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thelaughtercafe · 3 months

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Makoto, Byakuya, Nagito, Hajime and Fuyuhiko figuring out you're ticklish

Tea Type: Rose Boba

Potential Triggers: N/A

Pairing: Makoto/F! Reader, Byakuya/F! Reader, Nagito/F! Reader, Hajime/F! Reader

Length: 1.1k+

Summary: N/A

Makoto Naegi:

Save this pure boy.

He just wanted a cuddle dammit-

He didn’t expect you to lurch halfway across the room when he squeezed around your middle.

Becomes pouty and timidly asks if he did something wrong.

You can’t say no to his puppy dog eyes and shyly explain that you’re just ticklish.

Immediately cheers up.

“Aw that’s all it was? You had me worried!”

Wiggles his fingers playfully at you and his grin is a little too mischievous for your liking.

“Maybe we can figure out where else you’re ticklish…we gotta be thorough after all.”

Don’t forget the fact that Makoto is a big brother. They’re always master lers in my head. And mean.

Don’t provoke the hope boi.

Byakuya Togami:

He knew before you even told him honestly.

Caught your flinch when Hina hugged you from behind and didn’t think much of it until you were already dating.

You were ranting about something and he’d been half listening, half reading his book and stroking your hair absentmindedly when you squealed as his fingertips gently brushed across your neck.

Gave a small hum as he saw how red you became, causing him to roll his eyes.

“No need to be embarrassed, dummy. It’s perfectly natural to be ticklish. It’s a tactic from evolution that we got over time. Probably from when we were still cave people and afraid of poisonous bugs. Now though it’s more a way to either facilitate mating or bonding in general due to the release of endorphins.”

From then on incorporates tickling more in an attempt to get you used to it.

And maybe to initiate that bonding too.

Nagito Komaeda:

Thinks he’s not worthy of touching you so makes an active effort to not touch others.

Which leads to touch starvation.

Ironically, despite that sweet facade- gets jealous easily.

He is…nearly possessive, despite keeping a distance

So when he spots Hajime making you laugh and his keen eyes also pick up the way you arch into his touch-

He’s ashamed to say he wants to do that too.

But not just to anyone.

To you.

Tries to fight it for a while before he can no longer bear keeping his distance, or you burst into tears after a particularly cruel comment he’s made.

He can’t do this anymore. He just can’t. Luck cycle be damned. If he has to keep you attached to him at all times to make sure whatever happens to you happens to him too?

So be it.

Even after everything is out in the open and you trust him and encourage him constantly he still is a little apprehensive with touching and just holds your hand.

Whether or not you’re dealing with touch starvation yourself you may if you start dating Nagito at first.

But that all changes when he sees Fuyuhiko find out.

You’d always been unafraid of the Yakuza heir so there was a kind of rivalry filled friendship there. It was playful, and when Fuyuhiko’s face lights up with a smirk and Nagito sees the embarrassed blush on your cheeks and the way you’re getting shy, turning to mush-

Oh.

He’s already hovering over Fuyuhiko and smiling a little too wildly as he mentions Peko being flirted with by Teruteru.

You had your suspicions but when he turned and you saw the intensity swirling in his eyes…

“Did…Are you jealous, Nagito?”

Your breath catches as he backs you up against the wall Fuyuhiko had been leaning on moments before, making your face heat.

This was a different side to him.

You still couldn’t bring yourself to break eye contact though.

“I know someone as awful as me shouldn’t have the right to touch you but I-”

Annnnnd he was back to his old self.

Fed up with his self-deprecation and also getting a little desperate you roughly grabbed his hands and tugged them toward your sides with pleading eyes.

A small smirk tugged at his lips at the action and he lightly fluttered his fingers underneath your shirt, making you instinctively squeak at the coldness of his fingers as well as the tickling before you tried to squirm in his grip. And then he teased.

“Hm? What’s wrong baby? I thought you were all desperate for me to tickle you…why are you struggling?”

It wasn’t much…but it was a start.

Hajime Hinata:

Observant boi!!

Calls it out the second it happens with too much nonchalance.

“Oh sorry, didn’t mean to tickle you; I just needed to grab my drink.”

When you tease him for his love of orange juice he smirks a little and

sets his drink down with purpose before approaching and scribbling your sides.

“If you wanted me to continue, you could’ve just asked nicely you know. Now I have to punish you~”

Does this adorable evil laugh before continuing to play around with you until you’re a panting mess.

Leaves you on the floor as he nonchalantly sips at his juice and pretends he doesn’t notice the cherry red blush on your face.

Absolutely files the information away for later.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu:

Baby gangsta is not the type to initiate physical contact, even once you’ve started dating.

At least not in public.

He’s the Ultimate Yakuza after all; like Hell is he risking your life just to show PDA.

If shown with affection he tends to curse and go red, especially in public. Even little things like holding his hand or sneaking a peck on the cheek.

In private it’s a little better he typically will just grumble but begrudgingly return it in his own way.

He starts gradually letting you when surrounded by your close friends which is what leads to him finding out.

Another big brother, but with a very different dynamic than Makoto with Komaru.

Fuyuhiko actually ends up getting tickled first, by his sister, and you find yourself face to face with a seemingly enraged yakuza heir when you let a giggle slip.

Big mistake.

“You think that’s funny do you?”

His sneer turns to a familiar smirk and your heart skips a beat as he easily overpowers you, raising your arms with one hand before he claws your tummy and his sister joins in as she gets your underarms.

You don’t stand a chance.

Have fun dying.

Uses it to make you smile and/or fuck with you from then on.

As a treat after a hard day.

Or to remind himself you’re alive and with him and he’s got you when the nightmares make him awake with a scream instinctively muffled by his hand.

And if you notice the tear streaks when you awake with a scream of laughter you certainly don’t say anything.

Besides, you’ll have matching ones by the time he’s done with you.

He’s lucky you love him so much.

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stevenbasic · 1 year

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GITJ Post 310: Back to the Study Clinics, p2

Karina Katasova, APRN, CANS, known around the office as “Karen” (but AKA Agent KLCTVxx0038цч/0FHMA007 or Subj F000025a-KK depending on to whom you’re talking) put on her mask and readied herself to step in and see her first subject of the morning. Bates, Thalia: nineteen years of age, the daughter of an American senator from the US state of Minnesota. Karina had worked with this girl before, at this clinical site once and several times in the Department of Psychosocial Engineering at Evolution Pharmaceuticals. She’d been taking to treatment nicely, and was weaponizing well.

Stupid man is in there by himself already, she spoke to herself, frustrated and exasperated as she adjusted her bra, settling her full bosom in her newly too-tight blouse, alone. What’s worse is that she heard them interacting, through the door, slightly ajar. “I’ve put on another 20 pounds doctor,” Karina heard the girl’s voice speaking, “can you tell me where it’s all going?”

‘Karen’ knocked once, waited a brief moment, then opened the door to the exam room. “Doctor, sorry I’m late b-…” she intoned before trailing off, the sight of her erstwhile “boss's” head being absolutely swallowed, engulfed by their mutual patient’s enormous bosom, taking Karina momentarily by surprise.

I warn him, we all warn him many times - need mask! she immediately thought, protective in her own way of him, one of her assets on this assignment. She stepped hurriedly in towards the supply cabinet over the sink. But he is stupid man. Should follow protocol if he know what good for him.

This girl, Thalia, Product Study #F8-021-TB, was typical of the several teenagers enrolled in this pre-rollout of Product: imprudent, incautious, impetuous. Perhaps because of their active, still-pubescent hormone profiles, girls of this age were taking very strongly to treatment, seeing fast, dramatic results that outpaced others. Pheromone levels were invariably off the charts, which excited the executives and other movement leaders. But these girls also tended to be reckless and soon after starting treatment they all began to follow similar patterns of impulsive behavior. They needed handling, sometimes closely. They were a handful but Karina, and others from the Department of Psychosocial Engineering, found them fascinating. And, most thrilling, they were certainly powerful. In what was already being called the Battle of the Sexes by some (while many remained oblivious to what was happening right in front of their faces) the teens would make great weapons.

Karina knew that Study Subject #F8-021-TB was no exception.

Exasperated again, Karen found that, when she opened the cabinet, all the masks embedded with synthetic Patient 0 pheromones were gone. “These rooms need stocking every morning…” she muttered to herself, shutting the cabinet in new frustration and knowing neither of the other two people in the room with her were listening. The Bates patient had intentionally flooded the room with pheromones and was now too busy blithely embosoming the middle-aged man kneeling on the ground in front of her, and Dr. J was, well, too busy being embosomed. Karen had heard the doctor say, at one point last week, that he had ‘concerns about how young some of these study subjects are,’ but he was not looking very concerned at the moment, buried to the ears. In fact, he looked ready to pass out.

Karina placed her hands on her shapely hips and, with a wry look of disapproval, addressed her young patient. “Thalia…” she began, “you know we’ve talked about this….”

“What..?” the girl answered, looking up from her seat but not releasing her arms from around the poor man’s head. His face was absolutely disappeared between her inflated breasts, the thin tee that this place used as gowns for some of these patients the only thing separating him from skin that was currently releasing pheromones of apocalyptic levels. “He’s just listening to my heartbeat…”

The doctor, who was necessary for the particular governmental requirements of this sham of a study, mostly for his signature, did not move. His arms laid limply at his sides. Karen took the moment to regard him, regard the room - which some of the silly young girls who worked here had taken to decorating like a teenager’s bedroom, complete with hanging plastic vines. She had to admit that seeing a small man like the doctor being overwhelmed and enveloped so effortlessly by a young female was thrilling.

She looked now again at her patient. Thalia had taken to smiling beatifically again, down at her little charge with a delicate smirk. She held him firmly to her breasts, his face caught between twin pillows that were easily larger than his head, and was trying to push him deeper, to completely hide him from sight. It was almost like Thalia wanted to engulf him, to make him disappear completely into her curves. Peklo, I would like to smother man too, Karen thought, momentarily overcome by desires that seemed, recently, to be building in frequency and potency. She understood where they came from, these prion-mediated impulses, but was still sometimes surprised by them.

Thalia, for her part, was looking down at the precious little doctor, held fast to her chest. She marveled at her own size, the way her tits just devoured his head. Karina heard her speaking, softly, almost to herself. “I’m so much bigger than I was when this whole trial started…” Thalia was saying, “Isn’t that right, my little boob-monkey? Bigger, bigger, bigger. Mmmm…boob-monkeys…all of you… gonna love losing yourselves in these…nnnn…”

And the doctor, for his part, seemed completely overcome, not putting forth even a ghost of a struggle despite the frankly life-threatening predicament he was in. Karina was tempted, so very tempted to do nothing, to watch this young, budding queen exercise her control and authority over this little man. But, she couldn’t ignore how purple the tips of his ears were becoming, and if he was actually harmed there would be a lot of paperwork to do. With a sigh, she cleared her throat, perhaps a little too loudly.

“Do I really need to let him go?” Thalia whined, sounding suddenly younger than her eighteen years.

“Yes, Thalia, for now,” Karen replied, evenly, hands still on hips.

With a petulant little “hmph” Thalia released the doctor, who fell back on his knees, catching himself with one hand to the ground. He was breathing hard, gasping for air, his face rapidly shifting from purple to a deep, embarrassed crimson.

“You okay, doc?” Karen asked, fighting to keep the amusement from her voice as he looked up at her in surprise, shocked to see her in the room with them, “Do you need a minute?”

The doctor muttered something, obviously confused and bewildered.

“Why don’t you step out, go get the cup of the coffee?” Karen suggested, dropping her voice naturally into the deeper, richer timbre she used with her patients, activating her laryngeal implant. She watched his face change, become both entirely focused on her and transfixed on another level. After years of training and some help from her own arcanely supplemented physiology, her suggestions could be nigh impossible to refuse, if she so desired. “In the breakroom? Down the hall?” she purred, “Wouldn’t that be the nice?”

“Y-yeah…just n-need to…er…coffee, breakroom…” he stammered, standing. Karen helped him, steadying him with a sure hand before sending him on his way on wobbly legs. He was compromised, and would be useless for a while.

“Go,” Karen commanded, and he immediately complied. The playful giggle of Thalia’s sing-song laughter chased him from the room.

The two women shared a silent moment, each in their own thoughts. “You’re about to use those Jedi-mind tricks on me, now, aren’t you?” Thalia eventually asked, looking up at Karen with an expectant smile.

Karina Katasova, APRN, smiled herself and pulled over the room’s rolling exam stool. “Yes, is that okay?” she asked.

“Omigod I can’t wait…” the young patient exclaimed, sitting up straight and leaning forward, ready for her treatment…

==============================================

Thanks to CaptainAmbiguous for his help/co-writing on this scene, and to model Tally Berry for allowing us to use her image; support her on OnlyFans if you can.

My Patreon

#growing into the job

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lampmanliveblogs · 8 months

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The impending disaster is delayed by the rest of the kids going places, doing stuff, beginning by asking around in this quaint little shop. I do like the ”Ghosts will haunt shoplifters” sign. I also spied another Hexas Holdem’ cameo on a table. Just how many of those bloody things did Eda dump in the Human Realm? Or maybe those are unmagical replicas, since the ones Jacob gave away became popular.

