#backwoodsiness

[nikomedes]

me, watching me put “carolina low” on another oc playlist: “oh. so this one ALSO has southern gothic ambiguous bloodlust”

me: “MAYBE”

#i keep jokingly calling shrike a hick to capture his backwoodsy utilitarianism but listen. maybe im onto something #just bc he’s an ambiguously asian wood elf in a fantasy world doesn’t mean he can’t ALSO be a boy from the high country #dot txt #niko plays bg3

[secretgamergirl]

StarCraft 2's story- Good or garbage?

I'm kind of lurking in the discord of a new RTS that's running a kickstarter right now. I don't know how strongly I want to endorse that because while what they have in the can looks darn good in terms of mechanics and gameplay polish and the people involved seem generally cool, I don't think anything at all is really pinned down otherwise. At the very least though it looks very "I'll make my own StarCraft 2! With blackjack! And hookers!" and I'm down for a game with that flavor of mechanics doing well when made by anyone other than, you know, Blizzard.

It's impossible not to draw comparisons when a game is pretty nakedly marketing itself as "we want to divorce the things we like about this one game from the monsters who made it" of course, and so now I'm thinking about just how powerfully terrible the writing was in StarCraft 2, but I'm not going to go off about it in some poor people who I don't know even have a writer yet's forums. I'm gonna ramble about it on my blog.

Now there's two ways to look at this one. We can look at the story of this game on its own, in a vacuum, or we can look at it as a continuation of the story of StarCraft. It's terrible by either standard, but let's start by looking at it as a continuation first.

Now, I'm not going to jump in here and just slap you with a novella long list of all the flagrant plot holes, direct contradictions, and unrecognizable characters if you actually go through these beat for beat. I've done so in the past. Might have done so on this blog. I mean when StarCraft 2 came out I was absolutely insufferable to everyone around me shouting about these things. Like... I don't even know how you can drop so many balls like that. Maybe they were doing that thing where they didn't even glance at the source material and were just poking around some fan wiki populated with random crap from tie-in novels and comics by people who were just going off on their own things... I do always have to mention though that whether by intent or incompetence they seem to have totally dropped the expansion's story from the canon, at least before 2's expansions came along years later.

But no, I want to focus on just basic themes and character arcs here. So the original base game of StarCraft breaks its story into three arcs, each from the POV of a character from one of the three playable factions in the game. This isn't the greatest structure for maintaining narrative cohesion throughout, especially when one of those factions is the communal hive mind of a big swarm of space bugs who at the end of the day just want to eat everything. And if I'm being brutally honest, there isn't a whole lot to write home about in the back third either. They kinda slipped back into old habits there and it's kinda just the sort of stock fantasy story you tend to get with games. Decadent ancient space elf empire ignores a big obvious problem due to hubris and a frankly incompetent leader, turns out their ancient traditions and prejudices are total BS, go quest for some magic rocks, have your big grand final battle where the hero self-sacrifices to blow up the monsters.

That first third though, and some threads that carry through the rest, have some good stuff going on. We've got a newly appointed magistrate (the unseen unvoiced player) and marshall (Jimmy) on some backwoodsy wild west sort of planet. They're pretty young and idealistic. Space bugs attack, they try to help, trying to help gets them in trouble with their higher ups who don't really buy the seriousness of this space bug invasion. Desperate for anyone to help fight the good fight, they fall in with a fringe militant cult leader (Mengsk) and his right-hand gal (Kerrigan) who he busted out of some government psychic supersoldier program. Jimmy immediately crushes on her, she doesn't reciprocate.

The gang goes along with all of Mengsk's plans, overthrowing the government to gain control of their armies and psychic experimentation programs to deal with these space bugs, and the level of moral compromise this involves gradually ratchets up until everyone finds themselves complicit in Mengsk killing the whole civilian population of the capital by having Kerrigan set up a psychic murderbug attractor and nobody bother's to evacuate her afterwards.

The other two realize they made a really bad choice of who to throw in with, smash up some major military hardware in the process of bailing on Mengsk as he's setting himself up as dictator for life, and eventually throw their lot in with the protagonists in the third arc, just kinda helping out while they do the whole deal of defying the orders of the ancient space elf council, learning the magic arts of the misunderstood outcasts, flying a big spaceship into the main brain controlling the space bugs. Kerrigan meanwhile gets converted into a space bug/human hybrid super soldier which... honestly feels like it's setting stuff up for a big showdown that just kinda never happens.

Still, we've got characters, they've got arcs. Mostly we have Jimmy (and the silent player character) learning the hard way that long-established power structures tend to be too inflexible to be helpful, and you should never trust anyone openly seeking personal power because they will just exploit everyone around them. It all even roughly follows the classic 3 act structure (and I mean, there's literally 3 acts mapping to that too, just that act 2 is all shown from a villain's perspective). In other media, this is sort of just the bare minimum, but games rarely bother with characters growing, changing, or having real setbacks that make them question things along their way.

This was followed up with the expansion, Brood War, which mirrors that same structure. One long story arc for each of three playable factions. Space elves largely doing standard fantasy beats, middle third switching to a villainous POV so radically different the main narrative gets largely put on hold, and some really good stuff with threads stretching through the whole thing.

Here the villain interlude is that it turns out Earth in this setting is run by full-on fascists, they caught wind of everything going on in this region where there'd previously been a big rebellion, and swing back in to clamp down again. They don't interact with the actual protagonists much (generally, they see the space nazis sweeping in and run off to lay low), so we mostly just have them swooping in and quickly mopping up Mengsk's little newfound dictatorship, with the actual story being the relationship dynamic between the guy in charge (DuGalle), his right hand man he's known forever (Stukov), and a local rebel welcoming them with open arms (Duran). Long story short, Duran's actually a double agent and very gradually pits the other two against each other. DuGalle eventually has Duran kill Stukov thinking he stabbed him in the back, realizes that's dumb, ultimately fails at his whole invasion, and in the epilogue kills himself, which if you read the relevant bit of my FF14 summaries, you know is how I like my stories about clear nazi analogues to end.

In the main narrative though, we pick right back up from the big heroic sacrifice with the bummer of a reveal that killing the primary brain of the psychic space bug collective didn't really get the job done, because some of its secondary brains (refreshingly not a concept pulled out of nowhere, these were firmly established to serve the dual purposes of having clear military targets for a giant pile of bugs, and a way to actually have enough characters for dialog exchanges in that third of the story) are trying to put the band back together. In their current disorganized state though, Kerrigan is no longer a semi-autonomous corrupted bug minion, but totally has her free will and sense of self restored, while still being all chitinous and at least somewhat capable of commanding the other bugs.

So as the whole expansion plays out, and the perspective shifts from the space elves doing some real desperate migration and defense because the plan to save their home world from the big bug invasion ultimately failed, through the nazi invasion, and ultimately to the POV of the secondary bug-brain you'd previously played as who'd been buggified Kerrigan's baby sitter essentially, now forced into taking orders from her, we are mostly dealing with this big hanging question of whether she's really good and trustworthy again, or secretly still under bug control, or if she's good for now but any minute that hivemind could properly come back online and take her over again. And of course, Jimmy's all angsty and pining because he never got over that one-sided crush.

While there's plenty of red flags about her being trustworthy over the course of things, the narrative actually manages to play things close to the chest well enough for the ultimate reveal to be a pretty fun twist. She absolutely 100% is fundamentally herself again, it's just that for a series of mostly pretty well-justified reasons, she absolutely hates every other character in the story. Either they've been trying to kill her, they abused and manipulated her, or they've totally objectified her. Or they're nazis who just showed up, who you don't really need a personal reason to want to kill, but just for good measure they're trying to revive and mind control the central bug mind, so, yeah, that's a threat. So at the last minute the whole thing just reveals itself as a big elaborate revenge story with a fairly strongly gendered theme about being denied agency and being othered, where the actually quite clear-headed just ruthless girl wins.

And then, a decade later, we get StarCraft 2. And what's the main narrative of StarCraft 2? We spend the whole time focused on Jimmy, who has somehow gone from this young idealistic biker/space cowboy with thinning hair, talking like a hippie and bouncing around getting in way over his head trying to rescue people from space bugs by just lending a hand to whoever else seems interested in doing that and crushing on this girl Kerrigan who couldn't be clearer about not liking him back to uh... some sort of gruff jaded old former military general with a bunch of old war buddies, a drinking problem, and a full head of hair, cruising around on his big personal battleship saving various worlds from the big space bug threat pretty much singlehandedly, and hoping to rescue his love interest Kerrigan from space bug mind control, with the help of some kind of prophesied magic space rocks you can build a big totem out of. It even completely de-buggifies her in the end, leaving a helpless little naked girl to chivalrously scoop off the ground and carry to safety. P.S. She's white now.

This isn't like, "oh whoops, we forgot the main character lost one of his boots at the end of last season" nitpicking. This is doing complete 180s on the character arcs and backstories of the central characters here. Kerrigan not needing to be rescued from zerg corruption is the ENTIRE point of Brood War's story. Which also establishes there's no longer really a zerg threat of any sort beyond what she personally wants to tell her mindless bug pals to do. And really, even if you want to de-canonize all of that for whatever reason, tacking a "hero saves the girl" ending onto the story we had in the base game of the original StarCraft still just does not work. You're taking a story whose whole theme is "putting faith in the wrong sort of person has serious consequences" and then turning around and going "actually no it doesn't."

And you know, speaking of Mengsk, it's a much lesser point, but StarCraft 2 depicts him like he's some sort of grandiose emperor from some ancient dynasty. Big imperial palace, little silver spoon in his mouth prince of a son who wants to break from his family's legacy, the whole nine yards. Again, this both fundamentally misunderstands his part in the whole central narrative, and everything that happened to him in the expansion (where not very long at all after his big power grab the UED showed up and completely took him apart, and would have executed him but Kerrigan prolonged that to watch him squirm). And when did he have this kid of his? With who? And where is Jimmy getting all these war buddies? He didn't have'em at the start of things or he wouldn't have had to join up with Mengsk. And his war buddies from that war would just be the magistrate and the surviving protoss characters who act like they barely know him here.

