the last column of names he had written on the page.

That only left the more- mmh, particular cases.

He let his chin rest on the palm of his hand, releasing a low hum while a little smirk slowly made itself comfy on his features.

Now, for the fun part.

-.-.-.-

NOTES:

You might be wondering, “Did she just made Jazz the root of Danny’s obsession?” And the answer is yes. Yes, I did. -.-.-.-

Frostbite’s name in the Latin American (Or is it from Spain? Don’t know :v )dub is “Congelación” (which means ‘freezing’) and I don’t know how to fucking deal with that. It does not sound anywhere as cool as the original :’v

Maybe it’s because I’m not used to hearing “congelación” applied to something as awesome as a goddamn ghost yeti.

Or maybe not.

Who knows. -.-.-.-

I swear I’m trying to get these two to Gotham, but It feels like I’m dragging Danny there kicking and screaming. Which is- appropriate, I suppose. -.-.-.-

There would be more details of the High Council integrants later (I think?) and the dynamic I’m going to put here, not like you can’t guess some of them already *wink wink nudge nudge*

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gamernovellist · 3 years

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A Brother’s Regret

Hey everyone, guess who’s reviving their Tumblr just to post this short story. So this is one of my D&D character’s backstory that I shared with my group and they praised it, so I decided to share it. I’m actually pretty proud of it because it’s the first short story I’ve written. Anyways, sorry for stalling.

TW: Suicide and Bullying

Caden put on his left shoe again and tied it. He was already running late for work before he noticed the sole of his shoe tearing away. It only took him a couple minutes to fix, but those were minutes he couldn't afford. He stood up from his bed and patted down his clothes, taking one last look at himself in his bedroom mirror to make sure everything was ok. He started to leave his room, but his sister stopped him at the door. ”Hey Cade, can we talk?” Lyra asked, looking at the floor, her black hair covering her eyes. "I'd love to sis, but I'm really running late, and Mr. Walsh will kill me if I slow him down again." "Oh, alright." Lyra rubbed her wrist, she still hadn't looked up, but Cade could see her frown. "Oh come on, Lyra, don't be like that, smile a bit." Cade poked his twin's side and started tickling her. Lyra started laughing. Her tickle spots hadn't changed since their tickle wars as kids. Cade stopped and stepped around her. "I'll be back in a couple hours, we can talk then ok." "Ok." Lyra said, she was still giggling a bit, but was calming down. "I also made you lunch." Lyra pointed to a bag on the kitchen counter. Cade grabbed it and smiled at her. "Thanks Lyra. You didn't have to though." Lyra shrugged. "Hurry up. Mr. Walsh is already going to rip you a new one." Cade widened his eyes. "Shit, you're right." He kissed the top of his sister's head. "Love you Lyr." "Love you too." She said as Cade left the house

Cade ran from one end of the kitchen to the other, chopping vegetables and doing any other little thing he could to speed up Mr. Walsh's cooking. He was extremely lucky Mr. Walsh offered him this job as a cooking aide. While there were places that would hire a fifteen year old, not many of them would accept 'that half elf'. One of the downsides of living in a small human village. But there was nothing he could do about that. Luckily Mr. Walsh didn't care, his customers on the other hand did. To continue working there all Cade had to do was try to stay unseen as much as possible. If someone saw him from time to time it was fine, Walsh could talk his way out of it. But people could spread rumors if they learned Cade helped prepare most of the food. Cade had just finished up chopping an onion when Mr. Walsh came into the kitchen. "Hey kid, we slowed down a bit, go ahead and take a break." "Thank you Mr. Walsh." Cade said, pushing the chopped onions aside and putting down the knife. Cade walked to the table in the corner where he took his breaks. He let out a deep breath as he sat down. Not a second later his stomach started rumbling. He grabbed his lunch and took the container out of the bag. On top of it was a letter. On it, it read 'To my dearest brother'. Cade smiled at his sister's handwriting. He set aside his lunch and opened the letter and read it.

Dear Caden, First of all I want you to know that I love you. You and mother are what I cherish the most in all the world, at least the moments when mother isn't distant. But even with all the love we share, it is not enough. I'm tired. I'm exhausted. Everyday I live is pain. We don't belong in this town, and I'm starting to believe there is no place for us in this world, no place for me. You got lucky with Mr. Walsh's inn, and the bullies at school have even started ignoring you a little. But for me, their insults have only escalated, and I can't do anything about them. If I talk back to them, they redouble their forces. If I retaliate, I'm in the wrong. But everything they say is true. I am worthless, I'm only a burden. Even father knew I wasn't worth the effort and that's why he left us. Mother sees it every time she looks at me and it drives her to drink. And you, we haven’t spent as much time together, I can only assume it’s because you’re also starting to realize how worthless I am. I tired to make it all better, but there is no solution. But one. I love you brother, and thank you for all the memories we've shared. But this life is only torment, and it won't get any better. My last memory is going to be of the only happy place I had in this world, and let my last thoughts be of all the memories we had there. Goodbye Caden. Love, Lyra

Cade stared at the end of the letter. He only broke out of the trance when a tear fell on the paper. He noticed his hands trembling. Cade thought this had to be a joke. A very sick, distasteful joke. It was payback for Cade not talking to her before work. Cade shot up out of his chair. Lyra wanted to talk today. Maybe this is what she wanted to talk about. Maybe he could've, helped her. Cade felt more tears fall down his face and guilt build up inside him. "Caden what's wrong?" Mr. Walsh asked. Caden hadn't noticed him approach. "I'm sorry Mr. Walsh, I have to go." As soon as the last word left his mouth Cade took off out of the inn, not waiting for his boss's reply. He ran through the streets, hoping he wasn't too late. There was no way any of this was serious. No way Lyra would actually, would actually… His mind brought back the image of her face that morning, how she couldn't even look him in the eyes. Cade ran faster, he had to get to her before she went though with it. Cade was too in his mind that he didn't see the group of people in front of him until he'd ran into them and lost his balance. "Watch where you're going knife ears." Cade heard an familiar guy's voice say. "You'd think with ears that big he'd have echolocation." There was laughter all around him, and he knew he ran into the last group of people he wanted to run into. "Fuck off Luther." Cade said, getting off the ground and facing the group of bullies. Cade tried to get through, but Luther and one of his goons blocked his path. "You're not going anywhere mutt. Not until you apologize." Cade glared at him. "I don't have time for this." Cade knew it wouldn't stop at an apology, Luther would keep making up things he'd have to do before he let him go. It' been that way since grade school. "Do it or else we'll make Otto set up another date with your sister and leave her hanging." The group laughed at that threat, as if remembering a good joke. Cade stared blankly at them. "You did what?" He snarled. "You should've seen the look on her face." Jolene, another of Luther's posse, said. "She was so depressed after waiting a whole hour for Otto to show up. As if he'd ever date an ugly bitch like her. Just for good measure we dumped buckets of mud on her." Anger rose up inside Cade's chest, but it was also joined by guilt. Lyra had the biggest crush on Otto, and if something like that happened, and he hadn't heard of it. Lyra must've been holding it in, and Cade grew even more worried. Cade shoved Luther and his lackey out of his way and ran towards the forest. He ignored Luther calling him a "Stinking half elf." behind him and kept running. Lyra had written that she was going to end it in the only happy place she had, a place they shared many memories in, and there was only one place that matched that description. Their secret base in the woods. Cade turned left at the Twisted Tree of Mystery, and then a right at the Mighty Fallen Tree Warrior. "Lyra!" He called out Cade thought back to when they first found the spot, how happy they were to have a place away from everyone that would call them names, and how they came up with the names for the places they had to pass to reach it. "Lyra! He tried again. He remembered all the games they would play, and even all the little animals they befriended. There had to be no way Lyra really wanted to kill herself there, this was all just a sick ploy to get him there. "Lyr-" Something snagged Cade's foot and he was sent tumbling down a small hill. Cade scolded himself for forgetting that tree branch. Lyra and him would say that was an intruder trap. Cade found it ironic he'd fall for it. Cade got up and ran the last stretch to the base. When he saw the giant tree, he knew he was there. "Lyra!" He called, looking around to see if he saw her. He couldn't find any trace of her, only the toys they'd left there from their childhood and never put away. Cade checked inside the little house that was against the tree. They'd always found it weird how it was just sitting there in the middle of the woods. They even thought it was haunted for a while. But eventually they used it almost everyday. The house was empty, just like Cade's hopes that his sister was ok. He turned around in a circle, wondering where she could've gone. That's when he heard a hoot. Cade stopped and locked eyes with the owl perched on one of the tree roots. The area was always inhabited by a bunch of owls, but Cade had never seen one perched so low when he was there. The Owl hooted again before flying off around the tree. Cade sensed a sort of intelligence in the bird and decided to follow it. But he soon wished he hadn't. Around the tree, a couple feet away from it, hanging from a branch, was Lyra's body. Cade stopped in his tracks, all the feeling in his body left him. All he was left with was sadness, and guilt. Cade's legs trembled, but he took another step forward, and another. Somehow he made it a few steps away from Lyra before collapsing. Tears streamed down his face. He wasn't sure if they'd just started, or if they’d been going for a while and only now he was feeling things again. Cade saw a glint on the ground below Lyra and walked to it. He picked it up, and the tears intensified. It was Lyra's ring, the one she saved up to buy. It wasn’t super pretty, nor was it expensive, but Lyra loved it because she earned the money working with their mom. Lyra held on to the ring as a dear memory. Cade held the ring close to his chest and let out a painful yell, and sobbed. Cade heard the sound of wings flapping away in fear, and wings flying close. He heard a hoot, but ignored it. He was such an idiot, how could he not see how much his sister was hurting. How could he not see that she wanted his help. If only he'd been a better brother. If only he'd stayed and listened to what she had to say that morning. "Oh sweet child, how dour this is." A voice sounded around Cade, but he didn't look up, he didn't care. "Don't blame yourself child, you were no more at fault than she was." The voice continued. It sounded almost motherly in nature, like how his mother sounded on her good days. Cade heard more hooting, and more wings flapping around him. But he didn’t care. His sister was dead, she'd killed herself and it was all his fault. There were even more hooting and Cade couldn't help but think of how they reminded him of the bullies laughing at Lyra's situation. That's when Cade realized they were just at fault as he was. Lyra wouldn’t be gone if they hadn’t bullied her into it. "I'll make them pay." Cade said to himself. "Revenge is never a good path to take, child. Your sister would not want that for you." Cade opened his eyes. He stared at the grass underneath him, at the crumbled leaves on the ground. There was something odd in their color, they were more vibrant than they should be. "But they have to pay for what they did." He told the voice. "I have to stop them before they do this again. This shouldn’t happen to anyone, and I won’t let it happen ever again." "You are not strong enough child." The motherly voice said. "But I have to be." Cade looked up and his mouth opened. The area he was in seemed to have shrunk, and tree branches grew where they hadn't been before, encircling him. But on those tree branches were owls, dozens of them, probably even hundreds. Lyra still hung above him. And while he still felt guilt, he also felt conviction. "Very well." The voice said. Cade couldn't figure out where it was coming from. "I can help make you stronger, but only if you agree to help me when I ask for it." Cade was worried. He knew better than to make deals with strange voices in the woods, but he also knew the voice was right, he wasn't strong enough to face the bullies. He'd go back to face them and they'd beat him up like they’ve done so many times before. Besides, there was something behind the voice that made it seem like Cade could trust it, as if the voice truly cared for him. "Why do you care so much?" Cade asked. "Because I feel your pain, child." The voice said. "I've watched the two of you play and grow in these woods. It feels like I've lost someone as well." Caden remembered all the owls he's seen in the woods over the years. Caden and Lyra were always alone in the woods, but Cade realized they weren't ever truly alone. "Ok." Cade said. "I accept." The roots and branches in front of him parted way for a hand to reach out. It wasn't quite a hand, it was more like a talon, and the arm was covered with feathers. Cade hesitated but a moment before grasping the talon and shaking it. The roots and branches opened up even more and the hand's owner stepped forward. The figure was an owl with an unusually expressive face. She was much larger than an owl should be, larger than anyone Cade had seen. Atop her head were white vines that descended like dreads. Simply through the handshake Cade learned the entity's name. The Owl Mother. "Come, my child. You have much to learn."

#D&D #d&d character #short story #d&d backstory #tw suidice #tw bullying #half elf #warlock #d&d warlock #archfey warlock #danilo writes

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cityofimagines · 6 years

Text

Bliss — Justin Foley x Reader

Request: can you please write a justin foley x reader where it's the reader's first time? lots of fluff? 💗i totally understand if you can't! thank you! :)

A/N: this is a long one,,, enjoy ;)

Warnings: smuttt!! its like also fluffy tho nothing too crazy

October friday nights at Liberty High always consisted of popcorn, football games, and celebratory parties at one of the jocks’ houses. Tonight’s party was indeed a celebratory one; your football team had won 21-7 in a shut out game. What felt like the entire school was currently crammed at Bryce Walker’s house drinking, dancing, swimming, and god only knows what else.

Your boyfriend of 6 months, Justin Foley, was somewhere unknown to you right now, and you wanted to change that. His performance in the game tonight was amazing, and you just wanted to be with him and shower him with love.

You walked through the crowded kitchen looking for him. You didn’t find Justin, but you found someone relatively similar.

“Hey Jeff!” You called over the loud music. He nodded and walked over to you.

“What’s up (y/n)?” He asked, smiling.

“Not much. Have you seen Justin?”

“Yeah actually. I just overheard him talking to Monty. I think he said he was going to look for you.” Jeff replied.

“Of course.” You laughed. “Thanks Jeff”

“Yeah no problem.” He smiled and went back to talking to a bunch of other completely wasted guys.

You decided the best option would just be to take a seat on the couch and wait for him to find you first. You weren’t really a heavy drinker, so parties weren’t particularly for you. You liked the social aspect of them, getting to hang out with your friends and your boyfriend in a non-school setting, but as the night gets later and people get crazier, you don’t tend to enjoy them as much.

“There you are.” You heard a familiar voice say from behind you. You smiled when you saw Justin walking over to you. He sat down next to you on the couch and pressed a short kiss to your cheek.

“There you are.” You said back. “I lost you.”

He laughed. “Yeah well I’m back now.” He sighed. “Do you wanna like...get outta here?” He asked. There was a slight nervousness in his voice that you couldn’t decipher, however you just brushed it off.

“Yeah sure. It’s starting to get crazy in here.” You said. “Did you drink anything? Can you drive?” You asked.

“I didn’t have anything tonight baby. Wasn’t in the mood yanno?” He said. This was weird, Justin usually drinks at least a little bit at parties.

“Yeah. I didn’t have anything either.” You said.

“I can drive. Let’s just go.” He said holding his hand out. You placed your hand in his and walked out together.

You decided to go back to your house. Your parents were out of town for the week so Justin could stay over with no disruption from them.

Justin parked his car in the driveway and you both made your way up to your room. When you got upstairs, there was an unfamiliar tension in the air.

Justin sat down on your bed while you stood in front of your mirror taking some of your jewelry off. “You look really fucking pretty tonight baby girl.” Justin said quietly. You raised an eyebrow and turned around to face him.

