December!

by ParaDexTwo (reconnectng)

Summary:

I'm gonna try to write for every December day. we'll see how long it takes me to collapse and die.

Chapter 1

I'm gonna be attempting to write something for every day of December.

key word is attempting, I'm not promising anything, but I'll try. it's not going to be very well edited or long, it's more of a endurance test I'm making myself do because I saw others doing it.
please give me prompts or ideas, but be aware: your ideas may be twisted in some way to fit my weird mind.

keep it sfw, but you can put mature things or suggestible things. the rating I have rn is only a stand-in. it'll probably change.
I'll add tags or any warnings as i go.

Chapter 2: 1. Gingerbread competition

Notes:

out of character, rushed, chaotic, crack, nonsensical, confusing.
that's what this is, but it was fun making it!

“Me and Flame are working together,” Mane declared. “Alone. Go away, Derapchu!”

Derapchu sighed, and hopefully sidled up to Pentar, who shoved him away.

“You can work with us!” Squiddo called, frantically waving at Derapchu from the other side of the room. “We’ll have lots of fun.”

Derapchu sighed and trudged over to Squiddo and the rest of FOCUS, all of whom looked way too excited. “Yeah, but we’re definitely going to lose.”

“Shut up!” Zam shouted, waving his hands around to get everyone’s attention. “There’s only three rules, okay? No stealing, no griefing, and no sweating!”

There was a collective groan. Clown dramatically pretended to faint, falling into Kab’s arms.

“Shut up!” Zam repeated. “There’s too much sweating around here, this is supposed to be fun!”

“It is fun!” Mapicc called back. “As long as we’re winning!”

Zam scowled at him, and then turned back to the rest of them. “Okay, ready, set, go!”

The room burst into chatter.

 

“Okay, we need to make the houses first,” Minute said firmly. “Spoke, where’s the icing.”

Spoke quickly wiped his mouth and hid his hands behind his back. “Uh, what?”

Chief cleared his throat. “Zam, do we get replacements for things that were, er, lost to the sands of time?”

“You mean Spoke?” Mapicc said dryly, “Probably not.”

“We’re gonna lose,” Jepex complained, “look at Flame and Mane. They're like a well-oiled machine that didn’t eat their frosting!”

Flame and Mane already had their house half-constructed, systematically forming a little gingerbread box and roof, somehow simultaneously sorting out all the decorations they had into neat piles.

Zam stomped up to Flame and Mane and got in their face. “Hey, you two, what did I tell you guys about sweating?”

Mane smiled toothily at him. “We’re not sweating, we’re just very passionate about gingerbread houses!”

Bacon snorted loudly, and Mane gave him a comically sad face.

“More passionate about winning than baking,” Bacon muttered, constantly removing candy canes and chocolates from Planet before he ate them. “Planet, bro, stop eating our construction materials!”

Planet shrugged. “But they taste good. I won’t eat all of them, don’t worry.”

“Don’t eat the gingerbread though,” Derapchu called to Planet. “It tastes worse than your mum’s-”

Pangi threw a chocolate at Derapchu’s head. “Shut up!”

“He’s right though,” Squiddo said seriously. “It tastes like cardboard. 4C, do you think it might be cardboard.”

4C studied the gingerbread, scratching his chin. “Uh. Maybe? It doesn’t look that appetizing, that’s for sure.”

Squiddo glanced at Pentar and ECorridor out of the corner of her eye, and her face broke into a grin.

“4C,” she hissed not-so-quietly. “Look at those two.”

“What?” Cube poked his head over her shoulder to look at Pentar and E. “Oohhhh…”

“Yeah, Pentar’s definitely cheating on me,” Derapchu said glumly.

“Do we have any mistletoe left over?” Squiddo asked between snickers.

4C grinned. “You bet we do.”

Squiddo nodded. “Operation mistletoe is a go!”

 

“I think FOCUS is plotting something,” Kab said conversationally, arranging the blue candy into intricate designs on her piece of gingerbread.

She and Clown had both agreed to decorate first, then construct. It made it a lot easier, this way they could add their own flair to their own gingerbread without getting in each other’s way. It was obvious to tell which one was whose, given the blue on one and the red, black, and white on the other.

“Will it stop us from finishing our house?” Clown asked, absentmindedly poking one of the candy canes he’d attached using the icing. It hadn’t dried yet, and he couldn’t really keep going if his candy canes would slide off the moment he moved it.

Kab stared at Squiddo, who brightly waved back before creeping away. “I don’t think so. Their target’s Pentar, I think. We’re good.”

“Perfect,” Clown said menacingly. “Now, are you done with those M&Ms or do I need to steal them?”

Kab pushed to bowl over to Clown, but didn’t stop staring after Squiddo as she snuck out of the door.

 

The Sticklers had decided to cut all their gingerbread pieces into sticks. It made sense, if you thought about it, but now came the issue of building something moderately resembling a house out of gingerbread sticks. Rek didn’t really have any ideas, but he figured they had to get going before they ran out of time.

“What if we built a, a tower out of the sticks?” he suggested.

Ro frowned. “That wouldn’t-”

“Great idea!” Jumper butted in, energetically snatching some of the sticks from Ro’s hands. “Let’s get building!”

Making the base was easy, the icing was sticky enough and they made a rectangle-looking base quickly. But then they tried to get some of the sticks to stand straight up in the air, and they were just not having it. The icing wasn’t drying quickly enough, and they kept falling over.

“We need a new strategy,” Ro declared, giving up and letting go of the sticks he was holding up. They flopped down on their sides with a sort of squishy sound. “We need to make each tier separately, and then add them on top of each other.”

That idea actually made sense, so Ro put each of them in charge of making their own level of the tower. Rek built his carefully, making sure to add as many sugar cubes as possible. Sugar cubes didn’t taste the greatest, but they would definitely look cool.

Jumper poured approximately the whole jar of pink sprinkles over hers, while Ro’s was covered in pale purple candy, frosting, and whatever else he could find, including nonedible substances. It was honestly going much better then Rek had expected.

“Guys, guys, this is going to be a masterpiece,” Rek declared, carefully squeezing out some icing along the edge of his portion.

“Yeah!” Jumper cheered. “Nobody else is gonna have a tower like ours!”

“Five minutes left!” Zam shrieked.

Ro’s eyes widened. “Oh, shoot. C’mon, no time to finish decorating. We gotta put it together and make sure it’ll actually work first.”

He snatched Rek’s and Jumper’s portions of the tower, and started to put it together. “We’ll definitely get style points, at least.”

Rek grinned. “Yeah, dude! That was a really smart idea, by the way. Props for that.”

“Well, we don’t even know if it’ll work yet.”

Jumper laughed. “Oh man, look at the Empire’s.”

Rek turned around, and sort of regretted it. Something had clearly gone wrong. Mapicc was yelling at Spoke while waving around the remaining icing bag, while Spoke who was just screaming unintelligibly. Jepex had somehow set his hair on fire, judging from the singed side of his head, and Chief was hiding behind Minute, who was attempting to calm everyone down.

“Why the fuck did you eat the icing?! Spoke! How the fuck are we supposed to put to together?” Mapicc demanded.

Jepex halfheartedly tried to stand up one of the gingerbread squares against the other, and they fell over with a sad plap!

“Guys, this is still salvageable if we just stop fighting-” Minute said uselessly.

