More of My RE OCs

✂️Individual IDs Beneath Cut✂️

These would be from around 2006-2007. Where Adelaide found her niche in biology, Michael would take an interest in virology.

I’m so happy I finally got around to making finished coloured pieces of them. They’re just simple ID portraits, but I’ve been wanting to draw them for a while now. Leto’s OC post kinda nudged me over the edge, so here they are! I gotta do a whole About Them page sometime soon. They mean so much to me.

"This is a sharp disposal container.”

Xavier’s mom holds it up. The little red plastic box looks ominous, black biohazard symbol shiny, warning label text too small to read unless his nose is pressed to it. He cannot fathom what all of it says, or what it means that something he’s stabbing into his body goes into that when he’s d one. It looks overwhelming in her small, freckled hand. Lark stares at it with upturned, nervous brows. She looks back at him with a serious expression.

“When you’re done with your injection, you put your needles in this box and this box only. Okay, Elias?” He nods quickly. She pauses and slowly slides the box across the bathroom counter until it’s next to his injection supplies. He drums his fingers on it, his other arm crossed over his chest.

“Oh, sweetie, do you want me to do it for you?”

“No,” Lark answers quickly, tone unfortunately very on edge. “It’s just like—uh, very Resident Evil, you know?” Lorelai Wolffe looks at him with narrowed, confused eyes. Then she throws her hands up into the air.

“Whatever that means. You just let me know if you need me, okay? I’ve been doing shots for people since before you were born.” She points to her eyes and then to the sharp disposal container and then to him. Lark salutes, which makes her soften with a smile. “C’mere.” She tugs Lark close by his biceps, peppering kisses into his moppish black hair. He blushes immediately, stiffens at the sudden affection.

He doesn’t know where to place it—her motherly love that he isn’t even sure he’s earned. Xavier’s mother just gives it without asking. Not that he’d been given a free couch to sleep on. Lark was up on Sundays doing chores with Xavier. His class grades were monitored and like the other Wolffe children, he was nagged to brush his teeth morning and night. But, Lark could handle all of that. It was nearly reminiscent of his own mother—even if Lorelai did most of her parenting with a smile—but it was the affection that always made him skittish.

When she draws away, Xavier’s mother cups his cheeks for a moment. Lark finds it hard to meet her eye.

“Oh my God, mom.”

“Xavier Wolffe, you do not—”

“You gotta go, this is private.” Xavier starts to wedge himself between his mother and the bathroom door. He pushes softly at her shoulders. She barely—barely—comes up to his chest. Somewhere along the way Xavier had gone from incredibly scrawny and small, to six-foot-three overnight. Everyone in the house dissolved into near tears every time he accidentally smacked his long limbs into something, because he was so uncoordinated it was like living with a new born moose.

“If it’s so private, why are you here?”

“This is guy time,” Xavier replies, flapping hands. His mother raises a pointed finger and his hands immediately drop, eyebrows raised. His eyes go puppyish and Lark knows then that she will absolutely cave—because Xavier is, at the end of the day, her son. Lark fiddles with the edge of the plastic on the needle he’ll shortly be poking himself with, rather than looking up at the two. He hears the door close.

“Dude,” Xavier says softly.

Lark holds up the still plastic wrapped needle with a smile.

“Your juice.”

“Oh, come on, don’t fucking say it like that,” Lark groans as he sits on the toilet. The bathroom is a little too small for both of them. His mother had fit because she was thin and small and Lark was struggling to grow taller than five-five. But Xavier finds a way to get himself onto the edge of the tub, looking at Lark with big, excited eyes.

“Are you, like, gonna do it?”

“Obviously.”

Lark stays sitting there for a moment, just looking at Xavier. Another minute passes. And then another. He takes the needle and the little vial and looks down at them. He can hear his heartbeat in his ears, loud, roaring. The sound of the family living room outside the door is almost louder; they’re watching some T.V. show together. They’ll have dinner in an hour. It’s pizza night.

“Can you help?”

Xavier leans in, his big smile taking up all of his long, handsome face.

“Show me what to do.”

There’s a small moment where it gets awkward, as Lark shoves down his jeans. He looks at Xavier, who looks at him, with wide innocent eyes.

“The lady said to put the heel of your hand here.” He puts his palm to his thigh and lays it flat. His briefs go down a little too far so he pulls the edge back a little. “You put your hand on my knee—man, your hand might be too fucking big.” Xavier laughs as he cups Lark’s knee. The warm contact of Xavier’s palm makes goosebumps pepper along his leg. He arranges the hands better and then stares down at his pale, smooth thigh.

“Okay,” Lark says, his fingers beginning to tingle. His other knee bounces until Xavier puts his hand there too. Flattens it down with that stupid jock strength. “Thanks.” He works off the red cap of the vial, then arranges the needle. He stares at it for the longest moment, before he begins.

“This is so Resident Evil,” Xavier mumbles, wide eyed.

“You couldn’t even get through the first part of the house,” Lark reminds him, staring with concentration as the needle slowly fills with the murky yellow liquid. He swiftly safety caps it. “You needed me to help you with the dogs.”

“The dogs were fucking scary, man.”

“I don’t think I can do this, Xavier,” Lark says, staring at the spot in his thigh. He swallows and suddenly feels his chest expanding too quickly. Some strange, cold sweat breaks out across his forehead, the back of his neck. He thinks of his room, back home—back home, home—and the dresses in the closet. He thinks of his parents, who didn’t care. Didn’t care he was trans, did not care he was not a girl. He thinks of them, not caring. Not being opposed, but not—just not fucking caring. Lark inhales and then exhales in a wide gulp.

“Oh, easy,” Xavier leans forward, his knee on the tiled floor. His hand cups behind Lark’s neck, looking at him. “C’mon, Lark. You had a calendar on the wall marking the days off to get this shit. It’s just a needle.”

“It’s biohazard waste.”

“Well, because of the like, blood or whatever.”

“The lady said there shouldn’t be that much blood.” Lark’s voice goes high pitched. Xavier’s hand squeezes and makes him jump a little. Both their eyes swing to the capped needle. Xavier’s hand falls away from his neck and then gently takes it. For some reason, it looks comically different in Xavier’s hand. Smaller. Less threatening.

“On the count of three.” He uncaps it and holds it over Lark’s thigh. “And then you get a Batman bandaid.” Lark stares at him and he winces. “Sorry, dude. It’s all we had.”

“One. Two.”

The needle pokes into Lark’s thigh.

Then it comes out, clean. No blood. Xavier safety caps it again and then pokes it into the red sharp disposal container with the shiny black biohazard symbol. He takes the bandaid from the sink, splits it open, smooths it over pale skin. The entire time, Lark watches with his jaw dropped, lips in the shape of a perfect ‘o’. He blinks a few times and then Xavier slowly leans back until he’s sitting on the floor, long legs outstretched on either side of the toilet that Lark sits on.

“Whoa,” Lark says quietly. They share a smile then and Lark thinks to say thank you, but instead the door gets wrenched open. He shrieks then, hastily jerking at his jeans as Xavier’s sister, Emily, stands in the door. Her face turns a shade of red that seems neon.

“Why didn’t you knock?” Xavier snaps, scrambling to stand.

“Mom wants to know what pizza topping you want. I told her pepperoni—”

“Lark likes white pizza—”

“White pizza is boring and—”

The door closes, silencing the conversation and giving Lark a moment to stare at the little red box on the bathroom counter.

***

Matilda bends over the bathroom counter in a way that makes Lark look at the sensual curve of her spine. He flattens a hand on her lower back and slowly slides up, fingers drawing a pattern over the nape of her neck and then back down. She shivers, strands of her pretty hair falling over her bare, pale shoulder. She’d recently gone with a dark purple color, and Lark had admittedly, selfishly it was one of his favorites. Made her eyes pop. Made her stand out in a room, like she should.

“Stop teasing me,” she mumbles, tucking her chin over her shoulder and staring at him with those eyes that stand out luminescent amongst all that dark hair. Lark smiles, his fingers pinching the cup of her ass and then he takes a step back to angle the needle right. It’s a quick poke, but it takes a minute to depress all the estrogen. While he does, his eyes lift to look at her, as she stares at him.

“Taking it like a good girl,” he purrs and she rolls her eyes.

“You’re corny for that,” she comments and then he withdraws the needle. Lark pats the spot with the cotton swab, and then presses on the little dot bandaid she prefers.

Matilda’s shirtless, so when she turns around to face him, Lark gets instantly distracted. His eyes fall on the swell of her breasts, his hands making paths up her sides. He feels her shiver with the sensation, leaning in to put his mouth on one. Her hand stops him, flat on his forehead.

“Lark, be so for real, are you into med fet? You cannot be getting horny every time we do this.”

“I am into boobs,” Lark explains, brows crawling up his forehead as her hand slides from pressing against him to brushing his hair back. It’s his turn to shiver at the feel of her longer, manicured nails scratching across his scalp. Lark puts arms around her middle, tugs her just a bit close. Matilda is pouting, an expression that he never found endearing until her.

“That one hurt,” she complains. He’s sure. The needle she uses is a different gage then his. And she doesn’t have injections on the same frequent level as him—he’d discovered HRT didn’t work interchangeably for them. But it had been interesting to learn it all. Lark tries to lean in again, eyes very focused on a nipple. Instead, Matilda presses her hand on the hollow of his throat, and her sharp thumbnail points his chin up.

“Very t-for-t of you to be into this,” Matilda teases. Lark’s eyes widen as she slides slowly to her knees. The sight alone is enough for something sparking white and hot to overtake his insides. The way she purses her lips, knowingly, beautifully, makes it worse.

“I will be, like, whatever you want if you’re about to do what I think you’re about—okay,” Lark exhales the word noisily as Matilda slides one of his muscular legs over her shoulder.

—

“Do you think about what you’d do if you and Benji broke up?”

Xavier looks up from the sub sandwich in confusion. A banana pepper dangles from his mouth, as well as shredded lettuce. The sub nearly falls apart in his lap so Lark leans over and tugs it further up. They sit on the stage, watching the show clean up, food supplied by the venue. Best subs in all Pennsylvania, they’d boasted and Matilda had snorted and almost argued.

