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naturalborndragons · 7 months

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Mid Dragon's World Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Training With Theian

Me and Alex were playing on the swingset. Alex swung back and forth while I just sat on the swing, looking at my finger that I wrapped in a band aid.

"So Jake, how does it feel man? To be one of us?" Asked Alex as he slowed his swinging down.

"Well…" I said, trying to come up with an answer. "I…don't…really feel different.

"Oh." Alex said, sounding disappointed.

"Wha-What's wrong? Was that not the right answer?" I asked

Alex shook his head. "No, it's not that. It's just that I remember when I had to do the ceremony."

"Yeah. You weren't scared at all, were you?" I asked smiling.

Alex smiled back, shaking his head again. "Nope. And you know why Jake? 'Cause I felt honored. I was so happy that I'd finally get to be of use to Dad."

Alex stood up. He walked in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders. He looked me right in the eyes, smiling excitedly.

"I want to help dad. But I'm gonna need your help to do it. Will you help me Jake?"

"Yeah!" I answered eagerly.

While Alex and me talked, we saw Theian, in his human form walking toward us, his hands slipped into his pants pockets. I wondered what he might want.

"What's up Theian?" I asked curiously.

"Your father wants to see you boys. Let's go." Theian said in his usual grumpy voice.

Me and Alex looked at each other. Alex shrugged his shoulders and followed behind Theian. I wondered what Dad might want so I hopped off the swing and ran to join Alex and Theian.

Theian led us down to the basement. Everyone was sitting in their chairs waiting for us.

"Alex, Jakol. Please be seated." Dad commanded.

Me, Alex, and Theian took our seats. Everyone sat quietly, waiting for my Dad to say something.

"Well now that Jakol is able to join our ranks, I think it's finally time for our plans to commence." Said my Dad.

"So we're finally going to take this world, eh? Where do we start?" Z'haer asked, leaning forward in his chair.

" I think it would be best if we start somewhere that doesn't have a lot of people. It will be a good test of our mettle before tackling one of the bigger areas of this world." Dad suggested.

"Agreed." Eig'nia added. "If we start big, we risk bringing too much unnecessary attention to ourselves. It might be best if we start small. Then work our way up."

"So how do we decide where to start?" Girido asked.

My dad cleared his throat. "I was just about to get to that. Girido, Z'haer, Eig'nia, you three will search for an appropriate place to begin our conquest."

"Then what about us Dad?" I asked anxiously. "What do me, Alex, and Theian get to do?"

"You boys…"

"Yes?" Alex said excitedly.

"You boys will begin your training with Theian." My dad ordered.

Wait what? What did Dad mean by "training"? We were just as ready for this as Girido, Eig'nia, Z'haer, and Theian were. Why did we need training?!"

"Aww come on Dad! Me and Alex, we don't need training!" I whined.

"Jakol, are you disobeying an order from your father?" Dad asked, raising one of his eyebrows and giving me "the stare".

I shivered in fear. Dad giving me "the stare" was always his way of telling me that I was being out of line. Whenever he gave me that stare, I knew that I shouldn't say anything else.

"N-No sir…" I said timidly, looking away from dad.

"Very good. Well then, you have your orders. So let us begin."

Once that was done, we all left the basement together and headed out onto the porch. Z'haer, Eig'nia, and Girido turned into their dragon forms and launched into the sky. Me, Alex, and Theian stayed on the ground as we watched the three of them fly into the distance.

"Aw man!" Alex pouted, kicking the ground. "This sucks! I waited three years for this and now I have to train?! I thought I'd finally get the chance to help Dad!"

"But you are helping him Alex. Your father needs you boys to be at your absolute best for this." Said Theian.

"Yeah but--!"

"Now, to begin, I think I'll first have you fight each other. I want to see what you two can do so fight at your absolute best." Theian said, taking a seat at the picnic table by the house.

"Okay." Alex and me both said at the same time.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I felt a small pain in my back as my wings came out of my back and ripped through my shirt. My tail tore the back of my shorts open, wagging around a little bit.

When I opened my eyes, I saw that Alex was standing in front of me, also in his half-dragon form. His long, red tail whipped around behind him and he flapped his wings a few times. Once Alex was done flexing his wings, he shut his eyes again. He groaned in pain as red scales popped up all over his body. His arms and legs grew bigger and his nose and mouth grew out into a snout. Claws grew from his fingers and toes with one claw on the back of each foot. Two horns grew from his head as his hair grew longer. And finally, a row of spikes grew from his tail and ran up to his head. When his transformation was over, Alex looked like a dragon but he was still as big as a human. It wasn't often that I got to see this form but seeing it this time made me feel nervous. I knew that in this form, Alex was much stronger than me. Even if we were just training, I still felt scared.

"Alright. Are we ready? Begin!" Theian shouted.

I ran straight at Alex. I threw my fist at him but he blocked it with his scaled arm. I pulled my arm back and tried to hit Alex with my other fist but he blocked again. Alex then swung his fist at me. I put both arms in front of my face, crossing them together so they looked like an X. Alex punched the back of my right wrist. I felt a large jolt of pain from his scaly fist travel through my arm. I held my arm in pain, groaning as I tried to get the pain to stop. Before I had time to get everything together, Alex pulled his fist back.

"Alex! Wait, wait, wait! Time out, time out, time—"

But it was too late. Alex drove his fist into my face, knocking me off my feet. I fell to the ground, now using my aching arm to cover the side of my face that Alex hit with my good arm.

"That was mean Alex! I said time out!" I yelled at him, rubbing the cheek Alex hit.

"But Theian said we need to fight at our absolute best. I'm just trying to bring my best." Said Alex.

"That's not what I meant. I don't want you two to fight as if you're trying to kill the other. It's just training. If Jake needs a time out, we allow him a time out." Theian replied.

"Alright...Sorry man." Alex said.

"It's okay. My arm and my face are feeling a little better anyway." I said, getting back on my feet.

I dusted myself off and looked over at Alex. I flexed my wings a little bit, same for my tail and then I started to flap my wings. With each beat, I started to elevate higher and higher into the air until I was almost higher than the fence.

"You better get ready Alex." I said, feeling a little more confident. "This time I'm giving it my best too."

Before I could go any higher, Theian called my name. He told me to descend back to the ground because he didn't want anyone walking past to find out I was a half-dragon. I flapped my wings slower until I was back on the ground.

"Alex, the same goes for you." Theian said strictly.

"Great…" Alex said pouting.

"Wait a sec! I have an idea!" Alex said excited.

"Alright Jake! I'm going to shoot a fireball at you. You try and send it back to me okay?"

I didn't know about this. I was never any good when it came to controlling things like water and fire even though dad always said that was my special power as a half-dragon. When I was younger, I thought my powers were something incredibly awesome. I wanted to show them off to as many of my friends as I could but each time I did they'd get hurt.

I remembered back when we lived in Michigan. I had a friend from first grade who the older kids always picked on. He was a short, black haired boy with really pale skin. Whenever he would get picked on, I'd rush to his rescue. I would transform in front of the bullies and that would be enough to scare them and get them to leave him alone. Eventually, no one would even try and pick on him with me around.

One day after school, he wanted me to show him some more of my dragon powers. He told me I was awesome, like a real life superhero. Hearing that made me even more anxious to show them to him. We headed around to the back of the school and I turned into my half-dragon form. I took a deep breath and a stream of fire erupted from my mouth. I put my hand out and it stayed in mid air. I moved my arm up and the fire followed it. I swung my arm back and forth, the flame closely following its every move. I couldn't believe it: It might actually work this time I thought to myself. However, something happened.

I didn't know how or why but somehow, my flame ended up hitting his right arm, badly burning it. He fell over, screaming and crying really, really loudly as he held his arm in pain. I rushed over to help him but he swung his arm at me, screaming that I should leave him alone.

The teachers found him and he was taken to the hospital. The next day, news of me burning his arm spread through the school. Most of the kids didn't even speak to me and those who did would say mean things to me and push me down. When I saw my friend, I saw that he had a cast over his entire arm. I tried to tell him that it was an accident but he wouldn't listen.

"Leave me alone…" Was all he said to me.

A couple days later, the bullying got so bad that I was pulled out of that school and we moved to California. Since then I told myself that I was never ever going to use my powers ever again, no matter what.

"Alex…I really don't want to." I said sadly.

"You don't want to? But…why?" Alex asked.

"It's just…I don't want my fire to hurt anyone anymore. I'm not gonna do it." I answered.

"But Jake, the more you use your fire, the more you'll get used to it. After awhile, it'll just come naturally to you." Theian explained.

"Yeah!" Alex agreed. "So c'mon! You can do it! And don't forget, I'm tough! I can take it!"

"Well…" I said, although I was still a little unsure. "…Alright. I'll give it a try."

I put my arms out in front of me. I gulped, hoping that I wouldn't mess up this time. Alex took in a lot of air and launched a stream of fire at me. I watched carefully as the fire got closer towards me. Once it was like an inch or two from my hand, it turned into a small ball and just sat there, hovering in front of my hand. I moved my hand up in front of my face and the fire ball followed. Slowly, I moved my hand back and forth and the fire followed along. I smiled. I couldn't believe it.

"I did it!" I cheered. "I really did it! I learned how to control fire!"

"We'll see about that." Said Theian. "Now send the fire back to Alex."

"Alright! I can do this now!" I said confidently.

My legs leaned forward and I pulled my arm back, the flame still following it. With enough force, I gave it a big push, sending it flying back at Alex.

"Jake, wait that's too fast!" Alex called out.

Before I had time to stop it, the ball of fire hit Alex in the stomach, burning up part of his shirt. He fell to his knees and held his sides in pain. Both me and Theian rushed over to him.

"Alex, I'm sorry! Are you okay?" I asked, worried, kneeling down next to him.

"I'm fine!" He said, sounding a little like he was in pain. "It's a good thing I was in this form 'cause I barely felt anything."

Even though Alex said he was okay, I knew him better than that. He was lying. That was something I never understood about Alex: Why did he always try so hard to be tough? Even when we were little, he never told anyone, not even me, when he was hurt. Not when he fell, or even when he'd get into fights with other kids . He would just stand up and say that he was fine, even if he sounded like he was about to cry. I wished that he wouldn't do that and that he'd let me know if he got hurt so I could try to help him.

Still hunched over, holding his stomach, Alex walked to the picnic table and sat down. He turned back into his human form, removing one hand from his stomach and panting loudly.

"Alex, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to burn you." I said as I sat down next to him.

"It's okay Jake. I'm not angry at you. I'm alright." Said Alex. "Honestly, I really didn't feel much."

"You're lucky you were in that form when that happened." Theian said, walking over and taking a seat next to us. "Had you been in your human form, you wouldn't be sitting here right now."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You see Jake, while it's true that fire can hurt dragons just as it can humans, a dragon's thick scales prevent it from suffering third degree burns. To a dragon, being burned is about the same as being punched." Explained Theian.

"Wow!" I said amazed. "I wish I had a transformation like that. That would be so cool!"

Alex laughed. "Well Jake, you have to be born like I was in order to have this form. Maybe if Saulstrance was your mom instead of your dad…"

"Eww! Alex, that's gross!" I gagged, giving Alex a slight push. Thanks to Alex, all I could think of then was my dad in a dress, wearing makeup.

Alex and I laughed at that thought for a bit. Once we stopped laughing, I looked over at Theian who was staring into the sky, looking serious. I wondered why he wasn't laughing with us. In fact, I didn't think I ever saw him laugh once since he came to work under my dad. He always looked so angry. I think the adults knew why Theian was like that but I didn't think me or Alex did. He never really talked to anyone either. Whenever he did talk to someone, he usually just shouted at them and it was usually Girido he shouted at.

Theian noticed that I was watching him. He turned towards me. "What? What's up?" He asked.

"Oh! I just wanted to ask if we could take a break for a bit?"

"Hmm? Oh, umm…sure, I guess." Theian answered in a clueless voice like he wasn't even thinking of the answer before he gave it.

"That sounds good." Said Alex as he stood up. "I'll be right back Jake. I'm gonna go get your birthday present."

"You got me a birthday present?" I asked a little surprised.

"Yeah! I think you're really gonna like it man!" He said as he ran into the house.

While I waited for Alex to come back out with my present, I sat on the picnic table with Theian. Theian turned his attention back to the sky. We sat there quietly for a few seconds while I tried to think of something for us to talk about. Then I figured it out and it was actually something that I wanted to ask him for a long time.

"Hey, Theian?" I asked.

"Yeah?" Theian replied.

"Why did you decide to work for my dad?" I asked again.

Theian didn't answer for a few seconds. I thought maybe he didn't want to tell me. I started to quietly turn around before he finally spoke.

"Well…" The word rolled out of his mouth.

"There's somebody I want to kill. I've never met him before but…well…let's just say he did something really bad." Theian explained.

"Like what?"

"I'll tell you when you're a little older, Jake."

"No, I want to know now! I'm not a little kid anymore Theian! You don't have to hide it from me!" I demanded, quickly rising up from my seat.

Theian closed his eyes and sighed with his mouth still closed. There were another few seconds where we didn't say anything but then he finally answered.

"This person…he killed my mom. That's why I'm here. Happy now kid?"

Wow…That…wasn't what I expected to hear. I didn't even know what to say to him. I always thought there must have been something, some reason Theian always seemed so grumpy but…I never thought that was the reason.

"I'm…I'm sorry. I didn't know." I said quietly.

"Well now you do."

I went back to the spot I was sitting in. As soon as I sat down, I turned around and looked at Theian who this time was staring at the ground. He looked so sad. I felt really guilty for making him tell me exactly what happened. I tried to think of a way to cheer him up.

"Hey Theian, don't feel too bad. I don't have a mom either." I said softly, trying to be as nice as I could.

"Yeah but it's not exactly the same. You still have a family: Your dad and your brother. Me, I don't have anyone." Theian replied back.

"Well…Wait, I know!" I exclaimed, jumping back onto my feet.

Theian turned to me. "How about this?" I started. "I'll be your family! I might not be able to be your mom but I could be like your little brother! What do you say?" I smiled, trying my best to make him feel better.

Theian laughed a little, something that surprised me.

"If only it was that simple. But thank you Jake." He said to me.

After that, Alex came back out, carrying a big box in a bag. He placed it on the table.

"Here you go Jake." Alex smiled.

Judging from how big the box was, I had a pretty good idea of what he got me. I grabbed the sides of the bag and pulled the bag down, revealing my birthday present. When I saw it, my mouth dropped in excitement.

"A Playstation 5?!" I shouted, not believing what was right in front of me.

"Alex, you're the best big brother ever! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!" I said happily, hugging Alex tightly.

"Uh…Sure Jake…" Alex said breathless. "Just…stop…squeezing so tight."

"Oh, sorry." I laughed, letting go of Alex.

"By the way Alex, did you get me any cool games for my PS5?" I asked anxiously.

"Sorry Jake, I spent all my money on this. But hey, we could go to Gamestop tomorrow and get some games." Said Alex.

"Okay! Hey Theian, do you want to go with us?" I asked.

"Well…I guess after we're done training." Theian answered although he didn't sound too sure about it.

"Cool! You can fly us to the mall then!" I said in an excited voice, thinking about how cool it would be to fly on a dragon's back.

"Wait, now hold on! I didn't say anything about –"

"But how else are we going to get to the mall? Our wings aren't as strong as yours are Theian." Alex teased, interrupting Theian.

"And what about me?! How will I be able to avoid showing my true form in front of a group of people?!" Theian said angrily.

"Hmm…Good question." Alex said. "Well, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"You little brats." Theian groaned, putting his hand over part of his face and shaking his head. "Let's just get back to your training."

And so our training started again. This time, Theian had me and Alex fight each other in our human forms. Neither of us understood why Theian would have us fight as humans but he explained that, since the two of us had both dragon and human blood, we should learn to fight not just as dragons but as humans too if we really wanted to be stronger. Our training continued until the sun started to set. By then, me and Alex were both really tired.

"Alright, I'd say that's enough for today. Good job, you two." Theian complimented.

Alex and I thanked Theian and we went into the kitchen to get ourselves each a glass of water. I smiled. I felt like I was already starting to feel a little bit stronger. Training with Theian and Alex also made me feel more confident about using my half-dragon powers again. But I still had to wonder how much longer we would have to train and when I'd finally get to help dad and the others.

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fabricated-misslieness · 3 years

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pairing: childe x traveler gn reader

req: yes | wc: 1.11k | cw: violence

🤠alex: Being a traveler that saves childe from an attack, he thinks you just got lucky with your doges and he gets in a battle that you save him from again. Then he realizes “oh yeah, i need this person by my side, either romantically, or platonically.”

Treasure hoarders are either stupid or extremely genius.

Who would’ve thought to ambush a Fatui Harbinger, the 11th no less? But it was the fact it was the 11th that they tried.

You see, Childe was also either stupid or smart. While he could not deny a fight, no matter how many opponents or disadvantages, he could also prevail through 20 man armies. Either he ran on pure fighting instincts or he was smart enough -though it was more about observation- to catch his opponents’ weaknesses.

Nevertheless, the treasure hoarders knew that the 11th Harbinger’s pride and obsession with the thrill of battle would mean that he would not stop fighting until all of them were defeated.

That is why they brought, oh let’s see, every treasure hoarder in Liyue? Oh what’s that, 100? Sounds about right.

Childe was a fool to not run away at the mere sight of them. You see 100 people in front of you, all armed with hammers, shovels, molotovs, and throwing knives; and you don’t run.

It was lucky you came across the large fight -it was quite loud, really. As the traveler who beat a dragon, an old god, and even the 11th Harbinger himself, all without a ‘vision’; you could handle 100 men, provided you had a partner.

Sending Paimon away to find help, you dive into battle quickly, back to back with Childe.

“What the heck is going on, Childe?” The man only glances your way before turning back to the treasure hoarders. You catch a smile on his face, which is surely from the ‘thrill’.

“I don’t know, they ambushed me! I’m not one to turn down a fight, though.” Based on the twenty or so men on the ground, you could surmise he wasn’t going down anytime soon. Though there were about four fifths of people left.

“Clearly.” You huff.

“I take my side, you take yours!”

“Childe, no-”

Before you could argue why that was a horrible idea, he was already running away from you and back into the fray. “You damn idiot!”

Of course, you knew he was bound to be reckless at some point -and no, you did not mean just now when he decided to split. He was a ballsy man with ballsy decisions. He cuts a guy once with his hydro daggers, and then he looks away like a moron. And you know what happens? The guy is fine, he’s not down, and he can still throw blows.

Before he can deal a blow to your favorite Harbinger, your sword is parrying his shovel. Childe only has time to glance your way once again before he turns back to your foes. “Thanks!”

“Don’t mention it!”

Anyway, turns out (1+1) - 100 = 0, because 1 traveler and 1 harbinger can beat 100 treasure hoarders. Neither of you were unscathed, that’s for sure, but at least you’re alive.

As you freshen up with nearby river water -thank Teyvat landscape- Childe thinks back to the battle. “Thanks again.”

And once again, you say, “Don’t mention it.”

He could’ve handled one shovel to the head though, couldn’t he? His pride was telling him that much. Perhaps… you were just lucky. Was that right? Seems right to him!

Yes, you’re skilled. Yes, you beat him in battle. Yes, you also beat a god.

He doesn’t want to admit that if it weren’t for you, he would’ve been robbed off all his pocket money -not that he didn’t have money in the bank, and possibly his life. In fact, he doesn’t even think about it.

Though the next time his life is in danger, he’s back in the ‘Liyue’s Institute for Toy Research’ a.k.a. the Fatui’s ruin guard investigation facility.

Why is he there? Teucer wants a new toy, a much, much bigger Mr. Cyclops. The little boy had needs that Childe couldn’t help but fulfill.

Why are you there? He brought you along. Considering last time -both at the Toy Institute and the 100 treasure hoarder incident- you had to come in order to, basically, babysit him.

Hopefully you would be able to find one lonely ruin guard to fight and take home.

But your hopes are useless.

“Childe not again!” Last time, you sat back while Teucer and Childe played ‘hide and seek’. You watched him fight a bunch of ruin guards all at once, a mistake that you wouldn’t take this time.

The Harbinger merely laughs, diving into battle once again. Honestly, how is this man not dead already?

