#'the dr needs to order this test' then why did you let me get the appt.........

[potatoesandsunshine]

dr's office giving me the runaround.....

[harrywavycurly]

Worth the Fight Part 2: City of Love

Masterlist: Here

CW: Mentions of pregnancy, language, bit of light arguing, brief details of the hook up in the bathroom, miscommunication and a touch of panic attack symptoms mentioned.

Tag List: @kookjipao @msolbesg @lomlolivia @namoreno @outofthisworl-d @mema10 @watarmelon212 @natykn @sassamanda77 @st-ev-ie @ghayda0 @hannah9921 @indierockgirrl @chaoticthoughts2022 @lizsogolden

A/N: I know it’s not Thursday but I just wanted to get this up because this week is a busy one for me! Hope yall enjoy it!!✨

Summary: Harry gets the confirmation he needs but wasn’t really expecting while you try to be as nice as possible to him, oh and Harry meets your cat! So enjoy getting a little look at the way your personalities work/clash together✨

“So uh-you’re actually pregnant.” Harry says with a heavy sigh as he watches you dig around in your purse for your car keys. You pause your search so you can look up at him just in time to see him run a hand over his face. “I just really thought maybe your tests were wrong? Like maybe you got a bad batch or something and-”

“A bad batch? Harry I took four different kinds of tests.”

“Well yeah but still I just don’t know how this happened?”

“Did your parents not have the talk with you about how babies are made? Surely you know how this happened.” Harry ignores your snippy remark as you resume your search for your keys as he presses the down button for the elevator.

The two of you just got done visiting with your doctor who confirmed you are in fact pregnant and suggested a well known obstetrician and gynecologist, Dr. Andrews that could take over and do the paternity test once you call and set up an initial appointment with his office and see exactly how far along you are. You weren’t shocked by the news, but Harry on the other hand sat there with his mouth hung open as if he didn’t expect it at all and you aren’t sure why considering you told him how many tests you took and how they all said pregnant in different ways. You know he had to be reminded of how the two of you met, seeing as he meets so many people and all but you just assumed that once he had his moment of clarity and remembered meeting you that the memory of the rest of the evening would also begin to not be as fuzzy for him but he’s proving that theory very wrong with every confused glance and silly question he tosses your way.

“I thought we were careful?” He questions once the elevator doors open up allowing the two of you to step inside, you let out a chuckle as he moves to stand next to you crossing his arms over his chest while he shoots you a glare. “Are you giggling? What’s so funny about this?” You just shake your head as you finally feel your keys on the bottom of your purse.

“Oh you-you’re being serious?” You ask as you look over at him with a raised brow making him nod his head in response. “I wasn’t aware that the pull out method was really even considered a form of being careful?” Harry’s eyes go wide as his arms fall to his sides and that’s how you figure out he really is struggling to put the pieces together of what exactly happened in that bathroom so you decide to give him just one more detail to help him understand how the two of you really ended up in this situation.

“And by the way in order for that method to work you actually have to pull out.” You add casually as you reach over and press the button for the lobby while Harry’s cheeks turn a light shade of pink as he looks down at the floor in an attempt to hide his embarrassment.

“So are you going to want to be at all the appointments?” You ask a few minutes later as the two of you enter the lobby of the medical building your doctor’s office is in. Harry looks around and brings a hand up to rub at the back of his neck while you adjust the strap of your purse on your shoulder as you wait for him to answer.

“I don’t know? I just-this is a lot.” He finally replies a few moments later making you purse your lips and slowly nod your head before you turn and head for the front entrance of the building. Harry doesn’t know what to do but he knows the two of you have things to discuss so he just quickly rushes to catch up to you and when he finds you heading for a small beat up looking car that’s parked in a very obvious no parking zone his eyebrows pinch together while his hand reaches out to grab your elbow causing you to stop walking and look at him over your shoulder.

“Look I’ll tell you how my next appointment goes and when they can do the paternity test-”

“Is this your car?” Harry asks interrupting your little rant, you watch his eyes go from your face to the car directly behind you.

“Yes. She’s very reliable even though she looks a bit rough.” You say in your car’s defense as you take a step away from him making his hand fall from its hold on your elbow as he stares at you in almost disbelief as you take your car key and unlock the passenger side door and toss your purse inside before closing it so you can turn and face Harry with your arms loosely crossed over your chest.

“This can’t be safe for you to be driving around in.” You roll your eyes at his statement as he takes a step to the side so he can give your car a proper once over and when he sees a dent on the front bumper he raises an eyebrow while pointing at it. “You run into things a lot?” He asks as he looks over at you from where he’s now stood near the front of your car.

“Leave Melanie alone okay she’s nice and gets me where I need to go.” You snap at him as you turn and place a hand on top of your car so you can give it a little pat. “I’ve had her since I was seventeen so yeah she’s got a few bumps-”

“Melanie? You named your car? Have you really had this thing since you were seventeen?”

“Yes Melanie just fits her and yeah Harry I’ve had this thing since I was seventeen because most people keep their cars for a while since we can’t all have a driver to take us places or have a fancy collection of cars we don’t use.” Harry doesn’t say anything in response so after a few moments of silence you take that as a sign the conversation is over so you just turn to round the front of the car and get into the driver’s seat.

“You’re in a no parking zone you know that right?” Harry says breaking the silence just as you open your door, you look at the sign that’s posted on the sidewalk right above where you’re parked and just shrug making Harry let out a huff as he rolls his eyes.

“I was in a hurry.”

“You mean you were running late?”

“No I mean I was in a hurry.”

“Are you late to a lot of things? Is that something I should get used to?”

“I don’t know Harry do you want to get used to me?”

“What? That’s not-not what I meant I just want to know if you’re late a lot?”

“I wasn’t late today was I?”

“No but clearly you were worried about it since you were rushing enough to just park in a no parking zone-what if your car would’ve gotten towed? What would you have done?” While he’s speaking you take the time to look him over and that’s when you notice it, his hands are clenching and unclenching fists by his sides and his cheeks are slightly flushed and his eyes are a bit wide, he looks like he’s on the verge of a panic attack of some sort and him asking you these pointless questions is his attempt at holding it off.

You ignore his eyes that dart to various parts of your face and upper half of your body as if his mind can’t decide where it wants to focus as you close the driver’s side door with a bit of force making sure it stays closed and round the front of your car so you’re standing in front of him. You wonder for a moment as you stare at him if it’s your hormones already kicking in that makes you feel the need to make him feel better or if it’s just Harry who has this extremely annoying power to drive you to the brink of wanting to smack him a few time with your purse and leave him standing on the sidewalk alone and confused to all of a sudden switching it up to were you’re wanting to make sure he’s okay when he shows you any signs of distress. He watches your hands as they reach out and grab his and when you fill the gaps between his fingers with your own and give his hands a nice solid squeeze you watch his chest fall as he lets out a deep breath and his shoulders slump a bit. You look him in his eyes and give him a small smile while still giving his hands little reassuring squeezes.

“Would you like to come over? Have some tea?” Your question not only shocks Harry but you as well, not sure what came over you to even let the words slip out of your mouth, surely it’s just the hormones. Harry chews on his bottom lip for a moment before he looks down at his watch on his right wrist, checking the time before he looks back up at you.

“Uh sure yeah-yeah I can come over for a bit.” He answers with a nod. You just let go of his hands and reach over for the passenger side door handle so you can open it for him. Harry quickly looks at you with worried eyes and begins shaking his head and backing away from you while trying to reach into the front pocket of his jeans for his phone.

“Oh no I’ll just call my-”

“Harry.” You say with a sigh as you continue to hold the door open for him, he stops fumbling for his phone and stares at you making you roll your eyes as you gesture to the passenger seat with a tilt of your head.

“Just get in the car.” With that Harry just lets out a groan as he reluctantly takes a step towards the open door and bends down so he can pick up your purse off the seat. You bite back a laugh as you watch him have to duck down a bit to get into your car and he makes a show of buckling himself in nice and tightly once he’s sat in the seat. You give him a smile as he places your purse in his lap just as you close the door for him so you can go and get into the driver’s seat and take the two of you to your apartment.

“Do you have a cat?” You look at Harry over your shoulder from where you’re making yourself a cup of herbal tea in the kitchen and smile when you see him messing with a random stuffed mouse that somehow ended up on your table.

As if on queue Harry looks down as he feels something rub against his shin and you see a small smile tug at the corners of his lips when he sees your orange cat greeting him with a few purrs but it’s when you see him rub his head against Harry’s ankles that you feel obligated to warn him about something.

“Oh but watch out he might-” your words get cut off by a tiny squeal from Harry as he takes a step towards you with his eyes set in a glare aimed at the orange cat that’s decided to now head into the living room since Harry didn’t allow him to fully chomp down on his ankle like he wanted.

“He just bit me.” Harry states as he watches your cat jump onto your sofa and quickly flop down into a comfortable laying position. “He bit my ankle.” He explains while turning to now give you his full attention making you just shrug as you reach for the honey to add to your mug.

“Yeah well his name is Paris so he kinda has a thing for ankles.” Harry stares at the side of your face as you go about making your tea while explaining why your cat just bit his ankle and he rolls his eyes at how casual you are about it, but that’s something Harry is learning about you, you don’t seem to take a lot of things that seriously.

“What’s the city of love have to do with ankles?” He asks as you give the liquid in your mug a nice stir, he watches the way his question makes your brows pinch together and when you turn to look at him he sees your face looks almost concerned and he can’t imagine why considering the two of you are just talking about your cat.

“He’s named after Paris as in the one who killed Achilles.” When Harry just raises an eyebrow in response to your explanation you let out a long sigh as you pick up your mug. “Have you heard of Troy?”

“The Brad Pitt movie?” You have to fight off the urge to reach over and flick him in the ear at his answer but you just shake your head and walk past him and into your living room.

“No not the Brad Pitt movie I mean the actual story of Troy? With Achilles and Hector? The Trojan horse and all that?” Harry follows you into the living room and makes a mindful choice not to sit on the couch with the orange cat that just tried to make a meal out of his ankle, opting for the loveseat that’s placed across from the couch with a little coffee table in between the two pieces of furniture.

“Hector and the little horse thing are in the Brad Pitt movie though.” Harry explains as you get comfortable on the couch making Paris lift his head and look around to see who has come into the room and disturbed his peace.

“Little horse thing? Are you-you know what it’s not important.” You take a sip of your tea to help calm yourself down before placing it on the coffee table, Harry takes the opportunity to glance down and he quirks an eyebrow when he sees the name of the tea on the little tag hanging out of the mug.

“Paris shot Achilles in the ankle so that’s why I named him Paris…because he attacks the ankles of people he doesn’t like.” You smile as the orange cat stretches out next to you placing a paw on your thigh while Harry just lets out a scoff at the idea of your cat not liking him.

“You drink peppermint tea with honey? That’s criminal. And also there’s no way he doesn’t like me considering he just met me.” You laugh as you reach over and run your hand over Paris’s back making him purr while still keeping his eyes closed.

“Oh and it’s so hard to imagine someone not liking you after just meeting you?”

“Well yeah because he doesn’t know me so how can he not like me?”

“He knows enough to want to bite your ankle the first chance he got.”

“That’s because you’ve probably poisoned him against me.” You laugh and roll your eyes as Harry leans over and grabs your mug of tea off the table and brings it to his lips so he can taste it. “And that’s disgusting by the way.” He states with a face of disgust making you glare at him as you lean over and grab the mug from his hand before he can set it back down on the table.

“And I remember you being taller.” You mumble while Harry just glares at you from his spot on the loveseat. “What? You insulted my tea so I’m allowed to insult your-”

“I can’t really do anything about my height but you can and absolutely should fix the way you make tea because no one should be mixing honey with peppermint.” He argues as he watches you with a narrowed glare as you take a sip of your tea, you watch as he leans forward and rests his forearms on his knees and clasps his hands together.

“Is this how you always act when someone invites you into their home as a way of calming you down when you’re on the verge of a panic attack? You just insult them and-”

“I wasn’t having a panic attack.”

“You were maybe two minutes away from one and please stop interrupting me it’s so rude and isn’t your whole thing about treating people with-”

“How are you not panicking? You’re having a baby possibly my baby and you’re just sat there with your nasty tea and-”

“That’s it.” You say with a huff and Harry flinches slightly as you all but slam your mug down onto the table before standing up causing Paris to jolt awake at your sudden outburst. “You’ve insulted my car and my tea today and I was going to let it slide because that’s fine we can have differences in opinions on tea and cars but that’s on top of the fact you don’t even remember what happened between us that night and you think the story of Troy is just a Brad Pitt movie and I just-I think you should leave now.” Harry blinks up at you as your hands fall to your sides in what he almost thinks is a sign of defeat, as if you lost the internal battle you were having with yourself on trying to keep your cool with him and that makes his mouth droop a bit into a small frown.

“I remember plenty about what happened that night.” He counters as he slowly stands up while you grab your mug and turn towards the kitchen. Harry reaches for his phone in his front pocket so he can text his driver your address and a message to please come get him as soon as possible.

“If that were true then today wouldn’t have been such a shock for you.” You explain before you disappear from Harry’s sight, he can’t really put a finger on the exact feeling that comes over him as he stands there in your living room knowing that everything you said is true. He doesn’t remember exactly what went on between the two of you, at least not very clearly.

He knows that the two of you had an intimate moment in the bathroom because the evidence was shown to him this afternoon when the doctor handed him a piece of paper that told him you are truly pregnant and this is all really happening. Since then he hasn’t been able to think straight or focus on much of anything and if he’s being honest he really isn’t good in stressful situations in general, he tends to either overreact or just panic and this by far is one of the most stressful situations he’s ever found himself in and he knows he isn’t handling himself the way he should be. And your calm and relaxed demeanor just seems to make him even more unnerved because he doesn’t get how you’re not in the same panic riddled boat as him.

Harry runs a hand through his hair, giving a tug at his roots as he glances down to your couch, he catches Paris do a lengthy stretch before he sits up briefly just to look at Harry and decide that even he is fed up with him so he jumps off the couch and walks off into the kitchen. Now in that moment Harry knows he should do that as well, follow your cat’s lead and walk into your cramped kitchen so he can at least attempt to apologize for a few things but he doesn’t. Instead he just runs a knuckle under his nose as he sniffles a bit and when he feels his phone vibrate and sees a text letting him know his driver is on his way he lets out a heavy sigh. He takes one last look at your kitchen entryway, hoping that maybe you’ll come back and sit down on the couch and he thinks that he wouldn’t even mind if you didn’t say anything but just sat there not looking at him so that way he would at least be able to tell you goodbye and prove to you that he’s capable of being polite but the sound of the sink being turned on quickly wash away any traces of hope he might’ve had.

“This is so fucked.” He mumbles to himself as he walks towards your front door, he knows better than to leave the two of you like this, with certain things needing to be spoken and unkind words being the last ones said but he doesn’t have much of a choice since you won’t come out of the kitchen. So Harry opens your front door and walks out into the hallway making sure to close it as quietly as possible deciding that maybe this is for the best and at least he’s giving you exactly what you asked for, him leaving.

You watch the last bits of your tea go down the drain as the sound of your front door opening and then closing hits your ears, you take a few steps back from the sink so you can poke your head out into the living room and when you see it’s empty you just let out a sigh and go back to cleaning your mug. You didn’t want to end your afternoon like this, standing alone in your kitchen because your patience was worn too thin for the man who somehow managed to charm you into agreeing to a quickie in a bar bathroom over a month ago.

You almost don’t even know how that man and the one who was sat in your living room not even five minutes ago are the same person. The Harry you met at the bar was fun and flirty and even though he teased you throughout the night it was never with any real intention to hurt your feelings while this Harry can’t help but take every chance he can get to insult you or toss a jab your way about something. You don’t know why the corners of your mouth turn downwards at the idea of the night you two met never really meaning anything to him aside from being the night he got you pregnant. You don’t get to think about it for too much longer as Paris jumps onto the counter and makes his way over to sit next to the sink momentarily taking your mind off the curly haired boy.

“We can do this right? We’ll be fine won’t we?” You ask him while he sits there looking at you with his big green yellow-ish eyes that all of a sudden remind you a bit too much of the man who just left your apartment without even saying goodbye. “Next time bite him a bit harder okay?”

[winchesterwild78]

Unspoken Words pt 7

Master List

Characters: Jensen Ackles x Reader, Reader’s daughter, other characters

Warnings: fluff, a little angst, David’s court date, more fluff

A/N: Another collab story with @cheekygirl2309. This one is about a single mother with a nonverbal autistic daughter who loves Supernatural. The reader is going to a Supernatural Convention with her daughter and things unfold from there. The daughter character is near and dear to my heart. I have someone very close to me who is nonverbal, but he’s such an amazing kid. 

*One more chapter after this. Features a time jump or two. *

This is a work of fiction and does not depict real life. Jensen is single in this story. 

All work is my own and @cheekygirl2309, don’t take it or use it as your own. Reblogs and likes are appreciated. 

Minors DNI 18+

*Time Jump 3 months*

After coming back from California  I decided to move Lily and I in with Jensen. He was excited I agreed to it. Living with him in California felt perfect, like we were exactly where we were meant to be. 

Lily began talking more, and Jensen insisted on paying for a private speech therapist. I told him I was fine with the one she had been going to, but he wanted the best for her. 

I quickly realized it was pointless to argue with him about her wellbeing. He stepped into the role of dad without missing a beat. We were a united front when it came to Lily, but he also used his status and money to help fill in gaps. 

*Flash Back to the month after we left*

We flew back for the court date for David’s attempted kidnapping. Sarah watched Lily so Jensen and I could go. He was found guilty and sentenced to jail time. There was also a lifetime protective order put in place that prevented him from any contact with Lily, myself or Jensen. 

When we came home for the court date I was sick for days. Chalking it up to nerves, I did my best to ignore it. After a few days and heading back to California Jensen started to get more concerned.

“Baby, you’ve been sick since before we went to court. Maybe you should go to the doctor.” He was right, I knew he was. I was just being stubborn. 

“I can’t just drop what I’m doing and go to the doctor for a little bug. It’ll pass. It always does.”

Jensen just looked at me, “Baby, please. I’m worried about you. I’ll keep Lily and you go see Dr. Pickard. Please.” I sighed, “Okay. I’ll make an appointment.” 

The next day I was sitting in the doctor’s office. I checked in and sat in the lobby. A young woman was sitting to the left of me and kept looking at me. I just wanted to get in and out without issues or being recognized. 

The young woman leaned forward. I knew what was coming. “Excuse me, ma’am?” I turned and smiled, “Yes?” “I’m sorry to bother you, but are you dating Jensen Ackles?” I nodded, “Yes I am.” She grinned, “I thought that was you. It’s very nice to meet you. My name is Mary. Are you two getting married?” “It’s nice to meet you too, Mary, and I don’t know. He hasn’t asked, so I’m going to say no. Not right now.” “Oh, okay. Well maybe he will soon.” I smiled as my name was called, “Maybe. We haven’t been dating long, so we have time. You have a great day, Mary.” 

I walked to the back with the nurse and explained why I was there. She told me the doctor would be in soon and would let me know if any tests would be needed. I nodded and she left. 

Sitting in the room I felt really dizzy and sick. Dr Pickard came in and noticed I was sweating and was pale. “Ms Y/L/N, are you okay?” “No, I feel really dizzy and sick to my stomach.” 

She checked me over and asked some questions. “Okay, let me run some tests. The nurse will be in soon and take some blood, do some swabs for the flu and other illnesses, and we need to check for pregnancy.” 

I chuckled, “Wow, just checking everything, huh?” Dr Pickard looked at me, “Just trying to be thorough.” She left the room and the nurse came back in a few minutes later. They took my blood, she swabbed my nose and throat and had me pee in a cup. 

“I’m gonna run all this to the lab, we should have the results for everything except the blood work before you leave today. The doctor will be back shortly.” I nodded and thanked her. I pulled out my phone and sent Jensen a text. 

Me: I’ve been poked, prodded and swabbed. Waiting on some of the results. I’m being checked for flu or other things. I’ll keep you updated. How are you and Lily?

Jensen: Okay, hopefully they figure it out soon. I’m really worried about you, and we are fine. *1 image sent*

Jensen sent a picture of him with a princess tiara on and Lily in her princess dress. I laughed.

