#I decided to give dark pinky dreadlocks

[artificial-angels]

some stuff I drew yesterday,, I was streaming it on discord ☝😌 featuring @silllyyyyy and I's mouse sonas 💥

plus some wander over yonder stuff

[lokiondisneyplus]

Sasha Lane always plays the rebel. “Somebody make me a f***ing fairy princess, please,” says the actor, sighing with exasperation. “I promise I won’t say f***.” She is the type of plucky young star you imagine can do anything but, until now, Lane has excelled at playing the daring renegade, whether it’s as a teenage runaway in American Honey, the dazzling coming-of-age film that made her name in 2016, as a spliff-smoking “bad kid” in The Miseducation of Cameron Post, or, this month, as a violent fugitive in Amazon Prime’s Utopia.

The 25-year-old puts these sorts of roles down to her 20 tattoos and her dreadlocks. “I’m immediately seen as dirty and dark,” she says, recalling when she attended the illustrious Met Gala event in 2018, wearing a white lace dress. “I had diamonds in my hair – diamonds,” she says, with faux indignation. “Somebody was like, ‘She's so grungy.’ I was like, ‘What about this outfit says: ‘I'm gonna do a head bang and burn a town down?’ No. I'm sipping with my pinkie up and feeling very graceful and I wish you would just let me have my moment.”

Lane is just as captivating to watch on Zoom as she is in her films. She plays with her distinctive dreads – piling them atop her head, sweeping them over her shoulder – and her hands spiral around each other as she talks in a rhythmic southern drawl. When we speak, Lane has just got off a video call with her one-year-old daughter. She's currently in Atlanta, where she’s rumoured to be shooting the new Thor-spin off series, Loki, with Tom Hiddleston. “I'm just gonna skip over that one,” she says, laughing, when asked about it.

No one could have foreseen that Lane would end up here, though she is easily one of the most intriguing actors of the moment. She’d never planned on acting, let alone liked it, and thought she’d join the Peace Corps after college. But in 2014 her life changed forever when, aged 19, she was spotted on a Miami beach by Andrea Arnold. The director had just lost her lead actor for American Honey, the dizzying, sun-soaked Cannes Jury Prize-winner about a girl who decides to cut and run with a band of misfits. Among the tens of thousands of students getting wasted on spring break, Lane stood out.

“It was a crazy trip,” says Lane. “Me and my friends had been kicked out of a hotel and we ended up on this beach. I had no care in the world and that's when Andrea saw me.” Arnold told Lane she was making a film and later that night, while two of her friends were passed out from partying on her hotel bed, Lane improvised scenes in the lobby. “I had definitely been drinking that day, but I can hold my own,” she says now.

The next day over breakfast, Arnold asked Lane to stick around for another week. Lane was cautious. “I was like, ‘Alright, well if you turn out to be a murderer this is not gonna go well for you. I know s***. You're gonna have to really hack up my body if we're gonna do this.’ Which is weird to say to someone, but I did,” says Lane. She stayed, and by the end of the week she’d been cast in the film opposite Shia LaBeouf. She dropped out of college and flew out to Oklahoma to start shooting.

Her resulting performance as Star, a teenager from a broken home who hits the road with a travelling, partying sales crew in the midwest, was magnetic. With no professional experience, Lane managed to delicately balance her character’s mixture of vulnerability and grit.

Lane, like Star, left her life behind to go on the road with the film’s cast and crew. “I didn't know how to act,” she says. “So I didn't know what to do other than pull stuff from my own mind. I got to the point where I’d be crying to Andrea, saying, ‘I can't tell the difference between who I am and who Star is.’ We were in a bubble and had no visitors. We slept in s****y motels together, we were in the van for hours. There was no escaping American Honey.”

