#GREEN SUITS HIM WO

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Sacrifice

ectoberweek24 day 5- two sentence tw- neglect summary- The Fentons are scientists

masterlist ao3 part 6 of AHINWTG

The Fentons were brilliant scientists. Or so they claimed. There was still no proof to all their theories, but they were persistent. They would have their proof. They’d show the world they had been right all along. Ghosts were real. Ghosts were evil.

And once they finally had a specimen, they would be able to discover how ghosts form and how to prevent ghosts from forming. Because who wanted to turn into an evil amalgamation of negative emotions?

So, they built weapons for creatures they hadn’t found yet, and published papers on topics hardly anyone believed. And they worked and worked and worked.

They had a little girl, but she was strong and independent. She could take care of herself. They needed to focus on their work. Afterall, someone had to be able to protect them from the evil ghosts. How better to care for their daughter than to work to defend her against threats?

Then they had a son, and that was okay too. They had always wanted two children, and this way Jazz could take care of little Danny so that they could focus on their work.

Once they’d proven their theories, once they’d defended the world against the threat ghosts posed, they’d spend more time with their children.

The years went by, and still they had no proof. At least both their children were independent now. 

They loved their kids. They did. But they needed to protect the world. And aren’t the many more important than the few? Sacrifices had to be made for the greater good.

And they were almost finished. They would be able to prove the existence of ghosts soon. And then they’d destroy the ghostly dimension and make sure no more ghosts were formed. No one would have to suffer from ghosts again. And the Fentons would finally receive the renown they were due.

They built their portal. But it didn’t work. They researched and they researched and they researched. They delved into the mystic texts that they’d previously tried to ignore. They were scientists. They didn’t believe in nonsense like magic and witchcraft. 

But the more they looked into it, the more they saw that all the texts said the same thing. They all required the same thing in order to breach the veil between the living and the dead.

They looked at each other then. They had to decide what was more important.

But wasn’t it obvious? They were doing this for the greater good. They needed to be willing to do whatever it took, to sacrifice whatever it took, to see their research through.

They asked him to come downstairs after school. They told him they needed his help. He had helped in the lab before, though usually it was just to clean. He was just happy to spend time with them.

They had him slip on a hazmat suit and asked him to check some of the wiring inside the portal. 

He stepped in, and they flipped the switch.

Green light filled the portal, and a scream echoed through the lab. 

It was working. The portal was opening. They couldn’t help but feel excited.

But then the light died as the scream did.

When the light had faded, all they could see was a lump near the edge of the portal.

They cursed. They had been so close. This was supposed to have worked. They had done everything right. They had double checked their blueprints and the portal itself. They had even given in and followed the ancient texts.

They frowned. There was only one factor that they hadn’t been in complete control of. The boy. He must have done something wrong for it not to have worked. And as they looked at the portal, their frustration mounted. The inside was singed, metal corroded and wires frayed. It would take them months to fix it.

At least they still had the girl.

They turned to leave the lab. They’d clean the mess up later. But then there was a groan, and they turned back to see the boy raise his head.

They told him it was an accident. His heartbeat was slow, but he seemed fine.

That’s why it hadn’t worked, they thought to themselves. The boy hadn’t really died. They’d have to try a slightly different approach next time. Maybe it would work if the sacrifice was already dead? But first they’d up the portal’s voltage. More electricity should do it.

Because a portal to the afterlife needed the sacrifice of something loved in order to open.

But they would never succeed. 

They didn’t love him enough for it to work.

[ilvero-love]

Clothes Maketh the (Wo)Man (or the colour coding of the Iron Trio)

I saw a post recently wondering about the significance, if any, of the colours our Iron Trio wears💙🖤🧡. It prompted me to go looking. Like everything Complete Fiction seems to do in regard to this show, the choices are careful and deliberate.

Lockwood is black and white🖤🤍 He has a business to run and his suited appearance declares that he is prepared to do just that. He’s business like because he has to be. The success of this company rides on his back and the choices he makes. He is ambitious certainly, seen in his constant striving to take Lockwood and Co to the top and in his drive to put them into the public eye, often at the expense of other’s wishes. But it’s understandable. He has bills to pay and people (George and Lucy) that rely on him. Even after they successfully square away their debts, Lockwood remains conscious that there are still other bills to pay.

Lockwood presents an adult façade to the world. Even Lucy (in the book) is surprised to realise he is scarcely older than her upon first meeting him. But, whilst he may appear an adult, he’s still very much a teenager navigating his way through a world where children are dispensable and adults, despite their general uselessness, still call the shots. It’s Lockwood’s sneakers and pink socks that give him away and reveal the teenage boy behind the façade. This was such a clever choice on the part of Complete Fiction 👏 They remind us that whilst Lockwood has been forced to grow up too quickly, at heart he is still a teen.

So, black and white. Very simple and clear cut. Except life isn’t like that, is it?Only Lucy has insight into how tenuous his grip on control can be, and we see this in the delightful stairwell scene 💖💖💖

😍Take a moment everyone- right, where were we?

Ah yes, Lucy and her blue persona (colour not mood). Lucy’s blue is a nice foil to the green of the ghostly world they inhabit. Both blue and green are heavily associated with nature. I don’t know what that means here, but it’s interesting to ponder.

Blue is traditionally seen as a colour of constancy, loyalty and reliability. She certainly provides this for Lockwood. But it’s also a strong colour, hence its traditional association with boys. A practical colour, heavily associated with working, it feeds into Lucy’s active strength.

(Some of these ideas came after reading the interesting article https://www.allure.com/story/beauty-and-the-beast-blue-dresses-in-female-centric-films . Not sure I agree with all of it but certainly food for thought).

Finally, George 🧡 Orange radiates warmth. George is the only from a stable family background, only leaving because of a burning desire to solve the Problem. 

Orange can represent physical comfort, which, when you add it to his cooking prowess completes the picture. Despite taking a while to warm to Lucy  (understandable when it’s just been him and Lockwood for a year) once he’s in, he’s all in 💯

Orange can represent physical comfort, which, when you add it to his cooking prowess completes the picture. He’s homely-he embodies home. As Lucy says to Lockwood, “Portland Row is my home-You and George”. And despite having taken a while to warm to Lucy (understandable when it’s just been him and Lockwood for a year) once he’s in, he’s all in 💯

It is interesting too that orange is also a complementary colour to blue, meaning that you can argue that George balances Lucy, providing stability for Lockwood.

So, there you have it, my thoughts, nonsensical or not, on the colour coding of our three heroes 🧡💙🖤

Maybe, just maybe, they were completely random colour choices based on what CF could source. But knowing Complete Fiction, I somehow think not 😉

⚔👻💕

[callsigns-haze]

Pretty like a crime

Chapter 5

Pairing: Agent Jake 'Hangman' Seresin x Singlemom! Agent Y/n 'Cobra' Y/l/n

Summary: Cobra is finally back on the agency and is finally back in the job. With Kai at home she has to jumble being a mother and a agent. She's sent to her first U.C mission but never thought that she would meet a blonde, green eyed Texan...

Warning: Mentions of gun use, ptsd, mentions of death, mentions of shooting, flirting, mentions of abuse, description of dead body, death, blood, undercover work, alcohol use, smut, kissing

Part 1/ Part 2/Part 3/ Part 4

"So how are you meant to figure this out?" You ask leaning back on your fiancee's lap as the two of you observe the overwhelming and exotic papers that lie in front of you in his private home office. Matt has been toppled with work assignments recently, which have been overwhelming for him at home and works. Matthew sighs into the back of your neck. This is tiring for him; such a thing like overtime hours at home.

"I don't bloody have a clue anymore, darling. I'm on the bridge of throwing this out the window," he murmurs into the croak of your neck, leaving delicate kisses up to your ear. He rests his arms which wrap around your body, while slightly rubbing your lower back. "Oh daddy, let your darling help you," you say with a slight tease at your tone but this much more focuses on actually trying to help without knowing too much. "Darling, calling me daddy while sitting on my lap will only earn you an extra task," he smirked into your neck and you let your cheeks blush at the comment.

"Cobra, baby, sit still… I truly hate working on people like this." Matt had a valid point these people were unbreakable, any evidence you have against them is either invalid or destroyed in seconds. Nobody had a hook on them and nobody dared to mess with them. People who had anyone on their side due to money, relations or fame. "People like us," you mumble.

"Amen to that…amen to that."

-

His lips against your skin were flaming, with passion and a side of love. If anyone asked you how to describe this sensation the only thing you'd manage to choke out is 'euphoria'. That's the only way of putting it as his mouth leaned to kiss your chest, right where your heart beat, right in between your plump breasts. He started sucking on the nipple of your right hand breast into his mouth.

"Matthew."

"Hmm?" He questionly mumbled against your nipple which caused you to let out a sigh. "Your phone." You both knew who was calling and what they wanted. Matthews father has run a business for years, quite close friends with Tom. Matthew father has a weird source of trust and his own way of trusting people. He makes them his family. A trust that no one dares to break, no one tries to ruin but yet somehow you were added to this trust, ages before marriage.

He picks up the phone from your night stand and answers the calling number. "Mhmm…. yeah… she's with me…. no we don't have it… give us thirty minutes, we'll be there." You look at your husband as you rush to your shared wardrobe and quickly grab a long dress and flat fancy shoes. "Matt, what happened?" You ask as your husband unsuccessfuly tries to sped dress on one of his work suits. He looks over at you with the look, the look he asks you to tie his tie.

You hold the slick red material and start tieing it slowly and carefully. "My dad got into business trouble again. He wants everyone there. It's about some past incident, he wanted to know if you were with me." His father never asked if you were with Matt, just expected you to always be there and you were. You slip on your shoes and ask, "Why would father specifically ask for me?"

Valid question one that should have to be considered. Why would he ask for his daughter-in-law specifically. "I don't know, darling, thought it does have to do something with a past situation."

- "Etienne, calm down! There has to be a valid explanation to this!" Penelope said calmly, trying to soothe the man but that did not work with her will. "Penelope, if they find true evidence behind this, I'm done for!" Etienne rarely raised his voice at people close to him. He was married twice and now is single but all you believe that he sleeps with Pene, his advisor.

You and Matthew stop listening to the conversation and Matt announces your arrival, "Dad, we're here!" The two of you walk into the elongated and widened hallway. "Jesus, thank the lord you're here, darling," Your father in law says as he quickly makes his way to you and wraps his arm about you. "Y/n/n we have a situation that has your parents involved." It felt like all the weight has been dropped on your shoulders. Where they ok? What happened?

"Are Sarah and Tom okay?" You ask as your voice is on the bridge of breaking. "It's not about them…"

------

"I'm gonna take a quick shower," you say in your and Jake's shared hotel room. Due to Mavericks choice and Justin's help the two of you are now disguised as a married, ghost gun selling couple. It was a fit role for the two of you. It was buyable.

"Yeah, go ahead. I'll order us something. What would you like?" Jake said, his green eyes twinkled slightly as you looked at them, the tiny twinkle that glistened your day. "Just order me whatever you're getting."

You enter the bathroom. The two of you were disguising as a rich couple but this is one of the fanciest rooms you've occupied in ages. The marbled walls, the enormous white bath, it felt like a distant home.

You strip off your earlier awear and it pools around your feet. You grab one of your slick black hair ties and tie a quick messy bun to prevent your hair from getting soaked. Bending over the white bath, you turn on the water and overload it with bubble solution. You wait until there's a right amount of water till you sink in.

Jake lays back in the big king sized bed that fills most of the room. There was only one bed. To make the disguise believable, there had to be one bed. He didn't know how to feel about this. His feelings for you existed; pumping through his veins with passion and for not knowing how long, he'll have to share a bed with you pretending there's no feelings involved.

He lays for a little longer, untill there's a knock on the door with a young man screaming from the other side, 'Room Service!'. He opens the door and thanks the young lad taking the plates of him and lays them on the small table in the room. He knocks on your bathroom door and says, 'Hey Cobs, room service came!'. Your response was a simple 'coming' but that knock was a bit to much for Jake.

He sat on the bed and only noticed it now. When he knocked the door opened slightly, even the small gap was euphoric. He didn't think much of it until your naked back filled the frame he was looking through. As you reached for your towel he saw every detail of your back, each of your curves and your ass. He was going hard and he knew it. All of this turned him on marvelously.

There were scars that covered your back slightly, each that had a different, cruel story to sob through but to Jake they didn't cause you to lose any beautiful, just enlight it.

As you dried yourself, your hands run up and down the indented skin. To him it seemed like you weren't used to them, a sort of shame due to having them. As you turn to the side more, he clearly sees more of the side of your body, the curves, edges are presented to him as some sort of painting, a sort of fantasy. He's seen many women naked and done many things but this, this was making him hit a rocky bottom.

"Ooh you got good food!" You exclaim to see the delicious dishes that lay in front of you. Jake knew what you liked, he had similar taste but also was really observant. He was wearing only sweatpants as he went to shower before you.

You shouldn't have looked down, you shouldn't even look in that direction. Jake's frame leans against one of the walls but the bulge in his pants was solid hard. 'Keep it professional!' you tell yourself as you're about to scream, feeling like being part of some teenage dream.

Every ridge, every indent was shown through the gray loose material. You were raised that it was rude to stare but was it rude if it stared back at you. You've never been in such situations, not ones that you've felt this flustered with a coworker.

You were married young, your first time spent with your ex husband; back then he identified as your secret boyfriend, so from the start it was the same old game, but now this was a different guy, maybe better than the last but you couldn't control yourself.

"Emm… So what's the plan layout?" "The what?"

"The plan of action?!" Jake does a weird hand signal while expressing his speech. You were so stuck in thought basic words weren't making sense to you anymore. "Ummm…well… Tomorrow is when everyone arrives, apparently they have a reservation at 8.34 exactly where they sneak into a private area of the opera house. As long as I know all the opera part is set up just as a distraction during sales." That's exactly all the information you were told off by Justin. That was the dealing plan. All you had to do is just ruin it, if you managed to do so the whole organisation plan goes down and you finally get rid of them all as they enter behind bars.

"So we don't strike till tomorrow?" Innocent question, innocent answer. "Yeah, we have nothing for today." Jake smiled at you. This was the first time you two were truly alone; not in work or meeting, not when the two of you met in the park, this was the first time with peace.

The two of you enjoyed your food in peace, just a peaceful silence. It was filled with thoughts, both from you and Jake. You two looked up at each other, gaze locked. You've never been so peaceful or awkward with each other. Usually this was all filled with little arguments or teasing but this was a calm and nice dinner, one that it seemed like you both needed.

"So, you nervous?" You ask him, quite interested in if the blonde Texan has been much undercover in such types of missions. Usually all you've seen Jake work in is patrol and here he is, pretending to be some fake character with a fake identity. "I mean yeah, but I much prefer to be here, then have you doing this all alone," that smirk , that Texan smirk never leaves as it shouldn't.

"Well thank you for your generosity, but I'd much likely thrive," he knew you could, he knew that with your skill you were truly capable of taking care of yourself without his help or anyone else's.

"Here let me take this off you," Jake suggests, taking the empty dish from beneath you and putting it beside a empty windowsill. Gentleman. A man you can determine his anger from how he cuts a cucumber.

Soon after he walks over to the bed and takes away his pillow placing it in the small sofa in the room until you grab his wrist and quickly stop him in his own actions. "What are you doing?" You should know, it's quite obvious but with Jake the answer could be unbelievable. "You can take the bed and I'll take the couch, I know we act a married couple but I thought you might be uncomfo-" You quickly cut him off in his next words by placing you delicate finger upon his lips and wishpering. "The beds big enough for the both of us, and trust me I'm quite comfortable."

"Y/n, it's truly o-" You cut him off again this time the distance between the two of you barely existing. You're so close that you can feel him against you, which causes you blushing and makes you want to fold over but you had to keep strong here; 'no funny business'. "Take the bed with me Jake."

It was 23:11, but Jake couldn't sleep. His mind was elsewhere; engulfed in the beauty and passion that the woman beside him held within herself. He didn't know how to feel about this at all. The woman that made him stop the feelings he felt towards anyone else was sleeping beside him with no clue of his deeper feelings.

He turned to his left to see your sleeping figure lightly spread out on your side of the enormous bed. So peaceful, he's never seen you look this calm in all the time the two of you spend together. You even seem nice when you sleep.

This may seem like he's some sort of pheodofile or physcopath but he loved the way you slept. The way your light breaths raised your chest delicately up and down as the soft sounds, that barely exists, exit your lips. The way it seems like your heart skips a beat when you lake a long breath or the way your hair falls.

It was so careless, calm and free. It opened around you like a.lions mane, showing off the power it holds within all the fluff; where else there was one loose strand of hair across your face.

Jake preps himself up against his own elbow and delicately puts the strand behind your ear, while the softest whispers leave his lips, "You don't know what you do to me, Cobra. You have absolutely no clue."

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[romanoffsbish]

A Safe Haven

WandaNat x Fem!R

Request | Prompt | 3,060 Words

Warnings: Injured R, Descriptions of Burns/Stabbings

Natasha and Wanda had gone out for the day, they shared a short brunch before setting off to go shop. They wanted to be prepared for your return tonight with all of your favorite things. It was your first official mission as an Avenger after Fury gave you the final go ahead, you were so excited when you left this afternoon, and they wanted to make the return just as special for you because it was only fair, as you were the only light in their lives most days.

—

Then they got a call, and suddenly a concerned Wanda was falling from the skies, landing back at the compound, and running in a frantic way to get to the med bay. Apparently you were waiting there, and Natasha agreed to purchase your things then meet her back there in about ten minutes, but she promised it'd be less.

"Bruce, I swear to god I will shove that needle into your jugular if you don't get the hell away from me! I can do it by my fucking self!"

Wanda wasn't really surprised to hear you screaming, you were never a fan of the clinical side of things, nor were you one for allowing others to see you in such a vulnerable state. Except for if it was with Nat or Wanda, that trust took a long time to build, so she rushed through the doors, and made a beeline for you.

Red wisps wrapped around your hand right as you managed to steal the syringe full of numbing drugs from the nervous scientist, you scowled deeply, but your body also visibly relaxed when your lovers presence became clear to you. You instantly felt safer...

"Moya lyubov, we don't stab our friends."

You growled, "He was going to do it first."

Wanda smirked at you, eyes of an intricate green never leaving yours as she nodded sideways at the sheepish man, he took her hint with a running start. The doors swinging as he left in a rush signaled to you he was gone, "What a pussy," you grumbled and Wanda snorted, "Play nice, he was trying to help."

Honestly, if you didn't see him shift into a giant green monster with your own eyes you'd never believe that Bruce Banner was the Hulk.

"He knows better Wands." She nodded with a hum to follow. "Yeah, but he also knows if he didn't try he'd have me and Nat to deal with, and I hate to break it to you, but we're scarier."

You gasped and pointed the syringe at her now, "Take it back little witch." She rolled her eyes, and literally took it back from you. "Done." She winked, you rolled your eyes, and shrieked, "Not what I meant Wands, I am way scarier!"

"Detka," she chuckled with a soft shake of her head, because as scary as you thought you looked, you truthfully didn't. With furrowed brows, a crinkled nose and an exaggerated pout, what she knew was meant to be an intimidating scowl, it only softened her heart. So, as was an inevitability she cursed at you, "You look adorable."

You gasped again, this time more loudly, and the heatless words died on your tongue as you felt a surge of pain. The adrenaline had faded.

Your body fell back against the bed, wrapped hands pawed at the sheets and tears began to stream down your face. Wanda's teasing smile fell, and for the first time since she had arrived she witnessed just how hurt you truly were.

There was ash all over your maroon suit, the flecks of charcoal white covered not only it but your face and hair. Fortunately your hands were already wrapped by someone, but the burns you had sustained were everywhere.

Where the white ash didn't reside, jagged holes in the suit took its place, showing the brunette your third degree burns. Then her eyes trailed further down your body, noticing the scrapes and bruises, and stopping in post haste on the saturated red gauze wrapped over your thigh. Her stomach flipped, seeing you in pain like this always hurt the empath just the same.

"It's okay," you whispered through gritted teeth, forcing yourself to sit back up so you could try to comfort the witch who's lip was now wobbling, but her hand softly pushed you back into the bed. "No, it really isn't."

You should honestly be fine; this was a simple recon mission, medical aid made no sense.

Wanda reached for a white rag from the cleaning station, she softly wiped your face clean, then she thoroughly wiped an unmarred portion of your shoulder clean. She smiled down at you, her thumb traced over your cheek and you instantly nodded. Giving her the silent permission to give you the magical shot to numb the pain, her lips touched yours just as you winced. A momentum picked up as you felt the ice rolling through your veins. Your body feeling as if you could party all night when it really belongs in the junkyard in this state.

Being the responsible party the witch pulled away, smiles pressed lightly together as she hesitates to truly part, but with immense strength she manages. "We need to fix you up now my love, let me do what needs to be done."

Wanda knew she'd have to soften your resolve some to allow her to use her powers like this.

After every mission she'd rush to either your or Natasha's side, use her powers to heal you just a bit, then she'd spend an entire day sleeping.

Then one really bad time put an end to this for a long while. When Nat was struck by a bullet, Wanda suddenly collapsed as Natasha's lungs partook in a miracle as they did the opposite.

"Y/N, don't worry," she quickly shushed you. "I'm going to make these third degree ones, and then I'll stop. I promise I'll be okay, I had Tony make these bracelets for me that help me better pull my energy. No more collapsing."

"C-careful Wan," you stuttered, the heat rolling through your body was still intense, even with the Novocain coursing through you, so you're desperate for her offered relief, but you would never allow it if you thought it would hurt her.

"I always am," she winked at you, then began to remove the rest of your suit. Her body stuttered as she really took the sight of you in.

"Why are you in this state Y/N," she wasn't accusatory, just concerned. "Where was Steve and Tony?" Your eyes widened, because the truth would only lead to the other's demise.

You'd considered lying to her, but even in your delirious state you knew better than to try. Nat probably already got the ear full from Hill, so you knew Wanda would have found out.

"They forgot I was there," you whispered the embarrassing truth so quietly, but you knew she heard it when her jaw clenched. "They triggered the bombs on the floors above me, but then after I shrieked into the coms they stopped and Tony flew up to save me."

"This isn't exactly saving," Wanda sneered. "Those idiots are in for a world of hurt."

"Wanda, it's okay." It wasn't, but you wanted to pretend like it was and she could sense that. "You're right, it's gonna be fine, just relax."

Wanda placed a chaste kiss to your lips as her forehead leaned into yours. A shaky breath fanned across your face as she began to heal you, you could smell traces of mint on your lips, and feel the love she left behind in its place. "Just focus on me sweet girl, you're ok."

"Wan, you said just the burns," you whined, and the witch kissed your protests away as her warm, glowing hands hovered over your thigh.

"Look, I'm fine moya lyubov'," she hummed, her thumb tenderly traced over the new mark on your thigh, and you sighed contentedly.

Wanda saw you shiver, she didn't want to hurt you further with the tight fitting emergency clothes you all had in the medbay for moments like these, so she slipped her own hoodie off and with her magic she made sure it fit you in an oversized manner like you preferred. All to protect your body from being seen by the team.

"Can you stand now?" You nodded, and the brunette guided you onto your feet. Natasha burst into the room just as Wanda pulled you into her, eight minutes in total. The witch was hoping for more time, but you needed to eat, and the redhead will want her time with you.

Wanda pressed a tender kiss to your forehead, "I'm so happy you're okay detka," then she left an even softer one to your lips before she was gently exchanging you for the grocery bags. She gave Natasha a quick kiss, they shared a fond smile as they watched you burrow into your other lover with a swiftness. Then Wanda was gone to the kitchen before you could blink.

Natasha didn't mind the grime transferring to her shirt, she only smiled and buried her nose in your hair, she could smell hints of your apple scented conditioner beneath the layers of smoke and ash that settled onto the strands.

Natasha's blood boiled when she looked just beyond you and saw the tattered remains of your suit behind you. Most of your burns were on your upper body so she couldn't see the improved state, but she did notice the few on your legs, and knowing they were once worse was enough to make her rather homicidal.

Tony and Steve would be smart to find a safe house, because after you fall asleep tonight there's no one left to protect the assholes.

They were careless with your life, and to your girlfriends that's an unforgivable slight.

"Thank you for coming home to us detka," the woman held back a sob as she repeated her usual mantra for when you'd return from a shield mission, but the way her arms tightened around your waist gave way to her clear fear.

"I'll always come home to you guys Natty."

"I appreciate that." Natasha gently pulled away from your embrace so that she could cup your cheek and pull you in for a kiss that she poured all of her love for you into. "We love you a lot."

"I love you guys too Natty, even more than Taylor Swift." Natasha chuckled in disbelief, "Wow, you're clearly in a state of delusion."

"Let's go get you cleaned up detka." Natasha scooped you up against your weak protests. You'd lost a decent amount of blood with the wound on your thigh, plus, no amount of magic heals the need for rest after what you've been through. So this is really the least your lover felt she could do to play her part in your care.

After taking the elevator up to your shared room the redhead set you down on the counter in your en suite, then she filled the tub with scentless bubbles and lukewarm water as to not aggravate your already overheated skin.

