#great posts these past 48 hours right.
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✨💐 Mother's Day 💐✨
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Machine. Gabriel omegaverse male pregnancy art.
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I'm two days late... *gasp* Did Minos finally..?
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Did Sisyphus finally..?
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Don't come to my server.
Don't pray to me.
Don't "V1 pregnant" react me.
We're done.
*vine boom*
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Guys, stop giving birth in vc.
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You know.
I'd really like to say all of the pregnancy jokes catch me off guard.
But to tell you the truth, I was expecting.
i hate it here
Omegaverse clip
Minos clip
Sisyphus clip
Divorce clip
Literally 1984
He was expecting :]
#ultrakill#gabriel ultrakill#wow. 2 posts. in 1 day. thats a lot of clips. im going to jail.#hey guys.#great posts these past 48 hours right.#i mean. real good.#surely this wont spawn any art ri-#guys i dont know what fucking chemicals are being put into the water supply that is causing all this but its chats fault#Due to Tumblrs audio upload limit that exists to spite me specifically#i am only uploading the non edited versions#again i havent seen fridays stream so im SORRY if i missed any clips that would have fit here.#i need the weekends as a break surely you understand i would go insane without one
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48 hour challenge results !!
the updates
- clear skin.
ok so, my skin isn’t 100% crystal clear but my pimples became smaller and like, another thing i affirmed for was glass skin and the overall skin on my face is much smoother and even now. like it’s not a major glow up but i can notice an improvement since the first day, and i can tell that in a few days my skin will actually be fully clear, so i’m happy with these results.
- sleep paralysis.
honestly i wasn’t expecting to get sleep paralysis, nor was i even trying because i actually was away from home, on vacation during the weekend and sharing a room with my family members so i wasn’t about to start doing my method with people all around me. i know i don’t need a method like wbtb for sleep paralysis but, for me, the closest i got to sp was with this method. anyways, i didn’t get it. but i was able to strengthen my assumptions surrounding sleep paralysis and i feel like affirming positively for it like i did these past 48 hours only did me good. sooo, my goal for the future is to just keep persisting. usually this would be the part of my journey in which i give up due to not seeing any movement in the 3d but i know better now and now is the time i have to persist the most, there’s always movement and since i have my desire (sleep paralysis) right now in the 4d it is only a matter of time before it shows up in my 3d soon enough. why? because my 3d perfectly reflects my 4d, no matter what, because i said so.
- best case scenarios.
ok this!!! this was the best results i got from this challenge! i was on vacation with my family and i was kinda dreading it because they are all really close and even though they make an effort to include me and always are super sweet to me, i oftentimes felt like an outsider but this time that was not the case at all. i had so much fun!! literally everything went perfectly, it was like we were together all the time and it honestly was just such a blast. i really had not wanted to go but now i’m so so so happy.
+ other successes.
- on the day we were leaving for vacation, my uncle who was meant to pick me up texted at 3am that he would pick us up at 10am but i was asleep and didn’t see the text. so i woke up in the morning at 9:40 am and had to pack and get ready and i was panicking and then i affirmed like 3x ‘everything always works out perfectly for me’ and then literally 10 seconds later i get a text from him saying he was actually coming at 10:30am
- i saw 3 shooting stars!! (i always wanted to see one and i’d never seen one before)
- i felt super comfortable in my own skin! i wasn’t overthinking every little thing i did and was able to just relax and enjoy the moment and the company of the people i was with. i didn’t feel self conscious in a bikini, i didn’t feel judged for being myself and i just felt happy overall.
final thoughts
i enjoyed this challenge! having a clear outline of my goals and affirmations really helped me and it felt so good to see things fall into place just by controlling my thoughts. i reminded myself that i am god. i am the operant power and i am the one who has power over the 3d, not the other way around. i loved having my affirmations listed out on my original post because i was able to keep going back to them and affirm whenever i wanted. i still have a long way to go but i think this was a great challenge not only because i got results, but also because i was able to work on my loa skills by being mindful of my mental diet and being consistent with the same affirmations for the 48 hour duration of the challenge. this is also a really good challenge for beginners to try since it is short and really allows you to witness your own power by bringing desires to you in a period of 48 hours.
thank you @zen-shu for creating this challenge!! <3
#48hc#loassumption#law of assumption#law of attraction#law of the universe#self concept#void state#manifesting#shifting#shifting realities#sleep paralysis#3dolc x roe#affirming
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By: Douglas Murray
Published: May 8, 2024
Adapted from Douglas Murray‘s speech Monday as The Post columnist accepted the Manhattan Institute’s Alexander Hamilton Award.
I’ve never seen as much of the best and the worst of humankind as I have in the past six months in Israel and Gaza.
I was here in New York on the 7th of October, and on the 8th, I went down to Times Square.
And there were these men and women, waving signs, celebrating the massacre.
They were holding these signs in Times Square, “by any means necessary.”
At a time when we already knew what those means included.
I thought I had to get to Israel as soon as I could, that we were going to see a kind of Holocaust denialism in real time, and therefore I should see with my own eyes everything that had happened.
In Israel, I joined the pathologists in the morgues of Tel Aviv as they were trying to identify the dead.
An unbelievable task, which they do with extraordinary delicacy and religiosity.
I had the great opportunity to witness firsthand Israel’s response, because unlike some countries today, Israel doesn’t just sit back with equanimity when it’s attacked.
Some of the world would like it to do so.
Seeing one of the fences that the terrorists broke into, I thought people aren’t going to realize the scale of this: This was a 4,000-person, battalion-sized terrorist attack that aimed to go all the way up the center of the country.
What do I make of all this?
I think often of the line from Deuteronomy, when God says, “I’ve set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life that you and your descendants might live.”
Because when I think of the seventh now, I don’t only think of the victims.
I think of the extraordinary heroes.
There’s a young man who’s a friend in his 30s, who woke up in Jerusalem, realized the seriousness of what was going on, got into his car, drove south, collected some guns, left a farewell message to his children and his wife on his phone, got a call from his company commander on the road saying, you have to come back to base in Jerusalem.
And he said, no, we’re needed south now.
And his battalion commander said, are you defying an order?
He said, yes.
We’re needed in the South.
And he fought for the next 48 hours, and he survived.
I think of my friend Moshe.
I noted he had a bullet mark down the top of his helmet.
He explained that it was from the 7th.
He drove right into the middle of the firefight on the highway.
He got out and he fought and he killed three terrorists with his gun that he carries with him, thank goodness.
And he fought for the next two days.
I think of the extraordinary people of the Hatzalah, first-responders unit.
The head of that organization said in 30 years of doing this job, the whole 30 years altogether wasn’t like one minute that morning.
The lights just went off everywhere.
And I think of a young woman who was 23.
She was a beautiful girl, a photographer.
And she decided she had to go and reenlist.
Her parents begged her not to, but she said she had to.
And she was killed on her first day by a rocket that landed on her in Sderot.
In a letter she left for her parents she said how sorry she was.
But she said, I wanted to live life, and now I want you to live it for me.
I think, finally, of the extraordinary evening in November last year.
I was at the Schneider Children’s Hospital when the helicopters came returning the first hostages, the first children who Hamas had stolen from their homes in the south.
But when the helicopters emerged in the night sky, the people of Tel Aviv realized what was happening, and every car stopped.
And I noticed there was applause from the citizens, the Tel Avivians, and then there was singing, all the way through the streets of Tel Aviv.
They were singing “Haveynu shalom aleichem”: We brought you peace.
Now there’s millions of stories like this across Israel.
The country rings with them, it resounds with them.
The thing is, perhaps it does require life to become serious again.
Perhaps the students that we see at these destroyed universities, perhaps they just need a dose of reality someday.
I always pray that that day never comes to them because it’ll be the biggest wake-up call anyone has ever had.
But all I would say is that any country should be so lucky as to have a young generation like that in Israel.
They were weighed in the balance since October the 7th, and they’ve been found to be magnificent.
What Israel has been up against is not just a people of death, but a cult of death, a cult, which wishes to annihilate an entire race, and which after dealing with that race has made very clear what it wants to do with Christians, everyone in Britain, everyone in America.
I want to dedicate my acceptance of this award to the people of Israel who in the face of death, choose life.
--
youtube
==
"the people of Tel Aviv realized what was happening, and every car stopped."
This is fundamentally inconceivable in countries like the US and UK. There are too many people who outright despise their own country and wish it to be destroyed. The idea that the US would unite behind another tragedy like 9/11 is completely delusional given what we saw of TikTokers taking the side of Osama bin Laden, a full-blown Islamic terrorist.
#Douglas Murray#Israel#October 7#oct 7#october 7 attacks#october 7 massacre#islamic terrorism#islam#islamic supremacy#hamas#hamas terrorism#hamas supporters#pro hamas#death cult#palestine#pro palestine#terrorism supporters#college protests#student protests#religion is a mental illness
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March recs
Much delayed by travel and post-travel virus that turned into laryngitis (yayyy), but please enjoy!
DCU
All gen unless marked otherwise.
Say Uncle by Megaerakles
Tim is prepared to take the steps necessary to ensure that Bruce will not feel obligated to adopt Tim when a comatose Jack Drake inevitably dies. But what could be better than preventing Bruce from ending up with a son he doesn't want? Bringing back the one he does.
Jason agrees to the Replacement's stupid, stupid plan to invite some strange adult man he's never met to come live with him, if only to keep the idiot alive long enough for him to serve his purpose in the Great Red Hood Revenge Scheme.
Might this new roommate situation have an impact on either of their worldviews? Surely not...
Tim, why are you LIKE this.... *facepalm* I really didn't think the Fake Uncle Scheme TM could get any more insane but this fic does it with style. (thanks to @smilebackwards for the rec! and the next one lol)
The Seven-Layer-Dip From Hell by Oberon Bronze
Jason enlists Tim to help him through the stages of a 48-hour fear toxin trip in exchange for a favour, on one condition -- Tim can't call any of the bats for help, no matter what happens. Tim, thankfully, will do quite literally anything to get his family all under one roof again.
Emotionally messy delicious h/c, and the sequel doubles down on the goodness.
Prince of Foxes by poisonivory/ @pluckyredhead (Roy/Jason)
Once upon a time, Roy Harper almost had a mate.
Years later, he's kidnapped for a deadly game where shifters are forced to fight to the death for the entertainment of the humans who despise them. All he wants to do is escape—that is, until he recognizes one of the other shifters: a feral wolf who, a lifetime ago, was his best friend's little brother. Until he died. Until Roy lost him.
But no force on earth is taking Jason from him again.
Well-written shifter AU with a great look at their relationship over the years (and Jason's death), culminating in a tensely-written period of captivity in a shifter fighting ring (which also has some amazing pit fights).
GAME OF THRONES
So apparently four years is finally enough time for me to read GOT fic again without being swamped by annoyance at the series finale - at least, as long as the fics are VASTLY AU. Which both of these stories are!
The Right Question by Aviss (Jaime/Brienne)
In which Ned asks the right questions at the right time, and Jaime keeps most of his vows. The important ones at least.
aka the one where Jaime hides Elia Martell and her children on Tarth. Very satisfying!
Our Scars Make Us Golden by K_R_Closson (Jaime/Oberyn)
Jaime Lannister drives her sword through Aerys's back to save a kingdom. When her father's armies sack the city and kill those she was sworn to protect, she flees King's Landing, unsure what to do. On her way to Dorne, she runs into Ned Stark who hands her a baby and a purpose, protect the Targaryen heir.
Interesting genderswap AU with a badass Jaime.
MISC
A Light in the Dark by @glimmerglanger (Star Wars, Cody/Obi-Wan)
Sometimes, it seemed Obi-Wan only saw other people across the field of battle.
The only reliable source of contact he had with other living beings - for the past year - had been during a fight. And he had not been able to enjoy such contact, had not been able to sink into the Force and refill his reserves, because all of the men he fought were trying so desperately to kill him and all the people he was trying so hard to protect.
OR, the one where Obi-Wan serves the Republic, Cody serves the Separatists, and they find a way forward anyway.
Loved this! The army-swap AU premise, the captivity h/c, and the hope of the resolution.
The Emperor Gregor Vorbarra special exhibit of the Vorbarr Sultana Fibrecraft Institute by rattyjol (Vorkosigan Saga, gen)
NARRATOR: No record survives of precisely when or how Emperor Gregor first picked up knitting. The first public acknowledgement of the Imperial Hobby was in the thirty-eighth year of his reign, when the Emperor was forty-three. However, it is abundantly clear that the Emperor had been knitting for some years before this. Throughout this audio tour, alongside clips and reenactments, you’ll be hearing reminisces from Princess Olivia herself. Here’s one now:
P. OLIVIA: My father knit almost constantly inside the private Residence. I remember him reading me and my brothers to sleep as children: he would balance the handreader on his knee or the arm of his chair, and go on knitting over top of it. Never dropped a stitch, never skipped a line. And his character voices were legendary.
This is SO sweet, and a great use of fake-documentary style.
#monthly recs#fic rec#dcu#batman#batfam#roy/jason#game of thrones#jaime/brienne#jaime/oberyn#star wars#cody/obi-wan#vorkosigan
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Re-post from Twitter. We would like to give you a little treat created by our wonderful Mod Trish!
Summary: Bakugou asks a very sick Kirishima out, but the thing is, Kirishima isn’t actually sick. >:)
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There aren’t a lot of things in this world that Kirishima Eijirou knows for certain but he is pretty freaking positive that rejecting Bakugou Katsuki’s invite to the movies now means there is a 100% chance he will never receive another invite again. So, despite what feels like an impressive gale force sickness looming on his horizon, Kirishima gives his crush no, his best friend, as big of a “yes” as he can muster.
His body will just have to cope.
After an impressive nearly 48 hours of eating nothing but vitamin C chewables, his entire body weight of chicken noodle soup and drinking enough tea to drown an elephant, Kirishima’s plan to force his body back to perfect health goes….well, it goes horrible. Somehow he feels even worse?? He spent most of the last night sweating bullets with his body aching so bad you’d think he just lost a fight with an Alpha Prime. Even his teeth hurt! Still, a date with Bakugou (maybe the lingo wasn’t accurate, but a Beta could dream right?) was not something he was going to pass up no matter how close to death he might currently be. With great effort, Kirishma manages to get ready, ignoring the dizziness and body shivers and eventually finds himself leaning against the door of one Bakugou Katsuki.
He reaches out to knock, but before his knuckles drag across the wood, something punches the wind right out of him.
No, not just any something, a smell. And not just any smell, he somehow registers that it’s Katsuki.
Pressing his face against the door like some sort of wild animal, Kirishima inhales as deeply as he can. His lungs fill with the sharp scent of pressed oak, the metallic zing of the hardware and there, after another inhale it's so strong he can practically taste it on his tongue. Honey and clover, dripping down the back of his throat through his nose until his eyes roll and his mouth begins to fill with saliva.
The onslaught of scent and flavor are so overwhelming he doesn’t even have the brain capacity to figure out how he had never noticed this before? Has everything always been this sharp, this clear, this fucking delicious?
No. Even in his fuzzy sickness brain, he’d have remembered something like this. The smells, the insane urge to jump through the wood and to sink his teeth into the source— wait, since when do Betas have the desire to bite anything?
He wracks his brain trying to come up with an answer but his question seems further and further away with each inhale. Feeling deranged, he sniffs the door again, a moan involuntarily slipping past his now open panting mouth, shocking even himself. Every second he stands here gets worse, his hands are even beginning to twitch, wanting to start clawing at the door to fight his way in. Just as he is debating whether or not to lick the paneling, the door suddenly yanks open and there with blown pupils and a smirk that could have lit him ablaze even before his fever is Bakugou Katsuki.
“Thought you’ve been smelling different,” he says, grin widening.
“Huh?” Kirishima replies stupidly, having to suck back in drool that threatened to spill out of his mouth.
Bakugou rolls his eyes. “I always had a feeling you were an Alpha, but I didn’t peg you as a knothead. Catch up dummy.”
“A-a-alpha? No, ‘m a Beta,” Kirishima croaks out, brain trying to surface through the fog. Sure he’d never actually presented, but that's what made him so sure he was a Beta! Maybe his dick was a little bigger than his other friends, but surely he’d have noticed a knot right? Right? He takes another breath, trying to clear his head.
Big mistake.
It takes all of his power to stay put. He wants to reach for Katsuki, to stick his face in between the spot between his shoulder and neck. Just for a second, he reasons with himself, just to see if that's where the smell is coming from. Or maybe a taste? One taste, that’ll be fine, right?
Bakugou chuckles, but it’s not unkind. “See, you keep saying that shit, but Eiji, my Omega is tired of waiting and so am I. Here.” Moving too quickly to stop, Bakugou shoves a hand down the front of his pants and then pulls it out just as fast only to smear the wetness over a very startled Kirishima’s nose and mouth.
Everything goes black after that.
A few days later, a very exhausted looking Katsuki grins up at him from his destroyed and horrifyingly sticky nest. There's a bite mark, no several bite marks littering his pale skin but he looks pleased all the same.
“So,” he asks, stretching out like a lazy, sunsoaked cat just to stoke his index finger against the edge of his surely swollen rim, pressing just hard enough to feel Kirishima’s knot through his skin, making them both shiver, “still think you're a Beta?”
With his rut brain still too slow and horny to allow him to communicate, Kirishima answers his Omega by biting into his soft flesh and claiming him for himself, for his Alpha, one more time.
#bnha#kiribaku#bnha smut#a/b/o#a/b/o smut#a/b/o fic#twitter repost#kirishima eijirou#bakugou katsuki#omega bakugou#alpha kirishima
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1-70 skip all needed if they make you uncomfy
*deep inhale*
LONG POST INCOMING!
01: Do you have a good relationship with your parents?
yeah! they're lovely people
02: Who did you last say I love you" to?
probably my mom
03: Do you regret anything?
I regret many things. can I think of any right now? no
04: Are you insecure?
not really, generally
05: What is your relationship status?
single, but also a minor and aroace so it's not sad or anything
06: How do you want to die?
preferably suddenly without prior notice. that way I couldn't have regrets
07: What did you last eat?
a werthers caramel
08: Played any sports?
nope
09: Do you bite your nails?
not bite with my teeth, but I pick at them often
10: When was your last physical fight?
.....I cannot remember if I ever have fought anyone physically. don't think I have
11: Do you like someone?
I like a lot of people. romantically? no
12: Have you ever stayed up 48 hours?
yea. completely accidentally at first, but at one point i thought "ha, I've come this far, I'm just gonna hold out" and then I did
13: Do you hate anyone at the moment?
hate is a strong word. that said, I suppose I might hate jack, cody, juan, and phoenix from school
14: Do you miss someone?
uhhhhh not really
15: Have any pets?
four cats and two dogs. three out of four cats are rescues
16: How exactly are you feeling at the moment?
throat hurts but overall feel the same as ever. which is to say, not much.
17: Ever made out in the bathroom?
no. do people do that???
18: Are you scared of spiders?
not really, unless they're actively on me. theyre fuzzy and adorable
19: Would you go back in time if you were given the chance?
....no. I don't want to forget to do something and regret it for the rest of eternity
20: Where was the last place you snogged someone?
im aroace
21: What are your plans for this weekend?
take care of neighbors cat and otherwise sleep
22: Do you want to have kids? How many?
no. might at some point tho, but adopted, and only if they're older. only one.
23: Do you have piercings? How many?
ears pierced, nothing else. only one
24: What is/are/were your best subject(s)?
art, english, math
25: Do you miss anyone from your past?
no. mostly because I've forgotten them. cue existential fear of forgetting childhood friends etc etc
26: What are you craving right now?
anything cold
27: Have you ever broken someone's heart?
not to my knowledge
28: Have you ever been cheated on?
never dated
29: Have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry?
nope
30: What's irritating you right now?
physical symptoms. am sick
31: Does somebody love you?
romantically? not to my knowledge. platonically? hopefully lol
32: What is your favourite color?
lavender. it took maybe four fifths of my life to figure that one out
33: Do you have trust issues?
if trusting too much counts, yeah
34: Who/what was your last dream about?
don't remember
35: Who was the last person you cried in front of?
probably random school people. I have issues with breaking down at school. usually can suppress it tho
36: Do you give out second chances too easily?
no, don't think so. if you break my trust I won't give it back easily
37: ls it easier to forgive or forget?
forget. don't mind how it's pretty much never optional for me
38: Is this year the best year of your life?
nOPE
39: How old were you when you had your first kiss?
older than I am now
40: Have you ever walked outside completely naked?
outside of my house? absolutely not
51: Favourite food?
actually do not know. crunchwraps from taco bell are very good. chow mein from panda express is VERY good. canned corned beef hash is great. that indian dish with the flatbread you dip in the spinach is v good.
52: Do you believe everything happens for a reason?
nope lol. some shit just happens
53: What is the last thing you did before you went to bed last night?
uhhhhh don't remember. probably listened to a YouTube video
54: Is cheating ever okay?
look man i'm aroace and barely even understand what attraction is. i'm not the guy to ask about this
55: Are you mean?
not intentionally
56: How many people have you fist fought?
a whopping 0, here's hoping it stays that way
57: Do you believe in true love?
nah. it's all a spectrum. how long love lasts may be longer than your lifetime, but I don't think it's infinite. then again never been in love so
58: Favourite weather?
thunderstorm. the dark kind
59: Do you like the snow?
literally never seen it irl
60: Do you wanna get married?
nope. unless it's for tax benefits
61: Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby?
no that is so gross imo. you are calling me an infant. but again aroace
62: What makes you happy?
no clue, it varies and isn't guaranteed
63: Would you change your name?
eh. maybe. it'd take some time to get used to, maybe wouldn't want to put in the effort
64: Would it be hard to kiss the last person you kissed?