Chief surreptitiously pulled a book from his inventory, and started reading it.

Minute groaned. “Chief, at least try to do something.”

“I am,” Chief said urgently. “I’m trying to dissociate!”

Minute groaned again, and snatched the bag of icing from Mapicc’s hands. Mapicc whirled around, glaring at him, but Minute ignored him. It really didn’t matter anymore, they were definitely going to lose, but he wasn’t going to have literally nothing to show. They had to at least have some kind of structure, even if it was only really to keep their pride intact.

He quickly squirted out the remaining icing on the edges of a square, and then haphazardly stuck four other squares onto it, forming a very rickety house without a roof. Great. Well, at least it was something.

“Minute! What is this!?” Mapicc was nearly wailing.

Minute crossed his arms. “It’s at least sort of a house. Not like you two were doing anything.”

Jepex slid his hand over the table, collecting a few of the sugar cubes that Spoke and Mapicc had scattered around. He shuffled over to Chief, who was fervently reading his book, and happily munched on them.

“Wait, Jepex is eating the food!” Spoke complained. “Why can’t I?”

Mapicc scooped up a handful of the sugar cubes and other scattered candies, and dumped it on top of the sort-of-house with annoyance. “Fine. I guess that’s the best we can do, huh?” he turned to glare at Spoke again. “‘Cuz someone ate all the supplies!”

Spoke looked affronted. “It wasn’t just me! Jepex-”

“Shut up!” Zam shouted. “No more building! It’s time for judging!”

“You’re carrying it,” Mapicc threw over his shoulder to Chief as he walked up to the table where the others were already putting their finished builds. “Since you did nothing!”

 

Pangi watched through narrowed eyes as the competitors lined up their gingerbread houses side by side. He was the self-appointed judge, but to be honest, none of the others really wanted to be the one to judge the houses and possibly (definitely) make enemies.

SB was the other judge, but Pangi ignored him. He needed his opinion to be untainted by others. Unfortunately, SB promptly made this impossible.

He let out a laugh. “What is this? Is this the Empire’s? It’s literally just a box. Okay, can we eliminate that one right away?”

“It’s minimalism!” Mapicc argued.

Pangi sighed. “SB, let’s, uh, look at the others first before we jump to conclusions.” just from looking at Mapicc’s face, he could tell he was in a murdering mood, and upsetting him probably wasn’t a good idea.

SB laughed again. “I don’t have to, i mean, look at i-”

“SB shut up!” Pangi hissed, whacking him on the shoulder. “Let’s look at FOCUS’s first. Wait, where’s Squiddo?”

“She’s walking her fish,” Cube said quickly. “Maybe you should look at Flame’s while we wait for her.”

Everybody stared at him blankly.

“...or don’t,” Cube finished weakly.

“Well, ours is the best, so you might as well look at it,” Mane said matter of factly.

Bacon scoffed. “Oh, please. If there wasn’t a prize you wouldn’t care at all.”

Rek looked surprised. “There’s a prize?”

Zam waved his hands around erratically. “Hey! Focus! Not you guys,” he added to 4C and Cube.

Pangi observed Flame and Mane’s gingerbread house. It was definitely a gingerbread house, unlike the empire’s and the Sticklers’, but it kind of looked bland. Lacking… the messiness that every other one seemed to have an abundance of.

“Very interesting.” Pangi said, trying not to show any of his emotion. “Who’s next?”

Flame groaned. “Wait, that’s it? That’s all the praise you’re giving it? We poured our icing, gingerbread, and chocolate into this house. And it’s only ‘interesting’?!”

“Excuse me?” Clown said coolly. “I’m the drama queen around here, thank you very much.”

“Yeah, ours actually looks like we have personalities,” Kab snapped. “Unlike yours, which-”

“Let’s all stay calm, okay?” Rek stepped in between the glares and held up his hand in surrender. “We’ve all made cool gingerbread houses-” Chief scoffed. “-but they're all unique. Maybe let’s just.. respect our differences! Yes! Let’s do that!”

“Yeah? What’s your look like?” Kab challenged.

Rek beamed. “I’m glad you asked!” he flourished his hands at his tower. “Tada! Gingerbread Tower!”

Jumper clapped loudly. She nudged Ro, who hastily joined in. Pangi had to admit, they had creativity. The execution was just a little off. The sections of the tower were a little haphazard, but each piece was meticulously decorated.

“Fascinating.” Pangi said calmly. “Who’s next?”

Pentar raised his hand, and Pangi nodded at him. “Me and E made this. It’s not really a house, it’s more like a farm. We added some candy animals.”

“They taste good,” E added.

“And we have little gingerbread people,” Pentar continued. “E decorated them.”

He pointed at the very obvious gingerbread people, one covered in purple icing and the other very clearly a Mini Pentar. Everyone noted that the two little figures were standing very close to each other, with huge frosting smiles on their faces. Pangi also noted that, and had to hide a knowing smile.

“Well, ours isn’t super cliche like that one,” Bacon butted in.

“It’s a gingerbread rocketship!” Planet said happily.

Bacon scowled. “Nno, it’s not!”

Pangi studied their gingerbread… creation? It definitely wasn’t a rocket, but wasn’t really house shaped either. Plus, it was sort of drenched in many, many different colours of frosting.

“Okay, you have gingerbread.” Pangi said awkwardly. “Next?”

“Wait!” Squiddo called out. She ran through the doorway, a clump of green weeds clutched in her hand. “4C, I- I got it! I got the mistletoe!” she held it out triumphantly, holding it over her head like it was a prize. “Look everybody! I have mistletoe!”

She hopped up onto the judging table, paying no attention to the gingerbread squishing under her boots, and affixed the plant to the wooden planks above them. Then she started shoving Pentar and ECorridor toward it.

“Help!” E shrieked. “I’m being kidnapped!”

Spoke’s eyes lit up. “I’ll save you!”

He barreled into Squiddo, sending both of them crashing into the table. Gingerbread flew everywhere, and Lifesteal’s first Gingerbread House Building Competition ended in complete and utter pandemonium.

Notes:

feel free to suggest things.

Chapter 3: 2. Hot chocolate after murder with the empire

Summary:

arguing. goofy. sort of crack. one swear word. just read the title, that's all I think you need to know.

Chief set a pot on the stove. “Okay, so who’s having hot chocolate?”

Mapicc tossed his hair out of his eyes and flopped down on the couch. “Everyone.”

Minute joined him on the couch, loosening the straps of his battered chest plate. Mapicc helped pull it off him, and Minute let out a sigh of relief, stretching.

“Are you hurt?” Mapicc asked, taking off his own cracked and dented armour.

Minute shook his head, relaxing on the couch. “Nah. I’m good.”

“I can’t believe we won that,” Jepex said, grinning like crazy. “We beat Mane. That’s fucking crazy!”

Spoke leapt to his feet. “We did! It was all because of my trap, though, right?”

Chief laughed. “Sure, buddy. Keep telling yourself that.”

“Wait, are you making hot chocolate?” Jepex walked over to the pot and peered at the dark brown mixture inside of it. “I don’t want any.”

“We’ll, you’re getting some.” Mapicc declared. “You’ll love it.”

“I really won’t,” Jepex retorted. “I don’t like chocolate.”

Everyone stared at him.

“What?” Spoke said incredulously.

“Jepex, I hate to break it to you,” Minute said seriously. “But there is something really wrong with you.”

