Black under cabinet paper towel holder

This gonna be a long one but I figured id share my story after lurking here for a while to let everyone know that making good money, creating independence, and enjoying your business can all happen in a short amount of time!
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I was a young lad back at the age of 17 trying to figure out what i was going to do with my life. I was barely getting through school, was more interested in working and making money. I was on a program where my senior year i only attended school 3 days a week and only went until 12:00pm. This gave me the opportunity to go work my awful part time jobs at car washes and car dealerships detailing cars. It was at this time i thought i could start a little side gig selling mobile detail service in my neighborhood. It took off and i started really getting client and making some money but nothing that would justify full time work when i graduated. I also did not really enjoy the work. I was always good with my hands, i worked on my own cars, built my own ramps and what not when i rode BMX bikes growing up and walls always able to create and see drawings in my head for assembly and put them to paper. I was set to graduate halfway through my senior year so i could start working.
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My Father has been in the commercial glazing industry for his entire life, at the time of my graduation he had been at a very large midwest privately owned commercial glazing company as a project manager. He hesitantly despite knowing about my pot smoking and partying habits got my foot in the door and got me an interview and a job in the fabrication shop fabricating the glazing systems to go out into the field for install. I started out as the low guy on the pole just freshly turning 18, getting put with the grumpy ass old men to assemble frames and caulk all of the system dams for water control. I hated it. After about 2 months i got the opportunity to run the fabrication and assembly for a small commercial storefront project with 2 helpers in the shop. This meant i got all of the cut specifications, field an assembly drawings, and details. I essentially had to start with raw full length stock materials and cut, layout and install the clips and brackets, build the frames, caulk and weap, pack and ship the project. This is when i realized that i could actually do something with this because by this time i had essentially learned the ins and outs of every commercial glazing system on my own in my freetime from product manuals so i could at least set myself apart from the other guys in the shop. I finished the fab job 2 weeks ahead of schedule without any mistakes that had to be corrected in the field. I worked in the shop for another 2 weeks and the operations manager decided i should go to the field to learn the installation process since i had progressed quickly.
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I started in the field the same way i did in the shop, they where testing me to see if i could handle the vulgar, raw, and miserable world of commercial construction field work. I spent 3 months on a large curtainwall and storefront installation project. I started by caulking dams on curtain wall that had to be stick built in the field. I then go promoted to setting glass and running oil covered vinyl all day to hold the glass into the system. They then bumped me up i got to sit in a boom lift all day and caulk ssg glazing systems. I at this point met a girl in a the state i was from on vacation and because things weren't going well at home and i kind of hated what i was doing i decided to move there.
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I moved to this new state and secured a position at a company that built and installed their own residential and commercial glazing systems. Conservatories, folding glass walls, skylights, and more. The position i took was a field laborer traveling to install conservatoires throughout the northeast. I started with a crew of roughneck guys and quickly found my pace and was learning the system quickly, managing my tasks on my own, and the big thing was i became the go to guy for layout with the foreman. I really enjoyed layout and was damn good at it. After 7 months traveling i didn't like being on the road and by coincidence got a call when i was in Maine that next week from the management team that they wanted to bring me into their massive fabrication and manufacturing facility to better learn the system and the preparation process for everything before it got to the installers.
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I went home and started working in the assembly department, essentially all of the parts for the structures where cut, pre drilled and prepped and the assembly team built the structures in the facility to ensure everything was going to work in the field. this really gave me the full up and up on the entire process of the system they produced and used. After 2 months i was brought in and offered a position in estimating.
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I joined the estimating team and spent 6 weeks learning every in and out of their entire product lineup, pricing structure, how to assemble professional estimates and proposals and i learned intermediate level AutoCAD drafting. I essentially would get a project on my desk and draw the structure as it was to be built in cad then used the drawings to create my takeoff and bid the job. i did this for 6 months before i realized how awful the management, staff, turnover, and moral was within this organization. I made the dumbest move i could have ever made and left a job paying 70k a year to an uneducated almost 20 year old with no other employment lined up.
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i did end up securing a position as a senior pm at another small commercial glazing company that set me up for failure by allowing their estimator to underbid every large project but ridiculous amounts of money before i arrived without anyone noticing. so every job that cam across my desk was a disaster from the get go. I spent 9 months putting out fires, managing gc relationships that where toxic due to the position i was put in etc. But i did learn critical project management procedures and how to deal with emergencies on the fly and client management in tough scenarios.
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Fast forward a bit and i moved back to my old state with said girl and take a job at a failing commercial glass company as a field/shop laborer and stayed for 3 months. I Left and took an opportunity to try residential glazing by installing custom glass shower doors, i ran my own truck did 3 installs a day with a helper and did this for 9 months. I had an opportunity come up to work with one of those 1 day bath install companies that advertise religiously. I had just built my first home, my fiance was unemployed and i needed more cash badly.
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I met with their operations manager and it was all layed out that i would be an employee but only would be payed a percentage of the cost of the sold job for the bathroom upon completion of install. I essentially had all control in my hands to make as much or as little as i wanted but it was all up to me. Despite the lack of a safety net i took the risk and accepted the offer. i trained with another installer for 2 weeks and set out on my own. Typically these companies sell these jobs for 8-11k depending on the exact scope and accessories. 2 man teams where typically doing a job in 12 hours or basically a day in a half and the jobs where all over the state. I thought there had to be a more efficient way to do it because i got 10% of the job sold price as my pay. by the time i paid for a helper, my fuel, and what not 800-1100 in 2-3 days wasn't enough. I let my helped go and decided i was going to do it on my own. After spending weeks trying new methods to get faster and create a better product i was doing install on my own in 8-10 hours and clearing 3-4k a week gross before taxes and fuel expenses. I was hungry to be successful and finally make good money. This continued for about 5 months until they hit a sales dead period and there wasn't enough work to keep all 4 install crews busy but maybe 1 job a week and i approached my operations manager about another opportunity in the company. Patio conversions
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Essentially this was a window and door, bath, and conversion company. These conversions consisted of taking existing covered porches and patios and turning them into 3 season or 4 season rooms. so you got the whole package. layout, framing, insulation, windows and doors, electrical, hvac, and interior and exterior finishes. these job paid big. on average a job takes 5-10 days and pays out 8-16k dollars to the installer. of course i had a couple helpers but i was absolutely crushing it after only a couple of months. This is where i really started to learn the ins and outs of commercial construction.
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One day i was approached on a Facebook page about a gentleman with a residential remodeling company near me that was looking for an operations manager. they specialized in high end luxury remodels and also made their own cabinets. I met with him and decided even though the operation seemed small and mismanaged i could make it work. I took a pay decrease so i could work less hours and be home more as my fiancé had just had our daughter and the other company didn't even let me off to go to the appointments.
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What i didn't know was that the owner of this business was the slimiest most Narcisitic, ego fueled person i have ever met in my entire life. He was running a GC business with the expectation that every sub, employee, etc was going to be a LEGEND and create only the most perfect unmatched quality product when given low Quality materials, piss poor planning, awful schedules and communication, etc. I quickly learned that i was going to be burned if i didn't think of something quick because the castle was under siege and i saw what was coming. i am 21 at this time. Well inevitably the following week i as an operations manager trying to keep a sinking ship afloat and out in the field tearing up tile from an under slab plumbing leak from before i was at this place, trying to rebuild an entire kitchen in 3 days by myself and i just was over it. Told him that i was putting in my notice and was done. I get called into the office that Friday and was told i was being let go, i was given a personal check for my weekly salary of 1000 dollars and made to sign a non compete and hold harmless agreement if i wanted my pay. i was paid as a 1099 under the table so he wasn't responsible for costs associated with employees. Basically i set myself up to get screwed. i signed everything took my check and left. Check bounces, im broke, he wont pay and im jobless with a fiance and a 6 month old. This was the lowest i had ever felt in my life and i literally was about to loose everything.
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It was at this time my wheels started turning and i realized that all of these residential companies i worked for had multiple things in common. The client communication was terrible, their execution was terrible, and their image was awful. They looked all shiny and great during the sales process but as soon as they had a contract and a check the client experience didn't matter. So i thought to myself, i know construction now, i now a fair amount project management and business operations, and i see a hole in the market. so i started my company with the little money i had left. i registered with the state, bought a logo from someone on fivver, made a facebook page, a wix website, and started marketing.
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This was great but it takes time to pickup traction and get jobs, i wasn't going to make money being a handyman so i needed supplemental income with flexibility in my schedule. I connected with a local fence contractor who was small and needed and installer who got paid by the linear for building fences. The money was decent but the work was hard and labor intensive. But it gave me a chance to hire a couple guys and teach them how to do it so i could start jobs and leave the jobsites to run estimates for my company. After many free estimates and 1:00 am mornings in the office writing quotes i just wasnt getting the jobs i needed. I needed a way to make sure someone wasn't tire kicking before i spent time and money doing a free estimate. So i started charging $200.00 for an in home consultation and bid package which would be credited to the client in full if they used us for the project. This was not well received due to me not being able to present it correctly in the pitch over the phone but when i did holy shit it worked like a charm. my conversion rate on estimates went form 16% to over 65% in a matter on 3 months.
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I started getting good big jobs in good neighborhoods, i started finding really great subs and built my list. I started building brand image, internal documents, repeatable procedures for every job etc. this went on for a year and a half and i finally made 85k take home my first full year in business. Then the covid thing happened.
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I thought everyone is freaked out and doesn't want us in their homes for estimates etc. how do i difference myself and create a luxury experience for clients without being intrusive during the lockdowns. i had started modeling basic things in SketchUp and new there was a lot of opportunity in 3d rendering. so i shifted our model and we became a design build firm. So essentially we are selling a design and rendering package to clients with a bid so that they can see what their project would look like before we ever go under contract. The rendering sells the job no matter the cost as long as you have the correct client base and are pre qualifying well.
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I had a friend i grew up with that had gotten an architecture degree and was doing SketchUp 3D modeling, renderings, and 2D architectural drawing sets for a shed company as a freelancer and we can up with pricing and decided i was going to pursue this model. So i learned how to be a sales wizard and started selling $1,500-$5,000 design packages over the phone before i ever stepped foot in someones home. we designed and went through the process and send them a price. if they use us they get a full credit applied to the job for the amount of the design if not they own the drawings and information. I was making 50% GP on designs for jobs that never sold just to go out and measure and spend some time going through it with my designer. Our close rate on paid design bids sent went to 86%. This was the end of year 2 going into year 3
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Year 2 Gross Revenue was $364k
Year 3 Gross Revenue was $597K
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This is all on my own using subs, no in house staff, off the shelf management software, no paid marketing. Just Facebook groups, referrals, and subs.
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In June of Year 3 I streamlined my process. I farmed out all business management (bookkeeping, Payroll, Phones, Etc.) and created a concrete repeatable process and procedure system that would be used on every job to ensure consistent management and quality. I hired a project manager and got him trained to manage all of the subs and all aspects related to the field and installations.
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I am Proud to say that at June 1 of 2023 at 26 years old with only one Employee we have contracted and collected deposits on $848,000.00 worth of work, our schedule is booked until the middle of September and we are on track to hit just over 1.1 mil in total revenue at an average gross profit of 47%.
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I have no formal training in business management, project management or anything to get me to this point. i have spent countless hours researching, reading, failing, and fixing everything in my business. its a cut throat game but if your willing to work your ass off and never quit, do amazing work, and make sure you prioritize client experience start to finish you will have people waiting years for you to do their job.
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We are booked through April of 2024 for outdoor projects. Find a hole in the industry in your service area and take full advantage and change the remodeling or building game so us contractors can be looked at as professionals who have earned our ability to enjoy what we have worked for instead of drunk hacks in a shitty pickup.
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Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk, get to work!

The Shattered Mirror was exactly what Justin expected it to be. The shelves were cluttered, a disorganized mess of books, baubles and crystals meant to pull in the superstitious and otherwise gullible. It practically begged him not to be taken seriously, but Lee swore by it and so did her new medium friend, so it was worth a look.
The problem was, Justin didn’t know what he was looking for.
Their little stakeout of the Pearl District was a bit of a disaster. Allen finally came face to face with the Black Widow, and now Milo’s phone was going straight to voicemail. Lee and Allen were out looking for him at the waterfront, near the end of the streetcar line, and in the meantime, Justin had no idea how to be of use.
He perused the merchandise, hoping that something would jump out at him as capital i Important, but it felt less like browsing a magic shop and more like passing through someone’s mediocre garage sale.
“Cal I help you?” a woman called from the counter at the far end of the store. Her hair was a storm of curled dark grays, her narrow, calculating eyes almost lost amongst the strands. She looked him up and down, getting the measure of him. “Looking for something specific?”
Justin sighed. “Not really,” he admitted, approaching the counter. “My friend Lee was here recently, bought some holy water? I was hoping to find something else to help us out.”
“Oh, Ethan’s friend,” she said, her smile shifting from professional to honest. “Always nice to meet a friend of a friend.” She offered her hand. “I’m Joanne.”
“Justin,” he replied, shaking her hand. “Yeah, nice to meet you.”
She crossed her arms. “Still having that vampire problem?”
He smiled awkwardly, taken aback by how casually she brought it up. Guess this is the world I live in, now, he realized. Lee told me that Ethan believed her right off the bat. That’s probably the standard in these circles. “Well that’s the thing- I feel like we’re still fighting with our eyes closed, here. We’re all new to…” he trailed off, gesturing behind him, to the store full of curios.
“Could always talk to an expert,” the woman suggested. She held a finger up, then disappeared behind her counter for a moment. “Here we go,” she exhaled, standing back up with a rolodex of business cards. She took a close look at one of the cards, nodded to herself, then wrote the information down on a slip of paper. “He lives up in Willamette Heights. Don’t ring the doorbell, and don’t knock hard. He won’t ask you to take off your shoes, but do it anyway. He should be able to get you started.”
Justin took the paper. “Thank you,” he mumbled, surprised by her willingness to help. He hadn’t had much experience dealing with people in the city, but the constant of everyone he’d run into was that they were often polite, but rarely so kind. “So who is this guy? Is he like an arms dealer or something?”
Joanne shook her head. “He’s a historian. His family goes back to before the founding of Portland, back when the city was a coin toss away from being called Boston. He can tell you anything about the city, and if you tell him I sent you, he can even tell you the truth. Just be respectful, alright?”
“I will,” he promised, pocketing the paper. “Hey, I gotta ask: you don’t owe me anything and we’re strangers, so why are you helping me?”
She laughed softly, then sighed. “You’re in the real world now, kid. There’s no guidebook to help you survive it. That feeling of fighting with your eyes closed? You don’t undo that, you just get used to it. May as well help whoever you can when you bump into them, and hope they’ll do the same for you.”
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“We’re here,” the driver said, stopping just before the driveway.
“Thanks,” Justin replied, opening the door and stepping out of the vehicle.
“Remember to rate five stars!” the driver yelled before making a U-turn and heading back down towards the city.
Willamette Heights was a beautiful neighborhood. The trees were so dense that it felt like civilization stopped at the backyards of the two and three-story houses the lined the streets. These weren’t paint-by-numbers, mass manufactured McMansions; they each had their own style, their own character. It was a quiet place, hidden in the shadow of the city. A perfect place to raise a family, and a perfect place to spend the twilight of one’s life.
From the sidewalk, the house seemed quite pleasant at first- the winding stone walkway up towards the front door, the garage built into the hill like a Hobbit hole, the trees looming over the front lawn in an inviting, “take a load off and enjoy the shade” kind of way- but that all stopped at the actual front of the house. All of the curtains were drawn, and all of the windows were barred. “What is this, the fucking Elm Street house?” Justin asked, feeling as though he were walking down the plank as he approached the bright red front door.
He stopped himself from ringing the doorbell, lightly knocking on the door as instructed. Before he had time to consider whether to knock again, the door swung open.
The historian was an imposing figure, nearly as tall as the doorframe. The hair atop his head had long ago receded, but his lengthy beard was nearly long enough to tuck into the belt of his bathrobe. He seemed thin, impossibly thin, but not brittle.
“Mr. Roland? Joanne sent me.”
“Of course she did.” He stepped aside, but did not invite Justin in. He simply waited.
“Yeah, I don’t bite,” Justin joked, stepping inside. He removed his shoes and left that at the door.
The house was as dusty as The Shattered Mirror, but not quite so cluttered. The walls of the entryway were bare, save for crosses secured above and to the sides of each doorway. “Follow me,” the historian instructed, stepping through an open pair of double doors down the hall.
Justin followed, and found himself in an incredible personal library. There were several rows of bookshelves between the doorway and the far end of the room, where the historian stepped behind a large walnut desk. The walls were lined with shelves, and the shelves were filled to bursting with books. As Justin approached the desk, he read a few of the labels at the ends of the rows. “Demonology, Manifestations, The Vetus… something tells me you don’t have a horror section, here.”
“Everything is horror if you allow yourself to be afraid,” the historian said, taking his seat. “You’re not here for that.”
“I’ve already been afraid,” Justin admitted. He took the single seat in front of the desk, wondering why there weren’t two. “I’ll be the first to admit, however, that I don’t know why I’m here.”
The historian opened one of the desk drawers and retrieved a small rectangular box. He opened it, placing it before him, and looked intently at it. Justin leaned forward, and saw that it was a small compass. The box was a dark brown wood, nearly black, and the needle was solid white. The needle was spinning steadily counter-clockwise, but as the historian glared at it, it suddenly stopped, pointing directly at Justin. That isn’t north, he noted, wondering what else it could mean.
“I know why you’re here,” the historian said, closing the box and returning it to the desk. “You need help, and there’s only one kind that I can provide. What do you need to know?” He leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers together.
Justin squirmed in his seat. “There’s a vampire in Portland. We’re trying to kill her.”
The historian frowned. “The girl? She’s only active during snowstorms, and the weather’s clearing up.”
“No, this is a woman,” Justin corrected. “She hunts men every three weeks like clockwork- always lonely, single guys who think they’re getting lucky. She was gone for a while, but we know she’s been active on and off for a few years, now.”
One of the historian’s eyebrows slowly began to rise at the description. “She wears disguises, yes?” He opened another drawer and began rummaging through it.
“Yeah, actually. We’re calling her the Black Widow, but that’s just a nickname. We don’t know her real name.”
“I might,” the historian replied, retrieving a leather-bound book from the drawer. He pawed through it for a moment before stopping on a page near the end of the book. “Here,” he said, turning the book over and tapping over one of the pages.
Justin tried to read the page, but had trouble at first. It was written by hand, and it had been a while since he’d last read cursive handwriting. It was a journal. The entry was from September 22nd, 1892:
The children whisper of her again, of the woman in white. They say that she wanders the sunset woods under moonlight. They say she dances across the waters of the Willamette, but not on the suspension bridge. They say that one cannot see her with the naked eye, that she only appears in the reflections of the water itself. They say her face changes, but her broken heart remains still. They say she cries out for lost love and spilled blood.
A man was found in the sunset woods on the west side of the Willamette, drained of his life’s blood without a drop on his person. He was last seen with a woman no one recognized. This has happened before, and if Satan has his way, it will happen again.
The men tell me it was a witch. The women believe it was a ghost. I know it is a demon, but not what it wants.
I wonder if it is her- the bride!- but she is only a rumor, a story we know not to tell our children as we were told, lest they inherit our nightmares and the figures we see in the shadows. Still… they do not know the story, but they say she is dressed in white.
I only know two things to be true. There is a God watching us, and he suffers no fools. We will barricade the doors and not answer when she comes calling. We will not stray.
“The woman in white?” Justin asked, looking up from the journal.
The historian nodded. “The Bride, yes. Many believed that she was a phantom, a poltergeist of a woman whose husband was taken from her before they could say their vows. However, there is the occasional mention throughout that time of men found dead, drained of their blood, leading to some- myself included- speculating that there could be a vampire involved in this tragedy.”
“So it’s a vampire that people think is a ghost?” Justin scoffed. “What, do they think ghosts bite people?”
“Yes,” the historian replied, nodding thoughtfully. After a moment, he let a soft chuckle escape him, then frowned. “Well, poltergeists actually might- if they made a habit of biting in life, that is. Either way, the vampire responsible for killing these men over a century ago may be your Black Widow.”
Justin rubbed his eyes. “So how does knowing that help us? What do we do?”
“What you do,” the historian corrected, “is look for the Bride.”
“Listen, we need a way to track her down and kill her. Learning when and why she was turned into a vampire doesn’t help us.”
The historian nodded again. “You’re right. However, finding the Bride will help you.”
“We know where she is. She lives in the Pearl District.” Justin poked at the journal. “This is fun history and all, but it doesn’t help us kill her.”
Closing the book and returning it to its drawer, the historian steepled his fingers together again and leaned back. “Why are you pursuing the Black Widow?”
“She’s a killer, and no one else knows she exists.” Justin could feel his cheeks reddening.
The historian smiled knowingly. “You know why she should die. Why does it have to be you, specifically?”
Justin felt a cold chill wash over him. This guy’s gotta be a mind reader or something. “My friend went missing a few years ago,” he admitted. “He doesn’t really fit her pattern, but he disappeared without a trace and she was active at the time. It’s the only lead on him that I’ve got. I know it’s a long shot, but I need to know if she killed him.”
“I understand,” the historian said, stroking his beard in contemplation. He seemed to be considering something, but Justin didn’t know what. “If this Black Widow were to learn your personal motivations, do you think she could find a way to leverage it against you?”
“Sure,” Justin agreed.
“The Bride is somehow connected to the Black Widow,” the historian replied. “To know what happened to her is to know who you’re facing. This could be your leverage. This could be your weapon.”
“So who do we think she is?” Justin asked, leaning forward.
The historian smiled. “I don’t know her name, but I know where she’s been spotted.” He rummaged through another drawer briefly before retrieving a paper, unfolding it to reveal a worn map of the state. He circled a spot near the Willamette, south of Portland. “There’s a manor in West Linn, not far from the Arch Bridge. Some say it’s haunted. I’m inclined to agree. Go there. Seek her out. Learn her story.”
Justin took the map, folding it back up. “Thank you, Mr. Roland,” he said. “When this is all over, maybe I’ll have a story worth telling you.”
The historian’s smile left him. “Oh, I know how this story ends, and it’s not one I’ll wish to hear again. Good luck, Justin.”

