#AND THE FISH TANK…… i have been trying to convince my mom to give up on it bc we literally cant turn the lights on w/o an algae bloom

[strigops]

manager asking me if im interested in any of the tarantulas their friend is rehoming. u can’t do this to me i quite literally do not have the space but i will MAKE SPACE

[forasecondtherewedwon]

Guest Side Story

Fandom: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Sarah Wilson Rating: T Word Count: 3214

Summary: Sam told Bucky not to flirt with Sarah. But this is her house, so Bucky's pretty sure she makes the rules.

Bucky’s missed white lies. Ones that don’t hurt anybody.

“Is that cigarette smoke I smell on your coat, James Barnes?” “No, Ma. ’Course not.”

“And you’re sure this dame knows it’s my arm she’ll be on?” “Sure, Steve. She’s been after me to fix the two of you up for weeks.”

Stuff like that.

Past few years, Bucky’s either been transparent or a brick wall, all lies or all truth. Which one he loses more sleep over just depended on the day. The most human thing, he’s learning, is to work with a little of both: fact and fiction. Give something here, hold something back there. Lying doesn’t have to be mean-spirited and telling the truth doesn’t have to make him feel hollow and guilty. Maybe you can only realize this kinda thing when you find your way home, even if the home isn’t yours.

Bucky’s standing in the kitchen listening to Cass teach him how to fish. It’s purely theoretical, no gear involved, just the overexaggerated motion of Cass’s arm as he mimes casting. Laughing, Bucky lightly grabs the boy’s elbow before it can collide with the refrigerator on an especially big swing. Cass downsizes his demonstration without pausing the excited flow of his instructions.

AJ catches Bucky’s eye; from the look on his face, he’s beginning to suspect that Bucky might already know how to fish. While Cass is focused hard on his hands pretending to show how to fit live bait onto a hook, Bucky smiles at AJ over the smaller boy’s head and raises a finger to his lips. White lies. Let Cass believe he’s the expert.

When Cass is winding down, Bucky moves around him with a grin, carrying an empty plate to the sink.

“I got it!” AJ declares, whisking it from Bucky’s hand and pumping a squirt of dish soap in the center while his other hand runs the hot water.

Cass slotted the Pop-Tarts the plate lately held into the toaster for him (no better end-of-the-day snack, Bucky was told) and now AJ’s cleaning up. They’re a hospitable family, all day long. No phoniness, no insincere offers of help that they’re hoping Bucky won’t take them up on. He actually had to race the kids to the shed to store a toolbox earlier. On the boat, Bucky has room to put in the effort for the Wilsons, but inside the walls of their home he’s not allowed to do a damn thing because he’s a guest. Per square foot of property, he doesn’t think he’s ever been treated this well in someone else’s house.

“Fine,” Bucky concedes, “but I’m doing all the dishes tomorrow—breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And don’t get up early to drink a glass of orange juice and try to wash it before I’m awake, ’cause I’ll be listening.”

The boys giggle and Bucky leans against the counter, hovering while AJ hands the plate off for Cass to wipe dry and pretending not to listen to Sam and Sarah talking in the next room.

…But there isn’t a full wall separating the kitchen from the living room and Sam knows Bucky’s hearing’s good, right? He doesn’t think they’re discussing anything that private and if Sam’s annoyed with him later for what he supposes Bucky might’ve heard, Bucky’ll just offer up another white lie and swear he couldn’t hear a thing. And Sarah… Sarah wouldn’t think any worse of him if she knew. Bucky imagines she’d have a lot of compassion for his frequent urge to give Sam a hard time just for the hell of it. He flicks a quick glance over his shoulder, just to see her, and concentrates on what they’re saying, giving himself vague permission because he overheard his name.

“This was your idea,” Sarah’s saying. “You brought the stray cat home, just like when we were kids.”

“Don’t compare him to something cute,” Sam complains. Bucky’s mouth tenses to keep his smile from spreading too far.

“He is a guest in my home, Sam, and he’s more than earned it after the work he’s been putting in with the boat.”

“And what about the work you’ve been putting in watching him do that work?”

“Sam. Grow up.” Sarah’s voice is playful and Bucky almost turns, wondering what her expression looks like.

“So you’ve just been appreciating his skill with a wrench and some sandpaper,” Sam says skeptically.

“If I’m also appreciating his shoulders in that shirt— if—” she emphasizes when Sam tries to interrupt, “—it’s nobody’s business but mine.”

“Ok, you definitely can’t have him sleeping on the couch.”

“What do you think I’m gonna do? Try to sneak him to my bedroom after lights out? With you listening, trying to catch us? Uh uh. Your sister is a grown woman with two children, a home, and a boat she couldn’t manage to sell, and she can lust where she damn well pleases.”

Bucky snorts out a laugh and AJ gives him a funny look. Kid’s too perceptive.

“He’s tricky,” Sam lectures. “You can’t see it, but I do. I’ve been around him a hell of a lot more. You think he smiles like that at everybody? If he smiles at me at all, I gotta assume he just looked up and saw a meteor hurtling towards where we’re standing and is only smiling because we’ve got seconds to live and I won’t be able to tell anybody.”

“You are hilarious.”

“No, I’m not.”

“You’re telling me your friend is charming. That’s what you’re describing. Don’t I deserve to be charmed? Where else is he gonna sleep, huh? With you? In one of the boys’ little beds while they share the other one? Because I know you’re not suggesting we skip the pretense and put him right in with me.”

Sam lets out a noise of obvious frustration.

“Time to intervene,” Bucky tells Cass and AJ, leaving them to swap confused shrugs in the kitchen as he saunters into the living room.

“Hey,” Sam greets stonily, arms crossed over his chest.

Just for fun, Bucky decides to be all the friendlier.

“It’s so great of you to put me up. Thanks, Sarah. This beats a hotel by a mile.”

“Our gourmet kitchen does offer an impressive range of sugary cereal,” she jokes. “I might even cook you boys a special breakfast tomorrow before you head back to the dock.”

Bucky’s grin widens.

“Oh yeah? I wouldn’t wanna—”

“No, it’s no trouble—”

“Well, that would be—”

“Both of you stop it,” Sam orders.

“Sam, go outside,” Sarah orders right back. “Play some tag with your nephews.”

“Sarah, I’m beat. We’ve been working on that boat all day.”

“Mhmm, you and the rest of the neighbourhood. You worked all day and you come home and there’s still two kids to entertain. But guess what?” She smiles deviously at her brother and throws a few fake punches at his stomach. “You’re Sam Wilson, the Falcon! Looks like you’re special after all. Me and Bucky here know you’ve still got some gas in the tank. Go on.”

Sam looks fairly planted to the spot as he glares from his sister to Bucky, but he eventually moves with a lurching step.

“I’m gonna be right outside,” he warns.

Bucky sidesteps out of his path and says nothing, though it’s hard to resist the instinct to egg him on.

“We’re gonna have a super-secret discussion about which towels he can use,” Sarah goads at her brother’s back.

Sam ignores her, corralling his nephews in the kitchen and guiding them out the door into the fading daylight with a hand on each of their narrow backs.

“Great kids,” Bucky observes.

Sarah nods, watching her family disappear, then turns to him.

“We’re not really gonna talk about towels.”

“No?”

Bucky’s eyebrows rise in surprise and delighted anticipation until Sarah grabs a folded blanket off the back of the couch and passes it to him.

“We’re making up the couch.”

“Oh.”

This is ok too. Actually, really nice, standing next to Sarah and unfolding the blanket as she stuffs a pillow into a clean case. Her eyes find his already on her and he swears he almost blushes; he’s been smoothing out the same crease in this blanket for a good thirty seconds with no result, just watching her easy movements, the way she flips her braids back when they fall forward over her shoulder.

“I hope you’re comfortable,” she says, lingering once they’re done.

“I woulda slept on the floor. A closet, even, like Harry Potter.”

“You read Harry Potter? Don’t tell the boys—they’ll be bugging you to play wizards with them.”

Bucky laughs and shakes his head.

“Nah, I just watched the movie.”

“Which one?”

“There’s more than one?”

“You really better not bring it up then,” Sarah advises. “They’d try to tell you everything at once.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t want to get in out of my depth.”

It feels like a significant look they exchange after his words. Bucky wants it to be—he thinks he does—but he feels awkward, romantically clumsy. Heartstrings tied together like shoelaces, waiting to trip him up. He’s been telling himself she’s only being kind, but after eavesdropping on her conversation with Sam, he knows she’s interested. In his shoulders at the very minimum. Was that right? His shoulders? Just in case, Bucky does his best to square them. Can’t hurt.

He’s fucking ecstatic when Sarah does glance down briefly, her gaze returning to his face with something flustered in it. Sure, she’s a mom and she runs a business, but it’s like she told Sam: she deserves to be charmed. Bucky’s not entirely sure he’s doing it right though.

“So,” she says, “Sam was just being a pain when he tried to convince me you can’t sleep on the couch because you’ve got a bad back, right?”

Bucky sighs but keeps smiling. It’s natural in her presence.

“I’d say that’s him making old-man jokes about me.”

“I apologize for my brother and his bad manners.”

“Ah, he’s not totally wrong,” he concedes, perching on the arm of the couch. “These last few birthdays have required more candles than you could fit on a cake.”

“Then you just have to get yourself a bigger cake.”

Bucky laughs.

“I guess optimism’s pretty much a family trait?”

“We work at it. They say you need to take the good with the bad, but they don’t tell you that means creating the good out of nothing a lot of the time, if you want any at all. The Wilsons worked that out some time ago, so we mostly do alright.”

“It’s a good feeling to be around,” he tells Sarah earnestly. Clearing his throat, he gets to his feet. “Feels good, being around you.”

“We’re… I’m happy you could stay with us.”

The light’s softened in the room and her voice has gone with it. Bucky shifts on his feet.

“It’s a pleasure to be here,” he assures her.

Sarah’s eyelashes flutter when she looks from his mouth to his eyes. Probably too try-hard to bite his lip now. God, Sam thinks Bucky’s so suave with Sarah, but it feels like he’s only got one move and it’s fucking smiling. Some Casanova he is. Sarah, meanwhile, is beautiful and authoritative and generous and moving closer to toss the pillow he’ll rest his head on tonight onto the couch.

“Anything else you need to be comfortable?” she asks, gaze slipping from one of his eyes to the other. “Another pillow? Pajamas?”

“I’ve got some, but…”

“But?”

Sarah gives him a questioning look and Bucky starts summoning the courage to make a move. He’ll touch her waist—no, take her hand. He’ll cup her sweet face so there’s no doubt what he means.

“But,” he picks up, “if I get cold in the night…”

There’s longing in her eyes, Bucky knows it, but Sam bangs in the screen door right then, one nephew squealing where he’s been slung over Sam’s shoulder.

“Well,” Sam announces loudly to the house at large, “that’s it! No more gas in the tank! Everybody get to bed!”

Sarah appears sorry as she steps back. Bucky almost reaches out to pull her in, to take another shot with another lousy line. Shit, he’s bad at this.

“There are more blankets in the hall closet,” she says, and slips away.

“Thank you,” he calls after her.

Sam walks past, Cass still dangling upside-down over his back while AJ runs ahead, and watches Bucky like a hawk (or some other bird of prey) as he digs through his overnight bag. What’s Sam expecting him to pull out? A strip of condoms? Bucky extracts a green toothbrush and holds it up with an expression of fake wonder. Sam rolls his eyes and heads off down the hall.

They are going to bed early, barely 9pm. That’s probably late for the kids though. Bucky’s pleasantly weary after a day outdoors, more working than talking, feeling like part of something as the Wilsons’ community came together to repair the boat. Seeing Sarah throughout. Flashing Bucky a smile while she spoke to a neighbour, grasping his outstretched hand to let him help her aboard so she could see their progress, checking Sam’s work like she’s his foreman while Bucky grinned and watched the siblings good-naturedly pick at each other. Sam was probably out like a light and Bucky should be too.

He’s not.

He can’t get to sleep right away, but it’s peaceful to lie here on the couch, on his back, while the house gets dark and darker. Sarah left the nearest window cracked for him and a gentle breeze washes in with the chirp of insects. Bucky’s already looking forward to being woken by the sun streaming through in the morning. It’d be good to get from now to daylight in a single stretch of sleep; that’s what he fantasizes about while he lies on his back: no nightmares. His head’s propped up by the pillow he tells himself smells like Sarah, though it probably just smells like her laundry soap.

It’s hard to put his finger on what’s missing, why he can’t fall asleep, until he hears the soft shuffle of footsteps on carpet. They’re too close together to be Sam’s—either hesitant or made by child-sized feet. Bucky cranes his neck around, expecting to see someone walk past on their way to the kitchen for a glass of water. His gaze roams over nothing for a minute, then he slumps back as the footsteps retreat. Maybe it was Sam after all, getting up to look in on his nephews or something. It’s the sorta thing Bucky would do if he were an uncle; he’d treasure the time with those kids, try to remember everything about his visit so he could hang on to it when he found himself half a world away, in Berlin or Riga or Madripoor.

He’s settling, trapping the blanket against his chest with a heavy hand, when he hears the footsteps approach again. Then back away seconds later. Slowly, Bucky starts to smile to himself. It’s Sarah. Can only be her. She’s either trying to psych herself up to come in here and talk to him and failing, or trying to resist venturing down the hall and succeeding.

On her next attempt, she gets closer, and Bucky sits up, kicking the blanket aside, and drops his feet to the floor in anticipation of her rounding the corner. He’s nervously gripping the couch cushion on either side of his knees when she does.

“You sneaking past Sam?” he asks quietly.

Sarah jumps, pressing a hand to her chest.

“You scared me. I wasn’t sure you’d be awake.”

Bucky shrugs, dreamily fixated on her smile. One of her neighbours turns on their porchlight and now Sarah can probably see his smile too.

“Couldn’t sleep,” he says.

“Shoot. Did you need something else?”

Kinda funny how she’s pretending she was coming out here for another reason and is just making a detour for him. He knows better, but he’s got enough remnants of being a gentleman not to call her out on it.

“Nah. It’s nothing to do with you.” Bucky stares at her a few seconds and changes his mind. “You know what? Actually, it is you.”

“What is?” Sarah asks with a hushed, confused laugh.

“The reason I can’t get to sleep. Sarah…”

But she smiles and does what he did to the boys earlier—holds a finger to her lips.

With the confidence of a woman at ease in her own home and her own body, she steps forward. She wore a yellow t-shirt today, but the one she wears now is pale pink. It’s loose and worn and reveals the strong, elegant curve of her shoulder when she moves and it slips. Gazing up at her, Bucky shifts until he feels the back of the couch. His hands hover in the air as Sarah digs one knee, then the other, into the cushion on either side of him. She lowers herself onto his thighs.

Moving slow like the hour, deep like the black sky, Bucky runs his hands up her back.

Sarah’s palms land on his shoulders and, smiling, she confesses to him, “I like these.”

He’s smirking when she ducks her head to kiss him.

Now that he has her here—on his lap, in his arms—Bucky forgets every way he wanted to touch her earlier. How he was gonna woo her with tender contact applied just right. Well, thank god for Sarah. She sets the pace of the kiss and, when his hands go still at her upper back, reaches around to bring one of them back down to her waist. He can feel that there’s no bra beneath her shirt.

“Rusty,” he breathes when their mouths slide apart.

“You were on that old boat all day,” she reminds him. “You know I’ve got patience for rusty.”

Still, Bucky wants to do a little better, prove that maybe he’s what she had in mind when she decided he was worth smiling at. He cradles Sarah closer, pulling her in, dipping his fingers into the valley of her spine when she arches into him. They kiss firmer, then faster. At her quick nod of encouragement, he moves his hands to her hips. Lower.

“Sarah?” Sam slurs sleepily from down the hall. “You outta bed?”

Sarah presses a hand to Bucky’s chest and pushes off his lap, other hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. He chuckles too.

“As the Falcon, timing is one of his greatest strengths.”

“And as his sister,” Sarah counters, “it gets on my last nerve.”

“Well, I didn’t wanna say that, but…” Bucky grins.

“Sarah?” Sam calls out again.

She sighs.

“Is he trying to wake the boys?” She takes a step away from the couch, wearing a regretful smile. “I better go.”

Bucky catches himself before he can blurt out I’ll miss you. Overeager fool.

“See you in the morning?” Sarah checks, something shy about her now, but not in a bad way. Cautiously hopeful, Bucky thinks. He’s been feeling that way himself.

He gives her one more smile for the road.

“You bet.”

[thechekhov]

Would you say you’re good at math? And I don’t want to ask such a vague question so let’s say the standards for how “good” you are at math depends on your age. Or the culture around you. Dependent on the people around you, would you say you can do math well? Or at least can grasp the concepts well? Because, in my opinion, how intelligent you are is based on how quickly you understand something and not how much you know.

I would say... I find this question a bit misguided. 

First of all, I you mention that you want to find out how quickly one picks up a concept has some link to their intelligence. And you may very well find proof for this theory, sure! But since you asked me I wanna say - I’m not convinced that it is as simple as you’re making it out to be, nor am I sure how math is a good vector for this discussion.

I personally believe in the theory that intellect is

 Not a static thing - changes depending on your experience, how old you are, how tired you are, how stressed you are, etc. 

 Not measurable across several different ‘types’ - there is social intelligence, spatial intelligence, numerical intelligence, tactile intelligence, etc. 

 Not capable of being standardized enough to be useful as a tool for judging other people with. 

We’ve all heard about judging a fish by asking it to climb a tree, but I concede... 

Anyway, let’s take us back to your math question.

Am I good at math?

Well, for one thing, I appreciate that you took cultural context and age into account. So you’re judging me, presumably, against my peers who have been, again, presumably, exposed to the same amount of standardized math education. So far so good.

I was terrible at math in elementary school in Russia. I got very bad marks because my handwriting was atrocious and I didn’t get fractions. Then I went to America, and suddenly math was easy for some reason. I had, in fact, missed a year of math due to my immigration to the US, but then was put into a slightly higher-level class in Middle School. I was semi-comfortable in math in high school and often helped out others in Trig and Pre-Calc, but lost track of concepts after that and haven’t taken a single math course since.

Here’s where our yardstick of ‘how quickly you understand something’ falls away into a stretch of silly-putty. 

I have spent close to a decade without having taken a single math course. 

So - am I good at math? Right now? 

No. I’m terrible.

Was I good at math before?

Sure, at one point.

When I had a good teacher. When I enjoyed going to school. When I had a relatively peaceful home life and didn’t have other things to stress about. When I had access to other people who were good at math who could help me out. 

So the real question isn’t really about how well I pick up concepts. It’s also about my environment, about my mental capacity for picking up new information, about whether or not I had the emotional stability to focus extra energy on math vs., eh, I dunno, fending off my homophobic parents. 

(For example, I was an ok student until grade 10, when my mother began to suspect I was gay and my home life tanked and my grades tanked with it). 

So you ask - am I good at math? 

The real answer is: I have no fucking clue. 

Being ‘good’ at a subject is so subjective. You have SO many things to consider beyond just cultural context and age and available education opportunities. You also have to consider how much energy a person is willing to expand on thinking about that thing. About how much they decide to care about it. Because yeah, when I was relatively comfortably closeted, I fuckin LOVED thinkin’ about Trig. I could allot my braincells to it. But after I had other priorities in my life like ‘don’t let mom find you using the wrong pronouns’ and etc, you bet your ass my Shits-To-Give about Pre-Calc flattened to Z E R O and absolutely no one could convince me looking at some Funky Numbers was gonna be worth my time. 

The real issue with asking people these questions is that you are trying to judge a person by how good they are at something - but that’s not something that is static, nor something that you can ever see in full. The effort it takes someone to be good at something is always invisible to onlookers. Someone could be really good at a thing and expand no energy on it. Someone could also be really good at something but spend all their time practicing to be good at that thing.

And in the end, the important thing is - DOES IT MATTER? 

How ‘intelligent’ someone is doesn’t define their worth. Whether or not to interact with them. How ‘good’ a person they are. I’ve met people who were, by all definitions, Dumb because they didn���t succeed in the arbitrary education system, or because they didn’t test well, or didn’t do well under pressure when asked rapid questions. But they were incredibly caring and had a social intellect WAY beyond my own and were much more successful. 

I’ve also met plenty of ‘smart’ people who thought that the fact that they were living cushy lives and were free to binge-read wikipedia articles instead of working part-time jobs to support their family at age 15 meant that they were somehow ‘more intelligent’ than some poor, exhausted kid who was using their energy to survive instead of memorizing random formulas. 

And I get that you’re trying to level the playing field, I really do - but no matter how much you struggle to compare me to other people who are like me, or to other people still, our experience of learning math will nonetheless be different for such a variety of reasons that in the end, whatever answer you get will be absolutely pointlessly empty.  

... I realize that this also sounds very lecture-y but this is something that’s very close to my heart because SO many people think themselves ‘dumb’ for not understanding things ‘quickly enough’, for taking time to grasp something despite being dead tired, for needing someone else to explain it to them in different words... for not succeeding in a system that only really measures one thing - one VERY narrow ability - The ability to Learn Information By Listening To a Lecture And Looking At A Blackboard For 45 Minutes Every Day, 5 Days A Week While Ignoring Other Real-Life Pressures You May Or May Not Be Facing.

And some of us may be really good at that.

But please, let’s not pretend that that somehow makes us smarter.

...

In my opinion, the real measure of intellect is how much you WANT to learn new things, even when you don’t necessarily NEED to. 

It’s not about success, and it’s not about crossing the finish line first.

It’s about inquiry, and it’s about reaching for something new every time you get the chance. 

[darkpoisonouslove]

The Light in You Is Shining in My Eyes

Summary: Robin is annoyed with the conditions of the nature hike she’s on when she falls through a hole in the ground to discover the domain of a nymph. The short encounter changes her life when she’s touched by Alice’s spirit and kindness.

Special credit to the guest stars of this fanfic - mosquitoes. They are playing a very important role in the lives of our leading ladies. XD

For @intothewickedwood​. I wish you all the best and many, many smiles!

The leaves rustling in the wind were drowned out by the laughter of large friend groups taking selfies and screaming children on family hikes but the cloud of mosquitoes surrounding Robin buzzed in her ears over all of that. Waving her hands to chase them away was like sticking them in the beast's mouth. Mosquito bites covered her like a map of her blood flow and the thin flannel shirt over her tank top only stuck to her skin with sweat to irritate her rather than protect her.

There was an unusual presence of mosquitoes at the spot where she was growing roots as if to taunt her. Killian had left her there to the annoying and hungry insects to follow up the fox tracks he'd spotted. Walking away was an option but the worst one. Having a phone on him didn't do much when Killian was a technological disaster so she had to wait around if she didn't want to lose him. Her mom would kill them both over the phone at the smallest mishap. Even the little pricks preying on her blood were preferable to never being let out of her room again, let alone Storybrooke.

A mosquito landed on her arm where she'd pushed the shirt off her shoulder. Robin got it before it could bite her smearing it over her skin. Her face twisted in disgust as her fingers brushed it away and she shifted her weight from one foot to the other as if that could help her escape.

She froze at a loud crack under her feet but to no avail. She plunged through the crumbling ground.

Great! Down the rabbit hole was the last thing she needed. Underground roots tugged at her hair and whipped at her hands when she raised them. There was no avoiding the hard soil under her weight or the sharp-edged stones poking her but she could protect her face and her glasses. Her heart pounded in her ears over her own screaming.

Her feet hit the ground to send the impact rattling up her bones. She was thrown forward, down into a pile of damp leaves. The smell of decay hit her from the heap of brown, yellow and red to give her a boost.

She pushed herself up on all fours. She was a breath away from a thick trunk in front of her. A few more inches and she would've face-planted into a tree. A very peculiar tree.

A woman's face was carved into it, though it could hardly be the work of a human hand or mind. Every line and curve was one with the tree bark as if shaped into it from the inside of the trunk rather than hacked into it with a blade. The woman's features were detailed despite the gentility with which they were imprinted in the tree and made her look ethereal. Like a work of art brought to life.

Robin squinted at the faint light trying to make out more before she lifted her head to look for the source. She'd fallen underground but all that was above her head was a thick net of intertwined tree branches that formed the ceiling of a tunnel. The light was coming from somewhere above, golden-white like a whisper of sun rays. It was far from bright or sufficient.

Robin pushed herself up to her knees to fish her phone out of her jeans' pocket. In the light of the screen a scratch on her hand caught her eye. She hadn't felt it through the rush of adrenaline but it wasn't the only one. She was covered in shallow slashes on her exposed skin and where her jeans and shirt had ripped. One of her bracelets had torn off as well from the fall but she ignored them. She could only have them tended to once she was back on the surface.

Focusing on her phone left her rolling her eyes at the different notifications from social media waiting for her before she'd even unlocked it. She'd told her so-called friends she was taking a hiatus on all her platforms while traveling to distance herself from the routine of Storybrooke. Yet her phone was still a receptacle for gossip that bored her to death and performative acts of friendship.

She swiped aside the notifications to get to the flashlight. It shined light into the endless darkness of the tunnel and Robin raised it towards the face in the tree.

"Hey! Stop that!" a loud voice sent her hurtling back, phone dropping in the pile of dead leaves while her heart pounded all around her in the black absence of her flashlight.

"What the bloody hell?" Robin groaned as a sturdy root poking from the ground stabbed her in the small of her back.

The tree bark stretched in front of her to shape the rest of the woman and fell back into a normal trunk when she phased out of it. "Oh, no, none of that in my park."

Robin shuffled backwards, mouth gaping open. "Wh-what are you?" her fingers dug in the ground, the pain rushing through them doing nothing to snap her out of... whatever this was. If she had to guess, she'd hit her head in the tree and had dreamed up everything after that. Either that or she'd breathed in something highly questionable rummaging around Killian's boat.

"What? What? What a rude question! I am not a what," the woman spoke fast, her diction and tone the embodiment of time if Robin had ever imagined what it would sound like. "My name is Alice and I'm a tree nymph and guardian of this park."

Robin had read about nymphs in a book her mom had borrowed from her sister. All she could recall was that they were nature spirits that lived in trees. That was true enough but she had no idea whether she should work on returning her heart back in her chest from her throat or yelling for help with all the might of her lungs.

"I-I'm sorry," she stuttered. She swallowed quickly under Alice's calm gaze. "You just startled me." She wasn't menacing but that didn't mean she wasn't dangerous.

"Well, you were shining that flashlight in my eyes."

Right. Her phone. She'd have to grope around for it since the leaves had swallowed its light. Or she'd broken it.

"You're familiar with phones?" Robin's eyebrows rose high on her forehead.

"Thousands of people come here every day and they all bring phones with them. It would be impossible to miss it. I'd have to turn away from the park. Were you looking at your phone when you missed the hole in the ground?"

"No." Robin patted her hands down on her jeans. She'd already destroyed those. She could leave all the dust on them to keep it away from her glasses and hair. "I was trying to get rid of a mosquito."

"You failed in that," Alice was staring at her like she could see not just the outside of her in the dark but also the inside. "There's still some of it left on your arm."

Robin's face contorted again at the proof of Alice's words as she swiped her fingers over her arm. "How did you-"

"I told you. I'm the guardian of this park. I'm connected to all life here. I felt that mosquito die as you squashed it," her voice quieted and a gleam of light reflected in the wetness in her eyes. It was deafening in the aura of strength she exuded. As if all life stopped to pay its respects to a little insect.

"I'm sorry," Robin fiddled with the loose ends of her shirt. She hadn't meant to do that. She hadn't meant to disturb her.

"Don't apologize to me. It's the mosquito you wronged but apologies won't bring back its life."

Robin frowned. "It was going to bite me."

"That's what mosquitoes do. Would you kill a person for eating food or drinking water?"

"But it's... different," Robin faltered under the power of Alice's resolve. She'd never raised her voice. It just echoed around them like it reached every inch of the park, like it was a part of it. "Mosquitoes aren't-"

"They aren't important? And what is important? Not the mosquitoes, not the bees, not the sea turtles, not the melting ice caps, not the rain forests, not the ozone layer, not Earth, not anything," her voice sped up with the anxious energy seeping into it. She wasn't angry. She was distressed.

Robin's mouth hung open as her eyes filled with tears at her loss for words. Someone who was one with nature was so shaken from the things that Robin closed her eyes to when she didn't have the power to change them singlehandedly. And Alice for all her understanding and care for life couldn't change them either.

"Robin," Killian's voice dropped from the hole like a lifeline to grab on to before she or Alice could break down. "Are you down there, lass?"

Robin looked up the hole she'd fallen through. There was nothing but darkness as all the twists and turns got in the way of the light coming in. "Yeah, I'm here, Killian," Robin yelled back, chest moving easier with the relief that he'd found her.

"I'll get you out of there. Do you think you'll be able to get out if I let down a rope for you?"

"Yes, that should work." There was no other plausible option even if neither of them knew how deep she'd fallen. Killian had tons of rope on his boat. The question was how quickly he'd be able to carry them over. It wasn't a short distance to the docks on the route they'd taken.

Robin turned back to Alice to find a question clearly etched on her face. "He's a close friend of my mom and aunt's. He instantly agreed to take me on his trip when I asked to join him." It was a miracle she'd convinced her mom to let her go.

Alice nodded. "Sounds good. But you won't be able to climb up like that. Your ankle's sprained. Can't you feel it?"