Mapicc rolled his eyes. “I know! I keep trying to get him to like it, but he just doesn’t!”

Chief gave him a skeptical look. “Really? And how are you getting him to like it?”

“By force feeding me chocolate when I don’t expect it,” Jepex grumbled.

“Who doesn’t like chocolate?!” Malocclusion demanded. “Chocolate is one of the greatest foods you could possibly eat!”

“Doesn’t it even count as a food?” Minute wondered. “It gives, like, no hunger bars.”

“If you can eat it, it’s food.” Spoke declared. “And I eat everything, so everything’s food!”

Jepex tugged off one of his socks and threw it in Spoke’s face. “Yeah? Then I guess this is food, eat it.”

“Sure!” Spoke chirped happily, lifting the dirty, sweaty sock to his mouth.

Minute snatched it out of his hands. “How about no.” Spoke made a disappointed sound. “Chief, how’s that hot chocolate going?”

“Nearly finished,”

“I’ll make you some warm milk instead,” Minute offered Jepex. “I don’t want you to miss out. Plus, it’s literally freezing outside.”

Jepex grinned. “Yeah, you do all the work, Minute.”

Minute frowned. “No, you’re helping. Come on.”

He dragged Jepex into the kitchen by the arm, ignoring his frantic wiggling to get free. Chief carefully poured the hot chocolate into four mugs, doing his best to make it as even as possible to avoid arguing.

He handed Mapicc and Spoke each their own mugs, and joined them on the couch. “Minute, yours is on the counter.”

“Thanks,” Minute called back to him. Chief could hear the pans rattling around, and Jepex complaining about something.

Spoke was giving Chief’s cup the stink eye. “You gave yourself more than us.”

Mapicc rolled his eyes. “Oh please, we can all see you got the most out of all of us.”

Spoke’s face turned red. “No I don’t!”

“Yes you do!” Mapicc argued.

“Guys-” Chief tried.

“You always try to pin the blame on me!” Spoke burst out, glaring at Mapicc, who opened his mouth furiously to reply.

“Yo!” Minute shouted, startling them both. He was holding his mug of hot chocolate, following a happy looking Jepex into the room. “Shut up and drink the hot chocolate that Chief very kindly made for you!”

Spoke and Mapicc angrily sipped their hot chocolate, glaring over the rims of their cups at each other. Jepex snickered at them, and Mapicc’s head whipped toward him. “What?!”

Jepex shrugged. “Well, you two are trying to kill each other with looks while your mugs are holiday themed, it’s pretty ironic.” he pointed at their mugs.

Mapicc’s read: Merry And Bright!

Spoke’s read: Glad Tidings Of Comfort And Joy!

“Who the fuck picked out our mugs?” Mapicc demanded

Notes:

dialogue heavy because I'm good at dialogue (I think) so I'm doing it.

Chapter 4: 3. spoke gets tied up

Notes:

my mental health was not so good today. so. it's short. I spend alll my writing time
I had more planned, maybe an interrogation.
mh. i have an idea for tomorrow's, so i'l just take the L and move on.

Spoke woke up because his head was hurting. Darkness surrounded him, and when he looked down he could barely see the outline of himself. He tried to sit up and realized he couldn’t. Something was wrong with his head, it wouldn’t move the way it should. Spoke tried to touch his head and belatedly realized his hands were tied.

It was far too easy to tilt his head back, trying to see the ceiling. Wait.

Notes:

in case it wasn't clear, he's tied up upside down to the ceiling. that's why he thinks his head is moving weird. I just didn't get to that part.

Chapter 5: 4. Jumperwho dies

Notes:

It’s the title. Just a description of jumper who dead. I don’t know why I wrote this, but itbpropbsny had something to do with the color combo. Just, in my head? This scene would look soooo amazing! Like it’s sad but pretty.

Jumperwho was beautiful even in death. Her eyes were still open, reflecting the sun back up at it, the warm brown of her irises swallowing up the light. The bright red blood on her face almost made it look like she was crying redstone.

White snow drifts stood out against the red splattered over it. Her hair was spread out over the red soaked snow, framing her face. Someone had scattered pink petals around her face, some shivering in the wind. One caught the wind and floated gently into the air before settling by her shoulder.

Whoever had put the petals around her had also carefully set two hair ribbons in her outstretched hand, one pink and one purple. Her other hand still clenched her sword, refusing to give up fighting despite everything.

Bright diamond shards dotted the ground around her, the only remains of her armour. They shone brightly, even though they were badly dented from the fight. Red soaked her shirt, ripped fabric fluttering in the wind.

Someone had arranged the blood soaked fabric so it covered her wound, but the red staining the soft pink made it obvious where it was. A snowflake drifted down and settled on her cheek. More flakes fell. They didn’t melt when they landed on her, accumulating as the snow fell thicker and faster.

Jumper wasn’t warm anymore, the ground stealing the heat leaking from her body. Soon she’d be just as cold as the snow, her blood frozen solid around her. The snow fell faster, making it difficult to see her through the white.

Soon she’d be covered in it, the snow filling in the wound in her chest and hiding the blood from prying eyes. Her sword, the diamond glittering in the light, would be nestled in a bed of cold white snow. The snow would cover her, hide her, until all indication of her is gone except for a new snow drift, one of the hundreds dotting the field.

Notes:

Any ideas or requests just tell me. I probably will do them.

Chapter 6: 5. Rek having teleportation powers and lying about flowers

Notes:

someone wanted this. I may have forgotten to write until like the middle of the night, but I still wrote.

“I’m telling you, they're not flowers!” Pangi complained. “You can’t put them in a bouquet!”

Zam scoffed. “Hey, I can put whatever I want in a bouquet. I can put your old shoes in if I like.”

Pangi groaned. “No! You can’t! I refuse to work with you!”

“But they're Christmassy,” Zam argued. “They’re Christmas flowers, we have to have them for the party!”

“Zam! They. are. Not. flowers!” Pangi violently shook him, and then snatched the poinsettias out of his hand before throwing them to the ground, about to stomp on them.

Zam snatched them back up before he could, sticking out his tongue at Pangi. “They’re flowers, just admit it.”

“No, they-”

“Oh, those? Yeah, poinsettias are flowers.” a cheerful voice materialized from behind Zam and Pangi. They shrieked and cowered, clinging to each other.

“Don’t kill us!” Zam pleaded.

Rek looked confused. “Of course not! Anyway, poinsettias are flowers, but the red petal thingies are leaves. Only the middle part is the flower.”

“What?” Zam wrinkled his nose, baffled. “No, that’s crazy. The red petals are petals, not leaves!”

“There aren’t any petals at all,” Pangi argued, “they just aren’t flowers!”

“Wait, where’d Rek go?” Zam glanced around, but Rek had mysteriously disappeared in the five seconds they’d started talking again.

“Maybe let’s not question it,” Pangi whispered. “For all we know, he could be right behind us.”

Chapter 7: 6. minute grows wings pt. 1

Notes:

pt. 1 because I only got halfway through my plan, but I have enough motivation to do it. just not enough time. plus, now I'm sick so everything was 10 times harder. I barely ate anything today.

Minute first noticed it after the fight with Mapicc and Bacon. His back was hurting, his armour uncomfortably tight. He hadn’t gotten badly hurt, though, just a few scrapes and bruises. He wrote it off as just stress. After all, he’d been preparing for that fight for a while now.