“Aw thank you babe.” You said. You walked over to him. Your hands intertwined with his. You stood there in comfortable silence, your hands in his, for a few minutes.

“Kiss me.” He said finally. You made your way to his lap and pressed your lips to his gently. Unlike other times, this kiss became very heated very fast. You didn’t even notice yourself grinding on Justin until he pulled away to say something.

“Baby...baby please...stop I-” You felt your cheeks heat up when you felt something you had never felt before this moment. Justin’s boner digging into your thigh.

“Shit I’m sorry...” He said, flustered.

You thought about all of this for a minute. You were a virgin, and you knew Justin wasn’t. The thought of sex with Justin had indeed crossed your mind more than once, but the timing had never been right. You knew in your heart you were ready to give yourself completely to him. Justin was your first real love. He had given you the best 6 months of your life so far. He would never push into anything, especially this, but you felt ready in this moment.

“Don’t be sorry baby.” You whispered. “We can do this. I’m ready.”

The look on his face was a mixture of concern, excitement, and embarassment, which made you laugh slightly.

“REALLY?” He asked. “I don’t want to pressure you into anything you don’t want to do. I can take care of this myself...I’m sorry it even happened. You just looked really fucking hot tonight and I-“

You cut off his rambling with a kiss. “Justin. Don’t worry. I want this. I’m ready for you to be my first.” You said confidently.

A genuine smile lit up his whole face. “Alright.” He shrugged. “Let’s do it then.” He smashed his lips to yours. You were still straddling his waist, and your hands moved to the back of his neck.

Soon enough, his head was buried in the crook of your neck, leaving a trail of small kisses.

“Can I take this off?” Justin whispered, toying with the hem of your shirt.

“Yeah.” You breathed out, ready for things to escalate. He slowly brought your shirt above your head and then quickly discarded it on the floor behind you.

“God damn.” He said. “You’re fucking gorgeous.”

After a few more minutes of passionately making out, you decided to rip his shirt off. The sight of his toned core made your knees week. Your hands ran up and down his abs, making him smirk.

“You okay?” He asked in between more kisses.

“I’m perfect.” You said back. Justin was making you feel things you had never felt with anyone before, and half of your clothes were still on.

“You ready for more?” He asked.

“Yes baby. I’m all good.” You said. He laid you down on your bed and hovered over you. He pressed a quick kiss to your forehead before sliding your leggings and underwear down your legs.

You immediately began to become slightly anxious being so exposed in front of Justin, but the minute he started kissing down your boobs and stomach, all of that nervous energy disappeared.

He kissed down your body, stopping when he got to the place where you needed him the most. You squirmed around at the loss of his touch.

He got up to undo his belt and take the rest of his clothes off. His dick slapped up against his stomach after it was freed from the restricting clothing.

“You got me so hard baby girl.” His whispered, coming back down to kiss you.

Your hands trailed down his back lightly. He began to grind against your skin as you made out more. You reached down to pump his dick, but he moved your hand away.

“Uh uh. This is about you tonight, not me.” He said slowly.

“I love you.” You whispered back.

Justin moved back down your body. Two teasing fingers brushed against your slit.

“Fuck..” You moaned. He took that as the incentive to continue. He pressed those two fingers inside you. He thrusted them in and out quickly, making your insides do flips. “Ugh yes babe.” You said breathlessly.

So far, this night had been better than you could have ever dreamed of, and the main event hadn’t even taken place. Justin was exceeding every single one of your expectations.

“Justin...baby...” You said after a few more minutes. “I need you. All of you. I’m ready.”

He immediately pulled his fingers out and came back up to kiss you. “Alright princess let’s do this.” He rolled over to grab his pants from the end of the bed. He took his wallet out and pulled out a condom. You raised an eyebrow.

“So that’s what you keep in there.”

He laughed. “Always got ‘em on me...just in case.” He smirked. You shook your head and pulled him back down to you.

Your lips regained contact as he slid on the condom.

“You ready?” He asked you.

“One million percent. I love you so much.” You responded.

“I love you too.” He said. He slid himself into you slowly. It was a weirdly uncomfortably feeling that you didn’t even know how to describe.

“I’m so sorry gorgeous...I know it hurts. But I promise it will feel better soon.” He said worriedly.

“It’s okay..not your fault.” You said.

“Look at me.” He said. You opened your eyes to see his green ones staring back at you, full of concern. You stayed still for a few seconds, just being in each other’s presence.

“Okay. You can move.” You said.

He began to thrust into you at a slow pace. His face scrunched up in pleasure almost immediately.

“Oh my God (y/n) you feel fucking amazing..”

“So...do you...” You said. And after a few more minutes, thrusts became faster and moans got louder. His moans were turning you on even further, and it made this entire experience so good. You were so glad you said yes to this tonight.

“FUCK Justin...” You moaned as he hit a spot that made you feel really good. “I’m close...”

“I hear you baby..” He said. “This is amazing. You’re so perfect.”

“You’re fucking incredible too.” You replied.

As he continued thrusting into you, his hand reached down to rub your clit. In a few more short moments, that set you over the edge. “Fuck Justin oh my God baby I’m cumming...” You yelled. He continued all of his movements as you rode out your high.

He came to his high in the middle of yours, and you felt your walls clench around him, causing endless moans and curses to spill from his mouth.

Once you both were more settled, he pulled out and threw the condom away.

“You...” He started. “Are fucking amazing.”

“Same goes for you.” You said dreamily, still in a post orgasm bliss. “Thank you for being my first. It was perfect.”

“Thank you for trusting me to be your first.” He whispered.

“I love you so much.”

“I love you so much more.”

You turned to face him. He brought the covers over the two of you. “We’re definitely doing that again, but for now let’s just cuddle.” He said with a dorky smile plastered on his face.

The fact that your boyfriend could be so sexy but yet so sweet was one of the many reasons you loved him. You laughed. “That’s a great idea.”

He put his arm around you and pulled you close, the two of your drifting off to sleep soon after.

#i may or may not be crying rn #i actually love this imagine sm ngl #13 reasons why #13rw #13rw imagine #13 reasons why headcanon #13 reasons why imagine #tyler down #tyler down imagine #tyler down headcanon #justin foley headcanon #justin foley smut #justin foley fluff #justin foley imagine #13rw smut #justin x reader #justin foley x reader

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hairringtonsteve · 6 years

Text

ii. sound and vision. [quixotic]

[steve harrington x reader (female)]

series summary: everyone that knew the truth about hawkins lab thought it was over, that it was all over. they thought that the fighting was over, the bad men were gone. the portal was closed. people were safe. you, however, you knew the truth. things were far from over. and they were coming fast.

word count: 6,510 words

a/n: hey folks! it’s been a minute, but here we are, chapter two, just as promised! this is set up in the new format, so links will be found in the first reblog of this! i’m pretty psyched for everyone to read it, so please let me know your thoughts! tw: language and violence

• • • • • • • • •

“Seb, no!” Somewhere behind you, something heavy clattered to the ground. You shoved passed the sheriff and the other guy, darting to Seb. His arms wrapped around your waist as he shoved his face into your side, muffling his sobs. You could feel him rubbing his face against your shirt to wipe the blood and snot away from his nose. Tee was looking at you, her whole body trembling. “Let me handle this,” you murmured, giving her a small nod.

You turned around, shifting so you were partially shielding Tee and Seb. The sheriff raised his eyebrows at you, lifting his hands a little to show that he was unarmed, like you were some skittish animal that he was dealing with.

“Why are you kids here?”

“Why are you here?” You fired back, your voice shrill. You could see the gun on the sheriff’s hip, the sight of it sending a sharp pang of fear through you. “You can’t do this without a warrant.” Doctor Arayed had yelled that once when people from the military had visited the lab once, years ago. The same tension that had been in her voice then was in your voice now. “You can’t just do this.”

“Look, kid, don’t start with me. You’re already trespassing on private property and you tried to sell stolen records at the record shop. Just tell me why you’re here.”

You glanced over to the other guy that was with the sheriff, realizing it was the one from the shop. He’d been the one that was looking through the records, the one with the nice hair. You glared at him.

“What, did he tell you that?” You asked, motioning to him. “His buddy was just probably annoyed that he overpaid for the records. They were my records.”

“I thought you said they were your grandpa’s records?” The guy piped up.

Your glare turned into a scowl. “They were my grandpa’s and he gave them to me, dumbass,” you snapped.

The guy put his hands on his hips and frowned. “You sure about —”

“Harrington, can it,” the sheriff snapped.

“But she—”

“Would you shut the hell up?” The words flew out of your mouth just as the sheriff said the same thing. Your heart was pounding in your chest as you glanced over to the gun that was on the sheriff’s hip once more. The easiest way to get it away from him would be to use Seb, but he was still firmly attached to your side, his fists bunching into your shirt as he trembled.

“They’re your grandpa’s records?” The sheriff clarified. You gave a sharp nod of your head. “The records were your grandfather’s, and what? This his cabin too?”

“Yeah, it’s his.”

“You sure about that?”

The tension was swirling through the air. Tee had her hand pressed against the back of your shirt, and you could feel the inhuman amount of heat coming from her. You took your foot and tried to subtly jab it into her leg behind you. She let out a little yelp, but got the message. The heat receded. The sheriff was still looking at you with a frown, and it was as though you could feel this whole thing unraveling, second by second.

“You’re sure that this is your grandfather’s cabin?” The sheriff asked once more.

There was one day when one of the new scientists had let you sneak into the breakroom and watch some movie about cowboys. This one had been in color. You’d sat curled up on a plastic chair, legs stretched out on another chair as you watched the scenes play out. You’d been fascinated by the entire thing, but the finale had been your favorite. Somewhere near the end of the movie, there had been this big standoff between everyone. Everyone was standing in a circle, all with their guns aimed at each other, ready to kill each other in an attempt to live.

This reminded you of that.

You were Blondie, the sheriff was Angel Eyes, and the guy that the sheriff had called Harrington was Tuco — except for the fact that he wasn’t ugly.

Somewhere in the back of your mind, you could almost hear the music.

“I’m positive.”

The sheriff shook his head and sighed. “C’mon, kid. Cut the shit.”

“I’m not lying to you. This is my grandfather’s—”

“No, this is my grandfather’s cabin.”

Oh.

“Prove it.” Your voice shook despite your hardest efforts. Seb dug his nails into your side through your shirt, hard enough that you almost winced. He was mumbling something, just soft enough for you to catch.

“I don’t wanna go back.”

“You see that box over there, with the books?” The sheriff continued on, unaware of Seb’s words as he pointed to a cardboard box in the corner of the room. “You see what it says?” In thick, black marker the word HOPPER was scrawled messily on the side. “I’m Hopper. Those are my books, and those were my records that you sold earlier today.” The room was quiet save for the crickets starting to come to life outside. A breeze floated through the open door. “You want to try again this time? Why are you here?”

This was it. The panic was rising within you and your mind went blank. He was going to call the feds and they were going to come get the three of you and you’d be handcuffed in the back of a van again and you couldn’t breathe and —

And suddenly Seb wasn’t shoved into your side anymore. He was darting towards the open door, his little legs carrying him as fast as they could. Hopper noticed him a second too late, missing as he went to grab him. Seb was almost outside when another set of arms wrapped around his side, lifting him up into the air and holding on tight.

“I’ve got him!” Harrington yelled, struggling to hold on tight. Seb was kicking his legs in all directions, just like you’d taught him to.

“Seb!” Tee yelled, moving to go forward. She pushed passed you, stopping only when you grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back.

“You can’t,” you hissed, giving her an imploring look. Her escalating things would only make things worse. You looked over to the sheriff and Harrington, an unrelenting fury racing through you at the sight of Seb thrashing around like that. “Let him go.”

“You tell us why you’re here, and we’ll let him go,” Hopper said, giving you a pointed look. You tried to remember what the three of you had talked about, but it was hard to recall when Seb started kicking even harder and screaming. Tears were streaming down his face as he continued to move.

“Lemme go, lemme go! Get away!” Blood started streaming from his nose, covering the blood that had started to dry from earlier.

Fuck.

“Our parents… They… They hurt us,” Tee said, jerking her shoulder away from your grasp. Seb quieted down a little at the sound of her voice, slowing down just enough for the two of you to make eye contact. You shook your head at him. Seb frowned, opening his mouth to argue but you shook your head once more. He kept jerking around, but the trickle of blood stopped.

“They hurt you?” Hopper asked, furrowing his brow as he looked to her, not even noticing what was going on between you and Seb. Harrington, however, was fixing you with a weird look, his eyebrows pushed together as he tried to keep Seb still.

“We had to get out.” She tugged the sleeve of her shirt up to reveal a nasty gash on her arm. The stitches were messy. You’d done them yourself. “We had to get him out.”

Hopper looked between the two of you, his gaze settling on you once more. He looked at you long and hard before turning to Harrington. “Let him go.”

Harrington dropped his knees a little to set Seb on the floor. The second he loosened his arms Seb was jerking them away from him and sprinting back to you.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, El. I just got scared ‘n the door was right there ‘n…” He trailed off, the snot and blood streaming together in a giant mess. You crouched down and set both of your hands on his shoulders.

“Hey, you were brave, okay?” You whispered, offering him a small smile. “You did exactly what I told you to do, and that was to try and get away.” You leaned forward and pressed a small kiss against his forehead.

Hopper ran a hand over his face and sighed. “Where are you kids from?”

“Muncie.” You’d seen the sign for the town a few days ago and had thought it sounded weird. He looked to where you were still crouching, holding your gaze for a few moments too long, like he was trying to suss out the truth.

“Muncie. Huh,” he said after a few seconds of deliberation.

You tilted your chin up a little bit, jutting out your jaw as you waited for him to continue on. You didn’t even have to reach out to pick up on his emotions. They were swirling around him, all together in a giant mess.

He glanced over to Harrington. Harrington raised his eyebrows and offered Hopper a shrug of his shoulders. Turning back to the three of you, Hopper let out a slow breath. “Ummm…” He trailed off, gathering his thoughts. “All right, look. Whatever’s going on with you kids, I’m in no position to do anything about it tonight. You three stay here for the night, and we’ll figure all of this out in the morning. Deal?”

It was too good to be true. There was no logical way that he would just let the three of you stay there without doing anything. But despite everything, he still felt trustworthy to you, just like he had in the car earlier that day. Seb was leaning against you by then, making it harder to keep your balance. The three of you needed sleep and a place to stay for the night, so you ignored the imploring look that Tee was giving you, and nodded your head.

“Deal.”

• • • • • • • • •

The couch in the cabin was uncomfortable.

It was lumpy and bumpy, the fabric covering it making you itch the second you sat down. It wasn’t comfortable by any means and sleeping on it would have been near impossible. So it worked out, then, that you’d ended up staying awake the entire night anyway. You’d lain there in the dark, counting the ticks from the clock in the counter while you stared up at the dark ceiling. It was easier to blame the lack of sleep on the couch rather than the fact that you were positive that they were going to come slamming through the doors and get the three of you once more.

