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runningfrom2am · 9 months

Text

in this life or the next

summary: It's the seventy-fifth annual Hunger Games, and you were just unlucky enough to get picked; but lucky enough for this Quarter Quell to feature pre-selected teams. You get paired up with District One's pride and joy, the one and only Rafe Cameron.

pairing: rafe x fem!reader

wc: 15k (oh my LORD)

tags/warnings: its the hunger games so like... yeah... violence and gore and stuff. definitely swearing, spoilers for the og Hunger Games movie I guess (but also not bc i changed it up a bit- you'll see), reader has a special talent that i won't spoil here, Rafe is lowkey a dick at the beginning, Ward being a shitty dad (what's new). also this isn't thoroughly edited bc.. its 15k words and i'm lazy.

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a/n: hello lovelies!! oh my gosh i have been slowly chipping away at this for actual literal months, and i am so proud of how it turned out!! i’m really glad i could finally post it by my birthday!! (i’m 23 wtf??)

thank you so much if you're going to put in the time to read this, but it honestly means a lot to me that you've made it this far. reblogs and likes would be so appreciated and let me know your thoughts in the replies! i really, really hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as i enjoyed writing it. let me know if you want a part two of what happens post games, bc i think i left it at a minor baby sized cliffhanger. anyway, i’m off to eat cake now! enjoy!

Staring blankly out at the crowd in front of you, you attempt to process the echoing of your heartbeat in your ears.

"I'd like us to give a round of applause for our brave, brave tributes this year, and wish them the best of luck in this year's quarter quell!" Your attention is drawn to the woman next to you, the District Five escort, Opal, dressed head to toe in bright yellow. A universally happy color- what a joke.

The crowd is mostly silent and you can't bear the thought of even glancing in the direction of your parents. You turn silently as you're ushered back into the building from the stage, tripping slightly over your feet as the shock sets in. People are talking, possibly to you, but you can hardly hear a thing. You almost made it. You were almost eighteen- one more year and you would have been free.

You were granted the briefest of goodbyes to your family, but you were tempted to even turn that down. An action you regret not taking as your parents walk into the room, your mother with tears already coating her cheeks and your father trying to keep a strong resolve for you and your siblings.

"We'll see you soon, Bug. Remember we love you," He whispers into your hair as you sob into his shoulder. You know he doesn't necessarily mean in this lifetime.

Your tunnel vision settles back in as you're walked out of the room, glancing one last time over your shoulder only to see your dad's shoulders shaking from his silent cries as he turns his back to you.

You are quickly pushed onto the train taking you out of District Five, ignoring the other three tributes and your mentors as they talk. You just stare out the window with tired, red eyes and say a silent goodbye to the home you're already sure you'll never see again.

"Y/N..?" The girl next to you says, tapping you on the shoulder and making you jump.

"Hm?" You hum your acknowledgment, looking at the girl beside you. She's only a year older than you, and you went to school together for years; Maisie, you remember.

"I just wanted to make sure you hear them," Maisie whispers, gesturing to Opal as she starts to explain what the premise of the games is this year.

"So," she claps her hands together, clad in tacky yellow gloves. "I'm sure you have noticed that this year there are four of you, and you'll each be paired up with another tribute to compete. Not necessarily from your own District, but, anything is possible, I suppose. The exciting news is that there's a possibility for two winners this year! You and your teammate will be given a score throughout the games, and if your score as the final two is above ten, you will both be crowned victors!" The woman says excitedly- like it's a good thing.

"And if we don't have over ten?" The boy sitting across from you asks flatly.

"Well... the games shall continue," Opal explains vaguely, but you know what that means. You've seen it before.

"Okay, well, how do we get a good score?" The boy asks.

"I-" The escort starts, hesitance clear in her tone as she's quickly interrupted.

"You kill people," Your female mentor answers. She's leaning her elbows on the end of the table, standing with a knife in her hand, spinning it around like it's some kind of toy.

Your eyes drop from her form, staring down at the table in front of you, suddenly remembering your glass of water and quickly grabbing it when you realize your mouth has gone completely dry just from the idea of what's to come.

You arrive at the Capitol in the middle of the night and despite this fact, the crowds are still there. You didn't expect this, even though you've seen it on the beat-up television in your living room every year. It feels less real, somehow, when you're the one getting pushed through the crowd, not knowing what to do besides give awkward smiles to people yelling your name.

Your room is beautiful. You've never seen anything like this, but you can fully customize it at will with a remote, and this level of technology fascinates you. You spend hours flicking through different images that can appear on the walls, surrounding you in another world. Exhaustion and the sound of an artificial thunderstorm put you to sleep with the remote still resting in your palm.

"Up, up, up, my dear! We've got a big day ahead!" Opal's cheery voice startles you awake from your less-than-cozy spot on the floor. "There's breakfast on the table then we've got to get you down to prep, so hurry up, please." She says, and just like that she's gone, no doubt off to wake the other District Five tributes in a similar fashion.

"You're going to be meeting your teammates for the first time today so you can train together- gosh isn't that just so exciting!" Opal claps as you all stand in the elevator. There's a silence that follows as you and Maisie just nod, not excited about the whole idea. You're about to meet someone who will either be spending the last days of your life with you, or be killing you themselves, and you're not fond of either.

"This way you'll get to train together first, which I do believe to be a very generous act on behalf of the game makers." She adds, making you roll your eyes. How considerate. The most you can hope for is someone who is capable, and preferably someone who isn't in the twelve to fifteen age range, having seen that there were several drawn from different districts.

You shift on your feet as you try to adjust to the uncomfortably tight catsuit they squeezed you into, covered in what must be sapphire and diamond rhinestones, pinching your skin with every slight movement. Gold accents line the seams of the suit, extending out into something that resembles wings and lightning bolts protruding from your back. District Five; power. You get it, but we're the diamonds necessary? You hardly take note of the varying outfits you're surrounded with from the other kids in your district, before Opal is guiding the four of you up the line of extravagant carriages you're meant to parade out on for the people of the Capitol to fawn over.

You take note of where all of the other tributes from Five are lead, guessing based on the order of carriages that Maisie got paired up with another girl from Eleven, and the boys somehow ended up paired together. There must be some sort of personal aspect to this decision, considering you have watched those two boys fight back home. You're last, and Opal looks at you excitedly as you follow her up, and up, and up- to the very front of the line.

"Surprise!" She grins, clapping excitedly as you approach the very first carriage. "Y/N, getting paired with a career is huge. Your odds are good already, your partner has trained his whole life- he even volunteered."

"Sucks for him." You mutter under your breath as you get closer, eyeing up the boy in front of you, wearing an almost matching outfit. All the rhinestones make sense now, blending power with luxury could only mean as much.

"Y/N Y/L/N, meet Rafe Cameron. He'll be your teammate in the games." She smiles as she introduces you.

"Hi." You say quietly, taking his hand as he holds it out to you to help you up onto the carriage.

"Hey." He mutters, avoiding your gaze. It's off to a rough start for him for sure, seeing he's being paired up with someone from an outlying district must be daunting, when for you it should be exciting. Rafe did volunteer, yes, but he doesn't want to risk any kind of attachment- despite what the people of the Capitol want for their entertainment. He wants to come out alive, he doesn't care so much about who he's with.

"Okay, Y/N, remember to smile, please." Opal reminds you and you nod, looking down at her as you hold onto the handle in front of you.

You promise her with a nod, willing to do almost anything at this point to win the favour of possible sponsors. Again, your odds look better next to a career on that front, as well.

Quickly everyone is cleared away from the horses and the carriages and you start moving, catching you off guard and you stumble a little, readjusting your grip on the railing. "Careful." Rafe says beside you, quick to reach out to steady you if you needed it. You think you see the smallest of smiles on his face, but that must have just been your own mind trying to find comfort in anything around you.

"I got it." You whisper, blushing slightly. You've been with your teammate for all of a minute, and you're already proving yourself to be clumsy.

The lights hit your eyes the same time all the cheering does, being the first carriage, it's already so loud you can hardly hear yourself think. You snap out of it quickly, plastering on a smile once you see your own face on a giant screen ahead of you, you don't even look like yourself anymore. Your eyes land on the screen adjacent to the one showing you, seeing Rafe as well. He's smiling too, clearly having headed Opal's advice, or his many years of training is getting to him and he's excited. You really don't know. Then his head turns, and you turn your head as well, making dead eye contact with him for only a moment before he's looking past you into the crowds, taking in the moment.

When you finally get out of the extremely public eye and back into the building you exited from, you feel like you can finally breathe again. Not fully, in the tight, rigid suit they had you dressed up in, but more than you realized you were with all that yelling in your ears and lights in your face.

"District Five, right?" Rafe asks you as you're both stepping down and you nod. "Jeez, you don't talk much, do you?" He follows up with, taking a water bottle from someone who's walking by with them.

"I talk." You reply quietly. "Just... not much to talk about at the moment."

"The shock? Yeah, that'll do it." He nods, taking a sip from the water bottle and holding it out to you. You shake your head and push it away, making him shrug. "Shitty bust when you're not a volunteer."

You just stare at him, taken off guard by the comment. "That being said..." He leans in closer to make sure no one else hears. "I've been waiting my whole life for this, so don't ruin it for me, yeah?"

You pull back away from him and just nod again, not wanting to get on his bad side already. He won't be the one to kill you, probably, but it would still be nice if you spent your final days without your teammate hating your guts. "Thanks, darling." He smirks, patting your shoulder and brushing past you to go to the elevators.

The next day, bright and early yet again, you have your first day of training. You're sure Rafe won't even need it, but you certainly will. Your mentor told you he will likely be using it to size up the other tributes, especially considering there is a staggering amount of them this year, and you will need to focus on survival skills. Only survival skills, if you had to pick one thing- and your mentor drove that into your head until it was all that was echoing in your mind when you entered the training center.

After the trainers speech which ironically tried to do the same thing, you beeline straight for the fire making station. You're shocked to see almost no one else listened, definitely none of the boys, mostly lining up to show off their physical strengths, likely to try and intimidate each other. You'd be lying if you said it wasn't working.

You look up as you hear echoing laughter coming from the other side of the room, eyes scanning over the wall lined with silhouette targets, and racks with an array of weapons before landing on your teammate, laughing away with the other career tributes over a joke you didn't hear. He's got a spear in one hand, leaning his weight on it as his head drops back with laughter. You shake your head to get back on task, rolling the rough wood in your palms in hopes of making a spark. Good to see at least one of you is having fun, especially in your final days.

After a few minutes you get it, sitting back into your calves where you were kneeling on the ground, taking a breath of relief as you're satisfied with your success. You glance around to see how others are doing, giving a small smile and wave to Maisie when you see her, reading a book about different edible plants and trying desperately to memorize every image. You watch as Rafe takes the same spear he was leaning on before, hurling towards one of the targets. A direct hit, right in the chest, slightly right of the centre. You jump a little at the sound it makes on impact, looking finally at the boy who threw it.

He's pacing, huffing and looking a little frustrated with himself. A little to the left would have been perfect, but it was a kill shot nonetheless. There would be no coming back from that, and you count yourself lucky that it likely won't be you in place of the target in the games.

You quickly put out your fire and try again, making sure you've got the hang of it. You'll sit here all day if you must. After three more successful attempts, you're satisfied for the day, deciding you'll return to that station tomorrow and try again. You get up and brush the dirt off your knees, trekking over to where they have supplies to make game traps. You've never done this before, but there's no better time to learn, especially since your teammate has shown no interest in survival skills so far today.

"What are you doing?" Suddenly Rafe is standing behind you, as you're once again kneeling on the ground attempting to get the trigger on your bladeless trap to work.

You jump a little, startled by someone talking to you. "Uh, trying to make a snare, I think." You answer, turning to look up at him.

"Looks good." He nods, crouching down next to you. "Uh, isn't there supposed to be a blade or a spearhead or something on that piece?" He says, pointing to it.

"Well, yeah, I just didn't want to stab myself by accident." You laugh slightly, trying the trigger again- and this time it works, snapping forward into his arm.

"Ouch, yeah, fair enough." Rafe chuckles, rubbing the spot on his arm where the wood made contact.

You just nod and begin to reset it to test it again. "What if you can't get any of this shit in the arena?" He asks.

"What, a stick?" You ask, hitting the trigger one more time, sending the stick into his arm again, which he had decided not to move.

"Ow! Yes, a stick. We don't know what it will look like." He rubs his arm, examining the trap you built closer now.

"Then we're screwed I guess." You joke, leaning back on your calves again, watching him dissect it piece by piece to figure out how it works.

"So, is this like, your thing?" Rafe asks, and you tilt your head at him as you think it over.

"My thing?" You ask, unsure entirely what he meant. "I've never made one before, if that's what you're asking."

"Really?" He seems shocked by this.

"Uh, yeah, really. Unfortunately for you, you got paired up with someone who has zero survival or combat skills."

Rafe looks at you, a smug grin crossing his features. "Ha ha, very funny." He clearly thinks you're joking, but you're definitely not.

"I'm serious." You say, confused as to why he doesn't believe you.

His smile falters, replaced with wrinkles of confusion on his forehead. "But- I just watched you look at the instruction book for no more than like, three seconds before sitting down to make this."

"And..?"

"If you've never done it before it's supposed to be harder than that."

"Well, I've seen other people do it on TV and stuff every year for like, ever." You shrug. "I've just got a good memory, I guess."

Rafe nods, looking at the deconstructed trap in front of him for a moment, thinking about the implications of this. How far does this go? Could he use it? He'd never dreamt of having to work in a team in his games, but maybe it would benefit him after all. "Come with me." He stands up, and you follow as he paces over to two big screens, covered with a large array of different symbols.

"Try this, I just want to see something." Rafe says, standing next to you with his arms crossed as you quickly look over the screen, reaching down toward the one in front of you. You notice quickly that the screens mirror each other, all the images placed in the same spots as they are above. You look up at your teammate briefly who nods at you and then you tap one, watching it disappear from both screens before you tap the matching symbol. It's a matching game.

Your eyes are locked on the top screen as you tap away at the bottom one, quickly making all the images disappear one by one. It takes you no more than a minute to get rid of them all, and then a timer appears on the screen replaying your every move in real-time. Forty-two seconds. Were you really going that fast?

"Neat." Rafe says to himself, nodding as he watches it replay on the screen. That was impressive, sure, but his mind is straining to find a practical implication for this in the arena. "Go back to survival stuff. Learn as much as you can." He settles on, turning and walking off back to where he was before, returning to combat training.

The four days of training fly by insanely fast, and that's likely due to your dread of what's to come. you've got through everything in survival no less than three times, and you're pretty sure last night you dreamt of plants and making a fire. Not surprisingly, Rafe has left you pretty much alone the whole time, but you did watch from a distance as he cycled through every weapon the training center had to offer, proving he's almost mastered every last one. Of course, with over ten years of training, anything less wouldn't make sense. What scares you is the other careers showing a similar skill level to that of your teammate, but he seems to be on good terms with them. Again, maybe this would be a good thing in the beginning of the games.

You sit down for your last day of making fires and fishing hooks, working solely on memory since day one, you're feeling pretty confident that the elements or exposure won't be what takes you out- but you don't know if that's a good thing or not. You just hope your death will be quick.

"Y/N, c'mere." Rafe is suddenly calling to you, motioning for you to join him in the combat area. Not seeing much of a choice, and not looking forward to another day of doing the same thing over and over, you listen.

You make your way over, avoiding the gaze of other tributes who are looking at you like you're about to make a fool of yourself. It's possible you are. "I want you to learn how to use this." He says as you walk up, holding out the handle of a knife to you.

You take it, turning the sharp blade over in your hand. "I thought you were the weapons master." You joke, looking up at him briefly.

"Well, I need you to make fires and shit so you have to stay alive somehow, and if we get separated or something I need to know you can at least defend yourself. These are good from a distance and up close, but remember that any weapon you have they can take and use against you. So keep distance whenever you can." He answers, pointing over to the target about fifteen feet away. "So, throw it."

You look over to where he was pointing, adjusting your grip on the handle as you nod, taking in the information he's dumping on you. He is probably right, especially since you don't think he plans on protecting you himself. Why would he? If you die, he can still win without you.

You lift your arm over your shoulder, closing one eye to narrow down your aim before throwing it hard towards the target, which the knife bounces off of and clatters to the ground. You and Rafe both turn at the same time to look at the group that's laughing at you, the clang of the metal on the cement echoing loudly in the vast space.

"Don't worry about them. They're not there." Rafe is quick to grab another one, handing it to you the same way. "Try again, this time, hold it like this..." He says, grabbing your hand and placing your fingers in the correct spots on the handle. "Keep your wrist tense and straight, don't flick it or anything. Yeah, like that." He nods, taking a step back.

You look over how you're holding it, committing the feeling and finger placement to memory before raising your arm again. You throw it again, and this time it sticks, but your aim is off and it ends up in the target's leg. You look over at Rafe, unsure if you're hoping for approval or just satisfaction. "That's perfect." He nods. "Not a death blow, but that'll buy you time to get away. which is all you need."

"Okay." You agree quietly.

"Would it help if you watched me?" He offered, already grabbing a new knife while you nod. "So, you want to follow through with the throw, your shoulders should end about here if you're doing it right. You get more power that way, and better aim." He explains, standing with one foot forward, parallel to the target.

You step back to watch his strategy, noting the way he held the blade and his form when he aimed to throw it. He lets it fly from his fingers as his shoulders fall forward, smirking to himself as it hits the bullseye circle, right in the chest.

"You got it?" He asks, standing up straight again. You nod in response and he's handing you yet another knife to try again.

You go back and forth for hours, not caring that you're keeping anyone else from practicing. You're not the best at it, but it's become muscle memory now, and every time it sticks, most of the time hitting the silhouette somewhere. You tried the moving targets briefly, the gold, pixelated figures running at you quickly. You were immediately overwhelmed, and Rafe ended up having to step in to help. He said after that the minimal skill you had would be good enough to get away, and that is all you would need. You just have to focus on that.

You didn't talk a lot, besides taking a few short breaks to gather the knives and his arrows as Rafe explained the pros and cons of every weapon they had present, showing you briefly how to use some of them. Mostly how to defend yourself against them. It's hard for him to sum up years of training in one day, but he's dead set on the idea that you won't need most of it- just having to focus on keeping the two of you sheltered and fed, he can handle the rest; hopefully.

You sit outside the training center next to Rafe, waiting for your name to be called. It was the youngest female tribute from his district first, so if you had to guess, you would be third and fourth to go, which doesn't buy you a lot of time to decide what to do to best show your skills.

"What are you gonna do?" You ask, whispering in the deathly quiet room.

"Huh?" Rafe hums, leaning closer to hear you better.

You clear your throat, before speaking this time, unsure if you were clear enough. "What are you gonna do? Like which skill?" You clarify.

"Oh, uh..." He mutters, adjusting how he's sitting as he thinks about what to say. "I'm just going to cycle through some different weapons, different distance targets, I think. My mentors want me to show like, a variety of what I can do."

You nod at this, making a mental note of that. Maybe you should do the matching game and then try the knives. Opal told you that you would be scored both individually, and as a team. You hope you won't bring down his score too much, since you know he's aiming high. You planned on going for a mid-level score, not to be seen as a threat but also not as an easy kill. A perfect six would be your ideal score. "What about you?" Rafe interrupts your thought process.

"I'm not sure." You answer honestly.

"You should do your survival stuff. That will improve our team score, if we show them we have strengths at both." Rafe suggests. That's not actually a bad idea. Your individual score will likely be lower, but that's a risk you're willing to take.

"Yeah, I'll do that."

You ended up scoring a six, the judges obviously not seeing you as any kind of threat. This is what you expected, though, and you were correct about your group score as well. Rafe and you together scored a ten. On his own, he scored a ten, so you hadn't affected it in the way you feared. This left you reeling over the idea of other tributes seeing you both as a threat as you stand in yet another extravagant dress, waiting in line to be called out for your interview. The games were tomorrow, and the last thing you wanted was to get in front of a crowd and subtly plead with them to let you live, to send you gifts, and to give you their sympathy.

