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humanbug · 1 year

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Inky Hearts pt.2

Modern!Ellie is a tattoo artist and you just became her lovely little muse.

a/n: whoaaa part 2!!! this one gets exciting!! i am not sure if ill make a part 3. i was gonna put abby in this but it just didn't feel like the right storyline. this is proofread but also written at like 4am soooo there might be mistakes. comments, and reblogs are appreciated!! my asks are open for requests or just to chat!! i hope you enjoy!!

| NSFW 18+ MDNI |

Songs mentioned: Down the Line by Beach Fossils, Spooky by Dusty Springfield, Left Hand Free by alt-J

warning(s): smoking/weed, y/n is used (only once), SMUT!!!, oral (r!receiving), sex while high (both parties consenting)

“God! C’mon don’t be such a baby and just ask her!”

“Would you let it go! I’m not gonna do anything. We’re just friends.”, you say for what feels like the millionth time. “For now!”, she retorts. You lean back in your seat laughing as Bailey’s face twists at your stubbornness. Knowing she’s right but being way too stubborn to give her that satisfaction.

You and her had decided to grab coffee, realizing it had been too long since you had spent time together. She had seen your most recent instagram post and texted you a string of texts including the words, ‘bitch’ ‘cutie’ ‘skank’ and ‘hottie’, which was pretty typical given that you had been friends since high school.

It had been about three weeks since you got your tattoo and you and Ellie had been texting almost every single day. You had made up the ‘smooth’ excuse of "My ig dm notifs don’t come through :( can we text instead?”, hoping that the small fib worked. Luck was on your side because just like that you had her number and before you knew it you two were choosing to facetime instead of text. Neither of you had realized it, but you were both building up the courage to ask the other out. Although neither of you were successful, typing out the message and deleting them right after.

You had told Bailey about the hottest tattoo artist you had ever had. How you had definitely been flirting during your appointment and how much Ellie undercharged you, still angry about that part. She immediately began trying to convince you to ask her out but you had said over and over again that you are just friends…for now.

Putting her elbows on the table, “So anyway stubborn bitch! Did you hear who Sophia started dating!?”. You and her gossip and talk absolute filth about all the people you know, laughing and cringing at your bullying.

–

“Oh my god! She is so lying! You have to call her out-”, Bailey starts, face quickly morphing into confusion as your cheeks flush and you mumble ‘oh my god!’. Looking down at your drink, trying to become invisible you whisper, “Bailey that’s her!”.

Being the ever so subtle person she is, she whips her head over her left shoulder, looking back at you with her mouth in a big ‘O’ shape. “She’s SO hot! Oh my god! You absolutely have to ask her out. I’m definitely not taking no for an answer after seeing her in person.”, she exclaims, peering over her shoulder a few more times.

Given that it’s a rather loud coffee shop and you and Bailey are tucked into the corner, you try not to be disappointed that she hadn't seen you as she grabs a tray of four drinks and walks out.

Twiddling with your rings you chew on your bottom lip, “You know what? Fuck it. I’m gonna ask her to hang out.”, you state, the authority in your voice is not the most convincing but fuckin’ fake it till’ you make it, right?

–

Your thumbs hover over your keyboard. Taking a deep breath you hit send. Tossing your phone to the foot of your bed as if it’s a bomb and falling back against your pillows, arms covering your face. Closing your eyes, your mind wanders back to your tattoo appointment. The way her hands felt over your plush thighs, the way you had to pull your panties higher so she could access your skin and how, unknowingly to you, she had eyed the way it created a perfect outline of your cunt causing her mouth to water, the way her brows furrowed when she was in deep focus. Starting to imagine the way her strong hands would feel lowering down and-

Shooting up at the feeling of your phone vibrating your hands dig through the sheets to find it. Sliding it open you pull the notification screen down, not wanting to open the text just yet.

✯Ellie✯ : hey! ya i would like that, this week is super packed for…

‘Damn it! Okay, I have to open it.’

✯Ellie✯ : hey! ya i would like that, this week is super packed for me. i am booked up almost everyday butttt maybe you could come by the shop? if you don’t want too that’s totally cool

Biting back a smile at her rambling, excitement bubbles inside you as you respond. Typing out a message and deleting it several times, anxiety making your palms sweaty and heart race.

✿Y/N✿ : Yes! That would be perfect! Just let me know when you have a break! :)

–

Bopping your head to Down the Line as you drive through the intersection just before the tattoo shop. Parking your car in the lot across the street you pull the mirror down checking over yourself. Grabbing your two bags and water bottle you head across the street to the shop.

Opening the door and stepping inside you walk over the front desk. The girl with dark hair is there talking with another girl with black hair in a short choppy haircut and bangs. The girl you have never seen before sports several piercings. Walking up hesitantly, not wanting to interrupt their conversation, the girl with longer dark hair turns to you with a warm smile.

“Hi! How can we help you?”, she asks in a kind voice.

“I’m here for Ellie! I don’t uh- have an appointment but she should be expecting me!”, you say quietly not wanting to sound like a walk-in demanding to see Ellie. Feeling the girl with black eyeing you intensely, your cheeks flush.

“For sure! She should be at her station, her client just left. You can just head back.”, giving her an appreciative smile, you walk through the curtained work stations, hearing the buzz of guns and low chatter.

Peaking your head into her station you see her sitting on the rolling chair, sketching something on her iPad. She hasn’t noticed you just yet so you observe her in her element. Her hair is tied half up half down, the short choppy strands falling around her face. You wonder how someone can make black jeans and a loose t-shirt look so good. Clearing your throat and smiling as your eyes meet.

“Hey! Perfect timing! I’ve got like an hour and a half before my next client.”, swiveling around as she speaks.

Holding up one of the two bags in your arms you take a step forward, “Um- I brought you lunch. I- I figured pasta was a safe option so I brought pesto pasta with sun-dried tomatoes!”

Ellie can feel the appreciation practically running through her veins, not remembering the last time someone made lunch for her. Her lips curve as she runs a hand over the back of her neck.

“That- You are too sweet. I really wasn’t expecting you to bring me lunch. There’s a table out back, let’s eat out there?”, she says as she gets up, closing her iPad and pocketing her phone.

Giving her a bright smile you nod your head. Following her out of the shop you admire her physique from behind.

‘Does this girl look good from every angle? Yes. Yes, she does.’

–

“Holy fuck! Did you make this!?”, she exclaims, savoring the pasta.

“Well- uh- not exactly! It’s from Trader Joe's! But it’s my favorite pasta kind of ever. I’m really glad you like it!”, you giggle as you explain the pasta is unfortunately not homemade.

“Well Joe knows how to make some good fucking pasta.”, she says with a mouthful of noodles. Laughing at the green-eyed goofy girl in front of you as you take a bite of your pasta.

‘Just ask! Don’t be a baby!’, your belly flips as you work up the courage.

Fiddling with your rings and glancing up, just to see her already looking at you, “So…what are you doing Saturday? My friend Bailey is having a small party at her place and I was uh- I was wondering if you wanted to come? With me, of course- or not of course. Just with me.”, you ramble out.

Giving a cocky smile at your nervousness, she tries her damndest to conceal her own racing heart and sweaty palms, “That sounds perfect. I’d love to go. With you, of course.”, her response taking a teasing tone.

Giggling at your own embarrassing rambling you bite back a smile, “I will pick you up at five. It’s nothing fancy, just a casual thing. I am planning on bringing weed.”

“Just a casual thing, perfect.”, she hums with a smile.

–

Tying the laces of your docs you rush out of your apartment. Checking your phone and cursing at the time, it was four fifty and Ellie’s place was about fifteen minutes away. Rushing through the halls, your purse clutched in one hand, phone under your chin, and yanking your jacket on.

–

Pulling up the address that Ellie had sent you, you send a voice memo that you are parked out front. You have Spooky playing low as you drum your fingers on the steering wheel. Glancing around you see Ellie rushing down the steps on the porch. Shamelessly running your hungry eyes over her. She wears a pair of light-wash black jeans, sitting perfectly on her legs, not too loose and not too baggy, a black hoodie, and black converse.

You can’t help but grin as you realize you match. You had chosen an all black outfit too. Finding your favorite black skirt to show off all of the art on your legs, black tights to compensate for the chilly night air, a snug black cropped shirt that showed off a perfect amount of cleavage and your leather jacket.

“Well don’t you clean up well!”, you tease as she slides into the car, sharing a smile as she chuckles. As she buckles up you hand her your phone, “Put whatever you want on! Bailey’s is like twenty minutes away.”

Ellie finally takes the chance to glance at you. Feeling desire pool in her belly as she sees what you’re wearing. How your hands maneuver the steering wheel, rings and manicured nails tapping along to Left Hand Free. How your skirt has ridden up your plush thighs sitting dangerously high. How the skirt hugs your soft belly and your top shows enough skin to see the glimpse of a tattoo and how it hugs your tits perfectly. Fucking hell, she know’s she ogeling but can’t find it in her to give a shit. She is torn from her trance when she realizes you're leaning dangerously close. Her freckled cheeks flush and she clears her throat when you reach in the back seat and lean back with your purse in hand. Oh. You arrived at the party, Ellie hadn’t even realized you parked.

You step out of the car and shimmy your skirt back down and smooth your hair out. Ellie steps out and looks over at you, admiring you even more. Thank god it’s getting dark and you can’t see her beet red face.

“You ready? We’re a tiny bit late so Bailey is probably gonna chew me out but she’s a sweetheart I promise.”, you assure her as you both walk up to the house. Stepping through the door the house is warm with bodies, liquor, and weed. It is not painfully packed but nonetheless you grasp Ellie’s hand in yours and make your way to the kitchen, saying ‘hi’ to most of the people you pass.

“You’re late bitch! And because you’re late you owe me a shot!”Bailey's voice fills the kitchen, she clearly started partying a long time ago. Stepping over to her you give her a hug, her bright pink outfit a stark contrast against your black one.

“Anything you want babe! But first, Bailey, this is Ellie. Ellie, this is Bailey, my best friend!”, you exclaim loud enough to be heard through the voices filling the space.

–

“You’ve been quiet.”, you say as you and Ellie finally escape the kitchen. Finding your way to the room you knew would be a lot more chilled out.

“Have I?”, she hums, walking behind you practically being your shadow.

Finding exactly what you were looking for, you plop down onto the couch, toeing your heavy boots off, shifting to face where Ellie sits and draping your legs over hers.

‘Oh boy, that shot worked quick!’

“Yeah, you have! Is everything okay?”, you ask, tilting your head.

“Yeah, I’m good! I think I just get a little anxious at parties.”, she says quietly, almost seeming embarrassed. Your bottom lip pokes out and you grab her hand that was resting on your legs, thumb circling her knuckles.

“It’s okay! I get it. If you wanna head out just let me know! No shame, I swear. Or we can get some fresh air! Or just chill here!”, you get lost in your ramble a little, wanting to make sure she knows there’s no pressure for anything.

Looking at you she chuckles, “You’re cute when you ramble, you know that?”, grinning when you blush and look down to fiddle with her fingers.

You have the sudden realization you brought weed!

“You wanna smoke?”, you ask, looking up at her with wide-eyes.

“Now we’re talking. Yes. Yes, I do.”, she grins.

–

“And- and so- and then- she-”, you are laughing too hard to finish your own story, stomach cramping from how hard you’re laughing.

Ellie’s head is thrown back in laughter finding your lack of composure funnier than the story you were telling.

It seemed after every puff of the joint you two shared you would somehow end up closer. Now as the roach has been tossed onto the coffee table in front of you two, you are practically tangled together.

Finally gaining some composure, you look at her, hands tangled together as you lean against her.

“Okay! Okay! I’ve got a good one, what was your first time getting high like?”, you ask, face inching closer as the questions go by.

She lets out a breathy laugh, remembering the painfully embarrassing memory.

“Fuck…okay so me and my friend Dina decided to get high together for the first time-”

“Is that the girl who works the front desk at the shop!”, you interrupt cluelessly high.

She chuckles and gently grasps your chin, tilting your head to look at her with red rimmed eyes, “Yes it is but are you gonna let me finish my story, hm?”, she teases you in a gentle tone but nonetheless it makes you rub your thighs together. Ellie’s eyes flicker down at the motion, quickly darting back up.

Nodding your head with a quiet hum you zip your lips and give her your full attention. She chuckles and releases your chin, her hand going back into your tangle of fingers.

“So we decided to get high together for the first time and we were idiots who thought’ Let's do an edible for our first time getting high!’, but we ate…the whole fucking thing”, she chuckles at the ‘uh oh’ face you make at her.

“Yeah, so it went about as bad as you can imagine. We had no clue just how fucking strong edibles are especially when you eat the whole god damn brownie! Dina ended up sitting in the tub the whole time because she insisted it was the only place she was safe. On the other hand I thought I was fucking dying but was too nervous to tell my Dad what we had done…so we just waited it out and to this day it felt like I was high for seventy-two hours straight.”, she finishes laughing and shaking her head at how stupid they were.

A laugh spills out of you and you fall into Ellie’s chest in laughter, “That is terrible! You poor poor stupid kids!”. As your laughter fades you find yourself melting into her chest and laying your head against her.

Loving the feeling of your body pressed flush against hers she brings her left arm up and around your body keeping you close to her. Feeling a calm confidence from the weed floating through your body you tilt your head up, faces so close you can feel her breath. Leaning forward you place your lips on hers, sighing when her hand that was around you wraps in your hair and pulls in. Your tongues meet each other is a match for desperation, her hands wandering and resting at the edge of your skirt. Your hips unconsciously shift toward her hand and your lips begin to travel to her jaw and her neck, switching between kisses and love bites that make Ellie shudder and grip your body.

Kissing up to her ear you gently nip at it, whisper, “Take me to the bathroom.”. Smirking when your whispering causes her to shiver.

