Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #408
I rearranged my art room today to make it a little more livable. My art room has a sink. It's super cluttered with epoxy equipment right now, but I'll get to that tomorrow. Here's how the rest of it turned out:
...If you look closely, you'll see Hoshi, the black void on the bed next to Bubbles, my orca plush. And on the chair in the nook is Mogwai. Feel free to say hello!
I'm pretty happy with how this rearrangement turned out. Everything I need is right here, at my fingertips. All my crafty things, a customizable metal shelf that I can use both as a desk and as a means of storage, my laptop, my clothes, my essentials for going out, and all that jazz.
I had to do a lot of tidying and rearranging of things to make this work. The shoulder and ribs hurt a lot less than I expected, given the number of heavy things I moved. I guess this most recent exercise K gave me is really working out. It stretches out the muscles between the ribs and the pelvis; apparently, those are extremely compressed on my right side. I can feel it when I do it; on the left side, the stretch is easy. But on the right side, everything is tight, and doing this stretch is terribly painful.
But! It wasn't as painful to do it today as it was when he gave it to me! So there's that.
...I'm trying to be upbeat and chipper. I'm not sure how well it's working, though. But I can get used to this. I'll be okay.
I made some white bean salad today!! Specifically, I like to make Great Northern Beans; they're my favorite kind of bean so far! I like to serve them chilled. This time, I drizzled them with a bit of olive oil and sprinkled it with garlic powder, salt, and parsley! It's amazingly tasty for something so simple! Check it out!!
I also made a bowl full of rice, kimchi, and pre-cooked frozen meatballs; you just thaw them out in the microwave! I got 4 different varieties a while back – Italian, Homestyle Italian (they're just bigger, I think), Angus, and Swedish. I think that of these, my favorite is Swedish!
I applied for 5 more state jobs today; I'm up to 21 applications total being out. Hopefully one of them will get back to me. Though I don't know when that'll be, if ever. I'll check the website again tomorrow; hopefully there will be more openings.
Aside from that, I mostly just worked on my weird crafty project thingy. I have 5 thingies now, and I'm working on a 6th. I guess I'll just keep going until I run out of materials. It'll be a while before I run out of materials, so I'll have something to do for a while, and this pleases me.
On Saturday, I think I might try biking to work. I know it's cold and stuff, but... I really don't wanna use gas right now, for reasons I'm not gonna explain here. Besides, it'll be a good workout for my legs; goodness knows they could use it.
Not sure what else to write today. Just taking things one step at a time, at least for now, I guess.
...And what are you up to? I heard through the grapevine that you, for whatever reason, have an animation in which you give a young chocobo some nice scritches. I was delighted by this; I'm hoping this bodes well for the kinds of choices you'll make in the final part of your remade story. I know that maybe it's just wishful thinking. Still, I... I hope you'll make good choices. I don't want to lose another pillar around which I've built my life.
So, tell me... have you pet any particularly adorable young chocobos lately...?
I guess that's it for today.
I love you. Please stay safe out there in the world, all right? I'm counting on you to make it out of all your things okay. I can't... I can't lose you. Selfish as that probably sounds.
I know this is old news since the remaster came out *ahem* over a week ago BUT I didn't have tumblr over a week ago. I'm hoping this blog can be a place for me to rant about how much I love the random little goobers living in my brain. To get on with it; as someone who first got into Will Wood's music after listening to I/Me/Myself (yes I started listening to him in 2020 fake fan yada yada...) This remaster made me so happy. It just reminded me of how awesome it felt to listen to his music for the first time and know that he was going to be my favorite music artist, and now four years later how much of a rabbit hole it has taken me down. There is so much I could say about how much I love this remaster... but I don't want this post to be like 10 pages long, and I know some people will just say "It's just a remaster of an album from four years ago why is it so important?" BUT THE SMALL CHANGES TO THE SONGS MAKE THEM SO MUCH BETTER (not to say that the originals were bad. You get the idea)!!!! Especially in Marsha Thankk You and Suburbia!!! I don't know what I'm saying. I just needed to write this to make my brain shut up about it for a while. Thank you for listening to this barely coherent ramble and lmk if you want me to ramble some more I guess. Ok bye!