One by one, sometimes a pair a time, ruin guards keep dropping in after you defeat one. The only thoughts in your head are “I hate Childe”, “When are they going to stop?”, and battle observations. Childe, on the other hand, seems to be having the time of his life.

He’s laughing. Take a second to process that.

HE’S LAUGHING.

And once again, as a reckless and ballsy man, he forgets to check his surroundings and gets too carried away with the current ruin guard he’s fighting. The result of that: near death.

Missiles come his way, what’s the only thing you can do? Tackle him to the ground to dodge the missiles.

When you land on the ground, safe and sound, you get up right away and go back to fighting. Childe is stunned for a few minutes, but he’s quick to follow. “Thanks!”

“You owe me one!”

You hadn’t given him enough time for him to pull you into a quick kiss -you’re hot and that move you just pulled was extremely sexy- nor did he have time to savor the moment. Sure, if you stayed on the ground for longer, you could’ve gotten squashed, but he liked you! Still, he was lucky to have you.

You weren’t the lucky one, he was. He was lucky that you were there to cover for his recklessness. And god, he had to admit, you two would make great fighting partners!

Was it too late to ask you to become a harbinger? “Hey, can you join the Fatui and-”

“I’m not going to join the Fatui just to be your partner, Childe.” Good try.

However, he had to have you as a partner! Otherwise, he couldn’t pull risky and fun moves without the actual risk of injury.

Ah, he’s always dreamed of dropping his Fatui job and becoming an adventurer with you. Maybe, just maybe, it was worth a try. It’s not like he disrespected the Tsaritsa, he approved of her goal of world peace, but he didn’t like the methods they were taking.

Well, whatever the method, he needs to have you by his side...

Kissing you would be a plus, too.

#childe x reader #childe x gn reader #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact x gn reader #🌺-m.fluff

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feverinfeveroutfic · 3 years

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chapter seventeen: the city by the lake

“So here we are in Lone Pine—what's next again?” Alex asked her as he drank down his fresh coffee.

“Independence. Fort Independence and also Manzanar.”

“Oh, damn.”

“Yeah. I remember the first time I polished up on my history and my dad told me about it. I was horrified, especially by how it's so close to home, too. But yeah, it's Independence, Manzanar, and then Big Pine, and then finally Bishop. We'll stop there and I'll show you one of mine and my parents' favorite places to go at during this whole road trip: right on the main street. Maybe the next time around—like when it's closer to summer, we can go up to Tom's Place—up the hill north of Bishop. My dad stopped at Tom's Place once years ago, and he said they have literally the best blueberry cobbler.”

“Yum,” Alex declared as he rolled his eyes up into the back of his head, and it made her giggle.

He sipped on his coffee some more and he peered out the window which looked out to the west. Mount Whitney was still buried underneath those clouds, but every so often, those feathery wispy sheets dissipated and they both looked on at those high jagged points as they stood strong and foreboding and blanketed with a fresh layer of pure white snow, like the highest most haunted castle in all of the land. Sam shivered at the sight of those points and then she returned to her French toast.

“Just looks cold up there,” he said.

“Where? Up there?” Sam pointed out the window to the top of the mountain, and he nodded. “You know, we're not too far from Death Valley.”

“Oh, yeah, there's that race they have every year. You know, the run from the very bottom of Death Valley to the peak of Mount Whitney.”

“Oh, that! Yeah! That takes place every summer, though. I mean, it makes sense—given how cold it is up there and everything but—still.”

“Right?” Alex showed her a little grin as he reached for another piece of toast. “We should go to Yosemite at some point.”

“I dunno if we can go up there, though,” she confessed. “I didn't see the sign that says that the roads are closed, but that one in particular on this side of the mountains—Tioga, because it's so high up—is closed for most of the year.”

“'Cause of black ice and whatnot,” he added.

“Right! But that's another adventure for us, if you ask me, though. When I went on the road trip with Louie, he mentioned the Eastern Sierra being so peaceful. I kinda wish I agreed with him the first time around because—it really is. There's so much to this side of California. So much to offer, so much to see, so many unique adventures away from L.A., San Diego, and the Bay Area. So much more than meets the eye.”

“It's almost as if you're showing me the one place that you go to when no one's looking,” he said with a thoughtful look on his face. Sam hesitated and then it dawned on her. She really was showing it to him. She was showing him her quiet place. “And at some point, I probably should show you mine, too.”

“You have a quiet place, too?”

He nodded at that and the black hair dye on the crown of his head seemed to fade away with the movements of his head.

“It's not where you think, though,” he explained. “If and when you and I have time and there's a right place for it, I'll show it to you. And I want it to be just you and me, too—there's only one other person I think of who's been to it and that was my mom.”

“Mama took her baby to a place to keep him quiet,” she teased him as she brought her cup of coffee to her lips.

“Yes! Exactly!” he laughed at that, and he raised his coffee cup to her and they made a toast to one another. A toast to one another and then they ate up the rest of their toast. He took one last sip of his coffee and then he leaned back in his chair.

“Feel better?” she asked him.

“Oh, yes,” he replied with a nod of his head and a hand on his stomach, “a lot better actually. I was getting ready to roll out of the car, chase something down and kill it with my bare hands.” She burst out laughing at that.

“I was, though!” he insisted. “And it was that—like—real sudden hunger, too. You know, it's like you're fine one second and then all of a sudden, it's like 'hooooly fuck, I'm starving!'” He said that last part under his breath. “It's sudden and leaves you feeling kinda sick, too. It's almost like you're carsick.”

“Ooh, yeah, that sucks,” she said with her nose wrinkled, and then she took another sip of her coffee. “It also didn't help you were actually in a car, too.”

“Right!”

One more sip of her coffee and then she wiped her mouth with her napkin.

“Shall we?” she offered him.

“We shall,” he said back to her and he put his sunglasses back on over his nose and gave his flattened stomach a loving pat. Sam led him back outside, and she held the door for him all the while.

“Thank you,” he told her and he adjusted the lapels of his windbreaker. The cold winds flooded down from the Whitney Portal and the rugged tall mountains off to the north; she huddled closer to him as she got the keys ready for the next stint of the trip and yet even more cold desolate desert.

Soon, they returned to the road and the short series of stoplights all the way to the edge of town and even more barren, wide open road. Alex peered out the window and the morning sun, which had now risen up over the windswept landscape: a fine layer of clouds blanketed those cold rays as if it behaved as a veil. The shine on those mirrored lenses appeared as more of a glow rather than a straight glare.

“So new album's gonna be called Practice What You Preach, right?” she asked him as the signs for Manzanar entered her view.

“That's the running title, actually,” he explained, “I do hope it's gonna be called that. It just feels appropriate, you know? Especially for this time and era, but at the same time, I don't wanna be like—really on the nose about the things I'm thinking of with writing lyrics.”

“The power of art!” she said. “I still owe you a demo.”

“It's okay,” he assured her, “we needed breakfast after all. And there's so much you wanna show me, too.”

“There really is, Alex. Like I said, this whole road is like a gateway to a whole bunch of adventures. A lot of things that so many don't know about, and a part of me wants to keep it all to ourselves.”

“You didn't call it a quiet place for no reason,” he pointed out.

“True.”

On the left side of the highway, the sage brush and scraggly low trees gave way to partially collapsed chain link fences and the low buildings that made up that old Japanese internment camp. The house in Elsinore felt like a prison for sure, but the sight of that old abandoned compound left Sam speechless. She took a glimpse over at Alex and the thoughtful expression still plastered on his face, even with the sunglasses upon his nose.

To think that she and him wanted nothing to do with each other at one point, much like how she didn't care for Marla at first, and to the point she was willing to take Charlie from her. She still had a long way to go with him, especially when the beautifully desolate desert gave way to even more low rolling foothills and steep slopes along those ferocious towering mountains with their thick sheets of snow, those massive, thick glaciers indicative of the Palisades, the rather treacherous part of the Sierra Nevadas. Even in broad daylight, they looked ready to take these two young kids under their darkness as if they were dragons that guarded the castle down by Mount Whitney.

All along the fine white sands under the seemingly endless droves of scraggly sage brush. All within even more black volcanic rock.

Within time, they reached Big Pine and the titular big sequoia tree at the northern end in all of its lush light greenery even in the dead of winter, like the tallest turret of the castle.

“Here's a fun li'l fact for you, Alexander,” Sam started again. “That tree right there was planted by Teddy Roosevelt.”

“Really?” He was genuinely stunned by that.

“Planted it almost a whole century ago, and it just got bigger and fuller and healthier with time.”

“Sounds like my belly,” he joked, and she laughed at that.

“Past that tree is yet another road to Death Valley. But keep going on it and you end up in Nevada and eventually the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest—right on the other side of those mountains over there.”

“Ancient bristlecone pines,” he echoed that.

“Literally some of the oldest trees in the world out there.”

“Yet another adventure for us.”

“Right?”

The Palisades soon gave way to a far more elaborate complex of rugged rough mountains, all covered with even more snow and glaciers. Meanwhile, the sun dipped behind a thicker part of clouds, such that Alex took off his sunglasses and revealed his deep set eyes to the world. The black hair dye upon the crown of his head glimmered and shone under the faint gray winter light and for a second, she swore that she saw that little tuft of gray there right over his brow once again.

“Do you plan on dyeing your hair again?” she asked him.

“Um—” He stopped and those eyes caressed over the immense corridor of land before them. “Actually—no. Unless there's a reason for it.”

“I don't want you to,” she told him. “That little tuft of gray hair is what makes you—” She hesitated for a second in search of the right word. “—unique.”

He nibbled on his bottom lip and sighed through his nose. She was sincere with that: that little tuft of premature gray set him apart from everyone else whom she had known before then.

Another fifteen miles of flat sands across the landscape and soon the first trees, the ones that weren't bristlecone pines or anything akin to them, appeared in their view. The mountains dipped away into the low hanging gray clouds and gave way to a bowl shaped valley before them. The town of Bishop emerged in their view.

“So the place that my parents and I liked to go to on the way through here,” she began as they slowed up for the main street and the deserted, rolling golf course off to the left, “it's—on my side.”

He looked out the windshield along with her. They rolled at a slow pace, past all the little shops and boutiques. The big city of the middle of nowhere right at the base of all the giant mountains. All the rocks to climb and master. All to uncover and carry the weight upon: for a fleeting moment, Sam thought of Belinda and how much she loved to work with her hands. She wondered how Belinda would fare in such a stark terrain because it all but required one to work with their hands, especially if they were artists.

She recognized that rusted sign as it poked out from the side of the road, right beyond the stoplight at the center of town.

“Ah! Here we are.”

Lucky for them, there was no one else in the parking lot given it was New Year's, and thus she eagerly took the first spot closest to the heavy wooden front doors, right in the narrow parking lot. The clouds overhead thinned out a bit for the sun's rays as it began to reach the apex of the sky: but the fact that the mountains had disappeared behind a block of white clouds told Sam that the snows were upon them.

She led him inside the bakery, into that initial narrow corridor followed by the room off to the left with all of the bread and pastries they could possibly imagine. On the far side of the room stood the case with all the fresh cookies and cakes either of them could ask for. She thought of Joey on the previous New Year's Eve, in how they could have all the ice cream they could possibly imagine some day.

A part of her felt as though she and Alex could have all the fresh pastries they could ever ask for some day themselves. Alex himself set a hand on his stomach even though they had only eaten an hour before; Sam raised two fingers to the older baker, who then took out one of the fresh dark reddish brown cookies with a kiss of pearly white frosting on the front side from the row right before her with a sheet of white tissue paper.

Alex chuckled at what she was buying for him.

“Yet another ginger snap,” he remarked.

“Except these have frosting on them—these are nothing like the one I bought for you when we were in Germany. And you're getting two this time around, too.”

“I really am going to gain weight hanging out with you,” he joked with a straight face and a shake of his head.

“It's all good for ya, son,” the baker behind the counter said. “Handmade ginger cookies.”

“Think of it as healthy weight,” she pointed out. “Healthy weight for your little body. And ginger's real good for your stomach, too.” She returned to the baker. “And I'll have one of these big round sugar cookies here, too, please.”

He kindly got the big cookie in question for her and then wrapped all three in that tissue paper, followed by a little brown paper bag. She thanked him and then the two of them doubled back towards the cashier: all the while, Sam swiped a bag of freshly baked cheesy bread from one of the racks.

“My parents love this stuff,” she told him. “It's like the ultimate road trip snack for us.”

“Just break off a piece and eat it every so often,” he followed along. “It's so humble. I kinda like it.”

“We don't have much but we have each other,” she stated.

“We don't have much but we have each other, right.”

She reached the cash register at the wooden desk first and she took out her wallet from her purse.

“I'm gonna be right over here,” he told her, and she nodded at him. She stepped forward with his ginger snap and her sugar cookie in that little paper bag as well as the cheesy bread, and the cashier rang her up in one fell swoop. She looked over at Alex as he walked on over there.

“Beautiful boy,” the cashier told her in a low voice. Sam glanced over at Alex, who gazed on at the rows of freshly baked breads on the racks on the other side of the room.

“Yeah, I guess he is,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. The cashier squinted her eyes at her.

“Hon—he's gorgeous,” she told her. “Don't lose him. It's not often you see a boy as gorgeous as him.”

Sam pursed her lips together and the cashier handed her her change. She just treated him as she would a good friend and treated him well, even with all of the complex thoughts she had in mind: she dared not look at Alex that way, especially with him still not even old enough to drink alcohol yet. She still had those thoughts within her, but thoughts would have to remain as thoughts regardless of everything else. She thanked her and beckoned Alex to follow her back outside to the gray late morning: the sun disappeared behind the thin veil of clouds once again as they returned to the car yet again.

“You smell like freshly baked bread,” she told him as he buckled in.

“And you smell—like—baked bread, too,” he retorted to her, to which she giggled at him. She fired up the car again and they doubled back to the mouth of the driveway, and back onto the main road once the light turned red. They were alone on the street: despite it being the big city of the middle of nowhere, the sidewalks had already rolled up for New Year's Eve.

She caught the next and final light green and she rounded a lefthand turn, away from the next turn off to Highway 6: she had a vague memory of that turn off, and how her father told her it extended all the way out east, all the way back to New England, but she dared not tell Alex that just yet. They had a mountain to climb in front of them.

The highway separated out into four lanes once again, two in their direction and two which headed back to Bishop: in between was a sandy barren center divider.

The clouds collected all around the summit of the gargantuan Mount Tom right before them.

“Right up this road here,” she explained as they stared the mountain straight on, “when we get to the top, is Tom's Place.”

“The place with the amazing cobbler,” he recalled.

“That's the one!”

They soon cleared the city limit and they meandered over even more barren landscape. So bare and stark, and yet there was something so endless and stunning about it all, much like the coastline. Where the coastline with Louie's presence proved to be serene and intense at the same time, the mountains paired with Alex's presence brought her in touch with herself more than ever. She dared not tell him about it as they reached a series of pastures and ranches on the edge of town.

The highway took a sharp curve around the bend and they were met with a daunting hillside.

“This part of the trip here bothers me the most,” she admitted.

“Why's that?” he asked her.

“It just goes up.”

“It just goes up?”

“All the way up.”

She realized that they were in an older car, too. She had no clue if they would reach the top still in a cool spot.

She gripped onto the rim of the steering wheel and sighed through her nose. The snows were upon them after all: she could feel it through the glass of the windshield.

She took a glimpse over at Alex and his relaxed pose, although those deep eyes were locked onto the cold pavement before them. Another glimpse and she realized how wide they had gotten with the sight before them, as if he had seen a ghost of some sort. She recognized that look in his eyes from the fire ball incident in Germany.

Sam sighed through her nose and, once she switched off the heater, she let the road guide their way.

They climbed all the way up the hillside, a continual gradual incline to the very top, high above the desert and the Owens Valley, and almost level with the mountain tops. The halfway point already had a fresh dusting of snow upon the ground.

“Jesus,” Alex muttered as the road continued on and on up the side of the hill.

“Yeah. People overheat on this mountain pass all the time.” Once the words left her lips, they passed a trailer with a water tank aboard specifically for that problem in question. She took a glance down at the narrow red needles within the gages: the one with the temperature rose a little bit but she knew their saving grace was the cold and the snow.

More snow emerged along the sides of the road. More snow, more slope. Alex shifted his weight in the seat: he clung onto the safety bar over his head. His breathing was steady but she could still see it in his eyes.

They both sat still until they spotted that sign on the side of the road that told them they reached the top of Sherwin Summit. A gentle curve downwards and then the road finally leveled out. At least a foot of snow covered either side of the road and all of the dark forests that lined the way. Miles and miles of thick dark forest covered in white snow so they resembled to those fake trees on a display at Christmas.

“Reminds me of the Black Forest,” Alex said aloud.

“Reminds me of upstate New York,” Sam followed up.

It really did, too: the highway snaked through the trees, complete with big views of Mount Tom and all the snow capped mountains before them, and Lake Crowley and the Long Valley Caldera along the way it all made her think of Finger Lakes and the thick lush forest that she and Joey drove through over to his parents' house. Alex switched the heater back on, but it was rather futile given the cold and icy feeling of everything outside the car.

She pictured Joey in the back seat right behind them as they passed the turn off up to Convict Lake as well as even more forest. She knew that, had she shown him this trip sooner, he probably would never have met Krista in the first place. He probably would love this place as well, especially with the added fact that it was all volcanic.

“This place is so stunning,” Alex remarked as he peered out the window to the vast volcanic plain, now blanketed with fresh pure white snow. “Can't believe this has been right under my nose the whole time, too.”

“Some day I'll show you Convict Lake, Rock Creek Lake, and June Lake,” she vowed as they scoured the rim of Lake Crowley: its black waters glassy under the gray sky and in between the white snow. “There's one place I haven't been to up here with my parents yet and that's Mammoth Mountain, Mammoth Lakes, and Devil's Postpile, right up this way—”

Straight ahead, Mammoth Mountain towered back against the cold gray, but soon they reached another gentle curve in the road and headed for more dark forest. More dark forest lined with small snowy clearings and tiny ponds of black icy water.

“Somewhere along the way here is Obsidian Hill,” she told him as they slithered through those tall trees, “a literal five hundred foot high pile of obsidian.”

“Volcanic glass,” he said.

“Don't take any of it, though,” she advised him. “We are in a volcano, after all.”

“Something about the goddess Pele or something?” he recalled. “I remember reading about her in that book when we were in England. The one where I read about the Wandering Jew. Like if you take something from a volcano, it'll erupt or something—I don't completely recall it.”

“Please the goddess somehow,” she declared. “But how is another question.”

They reached the top of the next ridge, albeit a low one in comparison to the hulking Obsidian Hill, which hid away back in the trees like a troll. Another sign appeared on the side of the road which told them they reached the top of Dead Man Summit. At that point, Alex set a hand on his stomach yet again.

“Ginger snap time,” she said.

“Time for a snap,” he said with a snap of his fingers. He took one out of the paper bag in between them: right underneath it was the cheesy bread. While he took a cookie for himself, she reached into that bag with one hand. With two fingers, she sloughed off a piece of that bread and stuck it in her mouth.

“Yeah, I'm gonna be so plump by the time I'm thirty,” he confessed as he broke off a piece of ginger snap and set it on his tongue.

“Let me ask you something,” she began.

“Ask me anything.”

“Why are you so concerned about your weight? Like that's something that I worry about. I've never met a guy who was so finicky about that.”

“'Cause I'm Jewish—we have health problems galore. Obesity and trouble with the heart runs in my family, too.”

“Aw, I had no idea.”

“It's okay—you didn't know. But—you know—I can't help myself sometimes. I don't care. I like to eat!”

“You grew up in the Bay Area, too. You guys aren't really known for your food so much.”

“No, we aren't! When we eat, we eat.” He took another bite of ginger snap and closed his eyes.

“Man, I wish we had Mexican hot chocolate with us,” she declared. “You ever had that?”

“YES,” he replied with his eyes so big that he resembled to a cartoon character.

“I made a couple of cups of that for Cliff when we were together,” she said in a soft voice, “he loved it. And I feel like that cookie there would go excellent with a little cup of that.”

“Oh, my god, talk about spicy,” he said as he covered his mouth with his free hand. He then swallowed. “By the way, what's the food like over in New York? I only caught a small sliver of it the times Testament went out that way to record but is it really as extensive as everyone says it is?”