Star’s love interest in the film is the crew’s wild, hyperactive “business manager” Jake, a rat-tailed LaBeouf who Lane was reportedly dating off-screen. LaBeouf was intense on set. In one instance, Star was supposed to be angry with Jake, but Lane was struggling to conjure the emotion. “I was just laughing,” she says. “So Shia started telling me, ‘You're ruining this scene. You're f***ing ruining the whole movie.’ I knew what he was doing but it hurt and it was pissing me off. I just snapped and then they started filming and it was like, ‘Oh right, I see what you did there. You f***er.’ It was smart.”

The kids in the film, who are from forgotten, midwestern towns, are in a demographic that Donald Trump claims to be the voice of. Our interview is a week ahead of the 2020 election, and Lane is not convinced. “He's had his time and he has nothing to show for it,” she says. “He didn't deliver. I understood, especially back then, why certain people voted for him. They just wanted to believe that he would put money in and give us jobs, but it didn't work out that way.”

Like Star, Houston-born Lane moved around a lot as a child, between Texas, Florida and Dallas, and helped raise her little sisters. “I don't really like to talk about my family but my mom was gone a lot,” she says. “I played this role of being the glue, trying to keep everyone together. I grew up really, really young. Bad things happened to me as a kid but I had this feeling that it made me a better person. I have empathy and perspective.” As a result, she continues, she “internalised a lot because I never wanted people to feel my pain. I wanted to appear strong and light and be able to take care of everyone. Meanwhile, I would sit in my closet, give myself like 10 seconds to cry, then I would suck it up and be like, ‘OK, move forward, time to go get my sisters some food and act like everything's OK.’ I got really good at pretending things were OK.”

When Lane went to college, she started to crack. “I ended up getting diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder,” she says. “There are voices in your head, things are really dark. It's hard to explain to people who care about you that you can't sleep and you're hearing voices all day and you're sad and you're just tired. By the time I was a teenager, I was so tired.”

In the weeks before Lane met Arnold in 2014, the voices were “saying something nice for the first time”. “They told me, ‘Hold on, something’s coming that will allow you to fill your purpose and let you breathe,’” she says. “People ask me all the time, ‘If American Honey didn't happen, what would you be doing?’ Truly, I don't think I'd be here. I think it saved my life.”

There is a serendipity to Lane’s acting career. First, American Honey came out of the blue. Then, in 2018, she starred in Desiree Akhavan’s gay conversion drama The Miseducation of Cameron Post as a girl raised in a hippy commune. The part resonated with Lane as someone who refuses to put a label on her sexuality and whose brother had a difficult time growing up gay and black in Houston. “I've never seen myself as someone who's like, ‘Hey, I'm queer, I'm bisexual, I'm this,’” says Lane. “I just have a very broad and open and unique way of loving. I can literally fall in love with a f***ing squirrel. Anyone.”

Her brother, she says, “always prayed he’d be normal”, much like the characters in Cameron Post try to “pray away the gay”. She says the film moved some elderly conservative viewers to tears and has helped to change people’s minds.

After that, Lane landed roles in the warm indie drama Hearts Beat Loud and the horror Daniel Isn’t Real, and her latest project is the US remake of Dennis Kelly’s Utopia, about a gang of bright youngsters who are in possession of a cult graphic novel that seems to predict disastrous real-world epidemics, making them the target of a shadowy deep state organisation. Lane plays yet another woman on the run, Jessica Hyde, who has been evading The Network all her life and who helps the young group survive.

Lane studied feral cats to get into the character’s mindset. “For them, everything is survival mode,” she says. “You're terrified someone's gonna capture you. You don't hang in packs because you're a loner. That's Jessica Hyde.”  

She may be stuck playing the rebel but, through playing misunderstood outliers like Jessica Hyde and Star, Lane wants her work to bring people together and help us to understand each other. “I’m not the biggest public speaker,” she says, “but if I can make films that touch hearts and connect people, that's beautiful. Of course I want to be a part of that.”

[0ddly-familiar-f4ces-364]

Inky Future: The Start Of A Nightmare

Midnight was falling upon Equestria, Canterlot and it’s residents were settling in, Twilight and her friends, however, were getting ready to head back to Ponyville and to Twilights castle.

