#I just wanted to give him a moth cape :3

[moxielynx]

c!skeppy stronger than me cause how could I possibly argue with this guy

[jalapainio]

As I've been reading Comics, I've slowly been assembling a Batman readthrough Timeline, which encompasses the full scale of Batman. I made a post before of years 1-10, but now I have years 1-17 (Sorting them based on eras rather than by dates). Each also includes a canonized Trade Paperback list, for anyone who wants to read this timeline!

(Also this is going to be a long one)

Years 1-10

These years will mostly encompas reprints and post-crisis retells of the Golden and Silver Ages.

Batman Year 1: 22 year old Bruce (first of many soft head cannons) becomes Batman. Many early villains of Batman pop up, including Joker, Catwoman, Mad Hatter, Riddler, and Calendar Man. Canonized Comics include Batman: Year One and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Batman Year 2: This year is dedicated entirely to the Long Halloween, which also introduced Poison Ivy, Solomon Grundy, and most famously, Two-Face. Canonized Comics include Batman: The Long Halloween.

Batman Year 3: Much like Year 2, Year 3 is dedicated to its sequel, Dark Victory. In it, a new serial killer known as the Hangman has started killing cops in Gotham. This year sees the end of the classic Mafia in Gotham, and ten year old Dick Grayson being taken in by Bruce Wayne. While he does put on the Robin colors and even goes out with Batman, he is not Robin just yet. Canonized Comics include Batman: Dark Victory.

Batman Year 4: This year gives the main focus towards training Dick. We can also assume that the Justice League, or at least a version of it, has been formed during this year. In addition, Killer Croc is introduced. Also, Batman, Superman, and Wonderwoman meet. Canonized Comics include Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman: Trinity

Batman Year 5: The beginning of year five starts with a bang, with Darkside invading earth. The Original Justice League is formed. I used the basis of the New 52 Justice League 1: Origin as a starting point, and until I can find a better comic, that is the ‘origin’ of the Justice League. While most of the year is like the one above, a calm year for Batman, at the end of year, 12 year old Dick wears the Robin suit for the technically second time. He is the one who makes his suit, angry at Bruce for forcing him through constant training as a stall to prevent Dick from going out. Canonized Comics include Justice League 1: Origin and Robin and Batman.

Batman Year 6: Dick goes through his next big villain during the spring of this year, facing off against Two-Face. After a brief moment when he is fired as Robin, he returns to the Cape, this time with a new perspective on his role. Canonized Comics include Robin Year One.

Batman Year 7: Dick, while working with Batman, notices Bruce's strange behavior. Collaborating with his other teen heroes he met in Year 5, he figures out that the entire Justice League is acting weird! Together, the five (Robin, Speedy, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Wondergirl) team up and work together to take down the Justice League! They called themselves the Teen Titans. Later, Barbara Gordon, 16 years old and an accelerated graduate of College (she has to be not on a normal track, or else her entire relationship with Dick would just be so weird) puts on a bat themed costume to spite her father, and ends up going against Killer Moth. Batgirl, as she's newly christrained, is supported by Robin (but not Batman) to become a superhero. Firefly takes up the costume with Killer Moth, and Batgirl takes them down. Canonized Comics include Teen Titans: Year One and Batgirl: Year One

Batman Year 8: Batman and Superman work together to defeat the Devil Nazha, which ends up with Dick being stuck in time. Bruce rescues him. Also, sometime this year something went down between Dick and Supergirl, but I cannot for the life of me figure it out. Canonized Comics include Batman/Superman World's Finest: Devil Nazha

Batman Year 9: Batman and Superman deal with a new superhero from another dimension and travel around the world to “have their strangest adventures yet.” Idk what that means, but I do know they fit on the Timeline right here. Canonized Comics include, Batman/Superman World's Finest: Strange Visitor and Batman/Superman World's Finest: Elementary.

Batman Year 10: 17 year old Dick and the rest of the Teen Titans fight off a rabid cult of fans! Again, I haven't read it, but I want to. Canonized Comics include World's Finest Teen Titans.

Alright, you still with me? Good. Here is years 11-17. These years mostly encompass the 80s and 90s Batman and the first three robins.

Batman Year 11: The New Teen Titans are formed! While I'm not including the titans book, the New Teen Titans, as it is pre-crisis, many of the events still happen. Mainly, Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg join the team. Canonized Comics include N/A

Batman Year 12: Bruce gets concerned that Dick is spending too much time torn between several different responsibilities, between College, the Teen Titans, and helping Batman as Robin. In a fit of anger, and oh boy how I hate that phrase and how it perfectly describes what happened here, he fires Dick as Robin. Dick goes on to become Nightwing, and 12-Years-Old Jason Todd is taken in as the New Robin. Canonized Comics include Nightwing: Year One

Batman Year 13: Unlike Dick, Jason gets thrust into his role as Robin. He learns of his father's true fate; that he was killed by Two-Face. Going out of his way he almost kills Two-Face, but decides not to. Canonized Comics include N/A (I tried so hard, but I could not find the comics referenced in Death in the Family. Oh well!)

Batman Year 14: Jason and Bruce fight off a cult led by the mad Dean Blackfire. Bruce gets brainwashed, reminds himself why he fights, and then destroys the totem that controlled the cult. Barbara Gordon also retires from Batgirl this year. Canonized comics include Batman: The Cult

Batman Year 15: Barbara Gordon is shot by the Joker, and becomes paralyzed for life. In addition Jason finds out that his mother is still alive, and goes off to find her. This ends with him being beaten to death with a crowbar by the Joker. Bruce goes into a fit of grief, putting himself into more and more danger, until 6 months later, 13-Year-Old Tim Drake takes up the mantle. Canonized Comics include Batman: The Killing Joke, Batman: Death in the Family and Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying (Sometimes these stories are sold together, sometimes separately).

Batman Year 16: Oh boy. Here's the first hearty year. Firstly, Tim goes to train with Shiva for a couple of months. While this happens, Superman dies. Tim returns home. Bruce meets Azrael, and they fight before Azreal joins Batman’s crusade. As Bruce and Tim start to figure out their relationship, Bane comes into the city, breaks every criminal out of Arkham, and breaks Bruce's Back. Bruce leaves to go on a trip to rediscover himself, and Azrael becomes the next Batman, kicking Robin out of the Batcave and becoming more and more ruthless. Tim goes off and meets Spoiler, his girlfriend, and defeats the Cluemaster. Bruce begins to Travel all around the world, learning how to cure his back. Canonized Comics include Robin: Reborn, Batman: Sword of Azrael, Batman: Knightfall, Robin: Solo and Batman: Knightquest

Batman Year 17: He returns after doing so, defeating Azrael and establishing himself as Top Dog once more. He takes a quick break, letting Dick Grayson take a quick stint as Batman, before returning to the role of Nightwing and moving to Bludhaven. Also important to note, though no comics here reference it, the Birds of Prey begin here. Soon after this, however, a virus spreads throughout Gotham, causing the entire city to go on Lockdown. They defeat the one who caused the virus, and another crossover ends. During this year (Not Sure exactly when), Batman’s failsafe gets released, and Batman is voted out of the Justice League. Canonized Comics include Batman: KnightsEnd, Batman: Prodigal, Robin Turning Point, Batman: Contagion and JLA: Tower of Babel

I’ll be making a few more Batman Timelines after this, adding on Years 18 and 19 (No Man’s Land and War Games), Years 20 and 21 (Damian, Jason, and Bruce’s Death), Years 22 and 23 (Return of Bruce Wayne and New 52), and Year 24 (Rebirth). But each of these are hearty as I try and narrow down the top 15 comics to include for each.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Your butterfly Howdy- so so so obsessed!! please tell me you thoughts I love him!! The thought of him simply falling from his chrysalis in a big sopping mess is so real™ , true butterfly moment

i would be Delighted to Talk. i always am. i have many thoughts always about everything. especially This. gonna add a cut so there's not a wall of text on my blog

okay so 1) i don't think he'd give any warning that he's gonna turn into a chrysalis. probably because he wouldn't realize it's happening bc like... those good ol caterpillar instincts took over <3 also it probably made him very very eepy

in his perspective, he took a nap and woke up spontaneously Different. everybody else had to deal with a solid few weeks of him being a chrysalis. and it's not like he was resting inside it - there is soooo much going on in metamorphosis, caterpillars/butterflies Do Not Rest At All

so when he emerges from the chrysalis (as a pathetic wet rag of a man <3) he's just... so out of it. his memory is a little fucky for a bit, he's weak, & he's exhausted to the point where the only time he's awake is to eat (gotta get that energy back!). that's it. he's dead asleep, wakes up, demolishes an entire bowl of fruit, and passes back out. can't even speak coherently.

he slowly gains lucidity until he's functional. he has a small period of time where he's kind of delirious/loopy from an overdose on Sleep, and it's hell on earth for everyone to deal with. i like to think that his main Watchers during this time are Poppy and Barnaby, both bc they're both big enough to wrangle him and bc of obvious reasons. (Poppy is a worrier and Barnaby is in love with Howdy)

when Howdy's loopyness wears off, he's still very tired and a bit spacey, but hey! he reopens the bodega! not that he needs to, since everyone was getting stuff from it anyway. he has a lot of IOU's in the never-used cash register <3 and lots of sweet notes. everyone missed him <3

so for a while when he's functional-but-Exhausted, he's a bit of a grouch. he simply does not have the energy to deal with Shenanigans and Excitement. if anyone walks into the bodega he's basically like "get your shit and get out, thank you, bye". he still sometimes nods off at the counter. eepy eepy bug.

and i don't think he'd really like his new appearance at first? i get the vibes that he Didn't want to pupate OH MY GOD THAT'S THE WORD! I'VE BEEN USING CHRYSALIZE WHICH ISNT EVEN A WORD BC I FORGOT 'PUPATE'. FUCK!, so he was subconsciously putting it off and was able to live for such a long time as a caterpillar.

but oopsie! he lost the battle of biological will! now he's got So Much Fluff and wings and claws and longer antennae and like... he's blue now. that would probably be at least a little unsettling, especially since he didn't realize it was going to happen. also he has to tailor all of his clothes to fit the wings and the Fluff.

plus, i imagine butterfly/moth wings are a Bitch to deal with. they don't fold like bird or bat wings, and they're kinda delicate - though due to Howdy's size, i'm sure they're more durable than a normal butterfly's - so i bet they are Constantly In The Way. (Barnaby probably makes a joke about how "Eddie's supposed to be the clumsy one" after Howdy knocks over a display with his wings for the umpteenth time. cue Barnaby getting kicked out of the store)

it takes a while for Howdy to get them under Control. they'd probably give away ever emotion he has. angry/frustrated? fluttering like crazy. thinking happy/fluffy thoughts or daydreaming? slow opening-closing. sad/pensive? droopy wing cape. stressed/high-strung? closed tight like a book. etc.