I'd kiss fluffy the cat as many times as it took for her to understand its an affection thing
65: Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?
panic
66: Do you have a friend of the opposite sex who you can act your complete self around?
yea. Ben D. he's great
67: Who was the last person of the opposite sex you talked to?
my brother probably
68: Who's the last person you had a deep conversation with?
depends what you call deep. if this counts than whoever's reading this
69: Do you believe in soulmates?
isn't this a repeat? either way no, not exclusive to individual people anyway
70: Is there anyone you would die for?
prolly most of my friends and my parents
#theeeeeere we go. every single question#didnt take as long as expected#also didn't go as deep as expected. tho prob would be different if i was literally ever in love or even capable of that#existenceunrelateds#ask#asks#ask game
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!!DISCORD SCAM | IMPERSONATING DISCORD EMPLOYEES | BE AWARE!!
Okay. Hello, I usually do stupid stuff on here, like memes, or fanfiction. Obviously, this post is neither. This is a warning to any Discord users of a scam, and I will provide screenshots so that people can recognize and avoid it.
For the past couple days, I have been interacting with an account impersonating one of Discord's employees, because another hacked account in my friend's list (someone I have not talked to in years) reached out to me and told me they had accidentally reported my account for scamming/hacking (ironic, but I guess they're not creative).
(Initial interaction with hacked account (blue); profile obscured for protection. The account has since been blocked.)
This initial interaction did admittedly fool me within the first screenshot, because I hadn't talked to the person in years and the scammer was mimicking our past conversations, but I was skeptical of what they were asking me to do.
However, I just lost my job, have too much time on my hands, and am reckless with money. So I played along.
(Apologies for anybody confused with my behavior in the past 48 hours. Because they had access to my account, I did not know how much they could see of my activity across the servers. Ergo, I was playing up a confusion in said servers.)
The following screenshots are only portions of my interaction with the core scam account (I won't reveal information that would dox/harm me, of course). I will also explain, in great length, what it is they do, and how to recognize this scam to avoid it entirely.
THIS IS WHAT THEY DO.
Starting with the initial screenshots, I have highlighted grammatical errors that, in retrospect, do not adequately mimic how the hacked account spoke before.
The screenshot the scammer provides is of, what I suspect to be, a photoshopped email of Discord Support. However, similarly to the prior screenshot, I have highlighted the mistakes, and have supplied a screenshot of a genuine interaction with Discord Support (through a no-reply email) for comparison.
(Left: Fabricated email with the following mistakes respectively: Inconsistent narrative where the receiver of this email would be the hacked account, who did the reporting; Inconsistent format/spacing with username within brackets; No period; Closes a parenthesis with a bracket; (Nitpick) In a list, “furthermore” is unnecessary; No period.
Right: A legitimate email as example by Discord (for password reset).)
Once you friend the scam account, they will introduce themselves. This one is impersonating an employee of Discord.
(Given the scam account, I will unfortunately have the employee's name and profile picture up here, in case this account tries to scam again. From what I have found, this account does use public information that is visible on sites such as LinkedIn, which is specifically where I think this scammer got the information.
(As I will repeat later, DO NOT HARASS THIS EMPLOYEE. What I suspect happened is this account either a) hacked the employee's existing account, or, more realistically, b) fabricated an account using public information. As far as I'm aware, this employee has absolutely NOTHING to do with this scam, outside of being the ultimate victim throughout this. I may have lost money, and others too, but this employee's reputation is being jeopardized, so please, DO NOT ASSOCIATE HIS LEGITIMATE INTEGRITY TO WHAT HAS HAPPENED HERE.)
The following screenshots are of my interaction with this scammer. Pay attention to signs of a scam, such as grammatical errors, pressuring, and other manipulative behaviors which will also be clarified later. The other thing to pay attention to is the reason why I am writing this post in the first place:
The scammer's screenshots of Discord assets. This scammer mimics. Throughout the process, they utilize either photoshopped images of Discord's assets to give the scam a sense of legitimacy, or genuine screenshots of Discord's assets, out of context.
(Screenshots of my interaction with the scammer, throughout the dialogue.)
After introducing themselves, they will ask for you to change your email and give some excuse. (By this point, I was well aware that this was a scam. Obviously, I decided to go through with it to be able to collect evidence of a scammer that impersonates Discord employees, but I made sure that I was online for as much as possible so they weren't going to try and use my account behind my back for anything.)
Because this scam account didn't actually have my email address, they had to ask me for it in order to have the email changed. Because at this point, my account wasn't actually in any threat. There was no report on my account, and, this scammer is not associated with Discord. It does not have the power to just snatch my email from me--at least, not in the manipulative strategies the scammer was employing. This strategy is low-effort, because why spend so much energy taking money when you can just ask the person themselves to do it?
The following is the emails sent once I confirmed to the scammer my (other) email address (the second was sent because I was taking too long):
(Emails sent to me via scammer account mimicking Discord Support. Sections highlighted are false emails to watch for, and...an interesting timezone that is not in the US. At all.)
The moment you change the email, that is when the scam starts. Because they have it now. And what they do to simulate a "temporary suspension" is they go and change your settings to invisible, as a way to confuse you. Then, they change your name to "Temporary Suspended". (Yes, it's supposed to be Temporarily Suspended, but let's not tell them that.)
(Left: Me (VoltageStone, or "Temporary Suspended") in chat.
Right: My profile in "Invisible" within the member list. Other profiles obscured for protection; my profile is highlighted despite being within "OFFLINE", as designed for the "Invisible" feature.)
After this, within the dialogue between you and the scam account, the scammer will tell you something along the lines of: Don't message other people, because it will, more or less, interfere with the "verification" process. In actuality, it is because they do not want you communicating with other people using your "suspended" account.
When in fact, you can talk to people when you're invisible. A suspended account means you are locked out of it, and Discord will prompt you to login again.
They will also tell you that your interactions is being monitored my management. Now, this may very well be true, but it's not Discord management, it's likely their management.
(Within this part of the process, the prior screenshot where I say "i am in hell" is the only instance I spoke in any server. Outside of that, in order to play along, I did not speak to anyone given they had access to my account, and likely could see what I would be doing. I needed them to believe I was stupid and gullible, so I kept my mouth shut and got a second account so I could talk.)
Once they have you locked in, they will prompt you to pay them whatever amount they desire. For me, it was an initial $150. When that isn't apparently "enough", they ask for more. For me, it was $450 more.
Because they had me pay through PayPal, that doesn't include tax.
Once there is the inevitable issue in the payment(s), they will try to have you pay through another service. For me, the scammer claimed that a payment of $450 did not go through on their end (lies, of course), so they had me try and use Xoom.
Thank-you Xoom for being hell on Earth, because the next 2 HOURS of attempts did not work. Every transaction was cancelled. Thanks to Xoom, and thanks to my bank account.
And now my bank is a good one, so of course, throughout the several hours, there was a constant restriction for these payments. Because a bank knows what's probably a scam. Hence the difficulty on Xoom.
However, I did want to see this through, so...there were several phone calls to my bank getting these approved. Which yes, was stressful. And I did, in fact, tell the scammer as much, both to relieve said stress, but also to see if I could scare them into slipping.
Which I did. (I am not going to advise saying you should tell them that you "have already been suicidal" (I'm not), but it did the trick. The scammer slipped and forgot to format their replies.)
(A scammer told me to "calm down" after I "admitted" to being suicidal. Again, I am not. I wanted this scammer to panic. And they did.)
After Xoom didn't work out, we went back to PayPal, where a second $450 payment was made.
Essentially, what this scammer did was they had me pay a $150. It was conveniently "not enough" because...my account was more expensive, given the amount of time I have been on it, so the total value I had to give in order to "verify" was $600--or, $450 more was needed. There was (genuine) difficulty in one attempt for the $450, and it was refunded, so another attempt was given. This attempt went through on my end, because...it did go through, but it "didn't on their end." So, this scammer created a little ring of chaos to try and distract me from what was paid, had me go through Xoom, and tried to get me to pay there. When that didn't work, we went back to PayPal, where another $450 was given. After they swindled their money, they feigned difficulty with PayPal security, realized I was going to do something because I did catch on, and have since then not been active on this account. Their username was marked with "[Scammer]". And that's that.
By the end of this, I lost $1k. ...which is my bad, but whatever. That's on me. I realized I would be losing money from being a little rat pea brained investigator.
I do have my Discord account back, largely because I was able to let Discord support know of the scam, so as far as I'm aware, Discord does know about this. (I got a bot response immediately, and then someone from Discord Trust & Safety restored the email, and thusly the account, within 3 minutes. The authentic email that I used to compare to the scam's email is from this interaction.)
Be aware of this scam. It is best to avoid it entirely.
AKA, don't do what I did. It is financially dangerous, and just plainly reckless.
Part of why I did this is because I'm impulsive, but also, I had not seen any accounts across any platforms (primarily Reddit) report this specific scam. It may be a known thing, but I wasn't able to find anything easily. Therefore, it's not known enough. So, I wanted to ensure that this was legitimately a scam, and moreover, that I would get confirmation by the end.
Which I did. Because the scammer, once they were done with being a scammer with their kooky little account, changed their username.
(Again. Do not harass this employee by the same name. As far as I'm aware and understand what happened, this was impersonation. Whether it be a hacked account, or an account created to mimic, I don't know. The employee has nothing to do with this.)
After this, for a little bit, there was nothing. However, as I was writing this very post, a development:
(Left: Scammer email contacts me with following mistakes respectively: Fraud email address; Pressuring to spread this scam by “reminding everyone(?)” (I don’t know how this “everyone” is); Interesting date and time for San Fransisco, California on the day of our lord and savior, January 24th; Wrong amount of money that does not align with the $1096 I calculated; No period; I unsubscribed to Nitro, actually, so there really is no “subscription” here.
Right: PayPal informing me that one of the accounts (in which two payments were granted) declined my request for refund.)
(This is one of the accounts used for the scam. Be wary of this when using PayPal.)
That is correct. Almost simultaneously, the scammer sent over an email discussing...that, and PayPal informed me that part of the refund which the scammer "agreed" to was declined.
Um. Yeah I laughed. I will have to be diligent tomorrow to see what exactly they will do, since I suspect tomorrow something will come up. Or they just...miscalculated time for California? It's not even 2pm in the Philippines.
I also think they miscalculated the money. Despite me calculating it myself and providing the number within our interaction, but okay.
Fortunately, I have ensured some semblance of safety. I've pulled my card information from anything, and have changed the account username and password as well. So unless they somehow got access to my account, there's none of this "subscription" going on.
Now, if something does happen, I will add to this post in an edit. Just so that people are made quite aware of what scams can do.
Regardless of my present situation, here are some things you can take from this.
A FEW WAYS TO SPOT A SCAMMER:
If an account you have not spoken to reaches out (particularly someone who've you have never met irl), be cautious. Search for any discrepancies in how they type (even though a scammer can mimic, there will be differences in "speech" patterns).
Be wary of constant grammatic, syntax, and/or spelling errors--errors which a nonprofessional would make. (This is usually the first clear sign of a scam, in part because a lot of scammers tend to be non-native **English speakers, from other countries, but also because they don't care and are negligent so long as they're getting away with the scam.)
Pay attention to any email addresses sent to you. If it looks weird and unprofessional, it probably is. A prime reason why there's so much graphic design in many company emails is for this very reason: to confirm that it is (likely) genuine. It's not just to look cute.
If they ask for money and "promise" a refund, no. Just no. Don't believe that.
If said money is to a different country, be wary. Here are some known countries that scammers come from, with their currency:
Format Reference:
United States of America ($ ; USD)
Brazil (R$ ; BRL)
India (₹ ; INR)
China (¥ ; CNY)
Pakistan (Rs ; PKR)
Nigeria (₦ ; NGN)
Venezuela (Bs ; VES)
South Africa (R ; ZAR)
Romania (lei ; RON)
Philippines (₱ ; PHP) - This is the origin for this specific scam.
If any "support" of a company you are an active consumer of has to ask for your email to continue with any process, it is fraud. In the beginning, Discord already had the appropriate email address to reach out to me.
Lastly, if they are marked as "[Scammer]" at the end of the scam, they are a scammer. And this is them laughing at you.
**This does not just happen with English speakers. Generally speaking, scams of this nature will try to target people outside of their country, because they like to use the difference in laws, timezones, etc. as a shield. So regardless of the language, do pay attention to language errors. It's a sign of either a scammer who does not care, or someone who is unfortunately illiterate.
As far as this post goes, that is all I have. I myself was very reckless in this endeavor, but I do hope that people see this and avoid doing the same thing I did--unknowingly or otherwise. Again, I will urge you to not do this. Don't. Do not. Just avoid scams.
To spread this message, reblog if you can, and tag any fandoms that you are in (especially if there are Discord servers) so that people who are in fandom servers can know. Post this in Discord servers. Cross-post this in other sites, such as Reddit or Twitter. Just get it out there so that people are aware of the scam, or ones like this.
If you would like to add anything to this, whether it be specific to this scam, or just general advice, please add onto this post.
This scam is malicious, both for Discord users, and those who work for the company.
Thank-you for your time,
V. Stone
#scam alert#discord#wednesday 2022#wednesday show#wednesday netflix#little witch academia#lwa#scooby doo#fallout 4#fallout#twdg#the walking dead games#victorious#arcane#arcane netflix
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Ok I'm very curious about your thoughts on the features for dreams do please say
kissing you on the mouth anon thank you i love giving my opinion on stuff so
DISCLAIMER
If you like the app, if you find it easy to use, if it's more accessible to you for any reason at all (INCLUDING THE CHEAP PRICE) i'm so happy for that, more power to you! if it makes it easier for people to approach animation that's great! i just think there are some really really awful features and limitations maybe especially if you never animated some thy in your life. for reference i studied animation using toon boom so maybe it's just too different from what i use, maybe in a week of getting to know it better, dreams will be my best friend and i'll feel stupid for this post, but also i animated stuff in the supposed "professional way", even complete, rendered stuff (specializing in storyboard and rough animation) so here's my first impressions after using it for less that 24 hours with no visual tutorials only the written ones. if i say something wrong or missed something or if any of the things i say below has an easy solution PLEASE LET ME KNOW i'm. plenty happy to be proven wrong :)
ok now, time to be a bitch
Startin with the biggest offence imo:
WORKING WITH FREE FRAME TIMING IS HELL
in animation you got your frames right? 24 each second yall know the gig. once upon a time, in disney golden era you used to do one drawing for each frame but nowdays you hardly do that. most people just put a drawing when needed which means one drawing could last 2 frames, one 4, one 8 up til as many you could need. more often than not you'll change the duration of each frame many times as you are doing your animation, making them longer or shorter and adjusting each frame before or after based on that. most programs will let you make a drawing shorter or longer and automatically adjust the frames around it, meaning it'll move them as needed.
procreate dreams doesn't do that. if you shorten a drawing it'll leave a space between the one you shortened and the one after. if you elongate a drawing..... you can't do that. yes. you. can't. do. that. to be more precise, you can't do that if there's a drawing right after because it'll just won't let you move past it..... "but that's fine" i hear you say "just move the damn frame blocking it", great idea! you can't do that either. you can only move one frame at a time. even if you select more of them you can only move one at a time (WHY). to move more of them you need to group them and ungroup them all the times. hope you understand how tedious that is.
tied to this point: THE TIMELINE OCCUPIES HALF THE SCREEN you'll see why in a minute
you can zoom in and out of the timeline as you please but it occupies half the screen regardless. you can't possibly shorten it to occupy less space even if you have only one track. "you can go into *whatever i don't remember the name* mode-" NO YOU CAN'T. whatever mode let's you draw full screen, with a supposed "timeline" limited in a corner. this timeline only offers you 3 frames to flip from: the one you're working on, the one before and the one after. if you paid attention you noticed i said frames and not drawings. this means that if your drawing occupies more that one frame you'll have to flip through all of them. no, you can't enlarge them. can you imagine what could be like storyboarding like this? where a panel of a rough board usually last around 2 seconds? can you imagine flipping through 48 frames til you reach the next panel?
so the choices of interface are: timeline where you can see more frames at a time but it occupies half the screen or full drawing but only one frame at a time... ok
YOU CAN'T MOVE LAYERS UP AND DOWN
with layers i don't mean tracks, i mean layers, the ones procreate has. this program treats each frame as a drawing with layers but you can't move the layers up and down from each other. the first layer you make is always going to end up on the bottom because it creates the next layer on top so good luck if you want to color your lineart. (you could i guess prepare each drawing beforehand with multiple frames but i think i'd go insane)
"just make the color/shadow/whatever on another track" if you have frames for each drawing it's an ok solution, but again, if you work in anything other that one drawing each frame it'll be hell matching the timing.
so, in conclusion and also TL;DR: you either are a master animator that does one frame per second, animates without sketching (you also can't lower opacity on tracks, only layers in drawings), keyframes (adding in-betweens seems equally tedious as moving a frame for the points said before), and never makes mistakes or you'll find it extremely difficult i think to do frame by frame animation.
it could maybe be a good program for motion grafic and video editing. make those animation after effect style? not my field so can't really make a statement on that.
i know it just came out and they'll probably fix some stuff in the future, but for now? looks extremely tedious and user unfriendly. i'm extremely grateful for the procreate team to try and make animation more cheaper/accessible and i'm aware it can't have all the features toon boom has for obvious reasons. they surely had their limitations but for something that (if i recal correctly) was supposed to revolution the animation industry and was supposed to be a program where you could do ANYTHING from pre, to post production i was extremely disappointed... will probably continue to try and make it work while i wait for updates!
thank you for coming to my ted talk, please don't hate me. this is mostly coming from sadness rather than rage
EDIT: WHERE IS THE SELECTION TOOL I'M GOING INSANE
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After some discussions that have come up recently amongst myself and members of our group (across both Discord and non-Discorders alike) about activity, motivation and communication, I am putting forward a few solutions to hopefully fix the problem.
I want to begin by expressing how important everyone in this group is, to me and to the group as a whole. You are all greatly valued, as writers and as friends, and happiestplacehq would not be what it is without every single one of you. I want to thank everyone who put something into the conversation to help solve this problem too. That said, it is everyone’s responsibility to give back to each other, and to put an active effort into the group from this point forward.
Activity
Interest Checks will be making an official comeback. I haven’t kept up with them for the past few months because of shitty circumstances, but they will be returning in full swing.
All activity messages will now be sent through Tumblr DMs.
As always, I must stress asking for a hiatus if you think you’ll be gone longer than a week - it keeps everyone aware of where they’re at reply wise, and not waiting too long without knowing if a thread is paused or not.
If you have not become active between interest checks, you will be issued with an activity warning. (So if you say yes to the interest check on month one, and do not become active by month two you get a warning.)
All important posts on the main must now be acknowledged with a like (including this one) so I can see who is reading the main and don’t feel like I’m shouting into the void. These posts will always be tagged with #happiestmod if it’s something you need to know, and put into the announcements channel of the Discord. General posts for the tags will be tagged #mod post
Now, some solutions:
Threads & Starters
As part of everyone’s effort to get back on the dash and make sure everyone is involved, I am requiring everyone to reply to 2 starters on the @happieststarters blog if they have not replied to any of the newer starters already.
There is an updated starter masterlist at the top of the blog. You may reply to both event and non-event starters, but I fully encourage you to reply to or with characters that have not interacted before.
I would also suggest making starters for characters who have not been on the dash for a while. (Can’t reply to starters if there are no starters, right?)
It is now an official rule that you must reply to 2 starters before making a new one if you have not replied to any already, and I will be checking this.
All new characters will be required to have a starter made on their blog within 48 hours of the blog being posted.
Plotting & Connections
A task will be posted by the end of the week that is required for all players to complete by the end of this month. It will be similar to an intro post. I have yet to decide on the details, but this task will require all players to post connections they are looking for and a minimum number of plot ideas. These will be reblogged to the @redwoodhollowreview so make sure you’re following. You can send these to each other if you’re stuck on connection and plot ideas.
This will hopefully fix the problem of the dreaded “up for anything” plot discussions, with everyone going in with ideas from the jump. If you want something, say something. If you want characters that know each other from the jump, come at it with ideas for your character. Once again, this is up to players to work on with each other.
If you have a look at @pegasusstxrm blog you can see an example of their wanted plots and connections post as an example that I think is very helpful. [Here].
Also, don’t knock the benefits of jumping straight into a thread that isn’t plotted. (That’s what open starters are great for). Some of my favourite threads ever have been pure chemistry threads that lead to plotting later.
It will be required that all new characters have this task completed as part of their intro to the RP.
Reaching Out
I have spoken to both our Discorders and Non-Discorders about the issue of keeping each other in the loop. Again, I must stress it is everyone’s responsibility to reach out to one another across both platforms. Don’t leave each other out!
In order to address this, I am now making it a requirement that Discorders must post in the OOC Sideblog when they make starter, plotting or connection calls in the server. Non-Discorders obviously miss out on a lot of these, and it isn’t fair to leave them out of the loop and with less opportunities. It is also fair to acknowledge when the sideblog is used, and to try to be mindful not to leave any calls unanswered in both the sideblog and the server. (I see ignored posts in both and it isn’t good enough.)
I will be making a seperate post with all main blogs to contact each other on. These are now required to be your main blog for all contact, including from each other and from myself as mod. Please send each other asks and DMs! Remember to check these blogs and reply to messages first and foremost.
It is also useful to go to each other with ideas already in mind (as with the mentioned task post above). Take it in turns offering to make starters for people too. Some have mentioned they feel they always make the starters for other people so be conscious if you are offering to make them too or leaving it to the other person.
Discorders, you must reach out to the non-Discorders. Non-Discorders, you must reach out to the Discorders.
Some suggestions for making activity less daunting:
Write shorter threads - not every thread is going to be Booker Prize winner. You can have threads that are only dialogue, like in ye olden days of 2012 RP. You can throw in a few action lines, but don’t feel pressured to write walls of text.