Robin stared at Alice's face. Her constant concern with all life around her should have carved deep lines in her skin but it only lit her eyes up like stars in the dark tunnel. Maybe she was the source of the dim light, though if it were her, there would have been a shine brighter than the sun above.

Robin tried her ankle at the reminder of the climb awaiting her. "Ow!" she whimpered at the charge of pain shooting through her. "You're right. I won't be climbing up that hole."

"Hold still," Alice knelt down next to her slowly as if to keep from scaring her.

In the proximity Robin's eyes caught on the material of Alice's dress. She'd assumed it was somehow her hair twisted and braided around her body due to the similar color but it was strands of dry grass instead. A summer coming to an end.

"I'll heal it," Alice startled her back to reality.

Robin opened her mouth to ask how but Alice was already rolling her jeans up. She locked her hands around the exposed skin to pour energy into it. A ring of waves closed around Robin's ankle, each washing away the pain and swelling little by little.

"How do you do that?" Robin gasped, her chest barely moving in the delicate balance of the magical process even if there was nothing fragile in Alice's concentration.

"Nymph magic."

"Whoa!"

"You don't believe me?" Alice looked up at her, eyes so blue she could have captured the whole ocean in them.

"I do. That's the thing." Robin could feel the magic working its... well, magic. And even if she couldn't, she'd believe whatever Alice told her. She was genuine in a striking way that didn't cancel out her gentleness. There wasn't the rawness of cynicism and jadedness Robin had seen in her mom and aunt and anyone else who used the truth to slap you in the face with it. Alice was just honest because it was her nature just as empathy and tenderness were. All that was left a mystery was what she wanted with Robin. For someone so genuine she sure wasn't easy to read.

"Why are you helping me?"

"I've always liked robins." Alice smiled, more to herself than to Robin. "Though, you're the most prickly one I've met."

"I'm not... I'm not prickly." At least she wasn't trying to be. "And I'm not a robin." All she could make fly were arrows.

"Humans are a part of nature, too. And all nature is beautiful and needs preservation." Alice looked up at the tree branches–or were they roots?–or what lay above them. "It pains me to see the direction in which the human race is driving the entire planet. It didn't use to be like that. People were one with nature. Now they're trying to escape from it and sacrifice it in the name of progress. When nature is progress, it is growth, it is life."

"How would you solve the problem then?" Robin had always been put off by the radical notions of exterminating humankind to let Earth heal. And leaving behind her environment hadn't worked for her on a personal level either.

"By being kinder and valuing the life of every person, every animal and every plant. By respecting nature and working with it, not against it. By giving it in return as much as you take from it. It is a powerful force but it is not unlimited, you know?" Alice's hands retreated from Robin's ankle and she buried them in the leaves around them. The perfect proof of her words. Her domain along with all nature above ground and even her outfit were cycling through different seasons to replenish their energy. "It needs tending to and someone to take care of it once in a while just as it takes care of everything and everyone."

Alice pulled her hand out of the fallen leaves with Robin's phone clasped in it. The flashlight was still on and blinded Robin as Alice handed it to her. She understood Alice's frustration from before.

"How old are you?" she asked, fingers curling around her phone desperately It was only Alice's face in front of her that kept her eyes away from the screen in pursuit of some clue to the answer.

"You really are a rude one, aren't you?" Alice teased, a grin from one ear to the other on her face. She probably didn't get a lot of company.

"Wow, that old, huh?" Robin chuckled. "Well, you do look spectacular for your age." She was a vision. Robin was lucky she hadn't hit her head and missed all of this. A dark and humid underground tunnel that was the home of the kindest soul she'd ever met.

"The light comes from the trees above," Alice explained when she noticed her staring at them. So those were roots then on the ceiling of the tunnel. "They spare some of theirs for me and my tree. Just enough to let me live," Alice smiled brightly even as she was starting to fade. Her energy came from the light and there wasn't that much of it as the sun must have started to set.

"Robin," Killian's voice reached her again. "I got the rope. Here you go."

Dirt fell from the hole as the rope skidded down before it unrolled in Robin's feet. There was even some length to spare as Robin scurried to turn off her flashlight and shove her phone back in her pocket to grab the rope.

"Thank you," she looked to Alice. "Looks like I have to go. At least if we want you to stay hidden." That had to be the reason why her tree was in the tunnel of roots with barely any light reaching it.

"Goodbye," Alice clasped her hands in front of her before raising one to wave stiffly.

Robin would abandon the rope and run into her arms to remain tangled in the tree roots if it wouldn't alert the world above to Alice's existence. She nodded and climbed into the hole.

"Take care, little robin. You can do more than you know," Alice's voice had the rope slipping in her sweaty palms.

Robin craned her neck back for a last peek but Alice was gone, retired to her tree. Her face was the only thing showing in the bark, her eyes staring upwards into the mellow glow of light coming from the roots of her park.

Robin pulled herself up, arms wailing as she climbed. She had to press her back to one end of the hole and her feet into the other to push herself up. She was an archer, not a body builder. Her back would be bruised from all the roots and stones poking it on her way up and she chaffed her palms on the rope.

She must have fallen into the very core of the Earth with how long it took her to make her way out The hole was cramped and claustrophobic and the only thing that kept her going was the certainty in the pit of her stomach that there would be no Alice to heal her if she plummeted back down. Nearly losing her glasses as she glanced down convinced her to train her gaze on the passage above her and light finally hit her eyes.

Killian grabbed her hand and then her arms to pull her out. All her muscles burned as she sprawled on the ground.

"Are you okay?" His concerned face blocked out the trees above her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Robin heaved out while her senses adapted to the brightness and loud noises along with all the different smells.

A mosquito landed on the back of her hand. She winced at its bite but left it to its devices. It was only doing what was natural for mosquitoes.

"Here, you dropped your bracelet," Killian handed her the offensive thing in blue and white. It was from a girl she'd never liked and belonged in the trash. She'd worn it to keep up appearances because it'd mattered to her whether the people that were hardly her friends liked her or not. It'd mattered until she'd fallen down the rabbit hole.

Looking at her hand, the mosquito was gone to differ from the bracelets. They were the real parasites. Out of the twelve she still had on only one or two called smiles to her face. The rest were coming right off.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Killian asked as he watched her tug on them like she'd lost her mind.

"I'm fine," she repeated. Better than ever. The mist in her head was clearing to leave her with ideas. All the followers she had on her social platforms keeping up with her archery achievements would be the perfect audience for a new ecological lifestyle she wanted to start. That would be the meaningful thing she'd been looking for all along to expand her consciousness and her world. And she had only Alice to thank for opening her eyes. Thank goodness for phones and flashlights you could shine in a tree nymph's eyes.

[lunarliza]

JJ Maybank Must Die | Chapter 4: Oysters

fuckboy!JJ x Reader

series masterlist | prev. chapter | chapter one

JJ Maybank is the island’s most infamous fuckboy- not that you ever cared. But when a group of tourist girls come to your surf shop crying to you about him, you agree to help them plot revenge. Sabotage is all fun and games, until you find that the playboy you were sworn to ruin happens to be falling head over heels for you.

Yes, this is based on John Tucker Must Die lol

Sure enough, JJ arrived at your house at seven o’clock sharp. 

Your mom answered the door and let him in while you hung back in your room, finishing the last touches to your outfit. Granted, you got home late from the shack and only had twenty minutest to get ready. 

You stuck on Sophia’s gold hoop earrings and sprayed a bottle of cheap lavender perfume you got during White Elephant one year. 

“Alright,” you rasped, entering the living room in a white puff-sleeved sundress, “Let’s get this show on the road.” 

You meant it. You wanted to be there and back as soon as humanly possible. 

JJ stood from your couch. He did clean up well, you had to admit. His usual ripped cargo shorts and chopped-sleeve tanks were replaced with an ironed navy polo and khakis. You even noticed that he even brushed his hair for once. 

“Well, it’s nice to finally see you out of a red bathing suit,” he greeted with a small smile, “You look really nice y/n.” 

With his hand on the small of your back, he led you out the front door after you bid your parents goodbye. 

“Where are we going again?” you asked as JJ clutched the steering wheel of his dad’s old truck. He originally tried to reach for your thigh when you first got in, but you swatted his hand away before he even got the chance. 

“The Wreck,” he replied, turning up the rap song on the stereo to a deafening volume. 

You let out an incredulous scoff. “Are you serious? Good luck getting a table at this time. It’ll be packed! It’s seven on a Friday night. We’ll be waiting at least two hours.” 

JJ threw you a cocky smirk, still eyeing the road. “Don’t doubt me yet, princess, I have my ways.” 

The two of you entered the packed restaurant, and you couldn’t contain the bewilderment that hung on your face. It was like walking into a herd of wild chickens. As soon as JJ swung open the door, people were on the verge of hurdling out the doorway.

“This is insane, JJ,” you gasped, stepping into the sea of grumbling hungry people, “Honestly, we can just try somewhere else.” 

“Don’t worry,” he emphasized again, “I got it.” 

Heaving through the mob, you finally made it to the hostess stand as you stood behind JJ. The man behind the podium crinkled his nose in disgust once he caught sight of your date. “You again.” 

JJ flashed the man his usual shit-eating grin. “Kiara said she reserved a spot for me, for two,” he mentioned proudly. 

Begrudgingly, the man yanked out two menus. “Yes, she did mention that one of her hooligan friends was coming in tonight,” he deepened his glare at the blonde, “This way.” 

He motioned for the two of you to follow and led you to a hidden room just outside the kitchen with a small table set for two. The ruckus from the main floor was muffled through the walls and the lighting was slightly dim.

“Wow,” you peered around the romantic set up, “So this is where you take all your girls.” 

Your date scoffed, about to protest, until you cut him off. “And don’t give me that lame ‘you’re the first one I’ve ever brought here’ line cause I know I’m not.”  

That shut him up real quick as he basically plopped down in his chair and whipped open the menu without another word. You heard Kiara’s dad snort under his breath before exiting the room. It felt good to put the player in his place for once. 

A server came by shortly to fill your fancy glasses with water and placed a basket of assorted bread on the candle-lit table. You all but hounded at the sight of carbs, taking huge unladylike bites. 

In your defense, you hadn’t eaten at all that day. Your stomach was basically rumbling in the car under JJ’s thundering rap playlist. 

“So,” JJ continued, ignoring your minorly disturbing eating habits, “I heard the Sea-Side Salad here is really good.” 

Salad? 

Your face knotted. He really must be ingesting too much salt water if he thought you were looking anywhere in the salad section of your menu. 

“Yeah, I’m not really feeling any of these light options,” you stated, flipping through the pages. 

It was his turn to be baffled. “Really? Well, all the girls you’ve claimed I’ve taken here have ordered it,” he scratched the back of his head,  “What are you in the mood for then?” 

Your eyes scanned through the seafood courses. Technically, you were being forced to go on this date against your wishes. Why not get all you can out of it? Make his pockets hurt. Besides, he did take you to the best seafood restaurant on the entire island. 

“I’m feeling oysters and maybe some crab legs. Ooh, I didn’t even see the calamari,” you continued, “Okay, let’s get calamari, four pounds of oysters, crab legs, and fried shrimp to finish.” 

JJ shut his menu loudly with a ear-to-ear grin stretched on his face. “You got it, princess.”

All around, your table flooded with various scrumptious dishes as you and JJ dug in to your feast. Maybe pretend-dating this boy wasn’t so bad after all. Your stomach certainly wasn’t opposed. 

He giggled when you accidentally splotched cocktail sauce on your cheek, gesturing for you to wipe it. You tried to reach for the spot, but that only caused more red sauce to smear on your face. JJ fell back in his chair laughing and stretched over with his napkin to take care of it for you. 

To your surprise, JJ actually marveled at your colorful palette, impressed by how you were able to scarf down all your food without an ounce of regret or a smudge on your white dress. 

“So besides working, what else do you like to do around here?” he asked, stuffing his face with shrimp. 

“Not much else, really,” you confessed, “Sometimes I’ll get together with friends after work. But I basically live at the shop. I’m actually trying to save up for a new car.” 

He nodded as you swiped the last oyster before he could see, chowing it down. “You know, I’ve never met anyone who could surf like you. I told my friends about the pipeline the other day and they didn’t believe me! We should’ve filmed it or something.” 

You chuckled. “Pipelines are tough, but they’re fun as hell once you figure it out.” 

He leaned back in his seat. “I bet. How’d you start surfing?” 

“My mom was really good at it when she was younger. She taught me when I was six, and I guess it just stuck.” 

“My parents taught me too,” JJ added, “My family’s all about that surfing, fishing, sailing life. It’s in our blood. But hey, you should come surf with me and my friends one day. They’ll lose their shit when they see what you can do.” 

“I’ll think about it,” you lied. You were flattered at his compliment, but if this sabotage mission was going to be executed according to schedule, you’d be done with him by July. 

Your server came by afterwards to clear your table and drop off the check. After paying what you presumed to be a ginormous bill, JJ linked his fingers with yours and led you out the packed establishment. 

He offered to take you for ice cream after, but at the point, you both were too full to take another bite of anything. 

In the car ride back, he talked just about the entire way while you hummed absentmindedly and stared out the window. JJ rambled on and on about parties, smoking, and how him and his friends vowed to have the best summer of their lives. It was nice and all, but you really weren’t that interested and were too deep in your food coma to fake listen.

Seeing as you became less and less responsive to his stories, JJ reached across the truck to your leg. A soft smile hung on his lips when you turned to him. 

“I had a really good time tonight, y/n,” he murmured, stroking your knee. 

You cocked a brow at the blonde. “You did?” 

“Definitely. I mean, I’ve never seen anyone chow down on oysters the way you did. And I like that you have a big appetite. And you aren’t afraid of trying new things. It’s hot.” 

Hm. Interesting. 

“Thanks,” you replied quietly as he pulled into your driveway. He shut off the engine and turned to you, the sound of your uneven breaths filling the car air. 

“You know,” he began, “I’ve been thinking a lot about the party last week.” 

You cocked your brow. “You have? Why?” 

“I dunno. It was really weird how you just like ran off. Made me really curious about you. You seemed so confident and everything. I mean, after that, I knew I had to go after you.” 

“I’m still not having sex with you,” you blurted. 

“Y/n,” he assured, smoothly taking your hand, “I’m not just interested in sleeping with you.” 

Somehow, you weren’t convinced. But for the sake of the operation, you played along. “Then what are you looking for with me?” 

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Honestly, I’m not so sure. But I do really like hanging out with you.” 

As if you’ve never heard that one before. You wanted to groan. He really just gave you every fuckboy’s favorite line. 

“Well alright then,” you said a bit hastily and unbuckled your seatbelt, “It’s late and should really get going. Thank you again for dinner.” 

“Uh, yeah, goodnight...”

You saw a hint of desperation on his face as you turned to leave and paused. Sighing, you whirled around, reaching for his forearm that propped on the armrest. 

You gently pressed your lips on his for a moment while his large hand caressed the side of your face. It was sweet kiss. It left JJ aching for more when you pulled away. 

“When will I see you again?” he murmured as you started hopping out the truck. 

You merely shrugged. “Not sure yet. I’ll let you know when I’m free. Goodnight Loverboy.” 

Strolling back into your house, you knew you had JJ right where you wanted him. You didn’t even need to look back to know he was sitting back in his seat, completely mesmerized. 

When you flicked on the light of your room, you shrieked in alarm as four pairs of eyes practically laser-beamed at you like bats in the dark. 

“What the fuck guys?!” you shouted. 

“Your mom let us in earlier,” Soph mentioned casually, lounging on your bed. 

“How’d the test run date go?” Maia asked as Arabella and Annalise pried through your closet. 

“It was good, we went to The Wreck,” you informed, slipping out of your wedges. You patted on your food baby. “You know, I don’t mind going on more of these if free food is in the picture.” 

Arabella held one of your sundresses to her front-side, posing in your mirror. “Did he say anything about a second date?” 

“He asked when he’s gonna see me again. I don’t know why. All I did was ignore him the whole time and inhale my food. Anyways, what ploys did you guys come up with while I was gone?” 

Annalise sent a devious grin your way and pulled up the notes on her phone for you to see. “This was just from our brainstorm sesh. Most of them were Arabella’s ideas. We were waiting for you to vote on the top five.” 

The redhead flipped her hair at the mention of her name. 

Your eyes bulged at the extensive, brutal list. “Spray paint car... women’s lingerie... estrogen pills? How the hell are we gonna do all this in two weeks?” 

“Relax,” Sophia prodded, “The guy’s basically head over heels for you. Just keep your charming and unavailable act up and let us take care of the rest!” 

Just then, you heard your phone ding from your purse. It was a text from JJ. 

Just wanna say sweet dreams princess. I’ll def be dreaming about you. Anyways, movies on Tuesday? Heard Ironic Man was pretty good :) 

----------------------------------

“So you excited for this? My friends said it was super good and there’s a mind-fuck at the end,” JJ rambled as he led you up the dark steps of the semi-crowded theatre. 

“Yeah, I love Tony Park,” you replied nonchalantly, hugging the snacks.

No surprise, he booked you guys the very last row. You settled down the drinks and jumbo popcorn bucket while he lifted the seat’s arm that divided you two. He proceeded to wiggle his brows suggestively. You were glad it was dark enough that he couldn’t see your face cringing for dear life. 

Plopping down beside him, you immediately dug into the popcorn as the previews rolled. He grinned and reached for your thigh. “How was work today babe?”  

“Pretty good,” you perked a little, “I signed three new clients and even taught this sixty-year-old lady how to do a cutback!” 

“Mhm,” he mumbled, clearly not paying attention to anything that came out of your mouth. Inching closer, his lips trailed up your neck before he began nibbling on your ear. 

From the side stairway, you detected four familiar heads prance up the steps with giant hoodies shielding their faces. They slid into the row before yours, trying to to muffle their giggles with their sleeves. 

Amateurs.  

Briefly, you caught Maia’s sly wink before the group sat down. On cue, you shoved your horny date off you. 

“Hey JJ,” you whispered sultrily, placing a palm on his chest.

“Hm?” 

“Do you think you can grab me some sour candy from the concessions? I totally forgot to grab them when we were there. Like, I can’t watch a movie without them.” Your lips jutted out into a convincing pout. 

“Yeah sure, of course.” The blonde jogged down the sides and out the door just as Maia bent over the back of her seat and hurdled onto your row. 

“Okay Black Widow, way to stay under the radar,” you commented on her ungraceful maneuver as she fished out a small bottle from her jacket pocket. 

“What? This makes me feel like I’m in Mission Impossible. We’re basically spies now.” She popped open the cap and sprinkled some powder into JJ’s drink. 

“Wait, what’s in that again?”

Maia smirked. “Oh, just a little... surprise for our favorite fuck boy. Just steer clear of him in like thirty minutes.” 

She quickly flipped back over the row just as JJ’s bright yellow hair popped back into the theatre with your sweets. Your palms were sweating in anticipation.

Throughout the movie, JJ’s hands roamed your body as you obliviously munched on the candy. He constantly kissed on your neck and told you how cute you were, earning glares and shushes from the people around you. 

After about thirty minutes, you noticed his leg restlessly fidgeting up and down.  

“Are you okay?” you whispered, leaning away from him. 

“Y-Yeah, j-just-” 

His eyes all but darted out his face. He looked like he’d just seen a ghost. “Oh fuck.” 

Instantly, he charged out the room at an inhuman pace while the quad in front of you erupted in laughter just as an important character died on screen. 

“Guys, what the hell did you put in his drink?” you rasped, leaning over. 

“Oh you know,” Annalise responded through her snickers, “Just a nice little laxative.”  

-------------------------------

note: more sabotage to come ;) also pls message me if you want to be tagged

chapter 5

tags: @obxlife @rudyypankow @yeehaw87 @ilymarkchan @jellyfishbeansontoast @tangledinsparkles @toloveortobeinlove @pixelated-pogues @normatural @teamnick @drizzlethatfalls @hazelgirl355 @wicked-laugh @jjmaybankswife @ponyboys-sunsets @5am-cigarette @everydayimfangirling @angvelics @poguecollins @xealia @floridabornandraised @girlsru1eboysdroo1 @booksandshish @apoguecalledjj @bananasfromtarget @lulbabes @arthiriticcricket @lasnaro @aaleksmorozova​ @himarisolace​ @obxmxybxnk​ @lopineapples​ @x-lulu​

[descendantofthesparrow]

Shuffle Playlist - Rewrite - Part of Your World - Harry Hook x Reader - part 12 - Its goin’ Down

=

“Don’t-ow! Don’t bite me!” Mal huffed, wrangling the mini dragon form of her mother and placing her back into the pencil case she had brought her in, placing the top back on and securing it with tape, making sure her mother wouldn’t accidentally, or purposely, be knocked out of the case and be let loose. Her mother hissed at her from inside the box and Mal hissed back, smirking at the sudden stop of noise. “Now would you rather scrounge for bugs and water? Or be pampered in your nicely decorated tank back in the dorms?” when no other hiss came from the box Mal nodded in satisfaction. “That’s what I thought.”

She turned to Evie, who nodded and grabbed Mal's backpack filled with the glove smoke bombs “Ready?” Mal asked, walking over to Evie and making sure they had everything before they left the hideout for the last time.

“Ready.” Mal took a deep breath to calm her nerves, there were so many things to be stressed over. Harry, the boys making it back in time, what if Uma figured out the wand was fake before they got Ben back, would they get out of the wharf in time before Uma discovered the wand was fake? So many worries, no time to worry about them “Let's go” Mal nodded and quickly followed after Evie out of the hideout and down the stairs, holding her mother close to her chest.

God, she really hoped that everything would go according to plan.

-

Ben shifted his sleeping leg a bit, trying to get rid of the static feeling that was buzzing through it. But he couldn’t move much thanks to the rope that secured him to the mast. He glanced at Uma who stood to his right, overlooking the docks waiting for Mal and the others.

Suddenly a hand slammed up next to his head, the chitter of a monkey following it. Davy stepped around the mast, getting into Ben's face as he gave a crooked grin. ‘I wonder if Harry would be the one to do this if (y/n) had never convinced me to invite him too’ Ben thought, slightly wishing Harry was still on the isle, if only because he’d rather have Harry get into his face than this fucker.

“So, what's the use of being king if you’re like this now huh?” Davy teased, Jack the monkey screeching on his shoulder as he patted Ben’s shoulder and moved around the mast. Ben rolled his eyes and looked forward, doing his best to ignore the annoying pirate.

He appeared on Bens other side and started to speak, but stopped as Uma walked up and smacked his shoulder, sitting in front of Ben “Leave it Davy, we don’t want damaged goods” Davy glared at Uma for a split second before resting on the rails of the ship behind him, crossing his arms impatiently.

“you better hope your girlfriend comes through” Uma droned, narrowing her eyes at ben.

Ben's eyes stung for a moment and he looked away “She's not my girlfriend anymore” he muttered, his brow twitching as Davy and Jack started to laugh. Uma glared at the two and nodded her head towards the rest of her crew.

“Leave us alone Davy” the first mate glared at his captain and grabbed at Ben, harshly bunching up his jacket before walking towards the crew, muttering curses to himself.

Ben looked back at Uma, watching her as she leaned on her legs and glared up at him “I get-I get that you don’t deserve this” Ben tried, frowning a bit as Uma laughed and leaned back on her hands.

“this…” she glared back up at him, a snarl on her lips “this isle is a prison thanks to your father!” Ben swallowed hard, remembering (y/n) and Harry’s insistence on getting more isle kids off the isle. “And don’t pretend to look out for me.” Uma’s eyes glazed over, and she pushed her hair back. Ben's eyes being drawn to the black and red bead bracelet with a simple hook charm hanging from it “Because no one’s looking out for me… it's just me.”

Ben furrowed his brows, no one? Then what about Harry and Gil’s constant babble about the girl in front of him? Were they nobody now? “so, this isn't your mother's plan?” Uma scoffed and rolled her eyes “Isn't that her necklace?”

Uma gave a sarcastic smile to Ben “My mom doesn’t care about me either” she glanced off “well, not unless you need someone for the night shift”

“ouch,” Ben winced, once again remembering (y/n)’s speech about how the villains definitely didn’t treat their kids as they should. Uma glared up at him.

“I don’t need your pity” she snapped, gritting her teeth.

Ben shook his head “no, you certainly don’t. you’re very resourceful.” he muttered softly, once more looking around him at the ship and docks, he looked back at Uma, whose eyes had slightly softened and a smile played on the edge of her lips “I don’t see you tied up.”

Uma laughed, staring at Ben In slight awe as she expected the king to be snooty and attempt to trash talk her, but he was only kind. “alright, so let’s trash talk Mal” Uma tried, her brow raising as Ben shook his head slightly and looked into her eyes.

“I’d rather talk about you” he pushed, hope growing in his chest as Uma laughed again and took a step back.

“mmm, funny, and a gentleman. I really hope I don’t have to feed you to the fishes.”  Ben tried to follow her as she turned and hiked her boot up onto the raised platform. But was stopped by the rope.

“you don’t!” he pleaded “set me free and we’ll go back together!” Uma stopped, turning back to him with wide eyes.

“oh, so now I get an invite” her smirk dropped, rage setting into her eyes again “gee I wonder why” Ben swallowed, man he really didn’t know how to talk to someone like Uma, who knew what she wanted and had no hesitation.  She smacked her hand next to his head, once more glaring at him. “when you brought Mal, Evie, Carlos, Jay…Harry and Gil” she stopped for a moment, her eyes glazing over again at the thought of her “boys” “to Auradon…that was the maddest I’ve ever been…and believe me, I've been plenty mad” she patted his cheek and turned again, messing with her shell necklace.

“I never thought…no-that sounds-“ he racked his brain for something to say, hell maybe something (y/n) would say! (y/n) somehow always knew what to say, and either calm a dangerous situation, or end it then and there with just her words. “I’m sorry, that it's been so long” Uma glanced back at him in slight confusion at his words.

“the plan was to start with four, then it became six so we could get more kids off in each group. But I got so busy being king, that sounds lame, and the council hasn’t budged on the vote to continue the program…I’m so sorry Uma…you were supposed to be the first of the next group to come…but I've been foolish and let it all slip my mind” He stared at Uma with a pleading look “But help me fix my mistakes, set me free, and you can come with us to Auradon. You’re a leader Uma, so am I, you know what's best for the kids still here and how to help the isle…come to Auradon and be part of the solution” when Uma just continued to stare at him, Ben tried another tactic. “Harry and Gil-” at the mention of her “friends” Uma’s eyes flashed. But Ben paid no heed. “-have been telling me for months to get you off, but-this is going to sound really bad-but I stupidly ignored them…I’m sorry” When Ben finally looked at Uma properly, he froze, the softness that was once there was gone, only rage to be seen.

“You ain't a good liar beasty boy, if they really had been talking about me all this time, I would have been off this rock months ago, I know a trick when I see one.” She grabbed his shirt and growled in his face “Don’t you ever, try to use them against me ever again…as I said to Malsy, they.are.dead.to.me.” Ben’s eyes widened in disbelief…that wasn’t what he was expecting.

Uma released his shirt and called Davy over, picking up her shell necklace and giving Ben a sharp grin “Let's see what this puppy can do eh?”

-

Mal tapped her thumb anxiously on the temp mini dragon carrier as the limo finally pulled up next to the tunnel connected to Uma’s ship less than a minute to noon. Lonnie hopped out of the front seat, slightly surprising Mal and Evie before they remembered (y/n) had said to let her come along as an extra hand.

“Lonnie!” Mal gasped in relief, holding out her free hand for a hug as Lonnie jogged over to her.

“(y/n) apparently said to bring me; so here I am!” Lonnie nervously chuckled, wrapping her arms around Mal for a split second before pulling back.

“Thank Hades she did.” Mal sighed, biting her lip as Jay and Carlos rounded the back of the limo and pulled out a carrier full of R.O.A.R swords.

“Welcome to the isle, it’s good to see you” Evie gave a quick hug to Lonnie before turning to the boys, watching as Dude trotted behind Carlos who handed the wand to Mal as she made grabby hands at it.

“Oh! Lemme see!” she turned it over in her hands, wincing slightly at the thin line in the side of the wand, a telltale sign of 3d printing “Good job, let’s hope she doesn’t figure out it’s a fake before we have Ben.” she handed back to Carlos who pulled out his phone and showed the time.

“It's noon” Jay muttered, nodding as Mal looked around at them.

“Okay, we ready?” Evie lifted Mal's bag filled with the smoke bombs and nodded. “Let's do this” she turned to walk through the tunnel, stopping as Evie gave her a look and pointed at her chest. Mal looked down and scoffed at herself as the pencil case holding her mother was still in a death grip.

She turned and ran to the limo, pulling open the door, setting her mother on the back dash, and muttering to her; “Stay” she slammed the door closed and walked back to the tunnel “Now; let's do this”

Mal was the first to step through the tunnel, scrunching her nose a bit as the smell of rotten fish and wood flooded her senses. She didn’t miss that smell that was for sure.

Carlos hid the fake wand in his jacket and picked Dude up, whispering the plan to him “Don’t talk until Mal tells you too, okay?”

“Got it” Dude whispered back, lifting a paw and batting at Carlos’ hand in comfort, Carlos smiled and rubbed Dude’s head, following his friends through the tunnel and walking onto the docks.