(similarly, his antennae are Very expressive! this is not something he can control unless he focuses extra hard. within a week Frank has memorized what each curl and twitch means)

but once Howdy has reconciled with his new appearance & has wrangled his wings, He Is So Fruity And Even More Eccentric. he fell outta that chrysalis and went "im gay now! 🧚‍♂️💅" kidding Kidding. kind of.

idk why, just... i feel like he gets a confidence boost. he realizes hes a Pretty Boy™️. he's like "this is what it must feel like for Eddie when he does drag". he's got that extra fruity Flair yk yk.

and sure, flowers are a little more distracting to Howdy than they used to be, prefers fruit over greenery, and he can't resist taking a short break every day to sun his wings, but other than that things are mostly normal. he's just extra pretty now.

[brella-boi]

2. Medic

When they arrived at the Sanctuary Islands, he learned this is where they lived. In a small home carved out of the large center mountain close by the sea. Just the two of them, siblings, yet oh so different from each other. 

There he learned Tai was a local Prairie medic, looking after young moths and older skykids alike with illnesses and injuries. Sprains being the most common, or so he said.

Tai looked after him too, though his eyes looked uncertain, as opposed to the focus he provided his other patients. It unnerved him, to see the self proclaimed healer apparently struggle with his broken arm.

Mint on the other hand, was the house cook, and an apprentice to Samantha and Skidmore as a mage. Brewing potions and learning spells of all kinds, including ones to help with healing- as much as they could, anyway.

The siblings worked well together, and Mint’s cooking never seemed to get old. He grew close to that one. With their kindness and warmth, he couldn’t refuse them walks around the island. It was refreshing scenery compared to where he came from.

Days passed at the islands, and the medic only grew more concerned and lethargic. He was out of the home more often, and sleeping less. Eventually Tai sat him down to chat, a grim expression in his eyes. A bowl of soup for them both. He dragged a chair over to sit closeby, yet only just a few spoons into his meal Tai stopped himself with a sigh.

“I consulted every source I know. Friends, spirits, elders. Everyone. To find a way to heal your arm.” He paused to look at the broken limb with pain in his eyes. For days he watched as the skin got darker, as the veins spread further. Even his eye was infected from a hit. It just continued to spread. And if he was stuck weeks in Eden, with the arm not healing an inch from the injury, he was afraid it was too late.

“Your flame is too weak, and no medicine is improving your health.” Tai continued, a grim look crossing him as his eyes shifted to the side. “With the darkness spreading so rapidly, the best option is to get rid of it from the source.”

This hit the Ox bearer a little too hard, and he spilled a few drops of the soup against himself. Get rid of it? In what way? Did Tai want to do something drastic, something he wasn’t sure he hadn’t enough trust in the medic for? No, surely not. Surely he wasn’t suggesting-

“What? Ya want to amputate it?” The shock and disbelief of the situation made his mouth move for him. 

The medic only fumbled around with his hands. Twisting and entwining his fingers together as he thought of a response. The pause in a reply, however, made the other dread the answer was a yes. Finally, he spoke, hands waving in frustration. “I don’t WANT to. But it’ll only get worse. You spent too long with the injury and krill.”

The proposition made it hard to swallow the warm soup stuck in his throat. It was true, he was there too long. He was there so long he lost all wings, all light, and hung by a thread. The decision was too heavy on his conscience to even begin to accept.

“I’ll never fly again…” He mouthed, mostly to himself and he fumbled to keep the bowl from slipping from his hand. Without both arms to use his cape, he wouldn’t be able to fly. Float at most, maybe, but not fly. 

Tai grimaced. “It’s a consequence.” He looked defeated. Bested by an injury he wasn’t able to heal. “It’s your choice. You can let the darkness spread and kill you, or we…” He motioned with his hands to mimic scissors. 

They sat in silence, neither able to look at each other, until Tai stood and patted his shoulder. “Think about it. I’ll give you a day and you can give me an answer once you’re ready, Chili.”

He left. Neither finished their soup.

======

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

[scolopendress-tag]

Have some Asra n Muriel disorganized headcanons: animal themed!

Asra's most likely to answer quetzal if you ask for his favourite bird (he had a close up encounter with one his first time in nopal and had never seen a bird like it so it's a special memory), but he also appreciates all others. He also loves dart frogs and his favorite reptile would of course be perfect lavender angel baby fictional fantasy pythons. I'd also see him loving dragonflies as well.

He will see literally any animal generally and always say "they're one of my favourites!", though. It doesn't matter how many times he's said it that day or how many animals he's said it about. It's almost without fail he'll point one out and say it's a favourite.

One of his favorite animals is always the one in front of him Right Now, as a quick reference.

Plus, he loves to point animals out on travels or when out and about Vesuvia, so get used to hearing it!

He may attempt to catch critters occasionally too, or just pick them up, these will be mostly bugs usually. He just likes to cup moths in his hand on occasion and the watch them flutter out and I think he should be allowed to! Or just cradle bugs in his palm and watch them walk around for a bit. If it's a reptile or amphibian somewhere it could get stepped on or dried out or eaten he will still scoop them up and carry them to the brush.

[Cont. after cut]

Nothing he ever handles seems to get too upset or stressed, even when it's an animal that otherwise would. They just seem to be more relaxed if it's Asra who's touching them. Sometimes reptiles just come up to him (or even crawl onto his hand, as a few lizards have,) curiously enough. Though they may still refuse to be touched even then, they're notably not bothered by his presence when for others they'd run away. It's not something Asra's ever noticed to be odd, nor would it be overly noticeable to most people, but it's definitely something you can recognize if you pay attention.

Asra would also love to run on the beach sometimes, namely as a kid, maybe making himself invisible or otherwise undetectable until he's right up on a big flock of seagulls before giving them a hearty boo! And watching them all fly away all giggly. As an adult he may still stir up flocks for fun sometimes, or just to see how pretty it is to watch them all fly at once.

In general he just loves watching birds or bugs or whatever be it fly, always so effortlessly. Maybe he wishes he could fly himself. It certainly would make things easier he would come to think time to time growing up in Vesuvia.

Plus, he likes to collect the feathers that flutter down. Back when he sold masks, they were something he incorporated into them often. Then, too, he would also sit by the river after wearing himself out practicing hydromancy or what not, and a few times dragonflies would perch on him. He'd always gasp n grin all big and goofy when they did.

Muriel doesn't pick favorites really when it comes to animals (barring wolves and bears), but he does mirror Asra's 'one of my favourites' statements by saying "they're one of Asra's favorites," Occasionally.

While Asra's animal encounters or observations are typically brief, Muriel is more than content to just watch animals long periods of time. He can spot or at least know where to find some seriously elusive ones. The only one such animal Asra seems to have luck like that with seems to be foxes.

If you want to see an animal, local to the area around Vesuvia namely, Muriel can probably help you with that, granted he trusts you. This includes dens, hives, and nesting sites of course, things he will stop by occasionally in his forest to check on. His luck/skill in finding these things can't seem to be mimicked by even the most skilled animal trackers, you'd think they were practically just showing themselves to only him.

Muriel is also content to let animals do their thing and not interact with them much. Birds, butterflies and similar may land on him occasionally and he's always enchanted by it though, and will make no move to prevent an animal being on or touching him. Similar to Asra, he will also remove any animals in bad spots and put them somewhere better. He's a bit more effective at this though, as he tends to be looking down anyways, while Asra has probably smooshed a few pillbugs and snails before while doing his own thing- eyes elsewhere.

If Muriel did ever nerf a bug accidentally he would probably feel pretty damn bad, and if it wasn't reduced to a mere smear he would return its poor bug corpse to nature so that it might reclaim it. He'd get over it quick though if he was in a good mood prior, just give him a moment. If he was upset over something else already and he killed one, I could see it even pushing him to tears or rather making it worse if he was already at that point.

Asra would probably be like 'awh.... :( oof, I'm sorry lil guy...' and sweep it into nature if he could, but otherwise he would not be impacted too much.

Asra would purposely kill bugs on a few occasions even, pest bugs namely - like flies or mosquitoes or, of course, plague beetles. He may even instinctively lash out and flatten a bug that simply resembles a plague beetle enough, particularly if something had his anxiety or panic (ptsd trigger from the plague??) going. Otherwise plague beetle resembling beetles he'd be a little unsettled by, or uncomfortable to be around, but not enough to necessarily kill. He'd either move it somewhere else, try to scare it off, or move away from it. Muriel doesn't have many hang ups on plague beetle resembling bugs, though he would probably kill the real deal readily.

Any dead animals not in a wild area (like left in the city or on a road,) Muriel would move as long as it wasn't yknow. Too nasty. Birds that hit windows, starved or sickly scavengers, anything that dropped in a heatwave or was claimed by a flood, things like that, recent deaths. It pains him to see at all, but pains him more to leave them just.... There. Some he may bury, others he may leave out in places where there's animals he know will take it for food.

Injured or sick animals Muriel would try to help best he could, and he's successfully done it a few times. If it's blistering hot he'd also likely leave water out here and there for the animals of the forest, and he may enlist Asra's help with this to replenish water in natural water basins as well in droughts.

Muriel can handle animal death okay, hunting and fishing is a thing he does to some degree, it's just the preventable or senseless ones that hurt, it's worth saying here. It's just sad. He'll be okay after though, unless there's something more nefarious and upsetting at play.

Asra helping unwell/hurt animals would mostly consist of magic healing, but beyond that he wouldn't know what to really do besides bring it to Muriel or any animal experts near him. He doesn't come across these situations too often thankfully, though. Domestic animals he would take in more readily, and would let crash at the shop for a while if he can. If it's a livestock animal he'll ask if Muriel wants to take it in, or even in the case of an ownerless pet animal. If not, he can ask around. See if anyone wants a new dog or cat or... Goat. I just imagine those are the kinds of animals he's most likely to find in need, being in the center of Vesuvia.

Moving on from that....

Animal knowledge!

Asra likely doesn't know a ton about animals outside of ones that feature prominently in magic and myth, he's just good at identifying them and overall tends to appreciate their presence. Identifying animals can make for good pass times on long travels, or if he just sees something particularly neat he may simply want to know what to call it. He also probably learned most the common local Vesuvian species names growing up, probably through reading, though the bulk of his knowledge of the nature he grew up around is probably botanical- foraging can be dangerous! Plus, magic knowledge probably leans more heavily on plants than animals as well.

If Asra can't identify an animal, though, he will simply make up a name for it on the spot. If he finds out it's ID later he will still refer to it as his made up name followed by AKA/sometimes called/locally known as [real name]. He also tends to refer to tons of animals as the infamous, famous, legendary, revered, etc. Regardless of relevance, commonality or obscurity. He just thinks they all deserve such titles, and when has a little flair ever hurt?

"Ah, MC, look! It's an Abramesmerwhymsical Zadithi midnight-billed stilt-wader! Though it's sometimes also known as the famous crab-plover," Kinda shit. He enjoys it.

