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nightingaelic · 3 years

Note

Reactions to a vampire courier? Companions plus Benny, Ulysses, Graham, House, Caesar, and Yes Man. (sorry if that's too many :x)

TW: Blood (maybe obviously)

Also I don't normally feel some type of way about AUs but the idea of Joshua Graham encountering a vampire courier is giving me shivers

The courier was a little... strange. Not in any way that stood out to the average wastelander just by looking at them, everyone in the Mojave had their quirks and the courier was no exception. Hell, you get shot in the head and come back, you're bound to have a screw or two loose. They were unquestionably a night owl, but so were half the people on the Strip, who only started to wake up after the sun had gone down and the slot machines were singing their loudest. They usually had bags under their bloodshot eyes, but every caravan driver from here to the Hub was short on sleep.

On the other hand, the courier had some habits that were a little beyond surface-level eccentricities. For one, no one had ever seen them eating, not once. Even when the King laid out a spread of pre-war snacks and liquor or when the buffet at the Tops was refreshed, they politely declined and took a swig from the canteen that they never offered to anyone else. They were also rather odd about bathrooms, insisting that anyone accompanying them remain outside on watch and let no one else through the door until they were finished. But the undeniable moment of oddity came one night in October, when their companion rounded a corner in Freeside after a trip to the Atomic Wrangler and discovered the courier behind a rusted dumpster, holding a man against a brick wall with their teeth buried in his neck.

The courier drew back at the interruption, blood smeared across their face. "I'm not- it's not what- he- oh, fuck."

Arcade Gannon: Arcade stared open-mouthed for a moment, before snapping violently back into the present. "Is he dead?"

"Umm..." The courier glanced at the man they were holding, whose head was lolling against the bricks. "Yes? Mostly."

With no patient to resuscitate, Arcade rounded on them. "Six, what in the ever-loving fuck are you doing?"

The courier tried to wipe away the blood that was dribbling from their chin, but they only succeeded in spreading it up their jawline. "Well, I, um, I was trying to..."

Whatever excuse they were searching for eluded them, so they dropped the pretense. "I was feeding, Arcade."

"Feeding? What, like some kind of-" Arcade's eyes widened and he cut his sentence off early in realization. "No. No way. That's not- vampires aren't real!"

That earned him a look of intense skepticism. "Arcade, we've fought off plant monsters and rattlesnake-coyote hybrids together. I have a gun in my pack that lets me teleport."

"Oh, okay, so you have some kind of iron deficiency and you're delusional." Arcade laughed, the sound high and harsh in the quiet alley. "Great. Fuck."

Craig Boone: Rather than engage in an abandoned alley, Boone immediately backtracked to a busier street. He was unsurprised when the courier didn't follow him: Even in Freeside, someone covered in blood was sure to be noticed and questioned.

Boone left town that night and made for Novac. He was pretty sure the courier would follow him, but he didn't know where else to go. At least he knew they were coming. A few people in Novac asked about where he'd been, what the courier was up to, but eventually they stopped asking.

A couple of weeks went by. Boone was on the night shift again when the door into the dinosaur swung open to reveal the courier. He'd heard someone coming, their feet on the stairs, and he already had his gun pointed in their face. "We will never work together again," he said, before they could open their mouth.

"Boone, can you just-"

"I don't want an explanation." Boone shook his head. "I don't need one. I already did you a favor, leaving New Vegas without putting you back in your grave. This is over."

The courier took a deep breath. "71."

"What?"

"71. I've killed 71 Legion soldiers and left their bodies empty under the Mojave sky." They looked down and shuffled their feet. "I've tasted their fear. They're more scared of me than the Burned Man, now."

Boone studied them. Ever so slowly, he lowered his gun.

Lily Bowen: "Put him down, dearie," Lily chastised them. "You're playing too roughly with that man. And watch your language around your grandma!"

The courier looked down at their victim, at their torn throat and limp limbs. "He tried to mug me, Lily. It wasn't pretty."

"He looks like he's had enough," Lily insisted. "Set him down. Gently."

With a sigh, the courier obliged and lowered the man to the ground. "I'm sorry, Lily. I should have told you earlier. I don't mean to be rude when I turn down your cooking, I just... I can't seem to..."

"Hush, now." Lily produced her enormous handkerchief and gathered the courier up in her arms, dabbing at the blood on their face with a corner of the cloth. "You've gotten it all over yourself, haven't you? We can clean that right up, but it looks like Grandma's going to have to do a load of laundry. You made the mess, so you get to help."

Raul Alfonso Tejada: Raul swallowed nervously, something he'd noticed he was increasingly doing around the courier. "You know, we get murciélagos down in Arizona that do the same thing. They won't leave the brahmin alone."

The courier took in his anxious stance and sighed. "Raul, I'm not going to hurt you. Prometo. It's okay."

"Sure boss, but I don't think the hair on the back of my neck is going down anytime soon." Raul smiled, but it was more of a grimace. "Or it wouldn't, if I still had any. Como..?"

"No clue." The courier shrugged and held their hands up, letting the corpse they'd been holding slide to the ground. "I think it had something to do with me surviving Benny's best attempts to do me in, but a bullet is a bullet and I don't remember if I was like this before, or..."

"Or only after." Raul chuckled. "Jesucristo, and here I am thinking I'll outlive you like most everyone else I've known."

"Yep."

"Should I start calling you el chupacabra?"

The courier grinned, a bloody smile with sharp teeth.

Rose of Sharon Cassidy: "Fuck," Cass echoed, scrambling to pull her shotgun from its holster. "Knew I had too much, can't even- who are you and what've you done with the courier? Some kind of cannibal, wearing their skin? Alien? Shapeshifter? I'll blow a hole in your liver to match mine!"

"Whoa, Cass, it's me, it's me!" The courier dropped the man they were holding and held their blood-stained hands up. "Same old Six, just... maybe I wasn't straight with you about why I don't order anything at bars."

"Goddamn right you weren't straight with me!" Cass gestured at the body on the ground with the barrel of her gun. "Who's the fucker on the floor and why are you two pints in on him?"

"Just trying to get my drink on," the courier muttered.

Cass repaid this facetiousness with a jab of her shotgun, and they raised their hands higher. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry! You tell me, how do you tactfully tell someone that you're a creature of the night and you need to drink blood to survive?"

"Creature of the night? You're fucking loopy." Cass' eyes narrowed. "There's plenty of critters in the Mojave that only come out when it's dark, but most of them don't tear into..."

She trailed off into curses when she realized she was wrong. The courier smiled hesitantly and lowered their hands an inch. "Hey. Let me chuck this failed mugger in the dumpster and we can talk about it like a pair of civilized folks?"

Veronica Santangelo: Veronica squeaked and fell back a few steps, banging her elbow against the edge of the dumpster. A jolt of confused pain shot up her arm, and the Scribe couldn't help giggling harshly at the sudden assault on her funny bone.

"Not- laughing... at murder," she managed to get out between hisses of pain. "Oh, for the love of... right, you're not getting out of explaining what you are, exactly, just because I'm indis-indisposed!"

The courier couldn't help laughing at the squirming Scribe, but they did their best to stifle it. "Sorry, I'm sorry, I um... I guess I don't really know... what I am?"

"There's books!" Veronica burst out, pointing at the courier and their victim wildly. "I've seen them, in old libraries. Creatures that feed on blood, only come out at night, don't show up in... in mirrors, of course, no wonder you're weird about bathrooms, I should test... Dracula! That's it, you're a Dracula!"

"A Dracula?" The courier held their hands up, as if seeing them anew. "Never heard of them. Are they... bad?"

"Well, traditionally, yes." Veronica made a face and rubbed her elbow. "Black cloaks, sleeping in coffins, seducing and manipulating everyone around them... and people don't like it when you take their blood, in my experience."

"Whose blood have you taken?"

"This isn't about me, Six!"

ED-E: The eyebot bobbed wildly and made noises of concern, blips and blats and a flat burst of trumpets from some old jazz tune.

"I was hungry," the courier protested. "And this asshole pulled a knife on me and wanted all of my caps. Probably more than that, if we're being honest. He wasn't doing the world any good, but he did me some, for sure."

ED-E flipped between old clips of a Silver Shroud radio show. "Well, isn't this a deep, dark <static> secret? <static> In a situation such as this, the best anyone can do is <static> try to control it!" The robot added some more concerned beeps for good measure.

"I'm trying," the courier said with a sigh, looking down at the dead man they were holding. "You know I wouldn't hurt some random person, ED-E. Not if I could help it. The Mojave's full of bad people, enough to keep me going if I'm careful."

Rex: The hair on Rex's spine stood up, and he let out a long, low growl. The courier froze for a moment, before realizing that he was growling not at them but at the man they were holding.

"He's dead, Rex," they reassured the cyberdog, lowering the corpse to the floor for inspection.

Rex sniffed the body over, taking in the copper scent of his blood and the Freeside stink on his clothes. He sniffed the courier too, each of their hands they held out to him and the thick headiness of adrenaline. He whined and wagged his tail twice.

"Good boy," the courier said, straightening up. "It's about time I turned in, anyway. Let's dump this guy and split."

Benny Gecko: Benny crossed his arms. "You know, Six, if you're dead set on getting your kicks in Freeside every now and then, you might want to ease up on the passions with the next greaser you snag. This one's torn all to pieces."

"I wasn't- what kind of-" The courier dropped the man they were holding and sputtered. "Christ, only you could make a midnight murder awkward, Benny."

"Murder?" Benny raised his eyebrows and looked from side to side theatrically. "Who said anything about a murder? All I saw was some dreamboat and the best apple butterer of New Vegas playing back alley bingo, officer."

The courier's eyes narrowed. "Not gonna rat me out? Tell the King or somebody that I'm..."

"What, taking a page out of the White Glove Society's book?" Benny held his hands up. "None of my business. Well, if you ever come for me with that look in your eyes, though, that'll be a different story."

"Not much you'd be able to do," the courier pointed out. "You already tried and failed to kill me once."

Ulysses: Rather than react like any normal wastelander might've upon encountering someone attacking a man with their teeth, Ulysses just stood there, taking the scene in. "Heard tales of a tribe like you. East, farther east than even I've walked... a coven hiding in tunnels, emerging only when their hungers grow too strong to ignore, strong enough to pull blood from the veins of the world around them."

"Well, I don't hide in tunnels." The courier grimaced and heaved their victim up over their shoulder, depositing them unceremoniously in the dumpster. "Unless some disgruntled Frumentarius sends me out to hunt mutants under Hopeville."

"Perhaps you have more in common with those predators than I assumed," Ulysses admitted. "But then, your path has always run red. Blood of the Old World, blood of the new, blood of the Bull and the Bear..."

The courier rolled their eyes as they peeled off their red-stained coat and tossed it in the dumpster as well. "Don't talk to me about blood. I know you've seen just as much as me, but it doesn't mean the same thing when I look at it."

Ulysses cracked a hint of a smile. "You see life where I see death. Two sides, courier."

"Yeah, yeah. If you're not going to try to kill me, come on. You can wax poetic and lecture me about which road I'm walking while I take a shower."

Joshua Graham: "A creature far from God," Graham said in his most reproachful tone. "Forever damned for the souls of the innocent they've taken from the earth. Aren't we a pair, courier."

"You can fuck right off with that attitude." The courier dropped the man they were holding and wiped their hands on their coat. "He tried to kill me first. For some caps."

"The crimes of others do not absolve you of your own sins, courier," Graham continued, leisurely retrieving his gun from its holster. He held it up in the muted neon light that filtered through the alley, turning the weapon this way and that. "Though I confess I am also looking for absolution in this way."

"Are you going to kill me?" the courier asked, eyeing the gun as well.

"I've no doubt it would leave this world better than when you walked it," Graham replied. "But my own opinions are not enough to seal your fate. Perhaps we should find this man's family and hear their feelings on the matter."

The courier took a step forward, then another, until their chest was right up against the pistol's muzzle, pressed against the fabric of their shirt. "Go ahead. Try."

And though Joshua Graham was sorely tempted to pull the trigger, though the courier made no move to stop him, something in their eyes... some faraway pain, older than the desert itself, fresh as the blood on the ground, stayed his hand.

He lowered the gun, chastised, and the courier walked away.

Robert House: The Securitron that bore Robert House's face on its screen leveled a minigun at the courier. "Whoa!" the courier protested, dropping their victim and putting their hands out. "Can't we talk about this?"

"And what have we to discuss?" House sounded absolutely disgusted. "I believe you're familiar with my contract with the White Glove Society. If they wish to continue their current prosperity in New Vegas, cannibalism is strictly forbidden. You are subject to the same terms and conditions, as one of my employees."

"Terms and condi- hold on, hold on, you never asked me whether I was a cannibal," the courier replied. "Are you talking about that document you had me sign, way back when I agreed to help you fight the NCR and the Legion?"

"The very same."

"How is that fair? That thing was over 200 pages long, I didn't grow up in the 21st century, I don't have a degree in... okay, okay." The courier waved their hands. "Cannibalism is a no-go. This isn't cannibalism, this is vampirism."

"Which falls under the definition of cannibalism," House replied, his annoyed tone still detectable over the sound of the minigun spinning up. "Section 3.65, subsection F. Next time, read the fine print."

Caesar: The Legion's great leader pivoted in an instant from surprise to quiet anger. "Clean yourself up, courier. I expect to see you in my quarters within the hour."

He turned and left the alley swiftly, letting his powerful stride and swinging cloak cover his shaken confidence. The people of Freeside cowered as he passed, shrinking into the shadows as he made his way back to the Strip, but the fear in their eyes was not enough to erase the image of the courier bent over in bloodlust, holding their victim in total subjugation.

The courier found him on the top floor of the Lucky 38, gazing out over the city he had conquered and named his Rome. "Leave us," Caesar bid his Praetorian Guard. They bowed and departed the room without question.

"You asked to see me," the courier said nervously, shifting their weight from foot to foot. They had changed clothes, and no trace of blood remained on them.

"I did." Caesar beckoned them to the window next to him. They stood in silence for a moment, watching the lights wink below.

"I'm a well-read man, courier," Caesar said finally. "I know the legends of the Old World, and I recognize the marks of one of their nightmares in you. I order you to tell me the truth: Do you fit the full definition of the creature they called 'vampire,' or do you simply mimic the things to add to your fearsome affect?"

The courier didn't answer right away. When they did, their voice was soft. "I pretend to be nothing. I am what I am."

"And everything that comes with it?" Caesar pressed. "Darkness, the blood of the innocent, eternity?"

"Yes."

Caesar turned to face them fully. "Then I, Almighty Caesar, command you to make me as you are."

Yes Man: "Now that's a twist I didn't see coming!" Yes Man said, his happy tone only slightly tempered with uncertainty. "Boy, am I glad I don't have a circulatory system right now!"

The courier shushed the Securitron and looked around the alley surreptitiously. "Yes Man, I swear to god, if you blow my cover I'm disassembling you."

"As I've told you before, I can't technically die!" Yes Man reassured them. "And I certainly wouldn't want to endanger you and your hobbies, but my volume mixer is tied to my enthusiasm simulator and I can't adjust it! You'll just have to hope any passersby aren't interested in following my friendly voice into an alley!"

"Then go back to the Lucky 38 and we'll talk later," the courier insisted, through gritted teeth.

"I technically never left! But if you mean this Securitron, sure thing!" Yes Man zoomed away on his single wheel, whistling the whole way back to the casino where the rest of his consciousness was housed. He kept whistling as he ran probability algorithms, only pausing when the courier returned after a few hours and crossed their arms in front of his main screen.

"Hi there!" he said joyfully. "I've just been cross-checking Mr. House's records on noteworthy disappearances in the Strip, and I've flagged eight of them as potentially being connected to you! I don't want to assume your intentions, but if you don't want to be found out, I've developed a plan for choosing your next victims that will help you remain undetected in New Vegas for 184 years! Give or take a few!"

