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French Open 2023 TV channel and live stream: How to watch grand slam tournament
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LIVE LINK>>French Open Tennis 2023 Live
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LIVE LINK>>French Open Tennis 2023 Live
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With the first round of the 2023 French Open set to get underway on May 28, tennis fans around the world will be starting to get excited for all the action during the year's second grand slam event.
Returning champions Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek will be keen to claim another title this time around, though both will come under huge pressure with Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune, Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina and plenty of other talented players all circling.
The men's side of the tournament will be without record 14-time champion Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2004, however, as the veteran Spaniard was forced to pull out through injury.
For all the details you need on how to best watch the 2023 French Open, The Sporting News has you covered.
MORE: French Open 2023 schedule: Draw bracket, seedings and results for men's and women's singles
How to watch the 2023 French Open in the US?
TV channel: NBC, Pea****, Tennis Channel
Live stream: Fubo, Hulu, DIRECTV & others
Tennis fans in the US have a number of different ways to watch the 2023 French Open on TV. That's because this year, NBC, Pea**** and the Tennis Channel will split coverage of the tournament.
In terms of live streaming the event, there are also various different options stateside. The following streaming sites will all show coverage of the tournament: Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV, Fubo, Sling TV, Pea****, YouTube TV and Tennis Channel Plus.
How to watch the 2023 French Open in the UK?
TV channel: Eurosport
Live stream: discovery+
As has been the case for a few years now, the French Open will be broadcast live on Eurosport. All the action across all the rounds will be shown live on either Eurosport 1 or Eurosport 2.
As for streaming, tennis fans in the UK will need to subscribe to discovery+ to catch the action. The correct plan for the tournament — Entertainment & Sport — is available for £6.99 a month or £59.99 per year. You can also add the same package to any Amazon Prime account as an add-on fee.
How to watch the 2023 French Open in Australia?
TV channel: 9Gem
Live stream: Stan Sport, 9Now
The 2023 edition of the French Open will be broadcast live and free on 9Gem.
Coverage will start each day at 6:30 pm AEST and run until the early hours of the morning. Commentary for select matches will come from Nine’s Wide World of Sports team, featuring Roz Kelly, Todd Woodbridge, Jelena Dokic, Samantha S****r, Brenton Speed and Brett Phillips.
For streaming options, Australian tennis supporters can pay to catch all of the action on Stan Sport. Fans down under can also stream the action for free via 9Now, which will show the standard free-to-air broadcast.
How to watch the 2023 French Open in Canada?
TV channel: RDS, TSN
Live stream: TSN Direct
In Canada, fans of star player Felix Auger-Aliassime can catch the action TV with both RDS and TSN after the French Federation for Tennis signed an agreement to broadcast the tournament live with those outlets as partners.
As for streaming the tournament, Canadian tennis fans can catch the action via TSN Direct.
How to watch the 2023 French Open in India?
TV channel: Sony TEN
Live stream: SonyLiv
Tennis fans in India only have a few options when it comes to catching all of the action at the 2023 French Open.
In terms of television channel, Sony TEN will show matches whilst from a streaming perceptive, fans will need a SonyLiv subscription to watch.

SS:
1 Thessalonians 5:6: "So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober."
“Sleeping is giving in, No matter what the time is. Sleeping is giving in, So lift those heavy eyelids. People say that you'll die Faster than without water. But we know it's just a lie, Scare your sons and scare your daughter.” –Arcade Fire
1 Peter 5:8: "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."
Revelation 3:2: "Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God."
“I wish I could take the pain away If you can make it through the night, there's a brighter day Everything will be alright if you hold on It's a struggle every day, gotta roll on” –Tupac
Isaiah 52:1: "Awake, awake, put on your strength."
"I can't sleep, the clowns will eat me." –The Simpsons
"I never sleep, 'cause sleep is the cousin of death." –Nas
"The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep! You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep! People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep!" –Rumi
Proverbs 6:9-11: “How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest — and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.”
"Ooh, I'm thinking we should stay in tonight Get lost in the Pacific, paradise Is it only two of us? Yeah, I think I like that I'm staying up all night, oh yeah, yeah" –Charlie Puth
“Up all night, yeah, all night long; We can make the world right, yeah, we can make it strong” –Sia
“Well, I argued all night like so many have before Saying, "Whatever you give me, I seem to need so much more" Then she pointed at me where I kneeled on her floor She said, "Don't try to use me or slyly refuse me Just win me or lose me, it is this that the darkness is for" I cried, "Oh, Lady Midnight, I fear that you grow old The stars eat your body and the wind makes you cold" "If we cry now," she said, "it will just be ignored" So I walked through the morning, sweet early morning I could hear my lady calling, "You've won me, you've won me, my Lord" –Leonard Cohen
"This is why Why we fight, why we lie awake And this is why This is why we fight" –The Decemberists
“I'm young and I'm falling in love With the night I'm not tired, let's just ride” –Charli Adams
“Oh, I'm near to sleeping, I'm keeping awake It's tomorrow, yes it is” –Innocence Mission
“I know it's comfortable to go back to sleep Take a look at what you've been lying in Before you wake up in search of your paycheck death The demons of regret are making your deathbed” –Rocky Votolato
1 Thessalonians 5:6 so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.
“Yes, the sidewalk soon will launch you Into Brooklyn, through the air And they will give a cheer, I am sure When you are coming near To the ground Oh, early in the morning When you fly away” –Innocence Mission
“No sleep No Sleep till Brooklyn” –Beastie Boys
"No sleep, no sleep until I'm done with finding the answer." –Linkin Park
Matthew 26:41: "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Mark 13:33: "Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come."
“Those in the know say how it goes You plan on reapin' you better sow You plan on sleepin' you better keep movin' Sleepin' ain't allowed around here you know” –Townes Van Zandt
Ephesians 5:14: "For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, 'Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'"
"Sleep, those little slices of death — how I loathe them." –Edgar Allan Poe
“Smokin' weed like it ain't no thing, so even kids Wanna try now, then lie down and get ran through Nobody watches 'em, clockin' the evil man do Faced with the demons, addicted to hearin' victims screamin'” –Tupac
"Awake! Awake O sleeper of the land of shadows, wake! Expand! I am in you and you in me, mutual in love divine." –William Blake
"Sleep is the most moronic fraternity in the world, with the heaviest dues and the crudest rituals." –Vladimir Nabokov
“I haven't eaten a bite Or slept for three days and nights That's how I got to Memphis” –Tom T. Jones
"Insomnia is my greatest inspiration." –Jon Stewart
"I'm up all night to get lucky." –Daft Punk
“Whatever gets you through the night It's all right, it's all right” –John Lennon
Surah Al-Imran (3:113): "They are not [all] the same; among the People of the Scripture is a community standing [in obedience], reciting the verses of Allah during periods of the night and prostrating [in prayer]."
Surah Al-Zumar (39:9): "Devoutly obedient during periods of the night, prostrating and standing [in prayer], fearing the Hereafter and hoping for the mercy of his Lord."
"Don't close your eyes, you might miss the show." –Aerosmith
“In the night forlorn the morning's born And the morning shines with the lights of love And you will miss sunrise if you close your eyes And that would break my heart in two” –Townes Van Zandt
“don't close your eyes; don't close your eyes, this is your life” –Switchfoot
“(I'm wide awake) Yeah, I was in the dark I was falling hard With an open heart (I'm wide awake) How did I read the stars so wrong? (I'm wide awake) And now it's clear to me That everything you see Ain't always what it seems (I'm wide awake) Yeah, I was dreaming for so long” –Katy Perry
"I'll sleep when I'm dead." –Warren Zevon –Bon Jovi
"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." –Robert Frost
“Stay awake, stay awake, stay awake with me Just keep on holding on” –Dean Lewis
"I can't sleep, I'm in too deep." –Alan Walker
"Stay awake, don't rest your head. Don't lie down upon your bed. While the moon drifts in the skies, stay awake, don't close your eyes." –Mary Poppins
“I don't wanna sleep, I just wanna Keep On Loving You” –REO Speedwagon
“Sleeping is giving in, No matter what the time is. Sleeping is giving in, So lift those heavy eyelids. People say that you'll die Faster than without water. But we know it's just a lie, Scare your sons and scare your daughter.” –Arcade Fire

The gang is warped inside and land in a big empty tunnel
SMG3: “What the hell is this?!” Sees his eggdog being cooked “EGGDOG!! NOOOOOOO!”
SMG4: Sees his old videos “NO NOT THOSE AGAIN!!!”
Tari: Sees her games being hammered to pieces and her rubber ducks popped “AHHHHHH! OH NO!”
Meggy: Sees her losing Splatfest “…No! It’s not real!! Come on guys it’s all just a big scare tactic!”
Tari: “Grrr! Im not scared!”
SMG4: “Neither am I!”
Everyone else: “NEITHER AM I!”
All the fears disappear and reveal the entire tunnel vanishes into thin air revealing the whole thing was a bunch of illusions from nearby machines
Bob: “MaRiO mUsT bE aT tHe ToP lEt’S gEt HiM!”
The crew run up the stairs and run into a bunch of sentient spaghettis, Mario hats, and even Chris Pratt but luckily all of them prove no match for all of them together
Tari: “Woohoo!”
Saiko: Gets to the top door and breaks it down with her hammer
Mario: Sitting on a throne still holding the laptop “So… You finally made it…” Has SMG4’s log-in paper in his hand “I’m assuming you want this back?”
SMG4: “GIVE ME BACK MY CHANNEL MARIO!”
Mario: “After everything you’ve done? No. I’m much happier now without you and the world exactly the way I want it to be.” Summons a spaghetti and scarfs it down
Tari: “Come on Mario! We know the real you is somewhere in there! Just wake up!”
Mario: “There is no real me in here Tari. THIS, is who I am…”
Meggy: “Mario…”
Mario: “QUIET!” Blasts Meggy into the wall “I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING YOU HAVE TO SAY!”
Saiko: “GET HIM!” Leaps at him with her hammer
Mario: Catches it in his hand
Saiko: “HUH?!”
Mario: “Sayanora!” yanks the hammer away and whacks her in the head sending her skidding across the floor into the wall
Bob/Boopkins: Leap at him with body pillows
Mario: Sits through the hits looking annoyed
Bob: “DaMn He’S gOoD!”
Mario: Grabs them by the heads
Boopkins: “Uh-oh…”
Mario: Clonks them together and throws them aside
Both: “OOF!”
Tari/Luigi: Leap at him “YAAAAAAAA!” Hugs his legs-
Luigi: “Pleaseeeee bro!! Just come back!”
Tari: “Yeah! We love you!”
Mario: Shakes them off his feet and they smack into the roof and come back down
Kaizo: Tries to get him from behind
Mario: Catches his scythe blade in his fingertips
Kaizo: “Oh come on…” Gets back kicked into the wall “OUCH!”
SMG4/SMG3/Meggy: Stance
Mario: “Heh heh heh. Mario think you coo coo crazy!”
SMG3: “WHY I OUTTA-“
Mario: Types SMG3 has fur for eyes
SMG3: Fur sprouts from his eyes “AHHHHHH! I CAN’T SEE!”
Mario: Types SMG3 hits the wall and faints
SMG3: Runs right into the wall “Owwww…” Fur falls off his eyes and he hits the ground knocked out
Mario: “So… Mario just has you two now.”
SMG4: “Mario…! Give me my sign-in information now or you’ll regret it…!”
Mario: “Why should Mario give it to you SMG4? Explain that.”
SMG4: “Well I NOW MEGGY!”
Meggy: “HAAAA!” Kicks him in the face from behind
Mario: “YOW!”
Meggy: Lands
Mario: … Looks up revealing half his face is now that of Shadow Mario
Meggy: “HUH?!”
Shadow Mario: “Why could you never leave well enough alone…” Types SMG4’s neck is in Mario’s hand
SMG4: Suddenly can’t move “Huh?!” Magically pulled to Mario until his neck is in his hands
Shadow Mario: Types Mario had a sword and then holds it at SMG4’s neck
SMG4: “Mario…! No please…! Don’t do this!! I’M SORRY FOR EVERYTHING I’VE DONE! I’M SORRY I’VE BEEN BEATING YOU UP FOR NOTHING!”
Shadow Mario: Pauses
SMG4: “Please Mario…! I’m sorry… For all the horrible stuff I’ve put you through…”
Shadow Mario: “…I don’t want an apology from you.” Throws him on the floor
SMG4: “DOH!”
Shadow Mario: Raises sword to stab
(I’ll finally get this done hopefully tonight.)

