skittles-writes

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these percentages are optimistic and may not reflect reality

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Still trying to come up with a title for this fic and I just can't think of anything that feels right, titles are genuinely one of the hardest things for me

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*Kicks down the door* YOU KNOW WHUMPY TROPES I LOVE SO MUCH BUT BARELY EVER SEE?

MAGIC FATIGUE/EXHAUSTION/OVERUSE.

Give me those sweet side effects of overusing magic:

Getting lightheaded and weak, struggling to stand let alone keep fighting

"Are you ok?" "Yeah I'm fine. *immediately faceplants because their legs can't support their weight anymore*"

F a i n t i n g

Physical injuries like burns, broken bones, etc

The risk of permanent damage either physically or mentally

Can I get uuuuhhhhh "loses a sense either temporarily or permanently depending on the severity of the overuse"?

Stopping their heart (cue the team scrambling to drag their dumbass friend back from death)

THERE'S SO MUCH YOU CAN DO AND I SO RARELY SEE IT.

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Does anyone else have that one fanfiction that they’re dying to to write but it’s like, mega long and basically a whole universe, and then you’ve got head-cannons to go with that fanfiction and like fanfiction to go with that fanfiction an back-stories for every character and you get frikin’ feels about that universe and it’d be the most coolest thing if you could just be bothered to frikin’ write it.

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Is this a problem?

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Superpower au plot bunny (5) {status: in progress}

Start | Previous

Jack sighed again and closed his eyes, "I wish they were willing to learn, then maybe they would have discovered a child with pyrokinesis, among other things, is not dangerous....."

Hannah was confused "What's that?"

Jack didn't answer so Mark did. "The ability to create and control fire."

"Ohh, I think I'd be scared of myself if I could do that."

Mark chuckled softly and Jack shifted attempting to wrap an arm around him.. Mark in turn, wrapped one arm around his shoulders and the other arm under his legs, scooping a Jack up as he stood. Mark turned around to face the bed and Hannah hoped up off the bed. Jack mumbled something as Mark gently laid him down. “It’s not as bad as it sounds. It just takes a bit of practice, and a lot of confidence.”

“I still wouldn’t want that ability.”

****

“So are you going to create the scene in here?” Dark asked

“No,” Wren scoffed “I’ll do it somewhere else since there really isn’t much in here to have fallen on you.��

“I’m sure these pallets aren’t exactly light. And considering that some of them have fallen over, it could be plausible that one could have fallen on an unfortunate soul.”

Wren scoffed again looking at the scattered cardboard, “Oh sure, being buried in cardboard.” He threw his hands up dramatically “What a terrible fate!” He exclaimed sarcastically.

Dark sighed, “Fine. I won’t offer suggestions since you don’t seem to take them seriously.”

“Well if your suggestions weren’t so asinine, I might take them more seriously.”

“I find it a bit insulting that you consider me moronic, but I could have guessed that from earlier since you want me to play a fool.” Dark replied displeased

“Again, you left the planning to me so deal with it.” Wren reminded

“I do have one good question though.”

“What?”

“How do you know Jack won’t just come with him when you lure him to my ‘rescue’?” Dark asked

“Don’t you worry about that. I’ll make sure Mark comes alone. You just worry about putting on a good performance. Wren answered.

“Very well. I’ll be sure to do that.” Dark sneered.

“Now to find a suitable location.” Wren turned to leave the warehouse. “Come along.” He motioned for Dark to follow.

Wren led Dark through the debris strewn streets looking for the perfect spot for their ruse. Finally, Wren found one he liked. “Here. This will be good.” He turned to Dark, “Now, lay down and I’ll put a few pieces on you and then bring Mark here.”

“Hold on just a minute,” Dark objected “how do I know there’s nothing sharp or dangerous in there?” He asked eyeing the pile of twisted metal and splintered wood. Wren shrugged. Dark groaned, then created a bit of darkness and used it to clear a space for himself. He laid down in the hole he’d created and put some of the wood fragments along with a couple of the less twisted pieces of metal on top of him before dissipating the darkness. “There. Now go get Mark, and don’t take too long. I’m not laying here all day!”

“Fine. I suppose that’ll work.” Wren sighed “I’ll be back shortly.” He transformed into a small child with torn clothes and a dirty face.

“You look like you just crawled out of a hole in the ground.” Dark commented

“Good,” Wren said in his now tiny, squeaky voice. “That’s the idea. I was able to squeeze out and now I’m getting someone to help you.”

“I just hope it works.”

“It will. Just wait and see.”

“What else can I do here.” Dark observed. Wren turned and started walking off. “Do you even know where you’re going?” Dark asked, watching

“Yeah.” Wren shot back.

Dark smirked, “Are you sure? Because the building you’ll likely find them in is that direction.” He finished, indicating the opposite direction Wren had started going.

“I got turned around is all.” Wren commented flippantly, then set off in the direction Dark had indicated.

Wren found the building finally, after a bit of searching due to Dark’s vague directions. He walked in and quickly found Mark sitting on the side of a bed that Jack was laying on apparently asleep and there was a girl with them, but he didn’t care who she was or why she was there. Time to enact the plan. He ran up to Mark and pulled on his arm “Come with me, I need your help!” He tried to sound impatient.

Mark turned to the small boy that had his small fingers wrapped around his arm with surprising strength. “Just a moment. Can you tell me what’s wrong first?”

“He’s stuck! I need your help, I’m too small!” He replied

“Who?”

“This guy! Come on, I’ll show you!” Wren pulled on Mark’s arm again.

“Alright,” Mark sighed and stood up “show me where he is.”

Hannah was concerned, she didn’t have a good feeling about this boy. He looked younger then her but spoke as if he was older. And why did he come straight for Mark? There were several other adults he could have asked. “Mark…” she started concerned “you said you’d stay here with Jack.”

Mark turned back to Hannah. “I did say that, but I’m not going to ignore someone that needs help.”

“Can’t someone else help him? There are several other adults around.”

“This person could be injured and need me to heal them.” Mark countered. Hannah was still skeptical. “This shouldn’t take too long, I’ll be right back, ok?” He tried to reassure her.

“Alright.” She conceded

Wren quickly made a face at Hannah then tugged on Mark’s arm impatiently, “Can we go yet?!”

Mark turned back to to the boy and answered, “Yes, lead the way.”

“Good!” He took off running and Mark followed.

Hannah watch them leave still unsure of the boy’s actual intentions.

Mark followed the boy as he ran down the streets. The boy nimbly ducked under a fallen pole which Mark had to climb over. “Hey wait a second!” He called as the boy disappeared around a corner. Finally clearing the obstacle, Mark went around the corner and sighed. The boy was gone. “Hey! Where’d you go? I can’t see you any more!” Mark called out as he started walking down the street looking for the boy, or a least he thought it was a street. It was hard to tell as this area had taken heavy damage from the storm. Most everything here was in ruins or completely destroyed.

“Can anyone hear me!? Please, I need help!” Mark heard someone shout

“I hear you!” Mark called back “Where are are you?”

“Over here! I need your help! I can’t get out!” The voice called. Mark followed the sound of the man’s shouts to a little further down the street and around a crumbled wall.

"Please help me! I can't move!" A man with black hair covering half his face called out reaching for Mark. He was under a pile of wood and metal with only his head and shoulders exposed

Mark made his way closer to the trapped man "I'm coming, it's going be be alright."

"Oh, I'm so glad you heard me! I've been yelling for hours and no one has come. I was starting to feel ignored and beginning to think no one cared!" He pleaded.

Wren snickered from where he hid a few feet away.

"Are you hurt?" Mark asked and pulled one of larger pieces of metal off of him.

Wren smirked and with a snap, Dark would feel a pang of pain in his right leg.

"I don’t-Ahguh!" Dark hissed. "You...fuck, my leg." Dark shot Wren a quick glare.

"Once I get you free, I'll have a look at your leg, alright?" He said moving a piece of wood away.

"Yes, that'd be great," Dark was annoyed that Wren had decided to add this into the plan with out telling him.

"There. Do you think you can get up or do you need my help?" Mark asked after moving the last piece that was on top of him.

"I might need your help," Dark knew he was wasn't injured but the pain he felt in his leg was making him appreciate how good Wren's illusions were.

Mark helped the man stand then activated his healing aura....and was confused, he didn't seem to have any injures to heal. "I just tried to heal you, but you don't seem to be injured..."

"It's not him you should worry about, it's me." Wren said coming up behind Mark.

"What?" Mark turned to face the voice and was met with Wren hitting him hard. He groaned, and fell to the ground knocked out.