–

As soon as the door is shut you are back on each other. Kissing in a frenzy. You nip at her bottom lip with a smile. Her lips meet your neck with kisses and bites, pulling moans and whines from you. She grabs your waist and you jump onto the counter behind you. You shiver as her kisses and bites move toward your chest as she leaves even more marks on you.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.”, she mumbles against your skin, singing praises into your body. Lust floods your lower belly and you can feel the embarrassing puddle forming in your panties. A gasp escapes you at the feeling of her ripping your tights, fingers finding your weeping cunt.

“Fuck baby. All this for me? Fuck you’re makin’ such a mess already.”, she speaks against your skin. The feeling of her lips on your skin, her words making you shiver, and her fingers teasing you over your panties is too much but not enough.

“Ellie please.”, you whine out, feeling desperate. She chuckles at your state, feeling proud at how fucked out you look and she hadn’t even taken off your panties.

“What baby? Tell me what you want.”, she mumbles against your lips, holding eye contact.

“Please touch me!”, you whimper, feeling shameless at the admission.

“Such a good fucking girl.”, she praises as she pulls your panties aside and teases your sensitive clit with her thumb. Pulling at your tights she mumbles, “Take these off.”

You wiggle your tights off kicking them away and lift your butt as Ellie pulls your panties off, tossing them with your tights. A loud whine comes from you as Ellie drops to her knees and lets her tongue find your swollen clit. Hands needing to hold something you let one find her hair and the other palms your tits through your shirt.

“Fuck you taste so fucking good baby.”, she says in a raspy voice.

Her hands wrap around your thighs, fingers pressing into the soft flesh, as she pulls you to the very edge of the counter giving her even more space to devour you. The band in your lower belly stretches more and more.

Your eyes are hooded and cloudy as you look down and the band stretches even more when you see Ellie already looking at you. Tears blur your vision as the eye contact seems to spur her even more. Low moans of satisfaction escaping her throat.

“F-fuck! Oh my god-”, you moan and realize how loud you’re getting so you cover your mouth with your hand, only letting quiet whimpers and whines escape you.

Ellie flattening her tongue and holding the same perfect motion against your clit causes the band to finally snap. Your cunt clenches around nothing and your vision blurs as you throw your head back, thighs shaking and cramping.

Ellie is relentless with her tongue causing your whole body to tremble from overstimulation. Your hands roughly thread through her hair trying to pull her back as pathetic whines escape you.

“S’too much! Ellie- ple- please! Too sensitive!”, you whine and whimper, practically in tears.

She pulls back, chuckling at your fucked out state. Breathing heavily you look down as she stands, her lips and chin shiny from your slick. She looks like a fucking god the way she is smirking at you while covered in you. Reaching out you run your thumb over her chin and bring it to your mouth, holding eye contact.

“Fuckin’ hell baby.”, she mumbles.

Grabbing handfuls of her hoodie you yank her into a deep kiss, tasting yourself on her tongue. Your hands fumble down to her jeans, undoing the button when a hand grabs your wrists earning a whine from you.

“Please Els. Wanna touch you.”, you whimper, giving your best puppy eyes. She chuckles, leaning down and kissing your neck, wrists still bound in her hands.

“Lemme take care of you tonight baby. I promise there’ll be time for me later.”, she mumbles, lips ghosting your ear. You pout but give a reluctant nod.

Gently pulling you off the counter and laughing at your dizzy head and wobbly legs. She tosses your torn tights in the trash and pockets your panties with a smirk. You give her wide eyes and stretch your hand out.

“Give those back! This skirt is too short for no panties!”, you say shimmying it down the best you can.

“Good thing we’re heading out then, huh? No one out there gets to see your pretty cunt but me baby don’t worry.”, she says and guides you out hand in hand.

taglist:

@ucannotcompare

#ˏˋ°•*⁀➷humanbug fics #the last of us #the last of us ellie #tlou #tlou ellie #tlou fanfiction #ellie williams tlou #ellie imagine #ellie williams #ellie x reader #ellie williams x reader #ellie the last of us #ellie williams smut #human bug #ellie x fem reader #th

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twodragons-blooper-reel · 3 months

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Let's roll the bloopers!

POST LIMIT: I LIVE

Hi there! It's @twodragonsinatrenchcoat I run several Pokemon IRL blogs in the rotumblr sphere and I wanted to make a sort of hub for them! Not just for organization and a spot to hold onto ask games I enjoy- but for meme and AU purposes as well!

I'll post ooc updates as well as jokes I have while writing here from time to time as well :3

I am also happy to do blog promos, I'm bad at looking for new blogs but send me an ask with the blog name or whatever and I'll reblog your pinned

Feel free to ask any and all questions pertaining to the blogs that are listed below!

Active blogs are one I'm posting on actively, Light Activity Blogs are ones I'll reblog to occasionally and Inactive Blogs are blogs I have no intention of returning to in the near future.

----

Active Blogs:

@piplup-at-naranja <- An in character liveblog of my playthrough of Pokemon Scarlet :]

@magical-girl-evoli <- An eevee magical girl! Because I'm not immune to brain rot

@hello-am-zacian <- A real life dog got Fallered and transformed into legendary pokemon Zacian. She's having a great time

----

Light activity Blogs:

@rotumbeast <- The spirit of Rotomblr. Might be responsible for chaos

@synthetic-radiance <- Cursed Chosen named Orion, Type:Null hybrid.

@psychic-type-appreciator <- Seraphina's sister Agni. She's less of a wet cat

@ghost-type-appreciator <- A Ceruledge hybrid blog :] her name is Seraphina! She's a wet cat

@clockwork-soul-heart <- Princess Steele! She's been trapped in a clockwork kingdom by a haunted doll for the last seven years of her life.

@disparate-traveller <- A faller blog about my character Diamond who yeeted themselves into Rotomblr to hang out with their bestie

@drifting-rocket <- Kidnapped Aegis a couple times. His name is Drifter, he's a Team Rocket Executive. He's got so many issues.

@oreburghminingmuseum <- A blog about Aegis's caretakers and the museum they work for! Mostly an excuse for a place where I can post non-shieldon fossil pokemon art-

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Inactive Blogs:

@fields-of-gracidea <- Vio! Branded chosen of Shaymin, Sawsbuck Hybrid, tasked with taking care of the younger brandeds

@sturdy-and-soundproof <- What you probably know me from! Aegis! Shieldon boy! I'm not sure how best to explain him besides he's cute. Has a whole slew of blogs related to him which are up next :)

@mareeplings <- My first pkmn Irl blog :D I dream of returning to it someday but I can't find the inspiration.

@snarling-maschiff <- a blog with a normal person running it as opposed to all my other blogs (whoops) They like dog pokemon!

@spiralled-and-spliced <- Another blog with relation to Dakota, was my first attempt at a villain blog. Never really took off but the character exists :)

@wayward-silver <- One of 13* Silver blogs, he's a mew taking the form of his past life. Was stuck underground as a ditto for like 20 years though.

@devilisinthedeinos <- A "Sleeby" named Eris who turned into a deino after getting top surgery. There's something else behind the scenes there...

@distortion-escapee <- A blog for my personal take on giratina, related to Dakota's blog.

@dakota-and-paris <- About a girl who has had way too much on her plate for thirteen years and will continue to have too much on her plate until I say so.

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That's all my blogs. If I'm answering a question about a specific blog I'll put it in the tags as "blog talk: [Blog name]"

I'm open to questions directed at characters, directed at myself, au talking- Just about anything honestly! This is just a fun sort-of hub for my pokemon blogs.

uhhh love y'all bye for now! <3

*there's so many silver blogs on this website i'm not gonna keep this number updated but that's how many there was when I made the blog

#pinned post #intro post #hub blog #tori talks

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writer-of-random-things · 9 months

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Whales, Ozone, & the Antichrist

Or, reading Good Omens in a time of near-apocalypse.

First things first, this will contain spoilers for the book. It also probably isn't reflective of what Terry Pratchett and @neil-gaiman had in mind when writing Good Omens. It's just my thoughts on how the book brilliantly addresses climate change, from the perspective of a youth climate activist.

When I first started reading Good Omens, I was expecting a wildly weird and wildly British book about an angel and a demon trying to save the world and hilariously (kind of) failing, and I got exactly that. I loved it. But what I wasn't expecting was how much it made me think about Adam Young and what it means to rage at a world that provides so much love, and how to love a world where so much is wrong.

The thing about Adam is that he is just a normal kid (sans the whole Antichrist thing, but the point is he perceives himself as a normal kid). He romps and has fun and explores the world in unabashed wonder--until he realizes it isn't all that wonderful:

" '‘You grow up readin’ about pirates and cowboys and spacemen and stuff, and jus’ when you think the world’s all full of amazin’ things, they tell you it’s really all dead whales and chopped-down forests and nuclear waste hang-in’ about for millions of years.' "

Moments like the this one pop up several times in the book--including mention of the ozone layer. As the book was written in 1990, we don't really worry about the ozone layer anymore. However, the concern about ozone has been replaced by fossil fuels, and Adam's sentiment is still relevant. There are still innumerable things to be discovered, stories to be told, ideas to be thought of; but species are going extinct before we can discover them, (un)natural disasters are unjustly impacting impoverished communities and countries, and Big Oil is still lying and greenwashing its way to profits. Adam's outlook on environmental destruction very much reflects my own, and it's heartbreaking that not much as changed over 30 years later. But I don't want to focus on that. I want to focus on what the Antichrist does with his anger, in a way that is very, very human. Let's jump forward a bit, to after he saves the world:

“But you can't just leave it at that!" said Anathema, pushing forward. "Think of all things you could do! Good things." "Like what?" said Adam suspiciously. "Well... you could bring all the whales back, to start with." He put his head on one side. "An' that'd stop people killing them?" She hesitated. It would have been nice to say yes. "An' if people do start killing 'em, what would you ask me to do about 'em?" said Adam. "No. I reckon I'm getting the hang of this now. Once I start messing around like that, there'd be no stoppin' it. Seems to me, the only sensible thing is for people to know if they kill a whale, they've got a dead whale.”

The above passage resonates deeply with me because it demonstrates two vital parts of climate activism, and the first part is education. Throughout the 3-4 years I've been advocating for environmental literacy and storytelling, my mantra has always been "people can't act on an issue until they care about it, and they won't care until they know about it". Today we know the vital role whales play in the ocean ecosystem, but throughout a good chunk of the twentieth century, whale hunting continued because people didn't know. The short-term advantages blurred the long-term disadvantages; those being, well, dead whales, something we took from the world before we got the chance to understand it. In order to tackle the climate crisis, people need to know that if we keep pumping fossil fuels out of the ground, we've got a dead planet.

The second vital part is the importance of shared responsibility. Adam, although he was the one that ultimately stopped Armageddon, didn't do it alone. Remember that anger I was talking about earlier? Adam could've used it to end the world and start it anew, with all the whales. In fact, he almost did. Yet he didn't, because his love for the world played such a vital role in his rage. And it was Anathema who inspired it, who connected Adam's sense of belonging in Tadfield and extended it to the world. It was Pepper, Wensley, and Brian that defeated the Horsemen with nothing but a child's determination and imagination. It was a ragtag group of humans that was right all along, not Heaven or Hell. Today, in a world where Pollution, War, Famine, and Death can be viewed as symptoms of climate change and fossil fuels executives are hell-bent on bringing about an apocalypse, the power of humanity in Good Omens hits so much harder. The characters in the book saved the world by working together, taking a stand while the world is set to burn.

Finally, I end with my favorite bit about the whole whale interaction: the dead whales remain dead. When Adam reboots reality, the bad things society has done is not erased. I love that detail so much because in terms of the climate crisis, we will probably lose more than we can save. But that is no reason to not save all we can. Like Adam says:

“I don’t see why it matters what is written. Not when it’s about people. It can always be crossed out.”

I choose to believe that anger, love and despair for the planet are all valid emotions. I choose to believe we can add a plot twist to our societal story. Good Omens has only reinforced this; I hope one day society will look at all the terrible things they've done and realize it was only for dead whales, and that one day I will be as brave as Adam Young, who had the choice to do things his way but didn't because there was a whole wild, wonderful planet to think of.

#good omens #book omens #climate change #environmentalism #adam young #me rambling #climate activism #good omens meta #whales

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fatesdeepdive · 8 months

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Entry 122: Screw America I Guess

Xenologue 21 Hoshidan Festival of Bonds and Xenologue 22 Nohrian Festival of Bonds

So, these next chapters are a bit of a problem, because they were never released outside of Japan. Meaning that not only can I not play them, but I can’t even read the scripts, because there are no official scripts. All I have is things on the wiki, which might not be reliable.

These seem to be a follow-up to Awakening’s scramble maps, where the army visits a place and we get cgs of them in special outfits. Midori, Dwyer, Forrst, Shigure, Ophelia, and Nina all wear kimonos in the Hoshidan one. Forrest wears a girl's kimono and Nina has two right feet. All of the children have black hair because their mothers (father in Shigure's case) aren't set in stone. The Nohrian festival is Halloween themed and features Xander as a pirate, Subaki as a prince, Leo as a vampire, Camilla as a succubus, Oboro as a gothic lolita, and Setsuna as a mummy. I assume, like the Awakening scramble chapters, they were chosen by a poll.

These chapters come with new Supports between the children and their mothers and between first generation units without Supports respectively. Unfortunately, I can’t read them. There were various people who attempted to translate these Supports, but I don’t have a verifiable list of what Supports were in the Japanese version, so I don’t know how complete any of these translations are. Plus, they are by the very nature of translation different from what we would have got with an official translation. Also, this blog is focused on the English version we got, not the Japanese version.

I am very obviously making excuses to not do these conversations. The thing is, I’m really sick of Fate’s writing and Supports. It has slowly grinded me down over time. I fell off this blog for months, because I am sick of bad Supports, so I don’t want to read dozens more that I don’t have to.

Support: Ignatius/Nina

C: Nina hornily spies on Ignatius talking to another guy. He spots her and she freaks out because she's bad with guys. Ignatius asks her to not follow him.

