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denisa5conquer · 1 year

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My Friends and Their Sun Moon Combinations (Part 3)

Gemini sun Capricorn Moon - Can worry himself to the point of depression. No kidding. But if you were to observe him in a social gathering among friends, you’d never guess. The thing is, he’s actually a pragmatic, realistic person, always wary of trusting others (cutting his closer friends a bit of slack, of course) and always aware of how much he’s sharing with others, whether that be his possessions or valuable knowledge that could mean the difference between success and failure. Cutting through his carefree facade, he’s suspicious, cautious, and truly afraid of the world. And only close friends get to see him even come close to confessing to his fears, which, when you’re witness to it, can actually make you understand why he’s so careful with words and why he’s so wary of helping others “too much”. If you’re not his close friend, you may judge him as shady and cunning due to this lack of understanding. During social settings, it’s like he puts the Capricorn moon part of himself on the back burner and then puts on a naive, laidback persona that makes him seem impressionable and “harmless”. (The facade is not fake. But he does pretend to be naive about certain things so he can ignore his Moon during this time.) He often puts others through secret tests like asking them deep questions about life, failure, and future plans, all the while hiding under his naive and carefree facade. Any astute person can see the fear in his eyes, underneath the facade. He also tends to become alert when he senses depth, like in a person, movie, etc, and I feel like depth is something he really appreciates. When it comes to his work and helping/doing something for his friends, he becomes really serious. He’s very business-like when talking to authority figures. But I feel like beneath his generally confident, attentive demeanor, he’s very fragile and easily hurt by perceived failures. The depth of his feelings almost never comes out, even when he discusses them among friends. But I think it’s this fragility and depth that lend him strength. He’s scared of not earning enough, not being able to find love, and disappointing others. When he feels he’s failed at something (especially regarding his studies/career), though he jokes about “drowning himself in his sorrow for a while”, his eyes say he is serious. And I have no doubt that if he were to see this piece of writing about him, he would look at me and say, with genuine concern and appreciation in his eyes, “Wow. Where did this come from?”

Virgo sun Cancer moon - This one was my roommate in college, though we kind of drifted apart over the years. Hypochondriac lol and very attentive to details, especially when it came to work, her diet, or keeping things clean. She was critical and judgmental, yet at the same time caring. She was often taken advantage of, like helping others with assignments or course topics, due to her unwillingness to be assertive or state her needs. But close friends were able to see her discomfort clearly. Nevertheless, over time this discomfort would pile up before finally blowing up in the form of a particularly stinging comment at an irrelevant person, or she would just lock her doors (metaphorically speaking) and curl up in bed with a book (or something along this line), implying clearly that she didn’t want to be disturbed. Her anger in this way was scary when it was directed at you. She simply ignored you, and if she couldn’t do that without being outrightly mean, she’d talk to you, but her desire to be left alone would clearly show in her eyes. I feel that there was a strong asocial side to her, only willing to hang out with her small circle of close friends. She spent a lot of her time alone. She was nevertheless kind to others, but she was wary of getting close due to her general lack of trust in people (those who weren’t her close friends at least). She told me once that she could read anyone, even strangers, and get an immediate psychological profile. I feel like due to the amount of energy she tended to easily absorb from others and how much it affected her, she preferred to be by herself or with just her close, trustworthy friends. Definitely a nerd and a geek, in a good way of course.

Aquarius sun Leo moon - She was another, dear roommate of mine in college. Calm, detached demeanor. She generally seemed unaffected by a lot of things around her. A crisis could be happening and I feel like there would still be no reaction on her face... but she would be one of the first to go and do something to help mitigate the crisis. She had a way of helping others in a detached, selfless way. But she loved being helped as well lol. And admired. And listened to when she shared her talents, hobbies, and stories. I feel like there weren’t a lot of people she trusted, but those who paid attention to her and her interests, life stories, and hobbies, she immediately got a liking to. Though she had a “live and let live” attitude, treating disappointments in life as something unavoidable, things, like relationship/friendship problems especially, affected her immensely. She could talk about them with close friends, with that “what can you do” attitude, but any astute individual would see she was deeply affected by them. She remained a loner somewhat though, despite all this. And she tended to deal with many of her problems on her own, though I know discussing them helped her deal with them a lot better.

Pisces sun Virgo moon - A delight to hang around! Strongly intellectual and knowledgeable about topics ranging from world history, arts and culture, to politics and science. Also very opinionated when it comes to social issues. He has a judgmental side (of people and their opinions/beliefs, etc.) that I didn’t get to see until long after I’d met him lol. His judgments extend to people’s characters as well, but again, he only really confesses to them with close friends. Nevertheless, he has a sort of naive, child-like way of expressing all his knowledge and opinions. On the other hand, anger him by challenging his beliefs or making fun of him for having them and you’ll see him become defensive or throw a tantrum lol. But if you’re a close friend and you do this (and you have a valid, informed point), he may go on to have a gentle, clear debate with you... or he may doubt himself and laugh at himself, in that innocent way of his. He’s faint-hearted when it comes to some “ugly” truths in life, like crime, uncleanliness, and failure in work, and seems to be very affected by them. He’s very caring with friends and is always doing things like hosting social gatherings at his house and giving them leftovers of his cooking. He’s definitely a person who avoids drama and interpersonal conflict (and other such things I believe he views as petty) unless he can’t, and though he notices a lot of things about people, he doesn’t voice many of these observations. He’s more passionate about, and prefers to voice his beliefs about, his observations of society and its myriad problems. Definitely a person who’s more comfortable in the world of intellectual debates and then the world of a comfortable home life, preferring to live in the safe zone of sophisticated culture and stability in career and lifestyle.

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bratz-kitten · 3 years

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ASTRO OBSERVATIONS [part 5]

— people with jupiter in the 8th may experience an “abundance” of traumatic experiences throughout life, often relating to death; these are the people who truly feel like everyone they love ends up dying. at their worst, they can become desensitized to death— jupiter is ruled by sagittarius, a sign known for being in denial when in difficult situations in favor of optimism. these natives can pretend like nothing actually happened, or minimize the situation in their head so that they don’t have to face it.

— okay this might be a weird one... like, you know in asoiaf when arya was walking through the streets and was always like “i’m as quiet as a shadow”? that’s literally the energy of someone with planets in the 12th house/chart ruler in the 12th house. these people are so stealthy. they’re able to move so quietly and without anyone noticing, both literally and figuratively. on one hand, they’re very quiet about their plans and ambitions to the point where other people only find out when they’re achieving success over it; on the other hand, they just. don’t like making noise while walking idk bitch you’ll only see me coming when i’m right beside you, i even get paranoid that i’m breathing too loud and that other people will hear

— people with moon aspecting mars can be incredibly impulsive when they feel hurt or triggered. yall need to be careful with doing things in the heat of the moment that you know you’ll regret later... but in the moment, you feel so hurt that it clouds your rational side. please be more self-aware about this because you may make decisions that will directly affect you for the worse in the future

— people with leo mars ft. constantly asking you for pictures... about anything. they just wanna SEE LMFAO THEY DON’T CARE WHAT IT IS THEY’RE SEEING. you just got ready to go out? “send pics of your makeup and your full outfit”. you’re waiting in a long boring line to get the covid vaccine? “send pics of the line”. your mom baked cake? “send pics of the cake”. plus they send so many random pictures while texting, it’s their special love language

— having moon conjunct moon/venus in synastry feels insane. you tell them something you’ve been through, and they’re immediately like “that happened with me as well.” it doesn’t even have to be something grand, sometimes just very specific things you thought were particular about you. the amount of understanding that comes with this aspect in synastry can feel very new and intense especially if you’re used to seeing yourself as the “odd one out”, used to feeling isolated in your experiences

— people with pluto in the 1st house often feel the need to erase “traces” of their existence, for example deleting messages that they sent people, deleting all of their social media posts. they can feel anxious and paranoid about other people having access to their past self, even if the past self in question is from, like. a week ago

— people with chiron in the water houses (4th/8th/12th) might’ve suffered bullying to the point where they repress their memories. a lot of their memories of their school years may feel foggy if they were bullied in those years

— also. people with chiron in the 8th house may feel as though they’ve been punished for wanting to experience intimacy. it’s like, the people who were supposed to be the closest to them – for example, their sibling or something – were the ones who hurt them the most.

— people with mercury-neptune aspects and strong pisces/neptune energy in their birth chart might struggle with only remembering things when they’re right in front of them. you should keep things in your peripheral vision to remind you of reality, especially when it comes to feelings— so that you won’t start getting lost inside your own head. like... keep the letters your friends wrote you by your bedside table so you can read them every time your brain starts convincing you that you’re not loved. keep the gifts you’ve been sent on display in your bedroom wall, or sentimental material things that remind you of past happy experiences.

— earth placements and their thing for asmr... omfg. it’s like they’re always looking for things to up their sensory experience/sensitivity. like, earth signs are the ones most connected to worldly experiences so they feel so soothed with the whole asmr experience: just hearing someone gently whispering or tapping on/scratching things calms them down and helps them fall asleep. they love the tingles it’s heaven for them

— moon-saturn aspects might hold and caress themselves while they sleep because their parents never did. yes i woke up and chose violence <3 your secret is NOT safe with me 💋

— while we’re on the topic of sleeping, a majority of the pisces moons i know need to sleep while hugging something, at least a pillow. they can’t just not hug something while they sleep, it’s very instinctive for them. anyways if any pisces moon needs a pillow to hold, i volunteer as tribute 💋

— virgo placements feel sososo soothed by hearing their cats purr. thinking about how my virgo placement friends are always the ones who send me videos of them petting their cats... and then i get soothed by how soothed they feel. it’s a win win situation, if you have virgo placements it’s hereby your duty to send me a video of you petting your cat while they purr. right now. GO

— people with gemini in the 3rd house might have shaky movements of the hands when other people look at them doing things. very specific i know but the third house rules hands and gemini is a sign that has somewhat of an anxious, twitchy quality to it. on the other hand, people with capricorn in the 3rd house (scorpio risings, using whole signs) have the steadiest hands i’ve ever seen lol their movements ooze confidence, these bitches know how to make you feel as thought they know exactly what they’re doing

— people with venus in the 1st house ft. altering their pics with photoshop and hating posting selfies without filters because they never feel like their appearance is good enough. stop it. you don’t need to always look your best and especially not if your ‘best’ isn’t even what you actually look like. also... don’t even think about making self-deprecative jokes about your appearance. next time i find one of yall saying “ahaha im not bad for a 5 without talent” i’m squishing your head between 2 pieces of toast and calling you an idiot sandwich. you’re BEAUTIFUL

— having venus in the 3rd house in composite with someone? do you mean calling each other the absolute ugliest nicknames in the most endearing way?

— leo deals with themes of the ego, and it seems that leo placements often struggle with attracting narcissistic people into their life... leo suns/mercuries can be raised by loud, overbearing, narcissistic parents who see their kid as an extension of themselves and who teach the kid to always be very supportive and caring towards them or else they’ll deny them of words of affirmation-- either by insulting them to shatter their self-esteem or simply never complimenting the kid back. leo moons/mars/venus tend to attract narcissistic partners who only care about serving their own emotional needs and ignore the ones of their partner, and who feed off of their supportive and giving nature. which is why leo placements really need to watch out for being gullible, naïve and dismissing the red flags because my god, you be falling for some shady people.

— people with personal planets in the 12th house/chart ruler in the 12th house might feel like they can’t let go of their past life— they may dream of memories, people or places from another life. it’s like they can’t detach from it, and even if they can’t directly remember their past life, it’s like they feel it in their bones. also, they might’ve felt... estranged from their family ever since childhood; there may have been feelings of being unable to emotionally connect to their (often, distant) parents, and they might’ve even wondered if they were adopted because of how different they felt to the rest of the family.

— okay so, a thing that people with saturn in the 3rd house need to look out for is mentally checking out of conversations while they’re still happening. these people can detect when they’re being manipulated really fast and their way of dealing with it can be to immediately shut down, to grow cold and silent and not even bother answering when you’re expected to respond. and, like, that’s great when someone starts screaming at you or being insulting/trying to coerce you into shit, but take notice if you find yourself shutting your loved ones out as soon as they say anything that triggers you. don’t simply detach from them, communicate what’s wrong

— aries placements, ESPECIALLY aries suns and moons, value generosity so much and they get so turned off by stingy ppl who don’t share with others, especially when others need it. like.. if you’re hanging out in a group with them and someone asks for a bite of your food because they have no money and you say no... espect them to never respect you. ever.

— people with libra placements use soooo many adjectives to describe things. something can’t just be beautiful, it has to be DIVINE and CELESTIAL and INTOXICATING. they can be so expressive god it’s so fcking funny

— capricorn placements HATE asking others for advice because they think no one knows better than them (and they’re not wrong, lol). when they truly care for someone, they might ask the person for advice simply as a sign that they respect, trust and value their judgement. even if they don’t plan on taking it LMFAO

— people with mars in a water sign can have this terrible habit of expecting other people to guess what they want. and then they get passive agressive when you don’t instinctively feel what it is they want... and when you ask them “do you want this?”, they go like “FINALLY. i thought you’d never get there”. stop it. i know that you want people to understand you in a way that transcends words, but you can’t expect people to read your mind and then get disappointed when they don’t, thinking “oh if they loved me that much then they would’ve known that i really want chipotle for dinner :(” GIRL WHAT. COMMUNICATE YOUR NEEDS

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byrachel · 3 years

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oh to be seths imprint and attend a wedding and realize how in love we are and dance and have fun and fall in love with life and with each other and sneak away from the wedding and drink champagne and slow dance under the moon at night and look at the sky. I would literally die a happy woman :,(

SETH CLEARWATER THE REST OF OUR LIVES

word count: 1767

summary: when her duties as maid of honor become a little overwhelming, seth takes his girlfriend to a special place to take a break away from her family

warnings: you might experience extreme loneliness because I sure am

note: i already posted about it, but this is such a cute request. this is probably one of the cutest requests i’ve ever gotten. i still want to apologize for taking so long to finish this, because I just wasn’t sure how to approach this. i hope you still enjoy this, anon!

(Y/N) sighed softly, a pained expression replacing the fake smile which had occupied her face the whole day as she finally sat down at her assigned table. She put her hands against her back, softly straightening it to relieve herself from the twisting pain she had from walking around on heels the last few hours. “Should’ve worn flats.” She murmured to herself.

The family members and friends of the bride and groom were surrounding the dance floor of the wedding venue, where they were having their first dance of the night. It was the perfect moment to sneak away, because it was the first moment since the beginning of that stressful wedding day she didn’t have to do anything, but watch her sister and her now husband be happy.

Even with hurting feet, (Y/N) smiled satisfied as she caught a glimpse of the dancing pair between the figures surrounding them. The soft creme glow of the low hanging lights was reflecting beautifully on her sister’s diamond encrusted dress, just like she had dreamed of. As the maid of honor, (Y/N) made sure she could bring heaven on earth for her sister so she could have her perfect day and seeing her smile, which even gave her butterflies in her stomach, she knew she succeeded. Nothing could ruin her sister’s day.

(Y/N) noticed her almost empty glass of champagne she had left at the edge of the table over three hours ago, showing her how long it had exactly been since she gave her body a rest. It didn’t even look like it had bubbles anymore. She almost wanted to chug the last bit down her throat, too lazy to get herself a new drink. She also wasn’t in the mood to talk to the flirting bartender either. She was slowly going to let her tongue dry out if she had to.

As she finally found a comfortable position to sit in, a pair of familiar hands suddenly found their way to her shoulders, rubbing their thumbs between her shoulder blades. “Hey, pretty lady.” Her boyfriend whispered into her ear, shivers going down her spine as his warm breath gently brushed along her neck.

“Hey, baby.” Her lips curled up into a soft, relieved smile when she finally felt the one person she was waiting to spend her time with all day. Just like her, he was helping to make sure everything was perfect by being dragged along by her mother. Here and there, she would see him carry things behind the bar or make sure all the equipment was in the right place, secretly craving to be by his side and enjoy this beautiful moment with him. “I missed you today.”

Although he probably saw her sit down, she felt like Seth didn’t only know when, but also how she needed him. On days she was emotionally drained and just avoided social interaction, he was the only person she could stand being around. He didn’t expect anything from her and just lied silently next to her, rubbing figures into her belly while they cuddled.

“I would’ve loved to stay with you, but your mom wasn’t letting me out of her sight.” Seth chuckled, letting go of his girlfriend and sitting down on the chair next to her. “She even asked me to dance with her later.”

(Y/N) cringed, aware of how overbearing her mom could be at times. “I told her to tone it down. I’ll talk--”

“No, don’t. It’s fine.” Seth laughed, shaking his head. “Let’s just be civil for today, your sister deserves one day without an outburst from her. And it means she likes me, which is a good thing.”

Rolling her eyes at his statement knowing he was right, she quickly nodded in agreement. The last thing they needed was her mom to ruin the last few hours when everything went great so far.

“But now we’ve both got a few minutes to spare, can I show you something?” Seth held his hand out to his girlfriend which she hesitantly accepted.

With a raised eyebrow, she tilted her head. “Where are you taking me?”

Instead of telling her, he smiled from ear to ear as he promised her they would be back in time before anyone needed either of them again. Without trying to draw any attention by leaving through a random side door of the venue, (Y/N) looked over her shoulder one last time before they managed to slip away unnoticed. Holding onto her boyfriend’s arm she was able to ignore the pain in the heels of her feet, feeling a slight rush of adrenaline flow through her veins.