A whistle came from the high point of the ship, a shorter male with dark hair grinning down at them “Captain! They’re here!!!”

Mal watched as Davy shoved Ben across the deck, a maniac grin on his face as he grabbed Ben’s arms and twisted them up, Ben slightly yelping at the pain that flashed up his arms. “Welcome!” he yelled, his smile twitching down as Uma took front and center with a wide grin.

“Finally!!!” she cackled, shimmying her body a bit as Mal walked up in front of the gangplank leading to the ship. Carlos quickly set Dude down a bit of ways away from the main area of the docks, putting his finger to his lips for a split moment before walking behind Mal on the main docks in front of the ship.

(I ain’t writing its goin’ down so just watch the music vid and either take Harrys rap out or give it to Uma…oh and mentally remove Harry n Gil from the music vid T_T)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvZt2n9PL80

Uma flipped her blade in her hands, watching as Mal held up the wand and started walking towards her, her green eyes flickering between Uma and Ben. “Hold up” Uma hummed, holding her hand up and shaking her head “mmm. Too easy” Mal stared at her in slight shock. “why don’t you take it for a test drive” Mal glanced back at her friends for a moment before realizing this was exactly why (y/n) had said to bring Dude along. “We wanna see it work!” the pirates behind Uma cackled and taunted, yelling out for a show.

Mal shrugged in agreement “Smart” Uma blinked at that, Mal had never called her smart. Mal turned to Dude and lifted the wand, taking a deep breath, and quickly coming up with a spell on the fly “Although it seems absurd/turn your bark into a word” she willed her eyes to glow to sell the effect and waved the wand, forcing herself not to wince as the headache returned.

Dude just stared at her for a moment, the pirates getting antsy the longer he stayed silent. Mal rolled her eyes, turned to Uma with a weary smirk, and barked out; “Talk. Dog”

“Treat first, Tricks later” Mal closed her eyes in relief as the pirates burst out into laughter. “Yo dudes anyone got some bacon…cookies?...Come on I’m starving here!”

“He acts like I don’t feed him.” Carlos huffed at Dude, shushing him with a wave of his hand. Uma laughed and licked her lips, holding out her hand to Mal.

“Give me the wand!” Mal furrowed her brows and gestured to Ben.

“Give me Ben!” the two girls stared at each other for a few moments before Uma broke her gaze and looked to Davy who was holding Ben close to the edge of the plank and nearly hanging him over the water.

“Davy, bring him over” Davy growled a bit and pulled Ben back, reluctantly shoving Ben over to Uma. A cruel smirk slowly grew on his face as he thought he could take the wand after Uma used it to break the barrier and use it against her. He wiped the smirk off his face as Bonnie gave him an odd look and shoved ben to his knees next to Uma.

Mal gasped slightly at the rough treatment of Ben, her eye twitching a bit as Uma pouted at her and held out her hand for the wand, Mal holding out her hand for Ben in turn. “Cut him loose Davy” Uma hummed, keeping her eyes on Mal and not seeing the sneer that Davy gave her.

Mal noticed and furrowed her brows, throughout the standoff Davy had been constantly looking from Uma to the wand, and glaring as if he was planning something.

Too bad. If he was planning to overthrow Uma, he’d be out of luck.

Davy cut Ben loose and Ben grabbed Mal's hand, stopping himself from getting up as Uma clamped her hand onto his arm. Uma held out her hand for the wand again and Mal passed it to her, pulling up Ben as soon as Uma released him and pushed him back towards the tunnel. “Ben” Mal hissed through her teeth, trying to push back a hesitate Ben back “Ben go now”

Uma turned back to her celebrating crew and gathered them around her, holding the wand up to the sky “Okay okay okay!” Mal glanced back, clicking her tongue as she watched Davy continue to watch the wand like a hawk. Mal pushed back Ben again, trying to convey that there was nothing to worry about since the wand was fake without notifying Uma, but he refused to move. “By the power of the sea/Tear it down and set us free!”

After a few moments of tense silence, Uma looked back down at the wand, her breath becoming quick and patchy “NO!” she snapped the wand on her knee, Mal finally being able to push Ben back as he realized the wand was fake “YOU DO NOT GET TO WIN EVERY TIME!” Uma screamed, gritting her teeth in anger as Jay dumped over a barrel and tossed the R.O.A.R fencing swords to his friends. “GET THEM!”

The pirates on the main deck flinched back as a cloud of blue smoke suddenly appeared and blinded them. Another red and orange cloud of smoke bursting out on the platforms above the deck to distract the pirates there.

Evie grabbed an extra sword and called out to Ben, tossing the sword to him. He swiftly caught it and turned back to the pirates, squaring his shoulders and getting ready for a fight “Where’s (y/n), Harry, and Gil?!” Ben yelled, looking back over his shoulder.

Evie shrugged and started running up the docks “I have no clue but I hope they get here soon!”

Mal stood at the front end of the gangplank, watching as Uma rubbed the smoke from her eyes and glared at her, yelling out for her crew to attack. “GO!”  Mal glanced up and grit her teeth as the pirates above the deck swung down to the docks and landed in front of her friends, drawing their swords and swinging at them.

“Where’s (y/n) when you need her” Mal huffed, gripping onto the sword and hoping she retained enough from 6 months ago from when she last used a sword. She stepped to the side as Uma’s pirates ran at her, swinging their swords widely in the air in hopes of nicking her.

Mal mentally cursed herself as her ankle wobbled a bit, why the fuck did she wear these clunky ass heels? They were no good for sword fighting. Mal ducked and dodged the pirates, blocking one's swing and using the pirate's balance against him, and sending him into the raging waters below.

Everything happened in an instant.

Behind her, Evie ducked under a sword and blocked several stabs and swings, grunting as the blades clashed together in a fierce dance.

Lonnie jumped down from one of the higher platforms and smacked her sword against a blonde pirate’s as he tried to help his fellow crew member back onto the docks.

Ben twisted around and pushed Gabe to the floor, laughing as adrenaline pumped through his body.

Mal twisted around the last pirate and turned, moving her arm behind her for balance as Uma stepped forward and drew her sword, flipping it in her hand as Mal taunted her by making a ‘come at me’ motion.

Carlos blocked and parried Drey’s quick attacks, keeping his ears open to be ready to jump in to help his friends at any moment.

Davy hopped up to the highest part of the docks, smirking at Jay as he stepped in front of him. He grabbed Jack by his front paws and set him on the rails, tapping at the monkeys back to get him moving “Hello traitor~” Davy purred, drawing his sword and instantly rushing at Jay, swinging down his blade at Jay’s head only for it to be stopped by Jay lifting his sword and easily blocking Davy's attack.

Uma swung her sword at Mal's torso, Mal quickly moving her blade in the way of the swing and pushing Uma’s back towards her. ‘Thank fuck for muscle memory’ Mal thought in relief, knowing that if she hadn’t retained it Uma would have definitely defeated her in seconds flat. But Uma was still an excellent fighter, and she was gaining the upper hand fast, if Mal didn’t do something now she would lose. The quick clash of swords rang in Mal’s ears as at one point they hit so hard her entire arm quivered from the intensity.

Mal tried to do what she had seen Harry and (y/n) do multiple times against each other and slip her blade between the hilt and pommel of Uma’s sword to disarm her, but she had made it too obvious and Uma easily batted away and swung at her leg’s. Mal jumped back with a yelp and hurried to block another swing before it connected with her neck.

Jay parried another swing from Davy and spun around him, kicking out the back of Davy's legs and pushing him to the ground. Davy let out a snarl and jumped back up, swinging his sword wildly through the air.

Gabe yelled as he swung down from the high platforms of the ship and landed in front of Ben, grinning as he drew his sword “What's up Ben?!”

Ben shrugged and flipped his sword “Oh nothing much just kicking pirate butt” Gabe laughed and swung, a quick flurry of blocks and parries being dished out from both sides.

Uma swung wildly at Mal, gasping a bit in surprise as Mal stepped out of the way from a stab and grabbed Uma’s arm, throwing Uma behind her and spinning around to face her again, swords clashing once more. Mal yelped in pain as Uma hit her sword down and slashed her blade across her cheek. Mal winched and closed her left eye, already feeling heat gather around the new cut and blood drip down her face.

Evie lifted her sword above her head as the pirate swung down at her, she pushed her arms up and forced his blade away, making him stumble back. she moved to the side and slammed her foot into his, the pirate yelped and let go of his sword, hopping on one foot as he grabbed his stomped one. Evie grinned and pushed him over, spinning around to face Jonas who gave a war cry as he attempted to scare her. She just raised her brow and swung at him, thankful that (y/n) had made her learn to swordfight during the last couple of months, without it she would be dead weight for the fight.

The pirate Lonnie was fighting finally let go of his crewmate to fight her head-on, he swung at her and “cornered” her against the dock post. Lonnie quickly disarmed him, but being slightly bored, she tossed her sword up and held it by the blade, pointing the handle at the pirate who gave her a confused look “Here! Take mine.” when he looked at her for confirmation and she nodded, he grinned and gladly took the blade.

He swung once, twice, three times, and by the fourth Lonnie lifted herself up on the railings and kicked him hard in the head. The pirate tumbled to the ground and went limp. Lonnie let out a small bout of laughter and picked up her sword again, running up the docks to fight some more pirates.

“Duuuude” Dude laughed, watching the battle with wide eyes “If only I had opposable thumbs” he stood on his paws and ran down the tunnel as Carlos looked at him and nodded his head at it “I never get to have any fun”

Uma spun low to the ground, trying to swipe at Mal's legs, her grin turned sour as Mal blocked the swing and grabbed her arms, pulling her close and smiling down at her “Is it just me, or are you kinda having fun too?” Mal laughed, squeaking a bit as Uma growled and shoved her away towards the docks. Mal slowly backed up and was soon off the gangplank as she continued to clash swords with Uma.

Jay blocked an elbow punched from Davy and grabbed his arm, locking it to his chest and throwing Davy to the floor again.

Evie smirked as Jonas backed up for a moment, she brought her left hand up behind her and pointed her toe “Let’s dance~” Jonas swung first and Evie quickly parried, they two hitting their swords against the others quickly. Jonas swung at Evie's feet but she jumped back and trapped his blade between hers and her boot.

Gabe was somehow able to get the upper hand against Ben and pushed him to the floor of the docks, grinning down at him as the sharp end of Ben's blade drew closer to his neck. Carlos jumped behind them and smacked his sword against Gabe's butt, he turned and swiped at Carlos, widening his eyes a bit as Carlos easily held up against him. “Ben go!” Ben ducked under their crossed blades and started to run towards the tunnel. Carlos pushed off Gabe and smiled as he tumbled to the ground.

Evie pushed down Jonas and grabbed his red scarf “Nice scarf~” she pulled it off and shoved Jonas down through the railings with her foot. “It's mine now~!”  Ben hopped up onto the deck with her and Evie spun around to see two pirates run in front of her, another two standing in front of Ben. “Ben!” the two quickly defended against the four pirates.

Jay dodged out of the way of Davy's foot and jumped over a swipe of his blade. He blocked a couple of hard swings from Davy and finally got a grip on his arm. He pulled Davy towards him, ducked under his torso, and lifted him off of his feet. Jay crouched a bit and pushed up, releasing Davy and sending him to the lower set of docks.

Davy hit the floor with a loud crash, the teen laying there for a moment as pain flared up his back “Ow” he whined, cracking open his eyes to see Jay grinning down at him then run towards the tunnel.

-

You glanced at Gil wincing slightly at the passed-out Harry in his arms. You, Harriet, and Gil finally made it to the old garage, the sound of clashing swords and yelling echoing through the old pile tunnel.

You growled a bit, turning to the limo and pulling open the back car door, groaning a bit “Why the fuck did Jay lock it?!” you yelled, punching the window. Moments later Lonnie and Jay came running from the tunnel. Jay stopped; his eyes wide as he saw the unconscious form of Harry in Gil's arms. “What happened to him?!” Jay yelled, running up to Gil and placing his hand on Harry's forehead.

“James Hook is what happened” you snarled, Lonnie and Jay looking at you with wide-eyes as they had never heard you speak with such malice before “I already took care of the bastard and now I need to deal with another one, is Davy there?” you gestured to the battle beyond the tunnel, Jay slowly nodding as he grabbed the keys from his thigh bag and unlocked the car, helping Gil get Harry into the limo.

“Yeah-he’s-what’s he got to do with it?” Jay asked, flinching back as you glared at him.

“HE is the one who told James Harry was on the isle, I have a bone to pick with that fucker” you grabbed onto Harry’s sword and walked toward the tunnel “Harriet, get in the Limo” she raised a brow, looking at Lonnie then glancing at her baby brother being gently laid out on the long side seat of the limo.

“No” you turned, watching Harriet for a moment before she continued “I still have work to do, I’ll stay here and make sure everything stays in order, and protect my little sister and the twins until you can get shit moving. Okay?” you shook your head and took your foot off the tunnel and walked over to her, holding up your hand.

“I’ll be sure to get you and your sister off the isle first, along with the smee twins, I promise” Harriet smiled and clasped her hand with yours.

“I’m holding you too that, thank you for taking care of my brother for me” you smiled and squeezed Harriet's hand before releasing it and walking back to the tunnel, giving her a thumbs-up as she yelled out at the last moment “And save some of that traitor for me! He needs to learn what happens when you mess with Harry”

You smirked to yourself and unhooked the hook from your belt, rolling the weapon in your hands.

It's time for revenge.

-

Davy flashed his eyes between Uma and Ben, smirking as a devious thought came to mind. Kill the king and take control. If he killed Ben, he would gain the popularity he needed to rise above the ranks. Yes, Uma would be the one to have originally captured him, but after he killed the king? Oh, he would take place as top dog.

And then he would take place as captain after he took care of Uma. He would rule the world one day, but first the isle. And while he was at it, he would take out the purple imp as well.

Ben turned and saw him walking towards him with his eyes wild with mania, the king stumbled back for a moment, watching as Davy lifted his sword and prepared to swing down on Ben.

Davy flinched back as a blade was suddenly swung at him, sticking into the ladder between him and Ben, he quickly followed down the scarlet jacket covered arm and his eyes widened, looking into your pissed off (e/c) ones.

“Hiya!” you sang, your smile dropping as you started to swing Harry’s sword at Davy, the boy hardly able to keep up with your pace.

“(y/n)!” Ben yelled in relief, the other vks noticing and doing the same. Uma turned and her jaw dropped, noticing the spray-painted hook on the back of your coat.

“you-“ she snarled, glancing back from you to Mal and shaking her head. She needed to keep focus, and continued to fight Mal.

You took the hook and slammed it into Davy's blade, throwing him off his balance and trapping him against the rails. Ben took the chance and leaned over your shoulder and tickled under Davy's chin, taunting him with a baby voice. “goochy goochy goo~” Ben cooed, laughing as you gave him a side-eye and swiped at Davy's cheek with the hook, you grinned at the cut that instantly appeared and Davys wide-eyed look. Ben turned and blocked the swing of Gonzo who suddenly appeared behind him.

Davy pushed you off of him and stumbled back, yelping as you easily and quickly parried his swings. You took a quick step forward and slid your blade through the hilt of his sword, disarming him and spinning on your heel, slamming your foot into his chest and sending him back. You jumped on him and slashed Harry’s sword across his chest.

He quickly held his arms up and screamed as Harry’s sword sliced a good inch into his arms, blood pouring from the lacerations.

Some of the crew turned at that and gasped as you swung back up and stabbed into his left shoulder “This-“ you twisted the blade, a maniacal smile spreading on your lips “-is for Harry” you pulled it out and stabbed into his other shoulder, making him scream again “This!” you pulled it back out “is for me!” you sliced up near his face, creating a red line from his chin to his brow “And this! Is for everything else!”

“Carlos! Smoke bomb!” you turned and cursed, watching as Carlos knocked one of the pirates off the docks and whipped Mal’s bag around, pulling out one of the smoke bombs and tossing it to Evie.

You looked back down at Davy and grinned “I went easy on you, but Harriet-“ his eyes widened in fear, only just realizing that you had found out everything. “won't.”

You spun around and slid under Ben's arm, arching up with your left hand and slamming the hook into the hilt of Gonzo’S sword and disarming him, using your momentum to slam your shoulder into his sternum and knock him off his feet.

“Evie now!” you screamed, squinting to reduce the risk of the smoke getting in your eyes. Evie threw the bomb to the docks, purple smoke filling the area. “Ben go!” Ben bolted off after Evie as she pulled at his arm. Mal close behind them as she finally pushed Uma off of her and into the smoke.

You pushed at Mal's back to get her off the bridge and turned, making eye contact with Uma as you sheathed Harry's sword and pushed the bridge, jumping a bit as it fell back with a loud crash. Uma growled, her eyes drifting to the hook in your left hand and shaking her head.

What's my name?

What's my name?

What's my name?!

Say it nooooow.

You stared at Uma with sad eyes as she screamed at you, her eyes only showing rage and betrayal.

“(y/n)!!!” Gil yelled from the other side. You gave Uma an apologetic look and turned, not knowing as you did the hook symbol on your back flashed in the light, making Uma scream again and push her crew members out of her way as she raced to take the other way around to get to you.

You grabbed Gil's hand with your free one and hopped down onto the ground of the musty alley, running into the car after Mal and Ben and waiting for Gil to get in before you slammed the door closed. The Limo took off in a sudden start and drove quickly down the alleys of the isle. Mal took a deep breath as she flopped back into her seat, before suddenly sitting up and scrambling to look in her backpack. “My spell book!” she screeched turning to look out of the back window and thumping her head against the leather “shit”

Ben stared at Mal as she closed her eyes and took deep breaths, she opened them and turned to look at him, her eyes swimming with worry. “Are you okay Ben?” she asked, ignoring the large cut on her cheek that was still bleeding. He gave a comforting smile and reached out, cupping her chin and inspecting the cut.

“Are you okay?” Mal smiled and nodded, taking Ben's arm and pulling it off her cheek.

“It's just a cut, I’ll be fine…I’m sorry I dragged us into this mess” she sighed, leaning heavily against her seat “If it wasn’t for my dumb brain none of this would have happened”

“Well, it did one good thing” Ben muttered, looking out the window and watching the isle buildings go by “I got to see the isle for what it really is…Uma helped me see that”

Mal lifted her head a bit “…She's good at making people see the truth” she finally sighed, flopping forward and leaning against Ben’s arm “So what now?”

“Well for starters; remember last time when I said I save you next time? Yeah, same thing” Mal snorted and rubbed her forehead against his arm.

“And as I said last time, let's not let there be a next time”

“I’m all for this re-bonding cute shit but can we do it later?” you snapped, rubbing your thumb against Harry's bruised face. Mal gasped as she finally realized Harry was in the limo and dove forward to sit on the floor with you.

“What happened to him!? Where was he?!” Mal hovered her hands over Harry’s arms, her eyes burning slightly at the sight of the dark and bloody bruises all over him.

“James Hook” you snarled, the others, minus Gil, looking at you with wide eyes as malice once more filled your voice “that’s where Harry was, and luckily Gil, Harriet, her crew, and I made it in time before anything really bad happened to him” Mal sighed in slight relief, while it was scary that James had Harry, none of his clients ever came to take payment. “Do you know any healing spells off the top of your head?” Mal licked her lips, trying to rack through her brain to remember any type of healing spell in her spell book. Finally, she shook her head.

“No, my mother never wrote any spells in the book, and if there were any, they were scribbled over by her…I don’t know any” you scoffed and smacked her thigh, making her jump a bit.

“Then make one up! It's not the book that’s magic it's you!” Mal paused, before smacking her forehead and nodding. “Yep, sorry, my brain is still catching up to everything” she looked up at the front and saw the barrier coming closer “Just-wait till after we cross the barrier?”

You rolled your eyes, leaning against Gil's leg who was sitting next to Harry’s head. “Duh?”

Everyone shivered as the limo passed through the barrier, Mal's eyes glowing for a moment as her magic was once more released. She wiggled her arms to get used to the feeling of her magic again and turned to Harry, her eyes glowing again.

“take these wounds, blue and black/take the pain, gone in a blink”

Harry's body glowed a slight golden purple, and you slumped in relief as the bruises and cuts on Harry's body slowly disappeared until it was as if nothing had happened to him.

You sobbed in relief and sat up, wrapping your arms around his head and neck and pressing your face against his “Thank fuck” you sniffed, pulling back a bit as Harry's lashes fluttered against your cheek as he woke up.

“Love?” he muttered, his eyes drifting around the car and relaxing as he only saw his friends “I’m-wha-“

“Uma took Ben for the wand, we got Ben back, and we’re on the bridge now heading home” you quickly explained, shuffling closer to him and tightening your grip on him as he leaned closer to you and wrapped his arms around your upper torso “You’re safe”

Harry breathed in your scent, burying his face in your hair and nearly falling asleep again. His hands brushed against the leather of your coat and he pulled back a bit, pulling at the lapels of the jacket and smiling. “Yer wearing meh jacket” you looked down and started to take it off, stopping as Harry shook his head, pulling the coat back over your shoulders “No, keep it, it suits yeh” you smiled and leaned forward, bonking your head against his.

Harry looked up, smiling at Gil who was crying “Hey bud” he whispered, grunting a bit as Gil leaned down and gave Harry a tight hug “okay, yeah, hug it out” you sat up on your knees and curled your arms around his torso, laying your head on his chest and taking a deep breath. Harry smiled and pushed his head into Gil’s grabbing your hand with his and squeezing it.

Evie and Carlos smiled at each other and leaned back into their seats, happy that the stressful part of the day was finally over.

Mal got up from the floor and sat back down next to ben, closing her eyes, and decided to get in a power nap for the hour it would take to get back to the school.

Ben leaned his head against hers and closed his eyes, the two soon falling asleep.

Evie and Carlos slumped against each other and passed out, Lonnie glancing back and cooing “so cute” she smiled at you, Harry, and Gil.

Harry was halfway curled up on Gil's lap, his head on Gil's thigh and one of his arms wrapped around your shoulders holding your hand. Gil's head was now leaning back against the seat and was lightly snoring, one of his arms on Harry's chest with Harry's shirt tightly bunched in his fist. You were still curled up on the floor, your head resting in the crook of Harry's neck and one of your arms wrapped around his shoulder as the other was pressed against your chest to hold Harry's hand.

“I wish I had my phone on me” Lonnie whispered, turning back to the front and resting her feet on the dash. Jay looked up at the rearview mirror, smiling as he looked at his friends.

All his friends were safe now, his job was complete.

-

Davy sat up with a wince, glaring down at the deep cuts on his arms. He yelped a bit as he touched his face “That’s going to scar” he muttered.

He froze as heavy footsteps appeared from behind. He slowly turned around, his eyes widening as he looked into the flashing red eyes of Harriet Hook.

“You’re dead” was all she said, smirking as a dark spot on Davy's pants started to appear.

“Parlay?” Davy squeaked, screaming as Harriet swung her sword at his face.

-end of part 12-

There It is! Part 12! The core four + Ben, Harry, Gil, reader, and Lonnie are off the isle and heading back home safe and sound! Again, if you forgot Dude's voice is now Beast Boy from teen titans because I hate the actual voice the VC gave him even though he apparently can do a good “teen” voice that would have suited Dude better. Also, READER GOT SOM FUKIN PAYBACK FOR HARRY ON DAVY I know she didn’t finish him off but come on, Harriet deserves a shot at him eh?

And Mals spell that she used to heal Harry was one @sephiralorange​ and I created together after she tried to find a healing spell in the “Mals spell books” books and only found a healing potion. I hope it works lol. Also, I think this has been one of my longest fic parts in a long time, 22 pages and 6763 words! Anyway part 13 coming soon, and the Vks will be back in Auradon finally!

oh! fake screenshot i made for the “hiya!” part!

(y/n) is modeled after me

permtagist!

@queer-cosette​ @sephiralorange​

@lunanight2012​ @musicarose​

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[scullysexual]

Time Can Heal (9/ )

Season Two | Abduction Arc | Canon Divergence | Angst | Warnings: Sleep paralysis, rape (proceed carefully) | Words: 3117 | 

One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | AO3 | 

Mulder realises his request for the truth costs too much.

Tagging: @today-in-fic @bevh78 @mypanicface @weseeusinthefall @impulsive-astrophile @enigmaticxbee

This is probably my favourite character I’ve written so far! 

- - - 

Mulder’s apartment in Minneapolis is a lot bigger than the one in Virginia. Bigger apartments costs less here, he tells her but Dana already guessed that.

“Want something to drink?” Mulder asks as he heads towards the kitchen.

Dana shakes her head, hanging her coat up on the rack.

“Suit yourself,” says Mulder disappearing through the doorway.

Dana surveys the room. In many ways it’s a similar layout to the one back in Hegel Place; couch against the wall, TV opposite it, coffee table in the middle. The only thing missing is the fish tank, the fish given to the Lone Gunmen maybe.

She feels a tug in her chest at the absence of the fish. If they were here, maybe she could believe nothing had changed.

She does manage a smile, however, upon seeing a blanket folded on the back of the couch and the pillow tucked between the wall and the armrest.

Not everything changes.

“Still haven’t got a bed?” she asks when Mulder re-enters the living room carrying a glass of orange juice in one hand and a bag of sunflower seeds in the other.

Mulder shrugs and takes his place on the far side of the couch. Dana stays standing, watching as he places his drink and snack down and pulls out the report.

She plays with the strap of her bag and watches. Mulder thumbs through bits of papers, past autopsy photos and eye-witness accounts. It dawns on her in this moment that apartment visits were rare. Work would be done alone in their respective homes or together in their office. He came to her apartment more times than she ever went to his and in this moment she feels like a stranger, her eyes casting across the TV unit to the VHS’s stacked in a pile, bits of clutter that cover his desk and coffee table, unwashed dishes in the sink. All evidence of a man who lives alone. All evidence of someone who is lonely.

“You can sit down,” Mulder’s voice cuts through her thoughts. Her attention is brought over to him by the sound of it, he’s looking at her smiling. “I don’t bite,” he jokes.

It eases her how comfortable he is around her, even after all these months. It’s like nothing has really changed for him. Time apart, a bumpy start, but she is still his Scully, his partner, ready to crack jokes with any time, ready to infuriate with his theories or look at her with concern when he knows something is bothering her.

She begins to see his leaving her in a different light. It was his quest after all, he must feel some guilt towards everything that happened to her.

The movement is spontaneous, an action before the thought. Mulder would often ease his way into her personal space, touch her arm, touch her hand to get her attention. Dana’s always tried to maintain a sense of professionalism, they were co-workers before they were friends, two agents before they were people. A hand through his hair to check for injury but nothing more.

Now her hand lands on his knee, the feel of it having Mulder’s attention diverted from folder to his knee, to her.

Dana wills herself to keep it there, tells herself that it is nothing more than him in her personal space or touching her arm.

“I don’t blame you,” she tells him. “For the abduction. It wasn’t your fault.”

For extra sincerity she squeezes his knee before bringing it away and reaching into her bag to pull out her laptop.

“I always…” Mulder begins and she turns her head towards him again, halting her action of switching on the computer.

He’s searching for the words.

“I blamed myself for it,” he admits not quite looking at her. “I thought I should’ve done more to protect you. I thought you were really gone.” He looks away completely now, putting the folder down to stare at his hands instead. “My mom always said she didn’t blame me for Samantha but I could see it…in her eyes. And when you were gone…I saw it again in your mother’s.” He chances a glance at her before adverting his eyes away again. “And I always thought I saw it in yours.”

Dana begins furiously shaking her head. She can’t speak on behalf of her mother, on behalf of his, but she can speak on behalf of herself.

She reaches for his forearm, bringing his eyes back to her.

“I’m sorry I made you think that,” she says willing her gaze to make him believe. “It was never true.”

“It was Duane Barry’s fault,” Mulder says, his tone having a hint of scepticism behind it.

“Yes, it was,” Dana confirms, her voice strong. “Nobody else’s.”

It has some affect on him and Mulder begins to nod. He reaches back for the folder and takes out the profile he wrote, handing it her way. She goes to take it but he doesn’t quite give it away.

“Are you sure you’re okay reading it?”

This case still shook her, for reason she didn’t quite want to think about, but she was here to do a purpose and that purpose was to bring justice to the victims- dead or alive.

“I have a job to do,” she answers, taking the report from him.

Mulder nods but he doesn’t quite believe her.

.:.:.:.:.:.:.

“You amaze me,” Scully says after a while of just staring at him. Mulder takes a swig of his beer as he waits for her to continue.

A while has passed, the awkward murky beginnings long gone. They ordered food, he even convinced her to have a beer. Their reports and file lay on the coffee untouched. Scully sits in the gap between the couch and table, legs crossed and rolling the neck of the bottle back and forth between her fingers. He’s never known her to be so…relaxed.

Scully had been concerning him lately. He was worried for her, it’s not like her to run out of rooms after all.

Of course, the case was a difficult one, nobody should be expected to walk into something like this and not react, especially somebody as green as her but underneath all that Mulder was certain there was something else.

“It’s just…” she continues and shakes her head as if to discourage herself from saying anymore.

“No,” says Mulder with a chuckle. “Tell me. What were you gonna say?”

She moves onto her side, resting her arm on the seat of the couch and her head in her hand, looking at him.