So far it's been in the same order they called everyone for assessments yesterday, which means you would be next. Rafe stands behind you, arms crossed in a suit that looks more expensive than any you've seen back home in all of your life, but he looks comfortable in it. Your dress is once again covered in rhinestones, and your waist is cinched in so tight you can hardly breathe as it is, so you're not looking forward to going on stage.

"Our next tribute, welcome to the stage from District Five, Miss Y/N Y/L/N!" You hear the familiar voice of Caesar Flickerman calling you out and some guards usher you forward onto the stage, very briefly glancing over your shoulder at Rafe.

You're quick to smile as you turn back around, giving a small wave to the host and then out to the audience as they cheer for you. For a brief moment, you feel as if they don't plan on watching you die as early as tomorrow, you feel as if they're rooting for you. "Hi!" You say as you get closer and Caesar stands up to greet you, shaking your hand and giving you a quick hug before gesturing for you to sit down across from him.

You look around the large theatre, spotting every camera you can. Your family is out there watching, somewhere, and you know they'll see right through this show you have to put on. You wish they wouldn't. You can picture so vividly your living room back home, with your parents and siblings scattered across the couch and the floor watching you with bated breath, they can see you- and on some level, you can see them too.

"Miss Y/L/N. Thank you for being here." Caesar sighs, reaching out and patting your hand where it sits on the armrest next to you.

"Well, I didn't have any other plans for the night, so..." You shrug, making him laugh. Laughter echoes from the audience and you smile, hoping that your plan to win people over is working.

"What? A beautiful girl like you?" He asks after he's done laughing. "You weren't planning on spending some of your free time with your teammate?" As if you got even a minute of free time since you've been here.

"Well, I guess we'll never know." You chuckle, looking back at the boy where he stands in the wing, giving you a small smile.

"Now listen, Y/N, Rafe is..." He has to stop after mentioning his name as cheers erupt again, laughing as he waits for the audience to quiet down. "Your teammate is, as you may have guessed, a popular face in the Capitol right now. Are you feeling lucky about your pairing?"

Rafe crossed his arms as he watches intently, feeling smug about his odds, especially now knowing the Capitol's opinion of him. He knows his dad is back home watching, full of pride that his son has become a fan favourite.

"I am." You answer honestly. "He's very talented."

"And handsome, don't you think?"

"I mean, who am I to argue with the people?" You joke, waving your hand dismissively as you hear the cheers pick up again. "Besides, his looks won't save us. We will save ourselves." You add seriously.

Caesar nods in acknowledgment, showing that to an extent, he agrees with you. "Well, I hope that you are right, dear." He smiles, getting up to signal you've run out of time. You stand as well, taking his hand as he holds it up above your heads. "It was so lovely to meet you, and may the odds stay ever in your favor. Y/N Y/L/N, everyone!"

You smile and thank him quietly, waving to everyone with both hands as you walk across the stage to exit on the other side. You take a few deep breaths as you step into yet another waiting room, watching the screen as Rafe is called out right behind you.

Rafe sits down on the chair across from Caesar after his introduction, which allows a few moments for the audience to quiet down. He smiles proudly as he rests one of his feet on his other knee, bouncing his leg with anxiety. He hopes it's interpreted as excitement. "Rafe." Caesar smiles at him, sitting back down as well. "I'll be honest, I have been so excited to finally meet you."

"It's good to meet you too." Rafe grins, chuckling slightly at the few whistles he gets scattered from the crowd.

"You got a fabulous score, how are you feeling about that?"

"Really good, yeah. Obviously I've been waiting my whole life for this opportunity, so it feels amazing to see it all paying off." Rafe answers, focussing on keeping the confidence in his tone.

"We can tell, can't we?" Caesar laughs, riling up the audience again, making Rafe laugh to himself as he softly shakes his head. "Yeah, yeah. So, with all this planning you've been doing, how do you feel about getting paired up? You probably expected to be going in solo."

"I did, for sure, but I don't think this is a bad thing." Rafe admits.

"Oh, getting along well with your teammate?" Caesar asks, a hint of suggestion in his tone.

"Yeah, we get on really well." Rafe exaggerates your relationship a bit, knowing it will earn you more sponsors, and maybe keep other tributes away from you in the games. "At least I think we do, I'm not fully sure about her thoughts on me, though."

"You scored incredibly well together, despite Y/N having a fairly average score on her own. What are your thoughts and feelings on that?"

Rafe chuckles as he leans forward a bit, pointing out to the audience as he speaks. "Don't underestimate her based on the score. I won't give you any spoilers, but trust me, don't overlook her. She's got as good a shot as any of us. Maybe better."

Caesar makes a surprised expression as he nods. "Well okay! Does she have some sort of secret weapon we should be worried about?" He chuckles, gripping the armrests and looking around as the audience laughs.

Rafe just shrugs in response, smirking slightly, which you can tell the audience just eats up. You're trying to decide if this is good or bad for you, though, as you watch, gnawing at your nails in anticipation as you stare at the screen.

"Okay, alright, don't spoil anything then." Caesar laughs. "It'll make for a better show, and I can get behind that."

After a moment of waiting for the cheers to die down, Caesar speaks up again. "Rafe, if I can ask, I know your father has a lot of influence in your district- how is he feeling about your selection for the games?"

You furrow your brow a little bit as you look at the screen, finally learning something interesting about your teammate. If he's from a prominent family in District One of all places, that would certainly explain his attitude. Rafe, on the other hand, doesn't want to talk about his father at all- but of course they would bring him up.

"Yeah, of course." Rafe replies, shifting in his seat. "He's thrilled, it's a huge honour to be here, and to be the first out of his children to be chosen is really special to me. I just hope I can make him and my sisters proud, he's always encouraged us to volunteer."

"I'm sure that you will." Caesar smiles at him. "I hope I will have the honour of hosting one of your sisters on this stage one day, as well."

Your stomach churns just watching this. How can any father who loves his children want this fate for them? This was your father's worst nightmare. You watch as Rafe nods with a smile, and you can see behind his eyes that he doesn't want that, not at all.

The audience cheers as they both stand up, shaking hands before Rafe leaves the stage, a cocky smirk on his face as he waves and winks at the audience. Before Rafe makes it down to the waiting room, you're grabbed an escorted out, heading for the elevator back to your room.

You can't eat, but you know you should. This will likely be your last meal for a while. You decide on just taking a large bowl of fruit and toast to your room, trying to get it down slowly with all the nerves, while you have a bath. Your parents never let you eat in the bath. It's hard to get out knowing this is likely the last bath you'll ever have.

The morning goes by in a blur, you feel Opal's arms around you as she hugs you goodbye and wishes you luck. You know you'll need all of it. You stare down at the ground in front of you as you're pushed onto a plane, of sorts, along with all the other tributes. Once you're sat down, you look around at everyone else. You remember all of their names as you scan over their faces, but you wish you didn't. You get stuck on one of the girls from District Eleven, Hope, who was only thirteen.

She's shaking, and you can see that from where you're sat down the row from her. She reminds you of Rue, the tribute from last year. Her death was a tragedy, it broke the hearts of everyone outside of the Capitol and the career districts. Hope's curly hair sat in a bun on top of her head, and tears fell down her cheeks as she sniffled. She got paired up with a girl from Twelve- the lengths the Capitol will go to to make a mockery of last years games will never cease to amaze you.

"Hey, you look a little pale." Rafe whispers, leaning close to you. You didn't even notice him sit down on the other side of you.

You shake your head slightly, looking down at your knees. "I'm fine."

"Don't think about it." Rafe instructs you, holding his arm out for the tracker to be injected as a guard approaches with the device.

You wince as you hear it get shot into his arm and he chuckles, shaking his arm off to ease the sting. You raise your shaking arm as they hold their hand out expectantly to you. You don't know what it is they're putting in you, but you've never been fond of needles. This is a million times worse. "It's not that bad," Rafe tells you, and you squeeze your eyes shut as you feel pressure on your forearm, followed by a sharp, stabbing pain. You bite your tongue to keep from making a sound, dropping your arm onto your lap as they quickly walk away.

"What did they do?" You ask him, trying to keep a steady tone.

"It's a tracker, so they know where we are in the arena." He explains quietly. You were the only two talking, and you notice it's earning you glares from several other tributes. Rafe notices this as well, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms, taking this time to size everyone up.

The plane takes off, and before you know it, you're landing at the arena on the outskirts of Capitol property. You wonder if you're close to the ocean, not that you'll get to see it anyways.

You're paraded off of the plane, still trying not to let it show how afraid you are of what's to come. You make the briefest of eye contact with Maisie as she's pulled towards a different hallway, and neither of you have it in you to smile anymore.

"We've gotta get supplies, that's our first move." Rafe says to you as you're led out of earshot of other tributes, into your own hall.

"My mentor said to run." You reply quietly.

Rafe scoffs, shaking his head. "Your what, one mentor said that? Cool. I have fifteen that are still alive and well enough to show up every year. I think we should get supplies." He tells you firmly, but you know that will get you instantly killed, maybe not him, but you stand no shot. "Just stick with me if you want to live."

You just nod a little bit, glancing at him again briefly before you're directed into a separate room across the hall from him. His pedestal will be next to yours, which is a bit of a relief. Your stylist quickly instructs you to strip, and then she helps you into the uniform you assume you'll all be wearing. It's exactly the same as last year, you notice this quickly, but with a '75' logo embroidered on the chest where the District Twelve tribute had her pin placed. Katniss, you remember her name was. She had volunteered for her sister, and at the time you contemplated heavily on whether or not you would do the same. She was so, so close to winning- to getting to see her sister again, but she and the boy from her district, the final two tributes, ended up committing together rather than giving the Capitol their Victor. It was an admirable stance, but you couldn't imagine what that was like for her family, and his.

You step off the concrete floor once you're dressed, instructed to get into the pod that will lift you up into the arena; a glass elevator. Your stylist says nothing to you as they walk out of the room, the glass door sliding shut in front of you. Your knees get weak as you realize you are totally, completely alone, and likely no more than twenty minutes from dying. You think of your family, your siblings, your dad- and the last words he said to you. You'll see him soon.

Your thoughts are halted when the elevator starts to move, lifting you up as the ceiling falls away and you can see sunlight coming through. You squint and shield your eyes as you try to look up to get a better grasp on your surroundings before you can even see anything. Once trees come into view you're frantically looking around, trying to process as much information as you can, and quickly. It's exactly the same as last year, but from what you can tell, flipped in reverse, and made larger to accommodate twice as many tributes. Or everything on camera last year was flipped. There's a silver cornucopia in the middle with the timer that's immediately counting down and supplies inside and scattered around the field in front of you. Rafe is to your right, and a boy from Seven on your left. He scored a six, the same as you, so he's not the biggest threat to you immediately.

You adjust your stance, getting ready to run once the timer hits zero. In what direction, you don't know yet. Rafe wants you to run to the supplies, but statistically, the most deaths will happen in the next five minutes and you don't want any part of that. The supply bags and weapons spread out on the grass are all the same too, by the looks of it. The closest bag to you got picked up by the girl from Seven last year, and it didn't have much of anything helpful. If you're remembering right, it had a rope and some matches, and that was it. It definitely would be useful, but you know you can do better. There should be a bag four pedestals to your right, with a water bottle, an emergency blanket, a fire starter, a first aid kit, and a knife. Right now, that's the one you have to get to. That's your best bet.

Ten, nine, eight... The timer ticks down to the final seconds as you look over at Rafe, who's already looking at you. You point to the bag as your eyes land on it on the other side of him across the field, and he looks at you confused. He's closer, he has a better shot, but you know he won't take it.

Rafe is confused, following your finger and spotting the bag. Why would you want that one specifically? There are others closer, he doesn't feel like now is a time to be picky.

Four, three, two...

Your ears ring with shock as the clock reaches zero, and you're watching most of the other tributes booking it for the center. No one has seen your bag yet as you jump down, beelining across the field and narrowly brushing past Rafe in your move for the small backpack. He stops to let you pass, almost crashing into you head-on. He doesn't have time to worry about you, so he continues on his path to the middle, but he's lost time. Precious time that he doesn't have to lose right at the beginning of the games.

He gets into the bloodbath that the cornucopia has already turned into, looking back over his shoulder quickly as he grabs at any weapon he can get his hands on. He quickly has to sacrifice the blade he just grabbed when he hears footsteps quickly approaching from behind him, turning quickly and plunging it into the boy's chest. He doesn't think to look at who it was.

Cannon's echo around you, and you're counting how many internally as you get to the bag, reaching down to grab it as you run past, trying not to slow down. You look back over your shoulder, hoping to spot your teammate somewhere, but you can't see him. You're scanning the area, blocking out the blood you see flying and scattered along the silver metal of the cornucopia. You can hardly hear any screams over the sound of your heartbeat pounding in your ears. You can't help but watch as the girl from Three jumps on who is supposed to be her partner, a girl from Twelve, snapping her neck in a second. Within moments, she just drops to the ground next to her- another cannon following. That makes a strong incentive for working in teams. At least Rafe won't betray you early on.

You freeze up for a moment, stopping to scan your surroundings. You still can't find Rafe, taking in the number of bodies scattered around the cornucopia and a few tributes running into the tree line. At least some people were smart. Something flies past your head, making you jump back a step as you look up ahead of you. Within an instant, you're being tackled back by the body of the boy from your district.

"Y/N, fancy seeing you here." He chuckles darkly while you try and fight him off.

"Don't!" You squeak out, him pressing his forearm down against your throat on the ground.

"I've wanted to do this since the second they called your name." He growls, shoving you down again.

"We can help each other, Jack..." You say weakly, clawing at his arm.

"You don't need me. You've got your career boyfriend- and whatever your secret weapon is." He scoffs. "You don't have a secret weapon, Y/N. He's bluffing and he won't convince us."

You gather all your strength and knee him in the crotch, scrambling to get away as he fumbles for just a moment. "God- you are a bitch!" He shouts, grabbing for your ankle just has you pick up the knife he had thrown at you. You grip it the way Rafe had shown you, quickly shoving it into Jack's leg. You just needed to get away.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" You exclaim, backing away quickly. Jack doesn't say another word, cutting his losses and getting up to make an escape for the woods. You hope he ends up okay.

You make your break for it as well, running back towards the woods as you once again scan your surroundings for your partner.

Suddenly you're on the ground, having run straight into the side of one of the pedestals and falling over it. You yelp with the sudden impact of the ground, scrambling to get up and continue when suddenly someone is grabbing your jacket, slamming you into the pedestal again. You scream, trying to shove them off, but they're much stronger than you. "Jael! Wait, wait- Jael!" You make out your own voice yelling the boy's name, which makes him falter. He's the oldest tribute from Eight- he seems shocked you even know his name.

In the moment when he loosened his grip, he jerks forward and then falls over you, a cannon booming making you gasp as you panic to get away. Rafe is quickly running towards you, slinging the bow he just used over his shoulder and yanking the arrow out of the boy's back. "Y/N, let's go!" He shouts, motioning for you to follow him as you continue toward the tree line, both of you keeping an eye on what's happening behind you as you disappear into the woods.

"Let's stay close, but not too close," Rafe suggests as soon as you feel safe enough to slow down, your chest heaving with the exertion of energy and boost of adrenaline. He glances at you briefly, then does a double take. "You okay? Are you hurt?"

You shake your head, coughing to ease the stinging in your throat. "I'm fine. You?"

"Good," Rafe answers, slowing his pace to match yours.

"We, uh, I think we should go the other way." You say, looking around to try and mentally place where abouts you are.

Rafe stops and furrows his brow at you, seemingly frustrated by your resistance. "Why does it matter?"

"The arena, it's the same as last year. Exactly the same. Just, scaled up a bit." You explain. "We should head south, that's where the river is. We'll need water soon."

Rafe laughs slightly, his demeanor changing as he places his hands on his hips and looks at you. "No shit," He says, truly surprised and impressed that you could tell. A lot of the games tend to look like this, and he would never notice a repeat arena down to the rivers if it punched him in the face. Your 'secret weapon' is already paying off. "And you could tell that right away?"

"Yeah, I mean, I guess so. The bags were all the same, everything was laid out the same. I bet there's a river down south." You nod, having a sudden realization. "We should get to that cave- the one the tributes from Twelve holed up in last year. That'll be a good, stable shelter. We can pretty much wait it out." You say, starting to walk in what you believe is the right direction.

"No," Rafe replies, making you stop in your tracks. "Unless you want me to have to kill you in the end."

"Oh, right." You forgot about that part, keeping score. "We're still going to need somewhere to sleep, though."

"Yeah, we'll find it anyways." Rafe nods, carrying on in the direction you started heading. You follow a few steps behind, keeping a bit of distance in the somewhat awkward silence that fell over you two after his comment about having to kill you.

You walk in the thick of the woods for about an hour before you feel like you're reaching the river. You can feel it under your feet, the soil is slightly softer, and the trees a little more green.

Cannons interrupt your thoughts a few times in the hike, totaling up to twenty-three by the time you reach the riverbank. "You were right." Rafe chuckles, mentally disparaging any skepticism he faced during the long, quiet walk.

"Thank god." You giggle, dropping your bag and crouching down to dig through it, hoping for a water bottle. You were right, everything you expected was accounted for.

"Why that bag?" Rafe says, already sitting down on the rocky water's edge to rest for a moment.

"Huh?" You question, unsure you heard over the shuffling of the bag while you zip it up.

"You pointed to it, during the countdown. Why did you want that one?"

"Oh, uh, like I said they all looked the same as last year, and I hoped I remembered what was inside." You say, laying down to reach into the water and fill up the bottle.

"Were you right?"

You nod with a small smile, sitting back up and holding the bottle out to him as you cross your legs.

"That's actually insane." Rafe shakes his head in disbelief as he takes it, downing just about everything in it before handing it back.

You take it and refill it again for yourself. "I'll choose to take that as a compliment."

Rafe wouldn't admit it, but at this moment as he's watching you drink, he's grateful that he got paired up with you. But now, that it's been shown on national television that you know the arena in and out, he wonders what obstacles the gamemakers will desperately throw your way.

"We should keep moving. I feel like a sitting duck out here in the open, I don't like it." Rafe mutters, checking his attitude as he stands up. You're quick to fill up the bottle again, following behind him yet again as the arrows in his quiver rattle together against his back walking over the rocky and unstable terrain, knife gripped tightly in his hand.

You wonder to yourself how he's feeling about leaving behind his predestined alliance of the career pack, but with the factor of most of them being paired up with other districts, it was already too unpredictable. You wouldn't have stuck around either.

The sun started to set as you followed the river upstream. You didn't want to settle without some kind of shelter, and you were committed to finding that cave before you could relax. You could tell that Rafe had the same idea, his steps ahead of you gradually picking up speed with the bow still gripped firmly in his palm.

"It's a beautiful sunset." You speak your mind before thinking, desperately wanting to fill the silence.

Rafe just hums in response, looking up only briefly before training his gaze once again on the ragged rocks at his feet and continuing on. "What's it like in District One?" You ask.

"Fine." He replies coldly. You aren't sure what you expected, but this response was pretty on par. You knew you had almost no chance of survival, so it would at least be nice to get to know the person you spend your final days with, even if he would be the one to kill you in the end.

"I've never been, but I've heard it's... nice." You've only ever heard about it from the perspective of other bitter individuals from Five, jealous of the cushy lifestyle everyone knew they must have lived.

"Yeah." Rafe agrees, clearly not wanting to discuss it.

"What are your sister's names?" You ask, deciding to push a little bit. It's not like he can kill you just yet.

Rafe sighs, but answers anyways. "Wheezie and Sarah."

You're shocked that he answered at all, but you could tell in his interview that he has a soft spot for them. "Cute." You nod, smiling to yourself. "Is Wheezie a nickname?"

"Yep, it's short for Louise."

"That's adorable." You grin, shaking your head.

"Hey, look. There." Rafe says, changing the subject and pointing down the rocks, where there's a small opening under a ledge.