“Uh,” Xavier pushes the pepper into his mouth and chews. “Only if I’m trying to make myself cry on command.” It makes Lark laugh and look back to the roadies. Benny helps carry the equipment, his hat nearly falling off. He watches Matilda lean in and correct it, tuck a strand of his white blond hair back underneath it.

“It’s like,” Lark looks down at his own food, mostly untouched. “You’re at that point where, you’re either going to do it, right? Forever. Like commit to it. Or you’re going to have the most painful break up of your life.” He pulls a black olive off the sub and contemplates eating it.

“Should I be worried that Benji is about to break up with me?” He doesn’t sound worried. Xavier bites into the end of his sub again, fillings pushing out the other side. He’d overstuffed it, because once he heard it was free, he’d asked for almost every item on the menu. Lark watches him chew, bemused expression on his freckly, pale face. Benji is only a few feet back, working on his drums.

What is that like? To feel that confident. To know everything. To not be afraid.

“No,” Lark says, using his hands to help him talk, gesture his way through it. “But if he did, you’d lose it, right?”

“Dude.” Xavier stuffs the rest of the sandwich into his mouth. He chews and swallows and dusts off his chest of the little bits and crumbles and then turns to fully look at Lark. “Why are you thinking about this?”

“That’s terrifying,” Lark comments, deciding against the olive. Against the sandwich. He puts it to the side and then slowly slides off the stage. His legs are sore from the amount of running he’d done the whole show. His throat hurts—and he should be resting his voice, but he isn’t. Because Xavier has always been the one that made decisions feel less big.

“Oh, man. I think I’m about to ask Matilda to live with me. I think, I’m going to like, ask her to never break up with me, ever.”

“Uh. Like marriage.”

“No, that’s absolutely too far. But, the thing before that, but after casual dating.” Xavier gives him a look that says, you’re so fucking hopeless.

“She’s coming over here, by the way.”

Lark yanks his hands out his hair, shoving them into his back pockets. He watches Matilda hop around the cables on the floor that Nomi is organizing. He watches her look up from under her lashes as she does and smile. Lark swallows and exhales—then inhales a giant breath of air that doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Just gets stuck in his chest. It expands so big it feels like he’s going to break open. Little fizzles of him will go everywhere.

“Count of three, Lark. One, two,—”

Xavier kicks him squarely in the back and sends him stumbling toward Matilda. And he is so scared, but when her arms drape over his shoulders, Lark looks up and thinks, this isn’t scary at all. She sighs dramatically, theatrical with her exhaustion as she puts their foreheads together. This isn’t scary, if it’s her.

“I have a question for you,” he says softly.

“I’ve got an answer,” she answers cheekily, her smile curling, pretty and all her.

I know you do, he thinks. Isn’t that funny? I know you do.

—

Lark slides the vials of estrogen into his bathroom cabinet. He looks at them, lined up, on the side that is now Matilda’s. There’s nail polish and four different kinds of lotion, and a cream she uses on her face at night. Lark moves them so the labels face outward, because that seems right. Then he feels a yank around his middle and he’s suddenly stumbling backward.

“See? I knew you were into medical shit. You are so weird, Lark.” Matilda’s voice is right against his ear. Her warm breath tickles his freshly bleached hair. He snorts and turns, shoving her flat back onto the bed that had once just been his. Bags of her stuff are in the room, ready to unpack.

And it’s not like permanent because she has her own place (a really, admittedly, nice place), but until they figure out which place is the best, it’s something shared instead. He pulls his shirt off from the back of his neck, stalking toward her on the bed.

“You’re so not beating the allegations, acting like that after unpacking my stuff in the bathroom.” Despite what she says, Matilda’s knees widen to accept his body between them. Her hands dance up across his toned abdomen. Her eyes are dark. Pretty. The new hair is a bright yellow and orange ombre. He likes it. He just likes her.

“You know what? I’m okay with that,” Lark reasons, snarky and mean as he crawls over her on the bed and presses swift kisses to her cheek. Over and over and then on the bridge of her nose, making her giggle until it’s high pitched and she’s shoving at him. Half hearted, because she likes it. Likes him.

question, answer

"This is a sharp disposal container.”

Xavier’s mom holds it up. The little red plastic box looks ominous, black biohazard symbol shiny, warning label text too small to read unless his nose is pressed to it. He cannot fathom what all of it says, or what it means that something he’s stabbing into his body goes into that when he’s d one. It looks overwhelming in her small, freckled hand. Lark stares at it with upturned, nervous brows. She looks back at him with a serious expression.

“When you’re done with your injection, you put your needles in this box and this box only. Okay, Elias?” He nods quickly. She pauses and slowly slides the box across the bathroom counter until it’s next to his injection supplies. He drums his fingers on it, his other arm crossed over his chest.

“Oh, sweetie, do you want me to do it for you?”

“No,” Lark answers quickly, tone unfortunately very on edge. “It’s just like—uh, very Resident Evil, you know?” Lorelai Wolffe looks at him with narrowed, confused eyes. Then she throws her hands up into the air.

“Whatever that means. You just let me know if you need me, okay? I’ve been doing shots for people since before you were born.” She points to her eyes and then to the sharp disposal container and then to him. Lark salutes, which makes her soften with a smile. “C’mere.” She tugs Lark close by his biceps, peppering kisses into his moppish black hair. He blushes immediately, stiffens at the sudden affection.

He doesn’t know where to place it—her motherly love that he isn’t even sure he’s earned. Xavier’s mother just gives it without asking. Not that he’d been given a free couch to sleep on. Lark was up on Sundays doing chores with Xavier. His class grades were monitored and like the other Wolffe children, he was nagged to brush his teeth morning and night. But, Lark could handle all of that. It was nearly reminiscent of his own mother—even if Lorelai did most of her parenting with a smile—but it was the affection that always made him skittish.

When she draws away, Xavier’s mother cups his cheeks for a moment. Lark finds it hard to meet her eye.

“Oh my God, mom.”

“Xavier Wolffe, you do not—”

“You gotta go, this is private.” Xavier starts to wedge himself between his mother and the bathroom door. He pushes softly at her shoulders. She barely—barely—comes up to his chest. Somewhere along the way Xavier had gone from incredibly scrawny and small, to six-foot-three overnight. Everyone in the house dissolved into near tears every time he accidentally smacked his long limbs into something, because he was so uncoordinated it was like living with a new born moose.

“If it’s so private, why are you here?”

“This is guy time,” Xavier replies, flapping hands. His mother raises a pointed finger and his hands immediately drop, eyebrows raised. His eyes go puppyish and Lark knows then that she will absolutely cave—because Xavier is, at the end of the day, her son. Lark fiddles with the edge of the plastic on the needle he’ll shortly be poking himself with, rather than looking up at the two. He hears the door close.

“Dude,” Xavier says softly.

Lark holds up the still plastic wrapped needle with a smile.

“Your juice.”

“Oh, come on, don’t fucking say it like that,” Lark groans as he sits on the toilet. The bathroom is a little too small for both of them. His mother had fit because she was thin and small and Lark was struggling to grow taller than five-five. But Xavier finds a way to get himself onto the edge of the tub, looking at Lark with big, excited eyes.

“Are you, like, gonna do it?”

“Obviously.”

Lark stays sitting there for a moment, just looking at Xavier. Another minute passes. And then another. He takes the needle and the little vial and looks down at them. He can hear his heartbeat in his ears, loud, roaring. The sound of the family living room outside the door is almost louder; they’re watching some T.V. show together. They’ll have dinner in an hour. It’s pizza night.

“Can you help?”

Xavier leans in, his big smile taking up all of his long, handsome face.

“Show me what to do.”

There’s a small moment where it gets awkward, as Lark shoves down his jeans. He looks at Xavier, who looks at him, with wide innocent eyes.

“The lady said to put the heel of your hand here.” He puts his palm to his thigh and lays it flat. His briefs go down a little too far so he pulls the edge back a little. “You put your hand on my knee—man, your hand might be too fucking big.” Xavier laughs as he cups Lark’s knee. The warm contact of Xavier’s palm makes goosebumps pepper along his leg. He arranges the hands better and then stares down at his pale, smooth thigh.

“Okay,” Lark says, his fingers beginning to tingle. His other knee bounces until Xavier puts his hand there too. Flattens it down with that stupid jock strength. “Thanks.” He works off the red cap of the vial, then arranges the needle. He stares at it for the longest moment, before he begins.

“This is so Resident Evil,” Xavier mumbles, wide eyed.

“You couldn’t even get through the first part of the house,” Lark reminds him, staring with concentration as the needle slowly fills with the murky yellow liquid. He swiftly safety caps it. “You needed me to help you with the dogs.”

“The dogs were fucking scary, man.”

“I don’t think I can do this, Xavier,” Lark says, staring at the spot in his thigh. He swallows and suddenly feels his chest expanding too quickly. Some strange, cold sweat breaks out across his forehead, the back of his neck. He thinks of his room, back home—back home, home—and the dresses in the closet. He thinks of his parents, who didn’t care. Didn’t care he was trans, did not care he was not a girl. He thinks of them, not caring. Not being opposed, but not—just not fucking caring. Lark inhales and then exhales in a wide gulp.

“Oh, easy,” Xavier leans forward, his knee on the tiled floor. His hand cups behind Lark’s neck, looking at him. “C’mon, Lark. You had a calendar on the wall marking the days off to get this shit. It’s just a needle.”

“It’s biohazard waste.”

“Well, because of the like, blood or whatever.”

“The lady said there shouldn’t be that much blood.” Lark’s voice goes high pitched. Xavier’s hand squeezes and makes him jump a little. Both their eyes swing to the capped needle. Xavier’s hand falls away from his neck and then gently takes it. For some reason, it looks comically different in Xavier’s hand. Smaller. Less threatening.

“On the count of three.” He uncaps it and holds it over Lark’s thigh. “And then you get a Batman bandaid.” Lark stares at him and he winces. “Sorry, dude. It’s all we had.”

“One. Two.”

The needle pokes into Lark’s thigh.