So, no. This does not hold up at all as a continuation. How about if we just look at it in a vacuum then?

Nope, still bad. It leans heavily on a backstory we don't get to see. And I don't mean we're missing a ton of StarCraft 1 flashbacks. I mean, we have all these "old buddy" characters, especially Tychus, but we don't get into how they became friends or do anything to show how they still are, so there's no real emotional stakes to where that ends up going. We start with him drinking his life away in a bar over how he misses this apparent old girlfriend, but we never get into the history between them and even the depressed drinking never comes up again past that shot. We vaguely establish some bitter history with this Mengsk guy, but that never really leads anywhere at all. We just kinda have these various vague and generic handwaves at Standard Protagonist Backstory Stuff. Then we actually dive into things, and it's this very episodic affair where you just hop around from planet to planet either showing up to rescue people or showing up to collect a magic rock to help build the magic Toblerone that cures being half-space-bug. And I mean, I already covered how this sort of simplistic no tension, hero always wins, collect all the treasures for victory sort of narrative is the general baseline for game writing, but other people have been trying to move things forward the last couple decades and this is just sitting at the starting line with a princess to rescue.

Now to be fair, the original StarCraft absolutely also had questing around for magic rocks. The protoss have a totally magic rock based electrical grid, the overmind wanted to eat their special magic rocks to make them more vulnerable, the last protoss mission even had a big ancient temple that did an energy blast, but that one just killed all life on the planet outside of its immediate vicinity, which feels like a more grounded thing for an ancient alien artifact to do than... vaporize/purify space bugs and leave everything else alone. And it wasn't scattered in little bits everywhere.

And then of course there's the expansions to StarCraft 2... well the good thing here is they're so divorced from anything in the original game, and even from the base game of StarCraft 2 that you don't have to worry about them messing with the legacy. I mean, OK, Heart of the Swarm has this whole weird reset where we have Kerrigan mostly human again, just so she can go on a big spirit journey and bug herself up again, so that she's strong enough for her ultimate goal of... showing up to take down Mengsk... again. And you somehow end up with a zergified version of Stukov which... OK that's just the weirdest possible way to double back and recanonize that expansion. I'm not sure that Kerrigan and Stukov were ever even really aware of each other's existence, and he died to a bullet through the head in a military base with no zerg anywhere near it. I mean, unless you remember that Duran was a double agent working for Kerrigan. Except the thing there is if you know the plot of the secret epilogue mission you'd know he was ACTUALLY one of the secret ancient aliens who created both the protoss and the zerg just pretending to a horrible bug monster spy for Kerrigan, in turn pretending to be a normal human. And that's a pretty obscure detail I'd forgive someone for missing except that literally in the mission where you're playing as Zerg-Stukov, the whole reason you're playing as Zerg-Stukov is that Kerrigan is busy doing one of those things where the two wizards fire big energy blasts at each other like some kind of tug-of-war with weird phallic overtones, and the big energy phallus she's trying to squish back is FROM Duran, in his revealed-himself-to-be-that-whole-mess glory. They remembered one thing only to get it wrong basically.

But yeah, otherwise that one's just so wild a departure I don't even know what to say. There's just... named zerg characters? They're all like bug centaurs? Because we need people to talk to and they just totally forgot they had cerebrates to get around that problem? Instead of the ancient ancestral zerg being like, psychic ringworms gradually specializing their hosts over generations, here they're like... talking dinosaur puppies who steal each other's "essence" to get huge? Past a point there's so little resemblance to the source material that I can't even be mad. And then the protoss expansion just kinda decides that the whole casting the dark templar out of their society over irreconcilable religious differences is something they've actually done like... 3 or 4 times? So we've got the outcast invisible jedi and the outcast robots and the outcast Darth Vader wannabes with some sort of society-wide ordered queue where there's exactly one person directly ahead of everyone they're allowed to kill to move up in the world. Oh and we're claiming this one robot centaur is Fenix somehow. Despite Fenix being very dead, and this robot centaur neither having that goofy muppet-y orc voice nor the overwhelmingly positive attitude. And he also somehow doesn't notice that he's a robot centaur and not a guy in a life support pod inside a robot spider. They also expect us to believe this little naked twink turned into this pile of steroids and shoulderpads somehow:

Oh! I almost forgot but also there's this thing called the Khala and it's unambiguously this set of religious teachings defining a caste system and such... but then here someone watched Avatar so we're retconning that into some sort of psychic spiritual network you connect to through your hair. You don't plug your hair in though it's just like a wifi antenna. Also it only works if you're part of the main society that keeps throwing other people out none of these other people have hair wifi. Also like the entire deal here is that protoss just are not psychic, it's their one flaw. There's this whole thing with them representing physical perfection but being held back by being a bunch of very religious idiots, while the zerg are mentally perfect what with the hive mind but physically just, like, a ringworm, so the ultimate life form their creators really wanted to create requires the zerg to take over the protoss, or just going screw it and hybridizing the two in a lab. Again, this is one of those really obscure details, it only comes up in the weird backstory in the manual that doesn't even get touched on in the game outside the one secret mission in the expansion... but here we have the same scene both acknowledging that deep lore and totally contradicting it.

But yeah, taken as their own independent stories... well... what stories? Kerrigan wants to be a big buff bug lady so she can depose a jerk she already deposed, and she does that. There are no complications or twists along the way. "Artanis" has to go collect all the protoss the in-group don't count as people, because Satan got into their hair wifi and anyone who didn't just get a haircut turned evil. So he goes and does that. Again, no complications of any sort along the way. Also no real ideological conflicts.

The deal with the robot protoss is some idiots went "hey what if we took all of our greatest most celebrated heroes and we copied their minds into robots in their entirety" and then got super confused that they still, you know, want to be treated as people with rights and such and not just mindless robots. So, you know, simple fix there. Then the... actually just evil ones are... lead by John DeLancey. Everyone likes him. So, problem resolved? And the dark templar are already befriended from before, so nothing's needed there besides going to their homeworld to pick them up. Their uh.... home world everyone already evacuated to and then that was compromised and their leader was replaced with puppet and then everyone maybe died? But yeah they're fine.

So then after all the racism is solved forever by just... deciding not to do that anymore, Kerrigan jumps in some kind of magic pool to transform into a giant naked golden angel, and she does this to become the embodiment of purity of essence we apparently need (which also purges all zerg-ness I guess?) and... look there's no easy way to say this. It turns into Homestuck. That whole convoluted thing from Homestuck where there's this eternal cycle of universes being created by light and dark themed people teaming up to create the next one and in theory kind of operate as it's gods but not if they don't feel like it... we're just ripping all that off wholesale for this complete asspull of an ending. And then everyone shoots space satan in the face. He's a big squid. And then Kerrigan turns back into a normal human girl so she can go on a date with Jimmy. Oh and then there's a third expansion recycling the scrapped plot from that action game they were going to do back on the N64 or whatever but I learned how awful the company was before getting curious enough on that one.

It's just bad. Even by game writing standards, it's bad. And I didn't even get into how bad it is with women in particular. We've got the big doe-eyed scientist who needs to be rescued from the scary bugs and then oh no it turns out she got bit by a bug and now she's turning into one and has to be put down (and no, this has never been how that worked). Then we've got Kerrigan who aside from needing rescuing and purifying and coming out naked has this whole expansion to herself where in theory she's totally in charge and self-directing every decision, but every time you click anywhere the confirmation is just her getting all pouty and whiny? Like a toddler you're telling to put shoes on so you can go to the doctor or something? Like, is it just me? Is it the direction? Is it the voice filter? Was the actress just miserable in the recording booth?

Then she's got this little bug girl assistant who hangs down from the ceiling, kinda like the adjutant from the original StarCraft, but instead of being all detatched and robotic she's all uwu pwecious? And the protoss campaign just kinda keeps turning women into mouthpieces for Satan. It's... a whole thing.

So yeah, badly written stories all throughout, no matter how you slice it. No continuity, no consistency, no character arcs or tension, just be the big cool action hero, do some getting the band back together stuff, collect some magic rocks and ritual circles, purify this girl here with the big magic circle (3 times no less) and then whatever there's space Satan. It's a mess... did I even have a larger point with this?

Probably not, but it was entertaining I hope? Maybe throw a little cash my way?

#Starcraft 2 #blizzard #terrible writing #game writing #People always object to me pointing out Kerrigan wasn't originally white but oh wow those people have nothing on the bald Jimmy deniers #like people come up and say OK he looks bald in his chat window animations but it's an old game and they couldn't do hair right back then #except no everyone else totally has hair and mostly it looks fine for real there was a conscious design choice to give him receding hair OK #Anyway Blizzard is terrible and nobody should support them in any way just boycott those monsters please

[pixies-and-poets]

Of Verses and Curses: Chapter Three

Heyo friends! I’m gonna try and speed up the update schedule on this as much as I’m able, or I’m still gonna be working on this into late March lol. So here you go, the long-awaited part three, in which the object of affection finally arrives, and all the setup is finally in place! Now we can start getting to... the good stuff. Content warnings: Nothing! This part is just nice and light and fun. Headcanon/fanon notes are gonna be at the end this time because it makes more sense that way!

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three - Arrival

The Phantom puffed out a sigh as he looked at himself in the mirror. He had powdered his face, powdered his hair; no amount of powder was enough. He preened his ears, he waxed his mustache, he brushed his fur with a tiny comb, he adjusted his cravat, all with an anxious rapidity that would have been astonishing to behold. But he felt nothing could hide the slight bags under his bulging eyes, the fact that he looked a little worn out, a little dead, which he SHOULDN’T! -Despite the whole ghost thing. No one looked their best after a long flight, but especially not him… not with what he’d been through lately.

“Something the matter, sir?” His driver and personal assistant, a little grey-cloaked Shy Guy, was looking backwards out of the cockpit towards the rear of the space-trailer. After all, they were on auto-pilot to Palette Prime right now, the stars streaking by them through hyperspace, and there wasn’t much he needed to do.

“Oh, YOU know, Gerald,” Phantom groaned, pivoting his head toward his driver dramatically, his ears flopping so pathetically low they almost covered his eyes. “I’m about to make myself known to a whole new swathe of people, and I have to do it looking like this!” 