The courier put their head in their hand and sighed.

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havin-fun-imagining-twd · 2 years

Text

What’s worth going postal

When - several minutes after Two idiots. This is the last chapter before our sweet Sophia goes missing.

Relationships - burning slow, we’re setting up the foundation for a healthy Daryl x Reader relationship. And as always with found family, it’s also you and the gang! But it’s just you and Daryl until y’all reach the caravan again after your wild goose chase (no, really, you caught a goose).

Perspective - 2nd person

Pronouns - nada

Genre - light, you two are simply chatting on the way back to the cars.

Word count - 2,300

Stories referenced - How’s your head? Pt 1, “Deserved” Pt 1 and Pt 2, Ain’t nothin’..., Hell of a day, and Two idiots. Masterlist here if you would like to read more.

(everybody and their mother use this screenshot ^)

“So, Canada goose tastes nasty?”

“Real nasty.”

“What’s nasty about it?”

“Dunno. The flavor, I guess.”

After a pause, you slowly repeat to him “The flavor is what makes it taste nasty.”

With a quiet snort, he fixes his statement. “Real gamey, meat’s tough as hell, and there ain’t much fat in it.”

“Fantastic if you’re dieting, I guess,” you joke. As you both continue walking back through the woods to the caravan, you pull the green walkie out of your pocket, calling “Sophia?” This echoes into Daryl’s yellow walkie, and he reaches into his own pocket and pulls it out to switch his off.

Those three are part of a set. Kid walkies, but they’re rainproof and have decent range. Yours is the green one and you share it with Glenn during supply runs, Daryl uses the yellow one when he’s out on a hunt (when he’s not, Carl plays with it), and Sophia is holding onto the pink one that had been Amy’s.

After a few seconds, you hear back static as a small voice says “Hi, Y/N.”

“We’re on our way back, baby. Got us a goose.”

“I’ll tell your brother!” comes back garbled, but clear enough. Then Carol’s voice breaks through, asking “Be safe!”

“Thank you, and we will!” With that, you tuck it back into your pocket.

Daryl clears his throat. “Hey, um, I forgot to tell ya. Back when you asked over the walkie if I was okay, it alerted that pack of walkers that I was sneakin’ up behind them.”

“Oh shit, man.”

“Yeah.”

“The whole point of these things is to be able to see if someone’s safe or not,” you lament. “Maybe if we...turn them off and on? Does that make – no, never mind, that don’t make noise.”

“I already said I don’t think we should use ’em.”

“Not an option, man,” you quickly state.

With a scoff, he doesn’t reply back at first. After a few steps, he offers “Maybe we can...tap them?”

“Over the microphone part? Yeah, let’s see if that works.” Without awaiting a reply, you sprint off in the opposite direction until you’re far enough away that he shouldn’t hear when you scrape and tap the mic on the walkie. “Tell me how many times I tap it.”

“...Four.”

“Okay, now walk around and swish in the leaves and tell me how many times.”

“What?”

“Daryl, please?”

“Fine...” As he stomps around and kicks the sticks and twigs around, you tap two times, loudly.

“Did you hear that?”

“No. That’s why I said we shouldn’t even use them.”

“Try it one more time.”

You watch as he throws his hands up in annoyance, then stomps around again. “There a point to all this? Wait, what’s that noise you’re makin’?”

“Good, you heard it, then?” Jogging back over, you tell him “We can tap first, then scrape or maybe blow into it a little just in case they couldn’t hear the taps.”

“Why?”

“My thinkin’ is if somebody’s able to reply, they’ll talk. If not, they can tap or scrape back, too. Those noises ain’t so loud as to alert them but we’d notice them. I reckon, at least.”

He hums thoughtfully, but nothing further is exchanged.

As you two continue to weave between the trees, you keep glancing at the poor goose slung across his back that you’d shot.

He notices. “Did ya wanna carry it back ’cause you shot it?”

“No, thank you.” An uncomfortable pause follows, so you brush it off with “You aimed the crossbow, anyways. I only pulled the trigger, really.”

He squints over at you. “You a vegetarian or whatever before all this?”

“N-no. It just...” You pause to consider what you’re getting at. “It just hits different when you’re the one doin’ the hunting. I even feel sorry when I fish.” No way were you gonna tell him how you’ve kept a tally of the walkers you put down, as well.

A groan. “So you’re sad you shot the goose?”

“Kinda.” Then you add “But I know it’s necessary. That’s why I go out here with you.”

“Those kids gotta eat,” he states in agreement. “We all gotta eat.”

Huh. It’s interesting that his first statement was regarding the kids. Good interesting. Anyway, that comment reminds you of something from a couple of weeks ago at the quarry camp. “Daryl, remember the start of the, um, the bad day? Back at the quarry?”

“You mean the day all that shit went down?”

You nod. That day was the first morning with Rick there, the day Daryl found out his brother had been cuffed to a roof in Atlanta, the day you’d tried to beat up Ed (your bruise is almost healed, at least), and the day the camp got overrun during the fish fry.

It was also when Daryl finally brought a deer back to camp only to have a walker gnaw on it when he left it to quickly retrieve his bolts and pee.

“Carl wanted to help us bring the deer back, but Soph didn’t want to see the dead deer, so they ran off,” you tell him. Smiling, you hypothesize “Just watch, he’s gonna start beggin’ you to take him hunting, too. He asked me if you’d let him a just couple days ago.” That boy is his father through and through.

“What’d you tell him?”

“That ‘no way, he’s a baby.’”

He finds that response amusing, then asks you to hold his bow for a minute before mentioning “The boy asked me, too, actually.”

You sling his crossbow over your uninjured side. “What? When did Carl ask you?”

“Before we headed out today.” He shrugs while he takes out his cigarettes and one-handedly shakes the pack open.“Told him once he was tall enough that his head reaches up to here,” and he gestures with the pack to a spot near his chest. “Or when his voice cracks, that he could come.”

You have to chuckle. “That little punk. Just make sure I’m there when you take him.” Without realizing it, you then think out loud “If anything happened to that kid, I’d go postal, man. Hell, him or Sophia.”

Cigarette now in his mouth, he pockets the carton and fishes out his lighter. And you can’t quite translate his tone when he says “I could see that.”

“Yeah, yeah.” You get it, you tried to beat up Ed and that was stupid. But come on now, Daryl is equally if not way more prone to going ‘postal,’ if that’s the term you’re using. Feeling a touch embarrassed and defensive, you reason “Worse things to go postal over than the kids. They’re worth it all.”

“Nah, I meant ‘I could see that,’ as in, like, ‘understand it,’ I guess,” he restates. “I mean, I pulled a damned knife on Rick and your brother after I heard about Merle.”

“I’d do the same if I heard you cuffed my brother to a roof,” you share truthfully.

He takes a long drag of his cigarette. “I could see that.”

“Stop,” you snort.

After another few moments of quiet, his voice is low when he says “My brother prolly deserved it, though, that’s the worst part. All y’all know it.”

Gently, you insist “Don’t say that, man.” You fully trust Rick and T-Dog (and Glenn and Jacqui and Andrea) when they said that Merle being handcuffed was warranted, and that there was an emergency and an accident that left him up there – and that this was unintended.

But you aren’t sure if that’s what Daryl means, and you’re worried that he means his brother being left for dead was ‘deserved.’

Conclusions like that are certainly not what Rick or T-Dog meant, and certainly not thoughts you want people entertaining. Especially after the talk with Dale you had that fateful day two or so weeks ago. “And I’m sorry you lost him, for what it’s worth. You two seemed real close.”

“He ain’t dead. Nothin’ can kill Merle but Merle.”

Uncertain of what to reply but not wanting to say nothing, you keep it light and honest by echoing “You’re both tough sumbitches.” Then, recalling your conversation from several minutes ago, you correct it to “Sorry, meant sumidiots.”

To your surprise, he even smiles somewhat and mumbles a thanks. He shared with you a little while ago how he hated being called ‘bitch.’ Although, you’re pretty sure he doesn’t care much about the term ‘son-of-a-bitch,’ technically, given how often he says that phrase.

After a decent enough lag to the conversation during which you think back on what you heard about the rescue mission to Atlanta for Merle and that bag of guns, you ask “What do you think about those guys protecting the old folk’s home in the city?”

“’Lil homie bastards.”

You remain silent to allow him time to add anything else (and inwardly pray he comes up with something moderately more kind).

Sighing slightly, he goes on to say “I get why they were doin’ it, them old folks was worth it. But it would be better if those turds didn’t jump me, try to steal our guns, then steal the poor kid.”

By ‘poor kid’, he must’ve meant Glenn. That’s also interesting. Again, good interesting (though, there’s only a 6 or 7 year age difference between Daryl versus you and Glenn. But, fair play, that’s how you consider anybody younger than you, too). Glenn did tell you how hard Daryl fought to get him back. T-Dog mentioned it as well.

“Dude, what’d it feel like when that little old lady walked out and blew their cover?” A sweet little grandma interrupting a would-be firefight and revealing that the big tough ‘gang’ was defending a nursing home? You can’t make this stuff up.

“Thought I’d been smacked too hard in the head or somethin’.”

You find yourself giggling and nodding at that.

Daryl goes on to say “I didn’t realize how big that kid’s balls were, neither. Smart, too.”

“Glenn’s balls are smart?”

“Stop.”

Cracking up at your own dumb joke, you confide that “You and Teddy seem a lot closer, too.”

Almost shy, Daryl shrugs. “He ain’t a bad dude.”

“You ain’t either, I think.”

Another shrug. “Okay.”

Silence once again embraces the conversation, interrupted only by the crunching of leaves and the snapping of twigs as you both walk. You’re pretty sure you see the road from here, so you two should be nearing the caravan.

Carol’s voice comes through the walkie again. “That must be you two coming in from the woods?”

“Roger.”

“I’m glad you’re back safe. I’ll let Shane know, he’s been pacing around.”

After this, you note two small figures in the distance where the road is. That must be Carl and Sophia. They wave, so you wave back (and you nudge Daryl so he waves, too), then the two little figures start jogging towards you. A taller, bulkier third one, probably your brother, follows shortly after.

In your peripheral vision, you can tell Daryl's turned his head to you.

“What?” you ask.

“Nah, s’nothin’.”

Twisting your mouth, you remind him “We’ve been over that phrase.”

“It’s nothing,” he repeats. “M’just thinking you’d probably – what’d you call it? ‘Go postal,’ or whatever, for any one of ’em, not just the kids. Just look at how you got that bruise or how you fucked your shoulder up.”

You feel a twinge in your chest and stomach when he tells you that. Amy shared something similar with you a few weeks ago, two days before she died. Called you ‘protective in a good way.’

“...That’s probably the nicest thing you done said to me, Daryl.”

“Whoa now, you sounded a little too backwoods, there,” he teases back regarding your stellar use of grammar.

“Ugh,” you groan. “You’re rubbin’ off on me.”

Next, you hear T-Dog’s voice, shouting from the road “Y’all back from your wild goose chase?”

You hear Daryl chuckle under his breath. But he’d totally called it!

“Dude, you called it. Teddy ended up bein' the one who made the goose chase joke, not Dale?” you remark, shaking your head. “Thought it would be Dale.”

“Shoulda made a bet, got me my ten bucks back,” he adds (brags), in reference to his ripped $20 bill. That still cracks you up when you think about it.

With that memory, you find yourself looking back on everything else that happened at the CDC. A thought strikes you. “You were awful protective back at the CDC, too.”

“What d’you mean?”

“You were goin’ postal, but...I guess it just seemed like you kicked into gear after Carl screamed for Lori, is all.” Daryl threw himself at Dr. Jenner right after that. Did it again later, too.

To this statement, there’s no doubt he grows shy. You’re worried he’s clammed up, but then he adjusts the goose on his shoulder and mumbles “Just wanted to get ’em outta there.” He clears his throat. “So did you. We all did.”

Carl has now run close enough that you can see how flushed his cheeks are from sprinting. Aw, is he still holding one of his comic books?

“Careful not to trip, kiddo!” you call out.

“Why are you holding his crossbow, Y/N? Did you get to use it?”

“Why? Jealous, punk?”

“Yeah, that’s so cool!”

“You know what Mr. Dixon told you, little man. Hit puberty and you can join us.”

Sophia sidles up to you and starts to ask you in her shy little voice about how it was in the rain, if you were cold (yes, very), if the goose will taste more like turkey or chicken, etc.

When you notice Carl jogging off triumphantly, comic book tucked under his arm, while carrying the goose by himself back to the group, you raise your eyebrows at Daryl. He simply takes another drag of his almost-finished cigarette and gently reaches for his bow back.

Almost back to the roadside, Shane has made his way to you, and likewise starts to pepper you with questions, such as how your shoulder feels, did y’all check for ticks yet, a low whisper into your ear if Daryl “behaved himself,” and in a louder, normal-tone asks if you ran into any walkers. To this, you offer the half-truth of “A few. How about y’all here?”

Your brother blinks and takes a deep breath at the news that you’d actually run into them deep in the woods, then replies back “Just one.” Wrapping his arm around you in a quick side-hug, he tells you he’s glad you’re back in one piece, and bids you and Daryl “Nice work. Thank you.” Next, he turns to you with a directive. “Go on and wash up, get you some dry clothes.”

“Not the boss of me,” you sass back, even while trotting ahead to brush off your clothes and shake off any ticks, fully intending to scrub off and put on some dry clothes ASAP. You’re grimy and soaked.

“Y/N like this with you, too, man?” you hear Shane attempt to joke with Daryl, ensuring you can hear.

You turn back to watch as Daryl finishes his cigarette and flicks it away. With a slight groan, he mutters back to him “Worse.”

A weirdly satisfied feeling envelopes you, and you begin to smirk, raising your brows at Shane. Your brother catches your eye and gets the same look on his face. And just as you’d hoped, he replies back to Daryl with an assured, resounding “Good.”

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osricandhisshrunkenhand · 4 years

Text

In another life.

A short and likely very rusty piece of writing for @deafield . I’m sorry that it’s turned out to maybe be more angst than fluff but it’s an attempt. It’s also short - again apologies.

“Grinpayne?” Dea called out as the young man walked away from the caravan. He could still hear her, hear her calling him but he was so distracted. The letter in his hand and the people around him almost overwhelming in their intensity. How could he be this ‘monster’ everyone wanted him to be. This creature that could cure ills and save lives. He wanted to call it nonsense and shrug it all off as a fluke but he’d seen with his own eyes as Osric’s hand had healed, the damage that had once afflicted him fading as he held it in his own. It was the stuff of fairytales. Not of life.

“Grinpayne?”

He heard her again, the letter in his hands heavy as he thought about the words within, about the person who had seen him and it had changed their lives so immensely that they had sought him out. Did he have a responsibility to this person, the one person he knew had seen him, seen past his face and to the person he was deep within.

“Grinpayne?”

Fainter now. But, his name, said by the woman he loved, sitting in their home. That was all he needed. He turned, the distractions breaking away as he looked at her, her eyes searching for him, some quiet desperation in her heart as she looked without sight.

He loved her. Truly. It was the only thing he knew in this world. The only constant. Dea, his Dea. Father had left them over the years, spending weeks travelling to sell his wares in distant lands but he had had Dea since the day he had found her in the snow. All he wanted in this life was to know that he had her and she had him. So damn the letters, damn the praise. They were static.

“I’m right here Dea.” Grinpayne muttered, the gashes under his bandage aching with the movement as he turned, knowing she would have heard him through the babble. He made his way towards her, reaching out to take her hand as he crouched, wanting to be level. “I’m here.”

Dea’s expression broke into a grin and it solidified the feeling in Grinpayne’s heart. This was where he belonged, not following some letter to a destiny far beyond his station. He wasn’t built for fame or recognition. He found no joy there.