Dark watched Mark for a few seconds before turning his dark gaze to Wren. "You little bastard," he hissed at the the redhead, "me feigning an injury was not part of the plan!"

Wren shrugged, "I didn't think it'd be very believable for you to be unscathed after being trapped under all that twisted metal and splintered wood.”

"You still could have at least told me before hand." Dark scoffed

"This way was better. At least your reaction was authentic."

"That's because I actually thought I was injured for a few seconds!" Dark growled

Wren kneeled next to Mark "I don't think our plan is going to work," Wren began "I overlooked the fact that his hair was dyed." He held up a lock of Mark's pink hair.

“Did you also overlook the fact that my voice is deeper than his?” Dark asked crossing his arms

Wren looked up at Dark, “Oh, don’t worry about that. I was planning on masking your voice anyway.” Then he stood facing Dark, "Hmmm...Maybe if you have your hair like his..." Wren reached out to move Dark's hair out of his face, but Dark grabbed his wrist before he could.

"Don't. Touch. My. Hair." Dark snarled pulling Wren's hand away from his face twisting it painfully in the process.

Wren winced, "Jeez, touchy..." Dark released his hold on Wren. "What are you hiding under there, hmm?"

Dark fiddled with his shirt cuff. "Nothing you need to know about."

Wren smirked "It can't be that bad, just show me." He reached out again.

Dark batted his hand away and darkness surrounded him. "Touch me again and I will drown you in darkness!"

"And just how would that work?"

Dark glared at Wren "You'll find out if you touch me again."

"That might be interesting," Wren spread his arms wide. Then stepped to the side, but Dark wouldn't see that. He'd see Wren cheekily reaching for him yet again. He was curious to what Dark meant, but didn't want to take the actual risk, so as before, he'd created an illusion to see what happened.

"I warned you. Do not test my patience." Dark threatened.

Wren wondered if Dark knew this was an illusion. "Alright, fine," He conceded. The illusion pulled his hand back and Wren stepped back into place. "I suppose my curiosity will have to wait."

"Curiosity killed the cat, you know." Dark mentioned as the darkness around him shrank away.

"Ah, but I am not a cat." Wren grinned.

"You can become one," Dark pointed out. "Back to the matter at hand, we need to do something with him before he wakes up." He motioned towards Mark.

“Hide him in that warehouse, he’ll be out of the way there. Tie him up so he can’t leave. Problem solved.” Wren said.

Dark nodded, “It seems the simple answer is sometimes the best.”

****

Jack stirred, slowly becoming aware he wasn’t leaning against Mark anymore. He slowly opened his eyes and found he was laying in the bed he’d been siting on earlier but Mark was nowhere to be seen. Hannah was nearby however, and his movement must’ve caught her attention as she came back over.

“Are you alright?” she asked

“I’m fine, but where’s Mark? I thought he’d be here with me.” Jack asked sitting up

“He left a while ago after a small boy came in saying he needed him to come with him because he need help because this guy was stuck. I thought it was a bit weird that he wanted Mark to help, but Mark said it was fine and he’d be right back.” Hannah explained

“How long ago was this?” Jack asked

“Ummm…..an hour maybe? I’m not sure, but I thought he’d be back by now.”

“Yeah, that does sound a bit off. Did he say where they were going?”

Hannah shook her head “No he didn’t. After Mark agreed to help him, the boy ran out the door and Mark followed. ”

“I’m going to go look for him. I don’t think that boy had good intentions.” Jack stood up and stretched

“I’ll come with you!” Hannah exclaimed

“No, I need you to stay here.” Jack stated.

“But, I wanna help you. Like you helped me.”

Jack kneeled down “You need to stay here. I can protect myself if needed. It’d be a lot harder to protect you as well.”

Hannah looked down “I understand.”

“Good.” Jack thought for a moment before speaking again, “Wanna see something cool before I go?”

“Like what?”

“A fire rose.” Jack smiled

“Oooh, what’s that?”

“Watch.” Jack concentrated I can do this. Don’t worry about it! It’s just a simple flower. He thought to try to build his confidence. “Ready?”

She nodded enthusiastically.

I. Can. Do. This! Jack snapped his fingers sending sparks into the air, then opened his hand and the sparks ignited into a small flame in his palm. He smiled. That’s step one done. Now for step two…. He started to shape the flame with his other hand, pulling it up forming the stem, then he split two tendrils off from the stem to form a couple of leaves, and finally, he spread out the top to form the petals. Then held it up. “Here it is!”

“Oooh, that is really pretty!” She watched with fascination.

Jack’s smile widened, he’d done it, actually done it! He was feeling genuine confidence now, not forced like when he’d started. “But like any rose, it won’t last forever.” The “petals” fell as embers and the stem followed soon after.

“That is really cool.” She paused “But I’m glad I can’t do that. It’s kinda scary at the same time. Aren’t you worried about burning yourself?” Hannah asked

Jack smile faded and he looked down. “That’s the thing. My pyrokinesis requires me to be confident in my ability to not do that.”

“Huh? I don’t understand…”

“I have to be confident in order to control fire. I can’t worry about burning myself. I have to believe I can control it in order to do so. Does that explain it any better?”

“I think so…?” Hannah answered “I’m just glad I don’t have to worry about it.”

Jack chuckled “Alright.” He stood up. “I should go look for Mark now. I’m pretty sure something went wrong somewhere.”

“Ok. I’ll tell him you went to look for him if he comes back here.”

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The Constant Thought:

“oh i love this one scene with my favorite character! i want to go reread it!”

The Problem:

that’s a fanfic scene

that’s a fanfic scene written by me

that’s a fanfic scene written by me that i haven’t actually written yet

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I recently did a redraw of this art so now it’s digital and in color!

Even demons need comfort sometimes {status: complete}

Anti glitched into Dark’s void and nearly stumbled over himself. Nothing was going right today. He’d been yelled at, cursed, told to fuck off and even the fanbase seemed to be ostracizing him. Why, he didn’t know since he hadn’t even threatened anyone lately! He had though, made a small cameo in Jack’s recent pumpkin carving video, but that was just a bit of fun, it didn’t mean he had sinister intentions for the silent film character that Jack had dressed up as. Anti looked around, searching for the monochromatic demon, but the only things he could see were the coffee table and the few chairs Dark had set up. Anti sighed, great, now even Dark was avoiding him. He wrapped his arms around himself and slowly walked forward. Even if Dark wasn’t here, he didn’t feel like leaving. He curled up in the chair Dark usually sat in. The quiet darkness of the void was at least some comfort since it couldn’t berate him.

“I thought I’d felt a disturbance,” Dark stated stepping out of the darkness.

“Yeah….are you going to tell me to leave as well?” Anti quietly asked.

“No, of course not. You are always welcome here. Why would I not want you here?”

“Because I’m messing things up, or bothering you, or want me to go away, or hate me.”

“You are just sitting there, so you are not doing the fist two things on your list, I would not tell you to go away without good reason, and I know we occasionally have our differences, but I do not hate you.” Dark answered taking a seat in one of the other chairs.

“Thanks, but I’m pretty sure they do,” Anti mumbled, his face half buried in the chair.

“They? The other Septic egos? I was under the impression you got along with them.”

“No,” Anti shook his head “them.” he pointed towards where he’d come from.

Dark looked at where Anti pointed and it took a few seconds to figure out what he meant, but after he did, Dark crossed his arms and answered, “Just wait, in a few days, they will be back to adoring you.”

“I’m not so sure….” Anti shifted, curling more into a ball “you’re the only person that hasn’t yelled at me today.”

Dark sighed, got up and stood next to the chair Anti was in. “Get up.” He commanded

Anti looked up at Dark. “What?” Hurt evident in his voice.

“I said, get up.”

Anti slowly unfolded himself and slid from the chair. “Did I say something wrong?” He asked taking a few steps back, wrapping his arms around himself again.

Dark banished the chair with a wave of his hand then summoned a larger, plusher chair that looked big enough for two people and sat down in it. “Come here,” Dark cooed stretching his hand out towards Anti.

Anti shuffled over to the chair and sat down next to Dark.

Dark wrapped his arm around Anti’s shoulders and inquired, “Now, tell me what’s wrong.”

“Well, I seem to be unwanted today. Everyone has told me to leave them alone in some way or another. So I went browsing around the internet because there’s usually nice posts and art and shit, but not today. They were all worried that I was going to hurt the dapper boy and were all trying to figure out what I’m planning. I’m not planning anything, I just wanted to have some fun!” Anti sobbed.

“Who is the dapper boy? Is he a new addition to your group?” Dark asked a little confused.