Read Chapter 1 Here
Previous Chapter Here
My other SSB story, Writing on the Wall, Here
I was sitting here in the dark, pantsless and writing (as you do), and I decided to check how far my progress was going on a few things. Turns out I was way past my "release a new chapter" threshold!
Enjoy the continued adventures of our favorite fuckups.
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“...about those sculptures. I know we told the Aboriginal Art Institute of Karnif that they could hold onto them for another two months, but apparently they are part of some shrine and the Governess of the South Pacific is getting on my case about returning them before a holy day.” Jem’si looked to his right, where his wife Torel was walking alongside him. She was his partner in more than just his marriage, and he was a little surprised to see that she didn’t have a pad out to take notes. “Are you paying attention?”
“Not really,” Torel replied. She had been strangely subdued, quiet all morning. On his left, his wife Keller tried to match pace. She was so much bigger than both of them that it was difficult, but she had a lot of practice and the halls of House Chel’xa’s ancestral home were a familiar place.
“Now.” Keller’s word was punctuated by her left arm shooting across her body to grab Jem’si by the upper arm. It was a firmer grip than Jem’si had ever felt from his wives, and for it to come from gentle Keller was doubly surprising. Before he could comment, Torel grabbed his other arm. The pair lifted and Jem’si found himself being dragged along, feet barely touching the floor.
“Put me down!” He tried to wiggle out of their grip, but neither woman seemed to be in the mood to play nice. “If you wanted to have some fun this morning you could have just asked!” Neither Torel or Keller said anything in reply, just continued to drag him along as his commands to be let go turned into pleading whines. They wouldn’t even look at him.
Jem’si wasn’t scared, not really. Just confused. He trusted his family utterly, and even as they maneuvered him out of the corridor, down a hall, and into an empty dining room he felt confusion more than fear. The room was dark, curtains drawn, and Jem’si let out a small “oof” as he found himself practically flung into a chair. The door clacked shut and he was plunged into nearly complete blackness.
After a few moments of sitting in the dark, trying to figure whatever sort of madness seemed to be running in his wives, Jem’si had enough. He raised his voice, put in every bit of commanding tone he had learned through years of Noble intrigue and business with Humans, and called out to the darkness.
“Well?!”
Light flared suddenly from the chandelier, dazzling his eyes. Fear froze his heart as he realized he and his wives weren’t actually alone. It began to thaw right back up as he saw who sat across from him.
“Why were you all sitting in the dark?” Jem’si tried to keep his voice casual.
“For the emotional impact,” Samuel Forsythe-Painter replied.
“Obviously,” Sammi Painter-Forsythe added.
Flanking the pair of tiny humans sat Elera Heleum and Marin Elbruk. Elera reached into her lap and leaned forward, placing something down on the table. It settled on the ancient wood with a dull thunk.
“The same reason I brought this,” she added helpfully.
Jem’si vaguely recognized the pistol. It was a massive hunk of silver steel with a barrel so wide he could stick a finger into it. The same gun that played so prominently in the story of that whole adventure in the frozen north. He hadn’t realized it had survived the rocket attack at the hotel, or that it had been brought to Shil.
Now thoroughly spooked, Jem’si glanced up at Keller where she stood next to him. She had brought him here, but surely she would protect him from these lunatics.
Keller looked down at him sadly, dark eyes showing little more than disappointment. “Sorry, Jem, you’re on your own.”
Torel was no better. She wouldn’t even look at him. When he glanced to the other side of the table, Marin nodded at Elera. The spikey haired Marine leaned her bulk forward and steepled her fingers together, the spindly shadows from her hands falling across the gun on the table.
“Lieutenant Colonel Marin and I had an interesting visitor yesterday. We’ve both been promoted, retired from active service, and given an Imperial Writ to deal with. It’s a great deal, really; we have been ordered by the Empress Herself to protect our little Human friends here.” With that, Elera reached out and gave Sammi what was likely intended to be a friendly pat on the back but nearly knocked the much smaller Human clear of their chair. “And, if things don’t go well, we’ve been ordered to kill them both.”
“I don’t really care much for that part,” Samuel said quietly.
“Samesies,” added Sammi.
“We’ve also been ordered to ensure that nobody learns about the OTHER project. You know the one.” Marin punctuated her statement by placing her own pistol on the table. This one was much smaller, more modern, but at least as deadly. She looked down at it, then glanced at Elera’s. “These are a really poor representation of our orders. Orbital strikes were mentioned.”
Jem’si grasped in his mind for the swordfighter’s calm he had cultivated the last few years, but it wouldn’t come. He had his ass planted in an oversized chair, was surrounded by people who meant him harm, and even his wives had abandoned him. The best control he could manage was to pull in a deep breath, swallow, and try to hold down the sour, sick feeling twisting through his guts.
“I really didn’t know what to do.” Elera put her hands flat on the table, and Jem’si, hyper-focused now on potential dangers, watched as the fingers on her right hand twitched. “So I figured I’d call the only person I knew who might have experience dealing with this sort of thing. Someone who might know why we were suddenly getting orders from the Empress after working so hard to keep this whole thing quiet.”
Keller’s huge hand landed on Jem’si’s shoulder, causing him to jerk. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to.
“The orders make sense, but they leave something very important out. So I’m going to ask you, Jem’si. I’m going to ask you as a holder of an Imperial Writ, ordered by the Empress Herself to ensure the security of the Painter Research Institute and the Lone Caribou Survival Company.” Elera’s hands were fists now and the light from the chandelier reflected in the tears forming in her eyes.
“What did you tell them? What happened to Stace? Is he even alive out there?” The questions seemed to hang in the air, and Jem’si wondered if the wrong answer would kill him. He had never doubted Keller’s loyalty before, but if the Empress said he had to die, would she stop it? He hoped so, but she had been a Deathshead Commando long before she became his wife.
In the end, he only had one response he could give. He swallowed again, cleared his throat, and hoped that the truth would keep him alive.
“I don’t know what’s happening on Nix. I reached out through Iria Stolsk, who often acts as a scientific policy advisor to the Empress, and I gave her everything I had. Much of it was technical documents from the PRI’s research, but not much more than what was used for the investor’s meeting.”
Jem’si cleared his throat again, then jerked in panic as a loud thunk sounded next to him. If Keller’s hand wasn’t keeping him in place, he might have bolted. Instead, he nodded his thanks to Torel and picked up the glass of water she had found for him. A couple of sips did little to steady his nerves; he would have killed for some of that flavored bourbon Stace made.
“As for the… other project. When Stace started making preparations, I gave him access to a highly encrypted data archive. It contains all of the notes Demir Chel’xa made during her time on Nix, all her observations of the people there. Every bit of video we had, audio clips of their language, topographical and seismic scans of the planet… House Chel’xa kept everything, and I gave all of it to him.
“When he started working on his own plans to save Nix, he was linked to that server. I don’t know if it was intentional or just Stace not knowing how he set up his accounts, but all of his notes were backed up to the same archive. I gave the Empress all of it.”
“But you don’t know what She decided. If Stace is being left alone or if he’s in a blacksite prison.” Elera closed her eyes and a single tear slipped free. “If he’s even alive.”
“No. I don’t know, but if the Empress meant to silence this whole enterprise, you wouldn’t have a Writ. You’d have a smoking hole in your skull.”
Elera nodded. “And so would you. We all would.”
“Why don’t we?” Sammi’s voice was so innocent, so free of the pain and fear everyone else seemed to be wrapped up in, that it seemed to shatter the tension in the room. Shoulders slumped, hands unclenched, and Jem’si had the sudden hope that, just maybe, he’d finish this meeting without throwing up in his lap.
Samuel spoke next. “It’s obvious that the Empress, if she hasn’t exactly given us permission for the Nix project, is at least willing to look the other way. I don’t know what’s going on out there, but I think we can count on Stace doing his thing.” He tapped his fingers on the table in a quick rat-tat-tat, blue-painted nails clicking on the wood. “The real question is why she would let us do it at all. Tons of risk with no real reward for the Empire, which is why we agreed to keep all this quiet in the first place.”
“My husband is a businessman.” Torel’s voice was surprisingly affectionate given the circumstances, and when her hand came up to ruffle Jem’si’s hair he relished the contact. It didn’t matter if his coiffure was ruined. “Even if he’s not the brains of the operation, he occasionally makes a deal.”
“The research you two have been doing; is it real?” Jem’si nodded at the two Humans at the table. “Can you really do that incredible line of turox shit you sold to the investors?”
Sammi let out a very undignified snort. “You have no idea. What the investors are getting is real, but it’s babytown frolics compared to what we could really do with it. We’re keeping the good stuff; I wanna see if I can turn a star inside out.”
“That’s… horrifying.” Jem’si felt on firmer ground now; the crisis had passed and he was going to live through this. “Well, I may have passed the word that the technological superiority you’re providing would put us decades, perhaps centuries ahead of the Consortium and the Alliance.”
He let the moment settle with a performer’s ease before dropping the punchline.
“And if we aren’t allowed to fix Nix it would turn out that you two didn’t actually know what you were doing. It would have destroyed House Chel’xa along with the two of you, but it would turn out we were huxsters all along.”
Samuel laughed bitterly. “And to think, if you actually told us your plan we probably would have agreed to it. Instead, we now have to deal with having two members of our family who have signed and sealed orders from the Empress of the Shil’vati to kill the rest of us. Not exactly something that makes it easy to maintain a relationship.”
Elera pulled herself to her feet before picking up the heavy Human handgun. She carefully checked it, then put it in her pocket. Marin followed her example and did the same with her own pistol, and the two Humans hopped down off their chairs.
“I am sorry.” Jem’si firmed up his voice, felt the old confidence start to pool in his chest. “For not telling you, I mean. I don’t regret what I did.”
“Of course you don’t,” Samuel said sadly as the group headed towards the door. “You’re Shil’vati. We’re leaving, by the way. Going home. It doesn’t feel right to be living off your charity. I’d tell you not to follow us, but we can’t realistically stop you since you own a third of the company.”
“Just know that you won’t be welcome,” Sammi added before slamming the door behind them.
Jem’si let out a sigh as he sank into his chair, feeling suddenly boneless. Keller and Torel moved around him, pulling up chairs of their own.
“That went better than it could have,” Keller said casually. She barely seemed bothered by the whole thing.
“Oh, really?” Jem’si really couldn’t see the bright side.
“We could all be dead,” Torel clarified. “According to the scope of their Writ, either one of those two would have been perfectly within their rights to have the entire Chel’xa compound incinerated.”
“....what.”
“Knowledge of Nix is to be limited to the PRI and Lone Caribou. House Chel’xa clearly knows about it, or this whole thing wouldn’t have gotten started.” Keller sounded too matter of fact, too calm. “You may be the one who got this whole thing going, but the Humans wouldn’t have even known about it if you hadn’t told them. You’re clearly a security risk.”
“You could make the argument that Jem’si is in the clear, as part owner of PRI. I do a lot of the clerical work, so I’m safe too.” Torel smirked over at Keller. “Sounds like you’re the odd one out.”
“Yep. It would have been perfectly reasonable, from a legal standpoint at least, if Elera had shot me in the face as soon as we sat down.” Keller smirked. “Not that she would. I think she kinda has a thing for me.”
“And what, you’d have let her do it?” The panic was back, bile sour and acidic in Jem’si’s throat.
“I’m not bulletproof, Jem. Couldn’t have done a whole lot about it.”
Jem’si pressed his hands to the table, slowly pulling himself to his feet. “I think…” He swallowed. It didn’t help. “I think I’m going to throw up. Then I’m going to talk to Iria and see if I can talk to the Empress in person. I need to get a handle on this before someone ends up dead.”
“Someone else, you mean.” Torel gave Jem’si a very unflattering glare. “On top of all the other deaths we’ve had so far.”
Jem’si bit down a retort as he turned away, walking towards the door. Oh yes. Couldn’t forget those.
–
When it came down to it, Lewis could admit that this was at least partially his fault.
He had left the grocery store with plastic bags in his hands and a spring in his step. The rusty minivan parked next to Lewis's SUV completely failed to get his attention, which was likely the whole reason it was chosen for the job. He had just finished putting the bags in the backseat when the van’s side door opened behind him, a bag slipped over his head, and Lewis was bodily pulled into the vehicle. He barely even had time to squeak out a panicked yelp.
Even with his head covered, Lewis knew at once who his captors were. The large hands, the ease with which they were manhandling him, and the sheer brazenness of the kidnapping left no doubt in his mind that he was in the hands of the Shil'vati. They pulled his hands behind his back and cuffed them together before he was plopped down in the middle seat. Meaty fingers stayed firmly grasped around his biceps as the van rumbled to life. They were on the move.
"So..." Lewis tried to keep his voice even. He wasn't a fighter, and if he started throwing elbows he would still end up at his destination. Just with a broken jaw. "If you're sex traffickers, you probably could do better than me."
There was no reply but silence.
As they bounced along, Lewis was surprised to find that he wasn't as frightened as he expected. After nearly a decade fighting the invaders in his own way, the idea of eventually being captured or killed had percolated through his mind for long enough that it was comfortable. In a way, it was a relief; wherever he was going, whatever was going to happen to him, Lewis was done with the fight. He could hang up his spurs, at least until the gallows called.
Instead of dwelling on the situation, he tried to follow where the van was going. It only took a few turns for Lewis to become hopelessly lost. His lack of a sense of direction was legendary among his friends, and thanks to the ubiquitous ease of GPS and smartphones he never really had to pick up the skill. He regretted his reliance on technology now, not that it would really change anything. The van rumbled on, its old and tired suspension creaking with every bump, and Lewis waited to die.
The van pulled to a stop with a lurch and Lewis jerked awake. He had been half-dozing, a fact that he took in with a bit of surprise. After the first hour or so, the anxiety of being captured had faded into a dull shock, which had turned into a stupor. Now he had completely lost track of time. The door to his right slid open and Lewis was pulled out with a sudden jerk. He tried to catch himself on half-numb legs, stumbled, was caught, and found himself being half carried and half marched on the rough gravel underfoot.
Even with the hood obscuring his vision, Lewis could still hear perfectly fine. He could still smell, too, and the rumble of a large diesel engine was accompanied by the smell of rancid exhaust. The gravel under his feet became a metal ramp and he stumbled again, letting his Shil'vati captors drag him up by his biceps. There would be some nasty bruises later, but for now the pain helped him regain focus.
The ramp leveled out and the metal clang was replaced by the dull thud of thin wood under his feet. Lewis was only dragged a few more steps before a quick shove threw him into a chair. It didn't move at all, evidently attached to the floor, and before he could really process the situation further a loud clatter behind him made evident that Lewis was now trapped. The smell of exhaust was even worse here, sour on his throat. Fear was finally beginning to settle in his guts as he tried to prepare himself for the inevitable torture.
"Ashley Lewis. Age twenty-six standard, degrees in psychology and philosophy, currently employed in an administrative capacity for a phone and 'net based therapy service. Being able to telework has made it easy for you to travel for your other job, working as a data courier and soft asset for the terrorist organization colloquially known as The Numbers.
"A few months ago, you were involved in an attack on a man named Eustace Grant that left him nearly dead and eventually led to a region-wide shakeup of law enforcement and the public execution of the Regional Governess." Lewis's head jerked forward as the hood was pulled off in a single sharp tug.
Black eyes with irises like gold rings floating in pools of ink stared at him from a face of purple skin. In the moment, the Shil'vati looked exactly as alien as she was, and the familiarization he had spent years building flashed away as if they were never there. The alien smiled, drawing attention to her tusks, then nodded once. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
Lewis took in his captor. She was average height for a female Shil, though not as massively built as the majority of marines he had seen. Her hair was stark white and pulled back into a ponytail, and she wore a long coat of heavy black. Around him, all he could see was dirty wood and aluminum paneling. The rumbling of an engine continued, as did the stink of fumes. He was in the back of a small box truck.
And in front of him stood Investigator Jel’si Chel'xa.
*****
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This is a fanfic that takes place in the “Between Worlds” universe (aka Sexy Space Babes), created and owned by u/BlueFishcake. No ownership of the settings or core concepts is expressed or implied by myself.
This is for fun. Can’t you just have fun?