It was a long meet with Celestia that drug them there in the first place, and now they were finally boarding the train heading for home. Twilight figured they could all crash in her castle for the time being, seeing as they had more to plan.

Celestia had spotted issues rounding up in multiple places, all with the same clues. Inky vines and goopy remnants. It had seemed to leave these things behind in it’s wake, whatever it was. It seemed to leave any pony that dared to face it, cold and disheveled. Whatever this creature wanted, it wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of those in it’s path. It seemed to be stealing crystals of certain abilities.

It was estimated this thing was headed for the Crystal Empire next for the crystal heart. Twilight Sparkle and the other 5 were sent there to put up protection spells and any other measures to try and guard the area as best as possible. Never-the-less, it left them all exhausted.

“I’m glad that’s done and over with, let’s hope Cadence and Shining Armor can take it from here once we get home.” Twilight chimed, managing to catch their attention despite half of them on the edge of sleeping in their spots.

Rainbow Dash let out a yawn and snapped her mouth shut as she began to speak, “Yeah, I don’t think my wings can handle another run around the entire empire again.”

“Well I’m sure with our extra help they can rest assure that everything is safe there.” Fluttershy spoke out, her soft voice even filled audibly with sleep deprevation.

“All these crystal shenanigans has me wonderin’, what exactly is goin’ after em all. I mean there’s gotta be some sort of explanation for what in the hay is goin’ around and nabbin’ stuff from other ponies.” Apple Jack questioned aloud.

“Well whatever this thing is it sure is mean!” Pinkie Pie added.

“Yeah, I mean look at what it did to Spitfire. She can’t fly anymore and doctors aren’t sure if she ever will again.” Rainbow Dash compteplated, worried a bit.

“Well, perhaps they just like the shine of crystals, Darling” Rarity said.

“Well if that’s the case, then it doesn’t know what power it could be wielding in it’s...possible hooves.” Twilight said.

“Maybe it’s a dragon? I heard there’s ink dragons! They spit sticky stuff that looks a lot like what Celestia showed us.” Spike seemingly asked, popping up over the top of one of the seats to look at the other ponies on the train.

“I don’t think that’s a possibility, Spike. There was no signs of hoarding and those kinds take anything in their path, no matter how useless. Dragons also eat gems, not crystals. Even then there weren’t signs of the crystals being eaten. It had to have gone after something with meaning if its just crystals.” Twilight thought verbally.

“Can’t we talk about this tomorrow? All this crystal and theft talk has got me sleepy.” Rainbow said, curling up on the comforting seat and closing her eyes.

“Right, we can talk about this in the morning when everypony isn’t so tired.” Twilight replied, gesturing to the girls.

Once the train arrived back to the station in Ponyville, The mane six were all a bit out of it and a couple of them, namely Rainbow and Pinkie, having trouble fully standing.

“Home sweet home.” Twilight yawned, pushing the door to her castle open and sleepily holding the door open for the others to go through. Rainbow Dash went to one of the many guest rooms, the one closest to the middle of the castle with the map, and immediately flopped into the bed. Snoring came out of her not too long after her face met the pillow.

It didn’t take much time for her to be woken up again. Sitting up, her eyes already having adjusted to the dark, she looked around. Getting up, deciding maybe a fine glass of water would help her relax and get back to sleep.

With nothing but the sound of her hoofs clicking against the fine marble floor, she slowly marched over to the kitchen. Her wings were still sore and she couldn’t, more so didn’t want to, fly just yet. Slowly, she turned the faucet and filled a glass with tap water. She pulled the cup away and turned off the tap, tipping it drink to her lips and pushing it up with her hoof as she began drinking it down.

A soft clicking of another two pair of hooves caught her off guard. She paused as her ear twitched, hearing it. She pulled the glass away and swallowed the small amount of water she still had in her mouth. The clicking was heard again, this time she turned her head to where she heard it coming from. Rainbow rubbed her eyes and sat the glass on the counter. She didn’t want to call out to whomever it it was just yet.