Opal stood up with a sigh, grimacing at the pain along her back and arm. She looked down on the man crumpled on the floor. “Sorry Devona. But life’s a bitch.”
“...fuck you,” he mumbled.
Opal’s eyes widened slightly. “Man, he’s one tough cookie. Not much he can do now though.” She pulled the documents out from her bag to verify that they were still there, and then slid them into her jacket. She turned to leave before pausing. Something felt… off. Her eyes scanned the area and she tensed herself. Even with Opal being as alert as she could, she didn’t see the fist coming at her face until it was too late. Her vision spun as her head snapped back, feeling her feet leave the ground as someone slept her legs out from under her. She pushed herself off and jumped to her feet, only to be met with a swift kick waist. She tried to swing her crowbar but a hand wrenched her wrist to the side and a knee slammed into her stomach. She doubled over and felt her lunch struggle to the surface before she was promptly slammed face-first into the wall. She slid down like wet spaghetti onto the floor.
She turned her head to the side to watch the retreating footsteps as she waited for her entire body to stop aching. Devona, if that was his name, was already sitting up, wincing but very much functional despite the blood dribbling down his face. She could see the figure now crouching beside him, doing something with their hands. It took Opal a few seconds to realise that they were signing something.
-you alright?
Devona nodded, rubbing his bruised cheek. “Yeah, I’m fine, Harlow. Don’t worry about me.”
Opal would have sworn out loud, but the pain in her face was making it hard to speak. “Are you kidding me? They sent the damn wolf after these documents too?” Speaking of the documents, why was she after them again? She frowned and rooted around her memories like a child digging in the sand. Right, to sell the information within. Wow, she was scatter-brained. Probably to do with the ringing headache she had.
She had to get away. But with her current situation, a foot race would be a pointless endeavour. All she needed to do was get to her motorcycle parked a few metres away, and she’d be able to depart. She looked over the side of the roof and studied the area. Then she rolled over the side. She grabbed onto the railings by the side and yanked them off, managing to swing herself into a window after skidding down several metres. If she couldn’t outpace Harlow, then she could at least slow them down. She shoved herself to her feet and started to run, the sound of someone scaling the wall already behind her. She shoved desks and cabinets in front of doors as she ran, the only sound she could hear being her own footsteps and bated breath. If she got caught once, if she slowed down for a single second, she’d be headed for the rocks.
She turned the corner and felt that same shiver of anticipation run up her spine. They’d caught up to her, somehow. She readied herself and ducked under but still caught the edge of the hit as Harlow appeared from behind her. She grabbed an oil can and crushed it behind her back, spilling it down onto the floor. They rushed forward anyway, using the momentum to slam into Opal and throw her across the floor. This time it was her scrambling upon the oil to get up, grabbing onto the wall to try to pull herself up. She was instead hoisted up and thrown through the door and onto the clean floor of the corridor where she pushed herself up and began to run again. Something nagged at her but she ignored it, electing to get to the exit as fast as possible.
She finally shoved the door open and ran upon the gravel, finding where her motorcycle was parked. She kicked back the stand and revved the engine, tearing off as fast as she could while weaving for good measure. She relaxed her body once she reached the empty fields of high grass, shooting a final peace sign towards the dwindling buildings. She reached into her jacket and then realised that the documents were not there.
“God. Fucking. Dammit.” That conniving bastard. They’d probably stolen the documents during that final tussle, and the nagging feeling she’d so carelessly discarded was how strange it was that they didn’t continue to chase her. There was enough time to go back, perhaps she could -
There was a massive explosion from one of the buildings, loud enough for the windows on the neighbouring structures to shatter. On second thought, perhaps she’d let this one go.
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Claren soared through the air and slammed against the ground and wall, bouncing around like a handball. He pressed a hand to his head with a groan as he stopped, barely managing to dodge the glaive that slammed into the ground and sent a blast of lightning into the earth. As he looked, he could see that metal had been infused into the bone and flesh that comprised the glaive. Laurel came at him again, swinging her glaive again and again as lightning coursed through her body. Claren blocked her attacks, but he was forced to the defensive, the lightning preventing him from getting close.
He pushed forward nevertheless, grabbing onto the end of Laurel’s glaive as she tried to drive it into his chest. He didn’t know how much longer his shield could keep up, but there was no chance for him to take a moment to recover. He could feel the heat from the electricity scouring the air, not hot enough to injure but hot enough to hurt. His fist connected with Laurel’s face and sent her flying backwards before she launched herself forward with a burst of electricity, sending him slamming through the door and into a hallway. He didn’t have time to test if his bones were broken before she was launching herself into the air, electricity worming around her like a writhing cocoon. Claren rolled to the side to avoid her slamming into the ground, sending shards of concrete everywhere. His thoughts rushed around his head as he jumped to his feet and started the process again.
Claren didn’t have time to consider the ramifications of why her magic was so different to what it had been before. All he had was to try and hold her off for long enough to… what, exactly? Figure out a way to beat her? For backup to arrive? Have the crime lords escape? He almost laughed at that one - internally, of course. He barely laughed out loud. He’d dedicated most of his life to law and order, and here he was: potentially throwing his life away for a bunch of high-end criminals. The thought of it casted a bitter taste in his mouth and he could feel his teeth grit together. The sudden, uncontrollable action startled Claren enough to make him almost freeze up. He’d trained himself for years to hold in anything of that ike, and here he was, in the midst of battle yet unable to compose himself. He smoothed his expression again and hit Laurel across the head with a hook.
“You know,” Laurel managed between breaths while dodging and weaving, “this would be a lot easier if you just stood aside.” Her glaive gave her the advantage in reach, but Claren’s bubble provided him with enough manoeuvrability to get in and out.
“I mean,” she continued, “why bother trying to save people like that? They’re scum, or lower than scum. Just the greedy pigs of the world that managed to get enough money to stay on the top of the bottom.”
It was such a mirror of his own thoughts that he almost, for a second, considered it. He tried his hardest to push her words from his mind and levelled his gaze at her. “I don’t make deals with people like you. Not to mention, you already murdered the English council, so don’t pretend like you’re above them.”
Laurel scoffed. “Please, they were politicians. Barely even people.”
She stomped her feet and a wave of electricity radiated off of her, scorching the ground and furniture around her. She raised her hands and a scent of ash filled the air. Fire suddenly flared into existence all around her, bright and blindingly hot. Claren had to jump forward as he felt himself cooking alive from the fire that rose just a few inches away from him. Laurel opened her palm and a wave of flame erupted from her hand right towards Claren. He expanded his bubble just before it washed over him, keeping the scorching heat away. He rolled to the side and outstretched his hand into a finger gun. His shield was sucked around his hand and onto the tip of his finger, hanging there like a dew drop. It fired off and slammed into Laurel, sending her flying backwards. It shot back and wrapped around Claren just as another wave of fire rushed at him.
He dodged to the side as she swung wildly with her glaive, the blade lit by flame. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his yo-yo. Laurel guffawed as she saw it, her voice revealing the emotion that her mask was hiding.
“A yo-yo? Seriously?”
Claren’s shield flowed over the yo-yo and he lashed out with it, wrapping around Laurel faster than she could register. He swung the yo-yo around and Laurel followed, being slammed all around the wall and floor like a ball attached to a ping-pong paddle. He pulled and she spun like a top as the yo-yo retracted to his hand before crumping to the floor.
“That’s Captain yo-yo to you,” Claren said dryly. The bubble from the yo-yo started to wash over him. It wavered for a second, and then shattered. That was not good. But with Laurel out for the count, he should be able to wait out for his shield to form again.
Laurel stood up. Claren was momentarily taken aback. Someone who was without any physical enhancements should have been taken out by that assault. She stretched her neck and arms.
“Nice trick. Wanna see me do it?” She lashed out with a strand of lightning, faster than Claren could dodge and wrapped it around him. While it was much faster, it barely tickled his skin as it pressed against him. Then the strand of lightning erupted into flames, and Claren could feel his flesh start to bubble. She slammed him all around the room and the world began to blur, his vision flashing white intermittently from the agony of the experience. She brought him in close, spinning him around like a ribbon dancer would, and punched him in the face. He collapsed to the ground as the last of the fiery electricity stopped holding him up, body still steaming as his wounds hissed.
Laurel picked him up by the collar and dangled him in the air.
“Like I said. This would have been a lot easier if you just stood aside.” She was tall, tall enough that with the two of them at eye-height Claren’s feet couldn’t find the floor at all. She started to carry him towards the window and Claren thought about how high the mansion was from the ground as she threw him through it.
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Cirius had taken a quick break when he felt his eyes start to slide from their sockets. He excused himself to the bathroom, died, and then came back out as fresh as a daisy. Ignoring the incredibly confused and alarmed expressions of the crime lords, he continued to lead them out until they were in the front yard.
“Welp,” he said, “you can all go home now.” He heard some commotion from the mansion, and turned around. The noises stopped.
“Huh. Must have been the wind.”
The window shattered and Claren hurtled through. Cirius scrambled around the lawn and managed to catch Claren, taking the brunt of the fall as the man slammed into him. He was burnt heavily all over, and a hiss of pain escaped his lips as Cirius set him gently upon the ground. He looked up as a figure jumped down, landing on top of a car as electricity coursed around her. It was the woman from before, still brandishing her glaive and with her mask covering her face. Bauble, was it?
“Hey,” said Cirius, because he didn’t know what else to say.
“Hey,” she returned casually, leaning against her glaive onto the ruined wreck. She seemed to be trying to appear flippant, but too much of her weight was put on the glaive for that to be true.
“Did you do this?” he asked, gesturing towards Claren.
“Yep.”
Cirius nodded. “Not going to lie, Bauble, you suck. I kinda have to fight you now.”
Even with the mask Cirius could feel her glare. “First off, it’s Laurel. Second off, I don’t have time to waste on you.” She directed her gaze towards the crowd and waved her finger around. The crowd surged as if trying to disperse before she slammed her foot and sent a wave of fire soaring up to block them.
“Not you, not you, not you,” she muttered. “Ah, there you are!” The flames dispersed and the crowd backed away from the man she was pointing to. He looked around, as if for anyone to help. Everyone turned and ran towards their cars, getting in and driving away within seconds.
Laurel twirled her glaive and jumped down. “I’m going to kill you now, okay?” She dodged leisurely to the side as Cirius tried to tackle her, sending volts of electricity through his body with a casual backhand. She grabbed Cirius by the collar and threw him with a blast of lightning, hurtling him several metres away. The man turned to run and she shot out a small bolt of lightning, seizing him up and collapsing him to the ground. She stepped forward, scraping the glaive across the scorched grass before being slammed in the back. She whipped around to see Claren pointing his index finger, his face screwed up in pain yet eyes forced open.
“You really don’t know when to quit, so you?” she snarled. She hoisted her glaive into the air but was interrupted once again as Cirius popped out and managed to grasp onto Laurel’s leg. Before she could kick him off, he clambered up onto her back and clung to her.
“What the fUCKKK” she yelled, the yell turning into a screech as Cirius bit down as hard as he could on her shoulder. She wheeled around wildly, shouting curses to the sky as she tried her hardest to shake Cirius off. He continued to hang on, his fingers gripping tightly and only the gloves preventing his nails from sinking into her skin. Fire and lightning roiled off of her yet Cirius continued to cling on. She slammed her back against the mansion again and again. Cirius heard something crunch from within his body. Still holding on with one hand, he grabbed a disk from his pocket and tossed it into the air. Dropping down, he kicked at Laurel’s feet before running away as the disk exploded and sent debris tumbling down onto her. He ran to Claren and hauled him up, trying his best not to touch the deep burns. He turned his attention to the man who was still lying on the ground as if pretending to be dead. Cirius walked over while holding up Claren and kicked him in the side.
“Ah! Just kill me quickly!” he screamed before seeing that it was just Cirius. Cirius stared down at him.
“Just get up and help me support Claren.”
They managed to get into a building and barricade the door. Cirius propped Claren up against the wall as the man started to pace the halls.
“God, where are the guards! They should have stopped her!” he yelled. Cirius grabbed a pen and threw it at his head.
“Shut up. She’s going to hear us.”
“Hear us! Who cares if she hears us! She’ll find us anyway! We’re doomed!”
Claren slitted his eyes open. “Keep it down. I have a headache and it’s…”
“Killing you?” Cirius interjected.
Claren raised an eyebrow. “No. My wounds are killing me. My headache is simply a pain to deal with.”
Cirius chewed his lip. He needed a plan. Devona and Harlow were both off somewhere else, and he didn’t have time to wait for them to come around.
“Think, think,” he muttered to himself. An idea sparked in his head. It wasn’t very good, but it was all he had.
“You there,” he said, pointing at the man who he had thrown the pen at. “Uh, what’s your name?”
“Winston Haxter,” supplied Claren with a pained voice. “He’s the one I was supposed to be negotiating with.”
“I see, I see. What’s your discipline?”
“I, uh, can run well.”
Cirius hummed. “Super-speed, eh? Yeah, I can work with that.”
“No, I run at normal speed. But like, I don’t get tired. I can just keep running.”
“Huh. So you have infinite stamina?”
“Yeah. But like… just for running.”
Cirius hummed again. “Well, I can probably still work with that.” He stepped towards Winston and pointed towards a long hallway. “Alright, when she gets here, you’re going to start running down there.”
“What! She’ll kill me!”
“Come on man. Your magic is literally just running. You can outpace her. ‘Sides, I have a plan. Claren’s going to be at the end of the hallway, and he’ll bubble the two of you up. I’ll distract her and lead her far away where I’ll… I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.”
Winston stared at him. “You’ll die.”
“Oh, most definitely. In fact, probably several times! But hey, that’s just how it is.”
Winston’s face dropped even more, if that was even possible. “You’re absolutely insane. We’re all going to die.”
“Nope! Just me! Anyways, go wait by the hallway. Don’t want to lose any ground.” He walked over to Claren before Winston could protest. He sat down next to him.
“Hey.”
Claren titled his head down. “Mr. Walker.”
“You up for the plan?”
He shifted his body and winced. “I am. I don’t think it’s an especially good plan, but I don’t see a better way.” A strange expression settled over his face. It took a while for Cirius to discern it. It was discontentment, irritation, bitterness. Claren seemed to recognise this and swallowed the expression.
“You know, it’s not too late to toss Winston at her and walk away.”
“What did you say?” Winston called out.
“Nothing!”
Claren sighed and his shoulders sagged. “No. That’s not for me to decide. I have a job, and I need to do it.”
“Why? I mean, you clearly don’t want to protect him.”
Claren looked away. The two of them sat in silence before Clarne spoke up again. “I need to do my job because it’s… it’s not a good job. It doesn’t feel good to look people you know have done horrible, horrible things in the eye and shake their hand. To watch them walk away and know that you could have stopped them but… couldn’t. Or just didn’t. I won’t - I can’t let anyone else do that.” His hand reached up to the two rings on his fingers and twisted them - a golden band with a bright yellow gem and a silver band with a cool blue one.
Cirius stared at the ground. “Wow. That kinda sucks.”
Claren huffed a laugh. “That it does.” He shook his head. “Look at me, talking about my feelings while on the job. How unprofessional.” He staggered to his feet. “You should go and get prepared. Won’t be long until she finds us.”
Claren was right. The door was thrown off its hinges and a figure ducked down. The light glinted off the white mask as Laurel stood in the frame. She stared down across the room at Winston, who was doing a very good job looking like a deer in headlights. She cocked her head to the side. Winston bolted down the hallway, his breaths sharp and panicked. She blasted forward with a bolt of lightning, each step energised as she leisurely followed him.
Laurel ran down the hallway, every step bringing her closer to Winston. Cirius let out a silent exhale. It was time. All the doors along the hallway were open, and a short figure jumped out of one only to be met with an immediate blast of lightning so strong it sent the figure slamming back immediately. Laurel had anticipated a trap being laid. Unfortunately for her, Cirius had anticipated her anticipation. The makeshift, stuffed, humanoid doll wearing Cirius clothes smouldered, the string that attached it to the tripwire carefully hidden across the floor snapped from the sudden force of the lightning. At the same moment as she turned to unleash her magic, Cirius leapt from the opposing side and tackled Laurel, sending the two of them crashing to the ground.
Laurel grabbed him by the arm and slammed him into the wall, fire roiling off of her and washing over him. Cirius kicked at Laurel until he felt it connect with something hard and her grip loosened. He dropped down as he realised that his eyeballs had been burnt off. He scrambled around blindly for several seconds before a glaive tore through his chest and ripped him in half. A foot stomped on his head again and again until his skull cracked open and his brains were mushed upon the floor. Laurel stomped on the desecrated body again and again until blood and gore started to coat the cuffs of her pants.
“You know, I’m starting to feel a little insulted.” She whipped her head around and stared at Cirius, standing there perfectly fine.
“Wha- you-” she looked back at the corpse, then at Cirius. “I killed you!”
“You missed.”
She looked back at the corpse. “No I fucking didn’t!” She grabbed her glaive and threw it at him, slicing his face wide open along with the rest of his head. The top half of his head slid cleanly off and onto the floor.
“Missed again,” said Cirius from behind her. She gathered lightning in her hand and sent a bolt right through him.
“You should really aim better.”
“What the fuck!” Laurel screamed. “I killed you! I killed you several times!” “Yeah, I get that a lot.” He dodged the glaive being thrown at him again and turned to run. Laurel charged after him, each charged step leaving cracks within the floor. He ducked down as she ripped through the air, fire and lightning trailing behind her. She brought down a wave of flame with a kick, following it up by swinging her glaive as it crackled with lightning. Cirius ducked under, rushing forward through the flame and punching Laurel in the stomach. His gloves glowed for a second, a frosty cyan that pierced the air, and a blast of energy ripped out that slammed Laurel into the wall.
Cirius was hit with a wave of exhaustion. He’d died thrice in a row, and although there didn’t seem to be any limit on how many times he could die and revive, it certainly wore on him after a while. He needed to think of something to do. Laurel was already drawing herself back to her feet, her mask shifted to the side and revealing her cold, hard eyes that blazed with fury. His mind scoured all of what he knew of buildings like this.
“The boiler room! Of course! If I can get there, I can blow this place sky high and take her down with it.” He forced himself up and started to run, turning around briefly to wave at Laurel. As expected, she gave chase, her movements more akin to a rabid animal than a hunter. He ran through winding corridors and locked doors, barely dodging the stray bolt of lightning or fireball. He could already feel the exhaustion from dying and reviving thrice in a row; he’d be too tired to outpace Laurel if he had to die again.
He reached the door to the boiler just as Laurel caught up, tackling Cirius and sending him crashing through the old, rotten wood. She kicked him in the face as he slid across the floor, preventing him from righting himself. She stepped forward and pressed her foot down on his back.
“I wonder,” she said, “how many times can you die until it becomes too much? Is there even a limit for you?” Her voice was sing-songy and slightly manic, like glass about to shatter into thousands of sharp, sharp fibres. Cirius rooted around his pocket. He didn’t feel any explosives. He clicked his fingers and a spark flicked to life, the cyan light barely visible before fizzling out.
“I mean, if there is, I certainly haven’t reached it yet.” He clicked again and a bigger spark emerged. He managed to shoot it out of his index finger right towards one of the thermal tanks. The tiny spark travelled through the air, hit the tank and did absolutely nothing.
“Well. We’re screwed.” As Cirius started to lament his poor planning skills, Laurel’s head snapped up.
“What was that?”
“Uh. Nothing,” Cirius replied like the excellent liar he was. Laurel cocked her head. “Oh, so that sound from behind that thermal tank over there was nothing?” She lifted her arm and her hand flared with electricity. “Hope you won’t mind this, then.” She shot a bolt of lightning and hit the thermal dead centre. There was a beat of silence. “Oh, fuck.” A moment later, absolutely nothing happened.
“Oh. I really thought those were going to explode. Like, as soon as I realised I had blasted lightning at a thermal tank, I was all ‘that’s going to explode’.” She laughed. “Wow. That’s pretty funny.”
Cirius felt something brush up against the hand that was still in his pocket. He pulled it out.
“Oh hey! I still have an explosive disk!” He activated it, threw it at the thermal tank and the world exploded.
“-ey. Wake up.” Cirius blearily opened up his eyes. He was laid out across the floor next to what presumably had been the building. Claren was crouched next to him, snapping his fingers in front of his face.
“Oh, good. You’re awake.”
Cirius nodded and got up. He was so incredibly tired, but a sense of accomplishment filled his chest. “We did it.”
Claren nodded. “Indeed we did.”
There was a small silence before Cirius broke it. “Hey, about what you said before. I know it probably isn’t much, coming from me, but,” Cirius hovered his hand above Claren’s shoulder. “I think you’re really awesome.”
Claren bowed his head. “Thank you, Cirius.” He stared at the hand. “I’m sorry, what is this?”
“Well, I heard from bossman that you don’t like physical touch. So I’m doing this to show reassurance while still respecting your boundaries.”
Claren blinked. “That’s… pretty thoughtful, actually.”
“Hey, uh, am I safe to go now?” Winston asked, standing a few feet away and ruining the moment.
“Yeah, it should be all good,” Cirius responded before a bolt of lightning ripped through Winston’s head.
Claren immediately flared up his shield around the two of them, blocking the next bolt of lightning. Laurel, her mask half-shattered to show her furious eye, tuxedo torn with skin scraped raw underneath, and arm clearly broken staggered towards them.
“You clever, clever little fucker. You led me on quite the wild goose chase.” Her mouth twisted into a manic grin. “Typically, I’d just leave you be. But now? I think I’m going to kill the shield guy first and string out his body across the buildings here. Then I’m going to throw the little one in a box and toss him into the deepest, darkest part of the ocean.” She hoisted her glaive as lightning crackled around her, larger and more volatile than before.
Claren narrowed his eyes. “Cirius. Are you in any condition to fight?”
Cirius shook his head. “Going to be honest, this feels like a running situation.” As if on cue, a wall of flames erupted to life around them.
Something silent flew through the air. A thin, red line appeared over Laurel’s cheek. The crossbow bolt embedded into a wall. Laurel turned around and Harlow faced her, holding a crossbow aimed straight at her. There was a beat of silence as Harlow stared her down, their message held clearly in their hands. Laurel stamped her foot and a circle of flame enveloped her. When it cleared, she was gone. Harlow stared off towards the air, as if contemplating pursuing her, but turned to Claren and Cirius instead.
“I must admit, it would have been very useful having you here earlier.”
I was busy, they replied as they poured a blue vial over Claren’s wounds.
“Where’s bossman?” “Right here.” Devona popped into existence behind them and his eyes scanned the area. He looked down at the two of them. “Claren. You don’t look so good.”
“I could say the same about you. Broken hip?”
“Certainly feels like it. Cirius, you alright?”
Cirius flashed him a thumbs up. “You know it.”
“I’ll inform you of the details after I get these wounds treated,” Claren told Harlow. “I think I’ll be fine to walk on my own for now. I’ll let you know if I require any assistance.”
They made it all the way back to the original drop-off point and called Axon. After Claren explained a basic overview of why they were so late and Harlow was forced to promise to describe everything that happened, the portals opened up. Claren waved Harlow and Cirius through but held Devona back.
“Yeah? What’s up?”
Claren hummed. “Cirius was… the only reason that I survived. If it wasn’t for him, then I wouldn’t be here right now. He may seem strange and irrational, but-”
“When push comes to shove, you can count on him.”
Claren nodded. “It took me a while to realise that. But from what I’ve heard from Axon, you seem to be able to put up with Cirius’s less serious side very well. How is that?”
Devona scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know. Guess I’m just used to it.”
“I see.” Claren bowed his head. “Goodbye, Mr. Verdant. And do get that hip checked.”
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“Jamie, no! That’s a terrible idea!”
“Come on, Vivian. It’ll be great! I’ve constructed the perfect plan!”
Vivian folded his arms. “Oh yeah? And what is that, pray tell?”
“Alright, so, in order to make our own water-slide, we steal all the blankets from all the houses and wet them. We tie them together, and then we attach it all around the town and slide around! It’d be amazing!”
Vivian stared at his twin sister with a mix of disbelief and amazement. “And how are we going to attach it all around the town?”
She faltered. “I’ll… I don’t know. I’ll think of something.” She clasped her hands together. “Come onnnnn Vivi, please!”
Vivian sighed. “Fine. Just this once,” he replied, perhaps for the fifteenth time.
“Yay!” Jamie slung her arm over his shoulder. “I promise you, this is going to be awesome.”
“I’m sure,” he responded dryly, but he couldn’t hide the small grin on his fsce.
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Laurel Pariah was pissed. She winced as she jolted her broken arm, and she felt how her entire body radiated with pain from every movement she took. The wind was howling, so she didn’t hear the footsteps approaching until they were right behind her.
“You’ve returned,” the figure said brightly.
“That I have.”
The Dreamer hummed, and Laurel shifted her gaze to see him picking at his nails. “Did you achieve your mission?”
“I did. I just ran into some… complications.”
The Dreamer chuckled unkindly. “I can see that.” He cocked his head to the side, his expression hidden behind a mask decorated with white stars. “You broke your mask again. They’re not going to be pleased if you keep doing that, you know?”
“They collapsed a fucking building on me. What do you exp-”
The Dreamer put his hands up. “Hey now, hold your horses. Yes, yes, opponents were tough yadda yadda. I get it, I really do. Sucks to get your ass beaten so often, doesn’t it, poor little baby? I mean, I wouldn’t know, but still.”
Laurel grit her teeth. “Go fuck yourself.”
The Dreamer laughed. “Well then, I’ll see you later, Demon of Babel. Toodles!” He walked away, deep into the thicket of trees until he vanished from sight. Laurel kicked at the dirt before turning to walk away too, leaving only the wind to howl to an empty sky.

