Unexpected Guests: Begin!

This morning I was made aware that one of my readers sent a link to one of my fanfics to another tumblr user, requesting them to make a character AI bot based on it. That user did it.

Please don't do that. Please don't put my works into AI, please don't send other people my works for them to put into AI.

It broke my heart because this story is very precious to me. Many of you loved it and I've spent entire evenings discussing it with you, answering asks and messages about it.

If you loved that story and want more, please send an ask. You may ask questions, headcanons, once someone even asked me to rewrite a paragraph from another point of view as part of an ask game.

Please interact with your fandom creators instead of feeding their works to AI.

Week 8 - Waking Up Dead

Creator: me :)

word count: 478

notes: Implied character death.

Basically, sometimes Cross has dreams that he’s living in a past timeline, and wakes up after he died in that timeline, and he’s unsure of his reality for a moment.

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He gasped, sitting up straight as he started at the empty training room.

He remembered taking a seat, just for a rest, but he must have fallen asleep.

“Damn it,” Cross groaned, trying to stand up. “I forgot to stretch.” He was sore. 

But that was just a distraction. A distraction from the countless lives he just witnessed. Memories he didn’t experience. Times he never lived. Moments he never saw. 

Deaths he never really felt.

How many timelines were there? At least ten… right?

Each time… he was overwritten. Sometimes painlessly, suddenly, without his knowledge. Other times though… not so much.

He was not hurt. He didn’t feel pain, but dream-Cross didn’t know that. Dream-Cross felt that pain. Felt that fear. Saw the blood. Witnessed the death. Faded into nothing. 

Even when he woke up, completely physically fine, everything within him was screaming something was wrong. Something wasn’t functioning. Something shouldn’t be.

He shouldn’t be alive

He just died.

Or at least… that’s what he thought.

But looking around, trying to remember his techniques, the more he saw that wasn’t true.

The training dummies, the powered off lights, his own hands, the windows leading to the rising sun, his daggers tossed away on either side of him.

His light weight training clothes, the training room floor beneath him, the cold concrete wall behind him, his soul beating in his own chest.

Pots and pans clanging in the distance. Killer’s loud voice occupying it. The sound of his own breathing.

The reminisce of dirt and dust lingering in the air, faint hints of breakfast wafting in.

Blood.

He could taste blood in his mouth.

Wait….

No he didn’t.

That was morning breath. 

He needed to wash up, a new day had started already.

Cross sat there a moment more, replaying what he thought was reality, over and over again in his mind.

He was dying. He did die. Didn’t he? Countless times. Over and over. Timeline after timeline.

Those were him dying.

He wasn’t just dreaming. He was remembering.

He did die. He has died. He was dead.

But… then how could he see the training room get flooded with light so easily as the sun peeked over the horizon. Feel the dirt between his fingers as he was reminded it was chore-day today. Nightmare walking downstairs to the kitchen in the old, creaky castle. The reminder of the old fluff that he tore out of the dummies last night. A reminder he went to sleep last night. 

And he woke up again this morning.

He wasn’t dead.

He was alive.

He was living.

And he had to live today.

He groaned, getting up, sore all over. He steadied himself in the wall and dissipated his daggers. 

He gave another deep breath, before he walked.

Walked away, out of the training room, and into his life.

He was alive.

I completely agree with this, this is very fitting.

My dad and I once had a disagreement over him using the adage "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

I said, "That's just not true. Sometimes what doesn't kill you leaves you brittle and injured or traumatized."

He stopped and thought about that for a while. He came back later, and said, "It's like wood glue."

He pointed to my bookshelf, which he helped me salvage a while ago. He said, "Do you remember how I explained that, once we used the wood glue on them, the shelves would actually be stronger than they were before they broke?"

I did.

"But before we used the wood glue, those shelves were broken. They couldn't hold up shit. If you had put books on them, they would have collapsed. And that wood glue had to set awhile. If we put anything on them too early, they would have collapsed just the same as if we'd never fixed them at all. You've got to give these things time to set."

It sounded like a pretty good metaphor to me, but one thing I did pick up on was that whatever broke those shelves, that's not the thing that made them stronger. That just broke them. It was being fixed that made them stronger. It was the glue.

So my dad and I agreed, what doesn't kill you doesn't actually make you stronger, but healing does. And if you feel like healing hasn't made you stronger than you were before, you're probably not done healing. You've got to give these things time to set.

My gift to you guys. It was a raffle piece to celebrate a follower milestone. One which we long passed. To everyone who has been here a long time and everyone new, THANK YOU. Thank you for all the kindness, love and support. For making my days brighter. For spoiling me 24/7. For being the most wholesome community. ALSO THANKS TO EVERYONE THAT KEPT ME COMPANY WHILE I STREAMED THE PIECE FROM START TO FINISH. Y'all are the best. I hope this will make a lot of you happy and that it was worth the wait. To everyone who didn't manage to get picked, I hope it won't make you too sad. I love you all and see you. Original 6875 x 4861 image can be downloaded HERE.

Cue the 44 character credits (in no particular order, under the cut):

(idk names of OCs, sorry gang) Tear - by the scariest Eri you have ever seen UF!Papyrus - @/underfell @somehhuuuhh , @lucasisverycool01 , @radicalrainbow , @imaginary-regret-608 , @melthedrago , @real-ink-demon , @talltelltale , @hexscode , @zafirreja111 , @dekaryomenharuchiyo, @sobredunia , @epilepzia , @eluxurexisrandom , @onestrangefeather , @8thekat , @paintedmadness , @warriorstale001 , @awa-the-skeleton , @raining-rays , @killersansfrfr , @kuruka1559s , @nandosplush13 , @thehumanofjustice , @thatguynamedgreg , @zechiki , @comiverse , @marisunshine903 , @alisaretter , @askmistaketalesurgesans , @0p1er0 , @redlightning28 , @aurora-starlight-silly , @silverryu25 , @me-paina , @kyranunleashed , @debossmoo , @quick-drawl-mcgrawl , @mafia-fish , @necroliberty , @loomingcastle Credits to people with deleted blogs > @i-am-in-the-mind-fuck , @trash-kitty36

Idk why I find this so funny. I have been battling my program whole day. Everything around me is saying 'no' to the drawing. Biggest canvas I ever did.

JUST REMEMBERED I HAVE FREE WILL HAHA

ANYWAYS EVERYONE GO WATCH THIS RIGHT NOW, IT IS 100% CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED PLEASE

(DISCLAIMER: I did not draw nor create this, but by god does this entire video live in my head fully rent free <3)

I am a(n):

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