Me: aww look at the pretty princesses. I love you two

Jensen: We love you too, mommy. Come home soon.

Me: I will. TTYS

After about twenty minutes Dr Pickard came back in. “Well, Ms Y/L/N, you don’t have the flu or strep, your iron is a bit low and you're a little dehydrated, and you’re pregnant.” 

“I’m sorry, what? I’m pregnant? How did that happen?” She chuckled, “Um, I’m assuming you and your partner had sex. Maybe unprotected?” I sat thinking, no, Jensen and I were always so… “Oh, yeah. That one time over a month ago.” She chuckled, “That’s all it takes. So I’m prescribing some prenatal vitamins and I want you to schedule an appointment to get the baby checked.” 

“Okay. Thank you for everything.” My heart beat fast in my chest. I was pregnant. Jensen was the father. Would he be okay with this? We never really talked about children. How would Lily handle this?

My head was spinning by the time I got home. Jensen greeted me at the door with a hug and a smile. He saw the bag from the pharmacy and smiled. “So I see you have some medicine. I’m assuming the doctor found something?” 

I took a deep breath, “Yeah she did. Jensen, we need to talk.” He sat down beside me and took my hands in his, “Okay baby. Is everything okay?” 

With a shaky breath I looked at him, “Jensen, I’m okay. She didn’t find anything devastating, but what she did find is going to change our lives.” 

Jensen looked at me, eyes so full of love, “Okay, now you’re scaring me. Y/N, please just tell me.” 

Tears pricked my eyes, I was so scared. “Jensen, I’m pregnant.” He softly gasped. Silence filled the room and I didn’t know what to say or do. 

The longer the silence stretched on, the more anxious I got. I swallowed hard, and the tears started to fall.

“Jensen, please say something.” His voice barely above a whisper, “You’re pregnant?” I nodded. “Jensen, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get pregnant. I know this isn’t something we talked about and I understand if you’re not ready. Lily and I can stay at our place and I won’t keep the baby from you if that’s what you want. I think Lily and I should go home. I’m so sorry Jensen.” 

I stood up quickly and walked towards the bedroom. The tears fell fast as I felt the bile rise in my throat. I walked into our bedroom and grabbed my suitcase. Jensen was hot on my heels. He grabbed my hand and spun me around. His lips crashed on mine in a heated kiss. 

I was shocked. When he pulled back he was smiling. “You’re pregnant. We’re having a baby!.” “Jensen, you’re not mad?” “What?! Why would I be mad? The love of my life is pregnant with our baby. Lily’s going to have a baby brother or sister. Oh sweetheart, please don’t leave. I want to be with you every step of the way.” 

I cried harder. I wasn’t expecting his reaction. He pulled me in his arms, “Shh baby. Don’t cry, please. I love you and I can’t wait to have this baby with you. I know you’ve been hurt in the past, but I promise I’m not going anywhere. You, Lily and this baby have me forever.” He wiped my tears away and placed a soft kiss on my lips. 

His hand rested on my stomach and he smiled. “I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am.” I took a shaky breath in and out, letting go of all the anxiety I was feeling. 

*Current Time*

I was heading to my doctor's appointment to check on the baby and Jensen was going with me. We had been back home in Texas for about a month and Lily and I were adjusting to living with Jensen. 

I was worried she would have a hard time adjusting to the new house, but she loved it. Jensen made sure he put a gate around the pool, and a safety cover on the pool just in case. He also had her a swing set built in the backyard. They both spent a lot of time outside in the backyard playing. I couldn’t wait for the baby to be old enough to play with Lily and Jensen. 

I stood at the full-length mirror in our bedroom and placed a hand on my belly. I was just starting to show more and I knew we couldn’t hide the pregnancy much longer. My biggest worry was telling Lily. I wasn’t sure how she’d react. 

Sarah and Steve knew I was pregnant. They were excited for us. The two of them were coming over to watch Lily while Jensen and I went to the doctor. 

I was too busy looking at my growing bump to notice Jensen standing at the door. He leaned against the doorframe and watched me with a smile on his face. 

He walked up behind me and snaked his arms around my waist, placing his hands on my belly. He kissed my cheek, “How’s my babies today?” I smiled and leaned into him, “We’re okay. I’m hungry, but what else is new.” He laughed, “We’ll get you a snack before we head out. What do you want?” 

“Hmm, pickles, peanut butter and apples sound delicious.” He chuckled, “Okay. I’ll get it and you finish getting ready.” I kissed his lips, “Thanks baby.” He nodded and smiled.

Lily knew something was different, but we hadn’t told her yet I was pregnant. We wanted to make sure everything was okay with the baby before we told her. The appointment today was going to include an ultrasound and measurement of the baby. I was about 3 months pregnant and so far the pregnancy was going well. 

Jensen was by my side through it all. He was in between filming schedules at the moment, so he was home. I knew he was leaving in about 3 weeks to head to Toronto for filming. We weren’t sure if Lily and I were going or staying home, honestly it depends on what the doctor told us. 

Sarah and Steve arrived to watch Lily and Jensen and I were about to leave to go to the appointment. I was nervous but excited. This would be the first ultrasound and I was happy Jensen was going to be there for it. 

Sarah gave me a hug and told me she couldn’t wait to see the baby when we got back. Lily looked at me and Sarah and whispered, “baby?”

I looked at Sarah and she mouthed, “sorry”. I just nodded. 

I took a deep breath and sat Lily down. Jensen sat beside her. “Lily, sweetheart. Mommy and Jensen have something we want to tell you. You know how mommy has been sick and going to the doctor a lot? Well, mommy has a baby in her tummy. You’re going to be a big sister.” 

Lily sat beside Jensen and I very still. She looked up at me, then down to my stomach, then up at Jensen. Tears filled her little eyes and she started to cry. I pulled her on my lap but she wiggled free and went to her room. 

I started to follow her, but Sarah told me she’d go so we weren’t late. I wanted to go and see her, but I had to get to the appointment too. 

“Y/N, honey. I’ll take care of her. You go check on the little bean.” I nodded and Jensen and I left. 

The ride to the doctor’s office was quiet. I was worried about Lily and felt a pang of guilt for leaving like I did. Jensen sensed my uneasiness and took my hand in his. 

“Hey, she’s going to be okay. Take a deep breath.” “I know Jensen, she was just so upset and I left. What kind of mother does that?”

“Y/N, don’t do that. You’re an amazing mother. Lily is safe with Sarah, and we had to get to this appointment. I know you’re upset, but she’s going to be okay, I promise.”

I nodded and wiped the tears that started to fall away. We arrived at the doctor’s office and got checked in. 

The nurse checked my vitals and everything she needed to do. She asked how I’d been and told me the doctor would be in soon. Jensen stood beside the exam table and held my hand. 

The doctor came in, did their exam and got me ready for the ultrasound.

I was so excited and nervous to see the baby. She put the gel on my belly and commented that she was surprised I was showing as much as I was. I thought it was an odd statement to make, but brushed it off as my eyes were glued to the monitor. 

The doctor had a puzzled look on their face and kept looking at the monitor with an unreadable look on their face. I started to get nervous. “Hmm, that’s interesting.” 

I looked at her and then at Jensen. He saw my distress, “What’s interesting?” He asked her. “One second, let me just check one more thing. Hmm, yep. Okay.” 

Jensen looked at the screen, at her and then at me, “Is everything okay with the baby?” I started to panic a little because I wasn’t hearing a heartbeat. “Why don’t I hear a heartbeat?! Jensen, what’s wrong with the baby?!”

The doctor turned to us and offered a soft smile. I felt the bile rising in my throat. She flipped a switch on the machine and I heard the heartbeat. I let out the breath I was holding. 

“Everything looks great. The heartbeats are strong and it looks like growth is on target. You both can relax. It looks like both of them are perfectly healthy.” 

Jensen leaned down and kissed me and I turned back to the doctor to thank her, then it hit both of us. “Wait, what?! Heartbeats? Both?” She chuckled, “Congratulations, you’re having twins, and from the looks of it they are fraternal.” 

Jensen chuckled, “Wow, we’re adding two babies to the family.” He kissed me again. I was filled with joy and then a wave of anxiety hit me. I was worried how Lily would handle the news of twins. 

The doctor gave us pictures and we made our next appointment. I couldn’t take my eyes off the pictures. I clearly saw two babies in the pictures. 

On the way home my hand rested on my stomach as my mind drifted to what life would be like with three children. 

“Whatcha thinking about darlin’?” Jensen asked, breaking the silence in the car. “Just the babies and Lily. I don’t know how she’s going to feel about two babies. I’m just worried about her.” 

He took my hand, “Hey, I get it. It might be hard for her at first, but she’s going to be a great big sister. When Mackenzie was born I wasn’t thrilled at first, but after a bit I loved her and protected her. Lily is going to be the same way.” “I hope so.”

When we got home We shared the news with Sarah and Steve and they both were excited. I asked Sarah where Lily was and she said in her room. “I talked to her, but I don’t know if it did any good. I’m sorry Y/N.” 

I touched her arm, “No, it’s okay. It’s not your fault. We will talk to her. Thank you both for watching her.” 

Sarah nodded, hugged me goodbye and she and Steve left. I walked to Lily’s bedroom door and found her sitting on her bed holding her squirrel stuffy. 

I walked in and sat on the bed, “Lily, honey, we’re home. Do you want to see a picture of the baby?” She turned her back to me. It broke my heart. I touched her arm, “Baby, look at mommy, please.” 

She turned away and grunted at me. Jensen walked in and saw it. He walked up to me, touched my shoulder and motioned for me to come on. I looked at Lily and then back at him. I got up and left her room.

I started crying, “She’s so mad at me, Jensen. What am I going to do?” He pulled me in his arms and held me, “Hey, it’s okay. You get a snack and rest, I’ll talk to her.” I nodded and walked downstairs.

Jensen walked in her room and sat on the bed, “Hey baby girl. Will you look at me?” She turned further away. He put his hand on her shoulder, “Hey, Lily girl. Please look at me.” 

She slowly rolled over and looked at him. Her big beautiful eyes red from crying. “No love Lily.” Jensen’s heart broke. He immediately pulled her in his lap and held her tight, “Oh sweet girl, no. Just because mommy is having a baby doesn’t mean we don’t love you anymore. We will always love our Lily girl. You’re our first baby, our first princess. We love you and love the new baby too. Just like you can love mommy and love me.” 

She looked up at him and he wiped her tears away. “Love Lily?” “Of course we do. Forever and always. Do you want to see a picture of the baby?” She cautiously nodded. Jensen pulled out the ultrasound picture he had and showed Lily. “So, Lily, mommy has two babies in her belly. We don’t know if they are boys or girls, but there are two of them.” She smiled and held the picture looking it over. “Babies?” Jensen chuckled, “Yes, babies.” 

She climbed out of his lap and ran to her closet. When she came back over she had a duck toy and handed it to Jensen, “For baby.” Jensen smiled and kissed the top of her head, “Come on sweet girl, let’s give it to mommy.” 

Jensen carried Lily downstairs and to me. She hugged me and handed me the duck. I was a little confused. “She said it’s for the babies.” I smiled and nodded. 

Lily sat beside me and looked at my belly. “Babies?” I placed my hand on my stomach, “Yes, mommy has two babies in her belly.” Lily looked at Jensen and then back at me. She slid closer to me, placed her hand softly on my stomach and then leaned down and kissed my belly. 

My breath hitched and I looked at Jensen. He smiled and said, “See I told you, best big sister ever.” 

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[mysteriouslyjovialcolor]

Abu Dhabi 2020

-Haven’t watched a race in so long I think the intro revived me

-Really needed this, to not have a full mental breakdown after that semester

-Shortest season since 1966? Huh

-Yay Max pole!

-Oh this is Carlos’ last race with McLaren

-Why have the Ferraris qualified so far down?

-Sergio Perez p19?!

-“Max versus the Mighty Mercs” I do not approve of that phrase. Who says Mighty Mercs??

-Aww farewell messages

-DR: “55 laps, everything we got”

-“Kev, have fun buddy, love you” Kevin? Where are you going??

-“As next year the Racing Points becomes Aston Martin” Whaaat?? How have I missed that??

-“We have 20 cars remaining in this race!” Haha, the surprise

-Kimi!!! I missed you!!!

-Ooh good move from Pierre “Frenchman against Frenchman”

-Oh Sebastian’s last race with Ferrari as well. “Team orders: useless today” Ha

-Did Kevin leave Haas and then come back again?? What is happening?

-“There’s no way Norris is doing a 1 stop. He’s overdriving” I love when drivers call out other drivers

-“In this romantic world of F1, there’s Charles Leclerc going for it against his teammate whilst wearing a crash helmet that says “Thank you Sebastian”” Lol he moves me

-Fernando!! Why aren’t you on the grid!??

-Oh Lando made that move so easy for Alex??

-Miss seeing car no.3 on the grid :(

-This whole watch party is just me in my feels (finals took a lot out of me okay, don’t judge)

-Oooh Lance Stroll making moves

-I like the AlphaTauri livery

-“Vettel’s racing for himself today” Hehe

-Oh bloody hell why does this have to happen now?? I still haven’t processed Checo leaving Red Bull! He can’t retire this race too!!

-“Sporty tragedy” Absolutely hate those

-At least the VSC brings out pit stop games I guess

-Merc, Red Bull, McLaren double stack! Let’s go!

-Ferrari? Hello? No tire change?

-LH: ”That doesn’t feel like a good strategy”

-Huh maybe Ferrari played it right?

-Oh full safety car?

-Going to watch a race where Checo wins next to get over sporting tragedies

-Lewis having problems?

-Haha the way Max took off

-Charles being passed by both his present and future teammates?

-Lance?!! Oh, nvm, Charles got it back

-Carlos Sainz being investigated for driving too slow in the pit lane. Penalty?

-“You’re doing a great job. Well done” Realistically this is Ferrari encouraging Sebastian, but to me it just sounds aggravating.

-Aah Carlos!

-“If you can get past Ricciardo, it’ll make our lives easier” And then there are McLaren team radios

-Oh Lance? Again? And he makes it stick this time!

-Charles is having the worst time rn

-Alex being a threat>>>

-Why are we still on those tires Ferrari?? Clearly they’re not doing well. Charles has just lost 3 places

-Oh there he goes. Finally

-He fell to p19?!!?!!

-Hello? We were supposed to have radio subtitles this season. Where are they??

-Every race I’ve watched with Daniel in Renault has him going long (and then sometimes not being able to make up track positions again after he puts new ones on at the end)

-This whole race has just turned into a tire management test for most of these drivers

-Race so slow they’re just explaining the Mercedes engine and going over Carlos’ pending investigation again.

-Pierre’s been making moves though

-“A very boring but very satisfying Sunday evening” That sums it up pretty nicely actually

-Charles track limits?

-“13 times they’ve [Verstappen, Hamilton, Bottas] shared a podium. Only one podium away from Roseberg, Hamilton, Vettel who have shared 14” Oh how fun (I miss Roseberg, Hamilton, Vettel. Those were fun too)

-Has Daniel not pit yet?

-“Slowing down now. I think we’re going down” “Copy, stay out, stay out”

-Do we think the Sebastian and Kimi (And all the Ferrari drivers really) have nightmares over this?

-I’m being so impressed by Daniel going so long on those tires

-“Is the cliff coming then for Daniel Ricciardo?” Ohmygod, don’t jinx him

-Okay good pit stop, he didn’t lose out too much

-So annoyed that Kevin’s race is virtually going nowhere

-“Kimi Raikkonen: most experienced driver on the grid” Sigh, I miss him

-Just noticed that 10s out at front! Awesome!

-Oh wow the gap between 4 and 5 is 35s!

-Charles black and white flag?? Come on!

-Oooh Max could potentially be the youngest to ever take a grand slam win

-Just now realizing this was the shortest season since forever because of Covid

-Nooo Valterri don’t take away his fastest lap

-“Where is Lewis slow?” “He looks slow everywhere. Feedback is he looks slow everywhere” The way that was said made me burst out laughing

-Oh Ocon last lap overtake! Nice!

-Damn, Daniel stole that fastest lap.

-Aww McLaren formation

-Donuts!! Can we get a Seb one too?? Oh we got a Kevin one!

-I love how donuts look on the grid. So cool!

-Ooh la la the Mercedes parked facing each other. What a picture

-Oh wow Checo is p4 in the driver’s championship. Very cool

-Do we think the other drivers feel jealous that they don’t get to do donuts?

-Honestly why can’t everyone just do it?

[wingedsublimeland]

Scene: Foundation Cafeteria Logistics Office, Site-██

The buzz of conversation among logistics personnel was abruptly silenced when Adam strolled into the requisition room, list in hand. Trailing behind him was Seth, wide-eyed as ever, while Abel leaned casually against the doorway, his sharp gaze sweeping over the nervous staff like a predator surveying its prey.

Dr. Miller, already sweating, gave a strained smile. "Uh, SCP-18-X5, sir. What can we do for you today?"

Adam, calm as ever, unfolded his list. "I’m placing an order for tonight’s dinner. Let’s get started."

Abel snorted, stepping forward as he adjusted the leather straps of his blade harness. “Nī ēnumtu atta ṣibitka šapāli?”

The room froze.

Dr. Miller blinked, whispering to his colleague, "Did… did he just curse me in Sumerian?"

Adam waved a dismissive hand without even looking at Abel. “Ignore him. He’s asking if you’ve chained yourself to something heavy out of fear. It’s his way of being charming.”

Abel smirked. “Eṭlumū īšu uznī balṭūtu. Palaḫūtu ultu ša amīlu tamkārum iqabbi šaḫšutūtu.”

Adam sighed. “Abel, enough. They don’t understand you.”

Seth tilted his head. “Father, do you think maybe it’s because he doesn’t want to be understood? Sometimes I think he’s just showing off.”

Abel grinned at Seth, speaking in the same ancient tongue. “Šer’u kalû lemnūtu ina bītuka. Akālum ša mātāti šapti idak ītiū!”

Adam rolled his eyes and spoke in perfect, fluid Sumerian, his tone carrying the weight of millennia: “If you think I won’t throw you back into your timeout box for scaring my cooks, keep testing me, mārī.”

Abel’s grin faltered for a second before he crossed his arms and leaned back. “You never let me have any fun.”

Dr. Miller, unsure whether to interrupt or hide under the desk, cleared his throat nervously. “Uh, sir, the, uh, order?”

Adam turned back to the list, handing it over with the grace of someone completely used to this routine. "[REDACTED]ribs,[REDACTED] steaks, and a pinch of powdered ███████ extract. The usual tangy stuff. Oh, and if someone could find a preserved piece of the Leviathan, that’d be great."

The room collectively inhaled sharply.

“L-l-Leviathan?” Dr. Miller stammered.

“Father,” Seth interjected softly, tugging at Adam’s sleeve, “I think you’re scaring them again.”

Adam glanced back at the trembling staff. “They’ll get over it. Now, about that order…”

Abel chuckled, this time switching to heavily accented English. “You slugs of flesh. You hear Leviathan and quake as though it’s some great feast that can not be slain . Honestly, Father and I took out hoards of those things when we first started wondering this land. But of course, I couldn't expect you guys to know anything, but weakness forever cooped up in your fortresses, wasting your strength on menial tasks. You all continue to disgust."

One of the logistics staff whimpered, whispering to another, “ What you're asking for is outrageous...”

Adam ignored the mounting panic, focusing instead on Abel. “Stop antagonizing them.”

“But they’re soft,” Abel replied, slipping back into his ancient tongue. “They should feel fear. It’s good for survival.”

Adam turned to Cain, who had just entered the room. “Cain, do me a favor and remind your brother why he’s not allowed to babysit.”

Cain shrugged, leaning casually against the wall. “You mean because of that incident where he traumatized the whole nursery by telling them about the apocalypse?” He smirked. “Yeah, I’ve got it recorded somewhere. Want me to show them?”

Abel scowled. “That was educational.”

Seth giggled, covering his mouth as Adam groaned. “See what I deal with?” He glanced back at the logistics team. “Just get the order together, please. Dinner is at six.”

As Adam and his sons left the room, the staff slumped in their chairs, visibly shaken.

One whispered, “Did he just casually argue in ancient Sumerian like it was a family dinner squabble?”