Anyways, moving on to this shot, I do notice Gus looking through that barrel of gems. Heh, gems in Gravesfield. I bet that doesn’t happen often. I bet there aren’t a whole lot of teenage criminal masterminds running around there either.

Also, that is a Ness costume to the left there on the wall. Which makes me think the other two ones are references as well, hm… I wanna say the witch costume on the right is from… Little Witch Academia?

I just looked it up, and yup, that’s totally Little Witch Academia. That leaves the middle one, which I have no idea what it could be a reference to. I’m not even sure if that’s a bow, or cat ears. Or maybe this is a Blake Belladonna situation, and it’s actually both.

Oh, and the shop is called The Magic Circle. Insert Engelsfors Trilogy reference here:____________________________.

Oh, now this is a beautiful frame to accidentally pause on. I just had to include it.

That candy that looks like it’s levitating. Willow looking like she’s about to tip backwards. Vee psyching herself up before a boxing match. The librarian experiencing some Grade A secondhand embarrassment. The girl with the Batman logo on her shirt. Amity faceplanting for the second time this episode. Seriously, that can not be good for your face Mittens.

But hey, let’s look on the bright side. Now Hunter and Amity have something else to bond over: facial scar and a broken nose respectively.

And while I’m paused: I also love Willow paying for the costume with a snail, like she’s Pippi Longstocking with her gold coins.

Willow & Gus also both take notice of the statues of the Wittebane brothers. They exchange knowing glances, both of them undoubtedly seeing the resemblance to Hunter… though at this point only Gus has the pieces to begin putting the puzzle together.

And thus one of the shows longest running gags comes to full circle as we finally see one of these demonic giraffes that much fuzz has been made about. Honestly? I don’t see what it was about, the fuzz. This looks fairly normal by Demon Realm standard. Unless the giraffe people were known for being unusually brutal and violent, I’m not sure why the kids are so spooked by this.

I do love this though, because giraffes have obviously been around on Earth long enough to be considered normal animals by humans. And surely someone somewhere at some point would realize that ”Oh shit, these long necked creatures can unfold their faces. That’s weird.”

Even if giraffes don’t do it in front of humans, surely someone dissecting a giraffe would find it. This leads me to believe that yes, it’s weird, but still considered to be an as of yet unexplained quirk in an others normal an unmagical animal.

It was at this point I went on a long tangent about evolution and biology, and I cut that out because this post is long enough as is. Let’s just say that giraffe taxonomy would be a huge pain for scientists in this universe to figure out.

Called it.

I do believe I said so even as far back as Yesterday’s Lie that we would return back to the Gravesfield Historical Society. I also believe I said I dreaded seeing Jacob Hopkins again, for obvious reasons. Though based on the sign, we might be spared that unpleasantness. Good, Philip is already sneaking around, and one crazy person is enough for this episode.

I’m assuming the previous managers of the Gravesfield Historical Society came back from their vacation, found the crazy man who had broken into the building while they were away, and called the police on him.

Even though this is a shot from behind, you can clearly see Vee looking nervous and uncomfortable, and of course she’d be. The last time she stepped foot (eh… tail?) inside this building, all her worst nightmares came true, all at once. She was captured and put back inside a cage. She was going to be cut open and killed by a madman. Her cover was blown to Camila. All in all, it was a rather stressful thirty minutes or so she had in there.

Ey, it’s the fortune teller from Yesterday’s Lie! Based on a comment or two I got, I had a sneaking suspicion they’d appear again, and would you look at that, I was right. It sure feels good.

And not to toot my own horn too much, but the nickanme I gave them back in Yesterday’s Lie was Mira. Which has the same first letter (M), same last letter (a), and the same number of syllables (2) as Masha’s real name. Which might not sound all that impressive, but try guessing the first and last letter, as well as the number of syllables in my (real) name. If any of you are correct, I’ll… be very scared.

So, are you the new new management here, Masha? I’d think not, since, well… you’re what, fourteen? Fifteen, maybe? I know Jacob didn’t set the bar high, but you know it’s a sad state of affairs when an actual child makes for a better manager at a historical society than a grown adult man.

#the owl house #liveblog #the owl house liveblog #toh s3e1 #thanks to them

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promptfighter · 10 months

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Digimon frontier prompt: Tommy playing with some Digimon children as Kumamon. The kids needed some time to have fun as Digimon without having to be fighting.

Playdate at the school

Why they were back at the school Izumi and Junpei had saved they couldn’t figure out, but back at it they were. Junpei and Izumi found Togemon and quickly fell into an excited discussion with her, with some of the kids she was taking care of joining in. Bokomon found a soft spot in the grass and sat down, pulled out his history book and read out loud to a few of the kids who wanted to listen. History wasn’t everyone’s big interest though. At least not Tomoki’s, and he saw a few of the kids roll their eyes and shuffle away to play instead. Tomoki followed them, and then Takuya showed up with a football he had found near the building. One minute later the group had split into two groups, Tomoki in one and Takuya in the other. Football. Kouji shook his head when he saw it and left, sat down at the back of the building were Neemon had already taken cover and fallen asleep.

Tomoki laughed where he was running after the ball. This was nice. Fun. Like a normal day, playing games with friends and enjoying the freedom after school. Even if the friends this time happened to be heads with tails bouncing on the ground.

...The digital world was weird when he stopped to think about it. So he didn’t.

The sky was free from clouds and the sun shone bright and hot over them. It traveled quickly across the sky, reaching noon way too soon in Tomoki’s opinion. Everyone was getting warm. He saw Izumi sit down in the shade, where Bokomon and their group of kids had already retreated to. He could hear her talk, maybe she was telling them stories from the human world. Junpei was sitting in the doorway, showing off his tricks to Upamon and Yaamon. Kouji and Neemon were probably still hiding behind the school.

Tomoki stopped running, put his hands against his knees and crouched. He was so hot. Absolutely melting. Sweat ran down the side of his face. Takuya stopped as well, dried the sweat of his forehead. Tomoki almost considered suggesting a short break. For lunch or something.

One of the kids, Kapurimon, tackled Takuya, took the ball from him. The other laughed, ran after him, and the game continued. But the heat from the sun was getting to them, they moved slower, missed more shots.

Wait. The heat. Tomoki stopped, looked towards the sun. He could do something about that! He was the warrior of ice! He grabbed his digivice.

”Wait, I’ll show you all something cool.”

Digicode appeared around his hand. He dragged his digivice over it, scanned the code.

”Spirit Evolution!”

Data pulled at his body, changed it. Made it rounder, softer, squishier. The world around him felt hotter, but he was cold, he was winter.

”Chackmon!”

The kids stared at him, eyes wide. Chackmon grinned, put his hands at his sides and stretched his back.

”Betcha never saw anything like that before, ey?” Chackmon asked.

Yaamon rolled their eyes.

”Tsunomon also evolved, you’re nothing special.”

Chackmon fell over. Brutally murdered by a baby. Junpei stopped in the middle of whatever trick he had been doing and looked around.

”Where is Tsunomon? I was hoping to see him.”

”He left”, Togemon said.

She stood up and started herding the kids towards the building again. Some of them snuck away when she looked at Junpei. Junpei’s shoulders fell.

”No one stays here for long after they’ve digivolved”, Togemon continued. ”The school’s too small for them.”

”Aww…”

Izumi looked up from Bokomon’s book, tilted her head. Bokomon grabbed the book and put it back in their haramaki.

”It makes sense”, Izumi said. ”Just like how we move to different schools when we age. Imagine being stuck in kindergarden until you’re 18 and need to get a job.”

Takuya kicked the football into one of the goals they had put up. It hit a tree and flew back into the playing field.

”When I’m 18 I’m already famous and living in Italy, playing football for the national team”, Takuya said.

Junpei turned towards him while putting the handkerchiefs back into his pockets.

”Why not Japan?” Junpei asked.

Chackmon sat up again, looked between them. This hadn’t quite gone to plan. He grabbed his snowball canon, looked at it instead. Upamon and Motimon bounced closer to him, probably wondering what it was. Takuya put a foot on the ball and grinned.

”Because Italy has the best football players in the world and I will be the best of them all.”

”You’re an idiot”, Kouji said.

Takuya whipped around, glared at Kouji, who had probably gotten attracted by the discussion.

”Why don’t you say that to my face?!”

”Fine.”

Kouji walked over and crossed his arms over his chest. The whole situation was so… normal.

”You’re an idiot”, Kouji said.

Chackmon pelted him with a snowball. The kids laughed around them and Chackmon fired another snowball on Kouji. Takuya laughed as well. Kouji shivered, turned around and glared at Chackmon instead. Chackmon jumped back onto his feet, snow fell around him. The air felt a lot cooler. Everyone laughed around him, and Chackmon felt envigorated. He fired a snowball at Takuya, hit his shoulder. Takuya laughed, grabbed some snow from the ground and threw a ball right back at Chackmon, almost hit his hat off.

The kids jumped in excitement. Kouji grabbed a handful of snow and shoved it straight down Takuya’s t-shirt. A shiver ran through Takuya’s body and Chackmon laughed. Got on his skiis, snowball gun in hand. He went circles around the group, fired at all of them. Snow spread as he moved. The kids scooped it up with their tails, tried to throw it back and hit Chackmon. But Chackmon was quick on his skiis and easily slalomed between the balls, fired back when he had a shot. Junpei and Izumi joined the snowball fight as well. Everyone against Chackmon.

Perhaps it was a bit unfair. They didn’t have much of a chance against the warrior of ice.

The kids gathered up a bunch of snowballs, threw them into the air. Nyaromon jumped after them, spun around in the air.

”Galactica magnum tail!” they yelled.

More balls than Chackmon could evade flew through the air. Knocked him off his skiis and buried him. He laughed.

”Victory!” the kids yelled around him.

They jumped in joy. Chackmon sat up, shook the snow off himself. He was ready for another round. Izumi laughed, then leaned down and started rolling a bigger snowball. Kouji dusted snow off himself and joined her. Nyaromon looked at them.

”What are we doing now?” they asked.

Izumi smiled.

”A snowmon”, she said.

Nyaromon tilted to the side, their tail raised slightly. Chackmon got up on his feet and stepped closer.

”What’s a snowmon?” Nyaromon asked.

Izumi looked towards the sky, thought for a few seconds. The kids bounced closer as well.

”It’s a digimon made from snow”, Izumi explain.

Chackmon grinned at that, posed infront of them. If anyone was a snowmon…

”You’ve got the perfect model here!” he said.

Junpei shoved him over with a laugh. The snow was soft under him. Winter was the best time of year, no argument. He watched as Junpei leaned down to make his own big snowball to help Izumi.

Hands grabbed Chackmon from behind, lifted him into the air. He twisted, tried to break free. The hands were warm.

”I’ll make a perfect snowmon of you, little brother”, Takuya said.

”I’ll turn you into a snowmon”, Chakmon laughed.

He grabbed his snowgun again and buried Takuya in snowballs. Takuya was stuck, couldn’t move even an inch. Chackmon laughed. The kids saw it and started piling even more snow on Takuya, shaped him into a big snowball. Gave him a tail and ears. This was great, Chackmon thought, they should have a snowday together when they got back to the human world again.

Kouji stretched, returned to the tree where Neemon was still sleeping and sat down under it again. Too cool for winter, probably. A couple of the kids joined Kouji and Neemon, fell asleep right next to them. How were they already tired?

Takuya got free from the snowpile, tackled Chackmon. Chackmon grabbed a handfull of snow and pressed into Takuya’s face and Takuya answered by shoving him, throwing snowballs as he went. Chackmon curled up, launched himself towards Takuya. Crashed into him and then they crashed right through the snowmon Izumi and Junpei had done. Izumi grabbed Takuya and shoved a handfull of snow under his shirt. Takuya shivered violently.

”What was that for?!” he yelled.

Izumi glared, her eyes hard and angry. She put her hands to her sides. Chackmon almost felt scared, despite Izumi only being a fragile human at the moment.

”We work hard on that!”

Takuya crossed his arms over his chest and turned his back to her. How he dared Chackmon couldn’t tell.

”It will melt the moment Tomoki returns to normal anyway”, Takuya said.

He had a tone of voice that made even Chackmon feel annoyed and overlooked. Izumi grabbed Takuya’s shirt, stuffed another handfull of snow into it before stomping away. Junpei and another couple of kids followed. Motimon and Wanyamon stayed behind, but were starting to look tired as well. Takuya rolled his eyes, then stalked away toward Kouji while Chackmon looked at the pile left after the snowmon. It would melt, but it had meant a lot to Izumi. He gathered the snow up, started pressing it together. Maybe he could rebuild it for her. Wanyamon and Motimon joined him and he wondered if they knew just what a useless task it actually was.

Despite the uselessness of it he wished every digiworld day could be like this. No fighting, just playing in the snow with friends. The sun shining. Laughter filling the air.

”We never see snow here”, Motimon said as they worked. ”Togemon says it only falls in the north.”

”Yeah”, Chackmon said.

He looked at the sky for a second, remembered when he met Nanomon, the snowy area around the city. The big furnace keeping it warm. Went back to forming the snow.

”They never see the sun instead”, he said with a laugh. ”At home, in the human world, we get both.”

He’d never complain about the different seasons again.

”We get rain”, Wanyamon said. ”Togemon told us the humas saved the school from a huge flood a while back.”

”That was Izumi and Junpei!”