Wowee! /s

In 2020, I moved over 6 hours away from my hometown in Southern Ontario to attend University up north. I moved into my down with my best friend from high school whom I had known for years. In this building, it is important to note that it has been around since the school was first built however it is frequently renovated and worked on because it more often than normal, catches fire (more details later).
So, to set the scene: it's 2020, mid-pandemic and I had just been discharged from the army. My best friend and I had applied for the same university major and had decided that if we got in that we would live together. Well, sure enough, we got in and the only dorm that could accommodate our room request (i.e. moving into the same apartment with separate bedrooms) was situated directly across from a hospice. and for those that don't know a hospice is a medical facility where people go when they are close to death to live out the end of their lives in as much comfort as possible. This hospice was the only view out of our small windows and was the only one in our area.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, the building frequently caught fire, but what was odd and worth mentioning about it, was that it only caught fire in apartment #5 on any given floor. My best friend and I lived on the 5th floor in the 5th apartment for 2 years even throughout the summer and fortunately, we never had a fire, but frequently found ourselves having to accommodate firefighters and other workers entering our rooms due to the smoke and water damage from various different fires from random floors directly above us. Along with my BFF, I had two other roommates who were very vocal about when they were home or not (we had a group chat), and for all these experiences they were never home. or even in the city for that matter. My BFF and I both got jobs working at a Lvl 1 Trauma Center as nightshift security and thus paranormal stuff didn't scare us as we frequently were forced to work in the morgue and even witness people die on a daily basis, with whole bunch of other things happening (maybe stories for another time).
The main experience that happened early on was when my BFF and I both awoke to hear someone going through our cupboards and garbage in the kitchen, which was right against my bedroom wall, thus making it super loud. it was about 1pm and because we were on night shift, it was our version of 1am. So, thinking my best friend had gotten up oddly early I went to talk to her, but when I opened my door there was no one. I woke her up quietly and we searched the entire apartment and hallways with whatever we could use as weapons. There was no one but everything was open, our fridge, the oven, drawers, and cabinets. As well, our garbage had been thrown across the room. All the breakers in our apartment had been switched off as well, which we didn't discover at first. It is important to mention that the only entry into our apartment, that being the front door, automatically locked when closed so it was most definitely locked 24/7. I called building security and no one had been seen on camera entering our dorm except for my BFF and me around 8am after we had gotten off work at the hospital. there was no explanation for who had done this but still, they took our statements and said they'd do patrols, they never found more information.
Over 3 months later, it was summer and my BFF and I had been 2 of 11 people left in the building over the summer, with the rest being mostly just international students who could afford to do quarantine protocols again in September as it took 2 weeks. We were the only ones on our floor but regularly heard stomping outside in the hall but neither of us never saw anyone through our peephole or even when we often heard knocks on the front door, however when we checked, no one every time. So aside from the knocking and stomping, super quiet summer except for one morning. I'll never forget it it shook us to the bone.
It was 10am and my roommate and I were asleep after work. I never locked my bedroom door as my bff loved to come in and hang all the time but for some reason, I locked it that entire week. and good thing too because I awoke to frantic and I mean FRANTIC knocking- no pounding on my bedroom door. I was obviously super disoriented as I had just finished a 12 hour shift a few hours earlier, but I saw two dark shadows under the door resembling feet. I figured my bff needed something and woke up but I called out before getting up because I was annoyed to be awake this early. The feet stayed unmoving but the knocking stopped. with a heavy sigh, I got up threw on a sweater and checked the time (it was around 10am), and went to open the door, with the shadows still there I assumed it was my bff. When I put my hand on the handle to unlock it, I heard a thud, and then, worried if my bff had fallen, I threw the door open to see my front door closing as if someone was just leaving. I ran over and saw a completely black figure turn the corner. I followed (my security guard instincts kicking in) but when I turned the corner, nothing. I went back and my roommate asked why I was knocking on the walls like that, she heard it from inside my room on an adjoining shared wall to both our bedrooms. we again called security but only I was seen chasing after nothing on the cameras. After my boyfriend, a firefighter started sleeping over frequently because were both spooked, the fires stopped, and most other things did too. We never had another incident on this level. We moved out after 2 years there and beyond hearing the usual bang, no other issues.
edit: also important detail I forgot to add is that we had an anti-break-in security stick against our front door while we slept, and they were conveniently moved into the living room or against the wall after these events. we also tested the stick to see if it actually worked and trust me even my firefighter boyfriend and his bff couldn't force their way in

Part 1
"When we Firmas were pushed north into the Pyrimian mountain valley after the death of their chain of command, they settled down and instead of focusing on expansion focused on necessities like food. With co-operation from the first goblins and other creative minds that joined the First Wave of the migration, they managed to grow food over the summer in first-iteration greenhouses. "My parents were part of the first wave. They were old for a couple, but joined the Firma clan in founding a government and keeping the area safe, as well as spreading word. The dragonic gods didn't like their behavior at all; cities burning is more entertainment for them, so they were the first to be Forsaken in this era, publicly, in the main square of the old Dragonic Capital. "However, that backfired, with more and more dragons tired of running around and fighting all the time, they decided to settle down in a place where nobody would bother them; now that they had this place given to them, and the Second Wave started. Basically the entirety of the dragonic clans and several other species amassed in this wave, and the Sapient Unification Government held. "My parents had an egg in one of the more northern caves, right on the coast. Then, the third wave arrived and everything went downhill from there. "The Unification Wars were fought between those who wanted one government to cover this region, and those who wanted governments segregated by species. This would have been fine if the secessionists didn't step in on people's behalves, without their consent; it took fifteen years of war for the war to end. Millions died and some species like the Snow Fox beastpeople almost went extinct. My parent were part of the death wave. "The war evolved so rapidly it was impossible for a commander to last more than two months. It started with sticks and stones and within a month there were arrow volleys. A year saw guns, two tanks, three battleships, four planes. Bombs, bigger bullets, bigger guns, bigger bombs. "In the last few months of the war, the first nuclear devices were used, creating miniature stars on the land with immense destructive potential unleashed. It ended with mutually assured destruction protocols being activated, and when all was said and done the land was a snow-fallen irradiated dustball. "It took years for the survivors to pick up the remnants of our short-lived civilization and restart it into the Terra Firma Sapience Union. All the time, my egg didn't hatch because I had no incubator, but didn't die thanks to my ice type. It was located close enough to a mana vein where I just... absorbed the entire vein. When the cave was found by explorers following maps for my parents den, all they found was my egg glowing brighter than Sunstones. "I was taken to an incubation facility in Cellyia, one of the bigger cities. There I hatched, and after more than one test I grew. My growth was still... affected by the time without an incubator, so my already slow growth stopped after fifty years instead of continuing to infinity. And then I took some magic courses, did my best to drain my mana reserves, and settled down here, well away from... the bustle of Cellyia. It never quite felt like a home, you know. It was a good place to grow up, don't get me wrong, but I like it here better. Remote, and in the same place my parents met for the first time. As much as I can tell, anyway; a number of records were destroyed in the Unification War. "When your heroes continued to come up here, I would be the one on first guard. Damming a river, I used water magic to break it. Trying to destroy some transit infrastructure, I would be the first one to either fake it, finish it off, or lure them away. When your latest one decided to head for Cellyia, it was out of my range for such activities. I shadowed the party on the way and let others take care of it. "I never thought that your 'heroes' would be heartless enough to burn what they were told and even acknowledged as a hospital with patients inside. A library and museum with most of our pre-unification works inside. An orphanage, a school... an entire neighborhood of ten thousand citizens' homes. What for? To try to kill just one of us. "We... couldn't take that kind of behavior. Cellyia might have not been the best place for someone with my personality to grow up, especially without parental figures, but that orphanage still had some good memories. An all-citizens vote was called, an all-citizens vote was passed, and we started a counter-offensive military campaign into your Civilization Nations. We've been waiting for you elves, leaders of the Civilized Nations, to advance your society; it's been seven hundred years, all the most you've done is grow your population and add an extra floor to your townhomes. "So we're going to do it for you. You ran our patience down, so we're going to change your society for you. Is it a repeat of the Unification War? I don't think so, given that you Civilized Nations never rescinded the declaration of war against us 'monsters' over two thousand years ago; one that you still follow through on to this day. "But that isn't the end of my story. "When the gods forsook us, they tried to pry away our magic, our land, and our lives. So we defended. Space radars monitor their movements on the mortal plane. There's so many more technical details I can go into. All I can tell you is, at one point, the old god of Dragonic Princess-kidnapping; yes, they were a god; they came and asked us to restart worshiping them. "That went over as well as you'd expect, and the next thing that happened... was that I absorbed her mana and powers. Technically, I am an undefined god, and... at this point, I'm afraid to get a definition. "What if it's something I don't like? Something evil, immoral... something my parents, the leaders of the Second Wave, wouldn't be proud of? What if... what if it kills me? Everyone hates me? I'd no longer be free... "So my solution was to hide. Here, in a mountain cave in the middle of nowhere. This is my life, all of it... and I don't know where to go from here." ----- "So... you're a god?" I asked. I couldn't think of another question to ask. "Yes and no." The cat replied. It did nothing to satisfy my fearful curiosity. How could one both be and not be a god? "Princess-kidnapping was a... niche god, rarely prayed to by still enough to be, you know, and actual deity. So her mana ran out first, and most of it dissipated back into the environment yada yada yada, but like the sponge my mana reserves are, I sucked more of it up than I should have; enough to had just a slight touch of divine control. On par with a low-level demigod. If I was omnipresent, I'd solve me problems with a snap of my claws, and then I wouldn't be hiding from my problems here." "If your powers came from a god, how are yours undefined?" My mind was seeking knowledge now. I was a mage, after all, and this was more than just the opportunity of a lifetime; it was the opportunity of a aeon. "Because I absorbed her essence from the environment before it had the chance to fully dissipate, but still late enough where it was no longer hers." Vixie shrugged "Or something like that, mana gets weird sometimes. All that matters now is my stockpile is slowly increasing its grow rate, which gets annoying pretty fast." "Annoying?" The cat laughed again. "Do you think this is all of my baseline reserve? Half of the reason I stay away from the rest of society is because the last time someone with multiple aura got involved with politics..." She trailed off, and then let another, this time impeccably cast illusion fall. The air around her was burnt crisp with the power of several mandatory auras in her current small size. Twelve tails flicked behind her back, eleven of them made of energy. Floating specs of light, some smaller while others the size of ice crystals surrounded the air around her. The six orbs on her back were joined by six more, and were attached to a ring. Her head had two halos, and her entire body was engraved with glowing lines. If she before radiated power, now she was made of it. The lights on the cave's ceiling flickered as more and more of the illusion fell away. Geometric shapes orbiting her body, a platform made of mana at her feet, lightning whizzing between all sorts of objects. Finally, it was gone, and the cat that stared at me with big, sad, glowing blue eyes had told me her deepest secret. As soon as it had started, the illusion repaired itself, and before me was one cat, a halo, six orbs, two crystals, and two mana tails. I did the second most instinctive thing when it came to seeing a cat. I pulled her in for a hug. There was a quickly quieted hiss as she squirmed a bit in my grip, trying to get more comfortable, before letting herself get stroked by me. Several images flashed before my eyes, and a tear came out of mine. We had gone to war against the less lucky sapients on our world, and were now paying the price. It felt like hours, but then my stomach growled, reminding me I hadn't eaten in literal days. Vixie shot out of my grip and led the way down into the cave. I followed, and soon enough I was eating some salted crackers with dried meat and cheese while Vixie moved around between other caves. "What are you doing?" I asked her between bites. "Packing," She replied. "Why?" "It's time I got out of here and, to follow the phrase, touched some grass." ----- It took three days for the elf, whose name was Nick, to recover enough to be able to make the journey to Cellyia. In those three days, I realized just how - and why - the Civilized Races looked at us the way they did. For starters, I'd forgotten just how many things ran on electricity, let alone other, more complicated mechanics. Pressurized water, instant hot water, even sinks, showers, and toilets were all completely unknown to the 'civilized races.' Ah, yes. Civilized without toilet paper. Bitter ramblings about the people who set off the chain reaction of events that killed my family aside, those were the second longest three days of my life; the first was my thirteenth birthday so I could get a personal HUD and social media. I was also a mess of thoughts. The elf had shown me, over the course of the three days - aside from the two-minute get-my-life-together moment - that I couldn't hide from my problems forever, or they would team up and try to hunt me. Hence my new, reluctant guest from the overflowing hospital they had oh-so-nicely delivered to my door. I had words for the medical staff. And I was also a mess of thoughts. Did I mention that one already. In all seriousness, Nick adapted to electronics pretty well. All I had to do was explain what it was, what it did, and file it under the name of science. It took an impressive four minutes of rambling about quantum mechanics before Vick realized that he was in way over his head asking how the 'magic rock that can half-think with bottled lightning' worked. He backed out when I yanked a textbook from my knowledge hoard and flipped through the pages to the start to explain how quantum superposition affected the set of particles it was entangled to. Fun. Finding out what toothbrushes were took some convincing, but soon the elf's teeth started to recover from lack of proper dental care. Food was easier than I expected, and Vick was pretty accepting of whatever I tossed on his plate. Except for artichokes, for some reason he hated those. Over the three days we bonded, and Nick got pretty used to life in my home. On the second day I moved him to the guest bedroom I had built but never maintained, but one wave of my paw and a splurge of magic later that was solved. "Why don't you use magic more often?" Nick asked. I explained that was much as I wanted to burn my reserves like they were a forest before a forest fire, the mental strain was tough without learning proper casting, which requires one to drain their reserves to practice wielding physical willpower. That meant that I was caught in an infinite loop of negativity, so I could only get away with a couple spells a day before the mental exhaustion metaphorically turned my brain to mush. On the morning of the fourth day, we left. Honestly, Nick could have left on the first day but I wanted him to be able to have the stamina to walk around for hours on end with me in Cellyia. Either way, as long as he kept by me it would be fine. There was a small population of elves, humans, and dwarves who had come up to the TFSU for one reason or another and never left, which meant that he wouldn't be too far out of place. My plan, instead of just flying into the Cellyia while steering clear of the airport, was to make it to the closest town, Lymian, and take a train from there north to Union Station. It would dump us a bit further downtown than I liked, but Cellyia was built in levels, and I could take the footpath level to wherever I needed. All said and done and one passenger seat clipped to my saddlebag harness on my dragon form, I opened the door to my cave. And was promptly blocked by a wall of snow. "Right," I half-grumbled. I enjoyed tunneling through snow, but spray would make the entrance cave wet and that wouldn't dry for another couple days, and until it did the sound of drips would echo throughout my home like nothing else. Either way, checking one last time that Nick was secure, I prepared my wings and powered forward. The snow and ice parted for me, and then melted and fixed itself back together behind me as I power-swam through the snow the same way I would through water. After ten seconds of this, I burst up from the snow-covered mountain the snowstorm had left behind and started to change my heading for Lymian. It would take thirty minutes of flying to get there, as I was flying lower and slower than usual to take care of my passenger, but we soon enough turned the next mountain and saw the town. The elf gasped as he took in the sights, while I kept my eye out for more activity. It had been fortified as a military base due to the war, but not by much; the town was useless from a defensive standpoint anyway. I spotted the next train arriving from its winding track around the next mountain, which also meant that I was a bit early. The citizens of Lymian were used to my presence, as I usually stopped by to pick up supplies and occasionally a bit of correspondence. So when I landed on top of a several story tall snow pile, nobody cared. I let Nick out, and then transformed into my cat form and slid down the snow pile to start to jogging towards the train station. That's when I remembered that unlike me, elves without snowshoes do not float on snow. Oops. ----- The sights were more than pretty, more than beautiful... If the gods had rejected these people, they might have just as well done it out of jealousy. After I'd been dropped off on top of a snow mound, I immediately flattened myself on my stomach to not fall through. I'd been in more than enough snowstorms and snow mounds to know how it would go if I didn't. The cat climbed the hill below me, reappearing as naturally as the snow fell. "Sorry," Vixie apologized. "Here, let me..." I felt the snow melt around me and we descended down to the ground. Vixie glowed brightly, literally; Even using as little magic as reshaping some snow was threatening to cascade out of her form. We moved to the train station without incident, where the massive 'train cars' were loaded full of passengers and cargo and then taken off towards the big city. Apparently this was the same one the hero burned, but the 'rebuilding and recovery efforts we going well; no critical infrastructure had been severely damaged.' Either way, the ride there was uneventful. Stepping out into Union Station was different. It was like I had entered a busy capital marketplace or square, with everyone rushing in another direction to another place. I trailed after Vixie, where even the oddity of an elf in these mountains was outshone by just how many different races there were; beastkin and kobolds and orcs and undead all filled the streets in, well, peace. "The city is built in layers," Vixie explained. "So while yes, residential and office towers here in the capital were set alight, underground public transit, personal transit, and cargo and fluid transit was all untouched, so we were able to circle around the hero and put out the fires to be replaced with smoke generators, and a couple holograms snatched from a nearby cargo transport." I had no idea what any of that meant, only that the city also had extensive underground bits. The towers soared over everything, and lights covered every spare centimeter of the city. Vixie led me down market stalls, across plazas, through parks and through building lobbies. Eventually, the babble increased, something I didn't think was possible. "Welcome to the commercial district," Vixie said after she had pulled me into a corner away from the masses of people and crowds moving around. "We're right near the harbor, and when we get there I'm going to show you the lighthouse and explain the city a bit better." I almost lost track of Vixie as we continued to move through the throngs of people going about their daily lives. I saw a couple boarded up shops, but most of them were either undamaged or didn't care about the scorch marks on their shops. Jewelry boutiques and grocery stores lived in tandem with furniture stores and a massive slab of too-smooth-to-be-natural stone of a rock type I had never seen before. It was covered in signs depicting some kind of diagram. Right around the corner was the waterfront, with a massive promenade running alongside it. Snow-covered trees lined the walkways, and soon enough Vixie and I came out of the crowd near a large, tall abandoned - though no unmaintained - building. "Right then," Vixie explained and started climbing. "Here's the old lighthouse, it's perfect for seeing the city. They never officially decommissioned it, so it's still legal to climb and properly maintained, but they never use it either." "What was the large thing they were building?" I asked, clambering onto the next ladder. "That? Oh, that was the space elevator." Vixie replied. "The ground part has been completed for three years now, we're just waiting for the rest of the nanotubes to make it into orbit and then run a kevlar cord up, follow it down with the space-grade heavy-duty nanotube cord, and then that's that." "Space?..." I was confused. "When the gods said that they were higher than mortals, you took that both figuratively and literally; they live above you and in a higher dimension. In this case, space is where they live in terms of height, but not number of dimensions. We're working on interdimensional travel, and interuniversal too, but those aren't replicatable on any sort of large scale yet." Vixie shrugged. "Either way, it's not like I care." "But you have it?" I pressed. "Dimensional travel." "Yes." She replied. "Well," I let out a short laughed. "The Civilized Nations are screwed over." "That's putting it lightly," She climbed on top of the last platform and showed me the city against the setting sun, lit up brighter than the night sky and more lively than the earth. It was beautiful. I sat there and watched the city glow with a power not even the gods had, side by side with not a dragon or monster, but a friend. END. A/N: Rushed this last bit of the arc, but school is ramping up at the end of the year so it was either fast story or incomplete story, and I chose fast story. Happy pride month, everyone, and I hope to see more of you when I have more time.
Original Prompt: [WP] For as long as all the races have known, Dragons have been seen as violent, destructive creatures. After an attack on your village, you black out and find yourself in the den of a dragon. It's rather annoyed that that is how they're seen, and wants to prove that isn't the case.
u/Lycan_Jedi thank you for the prompt!
Part 1

