#Ember ended up with Black Canary

[bet-on-me-13]

Ghostly Host AU

So! Ghosts need a physical Anchor in the living world, or they are liable to fall apart and fade away if they stay for too long.

In Amity Park, this usually isn't too much of a problem. Sure most Ghosts can't stay for a week without a Host, but the ambient Ecto-Levels in Amity Park are enough that they can stay for a few days or so at a time with little worry.

This changes however, during Reign Storm.

When Pariah Dark awakens, Tens of Thousands of Ghosts use the Fenton Portal to escape the Rule of Pariah Dark, running away into the Human Realm.

If Amity Park had stayed where it was, this would have been fine. They could have stayed in the Living Realm for a few days, and maybe the Weaker ones would need to find a temporary Host, but that was fine since Amity was filled with thousands of Liminals.

Unfortunately, Pariah Darks first move was to suck Amity Park into the Ghost Zone, alongside all of the Ecto-Energy that had accumulated there.

Now left trapped in the Living Realm with no way back to the Zone, thousands of Ghosts suddenly needed Hosts or they would start dying off by the Hundreds. In a Panic, they spread out across the Planet in search of viable Hosts.

Any normal Person wouldn't do, they needed a Living Being that could actually handle their Power, or someone who matched their Soul. Preferably both. Liminals were the best since they had a durable Body and a Malleable Soul, so any Ghost could use any of them as a Host.

But outside of Amity Liminals were very rare, and finding someone who matched their Soul was time-consuming and hard. Thankfully, in recent years the population of Aliens, Metahumans, Enhanced Soldiers, and even extra durable baseline Humans had spiked across the world.

All across the planet, People suddenly found themselves stuck with a new Passenger in their Bodies.

Those new passengers thankfully weren't malicious, for the most part, but it was still annoying. The only good thing was that they now had new Powers, which neat.

They could summon the Ghosts in their Body outwardly, and then command the Ghost to use their Powers in whatever way they wanted. Only other Hosts could see another person's Ghost, which meant they looked very awkward to normal people when they fought. Generally, Hosts seemed to act more strangely after getting a Ghost, as if they lost a few of their Inhibitions.

Why did they feel the sudden need to strike a flamboyant Pose? Or over dramatically scream?

[ashen-crest]

hi ember, happy storyteller saturday

assign birds to each of your characters (please show pictures)

sorry I'm a day late to this!! happy sts!

hmmmmm birds

let's do Stray Spirit for this one!

Emry

Brown Thrasher: hard to find (lol book 1 Em) & they're prolific singers! and look, this one's standing in snow! Emry loves snow.

The only downside here is that Emry is much friendlier than this bird looks. I almost went with canary for Em for that reason.

[ID: a photo of a brown thrasher standing in snow. The bird has a brown back, light spotted belly, yellow eyes, and long brown legs. end ID]

Cal

Raven: intelligent, elegant, & gorgeous! I was originally looking at parrots for her, because of their beautiful feathers and brainy reputation, but a lot of parrots have exuberant personalities, which I didn't think quite fit Cal.

(You also can't tell me that Cal hasn't given someone this particular look before.)

[ID: a close-up photo of a raven with striking black feathers and icy blue eyes. end ID]

Aspen

Budgie/Parakeet

Friendly birds! They make great companions. And look at those fun colors!

Close runner-up for Aspen: the kea.

[ID: a photo of two parakeets sitting on a branch and facing each other. The one on the left has bright green and yellow coloring. The one on the right has sky blue, white, and gray coloring. end ID]

Thanks for the ask, this was fun!!

[feitanswife]

Fe3h pet headcanons Blue Lions post

Dimitri has a support dog, it’s a black lab named Charger and he helps him through panic attacks and is trained to go get help if he needs to. He’s technically a government official and has papers and everything to allow him into meetings, his full title is Co-Chief Advisor Charger Von Muffins

Felix surprised everyone by having both a dog and a cat, the dog I’m picturing is a bulldog, a big white one with little patches of other colors named Big Benny (basically my cousin’s dog) and the cat is a fluffy white one named Frosting. Benny was found on the streets as a puppy and taken in and now peopkejoke that Benny is more likely to inherit the estate than his actual kids.

Sylvain has a Newfoundland dog and a Husky, the Newfie is named Pepper, the husky is named Salt. So they’re Salt & Pepper. And they’re massive and strong and if he tries to take them for a walk while staying in the city for work they end up dragging him around more than anything else. He also feeds a little lonely fox that lives in the woods near his property, it won’t let him pet it but he calls it Ember and insists it is also a pet.