You watched with your lip caught between your teeth as your lover stripped down to nothing. She was always something to admire, and you'd never stop. "My eyes are up here."

"I know, I'd rather look at your boobs," you admitted without any shame causing the woman to loudly snort, "Y/N, you're injured..."

"Yes, and horny for my girlfriends always."

Natasha shook her head at your truly heatless words, "You're insatiable darling." You only smiled in response, allowing her to gently guide you into the readied tub where she just as quickly settled her body behind yours for the optimum support. "Dirty, dirty girl indeed."

You huffed, a protest of sorts, but you were too fatigued to back it up with words. The silence slowly encompassed the bathroom, sounds of water splashing into the marble all to be heard as you rearranged your body to lay face down. Natasha frowned when you shivered, she tried to offer her own body heat, but she couldn't budge on the water or else you'd be worse off.

She hummed a soft tune as she ran her fingers up and down your spine with delicate strokes. Her hand began to kneed at the unmarred skin, hopefully helping to relieve the tension that still resided in your muscles from the long day.

Her hand eventually made its way to your thigh where it methodically paused. She softly ran her thumb over your new scar, face falling further as she racked her brain for an answer that only evaded her with logical thought.

"How did you get stabbed?" You tensed as she finally verbalized it, now remembering that the empty floor you were sent to had a straggler who graciously left his blade behind in your leg. He'd totally blindsided you, swinging it at you before he escaped down the fire escape.

"The information was faulty," your scratchy voice came out sounding pitiful. "The place wasn't empty like Fury had first relayed."

Natasha hummed in understanding, she lifted your face and kissed away the tears as they fell. No more words needed to be said, she could tell it was just a fluke in intel, and it infuriated her that they'd not be more thorough for your first time up against Avenger level threats.

"Natty, I'm really cold." You shivered more noticeably this time and she took that as a sign to lift your bodies so she could run the shower. You were likely having a reaction to the loss of blood now, body struggling to regulate after all its been through in only a matter of hours.

Natasha did everything, and to her surprise you let her, you were just so tired and pliant.

She gently sat you down on the bench in your massive shower, then she moved to rid your locks of all the debris. You leaned back when she requested, her strong arm held you up with ease as the warm, once clear water turned to black as it slid down the drain. The various debris getting caught on top of the silver drain gratings, and she soon grimaced as an entire chunk of plaster thunked against the marble.

Natasha waited until the water ran clear to sit you back up. You pouted when you saw her expression, it was pained, and you felt guilty. Thoughts of how you could've prevented this plagued you, truthfully you knew it wasn't on you. Tony and Steve made a massive mistake. Fortunately for you the redhead didn't give you long to overthink before she lifted you again.

You purred when her lips pressed into your neck as she tugged you into her embrace. Fresh hot tears cascaded down your skin along with the streaming water and you held her even tighter, trying to somehow reassure her that you're still here. Natasha held you close like that for an entire minute as she sobbed.

"I'm okay Nat," you whispered reassuringly, "I'm here, I'm alive, and I'm safe with you two."

You reached down, pulling her hand back up with yours to prove your words right. You kissed her knuckles with a tenderness only reserved for your lovers. Then you flattened her hand against your chest, overlaying it with yours for optimal comfort. Nat sighed as soon as she felt the strong thrum beneath her palm.

"Thank you detka..." You kissed her cheek and she turned her head fast enough to steal a proper kiss as well. To her delight you didn't try to pull away, but instead you leaned in and allowed her to deepen it without her asking.

"I love you," you whispered as you playfully smiled against her lips, "But I'm becoming a prune, can we get this show on the road?"

Natasha chuckled, "You're lucky you're cute," shaking her head as she reached for the first of many hair products you had. She set the bottle beside you, and greedily leaned in for another kiss. "Your wish is my command detka."

After Natasha finished you up she guided you to the door with a hand on your hip, and the other on your lower back for assistance. The redhead spun you, softly pressing you into the wall so she could have her last moment of alone time with you. She raised a single hand to cup your left cheek, she ran her thumb over a scar beneath your left eye. Memories of your first ever encounter, a hectic mission, flashes through the both of your minds. You share a reminiscent smile as you kissed her palm.

"I love you too," Natasha finally verbally reciprocates your earlier sentiment. It wasn't needed, her actions alone said it, but you never failed to melt when your lovers reminded you. You whined, your usual cry for attention, and Natasha pecked your lips just before opening the door so you could get in bed and rest.

When the two of you exited the bathroom you both smiled at the sight of your lover on the bed. The scene was overwhelmingly domestic. Wanda wore an oversized shirt of yours, with a smart remote in her hand, apparently keying in your favorite movie on Hulu, and you melted.

You leaned your tired body back into the redheads who leaned against the doorframe,  eyes falling to the rest of the targeted display.

On a tray to the left of the bed was three plates full of your favorite home cooked dinner of Wanda's, and three cans of varying sodas. On the bedside table sat a burn cream, a couple extra strength Tylenol, and a glass of water.

All of that alone was enough to make you want to cry. So, when Wanda jumped up and ran to embrace the both of you the tears actually fell. Your lovers rubbed your shoulders and sides lovingly, depositing kisses wherever they could as they let you have a moment to feel it all.

In there arms was where you felt the safest, you never knew what the feeling of home was like until you met them; they were your physical embodiment of a safety net, and now, you knew you'd always have something to fall into.

——

[goodqueenaly]

So in F&B it says that there was a custom of keeping a dragon rider in residence at the Dragonpit in one of the Dance chapters, but unless I’m misremembering I don’t know if that was mentioned in earlier chapters. Do you think that started with Jaehaerys and Alysanne that maybe they had one of their kids there or rotating “shifts”? Thanks and hope you are doing well!

I think this is another area where F&B demonstrates its (IMHO) overall weakness as a narrative. It’s obvious that F&B was Frankenstein’d together from various novellas, stories, and ideas written and (partially) published over the course of years. “The Princess and the Queen” had introduced the idea some 10 years ago that “[i]t had long been the custom for at least one dragonrider to reside at the pit, so as to be able to rise to the defense of the city should the need arise”. However, just as F&B had proven reluctant to expand upon the idea of dragons beyond those already introduced - no word on the fates of all those unnamed “young dragons” and “hatchlings” and “drakes” which seemed to populate the pre-Dance Dragonpit and the Dragonmont - so did F&B refuse to elaborate on that supposedly long-held custom of dragonrider residence in the Dragonpit.

Worse, the often thin and lurid way in which F&B approaches its characters, especially during the reign of Jaehaerys I, hardly provides support for headcanons in this sector. It’s possible the late teenage and early adult Prince Aemon might have been resident in the Dragonpit between his knighting and his appointment as lord justiciar, but there remains the potential problem of how, if at all, Aemon would have divided his days between his full-time job on the small council (nevermind his wartime duties and peacetime progresses) and his residence in the Dragonpit. Too, while Baelon seems to have had no governmental position prior to his appointment as Hand of the King (again, his responsibilities as a prince of House Targaryen notwithstanding), Gyldayn seems little interested in suggesting that Baelon, and his fellow dragonrider Alyssa, did virtually nothing except bed each other for the entirety of their marriage (and specifically in the Red Keep, as Gyldayn seems to gleefully report). Princess Rhaenys might have been sidelined for the succession on the basis of her gender (and as Lady Velaryon after her marriage, she was not ideally locationally suited to be so), but whether this same misogynistic excuse would have been brought up or challenged for the role of resident dragonrider is a question Gyldayn never bothers to bring up in the first place, much less answer.

Indeed, the reign of Viserys I provides several moments where the role might have fit very naturally the plot and characters. If King Viserys wanted to include his brother in the Targaryen government, why wouldn’t he have given this fierce and eager brother a quasi-military role which kept him out of actual political work - and, in turn, would have given Daemon a physical base in the city away from the Red Keep from which he could have cultivated his “Prince of the City” reputation (and his control of his private army of gold cloaks)? (Put aside Daemon’s eventual disappearance from and only partial return to King’s Landing after Viserys I’s remarriage.) Even if Viserys did virtually nothing, certainly with any official political appointment, to promote Rhaenyra as his heiress beyond that 105 AC ceremony of proclamation, and so might not have considered naming her as the resident rider in the Dragonpit, but why didn’t Rhaenyra herself offer to serve as such? With the black and green factions eager to press their respective young princes as the future heirs, and more than willing to use proxy conflicts to jockey for position (as with the infamous Loveday-esque feast and Viserys’s late-reign throne injury), why wouldn’t Alicent and Rhaenyra have petitioned Viserys for such a role for, say, Aemond or Jacaerys? I’m not saying any one of these writing choices would have been perfect, but I am saying that I feel like this was a narrative opportunity GRRM missed exploring.

[wrenrogue]

Kuroken AU where Kuroo looks through Kenma's tablet notes app for some passwords Kenma told him would be there. He finds what he needs but scrolling through the notes he finds something else. He finds a note, last updated three weeks ago and titled "Kuro" and nothing else.

It's a list and a pretty long one at that. It goes like this:

Favorite Soup: Miso because he's boring, but sometimes he prefers it with clam or fish balls because he likes his docosahexaenoic acid

Favorite Suit Fabric: Worsted wool, because he likes how comfortable it is, but many of his current ones are a polyester blend for less wrinkles. I prefer him in silk though

Favorite Tie: Standard sized with basic patterns like stripes or polka dots because he "needs to be professional but not too much that he loses personality." Buy him novelty ties sparingly or he'll be tempted to wear the tackiest ones everyday like a high school science teacher

Favorite color: Red and blue in equal amounts since that's what makes up half his clothes in our closet. I don't think he's noticed yet. Black is my favorite color on him, especially when it's form fitting

Favorite Dessert: Dorayaki, but he doesn't have much of a sweet tooth because he's an old man that likes salty foods more

Favorite Onigiri Filling: Umeboshi because it reminds him of his grandparents

Favorite Vending Machine Drink: Chilled green tea because it's not sweet for his old man taste buds

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Vanilla like his sex fantasies and claims it's a good base to add toppings, though he only ever adds sprinkles

Favorite Shampoo Scent: He likes green apple because he says it's a fresh scent, but we both know it's because I've been using green apple shampoo all my life and still do, and he's too lazy to buy his own shampoo now that he lives with me

Favorite Laundry Detergent and Fabric Softener Brands: 'Attack' because that's what his dad uses and 'FaFa' because he finds the brand bear mascot cute

Favorite Alcoholic Beverage: Whiskey on the rocks and calls it his big boy drink. He also likes warm shochu in the winter

Favorite Sports Shoe Brand: ASICS, he likes to have a white pair to coordinate with his suits when he needs to be on the court on business. He keeps separate black ones for his sport activities so the business ones stay clean longer

Favorite Flower: Camellia, since he brings them to me all the time. I asked the gardener to plant some in the back garden, so he can have a supply closer to home

Favorite Type of Fish: Mackerel because it's affordable and high in nutrients

Coffee or Tea? He prefers hot teas without any sugar, but his coffee must be black if he drinks it, because he's boring and a tired salaryman. DO NOT give him espresso though, he can't handle it and also do not offer creamers or sugars because he claims it's for the youths

Things He Needs:

New socks, I saw some holes on his work socks the other day

New cologne, because he's running out and I like him smelling nice

More shaving cream and razors since he doesn't like how scratchy his skin feels, even though I like it

A new dress shirt since I accidentally spilled sauce on one of his favorite ones when I wore it and I couldn't clean the stain off

More hoodies so I can steal his old ones permanently

New volleyball equipment for the backyard so he can practice at home

New ties because all my tugging him down for kisses ruined the fabric of many of the ones he currently has

A new bento box for his lunch since he's still using the one from university

iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad because he needs to upgrade and get with the times

A copy of Pokemon Pearl so I can trade exclusives easier and also so I can beat his ass in battle

New slippers since the cats peed on his current ones while he was at work and I don't think he's caught on yet

A gaming chair so he can join me in streams and videos easier

Things He Likes (and I like):

Grocery store dates

When I win him stuffed animals at festivals

When I make him lunch for work

When I wear his shirts and nothing else

When I kiss him on the forehead before he heads off to work

Hugging him close at night when he's had a bad day

Holding my hand or having his arm over my shoulders when we're walking

When I leave the door unlocked when I'm in the shower

When I let him sleep on my lap while I play my games

Kuroo scrolled through the rest of Kenma's notes about him, it was full of things he liked and how he liked them and things he needed and why. And despite the teasing commentary in some, Kuroo couldn't help but feel loved.

They were all observations, things Kuroo hadn't even noticed about himself; and they were quiet, detailed and sometimes snarky, typical of Kenma. He reached the end of the very very long list to what must've been the newest update from three weeks ago.

It read: Ring Size - 67 mm in circumference, I'll need to ask what size that is for rings at the jewelers.

Kuroo wanted to kiss him. And he did when Kenma got home later that day from the errand he had to run that afternoon.

Kenma barely leaves the genkan before Kuroo has him in his arms, kissing him fervently "What's gotten into you?" Kenma asks, a little dazed and a couple inches off the floor for optimal kissing distance.

Kuroo lowers Kenma down, but doesn't let go "I'm just so in love with you."

Kenma looks up at him, admiration very evident, "I love you too."

It's a quiet night for them, Kuroo finds himself with his head on Kenma's lap as they watch the latest volleyball ball match of the season. Kuroo comments on a failed play and how it would've been better if they'd done it another way.

"Easily the worst play this game, right Kenma?" Silence. "Kenma?" Kuroo looks up at Kenma, expecting him to be on his phone, but instead he's looking down at him, eyes smiling, but a hint of nervousness, a hint of shyness not typical of Kenma.

At least not when it comes to Kuroo. Kuroo reaches up to caress Kenma's cheek, "Everything alright?"

Kenma brings his hand over Kuroo's, "I'm just so in love with you."

Kuroo snorts "That's my line"

"Can it be my line too?"

"You can have anything you want," Kuroo whispers as he turns his hand to hold Kenma's instead.

"Can I have your hand then?" Kenma says threading his fingers with Kuroo's.

"You're holding it?"

Kenma scrunches his nose "Wrong hand."

Kuroo raises his other one, "This one?"

Kenma rolls his eyes, digging through his hoodie pocket "Not the right hand either." He takes out a ring, a simple platinum band with small neat stones around it, "This hand."

Kuroo looks from the ring in Kenma's hand to his face and back to the ring. "Ring Size: 67 mm in circumference. I'll need to ask what size that is for rings at the jewelers" the last update on Kenma's list had said.

"Tetsurou, will you marry me?"

Kuroo answers by leaning up and kissing the love of his life.

Kenma responds quickly, dragging and rearranging Kuroo on top of him, game forgotten as they remained liplocked for the rest of the evening.

"So is that a yes?" Kenma asks coyly as he draws shapes on Kuroo's chest.

They might've done more than kiss on their couch if their pants on the carpet were any indication of that. Kuroo rubs his chin, pretending to think, "I think it's only fair to elope now that you've deflowered me"

Kenma scowls pinching Kuroo's nipple making him yelp in pain, "I change my mind. I don't want your hand in marriage."

"No take backs," Kuroo pinches Kenma's ass in revenge. "Besides I found the list that proves you love me" he teases

"What list?"

"The one on your tablet in your notes where you list all my favorite things"

"You found that??"

"Yeah, this morning when I was looking for those passwords you told me were there"

"Oh" Kenma says, face red trying to cover it with his hair, "Well, you have a list of me too"

Kuroo tucks Kenma's hair behind his ear so he can see his face again, "Yeah, I do" he looks at him with fond eyes, "I'm just so in love with you."

Kenma smiles, fondness and admiration evident as he looks at Kuroo, "I'm just so in love with you too," he says as he leans down to kiss Kuroo once more as tenderly as he feels for the love of his life.

They spend the rest of their night in each other's arms, ring long forgotten, until the next morning when they find it between the cushions.

Kuroo finally says Yes when Kenma asks again for his hand in marriage over breakfast, slipping the ring on his finger, 67 mm in circumference.

[seidenbros]

Breaking the Ice - Chapter 2

Pairing: Wylan van Eck x Jesper Fahey Summary: “Do you need some champagne to make it through this time with me?” Wylan tilted his head to the side, a grin on his lips, obviously not serious about this at all. “I definitely don’t, darling, but who knows how long we’ll be in here, wo we might get thirsty.” The way Jesper’s eyes scanned his upper body, his neck, and stopped at his lips made Wylan think of something else entirely. He actually felt a little hot under the collar, and that only intensified when Jesper loosened his tie before taking it off and putting it in his pocket. “Been waiting to take this thing off ever since I put it on,” Jesper explained while he opened the top buttons of his dress shirt, drawing Wylan’s eyes immediately to the skin he was showing like that. Or Wylan’s POV of their first meeting, and the moment they got stuck in the elevator.

Warning/Tags: POV Jesper Fahey, POV Wylan van Eck, Alternate Universe - Hockey, Alternate Universe - Figure skating, Hockey Coach Kaz Brekker, injuries, Jan van Eck is the scum of the Earth, sexual content, implied child abuse A/N: Just like promised, it's Friday, and this means Chapter 2 💚

Chapter 1 Read on AO3

Wylan took another deep breath as he checked his reflection in the mirror. The dark green bowtie had been an idea from his coach Inej, and he quite liked it as well as the black suit and suspenders combination with the crisp white shirt. His hair looked rather curly today, but by now he’d given up on trying to tame them and just went with it. Everyone else seemed to love it - apart from his father who’d made him cut his hair when he’d been younger, so it was all the more reason for him to wear it like that.

It would have been lovely if Inej had been able to join him, but she had other obligations. She’d tried to switch some things around to make it happen, so that she could act as a buffer between him and his father, but it hadn’t been possible. All of that wouldn’t have been so bad, if they hadn’t put him right next to his father, because everyone thought that they wanted it. In fact, only his father wanted that to show everyone that they were a happy little family, but Wylan would have loved to sit at the other end of the room.

Jan van Eck was someone people admired, looked up to because he’d made a name for himself as a hockey star, and it was something Wylan understood, since his father was a legend. But as a person, he wasn’t what everyone believed him to be. He had so many memories he’d like to erase, and yet he still wanted to gain his father’s approval, make him proud. Honestly, he shouldn’t give a damn about what he thought, but he did. No matter how hard he tried not to think that way.

He grabbed his belongings and put on his jacket, before he stood here any longer reminiscing about his family and his life. He just had to get through the evening, and he would be free of his father for a while. If he was lucky even until around Christmas where they’d be at the Mayor’s Christmas Party again. For tonight, Wylan would just try to smile, make polite conversation and try to stay away from his father as much as possible. Once the dinner part was over, he’d just mingle with the people, see if he found anyone he knew, and then head home when he felt like it. That was the plan at least, since he wouldn’t be buying anything at the auction, and he’d find out soon enough, who’d be the highest bidder on the costume he’d worn at his last competition, when he’d won silver.

He didn’t take his own car but called for a taxi, because he didn’t know how the evening would go, whether he’d have more to drink than a glass of champagne, but knowing his father, he might definitely need it. Especially because his fiancée was accompanying him. Alys was a sweet girl, about the same age as him, so Wylan had no idea why she was by his father’s side. Maybe, he treated her differently than he did Wylan, maybe he actually cared for her, but since he knew how his father could get, he thought that she deserved better.

When he got there, his father was already at their table and Alys was sitting quietly next to him. Wylan was still earlier than most people, and he would have loved to stay back, maybe go to the bar first or take a look around the ballroom, but his father had spotted him, so he didn’t have a choice but to go over there. He knew that people were always watching his father, and so they’d watch their interaction as well - especially the photographers, since they loved taking pictures of the hockey legend and his figure skating son. Both of them were born to be on the ice, just in different sports, and that seemed to be the problem for his father. Well, at least one of his problems.

“They want to take some pictures of the three of us,” his father said the moment he approached his place at the table. No greeting beforehand, but Wylan hadn’t expected that anyway.

“Maybe we should do that straight away then,” he suggested, putting his glass down, but he didn’t sit down.

“Good idea. The food might make me look bloated,” Alys piqued up and actually smiled at Wylan. She’d never given him a hard time, had actually always been nice to him, Wylan just preferred to stay away from her when she started singing.

“You’d look beautiful either way,” his father cooed, and Wylan resisted the urge to roll his eyes. At least, they set into motion and found the photographer so that he could snap some happy family pictures of them. Wylan’s smile looked plastered on. It was the one reserved for occasions like this or when reporters asked him any strange questions, but people who knew him well could tell the difference between this smile and an honest one.

Once that was over and done with, Wylan seized the opportunity to take a selfie with the ballroom in the background for his instagram account, to let the people in on what he was doing. He captioned it with where he was and what he was doing, and that he was hoping for a great evening. With that done, he followed his father and soon to be stepmother back to their table.

Meanwhile, their table had filled with people, and he was surprised to see a familiar face. When Nina caught his eye, she smiled and waved at him. He hadn’t expected to see his physiotherapist here, but it was a nice surprise, especially because she was in company of the guy she’d been raving about - Matthias Helvar, Captain of the Ketterdam Crows. And next to him, there was the one they called Sharpshooter: Jesper Fahey. Wylan had seen him play a couple of times, because even though he didn’t play himself, was just not cut out for that, the years of living with a hockey legend had made him take an interest in the sport and learn whatever he could about it, had even played when he’d been a child. As much as he wanted to not like the sport itself, he couldn’t.

Jesper was really handsome, had an elegance about himself that was hard to describe and stood quite in contrast with the way he moved on the ice and could knock his opponents over. Wylan had to admit that his knees got a little weak when he saw him smile, when that smile was suddenly directed at him. He quickly looked down again, because apparently, he’d been staring and Jesper had caught him.

Over the course of the dinner, Wylan stole glances at him again, while his father’s voice dominated the conversation at the table, making Wylan wince, because of some memories he had. This time, his father didn’t raise his voice at him, because he’d done something wrong, but his loud voice still made these memories pop up, especially when he was sitting right next to him. 

He was glad when they only had their dessert left, but they’d have to wait a moment for that. After that, Wylan could get up and move around, meet some other people, and maybe enjoy the evening a little bit.

“You’re gonna dance with Alys later on. It will be great material for the press.” His father’s voice was lowered, close to his ear, and made him shiver.

“Excuse me?” Wylan turned his head to look at him.

“You heard me. She wants to dance with you.”

“What if I don’t want to?” Wylan knew that he was challenging him, but he also didn’t want to give in just like that. Not at twenty-six when he’d been living on his own for quite some time.

“Do you really want to embarrass me?” His father didn’t have a lot on him since Wylan had gone public with his dyslexia last year, not wanting him to have that kind of leverage on him anymore, and because he wanted to encourage other people with this as well, to show them that something like this didn’t have to hold them back, that they could still reach for whatever they wanted. But he still knew that his father would bring out whatever to get back to him.

“Fine,” he mumbled and got up so quickly that he nearly knocked his chair over. He was aware of the eyes on him, saw the worry in Nina’s eyes, but just smiled at her. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment.”

He needed a drink. Probably more than one if he was being honest, and definitely something stronger than the champagne they were serving. Of course, he wasn’t planning on getting black out drunk, but depending on how the evening would progress, he wouldn’t say that it was impossible.

He ordered a gin tonic and paid for it straight away. Maybe, he could pass some time by nipping at it, so he didn’t buy the next one in a matter of minutes. Little did he know that someone would change his plans.

It didn’t take long until someone appeared right next to him. When he turned his head, he realised that it was Jesper Fahey, and his heart immediately skipped a beat. Even more so when Jesper ordered a drink for him as well. He felt a little stupid for pointing out that he already had a drink, but Jesper’s reasoning was actually kind of sweet. The little conversation between him and his father hadn’t gone unnoticed, though he doubted that Jesper had heard what they’d been talking about. Wylan downed his drink to make room for the new one Jesper had ordered for him as well, because he was quite curious about the drink now.

It was sweet that Jesper introduced himself, though there was no need for that. He already knew who Wylan was as well after talking about his father.

“Do you now?” Jesper said, making Wylan’s heartbeat pick up its rate a little. Not because of the words exactly, but because of the way he said them and the way he was trailing his eyes over Wylan’s body. Once they looked into each other’s eyes, he felt the heat in his cheeks, knew immediately that they’d changed colour, and he was just hoping that it wasn’t too bad, or that Jesper wouldn’t really see it in the lighting here.

Of course he knew who Jesper was, because he knew all the hockey players for the Crows. He watched most of their games and followed trade deadlines, had talked to some of them, whether in person or on social media, but it was his first time talking to him. When Jesper mentioned that he’d thought he may have looked him up, Wylan felt rather bold for saying that maybe he had done just that. But they couldn’t get more deeply into the topic, which was probably for the better when their drinks were ready for them.

Jesper hadn’t exaggerated with the drink, because it really was delicious and it looked spectacular as well. For a moment, he hadn’t been sure, but when Jesper said that he didn’t just have a great taste in drinks and added that wink, he was sure that Jesper Fahey was flirting with him. Good, because Wylan was flirting or at least trying to flirt with him as well. He’d definitely like for Jesper to prove it to him, though - but they didn’t get the chance right now. Their next and last course would be served, so they had to head back to the table.