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Ch. 1085 p2
Hello once again! I'll start with page 2 so I can spare you from the atrocious Franky scribble in the cover.
Last chapter was an absolute rehash of past moments and though not to the same length, this chapter starts like that as well. There's nothing going on in this page other than we being told, just like 5 years ago, that no one should be sitting on the empty throne, but since we already knew Imu does, this time it's not a shock for us.
By the way, WTF happened to Cobra in the big panel? I know he's supposed to be bending a bit forward and coughing, but last time I checked he didn't have that hump on his back. We've seen fodder victim to Law's shambles be more anatomically correct than Cobra here.
I also didn't want to talk much about this becaue it's a recurring theme, sadly, and I think everyone is well aware by now, but I just had an epiphany looking at something I thought I'd never see: The Gorōsei drawn as a doodle in a big panel. And I just wanted to share it with you:
Right-most gorōsei totally looks here like an old version of the gentleman with the amazing horse.
Look at my horse
And... if you don't mind scrolling back up a bit, you're surely used to the huge margins of empty whitespace around characters where backgrounds disappear because of pure laziness and lack of actual teamwork between Oda and his assistants (The scribbled gorōsei are drawn by Oda, the a bit more detailed background is drawn by the assistant(s)).
But, why are there random spots of empty whitespace at the wall behind the swords?? O_o What's the meaning of that?
Ch. 1085 p3
Cobra asks Imu for his/her identity and says he remembers that name from history class. However, Imu doesn't want to answer.
Why not? Imu and the gorōsei are determined to kill Cobra before he gets out of the room. Why answer some questions and not others? This doesn't make sense in the story. This is just Oda controlling which bits of information we get and which we don't.
He wants to put something on the chapter, so the chapter exists but at the same time not let us know things that we should naturally learn from the chapter. This will get worse in a moment.
So, the question: Is Imu one of the 20 kings who founded the World Government? Might be. Personally, if I were to get a throne for me and me alone throughout 800 years, I would not have it made many times bigger than how I need it to be.
Also, if Cobra can learn of "Imu" by reading history, "world government seal of approval" history, then everyone can and there's even less of a reason not to tell him. But whatever. Let's see what Imu answers:
"D. is the name of our ancient enemy". Nice. Really, thank you very much Imu, we had never heard that one before. You certainly solved Cobra's and our every doubts about the meaning of "D." Previously I said Oda wanted to put some info in the chapter but not all, didn't I? Well, scratch that. There's nothing actually new.
Didn't he say "from here on out I'm going to write all the answers to the mysteries of the world"? If he doesn't want to reveal the meaning of "D." yet, it's okay, but if he just teases us like this, like always, then that's not "answers to the mysteries" and it feels like he's just trolling us again and again.
Imu talks about Lili's "blunder". Is that really the appropriate word? Or a mistranslation? It'll be relevant later.
Look at Imu sitting on the throne for a moment. Why is Imu completely 2-dimensional? I mean, everything is 2-dimensional in a paper sheet, but why is Imu 2-dimensional even when accounting for the perspective? Imu is completely flat on the throne. Like a towel left over it. Is Imu really meant to be flat? Or is this just Oda's next level of "I couldn't care less about drawing well anymore"?
Ch. 1085 p4
Okay, there's a little bit of drama going on in this page and I'll get to that in a moment, but first and foremost: How can I take any of this seriously when the one telling me about this drama is nothing else than the spillover of Oda's inkwell??
Everyone has been talking about the extreme overuse of silhouette piece this chapter because of the gorōsei showing not showing their powers, but the truth is that Imu has already had more than enough screentime, so that she's no longer a stain of ink in the paper.
It's perfectly okay if you want to not properly show a character in order to create some mystery and tension around it. We're even more than okay with having a black spot placeholder rather than an actual character even though there is no reason, story-wise, why the character shouldn't be seen. We accepted that long ago.
But that's always under the circumstance that the character is being introduced. And this is no longer the case with Imu. She's been doing things, creating consequences and more importantly, she's now holding conversations with other characters and with ourselves directly. This is way past being a teaser for the character, and this is completely unacceptable.
Oda should make up his mind, does he want Imu to take the spotlight or does he want her appearance to be a mystery? But it's not possible to put the character on the spotlight and pretend it's fine to never actually draw it.
In fact, there's a pretty easy way for Oda to reasonably get away with it. He's used it plenty of times as well. The chocolate character. He just needs to put a mask on Imu's face and that's it. Mystery continues and we get our manga with actual images.
Whenever he feels like, he can unwrap the chocolate and never wrap it again. King, Duval... the list is long. No one would have cared for one more.
So, the drama... Imu claims the poneglyphs were scattered around the world, that they were "released". Implying that the poneglyphs once were all together and under the custody of the World Government. She blames Nefertari Lili for that and wonders whether it was an accident or treason on her behalf. Imu says that was the worst possible outcome for them.
Call me an optimist if you want, but keeping control of most of the world for at least 800 years doesn't sound to me like "the worst possible outcome" nor a bad outcome in any way.
Also ¿WAT? The poneglyphs were under W.G's custody? How come?? The faction opposed to the 20 kingdoms that would late found the W.G. created the poneglyphs in coalition with the Kōzuki clan as a way to prevent history from being erased by the W.G. but then all the poneglyphs are somehow under W.G control??
Ch. 1085 p5
Is Cobra really begging for his life here? Did he not know how likely it was to die here when he came to raise all these topics? And more importantly, why did he do it? Is there any reason at all why Cobra would come here to risk his life (and endanger her daughter's) just to be pain in the ass to the gorōsei?
Does any of this have any explanation? Or is this the only way Oda came up to give us some exposition to what Imu says?
How disastrous it is to have characters act in unreasonable and unbelievable ways just to create a specific situation to provide info to the reader and then hide as much information as possible in that scene at the same time?? What's the point?? Does Oda want to explain a story here or does he not??
Ch. 1085 p6_7
Sabo is there in the same room, Cobra reveals Queen Lili had the "D." middle name, a gorōsei attacks him and Sabo intervenes attacking the gorōsei and Imu back. Let's go about it one thing at a time:

• Nefertari D. Lili.
  • Last page Imu seemed to be aware of that and simply wanting Cobra to confirm it, but now she seems surprised, like she actually needed an answer from Cobra to know.
  • Wasn't Lili one of the 20 founders of the W.G? How come is she a "D." too?
  • Wouldn't that fact be quite notorious back then, so that the Nefertari lineage was known for it to this day? At least by the gorōsei and Imu??
  • Between this and last chapter this part has been very obscure but, Queen Lili never made it back to Arabasta after founding the W.G. and the gorōsei said she might have "suffered an accident" *wink wink* if you know what I mean...
  • And Oda made it look like Lili's "accident" was a punishment for "scattering the poneglyphs".
  • Without going too deep in how did she manage to do that, to give poneglyphs back to the close-bordered Wano or to Laugh Tale, really, how did she put a poneglyph on the family's mausoleum if she never returned there???
• Sabo is there, huh?
  • No one noticed.
  • The gorōsei don't have the most basic observation haki to know there's someone else in the room. Neither does Imu. Nice.
  • Is the "smothered mate" move actually Sabo's? It's kind of difficult to be sure who's saying what. Just as it's hard to know what's exactly happening. The gorōsei are met with a huge burst of fire but Sabo sends to Imu a small flame that crawls over the wall and stairs like a snail?? WTF?
• Cobra attacked.
  • According to the position from which Cobra is attacked, it looks like our friend Garcia is the one doing it.
  • The question though is: WHY?
  • Why would they attack Cobra like that so suddenly? Like they just lost their patience when he answered the question. Imu could want to know more. Why attack him like that? The gorōsei never looked to me like the impulsive type of guys.
  • Can Garcia risk killing Cobra while Imu still wanted to get more information from him? What would happen to him if that were the case?
  • By the way, didn't they all prepare their guns a page ago? What was that? You show the gun just to attack with an arrow-shaped tail? O_o

Ch. 1085 p8_9
A Den Den Mushi takes a picture of Sabo next to the injured king Cobra. Cobra recognizes Sabo as Luffy's brother. Sabo tries to leave with Cobra, but the king asks him to let him go and deliver a message to Luffy and Vivi instead.

I was hoping to take you all out in one move. - Sabo

Is this a joke or what?

There's no way I could've known people here would be strong. - Sabo

What are we supopsed to do with this text? It is no more and no less than the principal speech bubbles in this double page. Did Oda forget to fill in these bubbles and then just before publishing someone realized and had to write the first thing that came to mind? As a joke, I would have laughed way more if the bubbles read "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..."
Can someone remind me since when does Cobra know Sabo and Luffy are brothers??
Okay, okay, let's talk about the important stuff. The gorōsei and Imu transformed / summoned a stand / were tag teamed by some substitutes... how could we know, right? When everything is just a big stain of ink.
There are hundreds of ways of teasing about someone's powers or any feature in general and this must be the worst one or one of them. I'm not going to extend on this. Is unacceptable no matter how you look at it.
Some of you who know of the book might find a connection between the ink stains and these guys
Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak
However, I want to share with you the actual model used for one specific silhouette:
One punch-Man (manga) Ch. 100 (originally 97) p12
I find it astonishing how close to this looks the shadow second from the right.
Ch. 1085 p10
Nefertari D. Cobra, Nefertari D. Vivi... Cobra wants Luffy to know they share the "D."
First, new hidden "D."s, just like Trafalgar Law. They were not special enough and now Oda makes them more special because...
https://preview.redd.it/ev112fgoqa4b1.jpg?width=620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed59c05829caa5563b5da1357d6bdfe395d256a4
I don't know... I find this very boring. We started the chapter with the prospect of finally getting some answers about the meaning of "D." but we just got this instead.
And I wonder, why does Cobra want Luffy to know? Cobra doesn't know its meaning, Luffy doesn't know either... this information is totally useless for anyone. Why not tell someone, Luffy or not, about Imu existing? That would make more sense. That is actual information that might be relevant to someone.
I think this message thing was just an excuse for Cobra to confirm on screen that he and Vivi are Ds. Which, again, couldn't not matter any less.
The page ends with the anticipation of the inky tail. Or not. You can't build any anticipation for something we already know you're not going to show us. Least of all when you've got a track record by which we know by the time this is actually revealed, this arrow-shaped tail can perfectly be an octopus' tentacle or something even further from this silhouette.
Ch. 1085 p11
Ink strikes back. Multiple depictions of black shapes that add nothing to the reader. And Cobra stands to let himself be killed as Sabo escapes.
Congratulations! You just made Cobra a D in time so that he could die NOT smiling, and now the only thing we knew about D people isn't true anymore.
We came to the chapter to take something from it, and the chapter took it from us instead. Awesome. Can this get any better?
Ch. 1085 p12
YES it gets even better: Wapol was watching everything through a glory hole in the throne's room. Can you believe that??
The most luxurious place in the whole world and it has a hole in the wall. Why would they not repair that hole? Why would Imu make such a blunder? And she was the one speaking of "blunders" before. The irony...
The gorōsei realize someone's watching through the hole. They, who could hurt Sabo's logia body a second ago, won't be able to get to Wapol now. He'll manage to escape too. The gorōsei and Imu won't take further action to stop Wapol.
Seeing this, I wonder whether Cobra could have actually escaped as well. Maybe he did and will make an appearance later. Fake death's are a classic after all.
HA! I wrote that for a manga where so few characters die and, when they do, it's done in a very epic or emotional scene, Cobra's death was very shallow. Then I remembered Ashura Dōji and Izō so I had to fix this paragraph.
Ch. 1085 p13
Now Oda wants us to remember than in this new reality, the Ryūgū royal family didn't left Mariejoise yet and that the Reverie is still going on.
So... the kings were waiting for Cobra. No one said he wasn't going to attend. Personally, I think Cobra would have attended every meeting and only then, with his responsibilities taken care of, he would meet the gorōsei, but I get this is very nitpicky when the plot is moving forward through glory holes in the middle of the royal palace.
On the other hand, "they just received word" that Cobra and Wapol wouldn't attend. Why? Why would Wapol not attend? What was he doing? I mean, we just saw what he was doing, but what's the excuse? He didn't know what was going to happen there and I bet he didn't knew about the glory hole beforehand, so... what was he doing?
Who knows... the important thing is the kings just received word those two weren't attending the meeting. They didn't receive word, though, about a major terrorist attack two blocks from there, admirals fighting and even calling for a meteor strike.
Why is this meeting going on under this circumstances?? There are actual world nobles hurt over there and even Charloss hurt right there. The idea that these meetings went on like they were completely detached from the world is delusional.
Ch. 1085 p14
Hm... First Vivi was being escorted by Rob Lucci and went all the way to the port (not saying good bye to Shirahoshi, where's her diplomacy??) and now the other CP90 have her kidnapped.
Jabura looking like a maniac is out of character. Kalifa being cruel for no reason is out of character as well. What happened to the cool, fun and easygoing CP9??
No, really, what happened to them? It's been a long while since they've been slowly returning to the story as CP0 agents and... well, so far we've got no explanation why this is the situation.
It's not like they were promoted from CP9 to no CP0. Remember that after losing at Enies Lobby the World Government itself tried to kill them. They escaped and swore revenge against the government. So, I think an explanation is not only in order but long overdue if we're to accept that they work for the government again with such passion.
And why is it so hard to have the characters retain their personality? This is so sad. They were the funniest villains in One Piece (and badass at the same time) and not they're not one thing nor the other.
Ch. 1085 p15
And just like this we go from CP9 bullying Vivi to them having a casual conversation with her. Great. Totally reasonable.
I wonder how relevant Sai and Leo saying they're part of the Mugiwara fleet can be, but I'm way more concerned about why Jabura is speaking in past tense of things that should be happening right this instant. I'm talking about the admirals fighting each other.
Anyway, admiral Broccoli was complaining that they couldn't fight properly against the revolutionaries because of the place they were, but he had no problems in fighting properly against Fujitora at the same exact place. Nice.
And Fujitora let (or helped) the slaves to escape. Sure. He was already threatened by the world nobles that they would have his head if he did anything against them (or just failing) and now we must believe that he openly helped the slaves and later he was sent on another mission like nothing happened.
Ch. 957 p4
That after freeing the slaves of the world nobles, Akainu would be having a casual conversation about how Fujitora got what he wanted regarding the abolition of the Shichibukai and about the SSG and Big Mom and Kaidō. Absolutely.
Akainu practically banished Fujitora just for making the Marines look bad in Dressrosa but he has nothing to say regarding Fujitora helping the revolutionary army against the world nobles and even getting into a fight with a fellow admiral.
Even the surreal glory hole in the throne's room makes much more sense than this.
Ch. 1085 p16_17
Having this final double page is quite nice because here we have a perfect example of reasonable plot convenience. Of all places Wapol could run across, Vivi is exactly on his way. Coincidences need to happen in order for most stories to have surprising elements and, though, an accumulation of them can be jarring, things like this here and there are completely fine.
At the same time we have an example of plot convenience that's not fine (precisely because it's not even a coincidence), the CP0 realize Vivi is gone, but do nothing.
Truth be told, the chapter ends with a fun joke. I don't remember the last time One Piece was funny, but at least with this one I laughed.
https://preview.redd.it/95vear4j2b4b1.png?width=540&format=png&auto=webp&s=bb30f78eb73760a23ecb38de4865f2913f276fef

The scene: this morning my toddler was horsing around with the dog under the watchful eye of my husband and tripped. She landed on the side of her face and got a few small scratches, which my husband promptly cleaned and smeared ointment on after he called her down enough to sit still for his ministrations. He then sent her, with her ointmented scratches (in spots that make band-aids impossible to apply) to go hang out with my dad for a couple hours that morning while he bucked up logs for firewood and I ran around like an insane person trying to get laundry, dishes, cleaning, and other shit done while also taking care of our two-month old baby. Oh, and bees. I also took care of the bees while the toddler napped blissfully after I smeared more ointment on her face after checking her over.
Fast-forward to now. My dad spends into the house, gets some paper towels and potatoes, does not say a single word to me, and storms out. I text him, asking if everything's okay. He asks "have you taken the toddler to get her eye looked at?" and I, clueless to the mental gymnastics competition going on in the old man's brain, asked "take her where?"
"TO A DOCTOR FOR HER EYE" is the response. I must have missed some big fucking flips and cartwheels and shit, because it sounds a lot like my dad expects me to pack both of the kids up, drive 45 minutes to the nearest ER on a Monday afternoon, and wait until I get a chance to have a doctor put ointment on the minor scratches on my toddler's face and tell me to keep them clean and put schmoo on them so they heal up nice. I have enlisted my husband to try and find out what he thinks is wrong with the toddler, because I can't get anything else out of him. The most my husband has gotten is that my dad thinks she has a corneal abrasion or something. Having had more than one of those, I am very sure she's fine. She's currently bundling her stuffed dog up in the baby swing and "reading" it a book.
What the fuck am I even supposed to do? I've got three kids on my hands, but only two are mine and one is over 70.