“I think you look fine, sir,” said Gerald matter-of-factly. “This is some backwoodsy planet, right? A real nowheresville? I think you’re gonna be the prettiest and fanciest Rabbid the yokels in this place have ever seen, by far.”

“No doubt about that,” he rejoined. "And yet, it is not enough to be the best they have seen. I must be THE best! The best I can be!”

“Well, we can turn around, sir, if you’re not feeling up to it-”

“No, no!” he said, with a shake of his head and a wave of his arm. “Let us continue as planned.” He turned back to the mirror, laid his elbow on the desk of the vanity and his face in his paw, and sighed again.

At least his clothes were impeccably sharp - when he had lost his voice, so too had he largely given up his former attire. Gone into mourning, as it were, these days he was largely wearing black cloaks, although he kept his panache with vests of various colors underneath. Today, his pure white cravat was tucked into a gold vest with polished silver buttons. His black coat on top, also bedecked with shining silver buttons and trim, split into two long tails, one on either side of his own tail.

In about thirty minutes the ship was in orbit above the planet itself. Phantom stared out of his window, down at the orb floating in the starry cosmos below him, orange and red and earthy-brown. The sight was almost enough to dispel his woes. It was… beautiful, he had to admit. Just like he had read about. His hand went to something tucked in an inner breast-pocket of his coat, and he was about to withdraw it, when Gerald’s voice rang out, “Okay, sir, I’ve located the landing spot. We’re making our descent.” Phantom decided to leave it for now, looking back in the mirror to make his final preparations.

Gerald, who had once been a master pilot in Bowser’s airship forces and taken quickly to space travel, could pilot Phantom’s luxury trailer with absolute finesse; there was no one the singer trusted more. Before long, he felt a smooth deceleration as the ship’s nose pulled up slightly, and then an ever-so-small jolt as it settled into place on the ground. Phantom pulled himself together as the Shy Guy disembarked to make sure all was ready for his employer’s arrival. After a few minutes, he re-entered the craft and called out to his boss, “Right, sir. They’re waiting for you.”

While Gerald had entered and left by his smaller pilot’s door, Phantom now pressed a button inside the ship, and with a hiss and a click, a large hydraulic entrance opened upwards from the side of the hull, and a small ramp slid down into the grass. He did not, of course, need the ramp. But it was a show of luxury all the same. With that, the star floated out of his ship and into the gentle sunlight of Palette Prime.

He looked about him; they had landed in a large field, in which a moderate crowd of Rabbids had gathered; many of them were in overalls, or plaid flannel, and hats; most were small common Rabbids, although there were some larger ones who looked like they had probably found themselves employment as lumberjacks; some were still carrying their farming or logging tools. Several children gathered about him and bwaahed excitedly, always happy for when a real celebrity came into their midst, whether or not they had any clue who the visitor was supposed to be. Phantom greeted the crowd as cheerfully as he could muster, letting them all know how pleased he was to be there, and that he would be holding an album signing TOMORROW, and that today was for resting and getting to know their fine planet-

It was then that he saw, standing in the back of the crowd and a little apart from the rest, an odd trio. One was seemingly a woodsman, nothing too remarkable around here except for having some kind of living animal on his head. On his right side was… what WAS that? An ethereal floating nymph, with a strained smile but looking like she really didn’t want to be there. And on the other… a tall, morose figure, standing almost as still as a statue; the only movement associated with him coming from the turbulent roiling of a small cloud which hovered above his head, occasionally spattering rain onto the umbrella he held. Phantom looked the figure directly in the eyes- or rather, he assumed he must be doing so; it was hard to tell behind those glasses. It seemed to him that the figure clutched his umbrella just a bit tighter, and that his ears, frazzled and blackened at the tips, twitched ever so slightly.

Having satisfied the rest of the crowd and answered their questions, Phantom made his way to the trio at the back. “Bonjour!” he said grandly, spreading his arms. “You must be the warden here. Monsieur Woodrow?”

The tall, thin Rabbid gave a nervous nod, and then a bow, extending one arm to his side while keeping the other on his umbrella. “Yes! Guilty as charged, Mr. Phantom. Ah- Monsieur Phantom-”

“Mister does just fine,” said the ghost, amused.

“And these are my most cherished companions,” said the warden, motioning to the two beside him, “Sweetlopek the lumberjack, and Dryad the- er-”

“The dryad,” she said coyly, extending her hand with a smile towards the Phantom. He shook her tiny paw in his own large one. Sweetlopek also shook his hand, with a gruff “Hullo.” Phantom then turned back to the warden, expectantly.

Woodrow’s eyes widened behind his glasses as he suddenly realized what was expected of him. He extended his hand, and Phantom gripped it in his own. Tightly. Or was Woodrow just imagining that due to his own tension? With how nervous he was- he was already making a fool of himself. He couldn’t… he couldn’t deal with words right now. He needed poems to speak for him; he was a fool with his own tongue otherwise, he couldn’t WORDS-

And yet, something occurred to him, which distracted him anew: one of the questions, the curiosities, he’d been harboring toward the Phantom was now answered- his spectrality did not grant his form an overall chill. His hand was warm, and there was… comfort in that. Startling, fascinating comfort.

“So,” said the Phantom, withdrawing his hand after what seemed a very long moment. “Will you, Sir Warden, be guiding me to my ‘otel?”

“Ah,” said Woodrow, “yes! Yes, I shall.”

“I have a number of suitcases and other items to transfer there,” said the singer with a gesture to his vessel. “I believe my assistant will need to make several trips, unless there is someone else who may assist…” His eyes made a sly dart to the burly lumberjack standing in their vicinity.

“Yeh, I’ll do it,” grunted Sweetlopek, though he was eyeing the newcomer warily.

Soon the five of them made a little parade through Paletteville: Sweetlopek laden with bags like a pack-mule, Gerald the Shy Guy rolling a couple suitcases along, Woodrow carrying a bag in his non-umbrella hand, and even Dryad floating with a couple little stacked hatboxes. Phantom himself was the only person carrying not a single thing.

It wasn’t long before they reached the Portly Pumpkin, the village’s highest-rated bed and breakfast. Once the luggage had all been transferred to the inn’s bellhop for moving to Phantom’s room, Gerald gave his employer a little nod.

“Well, see you, sir,” he said. While the Phantom was tending to his health on Palette Prime, the Shy Guy would be taking some time off of his own, to visit family in the Mushroom Kingdom. “Enjoy yourself, and keep me posted. Just shoot me an email when you’ve had enough of this place- that is, whenever you’re ready to leave. I can be here in a jiff.”

“Enjoy your break as well, Geri,” said the Phantom with a grand wave, as his assistant waddled off back towards the ship.

“So, uh, we’ll be off too then,” said Sweetlopek quickly, taking Dryad’s hand, and looking askance at the singer and the poet. “We’ve got things to get back to. See ya ‘round!” Before either of the others could say a word, they had dashed off, hand in hand, leaving a flurry of orange leaves behind them.

Standing outside the inn, Woodrow found himself suddenly alone with a celebrity. He gave, once more, a nervous little bow. “I suppose you will want to rest and refresh yourself,” he said. “But I am ever at your service while you’re here. My home is the one-” with the cloud… and the leaks… and the disrepair… oh no. Oh no, he did NOT want the Phantom to see his house. “Well! Actually, just send for me. That shall be easier; everyone here knows where I live. I shall be at your side as quick as I can.”

“As a matter of fact,” said the Phantom, “I wish you might stay with me now, if it’s not too much trouble. I do want to freshen myself up, but if you would not mind waiting here, say, fifteen minutes? I should very much like to begin my time here with a tour of the area, from the planet’s very own warden.”

“Oh!” said Woodrow, surprised. “Well, certainly, I shall do my best.” Then something occurred to him- “Unless you would rather find a tour guide that won’t occasionally get you wet.” He pointed upward sheepishly at his own umbrella, and the little cloud that floated above it.

The singer laughed. “Oui, I did not know how to ask, but- is this a regular occurrence, for you?”

“More than regular. Quite constant,” the warden answered. “I am afraid you will have to get used to her, in my presence.”

“Her?”

“Ah! Well, yes… she seems to like being referred to that way, although ‘it’ is fine too. Her name is Jinx- she likes that as well.” He put out his paw, and the cloud drifted down to it, enwrapping it in vapor. “She only rains on me, most of the time, but still - you might bring your own umbrella, just in case.”

“Quite charming,” said Phantom, and he meant it. “I have never seen such a pet in my life!” He put out his own paw, and to Woodrow’s astonishment, the cloud drifted over to it, and sat in it instead.

Clingy and protective of her companion, Jinx did not usually take to others, at least not so quickly; and the warden, thankful for how much his glasses concealed the expression of his eyes, tried to swallow the mix of joy and dismay that flooded him. What did this mean? If the Phantom knew what she really was - a manifestation of bad luck, a symbol of the curse to which the universe had bound Woodrow’s life - perhaps he would not regard her with such delight.

[Next time: Woodrow gives his guest a tour of a perfectly idyllic planet with nothing out of the ordinary and HEY IS THAT A MOON ON THE GROUND OVER THERE-

Headcanon/fanon notes: I feel like the Phantom would have a personal assistant, and my idea was that they’d be a non-rabbid Mushroom Kingdom resident. After all, Phantom was the only rabbid in the Kingdom who could talk for a long time, so I figure it would be someone he’d come to know during that time when he still felt pretty isolated from the rest of his species.

The idea that the cloud is named Jinx I thiiiink came from @randomrabbidramblings originally and has been fleshed out by several other people. I originally didn’t want to wade into fanon on that in order to keep this story as universally approachable as possible, but I figured it’s too big a part of Woodrow’s existence to not commit hard to an idea for, especially since I like personifying her anyway.]

#mario + rabbids #mario plus rabbids #mario rpgs #fanfic #woodrow #ts woodrow #the phantom #phandrow

[abbatoirablaze]

Bad Girl's Club, Chapter 4

Word Count:  1.3k

Warnings:  age gap, taboo flirting.