Then it comes out, clean. No blood. Xavier safety caps it again and then pokes it into the red sharp disposal container with the shiny black biohazard symbol. He takes the bandaid from the sink, splits it open, smooths it over pale skin. The entire time, Lark watches with his jaw dropped, lips in the shape of a perfect ‘o’. He blinks a few times and then Xavier slowly leans back until he’s sitting on the floor, long legs outstretched on either side of the toilet that Lark sits on.

“Whoa,” Lark says quietly. They share a smile then and Lark thinks to say thank you, but instead the door gets wrenched open. He shrieks then, hastily jerking at his jeans as Xavier’s sister, Emily, stands in the door. Her face turns a shade of red that seems neon.

“Why didn’t you knock?” Xavier snaps, scrambling to stand.

“Mom wants to know what pizza topping you want. I told her pepperoni—”

“Lark likes white pizza—”

“White pizza is boring and—”

The door closes, silencing the conversation and giving Lark a moment to stare at the little red box on the bathroom counter.

***

Matilda bends over the bathroom counter in a way that makes Lark look at the sensual curve of her spine. He flattens a hand on her lower back and slowly slides up, fingers drawing a pattern over the nape of her neck and then back down. She shivers, strands of her pretty hair falling over her bare, pale shoulder. She’d recently gone with a dark purple color, and Lark had admittedly, selfishly it was one of his favorites. Made her eyes pop. Made her stand out in a room, like she should.

“Stop teasing me,” she mumbles, tucking her chin over her shoulder and staring at him with those eyes that stand out luminescent amongst all that dark hair. Lark smiles, his fingers pinching the cup of her ass and then he takes a step back to angle the needle right. It’s a quick poke, but it takes a minute to depress all the estrogen. While he does, his eyes lift to look at her, as she stares at him.

“Taking it like a good girl,” he purrs and she rolls her eyes.

“You’re corny for that,” she comments and then he withdraws the needle. Lark pats the spot with the cotton swab, and then presses on the little dot bandaid she prefers.

Matilda’s shirtless, so when she turns around to face him, Lark gets instantly distracted. His eyes fall on the swell of her breasts, his hands making paths up her sides. He feels her shiver with the sensation, leaning in to put his mouth on one. Her hand stops him, flat on his forehead.

“Lark, be so for real, are you into med fet? You cannot be getting horny every time we do this.”

“I am into boobs,” Lark explains, brows crawling up his forehead as her hand slides from pressing against him to brushing his hair back. It’s his turn to shiver at the feel of her longer, manicured nails scratching across his scalp. Lark puts arms around her middle, tugs her just a bit close. Matilda is pouting, an expression that he never found endearing until her.

“That one hurt,” she complains. He’s sure. The needle she uses is a different gage then his. And she doesn’t have injections on the same frequent level as him—he’d discovered HRT didn’t work interchangeably for them. But it had been interesting to learn it all. Lark tries to lean in again, eyes very focused on a nipple. Instead, Matilda presses her hand on the hollow of his throat, and her sharp thumbnail points his chin up.

“Very t-for-t of you to be into this,” Matilda teases. Lark’s eyes widen as she slides slowly to her knees. The sight alone is enough for something sparking white and hot to overtake his insides. The way she purses her lips, knowingly, beautifully, makes it worse.

“I will be, like, whatever you want if you’re about to do what I think you’re about—okay,” Lark exhales the word noisily as Matilda slides one of his muscular legs over her shoulder.

—

“Do you think about what you’d do if you and Benji broke up?”

Xavier looks up from the sub sandwich in confusion. A banana pepper dangles from his mouth, as well as shredded lettuce. The sub nearly falls apart in his lap so Lark leans over and tugs it further up. They sit on the stage, watching the show clean up, food supplied by the venue. Best subs in all Pennsylvania, they’d boasted and Matilda had snorted and almost argued.

“Uh,” Xavier pushes the pepper into his mouth and chews. “Only if I’m trying to make myself cry on command.” It makes Lark laugh and look back to the roadies. Benny helps carry the equipment, his hat nearly falling off. He watches Matilda lean in and correct it, tuck a strand of his white blond hair back underneath it.

“It’s like,” Lark looks down at his own food, mostly untouched. “You’re at that point where, you’re either going to do it, right? Forever. Like commit to it. Or you’re going to have the most painful break up of your life.” He pulls a black olive off the sub and contemplates eating it.

“Should I be worried that Benji is about to break up with me?” He doesn’t sound worried. Xavier bites into the end of his sub again, fillings pushing out the other side. He’d overstuffed it, because once he heard it was free, he’d asked for almost every item on the menu. Lark watches him chew, bemused expression on his freckly, pale face. Benji is only a few feet back, working on his drums.

What is that like? To feel that confident. To know everything. To not be afraid.

“No,” Lark says, using his hands to help him talk, gesture his way through it. “But if he did, you’d lose it, right?”

“Dude.” Xavier stuffs the rest of the sandwich into his mouth. He chews and swallows and dusts off his chest of the little bits and crumbles and then turns to fully look at Lark. “Why are you thinking about this?”

“That’s terrifying,” Lark comments, deciding against the olive. Against the sandwich. He puts it to the side and then slowly slides off the stage. His legs are sore from the amount of running he’d done the whole show. His throat hurts—and he should be resting his voice, but he isn’t. Because Xavier has always been the one that made decisions feel less big.

“Oh, man. I think I’m about to ask Matilda to live with me. I think, I’m going to like, ask her to never break up with me, ever.”

“Uh. Like marriage.”

“No, that’s absolutely too far. But, the thing before that, but after casual dating.” Xavier gives him a look that says, you’re so fucking hopeless.

“She’s coming over here, by the way.”

Lark yanks his hands out his hair, shoving them into his back pockets. He watches Matilda hop around the cables on the floor that Nomi is organizing. He watches her look up from under her lashes as she does and smile. Lark swallows and exhales—then inhales a giant breath of air that doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Just gets stuck in his chest. It expands so big it feels like he’s going to break open. Little fizzles of him will go everywhere.

“Count of three, Lark. One, two,—”

Xavier kicks him squarely in the back and sends him stumbling toward Matilda. And he is so scared, but when her arms drape over his shoulders, Lark looks up and thinks, this isn’t scary at all. She sighs dramatically, theatrical with her exhaustion as she puts their foreheads together. This isn’t scary, if it’s her.

“I have a question for you,” he says softly.

“I’ve got an answer,” she answers cheekily, her smile curling, pretty and all her.

I know you do, he thinks. Isn’t that funny? I know you do.

—

Lark slides the vials of estrogen into his bathroom cabinet. He looks at them, lined up, on the side that is now Matilda’s. There’s nail polish and four different kinds of lotion, and a cream she uses on her face at night. Lark moves them so the labels face outward, because that seems right. Then he feels a yank around his middle and he’s suddenly stumbling backward.

“See? I knew you were into medical shit. You are so weird, Lark.” Matilda’s voice is right against his ear. Her warm breath tickles his freshly bleached hair. He snorts and turns, shoving her flat back onto the bed that had once just been his. Bags of her stuff are in the room, ready to unpack.

And it’s not like permanent because she has her own place (a really, admittedly, nice place), but until they figure out which place is the best, it’s something shared instead. He pulls his shirt off from the back of his neck, stalking toward her on the bed.

“You’re so not beating the allegations, acting like that after unpacking my stuff in the bathroom.” Despite what she says, Matilda’s knees widen to accept his body between them. Her hands dance up across his toned abdomen. Her eyes are dark. Pretty. The new hair is a bright yellow and orange ombre. He likes it. He just likes her.

“You know what? I’m okay with that,” Lark reasons, snarky and mean as he crawls over her on the bed and presses swift kisses to her cheek. Over and over and then on the bridge of her nose, making her giggle until it’s high pitched and she’s shoving at him. Half hearted, because she likes it. Likes him.

10 reasons why a poorly adjusted adult Dib is a Valid headcanon

1. Dib is/was a neglected child

Dib doesn’t have a parent that he can lean on and go talk to for advice, his father is frequently out of the picture and doesn’t give a shit about the thing that Dib cares about. Dib is actively encouraged by his neglectful father to give up on it, actually. I believe this would make Dibs stubborn streak really bitter and spiteful. Most people reading this are LGBTQ+, I assume I don’t need to explain how a fucked up an isolated upbringing, or being unable to be yourself around a parent, hurts you in the long run. 

2. Dib is bullied for the things he is passionate about, and being bullied heavily colours your perception of other people 

The world of Invader Zim is not kind, Dib is frequently harassed by his classmates/superiors/family for his outbursts/lectures/overall investigator shtick. 

Now you might say “but, Screaming, wouldn’t Dib learn to tone it down as he got older?” and YEAH. Probably! But does that mean that he would just forgive all the people that made his life horrible before that point? Or who socially ostracized him for the things he’d done in the past? No. No one is under any  obligation to forgive anyone who hurt them, and I think Dib wouldn’t even try to forgive someone he saw as intellectually inferior 

3. Dib is a selfish rich kid

Dib is selfish. He wants to be the protector of earth- but he doesn’t do it for earths sake. He’s clearly doing it as a cry for attention/ a reason to eventually be vindicated for being spit on by his own kind.  I don’t think he would have genuine empathy for other people. If he did have it, it’d have to be something he had to work really hard at. However, I don’t see Dib putting much effort into understanding other humans. 

Dib is rich (probably). This one being more of a headcanon- in the series Dib wants for no material object, he wastes technology on his explorations like it’s something he can just pick up from the dollar store, his father is a world renowned scientist with access to crazy technology and the ears of world leaders. I think he’d feel entitled to one or two things 

4. Gaz is not her brothers keeper. 

She’s not responsible for his mental health, she’s not responsible for keeping him in line and “normal”. Most of the time she doesn’t want a damn thing to do with him. If we’re going by the standards of the IZ tv show, the only times that Gaz interfered with Dibs paranormal investigations were when Professor M. Was also involved. Either she wanted to see her dad and Dibs antics were getting in the way (forcing her to intervene), or she was directly ordered by their dad to keep Dib out of trouble.  Sure, you could argue that she would beat the shit out of Dib for doing something she didn’t like- but that wouldn’t “fix” the mind of a very stubborn person. It might even make them dig their heels in even deeper out of spite and bitterness as a “fuck you I’m right you’re wrong” 

Furthermore, as Gaz gets older she’s going to have her own life to worry about and might stop tolerating the way Prof. M uses her as a middle man to deal with his “poor insane son”. She’s under no obligation to fix any of the phases Dibs life might go through. If Dib was unpleasant enough, and Gaz had the resources to leave, I think she might just bail on him. 