“That's an understatement,” she told him. “Alex, I only lived there for three years but I feel like I only scratched the surface. Marla and Bel know far more about it than I do and I think they get overwhelmed from time to time.”

“Jew boy paradise,” he said as he took another bite.

They passed the June Lake Junction followed by a small series of frozen creeks in the woods, and then they were met with a watershed in the shape of a small valley. A thin layer of snow covered the grass out there. Once Alex finished his ginger snap, he licked his lips and gave his black hair a little toss back. In that stint of the trip alone, the black hair dye faded even more to the point Sam could actually see those grays once again.

“Kinda thirsty,” he said.

“We'll stop in Lee Vining and get some water,” she assured him, “we need to get gas anyway.”

Indeed, they turned the next bend, which brought them down lower into the watershed: off before them stood the noxious glassy salt water Mono Lake. They turned another bend and she caught a glimpse of the salty turrets down by the shoreline.

“I remember Mark Twain talking about this lake,” he said aloud, “how it's so salty that it's like swimming in brine.”

“Yeah, it smells, too,” she added, and she couldn't help but think of the East River back in New York all the while; “and not how the beach and the ocean smell, either. Salty and even more volcanic than Lake Crowley. Not the best combination for humans.”

Even though it was midday, the shadows of the mountains next to them cast down upon them like a veil. Sam thought about Zelda and the name she wanted to give the Cherry Suicides' album, that of Black Veils. She was yet another person she wished could see this trip with her and Alex.

They passed the turn off for Tioga Road, which led into Yosemite, and all the while, he muttered, “some day... some day...” to himself.

“Some day, indeed,” she vowed; the road dipped down and they slowed up a bit for the town of Lee Vining. She brought them to the gas station right in the center of town, where he offered to fill them up and she offered to get him some water. She was the only person in that gas station, too, such that she considered merely taking the water bottles for herself when the clerk in the back stopped her in her tracks. They had a good laugh but she was in fact serious about it.

“Man, there is no one here,” Alex said as he stood before the tank door and held the pump steady.

“Middle of the day on New Year's Eve,” she told him, “all the hicks and the tourists went home or they're in the city.”

Within time, and after he washed his hands, they were back on the road and they scoured the edge of Mono Lake. He peered out the window at those dark waters as they loomed just under the road's edge. Lucky for them, the snow hadn't yet come again and they cleared the lake's edge in no time. They stared straight ahead to the next kink in the road, or rather series of kinks in the road as they ascended up another side of a mountain.

“Yet another hill,” he said as he took a piece of cheesy bread for himself.

“Well, at least this time around they got it right,” she assured him as they turned the first right hand corner.

The next one turned left and they rose up a bit. The next one to the right. To the left. To the right. And on the third left one, Alex clasped a hand to his forehead.

“You okay?” she asked him.

“Kinda dizzy. This road is making me dizzy.”

“It's alright, we're almost at the top. Just one more little grind up this hill and—”

A sign appeared on the side of the road that told them they reached the top of Conway Summit, at eight thousand feet above sea level. They made a sharp right turn and began on down the other side of the hill. There at the top, the snow was the thickest it had ever been: tall steep drifts lined the sides of the separated highway as if they were genuine walls.

“Poor guy,” she said aloud.

“This is such a new thing for me,” he confessed, “being a city boy and all.”

“The rough country life is not for the faint of heart,” she told him. “Although a part of me sees you thriving out here.”

“Nah, I'd rather be in the city. Although that doesn't mean I can't not appreciate the wilderness, mind you.”

The road snaked along the other side of the hill: Sam peered out her window at the wispy light gray clouds over the mountains on the far side of the valley.

“Over that way is Twin Lakes,” she pointed out. “My mom's family visited this place so much when she was growing up.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah, my great aunt is buried down here in Bridgeport.”

They scoured the edge of a huge snowy pasture and right before they reached the outskirts of that small town, they passed yet another junction to a road less travelled, the highway up to Yerington.

“We're getting close, Alex,” she told him as they strolled through Bridgeport, which too had buttoned up for New Year's Eve. “Another eighty miles—I think.” At the edge of town was another sign, but a thick layer of snow and ice obscured the words from her view.

Another straight shot across the pasture ended by a sharp right hand corner past an old dilapidated house surrounded by barren cottonwood trees, and they headed back to another series of hills.

“How's the car doing, by the way?” he asked her as he reached for his second ginger snap.

“Doing excellent! The only time I was kind of worried about it was when we went up the Sherwin grade. It got a little warm but it never went any higher because it's so cold outside. I dread to think how it'd be if we went in the summer time.”

“Oh, right? And how're you doing?”

“I'm doing excellent! My hands are a little stiff, but I've got it, though.” He flashed her a wink and took a little nibble off of the cookie.

The hills only rose up around them as if they too withheld dragons inside. All the dips and curves in the road and they were soon at the top of a hill. Another sign told them they reached the top of Devil's Gate Summit, and the fourth and final one to boot, and the one that ran adjacent to a creek.

But then Sam remembered.

Within a matter of minutes, those low snowy hills to the left gave way to high stony columns that looked as though they were about to close in all around them. And that creek gave way to a full on rumbling river that ran parallel to the road.

“Let me guess,” Alex started as he licked the crumbs off of his fingers and put his sunglasses back on, “this is the—Walker River?”

“Yes! It's the west fork, too. Even in the summer time, that water is so cold and crisp.”

“Just looks cold,” he remarked as he took a drink of water.

The black river waters washed over beds upon beds upon beds of smooth stones: every so often, a small waterfall emerged out in the open. Meanwhile, the two lane road wound through the meandering canyon like the full body of a serpent. A big beautiful serpent, lined with dense evergreen trees and tall high stony cliffs, to which the head brought them to more snow covered grass land and the rim of Lake Topaz.

“The stateline, Alex!” she declared as they zipped through the snowy scraggly trees.

“Just saw a sign back there that literally called this place 'the quiet side of California,'” he told her.

“And that's exactly what this is,” she assured him with a wink.

They rode all along the edge of the lake, which too appeared so cold and crisp that a mere glimpse sent a shiver down her spine. A final straight shot uphill and—

“Welcome to the Silver State!” Alex proclaimed as he took another drink of water.

“You know, I had a feeling we'd get here by the middle of the afternoon,” she told him as they passed a small casino on the side of the road. “Anyways—welcome home, Alex.”

“Ah, you're taking me to Carson City!” he declared.

“One of the three places I call home,” she continued, “the others being New York City and L.A.”

“Wow,” he breathed out.

The road led throughout more low hillsides and low forests, this time of stubby little bristlecone pines and pinion pines, and then they reached Gardnerville and Minden. Another ten miles across a flat valley and they reached a low ridge. On the other side was Carson City, that old familiar crown jewel that always felt so close and so far away at the same time.

A little ways down the main street and she turned right on Clearview Drive, followed by another left onto Silver Sage Drive.

That old familiar neighborhood, all of those old familiar houses now covered in a blanket of that infamous powdery snow. If only Charlie was there to see it for himself. If only Cliff could see it all, especially when held in comparison to the house in Reno.

“So this is where you grew up,” he said aloud.

“One of the neighborhoods, anyway,” she corrected him. “This one, one up in Reno, and the one down in Elsinore.”

“This is all so precious,” he declared, “it'd be like me taking you to the place I grew up.” He froze and then he looked over at her. She raised her eyebrows at him.

“Funny, uh—there's another place I wanna take you, too,” she declared, “but we gotta hustle, though. It might snow again.”

“Oh, yeah?”

She pulled up to the stop sign and nibbled on her bottom lip.

She remembered the way up. It would prove to be a bit of a challenge, especially since they had already gone over four hundred miles in that car. But she was willing to do it for him.

She made another left so as to head back to Carson Street.

Up the ever so slight hill, past the car dealerships and the little restaurants featured on the way out of town, and she recognized that old turn off to that big mountain road. She had only gone up that way once before and she was rather small when it happened. But that winding mountain road felt like visiting an old friend again.

She was amazed that it was even open despite all of the snow on the ground.

Alex shook his head a little bit at one point but she kept her focus on the pavement before her. A sharp turn followed by another and another so as to resemble yet another snake. He parted those sensual lips and let out a low whistle in response to the feeling within him.

But they reached the top, and all of those thick lush trees clustered together against the dense snow, and Sam recognized even more glassy black waters on his side, cradled by the stark mountain top.

“Spooner Lake, Alex,” she announced.

“Holy wow,” he breathed out as he ran his fingers through his black hair.

But it was an appetizer for what awaited them at the very top and beyond the forests and the next bend in the road as it overlooked the enormous valley down below, and as far as they both knew, the entire world at their whim. They had climbed the mountain to see the world, but before them was what she held dear, and for him in particular.

The snowy scapes cradled those freezing, perfectly still black waters before them. Where they had seen the ugly salt waters of Mono Lake, they were met with the massive beauty of Lake Tahoe. Alex lifted his mirrored sunglasses off of his nose for a better look before him.

“One of the places my mom loved going to when she was growing up,” Sam started again as the road gently dipped downward, “was Incline Village.”

“Is that what this is down here?”

“Nah, this is Glenbrook over here. Incline's over that way—” She pointed out his side of the windshield and the lush banks of snow that covered the forest along the lake side. “I have no doubt that had she not picked Catalina, she would've moved there. To the city by the lake.”

“What stopped her?”

“Her publisher's based out of L.A.”

“I see.”

“We'd have to turn around and head back to Spooner Lake to get there, too. But—” She bowed her head for a better look out the windshield. Even though it was only five o'clock in the afternoon, the night was upon them, as were the storm clouds overhead. All the way up they had gathered around the mountain summits, but now they were officially upon a mountain summit, and thus it warranted snow.

“I don't know if we can get back over there before the snow comes in, Alex,” she said aloud. “Or back down for that matter. That road sucks when it snows.”

“What do you think we should do?” he asked her, concerned.

“Well... we have that blanket in the back and we have our jackets with us.”

“That means we gotta fold the seats back, though,” he pointed out.

“And? Here—”

She slowed to a stop at the next side street, which brought them closer to the water's edge as well as a few long low buildings, including a bar. Once they had come onto smoother pavement, the winds picked up. She pulled behind the bar, away from the water and ultimately the incoming wind and the blizzard.

“We'll park behind this bar here so we're out of the wind.”

“Eat some more of that cheesy bread, too,” he said.

“I'll go into the bar here if you want something more to eat,” she promised him. “I don't have much left on me except enough to get us back down the hill and then over to some place like the Bay Area, but that's for later on, though.”

“And I'll keep you warm,” he promised her.

Five o'clock in the afternoon and yet Sam was exhausted, with no desire to go any further. Indeed, she could see it on his face as well. Both of them had traveled hundreds of miles together and without the sense of a tour lingering over him in particular. She killed the engine and they both climbed out. Both of them wore windbreakers and yet Sam knew it wouldn't be enough. He opened the passenger door and took the blanket off of the seat before he adjusted it back: she did the same when flurries fluttered down from the darkening sky overhead.

“I got another couple of jackets back here, too,” he told her as he took a pair of dark puffy jackets out from under the seat closest to him. “Use these for pillows—”

He rolled up the first one and lay it down in front of him, and did the same for the next one.

Sam brushed the extraneous snow off of her head before she climbed in and onto the flattened back seat. Alex followed suit, although he had to skirt around the edge of the seat so he could lay right next to her. He shut that door above their heads and she shut the other door down by their feet. He then took the blanket and spread it over their bodies.

“Just like that—yeah—yeah—yeah, you got it?” He lay there on his side with the jacket rolled up right under his head; she nestled down right next to him with her head upon the other jacket. She lay right there with only an inch of clearance between herself and the tip of his aquiline nose. Four hundred miles of driving and they both had had enough despite it being early still.

“I do,” she told him in a hushed voice.

“Okay.”

His slender body was so very warm; even though he had slimmed down a great deal, his stomach was still very soft. She kept her arms around his slim waist: even as a thin, almost delicate young man, he had rather prominent hipbones and such thick sinewy thighs. Even when thin and having shed most of his childhood weight, he was still as warm and soft as a teddy bear. She pictured him as even more delicate in a few years time at the rate he was going at with his weight: even having eaten to his heart's desire at the house down in Catalina, he still maintained that slim figure. She tucked her head under his chin so she could better feel the warmth from his neck.

To think that she was laying like this in a bed in West Germany not long ago. To think that she had no one next to her, and for months, in that bed in the house down in Lake Elsinore. That room all to herself for months, such that it felt like a prison of sorts.

“This feels so weird,” she confessed.

“Why's that?”

“Well—because the last time I got this close with a guy was Joey. And I dunno if we're even a thing anymore.”

Alex raised an eyebrow at that. She kept her hand on the small of his back: it wasn't long ago she lay the same way with Joey before and with her hands down lower on him. Maybe she overthought the whole thing and he really was fooling around. No way she could ask him at that point, however.

Alex shivered a bit.

“Are you cold?” she gently asked him.

“A little bit—I'm feeling kind of a draft on the side of my neck. I also think I've lost too much weight.”

“What makes you think that?” she asked him.

“Even under the blankets, I'm cold.”

With a bit of a struggle, Sam lifted her hand and she tugged on the blanket a bit so it covered the side of his neck. She brought her hand towards the small of his back and she burrowed even closer to him so he was warm. Outside, the snow pummeled on the street and the sidewalk beyond the car: given they were behind a brick wall, every so often some of the snow hit the roof or the hood, but not enough to deafen them.

“I will say this,” he started again with a sniffle.

“What's that?”

“I'm glad we parked behind this bar here—” His voice was low and crisp sounding, as though he had a sore throat. “Listen to those winds.”

Sam nestled even closer next to him as the winds picked up out there to where they formed a ghostly howl. He may have felt cold, but his chest was warm and his body was soft and tender. He bowed his head a bit so he could better keep in the warmth between them.

“God, you're so soft,” she told him, “you're like a little teddy bear.”

“I'm gonna say this, though,” he said, “I'm sure you can feel my arms.”

“I do.” Indeed, even though his body was soft, his lanky arms felt so firm and toned, even when covered in that thick windbreaker. “I see you just being so elegant, though,” she confessed as she recalled his life's wish. “All wrapped in lace and standing tall.”

“I dunno 'bout lace,” he said. “Velvet, maybe. Velvet with—silk.”

“All silky soft,” she joked and he chuckled at that.

She had no memory of what happened after that: they both fell asleep, and she woke up to total darkness and the howl of the cold winter winds. And yet even in the wake of the noise outside, Sam caught the sound of voices on the street. Against the wind, she swore she heard church bells ringing.

“Happy New Year!” a man shouted. “Happy 1989!”

“Happy New Year, Samantha,” Alex whispered to her in a broken voice.

“Happy New Year, Alex,” she whispered back. She was practically squeezing his thin little body at that point, but she knew that he would be toasty warm in the morning.

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sainedeparam · 3 years

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okay so: one book and one song for 7 oc's your choice and why!!!

Flor i am so sorry because this took me forever to answer 😭😭😭 i really had to think about what fit best and i ended up changing the “one book” to “one quote from a book” since i struggled with that but here we go. Under the cut because it ended up being too long akshsjsksl

One Song

Tate Cerati • Believer by Imagine Dragons

First things first // I'ma say all the words inside my head // I'm fired up and tired of the way that things have been, oh-ooh // The way that things have been, oh-ooh // Second thing second // Don't you tell me what you think that I could be // I'm the one at the sail, I'm the master of my sea, oh-ooh // The master of my sea, oh-ooh

No thoughts, just vibes with this song. I don’t really have a reason why I chose this for Tate other than vibes. It just felt so… him, if that makes sense.

Brynn Delvaux • Born Ready by Zayde Wølf

I don't believe in no devil // 'Cause I done raised this hell // Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh // I've been the last one standing // When all the giants fell // Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh // I won't shiver // I won't shake // I'm made of stone // I don't break // Start me up // Open my eyes // Turn me loose and you'll see why // I was born, born ready // I was born, born ready // Staring at the pressure now // I won't quit, not backing down // I was born, born ready // I was born, born ready

I like powerful women. The type of women that are feared by everyone. And this song best describes the kind of vibe I was going for when playing her route in WTNC.

Ryder Vesta • Centuries by Fall Out Boy

And I can't stop 'til the whole world knows my name // 'Cause I was only born inside my dreams // Until you die for me, as long as there's a light // My shadow's over you 'cause I am the opposite of amnesia // … // Some legends are told // Some turn to dust or to gold // But you will remember me // Remember me for centuries // And just one mistake // Is all it will take // We'll go down in history // Remember me for centuries // (Hey yeah, oh hey, hey yeah) // Remember me for centuries // We've been here forever // And here's the frozen proof // I could scream forever // We are the poisoned youth

In my head this is a Villain Theme Song and he’s cocky enough for this to fit him. And this is also to implement the fact that Ryder could never really become a Vigilante, let alone a Hero. Even if he’s dating a Hero, he will always will be a Villain and I love that for him.

Amaris Voight • Control by Halsey

I'm well acquainted with villains that live in my head // They beg me to write them so they'll never die when I'm dead // And I've grown familiar with villains that live in my head // They beg me to write them so I'll never die when I'm dead // I'm bigger than my body // I'm colder than this home // I'm meaner than my demons // I'm bigger than these bones // And all the kids cried out, "Please stop, you're scaring me" // I can't help this awful energy // God damn right, you should be scared of me // Who is in control?

I was listening to this song while I was thinking about what I wanted to do for Amaris’ future. There is sort of a complexity of whether this means her talking to the citizens she’s meant to protect, her talking to Nathaniel + Areum or just her talking to herself. You can’t just have the amount of power she does while not being able to fully control it and not be wary of her.

Kavan Vekany • Stronger by The Score

Set me on fire // Set me on, set me on fire (whoa, whoa-oh) // I'm still alive // I'm still ali- I'm still alive (whoa) // Bet you didn't think that I'd come back to life // Higher, faster, everlasting // Bet you didn't think that I'd come back to life // Higher, faster, never-crashing // Bet you didn't think that I'd come back to life // Stronger // (Stronger, stronger, stronger, stronger) // Bet you didn't think that I'd come back to life // Stronger // (Stronger, stronger, stronger, stronger) // Bet you didn't think that I'd come back to life // I do this with conviction // I write truths and never fiction // My disease is what you fed // I can't stop with my ambition // Like a missile on a mission // I'm a force that you will dread-ead

If The Exile was a series or movie, I can envision this song being played while at the end of Chapter 3, or maybe Chapter 4 since that’s when we maybe talk to Syfin + Trystan + Our Family.

Benjamin Blackwood • My Demons by STARSET

Mayday, mayday // The ship is slowly sinking // They think I'm crazy but they don't know the feeling // They're all around me circling like vultures // They wanna break me and wash away my colors // Wash away my colors // Take me high and I'll sing // Oh, you make everything okay, okay, okay (okay, okay, okay) // We are one and the same // Oh, you take all of the pain away, away, away (away, away, away) // Save me if I become // My demons

This is just basically him asking for help, I just haven’t decided if I want this to be romantic or platonic in terms of he’s asking for help from.

Kai Morgenstern • Lovely by Billie Eilish & Khalid

Thought I found a way // Thought I found a way out (found) // But you never go away (never go away) // So I guess I gotta stay now // Oh, I hope some day I'll make it out of here // Even if it takes all night or a hundred years // Need a place to hide, but I can't find one near // Wanna feel alive, outside I can't fight my fear // Isn't it lovely, all alone // Heart made of glass, my mind of stone // Tear me to pieces, skin to bone // Hello, welcome home

Kai and her complicated one-sided relationship with the supernatural world. There’s a reason why she has a really high Resistance Stat.

One Quote

Tate Cerati • Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

“Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder.”

This ties to the moment he found out the truth about Daphne, and Alex. How everything just shattered for him in the blink of an eye. It also ties to other events, like finding out what happened to his mother and during the battle when Daphne dies trying to save him. It's just him not expecting an outcome that would destroy his life, in a sense. The kind of outcome where he has to live with that knowledge knowing there is nothing he could have done to change it.

Brynn Delvaux • They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera

“Sometimes the truth is a secret you're keeping from yourself because living a lie is easier.”