“You ready for some chemistry?” Avery asked as she and Jenna walked towards their next class.  Jenna gave her a sideways glance and she sighed, “what?  Can’t I be excited about my next class?  Our next class?”

“You mean the next class that involves your crush?” she teased light heartedly.  Avery blushed and looked away from her new friend.  Jenna began to feel bad about teasing her new friend and she patted her shoulder and threw on a smile, “yeah…sure, I’m glad you’re excited.  Now I get to see just how much you flirt with Sam’s brother…”

“And then next period you’ll see just how much she flirts with my dad…” she threw back.  Jenna rolled her eyes, but Avery continued, “I’m serious…for as much flirting as I get accused for, she needs to take a look in the mirror.  Jess is always telling me that she flirts with my dad and is always all googly eyed over him.”

“Have you ever thought about that?” Jenna asked after a moment.  Avery looked at her curiously as she sat at one of the workbenches with her near the back of the class, “like…if you two ever got together, or her and your dad did…”

“What do you mean?”

“She would be your stepmom…but you would be like her sister in law,” Jenna shrugged, “I don’t know…that kind of thing seems a little too backwoodsy for me…but if it works, I guess, who am I to knock it.”

“Well nothings ever gonna happen,” she pointed out, looking back towards the door, where Johnny Storm had yet to come through, “Johnny Storm is-“

“ALRIGHT CLASS LET’S GET STARTED!” Johnny said enthusiastically as he came into the room, cutting off Avery’s sentiment.  Jenna noticed that her back immediately got straighter and she sat up, giving him her full attention, “TODAY WE’RE GOING TO BE WORKING WITH THE BURNERS.  SO, EVERYONE PARTNER UP AND GRAB YOUR KITS!”

With a snap of his fingers, he walked around to the front of the class, a flame delicately balanced between his fingers.  A few of the girls began to giggle, making comments about what else their teacher’s hand could do, to which he would playfully roll his eyes, telling them to go get their sets.  Jenna watched curiously while Avery gave a sigh and turned away to grab one of the kits in the back of the classroom.  Numerous other girls were continuing to giggle and fawning over him.  She felt bad for her newfound friend as she returned, until Johnny stopped at their bench, shooting her a wink, “Who’s ready to get excited about chemistry?  Who feels it in their bones?”

A few of the girls cheered, and Johnny smiled, tapping the edge of their bench and he went up to his laptop.  Pressing a few buttons, the projector whirred to life, and the outline for the lab appeared. 

“Was it just me, or did he wink at you?” Jenna whispered in a hushed voice. 

Avery blushed and looked away, “J-Johnny was just being a flirt…he’s like that with everyone.”

“Hmmm…I don’t know, Avery…he kind of just brushes the other girls off.”

Only, Jenna noticed that Johnny only really ever seemed to shoot winks towards Avery or stop by their workbench more than the other girls.  She didn’t want to inflate whatever thoughts Avery had about the professor, but even she could see the chemistry between the two. 

“Yeah right…he’s not into me.”

“Sure he is,” she teased lightly, during another round after he’d passed by them, “and I’m sure he looks down everyone else’s blouses too!”

Avery jumped, knocking one of the mixtures over, along with the burner.  Both girls were quick to jump away from the workbench while Johnny simply snapped, stopping the fire in its place.  A few of the other girls at the surrounding workbenches had moved away from them, all too familiar with the usual habit of Avery setting something on fire.

“Again.”

“Come on Collins.”

“Every class we work with the burners.”

“Professor Storm she’s doing it on purpose!”

Avery frowned, feeling self-conscious as she looked away from her classmates.  Jenna placed a hand on her back and rubbed it soothingly, “it’s okay, Avery.”

“Easy girls,” Johnny warned as he tamped the fire out, “we’ve gone over this before.”

“Professor Storm it’s every class we work with our kits!” one of the girls complained.

“Natalie, you barely pass my class as it is, do you want to get low marks for insubordination and bringing down morale too?” he asked.  The girl instantly paled, shutting her mouth, “get back to your labs.”  

He waited until the other girls had gone back to their workbenches and resumed.  Then he walked over to Avery, giving her a sympathetic look, “you okay, sweetheart?”

Avery blushed, a deep shade of red as she nodded, unable to seemingly find her voice around the professor that she’d had a crush on.  It was then that Johnny had turned his attention to Jenna, finally taking notice of her, “you’re new.”

“Y-yes sir.”

Johnny smiled, the title an instant stroke to his ego.  He nodded at Avery, “and you got her leading ya around, do you?”

“She’s a really good guide.”

“She’s one of my best students,” Johnny admitted softly, giving her an equally soft look, “you know…when she’s not trying to set the classroom on fire.”

“I-it’s not on purpose like the other girls are saying.  I swear, Professor Storm.”

“Next time we work with kits, come sit at the empty desk by mine girls,” he replied in earnest, “that way I can help you and keep a closer eye on things, okay?”

“Yes Professor Storm.”

“Good girl,” he smirked, patting her arm, “are the two of you okay?  I stopped the fire as soon as I saw it.  You don’t have the chemicals on you or anything?”

“I-I don’t think so.”

“I’m okay.”

“Good…you two don’t have to finish the lab today but read the chapter on the chemical reactions from section four to do your write-ups.  It’s got the lab’s walkthrough.”

“A-are you sure I can’t re-do it, Professor Storm?” Avery asked, biting her lip, “I’d hate to take the easy way out.”

He nodded, giving her a smile, “tell you what…Sue has to pick up Sam today to take her to the facility…I have an hour or so before I have to be there.  I can write a note to your last class of the day with Tucker, and we can work on the lab.  I have a free period as my last block so we can get it done then and use any extra time that you need for questions…does that work?”

“Th-that sounds perfect.  Thank you, Professor Storm.”

“Read the section then so you’re prepared for the end of the day, okay sweetheart?”

“Y-yes sir.”

“Good girl!  Get your station cleaned up and get reading then!” he smiled, shooting her another wink before he walked off to the front of the class. 

“And you think he doesn’t like you?” Jenna teased as the two girls started cleaning up the station.

She bit her lip, shaking her head, “Johnny is just being nice.”

“How many of the other professors would do that?” Jenna asked, “how many do you know that would give up a free period to personally walk you through the labs?  And how many are you on a first name basis with?”

“H-he does it pretty frequently with me,” she admitted softly, “I mean…I don’t know if he does it for anyone else, but I would think that he does.”

“Avery…I think that Johnny likes you too!” Jenna told her friend.  Avery blushed and looked away from her friend, her eyes settling on the professor who was helping yet another student with a question that they’d had.  

“Come on, we need to get this cleaned up if we’re going to read the section.”

“Yeah…you gotta be prepared for your date later.”

“It’s not a date.”

“Well, there’s chemistry going on…some pretty intense chemistry,” Jenna giggled as she nudged Avery, “and I don’t think it’s from the class…I think it’s from you and Professor fireball over there!”

Chapter 5

#bad girls club #badgirlsclub #chris evans characters #johnny storm #the human torch #human torch #the fantastic four #fantastic 4 #fantastic four

[xylophonetangerine]

There used to be a giant tacky statue of President Urho Kekkonen's head in a square in the middle of Oulu that had to be moved in 1989 when Mikhail Gorbachev visited Finland because it would have been embarrassing or bad for foreign relations to have it there or whatever. But while they were moving it it cracked and broke into pieces and then someone wrote an opera about it because at the time there was a trend of so called karvalakkiooppera (fur hat opera) in Finland which were operas about subjects that were like backwoodsy and written in a relatively traditional, tonal style that had popular appeal but which wasn't very innovative musically. I don't think the Kekkonen's head opera has ever been revived which is probably for the best.

#pointless story #text

[loominggaia]

Are certain character's voices meant to be read with an accent? I noticed Itchy has a tendency to call people "lad" or "lass," or sometimes "lassie," which makes me think of a Scottish accent.

Good question! I imagine the accents that exist on Looming Gaia would be different from anything you'd hear on Earth. Some might have similarities with real-world accents, but they're meant to be interpreted however the reader wants them to be.

I write the series as if it's being translated from some fictional language anyway. The way the characters' different accents are interpreted could just be the interpretation of the translator.

I personally imagine Jeimos, Skel, and Mr. Ocean all have British accents, but Jeimos' accent is more posh and refined, Skel has a snooty David Bowie thing going on, and Mr. Ocean just sounds like Salad Fingers. I imagine Evan with a slight Irish or generic "medieval" accent. I can't imagine Alaine with anything but a west coast American accent for some reason, it just fits her imo. Those are just some of my own interpretations.

As for Itchy, I've always imagined this really rough, shitty voice coming out of him, kind of like Kurt Cobain, but with maybe an American hillbilly twang to it. He talks like a backwoodsy guy who never got a formal education. I wanted to depict that in the way he speaks without getting too specific, so that the reader could interpret his accent in any way that feels right to them. This goes for all of the characters.

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

#ask #askliterature #askitchy #askworldbuilding

[deathmimedream]

(I know this is via the love,Nikki game, but it works)

New muse bio:

Name: Iulian Lytvynn

Alias: Chime/kitten

Age: looks 12, is 42…doesn’t normally act apparent age.

Height: 4’2”

Weight: varies by shapeshifter form, but average is 85-95 pounds

Eyes: husky blue

Hair: silver grey, a few cream colored tabby stripes.

Skin: pale

Gender: cis male

Sexuality: ace/platonic

Race: kindred, Gangrel clan (vampire, backwoodsy type)

Beastmarks: ears, tail, clawed hands and feet

Powers/disciplines: Fortitude, Protean, animalisim, celerity

(Basically he has mystic body armor, shapeshifting, the mystic ability to talk to all animals/borrow abilities from them, and move faster than normal humans.)