5. Dib is arrogant 

He's gonna do what he thinks is the best course of action unless you physically stop him from doing so. He comes from a place of thinking that he is right, the opinion of anyone else is secondary. Dib will do “what needs to be done” for “the greater good”. Whatever he thinks that “good” is. He wants to play the white knight at any cost. He cannot be in the wrong, or that bravado towards being righteous in the end crumbles. I think Dib would subscribe to a “the ends justify the means” mentality

6. Dib would harm another person to get what he wanted

In a room with a moose, Dib debates letting himself die just to take his entire class down with him. In the unaired episode “return of Keef”, he co-operates with Zim in an attempt to make Keef explode, because he thinks Keef is irritating. Dib used Gaz to test out an ancient spell book, cursed Gaz to only taste pork, and then only helped fix the problem when threatened with physical violence. This could be the kind of thinking that gets worse over time as more people mock his attempts to save and protect them. Why care about people that don’t even give a shit if they live or die?  Dib is a smart fringe personality in his world, and the otherness that he feels for that could lead to a sociopathic way of thinking if things went bad enough 

7. Dib does not care about other peoples personal space

Dib hides cameras in Zims house. Dib ran right past the front gate at NASA Place, Dib chased a baby big foot up a radio tower. Dib bullied Zim physically on the playground using his known weaknesses against him. Dib would do anything to get the evidence he needed to prove what he wanted to prove, and that would get him in trouble. Repeatedly

8. Antisocial tendencies (like spending countless hours fused to a chair, or most of your young adult life spent hunched over a desk at a computer screen) make it difficult to smoothly socially integrate, and the world of Invader Zim is fuckin' mean

You know the world he comes from is mean. However, assuming Dib did find community somewhere, who’s to say they would agree with him? Or like him? Maybe one of them would cause problems for him that were bad enough he’d have to leave. I’ve always found that the IZ portrayal of earth to be like this funny cynical parody of a dystopian police state america. If we’re going by “what can go wrong will go wrong”, Dibs social integration wouldn’t get easier without a bunch of effort on Dibs part. Maybe Dib would have to pretend to be somebody unlike himself just to get by in his day to day adult life. If we see Dibs country of residence as a police state, the world Dib grows up in would encroach heavily on his personal privacy, and that might make him even stranger via paranoia 

9. Sadistic tendencies towards anything paranormal (obsessed with the act of dominating and exposing the unknown)

Dib is a fucking jerk to Zim (rightfully so), but Dib is a dick to pretty much every supernatural thing he comes across. Either out of an excess of enthusiasm, or using a supernatural being to further his own plans, or from an invasion of privacy, or being an irritant to the entity he’s dealing with. He LIKES to be mean to them.  He  wishes to have mastery over knowing how they work. (maybe it’s more fair to say Dib is a voyeur?)  

This is more headcanon than anything, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he might also want to control the paranormal for his own purposes. If Dib could say- catch a ghost in a jar so he could show it to everyone, he’d do it. If he could trick a werewolf into transforming on stage in front of a large audience? He’d do that.

10. Dib is created to be Zims equal

Dib is as “evil” as Zim is and vice versa. Neither of them is good, or pure, or morally justified. It’s a nice little grey dynamic. Both characters think they’re entirely in the right when they act. That they often aren’t in the right is fun because then you get to write/draw/ think about how they’d react to the consequences. Dib could still totally be a hero in his own mind, despite setting an apartment block on fire to flush out a coven of litches.

The reverse of this is also true, Zim can do nice things, and occasionally be good as Dib can be good. I figure the Zim/Dib dynamic changes for everyones interpretations at least somewhat. Having Zims terrible actions rub off on Dib as their battles escalate is a really fun way to go about exploring their relationship 

11. I like the it

There is no right or wrong way to enjoy a cartoon character! Live to make yourself happy in fandom! If you ever thought you needed permission to create rancid content, I’m sorry you felt pressured not to do it. 

You want to make a serial killer Dib?? You want to make a basement dwelling depressed zit covered Dib?? You want to make a Dib who struggles with his trauma through substance abuse?? Go HAM!! 

The Mountain Man

Slasher OC Brenden Locklear Story

Warnings: Blood, Animal Abuse, and Violence

There are many stories about Everest Natural Park. It's the largest in the state and is home to many protected wildlife. It's been around for hundreds of years; the Natives of the land would tell stories to travelers making sure to advise them to be respectful of the land and the animals, or they would awaken evil spirits that would bring them harm. Green eyes dart over the phone screen as she looks at the most recent story. A woman was found hacked to pieces after she dumped all her trash into one of the park’s lakes. The police wrote that she was barely recognizable, her remains getting eaten by the Vultures in the area looking for a quick meal. 

Jenny’s stomach churns just reading it as she turns off her phone curling herself in the car seat as her head leans against the window of the back seat. The window feels cool against her skin as fog surrounds the old van wagon. She holds back food from coming back up her through as she tries to focus on the landscape instead. With her body feeling like it was cold and then hot she needed something to distract her from the changing discomfort. Her long auburn hair rests under a soft beanie as she scans the tall pines that pass as the van takes a quick turn through the mountains. 

“Damnit Joseph I’m trying to sleep back here!” A woman raises from the back of the van taking off her boot and throwing it to the front window. The car sways as Joseph tries to get control of the car again. With a deep breath he turns around glaring at the women. 

“Carrie are you fucking crazy?! Are you trying to make us drive off the cliff?!” Carrie huffs at him laying back down. Jenny pulls herself closer as Joseph softens at her. 

“Hey, I’ll get you some medicine when we reach the cabin okay?” He reaches back and pats her leg as she nods looking out into the forest. The park is massively bigger than anyone she’s been to. They had several campsites with cabins and lodges along with cave tours and rock climbing. There was so much to do, she closed her eyes as her stomach twists again. 

“Dude we should seriously do shots when we get there.” Joseph’s friend slurs in his sleep sitting up a bit. 

“Go back to sleep Aiden.” Joseph pushes him back in the seat as Aiden falls back to sleep snoring.

“Urgh typical.” The girl next to Jenny said reading a book as she adjusts her glasses shaking her head at Aiden. 

“What’s wrong Elizabeth, still got a stick up your ass.” Carrie sits up again poking her face as Elizabeth slaps her hand away. 

“Yes, I’m still upset, you slept with my boyfriend!” She yells as Joseph lets out a sigh. 

“He wasn’t that good.” Carrie shrugs her blonde curls falling around her shoulders. 

“And my girlfriend.” Carrie laughs at her. 

“She wasn’t that good either.” Elizabeth turns around tackling Carrie to the ground.

“Guys can you please put all our issues aside for the next few days you know why we're doing this right?!” Joseph shouts at them all. Aiden comes out of his slumber as the car comes to an uncomfortable silence. Elizabeth gets back in her seat as Carrie hands her back the book she was reading resting her body on the back of the seat. 

“Yeah we remember dude.” Aiden rubs the back of his head. 

“Good.” Joseph saids speeding down the road as Jenny holds herself closer.

The entrance to the park was seen after by a bubbly woman with soft red hair and a bright smile. Joseph pays her for the admission as she gives them the cabins keys and directions. 

“Oh, and we just installed a curfew for the time being. All residents should be inside their sites at 10:00pm.” 

“Why is that?” Aiden asks.

“Well we've been having some incidents with poachers and vandalism and until it dies down, we want the park goers to be safe.” She smiles, Joseph nods thanking her as they drive through the park. They pass by many sites and activities as they make it to their two-story cabin. 

“Woah not bad Joseph.” Aiden whistles as he gets out once the van is parked. 

“Thanks parents paid for it.” Jenny looks over at Joseph as she gets out of the car stumbling a bit. Joseph takes notice helping her stand as he gets her things out the car. 

“Can you guys start unpacking please I’m going to take Jenny up.” He looks back at the other three. 

“Sure, we got it.” Elizabeth looks at Jenny with concern as she starts to open the back of the van. Joseph takes Jenny to the cabin up the stairs to a nice room cleaned recently. He starts to unpack her sleeping bag and pillow along with a stuffed turtle.

“You took Gregory with you?” He lets out a laugh looking back at Jenny. 

“I never leave home without him.” Jenny’s cheeks flare up. She thought she hid him well enough. Joseph places the turtle on the bed as he gets her to lay down. She starts to feel a bit better sleep drawing closer. Joseph sits on the edge of the bed fiddling with his fingers. 

“Joseph?” Jenny bites her lip, but opens to speak again. “I want to tell Mom and Dad where we are.” 

“We can’t do that.” He states coldly. 

“Why?” She asks sitting up. “Whatever is happening we can work it out.” 

“No after this we're going to Grandma’s and we’re finding you a new college to go too.” He looks at the wall. 

“You said this was just a fun trip to the park.” Jenny sits up straighter her voice raising with the upcoming headache.

“Well I lied; you're going to thank me one day Jenny.” He gets up going to the door. 

“But I want to stay with our parents.” 

“It's not safe anymore.” He states clutching his fist. “They’re not safe.” 

“Joseph what are you-?” Jenny gets up holding onto the railing of the bed.

“I’ll explain it when we get to Grandma’s house.” He closes the door leaving Jenny in the room by herself. She lets out a sigh changing into her pajamas, crawling into the bed holding Greagory close as she closes her eyes. 

The sound of the door opening alerts her as Elizabeth walks in her deep brown hair tied in a high ponytail as her turtleneck complements the rest of her black attire. She holds a glass of water and a pill placing it on the bedside table beside her. Jenny reaches over to take it then drinks the water afterwards.

“Thanks Elizabeth,” Jenny smiles up at her. 

“Your brother wanted me to give it to you. Are you going to be able to go on a hike with us tomorrow?” She feels her forehead.

“I do feel a little better.” Jenny saids.

“Don’t overwork yourself okay. This is probably from all those all nighters you pulled. The stress over exams gets intense.” Jenny nods at her as she pats her arm heading out the room to let her sleep again. 

