#(he's a little forest-dwelling weirdo)

[vampirecatboy]

Love how with most of the ranger specific dialogue options that I've gotten, people have immediately shut me down

truly the forest-dwelling weirdo experience

[ourolite]

　　　　 ༅ 𝒞irce 𝒴ué'li 𐙚 ˙

♱ all sobriquets + pseudonyms. ࿓ fang, master yuè’li, sir, sir circe, sir yuè’li, pup, puppy, circe love, circe dear, rubber bird, latex predator, leathered bird, (that fucking) raven, circo, mr.circo, circe sir, freaky fang, freaky fuck, chupacabra, hijo chupa, circe, master, lean and lovely, my string(s), selenite scholar, smart ass, sandalphon, bread and butter, cutie or clementine, philosopher friend, big guy, count yue'li, tall curled and handsome, perrito, any subtle positive adjective, circe, blind bat, weirdo, fucking weirdo, garlic breath, werewolf, (my) garlic knot (from neso <3), the werewolf, kitty litter, the guitar playing asanbosam, mr. lee, lee sir, crazy, the asanbosam, handsome, mr. munka-munka, trenchie, trench coat, renfield, you, bloody mary, beauty or beast, ma'am.

ᰍ overall notables. plays an electric guitar (named it delune). has a bloodhound named babydoll and a doberman named yìzé. works as a part-time music teacher for 2nd - 3rd graders, but recently started going to school for a career in interior design. asanbosam’s (the type of vampire he is) are more agile in trees and high places, so he’s kind of clumsy otherwise. often recommends products (notably the brand anzhong, originated by xīn’yuè ànzhōng), random organization tips, or even seasonings. considers calling off of work a lot, though he knows if he does they’re bound to fire him “this time”. circe also doesn’t socialize too much, and he’s very territorial about his home (and so is yìzé— wonder where he gets that from). he’s a little too territorial actually, seeing as circe usually sucks the blood of/eats any trespassers that ignore his precaution signs, in au’s that are mythical allowing. he does so by jumping down from a nearby tree and pinning them. (even friends get tackled if they don’t give him a heads up that they’re on the way!) ᰍ standard physical facts. 6'3. retractable wings with a 20 foot span, which are black and grey with red, pink and silver undertones, and retractable iron hooks for feet. tips of his hair turn auburn when he’s experiencing intense emotions. always smells like anzhong products- particularly colognes. has a chinese tattoo on his inner forearm that translates to damu héxián qín. his nails are painted black, but they get chipped easily because he’s really hands-on daily. lastly, he has a deep, relaxed and very distinctive voice which can be heard here!

დ genshin au notables! he’s spoken of in legends and campfire stories, but as “fang” rather than circe. legends speak of him hooking his prey from treetops and consuming them like he’s the devil herself. however, as of now this is more of a myth. he’s a clean eater, hehe. these stories originated from a period of his past where he had no control of his primal instincts, leaving him to appear as a beastly night terror to all, which he was. presently, he dwells in a custom built cottage in the forest of sumeru, peacefully enjoying his solitude and pleasures. circe has various signs throughout the terrain which warn people of trespassing; company isn’t appreciated in excess. trespassers in the forest rarely come back out alive. not many others live nearby, either. his only neighbors are xipe’va, whom his bloodhound enjoys relaxing with on the porch (his doberman, not so much). tighnari and love, who’s a minor oc of neso’s, are somewhat nearby though, performing their forest ranger duties and such, so he hangs with them now and again. he’s also good friends with jihane, whom lives in sumeru city and often discusses philosophy with him. oh, and his two boyfriends, indigo and xīn’yuè, live in liyue and inazuma respectively.

დ spider-verse au notables! n/a (temporarily).

დ studio ghibli au notables! his position here depends on the movie, so i won't describe each one here, as it's not all definitive due to my experimental nature. he'll more than likely be written in tales from earthsea, the wind rises, howl's moving castle, and my neighbor totoro.

დ modern au notables! he’s currently going to school at a local trade school in california. he lives in xīn’yuè’s penthouse with him and indigo, as well as blumei, maju, babydoll, yìzé, and (once in a while) yúyīn. he sleeps in with indigo whenever he can and enjoys quiet mornings where the girls are at school, the dogs don’t have any zoomies, and everything from the cleanliness of him and the house to the smell of his coffee is just right. however, xīn’yuè is always forcing him to go to work, scolding his lethargy and indigo’s encouragement of it. luckily, no one has to remind circe to be on time for his interior designing classes, as he’s genuinely passionate about it. since he’s not a vampire here, and instead just has traits that resemble a vampire, circe enjoys halloween and spooky themes. he also bites his lovers when bored, was naturally born with his canines being pointer than usual, and is scarily skilled at climbing and maneuvering on the monkey bars or climbing trees. he loves evening/night walks, partially because his skin is still sensitive to excessive heat. the california sun will provoke an eczema-like condition just like in mythical au’s but to a normal extent. he’d rather get caught in the fricking rain.

დ jujutsu kaisen au notables! n/a (temporarily).

ᰍ age appearance. twenty-five (25). ᰍ birthday. may 9th. ᰍ nationality, race, + ethnicity. (varies per au), asanbosam, + senegalese and chinese. ᰍ gender, prns, + sexuality. male (amab), he/him, + omnisexual.

ᰍ sun sign. taurus. ᰍ MBTI. istp-a, the assertive virtuoso.

ᰍ likes. his electric guitar (delune— yes, he named her); playing the guitar is considered his biggest hobby, adoration and talent. his old doberman, yìzé, and his bloodhound babydoll. his cottage. alone time. blood oranges. ironically, loves garlic bread + garlic based dishes (especially pasta). scaring trespassers, or making his friends jump with jump-scares and shoulder-taps for a good laugh. coal black, wine red, and sometimes pink! strawberry icecream. philosophy and sacred music, especially within the selenian race. feminism. boots. silver jewelry. having his hands in aesthetically pleasing positions (pockets, behind his head while laying down,arms crossed, etc). anzhong products. people who use manners. sweethearts, but especially male sweeties (he just wants to pinch their cheeks ugh). MOTHAFUCKING INDIGO and MOTHAFUCKING XĪN! ᰍ dislikes. random space invaders/leeches. too many home guests (or any really). yellow. stalkers/yanderes/yandere-coded people (specifically when targeted at him). pushy people. paranoia, pessimism + assumptions. difficult/slow learners (as a music teacher he struggles with younger kids that don’t process so easily). jellies and jams. the taste of vanilla. misogyny and misandry. bad hair days. getting stuff under his nails, especially when freshly done. vengeance, gossip + untrustworthiness. cooking for people, especially when there’s a lot of em’— no, even worse if they’re too picky.. bicycling. hot, summer days. being caught in the rain without a stylish umbrella. loud noises. dogs that bark too much. explaining/over-explaining himself.

･ﾟﾟ❥ quotes.

After It Rains ୨୧ “Jeez, what a mud bath. *Looks at his dogs.* Glad you two are out of your piglet puppy days heh heh. Guys? *Theyre walking away from him and he’s holding back laughter.* Was it something I said? Come ahhnn! I’m saying you liked the mud!”

About Jihane ୨୧ “The last time we spoke she foretold that my aura was yellow indefinitely. She was wrong. .. It’s red. *Looks off at something in the distance and pauses.* I’m not delusional.”

About Circe: Signature Dish ୨୧ “Nah. That’s a myth, just a little misconception. I use garlic in a lot of my dishes, especially pasta. The best kind I’ve tried thus far? Cherub Sin, easily. It’s a faultless dish. I personally believe the best noodle for any garlic and parmesan pasta is angel hair, and that dish recognizes it perfectly.”

Good Night ୨୧ “Hm.. Remember the night routine I showed you. Ice. Your. Face. Top priority, right? Alright then, and I bid you goodnight. *Nods off salute-like with two fingers and walks away.*”

oc masterlist. extended details. visualizer. character ai.

⑅ leman productions. all rights fucking reserved, do not plagiarize.

[writing-gifts]

okay im back with the 7th part of the incubus!doppio au! this chapter is really long compared to the other ones!

also I made the decision to make reader asexual in this story, I mentioned it on my blog already but saying at again since it’s mentioned this chapter. so there definitely wont be any smut in the future 

AO3 Link

List of parts

@wasabi-mommy @mistabrainr0t @the-average-mastermind 

-----

It’s been 2 weeks since you last saw Doppio. He was most definitely avoiding you since you snapped at him, kind of. You realized you had upset him right after it happened too, but you didn't expect him to stop visiting because of it.

So when you weren't at work or trying to socialize with coworkers, you were by yourself. Being alone wasn't necessarily bad, but the whole time you'd end up dwelling on Doppio and stressing yourself out.

You tried to consider the positives, which there was one; Diavolo hadn't shown up either. But still, you missed your friend. And at this point, you were fed up with your thoughts going in circles. So instead of moping around your living room today too, you decide to go to the only other person you know nearby.

Retracing the steps you took with Doppio to get back home after your visit with the local witch--Was he the only witch in this area? You didn't know--you find your way back to the clearing in the forest with the giant lake and cabin.

Bruno looks surprised to find you at his door but lets you in. “I wasn't expecting you to come back.”

You shrug.

"By the way--" he says, "--it would be best not to wander too much in this forest. Many fae reside deeper within it and we don't want you running into any of them."

You nod since you didn't plan on going anywhere you hadn't been shown before anyway.

The comfortable looking couches around the fireplace are just what you need after that long walk. But as soon as you fall back into one of the loveseats, something sharp pricks your ass.

"Ow!" You shoot up and turn around. "What the hell…?"

A small pin you hadn't noticed was already occupying the seat. You pick it up and when Bruno sees what's in your hand he sighs.

"Okay, which one of you did it?" He sounds exasperated but stern.

There's no response and you wonder if the witch is talking to himself.

His brows furrow and he frowns, clearly frustrated by something.

He takes the pin from you. "Sorry about that ____."

"Uhh, it's fine? Accidents happen." You make sure there's nothing else in the seat and sit down. "...Who were you talking to?"

"My kids."

"You have kids?" You have never heard any noise or seen anything in the house that would imply that. Were they hiding?

Bruno drops the pin in the drawer of the small, wooden table next to the couch. He then takes a seat in the loveseat across from yours. “Well in a way. It's more like I just let them reside here.”

You were still confused but Bruno continues speaking before you can inquire more.

"Why'd you decide to visit?"

"I'm going to be honest. I was feeling a little lonely."

"No visitors?"

You rub at your arm and your slight frown becomes a full pout. "Yea…"

You didn't even have a certain cat anymore to help break the silence at home. Of course you weren't going to admit that part.

"Well that's not necessarily a bad thing."

"No. I already told you I want Doppio to stay with me, so it actually is."

Bruno hums. "I'm just trying to help you ____."

"You think you're helping me? Things don't have to go your way you know."

The witch looks completely unfazed by your words. “One day you'll understand and hopefully without you getting hurt.”

You deeply exhale. Talking to Bruno reminded you of a brick wall and you couldn't even find it in you to get mad.

"Wow…"

He raises a brow. "What?"

“You're stubborn as hell.”

"The same goes to you."

The two of you are quiet after that and the witch watches you. You felt like he was trying to see into your head and it made sitting still hard.

“Do you need something?” you ask.

“You're the one in my house ____.”

“Yea but you don't have to stare so hard...”

“You came here for another reason. Tell me.”

Caught off guard you take longer than usual to respond. You didn't know how Bruno could tell but it was best if you just said what you needed to instead of beating around the bush.

"Okay...I did. I was wondering about the exorcism, but not for Doppio--for Diavolo." You look down at your lap. "Do you think it's possible to exorcise him without hurting Doppio? I'm not even really sure how their whole situation works to be honest.”

You look to Bruno wondering if he had any answers.

"....A demon possessing a demon--that's what's most likely happening."

"Huh? That sounds strange."

"It is very peculiar, but I can't say it's impossible. So maybe there's a way to do an exorcism like you wanted."

Bruno's familiar swims by, above the fireplace and his eyes follow the eel. "Leone told me you two don't get along," he mentions.

"Me and Diavolo? Well yea. I'm sure you know he wants to kill me."

"Yes." His eyes land back on you. "That's why I'm not completely onboard with your idea."

"Okay but don't you think it would be better to at least get rid of one demon who definitely wants to hurt me instead of none?"

"I can't guarantee it; there's a chance it won't work and we'll only piss him off. Then you'd possibly be in more danger. It would make more sense and be much easier to get rid of both of them."

You frown but you weren't giving up. "Diavolo already has it out for me though. So not trying because of that is kinda pointless."

The rebuttal you just gave was weak and you weren't sure you could come up with anymore. So the longer Bruno takes to reply the more nervous you become.

"Listen, I'm not saying I'll do this but I'll at least look into it," he finally says.

You perk up. Even though you couldn't say he seemed convinced, you could at least work with it!

"T-Thank you! I'll even help!" You stand up eager to start. "Where do you want me to look first?" you ask.

From then on, you spend your off days at Bruno's home looking for any information about exorcism within his many books. A lot of which were in languages you didn't understand.

Surprising to you, Bruno turns out to be pretty good company when he isn't actively trying to get rid of Doppio. And you quickly find yourself enjoying coming over. It was the perfect distraction too.

You also now had the chance to really take in how cool the witch's house was. It felt like you were at the aquarium whenever you walked through it! So at first, you did a lot of that whenever you needed a break. Bruno's familiar which you found out was named Angeela, would swim along with you and keep you company. And even though there were no other fish it was still really relaxing.

But soon, strange things started to occur. Doors closing behind you. Items falling on top of you. It happened one too many times and started to freak you out so you brought it up with Bruno. It seemed to stop right after that though so you shrugged it off and decided to focus more on researching from then on.

During one of your visits, you focus a little too hard and accidentally end up staying too late. And there's no way for you to traverse back home safely so Bruno insists you stay in the spare guest room.

After dinner, you're ready to quietly head to bed for the night, but while you're cleaning your face, Abbacchio walks into the bathroom.

You raise a brow at the cat. You'd only seen hints of him this whole week. "What the hell?"

"Is there a problem?" The cat jumps up on the counter barely looking your way.

"Yea, you just walked in here without warning. What if I was changing you weirdo?"

"Then you wouldn't have left the door cracked open."

You roll your eyes and go back to what you're doing. "Where did you even come from?"

"None of your business. You don't want me around you anyway so it shouldn't matter."

"I said my house. I don't care what you do outside of it."

You wash off your hands and grab the tooth brush Bruno gave you. It's quiet except for the sink water running and the sound of you brushing your teeth. But you feel like you have to talk with Abbacchio in the room.

You spit in the sink. “Umm...is there something you need from me?”

The cat’s tail twitches before he answers. “Just making sure you don't do anything stupid."

Your lips purse. You were literally just trying to get ready for bed.

"Okay?" You go back to brushing.

The cat huffs. "You should stop trying to keep Doppio around. You're literally wasting time--"

“Ah, that's why you came in here," you interrupt through a mouthful of foam. You spit. "....I don't understand why everyone keeps doing this.”

"Doing what?" The cat sounds and looks irritated.

"Telling me this and that! I'm going to stay with Doppio and nothing you, Bruno, or Diavolo say is going to chase me off."

You expect to get lectured some more but Abbacchio glares at you. "Please don't tell me you aren't actually in love with him?" he asks.

"What are you talking about? I just want to stay with him because we're friends."

"You barely know him. It must be 'love'...or lust."

You shake your head. "Lust's definitely not it."

Abbacchio tilts his head but you weren't exactly in the mood to explain asexuality right now, especially to a feline, so you leave it at that and go back to brushing your teeth.

He squints at you. “Okay then. You're definitely in denial about your feelings though.”

"Can't friends care about each other--"

"Yes but that takes years. You're ready to throw your safety to the wind for someone you've known for a few months. You need to be careful before this crush gets out of hand."

You let out the most frustrated sigh. "Doppio wouldn't hurt me. I trust him."

"Hmph, you don't even understand this world but you think you know better."

You pause unsure how to respond. You wanted to say something back but he unfortunately had a point. This supernatural stuff was still new to you and you were honestly processing it kind of slowly.

Since you knew you weren't getting in the last word with Abbacchio and you were tired of being scolded by a cat, you rinse off your toothbrush and leave the restroom.

----

You open your eyes and stare at the unfamiliar ceiling for a several seconds before getting out of bed. You forgot to bring a glass of water with you and there was no way you would be able to get back to sleep with such a dry throat. So you creep out of your room.

The blueish glow from the tanks help light your way down the hallway to the kitchen. You see Angeela pass by before turning back and swimming along with you.

You smile before whispering. "Just getting water.”

The eel continues to follow you all the way to the kitchen. You rub at your arms once you enter to fend off the unusual chill in the room. Unfortunately, this was common in Bruno’s home. You suspected a draft problem but the witch didn’t seem to care.

Angeela swims out of view while you hurry and look for a glass so you can get back to your warm bed.

Once you find one in the cupboards, you fill it with water from the sink's tab and quench your thirst before filling it again. You move to leave but stop at the kitchen's entrance and look back at the refrigerator. You might as well eat something while you’re here.

Ready to grab the leftover food Bruno made for dinner, you open the fridge and scream. The glass you’re holding falls from your hand and shatters on the floor. And you slam the fridge door shut.

Abbacchio’s the first to appear in the kitchen. “There better be a good reason you’re yelling!"

“Something in the fridge--A HEAD--I don't know!”

Right after that Bruno rushes in. “What's wrong ____?”

“Something weird in the fridge--a head! I was just looking in the fridge because I was kinda hungry!”

Bruno pinches the bridge of his nose. “Fugo and Narancia come out now!”

A second passes before something phases into form in front of the annoyed witch. Then right after something small and sparkly flies out from behind the dish rack next to the sink. But you've barely registered the second thing cause there’s a little ghost kid standing there!

He had a tealish glow and you could see right through him.

A shiver runs up your spine and you want to run out of this cabin.

“Do either of you want to explain why ____ says they saw a head in the fridge?” Bruno asks. His breath is visible from how cold it's gotten.

The ghost looks down at his feet avoiding eye contact. The glowing light next to the ghost didn’t seem keen on answering either.

“Brats,” Abbacchio says before walking out of the kitchen.

"Narancia t-told me to…" the ghostly child's voice sounds watery and distant.

Bruno sighs before looking at you. “I’m sorry.”

“I...It’s okay,” you lie.

And you guess Bruno can tell because he stares at you strangely before speaking again. “Well I suppose I should introduce you to them since we all are here. This is Fugo." He points to the ghost. "And this is Narancia.”

You risk getting closer to the glowing small creature flying in the air and realize that they look like a shrunken child with wings.

“A...pixie?” you ask. You can barely believe your eyes but should you be surprised at this point?

"I think...I need to go to sleep," you say.

“Okay,” Bruno says, understanding. “Are you sure you're fine?”

“Uh huh.” You’re about to speed walk to the guest room, but remember the glass on the floor.

“Oh wait do you have a broom?" you ask the witch. "I-I'm sorry…”

“I'll take care of it.”

You nod and go back to your room. You wouldn't be wandering around Bruno's home again at night, if you ever stayed the night again that is.

-----

When you open your front door to walk out, you immediately tense up in surprise. Doppio's standing there, holding the key you gave him.

"Doppio!"

" ____--"

The both of you stop talking.

The incubus frowns and fidgets with the key in his hand. "Er ____...I'm sorry for keeping things from you! I really missed you.”

You hum but can't get any words out. For some reason you felt uncomfortable and timid.

“____?”

You clench your hands next to your sides and force yourself to speak. “I shouldn't have said what I did and especially not that harshly. I-I'm sorry and I missed you too.”

Doppio seems to relax but you stand in place awkwardly, struggling to make proper eye contact.

“That's okay ____. I understand why you were upset.”

"Yea but still…"

"Um, is it okay if we hug?" Doppio asks.

His expression is shy but he doesn't look away which makes you smile. You nod and open your arms. Your friend walks into them wrapping his own arms around you and giving you a squeeze. He smells like something sugary but you can't place it.

Once you're satisfied, you let your arms drop and pull away from the incubus.

“Do you want to come inside?”

He tilts his head. “Weren't you heading somewhere though?”

“I can go later. It’s not urgent.”

Doppio nods and walks past you inside. You shut the door and the two of you sit down on the couch.

“So what were you up to the last several weeks?” A question that you hoped would make any left over awkwardness disperse.

“I was on business for the boss.”

“Of course...Maybe he’ll finally stop being so angry with me.”

Doppio looks confused before his eyes widen, "Not that type of business!"

“Oh! What type of stuff then?"

"Um...making sure people stick to agreements. I don't think you'd want me to go into detail."

He gives a bit of a forced laugh. So you move on.

"Hey, you're okay right?” you ask.

“Hm?”

“Like you're not dying or anything? Diavolo said you would just lose your powers, but I just want to make sure.”

“Oh that. Yeah, I'm okay! I don't need sex to stay alive...”

You nod. “I guess I'm still trying to wrap my head around this incubus stuff--well demon stuff in general." You suddenly remember the events that happened at Bruno's house recently. “Actually, supernatural stuff overall. Soooo...just wondering, is it possible to exorcise a demon out of a demon?”

He grimaces slightly. “____, what are you trying to do?”

“I'm just speculating, but maybe we could get rid of Diavolo.”

Doppio's eyes widen. "N-no way. Why?"

”Don't you want to? He's literally leeching off of you.”

You liked Doppio...a lot and you wanted him to stay by your side but dealing with his alter ego frankily sucked. You had been able to tolerate him (barely) but after not having him come in and threaten you for the past couple weeks, any qualms (if there were any to begin with) about getting rid of Diavolo were gone. You just needed to get Doppio onboard.

“I don't know…I know he can be a lot but he's not all bad.”

You stare unbelieving at him. “Doppio, I think you might be codependent. He's literally the worst type of person.”

He avoids your eyes. "Well technically he's not even a person--"

“Demon whatever, he still sucks.”

"I don't think this is a good idea ____. He might be listening right now!"

That wasn't about to stop you. And even though Doppio didn't like to act like it, he had more control over this body than his "boss". The fact that Diavolo hasn't appeared to rip you apart proved that.

“If it doesn't work you can put all the blame on me. He won't hurt his own vessel anyways.”

“I'm not worried about me ____."

You smile a bit at his concern. "If we get this to work then you'll never have to worry about me."

Doppio sighs. "I guess...How are you even planning to do this?”

“Well, I've been visiting Bruno while you were gone.”

The incubus immediately looks disgruntled.

“Don't make that face okay. I actually managed to get him to consider doing things a different way.”

“B-But what if he's just using this as a way to get our guard down?”

“We are just researching. I haven't agreed to anything just yet. I really just want to know if it's possible…And wouldn't it be nice to have your own body?”

Doppio nods but still looks unsure.

“So let's just see what happens?” you say hoping to give him that little push he needs.

"Well if it's just research...it can't hurt to look into it?"

You nod and smile. “Right! I'll let you know if anything comes up.”

[thewalkingdead-imagines]

TWD - Negan Imagine ~ “Morning Star”

Imagine about the the 11th episode of season 10.

Summary: While the Reader prepares along with the rest of Hilltop for the upcoming battle, Negan has no idea that his wife is actually inside the community Alpha plans to destroy.