But it didn’t go away. His back throbbed throughout the whole night, until he decided that this wasn’t just a bruise or two. He flicked the bathroom light on and shucked off his shirt, trying to simultaneously look at the mirror while still being able to see his back. It didn’t hurt everywhere on his back, mainly his shoulder blades.

There wasn’t anything to see. His back looked normal, his black skin without any blemishes, exactly how it usually looked. He frowned, but decided to ignore it for now, and went back to bed.

When he woke up the next morning, though, he could tell something was wrong. His back was hurting even more now. Fuck. He tried to lift one of his hands and hissed with pain. His shoulders were so sore that he could barely make them move. He gingerly rolled his shoulders, trying to loosen them up, but that just made it ache more.

He stumbled to the bathroom and checked his back again. His stomach clenched. There were bulges on his back, like someone had pumped it full of air. They were over his shoulder blades, one for each arm. They shifted painfully when he tried to move his arms.

Something was dreadfully wrong. He managed to get his shirt back on with a significant bit of pain, and checked his back again. They weren’t that big, only noticeable with his shirt on if they knew they were there. He slowly let out the breath he’d been holding. He’d be fine. Maybe he’d just sprained his arms and they were swelling.

There wasn’t any reason to go bothering Leo or Clown about this, it was just a normal injury from a normal battle, and he’d deal with it like he did the rest of them. He shoved down the bit of fear that still remained. Just because this had never happened before didn’t mean that something was really wrong. He’d been hurt before, and he knew how to take care of himself.

He grabbed some ice from a chest, gritting his teeth past the pain, and returned to his bed. He couldn’t lift his arm to reach his back without white flashing behind his eyes, so he just set the ice on his bed and laid on top of it. The pressure didn’t hurt as bad as moving his arms, oddly enough. The cold sank into his skin and soothed the pain. Minute let out a sigh of relief and closed his eyes.

Minute woke up by Leo calling his name. “Minute! Minute! Miiiiiiiiiiiinute!”

He grimaced, Leo’s voice making his headache surface again.

“Shut up.” he mumbled, closing his eyes again.

Leo’s footsteps grew louder, and then the sound of Minute’s door bursting open rattled through his head. “Minute! You awake?”

“No,” Minute grumbled. “Let me sleep.”

“You sure?” Leo asked seriously. “It’s nearly noon already.”

Minute sighed. “I’m just tired, go away.”

Leo sighed loudly, clearly mocking him, but he left.

Minute managed to sleep for nearly the whole day before his hunger forced him to get out of bed. Leo and Clown were playing a card game, a bottle of what was probably some sort of illegal substance between them.

“Go drink,” Clown said boredly.

Leo scowled and took a swig from the bottle. “Fuck you.”

“Do you have a king?”

Leo threw the card at him. “Fuck you!”

Minute slipped into the storage room and opened the food chest, his stomach complaining loudly. As soon as he sank his teeth into a piece of bread, he realized how starving he was and devoured nearly half a stack of bread. He stumbled back to bed, his head and back aching harder than ever and his stomach full.

He suddenly woke up in the middle of the night and hissed with pain, quickly rolling into his side. His shoulders were aching so bad that he could barely sit up. He checked his back in the mirror again, not bothering to struggle with taking off his shirt. The bumps were bigger, visible even with the shirt now, and Minute didn’t like it.

He still tried to ignore it. He didn’t need another thing to focus on. He spent the next few days sleeping and eating. He’d never felt more hungry in his life. He constantly felt hungry and exhausted. Clown and Leo left him alone, working on other things. Minute guessed that they were mostly going AFK to get gold for gapples and restocking after that fight.

The lumps on his back grew. They didn’t spread over his back, staying over his shoulder blades, but they grew out, getting thicker and pulling his skin taut. It was like something was straining inside of him, trying to burst out of his shoulders. It made him feel sick. They hurt more and more, and Minute struggled even more to move his arms. Every time he tried they’d hurt even worse. He could see something shifting under his skin, like something was pushing even harder against it.

His skin felt like it was getting thinner there too. Sometimes he thought he could see a dark shape under it, moving and shifting when he tried to move his arms. Trying to dull the pain with ice or a warm cloth didn’t really help anymore. He could barely move, and Clown and Leo had definitely noticed. They hadn’t confronted him about it yet, but Minute could guess that they weren’t going to ignore it for much longer.

He was right. Leo barged into his room about a week after Minute had first noticed the bulges on his back. “Minute! What the hell is wrong with you?”

Minute forced his eyes open again, groaning. His back throbbed, and he just wanted to sleep for the next month and ignore Leo.

Leo didn’t let him, walking to his bed and looking down at him. Minute peered at him through his eyelashes. They seemed to be sticking together, refusing to let him open his eyes. He couldn’t find it in himself to care that Leo was seeing the weird bulges on his back, he was just too tired. Although, he could feel his stomach trying to eat itself, so maybe he needed to eat something now.

Leo didn’t say anything, unusual for him. Then he turned around and screamed at the door. “Clown! Get over here!”

Minute mumbled something that was supposed to be a protest, but he couldn’t focus with the pain. Clown’s light footsteps joined Leo by Minute’s bed. “Ah. So that’s why he’s been so weird lately.”

A white mask floated around in Minute’s vision. “Minute, can you hear me?”

“Mmrrrrg,” Minute said helpfully.

“You haven’t been eating enough,” Clown told him matter-of-factly. “Leo, go get some food.”

“Why? What’s wrong with him?” Minute could hear the concern in Leo’s voice, and was grateful for it. He tried to move his arm to make a thumbs up and his back flared up with pain.

“I’ll tell you once you get that food.”

Leo left, and Minute was left with the blurry outline of a Clown in front of him. A cold hand slid under his side and gently lifted him up. Minute let him, too exhausted to pull away. Clown moved him around, careful to not touch his arms or back. Still, it hurt, and Minute could feel hot tears running down his face. Clown set him down on his front, tilting his head to the side so he could still breathe. A cold hand wiped away his tears, and Minute heard Leo returning.

“Here.” Leo said, and Minute felt something brush against his lips. The smell of cake filtered through his brain and he desperately took a bite, his stomach roaring with hunger. Clown fed him the whole slice, and then fed him another. Minute eventually felt too tired to keep holding his head up to the cake, and stopped eating.

“You should’ve told us right away.” Clown said.

“But what’s wrong with him?!” Leo demanded.

“He’s growing wings.” Clown said.

Minute wanted to laugh. Growing wings? It was ridiculous. Him, with wings? Clown wasn’t being serious.

He felt a hand on the center of his back and flinched instinctively, although it didn’t hurt. “You can see the shape of his wings, here.” The hand travelled up to his shoulder blade and lightly traced a shape over the lump. Minute cried out with pain, and the hand was gone.

“Sorry. Did you see it?” Clown asked.

“I guess so?” Leo said dubiously.

“Some hybrid’s wings grow when they're older.” Clown said. “It happened to Parrot. Remember?”

Leo shook his head. “I don’t think I was friends with Parrot at that time.”

“Anyway. He’ll be fine, as long as he eats enough.” Clown said. “Parrot got really hungry when he grew in, and was pretty much eating constantly. I don’t think Minute’s eaten enough, he still looks hungry.”

Notes:

second half tomorrow.