I headcanon that she had her suspicions about what Hunters really were. I mean you can't really be that strong and still be human. But keeping it to herself and not investigating further was better than to face the truth because being just like the kind of creatures she was taught to hunt was too much for her to handle. Even after she learns the truth during the story she is still in a bit of denial.

Ryder Vesta • The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

“Usually we walk around constantly believing ourselves. 'I'm okay' we say. 'I'm alright'. But sometimes the truth arrives on you and you can't get it off. That's when you realize that sometimes it isn't even an answer--it's a question. Even now, I wonder how much of my life is convinced.”

I told you about what his childhood, and how he came to be working for the Phoenix Organization, so this fits into him questioning Phoenix and his upbringing. Trying to figure out whether what he was told about his parents abandoning him were true or not, and thinking about what he would do if it weren't. The slow process of finding the truth, thinking that he's okay until it hits the point where he realizes he's actually not okay and not knowing if he is actually strong enough to go against the person he was loyal to.

Amaris Voight • Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

“Sometimes, you do things and you do them not because you're thinking but because you're feeling. Because you're feeling too much. And you can't always control the things you do when you're feeling too much.”

Every decision she made after waking up were based on feelings so they are a bit questionable even if they're not exactly bad, like not reaching out to Nathaniel and Areum. But it also fits in terms of her abilities. She has sort of learned how to use her abilities and has trained in order to be able to control her powers but she still doesn’t know the extent to what she can do so sometimes when she’s feeling too much, she can’t really control her abilities and the outcome of that is not always pretty :(

Kavan Vekany • The Burning Maze (The Trials of Apollo, #3) by Rick Riordan

“Pain is an interesting thing. You think you have reached your limit and you can’t possibly feel more tortured. Then you discover there is still another level of agony. And another level after that.”

After reading the new update, this just fits him so much. Everything he had to go through after [redacted], especially whatever they did in order for him to not be able to fully transform anymore? He’s known pain like never before, and you know it’s bad when even i think it’s too much lmao.

Benjamin Blackwood • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

“He was not happy. He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of affairs. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.”

He grew up thinking that there was only one way of doing things, his father’s way. It never really hit him until he got older. For the majority of his life he just kept on doing what he was told because he thought it was the right thing to do and because he wanted his father to be proud but he was never truly happy. He never stopped to think about that feeling until later on.

Kai Morgenstern • They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera

“I've spent years living safely to secure a longer life, and look where that's gotten me. I'm at the finish line but I never ran the race.”

My favorite girl, who hates life in NMC and being a Keeper in general. She wasn’t exactly “safe” or “cautious” when doing things before the events of kotsam but her life was never in danger, she had everything she wanted. And then, in the form of one car crash and almost being killed, he future just went down the drain and in the span of 2 years (so far) she has had so many near death experiences. She’s just so tired at this point.

#i didn’t really give a big explanation for the songs and im sorry for that. i just didn’t know what to say since some were based on vibes #and i know Benjamin’s descriptions are confusing since i haven’t talked about him or his story to you so im sorry about that too akshsksks #also. after i finished writing this i realized it ended up being pretty sad and i guess it’s just on brand for me now 😔#i love them though. they do get sort of happy endings #my babies <3 #thank you love!!#misc: asks #tag: flor ✨

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promisedenddreams · 3 years

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Dream 48

In order to determine if our universe should have more good in it or bad, the gods set up hundreds of pocket dimensions that had a few people that wanted to fulfill some evil goal, and if they succeeded that dimension would be marked with a devil emoji and if not then it would be marked with an angel emoji. The majority wins. Some of the evil goals were simple, some were not.

One pocket dimension had a charismatic person tasked with convincing 50 people to cut into their own bodies anywhere. One had an evil white dragon tasked with playing king of the hill against some other monsters where the hill was Devils Tower (in Wyoming). Another was the one I was in.

A person was tasked with convincing 4 people to willingly enter an area with a deadly SCP and have those 4 people die. She chose a deadly maze dimension SCP.

Me and 4 other people just finished a mission when one of them spoke up that we needed to report it at a different location for security reasons.

She was a higher rank than us, so we agreed. She piloted the boat over to a beachside resort that was deserted, due to being Secured to keep people from the SCP.

I asked why we were at an SCP location to meet and she said that the room of that cabin was bigger on the inside than the outside. Before heading inside, I said if this is a trap I would personally shoot her when I exited.

She asked, "With what gun? Hmmm?"

I flipped her off and walked inside with the rest of my group. It looked like a nice kitchen and living room area, just with no signs of anyone else (except a large black bear that was sitting on a countertop in the kitchen, eating strawberry jam out of a big glass jar). I tried the front door but it was locked. We noticed some writing on the floor that was raised as if large foam letters were pushing up the carpet.

The first section of words read: 'Welcome, please follow all directions and you will be allowed to leave.' Next to that, another section held a different message, which read: 'one step down, one step up, one step down, one step up, and one step to the right.' That section of wording was duplicated but read to the left instead of the right as the last step.

We stared at the three sets of wording on the floor.

Someone suggested we split up, as we would cover more ground in two groups of two. The other two agreed, but I did not like the idea.

Fred and Alex went over to the stairs leading down in the back of the room and followed the step directions for up/down/right. And Sharlene and I took the step directions for the other one. Upon finishing the directions, the two boys disappeared and when we finished following the directions, we reappeared back at the start of the room.

Fred and Alex were nowhere in sight.

I noticed a calendar by the front door (which was still locked) and it was one day ahead of the date on my phone. I remembered hearing about this SCP where it is a maze and the calendar counts successes and restarts on a failure.

The two of us looked around- it was pretty much identical to the previous room. There was still text in the living room, made out of the raised carpet, but it had different words.

It said don't step on anything other than carpet.

I remembered that if you stood on the wrong spot, the maze SCP would kill you with a swinging axe that came out of a nearby wall like a medieval trap.

We make our way to the exit of the room and saw another set of stairs instructions by the stairs. It continued with these weird instructions for another 20 rooms when the generic room instructions are don't let the bear touch you. We looked around and noticed the front door is replaced with a hallway and saw a slow-moving red-eyed black bear that was walking towards us. We quickly got out of that room.

More rooms and more instructions came and went- and the rooms started looking different. One had a bed in the middle of the room, one had metal welded walls, one had a goose stuck to the wall with knives.

In room 70, the enemy to avoid was a small creepy toy doll.

We walked into the room and went to read the exit conditions and the doll had teleported closer when we looked back at it. We finished reading when Sharlene felt a needle poke her leg. We looked down to see the doll, it laughed for a few seconds before disappearing.

A watch appeared on her wrist, seeming to be counting down from 1 hour.

She said she felt a little lightheaded.

We started to rush through the rooms and they started to getting weirder and weirder.

On room 98, the walls were covered in blood-red cobwebs and the floor was made of random 10 inch patches of metal, wood, carpet, and blood.

We both noticed that we started standing on wood so we only step on wood till we see the instructions which confirmed to only stand on wood. The exit instructions are for each person to cut off one finger and drip blood on the railing with a knife that was conveniently close by.

I cut off my left ring finger and she did the same.

We followed the exit instructions and teleported again, but to a room that looked like the first room.

Her watch read 2 minutes.

We saw a sign hanging from the ceiling that read: 'Congrats you can leave but only together.'

I thanked the SCP and asked it if it could lend me a gun.

The sign changed to read: 'No.'

I pleaded with it, saying I would throw the gun back in shortly and would talk to my superiors about people being sent in here in the future.

The sign changed once more to read: 'You promise?'

I nodded and a pistol appeared in front of me. I grabbed it and booked it out of there with Sharlene and saw the lady who tricked us.

As she was saying: "How the hell, it's only been a few minutes?" I shot her and tossed the gun back in.

The two boys on my team were never heard from again and I upheld my promise to bring it up with my superiors about people entering, but they dismissed it like I expected them to.

This pocket dimension was marked off with a Angel emoji.

#my dreams #dream #this was a wild ride #the white dragon became a dragon because he won a card game just so you know #tw guns #horror aesthetic #tw body mutilation #maze #scp #ignoring the gods #rip fred and alex #Sharlene is a real bro #doll #black bear #dont take away it's jam tho

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soyouareandrewdobson · 4 years

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Alex ze Pirate Mini Review 2: Underappreciated and how Sam should deal with an abuser.

Last time I gave a general overview of how Sam is treated by his “friends”. Now I want to give a more specific example, that will also show how Dobson’s storytelling abilities are not really all that good, particularly when it comes to pacing or building up any sort of conflict.

You see, for the most part Alex ze Pirate is just a collection of stupid artwork (not even concept art, just random artwork Dobson makes of his characters dressed as something random) and one page strips with a stupid punchline, with Sam most of the time being the receiving punching bag.

There have however been a few individual, short stories over time. And when I say short stories, I mean short. As in 15 pages for a very cheap set up, a few jokes and a punchline. Those include stories such as All that Glitters (where everyone except Alex breaks into a fortress to steal something), The Wish Fish (the only halfway okay story of them all because it is just meant to be comedic) and Best Laid Plans. However, near the end of the initial run of AzP, Dobson did a three part story (partly) focused on Sam in that format, which started off with the chapter I want to talk in this post: “Underappreciated”.

As you can see, the chapter starts off following some basic rules of storytelling in comics. Two establishing panels for the location at which the story takes place initially and showing what Sam’s duties are. Nothing really bad yet. The only thing that sticks out being just the fact that a) Sam does not have his own bedroom and has to sleep in a useless outlook and b) he sleeps in his regular clothes. But hey, nothing to get upset about initially, perhaps he just prefers it like this at the moment. But with the next two pages…

The problems start to show. Page three establishing that Atea herself is just a cunt who can’t even have the basic decency of wishing her “friend” a good morning or giving him a thank you for bringing a morning beverage as she has other selfish priorities on her mind. Like wanting to lick the shower water of Alex’s skin.

Also, go fuck yourself Uncle Peggy. As in, get both your arms ripped off, shoved up your butthole with those hooks and then get hanged on those stomps like a chandelier. I wouldn’t even mind the fact here that Peggy left a mess, if the face he makes in the last panel was not obvious of the fact he left the bathroom like this on purpose and that he is rather happy of making Sam’s day extra miserable by the fecal matter he left behind. Combined with any previous strip of the comic showing that Peggy for no reason likes to get the boy in trouble and even wants to see him die, this just shows once more of how much of an asshole he is. If the last panel just showed him with a groogy hangover look, obviously unaware of how much discomfort he brings unintentionally to Sam, that would be one thing. But intentionally making Sam’s day miserable despite the obvious fact the boy is the first one to do anything around here, while making one of the worst drawn “HAHA, I am such a rascal faces” I have ever seen (and I have seen shitty anime en mass) makes me hate the character more than Dobson intented.

And then there is page 5…

And it is in my opinion the saddest page in the entire comic arc, even compared to the “heartbreaking” stuff Dobson wants to pull up in the last third of it. Because though it is meant as a joke, the general execution is too cruel, crossing into “dude, not funny” territory and showing just how little the crew cares for Sam. Talus, Sam’s “best friend” not even aware he is around, everyone stealing Sam’s food with that stupid “Yoink” sound (seriously, I wish the characters would get punched in the vaginas each time they make this sound in any of Dobson’s strips) and then leaving Sam behind with smug faces, ready to do whatever they want to do, while he, likely stinking of feces and not even having showered properly, has also to clean up after those pigs, who can’t even eat in a proper manner ( hey Atea, use a fork instead of holding the bowl) and silently. I mean, they are pretty much pigs when the noises they make are loud enough, they make the font of the writing change randomly into whatever Dobson has on his computer with every sound. Not to forget the mess they leave behind. And they call Sam the Slob?

Anyway, on to the next page…

And who the heck left their Hello Kitty toy in the bathtub? Also, I hate the way Alex’s face is drawn in the lower left corner. Something about the eyes in relation to the shit eating grin just looks off. Less “smug” and gleefully awaiting whatever she plans next and looking more like Dobson when someone tells him his opinion and reasoning for it is bad, but he can’t yell back at them because they are part of a minority and so he has make a “good face” to a bad situation, while internally he is already imagining how to strawman them in some fake news worthy facebook post.

And then we get to page 7. Which features the WORST addition to the “Alex ze Pirate” canon Dobson has ever thought up. An embodiment of what is wrong with Dobson when it comes to inserting internet culture related stuff into his own work. Ladies and gentlemen… the lolcat pirates

Yeah, those Hello Kitty rejects who ironically look still more like a proper cat than Spot in Danny and Spot, are essentially one of the worst jokes Dobson has ever created. Because they are a joke without a punchline. See, all there is to them is that they are sentient cats, that speak in a manner associated with lolcat posting. And that is the “joke”. Their speech pattern being based on a dumb internet meme that was popular at the time Dobson drew this page. It is like if you portray an Asian by making them talk with a shitty racist accent and that supposedly counts already as comedy. It is not funny, because there is nothing really done with it in context of the story. Like no one addresses the weird way they talk. Also, with the font Dobson uses, it is just an eyesore to any reader and the text gets aggravating the more the captain of the cats talks. It shows why lolcat pictures only had very short sentences accompanying the pics, cause reading more than 8 words written in this manner tingles a part of your brain that makes you want to shout “English motherfucker, do you speak it”?

Don’t get me even started on how the joke would get lost to anyone unaware of lolcats and how dated the joke already was back when the page was posted, which is one of many reasons why comic artists should just in general avoid memes in their work, if they hope for it to pass the test of time. Instead let me just point out the fact that though Alex said “All hands prepared for casting off” on the previous page (which is also a very unnatural way to give the order “Everyone get ready! Take off in 10 minutes”) not all hands are on board, seeing how Uncle Peggy is missing on this page (and spoilers) many pages of this afterwards. Weird. I thought he would be onboard the moment Alex mentioned they are going to hijack a ship full of pussy. Lastly, this is Alex being a “badass”? Taking over a ship full of little furballs you can defeat with a laserpointer, a squeaky toy and catnip? Sam, this is not just “almost” embarrassingly easy, this is literally on a level similar to stealing candy from a baby. That is mentally handicapped. And without supervision. In a candy story.

At least it turns out there is genuinely something worth stealing on this ship. Otherwise all Alex would have accomplished on that very day would have been animal abuse for the sake of entertainment. Though now it also gets me thinking: A place called Katsville, the revelation that the captain is supposedly the child of a high ranking military feline within the sea force of an entire species of sentient cats… how exactly does the world of Alex ze Pirate function? Look, I do not want to get into too much detail about this point here yet, because it is a bigger issue with the worldbuilding (or rather lack thereof) of this series in general, but what is the “consistency” when it comes to races and species in this world? See, One Piece for example is overall a very “cartoonish” and fantastic world (more cartoonish than what Dobson creates on average) when you think of the fact there are fish men, giant seacows and seamonsters, sentient furry creatures, islands in the sky, sentient weather phenomenons etc next to humans. And while Oda does not really spend time elaborating in very high detail how his world works, the sheer abundance of those elements and how they were established pretty early on in the story and are revisited constanly, with the cartoonish flavor and humor of One Piece on top of it, makes those oddities feel organic and a part of the world.

Not so much in AzP. Here over 90% of the time any character not related to the crew is some generically drawn human, in a very generically human setting with jokes just not cartoonish enough. So the world of AzP feels more “realistic” and less oddish, making then things like Talus, the lolcat pirates and once a giant sea dragon that looked like Elliot’s rejected cousin

Stand out like a sour thumb that looks like this

But I digress. Lets see what makes Sam, who just seems bored and wants to end his miserable life/drink his sorrows away, throw the cat captain against the wall.

Okay. Sam’s overall reaction makes it clear, the locket is important. So “kudos” for establishing this and in doing so also create within a moment a bit of intrigue for the reader. After all, why does this locket get such a reaction out of Sam, who we know so far as more happy go lucky or deadpan in parts, instead of looking genuinely distraught. Heck, the fact he even tells Alex to shut up when she commands him around should highlight how out of character finding this locket truly makes Sam.

Then there is Alex’s reaction to being told to shut up, which she takes with as much dignity as someone telling Dobson to just stop fawning about underaged lesbians in a toddler show.

Jesus Christ, she faces being told she looks like a guy with more grace than that. I mean, isn’t she used to being told to shut her trap? Cause if I were her parents, I would have told this entitled redheaded whinner a few times over the course of her childhood to shut up.

Scum sucking cabin boy… said by a butt ugly whore who would genuinely suck scum off if it means she can finally get laid instead of being mistaken for a man. By the way, with that angry face she makes in the first panel, I can totally see why others would mistake her for a dude. She just looks unpleasant and not in a funny way like that red panda girl from Aggretsuko. See, when she gets angry, it looks hilarious and cute because of the contrast to how the character looks ordinarily. This is just Alex looking even more unpleasant as usual.

Now, before I continue with the next pages, I like to point out the face Sam makes in the upper panel and Sam’s overall body language in the last one.

It is obvious that Sam is meant to be in a state of mind where he knows for what he is getting yelled at and where he genuinely reacts in a hurt manner. His body shaking, his head tilted down, not saying even a word. You would expect that the next page of this comic would be a follow up. Seeing Sam, who is pent up, lashing out in some way. Either for example by justifying why he said it, getting sad, angry, perhaps even violent in that situation. After all, so far the way this story has been structured, a lot of emphasize was put on the fact that Sam is treated not well and that finding this locket actually has an uncommon effect on him. Heck, even the title of this chapter hints on the idea, that we should get some sort of huge reaction out of Sam now on the next page, as this is supposed to be Sam’s story.

Instead it is just Alex grumbling and grinding her teeth, unable to comprehend that someone finally told her something every reader with more than 20 braincells said when reading this comic series. And this in my opinion is from a structural point, one of the biggest missteps in this story. Obviously, this is supposed to be a comic about Sam, based on title and him being the one character in it with the most emotional aspects so far. And it is also obvious that this is not just meant to be a silly gag comic but supposedly one with emotional weight. So, where is that weight so far, aside from the panels showing Sam being miserable because he gets the short end of the stick by his friends? Sorry to hijack this thing here now with my own ideas, but if I had writen this story, page 12 and 13 would have actually been an immense turning point for me in the dynamic so far. Why I would have let Alex shout at Sam for insubordination, I would have made it more than one panel of Alex calling him scum and also end likely with Sam, who obviously reaches a limit the longer she goes on about it, end punching her in the face, perhaps even knock out. Show truly just how far Sam is pushed emotionally at this moment, keeping it however ambiguous if he hit her because of her words hurting or because of something else, in doing so focusing also the attention to the reader back on the locket.

As an aftermath of this, Alex would (if not knocked out) hit Sam back, much to Atea’s and Talus horror, later implying additionally that Sam left because of being hit by whom he thinks is not just his captain but a “friend” (oh yes spoiler, Sam is gone in the next chapter) or the next page would be of Alex waking up back in her hideout from having been knocked out. Atea and Talus informing her what happened, her deciding to deal with Sam later on after recovering (who accompanied everyone back on the island temporarily) only for the last page showing Sam deciding that he is leaving the island, ending the chapter on Sam in a small boat slowly drifting away from the island. You know, something to give the chapter the feeling that the “shut up” moment is an emotional turning point in this story and that there might be something bigger going on that resulted in Sam deciding to leave, without having him however go full Meg Griffin as in the Family Guy episode “Seashell Seahorse Party”, chewing Alex and the others out for the way they treat him. Cause honestly, as much as I like for Alex, Atea and Talus to be chewed out and face consequences for their actions, doing so would likely just be (like in that Family guy episode) a pointless fillerbuster in the bigger picture of things, as no real consequences would come out of it.

Well that and just like the writers of Family Guy, Dobson is just equally loathsome and thinks he can write whatever sick joke he wants and can on his characters, basic decency or consistency in writing be damned.

But back to the comic, where things just “end” as shown here instead of any real emotions boiling up and a cliffhanger that may genuinely beg the question what is going to happen next to anyone involved in this thing.

Cause really, by the time it is night and Sam says it is time to go, you are not surprised he wants to go, even if he did not have a genuine emotional outburst within this chapter. After all, who wants to stay with “friends” like this, with Talus and Atea not even trying to cheer him up and instead ignoring his obvious need for comfort in this uncomfortable way, as if they are a bunch of racists trying to look away as someone beats a black person in front of them into a pulp. The only question you may ask yourself by the time the last page is hit, is who that generic looking girl is, whose picture has been photoshopped into the locket.