"That's it!" You exclaim, deciding to drop the topic of his sisters in favour for finding your shelter for the night. You rush past him, watching your step as you climb down into the small cave.

Rafe quickly draws his bow, slowing down and peaking into the cave and bracing himself for your screams. How could you be so careless in a game like this? He doesn't understand your lightheartedness, your somewhat positive attitude, and your ability to make small talk despite the circumstances. "Hey, careful!"

"It's perfect!" You call back out as you look around, and Rafe steps down carefully, looking around more carefully than you had. He relaxes once he's satisfied that there's nothing down there waiting to kill you.

"Nice, okay." Rafe nods to himself, and you both get to work making a small fire near the entrance, hidden from view.

You take off your jacket and roll it up, using it as a makeshift pillow as you lay next to the fire, staring at the orange flicker of the flames you made.

Rafe is sitting across from you, knees tucked up to his chest as he does just the same. His mind is absolutely reeling- he needs to find something to eat, and soon. That will be the first thing you'll do in the morning, he'll have to employ your help to find something edible. "How are you with making traps?" He asks.

"I can do it." You reply, sitting up and leaning on your elbow so you can see him. "I'll set some up in the morning."

Rafe nods a little bit. He already knew you could, of course, but he's wondering about the logistics of how they work. "So like... hypothetically, would they work the same if you made them bigger?"

"Like... human-sized?" You ask, catching on to what he's suggesting. It's not ethical- but nothing about this game is. For you, this would definitely be preferable to fighting other kids to death over and over again.

Rafe nods, adjusting how he was sitting and crossing his legs.

"Yeah. I can't see why not." You answer. "It would be harder since I've never done it, but I think it could work."

"Then I say we try it."

The next day, you wake up as the sun rises and the light beats down on you from the entrance of the cave. You didn't sleep comfortably, that's for sure, waking up twice throughout the night to the sound of the cannon. That's twenty-seven. You wonder how many teams have already reached their ten-kill quota, you imagine someone in the career pack already has. Both times when you were startled awake, Rafe was standing at the cave entrance, bow drawn as he squinted into the darkness, hoping that whoever was out hunting other tributes wasn't nearby.

You sit up slowly, stretching out your tired limbs as you look over to see Rafe, fast asleep with a blade in his hand. You should let him sleep, and get to work on finding something to eat, and making some traps.

You grab one of the knives Rafe somehow collected from the bag laying next to him as quietly as possible, sneaking outside and taking in your surroundings. The sound of the river flowing and the smell of morning dew was amazing- you wish you could truly enjoy it in different circumstances.

You quickly get to work tracking down something to eat, landing on a few different plants you know to be edible. You're trekking through the woods near your cave when you come across an apple tree- making you pause as you look it over. It looks out of place- and maybe no one got close enough to it in the games last time that you wouldn't have seen it, but that seems unlikely. It must be new; it makes for the perfect place to try and set up a trap for the next hungry tribute who would be unfortunate enough to wander too close to your hideout.

You're digging a hole in the ground with your hands, avoiding the roots of the tree and sticking in some sticks you sharpened when you hear a twig snap behind you. You freeze, hoping that by some miracle, it's just an animal. You slowly turn your head to try and look, picking up the knife from the ground next to you and holding it tight.

"Just me." Rafe's voice relaxes you, and you stand up, brushing off your knees.

"You scared me." You admit as he takes to looking down into the hole you just dug.

"That looks... awful." He chuckles, patting your shoulder. "It won't kill, but it'll slow someone down enough that I can finish the job."

You nod slightly, staring into the dirt as well. You hated the idea that you were crafting something intentionally to bring harm to another person, but realistically you have no choice. "We'll set up more, along the riverbed and closer to the career pack. We can't monitor them all at once, though- can you make more fatal ones next time?" Rafe asks, pointing back towards the river to accentuate his point.

"That depends, how many arrows can you spare?"

The next few days saw the death toll rise to thirty-six. You kept track every night, scratching their numbers and names into the walls of the cave despite being able to remember anyway. You viewed it as a small memorial, Rafe saw it as a timer ticking down to when he'd have to kill you.

Your first trap had worked on one person, their screams of pain from a cut-up leg summoning your teammate back to the apple tree. He insisted you stay behind as he finished what you started. You had to reset several other traps as well, closer to the cornucopia.

Rafe would never admit it, but he was really starting to like you. He didn't want to hurt you- he was worried the traps wouldn't do enough. The passive approach you so preferred wasn't what he expected, and he knew his dad would be disappointed in him. But Ward would never understand.

He sighed as he poked at the fire with a stick, leaning his head back against the rocky wall of the cave, another cold night ahead of you.

You had your head laid on his lap, his thigh replacing the thin material of your coat that you had been using the last few days.

"How old are your sisters?" You ask out of nowhere, prompting him to look down at you. He had thought you fell asleep a while ago.

"Why does it matter?" Rafe replies, and you just shrug a little bit.

"Gives us something to talk about."

"Fifteen and Eleven." He relents.

"Hey, me too." You smile a little to yourself.

"You have sisters?" Rafe asks. He never asked much about you- he didn't really want to know, in the case he had to kill you.

"Yep. And a brother." You nod, sitting up a little bit. "He's older though, he aged out last year."

Rafe finds himself clenching his jaw. He can't hear that- to see you as a little sister. He doesn't want to imagine what it would be like to see his sisters face the same fate. "Lucky guy." He says quietly.

"Why? I thought it was a privilege, and all that." You chuckle.

"Well, yeah, but not for most. For the outlying districts like you."

"At least you get it." You agree. "How does it feel? Now that you're here, I mean."

"Scary." Rafe admits, throwing caution to the wind now with what his father will think. "Not what everyone tells you it'll be like."

"Is that because of me?" You ask after a few moments, and he nods slightly.

"Not in a bad way, though. It's just different. I expected to be on my own, to die alone, or kill my allies if I had to. Now... I don't know that I have to. Or if I even could." He can practically hear his father shouting at their large screen at home, or storming out claiming he was an embarrassment. He was told his whole life to never show weakness, to 'be a man', but now, at the end, that doesn't matter to him.

"I won't take it personally." You giggle softly, voice shaking as you try to make light of it. "My family won't either, I don't think. Maybe my dad, at first, but eventually he'll understand. They'll forgive you." You try and ease his mind, knowing that in the case that Rafe does win without you, he'll have to face your family in the next month or so during the victory tour.

"I wouldn't ever expect him to." Rafe tells you, tossing his stick into the flames now. He feels sick hearing you talk about it like it's inevitable- but if he has anything to do with it, you'll be coming home with him.

"They're good people." You assure him.

"Don't say that." Rafe chuckles, shaking his head. "I would never forgive myself."

"Okay, fine. They're awful. Just... the worst." You smile, looking up at him and resting your chin in your hand.

"That's better. Thank you." Rafe laughs, poking your forehead and gazing out onto the river as the flames illuminate the water.

In the morning, you're awoken to something brushing your leg. You groan and roll over, head landing once more on Rafe's extended arm underneath you. At least he was finally getting some sleep, pretty much unable to close his eyes since you set foot in the arena. You feel the brush again, followed by something moving on your arm, several things, suddenly, and your eyes fly open and look down when you remember where you are. You let out a scream, scrambling to sit up and pushing yourself back against the wall.

Rafe wakes up quickly, scrambling for the bow next to him when he realizes it won't be any help. You're surrounded by and quickly almost covered in a sickening combination of snakes and spiders.

You're still screaming, trying to shove the creatures off of you. "Come on- come on!" Rafe is yelling at you, grabbing your arm and pulling you towards the exit. You don't get the chance to grab your back and you regret that as you're jumping into the river in attempt to get the spiders off of your skin and out of your clothes.

You're breathing heavily as you come up for air, and Rafe is quickly there, brushing his hands over your hair to make sure every last spider is gone. He looks back at the entrance of the cave, chest heaving like yours as the bugs and snakes spill out of it. It sends a shiver down his spine- he was never a fan of snakes.

"I guess that's the gamemakers telling us enough was enough." He sighs, gently pulling you towards the shore again a safe distance away. "Are you bit?" He asks once you're a safe distance away.

"I don't think so..." You reply, hiking up the ankles of your pants to look at your calves and over your bare arms as you sit on the shore. "You?"

Rafe shakes his head, doing the same. "It was probably just a warning. We have to move." He quickly lowers his pant leg over the puncture wounds in his leg, hoping you didn't see. If it gets worse, he'll tell you. The bite itself didn't hurt much, so if it's going to be fatal, he's glad he won't have to hurt you.

Rafe helps you up, leading you up towards the tree line. "They probably want to push us in toward the other tributes, I think we should go with it before they throw something worse at us." You, the two of you now left with nothing but what you had on you, along with Rafe's bow and a few spare arrows.

He nods. "It's our best move anyways. How many tributes are left?"

"Twelve including us." You answer quickly. "There's Avril, a boy from six, Maisie, she's from my district, most of the careers I think are still in it but not their teammates," You begin to rattle off the list,

"I don't want to know names." Rafe cuts you off, and you understand why. He's been doing all the dirty work, and part of you knows it's because he's hoping to have time to learn names and feel guilty about it later. Right now, he can't afford to see them as human.

"Right." You agree. "It doesn't really matter, anyways."

"Do you know scores?" He asks, walking alongside you now.

You nod, beginning to list off all the remaining tributes and their scores, from lowest to highest. The lowest being you- and the highest being ten, shared by Rafe and a boy from district two.

After hearing two more cannons that day, and checking all the traps you had set, you're circling back to the river to be near fresh water before you set up camp again. You don't have your water bottle anymore, or anything to set up any kind of shelter with, you do your best. You set up a fire, Rafe insisting that if it draws other tributes to you so be it- he's ready for this to end just as much as you, but you don't want to rush into your death or an ambush. It's safe to say you won't be sleeping tonight.

You didn't sleep, but at least, curled up under a tree, the night sky was beautiful. The stars seemed realistic, and you wondered if somehow they were real. Between the two more cannons that struck overnight, you still wondered if you were somewhere near the ocean, or somewhere closer to home. While you're sitting next to each other in a peaceful silence, both admiring the vastness of the night sky, you hear a ringing sound coming from above.

Rafe quickly stands, reaching for the small silver pack with a parachute before it hits the ground. He's quick to open it as you stand up, looking into the container. You grab the small card, tilting it into the light of your fire to read it.

For our Y/N,

Keep fighting. Please come home to us.

Love You Always, Dad

Tears form in your eyes almost instantly, your hand coming up to cover your mouth. "It's just a water bottle and some kind of granola bars... or something." Rafe says, turning the water bottle over in his hand.

He looks up at you, frowning when he sees how upset you look. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." You quickly shake your head, wiping your eyes. "Uhm, it's from my dad."

The fact that your family could spare enough money to send you something in the games at all was amazing to you. You heard horror stories of the astronomical prices of trying to send something from outside of the capitol, without the status and funds of a sponsor.

"Oh." Rafe replies, handing you the tin and bottle now, taking the card from you gently. He reads it over slowly, and over and over again. His family had seemingly endless amounts of money, and they had sent him nothing. He knew his father viewed it as cheating, and that you shouldn't need any kind of help to win. If he loved him, though, that wouldn't matter. He should be willing to do anything he could to keep his son alive. The way your parents did.

"My mom made these." You sniffle, grabbing a small bar from the container in her hand. "They're my favourite, she only makes them on birthdays or special occasions." You explain.

"That's... that's really nice." Rafe says, putting the card back in the tin. He doesn't know how to handle this, or what to say.

You smile sadly as you sit back down against the tree, placing the tin on your lap as Rafe joins you. "Here." You hold the bar out to him.

"They're for you." Rafe shakes his head, pushing it away.

"They're for us." You insist, holding it out to him again. "They wouldn't have sent two if I wasn't meant to share."

"Thank you." Rafe smiles genuinely, for the first time in weeks as he takes it. He's starving, having eaten only small amounts of meat and plants over the last week or so, so he's quick to take a bite. It's sweet, more so than he expected. He never thought he could enjoy sugar this much.

"No wonder they're reserved for celebrations, hey?" You giggle, having intently watched his reaction.

Rafe nods. "Yeah, it's really good. Super sweet." He says, mouth still full. You grin, satisfied as you take a bite of your own.

The night flew by so quickly, you're feeling as though it must have gotten shorter. The sunrise went by fast too. You're guessing the gamemakers and the viewers were getting antsy. To be honest, you were as well.

Renewed with your energy the sugary baking your parents had sent, you set about gathering food and water, while Rafe goes on to check a few of your traps to see if they needed to be reset. He could do it on his own, but he liked watching you do it, working the ropes between your fingers and tying intricate knots, pulling back on the stick used to trigger the arrow. By the afternoon, having taken a mental note of the amount of cannons that had fired. It was a few, at least. You must be getting down to the end. He prayed it wasn't you, but the cries of some kind of mutts in the distance right before the cannons lead him to believe that you were fine- but he should be getting back soon anyways.

You were wandering down to the water, reluctant to leave your camp, but you knew water was a priority. You were just filling up the new bottle when you heard a scream. It sounded like a boy. You quickly look back over your shoulder, noticing it was nearby. Toward the apple tree. You stand slowly, looking around as you attach the water bottle back to your side with a carabiner, reaching instead for the knife Rafe had left with you. God, you hoped it wasn't him. The absence of a cannon gives you hope, though.

You quietly head in that direction, watching your step so your presence isn't detected. When you get closer to the tree, you hear crying. Painful crying, as you're faced with the reality of the trap you set.

You watch from behind a tree as the boy from eight tries to pull his leg up from the ground, screaming out again as the sharp sticks dig into his flesh. You should go get Rafe- you feel guilty, but you can't kill him yourself. You turn quickly, and before you can get a step away you're face to face with one of the other careers- a sword held up against your neck.

"Don't move." Blake says, a smile that can only be described as evil spreading over his lips.

You try and scream out for help, hoping Rafe was still in earshot but a hand is quickly covering your mouth. "Not yet." He whispers, shaking his head. "We've got a plan, it'll be fun. You wouldn't want to ruin that, right?"

As Rafe gets back to your small camp, he expects to see you there waiting. He scans the trees above him, wondering if you had climbed up for some reason. He calls your name when he doesn't see you, brow furrowed. You definitely should be back by now. As he's heading down to the water to look for you, he hears a cannon, which at this point wouldn't bother him- if it wasn't for the scream that followed after. It was you. No doubt in his mind that it was you. With his bow drawn, he's moving quickly towards where he heard your voice, throwing caution to the wind.

You scream again, crying as the tip of the sword is dug into your shoulder, laying down next to the apple tree. You can't help it- but you don't want their trap to work. You don't want Rafe to come, so you bite your tongue until you taste blood, hoping to keep quiet. "It'll only get worse for you if you don't scream, Y/N/N." Blake scolds you, digging in the blade more. "He has to hear you." He adds through gritted teeth.

You hear a twig snap just outside the small clearing, and Blake is quickly turning to look with the sword still pinning you to the ground. "Rafe it's a trap!" You shout, hoping that it's him.

Rafe steps out then, into full view with his bow drawn as he aims at the boy in front of him. When they first met, he knew they would have been good friends if they met anywhere else. "You won't shoot me." Blake chuckles, and Rafe quickly readjusts his grip.

"I will." Rafe says sternly, pulling the string tighter as Blake moves the sword to hover over your chest. Over your heart.

"If you shoot, the last of my energy will go into killing her. I don't think you want that." He shakes his head, smiling smugly.

"I don't care." Rafe says, making your heart clench. You know that you're friends, at the very least. He does care. He's bluffing- you have to believe that.

"If you didn't care you would have shot me already." Blake calls it, and Rafe tenses up, looking down at you only briefly.

"Then what do you want?" Rafe spits.

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted you to watch." Blake shrugs. "Just makes it a little more fun, you know? But don't worry, you'll be next." You know he just wants to prove himself, somehow, not having scored as high as Rafe did. You wonder if his family was somehow similar- that he needed some kind of approval that he thought he might find through sadism.

Rafe looks down at you again, and you just nod, tears streaming down your temples to your ears. He quickly readjusts before letting the arrow fly, planting straight in the shoulder that held the sword as you quickly roll over, slicing across your chest and shoulder in the process. It was well worth it.

Rafe fires another arrow into his chest, not taking any risks and the cannon quickly follows as he rushes to your side.

"Are you okay?" He's asking, hands hovering above you as he's kneeled next to you, unsure what to do.

You nod, still biting into your tongue as blood continues to slide down your skin, dampening your now torn up clothes.

"It's not that bad." Rafe says, looking over the cuts as best he can, but you wince when he pulls the fabric away. "You're gonna be fine, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah..." You mumble, letting your head fall back against the brush below you. Rafe is quick to take his coat off, using it to push down on the deepest part of the wound on your shoulder, trying with his other hand to apply pressure to the rest of it. You try and focus on your breathing, rather than the pain, but it's hard when a significant amount of weight is being applied to your shoulder and chest.

"I'm sorry, I have to." Rafe tells you, jaw tense as he lifts his coat to check whether or not the bleeding has slowed. You didn't even realize you were crying.

After a few minutes, he's lessened the pressure a bit, still holding the fabric firmly over your skin. "You could have ran." You mumble, voice hardly above a whisper.

"I wasn't gonna leave you." Rafe shakes his head, gently peeling away his now blood soaked windbreaker.

"You at least shouldn't have saved me. Not much point in that, is there?" You smile softly, trying to sit up and Rafe is quick to help.

"There is. You have to win." He mutters.

"I'm not winning, Rafe." You smile sadly at him. "Infection will kill me if you won't, and if no one else does first."

"No, they'll fix you up. This cut will be gone in a week, the technology they have is-"

"Rafe." You grab his attention again and he looks up to meet your eyes. They seemed to suck in all the light of the sunset above the two of you, reflecting back at him in a way that makes his breath hitch. The thought is cut short, however, when you say something that breaks his heart. "Don't give me hope like that."

"Why? You're gonna go home. I mean it." He promises. "I'll make sure of it."

"I don't think we have enough." You remind him sadly, a small smile still evident on your lips as you reach up to cup his cheek in your palm. "I never expected to go home. I'm okay with that."

Your friend shakes his head softly. "That doesn't matter. You have your family to get home to, I read that note from your dad. They need you, I can see that. For me, these games are all I was raised for. I have nothing left for me after this." He admits, avoiding eye contact with you. "I could never forgive myself if I didn't get you home."

Tears are forming in your eyes again as you look up at him. The world is watching, and in this moment of vulnerability you feel that more than ever- despite the quiet sounds around you being only the rushing water in the nearby river and the birds chirping around you. "You're a good person, Rafe." You smile at him, watching as he gently raises his hand to yours, grabbing it in his own. "I hope you know that."

In this moment, you settle on the idea that you would die for him. You never understood last years tributes, honestly, how they were willing to die for each other instead of getting home to their own loved ones, but now you do. Completely.

Without a second thought, you find yourself leaning closer, Rafe doing the same as he kneels next to you in the dark. Your eyes meet once more, lips only an inch from touching when you hear a howl in the distance, and you snap your head to the direction it came from. "The Mutts... Already?" You say, scrambling to get up and ignoring the pain in your shoulder.

"I- I heard them earlier, they sound far away." Rafe says, trying to calm you.

"You heard them? You didn't tell me?" You ask, frantically grabbing his bow from the ground and handing it to him as he goes to pull the discarded arrows out of Blake's body.

"I didn't think it mattered!" He defends, trying to hide the panic in his voice.

"There were four left last year when they sent them out. I think... yeah I think that's right. There's four of us. We have to run." You say in a panic, pulling on his hand. "Our best bet is making it back to the cornucopia."

"It'll be too open- can't we climb a tree or something?" Rafe says, following after you as you're running through the bush now in the direction of the open field.

"I don't know if that will work, but I know we'll be safe there." You explain like it's obvious. "We have to risk it- and if you can get to the others first, if they have the same idea, we'll be at ten."