There’d been another shooting today, in some dainty little cafe downtown, in the places tucked so neatly away only people who had visited there their whole lives went. Pete Cordell sighed to himself as he stepped past the shattered glass. Once, the scene inside the cafe would have made his stomach turn. These days, the sight of eviscerated bodies and rooms painted with blood barely fazed him. The entire cafe was ruined, bullet holes riddling every surface imaginable. He whistled, low.
“They must have used up ten mags to do this much damage,” he observed out loud.
“Hey, you’re finally here!”
Pete looked up at the new voice - a man he’d worked with for a bit under four years now but still barely knew anything about - Wesley Smith. “Crazy shit, isn’t it? You’d think it was an action movie in here with the amount of bullets they dumped.”
“I’ll say,” Pete grumbled.
“That ain’t the weirdest shit though. Come over here.” Dividing the cafe in half was a massive sheet, and Wesley brushed past it as Pete followed. He stared.
On the ground was a gun - which wasn’t the first thing to draw his attention. What did draw his attention was the pool of blood on the ground, way too large for any normal injury to have caused. He moved his gaze around and his jaw slackened. Slumped against the wall were the remains of a black-robed man - although remains were generous, considering all that remained was a single arm, a head, and blood-soaked garments. The wall behind the remains was cracked and severely dented, as if something great and powerful had rammed into it. A few feet away, a body had its head entirely gone, nowhere to be seen, with only a spray of blood, a stain of flesh and the same deep impact on the wall where the head should have been.
“Pretty freaky, right?” Wesley’s facade of bravado wouldn’t have fooled even a child. “Makes you feel like you’re in one of them horror stories, you know?”
“I’ll say,” Pete repeated, coughing to get rid of his shaky voice. A buzz from his radio drew his attention, and he held it up to his ear.
“All officers to the station now. I repeat, all officers to the station now.” The voice on the other end was… strange, but Pete chalked that up to his wracked nerves.
He nodded to Wesley and ignored the strange feeling in his stomach. “Alright. Let’s go.”
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A few days later, Pete was flipping pancakes in the kitchen. His wife came up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist as the kids squabbled around the table.
“Had a good sleep?” He asked as she rested her chin on his shoulder.
She hummed in affirmation. “How was the latest case?” she asked.
He frowned. It’d been another shooting, in some dainty cafe downtown, and he’d… hang on, what had he done? Before he could strain himself too much, a memory slotted into place and he relaxed.
“Oh, nothing special. Nothing special at all.”
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It was just a few minutes into the breaking of dawn that a massive clanging woke Devona up. He shot out of the bed, not falling out of the bed but instead scrambling for the lightswitch as he got to his feet. His brain pushed past the fight or flight instinct that had shattered his sleep and he relaxed again as his memories came back. A few months into WICCA’s formation, during the time that they had been starting to talk to each other for purposes other than business, they’d headed over to Cirius’s abode.
“And here is my bed!”
They all stared at the bare mattress lying upon a metal frame, only a thin scrap of fabric and something that was barely a pillow upon it. The rest of the apartment wasn’t faring much better, with only a mini-fridge in the kitchen and one of each bathroom item. The walls were a murky grey with the wallpaper peeling, and there was a stench of alcohol in the air.
Axon let out a whistle. “Damn, you live like this?” Her expression turned solemn. “Seriously, though, these conditions are pretty rough.”
Cirius shrugged. “Eh. Could be worse. I used to just find a dumpster that wasn’t full and sleep in there.”
Devona sucked in a breath. “That’s… really bad.”
Cirius gave another shrug. “Some dumpsters aren’t that bad actually. Getting chased away with a broom for being an intruder or like, getting shot, is worse.”
“Well, moving on from that depressing bit of background, you could for sure get a better apartment with how much you’re being paid,” Axon interjected.
Cirius’s eyes widened. “I could?”
“Yeah, man. You know how much money you have. It’s all in your bank account.”
His eyes widened further. I have a bank account?”
“What do you mean? I sent the details to you through your email…” Understanding dawned across her face. “Goddamn it.”
There was a crash outside of the apartment, drawing their attention towards it. Devona walked open to the door and gingerly opened it to reveal two men tussling upon the ground, swearing angrily at each other.
“Hey John!” exclaimed Cirius cheerfully as the man on top lifted his fist and slammed it on the other’s face.
Devona stepped forward with his hands held out placatingly in front of himself.
“Alright, now, let’s calm-”
Devona was interrupted as he was talking by a fist swinging straight towards his face. As he reeled back, another hand was already closing over it and forcing the assailant down. Harlow stared down at the man they were forcing down with a singular hand, watching as his expression strained to continue to look defiant through the pain.
They pressed down further, causing the man’s expression to shift into pain as he hammered onto the floor with his free hand, hollering to let him go.
Devona gingerly placed his hand on their shoulder. “Hey, I think that’s enough now.”
Harlow raised an eyebrow at them. He tried to punch you.
“Well, he didn’t punch me.”
Harlow tilted their head but let go of the person, allowing him to run off with a bruised ego and most likely a bruised wrist. The other man got up and staggered away, the smell of alcohol fresh in the air. Devona let his hand drop as Harlow watched them go, wiping their hand upon their cloak.
After that, Cirius had thankfully used the money to get a proper apartment. Or rather, several proper apartments since he kept getting kicked out. And now he had found himself inside Devona’s new house. Devona sighed and rubbed his eyes to get rid of the tiredness, heading down the stairs to see what the commotion was all about. Cirius was sprawled upon the floor, his pillow several feet away, the couch he was staying on half tipped over and his blanket looking like it had been attacked by a savage animal.
He waved. “Hey bossman.”
Devona stared. “How.”
“Well, you see, I kinda woke up. And stuff was like this.”
Devona sighed and picked Cirius up. He held him like a cat, with his hands underneath the arms as Cirius’s legs dangled, and plopped him down onto the couch after pushing it down with his feet. He began to clean up the rest of the mess. Cirius shot to his feet instantly.
“I could-”
Devona waved him off. “It’s fine. It’s early, just try to get some more rest in. I’ll get another blanket.” He continued to clean up in silence, blinking the sleep from his eyes. He turned and Cirius was still sitting up, shuffling his feet awkwardly.
“Well, if we’re not going to sleep again, why don’t we eat breakfast? I’ll get the cereal.”
They ate together in silence, letting the sound of chewing fill the air. As Devona was thinking about setting up a garden outside, Cirius spoke up.
“Sorry for the blanket. And for waking you up. And-“
Devona raised a hand. “I told you, it’s fine.” Internally, he frowned.
“Was Cirius still hung up about that?” He had noticed an uncanny silence, but he had drawn that up to tiredness. Speaking of, was Cirius even tired? Cirius had been wide awake every time Devona had gone to bed, and wide awake when Devona awoke. One time, Devona had walked blearily down the stairs to get a glass of water in the dead of night, and almost got a heart attack from Cirius suddenly talking.
“So, what’s the mission for today, bossman?” Cirius interrupted his train of thought, rocking on his chair and back to his usual bounciness.
“Well, if you read your email, you’d know,” Devona deadpanned before relenting. “It’s just an attendance to some event that acts as a cover for underground dealings. While Claren deals with negotiations, we mingle with the crowd unless Harlow needs some backup. They’ll be off stealing some documents.” He polished off the last of the cereal. “We should get some more rest before the mission. Don’t want to be too tired.”
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Claren and Harlow were already there when Cirius and Devona arrived. They were all dressed in suits again, like they had been at that party months back. Claren took a few seconds to assess their outfits. Before the mission, Claren had talked with Devona, telling him that he would stand out too much. His height was the most obvious, but according to Claren his posture was ‘too subdued and open to pass as a crime lord’. Instead, Devona would be with Harlow, finding the documents, while Cirius would be a possible back-up to Claren. Really, it was because it was doubtful that he would be able to carry out a stealth mission.
Devona went over to greet Harlow. After exchanging conversation, he grabbed Harlow by the shoulder and the two of them vanished. Claren adjusted his suit, the light glinting off of the two rings on his fingers. “Well, you can go and mingle with the party. If I’m in trouble, try to cause a distraction.”
Cirius nodded thoughtfully. “Explosions?”
“Try to keep those to a minimum.”
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Cirius was mingling, but he was not mingling happily. The people really did hold themselves in a different way than Devona did, with pushed up chests and little hand waves. Everyone who talked to him seemed to need to suddenly leave, so Cirius was currently standing by the food table chomping on dishes.
“Real boring party,” a voice drawled.
Cirius turned. He tilted his head and stopped biting down on the plate. Leaning up against the table with an easy casualness, dressed in a full tuxedo with bowtie and tailed coat, the speaker plucked a grape from the stem and popped it into her mouth. Her rainbow scarf swished as she swivelled her head to look down at him, and her mismatched eyes were lit with amusement. She seemed familiar, but Cirius couldn’t put his finger on why. “Wouldn’t you say so?”
Cirius thought about this. “Eh, it’s alright. I remember one time I blacked out at a party like this and woke up in a bathtub filled with ice.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “You’re a pretty funny guy,” she snickered, waving a fork at him.
Her smile tapered into a grin, and her eyes narrowed. “But in my opinion, this party could really use some better entertainment.” She pulled a mask over her face - one of a white demon with small, pointed horns, and drew a glaive from her back. She threw it. The glaive soared through the air, and Cirius watched as it trailed dried intestines through the air before embedding itself deep inside the chest of one of the guests. Screams tore through the air and Cirius remembered that murder was not good.
“Claren, there’s been a murder! That’s not good!” he yelled, his voice drowned out by the din of panic and magic. The woman dodged past beams of energy and fire, grabbing onto the handle of the glaive and swinging it in a wide arc around her, carving into anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby. Claren burst out from the room, his eyes narrowing and shield wrapping around him as soon as he realised the situation. He pressed up against the wall and then shot forward, like a rubber ball that had suddenly been decompressed. The woman’s cackling was interrupted as he slammed into her full force, sending the both of them crashing across the floor.
“Laurel Pariah. I didn’t expect you to show your face again so soon.” Cirius was close enough to hear them, and it helped that everybody had either ran away or died.
“So, my reputation precedes me,” Laurel responded brightly, kicking Claren off and swinging her glaive right at him. He raised his arm and it glanced off the glimmering shield, giving him an opportunity to land a blow at her gut. She stumbled back and he struck her across the head as she was darting backwards. Her glaive sliced through the air but ricocheted off of Claren’s shield, and he grabbed the bladed end to bring Laurel in closer. She kicked at him, causing her leg to bounce back and almost knock her over, only being held above ground by an uppercut directly into her stomach. She managed to stagger backwards, coughing.
“Wow, you really don’t play around do you?” she wheezed. “I didn’t expect to use my magic so soon, but I guess it can’t be helped.”
Claren moved back, tilting his head towards Cirius. “Go herd the people outside to safety. I’ll deal with her.” Cirius flashed him a thumbs up and headed in the direction of panicked shouts. Claren’s eyes scoured the room, as if looking for whatever Laurel may use against him. Speaking of Laurel, something strange appeared to be happening to her. Her skin seemed pale, almost bright. No, definitely bright - glowing, in fact. Before Claren could register it fully however, Laurel pivoted with a kick and sent a bolt of lightning slamming into him.
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The two of them had gotten past security with ease, Devona stealing documents from right under noses and Harlow repeating the pattern of fingerprints upon keyboards. The two of them were currently sitting upon beams, dangling their legs high above the ground.
Just a few more, and we’ll be out of here soon.
Devona tilted his head to the side. “These people really love to party, huh.”
Harlow chewed their cheek. Well, it’s sort of a coping mechanism. Unlike the more recent sorcerers like you and I, these people grew up in a society wholly made from those who possess magic. There’s a certain sense of… superiority within those places. To them, death was less of a constant presence. That was until the Scourges came. Suddenly humans, magic or not, were all pushed down a level on the food chain. That sudden shock of mortality, paired with the changing landscape of the world, is certain to cause some stress. They leaned backwards on their hands. Not to mention, it’s a pretty good cover for criminal activity.
Devona hummed. “Yeah, the world's a chaotic place.” He bowed his head slightly. “Do you think we can win? Against the Scourges, that is.”
Their tongue traced the inside of their mouth as they mulled, an action mirrored from others despite their mouth never being used to talk. It’s unclear. We don’t even know where the Scourges are coming from or what they are. There could be only a small handful left in the world, or there could be legions waiting to invade. We manage to push them back, but not without loss. The Scourge at Scotland was one of the weaker ones. The teleporting Scourge was one of the less destructive ones. And yet they managed to cause so much devastation. They tilted their head to meet his gaze. But I think we’ll win.
Devona smiled. “I hope so.”
How’s it going with Cirius at your place, by the way?
Devona scrunched up his forehead as memories came flooding in. “Well, he doesn’t eat unless I make him. Or really visit the bathroom since he doesn’t eat. I don’t even think he sleeps, at least not most of the time. I’ve also never seen him change his clothes. He seems weirdly nervous at times though. He’s probably destroyed like five of my blankets by now. He keeps giving me heart attacks at night by scurrying around the house. He tried to cook once and blew up the entire kitchen. I’m not even exaggerating, he had third degree burns all over his skin. Took me ages to patch him up, especially with him refusing to remove his clothing.” Devona sighed and noticed Harlow’s expression. They had a bemused expression on their face. “What is it?” You’re quite an attentive person, that’s all. They turned their gaze elsewhere. The last of the physical documents should be three doors down on the rightmost corridor.
“What will you be doing?”
Attending to my own business. I’ll meet you afterwards.
Devona nodded and vanished, leaving Harlow alone underneath the clouded sky.
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The hierarchy of the world was simple. At the bottom were the plants, the insects, the ones who barely fed themselves and were gorged upon or crushed by a wayward hand. On top, edging them out were the small predators, the mice and shrews of the world. And above them this and this and that until up on top the world, the pinnacle of power, was humanity. Of course, there was division within humanity. Some believed it to be race, or gender, or sexuality, or any other sort of arbitrary difference they’d use to hold a sense of superiority over others. But the true division, the fissure that stretched across like the mouth of a god, was magic.
Opal Pact was currently walking upon the tightrope across that fissure. To live in a world of magic without any of your own was common, given how billions of people did it, but to know about magic and to live in its world was less so. Of course, it was a lot less dramatic than her mini-monologues in her head, like the one about hierarchies, had made it seem. Most would expect fabulous displays of power, magic that could bend and buckle nations. Instead, they got people who could throw fancy balls that were basically slower, less effective bullets, or throw fireballs which were once again slower, less effective bullets, or become pinnacles of physical brawn who were immune to bullets and who were as susceptible to chemical warfare as anybody else. Even the ones who held incredible power weren’t immune to a knife in their neck in the dead of night. The point was, Opal was less of walking upon a tightrope and more of peering into a secret party and inviting herself in. Besides, if those unedited videos of cities’ destruction were anything to go buy, humans weren’t the top of the food-chain anymore, magic or not.
She whistled to herself, the tune of some forgotten song as she twirled a crowbar between her fingers. She knocked on the door to the security room and then smashed it open, interrupting the guard who was in the middle of trying to figure out why several of the cameras had stopped working. The smashing of the crowbar into his face sent several of his teeth scattering, and he collapsed onto his desk. He’d be fine, probably. Opal mentally shrugged with that thought and pushed him off the wheely chair, letting him flop onto the floor as she took a seat. She grabbed a can of oil from her bag and poured it out the door, letting it run down across the hallway. The tinted plastic she’d stuck to the lights before she’d made her entrance were just yellow enough that anyone who came rushing in wouldn’t have time to notice the oil until it was too late.
Opal slammed the door as shut as she could, kicking her feet onto the table and popping a piece of gum into her mouth. She chewed, letting the sugar flare upon her tongue as her fingers ran across the keyboard. There was a sound of people yelling, then the sound of bodies slamming against the wall and floor. She stretched her arms behind her head, kicking off of the desk to avoid the blast of energy that ripped right through the door. It was shoved open and Opal pushed off the wall towards the attacker, pulling out her taser and jabbing it into his stomach. He staggered and then slipped, falling chin-first onto the floor. She stepped off of the chair and kicked it, sending it bouncing around and knocking down the few guards who managed to remain standing. She slid across the floor, using the slickness to her advantage to weave past grasping hands and past the oil. Grabbing a matchbox from her hand, she struck a match and held it loftily between the fingers. The effect was immediate, with all the guards scrambling across the floors on either all fours or trying their best to stand up. She tossed the match to the oil-slicken ground and slid into the next room. The oil wasn’t flammable.
The oil eventually rubbed off from the friction, leaving Opal to walk along the floor. She eventually found what she came for. She smashed the lock off of the door, the alarm already having been disabled by her in the security room. She popped her bubble of gum and pushed the door open. Standing in the room, looking incredibly confused, was an incredibly tall man. He stared at her, the documents on the desk in front of him. She stared at him. He stared at her. She grabbed the tablecloth and threw it over his head, snatching up the documents as he stumbled back.
Opal dove out the door before the man could get his bearings, skidding across the floor and breaking into a sprint. She pulled out a bag of marbles and tossed it behind her, spilling the contents all across the floor. She used the crowbar to jam the door behind her shut, running past the winding hallways. The exit wasn’t far, and soon she’d be able to hop on her motorcycle and be scot free.
She wheeled around the corner and almost collided into a group of sorcerers. She could tell they were sorcerers since they immediately threw blasts of energy her way as she ducked behind the wall. One of them charged forward and punched the wall where her head had been. He lifted his arm to strike again and then vanished.
“Huh?” The other sorcerers seemed equally confused. Something appeared from nowhere and smacked into the face of one, leaving the last to look around panickedly before the frying pan knocked him out. The man from before appeared out of thin air, looking much more annoyed than he had before. He waved his pan at her face.
“Alright, who the hell are you?”
“Invisibility, probably. Strong as well if he managed to bypass the crowbar so easily, or crafty if he found another way to track me,” her mind supplied.
Opal rooted around for her spray-can. “Who am I? Oh, no-one really. Just a gal trying to make her way in the world.”
The man narrowed his eyes. “Would you be willing to hand over the documents?”
Opal pressed her thumb and index to her chin. “Eh, probably not.”
He sighed. He vanished right as Opal lifted her spray can and sent a blast of black into his face. She broke into a sprint, shoving the documents into her pocket as she continued to dash.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Being short certainly had its shortcomings. Cirius couldn’t shout louder than the clamour, so he climbed onto whatever surface he could find and grabbed onto a plate and a fork. He scraped the prongs along the ceramic and the screech was loud enough to catch everyone’s attention.
“Alright, alright, listen up! I’ve been told to get you guys out of here, so that’s what I’m going to do.”
The people still seemed panicked and extremely suspicious. One of them aimed a hand full of fire at him. “Who the hell are you? And why should we listen to you?”
“You guys are running around too much! Look, that guy has other people standing on top of him!”
“Help.”
“In an emergency situation, it’s always good to have someone to direct everyone else. People tend to panic and move erratically, so having a leader allows the people to calm themselves down and move in a controlled manner, minimising the risk to themselves and each other,” Cirius recited. He felt a dash of smugness for remembering the entire thing.
The people did not seem very impressed. They stared up at him with confused and vaguely disgusted expressions.
“Anyways, the point is, we’re going to leave now.”
“What about the people back there!” one person exclaimed. “I have a husband who’s possibly dying right now!”
Cirius frowned. “What did he look like?” “He had- he has blonde hair, is wearing a suit with a blue tie-”
“Oh, I think I saw who you’re talking about!”
“Really? Was he alright?”
Cirius scratched his head. “Uh, well, if he can survive without his head on then he should be good.”
“What the hell is wrong with you!”
“Come on, man!” “Why would you say that?”
Exclamations and cries of dismay rose up from the crowd and suddenly everyone was yelling at him.They started to throw plates and utensils at him, throwing insults along with them.
“Alright, alright, let’s just calm down,” he tried to say over the clamour. A plate smacked onto his head and dazed him for a second. Frustration bubbled in his chest as the people kept on yelling and yelling and the noise built up and up until the frustration melded into anger and burst from him.
“Shut up! Shut up, all of you!” he yelled, his own voice barely rising above the chaos. He grabbed a plate of his own and threw it into the crowd. “I’m trying to save your goddamn lives you idiots!”
Something bright came flying at him and he felt his body light ablaze, the fire rapidly spreading over his clothes and flesh. A silence fell over the crowd, their expressions now of shock and bewilderment rather than outrage. He moved his head towards the one who threw the fireball, the slight movement drawing gasps from the people around him. He jumped down from the table and walked towards the attacker, everyone else clearing a wide berth around him. He dug his fingernails into his bubbling flesh, tearing deep and causing blood to spill out, dampening the flames with a hiss. Blood dripped onto the floor as he flexed his hand before pulling his arm back and punching the elemental in the face. His hand practically exploded, spraying gore and viscera all over the man’s features. He fell to the floor with a horrified scream, too distracted to notice Cirius lifting a chair until it was already coming down on his head. Cirius patted down his body, ripping away at skin where the fire refused to die out. He turned to the crowd - or at least, the blurry outline of the crowd.
“So, are we ready to go now?” he asked brightly. He lifted his hand to scratch at his face and felt bone. The crowd nodded, subdued. “Pick that guy up, by the way.” He turned to the exit and they all followed suit.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Devona was not having a good time. He’d managed to avoid most of the spray, but he’d needed to wipe away at his eyes before they stung too much. He floated past the groaning guards on the oil-slick floor, up the stairs to the upper floors. Marbles were strewn across the ground, and one man was rolling around while clutching his spray-painted eyes. The window on the far end was smashed open despite the latch being unlocked. Peeking his head around, he could see the perpetrator running along the rooftop, sticking her tongue out at the people on the ground. She grabbed an egg from her pocket and slung it at the head of one, exploding it all over his face as he tried to grab his gun.
She ducked down and slid along the tiles as bullets fired above her head, grabbing the side and swinging down into the window. A few seconds later, a chair was flung out and slammed into the remaining guards. A guard rushed up to the window next to Devona, pulling out a machine gun. Devona wasn’t a fan of excessive violence against his enemies, so he introduced his face to a frying pan. At the same time, the thief, as Devona had dubbed her, was thrown from the window. She managed to grab onto the curtain and ripped it as she slid down the wall, landing with a thud onto the ground. Standing there in the doorframe, holding onto ruffled documents as air swirled was a guard, more filing around her with magic swirling in the air.
Devona felt movement behind him and phased out, dodging the blast of energy that would have taken off his head. He grabbed the guard and phased them out with him, using their newfound weightlessness to throw them as hard. All eyes snapped to the man as he flew through the air, giving Devona enough time to swoop down and phase out the thief.
He dropped the two of them on the roof of the building overlooking the guards as they looked around in surprise. The thief immediately got to talking.
“So, you can phase out, huh? I thought you might have been a Neoteric, seeing as you look less out-of-touch than a lot of other sorcerers. Do you have a cool name for your discipline?”
Devona glanced at her. “It’s incorporealism.”
She rolled her eyes. “Bo-ring. You develop a whole branch of magic and you give it some lame name like that?”
“It’s not- whatever.”
She sighed and rolled her shoulders. “Why don’t we make a truce?” she said suddenly. “Just until we get the documents. Especially since they see us now.”
Devona looked down just in time to weave to the side and let the lightning pass by him. There was a woosh of air and all the guards were upon the roof, one of them still holding the documents in her hand.
A gust of air, a blast, and several bullets connected with nothing as Devona vanished. He grabbed one guard and threw them off, lashing out with only his foot physical and kicked another guard right in the stomach. Weave, dodge, strike, move back, more forward. The movements weren’t as fluid as they could have been, and he winced from a graze across his arm, but it wasn’t long before he and the thief were the only people still standing upon the roof.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Wow. Not bad. You’re quite the combatant.”
Devona started looking around for where the documents had fallen, turning his back to her. “Thanks.”
“What’s your name by the way?”
He lifted up one of the unconscious bodies. “It’s Devona. Yours?”
“Bergeron.” A strange name, but Devona wasn’t one to judge. “Say, I’ve just to ask, why did you save me back there?”
Devona frowned. “Is it not enough to not want to see another person die?”
She hummed. There was a bit of movement from behind him, and Devona phased out as a taser struck where he had just been. He phased back in, lashing out with a pivot and kick that slammed into her gut. He grabbed his pan and swung it at her head, clipping only her hair as she ducked down and he withdrew his body as she jabbed with her taser again. He slammed his pan onto her arm before she could reel it back in. Her taser dropped and Devona managed to strike her across the head, sending her stumbling back. She clutched his arm as if it was broken and Devona faltered slightly, just long enough for her to lash out with another hidden taser and hit him right in the gut. She grabbed onto her crowbar and smashed it against his head, with him managing to only slightly dodge the impact. He phased out again and grabbed her by the arm, throwing her against the wall. He stumbled, his vision turning white as rivulets of blood ran down his nose. Before he could recover he felt the crowbar slam into his hip and his legs buckled. The cool metal of the taser pressed into his back and jolts ran through his body.