Bright sunbeams shone down on you as the carriage beneath you jerked a little, shaken by the potholes in the old roads that winded through the forest that lead you closer to Hilltop. You hadn’t even thought that you would be able to join the others at first, not with the staff shortage you currently had in the infirmary anyway, but things had turned out in your favor. The last three victims of Dante’s water contamination were doing pretty well again but the whole act had other consequences than just sick patients. Dante’d done a pretty good job on using, even wasting, the majority of Alexandria’s most important meds, had made sure that not much was left after and especially with the Whisperers sitting in your necks, it was more important than ever to stock up again. So that was your job now, getting new meds, judging which ones you needed and which ones you could pass on, and if things worked out, maybe recruit someone from Hilltop to come back with you to the infirmary to have another pair of helping hands. And you were glad about that, you needed to get out of the infirmary and Alexandria in general for some time. In the mostly empty infirmary you had too much time to let your thoughts get the best of you and whirl up new worries about Negan. They wouldn’t be gone now, for sure not, but being distracted in an environment you weren’t as used to as Alexandria was hopefully a good thing. Sighing you leaned back into the small pillow that was protecting your back from pressing directly into the rough wooden backrest and glanced around, watching as the green trees passed by. It was beautiful outside and part of you hoped that it could lift your mood a little. You were close to spiraling deeper into that dark hole with all those worries about your husband, the grief about Siddiq, the frustration about this whole Dante thing pooling within you and mixing with the shock of last night, you knew that, and you didn’t want to hit it’s bottom nor dive just a tiny bit deeper into it. So instead of dwelling more on your thoughts you tried to catch some of the conversation that was going on in the front of the wagon, still circling around the cave like it had a couple moments ago. “It was...”,you could hear Aaron say in his front seat as he leaned back to glimpse at Rosita,”It was Carol. There was some dynamite in the cave, we agreed on not risking it...she took it anyway.” He scoffed slightly, clearly frustrated while you could only think back at what had happened in the night you’d met Alpha at the border and her shot that would have almost resulted the war to break out earlier. She was troubled after Henry’s death, you got that and you didn’t even want to imagine what it was like to lose a child. Hell, you would do anything to get the head of the bitch that took it as well and you wouldn’t judge her on this but anger and grief were a dangerous mix, and it was putting people she cared about in danger, and that’s where shit like that had to be stopped. “We should look forward now though. That’s what’s important”, you heard Aaron quickly add, as if he was trying to not make the mess bigger than it already was before you glanced away from the conversation again and glimpsed back at the green forest around you, hoping that Hilltop wouldn’t be all to far away anymore. About a half day had passed since Beta had come back from his unsuccessful mission to bring the little spy back and in all honesty, in these kinda terms things couldn’t have worked better for Negan. The boss lady was definitely pissed at the weirdo giant for failing his mission which only let Negan rise in the skin freak ranks and just knowing that Gamma was in one of the communities was a whole different kind of jackpot. She’d spill all the secrets for sure, and with that, Beta’s failure wasn’t only a direct advantage to him but hell, also an indirect one to everyone at home. He was a little calmer than last night as well, after eavesdropping on the skin freaks that had accompanied Beta for some of the way and who’d grumbled about the deaths inside the walls. Some poor fuckers had to let their lives that night, he knew that but from everything he had heard and from trying to use the method of elimination, he was sure that Beta hadn’t gotten his hands on his girl. He couldn’t be one hundred percent sure, hell, he didn’t even know if she’d actually been in Alexandria that night, but he kept on telling himself that she was fine, that she had known what to do that night.  He kept on telling himself that she was okay. And while these were the advantages of Beta’s failure, Negan’s rise in the ranks got him to do a damn task the big ass freak probably usually did, and that was everything else than what Negan was in the mood for now. It was whipping Alpha’s arms with some thin branch for fuck knows which reason, maybe some fucking fetish, maybe because she thought that shit would get her stronger, he didn’t fucking know, all he knew as that he was growing tired of this crap. First that fucking kiss, now this shit. "Does this mean I've graduated to the next level of kinky Whisperer shit?”, he chuckled as he reached towards the branch with furrowed brows, trying to overplay how fucking ridiculous and absurd he actually found this whole situation. “You joke to hide your fear”, she said cooly, eying him for a moment while he let out a small sigh, pushing himself on his feet while she remained seated on one of the rocks that surrounded them. Well, she was sure partly right there, just didn’t he hide his fear, he tried to hide how weirded out he was right now. “You know, seems to me you've been cut up enough”, he grumbled as he watched more scars appear on her arm as she reached it out and pulled her sleeve further up. This shit was fucked up, holy shit was this fucked up. “Begin”, she insisted, closing her eyes as if she’d await the greatest fucking gift in the next moment before Negan furrowed his brows once more at her until he finally lifted the slim branch up and rushed it against her forearm, cutting into her flesh and leaving a red mark. She smiled, she fucking smiled as she glimpsed at her arm before she pushed it forwards again. “Again”, she mumbled, and so he did, not trying to argue anymore. Fuck, if she wanted this, she was gonna get it. The second lash left a brighter red mark on her arm than the first, leaving her looking even more satisfied than before as she stood up from the spot and abruptly took the branch out of his hand, just to nod towards him. “Now you.” Oh what the fuck. What was this crap gonna turn into now?  “Ah, does this mean we're bonded for life?”, he joked, trying to somehow process whatever the fuck was actually going on here. “Depends”, she said just as ice-cold as ever, while he slowly began to push the sleeve of his leather jacket up, just trying to get it over with as she rushed the branch in the very next moment against his arm “Aah”, he let out, half in pain, half in a chuckle while a wide grin painted on his face, his body’s odd way to cope with this bullshittery just as another whip rushed against his arm and elicited another flinch and chuckle to mix with one another. Well, at least that crap was done now. “Well done”, she said with a nod, tossing the branch away before she reached to the back pocket of her pants where she usually kept her mask, only with the difference now that she pulled a different one out and held it towards him. “You will need it tonight”, she added as soon as she caught his furrowing brows and the confused look on his face. Hell, was that his reward now for this whipping session? Getting to wear a dead dude’s face? ”For what?”, he asked, glancing down at her while the eerie smile from before started to grow on her lips again. ”Tonight, the enemy will die.”

The sun was already starting to near the skyline of the trees as you finally rolled through Hilltop’s gates and could hop from your crammed position on the wagon onto the ground to shake your legs a little out, glancing around the place you hadn’t visited in god knows how long. It hadn’t changed all too much, there was a whole new field of crops in front of the gates and some more stands and smaller houses in its inside but for the most part if looked pretty similar to the last time you’d walked in here. Mary hopped down the wagon beside you, a little insecure as she started to follow Aaron, before Rosita moved down as just as you grabbed the first empty box that was supposed to be filled with meds when you’d leave again and heft it down the wagon. ”I’ll go to the doc here right away and get some painkillers, want me to tell him you’ll come in later?”, she asked as she stopped beside you, nodding to the wound that was hidden underneath the boasting bandage you’d renewed earlier on your way here. ”Yeah, please. That’d be great”,you said, nodding as she was already starting to walk towards the trailer that had a big red cross painted onto it,”Thank you.” ”All good”, she responded back just as you got back to the wagon, reaching towards the medical bag that was filled with the couple bandages and salves you’d used a few from for Rosita, just as the sound of a familiar motorcycle sounded through the air. A little irritated you glanced up, just in the very moment you caught it rushing past the wagons through the gates, carrying Daryl and Lydia on the back and slowing immediately down before it came to a complete stop in the middle of the road that let to the mansion. For a moment you let the bag go, curious, a little irritated but relieved that your half brother was back and had found Lydia, while you made your way up to them while they attracted Yumiko, Luke and a couple other people who’d been standing on the mansion’s porch to make their way over to them as well. “My mother's coming”, you heard Lydia say just in the moment you reached them, immediately stopping you as an ice-cold shudder washed over you the moment Lydia’s voice hushed. ”The herd’s on its way”,Daryl grumbled, scoffing thickly as he shock his head and glimpsed at the people in front of him while you felt like you were glued to the spot for a moment,”Far away but it’s coming.” Curses sounded through the air, mixing with people starting to ask what they were supposed to do now just before Daryl’s voice sounded again through the air, shutting them down for a moment. ”We’ll meet up in the main room, we can talk it out there.” ”Good idea, I’ll get everyone”, Luke said, quickly nodding before he turned around and quickly hurried up the stairs, and while most eyes were on him in this moment, yours were on your half-brother. He was starting to lead these people and you doubted that he realized what he was doing there nor that he’d ever thought he would. But he was, he was leading them and for a moment you were a little taken aback by how easily the others followed him. “Hey”, you heard him suddenly say as he turned around, glancing a little irritated at you as he nodded towards you while Lydia vanished behind Luke in the mansion, ”Why’re ya here too?” ”We don’t have many meds left back home. Need to get new ones, maybe get someone to help out but I guess I can forget that now”, you gulped, feeling the tension rise within you as you started to realize that probably thousands of dead assholes were on their way to this small community, and you were stuck in its middle. Still, for a moment you got distracted from that as you glanced at Daryl, first noticing how battered he looked now that he stood right in front of you. He had some makeshift bandages wrapped around his hands and his leg, the one on the latter big and partly doubted in a dark red color. ”It’s nothing”, he said before you could even say a word, though he quickly let out a thick sigh as he caught the glance in your eyes. He couldn’t bullshit you, not you. That even counted after all these years. ”Was a fight after the cave...with Alpha, got her good too”, he reluctantly said, just adding onto the tension that was cursing through you before he quickly spoke up again,”Don’t have time to get that treated.” ”We have five minutes for sure”,you mumbled, glimpsing at the stubborn man. The wounds looked bad, especially the one on his leg and you knew him more than well enough that he’d even downplay an injury if his leg was shortly before falling off.  ”Will take some time till Luke and the others will get everyone in the meeting room. We could use that time window, I still got some stuff in the wagon”, you added, nodding towards the wagon you’d spent the last hours on before you caught Daryl shifting from foot to foot before he reluctantly started to nod. ”Mhmm okay.” ”Lydia made it”, Daryl grumbled as you found yourself sitting next to him the back of the wagon, cleaning the wound on his hand just to be sure even though it definitely already looked better than you expected, especially knowing that she’d done it in the middle of the muddy woods. ”Did a pretty good job, really”, you said, putting the disinfection liquid and the cloth to the side before you grabbed  one of the fresh bandages in the bag,”Is she okay too?” ”Yeah, made sure”, he nodded, though he seemed to tense up for a moment as he gulped thickly, shifting uncomfortably as you reached back for his hand. ”Couldn’t find ‘em”, he mumbled, barely audible as you had to take a moment before you realized that he was talking about Connie and Magna, and judging from how he was looking right now, it was hitting him harder than he lead on, especially because it was Carol who’d caused the cave to collapse. ”I’m sure they’ll make it out. Don’t know them well but they’re survivors...and smart. they’ll find a way”, you said, trying to give him a small but genuine smile as you wrapped the bandage securely around his hand and secured it, before starting to move to his leg.  ”Hope so”, he nodded, gulping thickly once more while you decided to not bore further. It was too fresh and if he’d want to tell you, he would, but right now, it didn’t seem like he wanted to talk to anybody about this more than he already had. So instead of speaking you started to unwrap the bandage on his leg, carefully to not hurt him more before a sharp breath fell from your lips the moment you uncovered the wound in its entirety, cleaned but deep and probably caused by a large hunting knife that had dug itself into his thigh. ”Holy shit, Daryl that’s deep-” ”Just get a tight bandage ‘round it...please”, he cut you off, already knowing that you’d tell him what he’d really need with a wound like that before you glanced from the boasting wound to him and realized that he’d already made a decision. His stubborn head had become set on just getting the most necessary for his injury before heading inside to make a plan, you wouldn’t be able to change anything about that. ”Alright...”, you said, sighing slightly as you moved closer and started the procedure you had done on his hand all over again, starting at cleaning the wound carefully from the last bit of any mud before starting to get a bandage around his leg, with just enough pressure to make sure it wouldn’t start bleeding again and judging from its look, it already had done so more than enough. ”There you go”, you said as you finally finished the bandage watching as Daryl looked at it before he moved himself with a push from the wagon, wincing slightly as the foot of his injured leg met the ground before he looked back at you. ”Thank you”,he nodded, shifting a little to get the bandage to sit more comfortably before he nodded towards the mansion,”Now let’s get inside” Shock was still stuck in Negan’s bones as he walked through the forest, still trying to process the news of Alpha’s planned massacre at the communities as he made himself on his way to try to change this whole shitshow into something else. He couldn’t let it come so far, he couldn’t let her nor this fucking herd of dead assholes come close enough to any of the communities his wife could be located in. First and fucking foremost, he couldn’t let that happen to her but he also couldn’t let that happen to anyone she cared about, he wanted to protect her from that pain and that part counted for Judith and any other kid that was stuck in there too. He was in here to work against that whole crap, not to be part of it. Clasping that fucking stinking mask in his hand he slowly moved out of the forest onto a small clearing that was streaked with a small creak, that splashed softly against the rocks Alpha was standing on, almost looking as if she was meditating. “Got a little unsolicited advice...everyone's favorite kind, I know, but I can't help myself. And maybe I thought of an idea that you haven't yet”, he said as he moved closer, though remaining a little behind her as she didn’t even move an inch, only opened her eyes as she heard his voice. “I respect a well-deserved massacre”,he said, clearing his throat as he shifted a little from foot to foot,”Some people they just have it coming. And I get why you want to take out Hilltop and Alexandria. It would just It would feel good.” Still no reaction, so hell, he was just gonna keep going, he had to take this chance. “But you know what might feel goddamn fantastic? Getting those assholes to surrender, bend a knee”, he said, slowly growing a little impatient and nervous, though he sure did everything in his might not to let it shimmer through,”Alpha, we can get them to join us.” Inwardly, he was cursing to himself as he still saw no reaction coming from her, part of him asking himself if he should talk more and add something onto it just before he finally heard her voice sounding through the air. “Explain.” "You heard them out there. We have to go. Even if you took out half the herd in that cave, she's got thousands left. You can't stay here”, Lydia said as she paced around the main room that was filled up with each Alexandrian that had come over to the community and Hilltop’s highest members, discussing what should be done next with the dead army marching closer to you with every moment. “The skins could march straight to Alexandria for all we know”, Earl said as he shifted over his spot on the couch while Daryl stood next to you and gripped the backrest with his hands, leaning a little forward to glance at the group. "Yeah, we're right in their way”, he mumbled, his fingers squeezing the cushion as if he was trying to get rid of the tension that laid over him this way before Earl cleared his throat again. “Maybe she goes around us.” “She doesn't need to go around you. She'll just run through you”, Lydia said, the stress clearly sounding through her voice as you watched Jerry shaking his head vehemently. "I'm not running again - Hell no.” " Lydia's right. We can rebuild anywhere”, you now hear Diane chime in while you could feel yourself growing more uncomfortable the more your mind started to realize how real everything about the growing threat was.  “Come on. We can't. How many scouting missions you been on, son? Hundreds? Have you ever seen a place like Hilltop?”, you could hear Earl say, and while the thought of fighting a herd more than just a couple sizes larger than the one that had once broke into Alexandria, there was something right about what he said. There weren’t many places the Hilltopers could go to, Alexandria had its capacities too and every place that might have potential in terms of buildings had fallen victim to nature. Building a place like this one up again, that would take a whole lot of time and effort, and in the current situation, no one in here had that. The only chance they had if they fled was letting the herd pass by and then rebuild of what was left of hilltop, which to you, seemed like the best possibility right now. “ No”, Aaron grumbled before you could think any further.  “We have a few dozen able-bodied fighters here. Maybe. You like those odds? - 'Cause I don't”, Yumiko said, standing up from her spot on the bench as she glimpsed around the room, looking at Aaron as he shook his head again. “Neither do I.” “Now, we don't have to die here. We're going to have to fight, and if we die, we die fighting for a place that means something. Can you think of a better way to go?”, Earl nearly cut him off and that’s where you and by the look on everybody’s else's face the entirety of the room disagreed with him. You weren’t gonna die here. You came here to get some new meds and recruits for the infirmary, you weren’t gonna just let Alpha’s herd kill you when there were other ways to get out of this situation, even if this meant that Hilltop was lost. “Yeah. We go with my daughter's life intact. And Judith's and Ezra's and Adam's. You want me to keep going?”, Aaron quickly said, almost snapped, back, the tone in his voice strained and angered while for the first time in a long time, you agreed with him.  You had no plans to go on a suicide mission just to play along with the others the big heroes that go down in a fight, especially not on the costs of children. There were times you just had to give in, no matter how bitter it was, and flee, if you wanted to survive, and one of these times had come now. “Alright, let's get the kids out first. Everybody, pack up. We're going to Oceanside”, Daryl said, motioning his fingers to spell Oceanside while his voice calm compared to the others,”Grab weapons, food whatever you can. We'll regroup there.” Hilltop seemed like a bustling beehive as everybody started to pack up, pushing the most important supplies and weapons into the wagons while the first one with the Lydia, Judith, RJ and a couple of other kids had left along with Daryl and Diane about a fifteen minutes ago. You were just about to pack a few light spears into the back of one of the larger wagons as you heard the voices becoming louder for a moment mixing with the sound of Daryl’s motorcycle, enough to make you back away from the wagon’s entrance to see him moving back into the community, closely followed by the wagon with the kids. “What happened?”, you heard Aarons voice call out for them, as the confusion and moreover the thought that this couldn’t mean anything good shot through you as you walked towards the small group of people that started to grow around Aaron and Daryl. “She blocked all the roads. Means they're closing in on us. If we had a window to get out, we just missed it”, he scoffed, and with these few words washed a new wave of tension over you. This was bad, this was fucking bad. “But we can't stay here”, Kelly said, her voice breaking as she tried to suppress the tears that started to pool in her eyes,”You said...you all said we can't stay here.” “We can call Alexandria, right?”, Luke asked, his voice letting it shimmer through that he was rather grasping for straws than actually believing in what he was saying ,”Call Alexandria, and they'll get fresh fighters here, right? And...And it's not just gonna be us. It's not gonna be just us, right?”  “Oceanside can't get here. Alexandria, either. Not in time. Not after what happened. We're on our own”, Diane mumbled while you glimpsed at Daryl, meeting his glance for a moment that had an odd glance stuck in him, tensed as before, but there was something else about him you couldn’t quite grasp yet. "Divvy up your arsenals. We got catapults up on the walls. And a damn good militia. This is what you've all been practicing for”, Earl’s stern voice ripped you away from Daryl and lead you glance immediately to him as he stomped towards the group,” Come on, now, people! Do whatever you need to get your heads on straight! This is gonna be the fight of our lives.” This was enough to let the group sprawl out again over the place, while no one, including you, was as pumped up about this fight as Earl seemed to be. Still, there was no way past it now and you had to get through it now, no matter what. For another moment, your eyes laid on Earl before you caught Daryl moving closer to you, still with that odd look on his face as he finally rose his voice again. “The roads, that was your hus-”,Daryl started to say, stopping at the last word as if it tasted like poison in his mouth while his glance and just the beginning of this word washed an ice-cold shudder down your back ,”Negan’s with them now. He’s blocked ‘em.” “What?”, it nearly instinctively slipped out of your lips, even though one part of this whole accusation didn’t come as a giant shock or surprise to you. You’d suspected he’d infiltrated himself into their ranks to destroy them, but that last part rubbed you the wrong way,”How do you know that’s him?”  “Trees blocking the road, some guy hanging strangled from a tree, remembers you of something?”, he said, a thicker frown growing over his face as he forced you to remember the hours before the bloody night in the clearing and you couldn’t even completely disagree with Daryl on this. It seemed like the same strategy, but who knew, maybe he’d done it on purpose.  “But if that’s him, I’m sure he’s got a plan”,you said, gulping thickly as you looked at him, trying to choose your words right to not anger him to the extent that he’d just storm off without hearing your whole point and putting your relationship back to square one,”He’s probably just trying to earn their trust to take them down from the inside. He’s playing them.” “Nah”, he quickly shook his head,”He’s one of ‘em now.” “No, no he’s not. He might be at their camp but he’s not one of them”, you repeated yourself, while you didn’t even see anger growing over Daryl’s face but rather desperation, maybe even pity while the frustration within you grew. You didn’t want this to start this debate over Negan all over from the beginning, not again. “You’re blind”, he said, glimpsing at you through the brown strands of hair that hung into his face,”You’re so in love with him you don’t see the truth about that asshole.” “That’s not true”,you said, growing more desperate as well while you tried to grasp for straws,” Daryl, You saw the note he left for me.” “Yeah, maybe started out that way”,he grumbled, clenching his jaw as he shook his head again,”But asshole stays asshole. Think he saw that he’s free now...he switched you against freedom.” “He wouldn’t do that”, you tried to urge again while you felt dumb for repeating yourself over and over again as you just didn’t know what else to tell him to believe you on this. “He did”,he grumbled again, stepping a little closer to you as he gulped thickly,”and he doesn’t deserve how much you protect him. He’s scum.” “He’s not and I know him”,you responded quickly, feeling a shot of pain boring through you just having to hear Daryl talk like that about him before you shook your head, trying to keep your cool,”and I know how naive I sound to you. But I’ve been with that man every day for over eight years. I know how he thinks, he’s got a plan, you’ll see.” “Yeah, we’ll see”,he grumbled, while you could tell that he didn’t put one bit of belief or hope into your words as he looked at you one more time before he moved past you towards the mansion ,”Hope you won’t be too disappointed.”