Text Message threads & Social Media threads
Make more random starters and reply to more random starters without the pressure of pre-plotting.
Chemistry-based threads are your friend. Go with the flow.
Use a prompt generator if you’re stuck. Check out starter meme blogs.
Throw characters in a pair randomiser and go from there.
Like each other’s posts! Acknowledge what our friends put out there.
Queue your threads if you have a lot of them.
Send in drama about your character or other characters to the @redwoodhollowreview gossip section!
Personally, I know I put off longer threads until last, often meaning the long ones pile up and become overwhelming. Not every thread has to be an introspective masterpiece. We’re here to have fun. Explore your character’s voice! Sometimes the silly little short threads are the ones that lead to magic.
Lastly, just be honest with each other if you’re overwhelmed. Message your partners, give them a heads-up if you think a thread is getting too much, or too long, or you’re stuck or, you want to try something else. Even just tell them if it’ll take a while, so everyone is in the loop and no one is getting frustrated waiting for things to come to fruition.
There’s only so much manifesting can do before you have to be proactive.
Like I said, everyone needs to put in the effort here. We aren’t going anywhere. I have a story to tell, and I need you all to help me tell it. Events will be paused for the next month or two to let you all get back into the swing of really exploring your characters but I expect more going forward.
Watch this space and @redwoodhollowreview for the point of contact post, task and reblogs of the connections posts.
Please like this post to acknowledge that you have read it and agree to the points made.
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CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TASK 001: MEET THE FAMILY [REDUX]
Family Aesthetics: ‘you know you can tell us anything, right’, a completely filled ash tray, working terrible hours and coming home late at night, 90s grunge aesthetic, a teeny tiny apartment with no AC and a shitty water heating system, a fridge full of cheap knock off brands, been there done that, cheering extremely loud while the rest of the parents give them strange looks, terribly played out of tune guitars, ignored knowing looks, constant memes in the family group chat, lovingly giving each other shit, doing anything for their child and not understanding a word that comes out of his mouth, late night conversations over takeout.
PRE OLLIE
REN INOUE [ 48 yrs old ; mechanic ] [ fc yutaka takenouchi ]
Ren was born in Hiroshima Japan, and would be the only child his parents had. He lived in Japan for three years before his parents moved him and themselves to New York City, so he honestly doesn't remember much of it.
Like a lot of first gen kids from foreign families there was a lot of pressure put on Ren to become successful, and assimilate into a new country. Unfortunately for the Inoue's, Ren was an extremely rebellious person and that is what he spent most of his youth doing.
He created a band in High School with some of his friends called Drink the Kool Aid (he's the lead guitarist), and spent most of his time fucking around with them, fucking around with random people in bars, getting drunk, getting high, and partying. So, no, he did not graduate high school. He never saw the point in formal education.
When he was about 23 he met a girl named Faye and the two hit it off pretty fast. She was fun, she liked the same music as him, she thought his band was cool, the partied together literally all the time. They liked hanging out they were friends.
Until one day when he was around 27 Faye told him she was pregnant and thus Ollie was born.
FAYE INOUE [ 45 yrs old ; hostess & cashier ] [ fc christina ricci ]
Faye Bright was born in Hoboken New Jersey, the youngest child of the Bright family and the only daughter. Her mother left shortly after she was born leaving her and her three older brothers as her father's responsibility.
Her father was a drunk, and much much worse more often than not, and her older brothers weren't much better, so Faye often found herself anywhere but at home from the age of eight until she moved out on her own at the age of sixteen. She hasn't spoken to her brother's or her father since moving out.
She was mostly getting into trouble in those years. Going out and partying way too young. But who was going to fucking stop her?
It wasn't all fun and games, though. Faye often worked multiple jobs while finishing High School, supporting herself, because nobody was going to do it for her. Her life was rocky, and difficult, but she still managed to do it all on her own without needing anybody else.
When she was about 18 years old one night, wandering into some city pub playing some shitty punk band is the night she met Ren. He was fun, and interesting, and the two of them developed a fun little friendship.
She never planned for it to become more than that until she realized she was pregnant with his child, and everything changed for the both of them.
POST OLLIE
The first years of Ollie's life were rough for both him and his parents for many reasons. Ren, who at the time was also dealing with his father's death, wouldn't have known responsibility if you pasted the definition onto his forehead. He was great with Ollie but damn if he'd ever be able to take care of him. Faye on the other hand was almost the opposite, she had a job, she could buy food for the baby but … she was sorting through her own trauma and to say she was a bit cold towards the baby would be an understatement.
If it was not for Ren's mother, Yumiko, Ollie's Obaasan, he likely would have had a much much worse time during his early development. She set down an ultimatum, that unless they wanted her to take Ollie for herself, and move back to Japan they needed to shape up. It was rough for both of his parents. His father got clean (besides casual drinking and smoking pot), got his Equivalency, and started a job as a mechanic. Faye struggled a little more, but went to some free counseling at a shelter, and as time went on had an easier time building bonds with Ollie.
By the time Ollie was five his parents were making enough to move into an apartment of their own that was big enough to house all of them, not Ren's mother's one bedroom apartment they had been living in. And once Ollie was six Yumiko Inoue moved back to Japan feeling like his parents were up to the task of taking care of their child.
Ren and Faye were legally married pretty soon after that at a local courthouse, mainly for the benefits it would bring, rather than being in love with each other - but who needed to be in love to get married? If anything their relationship was much stronger than almost every single one of the married couples around them, they've shown that years and years over now. Ollie's never had a reason to complain about their relationship.
While the bonds between the Inoue family were quite good, it was still rough going. Ren and Faye were working more often than not and Ollie found himself home alone often. They did their best to make sure he wasn't left up to his own devices hen they could, and there were many free children's programs Ollie was stuck into. Everything from children's tumbling, to summer reading programs and everything in between. It was many of the people in charge of those programs that told Ren and Faye that Ollie was showing signs of being an extremely gifted child. He was learning at a much faster rate than any of his peers, had a reading level far beyond someone his age, and was frankly just very smart.
They didn't ever have the means to put Ollie into any advanced private schools, and any time someone offered any sort of opportunity for a scholarship Ollie outright refused. He just wanted to go to school with his friends, and all was well about it, really. He did eventually get tested officially, and it was determined his IQ was 169 (nice) which put him in the .03 percentile of the world's population.
His parents did what they could to insist Ollie take advantage of the skills he'd been given. He had a real opportunity to become something much better than either of them became. He could really do something to help all of them in the long run. They didn't mean to but there was a lot of pressure put on Ollie, and he didn't want to disappoint anybody. So, eventually Ollie agreed to advance his classes, and was put into High School a year ahead of his peers.
Ollie became a lot to handle for his parents through out his teenage years, despite how hard they tried. They fought all the time, Ollie would be gone for days at a time with only a few texts telling them (lying) about where he was, and the signs that Ollie was using drugs (to two people who also got into drug use when they were younger) were probably pretty obvious. But it was hard to really do anything about it. Ollie was still getting top grades in school, he was turning in all of his work, he was so skilled at fleecing the system that neither his parents, nor his school could really … do much unless he was the one who reached out. And he never did.
It was clear that Ollie was a troubled teenager, but his parents worked so hard and so often all they could really do was make it clear that if he ever wanted to talk they would listen. He never did.
So, despite the underlying worry that always lingered around their son, they were always extremely proud and supportive no matter what he was able to accomplish. He graduated the top of his class, and they were so excited for him. He got accepted into such a great school, Ogden, and was the first person in their family to go to college and they were so excited for him.
There were a lot of rough years for the family, but things have come full circle. Ollie's matured a little bit (shocking I know) and realizes his parents aren't actually out to get him, in fact if anything they've been probably a little too soft with him but he appreciates them. And the longer he's been away from home the more he's come to appreciate them (hard not to when he's surrounded with the terrible stories everyone else at Ogden has of their parents). Over all things with the Inoue family are going well. At least as far as Ollie is concerned. He sees no reason why his parents would still be worried about him, or anything. He's doing great.
OLLIE'S OPINON
First of all, write this down: his parents are really fucking cool. They're both still very 90s grunge type of people, and it's obvious to tell just by looking at either of them, or their aesthetic. It was fairly often that Ollie was brought to some shitty dive bar to help his dad and his dad's band set up for some set they were playing. They were never good, but it was always a lot of fun, and Ollie has a ton of fond memories hanging out with his mom and dad, eating some real good bar food. Most of his childhood was honestly a really good one, from everything he can remember. And even though things got tougher as he grew up (mostly thanks to him) it's extremely hard not to look at his relationship with his parents and see it positively. They fought a lot when Ollie was a teenager, Ollie did a lot of shitty and stupid things just to be a brat. But he is aware that despite how busy they were working they were doing it all for him, and they tried so much to be there for him. He's not stupid, he's not blind, he saw it all. He resented them for it at the time, but it makes him love them even more now.
All that said they put a massive amount of pressure on Ollie. They knew he was the only way they were all getting out of the hole they live in, he knew that too. They told him multiple times everything was his choice and they'd never make him do anything he didn't want to do but he saw the disappointment every time he turned down some opportunity that would have really done something for him. Eventually he gave in, and that is likely why he is where he is now, but it was never something he actually ever wanted. it was simply clear that… he had to make it. They made that clear. He couldn’t waste what he had- skill, potential, natural talent. They never were mean about anything. He never felt like if he screwed up that they wouldn’t love him. And that made it so much worse but he constantly feels like he’s fucking up. That he’s living on this precarious edge that any wrong move he makes will show all the ugly, messy, fucked up things he does, and feels, and this image that they have of him will be shattered. He’s terrified of that happening, but he feels like it’s only a matter of time.
SOME FUN FACTS
Due to dad and his grandma mostly handling his very early childhood he learned Japanese before he learned English, but he doesn't know how to write it. And he doesn't necessarily consider himself fluent, because beyond his grandma and dad the only real place he heard Japanese was in anime or movies. Which is a bit different than how people speak if he were to actually go to Japan and speak with people. But it was technically his first language.
No one in his family cooks. Ollie can bake, but cooking? Most meals in the Inoue family were sandwiches, mac & cheese, instant ramen, rice, and onigiri. Also anything you can microwave. That was basically it.
Ollie's parents always try very very hard to go to school functions when they can. It's not easy since Ogden is about 6 hours away from New York, but they really try hard to show up when they can to important things. Ollie doesn't hold it against them, and if they do miss something important they always go out to celebrate on their own together when they can.
The whole family is stoners, sorry. Yes, his parents know he smokes pot, and have said they know. But he's an adult now and can do what they want. The apartment has a ton of snacks in it because they're all stoners though.
Do they know he does harder drugs (yes). Do they know he has addiction problems (probably). Have they ever addressed it? No. Honestly one of the biggest problems with his parents is they're not really good at discipline, it's always been a thing. They probably don't know how to even begin addressing this sort of situation. It's strange. He’s kind of existing in this strange place where like… If they confront him about it he’ll die figuratively, if they DON’T … he might die literally. he really doesn't know what he wants to happen.
#task .#ogdentask#my things .#I changed ollie's mom's fc (we don't support scabs) so I redid all of this#also because I've developed Ollie's a family a TON since I did this the first time SO#this ended up being half about his family half history type of thing as well#btw here is the thing ... don't ask where ollie gets his curly hair from#his mom has curly hair okay we've all seen yellowjackets she just straightens it mostly
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Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 123]
Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. Feel free to send in asks about anything at any point, even if it’s not for the part of the story I’m currently on.
If you aren’t interested and don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.”
See the Folds in Time Universe Master Post for edited chapters. Not yet edited chapters are under the cut. I also have a playlist on youtube for this story.
My hope is to do a good amount today. (Though every time I say that...) Anyway, we’re about to get into the complicated part of this story and I’m so excited! Pay close attention in the next few days I write this. See if you can spot my machinations.
Chapter 44 (Escape from French Toast)
Logan was woken up earlier than he would have liked the next morning by chaos in the kitchen. He’d stayed up late on his laptop running through various programs he’d designed to track time related metrics. So far, he’d run the programs to scan the last 48 hours and had synthesized all of the data, putting it into an Excel document for easy viewing.
At some point he didn’t recall, he’d fallen asleep on the couch. (He’d given up his bed to Virgil.) Of course, both of his roommates tended to rise with the sun and were incapable of being quiet ever, so Logan had gotten a maximum of 3 hours of sleep depending on when he’d actually lost consciousness.
Logan glared at Patton as he shuffled into the kitchen to get a cup of tea, but the other man didn’t notice. He was too busy trying to figure out the right flavor profile for making asiago cheese bread into palatable French toast.
Roman was hovering over him making loud, likely inane suggestions while also vehemently defending his bakery choices. Patton was agreeing wholeheartedly with everything he said and adding his own ridiculous suggestions about how to make the French toast edible while blatantly not following any of his own or Roman’s suggestions.
Logan pushed past Roman to get to the tea shelf without a word.
“Uh oh, he’s grumpy,” Roman said.
“I have not even said a word,” Logan replied, swatting him away as he began picking at Logan’s sweatshirt to remove a few fabric pills near the shoulder.
“Exactly,” Roman replied. “You didn’t sleep last night.”
“I did,” Logan replied.
“And for how long?”
Logan did not respond.
“You know, sleeping can be very helpful for your mental and physical health.”
“So can you keeping your mouth shut,” Logan grumbled back.
“I’ll have you know people love when I talk. You are just being a grouchy old nerd. Isn’t that right, Patton?”
Patton hummed. “Yes, your voice is great, sweetie,” he replied.
“See,” Roman said. “Two against one.”
“Two against two actually, a voice even more tired sounding that Logan’s spoke up from the door to the kitchen, “and since you’re the subject of the vote, your opinion’s too biased to count. So, Logan wins.”
Virgil was standing in the doorway looking as though he’d never heard of the concept of mornings and did not like the new information he was being given on them right now. He was leaning against the doorframe as though at any moment he might slump over and fall back asleep while still standing. The yellow bottom of the slightly too wide nightshirt Patton had given him the night before stuck out from the black hoodie he’d came in.
Roman was sputtering. “Excuse me?!” he squawked.
Virgil made a show of wincing. “My point exactly,” he muttered.
“You’re rude!” Roman exclaimed. He turned to Patton. “Patton, he’s being rude to me!”
“You woke me up,” Virgil hissed. He pulled up the hood of the hoodie and pulled on the strings to tighten it around his face.
“It’s 7am!”
Virgil grumbled something that sounded more like an animal growling than any words.
Patton and Logan shared a look. Patton frowned scoldingly at Logan’s amused smirk as though he wasn’t also finding this argument amusing.
“Well,” Patton interrupted the two’s quickly developing staring contest. “I’m making French toast for breakfast, Virgil, but it’ll be a few minutes yet. I’m sure Logan has something to show you on his computer since he was working on stuff so late last night.”
Logan did not actually have much to show for his efforts yet. It was all just numbers at the moment, but the look in Patton’s eyes said, ‘We’re separating the children.’ Logan half wanted to shrug him off and see where this went as the look on Roman’s face was amusing, but then Logan looked at the tea bags in his hands, the disaster in the making that was the French toast ingredients, and the man tiredly rubbing his eyes.
“Of course,” Logan said evenly. “We will just be in the living room.” He walked over and shoved Virgil gently through the door. “Go get dressed,” he said under his breath.
“Wha?” Virgil asked with a squint.
“We’re fleeing the morning people.”
Virgil just gave him a confused look.
“Unless, of course, you want to be forced to eat French toast made from asiago cheese bread.”
Virgil’s expression darkened and he nodded before turning towards Logan’s bedroom. Logan had grabbed nightclothes and an outfit for the morning for himself before Virgil had gone to bed the night before (not that he’d actually changed into the nightclothes). He grabbed the outfit for today and quickly changed in the bathroom.
Virgil was already fully dressed and waiting in the living room by the time he’d finished. He’d changed into one of Logan’s grey hoodies. It was an older thing that Logan rarely wore, but it seemed to fit him. It had the vibes of a very tired college professor going to work on his research in a coffee shop on the weekends. He was also wearing blue jeans from an unknown source (they had appeared in the laundry one day and no one in the apartment claimed them) that were just a touch too large and thus held up by a belt.
Virgil raised an eyebrow at him without saying a word. Logan gestured with his head towards the front door. He grabbed his keys and wallet from the table near the entrance, being careful not to let the keys clang together and make noise.
He swiftly unlocked and opened the door before gesturing Virgil through. Virgil made less noise than Logan had thought possible as he walked outside of the apartment, but then again, Logan’s own experiences with sneaking out of anywhere were with one or two of the loudest people that had ever existed.
“Where exactly are we going?” Virgil asked once the door had closed behind Logan.
“We’re going to get coffee,” Logan said.
“And we can’t just tell your roommates about that?” Virgil asked.
“I’m not allowed to drink anything more caffeinated than tea since the hamster incident of 2011.”
Virgil’s lips quirked up into a half smile. “Do I even want to know?”
Logan hummed. “Did you notice the hamster cage in our apartment with seemingly no hamster?” he asked.
“…Yes?”
“Once a few years ago, I did not sleep for 72 hours and my caffeine addled brain accidently invented a device that turns things invisible,” Logan told him. “It’s temporary on plants and inanimate objects, but it’s seemingly permanent on animals or perhaps just on rodents. We haven’t tested it on any other animals.”
“W-what?” Virgil sputtered.
“To be fair, I thought I was making the rocks and flowers I’d tested the device on first travel through time. It was a bit of confirmation bias on my part as I was attempted to invent time travel and I did not properly observe the experiment before moving on in my testing.”
“How do you accidently invent an invisibility ray or whatever when trying to invent time travel?”
“It’s a spray,” Logan told him, “and I missed a negative sign.” They’d been walking side by side but needed to make a sharp left turn to get to their destination, and Logan found himself grabbing Virgil’s upper arm in order to guide him.
“Uh,” Virgil said which is when Logan realized it might be odd for a practical stranger to grab someone like that. “Er, where is the coffee shop?”
It’s just a couple of blocks north,” Logan answered, letting him go after they finished the turn and flashing him a small smile. Virgil smiled back. The concept of invisible hamsters seemed to have left his mind. “It’s a smaller place, but gets fewer actual college students, not that it matters since it’s summer break for them.”
“So, do you frequently perform coffee acquiring heists?” Virgil asked.
“Sometimes I drink tea there,” Logan replied, “but yes. How else am I meant to get my work done?”
Virgil laughed. “That’s probably not healthy. I don’t disagree, but it’s probably not healthy.”
Logan found himself chuckling as well as he led him down the path to the shop. “You’re probably correct,” he said, “but they have very good coffee.”
Chapter 45
Logan did end up ordering himself more caffeine than a man who was banded from caffeine probably should have, but honestly, who was Virgil to judge. They also ordered pastries to eat for breakfast which Virgil could already tell were way too sweet, but he wasn’t complaining.
Logan got a text from one of his roommates as they were waiting for their drinks to be finished. He probably didn’t notice the fond smile he sent the phone as he answered.
“I told them I’m showing you the town a bit,” he informed Virgil. “Which isn’t technically a lie.”
“Not, technically, no,” Virgil replied. He took a bite of the cinnamon roll in front of him and grimaced slightly. “Your time has a thing for artificial sweeteners,” he said, keeping his voice down. They were in a far back corner and it wasn’t busy at this hour, so he didn’t see too much of an issue.
“Apologizes, would you like something else?” Logan asked.
Virgil waved him off. “I’ll acclimate. If I could get used to 1950s post war, society is getting used to instant gelatin, recipes during my post-doc, I can figure out how to stomach an overly sweet pastry or two.
“You spent time in the 1950s?”
“Mmm, not my favorite, but seeing the direct results of World War II are important.”
“In the United States?”
“For a bit, but I hopped around a lot and also went to the 60s and 70s. I was basically tracing the evolution of different social issues in the wake of World War II for both the Axis and Allied Powers.”
“An interesting topic,” Logan replied. “I imagine even in the 21st century, I would not have perspective especially on different countries.”
“Oh, you definitely don’t,” Virgil confirmed.
“Perhaps I’ll take a look at your work sometime.”
“Oh, uh,” Virgil said, and he really shouldn’t be flustered about that. He’s gone to conferences and presented his work before. “Yeah, if you want.”
The barista called their drink names then, and Logan got up to go grab them. Get it together, Virgil, he begged himself while shoving another piece of too sweet pastry into his mouth.
Logan set the coffees down on the table in front of them and Virgil took his with a closed mouth smile of thanks, while still chewing on his cinnamon roll.
“So,” Logan began. “More than just escaping the disaster breakfast my roommates had in mind, I would like to perhaps return to the location you arrived at and see if there is anything there physically that wasn’t picked up on my devices. Do you think you’ll be able to find the location if I get you in the general vicinity of the farmer’s market?”
“I don’t always have the best memory,” Virgil said, “but I’ve had a deep-seated fear of being kidnapped since I was a small child, so I could probably lead you to the farmers market, let alone to where I came from.
“Ah.”
“My mom let me watch a horror movie when I was too young about a boy my age being kidnapped and taken out to the middle of the desert to be hunted like an animal, and he had no idea how to get back home. So, then I would spend any ride in any vehicle trying to memorize the path we took with my eyes closed.”
“I see.”
“And I’m really oversharing for having met you in person less than 24 hours ago, aren’t I?”
Logan crinkled his eyebrows. “Are you?” he asked.
“Uh, yeah, I think so,” Virgil said. “Traumatic childhood memories might be a bit much this soon.”
“I have never been the best at knowing social norms,” Logan said. “Would you like me to share a traumatic childhood memory with you, so we are even?”
“I…” Virgil said. “Can’t tell if you’re joking.”
“I am a bit,” Logan said with a small smile, “but if it would make you feel more comfortable, I am willing. We might not have known each other in person for very long, but we aren’t exactly strangers.”
