#And then other days its a look into an alternate dimension removed from time and space

[mewvore]

found a jean bustier at the thrift store. the justier

[home-sweet-hive]

ALTERNATE HUMANITY

A Field Guide to "Humanity Removal Therapy"

Part 2: Facade (ft. @dawning-mars )

This is a complimentary series to this system's other Animal HRT series; Black Arms HRT

Letter from your "Penpal":

Hey, very sorry about this part taking a while to come out. It's one thing for a comic to take a while, but I feel a little pathetic that it took me over a month to write this part out. Yeah yeah, "self deprecation isn't gonna get you anywhere", I know. Let me do things wrong sometimes. But hey, I did get it complete in time for the big Dragon HRT send off, so that's something I guess. Aik did a lot of being poetic and stuff yesterday with his Fish HRT fanart, I don't wanna bore you by doing the same. (Not like I have anything of the sort to say, anyways.)

Let's get on with the show. Thanks for reading and making the community what it is or whatever, I like writing about y'all.

WARNING: This part still has the Swearing, Mentions of Death, and the Untrustworthy Narrator/Main Character from last time, but also there are now Mentions of Cults and Violent Threats. Also just a general horror vibe, especially towards the end. Reader Beware.

Prev | Next (COMING SOON. HOPEFULLY.)

8:00am, February 9th, 2025

The following is an audio recording from Doctor Theodore H. Erian, transcripted into text;

“Eight in the morning, February the 9th. … Is that necessary? I’ll admit, I’ve never done something like this. I’ve had some patients of mine send in audio tapes for their transition journals before, for one reason or another, sure, but I’ve never made one myself. I… I just want to be vigilant.”

“That journal that I read a week ago… It still haunts me a little. I know, I know, I contort human bodies into resembling animals for a living, and a simple PDF sent to me via email is what keeps me up at night.”

“But in the days that have passed since I conversed with Doctor Fortune, I’ve been rereading those journal entries in between working with patients. I’ve been picking up on… Details. Unsettling details. The one that gets at me the worst is when the author mentions how the technology behind Animal HRT would ‘go to a much more important use’ if in their hands… Just what do they even mean by that? Furthermore, the author seems to work for a news station, but their descriptions in certain places throughout their entries suggests their workplace has responsibilities far beyond the scope of such a profession. They also seem rather close with and even have some authority over a pair of researchers from a laboratory, as if the two businesses are subsidiaries of another organization. The greater organization both the station and laboratory are under is probably the one Doctor Fortune mentioned in her emails, come to think of it.”

“But back to the point. The reason why I’m recording myself right now. The day that the journal suggested its author would come for me has arrived, and I indeed have several appointments on my schedule today. One of them being for a L. Black. I… feel like it’d be a breach of privacy to give their full name in this recording. But that patient does have the same first initial as the author of the journal, which is arguably the most important detail. I do have the full first name now, mind you, though I’m sure you’re not surprised to hear that the name was generic enough for me to get flooded with results from all sorts of different dimensions when I tried to look them up. In the end, I wasn’t able to get much information on them.” 

“The surname suggests a possible connection to the Black Arms, at least in my opinion. Soon before Doctor Fortune had approached me, I had been given a ‘notice of investigation’ by the Guardian Units of Nations. They’re trying to deter me from ever making or distributing an HRT for the Black Arms, and it honestly does seem similar to what Doctor Fortune is doing. In fact, I did try asking her a few days ago if she was affiliated with G.U.N.”

“She seemed rather offended by the question, chastising me for ‘comparing this situation to a video game plot’... Can she blame me? I work in and for a land between dimensions, for fucks sake…”

“But aside from that, I suppose all I can do now is… wait. Wait and see what Mr. Black does. What they… want.”

--

9:20am, February 9th, 2025

>Real time transcription from audio recording.

>Any typos or mistakes made are either L████’s or another ████████████████████████████████’s responsibility to detect and correct.

>Reminder: I am not a grammar checker, and my knowledge unfortunately relies on what is given to me.

[sound description: door opening, followed by a bell ringing, and the door then closing]

“Welcome to the TOHC Primary Care Center. Let me guess, you’re here for Doctor Erian?”

“Yep. I have an appointment.” 

“Do you now? Heh, most just waltz in here without so much as a 15 minute notice call…” “What’s your name?”

“L████ ████.’

“Thank you.”

[sound description: Tapping of keyboard keys]

“I see. You do indeed have an appointment with Doctor Erian, but you’re quite early, don’t you think?” 

“Am I now?”

“Yes. Your appointment is at noon. Did you mean to schedule it earlier in the day or…?”

“Noon is fine.”

“Good, ‘cause you wouldn’t be able to reschedule your appointment unless you changed the day outright.”

“Tch. Of course not.”

“You can go sit down in the waiting area now.”

--

9:30-10:30am, February 9th, 2025

Removed the recording of this section of time and the subsequent transcript made for it. Nothing of importance really occurred during this time, just people coming in and out of the building without much coming from that. Keeping it around was just unnecessary in my opinion.

--

10:40am, February 9th, 2025

Okay, here’s where things get interesting again~

[sound description: door opening, followed by a bell ringing, and the door then closing]

[sound description: distant talking, sound too far for accurate transcription]

[sound description: someone sitting down in a chair nearby]

“Oh, hello.”

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t notice you there, hun!”

“Don’t sweat it, I don’t mind having someone to talk to while I wait.”

“Ah, alright…” “So… What is it that you’re waiting for?”

“I have an appointment with Doctor Erian at noon.”

“Really? I have an appointment with him too!”

“Heh. Doesn’t sound much like ‘waltzing in here with no notice’ to me.”

“Huh?”

“Oh right, sorry. When I got here the receptionist made a remark about most people treating the place like a walk-in and I found it funny how you’re proving her wrong.” “But it didn’t quite click in time that you wouldn’t have been able to know that context.”

“I see!” “That’s… comforting? Maybe?”

“Hmm?”

“It seems like Erian isn’t the only one around here that’s got a sharp tongue…”

“Is he… known for being harsh?” 

“From what I’ve heard, yeah…”

“That explains some things, then.”

“But anyways, what kind of Animal HRT are you hoping to get on?” 

“Oh, I’m not here to get myself a prescription.” “My friend tried to get on Cat HRT through him but was denied. I’m trying to find out why.”

“Oh…”

“... Sorry if I made you uncomfortable, I-”

“No, you’re fine, hun.” 

“... If you insist.” “Can I assume you ARE looking to get a prescription, then?”

“Yeah.”

“May I ask for what?”

“A-ah, well… I know it sounds crazy, but-”

“No judgement from me, you’re in crazed company.”

“... I want to go on Eldritch HRT.” 

“Eldritch?”

“Y-Yeah. That’s… That’s what I want!”

“How interesting! Do you have a specific entity you want to be like? A cult you want to curate or join? Just how many so-called ���eldritch entities’ across the realms are you aware of? Are… Are you-”

“I… Haven’t given it all that much thought, to be honest…”

“That’s fine! That just means you’re up for anything, right?” 

“U-Uhm… I guess so?” “You seem… really excited by all this. Are you a fan of eldritch horror too?”

“I guess you could say that~” “Oh-! Where have my manners been? I don’t think I got your name!”

“Did I not give it? Sorry about that, hun!” “Mars ████.”

“Nice to meet you, Mars! My name’s L████. L████ ████.”

“Nice to meet you too, L████!” 

“But back to the Eldritch HRT thing of yours – how many entities are you aware of?”

“Well, I do know a good bit of the writings of HP Lovecraft…”

“Is that it?”

“Is there more I should know?”

“Yes! But that’s alright, I can teach you everything you need to know. Let me just-”

“Mars?”

“That’s me!”

“Shit, is it time for your appointment already? Well maybe we can keep talking after you-”

[sound description: Mars walks off with Doctor Erian to his office]

–

She didn’t come back to talk to me after her appointment. It seemed that she was pretty upset as she left the building. Did she get rejected too? 

I hope to meet up with Mars again soon. 

I sensed some hesitation in her voice as we talked, but I just know she’d be a perfect fit for us once she learns about us and what we are.

But anyways, nothing of interest occurred in the hour after my conversation with Mars, so I deleted that section of recording as well.

Which takes us right to my meeting with Doctor Erian. 

What a mess that was…

--

12:00pm, February 9th, 2025

The following is a written recounting by Doctor Theodore H. Erian.

I had originally intended to audio record my meeting with Mr. Black, just like the recording I had made this morning.

However, the moment I saw him, I knew that I would have to get on his level, so to speak. Audio wasn’t going to cut it when it came to conveying the full picture of my experience. 

So here we are.

As I mentioned in my emails to Doctor Fortune, I had gotten many, many results when I looked his name up, but despite all that, he managed to look nothing like any of them in person.

I could sense I was being deceived, or perhaps even toyed with in some way. But I wasn’t sure in what way it was.

After having noticed that, I then took notice of a rather large bag they had slung around their shoulders. Looked to be a laptop bag, by my best guess. I of course remembered what Doctor Fortune had said to me about not allowing him to show me anything on his laptop if they offer, and so I readied myself to refuse anything of that sort.

But to my surprise, he didn’t even do so much as open the bag. 

Instead, when he entered my office, he just… stood there, looking around at the place. This went on for about a minute or two – I wasn’t keeping exact notice of the time.

At first, I had thought that they were eyeing the various types of medication I had stored. But once he opened his mouth, it became apparent that it was something else entirely that had caught their eye…

“Is that an RCA RP3503 shoebox cassette recorder and player you have back there?” 

My recorder, the one I had used to record my personal record from this morning, the one that I had intended to use to document this meeting… That had been what he noticed first.

It's a bit impressive that they identified the exact model, I must admit. Didn’t help with how much they intimidated me in the slightest, though.

“... Yes? Why do you ask?” 

I had responded. I didn’t want to come off as suspicious to him, but rather, just genuinely interested in the conversation. I couldn’t let them know I had seen their journal.

“It’s not often I see a cassette player in the wild these days. Damn shame, I know that phones and mp3 players are more modern and in ways more convenient, and the typical ‘retro throwback’ audio playing format of choice is vinyl, but I really do have such a soft spot for cassettes.”

Really, I was surprised with just how normal this starting conversation was. If I was to be conspiratory, I could even say that it was too normal, as if he was luring me into some sort of false sense of security with this mundane discussion.

“Do you now?”

I replied, allowing the conversation to carry on.

“Yes! Though, I’d rather not get too sidetracked with all that!”

I remember it felt like a pit had dropped into my stomach when they said that. Here I was thinking I could give myself some time to formulate how I was going to respond to him trying to get answers out of me by fueling this clear interest of his. But it seems that they had caught on to that plan of mine.

“The real reason I pointed it out was to ask… You’re not going to use it to record this meeting of ours… are you?” 

He then asked me.

I wish I had been able to somehow record this meeting on video, because I don’t know if words alone can describe the bone chilling aura that the look Mr. Black had given me as they said those words carried. Somehow, his face managed to darken in real time, a shadow cast over the top half of it that made it look as if his eyes were glowing at that very moment. They had tilted their head ever so slightly as they spoke, their face adorned with a subtle, yet noticeable grin, despite the seeming worry that the question carried with it. 

Considering my line of work, I’m quite familiar with the inhuman, and let me tell you – I saw that inhumanness in this man in that fleeting moment.

Despite wearing what looked to be colored contacts of some kind, I could see in his eyes a wildness that was inherently animalistic. 

I know what Mr. Black is here for, and I know it isn’t treatment. But if I hadn’t known better, I may just have been convinced to hand him a prescription right then and there.

Or maybe he is already something other than human. 

I said no, of course not.

“Good, good.”

I don’t know what came over me, but I responded to that remark by asking him if he didn’t like his life being documented. 

“What an odd question…”

As if I hadn’t already regretted my words the moment they came out of my mouth, I certainly would have after that reaction from him.

I was like Icarus in that moment, my wings equipped as I set myself straight towards the sun. I had pushed my luck too far, and they were catching on that I knew more than I should. Surely.

“But to answer it, I do actually like to document my life. But I much prefer it when I’m the one doing the documentation. I’m sure you wouldn’t be too fond of me if I took your chair right there and started giving people prescriptions and check ups, would you?” 

I’ll admit, I’m not entirely sure what they meant by that comparison. He’s a news reporter, isn’t he? I do suppose in a way that is documenting lives, but that’s much more about others’ lives rather than their own, no? 

Either way, I shook my head no.

“That’s what I thought.” 

I really can’t tell why he was so surprised that “B” kiddo and Serena were intimidated by him. He has to be doing this shit on purpose to get a rise out of people.

“Can we get to the point of this meeting, please?” 

I requested. Maybe if I act just as intimidating, I’ll manage to evade ending up in whatever position he wants me to be in.

“Hmph. We may.”

He seemed unimpressed by my shift in attitude, his grin folding into something of a snarl. But he did oblige. 

“It is to my knowledge that a friend of mine, Serena Holmes, came by your office a little bit under a month ago seeking a Cat HRT prescription from you. You rejected her. Why so?”

Perhaps it was the frown they already had from their reaction to me making demands at him, but I could both see and hear the anger coming off of him that I had seen before in that journal of his as they spoke. 

No matter his motives, it does seem he cares about their friend.

“I had gotten a questionable result when I had run a-”

I answered. I knew it wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear, but I couldn’t let them know I knew that.

As expected, they cut me off mid-sentence.

“No. I want the real reason.” 

Despite my patience being worn quite thin by this point, I took a deep breath in and began to formulate a response to Mr. Black. 

My goal, at least at first, had not been to actually tell him the truth. Rather, it was to make up a lie that was believable enough for them to take it as if it was the truth. 

As I did such, they spoke again, unknowingly giving me a hint as to what route I could go down with this lie of mine. 

“And if you are telling the truth, what was the ‘questionable result' you speak of?” 

Looking back, I should have made use of that hint in my response.

“Okay, fine! You want the real reason? I’ll give you the real reason! I turned Serena away because it was clear to me that she didn’t truly know what it was that she wanted!” 

He had raised an eyebrow at my response, clearly skeptical.

“How… interesting. She seemed pretty dead set on being a cat to me.” 

I honestly couldn’t tell if they believed me or not, but they did act as if they did.

“But I suppose my perspective was skewed.”

In a way, that did give me relief. 

Even if it was a ruse on his end, I could also go along with it and feel confident in my responses, at least for a little while.

“But tell me, Doctor Erian… If that is the true reason you turned Serena away… Then why did you tell her it was due to a background check?”

It was a valid question, honestly, and a hole in the plot I was constructing. Hence why I had said earlier that I wished I had just gone down that background check route he had given me.

“I… I didn’t want her to believe I did not believe she was truly therian.” 

With a bit of hesitation, I sputtered out that excuse.

He wasn’t buying it. I could tell by the glare he had given me.

“Then why not be honest with her? You could have explained that they had simply seemed too unsure of kitself to go through with the procedure. You could have given it advice as to how to do some soul searching so that she could come to find her true self. All these things you didn’t do… Why is that, Doctor Erian?”

Their eyes almost seemed to lock onto me as they questioned me. I was a target for them, lined up for slaughter.

Before I could even try to plead my case, he continued.

“To me, there are only two explanations for this. Either you are bad at your job, or…

You’re lying to me.”

With that final explanation – or rather, accusation, he stood up from where I had him sit and slammed his hands on my desk. To be honest, it shook me quite badly. It wasn’t just the delivery, either, the words cut terribly deep as well.

“So, which is it?”

Deep enough to cause me to make perhaps the stupidest decision I’ve ever made in my entire life.

For I had let my ego and reputation get the best of me.

“... I lied to you.” 

I so stupidly confessed. 

Mr. Black grinned, grinning wider than he ever had by that point of the appointment, as he let out a truly evil cackle.

“I knew it.” 

And with that remark, they pushed aside the chair that was behind them, and walked over to behind my desk.

I yelled out to him that he’s not supposed to be back there, but he completely ignored me as he rummaged through my personal cabinets.

They quickly found exactly what I was hoping they wouldn’t. 

“How curious…!” 

He exclaimed, holding the note Doctor Fortune had given me during my first ever encounter with her in his hands.

I felt like I could have died right then and there.

“Looks to me you know a bit too much for your own good, eh, Erian?” 

He then turned to me, a sinister grin still stretched wide across their face while they held up the note, turned over to the backside where she had drawn that blasted symbol.

I wanted to say something at the time, I really did. But I must admit, I was petrified. It really is embarrassing to look back on. 

“Hmmm… one could argue that I should kill you right about now, make sure you don’t go spreading the good word unmanaged.”

They continued to speak as they crept up behind me.

“I don’t even know what that symbol IS!! All she told me was that it was the symbol of your organization!! She didn’t even tell me what it’s called!!” 

I cried out in desperation. As most people do, I didn’t want to die.

Mr. Black paused. His face softened, somewhat. 

He seemed to have realized that I, for once, was being honest with him.

“Who’s ‘she’?” 

He asked me quite plainly.

“D-Doctor Mirai Fortune… She had come into my office a couple months ago and left this warning for me… We’ve… We’ve been talking over email ever since, but she’s very vague about a lot of things…!” 

I confessed. I confessed all of it. I was convinced that I needed to do so in order to live.

“Is she the reason why you turned Serena away?” 

They looked at me with a look of certainty in what he expected the answer to be. But I answered anyway.

“Yes.”

Mr. Black finally sat back down in the chair across from my desk.

“See, was that really so hard?” 

I did not respond. Really, I am terribly repulsed by his sarcastic demeanor. It tends to come off more as patronizing than anything else. 

“I’d love to see those emails, if you’d be so kind.”

I wordlessly turned around my computer monitor for him to look through. I had the thought to warn them not to go into any patient files, but I didn’t act upon it.

“Hah! She really was as vague as you said, huh?” 

He remarked as he read through the emails. I did not react.

“Though, I do see that she let you get a sneak peek at my notes, hmm?”

An arrow of fear shot through my chest, making me worry that they would be angered by this. But much to my surprise, they had simply laughed it off.

“Hey, how about we make a deal, old man?” 

He offered. 

I looked at them, cueing them to continue. 

“I can give you not just these notes of mine, but ALL of my notes, completely uncensored. Any information on that symbol and what it represents you could possibly desire. A brand new market for your Humanity Removal Therapy… All of it, for one simple little price…~” 

I was skeptical. That was a big claim, a big offer. But I pressed further.

“What’s the price?” 

I asked him.

“Yes, yes… All you need to do to start this new chapter in your life… Is to give Serena her Cat HRT prescription.” 

That… couldn’t possibly be all there was to it. 

That was the singular thought in my mind.

It was too simple. There had to be more to it. 

He mentioned “a new market for Humanity Removal Therapy” – for all I could know, that could mean that they would steal my formula right from under me.

It would put me out of a job!

And I can only imagine what Iris would think…

“No. I’m sorry Mr. Black, but I just can’t do that.” 

I responded to him, knowing fully that it could get me killed.

I couldn’t betray my patients like that, though.

I can’t betray Iris like that.

Sure, we butt heads many times, but I would be nothing without any of them.