Another nodded. “I think I need a drink.”

A bonus scene for what Adam wanted:

Foundation Kitchen and Observation Room

The logistics personnel had barely begun processing Adam's requests when the conversation spilled into the kitchen and observation lounge. Several researchers and culinary staff gathered around the room, the tension palpable as whispers of the surreal grocery list made their rounds.

In the Kitchen

Chef Moreno slammed his palms on the counter. “He wants what?”

"Feet," replied Sous Chef Hayes, flipping through the requisition paperwork. “Specifically, SCP-3199 feet. Apparently, they’re... edible?”

"Edible?" Moreno's voice pitched up. "You mean those oversized chicken-things that lay eggs filled with live, screaming meat? He wants to eat that?"

Hayes sighed. “At least it’s not the worst thing on the list. He also wants Leviathan meat.”

The entire kitchen staff froze, staring at her.

"Leviathan? Do you mean the Leviathan? Like, Biblical, world-destroying, ‘makes the Kraken look like sushi’ Leviathan?” asked Line Cook Vega, his spatula trembling in his hand.

(The same thing we use for amnestics)

“Yes.”

Moreno dragged a hand down his face. “How does one even source Leviathan meat? What part does he want—tail? A fin?”

Hayes glanced nervously at the paperwork. “…Tongue.”

There was a collective groan of disgust.

“Why does he want the tongue?” Vega asked, horrified.

Hayes shrugged helplessly. “Apparently, it’s ‘tender.’”

Moreno pinched the bridge of his nose. “This job doesn’t pay me enough. Fine. Leviathan tongue. What else?”

“Uh…” Hayes hesitated, looking at the next item. “SCP-1000 flesh.”

Moreno dropped his knife. "The Bigfoot-apes? Are you telling me he wants to eat one of those things? They’re sapient!”

“Technically, he said it’s about ‘eating to spite someone .’"

“ To spite?” Vega asked incredulously.

“Yes. I don’t know what that means, and I don’t want to find out.”

Moreno sighed deeply. “This man is out here treating anomalous biology like a buffet. And the Foundation is letting him do it!”

In the Observation Room

Meanwhile, a handful of researchers watched the kitchen on the security cameras, their faces a mixture of disbelief and revulsion.

Dr. Langley leaned back in her chair, her face pale. “Adam didn’t just ask for regular food, huh? It’s gotta be apocalyptic monstrosities and horrors of biology.”

Dr. Carter, sitting beside her, grimaced. “I get the SCP-3199 feet—they’re technically animal-like. But SCP-1000? And Leviathan?” He shook his head. “That’s not food; that’s a war crime on a plate.”

Langley rubbed her temples. “And he doesn’t even seem fazed by it. He just walks in, places his order, and leaves like this is a grocery store.”

Carter tapped on his tablet, scrolling through the requisition list. “You know what the scariest part is?”

Langley looked at him, dreading the answer. “What?”

Carter turned the tablet to her."All his kids are fine with it. Heck, Abel's even looking forward to it except for Cain, of course. Although, he didn't disagree to eat it”

Langley stared at the screen, where Abel’s approval of the meal was highlighted in bold. “Of course he is. Abel probably eats things for sport.”

They both turned back to the screen, watching as the kitchen staff reluctantly began planning out how to prepare the ingredients.

Carter muttered, “What do you even pair with Leviathan tongue? Red wine? Holy water?”

Langley groaned. “I don’t know. But the next time Adam hosts a dinner party, I’m calling in sick.”

(You know, considering what the universe is like, what would they eat, and honestly, could some anomalies now be considered delicacies)

[secretlythepits]

Scary Halloween

My 15 year old struggled with Halloween this year. Same thing happened when my other kid was 15. He couldn’t come up with a costume because the teen side felt too old, while the kid side wanted to go trick-or-treating. He’s always had the offbeat costume everyone talks about and couldn’t just grab something easy, but also couldn’t put the effort into coming up with a cool idea. All month I nudged and was rejected. I think this is the hardest age for Halloween. 14–15, because they haven’t transitioned to adult like parties so they just feel self-conscious but sad because they want to have fun like a kid.

Anyway, I finally got him to admit he would be sad if he didn’t go 2 days ago. We threw together a pumpkin head mask and a witches hat we already had. Dressed all in black, it was pretty cool, but this kid has never worn a mask. He hardly went to any houses before he stopped. It was one of those moments that you know is a mistake (self-sabotage) but I couldn’t prevent him from making it. His older brother wouldn’t take him out with his friends, which I had pushed for (something I never do) and I think that would have helped, but I didn’t feel like it was appropriate to order him to take his brother.

Anyway, kid comes home and is dejected. My husband and I felt awful. Finally thought of an idea to save the night. Let’s watch a Halloween movie, but nothing scary because he doesn’t like scary. Ghostbusters! I’ve never seen it and neither has he. It’s surprising funny. He is eating his tiny haul of candy and we are laughing. I’m feeling so good about this because it was such a turnaround. Husband is enjoying himself too.

Then husband goes to lock the back door. He has a coughing fit, completely loses consciousness and falls, landing hip and then head on the only room in our house that has a tile floor.

So fccking scary!

Two days ago we had a fight. He was mean to me when I pushed him to go to the doctor about coughing. It felt like I got pertussis again last week, which doesn’t make sense because I just had it. Then the kids started getting that very distinctive cough. It occurred to me that perhaps the bacteria was mutating in his body since he hasn’t cleared the infection in 8 weeks. I remembered learning that it’s in immunocompromised hosts that viruses mutate during Covid. Same thing happens with bacteria.

I’ve been to 2 urgent cares this week and fought with doctors over this. Apparently they only test for pertussis at hospitals and we just have coughs that aren’t that bad, so I’m not going there. Anyway, I know the antibiotics you need so I pushed for them. I know the doctors thought of me as THAT mom, but we hardly ever have antibiotics. This was the second and third times in my children’s lives that they’ve gotten them, because I really feel in my gut that it’s pertussis.

My husband hasn’t told his doctors about how bad his cough continues to be. He’s been seeing them irregularly since the main treatment ended and he cancels two check in appointments as a waste of time. I’ve let him be in the driver’s seat. But when we got sick, I told him he really needs to let his doctors know. We can’t just endlessly get sick from him and his medical team is not aware of how bad this is. He got mad because I’m weird about health stuff. This is true, but I also find myself in unique health dilemmas, where I’m just to the side of normal and no doctor will take enough time to listen and get the whole complicated picture. It’s incredibly frustrating for me. I constantly wish Dr. House was on the case, because I need a medical expert who really wants to get to the bottom of what’s going on.

As a side note, I figured out why weird health issues happen to me. There is a perfectly clear reason if you look at my astrological chart (6th house Aquarius) but I did not bring that nugget up to him since that would have sealed the deal on me being crazy about health stuff.

The thing is, I just know I’m right about this. We have a guest coming next week and I don’t want to get her sick. My children attend a school where kids are bussed in from every high school in Miami. It would be wildly irresponsible to not try to stop the spread of a highly infectious disease that is on the rise in our community. Doctors aren’t used to treating it in teens and adults. But we have been exposed to so much coughing from my husband that it is possible that this much exposure broke through vaccinations. Our health care system is so fragmented that no doctor will see our family as the ecosystem it is. My kids had to go to a different urgent care than me because of different insurance. I am the only person seeing the whole picture.

Anyway, my husband apologized yesterday morning. It’s so hard for him to talk. He has been in a dark place with his mortality. He’s been having pains he hasn’t told me about that terrify him. Our disagreement was the outlet for so many bad feelings. He got his medical card and has been taking gummies to sleep. He feels like any time he smiles, he’s faking it. It was very sad.

That was the morning. I figured I’d bring up going to the doctor about his cough again the next day, it being Halloween and all.

Then he fell.

It wasn’t an emergency. He’s still asleep so I’ll see the bruise this morning. An odd angle of his hip took the brunt of the fall. His head didn’t seem to bother him last night.

But like, he could have just crashed his skull open if he had landed differently. How do we live with this?

[maryannecrimsworth]

Two Hearts, One Kiss

Pairing: Will Halstead x Nurse! Hispanic! Reader

Summary: Your patient needed help, and there was only one person in the Med you could reach out to. After working for months at one of Chicago's top hospitals, you knew that was the best place to treat your patient - even if no one could know her name. Even after avoiding you for days, Will Halstead was the only one who could help you.

Author's note: this is the first request i've got in a while so thanks @zaidatorcuatomorgado for helping me write again

Warnings: (probably wrong) medical terms, a little bit of blood; this one is fluff tbh

The paramedics came through the emergency entrance with you following close behind. The woman lying on the stretcher, being carried along the corridor, was announced to the Chief of the ward.

–  62-year-old female, found unconscious inside her house. – the paramedic added.

– Pressure 7x4, 50 bpm, deep cut on forehead from a possible fall. – You took the lead from the medical first responders and reached out to the head nurse.

–Dr. Choi, Room 4. – Maggie said before you could stop her.

– Not him, please. – You were in the Med for a few months now, you knew how Choi would act. You needed somebody else, you needed him. - Get Halstead.

– What's the matter? – Maggie knew there was something wrong, you didn't make requests like that.

– Please, I'll explain later, just get Will. – He was the only one you trusted.

– Choi, hold up. Halstead, she's yours. – the doctors listened and obeyed Maggie right away.

– Thank you. – you squeezed the nurse's arm and ran to the room. Will had already transferred and examined the woman.

– No sign of concussion or brain damage. – he moved the flashlight away from the unconscious woman's eyes. – let's give her a liter of saline, x-ray, and a head CT. We need to find out what caused the fall.

– I'll take over – you said to the nurse in the room, who nodded and walked away promptly. Will continued to examine the patient while you cleaned your hands and put on your gloves.

– Was it you who found her? Did you notice anything?

– No, I just saw her slumped over and ran into her house.

– So you know her? – Fortunately, Will was too focused on looking for injuries on the woman to notice your hesitation. Still, your silence aroused suspicion and he raised his face to you.

– She is my patient. I need you to take care of her without asking questions.

– Y/n, that's not–

– Please – you approached him on an impulse; it didn't matter if things were awkward between you, you needed to help your patient. – her name can't go into the system.

– Why–

– Will! – he shut up immediately: he saw the worry in your eyes, he saw your fear.

He shook his head slightly, he was going to help you. You sighed with total relief, as if a ton had come off your shoulders.

– She has rheumatoid arthritis, but she has improved with physical therapy. I doubt it caused the fall.

– Does she take any medication?

– Just MTX.

– Right. – he stared at the woman lying on the bed and took a deep breath. – Order the tests and let's wait for the results. We'll find out what happened to her. 

You smiled at him. He might not have answered your request to go out with him yet, but you knew he wouldn't deny help to a patient of yours.

– About the other night…– his words made your face burn immediately. Perhaps this was not the best time to have this conversation, but Will went on: – I was caught by surprise with your request and— 

– Halstead, new patient, I need you in room 6. — Like an angel, Maggie appeared and cut him off: the doctor barely had time to reply and the head nurse was already pulling him away from you.

You were breathing more easily with his absence, at least you wouldn’t have to get a rejection after finding Mrs. Vasquez knocked out. You turned to the woman on the medical bedside and felt a tear run down your cheek. She was stable now, her prognosis was optimistic, but you could only think about her grandchildren. They would be terrified to know and to see their Abuela like                           this — no, no, you couldn’t let them see her like that. If anyone at the hospital figured out who the woman was, the kids would be brought up and the bills…Mrs. Vasquez could not afford the bills. 

Her whole family would fail and split because you called 911.

– Y/n? – Maggie walked in: her voice was low and soft, way too delicate for a woman in charge of the emergence wing. Right now, she was approaching you like a friend, not like a boss. – Are you alright? 

– Yeah, I’m just… — you cleaned your eyes. — in shock, I guess. 

– Would you like to stay here until she wakes up? You’re not on shift.

– Yes! Thanks, Maggie. 

The head nurse responded with a kind smile. 

– I’ll try to contact her family, they should know she’s here. – she stepped aside and got ready to leave: the phone on her hand was ready to make all the necessary calls. 

– Wait! – you reached her, preventing her from moving. Your eyes scanned the emergence wing before you went on: – Would you not..? – you whispered. – I don’t think she’s able to…pay for any of this. 

– I’m sorry, Y/N, but you know we’re struggling, if they discover someone’s not paying I–

– I know. –  you had no other choice: – Put my name on the bills, I’ll pay for her, just…please, she can’t be on the system. 

Maggie frowned at you. As always, she knew something was wrong, but she gave you a shot. She agreed and walked away without saying nothing. 

You sighed again, but your chest was still tight: you could only truly relax once you knew Mrs.Vasquez was okay. 

She’s been your patient for a year now. You started to work at the voluntary physiotherapy clinic as soon as you arrived in Chicago, and she was there. A working old lady raising three grandchildren by herself. She was exhausted and in physical pain — everyone would be in her place — but she was kind and happy, nonetheless. With your help and the treatment, she was getting better – now she could cook and sew much easier than before.  As a token of her gratitude, she frequently made you scarfs and empanadas. You were wearing one of her hand-made scarfs this morning, when you found her knocked out on the floor, bleeding. 

God, you felt like crying, and you did. Helping people like her was what gave purpose to your life; losing her, being hands off like that…it was breaking your heart. 

She had to get better. 

And you would stay by her side until she did. 

X

Nearly an hour has passed when Will came in with the results of the exams. You jumped off the chair and approached him:

– So? Why she fell? 

– You can relax already, your patient’s going to be okay soon enough. – He smiled proudly. – She passed out because of a cardiac arrhythmia, caused by too much caffeine. 

– Are you for real? – you choked a loud laughter, unable to believe him. – What about the CT? She’s fully ok? 

– Yes, she only needed stitches. – your joy was contagious, and now Will was laughing too. – The saline and the rest will be good to her but…honestly, she can go as soon as she wakes up. 

– Thank you so much! – you couldn’t help yourself: you ran over to him and hugged him in the middle of the room, in front of whoever that wanted to see. You squeezed him with all the strength you had and he, to your surprise, hugged you back. 

And neither of you have drifted apart. 

The only reason why you moved away was Mrs.Vasquez. Even with your head on his chest, you could hear the old woman grunting and moving on the bed. 

– Señora Vasquez! – you helped her to sit up. – ¿Estás bien? ¿Me oyes?

– ¿Por qué no escucharía? – she was still recognizing where she was. You gave her some time to analyze the place and understand what happened. – Oh. – her eyes focused on Will. – ¿Es ese el guapo que te gusta?

She pointed at him and you turned red immediately. Will didn’t have to speak Spanish, he already understood what she said. 

Again, he smiled proudly and stepped closer. 

– Hello, I’m Will. Can you speak my language? – Mrs.Vasquez nodded. – Great. Can you tell me your name? 

– Gloria Vasquez.

You stood silently as they talked. 

– Have you consumed much coffee recently, ma'am?

She turned to you before replying him: – ¡Qué encantador! ¡Cuán educado es! – your face was burning. – Yes, doctor, the kids wanted to have a sleepover and…well, a lady like me needs extra help to keep up with them. 

You held her hand tightly. 

– You passed out because of it, Gloria, you know you can’t do things like this. You could’ve been so much worse and—

– Cálmate, querida. – she caressed your hand. – I will survive, won’t I, doctor?

– That’s right. 

– That's what matters! – Gloria cheered, taking out a laughter from your worried expression. – Can we go now? – she came closer and whispered to you. – I have some interesting news for you. 

– Really? You want to gossip now? – you shook your head as you walked away. – No way. I’ll fill out the documents and you will rest, ma’am. – you were smiling, but your words were serious: she had to stay still for a while. Only a fall and a cut on the head would make Gloria rest properly. In a really weird sense, what happened this morning would be good to her.

It was possible to hear Mrs.Vasquez's mumbles from the corridor, but you had to give her some time — and give yourself a break as well.

You got so preoccupied that you got exhausted. Your back and legs were sore as if you had just worked out, and the tiredness hit you know. 

Will could see it in your face. 

– I was going to tell her off about all the coffee but I’m pretty sure you’ll take care of it. – he joked as he came closer to you. 

– I’m so sorry, Will. I've made a storm out of a glass of water and it was all because of a sleepover. – you laughed at yourself. – I feel a bit stupid right now. 

– Don’t be. You did right, she had to come to the hospital. 

– I’m not sure…It was too risky and…– You stopped talking. Shit. Will wasn’t supposed to know this. 

The doctor frowned at you. 

– Are you in trouble, Y/N? 

You looked away immediately. You wanted to tell him — you trusted him enough to tell him – but the more people who knew, the more likely the Guardian Council would get involved and try to separate Gloria from her family. Maybe she wasn't supposed to take care of three kids by herself, but she was all they had – and vice versa. They were a family, regardless of the state's opinion.

Again, it was too risky for the Vasquez family.

– I can’t—

– It’s okay. – He cut you off, his voice had a tone you'd never heard before: too serious and worried. – I don’t need to know but…just answer me: can I help you, somehow? 

You lifted your face to him – the question caught you by surprise. I shouldn’t — after all, this was all so typical of Will – but it did: his kindness surprised you. It always did. 

It was one of the main reasons why you could help but feel better around him. 

– You already did, Will. – you only noticed you were smiling when you saw his eyes dropping to your lips. Now he was smiling too. – Thank you again. – you stepped back. – See ya. – You were ready to go back to Gloria's room, but the world around you suddenly went dark, the ground seemed too far away and you felt your legs lose strength.

Will held you, preventing you from the fall. 

– God, this is so cliché. – you grunted under your breath, but Will was able to hear you. Your faces were almost glued together, and you felt his laughter on your skin. – Mierda. 

– Let me guess: you got so worried about Gloria that you forgot to eat.

You were already capable of standing by yourself, but his arms remained around you. 

– You guessed right. – you didn’t try to move away from him. 

– Is this a good time for dinner? 

– I don't think the cafeteria has anything worthy of being called a dinner, but–

– No. – Will chuckled. His cheeks were completely red. He was the most beautiful man you’ve ever seen. – I mean, do you…Do you want to have dinner with me tonight? My shift will be over in a bit. 

You smiled brightly, your whole body was burning up now but it felt good. 

– So you finally made up your mind, uh? – unconsciously, you came closer to him. – You know, it’s rude to let a girl wait.

– Well, I got busy planning the most amazing date for the most amazing woman I’ve met. – you felt his breath on your skin. – And you haven't answered me yet. – his eyes fell to your lips again. 

This time, you couldn’t force yourself to move away: in an impulse, you grabbed the back of his neck and kissed him. 

His lips were softer than you'd imagined, but he was as passionate as you expected. 

You only broke apart when you lost your breath. 

Then you noticed that every nurse and doctor on the wing were cheering and watching. 

What a first kiss.

– Love the way you say ‘yes’. – He whispered to you.

Will was breathless and happy, his hands were holding you with tenderness and warmth. 

You couldn’t help: you kissed him again. 

And, this time, you could even hear Gloria cheering from her room.

[rebootgrimm]

let’s see how many incorrect quotes I can get here before church starts

putting them under cut. @ask-a-snobby-fencer @ask-finn-hollis @ask-jasper-cameron @ask-sora-aguilar @baileythebean

Finn: I am your king, long may I reign! Sora: Well I didn’t vote for you! Finn: You don’t vote for kings. Sora: Well how’d you become king then? Finn: Zaria of the Lake, their arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Finn, was to carry Excalibur. That is why I am your king. Sora: Listen. Strange people lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

Finn: You use emoji’s like a straight person. Zaria: That’s literally the worst thing anyone has ever said about me.

Sora: very seriously You need to stop doing weird things to cope with the stress. Going outside might help. Bailey: I went to the park today. Sora: There you go! I hope you got something from that. Bailey: opening their coat This duck.

Bailey: I don't want to tell you to clean your room again! Finn: …but you will, right? Bailey: Oh, for sure.

The squad's reaction to being told they're the chosen one Zaria: I will not let you down. Bailey: Sounds fun. Sora: K. Jasper: No, I'm fucking not. Finn: Do I have to be? Flynn: Please god, I am so tired.

Zaria, ordering coffee: I’d like a light roast. Bailey: You're kinda ugly.