The way Jesper led him back to their table, made him shiver slightly. It felt good, very protective. When he talked about Wylan’s father, though, Jesper gained even more plus points with him. It was rare to find someone who didn’t like Jan van Eck. And he’d even save Wylan from his father and stepmother to be if he needed it. That was really sweet.

“I will,” he reassured Jesper, a smile on his face, when he asked about a dance later on. He really wanted that as well and so much more actually, so he took one of the pens on the table and tore a piece off his napkin so he could write his phone number on it. Maybe, he could hand it to Jesper later on, or put it in his pocket at least, since he might forget about it otherwise. His father changed his plans for the evening completely as soon as dessert was over. Wylan wanted to get up and maybe get another drink before he would say hello to some other people, but his father had already not been happy with the drink he’d brought to the table. Wylan rarely drank alcohol, so tonight was a special occasion for him, and he felt like he deserved this as well. His father on the other hand thought that Wylan would maybe embarrass himself just because he couldn’t hold his own liquor. 

“You’re staying right here where I can see you,” Jan van Eck said, putting a hand on the back of Wylan’s chair to keep him from getting up.

“I’m not a child anymore. I make my own decisions. You can’t keep me here.”

“Since I can’t change it, you’re still my child, and you need to behave properly.”

“What do you think I’ll do? Get drunk and start tearing off my clothes on the table?” Wylan squinted at his father, knowing that he was striking a nerve with this. Not because of public indecency in itself, but because people would see the scars on his lower back and his thighs, and that was something his father wanted to keep hidden.

“You stay right here.” Jan took the hand from the back of Wylan’s chair and wrapped it around his wrist, holding him so tightly that it hurt.

“Let go of me,” he said through gritted teeth, memories rushing back at him, and he balled his hand into a fist. He just wanted to go now, wanted to turn his back on his father and leave him here.

“You should behave and not be so ungrateful.”

“If you don’t let me go, I’ll tell everyone what you did to me. Everything.” Wylan doubted that he’d be so brave as to really do that here and now, but as long as he faked it well enough that his father would believe him, that was good enough for him.

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“Do you really want to find out?”

The moment his father’s hand around his wrist loosened, Wylan ripped it free from him and pretty much fled from the ballroom towards the elevator. Impatiently, he pushed the button a couple of times, as if that would change anything, but it felt like forever until the doors opened one way or another. With a sigh, Wylan stepped inside and walked over to the opposite wall. After pressing the button to the ground floor, he leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath. Just when he wanted to close his eyes along with the doors, they were held open. A little irritated, he opened his eyes again, and was surprised to see Jesper Fahey step into the elevator.

“Couldn’t let you dash off all by yourself.”

It was sweet, really, and it made Wylan’s heart thump against his chest, and he felt the corners of his mouth twitch up. It was an honest smile, because he was genuinely touched.

“And I see you brought something with you.” Wylan indicated the bottle in Jesper’s hand, who raised it immediately. Now, the door was closing and they began their way down.

“Thought that might come in handy after your… conversation with your father.”

Of course Jesper had seen that, but they’d been so quiet that Jesper couldn’t have heard them.

“I may have overreacted,” Wylan said, because he was used to it, not because he really believed it, but he also didn’t want anyone to think ill of his father. Though with Jesper, he was rather sure that he didn’t have to make that effort.

“I don’t think so. I have no idea what you were talking about and you don’t have to tell me, but your reaction is absolutely valid, because it’s what you felt at that moment.” Jesper shrugged his shoulder and raised the bottle to his lips to drink something, before he handed it over to Wylan, who took it with a nod of his head.

He was a little overwhelmed with the words Jesper had just said. They really touched him, and they had been so unexpected that he still had to process them. Still, he managed to say: “Thank you, that means a lot.”

Just when he’d finished drinking from the bottle, the elevator jerked, before it stopped altogether. Wylan’s eyes widened and his heart sank. This could only be some kind of joke, right? He looked left and right, before his eyes landed on the board with the buttons, but nothing was happening. It wasn’t just a feeling he had, the elevator was stuck.

“Are you kidding me?” he heard Jesper mumble, who ran a hand over his hair before stepping up to the board and pressing a few buttons. He ultimately landed on the bell and it only took a moment until someone was talking to them.

“Yeah, we’re in here. Is there anything you can do?” Jesper said, looking over at Wylan to see if he was alright. 

“We’re gonna check everything we can, and hopefully we can fix it. That will take a moment. If it works, the elevator will move again and if not, we’ll get back to you.”

“Thanks, we appreciate it.” Jesper stepped back from the intercom and looked over at Wylan. “Good thing we have something to drink with us then.”

“Do you need some champagne to make it through this time with me?” Wylan tilted his head to the side, a grin on his lips, obviously not serious about this at all.

“I definitely don’t, darling, but who knows how long we’ll be in here, wo we might get thirsty.”

The way Jesper’s eyes scanned his upper body, his neck, and stopped at his lips made Wylan think of something else entirely. He actually felt a little hot under the collar, and that only intensified when Jesper loosened his tie before taking it off and putting it in his pocket.

“Been waiting to take this thing off ever since I put it on,” Jesper explained while he opened the top buttons of his dress shirt, drawing Wylan’s eyes immediately to the skin he was showing like that.

“Not a fan of ties, I take it?” He quickly looked back up, though he figured that Jesper had taken notice of where he’d looked, judging by the smirk on his lips.

“They’re a necessary evil, but I prefer not to wear them.” It came with the job, because while they were wearing their jersey and gear on the ice, when they travelled or even had their home games, they had to come properly dressed, though most of the time, it was okay to skip the ties, except for special games.

“I get that, but it suits you really well.” Wylan bit the corner of his bottom lip. “But this suits you even better.”

“So… you like what you see?”

“Obviously.” That was out before he could think better of it, and so Wylan quickly raised the bottle to take a long drag from the champagne. Maybe, the alcohol was getting to his head, so that he acted this way. That might have been one of the reasons why Wylan put the bottle on the floor.

“Just for the record, I like what I see as well. Very much so.”

Wylan moved first, closed the distance between them and sought leverage on Jesper’s shoulder with his right hand, before he kissed him. He felt like his head was spinning, but this was definitely not from the alcohol, but because of how Jesper made him feel when his hands found his waist and squeezed. Wylan gasped into the kiss, and Jesper seized that moment to deepen the kiss, lick into his mouth. Wylan’s hand slid from his shoulder up along his neck and into his hair, grabbing it slightly. That made Jesper break apart from his lips with a moan.

“Sorry,” Wylan mumbled, a little embarrassed, because he thought he’d done something wrong.

“No need to apologise at all. Do it again,” Jesper breathed against his skin, peppering kisses over his cheek, heading towards his neck, and when he reached that, he pressed an open mouthed kiss against the delicate skin, it was Wylan who moaned, but he managed to follow Jesper’s request and grabbed his hair again.

His left hand managed to sneak beneath Jesper’s jacket, over his side and to his hip as he tilted his head to the side, giving him better access to his neck. This was definitely not where he’d seen himself end up tonight.

“This has to go,” Jesper whispered against his neck, but his lips steered up a bit so he could kiss him right below his ear, tearing another moan from Wylan while Jesper managed to take the bowtie off him. Where it landed, Wylan had no idea, and frankly, he didn’t care all that much. All he cared about was the hot man driving him out of his mind with the kisses he placed on his skin. When he sucked below his ear, though, Wylan’s knees almost gave in and he sunk against Jesper.

“Jesper,” he breathed on a moan, his fingers pulling Jesper’s shirt out of his trousers at his back, so he could slip his hand beneath it and touch his skin. He needed this right now.

“Good?” Jesper asked, nipping on his earlobe before he kissed his way down along his neck again

“Great… amazing.” Wylan’s fingers pressed against Jesper’s back, as his own body pressed against him as well, wanting to be even closer to him.

“Oh, I can feel that,” Jesper said with a grin as he raised his head again, looking into Wylan’s eyes, whose pupils were probably as wide as Jesper’s, because he was so aroused. He’d never been this aroused so quickly, and he definitely attributed that to Jesper. Wylan was glad that his cheeks were already flushed, because otherwise, he might have blushed at Jesper’s observation. Jesper, who pushed his hips forward a little more for Wylan to feel what he was doing to him in turn.

“Glad I’m not alone,” Wylan said through a smile, before he rose to the balls of his feet to kiss Jesper again. Jesper’s hands slid up from his waist and he wrapped them around Wylan’s suspenders.

“God, I love these,” he mumbled between kisses. “So sexy.”

Wylan’s heart was beating a mile a minute, but he still managed to do what he’d wanted to do. He pulled the hand from Jesper’s hair and reached into his pocket to take out the napkin piece and put it in Jesper’s pocket. However he had the brain capacity to do that, he didn’t know, but as soon as he’d done that, he placed his hand on Jesper’s chest, his thumb brushing over the patch of skin that was showing, because he couldn’t resist.

When their lips separated the next time, it was Wylan who latched his lips onto Jesper’s neck, nipping and sucking on his skin, until he couldn’t resist but leave a mark on him as well, since he was pretty sure that Jesper had left one below his ear before.

“Marking me up already?” The smile was audible in Jesper’s voice, his fingers pulling on Wylan’s shirt so that he could push his hands beneath it at his sides. Wylan moaned quietly at the skin contact, goosebumps covering his skin where Jesper touched him.

“You started that.”

Before they could say anything else, the elevator jerked again and continued its journey downwards. They both just stared at each other for a moment, but then they laughed together. Was it a good thing that it started moving again or not? Wylan wasn’t sure, because now that Jesper wasn’t kissing him anymore, and they were both making themselves look presentable again - as much as that was possible in their aroused state - his mind went into overdrive and he started questioning what he was doing.

This wasn’t like him at all. He usually didn’t make out with someone in an elevator like that. He had no idea where this would lead or what Jesper wanted out of this.

And so he panicked.

“Are you okay?” Jesper asked, touching his fingers to Wylan’s shoulder to get him to look at him.

“I’m… I don’t know.” Wylan shook his head, his heart racing in his chest, because he really wasn’t sure whether he was okay or not, but the panic rising inside him made him run both hands over his face and through his hair, leaving it in utter disarray. When the doors opened at the ground floor, Wylan stepped out immediately. “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

If Jesper wanted to, he could contact Wylan, since he’d given him his phone number - without him knowing so far - but right now, Wylan wasn’t in the shape to spend more time with him, no matter how much his body and heart disagreed. He’d always been too much in his head as Inej liked to put it, but he couldn’t turn it off.

“Wylan…” Jesper stepped out as well, but Wylan was already halfway to the front door and only called back a sorry before he was out of the building.

Two things were for certain. Kissing Jesper had been one of the bravest things he’d ever done, because it was so unlike him. Leaving him standing there like this was one of the dumbest things he’d ever done.

[luckyspade-8]

To @sirshiba Happy holidays! I had fun writing this and I hope I did your version of Scarecrow and Riddler justice!

Scriddler

That Damned Parasite of Joy

Words:750 tw:none

Trying to shake off the nerves, Jonathan reposition his arms on Ed's shoulders.

"I am not thrilled about this."

"For one who gets excited at the thought of fear, I would think you would be enthralled with this. All of these high strung beings, who could easily break from one of silver tongue."

"You know damn well I hate any social gathering. It's even worse you brought me to a Holiday Gala, Edward."

"Oh Please, spare me from your sharp word of anguish til after we leave with the information of our enemies."

Sighing, Johnathan continues to awkwardly sway to the music with Ed leading. How he even got here is ridiculous. All it took was Ed using his confounding words of 'intelligence' to get him in this ill fitting suit. Sneaking in was the easy part, but now getting out seemed impossible without the crowds staring at them trying to leave. Especially when Ed chose to wear a eye catching forest glitter green suit.

Choosing to keep dancing, Jon stares into his partners face. The crystal lights reflecting off Ed's gold frames certainly didn't help the sinking feeling. The harsh coldness of the vast ballroom pulling him close to Edward was even worse. God, Johnathan hated this time of year.

The demand to spend money on the people who are suppose to care about you unconditionally have their unspoken conditions met, the annoyingly colorful ads to buy snotty brats the toy of the year and of course. The worst of the all. The cursed plant he hated every single year. The little bunch of parasite plants hung so high. The thing that cause much pain in school dances. That-

"Would you look at that. Mistletoe. Do you know, it comes from three different parasite families. Notably, the most well-known are Viscum, Phoradendron, and Arceuthobium, all of which are members of the family Santalaceae. And of course, the well known saying from Egland that kissing under it will lead to marriage no matter what. Of course, that's just a saying that morphed from Druids buring bonfires and an old Norse legend."

Feeling the dread, Johnathan looks up and sees the dread parasite. Of course. A witches broom. Fuck, it aint the same thing but who cares. Before his face starts to burn with shame, John tries to shuffle away from the bushel of green leaves and white toxic berries. Feeling Edward stop him, John gulps down the fear threatening to spill out his mouth and look back at him.

"So. We both stuck in this predicament. A socially filled room and eyes are starting to fall on us. Of course, if you don't wish to do anything, You don't have to. I would never make you do anything you truly would hate, I'm not that cruel."

Taking a deep breath, Johnathan takes one look over of Ed. The crooked nose he came to adore, the cow lick in his hair that Ed would always avoid calling it that, the rooster tail in the back of his hair that stuck up and how his face would get frustrated when Jon used such words describe him. Edward may be one damn stubborn bastard, but he was the only one Jon would trust to kiss him.

Sighing with a non existing smile, Jonathan simply rolls his eyes hearing Ed go on about how incredibly kind he is before tapping his shoulder.

"Make it quick then."

"Of course, I wouldn't keep one waiting for such a lovely reward. An honor to be given affection from an intelligent being such as I. And furthermore-"

"Oh for the love of that's all holy."

Johnathan pulls the ginger man into a kiss, feeling the sudden warmth of his body temperature. Feeling the eyes starting to pull towards them, Jonathan pulls away. Before Edward could rant and rave about chivalry and ideals, Johnathan put his hand onto Ed's shoulder.

"You make this terrible season almost tolerable."

As the words hit Edward's keen ears, the classic shit eating grin spread across his face.

"Of course, I'm a wonderful delight to be around. To be blessed with such insight-"

"Don't make me regret saying that out loud."

Feeling content, Edward finally shut up.

For all of 5 seconds when he saw someone eating calamari and goes on a tirade on how elitist it is to enjoy something so gross yet expensive. Oh well, it something to ignore the never ending nerves of dread.

[fanciestghost]

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TW: Manipulation, Major violence, Implied cannibalism, Major gore, Kidnapping, Blood, Vomiting, Needles, Slight mentions of snakes, etc. Please read with caution.

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– PART ONE: ARCHIVED –

Adam would envision this candyland type place in his dreams and would have them

quite frequently. On top of this he would crave sweets, specifically apple pie. He would tell

Jonah about this but would only joke around with Adam about it. One night, the craving got

so bad that Adam asked Jonah to come with him to the store and he obliged. Now they are at

the store, Adam goes and gets an apple pie which would be the last one that was there on

display. They go home and Adam is obviously eager to actually eat it already cuz he's been

craving it for so long, only to be disappointed to find out it didn't taste as good as it looked. In fact, it made him feel very sick.

He dizzily walked over to his room, every step making him feel more woozy, but he made it to

his door. When he opened it, he noticed a light shining through the crack of the door. Of

course he really didn't think too much of it and thought he was seeing things due to how ill he

was feeling, but when he walked in his room, it wasn't his room. It was the exact place he was

dreaming about for days. The skies were bright pink, grass was a very saturated green, and

there was a yellow wafer path ahead of him that led somewhere. The sign "Welcome to

Madeleine County" was on the horizon. As Adam walked forward he noticed he wasn't even

wearing his hoodie anymore but a bright pink suit, and he had an apple accessory on his

head. He didn't like where all of this was going and turned back expecting to see his bedroom

door, only to find out it was missing.

Adam heard humming coming from behind him to see someone who looked exactly like

Jonah, but wearing a yellow coat and lemon accessories carrying a basket full of candied

apples. Jonah didn't recognize Adam, so he thought he was a complete stranger. He says

hello and basically welcomes Adam to the place. Adam is confused on how Jonah doesn't

recognize him at all, which would cause Adam to mention that this Jonah is different from the

one he knows back at home. Moving on, Jonah would soon introduce Adam to the others

Cesar and Mark. They all lived in a huge mansion made of candy.

Now you're probably like, omg everything is so cute and sweet. Yeah for now. Adam would

notice how whenever he asked if there was a way back to where he came from, he would

often be silenced or ignored. Another thing that Adam would have to deal with is go through

these activities Cesar would make them do, like have tea parties, picnics, etc. Basically stuff

to keep Adam busy and occupied to avoid asking them further questions. All these activities

would drain Adam's energy, and on top of everything being so sugary and sweet- he would often feel dizzy. Another thing to mention. Adam is never allowed to leave the mansion without anyone accompanying him. One night, Adam wanted to step outside to just have a walk and Mark would come with him. They would have small talk about the place and everything and Adam's life back in his universe. 

Then Mark would tell Adam to be careful with what he says or does and to not let the cheery bright colors of everything blind him. Before Adam would ask what he meant, Mark would stop walking and stay silent then ask Adam to check if "he" was watching.  Adam would turn back to the mansion and see the silhouette of Cesar by the window, with the curtains slightly peeking out. Mark suggests that it's best to go back inside as it was getting late. That night, Adam couldn't sleep well, he would wonder what Mark had meant. He heard his door open to see it was Jonah. He had a small box in his hand and claimed it was a gift for being so friendly. Adam would open it up and see it was yet another apple themed accessory (an earring even though his ears weren't even pierced). 

That's when Adam noticed Jonah had a sad expression on his face. He would ask what is wrong and Jonah told him that Mark told him everything about missing the "other Jonah". He would then plead Adam to not even think about leaving the place as Adam means so much to him and that he often felt lonely until he came. Adam really didn't feel good about how he worded it so he claimed he'd think about it as he was tired.

I forgot to say that Adam was stuck there for about 3-4 days. This next part is about his third

day there. Adam woke up late and Cesar wasn't really happy about it. He would scold him

about it and then mention the talk he had with Mark. Basically, Cesar would say really harsh

things to Adam and mention that this is his new home whether he liked it or not. Adam would

notice that the colors of everything looked dull, the wallpaper started to peel off the walls, the

floors were worn down and cracked, and the strawberries on Cesar's hat were getting darker

and going bad. Cesar would then force Adam to be around Jonah more often as he banned

Adam from talking to Mark. So Adam and Jonah had an activity to do with each other and it

was to catch candy fish from the pond near the mansion. Jonah was happy he was able to

spend time with Adam, but he was also happy cuz that was the moment Adam was going to

reveal to him if he was staying or not. Adam said no lol, and Jonah got pissed and passive

aggressive with Adam for the rest of the activity.

Now it's dinner time :) and they are eating the fish they caught. It was very awkwardly quiet

and Adam couldn't take it anymore. He started to rant about everything and how he knows

something is going on, pointing out that everyone and everything looks like it's rotting. Cesar

would of course say that Adam is stupid and that everything is fine. It would go quiet again

until Mark stood up from his chair, he went over to Adam and grabbed him by the shoulders,

screaming at him desperately to leave before it's too late. Cesar would pull Mark back, claim

that he is "feeling ill" and take him away, leaving the dining room.

Now Adam and Jonah were alone together again. Adam asks Jonah if him not wanting to

stay has to do with anything and Jonah tells him to shut up and eat his fish. Adam looks down

to his plate, it wasn't a candy fish anymore, but a raw rotting fish. Knocking was heard at the

door and Jonah went up to get it. This gave Adam a chance to find out what was truly happening. He first went down the hallway he saw Cesar go to with Mark. On the floor, there

was a trail of blueberry jam that would slowly turn from blue to red. He followed the trail as it

led to a large room. There stood Cesar standing in front of Mark's body on the floor. His cane

was covered in blood.

Adam decided it was best to go back as if he stayed any longer, he'd have the same fate. As

he walked back to the dining room, he peeked to see who was at the door and saw it was two

police officers (Thatcher and Ruth) asking about a missing person.

Adam sat back down, he felt tired and frustrated at his place as he really needed to leave. He

didn't know why they wanted him to stay so badly, but he would do anything to find out one

way or another. That night, Adam would stay up late to prepare himself to actually strike. He

turned his hood Cesar gave him into a bag to hold items. What items? Weapons. He silently

went back to the kitchen to steal whatever he could find to defend himself, sharp forks, knives,

and a blow torch. He went down the same hallway as earlier and noticed his surroundings.

There were a lot of portraits of an angel, the same one to be exact, and obviously candy

themed like everyone else. He felt odd looking at them cuz it felt like they were watching him.

Moving on, Adam would reach the end of the hallway, there was a door. It was left slightly

opened and he peeked inside. It was stairs that led to a basement.

He went down, making sure he had something in hand to defend himself, and saw Mark's

body on a large plate in the middle of the whole basement. He was missing an eye and

covered in blood. Adam went over to him and asked what the hell was happening. Mark told

him everything, from how this was only a place to lure in people with sad lives into their land

for their flesh. Mark also points out the reason why everything is decaying is because they are

hungry and irritated how Adam never seemed to give in. Adam asks what he has to do to

escape. Mark tells him that he needs a key and that Jonah has it. His last words were "Leave

before sunrise or else you're officially trapped forever. Don't make the same mistake as me."

Then Adam looks up to the wall to see it covered in missing people posters, and right in the

Middle of it was Mark’s. So Adam had to act quick as he didn't have that much time left. He ran up the stairs and down the hallway. He heard a loud scraping on the floor and saw Cesar. He looked taller and thinner than usual. His fingers were slimy as they dripped with some kind of black jelly. He held a large fork that was already pointed directly at Adam. He charged only to miss Adam cuz he dodged it. This caused the fork to get stuck in the wall which gave Adam an opportunity to attack Cesar with what he had. He heated up forks with the blow torch and stabbed Cesar with them. This caused Cesar to completely forget about trying to retrieve the fork back as he screamed at Adam for how much of an idiot he was. Adam would pull the fork out of the wall and stab Cesar right through the chest with it. His body began to melt into that same black jelly. Adam tried not to get nauseous about it and continued to search for Jonah in the mansion. He went upstairs where the bedrooms were and went to each room. It was obvious who's was who's as they were themed with that type of desert they were. Adam walked into the lemon themed one. He demanded Jonah to come out as he wasn't anywhere in sight. Adam walked in the room and the door slammed shut. Jonah appeared behind Adam, grabbing into his shoulder. He pretty much tells Adam that he knows why he's here and what he wants, but decides to guilt trip and gaslight him anyway about it lol. Adam didn't listen to whatever Jonah had to say so Jonah stood in front of him. He was just like Cesar, tall and deathly thinner than usual, his fingers were long talons. He unhinged his jaw in front of Adam and reached into it pulling out a key. He held it in front of Adam's face, luring him to grab it. Adam didn't budge and this would frustrate Jonah. He pulled out a large knife and pointed it at Adam saying he would kill him right there if he didn't grab it.

Adam stepped back, not knowing what to do, he reached into the bag with one hand but used

the other to grab the key. The "key" would melt into the black jelly all over Adam's hand as

Jonah lifted him up, but then Adam pulled out the blow torch with his other hand and put flame

straight to Jonah's face. He screamed in pain and would drop Adam, which gave Adam time

to see if there was anything else to defend himself from Jonah. He saw a candy axe and

grabbed it. He ran at Jonah with it and sliced him in half in one swing. Adam tried to not let

this get to him as it is literally Jonah. his best friend. that he had to kill. He had to remind

himself that this Jonah isn't the real one, no matter how much they look like each other. Jonah

layed on the floor in half, he was still moving and looked at Adam. He would tell him that he

would regret all of this and that he missed so many opportunities to get whatever he ever

wanted there. He would mention true happiness, no stress, all the money he ever wanted,

then he would mention his mother.

Adam stood in shock, he felt his heart racing when Jonah brought it up. Jonah noticed this

and would continue making it worse about how his mother was here all along and how she

missed him so much Adam couldn't take it any longer and used the axe to slice Jonah's head. His body melted the same way Cesar's did, and in the middle of it was the actual key. Adam grabbed it and didn't bother to try and waste time to think what the fuck just happened. As he made it to the front door, the two police officers were already there. Adam then pleads and begs for them to help him get out of there. Thatcher notices that Adam looks exactly like the person in the missing poster and takes him back to the police station. Adam would then tell them everything that happened and that he needs to leave as soon as possible. Another man comes into the office and interrupts, telling Thatcher that he's having the "door problem" again. Adam would ask who he was and what he was talking about. The man introduces him as Dave and tells Adam that random doors would appear at his office and never knows what

to do with it. Ruth suggests that that's probably Adam's way out since he was given a key.