It suddenly felt like they were teenagers again. It brought back a memory of when Seth convinced her to jump out of her window, promising her he would get her back into bed before anyone noticed. Thinking back she asked herself why that was her biggest concern when she was going to risk her limbs by trusting a guy to catch her as she jumped from the second floor. But she did it without a second thought and before she knew two strong arms stopped her from, what could’ve been, a nasty fall and she never doubted him again.

“Wow.” Was the first thing escaping (Y/N)’s mouth when they ended up at a dock stretched out over a body of water. The full moon shone brightly, hitting the silent streams just right. It looked like tiny diamonds were appearing and disappearing at a rapid pace. She had seen a lot in her years, but she couldn’t have imagined something so simple would take her breath away.

“I know, right?” Seth agreed calmly, having seen it before as he observed his girlfriend walk to the edge of the dock to get closer to take in the magnificent view. “I found it when I was helping out outside earlier.”

“It’s beautiful.” She whispered, briefly looking back at him as his arms wrapped around her waist. He rested his chin on top of her shoulder, taking the view in with her as she intertwined her fingers with his on her belly.

Even before they started the day he knew there would be a point her family would start to drive her insane, her mom’s complaining, her sister’s requests, her aunts’ bickering about things not being to their liking. He didn’t know how she kept it together so well, but he could see it was tiring her out. She needed a break and that was exactly what he was trying to give her. He was convinced her family could survive five minutes without her.

But even with that short lived break, he already could tell she wasn’t going to pick up her phone for at least a week once they got home. He already heard himself ask her ‘what’s the excuse this time’ as they came up with something on the spot for when he picked up the phone for her. He didn’t mind though, he would do anything for her. And she knew that.

As far away as they were, the faded music of her sister’s wedding could be heard. The new melody of the upcoming song caught Seth’s attention and made him pull away from his girlfriend. Left unprepared for the cool summer breeze brushing along her exposed skin, (Y/N) looked back at him to see what he was doing.

Once again he held his hand out towards her, a soft smile plastered across his face. “Dance with me?”

Her gaze softened as that same pained smile from before appeared on her face. “I would love to, but my feet feel like they’re going to fall off.”

Seth rolled his eyes playfully and tilted his head, signaling her to come to him. “C’mere.”

As much as (Y/N) wanted to reject his offer, she couldn’t say no to those eyes. She did as she was told, approaching her boyfriend who grabbed her hands and gently pressed his smiling lips against her knuckles - earning a giggle from her - before he placed her cold hands around his neck. He pulled her closer to him, their chests touching as he did.

“Stand on my shoes.” He grinned.

“Okay.” She breathed, finally understanding his plan as she used the balls of your feet to stand on top of his feet. They laughed in unison when it appeared she was even taller than on her heels alone, bringing her face closer to his.

“Hi.”

“Hey.” Seth smiled back, lowering his hands down to her lower back.

Even with his girlfriend standing on top of him he managed to gently sway them to the melody of the music playing in the distance. (Y/N) leaned into his touch, placing her head against his shoulder while she felt Seth’s head resting against hers. Her eyes fluttered closed to take in his warmth and scent of his cologne. She would truly stay in his arms forever if she could.

“Did I already tell you how beautiful you look today?” Seth broke the comfortable silence between them, his voice much lower than before.

Blood rushed to (Y/N)’s cheeks, the butterflies in her stomach reminding her of their first date. How he managed to make her feel like that every time he was a little too close was still a mystery, but she would never get enough of the feeling.

“You haven’t actually.” She answered, grinning as her head still rested against his shoulder.

“You, (Y/N) (Y/L/N). . .” His movements were starting to slow down, one of his hands pulling away from her lower back to grab her by the chin. He pushed her face up to meet his gaze and he leaned in slightly leaving a slim space between them. A shaky breath hit his face as he left his girlfriend completely flustered by his actions. “are absolutely gorgeous.”

Closing the gap between them, Seth gently pressed his lips against hers as both of their eyes closed shut. He did not care about her lipstick rubbing off on him. He was hers after all and he wasn’t afraid to show others that. (Y/N) moved her hand up the back of his head, intertwining her fingers with his long dark locks and pushed him closer to deepen their kiss.

This wasn’t that kind of love you would have to lose before you realized you had it, it was the kind you felt and realized in the moment. And standing there on that dock with the moon shining down at them, was the moment they realized they would have this love the rest of their lives.

masterlist | not edited

#thaliawritesx #thaliawritesasks #the twilight saga #twilight #twilight imagines #seth clearwater #seth clearwater imagine #seth clearwater fluff #seth clearwater x reader #twilight wolf pack #wolf pack imagine #twilight wolves

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sophiainspace · 3 years

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Zari Tomaz and Zari Tarazi 💫

I leave in the morning - I don’t wanna go

I said to the teller, “If this is the future I don’t wanna know”

I’m afraid of meaning nothing again, after all this is over

This is over after all…

‘Teller,’ Throwing Muses

Hanging out in the totem waiting for her counterpart to return is the worst boredom that Zari Tarazi has ever had the misfortune of experiencing. And she lived through the great Tarazi Residence Internet Outtage of 2031.

And then, one day when she’s very quietly exploring places she probably shouldn’t be - though no one’s actually told her not to - Zari finds the rec lounge. At least, that’s the vibe this room is clearly going for. There’s no TV or internet, of course. (The other totem-bearers went over long explanations of why technology doesn’t work in the totem - something something astral realm - but Zari wasn’t really listening.) Otherwise, this laid-back room is kind of nice. There’s lots of comfy seats and ottomans arranged for ease of socialising, and a few games on the tables - a chess set and jigsaw puzzles. And there’s a shisha bar, of all things, with only delightfully non-alcoholic drinks behind the bar. Most of the time, this room is empty. Zari half-wonders why no one uses it, then remembers that the totem bearers are all old, uppity types who’d never darken the doors of a friendly, social rec room. Which kind of defeats its purpose. Zari goes there to chill a lot anyway. It’s nicer than the ridiculous room with the terrible couches and weird wall hangings.

One morning, Zari wanders into the rec room and nearly falls over. There’s someone behind the bar. Someone familiar.

“Charlie?” she breathes.

It’s not Charlie. As soon as the woman looks up and smiles at her, Zari can tell that much. (Her excited heartbeat slows to something oddly… disappointed.) “No,” the woman says softly. “I’m sorry - I’m not your friend.” She taps a bottle of cordial with a smile. “Let me make it up to you. Mocktail?”

“I could have sworn…” Zari shakes her head and scoots onto a stool. “Sure. Mocktail. Why not?”

“What takes your fancy?” the bartender is asking, running a lithe hand across the bottles.

“Hmm. Not coffee, that’s for sure. You people have the worst coffee on the astral plane. Virgin daiquiri?” Zari eyes the bartender. Yellow dress, printed in southern African patterns. Hair wound up in a matching yellow scarf. She’s not Charlie, but she’s gorgeous - in her own, softer way. “I’m Zari.”

Halfway through mixing drinks, the bartender gives Zari an unexpected wink. “Oh, I know who you are,” she almost purrs. Zari blinks at her. She’d been getting a ‘wise elder’ vibe from this one, right up till that wink. Now there’s a hint of something much more fun in the woman’s eyes. And fun isn’t how Zari would describe most of the staid old totem bearers around here.

Before Zari can ask the bartender’s name, a drink is passed across the bar, and Zari accepts it with thanks. Then sips it, and feels her eyes get wide. “Oh, this is good.” It’s sweet, but not laden with sugar, and cut with enough real lime to give it a kick. Zari grins at the bartender. “You have a talent.”

“So I’m told,” the bartender says, leaning back with an unreadable look at Zari. It makes Zari feel things. Another unexpected reaction. Who is this woman?

But, once again, Zari doesn’t have time to ask. The bartender distracts her. “You look like someone stole the lime out of your drink,” she observes wryly. “Want to tell me about it?”

Zari snorts, bouncing her eyebrows at the woman. “Tell me all your troubles? Seems a bit stereotypical for you, barkeep. Since I’m guessing this is not exactly your main gig.”

The bartender’s shrug is adorable. “You got me.” She sits down across the bar from Zari. “My other job around here is seeing the currents of the past and the future. The way the patterns of the universe weave themselves slowly towards justice.”

That sounds like a good starting point for giving advice. Zari really has no reason to tell this stranger anything, but she finds herself sighing anyway, as she sips her drink. “I’m guessing that whole ‘weaving towards justice’ thing is kinda cosmic, and doesn’t work on a personal level.” The woman’s wry little head-tilt tells Zari she’s right. Fate is a tricky thing, Charlie always said. You can’t always control where your life is headed. Not that that’s ever stopped Zari from doing her best. “I’m afraid they won’t want me back.”

The bartender raises her eyes. “The Legends.” It’s not even a question.

Zari’s head snaps up. Today is just full of surprises. “You know them?”

A smile, almost nostalgic. “I know some of them very well. And… I’m not sure where you fit in the timeline, but I know that team. The more they change, the more they stay the same.” The bartender taps on the countertop. “Why wouldn’t they want you back?”

“They’ve got the other Zari back now,” she murmurs. Saying it aloud sounds self-pitying, like being the worst version of herself. She hates that. But it’s too late to stop talking. She’s jumped in with both feet, and Zari Tarazi always commits to the bit. “I know they miss her a lot. They talk about her all the time. Even Behrad - especially Behrad. He’s her number one fan. Like he never was of me…” Zari trails off, feeling like she’s gone too far. Bitterness helps no one. She knows Behrad loves her. It’s just that he remembers his other life, with the other Zari. They were close - the way he always wanted to be with his version of his sister. “Anyway. They must be happy to have her home. And they can only have one of us at a time, so…” She shrugs.

The bartender’s thoughtful eyes get sharper. “And you think that means they don’t need you anymore?”

Zari shrugs. “They’ve got the OG,” she mumbles. “Why would they want little new me?” She should know that’s nonsense. There’s no OG except her. Zari Tarazi, the one and only. But a few weeks in a totem, with no one to talk to, no CatChat, and no business to run - well, it could make the most confident girl lose her nerve.

The bartender goes a little fuzzy, like she’s watching something off in the distance. When she focuses on Zari again, her beautiful eyes have that joy in them again, with a bit of a wicked edge. “Because you give them something no one else can. Your drive. Your spirit. Your unique, powerful kind of wisdom.” She grins at Zari. “And your serious business acumen. Don’t tell me you think your brother’s filling in for you there.”

Zari snorts. “I’d like to hope he’d rise to the occasion, but - nope, he will not be.” She hums at the beautiful bartender. She must turn some girls’ heads around here. That’s quite some cosmic wisdom she’s got going on. “You really think they need me?”

She gets a smile back. “I do. But what I think doesn’t really matter, does it?” She raises a challenging eyebrow at Zari.

Zari thinks back over so many missions where the team needed her unique skills… and many more times when her friends looked at her like she mattered. For herself, not for anyone else she might resemble. “Oh, they’ve gotta be so very lost without me,” she says, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

“You are not wrong,” says a voice behind her. Zari Tomaz slides onto the stool beside her. “Hey, Amaya. Can you get me something caffeinated? Triple espresso. Ooh, and something sweet. Got any donuts back there?” She tilts her head at the other Zari. “I forgot how exhausting the Legends are. I’m kinda pleased to get some time to myself, back in here.”

Amaya - of course that’s who it is, and Zari can’t believe she didn’t figure it out - passes a coffee over to Zari 1.0. “Hi, beautiful. Missed you.” She nods at Zari. “But I’ve been getting to know your lovely counterpart here, while we were waiting for you.”

Zari 1.0 makes a thoughtful face at her other self. “I hope being in here hasn’t bummed you out too much. Ready to go back and face the chaos?” She pats Zari on the back. “And I hate to break it you, but it really is peak chaos back in the time stream right now.”

“Oh, please.” Zari downs the last of her mocktail. “When is it not peak chaos on the Waverider?” She holds up a hand when Zari 1.0 starts to speak. “Don’t fill me in. I wanna walk right onto that bridge full of ridiculous disasters and experience what I’ve missed first-hand.”

Laughing, Zari 1.0 shrugs. “Enjoy yourself, hon. Or maybe that should be ‘on your own head be it.’ One of those.” She reaches out a hand for Amaya’s across the bar, and they share the cutest smile Zari has seen a couple give each other in a while. Oh, these two are adorable. As Zari takes them both in - gorgeous, wise Amaya, and the way Zari 1.0 looks at her - Zari is almost not jealous.

Time to make an exit. Zari pushes back her chair with a squeak. “Bye, OG.” She gives the beautiful bartender a little wave. “Bye, Amaya.” And she walks away with just a little bit of flair, all too aware that the other two are watching her leave. Just perfect.

At the door, Zari turns around. “Have a simply lovely time catching up, Zamaya.” She nods at Zari 1.0, who’s now looking at her girlfriend like Amaya flew to the moon and brought it back for her. “I think this one’s missed you, Amaya. I hope you get to spoil her a little.”

Zari 1.0 chuckles, turning to give Zari a smile. “Take care, hon. And there’s some people out there who’ve missed you too, you know. Go let them celebrate you. You deserve it.” Maybe it’s her imagination, but Zari thinks her counterpart’s guarded eyes get a little softer. “And Zari… thank you.”

“You’re very welcome.” Zari lifts her fingers, ready to click them and disappear in a haze of totem magic. Always leave them wanting more. “Be seeing you, OG Z, next time you want to switch places. Oh, and…” Zari winks at Amaya. “Next time I visit, I want internet - fast enough to run a business with. And better coffee. And an easier way to watch the Waverider crew, that doesn’t involve being stuck in that awful room with the wall hangings. And some people to play all these games with! And—”

Rolling her eyes, the other Zari clicks her fingers.

“Rude,” Zari snarks to herself, in the middle of the empty Waverider hallway. She turns on her heel, heading for the kitchen. She can hear the sounds of a firefight on the bridge, and she needs a decent cup of coffee before she goes to anyone’s aid. The Legends will understand.

#ficlet #zari tarazi #zari tomaz #amaya jiwe #zamaya #zarlie #(hinted)#my fic #legends of tomorrow fanfic #prompt fills #none of us can queue this alone

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henryobsessed · 4 years

Text

The Borrower and Her Bean - Part 4

Summary: Henry wakes up, having experienced crazy hallucinations tries to make sense of it all.

Word Count: 1400

Warning: angst, frustration

Part 3 - Part 5

Part 4

Henry POV

Henry could hear a soft whining; his head was foggy, and it was a struggle to open his eyes. Peeling back his lids he tried to focus, how long had he been out? It had been along time since he had suffered from a fever like he had experienced over the last 24 hours. A niggling fear settled into his mind, was it covid? So much had changed in the world because of that one word. They were asked not to leave their homes unless it was for emergencies, Medical, Food or exercise. Restaurants and bars and clubs had closed, and you were not allowed visitors. For the normally busy, social, Henry it afforded him time. Time to think, reflect, enjoying the time-consuming things that he loved.

Focus, the one thing he was trying to do now. What was he focused on? To his surprise he was looking at a bottle of liquid paracetamol. He was sure he didn’t have any in the house, it was one of the reasons he went to bed yesterday hoping that he could sweat it out. How did this get here? He closed his eyes trying to remember. The only thing that came to mind was the unbelievable hallucinations he had experienced during the night. Little people, climbing over him, feeding him crushed ice and Liquid Paracetamol. He picked up the bottle and scrutinized it, was there truth to the visions he had.

He pulled back the covers as wet face clothes fell off his body. Startled he picked them up putting them on the side table then ran a hand over his face, trying to wake up. His fantasy books stacked next to his bed held many stories of elves, goblins and sprites. Shaking his head, he laughed and reached out to scratch Kal’s head “I think your master has lost the plot buddy.” He stood up waiting for a moment till the room stopped spinning. Once he was stable Henry started down the steps, Kal hot on his heals “I’m sorry buddy you must be starving, thank God I put that doggy door in for you otherwise I would have had a mess to clean up.”

Later that day henry was still puzzling over the bottle of paracetamol and the face cloths. He didn’t like the feeling that someone had been in his room and had touch his body without him being aware. It added to a constant nagging he had felt since being trapped in the house that things were going missing. There had always been a sense of something strange since moving in the muse. Still he was a busy person and he had always put it down to how often he moved about. Maybe he had left it in a hotel or at a rental. But he had been trapped here for a few months now and it was more obvious. Wanting to relax and think about something else he decided to paint.

This was one of his ‘Nerdy’ hobbies. He chuckled remembering the reactions he had gotten when he posted a picture of him painting a Warhammer figurine. Since his role in the Witcher it seemed that being a ‘Nerd’ was becoming cool. Smiling again he sat down ready to pick up a brush and then halted. Frowning now he noticed that his paints had been moved and were open, and one of his Warhammer figurines had been painted. Surly he had not done this and forgotten. How sick had he been? He went to pick up the figurine when he heard a tiny voice scream “Stop!!!”

Shocked by the sudden sound his hand stilled, eyes darting about trying to see what had made the sound. Finally his sight fell on small face peering out from behind one of his tyranid warriors. From what he could see she would have only been 4 inches in size with dark brown hair piled up in a messy bun. She was wearing a tan dress with a smock that was covered in paint. Her face was oval in shape with a cute button nose that accentuated her eyes. He wished he could get closer, from this distance her eyes looked black, but he was sure if he could be nearer, they would be a rich brown.