They had mentioned it when they all met up again afterwards, although the flood had seemed like a sidenote. Bokomon had been so proud about being a teacher it had overshadowed everything else. Chackmon put the finishing touches on the snowmon and waved to Izumi.

”They’re great, they’ve protected me a lot during our time here.”

Izumi lit up when she saw the restored snowmon. Chackmon clapped his hands in excitement.

”Are you guys gonna save the world?” Wanyamon asked.

They curled their tail around themself, ears drooped slightly. Chackmon didn’t like it, everyone should be happy and hopefull. They had to do something about Cherubimon, had to free this world from his tyranny.

”Of course!” Chackmon said. ”Takuya is really strong, he can defeat anyone who wants to destroy this place. We’re all doing the best we can!”

Motimon laughed. Wanyamon looked slightly less worried. Good. Everything was good. Chackmon smiled, his spirit returning to the digivice. The snow melted around him, water gathered in pools in the grass, was absorbed into the ground. The sun shone less hot now. Tomoki’s stomach rumbled and he laughed, scratched the back of his head. It was way past lunchtime.

Togemon’s came out from the school building. She carried a big pot in her hands. Motimon and Wanyamon hurried away towards her and Tomoki went to Takuya.

”Lunchtime!” Togemon called.

The digimons that had fallen asleep around Kouji woke up and bounced away. Tomoki looked at Takuya.

”Are we staying?”

”It’s probably time for us to keep moving”, Takuya said and put his hands behind his head. ”This world won’t save itself.”

”Yeah…”

Tomoki looked at Togemon. At the kids. Junpei, Izumi and Bokomon waved goodbye and came up to the rest of them. Tomoki smiled. They’d save this world, for the kids. So they could keep playing in the grass without any worries.

”Come on!” he said. Smiled. ”Let’s go defeat Cherubimon!”

#prompt fill #ask #digimon frontier #sorry it took time x3 #I am very rusty at writing fluff #AS YOU CAN TELL #and Tomoki on top of that?#whew #but the kids can have little a snowball fight as a threat >:3 #I hope this was to your liking #despite the ages it took for me to write it x3

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dimensionhoppinghybrids · 1 year

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Sweat poured down Joseph's brow as he sat in the middle of a boiler, where copper pipes ran around the room with hot water and steam as he looked over the project hed asked to be made months ago.

He was now at the belly of the beast, the boiler, a large furnace that was double layered and made to run on coal, since it burned hotter but slower than wood. It would do well for this, as he had gotten a chance to introduce this technology through some of his wanderings again.

The engineer he had contacted was a Pikachu. He was a scraggly and about middle aged Pokemon, and missing a leg which was now a peg leg.

He limped over, his fur damp with sweat, but the grin on his weathered face was beaming with pride.

"This what you were asking for, right?" He asked in a smoke damaged gravelly voice. Like hed taken tar, silt and gravel to gurgle and spit it out with nary a bother.

"Yep. It is." Joseph said as he looked around at the wooden decking and walls, and at the steel and copper supports of both piping and nail.

The belly of this ship was a magnificent one, but this was just the start.

"How much more until we can take her on a test flight?" He asked, and the mouse grunted.

"Soon. I've been waiting for this y'know?" The mouse said with a chuckle as he made his way up to the stairs that led further up the ship as they left the piles of coal and the closed off boiler to its work for now.

"This is going to revolutionise everything you know." The mouse continued as Joseph stayed silent.

"The things you've brought to me, and the fact you paid enough to keep all of this quiet? Boy, I don't know who you are or you are sent by either the snake devil himself or Arceus, but you are one loaded son of a bitch." He said with a laugh.

The mouse wasn't wrong. Joseph was indeed well off. But that just meant that Joseph did his best to use that money into projects that would help along the line. Like this one.

In between all that he did, he had decided to help push the industrial revolution that was coming this way to its natural conclusion. The law of nature and survival was adaption and evolution, be it people or industry. Industry could be a dangerous thing though, and Joseph was already giving it a nudge in the direction that would do both that could do a lot of good, but also a great deal of harm. It was why he was introducing things bit by bit, and under his patents and firm regulations for now, he could hold things together and do things in a way that would at least buy people time.

He knew where it would go though. From airships to firearms, and maybe easier transport on land. But that was in the future, and not now.

Forcing himself out of his thoughts, he looked from the lower decks the two had come from to a bustling ship of Pokemon securing a large canvas balloon that was lifting them into the air from an open skyloft in a private workshop that was in a so far secluded area. The secluded area done for privacy, and less safety hazard. That leg after all hadn't gone missing all on its own, or as the mouse had put it back when Joseph sounded him and his work out.

Different Pokemon came to and fro on securing ballasts, ropes and rigging like you would on a normal ship. And when they were in the air, a call of releasing sails came from the captain of the vessel.

A scrappy and young looking wavile, and her second in command, a Noivern. Both had been picked due to past experiences with fighting, and their eagerness to learn. Both were young, but when Joseph had found them, restless. They had wanted to be on a rescue team, but Joseph had managed to divert their attention elsewhere. After all, he needed people not tied to the teams.

The crew they had was in a similar but, but some were old timers. Like the indeedee that was the ships cook, and the quarter master, a burly and very tough Machoke.

Joseph had, yes. Fitted the vessel with weapons. No firearms nor cannons. Not yet. But that would come soon, but he hoped it wouldn't happen on their maiden voyage.

The crew had been training for this after all for months now, and they were now bearing fruit. The wind caught the sails, and the ship gave a slight lurch as those in command got used to the turbulence, but got their head around it quick.

Good, he was glad they were able to adjust without needing a command.

"Good." Joseph called out. "Now let's see what we can do with this beauty. Start the propellors." Joseph ordered, and from the back, a pair of machines sputtered to life and the propellors that were at the stern of the ship started to slowly spin away as the ship started its maiden voyage into the cloudless sky, heading for the nearest big city on the map.

Joseph gave a smirk. He was going to turn some heads. And he was going to keep the production of these beauties all to himself. Because it had taken a lot of work, money and bribery to keep it on the down low. He had exclusive contracts for the next 20 years, and that was an eyeblink to himself, but not others. It was why he had pushed it to such a long time. Not for the money. He could care less about the money. But rather to regulate this as much as he could.

Oh those in power would hate him for it, but they would perhaps literally give him their first born, or their daughters hands in marriage, just anything to get a single ship. Hed decline, and it would stay that way until he squeezed them into the corner he wanted them to be in.

He felt the twisted grin on his face. He looked like a loon planning something horrible. And he was. Because the industrial revolution wouldn't make the same mistakes here, as it had done in the ways hed seen it. Not on his watch if he could help it.

"My friend." He said to the mouse.

"Prepare to make heads spin and roll." He said, and he gave a vulpine bark of laughter as they sailed into the clear, cold sky.

----

NEWSPAPER REPORT:

Sightings of a new invention were seen as a ship carried by a balloon was seen touring several town and cities at low altitudes before stopping at a high reaching building in the government sector of the capitol, where the crew and owner of the vessel was greeted by city officials.

It is unknown what was spoken or discussed, but this humble reporter can only imagine that many a questions were asked in this strange event that occurred.

The crew and owner of the vessel, which were not caught if in photo, and officials refused to comment about the strange intention, so none know of who has introduced this new machine to our lives!

It is known though by witness reports, that many of the officials walked away both pale and hurried to their respective offices.

Whoever this strange inventor is, he or she has made our government nervous!

-End-

#striking down like a thunderburner (joseph)#drabble #Joseph what did you do now

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amplesalty · 2 years

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Halloween 2022 - Day 13 - Them! (1954)

The only good bug is a dead bug!

The 1950’s seems to be a bit of a underappreciated decade on this here blog. Certainly the 1930’s gets a lot of attention from all of the Universal classics and there’s umpteen 1980’s movies but not so much in the way of the 50’s. Possibly because that decade leaned very much into a sci-fi direction which is obviously a very defined genre in its own right. But there’s some big names here and lots of ‘The’ movies too; The War of the Worlds, The Thing from Another World, The Blob, The Fly, The Beat from 20,000 Fathoms, Plan 9 from Outer Space....one day.

Perhaps in those early days of men looking towards the stars, imaginations ran wild with all sorts of imaginative tales of what could be waiting for us out there. Plus, given that they weren’t far removed from the horrors of the atom bombs, it gave rise such mutated monstrosities as the somber and chilling Godzilla or the more fantastical and perhaps farcical The Giant Claw.

Like Godzilla, so too does today’s entry serve as an almost cautionary tale of what might lurk in the not so distant future of mankind. There’s a moment early on where a radio news cast plays out in the background talking about the work undertaken by doctors and scientists to eradicate diseases such as cholera and malria in areas around the world. Just background noise perhaps but I saw it more as a turning point in human evolution. For a species that had so long being ravaged by diseases such as the black death and whose life expectancy was once only mere decades long, perhaps now our greatest threat was each other or the unintended side effects of our own wars.

The kind of side effect that might, say, lead the common household ant that is normally only millimeters long, to now grow to upwards of 12 feet in length with mandibles capable of breaking a man’s back. For that is the ‘Them!’ the title of the movie refers to, though such a title in 2022 could be a horror movie to the average white male who is deathly afraid of pronouns. This movie does have something of a legacy to it in the world of pop culture, popping up in TV and film over the years as well as inspiring the game ‘It Came from the Desert’ (which also led to secret side missions in Command & Conquer: Red Alert) and a mission in Fallout 3. And of course, who could ever forget the thrill of fighting giant insects perhaps the greatest games series in all of recorded history; Earth Defense Force.

I know enough about films of this era that their effects went in one of three directions usually; more practical puppet type effects, green screen or stop motion. Whilst I suppose green screen did look revolutionary at the time in that they could have more accurate looking footage, it does look hokey now when you just have someone ineffectually jabbing a stick at a superimposed pack of dogs or whatever.

It’s the puppet route here and, whilst admittedly I did get a bit of a laugh at the first appearance, it’s not entirely down to it looking back. I mean, it’s the 1950’s so my expectations are low but it did amuse me the way it slowly peeks it’s head into shot in a ‘What’s going here then, lads?!’ sort of way or the way the cops run in taking pot shots at it until the scientists tell them the the antennae is their weak spot so everyone starts aiming through V.A.T.S. I think it’s the face as well, having it’s mandibles open like that make it look like it has this goofy smile on its face and the antennae make it looked pissed off like angry eyebrows.

Those scientists being played by Joan Weldon and, surprise, Kris Kringle himself Edmund Gwenn. I was already interested in this movie but when I saw him amongst the cast I was really on board. He’s a little unrecognizable without the Santa beard but his voice is unmistakable and he still has that soft spoken eloquence about him, even when he’s in the middle of investigating what could very well be one of the most critical scientific developments in the history of the world.

Not quite as friendly with children though, this one girl is practically catatonic following an ant attack but he brings her round with some acid they extract from one of the ants, almost like smelling salts. Effective but not nearly as charming as that time he was singing in Dutch.

The other scientists is his daughter and, being a movie of it’s time, the men are falling over themselves to tell her that this is no place for a lady with all these dangerous bugs around. That or they’re swooning over the fact they got a peek at her ankles. I was a little worried they were going to go the whole hog and have a romance between her and the FBI character but thankfully we’re spared that.

I do love that this movie only wants to have like 5 characters in it at any one time so you have these same guys just show up throughout the movie despite it being in the best interest of everyone involved. Like, they discover the ant nest and go investigate to make sure their attempts to gas them all has worked so they send down the FBI guy and the same beat cop who first discovered evidence of the ant attack at the start of the movie. Again, once of the most exciting and dangerous discoveries of our time and the grand police effort is to send two people down there, of which only 2 are armed. I’ve seen bigger police turn outs to break up the average teenage house party. The Lutz family got their front door kicked in during The Amityville Horror and they got 3 squad cars and a police chief turn up.

The opening part of the movie is intriguing as they slowly build to the reveal of the ants but it does kinda go into a bit of a lull in the middle as they try and track down some of the newly born Queen ants before they start to make new nests and really usher in the end of mankind as we know it. Thought it does have some interesting moments such as when Dr. Medford is giving a lecture to some military types who aren’t convinced on this whole ant business, talking about how ants are the only other species aside from humans and what vicious, spiteful fighters they are. Plus, they make extensive use of slave labour so you better hope you’re not on the losing side. That just gave me all sorts of images of some sort of crazy Planet of the Ants scenario.

Or when the military are trying to track down the queens but don’t want to be obvious about what’s going on so they give these vague instructions such as keeping an eye out for any sugar thefts.

Homer Simpson is suddenly public enemy number one.

There’s a moment when they’re investigating some disappearances but, due to the location and fact it happened very early in the day, the only witnesses they have are a bunch of drunks and nutcases so even when they do find someone talking about seeing ants, it’s almost like a ‘broken clock is right twice a day’ kinda thing. Or the one guy who gets locked up in a lunatic asylum because he said he saw flying ants, they tell him they’ll help get him out only to tell the doctors to keep him locked up because they don’t want word getting out and threaten them that the government will come down on them hard if word leaks out. Dude! And here I thought the government was the good guy in this picture.