She opened her wings, despite the pain of having used them all day for hard work, she decided it would be sneakier to use them in case it was some unwanted guest. She flapped her wings and rose off the ground a small amount, just enough to glide. Rainbow followed the occasional clicking and was led off to the map room. She tipped the door open lightly and saw what was most considerably an unwanted guest.

A small mare covered in a cloak, was chipping away at the map with a chisel. Her soft grunts giving off that she was defiantly a mare. Rainbow’s brow furrowed and she threw the door open.

“Hey! Hooves off!” She cried, racing at the mare. The mystery pony turning and rearing back, kicking Rainbow directly in the chin.

“OW! You little-” She didn’t have time to curse at the pony before noticing her running off. The sound of galloping giving off exactly where she was heading.

“Get back here, you thief!” Rainbow shouted, charging at her, ignoring the pain as she flew directly at her. The shouting of obscenities' woke the rest of the girls up. Some of them out of their rooms, some of them just poking their heads out in time to see a blur of multiple colors racing after a surprisingly fast mare, or maybe the cramps in Rainbow’s wings were slowing her down.

“She’s the crystal thief!” Rainbow called, looking back momentarily at the others before continuing chase. The others looked at each other and followed suite.

The front entrance to the castle slamming open as the mare ran out and off to the side as she threw herself to the bottom of the steps. The cloak now discarded as it came loose around her neck and being left on the ground.

Rainbow flew right behind her as fast as she could possibly go in the moment. Rage written all over her face, her nose wrinkled and her teeth gritted. Her hooves out in front of her to make herself as aerodynamic as possible so she could go just a bit faster.

“Stop running, you coward!” Rainbow shouted. The other five including spike were racing off, unable to keep up. Twilight and Spike took flight, Fluttershy doing so as well to keep a better pace. Perhaps they could corner her. Running into the Everfree forest. Rainbow Dash’s wing cramps were getting to be unbearable, but she was so close. She fled after her, continuing on hoof. She growled a little under her breath, now able to see the mare fully, the cloak no longer there to conceal her. She could see she had what seemed to be dreadlocked ends in her mane and tail, her flank as bare as the soil in the very forest they were running in. Dust kicking up as they continued to run. Rainbow could see the bag that was hanging off the mares back. She eventually slowed to a stop, looking for a path to continue down, reaching a dead end coated in poison joke.

Rainbow took the opportunity to tackle the pony. Knocking the bag off her and spilling the contents. She could see all the missing crystals talked about before.

“So you ARE the crystal thief!” Rainbow shouted, pinning her to the floor. She could see the main of her more clearly, it wasn’t dreadlocks. But, instead it was dripping and goopy. The mare looked her in the eyes and glared, her scowl intensifying as the ground shook, large black arms of goop rose from the ground violently and grabbing Rainbow Dash. She was yanked off and held mid-air. Rainbow struggled to escape but to no avail.

“Rainbow!” Pinkie shouted, worried for her friend as the inky substance squeezed, all Rainbow Dash’s muscles tense up, causing her body to go stiff and her wings to stick out vulnerably. The small mare below her snarled.

“Don’t you come any closer!” She demanded, her voice scratchy but young.

Twilight spread her wings as guards to keep the others behind her. They all feared that Rainbow’s life was possibly going to end right there in front of them.

Rainbow choked and gagged as the tightening black muscle like substance squeezed what it could out of her. Her teary eyes trailed over to her friends, reaching out as a silent gesture for help. She was so restrained that her tendons threatened tearing. Her mouth frozen open as black now somehow seeped from her lips, dripping off her tongue, like the familiar feelings of premature vomiting. It felt like saliva but it was so cold and running to the front of her mouth much like it would if she was struggling to hold her contents in her stomach. Her nostril bled and ran down her face, much like her tears. Her bright sky blue coat began to fade to a dull periwinkle, her hair fading into a dead and dark rainbow of her former self. The tips of her hair turning jet black and fading into the dead colors. The feathers on the tip of her wings holding a similar black fading.