And above all, I want to see each and every one of them live their happiest lives.

I saw Mr. Black frown in response to my answer. It was surprisingly genuine. He looked… disappointed.

But as he prepared to talk to me, he smiled ever so slightly.

“So that’s why so many read you as a hardass… You’re a stubborn bastard.” 

He remarked.

Again, without waiting for a response from me, they continued.

“I know the feeling.”

After that, he stood back up, grabbed his things, and left. 

--

February 18th, 2025

The following is an email. 

To: Doctor Theodore H. Erian

From: Doctor Mirai Fortune

Subject: Final Email

Hello, Doctor Erian.

I have both listened to the early morning recording of yourself and the journal entry of later in the day that you provided in your previous email.

I am deeply disappointed in how you have handled the situation.

For your trouble in dealing with them and with me, I have provided you with the documentation our adversary made on that day. Consider it a sense of closure, as this is the last time I will ever be contacting you.

While I am glad you resisted the offer to join them, I cannot afford to have cowardice such as yours weighing me down in my fight against them.

I hope you understand.

Mirai

[thebrawlerina]

wait have you done Cordelius headcanons (I KNOW THIS IS MY SECOND ASK I’MMSORRY)

Its okay! I asked for asks. Youre fine.

I think I've done a few HC's with him before, but that was in relation to Lily. I'm not gonna check to see what I have mentioned before so if something comes up twice there, then oh well.

Cordelius HCs

Cordelius was one a humble staff member of the park. He was hired to help the Botany trio of Rosa, Bea, and Sprout to help maintian all the plant life in the park.

Then one day his just disappeared. Most didn't realize he was gone because he was 'just a gardener' and those that did just assumed he quit without notice. How rude.

It was only months later that he was discovered, completely changed and having been trapped in some weird forest/alternate dimension thats encroching on the park. What.

Cordelius was somehow able to explain this all off and the management just. Didnt wanna think too much about it and deal with it so they just let it be. They later decided to make a safer part of that area into an actual attraction because money.

Cordelius' personality changed during his disappearance. While he can get really excitable about things, he was a lot more mild mannered before then. It was like his time there exaggerated his personality.

His name also got oddly changed. His name was Cornelius, and it says so on all the paperwork. But since he got back from the forest hes been insisting that everyone call him Cordelius, and has even updated his paperwork to reflect that.

He doesnt mind being called Cordy though. Which is a relief to the people who were just intimidated by his name.

The only ones who remember Cordelius begore he disappeared (among the brawlers) are the Botany Trio and Gale. Of them only Rosa knows what he looks like now under all his layers, since he wanted to see if there were any other sideeffects to his disappearance.

Cordy rarely removes his mushroom getup since it says it 'makes him one with the shroomies'

Cordy's face is among 'the great mysteries of the brawlers' which include stuff like whats under Otis' masks and the like. Hes gotten quite good at fending off other brawlers from getting to his mask.

Gale was actually good friends with Cordelius even before the incident and was really worried for him when he vanished.

Cordelius isnt one for puns, but he knows enough mushroom puns to fight someone in a pun battle if he gets dragged into one.

Even though mushrooms are his new favorite, he still knows how to deal and care for other plants. He even knows how to do flower arrangements!

Cordelius doesnt actually have a room in the park proper. He claims he has a home in the shadow realm, but others think that he just sleeps in the trash cans.

He is ALWAYS willing to show people around the shadow realm outside of battle. He gets really excited about it, it makes his whole week when someone visits.

[uummi]

Written for @dicktimweek 2023

Day 6: Time Travel | Slade’s apprentice meets Ra’s’ heir | Hero/Civilian AU

Words Count: 2136

Title: Hourglass

Pairing: Dick Grayson/Tim Drake

Warnings: Alternative Universe-Dimension Travel-Royalty Setting| Implied Talon Dick| Implied Memory Loss| Non-Consensual Drug Use| Character Death| Some Blood and Gore| Body Swap| Implied Grooming

Tim had no idea where he was

One second he was in the watchtower waiting for Bruce to finish his work and go home, the other second he was trying to hold down the antique-looking magic item coming towards him at top speed to prevent from breaking

Now he was standing in the middle of one of the open bazaar from bygone eras with shabby clothes, greasy hair that had obviously not seen water for a long time, and a coal-black soiled face

The surroundings were too colorful to be a normal day, and the front of people's doors were covered with different items that could be dedicated as food and offerings

Tim wanted to be able to stop one of the hundreds of people passing by for a moment and ask at what time or exactly where he was, but because there was a possibility of distorting the perception of time, he kept his mouth shut from telling everyone and continued walking without knowing where he was, while at the same time checking his body

Under all that mud and dust, he was himself again. The same eye color, the same hair structure, even this body had a stabbing mark where the spleen should have been

He sighed deeply and ran his fingers over his face to remove the blackness from his face. He wonder if there was any chance that he could find water or something from somewhere, he felt really dirty

And then he realized how wrong what he had done was because from the moment his thin hands returned to their normal points, the gaze of every person in the bazaar turned to him in a confused, excited, but mostly scared way

Okay, this was starting to get weird. He frowned slightly and opened his lips to speak

But before he had the opportunity to do so, a young woman grabbed him by the arm and ran into the nearest apartment building

After the woman locked the door behind her, she started looking at Tim with her irises full of tears and started wiping the dirt on his body with a napkin that she dipped into a bucket that she filled with water

'My poor prince, you have forgotten again, have you not? It happens like this every time. You manage to make it to the end of the town, but your mind goes crazy before you can reach the person who will save you. My prince, what are they doing to you in that palace?'

At the sight of Tim's uncomprehending gaze, the woman sighed again, and after pouring the blackened water down the window, she took a small pigeon in her hand. The pigeon had a bell-like item on its foot and would probably make a noise that would spread around every second it flew

The woman, on the other hand, let the animal free without caring and after watching it fly for a few seconds, took him to a room with only a bed in it and locked the door behind it

Before hanging up, she also mentioned that she apologized for everything and did not want to do this

Tim took his head between his hands and banged it against the wall in anger. He should have thought about it a little more before doing something

But right now Tim had to combine the information he had. If what the woman just said is true, the body he is in right now belonged to the prince of this country, so in addition to being in a parallel universe, he probably also traveled through time because the kingdom regimes have taken off from validity at least 100 years ago in his own time period

He took the tip of his thumb nail between his lips and began to hit his teeth with anger while thinking at the same time

The other thing he knew was that the woman looked like she was afraid for his health. She said he had forgotten, so the owner of the body must being given drugs inside the palace or a medicine that caused memory problems, so he was not safe

But these were all results that were found if he accepted that the woman was reliable, so there was no possibility of saying much

And what was the reason why she apologized to him at the last moment? No, something was going wrong, and if Tim wanted to come back, he had to find a solution

He needed to start making plans but there were screaming sounds coming from outside...

Tim stuck his head up in the air with a speed that hurt his neck and started banging on the door. There wasn't even a window in the damn room, so the only way out was this piece of wood, but no matter how much he hit it, it didn't do anything but hurt his hands

In order to put strength on his shoulder, he went to the far end of the room several times and ran towards the door. When he finally succeeded, he felt his stomach lift because of the scene he was facing

This image was too much even for him, who had seen too many murders, so he could not say anything to the fact that the woman he thought had just helped him was gagging at the far end of the wall and crying

There were five bodies lying on the ground, if he hadn't counted wrong. Most of them had their internal organs chopped up and dumped at different points in the house. One of them had his upper and lower body separated from each other, his eyes were open, looking towards Tim

In the middle of everything, there was a man wearing an owl mask and holding a double sword in his hands

As soon as the man saw him coming, he left the soldier's body that he continued to torture and took his small body between his arms, ignoring the bloodstains that covered his own entire body

For a moment Tim could not decide what he should do. He wasn't sure if the body he was in knew how to fight, and he couldn't have focused more attention on himself, and it wasn't clear if this man would have left the crying woman alive if he ran away

In short, he had to be kidnapped...

Damn it...

From the moment they left the door, if you threw an injection just half an hour ago it wouldn't fall out and right now there wasn't even a single person in the bazaar, Tim felt the feeling of tension in his stomach grow even greater, and he turned his eyes to the man who continued to carry him without saying a single word

He was looking too calm for someone who had just put five people through a coffin

And he was exuding a familiar aura...

Tim puckered his lips and did the only thing he could do at that moment, quickly threw his hand towards the mask that hid the face

He could tell from the instantly stiffening body that the young man had guessed his movement, but after receiving no reaction, he put the item down and was confronted with a face from which he understood where the feeling of familiarity came from

Dick was the same in every sense, except that his eyes, which were normally blue, were yellow. There was even a scratch mark starting from under his lip and extending to the tip of his nose that he received on the last mission, and this brought to Tim's mind the hypothesis of bodies with the same characteristics

Of course, yellow eyes spoiled the job a lot, but the story about the Court of Owls in Bruce's time and the weapons they created, called Talons, was not so surprising as the result

So the Dick Grayson of this universe must be a Talon

The question is, what was the task of the Court of Owls in this universe?

Since he was squinting and not pulling his suspicious gaze away, the fingers on his body have been getting tighter and tighter, reminding him again of the fact that Tim had to say something

Dick seemed to be in control, so it might have been wrong to call him Talon, while the name Richard had never attracted him, and he didn't think he wanted to be called that right now

Wait, in this universe, was his name even Tim?

He started gritting his teeth, his nerves were starting to break down

Why was the summary of his life story impossible to decipher before traveling between universes?

His luckiest bet would be to call out like he always does, so he opened his lips and asked while praying for everything to go normally and to get some more answers from inside

'Dick, what's going on?'

None of the things he wanted happened. Hearing his own name, his older brother frowned and then took Tim into one of the alleyways, hitting him to the wall. Due to the effect of the impact, before he was even allowed to hold his back, a sword was held to his throat

Well, it must be the wrong decision to say Dick and right now he was going to be killed here

He was the only one who did not join this caravan on his family anyway so Tim did not feel betrayed and he knows this is not a good thing...

He looked around and tried to find something to help him defend himself, but the place was so deserted that he could even see the flying dust wheel

He took a deep breath and looked into Dick's yellow eyes

Tim hope that he wouldn't upset the Dick of his time too much with being dead

Well, who was he kidding, if anything happened to Tim, Dick would make life hell for everyone and tried to come here to take his revenge

In the battle of glances between the two, the big body opposite him must had seen something that, the sharp tool was slowly lowered and inserted into the scabbard

'You're not my Timmy, but you also are in a way?'

Although he didn't know how he understood, he shook his head up and down to get rid of this situation and felt his own eyes begin to fill up on the sad looks he received

Dick has always had a structure that destroys his walls, and Tim would not feel the need to hide his feelings next to him

A hand was extended to him, and Tim took a deep breath, looking at the joined fingers

Although it goes against everything he was taught, he chose to trust Dick

Because no matter what, Dick was the center of his life and Dick had never let down his trust

But it wasn't his own Dick he was facing...

With the needle-style tool pressed against his neck, he felt a tremor that instantly entered his body and a decrease in the ability to move in his legs. Just before he fell, arms were wrapped around his waist and his head was pressed to the point where the non-beating heart was located

Tim realized that tears were forming from the salt water coming towards his lips, and although he wanted to talk, he couldn't, so he made a little whimpering sound

The body holding him stroked his hair and started to walk back the way they had just passed

He saw that the woman, who he thought was helping him for only a few seconds, took a bag of gold from Dick and retreated

'Long live our king'

Oh would you look at that...

The real owner of the body was trying to escape from Dick himself...

Nightwing was in the watchtower, cradled and held the Tim, who was having difficulty controlling himself. He stroked the body to calm him down and then he fixed his eyes on the magic item in front of him with frowning eyebrows

The person standing close to sleeping on his chest right now was not his own Timmy. Although everyone diagnosed it as stupor under the influence of magic and went back to work, Dick knew much better

And Tim couldn't go back to his own body, just as it was done to the body in front of him, so someone in the place where he is now tried to cut off the wings of his little bird

He made a sound like a snarl between his lips. For years, he had tried to get his little baby into his cage voluntarily, and now, when he was so close to his request, someone was poking at his work

This meant war...

[comicbookddr]

Etharah Fanfic - Chapter 3

Word count: 880 words

previous chapter | next chapter (will be updated soon!)

check out on ao3! chapter is under the cut

“Do you want popcorn?” Jane asked. 

“I don’t eat popcorn,” Erica said as she sat on Ethan’s couch, surrounded by people she only tolerated at best. 

“Why?” 

“Because I don’t need popcorn.” She huffed. 

“Erica doesn’t know what she’s talking about, I need popcorn!” Rory said, reaching over her to grab the bowl from Jane’s hand. 

Benny reached over Rory and grabbed a handful from the bowl for himself, shoving shoving the popcorn into his mouth. 

“How does that work anyways?” He said while chewing. All 4 of them were squished onto the couch together and cramped shoulder to shoulder. 

“What are you talking about?” Erica said, scowling.  

“Like, where does the food go? Where does it go when you eat it?” 

Erica and Rory stared at him, both with completely different meanings behind their eyes. 

“That’s it! Two of you get off this couch right now!” 

Jane and Rory slipped down to the floor right as the opening titles of the movie started playing on the TV. Benny slid closer to Erica, which she responded to by pushing him to the other side of the couch with blunt force, knowing he got the message. 

“So… you do this every night?” Ethan asked, shoving his cold hands into the front pockets of his pants. 

“Usually every other day. They recommend a daily delivery, but I find it inconvenient,” Sarah responded. They slowly talked through the empty town, gliding across the glistening wet pavement of rains past. The street lamps were illuminated in the puddles, looking crystal clear, like they were portals to another alternate dimension. Sometimes Sarah found herself willing to jump through them, just to see what another life would look like for her, and if that’s something she would want. 

“I’m never out at this time of night,” Ethan said, looking up into the sky. He noticed the moon looked brighter when it wasn’t through the barriers of glass while peering through a curtain. 

“I wish that was the case for me. None of these vampire helpers work during the day,” Sarah said. She looked straight down at the sidewalk. 

There was a pause in their conversation as they ventured into a secluded playground. It was hidden by trees that had grown and warped themselves into a dangerous path most parents avoided taking their children through. It was clear that any aspect of childhood fun was long removed from the abandoned structure after the years of disrepair. The two climbed their way through the path to get to the other side. 

“I’m sorry for not believing you,” Sarah said to Ethan. She had already made it past the main root that blocked the main walkway, while Ethan was still struggling to climb over it. 

“It’s okay,” He said with a huff. Sarah put her hand out and helped him down from the tall ledge. 

“Benny and I searched. We figured whatever’s happening has nothing to do with my parents.” 

“But I was wrong to doubt you in the first place. I should never contradict your feelings.” 

“You weren’t doing that! I appreciate that you look out for me,” Ethan said. 

There was an old wooden mailbox nailed to a tree on the other side of the playground that the two started walking towards. 

“You know I always will. It’s not like I’m going anywhere,” She reassured him, which caused Ethan’s mind to wander into thoughts he wasn’t ready to fully examine. 

She used a key she had in her pocket and unlocked the wooden box. Ethan reached in to grab the container as an attempt to look much less scared than he actually was, which caused him to get a vision. 

Rory had resorted to fully covering his eyes from the screen as the movie reached its third act. 

“You’d think the gore would look more realistic considering this is a high budget film,” Benny said as he scoffed at the TV. 

“That blood is basically fuschia,” Erica agreed, shaking her head. 

“I don’t care how fake it is, I still don’t like it,” Rory said. 

“You’ve done and seen some of the most horrific things to people and animals in a way not many can understand, yet you’re terrified of this shitty ghost movie?” Benny said. 

“Ghosts scare me!” 

“You guys are the worst to watch movies with,” Jane complained. 

“When Sarah and Ethan watch movies with me, they always stay quiet and pretend to not stare at each other, which I like more than you guys.”

"You don't appreciate our witty banter?" Erica mocked. 

"Yeah! Or like how funny we are?!" Rory said after, not understanding he parrioted exactly what Erica already said. 

"You guys are not funny," Benny said, crossing his arms. 

"I am too!" Rory said. 

"No you are not," Erica chimed in. 

"Oh yeah? Check this out! Knock knock!" 

Erica and Benny sighed so loudly that Jane paused the movie and got up, going into the kitchen. The three bickering didn't seem to care or notice all that much. 

"What's wrong?" Sarah asked as she watched Ethan gasp for air and stumble to the floor. 

"It's my parents," He said through more gasps. "It felt like someone was gripping my throat." 

"Are you okay?" 

"Yeah… we need to go save them." 

Hey everyone! Sorry to leave it on a cliff hanger </3 I went a long time without updating so I guess this was me trying to spice it up a bit lol. Let me know what you think!

[jamisonblog]

Exploring Mobile Phone Skins and Design

In an era where our smartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives, it's only natural to want them to reflect our unique personalities and styles. Enter mobile phone skins, the ultimate accessory for personalizing and protecting your device. From sleek and sophisticated designs to bold and eye-catching patterns, phone skins offer a canvas for creativity like never before. In this blog, we delve into the world of mobile phone skins and explore the endless possibilities of phone skin design.

Mobile Phone Skin have gained immense popularity in recent years, thanks to their ability to transform the look of your device in an instant. Whether you're an iPhone aficionado, a Samsung enthusiast, or a loyal user of any other smartphone brand, there's a skin to suit your device. These skins are precision-cut to fit your phone's dimensions perfectly, ensuring a seamless finish that enhances its aesthetic appeal without adding bulk or weight.

One of the most exciting aspects of mobile phone skins is the sheer diversity of designs available. From elegant marble textures to whimsical floral patterns, there's something to suit every taste and preference. Whether you prefer a minimalist, monochromatic look or a vibrant, colorful design, the options are virtually limitless. With the rise of customizable skins, you can even create your own design or upload a favorite photo to be printed on your phone skin, adding a personal touch that sets your device apart from the rest.

But phone skins offer more than just aesthetic appeal—they also provide a layer of protection for your device. Made from durable vinyl or other high-quality materials, these skins act as a barrier against scratches, scuffs, and everyday wear and tear. Say goodbye to unsightly scratches on your phone's surface and hello to a device that looks as good as new, day after day. Additionally, many phone skins are designed with advanced adhesive technology, ensuring a secure fit that won't leave residue behind when removed.

When it comes to choosing the perfect phone skin design, the possibilities are endless. For fashion-forward individuals, there are skins featuring trendy patterns like animal prints, geometric shapes, and metallic accents. Tech enthusiasts can opt for skins inspired by their favorite gadgets, such as retro game consoles or vintage cameras. Meanwhile, nature lovers can bring the outdoors indoors with skins showcasing scenic landscapes, lush foliage, and majestic wildlife. With so many options to choose from, you can change up your phone's look to match your mood, outfit, or even the season.

But phone skin design isn't just about aesthetics—it's also about functionality. Many skins are equipped with features like textured grips or anti-slip coatings, providing added grip and stability when holding your phone. Others offer additional benefits like UV resistance, which helps prevent fading and discoloration over time. With these innovative features, phone skins not only enhance the look of your device but also improve its overall usability and longevity.