“You think too much.” Dea said, as if she could hear his thoughts, reading him like a book. “Take a break, supper will be ready soon and you promised we could play games afterwards.” She said, holding his hand in hers as she spoke, giving it the gentlest of squeezes, a question in their language - the one of hands.

Grinpayne sunk a little deeper to the floor as he leaned forwards, forehead resting on her leg as he breathed, hand squeezing back the confirmation that yes he was fine and yes he could play games. “I don’t deserve you Dea.” He said, knowing that his thoughts, even though they had stayed as such, had been a betrayal.

“Oh you’re speaking nonsense Grinpayne. You deserve me as much as I deserve you.” She replied, her endless optimism warming something in the young man’s heart as it cooled something in his brain.

“Not if you knew what I know. If you could see me. If you really knew.” He mumbled, knowing this was a repeat of a conversation they’d been having year after year ever since they’d first said those three words. “You deserve someone who you can know completely.”

Dea chuckled. “I do know you completely. You’re my world. You, and father, and Mojo. I know you all better than you maybe know yourselves.” She spoke and for the first time Grinpayne believed her.

#grinpayne #dea tgm #the grinning man #fanfic #request #requests are still open just send me an ask :)

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diardiarmylove · 4 years

Text

2070 (?/??)

-----

Horrible explanation of Old City: Downtown Ruins because I haven’t played since they dropped version 2.50.

Before anyone asks, this is a different version of Amane, who isn’t a master, but is a Adaptive God Eater, or AGE. Why the servants have all been brought in the year 2070? Who knows?

[Posted from website.]

------

How did they get here?

They were never summoned before, not together, at least. Diarmuid, Fionn, Ozymandias, Gilgamesh, Merlin, Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. They were all summoned at once, in one location.

“This is an odd world.”, Arthur first spoke, looking around. The world was barren, ruined, yet peaceful... too peaceful.

“The better question is who summoned us.”, Ozymandias deadpanned.

“Let’s go around and see if anyone’s here.”, Arthur turned back to his fellow servants who nodded with the idea, even Gilgamesh, who seems to be worried about the entire situation.

Their first question is where are the people?

The group then began walking down the sideways road, walking slowly, in fear that their weight may burden the piece of road before collapsing. The large open crater beside them doesn’t give them that much assurance either.

The group continued to walk, Sir Gawain saw a small opening to his left and peaked. It was a dead end, still no humans.

“This used to be a city, I believe.”, Diarmuid said, looking around, as he walked along.

“What’s this way?”, Fionn wandered out loud, as he spot an open area after one or two elevations, before peaking and bringing himself up towards the stable elevated ground.

“My liege!”, Diarmuid alerts.

“The ground’s stable, Diarmuid. There’s more up here.”, Fionn shrugged, before nudging the way he found, and jumped down the elevated ground

It was a bigger area, two elevated areas, one was where Fionn peaked out from. At the corner was a green spring gushing out of a cracked spot, located a far 50 or so steps away.

Still no signs of humanity.

“Are we really sure of what we are looking for, mongrels?”, Gilgamesh asked, ticked, and knowingly helpless.

“Let us rest here.”, Sir Lancelot suggested, but his relief went on alert, as the ground shook slightly.

-------

“We’ve located an Ashborn at the Old City! God Eaters from Gleipnir has been stranded and has requested assistance. Amane, Hugo, Ein and Neil, get there as fast as possible!”, Amy ordered and the four God Eaters nodded and ran to the Exit Gate.

“Come back safe, mommy!”, Phym waved, while Claire comforted the child from behind.

“Isn’t the Frozen Generator a faster route?”, Hugo clicked his teeth, running towards the location Amy last gave them

“Maybe they were notified about the Aragami currently blocking the pathway. They might’ve been ambushed before they can even get to detour to the Plant and got stuck in the city instead.”

“Amy, do you think you can send an open signal for them?”, Ein asked.

“I’m on it!”, several clicks later and the static sound of the open channel was heard.

“Help! There is Balmung and a Ra currently on the prowl and has attacked our vehicle, we took hold in the underground of the old city!”

“Stay calm, we’re on our way!”, Neil demanded, finally jumping down to the entrance of the old city.

“Ein, Niel, go to the underground and get them out of there.”, Hugo ordered, and the two nodded before they turned to the left. Hugo then turned to his old friend, and smirked. “Amane, you with me?”

Amane smiled before the woman jumped up and turned back to Hugo. “What’re we waiting for, then?”, She then turned forward and ran, Hugo follows shortly.

As they approach the open area, they spotted the Ra, about to devour. Who is it facing? Amane then looked at where the Ra was looking, and there, several men were on guard for the attack. They only had swords and spears, no armlets.

How long were they out here?!

Hugo switched from gun form to sword form, as the Ashborn bellows, it’s roar echoing in the area. The ball of flames in both of his hands turned to a red, black and yellow, a corner of it almost looked like a jagged mouth.

As the Ashborn throws one of it’s devouring attack, Amane dives towards the range of the Devour Attack.

“YOU FOOL!”, Gilgamesh screamed at the woman who dived in to protect them. Amane paid no heed, and stared at the Ashborn in it’s face.

The servants watched anxiously as the woman raised her odd looking blade in time to parry the attack. The ring of gold light around the woman’s buckler certified the parry, and this angered the beast.

“Hugo, Engage with me!”, Amane yelled, and with a nod, a red-orange line reached out on both ends before glow of light appeared before bursting out of their bodies, reaching a good six feet before fading.

The waving ring of red-orange light continued to circulate a good feet away from their bodies, before the two faced the Ashborn. The male’s orange and black gear, and the woman’s white and red gear clashed to the beast’s body, barraging assaults in multiple directions. The Aragami would fade into a burst of fire before appearing several meters away from the duo.

Amane took the opportunity to face the group of men. She could only open her mouth before she saw the same ball of devouring attack, before she jumps back, in time to parry it. Hugo shoots the Ashborn’s head and shortly stuns it, resulting the to Ashborn falling to the ground.

“Need any help!?”, Neil called out as he and Ein jumped towards the woman.

“We took care of the Balmung, the way around should be safe!”, Ein notified before the two faced the Ashborn. “We’ll take care of the Ashborn. Get them out of here!”

“Thanks!”, Amane quickly runs towards the ground, and jumped up towards where they came from. “How’s your cardio game?”, She asked them.

“We have enough energy to do so!”, Arthur said seriously.

Amane’s smile became serious and her gear turned to gun form, “Amy, ETA?!”

“Five minutes!”

“It’s enough, we can make it!”, Amane turns to the men again, “Follow me! Tell me if you find anything the moves or bellows. I need you guys out of this place unscathed!”

The servants nods back and Amane begins running, and the servants followed.

“What’s going on?”, Fionn asked.

“It’s the year 2070. Humanity is at it’s last legs. God Eaters, and Adaptive God Eaters are humanity’s final bastion to save mankind. You guys?”, She sped up a bit before slowing down.

“We were summoned here, yet we didn’t see anybody at all, not even the sight of the Holy Grail.”

“What? What’s a Holy Grail?”

“A golden chalice that whenever the Grail itself demands to open several spots for mages to fight over.”, Arthur said, a bitter tone leaving his mouth.

“Sounds like something greedy people would do.”, Amane comments as they jumped up towards the opening from the underground. Just up the stairs, Phym, Claire, and Lulu were waiting.

“Let’s get you all in!”, Lulu said and secured their way to the Ash Crawler.

“Is Mommy okay?!”, Phym asked as she ran towards Amane.

Amane, in turn, softens and nods. “Other than mommy having to do a short cardio, mommy’s fine.”, She reassured with a deep sigh.

“Now let’s get mommy in to the caravan so she can have sweets with Phym.”, Claire joked beside Amane, before the three went in.

-------

Amy and Hilda were there, along with Keith and Zeke. Amane perked and looked for the survivors.

“They’re currently in the Ward, if you’re looking for them.”, Hilda assured, before fixing her monocle and faced the odd group men. “As for you, I’m surprised you lot are still breathing.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, mongrel? You have quite the nerve to call us kings a ‘lot’”, the golden king sneered at the owner. Only to be shortly scolded by Arthur.

“I apologize for his crude behavior.”, Arthur apologized, “Thank you for rescuing us. My name is Arthur Pendragon, a Saber Class Servant. I, along with them, are looking for our Masters.”

“Servants? Masters?”, Zeke tilted his head. “Is this some sort of roleplay?”

“Most likely not, I assure you.”, Merlin said, walking towards the front of them, nd stood beside his king. He watched as the child, Phym, awed this form.

“Mommy, mommy, look!”, Phym pointed at the Mage, “He also has white hair, like us!!”, Phym then looked down and saw the blue light and flowers that oddly grew at his foot. Merlin smiled at Phym before he made a flower and handed it to her, who’s smile widens even more as she takes it.

“What happened here, if I may ask?”, Diarmuid perked up.

“A lot of things has happened over the years.”, Hilda said, “An important note is that this is the year 2071. Humanity is fighting against the beast you just encountered. We call them Aragami.”

“This part of the lands is called the Ashlands. Everything it touches becomes ash, humans can’t stay any longer than ten minutes before they’re long gone.”, Amy regretted saying this, as the shock in their faces were evident. ”What remained of humanity fled to Ports, and the God Eaters and other port owners who have business with other ports travel in mobile fortresses called Caravans.”, Amy explains further.

“This caravan belongs to Hilda. This is the Ash Crawler Chrysanthemum.”, Amane adds.

Hilda sighed at the Workaholic Devil beside her, before speaking. “Amane, rest up for a bit. This information about Master and Servants is new to us.”, She watched Amane nod and lift Phym up, before walking towards the elevator. ”Meanwhile, I would like to talk to you, Sir Arthur.”

-------

#God Eater 3 #sequel-writes #diarmuid ua duibhne #fionn mac cumhail #ozymandias #arthur pendragon #sir gawain #sir lancelot #sir bedivere #merlin #sir tristan #archer gilgamesh #gilgamesh #fate grand order #fate grand orders headcanons

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dontdietwd · 4 years

Text

Day 65, part 2

The radio was silent, and the cars moved slowly down the streets, as if numb. My sobs slowly subsided and I forced myself to breath, just breath and gather my control back. I wish I didn’t have to let go, though. It was good there, at Daryl’s chest, his arm around me, hand resting on my back, grounding me. Sniffing and drying my face, I forced myself to let go, returning to my seat, but still closer to him that what was necessary now. I looked down as I tried to clean up my face, embarrassed. This had been the most obvious demonstration of weakness I had ever given in front of Daryl – in front of anyone, for that matter, and it was the second time in two days that I cried in front of him.

“Sorry,” I mumbled after a while, still looking down.

Daryl looked at me sideways for a quick moment and returned his eyes to the road. “You okay?” he asked dismissing my apology.

“I’ll be. I guess.”

“’S alright. You’ve just saved all of our asses, can break down all ya want.”

“Can’t believe that son of a bitch was gonna kill us all!” I finally looked up, eyes red but tears gone.

“Well, motherfucker’s dead now.”

“And so’s Jackie.”

“Her choice. Opted out, ain’t that what Jenner called it?”

I was silent for a long moment thinking about Jackie’s choice and the final, messed up, desperate minutes we had spent inside the CDC. How I had made Jenner open the door and all but told everyone on the group that I was pregnant. It was out now.

“What the fuck?” Daryl mumbled taking me out of my thoughts.

“What?”

“Look at that,” he pointed somewhere out of the truck, on the pavement. We were on a central Atlanta street, a few walkers bundled together by a wall on the sidewalk. “See that?”

“Holy. Fuck!” I’d seen it too. Nearly in the middle of the street a black duffel bag lay, the long tip of a rifle coming out of it. “Stop the car!” I told Daryl as I reached for the radio that had been sitting forgotten by my side on the seat.

“Hey, why are you stopping?” Rick’s voice came from it before I could press the button.

“You don’t see it?” I asked him. “To our right, thirty feet away?”

He took a few seconds to answer. “Yep. I’ll be damned, looks like the guns we gave the group from the elderly home.”

“Wonder why they’re here,” I said thought the radio. “Gotta get’em back though,”

“Sure thing,” he agreed through the radio.

By my side, Daryl said “Group of walkers there, gotta get it fast.”

“I’m fast enough,” I told him and pressed the radio button before Daryl could say anything. “I’ll go and get it,” I told the others among radio static. “You all just gotta honk like hell to attract the walkers away.”

“The hell you gonna go!” Daryl roared at me at the same time the radio came to life in my hand.

“We’re gonna get the bag back alright,” Rick told me, “but one of us is going out there, not you, Sam. Not in your condition, now that we know about it. Shane says he’ll go.”

I pressed the button immediately, glaring at Daryl who seemed to get angrier at me by the second, “I’m fast, Rick, it’s what we need now. Shane, I know you’re strong and capable,” I rolled my eyes, “but what we need now is speed. I go out, get it and run back, it’s all. So I’m going, of maybe Glenn.”

The radio was silent for a few seconds before Rick spoke again. “Don’t move, Sam. Just give us a minute.”

Growling, I let the radio fall back between Daryl and I. The small group of walkers from the sidewalk seemed to have noticed something had approached, but they were still uncertain, a few of them turning around to sniff the air. Two of three were already on the street, closer to the bag.

“That’s exactly why I waited as long as I could to tell people about the baby. I knew it was gonna be like this,” I hissed, elbow on the window frame, head resting on my hand.

“What, you knew people were gonna be worried ‘about your safety and the kid’s?” Daryl snarled in a low voice. “Yeah, kinda sucks having people care ‘about ya.”

“You know what I mean, Daryl!”

“I know you’re bitchin’ for no reason. Ya gonna need to slow down soon, so just get the fuck over it.”

I stared at him, mouth hanging a bit, for a few seconds. “Soon,” I finally spoke, “is not now.”

With that, I grabbed the axe from the floor of the truck and pushed the handle to open the door, quickly sliding out of it.

“The fuck, Sam?” Daryl yelled from inside.

“You cross the street and attract them on that direction. I’ll get the bag and come back before they reach you. Go!”

Knowing Daryl would make me stop if I gave him the chance, I moved, but still in time to listen to him cursing at me and getting out of the truck. Not looking back, certain that Daryl would be doing as I’d told him, I walked fast, rolling the axe handle on my right hand. Walking in a straight line I met the first walker before it could even groan at me, axe blade perforating its skull and brain easily. As it fell, I planted my foot on the head and pulled the axe out, twisting around myself and swinging it immediately onto the second one. Somewhere behind me, I heard loud bangs of a palm against a car, followed by Daryl’s voice yelling incoherent words to attract the walkers. I was already by the bag on the asphalt when I had to get rid of the third walker, a fourth one aiming at me instead of following the others towards Daryl. I looked around for a moment; five or six walkers were getting close to where he was still banging at the car; I could see him stretch his neck to try and see me from the top of their rotting heads. Looking back at my goal, I took the last few steps in a sprint, bending quickly to grab the bag’s handle. It was heavier than I had thought, but it didn’t stop me from throwing it over my shoulder and turning around to get out of there. Behind me, a loud growl sounded closer than it should. Aiming only with the corner of my eyes, I side kicked the too quick female walker, hitting her on the chest and making her fall back, growling angrily. My axe fell to the ground then, and the bag skipped from my shoulder.

“Sam!” Darryl yelled from a few feet away as he ran back to the truck before the walkers got to him. “Look out, they’re comin’!”

Looking to where he pointed, I saw another group of dead going in my direction. Cursing aloud, I knew I had to run immediately, so I hugged the heavy bag against my chest and fled, the worn out red axe abandoned on the asphalt. Before I could even close the door and settle on the truck, Daryl was already charging away, yelling and scolding. The door closed on its own with the truck’s movement and the other cars in the caravan followed us away, leaving the dead herd behind, hungry and growling.