Part 2
If you travel far enough North on the map, well above where the Civilized Nations stop because no crops grow, you'll find a mountain range. Crossing this range leads to the Monster Kingdom, though for some reason they prefer the name 'TFSU.' Yes, they prefer. The literal forces of anarchy and chaos in the universe have a government. However, ignoring that whole thing, the Monster Kingdom is fine. No armies march on them, mostly because of supply and logistical issues. The Monsters never say how they grow their own food, but given that they don't trade and millions of kobolds worth of food don't go missing every day, it's safe to say they make their own. Now, that doesn't stop the Civilized Nations to send one hero a decade to 'keep them in check.' Four decades ago, the hero closed off a mountain pass, which was supposed to cause a massive flood. Four days later, it was cleared, and the only thing to show for it were the cities that glow like the sun at night. However, yesterday, the Hero returned having burnt one of the bigger cities down. It was empty of all monsters, but the act was the first real damage they had taken in seven hundred years, since their founding. For seven hundred years, the TFSU have taken the beating of seventy heroes and simply moved on. But now. Now, millions of kobolds make up heavy 'machinery' units that march in armored, self-moving caridges that spit fire and metal. Thousands of beastpeople make up scouting and light infantry ranks. The TFSU use hellish 'guns' that hit harder than a catapult from kilometers away, all in a single 'bullet' not the size of a human's thumb. Metal birds and dragonflies join dragons as they assault cities. We poke the very literal sleeping dragon in the eye. Yet the armies don't do much. They march for our capitals and leaders, but on the way our civilians live. Surendees live. People go about their daily lives without too much change. Of course, that fact didn't stop the front line from finally crashing over my small village, located so close to the pass for a while we thought they the monsters had bypassed us entirely. The Civilized Nations had decided to send an entire legion to prevent the Monsters from getting across a nearby canyon pass. We were hit with an air-based assault with only dragons and metal dragonflies, our balista uselessly demolished by pillars of metal and flame thrown out of the metal dragonflies. I blacked out when the legion managed to shoot enough arrows to take down one of the dragonflies. I remember it crashing down onto my house... and then nothing.
-----
The elf stirred as they woke up. I'd been raised in the Terra Firma Sapience Union, so I was... less than familiar with the clothing and lifestyle the Southerners used. The elf groaned again, before their eyes shot open and they looked around, quickly settling on my frame. "A-Are you going to kill me now?" They asked, their voice shaken with fear. I let out a laugh. "If I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead." I decided to transmorph into my secondary form - a cat - to help the conversation go better. In a land where humans lived to forty, elves only lived to a hundred, and that meant that even I was older than this elf, and they were no older than thirty. The elf, to their credit, quickly figured out I wasn't pulling any mindgames. I'd heard tales from my relatives before the Kobolds founded the TFSU. People, especially when panicked, usual acted with more than enough stupidity to make the situation worse. "Where am I?" The elf asked. Their tone told me that they were still suspicious, but it wasn't outright denial of the situation. "My home," I answered bluntly. "Your village tried to fight our ground forces when they moved in, so most of them are currently under house arrest." Still in my cat form, I created a portal into my storage cavern and reached my arm through, while summoning a lab coat around my shoulders and glasses. It was a trick I had only learned to do recently. "Let's see..." I found the clipboard and brought it out, flipping to the elft's page and taping the pen against the paper. "You suffered a collapsed lung, severe burns on the right side of your body, three broken ribs and two fractured ones, shattered three wrist bones, three breaks in your right upper arm and another two in your lower arm, and on the left side you have another fractured rib and three broken fingers. Your left leg was shattered and your left foot was completely torn up. Healing magic stabilized you and surgery did the rest. You've been comatose for the past three days, and was brought to my home yesterday due to a surge in hospital patients from the seige of Trembolorne. "In terms of organ damage, that was also severe. A busted kidney, I already mentioned a collapsed lung, and your entire digestive system was... well, pulverized would be putting it lightly. Also, unrelated to the incident with the helicopter, you had cancer in your liver and kidney. "In terms of medical treatment, you've been given an IV line for the past couple days and several painkillers, and you underwent four separate surgeries. We reconstructed your organs, welded your bones to metal plates, and used a genetic printer to replace your skin. You're lucky to have gotten time with the genetic printer in the first place, you know; those things are expensive, and I mean expensive to run. Though it's all billed on the government anyway, but that just means that they'll only run it if they have to." The elf sat up in bed looking at me as I just stood on two paws on the cave floor. "Right, sorry, you wouldn't understand most of that." I sheepishly scratched the back of my head with my right paw. "Um... put this way, you were crushed by debris and we basically reconstructed your body before you died. So not necromancy, though you did get close to needing more advanced magical treatment." "Oh," The elf replied. The cat thing seemed to have helped, because they were no longer stuttering with their single word response. "Um... do you want anything to drink?" I tried to kickstart a conversation. "Where am I?" The elf asked again. I was silent for a second. "My home? It's right on the edge of TFSU territory, one of the southernmost places you can be while still being with the recognized borders. I chose this place because I like to fly out in the summer over the flowers in the forest at the foot of the mountains. Your village is a couple hour dragon-flight time away." "Mmmhm." The elf commented halfheartedly. "OK, um... who are you?" "My dragonic name isn't something most can pronounce, so my public name is just Vixie Remminie." I answered. "What's yours?"
The elf's eyes narrowed. "Why do you want to know my name." I blinked. "Because... It's a name? I'm not a Fey, you know, it's not like I can tie ancient demons to your soul and call it a prank or something ridiculous like that. Besides, you asked for mine; now I get to ask for yours." "And who says you won't just burn my village to the ground and eat me right now!?!" The elf suddenly burst out. "You monsters ruin everything! You trespass on our land, take our resources, and kill our people! All we did was try to defend ourselv-" I cut him off, and poured just a bit of attention in giving myself an aura. Blue fire licked the bottom of my vision as I rebuttaled his point. "Don't forget, you stole the land from us. We were the ones living in the wild when you razed our forests and grew crops. We couldn't even purchase land to live on! So yes, we stole what we could to survive and those who didn't starved and died! And when all was said and done, you tried to kill us and turned it into a war, one where we had no choice but to kill you back. And when we found someplace to run, a spot to hide and do our own thing with our own land? You blistering idiots sent you 'courageous heroes' to try and kill us! What for? Nothing! Just your stupid, moronic fear making, forcing you to decide to 'kill the big thing over there!' We can't even have freaking farmland, we have to grow it all in hydroponic farms and harvest thousand-year-old vines out of caves because this is all we have!" I realized that my aura was burning fully and scorching the ground around me. I let out a long sigh, and it died down. Several memories flashed through my head, but I pushed them away. "Apologies, my parents are still a... sensitive topic for me. It would be best if we just stayed away from talking about the war until the hospital has room for more patients again." "Yeah?" The elf was still enraged. Even sitting down, they were still trying to construct an argument. "You parents who killed how many? Your family killed how many more? You dragons, you monsters are nothing more than one large grouping of murders that deserve to die! As the gods will!" The elf was spitting in rage, but I recognized his determination to hold onto his worldview. It was the one thing I needed to pry away before it got out of hand. "And you elves killed how many more?" I asked in a low voice. "Can you tell me the number of kobold dens exterminated in caves, the number of beastpeople sent to an early grave in slave camps? Because I can tell you ours. My father's was two, my mother's four, and my extended family including deceased relatives is one hundred and thirty seven. "You declared war against monsters, you child of an elf," I growled. "And death the reality of war. We know. The Unification Wars weren't fought with swords and honor. They were fought with artillery barrages and death. They were fought with miniature suns and political backstabbing, with tanks and guns and submarines and warships and all the more death. "You say the gods don't like us! That's put lightly. They forsook us! Abandoned us in our hour of need. So we learned to live without them. There are no gods we pray to anymore, elfling. Only each other, our creations, and the universe itself. They don't want us, we don't need them. It's more than they deserve." My aura was once again charring the floor and I had transformed back into my dragon form, but this time I refused to cool it down. "You call us creations of death, the primal forces of anarchy? We are you. You are us. We are sapient, we are all mortals, no matter our advantages. We are bound to this dimensional plane, forced to serve our betters, and live out our lives not with earnest but with trepredition for when it ends. We are all death incarnate, because we can all die. That is just the way it is. Besides, you've wondered about my kill count; tell me, can you tell me the gods'? Can you tell me how many souls they have cut from fate for their own entertainment? No? I can tell you." I growled, moving closer until the blue flames enveloping my body threatened to light the elf's cot on fire. "More people than are alive on this planet right now." I pulled back, bottling up my aura and reverting to my cat form. "We can talk all we want about death and destruction, and I won't lie and say you aren't victims of the war; pre-unification dragons we're exactly kind and merciful to those with treasure hoards. But perhaps, I implore you to consider that maybe we both are victims of the war, and maybe we can one day work together instead of fighting each other. "Maybe, one day, we can fight for our rights against the gods." I moved into my dragon form and darted deeper into my cave, moving so fast I could hear the howl of the wind against my ears. Only when I had reached my memorial wall for my parents did I stop and take a breath and think over my conversation with the elf. We had a long way to go, but I hoped I had put a little bit of sense into him. I hoped that the world could change.
-----
When the dragon cat thing sped away, I took a moment to survey my surroundings. Only now did the effects of my first question hit my formerly-groggy head. "My home." He said. Dragons live in caves. Oooooh. I'm screwed. However, there were no treasure hoards visible from my perspective; then again, while the Monsters were stupid, they still had brains to them, and carrying me into a treasure room would probably be something they'd be able to tell was a bad idea. Pops said never underestimate you foe, A voice in the back of my head said, and the dragon even launched in a full conversation with you. You're selling the dragon very, very shor- Shut up I growled internally to the treacherous voice in my head. The cave itself was... a cave. There was a metal slab on one end, it went deeper in the other, and that was that. In a 'corner' of the jagged room there were a number of red, glowing rods attached to some kind of giant mechanism three elfs wide and six deep, but the rods glowed against the cave's light- What light source? My eyes darted around looking for one. Only now was I aware of how unnatural each shadow was, how awkward each shining rock looked, how each stalagmite could hide an entire dragon, and that was before they started transfiguring into cats. How bright the ceiling- I looked up. The bright light burned my eyes, but I needed to know what fiendish magic was in play so I could counter it. But the light didn't flicker like fire - they were far too bright for that anyway - but they also didn't have the magical circles surrounding each spell. They were... lights. As if the universe simply willed brightness into existence. Each far-too-bright-hurts-to-look-ats was placed along a main hallway clear of stalagmites running from the metal slab deeper and around a corner where I couldn't see. The lights were only poised above this one hall, and they just... shone one the rest of the cave. Looking closer, I could see thin black lines, too thin to be mana feeds, running along the walls to both the glowing red rods and to the so-shiny-the-lit-up-the-cave. And... that was that. There was no massive pile of treasure in the hall, though I suspected the dragon kept their hoard deeper than... wherever I was. There was no pile of skull trophies or the banner of cities and armies slain, and I noted that while he had told me his parents', the dragon had never told me his own. Then again, the cat thing could be lying. Dragon transfigured into a cat. Probably has Circle Of Truth around his entire den. Nonsense, dragons can only do elemental magic. Evidently not. Would you just shut up already? No- I moved my attention back to the metal slab, cutting off whatever the voice in my head had to say about my current situation; it wasn't every day one just got kidnapped by a nation of monsters, after all. The slab was truly elegant. It was painted with the monster language, and then was painted with some kind of mural. I could barely make out a blue circle with green splotches on it surrounded by twelve rings in the bottom corner because most of the door was taken up by a ice-blue cat with lighter strips engulfed in blue fire. It was a mural of the dragon cat thing. That didn't stop it from being pretty, and someone had obviously put a lot of effort into it. The flames looked realistic from what I had seen minutes ago, and the cat's details were perfectly engraved. It was... acurrate. Yeah, because I think Vixie was just trying to tell you that they built their civilization for a reason, and it wasn't carnage. You don't know what you're talking about. We both know I do. How else to you think- Listen to me, you treasonous voice of a- No, you listen to me, you pathetic excuse for a brain. The dragon was able to hold and win an argument with you, fixed your wounds that would've been a dead write-off for any other hospital, and then you think SHE barely meets the threshold for sapient? THE ABSOLUTE MORON I'M ARGUING WITH IS THE ONE YOU BARELY MEETS IT!!! You moved to your frontier village because the world was changing, Lazerot the Sixth. Congrats, you were right. It did change. Now shut your OVERSIZED EGO up at being bested by a creature ten times older than you, and go appologies before they decide that saving your life wasn't worth it. I... I... OK- No. I'm in control now. Shut up. I....... yes, sir. Good. With new resolve, I stood up. My head throbbed, and the next thing I knew was my face hitting my cot again.
-----
When I heard the thud of something falling in the entrance cave, I carefully moved back into the entrance cave. The elf was face-down in their cot, unconscious again. It looked like they had tried to stand and just.... fallen over. I sighed and used a claw to nudge the elf back onto his pillow, and then covered him with a blanket. I watched him for a minute, and then returned to the deeper parts of my home. The TFSU was completely overloaded with the number of patients needing treatment. Apparently, the Southener's hospitals just... didn't do anything, so in addition to soldiers, there was a massive influx of civilians to our hospitals too. Of course, this meant that they were absolutely overloaded, and the Civilized Nations strategy of fighting to near-death and then surrendering wasn't helping. So, stable recovering civilians like the elf were just... shipped out. When shelters filled up because the Civilized Nations overpopulation crisis was too bad to do anything, people just had to take them into their homes. Long story short, the government was in way over their head attempting upgrade the standard of care in the Civilized Nations while occupying their territory. My job so close to the border was remote infrastructure maintenance, and my ability to change size while not dissolving made me an expert at it - and that was before my two hundred years of experience. And then I didn't need a vehicle to get on-site, and was fast. The alarm pinging me that one of the space radars was down again gave me an excuse to avoid the elf and do some work. I grabbed a pack of supplies, put on my shapeshift-compatible uniform, and wrote down a note on a piece of paper. On my out past the sleeping elf, I dropped it for him.

Space radar system needs repair, as it's returning a false positive. It's my job to repair all the infrastructure around here, so I need to go fix it. I'll be back soon. If you're hungry, my pantry is the first cave on the right. You can just eat anything that's easily open-able in there. If it has a lock or airtight opening mechanism (anything more than a clip, really) then don't eat it. If your thirsty, there's a stream in the entrance cave near the heaters. When the door mechanism beeps, step back. Sometimes pressure in the cave can get a bit wonky, and I don't want you to get hurt. Other than that, feel free to explore. I've locked all the doors to the rooms I don't want you to enter. For toilet necessities, the second cave on the left has a properly-sized toilet. And running water, but stuff I can explain later means don't drink it. See you soon! - Vixie.