“Okay,” she starts. “For arguments sake, why isn’t it aliens? Why is it not some…hair devouring slug that preys on dead people?”

He leans closer to her with false curiosity and a smirk.

“Do tell me more about this hair devouring slug theory of yours.”

She punches him in his leg and rolls her eyes. Her weak attempt has him falling into fits of laughter which just leads to frustrate her more, her eyes narrowing and a cute little pout forming on her face.

“I will shoot you.”

He doesn’t think she’s joking.

Mulder brings himself to stop laughing and goes back to his upright position. He plays with the label on the bottle as he talks.

“Certain cases have a distinct smell to them.” He shrugs. “This one doesn’t.”

“This one, out of 40 other cases, doesn’t have a distinct smell?”

Mulder chuckles again. “They’re rare but it’s been known to happen.” He glances her way. “What do you think? Do you think it’s a hair devouring slug?”

Scully grows sombre. She places her beer on the coaster on the table and hoists herself up onto the seat next to him.

Without looking at him, she mumbles, loud enough to for him to hear. “I’d like it to.”

“Why is that?” he asks as quietly as she spoke.

Mulder watches as she takes a deep breath before speaking.

“Because it’s easier to believe that monsters and aliens are the only ones capable of these things.” She looks down at her hands, fingers tangling together. “Not other human beings.”

She pulls her hands away to sit beside her, her head pointed towards the ceiling as she lets out a deep sigh.

“Scully, Duane Barry—”

“Duane Barry was insane!” Mulder feels himself physically jump back at the loud tone of her voice.

“You think it wasn’t aliens.” He realises.

“I know it wasn’t aliens.”

He looks at her with amazement.

“Scully, how? How do you know? Your memories…are they returning?”

He watches as her eyes shut almost immediately, her face crunching up as if she’s trying not to see what she’s seeing. When he looks down at her hands, the one closest to him is balled into a tight fist.

He reaches out to hold her hand, to comfort her through whatever it is she’s remembering but the moment he makes the slightest bit of contact, she’s jumping; eyes bursting open, vaulting her hand away.

“Scully—”

But she’s off the couch before he can finish his sentence.

“It wasn’t aliens.” She looks around the room, trying to remember where she is. Her eyes land on her laptop and folder and she rushes to pick them up.

“I need to go,” she says beginning to pack her stuff away.

But no, she can’t go, she’s remembering. Remembering her abduction or remembering something.

“Scully,” Mulder starts, getting up from the couch himself and walking towards her, trying to stop her from packing away her things.

“Stay,” he says. “It’s late, you don’t even have your car.”

She pauses at that, realising, before she shakes her head and resumes her task.

“I’ll book a cab.”

Mulder has nothing more he can say to her. Nothing more that wouldn’t make him sound like a selfish bastard for trying to get her to stay. Instead he nods and heads towards the telephone.

“Let’s get you back to your partner, eh,” he tries to joke but it lands flat. No response from Scully.

They fall to silence. Scully packed away and standing by the door in her coat. Mulder on the phone.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” he asks when the call is over and her taxi is booked.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She turns to leave and Mulder busies himself with tidying up.

“Mulder,” she calls and he stops what he’s about to do. Maybe, just maybe…

“You’ll always be my partner,” she says instead.

It’s not what he wanted but it warms his chest up anyway. A slight smile crawling it’s way across his face.

“And you’ll always be mine,” he answers back.

It earns him a smile of his own before she turns and disappears through the front door.

.:.:.:.:.:.

She tosses her bag onto the bed as she enters, unconcerned for the contents inside it. She kicks off her heels, leaving them in a heap at the foot of her bed and heads towards the bedside drawer.

Just as her hand touches the pack of cigarettes and lighter, there’s a knock at her door. Dana rolls her eyes, slamming the rickety drawer shut and marches her way towards the door.

“What do you want?” she asks upon opening.

Davis leans against the doorframe.

“Not a nice way to greet your partner,” he says. He barges his way into the room and Dana is not in the mood to deal with this right now.

“We’re not partners,” she retorts, closing the door. There’s a thought to keep it open but no, her gun is at her side. She’ll use it if she has to. There’s no reason for the door to stay open.

Davis sits on the edge of the bed and studies her.

“Where have you been?”

“Excuse me?”

“First time I’ve heard the door go all night. Where have you been?”

“What’s it to you?” She crosses her arms in front of her.

“I’m your partner,” Davis answers. “Do I not get to know where you’ve been?”

She’s too exhausted and angry to deal with this. She wants him out.

“Please go.”

But Davis is up quicker than she thought he would be. He moves towards her and she flinches, moving herself, her lower back colliding with the edge of the desk and sending a brief bout of shooting pain rippling through her nerves.

She let’s out a surprise breath.

“Alcohol,” Davis observes. He backs out of her personal space and Dana feels her heart beating loudly against her chest. “Drinking during a case is grounds for suspension,” he tells her as if he’s a follower of the book.

“I wasn’t drinking,” she argues. “It was one beer.”

“With Spooky?”

Her face gives her away.

Davis smirks. “So now you’ve come back all pissed off. What happened? Spooky got you all hot and horny then left you out to dry?”

The unexpected crudeness of his words shocks her, a small gasp falling out of her mouth before she regains herself. Her eyes turning to steel, she asks:

“Is there something you wanted, Davis?”

He does nothing to hide the leering look he gives it. A cold chill runs down Dana’s body, her stomach and throat tightening. She tries her hardest not to let these reactions show to Davis.

“Nothing you could give me,” he says. “I’ll show myself out,” he calls backs as he walks to the door and Dana feels the urge to throw the nearest thing to her at the back of his head.

Once he’s gone, she runs over to the door and locks it. With no adjoining door and Davis’ room one down from hers she feels safer knowing there’s no real way he could enter.

With her unwanted visitor gone, Dana resumes her task. She grabs the cigarettes and lighter and stalks over to the window, yanking it up and hurrying to light the cigarette.

Her anger slowly drifts away with the smoke. What wound her up, she’s unsure. Maybe Mulder’s pushing? Her outburst was sudden but she knew what he was going to say about Duane Barry.

Aliens didn’t take him, Mulder. I think, deep down, you know that.

Her memory had been just as sudden as her outburst. They’ve never came to her conscious before. There was a light and men were talking. It was briefer than her dreams- or felt briefer- less paralysing.

Aliens didn’t take me, either.

She flicks the cig away, watching it falls down towards the street below and debates having another one.

Instead, she brings her head back inside, shuts the window, and decides sleep would be the better course of action, the time already approaching midnight.

She drops her bag onto the floor, strips herself of her clothes, leaving them in a heap at her feet. She takes the t-shirt she packed, her usual silk pyjamas at home needing to be washed (a task Dana hadn’t had much energy for anymore) and climbs into the bed, foregoing anything else, telling herself she’ll deal with it tomorrow.

.:.:.:.:.:.

She knows it’s happening before it’s happening.

A weight on her chest. Her body frozen.

It’s dark, at first, much like it is when she wakes up in the night and her eyes have yet to adjust.

Then there’s a burst of bright, white light coming to life. Her eyes shut tight in response to it before they slowly open again.

She tries to move, to sit up, but when moves her eyes, wire is binding her wrists, pinning her down. Panic begins to grip her, her heart beating wildly against her chest. Instinct tells her to clench her fist but the best her finger can do is tap frantically against her palm.

There’s the sudden sound of movement near her feet and Dana chances a look down with her eyes.

She’s spread-eagled on the table, the way they had her during the experiments.

She tries to fight against her restraints but she can’t move, the binds too tight it begins to cut into her skin of her wrist. The gasps at the deep red blood against the pale white of her skin as it begins its descent downwards, pooling below.

There’s heavy breathing, not coming from herself, and when she moves her eyes to the other side a yelp is released from her mouth, her body growing cold as a devil stands over her, his skin as red as her blood.

He leers at her body, eyes moving south before he begins to follow. Dana follows him, her eyes trained on him as she fights to control her breath, fights to even breath. She swallows and gulps when his red arm slowly begins reaching towards her ankle. His finger is cold when it touches her skin, sending shiver up and down her body and gooseflesh forming.

She tries to fight it off but just as like her wrists, are ankles are restrained, too. Unable to run, unable to fight, she shuts her eyes as the devil man’s finger begins tracing up her leg, a hand joining when he reaches her knee.

He moves to the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh and fear grips her, her eyes shooting open, darting towards him.

“Please…” she just about manages yet the devil’s hand still makes his way towards that place.

He looks at her, sadness or pity in his eyes and, with his other hands, reaches out to brush a tear away from her face with a finger. With the other, he strokes her outer lips.

Her body reacts, begins to respond and Dana wants to cry and scream and run. She begins fighting against the restrains again, not caring for the pain as they cut deeper into her wrists. Maybe it will snag a vein and she will die, ending all of this.

She stiffens and stops at the feeling of a finger entering her. The devil man is looking away from her now, focused on his task and there is nothing Dana can do to stop him.

She stills, facing her fate, facing the fact that this is about to happen, that they’re about to take something else from her, as well. Her eyes loll to the side, vision blurring as all sensations but the sensation of the weight upon her all fall away.

In her clouded vision, a figure approaches, the smell of cigarettes, and a voice.

“What are you doing?”

Mulder…

Dana blinks a few times, forcing her eyes to remain open but her vision is still blurry.

“She is mine,” Mulder says.

“Mul…Mul…der…”

Mulder’s face approaches hers, his hand in her hair stroking.

“Shh…” Mulder says. “I’ve got you. I’ve always got you.”

[collapsingintojupiter]

Sea Urchin

I made me some analogical fluff bc honestly, why not?

Characters: Virgil, Logan, (brief) Roman

Relationships: Analogical, platonic Prinxiety

---

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Roman?”

“Are you kidding me? Of course it’s a good idea!”

“Fish? For a date?” Roman sighed, slinging an arm around Virgil’s shoulder. 

“I’m telling you, oh panic-at-the-everywhere, that taking him to an aquarium will literally make his year. Logan loves the ocean, man.”

“And...and you’re sure he won’t think it’s weird?”

“No, because he’s weird. And so are you.”

“Hey!” Virgil shoved Roman away and glared at him, though it melted into a grin when he laughed that stupid laugh of his.  

“Relax, Virge. He’ll love it, I promise.” He sighed. 

“Okay…”

Half an hour later, Virgil was standing on the doorstep to the Crofter house, his hair awkwardly styled (Roman’s fault), and a plush shark in his hands (also Roman’s fault). Logan opened the door when he knocked, eyes widening at the sight of the plush shark. 

“I uh...here.” Virgil shoved it into Logan’s hands, then tried to remember what Roman had told him to say. “Uh, guess where we’re going today?”

Logan looked at the shark, then up at Virgil. 

Holy shit, I’ve never seen him this excited before. 

“Are...are we going to the aquarium?” At that, Virgil couldn’t help but smile. Maybe Roman’s terrible idea wasn’t so terrible after all. 

“Correct. I heard you were into marine biology, and they have a sale on the admission fee today. Roman also told me you liked sharks.”

Logan smiled--adorably, Virgil thought. 

“Yeah, I do. They’re such fascinating creatures, despite the terrible reputation they’ve been given.”

“That’s good, ‘cause they’ll have plenty where we’re going.” Virgil motioned to his car, which actually wasn’t his car, but his mom’s. “You ready to go?”

“I believe I am adequately prepared, yes.” Logan still held the plush, and carried it to the car with him where he set it on the dashboard. 

“Will it be okay if I keep it in here for now?” he asked as the two climbed inside. 

“Oh, sure!” Virgil said, and his voice definitely didn’t crack. He tried not to look at Logan as he backed the car out of the driveway and started into town; at his messy hair, the soft blue sweater he currently wore over a white button-up, at his blue glasses which had tiny goldfish painted on the sides - Roman’s work, most likely. And it was perfect.

Roman had been Logan’s best friend since the first grade, and from what Virgil had heard the two had become friends in much the same way he had when he’d been transferred to their school in fifth grade. Promptly after arriving Roman had made it his personal goal to befriend him, though Virgil had never understood quite why. Logan said he didn’t either; Roman merely shrugged when asked and said they’d seemed lonely. 

Not that that was true, or anything.

Whatever the case, Virgil did eventually succumb and become a part of the odd group. Later, when they reached highschool, it was again Roman who convinced him to finally ask Logan out. 

At first glance, Logan was little more than a quiet and studious kid with a weird fascination for both space and the deep ocean, something that was weirdly connected to and disconnected from Virgil’s own fascination with cryptids, conspiracies, and aliens. The more he’d gotten to know Logan, however, the more he learned about the nerdy kid’s wilder side; about his impulsive (but fun) antics in the name of science, his crazy ideas “for research purposes only, obviously,” and his long rants about stars at two in the morning when he couldn’t sleep. 

And Virgil fell in love with him. 

Roman noticed he had before he did, actually. He also said that Logan liked him too, and after several weeks of nagging Virgil finally worked up the courage to ask him out himself. And when Logan accepted--well, Virgil didn’t think he’d ever been happier (though he’d never tell Roman that).

“What’s your favorite ocean animal, Lo? Aside from sharks.” Logan glanced up, grinning crookedly. 

“I love eels,” he said. “And sea snakes. And crabs. And...” he stopped himself, and Virgil both tried and failed to hide a laugh. 

“Go ahead,” he said. “Um, do you have a favorite shark species?”

“Certainly. I am most fond of the tiger shark; their unique patterns are quite aesthetically pleasing. Speaking of sharks, did you know that shark skin feels like sandpaper?”

“I didn’t,” Virgil said, even though he did. “Tell me about it.”

“Their skin is made up of specialized placoid scales, which form a special kind of armor for the shark that’s actually quite thick. It’s also so rough that it can actually injure animals that rub against it the wrong way--it’s relatively smooth the other way, compared to it. The shape of the scales also makes the shark more streamlined in the water, so it loses less energy to drag when it’s hunting prey.”

Virgil kinda froze, even though he was still at the wheel, and once again he was struck by how damn smart Logan was, not to mention how cute he was when he got excited, and--

“Uh, Virgil?”

“Yeah?”

“You missed the turn.”

“Dammit!”

- - -

Virgil stood back a little, grinning to himself as Logan pressed his face up against the tank. On the other side of the glass, a rather uncomfortably large fish looked back at them. Virgil had already been dragged around four different rooms in the span of less than fifteen minutes, but despite that he couldn’t wipe the dumb look of adoration from his face as Logan excitedly rambled to him about parrot fish. 

“Did you know that they create bubble nets out of their mucus to hide in from sharks?”

“Uh...no, I didn’t.”

Man, the ocean was weird. 

“Ooh, this way! They have touch tanks in here!”

“They have what now?” Virgil asked, as Logan grabbed his hand and started pulling him into another room. 

“Touch tanks! So you can touch the anemones, urchins, sea cucumbers, and whatever else they have in there! Very fascinating textures, they have. Especially the anemones.”

“Wait wait wait...touch them?”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Logan said quickly, coming to a halt at the room’s entrance. He glanced at Virgil. “If you want I can show you first, and then you can decide. They won’t hurt you.”

“Uh...okay.” Virgil wanted to say no, mostly because being wet was not what he had planned, but Logan seemed so excited about it that he couldn’t help it. Besides, it was just his hand. He’d be fine.

“Here’s a purple sea urchin.” Logan pointed at a little spiky thing in the sand, grinning from ear to ear. “Their spikes can’t hurt us, but they’re cool to touch.” He dipped his hand in, running his finger along one of the urchin’s spines. 

“Whoah, they’re closing together around your finger!” Virgil leaned over the edge of the tank, eyes wide. Logan grinned at him. 

“They trap food with their spines like that, isn’t that cool?”

“You mean it thinks your finger is food?” 

“Yup! Don’t worry though, he can’t hurt me. See?” Logan pulled his hand away easily, showing Virgil. “Wanna try?”

“You’re crazy.” He looked down at the urchin. “...Yes. I’ll try.”

The water was stupid cold, but Virgil rolled up his sleeves, pretended he didn’t notice the adorable smile Logan was giving him, and dipped his hand in. The urchin’s spines were hard, but smooth, and quickly hugged onto his finger as he watched in surprise. 

“You haven’t been to an aquarium before, have you?” Virgil glanced at Logan.  

“I haven’t, no. Ocean always gave me the heebies. Didn’t realize it was so...uh, cool…” he turned away to hide his face, which had turned a delicate shade of rose, and quickly washed his hands while Logan tried to pet every sea cucumber he could find in the tank. 

“They’re very squishy,” he said as he joined Virgil by the entrance. “Very smooth. I like them.”

“I can tell,” Virgil answered with a grin. 

They went to more tanks, then ate at the cafe inside. Logan excused himself after they sat down, leaving Virgil alone for a few minutes as he disappeared. 

Virgil pulled his patch jacket closer around his shoulders, and let out a small sigh. He’d never been much of a learner like Logan was - sleeping in class, doodling on the margins of his notebooks, ignoring the teacher and everything around him...but learning from Logan was so different, so...fun. He realized he’d been enjoying himself immensely the whole time, even though he now had more facts on sea cucumbers than he’d ever know what to do with. 

Being with Logan was fun, he thought. 

“What are you thinking about, Virgil?”

“GAH! Logan, why?”

“I apologize.” Logan sat down, a smile hiding in his eyes as he tried to look sheepish. “I uh, didn’t realize that you hadn’t noticed my presence.”

“It’s alright,” Virgil shook his head, pushing a plate of food towards him. “You just startled me.”

“I will try to avoid doing so in the future.” 

They talked about black holes and green sand; about comets and cone snails and nebulae and nurse sharks. 

And Virgil loved it. 

At last, the day had gone and it was time to go. Virgil was exhausted, but glowing with happiness as they made their way towards the exit. Logan held his hand; similarly quiet, similarly happy. 

As they reached the front door, he stopped and turned to him. 

“I uh...got you something,” Logan said quietly, holding something up for him to see. 

“Is...is that an urchin plush?”

“I, uh...I thought that since…I went back to the gift shop...wanted to get something special...”

“I love it.” Virgil gently took the plush from Logan, cupping it in his hands and feeling how soft it was in his fingers. Logan grinned widely, and before either boy knew what was happening they were in each other’s arms. Logan’s embrace was gentle, but firm, and Virgil was pretty sure he never wanted to leave his arms again. 

Silently, he thanked Roman for his best terrible idea ever.

[reversecreek]

ziggy strutting up to me like this gif as i hold up a crucifix n say begone begone vile beast BEGONE from my vicinity i will NOT buy u a happy meal wretched little boy...... some live action rp to start this off..... and SCENE. takes my bow. his pinterest is here n his playlist is here.

* dylan minnette, cis male + he/him  | you know ziggy benson, right? they’re twenty-four, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, all of his life? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to hand crushed by a mallet by 100 gecs like, a million times this year, which makes sense ‘cause they’ve got that whole glitching televisions impaled by remotes, nonchalantly texting the babes as a stove fire ravages your kitchen & cartoons turned up so loud it fries your eardrums thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is november 24th, so they’re a sagittarius, which is unsurprising, all things considered. ( nai, 24, gmt she/her  )

HISTORY;

from the second ziggy ws born he didnt stop screaming. within the first hours of his life he gave his father an ear splitting headache tht prompted him to say “that uncooked chicken’s fucking demonic” n joke abt popping “it” in the oven to roast. when this understandably received disgusted glances frm the nursing staff he ws all like “jeez alright alright i’m kiddin i’m kiddin can’t a guy have a joke around here?” n i feel like that sets up their dynamic so nice n sweetly <3 (sarcasm) (lips pursed)

frm day one he ws just honestly a rly hyperactive child. when he laughed he’d shriek it out at the absolute top of his lungs bc he’d just get this huge giddy surge of energy all the way to the very tips of his toes n it’d hit him like a shock from a fork in a plug socket. their parenting style ws rly just lazy tbh.... they didn’t have much time for disciplining him. ziggy’s mum wld halfheartedly be like “ziggy quiet now....” n then go bk to nuking whatever vegetables she’d defrosted until they tasted like dinosaur bones..... this wld not make any difference in ziggy’s behaviour

his father rly just took the stance that it ws ziggy’s mum’s job to discipline him or raise him in general which is. 🔪 please enter the 20th century sir.... get ur noggin sorted..... needless to say he wsn’t much involved in ziggy’s life n honestly generally jst didn’t like him. ziggy was a responsibility he didn’t want (accidental prregnancy) n in his literal words once said (blatantly while ziggy ws watching cartoons on the sofa) tht ziggy just “harshes my fucking vibe a lil bit”. 

he wound up leaving when ziggy was six ish.... ziggy watched thru a crack in the blinds as his mum tried to grab at his jacket to make him stay as he lugged out his suitcase..... she even tried to physically cling onto him so he cldn’t get in his ride bt the door wound up slamming n she sat on her knees watching the lights pull out the drive n even long after they were gone. ziggy didn’t rly kno what to do abt this (emotions hd never been smthn he particularly understood, his own or how to handle other people’s) so after watching her fr 5 minutes he went out n gently shook her shoulder n was like. mom come inside u look weird out here. FKGHSFHGSFHKGFHKSGSFGHK. this was him trying to show love <3

ziggy’s mum is like.... rly relationship dependent. she gets all her self worth n validation frm whtever man she’s dating.... so she went on this like.... wild rampage of jst. dating a very large string of men. they ranged frm dreadfully boring to downright awful n were always below her standards. ziggy quite literally hated. all of them. every last one. even one that tried to b nice to him by offering to help him do his math homework when he ws 13 (bc ziggy was struggling a lot w this) n in response ziggy loudly barked until the man gt scared n stumbled backwards into a dining chair on his way out of the room. KGHFHKSJHFJGSHKFG

while him n his mum hv a kind of strained situation (there’s a great deal of resentment from her end n kind of. blaming him fr “driving his father away” n it’s never spoken abt bt it’s very much Present in their relationship n honestly ziggy kind of resents her too fr bringing some of the men into their lives tht she did) there is. love there...... sometimes she’ll like. reach out to cup the back of his head n he’ll duck his head away n be like wtf are u doing checking me for lice? n she’ll jst smile like :)...... knowing that’s how he loves. KHSFGKJGHKSFGFHKGSHF. ugh we love men who know how to process their emotions yesssss king give us nothing <3

(abuse n violence tw) idk i won’t go into it too much bt even tho ziggy’s constantly like 🙄 when his mum shows him affection he wld quite literally. kill fr her n almost did one time.......... narrowly avoided getting charged w assault when one of her bfs was drunk n evil n he went into protective mode.... idk he. has gone thru a lot n seen a lot n so has his mum. they look after each other the best they kno how despite the negatives in their relationship.... it’s complex <3

literally got in trouble so. often. at school. he ws always hyperactive (undiagnosed adhd n also probably not helped by the fact he ws jst allowed to eat sm junk food w 459729457952 sugar percentage all hours of the day) bt when his dad left n like. dealing w acting out so severely at home where his mum’s bfs were concerned it rly escalated..... i jst think he ws like. literally a terror. probably got suspended so many times. maybe even was permanently expelled before he cld get his diploma honestly. set off a firework in school hallway. smthn absolutely reckless n stupid.

hs hd a bunch of jobs mostly in the service industry...... usually ends up getting fired.... worked at mcdonald’s fr a while n then one day he went in rly high n ate three cheeseburgers in front of a weeping child who hd ordered one.... promptly gt fired bt he ws like yo fuck this place i’m quitting n threw off his apron n was like who’s with me??? who’s joining the union??????? to the rest of the staff n they were all mostly like >_> <_< before security approached to forcibly remove him n he grabbed a cookie n crammed it into his mouth in rebellion mid frantic n frankly possessed escape.....

in terms of wht’s going on to this day w his living situation i honestly think he still lives w his mum. i can just see this. KHGFSKGHSFGKSFGH. in like. a ramshackle bungalow in delphinus heights.... having said tht she probably isn’t. there tht often nw she’s dating her latest man (jonas, somehow always sweaty no matter the weather, wears too many gold rings n smells like shoe cleaner) who owns a car dealership n thinks he’s a kingpin for it. still home sometimes tho.

PERSONALITY:

ziggy spends his days working shifts at an ice cream parlour (one he got fired from once bc he broke in high n ate sm ice cream he was lay on the floor in the bk pants unbuttoned stomach bulging sm calling himself garfield saying he had too much lasagna. they hired him bk tho bc he has a harem of middle aged women who lust after him n it brings customers....) or like. cruising parties...... setting off fireworks.... skateboarding...... breaking into abandoned buildings.... filming stupid jackass type tricks....... playing guitar hero...... getting drunk at the arcade..... sometimes busking fr cash in a tossed dwn hat (very badly) (thinks he’s sick at it however)........ or alternatively...... fucking chicks aha...... fuck.......... not exclusive to chicks tho just had to sound despicable bt :smirk: he’s bi Baby.... 

i won’t lie he’s kind of an asshole................ never rly was taught properly how to empathise with ppl so like he struggles w that....... sometimes he’ll say smthn tht’s genuinely just quite mean n doesn’t need to be said but he doesn’t rly realise it’s like bad. n he’s like. what’s the deal haha why are u mad...... 

fuckboy. genuinely jst. rly summarises it well. insatiable. sleeps around wildly. will say he’ll call u back n then will not call u back. lies like oh babe i’m moving to france tomorrow fuckkkkkkkkk sucks so bad that we can only have one night but let’s make it special yeah? tits? n then they’ll see him casually skating past them on the street a week later n be like well clearly he’s not in france. ziggy doesn’t care.

calls himself a “genius inventor” bc he once gutted a vintage analog television n made it into a fish tank. it literally leaked water a bit. still convinced he is a literal visionary never seen before never done again. he’s like i’m on the brink of greatness. i’m the next einstein.

has a bit of a god complex where he thinks he’s the sexiest person in any given room n it’s kind of funny bc like dylan minnette’s sexy to me bt tht isn’t a widespread opinion n ur being a bit bold ziggy...... regardless has confidence thru the roof tht isn’t rly deterred by anything or anyone.....

dyes his hair 49729572459752 colours every colour under the sun. sometimes all at once jst different patches. wears lots of tie dye tshirts n basketball shorts even tho he doesn’t play basketball. rly colourful sneakers. just lots of loud colours tbh. often wears a paper clip in his ear as an earring. pierced it himself. someone probably recorded him doing it fr his insta story. probably was drunk.

drives a vespa around tht is baby blue with pastel yellow polka dots. it has lots of tin cans attached to the back by string like on those cars when u just got married. he did not just get married. u can hear him arriving frm over a street away.

almost never pays fr anything bt is always like “yo it’s my treat” n then either dine n dashes or u have to pay

his idea of romance is nuking a hot pocket as breakfast in bed n then complaining he’s hungry n eating half

WANTED CONNECTIONS:

fuckboy antics: he’s insatiable. rabid. notorious. mayb they fkd n he didn’t call........ jst completely ghosted........ mayb they were genuinely into him n he honestly built up kind of false pretences abt them having a connection n then jst dipped..... cld  b good fr angst n drama <3 someone please egg his house he deserves it <3

high skl heathens: locals tht were equally chaotic in hs..... just picture him having this group of misfits tht were like so loud n always getting up to no good doing god knows what god knows where.... probably gt arrested together breaking into an old abandoned hospital one time........... rly just doing the absolute most at all times............. probably so loud........... drinking n smoking far too much.....

an attempted teenage relationship: i’m like. tentative to even put this one bc i just feel like ziggy wld be a shit bf. KJHGFSHGFHGSFHGFKGHFKSG. but. maybe it ended in drama.....i’d say this wld probably be a girl bc in hs he probably ws less open w his sexuality... maybe ziggy cheated on her or she cheated on him................ angst........ strife.... we love it we love it........ i crash my car into the bridge... i don’t care... i love it... sudden icona pop moment me stood on stage singing karaoke.... it’s just gone 7am as i write this so i apologise if this is losing any. coherency. smiles so sexy....

last adolescent plot i swear: i picture when ziggy was expelled he somehow amassed a large group to protest w signs outside the school fr him to be accepted back. it didn’t work. he threw a party when he received news he hadn’t got back in anyway. maybe ur muse was involved or helped organise this or was violently opposed.

enemies: ppl who just. don’t like ziggy bc like honestly that’s so fair n valid. KJHGFKGHKSFGHSGKHSFHG..... mayb he like. exploded their mailbox one time when they were younger. mayb he skated over their toes. mayb he fucked their bitch aha fuck................. (joking btw) (don’t condone misogyny) (hashtag feminism). cld be fun to play around w

fwb: probably hs a few of these......... mayb they’re cool w things being no strings attached n lax n at ease w ziggy being the mess tht he is in general..... mayb they want more bt ziggy cannot provide...... mayb they literally don’t get on at all n this is their only mutual ground n they keep coming bk to each other.... :smirk:..... whatever u Farncy....

maybe ziggy’s mum dated ur muse’s dad at one point???? we can discuss this if u think it fits..... cld be fun to play around w............

coworkers: past or present r fun..... mayb they were like WTFFF is this guy fking ONNN at a past job (he’s had a few in the food service industry so pretty open in tht area)... mayb they work w him at the ice cream parlour now..... cn discuss the dynamic probably wld be dependent on the muse involved fr like. how he’d act n stuff.... :yum:

[ghostmartyr]

how a life can move from the darkness [2/?]

|1|

Brief summary before the cut: Two drug addicts (Eren and Historia) meet in group and decide to be roommates to make their living situation slightly less weird. From there we do the slow burn found family dance mixed in with the struggles and agonies of recovery. Heavy on friendship feels, especially EMA. Eventual yumikuri.