* * *

I completely ignored the radio from then on. Daryl had already given up yelling at me for my imprudence, now he was just breathing hard, his face angry, but silent. He was a rude man, that was for certain, but I knew he cared and he had only gotten that angry because I had been at risk. He cared, and I just wished he would yell a little less, but then again, he’d been scared for me. Because he cared. I just wondered if he cared in the same way I was beginning to care for him. You know, the same way.

When I finished the discussion by saying now we had more guns and were safer than ever, he knew it was impossible to convince me of how reckless he thought I had bee. I didn’t think I was, I was fast and I defended myself and I got the weapons while the others were still sitting their asses on the cars discussing it. On the radio, Rick had said the same but soon had stopped. It was all quiet for a while, long minutes when nobody really knew where we were going.

“Wait, hold on a minute,” I broke the silence making Daryl glance at me and quickly looking away. “Didn’t you say ya gave the weapons to the elderly home group?”

Daryl took a couple of seconds, but mumbled “Fuck” under his breath just as the radio came to life on the seat between us, with Rick questioning the exact same thing.

Minutes later, the caravan was slowly approaching and carefully stopping by the brick wall of the home. The street seemed to be empty, but there was a square across the street with trees that could hide walkers. The brick wall had a whole in it, which Daryl quickly told me had already been there before.

As the group hopped off the cars, the silence around was eerie, the energies tense as we looked around and men instinctively got guarding positions, even if they kept looking over their shoulders to watch, as every other pair of eyes did, as I met Rick and Shane on the sidewalk and handed Rick the heavy bag I’d been carrying against my chest. As he held it by the strap, letting I hang heavily by his side, Rick put a hand on my shoulder, leaning in a bit to say “You okay?”

“Yeah,” I answered instinctively, subtly shaking his hand off with a shrug. “I’m good. You all?”, I looked briefly at Shane and pointed at Lori, where she stood with Carl near Carol and Sophia.

“Man, I gotta tell ya, that was some crazy shit right there,” Shane shook his head, an overwhelmed laugh on his voice

“You got Jenner to open the doors. That was –” Rick paused also shaking his head. “We owe you big, Sam.”

“No, come on,” I frowned crossing my arms. “You don’t have to thank me for that, that’s my job, is all. And I was saving my own ass too, and my –” I paused then and looked down at myself. Looking up again I saw a little understanding smile coming from Rick, “Why you not saying this to Carol? She’s the one who had a damn grenade!”

With that, I excused myself and moved away from them, making a straight line towards Carol, who saw me approaching with quick steps. Unceremoniously, I grabbed Carol by the shoulders and pulled, arms coming around her in a tight hug.

"Sam?" Carol asked in a weak voice, uncertain but accepting the hug, her own hands patting my back.

"You're amazing, d'you know that?" I asked pulling away, hands once again on her shoulders. "You had a fuckin' grenade!"

"W-Wel, it was actually Rick's, I'd – I just found it in his pocket –"

"Yeah, but he didn't even remember it then. We'd all have died there."

"Well, yeah –"

"Thank you."

Carol was stunned but smiled after a second, nodding, uncertain of what to do with this gratitude.

"I'll just –" I said suddenly and left in quick steps, but could still see from the corner of my eye when others thanked Carol as well, incentivized by my action.

I crossed the street then, all but running, and curved herself over the curb to throw up all the feelings and terrifying emotions I'd been having since that damned control room. As I heaved, even without seeing it, I felt Daryl approaching silently to guard my back, but it was the other women, Carol, Lori, Andrea, who ran to help. One of them pulled my dreads up and held them, someone was rubbing my back in soothing circles.

I had been thought this uncountable times before, always alone, hiding it in the woods, never wanting to concern or alert anyone of my condition, and always thought it was fine. I could handle it. But now, having their quiet support and Daryl's solid presence right there, I felt, at least for a moment, safer than I had felt in months.

***

The patio was filled with walkers and everybody knew this didn't mean anything good for the elderly home. Rick was the first to shoot, right after a clear, loud "Fuck it!". Everybody who was carrying guns started shooting after he did, the walkers falling to the ground one by one. It was over in seconds, and for a moment all that could be heard was the children's cries and their mothers gently shushing them, crouched on the floor, terrified. We moved to the entrance then, a metal door that led to a large room filled with tossed around furniture, but otherwise empty. At the end of the room, double wooden doors lead to a long, dim corridor.

I entered with my .12 gunshot ready, right behind Daryl with his crossbow, just as attentive. There were no walking dead, just normal ones, a women’s legs outside of a door, some other one right ahead, a loud buzz of flies around the bodies and the solid smell. The ones in the front – Glenn, Rick, Shane, Daryl and myself – made no sound, on guard, starting to look around and into doors, but loud gasps and cries from behind us filled the empty space, as if the sight of dead people was scarier than seeing the walk and growl. Sophia was crying out loudly, Daryl turned around, lowering the crossbow just enough, whispering angrily for her to shut up. The fear from the two mothers immediately transformed into hatred for him man chastising the girl.

“Shut it, all of you!” I also whispered-screamed and motioned Daryl to move non with our swipe.

More walkers were approaching as we entered, attracted by the loud gunshots from before and the cries now, the last ones of the group closing the doors a second before the first walker bumped into it. The locks were broken and they had to rest their full bodies weight to hold it in place. I didn’t see more now, moving with the men to check the entire space. Many people were dead all around, inside rooms, on the corridor, in another big room and also upstairs. They were all dead for good, though, clear gunshots on their heads.

In a few minutes we had all joined again in one of the largest rooms, little less afraid now we knew there were no walkers inside. Rick was speaking, clearly trying to sound calm and confident.

“Upstairs is our best bet. We've cleared a few rooms, can barricade those if we have to,” he paused and looks around at the people, nodding in what he thought to be a reassuring way. “We'll be alright.”

“You mean it this time?” Carol asked from where she sat once again with her arms around her daughter. She was almost crying. “Or are you lying to us like all the times before?”

“That's unfair,” Lori defended her husband. “And no help at all.”

“He wasn’t lying, Carol,” I told her from close to the doorway. “He was just wrong. How could anybody know this would happen?”

“But what the hell happened?” Glenn voiced it, trepidation all over his voice.

“What do you think?” Andrea was the one to answer. “They got overrun.”

A loud snort came out of Daryl as he paced around looking from body to body and Andrea looked at him affronted.

“Something to say?”

“Yeah!”, he didn’t even let her finish her question. “How about 'observant'?”

“Observant? Big word for a guy like you. Three whole syllables!”

By the door I felt like puffing my chest out and walking over the blonde woman, but restrained, questioning myself for being so protective over Daryl. Nobody should talk to him like that, he was not stupid like people seem to think he was. Fucking prejudiced people. Daryl had been crucial to the survival of this group all along and still all this woman could see was his redneck label. But Daryl was a big boy and could defend himself, so I didn’t move.

“Walkers didn’t do this!” he started explaining angrily. “Geeks didn’t show up ‘til all this went down. Somebody attacked this place, killed these people, took whatever they wanted. They're all shot in the head, execution style!”

Yep, like I said, he could clearly defend himself. Without controlling it, I had a proud smirk on my face. He’d been voicing what I’d noticed since we’d walked in this god forsaken place. Andrea had lost her know-it-all expression and was looking at the gunshots, face fallen.

“Ya’ll worried about walkers? I'd be much more worried about the people who came and did all this,” then he approached Andrea again. “Get a dictionary, look it up,” and he pointed at his own head. “Observant”.

He crossed the room then, approaching me by the door on his way out. I looked proudly at him, sill smirking, an eyebrow shooting up. He expression didn’t change much, he was irritated and worried, but the corner of his lip did twitch a bit at my look. It was enough for me. He passed me and left the room, clearly looking to be alone or on the lookout.

People were sitting close together later on, spirits subdued, when Rick and Shane returned from the kitchens where they went looking for food. They found one single can of corn and Shane had potato chips and one single bottle of water, and that was all. They shared it among us all, including a bottle of whiskey Shane also had brought from the CDC. Daryl asked him to share it and I just looked away. It wasn’t because I would die for a swig or two and couldn’t that Daryl shouldn’t enjoy a little of the numbness he could get from it.

“What’s next?” Lori asked as she got up to join her husband by the window.

Rick didn’t answer, he just turned around and shared a long look with me. I held his eyes for a moment before nodding in Shane’s direction. He’d been mentioning Fort Benning for a while and Rick and I hadn’t heard him, we had chosen he CDC. Maybe it was time to give the man’s idea a try. Rick looked at Shane, who was already nodding his head and looking at me as he mumbled “Fort Benning.”

“We should’ve listened to you, Shane”, Rick told him. “Would have saved us a lot of grief ahead.”

“We couldn’t have known what would happen,” I said from where I sat next to Daryl. “The CDC was closer; we didn’t have enough gas to go all the way down to Alabama – we still don’t have it. We had to try it.”

“Yeah, but…” Rick shook his head. “Jackie would still be alive…”

“Was her choice, man. Do not take that on,” Shane told his friend.

“All these people…” Glenn entered the conversation. “Who’d have done something like this? Just… Come in here and murder everybody, even all the old people, how sick is that?”

Sophia flinched and nearly cried just to hear him say this and Carol hugged her. Lori moved to Carl, who also had gone pale, mumbling “Is this something we need to be discussing right now?”

“Uh, yeah. It actually is. I mean…” I got up from my spot and looked down at Carol and Lori. “I'd like a word with you two, if it's fine? Just us?"

The two other women nodded confused and got up, reassuring their kids they’d be back soon and that everything was ok, and we retread from the children and the men, going to stand at a corner.

"Look, I know things got a bit heated when we entered the home?" I started.

"We’re all on the edge," Lori told me, crossing her arms. "What we found here was far from what we were expecting, again."

"First the CDC, now this..." Carol said. "It's like one blow after the other."

"Yeah, but no matter what happened,” Lori crossed her arms and spoke firmly. “I will not let anybody talk to my child like that, or even talk about these things around him. I will always defend him, I'm sure Carol will too."

I took a deep breath and rested my hands on my hips, "Look, Daryl’s a brute, we all agree to that, but he means well. He told them to shut up and you're angry about that, fine. But at that moment, they actually had to shut up," Carol frowned at that and Lori took a breath to speak, her arms uncrossing and hands imitating my position, but I moved on. "I mean it, Lori. We all know silence‘s crucial when there’re walkers around, we taught you that ages ago at the quarry. We weren’t just saying, they are attracted by sound, ya’ll know that. They had to be quiet just like all of us did. You're so mad about someone calling out on your children that you can't even see he was right."

"I know we need silence, but I'm the one who's gonna tell my son to be quiet!", Lori rebated.

"But you didn’t! Lori, you were holding your son and he was being loud, you were not telling him to be quiet, same thing for you Carol. Sophia was crying and even you was whimpering, and not quietly!" I opened my arms, "Somebody had to! I mean it, if Daryl hadn’t said it, I would’ve and you’d be all mad at me instead of him”.

“There are ways to speak –”

"Look, Lori, Carol, I've been meaning to talk to you about this. We all know they're scared, more scared than all of the adults, it must be terrifying for them. But it will be even more terrifying if they find themselves in a dangerous situation without being prepared to react, to protect themselves.”

“I’ll protect him! And Rick will –”

“You don't know you're always going to be there to protect them, every time. They need to know how to avoid the dead, not to not attract’em, how to fight’em if it gets to that. We’re all always going to protect them, but we'll never know what will happen. They need ‘t stop acting so scared and helpless, for their own safety."

“And what do you suggest?” Carol tried but her voice still shuddered. “Arming the children? Giving them guns and crossbows?”

“Something like that, yeah,” I said firmly and saw their affronted expressions. And I could understand the idea as preposterous, but, well. “I don’t mean just give it to them and leave them to do whatever, I mean teach them. I mean reassuring them that they don’t have to be scared if they know how to react. And you two, too, I saw how scared you got out there, you need to… Come on, I don’t know, be braver? The world is not gonna go back to what it was, you heard Jenner, it’s all gone. We need to survive, we need to make sure the children survive, that my baby does, we need all to be strong as group, not just count on a few of the stronger ones to defend everybody.”

There was a moment of silence. I felt suddenly exhausted, and breathed out hard and I looked down, a hand pressing the bridge of my nose.

“How are you not scared?” Carol’s small voice asked me, a bit more gently than her expression was before.

I looked up at her, at Lori and then back. “You think I ain’t scared?” I snorted a fake laugh, trying a smile. “I’m a pregnant girl during the fuckin’ walking dead apocalypse. I’m fuckin’ terrified!” Lori and Carol exchanged an uncomfortable look, not knowing what to say. I didn’t know anymore, either. “We should get some rest. Just, please, think about it? We can’t have them getting terrified by the simple mention of murder. I told you once, Carol, that I could teach you and Sophia how to defend yourselves? Offer still stands.”

I turned my back on them then and left following the men who were leaving the room. Daryl waited for me, letting me pass first.

“We’re all rattled and exhausted, no one’s thinking clearly,” Rick was saying when I arrived, “But we have to start. Our lives depend on it.”

“You’re damn right,” Shane agreed once again shaking his head. “We can’t let our guard down again,” and as Daryl and I joined, we walked towards the stairwell where we found Dale and T-dog already sitting down. “Back at camp, having us some fish fried and no one on watch, and people died when they didn’t need to.”

“Hey,” I patted Glenn’s arm to stop him before we joined, and spoke in a low voice. “You did nothing wrong by talking about what happened here. It’s the reality and they need to start being able to handle it”.

After we all got together and crouched down to talk, Rick started, “Fort Benning, that’s the consensus.”

“When we’re leaving here?” T asked accepting the bottle Daryl handed him across the group.

“At first light”, I told them making the others nod. “I just worry about the fuel; we’ll have to get it from any car we can find on the way. And we’re wasting fuel driving so many vehicles, we need to lose a few. We’ll use the gas from whatever cars we leave behind, pro’ly be enough to leave the city. We,” and I pointed between Daryl and I, can keep the bike and lose the truck, it spends less gas,” and I looked at Daryl to see him nodding his agreement.

“That’d be a start,” said Shane. “Let’s just try to get a little shut eye tonight, ok? T, you get the first hour?”

* * *

I looked around for Daryl from where I had laid down on the hard floor against a wall. I thought he’d come to rest a bit at any moment, but as the minutes passed by and he didn’t, I started to worry. I knew he was not much of a sleeper, but he had to rest. There was a journey ahead of us, over one hundred miles separated us from Fort Benning, and there was no telling what we’d find on the way there of it we’d ever even make it.

Silently, I got up from my spot, navigating through my group companions’ sleeping forms, and headed to the hallway, looking around for him. He was a few feet away along the corridor, lying down on the floor just as I had been, one arm thrown over his eyes. Relieved that he seemed to be asleep, I approached quietly even with my boots still on my feet – you just don’t sleep without shoes on in this new world – and sat down against the wall, close to his head. I had lost sleep now anyways.

“You gotta sleep,” he told me in a real low voice, without having moved an inch.

“Can’t… Though you was sleeping,” I whispered, elbows resting on my knees.

“Can’t either,” and he still didn’t move.

We went silent. I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the hard surface of the white wall. Daryl moved the arm covering his eyes to pillow his head, now just a breath away from my leg.

As he settled, I whispered, “You were great today, ya know that?” I opened my eyes then, straightening my head again and looking down on him. He said nothing but looked up at me, a question in his eyes. “Struggled together with everyone… Gave me your shoulder to cry and snot all over you…” I smiled then, a laugh in her voice. He did too, a corner of his lips moving up. “Helped secure this place and then!” I made a pause “shut Andrea up in front of everybody and it was aaaawesome!”