Something we may not find out by the time the next chapter and part of this review hits, but will get to eventually. Until then guys, in order to end on something happier, funnier and just genuinely more pleasant than what this story presented to us so far, have something silly and Super Sentai related here for the sake of childish entertainment.

youtube

#Andrew Dobson #alex ze pirate #webcomics #syac #tom preston #abusive female heroes #abusive heroes #atea #talus #comics #cartoons #this sucks #storytelling 101 #adobsonartwork

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shy-magpie · 4 years

Text

RQG 154

Wherein red stringing occurs. Liveblog under the cut:

Not much hype this week, just a lot of being quietly thrilled RSB got the beginning of the episode dedicated to us. I hope the rest of the fandom doesn't feel like Bryn plays favorites. Its sweet he back reads and answers questions but its nothing he wouldn't do in official. Last week was such a gift that I think it cut down on hype for this week because even if (Alex forbid) they immediately time skipped to the end of the week, quarantine still got us amazing backstory and character moments. Unless Alex gets truly desperate and has someone attack the inn or infects both the new kids, the characters are safe from physical danger so no fear hype either.

Yes I want follow up on that Hamid & Zolf conversation: I am so proud of him for calling Zolf out on being patronizing (I can't believe I didn't see earlier with his family, of course that's the aspect that got to him) and they need to figure out how to deal with the chain of command. Zolf already seems more willing to get input on his decisions so its mostly losing the attitude when things happen like Hamid casting lights. Yes I also want Cel to talk about themself more, but I am fine with waiting until they aren't locked up with no privacy. Azu's backstory is coming out at a decent pace and Helen spoils us so not even worried about not hearing more about her becoming a paladin. I am curious if Alex thinks its worth bonding with the new kids and this better not be a set up for splitting the party. So enough pre episode babbling, final bets on if they play with the brorb now or wait until they can take it to Cel's? Gotta love that music. Oh they do want to get back to things! Listen to how fast they're talking. That's nice I wouldn't have thought they'd be as excited about the pure RP backstory and character bits as they get about a boss fight. No Alex neither players nor fans want to skip anything. I will concede that further conversation was unlikely to be productive that night so the morning makes sense. There was only one corridor! Barnes is still using the stairs to get some space. Some might see it as a sign he is infected or afraid of infection but honestly not wanting to puppy pile with a group as tight knit as the party especially while they are shaking out their issues is valid. Azu checks on Carter who passed out drunk face down. Zolf is sleeping in. With Hamid's family issues, Bryn being so careful to specify he has a healthy relationship with alcohol every time makes it a lot easier to not tense up listening. Oh My God thanks Bryn! I know he said the beginning of the episode was dedicated to us but I was expecting a throw away line not a proper red stringing scene! I am grinning so big right now. Azu is watching Hamid Cel is sleeping curled up with the sealed bottle of elvish mead. Because Lydia is as much a criminal as Bryn just plays a longer game. Speaking of criminal, Ben really plays up this rivalry from Azu & Zolf covering similar roles and its a really close second to the rank thing between him & Hamid in character arcs I'm interested in. I think both are aiming towards a happy ending but no idea how the middle is going to play out. I don't think it's aiming for a "this party isn't big enough for two of us". Alex is encouraging this. This is great just going to get a clip of this rather than attempt to transcribe on first listen. Bryn/Hamid is laying this out so clearly: The knowns, assumed, and questions are being labeled nicely. (I wonder if our little discord helped him refresh his memory so he'd be able to match how much Hamid would remember in character.) Bryn also goes 3rd person? Hope it isn't a stress tell like Alex. Yes Bryn is obsessed and as a listener its is utterly charming when he shows up in RSB or Official and is unabashedly as big a fan of the show as us. Zolf wakes up to Hamid red stringing. Thank goodness he isn't letting security concerns lead him to putting the brakes on. I know there was some concern that if one of them was infected sharing they could pass on anything they talk about. As long as they don't get too specific about classified info, using the time and frankly just having a project to distract them is a good idea. Plus in my mind Hamid always looks so hurt when Zolf pulls on the reigns. Lilliana is not allowed to be the connecting thread. Oh seed is finally being addressed. Aw Hamid handed Cel a glass of water. It really is the little things I love about this show: 1)told you he has a knack for leadership: anticipating the needs of team members even as they diverge from his own 2)He does see Cel as a team member not just someone he worked with, you don't hear him cooing over Carter 3)does it quickly then moves on, because as a gentleman he thinks it's what anyone would do. 4)speaking of, I wonder that Azu & Zolf haven't done rounds. its not like they have anything to save the spells for and the field is only in the cell.

Svalbard! Do not taunt us, does Ben have any idea how much we want to see the science dwarves of the north? Um hmm, vindi-fing-cation. I know it wasn't exactly a huge insight but the mixture of science and various schools of magic is key to my theory on what “Erasing The Line” refers to. Oh Frankenstein in this world is such a concept. Plus it makes Mary Shelley canon. Aw Alex thought we'd never get to this bit of lore. Thank you Blue Veins info being given as whole instead of bits & pieces. Ooh and Barnes is taking it. Time to get a sense of who he is when he's not swinging a sword. Navel engagement with Blue Veins? Hive mind! Minimize harm? Not dead. Paladins are complicated, maybe a rumor, maybe transfer of allegiance. Cyborg kraken Cyborg Zolf Oh splitting the kraken to make more Barnes just checks out as the conversation goes over his head Called it I told you it was a sensible test. (ETA Zolf’s fart test) (ETA: Re: people with Blue Veins) No lies, no embarrassment, very literal. Other instances? Riots London->Paris->Europe Not safe to go to London If you're in their presence you are highly likely to be infected, mass infections, not passed by corpses? Memetic effect? Tick tock. Ben and Alex have one of their friendly tussles as Carter decides its a me may Yes he did! And Helen name dropped us! I know I'm just a little part of the brigade but I'm going to to be smug for at least a week that we are so good at what we do one of the actual players looked to us. Hey Lydia is welcome too. Paperwork time! Yeah yeah I knew security was going to be used to undermine Hamid. At least it isn't Zolf and they aren't trying to make him look rash for the whole idea. Getting new info from the paperwork is a bit different than talking about what they already know. Make the place bigger? Nice spell Zolf. If this leads to Animorphs again... Oh I was thinking more like a big horde somewhere you could check stone in & out of a stone plane of existence ties in with elemental lore right? Seriously "Cure Hangover" isn't a spell? Or do Zolf & Azu just not approve of using their magic that way? Intoxicants have to fall under mild poisoning, right? Do the studying later in the week? That's a fair compromise; even if Zolf is still presenting it as an order he is explaining instead of giving his advice or IDK putting it to a vote. I'm not positive but I think Lydia is suggesting they go over their character sheets in character. Alex is not amused. Lydia sounds pleased with herself. Perception check? Azu hears someone knocking something over upstairs. Azu tries to not wake Carter as she listens at the door. It had to be her foot in his mouth. Multiple people in the inn. Carter tries to pick the lock. Azu & Carter start bickering. Carter is perception penalty. The inn is being searched Zolf suggests they wake Wilde up by making a racket. Cel hears the door being unlocked. Voices speaking muffled Japanese. Cel just shouts "Hey what's going on?". Zolf joins in. Azu uses her armor to make noise. Thump of someone hitting the floor! Wilde's voice! Lots of feet? Yes Helen, what if it is the kobolds? Oh god what if Skraak checked on them and found out they were in cages underground? Poor guy would think Wilde is their Shoin. Bryn clarifies Hamid shouts out to Wilde Zolf forbids them leaving the basement Cel shields themself. Azu goes for her armor Barnes is keeping Carter from going for the lock again. Hamid casts Fear (!oh that’s a new one isn't it) I assume #jail is already full of angst criminals connecting Hamid's bully days and him going from S1!Hamid scared of every fight to now casting fear as a way to control his enemies). Also these better be his enemies because I still don't put it past Alex to set us up for a tragic misunderstanding. Dragon roar and dragon face is how he casts fear Ok Rusty Quill LOTR night sounds awesome Zolf helps Azu put on her armor The other feet flee Zolf cries out for Wilde as loud as he physically can but still won't let them risk infecting Japan by leaving quarantine early. Oh if that ain't a fic and a half. A set of small claws! It is a kobold End the episode with the kobolds?

#Rusty Quill Gaming #RQG Spoilers #live blog thingy #RQG 154 #RQG season 4 #long post

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katlyn1948 · 4 years

Text

I Love You

Katlyn1948

Summary:

Arya and Gendry talk...and other things

Notes:

So...when I say that this story wrote its self, I mean it wrote its self. It took me four hours in the span of two days with good old fashioned pen and paper. I think it took me longer to transfer it to my tablet then to actually write it. This is also based off an Alex and Sierra song that I will link (or try to) and it a part of a bigger series that I have been wanting to do for sometime. I have a Spotify playlist for these two characters and there are a lot of songs that I want to write one shots off of and I just so happened to start with this song. I have NO IDEA when or what the next will be, but I’m sure it will be fun.

I am still working on Firestorm (I have a few more paragraphs to write) and I am working on the next part to “Lover” (it will be smut, you have been warned). I plan to upload all of them come next weekend, since it is Thanksgiving in the states. I am also working on my Arya/Gendry secret Santa, that I can’t wait to share!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!!

Work Text:

https://open.spotify.com/track/2ELVVIbpucfOqGFC21Q4yR?si=dHYuguzAT0Grj5jjv-s4Ug

The air in the sky emitted a cool breeze that made the sea waves shift amongst the red castle. If one were to look beyond the horizon, there would never be an inclination that the city behind the giant stone walls now was nothing more than a pile of ash and rubble.

In the two months since the Battle of King’s Landing and Daenerys’ rise to power, little effort had been made to rebuild. It wasn’t for lack of trying, for the new queen, along with her king regent, made it their top priority to mend the fractured ruins. However, the sheer amount of what had to be done made it seem as if little had been touched.

Arya herself helped in any way that she could, if it meant that she could distance herself from Gendry. She hadn’t mustered the courage to go to him and explain her wrong doings. It was cowardly and so unlike the young assassin that it warranted feelings she had yet to experience within herself.

Self-loathing had not been an emotion that Arya had had the pleasure of experiencing, but after the long night, she seemed to be doing a lot of self-loathing. The only way to quench that heat was to speak to Gendry. She knew that eventually, she would have to. Of course, being the way she was he would have to be the one the conversation. She just had to get him alone.

It was nearing sunset as Arya stood on the dock of King’s Landing; one of the few places left untouched by wildfire, waiting for Gendry to make his appearance.

She had written him a letter earlier in the day asking him to make his way to the docks after supper. She hoped he would comply, his curiosity getting the better of him. However, in the off chance that he didn’t show, Arya would mentally have to prepare for that.

She was unsure how angry Gendry was with her, if he would be able to even stand being in her presence. If she were in his boots, she would be irrevocably furious at her. In fact, she was. She was angry with herself and her stupidity.

There were only a few times in her life were she could blatantly acknowledge her undeniable stubbornness that caused her say or do stupid things.

The night after the battle was one of those stupid times.

It was pathetic really, how the stubborn bull had awakened a part of her she never knew existed. There were feeling that sparked the moment she saw him ride into Winterfell on some white horse. Much like the princes and knights in one of Sansa’s stupid fairytales. It was ridiculous that such a sight made her stomach knot in certain, unfamiliar ways. On the other hand, how the steam that bellowed from behind him as he worked on the dragon glass caused an ache in between her thighs that the whores in Bravvos used to banter on about throughout the night.

That night, after her intense encounter with Gendry in the forge, she slipped her hand in between her legs, picturing his large, soft, calloused hands flicking the delicate bud of nerves. She could see his deep blue eyes behind her closed ones as she continued to work herself. When the slight pressure in her abdomen began to rise, she had to bite her pillow to keep from screaming is name in ecstasy.

Even when her fantasies had come to fruition and they spent, what was supposed to be their final night of life, had been everything Arya could only imagine. She promised herself that if they did survive the night then she would tell him how she truly felt. She would let him know how he made her body quiver at just the tiniest touch and how she wanted to taste the bittersweet flavor off his soft lips.

Everything she had been feeling would come into light.

But when he found her in the store room, shooting arrows, and professed his undying love to her, she calmed shut, saying the words she knew that would hurt him. His broken eyes had nearly crushed her soul, but the need for revenge was just too great. The choice between life and death, at the time, was easy to choose. Death would always be her outcome, even if other’s told her otherwise.

Now, as she stood on the dock waiting for a person she wasn’t sure would show, Arya truly began to feel alone.

“Arya?” The voice was soft, but had the power to send shivers down her spine.

She knew it was him, the voice alone giving her validation, but she needed to be sure that he was the one standing behind her. She need to see his deep blue eyes and feel his large arms wrapped around her.

Slowly she turned and sighed in relief when the blacksmith was standing just a few short feet away.

“You got my letter.” She said as her eyes darted to the parchment in his twiddling hands.

A humorless chuckle escaped his lips, “I did. Although I;m not so sure as to why I showed up.”

“I needed to get you alone. You’ve been quite popular these days. Everyone wants your help somewhere or another. I’ve hardly seen much of you.” She softly smiled.

“What do you want, Arya?” His voice was stern and hard, not like the lighthearted conversations of the past.

Arya shifted here feet as she inched towards where Gendry was standing. She was so close to him that she could smell the smokes of the forge on his jerkin. She lifted her hand to his cheek and slowly lifted herself on her toes so she could reach his lips.

The kiss was light, so much so, that Arya hardly felt the chapped skin his lips were sure to have. It was such a soft peck that one could hardly tell it was a intimate gesture.

Gendry didn’t protest, but was caught off guard by the sudden shift in atmosphere.

As Arya lowered herself down, she clasped Gendry’s hand into her own, bringing it close to her chest. “I want to talk.” She said with his hand still clasped in hers.

“And where do you suppose we do that?” He asked, Arya could see the conflict in his yes as he struggled to down at her.

“You see that ship?” She pointed to the a ship anchored just beyond the docks.

Gendry nodded, “Yeah, what ‘bout it?”

“It’s mine, stupid. We can talk there. The crew are on the mainlands tonight, so we have complete privacy.” She hoped he would take her up on the offer and not leave her heartbroken and alone like she had done to him. Although, she couldn’t blame him if he did.

“How are we supposed to get to it?”

Arya smiled, taking his question as confirmation. She let go of his hand and crossed the dock to where a row boat was tied to a post, “I believe, Lord Baratheon, that you are quite familiar with this.”

A noticeable blush creeped onto Gendry’s face, “I’m going to kill Davos.”

“Don’t be mad at him. If anything be mad at me, I was the one that pried it out of him.” She confessed as she climbed into the dingy. Gendry was close behind and visibly revolted at the thing.

“Fine, I’ll go, but you’re the one rowing.”

Arya smiled, “As you wish, mi’lord.”

“Don’t call me that.” He grumbled as he took his position in the boat. He immediately took the ores from Arya, never intending her to row the both of them to her ship, and began treading them through the water.

They rowed in silence; Arya capturing quick glances at Gendry as he worked the ores though the water. With the waves calm and the slight breeze drifting through the air, Gendry had little to no difficulty navigating through the water.

The ship was just a few hundred yards away when Gendry suddenly stopped rowing, bringing the dingy to a halt.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Arya questioned.

Gendry sighed as he placed the ores in their respective sockets to keep them from falling into the sea. “What’s your plan, Arya?”

“What do you mean?” Pure confusion dripped from her voice.

“Why are you taking me to your empty ship?” He paused, searching her eyes for any answers.

“I told you, to talk.” She said curtly.

Gendry scoffed, “Talk? Arya we could have talked on the damn dock! We were alone, no one would have bothered us there, so why the ship?”

Arya sighed, giving herself a few moment to compose her emotions before speaking.

“We could have been interrupted. Some errand boy would have fetched you to do something for some lord! The only way for me to get truly alone was if no one knew where we were.” She confessed. Her breath was uneven as she tried to keep everything from spilling out.

“Fine, you got me alone. Now talk.” He urged with annoyance.

Arya let out an exasperated chuckle, “I am not having this conversation in a fucking dingy! If you don’t want to row anymore, then hand me the ores and I’ll take us to the ship!”

She grumbled in frustration as she shifted her position on the boat in order for her to grab the ores out of the sockets. Her hands grabbed for the handle when Gendry quickly stopped her. His hand had engulfed her as he placed them over hers.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” He huffed. “I’ll take us to the damn ship.”

Arya quickly snatched her hands out from under his, placing them in her lap and twiddling her fingers to keep her mind off at how much the small interaction burned her skin with desire.

The rest of short boat ride consisted of soft grunts as Gendry treaded the water. Arya didn’t dare glance his way, waiting until they were firmly on the ship before making any more advanced.

Once docked at the ship, Arya and Gendry climbed the rope ladder left for them by her crew just the day prior. They hauled themselves over the side and Gendry was immediately at a loss for words at the shear size of the vessel. It could house at least fifty or so crew members, not to mention enough storage to hold at least a few moons turns of supplies.

The decorative finishes showed exactly whose ship it belonged to.

“Let me guess...Davos.”

Arya smiled, “You are correct. I went to him after the battle at Winterfell. He told me he could find something, but I never imagined it would be something like this.”

“Well he is one for making sure people have the best, whether is be advice or a bloody ship.” He looked around the deck, marveling at the Stark sigil printed on the sails. “Why do you have a ship, anyway?”

Arya sighed as she felt her hear sink into her stomach, “Follow me.”

“Where are we going?” He asked as he began to follow in her footsteps.

Arya weaved below deck and continued I until they were at least two stories below deck, “I keep the good ale in my cabins to keep any wandering hands away. Trust me when I say that we will need it.”

They walked for several minutes before Arya haunted at the a large mahogany door. The Stark emblem had been engraved into the wood with a large wolf’s head designed as the knocker. Arya unlatched the door, pushing it open to allow Gendry to step inside.

For such an extravagant ship, Arya’s cabins were quite minimal. There was a table situated by a port window with two chairs. There were two goblets already set out for the two of them. A wardrobe was placed against the wall opposite to where the bed was placed.

Gendry tried not to blush as his eyes lingered on the feather bed.

It was substantially larger than the bed in her chambers back in Winterfell, and even that bed had been quite comfortable, but this one looked as if it were going to be heaven to lay upon.

Arya noticed his gaze and tired to suppress a smile at the thoughts that were no doubt going through his mind, for they were the same that went through hers. She’d be lying if she said that she didn’t want to throw him down onto the bed and ravish his body until the morning sun rose.

She wanted him, more so than the night of the battle. Her body craved for his and it made her scoff at how ridiculous it all was. She had one taste of such intense visceral pleasure that now she couldn’t wait for more.

But now was not the time for inappropriate thoughts; now was the time for talk and there was so much that Arya had to say, she wasn’t sure if she could get through it all without breaking down into a pile of puddles.

“Please, sit.” She gestured to the chair across from where she was standing.

Gendry shuffled out of his cloak and draped it behind the chair before taking a seat. Arya had pulled a jug of ale from the cabinet beside the wardrobe, pouring a hefty amount of ale into each of the goblets. Gendry didn’t hesitate as he chugged his goblet, reaching for the jug in Arya’s hand before she had a chance to place on the table in front of them.

“So, you got me here. What do you want to talk about?”

Arya took her seat across from Gendry and took a swing of ale before answering, “Us. You...me.”

Gendry scoffed, “I thought ‘us’ ended the night after the battle.”

Arya ignored his jab as she gathered courage to speak from her heart.

“You want to know why I have this ship? I was planning on sailing west after Jon’s coronation. I was going to hire a navigator and few more crew members and sail beyond the horizon, never letting anyone know I was leaving.” She paused as she tired to ease her shaking breaths, “But as I spent time here, around the people that I love and care about, I came to realize that that would be a stupid mistake. I was trying to run away from a past that I didn’t want to remember, or a life I believed I didn’t deserve.”

She hadn’t realized the tears streaming down her face until Gendry’s thumb gently wiped them away.

“I’m so sorry, Gendry. I didn’t mean to break your heart the way that I did. I was just so focused on revenge and killing Cersei. I thought that if I severed ties and broke your heart that it wouldn’t have hurt you so much if I didn’t make it out alive.”