Stats: (1-5 ratings where in d&d terms, 1 is weak, 2 average, 3 above, 4 exceptional and 5, heroic)

Strength: 3 (can pick up an adult three times his weight easily)

Dex: 4 (moves fast, and with ease in most environments)

Stamina: 3 (tires after a long eight hour hike/run)

Appearance: 4 (cute lil shit)

Charisma: 4 (and easy to get along with too)

Manipulation: 3 (kid’s got people wrapped around his pinkie)

Intelligence: 3 (self taught college grade smarts)

Perception: 4 (not much gets by him)

Wits: 3 (smart enough to know better, but cute enough to get away with it)

Skills: mainly stealth, larceny, survival, dodge, melee, brawl, and firearms (specialty is slingshot) also: occult, performance (song/dance) expression: painting, and security (lock picking, breaking and entering)

Chime was six when Chernobyl went up, and it left him orphaned and homeless.

Living on the streets was rough, but he found friends with the local street kids in Kyiv. One night, he went to bed in an abandoned cellar, and woke the next as a Vampire, with no real idea what he was or what to do.

Luck was on his side, as within a week, an Irish born Gangrel and his toreador (artisan vampire clan) wife ran across the poor child.

They took him in, and brought him to London, where they resided as part of the prince’s court. (Prince is title of the vampire running the city)

Over time, Chime learned the laws of the night, and in an excursion to New York, found he enjoyed it there far more than England, so he chose to stay.

He travels around, but stays far from the Sabbat (evil vampires) strongholds.

He’s clever, resourceful but thanks to his creation, is forever a twelve year old child.

[marginalizedmormon]

Love from Missouri

As our time in Utah winds down we are now looking for property in Missouri. Far from the backwoodsy rural land it once was, real estate has become expensive here too. We lost about $140,000 in equity after selling our house in Kaysville because I couldn’t stand being bullied and marginalized by members of the church I was assigned to. Now we could really use the $ to move and get established. I’ve tried to forgive everyone who was so unkind. The Lord promises to bless who and where he will. We could use some help.

[yupyupppippi]

Initial character concept from last September to (unfinished) drawing from today...

#stupid photo post #my sketchbook #grackle #changed her from a druid/warlock to full warlock with archfey patron #has ‘nature aesthetic’ but less backwoodsy and more in the sense art nouveau has a nature aesthetic #character has shifted to be into fancy things and disguises #and idk i think she wants to become a goddess or something #she wants powerrrrrrr #and also to have fun and make friends along the way

[crooked-city]

HEY do any of you have any Insulting Names that a EXTREMELY Backwoodsy Nature-flight Dragon might use for those Techie Lightning Flight Dragons?

#I'm working on some lore..... #The Character has Notes of Backwoodsy Horror Movie Murderer #Feel free to boost if you think your followers might be able to help :x

[gnostic-heretic]

@spiritussalis

If you wander too far from the cities and into the backwoods of the south, you get teleported to an excessively religious, abandoned waffle house with a shrine dedicated to waffle jesus

i don’t even have anything to say, this is beautiful

#the backwoodsy south fascinates me #about as much as the polygamous mormons in utah

[momolady]

Hazelmere & Mathias the Vampire Couple 2

Hazelmere and Mathias continue to lure you into their sexy arms. I suppose you were seduced before, but they can’t really turn it off.

Female Reader x Male Monster (genderfluid) x Female Monster (cis)

It’s not exactly dating, at least not the kind you’re used to. Even though there are two of them, there are still hints of what you’d call dating. It’s just different. It has been nice getting to know Mathias and Hazelmere, especially with how work has been lately. The law firm is getting slammed with a lot of extra cases lately, which means twice the amount of work that you’re used to. You work lots of late nights, which often leaves you worn out during your visits to Mathias and Hazelmere’s home.

“If you’re exhausted you don’t have to come see us,” Hazelmere coos one evening.

You’ve just walked in and are taking off your heels at the door. It was storming outside, so your shoes and feet are wet. You also forgot your umbrella at work, so you’re a bit soggy from the trip from your car to their door. “I want to. I feel like I need it lately.” You look up at Hazelmere, quickly swooping a stray hair out of your face. “Work can be so confidence-shattering sometimes.”

Hazelmere hums to herself as she thinks. “No one has said anything to you, have they?”

“Only when they want to blame something on someone.” You go into the parlor, where Mathias is already mixing up your drink.

“It is hard to be the underdog on the chain,” Mathias adds. “Easy to get kicked. Why, I remember before I met my Hazelmere, I was constantly bullied. I was such sweet, tender prey.” He hands you off the drink he prepared with expert care.

You sigh as you lounge back on the sofa. Hazelmere pulls your feet into her lap and begins kneading the arches. “I can’t imagine you being timid,” you say.

“He was an absolute puppy back in the day,” Hazelmere chuckles. “He still can be, but I taught him a thing or two.”

You sip your drink, watching as Mathias kisses Hazelmere’s neck. “How did you two meet, by the way?”

“It is not as exciting as I’m sure you’re expecting it to be,” Mathias moves to the fireplace, jabbing it with a poker. “I was tasked with styling a dress for Hazelmere, we got to talking, and it was history.”

“Oh,” you say simply. “I was expecting some grand romance.”

“That came later,” Hazelmere states matter of factly. “In the beginning it was all - oh, what did you call it, dear?”

Mathias smirks. “Wild, unbridled, bats-in-the-belfry fucking.”

You almost choke on your drink.

Hazelmere smiles and nods. “That’s it. It was just a sexual conquest for both of us, nothing special. That came with time.”

You clear your throat and take a breath. “So, the sex dungeon?”

“Well, we still like fucking.” Hazelmere rubs her hand up your leg.

“It shows you two are compatible,” you sigh. “My last ex and I were far from it.” You sit up more stiffly. “He was complicated, I guess is the best word. Sweet boy...”

“But you call him boy,” Mathias points out.

“Yeah well, he was backwoodsy, had a lot of backward thoughts in his head. It kind of confused him in the real world.” You frown a bit. “I liked him. I wanted to make it work. He was a virgin, though.”

Hazelmere snickers. “My goodness, you must be joking.”

You shake your head. “The way he talked sometimes it felt like he was asexual, but he didn’t accept that as something real. Had to have a family and all the junk, so he couldn’t be.” You shake your head. “He also got excited when I mentioned my bra size, so it was a little weird.”

“What ended it, then?” Mathias asks.

You smirk at the memory, which still pissed you off to this day. “He called my period disgusting.”

Both of them make a face. “You did say backwoodsy,” Mathias sighs.

“I can’t believe in this day and age it’s still treated with such a level of ignorance.” Hazelmere frowns. “I take that back, I can.”

“It’s over with. I just think about it when I want to be upset, you know?” You finish off your drink and set the empty glass aside. “After that, I just kept busy with work.” You sigh and take down your hair from its bun. Outside thunder booms, and the lights in the house flicker.

“I’ll go and fetch some candles, just in case.” Mathias says.

“Maybe I should go home,” you sigh. “I don’t want to be a bother.”

Hazelmere shakes her head. “I insist you stay the night. You may live close, but most accidents occur near the home.” She moves closer to you, putting her arm around you. “Besides, you’re soaked already. Why don’t you let me peel you out of those wet clothes and get you into something more comfortable?”

Your blood turns to magma, heating your face and going down through to your loins. You smile and giggle nervously. “As tempting as that sounds...” You lose your train of thought as you gaze at her. “I’m not even wearing cute panties today,” you murmur.

Hazelmere easily undoes the first few buttons of your blouse. Her elegant fingers trace your collarbone. then down between your breasts. “Such soft skin.” She looks into your eyes, and her ruby gaze makes your heart crash and bang.

“Lotion,” is all you can squeak out.

Hazelmere’s lips touch yours, and she presses herself close as she finishes opening your blouse. Her fingers trail across your skin until you feel the latches of your bra pop free. You gasp, opening your mouth against hers so her tongue is free to come inside. Her tongue is longer than you expected, and it tickles the roof of your mouth before tracing your teeth.

Your blouse and bra are removed, casually tossed aside as Hazelmere’s kisses leave dark red lipstick on your skin. Your skin feels electric all over, and you’ve not felt this aroused in a long time.

Thunder booms, and the crackle of the electricity cutting off stills your breath. “Uh-oh,” you exclaim.

Hazelmere moans into your ear, making you shudder. “Alone in the dark, about to be devoured,” she hisses. Her fingers curl around your jaw. “Isn’t it exciting?”

“Yeah,” you giggle.

Mathias walks in carrying a candelabra. “I should have known I’d find you like this.” He walks in with a smirk upon his lips. “Let me get comfortable so I can watch.”

You try to cover your breasts, but Hazelmere captures your hand. She kisses your palm and looks at you. Her eyes seem to glow in the candlelight. “She’s so responsive, darling,” she purrs. Her hand cups your breast, squeezing it. “I’ve been having fun just touching her.”

Matthias sits down in the chair across from the sofa. “I am not surprised.”

“It feels nice, that’s all,” you whimper.

Hazelmere kisses you as her hands go up your legs. She finds the zipper of your skirt and pulls it. You lift your hips, allowing her to pull away your skirt. “What a vision,” Mathias moans.

“Black panties and stockings.” Hazelmere purrs, her long fingers tracing the elastic line along your belly. “How seductive.”

You bite your lip, tasting her lipstick there. “I have cuter underwear.”

Mathia leans forward, eyes focused. “You think that would change anything?”

You look at him and feel his gaze flow through you. Hazelmere moves you so both your legs are on the sofa, draping one over the back. She kneads her hands into your legs, your inner thighs, then cups one around your groin. “She’s so wet.” Her smile grows, and the corners of his mouth twitch strangely. “Mathias.”

Mathias’ grin has the same appearance as her’s. “Go ahead, starling.”

Hazelmere rips your pantyhose, and you yelp in surprise. She lowers her head, licking the front of your panties. You shudder, catching a quick before you forget how to breathe.

“Are you excited?” Mathias asks. You nod. He bites his lower lip. “Do you want more?”

You swallow and gasp. “Yes.”

Hazelmere moves aside your panties and moans against your skin. Her tongue glides over you, pressing against you as her fingers knead your labia.

“Pretty dove,” Mathias moans as he watches. “She feels good doesn’t she?” He licks his lips. “Her tongue, her lips, her whole body right now only wants to please you.” His dark red eyes trail down your body. “It’s beautiful right now, two gorgeous creatures tangled together.” You moan as he looks into your eyes. “When is the last time you felt this?”