“No, he’s no one really. Jack didn’t really have time to plan anything with me for Halloween because of his tour, but still wanted to do something, so he came up with this idea to do another pumpkin carving video, but in the style of a silent film. I made a small cameo towards the end of the video. It was just some glitches, a few words, and nod towards the camera.” He explained

“I see,” Dark replied. “And this is what set everyone on edge?”

Anti nodded and scooted closer to Dark.

“I would not worry about it Anti. You know your fans love analyzing your appearances and formulating theories.”

“I know,” Anti conceded leaning in resting his head on Dark’s shoulder. “But this seemed different. They immediately jumped on protecting him and came up with the idea he’s mute and that I caused it!”

“Did this character appear with your signature slash to suggest such an injury?”

Anti shook his head without lifting it. “No, there was very little blood involved actually. Shortly before the glitches start, the character accidentally cuts his finger and wraps a cloth around it.” He whimpered

“Hmm, I see.” He’d never seen Anti this distraught before. Dark summoned a tablet and pulled the video up. He was going to see for himself what had Anti feeling so terrible. He pushed play and winced from Jack’s loud intro which had been made worse by the echoey location he was sitting in.

Upon hearing the video start, Anti raised his head and looked at Dark. “You’re watching the video?”

“Yes. I wanted to see why such a silly thing has you so upset.” Dark stated glancing at Anti.

“It'snotsilly,” Anti mumbled laying his head back down on Dark’s shoulder and closed his eyes.

Dark noticed it was a rather short video at only six and half minutes for all the trouble Anti was claiming it caused. Dark watched the video, and as he thought, most of it was silly. Thank goodness Mark had never gotten such a ridiculous idea! Also, as Anti had said, his part was short, consisting of mostly film-style distortions, some words flashing on screen, and leaning in towards the camera grinning madly. The video ended with Jack’s typical outro and a sepia filter on the outro animation. He debated flicking through some of the theories on the video, but ultimately decided he didn’t really want to know. He had heard a few strangled sobs from Anti while the video played. Dark waved the tablet away, sending it back to where he’d summoned it from and then pulled Anti even closer so he was almost on top of him and said “Why don’t you rest your head on my chest? It’d be more comfortable since I’m sure my shoulder is a bit bony and not at all comfortable.”

Anti nodded weakly and shifted his position to Dark’s suggestion.

“That’s better now isn’t it?”

“Mmhm, thanks.” Anti murmured wrapping an arm around Dark. He could hear Dark’s heartbeat and its steady rhythm was soothing.

“You can stay as long as you want, Anti.” Dark said in a hushed tone. He received an appreciative squeeze in response. “Also, don’t think you have to hide your feelings from me, if you feel like crying, just do it. I promise no one will know about it, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“It’s not that,” Anti sniffed, tears welling in his eyes. “I just don’t want to appear weak.”

Dark put his hand on Anti’s back. “You’re not weak and I certainly won’t think less of you for showing a bit of emotion.” He stated reassuringly

“I…” A tear spilled down his cheek “I’m….” Anti burst into tears and hugged Dark unable to contain his sadness any longer.

Dark looked down at the glitchy demon clinging to him. This whole thing had really upset him. He thought for a few moments, then started humming. It was a little tune Mark had originally done that was later used as the basis for a remix that featured him.

Anti choked out a short laugh. “I thought…..you hated…..that song…” He said in between sobs.

“I do,” Dark admitted “but it’s making you feel better isn’t it?”

“A little bit.” Anti took a shaky breath and looked up at Dark “Could….Could you continue…..for a bit…please?” He pleaded his voice unusually timid.

Dark ran his hand through Anti’s dark green hair. “Alright, just for you,” he replied and resumed humming.

“Thank you,” Anti meekly replied and got comfortable again.

After a few minutes of humming, Dark noticed Anti’s sobs had quieted. “Feel better now?” He asked. Anti didn’t answer. “Anti?” He asked again. Dark looked down and found why Anti hadn’t answered. He’d fallen asleep while curled up on the chair, half wrapped around Dark. Dark attempted to move, but that ended with Anti snuggling up even more than he already was, effectively trapping Dark in his current position. Dark sighed, but then smiled, a rare occurrence. He decided a nap wasn’t a bad idea and it wasn’t like he had anything else to do currently. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Dark was glad none of the other egos had access to his void because he last thing he needed was Wilford or Google coming in and recording them like this. If they wanted him, they’d just have to wait. Besides, it was pretty much understood that Dark was busy with something if he wasn’t in his office. In addition, comforting his friend was more important than anything his associates had right now.

[skittles-writes]

Some Cursed tidbits

Some notable things about the Cursed AU that I probably haven't mentioned in the story.

•Mark and Dark look very similar, but they are not related. In fact they don't even know each other.

•Dark is not his actual name, and only people he trusts know what it is (might be revealed later, so I won't spoil it here)

• Mark has been trying to help Jack improve his control of his emotionally triggered powers since his step mother forbade their use as he was was growing up and and enforced this rule with special stones designed to inhibit powers.

• Jack has a rather large scar across his back and arms down to his elbows. It resembles a lichtenberg figure.

• Dark has a large burn scar across his chest. It runs from his left collarbone diagonally to the bottom of his ribs on his right side. He also has a knife scar diagonally across his left eye. He hates it and usually covers it with his hair.

• Mark doesn't have any scars. (yet... ¬‿¬)

•Hannah is Cursed but hasn't discovered it yet. She has unknowingly used her power twice in the story so far.

•Anti can be knocked out for a while with anything that inhibits a Cursed's powers like a nullification stone or someone else who has the ability to negate powers.

•Mark can use nine different elements to create wings from: Energy, Dirt, Water, Frost/Ice, Fire, Metal, Electricity, Air, and Darkness. Each element has a different appearance and texture when used to form wings. Some are easier to manage than others. From easiest to hardest: energy, water, ice, dirt, metal, darkness, fire, air, and electricity.

[skittles-writes]

Superpower au plot bunny (4) {status: in progress}

Start | Previous

Jack yawned.

“You still tired?”

“Yeah, I didn’t get much sleep earlier because of that nightmare.” Jack replied “And I’m not sure how much I got last night,b but it doesn’t feel like much.”

"You should go lay down again, then."

"I would but I don't want to have another nightmare." Jack wrapped his arms around himself.

"If you're tired, you need to sleep Jack and I'll stay with you if you want. You never have bad dreams when I'm nearby." Mark offered.

"That's because I always feel safe with you watching over me." Jack admitted with a shy smile.

"And I'll help too!" Hannah jumped up taking a fighting pose. "I'll fight any nightmare that dares to mess with you!"

Jack chuckled "Thanks, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way."

"Unless you have the power to control dreams." Mark added

"I might. I mean I've never tried before so I don't know. Mom says I have the potential to be special like you." Hannah answered

"Wait," Jack said turning to her "Hannah, how old are you?"

"Uh," she thought for a moment "I'm eight and a half. Why?"

Jack sighed, "Usually, you'd know by now if you were like us." He looked down "If you were Cursed."

"You make it sound like a bad thing. Its not." She went over to him "If you couldn't turn into smoke you wouldn't have been able to find me because you couldn't get though the door and that would've been bad. You having that power is why I'm here right now, which is good."

"Do you remember me telling you something similar when I found you this morning?" Mark asked

Jack thought for a minute then shook his head "No, not really. Sorry."

"Despite what Moira told you, having powers is not a hindrance. In fact, you are amazing Jack! Do you know how rare it is to have a power like yours? Not many people can say they can do all the things you can. Some people can only do one thing. Like my mom, she can manipulate the the weather and that's it."

"Yeah, but she's good at it and doesn't have the potential to lose control of it." Jack countered

Mark slid from his chair and kneeled in front of Jack. "You wouldn't say that if you had seen what happened on mom's first date with my dad."

"Ooh, I bet she made it snow in the middle of summer!" Hannah offered giggling.

"No," Mark chuckled "She was so nervous that she caused lightning to strike a tree behind him, which then exploded because of the strike, showering my dad with splintered wood and bits of molten sap. She profusely apologized for the incident figuring she'd messed up her chance with him. Instead, he laughed it off and fell in love with her."

Jack smiled, “Sounds like that was quite a spectacle. But you rarely talk about him and I’ve never met him. Why is that?”

Mark sighed and looked down for several seconds before slowly looking back up. “He died when I was quite young, I was only five or six at the time, I could barely understand it let alone process it. Most of what I know about him comes from stories I’ve been told.”

“Oh. That’s like with me and my mother, except there are no stories. Moira practically erased my mother’s existence from the house. I just have a few pictures and couple pieces of jewelry I think were hers. I would love to know what she was like.”