The next day Jenny got dressed and went downstairs. As Carrie made breakfast.

“Hey kiddo feeling better?” She ruffles Jenny’s hair. 

“I’m feeling better, but still a bit hot.” She takes a seat next to Aiden. He lazily feels her forehead, his green hair messy and shaggy as usual. 

“Take it easy today Jenny.” He saids as Carrie starts putting the food on the table. 

“Where is Joseph and Elizabeth.” Jenny looks around not seeing the two. 

“They’re outside getting ready for the hike.” Carrie saids.

Jenny nods making her plate of food as she hums at how good it is. Joseph and Elizabeth come in soon after taking a seat at the table with the rest of them. After they head out making their way up the trail. Jenny stays in the back feeling the fresh air helps her a bit. 

“Hey look.” Joseph points through the trees at a small owl huddled in a nest. 

“Aw,” Jenny coos.

“Those are protected right?” Aiden places his arms behind his head. 

“Yeah all the animals in the park are protected.” Elizabeth informs as they go along their way. They cross a creek and walk under the shady pines  has the cloud's rest in the sky. They get to a path with branches sticking out of the ground. There are signs warning park goers to be careful as on the side of them is a steep hill. Jenny tries her best, but she takes a wrong step and a branch breaks from under her making her tumble down the hill.

“Jenny!” Joseph yells after her. Jenny doesn’t know how long she fell but she lays on something soft. The smell reaches her nose as she jolts back seeing blood on her hands as she lets out a scream throwing up soon afterwards. There are bodies of moose around her with the antlers cut off as their insides spill on the ground. Jenny moves away shaking, feeling a pain shoot in her leg and arm. The sound of a motor reaches her ears as a green four wheeler drives across the creek to reach her. On the wheeler rests a man wearing brown aviators. He spots her and the moose getting off the vehicle. He towers over Jenny, long blonde hair tied in a braid rests behind his back. His park ranger uniform is just a loose green coat with the badge on it as he wears a red flannel and ripped jeans and heavy boots. His gaze makes Jenny freeze as tears roll down her eyes.  He reaches down stretching out  his hand, she sees the tattoos that litter all up his arm as she flinches back. 

“Jenny!” He retracts it at the sound of her brother as he rushes down the hill running over to her. He gets to her side glaring up at the man. 

“You work here.” He spats as the others come up behind him.

“Are you okay?” Aiden helps Jenny up as she limps a bit. 

“I’ll probably just have a bruise.” Jenny stands by herself. The man looks at her brother as Joseph glares back. 

“You kids camping here?” His voice is deep and slow like he had just woken up from a nap. 

“Yeah in the cabin down the road.” Joseph answers. Jenny looks down at the moose corpses. 

“Urgh gross!” Carrie holds her nose.

“What happened?” Jenny asks looking at the man. 

He looks at the moose, his expression not really seen under the aviators. 

“Poachers,” He growls, taking off his ranger hat to wipe his brow. “You all best get back to your cabin. Poachers aren't too kind to others.” He states crunching down to close the moose's eyes.

“Yeah thanks we will.” Joseph tells them to come on as they leave to head back to the cabin. Jenny looks back at the men as he takes off his glasses feeling along the cut antlers. 

“Jenny, come on.” Elizabeth grabs her shoulders. “Something about that guy gives me the creeps.” She glares back at him as Jenny nods her head. 

Back at the cabin Jenny rests on the hammock outside as Joseph starts to set up a campfire for dinner. She stares up at the sky, her mind full of questions. Joseph comes to rest on the hammock with her as they stare up at the sky. 

“Hey I’m sorry about yesterday and dragging you here, and I can’t explain everything now, but I will someday.” He saids holding her hand. 

“Are mom and dad bad people Joseph, is that why you're not telling me anything?” Jenny doesn’t look at him taking a deep breath. 

“They are involved in some bad things, and some bad people. I wanted you to get away from it before it came out or anything happened.” Jenny holds his hand letting out a deep breath.

“I had to take some of their money and we need a bit more to make it to Grandma’s, but don’t worry we’ll get it.” He rests his head on hers.

“Do you trust me?”He asks in a shaky voice. 

“Yes I do Joseph.” Jenny nods trying not to cry. Her parents were bad people? Sure they had their flaws, but they loved them, comforted them when they were sad, and always supported them. Joseph rubs her shoulder as they rock in silence, as the sun starts to go down over the mountain range.  

“Wanna help me get dinner set up?” He turns to her.

“Yeah,” Jenny gets up her limbs only a little sore now as she helps him start the fire and get dinner ready. The others bring out chairs and beer as Joseph cooks over the fire. Jenny relaxes as Elizabeth pours her some coco into a mug handing it to her.

“Look, I brought smores.” Aiden pulls out a bag of marshmallows. Carrie grabs the bag starting to stick the marshmallows on pokers. They eat and talk and around the fire. Aiden would bring up the times Joseph, Elizabeth, and Carrie would go on trips around the states during their summers in college. Jenny listens laughing along with them. She lets out a yawn, putting her mug off to the side as she leans back in the chair. The sounds of them talking helps her drift off to sleep not realizing how tired she was in the first place. 

She wakes up on the couch in the cabin with a blanket over her. She rubs her eyes looking around. The only light she has is the one in the kitchen. 

“Joseph?” She calls getting up off the couch looking around. The cabin is silent as she walks around. She calls out for the others but they don’t answer. A howling wind rings from outside as she stares out the window to see that the fire was out and the chairs were put away. She looks to the front door thinking for a moment. She didn’t want to be alone at least not right now. She let out a deep breath going over to the door to step out into the night air. She pulls her jacket close as the wind kicks up. She cries out to them again but still no answer. Her heart starts to race. Her thoughts go to poachers or the people involved with her parents as she hikes up the trail they went on earlier, bad scenarios playing through her mind. 

“Joseph!” She yells but still no answer. A howl startles her as she makes her way deeper in the trail. They couldn’t have gone far she hopes as she hears a twig snap in the trees. 

“Hello?” She calls out. “Guys is that you?” She hears a deep growl as she starts to dash back the other way through the trees. She feels something gaining on her as she stops in a bit of a clearing turning around to see nothing. The forest comes alive with noise as she continues forward wanting to get as far away as possible from whatever that was. She calls out again but stops at the sound of a laugh. 

“Aiden,” She walks forward through the brushes pulling them away. She covers her mouth at the sight of four individuals wearing Halloween masks standing around the corpses of a few owls. Three babies all chirp at them as a person steps up taking one by the neck and snapping it in two. Jenny steps back flinching at the sound. She steps on a branch causing the others to turn in her direction. One grabs a large machete from their bag walking forward.

“Dude leave it alone it's probably another animal or something.” One of them takes off the mask to reveal Carrie.

“This shit is hot, are we done?” She throws the mask on the ground. The others take them off as well. 

“This is enough right?” Aiden asks. Jenny’s eyes went over to the one that snapped the owl’s neck, it  was Elizabeth wearing a constant frown. Aiden kicks a dead owl over watching its head tilt in a untarual angle. 

“Kill the rest of the babies, that will be enough.” Joseph holds the machete looking out into the woods. 

“These buyers sure spend a lot of money on these birds. Kind of weird if you ask me.” Carrie says, picking up an axe placing it behind her head.

“Everyone wants things they can’t have in human nature.” Elizabeth picks up another baby bird that squeaks under her gripe. 

“Hey what the-!”Aiden exclaims, Jenny rushes over to Elizabeth prying the owl out of her hand picking up the other one. As she backs away from the group.

“Oh hey Jenny.” Aiden tries to soothe her.

“Back the fuck up! What do you all think you're doing!” She screams, shaking where she stands. 

“Hey, Jenny, calm down okay let me explain.” Joseph drops his machete holding up his hands to plead with her. 

“I-I don’t understand.” She steps back, her head throbbing.

“It's going to be okay you just-” He starts

“No it's not okay! My parents suddenly became bad people! You all are killing endangered animals, you can go to jail for that Joseph, all of you can!” She looks at the rest as they look down. 

“Jenny please.” Elizabeth outstretches her hand, Jenny steps back.

“No stay away all you.” She glares holding the owls close. 

“We need those to keep going Jenny. They are a lot on the black market, their feathers and everything. All we have to do is kill a few and we can get out of here all the way to Grandma’s and start over.” Joseph smiles. Jenny’s eyes scan down at the owl bodies her stomach churns. 

“We all get some money to split Jenny, you can use it for a college fund.” Carrie saids in a calm voice. Tears start to fall down Jenny’s eyes. 

“Please not like this guys this isn’t like you.” She chokes. 

“I’m doing this for you. You’ll thank me later.” He grabs her arm tightly trying to pry the owls out as Jenny lets out a scream. They drop to the ground whimpering.

“No Stop please!” She pleads to get down to protect the birds with her body. 

“Jenny God dammit! Why do you have to get in the way!” He yells Elizabeth grabs his shoulder. 

“Calm down we still have the antlers lets just sell those and the leftover bird bodies.” She saids. Jenny  softly sobs lifting up her head placing the birds close against her chest. 

“Fine round up everything we leave in the morning.” He sighs. The others start to gather the corpses. Aiden picks up a big one with wings hanging down as he wiggles it around. 

“Weird ass looking things-” Something wisps in the air as the sounds around them fall into an eerie silence.

 Jenny looks up more and screams. Aiden drops the owl falling to his knees as an arrow sticks out of his neck blood oozes from his mouth as he lets out one gurgled groan falling to the ground to take his last breath. 

“Shit!: Carrie starts toward him but an arrow shoots into her arm as she screams, dropping the axe to take it out. 

Jenny feels her heart stop as she looks toward the direction the arrow came  as she sees a looming figure in the trees. It starts to growl coming closer. The figure is covered in furs with a giant bear head for a face. They put their bow behind their back taking out a large silver axe advancing toward Carrie. Jenny gets up as Joseph and Elizabeth watch in horror as in a flash the figure is on her. She goes to swing her axe at him but she misses as they bring it down to fall square in her forehead. Blood spills everywhere and Jenny gets pulled away as the figure kicks Carrie’s body down getting her off their blade. Joseph rushes Jenny through the woods as Elizabeth takes out a gun from her side as she shoots at the figure. Jenny turns around to see the figure rush toward them, the bullets hitting but not slowing them down. They run faster into the road after taking many twists and turns. They stop to catch their breath not seeing the figure anymore. 