Summary: Set in the future of the TWD timeline, this story follows Daryl, Y/N and her brother through their journey in the world of the undead. It wasn’t like Daryl to let people in to his heart easily, but it was Y/N’s smiles that had captured him completely, and before he knew it, there wasn’t a scenario Daryl could think of about his future that didn’t have Y/N in it.
A/N: Hi guys, this is my first time writing a fic of our TWD badass, Daryl Dixon. It’s gonna be a long one, and a work in progress. I write because it makes me happy, and I hope it’ll make you happy too. The intro for this fic would be pretty long, and Daryl wouldn’t appear until slightly later, but I thought it would be important to touch on Y/N and her brother’s background since we already know Daryl’s background pretty well. I’m not a zombie apocalypse expert, and neither dare I call myself a TWD expert (I’m not, please pardon me if I get some facts wrong!), so some parts of the story may not be realistic. It is most certainly strayed from the current universe since this is meant to be set in the projected timeline after the eventual season 11, which of course we don’t know yet how Daryl’s narrative would be changed or if it would at all, (or do we?), so this story may or may not make sense after season 11 ends (maybe think of this as a spin off?). I do hope you like it, and don’t mind the fact that it is set way in the future of the universe. As mentioned, it’s still a work in progress and I don’t know how many parts it’ll be. But writing this is extremely cathartic for me so I’ll continue writing for as long as my brain (and my full time job) allows. Comments and feedback are welcomed and appreciated! Please sit back and enjoy this journey with Daryl. :)
Photo is not mine. All mistakes in this are mine, please pardon them.
There aren’t many moments in Y/N’s life where she’d just sit on a spot, completely and utterly at a loss. The camp where she’d called home for the last month was gone – just like that. Along with it, the people she considered her family. When an unexpected rogue herd of walkers stumbled across the cabin, she was out on a supply run with her older brother, Andrew. By the time they had came back, the cabin was in shambles and the smell of the dead overpowered their senses. Y/N stood rooted to the ground in shock behind the bushes, throwing a look of fear at Andrew. Biting back a scream, knowing it’ll give her position away, Y/N looked around, hoping to see a familiar face. A familiar face that was alive. There was none. It was too late for them to do anything to salvage their family, their home. There were too many walkers to take on and honestly, nothing much left for salvation.
Y/N had no idea how long she was behind the bushes watching the dead feeding on mangled bodies of people she once knew. She knew she had to move, but her feet wouldn’t allow. It was as if they were locked in position, trapped in the nightmare of a scene before her. The only comfort she could gather was seeing quite a number of fallen walkers with slash marks on their heads – meaning they had put up a strong fight against them.
“Come on, we got to go.” Andrew’s voice called out, his hand grabbing hers nudging her to move. There was a catch in his voice, although he tried to hide it. Still in shock and tears, Y/N willed her legs to move. Just one foot in front of another, just one foot in front of another. She had to keep her mind focused on what was in front, and to keep her legs moving forward. Y/N followed him, almost in complete auto-pilot.
Without actually knowing how long or how she even managed to keep in tandem with her brother’s pace with her state of mind, he had led Y/N to a spot in the woods where the two of them finally crashed on the hard grounds. Y/N was shaking violently as she buried her heads between her knees. She had no idea if she was shaking because of the nip in the air, or because of shock. A low growl shook her awake from her reverie. She looked up to see a lone walker approaching from the right. Reaching for her hunting knife from her belt holster with her shaky hands proved to be a tremendous task. Y/N finally managed to unsheathe the knife and plunged it hard into the walker’s temple right before its jaw got onto her. She had no idea she still had that strength somewhere in her.
“Are you okay?” Andrew had walked over to her just in time to plunge his machete into the head of another walker that had approached Y/N from her blind spot. “Thanks. I didn’t see it coming.” Y/N mustered her strength and stood up before kicking the walker in its head with a mixture of anger and disbelief.
“I don’t, I cant –“ Y/N finally allowed herself to sob into Andrew’s shirt. While there were only a few people in the group to begin with, she have had time to know them through this shitstorm and had grown to like them like her own family. They were the people she had been moving with for years. They had lost some people in their journey, but they’d never lost all of them entirely before. To lose them all at once was devasting. But all in all, she was glad her brother was there. Andrew was fiercely protective of her, especially in this new world. She wouldn’t be alive and standing today if not for him. All her survival skills, her knife works, hunting and tracking skills, had all came from him. Y/N was not prepared for this world at all. Without Andrew, she would have become one of the walkers a long time ago. But she was a fast learner, and had more than proven her survival skills. Despite all that, she never lost her sense of hope and cheerfulness, that was until that day.