Explaining to Alpha how he thought he could make them bend the knee had been one fucking tricky thing to do. It had taken a whole lot of effort for sure, talking his mouth off on how favorable it would be to have a bigger army while he smeared some more honey around her mouth and eventually, he felt like he might have persuaded her by topping her original plan of closing the roads a little off. He didn’t like what he had to do but it was necessary, the roads would have been closed either way and everything else just wouldn’t have stilled her thirst for blood. So right now, he was standing on a small cemented road that paved its way though the forest. A tree was blocking the street, one dead Hilltoper hanging from a tree beside the fallen one, their undead corpse growling and flailing its arm slightly while the rope cut into its throat. This one and all the others who’d hung on the other streets had been long dead before they’d gone up there, already killed last night when Beta had made his way to Alexandria and had killed another outpost on the way, recruiting new “guardians” for the horde in this night.  It had been seven in total, all wearing Hilltop’s armor, and he didn’t enjoy seeing particularly that guy in front of him up in that tree. He didn’t know the others, but the guy who was hanging from the tree there had been a Savior once, not a high ranking one but high enough that Negan have had a couple conversations with him during the time he’d ruled and enough to still remember the nickname he had for him: “Skinny Joe”, the counterpart to “Fat Joe” who’d had met his demise at Daryl’s hands. He wasn’t getting sentimental here, fuck no, but he’d be a liar if he’d say seeing one of his former loyal men in that tree would do nothing at all to him. Still, it was worth it as he glimpsed to his side and saw how Alpha nearly smiled satisfied, looking at the dangling corpse up there and that facilitated the feeling in him that his plan might work.  ”This was the last”, she said, the odd grin widening a little as she nodded to the skin freaks behind her and then back to Negan, “It is time to gather.” A half hour later, your mind was still occupied fully by Daryl and Negan as you walked through the wagons and stands within Hilltop, trying to find a way to distract yourself and simultaneously prepare for the battle.  Daryl hadn’t shook just an inch on your belief that Negan had a plan, nor on the belief that he was working towards destroying them from the inside, but the fact that Daryl thought he had merged into a full-blown whisperer bothered you unspeakably, not mentioning the side effect that soon, the whole rest of this community would think so as well.  You had no idea how this whole thing would go down tonight, if it would just be the herd or them as well, but if the later was true, first thing after Alpha and Beta people would point their weapons at would be him and there was nothing you’d be able to do to persuade them of the opposite.  No one of Hilltop’s head members would believe you that he was working against them, that if he was among them even tonight, it would be part of his plan to gather their trust.  That’s the way Negan thought, that was his type of strategy and all you could hope for was that Negan would be somewhere in the back, somewhere in safety. But that for sure depended on how deep he was in this whisperer misery as well. Negan was a sly fox, a charmer on top and he for sure knew how to handle people even if they were as fucked up as those skin freaks. Maybe he’d already made his way to the core of its ranks and hell, maybe he had tried to lessen this attack as well. Either way, there was no way you were gonna find that out before tonight, if at all and you first had to concentrate on surviving the next hours if you wanted to just have the chance to see him again. Sighing thickly you made your way into another stand, trying to stop your mind from wrapping itself around new confusing thoughts as you reached towards a sharpening stone. You’d get a machete, spear or whatever else they’d want you to use from hilltop, but if all things failed you’d still need a sharp knife and you couldn’t necessarily give that attribute to yours anymore. Grabbing the stone you made your way back to the mansion, hoping you’d find a free spot on its stairs as you winded yourself through the mass of people who were preparing their weapons as well, or were getting themselves warmed up until you finally got to the mansion’s porch that was filled with a couple of people, including Judith who was bowing over Daryl’s vest, some paint, brushed and a glass of paint daubed water sprawled around her. “Watcha doing?”, you asked as you sat down next to her onto the stairs, glimpsing at the part of the vest you could see from your side. “Painting uncle Daryl’s vest. I’m fixing the wing, I’m almost done”, she said, moving a little to reveal the part she’d been painting in a light blue that got now primped with some small white start at its end. “Looks great, sure he’s gonna love it”, you said, giving her a smile as you shifted a little over the wood, trying to get a little comfortable before you grabbed your knife and started to move the blade over the sharpening stone, just before you could see Judith stirring a little beside you before she moved a bit away from the vest and glanced at you. “Do you think Negan will hurt us?”, she asked, her voice trembling a little at the end, though you could hear that she was trying to keep it calm while a painful sting shot through you just hearing her question and you didn’t want to imagine how Negan would feel if he’d hear this now. “No, no he won’t”, you said, shaking your head softly and trying to keep the small smile on your face though you had a hard time doing so as you could feel the tension within you risking. “But he blocked the roads”, she mumbled, sadness filling her eyes a little more as she sat down next to you, moving the vest that looked finished by now next to her while you let out a small sigh. This was gonna get tricky. “Your uncle Daryl and I disagree on this but-”,you mumbled, halting as you tried to collect your thoughts and explain it to her in the right way,”I think he is trying to make them believe he’s on their side to help us take them down in the end. Like one of those double agents from the book you read some time ago.” “You think?”, she asked, her eyes growing a little more hopeful as she looked at you. “I’m sure”, you nodded, giving her a slightly bigger smile now before you let out a nervous but soft chuckle, trying to loosen yourself up to let that whole tension fall not only from you but her as well. Even if she was a tough kid, she was still a child and she shouldn’t have to worry about this as well beside the whole whisperer shit and tonight’s battle. ”C’mon you know him too, he sometimes has a bit odd ways to get to a goal. Remember his solutions to your math problems?” “Yeah, they were weird sometimes”,she nodded, laughing softly as he fumbled on the brush that was still in her hands. “Yeah”, you said, glimpsing down at her as you could gladly tell that she was looking much more relaxed than a couple moments ago,”See, he’s taking a special way to help us now too, just like he had very special ways to solve your math problems.” She nodded again, responding to the small laugh that left your lips, facilitated by the nervousness and tension that was still stuck within you before she nodded towards the vest, “I’ll give it to him now.” “Yeah, do that. Bet he’s gonna put it right on”, you said, giving her another smile as she stood up and grabbed the vest. “I hope so”, she said, glancing one more time at the painted wing before she headed inside, leaving you to get back to trying to distract yourself with the sharping stone. Dragging the blade along the stone you focused on it's slight twinkling in the evening sun, right before you glanced up as you heard footsteps walking right towards you. “You can shoot, right?”, you heard Diane ask as she got closer, holding a bow in one hand and a quiver with arrows in the other just before she reached you. “Yeah”, you nodded, stopping the dragging movements for a moment. “Good, we need another one in the back, would you join?” “Yes, sure”, you said, nodding once more as you laid the knife and the stone to your side so she could hand you both and just in the moment the wood of the bow smoothed against your palm and you gripped the belt of the quiver, a panicking voice echoed through the air and sent another shot of tension through your body within the matter of seconds. “The herd is coming!” Walking like a fucking dead asshole was harder than Negan had thought, especially when you had much more brain activity than those fuckers going on that allowed him to have thoughts and even worse, worries. He still believed that he might have persuaded Alpha with his tactics, but with her, you could never know for sure. The sky seemed to become darker with every slurfing step he took, looking through the holes of his damn mask to have a little bit of orientation while he tried to keep exactly those thoughts from taking his whole mind over. It was Hilltop. The odds that she was there were as fucking small as a fly’s sack. Hell, the odds that anybody else from Alexandria like Judith or Lydia were there was just as damn small.  He shouldn’t try to wrap his head around this shit anymore and just hope that things would work out as he intended, that they’d try to make them bend the knee and they’d use the right moment to attack or what fucking ever, just so this damn massacre wouldn’t start here and move to Alexandria in the end. And just as he tried to ban these thoughts out of his head, he heard the skin freaks starting their whispery chant again as they moved with the dead towards Hilltop. Night had fallen over Hilltop when you found yourself standing before its gates, with the bow in your hand, an arrow loosely clamped into its string while the leatherglove that smoothed against your skin allowed you to hold it securely. It was still pointed downwards for now, waiting for the moment the herd would appear but in these moments, there was an eerie silence, only disrupted by the trembling breath by everyone next to you and the echoes of the thousands of groans that came from the forest. Hilltop was prepared, that was the only thing that made your heart beat calm down a little as you glanced around yourself. At first, about two hundred meter away from your spot, there was an electrical line spanned by Eugene and Rosita this afternoon that would hopefully split the first walkers in two that would try to make their way towards you. Then, if this part would fail, and everybody knew that this moment would come earlier or later, the fence was the next step. It was Hilltops regular fence that protected the crops that were located behind you and in front of the gates, a quite study fence with wood pillars and a whole lot of branches and undergrowth in between that would cushion the walker masses at first and which had been strengthened over the last hours.  After that, the melee fighters were located, at first the ones with the medieval looking shields and their swords, directly behind them anyone else with a melee weapon, from spears to machetes, to morning stars like the one in Daryl’s hand right now. And then, there was your line, the ones with bows or slingshots like the one of Kelly, and melee weapons that were put on the ground beside you after the arrows would be gone. After that, only the next cushion zone of the crops followed for about fifty meters, and then the gates. You could feel the ground starting to quiver beneath your feet as the heard started to roll closer and the groans started to grow louder with every second, sending chills through your body as you gripped the wood of the bow tighter. Only a couple more moments. A shivering breath fell from your lips as you saw the first dead appearing in the dark right  as the first walker met the electrical line and sparked red sparks through the night as it burned through its throat and cut its rotting head off right from it’s neck. “It works”, you heard Yumiko mumbling beside you as you tried to keep the hope in you controlled as the first full line of dead met the line. More sparks flew, you could see the electricity burning  bright yellow lines into their bodies as they pressed against it, more and more while only a few lost their heads, while the taller majority pressed themselves only deeper into it, doing nothing more than burning their torsos. “Fuck”, you mumbled gulping, nearly too quiet for anyone else around you to hear as a load boom made you flinch back, right before you had to watch the electrical line break down into pieces as it sunk to the ground and let the dead march towards you without anything stopping them anymore. “Formation!”, you could hear Aaron scream through the night, immediately followed by the metallic booms of the rising shields clicking against one another while you gulped thickly and grabbed the bow in your hands even tighter, enough for your knuckles to turn pale as your heart beated up into your throat.  “On my command, splitting ranks!”, you heard him scream again, cut off for a moment by the loud groans of the dead before his voice echoed once again through the night,”And break!” The first group split on his command, marching towards the fence as the first dead were only a couple feet away from it anymore and you glanced to your side, watching as the others started to nod to each other. “Now”, you heard Yumiko call out beside you, shooting another wave of adrenaline through your body as you pushed the bow forward, adjusted the grip on the string before pulling it back until your leather clad fingers rested against your cheek and the arrow darted into the walker mess, before you let it go and watched it shooting into the ranks of the dead. Grab a new arrow, span it into the string, bow into the front, pull the string back, adjust and release.  That’s what you did over and over again, almost mechanically as you watched the others fighting in the front, saw their weapons dive into the rotting heads, smashing skulls while more walkers pushed into the limp bodies that were hanging into the branches. You could feel yourself tensing more with each shot, could feel the pulling of the string tearing on your arm’s muscles while the adrenaline in your body kept you going, forcing you to near the edge to switch into the survival mode. Breathing heavily you reached back into the quiver, feeling sick by the thought that you didn’t even had that many left, especially with the massed of walkers surrounding the fences that wouldn’t be stopped by the couple arrows you had left. And just as you moved the arrow to clip its end into the string, your eyes captured  handball sized objects flying through the dark towards the fences, exploding into uncountable splatters as they crashed into the walkers, the fence and the melee fighters. Furrowing your brows you stared for a moment at the scene, at the splatters that looked like water at the first glance but that were something completely different judging from the smell that made its way through to you. It was smelling like freshly cut down trees but stronger, almost as strong as those little tree shaped air freshener you could hang into the front of your car and whose smell wouldn’t even leave your nose until you’d gotten out of the car. “Smells like a Christmas tree!”, you could hear Jerry scream in the front, stabbing another walker while he looked like he was drained in the liquid and before you could hear anybody else saying something else, your eyes caught something bright flying through the night sky, a flaming arrow that suddenly crushed into the walkers in front of the fence. Within a millisecond a ball of fire roared through the dead, nearly exploding part of the fence as a blood freezing scream let you flinch. Your fingers gripped the bow tighter as you suddenly saw one of the fighters tumbling burning away from the fence, his whole body covered in flames as he flailed his arms around himself before he crushed against the ground and let the tension within you to skyrocket once more. “It's like gasoline!”, you heard Jerry scream from the fence as you tried to pull yourself together and drag your glance from the man who started to stop moving back to your bow, before forcing yourself to go back to the old procedure and shoot another arrow into the mass.  Even if you could just kill one at a time, it was better than nothing. You could feel your ribcage tightening as you reached for another one over and over again, trying to help the people in the front as best as you could before you suddenly grabbed into emptiness in your quiver and had to realize that you’d just shot your last arrow. ”Fuck”, you cursed underneath your breath as you glanced at the empty quiver, gulping thickly just in the very moment you heard a dangerous cracking coming from the fence. Shooting your glance back up you could see the first Walkers starting to break through, heard screams of Daryl and Aaron for everyone to fall back and stop the fight at the fence, just before the first dead forced their way successfully through the fence. Fuck. Fucking fuckity fuck shit. Negan couldn’t think much more than in curses as groans of the herd sounded loudly through the air while he had to watch the dead and the fences of hilltop blow up in flames from afar. He hadn’t persuaded her, this fuck there, that wasn’t trying to make someone bend the knee, that crap was meant to kill them and nothing else. She’d played him, pretending as if she’d listen to him, that fucking skin freak had played him. Feeling the anger in him rising he tried to keep himself controlled from the outside and tried to get a look at the fight hilltop was fighting in these moments, still trying to persuade himself that his girl wasn’t anywhere in there, trying to tell himself how damn close to zero the odds were over and over again. He couldn’t judge how well they did from his position on the field behind the heard, all he could tell was that they were still fighting and right now, that was a good sign. Fuck, even if none of the people he could worry about were in there, Alexandria still needed Hilltop to fight these skin freaks, losing that community would be a fucking disaster. Uncomfortably he glanced to his side, watching as Alpha gathered a small group of whisperers around a fire before she moved a little away from them to take a look at Hilltop, giving him enough space to approach her. Gulping his anger away the best he could to not let it shimmer through before he walked towards her, putting a slight grin on his face as soon as she caught him. “I thought you wanted them to join us”, he said, his voice calm and not in any way resembling the anger within him as he watched her beginning to smile the fucking oddly again while she slowly stepped closer. “They will”, she said, moving even closer as she nearly bored her glance into his eyes,”As part of my horde.” Fuck. He should’ve known, he should’ve fucking known and done more, he should’ve done more to persuade her. “Holy shit”, he chuckled, overplaying the desperation and frustration that started to make its home in his body, while he knew that right now, it was too late for him to intervene. Everything else would make him look suspicious, everything else could cost him his head. “You are a badass”, he instead added, grinning widely at her in hopes to charm her a little more and cover up what he was actually feeling in these moments, to have the chance to lead her into another direction next chance he got, hopefully with more success. “This is yours”, he heard her say in the next moment, watching as she waved another whisperer over who carried a bow in his hands next to his own, “You will need it now.” This was a test now, wasn't it? He’d asked her again about letting them bend the knee so she tested him if he would question her again or if he would obey, and right now he hadn’t much of option than do the later if he didn’t want to risk to blow his cover just the tiniest bit. So he took the bow into his hands and let her lead him and the other skin freak towards the fire, spanned one of the prepared arrows that had some tree sap soaked cloths attached to its shaft into the string and watched as they passed the flame from one arrow to another, like some STD in a fucking college fraternity.  ”Up high, towards the walls”, he heard Alpha say, feeling the tension within him rising with every second as he gulped thickly and moved the bow up, dragging the string back as he could feel his heart pounding against his ripcage and could feel nausea starting to claw at his throat while he tried to get his mind under control. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t there. She was not fucking there. And then, he let go. Screams, groans and desperate calls echoed through the air, mixing into an eerie symphony as you could see the herd starting to further break the fences, forcing the fear and survival instinct in you to skyrocket in the very moment the dead grabbed the first Hilltopers that had been fighting them only seconds ago. “They're already dead! Let's go!”, a voice screamed through the dark, mixing with calls to just let them break through as the first melee fighters started to run towards your line, waving for you all to move towards the gates. ”Move inside!”, you heard Daryl scream, waving towards you as you dropped the bow and the empty quiver from your shoulder before the adrenaline pushed you to start running as fast as your feet could carry you. Panting you found yourself within the others, within the running group that fled like animals from a wildfire before you suddenly saw some bright points shooting through the dark above you, right before the arrows that carried them landed into Hilltops walls, setting them aflame in the matter of seconds while your whole body started to wrench in fear and shock, forcing your heart to pound against your chest as if it tried to escape while a wave of fright induced nausea washed over you and dared to put a relentless tension over your body. Walkers were coming from the back and the sides, flames were eating up Hilltops walls in the front and soared into the sky. There was no way out.

(If you would like to be tagged, just let me know! The gif isn’t mine/ it was originally posted by dancing-at-the-funeralparty)

[umbry-fic]

Cobalt Memories

Summary: Colette, as Chosen, has never been allowed to play in the rain. Until now.

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters: Colette Brunel, Lloyd Irving, Frank Brunel, Noishe Relationships: Colette Brunel & Lloyd Irving, Colette Brunel & Frank Brunel Rating: G Word Count: 3372 Mirror Link: AO3 Original Post Date: 25/06/2021

Notes: A fluffy gen fic involving the Noishe raincoat! Title from Harumaki Gohan's Cobalt Memories.

~~~

The first time Colette saw Lloyd, it was in the rain.

She was at home on that fateful day, as she always was on stormy days. Sitting by the window, listening to raindrops patter against it, she pressed her nose to the cold glass and watched the other children that were her age run around outside. She longed to join them, to know what it felt like to catch raindrops against her skin, to let water drip from her drenched fringe into her eyes, to laugh and dance despite the grey and dreary clouds and the cold that permeated even through the window, racking her with the occasional shiver.

But that was forbidden, for the Chosen wasn't to participate in such pointless merriment. "And what if you caught a cold?" was what the priests had used to dissuade her. "We cannot allow any harm to come to you, Chosen. Trust us, this is for your own good." And that marked the conclusion of that conversation. There was little point trying to resist, she knew, for it would all be futile in the end.

As for her father and grandmother, they were powerless to do anything, unable to defy the absolute authority of the Church. No one could stand up against the Church. Colette didn't want to consider whether or not her family wanted to help her, preferring to let that doubt sink into the back of her mind. Whenever they caught the pleading gaze she would turn on them once lightning began to split the sky in two, all they did was turn away, leaving her to drift towards her usual perch by the window. There she would watch with barely concealed envy, for that was all she was allowed to do. And so it was the case again today. She'd been here for the past ten minutes until her neck ached from craning it so much.

She supposed her mood very much matched the weather.

It was at that moment that a hulking dog with a strange green colouration that she'd never seen before burst out from the forest, causing all the children to scatter like leaves in the wind. They all stared at this new intruder with wide eyes, all chatter ceasing immediately. Following behind the dog was a boy with brown hair, struggling to keep up with his tiny stature and short legs. The dog and the boy began to run circles around each other in the mud, splattering it everywhere, the boy seemingly uncaring of the dog’s imposing size. Even as the dog's fur got more drenched, even as the boy's shorts got more dirtied with mud, rambunctious barks and laughter filled the air, the two looking like they were having the time of their lives. The other children were maintaining their distance, likely out of fear, but Colette only pressed closer to the window, splaying her fingers on it. It was at this moment more than any other that she prayed for the glass to magically disappear so that she could fall through, desiring to join the two and learn what it was like to be free.

She also really wanted to pet that dog!

The boy paused in his frantic motions, seemingly having caught sight of her, for he was staring right at her. How strange she must look, a girl in pure white robes undirtied by the rain, separated from all the rest of the children by a thick layer of glass. Almost like she was in an alternate world, one that couldn’t be touched by others. Most of the children understood that she was different, even if they didn't understand why. The boy must think her a weirdo too.

But instead of turning away and returning to his fun, the boy waved, a smile lighting up his face as he ran up to the window. He wasn't quite tall enough to reach it from the ground, so all he could do was jump up and down, his finger barely brushing the bottom of the window every time he reached the peak of his leap. Was he trying to put his hand on the window such that it was aligned with her palm on the other side? If so, he wasn't gaining enough height.

She moved her hand so that it was pressed flush against the windowsill, giggling as the boy outside laughed too. She knew they weren't actually touching and that it was unlikely for his warmth to be able to reach her through the glass, but she could still feel a phantom presence against her palm.

A particularly loud bark drew both of their attention. The dog ran up to the boy, tail wagging intensely. Up close, the dog appeared to be even fluffier than she’d thought, only intensifying her desire to bury her hands in its fur, maybe even her face. That would be heavenly. The dog barked again, inclining its head in the direction of the forest. The boy gave the dog a quick ruffle on the head before turning back to face her, a small frown on his face as he mouthed “I need to go”.

And in an instant, he and the dog had taken off and disappeared back into the forest. If not for the muddy footprints and pawprints littering the ground, and the tiny mark against the outside of her window, she might have thought she’d imagined the whole thing. But she hadn’t. All of it had happened.

She hadn't learned anything about the boy, of who he was - his name, his age, where he lived. She wasn’t sure she’d ever see him again. It was but an interaction with a stranger, a brief one that had ended and left her alone again. But what a kind stranger he was, actually bothering to come and cheer up a lonely girl he didn’t know. For he had left her with a smile on her face.

She would soon formally meet Lloyd at school, an insane event in-and-of-itself, whereafter he would become her first-ever friend, bringing with it the opportunity to meet Noishe and give him lots of pets. Genis would enter her life not much later, leaving her with two companions that expanded her world and brought so much joy with them. But she would always hold this memory dear, of a rainy day that was her true first meeting with Lloyd, where he’d shown her kindness that touched her heart. It was the kindness that he always extended to her, no matter what, for he was an inherently kind person.

It was the first rainy day she could recall where she had not been miserable, reminded of everything she couldn’t have, but rather smiling and laughing. The first of many.

~~~

Lloyd stopped playing in the rain once he learned she wasn't allowed to. He was adamantly against the restrictions placed on her, but learned rather quickly that all his protesting wouldn’t get anywhere. So he opted to stay indoors with her whenever it did rain, wanting to keep her company.

He claimed that getting drenched in the rain wasn’t all that fun and that he didn’t miss it, but she’d caught him looking out the window with a wistful expression more than once. She felt horrible for denying her friend something he clearly enjoyed, but he refused to budge whenever she told him that she’d be fine alone, even if just for a day. And, truth be told, his company helped immensely, for she could focus on his presence, instead of dwelling on what she was missing out on, her sky finally clear of storm clouds that blocked out the sun.

Most of the time, at least.

There were still moments when the longing hit her, when she looked at the raindrops running down the windowpane and desperately wished to be outside. Even Genis, the boy who seemed to hate admitting he was a child, had run around in the rain before. He had, of course, gotten the scolding of his life from Professor Raine once he’d gotten back in the schoolhouse, but watching the loving way Professor Raine had towelled Genis down, wringing water from his silver locks, filled Colette’s heart with stinging pain.

Today was yet another rainy day. Colette sat at the table, swinging her legs and waiting for a knock on the door. Lloyd had promised, earlier in the morning, to meet up with her in the afternoon, and he never broke his promises. Though the weather meant he was going to turn up at her doorstep with his hair falling into his eyes and his clothes dripping water - he never remembered to bring an umbrella with him when he left his home. They would likely need to wait a whole hour for him to dry out before they could do anything, but she didn’t mind. A quiet afternoon spent with Lloyd was just as enjoyable as one where they messed around.

Where was her father, though? Her grandmother wasn’t home right now, stuck at the Church because of the downpour, but her father wasn’t in the living room with a cup of coffee like he usually was at this time of day. Maybe he was working on that sewing project he’d been labouring over for the past week. She’d caught him bent over in his room in the dead of night, sewing needle held in hand, the room lit only by the flickering flame of a single candle. She doubted that her father knew that she’d peeked in on him from the doorway, for she was used to wandering around the house like a ghost on nights where she couldn’t sleep. She was an expert at making no noise, and hadn’t been caught once.

She didn’t know what her father was working on. He’d told her before that he’d learned how to sew from her mother, but he’d never put that skill to use. Not to her knowledge, anyway. Perhaps because it hurt too much, to do something that had once been a beloved hobby shared by two people who loved each other, but could no longer be together? In the same way that having fun with her friends stabbed at her heart, just a tiny bit, as she held the knowledge that it would all have to come to an end. Even then, she’d promised to herself that she would enjoy every bit she could grasp to its fullest.

She was curious as to what had reignited that passion, what was so important that he had to pull out the dusty sewing kit again, but she wasn’t going to ask. It wasn’t her place to pry.

Colette sighed, slumping over on the table. Lloyd was running a little late...

“Here.”

A familiar voice broke through the oppressing silence, Colette squeaking in alarm as something fuzzy and soft was thrown over her head, submerging her in darkness. She scrambled to get a grip on what she assumed was a blanket, pulling it off her head and holding it in her arms.