Jasper: coughs blood Bailey: Don't die, Jasper! Jasper: Don't tell me what to do!

(mod: army dreamers starts playing in the distance)

Sora: Please, Jasper, after everything we’ve been through together. You can’t do this. Sora: I’m sorry Jasper. Sora: I’m begging you. Don’t do it. Jasper: It has to be done. Sora: Jasper: Sora: Jasper: Places +4 Uno.

Finn: I'd make fun of your height but there isn't enough to make fun of.

Zaria: Can you PLEASE peer pressure me into doing my project? Jasper: Do it or you're straight. Zaria: I said peer pressure, NOT THREATEN!

(fun fact: Zaria is a lesbian)

Sora: Would you like something to drink? They open the fridge We have water, milk, juice, spiders, Dr. Pepper- Zaria: Spiders? Sora: Spiders it is then. Zaria: No, that wasn’t- But they were already pouring them a brimming glass of spiders…

Zaria: This should be illegal! Bailey: It is.

Zaria: What do you think Finn will do for a distraction? Jasper: They'll probably, like, make a noise or throw a rock. That's what I would do. Building explodes and several car alarms go off Jasper: …or they could do that.

Finn: Just took a personality test and got an A+.

Flynn: Alright Jasper, what do you want? Jasper: I want Zaria to disown you and adopt me!

Zaria: What's the most illegal thing you can do with one dollar? Sora: Exchange it for a hundred pennies, put them all in a sock, and then beat someone to death with it.

Zaria: I’ve become a bread crumb dealer to four crows at the lake. They pay me with a bit of everything. Like shiny things, fabric, or pens. But recently they paid me with a 20 dollar bill they found somewhere. So I decided to buy them some more expensive bread. They loved it. So they understand what to do. Give me money. I’ve probably racked up about 200 dollars at this point. Is it morally wrong though, I mean. They’re the ones who steal the money from others. Or perhaps they just have a big pile laying somewhere. Should I keep on doing this? Jasper: You sound like the start of a Batman villain.

(this is canon now)

Jasper: shoves their hand in the slot of a toaster Sora: … Jasper: …I get confused sometimes. Sora: Me too.

Sora: What do you call quantums of electromagnetic radiation that don’t get along? Flynn: What did you just say- Sora: Foetons! Laughs Flynn: Wh-what?

Sora: Posts a super low-quality image to the group chat Bailey: If I had a dollar for every pixel in this image, I’d have 15 cents. Sora: If I had a dollar for every ounce of rage I felt in my body after I read this text, I would have enough money to buy a cannon to fire at you. Finn: Actually I did the math, Bailey would have $225, not $0.15. Bailey: Fam I’m right here…. Flynn: If I had a dollar I would buy a can of soda :) Sora: while you’re there could you buy me an apply juice please? Flynn: Sorry I only have a dollar. Sora: :( Finn: Hey I just realized my friend is right, Bailey would have $22,500 because it's a dollar for every pixel, not a cent. Flynn: If I had $22,500 I would buy a can of soda and an apply juice. Finn: You can buy anything you want with $22,500. Zaria: Yeah and they want soda and apply juice. Finn: Apply juice to what. Zaria: Directly to the forehead. Bailey: Great chat everyone.

I’m just gonna stop here there’s only a few seconds left and this is getting long. anyways I’m obsessed with these

[apinchofm]

Haladriel, doctor's au, light seeing and best friend's brother! For Haladriel Winter Solstice 2023 ❄️❄️

A/N: first time writing these two, especially in a modern context!

The festive season at At Thomas’ Hospital meant many things - A&E filled with drunk people, often with their drunk family members and Christmas music playing over the tannoy.

Galadriel typed up her emails to be sent before she went on annual leave.

“I need those notes, Dr Nerwen." Halbrand ordered, poking his head into her office. He took a moment to look at the Christmas decorations from the tinsel on her bookshelf and the Santa and his reindeer on her desk.

She held back a scowl, having emailed him last week, “Have you tried a please, Dr Sauron?”

“Why waste all those syllables? Get it done.” And he was gone without so much as a thank you.

Halbrand Sauron was the bane of Galadriel's existence.

He flirted with all the nurses, which meant he could get as many favours - blood test hurried in the labs, a cup of tea on demand and a pass on his attitude because he was a brilliant surgeon.

She didn't like surgeons - all brawn and no brains. She hated him the most. But today, one of her favourite patients would be saved and would be home for Christmas.

So, she put on her glittery red hairband and went to the paediatric ward.

“Hello Kaia," Galadriel smiled at the young girl sitting in bed. She pulled out a lollipop from behind her ear, a trick that never failed to draw a laugh from the girl. Eight years old and the poor thing had a gallbladder infection, which meant she now needed a quick surgery.

Finally, Halbrand showed up

"This is Dr Sauron, he will be performing the surgery," She introduced, "And then you can have all the ice cream you want!"

Halbrand, to her surprise, went to greet Kaia first, shaking her little hand.

“Dr Nerwen is magic!” The girl whispered to Halbrand who smiled gently in agreement.

“She is, isn't she!” Halbrand replied in kind as he knelt down next to the cot, “I'm not as magical but I can which is why she called me so you can be better."

"Are you one of her fairies?"

He smiled, "Yes, I am." He stood and looked at the parents, "I will see you just before prep and the OR is prepared."

Galadriel followed him out, going to elevators with him, "Here are her written notes since you don't read the emails I sent you."

"I did read your email and memorised them, but thank you." He said.

“You were very good with her.” Galadriel observed.

He shrugs, “Children find surgery scary. I reserve my attitude for you,"

She scoffed, “Must you be such an arse?”

“Do you think about my arse a lot?” He grinned, "Nice headband, by the way." using the sanitizer machine, before going into the elevator.

Galadriel was surprised when her pager went off, for the surgery was not over yet and it was not an emergency page.

Then, poking his head into the office was her elder brother she thought would not arrive until next week!

"I missed ya!" Aegonr grinned, lifting her into a hug. He lived in Scotland now, so she missed him a lot, used to the close knit nature of their family.

They went to the hospital cafeteria, sharing a plate of chips and cups of tea as they caught up.

“Have you been home yet?” Galadriel checked

“Of course I have. Mum would have sniffed me out!” Aegonr jokes, “What about you? How are you?”

“Good! My study got approved and one of my little ones will be at home for Christmas with a repaired gallbladder," She lists.

"All of that is great, but I meant your personal life," He teased

"I have a cat." A sweet ginger thing called Bard.

Aegonr groaned playfully and she threw a chip at him, "Shut up! I love my work."

"I know, I know just don't let it consume you."

Meanwhile, Halbrand had spotted Aegonr sitting with his sister and immediately went to greet his friend and grab a banana.

“Halbrand!” Aegonr's face lit up and the two hugged tightly, "Good to see you!"

"You too." He said, then looked at Galadriel, "Kaia's surgery went well. She's in recovery if you want to check her stats."

"Great. Thanks." She says, sipping the rest of her tea, "How do you two-?"

"Edinburgh med school." Aegonr said, "Remember, I told you about my grumpy classmate? Still hitting them away with a stick?"

"Always. But your sister doesn't approve." Halbrand replied and she rolled her eyes.

"Hey, why don't you come over on the 23rd for our mother's dinner party?" Aegonr asked Halbrand. Galadriel glared at her brother.

"I don't want to intrude on your family dinner, mate, but thanks."

"No, you are not doing this again." Aegonr retorted, "Come on, seriously. Also, you and Gal are working together and you are my friend. You are basically family."

Halbrand saw that this was not something he could get out of this year, not when Aegonr knew him so well now. So he nodded and took his leave.

Galadriel gifted her brother with another kick to the shin, "Why would you invite him? I told you how much I hate him!"

"You said you hate Sauron!"

"He is Sauron!"

"He's always been Halbrand to me and besides, he doesn't have any family.” He shrugs, “Christmas alone is shit.” He laughed, seeing her eyes roll, “He is not too bad."

“No, just a condescending prick.”

"So are you sometimes." He mumbles and receives a kick to the shin.

—-

The idea of Halbrand spending time of her home, her childhood home was not one Galadriel enjoyed. In fact, she stayed in her room as she did when she was a teenager and her parents had their boring work friends over.

He arrived early, with a bottle of wine and was welcomed by her family. She never thought her arch nemesis would be eating at the dinner table she grew up at but here he was.

And Galadriel had to sit across from him at the dinner table. Though, for once, he was just as awkward as he enjoyed making her feel.

"Now dearest, when will you give me some grandchildren?" Her mother asked even before dinner was over.

"Why don't you ask Aegonr? He and Andreth are still dancing around each other." Galadriel deflected. But her mother was not done, she never was when it came to this subject.

She looked at Halbrand, "Now, my dear, you must have many admirers as a handsome surgeon. Do tell my daughter she can have a life and work!"

“Galadriel is a brilliant consultant. You always get nominated for that patient award.” Halbrand said, oddly gently, “She's doing a great job.”

Galadriel blinked, surprised by his staunch defence, “Thanks. So are you.”

“I thought you said surgeons were all brawn and no brain?” Aegonr teased.

“Well, they are.” Finrod agreed, dodging a thrown bit of food.

Galadriel laughed and she ended up meeting Halbrand’s eyes. He was laughing too, something she had not seen him do and he looked rather good doing so.

She went outside to the garden with a mug of mulled wine after pudding, her favourite part of being home in the countryside was the light show. Every December 22nd, there was a beautiful array of lights in the sky.

"It's beautiful."

She turned around at the sound of Halbrand's voice and watched as he put his coat on to watch the light show.

For a while, they stood in silence, before Halbrand hesitantly reached out and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Your parents are great." He said.

"Considering your patients are unconscious, I was surprised by your bedside manner," She snarked, then sighed, turning to him. He was unmoved by her words, but still she apologised.

"I suppose it's all I have." He admits, "All I really know. I'm not great at the connecting part. Not like you are."

She looked at him gently, "Perhaps you could be less of a dick? Your new year's resolution?"

Halbrand smirked, "I'll try. And yours? Getting married for your mother's sake?"

She scoffed, "No, I don't think so."

"Celeborn has a thing for you. You know, the paediatric lead?"

She shook her head, "We went out on a date. It wasn't great. He wasn't awful, but..."

"No spark?"

"No spark."

He chuckled, "Perhaps you need someone who will challenge you "

"I've not met anyone brave enough." Galadriel jokes, "Aside from you."

"Aside from me," Halbrand agreed, watching her watch the lights in the sky.

[aneurinallday]

The Grey Man

Chapter 7: Cut

The thugs’ leader - a broad man with calloused hands and a friendly Cornish accent - approached.

“Good evening, Mister Shelby,” he said, with the cheerfulness of a milk-man delivering bottles to the door. “Good evening, Doctor Holford. The name’s Pascoe.”

As soon as he introduced himself, Tommy sensed that neither he nor Holford would be walking out of there alive. A hired gun who intended to spare his victims would hide his identity, but a hired gun who intended to kill them wouldn’t care.

“Don’t shoot my horse,” said Tommy. “She’s a good animal.”

“She is a beauty,” said Pascoe admiringly, patting the horse’s white neck, “Reminds me of one I rode as a boy. Maybe I’ll keep her.”

“As long as she’s cared-for.”

“Of course. I’d never harm an animal.”

Tommy was pushed to the ground, sitting with his back against one of the cars. He could feel the tyre against his back.

“Sit tight, Mister Shelby,” said Pascoe. “I’ll get to you in a minute.” He turned to face Holford. “How are you, Doctor? It looks like they did a number on you already - that’s quite a shiner you’ve got there. I hope you’re not too tired.”

“How long have you been searching for me?” Holford demanded. “What took you so long? I’ve been missing for twelve fucking days! Twelve! Do you have any idea what they’ve put me through? Take me home directly.”

“Sorry, Doctor. We’re not here to take you home. We need to ask you some questions first.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the truth is…” Pascoe leaned in close to Holford, who recoiled. “Mister Mosley don’t trust you no more. Three years you were Mister Shelby’s doctor, and Shelby never suspected a thing. Not a glimpse, not a whisper. Everything was going according to plan, and now this. What changed? How did he find out?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“Did your conscience get the better of you? Did you decide to come clean?”

“No.”

“Then how did he discover the truth?”

The half-burnt newspaper. The photograph. Dr Michael Holford and Mrs Cath Holford, standing side-by-side at Mosley’s wedding.

“I don’t - I don’t fucking know, you idiot. Listen, he just turned up at my house. Next thing I knew, I’d been abducted. How is that my fault?”

“Just him, by himself?”

“Yes.”

“Did he take you away at gunpoint?”

“Yes!”

While they spoke, Tommy carefully flexed his hands, testing the tightness of the rope. His fingers searched the ground behind him, but found nothing. He felt higher, and encountered something with a hint of sharpness: the corner of the metal fender, the semi-circular well which housed the car’s front wheel. It wasn’t sharp enough to cut through the rope, but it was sharp enough to gradually wear through the strands. He shifted position as imperceptibly as possible, and gently began to rub the rope against the metal edge.

“Did he ask you questions about Mister Mosley?” Pascoe pressed.

“I suppose so.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Nothing. I told him nothing.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m fucking sure. Why are you asking me all these questions?”

“Well, Mister Mosley wants to know if you’ve turned traitor. It’s my job to find out the facts.”

“I…I don’t - ” Holford fumbled for words, his mouth trembling. Then he gathered his thoughts, squared his shoulders, and drew himself up like the landed gentry that he was. His old tone of authority made a triumphant return. “This is ridiculous. Let me use the telephone again. I want to speak to Mosley directly.”

“Mister Mosley don’t want to speak to you.”

“You’re wrong. Oswald and I…We’re old friends. He’s known me for years. He wouldn’t just - ”

“Mister Mosley’s a busy man. He don’t have time for you. Besides, he ordered us to deal with you.”

Holford shrank again, as if his spirit had collapsed on itself.

“Oswald is my friend. He wouldn’t wish harm on me - he wouldn’t - ”

“Mister Mosley wants you out of the picture. You see, you’re compromised. His word, not mine. Thomas Shelby knows things about you, and you know things about Mister Mosley…Do you follow me?”

Of course, Tommy thought. It made sense. Holford was a direct link to Mosley, and that made him a threat to Mosley’s operations. Mosley and his friends had pulled the strings, but it was Holford who’d done the dirty work - Holford who’d faked the X-rays, delivered the diagnosis, thrown away his professional integrity. If the doctor’s actions were made public, his life and career would be ruined.

And now Holford was Tommy’s prisoner, and Mosley had no way of knowing what words had been forced or coerced out of him. Who knew what advantage Tommy had already gained? Who knew what fascist secrets Holford had already spilled? He was no longer an ally, but a liability. He was a loose thread that needed cutting. A mouth that needed silencing. And here they were - the men who’d been sent to do the cutting and the silencing.

“There must be a misunderstanding,” said Holford. “I did everything I was asked to. I did everything perfectly.” He looked around in panic, realising he was surrounded.

Pascoe nodded to his men. “Hold him.”

Two of the men grabbed Holford’s arms, while a third stood by, and the fourth continued to guard Tommy.

Holford’s face spasmed as he tried to hold back tears. He drew in a shaky breath.

“Tell Oswald, I would never betray him,” he continued with increased desperation. “I’m loyal. I’ve always been loyal. If I revealed anything to Mister Shelby, it was only because I was forced.”

“Oh, so you did reveal something?”

“N-no. That’s not what I meant.”

A swift blow to the stomach knocked the wind out of him. Before he could recover, he was shoved face-down on the ground. His left arm was pulled straight to the side, his left wrist tightly gripped and pinned to the tarmac. He tried to pull away, straining against their grip, but they were stronger.

Pascoe put away his gun, and pulled out a pocket-knife. He tested its weight in his hand, and smiled. He turned to Tommy.

“What do you think?” he asked, “Which part should I cut off the doctor first? Since you’re the one he wronged, I’ll let you choose.”

“Nothing, preferably.”

“Why, what do you care? He’s your enemy.”

“Well, seeing as how he’s my prisoner, his wellbeing is my business,” said Tommy. “I’d be remiss if I let anything happen to him. I’d rather you put that knife away. We can talk like civilised men, the three of us.”

“Can we?” Pascoe scoffed. “You’re mistaken, Mister Shelby. The doctor’s no civilised man. Isn’t that right, Doctor?”

He spat on the ground next to Holford.

“I know what you are,” he continued, his lip curling with distaste. “What about your new friend here? Does he know what you are? Have you told him your little secret?”

Crouching down, he cut open Holford’s left sleeve, all the way from the cuff to the shoulder.

“Listen to me,” Holford pleaded. “You don’t have to do this. There are other ways this can be resolved. I have money, I have land. I can - ”

Holford never got to finish his sentence. Pascoe readjusted his grip on his knife and, with the casual precision of someone who’d done this many times before, began to carve at the doctor’s skin.

At first, Holford tried to suppress his cries - awful groans clawing their way up his throat and crawling through his gritted teeth. But as the skin began to peel away, he could contain himself no longer, and let out a series of screams - wild, wordless screams of pure pain.

Bothered by the noise, Tommy’s horse snorted and fidgeted. Tommy continued working at the rope, slowly wearing away strand after strand. One by one, he could feel them breaking.

Pascoe held up a piece of bloody skin. He gave it a wiggle, then tossed it aside.

“I’ll ask you again,” he said. “Have you betrayed Mister Mosley?”

Holford could barely breathe through the pain.

“No,” he gasped, “I swear.”

“Why are you lying to me?”

“I’m not lying! Shelby found out everything by himself. Mister Shelby, tell them.”

Tommy said nothing - not wanting to draw attention to himself while he was still working on the rope. Besides, he knew that there was nothing he could say that would make a difference. Pascoe was a man of desire, and he had already decided to torture Holford to death. No protests would dissuade him.

“Tell me the truth,” said Pascoe. “Tell me, and I’ll make it quick.”

“I am telling the truth!”

Pascoe went back in for another slice. Holford screamed until his voice cracked. At one point, he tried to gather himself and started to speak, but then the knife changed angle, and the words scattered into incoherence. The birds in the trees had fallen silent.

“Keep crying,” Pascoe encouraged him. He was breathing heavily, but not from exertion. His face was flushed with excitement. This work was what he lived for. He wasn’t in it for the money - he was in it for the pleasure.

Finally he stopped and straightened up. At his feet, Holford lay whimpering. The pain kept him paralysed - he couldn’t move for fear of making it worse.

“What shall I peel off next?” Pascoe asked. “Your face?”

“Stop,” Holford said faintly, “Just stop.”

“What about your hands, then? Or I can cut off your fingers.”

“Not - not my hands. I’m a doctor, I need my hands. I need them.”

“Soon you won’t need anything but a nice bit of earth, Doctor Holford. Turn him over.”

They flipped Holford over so that he lay face-up on the road. There was a dark stain at his crotch; in his agony, he’d lost control of his bladder.

“Look,” one of the men laughed. “The good doctor pissed himself.”

Tearing open the buttoned closure of Holford’s trousers, Pascoe yanked them off and flung them inside. Then, less roughly, he pulled Holford’s underwear down around his ankles. Holford wailed, curling his legs to try and cover himself.

“Leave me alone.”

“What’s the matter?” Pascoe mocked him.

“Leave me alone!”

The rope around Tommy’s wrists was tantalisingly frayed, but he resisted the urge to start yanking. If he fucked up now, it was all over. Patience was key. Without moving his head, his eyes darted around, seeking his next move. He observed that the man guarding him was the same one who’d disarmed him. Tommy’s Colt M1911 was holstered at the man’s side, under his arm. Tommy could see it. He just needed to reach it.

“Your orders were plain, Doctor. You were meant to ensure Mister Shelby didn’t bother Mister Mosley no more. You had the smarts - that’s why Mosley chose you. But you fucked up. I don’t know when or how, but you fucked up. Now you have to pay for it. Should I take your balls first or your cock first? I suppose it doesn’t matter. It’ll sting the same either way.”

“Just shoot me,” Holford begged, eliciting laughs from the men around him, “Just end it.”

“Now why would I do that? It’d be a waste.”

“Just fucking shoot me.”

“You’ll die when I choose. No sooner.”