All she could hear was the ringing in her ears as she could only tell the mare that supposedly had a hold of her was speaking by the movement of her jaw. Rainbow glimpsed over at her own flank. The colors drained just as the rest of her body’s did, the pure white cloud turning into that of a stormy black. The drained blue expanding around her cutiemark. The black ran down the rainbow lightening bolt, like someone was squeezing the inky black from it. Her eyes began to roll back as her choking only increased, she was starting to asphyxiate. She could taste the iron of her own blood before she was released, the black dripping its final drops from her mouth as she hit the ground.

“Don’t follow me, or you’ll end up like your dear friend.” The inky pony ordered, before grabbing the bag and the gooped arms engulfed her into the floor and she was gone.

Rainbow only heard the sounds of her worried friends before her vision faded into rest.

[skinnedhearts]

coffee

Tea doesn't drink coffee.

Centuries ago, when Nameless was human and not the twisted, gruesome demon he was today, he'd stand on his tiptoes and peer at his instructor through heavy lidded eyes.

"What's wrong, sweet boy?" Tea asked as he lowered his coffee mug and placed it besides a stack of papers. He palmed his right knee, a thin smile graced his lips as he did so and again, he asked, "Sweet boy, what's wrong?"

Pitter-pattering across the floorboard Anzu's footsteps were soft and delicate. When Anzu reached Tea's side he held his arms out and waited. He wasn't kept waiting. Immediately, Tea scooped the small child off the ground and plopped him down on his leg.

Through the corners of his round eyes Anzu glared at the murky liquid inside the unusual mug. Unusual only because Anzu didn't recognize the unfamiliar utensil. At the top of Tea's great, oak desk sat rows of books, papers, feathery pens, glass jars filled with the blackest of inks, sealed letters, empty envelopes, molded candle-wax and a pretty, silver tea cup placed neatly upon a saucer. Many times before Anzu had sat on Tea's lap and studied the rose bush sprinkled across the cup's face. It’s misty green leaves hugged the outer ring of ruby red roses as peculiar golden buds hanged low, much too close to the ground where a pile of petals covered the bottom of the cup. If he squinted Anzu could see his own reflection in the clear, hot water inside the cup. If he squinted Anzu could see a boy squinting back at him. He's stick his tongue out and the boy would too. It was on Thursday morning that Anzu noticed a button-eyed bird hidden within the rose bush, it's sharp, tiny beak buried deep in a sea of red. Tapping his pinkie on the bird's blue head, Anzu blinked and the bird blinked back. Maybe the bird had known it would be replaced the next day. Maybe his sudden blink had been a silent farewell. The silver tea cup was gone and in it's place sat a red, ugly mug.

"That's not tea…" Anzu said, hiding his boyish face in Tea's long strands of hair.

"It's not." Tea confirmed.

Cautiously, Anzu spared the pitch black substance inside the red, ugly mug a glance, and then, with all the carefulness in the world, he asked, "W-what is it?"

"Coffee." Tea also spared the pitch black substance inside the red, ugly mug a glance, "Would you like a taste?"

Squirming, Anzu rapidly shook his head before he suddenly paused and turned to face the older man, "Is it good?"

"Well…" Tea started, "It's quite bitter. Cream and sugar are often used to soften the drink. I prefer mine in it's natural state."

"Do you like it?"

"No. Not at all."

"Then…" Anzu's wide, curious eyes twinkled, "Why do you drink it?"

Tea hummed, a kind smile only a foolish child could summon graced his lips, "It makes me feel human." 

-

Tea doesn't drink coffee.