Now that she could see again, she spotted her father standing over her, arms crossed with a smile on his face. How had he snuck up on her?

“Father? What?” she sputtered in confusion. This was not expected behaviour. In fact, this was the furthest thing from expected behaviour. Her father had been nothing but kind and loving to her, but always with a sense of detachment, like he wasn’t really seeing her when he looked at her. She didn’t blame him for any of it, but it hurt, to realise the distance between them. “This is…”

She looked down and got a closer look, realising that what she was holding wasn’t a blanket. It looked like some sort of strange green top with long sleeves...? But it was far too long to be a top! If she put it on, it would reach the middle of her thighs! Turning it over revealed there was a tail poking out from the back, along with a hood attached. Stuck to the top of the hood were two beady blue eyes, a nose, and a familiar pair of ears with grooves that she couldn’t help but run her finger over.

It was absolutely adorable!

“It’s a raincoat. Something you wear to protect yourself from the rain. Your mother was making it for you before she… left. Why a raincoat, and why make it green, I’ll never know,” her father explained, placing a hand on her head. “Though I’ll never claim to understand Arielle,” her father muttered, looking away with a far-away expression.

“This was from Mother…?” she whispered in disbelief, rubbing at the material with her thumbs.

She didn’t have anything from her mother. The entire house seemed to be devoid of any of her mother’s belongings, perhaps because the reminder hurt her father too much. She couldn’t blame anyone for that, not really, even if she would have liked to have something, anything, to show her what her mother was like.

“I just put the finishing touches on it and added the accessories. After all, you love Noishe so much. I know I’m nowhere near as good as your mother, but… I thought you might like it.”

Colette could see that the majority of the seams were more masterfully done than the rest, the minority a little wobbly and less confident. One of the ears was crooked, and perhaps the eyes weren’t aligned on the same line.

It wasn’t perfectly made, nowhere near it, but she could feel the love poured into every inch from both of her parents, seeming to spill out of the fabric and into her heart.

“I… I do! Thank you so much, Father!” she exclaimed, hands shaking. She had never expected to receive a present that was from both her mother and her father. This was the best surprise ever! “C - can I put it on?”

“Stand up; I’ll help you,” her father offered. “Otherwise, knowing you, you’re probably going to get lost in the fabric.”

Colette did as her father told her to, standing up and raising her arms. Her father brought the raincoat down around her head, and she shimmied until her head popped out the top and her hands came out of the long sleeves. As she’d predicted, the raincoat covered her all the way down to her thighs.

She flipped the hood up, her hair spilling out of the opening, marvelling at how snugly it fit. And it was warm, too…

“I’m glad it fits. Now, why don’t you play out in the rain with Lloyd today?”

“But I thought I’m not allowed to!” Colette retorted, hardly able to believe her ears. Could this day get any better?

“You didn’t have a raincoat before,” her father replied, something of a mischievous shine to his eyes that Colette had never seen before. Whenever she looked at her father, he always seemed sad, his eyes dull. Grieving the woman he loved who’d died in childbirth, and having to take care of a child who was doomed to die anyway. Was this who he’d been before tragedy had struck, the man who her mother had fallen in love with? “If you’re protected from the rain, I don’t see why not.” He lowered his voice, leaning closer like he was about to whisper a secret into her ear, his lips lifting into a cheeky smile. “Besides, this can stay between us.”

Colette threw her arms around her father, thanking him profusely and trying her very best not to start sobbing. She didn’t want to wet her father’s shirt, and neither did she want to meet Lloyd with red eyes and a running nose. Her father patted her on the head between the Noishe ears, chuckling.

Knock. Knock.

“Oh! Lloyd! He’s here!” Colette perked up, racing over to the door and throwing it open. She couldn’t wait to tell him the good news!

Lloyd was standing on the porch, back facing her and dragging his feet across the wooden boards as he waited for her. Turning, he grinned, waving, his appearance fitting the one in her imagination exactly. “Hi, Col -”

That was when Lloyd choked, face flushing an incredible shade of red.

“Uh, Lloyd?” Colette asked hesitantly, pausing with one foot on the porch. She clasped her hands before her chest. “Is something… wrong?”

“No!” was what burst out of Lloyd’s mouth, five times louder than his previous, unfinished sentence, and loud enough to make her flinch back slightly. “Wait, sorry for yelling! Wait, I’m still yelling!” Lloyd groaned, shaking his head. “Nothing’s wrong. Nothing at all! Just... Um, nice new raincoat!”

“I love it!” she replied, spinning in a circle and giggling.

“Yeah, so do I. It’s… really cute… Is it supposed to be based on Noishe?”

“Yep! I’m glad you like it too!”

Lloyd laughed nervously, cheeks still containing a remnant of red. “Should we head in now?”

“Oh! Father permitted me to play in the rain! So can we do that instead?” Colette asked eagerly.

“Really?” Lloyd perked up too, eyes shining with excitement, nervousness forgotten instantly. “I’d love to do that with you!”

“But, uh…” Colette bowed her head, uncertain. “I’m not really sure what to do…”

“There’s no right way to do it! You just… Go! That’s what makes it fun!” Lloyd proclaimed, poking her right where the Noishe nose was and causing her to raise her head to meet his gaze again, eagerness and kindness there in equal measure that helped to melt away her doubts.

Lloyd took her hand, tugging her out of the shelter of the porch and into the ferocity of the storm - or rather, the gentleness of a drizzle, for the raindrops pelting against her bare hand were far gentler than she could have thought. It was almost ticklish, like when Lloyd’s fingers brushed her wrist.

She stumbled into a puddle, giggling at the splash of water and staring down at her reflection: her own happy face framed by her golden hair and the adorable Noishe face. She angled her face up, letting the raindrops fall against her skin and trickle down into her waiting tongue. They didn't particularly taste like anything, but they sure were cold!

She looked back at Lloyd to find him grinning, his already drenched self getting even more drenched with the rain falling on him, creating a halo above him.

He stretched out a hand to her and beckoned, a familiar smile on his face. The smile that was always able to make everything better, to chase away any amount of despair she might be trapped in.

“Come on!”