That's when Adam went with Dave to see what it was and saw the door looks exactly like his

bedroom door. There was a small lock on it, and Adam used the key to unlock it. The door

opened, it was the same bright light from when Adam got there. He turned to Dave and

thanked him before walking into the light.opened, it was the same bright light from when Adam got there. He turned to Dave and thanked him before walking into the light. Adam woke up in bed, he looked over to the side and saw Jonah. Jonah let out a sigh of relief as he thought Adam died of food poisoning from the apple pie he ate. Adam then sat up and told him everything that happened to him, and that it felt so real and he was so happy to be back home. Jonah would laugh at this, thinking that Adam was being silly and say "it was just a bad dream". Adam would deny it and explain how he has never been more terrified in his life. Jonah grabbed Adam's shoulder, smiling at him. "Well, aren't you happy you're at least Home, just like you wanted..". Adam would look over to his shoulder and see it was the same consistency as the black jelly.

– END OF PART ONE: ARCHIVED –

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– PART TWO: ARCHIVED –

Adam went through the door and back home with Jonah. Or did he. The second he noticed "Jonah's" hand melt similar to the way lemon Jonah did, he panicked. Adam would push Jonah away from him, only for the walls around Adam's room to crumble into pieces like cookies. The debris would come down, causing Adam to close his eyes shut. They remained shut for a few minutes as he tried desperately to remain calm. What if he was still dreaming, a sick and twisted dream that he continues to find himself in. 

His eyes opened, he was sitting on a chair near a fireplace made out of sugar cubes. The logs were made out of chocolate, so there was no fire going. It was dark in the room, only a singular lamp was lighting the place. It took awhile for Adam to fully realize he was in restraints made out of yellow taffy. He struggled then heard someone walk in the room. It was Jonah, in a completely new outfit compared to his old one. He wore a top hat, his coat collar was sharper, and he wore a black dress shirt with a yellow tie. He had a long gummy snake hanging over his shoulder, only making him appear more threatening.

 He would greet Adam before standing right in front of him. Adam would demand Jonah to release him and to cut it out, but Jonah only laughed. He said that no matter how hard Adam tries, there's no escape. It would go back and forth and they would have a little argument about it- which would cause Jonah to snap and yell at Adam to shut up. The room would grow quiet until Jonah breaks the silence by saying he'll only release Adam if he agrees to play a few games with him. They both agreed to play hide and seek first. Jonah released Adam, covered his eyes, and began to count. Adam didn't waste any time trying to get out of that room. As he ran down the hallway, he saw how all of the windows were boarded shut with graham crackers. The doors of the main entrance and back entrance to the garden would also be boarded off as well. He ran up the stairs to go back to his room to see anything that was worth keeping in hand. Nothing. He went to the room next door which would be Mark's, but it was locked shut. Next room was Nothing. It was terribly cold there. Adam scanned the room to look for anything, clues, weapons, anything. No use. There wasn't even enough time to look deeper anyway. He went to the next room, which was Jonah's. His stomach dropped as he saw the mess it was in. On the bed, there was Adam's hood he was gifted, along with a missing poster of Adam. Adam would start to feel uneasy, he heard Jonah count louder. He grabbed his hood back and ran back out. He needed a good place to hide. Then he remembered the basement. He went downstairs, through the main hall, and to the hallway that was tucked away within the mansion. The same portraits of that angel were there, eyes still following Adam as he walked down the hallway. He stopped at the basement door, took a deep breath and went in. The first thing he noticed was the awful smell. It smelt of mold and something rotting. He tried his best to ignore it, but the more we walked down those stairs, the stronger the stench got. Then he remembered. Mark was the last person in here. Adam placed a hand over his mouth and looked over to see if Mark's body was still there. There was something for sure. but it wasn't Mark's body. It was someone else's. Adam couldn't see very well with how dark the basement was, but he saw it as he stepped closer. It was Cesar's body, headless, nothing else but his upper torso was left with his rib cage exposed. He looked as though he'd been chewed up as some residue remained on the rib cage. Adam gagged in his mouth, the sight, the smell, it was all too much to handle. 

There was no chance going back out as he heard Jonah say "Ready or not!!! Here I come!!". It was too late. Adam hid in the corner behind a few crates that were there. His heart raced as he hoped Jonah wouldn't find him. He didn't tell Adam what would happen if he did.

Adam has never been terrified like this before in a while. He wouldn't even know how he would live the rest of his life remembering this experience. He held his breath as he heard the door of the basement being opened. It was Jonah. Who else would it be? He hummed as he slowly stepped down the stairs. He would talk to himself demanding Adam to come out because he "wasn't playing fair". Jonah would walk to Cesar's corpse and stand in front of it. He let out a laugh, but the laugh was so demented and twisted. His head turned to the corner Adam was hiding in. He grinned, the most twisted type of grin imaginable, it looked inhuman.

Tears formed in the corners of Adam's eyes, he felt so terrified at this version of Jonah. He just wanted to go home back to how things were. Now he had to be stuck here. with this version of his best friend. He would do anything to see the normal Jonah again.

 Adam snapped out of his thoughts as he saw Jonah approach slowly to the corner, humming the same tune. Adam sat in the corner watching Jonah push away the crates covering him, one by one. When Adam was revealed, Jonah smiled, not as terrifying as the smile from earlier. but there was still dread behind it. There was no use of Adam trying to get away as he was sitting on the floor while Jonah was standing up, towering over him. Adam felt this wave of numbness rush through his body, was he finally giving up? 

Jonah helped Adam get up from the floor, he told him to cheer up and that it was okay to lose the game. Adam shook his head, his anger was finally coming back. He made Jonah back up by pushing him away. He started to yell at him about how he didn't want to stay any longer and that he demands answers. Jonah would laugh about this, call Adam stupid for still thinking there's a way out. They would argue back and forth about it, until Jonah started to have a breakdown in front of Adam. He would scream and yell at Adam to shut up, then sob loudly after. Adam would get lightheaded from this, he couldn't take it anymore. He doesn't know what type of mental torture Jonah was doing to him, but it was working. He ended up passing out once more.

.

.

 The air felt cold, Adam opened his eyes to see he was in a room of darkness. There was nothing in sight. He looked down to his hands and was able to see them. As he looked up, he saw someone off in the distance. It was. the real Jonah? Adam squinted his eyes as he saw Jonah approach him. He saw Adam and ran towards him, with a huge smile on his face. "I was looking all over for you!" he said "I thought you died!" He would give a hug to Adam when he reached him. Adam didn't know what to feel. A part of him wants to believe this is the real Jonah, and that everything is over, but no, Adam can see through his tricks. "Jonah" backs up, still holding Adam by the arms, he asks what's wrong. Adam tells him that he knows it's lemon Jonah and that he could cut it out already. Jonah's face began to twist and distort right in front of Adam, his grip became harder. Adam ended up being pushed to the ground. Lemon Jonah was in front of Adam, his grip became harder. Adam ended up being pushed to the ground. Lemon Jonah was back to his normal outfit, he scoffed saying he really thought Adam would be weak enough to give in to that hallucination. He opened a door behind him, as he did, he said "You'll remain here until you LEARN to love being here. You will also learn to accept I'm your only friend and forever will be!" He closed the door shut, leaving Adam in darkness again. He sat there for a good 10 minutes trying to think what he would do. He felt hopeless. He looked down to the hood he was given the first day he came here. It felt like there was something in it. Adam looked in the hood and saw a small creature in there. It wore a strawberry hood, and it was sleeping. 

Adam gave it a little poke, waking it up. It made a ">:O" expression and ran off. He sat confused at what the thing was, but it was so dark in the room he didn't bother to chase after it. He remained on the floor sitting, and the creature would take notice. It slowly walked back to Adam and tried to cheer him up. Adam shook his head, he talked about how there's no use anymore and that he was stuck here for good. As he looked away, he swore he saw something glow in the corner of his eye. He looked back down to see the creature glow, like a glow stick! He picked it up and decided to look around the room he was in now that he had a light source. He was in Mark's room. He could tell due to the amount of blueberry themed decor. On the side he was looking at, he saw how everything looked normal, till he took a turn where the bed was at and saw it. The walls were covered with etches, hundreds, thousands of them all over. Adam saw a few papers under the bed and decided to take a look at them. They were all about Mark's experience being in Madeleine county. He's been there for 17 whole years. Adam felt his stomach drop realizing he might have the same fate as Mark if he doesn't figure out something. He looked through more of the papers, many mentioning the key he needed, something about never leaving assigned desserts unfinished, and "the savior". It was all too much for Adam to decypher, even though it was a lot of information, it was all incoherent gibberish. Has Mark gone mad? 

Adam could only imagine, being stuck in a candy coated hell hole for 17 years can make anyone go crazy. He began to think to himself, about the key specifically. He remembered he got it from Jonah and used it, but it vanished after that. He thought harder, of how Jonah presented the key to Adam. Holding it in his hand, and when he tried to grab it.it turned into that black jelly. Has Adam been tricked all along and used the wrong key? He screamed, slammed his fists on the ground. He would've been home by now if he was more careful. He fell right back into Jonah's trap. Adam looked over to the papers again, back to the part about the key. It says that Mark would look through it and his surroundings wouldn't be colorful anymore, instead it would all look rotting. The paper also mentioned: "Cesar walked in the room and I Looked through the key. The strawberry on his hat was the only thing that remained bright and colorful, while he looked horrifying. His skin was gray, eyes blank.soulless, half of his face was decaying with his jaw exposed. He looked like a fucking zombie. He asked me what I was doing, and I said nothing." This only intrigued Adam to look at the other few papers that were left. It was about Cesar creating a new person. When Adam read Mark's description of them, his eyes widened. He described Jonah. 

Adam stood up, he used the strawtruder to look around the room more. The real key still has to be out there somewhere. If Mark saw the key in Cesar's room, it had to be left there somehow. But how the hell would Adam get out of this one? The door was missing, and Jonah hasn't come back at all. Adam realized what this meant, so he rolled his eyes. He banged on the wall where the door is supposed to be and "begged '' Jonah to come back and that he "misses him". He heard footsteps coming, Jonah was skeptical of Adam acting the way he was. Adam convinced Jonah that he was "telling the truth" and that he really misses him and wants to play more games. He heard Jonah go "hmm" before finally opening the door. Jonah rested his hand on his hip and looked Adam up and down.

 "Why are you so skeptical? You can't believe that I've learned my lesson and wanna hang with my bestest bro in the world?" 

Adam cringed internally saying that, but it seemed to please Jonah enough. He let out a giggle before pulling Adam by the arm. So now the two were back in the room with the fireplace, Adam sat down on the chair drinking tea. He has a plan in mind, but he doesn't know how it's going to work. He literally has no one else around to distract Jonah from him. Sure he has strawtruder, but he's a little guy and who knows if Jonah would squish him out of anger. Jonah would basically take this opportunity to talk to Adam about new rules that were being enforced in Madeleine county and the mansion. Adam wouldn't pay attention too much as he was trying to focus on his plans, until Jonah mentioned one thing about how both of them need to be together 24/7, including sleeping in the same room together. Adam tells Jonah that he needs his privacy and that being around Jonah is already suffocating as it is. Jonah lets out a huff, he ends up agreeing with Adam, he would only get his privacy, just as long as he stays. 

The room would go quiet, the only sound being Adam sipping on his tea. Jonah would examine Adam, looking specifically at his ears. His eyes lit up as he remembered something. He asked Adam about the gift he gave him, the earring. Adam gulped down his tea and glanced over to Jonah. He nodded. Jonah clapped his hands together and said that he should try and pierce Adam's ear today so he could be able to wear the earring. As Adam placed his cup down, he said he doesn't even remember where he put the gift. Then something came up. He asked Jonah if he could go back upstairs and go look for it. Jonah thought about it, he didn't want Adam out of his sight, but he trusted him enough to go off just a little while to look for the earring. He let Adam go. 

Adam would hurry up the stairs, this gave him the perfect opportunity to look through Cesar's room and find the key. He felt squirming in his pocket and completely forgot strawtruder was in there, he placed the little guy on his shoulder as they went into Cesar's room. The room was very organized. His bed was nicely done, desk clean and presented with neatly stacked papers in the middle. Then there was this large wardrobe. Adam stood in front of it and gave a peek. All perfectly organized and color coordinated, it was aesthetically pleasing. Expect for one dark red shirt placed in the middle of two pink shirts. Adam tugged on the hanger and the wardrobe began to shake. It shifted to the side revealing a hidden hallway. Adam looked back to make sure Jonah wasn't looking, then he stepped in, the wardrobe closing back behind him. 

The hallway had a much sinister vibe compared to Cesar's bright pink organized room. It was dull, cold, and eerie. There was a door in the end of the hallway that Adam approached. A sign that read "caution" was on the door. He opened it anyway, and what was behind the door seemed to be a large lab. It was dim and dark, the only thing lighting up the place were a few fluorescent lights that buzzed. Adam looked to his left and saw another desk. It was more of a mess, papers littered everywhere, and old cups of coffee were left there. Something caught his eye, something shining. It was the key! Adam quickly walked over to it and grabbed it. He took a good look at it, he noticed how the handle of the key was shaped like an apple. He did what he read from Mark's papers, looking through the key. He did, but nothing looked different. Maybe he was looking through it in the wrong way. It didn't matter, he placed it in his pocket and continued to look around. The whole place was full of all sorts of weird gadgets he couldn't even name. There was another door in the corner of the lab, but it said "KEEP OUT".

"As if I'm gonna listen." 

Adam pushed the door open, his eyes widened as he saw what was behind there. There were four large glass jars, but three of them had something inside. Something he would've never imagined to see. The three jars had exact replicas of Jonah, all three wearing their own different types of outfits. Each had a paper attached to the glass. Orange? Grapefruit? Lime? Adam backed up, he wanted to test something out again. He slowly pulled out the key from his pocket and brought it to his eye. The three seemingly colorful dressed Jonah's became horrid decaying corpses floating in a jar through the key. Their intestines were exposed and some were floating around in the air too. Adam's heart began to race. his hand shook as he was unable to look away. He was tired of being exposed to such imagery, he looked away and put away the key back in his pocket. He sat down on the floor, head in his hands as he began to cry. Never did he wish to see his closest friend in that condition, ever. It was heart wrenching and terrifying.He regained himself as he stood back up. He can't be fooled. Those Jonah's are just as fake as the one tormenting him now. He must move on. 

He stood in front of the empty jar labeled "lemon". He looked at his reflection in the glass. He was so tired. As he let in a deep breath and sigh, he walked back out. There was another door on the opposite end of the lab, but it looks like a code was needed to enter. He didn't bother as his main focus is to leave. 

The wardrobe opened back to Cesar's room as Adam walked up, he really hoped Jonah didn't notice he was missing for a while. As Adam walked out of Cesar's room, he was quickly grabbed by the neck and pinned against the wall. Jonah looked extremely pissed. He began to yell at Adam about how he ruined his trust for him. Adam tried to cover up by saying he looked in his own room and couldn't find the earring, so he went to the next room. Jonah grinned, he slowly began to laugh. He picked up his free hand, revealing the earring. 

"Then what's THIS? I know your room like the back of my hand. I know everything you have placed in there."

 Adam struggled, he just wanted to be let go, but he felt Jonah's grip on his neck tighten, slowly making him lose air. He started to choke, his head getting more and more lightheaded as he slowly started to pass out once again. He woke up back at the chair, with the same restraints as earlier. He looked around the room and didn't see Jonah in sight, only for him to startle the crap out of Adam by poking out behind the chair. Jonah stood in front of Adam, hands behind his back, almost like he was hiding something. Jonah asks Adam how much he saw, from the basement to Cesar's room. Adam tells Jonah that he wants to know why he did that to Cesar. Jonah chuckled, finally revealing what he had behind his back, he held up the decapitated head of Cesar by the hair. Jonah explains he only did it because Cesar was planning to use Adam, to duplicate him for endless supplies of meat for Madeleine county. Jonah expressed how he didn't like the idea of Adam being replicated, he only wanted the real one to himself and only to himself, but Cesar would never listen. All he cared about was surviving, and Cesar already tried replicating a real human before and it was successful. Adam asked why Jonah was so upset over the idea of being replicated, which would cause Jonah to look visibly upset. 

Jonah explains it's because he feared being replaced himself, he saw all the other Jonah's that were made in the lab. He had overheard Cesar talking to Mark days ago about how Cesar was planning to make another Jonah because he (lemon) wasn't good enough and he made multiple mistakes that would become issues in the future. Jonah then starts to break down in front of Adam saying things about how he's the perfect Jonah and no other would be the perfect friend. Adam just looked, he was getting uncomfortable witnessing it. Jonah stopped, his eyes looking straight into Adam's.

 "..So you're just not going to comfort me?? You're not going to say I AM the perfect Jonah? I thought you said you learned your lesson.." 

Adam shook his head in confusement, he didn't know he was supposed to say anything. Jonah discarded the head he was holding, he walked back to Adam, hands in his coat pocket. Jonah asked Adam to tilt his head to the side, pulling out a sharp needle from his pocket. Adam's chest began to pound, he knew where this was going. He looked at Jonah with wide eyes, screamed and begged him to not even dare to try doing what he was going to do, Jonah only grinned. He forcefully tilted Adam's head, bringing the dirty needle close to his ear lobe. Adam thrashed around in the chair, yelling at him to stop. The needle pierced through the ear, causing Adam to scream out in pain. Blood started to spill out of his ear lobe the deeper the needle went. Jonah pulled out the needle only to poke the earring through the bleeding wound. There were tears running down Adam's face, the pain was unbearable, he looked up to Jonah, who licked off the blood from his "gloved" hand. Adam choked out a sob, he couldn't take it any longer. He just wanted to leave, he wanted to go home. 

.

.

Bythorne county. It was 4 hours after midnight. His hands dug into the bag of chips, he's been staying up for hours. He chuckled to himself watching tv, it showed nothing but static but it was entertaining Anyway. 

"They reeaaaally didn't have to outlaw these hehe..”

He took another puff of his blunt, looking over to the bag of chips to see it was empty. A sigh escaped his mouth, he needed some munchies. He looked over to the slice of pie that was left on the coffee table by Adam. He only took one bite, shrugged and put it back down. He groaned as he started to feel ill, then it hit him. Something felt off, something was missing. His head turned to Adam's bedroom door. He's been in the room for hours. Usually Adam is the type to wake up in the middle of the night to take a piss or whatever, so he found it unusual he didn't see him.

He stood up and walked over to the bedroom door, giving it a knock.

"Yo Adam, you good in there? I know you went to bed and all..but I dunno something doesn't feel ri-"

He opened the door to reveal the same pink skied candied place Adam was greeted with. He only assumed he was just high and walked in. He saw his outfit change before his eyes, his dessert theme was an edible brownie. He chuckled to himself only thinking this was a really weird trip and began to walk down the wafer path.

.

.

It's been a day, last night was tough as only Jonah would mentally torment Adam after the piercing. He stayed layed down on his bed, this is how things were going to be from now on and he would have to get used to it. If he was going to have to stay in Madeleine county for 17 years..or more like Mark then so be it. He gave up. Strawtruder peeked up from the pile of pillows that were on the opposite end of the pie dish shaped bed, he scurried over to Adam and stood on his head.

"There's no use, little guy. I think it's over for me.”

Adam looked over to his nightstand, he left the key there. Something about it just seemed to. call out to him. He sat up and reached over to look at it closely. He remembered what Mark's papers had said. something about Cesar's strawberry on his hat glowing. He needed to know what it meant. He got up from the bed and put the key in his pocket. Strawtruder tilted its little head, wondering where Adam was going. Adam said he was going to walk around the mansion for a bit. As he stepped out of his room, he noticed how Jonah was nowhere in sight. He let out a small sigh of relief and continued to walk down the hall to down the stairs. He stopped and looked at the main entrance of the mansion, it was still boarded off. Adam wondered, he never seemed to try and eat his way out of things. Everything in the mansion looks edible, but based on what the key shows, things are actually rotten. It made him wonder what else would appear rotten. He wondered if it would work with Jonah, but he wouldn't dare show he had the actual key in his possession. He walked over to the kitchen and saw him. Jonah looked. taller than usual. He didn't know if it was the outfit that was making him appear that tall or he actually grew. He turned and smiled at Adam, saying that he came just in time for breakfast. Adam declined but Jonah walked over to him, practically towering over him. He did grow..

He pointed to the table with a long sharp finger, almost demanding Adam to take a seat. Adam insisted, walking over to the table and taking a seat. There were..eggs and bacon? They looked realistic unlike the fake gummy food they would usually eat. He grabbed his fork, about to cut the egg and that's when it was revealed it was nothing but cake. Oh, great. Adam sighed and took a few bites, he saw in the middle of the table there was a pie with a missing slice. He asks Jonah about it, questioning how long it has been there. Jonah explains that it was a pie Cesar made the day before Adam came. Adam kept that in mind.Jonah then told Adam that they were both going on a picnic since he didn't want to be stuck in the house

all day. Great, there goes one of Adam's plans.

After breakfast was over, Adam went back to his room to change out of his pajamas. His wardrobe was full of the same pink suit and striped tie combination. There was literally nothing else. Once he got ready, he put on his hood and snuck strawtruder in there.

They both stood in front of the back entrance door. Jonah looked over to Adam and asked for his arm. Adam rolled his eyes and held his arm out. They locked arms together and walked out of the entrance.

.

.

The picnic was.alright. Sure, the place was bright as always and made Adam want to throw up, but Jonah seemed to be more tame than usual. Something is up. Was he only acting like this because he knows there's no way Adam can escape anymore? He finally got his way. He won the game. He held his umbrella to Adam, giving him some shade. Adam looked off to the grassy fields, there were many colorful trees, giant cupcakes all over the place, and. some homeless looking guy rolling around in the grass..

Wait. What?

He squinted his eyes but could only see the guy was wearing a brown coat. Was this another person? No it can't be. After what happened with the officers, Adam couldn't seem to trust anyone else that lived in Madeleine. However..

He asks Jonah if he could "look around" and take a walk. Jonah allows him, but he kept his eye on Adam the whole time. Adam saw the mysterious person roll behind one of the cupcakes. Perfect. He took a peek and saw the person giggling to himself. He smelt strongly of..weed. Oh. Wait a minute. Adam asks who the person is and he sits up, making Adam let out a sigh.

“..another one?"

Another. Jonah? How many were there? Adam couldn't take it any longer. He grabbed him by the collar of his sweater and demanded an explanation.

"Holy fuck!! Chillax Adam!! What the hell are you wearing! You look like some kind of strawberry shortcake character.”

He bursted out into laughter. Adam thought to himself for a second. That's strange for an edible to be inhabitant of such an "innocent" looking place. What if. Just maybe. This is the real Jonah. No. Adam shook his head and let him go. He was tired of being tricked. Jonah stood up and asked where Adam was going.

"Nice try, but your stupid little hallucinations aren't working on me anymore, Lem."

Jonah tilted his head and asked who's that. Adam didn't give an answer, he remained frustrated and confused. It bothered him, even though it felt like he was talking to the real Jonah, he wasn't sure if it was. He doesn't know if anything could be one of (lemon) Jonah's tricks. Maybe that's what the key was for, to tell what is really real. Adam pulled out the key and held it to his eye. The seemingly colorful fields turned gray, so did the sky, however, Jonah remained in color! It was. actually him, just in a stupid edible brownie themed hat and clothing. Adam lowered the key down, as small tears formed in the corner of his

eyes. He pulled Jonah in for a hug, he went on about how much he missed him and that he wants to leave so badly. Jonah, being high, only hazily laughed and held on to Adam. For once Adam felt safe again, until a dark pit formed in his stomach, remembering (lemon) Jonah was still out there waiting for him back in the picnic. Adam told Jonah to stay still and to wait for him, he also said to go to follow the wafer path to the mansion.

Jonah nodded, but then asked why he needed to go. Adam only looked down, it was a lot to explain and he didn't have any time, he only told Jonah that he needed help. He walked back to the picnic and saw (lemon) Jonah sitting, he had what seems to be bunnies made out of marshmallows on his lap. When he saw Adam approach, he smiled and waved. Adam sat down and pretended to make it seem like nothing happened. He started to tell Jonah he was feeling ill and wanted to go back into the mansion. Jonah squinted his eyes in suspicion, he would ask what Adam was doing behind the cupcake for a while. Shit. Adam had to come up with the most bullshit excuse to why he was, he also feared (lemon) Jonah would end up finding Jonah there and possibly hurt him. Adam told him that he felt like he needed to throw up, so he hid behind there just in case he had to, but didn't. Jonah's expression relaxed, but he still didn't seem pleased to have to end their picnic over Adam feeling sick.

The two ended back into the mansion so Adam could rest. He would look out the window of his room (which was locked up and had bars on it) as he saw the pink sky turn to black. It was already night, he only hoped Jonah would find some way to help him. He looked back to the key, then back outside. He had seen Mark's papers, looked through Cesar's lab, but none answered his question on how he needed to leave. Maybe there wasn't a way at all. He thought of it deeper, from Cesar being chewed up, killing him completely, from how Mark's body went completely missing when it was last seen in the basement. Did Mark even die? Adam got up from his bed as his thoughts began to race. He remembered Mark's paper talking about fruits glowing through the key, something about not to leave assigned desserts unfinished. The apple pie in the kitchen with a missing slice. A slice. The last thing he ate before he came here was a slice of apple pie. He paused. He needs to get rid of the rest of the pie to free him from this connection. Him taking a bite of the slice of apple pie was like him signing a contract to stay in this everlasting nightmare. He still has time to cancel this deal he never agreed with.