Henry stared at the tiny girl as she called up to him “Stop, it’s still wet you will ruin it” Her tiny chest heaved with what he could only perceive as fear and frustration. Shaking his head trying to take in the enormity of what he was seeing He stood causing her to take fright and run behind the bookcase. “Wait” he called now desperate to talk to the little sprite, he started moving items looking for where she had gone. Seeing a small hole in the wall he breathed out a frustrated sigh, Idiot, he berated himself for scaring the little one away. In one respect he was glad he had seen her it made everything fall into place, and he let out a sigh of relief. He wasn’t crazy, or was he? She looked just like the figure he had seen last night, and her voice was amazingly familiar.

Henry walked back to the table and studied the figurine of the Sororita the only female miniature he had added to his collection so far. The young girl had actually done a really good Job, running his hands through his hair he wondered if now that he had scared her, if he would see her again.

For the next few days Henry searched, he found the small hole by his bed side table and another one in his computer space. Scratching his beard he decided that he would relax hoping she would come to sense that he wasn’t a threat to her and reveal herself again.

Melina POV

Melina was terrified she had not meant to be seen that day. The house had seemed quiet enough and she had been so impatient to finish her figurine. She had been so absorbed in her work that she had not heard her bean till he was walking into the room. Quickly she had ducked behind one of the nasty looking monsters hoping to hide. Her heart was pounding as he had walked to the table his face had been shocked to see her creation. Terror and frustration had welled up as she saw him reaching for it. It had taken so long to finish, and it was still wet that in her desperation to prevent its destruction she yelled “Stop”

Her bean had scanned the room till his eyes landed on her, again she cried out “Stop, the paints still wet” in his shock the tall man had stood to his full height. Melina had never been this close when he was standing, and it was dizzying, and she had to lean so far back to see his face. From this angle his body was even broader and towered over her causing her to need to run. Fear pushed her to dash behind to bookcase to the wall cavity. As she entered the safety of the wall, she felt the floor shake as the bookcase was moved and her bean searched. She could see his soft blue eye peer into the hole trying to see her, but she was safely hidden in the dark.

For days she heard him moving furniture and stomping around the muse and then he just stopped. It was during this time that she hid, trying to control her impulses to check on him. What she realized was that it was one thing to fantasize about him and watch him as he slept. The reality was he was ginormous and when she really was that close to him standing she was terrified. That night as she was getting ready for bed she moved over to the vent looking out through the grass to the moon above. I wasn’t as good a view as the window sill but she was avoiding all risk of being scene. As was her ritual she wished on the moon and stars “Please mother moon, look over my bean and if its possible please make me a bean” she crawled into her bed and fell asleep.

The next morning she breathed in the scent of fresh air, she could hear the birds chirping and the sound of someone in the garden. Opening her eyes she got out of bed and moved to the vent to peer out and observe. Her breath caught and fear made her unable to move as her gaze fell on the large face of her bean peering in as he said “Good Morning”

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#theborrowerandherbean #the borrowers #borrowers #little #henry cavill

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microcos-pod · 3 years

Text

Micro-Cosmos S1E3: A Little Piece of Home Transcript

(The crew celebrates a special day. Transcript begins below break.)

[THEME MUSIC FADES IN] ANNOUNCER Futuristic Trail Mix Productions presents Micro-Cosmos: A Science Fiction Podcast. [THEME MUSIC FADES OUT] [sfx: button press] ATHENA Hey, HQ. It's Officer Athena Romero, with Crew #0137-F. I'm transmitting from... North 54 degrees, West 109 degrees, in a moment of alone time. Camp's not too far, I just... wanted to come out here to record. We were up so, so early, but we made really good time getting our travel in for the day. And... I don't know. I felt like being introspective. I know that's rarely a good thing to be, for people of our situation... but sometimes it can't be helped, I guess. We're nearing what Doctor Couvillion calls the temperate forest region of the planet. Oh, uh, Felix is... fine, by the way, in case you were wondering. I know I haven't talked about him a lot for the last week since his little run in with Mercutio, and in hindsight, that was probably a little alarming from your perspective. But, no. He's, um... just been very focused on his work. Ever since our encounter with that little... strange... cat lizard dinosaur thing, he's taken to a pretty enthusiastic approach of figuring out what it actually is. You know, what is eats, how it behaves, it's characteristics. Thus, he's not been his usual social self, but he's had what I guess you'd call a breakthrough. He's named it. The species, I mean. Varanus concolor. Apparently he's determined that it's a new species of monitor lizard. Exciting stuff. Miles and Cal have been sorta... tense, the last little bit? I don't know if Miles is still mad at them about that terrible, terrible prank or just for being, you know, Cal. I like Cal. And Miles. Honestly, I do. I think they're almost a little too similar to get along sometimes. I get that. I've been in the same spot for most of my life. I only recently figured out how to sort of... stop taking my own reflection personally. [sfx: fingers drumming on comms, pacing footsteps] ATHENA (CONT’D) Alex is good! If you're wondering. You know, morale and all. We've been talking a lot, since we're sort of the only ones not in our own world. Well, I guess we're all in our own world, that's sort of our job, but...

[Athena laughs.] ATHENA (CONT’D) Literal humour, Athena. Good one. Anyways, she's nice to talk to. Leadership skills to boot, in case you didn't already know and needed someone to sing her praises. I think I'd be more than willing to sing her praises. So... the mission's going very well. Everyone is healthy and accounted for, and we're absolutely on track to get to our shipment drop-off point. Comms and tech and climate are all nominal. We're okay. We're okay.

[sfx: bag shuffling as she picks it up, footsteps] ATHENA (CONT'D) Oh, by the way, before I head back. It's my birthday. I don't know if that's something I should mention. Just thought... I don't know. I don't expect the others to notice, or even know at all, really. But it's nice to acknowledge another year, you know? I'm certainly not spending it where I would've expected to be if you had asked me on my previous... thirty birthdays. Anyways. Yes, it is my birthday, and I kind of miss home, and also I kind of don't, and also being here is present enough. So, I will celebrate by breaking open some of the candy in my bag, and getting some sleep- FELIX, ALEX SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! [Athena laughs.] ATHENA Guys! What are you doing?

ALEX Oh, come on Romero. You didn't really think you were going to get it past us, did you?

ATHENA No, I wasn't meaning to-

ALEX Oh, don't bother backtracking. You're busted.

FELIX There's no real party, or, presents, or... anything that would make this a proper birthday because of our circumstance, of course, but...

ALEX But an ambush was the least we could do.

FELIX The Commander and I only found out when she was conversing with Cal, inquiring of the database today's points of interest, or else we would've...

ALEX Done more than an ambush.Alex observes Athena, who's just standing there, staring at the two of them and grinning. But, I don't know. Seems like the ambush worked out pretty well. Try to smile less, huh?

ATHENA Heh. I, I mean... this is really sweet of you guys, I appreciate it.

MILES Appreciate what?

[sfx: footsteps, tapping on a screen] [C41′s JINGLE PLAYS] ATHENA Oh, uh, hey Miles!

MILES Heeey Athena, guys. What's up?

FELIX Did we...?

ALEX Nope.

FELIX So we forgot to...?

ALEX Yep.

FELIX Dammit.

ALEX Well, when you assume...

C41 Oh, um! Happy Birthday, Athena!

ATHENA Oh, uh, thank you Cal. Anyways, I was thinking we could get to bed early-

MILES Crap, it's your birthday?

ATHENA ... Yeah.

MILES I am so so sorry, I had no idea, I must have like, missed the memo, but-

ATHENA No, no, Miles, it's okay, I promise. I didn't say anything, and so how would you know? Spending it away from home, I wasn't really sure what to do, it's kind of hard, but...I just got busted by the Commander, so... [The crew laughs nervously.] MILES Happy Birthday.

ATHENA Thanks.

MILES You're welcome. Yeah, uh, actually, Cal and I forgot something back at our setup.

C41 We did?

MILES We did. The thing. We need. We need that thing, Cal, uh... we will be back... later. [sfx: footsteps walking away]

[C41′s JINGLE PLAYS.] FELIX Well, who wants to get this party started and play some cards?

***

MILES Caal! Why didn't you tell me it was Athena's birthday?

C41 I didn't think it was that big of a deal. It's just another day of the year, which... happens to be the day that Athena was born. You can congratulate her on still being alive, like you did, and then move on! Didn't seem that important to me.

MILES Yes, it's a big deal! It's like you said, it's the day someone was born, not just another day. Come on, Cal! Remember when Em and I made a huuuge deal about it on the anniversary that I created you?

C41 By chance, do you mean Doctor Macey? If so, then unfortunately, yes I do remember. It was very loud. If not, I haven't the slightest clue who 'Em' is.

MILES Yes. Her. Doctor Macey.

C41 Okay whatever. Anyways. Do continue on with what you were saying. It's proving to be really entertaining.

MILES Oh, I'll show you entertaining.

How did you not know that birthdays were important? Seriously, there's even a song about them. I taught you better than that.

[Miles sighs.]

MILES Cally, I didn't mean it like-

C41 It's Cal. And no, you're right. Why would something the O Great and Powerful and All-Knowing Miles Abbott made be so inconsiderate and dumb?

MILES Seriously, Cal. I didn't mean it. You know how I get.

C41 Yeah?

Oh, just drop it.

[C41 lets out a long series of scoffs and huffs in the following silence.]

C41 (CONT'D) ... Miles?

Miiiiiiles...?

MILES Caaaal....

Caaaaaaaal.....

C41 Miles- MILES Cal, I need to make Athena a birthday present!

I don't even know what she'd like, let alone what I could make her! There's like, nothing even worthy of being a gift on this planet.

[sfx: Miles snapping.]

MILES (CONT'D) What do I have? What do I even have? What does our camp have? I need to find something. Anything. I'll make it work. Cal, help me look. Please.

[C41 snorts.]

C41 Oh.

Oh, you mean actually help.

[sfx: a buzzing noise of C41′s form]

C41 (CONT'D) Um... well there are some big batteries that Alex didn't need over there, she left them this morning with her equipment. There is a... There is a... it looks like... is that a plastic fork? I really hope that isn't used. You all are a mess. And, um... what's that box, over there? What's that?

[sfx: footsteps, objects being knocked over]

MILES It's, uhhh... Chocolate. And... more chocolate. A gift from Emily, I... forgot I had these.

C41 Huh. A... whole box, huh? Of chocolate? What could you even make with those?

MILES I don't know, okay? I don't even know like, maybe I'm overreacting. Athena didn't tell us because she's not at home, or whatever-

Wait. Cal, what, um, what does Athena's home have?

C41 What?

MILES Where she's from. What's it like?

C41 Patroclus C? Well, it's-

[sfx: a long glitch]

C41 (CONT'D)- Patroclus C. A moon in orbit around more well-known terrestrial body Mirana Dunis. Patroclus-C is known for it's industrial prosperity and plentiful resources, as well as it's freezing conditions.

Notable landmarks include it's few geysers. All imported plant and animal life have adapted to the cold climate, however they take refuge in the steamy geysers that provide both water and heat- MILES Okay, Cal. That's enough, thanks.

[sfx: the same glitch, a zap]

C41 Oh, ouch. Eugh. Why did you let that happen? You know I hate that mode!

MILES I'm sorry! I'm stressing a bit here, if you haven't noticed.

C41 Yes, I'm well aware.

MILES Anyways. I... I think I have a plan.

C41 That's never good.

MILES Let's just hope this turns out. Mmm.... a decent start. ***

FELIX Have any... fives?

ALEX Go fish. [sfx: drawing a playing card].

ALEX (CONT'D) Got any queens?

FELIX Yes, yes. Queen of stars.

ALEX Thank you! Got any threes?

FELIX Go fish.

[sfx: drawing a card]

ALEX So close.

[sfx: approaching footsteps]

FELIX (with his mouth full) Better luck next time. Do you have any-

ALEX Want us to deal you in, Romero?

FELIX Athena? Hm. Cannot believe you were still doing work on your birthday.

ATHENA What's the name of the game?

ALEX Go fish. Do you play?

ATHENA I like to think cribbage is more my forte but... sure. Deal me in.

[sfx: cards shuffling]

ATHENA (CONT'D) Who's winning?

ALEX Me. I've won three matches.

ATHENA And how many has Felix won?

ALEX We've played three matches.

[Alex and Athena laugh.]

FELIX I am beginning to suspect her a cheat.

ALEX Can't help having an eye for this stuff.

ATHENA For what, counting cards?

ALEX I wish. Patterns. Got any kings, Athena?

ATHENA Go fish. Is that technically cheating, then? Patterns?

[sfx: drawing a card]

FELIX I believe I can call it cheating if it makes me feel badly about myself.

ATHENA Fair enough. Felix? Any fours?

FELIX Go fish. See, that felt perfectly fair.

ALEX Doc, I said patterns, not x-ray vision. You keep accusing me of cheating, I'm gonna start to take it personally.

FELIX I harbor suspicion, not accusation. Commander, do you have any aces?

[Alex sighs.]

[sfx: passing cards]

ALEX Dishes and comets. Happy?

FELIX Yes. Athena, do you have any sixes?

ATHENA Yeaaah. Here you go.

[sfx: passing cards, movement of pairs]

ALEX Feeling better about yourself?

FELIX Yes. Very.

ATHENA Jeez, you're already on track to win.

ALEX Felix, should I start repaying you all that whining?

FELIX I-

MILES (distant) DOES ANYONE HAVE JUMPER CABLES?

[sfx: stumbling, approaching footsteps]

FELIX Speaking of.

ALEX Uh... no, I don't think so. Maybe you should ask Cal?

MILES (distant) No. That's okay. I'll use the transport hawser. That should work... just as well if not better. I'll... I'm gonna go get that. Bye.

[sfx: retreating footsteps]

ATHENA That's... that's for... emergencies, what do they need that for-

ALEX My guess? Nothing good.

FELIX Commander, do you have any twos?

ALEX No, but I do have a Petty Officer who needs their marbles back.

[sfx: standing, retreating footsteps]

ATHENA Alex?

ALEX (O.S.) I'll be right back!

FELIX It's her turn, actually. Which one of us should go next?

ATHENA It's my birthday. Got any sevens?

***

[sfx: shuffling]

MILES I got something! Not cables, but... almost even better.

[C41′s JINGLE PLAYS]

C41 You're... actually doing this?

Oh... Okay. Even if it may be sliiiightly dangerous? Not that I care or anything-

MILES Look, I just can't sit back and do nothing for Athena's birthday.

C41 Yeah, but I think it would be better to guarantee everyone's safety than... You know, possibly blowing us up and setting everything on fire.

[sfx: metal chain drops]

[Miles sighs.]

MILES I guess that's true. I just don't want to disappoint her.

ALEX You're not disappointing her, kid.

MILES Huh?

Oh. Hi, Commander.

ALEX Wipe that sad look off your face. Even if you didn't know, she's happy that you're at least thinking about her right now.

[sfx: footsteps, shuffling, sitting]

MILES I... guess that's true. But I want to make her something. That's what I specialize in.

ALEX Fair enough. I guess I just didn't know you guys were this good of friends.

MILES I don't know that we are. It just seems like the kind of thing I should've tried for, I guess. We've got so much time to spend together and I don't want you guys thinking I'm cold and ignoring you all just because I get wrapped up in crap and get away from myself and especially lately with everything going on with Cal-

ALEX Hey. We don't think that. And I'm not just saying that, either. What were you planning on doing?

MILES I- ... Well, if I tell you, it would ruin the surprise.

ALEX Okay, okay. Do your thing, fix-it guy.

[sfx: getting up, a few footsteps]

MILES Hey, Commander? What if she doesn't like it?

[sfx: footsteps stop]

ALEX Remember what we talked about, kid. Make it from your heart, and she'll love it.

MILES O-okay, Commander... Thank you.

ALEX No problem, Miles. Always here to help. Let me know if you need anything else, yeah?

MILES Mhm! Now, I... I gotta get this show on the road.

ALEX Cal, keep an eye on them for me.

C41 Will do, Commander.

ALEX Good luuuck!

[sfx: retreating footsteps, tent closes]

C41 Well, that surely was-

MILES Alright Cally! We have some major business to attend to!

C41 -motivational.

MILES Okay, so I'm thinking... What if we melt the plastic fork? Like, all the way, and then, and, and then shape it around to make a base for the volcano geyser thing?

C41 That sounds incredibly dangerous. And like it would be highly amusing to watch.

[sfx: a whirring]

C41 (CONT'D) And according to my calculations I am correct on both counts. Do it.

MILES And... then we can put the chocolate in- Hold on, do we have anything to keep the chocolate melted?

C41 Hm. Probably not.

MILES Dammit, okay. That's fine, that's cool, uh... We can hook it up to the batteries someway to keep the heat constant and the launch device powered, that's fine, I can do that...

This is going to be a piece of cake. Let's go, Cally!

C41 How many times to I have to tell you? It's Cal.

MILES Mhmm, yeah. Let's just kick this baby in the teeth.

C41 Wh... what?

MILES It's an expression. Like, "let's blow this popsicle stand"? Or... "let's get this show on the road"?

C41 I don't understand how that could be related to either of those meanings.

MILES Whatever. I am gonna get this thing started, and it's going to be great.

[sfx: prolonged noises of tinkering and contstruction, a zap of electricity]

[Miles yelps.]

[C41 laughs.]

MILES Not funny!