“Who the hell was that?” Joseph huffs leaning on a tree and Jenny steps back still holding the owls. They nip and bite at her but she’s too shaken to care.

“I think that was a guy.” Elizabeth breathes looking back at them. 

“Let's get out of here.” Joseph looks toward Jenny as she steps back a bit more. 

“Jenny, come one. There are just some owls, there are plenty more in the forest.” Elizabeth finishes as an arrow goes through her head and her glasses. The arrow goes straight through landing in the tree Joseph is resting on, with Elizabeth’s brown eye in clear view on the tip. Jenny screams as the figure appears again. Joseph roars at the figure going at him with the machete cutting his arm. The figure lets out a deep groan as his axe collides with Joseph’s Machete. In a split moment the man's head butts Joseph catching him off guard enough to swing the axe across his neck watching as he falls to the ground. Jenny cries out to him as the man drops his axe to rip his head clean off with grunts and groans. With a horrortic tear Joseph’s head swings in his hand as the man throws it behind him. Jenny walks back stumbling a bit. 

The man turns his gaze toward her walking forward to her form.

“Please,” She whimpers, tears falling down her face as he takes the owls gently placing them in a pouch on his side cooing at them. Jenny looks at him surprised, but in a quick motion he grabs her neck lifting her off the ground. She claws at him looking into the dark holes of the bear mask as she feels her vision darken and her airway close until she blacks out hearing a howl in the distance. 

Jenny wakes up in a hospital room feeling sore and broken. A nurse walks in seeing her state as he rushes over to her. Jenny tries to speak but it doesn’t come out. 

“Your windpipe has been damaged, it's going to be awhile until you speak again.” The nurse saids. He gets out a pen and paper from the side and hands it to her. The memories rush back as she starts to cry trying her best to write straight as tears begin to fall. 

“What happened?” The doctor looks at the paper reading the words as she nods.

“I’m sorry but your friends are gone.” He saids. She writes again wanting to know what happened to them. A news story picks up in the room. She looks around grabbing the remote to hear the tv. 

“Last night four young adults involved in a poaching ring were found dead and mutilated in Everest National Park. The bodies were dismembered and decorated along the forest with their heads on spikes. Only one survived and is recovering in a hospital.”  Jenny covers her mouth watching the news station as she looks out the window to see the fog covering the pines. 

Madden NFL 20 and other games coming to Xbox One this week

Madden NFL 20 and other games coming to Xbox One this week. Madden NFL 20: Ultimate Superstar Edition (July 30, 2019) WAYS TO PLAY Face of the Franchise: QB1 - Be the Face of an NFL franchise where the decisions you make matter in your journey to become an NFL Superstar. Create your own College Quarterback to play through the College Football National Championship playoffs and the NFL Combine for your shot at the NFL Draft and to be the face of a franchise in a new and personalized career campaign centered around you. Once selected to a team, engage with Madden’s new Scenario Engine which generates personalized playable scenarios, events, and dynamic challenges that build the story of your unique NFL career. Franchise - Simulate a full NFL career and leave your legacy as a player, coach or owner with single-player and multiplayer online-connected leagues. Compete with up to 32 teams in your quest for a Super Bowl Dynasty. Complete with an annual Pro Bowl and Seasonal Awards. Ultimate Team - Compete in the ultimate NFL fantasy team-building mode featuring your favorite NFL players from the past and present. Play games, collect rewards, and upgrade your team with daily, fun and engaging challenges with live NFL content all year-long. Exhibition - Compete in head-to-head online and offline games (single and multi-player) or single player offline against the CPU. Customize your game settings including time of quarters, rules, stadiums, and uniforms. GAMEPLAY Superstar X-Factor – Feel the emotion, personality, and power of NFL Superstars with Superstar X-Factor, an all-new abilities progression system that reveals special abilities for today’s most exciting NFL Superstars when certain objectives are met in games. Combined with authentic personality & real player motion, the stars of the NFL truly come to life in Madden NFL 20. Take full control of player development with new ways to customize player abilities. Unique Playbooks – Playbooks are calibrated to be more unique from team to team providing more variety for strategic game-planning and in-game adjustments. Run/Pass Options – Run/pass option plays are now available to call, bringing even more NFL authenticity to today’s play-calling. On-Field Trainer – Learn how to improve as a Madden player with this cohesive, modernized teaching system that introduces new in-game mechanics over time as you progress through your gameplay experience. New Pump Fake mechanic – Pump-fake to a specific receiver and fake out defenders with a new double-tap ‘throw cancelling’ mechanic. NFL Pro Bowl – Play the annual Pro Bowl within Franchise mode and ‘Face of the Franchise: QB1’ featuring all-stars from the AFC and NFC. Superstar-Driven Play-Calling – Play-calling tailored to the Superstars on your team to quickly get your stars involved when you need them the most. New celebrations – Over 20 new TD and First Down celebrations added to bring more swag to the biggest plays on the gridiron. Mutant Year Zero: Seed of Evil (July 30, 2019) Seed of Evil is an expansion to the award-winning tactical adventure game Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden picking up where the original game ended and offering hours of more gameplay, new locations to visit, and a new leading character! Continue the main story and explore many hours of all new content. Expand your team with the veteran stalker Big Khan the moose and get ready to defeat a new threat to Dux, Bormin, Selma and all the others. In Seed of Evil you must solve the mystery of the powerful and ominous roots which have taken over the Ark. Discover huge new maps, battle new enemies, improve your mutations, get your hands on all new gear, defeat foes trying to take back lost ground and face off against a vicious new adversary. To play Seed of Evil it is highly recommended to have finished the main story in Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, because of story spoilers and the level range of the new content. Continue the main story See what happens after the ending of Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. Continue into a new future for Bormin, Dux, Pripp and all the others at the Ark. How will they deal with what they have learned?New mutant: Big Khan You can now add Big Kahn the moose to your squad of mutants. He is a veteran stalker who has been exploring the Zone alone. He is not only skilled at doing critical hits but also has the unique mutations Ground Pound and Flame Puke, which make him excellent at dealing with groups of enemies.Face a new threat The Ark has suddenly become enveloped in mysterious roots and many of its inhabitants do not seem to be their normal selves. Even the Zone Ghouls appear to have been taken over by this new menace and it is up to your team of stalkers to set things right!Hours of new content Take on new enemies in places like the Hall of Electric Coffins and Mausoleum of Suburbia. The new story in Seed of Evil offers a host of new challenges and brutal fights. Get ready to rethink your tactics as you face off against brand new enemies.Improve your mutations Upgrade Bormin’s Hog Rush to Bear Smash for increased power and Corpse Eater to Corpse Feaster so that regaining lost HP no longer costs an action. Upgrade Dux’s Moth Wings to Wings of the Sniper which removes all range penalties.Retake lost territory Revisit places like the Spear of Heavens or Sea Titans as Zone Ghouls and police bots once again encroach upon places you have already cleared. This time they are stronger than ever! The Blackout Club (July 30, 2019) The Blackout Club is a first-person co-op horror game centered around a group of teenage friends investigating a monstrous secret beneath the skin of their small town. 1-4 players explore procedurally-generated missions against a fearsome enemy you can only see with your eyes closed. Features: A Modern Horror Setting To Explore: A beautiful and modern neighborhood full of houses, woods, and a very mysterious subterranean network of tunnels.Cooperative Gameplay: Drop-in/Drop-out multiplayer sessions for 1-4 players.Each Night A New Adventure: Missions are procedurally-generated and vary according to player level and progress.Richly-Simulated World Supporting Many Play Styles: Players have the freedom to go through the game at their own pace and choose the paths they take through the world.Character Growth & Customization: Players get to create their own character and customize them by unlocking new clothing, gestures, and hairstyles.An Unseen Threat: If players are not careful and draw too much attention to themselves, "The Shape" will come for them. Super Wiloo Demake (July 31, 2019) Wiloo and Agatha need to rescue their dog from the clutches of Dr.ETvaldo! Roll, fly, jump, and shoot your way across a variety of different platforming levels using unique power ups to reach the end of the level. Can you defeat all 5 bosses and rescue your buddy? With 3 different difficulties, experience the quest that you desire with easier or devilish challenges. Features: Traverse 50 levels across 5 different worlds with unique themes.Vibrant 8-bit visualsConquer 5 malicious bossesPick from 3 difficulties to suit your playstyleUse fun power ups to defeat enemies The Tower of Beatrice (July 31, 2019) The life of a thief isn’t easy: always hiding in shadows, clients cheat, traps bite… Working on a contract for a mysterious client, you'll need to infiltrate the tower of the powerful sorcerer Beatrice, steal her Book of Recipes, and get out alive. Along the way you will enter a demon's dreams to discover his most intimate desires, accept a gift from a Granny-spider, start the Clock Tower, feed a snail, make a tea for a demon, piece together a skeleton, and finally fix your own fatal failing. Features: Six floors – each with its own atmosphere and moodSurprising and charming residents – demons of Fire, Frost and Dream, Iron Maiden, Hungry Chest, and many othersAlchemy! Discover many interesting recipes!Unique puzzles ranging from simple to brain bendingAtmospheric and immersive soundtrackMany allusions to famous games, movies and books – spot them all! Pilot Sports (July 31, 2019) PILOT SPORTS, brilliant gaming fun for the whole family! Split screen mode for up to 4 players, over 50 different courses, the widest variety of aircraft and thrilling challenges provide for all sorts of gaming enjoyment! Features: 7 TYPES OF CHALLENGES! Beat the best times in the different game modes!OVER 50 COURSES! The key emphasis is on variety. Complete over 50 courses and set your sights on new records.8 CHARACTERS! Choose your favourite pilot and explore the tropical island paradise together with your favourite figure!FLYING FUN USING DIFFERENT AIRCRAFT! Soar through sensational and tricky courses with the double-decker, a jetpack, parachute or hang glider!BONUS: Beat records and unlock new courses for explorers! Solo: Islands of the Heart (July 31, 2019) Solo: Islands of the Heart is a game about love. About love as fuel, the force that drives us. Love is a universal feeling, but each of us experiences it in a different way. Solo – Islands of the Heart explores the theme of love in an introspective way, allowing players to identify and reflect on their own experiences. The world is divided into archipelagos, with each island representing a unique puzzle. Solving puzzles will award the player with a Sleeping Totem, awakening them to answer a question about love and relationships. As with love, most puzzles have no unique solution. Using boxes, each with different properties and behaviors, players can build their own paths to the Sleeping Totems on each island. Nature and contemplation are also a huge part of Solo: pull out your camera and capture the moment, play the guitar, feed the animals or just sit on a bench and think. The Church in the Darkness (August 02, 2019) No one is forced to join a cult. It welcomes you. It understands you. It envelops you until the words become more than truth—they make you whole. In the late 1970s, the charismatic Isaac and Rebecca Walker lead the Collective Justice Mission. Labeled radicals and feeling persecuted by the US government, they relocate their followers to the one place they believe they can create a socialist utopia: the jungles of South America. There they build Freedom Town. But relatives left behind in the US become worried: what exactly is going on at this compound in the jungle? You play as Vic, an ex-law enforcement officer who has snuck into Freedom Town to check on their nephew, Alex. Whether you choose stealth or violence, you must infiltrate the commune, find out what’s going on within, and locate your nephew, before it’s too late. How dangerous are the Walkers? How far will you go to uncover the truth and save Alex? Could it all have turned out differently? Features: What ending will you get? Will you get Alex out, whether he wants to go with you or not? Will you confront the cult leaders? Will you join the cult?Unlock every ending for each scenario by trying different play styles or making different choices.Multiple ways to play: Avoid detection completely, taking out guards and civilians non-lethally, or kill anyone who gets in your way. Interview characters from Freedom Town and search for clues. Documents and letters scattered around camp will clue you into the true nature of the commune.Fully voiced game, starring Ellen McLain (best known as GLaDOS in Portal) and John Patrick Lowrie (the Sniper from Team Fortress 2) as the cult leaders, Rebecca and Isaac Walker. Varenje (August 02, 2019) "All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it." ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Get yourself a little summer's day with a raspberry jam adventure! Varenje is a cute colorful adventure with a number of puzzles and mini-games made by artists for anyone that considers games to be an art. Eight unique & gorgeously hand crafted chapters await you. Hours and hours of game play will take you to a far away enchanting place. Our hero was spending summer happily at the cosy cottage until curiosity forced him to sample an unknown berry at the stream. Before he knew it, everything had become incredibly large, and he was reduced to the size of a bug! Trying to understand what happened and how to return things back to normal, we set off into the invisible to the human eye tiny world, where worms, beetles and spiders live their life, and build bizarre vehicles, in disguise so that humans do not realize. Our new friends will surely help us by discovering the secret healing potion, which will return us to our previous dimensions. All we need is to collect enough raspberries to cook grandmother's jam. And as we all know - this is a remedy for all ills! Asdivine Menance (August 02, 2019) A century after the events of Asdivine Dios, peace has finally settled in. That is, until a visitor from another world suddenly shows up proclaiming the entire universe is about to be destroyed. Hearing this, Izayoi sets off in an attempt to reverse this seemingly pronounced fate with a trio of very idiosyncratic spirits as they criss-cross four worlds in search of an answer. But what is the answer they find...? Experience immersive turn-based battles with cooperative attacks and new limit break skills! With all quests, collecting and crafting, the battle arena, and even post-game content, Asdivine Menace comes packed with enough elements to satisfy JRPG-hungry gamers. As Izayoi deepens his bonds of trust with his spirit companions, their fates together move in new and meaningful directions! Features: Travel the galaxy to bring the truth full circle in an epic fantasy RPG!Experience immersive turn-based battles with cooperative attacks and new limit break skills! Meow Motors (August 02, 2019) Meet the kitties, the main heroes of the new go-kart racing game! You will take to the track and play as one of a dozen colorful cats memorable for their different characteristics and unique personalities. Overcome various difficulties of the tracks drifting through mines and bombs, stop and slow down your competitors by blasting them with bubble gum and other astonishing weapons. And don't forget to gather power-ups along the way if you want to be the fastest driver on the track! The game will amaze you with: Dynamic gameplay that has three different modes: circle races, drifts, and 'strike' mode20 different tracks where kitties will compete10 kitties with unique abilities that will help you gain an advantage10 power-ups with unique effects to defeat your competitorsCharge your power-ups and get a more powerful effect!Overtake opponents, drift and get bonuses for it. Go grab your kitty and start your first crazy ride! Super Star Blast (August 02, 2019) Super Star Blast is a space shooter with challenging levels of increasing difficulty. All enemies must be shot down to finish a level and go to the next one. A scanner around the player tells roughly where the enemies are located. The player ship can fly forwards to attack and backwards to fight during the retreat against the opponents. After clearing a level you can purchase equipment to boost the ship, as well as extra shields and firepower or more ships. In local multiplayer mode, up to 4 players can fight together trough the levels (campaign mode) or can get each other in a battle (competition mode). Features: Massive challenging levels of increasing difficultyEnemies with unique flying and fire characteristicsUpgrade center (agility, fire power, shield, ships)Single player campaign2 – 4 player local multiplayer coop mode (split screen)Simple and clean 3D space graphics Read the full article