B: Nina spies on two cute boys. Ignatius shows up and watches the cute boys pickpocket a woman. Ignatius assumes she's trying to fight thievery and they team up to take out the thieves.

A: Nina tries to thank Ignatius, but can't say it. Ignatius realizes she struggles to talk to people. Nina says that Ignatius is kind and reliable and, while not daydream material, she can stand being his friend, if he tries to look cute more often.

S: Ignatius says he wants to be more than friends and calls Nina adorable. Nina starts daydreaming about him and tries to set Ignatius up with another guy.

Review: Pretty good. Nina being awkward around people makes her more tolerable and her accidentally stopping a robbery is amusing.

Support: Forrest/Shigure

C: Shigure uses oil paints instead of watercolors, which is a style from a century ago. Forrest says he studies the fashion in old portraits and cuts his hair based on one portrait.

B: Shigure and Forrest decide to prank their friends by painting a pretty lady, except the lady is actually Forrest!

A: Their friends recognize Forrest in the painting, because he is the only beauty in the army. Take that, Charlotte!

Review: This one is so stupid but I kinda like it. Shigure and Forrest are the nicest friendliest guys in the army, so their idea of a prank is ridiculously lame. It's endearing.

Support: Percy/Velouria

C: Velouria asks if Percy gets tired of hanging out with Ace all the time. Percy says he's always happy around ace. Velouria explains she's more comfortable when alone.

B: Velouria stares at an abandoned bird nest because she wonders if it smells like pretty birds. Percy gets it for her using Ace. Velouria offers him the first sniff.

A: Percy and Ace go to a lake. Velouria wants to go along because they're close friends of hers and she doesn't have many. Vekouria says she'll dig for fossils on the beach. S: Percy gives Velouria a nest from a rooftop. Velouria invites Percy to go treasure hunting with her. Percy says he doubts there'll be any treasure better than her.

Review: A nice friendly Support with a clear beginning, middle, and end.

Support: Midori/Ophelia

C: Ophelia does fortune-telling. Midori calls it fake and accuses Ophelia of not wanting to face reality.

B: Midori continues to mock Ophelia's fortune telling saying Ophelia just says stuff she wants to hear. Ophelia counters that this is to build confidence. Ophelia says that's a good thing and offers to tell Midori's fortune. Midori refuses, because she has enough problems in the present, with all the sick people she has to take care of.

A: Midori has a breakdown over all the wounded and dying. Ophelia tells her her destiny: to smile, surrounded by those she've healed. Ophelia says this dream will come true if Ophelia keeps working hard. Ophelia admits she does fortune telling to keep going in a world filled with pain.

Review: Goddamn that was a good Support! I take back like 5% of my complaints about Supports. Midori is a deep character haunted by the stresses of war. She calls out Ophelia for being immature, but Ophelia shows that her coping mechanism isn’t all bad.

#fire emblem fates

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ranger-rai · 1 year

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Bonjour Ranger Rai. I have a weekly battle with my friend Gym Leader Valerie every Friday and whoever loses has to has to buy brunch. Do you have much of a relationship with any of the Gym Leaders in Sinnoh? I would assume you’d know most of them as you travel much more frequently than I.

Oh yeah I know a good few of them well.

I have met them all at one time or another, only a few of them am I actually close with.

Let me list them out for you:

-Roark: We need to work with him a lot, but he's kind of annoying. He sends proxy gym leaders to meetings and to battles so often that went we need to find him we check the mines first.

He is so fixated on digging, finding fossils, and reviving them that we have needed to put regulations on how many Fossils can be revived a year.

He also introduced the underground secret base system, but it was such a hazard at first and took so long to get him to have more safety measures, it was a whole thing. Really don't like getting involved.

-Gardenia: She is an old friend, I knew her before becoming a ranger and we still work and hang together.

Her grass type passion is incredible and she's been a big help with restoration projects around Sinnoh, she's super involved and usually the first gym to help when the rangers need assistance.

Also they have a family business of growing fresh produce, and we have a trade off with the cafe so we have fresh produce all of the time.

-Maylene: She's a little more reclusive, for official work, but when she's not training she's actually pretty nice to be around.

Gardenia has brought her and a couple gym leaders out before, and when she cuts loose a bit more she's a lot more fun.

She also likes to challenge people to wrestling matches, something about "people's true selves come out in combat". I've had to be a part of one but I'm not too good at them, however she actually gets along with Minne pretty well.

-Crasher Wake: He's. The. Best! He is one of the nicest guys, he helps with our volunteer efforts a lot and he's always got fun stories. Even if you aren't taking the gym challenge, you should go see one of his exhibition matches.

Wake will go above and beyond if he can help it.

-Fantina: She's alright. She's pretty busy when not at the gym or judging contests, and she does support the community in her own way, but not so much with us.

She does aspire confidence in young trainers and coordinators, but she's also a lady of the stage so unless it's official gym business, our paths don't cross often.

-Byron: He's cool. He's like if Roark was more chill and wore a cloak. He's much slower in his endeavors and will have a good convo, also He's apparently a good drinking partner according to Jo.

We get quite a lot of support from him, probably our 3rd most involved gym.

He was also a huge help when first learning how to care for Sylvester.

-Candice: She's pretty great. The 2nd most involved gym in any community out reach and probably the most supportive with education, we talk with her a lot.

Also Her, Gardenia and Maylene make a sort of trio, so if at least 2 of them are involved you actually have all 3.

Candice is well respected but she also is the first Gym leader who will cut loose when given a chance, and she usually needs to meet outside of her town because most of the other gym leaders don't do well with cold like she does.

We are on a first name basis, and she promotes my videos in her classes.

-Volkner: He was actually a lot worse when I first started but he has gotten much better in recent years.

We are pretty sure he was suffering from a form of depression or at least creative burnout, but his spark came back.

I started spending more time around Sunnyshore when I found "The Duke" and I was pretty impressed by the work out there. I decided to introduce myself and he wasn't too responsive but I kept coming back while checking on The Duke.

After a while it just sort of became a thing.

Later when I found Skip he was tagging along on my routine visits and Volkner took notice of his corrupted speech, he wiped up a little voice box for him in no time.

He's a pretty chill guy, and I just go to him directly with ideas for improving things around sinnoh.

I proposed the "Safe Canopy" and bathrooms for the rest stop areas, and he didn't realize that there wasn't something like this already.

His world is a little small and he doesn't always seem to get out or look beyond his area, so me and a couple of others are sort of his peek into the bigger world.

He's actually a nice guy.

----

There is a pretty consistent communication but I'd only really call a couple of them close friends.

You meet a lot of people when you're a Ranger, but it's pretty nice.

#ranger rai #pokemon ranger #the ranger base #pokemon #ask me anything #ask me a question #sinnoh #gym leaders #rai's friends #seriously we had to act fast with those fossils

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berryscaryskies · 1 year

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"Despite your love for the environment and the planet you also Really love consumerism, you just have to have your things! You try to balance these aspects of yourself as best you can in whatever ways you can, which isn’t always easy, but that won't stop you! You’re gonna have it all and no one can stop you."

-My earth gen is Chirimoya! Growing up Chiri was spoiled with love and support by her whole family, and her dad especially. He hated the idea of leaving her alone so he'd take her on all of his jungle excursions(the safe ones anyways) and archeology digs. From these trips Chiri developed a grand sense of love for nature and the world around her. She could spend hours simply sitting outside watching plants grow.

-Chiri's very first collecting habits started up with going on these trips with her father. He would occasionally gift her fossils he had no need for and she'd display them proudly. As an adult her house is practically full to the brim with just the Stuff she's collected over the years. With her most lucrative and completed collection being her Frogs.

-Chiri LOVES frogs, she's been breeding and caring for them since she was old enough to and she has her frog terrariums proudly displayed throughout her house.

-I wanna talk about Alice too! The two met as children in Oasis Springs, her father was scowering for limestones meanwhile Chiri met Alice(and their other bestie Julie) at the park. This trip is also when she caught her first frog! Chiri and Alice hit it off super well and the two would hang out all the time, turns out they went to the same school as Chiri also invited Alice home after class frequently. It was only as teenagers that it became clear to Chiri (and me) that Alice had a massive crush on Chirimoya and after a bit of lowkey flirting and constantly spending 1 on 1 time together the two went on a date and the rest is history.

-They went camping at granite falls for their honey moon after their wedding and they both seemed to have a great time. I think once their kid(s?) are old enough they'll go a couple more times.

-there was a period of time where Alice actually wore a paperbag over her head in game, i eventually decided to take it off cuz i wanted them to have cute childhood pictures together, but I like to imagine it was Chiri being sweet and Alice's big crush on her that made her stop wearing it lol

-they wore their friendship bracelets To Their WEDDING 😭it was literally so stinkin cute and sooo sweet, im like obsessed with them. THE childhood friends to lovers ever.

-Not in the drawings but I actually think Chiri is pansexual, but she's literally only ever dated or had serious feelings for Alice. A bit opposite of her parents who both never really settled down ever with anyone and preferred the casually dating/woohoo-ing people but generally single lifestyles.

-Alice is a school teacher, and because of her love of music trait i like to imagine she's specifically a Music Teacher at school. She spends most of her free time at home on an instrument, and I like to imagine the three of them having little jam sessions cuz Chiri isn't horrible at the guitar either and little baby Olympia join in however she can. With little mini dance parties popping up on occasion.

-Since Olympia is so young and I have plenty of playtime left with Chirimoya(and also she's currently my favorite generation thus far) I imagine I'll have more content for her as things finish up and Mars Gen truly begins.

Sim Chiri and Alice plus their adopted daughter Olympia

#my art #sims 4 #planetary challenge #chirimoya solare

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i-was-bored-so-this-happened · 11 months

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Alexandra's Evolution Chapter Six: Fare-Dodging Creepy-Crawly - Part One

Fandom: Primeval Wordcount: 4.3k Warnings: Insects

The ARC team learn of a creature attacking workers in underground railway tunnels, and go in search of the creature and its anomaly. The team are separated and realise Connor Temple might be their only hope.

Read on AO3 Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

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Stephen and Alex tilt their heads to the side in unison to get a better view of the picture Nick’s showing them on his phone.

“How’d you get this, Leek’s a hawkeye about cameras,” Stephen says, taking the phone from Nick’s hand and turning it to save his neck. Nick just shrugs, pushing his hands into his pockets, “In what world does that look like an axe wound?” Stephen adds under his breath, “Bloody NHS.”

“Doesn’t look much like a snake either though, there’s only the one puncture and it’s way too big.” Alex points out before turning her head and calling Abby over. Abby starts, surprised by the shout and pulls out of her slow walking tour of the ARC operations room. This is the first time she’s been in the building. She hasn’t even made it to the labs yet. Alex and Stephen are hoping Abby will join their crusade for Lester to allow them to collect plant and soil samples from the anomalies and their surroundings, and showing her the labs is key in this plot.

“What is it?” Abby asks, tilting her head back and forth just as the Hart’s had been doing.

“A pest controller working under Arsenal Station. He’s been attacked and dosed with some kind of poison or venom,” Nick explains, “But none of the doctors can work out what did it.”

“Big snake,” Abby states, deciding the angle her head is currently at will do fine, “There are big snakes everywhere, thousands of sightings a year, exotic pet smugglers being caught at airports,” she squints, “But that…that doesn’t quite fit what I’ve seen.”

“Or us,” Alex says, gesturing to her uncle, who obligingly lifts his foot and pulls up his trouser leg to show the scarring on his calf from a cottonmouth bite he’d gotten a few years ago, “But if it’s an anomaly, there have been fossils found of huge snakes that might be capable of this kind of damage.”

“Titanoboa.” Nick supplies her with the name she’s forgotten.

“That’s the one.”

“Hang on,” Abby says, a hand glancing off Alex’s shoulder as something occurs to her, “Weren’t you two late to Madame Tussaud’s because of Tube delays? Some…insect or other on the line, my colleagues at the zoo were talking about it.”

“Shit, yeah.” Alex realises, digging out her phone.

“Victoria and Piccadilly.” Nick tells her, knowing that she’s trying to remember what lines were affected.

“And they go in the direction of Arsenal Station, don’t they?” Stephen asks. All three of them nod. “That’s why the pest controller would’ve been called in.”

“But if it was something from an anomaly that came through, bit him, it’s not on any NHS records. Steve, go find Leek, we’ve got to get down there.”

“Wait!” Abby says before Stephen can turn, “We need to clear the area. Can we do that? Like at Baker Street. So no one else gets bitten.”

“Absolutely not,” All four of them jump. None of them had noticed Lester waltzing towards them, busy connecting the dots of their current mystery. Leek is beside him, of course, so close to the group that Stephen would have slammed into him if he had completed his turn, “How do you suggest I explain this?” Lester goes on, “To the Mayor, who doesn’t even know about you ragtag hero-complex lot, ‘Excuse me sir, would you mind terribly throwing the whole bloody Underground into chaos because we think there may be a fare-dodging creepy-crawly on the loose somewhere’?”

“I don’t suppose they meant the entire Underground, sir,” Leek, actually standing up for them, “Rather just the area the attack took place. Piccadilly and Victoria lines, that’s all.”

“That’s all?” Lester repeats, quite clearly enraged at Leek’s betrayal.

“Not even the whole lines, then,” Leek says quickly, trying to recover before he loses his job, “The surrounding Tube stations, many of them are old and in disuse anyway…better to have angry passengers than dead ones, sir, is all I mean.” This argument gives Lester pause. Deaths mean an awful lot of tedious paperwork he actually has to read through before signing off on. He sighs. Loudly. And leaves a pause just long enough for the team to worry before,

“Yes, very well.”

***

Lester had agreed to shut the station and it’s surrounding stops down, but he doesn’t let the team have full control. Once more, Leek is sent with them to act on his behalf. Nick’s team answers to him, as does Tom Ryan’s. When’s Nick’s pickup scrapes to a stop,

“Jesus Al, did you skip the lessons when they taught you how to use the brakes?”