In addition to their practical benefits, Phone Skin Design also offers a sustainable alternative to traditional phone cases. Unlike bulky cases made from plastic or silicone, which can end up in landfills and contribute to environmental pollution, skins are often made from eco-friendly materials that are biodegradable or recyclable. By opting for a phone skin instead of a case, you can reduce your carbon footprint and make a positive impact on the planet.

In Summary, mobile phone skins are more than just a fashion statement—they're a versatile accessory that combines style, protection, and functionality in one sleek package. With their diverse range of designs and customizable options, phone skins allow you to express your individuality and make your device truly your own. Upgrade your phone's look and feel with a phone skin today and experience the art of personalization firsthand.

[sandibullock]

I was wondering if you could do a tutorial on this gifset that you did i really like ittt

Thank you for sending this in, anon! I’m glad you liked it and wondered how it was made :) Fun fact: the day before you sent this, I had just started working on my next set in that “Select Filmography” series. I hope you like that one too when it’s ready!

I think I should start by saying I’m pretty new to giffing myself and there might be more efficient ways of getting to the same result. However, the point here is to show you the process I went through to make this gifset and hopefully help you understand how to make a similar one.

To follow this tutorial, you will need some version of Photoshop and some giffing knowledge. I know there are multiple ways of making gifs so I’m just letting you know I’m using the timeline and the “Convert for Smart Filters” option (I don’t really know how else to call it).

Now let’s get started!

STEP 1 - CHOOSE THE SCENES

It might sound obvious but, in my opinion, this is the most crucial step. It’s also the one that takes the longest (along with step 7, aka the coloring).

At this stage, you need to have a general idea on how you want your set to look like so you can choose the scenes accordingly. In my case, I knew I needed two types of shots for each movie: one close-up for the main gif and one mid shot for the shape. I also needed to take two other criteria into consideration: the movement (because of the shape) and the lighting (because darker scenes are such a pain to color). Last but not least, I didn’t want the characters to be talking (but that’s just a personal preference).

With all of that in mind, you can start saving a few screenshots of scenes that meet your criteria (or at least some of them). In the end, there won’t be that many to choose from so be prepared to make compromises.

STEP 2 - MAKE A DRAFT

Now that you’ve preselected a few scenes, you can make a first draft. This will help you turn your general idea into something more concrete.

Basically, this is your opportunity to organize your thoughts. What size do you want your gifs to be? What shape are you going to use? On which side do you want the close-ups to be? Do you want all of them to be on the same side or do you want to alternate from one gif to the other? Do the scenes you chose work together (gif-wise but also set-wise)? Are you happy with the way it looks, overall?

By answering all of the questions you might have now, you’ll save yourself a lot of time, trust me. Of course, you can totally skip this step if you already know exactly which scenes you’re going to use and how you’re going to present them together.

To give you an idea, this is what my draft looked like for Atomic Blonde.

STEP 3 - PREPARE YOUR GIFS

Once you have a clearer view on how you want your set to look like, you can finally start giffing like you usually would (i.e. importing, cropping, resizing, etc.).

It should then look something like this.

The important thing to mention here is that you want both of your gifs to be the same number of frames (32, in my case).

Ideally, you should also aim for the ~same~ coloring (especially for the skin tone, since both gifs will be so close to each other). This bit is particularly difficult when you chose scenes which have opposite lighting (see my two uncolored gifs below). Remember how I insisted on steps 1 and 2? It was to help you avoid this. So my advice would be not to choose these types of contrasted scenes, unless you can’t do otherwise and you’re ready to suffer!

STEP 4 - MAKE YOUR SHAPE

To make your shape, you can click right on the Shape Tool (U) and select the last one, Custom Shape Tool. From the Shape menu appearing on top, you will be able to choose the shape you want from the drop down list and start drawing on your gif.

To be more precise with the dimensions, you can manually adapt the length and height from the Shape menu itself. I decided to go with the same ones as my gif.

Once your shape is positioned like you want it to be, you can drag and drop the shape layer under your gif. Next, you will have to click right on the gif layer/smart filter and select Create Clipping Mask. The result is as below. Note that if the size of your shape was smaller than your gif, you would still be able to reposition your gif with the Move Tool (V).

You can now export your shape gif, reopen it in Photoshop and convert it again to the video timeline and to a smart filter. This is where I’m not sure it’s the most efficient way of doing things but it’s the only way I found to keep the coloring of each gif separate. I also find it easier to work with a smart filter.

STEP 5 - COMBINE YOUR GIFS

To add your shape gif to your main gif, you can simply click right on the shape gif you just reopened and select Duplicate Layer. You can then choose the project which contains your main gif to duplicate it in there. Now go to your main gif and reposition your shape gif where you want it to be (how many times did I say gif here?). Finally, you can draw a new shape, using the same dimensions as in step 4, reposition it and choose any color you want from the Shape menu.

Since you will be repeating this process with your following gifs, I suggest you add a few guides so you know exactly where you should place everything to make all of your final gifs look the same.

(In case you’re wondering, the “Base” folder contains my adjustment layers/basic coloring for the main gif.)

STEP 6 - ADD THE TITLE

This step is pretty simple: go on the web and type “[name of the movie] title”. Download the png you like most, open it in Photoshop and resize it to a length of about 150-200 pixels. Next, duplicate the layer to your main gif and reposition it. In case you need to resize it again, select the title layer and go to Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl+T).

This is optional but in case you want to change the way it looks, know you can always duplicate the title layer and play with the blending options (see below). The good thing with a png is that you can also add some effects by clicking on the “fx” button.

STEP 7 - ADD COLORING (OPTIONAL)

To be honest, I had not planned on coloring my gifs. But I had already spent so much time on them and I was still unhappy with the way they looked. I mean, see how grey-ish they are? Not great...

So the only thing left for me to do was to add some colors. Now, since coloring is worth a tutorial on its own and it already exists, I suggest you read through becca’s mega coloring tutorial (and especially steps 3 & 5). Seriously, shoutout to her for making this incredibly useful tutorial. She is so talented and I love everything she makes!

My Atomic Blonde gif barely even needed coloring so I’ll show you what I did for my Tully and The Old Guard gifs.

For the first one, once I had found which colors to use with which blending option and opacity level, I only had to remove the colors from the left side of the gif because there was barely any movement in that scene (phew!). For the second one, on the other hand, I decided to color frame by frame because there was way more movement, in comparison. This is quite a tedious process, which is why you want to limit yourself to a certain amount of frames.

I’ll conclude by saying there are so many things you can do with coloring and what works with one scene might not work with another. So experiment with it: try different colors, play with the blending options and opacity levels, add some gradients and/or gradient maps, etc. Just know it will take some time to get to a somewhat satisfying result!

And that’s it... I hope this tutorial made sense and was somehow helpful. Of course, don’t hesitate if you have any questions! Also, if you do end up making a similar edit, pleeease send me the link or tag me in the replies or something ‘cause I would definitely love to see it!!

[kaleidoscopic-quiddity]

Upside-down and/or superpowers questions that may be answered in season 5

I don't think every single question on this list should be answered, nor would it be good for them all to be, since then it'd leave no space for fan theories and personal interpretation, but I do think season 5 is going to tackle at least several of these questions

Questions about Will:

How did Will survive as long as he did in the UD?

Why single out Will Byers specifically? We know now that its not just by chance that Will was taken and then possessed, so why him?

How did Will manipulate the circle of lamps in his room when Holly was there despite that he was likely exhausted/dehydrated/etc?

Similarly, how did Will talk to Joyce via the alphabet xmas lights when he would've been far too short to reach them and, again, likey on very low energy? Were the letters even there at all for him in the UD seeing as it's stuck in time?

Why is the UD stuck on the day Will went missing?

How did/does Will's true sight actually function? Is he a 'living gate' like some people have theorized?

How did Will call the Byers house phone from the UD and get a clear enough connection to the point where Joyce could hear his breathing?

If Will can feel Henry's feelings, can he feel Will's?

Does Will have latent telekinetic/psychic powers? If so, were they repressed due to trauma? How come Will and his family, especially El, haven't noticed them?

Is Will touching his neck when he feel's Vecna &/or the Mind Flayer's presence a reference to the chip that El pulled out of Henry's neck?

Questions about Henry:

How was he born with telekinetic and psychic powers?

Why did his powers develop/manifest around the age of 12 (give or take a couple of years) of all ages?

His powers mirror El's in that he has telekinesis, and Kali's in that he can make people see things, is this an intentional parallel?

Why did nobody look for him after he was comatose and then taken by Brenner? did he have no other relatives? Was it a government cover up?

What is his ultimate goal? We know he wants to destroy the social constructs he deems arbitrary and oppressive, and create a new world, but does he want to massacre humanity? Rule over them?

Why couldn't he remove the chip from his neck by himself? El took the chuck of Mindflayer out of her own leg in S3

How exactly did he survive as long as he did in the UD? Sure he had incredible powers, but so does El, and she still needs to eat and drink

Why does music specifically of all things cut through his Influence? Is it simply just because it 'reaches deeper parts of the mind' like the Pennhurst doctor explained?

Are the parallels between him and Will (sensitive kids, likes art, quiet and awkward, etc) intentional? Did Henry single Will out because he sees himself in Will?

Why did Brenner decide that Henry couldn't serve his needs and instead look for/create more kids with powers?

What was the chip in his neck for, was it just a tracker? Did it release drugs or electrocute Henry? Why don't El and Kali appear to have ones?

Does Henry realise how hypocritical it is of him to call UD beautiful because it was 'unspoiled by mankind' only to enforce his own will upon it and twist it to suit his goals?

How did Vecna dissappear into thin air after being shot out the window of the UD Creel house?

Questions about the Upside Down:

Did it already resemble Hawkins before Will got taken? Did Will consciously or subconsciously shape the UD into mirroring Hawkins

What is the UD? Is it an alternative dimension? A parallel universe? Hell?

Was the giant cloud that Henry shaped the Mind Flayer out of already alive and/or sentient?

Was everything in the UD already a hivemind or did Henry them all?

Why does heat, specifically, hurt UD creatures?

Are those air particles actually toxic? Were the lab staff just being over cautious? Or is most of the extended party going to develop a mysterious lung disease in a few years time?

How come we've seen numerous demobats and demodogs, but only 2 (or 1? Its kind of unclear) demogorgons?

Why is the demogorgon bipedal and humanoid? Did it already exist naturally as part of the UD or did Henry make it?

Does the UD exist for the entire planet, or even universe, or is it just limited to Hawkins?

Were the vines spreading in season 2 an early attempt at setting up and opening more gates to swallow Hawkins? Or did they serve a different purpose?

Was the UD already there before El sent Henry to it? Or did she create it when she opened a gate for the first time?

Questions about the numbers, superpowers, and Terry Ives:

All of the other numbers seemed to have telekinesis and psychic abilities like El, was Kali an outlier?

Did Terry Ives already have powers before she was involved in the ST version of MKUltra?

Terry's research into missing kids shows that not all of the numbers were taken at birth, and Kali was even kidnapped all the way from England, thus it can be assumed that the numbers don't have their powers just because their mothers were involved in MKUltra, so how and why do they have powers?

If Terry did gain her powers specifically from the MKUltra experiments, why hasn't this been replicated? Do all people have the potential for superpowers if they do the right thing?

How many numbers were there in total? Are El, Kali, and Henry the only remaining surviors of the lab?

How exactly did El open the gates? What does opening a gate into an alternate dimension have to do with being telekinetic?

Were El and Kali the only female numbers?

Food, particularly sugary ones, appear to give El the energy to use her powers, so does using them count as a bodily function? Does it burn calories?

Other general questions:

What is the 'In-Between' black void space El looks for people in? Is it a real physical dimension like the UD? Or is it purely a manifestation of El's powers when she's in sensory deprivation?

How did El actually save Max? Did she manually beat her heart via telekinesis? Did she 'give' Max 'life energy'? Can she just straight up heal physical injury?

Is there a limited range on how far El can look for people? In season 1 she finds some Russians so how come she never found Hopper, despite almost certainly trying at least once to look for him?

Why were the Russians studying the UD and the democreatures? Was the plan purely just to use them as weapons?

Can the UD be 'sealed off' for good?

[hopeymchope]

Persona Lite with Fire Emblem sprinkles on top

I’ve been addicted to Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore on my Switch for the past few weeks, and I’m getting close to wrapping it up. I figured it’s high time I talked about it a bit.

The game that would become Tokyo Mirage Sessions (TMS) was first announced as “Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem,” which is absolutely not a good way to describe what this became. 

This title led so many people astray.

What comes to mind when you think of (mainline) Shin Megami Tensei games? An apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic setting. First-person-perspective battles. Negotiating with demons. Battles against deities. TMS contains a little bit of the third thing on that list, and none of the others. 

What comes to mind when you think of Fire Emblem? Medieval-era settings. Permadeath (either optional or mandatory). RTS-style combat. The famed “weapon triangle.” Support conversations. TMS contains the fourth thing on that list, and none of the others. 

But let’s be honest here: For most people (especially Westerners), the first thing you think of when you think about Shin Megami Tensei isn’t even the games with “Shin Megami Tensei” in the title. It’s the Persona series! They’ve grown far more popular than their parent franchise at this point.

So I suppose it was natural that TMS is, at its core, a “Persona Lite” game. The darker edges of Persona titles are removed in favor of something more T-friendly, but the basics are all there: A group of teenagers in modern-day Japan discover a strange alternate dimension that they can access which also gives them the ability to summon supernatural powers/entities. When people start to go missing in this other dimension, it falls to this group of teens to unite and save the day, ultimately leading to them discovering the reason why this alternate world has been bleeding into modern Japan in the first place and, in the end, saving humanity from annihilation. That’s totally how Persona works, and it’s also totally how Tokyo Mirage Sessions works!

However, instead of summoning Shin Megami Tensei demons as “Personas,” the heroes of TMS summon Fire Emblem characters that are “Mirages.” Each character is permanently linked to a single Mirage, so there are no “Wild Card” characters here. However, you can level the characters’ mirages up to make them take on new forms and new abilities. FE fans will notice that all of the characters here are from the Falchion/Tiki/Shadow Dragon stories - the two Marth adventures (Shadow Dragon/Mystery of the Emblem) and the semi-recent 3DS hit Awakening.

For some weird reason, all of the Fire Emblem “mirages” wear helmets, masks, or other face coverings 100% of the time. The only exception is Tiki.

The lack of the darker themes in many Persona games and the fact that there’s no “Wild Card” to manage is what makes this, in my opinion, more like PERSONA LITE. And then you get your Fire Emblem backup characters to serve as extra flavoring. The characters we meet from Fire Emblem are rarely the focus — you spend most of your time with the teen heroes — but they still manage to show off their unique personalities and carry in a load of FE fanservice. (The good kind of fanservice where it’s full of references and nods to the continuity of the series, I mean. Not the other kind where it’s softcore porn.)

Fire Emblem fanservice was one of the biggest delights for me here. If you’re looking for any SMT/Persona characters to pop up and link the continuity together, you can stop looking because they aren’t here. But if you want to see specific characters from the three source FE games pop up here, a metric ton manage to do so. For example: Tharja (from Awakening) creates two golems for training purposes, which she names Bord and Cord after the pair of heroes from Marth’s era. And then the actual spirits of Bord and Cord possess those golems. So naturally, they start bickering and fighting. It’s delightful. 

So yeah, there’s plenty of nods for FE fans to appreciate even if your favorite characters are taking a back seat to a bunch of teenagers. Fire Emblem fans will recognize the heroic mirages, the enemy boss mirages, the weapon triangle weakness/strength system and lots of musical cues. On the flip side, Persona fans will recognize the story structure, the magic spells the characters wield (things like “Mazio” and “Diarama” and “Rakukaja”), the common enemies you encounter and cameos from a few of the more famous demons found on signage around Tokyo. Sadly, there are no familiar sounds or music pieces borrowed from SMT/Persona that I noticed.

In addition to the main story, there are also “Side Stories” for your party and side quests from various NPCs. The whole game lasts around 50 hours even if you aren’t trying to 100% it.

And while the music here is mostly pretty good — especially the Fire Emblem themes — I really wish we’d gotten some Persona-style tunes in here. Persona soundtracks are absolutely killer and everybody knows it. I wanted to hear some Shihoko Hirata, some Lotus Juice, some Yumi Kawamura, some Lyn Inaizumi. Alas, that never happens. Sad face.

In fact, as far as vocal tracks go, you’ll only be hearing the performances of the main characters. See, the story this time revolves around a group of teens who are hired by a talent agency to become young starlets of the stage and screen. You meet plenty of pop idols, a cooking show host, aspiring actors, and those who do combinations of the above. There’s a lot of focus on the Japanese entertainment industry, and it’s mostly a very positive portrayal about how hard teen stars work to reach their dreams and how fulfilling it can be when they express themselves through their artistic pursuits. Speaking as someone who legitimately does not care one iota about the idol industry in Japan or Asia as a whole, I’m very happy that these characters managed to remain likable and their pursuits stayed enjoyable throughout. No one here is an ultra-deep character, but no one here is a total cipher, either. I’m additionally thankful that the vocal songs are another highlight of the soundtrack alongside the FE tunes. 

The last thing I’ll bring up is the “Sessions” mentioned in the title. It’s a battle mechanic wherein striking an enemy with a weapon or element they’re weak to will enable other characters to start jumping in with follow-up attacks. At first, it’s just one or two follow-ups, but by the game’s end, you might be sitting there for 15 or more consecutive strikes on an enemy after you initiate a “Session” of follow-ups. The greatest quality-of-life improvement built into this Switch port is that you can turn on “Quick Session” to make these attack animations much shorter and more rapid than they ever were in the Wii U original. I never had to play that one, but I can’t imagine I’d have much patience for constantly triggering 15 attack animations with every round. SO glad I don’t have to sit through that.

This is just a two-strike Sessions, so it won’t last long enough for you to take a beverage break.

So yeah, there’s a lot for RPG fans, Persona fans, and most of all, Fire Emblem fans to dig in “Tokyo Mirage Sessions.” And since we already covered that Danganronpa fans are apparently predisposed to enjoying Persona and Fire Emblem, that probably means that YOU, dear reader, are likely to dig this game as well. 

[wixelt]

Hermitcraft: Season β AU #001 - Beginning

So, here’s where we find out of how much of this has leaked out of my brain throughout the day. Going to start by reiterating my initial post on this.

While asleep, my dreams invented a new AU, & I spent about 5 mins when I woke trying to recall details before realizing my brain had taken parts of @hermitcraftheadcanons' Scattered, elements of mod packs like Sky Factory & a non-existent alternate ending to Hermitcraft Season 6, alongside some stuff involving superhero outfits & whatever else was on my mind (Farscape, Gravity Falls, RWBY Vol.8 finale, Backrooms creepypasta, non-existent details of my RL, etc.)... & threw it all in a blender.

So, ladies & gentlemen, I give you the Season β AU, or whatever I still remember of it, from a mix of what I recall of the dream & what I've worked out or opted to change since.