Frieda’s first real visit, where she was actually visiting her sister, not being their babysitter, ended with orders for them to invest in a pet. She didn’t phrase it particularly demandingly. She only said it once, and didn’t bring it up the rest of the night. She barely raised her voice loud enough to be heard over the stove.

She’d walked in on them during one of their mutual wall/ceiling viewing parties.

It was an order.

“No dogs.”

“Okay.”

“Or cats.”

“Okay.”

“Or ferrets.”

“Okay.”

Eren pulled his jacket tighter. The zipper was broken. He should have worn a sweatshirt. He walked down the sidewalk, foot hitting every crack and head wondering if his mom would have preferred a broken back to a broken heart. “Nothing that can get out and crawl around the apartment.”

Historia, behind the personal barrier that used to be the map to the pet store, said, “Eren, we’re getting a fish.”

“Oh,” Eren said. “Okay.” Pause. “Just one?”

“Do you want more than one?”

Eren wasn’t sure he wanted one. He wasn’t sure he wanted one of anything else, either. He mostly wanted Historia’s sister to worry less. He felt like he had two moms these days, and he was letting down both of them. “I… do fish get lonely?”

“Don’t know.”

That made two of them.

An hour, a very talkative employee, and five pamphlets later, Eren still didn’t have an answer to his question, and knew more about nitrate cycles than high school or Armin had ever bothered with. He also found out that the same yearly school field trip to the aquarium each year had taught him nothing about aquariums.

Pumps, vacuums, filters, water treatments, thermometers. Food. Tanks bigger than he could lift.

Armin would have loved this.

One text and he’d probably explain exactly what they wanted and what kind of fish to look for better than the sales guy, and ask if they wanted him to come help out in person with the selections. The trip wouldn’t be giving Eren a headache and he wouldn’t have visions of all the fish they were going to fail dancing in his head.

Armin wasn’t there, and Eren would have to read one of the hundreds of texts from him to find out if there was even a chance of changing that in this reality. Without hating himself so much he couldn’t breathe.

Historia was in the same leaky boat he was, so by the time the sales guy let them go with instructions to look around the store and figure out what kind of aquarium they’d like, Eren really had no idea why they were getting a fish. Besides the merit points from a successful purchase. If they pulled this off without anything dying, it would be like a giant neon sign announcing to the world that they were sort of functional.

The neon sign would not be going near the fish, because that screwed with the lighting, and that, according to the midpoint of their free lecture, would be bad.

“Did you have a breed in mind?” he asked Historia. The damp, weighty smell surrounding them made him feel like he was underwater and drowning. “Or a color?”

“You can pick,” Historia said.

Eren hadn’t met their new fish yet, but he felt sorry for it.

One of them had to put some kind of executive effort into this. Historia was paying for everything. That left him. He could handle walking around and figuring out which fish they were going to try like hell not to kill.

Sometime during their tutorial, they’d ended up in the tropical section. Everything was bright and smelled like the ocean. Eren’s eyes had spent the last ten minutes burning, and now that it was just him and Historia, he was having trouble keeping them from leaking.

Armin and Mikasa should have been there.

They weren’t, and they couldn’t be, and that was his own damn fault, and he didn’t want them there—

“Eren?”

He looked up from the stained concrete floor.

Historia had zoned back in, and was watching his clenched, shaking, fists. He tried to relax them. It didn’t work. He was standing in the middle of a fish store, trying not to cry, and he couldn’t hit anything because then he probably would kill a fish, and Historia being filthy rich wouldn’t fix how awful and pissed that would make him feel, and before he knew it he’d be back behind Zeke’s batting cages, hearing all of the offers the dealer was making and actually listening.

“Eren,” Historia’s voice said, firmly.

“Yeah.” His was too far away, somewhere under the waves of the ocean. But he blinked and he was looking at the bright colors, not the floor, and a quick swipe cleared the damp spots away from under his eyes. “Salt water’s okay, right?”

He could see her nod. Her footsteps followed him down the aisle, and he concentrated on looking at the damn colorful fish. He had no idea what to look for. The sales guy had set them loose with a happy smile, telling them that if they found something they liked, he’d help out with the step-by-step of what to buy first.

There were more steps to this than Eren ever wanted to think about, which probably meant it was healthy to try.

His eyes floated over to a tank on the other side of the aisle. Less colorful, and full of rocks. A lone fish roved back and forth inside, dark spines the size of his fingers swishing along with it. It looked like someone had chopped up a sea urchin and glued its spikes to a large brown goldfish with streaky frills. A lionfish, someone else’s happy voice reminded him, carrying the sound of hurriedly flipped pages.

He didn’t hate the thought of caring for one of those.

He walked over to the tank, crouching down to stare at the thing properly. The card sitting by the tank agreed with his memory. And the fish was too big to mistake for an art fixture. It looked like a real creature; a real pet, not just something to lock away and call personal growth. Alive and fierce. Frieda would approve.

“What do you think?” he asked Historia.

She watched the lionfish swish into one of its rock caves. They both did.

“Okay.”

By the time they were back in their apartment, and the giant tank with all its mixed water and pumps and gravel and sand and rock features was set up, and they were staring at it instead of a blank wall, Eren understood a little better why they were getting a fish.

He doubted it was the upgrade Frieda was aiming for. He also doubted they could do any better.

---

A week into cycling the tank, Eren found the will for the conversation he’d put off since moving in.

Eren wasn’t big on letting people take care of him. His mom could attest to that. To hear her tell it, the day he started crawling, he’d spent all his time crawling away from her. Bandaging his skinned knees as a toddler had taken an hour of convincing before he’d let his—

He didn’t like being kept, or treated like he couldn’t handle his own life. After rehab, he lost the right to that mattering. His mom wasn’t going to accept her grown son’s rent when he needed babying, and he didn’t have the energy to push past the shame and argue.

Things were different now.

He hoped.

Historia was his sponsor, not his mother, and he was hers. He’d seen the bill for their aquarium. Pre-fish (they were giving the tank a month before they picked up its resident). He’d lived in their apartment. He’d seen Historia throw things into their shopping cart without checking prices. She paid for it from a wallet full of holes, but she never cared about the cost or bothered with coupons.

He knew Historia and her family had more money than he would even know what to do with. He knew he couldn’t afford his share if they split it honestly. He didn’t care. He was an adult. He worked. He could help pay for his own sad life.

It was important, Petra had said once, to remember that they were still part of the world. Addiction was what kept them out of it; recovery meant finding their way back in.

That was one of the first meetings he went to. He’d broken a fingernail gripping his chair and acid had boiled up his throat. Petra’s cookies had been too soft, and he ate three to make the taste go away.

Things were better now. He was cutting up carrots for dinner in an apartment that he didn’t share with someone he had hurt.

“I want to start paying rent,” Eren said.

Historia, alternating between reading her textbook and watching a pot boil, briefly added him to the rotation. “I told you, you don’t have to.”

“I want to,” Eren repeated, wincing at the extra volume his voice picked up. “I’m not some helpless little kid who needs handouts. I can pull my own weight.” Even if he’d been happy acting like he couldn’t up until now. What the fuck was wrong with him. He kept talking, trying to skid over that thought before he crashed into it. “I can’t keep taking advantage of people.”

“You’re not,” Historia said. She leaned against the counter, frowning. “I’m the one who asked you to move in so I could stop worrying my sister. You don’t need to pay me for being selfish.”

“That isn’t the point,” Eren said.

Historia continued as if she didn’t hear him. “Besides, I’m not paying for any of this either.”

“That’s—look, Historia, I’d just…” Eren took a deep breath, because breathing exercises were supposed to help. They didn’t, but they were supposed to, and he couldn’t say some of the horrible things his mind came up with if he was inhaling. He screwed what was left of his useless courage and doubled down. “It would help my recovery a lot if I could help out with some of this.”

The words were terrible and lifeless, straight out of the meetings they both hated, and he should have stuck a thank-you somewhere in the middle, because he owed her everything for the help he was squirming out of.

Historia was looking at the ceiling. Her mouth was half-open, and Eren thought she agreed that he was back to saying all of the wrong things.

“My father’s paying for it,” she said quietly.

A block of ice coalesced in Eren’s chest.

“Oh,” Eren said, because even if she wasn’t talking about the dead one, she’d only ever mentioned the dead one before, and they both had dead ones and—he swallowed. Breathed. They’d never really gone over it, but Historia was easy enough to spot, and he’d gone to enough protests and rallies to know that blank silence was the worst thing he could do here, even if they weren’t talking about her. He smiled, jaw creaking with effort and soul cringing. “Your dad was gay?”

Timing meant he was expecting pain to get in the way of any relief. He was sure he was intruding on memories that weren’t any of his business, and even if he was trying to be a supportive friend, he was terrible at it, and they were now back to a place where he knew he’d be making things worse.

What he got was perplexed bewilderment.

“…What?”

He was definitely going to make this worse. “You—you said your dad was dead,” Eren said, slowly enough to be insulting on its own, “but your dad’s paying for the apartment, so that means you have—had, sorry—two?”

Historia stared at him.

She blinked, once, mouth forming a legion of unspoken words.

Eren, realizing he should have just shoved checks under her door each month, stayed standing awkwardly in front of the cutting board, waiting for the axe to fall and fervently regretting the lack of pills nearby.

“Eren,” Historia said at last, words warbling furiously, “my inheritance is paying for all of this. He put me in his will. Frieda wouldn’t let me—she thinks using it is good for my—” She looked across the room at the fishless aquarium.

“I’m supposed to spend it,” she said. Her mouth twitched, a muffled sort of chuckle escaping. Followed by another.

A peal of laughter whimpered from her lungs, ragged and horrified, and Historia was sliding down to the floor, hand pressed to her forehead while the fit of hysteria took over, giggles turning to honest cackles, tearing through the kitchen. Eren watched. He just stood there and watched.

Because she only had one dad, and she’d killed him.

He was dead.

The sob waiting in Eren’s chest came out wrong, not matching the horror and helplessness swirled in it, or the feel of blood warm in his hands as he tried to stop it all from spilling out even though it was too late, and he slipped down to the floor next to Historia, biting down on his thumb to keep from laughing.

By the time Frieda came by, bringing her weekly gift of ice cream, they were both crying.

---

Historia said they could work out splitting the fish costs and groceries, and there really wasn’t a reason to bring it up past that, so they didn’t.

Frieda didn’t, either.

Eren had the disturbing feeling that she understood.

---

Reiner wasn’t outside when Eren showed up for their run.

That was weird to start with. Reiner was as fanatically devoted to taking care of himself as he had been to heroin. Not just physically. He had a day planner. He’d offered to buy Eren one. The guy did not know how to flake.

Standing out in front of the house in Reiner’s usual spot was a woman Eren recognized from some of Reiner’s pictures. He’d flipped through them every single day of rehab, and Eren had wanted him dead.

He didn’t remember the woman’s name. She was scrolling through her phone when he jogged up, and the nod she gave him wasn’t very inviting. Dark circles shaded her freckles, but she was wearing workout clothes. Maybe Eren had missed a text, and he was helping out both of them today.

“Reiner still inside?” he asked.

“Yeah,” the woman said, pocketing her phone. “That’s where he’s staying, too. Bastard’s too sick to be conscious, forget running around the block.”

Too sick to warn Eren, too.

He was paying Eren. They were only sort of friends. Missing out on a run with him still made Eren want to crawl into the nearest hole and not come out. Reiner wasn’t exactly a bright spot to his day, but his day had started with a text from Armin. Reiner never made anything worse. Him and his normalcy had been something to look forward to when Eren woke up and threw his phone through his pillowcase.

World much gloomier than it needed to be at six in the morning, Eren said, “Is there anything I can help with? There’s a drugstore—” he wasn’t going to think about it, he wasn’t going to think about it— “a couple miles out I could hit for him.”

“Thanks, but I think Bert’s got the panicked nursing covered.”

Bertolt, Eren had met. He was usually watering the rosebush outside the house at the end of their morning run. “Great,” Eren said.

That left him… where? Needing to send a get-well text?

He made polite eye contact with Reiner’s friend. Like a person. “I’ll head off, then,” he said. “Let Reiner know today’s on me.”

The woman smirked at him. It might have been meant as a smile, but the glint in her eyes and Eren’s mood said smirk. “You have a side job exercising strangers,” she said. “Don’t volunteer to throw away money.”

Before Eren could point out that he wasn’t a dick, even if she was, she added, “Anyway, that’s what dragged me into this. Reiner thinks routines are part of the ex-junkie bible, and he didn’t want to screw you up just because he forgot to wash his hands. So I’ll be palling around with you this morning to assuage your mutual guilt complexes. You’re welcome.”

Eren had to unclench his jaw before he could speak. He wanted to go back to bed. He also wanted to go inside the house and wring Reiner’s fucking neck. The happy chittering of the birds sounded like cheaply ringing tin in his ears. “Reiner told you?”

Reiner told anyone?

Eren didn’t tell his friends that his client asked for makeup advice he didn’t have to cover up his track marks. He didn’t talk about Reiner’s lifelong fear of needles not holding a fucking candle to his snowballing drug habits. He didn’t breathe a damn word about any of it, not even in group, not even with the names taken out, because why the fuck would he do that to anyone.

“Don’t lose your head about it,” the woman’s voice echoed. “It only came up because he was already wetting himself over missing your appointment.” Her shoes thumped across the concrete, and Eren felt a slap against his shoulder. “He was worried, and hurling too much for his brain to keep a lid on why. He freaked out all over again when he realized what he said. He was trying to be a good friend, not an asshole. He just has a bad habit of mixing the two.”

Eren’s fingernails were digging into his palms. He had to concentrate to make them stop, but they stopped, and without the sting that said he broke the skin.

Deep breaths. The ones that never really worked.

“It’s fine,” he said.

“Right,” said the woman. He could feel her watching him. The scrutiny reminded him of the rehab shrink. Or a more hostile Petra. “Sorry. Usually I only bring up sensitive subjects on purpose.”

Eren didn’t know how much of a joke that was. He decided it didn’t matter. He reeled his head back to a zone where he knew how to handle all of this, even if he didn’t, reminded himself it was too early in the morning for him to shoot Historia a text asking for commiseration, and breathed normally.

“Do you need some time to stretch, or are you good to go now?” Eren asked.

The woman gave a one-armed shrug. “Feel free to run away from me at your leisure. I’m just here to take up space.” She watched him another moment before sticking out her hand. “Ymir, by the way.”

Eren shook it with as much heart as he didn’t have. “Eren.”

Her smile was all teeth. “Nice meeting you.”

----

Reiner wasn’t the only person who was sick, it turned out.

Eren knew he had to do something about the phone problem. This was a marked improvement from not thinking of it as a problem. He didn’t think he could steal credit for that. The outside world was screaming it at him. Armin had taken up regular texts like clockwork, and if that meant something was wrong, Eren didn’t know how to check without losing his mind. Being a fuckup and a coward would do that. Mikasa’s daily texts had never stopped. Hannes had gotten back to him about supervising some free climbers over the weekend. His first since his broken leg.

His pulse hadn’t dropped a beat when that conversation ended and a disaffected buzz announced a message from Zeke.

Zeke had barely spoken to him since the funeral. He’d walked him in and out of the rehab facility doors and left him alone. It wasn’t that different from the way things were before their dad died. The only change was him not dropping by unannounced to take Eren off on some adventure. If he’d tried that recently, no one had mentioned it. Eren wasn’t sure anyone had even bothered giving him his new address.

A text from Zeke out of the blue was a danger sign. Eren couldn’t just ignore it. He also couldn’t click on it.

Pacing the entire length of the apartment back and forth and back again, Eren could admit he had a problem. Step one. The last time that revelation had crept up and slammed him into a gutter, it was one of the worst moments of his life. This didn’t compare, but it left him feeling lopsided and tired. He couldn’t ignore his brother. Zeke had never ignored him. He had every reason in the world to, but he never had. Eren owed him.

He couldn’t open the damn text.

He made another agitated circuit around the apartment. His phone wasn’t set to tick down seconds, but they were playing back in his head fine without the help. He was rounding the couch, checking the aquarium and wishing they already had a fish to stare at—like that had a chance of helping, but maybe it did—when the loud clap of a slamming textbook stopped him in his tracks.

Historia, who he hadn’t noticed, was lying on the floor. Until a millisecond of time passed for her to gather her temper and she stood up from the rug, swept over, and threw out her hand.

Eren, who hadn’t come up with a better plan yet, gave her his phone. She almost took his hand off with it.

“Under Zeke,” he said. In case she mistook him for someone who had decided today was the time to finally go through and acknowledge the hundreds of unread texts Armin and Mikasa had sent him.

Historia scanned the screen in slow motion. “Someone’s sick,” she said, and visions of hospitals gone by and panic started up before she filled in the rest. “He wants to know if you can sub in for the game on Saturday.”

Baseball. No emergency. Baseball.

Eren breathed out, sighing. Relief was missing from it. He didn’t know why he had expected anything else. A quiet, petty hole that rehab hadn’t filled all the way was still waiting for Zeke to say something about what happened. He never would, and he was an ungrateful bastard for wanting more than what he’d got. What he’d got was more than he deserved. If Zeke never talked to him about anything but baseball, Eren would live with that.

That could really happen, too. Zeke loved baseball like he’d never loved anyone in his own damn family—

Eren moved to take back his phone before his head started something his fists couldn’t finish. Historia’s temper flare had vanished, and she dangled the device between them like it was the bomb about to go off instead of them. She made it look as large and unwieldy in her hands as it felt in Eren’s thoughts. He didn’t know why that helped. He wasn’t even sure if it did.

With how the day was going, Eren couldn’t be surprised when it buzzed with another text the second his finger brushed the casing. Historia jumped slightly, and Eren hated his eyes for catching the name on the screen.

Because Armin had started texting him again.

Great.

He was looking at the floor. Historia kept holding the phone. The bomb.

Great, great, great, great.

Eren could feel his breath shortening, his blood pumping faster, and he was supposed to be getting a grip and trying to be better than all of this and he wanted to break something. More things than he had the first time, or the second, or the third, or the twelfth, because all of those times hadn’t made the right impression, Armin was still trying, and so was Mikasa, and he was so sick of it, and himself, and Zeke, and—

“Have you ever been to a batting cage?” Eren blurted out.

Historia took a moment to answer. “What?” she said.

“Batting cage,” Eren said, feeling a tension headache building. “Have you ever been?”

“No?”

Ten minutes later, Eren didn’t think he felt a whole lot better, but nothing was broken, he hadn’t hurt anyone, and Historia wasn’t complaining about the sprinters’ pace they were walking down the sidewalk at. He didn’t think that last one was a point in his favor. She hadn’t given him his phone back. It was still a good thing. Someone was around to keep him from being stupid.

He led the way with a nervous energy that he hated. He knew how his body was supposed to work. It wasn’t a natural like Mikasa’s—and that turned the notch up on his leg speed one more time—but he’d spent time on it, and he knew how he liked to move. Purposefully. With real energy that came from the core. Not nervous sweats and clenched fists.

There were two batting cages within walking distance of their apartment. One, neither of them needed to be anywhere near. The other was fine, and normal, and open until midnight. Glazed lights decking a row of fence were visible from the street. The padded green of the fake grass stapled to every inch of the facility’s floor wasn’t. Two pairs of feet thumped across it to the cashier’s window out front.

Eren forked out the cash from his wallet to the drowsy employee manning the entrance before Historia had a chance to object. They marched on through without a word.

It was cool and dark outside, even with the glare of the lights, and Eren stuffed a helmet on his head from the rack and grabbed a bat before his thoughts slowed down enough to race in coherent circles. He couldn’t hit people anymore, but he sure could hit objects.

Historia was still trailing behind him, and she’d never been and he would help with that in a second after he took care of him, and watching was where it all started anyway it wasn’t like he was that great with words like—

He smacked the start button. His other hand clasped the bat, touching metal where the glue had peeled away from the grip. He raised it over his shoulder, a million lessons from a man who looked too much like his father coursing through his veins, and he was holding a metal pole and watching the blood spurt over it and his hands and

and

He remembered to hit the emergency stop and he made it to the trash can. That was the important part.

Fuck.

He didn’t know where the bat was, but all his hands were holding was the plastic bag around the rim of the trash can. His head was dipped down next to a collection of empty Styrofoam cups, gum, and vomit. The acidic burning in his throat waited for a swallow. The rest of him stayed still, waiting for the next hit.

That hadn’t happened before. He’d thought of it happening, but it never did. He hadn’t thrown up since he bet Jean he could drink an entire case of soda in first grade. He won. His mom still had a special sigh for that stain on the carpet.

Eren pulled himself out of the garbage. His knee was shaking. Badly enough to bring up more problems, so he sat down on the fake grass and let it scratch his fingers. He swallowed through the burning, and pressed a fist to his forehead.

Fuck.

Footsteps approached. Another cup showed up by his head. Not empty. Eren took it and sipped the water, and it was just like any other workout.

The only thing he could think of that would make it any worse was if he started crying, and he felt like he was going to.

Historia sat down next to him.

“Do you… want to talk about it?” she asked. She sounded like she was reading off a script. She was still holding his phone.

Eren hated his fucking phone. He wanted to throw it into a landfill.

He took a breath, and another sip of water. Besides the phone, which could go to hell, the hate felt cooler. Like all the lava out under the sky was turning into something solid. He’d liked Armin’s volcano phase. It’d been his phase, too. Like with the dinosaurs, and that one summer with pelicans.

He’d kill to be talking to Armin about pelicans right now. Instead he was sitting on a batting cage floor, the only support system he was strong enough to bear sitting right next to him instead of studying for her test like she was supposed to, and his lips were covered in drying bile, and he’d killed his dad.

Admitting he had problems wasn’t too hard when they were this obvious.

Eren opened his fist and dragged his hand through his hair.

“Do you have anyone?” Eren asked quietly. “That you have to make amends to?”

The answer was instantaneous, and not much of a surprise. “Frieda.”

Eren twisted his bangs around his fingers. Only a little of him wanted to tug it all out by the roots. “Not family. People you screwed up because they liked you and liking you meant they were around when you fucked up your life. Friends.”

Historia didn’t say anything for a whole minute.

“No,” she said.

That one was more of a surprise. It shouldn’t have been, because she was his roommate, and he had a pretty wide window into her life, but it was, and now Eren felt like even more of a dick. He dropped his hand into his lap and silently added Historia to his list. Maybe she’d be one he could actually cross off.

He didn’t know what to say next, because ‘sorry,’ was more of a distraction than he could deal with while being this useless, but as long as he was sober, he wasn’t the kind of person who wanted to just leave that bombshell alone.

Historia took pity on him and sighed.

“I had a fiancée in juvie.”

Eren blinked. He lifted his head. “You can get engaged in juvie?” he asked.

“You were in juvie?” was close behind, and he felt stupid enough thinking it to avoid saying it, because no matter how tiny she was, saying he had trouble picturing his drug addicted, father-murdering roommate doing time was…

“It’s not something you have to fill out paperwork for,” Historia said, continuing blithely on. “It’s just a promise. Words.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. She was older, so she got out before I did, and after that, I never heard from her again. We never even—” Historia stopped herself. Her eyes shut. “She probably didn’t even mean it. It started as a joke.”

It didn’t sound like it came from any sense of humor he’d known. Historia wasn’t laughing. Neither was Eren. He took another sip of the water she’d found him before he crushed the cup and it spilled all over his jeans.

“She doesn’t even know my real name,” Historia said, almost inaudibly. Her blinks sped up. “She was gone before my drug habit could disappoint her. She would have—” Historia snorted and there was something dark and chaotic in her smile.

“She would have killed me.”

This was a joke she got. Eren didn’t.

They sat in silence for a few moments, sitting on the scratchy fake grass. Eren spotted his bat on the floor next to the open cage.

“I have these friends,” he said, “that I don’t know how to…”

Trailing off was as close as he could get to articulating it. Historia could probably figure out the gist by living with him. Tonight wasn’t the first time his phone had caused problems, it was just the first time he’d made them her problem.

“The text before we left looked like some sort of science fact-a-day,” Historia said. “Frieda has a subscription to a few things like that.” He could feel her watching him. Months of feeling like everyone was watching him had honed the sense. “He’s probably copying you on them.”

That sounded like Armin. The perfect way to start talking without saying anything.

He waited for anger to spike with the thought, but he just felt tired.

He looked at the baseball bat. Historia followed his look.

“Zeke’s my half-brother,” he said. “I owe him, but if Saturday’s anything like this I’d be better off not showing up at all.”

Historia said, easily, “I’ll fill in for you.” Like any of his friends would have after he dragged them out of their apartment in the middle of the night to have a panic attack in front of them.

Being too stubborn to admit that he needed help was what had gotten him here. He didn’t want to stay. He didn’t think anyone wanted him to.

“Have you ever played baseball?”

“No.”

Zeke was going to love this.

---

Zeke did.

He’d also shaved.

Eren hadn’t seen him without a beard in years. It was weird, made him look like he belonged at some sort of board meeting, and every time they made eye contact Eren needed a second to find his brother in the face.

What he didn’t find, and what he’d been scared of seeing, was their dad.

He didn’t know if he was allowed to say thank you. They didn’t really do that. Zeke hadn’t said anything about Historia showing up as the sub for his sub. He was grateful, since the tiny adult baseball league was his entire life, and he’d be heartbroken if he missed out on any of it, but he didn’t say it. Not with Eren. There was just this quiet expectation that it would all work out, because they were brothers. No thanks necessary.

Not being the one playing, Eren had too much time to think about that.

Now, after the game, sitting across from his brother at the pizza parlor Zeke had selected instead of the bar he’d taken his team to every game day for at least five years, Eren was still thinking about it.

“Your roommate doesn’t have a bad arm,” Zeke said. “Do you think she’d want to join up?”

“You’d have to ask her.” Historia had gone outside when Colt ordered a beer, and he didn’t know if she’d noticed that Yelena had spent the entire seventh inning stretch and drive over asking too many questions, but it was mostly going okay. She’d caught a fly ball and gotten a hit, and their team won. They’d both had worse days.

“I might, if you can’t play.”

Eren’s hand tensed around his drink.

Zeke wouldn’t ask. Somebody had shown up, so he wouldn’t ask. Eren still couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew. Even if there was no way he could. Zeke was like that. Hide and seek had turned into a banned game the nights Zeke babysat. No matter how hard Eren tried, Zeke always found him, and his mom had gotten sick of coming home to him exploding in frustration.

Eren wanted him to ask. Zeke came to Eren instead of hitting up Mikasa when he needed a sub. He cared. Eren wanted to feel it instead of just knowing it, for once.

He was an ungrateful brat, in a lot of ways.

Zeke paid for the pizza. Historia eventually walked back in and sat with them. Zeke asked about school, and rock climbing, and what they thought about the batting order they’d tried.

He didn’t ask about Eren.

Which was fine. What would he have said, anyway? He was ghosting his best friends in the world while they tried to keep him in their lives. He didn’t get to miss his big brother for having the brains to stay out of it all.

[next]

[purplesurveys]

1056

survey by katesmarie13 

(Merry Christmas! Or Happy Holidays! Or Happy Friday! <3)

Okay, just a few basics first...THEN the new stuff.

Your full name? I only feel like sharing the name Robyn today.

Your hometown? Manila, kinda. I won’t give away the city I currently reside in.

Age? 22, and a waste of a year it was. I’m so tempted to just turn 22 again in 2021.

Now for something different and completely random...

When you're having a bad day, what comfort food do you reach for? It differs per bad day and it also depends if I can afford to get whatever it is I’m craving. Though for the most part, I’ve found myself pining for samgyupsal the most often. It’s just the ultimate problem-fixer and makes-the-sad-go-away-er.

Do you have an item that is your good luck charm? I don’t really believe in those, so no. The farthest I’ve gone with a certain item and luck is how I insisted to use the same paddle that was available in our gym whenever I trained for table tennis back in high school. The reason I don’t think it has anything to do with luck is because I simply thought I had the best grip with that paddle, not because I was convinced I can win any game with it.

If so, what is it? See paddle situation aboe.

Your favorite thing about your job (or school)? It’s in the media/public relations field so there are lots of freebies and treats that come with the job that make what I do worth it, and a lot more fun. The entire team also consists of Gen Z-ers and younger Millennials, so there are practices we follow that bigger corporations might not have, like longer office shutdowns during Christmas (we don’t get back to work until Jan 4th), reminders to take mental health breaks, and a no-video-meetings rule every Friday afternoon.

Least favorite thing about your job (or school)? It’s very, very hectic so I have the tendency to get overwhelmed as early as 10 AM. There’s never any dead air and I don’t get rest for nine hours straight (my shift is technically eight hours, but I work through the allotted 1-hour lunch break as well). OT is also common, but at least I get paid for it. Demanding clients who micromanage and/or ask for too much work to be done from our end also make the job stressful.

Does global warming and the hole in the ozone truly bother you? Of course. My heart sinks every time I come across a new article saying glaciers are melting, that animals living in polar regions are suffering, that sea ice continues to drastically decrease, etc.