Muriel doesn't actually know the actual names of a ton of animals species. He knows of a few though, not to mention the Asra-given names that stuck with him. Despite not knowing their names sometimes still, he can tell most all species apart readily, and juveniles from adults, males from females, things like that. He watches animals of the forest regularly and is in tune with the local species life cycles, breeding or rearing seasons, migratory patterns, unique behaviors and everything else. Though his knowledge is probably limited to Vesuvian species, he's able to quickly pick up on other animal's traits and such when outside of Vesuvian territory, and is generally good with animals as is.

He knows what doves/pigeons and owls and vipers and mice and geckos etc are. He may not know that a specific species of such is called like, namaqua doves, omani owls, ocellated mountain vipers, cario spiny mouse, kotschy's middle-toed geckos n shit. It's not like he has NO idea, species names are weird and can be long winded so....

...He just doesn't know that dunnocks aren't actually called stripple-caped tseepers.

But he doesn't need to. <3

If he does learn the real names for them though, he is quite glad and will use the name readily. If you're looking at a Muriel who's in the city more, he will probably read up on this information himself, but otherwise he would of course treasure it if MC told him.

The only reasons he doesn't even know the names to begin with is mostly because the names you'll hear out and about most commonly only cover a fraction of species to start, and everything else youre mostly going to have to study via reading or classes. Neither of those seem to be things a young homeless Muriel would care to pursue lmao.

Annnnd

I forgot what else I was going to add and lost track so, I'll maybe add more later. I'll probably also amend this as I may find I don't agree with my own statements the next day and also I don't proofread so. I hope u enjoyed these feel free to add on or add differing opinions!

[theyanderespecialist]

Stripper Dear 3 (Mini Series) Valentino X Marie OC X Stolas

[Back with another part of stripper dear and this one will now have stolas in it for reasons we hope you all enjoy this chapter!] [This Has Turned More Into A Mini series Now so.) 

(Marie pov)

I managed to get out from Vals arms as I wince. My body was in so much pain, and I could see some of the bruises. I wouldn't mind if it was because we agreed to rough sex, but he never did say it would be that rough and it was because he got angry. I stepped into the shower washing myself and washing everything I could out of me just for comfort and cleanliness sake before walking out. The entire time I questioned my decision on moving in, on even working for that overgrown moth. I walked into the club to grab my purse when I see a familiar face looking around as I walk over.

"Hey Stolas." I said as he turned around perking up. "Oh there you are, I was looking for you, say, look at this." He said pulling out his phone as I smiled.

Every time he came here he'd show me and anyone else who'd look pictures of him and his daughter, although most of the time she was on her phone, or looked like it was a chore, you could tell she was smiling slightly.

"Oh that's very cute Stolas, did she get a new Hair cut?"

"Yes she di--" he stopped as I looked confused as I noticed his eyes were on my shoulder as my jacket was slipping off my arm showing the bruises as I quickly grab the sleeve and pull it up.

"Don't worry Stolas it's nothing." I said, not wanting him to ask questions

"It is clearly something." he says and takes my hand and looks at the bruise. "These are not love bites." He notes. "These are from someone using far to much force on you."

I tried to pull back a bit when he tried to look as he stopped.

"What happened?"

"..."

"..I'd like to rent a room for the day." He said suddenly.

"Your money man." The bartender said as he took me dragging me to the Vip rooms.

"We will sit here for as long as it takes." I stayed quiet for five minutes before realizing he was serious.

"Just... Val ...convinced me to have sex.. at first I did it b-because I didn't want to lose my job, then he was nice and kind but the second time.. he grabbed me in anger so hard it felt l-like he'd break a bone.."

He took my hands in his. "I am sorry my dear. That should have never happen. You deserve someone who would never hurt especially out of anger." He speaks softly

I looked down as I tried not to cry as he placed a hand on me as I grabbed him, holding him close. He always was a loyal and kind customer.

"What happened to make him so angry?"

".....I-It..I-I.."

"it's okay you don't have to--"

"I-I thought of you...and said it aloud without knowing.."

He blushed at that but smiled. "It is okay to think of someone else. May you tell me what you were thinking?" He asks and I blush darkly.

I shook my head, unable to even speak. There's no way. I'm not saying what I thought. "Oh come on do share."

"...I-I just.. felt you'd be ..better you're much kinder... a-and you wouldn't hold my job over my head.."

He smiled and cupped my cheeks then leaning down and kissing me. I blushed darkly as I let out a soft moan into the kiss as I wanted to kiss back but I was worried..then again he was so soft with it, stroking my face. It was so soft and loving in comparison to Val when he first kissed me.

I quickly wrap my arms around him kissing him back

He laid back with me on top of him and he smiles up at me. "Take as much as control as you need my love." He says and that sent excitement into me.

I looked at him shocked and excited as I bit my lip. "You mean it?" I asked as he looked at me.

(Well he may be a power bottom but he's still a bottom XD

(XD Yup)

"I mean it with all my heart." He tells me and I straddle his chest and then lean down to his neck biting and sucking gently. I felt so empowered.

It was nice..I never had any control., I didn't choose who I stripped for, the clothes I wore, I didn't really even get a choice to move in with Val, and here he is giving me control. I hear him let out soft sighs (I can't imagine feathers are something fun to suck on, but she don't care XD) I smile at him as my nails lightly run down his chest.

(we know Marie gonna tease this poor bird XD)

I then get off of him. "Get up and strip for me~" I order no one ever strip for me.

(XD and get a show out of it XD)

He looked at me shocked as i briefly worried he wasn't into it as I went to say he didn't have to before seeing his shock turn to one of happiness as sat me down as I felt happy once more as I watch him slowly stripping his clothes as I watch blushing but still sat tall as I lick my lip.

He smirked and rolled his hips to the music and soon her was stripped and I was in awe. I watch him as he slowly leans down to me and starts giving me a lap dance.

I blush but smirk at him. Sure it was a little awkward due to the..pretty massive height difference, but it didn't change anything, maybe actually make me feel more in control, as I grab him as he blushed but also smirked. I then pin him down and straddle his naked body and grind myself on him teasingly.

He let out a goran as I smirked at him. "Do you want to put it in~?" I asked smirking at him as he groaned nodding. "I don't know..I ran out of my birth control.. I didn't have to worry with Val, he can't have kids, but you, well you can~" I tease rubbing him between my lips. (Oh poor stolas)

"Please mistress~!" He begs arching into me before pulling back

I smirk leaning down and kissing his beak. "And why should I~? Convince me~" I said as I stroked his face. I was enjoying this power, but I didn't want to be mean, of course I'd let him put it in, he does want to.

He starts to kiss down my body than lifted me to be on his face and began to eat me out like a good sub. I moaned loudly as it obviously was full of need, but it was also so loving with him stroking my thighs as I let out a moan.

"G-Good boy~ y-You make me cum and you c-can put it in and take control~" I moan.

He lap even more focusing on my clit and I knew I would not last long

I grip his feathers as I tense suddenly as I came as I moaned, rubbing myself into his face to ride it out.

(he's talented with his mouth XD)

(XD Yes he is XD)

I get off of him and he smiles. "My turn~" He says and then spread my legs wide and Lined himself up with oh my he was even bigger than Val.

I felt a little afraid but we did make a deal, and he was so sweet to let me take control, so I had no issue with this. I give him a small nervous smile as he looked at me.

"oh, before we start, here this may help." he said as he took his cape, folding it up and helping to place it under me to elevate my hips slightly.

(I mean, that's his inner parent just like "Okay we don't want you hurt, we want you comfortable" XD)

(Stolas pov)

(He is a sweetie XD)

I smiled at her getting her comfortable and then slowly start to inch inside her. She moaned and arched into me. Gripping my hand gently. I smile and soon am fully seated inside of her. She catches her breath clenching around me. I held her hand in mine, lifting it to my lips. I didn't mind waiting for her to get used to me before I continued as my other hand pulled off her jacket, her shirt and her bra as I trace the bruises as she flinched as I frown.

I will kill him for hurting her like this. I will indeed. I loved her for so long I cannot stand by and let her be hurt like this.

"Please stolas...~" She moans. "Make love to me~"

I stopped at that as I then smirk as I kissed her, slowly pulling out to make sure she was in fact comfortable with me moving as she let out a bit of a shaky breath but relaxed as she moaned. "I-I was right~ Y-You f-feel so m-much better..daddy~"

I smile. "Always for you baby girl~ Get ready I am going to make you mine~" I tell her and thrust back in and she meets my thrust and cries out in pure pleasure.

She gripped onto me, her nails digging into me before she let go. "S-Sorry, I-I didn't mean to hurt you i-it just felt so good."

"It is okay, you did it out of pleasure not anger. I am okay with it my dear sweet Marie~" I tell her and she nods clings to me again and I moan picking up my pace and she cries out wrapping her legs around me pulling me even deeper. I grip onto her as I kiss her forehead as I could feel her walls clenching around me as I never felt so good~ I will admit, having sex in a strip club private room was not what I thought when I thought our first time..but I wasn't complaining~ (oh god here we go

"oh you sexy little thing clenching daddy so hard~ Such a good girl feeding daddy your sweet pussy~" He says. "Just what I needed will you let me feed your pussy it's milk~"

(Oh god why..why is that something he'd say XD)

(XD Because it is XD)

(like he would say that XD)

(XD Yes he would XD)

She moaned clenching onto me. "Y-yes~! F-Fill my pussy please~!" She begged clenching onto me. "P-Pour it a-all in daddy~" she moaned out

I smirked and we made love kissing and fucking and when I get right to the edge she cums hard forcing me to cum as well as she screams out my name in ecstasy. We collpase and I kiss her then hear the door bang open and a demonic voice.

"SToLaS!!!"

[YASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS end on a cliff hanger. We hope you all enjoyed and stay sexy our friends!] 

[justletmeplayminecraft]

Legacy SMP in @martuzzio Space Outlaws AU

So, for... A while (since S2 started) I've been thinking about Legacy in Space Outlaws (including writing something I never finished & drafting out my ideas several times-) And I've come to find two ideas that I like.

So, under the cut will detail my ideas for how the Legates could fit into the space outlaws au and some thoughts on individual Legates! Of course, this is not canon! Just my headcanons for the AU.

The first idea:

The Legates' hubris gets the better of them. Experiments with plant-life escape their confinement and start spreading over the ship. When systems start failing, they choose to overload their engine in a last ditch effort, hoping to land on a nearby planet. They crash, sending the group of them spiralling across a wasteland. Now they need to use the remains of their ship to build shelter and survive, with various members injured, and that infection slowly spreading....

Also, the short bit I wrote for this one but never did anything with:

"Guys!" Pearl stumbles up the top of the hill, the sunlight hitting the back of her suit. Dark, almost black smoke billows up in front of her, blocking out the reddish sky of the planet. In front of her, down the slope of orange sand, lies the remains of their ship. Winding black threads are creeping across the metal, fires still burning tall. What silver isn't covered by the plant is battered, the ship broken apart in the middle.

Chimney doesn't stop to take in the sight, launching himself down the sand bank. Pearl is quick to follow, Logic and Jermsy with her.