She laughed, feeling lighter than she had in months, and ran over to join him, ready to create another cherished memory - a first that she hoped would not be her last.

~~~

Frank sipped from his cup of coffee, watching from the window with a smile. Lloyd had started the chain of activities by jumping from puddle to puddle, Colette following behind and occasionally losing her balance, though Lloyd was always there to steady her. They were still going, having gone on to spin each other around in some crazy approximation of dancing, their laughter ringing through the air.

He watched as Colette tripped and fell into Lloyd, sending them both toppling into the mud like dominoes. Even with mud staining their faces and their clothes, they were both grinning, the smile on his daughter’s face more radiant than it had been in years.

There would be an incredible mess that he would have to clean up later, likely involving tubs of hot water, towels, and hours of scrubbing with the brush. Colette might even still catch a cold from being exposed to the elements. But Frank would keep his promise and hide the fact that this ever happened from the priests. Besides, an omission of information wasn’t a lie.

And the effort would all be worth it - the sleepless nights, all the times he'd pricked his finger on the needle because of how rusty he was - just to let his daughter have the experience of being a child, just to see her smiling and laughing with her best friend in the whole wide world.

[okageshadowkingfannovel]

Book 2: Chapter 3

“Finally! I feel as if we’ve been putting this off for weeks!”

This is the farthest Ari’s ever been on the path leading out of Tenel village. The villager that’s usually on guard duty is suspiciously absent. Ari stands on that spot, staring at the path that snakes its way through the forest, meets the bridge crossing the river, and then dissolves into the open fields. He swallows hard, trying to steel himself.

“Wouldn’t you agree, slave?” King Stan prattles on, “I mean, it really feels like we’ve had two or three weeks of solid stalling. So. Much. Wasted. Time.”

Ari rolls his eyes, distracted just for a moment from the yawning unknown laid out before him in the daylight. Placing a hand on the sharpened fruit knife on his belt, he takes a deep breath and begins to walk.

It’s going to be ok, he tells himself, it’s going to be ok. It’s going to be ok. I just have to walk really, really fast. Is that a ticking sound?

Ari pauses and looks around along the ground.

“Just one second, Stan,” says Ari before the evil king can roar at him with impatient rage, “found it!”

The ticking leads him to a small patch of grass where a tiny gear waits. It looks just like the one found behind the Nameless Dwelling and just like that one, it stops ticking the moment Ari touches it.

He hears Stan growling.

“Burning …”

“Alright! Alright! I’m going!” Ari protests as he slips the gear into a pocket where it can join its brother.

The boy can’t help but notice that he’s developing a strange new hobby - gear collecting.

I guess it suits an uncool weirdo like me …

Eventually, Ari finds himself at the bridge. It crosses a small ravine that cuts the border of the field. The river tracing down the middle of it flows with a peaceful ease, not at all reflecting the dangers that lay beyond. The bridge itself seems sturdy and safe. It’s made of thick slabs of pale wood. Nothing about the bridge or the ravine or the river gives Ari the slightest hint of worry.

It’s the grassy expanse on the other side, dotted with trees and bushes and bunches of wild grass and suspicious looking patches of bluish fog, that make his heart race and his skin go grossly clammy.

It’s going to be ok. It’s going to be ok. You have Sta- … you have a fruit knife. That’s something.

In preparation, Ari pulls free the fruit knife and holds it ready. He begins to carefully cross the bridge. The farther he goes and the more things don’t happen, the better he begins to feel. The calming sounds of the water below and birds singing from far off in their trees start to soothe the pounding of his heart. Once he gets to the bridge’s midpoint, he might even dare to call himself relaxed.

See? It’s fine. So far, so good …

As soon as the thought passes through his head, a little white cloud fades into view at the far end of the bridge. It possesses wide, yellow eyes and bobs up and down in that all too familiar, ghostly way.

Of course.

Ari stops and Stanley pops up behind him.

“Oh, here is some low class evil being like the one in the church that I smashed for you.”

“It seems so, Evil King Stan.”

“But slave, you should improve your skills.”

“Improve my … what now?”

“Now, slave, destroy the one there. A true servant of mine should be able to do this easily. Now, go!”

Stan suddenly sinks back down, leaving Ari awkwardly and pathetically alone with nothing but a fruit knife.

Ok … ok … ok ok ok. It’s just one ghost, right? I have the fruit knife and … and maybe I can figure out the whole overdrive thing.

“O-o-verdri-”

Before Ari can say the word, a bone-chilling ‘boo’ pipes up from behind him. He turns to see a red ghost coming up from behind, growling and eying him up like a particularly easy and delicious snack.

Stupidly, Ari brandishes the fruit knife, whipping back and forth between the two ghosts. Even he thinks he looks pathetic as the knife shakes violently in his fear plagued fingers.

“St-Stanley? K-k-k-k-king Stanley … uh …”

Nothing happens. The ghosts continue to approach, forcing Ari into the middle of the most unfortunate sandwich of his life.

“Uh … ok … um, h-hello, guys … girls … um, whatever you are.”

The ghosts say nothing - not even a ‘boo.’

“I’m really sorry. I-I just got a little lost. This is your bridge, isn’t it? It’s a nice bridge. Very sturdy. I’ll just … leave your nice bridge alone so I don’t … um, sully it.”

Unfortunately, neither ghost seems inclined to move aside to let him pass.

Whelp, I guess this is it … not even 5 seconds into the wild and I’m about to be eaten.

He feels the stinky, icy breath of peckish ghost death bearing down upon him, caressing his face and slipping down the back of his neck.

“Wait a minute!”

An angel?

The thought is cliché, but being seconds away from being ghost-food, Ari isn’t expecting to hear female voices from anything on the earthly plane. Quickly following it, there come the heavy sounds of running boots hitting wooden planks. The whole event passes in a blur. A series of swish-swish sounds whirlwind around him and a fast passing body knocks him to the ground.

Dizzily, Ari looks up to find the first ghost fading away into nothing. Looking over his shoulder, he finds a similar fate befalling the second.

“Phew! Recently, there have been so many cruddy ghosts floating around. Are you ok?”

Ari gets up slowly, shaking his head to clear the dizziness. He turns and where there was once a ghost, there now stands a beautiful woman.

He shakes his head a bit more and rubs at his eyes for good measure.

She’s still standing there in a very un-hallucination-like manner, staring at him with increasing concern.

The mysterious woman seems to be in her early twenties. She has a slender, but subtly muscular build. It reminds Ari of a dancer, but cooler. She wears a long military style coat with blue trim, shiny gold fasteners, and epaulets. Heavy, calf high boots explain the footsteps Ari heard earlier. And the thin, wickedly sharp sword in her right hand explains the fate of the ghosts.

“Um … are you ok?”

Her face is gorgeous. She has large yellow brown eyes and a firmly set, heroic countenance. A headband that looks suspiciously like a buckled belt keeps back shoulder length locks of golden honey colored hair. In her non-sword holding hand, she carries a delicate pink parasol, keeping her in a patch of cool looking shade.

“Hello?” she says as she smoothly sheaths her sword.

“Oh! Um … y-yeah. I-I’m ok … thanks to you. That was so coo-”

“Don’t walk around so vulnerable like that! You don’t even have a weapon!”

As if in his own defense, Ari holds up the fruit knife. It takes him just a fraction of a millisecond to realize how stupid the defense is.

“What an optimistic attitude! I can’t believe it! Hold on a sec.”

Before Ari can recover his first impression, she passes by him and crosses the bridge to recover a ridiculously large bag that had been thrown to the grass in her haste. Without dropping the parasol or losing a hint of coolness, she rummages around among the bag’s contents.

“Here we are,” she says, slipping out a sheathed sword.

The mysterious woman runs back up to Ari on the bridge.

“Here, take this!” shes says, shoving the sword into Ari’s hand. “You’ll have much better luck fighting ghosts with this.”

“Um, th-thank you. Are you su-”

“It’s a cheapie, but it’s better than that,” she says, nodding towards the fruit knife. “You know how to use a sword, right?”

“Uh, stab it until it dies?”

Her face looks grim, but still cool. “Good enough, I guess. Just … you know, don’t be a sissy. Got it? Ghosts can smell an easy, fearful meal from a mile away. They’ll be all over you if you don’t toughen up a bit.”

“Right! Thank you! … um, can I have your na-”

“Oh no! It’s already that late! I have to go or he’ll … I gotta go!”

The mysterious woman suddenly takes off running, back from whence she came.

“Good luck, kid!” she calls over her shoulder.

Ari watches until she disappears into the fog and wild grass and trees.

“Damn!”

Ari jumps.

“I didn’t have time to appear! Who was that anyway?!”

“Probably the coolest person I’ve ever met …” he replies wistfully as he looks down at the leftover sword.

Ari returns the fruit knife to its clip and sets to work strapping the sword sheath to his belt.

“You are a pathetic thing, slave. Two lowly beings show up and you cower like a troll!”

“Well, it’s not like I have any powers that will cause things to be consumed by black flames of infinite evil … like somebody I know.”

“On top of that, you were saved by some passing hag!”

“Hag? Are you nuts? She was so cool! Plus, she gave me this!”

With a clumsy flourish, Ari whips out the sword. It’s light enough to be shakily lifted by one arm. The edges seem comfortingly sharp, glinting in the sunlight.

King Stan sighs angrily. “Oh well. Be grateful that my evil hand is merciful to my servants. Seeing how pathetic you are in battle, maybe I’ll render you aid from time to time.”

“Well, that’s good of you … nice knowing my life means so much to you that you may help out.”

“But you must still become stronger! Discipline yourself by making your way to Madril and giving any lower being that crosses your path a good thrashing! We’re going to have issues if you can’t protect yourself. Don’t forget that your shadow houses the great Evil King Stan!”

With that, the great Evil King Stan disappears and Ari’s left alone with nothing but a sword and a ghost infested open field.

Somehow, despite such a disastrous start, Ari doesn’t feel as doomed as he did before. He’s pretty sure it has something to do with the sword clutched in his right hand. Thinking of how cool the mysterious woman was, he slashes the air, enjoying the wind cutting swish noise it makes.

Ok … let’s try this setting out thing one more time.

NOTE: Okage Shadow King is owned by Sony Computer Entertainment and Zener Works. This novelization is purely a fan-work and the writer claims no ownership over the characters, general plot line(s), etc.

[sonicringbond]

Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey - Scene 34

Part 2 of 4 is here and it’s time for Sonic to get into some huge trouble. Absolutely enormous actually. Though if you couldn’t tell I don’t have much to say about this scene beforehand, so how about we just jump right into...

    ~It’s frustrating, but I guess I can’t complain. I pushed myself too hard and this is what I get. But getting sick sucks! I wanted to run with Sonic and see what he came to these mountains to find. He wasn’t holding back either with his running, so I was going to have to get better in a hurry to keep up. It was the perfect opportunity, but instead I passed out because of a fever. Ooh~! How embarrassing and frustrating!

    ~Really though, I wonder what Sonic came here for…~

    “What is with that fairy!” Draw yelled at the top of his lungs as he struggled as best as he could to run while holding Rosy in his arms. “Don’t they realize I can’t use my bow if I’m carrying this weirdo girl!”

    Being smaller than Rosy made it hard enough for Draw to run back down through the chasm they ascended through the mountain range, but an onset of rain and a plethora of stone golems made the young golem hunter’s life extremely difficult. Though he was not alone in having to fend of the golems.

    Unlike Draw, Sonic had nothing slowing him down and every golem that challenged him was quickly reduced to a heap of rubble. Consequently, Sonic’s path was marked by a trail of the unusual flowers with blooms of light that sprouted after their shimmering seeds were freed form the crystal cores of the golems. It proved fortuitous bread crumb trail for the fairy who followed Sonic further up the mountains into their forested peaks.

    “I guess you don’t trust me?” Sonic directed a question to Mote as he took a moment to climb to the top of a tree to get a better view of the ruins ahead of him. Mote did not draw nearer though as Sonic surveyed his environment and the hedgehog shrugged. “I guess it doesn’t matter as long as the tyke keeps Amy safe.”

    Leaping from the tree, Sonic continued his ascent and found a challenge to his liking as the naturally polished stonework of the ruins took on far more complex shapes than he had grown accustomed to seeing. Massive gears and cogs turned and gave life to the ruin, redirecting rainwater into channels built to receive it long ago while the perpetual motion of the gears also served to keep anything larger than moss from growing on the ancient machinery. Rosy would have marveled at the sight, but Sonic could only shake his head as he zipped through barely taking any time to appreciate the vista.

    “Maybe another time, as long as the “god” here is nice that is. We had to burn her out or there wasn’t going to be a way to help her.”

    Sonic wasn’t one for talking out loud, but he figured Mote would hear him even if it did not acknowledge he had noticed it. The least he could do was give it a hint to what he was up to while it tailed him. Making it even clearer, Sonic reached into his spines to where he had stashed them and confirmed that Rosy’s tarot cards were still secure in their waterproof case.

    There were no more hints Sonic intended to give however as time was of the essence. Fast as he was, and as much as he had pushed Rosy to her breaking point on purpose, rain and mist slicked mountains were no place for someone with a fever. But he could not just collect the hundred Rings and run. Rosy had not been sleeping for some time and continued to push herself believing she could bear through it with her seemingly limitless energy. But Sonic knew from experience how important sleep was and knew he stood no chance at getting Rosy home safely with just the two of them and Draw if she didn’t get any sleep. To that end he sought out one of the powers that could likely be affecting her as she watched the ominous little planet in the sky day and night.

    “You sure you should be here?” Sonic shot a question Mote’s way as he came to a stop at the end of a towering flight of stairs that spiraled through the clockwork ruin. “From what the tyke tells me, you can’t even interact with a medium, so should you really be seeking an audience with a god?”

    The yellow fairy simply looked at Sonic impatiently and he could not help but smirk. “Suit yourself, unless you mean to tell me I’ve come all this way for nothing. Though the welcoming committee is telling me otherwise.”

    The golems did not bother Sonic in the least even though they were powerful, and the green energy beams they blasted from their cores were destructive to the point they could force most matter back into the Rings that once formed it. But Sonic easily destroyed the golems and turned the courtyard before what he believed was a temple into a flower garden lush with flowers of light. Barely acknowledging his handiwork, Sonic strode into the main temple and at the end of a long columned hall of staggering height, he found what he sought.

    “So, this is the stone god who dwells in the Misty Mountains huh?”

    With Mote taking cover in his spines, Sonic withdrew Rosy’s cards and strolled forward at a leisurely pace. Cocky as it looked, Sonic was being especially careful as he could feel the weight of the presence in the hall. And as the giant before him was very much like the one Rosy helped Draw defeat when they first met it was undoubtable that the golem was tremendous in physical weight as well presence.

    With fists the size of a ten-story building and arms that formed a massive, pointed arch, the golem was almost a structure itself within the temple that held it. Unlike most simple golems though, it had a head that resembled a short beaked dragon or perhaps a gargoyle. Below the head a massive arrangement of gears and gyros swirled and turned around a crystal rose nearly the size of the construct’s fists. The blue glow it bathed the room in though alone separated it from the nature of the golems who it shared its form with. And the blue glowing eyes it opened and looked down upon Sonic with.

    “Yo!” Sonic greeted with a two-fingered wave, “I brought a gift for you!

    “Or maybe that’s too informal.”

    Deciding he was perhaps actually being disrespectful, Sonic stood up straight and clapped his hands together twice before bowing with his hands pressed together. After a short pause he stood and continued strolling forward past the paper talismans that encircled the massive golem.

    “Anyway, how about that gift, big guy?” Sonic asked with a wink as a twinkling of golden motes of light gave way to a Ring that Sonic twirled along his finger as he walked.

    It was not easy for Sonic to maintain his swagger however as the presence of the golem was crushing and seemed to push him back with every step he took. Still, Sonic pressed forward and held out the Ring as though he was looking to shake hands with the stone monstrosity.

    “Come on big guy, nothing wrong with a little harmless gift!”

    So engulfed in the golem’s presence, Sonic smirked as he made eye contact and knew he was not looking at a mere golem. Still, the Ring he held burst into a cloud of the golden motes of light typically left behind by collected and used Rings and swirled around Sonic and the entity he had presented himself to. One that warned him of his actions immediately with the ability to speak he shared with it.

    “You have made a choice that would bring death to most Ring Mage.”

    “Sorry,” Sonic apologized as he scratched around a moment in his ear before blowing on his finger. “But two problems there. I don’t know what a Ring Mage is supposed to be, and giving you a voice to speak with is a gift.”

    “The voices of gods should only be heard by our chosen, the mediums.”

    “Like the girl who’s been unable to sleep because someone can’t seem to clam up. Sorry, but I’ve had enough of watching her trying to smile away how much she’s suffering. So, we can talk like I came here to do, or you can keep making empty threats.”

    “Brazen, child who runs upon the flesh of Gaia.”

    “From what I recall a nice guy who’d help me and the kid out without a second thought. So, what about you? Or are you going to look up at that planet in the sky in fear too?”

    “You are foolish to challenge me mortal.”

    “No,” Sonic rubbed his nose as he watched the gears that surround the entity’s core begin to spin and churn with greater life as the giant rose from where it had rested. “I just have a friend I promised to get home and I’m not letting anyone get in my way.”

    “Foolish, but perhaps you will amuse Yoluku.”

    “A test first huh,” Sonic smirked as a bead of sweat ran down the side of his face.

    “You would have me challenge Yoluku, mortal. It is only natural that I test you to know that you can stand against the tide you would call.”

    “Yeah, a tide of egg yolks sounds awful,” Sonic smirked and purposely twisted the name he was given. His wit was met with mirthful laughter and a promise of destruction.

    “Your mocking of Yoluku will perhaps earn me praise with your destruction mortal. So be it, amuse me with your pitiable attempts to survive my fury.”

    “Time to run,” Sonic whispered back into his quills to Mote as the entity rose, lifted on a skeletal trunk and legs of blue light to a height that destroyed the temple that housed it.

    From further down the mountain, Draw was knocked from his feet by the force of the entity standing. Dropped Rosy, the unconscious hedgehog girl nearly rolling over the edge of the ravine the koala had been running beside. “Now wha–~?”

    Draw never finished his question as he looked back up the mountains and saw the storm had rose well above them and grew in intensity, becoming a lightning filled crown to the giant at their peak. Adorning that crown, the little planet that watched Rosy day and night looked down upon the trial about to befall Sonic and the koala.

    “Is that really a god? And did that blue idiot actually challenge it? What is wrong with you and your friends you weirdo girl! Just who do you people think you are!”

    Held fast by fevered sleep, Draw’s questions fell on deaf ears and Rosy offered him no reply. The voice of the entity atop the mountains however was clearly heard by all the golems upon them and Draw.

    “Wake my children, let the cries of the Children of Gaia surge in you and become your strength. Bring me the medium and destroy all who would challenge you.”

    “You really are going to get me killed,” Draw swallowed as he crept towards Rosy and readied his bow, notching an arrow as he eyed the golems that seemed to rise from the mountains themselves.

Scene 34 · CLEARED Sonic & Rosy, to be continued

-----

And now Sonic has angered the neighborhood god. He really should know better, but he’s just trying to get Rosy the help she needs XD But on a whole, the story is actually heading towards a major development soon and Sonic’s tendency to challenge gods is necessary for it to really work. But that might be too much of a hint so I’ll see my lips here and hope everyone is hyped for the next scene!

-----

Special Thanks to Cutegirlmayra Story by @JoshTarwater/SonicFanJ Inspiring Song – One Last Kiss – Hikaru Utada – From Neon Genesis Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

Fair Use Disclaimer

Sonic the Hedgehog and all affiliated characters and logos are the express property and Copyright© of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS used without permission under Title 17 U.S.C Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 in which allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. “Fair use” is use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be considered copyright infringement. The Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey alternate universe (AU) consumer written work of fiction is a non-profit transformative work primarily for personal use and can and will be taken down without warning or prior notice at the request of the copyright holder(s) should it not be recognized under “fair use”.

*Sonic Ring Bond logo created by DEE Art – twitter.com/daryliscute.

Sonic Ring Bond AU and Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey are the creation of Joshua David Tarwater/ynymbus/sonicfanj/@Joshtarwater and is to be, including all contents herein considered for all legal purposes the property of the Sonic the Hedgehog intellectual property (IP) and copyright owners, SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS. All story contributors via prompt, suggestion, written scene, art, and all and every other contribution acknowledge that all contributed material is forfeit for legal purposes to SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS upon official request from SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS.

[ruthlesslistener]

a gigolas fic that i REALLY wanna see done (cough i wanna write it kinda cough) is one where Gimli sails to Valinor thinking he has this elf business in the bag (being married to one and all) and ends up getting completely blindsided by all the different customs n shit. absolutely gobsmacked. he knew that there were different races of elves and different customs and all but by ERU he didn’t realize how many (and how interconnected they are) until now 

And like. that's fine. that's cool, he's dealt with many cultural differences before, he’ll deal. But then as he meets more and more elves he slowly realizes that it's LEGOLAS (and all his kin of Mirkwood, really, but legolas is weird in a definitively legolas kinda way) who's the weird one out and that he's just grown used to it. And it freaks him the fuck out bc he's like,,,but wait, I've been around Galadriel, I've been around Elrond, surely my husband isn't that weird of an elf...? And no sorry gims but half-elven healers who have dealt with more bullshit and cultural/political drama than probably most other living people on the planet and Noldor rebellion leaders who haven’t been back to Valinor since before the fucking sun existed are not, in fact, the majority of the elven populace. They're weirdos too, they just aren’t as feral 

And ofc the elves of Valinor don't really give two fucks, they're more occupied with trying to settle millennia-old strifes between the last of the followers of Feanor/returned Noldor and they’ve got the hunters of Orome running amuck anyways, and he and Legolas both ARE learning more about the widespread culture of his kin, so integrating the backwoods forest hicks who kinda became their own Thing over the years is whatever, and learning all the different Noldor/Telari/Vanyar/crossed over Sindar/Silvan cultures is pretty fun anyways, but there's living with your particularly weird forest husband for years thinking his bullshit is just standard Sindar bullshit and then there's realizing that he's Actually An Elven Cowboy and Gimli just...doesn't really know how to deal with that 

(Bonus content: Gimli and Legolas settle in a designated area set aside close to the gardens of Lorien, where those touched deeply by the shadow/are born of mortal life dwell, and meet with Fingon, Maedhros, and other reimbodied Noldor who are not allowed to leave until they’ve fully healed the hurts of their fea and have apologized/been forgiven for what they did when under influence of Feanor or the oath, which is impossible in death. That’s where Gimli learns that apart from the elves of Mirkwood having their own strange little cultural sphere, Legolas is also just especially weird, because while the Noldor there are eager to learn about the cultural differences and learn the language of Mirkwood and pick them up, Legolas is, like I said, basically a fuckin elvish version of a feral cowboy and can’t offer much explanation to his customs other than a vague shrug and the princely definition of Why We Do Shit before he goes off to sing to the trees) 

[talesofsonicasura]

Stand Needed

Snatcher and Moonjumper contract a nasty undead illness. Luckily, Hat Kid knows someone who could help in exchange for a price. Too bad it's another weirdo on a whole other level.

Every creature can get sick. Dogs can contract illnesses, cats can get sick, rats can carry sickness and humans get sick from small colds or deadly diseases. Though no one ever thought the undead could contract an illness but it is possible especially for soul-devouring species.

There is an illness that can disturb the magic energy of powerful spirits, particularly those whose power grew greatly by consuming the life force of innocence more than the damned or vice versa. This causes their magic to malfunction, spells to fail or backfire, and if not treated in time that spirit in question will become stone.

The Subcon Forest, a dark and mysterious biological creature born from the ghostly energy that soaks deep in the soil. A fallen kingdom that's entire population was devastated in a single day by deadly frost and then revitalized into this maze of trees by powerful ghostly fire. Magic flows throughout the forest, haunted noose that come alive to snatch their victims, cherries that became crystalized then exploded when introduced to ghostly energies, swamps that drag treaders into the deep abyss and even bells that affect the spiritual plane.

Two types of inhabitants make this dead land their home under the laws of their ruler. Dwellers, spirits that are tied to the world by the masks they wear and capable of revealing the spiritual plane to others. And then there are the Subconites, dwellers whose spirits are given physical form through puppet bodies so they can interact with the world.

Both under the rule of the Snatcher, a powerful ghost that haunted the land. Trespassers he caught are forced to sign magical contracts with their souls as the price. All but one had made it out with their soul not getting devoured and bodies dumped like garbage. Another spirit did dwell within this ghostly forest and commanded the Dwellers that didn't want to be involved with the ghostly ruler.

This spirit known as Moonjumper also was a soul stealing entity that was at odds with the Snatcher. Clashes between both spirits were given and often depleted their magic to the point souls were required to replenish them. Snatcher fed on ones that belonged mostly to the innocent since they trespassed on his land more often and Moonjumper took those who were destined for hell as they fled to his part of the forest after performing dastardly deeds.

And this is where their problem all started. In a large tree lined with giant mushrooms and carved into with a jack o lantern was the dwelling for a particular specter. The Snatcher, a ghost around 20 ft long in size with a body similar to a serpent but covered completely in a mane of dark purple fur, a thick curly tip mane followed by glowing yellow eyes and mouth often found on a child's jack o' lantern with two fangs and spindly arms with two clawed fingers.

The spirit had a book in hand that's cover read 'Ghostly Magic and Illnesses' with eyes narrowed in annoyance and frowning in distaste. His powers had been acting finicky as late as last night. His warping magic left him in the wrong location than what he wanted, hands burst into flame without reason but the biggest sign was one of his contracts. The paper looked dead than it's pristine yellow cut.

Thus he delayed any new contracts and halted his duties to immediately find what was going on with his powers. A magical sickness wasn't what he expected. Especially as one as deadly to him like this. The Chaos Petrification, a sickness that manifests in soul eating entity's who had too much of innocent or damned energy in their appetite.

"...The only cure is the energy from a being with an immense fighting spirit. A soul whose willpower is so powerful that they can bring their inner being to life. By consuming some of this energy, the sick spirit's powers will return to proper balance. These souls are very rare and the illness will take four days to permanently petrify the spirit. What the peck?!" He shut the book with a huff.

"How the peck am I supposed to find a soul with an immense fighting spirit? What does that even mean by willpower that can come to life?!" He exclaimed with his animalistic rough growl mixed alongside the mischievous jovial balanced tone of his voice echoing through the forest. This wasn't something that needed to happen. You can't rule over a forest if you are a stone statue.

"Guess I'm not the only in this same predicament." A much softer male voice with an echo made the Snatcher's frown turn into an annoyed snarl. Turning around to bore holes into the head of the corpse possessing spirit at his home's doorway. The spirit was much smaller than him, around the size of a human man if he was missing his legs.

Their head was a pale blue moon shaped mask flipped on its back, red stripes going down the bottom side of the mouth, two eyes of slightly different sizes with red stripes or star spots in them, the fangs making the mask bear an aura of madness, his spindly body covered in torn remains of a prince attire consisting of a white ascot and red coat but manacles with broken chains around his wrists.

"Moonjumper, how did you get here? Have you forgotten you are banned from this part of my forest?" Snatcher growled whilst looking at this intruder with aggravation. "Trust me, I wouldn't have impeded on your land if it wasn't for good reason. I believe Chaos Petrification being both our problems." Those words were enough for the violet ghost to drop the book an instant.

"You have it too? This is really bad. Magic is the only thing keeping that witch's frost from eating the whole forest. And I really don't want her anywhere near that pecking border." The spirit shivered upon the thought of the ice witch that dwelled in a small section of the forest. All three of them were at odds but neither of the two males hated the other more than the female demon by their borders.