Satisfied, I left opened the door. There was a puff as the air from inside flowed out to the lower-pressure atmosphere. I could spot a snow squall to the north, and the pressure meant that it was probably coming my way. I moved out onto the ledge and closed the door behind me. At high altitudes this far north, the air was already near-zero and it was still five in the afternoon. I took just a second to confirm with the weather report that the snowstorm was in fact going to arrive on my doorledge using a smartwatch I had strapped around my wrist. When I found that the storm was coming, I opened my wings and flew. Being an Ice Dragon had its advantages, but being a Water-Ice Combined Dragon was much better. The frosty air curled around my wings as the freedom of ignoring gravity filled my brain. Ice and Water dragons both had large wings to deal with the cold air (and lower pressure leading to the requirement for more surface area to achieve the same amount of lift) and incompressable water physics (to let the wings act like a one-way fan blade as they move back and forth, increasing efficient). Dragons might be magestic creatures, but we were still bound to the physics of the mortal plane, after all. Being part of both, my wings were even bigger, making me one of the best high-altitude fliers on the planet. The ability to use both gills and lungs at said altitudes helped with oxygen also helped. Air Dragons were better at flying in normal air, but I liked to think of it like stats from a video game. Air Dragons min-maxed their stats for low-altitude, but I could go anywhere - even underwater - can keep my speed relatively high. I took full advantage of this on my way to the space radar, soaring well above the cloud ceiling and to the point where I could make out the curvature of the planet below me. The ocean spread out to my west, while more land was to my east. Snow covered the north as to the south was the telltale splotchy color of industrialism. My smartwatch beeped, as I crossed the normal altitude limit. I hadn't realized I'd gone so high; I had a radar to repair, after all. I dove down towards the surface, ignoring more beeps as I crossed half the way to the speed of sound. The wind howled angrily in my ears, but I flattened those (thank you, streamlined water genetics) and came out of my death dive right over the radar. The repair itself went relativity smoothly, though I couldn't find a broken component and chalked it up to more space anomalies. They weren't infrequent, and usually marked where the gods decided to look over the planet. For my radars, anyway. Further north, ignoring the north pole, almost no gods came out and wanted to deal with us. Our unspoken agreement was held that way. I flew straight back for my return journey. The storm was definitely closer, but fifteen minutes of flying later and I was entering the opening mechanism for my door. As it swung inwards, I heard the high-pitched scream of an elf.
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When I awoke, I found myself tucked into some covers. It took all of seven seconds for reality to catch up with me. Right. I got into a heated argument with a dragon. I instinctively touched the part of my face that had been closest to the dragon's flame. I'd read about Auras in books, but never thought I'd get to see one. They were only ever found in the most powerful and competent individuals of a race in an entire plan of existence. I wondered which skill gave the dragon hers - Vixie, I reminded myself. Either way, given that Auras are technically illusions, I wasn't hurt. The flames didn't get close enough to hurt anyway, but that didn't stop me from checking. This time, I was much more careful when I stood up. I sat up first, then started to kick my legs back and forth. That's when I spotted a paper on the other side of my cot. I stood up without thinking, but managed to keep my consciousness this time and moved towards the note. It was handwritten and contained a lot of jargon that I wasn't familiar with. Space. Radar. False positive. Airtight opening mechanism. Heater. Beep. Pressure. Toilet. Running water. I could deduce some of it. A message had come in requesting the services of the local dragon to repair a thing that has an issue, and that she would return shortly. I could wander around as I pleased, besides eating food that wasn't open or contained in a clip bag. From the tone of the message, I could deduce what a 'toilet' was. The heaters would logically be things that produced heat, so all I had to do was look for those. I wasn't able to tell time, but I supposed at this point it didn't matter. I moved over deeper into the cave, and quickly heard the sound of a stream. It led directly into a forest of stalagmites. After clambering over those, the temperature started to increase, which was all I needed to know that I was getting a drink of water. I was only now catching up to the fact that I had been out for three days, and that meant that I was extremely thirsty. I wasn't sure how I wasn't dead of dehydration at this point. I found the stream next to the glowing metal rods, and with it a clear path to my location. Sighing slightly at the wasted effort on climbing through Rock Forest, I snatched an undersized cup off a rack built into a nearby jut in the cave wall and filled it, before entering the bliss of fresh water. Back in the village, we had some of the best and cleanest water in all the land thanks to snow melt, but this took that to a new level. Cold, crisp water melted in the sun only minutes ago. It was... pure. I spent the next couple minutes simply drinking and processing everything over in my mind. The gods might have willed the monster dead, but if even the monster gods had abandoned them and survived... then how come the Pantheon never told us? Religious issues aside, there were more practical issues regarding my own survival. How did I get out. There was a thud at the metal slab, and I moved back towards it, leaving my cup to dry on the rack I pulled it from. The engraving of the cat on the metal slab was- BEEEP! What was that sound? There was a hiss, and the slab started to peel away. A gust of frigid cold air washed over me as a mage Ice-Water hybrid Aura-capable dragon that I had argued with stared me down. I did the instinctive thing and let out the scream of a human three year old, squeezing my eyes shut and waiting for the final blow. When the end of my life didn't arrive, I reopened my eyes to find the sky-blue cat standing in the hole where the metal slab was supposed to be. Then there was another... sound, and the metal slab started to move back into position. The cat was surprised for a single moment before simply charging the door and jumping through, skidding to a halt right in front of me. Which meant that I got a closer look at her. Ocean-blue strips crossed an ice-blue body fur in a fifty-fifty ratio. Small crystals of ice twinkled, floating here her wings would be. One tail was accompanied by two more made of pure blue-white energy, and the cat even had a halo. Six orbs of blue-white light hovered in lazy circles around her back, and even in a diminutive form the size of a cat the being radiated the power of an aura-capable creature. "Oh, right, sorry," Vixie said, and all the ethirial energy disappeared. Now that I knew what I was looking for, however, I could just barely tell, using my power as a mage, that Vixie was using illusion magic to hide her true energy. "You don't need to hide your reserves," I said. "Though if you're shapeshifting into forms so small that you need to expose yours, then you should just burn yours instead. It's not worth the trouble of people bottling yours." Vixie gave some kind of half-shrug. "They're not reserves, no." She said, emphasizing the word. I looked at Vixie with a sharp look, and for a second I forgot I was talking to a dragon. "Then what are they?" "They're..." The cat blushed, something I wasn't even aware was possible. She let the illusion fall away, and the tails, crystals, orbs and halo returned. "They're my regenerative baseline minimum." I looked her up and down for a second, dumbstruck. She really is a creature of power, huh? "Um.... uh..." I stuttered. "Is... that where you get your aura from?" I asked. Vixie closed her eyes with an expression on her face, and this time green flame started to peel off her. "Part of it, yeah." To control an aura like that... two auras. Just how powerful is she? I was so deep in thought that I didn't realize that the expression on her face was pain. "I... uh... what happened?" I asked, shellshocked. "Why aren't you fighting in the war?" The worldwide-powerful dragon masquerading as a cat sighed. "I... haven't told anyone. It's... personal." "I..." Only now did it hit me that I was talking with a dragon, not another person. Not just a monster, but a... creature with emotions. "You don't have to tell me." I quickly backtracked. "No, no, it's a fair question. It..." The cat let out a chuckle, and it filled the cave with a beautiful sound. "I suppose it's kind of ironic... but it starts with a kobold and a god, back when the Firma kobold tribe decided to travel north to escape the civilized nations, shortly before the amassing of all creatures in these same northern mountains and the Unification War. "Back before the gods forsook us."
Original Prompt: [WP] For as long as all the races have known, Dragons have been seen as violent, destructive creatures. After an attack on your village, you black out and find yourself in the den of a dragon. It's rather annoyed that that is how they're seen, and wants to prove that isn't the case.
u/Lycan_Jedi thank you for the prompt!
Part 2

In 2020, I moved over 6 hours away from my hometown in Southern Ontario to attend University up north. I moved into my down with my best friend from high school whom I had known for years. In this building, it is important to note that it has been around since the school was first built however it is frequently renovated and worked on because it more often than normal, catches fire (more details later).
So, to set the scene: it's 2020, mid-pandemic and I had just been discharged from the army. My best friend and I had applied for the same university major and had decided that if we got in that we would live together. Well, sure enough, we got in and the only dorm that could accommodate our room request (i.e. moving into the same apartment with separate bedrooms) was situated directly across from a hospice. and for those that don't know a hospice is a medical facility where people go when they are close to death to live out the end of their lives in as much comfort as possible. This hospice was the only view out of our small windows and was the only one in our area.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, the building frequently caught fire, but what was odd and worth mentioning about it, was that it only caught fire in apartment #5 on any given floor. My best friend and I lived on the 5th floor in the 5th apartment for 2 years even throughout the summer and fortunately, we never had a fire, but frequently found ourselves having to accommodate firefighters and other workers entering our rooms due to the smoke and water damage from various different fires from random floors directly above us. Along with my BFF, I had two other roommates who were very vocal about when they were home or not (we had a group chat), and for all these experiences they were never home. or even in the city for that matter. My BFF and I both got jobs working at a Lvl 1 Trauma Center as nightshift security and thus paranormal stuff didn't scare us as we frequently were forced to work in the morgue and even witness people die on a daily basis, with whole bunch of other things happening (maybe stories for another time).
The main experience that happened early on was when my BFF and I both awoke to hear someone going through our cupboards and garbage in the kitchen, which was right against my bedroom wall, thus making it super loud. it was about 1pm and because we were on night shift, it was our version of 1am. So, thinking my best friend had gotten up oddly early I went to talk to her, but when I opened my door there was no one. I woke her up quietly and we searched the entire apartment and hallways with whatever we could use as weapons. There was no one but everything was open, our fridge, the oven, drawers, and cabinets. As well, our garbage had been thrown across the room. All the breakers in our apartment had been switched off as well, which we didn't discover at first. It is important to mention that the only entry into our apartment, that being the front door, automatically locked when closed so it was most definitely locked 24/7. I called building security and no one had been seen on camera entering our dorm except for my BFF and me around 8am after we had gotten off work at the hospital. there was no explanation for who had done this but still, they took our statements and said they'd do patrols, they never found more information.
Over 3 months later, it was summer and my BFF and I had been 2 of 11 people left in the building over the summer, with the rest being mostly just international students who could afford to do quarantine protocols again in September as it took 2 weeks. We were the only ones on our floor but regularly heard stomping outside in the hall but neither of us never saw anyone through our peephole or even when we often heard knocks on the front door, however when we checked, no one every time. So aside from the knocking and stomping, super quiet summer except for one morning. I'll never forget it it shook us to the bone.
It was 10am and my roommate and I were asleep after work. I never locked my bedroom door as my bff loved to come in and hang all the time but for some reason, I locked it that entire week. and good thing too because I awoke to frantic and I mean FRANTIC knocking- no pounding on my bedroom door. I was obviously super disoriented as I had just finished a 12 hour shift a few hours earlier, but I saw two dark shadows under the door resembling feet. I figured my bff needed something and woke up but I called out before getting up because I was annoyed to be awake this early. The feet stayed unmoving but the knocking stopped. with a heavy sigh, I got up threw on a sweater and checked the time (it was around 10am), and went to open the door, with the shadows still there I assumed it was my bff. When I put my hand on the handle to unlock it, I heard a thud, and then, worried if my bff had fallen, I threw the door open to see my front door closing as if someone was just leaving. I ran over and saw a completely black figure turn the corner. I followed (my security guard instincts kicking in) but when I turned the corner, nothing. I went back and my roommate asked why I was knocking on the walls like that, she heard it from inside my room on an adjoining shared wall to both our bedrooms. we again called security but only I was seen chasing after nothing on the cameras. After my boyfriend, a firefighter started sleeping over frequently because were both spooked, the fires stopped, and most other things did too. We never had another incident on this level. We moved out after 2 years there and beyond hearing the usual bang, no other issues.
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edit: also important detail I forgot to add is that we had an anti-break-in security stick against our front door while we slept, and they were conveniently moved into the living room or against the wall after these events. we also tested the stick to see if it actually worked and trust me even my firefighter boyfriend and his bff couldn't force their way in

Hey there, readers! Here's chapter five for your reading pleasure! Please consider leaving a comment or review as those really do just pick me right up!
I've Been Reincarnated as a Bunny Girl?! (Chapter 5)
by
ShadowDragon88
A fine drizzle was coming down on the town of Starlight Rose. A familiar wolf-kin beasta in red robes that appeared to be shimmering despite the cloudy gloom of the day was walking along the main road. In his right hand, he held a long polished oak staff, topped with a red glowing gemstone the size of his fist. In his left hand, held away from his body, was a tan leather satchel, the drawstring tied in a knot. It appeared full, and seemed to shudder and wriggle. Felixin smiled and nodded to passing villagers.
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"Hey there, Felixin," came the rumbling voice of Earl Shatterknuckle. The blonde dwarf, presently wearing just simple brown leather trousers, fell in step beside his taller friend. Felixin looked down at the dwarf, whose smaller frame was bulging with muscles, with blue and gold glowing tattoos tracing intricate spider-web-like symbols across his chest and arms, smiling back.
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"Good day to you, Earl," the wolf said. There was a spitting-chittering sound coming from the bag, making Felixin pause and frown before giving the satchel a good whack with his magical staff. "Quiet, you!" he hissed at it.
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"Caught yourself another evil spirit, eh?" Earl said with a smirk.
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"Oh yes, and this one was quite the nasty piece of work. I'm on my way back to my lab to properly dispose of it. I think it's from some destroyed remnant of Eld technology, one of the ones that gained sentience, or at least some spiritual semblance to it," Felixin said as he gave the bag another whack when it started to make some electronic beeping sounds.
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"Oh?" Earl asked, curious. "I remember more than once we had some nasty run-ins with Eld-tech back when we were adventurers."
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"I remember you and Melthi being the ones to turn the blasted machines on, both times when cautioned not to," Felixin said pointedly, making the dwarf chuckle.
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"What can I say? We're both curious by nature!"
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"Yes, that's one word for it," Felixin said with a smile, remembering his adventuring days and the party of friends he would regularly travel with. "Anyways. For some reason, about six years ago, they suddenly became much more prevalent. Thankfully, their numbers have been dropping back down over the years."
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"What makes you think this one is from Eld tech?"
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"It kept saying 'Does not compute!' over and over again, while also identifying some kind of rabbit threat." Felixin's mood seemed to shift and his ears laid back on his head, while his tail dipped, almost long enough to drag on the ground behind him. "And when it mentioned rabbits, it made me think of my little princess."
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Earl rolled his eyes as he reached up and clapped the town wizard on the back. "Ah, Kiana'll be back to visit before you know it."
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"I know... it's just, one minute she was this little delicate baby girl, and the next minute, she was this amazing young woman, all ready to up and go out."
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"Didn't Kiana kick down a couple of brick walls when she was a baby?" Earl asked, scratching his head. Felixin waved a dismissive paw at that.
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"Pure coincidences. Those walls were clearly unsound and improperly constructed, so much so that when she was having one of her tantrums just a little punch or kick was enough to send them tumbling down. We're lucky she wasn't hurt or scared, just confused and curious more than anything. Anyways, I just get so worried when I think of her, out there on the open road. Just so... vulnerable. Thankfully I made sure to instill in her a proper sense of caution." Earl snorted at that.
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Meanwhile...
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Kiana let out a roar of fury as her trusted tetsubo connected with the raised steel shield of the bandit before her. The metal dented and warped just as the bandit, shield and all, became airborne. They traveled in an arc straight towards a stone tower connected to an old run-down fort the bandits had holed up in. The screaming man smashed into the top of the tower, crumbling it, his screams instantly going silent.
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"Fire!" Kiana heard a deep voice shout. There were several blasts and, thanks to Kiana's speed, she watched as five cannonballs headed in her direction. To the ordinary person, the black metallic spheres were probably nearly impossible to follow. To Kiana, it looked as though they were moving incredibly slow. She simply stepped aside from four of them, letting them explode into the nearby hillside. As the fifth one hurtled her way, she crouched slightly, raising her tetsubo like a baseball bat. She swung and smacked the cannonball, her tetsubo making a loud DING, and sent it flying right back where it had come from. The two bandits manning the cannon were obliterated along with the weapon itself, as well as a good chunk of the fort wall.
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"She's some kind of demon!" one of the bandits cried. The man, really more of a boy, no older than Kiana, leapt down from the fort wall onto a carriage they had recently stolen from some traveling aristocrats. He then leapt onto the ground and sprinted out into the forest, stripping off the black cloak with the red eye in the center.
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"DAMMIT!" the bandit leader cursed, pulling off his tricorn hat and dabbing his bald sweaty head with a handkerchief. While the remaining men were busy barring the windows or reloading and firing the cannons, he was gnashing his teeth. After a moment's hesitation, he pointed to a nearby subordinate. "You! Follow me. We'll unleash the troll on her."
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The other bandit paled, audibly gulping. "Th-the troll? Are you sure th-that's wise?" Just as he finished asking that, another cannonball destroyed another cannon, making the entire structure shudder.
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"We don't have any other options. Hopefully, after it kills her, it'll be injured enough for us to finish it off... or the other way around if she kills it." The other bandit grimaced at the options laid before them, but nodded solemnly. Outside, Kiana smacked another cannonball back at the cannon that fired it, being careful not to send it flying towards the base of the tower. According to one of the kidnapped merchants that had managed to escape and make it all the way to town, the cells where the bandits were holding their ransom victims were all on the ground floor. Kiana stopped when she heard a loud guttural roar, followed by a rapid series of loud BOOMs. Bandits ran by the windows and open holes of the fort, while the front gate slowly opened.
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Out stumbled a massive creature. Its flesh was a dark brown, and had a texture not unlike tree bark. Its long arms and legs were thicker than the old oak trees in the forest near Starlight Rose. Its gnarled hands, with thick thorn-like protrusions sticking from the knuckles, balled into fists, fists that were as big as Kiana was tall. Its barrel-chest heaved, with white criss-crossing scars in its bark-flesh. It didn't have much in the way of a neck, and its head looked just like a tree stump, complete with root-like tendrils wriggling back and forth. It's mouth was partially concealed by the tendrils, until it reared back and opened its gaping maw, revealing rows of broken yellow teeth, to let out a bellow that shook the ground. From the top of its head grew two slightly spiraling branch-like horns.
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"These idiots somehow managed to get a forest troll?" Kiana asked out loud, a smirk appearing on her face. "And this was only a gold-ranked quest? Something tells me I'm in for a sweet bonus."
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The beast stopped as its knot-like eyes, of which there were at least seven, caught sight of the bunny girl. Up above from the second story windows and holes and from on the roof, the remaining bandits, many of them injured, looked down. Most were smirking, some of the more foolish ones shouted out taunts. The bandit leader stood there, looking grim-faced, but taking some satisfaction in knowing that despite their losses today, the annoying source of their problems was about to end, one way or another.
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Kiana stuck the end of her tetsubo into the dirt, large and surprisingly quick thudding steps shaking the ground. The beast was lumbering towards Kiana, who didn't look the least bit afraid. While not intelligent enough to be truly sentient, the troll did have enough sense to know that its prey should be running. And the fact that it was just calmly standing there, staring at it, only angered it further. With a final roar, the forest troll charged forward. It balled up a massive fist, and swung straight for Kiana. Kiana swung her own fist, the two colliding.
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There was a very loud, sickening crunch and pop. The bandits looked down in shock and horror as where the now screaming troll's fist and forearm had been, there was a bloody and jagged stump that ended just above the right elbow. The troll screeched and lunged at Kiana, hoping to impale her on its horns. But the bunny girl simply kicked, knocking the head clean off the rest of its body. The head bounced off a tree and rolled for a bit, settling in the dirt, a look of surprise on the stump-like face. The rest of the body tumbled over three times before coming to a rest near the make-shift stables, where the carriages and horses of the abducted nobles were kept. Kiana looked back up at the fort, making the majority of the bandits shrink back and shudder. A few of them began to wave white tablecloths hastily tied to sticks and tree branches.
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A short time later the bandits, now in shackles, were being marched to the mechanical cart as the local sheriff and his deputies led them. Except for the severely injured ones, who were shackled to stretchers and loaded up into a seperate mechanical carriage. Kiana looked on as bodies were checked for possible survivors, there being very few to find, as the merchants and a few nobles were led by deputies out from the fort. Kiana smiled at them and nodded to their looks of awe, some of them having gotten a good look at the show of force the petite bunny girl had demonstrated. Ignoring the ones who shrank back away from her in fright, Kiana spotted the sheriff, a large older man in his mid-fifties with salt and pepper close-cropped hair and a matching mustache. He was wearing the classic green cloak, directing his deputies. He turned to face her as she approached.
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"I think that's all cleared up," Kiana said, her voice chipper, belaying the fact she had a smattering of blood and gore staining her fur.
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"I'd have to agree with you, young lady," Sheriff Tonsol said, his voice even. In truth, he had tried to avoid enlisting the aid of any adventurers until pressure from various merchants and nobility forced his hand. And even then he had expected it to involve a large party and, more than likely, some lives lost from the hostages. He was a little surprised when the girl reached into her satchel to produce a clipboard with a form on it, as well as an ink pen.
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"In that case, would you mind signing this form indicating that I completed the job satisfactorily?" Tonsol looked at the form for a minute, and then his mouth curved upwards. He let out a chuckle and signed his name on the indicated line, writing in the date as well.
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"Satisfactorily is putting it lightly, miss," he said, handing the clipboard and pen back to the bunny girl. "I had no idea that they had a forest troll in their possession. I went ahead and bumped up the reward."
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"Oh wow, thank you, sir!" Kiana said, looking excited.
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Tonsol smiled, something his deputies claimed to be a rare sight to behold. "Well, you earned it. I'm just glad you were able to get them to surrender without harming any hostages. Well, without them harming any more than the ones they did last time someone came out here to free them."
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"I'm glad I could help!" Kiana said, bowing a little. "Now, I'm going to head back into town." She spread her arms wide and indicated to herself. "I'm really in need of a bath at this point."
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"If you don't mind waiting a minute, you can ride back to town with us. It's faster than walking."
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"Oh, thanks for the offer, but I'm good." Kiana waved, before jogging back to where she'd left her tetsubo and pack, Mirabelle coiled around it protectively. She grabbed the items up, quickly looking through the travel pack to make sure she still had everything, and nodded to herself, satisfied. She slipped the pack onto her back, then scooped her pet snake into her arms, and started to jog down the road in the direction of the town of Hengecliffe. Picking up speed, she rapidly became a blur, and in just a few seconds she was coming to a sliding stop in front of the town gates, startling a couple of bored-looking guards.
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She greeted them and let Mirabelle down before they let her inside. They stared at the snake with the big pink ribbon around its neck slithering obediently behind the bunny girl. She stopped off at the local guild hall to drop off the signed paperwork and collect her now even heftier reward. She noticed a few stares in her general direction, and some unhappy grumbling from some fellow adventurers, but otherwise no one said anything.
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Kiana then headed to the town inn where she still had a room for another night. Thankful again that this world had indoor plumbing, with hot water to boot, Kiana wasted no time in stripping off her gore-coated clothes, which she would wash in the laundry room down the hall, and enjoyed a nice steamy shower. She didn't have to worry about possible intruders, as Mirabelle sat coiled on the bed, ever vigilant.
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"Today was a good day," Kiana said, stepping out of the shower and drying herself off, a feat that took several minutes with a towel. This left her gray and white fur all fluffed-out, which led to her brushing it out. Kiana had grown accustomed to the care and maintenance of her fur, taking pride in keeping it clean. She then donned her underwear and a cream-colored sundress from her pack, carefully putting her dirty clothes in the laundry sack in her pack. She smiled and stroked Mirabelle's head, the snake letting out a contented purr-like hiss.
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"I'm going to go out and enjoy the rest of the afternoon in town. You stay here and guard the pack, okay?" she asked, slipping her mithril knuckles into her dress pockets, along with a small money pouch. Mirabelle hissed, thumping her tail on the bed in response, curling up tighter around Kiana's belongings.
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"Good girl," she praised, before heading out, locking the door behind herself for good measure. Kiana smiled as she stepped out onto the paved sidewalk, carriages passing by on the street. Hengecliffe was much larger than Starlight Rose, with paved streets and even streetlights. Centrally located in a region of plains, it served as a trading hub. Kiana walked along, noticing a few men and women looking her over. Some seemed to do so with distaste, more than likely not enjoying the sight of a beasta. But most seemed to be pleasant people observing a new face.
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"Well now, if my eyes are not deceiving me, it seems that an angel from the heavens has decided to grace us mere mortals with her presence." Kiana's ears twitched at the sound of the male voice. She paused and turned, looking down an alley, where a man leaning up against the side of a building stood, looking her over. He was wearing brown leather trousers, a white linen shirt, and a belt with a large buckle which, matching the large buckles on his boots, made him look a bit like a pirate. The goatee and the cutlass sheathed at his side were also not helping.
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"Hello, beautiful," he said, giving Kiana a wink. Kiana rolled her eyes, and moved to keep walking, only to find a squat bald man standing in her way, grinning sinisterly. Kiana checked behind herself and saw another man, a larger one with a completely shaved head, arms crossed with a club under one arm. "Now, how about we all go somewhere more... private," the pirate-looking moron asked, giving Kiana a smug wink.
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"Wow, you idiots have no idea just how badly you messed up," Kiana said, walking into the alley, the two guys following right behind her. The men chuckled. Passersby stopped when they heard three loud thuds coming from the alley, all of which made the nearby buildings shudder. They saw a bunny beasta girl walking out, brushing some dust off her sundress. She smiled and waved and continued on her way, leaving behind three broken figures. Two were lying in craters in the pavement of the alley, while the third, this one with a cutlass laying at his booted feet, was standing... his head laying all the way back in a hole in the brick wall right behind him.
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Later that evening...
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Kiana was sitting just outside the town walls on a hill, watching the stars come out. After sixteen years, it still mystified her to look up at the night sky, and not see any of the old constellations. She smiled as a shooting star streaked its way across the sky. Suddenly, Kiana felt a surge of energy just course through her. Her eyes faintly started to glow with the blue light, and she felt a strange pulsing in her chest. Looking around, she felt a strange magnetic pull coming from the south.
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Starting as a jog, Kiana soon found herself sprinting outright across the countryside. She ran, as a blur, following the pull, her eyes gradually glowing brighter and brighter, shining with the crackling blue energy. Then, she came to a stop. She stood at the foot of a mountain, itself part of a larger range. Looking up at the mass of rock and ice, she could see broiling clouds up over it, flashes of lightning briefly illuminating the rocky and snowy peaks. With one such flash, Kiana saw something move. Something big. Kiana's glowing eyes went wide.
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"Oh wooooooooow," she said, her jaw hanging open. There were rumbles as the giant coiled mass shifted. Several avalanches were caused by the serpentine body, buried under tons and tons of snow. At the very peak of the mountain, a gargantuan head rose.
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"Is that a giant... cobra?" Kiana asked under her breath. Indeed, that was what the creature that seemed to dwarf the Spire appeared to be. In the light of the lightning, she saw that its scales were a deep blue, almost purple. There were stripes running down its back, but they were glowing a bright bioluminescent blue. That same glow radiated from the creature's reptilian eyes, and the inside of its hood. The same glowing blue as Kiana's eyes.
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"What... are you?" Kiana asked, quietly.
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I can ask the same of you, little one, a deep female voice hissed in Kiana's head. She winced and looked around. She then looked back up at the creature, her veins flooded with adrenaline. There was another flash of lightning, and in that very instant, the creature's head was bent down low, right in front of her. Kiana almost jumped back, but stopped herself. As the snake-entity looked her over with an eye that was twice as tall as she was, Kiana felt a sense of calm overtake her.
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"Are you... a storm dragon? A real storm dragon?" Kiana asked, reaching out and touching the creature's cheek with her hand. It flicked out a blood red tongue, its mouth curling up a little at the corners.
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That is something that little ones like to call my kind, she said. Kiana figured right then and there that this was a female.
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"A monk said that... my spirit is like one of yours," Kiana said, breathlessly.
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Your soulsong feels similar to one of our kind, little one, she said, turning her head and gently nuzzling the top of Kiana's head, making her ears lay flat. The storm dragon's head was almost as large as the entirety of her hometown.
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"My... soulsong?" Kiana asked. The monk she had met hadn't said anything about them.
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The song of your innermost being. It stands out from the loud and noisy cacophony that happens when most little ones gather together in large groups. Yours is beautiful, and a little... fluttery. The dragon gave her a wink. She reared up and opened her mouth. Electricity danced between the dragon's fangs, before she shot out a sonic boom. The raging storm above abated, the clouds dispersing, leaving only a crystal clear night sky for miles and miles around. She then turned and looked down at Kiana. The bunny girl felt the storm dragon's gaze. She felt a radiating warmth coming from her. It reminded Kiana of her mother.
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It was so nice to meet you, little one. It was quite the pleasant surprise to awaken to. She let out a proud roar, and her body began to undulate. Sections of the mountain range began to crumble as large sections of mountain were crushed and smashed by the body slamming into them. The body of the dragon rose into the air, beginning to gracefully slither about. Levitating there, partially coiled, the sheer size of the storm dragon just boggled the bunny girl's mind.
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"Will I see you again?" Kiana asked, feeling a little sad. She had just met this beautiful and amazing being, and already they were leaving.
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Of course, little one, the mental voice in her mind chuckled warmly. I have listened to your beautiful soulsong, and I have shared my soulsong with you.
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"I... I don't understand what that means," Kiana said, confused.
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You will, little one, she said, you are still young, but my soulsong has resonated within you. When you stop and listen, it will become easier and easier to hear it. And thus, the bond has begun to form. In time, you shall understand. With a flick of the creature's tail, there was a flash of lightning that radiated from within the hood, and she was gone. Kiana stood there, her eyes readjusting to the dark.
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"This world is so awesome," she said, a smile on her face, as she began to job back towards town. She figured that if the town gates were closed and locked, she could just jump over the wall.
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Meanwhile...
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The lone figure stood in the dark, staring at where the great serpent had been levitating. They were sitting on a log in a small clearing, where they had set up camp. The individual in question was polishing their armor when a gray blur had shot right past them. And then, where it had been heading, the giant serpent, an actual storm dragon, arose. They sat there in stunned silence. They knew right then and there, that it had been a sign from the gods. As they unsheathed their katana, it began to thrum with magical energy, the blade becoming engulfed in bright purple flames.
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The light of the purple flames illuminated his green face, glinting off his polished tusks. "Soon, the war shall begin," said the orc, sheathing the blade and cutting off its purple light. The same purple light shone from his eyes.
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Name: Kiana
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Species: Beasta (Rabbit-Kin)
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Age: 16
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Skills: Sibling Wrangler, Babysitter, Puppy-Dog Eyes, Master Martial Arts, Brawling, Heavy Weapon Proficiency, Sarcasm Mastery, Eyerolling Mastery, Beast Taming Level 3
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Class: (Official) Master-Level Dragon Monk: Storm Dragon School, Storm Dragon Hatchling.
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Str: 141
Int: 12
Dex: 140
Cha: 12
Wis: 10
Con: 172
Languages: Common, Draconic
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Equipment: Adventurer's Pack, Steelwood Tetsubo, Mastercraft Mithril Knuckles (x2), Rope (25 Ft.), Canteen (Full), Road Rations, Spare Clothes, Bedroll, Health Potion (x2), Books (x3)
I really hope that you enjoyed the new chapter! Thank you for reading so far!
Prev - First - Next