Ingrid has an impressive aquarium room with several dozen fish, all of whom have long complicated names and at all of her friends have a fish named after them. Sometimes she talks to them. Notably Dimitri is a killifish, Sylvain and Felix are both betta’s, Annette is a goldfish, Mercedes is an angelfish, and Dedue is a zebra danios

Dedue has a two dogs, the first is his baby tiny dog, She’s a cavalier King Charles spaniel and her name is Honeysuckle. The second is a three legged Pitbull named Cobalt, who he rescued from a dogfighting ring. Cobalt has anxiety and Honeysuckle with bark and nip at anyone and anything that makes her baby brother anxious.

Annette has a hamster named Theo and a canary named Sweet Pea. she lets them run all over her house and they chew everything up and it’s fantastic.

Mercedes has a very stoic little cream colored cat she named Emile. He’s not much for cuddles but if Mercedes is ever sad he just flops into her lap and starts purring.

Ashe has a rabbit named Peanut Butter, and Peanut butter’s wife Jelly. And their seventeen children all also named after sandwiches. He’s running out of sandwich names. Please help him.

[littlecrookedheart]

Merry & Bright : The Twelve Days of Choices FicMas

Prompt 10, Fireside S'mores

Pairing : Tom x Clove ft. The It Lives Beneath Squad & Andy Kang

Rating : A tiny suggestive bit, the rest is all fluff!

Word Count : 2,841

Disclaimer : I do not own any characters mentioned that are found in the choices universe.

"Are you sure? I feel like it's kind of...a lot."

Tom scrunched his nose in the mirror, gazing over the loud print on his scarf.

"You don't have to wear that if you're not feeling it, baby." Clove looked up from her phone, tossing it aside when she saw the look of uncertainty on Tom's face. She stood up and made her way to wrap her arms around his waist, peeking behind his shoulder to see in the mirror. "Andy is your best friend. I can promise you, he will never care what you're wearing."

"He bought me this for my birthday. I should wear it, don't you think?"

"Um," she sighed, turning him around to face her, "I don't think he'd mind if you didn't."

It was a knit scarf, winter appropriate but hideous, Clove thought. Bright canary yellow lemons against a maroon base, ends frayed with vibrant yarn.

“I think it's safe to go with something else.”

"Why is getting dressed so complicated?"

"Because you care so much." She unwrapped the scarf from around his neck and playfully looped it around his back, gently pulling at each end to move him closer to her. Her cheek pressed against his as she held him close.

"I thought you were just trying to help, but now I see what you really wanted."

"What's loving you without a little fun?" Clove teased, dropping one end of the scarf and moving it to the base of his head, toying gently at his hair. She could feel his face heating up and moved both hands through his hair, gently kissing from his neckline to just beneath his earlobe.

"Clove, you know how much I love having...fun..with you, but we really have to get going."

"I know," she sighed, resting her forehead on his jaw. The hint of rasp in her voice scraped his ears like bee wings on a rose petal. "Kiss me once?"

"I'll kiss you a lot more than that," Tom peppered his lips in bursts across her face, "any time," more small pecks across her cheeks, "any place." Finally meeting her lips, his arms enclosed her and lifted her off of the ground, passion behind his kiss.

"Tommy..." The heightening of her breath enthralled him, a deep blush building outward from his chest.

"Remember that later," he whispered, leaving one last kiss lingering on the side of her face.

He pulled on a jacket and helped Clove into hers, lacing his fingers into her empty spaces.

--

"Fashionably late?" Parker perked up, hand clutched around a glass bottle of hard cider.

"You couldn't wait for us?" Tom joked, the flicker of the already blazing fire shining in his lenses.

"Tom!"

Andy Kang jumped to his feet as if propelled by springs, limbs flying in the air as he leaped over the flames, nearly tackling him into a hug.

"Whoa! Are you a fire bender or something?!"

"Can't a guy just be really happy to see his best friend?" Andy ruffled Tom's hair, loose strands strewn across his face. "I swear man, every time I see you, you've grown three inches and gotten three times stronger."

Tom regathered his hair into a bun, using a black band slinked over his wrist to tie it up.

"Andy! It's so nice to see you!" Clove walked over with open arms, shrieking as Andy lifted her into a hug after taking a running start.

"Hey! Be careful or one of you will fall in. And if you're not aware, I'm a cop, not a fireman. I can't save you."

"That was dark, P."