The finale gets a bit more exciting as they narrow in on the last remaining queen, going far as to usher in marshall law within the city of L.A to make sure they can lock down certain parts of the city whilst they scale this assault in the sewer drains. I love how none of the population bats an eye at this general coming on TV talking about giant ants whilst military jeeps roll past outside. We couldn’t convince everyone that there was a deadly disease gripping the entire world a couple of years ago, I can’t imagine we’d be able to sell the threat of giant ants. “WELL THERE’S NO GIANT ANTS IN MY CITY. WE CAN’T LIVE IN FEAR!”.

This one was pretty fun, not schlocky as I was expecting and they take the whole thing very seriously. You see 1950’s and giant ants and immediately think of B-movie bollocks but the whole thing is handled very effectively. And it’s interesting to see Edmund Gwenn outside of Miracle on 34th Street. I think Kris Kringle could have handled himself in this movie as well. He stood up to that quack Sawyer, just imagine him giving those ants a smack on the noggin with that cane of his. That’d sort em!

#Halloween 2022 #Them!

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jyou-no-sonoko19 · 2 years

Text

A comment I had on AfM got me thinking that it might be helpful to talk about how I square Lilith’s age/timeline in my writing, with the fact that I also use our modern understanding of science and time keeping (something I’ve had to do largely due to CAoS suggesting what could easily be conflicting information).

To wit: The Garden of Eden is a real place, out of which Lilith was thrown or fled under threat.

But also, it can be observed that, canonically, mortals and witches live in a world that resembles our own, and also mentions ancient cultures, particularly in terms of ancient magical texts.

So here’s how I logic things, in terms of what we’ve been given and my own drawn conclusions:

- Lilith is the First Woman, meaning that no woman can be older than that. In texts which acknowledge Lilith, it’s generally accepted that she and Adam were created side by side, from the same earth, while Eve was created later, to be subservient to Adam via the whole rib thing. QED, there is no man older than Lilith either.

- It's not clear how long she really lived in Eden before things went pear-shaped. While, following Genesis, 'God created the Earth in 7 days', even modern theologians agree that that's poetic language (unless you follow extreme Creationism and believe that dinosaur bones were planted to fool people). Humans were a late-stage experiment on God's part, after he presumably played around with other stuff for a very long time, some cosmic Etch-A-Sketching aside.

- When Adam and Lilith were created, there was no human civilisation and therefore no calendars. (The best a person could do would be to count solar days, but that only gives you a measurement of days and would rely on having some kind of large, day-recording rock face, etc, which a wanderer couldn’t easily have.)

- It was a long time before she met Lucifer. Long enough for her to become a survivalist, eventually a witch -- the very First Witch, meaning she would have needed the time to learn to harness forces all on her own -- and to acquire a familiar in the demon Stolas (it’s not specified in caos that he’s a demon rather than the regular shape-shifting goblin that witches keep as familiars, but multiple real world texts depict him thus).

- As an unaging immortal (since she did not have her immortality stripped from her, having left before the Tree of Knowledge incident), Lilith’s experience of time is variable, so it could have been years or tens of years or even more than a century.

- After Lilith met Lucifer, they spent more unclear time together in the Wastes, during which he was also busy creating the framework of Hell, which she was eventually used to help populate. This obviously differs across texts, but since CAoS names her the Mother of Demons, without specifying a Samael or any other specific partner, I have chosen to depict that creation in terms of a blend of her physically channelling elemental and demonic sources to make new creatures, using her spiritual essence and arcane methods to ‘birth’ in any number of perverse methods, and perhaps coupling with already-established demons to create hybrids.

- Lilith spent a span of time isolated in Hell, but due to a number of factors the true time cannot be clarified. CAoS canonically, time works differently in Hell, and can be virtually frozen compared to the mortal world, in some regions of that dimension. There is no talk of demonic calendar keeping, but if they did so, it would likely be on a very different scale, and would have to be specific to the region whose time they’re measuring.

- At a certain point, Lilith was free enough to be able to return to the mortal world with some frequency (whether for her own reasons or possibly at Lucifer’s behest), able to observe the development of humanity from a distance. Her interference in that culture became human lore in the relevant regions (I have placed her as mostly spending her time in the Middle East for reasons that are hopefully obvious), the evolution of which can be traced on ancient human calendars.

- Because of this, Lilith uses the Hebrew calendar when she wants to give her age, or personally track her own years, which puts her just short of 6000 years old (dependant on whether you place CAoS in 1969 like the pilot does, or later).

- She of course does not have a traceable birthday, and likely has no interest in having one (for one thing, because that would somewhat be tied to her unwanted parentage, and a time in her life best ignored). If forced by certain people to name a date, she will allow the first day of the year, in whichever calendar that person follows.

So yeah! That’s what underlines what I do in terms of eras, histories and Lilith’s age!

#my fic #CAoS Lilith #Answers for Mary

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sqoiler · 3 years

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On the Thursday of the last week of kindergarten, the DVD that Miss Martinez was going to play turns out to be scratched beyond recognition, and so she gets out construction paper, scissors, markers, and glitter glue.

“Father’s Day isn’t for a few more weeks,�� she says. “But why don’t we make some cards, just like we did for Mother’s Day, okay?”

The kids all get to work, reaching for the pile of brightly-colored paper. Stephanie Brown, who will be turning six in August, is the last one to get up. She shifts through the leftover colors--black, a pukey shade of green, blue, white. She picks up the black one and takes it back to her desk. She does not want to make a stupid card for her stupid dad. The other kids at her table are enthusiastically chattering about their dads’ favorite colors and jobs and drawing crayon drawings onto the paper. The girl next to her is cutting a snowflake out with safety scissors.

Steph picks up a white crayon and stares at her blank card. Across the room, Dexter raises his hand.

“What if we don’t have a dad?” he asks. Steph remembers from Mother’s Day that Dexter has two moms.

“Make a card for someone else,” Miss Martinez suggests. “Your grandfather, maybe. Or a neighbor, or a hero.”

A hero?

Steph looks at the black card before her, and her white crayon. She smiles.

And she makes a Father’s Day card for Batman.

-----

On the Monday of the last week of first grade, Mrs. Arnold, the art teacher, sits down her class and passes out white paper.

“Father’s Day cards,” she explains. Stephanie Brown, seven in August, considers making her own father a card. She didn’t get him anything last year but he didn’t seem to notice, and she’s not really that mad at him this year. But he didn’t seem to notice, and when Steph thinks about it, she thinks Robin probably doesn’t make Batman a card. Steph could make another card for her own dad at home, and make one for Batman at school.

Mind made up, she reaches for black markers and gets to work.

-----

On the Tuesday of the last week of second grade, Stephanie Brown, almost eight years old, sits down in art class and carefully draws a black blob with pointy ears, and a red and green and yellow stick figure, next to it, and she tries to remember what Nightwing looks like, and when she can’t remember she just draws Robin again but bigger.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, she writes in red marker, and she closes the card.

------

On the Wednesday of the last week of third grade, Mrs. Arnold passes out watercolors in art class with pieces of thick paper, and tells them to make presents for their dads. Stephanie Brown, nearly nine, hasn’t seen her dad in almost four months, and she uses up almost all the black water colors at her table painting a picture of Batman.

------

On the last week of fourth grade, nobody sits down their class to have them make Father’s Day cards.

On the Thursday before Father’s Day, Crystal passes Stephanie Brown, age almost-ten, a card bought from the store and tells her that they’ll mail it to Blackgate the next morning. Happy Father’s Day, the card says. You’re the best dad ever! the card says.

Steph stares at it for a long time.

Then she tears out a piece of notebook paper and folds it in half, taking the rainbow gel pens she got in December and picking up the pink one. She squints at it and sees that it’s nearly run out, so she picks up the purple one instead.

When she’s done drawing Batman and Batgirl and Robin and Nightwing, she decides she likes purple, and she folds the notebook paper inside the card her mother gave her, and she doesn’t mail anything to Blackgate the next day.

-----

On the last day of fifth grade, Mr. Robinson turns on The Great Mouse Detective and sets out a stack of colored paper and scissors. He tells the class they can do whatever they want during the movie and even sets up chips and cookies, then he sits in the back of the classroom and maybe falls asleep. Stephanie Brown, ten-going-on-eleven, wants something to do with her hands, so she takes a black piece of paper and cuts out a batsymbol. She learned how to draw them by sticking her head out her window at night and looking at the sky, and she’s proud of her newfound skill. When she’s done cutting it out, she’s not really sure what to do besides maybe tape it to her shirt, but her dad’s been out for a week now and she thinks he’d be mad if he saw that.

Instead, she folds it in half and writes HAPPY FATHERS DAY across the middle using white-out. Skye, the girl who sits next to her, leans over and asks what she’s doing, and Steph pauses. She’s...she’s not really sure why she keeps making these. To prove a point, maybe. She’s not really sure what point, though.

“Do you think Batman ever gets cards?” she asks in a whisper.

“Yes,” Skye says. “Probably every day.”

“Oh,” Steph says. “Well, I probably won’t send it then.”

“Okay,” Skye says, and then she downs half of her dixie cup of orange juice and turns back to the movie. Steph puts purple glitter glue on her batsymbol.

------

On the first week of April, Stephanie Brown, age seventeen, pulls a plastic bin out from under her desk. There’s a cardboard box beside her, and two other cardboard boxes on her empty mattress, full and taped shut. There’s a full duffel bag of clothes next to her, and her posters from her walls have been taken down and rolled up. All she has to do is finish going through her desk, and then she’s done. The rest of her things will be sold or something, she’s not sure.

She pries off the lid of the bin before her and takes out old school binders and ragged notebooks, paper folders falling apart and ancient art projects. She lifts out a collage she probably made in seventh grade and tries to decipher the meaning behind it. There is a cutout of red heels from Kohls on top of a blue betta fish.

Steph decides it will go in the trash pile and sets it aside, lifting out a yellow plastic folder. She opens it, curious, and lifts out a black paper batsymbol. She gasps when she opens it.

Her Father’s Day cards!

Of course, she had never sent them, so she has all--she counts quickly--six of them. She looks them over, laughing at her kindergarten misspellings and looking at the evolution of her drawing ability fondly. This is--she totally forgot about this. Steph closes the folder reverently and puts it on top of her duffel bag. There’s no way she can get rid of this--especially with the purple cape still in the hidden part of her closet. Especially not with where she’s packing up to move to.

----

On the third Sunday in June, Stephanie Brown, age eighteen-in-August, takes up her yellow plastic folder from where she hid it under her new mattress, and she leaves her room, tucking it under her arm. She gets like four steps down the hall before another door opens, and already an accusing voice says, “What’s that?”

Steph whirls around.

“None of your business,” she says. Tim makes a face at her and she makes the same one back, because she is very mature. To prove her maturity, she slides down the banister on her way to the kitchen.

Dick and Cass are in there, doing the dishes. Steph watches them for a second and then says, “Why do you have dishes at this hour?” ‘This hour’, upon checking, turns out to be almost noon, but nobody wakes up early in this house.

“Breakfast for Alfred,” Cass says.

“You can do that?” Steph asks, thinking that Alfred would get offended if someone tried to cook for him.

“You can today,” Dick says, shrugging, and Steph frowns, realizes that they ganged together to make breakfast on Father’s Day for Alfred and didn’t invite her.

It was probably an accident, she reasons, but then she remembers Tim and turns to face him.

“Why didn’t you make breakfast for Alfred?”

“I was sleeping,” he says.

“He’s impossible to wake up so we called it a lost cause,” Dick says. “We have extra pancakes, though, help yourself.”

Steph is still a little affronted, but she knows that she’s the newest person in the house and she’s only staying here until her mom’s done with rehab and whatever, so they probably didn’t think she’d want to be included, even though Alfred is everyone’s grandpa, even Babs’s. She goes to pick up a pair of pancakes and bites into one, deciding syrup can wait, and she leaves before they can rope her into conversation. Besides, she’s a little scared they’ll start referring to whatever plans they have with Bruce, and she doesn’t know how she’s supposed to react.

She heads to Bruce’s study and pushes open the door, glad to find him in there. She thinks if she had to search for him she’d probably lose her nerve and chicken out. Bruce glances up for like half a second and then looks back at the computer, and she takes a deep breath and steps inside fully.

Now or never, she thinks, and so she marches right up to him and slams the yellow folder on the desk.

“What’s this?” Bruce says, and Steph isn’t really sure how to explain, so she says, “It’s, uh, I found it when I was packing my stuff, and it’s...it’s from a while ago, but I thought you might, um…”

She trails off as he picks up the folder and opens it, raising an eyebrow at the contents from inside. She kinda wants to look at his face, but also totally doesn’t want to do that, so instead she looks at the desk, and opens her dumb mouth back up. “They always used to have us do Father’s Day cards at school or whatever and I never wanted to make one for Arthur so I made those instead ‘cause...well I don’t really remember why but whatever I thought you might want to see them.”

“Stephanie,” Bruce says, and she shuts up and bites her lip, looking up at him. “You...made these?”

“Yeah,” she says. He looks back down at the cards in his hands, all spread out--even the one that was intended for Arthur that Steph never sent. He touches the one from kindergarten. “Um. You can keep them.”

Bruce stands up. Steph isn’t really sure at all what he’s thinking, but he steps away from his chair and wraps his arms around her, holds her tight.

“Thank you,” he whispers.

“Happy Father’s Day,” she says, and when he squeezes her she closes her eyes, exhales, and squeezes him back.