- At Season 7′s end, the Hermits hold a gathering to celebrate all the things they’ve worked on & are proud of, from builds to events to pranks. Because of the 1.17 “update” to the multiverse, arranging the new world’s taking longer than X expected, so this event’s almost a buffer while he waits for it to be ready. It’s held in what’s kind of a void-like lobby dimension between worlds - think the place from RWBY Vol.8′s finale, for those trying to factor that in - as X didn’t have time to set up anything more or make arrangements with another admin. So slightly creepy empty void will have to do.

- This is all well & good, the Hermits - minus Grian (or Jevin - i’ll address the uncertainty on that at a later time), who stayed behind due to a sudden illness - making the best of the Void place for a few impromptu games & the like. But then things begin to go south. As most of the details of this dimension have been worked out since I woke, I haven’t determined the exact cause, but something finds its way into the Void space, rectangular, transparent “windows” in the darkness beginning to appear like glass panes. From them, these almost flowing, liquid like humanoids emerge - visibly appearing to be less detailed, shadowy blue-black doppelgangers of the various Hermits - staggering in with some effort... & lunging for their originals.

- X tries to “remove” these aberrations, that have invaded his region of control, but they don’t respond to his command inputs, & before he can do anything else his double is upon him, wrapping around him & dragging him away, helpless. There’s screams & shouts as the Hermits try & fail to fight back (here was where I learnt my brain had heard enough of Stress to do a passable dream impression of her), & one by one the remaining Hermits watch their friends get dragged away as if their seasons of building power & skill have amounted to nothing, each dragged back through one of the 2-dimensional “panes”, where their watery shadow doubles vanish, leaving each Hermit banging fruitlessly on the other side, powerless.

- Soon, there’s no-one left. The last to go are the strong fighters like False & Wels - who dodge, weave & slash their way around & away from their copies - & “darksiders” like Ex & Hels - who technically gatecrashed the party & who’s doppelgangers only came for them after X & Wels were already trapped. With that, the Void space collapses, & the panes get pulled into the ether along with their prisoners.

- An unknown amount of time later, the Hermits awake, each of them having a throbbing headache that’s slow to fade. There’s not a single other Hermit in sight, leaving them all alone. What they do see, however, is something that’s very alien from what they’re used to. A jungle biome, seemingly spanning endlessly in every possible direction, tinged an unnatural shade of painful to look at blue, unlike the usual deep green. And above the canopy, like an omen, is an empty, black Void-like sky, devoid of even the smallest detail.

- Wherever the Hermits are, they aren’t in Kansas anymore.

More to come, but I wanted to post the stuff built on the part of the dream that felt like the chronological “start” to me first.

[lassieposting]

skulduggery/alt!serpine for the getting together ask game?

I’m bored, so. Send me two (or more) characters for a headcanon on how I’d have them get together

OHOHOHOHO SEE THIS IS A GOOD ONE BC

ive already been thinking about this and im. Lowkey really glad im not the only one

See I always hated skug with any serpine, like I was a passionate anti from 2007 - about three months ago but. I enjoyed their dynamic in phase one and then i read like three of their interactions from sow and got converted or some shit apparently idfk, anyway u know i love an angsty ship

this got really long so tldr; enemies to vitriolic hate-sex buddies to lovers, painfully slow burn, but they'll both die claiming they still hate each other

It begins with China.

She orders him to kill Serpine, and he refuses. He's not even 100% sure why when he does. It's not like they're friends. He's killed people he liked a good deal more than Nefarian Serpine under orders.

But she says, "kill him" and he says, "no", and then things spiral so quickly that it's actually a few days before he even has time to think about her parting shot, flung at him as he walked out on her: "if you want to keep him, you'll be the one looking after him. He's your responsibility, not mine. And if he hurts someone, you -"

He'd shut the door on her at that point, but he knows what she was going to say. You look after him yourself, you train him yourself, and if he hurts someone, you kill him yourself. A wonderfully old-world way of looking at things. He's fairly sure he remembers getting the same speech from the housekeeper when he tried to bring home the ugliest feral tomcat he'd ever seen as a small boy.

(This will come back to bite him. He's not sure how or when, but it will. That's the way of things, whenever he turns his back on China Sorrows. Her last parting shot - a classic "you'll regret this" - ended up getting him killed.)

But then there's Mevolent, and cleaning up a city in the aftermath of its latest Traumatic Event, and putting a size 10 to the backsides of the City Guard, so his priorities get reshuffled somewhat, and it's almost a week later that he thinks to ask, "Heard from Serpine lately? He's being oddly quiet."

Valkyrie blinks at him from the passenger seat. Her fingertips tap tap tap at the touchscreen. She's messaging someone. He doesn't know who. "He's...around."

"Why the pause?"

"Hm?"

"You paused," he points out, switching lanes to get around a hatchback dawdling along at 60. "He's...around. You're trying to hide something from me. I'm aware you still talk to him, you know."

She doesn't deny it. He's gotten used to that, in the last few years. She doesn't tell him things anymore. It's that distance, the distance he can try to banter over but never truly remove. She's a lot further away than his passenger seat. "He's been looking for somewhere to live, like. Now that he's here for good. So, you know. That's probably keeping him busy."

Nefarian Serpine is living out of a stuffy first-floor rented room above, of all things, Vaurien Scapegrace's pub.

He knows this not because China was having Serpine followed (although she was) or because plenty of old faces from the Sanctuary still owe him favours (although they do), but because he receives a text from Scapegrace at a quarter to midnight, in the middle of a grisly murder scene.

have u beaten anyone up lately? do u want to? think thrasher just rented one of our rooms to a war criminal

He taps out a response, half-focused on the screen and half on Valkyrie examining the photos on the dead man's mantelpiece. She looks like she's just figured something out.

Which one? Thrasher, or the other guy?

By the time he's dropped her home, said hello to the furball and returned to the city, morning is bleeding into the sky. He knocks sharply on Nefarian Serpine's peeling rented door, and then again when there's no response.

From inside, a thud.

Then another, followed by some deeply impolite language, and then the door jerks open. Serpine, wearing an impressive bedhead, a scraggly attempt at a beard and a pair of patterned socks with a hole in the toe, squints out into the hall and snaps, "D'you have ANY IDEA what time it is? This place is supposed to - ah, shite. It's you."

"It is," he agrees.

Serpine gives him a sulky jerk of the head - an invitation - and vanishes back inside. He follows, closing the door gently behind him. Inside the room is dark and depressing and smells faintly of mildew and sweat. There are clothes on the floor.

He pulls the curtains open and looks out the window, giving Serpine some privacy to get dressed.

"Found me at last, have you?" Serpine asks from over by the bed. There's a rustle of fabric and the sound of a belt being done up. "What do you want? Come to take my other hand?"

That's it. That's what's different. "Other? You don't seem to be missing any at present, Nefarian. Valkyrie's work, I take it."

Serpine sits down on the bed with a squeak of springs, and when Skulduggery turns to face him, he's smirking and, thankfully, wearing trousers. "Ever so nice of her, wasn't it? Doesn't work like the old one, though. You know. The one I used on you."

He sighs. "And here I thought this last week would've given you time to come up with some new material."

Serpine shrugs and spends a moment picking out a pair of shirts from the wardrobe beside the bed. If it's a test, it's a painfully obvious one. Almost an invitation. Go ahead, shoot me.

No, this is something Skulduggery knows far more intimately. A display of brittle confidence in the face of a threat. I'm not afraid of you. Do your worst.

Serpine is afraid of him. Afraid of being arrested, maybe, or killed, or worse. He'd have relished that fear, once. Delighted in flipping the tables.

He leans back against the desk, ankles crossed and arms folded. After a moment, Serpine turns around with a shirt on a hanger in each hand. He holds them up for an opinion.

Skulduggery points wordlessly at the green one, and the blue goes back in the closet. "If you're not here to kill me, what do you want?"

While Serpine is doing up his buttons, Skulduggery retrieves the folded sheaf of paper from the inside pocket of his long coat, and holds it up. "I came to drop these off."

Serpine's vibrant eyes narrow. "What is that? An arrest warrant?"

"A list of landlords in Roarhaven willing to rent to refugees. Valkyrie mentioned you were looking."

Serpine blinks at him. Skulduggery doesn't often bother with the facade in Roarhaven, but if he had a face right now, he'd be blinking back. It's a weirdly awkward moment.

"...thanks," Serpine says after a moment, tentatively reaching for the papers; Skulduggery leans forward to pass them over. "That'd be...helpful."

He sounds very uncomfortable saying those words. When Skulduggery responds, "You're welcome," he feels much the same.

Serpine unfolds the papers and skims them. Three pages of property listings. Tipstaff had printed them off for him with only a raised eyebrow and a, "Never thought you'd move out of Dublin, Detective."

"What brought this on?"

He looks up. "Hm?"

"You show up here at an ungodly hour of the morning, nobody to rein you in, and you're being helpful? I don't buy it. I know China as well as you do. She told you to kill me, didn't she?"

"She did," Skulduggery acknowledges, and a very old, very spiky part of him gets a kick out of watching the blood drain from Serpine's face. "I told her no."

"Bollocks."

"Hard to believe, isn't it? But it's true. Ah, don't look at me like that, Nefarian. It's got nothing to do with you. I was just feeling argumentative that day. And, if nothing else, I can always rely on China to argue with me if I tell her no."

"So -"

"For my sins, she made you my responsibility, see. I'm supposed to keep an eye on you, make sure you don't get up to any of your old tricks. And if you do, then I'll kill you. I'll be checking in on you to make sure you're behaving yourself. Think of me as a...probation officer, of sorts. With benefits."

More blinking. This version of Serpine is not a morning person. He bets his alternate self got to sleep in far later in this Serpine's dungeon. "I'm not seeing any benefits."

"The benefit is I get to kill you if you step out of line. I never said the benefits were for you."

"Are there any benefits in this for me?"

He considers this for a moment. "You get to live. Because of me. I saved your life. "

Serpine's face is emotionless and his voice is flat.

"Oh," he says. "Yippee."

He's interviewing a witness when his phone rings.

He politely excuses himself, and steps out into the hallway to answer it. "Pleasant."

"Hello!" Serpine says brightly, and launches immediately into, "I want a car."

Skulduggery's fake face blinks at the sigil-embossed wallpaper. It takes a second to even register the voice, and another to pick up on -

"How the -? Who gave you this number?"

"Valkyrie." Serpine sounds completely unapologetic. "And you're supposed to be teaching me to drive."

Serpine can't see his head tilt. He does it anyway. "Am I now? And what gave you that idea?"

"I'm your problem now, remember? Besides, you agreed to it," is the smug answer. "Before our little holiday back to my dimension, I said I wanted a better house and a latte and a car. And driving lessons."

"I never agreed to that."

"Well, you didn't say no. That's agreement by default. Sorry."

"Plenty of people can teach you to drive, Nefarian. You could teach yourself, even. Watch a video on Youtube."

"Detective Pleasant, I am shocked," Serpine teases, suddenly dripping with insincere concern. "Think of all those poor defenceless mortals I could run into. There's an advert on the television about how you're specifically not supposed to hit them with cars. It kills them, apparently. How will I cope without you there to make sure I resist temptation?"

Skulduggery grinds his teeth. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Immensely. I'd completely forgotten how much fun it is to have you at my mercy. And you did say you're supposed to keep an eye on me."

Skulduggery goes quiet for a moment, focusing on reining in the urge to hit something. Serpine's face. He wants to hit Serpine's face. With a chair. Trust him to figure out that being Skulduggery's responsibility meant he could go to him for help.

"Fine."

"Excellent! And now you have my number, so you can let me know when you're free."

"Since when do you have a mobile?"

"Since today," Serpine says airily. "Tanith helped me pick one out. I can talk to anyone, anywhere, whenever I like now. Isn't that great? I mean, I only have two numbers, three now that Valkyrie's given me yours, but still. Now I'll always have someone to talk to."

"This is a work line. It is not for social calls."

A passing sorcerer startles a little at his tone, and he gives her an apologetic smile. As an afterthought, he rolls his eyes in a you know how it is gesture. But she's already walking away, so really he just rolls his eyes at her back, which is probably rude of him.

Serpine is still talking. "- can send little moving pictures, and I've downloaded all these little applications, so now I do all sorts of fun things. Do you use...whatsit...Snapchat? I have Snapchat now. And I've got Angry Birds and Candy Crush and Grindr."

And that? That right there? That is more than he ever needed to know about Serpine.

"Goodbye, Nefarian," he says firmly, and hangs up.

He checks in on Serpine once a week, officially. Unofficially, he clocks more hours than he'd like to admit parked in an alley outside Scapegrace's pub, waiting for someone to scream bloody murder. Serpine spots him a couple of times, gives him a jaunty wave with his newly-regrown hand on his way to the off-licence, mocking and unconcerned.

But nobody gets murdered. Serpine seems to be...behaving. For now.

"I've volunteered you for move-in duty," Valkyrie says, apropos of nothing. When he blinks at her, she shrugs and takes a sip of her coffee. "Serpine's found a flat. He needs some furniture shifting."

He's not going to throw anything at his partner in this busy mortal cafe. He's not.

"I see. And you thought that has anything to do with me because..."

She polishes off the last dregs of her drink with a slurp. "I can't float stuff up stairs."

The apartment Serpine is moving into is a decent two-bedroom on the fourth floor of a six-floor block in a quiet area with a history of minimal unexpected-demolitions-by-overpowered-supervillain. Skulduggery idly wonders, as he pulls up in the parking area behind the building, whether a mass murderer moving in - and the frequent visits by the other mass murderer charged with keeping an eye on him - will bring down housing prices. China will hate that, when she wakes up.

Serpine is waiting for him out front, surrounded by boxes and furniture, already looking a bit frazzled. His outfit is stylish and his slicked-back hair is sticking up in places where he's been running his hands though it. He startles and looks up at the sound of footsteps, and seems to breathe a sigh of relief. "Ah! You came. Valkyrie said you'd know how to go about getting all this, you know. Up there."

"You can hire people for this, you know," Skulduggery tells him. "Removal men."

"With what money?" Serpine asks, a little helplessly. "Valkyrie gave me some of her old things, but I got most of this from - what's the word? - second hand shops, and the refugee aid centre. I've been looking for work, but...you know." He gestures at his face. "This is my criminal record."

Which...is a fair point, so Skulduggery rolls up his sleeves and moves to one end of a squashed two-seater couch. "Fair enough. Grab the other end."

Serpine's mouth almost drops open. "You want to carry it? Like peasants? I thought you were here to float the damn thing!"

Well, he could. But the world isn't actively ending right now, so he can afford to be petty. "I don't use magic unless I have to, these days. We'll be doing this the old-fashioned way."

"But." The last time he saw someone look this aghast was when Valkyrie realised how the citizens of Roarhaven saw her. "But that's manual labour!"

"A little manual labour will do you good."

"Gods, I hate you," Serpine tells him as he moves to grab the other end of the couch.

Skulduggery turns the facade on specifically to give him a smug smirk. "I know."

By the time they're finishing up the boxes, Serpine's new neighbours have come out into the hall to see what all the banging is about. They seem young, mostly - too young to recognise him from the war. Skulduggery is starting to suspect that Serpine has accidentally moved into student housing, but he keeps his mouth shut. Serpine is being chatty and charming, holding court in the corridor, and Skulduggery mostly lets him get on with it in between trips to the bottom of the stairs to pick up more boxes, until a young woman who holds Serpine's front door open for him and chuckles, "Left you doing all the work, has he? He's a talker, your boyfriend. I bet you don't get a word in edgewise."

It's not often that Skulduggery Pleasant is lost for words. "I. I'm sorry. What?"

Fortunately, Serpine chooses that moment to interrupt the conversation he's having and interject, "Oh, no, darling. We're not together. He's just here to make sure I stay out of trouble."

There's something off about how he says it, though. There must be, because the woman taps her nose like he's just confided a secret, and Skulduggery can't help but feel like he's just been made the butt of a joke he doesn't fully understand.

He checks on Serpine once a week. Occasionally Serpine texts him. A blurry photo, usually paired with a caption like, "what the hell is this?"; a set of traffic lights, or a lollipop man, or a chihuahua in a little jumper. Sometimes he responds, but sometimes he doesn't bother.

It's not like they're friends.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, Roarhaven's shopping district is bustling, and Nefarian Serpine is late.

Skulduggery's been people-watching, drumming his fingers on the tabletop, for fifteen minutes when he finally shows up with a to-go coffee cup in one hand and a stack of books under the other arm. He's frowning.

"You're late," says Skulduggery, by way of greeting.

Serpine shrugs, taking the seat opposite. He dumps his books on the round table and gives the menu a cursory glance. "Sorry. I was at the library. Almost missed the bus."

A waitress approaches wearing a shirt stamped with the logo of the little bistro they're sat outside, and while Serpine orders lunch, Skulduggery idly examines the titles stamped along the spines of his book mountain. Some of them look old, leather bound tomes with fancy gold lettering, and the rest seem to be...textbooks, of all things.

"A little light reading, Nefarian?"

"Huh?" Serpine - busy watching the waitress walk back inside - swivels round to face him, and shrugs. "Oh. Yeah. I want to see if they match up with the slanderous shite they're teaching at the university."

"Excuse me?"

Serpine shrugs. "Vapid and Ty - you know Ty, weird hair, lives next door - thought it might help me adapt if I learn more about how your world is different to mine, so. I've been sitting in on some classes. Unofficially. History. Mortal Relations. That kind of thing. You have battles here that never happened back home, you know."

Skulduggery folds his arms across his chest and leans back in his chair, amused despite himself. "Mortal Relations? You're going to Mortal Relations lectures. You."

"Shut up," says Serpine, pointing a finger at him. "You don't get to laugh. You're not the one nobody wants to hire. - because that's still a problem, by the way. Aren't you supposed to be helping me with that?"

"I'm supposed to be making sure you don't kill anyone or make a nuisance of yourself. Sorry to disappoint."

"Would it kill you to write me a character reference?"

Skulduggery coughs conspicuously into his gloved hand with the throat he doesn't have. He picks up the top book from Serpine's stack and flips idly through Religion & Warfare: The Rise Of The Church Of The Faceless In The 15th Century . "Think about that one for a minute, Nefarian, and you'll remember why it's not happening."

"Fine. Be like that." Serpine's shoe nudges his leg under the table. "Here, were you at the Battle of Black Rock?"

He has to think about that one for a second, then hums in the negative. "Hm. No. I missed that one. I think that was when I was holed up in Cork with a broken leg. Why?"

"History 201," Serpine muses. "I tagged along this morning. It was mostly about that fight, but it never happened in my dimension. It was borderline slanderous, honestly. The professor is an imbecile."

"You're dying to vent, aren't you?"

"Would you mind terribly?"

Skulduggery pulls his ornate pocket watch from his waistcoat pocket and checks the time. "You've got fifteen minutes. Better talk fast."

Time goes by.

He checks on Nefarian once a week. They have coffee, sometimes. Valkyrie knows not to cross the line of bringing Serpine to Skulduggery's home, but she adds them both to a group chat and neither one leaves.

