TwiLyghtSansSparkles

She might play with it, if she saw it fluttering to the floor, or if she batted it with her paw and it rustled. Then again, a regular piece of paper might be too stiff; Mollie tends to ignore notebooks but loves to shred napkins. So long as Sam keeps the paper out of her reach, it should be fine.

And Timeport's "Why has Calamity betrayed me? I thought we were frieeeeennnnnnds! :(" monologue! She's about six months old, so she's pretty small. She probably weighs about 8 to 10 pounds, so she won't be heavy at all.

Let's see….I could be a vanilla and be hunted, targeted, or (at best) ignored and left to fend for myself; or I could be an Epic, go insane, probably kill most of my family, and spend the rest of my days spiraling downward into darkness that would make pretty much every comic book supervillain except the really awful ones like Carnage flee in terror. Suddenly, my boring life doesn't seem so bad.

We do know how to keep things interesting, don't we? Especially when you consider that in one day, there has been…. A declaration of war The forging of a fragile alliance Lots of murder Sadistic games Threats Plenty of creepiness More murder More creepiness Fights Pugs By contrast, my day usually looks like this:

Aaaannnnnd there you go. Part two.

Part two of a compilation post between me, mail-mi, and Mailliw. Quota leaned against the gate, watching the girls scream and cry, whimper and utterly fail at the whole courage thing. Oh, there was one who looked like she might have it down--the one who stood staring straight out at nothing with her lips pressed together--but Quota could feel the fear pouring off of her in waves. Silence wasn’t doing her any favors. Go on, girl, he wanted to say. Just go ahead and scream. Let it all out. I mean, it won’t help, but it’ll sure make me happy. Unlike the other two, Quota stood alone. There was no bevy of frightened women trying and failing to escape or even avoid his presence. Just him, standing there by the gate and watching Electro repurpose skirts and blouses as blindfolds for prostitutes in heels. He liked it better that way. Almost as much as he liked seeing a pretty girl’s clothes turned to a blindfold. "I thought it'd be more interesting if I got ‘em all riled," he told Timeport. "And let that brunette one keep her skirt. Looks better on her than off." It had been easy for Timeport to get his girls. They’d been his “friends” during those original years when Calamity came. They’d been part of a group with Seth Nathsha, running from those first Epics who’d turned the world upside down. And one day, they’d left him. They’d abandoned their hiding place, leaving Seth behind. That was when Seth turned to Calamity for the first time. And that was when he vowed revenge. Each one of them had recognized him when he’d found their hiding places. He’d looked them up, back when he was a Reckoner, just waiting for his opportunity to get his revenge. And now, he had the chance. They’d followed him willingly enough, after he’d killed the rest of the group, of course. “Let that brunette one keep her skirt,” Quota told Timeport as he dropped Grendel’s jeans that he’d teleported off. “Looks better on her than off.” Timeport shook his head. “No, Quota, she doesn’t deserve the skirt.” He briefly felt “the brunette”s, Jessica’s, leg quivering with fear as he teleported her skirt off. “Animals don’t wear clothes.”

Okay, Backtrack.

I've got part two. Just give me a sec. Long story short, were recovering from a headlice scare at my house.

Not just yet, but he's close. Here's a cheering thought. On a cooking show I'm watching, the chefs have to incorporate cheese into an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. Only for the dessert round, one of the judges said they needed to "manipulate cheese" into a dessert. And now that I've mentioned it, Voidus will reward us with a cheese-manipulating Epic.

mail-mi with Timeport.

I think so, yes. I'm sure Slaughterhouse and Mobius would make the list, but we haven't seen them in action yet; Aldo and Cricket haven't had any really terrible moments so far; Arsenal is just kind of—well—an arse—and Chicago Joe is probably too drunk to find the Moral Event Horizon, much less stumble across it.

And then they died. Just cling to those words. (Also, I think almost everyone in this game has at least one Epic who has made it onto the "And Then They Died" list.)

As much as you'd like to, never forget them. Whose bright idea was it for Quota and Timeport to befriend each other, anyway? ....mine? Oh. Right. Uh, sorry about that, guys.

If we forgot them, they'd try to kill us.