He laughed quietly, moving his eyes away from me. We were both strangely smiling now, among all the shit that had been going on.

“They underestimate you,” I said after a while.

“An’ you don’t?” he spoke quietly again, his voice more like a rumble.

“Guess I did… Once. In the other life. I don’ anymore.”

“Don’t know what ya thing I can do.”

“Well, for one, you’re ‘observant’,” I said smiling one more time, and he looked up at me again, the shy smile returning. “I mean, you really are, you’re the only one who noticed me being all pregnant. And the hunting and tracking go without saying… You don’t freeze out with danger, you’re logical. You’re more important to this group than you imagine.” And to me, but I didn’t say it. “They’ll see it soon enough as well, you’ll see.”

“Don’t care wha’ they think”.

“I know.”

“’S long as –” he started and stopped himself real quickly. I looked down at him again.

“What?”

“‘S nothin’.”

“No, as long as what?”

He removed his arm from under his head and covered his eyes once again. “Go to sleep.”

“Daryl?” I asked as I turned to my side and looked straight down at him, my head lined with his from above.

“What?”

“As long as what?”

He lifted his arm to look up at the ceiling and saw my face right there, humor in my eyes. He stopped what he was going to say, stunned by the position we found ourselves in, and took a moment to regain his wits.

“Only reason I’m in this group is ‘cause of you,” he started with a sincerity that stunned me. “Was it Merle and I, I’d be gone straight away from that fuckin’ roof. So as long as you don’t think I’m a piece of shit, I’m good.” And as I was just to stunned to move or say anything, he threw the arm over his eye again. “Now jus’ please go to sleep and leave me alone.”

“Alright….” I whispered, moving again. I quickly settled on the floor, against the same wall, my head close to his. “Good night, Daryl.”

He only grumbled in response. I knew it was enough of talking for him for a day. I was still smiling, butterflies inside my stomach, when I fell asleep.

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mythicallore · 5 years

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The Hoia Bacui Forest

The country of Romania, once known by its more infamous and ominous name Transylvania, likely conjures up images of vampires, gypsy caravans, werewolves, and bats. Perhaps it recalls more historical tales of Prince Vlad “the Impaler” Dracula and his crusade for Christian freedom against the invading Ottoman Empire. It is certainly a land of mystery and folklore but one of its lesser-known secrets, in the wake of rampant tourism to Dracula’s many castles, is a forest located in northern Romania just west of Cluj-Napoca. This place, known as Hoia Bacui (Shepherd’s Forest) has been nicknamed “Romania’s Bermuda Triangle” and has been dubbed the “World’s Most Haunted Forrest” by many tourists and paranormal investigators alike who have visited the site. In fact, many claim it’s slowly on the rise to becoming Romania’s number one tourist destination, ousting its famous vampire.

It’s said the forest is named after a shepherd who reportedly went missing within its perimeter long ago, along with his flock of 200 sheep. To this day, locals are said to be anxious in the shadow of the forest and do not often venture towards it after dark. In fact, the hosts of the Travel Channel show Ghost Adventures visited the forest in season 8 for their Halloween special and were warned by a group of teenagers exiting the forest before sundown that strange things can happen once beneath its trees. It has been reported that locals emerge from the forest sick, disoriented, and plagued with rashes. But the forest first came to international attention in the 1960s thanks to some very creepy photographs.

In August 1968, a biologist named Alexandru Sift captured a, now famous, photo of a strange glowing disk hovering over the forest. Sift also reported that during his time in the forest he felt stalked by shadows and noted he often heard a strange sound he described as chattering teeth. When he emerged from the forest, the photos in his camera had been rearranged into a different order than how they had been taken. Sometime later, Emil Barnea, a military technician, snapped similar photographs of strange disks over the forest. Many have taken both these incidents as evidence that UFOs and aliens are the result of the strange condition of the forest. This phenomenon continued well into the 70s and beyond, with the most recent photo coming in 2002. Electronic equipment is also said to malfunction within the confines of the forest.

Beyond the possible otherworldly connotations of the place, several people have reported paranormal and supernatural activity in the forest. Geographically speaking, there are already some weird anomalies to be seen. Several groups of trees grow in strange, curved angles and at the center of the forest is a clearing where no trees grow, believed by many to be a deadzone for electronic equipment as well. Studies have been done of the soil of the barren area and show nothing out of the ordinary that would result in a lack of vegetation.

Even odder, many trees are devoid of signs of green and as many as eight trees have grown from a single root. Some contain strange markings, described as burn marks or char by witnesses. Many are even said to grow in a bowed position, as if praying.

Hovering orbs of light are a common sighting within the forest, as are sounds of female voices and children giggling. There are even reports of people being scratched or attacked by unseen entities. Many believe this activity to be the result of some kind of haunting in the forest, postulating that the ghosts of peasants are trapped within its vast expanse after their untimely deaths. In fact, one of the most famous investigations of the area by Destination Truth showed the host violently thrown to the ground with scratches on his body, despite his clothes not being torn. Beyond physical evidence of spirits, many report a feeling of overwhelming anxiety while within the forest, a general unease, and an eerie quiet (when not interrupted by disembodied voices).

Some see the forest as a place of punishment as well. Locals have claimed that those who enter the forest with ill intentions are shown for what they truly are before delivering a punishment for the transgressor. Some also reported experiencing flashbacks to painful, and repressed memories while in the forest. Some of the typical poltergeist activity is experienced as well, including gust of wind, tickling, the feeling of a static shock, and the unease of being watched.

Even more chilling, many believe the forest to be a gateway to another dimension. Many have reported people wandering into the forest for days only to return with no memory of their disappearance or what took place during their hours missing. Most famously, a young girl from a nearby town was said to have disappeared into the forest for 5 days and returned in the same clothes she’d gone missing in with no memory of her time missing. Another woman claimed that during a walk in the forest she was overcome with an odd feeling and emerged finding a 15th century coin in her pocket and no memory of how it got there.

Another phenomena many experience, sometimes in conjunction with the strange black outs, is the event known as astral projection where they watch their body on the forest floor before being suddenly forced back into their physical form, violently.

Unsurprisingly, the forest has become a magnet for paranormal investigators seeking evidence of strange occurrences, as well as Wicca practitioners and Neo-Pagans looking to worship within the forest’s plentiful energy. Many, however, do not see the 1 square mile of forest as a place of adventure, spirituality, or investigation. The land is still considered cursed by locals who continue to warn outsiders to stay away. Whatever your beliefs for the energy’s intentions, the forest is a hot spot for strange and unexplained activity, making it a must-see destination for the brave supernatural seeker.

#paranormal #supernatural #haunted forest #romania

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danielsharmanswife · 4 years

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Jerome Valeska x reader

Warning: none

Author's note: first of all, I'm not a native English speaker so I'm really sorry if I commit some grammar mistakes. 🙏💔 This one shot is going to have a few parts so I can explain the whole story. Don't forget to leave a ♥️ if you liked it ✨✨ Enjoy your reading 💋

(part 1/?)

You were sitting alone on a table in a corner at the common dining room of the Arkham psychiatric hospital. Your sight was fixed on a reflection of the metal table, on your reflection more specifically. You were completely disheveled and under your eyes you could see terrible and marked dark circles. In short, you seemed like a complete mad.

How did you get there?

It all started when Fish Mooney (who was your boss) sent you to spy a young ginger who worked in a circus.

"He has potential, prevent him from getting into trouble," she told you simply. As you couldn't refuse to do so, you went undeterred.

The circus that afternoon was very lively and full of families who were going to enjoy the show. You bought a ticket and a box of popcorn to hide and spy better.

The show started. Very strong men appeared to place some long fences, after them, a lion tamer came on the scene, followed by a huge lion that didn't seem to want to be there. After several tricks, they both left and the forced ones removed the fences. After them followed the acrobats and clowns.

You started to despair because you didn't see signs of presence of the ginger boy, whose name you didn't know yet. Luckily, the showman introduced Mrs. Valeska who was accompanied by a boy who was pushing a cage with a snake. That boy was the ginger you should investigate. "Finally!" , you exclaimed internally. You saw him leaving the scene and you decided to follow him discreetly.

The boy headed to the back of the big top, where all the caravans were and got into one. You hid nearby and tried to observe what he was doing through a small window. At the moment he wasn't doing anything, he was lying down and seemed to ponder something.

After five minutes, you saw him get up and go to the door. You ran to the back of his caravan and wait for him to leave to enter and investigate. After leaving and getting back into the big top, you walked cautiously to the caravan door. When you entered you noticed a strong smell of tobacco and cheap perfume. You concentrated and started to register all the drawers and all the corners of the caravan. This boy was Mrs. Valeska's son, that was clear. After much research you found a notebook. On the first page there was only one name: Jerome Valeska. Now you knew his name. You started reading the notebook and you were terrified of every word he had written. Jerome was a complete maniac. Why the hell would Mooney want to recruit such a boy?

You got scared when you heard the laughter of the families that left the show. You had to get out of that caravan as soon as possible. You kept the notebook in its place and left, carefully but hurry and attentive to any movement by the circus artists. You sneaked off successfully and joined the tumult of people to sneak again and hide behind some bushes and wait for everything to calm down a bit to follow the trail of young Valeska.

You waited a couple of minutes. When you saw that the people had left and that the artists were in their caravans, you left your hiding place and turned back to the Valeska caravan. To your surprise,it was empty and you walked around the place cautiously to look for Jerome.

It wasn't very difficult to find him, the boy was following his mother towards an area quite far from the caravans and the big top. My curiosity and Fish's ordesr forced you to follow them.

Everything went too fast.

Jerome took out a knife and began stabbing his mother mercilessly.

Weren't you supposed to keep him from doing just this kind of thing?

You were static, freezing. You didn't know how to act. You had witnessed murders before but never one under your charge. Jerome was staring at you and you didn't notice until he was almost a meter from you. You hadn't only breached the only mandate your boss had given you, but you had also let the person you were spying seeing you. You were the worst agent in the world.

Hopefully you reacted on time and ran away.

He didn't follow you.

#jerome valeska #jerome valeska x you #jerome valeska x reader #fanfic #one shot

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adulthooliganism · 4 years

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Hi! I’m also twenty (he/they), and I love TWRP! Their music is so groovy and I end up stimming to music a lot! Are there any other bands/artists you like! You seem super cool and I feel like I could never tire of your interests! Have a happy Monday! :D

this is a very wholesome and gentle ask and i hope u know i love u

as for music . i listen to a lot of things! i know it’s super mainstream or whatever to be like “oh i like anything” but it’s true! there’s a little bit of like. certain kinds of country and specific metal that i’m not super into but even within those genres there Is a lot that i like

if you’re looking for twrp-esque music, to be totally honest i don’t really have a good alternative? twrp is really kinda one of a kind for me and, aside from groove crusader and lord phobos (which are literally the twrp boy’s other music projects), i don’t really have anything in a super similar vein

[deep breath]

however,

my artist of the decade on spotify was jukebox the ghost, an indie power-pop/piano-rock band. they are very queen-esque and are absolutely fucking phenomenal. jumpstarted is probably one of their most intensive songs, there’s so much going on in it and it’s just incredible. fred astaire is maybe my favorite song by them? beady eyes on the horizon is good for that like. dystopia the world is going to hell and there’s nightmares in the sky vibe which leads to

narc twain! this is a music project lead by the guitarist from jtg. very uh. anarchist-inspired fuck-the-government-they’re-hiding-things-from-us rock. super good. same shit and no connection are both absolutely amazing.

enough jukebox talk i’ll move on

i always have to mention my pals over at minimall! they actually have a new single coming out soon?? they do like. indie pop-rock? i think? my mom thinks they sound like the cranberries which i disagree with but i see where she’s coming from on don’t tell me specifically. they have a super cute music video for their song static! you should check them out! (my friend wynne, the one who plays trumpet in the static music video, also just started their own music side project called pisces seeking! please go give them a listen they deserve it)

hozier! everyone knows him, everyone loves him. all his music is so good but wasteland, baby as an album is beyond. that’s the kind of music you lay on your bedroom floor dissociating to. i speak from personal experience. can’t forget jackie and wilson, though.

imgaine dragons. listen. hear me out. hell and silence has my favorite song literally of all time, selene. night visions fucking rules and nobody will tell me otherwise. smoke + mirrors had a couple bangers but was overall pretty okay. evolve is some of the raddest shit i’ve ever heard, and if it weren’t for my nostalgia for night visions it would be my favorite album. origins doesn’t exist. i will defend this band to my grave. you loved radioactive when it came out. don’t lie to yourself.

aside from these few bands listed here, i listen to a wide range of things and very rarely am like. Into bands specifically? i’ll add a song here or there from their music but i generally don’t just listen to One Band’s stuff. here’s my spotify playlist of a lot of my music that i listen to, and here’s a sort of condensed version of that without the like. spam of Every Song by a couple bands. my friends and i will occasionally do listen-alongs and whenever i come across a song i like, i throw it here.

i listen to a lot of game soundtracks, but mostly anything by toby fox and then the celeste soundtrack. i also put on a lot of those like lofi hip hip studybeats streams, and recently started getting into electro-swing?? caravan palace is a trustworthy place to start with that.

this is a very long post but i hope you find at least something you like here! have a wonderful day!!!!

#god i love. talking about music #if you want me to elaborate on anything/have a specific genre/vibe you want #send another ask and i'll see what i can do!#anon #answered #long post //#twrpanon

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luobingmeis · 5 years

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so i’ve been thinking a lot about killian and carey’s first meeting and, while i do believe it would be super cute for them to have a sort of “cute love-at-first-sight” type of meeting on the moonbase, here is how i think it actually went:

i personally believe that killian was one of the first bureau members/regulators that lucretia recruited and, while lucretia did say that she also recruited other regulators/seekers/reclaimers before tres horny boys came along, i at least think she did some scouting early on in the creation of the bureau? like, she had to find people like killian, carey, brian, boyland, avi, etc., somewhere, right?

so this is how it all folds out:

killian and lucretia are travelling in a caravan a couple miles out of neverwinter. they’ve stopped at a tavern in a small town so that lucretia could ask for directions and if, by chance, you know, word of any suspicious magical items has passed through. and while lucretia was being the diplomatic competent woman, killian was the competent guard woman of the caravan (oh my god that was so uneloquent im so tired)

enter carey fangbattle, who isn’t technically part of a thieve’s guild but has definitely made some earnings doing some cool rogue thief shit

and it hadn’t taken long for word of this caravan (with only two passengers) to spread through the town, and carey was basically like, “hmm...... sounds cool....... maybe i should............... check that shit out”

and she searches out the caravan and is like “hell yeah, let’s fucking do this” except she fucks up and rolls like a three on her stealth check so, while she’s sneaking up on this caravan and about to try to look in one of the bags left in the back, she hears something cock and someone clear their throat

and she looks up and sees the biggest crossbow she’s ever seen pointed at her

and then she looks up a bit more and sees the most beautiful woman she’s ever seen staring down at her

so, faced with this beautiful orc woman, carey says the best thing she could think of in this situation, which is, “hey, what’s up?”

and killian, staring down at this dragonborn (who is real fucking cute god dammit why does the thief have to be adorable because she’s, like, gotta shoot her with this crossbow but it’s a shame because she’s so goddamn cute), blinks and says, “hi, whatcha’ doing?”

and those were their super romantic first words to each other

carey is recruited within like fifteen minutes because carey and killian were both too preoccupied with talking in circles around what the fuck was going on that the crossbow just remained pointed at carey but unused, and then lucretia comes out, lowkey frustrated because no one knew anything and there was only so much she could say before risking static-ing out, and sees what’s happening and is like “what the fuck is going on”

and then carey is just like “oh yeah uh i heard that there was some......... weird magic item thing going around somewhere??? kinda hard to figure out what it was, but i kinda thought that you two would’ve had it?????? but i, uh, kinda fucked up here”

and lucretia and killian just share an “oh shit” look and look back at carey and then, would you look at that, now three competent women are on this caravan

(the extent of carey’s recruitment was “so, i understand that you might not trust us because we just met, but we might need some help and-” “oh fuck yeah i’m in”)

#taz balance #taz killian #carey fangbattle #team sweet flips #the adventure zone #headcanons #stuff i write #kinda??