“Is that what you keep in that little jade box?”

Jack blushed slightly “Yeah, along with a few other treasures.”

“How did we get on such a depressing topic?” Hannah asked

Jack shook his head “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”

“It’s fine, Jack.” Mark smiled. Jack yawned again “Come on,” he said putting a hand on Jack’s shoulder “let’s get you to a bed before you fall asleep right here.”

“Yeah,” Jack chuckled “that sounds like a good plan.”

*****

Dark had led Wren to a nearly empty storm-damaged warehouse, its roof was partially torn off exposing the support beams. No one would be looking here for anyone so they would not be interrupted.

“So, how do we start with your plan?” Wren asked

“When did I say I had a plan?” Dark smirked

“I thought you had implied...” Dark’s smirk widened into a smile. Wren rolled his eyes “Ugh, whatever.” He crossed his arms “You at least have an idea right?”

Dark nodded, “I do.”

“Well are you going share it or do I have to guess?”

“While it would be amusing to watch you guess, I’ll tell you. We separate them and then play on their trust of each other. It would be quite interesting to plant seeds of doubt between them and watch as they start to question the other’s motives.”

“Sounds good. You got a plan to accomplish this?”

“I think I’ll leave that up to you.” Dark smirked

“I can work with that.”

"Good. What do you suggest as a first step?"

"Well obviously, we need to separate them, so I say we exploit Mark's kind and caring nature. Hmmm... " Wren walked a few steps away thinking then turned back to Dark. "How good are you at acting?"

"Acting?" Dark questioned

"Yeah, like, 'oh, I'm so scared please help me' " Wren replied dramatically.

"Ugh, that was terrible."

"Well, yeah, because I wasn't actually trying to sound convincing. It was just an example."

Dark rolled his eyes. "I suppose I could pretend to be weak and pathetic for your ruse."

"Good. Here's my idea: Mark is going to 'rescue' you and after he does, that's when I come in and hit him like a ton of bricks."

"You do realize that would kill him, right?"

"I didn't mean literally jackass! All I meant was that I'm going to hit him really hard!"

Dark smirked again, toying with Wren "How was I supposed to know that when you could, in all likeliness, become a ton of bricks?"

Wren groaned "Just never mind what I said."

"Alright," Dark nodded. "So what am I being rescued from?"

"You're going to be trapped under debris. It'll actually only be two or three pieces, but it'll look like a lot more."

"And I suppose you want me to call out to him like a helpless fool," Dark crossed his arms.

"Kinda, yeah. To him, it'll look like you're practically buried and unable to move.” Wren explained

“Wonderful,” Dark sarcastically replied. “You couldn’t come up something less humiliating for me?”

Wren shrugged “You did leave the planning to me, so you don’t have much room to complain.”

“I suppose you have a point.” Dark conceded

****

Jack sat down on a bed and Mark sat down to his left , Hannah to his right. Jack sighed. “Are you sure about this? I don’t want to think I’m uncontrollably falling again.”

“What?” Mark asked

“The nightmare I had earlier.”

“Oh, right. I never did ask about that did I?” Jack shook his head. “Do you want to tell me about it now?”

Jack shrugged. “I guess. It didn’t start out bad, it was actually kinda nice. You were carrying me and we were flying over the rooftops. We stopped to enjoy the view and that’s when things changed. You shot upwards ignoring my pleas to stop. When you finally stopped I foolishly looked down and I couldn’t even see the houses anymore we were so high up. I asked you to go back down, and you ignored me again. Then I looked at you but it wasn’t you holding me anymore. It was someone that looked like you but with black hair, wings and eyes. Then he let go and I started falling. I couldn’t stop myself. I called out to you but kept falling. I was so scared.”

Hannah wrapped her arms around Jack “No wonder you were tossing so much.”

“Yeah. That was when I woke up and then Silas came over and started insinuating things and being an ass about it.”

“I know he asked why you’re pale, but did he say anything else to you?” Mark asked

Jack shook his head, “No, that was just about it.”

“‘Just about’? That sounds like there was something else. What did he say?”

Jack shook his head and looked away, “Nothing important...”

“Jack, please, tell me.”

Jack sighed “He suggested I had vitiligo or albinism. To which I pointed out my brown hair then he doubted my claws when I warned him I was getting angry with him.”

Mark sighed. “I see.” This wasn’t the first time Jack’s fair skin tone had elicited such speculation. Why couldn’t people just accept that Jack just had fair skin and it wasn’t the result of something wrong with him?

“Yeah... you’d think I’d be used to that sort of thing by now...but I’m not.”

Mark activated his aura and proceeded to heal the trauma from Wren’s illusion, the nightmare, and Silas’ insensitive comment.

“Why do things have to be like this? I just want to seen as normal for once and not be questioned.” Jack leaned against mark’s shoulder.

“People will always question things they don’t understand. It’s just that some are unwilling to learn about it and others don’t want to accept that things are different from what they believe.” Mark answered.

Next

[skittles-writes]

25 Ways To Become A Better Writer

1. Takes notes of funny or interesting things you hear people say

2. Make lots of lists

3. Write down ideas, even if they don’t really fit into your story. They may be useful later

4. Stay organized

5. Watch an old movie for inspiration

6. Listen to music that fits the mood of your chapter while you write

7. If you remember your dreams, write them down

8. Learn a new word every day

9. Use a thesaurus

10. Take breaks

11. Don’t force yourself to write “2,000 words a day” or whatever. Some days will just be bad writing days. Others will be great

12. Don’t beat yourself up

13. If its a bad chapter, don’t delete it. Take a break, then come back to it and edit it

14. Look at pictures of landscapes or scenes online. It will help you vividly describe what your story looks like

15. Read other’s work for ideas

16. Get feedback from others

17. Bounce plot ideas back and forth with your friends or other writers

18. Write when you feel comfortable, and not rushed

19. If you really like something that others don’t, you should still consider keeping it in your story

20. Write down a few sentences explaining what your chapter is going to be about before you write it

21. Don’t force it

22. Drink something hot while writing

23. Let yourself daydream

24. Stop comparing your work to others

25. Seek another respective

[skittles-writes]

Some fic doodles I’ve done from various parts of A Dark Glitch.

First:

Anti reached out towards Dark and pleaded, “Dark, no! Remember what I told you! Don’t do this!” Pit gave the pixel chain he had coiled around Anti’s neck a quick tug ��Quiet Glitch!” Then returned his attention to Dark. “Why do you want a worthless Glitch over this,” Pit held up the orb of golden energy radiating a soft glow. “a pure human soul. Such a beacon of positivity and light.” He smiled “A soul like this should be very valuable to demons of darkness like yourself. So why does it seem to hold no value to you?”

Second:

Dark was dazed from having Anti crash into him and still weakened from what he’d just pulled, he was in no condition to face Pit. Neither was Anti, he’d been knocked out from his powers hitting him. Dark managed to sit up, wrap a protective arm around Anti, and transported them away, back to his office before Pit reached them.

Third:

Anti studied Dark, noticing he had started leaning against him. “Are you sure you’re just tired? You look like you’re about to fall over.” Dark forced a smile “Just a bit dizzy is all. Probably a result of standing up quickly. It should pass soon.” “Dark, don’t lie to me. I can tell there’s something seriously wrong with you and there’s something wrong with me as well, but it’s affecting you more.” He wrapped his arm around Dark to help support him. “Now tell me how to get to Iplier’s office, I’m taking you to him.”

[skittles-writes]

Just a bit of fun {Status: Complete}

A high pitched giggle alerted him to an imminent visit from Anti. He appeared a few moments later across the room from where Dark sat in his office. Dark didn’t look up from his papers however preferring to ignore the glitch for the moment.

“Hey Dark,” Anti called, mischief in his voice.

Dark sighed, “What is it Anti?” He finally looked up and was promptly met with something cold and wet exploding on his face. It took him a few stunned seconds to realize Anti had just thrown a snowball at him. Anti was cackling madly across the office as Dark slowly stood wiping off the bits of snow still stuck to him. “Anti...” He began his voice low, “What was that for?”

Anti grinned broadly and held his gloved hands out to the side, “I don’t know, just thought it sounded like fun.”

“And where did you get it?”

“Outside. It snowed a bit last night.” He said still grinning.

Dark folded his arms across his chest, “And you couldn’t have just told me this fact instead of throwing it in my face?”

“That wouldn’t have been as much fun, and you probably would have just ignored me.” Anti replied.

“Yes, most likely, because I am busy, Anti.”

“You’re always busy.” He pouted.