Nefarian wrecks his first car, and Skulduggery makes the drive out from Dublin at 5.45am to rescue him. He calls the tow truck while Serpine sits, pale and shaken, in the Bentley's front seat, drenched from the rain and squelching miserably every time he moves.

He apologises for calling so early, and for once he sounds like he means it.

Skulduggery takes him through the McDonalds drive thru to cheer him up, and as Nefarian tucks into a box of fries with gusto, he thinks, oh no.

They're not friends. They're not.

"Is this a date?"

Skulduggery tilts his head, hand stilling over the car keys. "I'm sorry?"

Valkyrie tosses another piece of popcorn into her mouth. She's already in her pyjamas, fluffy ones with dogs on them, and she's flicking through the Netflix queue. "You're all dressed up. Is this a date? Have you two finally gotten over yourselves? God knows it's been long enough."

He snatches up the car keys and sniffs, disdainful. "After all these decades, Valkyrie, if that's what your expert detective skills are telling you, I have failed as a mentor."

"And now you're getting defensive."

"I'm doing no such thing. Where's Tanith, by the way?"

She laughs and does double fingerguns at him. "And that's deflection!"

He sighs - dramatically, for her benefit - and as he checks his pocket watch, she continues, "And, she's on her way. Get out, already. You have a date to keep and we have movies to watch."

"It's not a bloody date," he complains, patting his pockets to make sure he's got everything. "And I originally asked you."

"Yeah, but opera's boring. Here, is he meeting you there or are you picking him up?"

"Goodbye, Valkyrie."

"See?!" She shouts after him as he shuts the front door. "Date!"

[taj5358810]

WEEK 5: Sketching

This weeks work included a further extension of perspective drawing with emphasis on sketching. I found this body of work allowed me to be somewhat creative compared to past lessons, which I personally find is the only way to practice & refine skills. 

PART 1: 2D Orthographic Thumbnails

Funnily enough, the simple concept of dividing a page into segments proved very complex for to me compute. I was very unsure as to where to begin & where to place the 12 segments. The only logical thing I could think of was to make some mathematical calculations to find the spaces between the segments. I began by halving the dimensions of the bottle in order to scale it 1:2. To find the vertical spacing I subtracted the multiplication of 1:2 scale width of the bottle by 4, from 297mm (the width A3.) I repeated this process for the length & measured the segments across my page evenly. I felt frustrated in spending 30 minutes dividing up the segments but was satisfied with the result. 

When it came to sketching the bottle concepts I went rogue with penciling alternate styles & I tried my best to use a variation of pencil, ball point & felt tip pens. I still to this day find shading extremely difficult and subjective. I never know where to shade or what features to put emphasis on in order to create a display 3D. Optimistically, I used guide lines that I picked up from the tutorial in order to repeat creases & segment areas to shade. I also found that using ovals to represent artificial internal ribs on circular models useful to interpret where & how the shape should be positioned & what angles need to be shown to communicate a 3D figure. I completed part one somewhat pleased with the variation of models that I came up with, however its that shading that still frustrates me & refrains me from achieving top results for this lesson. At least I know what to focus on.

PART 2: Perspective Sketch

After measuring up the 1:1 scale bottle, I transformed an empty page into a rectangular prism. The measurements are correct however I admittedly chose a terrible angle to create my drawing. I had no idea what angle was going to be reflected when measuring up the lines, however I had spent far too much time to re start all over again. Looking at the entire page that this one model consumed, the only way to include other models was to remove the guidelines. By drawing two horizontal lines above and below the model that span the entire page, I found it approachable to include one model either side. With fear that the lack of perspective guides will ruin the proportions of the shape, I measured every angle of the box using a protractor and eventually had three boxes evenly spread across the page. Reflecting back, I went crazy on filling in the lines on the middle (first) drawing. It does not reflect the relief I intended on communicating.

Again I finished this body of work in awe of other students high quality work, and couldn't help feeling disappointed with what I came up with. I do know however, that I did try and spent the hours practising & further refining my drawing skills. I did enjoy myself too!

[snappedsky]

Fanatics 85

The Night Terrors try to rescue Tess.

*Links to previous and next chapters in reblog*

--

The Night Terrors Redux

           Shmee takes a big bite out of a hamburger and grunts apathetically. “Food’s fine, I guess. But the essence of evil is much more satisfying.”

           “Well, they don’t have evil essence on the menu,” Sickness grunts.

           “We appreciate you meeting with us, Shmee,” Reverend Meat says.

           “Yeah,” D-boy agrees, “but did you have to bring the rabbit?”

           Shmee glances at Nailbunny, who’s sitting next to him at the restaurant’s table. He’s glaring at the Doughboys, who glare right back.

           “The rabbit and I are partners now,” Shmee says, “so where I go, he goes, and vice versa. Now, what did you want to meet about?”

           Across the table, the Night Terrors suddenly get very awkward.

           “Uh it’s about…Tess,” Reverend Meat reply.

           Shmee and Nailbunny blink with surprise.

           “Do you know any way we can help her?” he asks.

           Shmee sighs heavily as he leans back in the booth. “Her situation is…regrettable. But as long as she’s under the Nightmare’s power, there’s nothing we can do for her.”

           “There’s gotta be something,” Eff insists.

           “You guys really care about her?” Nailbunny questions.

           “We promised to help her,” Reverend Meat clarifies, “besides, neither of you can understand what she’s going through right now.”

           Shmee and Nailbunny glance at each other and Shmee sighs again. “Look, Tess will never truly be free as long as the Nightmare exists. And being a force of nature, the Nightmare can never truly be destroyed.”

           “Truly?” Sickness questions.

           “So can it be…somewhat destroyed?” D-boy asks.

           Shmee awkwardly scratches the scar across his face and looks to Nailbunny for guidance. He just shrugs.

           “What do you two know?” Eff asks accusingly.

           “Nothing, it’s all a theory,” Nailbunny replies.

           “Well, what do you…theorize?” Reverend Meat asks.

           “There may be a way to destroy the Nightmare’s main body,” Shmee explains, “it would eventually return, of course, but it would take a long time. And during this time, it would not be able to feed off human imagination.”

           “If that’s possible, why hasn’t the Daydream done it?” Sickness asks.

           “Cause we’re not sure it is possible,” Nailbunny replies, “and we don’t know if there would be consequences to destroying the bulk of a force of nature.”

           “Okay, destroying the Nightmare sounds great,” Reverend Meat says, “but how would that help Tess?”

           “Well, if we could get her out first, then she’d be free,” Shmee replies.

           “How would we get her out?” Eff asks.

           “Theoretically, you may be able to summon her.”            “Really?” Reverend Meat questions, “why didn’t you say so?”

           “Because it’s incredibly risk,” Shmee replies, “you’d have to reach into the Nightmare like an evil grab bag. Who knows what you’d pull out or if it’d even be stable.”

           “If this is how we can help Tess, then we gotta go for it,” Reverend Meat insists.

           Shmee nods hesitantly. “Alright. Well, being part of the Nightmare, you guys are the only ones who can pull it off.”

           “What, like right now?” Eff questions.

           “No, not here, are you nuts?” Shmee snaps, gesturing to the restaurant full of people. “We need to go somewhere secluded and safe.”

           “We can go to our place,” Nailbunny suggests.

           “You guys have a place?” D-boy questions.

           A few minutes later, the group is standing outside an old, condemned building.

           “Tch, and you called our van disgusting,” Sickness scoffs as they all go inside, ducking under the boards blocking the doorway.

           “So what do we do?” Eff asks.

           “You’re gonna have to reach for the Nightmare,” Shmee replies.          

           “How do we do that?” D-boy questions.

           “I’unno,” he shrugs, “but be careful. The Nightmare may try to pull you back. Nailbunny and I should be able to help you if that happens, but don’t linger within it for too long.”  

           Shmee and Nailbunny stand aside while Reverend Meat, Sickness, Eff, and D-boy huddle together.

           “Any ideas?” Reverend Meat asks.

           “Maybe,” Eff replies, “but only D-boy and I will be able to pull it off.”            “That might be easier for us if things go bad,” Sickness points out.

           “Alright, then let’s do it,” Eff declares.

           The Doughboys remove their top hats and hold them out. They both focus for a second, take deep breaths, and reach inside.

           They wiggle their arms around, as if they’re digging for something in a deep bag, their faces twisting with a mix of disgust and concentration.

           “What’s it feel like?” Sickness asks.

           “Cold,” D-boy replies.

           “Eyah, something brushed by arm!” Eff cries out.

           “Don’t take too long!” Nailbunny snaps, “every second you spend in there gives the Nightmare more time to grab you.”

           They feel around for a little longer before Eff exclaims with surprise, “I got something!”

           “Me too!” D-boy adds.

           They both cry out with exertion as they pull out their arms, dropping their hats and falling backwards, both of them holding onto…something.

          The others crowd around as the Doughboys hold out their catches: painted, Styrofoam dolls.

           Eff and D-boy cry out in surprise and jump to their feet, dropping the dolls. Everyone stares down at them, motionless on the floor with painted-on smiles.

           “That’s not Tess,” Reverend Meat states.

           “No kidding,” Sickness grunts drily.

           One of dolls is white with painted lines on its face; some pointing out of the corners of its fanged grin, and others crossing over its eyes, which also have horizontal lines as pupils. The other is completely black with crosses in its eyes. Both are wearing chef’s hats and scarves.

           “Jeez it’s like…looking into an alternate dimension,” Eff comments.

           “I don’t like this,” Shmee grunts, “send them back.”

           “No!”

           Voices cry out from the motionless dolls, causing the Night Terrors to jump with surprise.

           “Please, don’t send us back,” a voice from the while doll begs. “It’s been so long.”

           “Too long,” the black one adds.

           “Who are you?” Reverend Meat asks.

           “I am Nil,” the black doll replies.

           “I’m Senor Bondage,” the other adds.

           “What kind of a name is Senor Bondage?” Eff snorts.

           “What kind of a name is Mr. Fuck,” Nailbunny retorts.

           “Mr. Fuck,” Senor Bondage muses, “are you…Mr. Fuck?”

           “You know me?” Eff questions.

           “Of course,” Nil replies, “you and Psycho Doughboy…we were your predecessors.”

           “Say what?” D-boy exclaims.

           “Many, many years ago,” Nil explains, “we were the Nightmare’s right and left hands…or tentacles. Every time it wanted to wear down a victim, we were used.”

           “We did our jobs well,” Senor Bondage continues, “we tore apart the minds of our victims, turning them into mush for our master. They never knew what hit them.”

           “But then one day,” Nil adds, “our lord decided to…switch things up. It had found someone special and it wanted to create new minions for this person with new personalities. And we were never used again.”

           “The most insulting thing?” Senor Bondage asks, “they looked just like different versions of us.”

           “Mr. Fuck and Psycho Doughboy.”

           Eff and D-boy share an uncomfortable look.

           “Well…that sucks,” Eff groans awkwardly, “but uh you’re free now, right? Yay.”

           “Free? We can never be free,” Senor Bondage says.

           “You can never truly be free,” Nil adds, “not from the enveloping darkness.”

           Shmee and Nailbunny flinch as they sense something.

           “Everyone get back!” Shmee exclaims.

           The other Night Terrors leap backwards as Nil and Senor Bondage rip in half, releasing the Nightmare’s tendrils. They lunge towards Reverend Meat, Sickness and the Doughboys but Nailbunny jumps in front of them and creates a shield. The appendages slam against it fruitlessly.

           Shmee comes up behind the mass of madness and grabs two big handfuls. He begins slurping them all up until there’s nothing left, not even the Styrofoam dolls.

           “Oh, yeah,” he sighs contently, patting his stomach. “Way better than a hamburger.”      

           “Whew,” Nailbunny sighs with relief as he drops the shield. “That was too close.”

           “Yeah,” Eff agrees as he picks up his hat. “So should we try again?”

           “No!” he barks, “did you not see what just happened?”

           “But we have to help Tess,” D-boy argues.

           “Nailbunny’s right,” Reverend Meat admits.

           “Huh?” the Doughboys exclaim.

           “This isn’t the way to help Tess,” he clarifies, “like Shmee said, she’ll never truly be free as long as the Nightmare exists.”

           He sighs heavily as he sits on the floor and looks up at Shmee. “So. How do we destroy the Nightmare?”

[artificialqueens]

Galactica, Chapter 54 (Group Fic) - TheDane/Veronica

A/N: Click here if you’re looking for previous chapters (or here if you’d rather read on AO3). 💫

Last time on The Thanksgiving Chronicles: Things got real as Courtney and Bianca had sex for the first time and Pearl and Adore for the last (??).

This Chapter: Adore seeks comfort, Katya decorates, and we just might have escaped from the alternate dimension where it’s always Thanksgiving. (Thanksgiving Chronicles 5 of 5)

***

More than anything else, Adore felt stupid. For believing, even for a second, that she and Pearl were finally on the same page. It was her fault, she supposed. She’d initiated things before they’d had a chance to really talk.

It still hurt though.

She could’ve just gone home and crashed. But she really didn’t want to be alone, and it wasn’t that late. Maybe Bianca would be up for an old movie. And she still had all those leftovers. Besides, she was planning to stay there to house-sit starting on Friday anyway, so it just made sense that’s where she’d head.

What she was not prepared for was the sight when the elevator doors opened. Clothes strewn all over the foyer and the bottom of the stairs. Courtney’s purse, spilling out its contents, right by her feet. Her mouth opened as she took it all in, temporarily too amazed by what she was seeing to remember that she was sad.

She walked forward a few steps and then stopped when the dogs came tearing through the apartment to greet her, barking up a storm. She set down her stupid box and knelt down to pet them.

“Hey guys! How’s it going? What the fuck has your Mommy been up to?”

“Hey.” Bianca appeared next, wrapped in one of those fancy silk robes she loved so much, awkwardly asking, “Um, what’re you doing back here?”

“Uhhh...I guess I’m interrupting, huh?” Adore said, trying not to laugh, standing back up.

“Or, you could...not?” Bianca cleared her throat and gestured vaguely back to the elevator. “And call me in the morning?”

“Yeah, I could…” Adore tilted her head, pretending to consider it for a few seconds before she took off, racing towards the stairs.

“Adore!” Bianca tried to grab at her, but she missed, Adore adeptly avoiding her hands and continuing.

“Too slow, old woman!”

“Fucking hell!” Bianca exclaimed, as Adore left her in the dust, laughing maniacally.

*

Courtney sat up in bed, startled by the footsteps thundering up the stairs, pretty sure they didn’t belong to Bianca, who had gone down to feed the dogs. She grabbed the covers, pulling them up to cover her naked body just as Adore appeared in the doorway, standing there breathlessly for a few moments, staring at Courtney with her mouth open and chest heaving.

Courtney relaxed a bit, seeing that it was just her best friend. She supposed this saved them that awkward ‘So...I slept with your sister’ conversation. She gave Adore a mildly self-conscious little wave.

“Hi...”

Adore threw back her head and laughed, then skipped forward and flung herself onto the bed.

“Oh...my...god. What the fuck, Courtney?”

Courtney wasn’t sure what to say to that, so she just giggled, covering most of her face with Bianca’s comforter, only her eyes peeking out.

“What are you doing back so soon, anyway?” she asked, and Adore rolled her eyes.

“It’s been like six hours.”

“Oh. Oops,” she said, another giggle slipping out before remembering where Adore had been. “How was Pearl’s?”

“A disaster.”

“I’m sorry,” Courtney said.

“Yeah. Well…” Adore sighed, then her eyes zeroed in on something and she laughed again. “Courtney. Are those yours?”

Courtney followed her gaze to the foot of the bed, where her panties had apparently landed.

“Yes, why?” Adore reached for them and Courtney slapped her hand away, laughing.

“Because! I know what kind of underwear you normally wear, and those...did you intentionally wear lacy little sex panties to come to my sister’s house today?”

Coutney pressed her lips together, saying nothing, and Adore shook her head with delight.

“Oh my god, you filthy lesbian slut.”

Courtney giggled some more, settling back against the pillows with a shrug.

“Adore...” Bianca walked in just then, holding Courtney’s purse and a stack of neatly folded clothes, which she set on the little bench at the foot of her bed. “Get your fucking shoes off my duvet, bitch!”

“Sorry, sorry!” Adore swung her legs to the ground and began removing her shoes.

“That didn’t mean take them off, that meant…” Bianca sighed. “We really need to discuss boundaries here.”

“Really? You want to discuss boundaries after fucking my best friend?”

Courtney brought up the covers to hide her laughter as Bianca shot her sister an irritated look.

“Alright alright. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She heaved herself off the bed and headed for the door, where she turned around and said, “Now, be safe, okay? We don’t want any pregnancies here-”

“Goodnight Adore!”

“Nighty night kids!” Adore blew one last kiss and then disappeared.

Bianca turned towards Courtney, shaking her head. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay.” Courtney bit her lip. “Are you upset that she knows?”

“No. Are you?”

Courtney shook her head. “I’d have told her anyway.”

“Mmm...and what would you have told her, exactly?” Bianca began to untie her robe, one shoulder already slipping down.

“That...um…that we…” Courtney’s eyes roamed over Bianca’s body, pulse quickening. It was almost too much. The tits, the ass, those legs. Courtney was consumed with a desire to be pressed up against her smooth tan skin once again, wrapped in her and around her.

“That we what?” Bianca asked, now joining her under the covers, one hand sliding across her thigh. The husky voice right in her ear sending shivers up and down her body. “What did we do?”

Courtney whimpered, pushing Bianca onto her back and hovering over her, prolonging the torture by just looking at her, not touching.

“Oh, she’s in charge now, huh?” Bianca teased, trailing fingers up the back of her thighs.

“Mmhmm…” Courtney murmured, finally lowering her hips, pressing their bodies together as she went in for a kiss, wet and messy, spurred on by the fingers digging into her ass.

***

Pearl stumbled out of her bedroom, head pounding with a hangover from all the shots she’d consumed after Adore left, but seeking out the coffee she’d smelled from her bed. She assumed that Trixie and Katya would be lounging on the sofa, enjoying their day off and relaxing.

Instead, the sight that met her was an absolute explosion of Christmas kitsch. It seemed that, with Thanksgiving now behind them, the apartment was about to turn into a holly jolly nightmare.

There were yards and yards of garlands and colored lights, boxes of ornaments and holly and a big stuffed reindeer, multiple nativity scenes, Trixie’s snowglobe collection, some mechanical carolers with very strange off-putting faces that had to be Katya’s, and two Christmas trees, including a sparkly pink one that Trixie was currently assembling on the floor.

“Good morning Pearlie!” Trixie chirped. “Want some gingerbread coffee? We have eggnog creamer, too!”

“Jesus fucking Christ, you guys,” Pearl croaked.

“Exactly!” exclaimed Katya, pulling a colorful banner out of one of the boxes that read ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!’

“You’re deranged,” Pearl told her. She felt like shit, and she wanted her friends to take care of her, but they seemed so happy. “Completely crazy.”

“Pearl, please have more respect for our lord and savior?” Trixie said, making both himself and Katya crack up, punctuating their lunacy with a high five.