"I want one night. One. Where I'm not the dad friend!" Parker laughed, replacing his empty bottle with a new one. "Also guys, please put your trash in this bin. Wildlife."

Andy kicked back into a camping chair, leaning backward to level with Tom's eyes across the fire. "Does he know Lucas? He should know Lucas."

"I don't know what Lucas you're talking about," Parker smiled, "But I once arrested my bully from elementary school. His name was Lucas."

"Talk about karma! What I wouldn't give to see that look on the faces of my old bullies." Andy gestured to Parker for a cider, catching it perfectly in his grip.

"Where's Imogen?" Tom asked, pulling Clove close to him as his arm draped across her shoulder.

"On her way. She thought she had marshmallows at home but she didn't, so she's stopping first."

Clove leaned forward to wave at Danni as she approached their circle, camera held in front of her to capture the floating embers against the night sky.

Andy and Parker carried on in conversation about bullies which turned to basketball and a debate over the NFL, light hearted laughing filling the air almost as much as the crisp wind.

"It's freezing!" Danni shivered, burrowing further into her coat.

"Sit down by the fire and you'll be toasty."

"You're only saying that because of that human furnace you're clinging to," her teeth chattered with each gust, "some of us aren't so lucky."

"Tom and I will cuddle you. Come sit between us!"

"Not in a million years."

"Come on, Danni. Let us warm that cold little heart!"

"I am not cold hearted!" She yelled as she quickly pushed her way between them, stifling a grin as all four arms enveloped her in an embrace. "I'm cold blooded. Get it right."

--

Later in the evening, Tom had ventured closer to Andy and Parker, all standing in a circle, playing snippets from songs over the speakers of their phones.

"Why did they move over there?" Danni asked, Parker's coat around her like a blanket.

Clove shrugged, giggling softly. "They're weird."

"They're drunk. Weird is an understatement."

"They aren't drunk, just Parker."

A rustling came from the top of the hill, the splitting of the wood at the base of the fire seeming to mime the sound.

Imogen stumbled down, missing the small clearings of the pathway. Her arms were piled high with paper grocery bags, eyes peeking over the rim of them as she tried to steady herself. Clove rushed over to help, quickly met by Andy and Tom.

"Traffic," Imogen huffed as she leaned to greet everyone with hugs. "So much traffic."

"Why?" Danni asked, already tearing open a bag of marshmallows.

"We have a weather advisory! How did you guys not know that?"

"I knew," Parker said, "I just didn't want to miss this tradition."

"It isn't tradition when it's our first time doing this, dork." Imogen straightened her posture, sticking an arm out to Andy. "Hi! Imogen Wescott."

"Andy Kang! If I didn't already know you were you, I'd know you were you by your voice."

"What's that mean?"

"Energetic, happy sounding. You've got a lively voice," Andy smiled, his eyes crinkling in enthusiasm.

"Oh! Well, thank you. If I didn't know you were you, I'd know by your stature. You look like an athlete!"

"I'm glad all of that work is paying off. Speaking of, you brought snacks?"

"I sure did!"

Imogen sat on the floor in front of Tom and Clove, opening packages and passing around goodies. She handed Parker a tin with an embossed sleigh on the top, beaming.

"I made those myself!"

Parker warily opened the tin, his face lighting up as he uncovered chocolate chip cookies in various shapes.

"Christmas cookies?!"

"Yes! Yes, of course! I spent the entire day baking yesterday for my parents' fundraiser and I had some left over so I thought I'd bring them."

Tom twirled a metal skewer between his hands, gazing into space.

"You okay?" Clove's hand trailed from his shoulder down his arm, looping through the crook of his elbow.

"Just thinkin'."

"I know that face." She narrowed her eyes and turned his head to face her, relaxing the look on her face and lowering her voice, "What's wrong, baby?"

Tom shook his head, sighing. "I love the holidays, I just can't help but miss some things. I used to bake with my cousins every year. When I was like, eight, me, Andy, and a few of our old friends made a Christmas cake for when my aunt and her baby came to visit. God, it was so bad. It was just a chocolate cake made from boxed mix, but it was covered in so much icing."

"I like icing!"

"Not this icing. This icing had kid fingers all over it and at least three bottles of sprinkles just dumped on top."

"Are you talking about the snow angel party cake?" Andy jumped over a camping chair, crashing into Tom.

"Why are you so jumpy? Calm down, man."

"Um, are you talking about the snow angel party cake?"

"The...snow...angel..party cake?" Clove said as she raised an eyebrow, covering her mouth to hide her laughter.

"The one and only."