“Someone has to come up with a plan for taking control of Mark’s channel that doesn’t involve ‘stabbing him until he likes it’ which was Wilford’s idea.”

“That’s not a bad idea though,” Anti commented.

Dark reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose “Anti, please, don’t encourage him.”

“Well I’m sure your plan that doesn’t include stabbing can wait a few hours. It’s been so long since we did anything together and I thought this would be a good reason.”

Dark thought about it. It had been quite a while since he’d done something that could be described as ‘fun’. “Alright, Anti. I’ll give you a 10 second head start.”

Anti’s face brightened and he disappeared in bout of maniacal laughter.

[skittles-writes]

An edit I made to go with this part of the story, tentatively titled, A Dark Glitch.

Anti didn't mind laying here with Dark, in fact he kinda enjoyed it, but he was getting bored. He wished he had his phone or something so he could scroll though the internet. He tried to summon his phone and not surprisingly, it didn’t work. He sighed, figures I cant summon my phone he thought and waved his hand. There was a sudden soft plop on the bed. What was that? Anti felt around for the object, finally finding it and picked it up. He held it up, it was a phone. ...I did it? Why didn’t it appear in my hand then? Pushing the power button revealed the lockscreen: a rather thorny blood red rose on a dark purple background illuminated by a single beam of light. This wasn’t his phone, it was Dark’s. How the hell did I get Dark’s phone?! Anti thought eyes widening a bit. Maybe Dark had it with him and it just fell out of his pocket? He tried to reason. No, Anti decided, it couldn’t have. Dark wasn’t laying in a way where something would fall out of any of his pockets. Besides, he’d found it at the middle of Dark’s back and not near any of his pockets anyway. However, it was near to where he’d had his hand a minute ago. Hmmm.... So I somehow managed to summon Dark’s phone instead of mine...

[skittles-writes]

Superpower au plot bunny (3){status: in progress }

Start | Previous 

As they walked back, Jack hoped a long talk with Mark would help sort this out, It usually did. He still wasn't sure what had and hadn't happened a few minutes ago and his appearance still intermittently flickered because of this. His mind wandered, Maybe he had dreamed the whole thing up, or perhaps an undiscovered power that was starting to manifest? No. No, that couldn’t be it. He was too old for that. Any additional powers usually presented themselves by 20, and he was 27. Unless this was an unusual case of powers developing later than they should, which could be attributed to having his powers suppressed for most of his childhood.....no, that wasn’t it either. Being suppressed hadn’t hindered his other powers from maturing.

“Jack!” Hannah called running over.

Once again hearing her voice soothed his runaway thoughts, and he began to wonder if she was Cursed as well but unaware of it. “Hi,” he said quietly unsure of what else to say.

Noticing his reserved response, she asked, “did something happen after you ran off? Is there someway I can help?”

“That’s just it. I don’t know what happened.” Jack replied

“Someone, who I couldn’t see, made Jack hallucinate and now I hope to figure out why.” Mark explained.

“Ha-lu-sin-ate?” She hadn’t heard that word before. “That doesn’t sound good whatever it is. Are you going to be alright?” Hannah asked

“I don’t know how much of what I saw was real, if any of it and I hope so.” Jack said

“Oh, like a mirage! You thought you thought you were seeing things. That would need some explanation.”

Jack nodded. “One I hope we can find.”

“Indeed. Do you know a good place where we wont be disturbed?” Mark asked

“Well, in the back has been pretty quiet and there’s chairs,”Hannah suggested.

“Sounds good.” Mark smiled “lead the way.”

Hannah led them to the back of the building, where they sat down.

“Alright, where should we start?” Mark asked

“How about last night since that seems to be what started all of this.” Jack answered

“Ok, what is the last thing you can remember clearly?”

Jack thought for a minute “...I pushed you away then....your wings just crumbled and I didn’t want to face what I thought I’d done so I ran.”

“You don’t remember me calling out to you, telling you to wait? You stopped and I said you weren’t to blame.”

“That’s where it gets fuzzy. I know you said something, but wasn’t sure what it was.” Jack answered

“You got scary after that.” Hannah added

“Me? Scary? What?” Jack looked at Hannah then to Mark “I don’t understand.”

“You weren’t yourself. It was as if someone else took over. Called himself ‘Anti’. Your eyes were completely black as well.” Mark explained

Jack sat there in silence for a few seconds before shifting uncomfortably “....Oh.” His form flickered. “He didn’t hurt you did he?” Jack asked quietly

“No, he didn’t. He just threatened me.” It wasn’t completely true, but Mark didn’t want to distress Jack any more he appeared to be.

Jack mumbled something nearly inaudible and nodded.

“I scared him off!” Hannah announced trying to lighten the mood.

“You.....” Jack looked at Hannah dumbfounded “How??”

Hannah tried her best to explain, “I told him he was mean and scary and that I didn’t like him. He said he didn’t care and I said he should because you would. Then he said he was wasting his time and kinda exploded into smoke and left.”

Jack smiled slightly “Wow. You were very brave.”

Hannah beamed. “Thank you.”

“So you know what happened then? This has happened before?” Mark questioned

“Only once. A long time ago, shortly before I met you.” Jack answered.

“You’ve never told me of this.” Mark said

“I know, I didn’t think it was important.” Jack sighed.

“It’s ok Jack. I’ll know for next time.” Mark reassured “but back to the topic, after Anti left, Hannah and I came back here and that’s about it for last night.”

“How...how long were you powerless?” Jack asked

“Not very long. A few minutes maybe...”

“That’s good....” Jack nodded

“Now about earlier today,” Mark started, “how did what happened between you and Silas start?”

“Oh! I know this one!” Hannah exclaimed.

“Alright, go ahead.” Mark smiled

“So, Jack had a nightmare then Silas came over and started bothering him. I told Silas to leave Jack alone several times, but he ignored me.”

“So, what happened after that?”

“I told him to leave before I got angry, which he laughed at. I warned him of my claws but he still didn’t take it seriously.” Jack answered

“That’s when I tried to make him leave and he literally picked me up and told me to stay out of it!” Hannah explained

"And that's when I jumped in and threatened him but he still didn't take it seriously. You know the rest..."

"Alright, that explains that," Mark nodded "now how about after you left?"

"I hid on a secluded rooftop and this bird landed next to me. It seemed like it wanted to listen, so I told it what happened and how I felt. Turns out, the bird was a shapeshifter named Wren. And I probably got off on the wrong foot and pissed him off." Jack explained.

"Oh? What makes you think that?" Mark asked

"When he introduced himself he offered to help me with my powers, but then I had to go and suggest that his name was related to becoming a bird. That apparently offended him as he immediately transformed into a boa constrictor and did what they do best."

Hannah gasped, "He tried to eat you!?"

"Not quite." Jack chucked at her reaction. "He wrapped himself around me and started squeezing. Though I'm not sure he wouldn't have eaten me."

"So how did you escape, since I assume he didn't let you out." Mark asked

"How I usually get out of tight spaces. I changed into smoke and put a few feet between us. He changed back, and I said I didn't want his help if that was how it was going be. He claimed it wasn't. Then I warned him not do something like that again in case I felt threatened and ended up poisoning him. He said he'd remember that. That's when I heard you calling for me."

"Also where it gets interesting because you saw something I didn't." Mark added

"Yeah..." Jack said distantly.

"Well, what happened? What did you see?" Hannah asked impatiently

Jack took a deep breath and paused for a moment looking down before beginning, "I flew down to meet Mark, apologized for running off, you told me you'd exaggerated my powers to threaten Silas and then...." Jack paused. "Then, you said you didn't feel well, collapsed and died. Wren came over and said it looked liked you'd been poisoned. I tried to tell him I couldn't have, but he offered your lifeless body as proof that I did." Jack finally looked back up. "And that's when you, the real you, shook me."

"That's horrible! Why would someone do something like that?" Hannah exclaimed

Mark shook his head, "I don't know, but I do know that this Wren is more than just a shapeshifter because I never saw him."

"What did you see?" Jack asked

"Honestly, nothing." Mark answered "After I told you I'd threatened Silas, you just stood there. I was initially confused, but then I started to get worried. It was like you were lost in thought, and you weren't responding when I called your name. I realize now you couldn't hear me because you were stuck in that illusionary hell. I doubt he ever intended to help you."

Next

[skittles-writes]

Iplier stopped stitching and scoffed “And (Pit) can’t deviate from that?” He looked at Dark. “Part of your character is being a manipulative bastard who doesn’t care and only uses people and yet, I know you actually care for your fellow egos,” he looked back at Anti “especially this one.” Anti blushed slightly and Dark raised an eyebrow at the doctor. He resumed stitching, “Why else would you come get me instead of sending him back to his own doctor?”