You whimper, biting your tongue as Hazelmere’s tongue teases your clit. “I’m not sure,” you choke. “I can’t… Oh, god…” You tense your neck, jolting as Hazelmere’s skilled lips fasten around your clit. “I can’t think straight.”

“Good, because there is a woman between your thighs,” Mathias teases. He stands up and walks over. He takes hold of your head hanging over the arm of the sofa. His fingers knead along your scalp and down your neck. “I’ve rarely seen a sight more beautiful.”

Hazelmere’s long fingers slip inside you, curling as she moves them within. Her moans against you vibrate through your spine and electrify every nerve so that your whole being singes. Mathias bends down, kissing you, sucking your tongue and biting your lip. Thunder continues to boom in the distance, but it is nothing compared to the storm of lust wracking your body. Your back arches, and you moan against Mathias’ lips. Hazelmere’s fingers move faster, and you cry out. Thunder, lightning, orgasm, they’re all the same. You lie limp on the sofa, breathing as you stare blankly at the ceiling.

Hazelmere’s smile is smug, and she licks her chops gleefully. “Feel better?”

Matthias kisses her, licking her lips and sucking her tongue. “Give her a minute, starling. I think you’ve stunned the dove.”

“I haven’t had that much fun in a while,” Hazelmere brags. “I’ve never seen someone get so wet.” She smirks at Mathias. “Her inner walls grip like demons.”

“I’ll let the demons slumber before I meet them,” Mathias teases.

Your head is swooning, so it takes you a few moments to pull from the afterglow. “Can I have some water?”

“Of course.” Hazelmere rises. “I’ll be right back.” She walks away like she hasn’t just given you the best orgasm of your life.

Mathias slips into her place, kissing you gently as he strips away the ripped pantyhose and your underwear. You’re lying naked, trembling still from Hazelmere’s affection. Mathias pulls you into his lap, kissing your neck and shoulder. “You smell so good,” he moans. “I bet you feel even better.”

“I feel molten,” you sigh. “Liquid.”

He chuckles. “My Hazelmere is good at turning people to liquid.” His tongue laps over your neck.

Hazelmere returns with water, and as you drink she and Mathias kiss and moan. You look back at them, eyes glazed and hungry. You kiss them both, placing yourself between them. They kiss down your body, touching every inch of you.

“Perhaps we should stop,” Hazelmere purrs. “Before we go too far.”

“I think you’re right, starling.” Mathias agrees. “I am starving, but I can hold off.”

They both stand up off the couch as you remain there. “Is something wrong?” you whimper.

“Nothing at all. We just don’t want to get overexcited,” Hazelmere replies.

“We tend to get a bit rough when we do.” Mathias scoops you off the sofa. “It’s late, and you must be tired.”

“I don’t mind,” you pout.

Mathias carries you upstairs, Hazelmere right beside him. “I don’t think you’re quite ready for that.” She opens the door to the master bedroom, illuminating the way with the candles as Mathias carries you inside.

Mathias sets you down on the bed gently. “We have a tendency to bite.”

“You can,” you whimper.

Hazelmere kisses you. “Shh. You have work in the morning, right? It’s best we end here and let you get some sleep.”

You watch as Hazelmere glides across the room and takes a robe off a chair. “Is there something you aren’t telling me?”

“There is a discussion we must have before we go further with this relationship, of course.” Mathias strokes your cheek. “That is why we are stopping here.”

Hazelmere wraps you up in a robe. “We will have everything laid out for you when you wake up. Get a shower, have breakfast. But we will probably wish to stay in bed.”

You kiss them both as they tuck you into bed. “That’s okay, I know you’re not morning people.”

“If you need anything, dove, just call for us.” Mathias kisses your forehead. “Sleep tight.”

Hazelmere gives you a smile. “This weekend,” she whispers. “I promise.”

Waking up the next morning feels different. Not because you are in their bed, but you, yourself, feel entirely different. You rise from bed, dropping the robe as you look at yourself in the mirror. You feel sexy, powerful, somehow better than you were before. You take that newfound power with you to work, feeling much more focused than before. It’s Friday, but it is a different sort of Friday. This weekend is going to be special, Hazelmere promised. After last night, you don’t know how it could get any better.

You go home after work, packing a small bag for yourself with extra clothes. You also take a quick shower, wanting to be at your best when you go to their house.  Once you arrive, Hazelmere is already standing at the door. She ushers you inside with a kiss and a gentle touch of your rear.

“Welcome back.” She takes your bag. “Excited or something?”

“Maybe just a little.” You follow her to the dining room.

“I must confess,” Hazelmere murmurs. “We are a bit anxious.” Mathias is setting the table as you walk in.

“Oh,” You hesitate to sit just yet. “Is something wrong?”

Hazelmere tucks her hair behind her ear. “There is a possibility,” she says softly. “It is why Mathias and I were, at first, hesitant to bring you in. We liked you so much that we forgot ourselves.” She motions for you to sit. As you take your seat, Mathias fills your glass with cold water.

“It almost went too far last night, we caught ourselves before we slipped.” Hazelmere takes on a serious expression. “Which is why before we can do anything else, we must confess our secret.”

“What?” You chuckle nervously. “Have you killed someone?”

Mathias stands behind Hazelmere’s chair. “If we are not careful.”

Your smile drops. “Well if anyone isn’t careful they...” You gulp nervously. “Please, don’t sugarcoat it. Just say it. Pull off the band aid. I can’t… I can’t take it if you string it out any further.”

Hazelmere looks to Mathias for support, and they hold each other's hands. They then look back at you, ruby eyes fixed on your gaze.  “Hazelmere and I are vampires,” Mathias says.

You look back and forth between them, your heart slowly sinking. You go from confused to angry and back to confusion again, then disbelief. Finally you throw your head back and start laughing. “What the fuck?” you cackle.

“Dove?” Mathias inquires.

You slam your hands on the table. “What the fuck? I told you not to string me along! What is it? That’s not funny!”

“It isn’t,” Hazelmere says cooly. “It is serious. It is who we are.” She stands up and faces you. “Want us to show you?”

You snort and roll your eyes. “Sure, show me the Party City vampire teeth. Go ahead!”

Hazelmere opens her mouth, and while her teeth are indeed sharp they aren’t anything you would consider vampiric. Then the corners of her mouth split open, cracking back towards her ears. Her jaw unhinges and her teeth jut out, and fangs slips from pink gums like a cobra’s about to strike. You leap up in your chair, pushing it back and knocking it over as you try to get further away from her.

Hazelmere closes her jaw and slips her fingers along her lips. “Party City enough for you?”

“What the fuck?” you whimper.

“Do you want to leave?” Mathias asks. “We have no intention of hurting you, and that is what you should know first and foremost.”

You cup your hands around your mouth. “Give me a second?”

Hazelmere returns to Mathias’ side and takes hold of his hands.  You take several deep breaths then shake your hands out. “Okay, okay, okay. You could have ripped me open last night, but you didn’t.” You begin pacing. “Both of you had ample time to eat me alive, but you didn’t.” You  slip your hands around the sides of your neck. “Oh fuck. I don’t know.”

“We didn’t want to hide from you anymore,” Mathias says softly. “We wanted to share all of us with you. It wasn’t fair.”

You turn and look at them, still beautiful, so strange. “I was so excited to be around you that I ignored a lot of things. Things that make sense now.” You squeeze your eyes shut tight. “What else?”

They shake their heads. “What else?”

“Yeah! What else?” You walk closer towards them. “Werewolves? Ghosts? Anything else?” You scoff.

“There is always something else,” Mathias says with uncertainty. “That is just how the world works.”

“Ah.” You nod. “Okay. I need a drink.” You walk away from the dining room and into the parlor where you grab a bottle from the shelf and just start drinking from it. “Oh god, this is disgusting!” You take another swig, then set it back.

“Careful,” Hazelmere warns.

You sit down on the sofa and take a deep breath. “I have feelings for vampires. I think I’m done being careful.”

They sit down on either side of you and each touch a hand. You hold their palms and squeeze tight. “You’re not gonna kill me or turn me or anything?”

Hazelmere smiles. “Only if you ask.”

You laugh softly and nod your head. “I’m still a little scared.”

“It’s all right,” Mathias murmurs. “We’re willing to work with you until you feel comfortable again.”

You let go of their hands and scoop up your hair, using a tie on your wrist to pull it up. You shake as you do it, messing it up several times before you drop your hands again. “I want to trust you, both of you. So I need to know...”

“You don’t have to do this,” Mathias says. “If you’re scared, you don’t need to prove to us anything.”

You shake your head. “Please. I want to know.”

“Are you sure?” Hazelmere whispers.

“I trust you.”

Her fingers glide across your neck before she kisses you softly. Mathias watches, holding your hand tight as her jaw unhinges. Her breath beats against your skin, and the sharp prick of her fangs makes your cry. Mathias lifts your wrist, kissing it before he bites. You close your eyes as tears flow, feeling a strange sense of suction. It ends shortly, and both pull away.

The bite marks on your wrist are almost invisible, and aside from some soreness on your neck there is barely a sign of Hazelmere’s bite either.

“We have control,” Hazelmere assures you. “We are old and have power over our bloodlust. We will not harm you.”

“It would kill us if we did.” Mathias adds.

You kiss Mathias softly, turning and kissing Hazelmere in return. “I believe you.”

They both embrace you, hugging you between them and kissing you all over your face. “Did I taste good?” you ask out of curiosity.

“As good as last night,” Hazelmere purrs.

You stay up late talking to them, falling asleep before you go to bed. You wake up late in the afternoon to find yourself in a dark room, with Mathias and Hazelmere on either side of you. The lights are extremely dim, just enough so you can see. As you begin to stir, Mathias reaches out and puts his arms around you. “Stay in bed,” you tell him.

“I am in bed,” he chuckles. His kisses go down the back of your neck and shoulder. “I just wanted to tell you good morning.”

Hazelmere stretches and rolls over. “Sleep well.”

“Yes,” you breathe. “You two don’t need to get up.”

Hazelmere kisses you. “As long as the curtains are closed and we do not know the time, what does it matter?”