You're out of breath already, adrenaline pushing you through as you hear scattered barking getting steadily closer after one more cannon. Part of you wants to stop, turn, and force Rafe to take the win if you couldn't have it, but with any hope left, you have to try and get back to where this started. The traps was an unfortunate choice in how you got your kills, because you couldn't keep track of how many since by the time you got around to checking them, the body's would have been airlifted off if it wasn't a misfire. If you had to guess, though, you were sitting at eight.

Rafe is running similar calculations in his head as he lets you lead him by memory straight to the field, mind short-circuiting as he sees the silver moonlight reflect off the cornucopia.

You sprint across the open field, blood pouring from your undressed wound again with the intense exertion of energy. Rafe doesn't pass you, though, despite you expecting that he would. You have tunnel vision as you make it to the metal structure, practically slamming into it before you can even stop. Rafe is quick to lift you and shove you up, both of you looking over your shoulders as you struggle to hold onto the edge, kicking the sides to hold yourself up.

You finally get up, reaching down to help pull Rafe up. He grabs onto your arm for leverage, mostly pulling himself up and you wince as you feel the tension from his weight in your cuts.

You flop down onto your back on the cold surface as he climbs over you, immediately standing up with bow drawn as he intently scans the surrounding area. He's only got the two arrows left, which makes him nervous if that's all he has to defend the both of you with.

You try to settle your breathing, which only lasts for a moment until the sky lights up with the recap. You miss your cave, where you could contribute to your memorial, especially seeing the face of Maisie flash above you on the sky while the anthem plays.

You close your eyes, just listening to the music now until you hear barking just outside of where Rafe can see, and you're quickly sitting up. He draws the bow tighter, aiming in the direction the howls came from just as someone pushes out into the clearing. Rafe is aimed straight at them, bow string pressed to his cheek. He's getting dizzy, and quickly. His aim can't fail him now, he doesn't have that option.

You watch them, in the dark you think it's the other boy from district one, and in your exhaustion you can't remember his name. You wouldn't dare say it, anyways. He's screaming for help, a call you know you can't answer, and you watch as they stumble on their feet, shoes and hands digging into the ground as they try to get up, just ten or so yards from you by now.

Rafe wants to shoot just then, it would be as simple as letting his finger loose and the arrow would fly towards its target. It would be a merciful end for the boy he's trained with for years now, only a couple years younger than him. The muscle in his jaw is aching from the tension he's put on it when he forces himself to let go. He has to do it, for himself, if he wants to go home.

He misses. The yelp of one of the mutts tells you it landed in a paw or back, and you look up at Rafe who's already drawn his second. "Rafe!" You cry out, pushing yourself up onto your feet and standing behind him now.

He hates to admit that your empathy has rubbed off on him. Watching you every night carving seemingly endless names and numbers into the rocks that lined the space you stepped in. He recalls waking up one morning and seeing your name and his carved in as well, closer to where he laid by the fire, his underlined and yours with a heart at the end. Like a signature on the top of a math test. He had wondered if you always wrote your name like that, and in this moment as he releases the bow again, he knows he has to find out for himself.

It happened so fast, the mutts knocking down the boy and the arrow flying from Rafe's shaky hands into where he should have been right as the cannon sounds. You don't know that it was Rafe's arrow that did him in.

"No..." You mumble, clamouring forward and onto your knees again to look over as the boys body is torn apart by the mutts. "You had to have done it. You had to." You say, trying to get a better view.

In a second, Rafe's arms are around you and he's pulling you back from the edge, sitting now behind you with his arms wrapped tightly over your body. "It's okay.. it's over." He mumbles, kissing the side of your head as the sunlight comes over the trees. He's fighting off the urge to vomit, everything spinning around him now.

You sit with him, gripping onto his arms and crying. Nothing is happening, so you must not have made it to ten. You feel sick- your heart is in your throat and suddenly you're really hot, moving away from him to look over the edge again, this time incase you have to throw up. You freeze, looking over to where the boy's body once was. The second arrow was in the ground. He missed again.

Rafe sees it at the same time as you. He sighs, hanging his legs over the edge. "Shit... Y/N, I'm sorry." He mumbles, gently reaching over to rub your back.

"No, no. It's okay." You insist, sitting up next to him. "I knew this would happen."

"I'll get you home." Rafe says, sliding down the side of the cornucopia before you can stop him. He stumbles the landing, swaying in his walk as he heads towards the arrow lodged into the dirt.

"Wait! Wait, wait, Rafe!" You're sliding down after him, running to his side and grabbing his arm before he can get to the arrow in the ground.

He turns to you quickly, hand on your cheek and he's pressing his lips to your forehead. "Sit with me?" He asks, knees already giving out as he falls to the ground.

You're instantly on the ground beside him, practically holding his head up with your free hand as you search him visually for some kind of injury. "What happened? Are you hurt?"

"Uh, I guess so." Rafe mutters. "Snake bite. I think."

"You didn't tell me? I could have fixed this, I could have helped..." You ramble on, his eyes dropping shut now. "Hey, eyes open."

"It's okay. Just sit with me..." He says again, smiling weakly. "Wait with me... please?"

You nod, sniffling as you fight back the tears that want to fall. "Yeah, of course. I'll stay."

Before he closes his eyes, the music starts again and your eyes are drawn up to the sky after you notice Rafe is looking first.

Then, begins a similar slideshow of faces you recognize. Ten in total. Rafe's eyes flicker with slight recollection, remembering any kills he made himself and you gasp when you see Jack. Whatever damage you had done when he tackled you on the first day must have killed him. "Rafe.." You mumble, lowering your eyes to meet his. "I think we won."

Your point is accentuated by the voice of the head gamemaker over some unseen speakers. "Introducing the Victors of the Seventy-Fifth Annual Hunger Games!"

"We did it." Rafe laughs weakly, squeezing your hand.

You fully ignore the aircraft hovering down in front of you on the grass, turning your head to look down at him. You don't say anything, neither of you do, and you finally feel your lips against his. The kiss is bad, it doesn't really work when both of you are stuck smiling ear to ear, but you don't care one bit. The only thing that matters is that you got this chance at all.

Rafe pulls away from you slowly, using all the strength he has left to lift himself onto his feet as you steady him. "He needs help!" You shout to them, and you're quickly being lead onto the plane.

"They've got really good technology," You mock what he said to you just the day before. "It'll be like it never happened in a week, okay?" You chuckle, feeling waves of happiness, worry, and relief all at once as you quickly wipe away a tear with your free hand, other arm wrapped tightly around Rafe's waist to hold him up.

He laughs, and you lean into him more, your forehead against his shoulder as the aircraft door slides shut behind you.

taglist: @bookishbabyyy @madelynie, @whore-4-drewstarkey, @slut4drudy, @winterrrnight, @totalswag, @sadfury @fullfledgedemo @rafemotherfuckingcameron, @urfaveluvr, @chenslucy, @hxnnah-397, @s-we-e-t-t-ea, @tahliac11, @saccharinesammie, @ietss, @maybankslover @redhead1180, @suzyheartsrafe, @wpdailyminimeta, @aegons-bitch, @rafegirly, @lovelyxtommy @dee127

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modelbus · 2 months

Note

Wrote this last night, ITS A COOL IDEA BUT ITS BARELY COMPREHENSIBLE!

Y/n is an ender dragon hybrid that was unsafe in the end, so Mumza (goddess of death) put them on Phil’s doorstep when they were like a month old. Phil is an adoptive parent to Techno, Tommy and Y/N. Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo are close friends, growing up Y/N was also close with them. Phil lives in a snowy biome, Techno and tommy have renovated bedrooms from when they were little for when they stay over. The main town is a big clearing in a forest with a river running through. (There’s no government-) Niki runs a flower themed bakery that also sells flowers, Puffy runs a training center, & literally all dsmp people you feel comfortable writing live there, so they can be in a crowd. (not wilbur ofc)

Y/N went missing 5 years ago, when they were 11. (Tommy was 8, Techno was 16) they were looking at the stars from a bench on a forested cliff they liked hanging out at cuz it had a view of their house and the mountains behind it, and XD found them while doin his thing and was like “wait- you’re supposed to be in the end, small child.. I don’t care the void is spreading and its going from looking like a purple and yellow overworld to a bunch of floating islands.” So he /tp’d them back to the end- KEKW anyway- Y/N’s time in the end decays them, turning the ends of their limbs (including their tail and wings) all void like and glitchy but also scales and they’re tall- (do I make any sense rn?) oh, and the endermen try to kill them but shulkers are nice. SO TRAUMA AND TRAPPED IN THE END FIVE YEARS tryna get tf out and go home but surprise being in the end makes em really powerful as the void melds with their soul and basically says “HEY! DRAGON KID, HIIII! YOU’RE COOL, WE’RE GONNA SLOWLY ATTACH TO YOU!.. oh daym your not dying like everything else we try to be friends with..” BOOM VOID POWERS, ITS ALL GLITCHY LOOKING AND BLACK HOLE STUFF, BUT THE VOID IS NICE AND DON’T MEAN TO EAT THINGS SO NOW THEY CAN CONTROL IT KINDA AND FLY AND STUFF.. eventually their void powers get all strong and shit so they can go home, but htey kinda fly around and see all their friends and family acting completely normal and having a GRAVE despite knowing Y/N was still alive somewhere. the void is mad that their family stopped looking for them despite there being no death messages on their communicators so like a protective bestie its all like “bro you gonna take that? You gonna let them forget you like this?. Hellll no.” And they are also like ‘wtf man YOU KNEW I WASN’T DEAD BUT GAVE UP LOOKING-?!’ After spending five years just trying to find a way back home.. SO VILLAIN ARK, THEY START BUILDING A HUGE CASTLE AND ITS LIKE BLACK & PURPLE EVIL CASTLE LAIR TYPA THING. the void oopsie kills the area around so its all like black and decayed around the castle and its like REAL evil lair shit. Y/N sends ominous notes with the coordinates acting like someone who kidnapped her being all like “come here and bring everything you have if want them back.” So they bring (insert all members mothy picks) along with them and go the the castle, BOOM ITS LIKE AN ESCAPE ROOM KINDA THING WITH PUZZLES AND TRAPS N SHIT. so they slowly make their way up to the throne room thats like at the top fighting things and doin puzzles but when they make it to the top they rise up on a little circle platform into the room all ready to see Y/N in a cage next to some big bad guy. but they see Y/N (5 years older than they last saw them) LOOKING LIKE A FUCKING EVIL QUEEN(or king or ruler) WITH END PARTICLES AROUND THEM AND THEY’RE PARTLY MADE OF VOID AND ALL EVIL DRAGON HYBRID QUEEN BADASS SPOOKY. So they’re pissed and stuff tommy is the first to talk before everyone else joins asking questions and being all confused and sad so they talk a little then they get pissed not believing how sad they are acting so they sends mobs made of materialised void to attack them from their throne it goes on a while and they keep fighting and trying to reason with Y/N before tommy is trying to convince them their not lying and explains that they finally decided to give the town a name after they had been missing year and named it after Y/N & built a statue of them as a memorial in the town enter after two years when they finally stopped looking, and what Y/N saw was just a small grave at their childhood home. They don’t believe it at first but eveyones like why would we lie about that?? So Y/N is all like Wait what- so I’ve been hurting you all for no reason- and they end up being horrified with themself after seeing their reflection in the gems on their crown, drop it and break the wall to fly away while repeating ‘I’m so sorry’ and crying. We cut out at tommy picking up the crown all angsty.

I DO have ideas for another 3-5 parts so like if you manage make it into smth and wanna continue it just say the word. *eyes*

-✨🌌🌙 Annon

you wrote this like it’s a movie and god I wish I could edit shit because I’d make you the movie it deserves. I somehow included too many Greek mythology references and for that I’m so sorry…

Pairing: Gn!Hybrid!Reader x Philza, Technoblade, Tommyinnit, Tubbo, Ranboo (+ cameos)

Doomed Dragon

You love the sun. It’s bright, and warm, and feels like how warm cookies taste when it beams down on your wings. It’s nearly blinding when it reflects off all the snow, but you don’t mind. Sometimes blinding isn’t a bad type of blinding, or at least that’s what Tommy said.

Speaking of Tommy, he told you ages ago he’d be back with Tubbo and Ranboo, but he isn’t. They all ran off to Niki’s flower-bakery-awesome-place so Tubbo could buy some dandelions, and you (being the wise 11 year old you are) decided that suntanning your wings was a far better option. You never did get the hang of trudging through all the snow, and you didn’t want to slather your wings in sunscreen for a fly.

Dad says you’re an ender dragon hybrid. It was a lot of fancy words that led to Techno poking and prodding at you, but you figure it’s practically the same as Dad’s wings. After all, his are black like yours, even if his are feathered and yours aren’t.

“Move it.” Techno orders from behind you, stepping over your wings. You do not, in fact, move. “Phil told me I could check on the dogs.”

You never got why Techno called dad by his first name. You and Tommy both said dad, but Techno just had to be special. Dad said it was his ‘teenage’ phase, and Techno was 16, so he’s got 4 whole years before he’ll call him dad again. Then the second half of his sentence clicks, and you gasp.

“Can I come with?” You plead, but he’s already shaking his head. “Please! I won’t even touch any, I swear!”

“You know they’re scared of your wings.” Techno huffs.

“I’ll tuck them under a blanket really well!”

“They have noses. Besides, aren’t you waitin’ for the rest of your group? What if they come back?”

You puzzle this over, then sigh. “Fine. But be super nice to the dogs for me.”

“Will do.”

Techno vanishes into the snowbanks, his red cloak and pink hair being swallowed up in the white of snow. He better give those dogs your love, or you’ll steal his special shiny books.

You settle into your sunbathing, eyes closing. After a few moments, there’s a thud.

“Techno, I know there’s no way you have those dogs my love—“ you start, eyes still closed.

“Not Technoblade, child.” The voice is echoey, and you jolt up. From above you, a man with two white wings and two glowing rings around his head stares. Looking at him too long makes your eyes hurt, and when you glance away you’ve already forgotten what he looks like.

“Who are you?” You ask sassily, because this is definitely a newcomer. They have wings like dad, but their pretentious ass clothing reminds you of Techno.

“You can call me XD. And you’re out of where you belong. Don’t worry, I’ll get you back to The End in no time.” A hand settles on your shoulder, and panic flares in your mind, because dad taught you all about stranger danger.

Before you can even scream, your stomach twist and drops, and the world around you vanishes entirely.

The End sucks. That was one undeniable truth; The End is horrible and you hate it. Between shulkers—purple things that open to shoot other things that make you float—and the endermen, you were over it.

Although, you had one friend in all the darkness and desolate floating islands. It never gave you a name, and whatever it spoke it certainly wasn’t English, but you understood it all the same. Even gave it a name; hard not to make friends with the one thing that seemed to speak back to you.

In a way, the void replaced the family that never found you.

“Morning, void.” You sigh, tossing a yellow rock into the darkness. It gets chucked back at you, entirely purple. “You’re in a mood today. Sad I didn’t die in the night like always?”

Silence. Then you feel the tingling in your wings, your long tail, the fingers that have turned purple. The void.

Ḷïẗẗḷë ḋṛäġöṅ

“Yeah yeah.” You huff. “That’s me.”

You run your fingers alone the yellow stone below you. Mentally, you call it endstone. Seems fitting enough. Following your touch, purple spreads, eroding the stone. That’s been happening lately, and it always leaves the same tingling you get when the void speaks.

“This is so fucked.”

Ї ċḧöṡë ÿöü

“I didn’t ask to be chosen! I just want to go home.” Home to dad, and Techno, and Tommy, Tubbo, Ranboo, and all the others.

Ẅḧö ṡäïḋ ÿöü ċäṅ’ẗ?

“Um, logic and the fact there’s no way off this stupid fucking island?” You roll your eyes. You can’t fly long distances, and you’re too scared to try flying off into the void.

The void doesn’t respond, but your breath still catches. Is it implying that you could? That if you did, there was a way out?

Strange things have been happening to you and your body since you got here. And not in the teenage puberty way that dad talked to you about. Your wings had grown, your tail had gained fucking spikes, purple stressed spreading over your skin. Even your hair started blackening at the ends.

And then there was the fact that when you touched things, they sometimes turned purple. Sometimes, when you were really upset, the object would vanish completely, leaving behind a black hole of nothing. A hole that looked oddly like the void.

You weren’t science-smart, mostly because Sam never taught you before XD dumped you here. But you sure as hell knew that wasn’t normal.

Staring into the void, you make up your mind. “If you’re fucking with me, void, I’ll kill you. Somehow.”

You stand up, spread your wings, and hesitate. Were you really trusting some disembodied voice that gave you fucked up powers? But then the image of a grown-up Tommy, of your dad bent over the kitchen table, of Techno’s back as he walked away from you, all flash in your mind.

And you step forward.

It happens in a blink. It feels a lot like teleporting, the way your stomach twists and drops, the way your breath is stolen from your lungs. But instead of falling into the unfamiliar like you had 5 years ago, you emerge flying, a new person.

There’s snow below you, wind lifting your wings. Wind. Real wind. The air isn’t oppressive, isnt weighing down on you, isn’t leaving a sour taste in your mouth. It feels like home.

You bank down, landing on your feet in the snow. Under you, it warps, purple and black spreading outwards, twisting at the edges. One blink and it’s white snow, another and it’s all wrong again. That never happened in the end.

It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re back. The world seems to call to you, a sense in your heart tugging you in a certain direction. You follow it on large wings.

Will Dad cry when he sees you? Will you finally see Techno emotional? Maybe they’ll take you out to dinner to celebrate being back: you’ve missed Bad’s cooking. Surely they’ve been searching for you, and you can’t wait to see their surprise when they realize you found your own way back.

The sun beaming down on you makes no hindrance in your flight. You aren’t Icarus, and the sun won’t stop you from being free. Techno used to tell you and Tommy that one, always joking that Tommy had the looks and you had the wings. Two halves of one whole.

You were about to reunite that whole.

Slowly, your home comes into view. The streets and buildings of the town, and just past that, the house you love. The house you can’t wait to sleep in for the next century. Dad is never getting rid of you.

It’s silent when you land, the second time your feet are touching the ground here. This time, the ground doesn’t glitch. Thank God for that.

“Dad?” You call out, pushing open the door. It was never locked when you were a kid. “Tommy? Techno?”

No response. Maybe they’re outside, or maybe they’re out looking for you? You’ll check the dog area for Techno first.

Trudging through the snow, you delight in making an impact and leaving footprints behind. You never got to see your footprints in the end. Funny how you miss the little things about life.

“Techno? It’s me, I’m ba…” you trail off, spotting a small weathered stone. That certainly hadn’t been there before. You take a few steps closer, staring down to read engraved words.

Your name stared back at you, paired with a date that was five years ago. The day you went missing.

They… they thought you were dead? Is this a grave?

Ṫḧëÿ’ṿë ḟöṛġöẗẗëṅ äḷḷ äḅöüẗ ÿöü

The void’s voice startles you, but you don’t dwell on the fact it followed you.

“No they didn’t!” You shout, but your heart is beating too fast, sick rising in your throat. “No, someone else has to be here!”

Before you realize it, you’re running. Following the familiar path to the town, coming to stop when you see a person. Antfrost, you can recognize him even now, whistling as he carries a box inside.

Acting normal. Normal, as if you didn’t disappear. Normal, as if you hadn’t been gone for five years. Normal, as if your disappearance never made an impact.

Ṗööṛ ḷïẗẗḷë ḋṛäġöṅ

“No…” You whisper, staggering back. “I— I don’t—“

Ḟöṛġöẗẗëṅ. Ḧöẅ ċöüḷḋ ẗḧëÿ? Ṫö ÿöü? Ṡö ṗëṛḟëċẗ, ṡö ṁïṅë?

How could they indeed. The void is right. You’ve been forgotten.

��ëäċḧ ẗḧëṁ ḅëẗẗë��. Ṫëäċḧ ẗḧëṁ ä ḷëṡṡöṅ. Ÿöü äṛë ẅöṛẗḧÿ öḟ ṛëṁëṁḅṛäṅċë.