Doodle done at work while bored. A scene from one of my many wips. Done in colored pencil because I dont have a normal one with me. :p

[skittles-writes]

Superpower au plot bunny (2) {status: in progress }

Previous 

Mark got up as the suppressing effect that Jack had caused finally wore off. He stretched his shoulders and shimmering pink wings materialized on his back. Mark sighed and stared off into the distance in the direction that 'Anti' had went. He hoped his friend would be alright and come to his senses soon.

Hannah reached out touching the edge of one of Mark's wings, fascinated with how they'd changed. When they'd been made of water, they were smooth and cool like glass, now they were warm and almost downy. "What are they made of now?"

Mark looked down, turning his attention to Hannah, "Hmm?"

"Your wings. What are they made of?"

"Oh. Energy, they're made of energy."

"I like them. They match your hair."

"Thanks." He smiled but his mind was elsewhere.

Hannah noticed his distracted answer and wrapped her arms around herself "You're thinking about going after Jack aren't you?"

"No, but I am concerned about him. This is the first time that has happened, and I'm not even sure what happened," Mark sighed. Then scooped up Hannah "I should get you to your mother. She was very worried about you."

"Because of the storm right? That was really scary."

Mark nodded. "Hang on because we're going flying."

"Alright." She dug her fingers into Mark's shirt, clutching handfuls of the fabric.  

Mark spread his wings and took off, flying to the temporary shelter that everyone had been gathering at.

As soon as Mark landed, Hannah's mother, Lisa, ran forward to meet them "Hannah! Oh, I am so glad you are alright. I was so worried!" She spread her arms out offering a hug. Hannah let go of Mark and met her mother's embrace. "Thank you so much!" Lisa smiled then looked around. "Where is your friend? I want to thank him as well."

Mark ran his hand though his hair, trying to think of what to tell her, since he didn't think 'he turned into a heartless bastard and left' was an acceptable explanation.

"He had something else he needed to do." Hannah offered.

"Thank you, Hannah. I must be more tired than I thought, since I forgot that." Mark smiled. He actually was kinda tired though, since he'd used his own energy to reform his wings after Jack's dampening effect had worn off.

"Oh, I see." Then she added in sterner tone, "You should rest for a while if you're tired. No sense in wearing yourself thin. Besides I've been told you've already done so much to help, you deserve a break."

"But I'm sure there are more people that I could help; I should head back out."  Mark turned to leave.

"No, stay!" Hannah pleaded grabbing the edge of his wing.

"Hannah that's rude!" Lisa scolded. "However, I agree; you should stay. There are several other people conducting searches. I do not think your absence will hinder their progress."

"Alright, I'll stay." Mark conceded  

"If you still feel like you need to help, I'm sure there are a few things here you could do. Especially since you have an incredible ability to calm people."

*next morning*

Mark was drawn to the commotion of people yelling orders and pained cries coming from the doorway. He hurried over intent on finding the cause of all this. "What is all this? What happened?" He pushed his way towards the middle of the disturbance and found a man, one of the volunteer searchers, standing there in pain while anther poured a bottle of water over his burned hand. "I'll take over from here," he told the one pouring the water. "What happened?" Mark asked activating his aura.

"I'd found a guy, probably around your age; he had this black stuff on him, I thought it was oil or something similar but it wasn't. When I touched it, it was sticky and started burning my hand after a few seconds. I don't know what it is, but I feel sorry for that guy. It must have been horrible since he had it all over." The man explained.

"Where was he?" Mark was curious, it sounded a bit like something like Jack could do, but he wasn't sure. "Did he have green hair?"

The man hesitated looking at his now fully healed hand, then answered, "I didn't notice. Unfortunately, I doubt there's anything you can do to help him."

"Please,"

"Alright," he said not quite understanding why he was so interested, "he was laying in the grass in front of a destroyed house about four blocks north of here."

"Thank you." Mark said with a smile. Then headed toward the door.

"I don't know what you hope to achieve, the man was covered in an obviously caustic chemical. He is, in all likeliness, dead." He called after Mark

Mark turned back towards the man. "My friend has the capability to produce a substance similar to what you described. He ran off last night after becoming overwhelmed. If it is him, he probably just passed out from exhaustion. He'll be fine after he wakes up."

The man just scoffed and shook his head walking away.

Mark turned around and continued outside. Four blocks wasn't that far, but flying was faster than walking and he could easily avoid the debris strewn streets that way as well. Mark looked around for an element to make his wings with since he didn't like using his own energy mainly because it seemed to take more effort and he always felt more tired afterwards. The only thing in abundance in the vicinity seemed to be dirt. It wasn't the best element to use because of how powdery it was, but it'd work. Mark stretched his shoulders and dirt was drawn to his back, collecting outwards forming his wings. He flapped his wings a few times, testing them scattering dust everywhere in the process, but otherwise, they were solid.  Gah, he felt like a moth right now with how dusty his wings were and, extending them to in front of him, noticed they looked like a moth's as well. He sighed, oh well. There wasn't much he could do about it right now anyway.

Mark took off and flew towards where he hoped to find Jack and not some poor unfortunate person who had a run in with 'Anti'. Finding the location the man had indicated wasn't too hard, since the black goo contrasted against the bright green grass. Mark landed and used the edge of one of his wings to nudge him "Jack?" The man didn't stir. Mark wished he could actually touch him but he'd end up burned like the rescuer he'd healed. And since he couldn't use his healing aura on himself, he'd either have to let it heal naturally or find someone else with a healing power. He pushed harder with his wing, trying to wake him, unsuccessfully. Maybe the rescuer was right. Mark activated his aura. He wouldn't be able to sense anything if the man was dead. To his relief  and surprise, he could sense something and he was pretty sure it was Jack because the same mysterious trauma was still there. "Jack, come on, wake up!" He gave another hard shove with his wing.

Finally he stirred, moaning a bit then running his hand across his face smearing the goo on his cheek. He turned over and sat up slowly, quietly murmuring to himself. He opened his eyes and looked up. "Mark?!" He gasped "how'd-how did you fi-find me?" Jack stammered wide eyed.

"A rescue volunteer found you, technically. Unfortunately he didn't know about your acidic slime" Mark indicated the black smears on his hands and face "and touched you, burning his hand."

"Oh no...." Jack hid his face in his hands "I'm so sorry...." His voice was muffled by his hands.

Mark kneeled down and wrapped a wing around Jack. "It's alright, I healed him, he's fine."

Jack shook his head, "No it's not. That wouldn't have happened if I hadn't ran off. I should have let you help me, instead of assuming the worst and running from the problem." He poked a finger at Mark's wing "The other ones looked a lot better. I’m sorry I destroyed them. It was never my intention...." He ran a hand though his hair, "Hell, I can't  even remember most of last night. It's all a blur."

"We'll worry about that later. Forget about it for now, and just be calm."

"I don't know if I can. It's just there, looming over me.." He looked like he was about to cry.

"Jack, focus on me. Listen to what I say, alright?"

Jack took a shaky breath then nodded.

"Don't worry about what happened last night, we'll figure that out later. Just relax and be calm."

The caustic slime that was all over him began to melt away as Jack relaxed under influence of Mark's healing aura. "You know sometimes I wish I had your power, you always know what to say to make people feel better..." Jack said sleepily. "And that mine weren't so dependent on how I feel. I'd be a lot stronger if I could actually choose the power I wanted to use...."

Now that he wasn't covered in acidic slime, Mark pulled Jack into his arms. "You don't need that to be strong, Jack. You already can do some pretty amazing things."

"Mmm, I just feel useless sometimes because I can't be as helpful as you are..." Jack mumbled half asleep.

Mark smiled, "You were very helpful yesterday. I wouldn't have been able to get in there to find Hannah like you did. Besides you did a good job of making her feel not scared, so don't say you can't make people feel better."

"Mmmm," Jack sighed, asleep.

Mark cradled Jack in his arms as he stood up. He made sure he had a good hold on him before taking off and flew back back to the shelter.

Mark landed in front of the building and not wanting to get dust on everything, he let his wings dissolve, the dirt falling back to the ground. Still cradling his sleeping friend, Mark walked into the building with the intent to lay Jack in one of the beds so he could sleep comfortably but was greeted by the man who'd initially found Jack.

"I see you found him, but why'd you bring him here? This is for the survivors." He said holding up a hand.

Mark glared at him and half wished he hadn't dissolved his wings so he could smack this guy. "He's sleeping, not dead!" Mark hissed.

"Silas, stop! There's no need to be so rude!" Lisa came rushing over.