Do you have a "funny" toenail? I don’t think so? All my toenails look...the way they’re supposed to look like, lol.

How many times have you moved in your lifetime? The times I can remember, just twice. But my parents moved around a bit when I was still an infant.

Do you watch professional wrestling and is it real? I do watch and keep up with it, just not as much as I used to. I don’t recognize most of the new faces anymore, and I wouldn’t be able to give you a decent breakdown of the current storylines in any promotion, not even in WWE. The angles, results, belts, and characters all aren’t real, but the movesets (especially the submission holds) risks, and injuries very much are. Are we going to debate this in 2020 still? Lmao.

What's your favorite thing to microwave? Don’t microwaves just heat stuff up? I dunno if it heats a certain food better than others lol.

Could Pop-Tarts survive a nuclear attack? I doubt it.

Does anyone know where the UP (Upper Peninsula) is? Can I give you a different UP? That’s where I went to in college, heh heh.

What's the regular unleaded gas price where you are? I have no idea. I never paid attention. I usually just give the gas attendant anywhere between P300 to P700 and see how far up it would fill my tank.

Do you know someone who's been injured in Iraq? I don’t know. Probably not. None of my relatives who migrated ever signed up for the US military.

Do you remember what a Puff-A-Lump is? I’m pretty positive I’ve never heard of it before.

Least favorite TV show? Game of Thrones.

Favorite canned soup? I don’t consume that.

How far does your belly button stick out or sink in? How can I even measure this?

Do you have a particular coffee mug you drink from? Yes, but I’ve described it so many times in surveys from just this month alone.

What does that mug say/have on it? The first line reads “Seattle, WA” then “Starbucks” in big bold letters, then “Coffee Company” below it, and the last line reads. “Est. 1971.”

Your take on declawing cats? I don’t like cats a lot but this does not sound like a responsible thing to do, and it also sounds like a painful procedure for a poor cat.

Do have smoke detectors in your home? No. That’s not really a requirement or standard practice here.

Would it be easy to erase YOUR identity? I suppose it’s technically easy to hire someone who can do that (a la Breaking Bad), I just would not be willing to do it and give up who I am for anything in the world.

Do you know anyone named Sam? Lots. My cousin is named Sam; I also went to school with multiple Sams.

How many drawers do you have in your room/office? Five.

What was your favorite snuggle toy when you were a child? I was happy with a pillow. I was never into stuffed toys all that much.

Great! A few firsts then...

What was your first pet and their name? I had a goldfish that I simply named Goldy. I vividly remember this because Angela’s first pet was also a goldfish; and there was a time we did show-and-tell in first grade and she bought her pet. We had been bickering that day, as 7 year olds do, and I remember being an absolute asshole and snickering when she introduced her fish as Fishy because I thought it was a cheesy name and that Goldy was far superior. Sorry Fishy. You had a great name.

When your mind wanders, where does it go first? My biggest stressor for the day, usually.

Your first knick-knack (item you placed in your room/house)? I have no clue. I was 10 when we first moved in here, and a completely different person.

First "real" piece of jewlery? (This goes for the guys too) I’m going to forgive this survey for being a little sexist because it’s nearly 15 years old; but anyway, I’ve never had any expensive jewelry of my own. All the pricey ones I’ve ever worn are owned by mom.

What did you do on your first date? We went to a museum and had early dinner at an Italian-American restaurant. We also had coffee after, and then she slept over at my place where I let her play GTA V on our PS3 because she wasn’t allowed to play it in her house.

Who was your first best friend? Kaye. I can’t trace her down now because she has such a common name, but I hope she’s been doing well.

When did you first realize that life isn't easy and fun? I was 12, going through puberty and a generally not-nice time of my life, with everyone in the house hating and isolating me.

And lastly...

The last thing you thought about before you fell asleep last night? I briefly thought about how many hours I need to sleep to get a decent rest, but I passed out in like 10 seconds.

Your last argument? Last night my mom and I had an argument about where I last placed my phone because I had already misplaced it two times prior during the day.

Your last words to someone...? “You’re wearing black; it’s not too obvious” when my mom was complaining that she looked a bit big in her outfit for today.

The last place you'd go? I’m not very sure about the wording here. Do you mean the last place I went to (outside the house to pay for a delivery)? Or the last place I’d want to go to before I die (no clue)? Hahahaha.

The last thing you'd find yourself wearing? Again, not so sure about the grammar here.

What will be the last thing that you do today? Trying to doze off.

[stellar-alley]

Of Scales and Sea Glass

•Chapter 5•

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

(Summary:Richie is determined to help Eddie overcome his greatest fear as he knows his past is catching up to him. Then Richie and Eddie finally have t h e talk...)

Also shout out to @ambitiousskychild on tumblr for being my beta!

~

Another week had passed and Richie had found his place in The Losers Club. He was the trade mark comedic relief character, who also annoyed the shit out of everyone. But they loved him nonetheless.

As much as Eddie loved how he didn’t have to hide Richie from his friends anymore, he also loved the days where it was just the two of them. That day was exceptionally hot outside which meant the boys slept with no covers on and cuddled for only a little while as it was way too hot to handle the body heat of even their significant other. So they just opted to hold hands.

At lunch Richie declared he had something special planned for today. He advised Eddie to put on shorts and a tank top and meet him on the patio in 5. Eddie was confused, but complied. He changed and met up with Richie.

The sun beat down on them overhead. The immediate shift from the cool air conditioned house to the blistering heat made Eddie want to go hide in the freezer.

“Close your eyes and don’t freak out,” Richie instructed.

“Uh, okay,” Eddie reluctantly closed his eyes.

“Now this is where the ‘don’t freak out’ part comes into play,” Richie explained before swooping Eddie off his feet and holding him bridal style.

Immediately, Eddie's arms wrapped around Richie’s neck and he huddled close to his boyfriend. Richie proceeded to walk somewhere, since Eddie’s eyes were closed, so he didn’t know where they were going. So he simply laid his head on Richie’s shoulder and steadied his breathing.

“We’re here,” Richie whispered.

Eddie’s eyes fluttered open and what he saw filled him with dread. He gripped onto Richie, heart racing. “What the fuck is this?” Eddie gasped as he looked around. Richie was standing in about a foot of water, not even going up to his knees. He’d brought Eddie out into the open water of the ocean.

“Eddie- relax. I told you I was gonna help you with this, so here we are.” Richie tried his best to sound calm even though the feeling of his boyfriend shivering in his grasp was breaking his heart. “Please… Eddie we don’t have to go out far, we’re literally in a foot of water. Please, for me?”

Eddie’s not sure how he did it but somehow he let Richie convince him to put him down. The cool water went half way up his shins, lapping against his skin, sending shivers down his spine.

Richie stood behind Edide, letting his arms fall over Eddie’s shoulders as he pulled him so his chest was against Eddie’s back. He rested his chin on Eddie’s head and whispered, “See? You're okay.”

The words didn’t phase Eddie. He looked out into the great unknown of the ocean, realizing there was no end. When he looked out, all he saw was water. Suddenly it became too much, the salt in the air was overwhelming, the sound of the waves was deafening and the cold water on his skin was lethal. He needed to get out, he wanted to be anywhere else, and he needed it now.

Eddie threw Richie’s arms off him and stormed off the beach, his hands shook as his chest tightened. He was able to run back to the house and into his room, he slammed the door behind him and locked it. He couldn’t hold it back anymore, his knees gave out underneath him and the tears began to flow.

Richie called out to Eddie. He took a step forward to go after him, but his balance was off, something was off. Richie fell front-first into the shallow water. Shit, he cursed, watching Eddie stomp back into the house. Richie let out a stressed sigh before he turned to look at what had caused the fall.

He was not happy with what he saw. The faint patch of tough scales that began around his ankle had spread, now covering the top of his foot and had almost halfway up his shins. Now that it was in water, the skin had turned a darker shade of blue, the scales more visible.

Nonononnononononono.

Richie struggled to pull himself to his feet. His legs felt like jelly in the water. Richie tugged himself out of the water and onto the sand. When he was finally on dry sand he let out a frustrated sigh. Finally I find someone but we can’t fucking be together cause I’m part fucking fish. His blood boiled as the anger began to overflow. With the power that was building up inside of his chest, Richie shot his hand out towards the water, releasing the fist he had been holding, sending a massive wave going out into the ocean. Which was then followed by various curses and swears.

“HEY!” Of course some dude on the beach would attract some attention.

Richie’s head snapped toward the voice and caught a glimpse of someone in the distance. It was one of the houses beside Eddie’s, even though that house had a fence around its property, there was a gate that was occupied by a body.

“Are you okay?” The person shouted out to Richie as they left their spot at the gate. As they approached Richie, the mer blinked a couple times before they came into focus.

“Richie?” The female voice asked. Now that she was only a couple feet away, he recognized that it was Beverly.

“Hey, Marsh,” Richie looked up at her and grimaced at the light that shined in his eyes.

“Why’re you cursing out the gods? Jesus, I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually heard you.” She smirked at the comment. “Why are you on the ground?” She asked, reaching out a hand.

Richie hesitantly took it and was surprised and relieved that he was able to stand up with the state he was in only minutes before. Deep down Richie knew that the water was affecting him, causing those scales.

Richie recalled the story Eddie had made up for him to tell people if he was ever caught in a situation where he couldn’t walk or anything of the sorts. “It’s my uh- physical condition,” Richie recalled the title Eddie gave it.

She looked taken aback, “Shit, sorry Rich I totally forgot. Are you okay?” She put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and studied his facial features.

“I don’t know… I really fucked up with Eddie. I-uh, tried to get Eddie to come in the water with me-”

“You what?” She snapped, eyes wide, she retracted her hand.

Richie held his hands up in defense, “He’s the one who said he wanted to try, I was just trying to give him a little push-”

“Eddie doesn't take lightly to a little push. He needs to do things, especially this, on his own time. His mom totally micromanaged his entire life, and his dad was pretty damn good, so suddenly just losing them really fucked him up. So go in there and apologies to him!” Bev demanded, pointing to the house.

Richie flinched at the demand.

Her expression softened a little as she continued. “He really cares about you, okay? He seems so much happier now. Rich, you’re really good for him,” her lips curved into a small smile.

Richie let out a small sigh. “Thanks Bev,” he turned to look at the house. “I guess I better go,” he concluded.

Richie’s feet felt heavy as he went up the stairs. The vibe was off since most of the time when he went up or down the stairs, Eddie was with him.

Just as Richie’s hand hovered over the door in preparation to knock, the door swung open, revealing a puffy-eyed Eddie on the other side.

The two stared blankly at each other before Richie broke the silence, requesting to come in. Eddie didn’t respond, he simply stepped aside and allowed Richie in. Richie stood awkwardly in the middle of the room as Eddie crawled onto his bed and pulled his knees up to his chest, then rested his chin on them.

Richie looked around the room before his eyes fell on Eddie. “Eddie… I’m sorry,” he apologised, taking a seat on the corner of the bed. “I can’t even begin to understand how you feel. I-I just wanted to help,” Richie confessed while he scanned Eddie’s face for any shift in emotions.

Eddie inhaled shakily, “Richie, I-I wanna learn,” he croaked, his breath hitching as he continued. “I wanna be able to go swim, and-and be with you. It’s j-just… hard,” Eddie didn’t look at Richie, well it didn’t look like he was looking at anything at all, his eyes were glazed over and unfocused.

“I get that Eds, so I-I’ll be here, whenever you need it, and whenever you’re ready to try, I’ll still be here.” Eddie’s head jerked upwards, eyes now focused and welling up.

“But you won’t be!” He snapped, his voice going up in volume. He let his knees go down as he sat cross legged. Richie tensed at the sudden change of tone. “Richie, you’re a fucking merman, you can’t. Stay. Here.” Eddie pronounced each word individually as he waved his hands around, trying to get his point across.

Richie looked taken aback, the whole “going back” subject was sort of a forbidden zone that neither the fish nor the human ever dared to enter. They’d been avoiding it for too long, the inevitable had finally arrived.

Richie exploded. “You think I don’t know that?! Eddie, every day I’m here I am scared shitless because I know one day I’ll have to leave- leave you, that’s why I wanted to help you because I don't know how long I’ll be here.” Now it was Richie’s turn to tear up. “I wanna make every moment count,” he told Eddie.

Eddie sighed in frustration. “What’s the point Trashmouth? You’re just gonna have to go back to your fish friends and leave me here, alone, again,” Eddie spat.

“Eddie, how aren’t you getting this?” Richie pulled at his hair. “I don’t want to leave you, I don’t wanna have to leave you because I have nothing out there, I never did!” He took a moment to think over his next words. “I don’t wanna leave you because I love you.” His voice was small and vulnerable.

Eddie was in the middle of wiping the tears on his cheeks with the back of his hand when his entire body tensed up. “You what?” His voice almost came out as a gasp, he was sure that his head was just playing tricks on him.

Richie’s stomach twisted, sure that he said the wrong thing. “I love you Eddie,” he repeated.

Eddie’s eyes grew wide with realization as his face softened. “Oh… I love you too, ‘Chee.” Eddie’s feelings began to bubble up inside of him. Unable to take it anymore, Eddie leaped up and tackled Richie back onto his bed. Richie burst out into laughter as Eddie wrapped his arms and legs around the mer like a koala bear.

“I love you so much Eds,” Richie whispered as he kissed the shorter boy’s forehead.

“That’s not my name,” Eddie groaned, stretching out the A. “I love you too,” Eddie leaned forward then placed his hand under Richie head to pull him closer before kissing him.

~

Three days later Richie woke up to the sound of a door creaking open. He kept his eyes closed until he heard a familar voice quiely cursing.

He lifted his head slightly to glance around the room, that didn’t do much as he only saw a weird blob since he didn’t have his glasses on. “Eddie?” He croaked, his voice raw.

“Rise and shine fishboy!” Eddie called out, his tone demanding, serious even.

“What’s going on,” Richie slid his glasses on and watched as Eddie pulled a pair of swim trunks on.

Eddie pulled his shirt off then reached down, grabbed a piece of clothing and tossed it at Richie. “Come on”.

“What are you on about Spaghedds?” Richie grabbed Eddie’s wrist before he could leave his range.

Eddie turned around, a smirk on his face. “Let’s go fucking swimming,” he said, a devlish smirk plasterd on his face.

Richie’s jaw dropped. “Let’s what?” He asked as he let go of his hand and jumped to get out of his pyjamas.

Eddie was bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Well, I was thinking about what you said the other night and I thought I should give it another try. But god help me if you let me drown I’m gonna haunt you for the rest of my dead life.” Eddie tried to keep a serious tone, but failed.

Richie grinned, now in his swim trunks. He leaned down and kissed Eddie. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Let’s go do this,” Eddie declared. He grabbed Richie’s hand and pulled him out of his room.

~

“I CAN’T DO THIS!” Eddie shrieked. He stood before his pool, where Richie stood on the first step going into the water. The pool water reflected up onto Eddie’s face as he stood a foot away from the clear water.

Richie rolled his eyes. “Eddie, you aren’t even in the pool yet,” he deadpanned. “Come on,” Richie begged as he reached out to his boyfriend and made the little grabbing motion with his hands, something Eddie had grown fond of. “Have I ever let you down?” He raised his eyebrows in an almost challenging manner.

Eddie hesitated momentarily before he lifted his hand to rest in Richie’s. He let the mer lead him to the edge, then he took his first step into the pool. There was a moment where Eddie didn’t feel anything aside from the cool feeling that filled his body when he stepped into the water. Before he could talk himself out of this, he stepped down onto the second level and the water rose to his thighs.

“Woah, take it easy,” Richie advised as he held Eddie’s hands in his. Richie backed down off the stairs, now in the shallow end of the pool.

“N-No I’m okay. I’m okay,” Eddie repeated, as if the more times he said it, the more real it would become. Eddie tried to relax but he soon felt the same feeling he had before begin to seep in.

Richie noticed and took a step backwards, tempted to get Eddie out just a little bit more before he backed out. He could tell Eddie wanted to do more but he knew the shorter male couldn��t figure out how to ask for it.

“Wanna float?” Richie wiggled his eyebrows.

Eddie felt uncomfortable all of a sudden. “Don’t say it like that,” he groaned.

Richie cracked a smile. “Fine,” he said in a fake pouty voice. “Just turn around and lean backwards,” he instructed, releasing Eddie’s hands.

“A-Are you sure?” Eddie questioned, the waves from the distant ocean suddenly seemed so much louder than previously.

Richie stepped closer to his boyfriend. “Yes, Eddie I’m sure.” He placed his hands on the human’s hips and turned him around. When Eddie’s back was to him, Richie placed a hand on his back and told him to slowly start leaning backwards. Richie held his hand on Eddie’s back as he concentrated on controlling the water around Eddie’s body. Determined to calm the small waves that lapped against the male’s body as he slowly lowered himself down into the water. When Eddie finally began to float on the water, his body was as stiff as a board. Normally this would cause one to sink, but Richie made sure to keep him up with his hand and a little bit of magic.

“Eddie, you can relax a little,” Richie advised as he looked into Eddie’s stone cold eyes.

Eddie snapped his eyes shut, worried that any sudden movement would send him sinking to the depths of his pool. “O-Okay,” he stuttered as he unwillingly let his arms drift away from his side, uncurling his fists and relaxing his shoulders.

The way the water silenced everything else around him was something he once found overwhelming, had slowly turned peaceful, as if for just a couple moments, he was finally able to escape reality, stop swimming against the current and just float.

“You’re floating,” Richie whispered, almost in amazement.

Eddie moved his head in a nodding motion as he relaxed his back, but he noticed how he couldn’t feel Richie’s hand in the middle of his back anymore. “Richie!” he gasped. Suddenly his lungs felt empty as he jackknifed. His legs kicked back as they tried to find the pool’s floor and his arms thrashed above the surface.

Richie jumped into action, sweeping Eddie into his arms and holding him bridal style above the water’s reach. “Hey I’ve got you! You’re okay, you’re okay,” he assured his boyfriend as he calmed the water around them. Eddie’s sopping wet hair made it easy for Richie to magically push the wet curls out of the other’s face as Eddie’s eyes opened.

“Holy shit!” He exclaimed, “I’m alive!” His shocked expression shifted to something more happy.

“Of course! Eddie I wouldn’t ever let anything happen to you,” Richie smiled down at him.

“I can’t believe it Rich- you’ve done the impossible,” Eddie smiled, because it was true. For the past year, Eddie’s fear of the water, his fear of truly living has defined his entire life. Maybe he’s not 100% over his fear of the water, but he sure as hell is better than he was before.

Word Count: 2911

Guys I don't think you're ready for the next chapter....

*Nervous Laughter* Some shit is about to go down. But hey! Enough about the next chapter, I hope that y'all enjoyed this chapter, comment down below what was your favourite part and what you're most excited for! Sadly there are only 2 chapters left but they're the best ones! Get ready and grab you kleenex boxes (;

Until next time,

So Long and Goodnight.

~

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[percabeth4life]

Three Old Ladies Knit Socks of Death

First Chapter || Previous Chapter || Next Chapter || AO3

I’m really glad that I have a clue as to what happened, even if the constant buzzing surrounding everyone is driving me nuts.

Someone cast a spell of some sort to trick everyone into thinking that Ms. Dodds never existed. The buzzing kept trying to affect me, but it couldn’t get me through my Purifying powers.

Thank Pontus for those.

But the buzzing is very, very, very, annoying.

One important thing I noticed was that Grover didn’t have any buzzing around him, which means that he is fully aware of Ms. Dodds. That and the fact that he’s a horrible liar.

Mr. Brunner’s buzzing didn’t lower at all, but nor did it raise.

I think he’s the source of the buzzing honestly, still not sure if he’s safe. He hasn’t asked for the pen that’s a sword that’s a pen back.

But everyone is denying that Ms. Dodds exists.

…

I may or may not be using it as practice for my purification powers.

…

It seems like a good idea (and keeps my mind off of…)

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Okay so one person had to go to the nurses office cause I managed to get rid of the buzzing around her with my purifying powers, and whoops…

Apparently, mortals can’t handle that.

Everyone is saying she had a psychotic break yelling about a Ms. Dodds and how she definitely exists…

So, I’ve decided that I should not test my purification powers on helpless mortals.

Katara would be ashamed of me for testing my powers like that.

I’ve also decided to rewatch Avatar: The Last Airbender for the twenty-fourth time.

Don’t judge me, it’s a great show and my teacher for waterbending!

And maybe I’ll see more about healing with waterbending, I can’t remember all the details and I need a way to learn without hurting myself first.

Purification is still cooler, but healing will definitely be helpful in the future. Besides, it’s practically a signature move for Katara, the whole world would’ve ended in the show if it weren’t for her healing abilities.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Carl was excited for my experiments with the water holder, I was messing with some ice and ignoring the growing sense of doom that was coming as exams got closer.

Triton would be disappointed in me for not paying attention to my lessons now, but I can’t help it.

It’s so hard to focus when you’re trying not to focus on the fact that you killed someone, sure she was a fury, but she had feelings and stuff too.

I shook my head, nope nope nope, not thinking about that right now.

Work on the magic portable ice fish tank.

I sighed, fiddling with the ice to twist it into the right shape.

I’ll need to add the runes-

“Percy!”

I made the ice shatter into a thousand tiny pieces and melt and nearly fell off the bed.

…

“You okay man?”

I nodded, pushing myself up and pretending like my face wasn’t on fire.

“I’m fine.”

“What were you doing anyways?”

Uh…

“I was trying to do a palm reading on my hands.” Nailed it.

“Baa-ha-ha, you do palm readings?”

“No, but I thought I’d give it a shot. I was trying to see if I could pass my exams.”

“If you study you might,” Grover bleated out.

I sniffed, raising my nose and hiding a smile, “Studying is for the weak!” I declared grandly.

Grover laughed.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar view, fields with misty figures as far as the eye could see.

I frowned.

Where am I?

I wandered forward, waving a hand in the face of one of the figures. They didn’t react.

Yep definitely a dream.

Now I just have to figure out where I am.

I probably should’ve gotten around to reading up on prophetic dreaming like probably dad Oceanus mentioned one of those times I was there, but I got distracted.

I wandered the fields, looking around in confusion, this place was very unfamiliar.

Except, a feeling of familiarity clung to me from one direction, so I started that way.

It felt like a low burn edging my senses, I’m not sure where I felt it before, I don’t really remember this feeling.

The sound of leathery wings made me look up, my eyes widening at the three figures.

Hades’s furies.

I suddenly realized where I was.

The itch of a curse made me want to scratch my arms. But looking up, Ms. Dodds, one of the furies, is alive.

It was like I could breathe for the first time in weeks.

I didn’t just kill someone who could think and breathe and feel like us.

I almost felt like sitting down right there, I let out a breath and held back the tears.

Thank Pontus.

I woke up

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I practiced my Ocarina more, sitting next to some of the plants Grover has and settling the music book in front of me to try one of the basic tricks. Growing plants.

Technically it’s supposed to be done with coral and sea grass and other undersea plants, but I don’t have those. So, I just have to make due with the plants that Grover has.

Grover came in while I was mid-song, but I ignored him, the plant seems a bit brighter, just a little taller.

I smiled, it’s going alright.

Not as much as it should be, but it’s certainly improving.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

School was itching at my nerves. The constant buzzing was driving me up a wall and I was snapping quicker at people instead of doing it the smart way like Triton taught me.

I watched more Avatar and tried to resist the urge to break something.

I have no outlet, I can’t go practice my waterbending, I can’t talk to Triton, I only have Carl who just plain doesn’t understand.

School studies are getting harder and harder for me to do.

I could handle Pre-Calc thanks to all of Triton’s help in the past, and Latin wasn’t that hard either (why is every language but English easier? Should I try learning Spanish or French?), but otherwise… I kind of just gave up.

The buzzing stayed in the back of my head.

I threw myself into my books from Triton, devouring the information on Siren’s Song that I had been ignoring so far.

I practiced my Ocarina and paid attention to my clubs again some. Triton said they were good for me.

The buzzing filled the rooms when there was even a moment of silence.

I ended up kicked out of Model UN because of my lowering grades but music club had pity on me.

I practiced more.

The buzzing didn’t stop.

I snapped at a teacher one time too many, I’m not welcome back at the school next year.

What an underwhelming way to get kicked out this time.

The buzzing was unrelenting.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I’m really glad for my starglobe. I’ve just been sitting here staring at it for the last hour.

Grover keeps giving me weird looks, but… It’s just sparkly and pretty and reminds me of Triton. It reminds me of the sea that one time my mom let me “sleepover” at a friends house. I got to see the stars from the sea and it was amazing.

“Did you know your eyes change colors?”

I looked up at Grover.

“What?”

“Well, they’re normally this sharp green, like, sea green, but you’re looking at your sparkly snowglobe and your eyes just turn like, silver-gray?”

I blinked, “Do they?”

“Yeah, I mean it’s cool.”

“Hmm, I guess I get it from my mom, her’s do the same thing.”

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

It was the night before my Latin exam.

As much as I don’t trust Mr. Brunner, I just couldn’t figure out this one translation, and I lost the answer key.

Ugh.

I decided to go ask him, at least he would know I was trying. As long as he didn’t like, try to kill me or something, it’d be fine!

…

Hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I was almost to the door to his office, but something was off.

I stopped, realization hitting.

The buzzing was quiet.

I was almost to his door, where the buzzing is usually very loud, and there was nothing.

I frowned, was he not there? But the light is on?

The door was ajar slightly, and I stepped closer, as quiet as I can be.

“… worried about Percy, sir.”

I stopped, tilting my head. That was Grover.

My heart sank, so I was right, he is working with Mr. Brunner.

“… alone this summer?” Grover questioned, “I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-“

“We would only make matters worse by rushing him,” Mr. Brunner interrupted, “We need the boy to mature more.”

“But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline-“

“Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can.”

“Sir he saw her…”

“His imagination,” Mr. Brunner insisted. “The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that. He may still have the pen, but the Mist over it will stop him from realizing.”

“Sir, I… I can’t fail in my duties again.” Grover’s voice was choked with emotion. “You know what that would mean.”

“You haven’t failed, Grover,” Mr. Brunner soothed. “I should have seen her for what she was. Now let’s just worry about keeping Percy-“

I shifted back, a small creak of my rubber shoe bottom on the linoleum floors echoes through the halls.

Mr. Brunner went silent.

I slipped back, seeing a shadow of something larger than Mr. Brunner in a wheelchair pass the lighted glass. It was holding an archer’s bow.

I moved, sliding into the first door I could find and pressed against the wall by the door.

I could fight if I needed too, my trident charm in hand, but… I need time to process.

A shadow went past, clop-clop-clop passing by. Like muffled hoof beats.

A large shadow paused by the window.

Mr. Brunner spoke, “Nothing, my nerves haven’t been right since the winter solstice.”

“Mine neither,” Grover said. “But I could have sworn…”

“Go back to the dorm,” Mr. Brunner told him. “You’ve got a long day of exams tomorrow.”

“Don’t remind me.”

The lights went out in Mr. Brunner’s office.

I waited there, going through what I just learned.

They’re worried about me, whether about my health of something else to do with me…

The buzzing is probably this Mist that he talked about, I’m not sure what that is, a spell of some kind I suppose. When I can talk to Triton again I’ll ask. Maybe it’s a land magic?

Mr. Brunner, whoever he is, has no idea that I know about gods and mythical beings and the like. I can use that to my advantage if he is actually a threat.

They know about the winter solstice mess, all I know is that there’s been a theft.

I frowned, are they blaming me too? And what’s this about a summer solstice deadline? That sounds bad.

Why do they need me to mature more? What do they need to worry about keeping me from? What’s going on?

One thing I’m sure of, Mr. Brunner is definitely not human. Some human animal crossover based on the sounds I heard. Horse half? Centaur? That’s the best I’ve got right now. I’ll look into it more later.

I stood in the dark waiting.

Grover is working with him though.

My chest hurt, could I trust Grover? Was he just going to attack me? Try to hurt me?

I want Triton, I want Triton so badly. He would know what to do.

But I can’t. Triton said not to contact him until things calmed down.

Based on Grover and Mr. Brunner, things are definitely not calm.

I stood in the dark.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I returned to my room when I calmed, nodding to Grover and settling back down with my notes.

“Hey,” He said, bleary-eyed. “You gonna be ready for this test?”

I glanced over, trying to bury any emotions, Triton had said that Grover might have empathic abilities and I can’t let him know what I’m feeling.

I forced a smile, “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” I faked a yawn, “I think I’m gonna go to bed now though. Too tired to get much more done.”

And I am tired, I’m so tired of being here.

I just want to go home, see my mom, hug her, talk to Triton.

I want to be back in the still dirty (but much improved) river and cleaning it and talking to the fish and other sea animals.

I want to go to events with Triton and talk to my merfolk friends and trade notes on our powers.

I don’t want to be here wondering if my friend is going to betray me and attack me. I don’t want to wonder if my teacher is going to try to hurt me.

I just want home.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Honestly, I fell asleep trying not to cry, so when I woke up in my probable dad’s palace, hidden in an alcove, I kinda burst into tears.

It’s like my dreams are trying to comfort me.

I curled up and cried, this year sucks.

Everything first semester was bad, but since the solstice I’ve been so alone.