"As much as you hate me, neither of us wants our land to become frozen over with ghostly ice. We need each other to keep her at bay. From what I overheard is that the cure is the energy of a soul with a powerful inner will?" Moonjumper said, picking up the dropped book and opened it back to the page the other specter had it on.

The page in question held a person shaped hieroglyph and multiple wisps around them with a giant wisp at the center. Underneath the image was a scrap of text that seemed unreadable. With a flick of his fingers, red string manifested on that tiny part of the page. It covered the area before they vanished upon burrowing into the pages as restored text that read 'Stand User' in its place.

"Stand User? A bizarre name but much better than nothing. Though it's the first I heard of it." Moonjumper hummed looking at those two words that were the key to their salvation. "Maybe the kid might know. She may be a weirdo but she's a weirdo from space so the Hat Brat might have a clue." As if on signal by the violet ghost, a soft thump was heard by his tree alongside a childish girl saying Tada.

Then walked in a little girl who seemed to be around 8 years old in age, hair a chocolate brown ponytail and bright blue eyes wearing a purple top hat with a gold ribbon, a purple Victorian looking shirt, white pants, black shoes and a violet umbrella decorated in stickers. "Hey Snatcher! And Moonjumper you here too?! Bowie was wondering where you were!" The child who was known as Hat Kid said with honest surprise.

Both ghosts decided to inform the young child about their current predicament. The girl may be young but her actions in the past showed she was a force to be reckoned and a good source of help. After all, no one had ever bested Snatcher in a fight or escaped the manor of the Subcon's Ice Queen alive.

"A Stand User? Don't know what that is but I think my new friend might know!" That caught the attention of the two specters. Hat Kid has a habit of making friends with very interesting individuals. These very people were often useful to Snatcher in particular considering his special contacts known as Death Wishes.

"Really? Who's this new friend of yours and where are they now?" Snatcher questioned nearly getting into the kid's face. "Her name is Jodie Joestar and I met her in Mafia Town! She looked extremely lost and said something about a Stand thingy that took her from her friends! In fact she's waiting on my ship right now since I said you guys might know a way for her to get back!" Hat Kid exclaimed, both ghosts were quite pleased to hear this.

It shouldn't be so hard to ask the woman about it. Though even if the Snatcher wouldn't think or much less admit it, Moonjumper was quite curious on what kind of person was this Jodie Joestar. A question he was glad to ask Hat Kid about on their way to her ship.

"What kind of person Jodie is like? She's quite cool and very nice! Her hair is blue and the surprising thing is that it's completely natural! Jodie also knows some cool tricks I could do with my hat and apparently loves to sing. I plan on asking her if she wants to hang out later and show me these special comics she has called Manga! Oh and she has a lot of siblings, like 7 brothers and one sister! One of her brothers is her twin too!"

Snatcher could only do a small dry cackle in his head. This Jodie sounded like another weirdo. They had to be crazy to stand the little purple hat wearing alien girl known as Hat Kid. Plus having 8 siblings was guaranteed to drive someone up the wall with madness. Then again, might be another soul that could be a new contractor. His forest did need some maintenance that didn't involve the kid.

Hat Kid's spaceship could be described as very colorful and imaginative to anyone who goes inside. Various rooms with bright color carpets, different setups being connected by various sized tunnels which most were crawlspaces to any adult guests, displays with the subjects of each one floating in midair or the massive pile of pillows that could be found in the bedroom.

Each room contains a telescope, a type of transporter that took others to certain parts of the planet that it was locked on to. Funnily, the telescope in her room leads straight to Subcon Forest which was also the same place the trio arrived in. Though they weren't exactly counting on the sound of music above them.

This music sounded very strange. It was like a flute with a higher pitch mixed with the tone of a harmonica and light notes found in an ocarina. The song itself was very soothing despite it's somber tune and all three of them had different thoughts upon it. To Hat Kid, it sounded like something that could be heard from a fairytale. There was this sort of magic to it that you would only find from unexplained wonders.

For Moonjumper, it was very calming to him. It reminded him of whenever he was stargazing, his inner turmoils were quelled and he could feel himself at peace despite his cursed afterlife. And for Snatcher, the tune reminded him of home. Before Subcon had become the haunted forest it was now. Where children were playing, the sun was shining and everything was filled with peaceful life. The time he was truly happy and had a better honest outlook of the world.

They all looked to see the source of that melody on top of the pillow mountain. It was a young woman with slightly long curly blue hair and the music was coming from a leaf she had pressed to her mouth. She appeared to be around 5'10 in height with light peach skin and her body completely covered in a peculiar style of clothing.

It consisted of a black long sleeve kimono to the point that it completely swallowed her arms and legs, a torn sleeveless white long coat with seagreen bottom starting from halfway, a long blue sash like harness around her waist and brown hiking boots. This had to be the girl that Hat Kid was talking about, Jodie Joestar.

From her closed eyes and no reaction to their arrival, it was clear she didn't notice them yet. 'She's quite talented if she can create such music with a simple leaf. And cute…' Moonjumper immediately shoved that last thought in the back of his mind. No ogling a human girl especially one you don't know nothing about.

Jodie opened her eyes and immediately spotted the little girl alongside the two ghostly guests. She then placed the small plant piece in her pocket before sliding down the pillow mountain. "Welcome back Hattie-san! I see you brought guests too! Konnichiwa!" Her voice was light, peppy and had a soft energy to it as she bowed to the two ghosts much to their surprise.

"Konnichi-what? Sorry girlie but I don't speak alien or bow to random strangers." Snatcher snarked but the young woman didn't let it bother her much. "Sorry about that. Konnichiwa means Hello in Japanese and bowing to someone you first meet is a sign of respect from Japan as well." Jodie explained, her voice riddled with modest honesty.

"Quite an interesting custom. Sorry for not introducing ourselves. I am Moonjumper and the large fellow beside me is Snatcher. You must be Jodie Joestar?" The chained ghost's question was met with a small nod. "Correct. Hattie-san said you could be of assistance with my particular situation." That's right, Hat Kid did say she was stranded but how bad could it be?

"It depends on how bad it is and what you can give in return, kiddo. Nothing in this world is free." Snatcher had slithered around her side before his face got up close and personal to the woman with a finger to her face. She merely moved his finger aside much to the specter's surprise. "It's rude to put your fingers in someone's face Snatcher. You wouldn't want someone to do the same to you." And then she booped him on the area where his nose would be if the ghost had one.

Hat Kid giggled and Moonjumper had put his own down seeing the flustered face of Snatcher as Jodie walked over to Hat's bed and sat at the end. He clearly was having trouble processing the fact that some random stranger booped him, Snatcher the Ruler of Subcon, on his face in pure nonchalance. The sound of the kid's laughter and Moonjumper's amused look had him push it to the side as he glared at the two then Jodie.

The bluenette wasn't even a bit fazed as she spoke once more. "To put it simply, this isn't my world. I was sent here by the power of an enemy Stand, I believe he called it 'When They Come For Me'. Stands are the manifestation of a person's fighting spirit and each one is different from the other. They come in many shapes, types and forms. Some are named after the tarot deck and lately music or songs."

It had to be another world. He had to jinx himself. Moonjumper had to resist facepalming for that one. "Stand Users have a habit of attracting other Stand Users and some aren't really nice learning that." The violet ghost decided to butt in. "I guess that means you're a Stand User too since 'Stand Users have a habit of attracting other Stand Users.'" Jodie ignored his snarky interruption with a placid face.

Snatcher really was trying to aggravate her but he wasn't going to be easily satisfied. "Very astute. I am a Stand User but lucky for you is that I'm one of the friendlier and more rational ones. If you would've asked someone else that then they would attack or in a worse case scenario kill you in very gruesome ways. Trust me when I say you don't want to make an enemy of someone who could erase you from existence or turn you into a living bomb with a single touch."

And the peaceful ambient mood immediately shriveled up and died from Jodie's words. 'Erase someone from existence? That peck neck kid could've got us destroyed in an instant if she brought some fool capable of that on board! I may be powerful but I'm not stupid. Though I had to applaud her for killing the mood so quickly.' Snatcher had to reluctantly admit that last bit in his head.

Jodie then continued. "Don't worry though if there are any other nasty Stand Users then I can easily handle them. It's sort of my job to keep the bad nuts under control with my Stand: What's Up Danger!" Almost on cue something large and white had appeared in front of the bluenette causing the two ghosts and child to jump back in surprise.

Standing proudly before then was a white lion/dog hybrid beast with a ragged green and red bowtie on their chest around a good 12 ft in size, a seagreen underbelly alongside horn like ears and sharp bladed claws of that same color, a mouth of oversized monstrous fangs and tusks that looked like something from a horror movie, two eye sockets filled with various colored eyes than just one, dark blue bladed spikes on each side of the back, and a blue tail ending with a plush viper head that had blue bunny ears alongside a stitched mouth.

"That is a big freakish cat. And seriously 'What's Up Danger?' At least some fool knows what they're getting into once that comes out." The beast or What's Up Danger rolled their eyes at the violet specter's snark. "Kitty!" Then Hat Kid just pounced on the large feline with a big hug much to everyone's surprise. Jodie immediately became as flustered as her Stand who clearly was not used to random hugs.

"Hattie-san, you are one of a kind because no one has ever called Danger a kitty and hugged her." The woman couldn't help but chuckle as the feline plucked the child off her leg and settled the little girl on her back with her tail. Moonjumper merely looked at the peculiar creature with a curious gaze. It's not everyday a ghostly demonic feline jumps out of someone.

He then noticed Jodie giving the two ghosts a look that clearly read: 'You can get closer if you want.' Moonjumper came closer with no issue while Snatcher held back a groan and settled with a skeptical look before begrudgingly coming over. Danger merely sat down and watched them making it clear she had no problem with what they did. Especially since Hat Kid was petting her much to the feline's pleasure.

"So you said you were looking for my assistance but for what?" Filling her in on the situation was apparently easier than they expected. "Turning to stone sounds really awful. If you need some of my Stand Energy then take what you need. Danger and I have no problem with it. Right, girl?" A soft mew confirmed the feline's answer to her partner.

"Thank you very much Jodie. You are a 'lifesaver' I believe what people say these days. Please hold out your hand or paw." The duo followed Moonjumper's instruction and pulled out their respective left limb. Snatcher had cautiously taken Jodie's while Moonjumper took Danger's. he vast difference in size was made clear as the violet ghost and feline practically overshadowed their respective partner's hand.

Both females felt a large prick at the center of their being that vanished as fast it came, a flu shot being the closest to compare the feeling. The reactions of the two ghosts were instant once they let go. A large burst of blue flame ignited from Snatcher's hand before manifesting as a pristine gold contract paper with a large bright smile and strings whipped from Moonjumper's in an elegant controlled fashion.

"I'm back in business! Maybe even better than ever since my contracts never had such a perfect pristine look to them." The specter couldn't help but admire the elegant masterful craftsmanship of the calligraphy and detailed fabric/paper of the very item in his claws. "My magic feels much better as well. It has been some time to be able to manipulate my strings like this after escaping the Horizon. You have an incredible spirit Miss Joestar."

Jodie and Danger couldn't help the big smile on their beaming faces at the Moonjumper's praise and the sorta gratitude from Snatcher. "Now to get you home! You know the telescopes on my ship, the ones that I use to travel on different parts of the planet." Hat Kid's inquiry earned a round of nods from the room's occupants.

"I was thinking that we can power up one of the telescopes so it can send you back! And the best ones for the job was Snatcher and Moonjumper." That didn't sound like a bad idea. All of them had seen how the strange objects worked, most of them even used it, they were very accurate on where they warped to and from.

"Doesn't sound too hard considering we got a sample of the kiddo's soul. It'll act like a guide to her planet and last location before ending up in that stupidity infested town. The telescope used for my forest will boost our chances since it's linked to the realm of yours truly." A larger smug smile grew on the specter's face that earned him an eye roll from the other ghost.

With a simple spell, the telescope to Subcon had undergone a significant change. It was now larger with the brown cover replaced with a deep violet marked by red spirals, a second notch by the lenses marked with a J, and a mechanism that changed the lense for a bright sea green one. "There we go. Now the telescope can warp to your world and not just Subcon Forest with a turn of the notch." Moonjumper didn't expect the sudden hug from the woman and Snatcher didn't expect her to hug him next. Hat Kid's hug wasn't a surprise.

What's Up Danger vanished as Jodie recalled the being back into her own soul. "Thank you guys! I hope we can meet again in the future someday but for now this is goodbye. My family is probably worried or on a crusade for that Stand User so best to put out the flaming torches and put down any Stand Rushes quickly as possible. Sayonara and Arigato." With a smile on her face, the girl vanished in the light of the telescope.

Snatcher and Moonjumper stared at the object a bit longer before instinctively looking at Hat Kid. She had a very familiar disaster impending smile on her face. "You're going to follow her, aren't you?" The chained specter was answered by the smug look in the child's eyes. "At least give her three days. I want to see what kind of face she makes when we pop up. Plus there's a book of spells that might come in handy."

An impossible thing to knock about Snatcher and Hat Kid. When you grab their interest expect to follow you with every chance they get. And prepare for the impending mayhem to follow. Ghosts and children always tend to cause mischievous mishaps after all.

This is another Hat in Time crossover but instead I used Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Hat Kid here is a bit more chatty because I want to practice all sorts of interactions especially with two diverse sets of characters from two different franchises.

While Unappreciated Hunter was exploration in its style, this is more of how these very unique series interact with another when you take into consideration how vastly different they are. Kind of like a melting pot as characters handle brand new situations and the oddities provided.

This is all my first attempt at writing Moonjumper so I hope I did good. Until next time folks!

This is Jodie Joestar and her Stand What's Up Danger! Alongside the song that her name comes from.

[borathae]

↳ Index [#02 Act Two: Connected by Sound]

Warnings: none, maybe a hint of homesickness

Wordcount: 5.2k

The rest of your week you spent attending lectures and practicing your first cantata as well as hanging out with Jimin and Jungkook. You had decided to give them a second chance. They were the first ones to be nice to you after all and you are surely not in the mood to find new people to hang out with, it is far too stressful for you. So you guys meet up daily at their favorite spot, a small wooden bench underneath a big oak tree just down by the school’s pond. It is beautiful, you definitely know why it is their favorite place. It is calm, quite and basically no people come here, which makes it the perfect spot to chat, laugh loudly as well as have some random improvised duets. It is fun hanging out with them. They are nice, like really nice, they make you laugh until tears dwell in the corners of your eyes and your stomach aches. They make you feel accepted.

Come Sunday you all had already exchanged phone numbers and Jungkook even made a group chat, making up the name for it from a weird concoction of your names. It was hilarious really.

And Yoongi? Well, Yoongi you decided to push back to the farthest part of your memory and given that you neither saw him again nor Jimin and Jungkook mentioned him again, it was an easy task to do.

You are sitting in your fifth lecture for today, European History of Music, when the blushing man comes crashing back into your life. You are currently munching on your second sandwich - as you had gotten quite hungry because of the lack of an afternoon snack break – and stare mindlessly to the front of the lecture hall, when someone suddenly blocks your view.

The sudden black figure shielding your vision makes you blink. And then you blink again. And again. And again. The piece of half-chewed sandwich gets swallowed down.

That posture, you know it, shoulders drawn up to the ears and head lowered. The figure even wears his hood again. Min Yoongi, it’s him and as fate had decided he is sitting right in front of you.

You are starting to feel incredibly nervous, your heart is racing in your chest and your sandwich lays forgotten in your lunchbox. This could be your chance to introduce yourself to him and ask him about his side of the story.

You stand up, leaning over the table. You stretch your arm out. Just a few more inches and you would touch his shoulder.

“Good morning class and welcome to the Monday course of European History of Music”, a tall man, just a few years older than you, interrupts you.

With a silent groan you fall back into your chair, pouting. Great, there goes your chance to talk to Yoongi.

The tall professor, whose name you later find out is Kim Namjoon, starts his lecture, talking quickly.

You soon find yourself zoning out, Yoongi is a lot more interesting than Mister Kim talking about Ancient Greek instruments. Yoongi seems to be just as nervous and fidgety as in the hallway, maybe a little less scared, but he was definitely still on edge. He has made himself small, keeping his arms pressed to his sides and pressing his legs close the entire time. That is the man, who is supposed to be such a dangerous creep? Who stalks girls and takes perverted pictures of them? As much as you try to, you just can’t wrap your head around this idea.

The professor tells a joke, something about musical scales, you didn’t really hear it. But apparently Yoongi did, as his shoulders suddenly start to shake as if he was laughing. Your heart does a jump in your chest, gosh he is adorable. This drop of his protective stance however only lasts a moment. He tenses up again, looking around to see if someone had watched him, before he clutches his hands over his mouth to keep himself from laughing. Your heart melts in your chest and you have to fight the urge to “aww” out loud. This was endearing to witness.

This is it, you have decided not to judge him based on other peoples' stories. He can’t be a bad guy, maybe a little awkward, but who isn’t?

Once the lecture has ended, you finally seize the moment to talk to him. You jump to your feet and tap on his shoulder. He tenses up, his breathing quickens. You tap again.

“Hello, you are Min Yoongi right?” you say with a smile on your face.

He tenses up even more at the sound of his name before he finally turns around. His head he still keeps lowered however.

“Hey, my name is ___ and I know it’s weird but would you like to go for a cup of coffee with me? Or tea? Whatever suits your taste.”

You send him a smile, despite knowing he won’t see it.

“Please leave me alone”, he mumbles.

Your smile drops, confusion replaces it.

“I’m sorry?” you ask to make sure you had heard him right.

“Don’t, don’t t-talk t-to me”, he stutters, clutching his books so tightly his knuckles turn white.

It feels like someone has punched you in the guts. You feel so bad, he is clearly so uncomfortable and you approach him like some crazy woman. Gosh, what were you even thinking?

“Sure, of course. I’m sorry I asked. Have a nice day Yoongi”, you say, putting your things into your bag messily, before rushing to the exit.

This is so embarrassing, let’s hope no one saw you right now.

Yoongi however is frozen to the spot, his head is raised high and his widely-opened eyes follow you. This is the first time someone had wished him a nice day.

You run straight home this day, telling Jimin and Jungkook that you wouldn’t come to the bench today because of womanly matters. They answer you immediately, well Jimin does as Jungkook has his notifications on mute again, telling you that it was okay and that they both wish you a speedy recovery. With getting the answer you wanted, you put your phone back into your coat pocket and run down the gravel path to the exit of the school perimeter.

What in god’s name made you think that talking to Min Yoongi was going to be a good idea? He clearly doesn’t want people to talk to him, judging by his posture and the way he talked to you. Now he must think you are a total weirdo, coming up to him and asking him for a coffee date.

Your jaw clenches, gosh you are such an idiot, you should have listened to Jimin and Jungkook. In mere hours everyone will know about your failed attempt at talking to him, word spreads fast in this school and there is a sure way that someone must have watched you attempting to speak to the black haired man. You can already imagine all the judging eyes on you tomorrow morning.

You groan whilst getting on the bus, which you always take to get home.

Perhaps you will call in sick tomorrow morning, cough into the speaker and murmur how sick you have gotten with a weak voice. Perhaps add Wednesday too, maybe Thursday as well. No actually, just pretend to be sick for the entire week so no one has a chance to judge you in the hallways.

"Good god", you murmur.

What has this school done to you? You have never skipped class before and now you plan on skipping an entire week worth of lectures just because you are scared of what people might think of you. 

"Goddamn it."

And you always thought people interested in music were the most judgemental free people of all. Oh, how terribly wrong you were.

When you wake up the next morning, still feeling as embarrassed as yesterday, you decide to actually go through with the plan. You call the school, telling the principal with a raspy voice that you had gotten a very bad case of the flu overnight and that you won’t be able to attend this week’s lectures. The principal only tells you to catch up on your missed lectures' topics once you were fit enough and that you should try to practice as best as possible before he hangs up.

You lower your phone, staring at the grey ceiling of your one room apartment. The sun hasn’t started to shine into your room yet, still in the middle of rising above the tall trees outside. You could keep on sleeping and wake up at a normal time, one where the sun has already greeted the new day and the city woke up, but as much as you try to, you can’t seem to get tired again.

So with your body aching to get moving, you peel yourself out of bed and trot to your closet to get the first warm sweater you can find. You can use the quiet time in the early hours of the morning to explore your neighborhood. You didn’t really have time until now to do so, too busy with moving and going to school. You are definitely excited to finally get a chance to make up for it.

You pull the sweater over your head and slip into some warm socks as well and done is your early morning walk outfit. You leave your phone at home for today, taking nothing more than your house keys and a banana to snack on whilst walking.

Putting on a warm sweater was a good idea, the morning air feels cool on your skin, the grey fog making everything feel just a lot colder than it actually is. You breathe in deeply, clearing your lungs with the fresh air of a new day. There are no people on the streets, most of them are still asleep. Silence is your constant companion as you walk down the narrow walkway next to the stream. The orange light of the rising sun paints its own beautiful picture on the stream's surface, making the small waves dance in glistening shapes of autumn colors. It almost looks like the water is on fire, like little flames greet the new day with vigor.

You sit down on a big rock close to the water, resting your chin on the palm of your hand. You could sit here for hours, watch the color of the sunlight change and wish the water a nice journey as it makes its way through the city. Sitting here makes you forget about the fact that you were actually in a big city, far, far away from your home, your green garden and the seemingly endless spans of forest and the big sea. Sitting here feels like a little piece of home, the water reminds you of the many days you spent letting your feet tangle from a dock whilst underneath the ocean sang its endless melody.

You really miss your home, you miss the simplicity of life in the countryside, you miss the honest smiles of the people as they greeted you by calling your name and waving vigorously, you miss the slow passage of time not like in the city where life seems to be fast paced even in moments of calm.

Was coming here really a good idea? Are you ever going to feel as at home here in this big city where people seem to be everywhere but you were still lonely? Where everyone looked at you like you were a stranger and no one seemed to care about your life?

You sigh.

Was coming here really the step you needed to take in order to fulfill your dreams? You had imagined it to be so different, to be exciting and to be full of people, who were all shining in different colors. You expected to laugh and sing and dance with people, sharing the one thing which connected all of you. Music. You expected to experience the most beautiful form of art together with likeminded people, but all you got was the message to be careful of who you hang out with in order not to blemish your status.

You scoff.

If someone dares to mention the word “status” to you ever again you will literally lose it. How come that people here care so much about what others think of them? How come they refuse to connect through music, refuse to improve each other, to challenge each other to perform even better, greater things and instead decide to be against each other in a constant battle of talent? Everyone is talented here, there is no use in competing against each other every given chance.

A cold wind rustles through the yellow leaves of a weeping willow. It almost sounds like it is singing its own song in long notes and sighs, telling you its story if you only listen closely enough. You close your eyes, listening to the willow's quiet song. It is telling you of far away places, where life seems to be easier and the air seems to be warmer, where the water is clearer and the grass is greener.

The wind gets stronger, the weeping willow's song louder. Mountains, higher than the clouds can reach appear in front of you, the willow paints them for you in a soft whisper.

You feel happy, like singing and dancing.

You peel your eyes open, blinking twice to get used to the yellow sunlight. You won’t give up now, not when you came this far, not when you moved away from home with a promise to make your parents proud, not when you are finally at the school of your dreams. Fitting in is hard, painful even, but you are strong, the weeping willow had told you so as it dried your tears with its melody. You are going to make it here, find the place you belong to and find the people you are destined to meet, even if the journey is going to be long and rocky.

You get up from the tree stump, stretching your arms above your head to wake your tired joints up and walk back up to the walkway afterwards. The streets have gotten busy whilst you were sitting by the stream, people dressed in formal dresses and suits busy around the streets, getting to their work or university. The city has woken up, sounds of traffic blend over the purring of the stream, voices ring in the air and the fog has disappeared now that people made staying any longer uninteresting for him.

You are getting hungry, the banana wasn’t enough for you to feel full, your stomach is rumbling. You could walk down to the bakery and get some sweet pastries and get some coffee as well when you are at it. You still have some money in your sweatpants, enough to buy you some food.

People pass you by, not paying you any attention, voices fade in and out of your ears, smells of different perfumes come and go as you walk down the streets to the bakery. Just like always you are alone in a place full of people, but with the weeping willow's song still in your heart the loneliness gets a lot easier to bear.

There are people in the bakery when you enter, sitting at the tables whilst drinking their morning coffees and staring into their phones. It is loud, the people are chatting with each other loudly. It smells like coffee and cinnamon inside, your mouth watering at the smell. There are two people at the counter in front of you, a black haired man and a blonde woman, both of them seem to be young. The woman orders first, a black coffee with a shot of baileys if you had heard correctly. You stifle a laugh, someone is eager to get drunk first thing in the morning. The barista, a brown haired man in his late twenties turns around, getting her order ready. She plays with her acrylic nails whilst waiting, a golden diamond ring glistening on her left hand. She must be married. Her makeup looks beautiful, she must have put a lot of effort into it. She is wearing a beige skirt with a fitting blazer, she must be a business woman, probably successful and with lots of money in her bank account.

The barista returns with the woman’s order, handing it to her. She pays him, even gives him a gracious tip. As you had thought, she has lots of money in her bank account. The barista smiles, bowing his head at her. And just like that she disappears, walking out of the coffee shop with a cup in her hand and success in her eyes.

The black haired man orders next, shuffling to the front. He stays silent for a moment, staring at the display. His hands hold onto the marble surface of the counter. The barista sends the black haired man a friendly smile, asking him what he wanted to order.

The black haired man hums in concentration, tightening his grip. You can hear it clearly as you are closer to him than before now that the queue got less with the woman leaving. Even from here you can smell his perfume, woody with the faintest hint of orange blossoms and the ocean breeze. You like it, your chest feels warm when smelling it. Tight black jeans adorn his skinny legs and an oversized grey jacket hides his judgingly skinny torso. He must be a student, getting his morning coffee before he needs to get to his lectures.

The black haired man finally speaks, ordering a double-sized black coffee with two extra shots of espresso. Your eyes become big, not only because this man clearly wants his heart never to calm down again, but also because his voice makes your heart flutter in a familiar way. A deep baritone, smooth like the black coffee he had ordered, soothes your ears. You have to swallow, your mouth feels dry. 

This voice sounds so familiar.