 His eyes are wide open. 

.

.

Adam had to act quick, he felt like anything bad could happen in any moment. First, he needs to find the bodies of Mark and Cesar. He has a feeling glowing fruits are important and need to be kept. He threw his pink suit to the side, rolled up his sleeves and tied his hood to his waist. He looked in his room to see if the axe he used was still around. It was tucked behind his bed. As he ran out of his room, he tried his best to try and be quiet and quick. He had to go back to the basement where Cesar's body was. He ran down the hallway, opened the basement door and ran down the stairs. He pulled the strawtruder for light as the basement was still dark. He saw the body more clearly now, it was mostly bones. He looked through the

key, the strawberry on his suit didn't glow. He needed his hat, he looked over to the rest of the basement and saw it on the floor. He looked through the key one more time and saw one of the strawberries glow. He reached out for it, it felt warm in his hand.

"Thank you.."

Did it just speak to him? Adam tilted his head and the strawberry began to speak again. It sounded exactly like Cesar. He told Adam that he needs to find Mark's blueberry as well, he also apologized for all of the trouble Adam put up with. He talked to Adam about how Madeleine only existed to protect him from the dangers of the real world. He was tired of waking up everyday from the nightmares he would have. He would grow paranoid because of them, also the existence of alternates didn't help either. He thought Madeline was good until one night, an unknown force took over his body completely, killing him shortly after. Even though most of his mind was corrupted, he still had some control due to his soul still being

present. His top priority was to keep Mark safe, but he was forced to watch Mark go through so much pain as the unknown force would torment him. The force craved meat, it was blood thirsty, and most of the time it would want to go after Mark. But Cesar remained strong, he would try his hardest to hold it back for so long until that day when Cesar hit Mark with his cane until he bled out. Cesar got weak from controlling the force as it would only grow stronger throughout the years. Cesar told Adam that he swore he didn't do anything else to Mark after that and the last thing he remembered was the fight between him and Adam. 

Things were only starting to make a few sense to Adam, all he knew now is that Mark is still around, dead or alive. What Adam found weird is how Cesar wasn't in charge of Mark being put in the basement.. with his eye missing. It only meant one thing. 

Adam placed the strawberry in his bag and continued to move on. He made it to the kitchen; he still had to get rid of the pie that was left on the table. It was missing. He felt like he wanted to scream but he needed to move on, there wasn't enough time. He noticed there was a walk-in freezer in the kitchen, the door looks to be slightly open. He walked over to it and went inside cautiously, he made sure he used his axe as a way to prevent the freezer door from closing shut. Adam's stomach dropped as he found Mark. His whole body was frozen but he held out his hand shut. Adam pulled out the key and looked through to find where the blueberry was at. It wasn't on his hat, then he looked over to his closed hand and saw the blueberry through it. Now how the fuck is he going to get it. Adam grabbed the hand and it managed to snap off his wrist. Adam got disgusted, throwing the frozen hand on the floor, causing it to shatter, revealing the blueberry. As he grabbed it, it spoke to him as well. It was Mark. Just like Cesar, he thanked Adam for saving his soul. He only told Adam that he's getting really close to freedom. Adam mentioned to Mark that the pie he needed to get rid of was missing. Mark said not to worry about that too much as just as long their souls pass over, Madeleine won't be a thing anymore. Adam placed the blueberry in his hood and moved on from there. He noticed Jonah hadn't been present at all.. it was almost suspicious. Adam cautiously walked, he then heard laughter coming from a room. He followed where it came from and entered the room where the fireplace was. Adam's eyes widened as he saw the real Jonah tied down to the chair with his mouth covered too. (Lemon) Jonah held a knife over Jonah's neck, looking straight at Adam.

(Lemon) Jonah explains how he knew Adam was up to no good and was still trying to deny the fact he was staying in Madeleine forever. He ranted about how selfish Adam was, claiming that Adam never really appreciated what he did for him. He walked over to Adam, knife still in hand, he continued to talk about how he was disappointed Adam broke his trust. He noticed how Adam was clenching on to his axe, he laughed at that, saying no matter how hard Adam tries, he could slice and cut him however, but he will always come back, they will always meet again. He smiled. Adam's hands began to shake, he didn't know what to do. He looked over to Jonah who had a scared look on his face. It took him a while to find out what to say, he took a deep breath. Something echoed in the back of his head, about ever leaving desserts unfinished. He remembered about Cesar's corpse, he was completely dead..because he was eaten. Adam had cracked the code.

Adam looked into (lemon) Jonah's eye before yelling and slicing him in half like he did before. (Lemon) Jonah only laughed and called Adam stupid for thinking that would do anything. That's when Adam began to chop his torso into smaller pieces. He would grab a handful and shove it in his mouth. (Lemon) Jonah's eyes would grow larger as he realized what Adam was doing. He yelled at him to stop, but Adam didn't. He continued chopping, shoving more and more pieces into his mouth. It tasted sour, but he had to do this. Only the top half of Jonah remained as he struggled to get the rest of the black jelly to reform himself. He was panicking, melting in the process of it. He started to scream and yell at Adam, guilt tripping him. Adam once again swung his axe at him, finally shutting him up for good. Adam got down to his knees and ate the remaining black jelly. He felt nauseated, but he tried not to let it get to him. He looked over to Jonah who was still on the chair, his eyes obviously giving a "WHAT THE FUCK?" look. Adam went over and freed Jonah from the taffy restraints. They both looked at each other awkwardly and agreed they would never talk about this experience ever again.

Not shortly after, Jonah would talk about how "badass" Adam looked swinging the axe and "killing the bastard". Adam only chuckled, he was glad he had his old friend with him at last. Now the last thing to do is figure out how to get out. Adam saw the pie with the missing slice was placed down on the coffee table in the middle of the room. He grabbed it and threw it into the fireplace. How was their fire in Madeline? Not sure, seems the place is decaying enough it breaks its own laws of everything only being candy. It didn't matter to Adam anyway, he needed to help Mark and Cesar pass over.

 The two would walk out of the mansion, both catching up on what happened in the last 4 days.. but to Jonah, it was only 4 hours. Adam also introduced Jonah to strawtruder and he loved the little guy. They stopped in their tracks as they saw a grape and cherry in the middle of the wafer path. Adam picked them

up and looked at it through the key. It didn't glow.but it wasn't rotten either. It was just a regular cherry and grape. As he looked back up, he was greeted with darkness. No..not again. Don't say. that this was all just another hallucination.

No.

A bright light approached Adam, it introduced himself as "his savior" and congratulated him for finally succeeding. Adam was confused, he didn't know what this meant. The savior grew brighter, so bright Adam had to close his eyes. Once he opened them, a tall angel decorated with frosting and berries stood before him. He lifted up his hand and Adam's outfit would change into a tailcoat and top hat. The angel said Adam will be the new ruler of Madeleine. Adam shook his head, he didn't want this. He explained to the angel that he wishes to go home. The angel nodded, but he brought up that he noticed he had some souls on him. Adam said yes, but something about this angel didn't feel right. He doesn't trust him with the souls of Mark and Cesar. Either way, Adam promised he'd be the one to cross them over. He then

looked at the cherry and grape he found. What if he just.gave these instead. He handed the grape and cherry to the angel, and he gave the most innocent smile ever. This smile would soon melt into a stretched out one.

"You'll regret making this decision, Adam. For you will be a fool for the rest of your life. Wake up."

He was back at the wafer path, gasping for air. Jonah stood up and told Adam that he was standing there for a good 10 minutes. Adam shook his head, saying that they need to leave now. The door appeared again at the end of the wafer path. Adam and Jonah walked over to the door, and this time Adam had the right key to escape. Adam unlocked the door, pushing the door open to reveal the same bright light. The two walk into the light together. Madeleine county slowly starts to decay, falling apart into nothingness. It's all over now. Mark and Cesar are at peace now. They are both safe, just like Adam and Jonah.

.

.

Adam woke up on the floor, his eyelids feeling too heavy to open. What the hell was that? He saw Jonah on the floor as well, and he started to laugh.

"We did it Adam heheheeh"

"We? You dickwad, I was the one who killed that freak and spent a whole day trying to find out how to escape! You came last minute!!"

Jonah laughed. Adam was glad to have his old life back. This is all he ever wanted. It would be a day later after all of that, the two would sometimes crack jokes about it once in a while, but they both agreed it's best to forget about it. It's not like it'll be a problem for them anymore.

.

.

His eyes began to water as he felt a burning sensation in his throat. He hunched over to the sink, feeling like he needed to throw up. He gagged and coughed, little by little, drops of a black substance came out. His heart dropped, he looked up to the mirror as the black substance dripped out of his mouth.

“I don't feel like myself anymore.”

– END OF PART TWO: ARCHIVED –

-

– ENDING ONE: ARCHIVED –

His eyes burned as he felt his throat getting the burning sensation of needing to throw up. He

hurried into the bathroom, hunched over to the sink. It started to spill out of his mouth. A sickly

gross gooey substance that was pitch black.

He started to catch his breath as it stopped, only for it to continue. It filled up to the brim of the

entire sink. Disgusting. He looked up to the mirror and saw it dripping down his eyes and

mouth. This must be the after effects of being in Madeleine for so long…right? He hoped so,

as he really wished it wasn't anything more serious. He couldn't shake off the feeling of

something he felt. The sense of dread. He shook his head, he was back home and that's all

that matters. He looked back down at the sink and grimaced. He really needed to get a bucket

to put that goo in. He was afraid it would clog the pipes, and hell would their landlord be

pissed over that.

He walked out of the restroom to see his friend sleeping on the couch. He couldn't help but to

smile as he really missed him after being trapped in that hell hole for days. He's never been

happier to be living in a gloomy apartment. He walked over to the kitchen to see if there was

any bowl or container store that substance for now, but he only seemed to find one glass jar.

That would work for now. He walked back to the bathroom and started to scoop it out of the

sink into the jar. Once he got all of that done, he sealed it up. It surprisingly didn't leave a

mess as the sink looked spotless. He planned to take the jar and throw it out, but it was

already so late. He needed some rest, especially after all that happened. He left the jar on the

coffee table and walked back to his bedroom.

Adam opened his eyes while stretching out, it was a new day. He got up and walked back to

the living room to see Jonah surprisingly up early. He sat..so still, it was almost concerning.

Adam looked over to him and Jonah quickly turned his head over to look at him back.

"Good morning”

Jonah smiled, but not in a way he would usually do. It unsettled Adam a bit, then he looked

down to the coffee table and noticed the jar was missing.

"H-Hey..Jonah? Uh..where's the jar? I left one here last night and.."

"Oh heh, yeah I thought it was trash so I threw it out! What was it anyway?" Jonah chuckled.

Adam let out a sigh, maybe he was just being paranoid. Jonah seems to be acting fine, there's nothing wrong with him.

"Oh sweet. I was gonna throw it out myself but thanks man.”

Jonah stood up, walking over to Adam with a smile still on his face. He placed his hands on

his shoulder, his grip holding tight.

"No. Thank you, Adam. Thank you for bringing me here. Now we can be friends forever."

Jonah grinned as some of the substance spilt out of the corner of his mouth. He let out a

laugh as Adam tried to be let go from the grip but failed to. Tears formed in the corners of his

eyes.

He was a fool.

– END OF ENDING ONE: ARCHIVED –

-

– ENDING TWO: ARCHIVED –

As Adam put the strawberry in his hood, he turned over to stare at the large wall covered in

missing posters. The one in the middle was Mark's, but there were others surrounding them.

Adam's eyes looked closer, examining each of the posters. His eyes landed on one on the far

right of the wall. He had never seen this woman before..but her name…

..Lynn Murray

His heart dropped as he stood in front of the poster, tears forming as his sight began to blur.

Could this be? The person he was looking for all along ended up in this candy hellhole he so

happened to be trapped in. His lip quivered as his hand reached out to the poster, taking it off

from the wall.

He needs to get out of here, and there's no more time to waste. Adam would soon go back up to the kitchen and end up finding Mark's soul there. On the way out of the kitchen, he bumped into someone. That same homeless guy- no wait, it's Jonah.

"Dude!!! Where the hell have you been? Haha, this place is huuuuge. I was looking all over for you!"

Adam shook his head and told Jonah there's no time to waste and that he needs to help him get Mark and Cesar's soul to the other side. Jonah nodded and told him where he got in the

mansion. The two would cautiously roam, making sure Lem was nowhere in sight. Adam told

Jonah that he couldn't shake off the feeling of something feeling off, and that he was missing

something. Jonah then brought up to Adam about how he found a grape and cherry on his way

into the mansion. Adam looked at the fruits through the key and they didn't glow. but they weren't rotten either. They were just a grape and cherry. He still held onto them in his pocket as he felt like he would need them just in case. The mansion was way too quiet as they both made their way to the kitchen. Adam told Jonah to keep an eye out for anyone coming by as he went to look for Mark's soul.

Jonah nodded, "Alright but be careful."

Adam would then find Mark's soul in the walk-in freezer. As he walked back out he saw Jonah

holding a cleaver in his hand

"Why do you need that for?"

"Listen, I'm already highly suspicious of how quiet this place actually is. Also, didn't you tell me something about this "Lem" dude? What if he attacked me while you were in there getting the soul?"

"Right right, well there's no time to waste so we must get going..”

As they both walked, Adam felt like he needed to go back to the lab. Jonah asked why, only for Adam to not even know himself. He felt like there was a lot left unanswered there and that he needed to look back. Jonah rolled his eyes, not liking the idea of them splitting up again as it could put both of them in danger. Adam promised Jonah that he wouldn't be alone for long and handed Strawtruder to him to keep him company. Adam was off alone again as he hurriedly went up the stairs to Cesar's room. He noticed the entrance behind the wardrobe was already open. Did he do that?

.

.

Banging on the glass wouldn't work, as he'd been stuck in this large glass tank for a few days.

He didn't have to worry about drowning in the sickly sweet pink syrup that filled the tank. He

swam up to the top of the tank where the lid was, wondering if there was a way to unscrew it

from the inside.

It didn't take him a while to finally figure something out. His intelligence was a gift, yet a curse as it was the thing that made him be sealed away from the outside world in the first place. Sure, he would've tried to escape sooner, but he'd heard commotion coming from outside the lab walls that made him stay still. It's been quiet now, so might as well try to escape now. As he used his strength to kick the lid open, he could only think of the many things he wanted to do once he got out. He wants his revenge for being put away like if he was some sort of threat to his creator. All he wanted was to be free from being just a creation. He wanted to be his own person with his own life, but no. He was forced to doing stupid tasks all dealing with being a "friend" and other pointless manipulation tactics. 

He threw the lid to the ground as he jumped out of the tank, dripping from the pink substance.

As he looked around the room, he saw a pinboard of papers and pictures. He took a closer look, only to see they were all pictures of this guy. a guy that looks exactly like him. He read the paper and saw the name "Jonah Marshall" on it along with other information like his date of birth, where he lives, his age, his height. Then there was a paragraph analyzing his behaviors, mannerisms, his interests.

"What the hell?"

He stepped backwards and bumped into a desk that had a file placed in the middle of it. Nothing else. It had the word "Lime" on it, with a huge X across it. Is that his name? Lime? He opened the file up to see all the analysis that has been done on him. He flipped to the last page talking about how he needed to be put away and that a new version of him would be made. A new one..

He'd been replaced.

He threw the file back down to the desk, frustrated at the information he had read. He wasn't

good enough? No, he met every criteria, but he was too smart for his own good? It's not his

fault! He was created this way! He turned back to the page to see what he was replaced with. A prototype named "Lemon”..

Lemon. What makes him so special? He needs to know where this Lemon would be and what

makes him so great. When he does find out where he is, he'll make him pay for having to be

trapped away in this room for days.

.

.

Adam walked down the hall and looked around the room. Nothing has changed. His eyes

looked over to the locked door. There has to be something inside there. He looked at the

buttons on the lock.they were numbers. He could sorta make up what the code could be as

some of the numbers were faded..

1234..

4321..

2143..

This could take a while. He tried again once more.

3124

The door opened as he saw someone already behind there. Another one?

Lime blinked as his hand remained on the handle of the door. He examined Adam with a

skeptical face.

"You're not Lemon..are you?"

"Fuck no!"

"I knew that! I was just making sure. I'm pretty sure all of us prototypes can all shapeshift.'

Lime noticed Adam's hand on the buttons still. He smirked in a cocky manner.

"Oh yeah, don't worry, I think I was the one who actually got the door to open. Y'see, I've been

trapped in that room for days, and I managed to figure out how to unlock the door from the inside.

Adam blinked in confusion and shook his head, not even wanting to bother. He said that he'll be going until Lime grabbed Adam by the wrist.

"Uh..? What do you want?"

"Based on what I have read, I was designed to be your friend. Boring, yes, but I want to make

sure I am the best at doing it. Unlike anyone else because no one holds as much knowledge as me.”

Great. Another obsessed perfectionist. Adam rolled his eyes and faced Lime.

"Well guess what, no thanks! I'm tired of you fake Jonah's and your weird obsessions over

wanting to be friends with me! Lem already has me fucking losing my mind because of it!"

Lime blinked, "Lem? As in Lemon? So you're telling me he's around? Where exactly..”

"I don't know! How about you go and look for yourself, genius."

Lime scoffed, "Whatever, I honestly don't have time to deal with people like you.”

And like that, he walked away from Adam and out of the lab, leaving Adam back all alone. He sighed to himself as things were starting to get more and more confusing to him. He wanted to know what this whole place meant, but it was all so hard to decipher. Was it even worth it in the end? What matters most is to leave this place for good. He would rather be doing alternate investigations than this. This whole place feels like an entirely new paranormal experience. It's otherworldly, and he wouldn't wish anyone to be trapped in here. He needed to get out of the lab as he didn't want Jonah to be left alone for too long. Who knows what Lime would think if he ever saw him.

.

.

Jonah held Strawtruder in his hands and walked through the mansion. He heard footsteps

coming down the stairs and assumed it would be Adam. When he saw who it actually was, he

stepped away slowly. Lime scrunched his nose at Jonah in disgust.

"Oh this cannot be the right guy! This can't be! You're not Lemon are you?"

"Dude! Can you keep it down?"Jonah whispered.

Lime rolled his eyes and went on a rant about how he shouldn't bother to try and listen to Jonah because he was "stupid". Jonah obviously got upset and argued back to Lime, telling him to shut up. Their commotion would cause Lem to find both of them, and he was enraged

Adam would come back downstairs and find Jonah nowhere in sight. Shit. He heard yelling coming from the other side of the mansion. He ran quickly to the room it came from, and saw

not one..not two..but three Jonah's fighting each other. It was a fucking mess. He stood by the

doorway as the three didn't bother to stop to look at Adam, they just continued. Adam would

hear the conversation between Lime and Lemon, both of them arguing over how one is more

superior to the other in their own way. Then there was Jonah, trying his best to defend from

either one of them that tried to strike at him. Adam saw the look on Lem's face, and he looked

like he was about to snap. He snapped his fingers, causing his snake around his shoulders to

go towards Jonah, restraining him. Lime got back up, only for Lem to grab him by the neck,

holding him in the air. Adam didn't like where this was going so he hid behind the wall, only

hearing Lem talking to Lime about how no one is getting in the way anymore. As he heard that he heard the sounds of bones being crunched, followed with the sound of Lime screaming in agonizing pain. Adam took a peek and saw Lime's head on the floor. Jonah was forced to sit there in horror as he watched Lem tear Lime's body apart and devour whatever he could. Lem wiped his mouth with his hand, only smearing the black jelly on his face further. He turned over to Jonah, grinning at him, saying that he was next. This would soon cause Adam to step out behind the wall and walk in the room with his axe in hand. He yelled at Lem to stop what he was doing.

His heart raced as he looked into the beady eyes of Lem. He gripped onto the handle of his axe,

but didn't dare to move. His eyes glanced over to Jonah who gave an expression of pure fear,

not knowing where this would go. Lem would only look down at Adam and laugh, saying that the

axe isn't going to stop him and that nothing will. He was in full control of Madeleine, and that

everything will go according to his plan.

Adam closed his eyes and sighed, dropping down the axe. He had a thought in mind, but he

needs to see if it would work if he did this. Lem's expression twisted into a grin as he chuckled.

"Looks like you're finally getting it, huh? Did it take this whole time for you to finally understand?"

He walked over to Adam, looming over him.

"I guess I won once again, I told you I'm good with games, but don't worry, there's still plenty

more to come and I'm sure you'll win.”

Adam shook his head, "This isn't about me anymore or you or this stupid candy hell hole!! I want you to take the real Jonah back home!"

Lem laughed, "For what? I honestly think he'll make a really good snack." He turned to face

Jonah.

Adam groaned and he tried to think of something. He stood there for about a minute thinking

and he finally got it. It was the only way Jonah could go back home safely.

"If you take him home I'Il stay with you..”

Lem turned back to look at Adam, shocked to hear the deal he offered. He tapped his chin and hummed in thought before pulling out his hand for Adam to shake.

"A deal's a deal..”

Adam shook his hand, he winced at how cold it was against his own. Lem then smiled and

hummed as he released Jonah out of his restraints. Jonah looked to Adam in stress, shaking his head.

"Adam, you don't have to do this! Please..”

His head remained low, he was tired of trying to fight back. Adam slowly approached Jonah with the strawberry and blueberry in his hand. He placed them into Jonah's hands.

"Please take them back with you. It's the least you can do right now."

Jonah looked into Adam's eyes before pulling him into a hug. Adam patted his back before Lem pulled Jonah away forcefully. 

"Alright alright enough of that, you're out!"

Lem snapped his fingers, causing a door to appear in the room out of thin air. He could've done that this whole time? "I guess when you're in control of Madeleine..you're in control of

everything." He said, as he opened the door and forced Jonah out, shutting it closed once he did.

The door faded away, Lem chuckled to himself before turning to face Adam. He grinned and

looked down at Adam, telling him that it's just them two forever and ever. Adam couldn't help but to smile, knowing what is going to happen next.

"Yeah…I don't think so.

The walls around them began to decay, but flew away like dust. Lem looked down around and

shook his head, screaming "no" in fear. He desperately clinged on to Adam yelling at him

asking him what he has done and that he's an idiot for this.

"This whole place was designed for Cesar. I helped him pass his soul to the afterlife by giving

his and Mark's soul to Jonah. Without his soul trapped here, this place shouldn't exist..and neither should you.'

Lem screamed as he began to slowly fade away into dust, he desperately clung on to Adam

until there was nothing left of him. Nothing else was left. It was all empty. If Adam's thought was correct, if Madeleine didn't exist anymore, then he should be back home in no time! He noticed he was still in his clothes…not in his usual hoodie. Shit.

There was a bright light ahead of him, it slowly approached Adam then stopped in front of him

"Congratulations! You weren't an idiot this time around."

Adam tilted his head in confusion.

"Since you have proven to me you're smart, what if I gift you something in return, Adam"

Adam didn't like how this strange entity was speaking to him. He mentioned the only gift he'd be accepting if he went back home. The entity laughed, but then told Adam that it wasn't possible for him to go home, but he could always make a home. It continued by saying that there's no other choice and that Adam will forever be left in emptiness if he doesn't give in. Adam sighed as there was literally no other way out of this.

He agreed, and in order for this new home to come..he had to take a bite of an apple pie slice.

He saw it float in front of him, everything Cesar had told him flashed through his head. Was it

worth even fighting anymore? He took a bite but didn't dare to swallow it. He knew what was

inside. The same force that took over Cesar. He stared down at the glowing entity as it shined

brighter, he refused to swallow. It slowly faded away as he saw his clothes change before his

eyes, a pink suit with a top hat. He was now in control. The walls of the mansion began to

reform again as if nothing happened. His heart dropped wondering if Lem would come back, but nothing happened.

He was alone in the mansion.

He walked over to the fireplace and spat out the piece of pie he took a bite out of. The mansion was quiet once again, as there was no one else but him inside. Until. He heard little footsteps come behind him. It was Strawtruder, looking up at Adam with big eyes. He picked it up and placed them on his shoulder. He walked out of the fireplace room with his hands in his pocket. He noticed he felt something in there, only to pull it out and see it was the grape and cherry from earlier.

He looked at both of them, then up to the empty room around him. He hates being alone. He's

been alone for most of his life. If he was in control of Madeleine, wouldn't that mean he could

create anything and everything? He held so much power than he thought, and it all can

start.. with the grape and cherry.

.

.

🍇🍒"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Adam! Happy birthday

to you!"

🍒 "Now blow out the candles and make a wish!"

🍎 "A wish? What's there to wish for? I got all I need here."

🍒 "Well there has to be something you truly wish for in your life.

🍎 “You're right, I wish one of my friends was still around..”

 🍇 "You did the right thing, Adam. You kept him safe.

🍎 "Yeah, I really hope he's doing okay."

🍇 "That reminds me, I saw this real lemon outside in the morning. Wanna see it?'

🍒 “Oh Mark, I'm pretty sure that's just a candy lemon."

🍎 “Yeah.. you can toss that out into the fireplace later. It's nothing to worry about.”

🍇  "If you say so."

🍒 "Say, when was the last time you lit it up?"