Through the years, Nameless could rarely recall the number of times Tea held a coffee mug between his palms. It's a single digit number, Nameless would stake his life on it. Tea had once said he only drank coffee when he needed to feel human. As a child, the puzzling reply had made no sense to Nameless, after all, acting and living like a human came as easy to him as breathing. As to why his teacher craved to be more human than he already was, Nameless would never understand, or so he thought.

Tendrils of smoke snaked through his torso, coming at an end near the point of his ears. Nameless sat with his nose buried in a sea of grey, blank eyes glassy and distant. After Micah had departed, Nameless had sunk to his knees and collected the mess of colorless flowers gathered near the doorstep. The bloody flowers were stained red from where Micah had harshly uprooted them from his skin. If he focused, truly focused, the dying petals smelled like him…They smelled like Micah.

"What did you say to him?" Tea's tired voice filled the living room. Across from Nameless, Tea idly waited, silky long hair pinned to the top of his head in a messy bun. A steaming cup of coffee pressed to his lips, he tentatively took a sip and lowered the mug.

"Nothin' you didn't already know." Nameless hissed, opening his eyes to glare at Tea for disturbing his muddled thought process.

"You've upset him and-" Tea began only to be interrupted by an obnoxiously loud snort.

Nameless' is the drawing a scared five year old makes; frantic crayon squiggles in the shade of coal, red orbs for eyes, misshapen horns which kiss the top of the paper. He snapped his jaw and his mask split in two. Rows of sharp teeth glistened in the light as his mouth peeled into a dangerous grin. Dreadlocks whipped around his body, the golden rings clashed against one another creating a harmony of chirps. Long, slender waves of smoke uncurled from his body and soaked into the floor, when Nameless moved forward, the ground whrilpooled around his feet.

"That's all I'm good for. All I do is fuckin' upset him. That's all I'm good for!" He snarled, the throaty growl rumbled in the depth of his throat, "Ain't that what everyone wanted to see!? Ain't this what you signed up for pops?"

Composed, he lowered his mug onto the table and he flattened the ends of his cloak beneath his fingers, he thumbed the delicate fabric, smiling at nothing in particular, "Stupid boy. You have no one to blame but yourself." 

Though Nameless' aura erupted in gusts of toxic fumes, Tea remained calm, "Pushing an engaged man away is the correct thing to do, however, you're the one who picked his poison. Quite the poison you picked too. Won't you tell me what you used to kill him?"

Howling, Nameless viciously sunk his talons into the table resting between himself and Tea. The piece of furniture soared through the air, crumbling into pieces when it crashed against the kitchen's counter. Sharp, six feet long, spikes tore through Nameless' shirt, one by one, the spikes lined the bumps of his spine. Through the haze of white and black clouds and violent lines of smokes trailing from Nameless' deformed body, it was difficult to pinpoint which limb was an arm and which limb was a leg. Like a jagged tree and it's crooked branches, Nameless was a gigantic, looming form in the middle of the living room. He stood completely still. Furious, burning red eyes narrowed and a bitter, creak of a voice dripping with sarcasm snaked forward…"What should I have done differently father?"

Tea's gaze didn't quiver. Eyes locked on Nameless' ghastly shape, the wicked creature cracked it's many, many bones and advanced forward. The head of a goat, the torso of a boar, the legs of a stag…The head of a pig, the torso of a serpent, the legs of a lion…The head of a wolf- Tea lost count of the many, many forms Nameless settled on. An ordinary Witch would be frightened by the horrifying gargles of bones snapping and reforming. An ordinary Witch would shield his eyes and bow his head in a silent, merciful plea. Balls of blood dribbled onto Tea's cloak, staining the frills in a dark red, much too dark to be human. The stench of rotten flesh filled his nose. Languid strings of gore hanged from the salivating maw of the repugnant animal above his head. Tea clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth in mild annoyance, "What a mess," He said rather sadly, "You've ruined my cloak."