I'm not even sure where to begin, I'm deeply hurt by my mom's actions and words. She's spiraled into someone I cannot even recognize and I feel like I've lost her-even though she's still alive. I'm sorry for this being such a long rant. Our situation has not been the best in the last 3-4 years. We've been financially struggling, yet every time we're close to getting caught up, my mom decides to take a trip or impulsively spends her money. I won't lie, my family isn't the most financially literate, but they're all hard workers.
To start, in 2020, when lockdown happened, my mother reconnected with one of her old friends in another country. Eventually, she broke the news to my little sister, (we'll call her B) and I that she was in a new relationship, (V). This was a shocker for both of us, but we were happy for her because her previous relationship was rather toxic for my mother and was consistently on and off for years. The first time she left B and I, was later in 2020 when COVID was still at peak, we were both 13 and 16. At first it was supposed to be two weeks, then she extended her stay to a month, then to two months.
When my mom had left, my grandma was in charge of B and I. My grandma blocked my mother the moment she landed, she was convinced my mother was lying to her because grandma was getting notifications that the account password was trying to be changed in 3 places within the country my mother was going to. At this point, things were already tense, because B was already feeling like mom was invalidating her and still treating her like a child, even though she was turning into a teen. My mom made excuses to her staying longer by saying how there were storms and that, "she couldn't know him in just 2 weeks".
Mom and Grandma have never had a very stable relationship. They've both done hurt to each other that I hope they can get therapy. One thing my mom said to grandma is "Oh you're so hard to deal with even your husband finds you impossible". My grandpa hasn't talked to my mom since and can't stand the way she talks to grandma. Plus, mom has a tendency to lie, or as she puts it "keep people out her business", will say something completely off about the situation or leave out extremely important details. My mom would have me log in to some of her accounts while she was away and would have me submit a form almost every week for her relief or something of the sorts. Turns out, she was using it for her trip and asked me for her certificates and important papers to send to her friend who was going to send it to my mother. My mother was planning on marrying the guy without saying anything to B and I.
She even told my dad we needed groceries and would have him send 200 a week. I spoke to my dad and told him we don't go every week and that mom was out the country. Obviously, dad wasn't aware and was rightfully upset with her. He was sending money for B and I, while my mom was out probably using it for her trip. B and I had no idea he was sending money to her. Mom was outraged and told me she wasn't lying and just with holding information. My dad confronted mom over the phone, telling her how she should've told him. How concerned he was for our safety, which is valid. My mom calls me back and claimed my grandma was brainwashing me and how I was ruining her friendship with dad. She told me to call my dad and tell him we were okay. She told me how she deserved a vacation and to not get frustrated with her.
Like I mentioned before, my mom refused to treat my sister like a teenager, refused to let her watch age appropriate shows and just treated her like she was 6. My grandma, B, and I, all like watching crime. Mom hated when B would watch and told her, "I don't want you to be what OP is and I don't want you to be lost like her and how she is". I was 5 months into therapy around this time, I wanted to get help and get better. I cried when I saw the messages. Not even two weeks later mom came back. B and I didn't greet her, to which she said, "You girls are so ungrateful", slammed her door and didn't talk to us.
I love my mom, I wanted to have a good relationship with her and took it upon myself to do damage control. We "cleared" things up through our talk. Except she talked to where it would be in her favor and play her as the victim. Things were good for the next two months until she decided to go back again. This time she would be marrying V, her new man. Before my mom left, she was adamant on refusing to tell my dad she was leaving. She practically threatened B and I to not. My dad was upset we didn't tell him she went out the country again, and me being a dumb 16 year old, told him I didn't think it was my responsibility to inform him.
By the time mom came back, it was almost a week before B's birthday. Mom broke the news that she was pregnant. Neither of us were happy. B and I cried and mom wasn't happy with our reactions. She was upset for a couple of days and I turned around and offered my support to her. B was heart broken since she's always been the baby in the family. Mom having another was the straw that broke the camel's back. Their relationship was just torn from that moment. She did go with her out of the country just for vacation. As my sister puts it, it wasn't a great experience and mom was upset with her for not speaking much.
Mom was also slowly getting disowned by the family by the time she came back. When she was due in late 2021, I offered to stay in the hospital with her, but because I wasn't 18 and COVID was still an issue, they wouldn't allow me. My grandma instead stayed with her and eventually left after the baby was born. Rather than picking up my mom from the hospital, she offered to drop the seat and told my mom she could UBER home. I don't agree with how grandma handled it, my mom did just have a baby.
All was well, baby was fine. School was okay, I did struggle a bit because of other factors. However, by the time I had graduated, I decided to take a gap year. I didn't know what I wanted to major in. If I did go, I didn't want to drop out, continuously change majors, or worry about how it would get paid. At the time, my family was still struggling financially. I picked up hours at my job, and mom stayed with her friend who was also her boss. Her boss was not paying her at the time because she was in the process of a divorce after her husband put her business in jeopardy.
I became financially responsible in the meantime and had to pick up some of the bills, with the very little I received from my pay. Mom would get paid time to time, but it was so inconsistent that I was the one who was head of household. Sometime she would pay me back and other times, she refused to and would apply the amount to a bill she believed I needed to pay. She financed a new car that was well beyond what we could pay, same for the insurance for me. We split the car note and I split the insurance with my dad. Every month I was paying 450, including half the insurance, for a car I do not use a quarter of the time. Only time I would have it frequently was when mom was out on a trip to see her husband, since I don't have a car of my own.
Mom eventually invited her boss and kid to come live with us, told her to not pay the first months rent and let her stay until earlier this year. Her boss was late on payments and overall it was an uncomfortable experience living there because I felt like they were leeching off of us. The bills were doubled or tripled and I was expected to pay some of them. Before they moved in, I expressed to my mom how I didn't think it was a good idea since she was already behind paying her and was inconsistent with her payments and owed her so much. Mom refused to listen and just let it happen. B was uncomfortable and ended up staying with our grandma more often and rarely came over.
Around this time, mom became very pushy about me babysitting. She would ask when I was off and if I could watch baby. Not ask, more of demand. Sometimes I would offer, but it became a problem to which I barely had time to myself. One incident happened near the holidays. It was around Black Friday time, the car was in the shop because I accidently hit a deer that ran in front of me. We were using a rental at the time. I told my mom a week before that I needed the day I had off, because I would be working 5 days, only have one day off, and then work 6 days in a row. Mom didn't listen and the day before, asked me to babysit because the babysitter couldn't. I told her no and she guilt tripped me and told me she would be home at 3. She left at 11, came back at 3ish with hand tattoos. Showed me them and then left. I was in disbelief that my mom would do that. It was a punch to the face, she knew we were already struggling, and she knew I needed that day off. My grandma was the one who picked her up from the rental. Mom wasn't home until 6. Mom left for thanksgiving with her aunt. She came back and left again for a month for Christmas with baby to go out of the country to see her husband.
Before she came back, her boss packed her stuff and left without a word to my mom. By the time she came back, it was tense, she was let go and had to look for a new job. I was fed up with the constant babysitting and had either my grandma take me to work or my boyfriend, K. I rarely offered and mom would ask but I would rarely say yes or made an excuse. More as of recently, it's come to the point where I feel as though I'm living with a roommate and not my mom. B isn't at home and I don't blame her. Luckily I've reconnected with my family after being isolated and taking my mom's side for a few months. My family is supporting me and I'm going back to school next semester.
I made plans one weekend with K and my mom called me the next morning and asked me to watch baby. I offered to buy the things she needed and said "No, I have things to return". I offered to return them, she refused. She said "These are things I need to buy on my own". I asked her why she couldn't take baby, her only excuse was that baby and her had a long day yesterday and that, "it would be tedious and time consuming getting baby ready". I told her, "Yes, that's YOUR child." Mom sarcastically said, "Wow, you're right. Thanks for reminding me like I didn't know," and hung up.
My mom has a tendency to give silent treatment. Why? I don't know. I had gotten off of work late one night, mom picked me up and I asked if we could stop by somewhere that was still open. After receiving my food, we're pulling out, there's a car coming by and I told her to not go. She's on her phone texting, stops, and says "I know, I've been driving for years. When have you seen me turn and drive?" Without thinking, I respond, "When have I not." She blows up at me saying how she's tired of my stupid annoying comments and refuses to talk to me the rest of the way home. I tell her "goodnight, I love you," when we get home. I say it 5-6 times before she responds back saying goodnight.
The next day, she was silent with me when I came home. While I'm leaving with some of my stuff since I was staying the night at K's, I say "bye mom. I'm leaving, I love you." She only responds with a bye in a serious tone. I cried in K's car, even the next night when I stopped by for a few more things, she was cold. I decided to test to see if she was purposely refusing to say it back. When I told her bye and I love you, she just said bye. I repeated it one more time and it was the same response. She later texted me saying "I love you, don't ever doubt it." I didn't respond. She said it the next few days, but remained cold with me. Just recently, she texted me while at work and asked me about the move situation. I hadn't responded just yet and she sends a long paragraph about how I owe her the respect of answering her important messages and that I should find the time to. By the time I see the message, I tell her I'm at work, that she knows I do not look at my messages and that I have B's and I's situation under control.
Last night, as I was leaving to stay at K's again, I ask mom if she had already taken the day off for orientation. She's quiet and in a monotone voice replies, "yes, why?" I tell her my aunt offered to go since she's experienced school and would like to help. Plus, mom was already tense and I do not want to be stressed when we go. She goes off about how I'm an adult and I make my own decisions and how I should do whatever my heart desires. I stare at her for a second. I really wanted mom to go with me, but with the way things are, I decided it was best not to. I finally tell her that I think my aunt should go with me. When I tell her I'm leaving and to have a goodnight and that I love her. She only responds with a goodnight. I'm sobbing when I close the door and in my boyfriend's car. On our way to his house, mom calls, says my cats and I need to be out before the beginning of next month, and tells me she will be looking into handing over custody of B to me. I try not to cry while I say, okay, I love you. She hangs up without a word.
I'm extremely heartbroken and overwhelmed. I'm so mentally and physically drained from work and mom. I feel like I've given her all my support, all my time and money only to receive very little back. I miss my mom. I miss when we would talk and not just for 5 minutes a day. I miss when B, her and I would hang out, not just her on her phone calling her husband 24/7. I miss when mom didn't drag me into her issues and expect me to put her fires out with dad and the family. I miss making jokes with my mom and having conversations without her turning our talks against me. I miss mom.
The thing is, my mom's made her decisions and expected B and I to be okay with it. She's basically given up on B and just doesn't text her unless she needs something or to borrow money. I know B and I will be okay eventually, but I'm so distraught over the idea of cutting off mom. I know it's for the best, and hopefully she realizes her mistakes.
Mom has never been a bad mom. She's been a good mom. She's worked hard to provide for B and I. To make sure we lived comfortably. I know my mom has a lot of baggage and trauma I hope she can get help for. I love my mom and I want her to get the help she needs, but she's made it extremely apparent, she does not want it. I've tried my best to stick by her side, but I needed her to stick by mine too. I really do love my mom, but this is not my mom. I'm stuck on how mom used to be that I refuse to realize that this is how she is. I love mom, but I know that I have to let her go and be better than how she is now. Not just for me, but for B too.