And that was true. Lo had been emailing him for months at this point. They’d argued about the correct order to watch a television show in, they’d watched videos together with Lo logging onto his desktop (promising not to dive into his search history and private files), and Lo had somehow attended all of his publicly streamed lectures without getting caught by the university’s firewall. He’d even managed to make Virgil feel better when he’d had one of his bad days by ranting for hours about airplanes.
He hadn’t known Logan’s face for long, but they did know each other pretty well in spite of that.
“I got distracted on a fieldtrip once,” Logan said, and oops, Virgil had taken too long to say ‘you don’t have to be emotionally vulnerable in a coffee shop to make me feel better’ and now it was too late.
“Somehow, despite the fact that my teacher really should have been taking attendance before allowing the bus to leave the orchard we were visiting, they managed to overlook my absence. I had no friends in the class, and I was so quiet at that age no one noticed me not being there. I couldn’t find my way back to the entrance or find any workers. No one was aware I was gone until my parents came to pick me up and no one could find me. My parents were very unhappy with the teacher once they managed to find me.”
“That experience along with others in my formative years gave me a dislike of being ignored, which combined with my innate desire to have time alone has made friendships difficult to sustain.”
“Oh,” Virgil said, unsure how to respond. “Er, well, that sucks.”
“Luckily Patton is hyperempathetic and Roman cannot be removed from a person he deems his friend with a crowbar,” he said, “which helped me at a younger age. As an adult, I am aware of the issue and am able to work through it with logic most of the time.”
“What do you think about someone who is so anxious he can’t ignore anything, especially a person?”
“I think that would be someone worth knowing,” Logan said. He paused. “Though I would not wish social anxiety onto a person to be clear.”
“Thanks for the clarification,” said Virgil, amused.
They lapsed into silence for a few minutes then. It was still a bit awkward but not completely uncomfortable.
Logan took a bite of his pastry and spoke once he’d swallowed it. “Tell me more about what your plans were with your research before they were disrupted,” he requested, breaking the silence. “Why 2005 in particular? What had you planned to do? How long were you going to stay?”
Virgil smiled and drank his coffee as he did a short rundown of what his plans had been before they were interrupted by time travel. Logan listened careful and even though it sucked that he’d been stranded in a time he hadn’t even meant to visit, he wasn’t all too upset about it for the moment.
Chapter 46
Virgil was correct about his ability to find the location of the farmer’s market. After they ate and finished their coffee, they set out to investigate the location of the time anomaly. “I ended up under the stage,” Virgil informed him. The stage had already been taken down, but it was easy to see where it had once been based on the depressions on the ground.
Logan had brought a few of his tools when they had left that morning and he pulled out a modified iPad.
“You hide your time travel tech as an iPad?” Virgil asked curiously.
Logan glanced at him and said nothing.
“…You made your time travel tech out of an iPad!” Virgil exclaimed.
“It is one of the most easily accessible technologies of this time that is also portable,” Logan shrugged. “I use what I can get.”
“How did you manage to invent time travel with 21st century technology?” Virgil asked.
“It took me a couple of decades,” Logan replied.
“It took them literal centuries.”
“Well, I knew it could happen, so I simply made it happen.”
“You’re terrifying,” Virgil stated.
Logan just hummed and set the iPad scrolling through its diagnostic programs. It scanned the area around them for anything that might indicate time travel.
“Well,” Logan said. “There is definitely an anomaly, but we already knew that. It’s a strange one, however.”
“What do you mean?” Virgil asked.
“I’d assumed whatever had caused you to end up here had dragged you here, but what I’m finding doesn’t seem to be remnants of something to cause time travel. On the contrary, it seems to be similar readings to what stopped Janus time travel to stop working in previous circumstances. I don’t know a lot about the time travel technology from your time, but I have noted they tend to briefly ping off of times near to your destination in order to recalibrate when going a certain amount of time. Perhaps your device did a brief landing here at the wrong time and then was deactivated much like TPI devices have been deactivated beforehand and you got stuck.”
“What does that mean for me?”
“Well, it means your device isn’t broken,” Logan said.
“Then why isn’t it working?” Virgil asked.
“Because,” Logan said. “whatever is deactivating it is still here.”
Virgil looked at his feet as though expecting to see the device sitting on the ground somewhere.
“Not here here,” Logan clarified, “but close by. They have a limited range from what I understand, though I don’t know precisely how far. It’s definitely in this time however. But it’s strange,” Logan tapped out a few things on his device, double checking that he hadn’t missed anything with his regular monitoring.
“It’s not causing any other problems.” Logan continued. “We’ve only ran into them once or twice before and we’ve never managed to get our hands on one too actually study it, but each time we’ve seen them, they created some sort of issue in the environment, but there are no obvious time abnormalities or weather problems. In fact, if I wasn’t looking for it, I wouldn’t have noticed.”
“Okay, well then, can’t we just find it and shut it off?” Virgil asked. “That’s what I know Janus did when he ran into them.”
“It is,” Logan confirmed. “The only issue is without the obvious environmental clues I have no idea where it actually is to turn it off.”
“How the hell do we find it then?” Virgil asked.
“I’m not sure,” Logan said. “It definitely was here when it switched on, but it’s definitely not here anymore.” He looked around. “Perhaps it was attached to the stage or put in the musician’s instrument cases. Then again, by that logic, it could have been put in anyone’s bags or in a since emptied trashcan.”
“So, it could basically be anywhere?”
“Basically,” Logan agreed. “We will check the easiest possibilities to track down and if that produces no results, I’ll… figure out something.”
Virgil grimaced. “That sounds promising.”
“I will do my best,” Logan promised. “I just wish I knew more about these things.”
Virgil seemed to hesitate. “How would you go about learning more about it?”
“Well,” Logan said, “if I can get my hands on a similar device, I could probably figure out a more reliable way to track it.”
“You do,” Virgil said.
“I do what?”
“You do have one.”
Logan frowned. “I assure you, I do not.”
“But you do,” Virgil said. “Eventually.”
“…Oh, I see.” Logan replied. “Do you perhaps know where we do eventually find it?”
Virgil pressed his lips together. “I think I might already be saying too much,” he said. “It’s stuff you shouldn’t know about yet in your personal future. People aren’t supposed to…”
“Time is not nearly as sensitive as the TPI seems to believe,” Logan said with an eyeroll. “In fact, most of Janus and Patton’s interactions so far involve accidently giving more information than necessary.”
“I don’t know…”
“I’m a time traveler from the 21st century who lives with a French man from the 1800s,” Logan said. “I’m not asking for a run down of every part of the event, just a time and place to point us in the correct direction.”
Virgil still didn’t seem convinced.
“It would really only be a time saver,” Logan argued. “I could just blindly look for time distortions, but it’d take a while…”
“Fine,” Virgil said after a moment. “This is probably entirely stupid, but fine. Give me a moment to think about what exactly I can tell you, so I don’t mess everything up.”
Logan smiled slightly at his overly cautious behavior but waited patiently.
“Janus met Pat once in Cuba. There was a time distortion during Camaguey Carnival of 1755. Pat took the device that had been causing the disturbance and left before Janus could catch him.”
“Camaguey 1755,” Logan repeated. “Got it. I’ll look into it, and we can see what we can do. It’ll still take a few days to prep however.”
Logan would need to find exact coordinates and he’d have to talk to Patton considering he’d just recently gotten back from an unwillingly long trip to pre-history. He’d probably be willing to go, but he’d mentioned Logan making him a “time survival pack” before he was willing to go back into the timestream. They’d need to talk about what exactly that entailed and get the supplies for it. His mind was already making plans about what he needed to do.
Virgil nodded. “Should we head back to the apartment then?” he asked, interrupting Logan’s thoughts. Logan glanced at him. He had actually planned to show the man around a bit today instead of spending all of their time thinking about time travel.
“I cannot be sure that my roommates will have cleaned up their French toast nonsense by now,” he said. “We should likely wait to return until at least the lunch hour. It is not as though we could do anything about it today. We will need to plan.”
“Okay,” said Virgil, “then what are we going to do for the next 3-4 hours?”
“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps I can show you around the town a bit more so as to not make more of a liar of myself than I already have.”
“Sure,” Virgil agreed with a smile. “What will you be showing me.”
“I was thinking we could visit the local museum. We can compare notes about how wildly inaccurate the exhibits present history.”
Virgil rolled his eyes at Logan, but there was something warm underneath his expression. “Fine,” he said, “but I bet I know more than you.”
Chapter 47
The museum was interesting, not because it taught him any more about the events behind the exhibits on display, but more that learning what people in the 21st century cared about and how they presented past events was an anthropological lesson in its own right. Their conversation became a game of not only finding the mistakes made in the exhibits, but also Virgil hypothesizing why those mistakes were made: prejudice, missing information, and unreliable secondary sources all contributed, and Virgil spent a lot of time talking through the possibilities.
They spent a few hours there before heading back to Logan’s apartment.
Not without stopping at a small, hole in the wall, bar inhabited only by day drinkers. When Virgil gave Logan a weird look, he explained, “I have to bring back a peace offering for running off this morning if I want Patton to agree to a time travel mission for me.”
“…And Patton likes… vodka?” he guessed.
“No,” Logan replied, amused. “This establishment serves cheeseburgers which are apparently the ‘best in the city.’ They do not, however, cook anything else. Not even fries.”
When Logan handed him an unlabeled brown paper bag that looked as though it had been dipped in hot oil instead of just it’s contents, Virgil shot him a raised eyebrow. “Ah, yes,” he said, “the quintessential 21st century American meal.”
“You once ate only bagged pepperoni meant for pizzas for breakfast for a week once.”
“I told you that in confidence,” Virgil said, smacking him lightly with the bag of grease.
“And I have told no one,” Logan responded. “Therefore, I have not violated any part of our agreement.”
“You’re making fun of me. That’s definitely a part of the agreement,” Virgil said.
“I don’t remember there being any clause like that in our verbal contract,” Logan replied with a slight smirk. Virgil rolled his eyes. “Besides, I’m not truly making fun of you. The decision to fuel your body solely with pepperoni is, while not the best strategy and one that would certainly prove detrimental in the long run, it is better to eat that then nothing.”
“Oh,” Virgil said. “Uh, good.”
“I’m simply citing another example where not as healthy food in the long term can be good in the short term.”
“But in this case instead of depression eating to stay alive, the purpose is bribery.”
“Exactly,” Logan said. “Bribery to end the time distortion and get you back to the proper time.”
“Alright, fair enough.”
“You don’t have to eat any if you don’t want to.”
“Oh, no, I’m going to.”
“Then why are you complaining?” Logan asked amused.
“I just thought you should know your time has way too greasy food,” Virgil said.
“Thank you for the information,” Logan said dryly. They’d made it back to the apartment by then, and Logan stuffed the bag he was carrying under his arm to unlock the door.
“And where have the two of you been?” Patton asked when they walked into the kitchen.
“I have cheeseburgers for you,” was how Logan answered.
Patton rolled his eyes as Logan set the bag down in front of him. He was sitting at the kitchen table typing on a laptop. “The French toast wasn’t that bad,” he said.
“I will take your word for it,” Logan said pleasantly.
Patton just shook his head and reached into the bag for a cheeseburger. Logan kept looking at him, and that obviously meant something Virgil didn’t know, because Patton glanced up at him after eating a couple of bites. “What?” he asked suspiciously.
“Virgil and I went back to where he arrived,” Logan said. “There are signs that one of the devices that cause time distortions is present.”
“There aren’t any weather disturbances though,” Patton pointed out.
“It seems to be a more advanced version,” Logan answered. “Which will make much more difficult to track.”
“Okay,” Patton said, “then what are we going to do?”
“Well,” Logan said, “if we could get our hands on an older version, we could probably use it to narrow down the current one’s location.”
“And how exactly are we going to get an older version?” Patton asked, eyebrow raised.
“I understand that you have only been back from your last trip for a little over a week and that your last trip through time was a bit difficult, but,” he nodded towards Virgil, “we do know of the time and place one exists that you would have a good chance of being able to find, deactivate, and bring home.”
Patton groaned. “And judging by the source of this information, steal off of the TPI.”
“Yes.”
“Excellent.”
“At least, in this case, you will go into it knowing there will be no major disasters.”
…
Should Virgil… say something. It’d be rude not to mention the whole time shredding almost drowning bullshit, wouldn’t it? Then again… giving him foreknowledge could be a danger to the timestream. He debated with himself whether general social courtesy should outrank the possible destruction of time or not.
…
Maybe he’d just suggest a boat if they didn’t plan to take one? Just in case?
“Fine,” Patton said, “but you’re finishing your tech updates and making me a survival pack before I make any jump. I’m not making the same mistake again.”
Logan nodded. “I can do that,” he agreed. “Just tell me what you want in your survival pack.”
“I’ve already been working on a list,” Patton said. “I’ll email it to you.” He turned back to the computer he’d been working on and typed a few things. “You can add to it if you think of anything.”
Logan looked at his phone as it dinged. “…Do you really need all of this?”
“Yes,” Patton said, taking another bite of his cheeseburger.
“…I’ll do my best?”
“You’ll do it,” Patton returned.
“Right.”
“I’ll start researching Cuba in the 1700’s,” he said.
Virgil saw him pull up google on his computer. He looked at the 21st century computer and then back to Patton. He couldn’t help but think of the museum he and Logan had been to earlier that day. “Do you want help?”
Chapter 48
It took a little over two weeks to get everything set up. Logan had already been in the process of updating their equipment for quite some time, and this situation only spurned him on. He also then had to figure out a way to meet all of Patton’s demands for his new survival kit. His list had already been quite long before he’d started to add to it. He’d even slipped in a request for a boat at some point despite Logan’s protests that Camaguey Cuba was nowhere near the sea.
Thankfully, Virgil didn’t seem to mind the delays too much.
In fact, he may have had a hand in the delays as his natural inclination towards anxiety seemed to infect Patton and cause him to add and add to his list of safeguards for Logan to make. He and Patton were spending a good amount of time together, actually. Patton was fairly good at researching the places he planned to go at this point, but Virgil was undeniably more experienced with that sort of thing considering he worked with the TPI. Patton seemed to appreciate his input.
Roman, on the other hand, decidedly did not. The two of them were prone to arguments about clothing which had gone beyond talking about Cuban clothing to arguments about clothing from pretty much all of time.
Logan could not tell if they were friendly debates or not. He’d even asked Patton who had claimed he also could not tell. Neither Roman nor Virgil’s responses when asked directly about the nature of their relationship were helpful either. Logan did notice that Roman changed the fabric of the outfit he made for Patton after one of their conversations.
Virgil was not much help to Logan unless you counted the intel, he’d given that helped Logan choose the correct time and place. At least, not in the sense that he was able to help with the mathematics and physics Logan was dealing with.
He was, however, good for company. Especially as his sleep schedule much more closely resembled Logan’s own in those weeks. Typically Roman and Patton went to sleep at a much earlier hour than he did himself and Logan would work alone in the living room, but with Virgil living in the apartment, there was constant companionship while he worked, and less volatile company than he was used to working with (assuming, of course, Roman had gone to sleep by that time). It was nice.
He seemed to fit into their little group in a way Logan had not anticipated. Or at least, socially he did. Physically, there were simply not enough beds and Logan had been sleeping on the couch for two weeks.
Eventually, with all of their combined efforts, everything was ready to go. Patton had three different time appropriate outfits, a good amount of knowledge about the festivities he was about to attend, new time travel equipment, and a survival pack that could help him survive an apocalypse. Patton was planning to arrive in Cuba two days earlier than the TPI protocol would send agents like Janus. That way, he would have time to set up and get acclimated before the TPI sent in their surveillance and touchdown agents.
“This is cool,” Patton said, flexing his fingers to see the hidden screen on his palms light up with a map of the area.
“It’s organized the same as your previous device, except for, of course, the control panel to control the cloaking technology and the access to the survival kit.
“Looks great, Lo,” Patton said, still fiddling with it. He changed it to its default state of a metal band projecting the screen and then back to the time appropriate bracelet Roman had designed. There weren’t many possibilities programed for hiding the device yet, but more could be designed in the future. For now, it only had the default band, the bracelet, and a wristwatch.
“I’ve already tested it a good number of times, but you should familiarize yourself with it anyway before leaving.”
Patton nodded, flicked his fingers and disappeared for a moment before reappearing in the same place. Then, he did it again and reappeared directly next to where he’d been standing. He did similar things a few times before predictably getting bored and starting to do ‘tricks’ which mostly involved landing in ridiculous poses and also accidently jump scaring everyone in the apartment at least twice. Eventually, Logan confiscated it for the evening so they could have dinner in peace.
Patton went to bed early, planning on leaving the next day. Roman quickly retired to his room shortly after leaving Logan and Virgil alone in the living room.
Despite knowing already his calculations were perfect, Logan still sat on the couch checking over them one more time just to make sure. Virgil sat on the floor with his back against the couch watching videos on Logan’s cell phone with headphones borrowed from Patton’s collection.
He glanced up when Logan shifted positions and Logan flashed him a smile.
Virgil removed the headphones to speak. “Thanks by the way,” he said, “I already said it to Patton and will again in the morning, but thanks for helping me out with all of this.”
“It wouldn’t have been particularly kind of us to leave you stranded,” Logan pointed out.
“Yeah, but still, you’ve all been working really hard. Right now you’re up at 3am working on it.”
Logan shrugged. “I’d likely be up working at 3am on something anyway,” he said.
“Sure,” Virgil said, “but this time it’s for me so, yeah, thanks.”
“You’re welcome then,” Logan said. “Any time.”
Virgil tilted his head back to grin at him. “Was that a time travel pun.”
Logan scowled. “No.”
“It sounded like a time travel pun.”
“It was not intentional. I will never intentionally say a pun.”
“You’re telling me you live with Patton and never make puns?” Virgil asked.
“I, unlike my roommates, am a responsible adult,” Logan insisted.
Virgil seemed skeptical. “Is that why you’re drinking forbidden coffee out of an orange juice carton at 3am.”
“Not so loud,” he hissed, leaning forward to put Virgil’s mouth and glancing back towards the hallway to see if anyone was about to come storming into the living room with another intervention.
His hand was bit.
“Ow!” Logan exclaimed, taking his hand back. “How do you know?” he hissed. The ruse had been working on Roman and Patton for years because neither liked orange juice.
Virgil rolled his eyes. “I can smell it,” he said. “I’m not dumb.”
“It’s worked on everyone else.”
“No,” Virgil said. “It’s worked on one dramatic idiot and one man who trusts people not to lie to him way too much. I, however, am a paranoid asshole with a doctorate. You can’t fool me.”
Logan couldn’t help but smiled. “I suppose I have met my match,” he said.
He tilted his head all the way back, so his skull rested on the couch cushion and he was staring straight up at Logan with his piercing hazel eyes. “Heck yeah you have,” Virgil said, and Logan was not much more sentimentality, especially not romantic sentimentality, but there was something about the shadows making the room seem cozier and the almost golden glint in his eyes from the lit lamp beside Logan that made it more difficult to breath.
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He was relaxed here in Logan’s apartment at 3 in the morning, looking up at him with warm eyes. He fit, slotting into place with an ease Logan had not expect. He’d found Professor Virgil Eran interesting from the moment he’d first heard him speak and had glanced through his university profile for information on whoever had plugged his virus into their computer. He had found him endearing when they’d corresponded through emails and occasionally one sided video chats. It was different with him right in front of Logan, within arm’s reach. He could reach down barely a few inches and brush his slightly unruly hair out of his eyes.
“You good man?” Virgil asked.
“I am perfectly well,” Logan said, clearing his throat. He glanced away from Virgil. “I think perhaps my roommates have a bit of a point when it comes to caffeine.”
“Maybe at 3am,” Virgil said in good humor. “You’re not a college kid.”
Logan glanced at the college professor on his living room floor. “Well, thank goodness for that,” he mumbled
“I think your calculations are fine anyway,” Virgil said, gently taking the papers out of his grip. “Why don’t we do something else?”
“Like sleep?” Logan asked.
“You think you’ll be sleeping anytime soon?” Virgil inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“Fair point.”
Virgil grabbed the television remote from side table. “Why don’t we watch a bit of that time inappropriate copy of the Epithet File I know you have.”
“Sure,” Logan agreed. “You can come onto the couch if you would like.”
“Nah. You can come to the floor.”
“…Fine.”
Chapter 49
Patton left in the morning and from there it was just a waiting game. Which, was Virgil’s least favorite type of game. He tried to keep his anxiety on the down low considering it was Logan and Roman’s lifelong friend who was running around some other century, and they were both obviously nervous as well, since the last trip had ended in disaster.
…
This trip was going to end in disaster a little bit too, but Virgil was going to ignore that. At least he wouldn’t be gone for months.
The point was, Roman was constantly going to the gym which was, reportedly not normal behavior and Logan spent his days re-checking calculations that were too late to correct and had worked considering Patton had been in contact occasionally.
Yet, despite the fact that he was clearly an anxious wreck as well, Logan eventually forced himself to put his lined notebook paper away for a bit. Roman was out once again when he did so and Virgil was doom scrolling on his phone.
“We should go out to dinner,” he declared suddenly.
Virgil glanced at the pile of take-out containers stacked near the kitchen trashcan. “Sure,” he agreed.
Which was why Virgil was leaving the apartment for the first time in the last three or so days. Logan had asked him if he wanted anything in particular, but he didn’t care and also didn’t know what restaurants were around, so he was just letting Logan lead him wherever he wanted.
He should not have trusted him.
He glared at Logan, but the man only seemed entertained by his ire. “Really?” Virgil asked.
“I wanted to see for myself if you were really that bad with chopsticks.”
“I’m not,” Virgil said, crossing his arms. “It was just the anxiety about the social situation, and I resent this.”
Logan just laughed, knowing well enough that Virgil wasn’t actually irritated. Honestly, he felt fonder than anything that Logan had chosen to take him here. “It’s actually pretty good sushi.”