‘Why We Volunteer’: Keith and Brenda Krejci Tell The Story of Two Dedicated Volunteers

Our dedicated U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service volunteers in the Pacific Region gave an incredible 230,919 hours of their time to conservation in 2016. That is the equivalent of 28,864 eight-hour work days! These incredible folks deserve a huge thank you and during National Volunteer Week (April 23-29) we are aiming to do just that. This is one of a series of blogs about U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service volunteers. Share your story of service or honor an outstanding volunteer by telling us about it with #iServeBecause on Facebook or Twitter.

Keith and Brenda Krejci have lived in their motor home and traveled the country since November 2005. Along the way they volunteer at National Wildlife Refuges, Bureau of Land Management, and state parks. They have volunteered across the Pacific Northwest, including the last four years at two Oregon National Wildlife Refuges -- Bandon Marsh and Oregon Islands. This is their story. 

By Keith and Brenda Krejci

We’re sometimes asked “why do you volunteer?”  After all, we’re in our golden years of retirement, and could park in a resort, sit around the pool, and play Bingo each night.  So here’s our story:

When we decided to retire to a motor home, we knew we wanted to do something other than just travel, spend time in RV parks, and visit attractions. Both Brenda and I were always interested in learning more about wildlife, birds, and history, but work, family, and life in general never gave us the time.  And so we decided to give volunteering at try.

We started by searching volunteer.gov, where every federal and some state volunteer positions are advertised.  We settled on searching for openings with U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and sent off applications to the few that interested us. One day, while out shopping, we received a call from the volunteer coordinator at Lee Metcalf NWR in Stevensville, Montana, asking us if we were interested in spending the summer there.  We’d be the first “resident” volunteers to stay on their new RV pads, so it was a first for both of us.  We accepted, and that April 2006 was the beginning of a journey that has far exceeded our hopes and dreams of full-time RVing.

We look back now and are so grateful that we were lucky enough to fall into Lee Metcalf NWR as our first experience.  The staff was welcoming, the area was incredibly beautiful, the wildlife was spectacular, and most of all we were encouraged to explore and learn.  We laugh now looking back – we were given a set of keys to the visitor center and told “You guys are it on the weekends”, and knowing we’d be asked questions about the many birds and waterfowl on the refuge, spent hours poring through Sibley Birding Guides and quizzing each other.  It wasn’t long before we realized that we were having fun learning – and enjoying being able to share our newfound knowledge. Within a month, we were comfortable in explaining wildlife to visitors, helping teach children’s environmental education, and leading tours.

Spending a summer in the Bitterroot Valley gave us an opportunity to explore some of the country that is billed as “the last best place.”  Brenda saw her first moose, I caught cutthroat trout in remote mountain streams, and we made lifetime friends that we still visit every year.

Since that experience we’ve volunteered at other U.S. Fish & Wildlife locations, Oregon and Washington State Parks, The Nature Conservancy, and the Bureau of Land Management. With very few exceptions, we’ve been welcomed, appreciated, and best of all, educated in a new facet of nature.  We’ve become proficient birders, versed in the history of the fisheries of the Western U.S., and amateur naturalists.  We’ve led wildlife and nature walks, given evening programs on seals and sea lions, and guided people at Pacific tide pools.  But most of all, we’ve had the opportunity to teach children about the wonders of nature as Junior Ranger program hosts.  

We look back to our first volunteer job, where Bob, our boss and mentor, once said, “We’re raising a generation of flat screen children, and if we don’t get them involved in nature, we’ll loose our parks and refuges.”  We’ve taken those words to heart, and whenever possible concentrate on getting children engaged and interested.  We’ve found that even disinterested young teens will drop the attitude of “what-ever,” and become interested if you present nature in an interesting way.

After a few years, we decided that we’d focus on “interpretive” hosting only, although we’ve done a bit of maintenance here and there.  In the volunteer world, “interpretive hosting” is understood as the means to explain nature and wildlife in terms that are interesting, easy to understand, and relevant to the audience.  It’s often confusing to campers, like the lady that knocked on our door with a letter written in Spanish and wanted us to translate it for her.  We explained that we couldn’t do that, and she pointed to our sign; “but it says you’re interpretive hosts.”

Teaching children has given us so many great memories.  Like the French children whose mother was frustrated because they wouldn’t remove their beaded salamander necklaces that they made at a Junior Ranger class – even to sleep or shower. Or the little boy, who after being issued his Junior Ranger badge and taught the “secret” sign, ran to his grandfather yelling, “grandpa, grandpa! I learned the secret sign! ... I’ll show it to you for five bucks!”  But most of all, the mother of a child with learning disabilities who broke down in tears telling us that he had recited everything we’d taught him about hummingbirds – something he’d never done before.

Besides the enjoyment we get from sharing our knowledge, there are other advantages to volunteering.  As part of the volunteer agreement, we’re given a free site with full hookups, and sometimes other perks such as a phone line or washer/dryer access.  Most of the sites are superior to the camping sites, and some, like at refuges, are spacious and away from the crowd.