Pascoe crouched over the doctor, seeking an angle to start cutting. He pushed up Holford’s shirt so it wouldn’t get in the way. Holford struggled, his whole body twisting as he tried to wriggle free. But he was no fighter, and these men were killers.

“Too bad I don’t have time to introduce you to the rest of my knives,” Pascoe continued, “You deserved longer. It’ll be Mister Shelby's turn soon. But I’ll make the most of the time we’ve got.”

He taunted Holford with the blade, letting the edge shine close to his skin.

“Don’t worry. I sharpen ‘em every day, keep ‘em nice and shiny. This won’t take long.” He glanced down to check Holford’s size. “It’s not like there’s much there anyway,” he added, laughing.

“Help me!” Holford cried, to nobody in particular.

“Nobody’s going to help you,” Pascoe promised. “Your servants called the police when you didn’t come home, but Mister Mosley hushed it up quick. As far as the world knows, you’ve caught a nasty bug off one of your patients, and you’ve gone on a nice trip to the Mediterranean for your health. Too bad the sea air won’t cure you. Even that woman you call a ‘wife’ isn’t worried. The coppers aren’t looking for you, nobody’s looking for you.”

Holford sobbed.

Pascoe tapped his knife against Holford’s thigh - gently enough to not break the skin, but firmly enough for Holford to feel the keen edge. The doctor’s struggles ceased - stilled by the blade’s touch. He fell silent.

“Look at me. Look at me so I can see your eyes.”

The knife’s edge glided gently upwards, towards Holford’s pelvis.

“I’ll peel a little off first. Then I’ll sever the whole member. Then I’ll shove it down your throat - that’s how you like it, after all. Mister Mosley told me so, while he was in a rage about you disappearing.”

Holford offered no resistance - his body had gone limp. He seemed almost as if he’d lost consciousness, but his eyes were still open, staring up at Pascoe with a glassy vacancy.

“Where did the tears go?” Pascoe tutted, “Oh well. You’ll be crying again soon enough.”

The rope broke.

Tommy flung himself upon his guard, momentum carrying them to the ground together. As they fell, Tommy’s fingers wrapped around the familiar handle of his holstered Colt. He drew it. Shot the guard in the face. Shot the two men holding Holford down. As Pascoe turned to look in the direction of the gunshots, Tommy shot him in the eye. Blood splattered on the road, on Holford’s face, on the doctor’s torn white shirt.

The one thug still living swung around, and bullets struck the car behind Tommy as he returned fire, but the exchange lasted only for a moment. As the echoes faded, Holford remained cowering on the ground, covering his head as if expecting more shots.

And just like that, five men lay dead in a quiet stretch of English countryside. After a while, the birds began to chirp again.

Wincing, Tommy rose to his feet, holstering his pistol. He stepped over the dead guard, kicking aside his limp leg, and scanned the surrounding fields to make sure nobody else was coming.

He turned to see Holford sitting upright among the dead bodies, naked from the waist down. The blood had drained from his face - he looked ghostly white and glassy-eyed. His ripped shirt was half-hanging off him.

Tommy approached him.

“Can you stand?” he asked.

Holford didn’t respond. He was shaking uncontrollably - a combination of shock, fear, and exposure. The flush of adrenaline was fading, leaving him cold.

“C’mon,” Tommy said gruffly, “Let’s get out of here.”

He reached for Holford’s good arm, but the doctor flinched away. A chill breeze reminded Tommy of the late hour. The shadows were long - soon it would be dark.

“Fuck this place,” he muttered.

He mounted his horse, fully intending to just ride away. But as he glanced down at the miserable doctor, he realised he couldn’t leave him behind.

What options did he have? Shoot Holford and leave him among the bodies, then let the police try and figure out what the hell had happened? Maybe they’d trace it back to Mosley, and the fascists would face consequences for Holford’s murder. But the idea quickly evaporated as he looked at the doctor’s tear-streaked face.

“Get up on the horse,” he said. “I’ll take you back.”

Holford remained mute.

“Look,” Tommy sighed. There were threats he could’ve made, but instead he chose the factual approach. “Night’s falling. It’ll be dark soon. There’s no guarantee anyone will pass by. If you stay here, you’ll freeze to death. If you come with me, I’ll take you back to where it’s warm and get you cleaned up.”

The promise of warmth must’ve persuaded Holford - or perhaps he just wanted to get away from Pascoe’s corpse. He rose unsteadily to his feet, pulling his shorts back up. Feeling wet cloth drag against his thighs, he glanced down, and belatedly remembered that he’d wet himself. Mortified, he looked up at Tommy to see if he’d noticed.

“It happens,” said Tommy, “Don’t worry about it. Get up on the horse, eh?”

Holford looked left and right along the road, hoping against hope that he might see another car coming; but Tommy was the only living person for miles. With resignation in his eyes, he hobbled towards the horse and rider; cradling his left arm, which was streaked with blood from Pascoe’s cutting.

Tommy extended his hand to help him up, but Holford hesitated. He tried to speak, but couldn’t. Written in his eyes was the question: Are you angry with me?

“You’re safe,” said Tommy.

After a moment more of hesitation, Holford took his hand, and with difficulty climbed onto the horse’s back. The stirrup - his only foothold - was already occupied, so instead he stepped on Tommy’s shoe with his socked foot, swinging his other leg up and over.

He tugged down the hem of his shirt, trying to stop his shorts from touching the back of Tommy’s coat. His body pressed against Tommy’s from behind, and his uninjured arm wrapped around him, seeking support. Tommy could feel the doctor shaking.

“Let’s get you back to the caravan.”

Tommy clucked his tongue and spurred the horse to a slow trot - she couldn’t go faster under their combined weight. They rode in silence through the gathering dark, Holford’s grip growing weaker and weaker as cold and exhaustion set in. After a while, Tommy felt the doctor’s head resting against his shoulder.

Chapter 8: Firelight

[bondedbybloodofficial123]

Bonded by blood

edward cullen x morbius

TWs: blood, cheating, gay, running away, eventual smut, homophobia

Get ready for the ride of your life everyone!😼

if you could maybe support a queer love story for pride month it would be awesome !!!!!

chapter 1 / ?

Renesmee POV

“You’re literal dogwater! You’re trash! Get good! I hate you, trash teammate! KYS (Kill yourself)!” Renesmee spoke into the microphone, gently and quietly, as not to let her parents find out her darkest secret that not even the ones she loved could ever hear about. 

She indulged in video games— Fortnite, to be exact. It was the only thing that could heal her numb emotions, and fill the hole in her heart Jacob left when her father so cruelly cast him away. With a restraining order, of course. But, there was yet another secret she was keeping. Every night, she departed from her sleeping quarters, and waited for her beloved to visit her in the darkest hours of the night. It seemed he was approaching, and she would soon see her forbidden lover. She could hear him, now, he was outside the window, and he howled with passion. Every howl screamed her name, “Renesmee, Renesmee, Renesmee…” she imagined him saying, away from the watchful eye of Edward. 

The window slid open, to reveal a muscular man with luscious, long locks of silky, black hair. His brown eyes looked only at Renesmee, and his heart beat only for her. “Jacob,” she said, returning his intense gaze. “Renesmee,” he replied, inviting himself into her room, careful not to make a sound. Renesmee had an idea, a rebellious, scandalous, idea. She longed to run away from her parents, and spend the rest of eternal life with the wolf-man of her dreams. So, she needed to make a choice, her parents or her love? There was only one true answer. The answer her parents had chosen to create this family- love. “Jacob, I have an idea… but it’s risky and requires full cooperation.” she spoke concisely and with determination, her eyes piercing through his lovestruck soul. Jacob did not hesitate for a moment. “Anything for you, loca.” and so, she proposed her idea, with only Jacob in her mind and heart. “Will you… run away w-w-w-w-with me?” Jacob listened to her words carefully. The answer was obvious. “Always, Renesmee.”

And so, they were off together, into the harsh night, the only shield they had being the love for one another. 

Dr. Micheal Morbius POV

Micheal’s eyes fluttered open, laying on the cold lab table. He couldn’t remember a thing. All his thoughts were blurry, and his body ached everywhere- hunger, pain, sadness, it all consumed him. He wasn’t sure why. He turned to his side, the debris-like bats fluttering around in circles in their large test tube like enclosure. They called to him, almost as if they were one of his kind. One of the living vampires. His lab was located in a desolate forest, not far from the Swan-Cullen residences. He felt the uncontrollable vampire rage inside of him, and he knew he could not do anything to prevent the monster about to break free. Near the door of his lab, he could hear rapid footsteps, approaching it. He wanted to cry out, “No! Run while you still can!” but all he could do was growl, scream, wretch— out in pain. He tried to tie himself down, but he knew the monster inside would not be subdued, it was much too late for that.

The smell of blood was enticing, it was exciting, it was all he could think about. It was so strong, he could smell it wafting through the lab door, which was slowly opening. The air, though, was odd, something was running through it, and something extremely fast. Micheal felt fear, but yet, all he could think about was the incoming meal. That meal being Jacob and Renesmee. Micheal tried with all his might to stop himself, but he could not, and a loud roar echoed throughout the lab. Before he knew it, he was latched onto the ceiling, hanging from the top of it, awaiting his prey. It was, in fact, morbin time.

“Renesmee, stay close to me…” Jacob said, trying to navigate through the bat-filled lab. In her defiance, Renesmee crept in front of the half-wolf half-man, but she never would've guessed what she would see. The room was silent for a moment, the only noise being the creeping from the ceiling, and the rapidly fluttering wings of the bats. “Renesmee, get back here…” said Jacob, anticipating the horror in front of the two of them. Then, he heard it, a claw cutting through metal, and pain-filled gasps and groans. Renesmee, horrified, looked up to meet the cold, dead eyes of the monster awaiting them, it's disgusting, mangled mouth hung open. Then, it uttered a few words that left Renesmee’s blood cold. “I do not control the morb. The morb controls me.”

Micheal leapt from the ceiling, and his claws met Renesmee’s side. She let out a blood-curdling scream, as Micheal immediately dashed to her bloody side. Jacob was not going to let anyone, not even this monster, hurt her. And soon, the man shifted into a wolf with fur black as night. He howled, although Micheal was unphased, his red eyes did not even break contact with Renesmee’s gash. Seeing Micheal drain the blood from her body, Jacob was reminded of his long-time enemy, the Swan-Cullens. Jacob pounced on Micheal… no, Morbius… and before he could even try to kill the monster, Morbius struck him too, leaving his voluptuous tail on the ground, severed.

But they weren’t alone in this fight. Two familiar faces had heard their screams. “Get away from my daughter!” yelled Edward. “Y—yeah. Just, um… stay–stay away? I… I don’t know, stop— hurting her,” Bella agreed, displaying her sharp vampiric teeth. Morbius cried out, but they couldn’t tell what he was saying. He seemed to be trying to stop himself from hurting Renesmee and Jacob, but he couldn’t. Edward’s heart ached with empathy, he would know more than anyone what being unable to control the monster inside of you was like. Finally, Morbius pulled himself away from Renesmee, and while Edward felt anger at him for injuring his daughter, he also felt bad for Morbius. “Run… while you still… can…” Morbius muttered, trying to hold himself back. What Edward said in reply made his heart skip a beat.

“I would never abandon another vampire.”

“What?”

“I would know more than anyone what your pain feels like.”

“Run…” Morbius said in a final, desperate attempt to save Edward.

“I won’t let you kill anyone. And I won’t let you suffer alone, either.”

Edward held Morbius’ hands behind his back, but didn’t make any attempts to harm him. Morbius, or now, as he felt his humanity returning, Micheal, had never felt such warmness in his life. Edward didn’t need to say a thing. Michael didn’t need to say anything, either. Then, they heard a voice.

“What are you doing, queers?!” yelled Bella in a cold, uncaring voice Edward had never seen before. 

And hearing her like this, and having Morbius ever so close, he knew… who he really loved.

[reverend-dog]

Friday at The Local

Fridays at The Local were usually crazy, but tonight promised to be something extra.

First, it was a blood moon. The eclipse started just after happy hour, which was not planned but surprised nobody, at least not the staff or regulars. Significant astronomical events always seemed to start, end, or reach their peak during happy hour. Once, a major conjunction coincided with a solar flare, just as the first rounds were being poured. The kraken’s beak hangs above the bar, the harpoon tip still lodged in it.

The bell above the door jingled. “Ty!” the other regulars shouted in greeting. They always stretch it out so it sounds like “Tiiiiieeeee!”

Any other night, Ty would return a jaunty salute before tossing her Royal Star Marine beret expertly onto the hat rack and sauntering to her favorite stool. Tonight, the beret stayed on Ty’s head until trudging steps brought her to her stool, then it collapsed unceremoniously onto the bar. Ty herself did a credible imitation of the beret as she slumped onto her stool.

“A pitcher,” she grumbled.

Momo gazed up at Ty with her usual Zen Master look. “Ask again,” she invited.

Ty scowled. “Not tonight, Momo. I’m not in the mood.”

Conversation had already become muted at Ty’s uncharacteristic entrance. At her rebuke of Momo, the only sound in the entire bar was a faint metallic ting of a pin against the floor. Dr. von Drake was delighted to finally test that idiom.

“That,” Momo replied, unruffled, “is why you need to ask again.”

The quiet words might as well have been cold water in Ty’s face. She blinked, and her scowl melted into contrition. “Sorry, Momo,” she offered. “My usual, please.”

Momo smiled, nodded, picked up Ty’s beret and sailed it across the room to its usual peg. “Better,” she judged, and signaled to Lilith to fill Ty’s order, “and tell Myke to send out a platter,” she added. “Now,” Momo prefaced as she turned her attention back to Ty, “what could have made you forget your manners?”

“Yes,” Acatl hissed as he sidled next to Ty, his desiccated features a rictus of concern. He adjusted his ornate golden collar, embossed with stylized snakes, as he leaned one elbow on the bar. “It must be something dire indeed, Sergeant, to dampen your irrepressible spirit. Let us help!”

Ty sighed. “Guess I knew I couldn’t come in here and keep it to myself,” she admitted. She swiveled her stool to face the room full of expectant, eager faces. “Let me have my usual,” she negotiated, “and I’ll spill it.”

“My cue,” Lilith sang, and shoved a flagon from her position at the far end of the bar. Everybody in between grabbed their drinks or plates to clear the vessel’s path, then replaced them once it passed.

Ty turned back to the bar in time to stop the flagon’s journey with her hand. She lifted it to her lips and, with a quick breath, drained the contents in one draught. “Apologies,” she offered to Lilith. “Figured it best to not keep folk waiting.”

Momo emerged from the kitchen carrying an oval platter piled high and steaming. “It’ll keep,” she promised, “while you spill your tea.”

Ty favored Momo with a grateful smile, then turned to the room once more. “I’ve been offered a promotion,” she announced. “A captaincy.”

A few patrons offered uncertain congratulations, but most of the tavern held their silence in anticipation of the other shoe’s descent. “The catch,” Ty obliged, “is that I have to get married.”

“How is that a problem?” queried XB7, a question mark on its faceplate. “You have a romantic unit. Does she not wish to be wed?”

“Oh,” Ty shook her head, “she’d love to! We’ve been planning on it for months!” Sadness weighed her features. “But she won’t do. Royal Star Marine officers have to wed nobility or royalty, and Mila’s as common-blood as, well, as me.”

“Ze solution is obvious,” Dr. von Drake stated. “Refuse ze commission.”

Frustration twisted Ty’s face. “I can’t!” she countered, voice near a shout. “Without an acceptable reason, refusing a commission merits a court martial!”

“What,” Acatl hissed, “would be an acceptable reason?”

Ty shrugged. “A lack of proper suitors,” she conjectured. “I really don’t know. I don’t think anybody does. The decision is up to the Legion Council. Nobody’s ever refused a commission before, at least there’s no record of it.”

“No sweat, dude,” Deke spoke up. “Do the wedding thing, and keep Mila too!” He grinned and nodded as his squad of surf ninjas clapped and cheered his ingenuity.

“I don’t want to marry anybody else!” Ty protested. “I just want Mila!”

“And your career,” Lilith amended.

“A conundrum,” analyzed Dr. von Drake, one finger tapping his bill.

Momo looked thoughtful. “Ty,” she spoke softly, “does your intended have to be of Federal nobility or royalty?”

“I… don’t think so,” Ty considered. “I read through the regulations, and they just state nobility or royalty.”

Dr. von Drake waddled over to Ty. “Do you haff a copy of zose regulations vith you?”

“Yes,” added Acatl. “I would like to peruse them as well, if I may.”

Ty produced an electronic tablet and held it out. The avian scientist and Aztec lich bent their heads over the screen in scrutiny.

Momo nodded. “Your Excellency!” she called, as she turned to a rear corner of the room. “Are you still with us?”

From the corner booth emerged a man of average height, with thick, dark hair and a heavy moustache and goatee. He wore a blue coat and slacks of vaguely military cut, with shiny buttons and fringed epaulets. On his head perched a top hat with a plume, but he doffed his headgear with a flourish as he approached the bar. “At your service, Momo!” he responded. “How may the Empire be of assistance?”

“We need a commission,” Momo told him. “The grander, the better. What can you offer?”

His Excellency harrumphed. “Why, whatever is needed!” he declared. “If the young lady is without kin, I can even declare her my adoptive daughter!” He turned to Ty. “Is she?”

Ty stared, mouth slightly ajar. “Um, I guess,” she replied. “Her parents died a couple years ago, in the war.”

“A war orphan!” His Excellency clapped a hand over his heart. “I would be honored to add her to my line!”

“Vell,” announced Dr. von Drake, “dere does not appear to be any restriction on vat sort of noble or royal title your spouse must claim.”

“And should it come to a question,” Acatl promised, “I will gladly offer my counsel to argue the point.”

Momo tapped Ty’s arm, and Ty jumped as if shocked. “Call Mila,” Momo directed. “We can even hold the ceremony here, if you like. Lilith can officiate.”

Lilith smiled and waved from the far end of the bar.

Ty looked as if she had just dismounted from a high-speed carnival ride. She offered no resistance as Momo plucked her phone from her pocket, found the proper listing, and tapped the screen before returning the device. The tavern held its collective breath as she lifted the phone to her ear.

“Hi, sweetness,” she spoke into the mic. “Can you come by The Local? There’s, um, there’s something we need to discuss. No, no, nothing bad.” She nodded. “Okay, good. See you soon.” Call ended, she looked at Momo. “She’s on her way.”

Momo nodded, then turned to the tavern. “You heard her,” she commanded. “Volunteers! We have a royal wedding to arrange!”

[adoracora-elizabeth]

Music made me love you, chapter 43

"I am so sorry, but I need to go to Downton. Papa is feeling unwell and there are several meetings I need to step in." Robert said while putting Cora's coffee cup in front of her. He had stopped trying to get her to drink tea. She would probably never become a tea person; how much he would try.

"How long do you need to stay?" Cora asked, flipping through the paper that was on the table.

"That is the thing, probably a couple of weeks." Robert tried to make it sound less awful, but he knew he could not.

"A few weeks?" Cora exclaimed. "But that is not possible." Cora felt a lump in her throat.

"My dear, I cannot stay away. It is my duty to step in." He saw how she was fighting against her tears.

"How are we going to go for the test? Are you driving back and forth?"

Robert stretched over the counter to take her hand. "We could ask Dr Clarkson in the village to help out?"

"Robert, I know that you think I am worried for nothing. But I feel that we need to take this seriously and I want a good doctor. Someone who specializes in infertility."

"What if you are not infertile and it is just stress?"

Cora pulled her hand back. "Who says it is me?"

He felt his cheeks colour when she said that. "You are absolutely right. It could also be me. But Dr Clarkson will have staff who know what they are doing. Please Darling, I do not have another option. I need to go to Downton."

"I do not understand why you cannot just cancel the meetings and reschedule. I thought you wanted a family as much as I did, but it does not feel like it."

"You are being unfair," Robert said shocked. "You know how much I would want to start a family with you. But these meetings have been scheduled for months now, so we cannot postpone them. Please understand."

Cora shook her head. "I never thought you would put the house before me."

"I am not. First of all, the meetings are with the company and second of all. You are always in the first place, but there are things that I cannot control."

"Are you sure your father is ill? Did your mother tell you that?"