"Where would he be?!" Chimney shouts, the radio in their helmets fizzling. Pearl winces at the static in hers. The UI isn't displaying properly, she had to close everything so it stopped giving her a headache. Logic stumbles in the sand as he runs, forcing himself back to his feet.

"The cockpit!" They angle their descent towards the front of the ship, Jermsy holding his blade in hand. The wreck grows as they get closer, until it's towering above them. Pearl sighs at the sight of a large thruster, broken off and standing nearly upright, half-buried in the desert. Their ship didn't deserve this. The heat is near unbearable, the sunlight bouncing off the metal, warmed by the flames. Jermsy cuts their way into the ship, Chimney reaching forward to help pull the metal away.

"Wow-" Pearl reaches her hand out to steady Logic when he stumbles. Her heart aches at the sight of their ship, their home, in this state of disrepair. The carefully decorated living space has fallen apart, anything not secured broken. Thick smoke obscures their vision, and she's relieved they know the ship off by memory.

"How are we supposed to find a way up to it?" Jermsy speaks the next problem. The entire ship is on her side. They're already at an angle, standing on one of the walls.

"Just cut through," Pearl decides. "There's nothing we can do to save her. But we need to save him." Jermsy nods, forcing himself upwards. Logic has activated the heavy flashlight on his suit, Chimney attempting to blow the smoke out.

The second idea:

The Legates are trapped on a ship/space station with an AI that is out to get them. They don't know what's controlling it, or what it wants from them. It sets strange rules and tries to control them. They have what they need to survive, but they're trying to look for a way out. They all agree that if somebody finds it, they should leave before it's closed off.

Personally, I think the second idea is a pretty fun way to incorporate the withering energy & events, but both are workable!

Also, some individual headcanons!

Pearl: I definitely see her as a winged creature of some sort, but I've always loved her as similar to a moth. Evidence: The optifine cape makes her elytra cape look like moth wings. Also, floof.

Logic: Either big-eyed alien, or goggles that make his eyes look super big. He's an engineer, and enjoys his work! He wants to discover things that help people.

Lime: A species similar to an elf. Pointed ears and white hair. Very knowledgeable of new technologies. A member of Mojang (I'm pretty sure there was lore related to them, but cannot find it please save me-) How the hell he got into this mess is anyone's guess.

Skizz: Somehow, Skizz ended up with this lot. ZIT's friend who suddenly dropped off the map. He's doing his best to help out, but is pretty worried he can't contact his friends. Not entirely sure what species he'd be. Since he was Impulse's childhood friend, leaning towards human.

Chim: Potentially a species related to bees! Mostly for the gorgeous wings. Otherwise, some kind of bee-related culture, to fit in with his bee priest storyline.

Anyway, that's all my current thoughts! They're very much concept ideas, but I just love Legacy a lot, and I think their plotline could be super interesting in this AU. Do I have any plans to write with them at the moment? No, I have so much to be working on jkhfd But am I thinking about them regularly? Yes <3

[miraculous786]

The Protector’s Battle

Masterlist

"Shut up," a voice growled.

The Italian it addressed didn't heed the warning - instead they chose to scream louder.

"Help!" Lila screeched. "He's going to kill me!"

Protector stalked forward, watching as she edged backwards and quieted in fear. Alya moved to stand protectively in front of her figure.

"I don't know what your problem is, but Lila hasn't done anything wrong to you!" the reporter shouted. "She's the nicest person I've ever met!"

"That fox might not have done anything to me, but she still had the audacity to dare hurt my Angel and Moon."

"What?"

"And so did you," he snarled, stepping closer and ignoring her confusion. "Pushing, shoving, accusing of unspeakable acts. If anything, you're worse than her."

Damian raised his gun to aim at Lila, yet Alya bravely got in the way. She glared at the akuma for a few seconds, before appearing to have processed his words. Then, her expression somehow became even more heated.

"Oh, why am I not surprised? It's Marinette and Felix you're talking about, isn't it? I knew that they were working with Hawk Moth, but I didn't think they'd use him to torment us!"

Protector pulled out his katana in a swift movement, and held it right beneath the girl's throat. His shadowed face was clearly seen to be angered, despite the fact that a dark mask was on it.

"I advise that you stop talking, or I won't hesitate to do what most are afraid to."

The threat caused Alya to zip her mouth, as he used his other hand to point his firearm in Lila's direction. Said person paled exponentially, pressing against the Eiffel Tower rails behind.

"Let's see how you fare with the pain you yourself forced them to suffer," Damian snarled, narrowing his emerald eyes and pulling the trigger to his weapon.

The brunette shrieked, her body shaking as a purple bullet shot at her. She sunk to her knees, holding the sides of her head whilst her sclera turned a bright white.

Alya gasped, about to face Lila, until Protector made her freeze with the snap of, "I can promise that you'll suffer sooner if you try and stop me from completing my mission."

The villain slowly tilted his head to the helicopters above, capturing the scene with several cameras. His lips twitched upwards, as he took a step back from the two females and turned away from them.

"Stop!" Lila yelled, trembling. "I hate it, please, Hawk Moth, make it stop!"

Protector let out a dark chuckle. "I doubt that that wretch will answer to his lackey at this point in time," he spoke, revelling in the gasps from the people around. "I already took care of him."

"What did you do to her?" Alya asked. "How do we make it stop?!"

"It's simple, really. All the fox has to do is admit what she did to my Angel and Moon, then it'll all go away."

"But she didn't do anything!"

Damian smirked. "We'll see if you keep that opinion in the future."

His smile widened into a grin when he heard a faint zipping noise far away, as he faced Alya and Lila again. The action was done just in time to see three teens land in front of the duo.

"Angel," he acknowledged with a nod.

"Damian," Ladybug pleaded. "Please, you don't have to do this. We can expose her another way."

"I doubt that will be possible," he denied. "And besides, we can do it now. I've been waiting for your arrival, and now that you've come, well..."

Protector brought his gun up.

"...We can start the show."

"Run!" Marinette commanded, spinning her yo-yo where the beam of light from his weapon would have hit. The blur of red in her hands redirected the shot onto a pillar of the Eiffel Tower.

A baton extended into the akuma's chest, forcing him to be sent back and off of the monument. He kept a straight face, and wordlessly fired out his grappling hook to save his fall.

Lila's scream echoed in the distance. From where she was, Chat Noir and a male in ivory were glancing at her and each other with worried expressions.

"What should we do?"

"I'm not sure," Adrien responded. "Alya, what did the akuma say on how to rever- Alya!"

The teenager jumped, giving him a look from over her phone. "What?"

"Are you seriously recording at a time like this?"

"Of course!" she said. "Now, everyone watching live will know how Marinette is working with Hawk Moth, and my blog will be famous!"

In the corner of the elevator, Lila whimpered, shaking her head in frantic motions. Her eyes were still a pure white.

"Don't worry, girl. Ladybug's cure will fix everything. Then we can go ask her to expose Marinette for us. I'm sure she'll do it since you're her best friend."

Felix felt a growl bubble in his throat, and before he knew what was happening, his shadow was towering over Alya. The tall ears atop his head and tail from his waist thrashed from his mood.

"It's always about hating Marinette, isn't it?" he barked, usually calm facade gone. "Well, I bet if you stopped kneeling at this liar's feet, you'd realise how Mari is the most amazing person there is!"

The reporter's eyes widened, and she lifted her phone higher. "You and Marinette wouldn't happen to be in a relationship, would you? Ooooh, then I could ask her for an interview with you! Unless you'd let me ask you questions now, in which cas-"

"I suggest you be quiet, Alya," Chat Noir advised in a low tone, leaning on the wall to the side whilst twirling his staff. "Foxes are very...protective, of what they deem theirs."

"...Foxes? Wait, you're the owner of the Fox miraculous?"

"Why yes," Felix sneered. "I'm Arctic Fox - the new and improved version of Rena Rouge, and permanent replacement for this necklace."

He reached to where the jewellery was hidden with clawed fingers, and pulled it out so that his suit didn't cover it up.

"Y-You-"

The elavator doors opened with a ping, allowing the four people to see the crowd at the bottom of the monument. Chat Noir picked up Lila, taking her over to where paramedics were.

"She's been affected by the akuma," he explained. "Keep her safe - we'll cast the Cure soon."

As several professionals escorted the Italian to where an ambulance was, Adrien couldn't help but mumble, "Hopefully..." as he glanced up to the tip of the Eiffel Tower.

"Let's go help her," Arctic Fox decided, and the blond beside him nodded in agreement. They grabbed their respective weapons - a baton and flute - before leaping up high.

Both pairs of their ears twitched when they heard the voice of Marinette from above. Though they could make out her words from such a distance, the helicopters flying about thankfully couldn't.

"As you said, Angel, we don't have to fight. All you have to do is tell me where our Moon is, and then I can force the fox to admit her lies for you two."

"Please, Star. If you know that I'm a hero, you know that I have to stop you."

"Not when I've taken care of Hawk Moth already," Protector replied, grinning. His head turned to Arctic Fox and Chat Noir as they landed nearby.

Ladybug pursed her lips, pulling out her yo-yo and spinning it fast. "I'm sorry, Damian, but we have no choice."

The villain flickered his eyes between the trio, before unsheathing his katana and bringing his firearm up.

"I see how it is, Angel," he spoke, a touch of gentleness in his tone. "I understand. But that doesn't mean that the show will stop - it must always go on."

Protector focused for a second in concentration, and what followed was a faint scream heard at the bottom of the Tower by Adrien and Felix.

Chat Noir, alarmed, turned to Damian, and gripped his own staff tighter. Then, he sent a nod to Arctic Fox, and they both charged forward in a flurry of colour and noise.

Marinette watched the fight with a narrowed gaze - scanning the akuma's outfit and items for anything out of the ordinary.

A katana. Utility belt. Mask. Cape. Gun.

Ladybug inhaled deeply, closing her eyes tight. A moment later and she was joining the battle too, as she whacked her yo-yo around to get to his blade.

Arctic Fox spotted her focus on the Protector's sword, and gave her an imperceptible nod. Felix proceeded to hit his flute fast, in time with Adrien's baton, so as to distract Damian.

"Now!"

The heroine threw her yo-yo towards the metal article, and when the end latched onto it, pulled back. When doing so, her friend stumbled from the force of her strength, allowing the other heroes to land a few solids hits on him.

"Time to de-evilize!"

Marinette dropped the katana onto the ground, then stomped on it roughly. Her eyes caught onto the crack in the handle of it, and she waited with baited breath.

However, nothing came out.

"What?" she breathed.

Protector sprung up on his heels, twisting around in midair whilst kicking a foot out. He managed to push back both of his attackers with the single hit.

Gloved hands reached for a grappling hook, shooting it up onto a higher beam above. Damian landed with barely a whisper of noise, and gazed down at the animal-themed folk below.

"Nice try," he commended. "But you'll have to work harder than that. Unless you want to give up and take me to our Moon."

"Never!" Ladybug exclaimed, as she communicated with her eyes to the teammates standing beside her in a protective manner.

"Lucky Charm!"