The barista nods, turning around to get the man’s order ready. You could watch him work, watch how the coffee pours into the paper cup, but your eyes stay glued to the black haired man. He is fumbling with his wallet, counting the coins before he lets out a sigh of relief when he manages to scrape together the right amount.

The barista returns with the man’s order, handing him the cup and accepting the man’s money with his other hand at the same time.

“Thank you”, the black haired man mumbles before he turns around, getting face to face with you.

The second your eyes fall on his face, your assumption ever since you had heard his voice turns out to be right. The black haired man is none other than Min Yoongi, the man you had embarrassed yourself in front of and the reason for you skipping school. Your breath catches in your throat, the air is practically knocked out of your lungs. Yoongi looks just as taken aback as you do, staring at you with parted lips.

Time seems to stand still as you look at each other, your ears drown out the voices of the other people, your heart feels like it had stopped beating. Is it fate you had met here in this corner bakery right at the same time in a city where times seems to race even in moments of calm? Perhaps it is, perhaps fate really means to bring you two together, two lost souls in a city too big for them.

You feel yourself blush, Yoongi does so as well. His coffee burns his fingertips, but he doesn’t dare to change hands for he is too mesmerized to move.

“You?” he breathes. He seems to not be able to break eye contact, his dark-brown eyes race between yours.

“You?” you breathe, equally as entranced.

Yoongi is the first one to blink, wetting his lips with his tongue before he looks away. The voices of the other people come back, nearly deafening you with their intensity now that the quiet moment shared between only you and Yoongi was gone. You feel able to breathe again, your muscles start working again.

“What brings you here?” your voice sounds hoarse, in desperate need of you coughing.

Yoongi looks back at you for the briefest of moments. He raises his cup, looking at it.

“Oh yeah, right”, you chuckle awkwardly, “I could have thought of that couldn’t I?”

Yoongi wets his lips again, looking back at you before looking at the exit. You see him swallow. He looks back at you, connecting eyes. Is he finally going to talk to you, now that you aren’t locked in the suffocating halls of the school? It seems like it, his lips part, he takes a breath. He sighs and just like that his head lowers to the ground. The last thing you get is a whiff of his perfume as he brushes past you to the exit.

You look after him, not knowing what to do. He is gone as fast as he had appeared in your life, leaving nothing more than a weird feeling in your chest and the unbearable thought that yet again a chance at happiness had slipped right out of your fingers. You are alone again in a city full of people, standing here in this little bakery with your heart feeling emptier than it had when you had woken up this morning. 

You don’t order anything this day, walking out of the bakery with empty hands and your eyes searching for the black haired man. He is nowhere to be found, of course he isn’t, he must have disappeared in the crowd, hiding in the safe stream of anonymity.

You tried anything, running up and down the streets, over the bridge to the bus stop, waiting at the bus stop for hours. But the black haired man was gone, as if he had never existed in this part of the city, as if you had imagined it all in your head.

The next days feel like torture to you, your mind keeps racing with endless thoughts. You write a lot these days, your thoughts and feelings, making them into songs no one will ever hear except you and the sun when it comes to visit you through your windows. Your little apartment soon becomes suffocating for you, you need to get out there unless you want to lose your mind.

So come Saturday night, you decide to go for a little adventure in your school. No one is inside the school on Saturday evenings, most of the students either practice at home or are out with friends. So you have the practice room for you alone.

You practice for hours on end, repeating the melody over and over again until you are sure you have memorized it. You don’t give yourself any breaks, wanting to keep your mind preoccupied with having to concentrate on singing. You only stop when your throat starts to hurt from the excessive training and once even the easiest notes come out strained, it is officially time for you to rest for the day. You write down your name on the list after storing the music stand in the cupboard and turn off the lights.

This may have not been able to clear your mind completely, but at least you were able to forget about your confusing feelings for a moment.

You step outside, gasping in surprise. It is dark in the hallways, the cleaning staff must have turned off the lights already. How long exactly have you been here? The street lamps shine into the building through the tall windows, illuminating the halls just enough so you wouldn’t drip over something. It is quiet, your breathing the only thing you can hear in this dark night. Shadows of the tall trees outside stretch out on the floors, laughing at you in menacing voices. Goosebumps run down your spine as if a cold finger of a threat has traced it. You know you are probably alone and have nothing to worry about, but you quicken your steps nonetheless, clutching your sheet music with sweaty fingers.

“Gosh I regret everything”, you start talking to yourself to ease your nerves, “this is okay, it’s just your school, you are safe here, no one’s going to kill you”, you mumble.

A loud crack cuts through the silence, making you squeal. Your steps quicken, the shadows seem to follow you, breathing down your neck with their cold breath.

“Nope, nope, go away”, you are practically running at this point.

You must look hilarious right now, running around like a scared little rabbit and frantically talking to yourself. The hallways become darker, the windows less. The shadows disappeared, darkness swallows them whole. 

A note. D sharp if your ears were correct.

Your feet seem to be glued to the spot, you listen, your muscles tense.

“Don’t be ridiculous there is no one her-“, you stop talking to yourself when soft piano music suddenly blends out the deafening silence.

Debussy. Rêverie. You could identify this melody from miles away. It is one of your favorite pieces. Sudden calmness overtakes you, the once scary hallways seem to glow in the slow melody. You exhale shakily, watching the dust dance to the sound of the piano, swirling around in the orange light of the street lamps. The once scary shadows of the trees start swinging to the music, laughing in happiness.

The music draws you in, wakes your curiosity. You need to see the owner of those skillful hands. With easy steps, you walk to the practice room. It doesn’t feel like you were walking, it feels as if you are flying, being carried by the notes of Debussy.

The door is opened widely when you reach it. Up close the piano sounds even more beautiful, almost as if it was singing the notes. There is not one moment when it feels like the player struggles with keeping up the rhythm. The notes dance with one another in perfect harmony, allowing each other to unfold on their own whilst still being one.

You step inside the room with held breath. The song changes, Deux Arabesque, another one of Debussy’s pieces, just as beautiful as the first one. You can’t see the person at first, the piano covers them up. You step further into the room and tiptoe to your left.

The first thing that comes into view is a mop of black hair, then a shoulder and then. Your breath catches in your throat. Yoongi. He has his eyes closed, that is why he hasn’t yet noticed you yet. He has his hood off for once, giving you the perfect view of his beautiful dark hair and his normally pink cheek appear ivory beneath the white light of the full moon. He looks peaceful, the music flowing through his veins almost makes him glow like an angel.

The melody gets faster and louder, Yoongi’s lips part, his whole body starts swaying to the music. He looks totally changed, calm and without any sort of density in his body. It seem as if he is free, as if this is his true self he is too scared to show the world. It takes your breath away, his play leaves you with tears in your eyes and your heart consumed by emotion.

The melody gets slower again, it carries you with it like a calm mountain stream would carry a fallen leaf to its new destination, far away from its home past beautiful landscapes and foreign sights. Until it finally stops, having reached its destination at a place safe from world’s harm, where birds sing sweeter and the sun feels warmer.

Even after it had ended you feel your body swaying to the memory of the music and your heart racing because of the man in front of you.

Yoongi keeps his eyes closed, resting his hands on the piano keys. You stay silent, not daring to breathe or clap for the moment is too magical to ruin. He is still glowing, the moonlight seems to kiss his skin, thanking him for serenading it, for making its job of illuminating the night sky a little easier.

Yoongi sighs, opening his eyes to turn the page on his sheet music. Only that they don’t fall onto his sheet music, but snap over the ominous shadow he had noticed in the corner of his eyes.

Your stomach clenches in panic when his eyes lock with yours. He looks just as taken aback as you do, his eyes big and his body tensed in shock.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, not once stuttering. He must still be in his zone, totally forgetting about how scared he actually is to talk to people.

“I, I just finished my practice and, and I was on my, my way home when I heard someone play so I wanted to check it out”, it is your turn to stutter.

You can feel that you are starting to blush, mostly from embarrassment of getting caught. Yoongi must think you are some sort of stalker, watching him play like a creep.

“You are not supposed to b-be here”, his nervousness slowly comes back to him. You watch him take a deep breath through his mouth afterwards.

“I know, I’m sorry for watching you like a creep”, you say, jumping from one foot to the other.

Yoongi visibly tenses up at the word “creep”. His previous confidence is washed away from his face, his eyes flicker to the ground, avoiding your stare.

“J-just leave me, me alone p-please”, he has his head lowered again, staring at his folded hands.

This is your chance to show Yoongi that you don’t mean to hurt him, that he can trust you. Your feet start walking to him, quiet and slow as not to scare him.

“You know I don’t want to do you any harm. I don’t know what the other peoples' problem is, but that’s not me. You can trust me”, you say, taking one step closer to him.

Yoongi suddenly jumps up, grabbing his sheet music in the process. You stop mid-step, watching him with big eyes. Even in the moonlight you can still make out the faint blush which appears on his cheeks.

“I said leave m-me alone”, he says, louder than before.

Your mouth falls shut, the words you had wanted to say are gone from your mind. You stay frozen to the spot not being able to move, even when Yoongi rushes past you and out of the room. You can hear his footsteps become fainter and fainter until they die out completely. 

You groan loudly, face palming yourself. You have done it again, great job scaring him away with your pressing words. You take one last look at the piano, the magic from before is gone, now all there is left is a dull-looking grand piano in the dim moonlight.

[ereri-fanfic-recs]

Fantasy AUs

Sun Return by Heiuchous_Poncho

Between the rocky seashore and the wooded forest lay an old village. Its traditions mostly ignored, its people live peaceful lives.

At least, that’s what it seems like.

Here in this land, ancient magic is everywhere at hand. The wisps that light the dark paths at night, the faeries that dwell in the forest, and those the eldest villagers are too scared to speak of, the Good Folk...

Not all have ignored this magic. But not all have been kept safe in their practice. Ah, the poor Ackerman clan...perhaps their young Levi can change their fate.

(A Celtic lore! Universe in which Levi is about to discover rather intimately the forces that curse his family)

Earthshine by snakemittens

Levi is searching for a well-known witch of the forest to help him. What he finds instead is a naked boy in the river who talks to himself with a scent that Levi can't stop thinking about. Could a werewolf and a wizard even become friends? Or something more? Levi could ask the moon as many times as he wanted, but the answer would only come with time.

A Bird in the Hand by mongoose_bite

Little ever changes in the Underworld, and few visit, but the arrival of a single songbird foretells a coming change for both the Underworld and its god, Eren.

Spring is here.

Of Gods and Kings by orphan_account

The road to Trost is cold and wet. In search of warmth and shelter, King Erwin and his men come across an inn, and Levi finds a person who radiates more warmth than he ever could’ve hoped for.

The Gate of the North by appleapple

Everyone knows the Survey Corp is the laughingstock of the military, a place for crackpots and weirdos. It doesn't have the prestige of the MP or the security of the Garrison. The only people who join are people who can't fit into modern society.

It's been Eren's dream to join since childhood. Flunking out of school prevents him from attending military college, and he drifts along in life, ignoring his friends' encouragement to go back to school or start a career.

Levi is the gatekeeper of the Northern Gate, the most important (and most troublesome) gate that keeps the human world safe from interference and invasion. When he receives a letter from his cousin asking him to take on her friend for a summer apprenticeship he agrees against his better judgement.

Neither of them is expecting the end of the world.

[periwinkledoodle]

Chapter 1: Bo the Funkster and His Shady Owl

Honey Lee

How do you pack for a boarding school for the magically gifted? No seriously, I’m asking. The question had so paralyzed me for weeks that there I was at 5 am on a Sunday staring at an empty suitcase. 

My parents had enrolled me, their ‘gifted’ child into Ilvermorney’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after I’d accidentally transfigured my Algebra teacher’s toupee into a small chihuahua. I mean the resemblance was uncanny but my feeble explanations weren’t fooling anyone. My letter addressed to Ms. Hun Mi Beatrice Lee arrived shortly after.

“Hey Honeycomb, do you wanna eat breakfast before we go or take it on the way to the airport?” It was my Dad calling from down the hall in our Familie’s tiny San Francisco Apartment. He was probably packing snacks and making a Spotify playlist for the drive to the Airport. He knows exactly how to prepare for this. I grumbled to myself. It was a knack of his to anticipate and prepare, not just for himself but for our little family of three. When I went to my first sleep-away camp he made sure to tuck Mr. Pinky into my duffle even though I insisted I was too old for stuffed animals. When Mom lost her job he was prepared with taped re-runs of Gilmore Girls, a steaming pan of bulgogi and extra savings from a rainy day account he’d meant to surprise us with.  

“I’ll eat on the way” I shouted back after a pregnant pause. Maybe it’s not too late to ask him to pack for me. I jumped at the knock on my door.

“Uuuuh-” I responded dumbly, unable to come up with a believable excuse to shoo away the intruder. The door creaked open and my Mom stood there sleepy-eyed with an extra cup of coffee in her hands.  

“Coffee?” She smiled sweetly, handing me my favorite ceramic travel mug. The one with the San Francisco skyline. The one not from Starbucks. She took a sip of her own before eyeing my room. I could see her face change as her eyes drifted to the empty suitcase at the end of my bed. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and another sip of coffee. When she opened her eyes again she took the coffee mug out of my hands and pointed down the hall to the bathroom.

“Toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, razor, lotion. Go!”

All I could do was nod and scurry to my task as Mom called down the hall “Ed! Put the pancake batter in the fridge and come help me!”

Twenty minutes later my parents were high-fiving each other as we merged onto the freeway to the Airport with my entire wardrobe and most of my essentials stuffed into two bags in the trunk.

“We’re only a few minutes behind schedule, which is fine because I set aside at least ten minutes of buffer time for getting your mom out the door so really we’re ahead of things- Ow!” Dad rubbed the spot where mom’s elbow met his ribs. Mom turned around in her seat to hand me back my coffee.

“Ready?” She asked

I nodded. How are you supposed to tell your parents you’re woefully unprepared to be a witch when they’re making big sacrifices to make the best of the situation? Ilvermorney was not cheap I knew that much.

“The real question is-”

I groaned as dad reached for his iphone

“Are you guys ready for this fire mixtape?”

“Dad it’s called a playlist and please never call something ‘fire’ ever again” I shouted over the speakers blasting Magic by Pilot.

My family has never been one for emotional goodbyes so forty minutes later at the departures curb my Dad handed me my bags and my itinerary with sticky notes marking extra instructions for my transfer from JFK to the School’s rail shuttle. Mom handed me some extra cash for breakfast and they were off. Not two minutes later my phone buzzed with a text from Mom.

We’re so proud of you. X.

I’ll admit my eyes did sweat a little as I took a deep breath and headed to the bag drop line.

Having a whole 7-hour flight to ease my social anxiety nerves did not prepare me for the three-hour train ride with no assigned seating from New York to Mt. Greylock. After wandering the full length of the train trying to act like I knew where I was going I finally settled into an empty compartment towards the front of the ‘student rail shuttle’ or at least that’s what was plastered on each train car. After a full five minutes of peace and quiet, what I can only describe as a Crayola box on heelies rolled into my compartment, stuck out his hand and said “Hi, I’m Bo the Funkster” before dropping his bags and a tiny bug-eyed owl in the corner.

“Hi,” I said weakly, shaking his hand. From head to toe, the guy was a loud assortment of patterns right down to his banana socks and checkered vans. I was still confused as to how they had wheels.

“You got a name?” he asked cheerily

“Honey”

“Babe” He quipped without skipping a beat. Fluttering his eyelashes teasingly.

I huffed uncomfortably “N-no that’s my name. Well, actually my name is Hun Mi but my sister couldn’t pronounce it when I was born so she called me Honey and now it’s the only name I ever remember being called.”  

“That’s cute” He smiled sincerely

“Yeah, she was cute like that. My parents miss her a lot.” I said more to myself than anyone else until I saw his smile drop. Oh boy, major overshare. I mentally slapped myself. Recover! Recover!

“I mean, she died from cancer a long time ago so it’s fine”

His eyebrows knit together and mouth agape no doubt looking for a socially acceptable response to ‘Hi my name is Honey, my sister died of leukemia what’s your childhood trauma?’  

Way to put oil on the fire Honey.

But to my surprise Bo the Funkster pat a hand on my knee. “Dude, that sucks. I’m sorry” He leaned back in his seat and studied me for a minute. “So your first semester at Ilvermorney?”

“Can you tell?”

“Uh, yeah. But you’re good don’t sweat it. I’ll help you out. Hit me with your questions.”

“Questions?”

“Yeah about wizarding, Ilvermorney, whatever. There’s no shame in being new to the wizarding community but you probably want to know a few things am I right?”

I nodded

“Well then, young padawan-” he gestured  “proceed.”

Two and a half hours later we had exhausted our Q&A and had resorted to swapping opinions on the best movies of the summer. The train turned a sharp corner into bright forested hills and the glow of the late afternoon light made me feel like we had entered another world altogether.

Bo caught me staring “Yeah, it’s pretty” he admitted crawling his lanky limbs over his seat towards the window, he wedged the rusted thing open to let the summer breeze in.

��C’ mere” He motioned

I scooted over to the window and followed suit as he stuck his head out the window and inhaled deeply.

“Aahh, the last breath of summer,” he remarked before grinning at me wildly and cupping his hands to let loose a piercing howl that echoed over the hillside. I blinked. He abruptly put his hand up and shushed.

“I didn’t-”

“SHHH!” he wagged his shushing finger more forcibly.

I rolled my eyes to the sky but without missing a beat several eerie howls drifted back over the hills to us. I could feel my eyes grow wide.

“werewolves” Bo the funkster declared waving his arm out the window in proud presentation before sitting back in his assigned seat looking very pleased with himself.

“But it’s daytime, don’t they only change with the full moon?”

“Woohoo, look who knows her stuff!” He cheered. Then leaning forward with an unsettlingly fascinated look in his eye “It is a full moon!”  Without looking he jabbed a finger at the sky. I almost didn’t look half expecting him to just be messing with me, but there it was hanging proudly in what was left of blue in the sky.

“The nighttime part isn’t necessary and werewolves can howl in their human form too. Piece of trivia for your DA course.” He clicked some finger guns at me and winked before stepping out of the compartment without explanation.

What a weirdo. I smiled in spite of myself.

“Buckle up!” He called from down the car

Buckle up?

The train lurched and took off the tracks and I white-knuckled the armrest searching furiously with my other arm for a nonexistent seatbelt. The shifty Owl who I’d almost forgotten about perched atop the now falling luggage let out a grumbly and distinctly human-like “Who” that would haunt my dreams for weeks.

I gaped at it in absolute horror.

Once I regained my balance, and a piece of my sanity, I dared to steal a glance out the window, rather than engage the bird in a staring contest I was likely to lose. The sight that met my eyes made both my stomach and my heart leap. Unsure of whether it was nausea or nerves, I took a deep breath and leaned out the window again for a closer look. As the train gracefully ascended around the mountain it passed through a flock of what I can only describe as grey eagle-like Pegasus. Pegasuses? Pegasi? There were so many things I still didn’t know.

Now is not the time to dwell on self-doubt. I lectured.

Looking again, I saw emerging from the trees at the top of the mountain piercing spires and castle windows glittering in the setting sun.

Maybe this place can be home. I hoped. The thought of finding a place to belong made me loosen my grip on the seat cushioning until another unsettling “who” came from the beady-eyed monster in the corner.

“BO!?” I called out nervously

No response.

I swear to God-  

“FUNKSTER!?”

[itscoolanimelove-blog]

The Best Anime of 2020 (So Far)

It's a huge year for anime titles. 'Keep Your Hands off Eizouken!' were proper to long-time anime lovers and freshmen alike. Over the path of the past decade, simulcasting and online streaming offerings which include Netflix, Crunchyroll, Amazon Prime, and Hulu reshaped the character of the medium in each diffused and top notch approaches, transforming how anime lovers observed, shared, and celebrated the shows and films they loved. Japanese animation is a stronger medium now than at any other time in its life, and from the appears of what 2020 has to provide, matters are only going to get higher. Do see: Watch anime online free

Otaku and anime freshmen have lots to look ahead to this 12 months, with not most effective one but two new suggests from Masaaki Yuasa, the long-awaited release of studio Orange's Beastars inside the West, the exceedingly-anticipated most effective of Toonami's adaptation of Junji Ito's nightmarish Uzumaki, and a new CG installment inside the Ghost inside the Shell: Stand Alone Complex collection from Netflix. Not to say an entire host of returning fan-favorites with new seasons of Fire Force, Fruits Basket, The Promised Neverland, and the very last season Attack on Titan at the horizon. But till then, here are our favorites of the 12 months to date.

Want even MORE anime? Don't sleep on our favorites from last yr, and our favorites from the entire decade.

Darwin's sport NEXUS nine. Darwin's Game Release date: January three Director: Yoshinobu Tokumoto Animation manufacturing: Nexus If you have been to pass Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman's adrenaline-charged social thriller Nerve with the mystery-driven extremely-violence of Hiroya Oku's Gantz, it would in all likelihood look something like Darwin's Game. Based on artist "Ginko" and author Yuki Takahata's manga of the identical call, the anime centers on 17-12 months-old Kaname Sudo, who, after accepting an mysterious invite from a currently deceased friend, is thrust right into a lethal supernatural bloodsport regarded only as Darwin's Game. Pitted against a cadre of sociopaths and without a way to are trying to find assist from the out of doors global, Kaname have to depend upon his wits and could to continue to exist at the same time as trying to find a means to escape this dwelling nightmare. Produced by studio Nexus, the eleven-episode collection is penned entirely by way of series author Yuki Takahata, ensuing in an version that is a close to one-to-one suit with the source fabric. If you're seeking out a taut movement collection with critical mystery drama, Darwin's Game is a strong choice. Available on:Crunchyroll, Funimation

puppy anime GENO STUDIO 8. Pet Release date: January 6 Director: Takahiro Omori Animation production: Geno Studio Pet is a real mindscrew, in extra ways than one. Based on Ranjo Miyake's manga of the equal call, the series follows Tsukasa and Hitomi,  empaths with the capacity to delve in the minds of others and manipulate their recollections and perceptions. Employed by way of a shadowy company acknowledged actually as "The Company," the pair are tasked with the usage of their capabilities to cover up crimes, assassinations, and dedicate all kinds of unsavory acts, more often than no longer at the expense of harmless lives and their own fractured psyches. The speak may be frustratingly obtuse at instances, with crucial terms like "peaks" and "valleys" thrown out of left area with little if any formal clarification, and the initial episodes can be a piece tough to follow with regard to what is being visible or perceived with the aid of whom at any given moment. Hang in there, though -- it's a story that progressively makes greater sense the longer it is going on and rewards the nearer you pay attention. And barring even that, it's nevertheless really worth a look ahead to the psychedelic visuals on my own. Think of it as a greater freakish take on Christopher Nolan's Inception by way of way of Philip K. Dick's Ubik. Available on:Amazon Prime

somali and the forest spirit SATELIGHT 7. Somali and the Forest Spirit Release date: January nine Director: Kenji Yasuda Animation manufacturing: Satelight If your tastes veer greater towards the whimsical fare of Studio Ghibli than explicitly movement-oriented titles, Somali and the Forest Spirit is a great choice. Set in a global of magic and sorcery populated by using spirits, goblins, and all styles of creatures, the collection follows the adventure of a wooded area-shielding golem and their companion, a precocious baby named Somali. Together, the two embark on a look for a domestic for Somali most of the last of the humans, a race of beings formerly thought to were persecuted and hunted to the edge of extinction ages ago. Think Alphonse and Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist, however as opposed to two brothers searching for the truth seeker's stone to repair their bodies, it is a father determine and their adoptive ward searching for safety and safety in a global of dangers at every flip. With great backgrounds, disarming humor, and a story with proper emotional pull, Somali and the Forest Spirit is a spirited myth of parenthood and love located inside the maximum unlikely of circumstances. Available on:Crunchyroll

in/spectre BRAIN'S BASE 6. In/Spectre Release date: January 11 Director: Keiji Gotoh Animation production: Brain’s Base Supernatural thriller collection are a dime a dozen in terms of anime, so it’s refreshing when one comes along that has as exciting a premise and character as In/Spectre. Based on Kyo Shirodaira’s novel collection, In/Spectre follows 15-12 months-antique Iwanaga Kotoko, a university pupil who four years prior to the collection’s start become anointed because the "Goddess of Wisdom" of the spirit global at the fee of her left leg and proper eye. Acting as an intermediary between the human and spirit world, Kotoko is tasked with fixing disputes and discrepancies among the 2. There’s just one problem: Kuro Sakuragawa, Kotoko’s speedy-made partner and boyfriend, is a noticeably fearsome entity with mysterious powers that strike worry within the spirits who Kotoko is charged with protecting. A serial mystery crossed with an abnormal-couple rom-com that sometimes pokes at the fourth wall, In/Spectre is a gorgeously animated series with a laugh twists, delightful characters, and engrossing cases that'll hold you hooked to the stop. Available on: Crunchyroll, HBO Max

tower of god CRUNCHYROLL five. Tower of God Release date: April 1 Director: Takashi Sano Animation production: Telecom Animation Film Tower of God has been one of the maximum talked-about new collection of 2020, and for precise reason. A collaboration among Crunchyroll and digital comedian publisher Webtoon, the series is an anime version of the online 'manhwa' (Korean for 'comic') via artist S.I.U. And the contemporary in Crunchyroll's recent push into producing its very own unique anime content material. The series follows Bam, an amnesiac adolescents who's mysteriously teleported into the eponymous Tower of God, a metaphysical structure that apparently encompasses the complete world and is designed to bestow mammoth powers upon the ones capable of reaching its heights. On his journey to attain the tower's peak in search of his loved friend Rachel, Bam should surround himself with allies in order to triumph over the Tower's deadly trials and even deadlier adversaries. A gorgeous fable-journey with wealthy characters, dense mythology, and delightful animation, Tower of God will satisfy all people hungry for a brand new shonen series to binge. Available on:Crunchyroll

kayuga-sama season 2 A-1 PICTURES 4. Kaguya-sama: Love is War (Season 2) Release date: April 11 Director: Mamoru Hatakeyama Animation production: A-1 Pictures Student council president Miyuki Shirogane and vice chairman Kaguya Shinomiya go back for every other season of machiavellian shenanigans and romantic hijinks! The first season of Kaguya-sama: Love is War become one in all last year’s standout new collection, a devious and hilarious twist on the conventional ‘will-they-gained’t-they’ components of excessive faculty rom-com anime. Season 2 has even extra within the way of lovestruck mishaps between Miyuki and Kaguya, as well as more time spotlighting vintage and new breakout favorites consisting of the Kaguya's hyper-capable assistant Ai Hayasaki and Miyuki’s icy cool sister Kei. And better, the second one season is just self-contained enough that viewers new to the collection should pop in to watch this one without lacking a beat. Kaguya-sama: Love is War is uproariously hilarious, stylistically inventive, and easily one of the great anime rom-coms to pop out this yr. Available on:Funimation

dorohedoro MAPPA three. Dorohedoro Release date: May 28 Director: Yuichiro Hayashi Animation production: MAPPA Based on Q Hayashida’s cult darkish fable sci-fi manga of the identical name, Dorohedoro is set inside the Hole, a harsh derelict city populated by humans and an ever-increasing number of unfortunate souls transformed into chimeric monstrosities with the aid of malicious sorcerers from another measurement. The series follows Caiman, an amnesiac bounty hunter and his great friend Nikaido as they scour the depths of the Hole searching for the sorcerer who cursed him with a lizard’s head. Oh yeah, he’s additionally were given a sentient human head in the back of his throat that pops up Xenomorph-fashion every time Caiman swallows his prey to search for the perpetrator. It best gets more bizarre from there. Packed to the brim with gnarly violence, leather-based-clad weirdos, pitch-black humor, and a number moments of mild-hearted levity, Dorohedoro is a darkish and wonderful hybrid-CG anime that mixes dystopian frame-horror and slice-of-life comedy to make for one of the maximum thrilling and precise new collection to come out in 2020. Available on:Netflix