“How?” You whisper, arms curling around yourself.

Ṛëṿëṅġë, ḷïẗẗḷë ḋṛäġöṅ. Ṫäḳë ṛëṿëṅġë.

“I don’t want revenge, void. I want—“

Ÿöü äṛë äṅġṛÿ. Ї äṁ äṅġṛÿ. Ẅë äṛë äṅġṛÿ. Ṫäḳë ṛëṿëṅġë, ḷïẗẗḷë ḋṛäġöṅ.

Even as you want to deny it, you know it’s true. You are angry. Pissed, in fact. How dare they forget you? How dare they act as if you were nothing, as if your personal hell didn’t matter?

Slowly, an idea forms, pieces falling into place.

There’s a story you used to like, gasping and laughing at the drama of it as Techno told it. Indulged you.

A king and his friend, Theseus. The part you loved hearing was the end of it: Theseus sought refuge with the king, and the king pushed him off a cliff.

You sought refuge with this town, and they stabbed you in the back. And if they want your forgiveness? Well. They’ll have to prove themselves worthy.

Ä ċäṡẗḷë. Ḅüïḷḋ ä ċäṡẗḷë.

“With puzzles.” You murmur, planning with the void. Embracing it. “And traps, and mobs. Twelve floors.”

Ẅë ẅïḷḷ ẗëäċḧ ẗḧëṁ.

You don’t remember building the castle. Hell, you aren’t even sure if you could build something like this. It’s tucked behind mountains, black stone and purple stained windows hiding it in the shadows. Spires reach toward the sky as if they’re claws, threatening to rip a hole in the world.

The void, at some point, must’ve taken over for you and built it. That’s the only logical explanation you could come up with, bolstered with the evidence of the void’s impact on the landscape around the castle.

It’s obvious at first glance that something is wrong with the greenery. The flowers and trees have all withered and died, shriveling up into dull-looking husks. The snow has melted to reveal blackened grass underneath, and the mountain is infected with veins of purple. It looks evil. You look evil.

The void loves it. You aren’t so sure, but at least you look cool. And you felt cool setting up all the traps and challenges.

There’s mazes and mobs and hunts and puzzles, all of which you set up. Your favorite is the one where they’ll have to search the room to find three golden apples and deliver them into a chest. It was some tricky redstone, but once they do that the door will open. That’s the eleventh floor, the final one before you’ll finally see them.

All that’s left is to send out the notes, each of which you hand write in (quite honestly) horrible handwriting. The void helped with the threats and the purple paper, leaving you with a simple message.

“𝓑𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓁𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝟧 𝓎𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝑔𝑜 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀. 𝓛𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔. 𝓜𝑒𝑒𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝒽𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝓊𝓃𝓉𝒶𝒾𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓈𝓉𝓁𝑒 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝑜𝓃 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒸𝒽𝑒𝓈 𝒾𝓉𝓈 𝓈𝓊𝓂𝓂𝒾𝓉; 𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝓁𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓇, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓁𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝓈𝑜𝓊𝓁 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒷𝑒 𝓁𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇.”

It’s stupid, and possibly cringey, but you’ve never written a ransom note before, so you think you’ll get a pass. You just need to send them and wait for the plan to start working.

It takes them less time than you thought it would to get through all of your rooms. It’s as if you blinked and they were all there, staring at you as you sit on your unnecessarily fancy chair.

“Are you real?” Tommy blurts out. He’s the same golden-hair kid you remember running around with, just grown.

Are you real? He had asked. Surely you don’t look that bad. The scales on your arms grew, certainly, and purple particles floated all around you, but it was still you.

“Kid?” Dad asks, stood next to Tommy. “Are you— what are you doing?”

“Where have you been?” Puffy adds on, wide-eyed. “Have you been safe?”

Your gaze sweeps over them all, anger clawing its way up your throat. Puffy, Niki, Antfrost, Bad, Ranboo, Tubbo, Tommy, Dad, Techno, Sam. All of them are here, staring at you with mixed expressions of horror and sorrow and surprise.

It’s fake. It must be fake. They gave up on you! They left you for dead, left you to rot alone!

“You’re all liars!” You shout. “Acting sad, as if you didn’t stop looking for me!”

“We didn’t—“ Tubbo starts, but you cut him off.

“Stop!” You hold your hand up to signal him to stop talking, but purple particles swirl in front of your palm and materialize into something solid. Then again, and again.

It’s not until there’s ten purple figures that you realize what you’ve done. You created mobs, living creatures made of the void. One of them groans like a zombie, then rushes at Sam. He reacts immediately, swiping his sword at its head. The purple head rolls, disintegrating. Then, it reforms on the void-zombie’s shoulders.

And then all hell breaks loose.

Everybody’s shouting and swinging their weapons around, trying to figure out how to get rid of the void-zombies. All you can do is watch, wide-eyed and shell-shocked. Those things came from you, from your anger.

“You’ve got to get rid of these things!” Techno shouts, looking over at you while swinging his axe.

And you? You don’t do a damn thing.

“We looked for you, all of us! We’d never give up!”

“Shit, a little help!”

“Oh, God…”

Everyone’s voices mix into one big mess of noise, only made worse by the noises of the weapons and the void-zombies.

“We named the town after you!”

Your head whips toward Tommy’s voice, eyes focusing on him. He ducks under a void-zombie’s hand, staring back at you.

“And Ranboo has this brilliant idea— we made a statue of you! Well, Sam made it, but it’s pretty sick looking.” He adds.

“…You’re lying.” You accuse, but you already know he’s not.

“Why would we lie about something like that?” Niki asks, gentle despite the violence filling the room.

As if on command, all the void-zombies vanish.

Oh, God. Oh God oh God oh God oh God. What have you done? What have you become?

Ḷïẗẗḷë ḋṛäġöṅ…

We’ve fucked up. You’ve fucked up. The horror is cold, spearing through your body, no part of you untouched.

Your glassy eyes catch on the chandelier, a thousand crystal images of you reflecting like a mirror. And all you can see is the void. The glitchy darkness surrounding you, the horrible thing you’ve become.

Maybe you’re a coward for it, but you run, crown falling from your head. The second your hand brushes against the wall, it vanishes, glitching out of existence as you hurtle through it and into the dark night.

“Kid!”

You don’t look back.

The silence you leave behind is eerie.

Five years. Five years since they last saw you. And now here they were.

Tommy is the first to step forward, to grab the crown you had dropped. He always liked shiny things, but more importantly, he liked keeping your things after you went missing.

He looks down, meeting his own eyes in the gems.

This crown doesn’t feel like you at all.

#dsmp #mcyt #mcyt imagine #tommyinnit x reader #tommyinnit x you #tommyinnit #philza x reader #philza #technoblade #technoblade x reader #ranboo #ranboolive #ranboo x reader #tubbo #tubbo x reader

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akidrama · 2 months

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no one does shuffle units like I do. I'm better. I am great. my truth. (lie. I am mediocre I am lying to you.) pls read I beg.

tsukasa mafuyu shiho ichika

pop rock band. they eat poprocks and shame mafumom as a hobby. tsukasa vents in lyrics cz he's banned from sending messages in their gc. shiho got annoyed by him. ichika muted him. mafuyu does not gaf.

the vbs(tm)

rui never got picked up by wxs cz emu was never at tsukasas audition like canon divs do. Toya never become a homosex. akito being bffs w haruka through an. they probably kissed once. and then many times. ans then akitos like holy sht what if we also kiss this purple dude who's socially inadept at my school he also does street performances so harukas like 👍 and then akito goes and kisses the purple stick and now they're all stuck together kissing each other making music. ugh.

akito gets random headaches n then he's like guys I'm gonna go get some ibu and then he comes back and is just popping like 10 ibu, 3 para and a monster right after.

harui are confused on how he's like alive and not yellow and dead.

"Omg kohane airi look it's an emo"

'wow ok kohane you should kidnap her into our group'

and she did. emu and airi are terrible people.

and they are supposed to perform for children? who allows this? they kidnapped kanade. wtf.

okay thanks for listening tune in next time for astranova, re:form and the miku and main voca designs 💥⁉️ using a tag for this. ez finds. Neri swap 🥺

#neriswap #tsukasa tenma #akito shinonome #pjsk #pjsk fanart #project sekai #haruka kiritani #shiho hinomori #ichika hoshino #mafuyu asahina #airi momoi #kanade yoisaki #kohane azusawa #emu otori #rui kamishiro

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malspinningyarns · 5 days

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Random thoughts during Bridgerton season 3 rewatch, episode 3

The dream is so Mr. Darcy walking across the foggy field in the 2005 P&P

There is a editing mistake where Violet walks to Francesca twice pre and post Benedict’s comment to Gregory

Colin at Breakfast:

Love Charlotte’s heart wig

Phillippa is so dumb. But this is why sex ed is important

Varley is so happy Penelope has a visitor and it’s Eloise

Another wrap to hide Claudia’s broken arm

No one really is going to notice Colin and Penelope unchaperoned again, aren’t they?

Colin’s coat looks dark purple in the light and Pen’s wrap has purple in it.

This is the most awkward Colin has ever been

Those are some massive antlers on that one taxidermy buck

Speaking as someone who is around a lot of taxidermy at work, you kinda just get used to it. But I see that look on Debling’s face very regularly

Debling’s WTF look the Cressida’s comment about rather being a predator than prey. 😂

There are some judgy faces from the Cowpers when Lord Cutbill talks to Francesca

Colin is in yellow, Penelope is in blue

Debling, don’t compare a woman to a dead animal (even I think their conversation is kinda cute otherwise)

The ballon is yellow and blue! (Of course it is)

I love that Dankworth is smart enough to make a double entendre and the Finches don’t get it

Colin is so down bad watching Penelope lick her fingers

Cressida is so lost at the beginning of the conversation with Debling

Penelope’s confusion at Eloise reluctantly bringing up the Great Auk and Eloise responding look of “Don’t ask” is a great moment

Penelope trying to get in on this bird conversation is me at work

I think this look is the best Colin look

Poor Colin is being bullied by these two guys

I do love Will and Alice even if I don’t fully know the purpose of their plot

I literally can’t figure out how old Lady Tilly is supposed to be

Business bitch in a sparkly suit

If I was Eloise, I also would not want to be a witness to this conversation

I love that it was the Dankworths getting interrupted that caused the balloon problem

Way to go everyone leaving Pen behind

Colin is so angry that Hawkins just gets on the balloon (and probably that Debling “saved” Pen)

Portia straight up denies Lord Hawkins in the cuntiest way. 😂

Love the suspenseful music for Cressida and Penelope’s chase to Debling

Francesca hearing he wants 8 children just smothered that relationship

Violet’s face crack realizing Marcus is Lady Danbury’s brother

The way Fran and John keeping looking at each other is very cute

Penelope using Colin’s comments about bravery to talk to Debling 😭

Debling just gave Cressida’s lemonade to Penelope, which is kinda a dick move. This man is fickle

Colin absolutely is not subtle around his mom

Colin’s head turn at that music chord is just *chef’s kiss*

I’m obsessed with the cellist’s crazy wig

So much gold in the foreground with the blue night in the background.

Colin’s going to cry watching this dance

#bridgerton #bridgerton spoilers #bridgerton season 3 #polin #penelope featherington #colin bridgerton

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stickthinks · 4 months

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hi :]

i'm green, but you can call me cheese. any/all pronouns

art tag: #stickdraws

AVA/M AU LIST

please send me ask about them

Main Au (what i think happened in the canon. you can send ask to the characters)

Crash Landing Au (chosen and dark hide from the cops on alanspc)

Stick Fight: the Game Au (SFTG is an alternate timeline where the color gang never met Orange. au!Yellow messes with the black hole gun and they get stuck in the normal timeline for a bit. second and alan still became friends and orange has to deal with everything that was supposed happen, by himself. He discovers his powers very early on.)

Origins Mod Au (ava/m but minecraft origins mod. Sec, Cho, Dark-blazeborn, Green-merling, Blue-avian, Yellow-enderian, Red-shulk, Purple-elytrian, Gold, Vic-phantoms, Alan, King-humans.)

Cartoon Vigilante Au (Inspired by @dynamic-k's Super Sticks fic. Cho & Dark are bad guys, alan is a local hero and also their dad, sec knows all this and is just vibing while slowly discovering his own powers, and gives RYGB powers after a sleepover. They all decide that they want to save the day and do crime, so they become vigilantes, and chaos ensues.)

Burnout Au (Bad timeline where Orange couldn’t fully restore his friends so now they're all ghosty and cling to orange and possess him sometimes. Second is using his powers non-stop to keep them all in one piece, which drains himself extremely, hence the name "burnout." alan and chosen are doing their best to help him.)

Alan Squared Au (uhm. c!alan gets isekai-ed into stick realm au, but also time-funkery shinanigans- pre-ava 4 c!alan is there too. Present Alan going through a mental crisis, meanwhile Past Alan is speedrunning his character development 'cause he's watching a bunch of rainbow sticks freaking out at his existance and also those guys fighting outside are supposed to be dead wtf is going on???)

#animator vs animation #animation vs minecraft #stickspeaks

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amazingmsme · 5 months

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i was wondering if you had any ler!tinky hcs 👀👀

For sure! I used to not be the biggest Tinky fan because the doll version was so unsettling, & he really was such a bastard, but then I saw Curt play him & let’s just say he skyrocketed to the top, right under Wiggly & probably tied with Nibbly. He gives a whole new meaning to the song Kiss the Go-Goat cause I’m gonna smooch that eldritch abomination!

Ok now that I’m done gushing, onto the headcanons!

He’s literally the definition of a switch! Like he’ll straight up ask to be wrecked & he’ll be having the time of his life laughing under one of his brothers then it’s like “ok I’m done now” & without any warning he’s got them pinned & is sporting the most wicked grin. & he’s just like “my turn!” & wastes no time making them scream. He especially loves doing this to Wiggly because he thinks he needs an “attitude adjustment”

If he’s got a lot of pent up energy, he’ll stick his lee in The Box & chase them down. His box is literally the backrooms, just endless empty rooms & halls all in that sickening hue that puts The Yellow Wallpaper to shame. Something about that color just adds just the right dose of lee panic in his victims that’s only intensified by his echoing taunts & cackles. For a fucking prey animal he sure is one hell of a predator!

Even tho he’s the literal worst he still wants his victims to have at least a little fun, so if he notices they’re not fighting back as much when he goes for a certain spot, he’ll target it for longer

He’s got golden retriever boy energy & no not just because he’s yellow! If you so much as flinch when he wiggles his fingers it triggers something deep inside him. Just like when a dog has something they’re not supposed to & you step towards them & they run off at the speed of sound. That except of running away he’s running toward you

The most fun ler out of all the lib please don’t tell them I said that

Just take a wild guess who his favorite lee is

Seriously Ted can never catch a damn break with this bitch. It’s either The Horrors™ or tickle torture. & depending on how pissed off he is with Tinky he’ll gladly pick the horrors. But Tinky doesn’t really care about what he wants, he just does whatever he feels like in the moment

Unrelated but the first time Ted saw him in his human form he kept having to tell himself “don’t fuck the monster, don’t fuck the monster” but he thinks the goat man is cuuuute & he’s trying hard not to let it show but he blushes so much when Tinky flirts or teases him

One time he was wrecking Ted & he was all red & giggly & he was too weak to really fight back anymore & the sight was just too cute & too much for Tinky to handle so he stopped right in the middle of it & ran to the corner, biting his shirt & screaming because wtf he’s literally just some guy he shouldn’t give him butterflies in his stomach & make him feel all giddy but he does & then Ted snuck up behind him & got revenge for who knows how long

Tinky is the type to wiggle his fingers at you before he ever even strikes. He just wants to make you nervous & build up anticipation & because he’s gotta live up to the bastard title, he will fake an attack just to make you scream he’s the woooorst

& since he controls time & space, he’s not very aware of how long he’s been tickling someone, so he’s probably the most likely to go overboard without realizing. But then he’ll rewind time so he can start all over again & “this time I won’t overdo it, I prommy!”

#asks #anon ask #npmd headcanons #lib headcanons #nightmare time headcanons #hatchetfield headcanon #tinky #t’noy karaxis #lords in black #ted spankoffski #nightmare time #nerdy prudes must die #npmd #tinkoffski

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bodyfrmabalcony · 10 months

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actually sorry to be back at this again but i did have slightly more to say about tim and jason (see last post i reblogged)

that post does a lot of analysis that i enjoyed re: their read on what tim is dream hallucinating jason saying re: his own death and i had a couple thoughts i wanted 2 add to that. tldr they r saying that this is wayy more about tim than it is about jason and i super agree. i said something about jason's line saying he killed himself in my tim post from last week, but it was kinda reductive, where i said basically yeah that sure sounds like like a way bruce might describe it!! but i don't really think that's the whole story - my more genuine nuanced take on that is a little more like: it sounds an awful lot like what a scared kid might imagine that bruce saying about what happened to a robin who fucks up, i.e., not something bruce said about jason but something tim is afraid bruce would say (or think) about tim if tim went the same way as jason

being a martyr and a cautionary tale and a failure - his own or bruce's - are all stacked up on top of each other w/ jason, and tim just kind of. has all that. to deal with. the linked post gets way into how tim is reacting to his mom's death, which is so so interesting to me, bc tim is clearly soo scared of his grief disqualifying him from everything else he wants and feels like he needs to do. he's scared he won't be able to be robin bc bruce sees him compromised by his grief, so he's got to grieve Just Right, at the same time that he's basically trying to take on bruce's grief for jason. the kid is in the poster house for Grief Alters Your Life In Ways You Can't Control and he's still trying to grieve correctly. oof.

and back to tim's relationship to jason post-jason's death, it's so interesting in every direction, but specifically a big thing to me is that on some level jason is not real. like he is, obviously, but tim didn't meet him and he's never going to. he's not dick, a man tim can remember as a child and whose apartment he can break into as a slightly older child. he's not bruce, a guy whose basement tim can end up standing in if he tries hard enough. he doesn't! exist! you don't get to meet dead men! jason doesn't need to be pinned down as tim's hero or tim's fear or tim's resentment, bc the most important thing is that he's just a story. he's just an idea.

and then, of course, what do u do when the idea puts a knife to your throat. or puts on bright yellow tights to beat u up in front of your friends. things get really silly!! quoting my own tags on the first linked post just to have them here as well:

#i think constantly constantly about the car crash disaster of #all the things ppl did in their grief after jason died and then #jason comes back. and sees things he was never meant to see #and it's specifically sooo interesting for the ppl who got caught up in the grief but never even met jason #tim looking at the memorial case #cass sitting at jason's grave on his birthday with bruce #like wtf is jason supposed to do w all that grief from ppl he doesnt know for a person he only sort of was #and on the flip side! wtf r the ppl who grieved a story supposed to do when the story walks up to them! #and in some cases. walks up to them holding a knife. #anyway just thinkin

#just saying things about tim and jason once again #i could probably write a whole post about cass at jason's grave too but that's. a whole other kettle of fish #talking tag #sorry for stream of consciousness typing up my thoughts #anyway #tim drake #jason todd #oh god also x3 there's the whole issue where batman fear gas hallucinates jason and almost kills tim #idk how relevant that is but im thinking about like #the times tim puts himself in jason's shoes on purpose #the times he tries his ass off to be in some other shoes entirely #and the times someone else hallucinates him into jason's shoes and almost beats him to death

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transboysokka · 10 months

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Chris Watches My Neighbor Totoro for the First Time

* I think I’ve seen merch of this guy but I know nothing else at all about this movie. Is he really someone’s neighbor?

* Boring beginning credits okay

* Gorgeous scenery right out the gate

* Still can’t get used to the frame rate I’d these movies but I get it

* Do all Studio Ghibli movies start with someone moving to a new house? 2 for 2 so far

* WHY DOES THE GIRL NEED TO HIDE FROM THE POLICE MAN

* I love the scenery in these movies because I know it’s Japan but it looks a lot like Taiwan and it’s just nice to see in like a popular movie?