"That is low Cora, that is really low." He picked up his cup and walked out of the kitchen towards his office. One of the rooms they had transformed into a nice home office. He wished Cora would not be this stubborn. Dr Clarkson could do the same testing, why did she insist on having a specialist? It would all turn out to be nothing, he was sure. As soon as they were back in calmer weather, she would fall pregnant. He heard the front door close with a loud bang.

+++

How could he be so insensitive, he did not even consider saying no. He promised to go for testing with her, did he not want a family? Standing in their driveway she did not know where to go for a second. She looked at the clock, Sorcha would start her shift soon. She regretted quitting that job, she could still have something to do outside the house. But Robert had convinced her that she did not need a job.

When she reached the restaurant, she headed straight to the bar. "A double whiskey please." She asked the bartender.

"What kind would you like?"

"I do not mind as long as it is a strong one, without ice."

She emptied the glass in two gulps and ordered a second one.

"Let's make that a gin tonic." Sorcha's voice sounded.

"But the lady ordered a double whiskey!" The bartender protested.

"I know, but this lady better slow down and drink a gin tonic." Sorcha replied.

"As long as you make it a double, I do not care." Cora looked at Sorcha.

"I will have my break in about five minutes, we will get a table and eat something."

"I do not need food, just alcohol."

"We are still getting a table."

+++

"Eat this and then you will get another glass of Whiskey." Sorcha put a plate bangers and mash in front of Cora, while sitting down opposite.

"I told you that I do not need food." Cora had a double tongue already.

"You definitely do, and I can promise you that the bar staff will not pour you more alcohol before you finish this plate."

Cora sulkily scooped some of the mash on her fork and took a bite. Then she noticed she was actually very hungry and emptied her plate without realising it.

"Now, do you want to tell me what is wrong? Or are we going to sulk the whole evening and just get drunk."

"I say the latter." Cora pushed her glass towards Sorcha. "You promised another Whiskey if I ate."

Sorcha gestured towards the bar and then turned to Cora again. "What has Robert done?"

"I thought he had chosen me, but clearly I was mistaken. His stupid house and family will always come first. He will never choose me."

Sorcha let her rant for a while but then said softly. "He did travel to the USA to find you and bring you back."

Cora snorted. "I bet he regrets that now. You know, I just do not understand why he wanted to marry me and buy a house together."

"It cannot be that bad. He loves you; I am sure of that."

"Not as much as he loves Downton." Cora pushed her empty glass towards Sorcha again, who ordered another drink. "He does not care that I cannot have children, he does not even make time to go with me for tests. I think that he is fine with not having children with me."

"Are you?" Sorcha contemplated how to ask this question.

"No, I am not pregnant, and I will probably never be. If I could have children, I would have been pregnant by now. No, it is not something my body can do. And since Robert does not care about it and will go to Downton, we will never find out what is wrong." She picked up the glass that was brought and emptied it, in one gulp.

"Cora, you should go home and talk to Robert."

"I am not going home; I want another drink."

"That is not one of your options, we will not serve you more alcohol tonight."

"Oke." Cora got up from her chair so suddenly, that she had to grab the table. "I will get my drinks somewhere else. " It was not easy, but Cora managed to get money out of her wallet, left some notes on the bar and walked outside.

Sorcha saw Cora go into the pub next door. She could not do anything, but she texted Robert, where Cora was and told him that she had some alcohol. She herself had to go back to her shift.

+++

"Can I have what she is having?"

Cora looked up from her glass, she knew that voice. She saw a tall woman next to her, with long red-blond curls, a slim figure, but very regale in posture. "Why are you here?" She managed to get out.

Rosamund gave her a soft smile. "Can a lady not have a drink in a random pub?"

"I know that I am drunk. But I am still aware that you do not live in this area of the city."

"I came to take you home." Rosamund answered.

"That is not necessary, I am perfectly capable to take care of myself."

"I know, but still, I would like to take you home."

"Rosamund, I do not know how Robert knew I was here, but you can tell him that I am not coming home tonight."

"Sorcha texted Robert and he asked me to go and look for you. And I do not think you should stay away. Go home, have a good sleep and then in the morning you two can talk."

"He wants to go to Downton, and it does not matter what we had planned, it all does not matter, because he is needed at Downton. Well, you can tell him that he can go, I do not care."

"Cora." Rosamund put her hand on Cora’s. "He does not want to go, but he has to go."

"Of course you will say that. It is your home too and I could have known you would choose your brother's side." She felt tears sting.

"I do not see Downton as my home. My home is here in London. Robert would preferably stay here in London too, but he has his duties and unfortunately, he cannot step away from them. Cora, I do not know what is wrong between you and Robert, I only know he is head over heels in love with you and would never want to hurt you. Please let me bring you home."

"Why does he have to go now? It took weeks before we finally got our hospital dates and now, we have to reschedule."

"I do not know why you have these appointments, but I am sure Robert will come with you to them. He will be sure of that."

"He wants Dr Clarkson so do the tests."

"Can you tell me why you need to go to the hospital? What kind of tests do you need?"

Cora could not keep her tears back anymore. Her cheeks got wet from the streaming tears. "I think I am infertile."

"Oh, my dear." Rosamund got up and wrapped her arms around Cora. "I am so sorry."

"Do you think Dr Clarkson is knowledgeable on this subject?" Cora asked.

"No, not Dr Clarkson himself. But he has a team, and I am sure he has the right expertise at his hospital."

Cora got up from her barstool, she almost lost her balance, but Rosamund grabbed her arm. "Can you bring me home?"

[lowkeyclueless5137]

Au smoothie recipe #1

Welp... We have a recipe here :v

Thankfully it's not me cooking real food. Y'all aren't ready for THAT bandwagon. :'D

But I got boooorrrreeeed... And when I got boooorrrreeeed, I do stupid shit.

So I put a poll, a bit hidden, I admit. And got the results :3

It shouldn't have been a surprise that if I combine 3 of my most popular aus, that thing will be picked.

Maybe, in the future, I'll hold a surprise poll from time to time for another Au smoothie. Dw, the previous options that didn't win will be featured too, so you can have another shot at them. :3

Now... For our recipe! We need a bowl, then we put in:

2 cups of my first P5 Au

1 cup of Jumanji Au

5 tablespoons of DR Au.

mandatory quarter bottle of crack(fic genre)

Stirr well and wait for it to grow a bit. Sprinkle in some angst and fluff upon likes of y'all. Then put it in the mixer, add aprox a mental breakdown of your fave punching bag character and wait for the reading speed of your fave ship's new fic on a good day on the fastest option of the mixer. Pour it in a nice glass and add a pretty explanation format straw.

There you have it! :D

Honestly it took way more than I expected, but here we are :'3

Now let us enjoy this drink!

Alright... Let's start with where we starting like usual! Background! :D

We have your normal twst, except that it isn't normal. Due to the magic being rare amongst your usual, adult, crowd, it's more of a 1 in 10 people actually having magic. This complicates things for mages schools as they need students as well.

The reason I specifically said 'adult crowd', is because blot levels were very, VERY, sensible. To the point overblots are quite easy to achieve. And having do few people actually having magic, it was a given that technology compensated for it.

It's also mostly since, initially, some mages don't make it past 20 if they overBlot. It's not a common case, neither is it extremely rare. It is seen mostly like an incurable, spontaneous, illness. You are guaranteed to die if you overBlot and might also take some other people with you too.

But, since we were talking about magic schools, in order to compensate, the elite schools introduced the term of 'ultimate'. The best of the best at something. It allows for teens with incredible talents, weather they have magic or not, to hone their craft and thus work in the world with their talent. An ultimate was basically like a free entry to any university centered around the talent in question. Those people were hunted down by companies and marked for them endless opportunities in their craft aera.

Once the said ultimate finishes school, they lose that title, but that doesn't mean that their talent is gone too, hence why this hype. It allows for multiple people to gain this title in time. Hence, schools are doing this testing yearly, in case of someone previously known as no ultimate talent to suddenly have one, bcs the one before them left it.

Thus, the title of ultimate was much more wanted and respected than the title of mage.

Since an ultimate was hard to determine, for such thing, powerful magic artefacts of introspection were used. Such artefacts were so rare, most of them were the only exemplary altogether. Those were special due to their ability to peer in someone's mind and memories and able to tell if that person has a draw to something, a hidden talent or more.

The most powerful and well known artefact of this kind was, of course, the dark mirror.

Now, fast forward to our time. We have Lilia's 2nd year orientation. This year, Silver was starting his first year as well. Of course, before the 1st years were even introduced at all, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th years all have to be examined for an ultimate change. Clearly there were a few rare cases for such thing and Lilia was not amongst them. He was an exceptional mage, but with no ultimate.

So far, one who did get a title change, was Trey, who gained his 'ultimate baker' title. He was the only one out of our (in game) 3rd year main cast. :3

As for the 2nd(in game) years, they first get assigned their ultimates. And thus they are introduced to how this whole thing works:

The dark mirror looks in one's soul and tells them their talent. But because this is such an intimate soul search, only the one evaluated gets to hear, then they only sign if they had an ultimate, OPTIONALLY specify what exactly, and let the mirror go on the normal way to assign them a dorm.

The only exception is the Ramshackle students, who are magicless, thus they automatically have an ultimate.

Lilia only takes note of a few particular students. First of all, there was this Azul guy, who got in Octavinelle, but didn't sign the register of ultimates, followed by a pair of twins who both signed. There was a hyena boy, put in Savanaclaw, with no ultimate, then the next particular one was the infamous Asim and his buddy, who both signed in the register.

Then, there was one last guy before Silver. Lilia particularly kept an eye on him, because his son was next, thus his attention was lazer focused on the ceremony now.

The guy seemed hesitant. By how he looked at the register for a hot second, Lilia knew that the guy hesitated before marking something off on the register and leaving in a hurry.

Then it came to Silver! And he got an ultimate! Yay! :D

Silver was the ultimate dream analyst and in diasomnia to boot, thus Lilia was extremely happy for his son. Malleus, who attended this year, was also down to congratulate Silver, since he as well had an ultimate: the ultimate librarian. The oddest of talents one would associate with THE Malleus Draconia, but the latter seemed very happy with it.

Lilia did ask Silver what was up with the guy before him. Silver says that he and one of the twins that went first caused a small commotion, but the twin got thrown across the room while the older years were examinated, which made people to believe that the short guy was a freakishly strong mage.

Lilia advises Silver to put up good with the guy and maybe they could be friends and study together. It would be in his benefit after all.

The guy before Silver was none other than Riddle, who was pretty shaken up by what ultimate he was assigned. He was given an ultimate, but the said ultimate was a controversial one, thus he specifically wrote in the registry 'do not mention at any cost', which gave away the idea that it was something private, shameful at best and downright dangerous at worst.

This is why specifying was optional. There could be good talents, titles that can bring opportunities and then there could be titles that put in danger people by their mere name alone.

And Riddle himself would take to the grave his talent.

On his first night in the dorm, the redhead was forced to call his mother, but he lied and told her that he had no ultimate title. It came with a berating session and an abrupt call, but Riddle found it better than the actual truth.

Back to Diasomnia, Lilia had to deal with one lil unexpected surprise: Floyd. Floyd didn't want at all in this dorm. He wanted specifically to be with his twin and Azul, who both were in Octavinelle. Lilia figured that these 2 could've been in any other place, thus it wasn't a bias towards some dorm. And Floyd was cranky and refused to even go to dinner.

In between us, maybe that was the best call Floyd ever did out of his pettiness that night.

Silver reported the next day that Floyd didn't want to talk to him at all. He only glared and puffed, which, frankly, was pretty hard to understand exactly what bothered him.

What Lilia did not expect tho, was that after the first school day, to meet with Azul and Jade. Azul declared loud and proud that he needs to talk with Malleus, which got Lilia surprised, because not even mages with ultimates would speak about such things as if Malleus was their equal. Of course, the latter was polite and Jade was, more or so, silent in this matter.

Upon a small talk towards diasomnia dorm, Lilia finds out that Jade's ultimate was actually private and so was Floyd's. Only Azul knows about those and he also said he won't disclose unless the twins request that of him.

At Diasomnia, watch Malleus be absolutely bewildered. He's doing the shocked Pikachu face for a solid 10 minutes when Lilia told him about Azul wanting to talk to him and the said 2nd year also presenting himself next to his vice, fully ready to have the said talk and addressing to Malleus in a friendly and polite manner, but most importantly, friendly. He was friendly with him. No one on this ever loving earth did this befoe(except Silver) and for Malleus it was mind-blowing.

Meanwhile, Floyd hung only around Jade and only talked with Jade. The latter reprimanded his twin for wearing his dorm uniform sloppily, but it wasn't that important, as Jade assured his brother that Azul's taking care of things.

As for the discussion, Malleus notes that Azul is no Dormhead, nor does he bring fame to his name, thus what is the purpose of this conversation. The latter admits to it, but his purpose is to transfer Floyd into Octavinelle. Azul points out the fact that Floyd was uncooperative and in a foul mood all day. And he warns that it will only get worse as time goes by. So Azul's merely taking this problem off Malleus's shoulders, but if he wants something in exchange, a service or material gain, the latter could arrange to fit the criteria.

And Malleus thinks for a bit. He sees it as such: 'this bold human came to him to discuss a matter of transfer so that Malleus won't have to deal with Floyd's moods. Not only that, but he also offers anything in his capability to compensate for the transfer.'. Clearly, from all of this, Malleus was the one in gain. The Fae saw no problem in Floyd just hanging out outside of the dorm or after classes, but Azul insisted on that transfer and, frankly, why not actually get a gain out of it, since it was so important.

And so, Malleus puts his terms on the table: he wants an engagement in between them. Azul is absolutely taken aback by this, not having any idea what to say. This guy is asking for an engagement of all things. Sure, if it's a business engagement or a temporary service, Azul would've said yes in a heartbeat. But Malleus said it was just an engagement. A plain engagement. Of course, Azul's mind jumped to the base meaning of the term used alone.

So he asks for a few seconds to talk to the twins about it. In truth, in those few seconds, Azul merely looked at the 2 from a distance, the twins unaware the latter came in the same room before Azul already went back.

And he accepts, insisting that he will be a loyal spouse in all there is to be. Seeing this declared dedication, besides signing Azul's um contract, Malleus also binds the 2 of them with the engagement tie, a Fae traditional spell which ties together 2 or more future spouses and tells other Fae off from engaging in any action that might affect the tie, including bringing harm onto one of the tied.

Azul accepts it and as such, tells the latter that tomorrow he will come to officially settle the matters of the transfer. The contract Malleus signed was used only for Floyd's transfer, as such Azul insisted that he must show this first to his dormleader and make the formal proceedings with him as well.

Malleus is just fucking happy. He got himself a friendly guy to stay around with and he also prevented a future problem from taking place, by helping the pair of twins to also be happy. He feels proud of himself, because it's a win-win in his eyes. :3

And Azul pointed, rather as a small talk, that a grotesque at the window was pretty, which Malleus immediately was over the moon since 'YES! SOMEONE FINALLY UNDERSTANDS THE DIFFERENCE!'. His lil mind is doing flips atm for choosing a good engagement partner.

Yeah, Malleus, dear... That's not how things work, but go off I guess. :'D

When the twins heard about the actual deal, they lost their shit. Floyd wanted to barehandedly strangle Malleus, insisting that Azul went too far for this. Jade is the more rational one, saying that they are talking about one of the strongest mages in existence. Malleus thought he gained something through this engagement, but if they play their cards right, they could use the fae for their own gain. After all, if Malleus breaks off the engagement, then it's clearly no big loss for Azul as long as they keep on professional terms at least. Jade tries to see the positive side in all of this, which, frankly, was quite a bit to take in account.

Especially since Malleus, fully set on being an exemplary spouse, complies to any and all proceedings Azul mentions. Not only that, but Malleus's status alone intimidated the 3rd year Octavinelle Dormhead into giving out his position to Azul, as a means of getting on the fae's good side.

Of course, Azul insisted for the engagement to be kept private, for the sole purpose of not influencing his hard work. Malleus didn't want to comply to that, but upon Lilia also insisting on this, he had to throw in the towel on that matter. It wasn't the last of it in Malleus's eyes, but he's going to accept defeat for now.

While that was going on, we also have Riddle siezing his Dormhead position on his first day of school, the fastest leader change in the school history, along with Scarabia enjoying their newly renovated dorm, and later down the line, Kalim becoming a Dormhead, with Jamil as his vice.

Along those, there were a few overBlot cases, but, again, it wasn't something particularly rare. It was an unfortunate reality, but students had to get used to this grimm truth, hence why there were special blot courses, meant to try and prevent mages from overusing their magic. Only 3 overblots this year! A surprisingly small amount!

That was also because of shadows. Some new blot branch, manifested as these monsters of desire that ran wild. Normal magic seems to do nothing against them, Malleus's magic as well, rendered useless, so you either had to get physical, entrap it or run away. It made the blot level to decrease considerably and not pile up that easy anymore.

What was also a notable event, was the rise of the Phanthom thief. One individual who is able to destroy these Phanthoms by summoning strange magical spirits, of course, not without stealing the object the shadows latched onto. Most times it's just jewelry, hence the title of 'Phanthom thief'. Those people want their jewellery back after all. :'3

They do get found, mostly in the lost and found cardboard box Crowley put next to the teachers lounge. So there's usually a pile of people there after the thief sighting.

Now that we have the background, we can finally get a taste of the plot. :'D

We start off with Epel and Ortho. Epel was surprised to see a robot of all people getting taken in the school. Ortho took interest in Epel, after the latter apparently ran into a fight with Vil of all people. Slowly, while waiting for their turns, the 2 clicked together and befriended each other.

Epel was first, getting assigned the title of 'ultimate carver', while Ortho was given 'ultimate programer'. He was very happy since it matched with his big brother's ultimate too!

Both get yeeted in different dorms. Ortho in Ignihyde, while Epel in Poemfiore. Still they managed to exchange numbers and are more than hyped about the possibility of sharing classes together.

They don't share almost any class. And besides, Sebek was in Ortho's class, which Epel didn't like the loud cabbage. Ortho tho, was willing to give the latter a chance at least, since they were deskmates. (Sebek, you have to comply to the friendship attempts for F's sake)

It turns out Sebek's actually a pretty cool guy. As the ultimate bodyguard, he was more than happy to share his training routine with Epel, who immediately was down on trying to train with him. Ortho was content with simply watching from the sidelines and remininding these 2 try-harders to keep themselves hydrated and not collapse on the ground.

As for our pre-established peeps, Lilia was not happy with Malleus's lack of implication in his engagement. At this point he popped rarely to see Azul. The latter would give him fridge notes with the dormleader meetings, but Malleus forgot about them and thus Lilia couldn't say he wasn't warned in advance. So he mostly nags him for forgetting.

There's also our lovely Octa-trio who are thriving. Azul's engagement was forgotten a few times, if it wasn't for Malleus just popping at a convenient time. Azul always wore gloves, so the mark on his hand wasn't seen by anyone except the twins and Malleus, who had the same mark too.

There's also Heartslabyul, who are actually pretty chill. Riddle felt so bad trying to reprimand his dorm members, but when they did go over the line, they would get collared. The line was pretty high, but it could've been much higher if Riddle didn't feel that sense of guilt. Cater did bring it up a few times and Trey also tried to talk with the redhead about this, but it proved futile last year, so this year they didn't try it out yet.

Now, we have to follow a bit Adeuce, Yuu and Grim. Yuu was a magicless and titless student, who was brought as a mistake and unable to return to their world. Thus they were welcomed in Ramshackle to stay and serve their job as a school janitor. Grim also joined them as a 2 parter and things mostly go like in cannon, except that this time, their official school position is 'school assistant' and not prefect.

The difference is that when Ace steals the tart, he meets a not so excited Riddle, who was literally too tired to deal with this bullshit. He collars Ace and tells him that tomorrow he should replace the eaten tart, for the upcoming unbirthday party. The ginger doesn't take it lightly, him understanding that basically he's kicked out of the dorm. So he stomps away, pretty mad about it.

It takes Riddle a bit to realise that Ace actually left the dorm, so he tries to catch up with him and prevent Ace from bothering some other dorm at this ungodly hour.

That's when he runs into some shadows and a blot monster that followed from the mines.