“21st century American Midwest sushi,” Virgil drawled. “I’m simply quivering with anticipation for that authenticity.”
“It’s unanimously considered the best sushi in town by my friend group,” Logan said as if the fact that Mr. Asiago Cheese Bread For French Toast and Mr. Went Along With Cooking Asiago Cheese Bread French Toast approved of the restaurant would inspire any confidence in Virgil. If he could even call the place a ‘restaurant.’
“It’s. In. A. Mall.”
“So?” Logan asked.
“It’s a sushi stand in a mall. There isn’t even seating.”
“There is seating,” Logan argued nodding at the five chairs sitting in front of the counter. The seating was completely empty which could be because their eating schedule was off and they were eating dinner at 3pm, but more likely meant everyone else in the time had more sense than the man in front of him.
“Where is your sense of adventure for trying new things?” Logan asked. “Are you not an anthropologist. Don’t you want to experience the culture of the time first hand.”
Virgil glared at him.
“Please try it,” Logan said sill amused. “It really is good.”
“If I get food poisoning, I’m blaming you,” he warned.
“Noted,” Logan said, inclining his head. Then, Virgil reluctantly allowed him to lead him over to the sushi stand from where they’d been hiding behind a trash can so as not to be in the direct line of sight of the man standing behind the counter.
The man greeted them as they approached. He obviously recognized Logan and even asked about Patton and Roman as they took a seat. Virgil did have to admit, despite his instinctual misgivings about mall sushi, what he could glimpse of his set up seemed legit. It looked like a real sushi bar if a bit smaller than usual. Where they had sat, there was a glass case in front of them with chilled fish on display and Virgil could see a large rice cooker behind the man along with a normal refrigerator.
Laminated menus were handed to them. They were only one page front and back, but honestly that was probably a good thing. If it had a bunch of complicated or fancy stuff, Virgil might have been worried.
Well, he was still worried, but he wasn’t running screaming. At least his setup looked like it probably wouldn’t give him too much food poisoning. Logan suggested a rainbow and a snake roll and they got some different types of nigiri.
The chef was nice, and he assembled the sushi fully in Virgil’s view which made him a whole lot less leery about the meal. He seemed to know what he was doing at least. Of course, the fish was not as fresh as it would have been in a coastal area, but it was clearly properly handled. When he was finished, he handed it to them all on one big plate.
He had to admit, when correcting for ingredient availability, it was actually pretty good sushi. He would not say it was the best sushi he’d ever had, but it was worlds better than he’d expected. Logan could obviously tell what his opinion was and was overly smug about it.
“Yeah, yeah,” Virgil said when they were finished. “You’re good at picking restaurants.”
“I’m sure you are also when in a place you are familiar with.”
“I’m not actually,” Virgil said with a laugh. “I always panic choose the worst option.”
“Well, I tend to be quite decisive about such things,” Logan said. “I guess we make a good match.”
“Yeah,” Virgil said. “Uh, what are we going to do when we get home? Because sitting there drowning in anxiety like we have been for the past couple of days isn’t the greatest.”
“Do you have anything in mind?”
“You guys have Blockbuster still?”
“No,” Logan said. He paused. “We do have a Family Video store I think.”
“Is it close? Let’s go there.”
“And why are we not just using a streaming service?” Logan asked. “Or using my… library of movies.”
Virgil shrugged. “It’s the charm of it,” he said.
“The charm of a business already made obsolete and on the brink of collapse?”
“Exactly,” said Virgil with a smile.
“Very well,” Logan said. “If that is what you’d like to do I will look up its location on my phone.”
They were in a building that would look abandoned if there wasn’t a light on inside within 15 minutes. The video rental store had clearly seen better days. Its carpet’s pattern was clearly from another decade and had been trampled over so often it was basically like walking on the linoleum beneath. There was a door on the sign asking patrons to close it behind them because the spring used to close it had long since ceased working.
There was only one person working, a guy in his 30s who glanced at them briefly and then went back to looking at his phone. Ah, yes, Virgil’s favorite type of employee.
“What movie would you like to watch?” Logan asked. He glanced at one small, but still surprisingly present section filled with DVDs.
“I don’t know,” Virgil said. “Isn’t that the point? Stop by a movie rental place on a Friday night, grab a more than likely crappy movie and some Milk Duds and proceed to sit and watch the stupid thing anyway because you already paid for it.”
“Virgil, I grew up in the 90s. This isn’t exactly exciting for me. There is a reason streaming sites took over the market,” Logan replied. “Also, it is Tuesday.”
Virgil rolled his eyes. “Just panic choose a movie with me, nerd.”
“I don’t ‘panic choose’ anything,” Logan said. “I-”
“You do today,” Virgil interrupted.
“I…”
“Choose a letter.”
“…S?”
“Great!” Virgil dragged him off in the direction of the movies that started with ‘S’.
“This is just… gross,” Virgil said a little under an hour and a half later and about an hour into the film.”
“It is a random romantic comedy from 2002,” Logan responded. “What did you expect?”
“Yeah, but there’s weird sex jokes and actors that are probably from Mars and then there’s actual on screen physical abuse between the romantic couple.”
“I will concede that point,” Logan said, “but I will remind that this could have all been avoided if you had allowed me to do proper investigation of the movie choices before renting it.”
“Ugh, yeah, yeah,” Vigil replied, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. “Just turn it off.”
Logan complied, reaching over to eject the DVD from his computer. The three roommates didn’t actually have a DVD player connected to their TV, so they’d chosen to use the desktop computer in Logan’s room.
Virgil was laying on Logan’s bed with Logan sat propped up against the headboard. Logan leaned over to peer down at him. “Thanks for helping distract me,” he said. “Despite the fact that we now know more about what we’re doing, I still get worried about sending Patton through time. His last time travel experience didn’t improve my confidence. I have been… rather nervous.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help, at least a little,” Virgil replied.
“You did,” Logan replied. “A lot.” His hand reached down to touch pat his shoulder, but then lingered there for a moment too long.
Virgil sat up suddenly and Logan had to jerk back to keep their heads from colliding. “I…” Virgil choked out once he was sitting up. “Um…”
Logan’s mouth curled into a half smile. He offered a hand and Virgil took it.
Virgil glanced at the hand. “I, uh, I am an anthropologist.”
“I am aware,” Logan said with a raised eyebrow.
“And, uh, you were born in this time, so technically I’m studying you…”
“I’m a time traveler, Virgil,” he said amused. “I doubt I am a pure specimen for any studies you may be doing.”
“Right,” Virgil said. “That’s a good point. You’re right.”
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There was a pause. “So then,” Virgil said. “No moral quandaries. Just two people sharing a bed and watching a romance movie.”
“It was a bad one.”
“It really, really was,” Virgil said with a grin and then Logan was leaning forward and Virgil’s hand was on Logan’s shoulder.
And then the door was flinging open. “I’m home!” Roman declared as Virgil scrambled back, banging his head on the bed’s headboard.
“Fuck,” Virgil hissed.
“Roman! You need to knock!”
“Since when?” Roman asked, plopping down on Logan’s bed between them.
“Since we have a guest,” Logan said meaningfully. Virgil hid his reddening face in his hands, curling into as tight of a ball as he could.
“You were both in here, it’s not like one of you were naked,” Roman said flippantly. Virgil debated the merits of staying curled up in a ball for the rest of his life. There was a second of silence, and Virgil was glad he couldn’t see the expressions on their faces from his ball when Roman said, “Oh my god!”
Chapter 50
The breakfast table was silent the next morning. Though if one could call it a breakfast table when Logan was only drinking a cup of tea, Roman was chewing on a slice of unbuttered, untoasted bread, and Virgil was still either asleep or avoiding them both in Logan’s bedroom was debatable.
“…Look,” Roman said.
“We aren’t talking about it.”
“How was I supposed to know the two of you were getting it on?! Put a sock on the door next time or something. It’s common courtesy!”
“We weren’t having sex,” Logan hissed. Roman opened his mouth. “Shut up and learn to knock,” Logan said, pointing his spoon at him threateningly.
Yet, still, because it was Roman, the other man opened his mouth again. Luckily, before he could say anything else on the matter, there was a loud crack from the living room.
“I’m going to need a towel please!” Patton called.
“I’ve got it,” Roman said instantly, jumping to his feet, leaving Logan to walk to the living room.
“Why are you wet?” Logan asked immediately upon taking in the sight of his roommate. He was soaked, water dripping from his form like he’d just gotten out of a pool seconds before.
“There was an ocean in the church,” Patton said.
“What?” Logan asked.
Patton pushed his sopping wet hair out of his eyes. “The time distortions were a lot more intense than ones we’ve seen before,” he said. He held out a small innocuous appearing device whose only mechanism appeared to be a switch to him. “Be really careful with that. It’s unstable and we might have damaged it getting out.” Patton winced and removed his timepiece. “Actually, speaking of that. This might need a checkup too.”
“Were there issues with the tech?” Logan asked taking both devices in his hand.
“…No,” Patton said looking a bit sheepish. “We just… may have turned off all of the safety protocols.”
“Patton I just made this for you!” Logan said, horrified.
“And you did a really good job!” was Patton’s reply, “but we didn’t really want to drown in a church.”
Logan took a slow breath. “I’ll make sure it wasn’t damaged,” he said.
“Thanks, Lo!”
Roman entered the living room then, bright blue towel in hand. “I have returned bearing gifts!” he declared.
“My hero,” Patton said with a laugh, taking the towel and using it to wipe off his face and then start to dry his hair.
“So, an ocean in a church?” Logan asked.
Patton nodded. “I’ll have to thank Virgil for suggesting the inflatable raft.”
He paused as he finished running the towel through his hair and started to dab at his clothing. “I saw Remus,” he said.
Roman froze. “You did?”
“Uh huh,” Patton replied. “He was with Janus. I didn’t think I should say anything to him since that trip was way out of sync though, sorry.”
“Yeah, no, that make sense. That’s fine.” Roman hesitated. “How was he?”
“He seemed good,” Patton said. He flashed them a smile. “Happy. He’s quite the character actually. He and Janus seem like they’re good friends.”
“Oh,” Roman said. “That’s… that’s good.”
Patton’s face screwed up slightly. “He did flirt with me though, so that was weird.”
“He what?!” Roman practically screeched.
“It wasn’t particularly innocent flirting either,” Patton said, grimacing.
Roman took a moment to think about it before pulling a face that one would expect to see on a small child trying a lemon for the first time. “That’s disgusting! That’s like… that’s like my brother flirting with my brother. Gross!”
“It was… it was weird,” Patton said.
“What did he even say?” Roman asked.
“Mostly it was comments on my…” he made a motion with his head that apparently Roman could interpret.
“He talked about your butt!”
“…Well, he didn’t exactly use that word.”
“That sounds about like Remus,” Virgil said, poking his head into the hall.
“Oh, you’ve finally decided to join the land of the living, Emo?” Roman asked.
“Shut up,” both Logan and Virgil said at the same time.
Of course, he did not. “You know, Pat-pat, speaking of posteriors…”
“One more word out of you and I will actually kill you,” Virgil threatened.
“Um, what’s going on?” Patton asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Roman promised.
“You will not,” Logan said. “Keep your gossiping tendencies under control.”
“Okay, but now I want to know,” Patton said with a pout.
“You go take a shower,” Logan ordered.
Patton shared a look with Roman that told Logan there was no way he wouldn’t have the whole story along with a good number of embellishments by the end of the night. Then he shrugged. “Yes, boss,” he said. Logan rolled his eyes as he turned towards the bathroom, the towel still on his shoulders. He was dry enough that he wasn’t dripping anymore, and he slipped off his waterlogged shoes and socks so he wouldn’t track water to the bathroom.
“Put that in the biohazard hamper,” Logan called after him.
“I know!” he called back.
“And you,” Logan said to Roman, “clean up all of the water he got on the carpet in the off chance there are any pathogens in it.”
“Why do I have to do it?!”
“Because you’ve annoyed me,” Logan said, “and I need to insure these two devices do not explode.”
“Ugh, fiiiine,” Roman said, dipping back into the hall.
Virgil glanced over at him, the picture of awkwardness. “Uh,” he said. “Hey.”
“Hi,” Logan said.
“…Are those things really at risk of exploding right now?” he asked.
Logan glanced at him. “Technically they are always at least slightly at risk of exploding, but admittedly the chance is further from 0 than I would like it to be at this point.”
“Great,” Virgil said. “One more thing to be anxious about.”
“You don’t need to be anxious about it, Virgil,” Logan said.
“Uh, I think I do need to be anxious about the maybe bomb in your hands.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know,” Virgil said with a sigh.
“We are two mutually consenting adults. There isn’t any shame to it.”
“Can we please talk about our very embarrassingly interrupted kiss after you’ve dealt with the explosives?”
“Very well,” Logan said. He walked to the other side of the room to grab a statis chamber from a cabinet drawer.
“What’s that?” Virgil asked as the cube shaped device popped up.
“It’s a stasis cube,” Logan said as he put the two devices in his hand into it and activated. “It will allow them to cool down completely from their earlier use in a safe environment. It will be less dangerous to work with them later.”
“If it just takes 5 seconds to deal with them, why are you making Roman clean up?” Virgil asked amused.
“Like I said,” Logan said. “He annoyed me. Speaking of,” he glanced into the hallway where Roman currently was. “How do you feel about leaving before he gets back to get coffee.”
Virgil smiled at him. “Sure,” he said. “Escape the apartment for coffee part two.”
Chapter 51
It took a few days after Patton got home for Logan to first make sure the timepiece and the distortion device were not at a risk of exploding and then to study the distortion device.
“It’s similar to what little we’ve seen of TPI technology,” Logan had mused, sitting on the couch while studying the information he’d managed to get off of it. “It’s definitely derived from the same technology unlike my time travel device, but it looks a bit different, and this version at least is rather shoddily made. Of course, creating disorder and almost ripping apart time is easier than seamlessly moving through it.”
“So, they’re probably from my time then?” Virgil asked.
“Most likely,” Logan agreed. “Though it could always be a Remus situation where they were from another time originally but accidently ended up in the TPI time. Either way, the origin of their purposeful time travel was certainly around your time.”
Virgil glanced at the device he’d set on the table in front of them all. It looked innocent sitting there, but it had the power to destroy so much, and they didn’t even know why. “Do you think whoever made this trapped me here on purpose?” Virgil asked.
“It would be a big coincidence if you in particular got trapped in this time in particular,” Roman said.
“I was thinking the same thing actually,” Logan said. “You do work with the TPI and with Janus, a time agent who both often is caught in the middle of devices similar to this being used and who runs into Patton frequently. Plus you know Remus, Roman’s brother even if we didn’t know that connection before you were trapped here and we already had a correspondence before you landed here. It would be strange for you to have ended up here on accident.”
“But why?” Virgil asked. “I am somehow connected to all of you, but I’m still not a time agent myself.”
“All I am to the TPI is a walking history book. I’m not actually involved.”
“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps someone knows something we don’t.”
“Or maybe it’s just a happy accident!” Patton said. Virgil highly doubted that and it made anxiety churn in his gut.
“Well,” Logan said, “accident or not, we do now have a solution to the issue. I’ve managed to use this device to recalibrate my calculations and we’ve gotten a ping. I know where the signal blocking Virgil’s time device is coming from.”
“Where?” Roman asked.
“It looks like a local trash dump,” Logan replied. “It must have just ended up in a trashcan that day and was emptied before we checked.”
“Well, that should be easy enough to get,” Patton said. “Give Roman and I the exact coordinates and we can go and get it now.”
“Wait, why are we the only ones who have to dig through a garbage dump?” Roman asked.
Patton gave him a look.
“Oh,” Roman said, eyes lighting up. “Oh right!” Then, he scowled remembering he was going to be going through a garbage dump. “Fine,” he sighed.
“Think of it as an adventure!” Patton said.
“We’re time travelers. We have so many more exciting adventuring opportunities than dumpster diving, Pat-Pat,” he whined, but he still got up. “I’ll go get changed.”
Patton stood up and handed Logan his phone, so Logan could program the location of the distortion device into it while he changed as well. “We’ll text you when we’re heading back! I’ll give you a 15- and 5-minute warning,” Patton said with a wink. Virgil immediately hid his face in his hands.
“Do you think the TPI is hiring?” Logan asked as the door closed. “I’d love to move to a different century without those two.”
“Time agents don’t usually live in 4500s,” Virgil said, face still hidden behind his hands. “They’d probably still place you in this century, especially since you’re comfortable here.”
“No escaping them then,” Logan sighed.
“Mmm,” was Virgil’s response.
He felt Logan shift on the couch next to him and a warm palm touched his wrist, gently tugging his hand away from his face in a way that Virgil could resist if he really wanted. Virgil let the hand fall with a sigh. Logan smiled at him when he could see his face and Virgil smiled back despite how he could still feel heat in his cheeks.
“You will be going home this evening, I’d imagine,” Logan said.
“Yeah,” Virgil agreed softly.
“I would like to give you a gift before you go, if you’ll allow it.”
“Uh, okay,” Virgil agreed.
Logan nodded and leaned back to grab something out of the pocket of a jacket that was currently hanging over the side of the couch. “Ah,” he said when he found whatever he was looking for. He glanced at Virgil. “It is a ring, by the way, but this is not a proposal.”
“Well, I’d certainly hope not,” said Virgil dryly. “An impulse elopement would be a little off brand for us both.”
Logan smiled at him. “Very true,” he agreed. Then, he opened his palm revealing a small ring.
“So, then, what is it?” Virgil asked.
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“It is an emergency time travel device,” Logan explained. “It’s not particularly complex. It can only take you here to this room between 2 weeks and one year from now, but if you ever need something from me, you can use it.”
He offered the ring and Virgil opened his palm to let him put it in his hand. He studied the ring for a moment. It was a rose gold and very light.
“It also has some security measures,” Logan said. “It wouldn’t do to make an emergency time travel device that someone else might easily try to take from you. It’ll disappear when you put it on. You’ll still be able to feel it and take it off whenever you wish. It’ll become visible again if you take it off.”
“An invisible ring?” Virgil asked, curious.
“Yes,” Logan said with a smile. “It is designed to store your space time coordinates for up to 48 hours just so you’re aware, but as I said you can take it off whenever you wish and… I won’t use it against you.”
Virgil looked at him. “Okay,” he said. “Can I put it on?” Logan nodded, and Virgil slipped it on his finger. As promised it disappeared from view as soon as he did. He could still feel the weight of it on his finger though.
“You turn it three times counterclockwise to activate it,” Logan said, making Virgil look up from the seemingly empty space on his finger he’d been staring at.
“It would drop you right about where you are sitting.”
“Thanks,” Virgil said. It wasn’t nearly enough to say how much he appreciated the gift, but he hoped his tone said enough.
“Don’t use it against me?” Logan asked with a half-smile, and Virgil realized just how much trust was being put onto him by giving him a device that was directly linked to their base of operations despite knowing Virgil worked with the TPI.
Virgil shook his head. “I won’t,” he said. Deciding to throw out his nervousness and embarrassment over last time he shot forward to kiss Logan quickly on the lips. They bumped noses and Logan’s glasses ended up askew in the process, but Logan didn’t seem to mind judging by his delighted laugh when they parted.
“Thank you,” Virgil said again.
“Of course,” Logan replied.
Virgil could still feel the ring on his finger even after Patton and Roman got back from the dump with the device that had caused this whole mess. He could still feel it when Logan turned it off and his time piece reactivated. He could still feel it there when he made it home and gave an excuse as to why he’d left his trip early. He could still feel it when he got an email from an unknown sender making sure he got home okay.
Arc IV: (To Be Named)
Chapter 52
“What’s this?” Janus asked when a giant bowl was set on the coffee table in front of him.
“We’re eating on the couch tonight,” Emile said cheerfully.
Janus raised an eyebrow and switched off the tablet he’d been using to look at him. “Why?” he asked.
Emile shrugged and set a second huge bowl down next to Janus’s. “For fun,” Emile said. He turned back towards the kitchen and Janus leaned forward to look in the bowl. It was spaghetti with some sort of creamy sauce and a few different vegetables mixed in along with some shrimp.
“I made green tea,” Emile said, coming back into the room with two mugs.
“Thanks,” Janus said, taking one of the mugs with a small smile.
“What were you doing?” Emile asked as he took a seat beside Janus. He nodded at the deactivated screen now sitting on the end table.
“Just doing some puzzle games,” Janus said.
“That sounds fun,” Emile said with a smile.
“Head doctor said they might be a good thing to do to pass the time when I told him to fuck off after suggesting reading.”
Emile sighed. “Dr. Figueroa is my colleague. You could try to be polite.”
“I thought I was supposed to be my authentic self in therapy,” Janus replied.
Emile just huffed and rolled his eyes. Janus couldn’t help but smile as he picked up his mug of green tea.
The last few months had been…different. In a lot of ways, Janus’s life had become harder than it had been before. It had been easy to do nothing but eat pre-prepared meals, go to work, and pass out in his empty house every day. It wasn’t good for him. He’d known it even then, but it had been easy. This was not.
Emile had offered, insisted really, that Janus move into his house for a bit just to get back on his feet.
He’d taken time off of the TPI which would have been given to him anyway since he’d spent so trapped in the past. He’d had to give a report of what had happened, and he’d mentioned Patton, but he hadn’t mentioned everything. They’d offered him a shrink when he’d asked.
Janus had told Emile he needed to tell him something about why he’d been distant, so he wouldn’t end up chickening out, but he’d asked for a bit of time to figure out what to say. He’d finally worked up the courage to talk about it with Dr. Figueroa two weeks ago. Much like with Patton, it was easier to talk to someone who hadn’t been involved in Janus’s mistake, but it still wasn’t easy.