* Oh, the orange and yellow child is a girl too, okay

* I do really love how these movies like capture the little mundane experiences of childhood

* Lmao the girl is crawling around with her shoes still on, not touching them on the ground and it’s the EXACT way I still love around my house if I’m on the way to work or something and forgot to grab something in the house

* okay so FIRST of all those are the exact same little black things they’re gonna use later in spirited away lol and also did THAT GIRL (mei) JUST STICK HER FINGER IN THE SCARY MONSTER CRACK

* why must the old people look so scary in these movies

* Starting to think this is less of a My Neighbor Totoro and more of a My ROOMMATE Totoro situation

* But where is he

* Little kids taking a bath with their dad, so sweet. I like this dad and he must be protected

* I do like how timeless this movie is. I love when you can’t tell what year it’s supposed to be

* Aww the mom in the hospital this whole family must be protected, the interactions feel so organic and authentic

* Finally some cute little rabbit guys!!

* ok fuck this big thing is so cute

* Is it Totoro???

* Don’t love the noises me makes

* This girl has no self preservation instincts that’s been made clear

* ok so they’re all Totoros and mei is crazy?

* omg totoro just chilling at the bus stop I’ve def seen that before

* But I’m really getting worried about the dad at this point

* CAT BUS WTF SOMEONE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD DRIVES AN EXACT REPLICA OF THIS AND I JUST THOUGH HE WAS A FURRY OH MY GOD

* I want Russian nesting dolls but they’re just totoros

* wow they’re just such fun little guys

* FUCK NOT THE MOM why does this need to get tragic I was having so much fun

* oh phew okay I thought she died

* SATSUKI NO don’t take it out on your sister

* oh my heart, this got so real so fast….

* everyone looking for Mei, don’t me dumb, we know she’s with Big Totoro

* lolol that couple was like “wow you’ve walked so far! well, bye!”

* I relate to Big Totoro bc I also am Fat and Love To Sleep

* never smile again Totoro I’m begging u that was so creepy

* Inside of the cat bus?? Also creepy. Love that the destination can change though

* I would have had nightmares about the cat bus as a kid

* Typical 80s movie Unnecessary Ending Song

Okay yeah that was really cute and wholesome and I actually liked it better than Spirited Away

#ghibli #text #tell me which one to watch next!!!

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mariana-oconnor · 11 months

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The Golden Pince-Nez pt 2

Oooh map! We have the map. I love maps.

This is a really weird looking house, though. I mean, those two corridors just go from that 1 room directly to either the outside or to the guy's bedroom? That's an unusual layout.

Love that we have a little x to show us exactly where in the room Smith's body was. O Willoughby, Willoughby, Willoughby Smith. We didn't know you and now you're a stiff. O Willoughby, Willoughby, Willoughby, say, From whom did they come, those golden pince-nez?

Apparently a very visually impaired woman whose eyes are remarkably close together and whose nose is rather wide, according to Holmes' assessment anyway.

We saw the cold winter sun rise over the dreary marshes of the Thames and the long, sullen reaches of the river, which I shall ever associate with our pursuit of the Andaman Islander in the earlier days of our career.

Do we know about the Andaman Islander? Am I forgetting something? Is that from one of the novels rather than the short stories, because it's been a long time since I've read those. Also, Watson is clearly feeling uninspired this morning. This is probable because he was up until stupid o'clock last night and then had to be up on time to catch the morning train before breakfast. Poor life choices.

I saw an intent look pass over Holmes's face. “You say that she must have come back this way?” “Yes, sir; there is no other.” “On this strip of grass?” “Certainly, Mr. Holmes.”

Alright... so there's something off about the marks in the grass. The grass is only bent in one direction, perhaps? Idk how tracking in grass works. You know who you need?

"This garden door is usually kept open, I suppose? Then this visitor had nothing to do but to walk in."

I like locked doors. The idea that anyone could just walk into my house at any moment is very upsetting to me. It is the role of the door to prevent that from happening. I could not live like this.

(I literally just tried to undo something and deleted more than half of this post, wtf Tumblr? I will try to reconstruct it from memory)

"Halloa! what is that scratch upon the face of it? Just hold a match, Watson. Why did you not tell me of this, Hopkins?” The mark which he was examining began upon the brass work on the right-hand side of the keyhole, and extended for about four inches, where it had scratched the varnish from the surface. “I noticed it, Mr. Holmes. But you'll always find scratches round a keyhole.”

I was going to defend Hopkins at this point, but then I read that the scratch was 4 inches long and presumable fresh, so nope, sorry, can't help you there. That's kind of a key piece of evidence.

I wonder if the professor is an alcoholic...

Sorry, couldn't resist that one.

"Halloa, Hopkins! this is very important, very important indeed. The Professor's corridor is also lined with cocoanut matting.” “Well, sir, what of that?” “Don't you see any bearing upon the case?"

So many Halloas in this part.

I expect the bearing is that it means the murderer could also have left down this passageway without their footsteps being heard. Which raises suspicion of the Professor.

It was a very large chamber, lined with innumerable volumes, which had overflowed from the shelves and lay in piles in the corners, or were stacked all round at the base of the cases.

Interior decor goals. I mean, I almost live like this already, but still, goals.

The bed was in the centre of the room...

(From This Tumblr Post)

Clearly the Professor is evil. No one else could sleep in a bed like that, unmoored from the world, surrounded by space, adrift from good reason and sanity.

I have seldom seen a more remarkable-looking person. It was a gaunt, aquiline face which was turned towards us, with piercing dark eyes, which lurked in deep hollows under overhung and tufted brows. His hair and beard were white, save that the latter was curiously stained with yellow around his mouth. A cigarette glowed amid the tangle of white hair, and the air of the room was fetid with stale tobacco-smoke. As he held out his hand to Holmes I perceived that it also was stained yellow with nicotine.

'Curiously stained with yellow' > proceeds to immediately explain why it is stained with yellow.

"I can recommend them, for I have them especially prepared by Ionides of Alexandria. He sends me a thousand at a time, and I grieve to say that I have to arrange for a fresh supply every fortnight. Bad, sir, very bad, but an old man has few pleasures."

This guy... this guy imports 1000 cigarettes a fortnight. 1000 a fortnight. That's over 70 a day. That's 3 an hour if he doesn't sleep. 4.5 an hour if he gets 8 hours a night. Sure, the internet tells me it takes about 5 minutes to smoke a cigarette, so he isn't actually chain smoking. He could totally smoke more. Really the take away from this is that he needs to work harder at this and stop his reliance on such unnecessary things as oxygen.

70 a day... yikes.

And he knows it's bad for him, too. What? 40 years before the first study in the US saying the same thing? 60 years before it became big news? The tobacco companies really messed with our understanding of things, huh?

Also, the fact that he can afford to import 1000 cigarettes every two weeks and still has the money to have servants, a nice house, and a secretary. This guy has way more money than any academic I've ever met, that's for sure.

“Alas! what a fatal interruption! Who could have foreseen such a terrible catastrophe? So estimable a young man! I assure you that after a few months' training he was an admirable assistant."

Maybe it's because of how unpleasant his introductory description was. Maybe it's because it was preceded by the implication that the murderer could have got into his room unheard. Or maybe it's just that he asks a rhetorical question here and I can never hear a person in this sort of a situation say 'Who could have forseen such a thing?' without my brain automatically answering 'You, I bet.' But Professor seems sus.

Or maybe it's just his bed.

“I shall indeed be indebted to you if you can throw a light where all is so dark to us. To a poor bookworm and invalid like myself such a blow is paralyzing. I seem to have lost the faculty of thought. But you are a man of action—you are a man of affairs. It is part of the everyday routine of your life. You can preserve your balance in every emergency. We are fortunate indeed in having you at our side.”

Yep, super sus. That's way too much complimenting of Sherlock and way too much insistence upon his own infirmity.

I observed that he was smoking with extraordinary rapidity. It was evident that he shared our host's liking for the fresh Alexandrian cigarettes.

I suspect that this is for a different reason from the one Watson is thinking, but also NO HOLMES, do not be sucked into the 70 imported cigarettes a day pipeline.

“That is my magnum opus—the pile of papers on the side table yonder. It is my analysis of the documents found in the Coptic monasteries of Syria and Egypt, a work which will cut deep at the very foundations of revealed religion. With my enfeebled health I do not know whether I shall ever be able to complete it now that my assistant has been taken from me."

okayokayokay Tentative theory:

The professor's research is based on a lie. Everything he's worked on is based on some incorrect fact about a historical 'she' being somewhere or not being somewhere, and he has (or had) evidence that it was incorrect in his desk. WIlloughby worked it out and was breaking into the desk to get the evidence when the professor snuck up behind him and stabbed him in the neck, then scarpered back up the passage-way as fast as his tar-filled lungs would let him.

“I am a connoisseur,” said he, taking another cigarette from the box—his fourth—and lighting it from the stub of that which he had finished.

OK, now that is chain smoking. I really hope there's a reason for this and it isn't just a weird thing ACD put in for no reason.

"What do you imagine that this poor fellow meant by his last words: ‘The Professor—it was she’?”

That his research was a house of cards, built on nothing but hot air. That he was a fraud and his thesis fabrication. That his entire life's work would be worth more as kindling than as an academic paper.

Maybe I'm basing things on vibes again, a little bit. Sorry.

“Susan is a country girl,” said he, “and you know the incredible stupidity of that class."

Nope. Fuck that shit. Not sorry at all. I hope the Professor is guilty. Patronising, classist, intellectual elitist piece of shit. I'm all-in for Team 'The Professor Did It' and even if he didn't do this crime, he's definitely done some other crime somewhere.

“Possibly an accident; possibly—I only breathe it among ourselves—a suicide. Young men have their hidden troubles—some affair of the heart, perhaps, which we have never known. It is a more probable supposition than murder.”

Yeah, because stabbing yourself in the back of the neck is such an efficient way to do it? No wonder your research is so terrible when this is the amount of thought you put into things. Wow.

An accident? How very Final Destination of you.

“But the eye-glasses?”

Fine. Those I can't explain. Maybe they were what was hidden in the drawer and Willoughby found them? But why would the professor then leave them in plain sight? Maybe if Willoughby was the only person who knew what they meant?

So, secondary theory. The Professor's work is still rubbish and based on lies, but it's not Willoughby who found out, necessarily, it's some unknown woman with terrible eyesight and eyes very close together and a big nose, and she came to confront the professor then went missing. Willoughby knew about her going missing, but the professor claimed she'd never been to see him and the pince-nez are the proof the professor was lying.

And the woman is... dead in a ditch somewhere?

Needs work.

“Ah! I am only a student—a man of dreams. I cannot explain the practical things of life."

Oh shut up with your false modesty nonsense. Ugh. You're terrible.

...he continued to walk up and down for some time, lost in thought and consuming cigarette after cigarette.

Is Holmes trying to get through the Professor's entire supply so he has to order more? Wtf?

“Tell me, Professor Coram,” he said, at last, “what is in that cupboard in the bureau?” “Nothing that would help a thief. Family papers, letters from my poor wife, diplomas of Universities which have done me honour. Here is the key. You can look for yourself.”

Well obviously he's removed anything incriminating from it now. Pah

“It depends upon those cigarettes that I smoked,” said he. “It is possible that I am utterly mistaken. The cigarettes will show me.”

I have no idea how the cigarettes are involved in this, I confess. Is the professor involved in a smuggling ring?

I may have remarked before that Holmes had, when he liked, a peculiarly ingratiating way with women, and that he very readily established terms of confidence with them. In half the time which he had named he had captured the housekeeper's goodwill, and was chatting with her as if he had known her for years.

You mean he's good with people? Good at talking to people? Particularly women?

*side-eyes adaptations*

Is this the passage that they had in mind when they did that whole Enola Holmes lawsuit?

“I suppose the Professor eats hardly anything?” “Well, he is variable. I'll say that for him.” “I'll wager he took no breakfast this morning, and won't face his lunch after all the cigarettes I saw him consume.” “Well, you're out there, sir, as it happens, for he ate a remarkable big breakfast this morning."

Is he keeping a secret woman under his bed? Does she sneak in and have breakfast with him?

So weird.

"Well, it takes all sorts to make a world, and the Professor hasn't let it take his appetite away.”

Because he's a terrible human being.

Alright, at the end of this part, my current theory is that the Professor has some kind of secret meetings with a woman with very close-set eyes and terrible eyesight. Willoughby found out and the Professor lied to him about it, then Willoughby found the woman's glasses in the drawer and the Professor, or the unknown woman, killed him for it. Who she is, why she was meeting the professor, why it was so paramount that no one find out, I don't know.

Also, the Professor's research is terrible and founded on lies, because I just want him to fail at life.

And there are cigarettes... or something.

Yeah... there may be some gaps. I'm working on it.

#Letters from Watson #Sherlock Holmes #The Golden Pince-Nez #long post

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blueteller · 2 years

Text

TCF Summary Arc by Arc (Part 7/8)

Every TCF story arc in a nutshell

Volume 7: chapters 600-699

[< Previous] [Index] [Next >]

Eel Battle, Multiplied by Two [Electric Eel uses Split! The monster Duplicated!] The Koreans: *ambush* [Blue Head fled the battle!] [Yellow Head used Dig!] Cale: (…Well f***) Cale: Don't let them merge! Blue Head: *gets severely injured* Yellow Head: *eats the other one* [Yellow Head Fled the Battle!] Everybody: (…WTF) Cale: Okay so that's probably bad. Now we gotta wait for it to show up again. (But at least no one died) LSH: Hey Rok Soo, isn't it your birthday? Cale: Yeah, Choi Hans and Choi Jung Soo's as well The Koreans: Happy birthday! Cale: Thanks guys. For no particular reason, I'm going to go to an isolated place for a moment Choi Han: Cale-nim, are you o- Cale: *starts coughing blood* (…dammit, I knew it) God of Despair: This level of difficulty is clearly too easy for you, so I decided to change it to hard mode Cale: You bastard. I thought you couldn't interfere with the test?! God of Despair: I can't, but my lackeys sure can *Back in Endable* White Star: *after waiting for weeks for something to happen* Ok so the God finally gave us permission, let's just kill him The Black Mages: *drop no-magic-zone & blast spells at Orbed!Cale* Alberu: Ok so Cale said that on this specific day we're supposed to keep him alive. Let's move! Cale's group: *invades Endable* *Meanwhile, in Korea:* Cale: *literally coughing blood and dying from pain* …I'm fine Choi Han, LSH, CJS & PJT: (Like HELL you are!!!) Cale: We gotta finish fighting the Electric Eel today, we can't let the others know about my condition. We have to make sure no one dies Choi Han: Jung Soo, you take care of Cale. Make sure neither of you get hurt CJS: …sure (This guy is definitely related to me) [Yellow Head had evolved into Yellow Head with Blue Stripes!] The Ancient Powers: Cale! We finally re-connected with you! We can give you one full power now. We'll send you Vitality of the Heart right awa- Cale: Nope, gimme me the Shield The Ancient Powers: …you dumb self-sacrificial bastard Cale: *Mokuton-no-jutsus the trees to tie up the Yellow Head* [Yellow Head used Dig!] [Yellow Head Fled the Battle!] Cale: …third time's the charm, I guess Also Cale: *spits even more blood* Kim Rok Soo: *inside Cale's head* Hi, I'm the owner of this body and I've been here this whole time so I know everything. Cale, your life sucks Cale: (Couldn't agree more) *Back in Endable* Eruhaben: *charges in* White Star: Ha! You think one old dragon is enough to- Alberu: *turns Taerang into a gun* Parry this, you filthy casual White Star: Wait wha- Alberu: *rains bullets at him* White Star: …WTF!? Mary: *steals Orbed!Cale while the White Star is distracted* Raon & Lock: *steal Wolf child sacrifices* White Star: (…well s***) Cale's group: Later suckers! *teleports away* *Meanwhile, in Korea:* KRS: Anyway, I wanna smack that bastard Sealed God in the back too Cale: (Good to have you on board, buddy) The Ancient Powers: You can't kill a god, but you can use Embrace to seal him for good Cale: (Sounds like a plan) The Ancient Powers: Hey, the pain stopped! Seems like your friends rescued you on the other side already Cale: (Great!) I'm all better now- Everyone: No you're not. Lie down Cale: But- Everyone: LIE. DOWN. Cale: O-okay KRS: …what's with them? Cale: (I know, right?) The Ancient Powers: …you're both dense idiots KRS: We gotta tell LSH the truth. You know I won't have your powers once you leave, right? Cale: (…Good point) LSH: Ok, so what's going on with you? Cale: I'm actually from a parallel universe set in the future and currently possessing this KRS's body. He's still here and can see everything. Also I'm older than you LSH: … LSH: Seems legit. I'm still the Hyung tho Tiger!Alberu: Cale, let's finish this and get outta here! Yellow Head: *gets killed* Cale: *faints* *Cale coughs blood and/or faints counter: 24 (Triple Combo!)*

End Korean Side Quest God of Despair: You know this is not the end of despair in this world, right? Cale: I know. But you're actually a really good therapist? I never thought I'd say this to a god, but – thanks. You really helped me with my trauma God of Despair: … God of Despair: F***. You pass. Cale: Wait what God of Despair: Yeah, the test was actually about accepting despair, not defeating the monster. Good job. I'll give you time to say goodbye as your prize Cale: (Really? That's suspiciously nice of-) *wakes up and realizes he has barely 10 minutes left* (…I knew it. That a**hole) The Koreans: …Commander, are you okay? Cale: I'm fine. I lost all of my abilities tho The Koreans: *shocked and concerned* Cale: But no one died, right? The Koreans: …Right *extremely touched* Cale: Choi Han, let's go home Choi Han: Okay *vanishes* Cale: Ok, bye- *starts coughing blood* -Sealed God, you mother***ing son of a b****! *Cale coughs blood and/or faints counter: 25*

Cale's Official Hero Fanclub Cale: *wakes up* Everyone: Cale-nim's back!!! *tears of joy* Cale: (Ah, finally. Now, let's just quietly go back home-) Everybody: LOOK, IT'S YOUNG MASTER SILVER SHIELD, THE KIND OF HERO WHO WILL NEVER BE SEEN IN THE WORLD AGAIN!!! *throws a parade in celebration* Hilsman: *ecstatic* Young Master, you're become the most famous hero of the two Continents! Cale: *horrified* The Henituse Family: *acts normal* Welcome home, Cale Cale: (…oh thank God) Cat Tribe: *randomly try to attack in the background* Duke Fredo: *shows up wounded and falls in coma, for real this time* Deruth: Anyway, I hired some OP mercenaries to protect us, because we're super rich! Isn't that great? Raon: …Human, one of them is a dragon Cale: (…WTF) Dodori: Hi, I'm the extremely cool dragon who wants to join your hero party! Also I binged all the books about you Cale: (…A teenage otaku, huh) Cale: *eager to scam more dragons into joining their cause* Sounds great. But minors gotta have a parental permit to join Dodori: Ok, I'll bring my mom… Hopefully she won't beat me up too bad! Cale: (…am I making a mistake…?) Litana: *admiration mode on* Young Master Cale! Toonka: *tearful* FRIEND!!! Cale: (…oh s***) Chief od Staff: Young Master, there's an emergency! Cale: (Thank GOD!) *nopes out of there*

Dragons, Dragons Everywhere Dodori: Hi, I'm back! I brought my mom with me! Rasheel: *charges in with cute PJs on* Who DARES to disturb my slumber?! Mila: Is this a bad time…? Cale: *laughs hysterically* (THREE dragons showed up!! This is amazing!!!) Toonka & Litana: (Poor Young Master Cale… the pressure must be really getting to him…) Rasheel: I'll beat you up to a pulp!! Cale: *pats him on the shoulder* You're going to regret this in a moment Rasheel: Ha! You think a dragon like me would-! Raon, Dodori, Mila & Eruhaben: *stare down at him* Rasheel: *sweats* Mila: Hey, aren't you that thug dragon I once saw beating up some other dragons? It was really dope Eruhanen: … *embarrassed-by-highschool-hijinks vibes* Mila: BTW, I made holes in their cheeks and legs after you left. Lol, just kidding Cale: *doubtful* (…is she?) Rasheel: *realizes with horror he's the least violent and crazy dragon here* Cale: *smiling* Why don't you sit down and have some tea? Rasheel: …o-okay… Eruhaben: *explains how the White Star plans to summon the Sealed God and the Demonic Race* Rasheel: …WTF. How did this even happen?! (I shouldn't have gotten up this morning…) (Me: Rasheel is so relatable, the poor man) Mila: I'm in, so long as you officially become my son's Teacher, Young Master Cale: But- Mila: *vicious mom vibes* Cale: …okay.