She couldn’t help the sob that escaped her throat, shaking her body with the sheer force of it.

Gendry was quickly by her side, pulling her into his chest as she let the tears take over her body. “Gods, Arya. How could you ever thing that? I would have never stopped loving you, even if you did rip my heart out of my chest. It’s impossible for me to stop loving you.”

Arya shook her head, pushing herself from his grasp, “No, but you have to. I’m not good, Gendry. I’ve done bad things; things that would make you see me differently. Gendry, you deserve someone good.”

Gendry sighed and pulled Arya’s hands into his own, “Arya, i fell in love with a strong, smart and beautiful girl. Every time I look at you, my breath escapes me and I can’t help but smile when your name is brought up in conversation. It feels like the most natural thing in the world.”

“But you can’t.” She whispered as she looked from his eyes.

Arya knew Gendry’s felling for her and it made her heart burst at his confirmation, but even with her own undeniable felling for him, she couldn’t give him what he needed.

“Gendry, I wanted to tell you about this ship because, despite my revelations, I still need to leave. Maybe with everyone knowing, but I have to go.”

Gendry’s eyes snapped to hers, “Arya-”

“No! Let me finish. I have to leave to find myself. I lost who I was when I was in Bravvos, and although my family and you have given me pieces of myself, there are still some that are missing. I can’t be with you, as I am, without finding myself completely.”

“Gods, Arya, I just professed my love to you, again, and now you’re telling me not to, again. I can’t do that. Not this time.” Arya now saw tears welling in his eyes and it nearly killed her to see him so broken and vulnerable.

She sighed, “But you have to try. I can’t have you becoming your father. Not having my aunt broke him and I would never be able to forgive myself if I did that to you.”

A chuckle escaped his lips as he shook his head, “If you think I’ll end up anything like Robert, then you must have hit head harder than you thought.” He brushed a piece of loose hair from her face as she resorted his hand upon her cheek, “You are the most infuriating woman I have ever met, Arya Stark. You are stubborn, mean, and scarier than any wight I have ever faced, but even that won’t make make me stop loving you. I don’t think you realize just how much I do love you. If you have have to leave to find yourself, then I will wait, no matter how long. And if you never return, then at least I can pray to the gods that I see you in the after life. I love you.”

“You’re stupid, you know that?” She scoffed as she wiped the tears from her face.

Gendry smiled, “So I’ve been told.”

There was a beat of silence between the two as they looked into each other’s eyes.

There was so much emotion swirling in Gendry’s blue irises that spoke so much more than words. Arya was confident that even her gray eyes betrayed her, giving Gendry all the consent he needed to place his lips upon hers.

She was surprised by the action, but accepted it with much anticipation.

It had been too long since she had been this close to him and now that she placed firmly in his arms, she never wanted to let go.

Quickly, the kiss deepened as Arya felt Gendry’s tongue slip past her teeth, swirling with hers in a mirage of emotions. She sighed against his lips as he brought his hands to her waist, squeezing them tight with need.

They stumbled from the table, crashing onto the bed as Gendry dragged Arya down with him. She straddled him easily as their lips continued to explore each other’s mouth. Eventually, she released her lips from his, gasping for air. The action burned her lungs as she took fast breaths to try to ease her racing heart.

Gendry was heaving, as he too, tried to catch his breath.

For a few moments, all they could do was stare at one another, waiting to see what the other would do.

With Arya still straddled around Gendry’s waist, she leaned down and whispered into his ear, “Love me, Gendry.”

And that he did.

For hours, they explored each other’s bodies, taking the time to admire the nooks and crannies that they were deprived of all those nights ago. With no one to disturb their love making, Arya could be as loud and as rough as she pleased. Gendry had no qualms, although he was sure to regret the claw marks on his back come morning. They even enjoyed the gentler parts of their union as Gendry took his time sheathing himself within Arya, nearly pushing her over the edge of no return.

There was no need for them to rush and for once, they could truly learn their lover’s body.

It was as if they were discovering not only themselves, but each other, for the first time.

Arya may have know Gendry for years, but this was a part of him that she had to earn to learn, just as he had with her. They trusted each other with, not only their lives, but their bodies and that was the most vulnerable anyone could become.

It was hard for Arya to let down those walls for Gendry to truly know her as man and woman, but once she did, it was if the whole world had opened up endless possibilities. For the first time in her life, she was no longer alone, but rather one with him, now and forever.

Their extensive indiscretions had left them numb and exhausted.

The soft rocking of the ship against the calms waves had lulled them into slumber more than once that night, but with the moonlight shining through the small port window in Arya’s chambers, she couldn’t help but watch him as he ran his fingers down her spine, trying hard to spell out his name. It was amusing to feel his hard work at learning his letters. It left her with soft tickles and more than a few giggles as he did so.

“Are you still leaving after Jon is crowned with Daenerys?” Gendry asked as the sun began to rise over the horizon.

Arya swallowed and nodded softly, “I do, but that is a week away. We can spend all we can with each other until then.”

“I’ll keep you to that, mi’lady.” He chuckled.

Arya smiled, but was too exhausted to correct him.

“I’ll write as often as I can, but I cannot promise that the ravens will get to you in a timely manner, if at all.” She confessed.

“I’ll keep an eye out for them.”

“And I truly don’t know when I may return, but when I do, you’ll be the first to know.”

“Arya-”

“And you have to promise me that if your heart does change and find a lady to spend your days with, that you’ll be happy.”

“Arya-”

“And try to watch after Jon, will you? He will be devastated when I tell him-”

“Arya! Please do not worry. All will be as it should, even if it takes years. Now, can we please enjoy each other’s company before we have to return to the docks and explain where we’ve been these past hours?” He pleaded.

Arya blushed and smiled, “I love you.”

Gendry pulled her close as he wrapped the furs around their naked forms, “And I love you.”

#arya stark #gendrya #got #arya/gendry #gendry baratheon #gendry waters #gendry x arya #gendry/arya #arya x gendry #i love you #alex and sierra #arya/gednry playlist

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murasaki-murasame · 4 years

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After two full months of waiting, enough for me to have 600 goddamn summons hoarded up, Gala Leif has finally been released, and even though I probably should have waited to get an idea of how good all the new units are, I decided to immediately summon on the gala anyway.

I’ll go over all of what I can remember from my summons under the cut, but TL;DR: I got every new banner unit and I still have 330 summons left >:3c

Before the gala summons, I also used the 5-star adventurer/dragon vouchers I got from the royal regimen endeavors, which got me a dupe Xander, a dupe Mikoto, two dupe Louises, a dupe P-Siren [now at 1UB], a dupe Freyja [now my second copy’s at 3UB], and I think the third dragon was maybe a Nidhogg or something but I don’t remember.

As for the gala itself, the new units I got were:

-Gala Leif [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

-Two copies of the Xuan Zang alt [one of them was from within my first ten single vouchers lol]

-Zhu Bajie [I got Leif after 220 summons and then I decided to keep going for this dude, who I thankfully got after just 50 more summons]

-Four copies of Tie Shan Gongzhu [Since I got so many copies of her I decided to use a few sunlight stones to get a MUB copy of her while having a 0UB one left over. I tend to run my two copies of Freyja at the same time pretty often in my wind team, so I figured it’d be worth having two copies of her. I still have eight sunlight stones left over anyway]

-Andromeda [I dunno if I’ll ever use her but it’s cool to get her]

And these are the dupes I got that I can remember:

-Lathna [I swear to god I’ve gotten a dupe Lathna from like every single gala since she came out]

-Grace [Guess who I got from the last dream summon lol]

-S-Celery

-S-Julietta [She’s quickly becoming one of my dreaded dupes to get, especially since I didn’t get Gala Elly when she came out]

-Gala Sarisse [I think I’ve somehow gotten like three copies of her in total at this point]

-Arctos [I have him MUB already so this is just gonna be a second copy now]

-Kagutsuchi [now at 1UB]

-OG Siren [now at 1UB]

-Epimetheus [now at 3UB]

-Garuda [now at 1UB]

-Shinobi [now my second copy’s at 3UB]

-Freyja [like I said with the other Freyja dupe I got, my second copy’s now at 3UB]

-Simurgh [now at 1UB]

-Nimis [now at 1UB]

-Nyarlathotep [now at 3UB]

That’s all I remember but there were probably a few more, lol.

Anyway, I haven’t had much time to use them yet, but I actually feel more excited about the new light units than Leif himself. I honestly can’t figure out what role Leif is meant to play in the wind meta. In spite of having a shield stance, his only real defense utility is a 60% defense buff that only applies to himself, and other than that he has lots of attacking skills that apparently do a lot of damage, unique attack combos that are basically the same as the chefs but he only needs a 6+ combo to activate it, and a whole bunch of entirely offensive abilities. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up being a top-tier wind DPS unit, but it feels like he’s intended to play a defensive role even though he doesn’t really have anything in his kit to support that. I think his big self-only defense buff has a good shot at letting him cheese part stuff like HMC’s waterfall, but that only applies to himself.

In general I dunno who he’d replace on my wind team for stuff like soloing eCiella. Unless I can get by without T-Hope’s team defense buffs, I might be able to get rid of Ranzal and just share his S1 for the dispel, but I dunno.

I really hope he doesn’t end up falling into obscurity due to not having enough in the way of unique utility to make him stand out, but he seems like he at least does way more damage than Gala Ranzal, so that’s nice, lol.

But aside from him, the new light units honestly all look extremely good. I think they’re definitely going to shake up the light meta a lot more than Leif will do for wind, but it’ll still be a while before shadow Agito comes out in the first place.

I only have a vague idea of what some of the damage mods are for all the new units, but I’m hearing that Xuan Zang’s S1 does a surprisingly high amount of damage, at least in it’s upgraded form. Her S2 AoE zone also looks way bigger than what other units with that type of skill get, so it’ll probably be a lot easier for her to reliably include all her teammates in it. Apparently her force strike also works more like a staff force-strike, so that’s neat. I think she might actually trump Peony in the DPS sim just due to raw damage mods, but she also provides a lot of defensive utility via her S1 strength debuff, and her S2 shadow res buff, so that might edge her out as well in a way that wouldn’t be reflected in something like the DPS sim. Also she can reduce the enemy’s paralysis resistance but I don’t know the numbers on that, or how much it’d really impact a paralysis team.

Zhu Bajie also seems even better in practice than I thought he’d be, lol. He plays a lot like the Monster Hunter units due to his unique force-strike which basically works in the exact same ways theirs do, and unlike how axe force strikes normally work, it works more like a lance force-strike. So he ends up not playing like an axe unit at all, which is interesting. And on top of all that stuff, he also has enmity scaling on his S1, and he can reduce his health with his S2 like Natalie can. I saw that his S1 gets up to a max of like 1900% damage mods, which is really good, even if you won’t really get that high in practice. His force-strike also has really high SP gain, enough to fill his S1 in two force-strikes [which takes like five or so seconds], so it feels like it’s gonna be really easy to spam, which makes the high damage mods even better. His force-strike also seems to have a 460% paralysis punisher damage mod added onto it when it’s fully charged, so that might make a real impact on his overall damage. He also gets Resilient Offense, which is a really good ability in general, but it might be hard to trigger it multiple times since his S2 makes it so you can’t heal him for 10 seconds. His S1 also inflicts stun, which might be good in certain situations but stun tends to be pretty unreliable. I think he’s going to pair extremely well with the Xuan Zang alt, since her strength debuffs and shadow res buffs will make it way easier for him to tank hits while at low health.

Sorta like how the Xuan Zang alt makes me feel way better about having skipped Peony, Zhu Bajie makes me feel better about having skipped all the Monster Hunster units [mainly Vanessa], lol. Vanessa still has her own unique defensive stuff going on, but I feel like Zhu Bajie plays extremely similarly to her in spite of being an axe unit, so that’s cool.

I’m a little salty that Sha Wujing is another light lance instead of a light healer, but honestly his kit looks really good, and he’ll probably see more use this way than if he was a healer, lol. His main appeal is basically that he has a defense debuff zone on his S2, which is really nice in general, though his two abilities are about buffing his damage, so maybe his S1 will let him do a lot of damage as well. The thing that’s really interesting to me, though, is that his S2 is a shared skill you can give to other characters, which I really didn’t see coming, since they’d actively avoided letting you skill share any other defense debuff zone skills. He might end up being a really useful skill share option for certain fights, especially stuff like speedrun comps where you want to stack as many strength buffs and defense debuffs as you can right away.

Also it’s extremely funny to me that since he’s a featured 4-star in a gala banner, he wound up having extremely high appearance rates [7% normally, and 40% on the final summon in a tenfold], which basically means that any amount of summoning on this gala is gonna lead to you getting like a million copies of this dude, lol. I think in the 270 summons I did, I got like 15-20 copies of him, with there being multiple instances of me getting like three copies of him in a single tenfold. It’s not a big deal or anything, and he seems to be a really good unit so it’s nice that he’s really easy to get, but it’s funny to me how much he’s been plaguing everyone’s summons.

Tie Shan Gongzhu also looks like she’s gonna be the go-to dragon for basically any light support unit, so that’s cool. She doesn’t have a heal skill, but we already have Cupid for that.

I don’t know all of their damage mods and SP costs and stuff yet, and it’ll be a little while before the DPS sim updates to include them, but I think they’re going to be top-tier light units. Hopefully they don’t get powercrept by the time shadow Agito comes out, lol. Either way this is exactly what the light element’s been desperately needing after like six months of Oops! All Limited!

Which is also why I’m really really happy that they decided to put these characters on rate-up along with Gala Leif, since it meant I was able to get them along with Leif, instead of having to skip their banner entirely to save for the next gala. I hope they make this a trend going forward. I think GBF does this a lot with their galas, so maybe they’re shifting to this model for galas now. This just seems like a net positive all around, and it means I feel like I’m missing out less by hoarding exclusively for gala banners.

Anyway this banner treated me extremely well, which is a huge relief after how bad my experience with the Gala Alex banner was. I was worried that the 600 summons i had saved up wouldn’t be enough to get Leif, but I managed to get at least one copy of everyone in less than 300 summons, so that’s great.

I guess now my short-term goal is to just skip all the non-limited banners between now and the next gala. So we’ll just see how that goes. I have a feeling we’ll get a rerun of the Daikokuten banner in the next month or two, which might really tempt me since I didn’t get Daikokuten or Nobunaga when they came out, but I don’t know if they interest me enough to chase after that, especially with monthly galas seeming to be a thing now.

#dragalia lost #after a billion years I have finally summoned the man! the legend! the Leif!!!!!

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peachdoxie · 4 years

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Okay, so I reblogged one of those ask memes yesterday and got a lot of responses from @that-cheer-up-anon, @savioseal, @mechanicdragonofwind, @kingofthewilderwest, and two anons, and instead of answering them all separately, I’m going to answer them here (also because there were several repeats. So, here you go!

1. if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?

Read: hmm, good question. I’ll go with the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson.

Watch: How to Train Your Dragon (duh)

Listen: “Flight of the Silverbird” by Two Steps From Hell. One of my favorite musical pieces.

11. describe your ideal day.

I lay in bed all day, playing on my phone. There is a cat purring next to me. I am not too hot, too cold, hungry, or in pain. Later I go see a movie and chill with some friends.

17. would you say your tumblr is a fair representation of the “real you”?

Well, for one thing, all aspects of my personality are the “real” me, so I’d say yeah, it is.

19. which Harry Potter house would you be in? or are you a muggle?

I’m in Ravenclaw, no doubt.

1. already answered

4. do you like your name? is there another name you think would fit you better?

I do like my name. My mother put a lot of thought into choosing a good name for me, and I think it fits. And “Peach” is a good nickname. I wouldn’t have stuck with it if I didn’t like it.

10. do you have a creed?

I tend to live by abstract and half formed principles buried deep in my conscious, so no, I don’t have a creed

17. already answered

30. pick one of your favorite quotes.

Oh that’s hard. Like number 10, I tend to live by principles rather than quotes. I’m a fan of the “keep moving forward” quote at the end of Meet the Robinsons, though I have my reserves because I’m kind of eh about Walt Disney.

15. five most influential books over your lifetime.

Can I do book series? Because that’s way easier:

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow

Mistborn

When Ghosts Speak by Mary Ann Winkowski (I went through a big paranormal phase, and though I’m a skeptic, she had some takes that made a big impact on me as a seventh grader.)

How to Read Literature Like a Professor, which was the first real time I’d ever been taught how literature really works on a bigger scale than just sentence scale, and tbh had a big impact on me learning how to analyze media

3. list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with.

Tbh I don’t tend to relate to a lot of characters. There are only two that I can think of that I relate to and am actively in the fandom for, and that’s Vin from Mistborn, and Peridot from Steven Universe.

16. if you’d grown up in a different environment, do you think you’d have turned out the same?

This is hard to answer because it depends on how different an environment it was and also how you define sameness, but no, probably not, but that’s mostly because, as someone who’s in culture studies, I’m acutely aware of how our surroundings and environment impact us, and as an agnostic I’m rather skeptical of metaphysical essentialism that says there’s an “essential” aspect to everything that transcends sociocultural influence. I tend to follow the idea of the butterfly effect, which is that small changes in a deterministic system can later have a big impact on events, and so logic dictates that had I grown up in a different environment, I would be a “different” person, distinct in personality, behavior, and appearance from my current self. Compounding that is that I believe that we don’t live in a fully deterministic system (which is slightly contradictory to the butterfly effect being in a deterministic system, but whatever) and that there’s a degree of randomness - or, at the very least, so many variables that we humans cannot accurately predict the preciseness of everything - and so in an alternate universe, that randomness would affect me too. Anyway tldr no, I don’t think I’d be the same person.

1. already answered

3. already answered

22. list the top five things you spend the most time doing, in order.

laying in bed, either playing on my phone or sleeping

Sitting in my chair watching shows on my laptop

Playing on my phone in some other context

Doing readings or prep for some class I’m taking/teaching

Idk cooking/eating? or maybe travelling to and from campus? I don’t exactly measure how much time I spend doing those things, and sometimes I’m doing multiple things at once

30. already answered

Thanks yall!

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retro-aesthe · 5 years

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“Alex!”

(This idea had been hunting me since forever. I was inspired by the “dragon/tiger face mask” I saw while I was walking along the beauty section of a store... and i thought OH MY GOD WHAT IF ALEX—?! aaaand finally, I was able to put it into words haha)

Alex Danvers x fem!reader

Alex Danvers doesn’t make an effort about skin care.

Two years and three months ago, when she bumped on you (yes, she—not you) in front of a coffee shop, you had been in love with Alex ever since. Well, not in love-in love, just... attracted since you don’t really believe in love at first sight. It is just pure crap the capitalist society put up to romanticize love even more.

Now, you’ve been each other’s girlfriend for over a year, and had been living together for about two months now. Living with Alex seems to be an entirely weird yet exciting thing for you. You’ve never reached this far in a relationship. You’ve always liked living alone, you even moved out of your parents the minute you turned 18—well, there’s really no difference since you’ve been practically raising yourself since 14 years old.

Before, you were used to going home to an empty apartment. Now, during those days when Alex had Supergirl cases and had to stay in the DEO longer than usual, going home to an empty apartment makes you feel incredibly alone and sad. A part of you panics whenever you feel like that, since it shows how you’ve become very much dependent on others.

Alex says there’s nothing wrong in needing others. And you—somehow—believe her.

It’s Tuesday night. Alex called you during lunch time, saying she’ll be going home late. Instinctively, you pouted. Thank the cosmos you were in your car when that happened.

You opened the door of the apartment. You didn’t even notice that the door was unlocked. The meeting Lena forced you to attend with her drained the living daylights out of you. Those incredibly hetero-patriarchal crocodiles Lena calls the company’s stockholders are just life suckers. Whenever one of the suited un-gentlemen opens their mouth, a new wave of headache resonates throughout your body, making you struggle to repress a whimper of pain. It makes you wonder, are they even aware they were talking?

You closed the door behind you, another hand going to your forehead. You can’t wait to lie down and just sleep it off. For some, it may be unhealthy, but drinking painkillers was always your last resort. You were raised to believe that ointments, eucalyptus/menthol inhalers, and lots of water cure headache. You don’t need painkillers poisoning your blood just so you could have a few moments of relief from the pain. It was one thing you and Alex always argue about—her being a huge believer of medicines and all that.