He was running up on the deadline he’d given for having that talk with him. It had to happen soon, and they both knew it, but Emile was just patiently waiting for him to suck it up. It felt… wrong to use his kindness without him knowing, but it was also nice to get to spend time with his brother. He didn’t even dare to hope that he’d still have the chance once he told him.
He was moving back into his own house in less than a week. He’d tell him then so if Emile ended up kicking him out of his life, he wouldn’t have to kick him out of his home too.
For now, though everything was fine. Harder, more complicated, and in threat of exploding at any moment, but fine. Fine wasn’t something he’d really felt in a long time. Or at least, fine while in his own time wasn’t something he’d felt in a long time. There’d been a few moments with Patton sitting next to the fire outside the hole in the ground they’d slept in for those few months where the man would turn to look at him and he’d felt fine. Yet, Patton had been right. Those moments were unsustainable with how Janus was actually feeling deep down.
“This is good,” Janus said, after taking a couple of bites of the pasta in front of him.
“Well, I always was the only one in the house that could cook,” Emile said, and that was true. “It was either learn to defend for myself or eat a cheeseburger for every meal.”
“Hey, I had a good burger seasoning.”
“Not for every meal, Janus.”
“Meat, dairy, bread. What more could you want?”
“Vegetables, Janus.”
“You could have put pickles on!”
“I don’t like pickles.”
“That sounds like your problem, not mine,” Janus argued.
Emile shook his head, turning his eyes to the ceiling. “How have you been surviving on your own?”
“Well, I mean,” Janus said. “Badly.”
“Right…” Emile said. He leaned over to bump their shoulders together. Janus flashed him a smile.
“Speaking of,” said Janus. “Could you physically force me to pack tonight? I meant to do it today and instead I ended up playing puzzles games.”
Emile chucked. “Sure, I’ll help you after dinner.”
“You don’t have to help me,” said Janus. “Just make me do it.”
“Maybe I want to help,” said Emile.
“Oh, yes, packing. The most entertaining of Thursday night activities.”
Emile hummed and then glanced at him. “Remember when you helped me pack for college?” he asked.
“Mmm, I do,” Janus replied.
“I was so stressed about going somewhere new,” Emile said, “that I avoided packing for weeks. Every time Mom would ask me how packing was going, I’d tell her it was going fine but in reality, I hadn’t even started. You’d come home two days before I had to leave because you were going to help me move into my dorm. It’s like you could sense no packing had been done the moment you stepped through the front door.”
“You were doing your ‘hiding the broken horse statue from mom’ shuffle,” Janus said with a smirk.
“Well, you walked me straight to my room and we packed everything up in those two days,” Emile said. “You made it so much easier.”
“Yeah, because I hovered over you until you did it and did half of it for you,” Janus snorted.
“It wasn’t just that,” Emile said. “You also found the music streaming station run by the university and put that on and talked about what your freshman year was like. You also had tips on what things I should and shouldn’t pack when moving into the dorm.”
“You still took all of the cartoon stuffed animals despite my advice.”
“I thought there’d be more space on the bed,” Emile frowned.
Janus snorted.
“But anyway, just having someone else around made me happier. It wasn’t just about the workload being halved either. You being there made me feel less lonely and reminded me I’d always have someone to come back to.”
Janus internally winced. He was sure Emile hadn’t meant to make him feel guilty in any way. In fact, he probably was trying to do the opposite, but him saying that just reminded Janus that it hadn’t been true. Janus had abandoned him for literal years and hadn’t been someone he could always come back to.
Emile had proven himself to be at least close to who he was before Janus messed with time the few last months. There were a couple of differences here and there, and Janus could not be sure if they were from him changing time or from him avoiding his brother for the past three years and him naturally changing. Most memories they shared that Janus cautiously brought up or Emile mentioned on his own were consistent with what Janus remembered, but he hadn’t pushed too hard or dug too deep. It just made him feel more guilty about avoiding the man for so long.
It made him want to ignore the man more, because it seemed every choice Janus ever made only hurt him.
…
Well, perhaps not the college radio station when helping an anxious 18-year-old pack up his childhood bedroom.
He should probably tell Emile that his words made him feel guilty because that was obviously not the intention and he’d want to know. He should probably apologize properly for leaving him alone for three years without an explanation. He should probably provide an explanation for those three years.
He should probably go see the head doctor again soon.
(He should probably stop calling Emile’s colleague who was in the same field as him a head doctor derogatorily in his head.)
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For now, he just glanced at Emile. “You’re trying to bully me into letting you help pack with logic, aren’t you?”
“I am,” Emile confirmed without remorse.
“Fine,” Janus sighed, “but only if you let me do the dishes for you.”
Emile took a long moment to consider the offer. “You drive a hard bargain,” he said, “but okay.”
“And no doing anything sneaky like getting bags ready for me on your own while I’m doing it or the deal is off,” Janus said.
“You always think of all possible loopholes, Janus,” Emile sighed.
There was a long silence.
“Agree, you prick,” said Janus.
“No promises,” Emile replied cheekily with laughter in his eyes, and things were good for a moment more.
Chapter 53
Today Janus was moving into his house in 24th century for the second time in his life, and honestly, the house wasn’t going to look much different than it had when he’d first moved in. Janus had unpacked his things more at Emile’s house in the past almost 6 months than he had in the two and a half years he’d liven in his house. His house held clothes, bare bone furniture, and exactly one skillet from when he’d decided to be daring and tried to cook himself an egg. All he’d really customized for himself was the setting on the LXC device which controlled the lights, media across the home, and prepackaged food ordering and prepare.
He almost felt embarrassed that his house was so empty. Emile, of course, knew that his mental health had been fucked, but the blankness of his house was a physical reminder of this fact especially considering how he used to keep house before all of this. He’d warned Emile about the fact that his house was empty, and he had said he understood, but still.
They gathered all of the luggage in a pile in Emile’s guest room. They’d had to get permissions from the TPI to allow Emile to travel to his house, and Janus went ahead and filed to give him permanent permission to travel there.
The decision felt far too hopeful for someone who hadn’t had that conversation with his brother yet, but it had made Emile smile in the moment.
Emile took three of the bags and Janus took the rest. He waved his arm and selected the third saved location on the device. In a moment, he was standing in the living room of his dark, empty house.
…
His supposed to be dark and empty house. More of the lights were on than Janus had ever switched on himself, and half of the windows were open. (He didn’t even know some of those windows opened.)
They were letting in the sounds of birds that made the lakeside their home as well as cool late fall breeze. There was also a racket coming from the kitchen. Emile was beside him a second after he himself had appeared. He looked around for a moment. “Did you leave it like this?”
“No,” Janus replied.
“Do you have squatters?” He had a security system from 2 millennia in the future on his house. He highly doubted it.
“I’m going to go check the kitchen,” Janus said, moving towards the noises coming from the other room.
He stopped in the doorway to his kitchen only to see Patton standing at his kitchen counter cutting up a carrot on a cutting board Janus didn’t think he owned, and if he did, it was buried in a box somewhere.
“What are you doing?” Janus asked.
“Cooking!” was the immediate reply.
“In my house?” Janus asked. “How do you even know where my house is?”
“I may be just a little bit ahead of you,” Patton said with a wink while tapping the side of his nose.
Janus sputtered. “This is my house!”
“I know!” He said it so cheerfully while being a purposefully obtuse asshole that Janus could help but crack a smile and shake his head. He’d missed him after spending so long alone with him though he wasn’t go to admit that to him when he’d broken into Janus’s house to…
“Again, what are you doing?”
“I’m making you soup.”
“Why?” Janus asked.
“Well,” Patton said. “I know it’s a bit of a rough time for you, so I thought I’d give you a nice welcome home present and what better present than food!” He smiled at him widely.
Janus looked closer at what he was making. “You’re trying to prove to me you can cook.” Patton frowned at him. “Have you considered I have had enough fish stew for a lifetime?”
“Nope!” he said. “It’s entirely different this time anyway. I have carrots!”
“I don’t like carrots,” Janus lied blandly.
“Liar!” Patton declared.
“No, I’m not,” Janus continued to lie.
“I mean, that was definitely a lie,” Emile interjected from behind Janus. He was looking at them curiously. “Er, hello, who are you?”
“This is Pat,” Janus said.
“The illegal time traveler you’ve been tracking?” Emile asked with a questioning lilt to his tone.
“Ah, yes, well,” Janus said with a cough. “We came to an understanding when stuck in pre-history.”
“And now he is cooking you soup in your house?” Emile asked.
“I’ve long since stopped trying to make sense of him,” Janus grumbled.
“Well,” Emile said. “Hello Pat.”
“You can call me Patton,” he said easily. “I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you.”
“We haven’t been meeting in the correct order,” Janus informed Emile. “So, he’s apparently already met you which will happen in your future. It is also something he shouldn’t be talking about,” he scolded. Patton took that with a shrug.
“I hate time travel,” Emile said, his nose scrunching up. “Isn’t life already confusing enough.”
Janus winced, not relishing the upcoming conversation with him about how confusing his life was now because of time travel.
“Don’t you work with the TPI too?” Patton asked.
“That doesn’t mean I like time travel,” Emile said. “I’m a stationary agent and I like that just fine.”
“Time travel can be a bit complicated sometimes,” Patton acknowledged, “but I don’t think it’s all bad.” He finished chopping up the carrot and turned to put it in the self-regulating soup pot. Janus squinted at it. It was certainly not something Patton had in the 21st century. So, the question was. Had he gone out and bought time appropriate cookware before breaking into Janus’s house or had he gone through Janus’s storage to find it?
“You’re a free agent time traveler, right?” Emile asked.
“Depends on what you mean by free agent,” Patton said. “I have always worked with a group of people, and we have rules and procedures. It’s basically a time agency itself, just not the TPI.”
“And you’ve met me before?”
“I have,” Patton confirmed, “but Janus is right in that I can’t say much more than that about it. In fact,” he said wiping off his hands on a towel hanging from his apron. (The apron was covered in cartoon squirrels and totted the phrase ‘I’m a nut for baking.’) “I should probably be getting out of here.”
“You’ve never been worried about us meeting out of order before,” Janus pointed out with a frown. He didn’t particularly want Patton to go even though the man had broken into his house and possibly went through his boxes of kitchen equipment.
“Well,” Patton said. “There’s meeting wildly out of order, there’s meeting in order, and then there’s what I’m doing.”
“What are you doing?” Janus asked alarmed.
Patton just shrugged with a smile.
“No, Patton, what are you doing?”
“Soup should be done in about an hour, but you can leave it on all day. I got a pot that’s fridge safe, so just shut it off and stick it in there before going to sleep.”
“Patton.”
“See you later! Bye!” He said and disappeared into thin air.
Janus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his brow. “Why is he like this?”
“Janus,” Emile asked. “Why did your self-declared mortal enemy make you soup?”
“Because he’s an asshole, that’s why.”
“Uh huh,” Emile said, looking at him oddly.
“What?” Janus asked.
“What exactly happened when you were stuck in the past?” Emile asked.
Janus sighed. “A lot happened. A lot.” He glanced at the soup pot happily performing its function on his kitchen counter. ‘I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you,’ rang in his ears. Fucking Patton with his little hints about the future. It gave Janus just a bit of courage though knowing that Emile at least didn’t flee the continent after the conversation they had to have. He was at least around enough to meet Patton. “In fact,” Janus said. “It’s probably time I told you what happened. Everything that happened.”
Chapter 54
They sat down in the living room. Janus let Emile have the couch and sat on one of the matching armchairs. There was a squeaky sound when he sat. The plastic covering the chair had been delivered in was still on it.
Emile had a pleasant, open but curious expression on his face and Janus suddenly had an idea what it felt like to be his patient.
“I,” Janus began after a moment, shifting uncomfortably on the squeaky chair. “I don’t know how to start this conversation. I talked about what I wanted to say and possible ways to say it with Dr. Figueroa, but I… I still don’t know.”
“I guess I should start by saying that I did something horrible that I need to apologize for and I’m not sure if apologizing will even be enough. The problem is you don’t even know what that horrible thing is.” Janus stared at his feet. “So, first, I should probably explain what I did. I just don’t know where to start.”
“Maybe start with what happened before it,” Emile suggested. “Just lead up to it. It might help explain why whatever it was happened too.”
Janus took a breath. “Okay,” he said. “That day was just like most that I remember. We both woke up early. I was going to the TPI and you were going to where you worked your residency. We ate leftover pizza for breakfast because both of us were exhausted. You because it sucks to be a resident and me because I’d been working on a big case.”
“I was getting frustrated with the case. That was my first mistake: being impatient and angry. It was just a thief, but a slippery one. She’d stolen a half-broken time piece and was using it to rob banks within about a 50-year time frame. I had an idea of where she might go, but no one would listen to me. Or at least,” Janus quirked a half smile, “that’s how I interpreted it. They said they’d look into my idea, but they were being extra cautious because of how close in the timestream her actions were to most of the agents’ lives.”
“I was so tired of the case and so egotistical. I decided to check it out on my own without being cleared by the TPI. I went back in time without thinking of the consequences and that was the worst thing I’ve ever done.” Janus took a breath. “I’m not sure how, but somewhere in the course of my self-appointed mission…” He trailed off. He didn’t know how to say it. He really didn’t.
“What happened?” Emile asked when he didn’t continue.
“I…” and his next words probably sounded like crackly nonsense to Emile’s ears because he couldn’t get his thoughts straight and his tongue wouldn’t make the words right.
“I don’t even remember living in that town or the fact that Mom used to work at that bank,” he choked out. “I didn’t think and I didn’t check and…” There was a long silence. “I erased you,” he finally managed to say in a whisper, but in the quiet of his barely lived in house, the words were loud.
There was more silence. “But I…” Emile said after a moment.
“I went back and fixed it,” Janus said, “but I… didn’t do a perfect job. I don’t even know how much I messed things up. It would have been one thing if it’d just been me. If it had just impacted my life, but I did it to you and I don’t even know how to start to apologize.”
Nothing was said for a long moment. Janus didn’t look at him.
“…Huh,” Emile finally said.
Janus risked a glance at him. He didn’t look irate, but he did still look confused which was probably the reason for that.
“I’m sorry,” Janus said. It was really the only thing he could say at this point.
Emile tilted his head to the side. He took off his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt with slow circles. Since he was 15, Emile only cleaned his glasses with specially designed wipes, but he’d held onto the habit of cleaning his glasses with his shirt anytime he needed a moment to think. Janus wasn’t sure if Emile even realized he was doing it, but he knew it was a signal for Janus to be quiet for a few seconds.
The glasses were perched back on Emile’s nose after a few seconds. “I think I remember that,” he said contemplatively.
“…What?” Janus asked, and he was no longer avoiding looking at Emile. He was now blatantly staring at him.
“Well, I didn’t know what it was,” Emile said, “but I did have a very odd dream on the day you mentioned and suspiciously I had said dream in the middle of the day and woke standing up.”
“A dream?” Janus asked.
“A very vivid dream,” Emile said. “I don’t believe you actually erased me completely from existence. My life was simply shifted slightly. I was working as a social worker for about 5 hours and then I was back in my appropriate place.”
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“Why didn’t you tell me about that?” Janus asked, but then immediately wince at his own hypocrisy. “Er… never mind.”
“I didn’t know it was possibly real,” Emile said. “Honestly, I thought I was just really tired. I’d been overworking myself a lot. I took the rest of the day off after that.”
“You shifted reality for a few hours, and you didn’t realize it?” Janus asked.
“Like I said, I was really tired and nothing seemed to be wrong…”
“Wait, but things were different,” Janus said. “Didn’t you notice things were different.”
“Not… really,” Emile said. “Like what?”
“Like…” Janus said. “Like a whole bunch of things!”
“Like…?”
“Like you had a different job title and you worked different hours.”
“I thought I’d fallen asleep standing up or had a vivid audio-visual hallucination at work from stress. I asked for a switch a couple of weeks later.”
“You used to hate time travel, but then you took a job at the TPI.”
Emile gave him a drawl look. “I still hate time travel,” he said. “I literally just said that not 5 minutes ago.”
“Well then why would you work for the TPI.”
“Because time travel is so confusing and distressing that people doing it on a regular basis as a career need psychological support.”
“Plus, Lia asked for my consultation when developing the mental health part of the Agent Management Office,” Emile continued. “Considering I already knew quite a bit about time travel from being around you, she knew me personally, and I’d finished my residency, she decided to give me a job offer when my advice panned out.”
“W-well,” Janus said. “You were allergic to pineapples.”
“You mean my childhood allergy?” Emile asked. “That has since resolved itself in my adult life?”
“It has?” Janus asked.
“Janus have you considered,” Emile said, “that some if not all of the inconsistencies you were seeing in my life have to do with the fact that you hadn’t spoken to me in 3 years?”
“I… uh… hadn’t considered that,” Janus admitted honestly.
“You were looking for information to support your incorrect world view,” Emile said sounding very much like a head doctor and not like a brother, “and you found some.” He sighed. “It makes sense after having faced a traumatic event where you effectively thought you’d killed a loved one that you weren’t thinking clearly.” The head doctor analysis voice slipped just a bit. “I just wish you’d talked about it with someone.”
“Sorry,” Janus said, because no matter which way this conversation had gone and no matter the revelations, the point was an apology. “I’m sorry.”
Emile sighed. “I would have forgiven you even if you had erased me,” Emile said. “You didn’t mean to, and you did your best to fix it. You did fix it even if you were an idiot about it.”
“What about for being an idiot and not talking to you for three years?” Janus asked.
“I already did forgive you for that Janus,” Emile said pointedly. “What did you think the last 6 months were?”
“Pity?”
Emile gave him his disappointed and exasperated head shake. “Promise to never do anything like that to me again,” he said, “and I’ll forgive you.”
“I promise,” Janus said immediately.
“And in the future, you’ll talk to me if you have any issue even if you think it’s horrible.”
“I think I’ve learned by lesson on that one.”
“And that goes for other people too,” Emile said. “If anything goes wrong with someone, you talk to them or if that’s too hard you talk to someone so they can convince you to talk to that person.”
Janus nodded.
“Great!” Emile said. “Then you’re officially forgiven for everything. Though I expect you to go to therapy and keep working on making yourself feel better, so these things don’t happen again.”
And Janus… didn’t know how to feel about that. He should probably feel happy and thankful or at least relieved, but if he was being honest, he just felt kind of empty in that moment like an old well that had finally run dry. Fuck his head doctor and fuck Patton. Wasn’t this supposed to make him feel better? Everything was fine. He hadn’t actually erased Emile permanently from the timeline, in fact, he’d apparently still existed in some form in the alternate timeline Janus had temporarily made. Emile had forgiven him both for erasing him and ignoring him even though that was far more than Janus deserved. This was something he’d never even dared dream would happen, but it had been exactly what he’d wanted.
Yet, he still didn’t feel good, not really, not like how he remembered feeling before all of this happened.
Though was that really a surprise? Things were not like how they were before. He and Emile were no longer close. There was love and affection there, but they didn’t really know each other. The last six months had been nice. He’d been able to pretend for a bit that everything was back to normal, but in the moments he hadn’t been able to pretend that, it’d been a bit stilted and awkward speaking to his brother especially at the start.
Beyond that, Janus was just used to misery at this point. It was his default state. Not being miserable took effort and energy he didn’t always have. He felt himself slipping into sadness or numbness even during times he should be feeling good. He’d noticed himself experiencing a sense of desolation when Emile cooked his favorite meal or in the middle of watching a ballet performance Emile had suggested they go to and he’d been looking forward to in the days before or even now when he should be so happy, so ecstatic. Everything should be okay, but it wasn’t.
“You doing alright over there?” Emile asked, and Janus didn’t know how long he’d been silent.
Instinct said to say yes and force himself to move on, but he wasn’t going to break his promise that fast. “Not really, no,” he admitted.
“That’s okay,” Emile said. “Anything I can do to help?”
“I really don’t know.”
“Why don’t we go taste the soup your arch nemesis,” there was a light teasing tone to his voice, “made for you. Some of the vegetables won’t be completely cooked yet, but I’m sure it’s already good.”
“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “Yeah, okay,” he got to his feet, the chair making that plastic squeaking sound again. “Maybe we could unwrap the furniture in here before you go home.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Emile said with a smile.
Chapter 55
Somehow, the strangest thing about his life right now was a picture on the wall. It was one that he’d gotten after college when he moved into his first actual house. It wasn’t anything special. It was just something that had caught his eye when he was specifically looking for something classier to put on his wall than the posters he’d hung in his college dorm and apartment with Virgil. It was a tall painting of a tree, but segmented into four parts, each representing the state of a tree in different seasons. In the top left, the three had small leaves and little buds, on the top right it had full leaves bathed in sunlight, in the bottom left the leaves had changed colors and started to fall off, and in the bottom right the tree was devest of leaves but covered in snow.
It was on the wall near Janus’s bed. It was one of the first things he saw when he opened his eyes in the morning and was usually what reminded him that everything was different now when he woke.
The picture had been in a box in the houses garage up until the Saturday before the last. Saturdays had become his and Emile’s unofficial unpacking Janus’s house day. They would usually pick one or maybe two boxes that had been sitting untouched for years, unpack it, talk, and eat dinner together.
Notably, dinner was usually not provided by either of them.
Patton had gotten into the habit of breaking into Janus’s house. Janus would sometimes catch him doing it briefly, but often Patton managed to avoid him. This was quite the feat considering Janus was not currently working and thus stayed at home a lot of the time. Patton had repeatedly reprogrammed Janus’s kitchen taking away the option for pop tarts entirely and replacing the option with real food. Janus’s kitchen was constantly stocked with something to eat that wasn’t trash. He also liked to leave around different smelling hand soaps, flowers, and paper cranes. Janus had an entire drawer in his nightstand dedicated to storing paper cranes now.
The newest one was still on his nightstand from the night before, sitting cheerfully in the way of his view of the tree paining when his alarm woke up that morning. He sighed. He had not missed getting up early for work.