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onetruejonsey · 4 years

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Decade In Review, by Samuel Richard Sinbad Gandalf Jones

So as the ‘Teens’ come to a close (I’m writing this with 3 hours left on the clock!), Gabby has insisted that I copy her, and do a highlight reel of my last decade. Now I’m not on YouTube yet, so this’ll be more of a REALLY REALLY long post, but go ahead and read it, then read Gabby’s on her page (@mist-over-water), and see just how boring I really am!

2010-

Well this year was boring as hell, clearly. I CAN’T REMEMBER MOST OF IT. But I was part way through my first year of A-Levels, and boy oh boy, was I failing them, I’d gone from being a straight A student to screwing everything up! Didn’t stop procrastinating though…..

2011-

Okay, now things get a little interesting, I got my first big job working at a really pleasant and mature restaurant….AHAHA just kidding I got a job at my local McDonald’s! It took me three attempts to get in there, not because I sucked, but timing sucked, I think the universe eventually saw me and just said ‘Oh fuck it, have the job’. But I wanted to earn some money to take me to university, and this seemed like a good idea at the time! And my first paycheck was spent on a brand new guitar! So I was a happy Sam!

I finished my A-Levels, and when I got my results, I was crushed, not at the results, they were pretty good. All my university choices rejected me, and all my friends made it. It was my own fault to be honest, but I’ll never forget just how low that made me feel. I was pretty angsty back then, so this just added to my pile!

I decided it was best to stay at work, go full time, get waaaaay more money, and try again next year. This proved to be a good decision, as it led to me being invited to my first ever work party, I got drunk, and there was karaoke, and I gave my best rendition of Basket Case by Green Day, and to this day, there are still whispers of my singing prowess. Even though I’m a bit shit.

2012-

I started 2012 with a pinch of determination, and it paid off. I re-applied for university, and all my choices accepted me, so now it was down to me to make my final decision. I’d had my eye on one in particular, so off me and Mum go to Northampton, 2 and half hours later, and the sat-nav took us to a primary school (I’ll never forget the shopkeeper on the same road-‘Looking for the uni? You’re the 4th person today!’). I fell in love with the whole place, and as soon as I got in the car I looked at Mum and said that I had to be there. I accepted the offer within a minute of being home.

Now from the good to the bad. Something happened to me this year that still sticks with me, and to many, this may seem stupid. But my dog died. Sounds stupid right? Jazz was the best dog I have ever known; loyal, unwavering, had the gift of the gab, and never left us alone. I was convinced she was actually a human reincarnated, she looked after Mum when she was ill, she looked after me when I was miserable, and she loved Dad. What made it more heartbreaking was that she never let us know that she was ill, no, that she was dying. When we got her to the vet, they originally thought it was a little infection, nothing major. The next day we had to rush her in as an emergency, and they found a tumour in her stomach the size of a baby’s head. How we never knew about it I’ll never know, but they operated, and got her all cleared up, and yet it wasn’t enough, she died within the hour, and I buried one of my best friends. This led to a vacuum in our house, we’ve always had dogs and the house felt so wrong without one, so Mum and Dad decided, one day without telling me, to go and get our current doggo Indiana. AND TALK ABOUT GOING FROM ONE EXTREME TO THE OTHER. If Jazz was the best dog ever, Indy is definitely the worst. But we love him, still today as a grumpy old man.

2012 saw me do something that I honestly never thought possible, and dead serious moment here: I genuinely never saw this coming for me, and was convinced that I was not the guy who would be in this situation. But I got a girlfriend, and it was my first relationship. Not ‘first major relationship’, like people who would bounce from quick fling to the next, but my first relationship. To me, a relationship is no small matter, you date me, I’m in it for the long term. Sam ain’t no quick and easy thing! Oh god why am I still such a dork. Anyway, so, yeah, my first relationship, and dear god was I clueless about what to do! And oh shit, I was leaving for uni in September, so would this work long distance? Am I boyfriend material? Will her parents like me? Will my parents like her?....ah fuck it, I WAS 19 AND IN LOVE. I DIDN’T GIVE A SHIT. And whilst we spent some of it long distance, we made it work.

2013-

Now that bit where I was really excited for university and all I’d learn in my 3 years there? Yeah I left after the first year. Cool. My finances were screwed over and I didn’t get my money, so I couldn’t go back, but I guess it was meant to happen for a reason.

Leaving university meant I could focus more on working back home at McDonald’s, so I tried for a promotion, got it, and lost it the day after because of bullshit. But I still carried on, because money’s nice right? I could buy nice things with it, like more stuff for my guitar collection! And many presents! But my my, I think I was getting into a world of pain staying there!

But while we’re on the subject of work and stuff, I got punched in the face by a shitty customer. And it broke my cheekbone. Which I didn’t find out about until a week later when I practically passed out and my girlfriend at the time rushed me to hospital! Since that’s happened I’ve always had a little problem with headaches, lately it’s been really good, to the point I’ve spent pretty much all of 2019, with no headache at all!

Still, finish a topic on a good note, I had my first ever trip to London, it was just me and my girlfriend, and we visited a bakery show. But London itself wowed me, and I fell in love with it, and I always knew I would be back there, just….not how I imagined.

2014-

Starting off, I went back to London! My girlfriend bought me tickets for me and my best friend to go and see Halestorm. MY FIRST CONCERT. And it was epic, I’d ben obsessed with Halestorm for some time already by this stage, so to see them live was a pivotal moment for me. The opening acts were shit, but my god, as soon as Lzzy belted out Love Bites…..oh, ohhh, OHHHHHH my god. The night itself was hectic enough, my friend and I didn’t think to book a hotel. Soooooo we had to run like fuck to make it back to the train, lest we be trapped in London for a whole night!

One big change in this year was my girlfriend and I moving into our own place, granted it was a static caravan, but it was ours, decorated, a bit cold, but it was home. Now, here’s a weird bit, I was home alone one night, and was just getting into bed, when I heard someone at the door. I thought it was my girlfriend home from work, but she was on a night? So, what’s the deal here? Oh wait that’s right, it was Gabby, drunkenly mistaking my caravan for hers! I heard muttering as she left, probably something along the lines of ‘Shit, not my caravan’. But if fate was starting the wheels turning, god she made it a slow fucking burn!

It took me a lot of years to pull this off, but I had my first ever holiday abroad! Rhodes, one of the Greek isles! I recall getting drunk a lot, really good food, and severe heat! But it was my first holiday in forever, and I went away with my girlfriend, her mum and her friend.

Aaaaaand then everything fell apart. I never expected myself to be in a relationship, but once I had one, I didn’t see it ending the way it did. And I’m not airing any dirty laundry, I wasn’t and am still not perfect, but I’m not bitter or twisted about it anymore, it just sucked at the time. I was cheated on, and to anyone who’s had it happen to them knows that it does a lot of damage, it can take a lot of time to recover, and I was lucky to have the friends I had to help me.

The latter half of 2014 saw me drop into a real dark place, I contemplated suicide, and one day I considered it, staring at a packet of tablets for about 6 hours. It took my best friend randomly appearing at my house, practically kidnapping me and taking me to see Guardians of the Galaxy to snap me out of it! But both him and that movie saved my life, so I’m forever grateful to the pair of them. Also I started drinking heavily, at an unhealthy level but, like John Mulaney said, we don’t have time to unpack all of that!

2015-

Back to having a bit of a dull year, but only a bit. I knuckled down and got on with work, and proved myself time and time again. I remade myself, sorted my drinking out, and did a lot to make myself better, or at the very least, less of a fuckup.

I also managed to cram in three more concerts this year, saw Halestorm again with my best friend and another friend, and we loved one of the supporting acts, Nothing More. AND I GOT TO MEET THE SINGER AND HE WAS THE NICEST ERMAHGERD AND I STILL HAVE THE TICKET WHICH HE SIGNED. Then it was Theory of a Deadman later in the year, and they were phenomenal. But by far, the cherry on the cake was seeing Nothing More again, as a VIP! I got to meet the whole band, watch them from close up, got a crapload of merch, and just have the best damn concert experience I could ever have!

2016-

I started this year a little bit worse for wear, I was a little downbeat about things, and was a little bit lost with my choices in life. So I got a cat. Meg the Merciless. And she is a total bitch, mostly disobedient, attacker of unwatched feet. But she is one hell of a companion, and she loves me and Gabby, we can always rely on her to show us a little love and affection when we need it. But as long as it’s on her terms.

Only one concert this year, but it was a biggie: Sum 41 in London, with the same two friends I go to concerts with, aaaaaand we were bruised and injured from surrounding mosh pits, I think Jacob got a cracked rib for his troubles, and I got a smack in the head, so fun times all round!

I tried again for a promotion at work, and made progress! So that was good, my life’s going forwards, what else could happen to make this year more awesome?

OH THAT’S RIGHT I MET GABBY. Yep, thank you Plenty of Fish for giving the option to exercise my social awkwardness from a screen, because that makes me feel so much better! Anyway, yeah Gabby and I started talking on there, I seem to recall the conversation starting off about surviving a zombie apocalypse? Darling, please correct me if I’m wrong! But we started off strong, and carried on strong from there, I was able to open up to her, which made me feel amazing, confident about being in a relationship again, and then we finally met. And our first date was amazing, it may have been a simple idea, drinks, dinner, walking, trying to be a gentleman and not look at Gabby’s butt. Being told by Gabby to look at her butt, giving said butt 2 thumbs up. The usual stuff you know? But the thing that marvelled me most? Her honesty. Gabby hasn’t had the best life, and she has told me so much that any one thing might break some people, and yet Gabby has endured it all, and she is still one of the kindest people I have ever known. She was worried that I might’ve been scared off with what she wanted me know, but it made me love her more, because she trusts me to the point that she’ll tell me all of this. I visited the zoo in October with her, had an amazing first Christmas with her, met her nieces, who are all adorable, met her friends, had a blast, and had a somewhat awkward time introducing Gabby to my parents!

2017-

After nearly 6 months, Gabby was offered the chance to move in with me and my parents, because her home life was…pretty terrible. After suffering psychological abuse for 7 years at the hands of a total scumbag (side note, I find it really hard to hate people, but if this guy died? Fine.) and going away with me to London for a few days, she made the choice to move in. And I think she’s finally realising how terrible a choice that was, because this house is a total nutfest, and she is now a part of it AND CAN NEVER ESCAPE. But she’s embraced it, and has become a better person with her new environment!

Sticking to the topic of Gabby, she landed a job working with me at McDonald’s. And we became one of the greatest working couples in the whole world, people loved us there. Well, most people. I loved working with her, but the managers were becoming total dicks at the time, and Gabby was being discriminated for her mental health, which pissed me off. And thanks to my shitty advice, she quit in November. So go me!

I realise that so far, my 2017 has been largely about Gabby, AND THAT ISN’T STOPPING ANYTIME SOON! I made a post before about this, but Gabby took me to LFCC, my first ever convention. We went to London again, had a ball, met Glenn from Walking Dead, and Crowley from Supernatural! Later in the year we would also go back to London for MCM Comic-Con, which was more spectacle, but I preferred LFCC more, there were more famous people, and I’m a sucker for meeting the famous!

I saw Sum 41 again with my best friend, and we learned our lesson from the last concert, so we got seats up top, and watched from relative safety, and thank god for that because my hearing went to crap after that night! Gabby bought me tickets to go and see Nothing More again as well, and to show her my world a little more, I took her with me! God they know how to put on a show!

The year ended on the shitty side, and I was a pretty shitty boyfriend with this. But Gabby’s nan fell ill, and it wasn’t looking good, and when Gabby needed me after going to be with her mum at the end of the year, I wasn’t there. So I will be spending the rest of my life trying to make up for it. Sorry sweetheart.

2018-

A shit start to be honest. Gabby’s nan died, and it was a stressful time all round, Gabby and I had a massive argument, and I nearly drove her to self harm. Way to go Sam, you prick. I was convinced that after that, we would be over. Why would Gabby want to be with someone who drives her mental health into the dirt? So naturally I was surprised when she told me she still loved me, and still wanted to be with me, and when she moved back, and got a new job, I saw this as a chance to get things going back in the right direction, for the sake of us, and to show Gabby that I will always love her.

NOW FOR A BIG DRAMATIC CHANGE IN SAM’S LIFE. I quit McDonald’s. And looking back at it, thank fuck I did. I was gunning for another promotion, and I got so close to becoming a manager, only for it to be taken away. Yet another opportunity snatched by arseholes. So that was it, fuck ‘em. I quit, and thanks to Gabby finding it, I got a new job working in the same company as my dad, and I can safely say I have not regretted that decision. I love my new job to pieces!

Now, back to Gabby. AND YET ANOTHER DRAMATIC CHANGE IN SAM’S LIFE. In August, on Gabby’s birthday, I wanted to take her to the zoo, with her mum and nieces in tow. And that was the day I lost my girlfriend. AND GAINED A FIANCEÉ SEE WHAT I DID THERE TUMBLR? SUBVERT YOUR EXPECTATIONS OH YEAH. I proposed, and she said yes! I’m going to be a husband! I’m grateful for everything Gabby does, she teaches me so much, and sometimes doesn’t realise it, so to hear her say yes has to be the greatest thing she has done for me so far, because it shows that she wants to spend the rest of her life with an overweight, greying, eccentric, potty mouthed nerd.

I started learning to drive this year, because goddamn it, if I’m going to get somewhere with my life, I needed to drive, I needed a car. So I found a driving school, and got to work. Now it took me going to a different driving school to find out that my first instructor was just trying to bleed me for money, but I enjoyed the driving all the same. But when I had to find a new driving school, I saw that as an opportunity to procrastinate my arse off again. Well done Sam, well done. You prat.

2019-

I PASSED MY DRIVING TEST. After getting in with a new driving school, I got on really quickly, and passed first time, and in May, after Gabby passed her test as well, we got our first car. Moss, the (nearly) 18 year old Nissan Micra. He’s old, a bit clunky, but he’s an amazing car, and I couldn’t picture a better car for us to start with. Mainly because he’s small and really easy to park.

After getting my butt into gear, and sorting out some crap on my end, Gabby and I really got into planning our wedding, we set the date, and from there, we decided on venues, transport, Gabby chose a dress, everything was coming together in the planning phase. However, we didn’t anticipate that we would have already booked over ¾ of the wedding before the end of this year! Seriously, our wedding is in 2021, and we are practically done. WE BOOKED OUR HONEYMOON A FEW DAYS AGO FOR GOD’S SAKE. So yeah, 2020 may be a little less exciting!

Now for a little bit of a shitty part of 2019. I found out a friend of mine died, and that left me feeling down as hell. Of all the people, I never imagined my friend Jay would be one to go so soon. He was a massive character, big heart, and a bigger laugh to match. To hear him pass was frigging heartbreaking, and I don’t think I’ll stop visiting him anytime soon.

Do I know what the next decade holds for me? Not a clue, but I’m glad I’m not alone for it, with Gabby at my side, and our wedding not that far away, I’m ready to make her the happiest woman alive, to start the family that we both want (I mean, apparently we’ll have twins when we have kids, so that’s going to be fun!), to live the lives that we want to spend together. To spend time with friends, new, old, and really old. But most importantly, to have her for all of it.