"Rude? I'm not..." He started

Lisa held up her hand interrupting him "Just stop. If Mark says Jack is fine then I believe him."

"Look, all I'm saying is early this morning I found him covered in some kind of caustic chemical, how can he be fine?" Silas questioned

"Because he's immune to it?" Lisa countered "Yesterday, he turned into smoke in order to find my daughter so it's not unreasonable to think he could survive being doused in something toxic!"

"You're half right. Jack has the ability to create an acidic slime that he is completely immune to but that's as far as it goes. He'd be hurt by any other toxic substance." Mark explained. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to lay him down so he can rest." Mark walked past Silas, who continued to eye him as he laid Jack in one of the empty beds.

"I still don't think this is right. He was as white as a ghost!" Silas commented

"Jack is just naturally pale, Silas. He looked like that yesterday when I met him." Lisa tried to convince him but he remained unconvinced. "Just wait a few hours, then you'll see." Lisa walked over to Mark. "I can have Hannah keep an eye on Jack if you'd like so you can continue helping other people."

"Are you sure?" Mark asked.

"There's not much else for her do otherwise, and I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

"Thank you."

"I'll go get her then." Lisa smiled.

A minute later Lisa came back with Hannah following her. As soon as she saw Jack laying on the bed, Hannah rushed forward.

"Jack! What happened? Is he going to be alright?"

"Yes, Hannah, he'll be fine. He's just sleeping. I need you to make sure no one disturbs him while he's asleep, alright?" Mark answered.

"I can do that." She said happily sitting down on the chair next to the bed.

Mark started to walk away, but then stopped and turned back to face Hannah. "Oh, one more thing,"

"Yes? What is it?"

"You know what oil looks like right?"

"Yes, it's black and has a rainbow shine."

Mark nodded "If you see anything like that on Jack, don't touch it. It'll hurt you."

Hannah looked worried for a moment, glancing at Jack, then replied, "Alright, I understand."    

Across the room, a man with black hair covering part of his face wearing a gray suit watched with interest. He tilted his head slightly focusing on Jack. Let's see what's going on in that little head of yours.... He thought to himself.

Mark flew over the city carrying Jack. They weren't very high, only a few feet above the rooftops, but Jack enjoyed the change of perspective. He could get up here on his own in his smoke form, but he'd have to fight the wind to not be blown around. Mark stopped and hovered, "it's quite lovely isn't it?" He asked

Jack nodded, "it is."

Mark suddenly shot upwards taking them higher and higher much to Jack's dismay. Jack clung to Mark, "Mark stop!" He called out but it fell on deaf ears. When he finally did stop, Jack glanced down and immediately squeezed his eyes shut. They were hundreds of feet above the ground now. "Mark, please, take me back down. This is too high, I don't like it." Once again Mark remained silent. "Mark?" Jack opened his eyes and looked at Mark. Only it wasn't Mark who was holding him. Sure, it looked like Mark for the most part, but certain features were darker. Most notably his hair and wings were pitch black and even his eyes seemed to be almost black. He also looked paler almost as if the color had been drained from his skin.

"Oops," he said in a deep echoing voice as he let go of Jack.

Even though he was sure he'd been hanging on to Mark as well, Jack found himself falling. He screamed as he fell. He couldn't think if any of his powers could save him, and even if he could think, he was too terrified for them to work. He was going to die.

"Jack!" A distant voice called out.

Thinking Mark must have come to his senses, he cried,"Help Me!"

The voice spoke again, louder this time, but Jack still couldn't see its owner "Come on Jack!"

He was still falling and the ground was getting closer. He desperately cried out, "Save me! Please!"

"Come on, wake up!" Hannah shook Jack for the third time. "Wake up! Wake up!" Accompanied another couple of shoves. Jack sprung up with a gasp. Hannah noticed his eyes were wide with terror. "You were having a nightmare weren't you?" She asked softly.

"Yeah, I guess I was." he answered his voice unsteady.

She put her hand on his back in effort to comfort him. "It'll be ok. It wasn't real."

Jack looked over at her, "I hope it never is."

Across the room, unnoticed by both of them, the man got up from where he'd been sitting. Turning dreams into nightmares was so amusing. He mused with a smirk as he melted into the shadows.

"Well, I'll be. You really are just deathly pale!" Silas commented walking over.

Jack looked up at him, "What?"

"Go. Away." Hannah stated .

Ignoring Hannah, Silas continued, "Is there a reason you're so pale? Is there something wrong with you like vitiligo or albinism?"

"Why the fuck would you think I'm albino!?" Jack turned his head a bit and pointed to the part of his hair that wasn't dyed, "I have dark brown hair! Not platinum blonde that is typical in albinism!"

Hannah stood up on the chair and tried again, "I was told not to let anyone bother Jack and you're bothering him! So GO AWAY!"

"I'm just asking a question," Silas answered snidely

"Well, I don't appreciate being asked that kind of question, so why don't you do as she says before I get angry." Jack could feel it building but was trying to not let it get to him.

Silas scoffed, "Is it because I wouldn't like you when you're angry?"

"Don't push it. I doubt you want to find out firsthand what half inch claws can do to you."

"Claws? Are you going to turn into a cat?"

Hannah got down off the chair, walked over to Silas, and pushed him in an attempt to move him. "Shoo!"

Silas picked Hannah up and sat her down in the chair she'd previously stood on. "Now be good, sit there quietly, and quit interrupting; this is an adult discussion."

Jack couldn't hold back any longer, he jumped up standing between them, "Leave her alone!" He hissed baring his claws.

Silas took a step back, but was otherwise unimpressed. "Am I supposed to be scared of you and your little kitty cat claws?"

"Maybe,"

"Well it's not working. You're about as intimidating as a house cat."

"I'm not a house cat," Jack raised a hand ready to swipe at the infuriating man.

"JACK STOP!" Mark yelled from the doorway. Jack froze when he heard Mark shout. His clawed hand was poised inches from Silas. Mark hurried over to them. "What is going on over here!?" He asked looking between Silas and Jack.

Jack dropped his hand to his side and looked away for a few seconds before shifting into smoke and flying out the door.

Mark sighed watching Jack leave, then turned his attention to Silas. "Alright, you tell me; why is Jack angry."

"He was actually going to claw me," Silas said with sudden realization.

"Most likely. Now what I want to know is why." Mark stated crossing his arms.

"I asked him a question then he got all defensive. I just wanted to know why he's pale."

"You asked..."  Mark shook his head and frowned "Don't bother Jack again, got it? I might not be around to save you next time.  You are fortunate that he didn't feel threatened though."

"Why's that?" Silas questioned

"We wouldn't be having this conversation." Mark stated seriously. He'd left out that Jack would have had to touch him first, but it sounded more serious this way. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a friend to go find."

***

Jack flew though the air looking for a place to hide. Finding a partially obscured rooftop he sat down and changed back, pulling his knees up to his chest. Maybe Moira had been right all those years ago. Maybe he was a danger to be around and should have an amulet to keep his powers in check. He'd hated the idea at the time since it'd made him feel like it was punishment for being different. Now here he was considering it because he wanted to be "normal".

*chirp*

Jack looked to his left, where the sound had come from, a bird had landed a few feet away and was looking at him quizzically. "Heh, are you sure you want to be that close to me?" The bird chirped and hopped closer. "You probably just think I have food or something. I don't, so why don't you just leave me be." Jack waved his hand attempting to shoo the bird. The bird just tilted it's head and continued looking at Jack. He dropped his hand and sighed. "Or just sit there, that's fine." The bird hopped up on Jack's hand and softly chirped at him before stretching a wing, the feathers brushing against his arm. Jack looked down at it. The bird looked up at him and chirped again.  It was almost as if it was saying 'tell me what's wrong, I'll listen.' Jack stared at the bird for a few seconds. "Alright, if you really want to know, I'll tell you." The bird hopped off his hand and settled next to him ready to listen. "It's hard for me to control my powers, since they're connected to my emotions, and if its a particularly strong emotion, its easy for me to let it control me." Jack sighed, "A little bit ago, I nearly clawed a guy because I was mad at him. The only reason I stopped was Mark yelling at me to." The bird chirped and did an approximation of a nod. "Mark is a good friend. He has  always known how to calm me down, and has tried to help me." He looked over at the bird "But still sometimes I feel useless, because I cant choose what I want to use or because I cant rely on that power being consistent." Jack rested his head on his knees "I'm just a mess, and I'm not sure why I'm talking to a bird about this, its not like you'd answer me..."

"Oh, you'd be surprised, some of them are excellent listeners." A man's voice came from Jack's left, where the bird had been sitting.