Pearl stared at them for a few moments before turning on her heel. It was too early for this. She’d be better off back in bed.

Back in bed where her terrible mood couldn’t affect anyone but herself.

***

Bianca got up carefully, slipping from the bed so as not to disturb Courtney. They’d been up most of the night, and though Bianca had a billion things to do today, she wanted to let Courtney sleep in as long as possible.

She was out of the shower, fully moisturized and drying her hair by the time Courtney appeared in the bathroom doorway, tousled blonde hair spilling over her shoulders, wearing nothing but a sleepy smile on her face.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Bianca said, putting down the blow dryer and brush in her hands, eyes raking over Courtney’s naked body. “Nice PJs.”

“Hi,” Courtney replied, suddenly bashful, biting her lip.

“Come here.”

She walked forward, but when Bianca turned around to take hold of her hips, a hand flew up to cover her mouth.

“I haven’t brushed my teeth yet.”

“Do I look scared?” Bianca asked, one eyebrow raised, and Courtney lowered her hand slowly. Bianca leaned towards her, nuzzling her nose gently before grinning and moving to place a row of kisses along her jaw, finishing with a soft press to her lips. “How’d you sleep?”

“Honestly? I can’t remember sleeping that well since...ever.” She grinned, then wrinkled her nose and added. “I really want to brush my teeth, though.”

Bianca laughed, giving her a pat on the ass and pulling open a drawer, getting out a new toothbrush, still in the package. “Knock yourself out.”

Courtney stepped up to the counter, picking it up and reaching for the toothpaste, tossing out a very deliberately casual, “There were a lot of toothbrushes in that drawer, huh?”

“I got a 24-pack.”

“Mmm,” Courtney raised the toothbrush to her mouth. “...So, how many are left?”

Bianca tossed her a sly look, asking, “You wanna count them?”

“No. Sorry.” Courtney looked embarrassed, eyes avoiding Bianca’s in the mirror.

“You know...whatever’s happened with other women...that has nothing to do with me and you,” Bianca said.

“I know. I’m sorry. I’m just a little, uh…”

“You’re beautiful.” Bianca moved towards her, wrapping her into an embrace from behind, kissing her neck. Courtney tilted her head to give Bianca better access, eyes falling closed, when a knock nearby made them fly right back open again.

“Uh...morning guys...you fuckin’ or can I come in?” asked Adore’s voice.

“Be right back,” Bianca whispered in Courtney’s ear.

“Kay…”

Bianca tightened the belt on her robe and strode out into her sitting area, where Adore was perched on the armchair.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Nothin.’” Adore drew a little design in Bianca’s new area rug with her toe. “Just wondering if you wanted to get some brunch or whatevs.”

She was clearly a bit dejected, and Bianca took a few steps forward.

“I still have to pack, but...maybe you could take Courtney out? Have a girls’ day? On me?”

“Cool.”

“Are you alright?” Bianca asked softly.

“Yeah. Just like, feel kinda dumb for thinking, you know. That things would be any different.” Adore looked up, her blue eyes misty.

“You’re not dumb,” Bianca told her, putting her hands on her shoulders. “You just...trust people with your heart. And some people don’t deserve it.”

Adore nodded, letting out a dry, sad chuckle.

“But hey. Some day, you’ll meet someone who does. And they’re gonna love you so much,” Bianca promised, a thumb catching the tear that had begun falling down her left cheek.

“Thanks,” Adore sniffled, and Bianca pulled her in for a warm, tight hug. She held her close for a few moments, rocking her, then kissed her cheek. “You didn’t just make a pussy juice mark on my face, did you?”

“Ugh!” Bianca pushed her away, laughing. “Get the fuck out of here!”

Adore giggled, heading for the stairs, before turning and saying, “Hey, B?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

“Back atcha, pussycat.”

***

“Mmh.”

“Hey sleeping beauty.” Sutan smiled, reaching out to push the blanket underneath Violet’s chin, the top of his girlfriend’s head touching his hip, the TV playing on low in the background. “How are we feeling? It’s still a couple of hours until your next dose.”

“Mmh?” Violet cracked an eye open, looking up at him. “M’okay.”

“And you’re sure?” Thanksgiving had taken more out of Violet than it seemed like either of them had expected.

“Mmh,” Violet smiled. “Stop worrying.”

“Okay, okay,” Sutan laughed. “I get it.”

They had been on the couch all day, which Sutan didn’t mind in the slightest, his laptop open on his knees as he was working through his emails, his phone on the table. Tamisha had sent him a long list of potentials other agents had found, but she wanted his opinion on them before signing them with the company on entry level contracts. He’d been meaning to get to it all week, but with all the chaos, this was the first chance he’d had to really dig in.

It was one of the things Sutan excelled at, several of the girls already rejected based off of their photos and videos, but he had a handful he wanted to see in person, a model not worth much in the high fashion industry if she only sparked through a camera lens.

One potential in particular had caught his eye. She only had a shaky full body phone photo from the day she had been discovered, and a few selfies, but there was something about her face that had instantly caught his professional attention in a way white girls rarely did, and he had known instinctively that she didn’t belong in L.A.

“Sutan?”

Sutan had fully expected for Violet to go back to sleep, her prescribed painkillers knocking her out completely, her eyes closed, but it didn’t seem like she was gone just yet.

“Do you need to make another call?”

“Why?” Sutan tried to keep his voice impassive, to not show the clench of his stomach on his face. He was used to everything from casual flings to his most serious relationships being annoyed with him working nights and weekends, but it was the reality of his career.

“It’s nice. Listening to you talk.” Violet yawned, hiding her mouth with her blanket. “Makes it easier to sleep.”

“Really?” Sutan chuckled, the answer the last one he had expected. “Well in that case. I’ll see what I can do.”

***

Courtney stirred her iced tea with a metal straw, trying not to get too lost in her head while Adore was in the restroom. Last night had been amazing. Magical, even. Everything she’d been dreaming of. And then this morning, that spark was still there--Bianca was so affectionate and sweet with her, making her feel special in spite of everything Courtney knew.

When she looked into Bianca’s eyes, she saw things that she was pretty sure she wasn’t supposed to, not after one night. Especially not the way Bianca had, very kindly and suavely, ushered her out for brunch with Adore. With the very believable excuse that she gets cranky when she packs, and she didn’t want to “subject” Courtney to that. So Courtney was pretty sure that she was a fleeting distraction, and she told herself over and over that she’d be okay with that. Whether it was actually true...that was another story.

Adore got back to the table, sighing with relief when she saw that the drinks were there. She sat down and quickly sucked down half her hurricane, then looked up at Courtney.

“So…”

“Yes?” Courtney asked sweetly.

“You have a lot to tell me, miss thing.”

“What do you want to know?” Courtney asked, a faint blush warming her cheeks already, since she had a pretty good idea of exactly what Adore wanted to know.

“Well first of all, um...I know it’s hard to tell what with her voice and all, but Bianca is a woman.”

“Oh shit, really?” Courtney asked, before breaking out into a grin.

“Since when do you fuck women?”

“Since...last night, I guess.”

“Are you like...gay? Bi? Or is this just another case of my sister bagging a curious straight girl?” Adore asked, taking another sip, almost done with her cocktail already. “Shit, I should really have ordered two of these.”

“You could drink your water.”

“Gross.” Adore rapped her knuckles on the table. “Answer the question!”

“Uh...I dunno, I haven’t really thought about labels. But…” she shrugged, a smile pulling at her mouth. “I’m definitely not straight. Not after that.”

Adore laughed, then asked, “So has this really never come up for you before?”

“I mean...you know my brother’s gay. Like very gay.” Courtney rested her chin on her hand. “A full time drag queen.”

“Yeah, so?”

“I dunno, I guess there was always this kind of thing with my parents, like ‘yeah we have one glorious sparkly camp child and one...plain one,’” she said with an apologetic little shrug.

Adore laughed harder at that, signaling to the server for another drink. “You were the bland unseasoned child, huh?”

“Yeah. And it was so obvious with him, and everyone knew and I guess I just thought...that being gay was this intrinsic magical thing that’s really clear. Or like, some giant revelation that comes to you all at once.”

“So...then did you ever have feelings for a girl before?”

“Kind of...but I always sort of rationalized it away. You know, that it’s normal to admire female beauty and girls are just prettier than boys and they smell nicer and...” Courtney sighed. “I think I thought that if I could force myself to tolerate a man, then I must be straight. Cause that’s what straight women do.”

“Ugh, so sad.”

“I know, right? But yeah. I guess I...have always liked girls, but I just didn’t think it meant I liked girls.”

“You know I would have gladly helped you work these feelings out in college.”

Courtney laughed, giving her a soft kick under the table.

“Man. Just when I think Bianca’s losing it, she scores a fucking ace…”

“Why thank you,” Courtney said, fluttering her lashes and tossing her hair.

“So like...are you guys gonna be dating or...what’s the deal?” Adore asked, giving the server a wink as she set down her new drink.

“I don’t know. I guess...whatever she wants.”

“But what do you want?”

“I…” Courtney hadn’t really thought about it much. She figured the whole thing was entirely out of hands. Everyone told her, everyone warned her--Bianca doesn’t do relationships. Bianca does flings. So in her mind, the best she’d hoped for was a fling that lasted more than a night. But now she was going to Tokyo for a week and Courtney has a strong suspicion that even half the world away, the mere thought of her would still be able to conjure up tingling sense memories on Courtney’s skin. She looked up at Adore, who was patiently waiting for an answer, and admitted, “I really like her.”

Adore nodded, and Courtney continued.

“She’s just so smart and commanding and sexy and I just-”

Adore’s nose wrinkled at the word ‘sexy,’ but Courtney went on.

“Well, she is.”

“You know she’s like...old enough to be your mother, right? I mean not for nothing, but there are women our age who would gladly fuck you. I promise.”

“The thing is…” Courtney leaned forward, eyes glittering, lowering her voice to say, “I think her age is kind of...part of it? She’s just so successful and confident and she knows who she is. If I even had an ounce of that, I’d be set. And the sex? Was like…”

“That’s my sister, please proceed with caution.”

“It was so fucking good,” Courtney said, trying not to gush or get too detailed. “I’ve never...I mean I know I have no real frame of reference for sex with a woman but it was...transcendent. It’s like I was living in this two-dimesional world and suddenly not only was it 3D, but it was like...more than that. A kaleidoscope.”

“Did y’all fuck or do mushrooms?”

“I’ve done mushrooms before. Last night was...a billion times better.”

“Damn.” Adore shook her head, lifting her glass. “Well...here’s to more transcendent fucking.”

“Cheers,” Courtney laughed, clinking glasses with her.

***

Fame sighed, sliding even further into the bathtub and wiggling her toes, music playing in the background as bubbles and rose petals surrounded her body.

She was thankfully, blissfully alone, Patrick taking his family to Radio Music Hall for a show.

The thoughts of scalding hot water and complete privacy was the only thing that had carried her through the morning, her mother-in-law daring to say to Fame’s face that their coffee selection was subpar, as if her beans weren’t flown in directly from Colombia.

Fame was considering if it’d be worth it to add a few drops of essential oils to her bath, when she heard her phone buzz,  but instead of picking it up from where she had placed it on the edge of the marble tub, she ignored it.

Or, she would have, if it didn’t buzz again, and then again and again.

Fame sat up, water dripping from her body as she reached for her phone, annoyance flaring in her chest when she saw Pearl’s name.

Didn’t she realize she was still upset with her?

She was seconds away from just deleting the messages without reading them, when yet another one ticked in, and curiosity won her over.

PEARL: I know we’re not talking right now

PEARL: Which sucks

PEARL: You were right though

PEARL: I’m a bad and terrible person

PEARL: Just thought you should know that I understand

Fame paused, reading the messages once more, a sinking feeling settling in her stomach.

Her silence had only been meant as a punishment, a way to show Pearl her displeasure, to make Pearl understand that she couldn’t just go against her direct commands or orders without a consequence, but this was never what Fame had intended.

Pearl was many things, but a bad person wasn’t one of them.

Fame pressed down, holding the phone to her ear, her hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun.

“... Hello? Fame? Is that you?”

“Come over. Right now.”

[misskittyspuffy]

To a better future (15x20, alternative ending)

[Takes place in 15x20, alternative ending]. When Dean and Sam find out that Chuck has manipulated them once more, they decide to take control of their lives again. (Dean/Cas, Sam/Eileen, Dean & Sam)

Note: Like many of us, I was truly hurt, angry and devastated after the finale, that was a huge slap in the face. I decided to wrote my own ending, the one I was sure we were getting (if the show had followed its narrative). Feedbacks are more than welcome ♥︎

Please note that English isn't my mother tongue, if you have any remark or spot mistakes, feel free to let me know! :) This is a translation of my fanfiction "À un meilleur avenir".

Ao3 link

  Their saturday nights were usually made of binge-watching sessions in the Dean-cave. Beers and pop-corn were their driving force for the evening. They usually were sitting on the couch Dean had especially set up in front of the big screen. Some other nights, they were going to the movies —which they rarely did in the past.

  But that evening, duty was going to prevail.

  An empty warehouse, deserted thirty years ago, had some strange —their kind of strange— activity in the past few weeks and the eldest Winchester had decided that it was worth to take a look at what seemed to be a ghost case. Three rash people had died at the place and some survivors had reported violent attacks.

A year ago, they had regained their free will. As it turned out, Chuck hadn’t played his last card that day, near the lake. After turning him into a human —at least, that’s what they had thought— the Winchester brothers hadn’t realized that they just had been trapped in his last scenario.

To remove a threat, you need to make believe to your enemy that he has successfully beaten you. And that’s exactly what Chuck had done. He had made them believe they had won. And had largely benefited from it.

The trap had taken the form of an illusion that had led Dean to his death and Sam to the perfect family life he had once hoped for. There had been a shift in the way Sam was feeling though —when he had gotten married, when his son was born, he had felt that something was off, but he had never succeeded to put his finger on what.

Seven years had passed after Dean’s death when one morning, while Sam was off to his daily jog, he had found Jack on his porch, waiting for him. He was looking unusually worried, which had led the Winchester to believe that something very serious had happened. Little did he know, by this time, how much his life had been about to change. The Nephilim had then explained to him that he was about to break the divergent timeline Chuck had created and in which he had locked them in. The trick was ingenious, but Jack had been more clever. He had perceived a breach while moving from one world to another —he and Amara were rebuilding the parallel dimensions Chuck had meticulously destroyed, in order to preserve the Balance of the Universe.

It had taken a while for Sam to fully accept the idea that what had been his life for so long was a lie. The illusion created by the former God had become his new reality. Getting out of it was scary and had seemed impossible at first. He had spent hours contemplating the life he had built, watching the son that was born from his marriage —born from an illusion. But looking at him playing in their living room, he had felt very real. When he had called him “dad’’, handing him over a drawing he had just made of their perfect little family, his throat had tighten. In the next few days though, he had come to terms with the fact that Jack was right, and a deep feeling of gravity was now taking over. What was about to happen was probably one of the most painful things he ever had to experience. Losing what he thought was real did feel real, but intellectually, he knew something wasn’t right. It wasn’t who he was, it wasn’t his life.

  As soon as Jack had told him about Chuck, about the fact that he still had his powers —to some extent— and had only conceded a part of them to him, including Amara, Sam had known he was telling the truth. Seven years ago in that barn, it wasn’t the ending Dean had deserved. 

  It wasn’t them back then, it wasn’t him right now. Their lives had been taken away from them.

  He had finally put his finger on what felt wrong. Jack had then mentioned a certain Eileen, and at this moment, that name hadn’t even ring a bell. Donna, Jody, Charlie, Claire… So many people that Chuck had erased from their lives. People that were once family had become strangers. Sam had finally accepted Jack’s plan to restore his life and Dean’s life the way they were before everything went wrong. The bonds the youngest Winchester had formed in that illusion were left behind, and he knew it was a wound that wasn’t going to be easy to move on from. But he knew his brother didn’t deserve to die the way he did. It had been enough for him to find the courage to move forwards with Jack’s scheme to fix their lives.

  The natural order of things was back in the space of a few minutes, thanks to Jack. He had brought Dean back on Earth, had given them back their memories and —in the process— had restored their real personalities. Sam was again the same age he was before they fought against Chuck. The fallout had been truly hard to accept, for both of the Winchesters. They had been screwed, big time. Dean had fallen on his knees, right in the middle of the Bunker, feeling more numb and devastated than ever. Only a few hours had passed for him when he was in the fake version of Heaven Chuck had created, but it had been too much already. He had received a call from Donna and Jody, who had felt the need to talk to him, after feeling like they had gone through a fever dream.

  What a f*cking asshole, the eldest Winchester had yelled, while throwing his phone away.

  He wasn’t as expressive as his brother, but Sam shared the same state of mind. He was still processing, especially considering what he had left behind, but now that everything was back the way it used to be, the seven years he had spent in that illusion of life felt like a blurry dream. They were now in control of their lives again.

  Jack and Amara had been enough to overpower Chuck —for real this time. Using his idea of a lie, they had turned him into a real human being. He had quickly gotten a chance to learn that the Universe had a really strange sense of humor, and had died a few weeks later from an unknown disease.

  One year later, on a saturday night, Dean was getting ready for his hunt. Standing in front of the Bunker’s table, he was putting away weapons in his bag, making sure that they hadn’t forgotten something that could be useful : the EMF meter, pouches of salt, guns… At some point, he frowned and rummaged at the bottom of the bag, and finally found a nunchaku.

  “What the hell?!’’ he grumbled. “Damn it, Sam!’’

  A man’s hand appeared next to his, adding a blade in the bag, which the Winchester opened a little more to give his partner a better access to it.

  “You really like this one, don’t you?’’ he said with a smile.

  Cas shrugged. “You’re the one who told me that I was going to have my favorites.’’ 

  “Right,’’ he nodded.

  The former angel was standing next to him, dressed in a leather jacket, wearing jeans and a red shirt, that completely detonated with his previous usual wardrobe. Dean was partly responsible for this new looks, he had dragged him to a few shops after Cas had came back human. 

  “You think it’ll be enough?’’ the blue eyed man asked.

  The Winchester looked up and leaned on Cas, kissing him briefly on the lips. “Looks good to me.’’ 

  A disapproving look appeared on the former angel’s face. “Dean.’’ 

  Dean raised an eyebrow. “What?’’ 

  “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice the grenade-launcher?’’ he sighed.

  While he was speaking, Cas opened the bag again, pointing out the weapon in question.

  “So what?’’ the Winchester said with an innocent look.

  “Ghosts, Dean. We’re going to fight ghosts. The grenade-launcher’s usefulness will probably be close to nada.’’ 

  “Oh yeah, because your blade is going to have so much effect on them,’’ Dean said in return in a teasing tone.

  Looking a little bit offended, Cas squinted. If a look could kill… 

  “You being so cute when you’re mad really should be a crime,’’ Dean said with an affectionate expression on his face.

  The former angel was standing still and Dean kissed him again on the lips before grabbing his hand and leading them to the Bunker’s stairs, making him follow his steps. “Let’s go, you can still sulk in the car,’’ he said in an amused tone.