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Me and my boyfriend have been living together for 5 years now. Last year, we bought a house in a rural area. It was cheap, and in dire need of renovation.
The new house was several hours away from where we lived before, so we quickly found new jobs in the area and moved. I needed money more than my boyfriend did, so he took 2 weeks off before starting a new job while I started working immediately. My schedule was: work 8 hours, get home, work on the renovations, unpack, make dinner, sleep on the floor, get up, work 8 hours etc.
Saying that I was burnt out is an understatement. It was summer and it was very hot. The only way to get enough cool air while renovating was to keep the balcony door open.
Now, here's where the trouble began: My boyfriend had already planned to let his cat be outdoors. He quickly built a ramp from the balcony to the ground so that his cat could go in and out as she wished.
I never wanted my cat to be outdoors. The balcony door open was a big temptation. I would play with him twice as normal, give him plenty of distractions, but he was so curious about the outside. I asked my boyfriend to PLEASE compromise on how long the balcony door stayed open. Then I could play with my cat, get him tired, then I could lock him in the cat room (it had litters, toys, food, water fountain and everything a cat needs) for a couple of hours while we worked on the house. Then close the door, and let my cat roam freely around the house again.
To that, he replied "do what you want but I'm not closing the door"
Long story short, I was so burnt out from everything going on and just couldn't lock my cat in the cat room for the amount of time he insisted on keeping the door open (8 - 10h).
My cat ended up going outdoors. I hate it. I just wanted him to compromise on the goddamn door. I'm in a bad mood when my cat's out for days because I never wanted this in the first place. I feel like I don't have a cat anymore. I resent him for pushing me to make my cat outdoors.
I bought him a gps, but he hasn't been home in 3 days so I couldn't put it on him. I'm pissed. I want my cat back.
So reddit, WIBTA if I demanded an apology from my boyfriend, or did he have the right to keep the door open for as long as he wished and I should just suck it up and accept my cat's outdoors now?