��Y/n.” You immediately looked up. The moment you did, you screamed.

Alex took a step back. You were just looking at her, with big eyes, taking in her appearance.

You didn’t expect Alex to be here so early—which was a part of why you screamed. The bigger part was because of Alex’s face.

You didn’t exactly see her face. It was covered with face mask.

An otter designed face mask.

Alex’s whole body was stunned, probably because she didn’t expect you to react that way.

Since when does she wear face mask?

An otter designed one at that?

After a few seconds of staring, you snorted then started laughing. Your headache was gone by now, (Take that factory-produced medicines! Take that Alex!) and you can’t take your eyes off your girlfriend. Your heart was turning into mush with how cute she looks, especially when her stunned eyes were the only part of her face visible from the mask. There were cuts on the face masks that enables it to adjust—along the nose and on the mouth.

Alex makes a really really cute otter.

You feel your heart getting big, with how adorable your girlfriend looks. You did always tease her that she would make a really cute otter, especially when she’s angry. She just huffs and pouts whenever you tease her, which just proves your point even more. Even though she’s a badass black ops agent, whenever you’re around (and this just makes you want to hold your girlfriend forever and not let her go), Special Agent Alexandra Danvers turns into a domestic otter that just clings to your arms the entire time.

“Stop laughing!” You heard Alex exclaim. You’re in the middle of hard laughing, one where you’re just gasping for air mid-laugh. You shook your head, pulled out your phone, and took a picture of your otter girlfriend.

“You look so cute!” you squealed, then proceeded on making the picture of a frowning otter Alex your wallpaper.

“Delete that, Y/n!” Alex shouted. You looked at her, still smiling widely, and raised both of your eyebrows, indicating how you wouldn’t. You finally walked further to the apartment and fell into step beside your girlfriend.

“Smile for the cam!” you said, then took a picture of the both of you. “Oh, this is gonna be on Superfriends group chat!!!” you said, slightly jumping in your place.

“NO!” Alex made a move to grab your phone. You held it away, facing her, and stared at her sternly.

“Hey! Stop making big moves, your mask might fall off,” you said sternly. That made Alex freeze. She slightly tilted her head, and rearranged the wet mask on her face. “Bad otter.” You can’t help but tease her. Alex looked at you and glared. You’ve been constantly nagging her to try face masks, because it makes a good stress reliever and just rejuvenates the skin. Not that you were implying that Alex was looking ragged down... well, that was certainly what you were implying. She needs the mask desperately—though, she’s not any less beautiful even if she doesn’t use one.

“I am never wearing face masks. Ever. Again. I hate you for nagging me to wear one.” Her grumpy voice and slightly frowning face cannot be taken seriously because the otter mask was still there. You suppressed the laughter bubbling out of you and went to hug her from the back, since she was walking away. You rested your chin on her shoulder and just hugged her tightly.

“But... otter...” you pouted. Alex just huffed. Then, placed both of her arms and hands over yours. It was supposedly a sweet gesture, but it was too late when you realized it was tighter than normal—holding you in place. She leaned back slightly, then placed her cheek on yours, making you gasp in surprise. The slimy substance from the mask rubbed on your face. Before you can say anything else, she was peppering the left side of your face with kisses, further spreading the slimy substance of the face mask to your face. The slimy substance was the one thing you hate from face masks.

She slightly shifted, and then a hand was placed on your right cheek, preventing you from moving away.

All you can do was let out a strangled cry.

“Alex!”

#ALEX IS A CUTE OTTER #I KNOW EVERYBODY BELIEVES SO #and she makes a really cute girlfriend #fite me #alex danvers #alex danvers x fem!reader #alex danvers x reader #alex danvers imagine #alex danvers fic #supergirl #supergirl fic #supergirl imagine #reader insert #just fluff #for once #i wish alex danvers is my girlfriend #one shot

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fanfic-scribbles · 5 years

Text

Dragon Princess

Fandom: MCU Captain America/Avengers

Summary: You don’t let anybody in easily. Steve doesn’t mind a challenge. Hopefully he also doesn’t mind getting his armor singed in the process.

Quick facts: Romance – Steve Rogers/Reader – female!disabled!Reader]

Warnings: Female pronouns for reader, reader uses a wheelchair, reader is a Grumpy Gus (with a heart of gold), some ableism

Special Disclaimer: Reader is in a (manual) wheelchair for an undisclosed disability. I don’t use a wheelchair myself, I just go behind one, so if anything I said is offensive then message me and I’ll try to edit it. I did my best but unconscious bias is a bitch and trips up even the best of us.

Words: 2903

A/N: I love. Writing grumpy characters. Who are secretly soft. Can’t stop won’t stop. Anywho; this didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted but I quite like certain parts of it, and I’ll never not love writing troll-Steve, especially with cranky reader-characters. It’s just fun.

It has been a long day and you just want to go home. So it’s with no small amount of delight that you tear down the open space between bookshelves and tables and make a spectacular turn down the aisle you need– only to come to a complete and sudden stop.

That guy.

It’s a little harsh, but he’s standing right in front of the shelf you need. Captain America is a regular around here; so much a fixture that you can pinpoint the newbies and the visitors by how long they stare at him. Right now you stare a little too because, hey, you actually haven’t really interacted with him– it’s not like you have the time normally, but your co-workers won't shut up about how wonderful and nice the guy is. Nice, maybe. Easy on the eyes, certainly.

But not nicer than your bed and definitely not easier to look at than the inside of your eyelids.

You roll up next to him and find the spot where the book goes. Blocked by his thigh, of course. Grayson owes you big time for this ‘real quick favor.’

You clear your throat and steel yourself. “Excuse me.”

Captain Rogers blinks and looks down at you. Like he can’t fathom what you're doing here. You realize he’s zoned out just as a spark of life returns to his eyes. “Oh, um, can I help you with something?” he says. He then scans the upper shelves and looks down at you, meaningfully.

You sigh but temper yourself. “No, I know exactly where this goes.” You give him your brightest smile and hit the epic tome against your other hand. “On the shelf right above your kneecaps. Both of which happen to be at the perfect level.”

He jumps back and you’re able to slip the book right into its spot. He actually looks pretty amused. Since he’s a good sport about being threatened with a hardcover edition of “The Tale of Genji” (which might have to be registered with the state of New York as a deadly weapon, you’re not sure,) and since you’re only a week away from beating your record for number of days gone without a complaint, you sit back and say, “Since I’m here, is there anything I can help you with?”

“No ma’am, I’m just browsing. Thank you,” he says and goes back to staring at lettered spines, leaving you free to escape work for the day.

That went pretty well, all things considered.

It’s another long day when you come across Captain Rogers again. (Mr. Rogers? Captain America? Whatever.) You’re cleaning up the tables and he’s sitting at one, quietly reading. He’s got a small stack of nonfiction, the titles of which are all so boring that your eyes glaze right over them. As you get closer he raises his head and smiles at you. You’re not sure what your face does, but his lips twitch up against his best efforts and he looks caught between laughing and being concerned. “Sorry, did I do something…?”

“Other than be a nice guy to exactly the wrong person? No, you’re…fine. I guess,” you say. “If you want a smile you’ll have to go to the front desk; I’m the only one in this area.”

He laughs, which isn’t a half-bad sound. You roll your eyes and gesture at his stockpile of Boring Nonsense. “You done with any of those?”

“Yes,” he says and immediately puts two of them next to you. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” you say, grab them, and leave him be.

For a while. He’s still working on something that makes him scowl like he’s going to start fighting it when you come back over and drop a book right next to him hard enough to make him jolt. You smile. It’s the little things, sometimes. You pat the cover. “This is my favorite piece of trash. It has dragons and swords and is basically the book version of the most terrible-wonderful fantasy movie you can imagine. Give your brain a break before it goes on strike.”

His smile broadens, and he pushes the other, actual trash away so he can put your beloved trash in its place. “Enjoy, Captain,” you say and start to turn.

“Steve,” he says as if instinctive. But then he looks at you. “If you don’t mind.”

You shrug, but since you’re trying to be polite you tell him your name before leaving him to read in peace.

“Can I ask you a question?”

That’s as good as a loaded gun, as far as you're concerned, but you’re in a marginally good mood today so you face Steve with as much patience as you can hold at any one time. “Yes?”

He frowns. “Do you…” He sighs. “This is so random, but do you have any recommendations for books on food?”

That’s…not what you expected. “Huh,” you say as you actually have to think through the card catalogue of your mind. “I guess, but I think I should ask Grayson about–” Steve’s face does something terrible that is also delightful. “You already asked him.”

“He has to be joking,” Steve says desperately.

You crack a smile, already aware of the sorts of things your more exuberant and…adventurous coworker likely said. “Some, yeah, but probably not all.” You think you know what Steve’s aiming for. “Hold that thought.”

“If it’s too much trouble you don’t have to–”

You shush him– this is a library after all– and continue on your mission. You have to wave off one of the volunteers at one point but you manage to retrieve the book you’re looking for. When you return, Steve is focused on his book again– the poor, trusting fool. Nobody else is around, so you take great pleasure in making it slam right next to him. This book being bigger makes a louder sound than the last– he jumps, you laugh, and the day has gone from good to great.

“You like making me jump,” he accuses, poorly hiding a smile.

“My coworkers say I’m a sadist. Too bad for them I’m good at my job.” You flip open the book you brought him. “Ta da. The modern American cooking bible. Enjoy.”

Steve is immediately fascinated, leaning over and flipping through. “Betty Crocker is still a thing?”

“Oh yeah,” you say. “Still in grocery stores and the books get revised all the time.”

“Wow.” He smiles at you. “Thanks.”

You wave him off. Just as you’re about to go, though, you think of another possible concern. “By the way, Grayson talks a big game but he’s not serious. I mean, if he were single, yeah, but he’s got a wife and kids he loves more than anything. His flirting is all in good fun.”

Steve nods like it doesn’t bother him, but stops mid-motion. “What about Alex and Martha?”

You snort. “Good luck.”

He rolls his eyes. “Wow, thanks.”

You smile sweetly at him. “Always here to help.”

“Ooo,” Alex says under their breath and straightens their shirt.

You’re too annoyed to ask what they see. You find out anyways when Steve strolls up to the counter and says hello to Alex and then pointedly does the same to you, smiling like he’s gotten the best news of his life.

It’s fucking irritating and you wave him off like the obnoxious fly he is. Like the obnoxious fly he is, he remains. You give him a dirty look. “Away with you and your happiness.”

Steve laughs, showing his true colors for all to see. He leans on the counter closest to you. “That kind of day already, huh?”

You turn in the stool to properly glare at him. “I have great arm strength and three complete editions of “The Lord of the Rings” as well as the rest of our Tolkien collection. Do you want to find out how many copies of “The Silmarillion” are needed to take you out?”

Steve is unaffected. This is what you get for being nice– burning irritation and the blood of Captain America soon to be on your hands. Not to mention how all of your coworkers are probably going to give you the cold shoulder. Or worse– make you man the information desk.

You shudder. No, even Steve’s stupid fat head getting clocked by elven moping isn’t worth that.

“No,” he decides, smiling bigger as he watches you. “But I’ve been meaning to read “The Children of Húrin” if you happen to have it.”

You grab the book and…hand it to him, because you aren’t really a monster who would harm an innocent book just because someone else was irritating you.

Steve beams, the bastard. “Thanks!”

“Ugh, your sunshine hurts. Go away you fucking sadist.”

“We have that in common then,” Steve says and honest-to-god winks before strolling away to his area in the back. He’s so fucking jaunty that if he wasn’t in a library you’re pretty sure he’d be whistling.

“Nerd!” is your parting shot before you turn back to the task at hand. Alex, however, is gawking. Fucking great. “What?”

“‘Your sunshine?’” Alex points at you. “You were flirting!”

This might be the day you murder someone. And not a patron– that’s unexpected. “I was not!”

“And he was too oh my god.”

Blood rushes to your head. “Is this really how you want to go out? I made three 16 year old boys cry because they drew dicks in our books, my blood is pumping, I could fight a bear, don’t test me.”

Alex runs. To gossip; you’re not fooled. You shake your head. The problem with threatening people all the time is that eventually they find out you’re not actually violent. Not that those teenage brats know better, thankfully.

On that note, you do hope Steve enjoys their artistic interpretations of his text.

It’s too late to be irritated by the morning and too early to be irritated by the rest of the day, so you’re at the front desk, doing busywork to while away the slow mid-morning.

“Hi.”

You lift your head. “Do you live here now?”

“I wish,” Steve says. Your boss, William, is off to the side with Martha, and Steve politely greets them before focusing on you. He puts two books on the counter. “I wanted to return these.”

“Book drop is right over there,” you say.

“And deprive you of something to complain about? I would never,” he says.

Martha snorts. You magnanimously ignore her. It was pretty good, and you notice the first book you gave him sits on top. “How’d you like it?”

“It was fun.” Steve brings out a piece of paper. “I wrote down the author’s other work if you want to take a look?”

You take the list and give it a look-see before going at it with a pen. Some of the titles get stars, some get a ‘meh’, some get crossed out, and some of them get Sharpied out of existence.

“Do you need help?” you ask as you hand it back.

“No; I’ll just browse,” he says and holds it up. “Thanks,” he says, nods at the two useless observers, and goes on his way.

You open the first book to check it in and see a piece of paper folded in half. “Hey, you–” But Steve is gone. “Jeeze; even his bookmarks are dumb and big.”

You unfold it though and it’s– it’s a drawing. A really nice ink drawing of a snake-bodied dragon, fierce and blowing fire but…coiled at the bottom to sit on a throne of books that floats above the ground. Next to the picture is calligraphy that reads, ‘Thank you for always helping me.’

William and Martha crowd in, so you put the picture on the counter to let them see. You don’t look away from it but you can hear them admire it (as they should).

“Is…is he calling you a dragon?” William asks warily.

“This…” You breathe. “…Is the nicest thing ever.”

Martha and William scuttle off to gossip like the tweens they secretly are. You appreciate the drawing for a little while longer before you carefully fold it back up and slip it in your notebook under the counter.

God damn. He is flirting.

And god damn, you’re into it.

If you’re being honest, you’re not really that rude to strangers. Not most of the time, anyway. You know some who might argue that, but you love reading and books and stories and libraries and you want other people to love them too.

Some people, though, are hopeless.

“Here?”

“Next shelf over,” you say. “Left–” The guy moves his hand down and you sigh. “To the left, sir.”

He moves his hand, somehow, just over the book. “Yes! Th–” aaaaand he passes right by it.

Short of magically teleporting the book out of its spot and into his face, you're not sure what else you can do.

“Why can’t you just get it for me?” he whines.

You’ve had people practically strain their necks in effort not to look at the chair, but this is ridiculous. You rub your temples to ease the stupid. Someone is hovering in the aisle on the opposite side of where you’re trying to direct this disaster of a puppet show. Hopefully whoever is waiting has more patience than you. “I’m sorry sir but I don’t know how to be any clearer about it; you’ve literally passed over it–” Wait a minute. “Twice…” Wait a minute.

His mouth hints at a smirk even as he tries to look annoyed. Really? This is how he wants to harass you? This is weaksauce. He could have gone to Martha and done the same thing, she’s so short.

You smile politely. With fangs. “Sir, given our interaction here, I have to say I don’t think that book is right for you. The library has a great children’s section; I could show you the books for new readers. They’re well suited to your reading comprehension and your maturity level.”

It takes him a second. Unsurprisingly, he has the gall to get offended. “What did you say to me?!”

“We both know what you’re doing,” you say flatly, losing the gracious veneer. “Are you going to waste more of my time or can we stop pretending?”

He flounders for a moment, obviously too shocked by the turn to process. “I– I want to speak to–”

“His name is William and he’s at the front desk. Knock yourself out.” Please.

Asshole storms off and you sigh. It doesn’t seem fair that your ‘days without a complaint’ is about to get reset because of that, but maybe you can argue it. William is a reasonable guy. If he wasn’t you’d have been fired your first week when you heard someone making fun of their friend for reading Laura Kinsale and you signed the jerk up for every romance newsletter you knew of.

Steve steps out from the next aisle over and walks down to you. “Ah,” you say. “I should have known that particular looming.”

He blushes. That shouldn’t be legal. “Sorry; I wanted to talk to you so I decided to wait.”

Oh. “Then…thanks for not stepping in.”

“You had it handled. In fact…” He cracks a smile. “You were surprisingly patient.”

“I have to be.” You shrug. “My job involves dealing with the public. You know how it goes.”

“I do,” he says, smile growing. “Would you like to commiserate? Maybe over dinner?”

You try very hard to clamp down on your own smile. It peeks through anyway. Traitor. “Misery does love company.”

“Is it okay if I don’t think I’ll be miserable?” he asks.

“That’s fine, I can be miserable enough for the both of us,” you say. “You sure you want to go on a date with a dragon? You seem more like a princess kind of guy. White horse and all.”

He laughs and puts his hand to his chest. “Don’t let the suit of armor fool you. Besides, there’s more than one kind of princess.”

You shake your head. “I guess we’ll talk about it,” you say. “Over dinner.”

“Thursday?” he suggests.

“I get off work at six.”

“I’ll pick you up here then.”

“Cool.”

“Good.”

“Great.”

There’s an awkward moment where it feels like there’s something else– or should be something else. You know what you want, but…

Fuck it. You crook your finger to bring him in and Steve obeys, until he’s close and bracing his hands on the arms of your chair. You move to the side of his face and place a very light kiss on his cheek. He lingers for a moment and then stands, radiating carefully muted joy with a small smile that looks ready to erupt.

He’s going to ruin your reputation as a hardass. That doesn’t bother you near as much as you think it should. “Thursday,” you say and swallow. “It’s a date.”

He grins, like a sunbeam through the cloud. Yep. Ruined. “I’ll let you get back to work then,” he says and steps back. “Try not to set anyone on fire?”

Your smile shows teeth. “No promises,” you say and turn your throne around. This hoard isn’t going to manage itself, and you can’t just wait around for your knight– you’re not that kind of princess.

#steve rogers x reader #captain america fanfic #captain america reader insert #avengers fanfic #avengers reader insert #troll steve rogers #grumpy reader #tw ableism

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fearofaherobrine · 6 years

Text

Roleplay Server Log #377

“Karla’s Anxiety, Hg's Dress, Trender Steps in, Time for Pirates and Suspicious Words”

[Splender] Teleports into Lie's backyard, having been shouted at by Trender for not checking on Pinwheel- Pinwheel!

[Pinwheel] Lifts her head with a slight irritated flick of her tail, she's grown again and is laying in the shade of Karla's house-

[Karla] Looks up from the book she's reading on the porch. - Someone is calling for you.

[Pinwheel] - It's Splendy

{Splender] - PIIIIIIINWHEEEEEEEL!

[Karla] Puts the book away - Are you hiding from him?

[Pinwheel] - He's gonna get huggy

[Karla] Well he did raise you. And he is more then a little fond of you. Despite the biting.

[Pinwheel] Huffs-

[Splender] Spots her and teleports right over, squealing over the fact that she's grown- YOU GOT BIGGER!

[Karla] She's a fine dragon. You should be proud.

[Splender] Goes for the hug-

[Pinwheel] Bites-

[Splender] Oh you're getting so big and pretty!

[Karla] I presume that's much less painful then it looks?

[Splender] - Oh! I'm sorry, I'm being rude, I didn't even see you there. No, it's not painful at all for me

[Karla] I'm Dr. Emmerich. Karla is fine though. And I presume from your rather impressive stature; you're one of the Slenders?

[Splender] - Yes! I'm Splender! The youngest!

[Karla] And I'm guessing the happiest? I met your brother Offender briefly as well. How's your mother adjusting? I heard she'd joined you.

[Splender] - Well! Trender is currently watching her

[Pinwheel] - Splendy! Let go!

[Splender] - Awwww, but you're so soft and fluffy

[Karla] Stands a bit closer - She might need a little air there?

[Splender] Finally lets go and Pinwheel scrambles up onto the roof-

[Karla] Chuckles - She can move quickly when the mood strikes her. I find her most pleasant company.

[Splender] - I'm glad, she needs more friends

[Karla] I think Ever is trying as well, but with less success.