She was thankful for Andrew for giving her the time to grief while he single-handedly took down more than a dozen walkers while she was still in a daze. She felt horrible, leaving her brother to keep her alive knowing he needed his time to process everything too. Andrew didn’t say anything, he just kept her alive.
Nightfall brings another set of danger – the temperature had dipped drastically. Y/N worked with her brother to build a makeshift shelter with leaves and twigs. Andrew had also got a small fire going to provide a bit of warmth. If the walkers doesn’t get to them, the elements most certainly would. Satisfied with the perimeters, lined with makeshift cans and marbles to alert them when any walkers enter the camp, Andrew gestured for Y/N to sleep while he kept watch.
Y/N tucked herself in next to the small fire and tried to sleep. But of course sleep eluded her. Every time she had her eyes closed, all she could see was the grotesque bodies of her friends back in the cabin. She kept your eyes close despite that, hoping to catch at least a little sleep. Y/N knew she would be in no state to fight for survival without rest. Andrew sat next to the fire and finally allowed himself to process the events of the day. Most of the people in the group had been his friends since he was a child. He had grown up with them, went through triumphs and heartbreaks together. Losing them was painful. Losing them and not being able to do anything for them was painful. He looked at Y/N who had now finally fallen asleep and willed himself to stay strong. He couldn’t – he wouldn’t let the same thing happen to his sister. Y/N was his only family left.
Three hours into Y/N’s fitful sleep, she woke up in a pool of sweat despite the night cold. Before this all happened, Y/N always slept like a log. An earthquake could literally be breaking her room down and she would have no idea. But in this new normal, her body had adjusted itself to wake up within a few hours and it had learned to survive on a couple hours of sleep each night.
She saw Andrew throwing logs into the fire to keep it going. Approaching him silently, she gestured for him to sleep while she took over the watch. Nodding his head, he vacated his space before taking over hers. Y/N was on high alert, determined to keep her brother safe while he catch his much needed rest. Andrew had been there for Y/N all her life. She was only a couple of years younger so they were very close since young. This trip was supposed to be a break from work, but instead, they were thrown with an even bigger shitstorm than they could imagine. Y/N almost laughed when she thought about the irony. She would choose to go back to her office job any day over this. Before long, the cackle of the fire begin to diminish as the day broke. Y/N looked up at the skies, trying hard to fathom how this was the very same sky before the world had turned into hell. The sun still came up in the East and the morning birds still sang, but nothing else about the world right now was the same.
Gathering up all of their belongings, Y/N and Andrew set off for another day. They had to find a more permanent shelter, a sturdier shelter than twigs and leaves at least. Stopping by the creek to gather some water, Y/N took the chance to splash herself with the cold water. As the water hit her face, she perked up. Having not had a shower for days, Y/N’s skin was starting to itch and peel. Her feet was swollen with blisters and her arms were filled with dried scabs from all the cuts she sustained while running away from walkers. Y/N looked at Andrew with a longing in her eyes. She needed that shower. Convinced that the area was free of walkers, Andrew gave in and gave her privacy while Y/N washed yourself. He told her he would try to track something for their food today and set off with his bag, gesturing for Y/N to follow when she was done. A smile almost crept up Y/N’s face as she washed away days of sweat, dirt, and walker blood off her body. She hadn’t dared to take her time though. Once she was done, she quickly put on a fresher set of clothes that she had and set out to look for Andrew.
Feeling more refreshed, Y/N tried to put on a new perspective of how life was going to be moving forward. She was determined to continue living, living for the friends who couldn’t. She was going to continue living for Andrew. She didn’t want all of Andrew’s effort teaching her survival to go to waste. Y/N followed the tracks on the floor, hoping to find Andrew soon. No more than 10 minutes into following the tracks, she heard a slight ruffle of leaves to her left. It was so slight it was almost unnoticeable. It can’t have been a walker – a walker would have made a louder noise than that. It was most certainly a person. She smiled and moved towards the direction where she heard the sound from, anticipating to see Andre.