~*~*~

@thestressmademedoit  

@moonystars14

@northernbluetongue

@luciferge

@ranger-gothamite

@toodaloo-kangaroo

@freshbark

@drama-queen-supreme

@gwennex

@captainmac6

@virgil-is-a-cutie

@aurordraws

@daminett4life

@megawhitleycalderonpaganus

@hauntedwintersweets - <3 <br>

@emo-elaine13

@bleeding-heart-romantic

@write-for-your-life2

@reyna-avila-ramirez-alreanaldo

@schrodingers25

@mariae2900

@tall-shy-a55hole

@vivilakitty

@thyladyanput

@2sunchild2

@kceedraws

@kittyanonymity

@bee-wrecker

@soupfilledboots

@queenmj10​ 

[ballerinacorgi]

Bestowed Charm AU

Ok guys, ok! I heard you loud and clear!

I wasn’t going to share this AU because I didn’t think it would be that interesting but ok, OK. After thinking about it I’m going for it so here it is:

Basic Plot Line:

Felix and Bridgette were the original holders. Felix had to pass on his miraculous because Master Fu needed a guardian successor. He didn’t want to accept it but he felt he had no choice. They searched for someone who could replace him and not bring suspicion so they looked for someone with his same qualities. Blonde, green eyes and in shape. Adrien became the Black cat holder at 19, while Felix became the Dragon Holder.

Bridgette continued her role as Lb, constantly visiting Felix. Years later she had to step down as Lb because of health issues and family issues back in China. She gave her miraculous to Marinette - her cousin.

:cue the umbrella scene in reverse: Marinette met Chat Noir after an akuma battle when she found him standing in the rain and lent him her umbrella. Chat Noir/Adrien fell in love at this moment with her.

At first, Marinette didn’t want to be LB because she felt it was too much responsibility and just wanted to finish her practice. After joining Chat Noir in battle (because he needed lb) she, later on, changed her mind because of a certain cat in leather.

Chat Noir/Adrien details in this AU:

Chat’s eyes and expressions are exaggerated in a cat-like form. His pupils grow when he feels joy/love/any good feeling.

He has small fangs as Chat.

He carries two staves.

Chat admired and looked up to Bridgette/Lb and was sad to see her go.

Adrien wears glasses.

His hair is still messy as Chat Noir.

He trains weekly with Felix.

Adrien/Chat has a crush on Marinette and meets her by “chance’’ as Adrien.

He didn’t like/trust the new LB at first.

Chat tends to scold Ladybug because of how she fights akumas at first, even tho he takes it easy and lets it slide because he used to do the same.

Adrien lives on his own.

Ladybug/Marinette details in this AU:

Once Marinette accepts the role as Ladybug 100% she cuts her hair.

Marinette has a crush on Chat Noir but tries to keep it hidden as LB.

She received her miraculous from her cousin Bridgette but didn’t really use it for 2 - 3 weeks.

As ladybug, her suit gives her a sort of cape in the form of Ladybug wings.

Her ladybug has two yoyos.

At first, she doesn’t understand how her powers work so she fights akumas the only way she knows how, literal fighting.

Marinette lives with her parents but moves out after her Lb debut.

Important details of this AU:

Hawkmoth was defeated by Felix and Bridgette.

Gabriel gave his and the peacock miraculous up willingly because of his son, with the promise that no one would know he had been HM. In exchange he would help Master Fu with the miraculous’ protection.

The Moth and tiger miraculous was stolen a few weeks after. The thief fought Master Fu along the way, leaving a weak guardian in return, which is why Felix needed to step in.

Nobody knows who the new HM is but their akumas are much more aggressive than the previous Hawkmoth.

----------

P.S. If ya wish to support the corgi check out my kofi and patreon links in the tags!

[starblazerm31]

Apprentice April Asks #1 Azalea/Imalia

Here are my answers to my Apprentice April Asks #1.  Thanks so very much to @leis-main-blog​ and @verysoftthings​ for sending me asks!  I honestly wasn’t expecting it.  ^^;  I tend to write books about these two, so I made a separate post.

1. The Basics.  What is your character's name?  How old are they?  How tall are they?  Skin color?  Eye color?  Hair color?  Gender identification?

Azalea Larinya Nevra.  30, female. 5'6"; medium skin tone; eyes blue with gold around the pupils; hair aqua to coral ombre; medium length

Imalia Vilyana Gabriev. 36, female. 5'10"; fair skin tone; eyes crimson; hair brown with burgundy ends; very long (art by @carowhitewolf​)

2.  Love Interest.  Who does your character love?  What attracted them to that particular LI?

Julian/Lucio (different universes).  

Julian - she loved how kind he was, and she adored his bumbling.  She was compelled to help him because his cause was right.  He couldn't be guilty, he was too much of a good man.  She really wanted to help him with his own inner demons as well because he didn't deserve to suffer, even at his own hand.  That glorious chest didn't help either, lol.

Lucio - she thought he was overall adorable.  Yeah, he was hot as hell, but it was his personality that got her heart thumping.  He really was brave and skilled, and she had a feeling that not many others had appreciated it much.  Yeah, he had done some horrendous things; but Azalea could see the actual changes happening in him and she knew that he had hope.

Asra.  She had known Asra since she was 15 and he was 8.  They had a good 20 year friendship and she knew him very well.  She fell for him when that friendship veil lifted after the events of The Arcana story and she finally really noticed how beautiful he was.  "He's smart, kind, talented, awesome...AND hot?!  THE WHOLE PACKAGE?!  I'm such an idiot..." 

3. Familiar.  Does your character have a familiar?  How did they meet?

Corva, a white raven.  She met Corva when Malak led her to an alley where Corva was lying on the ground with a broken wing.  Azalea nursed Corva back to health, and Corva refused to ever leave. (image c. Mike Yip)

Balthazaar, a phoenix.  Balthazaar was one of the phoenixes in the magical menagerie at the University of Prakra.  He was ornery, and the handlers had a hard time with him.  Imalia liked how stubborn he was and over time developed a rapport and closeness with him.  The university allowed her to claim him as her familiar and take him home. (image c. Kiss Clip Art)

4. Hobbies.  What kinds of things does your character like to do for fun?

Parquor.  She loves running around, slipping up buildings, jumping over rooftops and sliding down poles.  XD  She's a very high-energy person and parquor keeps her healthy and mentally sharp.  She also enjoys writing.  She will write on just about anything that has her attention at the moment.  Magical theory is one of her favorite subjects, but she does enjoy writing fiction.

Her hobby...is harassing bandits.  She gets perverse joy out of robbing robbers blind.  If she can find the original owners of things that were stolen...awesome.  If not...hey, this is an ancient Drakrian fertility statue!  I'm gonna put this on my shelf at home.  Oh, and leaving off-color messages in ancient languages in ruins.  "Here I sit all broken-hearted..."

5. Hidden talents.  Is there something neat that your character can do?  Tie a cherry stem into a knot with their tongue?  Say any word backwards perfectly?

Azalea is kinda like Sherlock Holmes.  She can look at a person and form their entire story in her mind.  She never uses it against someone; she just uses it to be more friendly.  But if you're annoying her and won't go away...she will scare you with what she has figured out about you.

Imalia secretly loves to sing and isn't terrible at it.  She's one of those people who will sing in the bath, and if someone mentions it, she acts like it didn't happen.

6. Magical talents.  Is there a specific type of magic that your character excels at?  Any magic they aren't so great at?  Or do they actually shy away from magic altogether?

Lightning.  She's good at conducting the currents and utilizing its explosive capabilities.  She also uses lightning as a personal shield while in battle.  She is also really good at enchanting things; like her hair.  She makes enchanted dreamcatchers that actually catch nightmares.  Both Julian and Lucio appreciate this ability.  (Lucio's dreamcatcher needs to be cleansed more often than Julian's)

Fire and Darkness.  Imalia is in tune with fire and is extremely good at using it to its fullest potential; absolute destruction.  As for the darkness...that will be explained in number 12.

7. Interaction.  How does your character typically interact with people?

She is very polite, but not overly so.  She tries to come off as someone you can actually have a conversation with.  Sometimes if she's feeling nervous, she will go into overly-polite mode, but if the vibe starts to feel calmer, she will loosen up.  She is very energetic and sometimes hyper with her friends.

She is ingratiating and very proper until you piss her off.  Then you get things like "Why don't you get a horse, move up to the mountains, and don't bother anybody?  You have the personality of a dead moth." (RIP Don Rickles)  With friends, she's very laid back and frank with what she says.

8. Romance.  What is something that your character and their LI love to do together?  How do they show affection?

Azalea x Julian - They LOVE to read together.  They have spent hours cuddled up together over a good book.  Azalea shows Julian affection with gentle touches, kisses, and koala hugs.  (she really loves how tall he is)  She also makes sure he eats and gets plenty of rest.  More than once, she has brought him dinner to his clinic while he was working late.

Azalea x Lucio - They love to spar.  They are so different in fighting style that sparring really helps them improve their skills.  Also, the prize at the end for the winner is quite nice.  ^_~  Azalea shows Lucio affection by listening to him and holding him.  She also likes to try to out kiss him.  He reaches for her hand, she spins away and plants two on his cheek instead.

Imalia and Asra love to travel the Magical Realms together.  They get into really long and in-depth conversations about the things they see and experiment with how their willpower affects the realm around them.  Imalia shows affection by constant words of praise and sneaky touches and kisses.  The more she can surprise him, the better.  She also keeps a hefty supply of Lapsang Souchong tea at her estate for him and loves giving him little trinkets and things she has found on her travels.

9. Travel.  Does your character like to travel outside of Vesuvia?  How often?  For how long?  What kinds of things do they do away from home?

Yes.  She loves to see more of the world and meet new people and see different cultures.  She will travel maybe once every year or two.  When traveling, she will typically stay away for 1-2 months.  She loves adventure, but she does love her home more.  Azalea loves to learn new types of magic or new methods of spellcasting from different cultures.  She finds that certain techniques make her own magic stronger.

Definitely.  She herself is originally from the northern hemisphere, so travel isn't something new to her.  She gets wanderlust sometimes and has to get out into the world.  She will be gone typically for six months when she decides to travel.  She has been gone for three years before.  She HAS to investigate old ruins wherever she goes.  Who knows that treasures or knowledge lay inside?  She must find out!

10. WTF.  Has anything just...weird ever happened to your character?  Something that made them stop and go "What just happened?!"

She was trying to brew a potion that would allow the drinker to become a mermaid for a short while.  She ended up spilling it on a plant before it was done.  The plant sprouted tiny muscular hairy legs and arms, stood up, walked to the window, shook its fist at her, and jumped out.  Turns out she had forgotten a key ingredient in the early stages of brewing the potion.  Mazelinka made fun of her for a solid week.