Yes. She'll sniff her hand with her big bug-eyes all round and a very serious look on her face, then lick her hand once she determines there is no threat. With four words she spells their doom: "No handshakes. Just hugs."

Pugs are the best dog for hugs. They're so little and holdable. If so, he couldn't have picked a worse ally than Funtimes.

When Sam picks her up to give her a hug, all of her fears about zombie pugs should be put to rest. Pugs are very fond of hugs, and we all know how Lightwards feels about them.

To which she says: "*long snort*" Loosely translated, it means, "I shall accept this honor and bear it to the best of my ability. Also, is the trophy filled with ham? I hope it's filled with ham." He trounced the other competitors in the Coolness category, but actually received negative points in the Kindness, Caring, and Safety categories.

….And there is Protector Pug.

With a giggling farewell to Altermind, Funtimes took Nathan's hand, then pranced over to Revolution and then Sam, towing him along as they joined hands. When they were ready, she raised her hands, lifting Nathan's and one of Sam's as she did. "To the street!" And then they were there, three regular humans standing on the cracked asphalt as the only true Epic skipped back toward the floating house. Altermind's Epics streamed down the rope ladder, piling into their vehicles and speeding off in the opposite direction. Three ordinary, powerless, unarmed humans, standing there and watching their protector raise her hands to the propulsion device, altering it in some way only she knew. It's all part of the plan, Nathan told himself. A true teleporter wouldn't need a weapon, and he wouldn't bat an eye at being left alone on a darkened street. By leaving him to guard Sam and Revolution, Funtimes had given him the missing piece his disguise desperately needed: trust. Funtimes trusted Traveler enough to leave him alone, and she trusted Lightwards and Lucentia and all the rest to fall in line with her illusion. She could have at least insisted Remington come along. Nathan looked from Sam to Revolution. The hippie wore a deceptively small smile, as though she'd purposely dimmed a larger one for the sake of having fewer questions to answer. Sam, on the other hand, looked every shade of upset there was—angry, terrified, helpless, resigned. Nathan, former Newcago server Nathan, longed to take her aside and quietly ask if there was anything he could do. He already knew there wasn't, but sometimes just having someone ask was enough. But Traveler wouldn't care. Sighing, trying not to bite his lip, Nathan clasped his hands behind his back and watched as his girlfriend fiddled with the underside of the floating house. Protector Pug trotted down the sidewalk. Her small black ears bounced up and down, up and down as cool night air brushed either side of her face. She blinked it from her big brown eyes, letting out a long snort as her tiny claws sent tip-tap-tip-tap noises into the still night. Find a puppy that needs you. The command did not solidify as words in her mind. To her, it was more of a sense. An imperative, as much a part of her as her soft black fur, that must be carried out despite all other inclinations. Despite the pile of fascinating compost lying in someone’s fenced-off garden. No! Protector Pug gave her head a rapid shake, clearing her nose with a great sneeze. She could sniff the garbage later, after she found her puppy. Her puppy was more important than the pile of compost with its sweet-strong smell of old fruit and sour milk…. Go! Puppy! Now! Once again, there was no command, but Protector Pug cantered on anyway. She was a pug, and her Leader had made her a protector. She could still feel the surge of strength in her muscles, the certainty that she was a protector, the beautiful yes yes yes of being chosen and recognized as a protector dog. Now all she had to do was find someone who needed her. Someone sad. Protector Pug had seen sadness when her Leader made her a protector. His face had looked all pinched, like the sorrow he felt had drawn his usual smiles down deep inside and he didn’t think he’d ever find them again. And his eyes…she wasn’t yet sure what that liquid spilling from them meant. Though she had never seen it before, the tension she’d felt from him, pouring off of him, had made her want to run up and snuggle close and never leave him until he felt like himself again. Find someone sad. Someone like me. He hadn’t said that. But he’d meant it. Protector Pug paused and sniffed the air, inhaling the sweet scents of decaying oak and birch leaves. There were people just down the street; she could smell them faintly, along with the stronger, earthy smell of lizard. Leader had kept quite a few lizards, but never closely enough for her to study them. They had always looked so weird, skittering around their glass tanks on their splayed-out scaly little legs. Protector Pug longed to sit down with one and watch it until she knew it