(based on this post x) (ao3 here x)

#(posts fathers day fic in december)#stephanie brown #bruce wayne #brotp: slap #my writing #long post

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say-narry · 3 years

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No relationship

Note: English isn't my first language. Hope you all like it, I just imagine these two men together and Harry having jealous over me. Please, give me your opinion with a reblog, fav or a note in my askbox :)

Pairings: Harry Styles!famous x Reader x Chris Evans!Biology teacher

warnings: mentions of sex, jealous, alchoolic drink.

talk with me | masterlist

I thought that casual sex would never work out for me, since I had closed principles on the subject, but Harry made me totally change my perception about it.

At the height of need, we would go somewhere private, usually my apartment, have sex, and that was it. We'd drink some wine and talk about small things, as if nothing had happened and that was fine with me, really.

When something started to come up, I would try to remember Harry's words.

"You know, this is never going to be anything more, is it?" He was lying on my couch, after talking about a couple of friends who were like this and ended up getting married last weekend.

"Yes, Harry... It's just a comment, I'm not going to put a ring on your finger and even sign a marriage certificate with your name on it..." I rolled my eyes, I simply couldn't say anything and he would put the deal on the agenda.

So when he was off me, I just enjoyed the ecstasy of the orgasm and went on with life. And then, life brought me Chris.

The nice guy with the divine high spirits that I met at the supermarket. He helped me carry some boxes that I had picked up to pack clothes for donation, between conversations and sample muscles, we exchanged numbers and extended our conversation.

Unconsciously, I pushed Harry to the background, but I reached the point that just sex wasn't enough, I wanted someone to be more than that, something that Harry emphasized he wouldn't give me. Ever.

"Are you sure your friends won't mind?" Chris commented as soon as he intertwined our fingers when we entered the bar.

There weren't many people, I was comfortable with the amount of people, whenever it was possible, but obligatory once a month, Harry, me and our friends gathered here to chat, it was the happy hour of our squad.

"No way, they will like you..."

We walked over to the usual huge table we used and I could see Harry's smile fade immediately when he saw my hand in Chris'.

"Good evening, everybody! This is Chris, the guy from the supermarket I told you about!" I winked and everyone at the table waved, except for the lovely Styles.

We pulled out two chairs and sat down, I was in the middle, Harry to my right, and Chris to my left.

"But then Chris, you do what?" Jay asked while stirring his drink with a straw.

"I'm biology teacher." His cheeks flushed and we could see the astonishment on everyone's faces.

"In my time, teachers weren't so muscular..." Peter commented and we all laughed.

"Check it out, girl! He knows a lot about evolution and reproduction!" Jay winked and gave a mischievous smile.

"Oh, shut up!" I covered my face with my hands and the others laughed.

Two hours later...

"Go! Go! Go, go, go! Go!" Chris was drinking a 1 liter mug of beer in dispute with Adam and we were shouting around.

Chris ended up winning and started laughing, looking at me and I pulled him in to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Harry, Y/n... Get two more glasses each, I want revenge!" Adam slammed the glass on the table and Chris applauded, accepting the challenge.

I nodded positively and we went to the counter.

"Kate, four more, please!" I asked the familiar bartender, who gave me a positive finger sign and started to fill the four mugs.

"Eh... uh..." Harry drummed his fingers on the counter, catching my attention. "He's funny..."

I slapped my palms on the counter and looked up at him.

I'd only known Harry a short time, but his internal cheek-biting, nose-frowning, and hair-stirring antics were a sign that he was uncomfortable about something.

"He's amazing!" I sighed, watching Chris from afar, who was chatting animatedly with the guys. "We're talkin about one week I think and it seems like we've known each other for years, he's smart, he's kind, he's engrossing..."

"I'm not interested, Y/N." Harry, who was leaning sideways on the counter before, straightened his posture and stepped closer "I thought there was something, uh... uh... between us... I think..."

I raised my eyebrow, wanting to laugh at that.

"Is this a prank?" I turned, coming face to face with Harry.

"What?" He also grimaced, and now I could see his pupils dilated.

"I thought there was something between us..." I imitated his accent "Harry, it was just sex."

"Was it? Have I been passed over?" Harry bent the arm that wasn't on the counter and put it around his own waist, in a satisfied pose.

"You've never even been in front." I took a deep breath, already tired of that drama. "You pointed it out to me more times than I could count, if I had even commented to you on the subject of 'relationship'..." I made quotation marks with my fingers "You were already cutting me off. We got into this by consent, you imposed the only rule and I followed it, so anyway, I was free to move on and look for something more solid."

Kate handed us the mugs and ran our digital receipts through the scanner and handed them back to us.

I grabbed the two handles of the mugs and Harry stopped me, holding out his hands for me to take mine away.

"At first it was just something temporary, a relief... My life has always been a roller coaster and you know it, but I've been thinking about us..."

I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes.

"And?"

He frowned again, taking a breath and narrowing the space between us even more.

"And that I would like to have something more with you, y/n, a relationship maybe, a wedding ring and a piece of paper with our names on it like you said that time. I know there is a lot in this, but I would like to try."

"Don't you think it's a little late for that?" I urged him and pointed my head to Chris, who was still laughing and talking with the others.

"He's just another one, Y/n, let's be honest... I've known you longer and more... deeply... " A mischievous smile escaped his lips and I wanted to roll my eyes.

"He, among as many as you, didn't reject me several times, don't make me jealous at this point..." I turned quickly and picked up the two mugs "You wanted this, Harry, and I accepted it, so bear the consequences and a toast to something we had!"

I lifted one of the mugs and took a sip of the drink, walking back to the guys, leaving Harry alone, as he always wanted.

#harry styles #harry styles smut #harry styles x reader #harry styles fanfiction #chris evans #chris evans smut #harry styles imagine #harry styles angst #chris evans x reader

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sentinelprimeofficial · 3 years

Text

Pepsiman was a swole and lonely ghost, running through the mall on his way to do errands. He was trying to decide what clothes to buy and wear. He went into Hot Topic, and he found that they had Pepsi brand graphic trees and let out a huge smile. "Yes! I've always wanted Pepsi brand graphic tees!" He was happy. Just as he he tried to buy one, the other customers screamed! That's right, he remembered, he was a ghost with the Pepsi logo stretched over him like a poorly fitting texture. Realizing he would never be able to buy Pepsi brand graphic tees without people screaming at him, he began to break down in tears right there in the middle of the store. "Do you need some help?" He looked up, vision blurry from his salty salty pepsi tears. There was another man, shredded beyond belief almost as swole as he was... maybe more.

It was Cocaine Colander! Cocaine Colander tenderly takes Pepsiman's hand and pulls him to his feet. "You look upset. What's wrong?" He inquired, attentively. "It- i-it;s jsut that- I" Pepsiman sniffled so hard. He was so sad and lonely that his hands being held even by someone he hated so much as Cocaine Colander made him cry harder. His pecs rippled with every sniffle. "I'll never be able to buy this Pepsi brand graphic tee from Got Topic because I am a ghost." He said it, croaking like a frog from his despair. Cocain Colander chuckles, shaking his head patronizingly. "Pepsiman, you have always been a fool. Just steal it. You are a ghost, what are they going to do? Send the ghost cops after you?" Pepsimand realizes that Cocaine Colander is right! He is a ghost, and he can do whatever he wants. There is no such thing as ghost cops!

Cocaine Colander punches him in the face. "I have always hated you so much, you stupid idiot rival of mine. Die in a ditch with your terrible Pepsi brand graphic tees." This turned Pepsiman's despair into rage. He had only pretended to comfort him just to turn on him?! No, they certainl y would never ever be able to work out the conflict between them and become friends! Never in a thousand - no, million - years! "Cocaine you are the most disgusting person I have ever known in my life. You have no soul and no heart" "No shit sherlock" Said Cocaine Calender, a ghoul, as he uppercut Pepsiman' jaw making a loud clicking noise as his teeth toothed together. "Alright, That's it! I have had enough!" Just then Pepsiman uses his ghost pwoers to go super Sayian. "I'M GOING GHOST" But he was already a ghost so now he was just a ghost ghost, also know as Ghost 2, the evolution and successor of the ghost. "I'm mroe powerful than you could ever imagine!" He shouted loudly, and he flexes his huge huge muscles.

They were so big that he had knocked over two racks of graphic tees even while being a ghost. At this sight, Cocaine Colander's lower intestine vacates his body post-haste, before he too goes super sayian. "Psh... pathetic that you thought you the only one with soda abilities, my miserable copy" Pepsiman Picks up a shelf of trinkets and throws it as Cocaine. "I'll make you eat thos words!" He screams, angrily. Cocaine Colander just chuckles as the shelf soars through the wall. "Idiot. I can'teat words. They're not corporeal" Pepsiman screamed with rage, tearing his vocal chords and makig the cashier cry as he was so godanm loud. "Shut up can't you freaks take this outsise!?" He yells as he covers his ears. "Oh sorry." They both say as they leave the store, having to duck and crouch to fit through the door in their super super mega shredded forms. The cashier cried harder at the sight of their beautiful beautiful monster glutes. Such amazingly gorgeous toned buttcheeks, that you could surely crack a walnut between them. The power of their glutes must have been enough to bend steel, even. It was amazing and the Hot Topic cashier was certain he could hear a heavenly chorus as he gazed at the soda mascots' amaginly beefy rumps, all of his blood exiting his body through his nosebleed as he dies from the sheer power of glorious divine heavenly supreme delicious shredded swole amazing lovely buttocks. It was a quick and painless death full of joy. He was so glad to witness their butts. Now that they were outside the hottopic, Pepsiman grabs Cocaine Colander's face and suplexes him into the road, making a huge crater that will certainly cause problems largely for the lower class as their tax money is siphoned into repairing the mall they couldn't afford.

"I hate gentrification" Coacain Colander said, his face covered in blood. Flexing every muscle in his body, he shits himself, but more importantly he sucks the blood backinto his faces and mends the damages with the sheer power of his muscles. "Hah, you thought you couold hurt me? You'd need much more powerful abs to even begin to deal even just a teensy weensy itty bitty tiniest miniscule microscopic molecular amount of damage. Idiot. Fool. Buffoon. Utter imbecile clown" He said as he punched Pepsiman's face again. "Psh try again loser" Pepsiman says as he turns incorporeal, sending Cocaine Colander plummeting into the broken road with the power of his own muscles. "This is the only road I've ever known. I don't know where it goes, but it's only me and I walk alone. NOW GET OUT!!!" he says, picking up Cocaine's limp floppy body and spinning him around a bunch of times before flinging him into another building, atomizing it on impact. It was so much dust and so many particles. The people inside of it looked horrified and began to pray immediately because it was such a scary near-death experience. "You're not involved. Do not worry I will spare you." Pepsi says to the bystanders in the building. They thank him so much and scurry away before being brought to tears by his luscious cheeks. "Hnnnrgh, Don't think I'm done with you!" Cocaine gets out of the rubble very strongly his pecs flapping in the wind very boobily. The only reason Pepsiman could survive this sight was that he had pecs just as big and he admired them in the mirror for a minimum of ten hours a day. He loved his titties but more importantly he needed to be immune to his hated despised cruel evil beloved hated rival's tricks. Screaming in rage he beats Cocaine to a pulp right there in the middle of the road and rubble.

Cocaine only smirks. "Heh... nothing personnel kid" He reveals that the Cocaine Colander that Pepsiman the Ghost was beating up was only a shadow clone! He was standing behind him silently this whole time... or had he teleported? He socks Pepsiman right in the ear with all his might. "What the hell dude you just punched me in the ear?!?!" Pepsiman whirls around wrathfully and confusedly only to be pulled into a kiss. "This was a fun warm up, Pepsiman, let's get your Pepsi brand graphic tees and go home now." What? What could he possibly mean? Pepsiman blushed, his repressed feelings bubbling to the surface. Was it really meant to be? Pepsi and Coca Cola...... Could they be friends? Maybe more? "Take me Cocaine I need you" He swooned into Cocaine Colander's embrace holding him and Cocaine picked him up gracefully and gently and carried himoff back to his Coca Cola mansion headquarters. "I'll make you feel like nothing's ever made you feel before." His pecs pulsated. THE END

#sentinel speaks #fanfic #writing #story #shipping #fanfiction #enemies to lovers #pepsi #coca cola #pepsiman #cocaine #ghosts #soulmate au

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ianthe-is-a-bitch-and-i-love-her · 3 years

Text

On Family

An excerpt from Memoirs of a Flesh Eater, never published

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One question that I see asked in the news a lot is why there are still any ghouls left. We have a distinctive, high-impact feeding habit that requires us to stay within human society, where we are both outnumbered and outgunned. This has essentially been the case since the development of automatic firearms, and you’ve continued to develop more and more effective methods of killing us since then. How are we not extinct?

The talking heads always have lurid theories to propose. My personal favorite one, which comes up every couple of years or so, is that the government is secretly breeding us so that they have an excuse to send secret police out into the general populace for nefarious purposes pretending to be exterminators. As if they’d need the excuse {Editing Note: I’ve gotta keep my political views out of this except where they directly pertain to ghouls. No unnecessarily alienating people}. The most commonly accepted one seems to be that we just have a lot of children to compensate for our high mortality rate. Spatha calls that an R strategy, I think. Scarlet calls it the Rabbit Theory. Whatever you call it, it’s wrong. Our species has survived off the strength and compassion of our families.