🍎 “I.. don't remember. In fact, I can't remember anything that happened to me months ago

except my friend."

🍇 “This is why me and Cesar are here to help. Anyways! Blow the candle out so we can dig into that cake!"

And thus the three sat down at the table. Adam looked out the window at the skies of

Madeleine, how the color was a soft lavender with fluffy cotton candy clouds. He took in a deep breath and blew out the candles that were placed on his cake.

Later that night, Mark cleaned the room where the fireplace was. He took out the lemon he saw outside from his pocket and threw it in there.

"Nothing to worry about” he said as he sighed calmly, walking out of the room

The lemon sat still in the fireplace, so perfectly still. Slowly, something that was dark and gooey, something that was in the fireplace for a while began to stick around it.

Is all nothing to worry about.

-

– END OF ARCHIVE. THANK YOU FOR READING. –

[yridenergyridenergy]

Phalaris Vol.II - Kanazawa-shi Culture Hall [2023/05/18] live report

SETLIST

Hibiki

Schadenfreude

Mouai ni Shosu

Devote My Life

Utsutsu, Bouga o Kurau

Ningen wo Kaburu

13

Uroko

Eddie

GRIEF

Beautiful Dirt

Otogi

The Perfume of Sins

ENCORE

Dozing Green (acoustic)

un deux

T.D.F.F.

Sustain the Untruth

Revelation of mankind

Holy hell, another excellent show!

The first thing that hit me at Kanazawa-shi Culture Hall was that I wasn't passed the memo for shimote? There were so many young women wearing pretty little dresses. They also happened to not move that much, barely headbang during the show. I wonder if they had photoshoots in Kanazawa's old village neighbourhood and wanted to remain prim and proper for Kaoru and Toshiya. Anyway, because of the chairs' disposition and the fact that the fan in front of me decided to occupy the aisle on her right (technically allowed), I had an unobstructed view of all of the members. Tomorrow, on the shinkansen back to Tokyo, or on the long flight back home in the next few days, I'll try to commit to paper my memory of every member's look and outfits!

Shinya had his traditional white top with black pants, Die had his black and white-lined tunic tucked into a belt with the Roman soldier kind of leather leggings and his usual bold mascara, Toshiya wore the black lace veil version of his outfit, Kaoru came in with the dual-patterned suit (the top is black & white while the pants are black and leopard yellow/orange) and finally, Kyo adorned his the dark version of his outfit, with the G.I.S.M. T-shirt.

Before I cut the post for a shorter version, the rest appearing after the break below, I HAVE to mention the dance that Toshiya does during Eddie and that we all seem to be forgetting! It's the segment where essentially just Shinya is playing, the second time "Shimatsugaki wa kaki oeta ka? Mirai o sute doko e daibu?" is sung, in a more comical voice. Toshiya gets low, bending his knees, and he starts doing what I can only describe as a "happy dance", throwing his arms high and low, doing exaggerated steps in a circle while this is played. The only gif I could find to illustrate that is this, but crouched:

Also, for Eddie, almost nobody was singing. At some point, Kyo got pissed and threw his mic impulsively in the air backward, almost landing on Shinya's drums. For the long seconds of vocal silence that followed with Kyo not so much glaring as intimidatingly and expectantly staring at the centre of the crowd, it sounded like I was the only one shouting the whole near-end lyrics? People please, learn Eddie! It's not my favourite song on the album and I don't know the lyrics by heart, but I can make vaguely similar sounds that satisfy Kyo! He eventually picked up his mic again to resume singing from "Kusodomo ga" (Shitholes) to finish the song in frustration.

GRIEF followed and it looked like Kyo was still pissed and sang with more fury. In fact, I'd say that the Eddie performance affected the encore all the way until maybe halfway into un deux, at which point Kyo demanded us to sing with him, higher and more, which fans did join in mass this time.

Going back to the start, Hibiki and Schadenfreude seemed like they had even more passion by the band than before. It sounded like nobody shouted "Ikedomo jigoku ka" with me though? By the way, Hibiki's backdrop is very beautiful, showcasing a bunch of flower coloured lines in water, a bit like if ink is dropped in that liquid and that it eventually hangs in suspension.

Mouai ni Shosu I'm sure is where Kyo puts his arms wide up to his side and dances a bit with his feet, slowly, while staring at us very intently like he controls us.

Throughout the show, it seemed to me like Kaoru came out from his spot way more. There was something he saw in us because he kept teasing us with his head bending to the side, he came up to place a foot on the ledge more often and he sped up to the left arm of the stage almost as soon as the occasion presented. Usually, Toshiya is the one visiting us at the front all the time and Kaoru stays back. Kind of the same thing with Die actually. I noticed yesterday that Die is in his own little world on the right side of the stage, just disappearing off-stage during instrument switches or breaks, whipping his hair back at all odd times, etc. Anyway, it was great to see Kaoru more out there/here!

In Devote My Life, Kyo trotted toward the right arm of the stage right away, jumping over the equipment and then swaying his head there as he asked for the crowd to chant. He came back to the centre and I think Toshiya did the same either in that song or another, but on his way back to the main stage, Toshiya's jump involved really bending his knees along with reclining his bass, which made the jump total rockstar-style for a mere second!

Kyo ran to the left arm of the stage near the end of Utsutsu, Bouga o Kurau, and he did the first: "eranananananaze nanda" (he seems to add and roll an r at the start rather than just go with nana for the whole series), followed by a pause and: "Sore!" right before we're supposed to chant the second series ourselves, but he was already making his way back to the centre of the stage and I'm not sure how well he heard anyone in the crowd. In any case, he clearly was not satisfied this time, but he has reacted worse. Then he extends his hand and belts out those "Ooooooh in mind" lines to conclude the song epically as always!

In Ningen wo Kaburu, I heard a bit more clearly this time that Kyo changed the lyrics. Most of the time, he asks us to chant: "Dare no tame ni ikiru darou?" but he changes it occasionally to shout off-melody about doing it for his own sake, I believe? It was 'ore no', right?

For 13, again that one seemed a few inches more intense than usual, with the face being ripped forcefully off when singing emotionslly about throwing it all away. Man, I can't shake the feeling that we're supposed to be singing Die's backup vocals of: "in the dark, in the heart of, here's everything, Never die." It just doesn't seem right that this moment has no engagement from the crowd. Not to mention that most fans do not move during this song even if it's so powerful and rock- y and that the band goes hard on stage.

I can't remember in which song, but Kyo was so intense in his steps that he bumped backward into his mic stand, which wobbled but thankfully did not fall on Shinya's drums. Kyo glanced a bit worriedly at it but quickly went back to the performance like a professional.

Also, somewhere in the second half of the main setlist, in one of the breaks, Toshiya poured water from his plastic bottle on himself, mainly on his head but I think also on his chest, his back turned to us. He finished by spitting some water upward like a fountain before turning to face us.

Otogi starts in silence with Kyo hitting his forehead, head bent, with his microphone, which he holds with both hands. You can hear heavy breathing, maybe hints of sniffs even. The screen fills up with bright, bright red from the bottom, Kaoru's distortion fills the air and Shinya hints of beats flutter after a while. The song then turns turns really heavy. Toshiya makes various gestures, concealing his eyes with both hands at one point, but he starts the song by holding his hand and his bass high, becoming a proud silhouette against the vivid red.

Then, the spinal mic stand comes forth and Kyo does eery little noises, only to blast out: "NOSE, EYES, EARS" out of nowhere, it's always unexpected! There was so much smoke after "The sound of the brain dying" throughout the song that Kyo was hidden from sight eventually.

The song ended and it seemed like even Kyo took a moment to grasp that it was the end of the main setlist. In fact, the entire band didn't seem ultra aware. It was just that kind of show, so awesome!

The band came back for the encore, Shinya as usual clothed in black with the tour T-shirt, Die with a lose black shirt, his very short leather shorts and the aforementioned tights, Toshiya changed his top for the classy sleeveless dress shirt and Kaoru finally took off his patterned jacket and came back with the leopard pants and his black dress shirt. I don't know how he keeps his layered outfits for the entire main setlist all the time while every other member besides Shinya slowly divests themselves as the heat becomes overbearing! But anyway, what shocked us the most was Kyo returning to the stage with HEAVY black makeup on the lips, as well as on his eyelids now! With the tone of Dozing Green in acoustic and the beginning of un deux, combined with the poor reception he got during Eddie, Kyo looked downright depressed but nevertheless intimidating. With his somewhat spiky blond hair, he reminded me of his Kisou look a bit.

After un deux successfully lightened the mood with reconciliation, T.D.F.F. got everybody totally crazy. We were jumping and headbanging, Toshiya went to the left arm of the stage again for his solo, and Kaoru took notice of shimote's dedication to the song so he walked up front and mouthed a "hey" or whatever with us. He peered really intensely, seriously at all places in the shimote section, it was almost unnerving! Kyo tends to stare at no particular spot, basically a bit above the crowd, while Toshiya and Die smile and stare slightly but then they focus on playing. Kaoru was taking his sweet time scanning the entire crowd on his side of the venue yo. He'd nod from time to time when our reaction wad energetic enough.

It must have been in the encore, because I'm confident that Kaoru was wearing only his black dress shirt, Kyo sprinted back to what seemed to be his crate in the centre, so Kaoru peered at that and prepared to head back to shimote but Kyo was quicker and he placed his hand on Kaoru's left shoulder, holding him there as he passed and made his own way to shimote instead, telling Kaoru that it was fine to stay there for now. It's crazy how gaga we become for those small interactions just because they come off as such an antisocial or asocial band, but it works!!!

At one point, I'd say either during Beautiful Dirt or in the encore with Sustain the Untruth, Kyo stared at someone behind the VIP rows and mocked the weakness of their raised hand. When perhaps the fan in question raised their second arm, he imitated that and the way he did it, it clearly made a fool of the lack of energy dispensed. Again, he gestured for the neck to be ruined instead and began dancing on his spot like in Sustain the Untruth.

The last song came and Kyo stood on his crate. He asked us repetitively if we could go, putting his hand over his face and sniffing like he wasn't sure or convinced, which prompted me to scream before he asked again and everybody in the crowd joined as well in the cheer. Kyo then went: "KAAAAAANAAAAZAAAWAAAAAA", followed by: "KAAAAAAAAAAANAAAAAAAAAAAzawa". He compelled us to keep it up for the last song a couple of times more, after which he screamed: "Then die!" roughly, adding "Last Song" quickly almost like an after-thought immediately after as the first notes of Revelation of mankind began.

What ensued was headbanging, some joint singing between the crowd and Kyo, and a beautiful final. By the end, he had almost none of the black makeup left on the lips, maybe only at the corners of his mouth, but none dripping on his chin due to sweat - maybe stuck on his mic or he swallowed it while singing? At the end, he just stood there exhausted and wiped the rest of it off, only the eyes still shadowed. Kyo clapped multiple times, nodding like we deserved those claps, until Shinya's finishing beats. Then he clapped some more, pointed at the young girl with the headphones in the crowd and doing the finger hook to her a couple of times, nodding and pointing twice at his temples, making it obvious he was refering to her. Then he turned his attention back to the whole crowd, stepped back a couple of inches, belted out: "KANAZAWA" micless, then: "Bye Bye" in the same fashion with a curt wave of his hand, and left.

Shinya threw his drumsticks from on top of Kyo's crate afterward and as he left the stage, he walked squarely far, more than a metre away from Kaoru as he passed. Kaoru had been collecting some picks from his micstand and he slightly smirked at Shinya on the latter's way out. The three remaining members on stage threw stuff mostly in the back. I guess they really want to make use of the stage's arms on the side to reach parts of the crowd that they couldn't have access to from a general-admission type of venue.

Toshiya left rather early tonight and didn't seem all that smiley, but he bowed respectfully and appreciatively before leaving.

I think there was a small interaction between Die and Kaoru as they crossed path to alternate the side of the stage that they were donating picks to.

And as you already know, Kaoru did the magic trick of throwing a pick, we look up and get blinded by the lights in the ceiling, look back down to see where it landed, and Kaoru's right there opening his palm with his mouth wide open in a smirk, expression falsely surprised, then he popped it out of his palm and next thing I know, I flex my left hand while people around me are looking everywhere at the ground for the pick and there it is, something solid apparently landed in my palm! Woooo!

What a wonderful way to end this streak of seven shows that I was able to see this tour! I hope everyone will have an amazing time for the following, concluding shows, as well as during the Petit Brabançon but even more so the sukekiyo tour this summer, you lucky fellows!

[asleep-in-the-keep-sideblog]

Asleep In The Keep: A DP x BNHA fic

Summary: Danny fights Stain

Word count: 3179

Chapter 6: I Need a Hero!

An officer was talking to the heroes (at least the ones who were still conscious) and one of them pointed at Danny. He knew what came next. This may be a different world, but a cop is a cop. Danny started casually walking away. 

Don’t be suspicious, don’t be suspicious.  

Luck was on his side because Danny was able to sneak away behind some of the debris and disappear. The officer looked confused as she looked for Danny, even asking her fellow officers where he went. 

Suckers.   

Danny flew around the city helping people the same way he did here. Most of it was rescues and making sure they were safe before other heroes or help arrived. He didn’t run into any more of those creatures from before. He didn’t know how many there were or if it was a common thing, but he knew the one with wings was somewhere.  

Danny scanned the city from above looking for any more sudden explosions, when he caught sight of bursts of light swelling in an alley and people yelling.  

It could be one of those creatures, the one with wings was still loose.  

He kept himself intangible as he descended. It wasn’t a creature like before, but a monster. A grown man with bloody blades was attacking children . One of them was on the ground while the other two were attacking him with all they had. The peppermint one had gouges cut into his arm but was still shooting balls of fire at the man as he bounced from wall to wall, evading it.  

The man slashed the green one when he tried to attack from behind and then he fucking Licked the blade. Danny cringed. The boy went down.  

Down.   

Went down.   

Children.   

All alone.   

A monster of a man leaning over them.   

P̴̯͙̙̊ ̵̙͊̂͜ ̶̰͔̇ ̸͔͔͍̋Ř̶̳̂ ̶͚̽͊̓͜ ̷̀͜ ̶̢͐̚Ớ̴̼̳͜ ̵̫͛̌̉ ̸̰̗̀ ̶̦̅T̷̠͝ͅ ̷̳͇̙̊ ̸͎͇̘́̕ ̶̢̨͉͐E̸͕̐ ̴͚̼̅͂̎ ̷̡͎́̿ ̷̣̙̗̈̑C̵̤̬̬̉̉͝ ̵͚̌̾ ̵̧̧̛͒͝ ̸̲̩́Ṭ̶̏͒͆  

He shot the man as he was about to behead the kid in the heavy suit on the ground. It stunned him, but he recovered quickly. He jumped back and looked around for the attacker. Danny didn’t give him a chance to see him. From the shadows behind him, Danny punched the man in his back. Danny, while not used to fighting humans, learned a thing or two from the cruelty of the GIW. The man while falling pivoted on his foot and swiped at Danny. It went through him.  

“Who’s there? Another wanna-be a hero?!” He sneered at the direction of the attack. Danny revealed himself, standing far enough for the man to not be able to attack. Although they were close to the same height (with Danny being slightly taller), he looked down at him with hatred in his eyes. Danny understood the look, it was reflected in his eyes too. 

“You have to run away” begged the green haired boy on the ground. He looked sick and was the worst out of all of them, “He’s the Hero Killer. His quirk paralyzes you if he ingests your blood.”  

Quirk? Oh right, that's what they call powers here. They were staring each other down, like two animals sizing up the other. The Hero Killer (really great naming skills there) readied his swords and settled into a stance.  

“That just means I can’t let him cut me,” Danny mirrored the man’s actions, his eyes burning with ectoplasm and excitement. He hated people who went after children. “Easy peasy” and the two lunged for the other.  

🥦~🥦 

Izuku couldn’t believe what he was seeing. After the hero came out of nowhere, he thought it was only gonna be another person sharing the same fate. But this guy had the Hero Killer on the defense!  

The pro-heroes Todoroki sent for still haven't arrived yet. Maybe he was sent in before because of his versatile quirk? But this hero wasn’t one he recognized, and he didn’t seem much older than the 3 of them. Maybe it was a student intern? But why would they send a kid to an unknown situation?  

The fight was raging on around him. It wasn’t just on the ground, Izuku could hear the impacts on the walls. It was hard to see what was happening around him, he was still paralyzed, and he was getting dizzy trying to follow them in the corner of his eye. 

“What crypt did you crawl out of? Or are all those bandages to keep you together?” 

The hero kept making fun of Stain. Stain never responded to them other than a frustrated growl. 

“As if the likes of you will ever defeat me! You’re no better than these kids who aim to be heroes!” Every word the killer spoke was dripping venom like the blood from his knives. Izuku felt a chill go up his spine. “You’re not a true hero! Admit it. You only want the glory of catching me! There’s only one person who I will allow to take me down!”  

“Maybe you’re right.” The kid sounded firm, “maybe I’m not a ‘true hero’, maybe I made a few mistakes, or hurt the people close to me…But I try my best to help people! And I have! Even if I’m not a hero, I still choose to save people!”  

“Oh, so a vigilante then?” His tone changed. Instead of venom, his words were dripping with familiarity, but still sounded unnerving, “I have more respect for them than your average hero” he sneered at the word hero, “I even consider myself a vigilante of sorts.”  

“I don’t think I fit into your definition of vigilante, nor do I want to”  

“And you don’t. You tirelessly mock me instead of saving these people” Stain snapped back.  

“Geez I can’t do anything right in your eyes, mom ” Izuku could feel the teenager's eye roll, “besides,” The alley lit up in a neon green glow, “I can do both.” 

★~★ 

Danny really didn’t want to drag this fight out longer than it needed to be. Honestly, He should’ve just knocked him out from the start. Something told him not to, that he could be more dangerous if he was knocked out. He was too unknown, and therefore dangerous. Danny could feel the corruption this man was made of, it rolled in waves of disgust and hatred every time the man swung at him.  

The man lunged at Danny, his sword in a motion to slash. The man was fast, far faster than any person he had fought in Amity. But not any ghost . Just like all the others, Danny evaded it. That's just what the HK (Hero Killer, and really, he was such a kid, that name is so edgy ) wanted. When Danny went closer to strike him, a hidden blade from his boot swiped up into Danny's chin, missing his neck.  

Danny jumped back, surprised that he was able to get hit so easily. The wound (if it could even be called that) stuck itself back together like slime. But the damage had been done.  

A thick glowing bead of ectoplasm coagulated on the sword. Rust was starting to spread from under it. The man raised it to his tongue and licked it.  

A scream filled the alley, but it was soon overtaken by sounds of gurgling and sizzling. A strange smell filled the air, and all eyes were captured by the crumpled form of the man, who moments ago, seemed to have the upper hand.  

His mouth was melting.   

He frantically clawed at his mouth, which looked like a snail dissolving in salt. His tongue was thrashing around as if trying to escape from himself, like a snake with no head. Everyone was watching. The Blue boy, being able to move again, just lifted himself up onto his forearms, as if to get a better view. Only horror was written on his face. He didn’t have the strength to move anymore than that.   

 The noises started bubbling down. Heaves and harsh rasps replaced them, but not undoing the spell that had overtaken them all. He looked at Danny. His eyes lacked focus and a part of his lips were gone, exposing his teeth and limp tongue.  

His blood must have washed the ectoplasm away.   

This had all happened in under a minute. That was all it took for the battle to be decided.  

The Hero Killer walked towards Danny. It was only a few steps at a time, like one would see from a zombie, but Danny didn’t move. He felt he owed it to the man somehow. 

Guilt.  

By now all the kids were able to move, and they took up fighting stances. They didn’t move any closer. None of them knew what to do, still frozen from before. 

The man stopped just before Danny. He only had one sword left. He raised it slowly and pointed it at him as a challenge. Danny continued to stand there. The man took that as a cue and with a pained yell, started slashing him.  

Danny continued to stand there. He let the man slash through him over and over again. Since the blade wasn’t made with ghosts in mind, Danny let it slash through his body as if it were cutting through slime. The blade was getting more and more corroded as it came out of him.  

After fighting him, Danny was able to understand him, not sympathize, but understand . He had fought with a franticness, but it was calculated. Now however, he was slashing on pure instinct.  

The man was no longer a threat.  

The sword, which was dark brown now, fell to the ground. The Hero Killer’s raspy grunts and cries had softened. He collapsed, but before he hit the ground, Danny caught him.  

He laid him down on his back. Although Danny knew he was only unconscious, He looked like he had just died a very painful death. His eyes were only the whites, and with his mouth eaten up by Danny’s ectoplasm, his face was contorted in a horrified scream.  

Danny just stared. A swirling feeling thrashed around him. Danny had felt this before. It ached at the back of his brain, but it didn’t come out. He just continued to stare at him, trying to figure out what it meant. How does he feel? How does he feel about how much he hurt him? What part of him feels nothing? What part of him feels regret? What part of him feels vindicated?   

“Should we tie him up?” A voice pulled Danny out of his thoughts like icy water. His eyes, maybe with more intensity than he expected, looked at the boy. He was the green one. He stood over Danny with his hand hovering over his shoulder, like it was afraid to touch him. 

  ‘He should,’ a small part of Danny whispered (the place where Spectra lived).  

The boy looked at him with concern. His leg was badly injured, and even standing must have been painful for him. But the boy stayed by Danny. Because he was worried about him. Who was the last person to be worried for him? His friends? His sister? It felt so long since then…  

“Yeah. That's a good idea.” Danny floated up so he was no longer on the ground (when did he get there?). The kid seemed taken aback by this and his mouth opened before he bit it closed again. He turned towards his friends who were talking by the mouth of the alley. He was about to walk away before Danny asked, “Do you need help?” the kid looked confused, “With your leg? You put up a good front, but I know it must be painful.” 

The boy looked taken aback but nodded his head a little. With a word, Danny scooped up the boy and carried him on his back. He was heavier than expected, and Danny could feel the tight muscles from where he held onto his legs. The boy had gone through training that had no one that young should endure. He turned his back to the Hero Killer, sure that the man wasn’t going to be up anything soon.  

“So, what's your name kid?” The kid was the one that fought the hardest out of all of them, but from his injuries, he was either not that strong, or too self-sacrificing.  

“Deku” The kid answered. It was a weird name, but maybe all names were like that here.  

“My name’s Phantom”  

“Is that your quirk?” The kid asked. Despite being beaten up all the way to hell, there was a hint of excitement there. 

“My quirk? Oh right…uh yeah” Danny still wasn’t used to that term. 

“So, you can float, turn intangible, and…Turn into slime?” Danny Nodded. The kid took that as permission to talk, “Then what was that blast you shot at him? It was green like your…insides? Were those your insides? Is that a manifestation of your quirk or do you have control over that? If it is a manifestation, is that why your eyes are like that? What exactly does your quirk entail cause the whole float and intangible thing kinda make sense, but not really the other. Can you breathe when you're intangible or is there a time limit? Or does it burn through your energy, so you don’t use it a lot? Your clothes don’t come off so they must be special too. Also, you glow. Is it a mutation type quirk then? I’ve never heard of a mutation giving you anything other than the already obvious physical capabilities?” 

Uhhhhhhhh… What?   

“Yes.” Danny really wasn’t in a state to be paying attention. “Wait, no.”  

The kid started muttering but Danny really didn’t have the energy to listen.  

They had reached the kid’s ( Deku , Danny reminded himself), Friends. They were talking with a few heroes, none that Danny recognized (not that he would). When they came into sight, an old short man flew towards Deku with a kick. Danny, still in an adrenaline high, blocked the attack with a quickly raised ecto-shield. The old man jumped back, and the other heroes looked at him. The man went lower to the ground, which wasn’t hard because he was very short, and fell into an attack stance like before.  

“Grand Torino it’s OK!” Deku yelled into Danny’s ear. The old man relaxed his stance slightly, but in a way that it was easy to fall back into. 

“Who is this person, Deku?” Grand Torino seems flighty, pun intended . He kept looking between Danny and Deku, suspiciously. Danny, reading the mood, carefully set Deku down and raised his hands in a placating manner. Deku limped over to where the hero’s gathered.  

“He helped us with the villain” At the mention of a threat, the heroes scanned the area. One of them noticed him first. The Hero Killer was still passed out in the alley, without restraints. All of the heroes rushed into action, but honestly, they weren’t sure what to do. One of the heroes starts phoning the police (what was the point of heroes if they were just going to call the cops?) while another hero slowly went towards him with a rope of some kind. When he was securely tied up, the heroes seemed to relax (even if he was just as dangerous before they ‘saved the day’).  

While this was all going down, the kids were in a deep conversion. Danny didn’t listen in, not wanting to be rude. Besides, he had his attention elsewhere.  

Grand Torino kept staring him down. He never moved out of the stance he was in. Danny really didn’t want trouble, he’s just glad that the kids are safe, and the heroes have it covered now. Danny was about to give him the slip when the old man’s eyes darted towards the sky. 

“Get down!” He shouted at Deku as the winged thing from earlier flew over them. With it’s (toes? talons?) toe-lons, it grabbed Deku from the waist. Gusts of wind from its speed blew at the heroes, and some even had to cover their eyes not to be blinded.  