That's also when we find out that Riddle was the said Phanthom thief all along. The fight drains him out completely, thus the redhead had to abandon his initial task of retrieving Ace, which translated as a poorly slept night and a cranky morning. Naturally, Trey and Cater called out the redhead when he was a bit too harsh, but in the end, Riddle did comply and insisted that he'll take some rest before the unbirthday party.

Still, Riddle's mood wasn't better all day. Everything was just piling up, including Adeuce and their shenanigans along the magicless student with no title and that lil monster of theirs. Still, to show some hospitality and settle the matters straight, Riddle forgives Ace, demands for the maroon tart to be put in the kitchen fridge and eaten after the party and indulges for Yuu and Grim to participate as well.

Trey and Cater fill in our braincell club about the fact that Riddle gives easy into his emotions, but he doesn't mean harm at all. You just have to get used to the more important rules and you are good to go.

Of course, chaos wasn't yet over. When the magishift tournament gets announced, ofc like in cannon, Crowley is out for cheese so our gang investigates these misterious accidents.

On another side, Ortho is very happy since his brother finally allowed him to get in the magishift team this year. Epel and Sebek do congratulate their buddy, knowing that Ortho, at least, was very hyped about magishift. Not enough to actually join the club, but the thrill of the tournament was the primary factor after all.

Although, Sebek really wanted to bring in question the fact that this robot boy had pretty darn powerful weapons at a finger's disposal. Sebek really doubted that wasn't a factor in Idia's skepticism on the matter.

The 3 were also in the Ignihyde lounge, since it was the quietest place and little to none was there a chance they would get interrupted by someone.

Still, they get cut off by Idia himself, who was pretty serious. The latter didn't even try to be gentle about it, he cut it straight to the case: Ortho was denied of being in the magishift line-up. This, of course, got Ortho enraged. Like what do you mean you allow him and then immediately take it back?! Bro... Settle on the matter already!

Idia tho, insists that, as his big brother, he couldn't let Ortho on the line-up on a good consciousness. This raises some questions from Epel and Sebek, since they did hear Idia declare things before to Ortho and usually he stated 'as your dormhead', meaning that this was not an official thing.

After Idia does leave, Epel brings it up the said phrase change. Ortho also seems to finally pick it up and wonder about it. He says that usually Idia reminds him that he's the oldest, mostly when he's trying to tell 'I'm worried for you and you are my responsibility', thus downplaying the actual severity of the situation as just him overreacting. It was a big red flag for the 3 once they trace down the fact that Idia must've had some important reason for his refusal. A reason concerning Ortho's safety first and foremost.

Thus, they also start investigating! :D

They run into our braincell club, who were there to question Ortho and Sebek, since these 2 were promising first years on the line-ups, further proving that Idia didn't change the line-up yet or was a spontaneous decision caused by smth.

Riddle's also there, saying that he, himself, was staged for such an accident, but Trey took the fall. So they want to prevent other students from getting into similar accidents.

Except that it seems that the accident was meant to happen now, as Ortho's senzors go hairwire, causing the latter to immediately 'drop dead'. It's a technique the latter explains is for safety reasons, when controlling magic tries to get a hold of his body. Something tried to control his body and the system's magic detectors went off. Thus Ortho adapted and went limp, specifically to confuse whoever tried to get a hold of his body.

We get to see Ruggie (courtesy of Sebek's loud yelling) and the hyena boy tries to play it cool.

Except that Riddle catches his hand mid act, revealing that Ruggie stole Adeuce, Epel and Sebek's pens already and wanted to take the redhead's and Cater's too. Of course, being held down, Ruggie had to give them away and Riddle collared him as well, trying to take him to his dorm and hold a proper questioning there.

Ruggie tho, uses the first second Riddle shows any vulnerability/distraction to yank himself off and run, collar on still. Riddle was too tired to keep up the pace and Sebek with Epel were helping Ortho back up. But fear not! Ace's the ultimate lucky student, so surely they could have a chance. Right?

Wrong. :'D

But they had a collar on Ruggie! Surely that could count for smth!

Apparently not, since the very next day, Ruggie has no collar and everything is going fine for him. He was avoiding the 2 investigation groups tho, which made it especially hard when other savanaclaw students were suddenly hit by that pack solidarity.

Although, Riddle was fuming. Like man had literally 0 tolerance now. He saw Ruggie, off he was to find an excuse to bend the guy in half. He saw the hyena and immediately he saw red. So the others usually holded him from actually starting a nasty fight.

Ortho tho, does some actual pin-pointing and violates some privacy laws, but he gets Ruggie's latest transactions, on Leona's card, ofc. A few were made at the Monstro Lounge, which was a bit sus. So Ortho decides to look further into it, especially since he knew well that Azul had some soft eyes for Idia, thus here comes the baby brother perk of softening Azul's guard enough to allow Ortho to have a small 'study session' with Azul. The payment, ofc, was made too.

The 3 find out that Azul has no ultimate and he admits that having an ultimate seems a bit grounding for some. There was that expectation put on the ultimates. At the same time, an ultimate title was something Azul wished he had. He wished he would be apart of the school elites: the mages with an ultimate to boot. Alas, he declares that he's well off for himself and his main priority is his flourishing business. :3c

But, of course, there's a perfectly convenient commotion outside, which gets Azul to leave Ortho alone for a bit. In response, Ortho manages to hack through the safe password and look through the golden contracts. He finds Leona's contract pretty easy since it was fresh atm. He does photograph it and puts it back, making sure Azul won't suspect anything.

So post that, Ortho shows Epel and Sebek the said contract, which was for a magic enchanting potion. The 3 want to show this to the other investigation team, but it seems like both had in mind to meet up, because the braincell club find them and requested of Sebek to send to Malleus a warning.

Apparently the braincell club meet with Jack, who helped them piece together the whole scheme regarding the accidents. And now Riddle was devising a plan to counter this.

Ortho, Epel and Sebek bring up the potion contract. Riddle assures them that he'll get that taken care of. The exchange was meant to be on the tournament morning, so there was a small window where the potion is at Ruggie and thus, the prime time to take it. Azul would have his contract fulfilled and thus there couldn't be handed a replacement.

The big day comes and finally, our shortie gang all are all meeting each other. Riddle came in later, showing that he did get the potion. The how was irrelevant in the redhead's words.

Still, there's a bigass sandstorm, which does manage to hit the decoy diasomnia team. Leona and Savanaclaw still cheer for their supposed 'win', so our group had to burst their bubble. :'3

Cue overBlot fight! :D

Post that shit, things mostly wrap up like in cannon, with the mention that Ortho got his place in the magishift team, despite Idia forbidding him at first. :3

Post that, finally the realisation sinks in everyone's heads. Leona overBlotted. And survived! No one died that day and everyone started to look at the lion Beastman as some alive legend. No one thought it was remotely possible to be snapped out of overBlot and survive, but here he was, in flesh and bones.

So, at the end of the day, Leona didn't win any tournament, but he got a title of 'the first'. He was the first ever recorded person to overBlot and survive it.

But, this wasn't a long lived hot topic.

Because, right after the tournament, a body was discovered in the Savanaclaw lounge. It was drowned in the pool and students were freaking out since 'wtf is this?!'. Azul, naturally, was spooked, since that student was from his dorm and he looked yesterday all over for him since he was on inventory duty today. The student was one with no ultimate, just with magic, so Azul didn't see why they would have anything remotely to envy at first glance. Still, he gets his way to be mainly involved in the investigation as the Dormhead of the deceased.

That seemed to strike a fear in everyone for a bit. Still, Riddle tried to concentrate with his studies.

Except that, because of the said death, the teachers also had a load of bullshit to take in account, so Riddle found himself on detention overlooking duty.

And it so happened that one detention, he had to supervise Epel, Ortho and Lilia cleaning the basement. It seemed like Crowley always said that the detention punishment wasn't at the latitude of the teachers, but the all universal ✨basement cleaning✨. So really, Riddle knew by now that it didn't matter how grave the mistake was, the punishment was the same.

The 4 end up passing some time and clean a bit, until Ortho stumbles upon a box of goodies. Inside there were old comics, photos, letters and other trinkets. You can imagine these 4 had a blast when they read the sappy romance letters from a girl. The old comics were still well kept, so they also gave them a quick read, even if the pages were yellowed from the time and dust gathered on them.

The photos tho, showed a boy from Ignihyde, quite young, smiling happily. They couldn't really say that the guy resembled anyone they knew, but in a few photos he had a kitten, just as big as his palm. There were also some photos with a girl too, or with other boys that were his colleagues. Pretty standard things.

Riddle did wonder what does such a personal box have to be in a school basement? The answer comes at the bottom of the box, where there's another box, but this time it was a board game, titled 'Jumanji'. Being excited over the game, the group unknowingly ditched the cleaning and got a table to set it up and play.

Cue choosing characters. Ortho got first, while Riddle had to pick the very last character left. Lilia did bring up that the redhead looked uneasy, even seemed like he dreaded to play a character meant to be a thief, but Epel just says that it might be because it's a thief and it only adds up to the pile of 'rulebreaker' characters Riddle despises.

Cue the game actually being fucking cursed. :'D

So the 4 now got their characters's species and powers. Lilia was probably the chillest one. Ortho tho, was absolutely bewildered, since, unlike the rest, when he woke up from the knockout, all of his robot pieces were on the floor. The rest do question that tho. :v

It turns out Ortho was a human. But he was meant to be dead if it wasn't for his big brother making an armour meant to keep him alive and allow him to enjoy life like any other person. Ortho keeps his big brother in high-regards for this, so to see that he was fully healed and in top shape, is a miracle. He never thought he would catch a day where he could wear normal clothes and actually feel the fabric itself on his body. He was SO thrilled about it.

Epel and Riddle tho, were in the unhappy corner. Epel bcs 'I'm not a fucking macho strong fish :(' and Riddle bcs 'I literally changed species, I'm so screwed'.

The 4 tho, still have to play the game and finish it. :v

If you know my jumanji oneshot, it goes almost like in there, with the mention that there wasn't a parent-teacher meet, rather a meeting with parents regarding the overBlot and the death of the Octavinelle student.

Azul wasn't at all pleased with the verdict given, regarding the murder. The students were more focused now on the shortie gang and their game adventures and the adults were buying Crowley's statements because they didn't know any other detail.

The Verdict in question? The student commited suicide. Now, Azul was ruled out of the equation, because he was his Dormhead and it wasn't exam period, nor did that particular student made any deal. They seemed happy with their paycheck and pretty carefree from other students's Intel. Still, look where they are now. The friend group of the deceased was getting questioned and Azul found himself going in between those questionings, to try and prolong the investigation.

Malleus, again, was more than passive, so Azul couldn't count on him. Floyd was pretty shaken up by the jumanji adventure, or at least the things he saw going on in the lounge and Jade was helping with the damage control, even if everything was magically fixed at the end.

He instead counts on Idia, the ultimate robotics engineer, to help him out, by trying to see on the cameras any trace of the victim. Azul gave the dates and managed to narrow it down to a specific interval. After that, the cameras cut off due to the implemented 'sleep hour', to make the electricity bill cheaper. Again, a decision done by crow man, which Azul found to be damning at best.

Idia also opens up a bit and tells Azul about this jumanji game and how Ortho gave him nearly a heart attack. He was so caught off-guard by this sudden reality-bending magic and how it healed Ortho in an instant and also added some height too. Rosehearts was a dragon, Epel a siren, Vanrogue a vampire. And all with '3 lives' as stated by the younger Shroud. Idia found it wierd, but after that parent meeting, the game was, apparently 'finished'. Before Azul could ask about the game, Idia says that Ortho and his buddies destroyed it, because it was 'something that shouldn't be used by anyone'.

Azul also takes note of it.

Meanwhile, back to our shortie gang, it had to go back to getting used to the changes made by the game. Trein was a nice man and helped them out, even if sometimes these mfs would get annoying with questions about those old photos and letters. :'3

Still, now that they grew closer, the group also observed how reserved Riddle was. He would dissappear at certain times and no one knew where he was. Trey said that this happened even last year, so it wasn't something unusual. He just goes deadbeat for an hour or so, then he's back like nothing happened.

The new nurse was also Riddle's father, who explained that, at the moment, the home life is a bit rocky so he understands if his son needs some space alone. After all, he came to NRC as a nurse to put some distance in between him and his wife, now future ex due to the upcoming divorce.

So in desire to show their support, Epel, Ortho and Lilia try to hang-out more with Riddle. Help him out and overall trying to 'keep his mind off the home life' for a while.

Riddle finds this absolutely troublesome. :v

It is through this insistence and the absolute shitshows these 3 caused when they followed him in the middle of the night, that the redhead has to come clean and say 'hey, it's not about my home life, it's about the shadows roaming around.'. He was stressed because the shadows were in an all-time height, always 3 or 4 roaming per night. Riddle was overwhelmed by those. He was the ultimate thief, a talent that helped him manifest a persona and be able to fight the shadows.

Epel and Ortho are so hyped by the idea that their buddy over here was THE phantom thief. Like, please, they want a slice of that action too. Lilia seems to be the more rational one and says that maybe, since everything's overwhelming, Riddle should tell exactly what he needs. They could help him. What are friends for, after all?

They also tell this to Trein, because he was also the one who basically has them under a protective wing of sorts. The latter vows to keep the secret and so, he may sometimes indulge Riddle falling asleep in his class. :'3

Up until the exam period, shadows roam around so much that it runs poor Riddle dry. It doesn't help that, because of their involvement in this and the dire situations it puts them in, the rest of the squad also unlocks personas. Imagine their hype when they also get badass costumes and weapons too. Although the hype is a bit salty when they realise only Riddle could have multiple personas. Thus he was deemed the leader of the thief operations.

Watch Trein get even more grey hairs due to these mfs. :'3

BUT! Exams also come around. Riddle did indulge to have Sebek and Silver to join their small study group for the exams. The 2 weren't much of a bother. Jack also joined down the line, when he said that Adeuce weren't that keen on learning and Yuu was way too busy trying to study and also teach Grim.

They get noice scores. Ortho even scores a 99, second highest after Riddle, so he rubs it in Epel's face. :'D

But, this also starts the chain of anemones. From Epel's Intel, Jack went with Yuu to Octavinelle to address the anemone problem. Riddle tho, insists that he doesn't want to get involved with Azul's shady shit at all, especially the anemones.

Cue the braincell club doing sum shit, Azul overblotting and even more shadows roaming around post that.

Again, no one died from the overBlot, which was another miracle. Students were stunted about this. :v

Also we get Malleus barging in because he felt the engagement mark and, unfortunately, in all of his panic he forgot he could've actually teleported. The only time this guy doesn't use his magic for trivial things is the only time it actually proves to be important. :'3

In all this chaos, Floyd's transfer contract gets destroyed. Which meant, by the terms, that Floyd would have to transfer to Diasomnia, as he couldn't stay in Octavinelle anymore. Ofc, the latter instead transfers to Heartslabyul, thus abusing of a loophole in the contract. Riddle was taken aback by this sudden addition, but he indulged it, since Floyd stood almost 24/7 in Octavinelle to help Azul recover from his overBlot.

Also we have Malleus trying to be a better fiancé and actually take care of Azul. Finally Lilia punted sum sense in his thick af skull. :'3

The next day, in Octavinelle, a body is discovered. Malleus discovers it when he went to fetch sum food for Azul. Clearly, at that, Azul ditched the bed and immediately was on to investigate before crow man or anyone else would come and tamper with it.

It was a Scarabia student and he was clearly murdered. Azul had a bad feeling about it, so he calls in Idia, saying to come here and check the lounge's cameras.

Again, during this 'sleep hour' the cameras were off, which was wierd, since Azul swore that the lounge cameras were independent of the school ones. He asked Idia to run a few diagnostics on the cameras, but nothing was out of the ordinary, besides the fact that those were manually set to turn off at the 'sleeping hour'.

Malleus doesn't understand all this, so he demands of Azul to tell him why is Idia involved, why there was a literal murder in the lounge and why was Azul all over this? Leona only did the formalities and complied when that student died in his dorm. Why does Azul keep on making things so difficult for police and staff to proceed with a conclusion?

Azul says that something is fishy. That the verdicts are wrong. Crowley is padding up this thing to make it seem like some depressed students just ending it all. Indeed, the Verdict was the very same as in the case of the first victim, which was enough for Azul to link those 2 together.

Malleus was just not understanding anything. Idia had a vague idea, but both were in the dark about wtf is Azul onto. Like this dude has no chill when he clearly needs to rest. :'v

Meanwhile, for Riddle, things were awkward. Now, don't get him wrong, things were pretty messy around now. Still, the main reason for his awkwardness was that he both got to dating Floyd of all people, but the divorce case will commence during the winter holiday, so he'll be obligated to attend and his mother will see what happened to him.

Ortho is all like: 'if you want, we can hack in the legal files and add homicide on your mother's'. Ah yes, the easy way out :3

This time, Lilia sees the winter holiday as fit to have Malleus deal with his romance problems. He has to work with this guy, bcs Sebek can and will unintentionally rizz people, while Silver has that dad approval™ in getting a date.

But Malleus? Malleus would be the whole package, IF he wasn't so incapable of picking social cues. Someone has to educate him and by heavens Lilia would be that person.

So while trying to work on this, they hear that Azul is still looking into the murder case, which brought him and the twins in Scarabia. So seeing it as a perfect setting, Lilia yeets Malleus in there and hopes that maybe Kalim's friendly and outgoing personality will rub onto Malleus a bit.

Malleus comes back 3 days later and explains that an overBlot occurred and the next morning, some poemfiore student was found dead, stabbed by the fountain head. So Azul again jumped on the conspiracy bandwagon. :'D

But what Azul finds, this time, is something odd... More exactly the blood placement. It looked too artificially put. So he deems it fit to ask Jade about it.

Now it turns out, Jade is the ultimate evidence analyst, thus he could determine things such as counterfeits or unnatural marks on things. And indeed, just as Azul predicted, the blood was fake. It was placed there to induce people in error.

Error, which Azul has to note it down meticulously. Upon further investigation, the poemfiore student fit the same criteria as the other 2 before them: a mage with no ultimate. Jade and Floyd do priquire some curiosity, but for now, Azul insists on one thing: keep this overBlot under wraps. Under no circumstances does this need to get public.

And here is where Malleus and Idia come into play. Malleus, bcs he wants to prove that he's a caring fiancé. Idia because Azul promised him a month of 80% discount at the lounge. :'3

One would be foolish to breach Malleus's wish of keeping this under the wraps. And Idia was the best man when it comes to actually keeping the media quiet about this. Azul thought that he had a foolproof plan, thinking that only the scarabia students and Yuu are involved.

He was fucking wrong.

The second that winter holiday ended, outrageous news about the murder were out and about. Everyone and their grandma knew of what happened. They didn't know of the overblot, but they knew of the murder that occurred, or as told by Crowley: 'another student falling on an unfortunate path'.

As for Riddle? He's praying, alright? Lilia and Ortho were the ones who filled him and Epel on the real deal.

So it strikes him as very freaky that he saw the exact same guy on the street, back in the queendom of roses. They meet by coincidence and with some small talk, Riddle found out that the student in question was expelled overnight. He just woke up one day and he was expelled.

So with a bit of digging on ortho's side, our lil thieves group find some info about the past murder victims and even 'visit' them(aka, spying from afar to check if the guy is alive).

Lilia also compiles the news statements and articles from Malleus, who got a copy from Azul's conspiracy board. And they figure that something is wrong. Something is striking way too familiar to their Jumanji session.

So they also share this with Trein. That's when the old man admits that he found the game in the library archive from NRC. He didn't know why it was there, but at that time, the ghosts said that it was unregistered and he was let to keep it for himself. Trein also adds that at that time, it was another headmaster. Crowley came after them, so there was little hope that crow man could be actually useful in recalling shit.

But woe! VDC be upon thy!

Ortho is struggling to have his brother give a proper speech. He is very much contemplating if he should straight up drag his brother in like a kidnapping attempt or bribe him out. Either way it ends up futile because Idia has to pull through a presentation and q&a section.