Mathias turns your head, stealing kisses as Hazelmere touches you. Your stomach interrupts the seductive atmosphere, growling to make its presence known and demanding very bluntly for sustenance.

Hazelmere chuckles and moves aside. “There is food in the kitchen. I would go get you something, but I cannot remember if I closed all the curtains.”

You’re chuckling in embarrassment. “I am so sorry.”

“Oh please.” Mathias laughs. “There should be coffee. Go get yourself something to eat. We’ll rest a bit more.”

“Take your time too. No rush for today.” Hazelmere sighs as she lies back down.

You put on a robe and step into the hallway, closing the door as the light automatically brightens for you. Sunlight floods the kitchen, since the main window is not shuttered. You make yourself coffee and help yourself to the contents of the fridge. You find your purse, checking emails and texts you missed while you enjoy a quiet meal. Your wrist and neck itch a little bit where they bit you, almost like mosquito bites. There is no evidence aside from that though. You realize everything you know about vampires is from stories and horror movies. It could all be blown out of proportion or wrong.

Finishing up your food, you make your way back upstairs. You go back into the bedroom and find the lights are brighter. Mathias is alone on the bed, posing, wearing his pink robe.

“She left you unattended?” you ask playfully. “What if someone were to come and steal you away?”

Mathias sits up as you crawl onto the foot of the bed. “I’m sure she’d welcome the chase. She’s taking a shower right now. Did you have a good meal?”

“Yes, I feel much better.” You stroke your hand up his leg, and feel he’s wearing stockings and garters. “Dressed up?”

“Just a little.” He closes the gap between you, kissing and pulling you into his lap. His hands grip around your rear, squeezing it playfully. “Is it all right if I disrobe you?” he asks.

You grin and kiss the tip of his nose. “Only if I can do the same to you.”

He unfastens the tie around your waist, tossing the robe aside. Under his robe, you find him dazzling in baby pink lingerie. “You look adorable,” you purr.

“I thought you might enjoy it.” He bites his lip as you run your hands down his body.

“Very cute set.” You cup the front of the lacy panties, feeling him hard just inside.

Mathias whimpers. “I can get you one if you like.”

You kiss him as you stroke him through the panties, suckling his tongue until you pull back. You press your lips to his ear and moan. “Can I suck your cock?”

He shudders and giggles. “Thank you for asking. I for one would love it.”

He arches his hips as you pull him from the panties. His shaft is soft white, the glans cotton candy pink. He’s quite thick and heavy, curving at the head, which is pierced with a silver hoop. “No wonder you like pink so much.” You swirl your fingertip around the slit and jiggle the piercing. “It suits you so well.”

Mathias’ grin stretches, growing so that his mouth splits back to his ears. “As long as you like it.”

Kneeling, you kiss and lick him, dragging your lips down the shaft and back up, pressing your tongue against him. “You’re perfect, dove.” His hand rubs up and down your back. “I love how you feel.”

You sink your lips around him, slurping him up greedily. Mathias lets out a sweet cry, sounding quite adorable. You lift your head, kissing his glans. “I’m not very good at taking it too deep. My gag reflex barely lets me brush my teeth.”

Mathias moans. “I’m happy with whatever you want to do to me, dove.”

You kiss his thighs and belly, rising to straddle in his lap. “I want you inside.”

“I’ve never loved those words more.” He throws you down onto the bed and climbs on top of you. His long hair falls in your face as he looks down upon you. He’s so still for a moment before pushing your legs up over your head. “What a perfect vision,” he whispers. He looks down, watching as he pushes inside. “Hazelmere was right about you.”

You focus on him inside you, thick, hard, and a little cool. You squeeze around him, wanting to feel every inch. He moves slowly, taking his time to go deeper.

“You’re so wet,” he purrs. “I love the sound.”

You mewl softly. “It gets messy.”

Mathias smirks. “I like messes.”

The bathroom door opens, and Hazelmere strust out. She’s rubbing a towel to her hair, but otherwise she’s completely naked.

“Just in time.” She tosses the towel aside and crawls onto the bed. She gets behind Mathias so she can watch. “You two look made for each other.” You feel her fingers grab his testicles, while the other reaches around to massage your clit.

“Starling!” he cries out.

Hazelmere chuckles and kisses his ass. “Does she feel good? So warm and wet and deep?”

“Yes, she’s driving me crazy.”

She moves up, lying down beside you. Your legs curl around Mathias’ waist and she kisses you. “Wait right here. I have something for this.” She gets up and goes back to the bathroom.

Mathias’ hips move harder, and you cry out. “Is this where you get rough?”

“Close.” He stills and kisses.

Hazelmere returns with black straps around her hips that hold a neon pink phallus in place. She smirks, stroking it slowly as you watch. “Ready, Mathias?”

“Is that for you?” you giggle to Mathias.

“She’ll take you shopping for yours.” He starts to move again, slowly, as Hazelmere comes up onto the bed behind him. He moans as she prepares him, slipping her fingers inside and smearing the lube around. Mathias hunkers on top of you, moaning loudly into your ear as Hazelmere takes her place.  Her first deep thrust pushes Mathias harder into you. After that, your breath gets stolen many times.

It feels as if there is no beginning and no end. The three of you are intertwined, never ending, never beginning. It is almost frightening, yet your body craves and desires more. Mathias bites you, and his moans vibrate against your throat. Deep inside his ejaculation is hard and sudden, yet he keeps moving. He thrusts against you and Hazelmere, groaning with his passion. He throws his head back, blood dripping from his lips, which Hazelmere licks away. Your eyes cross and roll back into your head. You leave this world for a breath, returning as Mathias collapses upon you.

Hazelmere pulls away from him, taking off the harness and lying down beside you. Finding stamina, Mathias crawls between her legs, licking and touching her hungrily. Hazelmere pulls you into her arms, and you kiss her weakly.

“Bite me,” you whisper.

“You sure?” Her lips brush against your shoulder.

You nod, and her teeth sink in. She moans against you, throbbing as she tastes you and Mathias touches her.

After lying in heavy silence, you exhale and stretch. Both of them touch you, brushing their hands down your body. “How do you feel?” Hazelmere asks.

“A little dizzy, but the good outweighs that.” You smile up as Mathias rises, chipper and ready for more action.

“I’ll go fetch you a drink. Just some orange juice for a boost. It should be dark out now.” He strides away in his cute pink lingerie.

You roll over onto Hazelmere’s chest, snuggling between her breasts while her fingers comb through your hair. When Mathias returns you drink your juice, then massage his back and legs. “We have had many lovers in our long lives,” Hazelmere murmurs as she watches you. “But we have never invited someone else into our family.” She strokes your arm and pushes our hair from your face. “I have a feeling, deep in my gut, you will be my next creation.”

Your heart races wildly. “Why me?”

“It is hard to put into words,” Mathias sighs. “It is just that we know. We have been searching for you, and now, we have found you.”

#monsterxhuman #monster romance #vampire romance #monster boyfriend #monster girlfriend #poly #monster lemon #my writing #momolady monsters #monster fudger

[hungrytundras]

Why do you think Plague and Light Flight tend to have so many cults/be so religious? It’s a consistent pattern I’ve noticed that if someone has a cult, they’re probably going to be in Plague or Light, and the themes of their life are probably going to criticize/reference the Catholic Church (Light and Bloodborne-flavored Plague) or the kind of radical “backwoodsy” Protestantism you see in the American South (Southern Gothic-flavored Plague). That’s not always the case, but there is a pattern.

I mean you already kinda hit the nail on the head here, anon. The Light and Truth juxtaposed with Horrible Abominations angle plays directly into every classic criticism of The Church™ there is. Not to say that It's a bad thing but those tropes are well known and still very attractive to a lot of people. The Sun Bleached White And Gold Vaguely Greco-Roman Ruins aesthetic doesn't hurt either.

Same goes for plague. Weird and Gross and Eyes and Teeth draws in all the Eldritch Horrors folk in droves. Not a bad thing, but the tropes are both popular and not subtle.

#flight rising #light flight #plague flight

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

Any chance you could vibe check Virginia please?

I WAS BORN THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i was just in virginia on a vacation in july and it was so nostalgic we went to virginia beach and it was so cool. everything else in virginia is super spread out and super backwoodsy and we stopped in my hometown and i passed my old house and i cried . also i have a lot of family down there and i visit them a whole lot

if any of you are from manassas virginia specifically congratulations you live where i hail from

tldr virginia has a whole lot of memories and is all in all a Good State. virginia passes the vibe check

-mod dave

#i passed my old house and i almost cried #they built a swingset in the backyard #i saw the hill that i always sled down in the winter #it was really. a lot #i lowkey almost cried #not a quote #mod dave #dave vibe checks your place of residence #virginia

[abbatoirablaze]

The Teller Morrow Tragedy, Season 1, Chapter 9

Word Count:  2.1k

Warnings:  mentions of stalking, manipulation, dubcon, abuse of power, illegal activities, mentions of gun running, warrants, talks of explosives, bombs, and detonators.

Alicia’s POV

Alicia," he said in a sickeningly sweet voice.  My breath caught in my throat as my stomach instinctually turned at the sound of his voice.  I turned to see him with a smile perched on his thin lips, "I didn't know you worked here."

"Josh,” I said quickly, “w-what are you doing here?”

"How have you been?" he asked, ignoring my question, “I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve seen your face.”

"What are you doing here?" I asked, repeating the question again, "you live in Chicago."

"Working a case. You don't need to worry about it," he smiled once more.  I got a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach as he looked around the office, “or do you?”

I took a step back, "I don't want you anywhere near me...I-I have a restraining order, Josh."

"Why are you being so hostile? Is it because of your family?"

"Does Tara know you are here?"

He paled a little, but tapped his file, "this doesn't concern Tara.  I just figured I’d catch up with you, since we could be working close by…so your little restraining order doesn’t matter.  Federal jurisdiction overrides state orders."

"Are you working with ATF?"

"Are you going to tell daddy and big brother what's going on?" he asked with a smile, "oh wait...father of your child? That seems kinda backwoodsy for you. Sleeping with your stepbrother and having a kid."