Soldiers are already piling out of their respective cars, all in protective black jumpsuits, forming an assembly line of guns, night-vision goggles, earpieces and microphones. They file towards the Tube entrance while civilians clatter up the emergency-stopped escalators and spill out in all directions. Leek strolls casually towards Nick’s car, adjusting his suit as though it had gotten wrinkled while sitting with the soldiers. He’s very proud of his suits. Not as proud as Lester, mind, but proud. Nick passes Alex her bag before she hops down out of the car. It’s heavier than usual, holding everyone else’s essentials as well as her own.

“Why aren’t they waiting for us?” Abby wonders aloud.

“Special Forces go first, Miss Maitland, it’s rule number one.” Leek tells her with one of those smiles of his.

“Thought rule number one was the Official Secrets Act?” Stephen asks archly before turning back to the car to get his jacket. Leek’s smooth expression falters, but only for a moment,

“You can’t bend James Lester’s will entirely to your own, no one can.”

“They don’t know what they’re looking for.” Nick points out.

“Can’t be that many venomous predators on the Underground.”

“Try being a woman on a Friday night,” Alex snorts. Abby and Stephen each suppress their own laughs, “When do they get to go down?” she asks, pointing a thumb in Nick’s direction.

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Our men might be able to handle it themselves,” he’s got his smile back. She doesn’t like it. He hands Alex a walkie-talkie, “You can go and sit up there to wait. I’ll be staying with the cars.” Leek turns and leaves the group. They themselves are fizzing. Nick mutters something dark under his breath.

“What’s the point of us being here if they don’t let us do anything?” he asks. Alex hitches her bag further up her shoulder and brings the walkie-talkie up to her mouth,

“You’ve got Alex Hart.”

Alex Hart, you’ve got Tom Ryan.

“Handing you over to the Professor.” Alex adds, seeing Nick’s outstretched hand in her peripheral vision.

Copy.

“So what do we do?” Abby asks. Stephen’s hand alights on her shoulder for a brief second before he points in the direction of steps leading up to a wee gazebo,

“I guess we take our seats and wait.”

Abby doesn’t take a seat for a while. She paces the perimeter of the gazebo and fidgets, toying with the ends of her scarf, and then settles on the bench opposite Nick and Stephen, still toying with the ends of her scarf.

“You’re gonna pull the tassels off, Abby.” Stephen tells her, holding Nick’s feet in his lap. At any given opportunity, Nick will have his feet up. Stephen often provides that opportunity. Alex is on the floor at the halfway mark between the two parties, kneeling so the knees of her jeans can soak up the cold dampness of the wood. It’s been drizzling all morning. Her foot is jiggling in time with the music filtering through her earbuds while she empties the contents of her bag onto the bench in front of her and the floor around her. Once she’s happy with her arrangements, she sits back on her heels with a notebook and a pen and starts measuring. She takes note of barometric pressure, windspeed, how far above sea level the land is.

“Remind me to borrow a geiger counter off old Burnie, Teach.” Alex tells Nick.

“Yeah, I’ll remind him to remind you.” Stephen says, even as he stares into the mouth of the entrance to the Tube station.

“We need a geiger counter?” Abby asks, that concerned tone they’ve become familiar with seeping back into her voice. Alex worries at her bottom lip, glancing at Nick,

“Connor was worried there might be some kind of radiation coming off the anomalies…that’s the sort of thing that’s better to know than not, you know?”

“Oh. Right. Yeah, radiation’s a good thing to know about.” Abby’s gaze darts between Nick and Alex, but Nick’s watching Stephen watching the Underground as though he hadn’t heard Alex say anything, so instead she watches the little anemometer Alex had placed at the mouth of the gazebo spin around and around and around while Alex unfolds and refolds a map until she can draw a circle around their current location. This isn’t Nick’s map, Nick cares too much about his maps for her to draw all over them, but one she’d bought herself to mark anomaly sites. Carefully, in her smallest writing, she carefully writes down her measurements, then copies those measurements into her notebook along with the others. They’re all measurements Connor had asked them to take. She knows how to write them down, but not what to do with them. Again, physics. Not her best science. Or second best. Or really even third best, but she figures she should still take the notes until someone figures out how to put them together in a way that makes sense.

The walkie-talkie balances on Nick’s knee, crackly conversation coming through rather muffled with the occasional clearer comment from Tom Ryan. Alex’s foot keeps jiggling. Threads are pulled out of Abby’s scarf. Stephen plays with Nick’s shoelaces. They do this until yells crunch over the walkie-talkie. Yells, and screams.

“Al, get your kit!” Stephen says, shoving Nick’s feet off his lap so they land with a solidly surprised thump on the floor of the gazebo. He recovers quickly, jumping to hit feet while Stephen tightens the belt of his leather jacket. When they leave the gazebo, Abby follows close on their heels. Alex grabs the first aid kit she’d brought from the ARC and a few other supplies before taking the steps two at a time, the belt of her own jacket trailing behind her with a bandage. Uniformed soldiers are pouring out of the Tube station in the same fashion the civilians had been not even an hour ago. Alex moves towards the car so she can open the bed of the truck. One of the uniforms is propped up against two others.

“Get him over here! Oliver, call an ambulance! Nick, phone!” Dumping her stuff in the truck bed, Stephen goes to her with the phone. Seeing the weighed-down soldiers struggling in her direction, she slaps a hand against the floor of the bed of the truck to indicate that they should put him there before diving into the first-aid kit.

“Bloody hell, Alex Hart, do you know what you’re doing?” Tom Ryan asks.

“Funnily enough they didn’t cover insect bites in Amazonian First Aid.” Her nitrile gloves snap to her wrists as punctuation.

“Fair enough.”

“What’s his name?” Alex asks, pulling the night-vision goggles and various wires connected to communicators off his head. Ryan tells her. “Okay, Ricky, I’m going to unzip your jacket a little so I can get to the bite, okay? Watch his head. Stephen, get me the photo of the pest controller.”

“Tell me you didn’t-” Tom Ryan starts.

“I didn’t.”

“Good-”

“Nick did.”

“Oh, come on-”

“Ryan, tell me what you saw.” This is Nick, jogging over with Leek strolling along behind him. From a distance.

“They were like spiders, but with pincers, not fangs-” Ryan answers. Alex tilts Ricky’s head to the side, talking him through her process. She’s careful to keep his mouth open so he doesn’t bite his tongue. He’s shaking. Stephen shows her the photo of the pest-controller’s bite, and she shakes her own head to signal that something’s wrong,

“No, no, that's something entirely different. This mark’s hardly a tenth of the size of that one, and it’s not as sunken-” Stephen theorises aloud and Alex adds her agreement while Tom Ryan continues describing the spiders,

“-some of them over a metre long-”

“-these spiders aren’t big enough for that sort of damage-” Alex moves Ricky’s head a little and notices his eyes. They’ve rolled back. She presses her fingers to his neck, gently feeling her way up his throat to his mouth.

“Tell me how you feel.” Nick tells Ryan.

“Sick,” he answers, “My ears are ringing.”

“Any blurred vision?”

“No.”

“Shit, Steve, bag, now,” Alex pushes at his shoulder with her elbow to hurry him along, “Oliver, ambulance, he’s in anaphylactic shock.”

“Beg pardon?” Oliver asks.

“He’s having an allergic reaction to the insect bite,” Nick pushes past Leek while Stephen bounds up the gazebo steps, giving the explanation as an afterthought, “Alex, move away.”

“Nick, I’m fine-”

“Move. Stephen!” Alex has little choice but to step back. Stephen all but slides back down the steps in his efforts to move as fast as humanly possible, which to be frank is quite fast in Stephen’s case. Oliver Leek finally, finally, lifts his phone to his ear and starts issuing orders through it, slinking away from the group as he does. Tom Ryan, Alex Hart and Abby Maitland form a small line, a shield between Ricky and the rest of the world, left to watch Stephen and Nick. The latter upends Alex’s bag into the bed of the pickup, scrambling through the carnage of it until he finds what he’s after. The EpiPen. Nick rips the blue top off, slams the pen into Ricky’s leg. There’s a loud click, then an unnatural silence, as though everything around the group has been deafened but the counting of the seconds. Stephen stops counting after ten, clambers into the back of the truck to support the unconscious soldier. Alex doesn’t stop until forty, when Ricky’s breath comes back to him in a gasp. Only then does she let her own breath go.

“Ricky. Ricky? It’s Professor Cutter, can you hear me, Ricky?” Nick asks, having abandoned the empty EpiPen to hold Ricky’s head. His eyes open briefly, then screw shut, and he groans. Nick pats him on the shoulder, “Good lad. Alex, watch him,” he turns to her, holding out a very strict finger. Stephen cuts into the conversation before he can say his next sentence, but Alex is pretty sure they were both going to say the same thing,

“You stay. That’s non-negotiable,” he’s wearing his serious face, “Take over from me here.” He adds, moving to stand while still supporting Ricky. Alex hitches herself up into the truck and sits behind the soldier, taking his weight when Stephen lets go and accepts Nick’s hand to help him down from the car. An ambulance siren wails towards them.

“Anything else, Ryan?” Nick asks. Tom Ryan snaps back to attention.

“Uh…uh, one more thing, the gunshots, they were too bright, more like fireworks.” He rubs the back of his head with his fist. Nervous?

“Textbook over-oxygenation.” Stephen states, looking to Nick who nods and elaborates,

“A richer, more heavily oxygenated air must be seeping through from another anomaly. We’re not talking about any era we’ve encountered so far, this is much, much earlier.”

“How much earlier?” Abby asks.

“Giant insects means Carboniferous, right? When was that again, exactly?” Alex asks from her place in the truck. Ricky’s moving more, waking up. She whispers to him to stay still, that he’s okay.

“At least three hundred million years ago,” Nick answers, “It’s not exactly any of our areas of expertise, we really need to see these creatures for ourselves.” His last statement is said more directly to Leek, who’s hovering a few feet away. He’s good at that. Hovering almost but not quite out of earshot. The entire group focuses their attention on him. He looks up from his phone, having just read a message from Lester.

“Alright, you’re clear to go, get them suited and booted, Tom.”

***

Once Alex has received confirmation that Ricky has arrived at the hospital, she grabs hold of her bag and sprints up to the gazebo where the rest of the team are still changing. Abby’s somewhere in the bushes, Alex can see them moving about and hear her quietly swearing when she gets her foot caught in a root.

“Oh, you wear it well, you look good.” She can also hear Stephen mumble this to Nick while he zips the black jumpsuit up under his partner’s chin. They’re the same black jumpsuits the soldiers were wearing. Nick’s smiling at him, or at least he’s smiling until his gaze drifts over Stephen’s shoulder to Alex. Then he’s wearing his serious look, which is infinitesimally different from his usual, resting face.

“We told you to stay in the car.”

“Ricky’s in A&E, they’re running tests-”

“Alex, I don’t want you anywhere-”

“The pest controller’s dead,” Alex speaks over her uncle, loud enough so that she knows Abby will hear her. The rustling bush stops for a moment, “I’m just telling you to be careful.” Stephen touches Nick’s elbow, and Nick walks away with Tom Ryan. Stephen then moves towards Alex and ruffles her hair. Pinches her cheek and makes a tutting sound with his tongue the way her grandmother used to, “Don’t invoke Nonna, that makes it serious.”

“We’ll be fine.” Stephen assures her. She watches him for a moment, looking for signs of doubt but she finds none.

“Alright. Down the mines with you.” Alex relents, pushing her fist into Stephen’s shoulder. Abby emerges from the bushes with only two leaves in her hair and one stick stuck to the black jumpsuit. She hops up into the gazebo and grins at the other two, though she does still look a little nervous.

“This is going to be great for my insect study,” she still does some hours at the zoo while she’s on probation for the ARC, but due to budget cuts she’s had to split her time between the reptile house and the bug house which really isn’t what she signed up for, “But to tell you the truth, spiders aren’t really my thing.”

“Yeah, well, technically, these are probably scorpions.” Stephen says, clapping a hand on Abby’s shoulder the way Nick does to signal it’s time to go. Abby takes the hint and marches off with him, calling back to Alex,

“I feel better already!”

Alex laughs when Abby does a little skip. Ryan is marching in the opposite direction, nodding to Stephen and Abby when he passes them on his way up the steps, but Alex frowns at him when he draws level with her.

“Heard anything about Ricky?” she asks, though her frown is admittedly more confused than concerned.

“It wasn’t the same thing that bit the pest controller, and you lot caught his reaction pretty quick,” Tom Ryan looks a little confused too, he’s shifted out of his stiff posture and pulled his earpiece off, “Why aren’t you going spelunking?” he asks.

“Oh, I was never gonna go down there. I’m allergic to insects, and I used my EpiPen on Ricky.” Alex settles on the bench and shoogles her compass. It’s still working.

“I didn’t know. Didn’t know about him either.” Ryan admits.

“He might not have known himself. He might not be allergic at all, and it was just whatever venom the spider uses on its prey,” Alex shrugs, “God knows how prehistoric venom would interact with the human nervous system. You don’t tend to be affected by regular insect bites because their prey is tiny, they don’t need to have enough of a punch to take down a human, but back in the Carboniferous…” Alex pauses, pushes her hair back off her forehead and takes a moment to tie it back, “I don’t know much, but supersize insects means supersize prey, which one would assume means stronger venom.” Ryan’s walkie-talkie, velcroed to his chest pocket, squeaks and crackles like a half-empty pack of crisps. He holds it up to his ear for a brief moment, and then steps forward to hand it to Alex. Nick,

Right, Alex, we’re down. No sign of anything but spiders, a gasp, Abby, she’s fine.

“Right on, Teach.” Alex offers the device back to Ryan, but he refuses it so she sets it down on the bench. “What are you doing up here, anyway?” she asks. All the other soldiers are clustered around the cars they’d arrived in.