The others really wanted to help, but Epel was forced by Vil in the VDC group even before the auditions were announced. Lilia and Ortho also were planning to audition, but the latter didn't really have many hopes regarding it, admitting that maybe Vil was a bit freaked out when he saw this cutesy twinkish looking boy punch a hole through a brick wall. He still has a few loose ends when it comes to his super strength. :'3

So they admittedly leave the matter of Idia to Trein and Riddle. Why Trein too? Because Trein was Idia's homewroom teacher and by seven did this man promise he won't retire until he sees this boyflop execute a coherent sentence in front of a crowd. Making Leona graduate is far easier than this. :'3

Also because Riddle is chosen to be in charge of the festivities this year. Hooray! They choose the local fire-breathing semi-kleptomaniac! :D

The odd thing is that Azul is much more nosey this time. At first he excused it as him checking in on Floyd. But Riddle could see that he aimed for something else. Mainly, the documents regarding the festival activities. While all the dormheads had a schedule and basic knowledge of the program, Riddle, as the head organiser, had access to much more information. Information which Azul wanted.

And it wasn't like he could use Floyd as an excuse. Neither Malleus worked. Riddle was a dragon now. So Malleus, as a draconic Fae, is less superior when it comes to respect in the Fae traditionalism. So he must respect the alleged 'territory' of Riddle(his dorm). He only mingles when he feels like his territory(dorm and Azul) is threatened.

But due to his 'bold moves', Malleus is concerned for Azul's wellbeing. It all comes to a great halt when the octavinelle dormhead is apart of an accident on the still in work sets.

This leads to the meeting between Azul and Mr Rosehearts, who won the custody in the divorce case. The man insisted for Azul to stay in the infirmary for a bit, due to the nasty wound at the legs. And Malleus, skeptical at best, had to allow it. So Floyd and Jade often come by to fill Azul in on things around.

Mr Rosehearts does recognise Floyd as his son's boyfriend, but doesn't dab too much into it. He only passively mentioned that Riddle was racking his brain on how to make Idia attend a presentation.

Azul perks at that and asks Floyd to nudge Riddle so that Azul will take care of Idia. If he does that, Riddle would become indebted to him and thus Azul will get access to the extra documents from the festival.

But what Riddle figures instead is that HE should set up Idia on a date, as to convince him out. And what better candidate than 2 smitten Malleus Draconia and Azul Ashengrotto.

So the auditions finish! Ortho and Lilia don't pass. For Ortho, he wasn't that bummed, while Lilia considered that his performance was satisfactory enough. :'3

Epel was out with the VDC camp and, naturally it makes the Shadow fighting job harder. Add to it the stress of the up and coming festival.

When that shit comes tho... We have an overblot. :'3

And after that, Grim goes hairwire, starting a bit of chaos in ramshackle. Add salt to the wound, Ortho comes to the thief group with the news that Grim is wanted by STIX. He is still gripping onto the secret that he is an executive of STIX, but within the group, it's more of a glass closet than anything at this point. The others didn't question how Ortho had access to classified information, so he isn't elaborating :'3

So it turns in a big chase for Grim. There's the ramshackle ultimates, who needed Grim in order to participate to other magic-oriented events(also bcs Grim is their friend), Azul, who figured Grim has something to do with this conspiracy thing going on, the phantom thieves, who wanted to stop this mess, the other dormheads that were appointed by crow man and the Shroud brothers, who got very clear orders to capture Grim or call for backup if this is too hard.

So 5 different motives for 5 different 'groups', but ultimately it ends up with the same target: the rampaging Grim.

Ortho is the one who catches Grim, but not without a hefty fight. So it comes down to a decision: either give Grim to the phantom thieves or hand him to STIX. He ends up with the first one, presenting Riddle with the situation. They need to keep Grim somewhere where the others won't even think to search at. So he suggests the Ignihyde dorm, due to how little is frequented by anyone outside the dorm.

That way, Ortho feels like he's shooting 2 birds with 1 stone.

Except that he doesn't, because after the whole culture festival is wrapped up, charons break in. And Ortho is absolutely done and over with all this bullshit. :'3

So what's going on? Well Riddle tags along Epel, Rook and Yuu towards STIX, leaving Lilia and Trein to cover up for them at school. We get the reveal that the Shroud Bros are in charge of STIX until their parents come back from a very important trip. Ortho bagged his brother to let him handle the guests and while Idia wouldn't want to greet Rook of all people, it was either that or deal with the wants of the 4 NRC problematic kids, so pick your poison, Idia. :'3

1 round of rock paper scissors later and Ortho ends up with the NRC problematic kids. He just mentally prepares for the bigass nag Riddle would give him later. :'3

One thing that was painfully clear for Ortho tho, was that the 'subjects' were very curious about his situation. They knew him as a robot before, so to see him... well... a human... It was mind blowing. Ortho briefly explains that it was a mishap and while he originally was a human on hi-tech life support, now he's healthy and better than ever in terms of physical condition.

But a good point is brought up: Ortho was seen dying during his play in Jumanji. Vil saw him and the others recall that his 'playmates' also experienced those things. They weren't necessarily very private moments unfortunately. For some reason, Azul was all in on this subject, Which Ortho recalled that his big brother mentioned about the Octomer's recent conspiracy theories.

Ortho responds that it was most likely a field curse put on them. He didn't really have the opportunity to test things out, but he figured that as long as he got wounded during a 'level' on the school ground, he would immediately heal the next one. That comes from a small accident, when he went out with Epel and accidentally burnt his finger. It didn't heal upon entering a new level, so Ortho had to bandage it. He may be 'indestructible' in his character description, but that doesn't mean he cannot get scars from burns. He found that out the hard way.

That seems to priquire more of Azul's interest, but he refrains from asking about it.

Idia comes to the rescue tho. Calling mostly Ortho to discuss with him over the data that was done and also to announce that in 12 hours maximum, everyone would be back to NRC with no scratch or trouble if they just wait patiently.

Not even 15 minutes after the short discussion and he'll breaks loose in the form of the ravenous Grim and the Tartarus ghosts acting up again.

Idia does check up with the other surveillance staff and finds out the trouble: an overblot occurred outside. It was a very natural thing, for the phantoms at the upper levels to get a bit agitated when an overblot occurs. What was not alright, was that the ravenous Grim made a nice lil bit of damage to the cooling system of the Tartarus. And by that I mean he completely shredded the main unit in charge of keeping the cooling system active.

Now, in all of this chaos, not being able to find Ortho, Idia is overwhelmed. Everything is chaotic and he has to stop Grim from breaking into Tartarus, which in turn ends up with the Shadows and blots dragging in Idia and cue overblot.

All in all, out of this whole mess, 3 things are happening: 1. Idia finds the truth behind the phantom thieves post his overblot. 2. Azul gains more information on his case and starts to hatch a plan.

3. OLD MAN VIL! OLD MAN VIL!

Returning to NRC, Ortho does tell his gang that he will have to stay back with Idia and clean up the mess. Also get one hell of a nag from their parents. :'3

Ortho also pleads with Idia to not share his secret with anyone. Sure, STIX knows, but it was a miracle the NRC problematic kiddos don't and Ortho would rather have it that way.

Their parents also weren't very happy with the mess they returned to. But... All in all, Idia had to undergo a few checkups and Ortho had to also go through them too, mostly to make sure none of their sons are actually hurt.

Back at NRC, Azul clears up his conspiracy board. The twins and Malleus think that, maybe, Azul is done with all this conspiracy shit.

By the time Idia returns, the conspiracy board was rebooted. New info, old info, all jumbled up and in some kind of order that makes sense only to Azul.

Turns out, the overblot registered wasn't at NRC, but still, a diasomnia student was found dead. Azul didn't miss the investigation, although people did tell him that the ultimates in this field and professionals should be let to do this. Azul was skeptical, because this is exactly what happened before and the verdict was still the same.

Idia wants to actually break it down to Azul: this was bullshit. He had no ultimate that would give him any right to mingle in this very sensitive business. No one knows what Azul's even aiming at, nor does Idia care, just lay down for f's sake and calm down. Everyone went through enough already.

Azul tho, counters, saying that his motive concerning this investigation is well built. This school, like most mages schools, is notorious for overblots and how casualties happen during that time. But now there were no casualties. The overblot victim was saved. Yet people still die. So Azul wants to get to the bottom of this to prevent any chance of it happening to him or his close ones. And by the pattern he has, he fears that in diasomnia, an overblots would occur, then a heartslabyul student will bite the dust.

And Floyd was a heartslabyul student as of present.

Naturally, this alarms both Malleus and Idia. There was a pattern, just how the STIX data implied. Idia was pretty on edge, since if that was true, then he was a victim of an induced overblot. While Malleus was worried for his dorm's sake. Already 1 student was killed, by Azul's evidence, he couldn't handle having someone also overblot.

So Malleus suggests that Azul should get in contact with Rosehearts quick, seeing how this morbid pattern points towards him. Idia tho, brings this news to Ortho to pass on.

There was a criteria that Azul discovered in this wired string of events: a mage with ultimate overblots, then the next day, a mage from the next dorm with no ultimate is found dead and the cycle is repeated. This year it seems to have started with savanaclaw and it will end with heartslabyul by Azul's calculations.

Lilia also shares with the group the fact that his magic has started to weaken. He was old, so he figured it was time to retire. His persona could hold him oh so long, but even he had to admit defeat at one point.

And while our thieves group and Trein do console Lilia on the matter, nobody was as devastated as Malleus. With the new information at hand, the Fae prince thought Lilia was likely to overblot and boy has his senses went in all mf directions. He tried to scramble for any excuse to keep Lilia here, to keep the dorm morale high.

As a goodbye gift, the Jumanji group decide to give Lilia the board game. It was ripped off its magic, but it would be a nice memory that Lilia could hold onto.

This prompts Malleus to also think of a farewell gift, when he sees the board game and Lilia explains that it was a gift from his buddies. He brings this problem to Azul, mentioning the board game passively.

And that makes Azul finally click in things. He found out from Idia about the allegedly alive victims he was looking into. And now, with Jumanji put in perspective, Azul realised just what big piece he missed in his puzzle.

So he calls in Rosehearts. He wants all the details about the game from Riddle. He insisted that it was of utmost importance. And while Azul was known to be a 2 faced scammer, Floyd advised Riddle to just tell him what he wants to hear. No one really bothers with his nuts investigation anymore. :'3

So Riddle endorses in this saga and gives to Azul the rundown of what happened. And that seems to make Azul pleased enough. He's more than excited to finally get somewhere and point things towards a result.

While that happens, Lilia is having a farewell party prepared. Everyone chimes in a bit to help and keep the mood up. And when that one comes, well...

It's a rave, alright... U-Ub

During the party, Jade and Floyd are sitting aside more. When confronted about it by Riddle, the 2 admit that they have no idea what Azul's planning. He was very hurried today especially. Something about 'catching the mastermind'.

But, their lil party moment is busted when Malleus comes in, proudly here to present his gift towards Lilia. And by how his magic was used around, naturally the students knew where this was going.

The other dormheads and our thieves team do try to stop Malleus before it was too late. Heck... Even personas were up on the table.

Their saving graces come in the form of one Azul Ashengrotto, who came in here all disheveled, demanding for everyone to stop, especially Malleus. He does stun down Malleus by using the engagement mark. Aka, stabbing his hand to also induce a shock to the latter.

Azul reveals that the overblot is staged. That whatever they will do, Malleus is set to overblot weather he overuses his magic or not. So right now, he's on a tight chronometer.

What Azul reveals to the whole crowd goes as follows: the overblots in NRC were all staged. Someone was staging them and stacking them up for a long time, using them as means to murder unsuspecting students and blame it on the overblot. It was effective, until Leona became the first overblot with no casualties. Then the little monotony was broken. The only odd thing was the lack of news coverage or how the families of the deceased didn't chime in. Then he was brought forth the Jumanji game. And by putting pieces head to head and looking through some records, Azul figured who was in charge of this manslaughter.

But before he could actually reveal who did it, he is stabbed from behind. The attacker was a random student, fully under the control of some kind of mania, who immediately seemed to come to his senses and not being able to discern anything. He was just as horrified as the rest of the crowd. The twins rush to Azul's aid. Idia summoned some bandages and also came to the aid.

Malleus? Oh Malleus was furious. You mean to tell him someone attempted to push him to overblot, tried to use him to harm innocent people, then is covering their trails by some hypnotized student harming his fiancé? He may not know who that someone is, but sure as hell is he dumping his initial plan off the window.

So we do get an overblot. But instead of dream adventures, we have a hugeass dragon rampaging in search for the criminal. There were people whom Malleus (triggering his sanity back) protects them. The rest are on their own I guess. :\

That's when we find out 2 things about Floyd:

1. He's the ultimate attendant.

2. That tittle was given to him because he is Riddle's velvet room attendant, thus he could use the glossary to summon personas that Riddle discovered up until now.

Cue very epic ass battle. :3

During that chaos, Azul does try to grip on his last bit of consciousness to tell Jade that the one behind all this is Crowley. He doesn't know why, but he knows that Crowley needs to be caught.

So after knocking some sense in Malleus, Sebek and Silver manage to catch Crowley and present him before Malleus. At Lilia's insistence, the Fae prince doesn't immediately smite him down and indulges to give crow man a few seconds to find a good enough excuse for not getting smited this very second. And of Malleus wasn't going to thunder up his ass, surely the rest of the school body will.

And, surprisingly, Crowley accuses Riddle first. He was the one who messed the order by not overblotting. If he did it, then he would have by now completed his plan and Azul would've been too late. He used the Jumanji game as a tester and our group were the fortunate guinea pigs that survived. He used despair induced students to gather up further victims to test on his rituals ripped from the game's mystical energy.

His plan? Revive Malenoir.

Yes... It's that moment of 'Luke, I'm your father.', which makes it a shock for Malleus. Really the new revelation added so much hatred to Lilia that he did the kill, not Malleus. He straight up decapitated the guy. And his attitude towards the screaming mob was to 'tough up' and give to forgetting this events.

With this, Lilia decides to properly finish the school, not trusting literally anyone to take care of his sons right. He may be old, but he's a vampire with a badass persona. He'll manage. :3

Despite the anticlimactic turn, Idia gets ahold of the blot stone before Grim. He will give it to STIX for study, but alas, with no more Crowley, a new headmaster is going to be elected.

So that would be a happy ending. :3

Azul still ain't getting an ultimate tho x3

[nathank77]

2/13/25

11:17 a.m Added One important passage 11:30 a.m

I know Elise has been on my blog. Part of me thinks she reads it everyday. There is apart of me that thinks she had feelings for me and is stuck in an emotionally abusive relationship/a controlling relationship. Her kids from what i understand, their bio dad is not in state but idk. If that's true then her husband for all intents and purposes are their only father figure. Their dad. Money is tough regardless of your job and the more money you make, the more they take. So for the sake of her children and having financial stability she could be stuck in an unhappy marriage (and thats best case other than her actually being happy and I truly hope she is happy, I just mean if she isn't happy, it just being an unhappy marriage is the best case out of potential negative options.)

Anyways. Idk what she thinks of me. I got a couple idea. For one I've noticed patterns. I don't want to give it away but there are things I cannot explain without assuming she's on my blog.... however..... I don't know what her being on my blog actually means.

Is she afraid of me and just watching what i do/collecting evidence incase I lose it? But why would she "prove" she's on my blog in that case? To get me to act out and give her what she needs to press charges? But does that make sense? I mean think about it, if i was scared of someone stalking me like Stacey, I mean I avoided her. I'd never prove i was watching her, bc I'd want her to do her and forget about me... or I'd want to collect the evidence I needed without setting her up.. bc I'm not a malicious person... or I'd I guess potentially "lead" her on to get her to do something that I could present to a police officer and get a protective order. However Elise doesn't need a protective order against me. I have Dr's offices where I could go to her town on a regular basis... but THANKFULLY they have offices in other towns... so I've gone to the other towns. I mean worst case if I had to go to one place and they had no other offices I'd do it... but I mean I'd rather go to new haven than go to her town or not go at all and find another provider... but I got like 3 Dr's I could be going to her town for them..... but I chose other locations and trust me they aren't local enough for it to be like well obv you'd stay in your town..

Anyways, is she like I fucking care about you but my hands are tied bc of the email and the case? Then why the fuck did she block me? I've come up with some ideas.

1) to give me the option to report her before the statue of limitations is up bc if we become anything more than what we were if it doesn't work out... I mean then it's just done... and we can't go back to what we were if we become anything else....

I mean if I was her maybe i wanted to risk testing how loyal the guy is to me. Would he fuck up my life bc I clicked a few buttons? Bc if he would we were never meant to be more than what we were.

Maybe i feel bad for everything and I wanted to give him the option to report me and I also needed to know if he chose to see me as person to person or a therapists. If he saw me as person to person then he would let me walk out of his life. Maybe he would think about reporting me but he wouldn't do it bc he would treat me as if I was any other person who chose to leave him.

2) maybe she hates me and wanted to hurt me.

3) maybe she doesn't want me to think she's showing up for me ever again.

4) maybe she doesn't want me to think she's going to talk to me there.

5) maybe she feels bad for me bc my mental health worsened and I ruined it and she can't forgive me. Maybe she is like Nathan you went crazy. You're better now but I mean it's gone too far and I can't pretend it didn't happen.

-I sorta think it's this one.

6) maybe it's a little of all of it.

Idk if she had feelings for me but tbh it doesn't matter bc we would start as friends and see where it goes if she's single and if she isn't single then we would just be friends if she wants me be in her life.

All I know is I hope I'm wrong and she's happy in her marriage. All I know is I hope she shows up for me and we can be friends.

I have to believe there is potential for love even if I have no reason to. And the thing is i do have a few reasons. There are things I cannot explain without assuming she's on my blog... however that doesn't mean she has feelings for me... and I cannot determine her intentions. All I know is I hope she's happy and I hope one day she makes the decision to be in my life regardless of the capacity.

[jawsinsdisguise]

Hi everyone! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to complete the video today. I made a good chunk of progress, but to avoid burn out - I'm saving the rest for a later time. Have a sneak peak with a new character to be introduced in the story of the Scrapped! To make up for me not getting the video done(believe me, I'm at 150+ layers on ibis ALONE) I am leaving a "log" of lore of sorts! It sort of ties into the video, and is told in the perspective of the Scrapped's creator. Now. Ahem. Let me get into my narrating pants..

Strange, you don't remember any tape being labeled like this. "DR. J.W." Your curiosity gets the better of you, and you pop the tape into a tape recorder to hear it's contents.

"*inaudible*— No - you're the one who doesn't understand ME! You all needed MY services, MY expertise, and now that you stuck your toes in, you wanna get out all of a sudden! *Sigh.* The show was struggling to stay afloat, and I fixed the problem. You only brought the problem back by not trusting me. Jawsin singlehandedly helped alleviate the show's budgeting issues - imagine what we could've done had you let me work this out. *Inaudible arguing from across the room*— Oh, that is rich! Coming from the person who wanted to create Toon life in the first place! Life doesn't just magically appear out of thin air - there is a price to everything! I showed you what was possible with the test dummies and resources you gave me. I created life singlehandedly and you're still upset! *Inaudible*— Monsters? You're calling them monsters? Take a look in the mirror. You've locked them away because you're too scared that someone seeing them will mean the end of the Dandy's World franchise as we know it beyond cancellation! Every cruel thing I did to them - I did on your orders! Now, here you are, FIRING ME, and taking all my research and hard work and running off with it to create your own "moral" Toons! . . Fine then. I will pack up my things and leave. Just give me a day. *Door slam, a few moments pass before glass is heard shattering and paper being scattered.* Filthy! RATS!! If only they hadn't confiscated my work, I'd have burned it along with this entire museum. The nerve to lock my life's greatest work away where no one can see them . . But perhaps - this mustn't be the end. The . . Ichor, I used to create these so-called "Scrapped Toons". It's malleable. Formable . . *Laugh.* Of course! Why didn't I think of it before! I'll just leave a batch of Cell's leaves to dissolve into the supply. This whole museum is a gold mine of this substance. Changing their mind, changing their behaviors. Making them no better than the so-called beasts they accused me of creating. I will miss my creations as I would if I had sons, but I won't ever miss the hours I spent slaving over a desk trying to save a failing franchise and breathe new life into it. Goodbye, Gardenview . . May the name Jason Wright haunt you until your last brick crumbles. "

...The tape then shuts off, leaving you with time to reflect.