At some point, the sun had started to crawl up into the sky and cast little beams of light through the curtains.

You rolled over onto your side, huffing softly as you shoved your face into the rough couch cushion. Last night had been a shit show.

An absolute shit show.

It was hard to pinpoint what had been the worst part of it. You turned it over and over in your head, but it was all jumbled up into one steaming pile of crap. All you kept seeing was Seb’s face screwed up, tears sliding down his cheeks as blood dripped from his nose. What if you’d gotten there a few seconds late? What if he’d really hurt Hopper? What if he’d managed to kill someone? How was he supposed to live with that or understand it? Your heart gave a painful squeeze at the mere thought of it.

You needed to get it together.

A knock at the door made you jump up, shoving the blanket away only to cause it to pool around your legs, making you almost trip. The knock sounded again, this time more insistent. You kicked at the blanket as you stepped forward. Peeking through the curtain, you caught Hopper’s gaze. He shot you a frown.

“Would you relax, kid? I brought you breakfast.” He held up a plastic bag with what looked to be various containers in them. “Now open the door.”

You scrunched up your nose as you let the curtain drop away and reached over to slide the bolt to the right. You turned the lock on the doorknob, opening it up to reveal Hopper offering you a small smile. “Thought you guys might want some real food.”

“Oh. Thanks,” you said, eyeing him warily as you stepped aside. He walked over to the counters, dropping everything next to the sink.

“Where are the other two?” He asked as you shut the door.

Instinct told you to lie, to say that they were outside playing or that they’d left in the middle of the night over some argument. But you glanced over to the clock. It was a little after seven.

And he still felt trustworthy.

“They’re sleeping in the bedroom.” You crossed your arms, watching him. He was grabbing styrofoam containers and laying them out in a line. “What’s in there?”

He turned to look at you over his shoulder before nodding towards the food. “Come over here and check it out. I didn’t know what you guys liked, so I got a little of everything from the diner that’s down the road.” He stepped away from the food, crossing the kitchen to start rummaging through a drawer. You waited until he was engrossed in what he was doing before you stepped over to the containers. One by one you opened them up, a sharp stab of hunger hitting your stomach every time you laid your eyes on the different kinds of food. Pancakes, waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage — even some stuff you didn’t know — all there for you and the others to eat.

You settled on the one with waffles and bacon.

Turning around, you jumped to realize that Hopper had made his way back to the food. “Here,” he said, holding out a fork and a knife. “You can eat while we talk.”

It wasn’t until you were situated at the table that he walked over and took the seat across from you, setting a mug in front of you before putting the other in front of him. You hadn’t noticed it before, but he must’ve had a thermos shoved in the bag as well since he started pouring steaming coffee into your mug. It was already a lighter brown color, so he must’ve added some milk beforehand. It was a nice thought.

You kept your gaze focused on your plate as you shove a piece of bacon into your mouth. It was hard not to groan at the taste of it — real, actual bacon that was practically melting in your mouth. You couldn’t help the grin that flickered across your lips.

“It’s good, right?” He asked. You glanced over to him. His eyes were fixed on you as he lifted his mug up to take a drink.

“Uh, yeah. It is.” There was a part of you that wanted to play it cool, to not show that you’d been living off of nothing but what had been in the cabin. There was another part of you — a larger part of you — that wanted to say screw it and shovel bacon into your mouth. So you did, taking a large bite of it while your stomach thanked you. “Why aren’t you eating anything?” You asked after you’d swallowed.

“I already ate.”

You bobbed your head as you took the third piece of bacon and ate that too. There was a little container of syrup that made your eyes widen. For a second, you almost forgot that he was even there. Tearing off the cover, you dumped it onto the waffle. Your stomach growled. You grabbed your fork and used it to saw off a piece of waffle before stuffing it into your mouth. Without a word, Hopper slid over a plastic container. He took the lid off, revealing a stick of room-temperature butter.

“Holy shit,” you mumbled through a mouth full of food. Your eyes flicked over to Hopper, wide and sheepish. “Sorry,” you said as you swallowed.

He shook his head and chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. My girl likes waffles too.”

You raised a brow. That explained all the waffles. “You got a kid?”

“Yeah, I got a kid. Her name’s Jane.” He watched as you grabbed your knife and used it to get a huge chunk of butter onto it. You slathered it onto the waffle as he continued on. “What about you? You got a kid?”

“They’re my siblings,” you said, pausing in your movements to make a face at him.

“I didn’t — I wasn’t saying that,” he grumbled. “It just seems odd to me that a couple of kids end up here from uh, where was it? Merrillville?”

“Muncie.” You continued to butter the waffle, glancing between your food and Hopper. It wasn’t that hard to figure out what he was doing. Your story was sketchy at best.

And he knew it.

“Right, Muncie.” He hummed, drumming his fingers against his coffee mug. He took a sip from it, nodding his head slow as he set it back down. “You mind telling me what happened that made you leave?” Hopper asked, raising a brow at you.

You paused.

It was hard dropping from the heating vents onto the ground. The fluorescent lights were flickering in the hallway, the dark streaks of blood marring the walls. Vee had miscalculated the height and twisted her ankle when she jumped. You craned your neck to see her. She had one hand clamped around her mouth to stifle any cries while the other was blindly feeling for her ankle. Your heart was stuttering in your chest. Somewhere nearby, there was the scuffling sound of someone — or something — moving.

“You alright?” You asked, soft in the darkness.

“It fuckin’ hurts.” She was mumbling her words, but it was hard to tell if it was just to keep quiet, or to make sure that she didn’t alert the things to her presence. She squeezed her eyes shut and moved her hand from her mouth to the floor to drag herself away.

You waited until she was far enough out of the way to hop down yourself. Relaxing your legs as you hopped down made the jump easier. It still stung, but it wasn’t as jarring. You let your body go limp as you hit the ground. “Fuck me, that hurt,” you muttered. Vee let out a snort.

“Right?” She winced as she moved to sit up. Her ankle was swollen. “We’re gonna need shoes. And an ankle brace, if there is one.”

“There should be one in the supply closet. You wait here, I’ll go grab it.” You stood up, grunting a little at the ache in your shoulder. Rolling it back made it hurt worse. That was great. You glanced around for a moment and frowned. “Will you be all right out here?”

“I’ll be fine. You saw how I took out the thing. I’ll be good.”

You watched her for a moment and frowned. You could feel the fear rolling off of her in waves, but calling out her false bravado wasn’t going to help with anything. “Just keep your back to the wall, okay?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll be fine, mom. Go.” You gave her a lingering look before starting down the hall.

The supply closet was only two doors down, but it felt like the hallway stretched on forever. There were memories carved into the tile flooring. You couldn’t count how many times you’d walked down them, whether it be to help with an experiment, or to get some bloodwork done. For years, it had your favorite place to be. It had been home.

But then Brenner had arrived.

And now there were bloody handprints on the walls and bodies littering the ground.

You set your foot down, too focused on the blood dripping from a broken window to pay attention. A sharp pain shot through it, making you freeze. “Shit.” You looked through the window into Doctor Lepner’s office. The emergency lighting was on, flashing on and off, but there wasn’t any movement. For the time being, it was safe. You lifted your foot gingerly off the ground. A large shard of glass was stuck in it.

Sucking in a deep breath, you hopped the handful of feet over to the supply closet and opened the door. It was almost pitch black in there, so you left the door open a crack for light. The glass was the first thing that needed to be taken care of. You bit down on your lip and pulled it out, like ripping off a bandaid. You could feel it scrape against your skin, the jagged edges tearing a little as it came out. Blood gushed and you fumbled for a first aid kit.

Thankfully, all of the supply closets in the building were laid out the same. You grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and dumped it onto your foot, trying not to scream as it began to disinfect the wound. It stung and it burned, but at least it wasn’t like getting bit by one of those things. You felt around until your fingers found some of the medical tape. That could work. You began to wind the tape around your foot, keeping it tight to stop the bleeding.

At some point while you were winding, you could hear it — a crunch on the glass.

It was heavy, like the thud of combat boots hitting the ground. Your mind raced. It sounded like two sets of boots. You couldn’t breathe.

“There’s one.” You shrunk back against the wall, praying to whatever higher being there was to save you. God, Allah, Buddha, whatever the hell a saint was; you didn’t care who it was that saved you, just that it did. But then another thought occurred to you.

Vee was still out there.

They weren’t talking about you.

They were talking about her.

“C’mere, sweetheart. No one’s going to hurt you.” That was a lie. The voice — it sounded male, but you couldn’t be sure — had tension lacing through it. You shifted a little to peek through the crack. Two barrels of a rifle came into view. What was there to do? If you stepped out, it was two against one. You’d never manipulated two people at once before. And even if you managed to get the one, the other could still shoot you or Vee.

“Then put down the guns,” Vee said. Her voice was wavering. Where there was tension and anxiety radiating from the two men, it was nothing but fear when it came to Vee.

“Just stand up and come here. We won’t hurt you.”

“I can’t stand up. My ankle got rolled.” There was a pause. “Just put the guns down and help me.”

“You come here.”

“Did you not hear me, dumbass? My ankle is fucked. I’m not moving on my own.” Jesus, Vee. She’d always had a hard time keeping her mouth shut. For once in her life, she just needed to shut up.

“Then crawl.”

The men continued down the hallway. You watched them pass, holding your breath until they were a few feet away. It was difficult to see passed them, but they came to a stop. Just beyond their shoulders, you could see Vee moving to stand. It took her a few moments. They were long moments, stretching on forever as she grunted and whimpered.

You realized that she’d hurt a lot worse on the fall than just her ankle.

“Come here.” It was the man on the left that spoke. He’d straightened up as the words came out, his grip on the gun tightening.

“Where are my friends?”

“They’re safe. We’ll take you to them.” A spike of nerves shot through the man so hard you felt it yourself. You hadn’t even had to reach out to feel his emotions. It was just there and screaming at you, a blaring red beacon flashing LIE LIE LIE over and over again.

“I find that hard to bel-“ Her words got cut off, strangled to a stop. You took a risk and opened the door a little wider. A third man in combat armor had his arm around her neck, a handgun pressed against her head.

You hadn’t thought about checking the other end of the hallway.

“I’ve got her. I’ll take her to the containment unit, you two finish the sweep of the floor.” The third man had started to move, but Vee dropped her weight, making him almost tip over.

Everything that happened next was in flashes. One second the third man was going to yell at her, the next blood was rushing out of Vee’s nose. Her eyes narrowed, nostrils flaring as she gave a sharp snap of her head. The pair of men’s necks followed. It was a sharp crunch that echoed through the hallway. Their bodies fell to the floor, guns clattering on the ground. One was looking right at you; his eyes were wide open, staring at nothing. Dead.

You couldn’t breathe. Your body trembled in that darkness as the seconds seemed to stretch on and on. The man that had an arm around her neck still stood there, staring at the sight that lay before him. His arm loosened a little and you could hear Vee gasping for breath. You could feel his fear mingling with hers, almost to the point of fogging up your brain. Maybe he’d let her go. Maybe the two of you could escape.

A gunshot rang out.

Vee’s body slumped to the ground. Reddish-brownish liquid poured from her head. You could see it from where you were, staining the white tile. The man stood above her, staring down at her lifeless form before he started off the opposite way down the hall.

The seconds felt like years until he rounded the corner. You waited a few more just to be safe, and then you were swinging the door open and running out, ignoring the sting of your foot. “Vee, Vee, Vee,” you mumbled, tears making their way down your cheeks. Your knees hit the tile, streaking her blood as you grabbed her hand. Nothing made sense. “Wake up.” Nothing was happening. “Please wake up.”

It was hard to tell how long you were there for. It could have only been a few minutes, but it felt months. Something went numb inside of you. You let your fingertips drift over her eyelids, shutting them gently. You pressed a kiss against her forehead, your thumb brushing against her skin.

It was still warm.

“Elise?” Hopper prompted. You looked down at your food for a moment before back to him.

“Dad got drunk,” you said, starting off soft. “He got drunk a lot, and get pissed at my mom for not making him a turkey pot pie…” You trailed off, trying to remember how the rest of that line from that movie that the three of you had snuck into ended up. “Mom was bad too, but it wasn’t — she —” You made your voice crack a little to buy yourself some time. What was it that the character — was it Bender? — had said? Something about a cigarette? “Seb spilled paint in the garage and Dad was smoking a cigar, so he was gonna take it and, well, you know?” You said, miming holding a cigar and jabbing it at him.

“Jesus,” Hopper said, sighing. He sat back in his chair, fixing you with a concerned gaze. Guilt twisted in your gut, turning it sour. “He get him?”

You shook your head. “No, I wouldn’t let him. But after that, we were out. Like I said. I took them, and we left Muncie.”

Hopper took another sip of his coffee as he watched you. “Muncie’s a good ways away. How’d you make it here?”

You thought back to the car that you’d stolen, and ditched two towns over. “We took the bus and walked the rest of the way.” Did the bus even make it to Hawkins? You focused a little, forcing power into your next words. “It wasn’t a far walk. It was the easiest way.” A dull headache spread across the front of your head, making you wince. You needed some food if you were going to convince him further. But the words took hold, making him nod and blink a couple of times as though he’d just woken up.

“Makes sense,” Hopper murmured, reaching up to scratch at his scruff of a beard. “So what’s the plan here, huh? You kidnap your siblings and then…?”

“It’s not — I’m not — Look, I get that you’re the sheriff, or whatever, but can’t you just look the other way?” You were half-tempted to make him look the other way, but there was a weariness that was settling in you. If you kept pushing yourself, you’d be useless for a day or two. “We’ll leave, get out of your hair, and you never have to see us again.”

He watched you carefully, his arms resting on his legs as he leaned forward in his chair. A moment passed, and then another. You could hear Seb and Tee talking in the other room, their voices muffled. “Stay here a couple of days, rest up. I’ll bring you some food.” He ran a hand over his face. You stared at him, wide-eyed. “After that, we’ll get you some bus passes, all right?”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you helping us?” You crossed your arms over your chest, setting your jaw. You were getting nothing from him but genuine concern. It was weird.

He shrugged, taking in a deep breath through his nose and letting it out through his mouth. “You kids need it, and I’m not in the habit of neglecting my job.”

“Are you gonna call CPS?” The first time you’d heard about child protective services, you’d thought that it was a good thing. A group of people were supposed to protect children. That made sense. You’d thought they could help you.

You’d been severely wrong.

“No, kid. I won’t call CPS. The last thing you need is for the three of you to be separated.” Your shoulders sagged at his words, relief flooding through you. There was no sign that he was lying to you.

“Thank you,” you whispered, the words coming out a little cracked and broken.

He looked at you, the corners around his eyes softening a little as he watched you. “It’s no problem, kid.”

• • • • • • • • •

Two days passed, and things were almost… comfortable. You were still on edge a little. The other shoe had to drop at some point, but currently, it was nice. Seb got to actually play outside for once, and even Tee had been enjoying just laying around and doing nothing. Hopper would show up once a day with some food, usually around five or so, and check in with the three of them. He’d always crouch down when he’d talk to Seb, listening attentively as Seb would recount whatever he’d done that day. It reminded you of the dads that you’d seen on TV, how they’d act with their kids.