#personal #personal post #life #ten years #decade in review

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thankyoumskobayashi · 5 years

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The symbolism of changing clothes: Hualian and color schematics. (Spoilers up to Tian Guan Ci Fu Chapter 109).

In the most recent chapter, Xie Lian, Hua Cheng, Wind Master, and Earth Master all go to a small town where their flamboyant attire stands out. Everyone changes except for Xie Lian, who dresses casually because he has spent most of his immortal life wandering the mortal realms and therefore he is better equipped to handle them. During the protagonist's backstory, author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu states that Xie Lian has always like to wear white clothes, and reminds the reader of this fact throughout the previous two cases Xie Lian handles. In this case, Xie Lian's choice of clothing remains pretty static.

He had gotten wiser throughout the years, and grown to see (perhaps) the folly of his younger ways. He had grown resigned to misfortune to the point that he scared away Venerable demons because they couldn't feed off of his broken dreams. This is some serious depression right here. Even though his consistent choice of clothing paralleled his consistent personality traits, Xie Lian's clothing choice is perhaps symbolic of more meanings.

Taoism is the cultural paradigm pervading Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's cultivation novels (or probably cultivation novels in general, but I have only read hers thus far), and some of the things it emcompasses are the concepts of yin and yang energy. White, or Xie Lian's chosen color of dress, represents the masculine yin energy. It is, as Mo Xiang Tong Xiu states many times in Mo Dao Zu Shi, the energy of life, an active energy, and a force for good. This "force for good" was shown as Xie Lian modeled the perfect cultivation student as a Crown Prince, and it became his driving motivation when he reneged against the divine rules of interfering with mortal matters.

This active energy means he is by nature a proactive person. He created a sign saying "renovation needed" by his latest tiny temple, he didn't wait for reinforcements when he learned his idiot cousin was kidnapped by the rebels but left to rescue him anyways, he volunteered to help the noble family when they threw out a doctor to gain a chance at feeding the two kids. From the time he was mortal until Xie Lian's present day, he has seen a need and strived to meet it. Giving rain, saving the child Hong, helping the merchants in their caravan. He has a desire to provide for and protect others -whether from royal duty to the people or compassion matters not- which has become innate over 800 years. It's instinctive. He has become the model of yin energy personified, although his portrayal of leadership is not what one might expect.

The "leaders" one could think of are loud, commanding, in control of everyone and everything. However, that level of micromanaging may produce hostility, helplessness, and resentment among the subordinates. Xie Lian steps in as a leader only when no one else knows how to or even wants to handle it. His main goal is calming people during times of paranormal crisis, like his many attempted directions to the mob on the mountain, or the directions to the soldiers not to jump into the pit. He also wants to keep the others safe, which lends itself to his self-sacrificial tendencies. He understands that even his subordinates have a right to run away from the case, even if that strands him in a precarious position. He listens to their concerns and mediates their fights. Although this may seem like the caricature of the "weak" leader, Xie Lian's leadership methods show the people he works with that he is dedicated to providing their safety and peace.

Rather than proclaiming he will protect them, as he did when he was the Crown Prince of Xian Le, Xie Lian tells the merchants he will go with them and demonstrates through actions that he will protect them along the way. He used this method of showing before telling as he protected the child Hong (whom he'd first saved when Hong fell from the sky) from his evil cousin's murderous schemes. He ordered the carriage stopped, carefully picked up Hong, did some crowd control, then marched that kid right up to the palace healers. He showed Hong he was there to protect him, murmuring comforting things to him along the way.

That child, as you may suspect from Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's love for creating many identities for her characters, likely will turn out to be the devotee at the run-down Temple of the Flower Crown Prince, aka the Temple where Xie Lian first noticed and appreciated the white flower in his statue's hand. It was implied that Hong, touched by Prince Xie Lian's rescues of him, looked up to him even after Xie Lian ascended to godhood. Hong looked up to him enough to do something different than the rest of the followers: establish his own personal symbol for Xie Lian in the white flower, and actually listen to Xie Lian's instructions to his worshippers on how to worship him. Touched by these two things, Xie Lian protected Hong from the children bullying him and invited him to sustain himself from the fruit offerings given. Hong confessed that he didn't know what to live for and Xie Lian told him "Live for me."

With all the political unrest, drought worries, and epidemic to worry about, Xie Lian didn't remember this child was Hong, who he'd saved from falling and from his cousin before. He merely saved him again and left to do more martial-godly stuff. Eventually, Hong heard through gossip that Xie Lian was on the battlefield fighting the people who wanted to escape the droughts. That, I believe, was when he first began pursuing Xie Lian, probably beginning as a form of hero worship. He snuck onto the wall guard then, and caught a glimpse of Xie Lian and his assistants as they guarded the royal capital. They got notice that Qi Rong was kidnapped and Xie Lian, ever a man god of action, left alone over the wall to fight them.

Hong siezed his chance then and followed him to the mountain, even after he was vastly outstripped by Xie Lian. He still caught up eventually to help Xie Lian deal with the plants, and sliced them down in a fit of anger while they tormented his hero. At this point Hong only ever wanted to pay back his hero for saving him, but was forced to watch Xie Lian harm himself rather than injure the child nearby. Indecency aside, Hong was probably enraged by having to watch his idol stab himself under the influence of demon plants. From there, it isn't hard to imagine Hong learning, perhaps as a young god himself, the exact effects of those demons. He would have learned that Xie Lian would rather sacrifice himself than kill another person. And even if he wouldn't die, he had been prepared to make that sacrifice. It isn't hard to imagine Hong becoming enraged at those demons Xie Lian had faced, before he had known what they would make him do. It isn't hard to imagine Hong, a nascent Demon King, seeking out and destroying all of those kinds of demons in a form of vengeance.

By this point you have probably arrived at the same conclusion as me: Hong/Hua Cheng/San Lang is in love with Xie Lian. He is pursuing him romantically (as well as sexually, though I'm not writing this essay about that) throughout the eras. Yada yada, this was in the summary Mo Xiang Tong Xiu provided with her novel, stop telling me this. I get it. But she likes to take an incredibly roundabout approach to storytelling, not addressing these things until at least 20 chapters later. As of right now the part(s?) when these things are discussed by the characters in-universe have not yet been translated. So forgive my redundance.

Mo Xiang Tong Xiu likes to give color schemes with her main pairings. This was true with Wei Wuxian (red and black) and Lan Wangji (white and blue). It also goes for Xie Lian and Hua Cheng as well. Xie Lian is white, and Hua Cheng is red and black. There might be other colors mentioned for both which I haven't picked up on, so I will only focus on those three. This essay began with everyone besides Xie Lian changing clothes. Hua Cheng changed into black clothes from a previous outfit which was a white robe beneath a red one. Let's examine how that color psychology helps him pursue Xie Lian's affections.

First of all, the red and white. Red is the color of passion, anger, excitement, and danger. It is attractive and alluring. These adjectives all describe the person Hua Cheng became over his 800 year existence. They were shaped by his determination and drive, his tenacity and his passion. His love for Xie Lian shows in his fixing the door, kissing him in the lake, sending up 3,000 lanterns. His love is the kind of unbounded, head-over-heels timeless love we have heard about in the Odyssey: he is the one seeking to find his way back home, back to the person he belongs with. He said so when he told Xie Lian (paraphrased) "Paradise Mansion is a house but not a home. It doesn't feel as much of a home as your tiny cottage does." When he is at the shrine with Xie Lian he is laughing and joking, offering to do domestic things simply because he is content. Here, his red is affection.

When Xie Lian is in danger, his red becomes the red of power and anger. After Xie Lian got stung by a scorpion snake, Hua Cheng immediately stopped the swelling by cutting the wound with a borrowed cauterized knife and sucking out most of the poison. When Xie Lian jumped into the pit after him, Hua Cheng had already killed all the wolves and was waiting to catch him at the bottom. Heavenly officials all told tales of how he caused only death and devastation in his wake.

Perhaps, if he hadn't had someone to look up to, he would have already fulfilled that prophecy of destroying the world.

But with Xie Lian's influence, he had someone to look up to. He had some model of morality in the Crown Prince who had saved him three, four, five times without even demanding thanks in return. Hua Cheng had plenty of time to learn about Xie Lian's compassionate and just lifestyle through hearsay and word-of-mouth news. He had plenty of time to analyze on the actions he'd seen Xie Lian perform firsthand and gain a reasonable grasp on his personal morality. By adopting some form of Xie Lian's moral code, Hua Cheng chose not to kill the entire world. He fought his so-called destiny with Xie Lian as assistance. Or perhaps? Perhaps his evil fate, bound far in the distance like a train stop down the track, was entirely shifted, a shifting of the rails so to speak, the moment he heard Xie Lian, the god who didn't appear to mortals anymore, whisper those words: "Live for me."

He truly took them to heart, although in a different way than Xie Lian probably intended. Rather than living out his life to make Xie Lian proud of him, he strove to become someone on equal footing to the pedestal in his mind he had created for Xie Lian. He strove to become someone who could properly charm Xie Lian and earn his trust. He wanted to be as powerful as Xie Lian was in his heyday. He wanted to have Xie Lian see him as a dependable and trustworthy person, but he probably ran into trouble finding the Flower Crown Prince after Xie Lian descended to the mortal realm for the second time. Everyone may have either made fun of Xie Lian when Hua Cheng asked after him, or flat out didn't care to learn or pass on his location. And so Hua Cheng made his own fortune, embraced his own power, became the Demon King who would kill everyone except the two gods who had formerly assisted Xie Lian.

If there is some plot to Xie Lian's second fall which complicates this somewhat--and knowing Mo Xiang Tong Xiu there probably is what with 135-6 chapters untranslated-- please know that it hasn't been translated yet, and that I am not a psychic. Anyways, when Hua Cheng 'first' appeared to Xie Lian, his clothing was crimson maple leaves on a white background. This shows that his own personality, vibrant and powerful, has been affected profoundly by the gentle, compassionate, noble personality of Xie Lian. He keeps Xie Lian's personality closer to his heart- and shows it to fewer people -than he does with his own personality. Hua Cheng said earlier on in the novel that he would give his ashes- his own biggest weakness- to someone worthy, someone kind who would guard them and do with them as they wished. And that if, at any point, he did something that person didn't like, that person could end him right then and there. Then he left the next morning, leaving Xie Lian with a ring on a silver chain. Suspicious? Hm. Coincidental? Very.

He has known Xie Lian for almost as long as Feng Xin, and nearly as long as Mu Qing has. He has known Xie Lian better than most other followers, since before he was a god. Hua Cheng even defied Xie Lian's orders of forgetting him, as well. That QianDeng Temple was probably built hundreds of years ago, as soon as Hua Cheng became a Demon King, and just sat there waiting for him to bring Xie Lian to see it. Since no one in the crowd was talking about it, and no one ever suggested going near it as a dare, it is reasonable to induct that Hua Cheng built it awhile ago, and Hua Cheng enforced strict punishments towards anyone who dared go near it. He probably tested out E-Ming on whoever tried to visit it, whoever commented on it, etc. Then the rumors got around that you'd be tortured for looking at it so everybody in Ghost City stopped. Once Hua Cheng showed QianDeng Temple to Xie Lian, he was probably nervous that he defied those orders, to forget the god whom he'd idolized, but luckily for him Xie Lian has a shitty memory and was impressed instead of embarrassed or angry at him. Xie Lian has mostly been ostracized from the Heavenly Community due to his infamy and wandering the mortal realms. He doesn't have people with a similar sense of humor to talk to, he's mostly lonely. Which brings us to the black robe: the role Hua Cheng dons in an attempt to win Xie Lian's favor.

In the yin-yang symbol, the two tapering swirls of black and white have a dot of the opposite color inside them. The white is the yin, and the black is the yang. Those two are eternally matched with each other for eternity, a profound meaning not lost on Hua Cheng when he chooses his clothing next. Since Xie Lian has no need to change his outfit, as he already blends in, Hua Cheng changes his own outfit to complement that. Yang energy in Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's novels is typically the energy of the dead, malevolent energy, the resentful power which a certain necromancer harnessed for personal gain. This kind of energy is what ghosts, demons, and the like all share, and as King of Demons it fits Hua Cheng to change to an outfit of its color.

However, the inherent paradox within their relationship is that fundamentally, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng are pitted on opposite spiritual axioms. This is much more complicated than the "opposites attract" adage; Hua Cheng has similar strategies and theories to Xie Lian about the cases they solve together. Xie Lian is happy that his funny password made Hua Cheng laugh. No, there's parts of their personalities picked up by the other and folded into them, whether consciously or not. Hua Cheng's persistence at following Xie Lian during the Qi Rong's rescue becomes Xie Lian's persistence at hunting the fetus spirit, even if he has to swallow it AND his sword to do so. Xie Lian's intervention on Hua Cheng's death becomes Hua Cheng sending "greetings" to tyrants because he has standards for who's allowed to be on the throne, you know. They reflect each other, both looking in a puddle of water, both dripping from the blood of their casualties, accidental or not. The difference is, Hua Cheng can bear that weight of casualties differently than Xie Lian.

Xie Lian considers himself a has-been. He was great once, but not anymore. He failed to do what he'd said he'd do, and paid the price with followers and powers. Hua Cheng, after getting back into contact with him, is just as smitten now as he had ever been before. He showed Xie Lian a roomfull of swords just to hear him ramble for hours about how cool all the swords were and then told him, point-blank, "You can have all these swords." This Demon King wants to give Xie Lian reasons to be happy and excited again. He wants him to go on rants about the stuff he enjoys just so he can watch and listen to the Flower Crown Prince talk, his eyes sparkling, his expression unguarded and happy like he once was.

After they visited QianDeng Temple together, Hua Cheng explained to Xie Lian that none of his things could be stolen from Paradise Manor without his permission. Elaborating further with "...once something is in my hands, it's mine," Hua Cheng might be simply making things up sarcastically. Or, it could be one of the times when he is deadly serious and every word is accurate. We as a reader can't quite tell if Xie Lian is fully processing this, but he thinks to the first time he met Hua Cheng in the Ghost City. There, Hua Cheng had placed his hands carefully over Xie Lian's to help him roll two sixes on the dice. Did that mean he had already claimed Xie Lian as his? Does Xie Lian know the romantic implications behind that? Did he recognize the romantic intentions behind Hua Cheng's kiss? Mo Xiang Tong Xiu experience says that he didn't, but the clues are blaringly obvious to the reader.

Xie Lian has never left Paradise Manor through a door without Hua Cheng by his side. He has left through the roof, but that was one time. It will be interesting to see whether he can leave by himself later. Casein point: Hua Cheng built Xie Lian's door. Did he use the same spell on it that he did with Paradise Manor doors? If so, how can Xie Lian use it when he's not around? A viable explanation is that by giving Xie Lian his own ashes, Hua Cheng has granted Xie Lian co-ownership of Paradise Mansion and he will be able to go wherever he wants at any time. Either way Mo Xiang Tong Xiu chooses, this will be an exciting result. Through all of these cues and more, Mo Xiang Tong Xiu has shown us Hua Cheng's dedication and loyalty to Xie Lian, with his words, actions, and clothing choice. His name, however, as a Demon King: Crimson Rain Sought Flower, is incredibly obvious. The white flower is a symbol he personally gave Xie Lian after he ascended the first time. In QianDeng Temple, Xie Lian even holds it up and asks if "...this is the kind of flower [he is] pursuing," to which Hua Cheng, delighted that Xie Lian finally realizes his romantic feelings, replies that he has the premonition of gods. Xie Lian had only asked about the flower, not himself. It is unknown whether Hua Cheng understood that, but either way his tone reads as teasingly sincere.