Contrary to popular impressions, our “nuclear” families are pretty small. My understanding is that 1-4 children is the typical range. I’m the only confirmed only child in my friend group. Scarlet’s the youngest of three, Scorpio’s a middle child, Spatha avoids talking about her home life, and Kestrel doesn’t know her biological parents. There’s a couple of pressures that keep our family sizes small. First, it’s challenging to feed too many ghouls at once, especially ghoul children, who we don’t want worrying about where they’re going to get their meals. Second, the majority of ghoul parents are going to end up as single parents before their kids are fully grown. Either one of them is going to get killed, or they’re going to have to separate to go on the run from the exterminators; and, of course, we do still break up and get divorced sometimes.

These pressures are exaggerated by our general lack of an extended family. It’s not that all of our aunts and uncles get hunted down - even if they did, we’d still have cousins - but it’s not safe for us to have traceable extended families. When exterminators identify a ghoul, the first thing they do is put out a bulletin for all known blood relatives. The most common tactic to avoid this is, when multiple siblings make it to adulthood, at least one of them changes their identity and moves away. This isn’t always done, but it’s done often enough that document forging is a widespread and well-respected profession in the Society. It’s useful for dodging exterminators in other circumstances too. My mom and I changed our names and moved cities after exterminators killed my dad when I was 4.

Between that and the sheer number of out-and-out orphans in our Society, it should come as no surprise that we’ve developed a new family structure to fill in the gaps. The terminology we use for this structure is variable, but the term I’ve always used is “household”. A household is a sort of adopted extended family, typically formed by and centered around one particularly resourceful ghoul called a patron. The patron takes whichever ghouls they choose under their wing, introduces them to each other, and helps them coordinate their talents and resources so that they all have everything they need. Most obviously, this means making sure they all have a supply of flesh, but there are numerous other kinds of support a household can provide. I doubt I need to emphasize again how valuable a reliable source of companionship and safety is, but patrons typically have access to connections and contacts that can help the other members of the household accomplish their goals.

My household, for example, was founded by our patron Yaga. It consists of her, her adopted daughter Kestrel, my mom and I, my friends Scarlet and Scorpio and their immediate families, and four other older ghouls. There’s also Spatha, who has been reluctant to fully join the household but acts like a member in most contexts. Three of our members have reliable flesh sources, and Yaga coordinates with other ghouls to find supplementary sources to ensure that she always has a surplus on hand. This keeps all of us well-fed and lets her distribute the rest to those in need in exchange for favors and cachet that the rest of us can use for our own advancement. In turn, the rest of us pitch in for odd jobs here and there, mostly on flesh-gathering jobs of one kind or another, and we look out for each other. I’ve done a bit of babysitting with Kestrel, for example, and Yaga was able to get me and Scarlet summer jobs to save up for college.

Babysitting, by the way, is one of the most valuable services a household can provide to a ghoul parent. Given our mortality rate, it probably isn’t a surprise that there’s a good bit of cultural pressure to have children, and have them quick. Ghoul children are… a lot. When we’re newborn, we’re pretty much like human babies. Ghoul babies can nurse from ghoul mothers for awhile, which is a relief. They need to switch to flesh before their teeth come in, though, so that means flesh slurry, which is more complicated to make than you might think. For best results, you want a mix of blood, muscle tissue, organ tissue, and bone, especially marrow. We get better at pulling all our nutrients from just flesh as we mature, but babies aren’t as developed. Getting those varied tissues is a little more complicated than just getting flesh. Bone especially is challenging - more mature ghouls have no need for it, and it’s honestly kinda gross. You just have to hope that whoever you’re getting flesh from can start holding some bones for you. Not every source has easy access to bones.

{Editing Note: I think I wrote bone too many times - it looks fake now. Bone. Bone.}

We get our ghoul teeth at the same time as our baby teeth. Our ghoul teeth fall out and are replaced too, but we keep growing new ones our whole lives, kinda like sharks. Funnily enough, I don’t think we grow extra human teeth, which seems like a strange way for evolution to take us, but what do I know, I’m not a biologist. At that point we can start eating regular flesh, and parents have the unenviable task of explaining to toddlers that they can’t just slide their teeth out whenever they want. Our other features come in a bit later - claws between 4 and 6, eyes with puberty. Let me tell you, the claws hurt coming in. I couldn’t hold a pencil for a month. My mom told the elementary school that I was deathly sick so she could keep me home, but I think Scarlet just pretended he’d broken both his hands and went in splints. I don’t envy him - stretching my claws did a lot to relieve the pain.

I’ll admit freely that, by our standards, I had a pretty charmed childhood. I fit into human society pretty easily, I had a mom who loved me and could provide for me, a patron and household to help pick up the slack, and ghoul friends my own age. I had the discipline to keep my true nature hidden from my human peers, and I don’t think I was even particularly traumatized by the pressure of performing humanity that much. I can safely attribute that to the fact that I had safe spaces throughout my life to let the charade drop. Most ghouls at least have that. Most, but not all.

Our integration into human society also means that we inevitably become entangled in human society. We become invested in the lives of our human peers, we befriend them, care about them. Sometimes we fall in love with them. Eating people seems like kind of a big secret to keep from a potential romantic partner - I certainly couldn’t manage it - but some ghouls form romantic relationships with humans nonetheless. Maybe some of these human partners eventually discover the truth and are willing to overlook it for the person they love, but I doubt it happens often. I’ve certainly never heard of it. I’ve heard of it going the other way, though, a human partner discovering the truth and reacting poorly. Someone always dies when that happens. I personally know a few ghouls who’ve dated humans, or are seriously involved with them. Frankly, it scares the hell out of me. I get that the heart wants what it wants, but some wants aren’t worth the risk.

{Editing Note: That last line feels… tense. Emotionally charged. Why? And should I change it?}

In my opinion, the gravest of these risks is what happens when a human and a ghoul decide they want to build a life together, but kids are already in the equation. The human-ghoul mixed family is probably the most toxic environment that a ghoul child could be raised in and conceivably survive. All that pressure of hiding your true nature from your peers as you grow up? That feeling of isolation that follows you everywhere you go among humans? All of the most crushing emotional turmoil I’ve described in this book so far? Imagine if there was no relief for that even at home with your family. I frankly have no idea how ghoul parents manage to feed themselves and their children without being caught, or how they manage to perform humanity so flawlessly and constantly that their literal immediate family never catches on. I don’t know how those children manage to survive to adulthood, but I imagine they have some seriously fucked up mental health problems by the time they do. Factor in the suspicion that they would inevitably face from our Society when they finally are able to join it properly - after all, who more likely to become a Judas or be Lost than a ghoul raised by humans? - and I’d be willing to bet most of them don’t make it out of their twenties.

Before we move on entirely from families in general and mixed families in particular, I’d like to take a quick aside to talk about “half-ghouls”. You hear about them in horror media fairly often, the biological child of a human and a ghoul. Authors love to ascribe all sorts of traits to these hypothetical creatures - greater and more monstrous than the sum of their parts, supernaturally strong and vicious, impossible to detect within human society, sometimes with traits that are blatantly impossible, like telepathy or mind control or just plain magic. All of that is obviously untrue, but it’s something of a point of contention as to whether or not a “half-ghoul” is even possible. None of the ghouls I’ve talked to seem to agree about whether it can happen, and a search of human medical literature was similarly inconclusive. Humans, at least, seem to think that it might be theoretically possible, but have never been able to verify it by observation or by medical experiment. Of the ghouls I know that have been romantically involved with humans, none of them have ever gotten a kid out of it. It’s one of those things where we just don’t know. If it were possible, I’m not even sure what the implications would be.

#my writing #memoirs of a flesh eater #original fiction #not tlt

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the-bau-quinjet · 3 years

Text

the evolution of breaking up

Peter x Stark!reader

Summary: Snippets of you moving on from a bad breakup, frequently turning to your best friend, Peter.

Warnings: it's sad Taylor Swift hours, some choice words,

Word Count: 3252

a/n: inspired by a playlist called the evolution of breaking up that only has TS songs on it lol. Bold is direct or paraphrased lyrics

Masterlist

Peter is 90% sure he fell in love with you the day he met you.

He's 100% sure he fell in love with you within a week of knowing you.

Hell, he's so sure about it, he would tell you if not for one glaringly obvious problem: Jared.

Your boyfriend.

Your started dating Jared a few weeks before you met Peter. That is to say, a few weeks before Tony recruited Peter to join the Avengers.

Peter didn't have any problems with Jared, and he would never wish for you to get your heart broken, but he was definitely jealous.

It wasn't hard for him to love you. The two of you became fast friends. You always worked in the lab together, improving upon tech Tony already had or developing all new creations.

You also patrolled together. Peter had always enjoyed patrolling, but now that you went with him, time seemed to fly.

It was currently about 10:30 on a Friday about two and a half years after you and Peter met. You and Peter were supposed to patrol, but Tony said to take the night off for once.

You took the impromptu free time as the perfect opportunity to surprise Jared.

You left the tower around 5:30 and Peter hasn't heard from you since. Not that he expected to since you were going on a date. He was bored though.

Tony refused to let him tinker around in the lab, saying he needed a better work/life balance. He would've found the statement funny if it didn't feel so true.

He tried calling Ned, but he was out with Betty. MJ was busy with Brad, the two going to some horror movie marathon.

The only other person he really hung out with was you, and you were also on a date.

He wondered the various floors of the tower, looking for anything to do that would take his mind of you.

Eventually, he just set up camp in the shared living area, putting Star Wars on the massive TV and eating more popcorn than should be legal.

He was nearly asleep during Episode V when the ding of the elevator jolted him awake. Someone ran through the halls, quickly opening and closing the door to their room.

He sat up, intrigued by the behavior. As he walked down the hallway, he listened for any indication of someone else being there. Obviously whoever it was didn't want to talk, but that didn't mean he wasn't concerned.

He stopped outside your door, bringing his hand up to knock when he heard music softly playing through the door.

You told me you loved me, so why did you go away?

He froze with his fist raised, uneasy with the why you would put on such a sad song. His hand fell back to his side when he heard you sing along to the chorus.

"Never thought we'd have a last kiss. Never imagined we'd end like this."

The sound of you crying grew louder than the music, urging Peter to knock. He just wanted to make sure you knew he was there for you.

Hyping himself up, he knocked lightly. A few seconds later the music stopped. He listened as you shuffled toward the door, slowly pulling it open.

His heart broke at the sight of your puffy cheeks, red and tear stained.

"Hey Pete." You managed a small smile, happy to see your friend despite the less than stellar evening you had.

"Hey, I... you probably don't want to talk about it right now, but I'm here for when you do." He matched your small smile, trying not to make you feel any worse.

Apparently, he said the right thing because you pulled him into a bone crushing hug, burying your head in his chest as you cried.

He spent the next half hour rubbing your back as you cried, having moved to sit on the bed rather than stand in the doorway.

When your tears ended, he risked talking to you again.

"Did you want to talk about it tonight?" Peter was clearly unsure of himself in this situation.

You shook your head, wiping your face with the sleeves of your sweatshirt.

"No, I... He just..." Tears pooled again, but you blinked them away. "He said forever and always, but I guess he didn't mean it."

Peter held you as you cried again, eventually falling asleep. He tucked you into your bed, placing a water bottle on your nightstand and shutting off the lights as he left.

The next few days, you spent mostly holed up in your room. You had a playlist of sad Taylor Swift songs on repeat, letting yourself wallow.

Peter was worried. Tony was worried. Nat, Steve, Sam, Bucky, Wanda, Pepper, and Vision were worried.

"What'd she say when you talked to her?" The group questioned, all wanting nothing more than to cheer you up.

Peter sighed, wishing he had more information. "She just cried for like, 2 hours. Somewhere in the middle I asked if she wanted to talk, she said something about him not really meaning forever, and then she cried again."

They were all contemplating what to do when you walked in the room. Every pair of eyes were on you in an instant.

You sighed heavily, kind of glad you could address everyone at once. They've been like a family to you since you were born, so it only makes sense they would all be worried.

"Jared and I broke up." You felt like it was 2 and a half years wasted. You could feel the tightness in your throat threatening more tears, but you refused to cry over this boy any longer. "I'll be okay, I just... I remember it all too well right now."

You turned to your dad, eyes welling up again. "I'm sorry I ignored when you said to run as fast as I can from all the boys I ever met." You chuckled, trying to relieve the tension.

Tony pulled you into a tight hug. "You'll be okay again, princess." You nodded, leaning into the hug. Everyone ended up piling on, offering you words of comfort through the group hug.

A couple weeks later, and you honestly felt better. Not all the way, but enough to want to go out with friends again. You went roller skating with Peter, MJ, and Ned.

It was the next logical step, going out with friends. It made sense. It was working.

Until you saw him. Jared was there with some other girl, skating without a care in the world. Of course, he saw you. He had the audacity to smile and wave, as if he didn't just break your heart.

When he walked up to you, you knew you had enough.

"Don't you smile at me and ask me how I've been. Don't you say you've missed me if you don't want me again." You spit the words at him, trying to hide how much it hurt. You turned away from him, nearly running from the rink before you even put the skates on.

You friends followed you out, profusely denying the need for your abundant apologies.