One time, she and a rival mage were about to have a battle.  Right before they were to begin, this strange fellow wearing a sentient red cape fell from the sky and landed in between them.  He promptly stood to his feet, apologized for the intrusion, and left.  (Yes...I do mean Doctor Strange fell from the sky)

11. Crime.  Has your character ever been arrested?  If so, what did they do?  Have they ever helped stop a crime?

She has never been arrested, however, she is guilty of petty larceny.  It's not something she does often...just when some jerk needs to be taught a lesson.  They always get their stuff back, but she will make sure they are thoroughly inconvenienced.  She has stopped another thief before.  The thief took the purse of an elderly individual who was trying to buy food.  Azalea scaled up to the rooftops and cut the thief off, holding him down until the guards caught up and arrested him.  She gave the money back to its owner.

Yep.  She's been arrested plenty of times.  Usually for assault and/or destruction of property.  Hey, that jerk deserved to have his carriage set on fire.  She has stopped several assassination attempts on her cousin, Queen Dreen Suval of Seiruun.  She has also stopped dark plots at the Magical University in Prakra.

12. Secrets.  What is a secret your character has?  Are they in line for the throne in a far off land?  Was there this one time at band camp...?  Are they secretly involved in an assassin's guild?

Azalea secretly writes smut.  She loves it.  And her actual hair color is gray.  The aqua-coral is an enchantment.

Imalia actually is in line for the throne of Seiruun; second in line, to be exact.  But she HATES this.  It's why she continues to live in Vesuvia rather than her home country.  Imalia is also no longer entirely human.  During an adventure that went terribly wrong, she summoned the Lord of Nightmares while inside the Magical Realms.  (The Lord of Nightmares or "Lon" is an eldritch goddess) Lon then proceeded to implant herself inside Imalia.  Lon is a being of pure darkness and nightmare, so Imalia has control over darkness when she taps into Lon's power. Through some creative wording, the contract between the two of them allows Imalia to use Lon's power and form when she needs to; however, Imalia is forever plagued by terrible nightmares that not even Azalea's dreamcatchers can stop.  The dreamcatchers just catch on fire.

13. Overcompensation.  Is there something that your character just HAS to do better than anyone else?  Or are they just that dang good without trying?  If they see someone else showing off, what is their kneejerk reaction?

She's actually quite humble.  If she sees someone showing off, she really just concerns herself with their safety.  "Please don't be careless and die, please!"  But she IS gifted.  Her magic is insanely strong, she just doesn't like to make a big deal out of it.  She gets embarrassed.

She is the best in the room, and you'd better damn well know it.  Unless she respects you.  Then she will tone it down.  But if she sees a showoff...she's got to mess with them.  She's got to show them that they aren't all that and a bag of chips.

14. Fight Club.  Is your character a good fighter?  What kind of skills do they have?

She's pretty decent.  Her attack magic is awesome, but her physical fighting mainly relies on how quick and squirmy she is.  Her punches hurt, but they don't incapacitate.

She can fight pretty damn well.  Her father made sure of it after most of her family was killed by assassins (it does sometimes really suck to be royalty).  She is a heavy hitter and her intent is to end a fight with one strike.  It doesn't always work, but hey...second, third, maybe fourth time is the charm.  Or maybe you should just blow it the hell up.

15. The Arts.  Is your character a creative type?  What kinds of things can they create?  Can they act?  Street perform?

She is.  Like mentioned earlier, she writes and makes dreamcatchers; she also gets into stage acting with Julian (when he's her LI).  She's not a solo performer though.  She has to be in a troupe or else she gets massive stage fright.

She can draw very well, almost photo-realistically.  She mainly uses this skill for documentation when she's studying something.  But every great once in a while she will draw a political cartoon making fun of some noble.  Once she drew a penis on the face of one of Lucio's statues.  He snapped back "I'd never put something that small in my mouth!"  She retorted by drawing a full body penis on a different statue.  It got misinterpreted by many townspeople as "Hey, look!  Lucio is a dick!!"

16. Goofy.  Is your character a clown?  Do they like to make people laugh?

She does.  She doesn't see herself as funny, but when she slips in something humorous into whatever she's talking about it usually takes whoever is listening by surprise.  Spit your drink kind of humor.

YES.  She has such a strange way of speaking sometimes that you can't help but snort at the things she says.  Yes, it is entirely on purpose.  She loves to crack jokes and has a self-deprecating sense of humor at times.  She will also be hilariously over-confident as well.

17. Language.  Is your character multilingual?  How many languages do they speak?  Do they have an accent?  Is it sexy?  Is it silly?  Do they have the multilingual lisp?

No.  She only speaks her native language.

Yes.  Imalia speaks ten different languages.  In her normal language, she doesn't have a multilingual lisp; but in about four of her other languages, she does.  It drives her nuts, but she just can't seem to fix it.

18. Embarrassment.  What is something really embarrassing that your character has done/said?

Azalea can't remember this, because it's part of the memories she lost.  But Imalia remembers.  One time she was going to meet one of the magisters of the Magical University of Prakra to see if she would be accepted.  She spent weeks preparing how to introduce herself.  On the day of, she mentioned how excited she was to meet Magister Asshole.  Imalia blinked and said, "It's pronounced Ah-shole."

One time she said something quite rude about Lucio in front of Azalea (when Lucio is Azalea's LI).  Azalea proceeded to tear her a new rectum, claiming that for someone so smart, she was incredibly closed-minded.

19. Memory.  Has your character gotten any of their memory back?  If so, what?  Did it change them?

No.  She insists that she doesn't want her memories back because she likes who she is now.  She gets the important information from Asra and Imalia...her parents’ and aunt's names, what they were like, and how they died.  That's all she feels that she needs. 

*looks at me*  "I'm exempt from this question.  I'm your OC, not your MC."  *walks out*

20. Family.  Talk about your character's family.  Who were they?

Her mother (Etoile) and father (Galen) were traveling merchants.  Her mother was the one with magical talent.  Her mother's sister (Sylvaine) owned the shop and taught Azalea most about magic.  When Azalea was 13, her parents were robbed and killed by bandits just outside of Vesuvia.  She lived with Sylvaine until she died of pneumonia when Azalea was 20.

Imalia's father was Vitalric Gabriev and her mother was Narsial Trevallan.  When Imalia was 14, her father's family (the Sairuun royal family) were murdered by assassins sent by a rival country.  Only Vitalric (and Narsial), Imalia, Vitalric's older brother Rhemun and his daughter Dreen survived.  Rhemun and Dreen remained in Seiruun to run the place while Vitalric and his family moved to Vesuvia as a failsafe in case there were other assassination attempts.  Vitalric started studying to become a doctor, while Narsial started grooming Imalia to wed into a noble family.  Narsial was extremely abusive.  Long story short, King Rhemun died of a hunting injury, and both of Imalia's parents died in the Red Plague.

[damienthepious]

OwO lizards? on a tuesday? are we kissin em? not yet press f for damien

thorns that burst from my skull in the night (chapter 4)

[ch 1] [ch 2] [ch 3] [ao3]

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Relationship: Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla

Characters: Lord Arum, The Keep, Sir Damien, Rilla

Additional Tags: Second Citadel, Lizard Kissin’ Tuesday, Canon Compliant, Prophetic Dreams, Alternate Universe, canon typical Arum ignoring feelings, (very mild suicidal ideation or at least. canon typical arum being reckless with his own life), Canon Retelling, (sortaaaaa)

Summary: Arum has always seen glimpses of the future in his dreams. This gift is sometimes useful, but more often than not it leaves him with more questions than answers. The dreams of the flowers are particularly unhelpful.

Chapter Summary:  Arum has seen this duel piecemeal in his dreams already. None of this should come as a surprise.

Chapter Notes: pst love you. Happy LKT! It's dueling hours let's just chillllllll. OH RIGHT. Chapter specific warning for canon compliant moment of injury lol.

~

Even this darkness is familiar.

Sir Damien runs, an attempt at pursuit, and Arum slithers silently behind, taunting and jeering as the knight leaps and swerves, and Arum is focused, primed, strangely hungry-

(gasping breaths racing heart crying out like song)

Arum was correct about the placement of the thistle-cage. Damien nearly trips over the thing, nearly falls right into the rat's fangs, and then he spins so elegantly before he fires-

The twang of a bow in the dark. Another memory manifesting, this night. Another piece of the dream falling into place, but then- was the noise not more musical than that? Arum cannot say, it is all so confused, and the knight is running again. Arum and the rat both give chase, above and below, and Sir Damien mutters to himself, revealing his position even further than his clomping human steps.

Damien evades Arum's traps, skillful and quick, though he cuts a number of his dodges rather close.

"Nearly plucked the little honeysuckle right out of his armor," Arum taunts, and-

(your arm honeysuckle sit still let me)

(gasping breaths racing heart)

(like this Arum let me show you how)

He is still distracted, damned flowers on his tongue, the ghost of touch on his scales, and he barely has any attention for Damien's words or his own when Sir Damien stops.

Damien stops, right in the path of the rat, a morsel ready for the devouring.

No. Arum stares, confusion and frustration making him clench his claws in the bark of the tree beneath him. No. This is- this is wrong. The knight does not die like this.

(pinned beneath)

"What? Why have you stopped?" Sir Damien does not die like this, and Arum's frill flares unseen in the dark. "The rat will kill you, you fool!" he barks, tail thrashing against the branches in agitation, because the dreams are screaming in his mind and Damien does not die (a prayer, before you) like this, he should not fall to so unworthy a test, he is meant for Arum's teeth and claws- meant to fall beneath Arum-

(bare one of your)

Damien does not die. The rat dies instead, rough and unpleasant beneath another trap, and Arum buries a twinge of sympathy for his creation, because the duel is still on and there are other traps to spring. Sir Damien is… soft. Manipulable. Prone to that rotten human habit of selfless concern.

Very knightly, Arum thinks with a sneer. Screaming through the jungle for his damsel, his Rilla, his prize to rescue. Shriekweed draws him in so easily, a frantic little moth to the flame, and it is such a simple thing to drop from the branches above, to position himself as Damien plucks the flower, to bunch his muscles and flick his tail and pounce.

He collides with the solidity of the knight's body and they both thud into the dirt and Damien's gasping breath sounds precisely like victory.

Victory, and Arum crows with it, taunting again, and Damien narrows his eyes, his lips pulling into a delicate frown, and Arum tries to pretend that he does not remember the shape of it already. He tries, but-

Arum already knows this feeling. Arum already knows Damien's shape, and his heat.

It is only pleasant as a victory. He reminds himself of that through the vague fog of the dreams. The sweet delight curling in his stomach is- is only that. Victory. The poet's frown does not pull on anything within him.

Prey. Damien is prey, panicked and nearly writhing. Arum can feel his heart.

His gasping breaths. His racing heart. Another echo pinned into reality, and Arum wants-

"You are-"

(petal-press against his mouth)

"-very close-"

(teeth against the soft skin of his throat, warbling breathless cry, but no blood, no blood, only-)

"-to me," Damien pants, his cheeks dark and hot and close.