Some family friends of ours lived in a beautiful old farmhouse house, in a small country village in the UK. It was once a farmhouse, then had been a pub for a time, then converted to house by our friends. It had many original features like crooked corridors, wonky staircases, exposed wooden beams & brickwork etc....Just a generally cool but creepy old house. The house had a lot of land & our families spent most of the time outside in the huge garden, BBQ'in...The kids would play in the gardens & the adults would sit around in camping chairs, drinking, grilling & laughing into the night! 🙌
..The owner of the house was one of my dad's best friends, they were both police officers & had worked together for years & that night, it was his daughters birthday & she asked if I could sleep over, my parents agreed & arranged to pick me up the next afternoon. We did the general 11/12 year old girly sleepover stuff, makeovers, movies, chatting etc. 🤷🏼‍♀️🤣 ...I had been in this house before but never stayed the night before & whilst playing around in my friends bedroom, my eyes were IMMEDIATELY drawn to this old, wooden carved jewelry box sitting on her dressing table & I went straight over & opened it & inside was this beautiful old 18carat gold ring but it was tiny, almost like it belonged to a young child & I was fixated...It absolutely mesmerized me, the second I laid my eyes on it...I picked it up & this wave came over me, like this pulsating strange feeling (Like the drums from Jamanji but I never actually heard or saw anything)..I just felt it in my body & then suddenly, my friend came over & said 'Oh, yeah, my parents found that box in the attic when they were renovating the house...& they found that ring under one of the floor boards in there as well, it's so cool isn't it?!' ...I had this overwhelming sense of dread & for some unreason...I felt the need to steal it but I didn't, as I mentioned before, our parents were Police officers & I knew better but I could not stop thinking about this ring.
Anyway, the night is coming to an end, all the other guests including my parents have left & after a hour or so, her parents come up with her little & only sibling & they all poke their heads into our room, say goodnight & shut the door behind them & go off to bed. ...My freinds bed is against the wall but sticking out directly into the middle of the room, the door is to the left of her bed & I have a blow up bed on the right side of her bed, so my blow up bed is a lot lower down than her bed & there is a bedside table directly behind my head that goes up slightly higher than the height of her bed. ...My friend falls asleep pretty quickly & I can hear her snoring away & the house is completely silent...Her bedroom door is closed & it is completely PITCH BLACK in there... Then, I start to get that same dreaded drum feeling I had felt earlier, when holding that ring....Right in front of my eyes, the door opens but not dramatically, just creepily slowly & nothing....Then this ominous faint light, almost pulsating light, comes from the now open doorway...It's not the hallway light, it's something else, something like moonlight but that's not possible from that angle! 🤷🏼‍♀️ ...I am sat up right in this low down blow up bed, just staring at this now open, lit up doorway & then, this figure walks into the room! 😱 I knew straight away, that this was a man...This was not my friend's dad though, as he was one of my dad's best friends, around 5"7 & over 200lbs & he was the only male living in that house, there was only his wife, his two daughters & me staying that nighr...The man who walked into the room was around 6ft tall & very slim...He calmly walks through the door, past the foot of my friends bed & then STOPS suddenly, turns & looks DIRECTLY at me....I WAS FROZEN IN FEAR! 😱...What struck me the most was how much detail I can still give about his clothing & appearance...I was 12 years old at the time but I remember it like it was yesterday! ....This guy had almost cropped, tweed style trousers, almost pirate like trousers, that went to just above the calf, with a tweed style blazer but what I remember specifically, was his shirt...It was white but it had a short, upright collar, with only the very inner tips bent...It was like an old fashioned shirt, I think there's an actual name for these shirts but even as a 12 year old, I remember thinking that shirt is odd... Because my dad was a Police detective & interviewer, he would wear a suit, shirt & tie everyday & this was not a regular modern shirt with a folded collar like my dad wore...This apparition had slicked back, jet black hair & although I was aware it was a man, I couldn't properly see any facial features, apart from his eyes & I stared frozen & in horror back at him, in what felt like 10 minutes but was probably only 10 seconds....Then, I realised he wasn't looking at me...He was looking BEHIND ME! 😱
...At this moment, I had what I can only describe as the worst fear I have ever felt...It's like a primal fear & although this happened 18 years ago, I remember it & can visualize it like it happened yesterday!....12 year old realizes he's looking behind me & I do that almost movie style thing & I slowly turn my head backwards, to the left & slightly up & that's when I saw her....A little girl, PLAIN AS DAY, stood directly behind me...But 3/4 of her body was standing inside of the bedside table behind me....It was like a hologram...I could see the bedside table but I could also she her body INSIDE of it! 🤷🏼‍♀️😱 ....She was wearing a beautiful frilly, Lacey long white dress, with a dusty pink coloured bow tied around the waist...Her chest, shoulders & head were sticking out of the center top of the bedside table & she had this beautiful long curly golden hair & there was this moment, this creepy indescribable moment, where I realised these two entities were staring at eachother....Not at me & in that moment...I KNEW the ring belonged to her...This thought crossed my mind & suddenly her gaze went from him to suddenly me & I literally almost went into cardiac arrest!...That was it for me..I through the blanket over my head & zoned out....I couldn't sleep but I refused to look & I was so freaked out & panicked but too scared to run to the phone to call my parents. ... Eventually I drifted off & woke up a couple of hours later, sweating & completely bewildered...When I woke up, her bedroom door was closed, I snook to the bathroom & all her family were still asleep...I never slept there again!
...I did being it up to my friend's mum a coupe of weeks later & she said that a few nights after I stayed...They had woken up suddenly to a huge crashing sound downstairs & her husband, being a police officer, immediately jumped up & expected it to be a break in but on inspection...He found the huge old oak farmhouse cabinet, that was there when they moved in but had been securely bolted to the wall by them on renovation of the building (It was so heavy it took two adult men to lift & it had to be placed by lifting it, pushing into place & then slotting down 2 inches into secore fittings)...The night they heard the crashing sound... That cabinet was face down on the floor...This would have been IMPOSSIBLE to happen...Both the bolts were still securely fastened to the wall & for this happen, meant that someone or something had to physically lift this huge oak cabinet 2 inches up & then pull it toward them 2 inches for it to have any chance of falling...They were unable to move it back themselves in the morning & had to wait for one his other 200lb+ friends to come over later & help lift it back up.... That's how heavy it was! 🤷🏼‍♀️ Approximately 2 years later, I was discussing this incident with my dad & he pretty quickly mentioned that a man had committed suicide in their garage not long before they bought the house...He didn't tell me at the time because I was only 12 & he didn't want to scare me but I was 14, nearly 15 when he told me this! 😱 ...I still believe what I saw was older than that though, the people, the clothing, THE RING! ...

Monday
Mexican shredded cheese-topped blueberries. It’s what’s for breakfast when Minnie is on breakfast duty, in charge of monitoring your glucose, and you’re two years old.
Waterskiing for soggy sandwiches is the new skiing for donuts. Ski-vie Kate wanted to go first but had to wait for the larger of her two handlers to demonstrate how to use the ski trainer while her other handler ruptured her eardrums. After she waterskied to her parents’ satisfaction, it was time for a nap in her swimsuit, but the Contentot broke free from the blackout tent looking for juice and pajamas. Back out on the water again, Sea-Doo Kate was fed more sandwiches to perform for Instagram. During her break from filming, Stevie Chalk colored Belle’s fur pink and declared her love for the number one guy in the group, Tanner, with sidewalk art.
Tuesday
The Tuesday after Memorial Day means it’s back to work for the Turtles… just kidding! When you’re a Houghton, every day is a vacation day and they’re all still at the lake.
Feral Kate woke up with hair bigger than Sam’s but at least she didn’t have to spend the whole night sleeping in a dirty swimsuit. As the hardest working Houghton, she was immediately tasked with executing today’s content plan: Stand Up Waterskiing for a Two Year Old. Failure was not an option. Her wages? Unlimited sandwiches on the boat 🥪 and Rice Krispies doled out to her like cat treats off the side of the ski trainer.
In fact Stevie Sandwich consumed more sandwiches over Memorial Day weekend than Jen has eaten in her entire life - regular bread, Sola bread, or otherwise. Who can blame the little bread lover though. She was just trying to eat enough so that the giant life jacket they gave her would actually fit.
Snap Crackle Kate exceeded everyone’s expectations for waterskiing content and was rewarded with ice cream by coach Uncle Tanner. She seemed to love her moment in the spotlight on the water, smiling, hamming it up for the camera and singing along to her favorite Frozen songs.
Howler Monkey: Steven makes THE BEST peach cobbler in the world better cobbler than Tiffany. All you do is put peaches in the bottom of a baking dish, sprinkle cake mix on them, and slice up a stick of butter and put it on top of that. Because I never eat food or cook, I think it’s absolutely BRILLIANT. Wowowowow.
Wednesday
Dimwit took the day off IG but Jen storied what the Junior Turtles were up to today. Jen awoke to find Sleepy Kate blacked out in the kitchen and Dim and Dum asleep on the new sofa surrounded by a sea of plastic water bottles and cereal bowls. Apparently the A/C had gone out in their bedroom. Dimmy reported for Shilly babysitting duty while Tiffany and Adam went jet skiing. Tiffany had a case of mom brain which apparently made her forget riding a jet ski three weeks postpartum would be a bad idea. But somehow she bopped right through and Adam was the one left doubled over in pain. It was right back to work for Snap Crackle Kate as she waterskied again for Rice Krispies doled out by Tanner. Training Stevie Canine was such a success that Dummy didn’t even have to pull out his iPhone notes to reference his Fix Whining Plan.
Turtle time check. Jen shared stories from Saturday and tried to pass them off as today’s, of the Dirtles touring the new $5 million lake house she and Sr bought. In today’s depiction of Saturdays tour, SK seemed more impressed by the Castle o’ Timber, while Dimmy was ready for Jen to give it a Sarah Knuth-inspired makeover.
Back in real time, Jen shared her favorite family moments from the week at the lake house, and poor Dummy wasn’t featured in a single photo, while Dimmy was in one photo and Stevie Kate featured in five photos.
Thursday
Stevie Kontent’s wake up call: bright lights, big shrieks, and a phone shoved in her face. You can only hide under a blanket for so long before your handlers make you greet the internet with your good morning script and declare your love for all the fat poors who fund your travel. Next up it was time to force Shein Kate into some commissionable, linkable fast fashion while pretending the Contentot put together the cheap look all on her own.
Dummy updated us she got her period and is not pregnant with SK 2.0 (whew we’re all relieved to have a brief reprieve from turtle pregnancies).
String Cheese Kate had blueberries, a bracelet, a piece of cheese and avocado toast for lunch while Kimmy had a Go Hydrate drink containing 5 calories for lunch. So 👏🏻 so 👏🏻 yummy and it totally fills her up. After less than just one day back at home, Kimmy announced it’s time to travel again - to Arizona to see friends Brooke & Justin and then to a friend’s wedding in Utah - so she’s packing all her powders and supplements and shit to shill for the next several days.
Stevie Shaving Cream played with the neighbor boy in the tub with shaving cream but they didn’t like it, probably because their stupid moms couldn’t figure out that the tub is also a great place to rinse off the mess when they’re done. So the dim moms dragged the dirty tots through the house and plopped them outside at the water table to hose them off.
Dimmy was excited when a giant box was delivered - more shit to shill! - only to realize the package contained dozens of rolls of toilet paper addressed to Stevie Charmin. Was the tot’s BFF Sam behind this? Maybe he sent the package to SK to encourage her to TP Turtle Creek Lane as his punishment to the Senior Turtles for the Mormon bucket trek! Unbothered that strangers could be sending her weird stuff through the mail, Return to Sender Kate unboxed the rest of the day’s packages while reciting The Gruffalo and dumping a plate of her food on the floor.
Continued in comments due to character limit

[US to US] [Sell] [Perfume] $4 US shipping. Smoke free cat friendly home. No minimums. Will be shipped out within a week (usually Mon/closest weekday). I always include freebies, please let me know if you don’t want any. 1mLs ARE DECANTS IN ROLLER BALLS UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED!
Alkemia FS, $10 each (dropper tops):
- Fumé Oud à la Vanille: Tonka, Woodsmoked amber, Bourbon vanilla, Oud
- La Flamme: Rare Spices Steeped in Root Tea, Incense Woods, and Oakmoss
Stereoplasm FS (mLs differ), $8 each:
- Almost a Year (4.5mL): snuffed perique tobacco, dirty wool, cemetery air, death cap, cereus and petrichor.
- FIRE (3mL): Heat, wide-eyes, smoke, power. Stars above, flames around, smoke like grey ink in the hot, black air of a summer night.
Alkemia Samples, $2 each:
- Bohémiens en Voyage: Tabac leaf, Orris Root, Fresh Hay, Amber, Skin Musk, Sugar Cane
Andromedas Curse Samples, $2 each:
- Gryphon: Golden cardamom mane and sandalwood-scented wings.
Area of Effect Samples, $2 each:
- Syndicate (Slink): OIL, PETRICHOR, STONE, LEATHER, GASOLINE, BENZOIN, DARK AMBER, FRANKINCENSE, GINGER, BERGAMOT, BLACK TEA
- Tenpenny Tower (Slink): LEATHER, BOURBON, DARK AMBER, BERGAMOT, TOBACCO, CACTUS BLOSSOM, BLACK PEPPER
BPAL samples, $2 each:
- Danse Macabre (slink): Black cypress with oakmoss, frankincense, oude, and a sliver of toasted hazelnut.
- Tavern of Hell (slink): White gardenia, ambergris bouquet, lavender fougere, orange blossom, melissa, tobacco flower, coriander, ebony wood, ylang ylang, absinthe and aged whiskey.
- Wicked (slink): rich myrrh and jasmine draped in the subtlest rose.
BunnyNoseScents samples, $2 each:
- Obliquity: Spanish moss, Himalayan cedar, black pepper, oakmoss, juniper, bamboo, and cardamom.
Deconstructing Eden 2.5mL samples, $2 each:
- Prince of Travels: Musk and leather, Tsingani spices, dusty tobacco and exotic woods.
Luvmilk 2mL Samples, $2 each:
- Kneady Kitten (at shoulder): Warm sweet bread, melting butter, a base of rich vanilla.
Nui Cobalt Samples, $2 each:
- Skeleton Key (Slink): spiced pipe tobacco, Haitian vetiver, tangerine, honeyed almond, liatrix, and High John the Conqueror root.
Possets Samples, $2 each:
- Zombie (Rev 1) (Slink): A big dose of toasted marshmallow and oude, a bit of burnt stick, and the unmistakable fragrance of the crisp autumn air.
1mL Decants available, $3 each:
- Alkemia, 2022 Arcanum Experiments 1: Marzipan frosted sugar cookies, Crème Brûlée pipe tobacco, Bourbon vanilla
- Alkemia, 2022 Rose Musk Alchemy: A sensual alchemy of pangender musks and fresh hothouse roses.
- Alkemia, Arcanum: Eastern Spices, Aged Patchouli, Sandalwood, Frankincense, Nag Champa, and Dragonsblood
- Alkemia, Book of Shadows: A biblichor of eldritch books - heavy parchment paper, ancient iron oak gall ink, crumbling leather bindings, and wafts of rare incenses.
- Alkemia, The Highwayman: An irresistible mix of gentleman and bad-boy. Riding leathers, dark night air, forest oakmoss scattered across an old dirt road, fine linen lace, a trace of campfire smoke, and a pinch of gunpowder.
- Alkemia, The De Ceylon (Tea) Layering Note
- BPAL, Artificer: Gleaming metal, gear oil, sparking wires, shattered glass, and a blue flicker of arcane power.
- BPAL, Shortbread Diamonds: Ruthlessly minimalist but dense with pleasure: a crumbly dough made with brown sugar and butter, rolled out and slashed into simple “diamond” shapes before baking.
- Death and Floral, Half-hoping to be eaten by a bear: Woody, sweet bare skin; the lingering scent of dry leaves on a cold morning
- Stereoplasm, La Mia Magia!: Velvet carpet, melting beeswax candles, dusty vials of dragon’s blood, gilded rosewood wooden mask, labdanum, crackling electricity, well-worn playing cards.
- Stereoplasm, Mourning Glory: Thick black velvet curtains, bruised Palmarosa leaves, Shanghai spice, wilted white carnations and bible leather
- Stereoplasm The Thirteenth Hour: Powdered henna, black chai tea, saffron, cauldron iron, bleached bone, a broken wax seal, a trapdoor hidden under dry hay