“Leek wanted someone to watch you so you wouldn’t pull a solo act.”

“Fair enough,” Alex admits. She opens her bag and starts digging around in it, “Sit.” She tells Ryan.

“What?”

“Sit, I’m going to make sure you’re alright. Ears still ringing?”

“Uh…no.” He hesitates, then decides to play along and perch at the very edge of the bench so he can take flight at a moment's notice. Alex finds her reliable old magnetic torch and shakes it.

“Describe the spiders to me again.” Alex says. He does while she checks his vision, testing pupil dilation with the torch and getting him to follow her finger while she waves it in front of his face. She takes his pulse and snaps her fingers beside each ear to check hearing.

“Amazonian First Aid?” he asks.

“Not exactly. Not sure what happens if you spend too much time in a highly-oxygenated environment, figured I should check the basics.”

“Weren’t down there that long.” Ryan points out. The walkie-talkie crackles and Stephen’s voice filters through,

Found the anomaly.

No sign of any other creature, Nick adds.

Should we go back up? Abby asks.

No, not yet, Nick answers. Silence falls but the talkie doesn’t turn off. Alex and Ryan frown at one another. The former leans further forward over the machine, the latter stands and moves towards the steps leading towards the station.

What is it? Abby again.

“What’s what?” Alex asks, “What are we seeing?”

Dunno, Stephen answers. Momentary quiet. Shit!

“Stephen? Stephen?” the walkie-talkie cracks loudly into silence, “Stephen?” Ryan had turned round by the second call, leapt down the steps at the second. Alex follows shortly, shoving the walkie-talkie into her jacket. One of Nick’s old jackets, really. She gets her pick of his and Stephen’s clothes when they do a clear-out rather than buying herself new ones. By the time she reaches the station, Ryan and a small group of soldiers are already filing down the escalators. Leek stands at the top, holding a walkie-talkie of his own and trying to raise Nick with it. Nothing’s coming back through. Leek’s holding a map.

“Where are they?” Alex asks, poking the map so it crinkles. Leek balances it over a barrier and finds their current location, considers, then walks his fingers a little southwest.

“They should be around here, this is where the soldiers found the spiders.” He draws a small circle with his finger.

“That’s not far, why aren’t they back?” Alex asks this even though she knows Leek can’t possibly answer. She counts. Counts the seconds until she sees someone. Abby. A soldier. Ryan. Stephen. Another soldier. No Nick. No Nick. No Nick. She calls Stephen’s name, because his head is twisted to look up at the gazebo instead of in front of him. He reaches her first. “Nick?” Alex asks simply.

“We found the other creature, we got separated.” Stephen twists again to look back down into the station, “I’m going back down there.”

“No you are not.” Leek tells him. Stephen turns back to him, incredulous. His jaw tenses, a bad sign.

“Excuse me?”

“You are not going back down there, none of you are.”

“He could be injured. If that thing is what attacked the pest controller he’ll die. I’m going back.”

“What was it?” Alex asks, wishing she’d had more of an interest in the Carboniferous than the Pleistocene when she was younger, “The creature?”

“Some kind of centipede.” Stephen says, half of his words lost to the rain as he looks back to the station.

“Centipede, but huge!” Abby adds, chest rising and falling rapidly.

“That’s really not enough to go on, we need to know more,” Leek says, “Strengths, weaknesses-”

“We don’t know, no one does!” Abby’s voice rises a little too high. Alex tries the walkie-talkie. It scrunches and crunches and creaks but no voice comes through it. The noises remind her of something.

“Connor would,” she blurts, “He wrote a paper on the Carboniferous first year, went to Scotland to see the fossils and everything. His notebook has giant bugs on the cover.”

“Leek, we need Connor.” Stephen says when Alex’s statement doesn’t get a reaction from him.

“No. He’s not permitted within a hundred feet-”

“I don’t give a shit.”

“None of us know what we’re dealing with,” Abby cuts in, taking a more gentle approach, though being more gentle than Stephen at this point isn’t difficult, “If Connor does we can save lives, Oliver.” Leek thinks this over. He thinks just a touch too long.

“Who has his number?” he asks.

“On it.” Abby replies. Leek follows her when she sprints to the car. Leaving Stephen and Alex at the mouth of the station. The soldiers are gone, neither of them are sure when they’d disappeared. In the grand scheme of things, they don’t really matter right now. What matters is that Nick is in danger, real danger, and he’s alone. And, unusually for Nick, he doesn’t know what to do. These are the three very specific boxes to tick if you want to get Stephen Hart this riled up. Alex glances from the cluster of soldiers to the pick-up. Everyone’s backs are to them. When she looks at Stephen she meets his eyes, panicked eyes, angry breathing.

“Go.” Alex says. She blinks, and he’s gone.

#rae's writing #alexandra's evolution #primeval #primeval fanfiction #primeval fic #primeval oc #rae's ocs #original character #alex hart #stephen hart #nick cutter #connor temple #abby maitland #tom ryan #oliver leek

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cksmart-world · 5 months

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SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

December 19, 2023

A PSYCHIC, A PROPHET, 'REAL HOUSEWIVES' AND AN EYEPATCH

Holy moly, have you heard the latest about the “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.” They're in Bermuda hanging out together, which is weird when you consider they hate each other. Lucky for us, our old pal Scotty Pierce at The Salt Lake Tribune, keeps us informed: “Monica tells Lisa that Meredith is spreading rumors that Angie is in the Greek mafia and, among other things, owes $170,000 to the IRS.” But wait, there's more fun news: Tim Ballard, the dude who used to run Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) that claims to rescue trafficked children, is up to his neck in alligators and allegations of sexual misconduct and assault. Get this: he hired a psychic to find the trafficked children. So cool. According to investigation documents, Ballard commissioned psychic Janet Russon, who reportedly communicated with Nephi, the Mormon prophet who lived around 600 B.C. For the record, Russon said she didn't talk to Nephi. The whole thing gets rather messy. But not as wacky as the Real Housewives: “For her birthday dinner, Monica wants everyone to dress like a pirate,” Pierce writes. “Whitney has some difficulty with her pirate costume: 'My outfit came with a G string and I thought it was an eyepatch and I put it on.'” You just can't make this stuff up.

STUDY: MORNING PEOPLE HAVE NEANDERTHAL DNA

Hey Wilson, there finally is some real evidence that the guys in the band aren't cavemen. A study reveals that Neanderthals were morning people. We are not making this up. Scientist compared DNA in living humans to genetic material from Neanderthal fossils. The elephant in the room, of course, is how did that Neanderthal DNA get into humans. Yes Wilson, you do know the answer: the old fashioned way, they did the dirty deed. Some time 50,000 or 60,000 years ago your great grandmother-to-the-100thpower got it on with one of those studly redheaded cavemen. But don't say anything to the White Christian Nationalists, it could ruin their day, what with their “pure white people” thing. Creationists, of course, find this Neanderthal stuff crazy — it flies in the face of The Bible. Many of them believe the Earth and all its beings are only 6,000 years old. And after all, if evolution were true, why isn't every other baby born a chimpanzee. But we digress. Homo sapiens appeared about 300,000 years ago in Africa and eventually migrated to Europe where they found our cousins, Homo neanderthalensis, and the prehistoric dating game began. Somewhere around 40,000 years ago Neanderthals disappeared. Maybe that morning person thing isn't all it's cracked up to be, after all.

THE REAL REASON JOE BIDEN SHOULD BE IMPEACHED

You've heard it before: justice delayed is justice denied and that's why Republicans are pushing ahead with an impeachment inquiry into Hunter Biden, er, uh, his father. Democrats say there is nothing there — but wait, there may be evidence that points to something like evidence on Hunter Biden's laptop that he lost when stoned out of his gourd. The president's son snorted and whored his way across Europe throwing his father's name around like a Black Friday close-out to entice big shots to fork over large bucks. Rumors have it the FBI might be hiding evidence of evidence that Hunter got $5 million hidden in a Virgin Mary figurine from a dude with ties to Barisma, a Ukrainian gas company. Barisma, Barisma, Benghazi, Benghazi... The reputed evidence of the smoking Virgin Mary was slipped to the Trump Justice Department by special counsel to President Trump, Secret Agent Rudy Giuliani, after he roamed around eastern European card rooms before the 2020 election. The theoretical evidence of potential evidence is a FD-1023 internal document from a confidential informant who could appear any minute at Hunter Biden's impeachment inquiry. Then Americans will know that Donald Trump isn't the only criminal running for president.

Post script — That's just about going to do it for another smoggy week here in the City of Salt where we keep track of deadly air pollution so you don't have to. Just pretend it's not killing your children and remember Utah's mantra — Growth, Growth, Growth. OK Wilson, the word of the week is Schadenfreude — joy over others misfortune. It popped up following reports that the chairman of the Florida GOP and his wife were having a menage a trois, aka three-way, with another woman. Christian Ziegler and his wife Bridget, who is cofounder of the conservative extremist group Moms for Liberty and sits on the Sarasota School Board, caught the spotlight when the other woman accused Mr. Ziegler of rape. He denied the allegation but the power couple's cover is blown. Darn. Next time we'll review the word, Hypocrite. If you think our morals are slipping, check this out: Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the house, once won a lawsuit that captured $18 million in tax money for a Noah's Ark amusement park in Kentucky that features a huge vessel said to be like the one in the biblical flood. It was created by Answers in Genesis, a creationist organization that believes God created the Earth in six days and the world is 6,000 years old. Your tax dollars at work. Say amen.

Well Wilson, we ought to get the band to do something for those poor morning people who worry that they'll pass on Neanderthal DNA to their children. But it can't be all bad, the Neanderthals may have had the key to a better lifestyle. So hit it, Wilson:

In man's evolution he has created the cities and The motor traffic rumble, but give me half a chance And I'd be taking off my clothes and living in the jungle 'Cos the only time that I feel at ease Is swinging up and down in a coconut tree Oh what a life of luxury to be like an ape man I'm an ape, I'm an ape ape man, I'm an ape man I'm a King Kong man, I'm a voo-doo man I'm an ape man

I look out my window, but I can't see the sky 'Cos the air pollution is fogging up my eyes I want to get out of this city alive And make like an ape man Come and love me, be my ape man girl And we will be so happy in my ape man world I'm an ape man, I'm an ape ape man, I'm an ape man I'm a King Kong man, I'm a voo-doo man I'm an ape man

I'll be your Tarzan, you'll be my Jane I'll keep you warm and you'll keep me sane And we'll sit in the trees and eat bananas all day Just like an ape man I'm an ape man, I'm an ape ape man, I'm an ape man I'm a King Kong man, I'm a voo-doo man I'm an ape man. I don't feel safe in this world no more I don't want to die in a nuclear war I want to sail away to a distant shore And make like an ape man.

(Apeman — The Kinks)

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hospitalterrorizer · 8 months

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diary40

10/17-18/2023

tuesday - wednesday

long day cuz i went out, unexpectedly.

but going out ended up nice, i got free pizza from a nice british tourist woman, her family/group had one piece left and no one was hungry enough for it, and i was staring, and some other guy was looking to get it, and she saw me, and she gave it to me, so thank you woman, very much, for feeding me. otherwise, all i had eaten earlier in the day prior to that was french toast. a little later, just before the pizza, i had two fairly skinny chicken tenders. and to end the night i ate another sort of toast, honey toast, it was really insanely good. not to mention the hanging out was with people i really like being around, so that was nice, my gf, two of her colleagues, and strangely enough a friend i know all the way from highschool who has become involved with one of the colleagues, they're very cute as friends, a casual thing they want to keep, i really like them near eachother, though, i kind of want them to be best friends forever.

the start of the night where we hung out kind of was rough for me though because i was so tired + hungry, it was a rough time sort of, but worth it.

otherwise what did i do today, someone new messaged me on rym and i added them on discord. they seem nice, and like, not immediately combative and weird (one guy added me off rym and i told him i really like powerviolence like charles bronson and stuff, idk, guyana punchline, whatever, i talked about usurp synapse for like 3 blogposts str8 i think you know what i'm into (i say, to myself)) and he was like, saying that was so lame or whatever, and i was like, whatever, and then i said that the blood brothers have a lot to do with 70s punk imo and he started hating even more, it was so ridiculous and pointless.

i do think, truly, and stand by, the thought that the blood brothers walk up to early american punk rock and use some of its ideas, dig up the bones for new bodies, fossils made wrong, excessive shambles, glittering in the night. i would like to be in that vein, playing in the much and making what i please.

i should pick up the gary indiana book, gone tomorrow, again, like tomorrow, that's good, actually, i'm going to the laundromat tomorrow, so that will be so fun!! (lol). hopefully it won't be bad.

thinking about starting a goodreads. but who cares how many books i read. only me. and that's the only opinion that counts, and i can feel it whenever i want.

the opinion is, and always will be: not enough.

listening to this record. quite good noise rock no wave stuff, can't believe i've not heard about this band sorta, there's another song of theirs i heard that i can't seem to find on bc/slsk/ but can on yt, but i'd like to dl it if possible, this song is kinda amazing:

youtube

really recalls fad gadget w/ that synth sound and the white belt stuff i like simultaneously, really cool.

i also worked more on the one song, that's been giving a lot of trouble, i'm looking forward to listening to that tomorrow, and hopefully not being fixated on it, and getting onto the other 2 i need to fix up more, and then maybe there's another 2 that i think might present less difficulty, i really think with one the big thing will just be turning the vol on the right channel guitars down, and then w/ the other it's a combination of that and some stuff with the vocals. i also did realized today that i should just turn dithering off on export and wow, my gosh, it does make things sound a touch better i think. very excited about that, all the music might just end up sounding better now, and if not, it'd be easy to just re-export some songs with the pow-r3 dithering back on again, but that should not be necessary.

god i am sooo tired, so

byebye!!!

#Youtube

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autiponi · 9 months

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CHAPTER 4

-Dad. I have not been a child for a long time, I think I can dress myself for a flameday party.