None of the heroes did anything. Even the old man, who seemed so concerned for Deku before, stayed frozen to the spot, just squinting at their shrinking forms as they flew away.  

Danny flew after them, he could hear the surprised gasps from behind him. He was able to catch up in milliseconds. He shot ice at the thing’s wings, not wanting to risk hitting the kid. The thing went down as it screeched in pain, still injured from before. Danny was able to catch Deku before he crashed with it. He held the kid on his back as he stared at the creature below him. Danny stepped on its wing to stop it from getting further away. It was thrashing about still, but it was obvious it could no longer fight.  

The same feeling he had when he defeated the Hero Killer settled into him again. 

Another hero had joined them and was barking orders at them not noticing what was around him.  

“Get ready for a fight,” he heard one of them say.  

Danny really was sick of people assuming the worst of him. In Amity, he could understand. Ghosts were dangerous, and he was probably the worst one of them all (pretending he was still human). He never needed their acceptance, just saving them was enough. He didn’t care that they held city hall meetings to “get rid of the ghost boy”, he didn’t care when they invited the GIW in town to hunt him down, he didn't even care when they called him inviso-bill. But in the world of heroes? In the world where people cheer the heroes on as they defeat the bad guy, where they sell figurines and merch of the heroes, where they have children training to become heroes, was it really so hard for him to be accepted? Maybe humans could just feel he was too different from them. 

Danny turned towards them, and they all froze, he even felt Deku tense up on top of him 

I̶̧̻͑͝ ̸̢̟̞̿͂̚Ă̶̮̹ ̷̖͍̓̂͝M̷̻̉ ̶̰̖̒̑ ̴̯̥̂̔N̷̟̦̰̓̓̄ ̷̞͌͑Ỡ̸͍̖͗ ̷͓̚T̵͖͔̈́͂̄ ̴̼͉̓ ̷̯͉̆A̵̹͖̬̎̂ ̸̺̺͝ ̵̤̆̆V̴̜̉̇̈́ ̷̦͙͛͘I̸̪̖̗͝ ̴̙̫͋̑̕L̶̦̰̽ ̴̙͚̜̓́L̴̜͍͛̐͘ ̴̘͑͘A̷̢̲͔̓ ̴̖̈́̿̓Ì̷̘̏ ̴̖̖̜͗N̴̢̟͔̄ ̸̙͚̎ͅ!̵̼͈͔͝ ̴̮͝!̴͓̎̓͊ ̴͚̝̬͛̆͋ ̴̧͖͒Y̴̥̦̖̿͠͝ ̶̮̥̀Ō̸̡͓̫ ̵̝͙̔Ư̵̢̘̮͂ ̵̮̎̓͆ ̶͎̓D̴͖̰̉̉͐ ̵̗͖̗̏Ö̵̭͓͉́̆̂ ̶̜̔̀Ṅ̴̹̟͆ ̵͌͝͝ͅ’̷͓̩̓̎ ̵̺͛T̵̯̄ ̶̡̗̈́ ̶̰̝́N̴̦͍̫̽̒ ̴̨̅͆̚͜Ȩ̷̳̥̿̔ ̴̩́É̸͈̱̖͝ ̴̢͖͘D̶̻̘̀ ̴̧̠̙̈́͂ ̷̼̭̬̔T̶̟͗̍͐ ̷̻̳̈́Ö̶̺̂͠ ̷̟͐̽ ̴̜̫̈̈W̸̢̅̓͆ ̸̨͙̙͒O̵͙̼͛̔͌ͅ ̵̡̛͒Ŗ̴͉̦͛ ̸̪̫̣̃̈́R̷̢͙̐̂ ̶̖̊͛͜Ÿ̶̥͓́͜ ̸̢͎͋̒!̶͕̈́͛̿ ̶̮̣̳̀̚͝ ̶͕̺͂̒͝I̷̬̘̋ ̴̦̭͋̇’̸̤̭͙̈̉ ̵̱͍̭͆́M̴̛͇̗̌͠ ̵̢̲̋ ̷̧̛̯͚͛͝Ń̷͈͠ ̵̩̽͐͜͜O̶̰͛͋͘ ̶͔̬̀T̴̺̋ ̷̻́̈́̿ ̵̤̼̳̎G̶̨̫̖̉́̾ ̴̧͍̽O̷̧̽͊̒ ̶̫͆̎Ĭ̵̫͇̔ ̶̛̙̑́Ǹ̴̨̙͍ ̴̮̬͖́̎̓G̴̩̦͛ ̷͎͖̅͜ ̶̨̞̣̈́Ţ̷͙͖̓̑ ̴̨̦̮̈͋O̷͉͍̓͠ ̷̱̗͑͑͜ ̶̫̤͔͛Ḫ̷̻̗̈͐͗ ̷͎̯̣̅̈̈Ù̶̡̼ ̷̢͛R̶͎͓̾͝͝ ̶̛̯̣̻̕T̸̼͌̓ ̶͉̲̞̀̐ ̵̫̎̈́Ą̷̩̪͑̓ ̴̞̀͐͝N̷͕͌͠ ̸̧̛̠͓Y̶̪̹͉̆̽̈́ ̶̟͆͐Ő̶̲͔̓̀ ̵̧͕͍̏N̶̺̲̯̈́ ̵̞͖̥̾̈́E̵͈͊ ̴̧͗!̵̧͖̈́ 

He set Deku down, careful of his leg, and smiled at him. He had a heart stopping panicked look in his eyes. Danny looked at the heroes, but they all shared the same expressions. One hero even fell down looking at him.  

It was all just too much.  

Danny looked back at Deku. His eyes shifted more towards confusion than fear. Then, without warning, Danny took to the night sky.  

“Phantom Wait!”  

But he was already gone.  

~END~

Translations for Ghost speak: PROTECT I am not a villain!! You don’t need to worry! I’m not going to hurt anyone!

[fmoe1997]

The long silence that held over the lake was interrupted only by the steady splash of water. A lone boat, propelled through the waves by a pair of paddles, made its way through the murky green. Within it sat two occupants.

A shark, dressed to the nines in a blue and red pinstripe suit, gripped the paddles in either hand on one end. On the other, a feminine imp in a similarly-colored dress sat just as silently as her travel companion. To anyone outside the boat they appeared as two lost souls, out on the lake with nary a fishing rod nor a clue to what they were there for.

But they both knew. The bag over the imp's face and the rope that cut into her wrists made their intentions more than clear. As did the brick that lay between her feet.

For what seemed like eternity, the paddles dipped and rose through the waters. The sickly green tint gave no indication of what lay beneath the surface. But the shark knew, and the imp would find out soon enough.

Eventually the shark pulled the paddles back into the boat and stilled near the middle of the lake. Although, even in the best weather, the ever-present fog made it hard to judge. He thought to take the oars back in hand and keep rowing. Rowing until he felt sure he had taken them far enough from land. Or perhaps, until he convinced himself not to go through with this.

"Alessio," the imp called, and the shark looked obediently at her. "Remove the bag, please, so I can look at you."

She sounded calm, eerily calm. More than most in her position. Alessio had delivered many to these depths before. Every one of them had a different reaction during the long row to their end. He heard their muffled cries as they pleaded for their lives, but they always went unanswered.

But with her, he felt the usual gag unnecessary. And for the first time, it was him who felt fear at the situation he had been placed in. She remained completely silent, even when he placed the bag over her and took her out here, she didn't say a word, or beg, or cry. Until now, where she made one simple request.

And he granted it.

With a heavy hand, he grabbed the burlap sack and gently took it off her head. He met with bright yellow eyes, unfazed at first, that slowly softened as they focused on him. Alessio felt his chest seize and he fought the new flood of emotions that came with it.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kno-, Crimson, couldn't be here."

She almost smirked at this. "I'm not."

She then turned her eyes to the still lake. "It was always going to come to this at some point. I watched him fall deeper into the life his family made for him, and I knew. That the imp I fell in love with was gone, and this would be my only way out."

Stoic, even in the face of death. For once, Alessio wished she would be like many of the ones he brought before, but he couldn’t decide if it would be better or worse.

"But then, I had Moxxie. Mi hermoso chico. I remember I couldn't let go of him when I brought him into this world. Not even to Crim. I couldn't. I could not see this tiny, innocent child turn into the monster that man had become. When I saw his bright eyes, his beautiful smile, I had something to fight for."

Alessio sat silently through her confession. She had always been a strong woman. The fire never died in her before Moxxie, but with him it burned brighter than ever before. Even he wasn't blind to how tightly she clung to the little one. But Crimson saw it too, and it's why he asked him to do the impossible task of snuffing it out.

He snapped out of his thoughts when he felt her bound hands rest against his, hanging loosely between his legs.

"Promise me you will look after him in my place. He is strong, but he needs someone to look after him. Only you can do that."

Alessio could only look at her, mouth slightly agape, before he bowed his head. "My loyalties lie to Crimson, ma'am, you know this. There is only so much I can do for him without going against the Don's wishes."

"Then do it. Everything you can. Don't leave him alone in this world of cruelty. Don't... don't be the one to take him here too."

Alessio's eyes widened at the implication, yet lowered all the same. If Crimson couldn't groom Moxxie into the family, he would end up right here as well. Against his will, his mind pictured the young imp in her place. He stared up at him with eyes innocent to the world. A gag around his mouth and a brick by his legs, he stared until he sent him over the edge, never to be seen again.

He dug his claws into his knees at the thought, his face screwed up in a grimace as he clenched his teeth. He couldn't do that, and he wouldn't let anyone take his place should it come down to it.

"I- I promise," Alessio looked up at her. "He won't be alone."

For the first time in a while, he found a more genuine smile on her face, satisfied by his assurance. It may have been the low light of the moon, but he could've sworn he saw tears in her eyes. Before he could get a better look, she had stood up from her seat and moved closer to him. Alessio tensed instinctively, only to feel her lips press against his cheek in a solemn kiss. One last goodbye.

"Thank you, mi primo." She quietly sat down, and whatever tears she may have had were gone. "Do what needs to be done, I am ready."

Alessio looked at her, but she didn't meet his gaze. Just stared into some far-off space in the distance. Perhaps her next life, if they were afforded those. One free of the pain this one gave her. He wondered, after everything he'd done, would such a life await him?

Not wishing to dwell on it, he picked up the sack from the floor of the boat and reluctantly placed it back over her head. A shuddered breath emanated from the bag and he hesitated, if only for a moment, before he turned to the hefty stone below.

Brick scraped on wood as Alessio lifted it to the lip of the boat and rested it there. Once more he froze, somehow seeing his own uncertainty reflected off the dark waves. But when he blinked, the reflection was gone, and the stone teetered on the edge of infinity.

He wished he could do something, take her far away from here. While his loyalties lie elsewhere, she had his respect, and that went a long way in this world. But so did power. If he even tried to leave with her, Crimson would know, then they'd both share the same weight.

His fingers flexed on the cool rock, unable to give it that last push. She must've felt his distress, as Alessio heard her voice call to him once more.

"It's ok, Alessio. Let go. I've made my peace."

It wasn't her peace he worried about. "For what it's worth, Mrs. Knolastname, I'm sorry. I wish I could have done better by you."

She had no reason to accept his forgiveness, nor respond at all, and yet she did. "You did what you could. For that, I am thankful enough."

Alessio's breath caught. An unfamiliar emotion threatened to flood his eyes. He gave the bagged imp one last look. As if she could feel his eyes on him, he saw her give the subtlest nod.

Then another splash echoed across the great lake, before silence returned forevermore.

[modern-inheritance]

Modern Inheritance: Reunion, pt. 2 (Reluctance and Recall)

(A/N: I just wanted to get this out there. I might continue writing it and put a better ending on it, but for now I just want it off the WIP pile so it stops haunting me. Happy New Year and the like. Hopefully I'll have more stories out this time!)

~~~~

It hadn’t escaped him that she had left her combat jacket on that night. Or that she was wearing it when she came out the next morning. Or the day after that. Or the next six mornings. 

They portioned out their days. Arya would spend the morning drafting reports and debriefs, filling out paperwork to reverse her apparent death and half begrudgingly taking on Brom’s share of more mundane documents as he joined Eragon and Saphira at Oromis and Glaedr’s lessons. They split the evenings, Arya going sometimes to guide Eragon and Saphira around Ellesméra or attempting to mend her fragile relationship with her mother. Other nights she joined Glen for dinner and spent the night remembering the days they spent crawling in trenches and infiltrating camps, Fäolin perched above them in his little nest.

Afternoons, though, were for wandering the pines together, walking aimlessly and just talking. Glen told her about the last months, his recovery and the process of fitting, building and bonding with his new arm. The struggles and the joys of connecting the nerves without further surgery, the excited yelling that earned him a pair of tongs to the face when he finally picked up a mug without shattering it or throwing it into his own teeth. 

The three months he spent without leaving Rhunön’s shop. He didn’t tell her it was because he couldn’t find the courage to face the Queen. 

In turn she told him the entire story of Eragon and Saphira, everything the two had shared and every bit of information Brom would reveal about his and their lives in the village of Carvahall. The Raz’zac, the disastrous first flight, Brom’s near death experience, the young son of Morzan and his surprising allegiance. Glen could tell she glossed over the madcap escape from Gil’ead, their eventual return to the Varden getting a similar treatment along with the post battle recovery under Farthen Dûr. 

He didn’t press for a time. But eventually, he knew he had to.

It was eight days after their impromptu reunion, meandering alone past one of the solitary beech trees that some elf had planted and warded years ago with leaves near dripping with the winking lights of bioluminescent moths, when he finally tried to break through. 

“You know you can take that off, right?” Glen teased, plucking a wrinkled fold on the arm of Arya’s combat jacket. “You’re gonna get more looks than usual if you keep wearing it with those cargos.”

Arya looked down with a frown. “Hey! I think it looks good with these! Green and tan go good together, right?” She had never been much for fashion, or even being all that presentable beyond the occasional inspection back during basic or black tie events for the Varden. At those, all it took was a black dress to get whoever dragged her along off her back, even if she insisted on wearing combat boots with it. 

For a moment she remembered, with some fondness, the first time Fäolin had been forced to join her at a fundraiser in Surda. Teasing him about his slicked back hair, chucking him under the chin to get at the bowtie that was damn near choking him over the starched collar of his borrowed suit. His laugh when she asked him where he had put the backup pistol, her own when he subtly touched the grip of the one strapped to her leg under the dress. “You’re my backup pistol, remember?”

Then it was gone again.

Shaking his head as if his commander were a lost cause, Glenwing peered up from under his brows at the dappled sunlight filtering through the heavy needles above. “Come on. What are you hiding under there?”

“Nothing.” 

The medic closed his eyes with a deep inhale and soft sigh at the deadpan tone, the sharp hint of warning contained in the single word. So it would be like that.

He stopped walking. “Arya.”

“What?” Her momentum had carried her three paces beyond, so she had to stop and turn to him. Her fists were jammed in the pockets of the combat jacket.

“We don’t lie to each other.” He fixed her with that look. The medic look. The look that said ‘I am here to help and if you don’t let me there will be a very difficult road ahead.’ A look that he hadn’t given her for years, decades. 

His heart sank when she cut her eyes away from him. “I don’t…” Arya broke off and rubbed the back of her neck again, fingers digging in roughly. “There’s too much to do. We can worry about it later.”

“You finished the paperwork this morning.” Green eyes slid closed in a quiet, nonverbal curse for telling him that earlier. “You– we –were relieved from guarding Eragon and Saphira days ago, and we won’t be called to that again until they leave. Please.” Movement caught his attention. “Your hands have been shaking since you got back.”

Arya looked down. The tremors had been increasing in frequency since Tarnag. The moments of recall around her wrists always followed their appearance. 

“Arya, you know that I can’t break my oath to you. I can only help you if you allow me. I can’t tell anyone unless you tell me to.” Careful that his approach was seen well before he reached out, Glen touched his commander’s shoulder gently. “I don’t want you to do this alone. I didn’t. I couldn’t.”

And still, she refused to look at him. “You don’t need this on top of everything else.”

“Cut the bullshit.” That got her attention. Glen swore only half as much as the rest of their little squad, and when he did it was usually cause for alarm. No one wanted the man holding their bleeding guts in suddenly swearing out of nowhere. “You’re scared. I understand. And I’m here to help you.”

The accusation made Arya let out a short bark of laughter. At Glen’s raised eyebrow, she merely shook her head, half a twisted grin on her lips. “Ah, Glen. I’m not scared. Nothing really scares me anymore.” Again she let out a short laugh, squinting up into the needles above much like he had and put her hands on her hips. 

He really didn’t expect her explanation. 

“I’ve puked on a shade’s shoes before and lived through the consequences. And I did it again, too. Twice.”

Glenwing stared, bewildered. It took him some seconds to find his words. “...I…I don’t know if you’re joking with me, or if this is your way of saying you’re going to talk about it, or–”

“Oh, I one hundred percent puked on Durza shoes multiple times. That’s one of the things that I like to remember about all that.” Arya was smiling broadly. It didn’t reach her eyes. “If you really want to know,” The smile fell. “I’ll tell you. But later.”

“No.” 

“Glen–”

“I have the file. You know I do.”

Arya closed her eyes in surrender. The file had been sitting on the table for days now, a clear sign to her that he was waiting for her consent to begin the process of unraveling the last nine months. “Yeah.” She inhaled. Smelled wet concrete and tasted copper and iron. Released the breath with a rough sigh. “Okay. Tonight.”

“Tonight.” 

~~~

Glenwing was sitting on the couch with tea already made, file sitting undisturbed on the coffee table, when the door slid open and closed. Relief seeped into his limbs, feeling cold on his left and warm on his right. He hadn't been entirely convinced she was going to show up.

He looked up when she didn’t immediately sit beside him. Arya stood in front of the low table, shoulders tight and fists again firmly shoved in the front pockets of her combat jacket. Every line of her body reflected tension, but her dark eyes glinted with steel when he met her gaze. 

“You sure you wanna do this?” Arya motioned to the file with her chin, sharp and jerky. “It’s a lot less…” She paused, searching for the right word. “Brutal. If you read it from there.”

Glen nodded. He did his best to sound gentle but firm. “I need to hear it from you.” 

Her jaw clenched. “...I don’t know how much I can tell you.”

“Whatever you can. Whatever you want to.” The medic patted the cushion next to him. “We’ll stop whenever you want.” She waited a few more moments. Then, with stiff steps, Arya sat a few feet down the couch. “Take all the time you need.” 

Arya braced her elbows on her knees and leaned over, studying the moss that made up part of the floor of their flat. “I’m not…I’m not ashamed of what happened there.” A shiny backed beetle meandered onto the edge of her boot. She reached down and let it crawl onto her finger, lifted it to examine the iridescence of its carapace. “Hell, I’m proud of what I endured. I don’t know why it's so hard to talk about it like this.” She grinned as the little creature fluttered its hidden wings, the thin sheaves dark in contrast to the elytra’s color. “I’ve joked about it plenty.” 

Glen leaned back. He had his notepad in his hands, rumpled and scuffed and one of the corners charred. “You’ve always preferred deflecting whenever something’s bothering you.”

With a gentle puff of air, Arya encouraged the glittering insect to take flight. They both watched it go, floating to the window where it escaped through the barely open latch. “...Yeah.”

She took a deep breath then, resumed her previous position, and rubbed the flats of her palms together. “I guess I should start from the beginning. 

“That night we were ambushed, when you lost your arm and Fäolin was killed, Durza captured me after I teleported Saphira’s egg.” Again the woman focused her eyes on the ground, watching the miniscule hairs of the moss waver in the near imperceptible movements of air created by the cracked window, her breath, and Glenwing’s breath. Connecting currents that linked everything in the room. “I was in and out, but when I woke up fully I was in a cell under Gil’ead’s keep, their maximum security wing. 

“There were shackles on my wrists. They weren’t connected to anything, so when Durza came in I obviously tried to take his face off.” Half a smirk touched her lips, a tone of bitter pride coloring her words. “So he locked the shackles to the wall. Then I tried to headbutt him when he got too close. So he put me in a chair and locked me to that.”

The woman tilted her head slightly, brow knitted in a hint of confusion. Her braid slid over her shoulder to hang free. “He just…talked to me that time. Sat across from me and told me who he was, gloated about the spells he made to break our wards with just bullets and Urgals at his disposal.” To Glen’s surprise, Arya had an almost wistful, crooked grin when she looked over at him. “You know what he did next?” 

Despite her previous assertion that nothing could really scare her, Glen saw, buried beneath the convoluted and contorted emotions in his friend’s eyes, a glimmer of fear. He shook his head, afraid to break whatever courage was driving her to speak. 

“He asked me, point blank, if I would submit. Asked if I would surrender then and there, knowing the spells he had created, the potential he had, knowing what he was. He told me what awaited me if I did. I would be taken to Urû’baen immediately and presented to Galbatorix. He would receive the information I had to give, take more if he wanted, and then I would be released into his service. I’d swear oaths to him and become his new Forsworn, and used however he saw fit to bring down the Varden, Surda and Du Weldenvarden.” She let out a soft scoff, that pained look still twisting her lips. “I told him ‘no.’ Only word I said to him besides ‘bite me, bitch’ and ‘fuck you’ a few times.” She laughed again, and it sounded desperate, near panicked at the edges. “He just smiled, that fucking smile, and said ‘good.’”

Her own smile gone, Arya dragged a hand down her face, skin going pale as she remembered. “He spent…I don’t know how long. I’ve got no sense of time anymore. He spent what had to be hours just…just telling me what he could do to me. What he would do to me. He paced around and around that stupid fucking chair, grabbed my neck from behind and whispered in my ear the experiments he wanted to try.” 

A shudder passed from the back of her skull to the base of her spine. Arya did her best to focus on the swaths of moss between her boots. Pincushion moss. A bryophyte. They grew it there because it was soft and stayed that way even when the weather turned dry for weeks at a time. 

She could feel his hand gripping the base of her braid, head yanked back against the metal edge of the chair. The way he cupped her throat, thumb pressing just under the joint of her jaw and stroking her skin as she did her best to appear nonchalant. Simply met his gleeful gaze with cold fire in her eyes. She would not look away. 

The elf took a shuddering breath and untangled her fingers from where she had been clenching them together hard enough to leave bruises. “And then…he did. He did all of it and more.” She blinked, willed the floor to return to its green carpet rather than the grey creeping in. “And I fought it. I fought whenever I could. He stopped using the shackles in the cell because my wrists were shredded and I wouldn’t stop fighting them. I don’t know how long it was till I…” Her words caught in her throat. She blinked again. Why was this what made her choke up? “Till I couldn’t fight anymore. 

“He dosed me with Skilna each day, tried to wear me down.” Her lungs hurt at the memory. The time that he had sat on her cot, one leg daintily crossed over the other while he let the poison run its course longer than before. Watched her, that fucking smile plastered on his face, the antidote held in his lap, as she coughed up blood until she couldn’t anymore, as she writhed against the feeling of her bones shattered like crystal glass and the overwhelming, all encompassing fever that turned her veins to molten lead. 

He had wanted her to ask for it. To beg for the antidote. 

She crawled over, every movement triggering more liquid glass to explode within her cells. Grabbed his leg. Saw that triumphant, gleeful grin in the haze above. 

With her last ounce of strength she slipped a finger between his leg and his high, polished boots and deposited a mouthful of blood into the space.

Her gurgling laughter at his disgust made her smile briefly, lost when the noise ended abruptly with a crack and the sound of a tightly gripped, torn throat struggling to breathe. Still. The broken jaw and flail chest had been worth it. And she didn’t even have to ask for the antidote.

“He uh…” Arya cleared her throat, tasted the same blood as he dragged her out of the cell again, fury evident in each step. “He had to change it. To a longer form. One he could trigger at will. I was apparently getting some sort of tolerance.” She could see the pen moving from the corner of her eye. “He couldn’t always be there. Something about reporting to Galbatorix. He told the guards to keep his…his work, going while he was away. Only rule was no blows to the head. Needed the information in my mind unscrambled.”

Glenwing’s pen slowed. He didn’t want to ask the question. He knew she could feel his eyes on her, the way she shifted and raised her laced together hands to her lips. The way she tensed when he put the pen down and leaned toward her to touch two fingers to her forearm. “Arya….”

She refused to look at him. “They didn’t.” Her jaw was clenched. “They…they tried.” One of her hands twitched before the other clamped down on it. She blinked. “One of them…one of them must’ve found some old book somewhere…talked about elf customs or something.” Slowly Glen saw her entire body go tense, muscles locked and coiled to their limit. The first mumbled words of her next admission were lost in the quiet breath that delivered them.  

“...tried to notch my ear.” 

Glen’s blood went cold. The practice was ancient, heralding back to the bonding of the dragons and elves and the…peculiar…additions the dragon’s blood had on elves' practices of coupling. While a gentle bite on the ear of a mate was considered a pact of love, of devotion…a notch was a symbol of bitter solitude. Any elf with a notched ear was considered almost untouchable when it came to love, mating, partnership, acceptance. They were given only for horrific deeds, the slaughter of children, taking an unwilling mate, murder of a partner, and, above all else, for the betrayal of the entire elven race. 