It made your chest ache.

“When’s Hopper getting here?” Seb asked, his hair falling down into his eyes. “I wanna show him my picture,” he said, waving the paper in the air. Tee snatched it from his hands as she walked behind him and darted out of his reach. “TEE!” He screeched, launching his body from the chair to chase after her.

Laughter filled the cabin as Tee dodged every single one of Seb’s attempts. “You’ve gotta be faster than that, squirt,” she taunted as she ran towards the couch. From the kitchen, Seb gave a sharp tilt of his head. A second later, Tee was hitting the ground hard. “Not cool, shit-for-brains.” She was ready to tear after him when you grabbed her shoulder.

“You started it, shit-for-brains,” you said, the corners of your mouth twitching into a little smirk. She went to argue back when there was a knock at the door. The three of you froze. There was a beat of silence before a “Kid, open up!” sounded through the door. Your shoulders slumped as you walked forward. Behind you, you could hear Seb taunting Tee as he took back his artwork.

“Hey, what took you so —” You cut yourself off as you opened the door, eyes widening a little when you realized that there was someone with him.

“Elise, this is Joyce, a… Friend of mine. Joyce, this is Elise.”

“Hi,” she said. There was a kindness radiating off of her that even someone without powers would feel it. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

You just stared at her for a moment before nodding your head. You stepped aside, letting the two of them walk in. As you closed the door behind them, you could hear Tee and Seb making their soft hello’s. When you turned around, Seb was back at the table with a marker in his hand while Tee shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

“I’m Theresa, Reese for short,” you heard her say, sticking to the plan — Elise, Reese, and Sebastian Smith, the runaways from Muncie. The two of them started talking a little as you made your way over to Hopper.

“Who is she?”

“A friend of mine, like I said.” He stopped taking out the food to look over to you. “Relax, kid. She works as a cashier in town. She just wanted to check on you guys, making sure that I’m feeding you right.”

“That’s only because if he could, he’d just feed you all Eggos,” Joyce chimed in from across the room. She made her way over to the refrigerator, ignoring Hopper’s words that everything was fine, and he was feeding them healthy enough.

Just as she opened the freezer to find nothing but boxes of Eggos and ice, Seb piped up. “We eat asghettios too!”

“Hop, these kids can’t live off of Spaghettios and Eggos,” Joyce said, frowning as she looked through the boxes.

“Hey, I was gonna —” Hopper started to speak before she cut him off.

“Diner food doesn’t count.” She turned around to point a finger at him. You had to clap a hand over your mouth to muffle the laughter. Glancing over to you, she cocked a brow as she shut the freezer door. “When was the last time you had a home-cooked meal?”

You blinked at her. You’d gotten food at the lab, three nutritious meals a day, but something was telling you that that wasn’t what she was talking about at all. “It’s been… awhile.”

“Would you be comfortable having dinner at our place?” She glanced over to Hopper, who was looking between the two of you with a small frown on his face. “You kids deserve to have some good food in you.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m not sure what —”

“We’ll go!” Tee said, giving you a quick, sharp grin. “We’d love to.”

“It’s settled, then. Tomorrow night. Hop will pick you up and bring you over for dinner.” She paused for a second before adding, “There’ll probably be some kids hanging around too, if that’s okay?”

It wasn’t ideal, but Tee and Seb probably needed to be around normal people for once. As you went to answer, Hopper was placing a hand on Joyce’s shoulder and nodding towards the front porch. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

Instead of replying right away, Joyce looked over to him and rolled her eyes, smiling faintly. “Sure, Hop.” She turned to you and smiled. “We’ll be right back.”

The second they were outside, the three of you ran over to the window to listen in.

“Joyce, you can’t go around taking in every stray kid you find.”

“Says the man that adopted Jane.”

“That was different and you know it. We knew what the story was there, we don’t with these kids.” You leaned forward a little, trying to get a better view of the two of them without disturbing the curtain. They were almost chest to chest out on the porch, Joyce looking up at Hopper with a small smile on her face.

“It’s dinner, Hop.” She leaned up on her toes and pressed a quick kiss against his lips. “Besides,” she began as she fell back onto the balls of her feet. “If I have to get one more call from Steve Harrington about how I really need to invite them over for dinner because The Party would be good for them, I’m going to lose my mind.”

You pulled away from the window a little, frowning. Harrington. You wondered if Steve Harrington was the same Harrington that had been there the other night with Hopper. You hadn’t seen him since that night, and Hopper hadn’t mentioned him again.

Your stomach twisted at the memory of him holding Seb in his arms while the kid thrashed and screamed. You shook your head and looked back out the window.

“You really think it’s a good idea to have them over for dinner just because Steve Harrington thinks he knows what he’s talking about? The kid can barely handle working at some ice cream parlor and a record store. What makes you think he’s right?”

“Well I wasn’t thinking that he was right before I got here,” she said, frowning at him. “But he’s concerned, Hop. And I am too. He said that they looked scared, that they reminded him of El.”

Seb’s finger jabbed into your side. “How can El remind him of us when you’re El?” He asked, scrunching up his face in confusion.

“Different El, dude,” you murmured.

Hopper was shaking his head when you turned your attention back outside. “I’m not going to talk you out of this, am I?”

Joyce smiled up at him and shook her head. “No, you’re not.” She went on to say something else, but you missed it when Tee grabbed at your arm.

“Come on, they’re gonna come back in soon,” she said, pulling you away. The three of you scrambled away from the window just as the door opened. Hopper was behind Joyce as they walked in, a small smile sliding across his features. He looked to the three of you standing in front of the couch and shook his head, chuckling.

“Looks like you’re coming to dinner.”

“If that’s all right,” Joyce added, giving you a warm smile. “It’s okay if you don’t.”

There was only a moment of hesitation before you nodded your head. “It looks like we’re going to dinner.”

• • • • • • • • •

please reblog/like/comment/send me an ask with your thoughts!

#steve harrington x reader #stranger things x reader #steve harrington #stranger things #steve harrington imagine #stranger things imagine #stranger things 2 #reader insert #fanfic

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d3ndroica · 6 years

Text

Big Apple 5

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

They traded texts. Sometimes the other was busy, and no reply would come, or replies were so sporadic it didn’t amount to much. But every few days or so, there would be an actual conversation. Usually it wasn’t about anything important. Something a roommate did, a news story, or some other random topic.

It was Friday. Madge was bored, waiting for cells to incubate in the lab so she could finish an assay. She had time to kill. Her thoughts had strayed to something that had needled her. She picked up her phone. Set it down. Picked it up.

Madge 4:14pm So I have a question

Gale 4:17pm um ok? Madge 4:17pm So. Do you have a different safety text if you like, bring someone home? Or go home with someone else?

Gale 4:20pm hot date?

Madge 4:21pm ha. No really it makes sense right? What if something happens

Gale 4:22pm um dont take someone home if you’re worried about your safety

Madge 4:23pm Right. Because rape only happens in back alleys with strangers. Or I could just join a nunnery so then i’ll never have to worry about my safety ever again anyway

Gale 4:24pm that would be shakespearean level tragic (the nunnery part, rape is always tragic) You’re talking a whole new level of safety text i hadn’t thought of. I guess you could have suffix emojis? There’s always 🍆 and 🌮 If you wanted to share that info

Madge 4:26pm Holy shit really? I’m at work you know

Gale 4:27pm yeah i’m working too who cares what did you think I would say?

Madge 4:27pm IDK I never understood the 🌮 thing I mean, why not a good old fashioned pussy right? 😻

Gale 4:28pm Are your coworkers reading your texts? Tell them I want to eat your 😻 See how maybe could be taken the wrong way Do you know how many people have pet cats?

Sometimes he did this. She wasn’t sure exactly what it was or if it was even on purpose. Flirting because it was just normal to him. Teasing her. Whatever it was, she tried to ignore it. She really did. Unsuccessfully, because holy shit. And it seemed to be escalating. And maybe she wanted it, and that was why she brought up things like 🌮 versus 😻. But still. It was a dangerous game to play with someone she couldn’t date.

Madge 4:29pm OMG you are nuts so, I get the pet cat thing But tacos are a thing too Like taco tuesday? I love taco tuesday, and I might want to invite people to eat actual tacos I could probably talk my roomie into it, she’s all about her latinx heritage I should be able to use 🌮 without people thinking it’s a come on

Gale 4:29pm um yeah “come eat my 🌮🌮” is probably a bad way to invite people to dinner

Gale 4:32pm 🍒? And don’t say you want to invite people over to eat cherries I thought you didn’t use emojis

Madge 4:35pm Hey I’m learning the local ways. Gotta try to fit in in a new city right? Well there’s no pie emoji anyway is there? So I guess I’d have to settle for typing out words.

Gale 4:36pm words what are those that sounds impossible 🙄 almost as bad as phone calls

Madge 4:36pm ha right. phone calls. Cressida talks on the phone a lot actually, it’s weird. Maybe autocorrect cant handle multilingual convos? OR MAYBE it’s because she can’t text people about 🌮! Shit that sounds racist. 😳 It is funny though That there are people all over town sending texts about their 🍆🍆 and 🌮🌮 Like sex is so embarrassing we can’t admit is what we want Also now i want tacos

Gale 4:39pm Didn’t this all start because you wanted an emoji for sex

Madge 4:40pm huh Wait, no. I mean, yes it applies to sex. But it’s broader than that. The whole safety text thing makes sense. I mean I get it, going out drinking, dancing, big city, late nights. There are some risks there and so when those risks don’t apply, you say so. And it’s more fun than a bunch of “home safe” messages. I never said sex. You made it about sex.

Gale 4:42pm You can say what you want but I know you’re just looking for a sex emoji. Why else would you be going home with someone at 2am?

Madge 4:44pm I just want to understand the protocols here. Like, if I am safely to where I will be for the night but it’s not home? Do I include that? Is there a second safety text in the morning? Or if someone comes home with me, that’s like, an additional risk factor. With or without the sex. So fine let’s assume it’s for sex, then it’s a bit braggadocious to be like “🖕⛄️ 🐸 I’m about to have sex now”

Gale 4:45pm Braggadocious????????? Are you kidding me?? You and your big words don’t steal my emojis 🖕⛄️ 🐸 = MINE and isn’t it still bragging no matter how you say it?

Gale 4:48pm isn’t this whole thing dehumanizing anyway? Just send 👩‍❤️‍ 👩 or 👩‍❤️‍ ❤️‍👨 or whatever. no sex needed. for the record from now on I want to be referred to as 🤵🏽

Madge 4:49pm lol You know that’s supposed to be a groom like for a wedding right?

Gale 5:16pm you want 🌮🌮 tonight?

Madge 5:19pm Yes Dammit.

Gale 5:22pm <link1> or <link2> your pick

Madge clicked on the links. One was for “street taco” and the other was for a lesbian bar called “cubbyhole.” Thank God her phone was not on the office wifi.

Madge 5:25pm Haha so funny Meet @ 9? I’m stuck here awhile.

Gale 5:26pm deal I’ve always wanted to go to cubbyhole you think they’ll let me in if I’m with you?

When Madge arrived at “Street Taco” which was actually a festively decorated sit-down taqueria, the place was packed. Gale was already there, hunched near the doorway waiting for a table and looking at his phone. Wearing layers starting with a button-down collared shirt, followed by a dark sweater, and ending with a winter coat, he looked different, practically cleancut. Suddenly she felt a wave of shyness, but she threw that feeling aside, walked over and nudged his elbow.

He gave her a sidelong glance. “Hey,” he said with a small smile, still typing something with his thumbs. A moment later he pocketed the phone.

“Why do people eat so late here?” She grumbled.

“Because nobody works 9 to 5 in this city?” Gale suggested. “Congratulations - looks like you’re becoming a New Yorker. Why were you at work so late on a Friday night anyway?”

“Typical lab work,” Madge said. She started to explain but the hostess had buzzed Gale’s phone. Their table was ready.

Once they were seated Gale looked at her with raised eyebrows. “Don’t tell me you’ve given up on the librarian look already?” he questioned.

She bit back a smile. “I’m just saving it for work now. It’s amazing how effective a frumpy cardigan and sneakers can be. That, and I’m wearing a lab coat half the time anyway.” Now that he’d shed his winter coat, she realized why he looked different. He’d gotten a haircut.

“Right, lab coats. What were you saying about work?”

Madge tried to explain it briefly. “So, we have a lot of protocols that require incubation periods between each step. Some stages can sit overnight and others can’t so you work out the best schedule but there are always long days. I’m actually lucky I haven’t had to go in on the weekend yet.”

“Well I guess finding the cure for cancer isn’t going to be easy,” Gale joked.

Madge groaned. “You did not just say that.”

“What?”

Madge retorted. “The Cure for cancer? Are you serious? So, that’s a total misconception. There is no research targeting *quote* A cure for cancer. It’s not one disease. It’s a whole bunch of diseases that are lumped together.” She huffed and counted on her fingers,”Lymphomas and leukemias and sarcomas and tumors just for a start - and none of those are just one disease with a simple cure waiting to be found either.”

“Okay,” Gale replied.

Madge realized she was rambling and on her soapbox but she couldn’t stop herself. “It’s just one of those things that people don’t get and it’s really frustrating. I mean, telling people I work on pharmaceutical effects on the cellular regulation of apoptosis in diseased cells it would make no sense to anyone outside the field.” Proof in point, she knew from his expression it meant nothing to him. She continued, “so I say, hey I work on cancer drugs, but then people get this idea that we’re gonna find some magical solution that cures everything and that’s not how it works.”

Gale smirked. “Definitely not easy then.”

“Fine. I shouldn’t have brought it up anyway,” Madge frowned. “It’s just been a long day.”

“Well, I like you explaining it. Even if it sounds like greek to me. I don’t know jack about that stuff.”

They checked out the menu and ordered food. It didn’t take long to get their food, which slowed down the conversation. Gale asked how things were going with her phone-obsessed roommate, but really Madge had no complaints about Cressida. They didn’t even interact that much, at least not yet. Gale apparently had two roommates in a 3-bedroom apartment. They’d all met playing soccer and apparently got on fairly well.

“Have you seen Thom lately?” Madge asked. Thom had asked her all about Gale and what she thought after their last dinner together. Eventually Madge had told him he should just talk to Gale if he was so curious. She couldn’t see Thom and Gale together now, despite their history, but she felt maybe she owed it to Thom to pry a bit.

“We talked last week I think,” Gale guessed, sounding casual. “I take it you two are pretty close?”

“Yeah, you know, college bonding. Late nights. We’ve both needed someone .. He’s my guy, you know? I mean, my platonic guy friend guy. Obviously.”

“How did you meet him?” he asked.

“Theater program. I worked tech backstage,” she explained. “So we were in the same dorm freshman year but we really bonded during A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum that spring.”

“Only backstage?” He was teasing her. “Did you figure you’d had your 15 minutes of fame? Princess?”