[sfx: more sounds of construction and tinkering]

MILES Aaaaand there! Done. Finished. Phew.

C41 That looks...That... looks...I mean, um...That looks so good!

MILES You think?

C41 Yeah, I think she's-

ALEX (O.S.) How's it looking in here?

MILES Yeah, I think everything went great!

ALEX Perfect!

[sfx: Alex claps]

ALEX (CONT’D) Well, grab it and let's go; we have a birthday to celebrate. Take Cal and we'll meet her and Felix at that clearing. We're doing a little more celebration for Athena.

MILES Okay, Cal. You heard the boss; let's get going then.

C41 Yuuup.

MILES You know, I’m pretty proud of this.

C41 As you should be, Miles.

***

[sfx: approaching footsteps]

MILES HEY! Hey, guys I'm back!

FELIX Hello- oh. Oh wow. What...

ATHENA Miles... what's all this?

MILES It's, uh, it's your gift!

ATHENA Oh, Miles, really you didn't need to do that, that's super sweet, but-

MILES Oh, it's... it's just a little... something... electrocuted myself a few times making it, but- Happy Birthday!

ATHENA Oh. Oh, wow, that's really something, Miles, I love it!

What is it?

MILES It's a geyser. Like... you said. Well, actually you didn't say, but I did some digging and your... your home plant has... geysers, yeah? So it's like a little piece of home.

A geyser.

ALEX A geyser.

ATHENA Oh! Yes! A geyser. Of course! That's really thoughtful, Miles, you, uh... you shouldn't have! So it's like a... trinket! Or a little... a sculpture!

ALEX Oh... just you wait.

MILES Well, it's for more than just show.

Heh. Bet you've never seen anything like this before.

FELIX I'm quite sure I have not.

[sfx: setting down the present, the geyser bubbles and erupts pathetically, with a crackle]

[Miles breathing heavily.]

MILES Ta-dah!

ATHENA Ohhhh, wow, that's... that's so cool. Was it... was it supposed to melt like that?

MILES It was not the intention but apparently... that doesn't matter now-

[C41′s JINGLE PLAYS]

C41 Evidently.

[sfx: more crackling]

ALEX Oh, okay, is this thing going to blow, Miles? Like actually, really blow?

MILES Shouldn't. It's a possibility... but it shouldn't.

ALEX Cal?

C41 Probably not? It'll be fine! Maybe Miles should get a little closer to shield the blast just in case.

MILES DON'T YOU RUIN THIS BY TRYING TO GET ME KILLED!

C41 Who, me? Never.

[sfx: the crackling and bubbling stops]

ALEX Alright, okay, okay. That was very cool. Right Athena?

ATHENA Right!

ATHENA (CONT'D) Look Miles, I really appreciate this, it's very, very sweet and I just hope you didn't feel like you had to do this, or anything-

MILES No, no, no. I wanted to. I mean... you were around to... keep me calm when I thought we were gonna get eaten in the woods. I didn't want you to think I didn't care, and... I wanted to make something nice for you. Normally I have more stuff to work with than forks and batteries and... chocolate.

FELIX Real chocolate?

ALEX Yes, real chocolate. Not now.

FELIX Ugh, and it's all on the grass, and... what a waste.

ALEX There will be more chocolate. Actually. Felix?

[sfx: receding footsteps]

[Alex and Felix whisper as they retreat.]

ATHENA Um, okay, but... Anyways. Thank you, Miles. That was a lot of fun. And I hope you didn't actually electrocute yourself.

MILES Oh, don't worry, it's not the first time.

C41 They're not joking.

MILES More of a shock than anything.

ATHENA Doesn't sound great for your health either way.

MILES Well, heh, yeah, I mean- Hey, wait a second. Wait what's-

ATHENA Huh?

[sfx: candles burning, approaching steps]

[Alex, Felix, Miles and C41 begin singing “Happy Birthday”]

ATHENA (overlapping) Oh, my... guys, what are you... that better not be our only fruit cake-

ALEX Come on, blow out the... flare candles. Make a wish.

ATHENA Okay, okay!

[sfx: blowing on candles, a glitch]

[sfx: candles burning]

[Alex laughs.]

[Athena hums in confusion]

[sfx: blowing on candles, a glitch]

[sfx: candles burning]

ALEX Come on, Romero. All in one go, now.

ATHENA Right. [sfx: blowing on candles, candles extinguishing]

[The crew cheers.] ALEX Happy Birthday. I'll clean up Miles's present later.

[Alex and Athena laugh.]

FELIX Time for cake!

[Felix leads Alex, Miles, and C41 in singing “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow”]

FELIX Cake! ***

[THEME MUSIC FADES IN]

ANNOUNCER Micro-Cosmos: A New Science Fiction Podcast. This episode, "A Little Piece of Home", was written by Zyrel Thompson and Lauren Tucker, edited by Luka Miller, and directed by Jesse Smith, Zyrel Thompson, and Lauren Tucker. It starred Jesse Smith as the voice of Athena Romero, Jackson Rossman as the voice of Miles Abbott, Luka Miller as the voice of Alex dela Cruz, Kaleb Piper as the voice of Felix Couvillion, and Pippa van Beek-Paterson as the voice of Cal. Original music by Julia Barnes, and sound editing by Tobias Friedman. Be sure to stay tuned to our feed for upcoming episodes from the new backpacking intergalactic adventure from Futuristic Trail Mix Productions. To follow the show and find transcripts, you can find us on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram as @MicroCosPod. Questions, comments, and concerns can be emailed to us via [email protected]. Find more information on the show on our website, microcospod.space. Thank you for listening.

[THEME MUSIC FADES OUT]

#micro-cosmos #Microcosmos #micrcosmos #microcos pod #new podcast #science fiction #sciencefictionpodcast #audio drama #microcospod #podcast reccomendation #fiction podcast

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junkyardlynx · 3 years

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ch. 1

“Don’t you remember? You were the one that came up with the idea years ago -- if things ever got too fucking weird, we’d bail into the forest for a week or two. Reset our heads, unplug from the Matrix or whatever. C’mon, man. Don’t tell me you’re gonna bail on US instead. It wouldn’t be the same without you.”

---

Pale sunlight filtered down through the misty branches, bathing the small clearing in an almost ethereal light. Morning dew glistened. Birds sung sweetly. The leaves and the eaves swayed and twisted to unheard music. This ritual carried on for thousands of years uninterrupted, a fresh and timeless dawn. The mountain air breathed sweet, as if inhaling it could remove all of one’s fears and anxieties, carried out on the carbon dioxide of hot, hot breath. The light of the morning disappeared further north as the canopy thickened considerably, devouring any remnant of the outside world. It was a perfect sort of darkness; welcoming and tender to the uninformed. In that isolated little haven, the sun and moon were equal, both providing just enough light to get lost by. Common sense would say to avoid it, but the allure of the unknown is often too inviting.

Silas found himself at a crossroads, as it wasn’t only the allure of the unknown that beckoned him north -- it was the actual, real, written invitation he’d received in the mail some four days ago after a particularly long phone call. The postcard contained only two lines: a set of coordinates and the words “bring party favors. C.” Party favors. Right. Coy fucker. Just write alcohol, he thought.

This was the right choice. His boss would figure things out somehow. Prick could barely differentiate his left foot from his right, but that was someone else’s problem. For a bit, anyway. Silas was always the quiet problem solver, the one who fixed all the gunked-up shit in the background so the company could trundle onwards with undeserved confidence like there was never an issue at all. Thankless work, but it paid well and let him use his brain while staying out of social situations.

Using that industrious little noggin of his, he managed to discern where to go once he reached the coordinates by making sense of the clues left by Charles. Thankfully, Big C had the good sense not to carve anything into trees like the destructive little knob he usually was. Instead, Charles left little crumpled up notes inside of brown paper bags. Things like childhood anecdotes, vague reminders of promises, shopping lists, all capped off with the next direction Silas should head in. While outwardly professing his frustration, Silas did have to admit the little game they were engaged in was fun. Part of him wondered if Charles did this for the other five people coming out to the Hundred-Mile Wilderness. Probably.

Maybe it was all part of that unwinding, that unplugging, that escape they all craved in this crazy, pandemic-riddled year. The kind of escape that only truly fortunate people could afford anymore - the ability to leave your life behind for a bit without major financial or social repercussion. Acutely aware of his luck and feeling a bit of shame for needing an escape from such a cushy life, Silas picked up the pace, heading north, into the deeper darkness as if to assuage his guilt.

The thing they don’t tell you about forests is just how fucking dense they are, Silas complained internally, wiping the sweat from his brow a his monstrous backpack’s straps dug into his shoulders. Though he was familiar with the forests and woods of Maine, the Hundred-Mile Wilderness was an altogether different beast. Perhaps some sort of Questing one. The waist-high brush and bushes popped up without sense or logic, gnarled roots erupting through the understory of the forest as if to trip up any unsuspecting hiker on purpose. Seeing any appreciable distance ahead was out of the question, so a careful trek through the trees usually meant one would keep their head pointed firmly at the forest floor.

That made the unfamiliar noises of the wilderness all the more alien.

Squeaks, cracks, crunching, twittering, skittering, and most concerning - stillness. While everything might unnerve the invasive species known as human beings by virtue of sheer unfamiliarity, it also indicated a relatively peaceful time. True stillness was something to be rightfully feared.

That quiet, that stillness was the forest holding its breath. Like a hero in a horror movie, stifling their noisy lungs so the craven killer, the creature wouldn’t catch them. The wilderness operated on the same logic, really. Something big and dangerous was skulking around, and it was best to make yourself scarce before you became a hungry bear’s lunch.

It was nothing Silas hadn’t experienced before when hiking with his father, or camping with Charles and Samir. They’d usually just pack up any particularly smelly rations and give that patch of the wild a large berth, but the thing is? Those true moments of stillness were particularly rare. Maybe one in ten trips.

A stillness had been following him for the last two days, coming on strong and sudden for a few minutes at a time. Birds would shiver out of a song, insects would find an excuse to stop biting for five seconds, treetop rodents froze in terror, and even the waving of the high, high branches seemed to stop. In those moments, it felt like something of singular intelligence and intent was drilling its eyes into him.

For lack of a better word, Silas felt hunted.

He did his best to shake that feeling, knowing it invited nothing but paranoia. Nothing bad had happened, anyway. Best not to let it ruin his oddly good mood.

However, as he stumbled and and navigated around a large, flowering bush of honeysuckle, all sound in the forest was simply...swallowed up. Even the telling clod of his own hiking boots striking the earth produced a startling amount of nothing. Confusion turned to fear, turned to agitation, turned to...laughter. That kind of manic, annoyed laughter that twined itself to the urge to cry.

“Charlie! Charles! Big C! I fuuuuuuuuucking get it! You can stop bro! It’s supremely hilarious that you’ve been pranking me, but just come out here and give me a hug or something.”

A beat.

The empty forest produced nothing. No answer, no friend, no friendship. No sound. An ever-dying amount of daylight.

A beat turned to two, turned to ten. Nothing. Nothing but an immense feeling of being observed, scrutinized, investigated, seen down to his very core as if there was nothing he could hide no sin no saintliness nothing secret from the watchful eyes of the world as it bore down on him with distinctly inhuman intelligence and intention deeper and deeper into-

Then, as if someone had turned the forest back on, birdsong filled the trees once more. Particularly fat and greedy mosquitoes honed in on Silas’ hot skin and with comedic precision, a squirrel tumbled harmlessly from one branch and down to another. Giving itself a momentary grooming to remove the debris it had acquired on its trip, it scampered off like it had a hot date it couldn’t be late for.

“Hooooooooh boy. Maybe I’m going crazy not being able to say dumb shit on Twitter or something,” Silas breathed in relief. Shaking his head, he continued forward for twenty, maybe thirty minutes cresting over the small hill he had been steadily surmounting. As he did, an all-too-familiar navy blue tent came into view. Then a garishly purple one, a muted sort of beige, and an awful neon affair. If one had to take a local’s view on it, it’d be something along the lines of “goddamn city-slickers who mock camo even when used in an appropriate setting.”

Maybe. But they were his city-slickers.

Abandoning common sense, Silas broke into a light jog. Slinging his massive backpack off his shoulder and holding it forward to act as a sort of counterbalance, Silas hurtled towards the camp. His speed proved too much to handle, though and eventually he outran himself, tripping over his own legs to end his descent in a most majestic tumble-and-dive maneuver. Laying on his back, Silas’ mud-streaked mop of blonde hair partially covered his face, and it was all he could do to suppress a giggle as everyone in the camp ran to see just what the hell had happened. Six faces crowded around him, and they all seemed deeply concerned before Silas’ laughter proved infectious, and all seven began to laugh together. Just like old times.

“Haha, ah, hey guys.”

“Hey, Sly-ass. Catching some Z’s already?”

“S-somethin’ like that, Captain Crunch.”

Charles smiled down at him, a cast-iron pan in his left hand and a serving fork in the right. Without missing a beat, Charles speared a freshly-roasted sausage link and held it above Silas’ mouth. Leaning up just enough to snatch a bite, Silas rest his head on the damp forest floor, seemingly at peace as he chewed the fatty meat.

Yeah, this is what he needed. This kind of trip was the one that changed your life.

#writing #my writing #novels #self-publishing #excerpt from my book #i dunno what to tag this #i just wanted to post the first chapter to show i'm getting...somewhere #and i'm not a waste of space

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oliviatcte · 4 years

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TASK THREE | BIRTHDAYS & ZODIACS

NOVEMBER 24, 1990

“Restless, cheerful, and friendly, Sun in Sagittarius people are generally on the go. They have a love of freedom, and a disdain for routine. Generally quite easygoing, Sagittarians make friends with people from all walks of life. They love to laugh and tease, and get along well with both sexes. Sagittarians have an often blind faith in people, and in the world. Their optimism is infectious, although it can get them into trouble from time to time. These are curious people who love to learn. Their idealistic nature is hard to miss.”

THE SUN (SAGITTARIUS): Your style, your life purpose, your destiny...

What is your character’s drive like and what fuels them? Olivia is incredibly driven. She often grows restless when forced to wait around too long. She has a lot of curiosity about the world around her, and it doesn’t take much for her to throw herself into her work or any new activity. She is fuelled by the unknown — that little voice inside of her, just dying for answers to all of her queries.

What is most obvious about your character? Her cheerful and friendly disposition is often the first thing that people notice about Olivia. She has a vibrant and goofy personality that offsets the rather serious and analytical side that comes out when she’s on the job.

Who and what kind of people does your character surround themselves with? Olivia likes to surround herself with other friendly and easygoing individuals. Those who have their own aspirations and a natural zest for life. She loves spending time with her family and friends, but she’s always up for meeting new people.

THE ASCENDING (VIRGO): How the world sees you...

“Those with a Virgo Ascendant are likely to view the world through the lens of mental analysis, with a view toward organization. Typically humble and at times self-effacing, they are likely be more concerned with being useful than being recognized. Virgo Ascendants need to be productive – to be of service somehow – and their chosen career will typically give them the opportunity to best employ their skills. They are likely to be practical, capable and dexterous. They may be very good with facts, figures and details. They may also be quite hard on theirselves because of early childhood experiences, and need to learn to recognize and appreciate their talents.“

In a public setting, would your character be easy to adapt or hesitant wherever they are? In a public setting, Olivia is pretty quick to adapt. She is incredibly perceptive and can easily adjust her behaviour to fit the situation.

Is your character an extrovert or an introvert? Olivia is definitely an extrovert. She’s typically the first to approach people and start up a conversation. This is especially convenient for her career, as it often forces her into awkward situations. She loves being around other people and feeding off of their energy, though she does appreciate having some time to herself as well.

What qualities do you think people first see in your character? The detective spends a lot of time inside of her own head, analyzing her surroundings and tuning into the people around her. In professional settings, people are often quick to see her intelligence and curiosity. When it comes to social situations, though, Olivia’s warm personality is often the first thing to shine through.

THE MOON (AQUARIUS): Your habits, reactions, and instincts...

“Moon in Aquarius people are extremely observant. They are life-time students of human nature, loving to analyze why people do what they do. This often stems from a detached--even shy--personality, especially in youth. Whether due to character or conditioning, Moon in Aquarius people often grow up feeling "different". Although rather sociable, they are often loners at heart. Those with the Moon in Aquarius seem to have access to the mysteries of the universe through their inner lives. Their emotional detachment keeps them cool in crises but can make them as remote as a distant galaxy.“

What moment does your character relive, either consciously or unconsciously? Although she doesn’t want to admit it, Olivia is often haunted by her failed relationship. In the back of her mind, she questions whether there was something she should have done differently. She hates that she was so close to living the fairytale life she had always dreamed of, and now she doesn’t know if anyone will ever love her that way again.

How does your character (negatively or positively) adapt to life experiences? Although Olivia is quick to adapt in most situations, certain circumstances have been more difficult for her than others. After calling off the wedding, her first instinct was to flee New York City, worried that all of the places and people she had come to love would soon be tainted by the breakup. While most of the time, she faces things head on, Olivia’s likely to avoid these more emotional topics.

What facts would your character conceal? Olivia is pretty open about most things, apart from her career and failed relationship. Since relocating to Mystic, she has made sure to prevent the contamination of evidence by claiming to be a writer. Otherwise, the woman is pretty much an open book.

THE VENUS (CAPRICORN): Your attractions and your love life...