Imogen reached over, handing them a new bag of marshmallows. Tom absentmindedly slid them in a tight line down the skewer, passing it to Parker to roast.

"We had this old friend named Jane. You remember Noah?"

The group collectively nodded, waiting for the rest of the story.

"Jane was Noah's twin sister. So we're making this cake, pretty frantically and with no adult help, ya know?"

"And Jane dumps a whole bag of m&ms into the batter."

"Then proceeded to eat a spoonful."

"Of raw batter?!" Danni laughed, "I've done the same thing! I was like ten!"

"Well, she definitely liked it way too much."

"We didn't even bake the cake all the way. It was squishy with batter in the center. But Jane ate it like pudding. It was so gross."

"I remember my aunt brought in my little cousin Jiro, who was just an infant at the time. And Jane was just covered in cake, still eating it. She ran up to the baby and tickled his feet, got cake all over him!”

“She didn't get sick or anything. She just sat there, sassy attitude as always, eating that gross raw cake.” Andy snorted before cracking open the cap of his water bottle.

“I remember she said, ‘Tom, why is your cousin way cuter than you?’”

“Dude, she said Jiro was cuter than all of us. And she was right!”

“She sounds like she was a lot of fun,” Clove smiled to them, seeing Andy’s eyes glaze over as if a mirror image of Tom’s.

“She was. We all were.”

“Hey,” she whispered, kissing Tom’s shoulder. “You still are.”

He looked to her, his lips trembling faintly. After a moment, he mouthed,’I love you,’ and handed Parker another skewer of marshmallows.

“Okay guys, this is where we take plain boring s'mores and turn them into Christmas s'mores!”

Imogen did a little dance, sandwiching a peanut butter cup and a perfectly browned marshmallow between two Christmas cookies.

“Bite?” She suggested, holding it to Parker’s mouth.

He took a massive mouthful, eyes wide with excitement. Covering his mouth, he mimicked Imogen’s dance and said, “Christmas s'mores!”

“Aw yeah! More for everyone!” Imogen’s happy dance was contagious, coaxing Danni into running to Parker’s car for a Bluetooth speaker and playing DJ.

“Imogen! How did you discover these? This is like..s'mores to a whole new level.” Andy shoved an entire s'more into his mouth, trying his best not to smile.

“Sometimes PMS pays off.”

Tom grabbed a bottle from the cooler, gathering trash from the ground into the bag Parker had designated.

“Hey Tom, you cold?” Andy asked, wiping strings of marshmallow fluff from his lips.

“Uh…yeah, man. It’s below freezing.”

Andy stood up and dusted crumbs from his clothes, standing on his toes and reaching up, slinking an arm around Tom’s shoulder. “You know what would help you warm up?”

“A space heater?”

“That scarf I got you for your birthday!”

Tom looked at Clove in panic, stuttering.

“I…I almost..I’m so-”

“Dude, really? I’m teasing. I regifted that to you from my grandma.”

“What?”

Andy doubled over, trying to contain his laughter.

“It was a Joke, Tomoichi. Don’t worry!”

Tom shoved him into a large bush, the both of them loudly laughing and shouting silly phrases to one another.

“Men.” Danni rolled her eyes, nudging Parker with her elbow. “You’re not one for wrestling?”

Parker’s eyes darted to Andy trying to lift Tom, his lips pursing to fight the urge to smile.

“Nah, not my thing. These cookies though? These are my thing.”

“I SURRENDER!” Andy yelped, giggling profusely as he rolled the rest of the way down a small hill.

Tom folded his arms and rejoined the circle, popping the top off of a bottle of beer.

“It’s going to be a long holiday season with these two.” Clove sighed, wiggling her eyebrows at Imogen.

“You’ll learn to love our antics.” Andy sat across the fire, between Danni and Parker, and took a long swig of his drink. “It’ll be loads of fun.”

“When do you go back to Westchester?” Imogen asked.

“Before the start of semester, so early January.”

Parker nearly choked on his drink, leaning forward as he coughed.

“You alright?” Tom reached over to pat him on the back.

“Uh, yeah,” Parker said, catching his breath. “So wait, Andy, you’re in Pine Springs for the next month?”

“Yeah! Make room for one more in this little posse.”

“Cool,” Parker said, leaning back into his chair.

“You’re already welcome, Andy.” Danni said, setting her phone down and heading over to the cooler for a drink.

Clove discreetly swiped it, scrolling through her song library and choosing a new song. Michael Bublé’s gentle rendition of, ‘I’ll be Home for Christmas,’ started up, and she stood to her feet, taking Tom’s hand.