  Sam appeared in the hall, coming from the corridor. “Hey,’’ he said to the couple. An intrigued look appeared on his face. “What are you up to?’’ 

  Dean and Cas exchanged a look. 

  “Nothing big, a haunted place. You know, the usual stuff,’’ the eldest Winchester shrugged.

  Sam frowned. “You got a serious lead on that?’’ 

  “Yeah, three deaths. We’re going to take a look.’’

  “If you give me a minute, I could—’’

  “No,’’ Dean interrupted him firmly. “You and Eileen got plans for tonight. Go. Watch your dancers in tights, or whatever, we’ll take care of the dead.’’ 

  Sam rolled his eyes. “Really, Dean? That’s all you’re taking away from ballets? Dancers in tights?’’ 

  “Never saw one, but I’m fine with it,’’ he answered with a half smile.

  Cas grabbed his boyfriend’s arm, pushing them in the direction of the stairs. “Don’t pay attention to him Sam,’’ he said midly-amused, midly-exasperated. “Dean is right, we’re taking care of it. Enjoy your night,’’ he ended with a smile.

  While they were leaving, Sam realized his nunchaku was in the trash. “DEAN!!!’’ 

***

  What was supposed to be a classic hunt turned out to be more challenging that what they were expecting. A demon also occupied the Warehouse, and a second one had appeared during the fight. Cas’ blade ended up being useful. After killing one of them, he was projected on a bunch of cardboards. Dean killed the other one, and once it was over, he ran in the direction of the former angel, worried.

  “Cas, you’re okay?’’ 

  “I’m fine,’’ he answered while breathing heavily. He grabbed the hand Dean was giving him. “I didn’t expect this turn of events.’’ 

  “Yeah, two little surprises that weren’t on the program,’’ Dean said, looking down at the corpses. “You’re sure you’re okay?’’ he asked again, sliding his hand along Cas’ arm.

  Cas nodded and kissed him on the cheek, near the corner of his mouth. “Don’t worry that much for me. I can handle myself. You’re human too… and you’re still here.’’ 

  “I’ve been human a lil’ bit longer than you have,’’ Dean said. “I got my fair amount of injuries before properly kicking ass, you know. Takes time.’’ 

  “Our training helped me to improve.’’

  “Good, that’s what it was meant for,’’ he said firmly.

  Dean started remembering their first trainings and what had led them to this situation. Which reminded him how things went the year before, after they had gotten back on their reality.

  Flashback - A year ago

  After learning that Chuck had manipulated them once more, Dean had locked himself into his bedroom, on the edge of breaking everything that was in it. The person he used to be probably would have done it at this point. But Cas’ words still resonated with him. Love was the force driving his actions, he wasn’t made of hate or violence, and he wanted it to be the thing that would prevail from now on. He had every intention to honor that. 

  Once he had hugged his brother and catched up with him about the recent events, Sam had left the Bunker to meet Eileen, who he had been talking to for the past hour. They both had felt the need to see each other, considering how things had gone since the last time they had interacted, the day she disappeared. With Sam away, Dean had taken the opportunity to do what he knew his little brother would probably have dissuade him to try. He had went to see Jack, who hadn’t left the Bunker yet. The young man was quietly sitting in the library when the eldest Winchester approached him, a determined look on his face. 

  “Can you open a breach to the Empty? Do you have that power?’’ 

  “I know what you’re thinking,’’ Jack said, slowly closing the book he had in his hands. “I was expecting you to ask me that. Can I do it? Sure. But… the actual state of things with the Empty is not stable enough yet. I’m… negotiating with her.’’ 

  “I have to do it, you know I can’t let him over there,’’ he ended with a trembling voice despite himself. “I’m not asking you to bring him back for me, I know it might not be possible right now, this is something I have to do by myself. I’m just asking for a little boost.’’ 

  Jack quietly nodded. “You think you can win this? That you’ll have something to offer that the Empty will be interested in?’’ 

  “Let me handle this part,’’ the Winchester replied.

  A beat.

  “So? The breach?’’ he asked again, looking impatient. He had tried to cover it, but his voice had came out as a little supplication. 

  “Of course. It’s Cas.’’ 

  Dean’s throat tightened and he had a sudden difficulty to swallow. “Yeah… exactly. It’s Cas.’’ 

  “But if things go wrong… I don’t know if I’ll be able to step in. There is a new balance, I’m not the only one ruling on the Universe, and I have no power over the Empty. That’s why I didn’t have a chance to bring Cas back myself.’’ 

  The Winchester nodded, nothing would make him change his mind. 

  A few minutes later, the breach was open. A dark circle had taken place on the Bunker’s wall, undulating and growing second after second, the same way it had the day it came to collect Cas. Dean took an inspiration and with no hesitation, threw himself into it. 

  “Good luck,’’ Jack said once the Winchester had disappeared. 

  A smile took place at the corner of his mouth. 

  He knew everything was going to unfold the way Dean had planned it.

***

The Empty was a vast place, it really was doing justice to its name. The darkness was the only thing Dean could contemplate, with no beginning nor end in sight. He wasn’t even sure that he could actually see anything beyond fifteen or twenty feet. He was destabilized at first, didn’t know where to start, turning around and contemplating the void, trying to find any form of activity, a sign of Cas’ presence. Unsure of the direction he was supposed to take, he blindly started to walk around, and did the only logical thing he could do at this moment. He called Cas’ name. Once, twice, ten times, twenty times, fifty times —but for a moment, silence was the only answer he had gotten. He shout out his name until the Empty finally appeared right before him as Meg.

  “Cas! Cas!’’ she said in a mocking voice. “WILL YOU SHUT UP??!!!’’ 

  Dean took a few seconds to adjust to his new interlocutor, on his guards. 

  His jaw clenched. “Where is he?’’ he asked firmly. He wasn’t there to negotiate.

  “You’re here to get your sweet little angel back, that’s cute… but not enough. Your weapon will have no effect on me,’’ she said while pointing out the blade he held in his left hand.

  The Winchester looked briefly in the same direction and tighten his grip on the blade even harder. “It’s not for you.’’ 

  The Empty looked intrigued. “Really?’’ 

  “Where is he?!’’ he asked again.

  She sighed while crossing her legs, sitting on her throne. “Somewhere… between here and there… I saved him a seat at my best spot.’’ 

  A creepy smile distorted her face and she raised a knowing eyebrow in Dean’s direction. Cas’ treatment was probably one of the most painful she could inflict to someone. At this mere thought, the Winchester started to feel sick in his stomach. How long Cas had been here? How many days, months, years maybe had he been stuck in this place while him and Sam were living the scenario Chuck had planned for them? 

  The Empty hadn’t seen it coming —to be honest, Dean hadn’t either— but in the second that had followed, he had thrown himself to her and gave her a powerful punch in the face, that destabilized her for a second. She sent him away from a movement of her hand, he landed harshly on the ground. Dean got up pretty quickly, but the rage hadn’t left his face, his eyes were still dark and fixated on the Empty.

  “WHERE THE HELL IS HE??!’’ 

  “You and your angelic boyfriend are really insufferable,’’ she said furious, matching his own tone. “You wanna know where he is? He’s reliving his worst torments on loop. In which you’ve done many cameos, actually,’’ she added amused. “I’m not gonna pretend I’m not enjoying watching him suffer. Because I do.’’ 

  Dean clenched his jaw. “One last time, tell me where he is or I swear I’m g-’’ 

  “You’re gonna what? Yell at me to death?’’ she said mockingly. “You can do nothing against me.’’ 

  “Maybe. But I can get quite inventive, I’ll be the biggest pain in your ass. You like quietness? I can promise you you’ll never find peace again. I’m human, you have no power over me.’’ 

  The Empty’s face suddenly fell.

  “Tell me where he is,’’ Dean said, once more.

  She looked contemplative for a few seconds and a sigh escaped her lips. “Good luck, Dean. But remember… no matter what you do, Castiel is mine.’’ 

  With a snap of her fingers, she teleported him to Cas. Dean landed harshly on the floor of a cold room, only to find himself surrounded by four walls. There was no door, no way to escape. The place was dark and he had a hard time seeing where he was, but after adjusting his vision to the place, he discerned the presence of Cas, who was lying down, facing the floor, unconscious. He wasn’t physically hurt, but the pain on his face was very telling about the hell he was emotionally experiencing in whatever the Empty was putting him through in his nightmares. His face looked worried and scared.

  Dean kneeled next to him, hanging the blade at his belt. He turned him on his back and tried to wake him up, putting a hand on his face.

  “Cas! Hey, Cas! Wake up. I need you to wake up.’’ 

  It took a little while, but after insistance, Dean finally succeeded to bring him back to conscientiousness. Cas had a hard time keeping his eyes open.

  “Dean?’’ the angel finally said in a husky voice. He wasn’t sure if he was truly awake or if dream and reality had just got mixed up again. 

  “It’s me,’’ he said. “Hey, hey, stay with me, okay?’’ he added when he saw that Cas was falling out again. He tried to keep him in a sitting position.

  “You’re not real.’’ 

  “I am. I promise you. I’m sorry it took me so long…’’ His voice broke. He kept the angel’s face between his hands, looking deep into his eyes, trying to convince him it was really him. “I’m gonna get you out, okay?’’ 

  Cas seemed lost. “Where are we?’’ 

  “The Empty. You sacrificed your life to save me, remember?’’ 

  A beat. Cas’ eyes seemed to focus and find a semblance of consistency. “I remember.’’ His face fell. “Dean… what are you doing here?’’ he said in a worried voice.

  The Winchester was baffled. “You really thought I was going to leave you rot here?’’ His throat tightened. “You saved me, Cas. More than once. You really thought I wasn’t going to look for you?’’ 

  Cas frowned. “You might not be able to leave this place.’’ 

  “Oh believe me, I will. We will. You’re coming with me.’’ 

  The angel shaked his head. “I can’t, Dean, the deal…’’ 

  Dean stopped him. “The deal doesn’t matter anymore. I have a solution.’’ 

  He took the blade at his belt and showed it to the angel, who seemed lost in return. He didn’t understand.

  “But… you have to agree with my plan,’’ he added, nervous.

  “What do you mean?’’ 

  “The Empty can only hold angels and demons. If you’re human, she won’t have any hold on you.’’ He pointed out the flask that was attached to his necklace. “If we extract your grace, if you become human… you’ll be able to come home with me.’’ 

  Dean was anxious, he didn’t know how Cas was going to react to his proposal.

  “Do you agree with this plan?’’ Dean asked hesitant.

  The angel nodded, still feeling groggy. “Of course.’’ 

  “Awesome,’’ Dean said, relieved. “Look, I don’t know what the Empty is up to, we should hurry up, okay? You’re ready?’’ 

  As a sign of agreement, Cas extended his neck, giving free access to Dean. After a short hesitation, the Winchester cut him a little with the blade, placing the flask near the incision. The process started and only took a few seconds. The blue light, glittering, started its transfer to the container, making the angel feel suddenly weaker.

  “YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO DO THAT!!’’ 

  The Empty, still wearing Meg’s traits, had just appeared next to them. Furious.

  “Castiel is mine, you had no right!’’ 

  “We did actually, and we took it,’’ Dean answered in a defiant voice, while helping Cas to get up. “He’s human now, he doesn’t belong to you anymore.’’ 

  She was about to throw herself at them but the portal leading to their world appeared again on the wall of the room they were in. Dean put Cas’ arm around his neck and led them to the breach, which they quickly got aspired by. In the next second, they were on the Bunker’s floor, catching their breath. 

  “Excellent timing, kiddo,’’ Dean said to Jack while getting on his feet.

  He promptly ran to Cas’ side, helping him to stand. He was noticeably weakened, but seemed to be okay.

  “How are you holding up?’’ he asked to the former angel, his full attention on him.

  Cas leaned a little on him. “I think I’ll be fine,’’ he assured. Cas then realized who was standing next to the table. Jack. He fixated his look on him with a questioning look and the young man finally ran to his father and took him into his arms. “I missed you, Cas.’’ 

  “How long… how long was I gone?’’ he asked while they were breaking the hug.

  Dean and Jack looked at each other, uncertain. The timeline had been changed, distorted, rebuilt. What had represented a few days for Dean had been seven years for Sam. And they didn’t even know how it was for Cas. It was a difficult question to answer. 

  “We should save this for later…’’ Dean said, with a tap on his shoulder. “Let’s take care of you first.’’ 

***

  Ten days had passed and things were back to the way they used to be. Not everything was the same, of course, but their life had now found a semblance of normalcy again. Dean had rearranged everything in Cas’ bedroom, to adjust and adapt the place to his new needs. He had given him some of his clothes and they had gone shopping to complete his wardrobe. 

  Cas was feeling way better and, like he once had to do, was now adjusting to his new life as a human, rediscovering the pleasure of eating food that didn’t taste like molecules. 

  Things with Dean had slowly changed during the course of the last few days. At first, they had been all focused on his new condition, helping him to find a new balance, but now that things were pretty much coming back to what they were, the dynamic between the hunter and the former angel had slowly became awkward and a strange tension had taken place between them. Not that they were avoiding each other, far from it, but they were walking on eggshells —even Sam had noticed it. Cas was particularly cautious about the way he was acting around Dean. After his confession, which they had never talked about since he had came back, he was very attentive to not causing any discomfort.

  Little did he know about the inner battle that was currently raging in the eldest Winchester’s mind —battle he had lost many times in the past few days, actually. Hesitation, fear of doing everything wrong, of the unknown, of giving his life a new turn, of experiencing his feelings in a way he never had before… all of this was holding him back. The love thing wasn’t something Dean was comfortable with. Not because he didn’t felt it —he felt it too much actually— but he had never been good at expressing it. He was good at pretending things didn’t affect him, his nonchalance was preserving him. But Cas’ confession had changed everything, had made every single wall he had built around his heart shiver. He had been aware of his feelings for the angel for quite a while now, years even. He had slowly realized that there was nothing brotherly about the way he was feeling about him. Their relationship had always been quite unique.

  Every time he had lost him, Dean had known. The deepness of the hurt had been beyond reparable. When he had offered him that mixtape, shortly after he had almost died a few years ago, it had been his way of expressing it, even if he knew the angel wasn’t going to understand the true meaning of such a gift. He knew it was the love language that had made his parents fall in love, and in some kind of way, it had been the language he had chosen to use. 

  But he was tired of being silent. Tired of not being who he was. Of not following his heart.

  He had no reason to hide anymore. He couldn’t pretend Cas didn’t feel the same way. All his life, he had been solely focused on Sam’s happiness, because that was all what mattered. He wished for him to have the perfect life he had always wanted. Who would have guessed that one day, Dean Winchester would start thinking about his own happiness, would believe that he might actually deserve it too. Better days were coming. They were now free, a world of new possibilities was opening to them. Maybe, just maybe, he actually deserved something different than the life made of sacrifices he had always imagined for himself.

  It hadn’t taken that long for things to take a new turn. Cas had decided to come to his first hunt as a human, which had immediately activated in Dean his protective mode. The Winchester had tried to stay as chill as he could, but he had stay right beside him, not letting him out of his sight. Once they had been back from their mission, the former angel had complained about it, telling him that he did not want to be a burden for him, which had led to a grumpy answer from the hunter.

  When Dean had come to his door that night, to make sure Cas’ wound after their hunt didn’t need more care, their conversation had derailed incredibly fast.

  Cas had been shaking his head, not breaking eye contact with the Winchester. “You should stop worrying that much about me, Dean.’’ 

  A beat.

  He had then given him an earnest answer. “Can’t. Won’t.’’ 

  They had stayed silent for a moment, staring at each other from opposite sides of the room. Dean had felt his hands become sweaty, his breath racing. He had taken a new step inside the room, had closed the door behind him. He was now standing near the entrance, his eyes fixated on Cas, who was next to his bed. The silence of the room was only troubled by the sound of their respective breath, which added some kind of weight to the moment.

  “I’ll never stop worrying about you…’’ Dean said with a new intensity, tilting his head on the side.

  He had taken a new step towards the former angel, hesitant. His eyes had been fixated on the floor for a moment, before he had brought them back on him.

  “Cas…’’ 

  He had shaken his head, opened his mouth like if he was about to say something, about to speak his own truth, but no words had come. So he had decided to do the only thing he knew how to do: let his actions speak for him.

  Once he had reduced the distance between them, Cas’ heartbeat had incredibly increased. He hadn’t dare to hope. Never. But… what if? In the spare of a few seconds, he had gotten his answer. Dean’s face had come really close to his own, his green eyes never breaking the contact with his blue ones. There was so much left unsaid, but right now, he needed to show him how he felt. He had leaned closer to him, closed his eyes and their lips had finally met. Shyly at first, but when they had realized how good it felt, how it was everything they had needed, they had reinforced their embrace. There was no hesitation left. The Winchester’s hands had cupped Cas’ face, while the former angel had wrapped his arms around him. When they had first broke the kiss, their faces remaining close, a silent tear was running through Cas’ cheek.

  “I love you too, Cas,’’ Dean finally succeeded to say, like if he was reprising their conversation from weeks before. Tears were flooding his eyes and he was shaking. “We… never talked about it, since you came back. I never got a chance to thank you for… everything. Absolutely everything, Cas. Things went so fast back then. But I want you to know how much I love you. I have for years, actually. Everything you are… and I always miss you, so much. But I never thought… I never thought we could have this. And I’m sorry, so sorry, that it took me so long to say it.’’ 

  Cas’ throat had tightened. He had been physically incapable of saying anything in return. It was all he had ever wanted, but had convinced himself he would never get. He didn’t think he would deserve it. He had taken the initiative of the second kiss, which had started as tenderly as the previous one and led them to explore a physical and emotional intimacy neither of them had known before.

  From this day, every piece of the puzzle had started to fall in place. Their life had taken a new turn —but this time, it was one they had chosen.

Present day

  Dean had just parked the Impala at a gas station. Once he had turned off the motor, he had rotated his body to face Cas’, who was sitting next to him and was consulting his phone.

  “Claire and Kaia are coming by on friday,’’ he said, meeting the Winchester’s eyes.

  “It’s her birthday, isn’t it?’’ 

  Cas nodded.

  “We should get her something,’’ Dean suggested.

  “I’m gonna need your help,’’ the former angel said, a hint of panic on his face. 

  The Winchester winked at him. “Don’t worry, I got an idea of something she might like. She loves music, right?’’ 

  Cas sighed. “Yes, she… tried to make me listen to some of it, actually. It was… quite an experience.’’ 

  Dean bursted into laugher when he remembered the day he had found Cas listening to The Pretty Reckless. 

  Since the day he had become human, Cas and Claire had been more in contact than ever. They had talked on the phone and had met each other a couple of times. Claire was still living with Jody and Donna, but along with Kaia, they were now doing things their way. The young blonde was pretty invested into the hunting life, a choice Jody and Cas weren’t sure they were approving. But she wasn’t taking no for an answer and the only thing they could do was let her make her own experience. Everyone could see that Kaia had a good influence on her, though.

  “At least, we don’t have that kind of issue with Jack,’’ the Winchester said. “Well, when he comes by,’’ he then muttered to himself. 