“Venus in Capricorn people will try to win your heart by displaying self-control, presence of mind, and responsible behaviour. These lovers want you to know they are goal-oriented, witty, savvy, and controlled. Nobody can get the best of them. They want you to see just how competent they are. They like some measure of predictability in their relationships as they are cautious in love. Venus in Capricorn men and women project an aura of competency and their loner-like behaviour can be attractive, in a cool way. They don’t go gaa-gaa over love, or at least they don’t express as much. Their lovers may complain that Venus in Capricorns are a little too practical and deliberate. Certainly, they can come across as lacking in warmth and spontaneity. Truth is, they can be rather romantic souls who yearn for a partner to share their lives with.“

What kind of hobbies does your character have and why do they enjoy them? Although Olivia isn’t a journalist like her father, she does enjoy writing. One day, if she’s ever successful enough in her field, she would love to come out with a book of her own. She is also a huge plant lady and loves tending to them on a daily basis. It gives her a sense of responsibility and allows her to start her morning on the right foot. As somebody who is incredibly organized, Olivia also loves using her planner and making practical, yet creative spreads.

What does your character find attractive, either in people or in their own possessions? She is definitely most attracted to goal-oriented people. She loves hearing about others’ passions and being able to see them thrive. Having a good sense of humour and being able to carry an intellectual conversation are also high on Olivia’s list.

How does your character (negatively or positively) demonstrate their affection? Olivia isn’t one for flashy displays of affection. Instead, she typically shows love for her partner in other ways. Whether it’s through gift giving, touch, or even opening up about the deepest parts of herself. You’ll know she’s crazy about you if she ever decides to write you a poem.

How does your character fall in love? Do they jump into relationships, or take slow, measured steps? Describe their behaviours and actions if you’d like. Olivia isn’t always the most self-aware. It takes her ages to even realize that the other person is interested. Due to past experiences, she is rather slow to fall in love. But once you’ve captured her heart, you’ll definitely know it.

THE MARS (TAURUS): Your strifes, temperament, and passions...

“’Slow and steady wins the race’ could easily be a motto for Mars in Taurus. These goal-oriented people are not known for their speed, but their staying power is tremendous. Generally calm and easygoing people, Mars in Taurus natives can have powerful tempers when they’re overly provoked. They generally don’t fly off the handle as quickly as others, however. Mars in Taurus people value strength and stability. They are driven by security and an especial fondness for personal possessions. Most are not afraid to work for what they want, and there is an overall patience to this position of Mars. If it takes a few years to achieve their goals, so be it.”

What does your character want with every fiber of their being? If Olivia could only have one goal in life, it would be to figure out what happened to her childhood best friend. The mystery haunts her every day of her life, and is such a big reason for the person she is today. Aside from finding these answers, her other goal is self-fulfillment. She wants to be happy and find somebody to spend the rest of her life with.

What will your character do to get what they want? How far will they go? Unfortunately, Olivia would go to great lengths for the answers she’s seeking. Even if it puts her in dangerous circumstances. She is always trying to be a little better and pushing herself a little further, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she went to the ends of the Earth to try and meet her goals.

What makes your character see red? What makes their blood boil? The one thing that really bothers Olivia is when people don’t take her seriously. She’s worked hard to be where she is today, and it hurts her to receive such unexciting cases or to be mocked by non-believers. All she wants in this world is to make a difference and she hates when people try to stand in her way.

On a symbolic level, what battles has your character lost and what wounds have they suffered? Although she doesn’t like to show it, Olivia has definitely suffered. As a child, she went through a lot after her friend/neighbour’s abduction. There was so much guilt knowing that she hadn’t done anything, and knowing that it could have been her or her brother. She has also experienced a lot of heartache after the ending her engagement. And to make matters worse, she finds it hard to be respected in her field.

#mystic: task

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aleximedicusa · 4 years

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𝟷𝟾𝟸𝙾𝚜 𝙲𝙷𝙴𝙰𝚃 𝚂𝙷𝙴𝙴𝚃. i figured it might actually help people to have a simple cheat sheet guide to vague 1820s daily life, so they don’t have to go searching themselves to make an au if they want to! this is info compiled by both viktor and myself for the purpose of our 1820s server. under the cut bc this shit is long.

SO WHAT IS GENERAL LIFE LIKE ( as explained by mr. viktor b. [redacted] ) - We are early in industrialisation. Coal is primarily a source of heat, not power yet but it's Comin'. First steam locomotives have been made, and the first railway for public passengers just opened in '25, transporting people a short stretch in Durham (but who lives in Durham anyway). The main use of these engines is in mining. - The other industries that have been mechanised are done from wind and water mills. Most notably does textile production utilize water power. This will all eventually also switch to steam, we are in a real changeover period right now, just on the cusp of industrialisation - Gas lamps are widespread and in use in more fancy homes and public places! Otherwise, one must rely on petroleum or good ol candles, this makes us all very dependent on the phases of the moon for nighttime endeavours, as these lights are not particularly effective - Transportation is by Horse or Boat. Boat is faster, and as result, most industry and "larger" urban centres all congregate around rivers. - Society is generally quite fragmented, with the majority of populations living in the countryside with doings related to farmland and so on. The pricklings of industrialisation will drive more people towards the cities, as they build bigger receptacles for jobs and the countryside is mechanised. But not entirely yet. - We have just (well since 1815) exited the Napoleonic wars, a long and gruelling affair that has left Britain in a bit of an economic depression. There is general class unrest and intensified punishment for crime, which is on the rise. - it is an incredibly hierarchal society with very few avenues of social mobility, though with increasing industrialisation and better access to universities, the bourgeois class is rising and the economic elite are no longer all related by blood. What horror! - That is not to say that nobility have no power. Aside from the French, who are currently in a mess coming out of the First Empire (press F to pay respects), the noble class still controls the vast majority of funds and property, with most common people working underneath such a family in some regard. - disease is rife and often comes from lack of nutrients, but we don't know how those work so like, die I guess. As a result, malformations is far more common than today, especially in the underclass - Everyone Drinks Alcohol All The Time Water Is Not Safe - Empires are a thing! Imperialism is well on its way to do more acts of terror and horror upon the world, but it's also making the colonisers well rich so it's fine innit (it's not) - Fashions are back to being a bit more cinched in than they were in the earlier regency (get it because we're all wearing corsets with a tight waist focus im very smart) and is generally restrictive both for men and women in the upper class. The lower classes can't afford big changes in clothes, but at least they are all wearing long trousers now and not breeches. - Breeches are still valid for evening wear, show off those calves boyes - oh cholera is happening lol - clothes generally have far more layers and are heavier than what we see today. They wear for far longer for this reason, but this is also because warming up a house is bloody well impossible, if you've ever been in a student housing unit you know what I mean when I say poor insulation. You needed those layers pretty much year round.

SO WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH MEDICAL STUFF ( as explained by ms. iris n. [redacted] )

— Academic study of anatomy is rapidly on the rise. We've shot up from around 300 students of anatomy in London in 1798 to nearly 1,000 in London in 1823. Approach to teaching anatomy is also changing, with a heavier emphasis on the necessity of students dissecting bodies themselves instead of merely observing dissection. — In 1788, we have the first recorded trial for disinterment of a corpse. In Rex v. Lynn, the judge ruled it to be a misdemeanour to disinter a body for dissection. However, this law really wasn't that strongly enforced when it first came into play, since, at that time, there were few enough exhumators / resurrectionists that the public really didn't notice the offence. As demand increased, however, the public became more aware of the crime, and the authorities started to crack down more on the guilty parties. There are also cases that have set up the precedence that even preventing a body from initial interment is a punishable offence, as some men have been charged with crimes like conspiring to prevent burial. Surgeons and anatomists can be indicted, too, not just the resurrectionists. — As both demand and risk increase, the resurrectionists become more and more degraded and desperate individuals. There's an enormous amount of competition between them, with criminals competing to muscle others out of their territories. — The price for a body is generally between £7 and £10, at this time. Burke and Hare sold their first body in 1827 for £7.10. This is an enormous price in the 1820s. — Students are starting to leave England in pursuit of better anatomy teaching, generally choosing France for its comparatively more lax laws regarding dissection. Professors, students, and doctors are starting to really put pressure on the government to reform the system. — The only bodies you can legally dissect at this point are the bodies of hanged murderers. A debate was introduced in parliament to suggest widening the scope of the law to permit dissecting the bodies of those hanged for burglary and robbery, but this was never put into law. — Most anatomists did not know (or at least claimed not to know) that it was illegal to have a body in their possession that did not belong to a hanged murderer. As such, many were not very careful about hiding the fact that they were purchasing disinterred bodies. — The decision of what to do to reform the system is heavily debated. Some doctors favour the French system, wherein any unclaimed body is permitted to be used for dissection; some more radical doctors, like the anonymous doctor who published a pamphlet under the pseudonym of Alexipharmacus in 1829, favour a system wherein the only bodies dissected are the bodies of those who have given express consent for their corpses to be anatomised after death. Guy was ahead of his time, really. — Although the Burke and Hare case doesn't break until November of 1828, people were already beginning to discuss the worrying possibility that this current system was going to end up producing murderers. — Public sentiment towards anatomists and surgeons wasn't... great, at this period, for obvious reasons.

#( * reference. )#( * history. )#hopefully this gives some sense of what's going on enough for aus!

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twdmusicboxmystery · 4 years

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Still Re-Watch and Review by @wdway

The wonderful @wdway recently did a rewatch of Still and shared it with me and @frangipanilove. I’ve gotten her permission to repost her very insightful observations. I hope you both enjoy it!

@wdway:

My review of s4e12 Still, written by Angela Kang, directed by Julius Ransay. I watched this episode with the commentary by Emily and Julius (E/J) and then the one with Norman and Angela (N/A), as I go through I'll talk about certain things including either one of these couples’ comments rather than go through the episode twice.

Even though I've seen this episode once or twice (that's me being funny) I did have a couple of ummmm moments that were interesting. The episode opens with a view of an abandoned car and the long road all lit by a full moon.

Am I the only one that has always wondered about the lone figure crossing the road? The way it moves makes it obvious that it's not a walker, maybe it's just a nod to the fact that there are people nearby that our characters are never aware of.

Now for the car I'm going to show you two shots, the first is the car as B/D comes upon it. The second when they are climbing out of the trunk.

In the first one we see that both the engine hood and the trunk are slightly ajar but basically closed

and in the second where we see B/D getting out from the trunk both the front and back of the car are completely opened.

I had never really noticed that before and this time I realized that it must mean something, because everything has a meaning and it seems very deliberate now that I'm aware of it, I just not sure what that meaning is. Any thoughts?

After B/D strips the car Daryl looks at Beth in a dead stare. I have always thought that was him looking at her like "a dead girl.” He turns without a word (because she's dead) and walks down the road. Beth pauses and then follows, foreshadowing Daryl thinking she's dead and leaving her and her later moving down the road basically by herself and Daryl unaware that she's following.

We next see Daryl hunting and his arrow breaks, and he then kills a snake with his knife (not really Norman). You'll especially like this part @Frangi. Norman and Angela's discussion here, Norman mentions that the snake that was killed actually had a rat in it that it had eaten. We see Beth setting up camp and E/J laughingly talk about how during the shooting this scene Beth was refer to as MacGyver Beth.

We are then shown Daryl skinning the snake (that sounded dirty) Beth watching from afar. I don't know how many times I've watched this episode before I realize that this was again a possible foreshadowing of Daryl (TF) being watched.

B/D eating the snake, both E/J & N /A talk about how it was eel with teriyaki sauce and how Norman almost got sick from eating so much of it. We see Beth take Daryl's knife, this is the second time we see her take his knife, the first was in Inmates. She goes off alone and we see her hide from a group of walkers and mislead them with noise from throwing a stone (hear no evil) turning around Beth sees Daryl who has been watching from afar, again foreshadowing anyone? Another little note I missed above was that AK at one point talked about how it was Gimple's idea coming into the writing room for season 4 about the groupings after the prison fell to put Daryl and Beth together and how surprised the other writers were. To me, just emphasizing that Gimple had Beth and Daryl paired from the very beginning and knew exactly where he was taking the storyline with them. He left clues, eggs, hints behind so that when we went back and re-watched they would stand out to us, just like this shot of Beth where she has a dirty little smudge exactly where she is shot in 5e8 Coda, you know the one where her being shot was a last-minute decision. (Me being funny again.)

@frangipanilove:

Wow, I never noticed the figure moving across the street in the beginning of still. I had to go and see for myself, and you’re right, there is something there. No way to tell what it is though. I really have no idea. The part about the hood of the car being open is something I’ve noticed, and I don’t have a great explanation of it. Also, the dead body by the car has changed position during the night. I don’t know what tptb mean to communicate by doing so, but I feel that it’s sort of then underlining that this sequence is symbolic, that it’s sort of detached from realism. Sort of them saying that Beth and Daryl’s journey together is something out of the ordinary.

Oh, and something I came to realize while I was doing the tree/three/trunk post; the name of the golf club is “Pine Vista”. Pine is a type of tree, and vista means view, or looking at something. It’s an eye/vision reference combined with a tree reference. I thought that was interesting. I didn’t include it in the post because it was already long enough, but it shows how tptb consistently uses this type of symbolism around her.

It’s something I’ve thought about because in 6x15(?) Eugene mentions golf clubs when discussing the route to hilltop. Then a few moments later he says “serious as a coronary thrombosis”. So, a Sirius mention near a golf club mention. In my opinion it qualifies as a nod to “still” in combination with a Sirius mention, which means return/coming back. Also, the choice of the words “coronary thrombosis” is interesting, because 1) it could be a nod to “slabtown”, where we saw a machine that treats deep vein thrombosis 2) corona is one of the most well known brads of beer in the world 3) someone suffering from thrombosis/blood clots would be treated with heparin, right?

@twdmusicboxmystery: I’d noticed the figure crossing the road before, but I guess I always assumed it was a walker. Obviously, I never paid much attention to the movements. Now, it’s being coupled with a half moon. The open car hood strikes me less as an open trunk reference and more as perhaps a battery reference. I’m not sure about the movement of things either. I’ve never studied it in depth. I know when the camera first pans over the bodies, there are some obvious forehead injuries, and isn’t one of them laying with their arm out, the way Beth’s fell in Coda? But that’s all pretty obvious foreshadowing. I’m just now thinking that, plot wise, it’s the walker horde that moved everything around as they passed through and around the car. So maybe that has to do with what they’re trying to symbolize. Like, TF left her behind and when they went back after the horde had gone, her body had moved. Meanwhile, car, trunk, and hood open. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I always love when you bring up Eugene’s line from that episode, @Frangi. And I agree: no way the coronary thrombosis thing isn’t connected to Slabtown. That’s just too specific. @frangipanilove: There was that Sirius mention when Beth and Daryl play the drinking game. I had somehow erased it from my memory, and had a real facepalm moment when that clip was released on social media the other day. It comes when Beth suggests that Daryl has been in jail. Then she says “I don’t mean anything serious”. It comes in combination with a mention of “jail” which actually qualifies as a cop/police reference (making it a “blue clue”), and that whole sequence became even more filled with symbolism. I already knew it was an important sequence, with the mention of pet ponies, frozen yoghurt, Santa clause etc. And with a Sirius mention in the middle of it, it just got more significant!

@wdway:

Episode Still continued. Moving on to the clubhouse E/J talked about the scene that was cut out and how Beth didn't drink because of Hershel and the mention of the red cups. B/D goes into the clubhouse dining room, there are 3 people hanging. The fact that there is three now seems significant especially since I believe that there are 3 bodies in the dog Trot room floor.

Of the two women hanging one is in a green flowered shirt (Alpha green dress) the other has on pearls, which is odd since she's wearing very casual clothes. We will see pearls again with the rich bitch, I think these may be an ocean/water symbol since pearls are found in oysters in the ocean. I also want to note in the shot of the dogtrot room to the right a green bean can and towards the center on the top shelf is a tomato can.

Did I ever tell you that it was the clubhouse scene that made me realize water was a Beth symbol? We were discussing fire and how we believed that was a symbol for Daryl and the question was, was it also a symbol for Beth? I was thinking about all the fire extinguishers, the fire pulls in the clubhouse that were around Beth, when the light bulb came on that these are actually water or coolant symbols. Even though Beth is a water symbol, I believe she is also a single flame symbol, a small fire that can light a large fire. She is the candle flame at the end of a long dark tunnel, the single match that starts a shack a blaze in fire.

The reason that I bring up the fire pulls and the fire extinguisher is that I consciously went through and counted them in the clubhouse segment. At first glance, they don't appear to be a large number, but when you think in terms of for each one, they were seen multiple times in different angles with either one or both characters within a scene. There are 5 fire pulls, there are 3 fire extinguishers (one silver two red) a total of 8 (these numbers look very familiar) this is a large number when you realize that the club house scenes couldn't have been more than 10 minutes (another familiar number).

There's two other items that I watched for and counted in the clubhouse. We have seen them in the seasons after Still, but I don't think we saw them before. Tomato sauce cans and green bean cans. As far as tomato sauce, we see them instead of actual tomatoes because there wouldn't be a feasible reason to see tomatoes in this abandoned club house, but we can see a picture of tomatoes on the label.

Years ago, I followed a wonderful TD'er weburythedead (unfortunately he no longer posts) but back in the day he wrote about Beth and Daryl and tomatoes. He felt that we could group tomatoes and strawberries together as a symbol for Beth and Daryl because of the color, also their abundance of seeds a fertility symbol also both are quite sensual and juicy.