“Hey! What gives?”

“Just one?” She looked to Danni with big eyes, batting them slowly. Danni smirked and turned away, shrugging.

“Dance with me?”

“Right here?”

“Right now.”

“Alright,” Tom gulped, placing his hands at the small of her back. The sweet apple scent of her hair seemed to swirl around them, the soft glow of her face in the fire’s reflection giving her an ethereal aura.

“You look handsome.”

“You’re as beautiful as ever.”

Clove rested her face on his chest, holding him close to her as they danced further away from the fire. She felt him softly humming against her and joined him, swaying side to side.

“I have something for us,” he whispered, the bass in his voice moving through her chest.

“A gift?”

“Something like that.” He reached in his pocket, opening his hand to show her a small, borderline disheveled mistletoe. He held his arm above them, chuckling as she looked up at it.

“Where did you even find that?”

“I made it.”

Clove’s mouth dropped open as she jumped up to grab it from him.

“You’re joking! This is so thoughtful, Tommy.”

“Nothing a few scrolls through Pinterest can’t help me figure out. But…I did make it for a reason.”

He held it above them again and moved in closer to her, watching the flames dance in the glaze of her eyes.

Clove’s smile was loving, like she wanted to write the world for him. “What are you waiting for?”

He cupped her cheek, angling it upward to move his lips in time with hers. His heart fluttered at the toasty taste of her kiss, running his hand through her hair.

She could feel a shiver pass through his chest, breaking the kiss as she pulled him forward.

“No, come back,” he whispered, longing welling in his chest.

“You’re freezing, baby. I’ll make it up to you later.”

–

Around the fire, Andy and Tom sat roasting marshmallows and proceeding to make several s'mores, passing them to the others. Parker tossed small branches and sticks into the fire, watching them curl up and split to cinders.

“What’s on your mind?” Clove asked, handing him a bottle of water.

“I’m glad we made it.” Parker smiled shyly at first, turning to a grin. “We deserve so many nights like this.”

“We do, don’t we?”

“I just want to say, Clove, even if in a few years down the road, none of us talk anymore, I’m really thankful for your friendship. And before you ask, no, it’s not the cider talking.”

She smiled and put her hand on his shoulder. “I know it isn’t. Nothing, not even really good cider or anything else, could overshadow a heart like yours. I’m happy we’re friends, Parker. Thanks for being there.”

“Are we getting sentimental?” Imogen tossed a rock into the flames. “Because I love you guys.”

“I hardly know most of you and I love you guys!” Andy yelled, jumping to his feet and kissing everyone on the head.

He ruffled Parker’s hair, catching his eye and winking. Parker’s cheeks turned a deep blush as he turned back to his water, downing the rest.

Clove raised an eyebrow and smirked, turning to Tom.

“Did you see that?”

“Yep.”

“Do you ship that?”

A chuckle reverberated through his chest as he nodded, “Yep.”

[vide0-nasties]

16: small birds, dry grass? it's so oddly specific i wanna see where you go with it ;u;

eee! thank u beeb! :*** i hope you enjoy! 1.3k words of Asra/MC pre-game pre-memory loss!! ^^

Travelingturned rescue, as their trips often did when Eustacia caught troubledpeoples in her purview.

Alittle town at tucked into the forested foothills of a mountain rangerimming a vast plain of grasslands, one with an alchemist of somerenown, his apprentice of meteoric talent, and a problem withpreternautral fire.

(Someyears down the road, when he is readying himself to leave Vesuvia foranother journey and Eustacia is looking at him with the distant,baleful eyes of someone observing a disappointing near-stranger, hewill think of this little town in the foothills and he will thinkthat time is an insatiable ouroboros and there are only so many rolesscattered throughout the universe that people are allowed to play.)

But,when the wild fire started to eat the woods, they played hero.Eustacia with her sword and dirk strapped to her hips as she explodedinto an unkindness of forty-four huge ravens and bombed into theflaming woods, and Asra with his lungs shredded from shouting downevery face that answered every door his bloodied fists beat on. “THEWOODS ARE BURNING! THEY’RE BURNING, YOU HAVE TO LEAVE NOW!”

Thetownsfolk claimed a fire nymph had made its home in the hills, andEustacia and the alchemist, Henrich, had called bullshit. Fire nymphshad not been seen on the mainland in half a century, and never thisfar in-land.