why it was so weird, how it could move so fast, what it was running from, and why it had to run in zig-zags to escape it. This lizard smell was stronger. Bigger, like her Leader had merged them with elephants and told them to stand in one place and look weird. Protector Pug trotted further down the sidewalk, the lizard smell intensifying along with the people smell. Yes, the lizards were definitely bigger than the people. But her Leader didn’t usually send his creatures out this far. Protector Pug was an exception. And then she saw it. The sight made Protector Pug stop and tilt her head. It was a lizard, a big big giant lizard the size of an elephant with dark scales that were just barely illuminated in the colorful light from a floating house. Houses shouldn’t be floating…. Protector Pug sneezed the thought away. Floating houses weren’t as important as the lizards. They were so big and weird, opening mouths to reveal huge sharp teeth that could crush and tear the humans standing on the sidewalk. Humans. None of them were puppies, but Protector Pug felt her Leader nudging her closer, close enough to look and see if they were sad. She trotted forward, hoping the lizards hadn’t seen her. They didn’t belong to Leader. His creatures always had a sort of fun-ness about them, a little whiff that said Hi, I think I might like you just a little bit. These lizards had a smell, a stance that said You look like lunch. Even the humans. Especially the humans. Protector Pug sneezed at the wrongness of the thought. Humans weren’t lunch. Humans were like Leader. They could be leaders, or they could just be friends. But they were mostly leaders. You didn’t eat leaders. You kissed them and snuggled them and asked them for food. That these lizards wanted to eat the humans just said how much they didn’t belong to Leader. But they weren’t eating the humans, so they must belong to someone else. A different leader. A leader who didn’t deserve to lead anyone. Protector Pug sneezed again. The thought of a leader who would let lizards eat humans was so offensive she couldn’t ponder it for long. She trotted forward, leaving the sidewalk and stepping onto the asphalt, dodging the larger cracks. She had to speak to these humans. Had to ask what sort of a leader would make lizards that thought humans were lunch and not tell them otherwise. The humans wouldn’t answer her in any sort of way she could understand, but the way they responded to her, to their leader if he appeared, would tell her enough. As she drew closer, her attention was drawn to one of the girl humans, the one dressed in black with pretty sparkle-shoes. Leader’s shoes had never looked like that, but Protector Pug liked the way they caught what little light there was and bounced it back in such a pretty way. The girl human, though, didn’t look happy. She stood all tense, arms hugging herself. Protector Pug thought at first that she was watching one of the other humans, the one in the poofy dress who stood underneath the floating house, but she didn’t seem to be. She was biting her lip and staring straight ahead. A sad human. Like Leader. This was her, this was the human, the sad human who needed a protector dog. Protector Pug closed the distance between them in a few seconds. She had to introduce herself—but how? How could she tell this sad girl human that she had a protector dog now, that not everything was going to be all right but that some things would be? Tell her you’re there. Protector Pug reached out with her tiny paw and batted the edge of the girl human’s jeans. The girl human didn’t respond, so Protector Pug moved an inch or two closer and batted her ankle—gently, gently, with her sharp claws retracted so as not to hurt her. The girl human jumped and spun round, shuffling her foot away. Protector Pug sat and looked up at the girl human. She didn’t just look sad. She looked scared. Protector Pug knew she had to get rid of that fear, even in just a little way. So she did the thing that always made Leader smile. She perked up her ears, and she tilted her head.

Hey, some of my best friends are sentient airplanes. They're cute enough to pull off almost any date. I'll post it here in a few minutes; I just needed to fix my hair and whatnot. (When it comes to writing in the morning, I don't work well in pajamas. Don't know why.) She'll approach Sam when they're outside on the street as Funtimes installs a remote-control device on the Sadrys' now-floating house, so I'll add a quick scene at the beginning taking them all out onto the street.

Edgedancer is secretly a sentient airplane? O.o EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT NOW Morals like "If a couple is adorbs enough, they can totally have a picnic as bombs fall from the heavens?" I see nothing wrong with this. It just makes us love Voidgaze even more.

Nighthound is Edgedancer's. Have you gotten to one of his posts yet?

It's not a ship, but is now a good time for Protector Pug, or should I wait a few posts?