-Maybe. But for me you will always be maybe twenty years old, time flies too fast.

-I can just see it, don't petrify me here old man.

Agreas excitedly talked to his daughter Aj while mending her clothes once again for her hundredth flameday. By demon standards, she was already a young adult, but Agreas still liked to treat her like a just teenage child who needed to be watched over for important events.

-And how are the party preparations going? Today in the morning you were running around like crazy.

Aj looked at herself with undisguised pride in the mirror. She loved elegant outfits and wanted to wear such at every party or even without such an occasion every time. Her favorite part of the outfit, was always a small cape with various motley ornaments which, according to her, not only always looked good on her, but at the same time she could finally feel like an actual daughter of the demon king.

-Everything will be ready soon. Unfortunately, this time I invited a little less guests than usual, I do not want the same thing to happen as in the previous party... complete chaos.

-Ah, oh no! So this time instead of inviting the whole city and still all the nobles, you only invited three quarters of the city and half the nobles. I saw this huge list on your desk.... It was maybe just a little smaller than before. How will I manage with such a handful of guests?

A feisty and sympathetic smile was gently painted on her face. She loved her father, however, at the same time she was aware of his perfectionism, which she often laughed at to bring him down to earth.

-Ah... sorry my princess for so little, I should remember that such a number of guests is an insult, next time I will still call up demons from the other side of the world, I think this will be enough already?

-Of course! Sounds great! Even with such a number I am satisfied, maybe I even prefer it that way.

-This is what I thought.

-Surprisingly only few guests from the south.... They are very nice!

-I don't know if you want you to hang out with those....

-Don't exaggerate, they have such a nice dark complexion! Have you seen a demon in our house with such! They are wonderful!

-And probably at the same time they are full of germs....

-Dad, you continue to exaggerate.

-Maybe, I still prefer you to be careful.

-Whatever you want, fossil.

Further banter between them was interrupted by one demon from the servants who entered the chamber after knocking. He was carrying a letter, which he immediately handed to Agreas and then stood proudly waiting for further orders.

-From the far North a letter?

-Yes sir! They ordered to warn you to meet with.... "Him." Rumors are beginning to spread that "he" is somewhere in their lands and you need to be as careful as possible because of this! As a higher help, I also recommend not to ignore it.

-But it is, after all, very far away... and even if he were to get through here, we have such a guard that he would not survive even a minute crossing the city limits! I recommend searching, but the plans do not change.

-I understand my lord. I know it's not my head to question orders, but I don't feel it's a good idea not to change plans with such information.

-This is the most important party of the whole year! I can't just cancel it when everyone is about to arrive. Go to the guards and give them orders to guard the gates.

-Understood. I wish the king a good time as well as you, Miss Aj.

The servant soldierly stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. Aj, on the other hand, became intensely interested in the person they were talking about and at the same time was surprised that she knew nothing about such a person, she thought her father had no secrets from her.

-Dad. Who is this... "he" you were talking about?

-Ah... no one important dear, it's just that he is not welcome here....

-That doesn't really sound like an answer to my question....

-You'll find out soon enough, I'm not going to bother you with it on a day like this... it's a matter of what doesn't concern you for now, and let's stick to that.

Agreas' answer had a completely different effect than intended, but AJ did not move further on the subject because she knew that her father was quite stubborn and would probably continue to stand by his own and not answer her questions about the stranger, despite her pleas.

The father and his daughter set off after getting ready to enter the great throne room where the party was to begin. Sheaves of white light from the ceiling added to the eerie atmosphere and at the same time there was a perfect view through them of the thrones for three people, for Agreas, her daughter Aj and once also for his royal wife Lilith who tragically died by ambush during the eternal war between bloodthirsty angels. Agreas never allowed her throne to be hidden, it was too important a memento of her for him. Beautifully decorated tables were already prepared all around, and servants were bringing out more and more beautiful and wonderful-smelling dishes from the kitchen for the guests. Agreas, however, instead of looking at the preparations closely watched his daughter who leaned her arm against the banister, she was happy and that was the most important thing for him at the moment.

-...I am surprised every time, how beautiful it is here at this time.... these flowers, tables.... it's a pity it can't be like this more often.

She looked at her father with a gentle smile. She was well aware that her father was watching her closely, but Agreas strenuously tried to pretend that this was not the case by looking off into the distance at some unknown point.

-Well, if it was like that more often you would quickly get used to it. And so I can see the same beautiful smile every year.

-You are exaggerating old man. my smile is the same as everyone else's.

-But it's my daughter's smile.... this one is special.

Aj lightly put her head on her father's shoulder.

-...Thank you. It's nice to see you happy too.

He stroked her gently on the head. At this, dishes of a higher caliber than the previous ones slowly began to enter the room. These included trays of sweet snacks as well as cakes carried by several demons. One of the demons, clearly frustrated by the work of the others, began to conduct the rest of the service to make sure nothing fell on the floor. Seeing this scene and what they were carrying Agreas looked at his daughter again this time with a face full of seriousness.

-...Just don't eat all the cream cakes again please. Others would also like to try them at least once.

The daughter's face automatically went from a smile to one full of regret.

-...I won't promise something I'm not capable of doing.

-Creator give me the strength....

-This is your fault! If they were more often I wouldn't eat so many of them!

-But these are a whole three big trays.

-Yes, So what?

-...

The first nice guests invited by the servants slowly began to enter the hall. Dignified and beautifully dressed, they also wore all sorts of masks as part of the fact that Agreas had asked them to do so before the party as a surprise. Some had beautiful floral or sun and moon symbolic designs, while most had beautiful all kinds of colors. However, among the crowd of demons as well as individuals from other worlds, AJ noticed the already familiar silhouettes she least wanted to see at the moment. -...There they are again, that multiversal abomination, also known as Magids.... These ones you might not have invited. Every year I ask you to do so.

-Don't exaggerate, they are not so .... bad.

-They literally wished you a quick death to be able to fight for the throne.... did they really have to come here?

-...Just don't pay attention to them, they are part of the family then I have to invite them.... our honor depends on it darling. There are enough guests that you won't even have to talk to them or even look at them.

-...You know very well that Mercury is unlikely to miss this opportunity...a nightmarish asshole and even worse, a poser.

-I won't miss the opportunity to threaten him either if he gets even a millimeter too close to you.

These words lifted Aj's spirits a bit, though she still felt that hosting Magidans for such a party was not too good an idea on her father's part. He, however, was just too honorable not to do it, which she understood, but still hated.

Soft, live and energetically played pleasant music surrounded the entire room as well as the guests. Each of them was very different and strongly deviated from the norm, they were foreign and at the same time similar because they were from different worlds. Aj although she was already accustomed to guests from other worlds, she still felt a slight uneasiness as she walked past each of them.

-...It's been a while...why can't I get used to it? I feel somehow strange.... But it will be fine.... Dad wouldn't invite some psychopaths here.... right? True... certainly true, Aj calm down, they are just like you.... only... different... ugh. What is happening to me!

She spoke to herself in spirit and tried to calm her overloaded mind. To relax a bit, she stood at the food table and slowly ate the cream cakes one by one while sincerely hoping that these would somewhat calm her hypersensitive alertness today. She just felt that something was wrong, and at the same time she wasn't reassured by her father's conversation with the servant when they talked about "That Someone" and further wanted to know who it was they were talking about. Seeing a very disheveled and unsure princess, a demon with a beautiful snake on his shoulder with golden eyes approached her.

-Good evening Princess Aj-.

-I DON'T EAT ALL THE CAK!.... Oh... good evening, sorry. I mistook you for my father....

-Nothing happened! I just wanted to ask if you were okay, you look shaken. The boy took off his mask what he had on his face. He had a snake-like tongue drawn on it, as well as eyes reminiscent of the snake he was holding on his shoulder. his face also strangely had something of the reptile on it, mainly through his eyes, although in the end his facial features were very boyish and not threatening.

-Yes. yes. everything is fine.... I'm just surprised how many visitors there are here.... in the sense, it's not bad that there are so many... but at the same time it slightly intimidates me.... you know what I mean, right?

-Yes, yes! I understand... Or rather, I understand that it's just hard for you. But it's nothing wrong! It happens to everyone.

He was clearly confused and didn't know what to fully say. Only after a moment of silence did he try to restart the conversation while smiling warmly.

-I forgot to introduce myself to you, I am Serpient! I deal with snakes on a daily basis and your father is very fascinated by it, which is why he invited me here. I also wanted to meet you personally! He decided when I talked to him that you will definitely love snakes too! To this I brought with me my favorite... His name is Apophis and he loves new company!

A gentle blush appeared in the boy. However, Aj didn't even notice it, because she didn't look at him too frightened and embarrassed come on she listened carefully to what he was saying.

-I understand... what kind of snakes do you mainly deal with besides him?

-King pythons! They are so beautiful often.... that's what my friend is too, would you like to hold him perhaps?

-Sure... I MEAN-

Before Aj could voice any objection, the huge and powerful snake was already hanging on her shoulder and slowly climbing up until its head was close to Aj's terrified face. She was already expecting the worst, that it would strangle it, maybe bite it, maybe it really is a mimic that can change shape, but in the end nothing of the sort happened, the snake just licked her on the small, sharp nose and rested its head against her shoulder. -And he's already taken a liking to you! Ha!!! Actually with the fact that he likes to meet new people I lied a little, So you must be seriously special that he treated you like this! FASCINATING!

-That's for sure.... f- what a cool guy he is... but can you please take it off my hand already very please. please please please please.

...

Agreas noticed Aj and Serpient talking among themselves. He was pleased that his daughter was finally able to find someone to talk to after being cooped up for so long. He was so focused on this that he didn't even notice when a young woman approached him with a tiny notepad in her hand. -Are you Agreas, the king of all demons?

It was only when the girl spoke to him that he got down on the ground and looked somewhat puzzled at her. she was wearing a beautiful red and white mask with tiny pointed eye holes through which the coal-black empty pupils could be seen. He felt a mild discomfort with her, a strange feeling he had experienced much earlier in another situation. However, he didn't let it show in order not to come off as rude.

-Ah, yes it's me... I'm sorry I was thinking, do you expect something specific? Something to help you with?

-Not really... I just wanted to get to know you a little better. And I won't say... I feel lost among so many visitors.... I'm not used to large crowds.

The woman took off her mask and smiled friendly at him, to which Agreas himself also responded with a smile and handed over a glass.

-I think I can help you relax a bit before I have to go give a speech, do you like whiskey perhaps?

-Even very much, thank you. I didn't think demons could read minds.

-Ah, no. I was just guessing.

Agreas poured the woman's liquor into a small elegant glass. While doing so, she stared at him apparently thinking hard about something.

-This is the first time I've seen a party at a demon's house... it's often described differently in books what I know, it's apparently quieter here... without many.... strange things.

-I've never seen too many human books, but if they describe it as a fire dance and general agony, then no.... have not been like that for a long time. Rather, one doesn't see such in modern demon parties anymore.

-What do you mean by "Modern demons"?

-The mentality of humans as well as demons is changing rapidly. This place used to be not so friendly to outsiders. There were many wars, assassinations, deaths of innocents.... I am not personally proud of them, but the past, unfortunately, I will not change. Some deaths had to happen, such life.

-I understand. What must have happened that so much has changed?

-...It's quite, difficult matter...back in the days when my little Aj was just an innocent flame....

-You don't have to say how difficult it is for you.... sorry.

The woman averted her eyes slightly and looked at the notebook. A slight embarrassment was visible on her face.

-Nothing happened. I have long since come to terms with it is what I can say. It is no secret. Her mother, and my wife was brutally murdered by angels.... torn apart, stripped of any dignity... angels are horrible creatures wanting only power, death and the attentions of the higher powers.... I did not want my people, to have to be the same as them after the war, I decided that my once love of war and death I would stifle.... and live in peace with the rest of the world. I do not regret this decision, although sometimes it is difficult.

He once again looked back at Aj, the woman also looked at them and on her face was painted a picture of deep compassion as well as understanding.

-...She must have a really good life with you right?

-I hope so.... I wouldn't forgive myself if she didn't....

-I understand... It's, quite charming.

The woman finished her drink and put the glass back on the table while putting her mask back on and writing something down in her notebook.

-Sorry again for such an intrusion, but I really wanted to meet the king of such powerful beings as demons. And who knows, maybe I will make a decent research paper on your topic too, which is not outdated by the way.

-This is good to hear, I am honored. A little curiosity is always useful because it makes history! And I am glad how I could somehow help.... Unfortunately, now I must excuse myself for a moment, I want to give a speech for my daughter.

-All right, I hope there will be another opportunity to talk later?

-Of course, I am looking forward to one.

The woman waved to the demon king and moved quietly into the crowd. Agreas, on the other hand, went to his throne to make a very important speech for the kingdom, as well as for his daughter. Aj was already waiting for him and kept looking at her hand watching it closely.

-I'm usually the one who has to wait for you.... something happened?

-No... all is well, I just can't wait for you to finish chattering.

Agreas stroked his daughter's tender head with a warm smile.

-All right then, today will not be such a long speech.... I saw by the way that you finally met the snake boy.... he seems very nice!

-Yes, yes... he is, very nice. A snake too, or something.

-I don't hear much confidence in your voice-.

-Long story, I'll tell you when you're done talking.

-These flames today....

Agreas informed the servants with a movement of his hand what was about to happen. All the lights turned toward the throne and the guests, intrigued by this, immediately looked at the king and his daughter standing proudly on the pedestal.

-This day is not just important for me, but for all of you! My daughter, and our Princess Aj, has just reached one hundred years of age and thus has reached adulthood! I will kindly ask you to applaud her!

-Dad. no need... really. Aj barely mouthed anything out of a rather strong, all too strong stage fright. However, the crowd without noticing it began to clap politely. Agreas continued after the applause had already ended.

-Today's date will go down in history, but only for this reason! As my daughter is already an adult, I want to give her a gift.... Which will not only be for her, but also for all the people!