He was finally going back to working at the TPI this morning. His therapist had signed off on it last week, saying his was fit for duty. Considering they were apparently still understaffed at the TPI and Janus was a senior agent, this was met with much relief. Janus himself still wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
He turned off the alarm and stood. Dr. Figueroa had him write out a morning schedule to follow when he’d expressed his struggle to get the day started. Either Patton or Emile had taken it upon themselves to copy the schedule on virtual sticky notes that appeared in every location necessary for getting ready in the morning.
First, he took a shower. He threw his nightclothes in the laundry chute. There were currently dozens of different scented soaps in his shower all in small bottles that had about 2 or 3 uses. Janus presumed they were curtesy of Patton. He decided to use one at random and it ended up being cotton candy scented.
Next, he got dressed. That was easy enough since he always wore the same outfit to work every day. It didn’t matter what he wore much since missions would force him to redress anyway.
Then he went to his kitchen and sat down at the counter. He pushed the pop tart button. As expected at this point, he did not get a pop tart for breakfast. Instead, he got two eggs, toast, a sliced apple, and a few cherry tomatoes with green tea. He ate his breakfast while finishing one of the puzzles he’d been working on the night before.
Once he finished, it was time to finally face going back to the office. He sighed, stood up and pulled up the screen on his timepiece. He selected his office as his destination and was off.
The first thing that happened upon appearing in his office was he got a face full of… something.
He sputtered, smacking the things fluttering about his face out of the air. “What is wrong with you?” was the first thing out of his mouth before he’d even really confirmed that the culprit of this attack was who he’d automatically assumed he was.
Remus, as anticipated was standing not 2 feet away from him.
Remus had apparently gotten into the prop department again because he had some type of softly glowing glittery confetti was no all over Janus as well as their entire office.
“Remus, I told you no!” Lena snapped. “You know it’s impossible to clean up 3150s sparkle nukes.”
“Welcome back!” Remus crowed.
“I hate you,” Janus replied. “I just took a shower.”
“You’re fine,” Remus said with an eye roll.
“This shit doesn’t come off in decontamination,” Janus spat. “If my first mission back sends me to a time where I’ll be tried as a witch for glowing, I’m blaming you.”
“We’re going to 2510,” Remus informed him. “You’ll fit right in.”
Janus grimaced. “Ugh, that decade.”
“It’s my favorite decade!” Remus exclaimed.
“Of course, it is,” Lena grumbled. “Just don’t bring anything gross back this time.”
“No promises,” Remus replied.
Janus chose to disengage from the conversation as Remus and Lena argued about was and what wasn’t allowed to be brought back to their shared office from what was well known as the least tasteful decade in history. It was also one of the least turbulent decades in history. The population was too busy making shitty ice cream flavors to wage war.
At least they were giving him an easier assignment for his first time back. He turned to his desk and pulled up the files on his next mission, glancing through them. It was just a small blip that the TPI had noticed in a small town in 2510. It probably wasn’t much of anything, but they had no record of what had caused it, so they were going to send someone to look. Honestly, they’d usually just send in a surveillance agent and be done with it, but they’d probably handpicked this one for Janus in particular. He’d be insulted if he didn’t honestly still feel a bit off kilter being in the office.
To his surprise, he didn’t have a scheduled meeting with Rhi. It wasn’t particularly important to see a mission coordinator for something this small, but it still wasn’t the usual protocol. Instead, he was just instructed to pick up his costume at the costuming department and leave in about an hour.
“Do we really not have an appointment with Rhi?” Janus asked.
“Senior agents haven’t really been meeting with Rhi unless it’s a high priority mission,” Lena told him. “We have too many newbies running around and there’s not time.
“That’s concerning…” Janus said.
“It’s better than trying to rush the inexperienced ones through. We at least have a general idea of what we’re doing. They’re trying to train up more mission coordinators, but that’s taking a while.”
Janus still frowned, but he glanced back at the mission instructions. He’d have to make sure he thoroughly understood what was being asked of him before leaving if he wasn’t meeting with Rhi. “We should go get changed,” he told Remus. “2510s clothing is notoriously difficult to put on.”
“Five minutes back and he’s already dying to get my clothes off,” Remus said cheekily.
“I would rather tear my own eyeballs out of my socket than see you without your pants on again.”
Remus just wiggled his eyebrows.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” said Lena when Janus looked at her in exasperation. “He’s finally not Fred’s and my problem anymore.”
Chapter 56
Getting ready for the mission was a bit of a mess honestly. The costume department barely even spared them a glance before sending them on their way. Remy at least was still there to give them one last debrief before sending them off into 2510, though he looked exhausted.
“Are you sleeping?” asked Janus.
“I’m drinking coffee,” was the reply as he shooed them out onto the streets.
The timeline disturbance that had been picked up was somewhere in one of the shops on that street.
“Do you want the bakery or the karaoke/stripper bar?” Remus asked.
Janus raised an eyebrow at him, and Remus clapped him on the back.
“This is why we’re partners,” he said.
He plodded off towards the building to their right, and Janus turned to the building on the left. It was a small bakery and coffee shop painted in bright colors and sporting the Brazilian and Albanian flags.
There was a soft tinkling bell sound when he entered the shop, and the person behind the counter glanced over at him briefly before finishing putting a pastry in bag for a customer.
Unfortunately, their attention meant Janus wasn’t going to get away with snooping around the store without buying anything. He glanced around the interior of the shop as he walked up to the till.
He glanced into the bakery display case the worker was standing behind. Oh… oh that all looked disgusting. He was not depressed enough anymore to willingly eat any of that.
“Uh,” Janus said when the worker looked at him. He glanced up at the wide selection of drinks over their head and winced at the ways the letters moved on the screen. He was pretty sure his dyslexia wasn’t quite that bad. Why did anyone choose to make letters move around and shake on purpose? As someone who had to deal with that on a daily basis, it wasn’t exactly entertaining.
“Is it possible to get a banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but without the potato chip part?” he asked.
“Sure,” the worker replied. “Anything else?”
Janus shook his head.
“Can I have a name for that?”
“Jay,” Janus replied.
“Alright. It’ll be out in a minute.”
Janus nodded and turned, able to take in the rest of the establishment now that there weren’t eyes on him. It was as colorful on the inside as it was on the outside and seemed to have a retro cowboy-space theme mixed with posters from a contemporary werewolf romance movie. Janus had actually seen that movie one. It was surprisingly tolerable.
The seats at least looked comfortable. There were a good number of tables and three couches. All of them were mix-matched. A few of the tables were outfitted with holographic chess and checkers, but most were normal tables. There were even a few physical boardgames and some bookshelves full of books, though he thought some of the bookshelves might just be there for decoration. He wasn’t sure which were and which weren’t.
He pretended to be very interested in the decorations as he waited on his drink, using that as an excuse to look around the entire shop. He was turned away when the door chimed again.
“Hello,” a familiar voice said, making Janus turn around instantly. Janus could immediately tell that the man hesitantly lingering in front of the bakery display was not the Patton that he’d spent months holed up with or who had broken into Janus’s house repeatedly to replace his soaps and cook him meals. He seemed out of place which was saying something in 2510. He had the air about him that he was an 80-year-old grandpa trying to embrace youth culture, but not quite getting it. He also spoke in an accent that people around him would probably assume was him just not being fluent in Spanish but was actually him not being completely comfortable speaking Spanish from half a century ago.
“Uh…” said Patton looking at the menu, a crease between his eyes.
“I’d suggest the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie without the potato chips,” Janus said. Patton startled, whipping around to face him in surprise. “That’s what I got, though I would leave out the potato chips.”
Patton’s eyes narrowed on him. It was not, of course, the first time that Patton hadn’t been thrilled to see him, but it was the first time Janus had been happy to see him and he hadn’t been happy to see him in turn. Janus had gotten used to a Patton that liked him and he found himself not quite prepared for the way he pursed his lips in annoyance at the sight of Janus.
“I’ll do the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but with the potato chips,” he said in a way that made it sound like he thought he was getting one up on Janus for some reason.
“What flavor of chips?” the worker asked.
“Er, what flavors do you have?”
“Uh, I think drywall, oak wood, and limestone.”
Janus almost laughed at his expression. “Uh, do you have any naturally edible flavors?” he asked.
“We might have grass.”
Patton squinted as the worker bent to look under the cabinet. “Oh, wait, no, it’s glass. Is that alright?”
“…Maybe just no on the chips.”
Janus did his best to school his features, so it wasn’t obvious he was laughing at him. He didn’t think he did a very good job considering Patton was glaring at him after turning around. That or he was just already pissed at Janus by default. It could go either way honestly.
“So,” Janus said when the worker turned away to start making Patton’s drink. “What are you doing here.”
“It’s none of your business,” Patton said with narrowed eyes.
“I mean, we could both be here for the same reason,” Janus pointed out. “We could share intel.”
“I doubt we’re here for the same reason.”
“How would you know?” asked Janus.
Patton just looked away from him. He immediately looked confused at the movie poster his eyes landed on.
“Unless,” Janus said curiously, you aren’t here for a reason, reason.” Patton said nothing. “It was a pretty small disturbance, so it would make sense that your equipment might not pick up on it.” At least at this point. “Acting the tourist, Pat?”
“I’m just doing research,” Patton said, crossing his arms.
“Research?” Janus asked.
“I’ve never been here before,” Patton admitted. “I wanted to get a feel for it and other places just in case there ever was an issue.”
“You just did France, didn’t you?” Janus asked.
Patton frowned and Janus smiled slightly. “It was recent,” he admitted.
“Well,” Janus said. “If you want some advice. I’d start with figuring out accents when you’re in different times.”
“I don’t need your advice,” Patton said and then smugly, “Janus.”
It took a bit for Janus to scan back through his memories and remember that Patton hadn’t known Janus’s name in France. He would have only figured it out after his friend Lo hacked into Silver Mountains University’s system and figured out Virgil had an appointment with him. Janus raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that, Patton?”
He frowned, pouting like whenever Janus told him he wasn’t allowed to try to catch a bird and make it their pet. It was strange to meet a version of Patton who had not lived in a hole in the ground with him for months when Janus had already done that. Patton was on the back foot for once throughout this conversation. Every time before this, he’d managed to somehow twist it around even when he’d been younger than he was right now. When Janus had arrested him at the University, he’d managed to figure out his equipment wouldn’t be stopped by the TPI’s despite having no idea what the TPI was.
In France, even when Janus had thought he’d been winning by taking his phone, he ended up getting access to a University in Janus’s time with information on the TPI, a situation that still had not been resolved.
Today, however, Janus knew far more about Patton than Patton expected. He still didn’t know exactly what his agency or whatever it should actually be called did, but he knew some things about it. He knew Patton was from the 21st century which explained the anachronisms in his speech in different times.
“You could help me look if you’d like,” Janus offered casually.
“Why?” Patton asked suspiciously.
Janus shrugged. It was not because he missed him, he insisted to himself. It wasn’t because after spending so much time with him, not getting to talk with him all day was strange. It had nothing to do with the fact that the few times he’d ran into a farther along version of Patton since he’d moved back home, their interactions had been brief and tinged with something. No, the only reason Janus was inviting him along was so he could teach this younger version a few things, so he hopefully didn’t go about messing up time. “We worked well together in France, didn’t we?” he asked. “Besides, it’s just a small mission without much danger to the timeline.”
“Pat,” the person at the counter called. Patton turned to him to go grab his smoothie, thanking the worker before turning back around and walking over to Janus.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll help, but you have to answer my questions.”
“I’ll answer the questions that won’t endanger any timelines or secrets of my agency.”
Patton considered it for a moment, taking a sip of his drink. “Fine,” he agreed.
“Good,” Janus replied. “We’ll start by looking around the coffee shop for anything unusual. Did you have any questions now. It’d look more natural to be walking around if we were having a conversation.”
“Does the glitter in your hair have to do with the style of the time or…?”
Janus sighed.
Chapter 57
Luckily, the cashier didn’t seem to think them snooping around was very odd. To be fair, the shop had quite a few odd decorations to look at. So, perhaps employees were just used to people walking around and looking at all of the different things. It helped that Janus and Patton were talking as they searched. They just looked like a couple… of friends… casually chatting and exploring the coffee shop together.
“So,” Patton said, keeping his voice quiet, though luckily the few patrons were on the other side of the shop. “What exactly is it that you do working for the TPI?”
“Well,” Janus said. “I’m a senior field agent. That means I am the person who actually goes on missions in different times. These missions can range from tracking down people who are committing crimes using time travel, stopping anything or anyone that could damage the timestream, and helping waylaid time travelers.”
“So, there are different types of agents?” Patton asked, curiously.
“Yes,” Janus replied. “There are a lot, but only four type time travel on a regular basis.” Should he be telling a very young version of Patton this? Probably not, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care too much.
“There are surveillance, touchdown, field, and cleanup agents,” he explained. “Surveillance agents do a bunch of things including research about the exact time field agents are going to and figuring out the best places for them to enter the timestream. Touchdown agents come slightly before field agents to do last second checks and stay when field agents are out. They mostly are just there to intervene if there are any unforeseen issues. Field agents actually interact with people from other times on a daily basis as they slip into the timestream and find whatever person or object they’re looking for. Cleanup agents come in afterwards and tie up any loose ends as well as observe the area for a few days to make sure nothing happened that no one caught.”
“Everyone else who works at the TPI is mostly in research and management. They don’t usually travel, though everyone who works there is licensed to travel if necessary.”
“That’s a lot of people,” Patton commented.
“What we do is important. We want to make sure we are doing it correctly.” It was honestly not meant to be a jab, but Janus could see Patton frown. He decided to change the subject. “Right now, we’re looking for something that’s causing a small disturbance.”
“What type of thing could cause a disturbance? Is it always a machine like the one in France?”
“No,” Janus replied. “That was actually unusual.” He thought for a second. “At least that used to be unusual, but lately we’ve seen more and more of that sort of thing.”
They were currently standing at a bookshelf, but nothing pinged Janus’s interest or time piece, so they moved on to look at a few of the movie posters. Patton seemed to grow more and more concerned the longer he looked at the posters.
“So, what is it usually?”
“Well,” said Janus. “Some things are natural events. No one’s really sure what causes those. There are theories, but I’m not really involved in that. We leave those alone for the most part if we find those. They’re usually small things, though on occasion they’re a bit bigger. Usually, time disturbances are caused by someone messing up. They say something wrong that gets someone curious and creates a butterfly or they leave an object that doesn’t exist in the time.”
“So, what do you think this one is?” Patton asked curiously.
“Well,” Janus said. “It’s a rather small disturbance, so it won’t be anything too major. Probably just an object out of place.”
“Hmm,” Patton replied. “Well, I’ve always been good at those find the difference games.”
“Have you now?” Janus said, unable to stop a slight grin from ghosting over his face.”
“Mhmm,” replied Patton. He drained the rest of his smoothie and then turned around, facing away from the wall of posters they’d been looking at. He slowly scanned the room, an action a lot less inconspicuous than what Janus had them doing, but he didn’t protest for now.
“That’s weird,” Patton declared, pointing rather obviously at a shelf. Janus noticed a woman looking at him funny. “Well,” Patton continued. “More like it isn’t weird, which is weird for here.”
Janus glanced at the shelf full of small figurines. Most of them were of mythical creatures: werewolves, dragons, and even one not even Janus recognized. Janus would guess, especially judging by the plethora of movie posters that they were all from movies or something of the like. However, Patton was correct there was one that stuck out from the rest. It was still a figurine, but unlike the rest, it was of a real animal: a cow.
“That is odd,” Janus agreed, peering at the cow. Figuring Patton had already been obvious enough, Janus stepped over to the shelf to study it more closely. When looking at it more closely, it became obvious that the cow was very unlike everything else on the shelf. It wasn’t even really a figurine like the ones around it. It looked more like a children’s toy. It’s fur was made out of a soft looking material instead of the stiff plastic of the werewolf next to it.
“It doesn’t really fit in with the collection, does it?” a voice asked from behind Janus.
Janus winced internally at the fact that a civilian had just noticed him acting oddly, but kept his face smooth externally as he turned to face the woman standing behind him.
“My friend and I were wondering what it was from,” Janus said evenly. “We recognized the rest of the figures, but I’m not sure where this one came from.”
“Well, that’s because it didn’t come from anything,” the woman said. “At least that I know of. I just didn’t know where to put the thing, so I put it on my movie figurine shelf.”
“Ah,” said Janus, a politely interested crinkle to his brow. “Where did you get it then?”
“A young kid came by about, oh, a week ago. He looked like a high school kid or maybe college. He seemed right confused and upset. He said he didn’t have any money on him, and got weird when I tried to ask him about his parents. I ended up giving him a free drink and let him sit here for a couple’a hours. We got to talking about my collections. See, I have a deal that if someone brings me back something of interest for my displays, they get a free drink. He insisted on giving me that in exchange for the drink even though I told him I’d given him the drink ‘cause he seemed upset.”
“I don’t even particularly want the thing, but he said he didn’t want it anyway, and he insisted, so I took it.”
“Interesting,” Janus said. “Do you mind if I touch it?”
“Go ahead,” she said with a shrug.
He reached forward to pick up the cow and felt the softest of fizzles that only someone who regularly time traveled would feel. Despite already knowing this must be what he’d come for, he still subtlety set his timepiece to scan it.
Patton was peering over her shoulder now. “If both you and the person who gave it to you don’t care much about it, do you think we could buy it off of you?” he asked. “I’m a big fan of cows.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess,” she agreed. “If you really like it. I don’t know what else I’d do with it.”
“How much?” Janus asked.
“Well it only cost me a Lemon CastelWalk and a scone, so about 12.”
“Sure,” Janus agreed, pulling out his wallet and forking over the currency. “Thanks,” he said.
“No problem,” she replied. “Hope you can find some use for it.”
Janus gave her a smile and then looked at Patton. “I think it’s about time to go, don’t you think.”
Patton nodded. “Thank you for the cow statue,” he told the woman as they left the shop. They walked a bit down the street. Patton turned to him once they were out of sight of the shop window. “So, that’s it?” he asked.
Janus nodded and checked his time piece which had finished it’s scan. “The fabric is from the late 43rd century,” he confirmed, “but that’s not all. It’s stranger than that.”
“Stranger how?” Patton asked.
“The materials are definitely from the 43rd century,” Janus said, “but it’s not from the 43rd century.”
“What do you mean?”
“This,” Janus said, looking at the cow. “This doesn’t exist. Every object has traces of where it’s been no matter how much you clean it. My timepiece can register debris sticking to an object down to the microscopic level and give a general idea where and when they came from. There’s no time travel residue implying it came from the 43rd century or even just dust or dirt from that time period. There isn’t even anything on it from this time period from more than the week the shop owner said it was in her possession. My scans seem to be saying, this thing popped into existence a week ago and didn’t exist in any time or place before that.
Patton frowned. “Well then, what does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” answered Janus frowning down at it. “I have absolutely no idea.”
Chapter 58
Janus didn’t know what to make of the cow he’d gotten in 2510. He’d said goodbye to the young version of Patton and grabbed Remus before heading back to the TPI. He’d immediately handed the time anomaly over to the labs, but even after a few weeks, he hadn’t heard anything back yet. The labs seemed just as stumped as he was.
The older version of Patton still drifted in and out of his life, usually unseen, like a ghost in the night. Well, a ghost that cooked him plenty of healthy food.
It felt odd slipping back into his old routine of missions.
Sometimes it felt like no time had passed, but then he’d see the faces of new recruits or get a mission where he didn’t see Rhi and remember that things were different now. The TPI was strained, constantly running after time distortions with no idea what or who was causing them. The new recruits were stumbling to catch up to the agents who knew what they were doing but were still needed to fill the gaps. It made Janus grimace, but he didn’t know what the solution was.
It was nice to be able to talk to Emile about these things.
If Patton made sure he was taking care of himself at home with nice meals and an ever-changing option of soaps and shampoos, Emile made sure he was taking care of himself at work. Janus was now forced to have a water bottle at his desk to make sure he wasn’t spending the day dehydrated and, assuming he was not on a mission, Emile would either drag him away to eat lunch or bring lunch too him if he was too busy. Today was the later kind of day. Emile had messaged him about 45 minutes ago asking if he was free and then had taken his order for a local restaurant when Janus said he had too much to do.
There was a knock on the door and both Fred and Janus, the only two occupants of the office at the moment looked up.
“I’ll get it,” Janus said, getting up before Fred did. He knew Fred was currently in the middle of a report on a trip to 2000B.C. he and Lena went to. They’d let a new recruit tag alone for training purposes. It had gone badly to say the least. Fred looked exhausted and stressed which was unlike the usually cheery man.
Janus shuffled to the door and opened it. A man in his early 30s that Janus didn’t recognize was standing there.
“Hi,” he said. “I, uh, moved into the office next door. My name is Dave.”
There was a moment of silence. “Did you need something Dave.”
“Right,” he said. “Yeah, I was just wondering if your integrator is running, because mine isn’t.”
Janus glanced back at the report he’d been working on. “Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Well, is it, like, connecting to the TPI system?”
“I don’t know,” said Janus, “I was working locally.”
“Yeah, well that’s the problem with mine. I was wondering if anyone else was having the same problem.”
“Let me check,” said Janus, walking over to his desk. He went to open his email and an error message popped up.
That was… odd to say the least. The TPI had very, very reliable technology. If it was just Janus who could not access the system, he’d assume it was just a local problem, but if the next door neighbor also was having an issue, that could smell trouble.
“Fred,” Janus called. “Are you connected to the internet?”
Fred glanced down at his computer and clicked a couple of buttons. “No,” he said.
“Hmm,” Janus said. He pulled up his timepiece. That at least connected to the TPI servers, so the servers themselves weren’t down, just the offices’ connection to them. “Well, I can still connect with my timepiece.”