SS:
​
1 Thessalonians 5:6: "So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober."
“Sleeping is giving in, No matter what the time is. Sleeping is giving in, So lift those heavy eyelids. People say that you'll die Faster than without water. But we know it's just a lie, Scare your sons and scare your daughter.” –Arcade Fire
1 Peter 5:8: "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."
Revelation 3:2: "Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God."
“I wish I could take the pain away If you can make it through the night, there's a brighter day Everything will be alright if you hold on It's a struggle every day, gotta roll on” –Tupac
Isaiah 52:1: "Awake, awake, put on your strength."
"I can't sleep, the clowns will eat me." –The Simpsons
"I never sleep, 'cause sleep is the cousin of death." –Nas
"The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep! You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep! People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep!" –Rumi
Proverbs 6:9-11: “How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest — and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.”
"Ooh, I'm thinking we should stay in tonight Get lost in the Pacific, paradise Is it only two of us? Yeah, I think I like that I'm staying up all night, oh yeah, yeah" –Charlie Puth
“Up all night, yeah, all night long; We can make the world right, yeah, we can make it strong” –Sia
"So I walked through the morning, sweet early morning I could hear my lady calling, "You've won me, you've won me, my Lord"" –Leonard Cohen
"This is why Why we fight, why we lie awake And this is why This is why we fight" –The Decemberists
“I'm young and I'm falling in love With the night I'm not tired, let's just ride” –Charli Adams
“Oh, I'm near to sleeping, I'm keeping awake It's tomorrow, yes it is” –Innocence Mission
“I know it's comfortable to go back to sleep Take a look at what you've been lying in Before you wake up in search of your paycheck death The demons of regret are making your deathbed” –Rocky Votolato
1 Thessalonians 5:6 "So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober."
“Yes, the sidewalk soon will launch you Into Brooklyn, through the air And they will give a cheer, I am sure When you are coming near To the ground Oh, early in the morning When you fly away” –Innocence Mission
“No sleep No Sleep till Brooklyn” –Beastie Boys
"No sleep, no sleep until I'm done with finding the answer." –Linkin Park
Matthew 26:41: "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Mark 13:33: "Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come."
“Those in the know say how it goes You plan on reapin' you better sow You plan on sleepin' you better keep movin' Sleepin' ain't allowed around here you know” –Townes Van Zandt
Ephesians 5:14: "For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, 'Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'"
"Sleep, those little slices of death — how I loathe them." –Edgar Allan Poe
“Smokin' weed like it ain't no thing, so even kids Wanna try now, then lie down and get ran through Nobody watches 'em, clockin' the evil man do Faced with the demons, addicted to hearin' victims screamin'” –Tupac
"Awake! Awake O sleeper of the land of shadows, wake! Expand! I am in you and you in me, mutual in love divine." –William Blake
"Sleep is the most moronic fraternity in the world, with the heaviest dues and the crudest rituals." –Vladimir Nabokov
“I haven't eaten a bite Or slept for three days and nights That's how I got to Memphis” –Tom T. Jones
"Insomnia is my greatest inspiration." –Jon Stewart
"I'm up all night to get lucky." –Daft Punk
“Whatever gets you through the night It's all right, it's all right” –John Lennon
Surah Al-Imran (3:113): "They are not [all] the same; among the People of the Scripture is a community standing [in obedience], reciting the verses of Allah during periods of the night and prostrating [in prayer]."
Surah Al-Zumar (39:9): "Devoutly obedient during periods of the night, prostrating and standing [in prayer], fearing the Hereafter and hoping for the mercy of his Lord."
"Don't close your eyes, you might miss the show." –Aerosmith
“In the night forlorn the morning's born And the morning shines with the lights of love And you will miss sunrise if you close your eyes And that would break my heart in two” –Townes Van Zandt
“don't close your eyes; don't close your eyes, this is your life” –Switchfoot
“(I'm wide awake) Yeah, I was in the dark I was falling hard With an open heart (I'm wide awake) How did I read the stars so wrong? (I'm wide awake) And now it's clear to me That everything you see Ain't always what it seems (I'm wide awake) Yeah, I was dreaming for so long” –Katy Perry
"I'll sleep when I'm dead." –Warren Zevon –Bon Jovi
"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." –Robert Frost
“Stay awake, stay awake, stay awake with me Just keep on holding on” –Dean Lewis
"I can't sleep, I'm in too deep." –Alan Walker
"Stay awake, don't rest your head. Don't lie down upon your bed. While the moon drifts in the skies, stay awake, don't close your eyes." –Mary Poppins
“I don't wanna sleep, I just wanna Keep On Loving You” –REO Speedwagon
“Sleeping is giving in, No matter what the time is. Sleeping is giving in, So lift those heavy eyelids. People say that you'll die Faster than without water. But we know it's just a lie, Scare your sons and scare your daughter.” –Arcade Fire

All credit for the world goes to u/spacepaladin15. As always, any feedback/critique is appreciated. I hope you enjoy!
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---

Memory Transcript Subject: Tressa, Venlil civilian Date [Standardized Human Time]: February 28th, 2177 Location: Lower sprawl of City 23, Venlil Prime 