-What are you ... dad...?

-Four thousand years ago I sat on this throne.... However, I could not always consider myself a good ruler during this period.... I turned out to be a tyrant.... I led armies into wars that could not always lead to success. However, I learned my lesson.... and I proved to all of you that anyone can change! I've worked my whole life for it... and I also won't be younger anymore. I am a tired older demon who only holds the scepter in his hand.... THAT IS WHY, I HAVE MADE THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISION FOR ME, AS WELL AS FOR YOU.... AND I HAVE DECIDED, I NEED A REPLACEMENT! Aj began to look around the room in disbelief, the whole crowd began to cheer, but after a while it quieted down again to hear the end of the speech.

-AJ, MY Daughter, THE YOUNGEST AND ALSO THE ONLY OF MY FAMILY....

Aj was too confused and excited to look at her father. That's why then, she noticed a strange light what was flying from the crowd towards her father with great speed.

-SHE WILL BECOME OFFICIAL TODAY....

-D-Dad...?

-MY DEPUTY TO THE THRONE. YOUR QUEEN FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE! FOR LIGHT AS WELL AS DARKNESS!

-D-Dad something is flying in your direction!

-CALL FOR A THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE!

The light suddenly hit with remarkable precision between Agreas' legs, a portal opened under him through which he began to fall.

-D-DAD!

The whole hall began to clap and cheer, and only a terrified, and confused AJ was left at the throne.

-... She looked nervously into the crowd, she didn't know if it was intentional or not. She felt immense pride and at the same time fear piercing her, and did not know completely what to do.

The portal as quickly as it appeared, also just as quickly disappeared without a trace.

She began to look desperately around the room, while trying to mimic that she was happy.

She had only one thought in her head "After all, her father would have told her as if he wanted to perform such a show.... right?"

All the servants, however, what was around unlike her were in no way as concerned as she was, maybe it was actually intended and her father just forgot to tell her....

...

Agreas fell through the portal without quite knowing how it happened. The first thing he noticed as he fell was the darkness, a piercing shadow all around him that stung him from the very beginning and went all the way into his bones. Once he fell after just a few minutes it could only get worse, he felt a massive pain from the fall and could not move any of his limbs. he felt like a helpless animal just shot off for fun by poachers. all he could do now was beg for help

-H-Help...! Where am I...! Hello!

He tried several times to get up, but he just couldn't. his body, maimed and broken despite its usually ability to regenerate fairly quickly, refused such help. The awful big shadows, slowly circling his body and poking at his limbs to make him feel the pain and agony even more. In between the darkness, however, he suddenly noticed someone, and wanted to call out to him to give him help, but then he noticed one detail in his appearance that frightened him.... It was a large hat from under which he could see an electronic eye glowing an aggressive red.

-Hello my not very dear Agreas, I haven't seen you for a long time.... You look a little broken since my last visit! I would like to acknowledge that I am sorry, but lying is rude.... It hurts badly, by the way?

-...Where are we? WHAT DO YOU WANT AGAIN CANAL!

Agreas tried to shout, however, the pain strongly prevented him from doing so. Unlike Mike who stood impassively over him trimly.

-This, my dear is the abyss. It is such a void between worlds for a while until the "Creators" develop it.... However, this one, is not accidental, Because once here stood the capital of angels... angels who fought so long with demons that their fate had to end so tragically.... Do you remember that, or has your memory not been the same for these few hundred years? -...You were not there.... YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT WAS GOING ON THEN!

-But I absolutely know... Because you are a child of Apollyon.

Just as the angel king Cedric was then too, your mutual hatred and pride led to the destruction of this entire world!

You could not finish fighting! ONE HAD TO FINISH THE OTHER! And with all this, you did not just destroy this world!

You can also be proud of yourselves by the way, you were probably the first creatures what passed through the dimensions....Isn't that an honor?

-It was not my fault.... what is your problem with this! For such a thing you decided to attack me? and the rest of my family!?

Agreas' heart was beating very fast and aggression and envy possessed his head more and more, he was slowly losing his mind being around Mike. Mike himself took advantage of this and continued.

-You are part of the being that created the worst things of this multiverse... you are what is going to bring it all down... you are a disease, a cancer of this world what only a few know. You are worthless trash to be thrown away. NOT A SINGLE SCUM CAN SURVIVE, WHAT HOLDS THIS SOUL IN ITS CHEST!

Mike unexpectedly thrust a strange crystal into the demon's chest, followed by another, and another, and another.... Agreas felt pain again all over his body and tingling, he screamed and tried to get away from the ground or at least from Mike writhing as much as he could. However, the shadows were already wrapped around his arms and were penetrating even more with every movement. He couldn't even defend himself. -I read a lot before I decided to meet you again you know? instead of leaving your worthless carcass and existence alone....

I can store your soul in these crystals, making you never know peace, a wonderful technique.... Isn't it?

Mike, however, did not wait for an answer, and instead slashed Agreas' throat aggressively. He pierced his larynx as well as his vocal cords so that the man could no longer say anything or even scream. Once Agreas stopped wiggling and fell dead to the black earth, the crystals came out of his body and merged into one larger one, Mike looked at it and his heart started beating faster.... however, he ignored it and put the crystal in his bag while continuing to look down.

-...And as for your daughter, don't worry about her, she will find out about your death later tonight...and her death will be much more interesting than you can even imagine.

Aj stood as if she were standing at a standstill, while looking at the guests she did not know completely what to do in this situation.

"Maybe this is Dad's rehearsal of how I will handle a difficult situation?" she thought, and after this thought she abruptly stood as if at attention while trying to pretend to be confident. The crowd looked at her with curiosity, and the Madig family in the background smiled wryly at the new ruler of the demon kingdom.

-...I thank my father for such an impressive... gift. I am extremely grateful to him!Therefore, let's have fun until the morning! As long as the sun beckons in this beautiful hall! I guess.. Yea!

The guests once again clapped loudly for Aj. The joyful music, performed live by the servants even encouraged them to dance until they lost their strength.

Aj, however, stood only by the throne, anxious she could not, for a moment, shake off the thought that something had gone wrong at her coronation, she could just feel it. A shocked Sophia, her maid, came to her. She had an equally distressed look on her face as she watched the unhappy ruler.

-I saw what happened in advance. Was it planned Miss Aj?

-You don't know anything either? anyone knows?

-On the contrary. the rest of the staff is also terrified but we were told not to sow premature panic.

Fear and disbelief were painted on Aj's face after these words.

She took Sophie quickly by the hand and they ran out of the room.

-GUARDS: YOU HAVE TO SEARCH ALL CHAMBERS AND ROOMS! NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO LEAVE THE MAIN HALL UNTIL MY FATHER IS FOUND! THIS IS NOT EXERCISE! HIS EXIT WAS NOT PLANNED!

She screamed while running down the hall. The maids, squires, cooks as well as the rest of the staff, equally terrified, started searching all the rooms they happened to have on hand.

-Dad must be here somewhere.... he couldn't just disappear like that!

-Some up the hall as we watched said it was an inter-dimensional portal.... so one cannot be sure-

-I SAW WHAT HE HAD UNDERFOOT! HE MUST BE HERE! AND IF HE'S NOT, I'LL FIND HIM PERSONALLY ANYWAY AND NO ONE WILL LEAVE HERE UNTIL HE'S FOUND!

Suddenly, one of the maids opening the door to one of the bedrooms fell down with a scream, AJ automatically came over to see what happened.

...

Blackjack left the party immediately after completing the task.

The execution from her part of the plan was precise and flawless. No one noticed her and at the same time she didn't perform too much chaos which was a good sign. She waited for Mike in front of the castle gates and during that time decided to talk to Jeremy on the phone. ~Hey are you feeling well after leaving the hospital yet?

Are you sure it was a good idea for you to leave early?

~Yes, it is definitely better, although sometimes I can still feel the stitches on my abdomen a bit....

~This is what happens when you leave the hospital earlier than planned by the doctors.... you should really lie down a little longer.

~I have bed in my home jer. And in the end nothing really hurts anymore, trust me it is fine.

~All right... On another note, what are you doing now? I seem to hear music from far away.

~I am waiting for my employer after doing my part of the job.... It wasn't hard, although a bit stressful.

~At this hour? Strange this job....

~Just like any other. You yourself often pull nights in the hospital and are probably even in it now. And instead of being at the patients you talk to me.

~It's not the same. you know it yourself.

~I know, I'm just teasing.

~Mmmhm, and just out of curiosity. what did you have to do in this job?

~I don't know if I can tell you too much. It's quite... it was a strange task.

~Amelia. Don't get into some trouble again, isn't it enough for you that I've had to get stitched up a few times already?

~I'm not! Just... it's complicated, I'll tell you one day.

~You don't sound very convincing.

~You wouldn't believe me?

~Never in my life~.

~Dup.

~Liar.

~A loser from school. They laughed softly at each other over the earpiece.

It had been a long time since there had been a situation for them when they could simply laugh at each other while continuing to adore each other. Blackjack, however, suddenly heard footsteps, so she said a quick goodbye to Jeremy and looked at a slightly out of breath Mike.

-Isn't this the age to run anymore?

-We'd better get out of here quickly.... Before someone realizes.

-..What have you done-.

A demonic scream full of rage and despair was suddenly heard from the castle. Mike grabbed Blackjack by the arm and looked her straight in the eyes.

-Open the portal before someone sees us.

-Ey, I'm asking you something! WHAT DID YOU DO THERE!

-NOT NOW, OPEN THE PORTAL, IMMEDIATELY! She created a portal and they quickly ran through it.

Blackjack almost fell to her knees once they were already in London. She looked questioningly at Mike while he had his head lowered and was panting.

-As I tell you . open the portal. then you are to open it, clear?

-...What the hell did you do that someone shouted so much! And not to me in such a tone!

-I left Agreas body on the bed, satisfied? I promised him that the demons would find out about his death the same night.

-You. WHAT DID YOU DO!? IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BLOODY DISCREET! BESIDES, WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM THAT THEY SCREAMED!!!?

-They would have found out sooner or later anyway.... I pierced his throat... and I took his soul into the crystal, he will never cause trouble again and his soul will not return to Apollyon. Unless something happened that I would not want to happen....

Blackjack looked at him with a blank stare and took a few steps back. Mike, seeing this, calmed down slightly and moved closer to her while toning his voice.

-Come on. You knew yourself that he was going to die... and as they have his body, they can at least give him a nice poke-.

Mike received a blow from Blackjack right in the face.

The one by the impact of the blow took a few steps back and his hat fell on the wet sidewalk.

-...You are insolent. He has a daughter, you know that right? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TREAT THIRD PARTIES LIKE THIS IN THIS SITUATION! ARE YOU AWARE OF WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO HER NOW!? ESPECIALLY WHEN WE DON'T EVEN KNOW IF SHE HERSELF IS APOLLYON'S CHILD?!

-...I only do what is necessary. And his daughter probably will not feel it anyway.... She probably has a throne now because of that too.... she only wants power. She's a demon, that's what matters to her, you should know that by reading your pseudo-scientific books.

-...You once had a friend who died, and at the same time had a daughter.... and you seriously still do not understand what I mean?

Blackjack moved down the street without a word.

Mike did not stop her, he understood perfectly what she felt at that moment. He felt guilty, but at the same time he knew that this had to happen. Therefore, only one word could come out of his mouth.

-...I'm sorry.

...

A few minutes passed, for Aj, however, it felt like hours.

The medical servants took Agreas' body gently and went with him quickly through the long corridors of the castle. Aj followed them, weeping as she looked at her dead and blood stained father whose eyes were further open, only emptiness as well as sadness could be seen in them.

-Did anyone know about this beforehand? How could this have happened!?!? Who is responsible for opening the portal in the great hall, IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING YOU HAVE TO ANSWER!

-Quenn AJ, no one knows anything so far, you must wait for the right person what will take care of this matter-.

-BUT I CAN'T WAIT, I NEED ANSWERS NOW! Now...

Sophie gently stopped AJ holding her by the shoulder. The queen could not stand the emotion and began to cry harder while hugging the maid. Sophie tried to calm her down and comfort her, while stroking her like in the days when Aj was just a baby. -My Queen...

Aj. You won't be able to do anything by going after them, now you have to deal with making sure the rest of the demons find out what happened.

-...And what am I supposed to tell them! I just became a ruler.... Sophia, I'm scared...I don't want to go there! I can't go there...

-You are the queen, you have to do it. And after that we will also be able to find out what happened.... Go there please.

She grabbed Aj's hand and walked with her inexorably towards the great hall.

-...No...I can't! you hear me!?

-You have nothing to fear, you are the queen here now! Get up and tell them!...do it for the people! Do it for us...

-... Aj hugged Sophia tightly before entering the room.

She felt her fear, her shaking body and a string of tears of despair after such a sudden loss. Besides, she couldn't blame her, she understood perfectly well what it was like to lose such a close person. However, Aj was now the queen, she had to reap no matter what the situation was, keep her cool and at the same time support the people so that they began to support her as well. The music had long since stopped playing through the confusion.

The puzzled guests, already without masks, looked around perplexed and tried to understand what was actually happening now. Aj stood at the balcony, heartbroken in spirit yet trying to be a good ruler on the outside. She looked at everyone and, after taking a few deep breaths, began a big speech.

-...Your king, my father.... He has just been found.... dead, in his own bedroom. The portal you may have seen during my crowning ceremony was not planned...someone must have kidnapped and killed him then.

Faces full of fear appeared in each of the guests. At the same time, the Magid's eyes were as they always were, cold and without any sympathy. They didn't really pay any attention to Aj's words and only continued to drink the beverage what happened to be on the table. Aj, however, ignored them, took a posture of attention, felt a sudden surge of determination and wanted one to come to the people as well.