Ned and MJ hugged you before leaving, figuring less people would be better for you. Peter took you back to the tower, trying to help soothe the lingering ache.

"I just don't understand." You whispered from the passenger side of the car. "Why would he want to break a perfectly good heart?"

Peter struggled to come up with an answer, knowing nothing he said would really fix it.

"You'll find someone else. Someone who won't break your heart." He settled on a vague nod toward the future, knowing anything else could lead to him potentially ruining your friendship.

Unbeknownst to Peter, his words broke your heart just a little more. You always had a soft spot for Peter, and the few weeks you've been broken up from Jared have made you see him in a new light.

Of course, you wouldn't make a move though. Not yet. You didn't want him to think he was just a rebound. He's your best friend. It's too important to mess up with feelings.

You woke up the next morning with a slew of messages from Jared.

This is me swallowing my pride... telling you I'm sorry for that night.

I go back to December all the time.

It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you.

I'm wishing I realized what I had when you were mine.

You deleted them immediately, not wanting to fall back into his trap. Ultimately though, you decided to respond. You wanted to lay it all out that he missed his chance. You were over him, even if it still hurt.

I've lived, and I've learned. Had you, got burned. I'm over it, Jared. Leave me alone.

Then you deleted his contact and blocked the number. He couldn't just say those hurtful things to you and then pretend like it was a mistake. He meant every word he said that night, even if he doesn't believe it now.

Another week went by without incident. You were all smiles all the time, really moving on from him and the pain he put you through.

Then you got a letter. It looked like a card, so you figured it was an early Valentine's card.

Opening it up proved it to be just that.

The inside read:

"I don't wanna miss you like this. I don't wanna need you this way. Come back. Be here."

Signed from Jared with hearts.

Of course you chose to open the card as soon as you got it, with everyone watching.

Your expression fell as the words sank in, knowing he was still trying did weird things to your heart. It made you question everything. Did he really care about you? Was he just bored?

You stared at the card for what felt like an eternity before ripping it up and rolling your eyes.

Of course he doesn't care. Nobody who says to your face that they never loved you cares.

"What was that?" Wanda asked, curious about the mixture of emotions present on your face.

"A load of utter horse shit." You huffed a laugh as you threw away the pieces.

"Language!" Tony called, always taking the opportunity to tease Steve.

"Well it was!" You defended, eager to move on from the conversation. They all stared at you expectantly, clearly waiting for an explanation. "It was from Jared." You were glad Peter was sitting next to you. Just the mention of his name had him rubbing your back, trying to make it easier for you.

"You know, now that I'm sitting here thinking it through. I've never been anywhere cold as him."

You felt another group hug coming on, so you quickly excused yourself to shower, reassuring everyone that you were fine.

You were laying on the floor, feet up against the wall, just staring at the ceiling when Bucky and Peter walked into the gym to train with you.

"Hey, Y/N." Bucky called, a questioning look in his eyes.

"What's going on in your head?" Peter added, spelling out the question for you.

"I knew he was trouble when I met him." You answered him honestly. "And yet, I still said yes when he asked me out." You shook your head, still staring at the ceiling.

"Hey, hindsight is 20/20. Don't beat yourself up about it." Bucky chimed in, knowing how it feels to blame yourself for things that weren't your fault.

"Are you offering then?" You stood up, accepting Peter's hand to aid you. You brushed any lingering dirt from your clothes, laughing at Bucky's confused expression. "For me to beat you up instead?"

The three of you had a good laugh before you got to work training.

Three months post breakup and you're feeling great. At least, you're feeling great most of the time.

"Hey Y/N! What are you doing tonight?" Peter questioned as he walked up beside you in the lab, pulling out the tools he'll need.

"I don't know, nothing specific I guess." You try to remember any plans you had, but nothing comes to mind.

"Perfect. MJ, Ned, and I are going to go roller skating again. I thought maybe you'd wanna come?" He's clearly nervous, unsure if this would help or hinder your progress.

You nod your head, thinking it over. "You know what, I'm in." The determination in your voice catches Peter off guard.

"Cool, um, great. I guess you're doing better then?" He's still nervous, but eager to finally get you to fully open up to someone about everything.

"Yep. Anytime I get sad, I think of something shitty he did to remind me I'm better off." You smile, knowing he was going to ask for examples.

"Really? Like what?" You can't help but laugh lightly, enjoying how well you know Peter.

"Some vague things, like how he would look at me when he was annoyed. Like those eyes add insult to injury, you know?" He nods, but doesn't really understand.

"Or more specific examples, like that birthday party where you all kept asking me about him, and I made excuses, but truth is he just blew me off. That one honestly should've been the moment I knew."

"He did what?" Peter was livid, but trying to contain the rage to that of a concerned friend rather than jealous crush.

"Eh, I'm over it. It's pretty easy to focus on the bad aspects of the relationship when it ended so badly." You shrug, turning back to the circuit board you were working on.

"How, um, how exactly did it end?" He wondered aloud, knowing you hadn't fully told anyone yet. He watched as you tensed slightly before shaking it off.

"That's a story for another time Pete." You managed a tight smile, not wanting to delve into that conversation just yet.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." You mumbled under your breath.

You had been skating with Peter, Ned, and MJ for about an hour when he walked in.

Peter followed your line of sight, trying to understand your mumbling. When his eyes caught sight of Jared, he panicked.

"Y/N, I'm so sorry! I really thought this would help you this time." He rubbed his hands down his face, silently cursing himself for putting you in this position again.

"Don't worry about it Pete. I'm more prepared to handle it this time around." You laughed, watching out of the corner of your eye as Jared approached you.

"Y/N... I, uh, I've been trying to talk to you." He started boldy, not really caring that you weren't even looking at him.

You did your best to ignore him, but he grabbed your arm to stop you from skating away.

"Y/N, come on-"

"No." You spit at him, not letting him get under your skin. "People like you always want back the love they pushed aside, but people like me are gone forever when you say goodbye."

You yanked your arm out of his hand, turning back to your friends. "Let's keep skating. I have no reason to run away."

Peter watched, bewildered as you confidently skated across the rink.

The morning of what would be your three year anniversary with Jared felt weird. You weren't upset anymore, but the lingering nostalgia of celebrating an anniversary clung to you.

You deleted the email reminding you of the plans you were supposed to have that evening.

You sighed heavily as you walked into the kitchen, still trying to clear your head.

"You good?" Peter questioned, easily spotting that something was off.

"Yeah, it's just... I don't miss him. At all. I'm over it, but today would've been our anniversary..."

Peter nodded, trying to understand what you were feeling.

"It's strange to think the songs we used to sing, the smiles, the flowers, everything... is gone." You told him the truth, trying not to hide your feelings.

Maybe you should be over it by now, but you spent the majority of your high school career with that guy. It sucks to think it was all a waste.

He pulled you into a hug, rubbing your back to comfort you.

"I mean, not to state the obvious, but I didn't get my perfect fantasy with Jared." You huffed, rolling your eyes.

"You'll find your perfect someone." He smiled, unaware of the fluttering in your stomach telling you that maybe you already had.

"Yeah, someone who won't say to my face that he never really loved me." You muttered, feeling the rage burn inside you again.

"He's an ass." You hugged him tighter, enjoyed the feeling of being in his arms.

Peter slowed as he walked past your door, listening as the songs changed. He recognized the intro as a song from folklore, but he wasn't sure exactly which one.

"I'm doing good. I'm on some new shit." You sang loudly unaware of listening ears outside the door.

Peter smiled, walking away so as not to interrupt your healing process again.

Meanwhile, you floated around your room, nearly screaming the along to the breakup songs as you finally rid yourself of any lingering items relating to Jared.

"But it's wonderful to see that it never phased you!" You grinned as you threw it all away, ready to fully move on.

When the elevator doors opened, Peter was assaulted with the blaring sounds of none other than Taylor Swift.

Apparently, you moved your dance party from your room to the living room, thinking you had the space to yourself for a little while.

He watched as you danced around the room, singing and smiling to your heart's content.

"So he calls me up, and he's like 'I still love you' and I'm like, "I'm just, this is exhausting you know, like..." You caught Peter's smile out of the corner of your eye, fully turning to look at him as you belted out the next line. "We are never getting back together. Like ever. Noooo."

You grab his hands, forcing him to dance and twirl around with you as the song comes to an end.

"I take it your really feeling better." Peter smiles, overjoyed to see you looking so exuberant.

"I am." You nod, keeping it simple.

"No more thoughts about Jared?" He questioned, smiling when you didn't even flinch at his name.

"Nope. I forgot that he existed." You smiled cheekily, still dancing although you turned the music down.

"That's good, then." Peter smiled, suddenly nervous. If you truly had moved on, maybe now was his chance.

"Hey Pete?" You questioned, smiling shyly.

"Yeah?" He stood in front of you, unsure of where this was going.

"I realized something this morning." You whispered, nervous for his response, but dying to tell him the truth.

"Yeah?" He waited, eager to know what you were hiding.

You pressed a quick kiss to his lips before pulling back, watching as he slowly grinned.

"Why'd you do that?" He asked, stunned but grinning like an idiot.

"'Cause, I like you," you smiled, but quickly added 'but I know that it's delicate."

"I wouldn't worry too much about that." He stated, wrapping his arms around your waist.

"No?" You leaned into his touch, feeling like you were on cloud nine.

"Nope. Cause I like you too."

He pulled you in for a deeper kiss, celebrating the beginning of this new stage of your relationship.

Permanent tag list:

@averyhotchner @jesuswasnotawhiteman

#peter parker x reader #peter parker x you #peter parker x y/n #marvel #maarvel fic #mcu #peter parker fluff #peter parker angst #peter parker fic #avengers x reader #peter parker x Stark!reader

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meant-to-be-a-hero · 3 years

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Ranger Rankings - Power Rangers Dino Charge/Dino Super Charge

Spoiler alert - these two were really great.

Premise - 4.5

The Energems give the team a reason to come together, and to stay together until everything's sorted. We've already had multiple dinosaur themed seasons, but this one really uses dinosaurs as a backdrop even moreso than Dino Thunder did, right up to the very end.

The mythology around the Energems evolves nicely, and it feels like something that's constantly important rather than just relevant when the plot demands it.

The museum setting works really well (although how many people need to work in a café at once?) and the idea of an intergalactic bounty hunter has been played with before, but these seasons really go in on that a bit more.

The only problem I have is that they could have been a little more serialised in the search for the Energems they didn't have, a la Operation Overdrive.

Character Dynamics - 4.5

This season's characters are all so good, I don't even know where to start. Everyone's totally different, and they take a little while to get to know one another and grow into their own. But they're all totally formed characters rather than just bullet point character traits, and they're all believable too.

Everyone has an arc, even people like Kendall who only really comes out of the cave when she needs to yell at people initially, and it doesn't feel like the story's weighted in anyone's favour particularly. Even Tyler, whose quest for his dad feels super-important, doesn't override everyone else's stories.

I just really love these idiots. They're all so good.

Sixth Ranger Arc - 4.5

If we just limit this to Ivan, then it's probably a 3.5 or something. He's great, but he does fade into the background a little every now and then after his initial arc. He gets some fun spotlights though, and I liked the relationship between him and Koda as men out of time.

But this season had the most Rangers ever on a team, so the entire series basically becomes a Sixth Ranger arc, because after Ivan and Phillip (who turn up in quick succession) there's James, Kendall, and Zenowing to take into account, and with each successive Ranger the team grows stronger and has even more interactions to balance.

Phillip's probably the least developed of them all - he has his initial arc of learning not to throw money and things and not to be a pompous ass, but after that he kind of just shows up as needed for Sentai footage. He's a good guy, but he does become a little faceless.

James' plotline takes its time to get going, but I liked his interplay with Tyler a lot. They actually had plausible reasons for him to go off and do his own thing too, I'm glad they took the time to explain his absences.

And Zenowing, who I thought would be daft, was actually a decent addition to the team. He's again totally different to everyone else, and he does have a role to play rather than just standing in the background.

Oh, and Kendall becoming a Ranger and just taking it in her stride and no one questioning her on it at all? Yeah, we like that.

Plot Development - 4

I'm proud of these seasons for having plots that thread through both Dino Charge and Super Dino Charge rather than just closing everything down at the end of one to start something new. Samurai did it too to an extent, whereas Megaforce you could basically cut down the middle. Dino Charge and Super Dino Charge really do feel like evolutions of one another.

The search for the Energems is a good impetus to keep everything going, and it presents good reasons for the villains to keep going after the Rangers specifically so they can take them back, rather than just attacking the Rangers because they're in the way.

If anything, there can sometimes be a few too many one-and-done episodes where the villains JUST go after the Rangers, which stalls the momentum somewhat, but you can't say that the threat doesn't escalate as the plot goes on. Compare where we start with where we end and it's such a huge difference.

Villains - 4.5

I don't think I've had as much fun with villains in a season since Lothor or Dai Shi.

Sledge could easily have become one-dimensional, but his relationships with everyone else on the ship kept him interesting. I never knew whether he was going to yell at Poisandra or kiss her.

Speaking of, Poisandra was hilarious. Again, she could have been far too one note, but they made her interesting in her own right by giving her her own plans, and Curio, while a tad bland, was a good straight man for her plots.