Jack jumped, startled by the voice, resulting in a shimmering energy bubble surrounding him. "Who the shit are you!?"

The red haired, green eyed man reached out and poked at Jack's bubble. "That's a neat trick. Must be nice to be able to protect yourself like that."

"I cant control it. It just happens when I'm startled," Jack said as the bubble faded "but you didn't answer my question, who are you?"

The man bowed his head slightly ,"My apologies, I was distracted by your bubble." He looked back up at Jack , "My name is Wren, and if you let me I could help you better control your powers."

Jack chuckled, "Is your name an unfortunate circumstance, or was it because you can become one?"

"Birds aren't the only thing I change into. I can become anything I want." Wren said sourly and changed into a boa constrictor and quickly wrapped himself around Jack.

"I see. Now if you could let me go, that'd be great." Jack said slightly scared

A hiss and a flick of a forked tongue was the only response he got before snake-wren started constricting.

"Ah! I'm sorry, alright? I didn't mean any offense, I didn't know!" Jack pleaded, but Wren continued squeezing. Jack shifted into smoke in order to escape and flew a few feet away and glared at Wren.

Wren changed back to normal "You didn't seem to have any trouble with that,"

Jack glared at him for a few more seconds before changing back as well. "If that's your idea of help, I don't want it."

"Its not, but survival is a good teacher."

"If that's true, you'd do well to avoid doing something like that again, because I could have poisoned you if I hadn't thought of escaping first." Jack warned.

"Oh, well, I will have to keep that in mind," Wren smiled

"Jack! Where are you?" Mark called from a distance.

"Mark?" Jack turned toward where the voice was coming from

Wren smirked, this was perfect. He could possibly see how Jack's powers worked, specifically the poison he'd mentioned. It'd be an illusion, but Jack wouldn't know that. And he'd make sure Mark didn't see him.

"I just want to talk, I'm not mad at you,"  Mark called again.

Jack shifted to smoke and flew down to meet him. "Mark!"

Wren followed curious.

"There you are. I was hoping you hadn't gone far." Mark smiled

Jack rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, I know shouldn't have ran away like that but I didn't want to face that guy any longer."

Wren stood, unseen, next to Jack. This was going to be good.

Mark put his hand on Jack's shoulder "I told Silas to leave you alone." He leaned in slightly and added,  "Also, I may have exaggerated your powers just a bit to get the point across."

"Oh jeez, what did you tell him?" Jack asked wide eyed

"Oh nothing much," Mark shrugged "I just implied that it was in his best interests to not confront you again." He smiled.

Wren waved his hand. Now Jack would would only see what he wanted him to see.

Mark's smile faded and took a step back putting a hand on his head.

"Mark? What's wrong?" Jack asked concerned

"I don't feel well," Mark answered

"Bu-but you were fine a minute ago! What happened?"

Mark fell to his knees, too weak to continue standing. "I..." He coughed, "I don't know...."

Jack watched powerless as Mark's condition rapidly deteriorated. Wren seemed to appear next to him.

"Oh dear! What happened here?" Wren asked feigning concern.

"I-I don't know....he-he just collapsed..." Jack stammered looking at Mark lying lifeless on the ground.

Wren walked over to 'Mark'. The real Mark was still standing in front of Jack perfectly fine but was starting to get curious to why Jack was just standing there looking entranced. He'd need to wrap this up soon or create another illusion. However, maintaining multiple illusions required intense focus. So maybe he'd let Mark break the illusion Jack was in and make his escape before either realized he was the one behind it.  He kneeled down and looked him over, "Hmm, my guess would be he was poisoned." He looked up at Jack.

"Poisoned? You mean....I did this?" Jack asked stunned

"Can you think of another reason?" Wren asked, he didn't have much longer now, Mark was trying to get Jack's attention.

"No...."

"You did say you have trouble controlling your powers."

"Yes, but that shouldn't have been nowhere near active."

Wren stood up, "Well, as you can see, it was."

"I don't understand...."

Mark grabbed Jack's shoulders and shook him "Jack!"

Wren allowed his illusion dissolve and shifted into a mouse, small and unnoticeable.

Jack felt someone shake him and blinked several times in attempt to clear his suddenly hazy vision. When it cleared, he saw Mark standing in front of him looking very concerned.

"Jack, are you alright?" Mark asked

"Mark!? You're alive?!" Jack was confused to say the least.

Now it was Mark's turn to be confused, "What? Of course I am, why would you think otherwise?"

"I saw you die....from my poison." Jack replied looking down

"I see..." Mark paused thinking for moment. "That didn't happen, obviously. I've been standing here trying to get your attention for the last few minutes because you just went quiet."

"Wait," Jack looked around, "Where'd Wren go? He saw it too."

"Who?"

"Tall guy, red hair. He was just here." Jack replied.

Mark shook his head, "There's no one else here, Jack. It's just the two of us."

"There isn't?" Jack looked down thinking "But I saw him, he was here, I even talked to him!" Jack's form flickered. How much of what he'd seen had been real? Had any of it been? Even if it hadn't been real, was that something that could happen? If he completely lost control of his powers, would that happen? And then then was the matter of last night, which he still couldn't remember hardly any of, but apparently something had happened.

"I don't know what caused this apparent hallucination, but you can tell me exactly what happened and maybe we can figure out why back at the shelter." Mark offered.

Jack's form flickered a few more times, "How do I know this is real? That I'm not imagining it because I don't want to accept what I did?"

Mark took Jack's hand in his and put it on his chest over his heart "Do you feel that?" Jack nodded. "That means I'm real. The only thing you've done is made me worry about about you."

"I'm sorry. It seems I'm always making you do that..."

"Don't be sorry. It's ok. That's what friends do, and someone has to keep you out of trouble."

Jack managed a small smile, "Yeah, I guess." He wrapped an arm around Mark "...Must have been nice to learn how to use your powers growing up. Exploring how they worked, what they did, and such."

Mark chuckled, "Have you ever thought of how much trouble a five year old with the ability to fly is?"

Jack thought for a moment then answered, "I hadn't actually." When he was five, he'd already had his smoke for a year and his other powers were just barely starting to develop.

"According to my mother, it's a lot."

"At least she wanted to deal with it. Moira thought it was too dangerous for a six and half year old to be playing with fire and electricity and made me wear that stupid charm bracelet that suppressed my powers. I hated that thing."

"Having had a taste of that last night, I can imagine why."

Jack sighed, that was one of the last things from last night he could clearly remember. "I'm sorry about that. You just sounded a little too much like her and that's probably why I ran."

Mark hugged Jack and said softly, "No, I'm sorry, I never meant for it be like that."

"I know ya didn't." Jack's reply was slightly muffled because he was squished in Mark's  embrace.

"If you're ready to go back, we can have a nice long talk."

"Yeah, I'd like to know why what happened last night is so fuzzy."

Mark loosened his hold on Jack and they began walking away, back towards the shelter.

Wren had been listening the entire time. He changed back as they walked off. Wren smirked, he'd learned quite a bit and now knew a weakness he could possibly exploit in his next encounter with Jack.  

"I see we have found a common target." A smooth, deep voice came from behind Wren.

Wren whirled around, transforming his arm into a blade as he did, and was met by a man surrounded by darkness. "Who are you?" He asked threatening the man with his blade arm.

The man seemed unbothered by Wren's threat. "You can call me 'Dark'. Now if you could, put that thing away. I don't much like knives being pointed at me." He placed the back of his hand lightly against the blade as if to push it away.

Wren studied the man for a few seconds. 'Dark' was certainly fitting as he had black hair that covered one of his dark eyes and wore a grey suit. He changed his arm back to normal. "So tell me Dark, what do you mean 'a common target'? I toyed with Jack to see how he'd react."

Dark put his hand down and straitened his suit. "Earlier, before the little incident that led him to you, I gave him a nightmare. Oh it was a lovely dream before I got ahold of it. After, he was screaming, terrified he was falling to his apparent death." Dark flashed a cruel smile "Your little illusion didn't even touch on his fear, you just confused him."

"He wasn't under my control long enough. But in that time, I did have him wondering if his friend was a figment of his imagination."

Dark chuckled, "You could have done so much more your set of powers. You could have became his friend and scolded him for fleeing."

Wren crossed his arms "I can't read his mind. I have to know what something, or someone, looks like if I'm to become it. Same goes for creating convincing illusions."

"Then perhaps we should work together. I can create nightmares, and you can make them come true."

"I might just take you up on that offer." Wren said

"Very well. Shall we begin?" Dark extended his hand to Wren

"Lead the way," Wren smirked taking Dark's hand.

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