-In his last words, he entrusted me with his throne.... I am extremely grateful to him for that and I would like to thank him for that.... and I will thank him, only in a different way than with empty words. I APPEAL THIS TO YOU, MY FAITHFUL DEMONS, HELP ME FIND THE CREATURE WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS GREAT LOSS. LET HIM BEAR THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEEDS THAT CAN NEVER BE FORGIVEN! LET JUSTICE BE DONE! LET IT RULE OUR WORLD! LET MINE, AS WELL AS YOUR FAMILIES.... BE TOGETHER SO THAT NO MORE SUCH TRAGEDIES CAN OCCUR! MAY ALL DEMONS LIVE!

She suddenly heard applause, shouts full of determination and willingness to fight. They made her feel, for that moment, pride and readiness for what was to happen in the next few days. Suddenly, however, she noticed the Magids again, and they came to her on the balcony. Uranus, Mercury's mother looked at Aj with clear contempt which she clumsily tried to hide under an empty smile. -Are you sure... that you are up to it?

-What do you mean.

-I mean... that you are still young, and for that you are a descendant of Agreas.... I don't trust you to be competent enough to rule now if I'm honest. However, I can help you as you wish.... My son would also be able to sit on the throne, it's always extra help in the end and at the same time he is more competent to do so.

-No thanks. I think my father knew perfectly well what to do by giving me the crown.... Especially when Mercury is as old as I am and he wasn't even considered for the deputy throne. She looked from the corner of her eye at Mercury with a biting smile. A great frustration began to be clearly painted on his face, visible through his red blush. His dream had always been to have royal power and prestige, but Agreas had instead always dismissed him at every possible opportunity. Uran gently stroked her son's face and looked coolly at Aj. -As you wish. However, young lady, keep in mind that we will be watching your hands. We will not tolerate you as we did your father before, you were worth each other anyway.... weak on the throne as much as family. scandal....

-So sorry Mrs. Uran... and now excuse me, there are more important things on your mind than unfulfilled ambition.

Aj left the room to get away from the Magidans as soon as possible and, above all, from Mercury, whom she felt like killing on the spot. Sophia was already waiting for her at the door and as soon as the ruler appeared she hugged her. -You did phenomenally well! You will be a great ruler Aj... I feel it with all my heart. The maid gently began to stroke Aj, the latter no longer shook as much as before and stood upright while also hugging the maid tightly.

-...Thank you for thinking so.... Please bring out all the guests in a moment and clean the hall.... From tomorrow everyone is to be ready to seek information about what happened.

-understood... it's late Queen Aj, can you manage to sleep? How about accompanying you to your room?

-No, I can manage... I need to be alone for a while to think it all over.... Thank you for being Sophia.

-You're welcome... good night queen Aj.

...

Blackjack was walking home down a dark street. Gently crying, she thought about what had happened during the party. She felt guilty and at the same time had in her mind that maybe it was right after all, the confusion in her mind intensified more and more. However, there was also another feeling, the worst you can feel when you are alone in the middle of the night... it was the feeling of being watched.

It was quite Hard to write this…. but here it is at last! Thank you as always for reading! And I have nothing from the announcements in total, so have a nice day, and that's it! :>

#art #digital art #character art #artists on tumblr #digitalart #my art #aou #artofuniverse #webcomic #illustration #oc artwork

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rakumel · 10 months

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Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII, Chapter 3 Part 3: In Soviet Seiren, Chicken Roasts YOU

Today, we’ve already reached the end of Chapter 3. It wasn’t as long as I remembered, but a lot was packed into it. We climbed a mountain, found a cabin and some friends, and picked up a possible lead on how to defeat the dino monsters that have been extremely tough so far.

I say “friends” plural, because in addition to Ricotta, there’s a couple more castaways to rescue in this chapter.

The first time I played through this game, I didn’t rescue Miralda here until well after I was “supposed to” because the game put her in that huge foggy area full of Primordials that at this point can one-shot everyone in your party if you try to fight them. So I wound up missing her approval rating quest and never got it maxed out. It wound up not mattering much because Adol’s overall approval was still high enough to get the best ending, but it still kinda bothered me.

So this time around, I remembered to just fucking RUN and found her camp (which functions just like the ones Adol and his party make)(which is cool).

On the way to find the cave with orichalcum in it, if you explore the area thoroughly you’ll find Austin. He’s interested in the landmarks around the island, and will reward you for finding them all.

In the same cave where you fought the Red Primordial, there’s also this little cat dude, who will reward you for feeding him cooked dishes. He won’t come with you, though. Sadness.

If you talk to Ricotta before heading back up the mountain, you get this scene where you find out that the shoebill that’s been hanging around Castaway Village is Ricotta’s mentor. Any words of wisdom for Adol, Shoebill-sensei?

...thanks. At least Shoebill will now help out on raids, so there’s that.

At this point you also have the option to do an approval quest for Sister Nia, which amounts to an escort mission up a big hill. Yeah, yeah, I know. Stop groaning, it’s not that bad. Seriously, it isn’t. She’ll follow you, but if you get too far ahead she’ll just stop and wait for you. So it’s easy to run ahead, clear the path, then go back and get her to resume the quest.

There’s nothing super interesting about doing the quest itself, but I like the character development Sister Nia goes through here. The top screenshot looks gratuitous, but she’s actually got a good reason for tearing up her dress: on the way up the hill, she kept tripping on the hem, until finally she’d had enough and did something about it, rather than continue to let it be a hazard.

Sister Nia doesn’t really abandon her faith here, but she does examine it. She decides that rather than going straight to thoughts and prayers every time trouble comes up, she’s going to do what she can as a person first. Good on you, Sister.

There’s a bridge that needs to be repaired in order to access the western foot of the mountain, which is where the group needs to go in order to find the cave with orichalcum. In the process we learn that Ricotta’s lived on this island for as long as she can remember, possibly implying that she’s been here even longer than Thanatos. That could explain why her teachers are animals and she was super excited to see other people.

After fending off more monsters, they find the cave with fossils in it, and sure enough, there’s orichalcum in it. Laxia starts to wonder if there might be something to the dreams Adol’s having.

Despite all that gleaming ore in the cave, for reasons I can’t remember (maybe they had difficulty mining it?) they can only bring back a smallish lump of usable orichalcum. It’s not enough to make even one entire weapon, so Kathleen suggests just enhancing the weapons they already have with the ore.

She gets to work, and soon everyone in the party has an anti-Primordial upgraded weapon ready for use. Good thing too, because not only does it make going back up the mountain easier, but there’s a firey death chicken boss waiting for them at the summit.

BUKAWK. BUKAWK. BUKAWWWWWWKMOTHAFUKAAAAAH

It dives at you, breathes fire, and tries to slap you with its claws. Bring plenty of burn medicines and make damn good use of the dodge roll, as well as any attacks that can reach up, because this boss will spend a lot of time in the air and out of reach. (Adol’s Tornado Blade is good for this.)

After defeating the Hell Rooster, the way to the summit of Mt. Gendarme is clear, and the group is rewarded with a spectacular sight:

The ruins of an ancient city that seem vaguely familiar and a massive waterfall.

Well, the game seems to think we’ve surpassed Mt. Gendarme, so that’s it for Chapter 3. But hang on, game - we’re not on the other side of the mountain yet. Once we are though, you’d better buckle up, kids - because the plot’s gonna take off.

#raku plays her faves #raku plays her faves: ys viii #ys viii #lacrimosa of dana

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rainydaydream-gal18 · 3 years

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(Bad Batch) Visiting the Caves

Imagine: You and the Bad Batch check out a tourist attraction on the planet you stop on- miles of underground caves that you get to see on a tour.

(Author’s Note: I made myself nearly tear up with this one, so I hope you enjoy it. I’ve got some asks in my inbox, and I will be getting to those soon! For now, enjoy this bucket of feels).

You and the group arrive at the main entrance in civies, and everyone is excited. Wrecker, Tech, and Omega are buzzing with conversation about the cool stuff they'll see. Hunter is doing a mental headcount to make sure everyone's present. Echo is waiting patiently by the door. Crosshair doesn't say much, but he's quietly smirking at everyone's interest and casting occasional glances at the entrance.

Upon entering the main visitor center, everyone scatters. Wrecker and Echo are looking at photos of the caves that are hanging on the board. Tech is loading up on brochures and informational booklets. While Hunter is getting the tickets, Omega is all over the room inspecting the rock displays. Crosshair does a survey of the place before joining Wrecker and Echo by the board. Finally, everything is paid for, and the tour begins. You fall into step with the group in the dimly-lit cave, following the tour guide along the walkway.

Hunter is finally able to relax a little and enjoy the sights, though he still has one eye open to make sure the squad doesn’t get into any trouble. He is fairly attentive to what the tour guide is saying, but is more focused on the aesthetic beauty of the caves rather than the information. If you are Hunter’s date, he will quietly take your hand in his during the tour and cast you subtle affectionate looks. He finds going through the tour with you romantic, even when surrounded by the whole squad. Hunter might even take an opportunity to whisper how beautiful you are when the others are preoccupied.

Tech is absorbing the information, though most of it is stuff he already knew or just read up on in the brochures. He still listens closely and will offer up more details if he feels it necessary. Even though he is focused on the science behind the formation of the caves, he is no less impressed by the sight and speaks about it with wonder. If you are his date, he’d be at your side the entire time, his shoulder bumping yours, and watching your smiles and expressions of amazement. He loves seeing you enjoying it as much as he is, and sometimes you’ll catch his stare and feel the warmth in your face.

Echo is the most attentive, listening carefully and letting the tour guide know he is interested. He also asks questions and points out anything neat he sees to Omega. Occasionally, he gives Tech pointed looks if his teammate drowns out the tour guide with his own spew of information. If you are his date, then you’ll spend most of the tour holding his hand - only letting go when he wants to point something out to Omega. You’ll catch his eye a lot, whether he’s giving you an amused glance at something your teammates did, or an affectionate gaze every now and then.

Crosshair talks the least, of course, but he is no less fascinated by the caves. During the tour, his eyes wander. At one point, he might even fall behind the rest of the group if he spies something particularly interesting or beautiful. If you are his date, then there may not be as much conversation, but the two of you can enjoy the sights together. He’ll still be quite content listening to your comments and observations. He’s not big on public displays of affection, but he’ll hold your hand and slow down so the two of you fall back behind the group. Then, he’ll plant an occasional kiss on your temple, and you’ll catch him smiling more.

Wrecker can hardly contain his excitement. The others have to keep reminding him that he’s being a little too loud and that the caves carry his booming voice pretty far. He listens to the tour guide, but finds his mind wandering to other things that grab his attention. If you are his date, he’ll hold your hand the whole time and keep grinning at you. Expect him to be pointing out all sorts of things to you. If the group stays in one place for too long, he gets a little excited and wants to keep moving, so you give his hand a gentle squeeze and smile to distract him.

Omega is up front between Hunter and Echo, listening and raising her hand to ask questions. The tour is an hour long, but she’s no less excited at the end than she was when it first started. She loves learning about the rock formations and the science from both Tech and the tour guide. By now, everyone plays a part in looking after her. Even Crosshair keeps a protective eye on her if he thinks she’s wandered a little too far.

After the tour, the group ends up in the gift shop where there are lots of trinkets, gemstones, and fossils for sale. Everyone scatters again to wander the small aisles.

Hunter is browsing the jewelry. He might get himself a fossil on a black cord to keep. If you were his date, he’d get you a bracelet made of smooth multicolored gemstones. He likes the idea of a gift you can keep on you wherever you go, and it pleases him to glance over and see you wearing something he picked out you. Hunter is rather private about this sort of thing, so he is subtle about gifts. When you’re distracted, he slides the bracelet onto your wrist in a gentle motion, causing you to glance over in delighted surprise as he smiles at you.

Tech goes for a sample from the very caves he toured as a souvenir and to conduct his own tests back at the ship. If you were his date, he’d most likely get you a small rock collection complete with its own display case. The colorful stones would make a pretty decoration for your quarters and would be rather practical if you took interest in learning more about them. He’s surprisingly pretty sneaky and is able to get it for you when you went off to browse with one of the others for a while. He presents the collection to you somewhat hesitantly, observing your expression in hopes you like the gift.

Echo can’t decide on what to get for himself right away, so he focuses more on a gift for you. He ends up finding something for himself in the process. He picks out a heart-shaped worry stone in your favorite color. The smoothness of the stone is soothing to the touch, and he figures it would be a nice reminder of the day. As a thought afterward, he decides he’d like something similar. Echo takes your hand in his unexpectedly and places the smooth stone in your palm with a smile before showing you the one he got to match.

Crosshair knows he wants to get you a gift the second he sets foot in the shop, but he isn’t sure how to go about it. He’s not used to doing this sort of thing, and the thought of his squad seeing him browse the jewelry and teasing him leaves him mortified. Part of him wants to just ask you what you want, but he’d rather it be a surprise. He stresses over it until finally Wrecker notices something is off and gives him a nudge in the right direction. He even browses with him so he can look inconspicuous. Crosshair goes with a pretty gemstone necklace as a gift for you, and back on the ship, he fastens the jewelry around your neck from behind, hearing your gasp of surprise and seeing you turn around with a smile on your face.

Wrecker is excited to pick out a gift for you, though he isn’t exactly subtle. You catch him a few times holding up t-shirts toward you when he thinks you’re not looking before quickly hiding them behind his back when you turn to face him fully. Then you see him ducking behind the aisles to hide from you, making you chuckle. He is so excited that he can’t just pick out one thing, so he ends up giving you a little gift bag with assorted goodies: gemstone-colored pencils, a stuffed animal, a t-shirt... He hands it to you, rubbing the back of his neck shyly while you smile at how thoughtful he was.

At the end of the day, everyone returns to the ship quite happy about the visit. The group is still buzzing with conversation, and Omega has an armful of gifts from the shop and a big smile on her face. Everyone sits around and shows off the stuff they got for a while and talks about their favorite part of the tour, and you get the chance to cuddle up next to your favorite Bad Batcher.

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