Madge rolled her eyes. “Funny. So my acting coach for the pageants told me my acting was ‘pedestrian’ and I guess I decided that was a good thing. Backstage was more fun anyway. Like in Forum, Thom didn’t have that big a role, so he had lots of time to hang out backstage.”

“And you’ve been BFFs ever since?” Gale joked.

“Sort of. I don’t think either one of us realized it when school ended. We just knew it was sad to go home. Then we talked all the time that summer. I had some stuff going on and he came out to his family, so I guess it was a pretty eventful year.”

“Was it hard for him? Coming out?”

Madge shrugged. “I guess so, yeah. Isn’t it always? He can tell you. But I don’t think his parents were that surprised? It was more the extended family.” Madge felt a little uncomfortable talking about Thom’s outing, so she turned the tables. “It’s gotta be tough though. I mean, you’ve been there. Was yours hard?”

Gale paused. “Well, yeah. Coming out was hard. You stand on the precipice so many times before you finally just do it, because no matter what your mom says, you’ve heard all this shit about it being a choice and burning in hell. School, church, fucking little league coaches.” Gale sighed. “I hoped it would be easier for Thom though. He was so sure of who he was and you know, the whole theater thing. I just felt like I was lost in the woods, waiting for some sign. We barely knew gay people existed in high school. Where we came from, we’d never even heard the word bisexual, let alone pan. It was confusing. Took me awhile to figure out that I didn’t have to choose gay or straight.”

Madge almost choked on her taco. “You’re -” she cut herself off. PAN! Pansexual! Her mind screamed it at her. In all honesty she wasn’t sure exactly what that meant but she was pretty sure it was something like bisexual. There was no way she was going to admit her ignorance now. Plus he’d just laid down some pretty serious stuff and her first reaction was to his orientation. Not cool. Quickly she tried to cover. “I mean, yeah. That sucks. You came out as pan though? I just didn’t think about you coming out. As pan. To your family. Are they ...” She paused to take a long sip of her drink. “Are they supportive?”

“I’m so blessed there,” Gale had apparently been distracted enough by everything else he’d just said to realize that being pan was a revelation to her. “My mom,” he told her, “is amazing. It was definitely hard for her - I mean she is deeply religious and by then I’d brought home a few girlfriends. She’s 100% supportive though. She tries so much.”

“That’s good,” Madge said weakly. She was getting way too much new information here and was having trouble keeping up.

After a minute Gale added, “you’re right though. I think a lot of pan people only ever come out partway. They say they’re bi or gay or straight, if they can. But when I finally figured out that there was a name for my feelings, I couldn’t give that up.”

“Right,” Madge agreed. “You shouldn’t have to. It’s like Thom says. You do you.”

#gadge #gadge fanfic #my fanfic #nyc-verse #truth comes out #safety texts are real #still working on the chapter after this #hopefully not writing myself into a corner here

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roughentumble · 7 years

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so i finally got to finish white rabbit and it was Bad. its bad film scoob

to get more detailed, and possibly i just wasn’t paying close enough attention to this first point, but, it’s something so basic that it should be pretty clear to the audience unless you’re messing with it on purpose, the timeline is absolutely confusing as heck. how long did harlon and julie know each other? i have NO IDEA. i legit am convinced it was only 2 days. i just can’t.... possibly conceive of it being any other increment of time? but also that still doesn’t make sense to me because things escalate So Damn Quickly. his bully bullied him literally right before summer, then summer ends and he insists he’s Changed and that all that stuff In The Past is something he’s improved about himself now that he’s Matured?????? wHat???? also there’s something very abrupt about the film’s timeline. we see one or two scenes with harlon as a child, then only scenes of him in a very specific summer in a very specific year(i.e. the year that he either violently shoots up his school, or dreams about violently shooting up his school, more on that later tho) which isn’t INHERENTLY bad, but... you didn’t get this... the film is striving to explain how things build up and build up and build up inside a person, why things go so wrong, and why we have school shootings(or at least, ONE explanation why some kids engage in school shootings) but you don’t GET a sense of things being built up. the whole film felt like a bunch of choppy scenes spliced together

and it didn’t really...... harlon’s hallucinations felt like such a small PART of the film, they were SO scattered and didn’t really. i dunno. it just didnt all click together in any coherent or meaningful sense. the whole film is so odd, poorly handled, and disjointed that i’m having trouble writing coherent thoughts about it.

julie was, altogether, a shallow character who was literally a manic pixie dream girl. she stumbled into his life twice, the first time changing him for the better(in some ways, he does stand up for himself for the first time after kisses him), the second time using her own personal growth that all took place OFF-SCREEN and with barely an explanation thrown out there, TO TRY AND FIX HARLON AGAIN like she’s JUST a catalyst for his own growth that’s all she is, and she’s a shoddy one at that. she doesn’t feel like she belongs in the film at all, she feels like she was in an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT film and somehow managed to step through a door and land in this town somehow. she’s weird, she’s poorly-written imho, she’s distracting, she takes up time that COULD be used to actually give... literally any character any personality at all, even a little

oh yeah, nobody has any... personality. they’re all like these cardboard cutouts, the stereotypical abusive redneck dad, the stereotypical shitty siblings(fun fact! i literally forgot he had siblings, throughout the entire film i just kept forgetting, and i only remember now because a different review mentioned them! fun), the tired and slightly overbearing but ultimately caring mother, the bully, the sniveling friend, the angry shouty parents of the sniveling friend who seem to have no source for their anger they just Are Mad Now, the girl who waltzes into Main Character’s life and shakes things up, the Crazy School Shooter who Hears Voices From His Violent Comic Books! everybody is like every other character ever, and even when shoddy writing starts putting them on a different path, they just head down... that same cliche path anyway, even though it makes no sense for them in context, like the world’s shittiest roller coaster

for example, the school shooting ending had NO buildup. it was last minute, went by real fast, had NO real stressor to speak of, it just... literally didnt make sense. harlon wasn’t an exceedingly angry child, he wasn’t overly-programmed for violence by the way his parents raised him... and yet, just like he’s been locked onto the rails, just cuz he Hears Voices so this Must Be A School Shooter Movie, he just stands there while the tracks take him from point a to point b

also, the entire film felt like nothing more than a grocery list, loosely detailing all of the every reason you ever ever ever hear that anyone ever does A Big Bad Thing, without any real deeper understanding of any of those things. like. it felt so... the entire film felt sterile. everybody was a standee on a track, rolling up to one another and saying in a SIRI-esque voice “HELLO. HERE IS REASON NUMBER 284 WHY I WILL BE SAD LATER. BEEP BOOP DEPLOYING SADNESS” before calmly being carried away by the motor.

plus the ending is a total cop-out. the beginning of the film includes what is obviously harlon getting ready to shoot up the school, plus some voice-overs that don’t make sense yet, which is fine. sure. plenty of films make use of devices like that. then at the end, when he shoots up the school, it eventually ends on very similar footage from the beginning, with some teeny tiny details changed here and there, but... like, was he thinking about shooting up the school before going in to do it, or was he dreaming it, or did he shoot himself and now he’s in purgatory, forced to revisit his crimes at the hands of his evil bunny overlord...? it was ambiguous in the exact way a film like this should NEVER be ambiguous(or at least, not unless you’re way better than these people at writing >:// )

all of this being said, i do want to make a specific note that i liked the actors. i think they did a great job. i liked watching nick krause(harlon), i liked watching Sam Trammell(the father) struggle to bring nuance to such an awkwardly written role. honestly, sam’s character was easily the most robust one in the film, since he was abusive but he did love his kids and had moments with them where things WEREN’T bad, and moments that made it clear that he was trying, he just didn’t know any better and lived in this environment that stifled any and all change and personal growth, but at the same time he was never excused for his abusive behavior. sam trammell did literally awesome at is and he was quite possibly..... 1.5 whole dimensions. incredible

anyway, back on topic, i believed ryan lee as a bullied child-- did i like the writing for him, or how things were edited? no. but his acting, his tears, his emotions that he brought to the performance were MORE than satisfactory.

the one i’m most hesitant to speak about is britt robertson(julie). like, on one hand, i just straight up... did not like julie. or rather, i would’ve been fine watching a film about julie, she seems nice and interesting(what lead her to her downward spiral of drugs and alcohol and attempted suicide? was she mentally ill, or were there outside stressors? what did she go through to heal the way she did over just one summer? what about that night was so bad for her that it caused her to go to rehab/a mental hospital? did she decide to on her own, or did her father make her?) but she’s barely touched in the film, barely given any space to feel anything, and so i find her presence, quite frankly, annoying. she should have been bigger or not there at all. but she was there, and she wasn’t bigger, and the writing really did not care about her feelings or motivations in the SLIGHTEST. and there’s only so much you can bring to that, acting-wise! the scene where she nearly dies in the field with harlon, when she’s talking about praying and how she never gets an answer, i BELIEVED the tears in her voice. she sounded visceral and honest. at the middle/end, when she came back and truly wanted to help harlon? the way she acted when the shooting was happening? i mean, i didn’t like the WRITING for her character, but i liked the emotions she managed to put into these scenes

and like. i know i’m skipping back here a bit, but nick krause did Good man. i thoroughly believed at least 97.25% of his emotions. i didn’t understand his motivations, and there were certainly flat and emotionless moments aplenty, but mostly they were born out of poor writing, and not actor shortcomings

the actors were not the problem. i would 100% see a movie just cuz nick krause was in it(if only to see if his acting only looked good in comparison to the script he was handed)

honestly i can’t really sum it up much better than these guys did, ngl

white rabbit was boring and shit and i hated it but im probs gonna give it a thumbs up cuz netflix was created by the devil himself and also i wanna see other films like it so. i suffer

#white rabbit tag #It Was So Bad Scoob

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szopenhauer · 4 years

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Who will you be spending Christmas with this year? no idea, I’d like to spend it with my parents but dad might work at the time and also sister can visit, I’m not even sure if I will be alive at the time nor if I want holidays as I have no money nor can’t eat much anyway

Did you go to high school with your current best friend? no Have you ever wanted to be vegetarian or vegan? maybe vegetarian but not a vegan for sure Do you park your car in a garage, carport or just in a driveway? we have no car

Have you seen any extended relatives in the last month? from afar Do you take part in paying the bills for your household? I don’t :( Have you ever properly listened to classical music? Did you like it? you mean if I listened to a live orchestra? not really Do your parents know how to text? not my mother Do you text your parents often? I text my father at least once a day when he’s at work What television channel do you watch the most? none anymore What will you do when this survey is over? take a bath and go to sleep, I play choices in the meantime, I might listen to music yet What’s the weather like today? there was a thunderstorm How do you usually celebrate New Years? I was listening to music with my family, we had special food and then we looked at fireworks through the window drinking non alcoholic champagne Is the place that you’re in right now quiet or loud? it’s quiet

What was the last thing you took a video of? what kind of friend I am on snapchat or smth on tik tok that I set as private

What’s something that used to really stress you out, but doesn’t anymore? school as I no longer attend it Do you prefer to be around introverted or extroverted people? I’m an introvert and I prefer NOT to be around people Have you ever been somewhere where you didn’t fluently speak the local language? never but sometimes I go to the mall and there are ppl speaking russian instead of polish Have you ever dated someone from a very different socioeconomic background? yep Were you born before or after the collapse of the Soviet Union? year after How often do you go grocery shopping? about every second day or third? If you got pregnant the 1st time you had sex, how old would the kid be now? it wouldn’t be born What was your last received text message about? M. wishing me good night Have you ever lived in a small community where everyone knew each other? my town was a bit like this when I was a baby Are you a procrastinator? huge What was the last thing you said out loud? BYE or smth like that

Have you ever worked over 50 hours in one week? I haven’t

Have you ever studied abroad? neither Do you have any medication that you keep with you at all times? sorta List three things that you need to get done in the next few days? take my dog to the vet, get my examinations results and give them to my gastrologist, go on a date, do grocery shopping etc. What’s something that’s much more difficult than a lot of people realize? being me What’s your opinion on couples ‘staying together for the kids?’ ugh... What was the last website you were on, before this one? Google Do you ever lose track of what day of the week it is? who doesn’t Were you raised by both of your parents? If not, then who raised you? could say so, my dad was busy often but I also had my grandma around Have you ever spent over $50 (€43) on a bottle of wine? - Have you ever locked your keys in your car? I don’t get it, how is that even possible? :o What season do you wish lasted longer? summer How old is the last male you texted? 60+ How old is the last female you texted? 28 Have you ever ‘taken a break’ in a relationship? If so, how did things turn out? could say so

How many times have you ever ridden an elephant? 0 but I want to What do you think about Lord of the Rings? cool

Do you have a lot of clothes hangers in your house? shitload Have you ever been in a Latin class? floristry Have you ever had bubble gum stuck in your hair? once Is there any pet hair stuck to your clothing? I don’t think so Have you ever watched The Gremlins? nah Is your cell on charge? it is indeed What do you think about rainbows? ... Are you wearing anything on your head right now? am not Do you own a pet spider? I don’t Do you like mouthwash? I dislike it Do you use green pens? very rarely Are there any fake tattoos on you? none Can you roll your belly? a bit Is there a rocking chair in your house? there isn’t Have you ever gone to a Monster Truck show? would like to someday but it’s not necessary Have you ever been kicked in the throat? punched/slapped/hit Do you like the song “Barbie Girl”? ironically Do you own a feather boa? blergh Do you wear ribbons in your hair? used to have this special decoration that I made myself - it was a ponytail made out of ribbons and my friends’ mom or grandma was calling it Krakowianka Do you use cheat codes on video games? motherlode How long has it been since you last slept? over ten hours Is the sound on your laptop or computer turned off? it’s on How many keychains do you own? too many lmfao Magnets? several Do you own anything with a peace sign on it? doubt it When is the last time you wore shorts? this month which is new/weird to me Do you like elevators or escalators? use them when I need to Is there anyone in the room with you? I’m alone When is the last time you pet an animal? today

Is it windy outside? who knows Have you ever met a dog named ‘Spot’? I called one this way

Do you usually wrap gifts or just put them in a bag? give them without packing or anything When was the last time you were given jewelery as a gift? this year If you look out the window closest to you - what do you see? darkness Have you ever used crutches? for “fun” If Willy Wonka invited you to live with him, would you? ewww, creepy Do you own a pair of pink shoes? mhm Have you ever been in a tree house? sadly not Have you ever been outside in freezing cold weather with no jacket on? ha! it reminds me of the time we’ve been using hot glue for couple of hours to make floral decorations in class and we all started going crazy like on drugs and we wen outside in T-shirts in a freezing cold winter time to finish projects and we didn’t feel anything pfft - I wasn’t sick afterwards :P The last time you said “I want it” - what was it that you wanted? not sure what was last but I want health constantly if that counts What color are your sunglasses? they’re not colorful Are you picky about how your clothes fit? I like ‘em oversized Would you ever flirt with somebody in front of your parents? slightly Would you ever move to China? what for What material are the pants you’re wearing made of? cotton

How long have you had your current mattress? years Do you usually pay with cash, debit card, or credit card? cash always What do you usually drink with breakfast? I drink water an hour after breakfast

Are you the type of person who can make friends with just about anyone? me? r u kidding? What’s your least favorite time of day? morning because of waking up but sunrises are pretty How many burners does your stove have? 4 When you go to a restaurant, do you prefer to sit at a booth or a table? table Which room of your house is currently in the greatest need of cleaning? *shrug* not mine When was the last time you shipped a package? uh oh I don’t even remember Have you ever made a homemade pie? with my mom How old is your oldest cousin? don’t ask me

Do you ever have binges that last for hours, watching YouTube videos? not that long

Have you ever recorded yourself doing a cover of a song? ^^”

Are there any movies out there that basically make you want to puke? Gummo *someone once told me it reminds them of me and I wasn’t able to watch half of it as it was so disgusting and that comment feels like one of the worst offensive shit anybody ever told [about] me

Are either of your parents laid of from work at the moment? retired

Any secrets you’d never tell anyone? No matter how close they are to you? no secrets like this

Have you ever told a secret on one of your friends you promised otherwise? you got me

Do you consider yourself a promiscious person? I’m an asexual but recently... Look to your left, what’s the first blue thing you see right now? there’s nothing blue on my left side atm as there’s a window

Do you know anyone who has AIDS? What about yourself? no one that I know of

Has anyone ever mistaken you to be a member of the opposite sex? plenty of times

What’s one thing in your room you would die if your SO found? I wouldn’t die, I might be embarassed if anything

Does your school have a swimming pool? Or no? my schools didn’t have swimming pools

Do you prefer cappuccinos or frappuccinos? I only tried cappuccino before Would you rather swim in a lake or the ocean? lake Are there any plants in your home? omg yes What food does honey go best with? I liked yoghurt with honey when I was a child Have you ever carved a pumpkin? less than 5 times Do you love seeing frost hanging off leaves in the Winter? I like it on windows only Have you ever reread a book? no? Would you ever like to own a chandelier? not crystal one

Do you have any religious symbols in your home? bunch What religion do you identify with, if any? Christianity If you could have a small garden in your backyard, what would you plant? you mean vegetables?