Tipped Quill was a fairly small bar nestled in a sad corner of the lower sprawl. On a normal night, a trickle of customers shuffled through the doors, a light hum of activity which brightened the otherwise dismal street. An arm of the old city, torn to shreds during the Federation’s invasion of Venlil Prime; the Tipped Quill operated out of one of the only unburned buildings.
The whole area was slated to be reclaimed and rebuilt, but funding never seemed to reach it. The upper layer of City 23 soaked up that money like a sponge, leaving the largely impoverished citizens of the sprawl to their fate. Even with locally-funded reconstruction making the buildings habitable, the toxic ash meant cancer and respiratory issues ravaged their inhabitants. In some ways, however, the lack of oversight was a blessing. Anyone seeking some respite from the Federation’s suffocating pressure could carve out a home in the ruins of the old world.
​
As Tressa approached the Tipped Quill, his long-winded internal monologue gave way to a rising tension across his chest. The building seemed to loom over him, an imposing wall of half-crumbling plaster which reminded him how long he’d spent away. With a steadying breath, he took the final few steps up to the entrance.
A sign on the front insisted the bar was closed for “repairs”, but no matter. He knocked five times, with a pause after the third. One of the double doors opened just enough for Tressa to slip through, and the rustic-looking Gojid proprietor ushered him in.
While the exterior of the Tipped Quill looked barely more notable than the reconstructed ruins surrounding it, the inside was an unexpected delight. Warm and welcoming, filled with older-style furniture and illuminated by an honest-to-god hearth, the establishment could almost be mistaken for a historical recreation. The only thing setting it apart visually was the variety of stool heights, meant to accommodate human customers.
“Tressa!” the Gojid began, rushing back to the door and relocking it. “How’s it been? Haven’t seen you around here in a while, not since the last meeting. Everything good out there?”
Tressa suppressed a wince. “Yeah. Just… buried in work, you know how it gets.”
It didn’t really matter how believable his excuse was. Burai would see right through it. The old Gojid seemingly existed only to socialize, and could spot a lie as easily as he could sell one. That he used his silver tongue for good was nothing short of a blessing from the stars above.
“Right, sure. You know if anything happens, we have a bed here for you! And I’m sure James would appreciate the company.” Burai chuckled, and Tressa failed to cover up a second twitch of emotional soreness. He shot Burai a glare.
“Oh, come one! You get all quiet every time he’s in the room, and your tail keeps—”
The glare became a silent plea, prompting Burai to turn his back on the now mildly orange-tinted Venlil and cut himself off with another quiet chuckle. He sauntered over to the counter, long claw reaching past a row of low-proof alcohol and pressing a hidden switch embedded in the shelf.
On the opposite wall, a metallic print poster for a half-century old movie split in two and slid apart, revealing the main entrance to the Den. The layer of security was completely extraneous; no exterminators made their rounds out here. The only real function it served was to look neat, a purpose which it solemnly fulfilled night after night.
“The others are already waiting down there,” started Burai, leading Tressa down the poorly-lit stairwell. “Even Trish. In person.”
“In person? You don’t say. So what’s she got for us this time?”
“She didn’t tell me. She wanted us all to be there for the big reveal. Probably more weaponry, if you made me guess.”
The barrier to the Den proper was marked by a wooden door at the bottom of the stairs. Burai typed a code into the digital lock on the front; one final line of pointless-but-neat security. With that final flourish complete, he opened the door and stepped aside to invite Tressa through.
—
The Den used to be a small subterranean apartment, back before the Federation’s invasion. When exterminators began systematically burning Venlil Prime to the ground, several human families took desperate shelter in the abandoned building. Miraculously, the structure survived the fires which ravaged the surface.
Since that fateful day, little had changed in the building’s appearance. Unlike the interior of the Tipped Quill above which had been so painstakingly reconstructed to appear antique, the Den was an actual time capsule. A sanctuary. A place where all of them could feel at home. For Tressa, being back after such a long absence felt like sunlight on his ragged fur.
“Finally decided to show your face.” Sasha’s voice boomed from the couch. She turned to face Tressa, though her eyes remained focused on a sketchbook. “Was beginning to worry me. All of us, actually. Don’t do that again.” She cast a meaningful glance at the Venlil, before returning to her sketch.
Sasha was “rumored” to be ex-UN. They all knew it was obviously true. Even sitting on the couch, she towered over the rest of them, a wall of muscle hidden behind a thick plastic jacket and long graying hair tied back in a ponytail. Every once in a while, she’d get even more quiet and withdrawn than usual, eyes darting around the room wildly as though expecting the walls to close in. But the company she found here was doing her good; those episodes were a distant rarity rather than a norm. The majority of her time was now filled by learning about art, a subject which she attacked with fearsome vigor.
James was hunched over a stovetop, keeping an eye on a simmering pot of something which filled the air with a heavenly taste. “Hey, Tressa. It’s good to see you again. Gets lonely down here without you, y’know?” Unable to speak from a sudden pang of shame, Tressa waved a tail in a greeting gesture and tried not to make eye contact.
While the rest of them might call the Den home on any given night, James was here to stay. Booted from his job and apartment due to some Kolshian official complaining about “flesh-eating scum serving him food”, he didn’t have anywhere else to live. After a near-miss with an extermination officer, he didn’t even go outside anymore.
Rather than comforting him when he needed it most, Tressa had fled. At first, it was because he was simply overwhelmed and didn’t want to make things worse for James by misspeaking and messing things up further. But a couple days of avoidance turned into a couple weeks, as each passing day only made it more difficult to explain why he hadn’t been by the Den in so long. The shadow of guilt for abandoning his friend only added to his apprehension about coming back without a damn good reason.
​
As it happened, being called in for an all-hands meeting qualified as a damn good reason. Although, one hand was curiously absent from the otherwise crowded living room.
“Wait, what about Trish? Was told she’d shown up in the fur.”
James nodded, sending waves through a mess of tall rust-brown hair. “She’s in the shower now. You know how long that dye takes to set, so might as well settle in and make yourself comfy. Stew’s gonna be ready in a moment.”
“We aren’t going to wait for her?”
“She doesn’t like squash. Something about the texture of it, I think… she never liked eating with other people anyway, hates the noise. She’s probably got something lined up for herself to enjoy alone.”
“Right, right. She’s got that… What did you call it, Sasha?”
Sasha shot him a look. “Term you’re fishing for is autism. But I never called it that. I don’t think xenopsychology is so simple that those terms carry over one-to-one.”
“Having any terms at all, other than ‘predator disease’, puts you ahead of modern psychologists by a wide margin.”
Burai spoke up. “Come now, Tressa. Everyone knows that a black and white classification is the best way of understanding the world. I mean, look how well the categories of ‘predator’ and ‘prey’ hold up! Need I even say more? You people these days with your ‘spectrums’ and your ‘nuance’ just don’t get the elegance of a nice, simple system of pure good and pure evil. No appreciation for the classics, I’m telling ya!”
James was next, talking as he ferried bowls of stew from the stove to the table. “Burai, you could hold a lucrative career as a Fed propagandist, y’know that? Don’t see what you’re fooling around with this whole bar business for.”
“I’m a man of the people. I mean, who else are they gonna go to? That place on central?” Burai scoffed with exaggerated derision, bristling his spines for good measure. “Rocket fuel and drain cleaner. A human couldn’t even survive a drink there, much less enjoy it.”
Sasha interjected at the remark, something about how she’d be fine, but Tressa was too busy enjoying the best cooking on the twilight edge of Venlil Prime to really notice her words. The warm buzz of chatter complemented the warmth of the stew, a combination which heated him body and soul. The frigid air and cold isolation of the world outside the Den began to feel like nothing more than a distant nightmare.
---
[First] [Previous] [Next]

It all started with the new student.
Aoki Hana was pretty; one could almost say that she was enchanting. With long black hair, large doe eyes, and bubbly smile on her innocent-looking face, she instantly captured the attention from the whole class. Even Masao, my childhood friend, was charmed. He pretended to look outside the window, but I saw him blush after making eye contact with her. I could still remember that day very clearly; it was a warm spring day, with clear blue sky and faint smell of cherry blossom in the air.
The day that my nightmare began.
I paid Hana no mind. She immediately made friends with some other girls, and I thought there was no reason for me to interact with her. We were just classmates, after all. I continued scrolling on my phone, looking at makeup and latest celebrity gossip, you know, the usual girly stuff. That was when I got a text message.
It was weird. In this day and age of messaging apps, no one really texted through SMS anymore.
First!
Umm… What the heck? I was about to exit the app, when several more texts started coming through.
I’m so excited for this! The ML is so cute!
AHHHHH it’s finally here!!!
Get ready everyone! It’s going to be a wild ride!!
They were all from different unknown numbers and seemed to be expressing excitement at something. I was spooked by the amount and the speed at which these weird scam messages were flooding in. I was deleting them one by one when one of the messages caught my eyes.
Just the first chapter but I know that girl Akane is bad news!
That was my name, Akane. I glanced around the classroom, expecting to see one of my friends holding in laughter as they saw my reaction to their little prank. To my surprise, they were all minding their own business, except for one person.
I was not close with Fukuda-san. We barely interacted at all.
But there she was, staring at me from the opposite side of the room, smiling, unblinking.
I got goosebumps. I wanted to confront her right then, but the teacher told everyone to quiet down and started his lesson. During lunch break, I showed the texts to Masao and told him about my suspicion of Fukuda-san, but he just laughed.
“How could it be Fukuda-san? You guys don’t even know each other that well.”
“I don’t know. Why was she staring at me…”
My sentence was cut short as someone bumped into me with full force, somehow knocking the box of juice I was holding out of my hand. As I stabilised myself, I saw Hana fall to the floor with juice poured all over her head.
I was shocked. How did the juice end up on her head of all places? It shouldn’t have been physically possible. The box should have been knocked to the floor, with only a little bit of content spilling, but somehow it looked like the box had completely exploded. Hana looked terrified; her face was flushed red and she looked like she was about to cry.
I bent over to help her up. I was going to apologise.
But for some reason, I just… laughed?
I didn’t know why I did that. The giggles came out of my throat before I could catch them. I covered my mouth with my hands as soon as I realised this, but the damage was done. Masao looked like he had seen a ghost as he helped Hana up.
“Why did you do that, Akane?” He asked.
That was something I wanted to know too. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, Aoki-san.”
“It’s okay.” Hana sniffled. “I-I’ll just change into my gym uniform.”
Hana was the one who got juice spilled all over her, but somehow, I felt so humiliated. Everyone in the canteen was looking at the scene I caused in shock, but I noticed that one of the students was smiling, as if the whole thing was entertaining to her. I didn’t even know that person, but her smile sent a shiver down my spine.
All the while, the notification on my phone kept going off in my pocket.
Masao took Hana to the classroom to get her gym uniform. I hid in the bathroom and checked my phone. Surely, there were more mysterious messages coming in.
And so it starts… Pouring juice is so cliché…
If I were the MC, I would have slapped that little fox when she giggled! GAHH SO FRUSTRATING!
I tried to reply to the text, asking who they were, but it wouldn’t let me send. I also tried to search what MC meant, but nothing relevant came up. Who would prank me like this? It must have been someone in my class who was in the canteen, right?
I got out of the toilet stall and washed my hands. Feeling like being watched, I turned around to see a girl standing near the corner of the bathroom, staring at me.
She was smiling.
“What are you looking at?” I snapped. My heart skipped a beat.
“Sorry, Okamura-san.” The girl said.
I gulped. “How do you know my name?”
“Everyone knows who you are, Okamura-san.” The girl answered without blinking.
I couldn’t concentrate for the rest of the day. No matter what I did, there was always someone, somewhere, watching me. Be it a classmate, other student, or even a teacher, they were always there. By that point, I was really freaking out and was counting down the time until this horrible day ended. After school, I told Masao that I would skip club activities and went straight home.
Mom and dad were still at work. As always, it was just me in this unnecessarily big house. Finally feeling truly alone, I locked myself inside my bedroom and tried to make sense of what just happened. The notifications had subsided. I hesitated for a bit, and turned off my phone.
I was trying to do homework when there were knocks on the door.
“Come in!”
“Hey, Akane!” Masao was there in his casual clothes, it looked like he had gone home to change. “Are you busy? Inoue-san let me in…”
I looked past him to Inoue-san, she was the housemaid and also my nanny since I was little. I had known this woman all my life, I even just said hi to her when I came home twenty minutes ago. But as she stood there in silence, just smiling at me, I felt like I was standing in front of a complete stranger.
Masao was clueless as I pulled him inside and locked the door.
“Masao, Did you see that? Why was everyone so weird today?” I gestured to the door, but Masao just sat down on my bed and started to fumble with my stuffed toy.
“So after you left, Akane, I actually ran into Hana again…” He said excitedly.
“Hana? You’ve only known Aoki-san for one day.”
“I know right! But I feel like I have known her for a long, long time!” Masao squeezed my teddy bear. “She’s so kind and interesting. As it turns out, we also like the same manga!”
I had known Masao since we were children. His house was literally next to mine. I could confirm, with the utmost certainty, that Masao was never into any form of manga. I had been inside his bedroom countless times, but never once did I ever find a single manga there. There were only video games and sports equipment.
“What do you mean? You never read any manga.”
“No, I’ve always loved manga.” Masao insisted.
Weird, I thought to myself, but nevermind that, I had more important stuff to focus on.
“Okay. Good luck with that. Can we focus on what I said earlier, please? Don’t you feel like everyone was staring at us today? First, Fukuda-san, then there was the girl in the bathroom, and Tanaka-sensei too. They are all creeping me out!”
“It’s probably just your imagination.” Masao rolled his eyes.
“I didn’t imagine it! Even Inoue-san was staring at me just now!”
“I didn’t notice that.” Masao shrugged.
Masao was clearly not interested in my concern. Some kind of best friend he was. He just went on and on about his little crush. I was annoyed, but I let him stay because I was too scared to be in the same house as Inoue-san alone. When Masao said he really should go home for dinner, I just grabbed his arm without thinking.
“Can’t you stay? Have dinner at my place tonight.”
“I really can’t. Mom’s going to be mad.” He said.
Disappointed, I walked him home. When I was back at my own home again, Inoue-san was done preparing dinner. She was no longer smiling like a menace; she was back to being the kind middle-aged woman I had always known. The dinner was almost normal, but for some reason, Inoue-san refused to sit and eat with me unlike everyday. She just stood there timidly on the side like a servant waiting for the next order from her master.
When I asked why she was behaving weird, Inoue-san said that this was always how it had been. There was definitely something wrong about Masao and Inoue-san. They kept insisting that they had always been doing something I had never seen them done before.
I turned on the phone again before bed. There were some new messages.
Akane you snake! Did you just regret friendzoning him for all these years, just when he’s about to fall for Hana? Too late girl!
I’m glad Masao left her like that lol. From the way she treats her maid, it’s obvious she’s a spoiled little brat.
HANDS. OFF. MASAO.
That idiot Masao! My hands were trembling with anger as I thought to myself. He was the only one who knew about this interaction. Why would he prank me like this? This was way too cruel. Calling me a snake and accusing me of friendzoning him? He must have lost his mind. I was fuming all night and could barely get any sleep. All I could think about was how I would confront Masao the next day.
As expected, Masao and I had a huge fight.
He firmly denied having anything to do with the mysterious texts, so I called him a liar. He then accused me of being unsupportive as a friend and that I was “making up stories and ignoring him.” In the end, I pushed him away and as I was making my way back, I crossed paths with Hana. Judging from how I startled her, she must have heard the whole thing.
I never felt so alone before. Nobody in my classroom could be trusted. I didn’t know who else was in on the prank, but by now I had caught almost half of them staring and smiling at me on different occasions. Masao also gave me the cold shoulder. He only hung out with Hana now, which seemed to slow down the rate at which I was receiving those nasty texts.
Despite me trying to reason with them, or even yelling at them, none of the pranksters would admit to their cruel joke. They just apologised and continued to smile at me. Outside of school was a little better, but not by much. Sometimes, strangers would stare and smile at me as I walked to school. I went to the police, but they were no help. When one of them stopped talking and started to smile, I just bolted out of there.
There was only one explanation for this: if people seemed crazy everywhere you go, that meant it was you who was losing your mind.
I should have taken myself to the psychiatrist, or at least told mom and dad about what I was seeing. But I was too scared that they would start smiling, too. I avoided my parents like a plague and tried to focus on my studies as a way of distraction, promising myself that I would do something about this terrifying hallucination after mid-term.
Weeks passed, and so did the mid-term exams. I was anxious the whole time. I didn’t want the mid-term to be over as I would have to acknowledge my problem just as I promised myself. But I needed to do something about it, and I needed to talk it out with Masao.
I tried to catch him in the classroom, but I was distracted by some commotion by the announcement board. Apparently, the mid-term results were out, although we literally just had the last test yesterday. My school had never publicly announced the score rank of each class like this, as they feared it might bring embarrassment to those students who didn’t do so well. But somehow, they decided to go with it this time.
My name was in second place, which was weird. I never was a studious person and had never even made the top ten in my class. Above me was Hana, she got the highest score…
“Please calm down, Okamura-san!”
Someone touched my shoulder and I jolted. I turned around to see a student smiling at me, and the rest of my classmates were staring at me in horror as I felt a piece of paper crumpled in my hands. The score announcement had been ripped from the board, and I was the one who did that…?
When did I do that? It was like I blacked out for a bit there.
“W-what?” I dropped the crumpled up paper. “I didn’t do that!”
Hana looked concerned. “Akane-chan, please don’t be too upset by the test result. I’m sure you’re still much smarter than I am.”
Huh?
I swore that the moment Hana started talking, the smiling student turned to look at her instead of me. It was the first time I noticed that. I grabbed Hana’s shoulder.
“Aoki-san, no, Hana, I need to talk to you, please!”
The other students started murmuring nervously, but I could tell they were entertained by all this. Masao stepped up as if he was about to intervene, but Hana just gave him her signature sweet smile. “It’s okay, Masao-kun. Akane-chan and I won’t take long.”
Hana followed me to the courtyard while I tried to formulate in my head how I was going to break all of this to her. How come I never thought of this before? It all started on the day Hana was transferred here; surely this whole bizarre occurrence must have something to do with her. I decided to be blunt.
“Hana, have you noticed people staring at you while smiling lately? I mean, Ishida-san was doing that just now when we were at the announcement board.”
Hana tilted her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Akane-chan.”
“Come on. You must have noticed it right? They… You think you could just walk in and steal Masao from me?” I screamed.
Wait, no. That was not what I was trying to say. Why-why couldn’t I control myself?
“Akane-chan! It’s not like that! I just wanted all of us to be friends.”
“How dare you! You don’t know Masao like I do! He and I were… Urgh… gahh… STOP TALKING!” I grabbed my own throat in a futile attempt to regain control of my own action. Panic swept over me as I struggled. Hana stared at me with horror; she was on the verge of tears.
That was when I felt a familiar sensation which I had learned to endure so well. Someone was watching us. I looked around the empty courtyard and there it was: a student was hiding behind a tree. She was not moving or blinking, she was just staring at me and Hana, as if she were an inanimate object of sorts.
“There’s one of them right there, Hana. Look!” I pulled Hana towards the tree.
“Please, Akane-chan, you’re scaring me. Stop it!” Hana’s voice was trembling. She tried to stop me with her strength, which was never powerful to begin with.
“I said look at her! Can’t you see it? Are you blind?”
I broke free and pushed Hana to the ground. It wasn’t a hard push, but somehow it sent Hana all the way down into the flowerbed. Hana shrieked and covered her cheek as if I just slapped her, when suddenly her demeanour changed completely.
She started to smile.
No. Not you too.
“Hana?”
“Just play your part. Accept your role.” She said, but it was not in her own voice. It was the voice of an older woman, emotionless, like a robot.
“Who are you? What do you want from me?” I grabbed her collar.
“The Spectators want a happy ending.”
“Stop it, Akane!” Masao yanked me away from Hana. I was in too much shock to be able to defend myself. Almost instantly, Hana stopped smiling and she went back to being who she had always been, a delicate fragile girl who never did anything wrong. She sobbed quietly as Masao helped her stand up.
“You’ve really crossed the line this time.” Masao glared at me. Other students heard the commotion and they started to come out of the building to see what was going on. “What did Hana ever do to you? This is not like you at all.”
“No, YOU were the one who was acting strange. Every single one of you!” I screamed, tears rolling down my face. “How could you pretend that everything was normal? Screw you!”
I got up and ran away as fast as I could. I caught a glimpse of students and strangers staring at me as I sprinted home. It has been four hours now but I refused to unlock my door for anyone, not even Inoue-san. Somehow I felt like I was still being watched, so I closed all the curtains and plucked out the eyes from all my stuffed toys.
The class chatroom was exploding with people talking nasty things about me, as they all witnessed me pushing Hana and grabbing her by the collar. They called me possessed which was truly ironic given what they had done to me.
Of course, the SMS messages flooded in.
You’re done f up girl. You showed the whole class your true colour!!
I’m annoyed with the MC, she should have stood up for herself and beat up Akane
Masao so pretty as always! \swoons**
Akane is the very definition of a narcissistic asshole. She always kept Masao by her side and friendzoned him, then acted like she was entitled to him when Hana came along. Very selfish. I hate a person like this the most.
All these stupid texts made me extremely upset. I couldn’t stop crying at first, but the distress turned into anger very quickly as I realised how absurd these accusations were. I had never had a crush on Masao. I had never been competitive during exams. And I sure as hell, never wanted anything to do with Hana.
As I furiously scrolled through a bunch of texts looking for clues to explain what the heck was going on, one text stood out.
This webcomic is sooooo cliché but I can’t stop reading it! Lol. Akane is a really fun character to hate.
Webcomic? Character? What was this person babbling about?
It took me a split second to realise it, then it hit me like a truck.
I was a character in a webcomic?
Even the idea of it was so absurd, it was almost laughable. But the more I thought about it, the more things started to fall into place. It was a perfect fit. All the pieces of the puzzle came together and formed into a ridiculous, unbelievable revelation.
Yes, all the weird texts I got were very similar to how the comment section of a webcomic might look like. The “story” so far also fitted with typical high school romance plotlines; a charming new girl, a boy having a crush, and a jealous childhood friend. Ever since Hana set her foot into my school, the irresistable power was held over me, forcing me to dance to the rhythm that had been composed by a merciless God.
And as it turned out, God was just some shitty wannabe writer.
The realisation that my entire life was laid in some amateur author’s hand made me so mad in a way I could not describe. I could feel my entire body tense up. Without thinking, I threw my phone at the wall and punched the vanity mirror until it broke. My hand was shaking as blood dripped down into the carpet. As I stared into the broken mirror, my reflection was of a truly unhinged person.
If one of those smiling creeps was here, I guess they would have been satisfied with what they were seeing. After all, I was playing into the character of a crazy villainess pretty well.
You guys wanted me to play my part, to accept my role?
Fine.
Let me show you what a villainess could do then.