"So…" Arum's own breath leaves him. The memory, the visions cloud his mind in a flickering show, pages turning too fast, and the steady heat of the human beneath him makes his already-quickened pulse trip faster. "So… I am," he manages, and there is no flicker of violence left in the dream-memory, now. No violence. Only heat, and touch, and terrifying softness, and Arum's body is sinking down, settling closer against Damien beneath him, and-

And with the hot reality pressed flush against him, Arum can no longer deny it. Can no longer deflect, can no longer dig his claws into dirt and pretend the symbol is enough. He wants what the dreams have shown him. He wants it, and he is terrified that allowing himself to want will be all the more painful, when the dream fades, and the universe puts him back in his proper place.

… his proper place, in which he is a monster, meant to kill this knight.

Meant to kill Damien, as the hot cheeked human pants close against him, and blinks up into his eyes.

"May I- say a prayer, before you kill me?"

Arum breathes, and his knives are in his hands, and his claws are sharp beside Sir Damien's warm, dark skin.

(you can't do it, can you)

Arum clenches his teeth. He growls, low and barely controlled.

(honeysuckle)

He can't.

"Bare one of your arms," he snarls, leaning back enough that Damien has room to obey.

Damien blinks, his expression too twisted with confusion to show any hint of relief. "What?"

(kill you but I)

Arum shakes his head, teeth still bared. "Just do it!"

Damien stares up at him, and his cheeks flush even darker as he peels back his sleeve, as he shows his fragile skin to Arum, and Arum flicks his tongue without meaning to and he is strangely surprised when he doesn't taste the scent of honeysuckle on the air.

He tastes Damien, instead.

He pulls his claws down Damien's arm, the bright scent of blood distracting him (blood and cloth and) as Damien cries out, and Arum knows that the Universe is not fair but humans have such a preoccupation with the matter regardless, so perhaps-

"There," he sneers, not looking as Damien clutches the wound. "Now we're even."

"But…" Damien says, and Arum pulls himself up from the dirt, breathing, moving back, attempting distance. "I thought…"

Arum lets his mouth run, barely aware of his own words. This choice is absurd, but-

So had Damien's been, yesterday evening. If Damien can claim the match was unfair, Arum can say the same. It is not untrue, anyway, even if fairness should be the least of his concern. Of course he would refuse to be called a cheat-

Not that the opinions of any other creatures matter one whit to him. No. Regardless, regardless, he has talked himself through the circle and it is apparently enough to throw the poet off his scent.

"I think I see what you mean-" Damien interrupts himself in a cry that makes Arum's frill press tight against his neck, and the poet clutches harder at his arm. "My, those claws of yours are sharp-"

(blood and cloth)

Sir Damien does not die like this.

(and blood and cloth)

"And you won't bleed out on me, either!" Arum snarls, bending to pull his claws through his cape, this time, freeing a strip of purple cloth. Damien watches him as he kneels again, wide-eyed and wondering, and now-

Now Arum can taste flowers on the air.

"Delicate little honeysuckle…" he murmurs, and they are- too close, again. Too close. "A breeze could rip your petals off…"

A breeze could. Arum does not want to.

"But- you've torn your cape," Damien points out, his fluting voice going nearly sing-song, and Arum's teeth clench compulsively.

"And you stole your Queen's scarf!" Arum looks away again for only a moment, wrinkling his snout in something like despair. "Seems we're in the business of bleeding on priceless cloth. Now- hold still."

He wraps the bright fabric tight around Damien's soft skin before he can change his mind, staunching the blood, pretending not to feel the knight shiver at the touch of claws gone softer, this time.

Damien breathes, stares, shivers, as Arum ties off the makeshift bandage.

"… thank you, Lord Arum," he breathes.

Arum flinches, and then he bares his teeth, crowding closer against the knight in a threat.

"If you thank me one more time I'll tear your throat out with my teeth," he snarls, and-

(teeth against the soft skin of his throat, warbling breathless cry)

Damien looks-

(no blood, only)

Far less afraid than he should.

Arum watches Damien swallow, his breath gone shallow again, and Arum feels his own heart speeding. Damien is so- warm.

"I will… certainly keep that in mind," Damien murmurs, and the poet is close enough to-

Close enough to-

(try this)

A voice calls out through the night, reminding Sir Damien who he is. Where he belongs. A real voice, this time, and Arum rolls away from Damien with his heart still thudding too fast, and this evening- what almost passed between them, whatever it was-

A dream.

(I can't believe it's really)

Whatever feelings, whatever possibilities the dreams present, they are only fleeting. They will shred beneath Arum's claws as easily as his own cape. They will not support his weight- he cannot forget. He cannot allow himself to rest upon them.

Arum has seen one more duel. One more clashing of blades, to (remind you) break this tie.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow this will end, and one way or the other, Arum will have peace again.

[duker42]

:3 i literally never request anything to anyone since i could make up my own work but you're a really good writer! I always read your work and theyre amazing! if u dont mind, since its halloween how about theres some military party thing to celebrate it and everyone is dressed up in costumes with spooky songs playing to fit the mood, levis crush is the life of the party as she goes wild dancing on the dance floor without a care in the world as levi and the other vets watch her? thanks hun xx

@shewolfofficial That is so awesome of you for saying, because I started writing because of your work! 🥰🥰🥰🥰

💜Bewitching💜

The music was fun to dance to, but had a creepy vibe to it. It added to the haunted and dark look of the normally spotless castle. Captain Levi had argued, but Erwin had overridden his objections and given the approval for a Halloween party.

The Survey Corps was letting loose. Large pumpkins had been carved by the soldiers into frightening images and filled with candles, giving the shadows being casted on the wall a haunting appearance. Y/N had ventured into ruins of the old towns just outside the walls and gotten the moth-eaten fabrics to drape over the walls to serve as spiderwebs.

Hanji had managed to make something she was calling dry ice that would create a fog when set in water. It was placed over the tables and it gave a seriously eerie appearance to the food as waves of fog rolled over it and down the table to sink to the floor.

The barrels of ale were consumed as the witches, wizards, goblins, vampires, mummies and werewolves laughed and joked as they spend the evening having fun. Erwin and Levi were both dressed as Vampires. Levi slicking his raven hair back and had produced a red silk cravat to pair with his black suit and cape. Erwin wore a more elaborate get up, having Moblit make him a pair of false teeth with fangs to wear.

Mike had opted to dress as a werewolf cheekily playing off his being called a hound because of his wonderful nose, and Nanaba had used bandages to be a mummy.

Y/N was on the dance floor, enjoying herself. The party had come together, the Mess Hall looked amazing and everyone was having a great time. She could even tell that Levi was having more fun than he would ever admit as he stood off to the side watching. She had created her own version of a witch for her costume. She had paired black stockings with a shorter red skirt she had. Her cute top and the long ass black cape she had begged off of Mike completed the outfit with wand she had made.

She laughed breathlessly as the “Thriller” dance ended. The kids had crowded around her, learning the dance and awkwardly trying to copy her moves. Y/N had been having a blast, trying to pull as many people into the cleared dance space as she could, wanting everyone to enjoy themselves.

“Monster Mash” came on next and she started wiggling her hips and throwing herself into dancing with abandon. Her face was flushed as her eyes sparkled with joy. The kids around her laughed and tried to one up each other on silly moves as she lead the pack around the dance floor.

“You know, Y/N is really something, putting all of this together.” Erwin commented to Levi as his grey eyes watched the girl having fun.

“Hmmmm” Levi didn’t say anything, but hummed his agreement, his own lips wanting to curl up at the sight of her slipping a bit on the oversized cape and laughing like an idiot when she caught herself.

“You should really make that move, you know.” Levi turned and glowered at the taller Commander. “Everyone knows you like her, except for her. But she won’t reject you.”

He ignored the comment as he turned back to the dance floor and watched Y/N throw her head back and laugh as she executed another silly move. She certainly had put a spell on him. He snickered at his pun...he might even say she was bewitching.

Mobile MasterList

[afterthelastreset]

Rules Of One’s Soul Ch6 Realizing Feelings P2

What followed was Rouxls just stepping away. He just had to get away from that situation. His soul thumped hard in his chest as he shook lightly from that. What was he supposed to say? I love you? Yes, I'm scared of you? No? Each answer could have good or bad results. It always was that way with the king. .....But Jevil wasn't the king, a part of him countered. Well, what about those heart attacks? He could've killed you! And he did! Remember your shoulder?!..But he said that was a part of this 'love game' and don't you find it strange they were all just heart attacks? Oh, yeah! How about showing up in your BED with you in it?! He made you a cake you idiot. It could've been poisoned! Or spiked with something! And he's a prisoner! He was done there for a reason!! Lancer pardoned all the prisoners except ONE you moron. And NOONE knows more about the King's wrath than you.

He faltered his walking before shaking his head and starting his pace back up.

And how di I know I can trust him? He was still down there for a reason! He hasn't tried ANYTHING to harm anyone! Yet! He's kissed you 3 times by now......How many people have you shown romantic affection for since her-

"Shut thineself up!"

A few servants stopped and looked at the Duke who had stopped in the middle of the hallway and shouted out of nowhere. He stood there and stared before giving a smile and chuckle before briskly walking away, trying not to attract anymore attention. Holy f*ck he was a wreck this morning. He really didn't want to be thinking of any old memories right now, and he REALLY just wanted to focus on finding Lancer right now. So taking a deep breath, he calmed down the rapid beating of his soul and managed to relax somewhat. Now. Lancer. He checked the throne room first sense that was the closest. Rounding a corner, he shoved his head into the large room. It was practically empty other than the King Club arguing amongst his five heads and something King Diamond was spouting. Something about decorations and cake?? He couldn't tell from the amount of talking and shouting the two were having. Rolling his eyes, he pulled his head back out, sighed, and made his way up towards the left half of the castle, where the royal chambers were. Lancer was probably playing with his toys again, or riding his bike....He glanced outside at the still pouring rain..Yeah. Toys.

He chuckled at the thought of the small boy playing with the limited toys he had. Or drawing himself as the next 'Bad Guy King' in his many drawings, with his 'Lesser Dad' as the sidekick. Honestly he's glad Lancer didn't turn out like his father. It would've been more horrible then for the outcome of the Kingdom then. That doesn't mean everything was perfect though, Lancer had much to learn as king. He lost count The amount of times he had to fix something Lancer did when he wasn't looking, but maybe that was for the best. After all he was still a chil-

"LESSER DAD!"

He barely had time to turn around before a blur of blue and white zoomed into him. Making him give off a loud 'Oof!' before the two came crashing down to the floor with a loud thud. the blue man groaned, his head swimming, before slowly lifting his head to peer at the weight in his chest. A very round child sat upon his chest and a tail thumped behind him. The blepping boy looked overly happy to see him.

"Dad! Guess what, guess what, guess what!!"

"...*sigh* Lancer tis very rude to tackle thou's subjects-"

"Lesser Daaaaad!" He pawed at his cape. "Guess what!"

He sighed. "What?"

He sat up and Lancer reached up to wrap his arms around the Duke's neck. He sighed and wrapped his arms around the boy, grunting up onto his feet with the boys in his arms.

"I get to help with the giant party this year and get to stay up late! No bedtime for me!"