Do you enjoy those tins of butter cookies? yeah Do you own any art supplies? I gave away most of them Do you prefer writing in pen or pencil? pen How many notebooks do you own? Are they all filled? I own lots of filled and empty notebooks

Are you currently sitting on your bed? I’m not

Did anything tend to make you extremely happy today? nope

What month is it? August

Do you know where the remote to the closest television is located or not? I know

Name one interesting fact about yourself that people might not know about? I hate The Nanny Affair on Choices and play it only to get diamonds

Do you ever have to write down a phone number to remember it, or not? every single time

Do you know anyone who has man-boobs? many men have “boobs” *in middle school we had a guy who they were calling Pamela (Anderson) because of that

Do you know anyone who constantly puts themselves down? that me

When was the last time you had a piece of cake? yesterday or day before

Do you know anyone who has their septum pierced? Does it look painful? not personally

Do you think some famous people just shouldn’t be famous at all? lots

Has anyone ever complimented you on your singing? Did you believe them? once in primary school and I think they tried to flirt with me but I believe they were lying or maybe they just tried to make fun of me?

Has anyone ever kissed you in the rain? Did it seem romantic at the time? no thx

When was the last time you listened to a genre of you music you despise? in public, it was loud so I couldn’t help it

How satisfied with life are you at this exact moment in time? Why is this? no comment

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pa-awesome · 5 years

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Small Lies That Escalated Into “This Is My Life Now”

• I'm disabled. I use two crutches to walk. When I'm not actually hobbling along it's one of those disabilities that can be mistaken for just having a broken leg or something. People frequently ask me "What did I do to need those crutches?" When I started university I told a girl that I cage-wrestled a bear. She was drunk and thought it was hilarious. I thought it was clear that I was completely obviously joking. There is no sane way I could have been serious. About three hours later I'm at the student union. Gareth Gates is singing (that one off pop Idol) I'm trying to take a picture of him, and I hear two girls in front of me: "Do you know why he's got those?" "Yeah he got mauled by a bear or something" "Are you serious?" Several months later I have to go meet my partner for our placement study. I've never met her before in my life, but she knows me already as the guy who got attacked by a bear. At Christmas I head home, (only a couple of hours away) and meet up with some friends for drinks. "Turrabo, why the fuck are you telling everybody that you got mauled by a bear?"

• In college my roommate and I had a KFC taco bell right by our apartment. We would go once or twice a week. One time we ordered and the drive through guy said "hey bro, you're - i remember your car!" Since the name was the same as mine, I was like "hey man!" Apparently he thought we had both worked construction together - or he did with a guy who looked like me, drove the same car, and had the same name. Anyway, he ends up giving us our order to for free. From that day on, everytime we went to the taco bell - kfc, we got free food. He would even tell his coworkers to give us free food and would throw in comments like - "you remember steve, he was a real asshole". I would agree and then accept my food. My roommate also apparently started getting free food even when I wasn't there because he recognized him. Doppleganger me must of been a super nice guy, because I got a lot of love. I lived that wonderful lie for roughly 3-4 years to get the free gorditas and fried chicken. I even got a new friend on facebook. Worth it.

• I told people at my former (American) university that I was Canadian, to get them to stop talking to me about U.S. politics. I hate confrontation and didn't know how to just tell them that political discussion makes me uncomfortable. Now I live in Canada and attend a Canadian university. I'm working towards citizenship. Oops.

• I've been making EDM since I was 13, and in my senior year of High School I had the opportunity to play some of my music live with Ableton for my classmates at an event. But, because I couldn't explain what I was doing in the space provided on the sign-up sheet I just put down "DJ", thinking that nobody would be knowledgeable enough to know the difference. Apparently everybody liked it so much that the prom committee asked me to DJ prom, and like an idiot I said yes. I waited for my birthday, and made sure that nobody got me any gifts-just money, which I spent on software and a Mixtrack Pro. I learned how to DJ in three months, did prom, got payed 250$. I'm making decent money off of gigs now, and I do the prom every year.

• When I was little, my grandma would make me these horrible frozen chicken tenders filled with cheese. They were just god-awful. Because I am a good grandson, I told her that I loved them. From then on, every time that I visited her, she would cook me those abominations. Even when I was in graduate school, I would go visit her and for one meal, I would have to slide those gross things down my gullet. Every time I would say, "Thanks! I love them!" The things we do for love...

• I was having a rough time commuting too far for work for a few months. Decided to quit to find something closer to home, but told everyone I had been approved to work from home. When I went to give my two weeks, my manager asked, "I know the driving has been killing you, how would you feel about working from home?" Work laptop to my left and watching Great British Masterclass as I type, been working at home since then.

• My upstairs neighbor called me Mark in a conversation but since that is not my name, I didn't realize she was actually referring to me so I didn't correct her. The second time she called me Mark it was from a distance as she was leaving her apartment and I was getting in; I registered that she thought my name was Mark but I felt it would be weird to shout back that my name is not Mark. The third time she did this I had a bunch of friends over on the stoop outside the apartment and I didn't want to correct her in front of a group of kids (she's an older lady; we were in our early twenties) because I didn't want to embarrass her. All my friends looked confused that she was calling me Mark but after she went inside I explained to them I was too deep into it to correct her. They disagreed since she had only done it three times at that point. That was 7 years ago. I am Mark.

• Buddy of mine shared this one. He told his wife's parents he liked their Christmas ham at the first family function he was invited to. They took that as he loved ham in general. Ten years later it's the only food they have at any meal where it's him, wife and kids and the inlaws. They have dinner twice a month, it's always ham. They send him ham-centric gift baskets every year on his birthday at work. Every holiday it's ham, ham, ham, at every meal. They took a 3 hour detour last year to get a picture of some sign in Ham Lake MN or a postcard or something and thought he'd be so excited when they sent him the photo. It's like they only ever learned one fact about him and it was he likes ham. At this point I'm not sure they remembered his name and heartily pat him on the back referring to him a their ham-loving son in law because they're too embarrassed to ask ten years in and employ complex, Leslie-Nielsen-level schemes to get someone to steal his wallet or get someone to say his name that always fail. He hates ham, always has, its too salty and makes his hands swell up so much his wedding ring can't be removed. His wife now hates ham. He was just being polite. We're attending a christening of their kid next weekend and I'll get to meat the inlaws in question. I will be asking them if they love ham as much as he certainly does. I want to know if everyone in the family hates ham and they're all just smiling while dying on the inside at every meal, passing the ham with anger boiling like a pot of hot ham water just under surface. So yeah that's his life right now, forced to eat ham because he lied about liking ham and he's in too deep.

• People picked on my brother in high school for getting jumped by some wannabe “blood” thugs in the bathroom. Popular thugs, if you can believe it. It was relentless. His confidence and any friendships were crushed, cause, you know, people can’t be seen with the loser. One day I was confronted by said thugs, basically talking shit about my brother, and in my infinite wisdom, I said I could box so they better back off. Something to that affect. Looking back, I cringe, but you do what you have to. Needless to say, they did not back off. Somehow, I landed a punch on one of the kids that dislocated his jaw. Like, flapping around like a mouth piece hanging from a football helmet. I became the kid who could “box” but never wanted to fight, which I guess gave me credibility. I don’t really know. Everyone and their hyena came to me asking where they could learn said boxing skills, how I’d learned by 16, all that crap. I’d wanted to just come out and say I had been lucky, but I didn’t want anyone to give my brother shit again. So the lie stayed. Luckily, no one ever picked on my brother afterwards, and I did eventually learn some boxing fundamentals, but most because I felt like I was living a lie. Which I was. As a man, I have not had to keep up the facade.

• I moved to a new city, and got a new dentist. For some reason, the guy thinks I used to see him at his old practice in a town I've never lived in. I corrected him a couple times, but he just keeps bringing it up, so now I just kind of roll with it. He asks after my parents, which is easy enough...but we've had all kinds of conversations about local restaurants I've never been to and other random stuff like that.

• "Yea I'd say I'm pretty good with excel." No. No I wasn't. Annnnnnd now I'm an analyst at a fortune 400 company.

• My mother was a super control freak, so one of the ways I would avoid home was after school extracurriculars. I got the date wrong on a math team meeting, so I lied to my mom about it while actually attending the debate team intro meeting. I probably didn't need to lie, but it was always safer to not disrupt her precious schedule. Eventually, debate became a regular activity for me to avoid home. In 3 years, I was a state semifinalist and in college, I coached the high school national champions and turned that into a free ride for a masters degree.

• A new coworker of mine tried downplaying his bday and eventually after me hounding him about why he didn't like celebrating, he eventually told me in confidence that his best friend was killed on his birthday and he hates thinking about it. Fast forward 8 years -- this guy and I had become really good friends. Best friends. Lived together at one point. He was accepted into my friend group and I always made sure to downplay his bday (his is 4 days after another friend) so we just did a group thing and never made a big deal about it. Finally someone got brave enough and wanted to talk to him about it, and he laughed and had no recollection of telling me that and said he was probably just screwing with me. He always wondered why no one wished him happy bday.

• I moved to a new city when I was in 6th grade and on the same day I started two other boys started and they both knew how to skateboard, so I lied and said I did to. Then for months I lied about being able to skateboard to them and other kids at the school, and I never came clean because I didn't want anyone to call me a poser. So I bought skater boy clothes, and a skateboard and learned how to skateboard because I lied about knowing how to skateboard. Still skating since then. I'm 27 now.

• Once my boyfriends mom asked me if I liked their bathroom soap. It’s lavender, I don’t like lavender. But I decided to tell her “I love it, it smells so good!” Now I have an endless supply, she buys me some all the time. It’s too sweet to tell her the truth, so I just keep it to myself and use the mediocre-smelling soap. Oh well, this is how I live now

• My husband's best friend has a 6 year old daughter that I see often. When she was almost 3 she babbled something to me (I think it was "My friends here!") and my husband interpreted it as "My friend Steve!" and started calling me Steve in front of her. Now her whole family call me Steve when she's around, and she still believes that's my name. For clarity, I'm a female and my name isn't anything close to Steve.

• Back in High School, someone in my freshman English class thought he heard someone call me Louis, so he started calling me Louis. Not really a friend, just someone I spoke to on occasion. Now high school me thought he was just him trying to be funny, and didn't care to correct him and he continued to call me Louis and whenever I heard him call for me I responded. It wasn't until our last week of senior year that he stops me in his tracks and goes. "Someone told me your name isn't Louis. Is your name Louis?" "No." "I-I've been calling you Louis for 4 years! I thought that was your name!"

• "You're here for the copywriting position right?" "Yup!" I was the only one in the waiting area... thought I was there for a design/art direction role. Within 15 minutes of the interview they offered me $2K to move and $45K starting salary a week before graduation.

• My life, my dad's lie. He's a GP in the US and had an older Indian man as a patient. While they were chatting, at some point my dad mentioned that his sister loved elephants and had a collection of figurines. The patient went back to India to visit family, and he brought back a couple small carved elephants to my dad to give to me. He'd misunderstood/misremembered and thought it was his daughter who collected elephants. My dad thought it was a one time thing, thanked him, and said I'd love them. Turns out he went back to India every year. For ten years, I'd get a new elephant figurine whenever that patient had come back.

• Said I was a amateur boxer until a real fight popped off. guy was huge, I just put my hands up pretended I knew what I was doing, meanest face I could make. guy stood down, said "fuck that..you could tell he knows how to fight." I signed up to my nearest boxing gym the next day. I actually love it!