beastars ORANGE 2. Beastars Release date: March thirteen Director: Shinichi Matsumi Animation production: Orange Set in a global of anthropomorphic animals, Beastars is the story of Legoshi, a benevolent if dour young lupine who crosses paths with Haru, an emotionally aloof and promiscuous dwarf rabbit, through serendipitous circumstances and starts to broaden complicated feelings for her. Legoshi's primal and emotional awakening is exacerbated through his status as a carnivore, forcing him to confront the terrifying query of whether or not what he feels for Haru is simply his instinctual urge to seek and kill, or some thing more. From a technical and creative viewpoint, everything about Beastars is masterful. From its without a doubt nuanced depiction of a society frayed among one of a kind competing castes of carnivores and herbivores, to its inspired feel of composition and lighting, Beastars is an absurd, terrifying, horny, and heartfelt anime that stands head and shoulders above the %. Available on: Netflix

hold your hands off eizouken SCIENCE SARU 1. Keep your Hands off Eizouken! Release date: January five Director: Masaaki Yuasa Animation manufacturing: Science Saru Based on Sumito Owara's manga series of the equal call, Keep Your Hands off Eizouken! Follows high schooler Midori and her pals Sayaka and Tsubame as they attempt to set up an anime club on their faculty's campus and convey their very own animated film. What follows is a wild odyssey of the highs and lows of attempting to break into animation, the type of comedic and disarmingly earnest portrayal of youthful ambition within the face of competition, and inexperience that reaffirms why you fell in love with anime within the first location.

Conclusion:

Brimming with meticulous nods to a number of the medium's best creators and a mischievously meta experience of creativity that'll have even the most stone-confronted of visitors grinning ear to ear, it's the kind of show you could simplest anticipate from the likes of Masaaki Yuasa (Devilman Crybaby, Ping Pong the Animation, and many others.) and the crew in the back of Science Saru. Top that with an infectiously trippy identify topic and score courtesy of rap duo chelmico and experimental manufacturer Oorutaichi and you've got one of the maximum memorable and hilarious anime of the 12 months.

[ruby-static]

Ruby’s Comic ideas

Hello nerds. I mentioned wanting to make a post talking about a few ideas I have for original comics a bit ago. I’ve been looking for a more original idea to create alongside my current comic @agent-a-cpfancomic​, which is a fan series for Club Penguin, if I can work it out. (I see plenty of webcomic artists that work on two or more projects, so it’s worth looking into in my book.)

So I wanna see which idea has more people interested through a post talking a bit about a few ideas I’ve had floating around. So I hope you read under the cut and see what I have to offer! And, well, there’s a lot. 

The Playhouse

(Sorry I’m only making these sketches as visuals. There are just too many ideas to make full-on illustrations right now so these are just concept sketches.)

Genre: Dark Comedy/Horror Comedy

Format: Webcomic (or ask blog if I can’t work out the story 100%.)

Demographic: Horror/Dark Comedy fans and general edgy weirdos (like me) from around 16+

Premise: There are rumors surrounding the twilight forest not too far from the outskirts of town. Only the worst of people come in, and they rarely come out. At least, not unharmed. They say that the abandoned mansion is home to a great many things. Vampires, ghosts of former residents, demons. Whatever lives there is very defensive of their home, that’s what everyone can agree on. Everyone stays wary of the twilight forest mansion. But it’s all just silly superstition.

...Right?

Hell on Earth

Genre: Supernatural/Comedy/Drama

Format: Webcomic

Demographic: Fans of things like Good Omens and other similar heaven/hell-based stories at around 14-18+

Premise: In the battle against heaven and hell, Satan falls. The death of their king leaves the circles of hell in disarray as the new reign of the antichrist, heir to the throne, has left the demon ranks of the damned on the brink of a civil war. Hell needs re-structuring, and that includes its influence on earth. Especially the presence of... half-demon children. One of these half-demons, Ashe, is living a relatively normal life in a small town in California. Once he meets a strange new kid, Michael, the two of them learn about the side of their families they never knew.

Pretty Midnight Arrow 

(A comic reboot of an old story, Rika Luna.)

Genre: Magical Girl/Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Format: Webcomic

Demographic: Magical Girl fans (particularly fans of the more serious ones like Madoka Magica) at around 13+

Premise: Rika has never really known her place in life. Her entire life, she has shut herself off and continually dwelled on the past. A family death from her childhood she barely even remembers keeps haunting her, and she’s lost not knowing what to do in life other than isolating herself and draw. One chance encounter leads her to find her place: falling down a hill and finding herself in a house of “magical girls”. They tell her it’s destiny, and she reluctantly agrees to go into a life of magic, adventure, and needlessly flashy clothing. After time being a magical girl, she finds out it’s a little bigger than she bargained for. Say, to a galactic scale perhaps? (Magical girls.... in SPACE!) Rika and her new team have to team up to combat against a magical threat bent on corrupting magical girls and trapping them in its dark hivemind.

Dead Man’s Mask

Genre: Psychological Thriller/Horror

Format: Webcomic/Graphic Novel

Demographic: You like (fictional) murder? You like the original comic for The Mask? Here you go, baby. For ages 16-18+

Premise: Alyx is a historian and up-and-coming collector given the task of protecting and restoring a priceless “cursed” artifact: the Dead Man’s Mask. Rumor has it that it was the creation of a secret society that used it to trap the soul of one of its most violent enemies within. And if the mask attaches itself to you, it claims you as its new host. Alyx falls prey to this curse, becoming the vessel to this mask bent on bloody revenge. It will not let anyone get in its way. Alyx fights for control over her own body, but it might just be pointless.

Ghost Town Gulch

Genre: Old West/Action/Comedy/Drama

Format: Webcomic/Graphic Novel

Demographic: I think it’s pretty self-explanatory who this would interest. Age range is 12-18+

Premise: Welcome to the wildest frontier of all: Purgatory. It’s a wild, wild, afterlife. The souls of the dead live in a desert land of skeleton cowboys, sheriffs, bandits, and more. No memory of their past lives, just the fact that they are dead and need to survive in their new world. The only way out of purgatory is to either find out how you lived and died to move on... or die all over again to face the void. There’s one man who wants neither. The stoic bandit, Mad-Sun Ray. He’s just a grumpy man who wants to make a not-so-honest living when he comes across a town in peril. He’s begrudgingly roped into helping save the small town (and maybe purgatory itself) from a great threat. In hopes of a reward, of course! Definitely not out of the secret kindness of his heart. Who gave you that idea?

Cherrywood Creatures

Genre: Horror/Dark-Comedy

Format: Comic Strip (Possibly slightly ask-based)

Demographic: You like random violence and chaotic stories in funny little strips? With a little bit of cutesy spookiness to add a little flavor? This one might be for you! Ages 16-18+ (Think of it as diet The Playhouse, honestly.)

Premise: Cherrywood is the home of many cute and cuddly creatures. It is a place of fun and chaos. And needless violence. Why does the cat have a knife- Didn’t that worm just get killed? Does he remember dying? Where am I? What do they want with me? I want to get out of here, I want to go home-

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2010s: 140 - 136

140. Greta Salóme & Jónsi - Never forget” Iceland 2012

Oh man, this is just tragic. Like, “l’amore è femmina”, “Never forget” could’ve been near the top of the ranking, but the stakes were even higher. A good performance of “Never forget” WINS this ranking easily. "Never forget” is not only one of my favourite ESC songs ever, it’s also the song that ignited my interest in becoming an freelance Eurovsion analyst, following the backstage, rehearsals and preselections, teaching myself how to gif, etc. It was a key entry in establishing my fandom.

My feelings on “Never forget” are as such, all over the goddamn’ place, so I will attempt to remain succinct: I was a HUGE fanboy in the day and to some degree I still am. Jónsi is probably still my single favourite Eurovision human. Effortlessly funny, disarmingly self-deprecating, overwhelmingly charismatic, constantly spewing off dorky dad humour everywhere. The only other person who can hold a candle to that is (the sadly LESS dorky) Måns Zelmerlöw. He is, simply put, perfect. Here’s a gif of him getting lost backstage.

(caption: “How unprofessional of me🤭🤔😬” 😻)

Greta is pretty amazing in her own right, as well. In addition to being a very talented songwriter who makes consistently magical music, I relate a lot to her permanently anxious, overambitious, perfectionistic self, her crippling fear of “not being good enough” permeating throughout every line she says. I mean, same girl, same. WLU *GREAT*A.

As for the song,man, how much praise can I cram into this? “Never forget” is a brilliant composition: It transcends the boundaries of music by unfolding like an animated chapter from the Edda. The Icelandic version may very well be the single best song in all of Eurovision, and is on my non-ESC playlist.

Sadly, Greta & Jónsi were ALSO struck by the Crystal Acoustics Curse. Not as badly as Compact Disco and Nina were but still, the end result was pretty disappointing. Jónsi was especially terrible which hurts my iceberg of a heart. However, I prefer to not dwell on what could’ve been. The final positioning at #140 is fair based on what “Never forget” eventually became: a solidly good entry, just not a great one. 

________________________________________________________________

139. Emmelie de Forest - “Only teardrops” Denmark 2013

On the other end of the spectrum, we now encounter another song in the “OUTSOLD!!!” category. Emmelie’s rank is limited by the quality of her song: "Only teardrops” is a boatload of nonsense, pre-packaged as pseudo-ethnic schlager <3 To put it plainly: It is a simple song for simple souls. 🤗  Fortunately, I too am a simple soul and was instantly drawn by this charming blend of floral melodies and underlying moody percussion. “Only teardrops” is, by the strict definition of the term, a basic bitch song, but it actually manages to convincingly disguise itself as quality. The presentation is elegant and even lowkey epic and Emmelie absolutely makes the most out of it. It’s not my 2013 winner, not even by a longshot, but I am nevertheless satisfied.

________________________________________________________________

138. Buryanoskiye Babushki - “Party for everybody” Russia 2012

PARTIY VAR EVRIBADIY DENZ. 

ANOTHER VICTIM OF CRYSTAL ARENA ACOU- lmfao just kidding.🤭 We knew well ahead in time the Babushki couldn’t hold a tune and if you care about *that* aspect, you’re just not watching Eurovision right. The only complaints I could’ve had would be if they won and well, look at the year. 

Also, in a year featuring Jónsi (perfect human) and Kaliopi (”I LOVE THE GREECE. I LOVE GREECE MUSIC” + off-screen showmance with Can Bonomo <3), Natalia, a living breathing inner matrjoska manages to capture my heart as one of Eurovision’s best ancillary characters. SO ADORABLE, WHERE CAN I ORDER ONE ONLINE???

All yours, Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka, ya ya~

I also really cherish the Babushki because their participation feels like the FINAL time Russia was genuinely without a hidden motive. They were the last Russian entry to win an NF, and they did it with antiquated shit schlager about dogs crawling on cats <3 (Like, seriously. I’m sure there is some obscure uralic legend at the base of these acidtrippy lyrics, which <3). This of course they expanded by baking cookies on the stage while cawing on in offkey Udmurt and broken English. They are genuinely disarming and I question the morality and life choices of anyone who thinks otherwise. ^_^

Oh btw, all of Russia has  now been eliminated, except for Polina. What a Good Eurovision Country. 

________________________________________________________________

137. Sunstroke Project ft. Olia Tira - “Runaway” Moldova 2010

In a bizarre fluke, “Run away” is one of the most famous Eurovision songs of all time.😂  I will not insult your intelligence by pointing out how, and I’ll instead remark that I find it lowkey hilarious. Hilarious, because at the time, the general opinion of “Run away” was a negative one: “a vocal disaster, an undeserving fringe qualifier, the epitome of bad taste & bad music, evocative of eastern-European countries voting only for each other”. Man, do those haters look silly now. 

As for my personal opinion, well, yes, I live for the mess, obviously? Always have, long before it was cool! Pseudo-orchestral trashpop beat laced with incomprehensible coalminer’s English <3 correctly-rated-as-epic sax playback <3 <3 The terrible outfits <3 the world’s least convincing violin <3 Sergei RIPPING OPEN HIS SHIRT AT THE END lmfao <3 Keep on causing rage-induced embolysms with those juror fiends, sweet trash angels. So camp, so lowbudget, so shameless, SO MOLDOVAN <3

and now for the final boot of the ~Like Zone~

________________________________________________________________

136. Uzari & Maimuna - “Time” Belarus 2015

“Time” is like Thunder Oh OH.

‘Time” is such a weird entry and I am barely able to make sense of it all. 

First of all, it’s a physical health awareness anthem aimed at the terminally ill??? Telling them to live their life to the fullest because they have such little time left (which is both endearing and hilariously inappropriate). 

Second of all, both Uzari (pronounced *YOU*zari, no really, he insists) and Maimuna are such intense weirdo’s. I wouldn’t describe their deadlocked gazes as chemistry per se, it’s more like a nonstop spaghetti western staredown.  <3 How did these two people end up working together?

Thirdly this is a pairing between a singer and a musician but it is UZARI who composed the music while MAIMUNA wrote the lyrics <3 "Time” is such a quaint, but entertaining little song, how come everyone overlooks it ::looks at the flag::... oh. 

And that concludes all the songs I ~like~. Now we move on to the second highest tier, to the [chiara] Songs That I ~LOOOOOVE~ 😻 [/chiara]

[spookyspaghettisundae]

Thirteen-One, part 2

Heavy clouds painted the horizon in a dull, bleak gray. Although still morning, the day was quickly fading.

Amy walked down the street. Her keys jingled in her leather jacket’s pocket, reminding her with each step that she needed to have someone check her car. She had not been able to start it this morning. Just another damned thing for her to deal with after the big move to this town.

From the corners of her eyes, she saw a shadow dart past. Her heart raced and she swiveled to spot her assailant. But nothing and nobody was there. Perhaps a mere trick her eyes were playing on her. Amy stood alone on this narrow road, amidst houses both old and new, some from the old colonial era and some just representing those artsy, newer architectural styles that she hated. Right now, she had no eyes for the environment itself, though. She was on the lookout for other people, specifically any creeping up on her.

Not a single soul here beside her.

Continuing on, a person took a left turn and joined her on the road, walking in the opposite direction and towards her. Some unknown man in his late twenties, dressed completely in black.

He just stared at her and a pit formed in Amy’s stomach. She tried to size him up but kept averting her eyes, both out of nervousness and just to see if eye contact could make him do the same. The real estate agent had sworn up and down that the area was all quiet and safe—"zero crime"—but Amy was new in town and the agent might have been full of shit.

The stranger’s course of walking was not in straight line towards her, after all. They moved along opposite sides of the small suburban road. He never stopped staring at her, however. He never turned his head. He creepily glared at her from the corners of his eyes until they had passed each other.

She could feel his gaze burning holes into the back of her head as she continued on. The pit in her stomach was still there, and she felt like all blood must have visibly drained from her face. Amy refused to turn around, refused to show any sign of fear—and listened intently to the sounds of his shuffling sneakers as they both walked on while the distance between them grew.

At the end of the road, Amy finally dared to look back. The creep was not staring back at her. Her gaze burned holes into the back of his head. Not looking where she was walking.

So she bumped into someone else.

Some man said, “Excuse you?” The voice tugged at some memory strings in Amy’s brain.

Under any other circumstances, Amy would have quipped with something snippy. But the day continued to be strange and unsettling all around, so she just looked up at the person she had crashed into. After a few seconds and incredulous blinking, she recognized a familiar face: her old high school friend and former band mate, Chris.

His furrowed brow made way to a face beaming with pleasant surprise. He asked, “Hey. Amy?”

Amy sighed and could not help but smile. With all the weirdness she had witnessed since getting up, followed by that weirdo gawking at her just before—seeing a friendly face turned out to be a true palate cleanser.

“Long time no see, fuck-face,” she said.

Chris chuckled.

“Uh, look. I’d actually like to catch up, but I need to be somewhere,” Amy said. She pulled her phone from her jacket, more demonstratively than anything, and added, “You still got the same number?”

Chris nodded and confirmed with a curt answer, then gestured to the sidewalk behind him.

“It’s cool, let’s walk together. I’m in no rush. I was just takin’ a walk to clear my head.”

Amy dug her hands into her jeans’ pockets and nodded. Chris plodded along by her side as she continued on with her way.

“I never thought you’d come back to this dumpy little town,” he said. “Especially not with the success you’ve been having in the big city. So—what brought you back?”

Amy shrugged. “Outside of the lame-ass answer you’d expect to hear about it never being quiet out there, I wouldn’t know where to start. Hey, so, uh—something else.”

“What’s on your mind?”

“You and the others still all in the same band?”

Chris’ face went blank and he stared at the sidewalk in front of them as they walked.

“Not all of us, no. Seth and Kevin left shortly before you skipped town. Don’t you remember?”

“Sorry. My memory’s kinda gone shoddy in recent years.” Amy took a deep breath, mentally crossing out the old haunt as a place she could find Seth to confront him about the disturbing video she had watched this morning. Then she asked, “So, is the band doing good?”

“I’d say so, yeah. Neil recently said he was gonna hook us up with some bigwig who could get us more serious gigs.”

“Without Kev, who’s doing the drums now?”

“Someone new—Beverly.”

“Hmm.”

“Wait, ‘hmm’, what? She’s really good!”

“No, I meant, ‘hmm’ in the sense that—well, I don’t know her. Like, neither as a person nor as a drummer.”

Neither Amy nor Chris looked at each other. The silence that persisted between them turned awkward.

“How’s Scott doing? He move back here with you?”

Amy stopped in her tracks.

“Scott?”

Chris followed suit and looked back at her.

“Well, yeah. Scott. Your boyfriend?” Burying his own hands in his pockets, he then asked, “Or your—your ex?”

“Y-yeah. He is—he has long moved to France. Neither of us thought the long distance would work. And here I thought I was the one who had memory issues. Do you?”

A short bellow escaped Chris’ throat. A bit too clipped, a bit too forced. Artificial.

They continued walking. Amy blurted out, “No, look, I’ve been seeing someone else. A real cutie, Steve. Steve Parker. You know him?”

“Nope.”

“Not surprised, he’s not from around here. Also staying in the city for now. Work.”

Chris grinned. There was almost something impish about it. Something devilish.

Where their road forked, he pointed up one way, leading uphill. Amy knew her path lied the other way. Chris nodded to her and said his goodbye. She called out after him, prompting him to turn around and proceed a few steps while walking backwards.

“Where are you actually headed to?”

“To this forest hut where we jam. You know—our band.”

Amy blanked out. And the memories of that morning returned to her in a flash, suffocating any positive feelings. The pit in her stomach returned, worse than when it had visited her before. She saw that single light bulb hanging from the ceiling.

She saw her darker self, talking into the camera. Talking about needing to dispose of a dead body.

And the she remembered the dark, clawed hand, reaching out from the darkness inside that pentagram. The nails digging into her flesh, drawing blood.

“You okay?”

Chris’ question grounded Amy again, ripped her right back out of the strange imagery bombarding her mind and inner eye.

“All good,” she said.

She had lied.

They went separate ways. She quickly forgot about the encounter with Chris even though something about their conversation felt utterly wrong, as if she had heard either of them say something she did not like to hear. But Amy did not dwell on that.

Instead, she pondered the strange video she had seen that morning. She did not want to, but the images kept invading her consciousness. And she could not shake that horrible feeling. She still wondered if she should call the cops.

But she did not.

The idea of being implicated in a murder and not remembering any of it—if it had even happened at all—was both deeply disturbing and crippling her from seeking out help from authorities.

She finally arrived in front of a big apartment building. The formerly bright white of its facade had turned into muddied colors with the paint chipping off, weathered away over the years. Loud, aggressive heavy metal music blared out from one of the open windows on the first floor.

Amy approached the entrance and tried pushing through the building’s front door. But the door would not budge—it was locked up tight. She scanned the doorbells and rang one of them. Seth’s doorbell.

Nobody responded. The door did not open. She pressed the button to ring the bell again and leaned over and looked to the window out of which loud music continued to thunder. As there still had yet to be anybody to react to her ringing of the doorbell, she wandered back out of the roofed entrance area, looked around the bushed and picked up a rock.

She thought on it for a second, and then tossed the rock up through the open window. Someone must have gotten hit by it, because that faceless someone shouted, “Ow!”

A topless, tattooed man wearing only jeans, with greasy long dark hair tied back into a ponytail, looked out of the window to see who had thrown the rock and hit him. He glared. Then his gaze softened upon seeing and recognizing Amy.

Another old, familiar face from back in the day: Adam. Good ol’ party boy. Bit of an idiot, but soft core.

And decidedly not Seth.

She had come here to find Seth. This was where he lived after all. She had not expected to meet Adam here, but Amy was somewhat happy to find Adam here instead of Seth.

The more she thought about it now, the more unsettling Seth had always been.

“Come the fuck on in,” Adam shouted down to her with a wide, toothy smile.

Amy shook her head and shouted back, “I’d love to. But fucking how?”

“What?”

“Your music is too fucking loud, jackass!”

“Calm your tits, I’ll be right there.”

Adam disappeared from the window. The music stopped in the middle of a stanza, making way for an uncomfortable silence. Soon after, the front door to the apartment block swung open, and the young man stood there, dressed still only in jeans and wearing unlaced black boots that were more scuff marks than leather.

“Since when did anybody start locking that door?”

Adam cocked his head back, causing the skin underneath his chin to bunch up, giving him the look of a turtle for a brief moment of contemplation.

“Folks are paranoid these days, I guess. Bunch o’ crackheads even in this small town, nowadays. You either keep some guns or you lock your doors, I guess.”

He thumbed behind him.

“You wanna come inside or talk right here? Got beer, got smokes, and I’m willing to share with an old stranger like yourself.”

They went inside. The place was a vision of pure chaos. The apartment looked like what you would expect from a tornado hitting the inside of a tour bus. Piles of empty pizza boxes, crumpled up beer cans, and an overturned ashtray with its contents spilled all over the carpet in a dark gray stain, on top of soiled newspapers on top of a cluttered coffee table harboring all manner of drugs and paraphernalia.

Adam plopped down onto the couch with a sigh and Amy thought twice about sitting down anywhere. The whole place reeked of stale cigarette smoke, cheap booze, and dried cum.

“Damn,” Amy said, the word slipping out more than anything.

She always hated it when fellow musicians were walking cliches. She hated it when they smashed guitars on stage, screwed around nonstop with roadies, or steeped themselves in substance abuse.

With narrowed eyes, Adam used a naked hand to shovel through the mess on the coffee table. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from the bottom of the junk and lit up a smoke with incredible speed and routine that only chain smokers possessed. Then tossed the pack back onto the table.

“Oh, you think this place looks bad?” Adam chuckled and choked a bit on the smoke as it came back up. “Yeah, it’s pretty bad. Shoulda been a quiet little evening, but somehow—somehow, way more people showed up, and it got out of hand.” He shrugged and took another long, greedy drag from his cancer stick.

Adam leaned back and started puffing out smoke rings.

“Can I bum one from you?”

“Dude. That’s a personal insult, coming from you. You think you need to ask me if you can have one of my smokes?” Scott guffawed. “Seriously. They’re not even mine. Pretty sure someone else forgot them here last night. So knock yourself out.”

He picked up the pack and held it open for her to take a smoke. When she reached out to grab one, he cringed when he saw that her hand was wrapped in bandages that had bled through so badly that a deep crimson spot had formed under the palm.

“You’ve got blood on your hands?”

Amy froze and stared at her own hand.

“Fuck off. Do you always need to frame things with such dramatic phrases?”

Through a faint smile and underneath a furrowed brow, Adam asked, “You got anything you wanna tell me?”

Amy took the cigarette and lit it up with a lighter from the table. Instantly regretting both the sticky texture upon what should have been a smooth plastic lighter, as well as the biting flavor of the cigarette, burning in her lungs like fire.

She flinched and shot him a glance that translated into a silent “Shut the fuck up.”

She asked, “What was that music just now?”

“It's—okay, Amy,” Adam paused and inhaled deeply from his cigarette, burning it down quickly and brightly. When he spoke again, his voice sounded tortured and the smoke billowed out of his mouth at the same time, “No small-talk, okay? What’s actually up?”

Amy let her own cigarette burn down between her fingers. She let her head hang before answering with a different question.

“Where’s Seth? This is his apartment, after all.”

“I don’t know. Woke up here all hungover after the party. I always thought he was more of a friend of yours than mine, y'know?”

Amy placed her cigarette onto the edge of an overflowing ashtray where it continued to smolder and gradually transform into a stick of hot ashes among the cemetery of fellow cancer sticks.

“Never really liked him, if I’m gonna be quite honest. Anything I can help you with, seeing he’s not home?”

Amy shook her head and asked, “Dunno. Does the number combination thirteen-one have any meaning to you?”

With a lopsided grin, Adam replied, “Well, since we’re speakin’ of Seth right here, I’d wager that’s the date when he sacrificed his neighbor’s cat.”

He burst out into laughter, holding his sides. He sputtered and his laughter ceased when he accidentally dropped his cigarette, causing a small explosion of tiny embers and provoking him to scramble and scoop it back up before putting the butt out in the ashtray.

“Big help,” Amy muttered. Though she knew he was right. Seth might as well have been a satanist.

“Sorry, but I really got no clue what I should do with that, but, uh, why—”

A smug grin overtook Adam’s face.

Amy whined, “You’re not taking me seriously, asshole.”

“No, not true. You know I take everything you say very seriously, but I sometimes just can’t help but fuck with you.”

Amy leaned back in the chair she had sat down on after assuring herself that it wasn’t as sticky as the rest of the dingy apartment’s furnishings. She stared out the window into the gloomy, overcast sky outside.

“I dunno. I dreamed something weird. Everything’s weird. Also, I saw Chris on the way over. Has any-fucking-body gotten out of this garbage town except for me?”

“If you’re back now, were you ever really gone, city-girl?”

“Fuck you.”

“Okay, so, you look a bit under the weather. I mean, I know what I did last night, and I’m still feeling kinda wasted—but what’s your excuse?”

Amy had no answer to that. Adam picked up a beer bottle from the table, sniffed it, and then took a swig of whatever lukewarm swill had been leftover in it.

“You know what I think? You should go see that new boy-toy of yours in the city—”

He shushed her with a hand gesture the moment she even opened her mouth to speak.

“Have a nice day, have a nice evening, get dinner, get stoned, stay out of town for the night.”

Amy leaned over, snatched the smoldering cigarette she had left on the ashtray, and stamped it out on the ashtray’s edge.

If Adam had taken part in any shenanigans involving a corpse, or a prank with the video she had anonymously received, then he deserved an Oscar for acting oblivious about it. More likely, he was badly hungover and had nothing to with any of this.

She gave him a feeble smile, said goodbye, gave him the middle finger after he made a rude joke, and left Seth’s apartment.

On the way out, she slung out her phone and tapped on Steve’s face from her contact list. The call rang, and rang, and rang. Steve did not pick up.

She paused outside the block. The loud heavy metal music started out of nowhere, continuing exactly where it had been paused and causing her to jump an inch of the ground in fright. Her heart pounded and she turned to yell some obscenities up at Adam.

Looking out the window was a figure clad all in black—not Adam. A deep unfathomable abyss yawned behind the darkness of the figure’s hood. Those living shadows stared back at her and Amy sensed a cold, seething rage. A malevolence so powerful that it felt like an invisible force wanted to rush at her and rip her heart out.

Frozen and unable to move, the honking of a car’s horn pulled her back into reality. Or at least, back into paying attention to her surroundings.

She stared into the angry face of a driver, waving at her to get out of the middle of the road. She had stood there for long enough to annoy some unknown man in a car. She got out of the way and when she looked back at Seth’s apartment, nobody stood in the window. Especially no shadow-person under a black hoodie’s hood.

The heavy metal music continued to blare.

The call to Steve went to voicemail. Amy hung up and did not leave a message.

She walked back home, furiously typing out a text message to Steve, asking him to get back to her as soon as possible. She feared that he was busy and would not soon find time to respond.

And she would be right.

Once Amy stood at her own front door, cramming her fists into her pockets to find her keys and unlock the entrance, she felt watched. She saw something move within the darkness of her home, though the reflections of overcast skies in her windows and her tired mind could have been playing tricks on her.

Fear gripped her heart. Someone was inside her house.

Finally, Amy called the cops. She would not tell them the whole story—only suggesting that someone might have broken into her home—and they would find nothing. The police officers left come evening. To her chagrin, they also declined her request to leave someone there to keep an eye out.

But evil was lurking inside her home. It had been there all along.

Amy had not noticed it.

Yet.

—Submitted by Wratts