Spending three months or so in an area also gives us a chance to explore.  We choose volunteer sites based on the location; places we’re interested in spending time exploring and learning about.  The Bitterroot Valley of Montana, surrounded by the Bitterroot and Sapphire mountains, was like nothing we’d ever seen, and our stay gave us the chance to visit the Big Hole valley and battlefield, Glacier National Park, and follow the route of Lewis and Clark. Our time in Spearfish, S.D., gave us the chance to follow Custer’s route through the black hills, travel the Needles Highway, see Mount Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, and get in some great trout fishing.  

The northern Washington coast was amazing for its view of the Olympic Mountains and the Straits of Juan de Fuca.  We rode the ferry to Seattle and Whidbey Island, toured Forks and Twilight’s land of vampires and werewolves, and visited snow-covered Mount Hood.  But of all the great places we’ve been, we keep coming back to the Oregon Coast.  The beauty of sea stacks and pounding surf, the amazing wildlife and the abundance of berries and seafood, and the temperate climate keep drawing us back.  We still haven’t found the perfect place to settle down some day, but the Oregon Coast edges out Montana by just a bit so far.  But there are more places to see.

An important part of our life that we hadn’t really considered was the joy of learning and understating the world around us.  We’ve taught people about birds, raptors, and waterfowl, led wildlife and nature walks, explained the history of fisheries in the west, coastal defense of the Northwest, and lighthouse history; developed programs about seals and sea lions, and guided visitors at tide pools.  All of this was new to us, and the challenge of learning new subjects at each location has been invigorating and, we think, keeps us young at heart.  This from a couple, who at retirement only knew birds as robins and all others, ducks as mallards and all others, and who thought all seals and sea lions were the same.

And finally, we’ve made so many good friends – fellow volunteers, refuge and park staff, and visitors.  We’ve found that we’re a part of a community wherever we go, and visit friends we made wherever we travel.  We all have the same thing in common, we’re not competing with each other, and we all truly love what we do.  What could be better than that?

We don’t have any plans to stop what we’re doing, and look forward to many more adventures. If you’re interested in joining us on the volunteer road, let us know, we'd be glad to help in any way.

To follow their blog, visit http://dnpc.blogspot.com/

Meet the Mun! Name: Kuja/Moose/Kaiju -is tol -she/her pronouns -ENFP -plays to many games -draws a lot -anxious -always with a hat Likes: -Pokémon -Resident Evil -Making new friends -Doodling -Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Dislikes: -oil paints -spicy stuff -having no ideas to doodle or write

Pot Tourism Draws Backlash From Residents in Small Alaska Tourist Town

Residents of Talkeetna, Alaska, are voicing their opposition to the town's new retail pot store. Pictured is a section of Talkeetna's Main Street. Tony Cyphert / Flickr

Skift Take: Human instinct is often to rebel against change without considering how change can sometimes be a very good thing. With Talkeetna and other towns in similar positions, residents and business owners should think about how pot tourism can complement and augment their bottom lines rather than extinguishing it.

— Dan Peltier

The presence of a marijuana retail store has caused a deep divide in this quirky tourist town, where hundreds of visitors roam the streets daily browsing in art galleries and souvenir shops housed in historic cabins.

Most of Talkeetna’s stores line the two long blocks that make up its Main Street, where tourists, many who arrive in Alaska on cruise ships and are bused about two hours north from Anchorage, wander into storefronts like Nagley’s General Store for ice cream or slip through its back door for a cold one at the West Rib Bar and Grill.

At Main Street’s opposite end, near a river park where visitors snap photos of the continent’s largest mountain, is Talkeetna’s newest venture into the tourism trade. The High Expedition Co. is a nod to the rich mountain climbing history of the eclectic community purported to be the inspiration for the 1990s television series “Northern Exposure.”

Talkeetna’s first marijuana retail store is causing a rift not seen in other tourist-dependent towns in this Libertarian-leaning state, where marijuana had a casual acceptance long before it became legal. But even here, like in many pot-legal states, some towns have opted out of sales, fearful it might invite crime and other evils.

In Talkeetna, some shop owners — the ones who built a multimillion-dollar business from the steady stream of mountain climbers who use Talkeetna as a staging point for treks up Denali — say this one shop could ruin the tiny town’s historic atmosphere and harm business like the eight or so stores that serve alcohol along Main Street could never do.

“I don’t think he belongs in downtown Talkeetna,” Meandering Moose B&B owner Mike Stoltz said.

Joe McAneney co-owns the High Expedition Co., which opened in mid-May. “The sky hasn’t fallen on Talkeetna, the sun is shining, and this is now the most photographed shop in town,” he said.

Grabbing the attention of amateur shutterbugs is a small “Cannabis Purveyors” wooden sign on the store’s deck.

McAneney has been working to open the shop nearly since the day in 2014 that Alaska residents voted to legalize recreational marijuana. He and a partner bought the cabin that was originally built for Ray Genet, an early Talkeetna climber and guide who died in 1979 on Mount Everest. McAneney worked with Genet’s family and has incorporated a small museum dedicated to Genet and Talkeetna’s climbing history. But even that association led to some disdain.

“Small towns in Alaska are harder than anywhere to break into and sort of become accepted,” McAneney said.

His store got its approval from the borough on a technicality when the assembly was writing regulations for marijuana businesses in unincorporated areas, like Talkeetna, and inadvertently omitted special land use districts like the town’s Main Street. Talkeetna has no local governing body, only a nonvoting community council whose sole power is sending recommendations to borough officials roughly 75 miles (120 kilometers) away.

State regulators approved the store’s permit on a 3-2 vote last spring.

“There are people that are upset about it, but it’s legal,” said Sue Deyoe, the Talkeetna Historical Society and Museum’s executive director.

Opposition mounted as the issue went before state regulators, where a stream of residents unsuccessfully called into the Anchorage meeting to oppose the store’s license.

Among the biggest issue for critics is the lack of places for tourists to puff the marijuana they buy. Smoking pot in public is illegal and that led to fears the nearby river park would become the place to partake.

Alaska State Troopers say there were no citations issued for anyone consuming marijuana in public in Talkeetna from April 1 to July 1, the same as last year.

But opponents argue Talkeetna is lawless, with the closest trooper an hour away. “What are we supposed to do?” asked Stoltz, the bed and breakfast owner. “Are we going to take the law into our own hands? Duct-tape him?”

Stoltz said the very presence of a pot store will harm business in the historic town, where residents make a year’s living between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

“If we lose our tourism, we lose what Talkeetna is,” he said. “We’re not catering to stoner tourists. To me, that’s the conflict with Joe.”

Seeing a pot shop on Talkeetna’s main drag didn’t bother 65-year-old Jeff White, visiting from the Louisville, Kentucky, area.

Talkeetna has the artsy feel of a tourist town in Colorado, which also has legal marijuana, he said. “This goes with that vibe, and I think that’s fine.”

One resident dismisses the idea that the pot store is giving Talkeetna a black eye. But it is dividing the town, Christie Stoltz said, noting the chasm has reached her home. She’s the daughter of Mike Stoltz, the B&B owner.

“I feel like it’s generations — the older generation versus the younger generation,” she said.

For some, marijuana was never an issue, Deyoe said, and it pales in comparison to a controversy last spring when the borough proposed leveling trees over an area about the size of eight football fields for an expanded parking lot for summer use.

“I think the community council got way more letters on that than they did in reaction to the marijuana shop,” she said.

This article was written by Mark Thiessen from The Associated Press and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].

Day 2 - RE Vendetta

✂️ Close ups under cut ✂️

✨Just a couple of dads keeping their daughter happy y’know how it goes✨

Day 5 - Role Swap AU

The horrors may be great, but they stay silly

Luis Interrupts A Scene

More of my Minecraft streamer AU. I think it would be really funny if Luis (accidentally) interrupted Leon’s scenes on the RE SMP with random shit

Day 1 - Valentine’s Day

Luis gets a bouquet from Leon :D

HAPPY NEW YEAR

This piece is dedicated to everyone I’ve had the pleasure of meeting this year through the Resident Evil fandom.

Just like everyone else, long message is beneath the cut.

Thank you to everyone who’s supported me and my works this year. I truly could not have made it this far without my followers, mutuals, and my friends. I didn’t have anything planned for NYE, but I threw this together real quick so I could get my thanks out.

The Resident Evil fandom has not always treated me or my friends kindly, but the good people I’ve met outweigh the bad ones. Even though I’ve only known a few of my current friends for a couple months, it’s felt like a lot longer and I certainly do hope to continue knowing these friends for years to come. Falling into the RE hell pit and carving out a safe space with people I cherish and adore has been quite the experience, and I’m glad I didn’t have to spend a single second in this fandom alone.

Thank you especially to @hamartia-grander for introducing me to RE with your RE4R posts. Laying my eyes on Luis and watching an RE4R playthrough to get to know more about him was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. It’s led me to friends like @wisecrackingeric-2, @theprestigegirly, and @ugetelynx. I can’t imagine my life without any of you in it, and, quite frankly, I don’t want to imagine it. In the short amount of time that I’ve known you all, you’ve all become like family to me. And @bag-0f-b0nes, I know you weren’t into RE for very long, but thank you for joining me on Tumblr even when I stopped posting about DBH and kinda sorta abandoned my IG page. Your support has been invaluable to me.

Of course, thank you to my mutuals as well! I may not talk to all of you, but it’s always a pleasure seeing you on the dash. You’re all fantastic individuals and I hope this new year brings you all great things.

Last but not least, thank you to my followers. You’ve had to put up with so much of my rambling and nonsensical posts as well as spam reblogs that have led to a couple Asks wondering if I’m okay. Some of you have been constants in my notifications and I’ve come to recognise you. Those of you that I recognise, it’s been a joy seeing you interacting with me and my friends this past year. Thank you so much, truly, for your support and your kindness.

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2024 brings you all wonderful memories.

Day 8 - Free Day

And thus concludes my contributions to Serennedy Week - Valentine’s Day Edition 🤍

Thank you to everyone who supported the event and supported my additions. And especially thank you to @hamartia-grander for hosting this event 🤍