Chapter 8: 8. minute grows wings pt. 2

Summary:

not finished. plus I didn't write anything yesterday. I was pretty sick. still feel not good.
the wort part isn't even being sick, it's the constant asthma attacks after. for weeks after i have to take my inhaler every day or more. I hate it.

“Anyway. He’ll be fine, as long as he eats enough.” Clown said. “Parrot got really hungry when he grew in, and was pretty much eating constantly. I don’t think Minute’s eaten enough, he still looks hungry.”

Leo stared at Minute’s back, looking concerned. “Okay, yeah, but how are those- those- how are wings gonna pop out of his back?”

Minute tried to mumble agreement, but his eyes were drifting closed. He stopped fighting it and slept.

When he woke up again, his back was throbbing even worse. He groaned, twisting his head to the side and opening his eyes. Leo was surreptitiously trying to stuff as much cake as he could in his mouth. He froze when he saw Minute looking at him, and then quickly swallowed.

“Uh,” he said intelligently. He held up the rest of the cake. “Clown left me some food for you in case you’re hungry.”

Minute scowled at him. “Leo.”

“I didn’t eat all of it!” Leo protested.

Minute sighed. Leo carefully studied his expression. “Does it hurt a lot?”

“Yeah.” Minute mumbled. “It feels like something’s trying to burst out of my back.”

“Oh, well, there is,” Leo said promptly, breaking a piece off the cake and gulping it down.

Minute’s eyes widened, fear worming around inside him. “What?!”

“Oh, yeah!” Leo said, stuffing morre cake in his mouth. “Clown told me about it. I don’t really understand all of it, but basically those growths on your back are, like, little wing eggs? Like your wings are inside of it, and when they're ready to come out they just burst your back open? That’s what Clown said.”

Minute felt like he wanted to throw up. “What the actual fuck?! My back’s gonna burst open?”

Leo nodded. “Um, I think so? Ask Clown for more details. Actually, i’ll go get him.” he scooped up the rest of the cake and walked away, leaving Minute alone.

He returned with significantly less cake and Clown, who explained it more. Yeah, his back was going to burst open and there’d be a lot of blood, but it would probably happen while he was asleep, so he’d just wake up with his wings. But actually, the growths on his back weren’t even his whole wings. He still had to grow in feathers after, which Clown assured him would be relatively quick and painful.

Minute just wanted to try. He hated this, he hated that his body was changing without his permission and it fucking hurt. He was exhausted, starving, and in pain constantly, and he didn’t even want these wings he was supposedly getting.

He ate, and fell back asleep again.

Chapter 9: 9. minute grows wings pt 3?

Summary:

I think I have fallen into the trap again.
because I messed around on YouTube while I was sick to kill time... I'm really struggling to pull myself away from it long enough to write. grrr. I'll figure this out. and right after I stopped watching YouTube constantly! I put a lot of effort into no longer watching shorts, and now my effort is wasted. I'm pretty annoyed at myself.

Notes:

I don;'t know why I keep doing it. currently watching a video about why spotify is ruining music. I don't even HAVE spotify!! why does YouTube keep sucking me in like a freaking black hole?!?

He woke up slowly, not really wanting to open his eyes. He yawned, reaching up to brush his hair out of his eyes, and looked around. He squinted in confusion. Something was weird about this. It sort of felt like his arms were oddly heavy, and there seemed to be dark red blood all around him. Wait. he tried to twist around to see his back, but a twinge of pain made him stop.

He let out a growl of frustration. “Clown! Clown!”

“What?” Clown leaned into his room. “Ah. I see. Hold on for a minute.”

“What?!” Minute spluttered. “What?! I’m practically drowning in my blood!”

Clown was already gone, but he returned quickly with a piece of bread and a towel. Minute hadn’t realized how hungry he was until Clown held the bread out to him, but then he ate it quickly.

Clown nodded absently, doing something to his back. Minute could sort of feel it, but it just felt so off. It was like Clown was moving his arms without moving his arms, like he could feel them move while watching them lay still.

Notes:

painfully short oh well I promise i'lll finish this,

Chapter 10: 10. minute grows wings pt 4

Summary:

I stopped watching yubtub and got more writing done today. there's something about writing down and admitting that youbitb is distracting me that actually helps me commit to not letting yubtubut distract me.

Notes:

this is not the last one, but it will be tomorrows
and hopefully I'll get a .5 one done to make up for the day I didn't do it.

Clown nodded absently, doing something to his back. Minute could sort of feel it, but it just felt so off. It was like Clown was moving his arms without moving his arms, like he could feel them move while watching them lay still. Clown wrapped the towel around him, and Minute hissed with pain. It scratched his raw back, like sandpaper against an open wound.

Clown just scooped him up, ignoring Minute’s pain, and marched him out of the base.

“Where the fuck are you taking me?” Minute demanded. He felt much more awake than he had in days, although it might have been the fear of being taken outside while very, very vulnerable.

“Just to the water,” Clown replied. “You’re covered in blood.”

The water probably meant the river near their base, but Minute didn’t particularly want to be dumped in the river. He told Clown that, loudly, but was ignored. They reached the water, and Clown set him down surprisingly gently into it.

Minute tried to stand up, pushing away Clown, and a wave of exhaustion nearly made him pass out. He clung weakly to Clown, the world spinning around him. He could barely even hold his head up, let alone stand.

Clown held him by his waist, keeping his head above the water, and guided him to a rock that sort of stuck up out of the river. Minute was set down on it, on the lowest edge so that he could keep his head out of the water but his lower half was still in the water. Minute shivered. The water wasn’t that cold, warmed by the strong sun overhead, but he still didn’t really appreciate being soaked.

Clown tugged off his gloves and put them in his inventory, and then scooped up some water. He let it fall over Minute’s back, washing away the blood. He kept doing it, dumping water on him until Minute was thoroughly soaked and his whole body was probably spotless.

Minute focused on trying to figure out what the things on his back were. He knew logically that they must be wings, but they looked so weird. He couldn’t really get a good angle, but he could tell they were black, like the rest of his skin. They kept moving, although he wasn’t telling them to. Maybe he was and he just didn’t know it? Maybe he just couldn’t control them at all?

They seemed to dislike him craning his neck to see them, because they kept moving away from his range of vision. He still tried, though.

“Minute.” Clown said abruptly. He carefully grabbed Minute’s wrist. “What am I doing right now?”

“Holding my wrist,” Minute said blankly. “Why?”

Clown nodded down toward Minute’s hands, both of them resting in the water. “Because I'm not. I’m holding your wing.”

“I- what?” Minute tried to twist around to see his wings again, and let out a growl of frustration when they bobbed out of his vision again. All he could see were black blobs from his peripheral vision.

Clown pulled his arm- wing forward. “Here. They won’t listen to you at first.”

Minute turned back toward him, and grimaced when he saw what his wing looked like. “Are you completely sure those are supposed to be wings?”

They looked like weird misshapen limbs, the skin thin and fragile, so thin that he could see the strange muscles underneath.

“They will be wings. You just don’t have your feathers yet.”

Minute glared at the ground. “I’m gonna be growing feathers too?”

“...Yeah.”

“Fuck.”

Clown let out a faint hmm in response, lifting and lowering Minute’s supposed wing. Minute watched it move, scowling at it. “Can i just… ungrow my wings?”

Clown scoffed. “You really hate them that much?”