Everything aches I just want to see Triton, to talk to my friends, to not be so utterly alone.

I can’t trust Grover, I can’t trust Mr. Brunner, I certainly can’t trust any of the other students in the school.

“Oh dear…”

Soothing curls wrapped around me, banishing the cold currents that felt so like my probable dad’s palace.

A hand was on my back, I couldn’t really see through the tears though.

“Hush now little Half-Blood, it’s alright.”

I took a few minutes to calm my breathing, to stop the tears, the unknown person whispering soothing words the whole time.

When I could finally look at them, I finally saw the Titaness Tethys.

…

Oh no, don’t tell me I just cried like an idiot in front of my probable dad’s wife.

I want to curl up and die, why me.

She settled next to me in the alcove, her hand still rubbing my back, “Are you feeling better?”

I swallowed, nodding.

“Yes Tethys-ran” I whispered.

Using the proper terms of respect are important. Ran is for queen, which she is, Ari would be for king.

She smiled at me, “There, that’s better. Let’s get you something to eat hmm?”

I nodded, letting her tug me out of the alcove.

“We still have only caught the beginning of your name little half-blood, starts with a P right?”

I flushed, “It’s Percy, Tethys-ran.”

“Ah, then a pleasure to meet you Percy-tou”

I flushed, tou is used for children regardless of gender, it’s basically calling them cute little one.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you to, Tethys-ran.”

She led me to the kitchens it seems. There’s a lot of noise as they work on making the food.

Her hand was still on my back, it was grounding.

“Do you have any favorites?”

She was looking at me.

“Oh uh, I like water chestnuts? And uh frozen Plumose? Um…”

She smiled, “Any meats?”

“… tuna?”

She nodded, nudging me forward as she spoke rapid Halmaheran.

“Get something -- him to eat, something on the --- end. And something -- snack on. And some --- if you --.”

I couldn’t catch everything that she said, unfortunately, but I’m pleased I caught as much as I did. She was talking really fast and had an accent I don’t know.

It took only a few minutes before she was ushering me out, a few bowls of food in her hands.

I ended up sitting with her in another alcove, nibbling on the snacks she got me. And sucking clean water from one of the plants, usually used for that purpose. Not like you can have cups with drinks underwater.

She let us eat quietly, her gaze on me.

I glanced at her, then looked away again.

“You seem to find yourself in our palace fairly often Percy-tou.”

I shifted, “I’m sorry, I don’t know why.”

She hummed, “It’s no fault of yours, though you should learn how to control your dream walking.”

I frowned, “Dream walking?”

She smiled, “That’s what this particular branch of prophetic dreaming is called, though the technical name is Hioipihaiho.”

I frowned, Halmaheran.

“You mind effectively leaves your body and travels to another place. It is different from Ahioimua, which is looking into the future of the place you are, Imuaireira, which is seeing the future or other places, Ahiomuri, which is seeing the past of your current location, and Amuritereira, seeing the past of another place.”

I wished I had my notebook to take notes.

“Dream walking is simply traveling, it’s the most common form of prophetic dreaming in Half-Bloods. None of them technically require dreaming, though it is the easiest way to receive the visions of the other forms.”

Okay that’s interesting, so I could do this awake… How would that work?

“Though slipping through the shields of our palace to prevent entrance from those trying to come is impressive. I’m very curious as to how you’ve done so accidentally.”

I chewed on one of the nuts in my snack bowl, “I don’t know, I just started showing up here.”

She nodded, “Well, it’s certainly interesting.”

It must be because Oceanus is my dad? Is this more evidence towards that? I have a lot of really solid evidence now.

I kinda want to say that I know, but I promised Triton I wouldn’t ask or talk about my immortal parent. It would interfere with my safety.

So, I kept my mouth shut and resisted the urge to tell her.

“What had you so upset? When you first arrived?”

I nibbled on one of the tuna pieces, “I uh… Just had a stressful week.”

I ducked my head.

“Oh? Anything in particular?”

“I have a lot of big tests, and found out a friend isn’t actually a friend…”

She hummed, “A sad thing to learn.”

“Yeah…”

She ran a hand through my hair, I peeked up.

She smiled, “Friends come and go like the tides, it is good to learn from your time with them, and they will leave a mark on you. But don’t let them hold you back or cling to what has passed. If they are not your friend accept that and move forward, else you will drown.”

I relaxed, she’s not wrong. Grover was apparently not really trying to be my friend, he was spying on me?

Regardless of what he was doing, I just have to accept it.

It hurts, but… it would be better for me to move on.

I nodded, “Thanks.”

“Well, I believe it is time for you to wake. I’ve already held you here longer than you should’ve been.”

She gathered our bowls and flicked away.

Almost immediately I felt the yank at me. Like a strong current tugging me away.

“Stay safe Percy-tou.”

Oh.

I woke up.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I finished the Latin exam.

I know that I messed up like half the grammar, but the translation to English wasn’t too hard, I could use context for some of the grammar, and I’m good at the word definitions so that was easy at least. The few history questions were annoying, but I didn’t struggle too badly.

The buzzing in my ear made it hard to focus though.

I think I managed a C? Maybe even a B if my guessing for the grammar was good enough.

I’ll just have to wait and see I guess.

I started to head out when Mr. Brunner called me back.

I swallowed back my fear that he found out about me overhearing him last night, he wouldn’t call me out for that in front of the class.

“Percy,” he said. “Don’t be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It’s… it’s for the best.”

My heart sank, I know that I can’t trust him, really, I do, but… I couldn’t help but like him as a teacher.

It hurt to hear him say that, in front of the whole class too.

The other students snickered, Nancy sent me a smug grin.

“Okay, sir.” I mumbled.

“I mean…” Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn’t sure what to say. “this isn’t the right place for you. It was only a matter of time.”

What does he mean by that?! That I’m destined to be kicked out? That despite the high standards he’s been holding me to he had zero faith in me? That he was going to insure I would be kicked out if it wasn’t something else?

“Right,” I whispered.

“No, no,” Mr. Brunner said. “Oh, confound it all. What I’m trying to say… you’re not normal, Percy. That’s-“

“Thanks,” I blurted, holding back my fear that he could know about my power, “Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.”

I bolted, hearing his call as I fled.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

The last day of term had finally arrived.

I gathered up my notebooks, my waterskin, my assorted gifts from Triton and my friends, Carl in his new transportable tank, and carefully put everything up in my two bags, my waterskin on top. My suitcase held the extra and all of my clothes.

The other guys were talking about their plans for their breaks.

They’re all juvenile delinquents like me, kids that can’t manage it in other schools, but they’re rich ones.

Doesn’t mean I have to let them know that I’m not doing much unless Triton can contact me soon. I probably shouldn’t even go to the river until Triton gets ahold of me.

One of them asked what I was doing this summer.

“I’ll be visiting some of my friends overseas. I haven’t seen them since winter break.” I flashed them a bright smile that hid the ache in my chest as they questioned me more.

“Where do they live?”

“Oh, on some islands a bit out. They’re a bit spread out, so I’ll probably move around some.”

“That’s cool, looking forward to it?”

“Yeah,” I grinned, “They’re a lot of fun.”

They went back to talking about their trips but did leave an opening for me to join if I wanted.

I didn’t, they were all kind of jerks to Grover, but I appreciated it.

The only person that I was nervous about saying goodbye to was Grover. Even with Tethys’s advice, even knowing that he may try to harm me, it’s so hard to let it go.

Turns out I don’t have to yet though because he’s coming with me. We have tickets on the same Greyhound bus to Manhattan.

Seems suspicious.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Grover is clearly very nervous, glancing around and down the aisles, watching the passengers. It was similar to how he acted every time we left Yancy. I ducked my head and didn’t say anything about it.

“Hey Percy?”

I glanced at him, “Yeah?”

“I uh, I know that uh, that we’re going different ways this summer. But…. I thought, uh, here-“

He handed me a card, “Just take this, in case you need me this summer.”

I took the card, which is in the most obnoxious fancy script that took me a minute of squinting at to read.

Grover Underwood

Keeper

Half-Blood Hill

Long Island, New York

(800) 009-0009

My heart almost stopped, Half-Blood Hill.

What does this have to do with Half-Bloods?

“What’s Half-“

“Don’t say it aloud!” He yelped, “That’s my, um… summer address.”

I stared at him, is he trying to trick me into going into some sort of trap?

“Okay, so if I want to visit.”

“Or… or if you need me.” He nodded.

“Why would I need you?”

I couldn’t help the bitter words. How could I trust him after what I overheard the other day?

Grover blushed right down to his Adam’s apple. “Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you.”

I stared at him, the likely mythological being that I’m half convinced is supposed to be assassinating me.

“Grover, what exactly are you protecting me from?”

Could I have misunderstood?

Suddenly there was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced we’d all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everyone else, and my senses were on fire.

It was like a web of feeling, fabric flowing over me, almost sparking as it moved.

My head snapped around, on the other side of the road, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.

There, next to it in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, sat three old ladies knitting the biggest pair of socks I’ve ever seen.

And those old ladies were... dangerous.

The energy I could tell was there, it was overloading my senses.

I couldn’t feel anything but the crackling fabric flowing over me.

The lady on the right knitted one of the socks, the lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn that made me feel like a knife was pressed to my throat.

The combined feelings made me want to claw at my skin, what is this? Who are they? What’s going on?

The three ladies were looking right at me. I rubbed at my arms.

Grover made a strangled sound and I glanced at him. Just barely resisting bolting from the area.

“Grover?” I said. “Hey, man—”

“Tell me they’re not looking at you. They are, aren’t they?”

I swallowed, oh dear.

“Yeah, why?”

The lady in the middle took out a pair of scissors, massive scissors—gold and silver, long bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.

“We’re getting on the bus,” he told me. “Come on.”

I stood still, staring at the old ladies with the scissors that made my head spin, their presence that made electric fabric rub at my skin, and their yarn that felt like knives prickling my neck.

“Come on!” He called, prying open the door and climbing inside.

The old ladies still watched me, and the middle one lifted the scissors.

I could hear the snip of her cutting the yarn from across all four lanes of traffic. Her two friends bundled up the electric-blue socks and I felt the at this point familiar buzz fill my head. The three ladies were gone between one blink and the next.

At the fear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.

The prickling of a knife, the electric fabric, the head spinning all faded, almost entirely gone.

The passengers cheered.

“Darn right!” yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. “Everybody back on board!”

We got back on, the buzzing still nudging me. I pushed my power as hard as I could, shoving the buzzing trying to reach me away.

Grover looked sick, I didn’t feel great myself, but the buzzing had faded almost entirely.

“Grover?”

“Yeah?”

I hesitated, should I? I want to know… I need to know if he’s actually a threat.

I licked my lips, “What are you not telling me?”

He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. “Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?”

“There were three old ladies, two knitting giant socks, one holding yarn. The one in the middle cut the yarn, then they left.

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers, one I recognized from my time with Triton. A symbol to ward of evil. With magic behind it, it can do small things. Otherwise it’s just a simple hand motion.

“You saw her snip the cord.”

“Yeah. So?” Who were those old ladies? Nothing has bothered my senses like them before.

“This is not happening,” Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. “I don’t want this to be like last time.”

I scowled, “What last time?”

“Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth.”

“Grover,” I snapped, because I just want answers! “What are you talking about?”

“Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me.”

I stared at him, there’s no way I’m letting him know where I live. I’m not endangering my mom like that.

“Sure.”

He continued to bemoan my fate, looking at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I’d like best on my coffin (Forget-me-nots so I can boss people around even when I’m dead).

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

ask Two for the angst ones this time: 13 for raini, 5 (possibly will be pertinent come the end of this minicampaign) & 29 (she literally has Any Weapon w/ her pact so it's fititng) for ayen, 7 & 10 (hehe I know there's trauma in this one) for cog, and then mix and match 4, 17, 18 between Caspian, Ryker, and Brilliance bc I don't know them as well and I would Like To

My life is just below readmores now, I guess. Will I ever learn to shut the fuck up? No! And that is a promise 

Raini

13. What does it take to make your character cry? Oh boy. Raini definitely isn’t a big crier, because she a) doesn’t really let herself get to that point and b) hard pivots into “angry” over “upset” and she isn’t an angry crier. She’s cried twice in game so far, and probably not many times before that. In both in game cases -and likely the always alluded to but never seen “before times”- the catalyst for her crying was being overwhelmed. In a good way, bad way, whatever, but that’s the trigger. Just- Looking at something, not knowing what else to do but let yourself cry about it, and not seeing any reason to stop yourself.  (shfjsdjkfh the funny answer is: during sex. But can you IMAGINE jskdfskjdf)

Ayen

5. Would they ever turn on someone they just met in order to save themselves? Oh for sure. Without question. Not without guilt, in fairness, but without question. She’s pretty well adjusted, pretty “go with the flow”, but she did grow up in a pretty cutthroat world. She was spared from having to make those kinds of brutal decisions from a super young age by Shadow Mom, but she definitely saw the fallout of those choices and learned that, while it’s all well and good to do the “right” thing, it’s much more important to do the right thing for you. If that means condemning some stranger to die so you and yours don’t have to? So be it. Better people have done worse, because that’s sometimes just how things go.  I’ll be honest! This character decision was a completely on the fly one when we were having that debate in the library about what we should do with the information we learned in the library. But I stand by it. In character, Ayen 1000% sees whatever’s going on as Not Her Business. It’s fucked up, sure! But, you know. Not her monkeys, not her circus.  29. What is their weapon of choice, and what weapon do they dislike using the most? Bro I love that Ayen doesn’t have A Specific Weapon SO much. Especially because Pact of the Blade specifically makes it so that, whatever weapon she summons, she’s proficient in while wielding it. So she sees somebody using a weapon, goes “oh! cool!” and summons it herself, and then just. Intuitively knows how to use is. How fucking funny is that conceptually??  Her go to if things are serious or she doesn’t have time to pick something obscure is a longsword. Dad uses a greatsword, and a longsword is pretty close to that! Image how cool they looked fighting off assholes, back to back, with two bigass swords? Is that the only reason it’s her favorite? No of course not!!!! That would- that would be silly. And childish. Swords are just cool is all.  She hasn’t used any in game, but I think she honestly just doesn’t like any kind of polearm. It’s like, is it technically safer to be a little further from your enemy? Sure. Does it give you a small tactical advantage? Maybe so. But they’re so uglyyyy and they look weird and you have to use both hands and the balance is weird and >:( Spears can stay because you can throw them but you’re on thin fucking ice.

Cog

7. If your character was allowed to murder one person without any consequences, who would it be and why? Thank GOD Alex I wanted this one for Cog SO bad!!! Valentine WastelandGame! If you can read this! You’re a dead motherfucker!! This is for a variety of reasons including but not limited to: - Is responsible for the deaths of at least 3 separate world leaders! Uh oh!  - Asked for my blood one time! To do Science on! Not cool! - Ace doesn’t like him. Enough said.  - Called Ace “hotheaded” and “brutish” keep his NAME out of your MOUTH - Is fucking Maelo’s ex I think? Honestly I lost that plot on that one a little bit - Keeps taking Sunny on dates! We’re protective and Jealous?? Hard to say! We don’t have time to unpack this one let’s keep moving - Is convinced aliens exist? And are coming to attack the world? OKAY  - Talks in fucking circles about philosophy and the greater meaning of “good” and “evil” in the context of the world. Like, no sir! Good is when you help people and evil is when you kill them! Except unless it’s me killing you which is going to happen because I can cast Finger of Death now and you better believe that spell has your fucking name on it. Freak boy. - Just like. Eats straight raw steak. Not Evil but really weird and probably not great for you? - Overall just a very bad slimy manipulative and stinky dude. 0/10 I’m gonna put an arcane bullet in his skull. Like. Everything Valentine does, everything she learns about him, convinces Cog more and more that the world would be a better, safer place if he wasn’t allowed to exist in it anymore. She was kinda neutral on the guy until he gave his grand speech in Cormir about how the only way to save the world is to ‘conquer and subdue it’ and tried to talk her in circles enough that she had to agree with him or seem like a hypocrite. Since then, it’s been a slow creep from “I don’t trust this man and don’t want to work with him again, even if it makes our lives harder” to “he’s dangerous and needs to be stopped” to “...if given the opportunity, I would kill him myself”. And now that she has our new friend the Shadow Demon whispering in her ear, telling her that “the world will tremble and change before her” and that she should “stride boldly, and fear not the consequences that may follow” honestly? The next time we see Valentine, he might be in trouble!  10. What were the character’s parents like? What was the affect the parents had on the character? Oh, is there trauma in this one? Is there? Alex? Is there? Maybe so!! We’re gonna talk about Cog’s dad first, because he’s a) still alive and b) I KNOW you’re fishing for more mom angst. Cog’s dad name is Conrad Grace! He’s the head of Lafaroh’s town guard, whatever that means for a town of maybe a hundred people. I feel like his day to day really consists more of making rounds to check on people than dealing with criminals, although he likely has to break up the occasional disagreement or toss somebody in the drunk tank for the night. He’s also in charge of making sure the Guardians -the gods that live deep in the swamp outside Lafaroh and protect the town in exchange for food, building supplies, the occasional corpse, and other resources- get their offerings (This is Important, because he does Stop doing that soon). He married into he Grace family (that’s RIGHT he took his wife’s last name because it’s 2021 and he’s Woke not because her family like runs the town okay moving on), initially because I genuinely believe he fell in love! They were probably pretty young, because Lafaroh is very much a Deep South Swamp Town Analogue, but I don’t think it was just a social power move. The most important Conrad fact? He told Cog that he became disillusioned with the Church when she left home, because he couldn’t imagine continuing to support something he could now see had so clearly been hurting her. And I, Rebekah, a homosexual who has had Words with my Christian parents about the way their religion has hurt me? OH buddy we were a little bit of a mess about it. DM Ryan! Don’t you know I’m projecting!! Please be more careful! (Editor’s Note: This is the moment that made me realize I was projecting. Whoopso!!) Cog’s mom name is Charlotte Grace Sr. because, I guess, we’re freaks. I hate that this makes Cog technically a junior because the thought of anyone calling her Charlotte Jr. makes me break out in hives, but it is, technically, correct. The distinction while Cog was growing up was, instead, “Charlotte” and “Charlotte Olivia” because, again, we’re southern as hell. Charlotte Sr. is, unsurprisingly, the head of Lafaroh’s church, which means she very much has more actual power than her husband does. She did love Cog, I think, but in a way that very much more felt like someone guarding an investment than raising a child, especially when Cog became a teenager. She had high, exacting expectations, and grew more distant from Cog the older she got. Whether this was an unintentional side-effect of Charlotte Sr. becoming more engrossed in the preparations necessary to allow Cog to become the “Conduit”, or whether it was a purposeful decision because she knew she would lose her daughter and wanted the sacrifice to hurt less is unclear. Cog’s dad is kinda just a dude, but we KNOW this bitch has mommy issues. I also think an important distinction to draw between the two is that while I’m willing to give Conrad the benefit of the doubt and say that he may have just wanted Cog to stay in Lafaroh when they party returned because he was worried about his daughter and wanted her home, Charlotte Sr. wanted Cog there because it was Where She Was Supposed To Be, because she had a destiny to fulfill. More than that, when Charlotte Sr. found out that Conrad had stopped sending supplies to the Guardians when Cog left and had instead been selling them to Bandits to get money to rebuild the town, she was not nearly so understanding. She accused him of heresy, and ordered for him to be, uh. Flayed alive. Which wasn’t great. It’s what got her killed ultimately; Cog had to choose between her parents, and after watching her Mama summon a shadow demon that very nearly choked the life out of Sunny? It was a choice with only one possible outcome. 

Caspian

18. Would society call your character a good guy or a bad guy? What would they say they are? Caspian is. Caspian is Just a person. Like she is just out here doing her best, trying not to get killed by, idk. Pirates or ghosts or w/e. This is an endeavor that, statistically, could be going a lot better.  I think the more interesting angle to look at this question from is the fact that she’s a monk from a well known monastery, and that there’s Expectations on how she conducts herself in the world as a result of that. She is Just A Person, but that’s not good enough. Not when she’s running around wearing Pelor’s holy symbol, representing his monastery, reflecting on him. For a long time, I think Caspian resented the expectation that put on her! Why can’t she just be a kid? Just a person? She didn’t ask to be raised by these monks in this kind of life. But when she left home and realized how suddenly lonely she was, there were quiet, sad moments it was easy to soften with prayer. Rekindling her relationship with her god was her way of staying connected to home, and I think it also made her want to go from being Just a Person to actually wanting to take pride in being a Good Person.  And then her campaign lasted for two fucking seconds lmao so it didn’t even matter hahah! :)

Ryker

4. Has your character ever been hurt or betrayed by someone they thought they could depend on? What happened? YEAH BOY rye-bread got his SHIT handed to him lmaoooo His whole “why are you adventuring?” deal is that he fell in love with the noblewoman he was hired to escort across the country to her betrothed’s estate, and she played him like a fucking fiddle and convinced him -after her wedding, after she was pregnant with her husband’s first child and therefore heir- that she was in love with him too. But of course, because she was married, her husband would never let them be happy together. She talked Ryker into killing her husband, and promised to meet him the night he did it with horses and supplies for both of them. Anyone reading along at home with even a shred of common sense probably just said, “uh oh!” And uh oh indeed; she fully sold his ass out. There’s something emotionally devastating about slipping out of the bedroom of the man you just killed, his blood still on your hands, to find the woman you love standing between two enormous guards, but I can’t quite put my finger on what.  Ryker figured out her plan in the following days he spent in a cell, awaiting execution. She didn’t love her husband, but by playing the role of grieving widow and anxious mother-to-be she could ingratiate herself with his family enough to be allowed to take control of the estate while her son, the true heir, grew up to run it. It was cruel, and clean, and if Ryker hadn’t managed to escape it would have gone off without a hitch.

Brilliance 

17. Is your character afraid of death? Why/why not? Brilliance isn’t afraid of death, she’s afraid for what she’d leave behind. One of the songs on her playlist really leans into this (and I’m very excited to be posting her playlist soon! Stay tuned!), because she is terrified of what her death might do to Sienna. She never planned to become an adventurer, much less travel to the Hells to try and save an entire city. She was content, more than content, to guard Sune’s church, to help the people that came seeking her goddess’ blessing and guidance. When her city faced a sudden influx of refugees from Elturel after its destruction, she was even happy to volunteer to help the Flaming Fist keep order and root out would-be troublemakers. She never meant to get caught up in a job that would take her out of her home city, much less out of her home plane entirely. Every fight she got into in Hell, every time it seemed like she may be staring down something that might kill her, Brilliance had to swallow down the overwhelming guilt of knowing that if she died here Sienna would never know what happened to her. The image of Sienna, worried and pacing, looking toward the door to their apartment every time there was so much as a whisper in the hallway, desperate for any sign that Brilliance had come home-- It wasn’t delusions of self-importance or self-preservation that had Brilliance taking Glasya’s deal to save her from the narzugon’s clutches; it was the image of Sienna collapsing onto their bed and sobbing because she finally admitted to herself that Brilliance was never coming home. Still. Sienna needs her, but her party needs her too. They’re counting on her to be there for them, to take the big hits that they can’t handle. First one in, last one out; she doesn’t leave until everyone else is safe. She wants to survive, she wants to go home and marry the woman she loves, but she couldn’t live with herself if she did it at the cost of the life of someone who was depending on her. Brilliance isn’t afraid of death; she would die for her party members, even the ones she doesn’t particularly like. She just knows exactly what the cost of her death would be. 

[e11evenseggos]

A Call for Dr. Goodkin

Heyyy Chloe @blush-and-books​! I hope you enjoy your gift, xoxo Santa! @stitcherssecretsanta2019​

Read on AO3 or read below:

It was late. Any enthusiasm for the current case had worn off hours ago as the team puzzled over what Kirsten’s latest stitch could mean and where the clues would lead. Cameron was exhausted to say the least, so when his phone rang and he saw “Mom” pop up on the screen, he let out a long sigh.

I do not have the energy for a fight tonight, Mom. Keep it civil.

Despite himself, Cameron answered the phone, “Hey, Mom.”

“Hi my sweet, Cameron. How are you?” She cooed.

“I’m good. Tired but good.” He answered truthfully. “How are you?”

“Busy.”

“Okay. Listen, I really should go- “

“The research position at MIT has opened up again. I think you should take it.”

“Mom. I already have a job here. And a life.”

“Being stuck in a government lab in a random basement is not a life.”

“I have friends.”

“Have you met someone?”

“Not exactly.”

“Cameron.”

“Mom.”

“I think you should at least consider it. You’ve always loved the east coast, and your salary would increase exponentially. And you’d be at the forefront of neuroscience research and technology. The field would be lucky to have you.”

“Mom I- “

“Don’t let your talents waste away.” Click. Marion hung up without so much as a goodbye. Typical.

The next morning, Cameron sat at a table in the breakroom clutching a cup of coffee and staring off into space. 

Kirsten shuffled in, bleary-eyed from a restless night obsessing over finding Stinger, and made a beeline for the coffeemaker. As she brewed herself a large, extra-strong cup, she muttered, “Good morning” over her shoulder to Cameron who didn’t answer.

She turned to look at him as he sat there lost in space and sat down in front of him with her freshly brewed coffee. She nudged his leg gently with her foot. “Earth to Cameron.”

“Sorry, what?” He asked, coming out of his reverie.

“You okay?” She asked.

“Yeah, no. Yeah.”

“That’s not very convincing.”

“I know.”

“What’s up?”

“I got a call from my mom last night,” Cameron finally answered.

“Oh.” I understand. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah. She just called to tell me about a research position that opened up. It’s a dream position for me, really. But I passed it up years ago to join the Stitchers program. And here I am.”

“Here you are. Where’s the position at?”

“MIT.”

“Wow. That’s so impressive.”

“It’s also so far away.”

“You’re not scared are you.” It wasn’t so much a question as a challenge.

“That’s not it.”

“Then what’s stopping you from chasing your dream?”

Cameron gives Kirsten a meaningful look, which she deftly ignored.

Eventually Cameron said, “Nothing…I guess.”

“I think it’s really great Cameron. You should go for it.” Kirsten said, trying to mean it.

“You think so?”

More convincing this time, “Yeah. You should at least think about it.”

“Okay, I will. Thanks,” Cameron said, still a little deflated. Nevertheless, he forced a smile as he stood up and headed to his workstation.

Kirsten remained seated, watching him go, the light gone from her eyes and an unfamiliar pressure in her chest.

****************************

A few weeks passed without mention of the research job. But one morning Cameron practically bounced into the lab. He rushed up to Kirsten and exclaimed, “I got the job!” He enveloped her in a tight bear hug.

“Cameron that’s great. I’m so proud of you,” she said as he released her from his grasp.

“Thanks. I can’t believe it’s actually happening.”

“I can.”

Linus and Camille walked up to them.

“Congrats, bro!”

“Congratulations, Cameron!” They cheered.

“Thanks, guys!”

“Have you told Maggie yet?” Camille asked.

Cameron paled at the thought. “No, not yet,” he muttered quietly.

Just then Maggie entered the lab. “What are you doing? Conference room now,” her voice as sharp and commanding as ever.

“Cameron needs to talk to you,” Camille said, effectively throwing him under the bus.

Cameron glared at Camille, but she just shrugged and said, “You’d never have done it on your own.”

“Very true,” Linus chimed in.

“That’s fair,” Cameron said at the same time.

“Fine. My office. Conference room in five,” Maggie said. Cameron followed her into her office. She closed the door behind him and sat behind her desk.

“Take a seat.”

“I’m okay.”

“Sit.”

Cameron sat.

Maggie said nothing.

“I got the research job at MIT,” he finally squeaked out.

“I know.”

“Right. Of course.” Maggie knows everything.

“When do you leave?”

“A few weeks.”

“Good. Then you’ll find us a replacement.” It wasn’t a request. It was an order.

“Yes, ma’am.” Cameron nodded a little too enthusiastically.

With that settled, Maggie led Cameron into the conference room.

“How did it go?” Kirsten asked.

“She took it pretty well, I think,” Cameron said.

“No, dude. She’s furious,” Camille chimed in. The three of them looked towards Maggie, whose facial expression was cold and unreadable.

“Definitely furious,” Kirsten agreed.

“Yup. I’m a dead man,” Cameron nodded.

****************************

Another case solved. More mind-mapping. And Kirsten and Cameron had barely talked since he first told her about the job opening. But with a day off and the weekend approaching, they finally had time to breathe and to be.  The rest of the team made their way toward the elevator, but Cameron and Kirsten hung back.

As the elevator doors sealed shut, Kirsten joined Cameron at his desk and said, “Nice work out there.”

“You too, Stretch.”

Kirsten smiled at the nickname. “You know, it’s not going to be the same here without you.”

“Don’t worry. Harry’s excellent. It’ll be like I never left,” Cameron reassured her.

“I’m not worried about the program. I’m just…going…to…miss you,” Kirsten finally forced out, her face unreadable.

“I’ll miss you too.” Cameron reached over, covering her hand with his, and gave it a tight squeeze. Kirsten opened her mouth as if to say something, but before she could get it out, the elevator dinged open and Linus came running back into the lab. Cameron and Kirsten both jerked their hands away, but not before he clocked their connection.