The green bean cans well what better remind than the white and green can with the word GREEN on it to help people to think of Beth Greene and we even heard and we Daryl refer to her as Greene later in this episode. Throughout the seasons, we're reminded that Maggie is a Rhee and that Beth is the only remaining Greene.

We see 4 cans of tomatoes and 5 green beans cans. There are also 5 cans where we cannot see the label but let's look at one of these that speaks to me and made me quite excited when I realized what I was seeing.

Daryl with a can with a green rim at the top and a red rim at the bottom. A can of Greene and Dixon haha.

In the closet where Beth reaches for a bottle of cooking wine there are 7 cans alone. 2 clearly are tomatoes, 3 visible green labels and 2 labels not readable because there at odd angles. Along with cans in the kitchen area and also remember there is a green bean and a tomato can in the dogtrot room.

We have seen a lot of tomatoes and green bean cans through the seasons. We've seen them in the AZ pantry. The last time I remember seeing the green and white can the label read, Chunk, but it's similar to the green can so much so that I don't believe it's a coincidence, especially since there is a grouping of candles on top with a single flame burning from each remember Beth = single flame. This was s8e7 How It's Gotta Be.

I have a few things to add before I close out the clubhouse review. These are things mentioned in the commentary that I want to point out. I will have a ramble about the commentary in general when I do part 3 of Still, that will cover the shack. AK said that Gimple is the one that wanted the dog Trot on the wall in the clubhouse. Julius said a lot of was discussed with the grandfather clock, the time and the correct number of chimes.

Something I forgot to mention the other day that happened at the beginning of the Still re-watch, Julius the director said the car that they used was a Lincoln Continental. @Frangi, it proves your car model skills are awesome! I also remember in the after bonus scene of TTD the director came on and mentioned it then also. Imo emphasizes that tptb wanted us to be aware of that car model.

This is in the shack I want you to notice the can on the shelf above /next to Daryl. I talked so much about cans last time I just want to point this one out, we don't see a label on it but since it's red it could be several things, another type of tomato, cherries, strawberry filling?

Then we have these two cans on the table. One we definitely know is a dog food can because that particular label has been seen other times and then the other the label appears to be torn off so we just don't know, but I want to emphasize the fact that in the shack there are 3 cans.

For this last segment I'm not going through the episode because we all know it's so well, instead I'm going on a long ramble about the commentaries. This was the first time in the series that tptb had dual commentaries for a single episode and we could talk about the importance of that, but I'll leave it for another day. I went into this moonshine shack segment review with a couple of questions I wanted to take a close look at and ended up finding side tunnels to my delight. Listening to both EK/JR and NR/AK commentaries back-to-back was the key to the main points I found. 1) that there were certain dialogue moments tptb wanted us to hear. 2) things they wanted reinforced by talking about them with their paired partners. I even wonder if part of NR/AK's commentary was stopped and later sound mixed in order that we would hear the dialogue in a scene. I first want to go over some of my notes from EK/JR that doesn't overlap NR/AK. JR talked about during the argument, it seemed that other members of TF were intimidated by Daryl but Beth didn't seem to understand that she should be intimidated. She was standing up for herself and calling Daryl out on his bad behavior and his feelings. JR talked about how 4 of the producers were crying during the porch scene. In particular, the part where Beth talks about her wish, her hope for how her dad would live out the rest of his life. Sometimes it felt as if JR was checking off a list of things he was meant to mention especially at the end when he said that there was a toy cycle and a real motorcycle somewhere in the yard and was a nod to Daryl's motorcycle. It just seemed as if he was trying to just get that mentioned and it came out a bit odd. JR talked about how Beth almost seemed resigned/come to terms to her death. This was when Beth says "I'll be gone someday," he used the word die or death I can't remember which. Both NR/AK and EK/JR had several mentions that were so similar to each other but I want to point out a few. I first watched EK /JR commentary, a reminder that we hear them but see the episode play without sound unless the commentary stops and then we both hear and see the episode. When it got to the part where Beth hesitates to take a drink of the moonshine, EK/JR stop talking. I paused the DVD to take a note and when I continued it was so long that I wondered if I had somehow turned the commentary off when suddenly they started talking again. I went back to check and it was a full minute and 29 seconds of dialogue that included, going blind, Daryl telling her to drink lots of water, (a water reference) the pink bra, and Daryl's old man's dumpster chair (a dumpster reference). Both the mention of water and dumpster never meant anything to me until I watched it this time.

[@twdmusicboxmystery: I have to insert here that I totally never caught that “dumpster” reference before. Linked to Glenn’s dumpster and how he survived his fake out, if you’re confused. Awesome catch! ;D Okay, back to @wdway.] If you are wondering if we heard the dialogue about moonshine making you go blind during NR/AK's commentary the answer is kind of. AK was talking and NR started to speak, and it just trailed off as Beth said her line and Daryl mentions "drink lots of water," and then Norman finishes his thought. This is what I'm mentioned earlier about maybe there was a sound mix by tptb because the way it trailed off just seemed suspicious if you realize that if he had continued his train of thought we would have not heard the comment about "moonshine making you go blind."

NR then talked about taking the turtle shell for Emily, which is strange because this is where Daryl is talking about his dad's place and how similar it is to this shack. The turtle shell story, while being very nice, just kind of came out of nowhere. I think he got ahead of his to-mention list. AK ask Norman if he had heard of Bethyl and he said yes, Bethyl, Caryl and Rickyl. On both commentaries the couple's stop talking in time for us to hear Beth say "serious." When B/D have their argument outside we hear the Michonne, Carol, Maggie speech. NR talks about the hug from behind and how it must have meant for Daryl to fill her supporting him. When the porch scene starts, Emily mentions the turtle shell and tells a short version of the story. During the NR commentary he again notes the turtle shell in the scene, which makes sense of mentioning it then because we can actually see the shell. A couple of things that EK mentions, we will hear mentioned again by either or both NR / AK. Emily says she loved the porch scene. Just 2 people talking. She spoke about that B/D were being honest during their talk. During EK/JR commentary we do hear Beth says, "I'm not blind." We don't hear it in the other commentary, but I think it was because of what AK was talking about ended up being more important.

Next, I'll jump in with what a AK's response to Norman's honesty statement (below). Just know that this takes up quite a bit of the scene of D/B including when Beth says "I'm not blind.” It really would have been noticeable if AK had stopped abruptly in the middle in order to hear Beth.

AK: "It's not comfortable for Daryl to be intimate with someone, not even romantically but in terms of sharing who he is because there is so much shame. Not so much what you bring to the character or how you've played him. Shame about who he was. There's something about Daryl that's so real and honest. He just is who he is and Beth is kind of the same way, so that even though they're different characters, there's sort of a core kindness and sweetness about them that they can just talk about their real feelings in this moment."

I just love this so much. This is AK defining Daryl's character and I feel she has held true to it through the seasons. We've seen and heard a restating of this especially the last two seasons. But this explains why Daryl will always love his friend Carol but that need of being who he is at his core, honest and kind doesn't align with Carol's guarded, driven way of being and I don't see his qualities being things that Carol admirers or truly understands. I think she sees these as weaknesses and not admirable. Bottom line is she cannot be honest with him. How many times have we heard him this season state that very fact? This speaks to his core, being honest with yourself and the people you care most about.

Connie has many of the same qualities as Daryl but we saw early in the season her asking him to lie for her group or at least not tell. It may seem on the surface to be a small thing but for Daryl, I think he would question if it is a one-time thing or not. It speaks of him not really knowing her Is he drawn to her for who she may remind him of or who she truly is?

I do want to point out that in both commentaries, they talk about the song that Gimple wanted at the end of episode. Norman tells the story of wanting a different song but doesn't go into why he wanted the song that he did. This review has taken much longer than I thought it would, but I hope I was able to uncover a few things that helps in our understanding of tptb and the characters we love so much.

@frangipanilove

Loved your ramble! Totally agree with you, Daryl is honest to the core, wears his heart on his sleeve. And I think you articulated it beautifully when you said he doesn’t know if he’s drawn to Connie because of who she is, or if it’s who she reminds him of. And we sometimes disagree on Carol, but we’re in complete agreement when it comes to how awfully mismatched they would be as a romantic couple. It is only Beth that has been a romantic love interest for him. I am unsure of how far tptb will go in exploring the relationship with Connie.

However, no matter how they write it, I believe it will always be Beth for Daryl. The Connie situation is interesting though, because tptb HAS written a close relation between Daryl and Connie, and they have written it in a way that the GA will recognize as “potentially romantic”. Of course we, TD, also recognize that they have written Connie as a Beth proxy, so it’s all very interesting I think. But I’ve had enough of “interesting.” I’m ready for Beth now.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Thanks so much to @wdway for doing a re-watch for us and pointing out so many great insights. There were lots of things here I’d never considered before, or simply hadn’t thought about in years. Hope you all found something interesting in here!

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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woodsofblight · 4 years

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How about RayLy? It's a classic~.

((excellent choice!))

The sounds of merriment, laughter and music echoed all across the pond surrounding the Fairy Council. The structure itself was no less festive than the people frolicking around it, bathing in multitudes of lights, Lums and lamps alike. Cheer was not unfamiliar around these hallowed grounds, but some nights allowed for more than others.

This eve was one of those. Fairies, Teensies, Glutes and all other manner of creatures gathered around, old friends, families and acquaintances greeting each other. All of them anxious for night to fall and the moons to appear. A simple, recurring, yet no less welcomed celebration, granting some respite to a world often thrown off-balance.

This same respite carried over to the pair sitting on one of the small islands surrounding the Council. They sat by the edge and gazed up at the Moons as they continued their eternal journey towards each other. The celebration followed along with their journey, although the gradual increase in volume hardly fazed either of its spectators. Even the tray of snacks behind them had barely been touched.

“Are you sure Globox will be alright?” Ly asked, glancing at her partner in stargazing. “He was looking at those plum jugs in a pretty suspicious way.”

“I don’t think we’ll need to worry about him.” Rayman said, smiling. “Last I saw he was busy asking Uglette up for a dance, so they’re probably too busy tearing up the place.”

Ly chuckled, remembering the few occasions she’d seen them dance. While the two were mostly known for their jolly waddling through life, dancing was a different matter entirely. All of a sudden, no fundamental force, gravity or any such trifling matter would stop them from having a fun time, always drawing confusion from those who didn’t know them very well and loud cheering from everyone else.

Once her laughter abated, she spoke up again, “Thanks for joining me out here.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s getting a bit too cramped in there anyway.” he shrugged.

She smiled, knowing that was just an excuse, at best. The limbless had always been a fairly social figure, easily winning the favor of any crowd within minutes. And that was without counting for the fact that virtually everyone around the Glade knew his name. Those from outside the Glade may not have always known his name, but were aware of his deeds at least.

“You’ve got that look on your face again.”

She flinched, the twitch of her ears making it impossible to hide that she had briefly zoned out. Naturally, she would try to do so anyway.

“What look?” she asked.

“You know the one.” he said, grinning.

“Don’t be coy with me, Rayman.” she raised a brow, trying very hard not to smile.

“Alright.” he said. “You see, I’m very good at observing. And so, there’s a couple of basic ‘Ly-expressions’ I’ve learned over the years.”

Even before he finished the sentence, the fairy was contemplating on whether to hear him out, or deliver a preemptive slap. The fact that she hadn’t already was his signal to continue.

“There’s the ‘Stop bothering me, I’m studying’ face-” he leaned into his palms a bit, pretending his fingers were lines upon lines in a particularly elaborate book. “-which is usually pretty hard to observe.”

With still no immediate retaliation in sight, he quickly continued.

“-the ‘You have one minute to ask me to dance, otherwise I’ll drag you off myself’-”

He proceeded to present a grin with positively feline mischievousness, complete with him portraying her ears with his hands. It was an expression she’d only shown once and had been relentlessly teased about ever since.

“You never complained.” she said under her breath, just about ready to give up on hiding her smile.

“And the 'I’ve got too much on my mind, but I don’t want to burden you with any of it’.” he looked away towards the Moons with an exaggerated, forlorn look.

A bit of red rose into her cheeks over how embarrassingly close he was, even for such a lighthearted rib.

“And which look did I have just now?” she asked, raising a brow.

“Well, you haven’t got a book with you.” he mused. “And we’re not dancing, so that leaves only one option.”

She groaned and poked him in the side. “You’re far too cheeky for your own good.”

“Guilty as charged.” the limbless chuckled. Nevertheless, he scooted a little closer, dropping the coy grin for just a friendly smile. “So, what’s eating you?”

“I was talking with Betilla, before everyone arrived.” she said. There really was really no point to try and pretend like he was wrong. “She said Edith wants to take me under her wings, for a while.”

“Isn’t that great though?” he asked. “You won’t find better teachers anywhere. It’s what you always wanted.”

“I know. But this wouldn’t be a brief visit.” she sighed. “I’d have to be her live-in student. Apprentice even, I’m not sure. But I’d be gone for a few years, possibly even more.”

Rayman tilted his head. “That’s what you’re worried about? That we’d forget you, or something?”

“I would certainly hope not!” she protested in mock-offense. “But still, we’re talking years here, Rayman. I like it here, I like being in the Glade, with everyone.”

“Are you scared of leaving?”

“I’m scared of not coming back.” she said. “Whether it’s for a good or bad reason.”

“There’s nothing bad enough that we wouldn’t welcome you back. You know that.”

She looked at him with a faint, sad smile, and he knew not to press any further. There were things the fairy always found difficult to discuss, even at the best of times. Things she had seen, done or could not do. Rayman knew the faint memory of fire and metal in her eyes well.

He didn’t like avoiding it, his nature rebelled against allowing his friend to suffer for something he believed had little to do with her. But it was a discussion for another time, another day. It was unseemly to drag a dark cloud into pleasant occasion.

“Must you go then?” he asked, redirecting the conversation.

“The nymphs put a lot of work into teaching me. It would be disrespectful of me to back out now.”

“That’s not an answer.” he scowled slightly.

“But it’s the truth.” she sighed. “And it’s something I worked my whole life for. I’m just… not keen on spending too much time away…”

There was something left hanging from her words, but there was little need to say it out loud.

“And I’d prefer if you didn’t see a wrinkly old fairy, the next time we meet.” she tried to joke, just as he always would. It only helped her remember how difficult it must be for him to keep it up.

“I think Betilla would take offense to that.” Rayman played along all the same, cracking a smile. “And who knows, maybe I’ll also be tall and-”

The fairy couldn’t hold back an amused snort. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” she apologized, the incredulous look on his face making it very difficult for her to be sincere. “It’s just really hard to imagine you getting taller.”

“Just you wait.” he scoffed. “You’ll need a chair just to look me in the eyes!”

They both ended up laughing, sharing increasingly more absurd height levels he would undoubtedly reach. It was a pleasant distraction from any heavier thoughts. By the time they ran out of ideas, the Moons were just about the cross into each other. The festivities had died down somewhat, as many have chosen to sit by and await the celestial event in awe, or just to relax after partaking in the Council’s hospitality.

“I’m not going anywhere, Ly.” Rayman spoke up again after some time, still smiling. “At least, not anywhere you can’t find me. Even if it’ll take a little longer for us to see each other.”

Ly giggled briefly and pulled him closer, running her fingers through his rowdy tufts of hair.

“How do you do it? How do you never worry about anything?”

“Of course I worry.” he snuggled up to her now, resting his head against her arm. “It’s why I asked in the first place.”

Ly smiled and continued to ruffle his hair, lacing the soft touch with an affectionate appreciation for his concern. When she looked in his eyes, it was like gazing into a clear pond. He had always been like this, for as long as she could remember.

A trusted friend through everything and a piercing light to cut through any nightmare, whether they rampaged on the surface, or in one’s mind. Often brash, sometimes downright infuriating in his free-spirited disregard for consequences, always more keen to follow whatever duties he chose to hold close to his heart, rather than anything on paper.

It was a trait that has not changed in years and showed no sign that it would. Perhaps one that she could also embrace, in time.

As the Moons finally joined in the night sky, so did their hands clasp together under their light. Celestial and mortal, all so alike. Sometimes together and sometimes apart, but always compelled to meet again by the guidance of the stars.