#repost #story #liar #lies

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isaacathom · 6 years

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like, if i were to basically redo it to just be a fun fantasy romp - id take it back to its original sort of time setting rather than having it be urban fantasy. Finley died in an expedition about 10 years earlier, making Crystal and Akian into orphans. theyve basically been living with the D’Lore’s since then, so Akian and Chase being really fucking close makes complete sense (and was likely why they started living wit the d’lores in the first place). in that last decade, like 5 yearsago or so, SKye joins the family after the whole uhhhhh Sorix/Naten situation. my poor boys. so crystal and skye already know each other. they arent super close, mostly because skye’s a moody lil bitch sometimes, but they know each other and are passing friends. crystal works with the d’lore’s apothecary, since the d’lores are like, biiiiiiiig boys. mayors or some shit. big boys. not a king, tho. well, actually, maybe? that could be interesting. or perhaps like a pricipality sorta deal. ill think about it.

since the d’lores are royalty here, kidnapping Akian and Chase (the crown prince boy and his gf) makes complete sense. theyre a perfect ransom and way tohold the entire city/region hostage. its a crisis. skye and crystal, who are really pissed about it, decide to take proactive action. which brings them into contact with Violet, who runs a small library with her “aunt”, Dawn. Violet helps them find some information about some of the weird shit the two reported seeing before their sibs were kidnapped, and gives them a shit ton of advice on what they could do. because violet is the best.

smth smth happens, they come into contact with Will, who is an expedition man just like Finley, and also the guy with th complex relationship with Skye. the three manage to convince Will to take them along into his second trip into a portal he’s discovered north of the town, because violet thinks it’ll have useful info and then begs to come along to see it. sothe 4 go in. suhbitch, its the heaven realm, and here they meet Skye’s mother, Alexa, who has still been dead for 200 years because, lets be clear, Skye’s dad fucked a ghost. fucking crazy. fantasy is wild. and she helps give them some pointers. maybe suggests they head to Quartai, which is the Big Boy Kingdom. a probably more overtly magical/religious place, more info on Ryaris and shit, stuff like that.

the 4 go there. then im not sure how stuff resolves from there. they probably still end up heading to the southern isles, which is an even more Big Magic place that has all these portals. in between then, violet seems to disappear, following an(other) encounter with Princess Alara, angry wind mage of the hour. which isnt great? but thats because Violet realised something was off about Alara (in a way specific to Violet) and she went out alone after the others went to sleep to find her and demand answers, and then, well, shit escalates.

they finally get to the fire realm and find the castle. before they can sneak inside, Alara catches them and promptly kidnaps Crystal, under the rationale that, well, Crystal is actually quartaian royalty, she’ll be a good ransom as well! :) skye and will (and i guess ash if hes just floating around, i dont Know)get tossed in the jail cell with chase and akian. Violet, who has now assumed the position of Princess fucking uhhhhh she has a name. fuck. T- Tacha??? yea ok whatever. Princess Violet’s out here, trying desperately to avoid the consequences of abandoning the group and trying not to get seen by any of them. but after overhearing her mum and sister interrogating Crystal about shit (and probably revealing Crystal’s heritage at that time, tho idk how id tie that shit in proper) Violet decides to stop being a coward. easily talks her way into the jail, frees everyone, get them all their stuff back, and make arrangements with some sympathetic guards that escort the exhausted Chase and Akian to a portal that will plop them out near-ish to the capital city, where they will be quickly found. bonus points if one of the guards, being a local to the area, offers to then personally escort them to the palace and hand them over. if yes, then violet likely gives him something that is proof of divine intervention (like, a symbol that cannot be manufactured by a human? and that is proof that Ryaris was involved and has returned them, smth like that, idk)

then the three of them work together to free crystal from Alara, who is acting as the primary antagonist. Ryaris is getting cold feet like noones fucking business, which is why she hasnt made a single appearance apart from kidnapping the two at the start. Alara’s filled in the rest, in part because Alara can pass for human (shes more a demigod than a minor goddess, in contrast to Violet), and because Alara was a LOT more into the plan from the start. probably using some info they gathered in Quartai or in theheaven world (it definitely has a name, i dont remember it) to convince Alara that, well, no, Dalace is absolutely fucking lying to you, stop it. which is easier than you would think, because Dalace’s lies were revealed the instant Violet returned home.

Part of Dalace’s plan to escape from her imprisonment is to have Ryaris (and her daughter, tho that was a later addition) force a whole bunch of humans into constructing and using portals, which would weaken the seal and also give Dalace more power. then she can break out and wreak havoc. her end of the deal is that, once restored to full power and free, she would bring back Evelyn and Violet. Evelyn being Ryaris’ human wife, who died like 5-6 years prior to the start of the story, and which was actually caused by Dalace in order to force Ryaris’ hand. but that conceit was that Violet and Ryaris were both dead. But Violet is here, perfectly fine, and with 0 trace of any magical interference. Violet was been alive the entire time, just out of Ryaris’ sight and in a different place than where Alara ended up going undercover. essentially a stroke of bad luck.

so, yknow. Violet has overheard Ryaris talking to Dalace, and has already found out about the fact that her revival had been promised. so its like, ‘what proof do you have???’ ‘well, im here, arent i?’ ‘:|||||’ if its then additional that, after violet left the party, the other three found out that Dalace doesn’t have the ability to revive, and that revival as a skill would require the death of Losa (light goddess and just general death lady), they can use that too. combine forces. violet uses her knowledge of the agreement, and the others use their acquired knowledge of the limits of magic. bam. maybe even some prior history, like ‘the stories say that Dalace went mad because everything died in her care. if she could revive the dead, surely this wouldnt have been an issue?’ ‘..... fuck youre right’. i mean they almost definitely have to fight her too because Alara’s a bit of a pain in the ass. people probably almost die. hardcore.

everyone chills out, they go convince ryaris to maybe chill. thats very easy because ryaris literally just wanted to settle down with her wife and two children before shit got messy (and i mean, Same). very easy to convince her off the mess train. but, of course, she’s already done a lot of the damage. the ransom for Akian and Chase has been active for like, at LEAST a week, possibly even more, she’s already reaped a solid chunk and started making good on her promise to Dalace. so the damage has been done. Dalace will get out soon. so they decide like, ok, lets fix it. time to go like, punch her in the face.

and then they beat dalace or reseal her or something. im not sure? dalace’s issues with the world are so deeply seated, her anger so much a part of her, that you cant really turn her good again. and to kill her would be nigh impossible and extremely disastrous. so really its like. do we trap her again but More this time, do we force the gods to actually intervene this time instead of acting through Champions? its rough. a godly intervention would only work if the group had been to each of the realms, because then they’d have met or affected each god in some way. but theyve only been to light and fire worlds. any more than that and it just gets like..... convoluted...... it was the original idea but idk. smaller main cast, makes even less sense. going to the worlds of each of their patrons makes SOME sense??? which then means id need to add a trip to the earth world (perhaps this is where they go from the southern isles. since they dont have a fire portal. and then they lose violet in earht world?). which then only leaves out the water and wind worlds. but the wind goddess is explicitly on Ryaris’ side, having freed Ryaris from her own constraints after a Whole Bunch of Shenanigans. so they dont actually need to convince the wind goddess, Xen i think, to support ryaris. Caliyo, the water goddess, is a little harder to finagle. she doesnt really agree with Ryaris for what i hope are Obvious reasons. in theory keeping Ash as a member of the party would potentially fix that, since he’s an active and practicing water magician prior to meeting the cast, and it’d be fair to guess that she might have a hand in that?in the community he’s from. sort of a mini water realm? Caliyo could also possibly be convincedby like, Losa and....Elra? earth lady. to just maybe think about just fucking talking to Dalace, for fucking once. its been fucking millenia,just talk to her and maybe youll convince her to stop being a shit. idk. Dalace is complicated? and a pain in the butt.

like, if Ash remains part of the squad (which does skew the cast 2:3 male, and 1:3 male when Violet leaves, which Pisses me Off) he can act as throughline to Caliyo. i dont see why not. his community is very much magical. buuuttt you could also potentially get around having him be in the party by having the same connection be present in the Southern Isles, which is a separate magical community that hides away from the continent. and if you think about it, how would you hide an island? other than straight up illusions.mist! caliyo is a perfect patron for the southern isles, thus removing Ash from the story as well in a clean 1 2. which also removes the dragons, which is.... a shame, definitely. big fan of them. but it also makes some sense to remove super overt magic stuff, if people are supposed to believe is superstition or extremely rare. a northern tribe that rely on dragons doesnt gel with that. they can still exist, i guess, but as a completely separate entity. though that does then raise the question of how the party of 4 get from Quartai to the southern isles. in SB, they flew there on the backs of some of Ash’ dragons, which also allowed them to cross the fucking sea between the isles and the coast. unless theres a secret way? like, hey, a secret bridge. use the portals to return back to the capital city, tie up some loose ends (employment and ‘WHERE THE /FUCK/ HAVE YOU BEEN?’ sorts of ends) before heading south to the coast and then trying to find the path across. Skye or will would be good for that, though Violet is also a stellar candidate due to the sheer magnitude of her magic. she’s basically a minor deity. its crazy. it depends on like, narrative usefulness? i guess? like, violet was the one who put them on the path to realise the kidnapper was Divine in some way, and put them in contact with Will. Will got them into fucking Heaven Light World, which got them to quartai, where they were able to get more info (or maybe even skip quartai altogether, tho thats smth else to deal with). so at this stage, crystal and skye’s sole contributions have been to kick the whole thing off. at best, skye mightve suggested they go to a smaller library than the Royal one, since, well, theyre already known to the royal one and the librarian likely tells them to stop bothering everyone and go back home (stay safe from kidnappers, etc). so Skye finding the path to the island, with all that light boy goodness, might work? crystals skillset can then come in handy when they travel to earth world, since she’s an earth mage. she can learn magic and possibly even learn about her heritage there. smth smth. depends how long theyre there.

idk. you can probably remove quartai from the mix altogether??? and have them go straight from Light World to heading south of the capital. does sorta remove the quartai buildup though? with the whole ‘youre the descendant of a runaway prince’ thing. since it justified crystal being removed from the group and likely the first person to find out about violet being a god, which can then feed to like. Shit. theres no other reason to separate out crystal and not, say, Skye. crystal and skye hold identical levels of relevance to thespecific kingdom theyre from. theyre commoners. crystal is in slightly higher regard because akian is practically a princess and even before that her family were good friends with the royals (because, yknow, Finley is a runaway prince who sought refuge in a neighbouring kingdom, lol). skye is just like, some guy, even though he lives in the palace too. theyre just commoners in high esteem of the king. so like, if you were going to separate Crystal out from the group for that, you should also take out Skye, which means in practice youre just chucking Will in a dungeon on his own. which just seems rude. the boy has suffered enough.

the idea was that bringing Crystal into Quartai, a place she has never been but that her father had once promised to take her to (which i can set up). and that by placing her in that environment, maybe even engineering a scenario where she is taken to the royal library (which i guess is like, a public library run by the royals? i dont know) and is spotted by Alara, who has been living in Quartai for the last year or so to gather intel. and, by the nature of how it is, theres royal paintings on the wall showing the late queen, Crystal’s grandmother, and theres an immediate visual connection. Crystal looks just like her dad. someone else (or alara, if it works) might even comment on her being new to quartai with a sort of ‘are you sure youve never been to quartai before? you look like you’d fit right in’ and it couldbe assumed as a personality thing. especially if in terms of personality, crystal doesnt appear to mesh with quartaian society at all. and if the line is by a character with no humour. which means Alara would actually be a perfect fit. it would be a genuine question and observation - Crystal looks Quartaian, whatever that means. while in quartai, they find out its connected to the earth goddess Elra, which helps convince them that they should maybe ask Elra for advice, since she seems like a goddess who has a lot of input and would know about goings on. crystal is then revealed to be an earth mage later (either southern isles or in the earth realm itself) which is like an Ooh boy. you could possibly hammer it further home by, if they DO meet Elra, her confusing Crystal for quartaian royalty. either by assuming she’s a specific Queen (her grandmother) or just a general ‘oh, youre a princess of quartai, then?’ ‘w- no?’ ‘oh? my apologies’. though if elra is going to notice any lineage she’s going to recognize the tall white haired youngster with piercing eyes and an overwhelming magical aura is the daughter of the goddess of fire. so. might distract her?i think it would be too on the nose for Elra to straight up call her out.

though i could definitely make Crystal not looking local a thing? because she’s not. culturally she is, but both of her parents are full blooded quartaians who fled across the border because Keiran (correctly) anticipated that him marrying a commoner wouldnt go down well. Akian and Crystal both look quartaian. but they also look nothing like Will, who is from another demographic also not native to the kingdom. but his demographic is more prevalent, like there are far larger communities of them. Akian and Crystal just look out of place. Skye technically has a sort of otherworldly quality, but thats partly because his dad fucked a ghost. i cant get over that. but he still looks local enough, because he looks like his mum! and aside from being a ghost of sorts, she was from that kingdom, just 200 years in the past. so theres been drift, and he does look slightly off relative to everyone else, but to an extent you can assume thats just an individual thing. especially since his family is unknown. Akian and Crystal’s parents are known. their apperance is familiar. and that appearance is distinctly foreign. theres no real PROBLEM with that, because theyre good friends with the royal family and have been living in or near them for their whole lives, but its notably. their specific complexion, hair colour, and eye colour? not common ‘round these parts. that sorta thing? could work??? especially if relations with quartai are sorta weird. like..... we’re cool....... but also dont move here? with the exception of Kieran, because the implication is that he’d been a lot friendlier than his mother (and his cousin) and when he comes knocking on the door going ‘listen man i just fled the country can i crash on your couch with my girlfriend for a few days’ the kings like ‘yea dude go ahead. you can explain tomorrow at breakfast. just us’ ‘thanks dude i really appreciate it’. maybe its a quartaian thing. not big fans on these guys. so they just stay in their place and dont leave much. people from this kingdom can come to quartai, sure....... you cant STAY for that long, but you can come visit.......... sure.

which, if quartai is kinda.... i guess just straight up racist??? xenophobic? one or both. if quartai is straight up racist, than crystal’s appearance as a fullblooded quartaian would be quite notable! because its like, oh, youre a local! wait, y- youre NOT a local????? what the fuck do you mean youre not a local????? from - from sp- ok. sure. alright whatever you say lady. move the fuck along then. people see this ragtag group with this one quartaian lady and assume, oh, a local with some friends from out of town. well, if thats the company they want to keep, sure. cause it looks almost correct. it almost makes sense. but then you hear her speak, in a distinctly non-quartaian accent, and its like ‘hold on a sec’ but then she’ll say some words with a quartaian twang, relating to adventure, and you have No idea how to process that. what. its wild. doesnt come across in raw text but, you know.

im sure i can roughly justify going o quartai. theyre a generally more spiritual kingdom, with prominent reverence in a specific goddess who is tied in with the geography and economy (Elra), and the royal family are supposedly her descendants on some level. theyd have more specific information about the gods, the history of their involvement in the world, some shit about Dalace (not in depth, tho, just that she took over at one point and it was a Bad time). it depends how much info they can get from light realm? i mean, they arent REALLY supposed to say much. they arent even really supposed to interact with the living. which does make you go 0>0 at Alexa. hot damn. willing to break big rules for some living dick. legendary.

i mean i feel like its better if they DO go to quartai, because it allows them to encounter Alara, who has basically bribed and conned her way into a position of power through some whack shit and has integrated into the community to get some of the Juicy Information. they can meet her in a safe environment and find that she’s weird, they can learn a bit about shit, crystal being quartaian can be emphasised in a sort of coy way (im a shit writer sooo it probably wouldnt read very coy lol) and there can even be some foreshadowing for Violet’s position as minor fire deity. since thats almost definitely what catches alara’s attention. a tall, light haired individual with burning green eyes and an implaceable aura? fascinating. but when Violet doesn’t catch any of Alara’s references (to like, the gods and shit), Alara assumes she’s mistaken and perhaps she’s just sensing a strange combined aura. its not till later in the earth realm, when they meet as protagonist vs antagonist, that she realizes no, she was right on the money the first time. because at this point in the story, the main cast have actually started using magic, and theyve already found that Violet’s use of magic is effortless. and with their magic unlocked, so to speak, violet’s aura is fucking incredible. none of the others can see it, with the possibly exception of either Will or Skye, depending which way dark/light fall re: seeing shit. but Alara is an incredibly well practiced mage and demigoddess, and she knows how to see it, and violet’s is intense. its unmistakeable. alara isnt 100% sure what if she recognizes the aura, for the simply fact that violet disappeared when they were 9 and alara hadnt learnt to see/feel aura at the time. but she thinks she knows what it means. shes confident that violet is some demigod. which god? unclear. until Violet throws a fireball at her and tells her to fuck off.