Sighing, Tea took a few moments to mourn the soiled piece of clothing. There would be no saving it…The acidic globs of blood burned straight through the fabric, it sizzled between his feet. Lifting his left hand, Tea sunk his fingers into the tangled fur besides his cheek. Nameless barked. Tea hushed him. The enormous body of smoke, fur, and blood settled behind Tea and as it moved, Tea caught sight of numerous faces; burn victims, stained in red, gaping wide eye sockets, toothless holes, mangled beyond a recognizable form.Tea reached for his coffee, only to come back empty handed. His mug had shattered the moment Nameless had decided to take his anger out on the furniture. Very well…Tea folded his hands on his lap, "Are you done stupid boy of mine? Are we nearly finished?" 

From somewhere in the room Nameless gnawed and shut his jaw. He spoke in tongues, screeched, cursed, cursed, cursed. Tea attentively listened. He was nearly done. A couple of holes in the wall and a broken chair later, Nameless rested his head on Tea's lap. The head of a monster, all sharp teeth, multiple distorted eyes and pupils followed by the scent of death. Still, Tea scratched the patch of fur between two jagged ears…At least, Tea assumed it was fur but the texture felt odd. Too coarse and jumbled to be fur, too thick and slimy to be hair. Before his eyes, Tea watched as Nameless slowly reverted into his preferred form…Human, or what appeared to be a boy in his early twenties. Covered in deep, bloody cuts, Nameless laid naked and vulnerable. The wounds wept and internally,  Tea wept too.

For several prolonged minutes, father and son were absorbed in absolute silence. It's Nameless' exhausted voice that pierced through the air, "I know he's hurtin' himself. He was doin' it before he left, kept diggin' out his flowers and-" 

Nameless choked on a mouthful of words, brow wrinkling in distress when his tongue worked against him.

Heart full of love, Tea smoothed the worried lines around Nameless' mouth with the ends of his thumbs, "Take your time."

Nameless buried his face in Tea's lap, unbothered by the blood stained clothing stuck to his cheek. He closed his eyes and exhaled, "He's stubborn. I couldn't give him anythin' to cling onto. He would've held on tight, I know him, he would've."

Tea's fingers traced the outline of a gushing cut placed between Nameless' collar bone and his left arm. The injury hissed, bubbling black when a spark of magic danced through out Tea's outstretched hand. Despite it's protests, the wound closed, leaving behind a faint, discolored scar. Nameless' skin is covered in scars…Tea's chest ached.

"What did you say to him?" Tea asked, fully prepared for another meltdown. He'd endure his child's countless tantrums and once he was done breaking his surroundings apart, Tea would ask again, What did you say to him?

Nameless tensed and Tea held his breath.

"I told him the truth."

"Ah." It all clicked into place. Nameless didn't need to elaborate. Tea could perfectly picture it, "An outdated truth."

"It doesn't matter."

"I suppose it doesn't. What's done is done."

While Nameless snoozed on his lap, Tea took the opportunity to heal and force close the many bloody slits scattered throughout Nameless' body. Each cut would rebel against Tea's white magic, each cut would hiss and spit streams of unpleasant fluids before it disappeared under Tea's palm. If Nameless was in any sort of pain he didn't dare show it, he only clawed and nestled deeper into the comforting scent of his father figure. Tea couldn't help but smile. The demonic creature was reduced to nothing but a common, fat house cat.

Voice sleepy and muffled, Nameless spoke, "He'll be alright…"

Tea stroked Nameless' cheek, "Eventually. He'll need time to heal, as you will too."

A chuckle is lost within the depths of his mouth, "His fiance will take care of it. I'm too fucked up to be anywhere near him…"

Tea's expression remained calm. He couldn't tell Nameless that the engagement had been called off. He couldn't tell him of the horrid state both Neirin and Micah found themselves in. As far as Tea was concerned it wasn't Nameless' burden to bare. Not anymore. 

Tea hummed.

"I'll take care of you sweet boy." Cupping Nameless' face into his hands, Tea smiled tenderly as Nameless blinked his tired eyes up at him, "How about we start with a cup of coffee?"