Henrichhad begged Eustacia to find his apprentice. Please, please findGabriella, she’s all that I have left, I, I—her canaries need her.He cried the tears of a terrified father, and Asra’s resolve steeledseeing Eustacia’s half-step slide from hunter to baffled humanity asshe jerkily nodded her agreement to the request.

Asralingered to the last, watching younger, stronger villagers carrychildren and the elderly down the mountain, watching the mayor andher council release horses from their stables and livestock fromtheir pens, watching the cinder-black husks of trees turn to carboneaten by the white-heart of the inferno looking for his youngmonster, his lovesick night terror.

“Comeout,” he hissed between clenched teeth, balling his fists,ignoring the sting of his skinned knuckles shooting straight to theback of his eyes, “come out. Come-out-come-out-come-out.”

“Magician!”the mayor called for him. “We have to run, the buildings arecatching!”

Hewas already beginning to storm the flame when the words reached him.He could already feel the heat scorching his face through the scarfover his mouth and nose, the smoke burning his eyes blind, when theblack blur lurched out of the woods.

“ASRA!”she screamed.

Reliefflooded him, made his knees weak. She was safe, she was safe, he wasalways so scared.

“WHEREWERE YOU?!” he roared, ready to grab her around the collarand drag her out if the inferno.

“TURNYOUR SHITEY WEE ARSE ‘ROUND,” she ordered, “WE’RETHE FUCK OFF THIS GODS FORSAKEN DIRT HEAP!”

Agirl was piled in Eustacia’s arms, limp. Gabriella.

Eustacia’shands didn’t look right, but Asra couldn’t make out why. When sheordered him to take hold of her belt, he could see that her remainingeye glowed like the penumbra of a ghost. The hunter’s fugue, lettingher see even in a room blackened with lack of windows or lightedwick. She led him down the mountain and into the plains.

Henrichtook Gabriella from Eustacia’s arms, sobbing his relief openly. Thegirl, not much younger than Asra himself, coughed and stirred,apologies dropping from her mouth.

Outof the tall grass, a flock of butter yellow canaries sprang, singingand chirping and swarming the pair in a vortex. Asra turned hisattention to Eustacia, to her wrongly-held arms and the way she wastrying to hide them. Alarm rose fresh in him, ice-bath cold andclawing at his throat. “Euffie—”

“Hasyour town spurned an occult merchant recently?” she rasped, hereyes rolling and drilling into the apprentice’s. “Your Gabriellafound the uncorked flask of a spark wisp. It grew fat, impatient, andgreedy on your lumber.”

Shewas lying. Asra knew she was lying, covering for the girl who nodded,reaching for one of her tiny canaries, and he said nothing. There wasno spiteful merchant, except for maybe Eustacia and her cursecraftand the right foul wind blowing through her chest. He moved closer,trying to look at her arms.

Henrichspirited away Gabriella to the rest of the townsfolk, lauding theheroism of Eustacia’s half-fabrication—Gabriella had taken it onherself to neutralize the spark wisp, when she had been the one tosummon it out of curiosity’s sake alone, wanting to learn a primalmagic by watching a primal magic.

“Whydidn’t you tell them what the wisp told you?” he snapped as hehealed and dressed the raw burns that spanned the backs of herfingers to her shoulders. He worked himself to exhaustion, workeduntil the ink of her tattoos reconstructed.

“She’sa girl, and no one died, not even a canary,” she croaked,stretching her arms to examine the lengths of white gauze wrappedover them. “This was a success.”

“Thiswas a shit-show. Their lives are gone, and you,Eustacia, you could’ve died. You’re not a—a soldieranymore. You don’t owe random strangers anything.”

Shesilenced him with a bandaged hand over his wounded knuckles and adeeply uncomfortable deluge of her healing magic, surging through hisbody like a violent dry-heave, making him want to squirm away fromher and hold his stomach. His entire body tingled like static whenshe stopped, and then he shuddered.

“Buildingsare mortar and brick, barns are plank-wood and iron hinges. Lives areintangible,” she told him, exhausted even in the volcanic glassof her false eye. “Beyond even that, the wisp will eat its filland die, as that is its nature and only ending.”

“So,wisps just burn out?” he grunted, healing his other hand andappreciating the difference.

“Lotsof things burn out.”

Helooked to her, then. Her look had drifted to the swelling bank offire climbing to the mountain’s wooded peak, and the huge wall ofsmoke rising from it.

Thisfar away, he couldn’t believe how loud it had all been. Deafening,really, leaving his ears ringing and buzzing.

Helooked back down at his hands. “You’re not going to burn out,Euffie.”