“Same,” said Fred.
“So, what’s wrong?” Dave asked. “How do we fix it?”
“We don’t fix it,” Janus said. “We submit a tech support request.”
“Oh,” said Dave. “…How do you do that?”
Janus sighed and flicked his wrist to project a screen. “If you go to the web on your timepiece, it’s literally on the page that automatically pops up,” he said pointing.
“We can connect to the internet through our timepieces?” Dave asked.
“…Did you have any training?” Janus asked.
“Don’t be rude,” Fred said absently, still typing on his report.
Janus just rolled his eyes.
“Not on… that part. They did give me a handbook.”
“Have you read it?” Janus asked.
Dave shrugged which told Janus everything he needed to know.
“Just go back to your office,” Janus told Dave. “I’ll submit the tech support request this time since it’s affecting me as well but read your handbook and familiarize yourself with your timepiece for goodness’s sake.”
“Okay,” Dave said, turning around and wandering back to his office with no thoughts in his eyes.
“I’m not your fucking preschool teacher,” Janus muttered under his breath as he returned to his desk. “It’s not my job to hold your hand and wipe your ass.”
Fred glanced up at him. “Thanks for not saying that when he was still in the room,” he said.
Janus shot him a thumbs up.
He sat down at his desk and quickly submitted a tech support request. By the time he finished that, Emile was knocking on the door with a bag of food.
“Come in,” Janus said to him, and he did, pulling over Remus’s chair and plopping down the food on Janus’s desk.
“You look stressed,” Emile commented.
Janus sighed, already reaching into the bag to look at what Emile had bought. “Everything’s disorganized, everything’s broken, and no one knows how to do anything.”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “I’ve noticed the TPI is understaffed. Even with all of the new recruits, there never seems to be enough people to go around.”
“Yeah,” Janus said, pulling out a burger on a pretzel bun and going to unwrap it. “How about you? This all been messing up your job too?”
“In general, for the AMO, yes, because they have to get all of the new agents houses and everything. For my department, not as much, but we are seeing some agents getting stressed because they’re overworked. Mostly the more senior agents.”
“Honestly, I’m lucky stress makes me throw myself into work to avoid thinking about it. I shudder to think how all of the mentally healthy people are holding up.”
“Janus,” Emile scolded.
“Plus, I’m already set up to have an appointment with a head doctor at least twice a week, so I’m good on that front.”
“I guess that’s true. Just don’t overwork yourself,” Emile said.
“I’m fine Emile. Plus, they need me. I seem to be one of the few people around here who actually know what they’re doing.”
“I just worry…” he said.
“I can handle it well enough,” Janus promised. “I’ve got the toolkit or whatever the head doctor calls it. Plus… work wasn’t ever actually the problem.”
“I know. I know…Just…you aren’t even taking lunch.”
“I have a bit more time free in the afternoon,” Janus said.
“I was just in the middle of something today. If you’re free for a half hour or something, we could get a cup of coffee. How about that? Would that assuage your worry about me a least a bit?”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “Yeah, it would a bit. I have a break at 2, would that work?”
“Sure,” Janus said. He technically had a good amount of stuff to do, but Emile was right in the end. He should try to take breaks. It wasn’t his duty to do everything at the TPI. “A quick lunch now and coffee at 2.”
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obsession vs. true crime obsession -- article one
It's no secret that an obsession can lead to dangerous thoughts or even actions. Case in point, a man's obsession with a young actress took a dark and deadly turn in the year nineteen ninety eight. Another who shall not be named, a mass murderer had made personal videos boasting about being the next mass shooter and how many victims he had hoped to take out.
True Crime used to be a niche, older women watching 20/20, Dateline, and 48 Hours to relax before going to bed. But with true crime being glorified in today's media it's no surprise that it has garnered a larger audience. Study's have shown that over consumption of true crime media can actually affect us mentally. Some get anxious, depressed, and even afraid to leave their own house.
When does true crime stop being about simple curiosity and drastically changes into a fear based consumption? It's human nature to be curious about something, most of us will look up the details of cases to have a better understanding or just for simple entertainment values.
Quite a few people have acquired a fan base centered around true crime. Popular YouTubers and Twitch streamers alike have their own little true crime community. But when does an obsession with true crime become too much?
Quite a few young girls have public fan accounts on social media dedicated to prolific serial killers such as Richard Ramierz, Ted Bundy, and Jeffrey Dahmer. But are these innocent interests or are they darker than that?
Could an overly obsessed true crime fan possibly take it a step further? Yes, true crime gives into our curiosity but what if one were to become too obsessed? Clearly from past events an obsession with someone (or something) can lead to dark acts against another human but what about an obsession with true crime in general?
As mentioned earlier, the mass killer had actually done research in school shootings before carrying out his plan. He watched their home videos, the multitudes of documentaries, and was able to read their journals. Yeah, it's all out in the open on the internet. He even knew what guns and ammo they had used to carry out the unspeakable act.
So how does true crime truly affect ones mental health?
And what are the demographics of those who indulge in the true crime community?
Many- many women admit to watching true crime to relax before bed leading to them getting a confused and sometimes concerned looks from their male partners. I too am guilty for watching true crime streamers to fall asleep.
According to an article on Buzzfeed- true crime fans are often able to fall asleep due to the life long tradition of telling kids bedtime stories, which usually consist of a 'monster' or some other form. It could even be as simple as the narrator's voice being very soothing. I mean, Keith Morrison has a great even tone.
Besides an over consumption of true crime media causing anxiety and depression, it can turn fear based as earlier stated. Some even admit to being overly paranoid when out in public or around others. Some choose to live a life of solitude because the large amount of grisly media they have watched, read, and listened to people talk about.
It's always a great idea to take a true crime break! You can always read that new article later on in the week!
Another great point is by Dr. Rutledge:
"Crime attracts our attention because we are hardwired to notice things that indicate danger; we instinctively watch to see if we are at risk."
But what about the barely one percent who watch true crime to commit crime? Is true crime media a bad thing? Are the intimate details too easily obtainable?
I mean, finding the right website can show pictures and videos of the aftermath of an evil act. Even the entire act itself, like Luka Magnotta who had posted pictures and videos on the internet of himself killing his victims.
And what about the select few who watch and even enjoy actual snuff films? I couldn't believe how many websites that show videos and pictures of people getting murdered or even killing themselves so readily available for anyone to watch.
Yes, human curiosity plays a huge role on why we enjoy indulging in true crime media but what happens when one takes things too far? What about the one who wants to be well known in the true crime community for bad reasons?
In history there have been a multitude of copycat killers who took the lives of innocent people solely for the fact that they too wanted the same notoriety. So when does everything just become too much?
Does something snap inside of the person after seeing the multitudes of true crime? Is it the media presence itself?
Do red flags start to wave with certain people who enjoy true crime on a deeper level? Are warning signs even displaying themselves within these individuals? What about the young girls who have actual fan pages for these well known serial killers?
Should we be concerned about those who over indulge and enjoy true crime a little too much?
Sources sited:
1-- ://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/drumoorhouse/fall-asleep-true-crime-podcasts-dateline
2-- https://www.psychreg.org/explain-lockdown-obsession-true-crime-tv/#:~:text=True%20crime%20allows%20us%20to%20experience%20fear%20in%20a%20safe%20way,-There%20is%20no&text=Crime%20attracts%20our%20attention%20because,if%20we%20are%20at%20risk.
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I posted 1,079 times in 2022
That's 578 more posts than 2021!
803 posts created (74%)
276 posts reblogged (26%)
Blogs I reblogged the most:
@puphee
@jaylaxies
@jeontaeil-archived
I tagged 818 of my posts in 2022
Only 24% of my posts had no tags
#🦋ask : anon - 193 posts
#shut up ceb - 159 posts
#txt hard hours - 157 posts
#🦋: mutuals - 96 posts
#enhypen hard hours - 90 posts
#txt smut - 53 posts
#skz hard hours - 48 posts
#soobin smut - 40 posts
#🦋ask : koa anon - 30 posts
#julia🐛 - 28 posts
Longest Tag: 135 characters
#yeah i stalk ur prifile sometimes bc it seems like you have my post notifs on and idk a lot of male tumblr users aside from my moots so
My Top Posts in 2022:
#5
ummm txt mtl to cum from eating the reader out??? ^_^
hope you’re having a good day/night! <3
-@gyulfriend ⭐️
Reasoning will be under the cut!
Most
Soobin
HueningKai
Beomgyu
Yeonjun
Taehyun
Least
I am a firm believer in the Soobin and Huening Service top agenda. Soobin and HueningKai are actually on the same level with this tbh. For different reasons tho
Soobin would def because he’s a huge pervert and it just gets him so riled up to make you feel so good that you’re pulling on his hair or wtv and he just really really gets off to the thought that it’s him of all people making you feel this way. He’s probably fantasized about this a lot before, so when it’s reality, he can’t help how hard and desperate he gets subconsciously </3
Kai is MEGA service top. But he’s also pretty shy. But also not. It’s hard to explain how i think. Kai takes great pleasure in helping you get off, and he thinks it’s so rewarding to see you so blissed out and beautiful and even more so when you praise him for doing such a good job. Like, his sole focus is on helping you get off, so he, like soobin actually, doesn’t even realize he’s grinding his hips against whatever while he’s eating u out, only registers it when he’s actually cum and then he gets all blushy and embarrassed and flustered and apologizes, but you always say it’s okay because it’s really so cute just how happy he really gets just to make you feel good. This (my description of this) is so ass compared to what it’s really like in my brain i wish i could show you what it’s like in my brain so bad rn.
Beomgyu is also a major pervert, and has definitely cum untouched while eating you out before, but it was kind of a once in a while occurrence. it’s not something that happens very often.
Yeonjun and Taehyun are neutral tbh. Yeonjun might have had it happen before when he was extremely turned on or excited before, but that’s it. Taehyun doesn’t think of it as anything significant enough that he could cum from it. Yeonjun kind of has the same mindset in that aspect.
414 notes - Posted June 12, 2022
#4
yeonjun fucking his gf on the kitchen counter in the middle of the night 🥺
Today was a day where the both of you could just lay around in your pajamas for the day, nothing important on your schedules. The sun has set long ago and you're still lounging in your sleep attire while Yeonjun is sat in his gaming chair in only his boxers. Let's say you're both insomniacs, okay? Both of you can't exactly fall asleep any time soon. Maybe it's Yeonjun's fault for having the brightness on his monitor turned onto its highest setting, or it could be that you were staring at your phone screen for the past couple of hours without taking a break, but we aren't going to blame anyone right now. You've finally started to begin feeling tired, so you set your phone down and stretch, stumbling into the kitchen to get a glass of water and maybe cut up an apple for a late snack.
As you were too focused on your screen, you hadn't realized Yeonjun had stopped playing his games and began to watch you with hungry eyes. The position you were laying in was a little... let's say it just gave him a very nice view😁👍 anyways with every shift you make, it had given him even better angles for him to ogle at. Being the pervert he is, he's gotten a little excited. When you get up to go to the kitchen, he follows suit, taking this opportunity. Maybe he'll finally feel tired after blowing your back out lmao.
Anyways, his hands snake around your waist, and he presses up against you. Yeonjun places a kiss to beneath your ear and down your neck, gaining a small giggle from your lips.
"Hey, baby?"
"Hm?"
"Are you still not tired?"
"Hm... only a little, but other than that, I'm a bit restless."
A smirk will grace his lips as he turns you around in his arms, looking you in the eyes. "I have an idea. Maybe it'll help."
It doesn't take much for you to agree, and by now, Yeonjun has lifted you up onto the counter and slipped off your shorts and underwear, leaving your lower half bare in front of him. He delicately traces his fingertips along your folds and rubbed small circles into your clit, collecting your arousal on his fingers with a smile. Once he deems that you're wet enough, he strips his boxers off and steadily pushes into you <3
The angle makes him hit just the right spots repeatedly, your toes curling with every thrust of his hips. He might even bring a hand up to wrap around your pretty throat if that's what you like. Despite the dark, he can perfectly see the way his cock drags out of you only to push right in again sharply.
It'd probably be a bit of a quickie, because not a lot of energy was within the both of you in the first place, so there wasn't a lot to put into it either. (Obviously enough for you both to blow a load tho) Will be very proud of himself with coming up with the idea because you're so spent and tired that you slur your words a little afterwards. You also make sure to tell him how much you liked fucking in that position hehe so you can do it again.
Sorry if this was ass, I wrote this while I had a fever and forgot to post it
556 notes - Posted May 30, 2022
#3
thoughts on makeup sex with any txt member of your choosing?
😼I'm gonna give my thoughts on make up sex with the choi line !! Before you thank me, you're so welcome
YEONJUN:
Your argument was so stupid that you don't even remember what it was about at this point
You've been ignoring him for a few days, so you've forgotten why you were still so upset with him
He feels really bad though, and not talking to you for a few days made him feel even worse
He knew it was his fault for starting it, and he wanted nothing more than to apologize
But you wouldn't return his texts or calls
He's a little worried at this point, so he decides to just show up at your place and try to talk to you in person
When you open the door and look fine, he feels relieved, and immediately engulfs you in a hug
"I'm sorry, baby. I missed you so much."
You pout standing still for a while before feeling your resolve melt and hugging him back.
"Let me make it up to you, please?"
Make up sex with Yeonjun would have a lot of apologies and "I missed you"s.
He'd remind you how much he loves you and will be really gentle the whole time
Missionary bc he wants to kiss all over your face and to kiss away any and all tears that may slip past your eyelids
SOOBIN:
Soobin had been really stressed with work lately and, although he didn't mean to, he took it out on you
You did not appreciate it and you got onto his case about it, saying you weren't going to put up with it and to get out of your apartment
He realizes he messed up almost immediately after you scold him and kick him out
He feels really bad, especially when you ignore him for the next few days or so
Will continue to send you good morning and goodnight texts even though you leave him on read.
After he gets particularly upset about not talking with you, he'll text you again
"I'm sorry. Please let me make it up to you. I miss you."
You're too curious for your own good, so you respond: "how will you make it up to me?"
"Let me come over. I want to show you how sorry I am."
You let him come over and as soon as he's in your apartment and the door is closed, he has you in his arms and his lips on yours.
You would have put up more of a fight if you didn't see that he had been crying.
He leaves apologies repeatedly against your lips, holding you tight as if he were afraid to let you go (which he is)
You hold onto his shirt when you kiss him back, tugging on it a little.
See the full post
735 notes - Posted June 17, 2022
#2
11:17 PM
See the full post
808 notes - Posted May 25, 2022
My #1 post of 2022
The Weekend
-p.js
WARNINGS: barely proofread for mistakes, car sex, grinding, unprotected sex, glasses kink, facial, mutual masturbation, jay giving mixed signals ig, open/shitty ending
WORD COUNT: 3.36k
A/N: i kinda gave up on making this any longer, so maybe in the future there will be a part two but that won’t be any time soon. Hope you enjoy ;)
Also I listened to The Weekend by BIBI on repeat while writing this fic so feel free to do the same as you read <3
See the full post
1,379 notes - Posted January 19, 2022
Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →
#tumblr2022#year in review#my 2022 tumblr year in review#your tumblr year in review#yeahhaah baby#The Weekend best post best fic ever
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#CodyWolfe @CodyWolfeMusic
Cody Wolfe’s “Better Without You” music video gained nearly over 57k in 48 hours streams after a mass message was sent asking fans to stream the song to support Wolfe after his July 27th show at The Bijou Theater in Bridgeport Connecticut was canceled over a Rebel flag post on Twitter.
“It’s horrible, people have no freedom of speech anymore,” says Wolfe “People gotta start standing up to this Bull $hit, a lot of great southern people fought and died for that flag to honor something they believed in, I don’t cuss out your Pride flag, you don’t tread on my Rebel flag” Wolfe’s mostly conservative country music fan-base supports his music and is all for freedom of speech.
“Oh I made it a point to go after the conservative fanbase, I want people that support music. Not people who want to cancel it. Hell, I’d tour with Kid Rock, Morgan Wallen, or John Rich any day. I support people and artists who have the nerve to speak up or to be themselves that’s the trouble with this world. No more freedom to be yourself and everyone forced to be someone they are not. Every venue that tried to screw me in the past has gone out of business, every single one, I offered to pay the Bijou Theater to secure a spot, feeling bad for local venues post Covid and I was dead positive I would make the money back from the show so I figured I’d do everything I could to help. I’ve seen it mentioned he was struggling to keep his doors open. But when he canceled my show just like that because of a Tweet I honestly hope people stop supporting him. You see what happened when they tried to cancel Morgan Wallen. I know it’s lofty comparing myself to him but they are pulling the same $hit with me they did with him. My fans will not stand for it, they’ve already shown their support.
The venue owner called me on the phone and said “I don’t want the Facebook Group Fairfield Mom’s seeing I booked an artist with a Rebel Flag on his page, if I lose her support I will go out of business” caring more about a Facebook page with 4,000 members then an artist with 10 Million views on his song and a massive local email list. I couldn’t believe how stupid it was” says Wolfe. One email I could put this guy right out of business but I’m not a jerk, I’d rather fans stream my song in to prove a point! Not only will we not back down, but we are ready to Bring Country Back!
I’m also gonna make a song about this you can bet on it” says Wolfe, pleased to see a large bump in both iTunes downloads and YouTube Streams from his fans joining together in support. His song “Better Without You” which came out in 2021 has amassed 10 Million total views and charted #1 in 3 countries on iTunes Digital Sales Charts. The song hasn’t seen much of a jump in streams since its initial release as marketing campaign funds tend to be spent elsewhere. This was the first genuine organic bump in streams since the song's release.
Show your support for Freedom Of Speech and Stream Cody Wolfe!
youtube
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Leaving Bratislava, Slovakia 🇸🇰 ➡️ Carnuntum, Austria 🇦🇹 ➡️ Gyor, Hungary 🇭🇺 ➡️ Budapest, Hungary 🇭🇺 ➡️ Bucharest, Romania 🇷🇴
So in the space of 48 hours I have now set four in four separate countries: Slovakia, Austria, Hungary & Romania! This post concerns those past 48 hours as much has happened in such a short amount of time!
Yesterday morning we left Bratislava early, and made the shorty jaunt across the border into Austria. We then got a chance to visit the location of some partially restored Roman ruins, part of the northernmost outpost of the Roman Empire. We got to tour the ruins, and learn about the inter workings of the outpost, as well as how the Roman Legion lived and trained in this small village. We got to also step into some restored Roman baths as well as see a full reconstruction of the home of a village noble.
After touring the ruins, we hopped on the bus again and made our way across the border into Hungary. Our first stop in this country was Gyor, a small town which is famous for the ancient (and now UNSECO protected) craft of blue-printing on fabrics. The technique involves a wooden stamp print, then the fabric is dipped into the indigo dye, and then treated with acid or vinegar so the white print shows up against the blue. We got to visit a family owned business who still make their crafts by hand and got some handmade blueprinted fabrics.
We made our way then into the busy streets of Budapest, and got to go to the top of the hotel roof where we got a brilliant view of the whole city. We were able to get some photos which some of the tour members who we had grown close to during our travels, which was nice because the three of us would be leaving the tour a day early tomorrow to make our way to Romania for our next tour.
This morning we woke up early and were able to take a tour of the city with a brilliant local tour guide Daniel, who took us to Freedom Square where we got to see the statutes of the seven tribes which “founded” this area. We also learned first hand the brilliant snarky sarcasm of the Hungarians, which Mom, Pat & I got a big kick out of. We got to go up to the top of city to the castle, and Mom and I toured around the cathedral. Lunch we got to try some handmade strudel, before we all bid farewell to the rest of the tour, and Johanka got us to our cab for the airport.
I will say this for the Budapest airport that it was the quickest I have ever been through both security & Border Patrol, with it only taking roughly 5 minutes to get through both (interpret that as you will as not many people appeared to be flying out from Budapest). The three of us picked up a few snackies at Duty Free as it was the only place that would take Euros, so “dinner” consisted of Pringles and bottled water this evening.
When we got through the gate, we took a short bus to the plane which turned out to be a propeller plane; Mom and Pat both remarked that neither of them had been on a prop-plane in 25 years so it did give us three a bit of pause. As you can now surmise, we did survive the flight but I would be lying if a few prayers & requests to The Almighty occurred during take-off and landing. However, I reminded Mom & Pat that they should not fear because as the great Malcom Reynolds from “Firefly” once said; “We are not going to die tonight. You wanna know why? Because we are too damn pretty”. There was another moment of slight panic after we landed as the three of us were concerned if our bags actually made it to Bucharest, but thank the heavens for AirTags as we were able to see they DID make it, it was just that Air Tarom was taking it’s sweet time getting them to the baggage claim. Nevertheless, all four of our checked bags did make it to Romania 😎
Thankfully Atlas Obscura had arranged a car to pick us up at the airport and drive us right to the hotel, because it was 10:00 at night by the time we had all our bags together. Once we got to the hotel and checked in, we were able to grab some food at the bar in the hotel, which put us all in better spirits. It felt like after the day we had had that we had been traveling for days instead of hours, so all three of us looked forward to crawling into bed and sleeping in tomorrow.
Tomorrow our adventure with Atlas Obscura begins so we will have a new tour leader & a new group of fellow travelers.
Until tomorrow then my friends, I bid you farewell.
Lowry💜
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I just went along to an SM mall. I stayed there for around 3 hours - from 6pm to 9pm. I ate at a Chinese restaurant there and bought some other food items. It was a great experience. I was very tired afterwards.
I don't really have much else going on right now, apart from working and resting after the working and exercising. I have some play to earn games to play in a while to catch up and earn money.
I just updated my Youtube channels and my blogs. I might have to post more frequently on one Youtube channel since the analytics say that I got zero views there in the past 48 hours. But then again it's just a backup channel so I don't really care that much.
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