  The former angel agreed. “I understand his questionings way better.’’ 

  “A Nephilim who became our new God and now juggles with multi-dimensions and handles existential kind of stakes… Yeah, makes sense for you,’’ Dean said with tenderness in his voice. 

  A half smile appeared on the former angel’s lips and he shrugged. “I’m a few millions years old, Dean. I mean, I was.’’ 

  “And you’re really not doing bad,’’ he added, taking his hand in his. “You’re doing a lot of good, actually.’’ Cas tightened his squeeze, intertwined their fingers.

  Adjusting to life as a human being had been a whole new challenge, Cas was still processing and learning, even though he wasn’t a stranger to this. But with the help of Dean, Sam and Eileen, he was getting more and more comfortable and used to it. A month and a half after he had returned from the Empty, he had decided to seek for a way to help and be active in this new stage of the world. He had joined social workers in a shelter and had offered his help for the place five times a week for the past months. He had gotten very invested, and Dean had joined him more than once, especially when some supernatural events had collide with the work they were doing there.

  “Offering guidance and protection to these kids seemed more appropriate than spending days in bed watching Netflix with you… even though I really enjoy Netflix,’’ he ended with humor in his voice.

  Dean raised an eyebrow, midly-offended. “What about being in bed with me?’’ 

  The former angel rolled his eyes, accentuating his grasp on the Winchester’s hand. “Like if you didn’t already know that I enjoy that part.’’ 

  An amused smile appeared on Dean’s lips, before he became serious again, looking at Cas lovingly. “We did a lot of good lately, you and I…’’ 

  They stared silently at each other for a few seconds, lost in each other’s eyes. Cas got closer and leaned into Dean to kiss him slowly. “We did.’’ 

***

  When they arrived at the Bunker, they saw that Eileen and Sam had returned from their night out. They were now comfortably sitting on one of the couches that were in the main room and were both looking at the youngest Winchester’s screen, laughing at what they were watching.

  Dean and Cas came down the stairs and walked in their direction.

  “So, how was it?’’ the eldest Winchester asked in a skeptical voice, while putting his bag on the table.

  “Amazing,’’ Sam said with an emphasis. “I know what to get you for your next birthday.’’ 

  Dean’s face fell. “Sam, if you drag me to one of your ballet things, I’ll never talk to you again, capiche?’’ 

  The youngest Winchester shrugged, side-eyeing the former angel. “Maybe Cas wants to see one.’’ 

  “Ha! Doubt it,’’ Dean said in a pretty confident voice.

  “Well…’’ Cas seemed to seriously consider the option. “Why not.’’ 

  “What?’’ Dean said incredulous, looking at his boyfriend with a look of betrayal. “Really?’’ 

  “Life is short,’’ Cas said with a shrug. “There is a lot of different forms of art, I don’t want to limit myself to only a few of them.’’ He smiled and teasingly nudged Dean, who looked disappointed.

  “You should consider it,’’ Eileen added, laughing a little. “We made pop-corn, do you want some?’’ she then signed, pointing them the bowl that was on the table. The moment she said it, she realized it had gone empty. “I’m gonna get us some more,’’ she added.

  “I’m coming with you,’’ Cas signed.

  He put his jacket on one of the chairs and while talking about his and Dean’s last hunt to the young woman, they left the room together. The eldest Winchester and the former angel had taken some sign language classes online, adding that learning to their almost daily practice, allowing the efforts to be split in two during conversations. 

  Dean watched them leave, looking contemplative for a few seconds, and then came to sit next to his brother, after grabbing one of the beers that was on the table. 

  “No bad surprises? During your hunt?’’ 

  The eldest Winchester was lost in his thoughts and he took a moment before answering. “Two demons, who came out of nowhere. But we got rid of them pretty easily. They were the ones responsible for the attacks and murders. The ghosts were harmless…’’ 

  “They’re gone too?’’ 

  “Yup, we did what we had to do.’’ 

  “Awesome, I’m gonna put the informations on the app.’’

  “Don’t worry about it, Cas did it on our way home,’’ he said while patting his brother’s leg.

  “Good. Hey, did you know that the app had now spread in Europe and Australia?’’ Sam said while showing him the screen of his computer. “Charlie took care of everything.’’ 

  Dean smiled proudly. “They would have been stupid not to do it. It’s a genius idea that you had.’’ 

  As soon as they had found their free will again, Sam had spent months thinking about what was going to be his next step. With the exception of his relationship with Eileen, which was the only thing he was pretty much confident about, the possibilities about his future, especially in terms of career, were very uncertain. The life he had in Chuck’s ending was now a fuzzy memory, but it had led him to question his ambition.

  After hesitating, he had decided to follow his gut and pursue his will to become a teacher. Law school was his past self’s dream and after years of fighting, he had realized that he wanted to pass on his knowledge and connect with other people. At the same time, he had developed an app with the help of Charlie, that was reuniting hunters in the same virtual place and allowing them to share precious informations about their hunts, the supernatural spots, informations and datas about the creatures they had fought, the places and dates of their hunts. Every case that was solved was signaled as such on the app. 

  It was a worldwide and virtual version of John Winchester’s journal, that had allowed him to unite thousands of hunters through the world and had facilitated the fight against ghosts, demons and other creatures. Sam had invested a lot of time in the making of the app, which was now the biggest database that ever existed on the subject. Rowena, as the Queen of Hell, had a better control over the demons than it was the case by the past, but many of them were still off her authority.

  Watching his little brother be so invested in his new missions had made Dean very proud.

  “You’re doing great, Sammy,’’ he said while looking at his brother. “The way you handled this whole thing… you made a difference.’’ 

  He raised his beer in Sam’s direction.

 “I don’t know if you realize it, but you’re not doing so bad either,’’ Sam said after a few seconds of silence.

  Dean shrugged. “Doing my best.’’

  “The bar is practically yours, Dean. There’s only some paperwork left, it’s a done deal.’’ 

  For the past month, the eldest Winchester had started to see his dream of possessing his own bar slowing become a reality. They had found it during one of their hunts in Lebanon, with Cas, Sam and Eileen. It was well located but the place had been haunted for years and the previous owners had much trouble selling it. In exchange for the Team Free Will’s services, they had offered to sell it to Dean at a very interesting price.

  “I guess,’’ Dean said with a proud little smile 

  “And Cas…’’ Sam added gently. “You seem to be doing great together. After all these years… you deserve it.’’ He tried not to push too much, knowing how bashful his big brother could get on this kind of topics.

  Dean was looking at his hands, but his face had clearly brightened up. He nodded. “From day one, he changed everything for me.’’ 

  Sam smiled. “Who would have believed it.’’ 

  “All those years ago, I wouldn’t have seen us coming this far.’’ 

  “Clearly, me neither…’’ 

  The youngest Winchester was hesitant for a second, looking nervously in the direction of the framing of the door Eileen and Cas had went through.

  “You know… I’m gonna propose to her,’’ he finally said.

  Dean’s eyes went wide open, even though he wasn’t exactly surprised, knowing his brother.

  “I’ve been thinking about it for a while now… I’m confident that what we have is what I’ve been looking for my whole life. Everything just… clicks, when I’m with her. I didn’t think it would happen again, after Jess.’’ 

  Dean bowed his head for a second, smiling. 

  “You’re… you’re not going to cry, right?’’ 

  “What?! Me? NO!’’ Dean replied in a defensive voice. He took a new sip on his beer, trying to hold it together. “I’m just very happy for you, Sammy.’’ 

  He took his little brother in his arms, gently patting him on the back.

  “Are you scared?’’ he asked once they ended the hug.

  The youngest Winchester sighed. “A little… I mean, I’m not really afraid that she would say no, even if this is a possibility, of course. But, I trust what we have and I know she’s sharing my dream of building our own family.’’ 

  Dean looked confused. “What scares you then?’’

  “Well… the last time I thought about marriage, it was with Jessica… and I lost her. In the worst possible way.’’ 

  “Our lives went pretty well since the day we defeated Chuck.’’ 

  “I know, but… a part of me is still afraid that everything is going to be taken away from me, you know? We lost so much since our childhood, I’m just… not yet used to things being so simple. I don’t know if that makes sense?’’ he said, looking at his brother.

  Dean slowly nodded, with an understanding look. “It does. I woke up more than once in the middle of the night just to make sure Cas was still lying down next to me…’’ 

  “We had our share of traumas and losses…’’ Sam sighed, taking the beer he had left on the floor. “To a better future,’’ he finally said, raising his bottle for a toast.

  “To a better future.’’ 

THE END

[hitsuackerman]

What in the World? (Akaashi Keiji x Reader) pt.5

Part 5 of WINTW? :D Enjoy!

Akaashi’s lineup: @alluring-akaashi​ @oikawalmart-hq​ @extrasugafree​ @bbykiyoomi​ @apricotjihyo​ @simpformiya @colorseeingchick @something-that-idk

links: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 6

Inside your room, you locked your doors and sat down at your desk. The only light illuminating your room was your desk lamp. If your theory was right, then perhaps Akaashi could either have a quirk or be your ticket back home.

During the whole duration your hand held his, the all too familiar pulling sensation was present. That feeling of being able to move confidently with your quirk was ever present. Checking the glow of your palm, your heart rate increased at the much brighter glow. Positioning your palms above the plant, you began to manipulate its entirety.

Right before your eyes, the desert rose succulent began to lose its shape. Lifting the mass and separating it from the soil, you willed your quirk to work harder. It was rather painful but somehow you were now manipulating its properties till you were left with a new succulent. A Hoya plant now replaced the rose.

With trembling hands and uneven breathing, you rested your forehead on the desk. The glow was now non-existent. Juicing out your quirk was unintended but definitely worth it.

The next morning, you woke up with a headache and nausea. Going down the stairs, o-mother was already in the kitchen busying herself with breakfast. Just as she was about to greet you, she gasped and jogged towards you.

“Honey, are you alright?” Seeing a pale daughter early in the morning was something a mother would not want to see.

“Yeah. I’m fine, mom.” You let her feel your temperature. “Just a little dizzy that’s all.”

“Make sure to take and bring medicine before you leave, okay?” Hearing your confirmation, she went back and continued to make breakfast. “Will Akaashi-kun walk with you today?”

“It’s pretty much given by now~” You smiled softly at the thought. “And, don’t worry. He can pretty much tell that I’m not in tip top shape so he’ll give me a scolding to take better care of my health.”

“Took the words out of my mouth~” She giggled and now placed the plate of food in front of you. “If you feel worse, I’m one call away.”

Breakfast was always something you looked forward to. You weren’t exactly sure as to what made it so special. There was nothing wrong with your real mother’s cooking; It wasn’t bland, overly seasoned, or even half cooked. Maybe it was how she was using her hands. It required more effort and time. That was probably it.

With breakfast over and uniform on, you stared at the mirror and checked for any last minute changes. Seeing that things were looking fine, you went towards your window and slid it open. The sight before you was rather heavenly.

A pretty boy sitting on the ledge, eyes closed as his head rested on the frame. Not a single wrinkle on his uniform. Practice wasn’t as tiring as it was compared to the others, so why was he dozing off? Not that you were complaining. This version of Akaashi was pleasing to the eyes.

Without thinking, you grabbed your phone and took a picture. You were about to call his name till you had an idea. Going to your desk, you took out a pen and paper and scribbled out some words. Folding it effortlessly into a plane. Something this light would have no strain on your quirk.

Aiming the plane towards his intertwined fingers, your palms began to faintly glow. Making the piece of paper glide through the air, you made the small note dive to his hands. Just enough to startle him. Startled Akaashi was a sight to remember.

Blinking himself awake, he stared at the random paper plane. Checking to see if it was from his neighbor, he glanced at your window only to see his suspicions to be correct. Unfolding the plane, he shook his head and folded the paper. Tossing it to his desk, he motioned for you that he too was ready to leave for school.

Passing by the convenience store, you held onto his arm and shook it gently.

“Snack bar?” When he nodded, Akaashi found himself being dragged once again. Facing the shelf, your eyes scanned for a new bar to try out. Overwhelmed with the variety, you faced him and shook his arm again. “What flavor do you recommend today, sir?”

Taking a simple chocolate-oat bar, you accepted it and made your way to the counter. This time, you offered to pay for the bars and he simply gave his thanks.

For the whole duration of the walk, his arm was being held delicately by your hand. Resting on the crease of his elbow, he would occasionally steal glances at your small fingers. He didn’t really mind it but the question lingered in his mind. Why?

When the school gates were approaching, you let go of his arm and tucked it into your pocket. Feeling your quirk raising from 7% to 15% from that small contact alone was very thought provoking. He didn’t really seem to mind it so, maybe it was fine.

Time was rather fast today. From the classroom walls, you were now inside the girl’s locker room changing into your proper attire. Knowing you had a few minutes before the others would arrive, you stared at your palm. Making it glow for a few seconds, a memory popped up.

The corners of your mouth lifted when you remembered Todoroki and you as small children. His face void of the scar yet the pain in his eyes present each time you two would see each other. Thinking of ways to cheer him up, you would light up your small hand and manipulate the light around you. Sometimes, you would create small firefly like orbs or just let them glow alternatively.

Missing your friend, you lit up both your palms and did so. That was one of the little secrets that you two shared.

When the doors of the room opened, you closed your palms and continued changing.

Now that you were catching the balls from behind, you were still a little pissed at how the rigorous movements were not enough for your body. There was no option as to where you could train like how you used to unless you snuck out in the middle of the night to some construction site and lift steel bars and such.

Returning a ball to the bin, you let out a sigh.

“(y/n)!”

A little too late in your reflexes. Being so lost in thought made you cancel out your environment once again. A stray serve from Sarukui landed on your cheek. Landing on your side, you groaned and tried to rub off the pain. You weren’t even going to deny that you felt as if Deku had punched you in the face with his quirk.

“I’m so sorry!” Sarukui kept on apologizing but you told him it was your fault.

Bokuto was quick to get an ice pack but Yukie grabbed the small item and threw it to Akaashi. The pretty boy wasn’t expecting it but he knew what the manager was trying to plot. When he saw the girl gesturing to him to go and do his job, he bowed a bit and jogged towards your sitting form.

“You alright, (l/n)?” He said as he sat down beside you and handed the ice pack.

“Happens to the best of us.” You accepted it and felt relief pass through your cheek. A grateful sigh escaped your lips. “Thanks, Akaashi.”

“It might bruise. Will you be okay with it?”

“Yeah. I’m used to bruises so it doesn’t really matter.”

“Used to bruises?” He asked. His fingers fiddling around. Tilting his head, he watched as the ice pack began to drip water.

“I told you.” You faced him. “I’m the most interesting person in this dimension, Akaashi.”

His eyes began to trail down your forearm till the small growing puddle beside you. Tilting his head with confusion as to how you were oblivious to the fastly melting ice pack. Noticing he was preoccupied, you followed his gaze and only just saw the puddle. Your eyes widened and you removed the water filled pack.

Was it even possible? Of course not. But, what if?

Focusing a bit on your hand, you waited.

Then you felt it.

It was quick and faint but it was an all too familiar warmth.

“Shoto?” Your voice was barely a whisper. Once again, a flash of heat spread across your palms.

“Who?��

“Uh,” Standing up, Akaashi could see how you were trying to fix your thoughts. Massaging your temples, you could feel your balance wavering. Just as you were about to take a step forward, your knee gave way. Thankfully, Akaashi was quick to grab your waist. “I have to go to the comfort room.”

“I can acc-”

“No.” Gently pushing him away, you tried to reassure him. “I’m fine, Akaashi. Just feeling nausea that’s all.”

Before he could speak, your back was now turned and making a run for it.

~

“I saw it!” Todoroki stated. His left side sent out tiny sparks due to his growing anger. “She did this little thing we do with her quirk!”

“Maybe you were just seeing things, Todoroki.” Iida tried to calm his classmate.

Everyone was cramped up inside the infirmary during their break. It was now the third day and there were still no changes with your case. Recovery Girl had already stated that she contacted her friends to see if she could gather anything new only to be left empty. Not wanting to add to the disappointment, she gave permission to the whole class to drop by and visit.

“Iida has a point.” Kiri said. His face filled with worry for two of his friends. “As much as I want to believe that (n/n) is okay, I think that’s just her consciousness doing that little glow thing you mentioned.”

“I’ve seen it a few times. How she’s sleeping and her quirk gets activated all of a sudden.” Momo had to agree. You were one of her most cherished friends and when she heard of the news, she dropped everything and ran towards the infirmary. “I get that she’s special to you, Todoroki-kun, but that’s a normal occurrence with (y/n).”

“That was too specific.” He tried to rebut. “I’ve seen it more times than any of you could imagine. I grew up with her. Hell, we were supposed to get married. That small action proves that she’s trying to tell us something.”

“Todoroki. We get that you just want her back but I think it’s all on her if she wants to wake up. If her brain scans show that she’s active, maybe she’s choosing not to wake up.” Sero commented. The rest of the class nods save for Deku and Bakugo.

“(y/n) is like a sister to me. She was my only sense of family after I got this fucking scar on my face.” A small burst of flame formed on his shoulder. “If I say that she’s conscious and wants to communicate, then that’s what I will believe in.”

Excusing himself, he left the room only to be followed by Deku. The two boys stopped in the hallway. Deku wanted to speak but he knew a pissed Todoroki would lead to nowhere. Few seconds had passed, he noticed his friend’s breathing was now even.

“Todo-”

“You saw it too, right?”

“I did.” Deku admitted. “But, getting angry at the situation won’t help. For now, what we can do is try to look up alternative theories as to what’s happening.”

“I know.”

Deku didn’t want to tell him but in a way, he felt as if him and you were similar. Being able to see the previous holders of One for All, perhaps Todoroki had a point. Maybe you were awake and locked somewhere in your consciousness. It pained him that he couldn’t tell his theory. Later in the day, he would plan on visiting All Might to ask whether or not it was possible to test out a hypothesis or not.

Sure enough, Deku and Bakugo were now sitting in front of All Might. A look of surprise etched on his face at the theory presented to him. It wasn’t too far fetched but the risk of being caught might be too great for the three of them to proceed.

“We don’t know how long you will be able to hold out, Young Midoriya.” His bony fingers were intertwined as his lips touched his thumbs. “We also don’t know if the two of you will be safe if things turn out well.”

“But we’ve done it once.” Deku tried to sofly counter. “I’m not too sure myself but if this theory is possible, then maybe it’s worth a shot.”

“What is your say in this, Young Bakugo?”

“It’s shitty.” He shrugs. “But, if it means being able to save (n/n) then I guess it’s okay.”

“This needs preparation.” All Might nodded. “Both of you should first train mentally and even spiritually to ensure success. Keep this on the down low for now. Let’s set aside a month and I’ll see what I can do.”

The two boys stared at each other. A month was a little too long for their liking but if it meant a higher rate of success…

“We’ll do it!”

- - - - -

a/n: ugh ive had such a rough week last week but luckily i managed to do the chapters on time :’( n e way~ i hope ya’ll liked this chapter! weekly uploads start now :3 Akaashi’s lineup is still open!