I did get a little bored of Fury by the end, but at least they kept him relevant by having him face off with other generals. It's nice when the good guys get along, but it's better when the bad guys don't. I also really liked Wrench, who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty even though he was the tech guy.

I do think Dino Super Charge has the better villains though; Heckyl and Snide were a good pair, and Heckyl's eventual face turn was actually a nice surprise. The idea that he wasn't evil at all until the Dark Energem was well handled, and while his redemption arc came right at the last minute, it did feel complete and earned.

I also really liked Lord Arcanon and Singe; they ran the risk of being too little, too late, coming in with only like 8 episodes of a season left, but they had history with the other villains that made them relevant, and Arcanon's overblown sense of self-importance made him fun too.

Overall - 4.40

Hottest Ranger - Oh god, this one's far too hard. It's like a four-way tie between Tyler, Chase, Riley, and Koda, all for different reasons. Stick them in a blender and give me the perfect Ranger.

Notable Episodes:

When Logic Fails - A crystal maze-esque episode which shows off Riley's unique talents.

Wishing For A Hero - The Rangers make wishes that all go terribly, terribly wrong.

Love At First Fight - Mostly for Beauticruel's terrible accent.

Freaky Fightday - Body swap episode? Body swap episode.

Edge Of Extinction/End Of Extinction - World-wide Zord fights! Time travel! A black hole! A happy ending!

I'd also like to mention how good all four holiday specials were. They're all clip shows, but they have such good, fun set-ups that they're not a chore to watch like the holiday specials usually are. Trick Or Trial was especially good.

#Ranger Rankings #Power Rangers Dino Charge #Power Rangers Dino Super Charge

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cheri-translates · 3 years

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[CN] Season 2 Summary (Volume 3: Ch 6 - 9)

🍒 Warning: Detailed spoilers from S2 🍒

Along with the update on 3 June 2021, the CN server released a “Plot Review” which contains bullet-point summaries of S2 :>

Volume 2 Summary: here

You and Shaw are in the middle of the railway tracks. Watching as the train gets closer and closer, Shaw shields you, leaving the tracks

All of a sudden, two more people make an entrance. Shaw hides you, then confronts the two of them by himself. They appear to be investigating something. It’s a pity that before they can ask about anything, the entire passage collapses abruptly

Fortunately, Shaw brings you out safely. The misunderstanding between the both of you is cleared up

With your deliberately designed “trick” during the conversation, Shaw tells you that he came here to investigate a historical ruins. Since you’re also investigating it, you hope that Shaw can share and exchange resources

“Fine, I promise you.”

You head to the Black Swan building to attend a board meeting. During the meeting, the members of the organisation once again use the “Small Syringes” incident to criticise you. The BOSS, Victor, doesn’t say a word

“Without my permission, you’re not allowed to do investigations in private.”

Knowing that Victor is worried about your safety, inexplicable emotions occupy your heart

Afterwards, you realise that Victor met with a second shooting incident at the roof of LFG last week! Very quickly, you discover that the weapons were purchased by Gray Rhino. But these overt clues seem to be part of a scheme, making you recall the Evolver assassination incidents from before

In the evening, you’re held under duress by Set, an ex-member of Black Swan. He is seeking to find experimental records related to CORE from 17 years ago

According to information he somehow acquired from Gray Rhino, these records will appear in an auction this evening. At this moment, Victor appears, and willingly follows along

At the venue of the auction, the surroundings suddenly turn pitch-black following a loud cracking sound. In the chaos, you decide to seize this opportunity to search for that document. Unexpectedly, someone got to it first. Based on the memories you read, the document should have been entrusted to a bank, and placed in a safe vault

However, when the safe is opened up, there’s nothing inside. It turns out that this incident was a trap

Pretending to have the documents, you plan to flee with Victor while tossing them to Set. However, Victor brings you to a lift in the depths of the safe vault. What’s above is actually a building of a bank

In a small room, Victor stands before the window, looking at the quiet and pitch-black street. For now, the both of you are safe

“We need to find a way to leave.”

Victor heads outside. While you’re pondering over the incident in the room alone, the surveillance monitor outside the door shows that someone’s coming. After a moment of contemplation, you leap off the balcony, planning to use the balcony underneath the window as a buffer

While falling, you can feel time pausing for an instant

Because Victor was worried about your safety, he used his Evol

The car meant for the evacuation has been prepared. After having a change of clothes, Victor takes you out of this place. Perhaps furious at how you acted presumptuously without considering your own safety, Victor remains silent during the journey

You understand that he’s worried about you, and try to show that you’ve reflected upon yourself

“At all times, you have to take care of yourself for me.”

In the Black Swan building, the two of you analyse that the dangers from yesterday seemed to be a test. Victor gives you a document - in the capacity of a punter, he has entered the Hunter Game

His trust, a sense of security, and the motivation to get things done - you know that these are things Victor has given to you

"All you have to focus on is taking large strides and continue running forward.”

After parting ways with Victor, you return to your usual work

“Miracle Finder” has been receiving extensive attention recently due to the past spate of incidents

You discover that Lucien has expressed his support for the show on the internet

After expressing your gratitude to Lucien, you invite him to a hospital which exclusively admits Evolvers for treatments. There, you interview people who have used the “Small Syringes”, gathering materials for a show

In the middle of an interview, the director of the hospital tells the both of you that a few Evolvers who used the “Small Syringes” experienced pathological changes. However, Lucien points out that the pathological changes may not have a causal relation with the “Small Syringes”

You and Lucien delve further into the topic of Evol. When the topic of Evol and evolution crops up, he invites you to attend an external class he’s conducting at a museum which has “evolution” as its theme

The next day, you head there as agreed

While having a look around, Lucien engages his students in a scientific debate related to “evolution” and “sacrifice”

His thoughts have never changed. However, your way of thinking has changed from before, back when you had no idea about anything

You notice that there’s a stone tablet in the museum with the symbol “8″ engraved on it

“The beginning and ending of a civilisation is akin to this symbol - its start and end are linked together.”

After sending the students back on the bus, you and Lucien take a stroll along the seaside. All of a sudden, you hear an inexplicable electronic sound announcing that the both of you are currently in the Hunter Game

While discussing with Lucien whether the game could be an imitation of the experiment from 17 years ago, you ask him to hide in a police box that you can “see”. At this moment, you suddenly find yourself falling back into the museum from earlier. But when you take a careful look, the surroundings turn into a patch of empty space

Only now do you realise that everything you “saw” earlier could have been an illusion

On the other side, Lucien never actually saw that police box you mentioned. Right now, he can see that you’re in an open and spacious room, feeling around the walls

Lucien realises that there seems to be a glass separating the both of you. Neither of you can hear the other party

Lucien places his hand on the glass. At this moment, you happen to press your hand there too, covering his palm which is separated by the glass

“Why... why exactly are you...”

You finally locate the “hidden button” separating illusion from reality, leaving this strange space and joining Lucien

The abrupt electronic sound rings again. Before you, the scene instantly morphs into an abandoned building. Other players chase after the both of you, engaging in close combat

You and Lucien discuss your current situations in the game, and how to escape

“We have a simpler way.”

Making use of the folding space, Lucien instantly brings you back to the seaside during the stroll earlier

You ask Lucien if he believes that the world can go backwards while making forward progress

Lucien says that if civilisation exists in a cycle, it is possible for the world to reflect the past. But the further one walks forward, the more opportunities one has to seize one’s own destiny

“Being able to persist in your dreams is already very good.”

A few days later, Shaw takes you to the antique store to exchange leads as promised

“Returning to the main point, get that painted scroll, and be gentle.”

Faced with your series of questions, Shaw says that these symbols are merely totems. No one knows what’s within the ruins, and wanting to get in poses great difficulty

While speaking, a man clothed in black barges in, demanding leads from Shaw

Naturally unwilling to give in obediently, Shaw and the man are embroiled in a fight. In order to assist Shaw, you work together with him. By overturning a gigantic water jar, the water guides the electricity, successfully striking the man clothed in black

Not wanting the man to leave, Shaw sends you away in a hurry

“I’m tired. I’ll leave the investigation to you.”

Behind you, a wounded Shaw sits in the antique store by himself, his body temperature abnormally high

You and Savin are at the airport to pick Kiro up from his overseas trip where he “took a breather”. In actual fact, his location was unknown. While you’re feeling uneasy, and didn’t expect him to actually appear

When you and Kiro return to the rehearsal room, he quickly pulls you into an embrace

You repeatedly ask Kiro why he had to remain in the arena the last time, what happened afterwards, and why he had to hide it from you

“But when you’re with me, I always can’t help but worry about you, and hope you can be as far away from this place as possible.”

You suddenly receive an anonymous phone call which tells you to put a stop to today’s news conference. However, you ignore it

When the event is about to begin, Savin can’t be found. While you’re feeling confused, you and Kiro receive a disjointed call from him. Locating his position, the two of you realise that he’s on an empty train which should have ceased operations, but is moving forward

Ah Liu, who has the ability to transfer objects, sends you and Kiro onto the train to find Savin. Aside from that, you spot a youth

This youth is called Xiao Nan, and he has an Evol related to magnetic fields. He’s the one who made the train move, and plans to cause the train to go off the rails, crashing into the civilians who have gathered to attend Kiro’s conference for his new song. He had warned you about cancelling the conference, but you had failed to note just how critical the situation was back then

Through sieving through Xiao Nan’s memories, you discover that Gray Rhino had instigated him into doing work for the organisation as he was bullied and humiliated since young for having Evol

The youth wants to leave this extreme organisation, but he’s afraid because he has done wrong things. Kiro reassures him by talking about his own experiences in youth, which are similar to Xiao Nan’s. He also tells the youth that he has to face his difficulties with courage, and find his place in the world

The youth is finally swayed, and he does his best to stop the train

Unfortunately, the train continues to travel due to inertia. Kiro tells you to leave first and evacuate the crowd in the plaza. Meanwhile, he will stay behind to think of a way to stop the train

In order to draw the crowd away, you change into a teddy bear mascot costume, announcing that this is one phase of Kiro’s announcement of his new song

The fans are successfully drawn away, but you end up being chased by them. When you’re at your wit’s end, someone suddenly grabs your hand. He removes your headgear - it’s Kiro

“Not a minute or second late. I’m punctual for the appointment.”

Kiro brings you through small corners to leave the crowd, then returns to the stage at the conference, bringing the event to a perfect end

During the celebratory banquet, Kiro sees that you have a worried expression on your face. He reassures you earnestly that as long as you’re by his side, he’s happy

The night grows dark, and a dash of silver flashes on the roof of the Black Swan building - it’s Helios

He appears to be talking to someone

I’m not helping you to do anything. You have no right to give me orders.

Not long after you leave the building, Helios hops back in, and he sees the experiment report you left behind

“I command the both of you - forget everything that happened earlier.”

You receive a call from Gavin - he needs your help

In the STF, Gavin mentions that he has a unique witness, and he needs the help of your Evol to read his memories

It turns out that someone was shot at the train station, and the witness happens to be an elderly man who is blind. You do your best, concentrating to sense what you can. Unfortunately, you aren’t of much help

While Gavin sends you back, the both of you pass by a stall. You make the impulsive decision to pull him along to play a shooting game

While leaving, the sky suddenly begins to pour. Gavin removes his jacket and covers the roof of your heads

“Let’s go. The journey isn’t long. I’ll send you home.”

You suddenly recall that in high school, Gavin coursed through the curtain of rain just like this. Everything seems to a certain miraculous overlap

Not long after, another Evolver dies an unnatural death, and you realise that the victim is Xiao Nan

Faced with the death of this youth, you’re unwilling to sit by and do nothing. While investigating the scene of the crime, you spot a suspicious man. Chasing after him, you arrive at an unfinished building. Unexpectedly, you meet Gavin in the building

You explain why you've appeared in the building to Gavin, and he tells you that he’s currently on a mission, and suggests that the both of you look around for leads

“Right now, staying by my side is the safest.”

When you step on a protruding object, a gigantic explosion causes the ground to turn into an artificial precipice. The man who lured you here reveals himself

During this confrontation, the ceiling above you explodes and collapses. It seems that this was a trap to lure the STF over

You toss out a mini flash bomb, then pull Gavin along to escape. After conjecturing that there are many automatic explosives in this building, Gavin holds onto you, using his Evol to send the both of you to the 30th floor

After finding the main device and wanting to dismantle it, the man appears again, lifting his gun and taking aim at the device

The man is extremely enraged with the STF, as though the STF has concealed an important truth

You confront the man while Gavin focuses on dismantling the device. At a crucial point, you shoot the man in the lower leg to stop him from taking action. As expected, Gavin successfully dismantles the device

“Only when you're alive can you find the truth that you seek.”

Likely moved by Gavin’s determination, the man chooses to trust Gavin, and asks him about something before he leaves

You and Gavin finally leave the building. He carries you as he flies into the city. Feeling his warmth, you feel incomparably at ease

Right after reaching the ground, a young man dressed in uniform requests for you to cooperate with him in an investigation, as you’ve become a suspect for the Evolver assassination incidents. He also provides evidence that are stacked against you

Even though all the evidence is unfavourable to you, Gavin says that he will investigate the truth of the case, and will definitely protect you

“Regardless of position, I’ll never let you get caught up in danger.”

Volume 4 (Ch 10 - 13): here