#rayman #ly #my stuff #valentine request #a classic for a good reason!#Anonymous

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bratz-kitten · 3 years

Text

trigger warning: eating disorders

harsh moon-jupiter aspects (square, opposition, especially conjunction) can indicate, at its most extreme manifestation, an eating disorder. moon touching jupiter can mean that our eating habits are keyed to our emotional state – you can easily feel physically nauseated when you’re in a bad mental state because, when you’re sad, it’s like your body closes itself from its own basic needs; at the same time, whenever you feel empty or bored, you resort to over-eating.

this can also indicate a mother (or any authority figure in your childhood, gender is a dumb concept anyway) who was very particular about the food you ate. perhaps whenever you wouldn’t eat they’d explode in a fit of anger, or they were very criticizing of your body so they forced you into diets, eating “properly” so you could fit the image that they wanted you to. you might’ve been forced to eat more than you needed. this could be especially frustrating if the person didn’t provide you with emotional support, instilling confusion as to why they care so much about your eating habits if they don’t care about giving you affection, or any other emotional need that isn’t being met. through those experiences, the native develops a complicated relationship with food; when the mother figure leaves the native’s life, they could resort to stop eating whenever they felt like “revolting”, or binge eat until they almost threw up just to be somehow in control of their pain. they could also develop a very distorted view of their appearance, thus causing an eating disorder.

another indicator for developing an eating disorder is saturn in taurus – saturn places restrictions wherever he goes and this could indicate someone who obsessively focuses on their appearance and creates a sense of uncomfort in one’s own body or home, and a difficult relationship with food earlier in life.

another indicator that i’ve found is jupiter in the 1st house. the 1st house deals with our sense of identity and, especially if it conjuncts the ascendant, our appearance – and placing jupiter here... i’ve observed it on people who are dependent on others’ validation in the younger years due to a lack of emotional support in the household (oftentimes, divorced parents), and turn to their friends for that. their bodies can have developed very early in life, making them prone to being made fun of in school for their weight or even bullied and overly sexualized. and because they placed their friends’ opinions so highly, it can cause them to believe there truly is something wrong with their appearance and they need to “fix” it, instilling in them a fear that they’re not good enough and a battle with themselves, their appearance, and food.

now, this is more of a personal observation, but a lot of people with a heavy 6th house especially if it includes sun/moon/venus have struggled with an eating disorder. these people are self-aware to a painful extent and they extremely perfectionist especially with themselves – whenever they see a “flaw”, they do anything in their power to destroy it. the 6th house rules our daily routine, and when the native feels like they have no control over where their life is heading (and their biggest fear is losing control), they may try to exert control over what they’re eating, paying a lot of mind to calorie intake and trying all sorts of diets. they also tend to compare themselves a lot to other people; when they idealize someone who they look up to, ask themselves “why can’t i be like them?” and then start punishing themselves for not being perfect, and this can manifest itself in all sorts of ways, not just controlling their eating; it can come in the form of an insistent nagging voice in the back of their minds whose sole purpose seems to be to keep them from feeling themselves too much. they’re also very sensitive to criticism, so when someone makes a comment on their physical appearance, it sticks with them, especially in their younger years.

@rattaemin’s big brain helped me with these last two – another indicator can be saturn in the 1st house. like i said before, wherever saturn goes, it places restrictions, and the native feels their ability to express themselves inhibited. they’re hard on themselves, and all their insecurities and fears make it hard for them to see their worth clearly, and all the weight they put on their shoulders to look better, be better, fit in better with everyone else. they tend to have a distorted view of themselves especially in their younger years and it can be difficult for them understand their needs, ambitions and personality, making them strive for control in any way they can. it’s likely that they suffered bullying or had parents who were extremely hard on them, nitpicking at things they weren’t even aware of in themselves.

5th house stelliums can also indicate this, especially if the sun/moon/venus are present there. these people can be very dependent on others’ validation, most of them seem very confident but have a lot of insecurities deep down and cover that up with a big ego, so when they’re criticized for their appearance, it hurts them deep. they are extremely competitive and this competitiveness can extend into their appearance, almost “i have to be the must fuckable person in this grocery story or else” vibes, lmfao. because of this silent competition they have with others, they’re hard on themselves and develop a need to become “better” looking at all costs. it’s also very easy for them to get addicted to stuff – food, dieting, working out, coffee, substances, sex, social media.

in all of these cases, a journey that the native will have to face is developing a healthy relationship with food. i’ve also found that these placements, esp moon-jupiter, often make for vegetarians or vegans; they want their morals to align with every aspect of their life so they not only turn vegetarians but are very picky about using susteinable brand for clothing, makeup, all of that. once they get to that stage, food could start being treated as a priority, emotionally comforting.

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killerxquccn · 4 years

Text

GENERAL

FULL NAME: Sarah Reed NICKNAME: Barbie (By peers & more endearingly by Charlie) AGE: 19-20+ (Verse Dependant) BIRTH DATE: July 27th , 1964 ZODIAC: Leo ETHNICITY: White GENDER: Cis Female PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Craven Creek , Washington SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bisexual // Mostly closeted, though she is aware that she feels something towards other girls and will on occasion flirt with them subtly. RELIGION: Not raised religious // No real opinion on religion SPOKEN LANGUAGE: English CURRENT LIVING CONDITIONS: Currently living in a small dorm on campus EDUCATION: High-school graduate // Currently a freshman at university OCCUPATION: Babysitter // Clerk at Craven Creek’s only music shop FACECLAIM: Sydney Sweeny

RELATIONSHIPS

PARENTS: Caitlin Reed // Mother Eric Reed // Father. SIBLINGS: Hayden & Levi Reed // Younger brothers NOTABLE CONNECTIONS: Charles 'Charlie’ Ayers // Best Friend @unkindrewind The two are nearly inseparable to the point where they’re been given the nicknames “Barbie and Ken” by their peers due to their popularity and the assumption that they’re dating. SIGNIFICANT OTHER: None currently. SEXUAL / DATING HISTORY: Sarah has had many boyfriends in the past, but none that lasted very long. She has a reputation for being flirty and promiscuous, which she sees no problem with. She just wants to have a good time.

PHYSICAL TRAITS

EYE COLOUR: Blue HAIR: Blonde // Long & styled into curls HEIGHT: 5 ‘ 3 ” BODY BUILD: Slim & Athletic NOTABLE PHYSICAL TRAITS: Well endowed. Heavy Lidded “Bedroom eyes”.

PERSONALITY

INTELLIGENCE: Not exactly an academic rising star. She can be very dim at times, but what she lacks in traditional intelligence she makes up for in social intelligence. INTERESTS: Cheer // Sarah has been participating in cheerleading since a young age. Music // Sarah spends most of her alone time absorbed in listening to music. Her walkman and headphones are always with her. STRENGTHS: Passionate. Generous. Warm-hearted. Cheerful. Fun. Loyal. Honest. Vivacious. Protective. WEAKNESSES: Arrogant. Stubborn. Self-absorbed. Lazy. Conceited. Dramatic. SOCIAL STANDING: Very popular // Has been since the beginning of middle school and all through high school. SLASHER TROPES: The Cheerleader // Brainless Beauty // First to Die

BIOGRAPHY

Trigger Warning: Mentions of drug use, torture, gore, and death

Beauty Queen. Cheerleader. Life of the Party

To an outside observer it seems like Sarah Reed could have the moon on a string with just a bat of her lashes and a well placed smile. Most people, however, don't see the meticulous work that goes into maintaining those airs, very much by Sarah’s own design. The veneer of the homecoming queen loses it’s mystique when you know her tricks after all. Craven Creek is a small town, word gets around fast. Perception, not truth, is everything. Which is why no one can know that perfect Sarah Reed is far from what she allows others to believe. Most of Sarah’s life was spent on the outskirts of town, far away from the suburbs where the grass grows high and wild. No shiny family cars parked in neatly paved driveways, instead the land was spotted with rusted out junkers long abandoned to a life of being an eyesore.

If Eric and Caitlin Reed had once had ambitions beyond their meager small town living they’d long since died out, the only hint of them being the ghost of a glimmer in their eyes long dulled by life. Sarah couldn’t tell you when her parents started to change, maybe perhaps because she was so young or because the shift was so slow. One does not become an addict overnight after all, but the difference was there nonetheless. Over the years her father became too acquainted with the bottle, then pills to ease his bad back. Eventually neither were enough for her mother, turning to the small but insidious drug trade that permeated the poorer neighborhoods. What could have been a meagre, but nice home for the Reed family fell into disrepair as her parents numbed themselves beyond caring.

Being the oldest responsibility for her younger siblings fell to her when her parents were long past fit to care for them. The young girl was well versed in how to clean house, cook, and care for a screaming toddler well before she was twelve. A responsibility way more than a girl so young should carry, but one she had whether she wanted it or not. Still though, there were bright spots for Sarah. While she wasn’t the most academically gifted, school gave Sarah a chance to be away from home and provided her with her biggest passion: cheer. An athletic and energetic young girl Sarah excelled at cheerleading.

Sarah’s ascent to queen bee didn’t begin until last year of middle school. Some miracle of bureaucracy sanctioned the redrawing of county lines to allow for Sarah to switch middle schools and attend Carpenter County High School the following year instead of the high school closest to her home. This meant a fresh start with no one from her previous schooling to poison the well for her. A chance to reinvent herself, and so she did. That summer hours were spent at the mirror learning to do her hair and makeup, months of saved babysitting money spent on new clothes. Girly magazine’s became her teacher on how to walk, talk, and flirt.

The first semester of eighth grade came and so began Sarah’s long con of her new skillfully crafted public persona. Sarah joined the cheer squad, an almost one way ticket to popularity. Boys started to take notice of her, never leaving her wanting for options for dates or excuses to not be at home. But the most important development was meeting Charlie Ayers, the boy who would become her best friend. The two became fast friends, quickly becoming inseparable, to the point where they were given the nicknames Barbie and Ken. Charlie became her rock, the only person she showed her true self to. Not the carefully calculated version of herself she played at being in school, but the real Sarah. Even allowing him into her dilapidated home, something she had never done before or for anyone since.

Through middle and high school Sarah only grew in popularity. She had her finger on the pulse of the social life of Carpenter County High School. There wasn’t a party she wasn’t invited to or a piece of gossip she didn’t know. Though, as her star was rising in the public eye at school, her home life deteriorated more and more. By senior year, Sarah was at her breaking point at home. The only thing getting her through school was the promise of going to college and living away from her parents. She would have gone to the east coast, put as much distance between them as possible had it not been for one thing… Charlie. She could never bring herself to leave her best friend and in the fall after senior year the pair both began attending SCU: Silas Craven University.

Poor Sarah had no clue what was in store for her at college. More of the same she assumed: more parties, more boys, more barely passing her classes. Skating through life until graduation when she would eventually have to figure out what to do with her life. But that was years away, and she lived for the present. How could she have ever guessed the threat that lurked in the sleepy little college town? Maybe if she had she would have been more cautious, not left her dorm so late at night.

She didn’t know how long she was unconscious for, or how she got the throbbing pain in the back of her head. When she came to she was bound to something, cold as the air around her, biting into her skin. There were voices, but she couldn’t tell who. Frantic now she looked arounf wildly, but to no avail. Something was blocking her vision, encompassing her head making it hard to breathe. A bag? She didn’t have long to consider before the pain started. Slicing, tearing her skin. She screamed, cried, begged for whoever was doing this to stop, but there was no mercy that night.

By the time her abductors were done with her all that was left of Sarah Reed were pretty pieces, all but her head buried by the old sawmill where they murdered her, only a stone’s throw away from her university. Though, this would not be the last that was seen of Sarah. For whatever sick reasoning the killers recorded her torture and subsequent death for posterity. Real genuine horror grafted onto tape to be viewed again and again, packaged up in a blank tape and delivered to the local video rental place for a victim of a different kind to find.

With the tape slipped into the return box of Flick Picks Video Rentals Sarah’s unfortunate legacy as one of the first victims of the Death Masks was cemented.

#❁ pages; important

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jupiterjunebug · 5 years

Note

WHERE'S THE WEREWOLF ESSAY, OP??

@malaloba @bisexualducknewton You also dared me to say this so you get a tag

Okay so fun facts about Tyler Keegan Casey (I literally just wanted to make a joke about Tyler Casey abbreviating to Tyler K.C):

His parents, Edgar Casey and Rebecca Wilson, got married at 18. Their reasoning was "hey, we've been together all of high school, we still like each other, and I think our kids would be really hot." A bit of the shine wore off for Rebecca, though, when it turned out Edgar inherited a controlling streak from his parents. He got it in his head that his growth as a person required moving as far away from tiny little Casper, WV as he could. Which was fine, and would've been true if he’d put any actual EFFORT into growing up, except he made that decision without consulting his wife. Family was the most important thing in the world for her, which meant she didn't want to leave. Unfortunately, family was the most important thing in the world to her, and Edgar was technically her family.As far away as possible turned out to be Fortville, Indiana. At around 3000 people, it was certainly bigger than Casper, but much smaller than Edgar's ambitions. Unfortunately, they'd run out of gas, and got stuck in town long enough for Rebecca to work up her courage and deliver an ultimatum: they were eight hours from Casper, close enough to drive over, and she'd live no further away than that.Tyler was born a few years later and grew up the only "daughter" of the household, pretty in a generic way and polite to a fault. His homesick mama taught him that he'd know when he found his people on account of the decision to give up everything for them would only hurt a little. His pyramid-scheme chasing daddy taught him that the key to success is for people to think you're one of their people, and who gives a shit if it's true or not?Up until he was twenty he was a full-on social chameleon: he wore the closest thing he could get to the "right" clothes, he did his hair in the "right" way, he laughed at the right jokes and had a crush on all the right boys. Third runner up for prom queen, dated at least three members in the football team (the breakups were never his fault, of course. He'd take a relationship as far as the other person wanted, he only dated them because they wanted to date him after all), popular but not so popular for people to consider him a threat.Every holiday, Tyler and his mama went off to Casper to visit her family. That meant he ended up at the kids table with his two younger cousins Franc ( @keplersheetz) and Vicki. Franc and Vicki were practically sisters, Franc lived with Vicki's parents whenever her ma was off dealing with her host of mental issues, which meant that Tyler was kind of the third wheel.

Tyler ended up the responsible one, and town gossip went on about how they hoped he'd be a good influence, because wasn't he just a perfect little child? Gossip about Franc went on about how she was wild, about how she didn't follow rules, if she wasn't careful she'd end up just like her mother and didn't Vicki's parents worry about if she was a bad influence? No one gossiped about Vicki at all.

It created a weird circle of jealousy, where Tyler envied Franc for having the guts to be herself, Franc worried that Vicki would end up liking Tyler better than her, and Vicki wished somebody might talk about her instead of other people’s “influence” on her. In general, Tyler and Franc didn't get along on account of they were very different and had no interests in common, but when you spend months each year as an obligatory playmate you end up developing at least a little fondness.Tyler went to Indiana University Bloomington, close enough to home for both his parents and also in possession of a Bachelors program for early childhood education. He quickly acquired a job at the library, a reputation as "a pleasure to have in class," an overcommitment to several clubs, and a thoroughly mediocre boyfriend. He also ended up in two classes with and as a coworker to Monet, ( @pleasekalemenow). In sophomore year, the two were roommates and in three classes together, which was haha a funny coincidence. Then in Spring term Tyler had a stress breakdown and Monet was so thrown by composed, fake-ass Tyler losing his shit over something completely minor that she ended up sitting with him for four hours and now they're best friends.In the summer before Junior year he was like "hey wait a fucking second, if I'm completely changing my personality around other people so that they'll like me...do they actually like me?" and decided that fuck it, I'm going to just have my own personality and work my hardest to make it so people find that person likable. The most obvious shift - aside from him breaking up with his mediocre boyfriend and quitting half of his clubs - was coming out as, you know, a dude.

His parents didn't really...get it? His mom continues to this day to treat it as something she supports but just can't understand, and his dad kind of took it as a personal attack because his dad is a self-obsessed jackass. The rest of the family didn't really express an opinion on any of this, on account of Vicki had a baby and Franc ran away from home just a little while later. Compared to having a daughter under 18 and just straight up disappearing, being trans wasn't all that embarrassing to them.Things went pretty decent for half of Junior year. Then one day while he was watching a kindergarten class, the last kid to be picked up at the end of the day turned into an eldritch horror and ate the other student teacher. The FBI’s Paranormal Research and Investigation division showed up and was like "hey I'm pretty sure you can guess that we're going to tell you to keep this hush hush, so keep this fucking hush hush." Tyler went "wow you know I don't like being kept in the dark about all this," so he changed his major to criminal justice and worked his ass off to graduate at the same time as everyone else. Then he joined the FBI, and when they were interviewing him he dropped some line about "oh, I saw something once and the, uh, I think it was PRI? Said that it was top secret dangerous business. I'd like to solve murders like that :)" and the PRI kind of went "well...I guess? we can hire? Him? He did a god job on all of his exams...we have no reason not to."At around this time he played the love interest in Monet's breakout limited access TV show, Once Upon a Cryptid. This show eventually gained Dr. Horrible levels of cult-classic fame, and Tyler is eternally thankful that T has at this point changed his look enough that no one really recognizes him beyond people he talks to on case being like "haha isn't it funny that you look kind of like actor Tyler Casey and you're an FBI agent just like his character?" And he just says "haha yeah I get that a lot :)"The PRI was also like "hey can you keep an eye on this person who is causing trouble with conspiracy theory shit?" Tyler says "uh yeah, sure? Anything I should know?" And the PRI is like "well it's your cousin, but other than that, nah, glhf :)"Tyler found this situation Vaguely Uncomfortable, so instead of being actually good at his job he took this opportunity to leave reminders to eat and warnings to keep her head down when she overreached. They were all signed with "The FBI Agent That's Watching You Right Now" and wow isn't it fucked up that they're closer as anonymous FBI stalker and conspiracy theorist than they were as proper childhood playmates? It fucks me up sometimes.Five years before the game starts, he goes on an investigation into what may or may not be a supernatural murderer. While in the area he runs into August Caraway ( @transagentstern), who is. Super his type. He immediately starts finding excuses to spend time w/ the hot, sensitive, painter, asking August to be his guide around the area. And also if he could see that painting that August is working on because it sounds really :) great :). Eventually he comes to the conclusion that the long periods of time between attacks and the COD indicate either a werewolf attack or a very patient predator. He goes "well, it's the new moon tonight...so if I take August out on a da-I MEAN INVESTIGATION into that clearing in the woods it'll be safe."Spoilers! It isn't!They get attacked by a werewolf. Tyler says "well, I'm an FBI agent so I should be the one to sacrifice myself" and tries to shoot the werewolf. It quickly takes him to the ground, but hey! At least August has time to run! Except instead of running, August goes up to try and save Tyler. Which ends in them both getting bitten before the silver bracelets August always wears fend the thing off. August manages to drag Tyler to civilization before losing consciousness, and the two wake up in separate hospitals. August is told Tyler got sent to a special FBI hospital, but is fine. Tyler is told August got tired of waiting around for him to wake up and left. (More fun facts: this happened the day before Pigeon's birthday! Wow! Terrible)Tyler is kept under observation for the rest of the month, just to make sure he's fine. He is, of course, not fine. The PRI is super stoked to have access to someone who is fully willing to spend the rest of his month j chillin' and then come in on the full moons, on account of most of the werewolves they have access to are ones they caught and have to keep hold of all the time. Which, like, unlawfully contained civilians are a shitty baseline.So, despite having research in their name, the PRI kinda fucking sucks at research. Their methodology is to just try shit until they figure out 1. How to kill the monster and 2. How to spot the affliction/how it progresses. They are perfectly aware of how to kill werewolves, so really all they do is stage observations under different stress conditions to play “how to spot a werewolf”.