[Splender] - I'm sorry, I don't believe I've met him

[Karla] Blonde fluffy hair? Cat ears and a tail currently?

[Splender] - I'm sorry, I've been busy trying to keep my mother happy so I don't think I've seen him, but I do appreciate you looking after Pinwheel

[Karla] Ah, you'll run into him eventually. He said he was going to the village a little while ago. And I've just been providing a bit of shelter in between her playing with Crim. They've become quite close.

[Splender] - I do need to head over there to feed soon, have you been?

[Karla] Shifts uncomfortably- no... I have not... I have had rather bad luck with small towns in the past. I don't want to upset anyone...

[Splender] - Then come with me!

[Karla] Waffling-

[Splender] Grabs Karla's wrist- Be good Pinwheel!- He then teleports them into the village

-There's a bit of commotion as they pop in but the people quickly relax and wave before going about their business.

[Karla] That was... unusual...

[Splender] - They're used to it- Children are now spotting him and gathering excitedly, wondering what sort of treats he has for them this time

[Karla] Is edging away from the kids uncomfortably-

[Pinapple] Are you new here? You don't look like a brine or an Alex?

[Karla] I'm not...

[Splender] - She's a doctor! And she's been keeping an eye on Pinwheel for me- He's passing out some candy

[Pinapple] Another one? Are you going to work out of Doc's office?

[Coffi] What's your specialty?

[Karla] I wasn't planning on it.... And I'm a field medic...

[CN] Comes in through the gate, making the vanilla delivery for Lie-

[Creme] Spots him- Oh! It's the teeny NOTCH. Hello Cn.

[Karla] Is very unsettled and it's showing-

[Pinapple] Are you okay miss?

[Karla] Too fast nod-

[CN] - Hi! Lie wanted me to bring in the vanilla since she can't leave the house according to the Big Meanie

[Splender] - Calm yourself Karla, you're in no danger, they're just curious

[Karla] Shoots him a look that's very slightly panicked.

[Coffi] Is a bit too close and she scoots away from him-

[Splender] Glances at the testificates sending a bit of happy energy to them to distract them a little-

[Creme] Breaks out in a blissful expression-

[Pinapple] Gets distracted by the playing children and smiles-

[Karla] -jimmies definetly rustled-

[CN] - Crème? Where does Lie usually put the vanilla?

[Splender] Creates some small toys- Would you like a tour Karla?

[Creme] She usually gives it to Eggg since him and Basquet run the kids cafe. He portions it out so the other places with food get some too.

[CN] - Where are they?

[Creme] Stands on tiptoes and looks past the crowd of kids- Go through the gate and it's the building on the right.

[CN] - Okay- He starts making his way through the crowd

[Karla] Has backed up against a wall and is nervously watching everyone.

[Splender] Notices this and sends happy energy directly to Karla, hoping it will relax her a little-

[HG] -runs into the dessert kicking up sand as he goes-

[Mix] -Is out in a skirt, no shirt. She's just working on some building with a bit of shade.-

[HG] -sees mix and stops- hello mix

[Mix] Hey.. HG? Why you coming through the desert?

[Mix] -Wipes sweat-

[HG] Just wanted to see if I could water some cacti while I think

[Mix] Oh sure! There's a whole bunch over there! -Gestures at a collection of Cacti off to the side-

[HG] -waters them- so what are you doing?

[Mix] Been thinking of building some more so I figured I'd start! -Gestures at the barebones design- And I couldn't be bothered to actually get dressed so! Skirt

[HG] what are those full body flowy outfits gem wears one all the time but I don't know what it is called

[Mix] A dress?

[HG] is that right I don't know but I wanted to get one a soft pretty one with flowers

[Mix] I could make you one if you want? I have some left over fabric at home...

[HG] you can? Oh thank you mix - is clearly excited to get their own dress-

[Mix] I'll go get my stuff and come back, that way you can see it while I make it. I need a bit of a break anyway. -Starts off toward her house-

[HG] - is bouncing in place because he is super excited-

[Mix] -Is gone for a bit before returning with a handful of cloth and some tools.-

[HG] - watched mix work-

[Mix] -Soon has a rough dress made, it's got some flowers along the hem and is a soft green shade.- How's this look so far?

[HG] it's so pretty so far

[Mix] Any changes you want?

[HG] uh can you please make it have a very easy sleeve in the top part?

[Mix] Of course! Anything else?

[HG] could it also have a belt?

[Mix] Uhhh.. Sure! -Making the changes-

[HG] Your very good at this mix

[HG] I can't wait to wear It - HG is getting suepr excited again-

[Mix] I've had a lot of practice! -Is adding finishing touches before giving it to HG-

[HG] -holds the dress- it's so perfect thank you -back away from mix and kicks up a mini cloud of dust enough to switch into the dress with-

[Mix] -Puts things away- How's it feel?

[HG] I love it feels so soft and it fits perfectly thank you mix for helping

[Mix] No problem! Enjoy it! -Big smile-

[HG] -offers Mix one of the ice cream saplings because they would help keep her cool in the hot sun-

[Karla] Feels Splender's energy and tries to shake it off, she's not comfortable being influenced.

-As Karla becomes more uncomfortable she feels something else grab her and teleport her to a different part of the village, a quiet corner of the villages park-

[Trender] - Discomfort does not suit you

[Karla] Shudders- Who are you?

[Trender] - I am Trender, one of Splender's older brothers.

[Karla] Brushes herself off a bit- Thank you then. Too long avoiding people makes one immediately unhappy in a crowd.

[Trender] - So I could feel, but I assure you, my brother meant no harm in bringing you here. He likes to make people happy, that is all

[Karla] I've noticed. He's much my opposite. I prefer making people delightfully uncomfortable.

[Trender] - You'd get along with Offender then, and possibly our eldest brother too

[Karla] Offender I've met. He seems rather charming in a dangerous way. I believe I've met your eldest brother too, though I was rather... we'll say in an excited and rather blood splattered mood.

[Trender] - It wouldn't have been with Herobrine, would it?

[Karla] Smiles in a rather predatory way - Yes indeed. He and I seem to be getting along decently well too. If only because he likes me being around to help care for his wife.

[Trender] - Is his wife ill?

[Karla] Quite the contrary, she's great with his child.

[Trender] Is silent for a moment- ... I need a door

[Karla] Why?

[Trender] - To get to my workshop

[Karla] Ah, wanting to add to the pile of baby things? Their friends threw them quite a lavish shower with all the pastel trimmings.

[Trender] - Making outfits is most certainly a hobby of mine, but I suspect they only have baby clothing, they will need clothes for as it grows- He settles on one of the doors to the post office and focuses a bit of power on it. It opens to reveal his workshop on the other side, the massive room stretching into the distance and a more recent work resting on a mannequin nearby

[Karla] Peers in, obviously interested. - Ah a fellow of the cloth. I like sewing as well. Though it's usually not so wholesome in form.

[Trender] - Nor is mine always, ah, Scarfy, did you need something?- There's a bit of movement in a shadow as Trender's proxy steps out and shakes his head. He wears a mask which looks like a mime's face and a bright red scarf is wrapped around his neck

[Karla] How interesting.... I see your assistant is equally unusual.

[Trender] - He is my proxy, just as Ringleader is for Splender- He begins searching the shelves for just the right fabrics

[Karla] Follows him, she's obviously marvelling at his horde. - Any love for... leather? [She slips slightly as she speaks] It's one of mein favorites.

[Trender] - The section that is kept in is a few aisles that way- He motions with a tendril towards his right- I have at least a sample of everything I can possibly get, including some things from the game we are currently in

[Karla] Examines her hands - Not quite real, but closer in here. How strange. My... assistant is rather enamored with the enchanted cloths. Heh. My work is often done with real hide, feathers and sometimes bones.

[Trender] - Those I have by practically the mountain load if you ever need some

[Karla] I used to take commissions, but it seems pointless in a world where massive diamonds and pure gold is there for anyone willing to spend a few hours digging them up.

[Trender] - But that shouldn't stop you from doing it simply out of enjoyment, plus it would allow you to have money for out there

[Karla] Oh, I am doing it just for fun. Perhaps when I venture out again I'll put those works up for sale. If I tire of viewing them myself. It's nice to have so much free time. But I don't have easy access to travel back and forth. I'm not a creepypasta that can make portals.

[Trender] - You could always just have Herobrine scare them by dropping it off on their door step- He's sewing now and cutting fabric at the same time

[Karla] That's a delightful thought, but again, I don't want to put him out. It's difficult for anyone to entice him to leave Lie's side for even a moment. Even with her fluctuating mood.

[Trender] - Yes, that is one of the things about pasta's and their mates, the bond shared is nigh unbreakable, although it is possible

[Karla] It's fortunate. I suspect that their progeny will have a mix of their powers. I think it may take both of them and several helpful friends merely to babysit the child.

[Trender] - It should be entertaining- He folds several now finished articles of clothing up and puts them into a bag- We should be getting back to my brother, before he gets into a worried frenzy

[Karla] Gracefully gestures - Lead the way my good Slender.

[Trender] As he leads her out they pass the mannequin and a whimper escapes it as pleading eyes follow Karla's retreating form-

[Karla] Glances and wonders, but doesn't say anything.

[Trender] Holds the door for her- It was a pleasure spending some time with you

[Karla] Thank you. You as well.

[Yaunfen] Is running egarly with a book in one hand and Waffles trailing behind them-

[Lj] Sees them pass and follows curiously-

[Yaunfen] Spots Cn coming back from the village- Hey Cn!

[CN] - Oh, hey!

[Yaunfen] Are you busy? Would Lie care if we played for a while?

[Lj] Perks a little at the word play-

[CN] - I don't think she'd mind, I just finished delivering some vanilla for her...

[Yaunfen] Okay! I'll tell her so she doesn't get mad again- chats to Lie- can Cn play for a while?

[Waffles] Sniffs out LJ- mrrrrr [Lj] hi... - he's a bit uncomfortable

[Lie] - Sure, just be back before dark

[CN] - So what do you want to play?- He glances at LJ briefly

[Yaunfen] This! I've been reading a really cool book- he holds it out for Cn to look at the inside, there's an illustration of a pirate with a smoldering twists in his beard and a sword held high on the front of an old sailing ship-

[CN] - What is it?

[Yaunfen] Pirates! They were really interesting. And they had the first dem-o-cracy! But they used to sail in big ships and steal stuff from navy ships-

[Lj] ...

[CN] - There's some big ships in the water!

[Yaunfen] Yeah! And I have a boat so we can get there.

[Waffles] Looks annoyed at the prospect of water.

[Lj] Is trying to restrain himself from asking because of how small Cn looks -

[Yaunfen] Lj? Do you want to play too?

[Lj] Maybe...

[Yaunfen] It's okay! Cn isn't a little kid. He's just a really short NOTCH!

[Lj] Looks skeptical-

[CN] - Yeah! I've been around for awhile!

[Yaunfen] He's a midget.

[Lj] Still skeptical but willing to suspend disbelief. His words are barely a whisper- Issac used to like to play pirates... When he was so young....

[CN] - You know how to play pirates?

[Lj] Absolutely!

[Yster] Is lounging and exhausted. - you're true to your words... That was amazing...

[Locklear] - Well, I have had plenty of time to practice the craft

[Yster] Curls against him, tangling her fingers in his hair - Happy we came?

[Locklear] - I don't know, perhaps a bit more convincing needs to happen- He teases her gently

-Slowly the two of them become aware of the sound of children playing on the deck above, and an adult voice with a slight accent singing -

"Farewell and adieu to ye young maids of Valen

Oderin and Presque, Fox Hole and Bruley

I'm bound for the westward to the wall with the hole in

I can't marry all or it's yokey I'll be

We'll rant and we'll roar like true Newfoundlanders

We'll rant and we'll roar on deck and below

Until we strikes bottom inside the two sunkers

When straight through the channel to Toslow we'll go!"

[Locklear] Groans- I know that voice...

[Yster] Whoever he is, he's got a pretty good singing voice-

-There's the sound of two younger voices belting out the chrous with most of the words correct and giggling-

[Locklear] - That would be Laughing Jack and some children

[Yster] Then I guess I should put my gown back on, for the sake of modesty.

[Locklear] - Yes we wouldn't want to ruin the children's innocence

[Yster] That sounds slightly sarcastic. Would we be inturrupting something that should be inturupted?

[Locklear] - Laughing is a child murderer

[Yster] Dresses quickly- Then we should- we should- Just to be safe, check on them!

[Locklear] - Precisely- He pulls his own clothing on as well. As he pulls on his coat he heads up the stairs

[Lj] Is wearing a small paper hat and waving a stick around in lieu of a sword, he freezes at the sight of Locklear.

[Yster] Yaunfen? Does Doc know you're here?

[Yaunfen] Pulls up a bandana that was covering one eye - Yster? Um... Mama knows where I am. She kinda knows where everyone is.

[Locklear] - Laughing, what are you doing?

[CN] - Lie knows that I'm here!

[Yster] [Didn't see Cn right away] And she said it was okay?

[Lj] Deflates a little- Just playing...

[CN] - So long as we came home before dark

[Locklear] - With children Laughing?

[Yaunfen] Yeah, I don't want to get him in trouble again.

[Lj] Small voice - They're not exactly children....

[Locklear] - They most certainly look like children to me, plus they still seem young enough to enjoy partaking in make believe

[Yaunfen] Mada says you're never too old to imagine stuff. It helps you be more creative. And Cn is a NOTCH. He's super important in guarding our friend Lie.

[Lj] And this one's a dragon...

[Locklear] - Yes, but I also know your penchant for adding to your circus

[Lj] The circus is empty now...

[Yaunfen] Oh, you mean his house?

[Locklear] - Is that so?

[Lj] Some of them are in town, most of them are gone forever.

[CN] - Yeah, there's lots of kids in the town!

[Yaunfen] Very proud- Mada fixed them.

[Lj] Ashamed and guilty- It's true.

[Locklear] - I doubt that

[Yaunfen] But it's true!

[Yster] Actually this sounds familar. I wasn't there for it obviously. But something about a bunch of zombie children being healed.

[Lj] Shrinks in shame.

[Yaunfen] I wasn't hatched yet, but mama said that mada made everyone who was there help. You can fix zombies here.

[CN] - I hadn't been let onto the server yet...

[Locklear] - Yet I doubt that's made you stop using your... Special, candies

[Lj] But I haven't! And I especially wouldn't hurt these two. I mean, I knocked out Steffan once because he was panicking, but I didn't hurt him!

[Yaunfen] Mada said that Lj had a withdraw and he's okay now. Besides. Mama would catch me.

[Locklear] - I still don't trust this

[Lj] It's okay Locklear, she doesn't talk to me anymore. Issac... he's gone too.

[Locklear] - Well yes, Isaac has been dead for a very long time now

[Yaunfen] Hushed whisper- I heard he went to a bad place...

[CN] - Like the Nether?

[Yaunfen] Maybe!

[Lj] He's just gone. I watched Death himself banish him.

This message has been removed.

[Lj] No.

[CN] - But deaths not permanent here? Or did you go somewhere else?

[Lj] We went outside Cn, irl. And Death has a face, and wings, and a daughter.

[Yaunfen] Oooooh! You met Dawn's dad?

[Yster] I was there. He's quite impressive.

[Locklear] - You were there?

[Yster] It was uh.... when Doc grabbed me... they took me along because I was already here and well... how often does one get the opportunity to rub elbows with the Death angel?

[Locklear] Just sighs and rubs his face a little before turning back towards the children- We should be getting these two back to land

[Yaunfen] Awww....

[Waffles] Scratching on the side of the wheelhouse-

[CN] - Why?

[Locklear] - Because I don't trust the clown being out here with the two of you alone

[Lj] I deserve that.

[Yaunfen] But he's okay. He doesn't have the crazy anymore.

[Yster] Suddenly gets in between them- crazy....! Shit! Don't touch him Locklear!

[Yaunfen] Wide eyes and backs away from Locklear a bit- Is he still infected?

[Locklear] - Touching him?

[Yster] He's one of Doc's carriers!

[Lj] Yes... Not only is my Insanity gone, I can drive her out of others as well. It's why I stayed away from the manor.

[Locklear] - How interesting, and I assume that might be why your colors have returned?

[Lj] Nods-

[Yaunfen] Stands close to Lj- Are you okay Yster? You can't trust him if he still has Insanity, she's a mean lady and she hates mada!

[Locklear] - I would never harm my mate

[Lj] I thought she was scared of you anyway? I heard she ran away from you, what, twice?

[Yster] Well.... he's kinda grown on me....

[Locklear] Scowls and his hands tighten into fists-

[Lj] Smiles faintly- better not touch me Locklear. I see that look in your eyes.

[Yaunfen] Please don't fight.

[Locklear] - You absolute prat! Perhaps you should have been burned in that box of yours! At least I focus on saving children, can you say the same?

[Lj] I'm getting better. I haven't killed anyone since I came here.

[Yaunfen] He can't be all bad. Waffles likes him!

[Locklear] - Judging by how they look I'n going to guess that's because of diet

[Yaunfen] It's the same stuff I eat too.

[Locklear] - Still, you shouldn't trust the clown

[Lj] I fully expect to that I'll have to earn what trust I'm given. But Yaunfen knows at least second-hand how far I've come. And as aggravating as Doc can be occasionally... they have helped me.

[Locklear] - That doesn't erase what I know you're capable of

[Lj] It was fun because Issac thought it was fun, with him gone I feel... differently. It's nice to be around people.

[Yster] I'm glad the going gave you some closure.

[Locklear] - And just how certain can you be that a taste of blood won't return you to how you were? I've seen it happen before

[Lj] I can't be certain of anything. I've been... oddly empty. But lighter to be sure.

[Locklear] - Then maybe you should go and find something other than children to fill that empty space

[Lj] Actually I've been doing some gardening.

[Yaunfen] He's pretty good at it!

[Yster] Let me guess, is it stuff from your seed?

[Yaunfen] Yep!

[CN] - His seed is fun!

[Locklear] - That is not what I'm concerned about

[Yaunfen] You worry like Cp.

[Yster] Little snort- Considering how he's been all over Lie worrying, that's kind of a compliment.

[Locklear] - Well she is his mate and pregnant

[Lj] Yeah, I know, he warned me away in no uncertain terms and I have abided by that. I don't care to be set on fire. Even if I know it won't kill me.

[Locklear] - He does enjoy his fire

[Yaunfen] Looks up - Awww... it's getting late. We should head back.

[Locklear] - Yes, you should

[CN] - Lie probably needs help with her animals too...

[Yaunfen] Oh! Cn! I know what would be fun! - they turn to Lj quickly- Can you take Waffles so they don't get wet?

[Lj] Nods with a small smile. - I'll get your kitty to shore.

[Yaunfen] Thanks- They climb up on the railing and reach back for Cn-

[CN] - What is it?- Takes their hand

[Yaunfen] Big smile and they just fall off the rail with Cn-

[Yster] Runs to the rail in a panic- Yaunfen!

[Yaunfen] Twists artfully and shifts as they hit the water, Cn plopping down between their horns as they paddle for the shore. - Bye Locklear, Yster!

[Locklear] Sighs- Children

[Lj] They learned that one from Doc.

[Locklear] - We should be heading back towards shore ourselves- He watches the retreating forms as they go through the water

[CN] Shrieks in delight-

[Lj] Heads for the sabertooth which is rolling contentedly on the deck- Come on Waffles-

[Locklear] - Stay away from the children Laughing

[Lj] Just gives him a cold look- You're not in charge of me Locklear. Not you or Issac or Insanity. I'm my own person now.

[Locklear] - We'll see, after all, you and I have always been at odds

[Lj] Yes, we shall. I've been welcomed here, and I don't intend to make anyone sorry for doing so intentionally. - Picks up the cat with his arms wrapped around them twice.

[Waffles] ???????

[Locklear] Scoffs and turns away-

[Lj] And we'll see how long it takes you to emotionally scar your 'mate' with Insanity still inside you.

[Yster] Her mouth is a hard line, but she can't deny his words. She was scared to see him murder up close.

[Locklear] Draws Yster closer to himself as he watches LJ leave-

[Yster] Do you... do you really have it under control Locklear?

[Locklear] - I believe I do

[Yster] I hope you're right

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