"Don't attempt to take digs at me Kohn," I growled, "you're not good at games of wit. Just good at being a crazy stalker. You haven't been near Tara have you? You know the restraining order is still good across state lines for her…no way you’re investigation would require you communicating with her."

His jaw twitched. I smiled.

Good.

"I-"

"You know Agent Kohn," I said smugly, "I'd hate for Agent Stahl to know you've got a restraining order against her…or me for that matter. I doubt you could stay away from Tara." 

"This has nothing to do with her, Alicia," he said through slitted eyes, "Maybe you should just stay out of the way.  Things are about to get real messy for your family soon." 

"Maybe you should go home, Josh," I growled, "before something messy happens to you?" 

"Are you threatening a federal agent?" 

"No," I said slowly, "I'm warning him.  Charming has a funny way of affecting outsiders." 

"Alicia!" Hale said, calling me over to the door of the interrogation room.  Through the blinds I could see my dad.  An ATF agent stood next to him.  

"What are your clearances?" the agent asked.  

"I file all your charges, dipshit," I growled, "Unluckily for you, I also happen to be Mr. Morrow's lawyer." 

"It's okay Ed," Hale said, "Alicia is one of us." 

"Not if she's representing that piece of garbage." 

"That piece of garbage is my father," I said smugly, "so back the fuck off and let me speak to my client." 

He gave me a dismissive look and went over to where Agent Stahl was.  She waved him off.  

"Come on," David said, opening the door.  I slid past him, and he looked at me, "I'm going to grab some cigarettes at the store.  Need anything?" 

"A coffee would be nice." 

He gave me a sympathetic smile and closed the door.  I stood at the door.  My dad looked unamused, "what, do you want a thank you for visiting?" 

"A hello would be a nice start," I said, "or at least a warning on the shit you guys pulled so I could look into ramifications versus defences." 

"We didn't plan any of that shit, Alicia." 

"Save it, dad," I growled, "I'm glad you called, because I know Rosen is a piece of shit lawyer...because you assholes let him defend Ope in his original case, but you should have told me." 

"Alicia," he said softly, "we didn't know that it'd lead back to us.  Meinke is a name they threw around.  Served with Piney in 'Nam." 

"Dad, they'll find a way to trace it back." 

"You have to tell Chibs before they raid the clubhouse.  I know that is the next step." 

"The guys will have a little time to figure it out," I admitted, "the evidence they have right now isn't strong enough to tie you guys to the shooting.  It's just a call placed at the garage. If they ask about it, just say you didn't know who it was or what they did.  Just say that they asked about some repairs on a vehicle and remind them you run a legitimate garage." 

"Well I'm not stupid Alicia," he growled, "I know not to admit any affiliations with them." 

"Damn it dad," I said, sitting down at the table across from him, "I'm trying to help you guys.  Help the club.  If they find the AK's my old man and the fathers of my children go to Stockton State Penitentiary...and it won't be a short stay.  I need you guys.  I love you.  Please daddy, just listen to me." 

He reached out and touched my cheek.  I hadn't noticed it, but I'd begun to cry. 

"I'm sorry sweet pea," he sighed, losing all of his aggression, "I know that you only have the best intentions for us.  I won't be any trouble.  But you have to get word to the guys.  Don't go by the clubhouse.  Once they see you, the alarms will go off.  Don't call your mother.  Or your sister.  Is Mikey at school today?" 

"No.  I pulled all the kids.  They had their yearly check-ups.  I dropped them off at the clubhouse." 

"Call Mikey.  Tell her to tell Jackson and Chibs.  They'll figure something out." 

I nodded and he reached forward, grabbing my hands, "dad, this isn't small.  They're trying to raid the clubhouse today.  I don't know if anyone can protect us." 

"It'll be okay baby," he said, holding my hands up to his face, "we'll be fine." 

The door opened and I was face to face with Agent Stahl, "Well this is touching." 

"Fuck off, June." 

"Ohhh, everyone in this family is feisty, aren't they."

Dad dropped my hands.  Dave came in behind her and handed me a coffee, "you don't have to be here sweetheart.  Go pick up the kids from the clubhouse." 

"Oh no," June smiled, "she isn't leaving the precinct." 

"You're going to tell me, I can't go and get my children and take them to their doctor's appointments?" 

She eyed me suspiciously.  I stood up and walked over to her, "you aren't leaving the precinct." 

"On what grounds?" I asked, cocking my head ever so slightly, "I've done nothing wrong.  My father has done nothing wrong.  You're coming dangerously close to abuse of power, Agent Stahl." 

She sucked in her cheeks and moved to the side.  I looked back at my dad, "he's willing to stay for a few hours and answer any questions you seem to have for him.  However, if he's not released by this evening, I will file an injunction that you are abusing your power and holding someone without reasonable cause." 

"He's a suspect in the AK shooting," she growled, "there was a call placed to his gara-" 

"A garage," I laughed, taking a sip of my coffee, "You mean someone called a place of business about fixing a vehicle and asking for a quote?  Well damn, the whole world must be doing illegal shit.  Get some real evidence or cut him loose by this evening.  Right now, he's a helpful citizen trying to assist you in any way possible.  Don't forget that." 

I pushed past her and made my way around the corner.  Through the blinds I could see my dad smiling.  

Juice’s POV

I'm telling you man, nothing is coming up under Meinke other than some discounted mufflers," I said, clicking on yet another link. Jax had sat me down in front of my computer and we began to look more into the guys Piney had us sell to, “I don’t know what to tell you.”

"What's going on?" A voice yelled from the clubs' entrance.

Shit.

"I thought I told you to go underground."

"They reached out. They're in some survivalist bunker outside of Woodridge Forest."

"Great, you gotta set up a meeting," Jax said, “we need to get to them.”

"Then what happens?"

"They killed three people in cold blood and are a straight line back to this club, Pine. What the hell do you think happens Piney?"

There was a standoff. Alicia came bursting in, "Where's the kids?"

"Declan and Cain are napping in my dorm room. Mikey is running the office," I said, “why?  What’s going on?”

"Clean your shit up Jax. And do it fast. ATF is working on a warrant," she said quickly, "I have to get the kids out of here."

Without a second thought she was off, running to the dorms.

"Talked to Trammel," Bobby said, coming in. Chibs was behind him, messing with his hair, "feds got a warrant to rip this place up."

My eyes went to Jax.

"SHIT. CABIN! NOW!"

Piney looked at him angrily and ripped out his oxygen, "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING TO?"

Opie began to hold him back and I went to hold Jax back as the two men went at one another's throats. Ope pushed him out of the clubhouse and Jax began to tell everyone to relax. Alicia came into the main area, holding a sleepy Declan, and toting Cain behind her.

"Ey love," Chibs said, kissing her, "where ya goin?"

"Taking the kids to Tara. I lied and said that they had check-ups. You guys need to get the guns out now. ATF i-"

"I know, lass," he said slowly, "Bobby was talkin to Trammel."

She nodded and went to go get Mikey. We all started making our way outside to see Piney and Ope heading out. There were two cars watching us.

"Never gonna be able to get these guns outta here."

"Yeah," Bobby added, "the feds open them oil barrels we all got a new charter. Stockton State Prison."

"Go meet up with Leroy," Jax said, "Pick up our money. Tell him he'll have his guns before the end of the day."

"You gonna Houdini this stuff out of here brother?" Chibs asked.

"I'll figure it out!"

Bobby and Chibs split off, and I watched Alicia leave the lot with the kids, "Mandy still here?" 

"What?" I asked. 

"Mandy?" Jax asked, "she in your room?" 

I nodded, "I think so." 

"Come with me," he said, "I need to talk to the both of you." 

I followed him back in, and down to my room.  The door was open, and Mandy sat there, playing with some bits of wire.  

"What do you want?" 

"That the way you talk to everyone now a days?" Jax asked.  Her head whipped up to see the both of us.  

"Sorry," she whispered, "I'm used to either mom or Mikey bugging me...I'm just exhausted from the nagging." 

"I need a favor from the two of you." 

"Of course." 

She looked at me, then back to her brother, "what do you need Jax?" 

"Since Clay is using you for club shit, and you're good with tech too...I need the two of you to rig up a system." 

"What kind of system?" 

"We need to cut the loose ends," he said, not directly saying what he wanted, "I'm gonna need you guys to find the blueprints of this bunker Piney talked about at Woodridge Forest, and then I need a system that will work from a road." 

"You want us to build a detonator?" 

He nodded, "yeah.  You guys got til tomorrow...that okay?"

"Jax, I don't really think that Mandy should be doing this." 

"First Piney,and now you," Jax said, taking a step towards me, "You got anything else to say about the shit I ask of you?" 

"I'm not questioning authority or anything I ju-" 

"If he doesn't want to do it, I will." 

Jax looked at his little sister, "and you are fine with all of it?" 

She nodded, "Dad and Tig said I could.  If you're asking me to do it, and Juice won't, I can get it done." 

"Thanks." 

He walked away and I was left in my room with Mandy.

I stared at her.  

It was like she was there...but not really.  I couldn't make it out, but there was something different about her.  

"What are you staring at?" 

"You've just...you changed." 

"No," she said, shaking her head, "I didn't change JC.  I've always been like this..." 

"You haven't," I sighed, taking a step towards her, "what happened that made you like this?  You are willing to make a detonation system.  You burned Kyle's reaper off last week...it's like I don't know you at all anymore." 

"Maybe you never did," she said, standing up.  She walked right up to me and sized me up, "maybe you just saw what you wanted to see...but that's not me." 

Chapter 10

@Lohnes16, @evyiione

#sons of anarchy #soa #motorcycle clubs #motorcycle #mc #agent josh kohn #soa jax #jax teller #jackson teller #juice ortiz #juan carlos

[mousemilf]

dont care much for that thing when theres a post abt like ghosts or something and then some college student puts on this weirdly forced backwoodsy voice to tell a story abt something that happened to them in a rural area but theyre like tryna make it sound like an old folk tale or over the garden wall or whatever. like stop stop stop stop i know u dont talk like an old appalachian man in real life and its actually kind of pissing me off for some reason!!!! just tell ur story normal please!!!!!!

#ic