Overthrowing Monarchy – Again! Dragon Half-Blood: *dying* Cale: Ok, time to cheat death again. Any ideas? Mary: ...We can turn him into a Bone Dragon Cale: Perfect Dragon Half-Blood: Are you really… going to save me? Cale: Well, you have to promise to abandon your desire for revenge and live to protect instead. Deal? Dragon Half-Blood: *shrugs* Fair enough Duke Fredo: *wakes up* Gimme your blood, pls Cale: No Duke Fredo: Worth as shot. Anyway, can you save the Vampires? The White Star is using them and the Dark Elves as sacrifices to summon the demonic monsters. They're at Mount Nex in the Sez Kingdom Cale: Sure *shows up at the Hope and Adventure Loving Inn* Bud: *looks at the bunch of dragons Cale brought with him* Bud: *jokes* Are you going to conquer another kingdom or something? Cale: No, but actually yes Bud: …Wait wha- Cale: Time to kidnap a royal and obliterate the Cat Tribe, I guess *Naru mode on* Cale's group: *infiltrates Sez Kingdom* On: *shows off being part of the Cat Tribe* Cale: *makes a show of kidnapping the king and dragging him towards Mount Nex* Sez Soldiers: These bastards, they dare step onto the Holy Mountain and abduct his majesty?! King Bakehe: *aware that Arm has a secret Cat Tribe base on the mountain* (…oh f***!) No, wait-! Cale: *shuts him up* If you continue your alliance with the White Star, your future will only consist of chaos, destruction and despair Rasheel: Heed our warning, human, for we are representing the Dragons King Bakehe: *looks at Cale* (…This guy is the leader of the dragons!!) *terrified* Cale: *at the Cat Tribe* Hello, friends~! We captured the king! Please stop the enemies behind us! Sez Soldiers: *also at the Cat Tribe* ATTACK!!! The Cat Tribe: (…well s***) No, wait-! Sez Soldiers: *go on a war path* Dodori: *throws pink boulders everywhere* Dorph: Fools! Even dragons are no match for my Darkness Attribu-! Rasheel: *Attribute Uno Reverse Card* Dorph: Wait wha- Rasheel: *beats him up to a pulp* (Heh. Cale Henituse is gonna be so proud of me!) *smug* [Enemy Dorph Got Captured!] *Cale mistaken for a dragon counter: 5*

Summoning the Unranked Monsters Raon: Human, half of the monster statues aren't here! The Dark Elves are also missing! King Bakehe: *spills* Sayeru took them back to Endable Cale: (Well f***) Cale: They're going summon the monsters in Puzzle City Alberu: On it *has evacuated everyone and gathered troops nearby* I'm going to Puzzle City then The Vassals: Your highness, you can't go! It's too dangerous!! Alberu: *thinks of Cale* I cannot retreat. They should all fight looking at my back (Me: 😭) Cale & Raon: *show up in Endable* Sayeru: Ha! You're too late! No one is fast enough to stop the summoning now!! Cale: Raon, take me back to the Raon Kingdom once I pass out. Don't be like me Sayeru: Wait wha- Cale: *uses Instant to destroy 2/4 statues & wrecks his whole plate and body* Raon: *saves him and takes him back home* Alberu & Choi Han: *watch the whole thing through video-call, horrified* (Me: 😭😭😭) *Cale coughs blood and/or faints counter: 27 (Double Combo! FATALITY!)*

Meeting the Original Cale Henituse (Also, Monster Fights) Electric Eel & Lion Dragon: *get summoned* Raon: *serves as the hub station for everyone* Alberu: Ok, the White Star timed everything so that all of our allies in other countries get attacked at the same time. They can handle it, but we have to deal with the monsters on our own now Taerang: Sir, at this moment, my prediction is that you're definitely going to die Eruhaben, Mary & others: *show up* Taerang: …ok, so now the chances of survival definitely increased Roan Soldiers: Gasp! We got a real Dragon on our side!! Electric Eel: *gets killed* Choi Han: *finds a Cintamani inside its corpse* Huh, that looks just like the one we found in Korea- PJT: *shows up inside the Cintamani* Huh? Lock: Huh?? Choi Han: HUH??? *Meanwhile* Cale: *dying from his plate being broken* [Mila used Mending! It's Super Effective!] Cale: *wakes up in his Korean office* …Huh? OG Cale/KRS: *looking back at him* 'Sup Cale: You're OG Cale? OG Cale!KRS: Yup, but I am KRS now. You should give up being KRS too to avoid confusion Cale: Sure OG Cale!KRS: Anyway, I was the one who made the deal with the God of Death to transmigrate Cale: I see, you really have been happy then OG Cale!KRS: Yeah. My mother actually reincarnated in Korea, so I'm trying to adopt her and be her uncle now Cale: Wow. OG Cale!KRS: The family, are they well? Cale: Of course OG Cale!KRS: Good. BTW, my mom had an Ancient Power Cale: Wait, what OG Cale!KRS: Yeah, I'm actually a regressor and when I was 40 the White Star won the war and by the end I realized he had my mom's Wood Ancient Power. It allows you to see the Annual Rings of Life of all living creatures. She broke her plate and died to hide half of it in Harris Village, which is why I hate that place Cale: Huh, so the White Star destroyed Harris Village while getting that power? OG Cale!KRS: Probably. You should go to mom's grave to collect the other half of it Cale: Got it. Live peacefully OG Cale!KRS: You too *shake hands with Cale* Bye! Cale: *wakes up for real* Mila: Teacher, I'm almost done fixing your plate. It's going to hurt a tiny bit Cale: Ok Also Cale: *feels incomprehensible pain moments later* (God DAMMIT I should have never trusted a dragon…!)

Monster Fights Continue Molan Assassin Squad: *finishes things up at Mount Nex* Cat Tribe Leader: Fools! Once the Temple Door opens, you will all die! Ron: (…ah, I get it now) *contacts Cale* The monster is guarding Sealed God's Temple, it seems. The White Star wants us to do the hard part and kill it for him *Meanwhile, in Puzzle City* Lock: *brings Cale the Cintamani* Cale: …the hell is this?? LSH: It seems we can communicate with each other now?? Cale: …that motherf***ing God of Death *Cintamani has been added to the Inventory* Raon: Listen up everyone! The Human woke up! Everybody: *relieved* Raon: He says, now we begin our plan: Goldie Gramps, play dead! Eruhaben: … Eruhaben: …What the hell?? Raon: Pretend to faint so we can trick the White Star into fighting the monster by himself! Eruhaben: Pff, this is definitely Cale's style, alright. That punk really is awake then Eruhaben: *dramatically pretends to faint* Choi Han: …should we help, too-? Alberu & Rosalyn: NOPE! Not you, you stay out of it White Star: *watches from the shadows* So even the Ancient Dragon was too weak, huh… Cale: We're at a stalemate, now

Thames Heritage Problems – Begin! Lock: So what are you going to do now, Young Master? Cale: I'm going to visit my mother's grave Everyone: … Alberu & Choi Han: *in-the-know about KRS and thus Be Confusion* Bud: *video-calling* (He's… he's gathering his resolve in case he dies!!!) Bud: Cale, you must absolutely not have weird thoughts like that! Cale: (…what the heck he's talking about??) Cale: *to Basen* Please lead the way, little brother (…because I don't know where to go) Raon: Yeah, let's go! Basen: *shocked at seeing Raon for the first time* Cale: How is everyone? Basen: Good. Lily is mad she can't participate in the fighting, since she's almost at High-Grade Knight level now Raon: Wow! Human's little sister sure is strong Cale: *faces the grave* (I guess now that I fully accepted my identity as Cale Henituse, I gotta get more invested in my family history, huh…) Cale: *digs up Jour Thames' Diary* Diary: "Hi person possessing my son's body" Cale: (She really knew everything, huh…?) Diary: "BTW, my family studied the cycle of life and aside from Immortals and souls who reincarnate without memories, there are three exceptions called Variables: Reincarnators, Regressors and Transmigrators" Cale (…the hell is this??) Diary: "Also there are Single-Lifers, who ascend after death. They have super long lifespans after they travel between dimensions" Cale: *thinks about Choi Han* (WTF???) Diary: "Anyway I knew my son would be either a Reincarnator or a Transmigrator eventually. Also, Reincarnators kick out the souls meant to be born in the bodies they steal and that causes those souls to have the same face as them once they are born somewhere else. The only known way to kill them is with the power of an Immortal" Cale: ... Cale: (…Good thing this dangerous information is definitely not in the possession of some evil megalomaniac I'm going to fight in the sequel!) Diary: "PS: There also might be some "Hunter" guys out there who may be going around killing Single-Lifers" Cale: (Well f***) Annual Rings of Life: *show up as a tree* Hi! You're cute! Cale: Excuse me? Annual Rings of Life: You look just like my brother and that cute idiot Deruth! Cale: Excuse me?? Annual Rings of Life: Anyway, you pass! Cale: Excuse me??? Annual Rings of Life: *get Embraced in Jour's Diary* [Wood Ancient Power: Annual Rings of Life (1/2), acquired!] Cale: *casually interrogating the captured Dorph* BTW, how DID you figure out how to eat a Darkness Elemental to gain its power, anyway? Dorph: A mysterious figure with red aura taught me Also Cale: (…I'm certain that's not something I'll have to get involved with anyway. This whole Thames heritage thing sure won't bite me in the a** later) *Cale's Ancient Power counter: 8.5*

Fourth World Tree Meeting Count Hubesha: *suddenly turns on Arm* Look, I might have been loyal to the White Star, but I sure didn't sign up for sacrificing our own citizens Cale: Makes sense Count Hubesha: I want to make a deal with you Cale: Mhhhh nah, your offer doesn't impress me. Think it over and make it better Count Hubesha: *Surprised Pikachu Face* Cale: Hi World Tree, I gotta talk to you about Single-Lifers World Tree: You mean like, Tribulators? Yeah, those dudes become gods after living though trials. Like that one who fought an evil Dark Elf and became a racist god as a result Cale: …The Sun God, huh? Makes sense. Was the God of Death also a Tribulator? *earthquake warning* World Tree: …Can't say Cale: Well, it doesn't matter anyway World Tree: Unfortunately for you, it's going to matter a lot for the sequel Cale: Wait what? Never-mind. I need your power to defeat a Reincarnator World Tree: Sure! There you go *World Tree Dagger has been added to the Inventory* World Tree: It's super easy to use. You just have to stab yourself Cale: …stab myself. World Tree: Yup! Right in the heart. You might have to do it several times if you miss, so it might be a bit messy Cale: … World Tree: Oh, don't worry about dying or anything! It's all gonna be fine. It'll even give you a health upgrade Cale: … World Tree: …what's wrong? Cale: …You DO realize my friends will have to see me stab myself, right? World Tree: … *realizes that his friends are all vicious, over-protective Yanderes*. World Tree: OH. World Tree: Um… good luck, then? Cale: (…I am so f***ed.)

Meeting Totally-Not-IronMan *Meanwhile, in Puzzle City* Cale: Ok, so Count Hubesha told me that the White Star finally got the an Earth Ancient Power that disguises him and he's pretending to be one of my father's subordinates… We gotta smoke him out Deruth: The Crown Prince wants to play dead…? If that's your plan, then I'll play along Alberu: Let's take the drama to the next level then Alberu: *falls dramatically* Roan Soldiers: YOUR HIGHNESS, NOOO-! Taerang: Slight damage sustained. Connecting to your "AS Representative" about repairs Alberu: Wait what Ahn Roh Man: *picks up* Who the HELL is the arrogant prick of a thief holding my item right now? Alberu: …did it seriously just connect me to Earth 3??? Alberu *smirk* (Well hello new source of info!) Lion Dragon: *stands down without strong opponents to fight* Cale: Ok, so now I know how to kill a Reincarnator… *omits the heart-stabbing part* Alberu: Ok, so now I know that Choi Han's uncle Choi Jung Gun stole Taerang from Earth 3… Also apparently, the Sun God's name is Angelina. Cale: Huh. The more you know Choi Han: *has an existential crisis about being a Single-Lifer and possibly becoming a god in the future* Deruth: *suddenly acts sus* Hilsman: *also suddenly acts sus* Cale: *eyes narrow suspiciously* *Among Us Sound Effect plays*

Cale, the White Star, and the Best Moment of the Whole Series Violan: *captures the fake Hilsman* You must take us for idiots, huh. I take personal offense to that *pets Raon in her lap like a magnificent bada**.* Fake Hilsman: Look, I don't work for the White Star, it was just a coincidence. I'm actually- Violan: I don't care, we'll deal with you later Cale: Ok everyone, either the White Star or someone working for him is definitely impersonating my father Cale's group: *pissed* Cale: The jig is up. Where's my father? Deruth!White Star: Still in town, but I can change that at any moment. Cale Henituse, I'm going to offer you a deal Cale: We defeat the Lion Dragon for you, and you return my father to me? White Star: That's right Cale: Wanna make a Vow of Death on it? White Star: … White Star: …no. Cale: Pff. I hate this, but very well. We will work together for once Everybody: ??? Alberu: (No way…) White Star & Cale: *shake hands* White Star: *smug* This is truly a meaningful day- Cale: *openly b****-slaps him* Everybody: !!! White Star: *shocked* White Star: …You hit me? …YOU hit ME? Cale: Heh. I slapped you so that it would feel even worse than being hit. How does it feel being slapped like the b**** that you are? White Star: You son of a b****…! Cale: Lol, you're not my mother Also Cale: *activates mana disturbance devices all over Puzzle City* White Star: Are you crazy?! Are you seriously planning on fighting the Lion Dragon without magic??? Cale: But you won't be able to snatch my father away, you dumb bastard Cale: *charges at the White Star* Jack: Your highness, by the way, the Sun God(dess) wants you to light up the night Alberu: Wait, wha-? Taerang: Holy Flashlight Activated! Alberu: Ha! Nice Also Alberu: *dramatically "becomes the sun" while wearing PJs*

White Star gets Embraced Cale: *uses the Blood-Drenched Rocks for the first time* Cale's group: *pauses* …the hell is that?? Cale: *remembers how the main condition to seal living people with Embrace is to either have them fear you or shock them* Cale: Hey White Star! You wanna know something funny? White Star: …what? Cale: You were right about your Transmigrator theory… White Star: I KNEW IT-! Cale: …but I've only been in this world for 2 years, you absolute moron White Star: !!! *completely taken aback* White Star: No… You're lying! Cale: Ha! For once, I'm really not White Star: It can't be-! Cale: Face it, b****. It took me only 2 years to dismantle your entire 1000-year-old plan White Star: No, that's not true! That's IMPOSSIBLE! Cale: Search your feelings, you know this to be true White Star: NOOOOO-! Cale: *seals him with Embrace in the Golden Plaque* Alberu: …Why are you covered in blood?! Cale: What-? Oh. No, this is just mud. …Your highness, why are you in your PJs?? Alberu: …I forgot to put on armor. Anyway! What happened to the White Star? Cale: Oh, he's right here *shows him the Golden Plaque* Alberu: … Alberu: PLEASE tell me you didn't Cale: *shrug* It was the first thing I could grab Alberu: You bastard…

Enter the Temple of the Sealed God Wind Elementals: Cale, we think we know where the Bears are hiding! Cale's group: *rescues Deruth* Deruth: I apologi- Cale: Don't say something so useless. (Why would anyone apologize for getting kidnapped??) Sayeru: *mockingly* What a teary reunion-! Cale: *deadpanning* Check your eyes, you dumb bastard. Neither of us are crying [Sayeru Fled the Battle!] Alberu: *uses up all of his mana heroically fighting the Lion Dragon* Lion Dragon: *gets killed* Alberu *faints* *Alberu bleeds and/or faints counter: 2* Cale: ...I can't believe the Crown Prince just let himself faint like that! How irresponsible Everyone: … Everyone: *looks at him and his "27" counter judgmentally* Cale: …what? Everyone: We have no words for you. Sealed God's Temple: *appears neatly at Cale's feet* Cale: …it gotta be doing this on purpose.

End Volume 7.

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#tcf #trash of the count's family #lcf #lout of the count’s family #summary #story arc #tcf funny summary series #tcf humor #tcf hilarious moments #tcf volume 7

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hindbodes · 1 year

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Hey, I’ve got something to say about Pysch2Go. I believe it’s a horrible channel.

Now, you guys can talk all you want about how it’s secretly evil and ableist or whatever, and even though I believe you’re completely right, that’s not what my main problem with Psych2Go is.

My issue is that, in a world where 1 in 6 people have misophonia, all struggling to have their utter sensory hell suffering be understood in general, one day Psych2Go got recommended to me with whatever the fuck this is supposed to be:

I showed this thumbnail to a friend of mine who has misophonia, and she was like “yeah I don’t want to talk to somebody who’s eating a banana, wtf.”

Like, I know you’re supposed to click on videos to know what’s in them, but for obvious reasons I don’t want to, and either way what the fuck is this? The yellow person - if the yellow person has misophonia - would be freaking out and struggling to articulate how much severe emotional pain they’re in.

This “trick” doesn’t “actually work”. If the yellow person has misophonia, this trick is how you get a brick thrown at your head. (People with misophonia aren’t actually violent or insane like that, we just really like making venting jokes about violence.)

Because misophonia-sufferers are 1 in 6 people - which is more common than you think - you’re gambling in a very dangerous game. Roll a fucking dice in front of somebody and pull out a banana and see if this trick works. Literally roll a dice, moron. If you roll a one, you are torturing someone. Do you like those odds? Do you want to snake eyes with some random person?

I to this day don’t know what’s in the video, and I don’t want to watch it because more recently I know that the whole channel is scum. I refuse to watch them ever again. What I do know is the view counter.

Look at the screenshot again. It has roughly 3.4 million views. I hope to shit that the thumbnail is just a clickbait thing that’s not in the actual video.

#Psych2Go #misophonia #misophonia venting #fuck psych2go #psych2go sucks #Make THIS information accessible; bitch.#Edited for letter mistakes.

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yuisdad · 8 months

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Rejet...just Rejet

Cw for mentions of age gaps, teacher x student romance, slave x slave owner romance, pedophilia, incest, misogyny, sexualized violence and imprisonment against women, suicide and suicide ideation, real and fictional racism, stalking, bullying, DID misrepresentation, and vore.

LOOOOOOOOONG post ahead.

Rejet started out as female-oriented CD and otome game developer since 2009, with Daisuke Iwasaki and Hirotaka Maeda being the central figures of the company. However, their bodies of work can be traced back to 2007, with Hirotaka Maeda illustrating the Vitamin X series, and Daisuke Iwasaki writing lyrics for the OP and ED songs of Dear My Sun ~Musuko Ikusei Capriccio~.

Games:

The company’s first game was Lucien Bee’s: Resurrection Supernova, a game about forcing the unique-looking love interests of different cultures to conform to Japan’s beauty standards. They cut the Arabaic character’s afro and straightened it, and to this day, I’m still pissed-off about it. The first fandisk, Justice Yellow, has the 17 year old MC dating a few love interests twice her age (17 and 34, wtf). The second fandisk, Evil Violet, not only has 3 love interests who are either too young or old for the MC, but they’re also the villans…at least the MC is a villan here…I think…I hope.