Anotherlook was thrown his way, one that said not me, maybe you, butshe didn’t voice it aloud. Instead, she stood, and offered her handto help him up. He took it, and slid their palms together, barelylacing their fingertips together.

“Iwant to watch the crawl,” she told him. “Just for a littlewhile. Then you and I will move on.”

Hedidn’t like that. It frightened him without reason.

“Justfor a little while,“ he agreed, swallowing roughly. His fingerssqueezed a bit too tight, and a muscle in her jaw jumped.

“Gentle-gentle,”she urged him quietly, and he apologized, trying not to hang hishead.

Then,just for a little while, they watched the wild fire crawl, the littleyellow canaries flitting through the air like falling embers, and thesway of the tall, dry grass around their legs.

(Someyears down the road, when he is standing in a different sea ofanother nature altogether, with no young horror at his side or in theworld at all, as a red veil trickles down to shroud the whole ofVesuvia, he will think of this little town in the foothills and hewill think that time is an insatiable ouroboros and there are only somany roles scattered throughout the universe that people are allowedto play.)

(Seaweedwill lick at his ankles, and real embers will fall from the sky, andan island call the Lazaret will burn its dead in the dark. He willconsider the price of a soul, of a body, and of the death of a fat,impatient, and greedy monstrosity.)

(Hewill decide to pay it, because his world is lesser and his hearthowls empty without her.)

[lets-get-sirius-about-stars]

Dream Catchers

OC(s):

Sirius Vance

Makayla Fray/Red Comet

Lucile Tylers

Schninner: So this takes place a few months after Sirius has been freed, so him and Makayla have been living with each other for that time. Makayla’s views on Sirius, She’s gotten more used to him to put it nicely. She still finds him extremely annoying, but considers him a good and trustworthy ally, one might even say friend. OOH! Also! Another important fact about them! So, both Makayla and Sirius suffer from awful nightmares, ones where they often wake up screaming. (Also, its before Luna had joined the team)

Warnings: mentions of torture, I’M TO TIRED FOR EDITS AND CORRECTIONS SO THERE’S GONNA BE TYPOS.

Word Count: 1372

Tagging; @preppygothica @maruthor @the-singing-canary  @royslittleharper @cuddles-for-cassie @hamsterforlive

Master list: (My content)     (Content made by others)    

Sirius’ Bracelet           Makayla’s Bracelet 

“Please,” a voice she barely recognized trembled as she spoke, her eyes drifted away from the tubes perturbing from her arms to the alien, the Pralen in front of her, it’s pale yellow head swiveled toward her and it’s three black beady eyes seemed to widen in surprise at the fact that she was still conscience, “please, no more.”

The creature didn’t understand her, they never did, instead it turned to its companion, opening its mouth to issue a series of quick alien words, some of which she could understand.

“…Activate... procedure…”

“No,” She weakly sobbed, straining hard against her restraints and watched helplessly as the Pralen’s hand grasped the handle to the switch.

“NO!” Her voice filled with desperation as she let out a glass shattering shriek.

The Pralen’s eye’s filled with nothing but pure fascination as he pulled the lever down, letting the concoction flow through the tubes.

Makayla watched in terror as the glowing red liquid entered her veins once more, felt the chemical burning through her veins, boiling her alive. She thrashed, her sweat soaked hair clung to her forehead and neck as she let out a howl.

“Stop!” A pair of strong hands grasped her arms tightly, keeping her from pressing against the restraints any further, “Let me go!”

“Fray, Fray!” shouted above Makayla’s thrashing as he gripped her forearms tightly, trying to prevent her from catching anything else in her room on fire.

Makayla eye’s snapped opened and went still, tears steaked down her face intertwining with the beads of cold sweat that had formed. Her breathe was shallow, and her crimson eyes seemed to pierce his Cerulean blue ones, fear still shining brightly through hers.

They sat there, on her bed, a moment more, the hot red energy emitting from her hands slowly cooling and dissipating. Her eyes finally tore away from his and went straight to her scarred hands that were gripping his forearms.

“Are you- Did I burn you?” Her voice was small and shaky, vastly foreign to her usual powerful commanding composure.

He wanted do badly to wrap his arms around her shoulders, to hold her tightly and tell her that it wasn’t real. He itched to embrace her tightly and never let her go, but he knew that she might truly try to burn him alive if he did. So, he stayed at arm’s length, his sky-blue fingers lightly wrapped around her scar speckled shoulders, and gave her a small forgiving smile.