Minute nodded emphatically. “They look disturbing. Also, can I eat something”

Clown handed him a golden apple from his inventory. “Here.”

Minute spent the next week eating and sleeping. Or at least, learning how to lie down with weird new limbs getting it the way. He quickly figured out that laying on his back was pretty much impossible, and had to make do with laying on his front. He was still constantly hungry and tired, but now his back wasn’t in excruciating pain anymore.

The only issue was now he had limbs that he didn’t want or have anything to do with. They weren’t even really wings yet, just sort of large fried chicken wings, large and uncomfortable.

But then his pin feathers started growing it.

It felt like needles were stabbing his new appendages, slowly but surely piercing through his skin and extruding from the edge of his wings. Clown was right about them growing in fast, in less than a week his primaries were nearly all grown in. the pin feathers still needed to be released, but Minute had refused at point-blank to let Leo or Clown fuck around with his wings more than they already had.

He could feel Clown’s eyes on his wings, though, every day he didn’t preen his wings. And it was itchy and uncomfortable, not to mention the pain from his other feathers coming in.

He tried once to preen his wings, but they refused to listen to his instructions, dipping away when he tried to hold one still, and he quite frankly had no idea which feathers were okay to open and which ones would start bleeding if he tried. Eventually some of the pin feathers started flaking off on their own, and Minute sort of liked the black iridescent feathers, but in all honestly he wished he’d never gotten these wings.

Surprisingly, it was Leo that snapped first. Minute had seen his fingers twitching whenever he looked at Minute’s wings, and the agitated look on his face, but he’d thought that Clown would have given up first.

Leo practically dragged Minute into his room and forced him down on the bed, muttering angrily to himself. Minute let out a sigh, resigning himself to a preening session he really didn’t want. There was just something about letting his teammates preen his wings that felt too vulnerable, too weird and close for people who were supposed to be assassins.

Leo practically slammed a bottle down on his bedside table with a determined expression. “Okay, Minute. I’ve had enough.”

“What did I do?” Minute asked. He had a pretty good guess of what he did.

Leo growled and threw up his hand. “You didn’t preen your wings, that’s what! You know it drives me nuts when people don’t take care of themselves.”

“Or when they leave their clothes on the ground,” Minute added tiredly. “Or when they leave the kitchen messy after cooking something. Or when they didn’t iron their clothes. Or when their face is dirty. Or when Clown refuses to clean the blood off his weapons.”

“He says it looks cool,” Leo muttered distractedly. “But I know it’s just to drive me crazy. I hate that man.”

“What’s that?” Minute gestured toward the bottle.

“It’s preening oil,” Leo said. “Clown showed me how to do all of it. And gave me this. You need it, or your feathers won’t be feathery enough. Or something. I wasn’t paying much attention.”

“I’d rather have Clown preen my wings.” Minute said bluntly, nervously eyeing Leo’s intense expression.

“No,” Leo said firmly. “I’m preening your wings and i’ll do a great job, trust me.”

Chapter 11: 11. minute grows wings pt whatever

Summary:

I lied. 1 more chapter after this for this one because I fell asleep! and now it's technically the next day.

“It’s preening oil,” Leo said. “Clown showed me how to do all of it. And gave me this. You need it, or your feathers won’t be feathery enough. Or something. I wasn’t paying much attention.”

“I’d rather have Clown preen my wings.” Minute said bluntly, nervously eyeing Leo’s intense expression.

“No,” Leo said firmly. “I’m preening your wings and I'll do a great job, trust me.”

“I trust you to not kill me, but preen my wings?” Minute said incredulously.

Leo rolled his eyes. “Well, if i don’t do it, no one else will. You certainly won’t. Look at them! They're a mess! I mean, sure, you still have more feathers to grow in, but-” Leo let out a growl of frustration, flexing his hands and eyeing Minute’s wings.

He snatched the bottle of preen oil with a huff, and climbed on the bed behind Minute. “Do you even know how to preen them?”

“Yeah,” Minute said defensively.

A warm hand landed on the middle of Minute’s back, and he jolted. He’d mostly not been wearing shirts, mainly because of how annoying it was to try to figure out where to cut holes in them for his wings. Clown was currently tailoring his clothes, but that took time, apparently.

“Jeez, relax,” Leo muttered.

He carefully ran his hands over the joint of his right wing. Minute wrinkled his nose. He still didn’t like the feeling of them being touched, it was just too weird for him. And Leo wasn’t even preening his wings, just feeling around the base of his pin feathers.

“You said you were going to preen my wings, not give them a massage,” Minute complained.

Leo groaned dramatically. “Minute! I'm new to this! Let me scout things out first!”

Minute stopped complaining. It clearly wouldn’t get him anywhere, and it wasn’t that he disliked getting taken care of by his teammates, it was just how utterly unnerving it felt having someone touch something that hadn’t been there only a month ago.

Leo rested a hand on the top of his upper wing, and gently closed his hand around the base of a pin feather. Minute could feel him tugging experimentally on it, and the way his wings tried to jerk up. Leo held it in place, letting out a splutter of surprise.

“This feather looks ready,” he said confidently. Then he added, “I think.”

“You think?!” Minute felt his anxiety skyrocket, trying to twist away from Leo. “I don't wanna bleed out from you pulling on a blood feather!”

“Relax!” Leo said quickly, letting go of the feather to hold Minute down by his shoulder. “I know what i’m doing!” then he added under his breath, “I-”

“You think,” Minute supplied. “Leo, I don't think I trust you anymore.”

“What?!” Leo protested. “Just give me a chance, okay?”

He grabbed the pin feather again and gently pulled on the sheath around it. Minute shivered at the sensation of something coming off. It didn’t hurt, thankfully, so Leo was right about it being ready.

“See?” Leo said triumphantly. “You’re fine.”

He touched another feather, carefully gripping it at the base, and Minute winced. This one he could actually feel Leo touching it, unlike the first one where he’d only felt the pull. “Leo, wait-” he pulled, and Minute hissed with pain.

“So, that one wasn’t ready,” Leo said conversationally. “You live and you learn!”

“What did you do?!” Minute demanded. “Am I bleeding now?”

“Shh…” Leo said soothingly. “You’re fine, you’re fine. But I do need to pull out this feather, or you’re going to bleed to death. According to Clown.”

Panic ran through Minute, and he jerked away. “No!”

“I’m joking,” Leo said quickly. “Sorry, that was a joke. It’s not bleeding, don’t worry.”

“This is not reassuring.” Minute snapped.

“Sorry.”

Leo touched another feather. “Can you feel that?”

Minute shook his head. Leo pulled on it, and Minute heard more than felt the keratin sheath sliding off of it. Leo made an appreciative noise, moving on to another one.

“What?”

“Your feathers are pretty,” Leo said stiffly, in a way that meant he was literally going to die because he loved them so much, and he didn’t want anyone to know.

Then he actually got to work, working his way down his wing and touching each new feather. He left it alone if Minute made any sound to indicate he could still feel it, but the others he opened. Leo kept making noises of awe and wonder, until Minute began to wonder whether his voice box was set on repeat. Minute slowly became aware that his wing wasn’t as itchy as before, and that there was a small draft in the room. The faint wind kept moving his wing, and it was sort of annoying. His wings stopped trying to pull away with every touch, and started flicking back against Leo’s hands instead. Leo cooed at them, petting the feathers, and Minute started to get a little weirded out.