One last thing: the whole "falling" in love thing. Hua Cheng fell from the sky in order to first meet Xie Lian. He was probably chock full of adrenaline and scared to death, but once those strong arms caught him and held him away from danger he felt safer than anywhere else in the world. He probably wanted to know more about the person who had saved him. I bet he manipulated the info of who saved him out of Qi Rong when Qi Rong's five hitmen showed up to kill him. I bet just knowing the name of the person who'd saved him was what drove him to fight like a madman to avoid dying by Qi Rong's interference. That led him directly to the carriage's path again, and then to Xie Lian's arms again. He was calm when Xie Lian was holding him, but no one else. He didn't give a shit when the Head Priest predicted a future of only destruction, but heard Xie Lian insisting that he was capable of doing good. This fundamentally changed him as a person, even if Xie Lian didn't remember it later. This, I believe, is the reason why Hua Cheng left the world largely intact. Plus he didn't know where exactly Xie Lian was, so he couldn't just destroy large areas without possibly creating a most unwanted casualty.

Falling from the sky, beaten and dragged behind a cart, accused of bringing doom, watching Xie Lian stoically face angry crowds, asking the god who no one heard from anymore why he should live. Watching the flower demons torment his hero. Although many assume Hua Cheng decided to become strong enough to protect Xie Lian at this point, it could have been a resolve building up since their first interaction. Whatever the case, suffering through watching Xie Lian deal with the outbreak, face the angry mob, get heckled as he held up the Pavilions day in day out, that was the acute torment which fueled Hua Cheng's determination to become powerful. That this remains his worst fear, even after he now is at LEAST as powerful as Xie Lian in his heyday, says much about how much he loves Xie Lian.

Pursue his affections, he's the kind who loves with his entire heart. And since you wear a white robe, his color, close to your heart, perhaps he is the person nearest and dearest to yours...

#tian guan ci fu #long post #essay + analysis + headcanons #updated with the new information heheh

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the-wolfs-raven · 5 years

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What is Vasha's occupation?

Tara actually does many things. First and foremost, she is a trader and importer. She has spent the last 6 years building up a reputation around Azeroth under the name Tara Haalos. Only in the last year or so has she gone by her birth name of Tarvasha Winterscale. There are countless folk who have at least heard of Trader Haalos, and there are those in the Black Market and other illicit organizations who know her only as Vasha.

For each reputation I reach exalted in-game with, I add trade routes and stories for her (to do the work in-game that is part of her history and not RPed out). She’s up to almost 55 different exalted reps, and that’s a hell of a lot of carefully managed routes and contacts.

Her kitchen table is filled every morning as requests, letters, gifts, samples, and more arrive daily. She has an in with the postmaster to deliver to her location regardless of where she is staying.

Beyond that, Tara is the acting Madam of the Gilded Cage brothel (though she hasn’t been able to attend her duties as often these days) and she also heads the Blue Wolf Caravan, an overhead for her various contacts and trade agreements. The name Blue Wolf came from her trading between factions (blue=Alliance, wolf=Horde). Tara is often responsible for important arrangements such as the exchange of Ashenvale lumber for Durotar ore some years ago. Blue Wolf Imports is also organized and run by her, having existed as a traveling vendor and a static shop at various points in time.

Needless to say, Tarvasha doesn’t sleep often. She seems to vanish every once in a while to go on long journeys across her different contacts in order to keep things running smoothly. In the last year, she has hired help to deal with the expansive network, but often handles the more tedious arrangements herself.

Thanks for the ask!

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askjaaryl · 5 years

Text

Episode 14 (Part 2): To Alexandria

The trip takes a detour.

It seemed like forever; forever that Paul’s worst fears were coming true. Before, they had the numbers, but now, it was just the three of them versus a whole caravan full of Brad and his men.

Daryl’s arms being around him helped a little, but it didn’t stop him from shaking like a leaf. The idea of what they could do…

Finally, finally, they threw a bucket of water over the small fire and the last tent zipped closed.

“C’mon,” Daryl said, “We’ll get far enough then we’re gonna call for a ride, ain’t in no shape the be walkin’ like ya are.”

Paul didn’t say anything. Normally he’d protest them trying to take care of him, but right now he just wanted to get behind the walls of any community.

Coming out was a mistake. He should have just stayed at the Hilltop.

He slowly got out from under the truck after Aaron, Daryl following behind him, a hand on his back as he did.

Paul looked at the truck sadly, hoping they’d see it again. It had been their little family’s official car for a long time. He just hoped the Free Men didn’t pick it for parts or hot wire it during the night.

“Let’s go, knives out,” Aaron whispered, “We can’t risk making noise with guns, but we can’t be unarmed,” he said as they started walking.

“We’ll find the next mile marker and call for help,” Daryl agreed, taking out his knife and spinning it in his hand, his other hand tightly gripping the back of Paul’s duster.

They walked in silence for a while, the only thing that they heard was the occasional mud squelching under their boots and Paul’s quick breathing.

Daryl jogged up when he saw the mile marker and took the radio from his belt, switching it on, “This is Daryl Dixon, calling to Alexandria.”

There was silence for a moment, just the radio static.

“Daryl? This is Rosita, what’s up?” she asked over the line.

“We’re gonna need a ride for three out at mile mark two, we had to abandon our truck,” Daryl said, “There’s a caravan of Free Men headed in this direction, their leader included.”

“Uh…” Rosita trailed off in shock, “I’ll pass that along. You sure you wanna come here?”

“Ain’t got much of a choice,” Daryl said, glancing over at Paul, “We ain’t gonna make it back ta Hilltop on foot, not tonight.”

Rosita hesitated for a moment, “Rick’s awake, his lights still on, I’m going to send him.”

Daryl just grunted a quick “thanks” before switching the radio off. He sat down on the ground, leaving both Aaron and Paul standing. Aaron soon followed, then Paul finally took his place between them, leaning heavily on Aaron.

Aaron quickly put his arm around Paul, pulling him closer, “We should have never come out here,” he whispered, rubbing Paul’s shoulder.

Daryl glanced over at the two of them, staying silent as he looked out at the field in the dark, resting his elbows on his knees as he waited.

“I don’t want to leave again, once we get back,” Paul told Aaron quietly, “Is that okay?”

“That’s fine,” Aaron said, kissing his head, “However long you need...we can stay inside forever, if you want.”

“I want Lydia ta live with us,” Daryl spoke up, “We been talkin’ about that new house...I want her ta have a room there.”

Both Paul and Aaron looked up.

“Isn’t that something we should all decide together?” Aaron asked quietly, “Daryl, you know how I feel-”

“I know,” Daryl cut him off, “But you’re over there makin’ plans to stay inside forever and hide from the world without even askin’ what I think, so I figured I’d get a free pass for her,” he snapped before looking out at the field again.

“Daryl, hey…” Aaron trailed off, but there were already lights coming up and over the hill, on a speeding Jeep.

“Ride’s here,” Daryl said simply, helping Paul up and putting his hands on his shoulders, “Ya ain’t done nothin’ wrong, I ain’t mad at you, ya hear?”

Paul just nodded slowly.

“He’s disassociating,” Aaron commented, “I noticed it a while back.”

“I know,” Daryl said quietly, “Gotta get ‘im somewhere safe before we can do anything for that,” he said, waving down his brother’s Jeep.

“Rosita told me what happened,” Rick said as he screeched to a halt, “Ya’ll okay?”

“He’s a little out of it, but physically, we’re okay,” Aaron said, helping Paul into the back, “Do you have any blankets back there?”

“Nah, sorry, we were in the middle of cleaning things out when ya called,” Rick said, starting to drive again as soon as the three of them crammed in the back.

“Is my old house here still empty?” Aaron asked, looking up at Rick through the mirror.

“Yeah, left everything where ya did too,” Rick said, “There’s some plastic over the furniture in the livin’ room ta keep it up and a sheet over the bed upstairs, but we got in from time ta time and check it over, make sure everything still runs right. I can get ya the key from the gate, if ya wanna stay there.”

“That’ll work,” Aaron said quietly, glancing up at the radio, “I know it isn’t that loud, but do you mind turning that off? Uh...people with sensory issues from PTSD sometimes feel overstimulated, Paul specifically doesn’t like too many noises.”

Rick didn’t say much, just nodded and reached down, turning the radio off as he focused on the road ahead.

“Need anything else?” Aaron asked, sitting on the edge of the bed, smoothing Paul’s hair out of his face.

“I’m good,” Paul said quietly, “I really just want to go to sleep. Can you call Maggie and let her know we’re okay?”

“I will,” Aaron said, leaning down and kissing his head, “We’re going to go talk to Rick, don’t hesitate to yell if you need anything.”

Paul nodded, smiling up at him, “Thank you,” he said quietly, before turning over, his back to him.

Aaron got up and walked to where Daryl was leaning in the doorway, watching them. He grabbed his hand, pulling him away, and his boyfriend closed the door behind him.

“We should talk,” Aaron said quietly.

Daryl just grunted, following after him.

They both sat down in the living room, side by side on the old couch.

“Coming out here was a mistake,” Aaron said quietly.

“Nah, it wasn’t,” Daryl snorted, “Ya know Paul...ya know after he gets over what...this is, he’ll be out runnin’ around again.”

“But he needs time to get over this,” Aaron told him, “He just can’t flip a switch and act like it’s okay. This was too much all at once.”

“He ain’t a damn child,” Daryl snapped, “Quit treatin’ ‘im like one!”

“I’d like it if I could just make my own decisions, thank you.”

They both looked up and saw Paul standing at the bottom of the steps, messing with his hands awkwardly.

“I thought you were going to sleep,” Aaron said quietly.

“Like you said, we should talk,” Paul walked over, sitting down between them, “I appreciate the two of you taking care of me when I was like that...so thank you,” he cleared his throat, “But we all know that I love it out here.”

“See?” Daryl snorted.

“But I’m also going to need time,” Paul added, “This feeling...all the anxiety, every time I step foot outside these walls...it isn’t going to go away, not for a while. I honestly don’t know if it’ll ever fully go away,” he admitted, “But I can’t become a hermit inside our trailer.”

Daryl just nodded slowly, Aaron as well.

“And I think it would be nice for Lydia to live with us after we have the new house,” Paul added, “It’s something we’d have to discuss further. But she’s a teenage girl, she doesn’t need to be staying on our couch with absolutely no privacy. She needs somewhere where she’ll have her own space; right now she has that at Barrington. I know you two want to be closer, but it’s more practical for her to stay at Barrington until the house is built.”

Daryl just huffed, putting his head on his shoulder, “When’d ya become the logical one?”

“Always have been,” Paul smiled slightly, kissing him on the head, “And it was very brave of you to come here...I really appreciate how far you’d go for me.”

Daryl just grunted, feeling his cheeks heat up a little bit.

“Now,” Paul said, “If there’s nothing else to talk about, we should go to bed. I want to get back to Hilltop tomorrow before too late.”

#cs;

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keith5sblog · 4 years

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Buying a static caravan

Information provided and researched by an owner of 14 years on a national holiday park group.First thoughts are for a new owner do lots of research, check out the prospective site that you would like to purchase your static caravan.Your initial investment if you are going to purchase direct from any of the big name chains like HAVEN would be a minimum of £18.000 for a used caravan that will be a few years old.

You are now on step two,what is the main reason for the purchase outlay of a large amount of money on your caravan.Some of my blog may help you to make up your mind about the good and the indifferent before you make your purchase.Some of the reasons to purchase your first caravan. 1. The static caravan lifestyle 2. Earn money from renting out your caravan 3. Holidays for 10 months of the year for you and your family.These are probably the main reasons to make for your first purchase.All of these reasons come at a very high price which you may not have realised.(Will go into the cash situation later)

You are now ready to make your visit to your chosen site please believe me be on your guard and make notes of what the salesman tells you.Your salesman will always try to stretch your budget do some fishing about your finances what he will never do on stage one is to offer you a caravan on site that they have on notice that some owner is selling private.You should never expect to purchase a cheap caravan via the sites salesman.The salesman's tasks are to sell the benefits of being an owner(He could well throw in a few porkers on the way) some past ones like swimming pool being extended ,your site fees and all your set up costs are included.(Phew this is a time bomb double check)Holiday parks tend to lend themselves to family entertainment and most sites will have hundreds of children running about many unsupervised.If you are adults only purchasing your caravan this is what you will get, they are for families and and holidays are sold as a family holiday park.Always be aware if you have children in the 15-18 year age group activities on site tend not to suite this age group.

RENTING OUT YOUR STATIC CARAVAN

This is very competitive and there are in some areas there are 100s if not thousands of caravans and a similar amount of owners wishing to do the same thing.This is why caravan holidays have tumbled in price and holidays can be very cheap for a family holiday.If you do purchase a caravan do not expect to make lots of money from rentals take it like most owners do anything raised in rentals will go towards the running costs of your caravan site fees and expenses.Most holiday parks offer a sub letting system that allows you to rent your property via the site office.This comes at a price because the include marketing and booking your caravan,laundry and cleaning for this some sites charge about 20% of your rental income.You must take this point it is important some holiday parks will not rent your property if it is over 7 years old(Ask about this before you purchase your caravan).Also every week you rent out your caravan is a week less for you to use your caravan.You can rent out your caravan privately through social media,adverts in papers and windows etc this there is no age limit on your caravan.Has previously stated this is very competitive in price and all over social media you can see adverts for non school holidays at £100 per week end or Monday-Friday.If you now do the sums for laundry,cleaning, electricity(You may require to use contract cleaners)and gas bottles at £65 each which will not last long in early or late season when it is cold.This will leave you with not a lot of profit.A lot of parks accept pets and you could also include this in your rental package.

RUNNING COSTS TO OWN YOUR OWN CARAVAN ON A HOLIDAY PARK

Site fees from £2.500 to £6.000 plus domestic rates,water,electricity,insurance you must budget for about £5.000 per year minimum in running costs. If you are letting the site rent your caravan every little item of work will be charged because you may not be on site or even live local to your holiday park site, typical call out to replace a light bulb or if your electric trips out by guests overloading power can be £10 per call out to your caravan.Most holiday parks have a 10 month season with entertainment on site for about 8 months.Some sites have a 12 month season with a different set of fees and entertainment packages,and you could also if it suites have your static caravan on a non holiday park type pitch without entertainment with no facilities just a site pitch and drainage site fees are a lot cheaper.

FINANCE YOUR CARAVAN THROUGH THE HOLIDAY PARKS H/P FACILITIES

Most sites offer credit facilities many do a 7 year credit deal after your deposit of £3.000 you will be paying about £180 per month for a caravan costing £18.000 and will be several years old.You must start adding in HP costs to site fees so you are looking at about £150 per week minimum to cover your costs.(Important check the age of the caravan in case they have any age rules to subletting your caravan through the office).

SELLING YOUR CARAVAN

Now comes the largest grumble of any owner of a static caravan if they wish to part with their caravan and leave the park.The reasons to leave could be family problems,change of job,bereavement and all to common not doing your sums before joining the lifestyle.Yes you can sell your caravan to a private buyer but the site rules vary but on mine you have to pay 12% commission and then the site will re write the rule book on site fees and load another £1000 per year on top.Some sites will not let you put up for sale signs in the window,what most people will do at the last resort let the site buy the caravan for maybe £3.000 for something you paid over £18.000 maybe only a season ago.You can let the site sell your caravan but let it be known on my site you will never hear of a salesman attempting to sell your caravan at the market price for his 12%They want it for themselves has a salvage sale from you for stupid money because they know you are desperate to leave the site with no more on going costs..

Over the years have seen and heard of many disputes with site management but you will never win.You report your problem to head office because you get no satisfaction from site management.When you report anything to head office they always sit on the fence and direct you back to site management.All the larger site operators are part of BCA report to them and guess what they refer you back to the site management. To conclude all is not all doom and gloom many owners enjoy the lifestyle I have done it for 14 years it is not cheap but a great way to spend your free time and make lots of friends. Check out to purchase your static caravan .Haven Holiday Parks

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