“Hey, did you managed to –“ Y/N’s whispers faltered into complete silence when a tall, crossbow donning man with striking blue eyes, greeted her. The man had his crossbow trained on Y/N’s head. She stopped in her tracks, knife in hand ready to strike.
“Who are you?” The man demanded. Not only was his crossbow trained on Y/N, his eyes were trained on her too.
“Y/N.” She spoke calmly, hand still steady on the knife. While she knew she’d be dead with his arrow before she could attack him with the knife, she weren’t about to go down without a fight if she had to. Y/N looked at the man, trying to download as much details about him as she could. He wore a long sleeves black shirt with two top buttons missing, a pair of cargo pants that were slightly ripped on some parts and his boots carried the obvious evidence of blood and someone who had been out in the open. Y/N tried not to wince as she stared directly into the man’s eyes. Although his hair covered the side of his face, she could make out his stern expression – an expression of someone who had been surviving on his own. But behind all that, she just had a sense, a strange and unspoken sense that he wasn’t a dangerous man.
“Look, I’m just looking for my brother, all right? I don’t mean to walk into your zone.” Y/N explained. “If you promise not to shoot me, I’ll just turn around and be on my way.”
Adrenaline from meeting a lone stranger in the woods had had blood rushing to her ears, muffling her surrounding sounds. As she prepared to turn and leave, the man spoke again. “Behind ya!” That was when she heard it – the unmistakable sound of a walker behind her. As a reflex, Y/N bent her body forward and side stepped, but in her haste to evade the walker, she had missed her footing. Y/N cursed under her breath but quickly regained her posture. She raised her arm, ready to strike, but before she could, the walker’s dead weight had pushed her, causing her to fall backwards on the hard ground, losing her knife in the process. Y/N quickly worked to fight the walker off but all she heard was the hustling sound of an arrow and the silenced growl from the walker. Feeling the full weight of the walker now, she pushed it off and saw that it had an arrow right smack between it’s eyes. Y/N turned to look at the man as he approached the walker. With one foot on the walker’s head, he pulled out the arrow with one swift motion with his free hand. He then turned sideways to look at Y/N.
“That was really cool.” Y/N couldn’t help but chuckle slightly. Seeing that the man had made no move to point his crossbow at her again, Y/N relaxed. She spotted and dug out her knife that had been partially buried during the fall and tussle with the walker.
“That was really cool.” Y/N couldn’t help but chuckle slightly. Seeing that the man had made no move to point his crossbow at her again, Y/N relaxed. She spotted and dug out her knife that had been partially buried during the fall and tussle with the walker.
“Thanks. I owe you.” Y/N gestured to the walker on the ground as she dusted herself off. “What’s your name?” She smiled.
Daryl was immediately captivated by Y/N’s smile and the sound of her chuckles. Earlier when he had heard someone approaching, he was ready to strike, ready to take them down if he had to. But as he heard Y/N’s voice for the first time, he knew immediately that she was no threat. He hadn’t seen or heard another person’s voice for days. But even if he had, there was something about Y/N’s voice and her smiles that enchanted him. Despite the situation the world was in, Daryl was comforted to see a smile that seemed to make him forget everything else.
“Daryl.”
“I’m sorry again, you know, for walking into you.”
“Sorry for ta’ crossbow on ya head.” Daryl nodded his head slightly at Y/N as apology.
“We’re even then.” Y/N smiled again. It was nice meeting someone else in this crazy world of the dead. Something about Daryl had made her feel a sense of comfort and calm, despite just meeting him a few minutes ago. Daryl looked away, feeling his face flushed from seeing her smiles. There had never been anyone who had that effect on him before. Her smiles were a huge contrast to everything he had come to know in the last ten years. He wanted nothing but to remember them.
Later that day I regretted not buying one of these packages of toilet paper. It took nearly 6 weeks for supplies to return to normal. I balked at the price, $37.00 for 48 rolls. Forty eight rolls would have lasted us for approximately 3 months.
This is one of my entries to the VAC Gallery callout for “A New Normal” in response to the Covid19 pandemic in Australia.
"They are planning something simple. A van or a truck bomb." Daniel reports to the others gathered in the Team House. It is Sept. 24th and they are searching for any and all info they can get about the planned Oct. 2nd, attack.
"How do the plan to get close enough to set it off?" Marcus asks. They all know that ever since 9/11, it is extremely hard to get close to the UN.