Notes:

Leo likes minute's wings. he thinks they're pretty.

Chapter 12: 12. the last part of minute growing wings

Summary:

yeah I missed another day. yesterday I wasn't able to even use my computer the whole day, and then I was too exhausted to do anything.

Notes:

today I was telling my therapist about how the amount of time I sleep has zero effect on how tired I am during the day (very tired) and how sometimes I can't eat even when I'm hungry. I thought that was normal. he said something like. "well, you're depressed." so!
and I've been having pretty bad gender dysphoria. hm.

His wings stopped trying to pull away with every touch, and started flicking back against Leo’s hands instead. Leo cooed at them, petting the feathers, and Minute started to get a little weirded out.

Leo glanced up at Minute’s slightly concerned expression and turned bright red. “Uh. sorry.”

“What is wrong with you.” Minute said politely.

Leo grinned sheepishly. “They’re really pretty.”

“I-” Minute started, and then shook his head. “Just finished up.”

“We still have the other wing to do,” Leo protested.

“Then do the wing instead of just petting it!” Minute said.

Leo huffed, but got to work again, and by the time he declared that he was finished, Minute’s wings felt a lot less like awkward appendages and more like wings. Scraggly, haphazard looking, little baby chick wings, but still wings. Leo kept running his fingers through the feathers, straightening them and just watching them move with awe.

Minute understood why. He’d never seen a bird’s wings up close, and never these kinds of feathers. His were black and iridescent, dark blue and purple shining when the light hit it just right. He kind of loved them, even if getting them had been without a doubt the most uncomfortable experience of his life.

Well, he had them now, and they weren’t going away, so he might as well make the best of it. He let Leo attempt to cuddle his wings for a while, laughing at him when they whacked him on his face. At least he had someone to help groom his wings, too.

Notes:

it's short.

Chapter 13: 15. Clown isn’t a human.

Notes:

I missed yesterday because I was forced into watching a movie until the middle of the night. and the day before that my dog insisted that I cuddle with her instead of writing. I'm sort of just making excuses, but whatever.

Clown shrugged off his cloak and sat on his bed. He was tired. He wouldn’t give up being the deadliest player on the deadliest server for anything, but it was freaking exhausting.

He constantly had to be aware, ready to fight or escape a trap. Not to mention putting on his entire jester getup every single day. Sometimes he didn’t even bother to take it off.

Today he did, though. Nobody was on except for him and branzy, and nobody would be able to see. He’d told Branzy to leave him alone, so that meant he could take break from wearing his mask.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he took it off. Now he could actually see and breathe air that wasn’t stale.

As much as he loved how scary his mask was, he really only wore it for one reason. His red eyes and unnaturally translucent skin. Plus the horns on the mask hid his real horns.

Clown tilted his head around, stretching his neck and grimacing. His mask was great at hiding how non-human he was, but it really restricted his movement. His neck was almost always sore. Still, he refused to take it off when there was even the slightest possibility anyone could see his face. These people only accepted him because they thought he was a person.

Well, accepted was a relative term. Everyone was terrified of him. Which was one way of keeping his identity secret, he supposed.

A small rustling sound, like clothes moving against skin, roughly pulled Clown out of his head. His eyes latched onto the doorway, where the tip of a purple boot was showing. He snatched his mask off the bed and pulled it over his head. “Branzy?”

Branzy shuffled into his view, beet red. “Hi! Sorry, i didn’t know you, were, um-”

Clown’s chest felt like it was contracting. “Don’t tell anyone.”

Branzy nodded quickly. “Yep! For sure! I promise! Why would I tell anyone anyway? Wait, what would it tell them?” he sounded genuinely confused.

Clown glared at him, although he couldn’t see it. Which was a good thing, because Clown’s vision was blurry with tears. “Get out.”

Branzy stumbled backward, now looking concerned. “Are you okay?”

“If you tell anyone,” Clown seethed, ignoring his way his voice was shaking slightly. “I’ll- I’ll- you better watch your back.”

“Woah, whoa, I won't tell,” Branzy said soothingly. “I’m trustworthy, I swear.”

“If everyone finds out I'm not human, they’ll probably kick me out.” Clown didn’t notice that he’d said it out loud until Branzy responded.

“Now why would they do that?!” He looked scandalized. “You’re so well known! You’re so deadly! You’ve been on lifesteal since the beginning. They wouldn’t kick you out for not being human.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Clown said dangerously. “It was all your imagination.”

“And there’s others that are hybrids or enderians or whatnot,” Branzy continued obviously. “I don’t think anyone would even care.”

“Get. Out.” Clown hissed, shoving his face - mask - in Branzy’s face. Branzy yelped, and darted out of the door.

Clown sat back down on the bed, his shoulders a little less tense than before.

Notes:

suggestions n stuff are welcome.

okay really random but I think I know spoke's real name. like genuinely.

Chapter 14: 16 sister? pt 1

Summary:

im tired

“The plan,” Mapicc declared, “is to catch Clown in the act.”

“Okay!” Spoke said cheerfully. “Uh, what are we doing again?”

Jepexx sighed. “We’re stalking Clown, remember? To learn who his sister is?”

“Oh, right!” Spoke said. “Let’s get started!”

Mapicc gestured toward their potion brewing stand, where Minute and Chief were hunched over, brewing potions. “We’ve already got the invis. Come on.”

Chapter 15: 17. sister? pt2

They splashed themselves with the potion, and snuck out of their base. After a quick flight to spawn, they split up, each sneaking into their own hiding spot and waiting for Clown.

Mapicc, hiding under the boards of the courthouse, heard him first. He was easy to identify by footsteps since he stepped quickly and lightly.

Clown hummed as he walked over the floor. He stepped closer and closer to Mapicc’s hiding spot, the boards dipping slightly under his shoes. Mapicc instinctively winced as a loud creak sounded through the room.

“Yep, i’m there.” Clown said. From the sound of it, he was talking to someone over the comm. Mapicc strained his ears.

Clown sighed. “Fine. if you insist. I’m already here, though, it’s a little… inconsiderate of you.”

Some indiscernible shouting came through the comm’s speaker.

“Fine, fine, i’m coming.” Clown said.

His comm beeped, the sound of a call ending. Clown started walking toward the door again.

“What a sister.” he grumbled. “Or at least, she’s supposed to be.”

Mapiccc grinned. As soon as Clown’s footsteps weren’t heard anymore, he called the rest of his team.

Notes:

this is just a ramble, don't read it. or if you do. uh. idk I don't really care if you do, but don't really see any reason why you;d want to read.