It all started with the new student.
Aoki Hana was pretty; one could almost say that she was enchanting. With long black hair, large doe eyes, and bubbly smile on her innocent-looking face, she instantly captured the attention from the whole class. Even Masao, my childhood friend, was charmed. He pretended to look outside the window, but I saw him blush after making eye contact with her. I could still remember that day very clearly; it was a warm spring day, with clear blue sky and faint smell of cherry blossom in the air.
The day that my nightmare began.
I paid Hana no mind. She immediately made friends with some other girls, and I thought there was no reason for me to interact with her. We were just classmates, after all. I continued scrolling on my phone, looking at makeup and latest celebrity gossip, you know, the usual girly stuff. That was when I got a text message.
It was weird. In this day and age of messaging apps, no one really texted through SMS anymore.
First!
Umm… What the heck? I was about to exit the app, when several more texts started coming through.
I’m so excited for this! The ML is so cute!
AHHHHH it’s finally here!!!
Get ready everyone! It’s going to be a wild ride!!
They were all from different unknown numbers and seemed to be expressing excitement at something. I was spooked by the amount and the speed at which these weird scam messages were flooding in. I was deleting them one by one when one of the messages caught my eyes.
Just the first chapter but I know that girl Akane is bad news!
That was my name, Akane. I glanced around the classroom, expecting to see one of my friends holding in laughter as they saw my reaction to their little prank. To my surprise, they were all minding their own business, except for one person.
I was not close with Fukuda-san. We barely interacted at all.
But there she was, staring at me from the opposite side of the room, smiling, unblinking.
I got goosebumps. I wanted to confront her right then, but the teacher told everyone to quiet down and started his lesson. During lunch break, I showed the texts to Masao and told him about my suspicion of Fukuda-san, but he just laughed.
“How could it be Fukuda-san? You guys don’t even know each other that well.”
“I don’t know. Why was she staring at me…”
My sentence was cut short as someone bumped into me with full force, somehow knocking the box of juice I was holding out of my hand. As I stabilised myself, I saw Hana fall to the floor with juice poured all over her head.
I was shocked. How did the juice end up on her head of all places? It shouldn’t have been physically possible. The box should have been knocked to the floor, with only a little bit of content spilling, but somehow it looked like the box had completely exploded. Hana looked terrified; her face was flushed red and she looked like she was about to cry.
I bent over to help her up. I was going to apologise.
But for some reason, I just… laughed?
I didn’t know why I did that. The giggles came out of my throat before I could catch them. I covered my mouth with my hands as soon as I realised this, but the damage was done. Masao looked like he had seen a ghost as he helped Hana up.
“Why did you do that, Akane?” He asked.
That was something I wanted to know too. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, Aoki-san.”
“It’s okay.” Hana sniffled. “I-I’ll just change into my gym uniform.”
Hana was the one who got juice spilled all over her, but somehow, I felt so humiliated. Everyone in the canteen was looking at the scene I caused in shock, but I noticed that one of the students was smiling, as if the whole thing was entertaining to her. I didn’t even know that person, but her smile sent a shiver down my spine.
All the while, the notification on my phone kept going off in my pocket.
Masao took Hana to the classroom to get her gym uniform. I hid in the bathroom and checked my phone. Surely, there were more mysterious messages coming in.
And so it starts… Pouring juice is so cliché…
If I were the MC, I would have slapped that little fox when she giggled! GAHH SO FRUSTRATING!
I tried to reply to the text, asking who they were, but it wouldn’t let me send. I also tried to search what MC meant, but nothing relevant came up. Who would prank me like this? It must have been someone in my class who was in the canteen, right?
I got out of the toilet stall and washed my hands. Feeling like being watched, I turned around to see a girl standing near the corner of the bathroom, staring at me.
She was smiling.
“What are you looking at?” I snapped. My heart skipped a beat.
“Sorry, Okamura-san.” The girl said.
I gulped. “How do you know my name?”
“Everyone knows who you are, Okamura-san.” The girl answered without blinking.
I couldn’t concentrate for the rest of the day. No matter what I did, there was always someone, somewhere, watching me. Be it a classmate, other student, or even a teacher, they were always there. By that point, I was really freaking out and was counting down the time until this horrible day ended. After school, I told Masao that I would skip club activities and went straight home.
Mom and dad were still at work. As always, it was just me in this unnecessarily big house. Finally feeling truly alone, I locked myself inside my bedroom and tried to make sense of what just happened. The notifications had subsided. I hesitated for a bit, and turned off my phone.
I was trying to do homework when there were knocks on the door.
“Come in!”
“Hey, Akane!” Masao was there in his casual clothes, it looked like he had gone home to change. “Are you busy? Inoue-san let me in…”
I looked past him to Inoue-san, she was the housemaid and also my nanny since I was little. I had known this woman all my life, I even just said hi to her when I came home twenty minutes ago. But as she stood there in silence, just smiling at me, I felt like I was standing in front of a complete stranger.
Masao was clueless as I pulled him inside and locked the door.
“Masao, Did you see that? Why was everyone so weird today?” I gestured to the door, but Masao just sat down on my bed and started to fumble with my stuffed toy.
“So after you left, Akane, I actually ran into Hana again…” He said excitedly.
“Hana? You’ve only known Aoki-san for one day.”
“I know right! But I feel like I have known her for a long, long time!” Masao squeezed my teddy bear. “She’s so kind and interesting. As it turns out, we also like the same manga!”
I had known Masao since we were children. His house was literally next to mine. I could confirm, with the utmost certainty, that Masao was never into any form of manga. I had been inside his bedroom countless times, but never once did I ever find a single manga there. There were only video games and sports equipment.
“What do you mean? You never read any manga.”
“No, I’ve always loved manga.” Masao insisted.
Weird, I thought to myself, but nevermind that, I had more important stuff to focus on.
“Okay. Good luck with that. Can we focus on what I said earlier, please? Don’t you feel like everyone was staring at us today? First, Fukuda-san, then there was the girl in the bathroom, and Tanaka-sensei too. They are all creeping me out!”
“It’s probably just your imagination.” Masao rolled his eyes.
“I didn’t imagine it! Even Inoue-san was staring at me just now!”
“I didn’t notice that.” Masao shrugged.
Masao was clearly not interested in my concern. Some kind of best friend he was. He just went on and on about his little crush. I was annoyed, but I let him stay because I was too scared to be in the same house as Inoue-san alone. When Masao said he really should go home for dinner, I just grabbed his arm without thinking.
“Can’t you stay? Have dinner at my place tonight.”
“I really can’t. Mom’s going to be mad.” He said.
Disappointed, I walked him home. When I was back at my own home again, Inoue-san was done preparing dinner. She was no longer smiling like a menace; she was back to being the kind middle-aged woman I had always known. The dinner was almost normal, but for some reason, Inoue-san refused to sit and eat with me unlike everyday. She just stood there timidly on the side like a servant waiting for the next order from her master.
When I asked why she was behaving weird, Inoue-san said that this was always how it had been. There was definitely something wrong about Masao and Inoue-san. They kept insisting that they had always been doing something I had never seen them done before.
I turned on the phone again before bed. There were some new messages.
Akane you snake! Did you just regret friendzoning him for all these years, just when he’s about to fall for Hana? Too late girl!
I’m glad Masao left her like that lol. From the way she treats her maid, it’s obvious she’s a spoiled little brat.
HANDS. OFF. MASAO.
That idiot Masao! My hands were trembling with anger as I thought to myself. He was the only one who knew about this interaction. Why would he prank me like this? This was way too cruel. Calling me a snake and accusing me of friendzoning him? He must have lost his mind. I was fuming all night and could barely get any sleep. All I could think about was how I would confront Masao the next day.
As expected, Masao and I had a huge fight.
He firmly denied having anything to do with the mysterious texts, so I called him a liar. He then accused me of being unsupportive as a friend and that I was “making up stories and ignoring him.” In the end, I pushed him away and as I was making my way back, I crossed paths with Hana. Judging from how I startled her, she must have heard the whole thing.
I never felt so alone before. Nobody in my classroom could be trusted. I didn’t know who else was in on the prank, but by now I had caught almost half of them staring and smiling at me on different occasions. Masao also gave me the cold shoulder. He only hung out with Hana now, which seemed to slow down the rate at which I was receiving those nasty texts.
Despite me trying to reason with them, or even yelling at them, none of the pranksters would admit to their cruel joke. They just apologised and continued to smile at me. Outside of school was a little better, but not by much. Sometimes, strangers would stare and smile at me as I walked to school. I went to the police, but they were no help. When one of them stopped talking and started to smile, I just bolted out of there.
There was only one explanation for this: if people seemed crazy everywhere you go, that meant it was you who was losing your mind.
I should have taken myself to the psychiatrist, or at least told mom and dad about what I was seeing. But I was too scared that they would start smiling, too. I avoided my parents like a plague and tried to focus on my studies as a way of distraction, promising myself that I would do something about this terrifying hallucination after mid-term.
Weeks passed, and so did the mid-term exams. I was anxious the whole time. I didn’t want the mid-term to be over as I would have to acknowledge my problem just as I promised myself. But I needed to do something about it, and I needed to talk it out with Masao.
I tried to catch him in the classroom, but I was distracted by some commotion by the announcement board. Apparently, the mid-term results were out, although we literally just had the last test yesterday. My school had never publicly announced the score rank of each class like this, as they feared it might bring embarrassment to those students who didn’t do so well. But somehow, they decided to go with it this time.
My name was in second place, which was weird. I never was a studious person and had never even made the top ten in my class. Above me was Hana, she got the highest score…
“Please calm down, Okamura-san!”
Someone touched my shoulder and I jolted. I turned around to see a student smiling at me, and the rest of my classmates were staring at me in horror as I felt a piece of paper crumpled in my hands. The score announcement had been ripped from the board, and I was the one who did that…?
When did I do that? It was like I blacked out for a bit there.
“W-what?” I dropped the crumpled up paper. “I didn’t do that!”
Hana looked concerned. “Akane-chan, please don’t be too upset by the test result. I’m sure you’re still much smarter than I am.”
Huh?
I swore that the moment Hana started talking, the smiling student turned to look at her instead of me. It was the first time I noticed that. I grabbed Hana’s shoulder.
“Aoki-san, no, Hana, I need to talk to you, please!”
The other students started murmuring nervously, but I could tell they were entertained by all this. Masao stepped up as if he was about to intervene, but Hana just gave him her signature sweet smile. “It’s okay, Masao-kun. Akane-chan and I won’t take long.”
Hana followed me to the courtyard while I tried to formulate in my head how I was going to break all of this to her. How come I never thought of this before? It all started on the day Hana was transferred here; surely this whole bizarre occurrence must have something to do with her. I decided to be blunt.
“Hana, have you noticed people staring at you while smiling lately? I mean, Ishida-san was doing that just now when we were at the announcement board.”
Hana tilted her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Akane-chan.”
“Come on. You must have noticed it right? They… You think you could just walk in and steal Masao from me?” I screamed.
Wait, no. That was not what I was trying to say. Why-why couldn’t I control myself?
“Akane-chan! It’s not like that! I just wanted all of us to be friends.”
“How dare you! You don’t know Masao like I do! He and I were… Urgh… gahh… STOP TALKING!” I grabbed my own throat in a futile attempt to regain control of my own action. Panic swept over me as I struggled. Hana stared at me with horror; she was on the verge of tears.
That was when I felt a familiar sensation which I had learned to endure so well. Someone was watching us. I looked around the empty courtyard and there it was: a student was hiding behind a tree. She was not moving or blinking, she was just staring at me and Hana, as if she were an inanimate object of sorts.
“There’s one of them right there, Hana. Look!” I pulled Hana towards the tree.
“Please, Akane-chan, you’re scaring me. Stop it!” Hana’s voice was trembling. She tried to stop me with her strength, which was never powerful to begin with.
“I said look at her! Can’t you see it? Are you blind?”
I broke free and pushed Hana to the ground. It wasn’t a hard push, but somehow it sent Hana all the way down into the flowerbed. Hana shrieked and covered her cheek as if I just slapped her, when suddenly her demeanour changed completely.
She started to smile.
No. Not you too.
“Hana?”
“Just play your part. Accept your role.” She said, but it was not in her own voice. It was the voice of an older woman, emotionless, like a robot.
“Who are you? What do you want from me?” I grabbed her collar.
“The Spectators want a happy ending.”
“Stop it, Akane!” Masao yanked me away from Hana. I was in too much shock to be able to defend myself. Almost instantly, Hana stopped smiling and she went back to being who she had always been, a delicate fragile girl who never did anything wrong. She sobbed quietly as Masao helped her stand up.
“You’ve really crossed the line this time.” Masao glared at me. Other students heard the commotion and they started to come out of the building to see what was going on. “What did Hana ever do to you? This is not like you at all.”
“No, YOU were the one who was acting strange. Every single one of you!” I screamed, tears rolling down my face. “How could you pretend that everything was normal? Screw you!”
I got up and ran away as fast as I could. I caught a glimpse of students and strangers staring at me as I sprinted home. It has been four hours now but I refused to unlock my door for anyone, not even Inoue-san. Somehow I felt like I was still being watched, so I closed all the curtains and plucked out the eyes from all my stuffed toys.
The class chatroom was exploding with people talking nasty things about me, as they all witnessed me pushing Hana and grabbing her by the collar. They called me possessed which was truly ironic given what they had done to me.
Of course, the SMS messages flooded in.
You’re done f up girl. You showed the whole class your true colour!!
I’m annoyed with the MC, she should have stood up for herself and beat up Akane
Masao so pretty as always! *swoons*
Akane is the very definition of a narcissistic asshole. She always kept Masao by her side and friendzoned him, then acted like she was entitled to him when Hana came along. Very selfish. I hate a person like this the most.
All these stupid texts made me extremely upset. I couldn’t stop crying at first, but the distress turned into anger very quickly as I realised how absurd these accusations were. I had never had a crush on Masao. I had never been competitive during exams. And I sure as hell, never wanted anything to do with Hana.
As I furiously scrolled through a bunch of texts looking for clues to explain what the heck was going on, one text stood out.
This webcomic is sooooo cliché but I can’t stop reading it! Lol. Akane is a really fun character to hate.
Webcomic? Character? What was this person babbling about?
It took me a split second to realise it, then it hit me like a truck.
I was a character in a webcomic?
Even the idea of it was so absurd, it was almost laughable. But the more I thought about it, the more things started to fall into place. It was a perfect fit. All the pieces of the puzzle came together and formed into a ridiculous, unbelievable revelation.
Yes, all the weird texts I got were very similar to how the comment section of a webcomic might look like. The “story” so far also fitted with typical high school romance plotlines; a charming new girl, a boy having a crush, and a jealous childhood friend. Ever since Hana set her foot into my school, the irresistable power was held over me, forcing me to dance to the rhythm that had been composed by a merciless God.
And as it turned out, God was just some shitty wannabe writer.
The realisation that my entire life was laid in some amateur author’s hand made me so mad in a way I could not describe. I could feel my entire body tense up. Without thinking, I threw my phone at the wall and punched the vanity mirror until it broke. My hand was shaking as blood dripped down into the carpet. As I stared into the broken mirror, my reflection was of a truly unhinged person.
If one of those smiling creeps was here, I guess they would have been satisfied with what they were seeing. After all, I was playing into the character of a crazy villainess pretty well.
You guys wanted me to play my part, to accept my role?
Fine.
Let me show you what a villainess could do then.