"Delivery. They plan on disguising as a delivery truck. Even if they can't get past the quard, with enough explosives, it will be close enough."
It has been three weeks since Patrick's death and Daniel's voice still has a listless quality that worries his brothers.
"So, the FBI and Homeland Security has to stop all deliveries for that day." Willy states.
"That would help, but they need to find them. If not, they will will keep trying until they succeed." Danirl answers. " We need to find them before it gets that far."
"I agree. Good job Chief. Keep digging y'all. I am going to update brass about what we know." Marcus walks out to do that.
"How are you doing?" Willy asks Daniel.
"Holding on. It is hard to comprehend that he isn't here. I keep stumbling over that fact and, it causes a stab of pain each time."
"I am truly sorry." Willy and the rest of the Team tell him.
"Grace, how are you feeling physically?" Ainsely asks her. She was back to worj but only working on charting. Ainsely knows she isn't up to seeing clients yet.
"Still bleeding but it is slowing. The cramps have stopped."
"Good. The bleeding should completely stop in a week or so. Grace, do you want a script for birth control pills?"
"Yes. Thanks. I just can't think about trying again right now."
"Understand, I don't even want you to for three months to vive your body time to completely heal and recover. Your heart to start to as well."
Grace nods, tears silently rolling down her face.
"I know how much this hurts Grace. It will take some time but you will feel normal or should I say, a new normal, again."
"One more month," Amy tells Grace. She is at her house. They are making supper together.
"One more month for what?"
"Until John Mark is ninety days old and Shelby's rights are terminated.
"Oh right." She looks to the baby. He sits cooing happily while his Mommy Amy and Aunt Grace, cooks. " I don't get it, how a mom can walk away from a baby like that."
"Me either."
"Don't get me wrong, I am glad for you. You are a great mom to him."
"Thanks Grace. I plan on officially adopting him, if I can."
"That is truly great." Said with a noticable lack of enthusiasm.
"I am so sorry Grace. We should be doing this together."
"No, I am sorry. I really am happy for you. In three months, we will try again."
"Right. And everything will work out next time."
"I pray so. I can't go through this again." Grace seriously says.
"So, something big is in the works but, we will be on base and out of danger." Willy finishes telling Amy later that night.
"I am glad you eon't be in danger. But, will others?"
"Not if we do our job right. The goal is stopping it before it gets that far."
"Do you think you can?"
"Fairly confident."
"Good. How is Daniel at work?"
"He is in a lot of pain. Tries to hide it but.." He is frustrated. His job, as the sniper, is to protect the guys on the Team. He can't protect Daniel from this pain. Amy sighs.
"I know. Grace is too. I know everything happens for a reason but it is hard to understand this."
"Yes it is. Are they going to try again?"
"Yes. Grace said in three months."
"Good. Another baby is what is needed."
"True not that he or she would replace Patrick."
"No, that's true. But new life."
"Yes, new life helps as does knowing they will see Patrick again in heaven."
"I can't imagine how they would get through this without that hope."
"Me either." Amy shudders a bit at that thought.
"We have found cells in New York, Illinois, Indiana, California, and Kentucky. The FBI is serving search warrents as we speak. Great job guys." Marcus tells his Team a week later.
"Do you think we stopped it?" Michael asks.
"There is a high probability. But we aren't relaxing our guard, because Seheed still isn't talking. That concerns me and everyone else. He is hiding something. So, keep looking and we will be here Oct. 1st overnight and all day Oct 2nd. Make plans accordingly."
"We will be at the Team House overnight Oct 1st and all day on the 2nd." Daniel tells his wife that night.
"Why?"
"Monitoring some things is all I can tell you."
"Okay, but you will be safe?"
"Yes baby, perfectly safe."
"I don't know if I can handle you being in danger right now."
"Come here Grace." She walks over the few steps that seperate them and into his open arms. "I am safe. But the next mission may be in an unsafe place again. It is the nature of my job."
"If something happened and their was no Patrick, no one to carry your name, our love." She whispers.
"Oh Grace." He doesn't know what to say to her. He can't guarantee that he will be okay. He can't guarantee the next baby will.
"It was hard enough before this. But, I can't lose you too." He just holds her knowing nothing he can say would reassure her. It will just take time.