“Oh, hey guys. Don’t mind me. Forgot my replica Star Wars jacket,” Linus explained as he speed-walked across the lab to his workstation.

“We were actually just heading out,” Kirsten said, standing.

“Ahem, yeah,” Cameron echoed.

“Oh cool. Can you give me a ride then?” Linus asked Cameron.

“Sure.”

****************************

On the ride up to ground level, Kirsten turned to Cameron and said, “I’m really happy you’re going and living your dream. This is going to be perfect for you!”

“Pretty much perfect.” Cameron smiled at Kirsten.

Kirsten flashed him a bright grin and said, “Bye Cameron, bye Linus. See you next week.”

On the drive home, Cameron was unusually quiet. He barely reacted when Linus began rambling about Doctor Who. Linus stopped mid-sentence and said, “What’s wrong?”

Cameron let out a long sigh. “Nothing.”

“Well that definitely wasn’t convincing,” Linus said. “Spill it.”

“Everything’s good. Kirsten’s been really supportive of me getting this job,” Cameron said.

“She will miss you. We all will,” Linus said.

“I just thought there was maybe something between us,” Cameron finally admitted.

“We all did.”

“What?” Cameron turned to Linus.

“Nothing.”

“Linus.”

“It’s not like your feelings were a secret. This whole move though did put a wrench in our pool. I lost five hundred dollars,” Linus said.

“You made bets on us getting together?!” Cameron cried.

“It seemed inevitable,” Linus shrugged. “Guess I was wrong. Sorry, Cameron.”

“Me too.” Cameron and Linus fell into a contemplative silence.

“I made the right decision, right?” Cameron asked after a minute.

“Are you excited about the job?” Linus asked.

“Ecstatic.”

“Then, yes. You did.”                                                                                              

****************************

Kirsten climbed into the fish tank. Alex prepared the body in the corpse cassette. Linus double-checked the mind-mapping of the sample. Cameron stood at the helm, showing Harry the ropes.

“You want to call it?” Cameron asked Harry after everyone was ready.

“Sure,” Harry said, taking the earpiece from Cameron.

“Engineering?”

“Go.”

“Life-Sci?”

“Go.”

“Medical?”

“Go.”

“Communications?”

“Go.”

“Kirsten?”

Kirsten’s eyes flashed open at the use of her name rather than a nickname.

“Kirsten?” Harry asked again.

“Go.”

“Commence Stitch Neurosync on my count. Three, two, Stitch!” Harry shouted enthusiastically. Everyone manned their stations as Harry navigated Kirsten through the sample’s memories. “Do you see anything, Kirsten?”

“Of course, I do,” she practically snapped.

“Great! Tell us what you discover whenever you’re ready.”

“I always do.”

 After the stitch, Cameron pulled Kirsten aside. “What’s your problem?”

“Nothing.”

“Harry’s excellent.”

“Yeah, sure.” Kirsten’s sarcasm was obvious.

“He is qualified, kind, and everyone else likes him. So you’re just going to have to get used to him, cupcake.” This time it wasn’t the term of endearment it usually was but an insult. Cameron stormed off, not giving Kirsten time to respond.  

****************************

“I can’t believe we just worked our last case together,” Kirsten said as she helped Cameron finish the paperwork on their latest case, the air still a little tense from their fight earlier in the week.

“I know right?!”

“We need to have a going away party,” Kirsten said.

Just then, Camille walked by and said, “Oh, Linus and I already have that covered. Be here at five tomorrow evening.” Camille turned to Kirsten, “And don’t dress how you normally dress. Dress more like me. In fact, just pull something out of my closet.” Camille continued walking towards the elevator.

“Alright, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow at five,” Kirsten said before following Camille. “Hold the door!” She called.

When Cameron walked off the elevator at five the next evening, the entire Stitch lab had been transformed. The emergency lights flashed, and the other lights were dimmed. A hand-painted banner was draped over the corpse cassette, reading “Good Luck Cameron!!!” Streamers hung from the ceiling, and a huge cake lay on the table in the conference room. The team cheered as he entered the lab.

“Congrats Cameron!”

“Thanks, guys!”

Camille popped the champagne and began filling flute glasses and passing them around to everyone. Harry cut the cake and brought slices out to everyone. When he presented one to Kirsten, she said, “No, thanks. I’m not big on chocolate.”

Cameron looked at her but said nothing and took the cake from Harry. “Thanks, man.”

“You’re welcome,” Harry said. He lingered with them, awkwardness building.

“So-“ Kirsten began. 

“I think I’m gonna go,” Harry said at the same time.

“Right,” Kirsten said.

Harry turned abruptly and walked away.

“K-“ Cameron began.

“I know,” Kirsten said before walking away. Cameron walked over to his now empty desk and sat on the edge. Linus and Camille came and sat beside him.

Camille raised her glass and said, “Here’s to new places and new adventures. Here’s to Cameron.”

Linus and Cameron dinked their glasses with Camille, and Linus said, “To Cameron, forever my bro.”  They each took a sip, and moments later Kirsten returned and joined them around his desk. She had a slice of chocolate cake in her hand. Cameron looked from Kirsten’s face down to the cake and back up again. He raised his eyebrows but said nothing. Kirsten avoided his gaze, knowingly.

“Who wants to do shots?” Kirsten asked, filling the silence.

“Literally always,” Camille cheered, setting down her empty champagne glass.

“Shots! Shots! Shots!” Linus cheered.

“Come with me,” Camille said, grabbing Kirsten by the arm and dragging her towards the breakroom. They returned with shot glasses and expensive tequila. Camille poured the tequila into the glasses, grabbed one, and took a shot. Kirsten, Cameron, and Linus all followed suit.

Five, six, seven shots later, they were all sitting down, backs pressed against the concrete wall. “Alright Kirsten. Truth or dare?” Cameron asked.

“Truth.” Kirsten took another shot.

“Do you miss Liam?”

“No.”

Cameron looked away from the group to hide the smile he unsuccessfully tried to suppress.

“Camille?” Kirsten asked.

“Dare. Of course,” Camille answered. 

“Okay, I dare you to kiss someone you’ve never kissed before,” Kirsten said.

“What are we? Twelve?” Camille asked. Kirsten simply raised her eyebrows, waiting. Camille leaned over Linus and gently kissed Cameron on the cheek. “I’m going to miss you, Goodkin.”

Everyone stared at her, surprised and sobered by the reminder of Cameron’s leaving.

“I’m sorry, I’ll be right back,” Kirsten said. She stood and made a beeline to the bathroom.

“I’ll go check on her,” Camille said before following Kirsten.

Kirsten was splashing her face with cold water when Camille entered the bathroom.

“You okay?” She asked.

“Yeah,” Kirsten answered. She grabbed a handful of paper towels and rubbed her face dry.

“Why don’t you just tell him?” Camille asked.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“He’s about to leave.”

“That’s exactly why you should tell him.”

“It’s too late.”

“It’s not too late until he’s on that plane.” Camille slung an arm around Kirsten’s shoulders. “Come on. You need one more round of truth or dare.”

Kirsten smiled as she let Camille lead her out of the bathroom, but when they made their way over to where they had been sitting, Cameron and Linus were gone. Camille and Kirsten looked around the lab but couldn’t find either one of them. Camille walked over to Fisher and asked, “Where’s Cameron?”

“He left just a few minutes ago.”

Camille stared at him.

“For the airport.”

Camille still didn’t respond.

“His flight leaves in an hour,” Fisher said. “Camille!”

She finally snapped out of her shock and grabbed Kirsten by the arm, dragging her to the elevator. “Thanks, Fishy!” She called over her shoulder.

****************************

Camille sped down the freeway. Kirsten sat in the passenger seat, the phone pressed to her ear.

“He’s not answering.”

“Try again.”

“What if he doesn’t pick up?”

“We’ll figure it out. Just keep trying.”

****************************

Cameron paced at the gate, waiting to board the plane.

Did I make the right decision?

“I think it’s really great Cameron. You should go for it.”

Yes.

“I’m just…going…to…miss you.”

No.

“You should go for it.”

Yes.

“Going to miss you.”

No.

“Go.”

Yes.

“Miss you.”

No.

The only thing that broke Cameron out of his trance was hearing his name over the loudspeaker. “A call for Dr. Goodkin! A call for Dr. Goodkin!” The gate agent kept repeating.

“That’s me,” Cameron said, rushing up to the counter and flashing his ID. The agent motioned to him, and he stepped around the counter and took the phone from the agent.

“Cameron!” Kirsten practically screamed through the receiver.

“Stretch, is everything okay?” His brow furrowed and the concern was evident in his voice.

“No!” Kirsten practically sobbed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Turn around.”

“What?”

“Turn around.” 

Cameron turned and there stood Kirsten, phone pressed to her ear, tears streaming down her face. Cameron rushed over to her and cradled her face in his hands.

“Kirsten, what’s going on-“ Cameron began.

Kirsten cut him off before he could finish, saying all in one breath, “Iloveyou.”

“What?”

“I love you.” Tears continued to flow down Kirsten’s cheeks, and tears sprang to Cameron’s eyes as well.

“I love you too,” he all but whispered before kissing her gently on the lips. When they kissed, everyone at the gate cheered, clapped, and hollered. They broke apart, laughing at the response. Kirsten smiled sheepishly, but Cameron beamed.

“Come on, Stretch. Let’s get out of here,” Cameron took Kirsten’s hand in his and lead her towards the exit.

“You’re really staying here for me?”

“For us,” Cameron kissed Kirsten again and they both smiled as they walked into the crowd.

[yrpspiritsintheshadows]

Escape to Neverland

Escape to Neverland

“Mom and Dad were murdered.”

That… was what they had been afraid of. 

An accident with a boat, a car wreck that lead them into the water, any of that, would’ve been preferable to what just left the teenager’s mouth.

“They were killed by freaks who wanted to study us.” Hideki spat, rage filling his eyes. “They wanted us to get away, to protect us… But…” 

The boat was unnaturally white. It reminded him of when he had looked into the maw of a larger shark when it had a rather fierce fishing hook lodged in its maw.

He could trust the shark to not consume him or his loved ones though. The water was churning, bubbles forming all around them as they rushed all sides of the nets.

The net was clever, he would give the humans credit. It lodged in all the right places, preventing much movement from the four trapped within.

“W-What’s gonna happen to us, Mom?”

The mermaid beside him had a pained look in her eyes. Aika was scared but her fear for her children, outweighed the fear for her life.

“We’re going to be fine, Hideki… I promise.” 

“Mom…”

The water disappeared, as the family of four were suspended over a hold tank, holding desperately to one another.

“It appears there is one adult male, one adult female and two juveniles, ma’am.”

“Excellent. Plenty of specimens for study then.”

“We were trying so hard to get away. Nothing was cutting it. Mom even was trying to bite it. The head scientist… she’s a psychopath.” Hideki sniffled, shaking like a leaf. “She… She wanted four. Just four…”

“Hideki…”

“... She wanted two to autopsy… and two to track their growth. When they went to drop us into the tank… Mom paid the price.” Hideki gripped at his arms, his nails carving crescents into the sleeves of his shirt.

The tank was rapidly approaching them as they fell. Aika acted on pure instinct, grabbing Hideki.

The tank was close enough to the side. Before the young man knew what had happened, she threw him over the side as her body hit the floor of the boat.

“RUN! JUST RUN!!!!”

He hit the water just as she was pulled out of sight.

“I know they died that night. They appeared before me. I don’t know what she did to them but it messed them up…” Hideki sighed heavily. “All I know is, that they’re gone… and now my brother is some lab rat for them. I don’t know what they’re gonna do to Hikaru now… or to others of my kind…”

“She’s going to jail for murder, that’s what she is.” Skyler narrowed her eyes. “I promise you that.”

“And we’re going to get Hikaru back. I promise.” Eiji gave him a gentle look. “You are so brave kiddo. So brave.”

“No I’m not… If I had just fought harder… or didn’t let Mom throw me over the edge…” 

“Hey, hey, no…” He tilted the boy’s chin up. “Take it from another parent. She made that choice because she had to choose. She chose her children over her own life because she loved you both so much. I’m sure if they hadn’t caught her, your brother would’ve been next over the side.” 

“You think so…?”

“I know so. Because if it was between Ken or my own life, I’d choose him every time.” Eiji stroked his arm. “And I’d choose you too if you were my kid. You’ve been through literal Hell and look at you…”

“A scared, shaking mess.”

“A survivor.”

Hideki’s eyes stung with tears as he threw his arms around Eiji.

“I didn’t wanna be…”

“I know…” He hugged him tightly, stroking his back. “I know, Kiddo…”

We’re gonna get you help.

Hideki curled up in his chair, trying to keep close.

“Shh… I got you…”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

oooooo

It didn’t take long for Eiji to get ahold of the rest of the team. It was just a matter of planning now. For this was far different than a paranormal investigation.

They arrived with a rough idea of the situation, until Skyler filled the other two in on it. Now, they were in the garage, using an old card table to draw out a map of the area.

“The kid doesn’t remember the name of the ship and quite frankly I don’t blame him. He saw his life get torn apart in front of him.” Skyler narrowed her eyes. “So, we’ll have to go by the one thing we can guarantee… The parents’ ghosts.”

Chase looked up from his laptop screen.

“Still figuring out who these nuts are. Once I get a name, we can keep going.”

Eiji nodded to him.

“Thank you. Seriously, thank all of you for this.”

Lucian smirked a little.

“We go where you tell us to go. That’s how this works, Eiji. How’s the kid doing right now?” 

Eiji frowned, sighing.

“Badly. Carmen managed to convince him to go to bed since he’s already done enough with giving us the statement. She managed to get him to sleep.”

“The Carmen Sonata?”

“Basically. The kid was out like a light after a few songs.” 

He nodded.

“So, let me be the one to ask this… What are we gonna do IF we stumble across the corpses? It’s not like if they’re still changed that can be easily reported.”

“I know some people in Geistville PD.” Skyler spoke up. “They work with my branch of social services.” 

“There we go… And if the kid is with us?”

“Keep him from seeing it if we can.” Eiji looked at the map of the city, circling the pier.  “But, they’re not stupid. I doubt they’d be doing autopsies and holding the kid captive for further tests on the boat still. That’d just be stupid on their part. And Hideki didn’t say it was a huge boat either.”

Chase cleared his throat, gaining their attention.

“I think… I have an idea.” He turned his screen so the others could see. “These guys, are a supposed research team to prove the existence of mermaids and the like. They call themselves PROTEOME.” 

“Proteome…”  

He nodded.

“They’ve been running for at least twenty five years, going through their staff but their head scientist has apparently been out for mermaid blood for years. Apparently got accused of kidnapping a young woman back in the 80’s who was just out in her costume for an aquarium performance.”

Great. They’re all nuts.

“Got a campus or something?”

“Yeah, they don’t even try to hide it.” He zoomed in on the site, showing a large concrete building. 

“... Isn’t that…?”

“The old Geistville Aquarium before they moved to the new building? Yep. Still out in the sticks.”

“... Great.” Eiji clapped his hands. “We got us an invasion to do then.”

“I’ll contact my friends at the department.” 

“I’ll get us the next few days off.” Chase volunteered. “Who do you wanna potentially jinx this time with “chronic illness, have to take personal days”?”

“Hm…. I guess Oba-san.” He mused.

Lucian rolled his eyes.

“Your grandma is like what, 85? Isn’t that a little harsh?”

Eiji grinned.

“Hey, Oba-san is awesome. She gets me. Besides… Who do you think is gonna help curse these guys?”

“... Eiji, sometimes you scare me. But I’m not gonna disagree.”

They all looked at the image on the screen.

“We’re gonna get that kid back… and we’re sending those scientists to jail, no matter what.” Eiji narrowed his eyes. “With the Divine as my witness…”

We WILL win.

oooooo

“I should go with you.”

Eiji looked up from trying to decide his “disguise”, giving Hideki a firm look.

“No.”

The boy was leaning on the door to the master bedroom, a look of determination in his eyes.

“They killed my parents. My brother might be next. I should be there for him. C’mon…”

Eiji shook his head.

“It’s gonna be dangerous. We won’t do the crossing of your parents before we get Hikaru back to you. You both deserve the chance to say goodbye.”

“It’s not…” His voice cracked. “... Okay. Maybe it is about that. We’re gonna get shipped off to a foster home when this is over right?”

“Nope.”

“... Huh?” 

Eiji moved to him, laying a hand on his shoulder, warmth coming to his eyes. 

“We wanted to tell you boys when we got Hikaru back but… my wife and I talked last night. We always did want more kids… and Ken would love two big brothers…”

Hideki covered his mouth, stunned.

“You… guys want us?”

“Why not? We have plenty of room… More than enough rooms honestly and this is a bit more personal. If something happened to us… we’d want someone to find our son and help him. So, if it’s okay with you…” 

“It… It is…” Hideki wiped at his eyes. “I don’t have to leave?”

“Never. And you two can go at whatever pace you want, okay? We just want to give you guys a home.” 

Hideki hugged him again, his shoulders relaxing.

“Thank you…”

Eiji hugged him, stroking his hair.

“Anything for you… Now, Carmen has her own job for ya today if you’re okay with that.”

“Hm?”

Eiji gave him a playful look.

“You know your twin best. He’s gonna need a room to call his own.”

Hideki’s eyes lit up. 

“I can handle that!” He grinned. 

“Atta boy. Now, go ask her about that. I gotta go “Science Intern E. Fumio.””

“That is such a lame name!”

“Yeah, yeah, go!”

Before long, Eiji was meeting the others outside. Instead of one car, however, they had two. 

Eiji’s van… and a black humvee.

“... Lucian, the heck?” 

Lucian looked up from where he was leaning on it.

“I called in a favor from my uncle alright? It’s for insurance.”

“You’re… not gonna run anyone down, right?”

“Me? Noooo.” He grinned. “Never.”

“... I’m not even gonna ask.” He cleared his throat, adjusting his glasses. “Alright, let’s roll!”

They were off after that, in their own ragtag caravan, with two members per car.

We have as much supplies as we can get… Skyler has the cops ready to go at any moment…

Are we really gonna do this?

He took a deep breath.

Heck yes.

oooooo

They knew they weren’t alone when the paranormal gear in the back started going off.

“Murderers.” The automated voice of the ghost box rang out. “Murdered us. Murdered.”

“We know. We know. But you guys can’t set this off.”  

The equipment settled down but it suddenly felt very crowded in the car.

The stark white building of the old aquarium soon came into view. While it was in the “sticks”, as Chase put it, it still had a runoff to the sea.

The team parked about 20 feet from the building, their cars nestled in the brush. Due to how long it had been since the building had actually been the aquarium of old, the forest had begun to engulf it somewhat.

However, unlike the forest that Eiji’s home was built in, that seemed to welcome and cradle the small family and shelter them from harm…

This forest, was hollow… the trees twisting in gnarled forms, as if ready to come down and strike.

“Alright, the plan is, we go in where the flow to the sea is coming out.” Eiji whispered, pulling out a schematic of the building. It was old, an image from ages ago but the skeleton of the building on the inside should still be the same. He pointed to an area he circled. “Looking up old pictures, this area had a ledge to walk on because some employees would leave that way or do maintenance.”

“Then…” Skyler used her fingertip to circle another area. “If we're lucky, Hikaru should be around where the sharks initially were kept. If he’s being kept in his changed form then he’d get sick in a tiny space. They can’t keep him in shallows. He HAS to move or he’ll die.”

“And they wanted him alive.” Lucian hefted his bag of supplies over his shoulder. “Which means, the kid should at least still be somewhat stable psychically.”

“Right.” Chase narrowed his eyes. “Lucian, you should go with Eiji. Skyler and I can take out security cameras.”

“With what?”

Chase pulled out of the back, a rather intimidating looking weapon. At Eiji’s glare of disapproval, he scoffed.

“It’s a BB gun. I checked, it’s legal. Albeit this is definitely NOT a legal version.” 

“And Sky-”

Skyler pulled out from her car a large aluminum baseball bat. She gave an experimental swing as it whistled through the air.

“Like I said, I got this. It’ll be risky if we all go in at once. Chase and I will follow after you guys.” She held up her cellphone. “But, we should all turn on tracking so we can keep tabs on each other.”

They all nodded, setting down their devices, before turning to the building.

“Let’s go.”

They ran towards the building, keeping low when they noted the cameras. They quickly got out of the range, moving between them.

“One… two…”

POP!

One camera was taken out. Chase aimed his BB gun at another, firing again as it was broken.

Skyler climbed up onto a ledge, swinging her bat as hard as she could, crumpling them in place, knocking them loose.

While they were dispatching the cameras, Eiji and Lucian slipped into the tunnel that the runoff came out of. As suspected, there was a ledge to walk along, albeit very small. 

With backs pressed to the wall, they pressed onward, sliding along carefully.

Eiji had muted the ghost box’s voice but still kept it on to see the text that would pop up.

“Dark tank, room of death.”

Room of death, huh?

“Eiji.” Lucian hissed, pointing above them.

A camera was slowly swiveling towards them. The men jumped across the stream of water, pressing against the opposite wall.

There was a spark as the camera was torn right out of the wall and dropped into the water. An orb flew by their heads at that moment as another camera further down was thrown against the wall.

“Thank you.” Eiji whispered.

They kept moving onward, huddled against the wall. Every now and then there was an orb that would move near them, almost beckoning them.

Chase and Skyler should be heading down this way any minute. 

Eiji and Lucian soon made it to the end of the runoff, finding an “EMPLOYEES ONLY” door.

“So, how bad you think it’s gonna be in there?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, it’s not gonna be THAT easy right?”

“Let’s not even speculate that.”

Eiji went to open the door, only for it to be wrenched open for him.

“I guess it’s that easy.” Lucian remarked, not even phased.

A gust of wind rushed them, a faint hiss in the air. The hallway before them was illuminated as a shadowy image formed on the floor…

The image of a woman with long hair that flowed in the wind created by her spirit.

Aika….

Eiji swallowed hard as the shadow began to move down the hall, a tendril like arm beckoning them.

“No… wait-”

“We’re here.”

Lucian and Eiji had to clamp their hands over their mouths to keep from crying out. Lucian whirled around, lightly smacking Chase on the shoulder.

“Idiot!” He hissed. “Don’t scare us like that!”

Chase grimaced.

“Well, sorry! We didn’t wanna get left behind!” He hissed back.

Eiji held up a hand, signaling for silence. The shadow was still moving, beckoning them.

Another gust of wind behind the team sealed the door shut. Sealing them in for now.

This is where it gets real.

Just please, be alive.

The hallway was dimly lit by flickering bulbs above them as they moved. Twisting and turning until the shadow lead them to another door.

Eiji took a deep breath before pushing it open. The team braced themselves to be mobbed by guards or what have you…

Instead, they found themselves in another hallway.

Bracing themselves, they made their way down. Old posters from the past hung on the walls, faded from age, almost like ghosts themselves.

Eiji nodded towards an entrance where light was coming from as they kept close to the wall.

He peered around the corner, taking note that they must have been near what used to be the infirmary for the animals that used to live here…

Instead, it resembled a morgue now, complete with lockers.

Room of death huh?

Two shadows appeared this time, on either side of the room, twitching and shifting in shape. Their forms taking on a more fish like appearance, long tails curling along the walls.

… This is where it happened.

“This is where they were killed. It has to be.” He whispered. 

Lucian snapped a picture with his phone, knowing they’d have to give this to the police later.

“Let’s make sure we keep up recording what we can eh?”

“Right.”

Click, clack.

The four jumped, looking down the hall. They could hear footsteps, slowly coming their way.

“...Frick.”

There was no choice was there? Even if they didn’t want to, they had to scramble. Skyler and Eiji ducked into a supply closet in the morgue, while Chase and Lucian darted back to behind a wall near the entrance they had come in.

It was foolish but they didn’t want to set off any alarms yet.

The footsteps were growing closer to the morgue, the shadows disappearing as they did.

Please, don’t need anything from here. Please.

My circle of protection, only that which is in the light can enter. You cannot see us, you cannot see us.

Skyler lifted up her cellphone, turning on the camera, setting it to record once the footsteps reached the room. They could hear whoever it was moving around.

“Let’s see… Ah, the samples from the female. Perfect. Ah, pity we couldn’t observe her more, but the autopsy was very telling.”

Skyler and Eiji exchanged a disgusted look. He opened the door, just a crack to see who they were dealing with.

They were a woman, in their 40’s if he had to guess, wearing a smock to cover them as they jotted down notes on a clipboard. Their dark, hair was tied back in a bun, red nails catching the overhead light. 

She moved across the room to the morgue locker.

“Let’s see… Today, we’re doing the male. Comparing his cells, to the juvenile.”

Skyler held up her bat, Eiji shook his head. 

Let me smash. She mouthed.

Eiji turned his attention back to her as Skyler held her up her phone to capture what was happening.

They both had to turn away as the morgue locker was opened. Skyler may have been recording, but neither wanted to see Daisuke’s corpse.

She’s sick… This is sick…. We gotta get outta here.

It was closed after a few minutes. Skyler and Eiji pulled back before they could be spotted as Skyler turned off the camera.

She narrowed her eyes, holding up the bat one more time.

“Wait.” He whispered so faintly that only she could hear. “We can’t.”

Even if he really wanted to. Oh, he was very tempted to let her go ham on this person.

But, we can’t go to jail either for assault. 

He watched, noting her back was to them. He slowly slid the door open as they made their way out, back to the hall.

“Eiji.” Chase hissed as they spotted their teammates standing near another doorway.

“How much did you get?” Lucian whispered as they huddled against the wall.

“... Stuff we shouldn’t have on camera but it’s enough damning evidence.” Skyler whispered.

Lucian shook his head.

We’re all either gonna need therapy or booze after this. Probably both.

“Let’s keep moving.”

There were no more concrete hallways with one off rooms from here. They entered what used to be the largest room in the aquarium.

They all remembered the signs and advertisements from back then. 

I remember way back when it was Geistville’s hidden secret that they had a Great White on display here with no issues.

No one questioned when coven members worked here. Especially Predator Born like the twins…

The tank itself stretched across a 50 foot radius, taking up the majority of the room. Once upon a time, it held one of the most majestic predators of the sea. 

It didn’t appear to be in use… At least, at this time. They noted it was set up more inside like an enrichment area for something to learn from… or someone.

Hikaru. 

Taking note of it, Eiji took another look, pressing his forehead against the glass.

“Are you here? Aika? Daisuke?” He whispered.

No movement…. at least, of shadows. He could see a faint movement far against the wall. He could barely see. It wasn’t an issue when the Great White was the only thing in the tank. Everyone saw it clear as day, swimming about…

That’s him. 

“We gotta get access to that tank.”  Eiji pointed to where he was looking, the others following suit. 

There was no mistaking it. The small form huddled against the wall… was a predator born merfolk. 

For a brief moment he was alone… then they saw them.

The shadowy forms of his parents, huddling around him in a protective ball.

“Hikaru…” He frowned, his heart breaking. “Please hang in there… Da-....I’m coming.” 

Lucian squeezed his shoulder.

“C’mon, let’s find the stairwell. They have to have a means to get in there.”

“Right. Skyler?”

“Already calling my buds at the department and filming.”

He grinned. So far, they had avoided detection, even found who they were looking for. 

But it can’t be that easy, can it?

He moved away from the tank, ready to find more… only to nearly ram into a person.

“Oof!”

“Hey! Watch it you dumb intern!” 

Eiji growled a bit as the man before him got up in his face. He was made very aware that they were not alone here.

“How about you watch your step, huh?” 

The scientist narrowed his eyes, looking him over. Eiji froze up a little, adjusting his glasses.

“... Which department do you work under?”

Eiji swallowed hard.

“My colleagues and I are…”

Lucian clapped him on the shoulder.

“Oi, Tadashi, you dummy, remember?” He laughed. “We’re with pathology!”

Tadashi? I thought I was… Oh, Lucian you are clever.

“Oh yeah? What are you doing here then?”

Lucian shoved Eiji aside a little.

“Don’t mind Tadashi, we’re all here for the same glorious purpose aren’t we? To prove to the world that we’ve finally made the discovery?”

The scientist studied him for a second before grinning.

“Very true.”

“Yes.” Lucian cleared his throat. “One of your associates sent me to get samples from the juvenile to compare to the deceased male.”

The scientist smirked.

“Being thorough. Of course Susan would send a full team to get a bit of flesh from the dorsal.”

Skyler hurried forward.

“That’s right! Do you know where we can get the sling to keep him still?”

… You all can’t be this smooth. They’re not gonna just let us get near him right?

“Hm… I’d have to get it from medical… Are you sure four of you can handle him? He’s a biter.”

“How hard would it be? He’s 14.” 

“You should’ve been on the boat.” He laughed. “We lost one but we had the three.”

Skyler had her bat behind her back, sliding it into her jacket, keeping behind Chase. The man had his back to them.

“I see… Shall we walk and talk? You three wait here.” Lucian gave Eiji a look as if asking permission.

He nodded.

“Yes… We’ll go over the goals for the biopsy.”

“Good, good.”

Once they were out of sight, they kept close to each other.

“Seriously, something is wrong with these people.” Chase whispered. 

Eiji looked around. There were only a few scientists milling about, heading to their respective departments.

“We’re not seeing the full picture. And I doubt we want to. We need to just play along.”

“And then I smash?” 

“Then you do whatever the heck you want.”