Rejet helped publish Red Entertainment’s game Scared Rider XechS, which, while it has a good, sometimes confusing, story, it unfortunately has the love interest in their 20’s end up in a romance with the 17 year old MC, and said MC, despite the other love interests being 16-18, is their superior who they don’t actually respect and one of them refers to her as ‘teacher’…

Rejet’s second game series is the Renai Banchou (Love Gangster) Series. Consisting of the first one with a long title, and the second one subtitled Midnight Lesson. This game series not only features a few teen x adult romances, but most of the characters look suspiciously similar to their voice actors…and I don’t know whether to think this is clever or creepy.

Rejet’s third game series, and the first one to become popular and have the most games, is the Tokyo Yamanote Boys, which is about a love tournament where the MC is to date a group of guys and choose one of them as her ultimate “Prince.” This seems like a comedy (and unfortunately one of the LIs stalking the MC is treated as hilarious), but it actually has a darker plot shift…which I can kind of respect since it’s treated as a bad thing and sort of criticizes the love tournament plot…Emphasis on ‘sort of’ because the MC and love interest end up getting married with only less than a week of knowing each other. The good news is that all of the love interests are around 16-18 and the MC is 17…unfortunately, the romance ends up feeling a tad rushed because of the few days they got to know each other, and one of the love interests stalks the MC to “protect” her. Another love interest only in the fan disk is also a serial killer. Rejet, you had one job to make The Bachelor/The Bachelorette in otome game form and you failed.

Rejet’s fourth game is Gekka Ryouran Romance, and the only good route is the Yuri route. The game is supposed to be a ‘forbidden romance’, which consist of being in a relationship with two bothers at the same time, a school nurse dating a student, a 14 year old in a relationship with a 17 year old, and incest…and Rejet wants to say the wlw route is just as forbidden as the other routes…

Rejet’s fifth game is Beyond the Future -Fix the Time Arrows-, and it’s your typical adventure fantasy game, but it’s thankfully not too dark. The only routes that matter are Kirito and Camus. The MC’s design is also cute. I don’t have much to say honestly. If 5/7 routes weren’t teen x adult parings, this would be a pretty descent game.

Rejet’s sixth game is Black Wolves Saga, which is a fantasy series that’s like Game of Thrones, but with animals and humans. All of the relationships suck, even the seemingly normal or descent ones. It shouldn’t have been romance oriented because the story conflicts so much with the plot. This is also the second time Rejet has this ‘torturing the MC’ thing going on, and it’s getting a bit concerning.

Rejet’s seventh game is Dot Kereshi -We’re 8bit Lovers-, a parody of JRPGs where the MC is isekai’d into the game she hasn’t played in a while. I like the idea of this, but I’m a little weary it won’t actually be a parody and just play said tropes straight with a few comedic bits here and there. It does have the NPC character be a yandere which is…a choice.

Rejet’s eighth game is Ken ga Kimi (Name of the Sword) which I’ve heard good things about, and none of the characters, at least to my knowledge aren’t based on real people. I haven’t gotten into it, but the main dude actually looks like he’d have a cute romance considering he’s a chill foodie. (Please don’t be another BWS, PLEASE don’t be another BWS!)

Rejet’s ninth game is -8 (Minus Eight), a game where the MC has to fall in love or else the school she just transferred to will shut down…That’s fucking HILARIOUS! And the MC is just as funny as the love interests? SIGN ME UP! …Unfortunately, despite it’s fun premise, the actual routes use the same writing template and plot…an there are 8 of them…It’s a bit disappointing honestly.

Rejet’s tenth game is Moshikami (If God Were to Exist in this World) and no, I’m not typing out it’s long-ass title. This is probably on the top of the list of ‘torturing the MC’ Rejet has done. The MC is constantly bullied by other girls and assaulted by guys not within her friend group, was raped by her brother’s best friend from high school at a young age, said friend was killed by her brother, the brother then proceeds to victim-blame his little sister for ‘tempting’ his friend and then proceeds to rape her, leading the MC to pray to Amaterasu to become a guy, but then want to still look like a girl because she fears her brother wouldn’t recognize her (the trauma of being raped caused her to forget that incident) so she identifies as androgynous instead…Wow, Rejet, that’s a lot of bullshit to have your MC present as androgynous and not just let her…be that because she wants to. There’s only three routes that matter (Shuri, my boy), and the brother is possibly the worst DID representation I’ve seen in an otome game. I thought Natsuki from Utapri and Ukyo from Amnesia were bad, but clearly I was wrong.

Rejet’s eleventh and “final” game is Usotsuki Shangri-La (Liar Moon Shangri-La) and it’s Rejet’s more tame games (thank GOD). Like the title suggests, this is based on Norse Mythology, and the true end is probably the most well-written romance Rejet’s done. They even had the MC and true boy meet as children instead of the guy being an adult, WHAT A CONCEPT! Unfortunately, this makes the other routes feel pointless, which is a shame since I thought Hati was cute and the Brothers of Calamity’s story was interesting. It’s not much, but after Moshikami, I’ll happily take this.

Drama CDs:

2011-2012:

Diabolik Lovers: Well well, if it isn’t the first appearance of the ‘torturing the MC’ saga. DL actually has a descent idea; a darker and steamier look at romance featuring vampires. This could work…if it weren’t for the fact that Yui/ the character in the CDs doesn’t consent to ANY OF IT! Sure the people who actively bought the CDs and games consent to it, but not Yui! It would’ve been great if Yui was into S&M from the beginning and wanted to be bitten. I also don’t like how Rejet and the fandom use S&M as an excuse for the way the guys treat Yui/the listener. Consent is sexy, Rejet, fuckin’ UTILIZE IT!

Tiny X Machinegun: This was a collaboration between Rejet and IM BULLET, a sub-brand of IM who makes the Are You Alice? series. If the main cast weren’t NYC police, I would’ve liked it. The CDs don’t have any romance, which makes since considering the MC is 15 and most of the cast are in their 20s-30s…Wait, what do you mean Rejet made this an otome game with romance? REJET, YOU HAD ONE JOB!

Shinsengumi Wasurenagusa: It features real historical figures as the love interests and makes them boring. And there’s sex scenes…Moving on…

2013:

Seventh Heaven: Oh boy…So, this series has a suicidal MC who comes across the mansion, which consists of seven shinigami butlers called Seventh Heaven, who will comfort her until they kill her with their singing on a full moon. Basically, suicidal ideation, the musical. Would’ve been better if the MC was already dead and the shinigami serve and comfort her until they send her soul off to heaven. There Rejet, I wrote a batter tragic romance for you, where’s my paycheck?

ALICE=ALICE: Alice in Wonderland…but with vore play…except not really because it’s just biting and licking. One of them is Another version of the MC and somehow her twin in the game…Twincest, my favorite/s.

BAD MEDICINE: Sadistic teacher x student romance…The op’s a banger.

VANQUISH BROTHERS: The MC is in an arranged marriage…go on…and the love interests, whom consist of six brothers, must have sex with the MC in order to get their dead father’s inheritance…and you lost me…The love interests are also 15-18 in high school…Underage sex too?!

2014:

LIP ON MY PRINCE: The MC is in a relationship with 6 different prince-like boys from six different schools depending on the CD…that’s it..So Rejet can write a cute romance, but I guess they couldn’t keep their search history out of the writer’s room.

Oz to Himitsu no Ai (Oz: Affair of Six Keys): The Wizard of Oz but with sexism and misogyny…why? However, the short stories about the LIs during their time at the orphanage and and the 7th CD featuring all of the LIs made me cry…They were actually well written…REJET, WHERE DID THIS QUALITY WRITING COME FROM?! They also criticize the MC being groomed and raped by an authority figure and have a brother character who doesn’t have romantic feelings for the MC?! REJET, WHY CAN’T YOU PUT THIS EFFORT INTO THE MAIN SIX CDS?! MC is the best part if this series.

Soubou Sangokushi (Hope of the Three Kingdoms): Basically a slightly more hornier version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The art and op are nice, but I’m not too invested.

Taisho Idol Romance Empire Star: The MC becomes the manager of 5 (later 6) stage performers during the Taisho period. The only one I’m interested in is the childhood friend. I wish all of them had theater-kid energy.

Ookami Kunchi -Wolves Brothers Home-: Based on Little Red Riding Hood where the country-bumpkin MC moves to Ikebukuro, where she moves into a mansion with 6 brothers, who turn out to to be in a compensated dating service to pay for their parents’ One Million yen. Wish they were actually Werewolves and if the forced dating service was more deconstructed. I do find it funny how the youngest brother is literally just a slightly more mature Kanato, right down to the stuffed animal and being voiced by Yuki Kaji.

Criminale!: The MC is a part of the mafia with 6 childhood friends as her bodyguards. Her father dies so they protect her while trying to figure out who murdered he dad. Would’ve liked this better if they were just a group helping the MC a la Bustafellows instead of a mafia.

SACRIFICE: The MC receives 6 letters from her childhood friends and a mysterious person, all proclaiming their love for her and ask her to join the mystical world of SACRIFICE. Once she’s sent their via butler riding a carriage, she learns that she can’t physically touch her long-time friends and must become a part of this strange world to be with them. The twist is that all of them, including the butler, are all dead and this world is basically a cult where they can escape from reality. Brilliant concept, and while it’s explored a little, there’s very little you can do with such a concept in an hour long CD. The butler is also the MCs brother who named himself after her dead cat, Calmera, and I guess he created the cult? He’s the last CD and it was too open-ended, leaving some plot threads unresolved. Would’ve been better as a game.

Tsukiyasha Mysterious Vampires of the Meiji Era: Blood-sucking yasha in the Meiji Era. The MCs blood is important for the survival of the yasha. Has nice artwork and winter aesthetic, the OPs a friggin banger and the last love interest is a himbo voiced by Mozu from Bustafellows…Too bad he’s not in the sequel. Not DL levels of blood-sucking (except for the policeman LI because of course) but it’s still…there…

HAPPY SUGAR DARLIN’: The MC works at a Italian-themed sweets cafe with 5 guys who attend a performing arts school. There’s a bear mascot who turns out to be the MCs brother. He has no romantic interest in his sister, thank GOD! The romance is so cute that people were wondering if it was really a Rejet IP lol.

2015:

Zenryoku Shounen Tachi no O-uta and Toriai: MC’s in a performing arts school and meets 6 guys living their lives. Separated into two characters rather than one and features banger songs. I honestly just imagine this series as a mlm CD instead lol.

Lacrimosa -The Seven Sins-: The MC is the daughter of a powerful and well-beloved king of a Latin-based kingdom. The MC follows a blue bird into a small and hidden palace. As the MC enters the palace, she unknowingly breaks the seal keeping seven of the king’s knights held hostage, each of them representing the seven deadly sins. The king’s horrendous secrets are exposed, leading the MC to view her father differently. Neat premise with the theme of a tragic romance, but I’m not sure how well executed it is.

LOVE DON QUIOTE: MC enters a new school where romance is forbidden. The theme of this CD is kabedon, where the LIs push the MC against the wall in an intimidatingly steamy way. OP’s catchy…but overall meh.

Yugen Romantica: MC’s in a school where she discovers that a few students are actually the rumored seven wonders (ayakashi) of her school. Hikaru Midorikawa plays Hanako, the toilet ghost, who is flamboyant and fancy as fuck. Yeah, that’s all I got.

Mignight Jinagshis: Blood-sucking CD but with the Chinese Jiang shis, which, to my understanding, are damned souls in the form of zombies who take souls of the living. Most recent adaptations depict them as blood-suckers, so you can see where this is going. But, this is actually my favorite of the blood-sucking CDs because you can tell the writers and VAs were having fun, ESPECIALLY Shinnosuke Tachibana. He made the yandere character actually fun to listen to because he was just so over-the-top hammy! The second series had the new LI want revenge on one of the idol Jiangshi because he was supposed to debut with his idol group, but the other idol dude gave him ice cream that caused him a stomachache, leaving the new LI not able to perform and debut as an idol. Rejet should be funny more often, because this is great!

Dear Vocalist: A music series where the MC’s in a relationship with the lead singers of different bands working under the same company. Some of them have a nice romance, others…not so much…It really depends how well the writing is I guess.

Paradise O’ Whisper: MC is a new student at a music school and is greeted to God 6, a group of popular students with rumors surrounding them. One of them apparently can get someone pregnant just by looking at them lol. Funnily enough, that guy is actually the best one out of the others. He does the bare minimum, but this is Rejet, they should’ve done the bare minimum since the beginning. The others…treat the MC like garbage. The greatest thing that happened in this series is the MC slaps one of the guys after he tells her his sob story. Justice for MC!

Honey Liar!?: MC is a school student and is somehow in a forced relationship with the student council. The theme with this CD is that each of them have a completely different personality underneath their exterior, which could be fun, but the personality switch was so jarring that it felt like two completely different characters. The one with the paper bag on his head is a misogynist…

Occultic Lovers: There’s a secret society in a high school that fights spirits…Okay. Like the aesthetic, and it’s a bit more plot heavy, but it’s not my thing. There doesn’t deem to be a creepy love interest, so that’s good.

2016:

Kuro Yoshiwara Melancholia: The MC is a mermaid being persuaded by the LIs who want to use her scales for ulterior motives. One of the LIs is a cat boy and the MC being a mermaid is the only thing I find interesting about this series. The music’s pretty neat though.

FRESH KISS 100%: A Happy Sugar knock-off but with a soda theme and a cute penguin mascot instead. Relatively harmless, and focuses more on the idol aspect, but it’s only cute fluff and not doing anything bad.

G-Goku Spa: Possibly the most interesting premise yet, the MC is the daughter of the underworld ruler (yomi specifically) and is checking the onsen that demons are forced to work in for all of eternity to know it’s secrets. An onsen in hell?! Okay, that’s actually interesting. I believe it has 2 disks in each CD, so they’re able to do a bit more with the premise than they usually do.

Yotogi HoLiC: The MC has trouble sleeping, so she is sent to the Yotogi household, which consists of sextuplets who’s job is to help their hosts fall asleep. I heard that it actually helps the listener fall asleep, so Rejet did actually manage to do their job correctly this time! Good job Rejet, you get a ‘you tried’ sticker!

Forbidden Star: A music series featuring different idol groups. They apparently have an ‘edge’ them them, but to me, they just look like gay theater-kids lol.

CHU LDK: The MC recently moves to a share house with 6 other guys. Seems like it could be a cozy experience, but the MC’s in high school, 2 of them are in college, and one of them is a science teacher. Rejet, you lost the right to that ‘you tried’ sticker, give it back.

Cia Voice: An ASMR CD where the MC is taken to a relaxation spa. I like Ryouhei Kimura’s character, Iris’, design the most, but that’s about it. It looks fine for what it is.

Issei Fubi: The MC is of higher class and has a male harem of concubines. Considering how concubines were treated back then, I don’t think making them guys is the 'take that’ Rejet thinks it is.

Prince of Grimm: Grimm fairy tales reinterpreted by the MC as she’s in a coma recollecting her memories. Red Riding Hood’s a better version of Ayato, but the rest range from neat, meh, and OH MY GOD HE MURDERED HIS ENTIRE FAMILY?!

Taisho Kuro Kazoku: The ill MC is friends with discriminated beasts (humans with animal ears) and it’s supposed to be a sad romance. Would’ve worked better as regular racism story. If humans are involved and the discriminated class only have animal ears, just make them people of color. But, I do find it funny how the one with rabbit ears is essentially a less unhinged version of Azusa, right down to the shy personality, bandages, sad past, is a masochist, and is voiced by Daisuke Kishio.

THANATOS NiGHT: Same premise as Seventh Heaven, but it’s fallen angels going to high school instead of a mansion full of shinigami butlers. The aesthetic is cool and the songs are good, and Nia is a better written version of Laito, but the romance is…not good.

2017:

Shuukyoku no DOLLS (The Ultimate DOLLS): The MC is convinced to go to a new puppet show with rumored life-sized dolls that come to life. The leader of the show and creator of the dolls, Bellemere, has the MC come on stage and have her pick out a doll for her to keep. The twist is that said dolls are to slowly turn the MC into a doll so that her body can be used as a vessel for Bellemere’s dead wife’s soul. Cool premise, AMAZING artwork and aesthetic, but only one of the dolls is somewhat likeable. The backstories for the characters are somewhat interesting.

Corpse Heart: A musical that takes place in a monster school in London. The MC, a witch, is the only one with a beating heart, and the upcoming Easter Festival revolves around the students searching for the Jewel Heart, and whoever posses it gets their wish granted. Obviously the MC contains the Jewel Heart, and the plot becomes more confusing as it goes on. One of them turns out to be the MCs father…which makes ZERO sense because he’s not only one of the younger characters and it has nothing to do with him wanting to become an idol, but you’re telling me this guy killed the other LI’s whole family and is somehow the principal of the school?! This twist isn’t even mentioned in the other CDs! The last one’s with her 'twin’, so expect insect, but PLOT TWIST, she’s actually a homunculus with her memories scrambled up by said 'twin’, and he’s been keeping the Jewel Heart in multiple clones so the Easter Festival can go on each year. Dude, WHAT’S YOUR END GOAL?! 0/10, Worst Monster High reboot.

2018:

Princess of Luciole: The MC finds herself in an old mansion. Said mansion is apparently a pocket demension where 1800’s French servants of a princess born of inbreeding thinks the MC is said princess, and they believe she has lost her memories. Honestly, this is the best horror story Rejet has done so far. The princess they serve is apparently cruel, sadistic, and evil, which leads them developing a twisted love for their princess and it’s written that way too. The MC has zero recollection of these events, making the audience even more horrified. I’d give more praise to this series, but…the plot twist ruins everything the CD built it’s plot on.

The twist is that the MC is actually from the 1500s rather than modern times. The prince from the 1500s, who’s the last love interest, Dr. Thriller, loved the MC, who was a servant, and I guess he’s some kind of time traveler and can see the future, I think, so he intended to put the MC into his future generation’s role as princess so she can become just as messed up as he is. But I guess something happened along the way and she ended up in modern times without any memories. So her coming across the manor was on purpose, and while she’s slowly losing her mind, Dr. Thriller dons said name and pretends to be the prison warden to keep an eye on her. The craziest part of this is that IT WORKS! Not only that, but they end up in a romantic relationship and kill everyone in the manor. REJET, YOU HAD ONE JOB TO DO ACTUALLY GOOD HORROR AND YOU FAILED! HOW DID YOU FAIL SO SPECTACULARLY?!

Tokyo Cemetery: The MC works as a police officer trying to solve a case of a mass murder. She also suspects her 6 partners since one of them might be the killer. Basically if Collar X Malice was written by Rejet and had another banger theme song.

C'mon Fellows!: A music series about fictional YouTubers. It apparently has a deeper plot, but meh. It’s probably descent.

Others:

MARGINAL#4: A music series that was supposed to only be mascots for Rejet’s 2013 concert, but they became popular enough to warrant their own game and anime. The game’s bad because the MC’s an adult manager who looks after 4 teenage idols and falls in love with them. Ew. I heard the anime was actually wholesome and good. There is some implied twincest going on with the twins in media outside of their music…Rejet STOP!

ZEPHYR: A short animation in collaboration with Studio Satelight. I’ve never watched it because it doesn’t even have subtitles, but the theme song for it is pretty good. Takes place in a sci-fi setting focusing on a band.

Dance with Devils: A 12 episode musical anime animated by Brain’s Base with music by Elements Garden of Uta no Prince-Sama fame. The story’s about Ritsuka Tachibana, an ordinary girl who gets caught up in a battle between demons and vampires. She holds the Forbidden Grimoire inside of her, which whoever wields it can control the world. Despite my grievances with the incest, Lindo’s character in general, and the romance not being that good, I still came out of this anime liking it. It’s saved by Ritsuka’s character and the ending. Some people are upset that Ristsuka doesn’t get to stay in the demon realm with her dude, but it makes more sense character-wise for Ristuka to want to stay in the human realm.

AND I’M DONE! Holy shit, this was longer than expected. Thanks Rejet for the content/s.

#Rejet #fuck rejet #otome games #visual novel #sorry lolo #they did your home country dirtier than it already is somehow #otome critical #drama cd

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