I appreciate all the comments telling me to take care of myself and/or take a break from writing to do that, even if I don't always respond. the thing is, writing is probably the only thing keeping me from spiraling downward. it's the one thing I can do that isn't surrounded by other things, if that makes sense. no context, you just see my writing. well, not zero, but like. anything I make and show to my friends/family, they see in the context of me, and I like not having that.
not to mention this is the only place where I know at least one singular person who reads what I write will at least find it somewhat worth the few minutes it took to read it.
like irl any time I get excited about literally anything I've made or am interested in, the most common response I get is shut up stop talking.
why. ?
or they just insult the thing I worked so hard to make. even things that they have know literally nothing about and I know like ten times about as much as they do. ?
it happens whenever I try to share something I'm interested in. It happened today. plus gender dysphoria because I just can't seem to get it out of my head! plus imposter syndrome when I'm with smart people. I think?
there's a reason nobody in my irl life knows I even know Lifesteal exists. if they are even aware that it exists. I know like maybe one person who knows it exists. and they made fun of me for getting excited. about a squirrel. like what? it's furry! it has a tail! I wasn't talking to them about it. I barely ever talk to them. why do they care.
I'm not gonna share the stuff I'm proud of if most of I get is just negative or disinterested reactions.
most of the non writing projects (but still on the computer) I do amount to nothing anyway. like the one I was making today. I just found out that the reason It wasn't working was because my computer isn't good enough. so that's hours of work for nothing! writing doesn't require that. I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't able to write and share my writing.
writing this down was actually pretty interesting. and sorta surprising. like actually reading what I wrote was surprising.
this so rambly. I'm just tired. no matter how much sleep I get I'm always tired and it's really exhausting. and if I'm always tired what's the point of sleeping? I could stay awake all night and feel like I got a full night of rest (read: feel exhausted)
there's really no point to this (the rambling) maybe I'll delete this later.

did anyone else think that Christmas was on the 31st of dec. cuz I did. I was so confused. apparently it's on the 25th. what. who decided that? I genuinely thought it was the last day of dec. but that's new years?

I wish I had more time to write. too much crap to do.

mapicc with three c's. and ramble longer than the actual writing. oml

Chapter 16: 19. sister? pt 3?

Notes:

I got some time to write today. happy holidays.

Minute was hiding behind the Chief temple thingy when Mapicc called him. “You guys! I just heard Clown. He’s near the courthouse, and he was talking to his sister.”

“I’m on him,” Minute whispered back, peeking around the corner. “I’ll follow him and tell you where he goes.”

Mapicc made an affirmative sound. “Okay-“ Minute switched off his comm and tiptoed closer to Clown. He was walking briskly, and had stupidly long legs, so Minute practically had to run to keep up.

Clown was muttering to himself, but Minute didn’t dare get close enough to hear what he was saying. He stayed far behind him, only getting close enough to see him. Clown seemed not to be walking anywhere, though, simply walking in a large circle. Which meant he turned. And meant that it was ten times easier for him to spot the invis particles in the air.

Minute decided the best course of action would be to get closer. He stepped on a stick. Clown swung his scythe around and missed Minute’s neck by mere centimeters. Minute froze, stock still, as Clown examined the air around him. Seeing nothing, he grunted and started walking again. Minute slowly let out the breath he was holding and crept forward along with Clown, staying a good distance away.

He heard Clown mutter something and quickly snuck forward again, not wanting to miss it.

“So that’s-“ Clown made a noise of frustration and then froze, probably going AFK. Minute briefly considered attempting to kill him but quickly threw that idea out. Clown would be back before he even hit him enough to get him down to half health. Clown blinked, returning, and Minute knew he’d made the right choice.

“Negative a thousand, positive two thousand,” Clown said under his breath to himself.

He railed his elytra and took off, the fireworks briefly blinding Minute. Minute watched him shrink into a small speck in the distance and then whipped out his comm. “Clown’s headed to negative a thousand, positive two thousand!”

“Okay, I’ll be there!” Spoke said loudly, his mouth too close to his comm. “I’m the closest.”

“Good luck,” Minute said seriously, “he nearly cut me in half.”

 

Spoke re-equipped his chest plate and plummeted to the ground, water bucket clutching at the last instant. He hopped behind a tree and began to wait. He’d gotten here quickly, but Clown was due to arrive here and minute now, and he couldn’t slack. His teammates would be furious if he missed him.

He knew they were already annoyed with him, with all the times he’d been killed and lost their hearts. He didn’t need another mess-up.

Notes:

I'll be traveling soon, so idk if I'll be able to post every day (or attempt to)
regardless I'll keep doing this until I get to 31 days. so it's like I posted for the full month. even if I didn't.

also I really like the Christmas suggestions, so if anyone has any ideas...

Chapter 17: 21. sister? pt 4

He knew they were already annoyed with him, with all the times he’d been killed and lost their hearts. He didn’t need another mess-up.

“Is he there yet?” Jepex asked impatiently.

“Not yet,” Spoke mumbled. “Soon.”

He glanced around himself and narrowed his eyes at the sky. Then, an impatient sigh from behind him made him whip around. Clown. Tapping his foot and crossing his arms angrily.

Spoke opened his mouth to start making excuses before he remembered he was invis and he couldn’t see him. Clown wasn’t even looking at him, so he hadn’t noticed the comm floating in midair. He quickly stashed it in his inventory and tiptoed after him. Clown was walking swiftly, in a hurry apparently.

A tap on Spoke’s shoulder nearly made him scream, but he managed to pull it together.

“It’s me,” Jepex hissed loudly. “We decided to join you. You weren’t responding to us.”

“I didn’t wanna alert Clown,” Spoke said quickly. “Shhhh.”

“We’re being very quiet,” Mapicc said indignantly. And loudly.

“Shush,” Minute snapped. “Where is he?”

“Is EVERYONE here?!” Spoke demanded.

“I don’t know,” Chief's voice was right next to Spoke’s ear, and he jumped.

Spoke gestured to where Clown had been. “He went that way.”

“Which way?” Jepex asked. “You’re invis.”

Spoke flung his hands around until he found a hand, then he held it out toward the right way. “That way.”

“Um- can you let go of my hand?” Minute mumbled awkwardly.

Spoke grabbed something else warm and squishy.

“Let go of my elbow!” Mapicc complained.

Somebody patted Spoke’s head, and he bristled. “Hey! Don’t do that!”

“What the heck is going on?” A voice sounded from behind them.

They all twisted around. Or at least, Spoke did.

Kaboom stared at the patch of the grass where they were with confusion. “I swear I just heard arguing.”

“Spoke!” Mapicc hissed somewhere to his left.

There was the sound of someone being shoved. “I’m not Spoke!” Chief snapped.

Kaboodle laughed incredulously. “You guys are the worst stalkers I’ve ever seen. What’s even the point of the invis?”

“Wait!” Jepex said loudly. “Why are you here?”

“Why should I tell you?” Kab challenged.

“Because we’re asking nicely,” Minute declared. “And if you don’t, we’ll kill you.”

Kab laughed. “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you. Cuz it’s Clown I’m meeting, and I don’t think he’d be very pleased with that.”

“You’re his sister!” Mapicc yelled.

Kab looked worried. “Who told you that?”

Jepex ran right into Spoke. “Guys! Run! We need to get out of here. Who’m I laying on?”

“Get offff!” Spoke shrieked.

Somebody kicked him in the face.

“Oh, shit,” Minute mumbled. “Sorry Chief.”

“What? What’d you do?” Chief asked.

“It’s not you?”

“It’s me, dummy,” Mapicc snapped. “Get off!”

“I’m not on anyone,” Minute objected. “I only kicked someone.”

“That was me,” Spoke elbowed Jepex on top of him, who screamed like he was being stabbed.

“Boys...”

Everyone froze. Clown stood behind Kab now, a hand on her shoulder, the other on his scythe. Kab looked gleeful. Rude! “You have five seconds to untangle yourselves and run.”

“Clown, wait-“ Minute started.

“Five…”

“We were-“

“Four…”

They all bolted.

Notes:

I'm ending it here because I sorta got derailed by all the traveling. I'm thinking about trying it again in a month that isn't so busy, though