“I’m a blue star, I’m literally, and metaphorically, the hottest thing in the galaxy, you’ll have to do more than that to burn me.”

Her shoulders sagged in relief as she loosened her grip on his arms and had her arms hug her knees closely to her chest, and Sirius reluctantly removed his hands from her shoulders. He watched closely in silence as her eyes darted to her smoldering pillow and blankets, glowing embers floated off and drifted into the air, her gaze slowly followed the ember.

“Hey,” he placed his blue fingers lightly on top of her hand, but she didn’t scold him or pull her hand away hastily per usual, “third bed sets the charm, right?”

She didn’t answer him, only remained silent for a bit longer, her ragged breathing eventually evening out until she was breathing normally.

“Did I wake you?” Her voice had regained some of its normality, but it still shook as she spoke.

Sirius absentmindedly ran his thumb lastly across the pink scarred tissue on the back of her hand, he shook his head, remembering his own horrifying nightmare. His mother, father, and his younger siblings, all of them, rapidly ageing and dying in front of his very eyes while he was held back, restrained from saving them. He had woken up not to long before he heard her screams echoing through their small shared apartment.

“No, don’t worry,” His voice soft and comforting, “I was up for a small snack break anyways.”

She nodded, absentmindedly and the two were cast back into silence. There they sat ten minutes longer, before Makayla inhaled sharply and wiped away the remaining tears wither right hand and spoke, “It’s late, we should go back to sleep.”

He nodded, his gradient blue messy hair bounced into his eyes as he gently stood up, lifting his hand from hers. “Okay Fray, but if you ever need me, you know where I live.”

This caused a small smile to press at her lips, he watched the faint scar on the left side of her mouth curve at the smile and his heart hammered loudly in his chest. He would forever be grateful to the darkness for covering the dark blue blush that was undoubtedly forming across his cheeks.

“Thanks Sirius.” She responded, before he turned around and left her room, his footsteps matching the rapid thumping of his pulse.

She hadn’t realized he was holding her hand until he let it go, allowing the cool air to caress her hand once more. She still felt the warmth from where his hand had rested on hers, her traitorous mind flashing back to how close they had been…

She shook her head, and hugged her knees even tighter. Remembering the needles, the pain, in insufferable burning.

She shuddered, before getting out of her bed and fishing out her costume. One thing was for sure, here was no way she was going back to sleep.

A sharp smack sounded in front of Makayla, causing her to bolt upright at the tiny dining room table. She was still in her costume from her little heroing around Gotham last night and must have collapsed into the chair and slept. She inclined her head, sleepily removing the black domino mask from her face, to find the blue wonder that was Sirius.

He looked ecstatic this morning, already dressed and he had even managed to run a comb through his hair. He beamed happily at Makayla and nudged the box e had dropped toward her. Makayla rubbed the bags under her eyes and drowsily gave the blue star a quizzical look.

“It’s for you!” He chirped, nearly bursting from excitement. “Go on, open it!”

Makayla looked down at the small box, her mind slowly putting the pieces together. She was usually slow in the mornings, but only surviving a total of about 6 hours of sleep this week had taken it’s toll.

Her warm fingers opened the small box to reveal a small bracelet woven together with blue and white strings and in the center of it was a small dream catcher.

“I looked up ways to get rid of nightmares on the cellular device you gave me, the nice google lady told me that these are supposed to catch the bad dreams. I got one to, see?” he lifted his sleeve to reveal that he was indeed wearing a red version of the bracelet. “ooh! And don’t worry, I asked Lucile to get it, so you don’t have to worry about the whole secret identity thing!”

Makayla let out a soft breathy chuckle, shaking her head ever so slightly, she lifted her gaze to his,

“Sirius this…”

She was going to tell him that it didn’t work, that it was just some superstition. But looking at the happiness that shone in his eyes, the uncontainable joy that emitted from his mile, she just didn’t have the heart to do so, and she didn’t understand why. Last week she would have told him exactly that, but things seemed different now.

She slipped the bracelet over her wrist and smiled, “-this is perfect.”

She looked back at him, “thank you.”

Sirius beamed, “You know, since I did a good thing, do you think that I deserve a hug?” He outstretched his arms in expectance.

Makayla’s heart hammered unexpectedly in her chest, and she could feel the ends of her ears go hot, but she retained her composure and cocked her head to the side raising an eyebrow at him, “Don’t push it Blue boy.”

Sirius lowered his arms in defeat, but a cocky smile still plastered to his face revealing the one dimple on his right cheek “Ahh well, it was worth a shot.”