I’m 18+ and all characters and participants must be 18+
At first I found the idea of a local 'Slut Club' laughable. That's not the kind of thing that exists. But after a little looking around on a particularly boring night it turns out that it is in fact real, and I even found some directions for getting in touch and signing up. I thought on it for a few days, but in the end I decided why not?
Getting in touch with the club I end up exchanging messages with Molly, a more experienced member of the club who answers my questions and tells me everything I need to know. The stuff that seemed mundane to them was way beyond what most people would ever actually do, but I was up for the challenge. Everyone went through the same 'initiation', but I just had to turn up for it, Molly would sort everything out for me.
The day of comes around, or more accurately the night of. It's a little past 8pm as we're finishing up with preparations. I'm on the rather large bed, pillows under my stomach supporting me, forcing my ass up into the air. My ankles are spread wide, held by ropes to the bed's corners, and my arms are stretched forwards, leaving me little room to move. Molly gives all of the binds one last check before putting her face next to mine. "All good?" She asks, placing a few final pieces on the bed as a give her the all clear. With that I'm also adorned with a ball gag, a blindfold, and finally some noise cancelling headphones, looping a playlist of classical music.
And so begins my initiation. For the next few hours Molly is going to supervise me as I have a train run on me. It's by far the sluttiest thing I've ever done, but the club very much believes in starting as you mean to go on, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't appreciate the little push towards this. But for the moment, I simply wait in anticipation...
Hopefully that has given you an idea of what I'm looking for here. I'll play the new member, and you'll be in charge of everything else.
If that's of interest to you, please get in touch at Demondork on Kik and come with any questions you have, clarifications you need and ideas you'd like to share. Just please do more than just tell me you're interested. Don't worry about responding slowly/late, I still want to hear from you. Finally, please no chat requests, I will simply ignore them.
Kinks: cum, cum eating, cum food, cum play,bukkake,cream pie,bdsm, bondage, forced, body writing, spanking, cuddling, degradation, rough partners, sizeplay, dominant partners, toys, multiple partners, spit roasting, mating press, full Nelson,frenching,rimming,body oil,bestiality,water sports,wax play,sex machines,being filmed,cosplay,NTR,petplay,exhibitionism,biting and pretty much anything that isn’t my limits
Limits:
Scat,gore,vore,hyper sizes,necro and vomit

I had a French door installed into my office area, and I think the frame was not installed properly when the house was built. As a result, there's a gap near the top of the frame about the width of my pinky, about a half inch or so.
What would be the best way to close this gap up? Other than removing the frame and putting a new frame in?
At the moment it's mostly cosmetic because it's in the corner, and I'm really the only one that notices it.
Image links below. Thank you so much for your help in advance.
https://imgur.com/a/A1Nga3o

The night terrors continue nightly. The dreams are vivid and tormenting. I’ve tried to run away, but I am stuck. All the windows and doors are locked. The keys are lost permanently. I can’t escape this hell even when I try. I can’t breathe- my oxygen level is dropping. I need oxygen to breathe and air to fill my lungs, in order to sustain my breathing and live. I wish this critical matter was understood. And, you acted appropriately- but you did not, didn’t even try, you left me gasping for air. Thankfully, I regained the strength to catch my breath in time. Otherwise, I could have died and my loved ones would have suffered while you were living your best life.
This nightmare is surreal and unimaginable. I have been stuck and can’t break free. Regardless of all the efforts to free myself. I am paralyzed with unexplainable fear. I can’t get away, can’t run and can’t hide. How did I get here? What happened to me? It seemed as if you’re always there. Even though, I no longer search for you. Sticking around isn’t fruitful for neither of us. Especially for me, there’s too much at stake. Ultimately, it ended and will end in irreparable heartbreak and indescribable pain. The sorrow and longing will linger for years. Possibly for eternity or until the end of time. That’s not a healthy way of living - life is beautiful. Life is too short, simple and precious to settle for less.
In time, the night terrors will lessen and you won’t be part of the equation anymore. Hopefully, one day, sooner rather than later :):):).

The night terrors continue nightly. The dreams are vivid and tormenting. I’ve tried to run away, but I am stuck. All the windows and doors are locked. The keys are lost permanently. I can’t escape this hell even when I try. I can’t breathe- my oxygen level is dropping. I need oxygen to breathe and air to fill my lungs, in order to sustain my breathing and live. I wish this critical matter was understood. And, you acted appropriately- but you did not, didn’t even try, you left me gasping for air. Thankfully, I regained the strength to catch my breath in time. Otherwise, I could have died and my loved ones would have suffered while you were living your best life.
This nightmare is surreal and unimaginable. I have been stuck and can’t break free. Regardless of all the efforts to free myself. I am paralyzed with unexplainable fear. I can’t get away, can’t run and can’t hide. How did I get here? What happened to me? It seemed as if you’re always there. Even though, I no longer search for you. Sticking around isn’t fruitful for neither of us. Especially for me, there’s too much at stake. Ultimately, it ended and will end in irreparable heartbreak and indescribable pain. The sorrow and longing will linger for years. Possibly for eternity or until the end of time. That’s not a healthy way of living - life is beautiful. Life is too short, simple and precious to settle for less.
In time, the night terrors will lessen and you won’t be part of the equation anymore. Hopefully, one day, sooner rather than later :):):).

The night terrors continue nightly. The dreams are vivid and tormenting. I’ve tried to run away, but I am stuck. All the windows and doors are locked. The keys are lost permanently. I can’t escape this hell even when I try. I can’t breathe- my oxygen level is dropping. I need oxygen to breathe and air to fill my lungs, in order to sustain my breathing and live. I wish this critical matter was understood. And, you acted appropriately- but you did not, didn’t even try, you left me gasping for air. Thankfully, I regained the strength to catch my breath in time. Otherwise, I could have died and my loved ones would have suffered while you were living your best life.
This nightmare is surreal and unimaginable. I have been stuck and can’t break free. Regardless of all the efforts to free myself. I am paralyzed with unexplainable fear. I can’t get away, can’t run and can’t hide. How did I get here? What happened to me? It seemed as if you’re always there. Even though, I no longer search for you. Sticking around isn’t fruitful for neither of us. Especially for me, there’s too much at stake. Ultimately, it ended and will end in irreparable heartbreak and indescribable pain. The sorrow and longing will linger for years. Possibly for eternity or until the end of time. That’s not a healthy way of living - life is beautiful. Life is too short, simple and precious to settle for less.
In time, the night terrors will lessen and you won’t be part of the equation anymore. Hopefully, one day, sooner rather than later :):):).

The night terrors continue nightly. The dreams are vivid and tormenting. I’ve tried to run away, but I am stuck. All the windows and doors are locked. The keys are lost permanently. I can’t escape this hell even when I try. I can’t breathe- my oxygen level is dropping. I need oxygen to breathe and air to fill my lungs, in order to sustain my breathing and live. I wish this critical matter was understood. And, you acted appropriately- but you did not, didn’t even try, you left me gasping for air. Thankfully, I regained the strength to catch my breath in time. Otherwise, I could have died and my loved ones would have suffered while you were living your best life.
This nightmare is surreal and unimaginable. I have been stuck and can’t break free. Regardless of all the efforts to free myself. I am paralyzed with unexplainable fear. I can’t get away, can’t run and can’t hide. How did I get here? What happened to me? It seemed as if you’re always there. Even though, I no longer search for you. Sticking around isn’t fruitful for neither of us. Especially for me, there’s too much at stake. Ultimately, it ended and will end in irreparable heartbreak and indescribable pain. The sorrow and longing will linger for years. Possibly for eternity or until the end of time. That’s not a healthy way of living - life is beautiful. Life is too short, simple and precious to settle for less.
In time, the night terrors will lessen and you won’t be part of the equation anymore. Hopefully, one day, sooner rather than later :):):).