If Durza had learned of this from his men he would have carried it out as the ultimate humiliation, and bound the mark to her body so that no healing could touch the wound. 

It took every ounce of Glenwing’s self control to not seize his best friend’s face and turn her to him, looking for the telltale rift. Instead, he steadied his voice as best he could and managed an only slightly enraged, “They tried?”

“They didn’t manage it.” The words were hollow, the memory of just how close she came to being marked still bouncing in her skull. Unlike the others, this one was…hazy. She could feel the panic in her chest and the many hands forcing her to the ground as she struggled to lift her broken body. They wanted revenge for the men she had…disposed of…after their attempts to take advantage of her weakened state. The cold, cold metal of a set of wire cutters sliding against the side of her head and behind her right ear. 

Then just…relief. Gratitude? And spending time curled under the cot, pressed as tightly against the wall as she could manage until the pale hand dragged her out for another span of agony after a longer than normal gap. 

For some reason the sense of relief sparked warmth that soothed the growing lump in her throat. She pressed her fingers into the spaces between her knuckles, grounded herself in the discomfort as she found sore tendons and protesting connective bands. “Eragon was captured some time after that. I don’t know how long. Adrenaline and pain tablets kept me on my feet long enough to get out with them. Eragon, Saphira and Brom healed what they could and got me awake. The rest you already know.”

Glen picked up his pen again and rolled it between his fingers. “Poison?” He had masked the tremor in his tone, but the rage wasn’t going to fade quite so easy. He wouldn’t press, not now at least. This was enough for one night.

“Right.” Gil’ead retreating from her mind, Arya straightened somewhat and clasped her knees with hands now blooming with fingertip shaped bruises. “Durza activated it. We got through the Hadarac before it caused problems. I might have…had to use the dream state to survive it.” She winced, fully expecting a lecture. 

Instead, Glenwing chewed the end of his pen. “You got out of it.” It was a statement of fact, laced with a hint of assurance that he wasn’t angry. He had taught her how to trigger the dream state for emergencies, and poison was certainly on the qualifying list.

“After a bunch of Tunivor’s Nectar…yeah.” Arya blinked, suddenly remembering another visitor during her half-addled state in Tronjheim’s hospital. “And the Wise One gave me something to pull me out.”

Glen stopped his absentminded chewing, pen dangling from his lips as he shot his commander a look of shock. “She’s back?” The way the stylus bobbed with his words made him look almost comically like Brom with his pipe. 

“Werecat and all.” Arya frowned. “Didn’t I say she’s the one that fixed Eragon’s back?”

“You kind of ignored the recovery period.” 

“Ah.” 

The woman’s bearing had shifted again. Glen saw more anxiety than before, less tension in her limbs as she cut her gaze away again and picked a loose thread by her knee. “Speaking of the recovery period…” 

“I broke the Star Sapphire, injected myself with four full doses of adrenaline to try and stop Eragon’s back from bleeding, overdosed, had several cardiac events, and Vilks put me on strict orders and told me I’d die if I didn’t follow them.” 

‘Ah’ indeed. No wonder she looked nervous. There was nothing that could trigger fear in a lifelong, diehard soldier with nothing else but their deployment than the anger of a very exasperated medic with the power to put them on an indefinite hold.

“You what?!”

Arya had already bolted off the couch, skittering past the coffee table. “Look, I know you’re upset with me for pulling a stunt like that again–”

“FOUR?!” 

She was already down the hall, nearly slingshotting past her room when she grabbed the doorframe. “Just…read the file, Vilks took good notes, I’ll change, just…yeah!”

Torn between fuming and alarmed, Glen grabbed for the file on the coffee table. He swore when his knuckles impacted the side of the wood, the metal leaving a decent dent. Making a mental note to speak to Rhunön about his continued issues of emotional override, he snatched up the packet with his right hand and flipped it open to the tab at the very back.

Vilks’ handwriting still kept its tight scrawl in his advanced age, and after so many years the doctor had perfected the art of short, sweet and to the point in his notes. Possible seizures. Fluid in the lungs, intubation for two hours, O2 mask for six after. Five VTach events before AED applied, unknown number post. Repeated attempts to leave bed before fully aware. Restrained for aprox 10 minutes before reminded of patient history. Energy extremely depleted, side effects of poisoning, imprisonment, poor diet, adrenaline overdose and magic overuse. Given orders of NO MAGIC two weeks, consistent bedrest and sleep (unlikely), multivit 2/d two weeks, recheck two weeks. Warned of consequences. 

A quick note at an angle, dated eleven days after the initial list, added ‘Given consequences after discovered participating in rigorous PT. Patient given icepack for forehead contusion and required to replace hospital clipboard at next possible opportunity.’

Despite his frustration, Glen couldn't help the smile that curled the edges of his lips. ‘Of course.’

“If you’re going to chuck that at me, let me get a head start first.” The medic looked up at his commander’s wry request. She had donned a pair of jogging shorts and a loose tshirt, the standard PT gear of Varden recruits in Fathen Dûr. 

Glenwing snapped the file closed. “I wouldn’t warn you if I was going to throw it, especially after reading that. Let’s sit at the table, better light.” Arya shrugged, thumbs hooked in the small pockets of her shorts, and followed him to sit in the dining area where bright werelights hung above their heads. 

They sat together, bathed in light tinged with the greens that dominated their home away from the Varden. Arya, after a moment of hesitation, placed her forearms on the table, palms down.

The medic resisted sucking his teeth, and instead bit the tip of his tongue as he reached out and gently lifted the woman’s left arm. A swath of scar tissue encircled her wrist, creeping up her hand and palm just slightly before diving down and dipping a concave wrap two inches down her forearm. The right side mirrored the same mutilation, both dark and a mottled red mix of soft ridges and silken patches. With a light touch to the back of her hand and a nod of acquiescence, he turned her palm up to reveal her tendons etched at the surface of her skin, as if locked permanently taut. 

“They’re just like that.” Arya broke the silence. A half hearted shrug tilted her wrist, and the flexor tendons jutted out further. “Tissue’s gone. Tendons just kind of…stand out, I guess.”

Glen hummed in acknowledgement, inwardly swearing at the possible damage that lurked beneath her skin. “Do you have any numbness in your hands or fingers?”

“No. The shaking started when we were around Tarnag. It feels like pins and needles sometimes, but it’s not affected my grip or range of motion.” 

Gently manipulating the joints, Glenwing confirmed her words before picking up his pen and scribbling a note down. “And you didn’t heal these…?”

“I like them.” Arya’s eyes were clear when he snapped his gaze up to hers. 

“Arya, they've got nerve damage. In your hands.” 

At that the woman pulled her hand from his grip and crossed her arms, hiding the dark bands from view. “Can you heal the nerve damage without healing the scars?” 

Glen frowned. “Yes, but–”

“Then we do it that way.” She held him in her gaze for a long moment, waiting for him to acquiesce. “This is my way of taking it back, Glen.” And again, she suddenly cut her eyes away with a quiet mumble.

“What?”

“It helps…” He could see her flex her fingers involuntarily under her arms, gnash her teeth at some unseen jolt. She looked like he did when the phantom pain kicked in unexpectedly, a shock that lingered for minutes or hours. “It helps when I have recall. When…when I touch them it’s like….” The woman fumbled for words, distress building. “He never left scars when he gave me hallucinations.” She gripped the table edge with white knuckles, tilting the chair back slightly. “And when I feel the scars I just…I know I’m not there. It helps bring me back sometimes.” 

Sometimes. Not always.

‘Recall.’ That cursed thing. Sensory recall and elvish memory went hand in hand, making the calling up of emotionally charged memories laden with past sensory detail a normal, if not somewhat uncommon, occurrence among their race. Arya’s had always been strong, bringing back physical touch and involving a majority of the senses for most of her moments of involuntary recall. Glen’s near rivaled hers, built up from the years of war and countless moments where PTSD took hold of the accursed skill, if it could even be called that. They both relived their traumas, ricocheting to the past as the world went on around them, seeing but not seeing.

Every time he thought of the ambush, he smelled the smoke, felt the hot ash and cinders embedding in his clothes and his skin. He could taste blood and pine ash, the grit between his red stained teeth and the excruciating wrong that was the needles and the dirt and bark and ash collecting, sticking to the mangled flesh of his ruined arm. He didn’t always see it, and for that he thanked whatever stars watched over him. That was his only escape. Seeing the metal limb that now dominated his left side, a zing of phantom pain that reminded him that the original limb was long gone…it made coming out of the recall easier. Something to remind him that the past was the past.

Glenwing reached out and, with a feather touch of his mechanical hand, reminded his commander to release the creaking wood of the table. He cupped her scarred knuckles, turned her palm to run a cold thumb over the ghost of a hastily healed burn. 

“I’ll do my best.” He promised. 

A rush of air left Arya’s lungs, a relief she didn't quite realize she needed. An acknowledgement of the scars beyond the cursory looks cast her way under Farthen Dûr, the concerned frown Brom gave them every once in a while. Glenwing understood their purpose, in a way that no one else could. “Thanks.”

Satisfied he could mend some of the frayed nerves, Glen turned to examining the smattering of new scars that littered the woman’s arms. Nothing was particularly egregious, and while several of the straight lines that slid down from beneath the woman’s sleeves looked near surgical, Arya simply told him it was ‘healed fully’ and ‘not a problem.’ Again, he didn't push it.

“Is there more?” Glen took a sip of his now cold tea, making a face before reheating it with a quick word. If this was all that needed checking then he could call himself pleasantly surprised given her previous description. 

Arya paused. “There’s a few on my legs but those were…those were healed. He healed them to the surface at least.” She tried to shake the sudden jolt of seeing steel nubs protruding from her shin, the excruciating ripping, tearing, snapping, as the bone split down its length. All that remained were four pale pink spots in a line from the last time that particular method was used. “Eragon and Saphira healed a scrape on my right leg, but they did well. No complaints there.”

“Uh-huh.” Glen tapped the point of his pen at the upper corner of his paper, resisting the urge to chew on the end again. She wasn’t telling him everything. But it was a start. “Is that it?”

“...No.” Arya sighed and pushed back from the table to stand. “I’m not healing these either, okay?” Her voice was muffled as she tugged her shirt up and over her head. She tossed it into the achingly empty chair across from her and stood clad only in her shorts and sports bra. “Make me look badass.” She turned and pulled her braid over her shoulder, gesturing with a jerked thumb at the expanse of her back. 

Glenwing dropped his pen. “Well. Shit."

“Hey!” Arya whirled to him. She seemed genuinely offended. “Come on, Glen! I survived this shit. You know what that took? I’m fuckin’ proud of these, and I’m not healing them for bullshit vanity.” He didn’t answer. Just stood and put his hands on her shoulders. “What are you–”

And pulled her into another hug.

Arya froze. She could feel the cold metal of his left arm holding her around her shoulder blades, a stark contrast to the warmth of his right hand squeezing around her ribs. Someone was touching her back and he wasn’t recoiling, wasn’t probing, wasn’t hurting. She wasn’t struggling, fighting, desperate to run away. An ache that she didn’t even realize had been tied into the muscles along her spine for months suddenly released, bringing with it a rush of relief and a soothing mix of warm where warm was needed and cool where cool was needed. 

“Don’t lie to me.” Glen murmured in her ear, his voice catching. “You tried.”

Arya squeezed her eyes shut. 

The day after Vilks cleared her for magic use. Checking the multitude of scars that covered her back and criss-crossed her skin with burns, cuts, hills and valleys of hypertrophic and concave bands. The visible slide of muscle where the layers above had been carved away. There was space between them, yes. But all she could see was the red, pink and silver of lingering damage made physical and, above all else, undeniable. She looked…she looked almost broken.

She had tried to heal them. And found herself scrabbling, clawing, writhing on the floor of that stupid little bathroom, choking back a scream of unimaginable pain as the nerves in her back exploded in protest. Everything she had endured, condensed and dripped in a steady, maddening flow along each pathway, electric and burning and pain. Once again it was all that existed for her in that moment, an extended second that encompassed months and months of time she could not begin to grasp nor understand the passage of. 

She ripped away from the magic and lay, panting, on that stupid, stupid bathroom floor. Blood steadily streamed from her forehead to the tiles where she had cracked it on the stone, trying to breathe through the lingering aftershocks and remembering the spells that he had used to the same result. Felt, deep in her chest, an interwoven pity and horror for Eragon and the new hell he was beginning to endure. She couldn’t heal herself. And she couldn’t heal him. Magic wouldn't erase these wounds.

Arya reached up and grabbed onto Glenwing, clutched at the loose folds of his shirt under his shoulder blades as if he were her last hope against drowning. “They’re…” She shivered, pressed her forehead to his shoulder. She had decided already, that day back in Tronjheim, that if she couldn’t remove them then she would wear them as a badge of pride. She wasn’t broken. She couldn’t be. They were the proof. “I’m…. I beat them. I beat him.”

Glenwing didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. He knew, and she knew as well. They’d weather it just as they always did, together and steadfast and strong against the push of everyone else. So they had scars. That didn’t mean they were lost, or broken, or could be cast aside as soldiers who had long passed their expiration date. Fifty years, seventy in her case, was a long, long time to fight.  

They’d just have to keep fighting.

They wouldn’t have it any other way.

[junipernight]

First Impressions/Foreign Tongue

Chapter 6: Hanasemasen

Summary: There's trouble... in Tokyo.

“Toky-whoa!” Beast Boy exclaimed as soon as the black energy surrounding them dissipated. 

Raven had teleported the Titans directly onto a busy sidewalk in downtown Tokyo, and colorful lights and interesting aromas barraged them from all sides. Skyscrapers stretched to the cosmos above them, and on the street, a stream of cyclists whizzed past. More than a few people had stopped to stare at the Titans sudden appearance, and a couple had taken out cell phones.

Starfire and Cyborg were staring this way and that like a pair of owls, and Beast Boy had whipped out a second disposable camera, but Robin still had his nose buried in a guidebook.

“So, where to now?” Raven asked him.

“The roughest part of town is in the Shinjuku district,” said Robin. “We'll start our search there.”

“Okay, which way is that?” Cyborg asked.

Robin scowled, and finally closed the book. “I don’t know. I can’t read the signs.”

Cyborg brightened, but before he could do anything, Beast Boy loudly proclaimed: “No problem-o, we’ll just ask for directions.” 

He strolled up to an unsuspecting old man in a neatly pressed business suit and tapped his shoulder. The man folded up his newspaper and did a slight double take when he saw the green teen peering up at him.

“Um, hi. How do I get to Shinjuku?”

The man cleared his throat. ���Ee. Sumimasen. Eigo ga wakaranain desu, tasukete wo rigari naru na.”

Beast Boy nodded attentively the whole time the man was speaking. 

“Uh-huh...mmm-hmm...okay, thanks.”

The man tipped his hat, and Beast Boy nipped back to the group. “I… have no idea what he said,” he confessed. 

Raven facepalmed.

Cyborg put an arm in front of BB. “Let me handle this.”

He walked up to the same man, then spoke into his arm. “Excuse me sir, can you tell us how to get to Shinjuku district?”

Cyborg’s arm beeped, and then a tinny version of his voice emerged from a hidden speaker: [Sumimasen, Shinjuku chiku e no ikikata o oshiete itadakemasen ka.]

The man’s eyes widened. He leaned forward and spoke hesitantly into Cyborg’s arm like it was a mic. “Kyoo mo kootsuu ruuru wo mamoru yo.”

[I will obey all the traffic laws.]

Cyborg sighed. “Doumo arigatou,” he said. The crosswalk light turned green then, and the businessman hurried away.

“My new technology might still need some tweaking…” Cyborg admitted.

“It is okay, friends!” Starfire proclaimed. “We have Raven to translate for us.” She smiled at Raven.

“Um, Star… I don’t speak Japanese.”

“You do not?” Star was taken aback. This had never happened before. “Oh…” she said. “Then I guess, I will be the translator.” 

Raven was too embarrassed to notice the disappointment in Star’s voice.

Starfire looked around. There was an earthling boy with blue hair, more or less the same age as her friends, watching them from outside a cafe. She walked up to him.

“May I kiss you?” She asked, enunciating clearly. 

The boy stared up at her with wide, starry eyes and gulped. Starfire could visibly see the gesture, because the boy had what Beast Boy called an “atoms apple” and it bobbed down and back up. 

“Kiss kiss fall in love?” the boy asked breathily.

“No, just kiss,” Starfire said.

They stared at each other.

“Ou-kay,” said the boy.

Starfire leaned down and kissed him.

There was the familiar rush of a new language filling her lungs, but otherwise, it was not very pleasant. The taste of his mouth surprised her - it was tangy and salty. She’d grown to believe that all earthlings tasted like honey and green tea. 

She pulled away. 

[Please forgive me, I learn language through kissing. Could you tell me which way to Shinjuku district?]

The boy pointed. [That way.]

Starfire bowed. It seemed like the appropriate thing to do. “Doumo arigatou.”

“Daisuki.”

Starfire ignored that last comment and gestured to her team. “This way.”

She turned and started walking without checking to see if they would follow. She was eager to be away from the youth she had just kissed. The youth whom, she now realized, she hadn’t even asked for a name. It hadn’t been that bad of a kiss, really. It’s not like she had kissed Glgrdsklechhh. And yet, all nine of her stomachs were roiling all the same. She especially did not want to look at Raven right now. Would she be proud of her for remembering to ask permission first? Or would she be upset? Why did Starfire hope she would be upset?

Her thoughts were interrupted by screaming. 

“Nigeru! Taihen da! Kaibutsu ga densen o kitteru zo!”

The people around them suddenly began to point and run.

What are they saying?” asked Raven. Her voice was smoothly monotone, giving nothing away.

Starfire cleared her throat. "They are saying… ‘Run! The monster is attacking the power lines!’"

Robin whipped out his bo staff. “Titans! Go!”

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

Author's Note:

For plot related reasons, there are no English-speaking Japanese people or gaijin anywhere to be found lol. Also, for general readability, I am using romaji and English dialogue conventions for the Japanese dialogue. Also, Ouran High School Host Club is still popular right? Right?

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[albaqae]

It is 12:30 in October 28th, and I just finished watching the fnaf movie and, as routine, I feel an urge to infodump :)

SPOILERS FOR FNAF MOVIE UNDER CUT!!!! Everyone who also watched it remember to correctly tag so that ppl can block it!!!

Really recommend to watch first cause it was nice to watch :) even if not PEAK storytelling IMO IMO IN MY FIRST IMPRESSION OPINION DONT JUMP ME

Ok so it was odd??? A lot of the lore kinda got messed up in translation, but I can’t help but feel so grateful anyways???

Ngl I would’ve probs shit on the movie if it wasn’t for my friend who, in a convo, mentioned how sad he was that everyone hated the red eyes cause “we’ve been waiting so long, why does it matter they got red eyes?”

Bc of this I gave it a shot, and it was not bad.

I was scared of how it’d turn out just bc the fnaf lore is SO much that even SCOTT HIMSELF doesn’t know where we at, but for the amount of info they were dealing with, they decided to kinda maneuver in their own iteration of it (imo) which wasn’t completely hate-able and I think it was a pretty good course of action

I liked references to the og lore (

-Vanessa’s coma at the end

- how foxy is the most OUT TO GETCHA

- the afton death scene was PEAK IMOOO “I always come back” like mk girll 💅

- also the whole set was actually fire

- telephone guy even if he wasn’t red ;(

- constant mention of exoskeletons and spring trap mechanisms

- BALLOON BOY THE ONLY THING THAT ACTUALLY MADE ME JUMP

- ITS ME WRITTEN IN THE WINDOW YESSSSSSSAAAAA

- the children inside the suits detail had me like YESSS

- funky electricity

- BALLPIT SCENEEE

- the bite even if it was her whole ass fucking torso

- the cupcake cool

- Vanessa inclusion and her relation to afton

- etc other things I can’t remember)

ALSO MATPAT CAMEO????? HELLO???????? ITS JUST A THEORY???? I also found out my brother does not know who he is and that was SAD. It’s ok ima show him tmrrow :D

Also also the effort put into the ACTUAL ANIMATRONICS, I was actually so shocked I was so ready to just accept it was all gonna be sfx and green ppl but they actually BUILT it, and that materialization just made it that much better for me like watching it and realizing wo man this is insanee

Just thinking how it was such a tiny project and then it just BOOM and here we are???? Omaiga. It rlly motivates u to get out there, no?

I loved them pushing the boundaries of where the animatronics could go w golden Freddy, even if he got me SO confused lore wise like wait y r u here? same for the weird kill freddy mask like hello???

IT MADE ME SO HAPPY HAVING THE TOMBSTONE SONG THEREEEEE YIPEEEEE

Music wise it was so cool too like it was pretty preppy and happy like kids parties and even in normal scenes (e.g. him picking up sleeping pills) it kept the mood up

I didn’t like the career dude being afton, but he was suspicious and i knew smth was gonna happen so ig not out of the blue, but I do like how it kinda went full circle

I am still confused abt Vanessa, but not overly so it’s ok

I actually cried when Abby and the animatronics became friends I was so happy, it got taken away but alas it is fnaf :)

We love the undiagnosed PTSD of the characters

I was bummed when it didn’t close out w the scene where the animatronic heads where no longer have a light behind them (meaning they’ve moved on) I honestly think it would’ve been such a COOL way to close it out but I was not the producer and maybe they plan to continue it??? Continue the curse of too much lore??? That’d be hilarious actually

I’m sad abt how dirty michael gets done through most of the movie like hes just doing his best stopppp

It’s just first impressions, and I’m VERY outdated w the lore, but I like ranting and tumble lets me so I do it :) lmk ur thoughts too!!!!

[forever-eternal]

Uncanny

The States are strange. Gov and Assistant even more so.

———————————————————————

Once a year, the State governors have a meeting with Personified Representatives Adam and Robin Jones, the Personifications of the American Government.

And each year, they complain to their respective State’s personification about it.

They say that Gov and Assistant are strange– and not in the same way the States themselves are. They say they can never remember their faces once they leave the room, say that their eyes flicker and show things no one should see.

…

Maybe it was simply the amount of time the States have spent around Gov and Assistant, but they just don’t see it.

They know them as kind and compassionate people, even if their relationship with and view of humans is a tad unorthodox. They ask before taking photos of them, as they asked– some people don’t like being caught off guard or are just camera shy. It’s never been any trouble to ask for a photo, and they rarely say no.

So they don’t really see the issue that their Governors are having. Maybe they’re just nervous; it’s a very important meeting with very important people, after all. It wouldn’t be unusual for the humans to stress about it.

———————————————————————

“You don’t understand, boy.” Texas’ Governor snarls, ignoring the fact that Texas is far older than him. “They’re demonic, I’m sure of it.”

———————————————————————

“You don’t understand,” New Jersey’s Governor is exasperated, ignoring the way the State rolls his eyes, “I know we have the Jersey Devil, but these things–” the human’s mouth snaps shut when Jersey glares sharply at him.

No one, not even his boss, gets to call his daughter and nephew things.

———————————————————————

“You don’t understand.”

“You–you just don’t understand..”

“You DON’T understand!”

…

They don’t. They don’t understand the stress or the fear, the apprehension in the Governor’s faces in the weeks-to-days before the meeting.

It’s always held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on September 5th, every year. The date and time never change, and neither do the humans' complaints.

But they have no reason to believe them, either.

Humans have always acted strange around them, the Do-Not-Notice-Me coating their perceptions of any of the personifications.

So they leave it be, humans are just so weird.

———————————————————————

“Welcome back.” the voices echo around the meeting room, walls stretching high into an all-consuming darkness. A few lights hang above the table itself, the chains stretching far beyond what their eyes can see, “Please take your seat.”

At the head of the table are two figures, dressed in all-black suits, faces warping and twisting the longer they look– but those eyes.

Black irises and white pupils stare from every dark corner of the room. A matching pair on the smaller figure’s face.

A bright, abnormal green with pupils like a snake watch from the…the taller thing’s face.

In the reflection of their eyes are voids and stars and planets colliding, and hiding in the supernovas are things no human should ever see.

There are no other distinguishable characteristics, inhuman gazes make them feel their minds start to fray at the edges until they look away from the indomitable creatures at the head of the table.

“We have prepared the information for today’s meeting,” the smaller one leans forward on what would be its hands, resting it’s twisting face on the knuckles, “Some of you have forgotten the rules.”

��The rules are made for everyone’s safety,” the taller one tilts its head in what looks like glee. “You hurt our States in any way, we hurt you. Leave them be, and we do the same.”

“But you’ve been growing cocky.” the words echo from everywhere, and they can only guess which of them speaks at a time– or are they both talking?– “There have been…complaints.”

There had been nightmares, some Governors acting too much like the countries that previously owned their States and digging up old memories. Memories Adam and Robin would soothe with soft words and gentle hands. It’d been a long time since any of their children had slept in their bed with them, not since Zachary was a boy.

And if they made a new door in the Statehouse that connects to whatever home they’re currently staying in, that’s no one's business.

“Today will focus on ways to correct your behavior,”

And if some of these humans don’t leave this room, replaced with another entirely…

“And to rectify the current situation.”

No one will notice.

It wouldn’t be the first time, after all.