Every experiment is just put them in a cage with moonlight access, see whether the transformation is faster/slower when the person has a certain diet/fitness level/etc. Most of the subjects can’t leave bc they’d run away and are also liable to transform sometimes which is inconvenient.

The PRI isn't especially concerned about Tyler, because they know one of the conditions for a transformation is high stress and if there's one thing he's good at it's completely repressing an anxiety attack, so he's able to pretty much do his job aside from the whole "locked up under the full moon" thing. Of course, he's ostracized by his coworkers on account of he's like. Literally a monster. But that's fine! He has Monet! Who he never tells anything about all this because he doesn't want to worry her, and also because her brother (coincidentally August, though Tyler doesn't know that) died around the time of his attack and he doesn't want her to blame herself for never trying to come see him.Good things that happen in these 5 years: he has an amicable relationship with Franc. He gets good at his job. He and Monet discover that the uncanny coincidences which led to them always having classes together carry over into their adult life, and they constantly run into each other while performing their respective jobs. She sometimes invites him to parties to stop men from hitting on her, and because he looks vaguely like Jake Gyllenhaal (that's Tyler's face claim) they get to laugh about all the tabloid rumors that Monet is dating Jake.The bad news is Tyler never had access to the other werewolves prior to the attack (it wasn't his division, and he wasn't usually in a position to take anything alive) which means he's never been around to see a new one, to watch the arc of their deterioration. Usually it goes like this: they wake up, alone and naked in a room with only a bed, a desk, and an uncomfortable wooden chair. They are given clothing by an FBI agent, sometimes that agent is sympathetic, sometimes sneering, but usually expressionless. Each full moon they transform, and remember nothing of it save pain, hunger, and the feeling of their claws digging into the metal walls. Fear is a trigger for transformation, as is anger. They are always afraid, always angry. Eventually, it becomes rare to see them in their human forms.The PRI is fucking stupid. A reasonable person might say "duh, werewolves turn when they're scared, maybe if we put them someplace less scary they'll stop turning so much." Instead, they write in their notes, the notes Tyler receives, "we're fairly certain that, at some point, the humanity of a werewolf is completely lost." He only sees werewolves that have not been human in months, or even years. Or, he sees the ones who are even worse off.The worse news is that Tyler is told there's a cure. Sometimes, the PRI manages to poke and prod at a werewolf and for reasons we just don't understand they never transform again. So he doesn't argue with the tests, and even if he writes a will he doesn't tell Monet anything because he might be fine, and he doesn't want to worry her. He throws himself into his work and into making Monet happy, because he wants to make sure that if he is lost he leaves a legacy. There's something to prove that Tyler Casey's existence was justified.Then he finds out what the cure entails. It's not recovery, not at all; it's pushing someone so hard, making them so afraid, that their body can't take being afraid anymore. A person who’s too tired to feel doesn't shift, not even under the full moon, because the werewolf's state of mind is defined by the person's emotions before it happens (so if someone was actually CALM, really truly calm, then they'd manage to control it, but hunger and anger and fear can all throw that out of wack). If the person is numb, there is nothing for the curse to react to.Tyler Casey would rather die after trying his hardest than live longer but not be able to do anything. So, when he manages to find a job opening at The Askar Foundation, a secret society with more funding and more knowledge than the FBI could ever hope for, he has no qualms spilling the PRI's secrets in exchange for a position as a field agent.As you can probably guess, August, Monet, and Franc are all there as well. The circumstances of their recruitment were significantly less...consensual than his (Monet and Franc recently saw too much and got pressganged in, and after nearly killing Franc while transformed August got dragged in for Askar's own brand of tests). This leads to a veritable five layer dip of fucking drama:1. Franc and Tyler have a private conversation which leads to the revelation of several character secrets on both their parts. This ends when Tyler and Franc both insist that they saw different things during one of the scenes. Franc has always had the ability to tell when people lie to her, but she is also convinced she's right about their topic of conversation (which uh, she IS right, so). That means that, despite the fact that she can't feel him lying, he MUST be. She's convinced that he's had the supernatural ability to get around her own uncanny powers this whole time, and thus they engaged in a Comedy of Errors where instead of mistaken identities it’s Tyler saying things that further convince Franc he's trying to manipulate the entire team2. The Askar foundation would very much like to keep their shiny new field agent, and also Tyler still has connections to the FBI and him snitching to them would be.........inconvenient. So they're willing to put effort, within reason, into making sure he doesn't find out anything that might cause problems, like the fact that August is a kind of monster Tyler has a massive vendetta against. Or uh...anything else that might make him question them. This leads to3. Askar shutting down a conversation between him and Monet, leading to her concluding that talking about their past experiences with the supernatural OR the workings of Askar will never go well. (Exacerbated by the fact that Askar had already been trying to keep her from finding out shit about her brother) 4. Consequently, Monet will no longer talk to him about deep personal topics if they lead back to these things at ALL5. Franc ended up in a romantic entanglement w/ the monster of the week, who is a shapeshifter unwillingly being used to bring about...the apocalypse. He thinks the reason she doesn’t trust him is because she figured out he was a werewolf, and doesn’t trust him/is keeping an eye on him so she can put him down when he becomes dangerous. So he thinks she hates him bc he’s a shapeshifter that has no control over himself, but then she’s fine with...the OTHER shapeshifter that has no control over himself.6. August thinks Tyler hates werewolves because of the attack, and is afraid to enter a relationship with him because he wouldn't be able to keep his condition a secret7. Tyler refuses to let himself entertain notions of actually DATING August, because Tyler thinks he's going to die and doesn't want to hurt even MORE people when he goes8. Tyler and Monet platonically love each other so much and are also living together in Seinfeld's mansion that she stole the keys to, and Tyler is an idiot which means August thinks Tyler wants to date Monet (August's SISTER)So tl;dr, Tyler thinks that after Franc gained access to more Askar files she suddenly doesn't trust him (he assumes she knows he's a werewolf), he knows that Monet suddenly doesn't want to TALK to him and knows that if he discovers anything suspicious he thus cannot tell her, and he knows he......really, really, REALLY is starting to enjoy August's companyThis means that conversations oscillate between Tyler being professionally friendly with all his coworkers, Franc interpreting something random as a personal attack, Monet deeply wishing she could tell Tyler something, and then a completely stupid conversation where Tyler and August are flirting about something stupid and getting cockblocked by Tyler's hangups and August remembering that as far as he's concerned Tyler and Monet should get together.Oh and also Askar definitely is fucking with his head at least once a session.

#my ocs #tyler casey #rip me #A mysterious traveler #Hark! Who goes there?

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awfully-sadistic · 4 years

Text

Having a holly, jolly Christmas

Because it’s the best time of the year!

I don’t know if there’ll be snow,

But have a cup of cheer!

Silent Night Vector Hyllus did not know what Christmas was and even less about what it stood for. Coming from a time where the galaxy and everything that happened in it happened a very “long time ago” and “far, far away” one could argue that he didn’t have to. It wasn’t like it was celebrated in any of the planets he had known and it made less sense to try to understand it since joining the hive mind and becoming Dawn Herald for an alien race that looked like giant ants known as Killiks. It just seemed so insignificant given the race had no use for human holidays and thus, Vector remained in ignorance for a very long time as he remained as one with the hive.

Each and every Killik were in mental contact with one another, however, far away from the hive mind now, far away from any duties where he had nearly nothing to do but learn about different cultures and customs, Vector had gotten curious. The Haushold provided so many new experiences, rich, that he thought even exploring the galaxy couldn’t prepare him for the things he had seen in the Family. He was a silent observer, noting things, taking in everything with those seemingly lifeless blackened eyes and almost stoic expression.

Right now, those black eyes were trained on Dot. She was opening a gift that had been offered to her despite sitting in a wealth of presents from others who have known her longer, more intimately.

Yet, she was opening a gift from him.

The concept of gift exchanging was not as foreign as the concept of Christmas. Killiks had their own customs but he didn’t think she’d appreciate rubbing their forearms together. Or appreciate what others had called his “bug milk”, he hadn’t wanted to make a bad impression on her.

“We had hoped you liked it.” Vector finally spoke in that peculiar way that he does; when he speaks, he speaks in a soothing tone and for the hive he has joined with. Even far away.

Dot pulled an intricately designed necklace from the box, stunned by the exotic beauty of something she knew had to come from another galaxy. There were stones on it she’s never seen before and couldn’t even begin to describe. “It’s... beautiful,” she admired, unable to take her eyes off the way the gems glittered, shifted, twinkled. It sounds like a song, almost.

“We are glad.” Vector replied. It might have sounded like an ordinary statement but the way his shoulders relaxed showed Dot he had been holding onto tension based on her reaction. “We think the sound reminds us of The Song of the Universe; more specifically, we think it reminds us of your part.”

“Song?” Dot asked, looking up in a startled expression. “My? Wait, what does that mean?”

And Vector smiled softly, anxious in his own way to talk to her about this mysterious melody that was created by all living things with a part to play. He especially wanted to share what he thought about hers.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

“Your name is Carol. How can you not know Christmas carols?”

“I’m going to give you ten seconds to get out of my face before I send you to another dimension like I did with Tony.”

Carol Danvers and Jason Todd were staring down at each other; both with big personalities and headstrong stubbornness that could out-mule any jackass in the Haus. This wasn’t anything mean-spirited but more that everyone had a lot to drink and manners were becoming unhinged.

Unfortunately, with huge personalities and clashing egos, a lot of manners would be unhinged. It was also an interesting mix considering the Marvel side and the DC side mingled quite well with one another. Too many people were like two sides on the same coin. It was nuts but it would also take a charging rhino to break up anyone (or these two) when they got going.

Most of the time, it would end up with Carol as the victor because... she really was incredibly stronger than Jason (or nearly anyone else for that matter). Yet Jason was as stubborn as Ripley had been during the first merging month with Atamu, trying to get the jump on him.

Dot sat in her booth staring at the two with her mouth posed around a straw. She was drinking a milkshake and there was no way she was going to be stepping into that argument.

Well, at least until Carol made the first attempt to send Jason Todd bam, pow, straight to the moon. So, she decided to step in with a harmless statement.

“What carols do you know, Jason?” she smiled around the straw as Jason’s head whipped around, searching the crowd before they settled on Dot. Immediately, he got a lazy grin on his face and it seemed like he forgot he was talking to Carol. He came strolling over, sliding into the booth next to her.

Unfortunately for him, Carol followed. She slid in on Dot’s other side, effectively trapping the girl between the two; something... she really didn’t think through despite only a few moments ago deciding not to... be in the middle of them.

“I know lots,” he boasted.

Carol wasn’t buying it. “You do, do ya? Then how come you were makin’ a big fucking stink about me singing carols?” she asked, wrapping an arm around Dot’s shoulders and tugging her onto her side (of the argument). “Why didn’t you just sing somethin’?”

Jason’s expression deadpanned; one, he knew what Carol was doing and two, who invited her?! But as Jason was going to find out, no one invited Carol. She came because she wanted to, IF she wanted to. And Dot was around so duh, of course she was here.

“JARVIS, give me a Christmas carol.” Jason stated before the A.I. asked, “And what would you like to listen to, sir?”

Carol wasn’t even trying to hide the grin splitting her face. It was apparent Jason had just expected JARVIS to just play a carol over the loud speaker. Dot was trying to be a lot more polite though, clearing her throat and glancing up at her Mommy.

“...Any... one of them,” Jason said through grit teeth.

“Yeah, but which one?” Carol asked before JARVIS could play something, thus bailing Jason out. She was giving Dot a wink, one that Jason caught and Dot giggled at. They both knew he was more or less had--Jason didn’t know a damn carol even if it bit him in the butt... or sent him into another dimension.

“SOMETHING SOMETHING, OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS, DAMN.”

Carol burst out laughing and Dot found herself doing the same. JARVIS, sounding like an unappreciated Alfred sighed and played a random carol that did, in fact, talk about Jesus.

O Come All Ye Faithful

“He’s... where and doing what?” Dot asked, unbelieving but at the same time, not surprised. It was a weird combination considering she had tried to be optimistic about it and figured it would be the one time Wesker wasn’t hiding down in the lab basements missing all the festivities and mingling with Family on Christmas. He’s been with everyone for HOW long and he’s still acting like an anti-social butthead?!

Jake rubbed a hand on his closely shaven head; at least he had been in the festive mood, wearing an “ugly” sweater that matched with his younger siblings; notably Flash, Petey, and Miles. He was grinning and looking down at his Ma, before his hand dropped to his side and then back towards the general direction of the Lab entrance.

“You know how that old bastard is. It’s probably better without him, scowling at everyone. Being the Grinch while we’re all trying to have a good time.”

“He’s still part of this Family!” she said though she knew Jake wasn’t the one who needed to hear this. She sighed and reached up--which still wasn’t enough and Jake, used to the gesture, bent his large frame so that Dot could cup his cheek. “Thank you for telling me. Now I’m going to give your father a piece of my mind and you can expect him to be up here, wearing a sweater of his own.”

Jake grinned again, leaning into his Ma’s hand. “I can’t wait to see that,” he said, pressing a kiss to the center of her palm. “That’d be a merry fucking Christmas for me!”

Dot had did her best to assure Jake that Wesker wasn’t going to get away with just an ugly sweater but he was going to give each and every one he usually hassled a Christmas present--with love, and personally delivered. Even if she had to lead him by the ear to do it.

The lab doors opened to its elevator and Dot stepped in, jabbing her thumb at the console, hitting the Basement sublevels. She had her arms crossed and ready to go OFF--

But then the elevator doors opened and the scenery before her stole her breath away. The lights were dimmed as she stepped out of the elevator and hanging above her head were strings of lights with a delicate lighting setting. It cast the usually harsh fluorescent scene of the labs in a soft glow reminiscent of a snow fall during the night. Quiet, serene, personal, private.

Standing at the other end of the hallway was Wesker. By now, Dot figured she was... set up. Jake working with Wesker? Well, she never expected that. And that was probably how she was lured to the labs without a second thought about being set up and all worked up about it, too.

Now the air was let out of her balloon and she felt entirely aware of walking towards the mastermind behind.. whatever this was.

It took her a little bit to actually reach Wesker considering she was still admiring the time and effort it took to string up the lights. Sure, the servants must have done it but the thought had been no doubt Wesker’s own. When she stood in front of him, he was already staring down at her. That stupid smug grin on his face was in place and the sensation flared up to smack the glasses off his face. But he surprised her by presenting her with a small box.

Slowly, she took it, giving him a quizzical glance. “Why couldn’t you have given this to me upstairs. You know, with everyone else?” she jabbed, only half-serious. It was more so being a brat out of anything.

“That is precisely the reason,” Wesker replied with a sigh, slightly only serious himself. “there were too many people.” Dot was going to further push it by mentioning that was the point of being Family but Wesker cut her off and added, “It’s not a crime to steal a little of your time. Everyone else does it.”

Dot didn’t point out that he has, on more than one occasion, has committed crimes on securing some quality time well spent with Dot but dropped it as soon as the lid to the box had been pulled off. She wasn’t aware that Wesker had placed his hands over hers, helping her open her present in an attempt to steer her attention away from scolding him or otherwise giving him a “hard” time. Hardly a hard time; he loved their little verbal spars. It kept him sharp and on his toes--but he didn’t want to sully this, their, moment with something like that. He wanted to show her that she was special.

“...This is...”

“Mm hm. It is.”

Dot laughed a little, staring down at the gigantic heart shaped diamond. “...You’re surprisingly sentimental.”

Wesker made a thoughtful sound at the back of his throat. He looked a little uncomfortable, perhaps having to share more than a thimble of emotion. But he managed to do it because Dot was worth much more than that and she had the right to know and had all his attempts on ...opening up. Despite how hard it was for someone like Wesker to.

“Only with the right person.” Wesker replied, “and you are the right person.” He enclosed the giant jewel in Dot’s tiny little hand. It didn’t even fit but it felt like a good example of how his heart was held in her small hand. It might be a little cold and harder than any precious metal on earth but it was precious to her and she would keep it safe.

[* I’m sorry there’s not a lot! I wrote until I had to sleep for tomorrow and this was all I managed to get done! @.@; ]

#{{ Dedication: Holidays

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