the only other possible ways for violet to be a fire demigod and NOT being the daughter of Ryaris, are for her to be the daughter of Xen (goddess of wind) OR be a distant descendant of Ryaris via her mortal parent, who is also her mother, and which might overrule the godly disciple of the godly parent. the latter is nigh impossible because Ryaris has only had two children to her knowledge, unless she blacked out during 200 years exile and accidentally boned down. she’s pretty sure she didnt, though. not that thats a topic that comes up, exactly. but ryaris only has two kids. Alara has no children, and Violet is not the right age to be the daughter of Alara’s sister. she is, however, the approximate age to BE Alara’s sister. so is sheactually, or is it cosmic coincidence that two demigods (the fire/wind twins and someone else) were born around the same time? who knows! alara has no idea. violet doesnt have a damn clue either. ita rough.

uhhh this got very lost VERY fast. uhhh tl;dr return the story to its original full fantasy setting (not urban/modern fantasy). akian is the girlfriend to the prince of a kingdom, with crystal being her sister. skye being in a weird state of being commoner but living with royalty, just like crystal. akian and the prince are kidnapped by Ryaris in order to force the kingdom into an awful ransom agreement whereby they will do a bunch of suspicious shit. crystal and skye believe they saw part of the kidnapping take place, and attempt to get information. after a bunch of the royal staff tell them to stop worrying and go home, they go find a non-royal library run by Dawn and her ‘niece’ Violet, who help them find some info. Violet, being very much in the know, hooks them up with Will, an adventurer and cartographer who is planning a visit to a portal he located north of the city. after a lot of negotiating/arguing, Will agrees to let the three of them come along, and off they go. a whole bunch of shit happens, involving a trip to neighbouring kingdom Quartai, where Crystal is treated strangely in relation to the party and they first meet Alara, posing as a foreign noble who takes an immediate interest in Violet.

more shit, they end up in some hidden magic isles south of the continent, which then leads them to the earth realm, where they seek an audience with the goddess of earth Elra, on how they can get an audience with Ryaris, goddess of fire, and most likely the kidnapper. more shit. alara appears again and they have a brief confrontation. that night, violet disappears. after failing to find her, they resolve to press onwards (leaving fucking missing persons signs all over this foreign land and even informing Elra about it). go to fire realm, get captured by Alara, who separates out Crystal in order to interrogate her about her lineage to confirm a suspicion she has that Crystal is long lost quartaian royalty (si). violet is brought in to help, much to their mutual distress, and then alara kicks violet out for just doing an awful job of forcing crystal to talk.violet then breaks everyone else out of jail, sends Akian and the prince home with some guards she trusts to take them back safely, and then they go rescue Crystal. final showdown with Alara. convince alara that Dalace, goddess of darkness, has been lying out her fucking ass the entire time and cant do anything she promised. alara reluctantly agrees to confront Ryaris about it. Ryaris admits thats all true and that she knew from the start Dalace was a lying piece of shit, but, i mean...... yknow....... your wife dies and you havent seen your daughter in over a decade........ white lies are nice. also alara was the one who got sucked in. its complicated.

then they go ‘aight time to fuck with dalace’ and then i have no idea. probably all the goddesses (who theyve met throughout the story) come and tell dalace to stop being a cunt? roll credits.

#story blogging #echo child #long post #well whoops #thats uhhhhh8 hours of fun #i didnt mean for that to happen but i wasmultitasking and just sorta..... kept plugging away i guess

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el-javi · 6 years

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-soooooo, remember when you bought that lace robe for her?- -ye- -and then you expended all the money you had on a trip that was supossed to...- -... ye, like if that relationship could have been saved by chocolates and nature.- -could it?- -maybe, if I was more open, more brave. Maybe if I had believed on the love and stuff- -well but, after that didn’t she when ahead with her plan to travel far away to that guy’s house?- -yeah welll, I really fuckt up the trip. like... that argument when we where walking on the road to town, really getting to town actually. Why did I lost it? I mean, I remember that what pushed me over the edge was something she sayd... was she the one to get mad first? Well anyway, that feeling man, that impotence feeling of inadequacy, I remember feeling that. That I wasn’t enough, that the real reason she was mad at me was something inside me. but don’t remember if she was mad first. I remember we fotographed a bunch of red flowers, I don’t remember who took it, but I feel like it was something we did together. That’s some intimate thing right, creating something toguether right, and the fight happened right after that, like really close. All of our bad feelings where on the sleeve, ready to burst, and they did.- -riiiiiiight. remember being worried when she was away?- -yes- -remember figuring out trough instagram that she was in a relationship with that guy?- -yes- -did you cry?- -I don’t remember. I did that joke post on instagram. “Peteca holder”- -yeah, but, was it funny?- -no. I felt like I has a hole in my heart. but at that point I was convinced, in my most rational side of the brain, that we couldn’t be toguether... I was convinced that that relationship was utter madness. And I remember being afraid, afraid of doing something, afraid of those loop arguments that when’t on and on and on, always escalating to the point of violence and more.- -I remember what happened next, but I wanna hear you say it.- -you are a sadic fuck. you know that right?- -well... more on the side of masochist ;) - -fuck you- -you are welcome. c’mon now.- -fine. I don’t remember how I figured out she was back in town. I remember to be terrifyed by the thought of never seeing her again. I don’t remember if I told her before hand. I musn’t hve done that because I remember arriving at her building and the doorman was ready to just let me go straight up but I knew that the right thing to do was ask the doorman to call her, and that was what I did. I remember waiting, I remember how tense and anxious I was. I remember her. She had something on with a pattern of tiny flowers, 2 to 4 colors. And she had this face, this look in her eyes. She seemed not exactly happy to see me, but happy to see how clear it was that I still wanted her badly. I was addicted man.- -keep going- -well, we had a moment right there in the building tiny lobby and she invited my to go up. she told me she had talked to her friend that was my other ex. I remember being mad at some of the stuff, like she distorted the whole debt story to seem like the money I send her when she was in bad spot in germany was part of it... and how creepy it was my “Find the Panda” post. It was weird at the time, that was one of the signs that we, me and panda lived in a very small world and people could never understand how it was inside... fuck we didn’t understand it either.- -you are drifting and I have a point to make- -do you?- -you hope so right? so keep going- -I don’t think we fucked that time. she was commited to be faithfull to her new boyfriend, but... you know. After that we still slept together a lot, even if we didn’t fuckt. She let me touch her, I masturbated so sickly by her side, that bothered her. I was so insane. I remember masturbating her too, I remember her block to cum, even when she did it wasn’t the same, we weren’t the same, the single one tima that we got close to feel something like our sex used to be was one time that I was doing a massage, she was naked... or just didn’t have pants or panties, I was only in my underwear. She was lying face down on the bed, me sitting on her legs with my hips touching her butt and we started rubbing. Fuck that was so hot, the rubbing got more intense, she was mooving a lot too, we had this rithm that was like it belogued to the core of our being, that kind of shit allways made me believe in something else like souls and shit- -don’t drift- -yeah so, my dick entered her pussy and we had a couple of pumps, I swear I didn’t touch my dick... you know that shit happened with her. how magnetic we where...- -so you fuckt- -not really, we stopped, she stopped.I remember that moment that we where sitting on the bed, still hard and wet, looking at eachother amazed with how it got inside like my dick and her pussy had minds of their own- -I know you want to jump to the carnaval bit, but wasn’t there something else?- -yeah, I don’t remember if this was before the carnaval... I think it was because I remember that girl calling me to the street blocos. So, I still used tinder in my work, and there was this girland we where talking. I’m not sure if it was before Carnaval when she was still dating the squid guy of afterwards during the whole “we are secret boyfriend and girlfriend thing because everyone knows you are a monster and an agressor”- -wich is true by the way- -yes... “thank you” for reminding me. you never fail at that, but where the fuck are before I do shit?- -don’t use misguided anger to escape this, keep going- -ok that fact of the matter is that I wanted her, I wanted us. but to me it was clear that “us” where dead, and had been dead for a long ass time. But I just couldn’t stay way for too long. Even after escaping her building throug the stairs, even after those calls filled with anger and violence, even after all the times I cheated, the times I try to fall in love with someone else, anyone, I... just needed her skin, her legs on my legs. I kept going back, just to sleep. just to touch her and masturbate by her side, touching her, she pretended to sleep, she didn’t liked it we keept doing it I kept going back- -why is the story of the last tinder girl you technically cheated her with important?- -because if it was during the secret relationship it was some sort of betrayal- -why some sort?- -because she had guys too, that’s how the qotsa fan came into the picture- -but why was it a betrayal at all?- -because I sayd that I wouldn’t be with anybody else. It was suposed to be like a therm to our relationship. Open for her and not for me. A punishment for me...- -Yes, an unfair way to make thing fair. And who suggested that?- -It was me. Like a bad deal make just to get a design job, unthought and careless. A desperate desition. because I really.... I knew how deep she was inside me and I by that time I also had felt the pain that it was trying to take her away from there.- -I want you to think about how that desition, that therm of engagement made you feel and the fact that she agreed to it. Now, how was that carnaval like and what happened afterwards? Try to tell this in one go.- -Ok, fuck. So, the sqid dude was going to spend carnaval with her, it would be something she would really like because she hates carnaval and they could get away from it all and be alone at her mama’s house by the beach.- ... -ok you just took a fucking bath and kept talking to me in there, but shit need to be here, so keep going, - -I spent the Carnaval doing some art for her, I planned to leave it all at her building as a goodbye. I did the pieces as a way to try to train myself to be without her, I was sure she was going for the long run with the squid guy because of all the time we could have had sex and we didn’t, of how distant she was... by the way, why the fuck did she keept welcoming me into her house? She called me at lot of times to do so like.... “are ou coming here?” I don’t remember if she ever sayd she loved me that time before carnaval, I wan’t to think she did but I feel like she didn’t.- -You are drifting- -FUck! Ok. soI only wnet out once during the carnaval, to a party that had commition me their advertising and... I invited them, I send the squid guy a message, later she told me they saw it after the party had happened, she didn’t say anything else.- -How was that party- -It was weird... I jumpt at the sea, and that was fun. I drank a lot like a hell of a lot. I remember trying to get it on with one girl, but just a bit, it didn’t happen, I didn’t care. I cryied with this other girl, unknown, who had a boyfriend. I told her the stuff, the aggressions (later on she and her boyfriend added me in social media and the dude even wanted to commision some work. I I wasn’t feeling it by then). I also talked to a man that ended up being a teacher of pda’s friend and telling him about the aggresions I did.- -Is that all she is to you now... “pda’s friend”?- -You know I love her too- -But not like you do pda- -No- -Because what?- -Because I’m a fucking animal that listen only to instint. I love pda in that primal way. The monkey in me wants her, wants her for himself... i dunno. I know the whole “animal” thing is sort of a nerd fantasy- -your whole life is a nerd fantasy. Keep up with the main story- -Ok so, the pieces ended up sucking a lot. I did this drawing of her that she hated. I tryed to make it in a crumb cartoon style but it came up all wrong. Anyway, strangely enough, just as I finished the work and wrote a stupid e-mail where I imagined a perfect future for her, where she was happy with the squid guy... And I had this feeling that it was finaly over, and was feeling sad and weird as fuck.... Well she called me. or texted? I think she texted. She was going to go back to her mama’s house by the beach by bus and she was inviting me to jump on the same bus, to be with her... wtf right?- -Yeah... that was definetively a wtf moment. And what did you do?- - I went. I didn’t know how to feel. But it seemed she was guiving an other chance. something like that. At the bus she was sooooo scared to be seen with me. Not because she was tecnically cheating on the squid but because it was, the monster. She feared for her reputation. At the bus she told me what happened. She was basically sick of the guy. At her mama’s house we read my e-mail that was very pathetic at the start but by the end she got wat I was trying to do and she actually liked it because... I kindda nailed or at least got very close to what she would concider a very happy life. Then i picked up dog shit in the yard. I felt used, a lot. then we ate something, I think she coocked. Then we watched some tv. We where toguether but kindda distant, then her mom called saying she was getting home and she jumped as she, well seemed like, remembered that she wanted to fuck at her mom’s bed. The fuck was kindda wild, very hurry, she got her period right there and as I pulled my dick to cum a small splat of blood stained the bed covers. Mom got home, we put the bed covers to wash and went to pda’s home. We where making plans of how we could make it work. The main problem was getting seing toguether. How could I redeem myself of all the aggressions, the cheating, to her and to her friend. DUring that I always felt she was more concerned about her image. But I saw her strugling with the fact tha she wanted me... or at least she thought that she wanted me...- -Don’t lie, what did you really feel- -We where fighting constantly, and I always felt that all she wanted to do was punish me.- -Do you think this was fair- -Yes. I did and do deserve it.- -You think she posted that pic with the lace robe to make you feel like shit.- -I hope so. I hope she reads this- -Tell me more about the “secret relationship”- -We where fighting every week. I don’t know how long it lasted until she started to get with the qotsa fan.- -Tell me about the last tinder girl. that night that you don’t remember if it was before carnaval or during the “secret relationship”- -well, I remember being very horny for the pictures, and remember of a specific night that, because of the way things where going, I thought like I would be sexting with the last tinder girl. but she called me to her house. We didn’t fuck, I remember we where supose to sleep but evrything felt wrong. I didn’t wanted to be there, I didn’t wanted to love pda the way I did. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like a was in a prision made of silky vapor that gave me so much pleasure but I was sure it was a prision. I wanted to escape it, so I got out of the bed and sitted in the middle of her room. She woke up because I wasn’t at her side and called me, talked to me... like she knew I was on some weird place in my mind and I saw her like I had seen so many time before, desperate to have the power to save me from my psychosis but she didn’t. the evil and the self-destruction in me was to strong and my real fear is that it still is.- -You want her to read this?- -Yes- -Why is it in english. I know that by now you are super into sending her the link to this post or transcribe it into an e-mail... Why is this in english? Why you wanna do this, what do you think it will happen? She will only feel invaded man. Don’t do it.- -What am I supposed to say?- -That you won’t do it. That you wont seek her. Because she just broke up, she is emotionally instable right now. It is clear that she wasn’t the one who broke up. You contacting her now is a coward move. You are thinking now that all the times you cheated her and her friend was because you where frustrated, you felt impotent because you didn’t make enough money. How the fuck has that change? It has gotten worse right? So don’t. Just don’t do it.- -So I just post it here- -I don’t think even that is a good idea cause you are going to obsess about it. Is an other reason to stalk her looking for something that will not happen. That shouldn’t happen. That if it happens is going to be a fucking disgrace. I know you are going to post it anyway because you are sick AND you are an asshole so... ok I’ll say what you want me to say so you’ll have your little ending to this shit. “So Javier, any last words?”- -Yes, I miss sleeping with her more than anything. And her tits, I really really missher tits.- -Fucking asshole man-

#fucking love #pandaporfavor #panda #insanity #dialogue #love

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