He chuckled and began stepping towards the throne room. "Oh, really? And what party wouldst thou be referring to? Thou's birthday has already passed."

The child bounced again and he had to tightened his grip to keep from dropping him. "Not my birthday. Mr. Heart King Guy is planning this big party called a ball and he says we're all aloud to stay up late!...Although there's not gonna be balls or any other toys. So it doesn't sound too fun."

Rouxls chuckled. "Young Sire. A ball is another name for a giant get together or 'party' as thou calleths it. Tis more of a fancy get together of older darkners likest mineself and thou mutual kings."

"So no toys?"

"I...guess thou could bringest some to entertain thouself if you oh so wish. But as a King you should pay some respect to it."

"Oh...Ok!"

''That's my worm." He chuckled. "What exactly tis this uh- 'party' for anyhow?"

Lancer hummed. "I don't really know....Mr. Heart King Guy said it's a holiday Ex-King Dad tried to get rid of. He said it would be really fun. I think it's called.....Heart seeking??"

Rouxls gave the boy a look. "Doth thou mean Soul Matching Day?"

"Yeah! That! What is it?"

Rouxls stopped from the long walk by a door and grunted as he shifted to hold Lancer in one arm as he reached out for the door. "Well...It's basically a romantic holiday for couples, or more commonly a way for thoust subjects to meet thou's future spouse." Lancer made a yuck face, to which Rouxls chuckled at. "But thou won't findest yours until thou's much older. Perhaps in a hundred or so year. Don'tst worry non."

"Thank goodness....Aw, man. Does this mean I have to watch a bunch boring grown up mushy kissing?"

Rouxls chuckled as he opened the door. "No. You could always eat the food and-"

"And be entertained, entertained.~"

A head popped from above the doorway, startling the poor Duke into giving a high pitched scream and slamming the door out of reflex. There was a loud 'OW!' on the other side as well as a loud bang from the door making contact with the person. He was clutching Lancer for dear life to his chest and giving a few quick breaths-

"Uncle Jevil!" The boy's voice was a mixture of concern, surprise, and happiness and he wriggled in Rouxls grip until the Duke dropped the boy to his feet. He bounced towards the door and swung it open much to the protests of the duke behind him. The door was opened and the floating imp was on the other side, rubbing his face. "Are you ok?"

The imp smiled and brought his hand away from his face to look at the little prince. "Do not worry, worry little king. Hehehe. I've dealt much worse, worse before."

Rouxls stood frozen behind the boy, hands figiting and ready to grab Lancer at a moments notice. The spiked up feeling he felt whenever the king presented danger crept up his spine and pooled out as some droplets of sweat and a nervous smile on his face. But a voice in his head whisperedhe wasn't the king...It didn't matter. Lancer's safety was more important. The feeling increased when the jester looked up at him and his own smile faltered for a bit...The two men stared at each other for a moment, before jevil smiled back down at the little boy.

"You know, I'm pretty hungry, hungry. Would the little king mind, mind getting me some food? You know what I like. It would ease the pain, pain."

Lancer perked up. "Yeah! I can do that! I'll be right back!" Rouxls opened his moth but Lancer bolted down the hallway before taking a sharp turn and just jumping through a door. the door swung for a bit before Lancer poked his head back out and shouted back "Don't go anywhere!" and slipped back into the room.

Leaving him. Alone. With Jevil. His stomach sunk, but at the same time his soul gave off a throb that sent a happy feeling waving through the nervous emotions. Great. Thanks soul- Something wizzed by his head and lodged itself right next to him in the wall and he froze. Jevil ever oblivios summoned a few more small hearts in his hands and held them out to him.

"What does the Duke, Duke think of my heart's desire?~ It surely do-"

"ART THOU TRYING TO ENDEST MINE LIFE!?" He shouted in a high pitched squeaky tone making Jevil freeze. Rouxls side glanced the pink heart attack- wait. Since when were those pink??- and took one giant step sideways before looking back to the shocked imp. "What doth thou nay understand of attacks?!"

Jevil rapidly blinked before his eyes widened and he thrusted his hands once again forward. "NO, NO! Not attacks! I only wish to shower, shower you with....What did Seam, Seam say it was?...Love, love and affection! Don't be scared, scared! Don't be scared please, please!"

Rouxls stood there frozen, and with a complete loss for words for the moments. Jevil thrusted his outstretched hands towards him, with the mini heart attacks still humbly floating above them. They sparkled and were a....really weird rose pink color. Weren't those white? The worm shook that thought aside when one of those clawed hands grabbed his cape in a desperate but gently way, his elf ears pinning to his head.

"Please don't run away,..away.." His voice pleaded out.

A sudden throb of his soul sent a calling through his being and instantly he felt guilt thrown into the mix of the emotions. Great! Rouxls gulped. Hard.

"W-Wha...Is thou making a...love confession towards...me?" He froze after saying that. The last confession of feelings involved him running for the hills and Jevil screaming like his soul broke in half. But right now....the joker almost looked like he would cry with how desperate he acted. "...Is this a joke?

"No! No jokes, jokes...P-Please.."

"What part of thou's game are you playing?"

"Isn't it obvious, obvious? The two of hearts of course....I don't want to go back, back to a lonely freedom." His hand holding the hearts lightly shook a bit now. "Please..."

Rouxls just stared at the smaller twitching man. What was he supposed to say to his? Yes? No? His was starting to feel dizzy with all the emotions swimming through his head at once, the sound of his pounding soul filling up his ears. Anything could lead to a worse outcome. He felt almost like fainting-

"You really, really don't....feel anything...Don't you, you?"

His soul throbbed again and he couldn't stop himself before he said his next words-

"Of course, I do."

Both males froze at what he just said....Before Jevil's smile returned full and a new hope shined in his eyes. Oh, fuck...

He let out a happy squeal and series of giggles, the hearts he was holding disbanded and his tail wagged like a little puppy. "I knew it! Knew it! Bwahahahahaha."

Rouxls flinched. "N-Now holdeth on! What happened to s-s-slow!...And what art thou doing within the castle?"

Jevil giggled again before giving a smirk. "Lancer, Lancer has been kind enough to rehire, hire my games.~ And the ruler of Hearts, Hearts has asked for my little spectacles, spectacles for the show within ten, ten days....And I'm happily, happily capable of going slow.~ I can do anything!"

Rouxls opened his mouth-

"UNCLE JEVIL!!" A flurry of feet sounded out before a familiar child bounded up to them, a sad look on his face. "I couldn't find any candy...I'm sorry. I looked everywhere."

"That's ok." He reached down and patted the boy on the head. "I'm not very hungry, hungry anymore...." He made a side glance at Rouxls. His eyes wondered the Duke's face a bit before stopping at the bags under his eyes, making Rouxls raise a brow. Jevil hummed before looking back down at Lancer. "But uh-..Did you ever happen to notice, notice something?"

Lancer looked confused and tilted his head sideways. "Notice...something?"

"Oh yes, yes. Very important."

Lancer looked to Rouxls who gave the same confused look before looking back at Jevil. "Did I forget something?"

"Oh no. But uh-" He made another glance towards Rouxls before leaning down eye level with Lancer, still floating in mid air. He turned Lancer around and pushed him a few feet away from the Duke. Rouxls froze up at the sight- "Have you noticed the bags under his eyes?"

"Who's eyes?"

"Rouxls, Rouxls."

He looked over his shoulder real quick. "....Oh! Lesser Dad's always had those." He turned back to the smiling face. "He says it's something all Dads have."

"Oh! That's bad, bad!" He held a hand to his face and gave a worried look. Alerting the child.

"It is?"

"Yes, Yes. You see. Rouxls is suffering, suffering from No-sleepitis. It makes him very sleepy, sleepy and feel grumpy."

"Really?" He nodded. "Oh...He is cranky a lot. And he's been acting very weird-"

"A side, sideeffect I'm afraid. He needs a nap, nap..Soooo.How about a little break, break?"

Rouxls watched and tried to step towards them, but every step he took Jevil move away. This was starting to become worrisome and he was seriously thinking about teleporting in front of them when Jevil finally moved away and Lancer was smiling at him.

"I swear if thou tries something-"

"Lesser Dad." He little boy pointed at him. "Take a nap."

He paused. ".....What?"

"You need to take a nap. Like a lot of naps. Because you're always cranky. So I'm ordering you on...." He stopped and looked back up to Jevil. "What was it called?"

"Paid, paid leave."

"OH! Right!" Striking a pose, he pointed at Rouxls and said in a cute bossy tone. "Lesser Dad, as the new King Dad, I'm ordering a vacation for you.....And what he said. For ten days!"

"WHAT?!" He turned to Jevil with anger in his eyes. "WHAT GAME ART THOU PLAYING WITH MINE SON!?"

Jevil gave an offended look. "I like number games, games....But harm a child, child such as Lancer I would not. That is a cruel, cruel assumption for me. Did you not, not admit to feeking for me?"

"I- N-no?....I meaneth yes! B-B-But I-"

"And one must trust, trust the one they feel for yes?"

"I-I meaneth...Y-Yes! B-But we-"

"Are taking it slow, slow." He grinned. "You said it yourself, yourself. You are the one making assumptions quick, quick without knowing me first, first. You are the one to jump, jump head first as they say and consider my motives cruel, cruel.....Now. Are you sure YOU are not breaking your, your rules? Hmmm."

"Y-Y-You were the one whomst jumped on mineself a-and ....m-made contact" His face lit up a bright blue at this point.

"All within a span of hours, hours or days. You made assumptions within a matter, matter of minutes. Therefore I am moving, moving slower with things."

"Y-You- I didst not meaneth THAT-!"

"You never specified what 'things' were not under, under that rule."

Rouxls sputtered a bit more, thinking of a loophole to be found...But he found none. He gave off a growl and quickly turned to Lancer,

"You cannot be serious! I-I-....What willst thou doeth within mine help for a week let alone ten days!"

"There it is, is."

he turned back to the imp and demanded angrily, "Where WHAT is, Worm!?"

By this point the imp was laying on his back with his hands behind his head.But reached a claw out to point at him. "You pander after the boy, boy like a rabbick would her young. Yet you give, give him no trust to handle anything his own." Rouxls shut up. "How does one expect him to become king, king let alone independent if you do not, not trust him to make his own mistakes?"

Rouxls gave a silent look to the ground. "I-....I don't want him t-to....to..."

"He's not alone....There's, There's other royals and their kin. You're state of being worries, worries me-"

"I-I-It's not just Lancer!" He shouted and started counted on his fingers to list off. "Whomst is going to tend to the guards?! O-Or handle all that god forsaken paperwork?! O-Or over see thine puzzles!?"

"The Kings, Kings, secretary, and jigsawries," he stated deadpan. He went to argue again. "A game where you wear and tear, tear your body to exhaustion makes you the loser if you wear, wear it before you can intervene the bad ending. You must stay prepared for such things."

His own way of saying his mental state was unhealthy...... and implying it needed to change before things went wrong. The three were silent for a moment, before Rouxls looked down at Lancer. The boy shuffled on his feet and looked down.

"Sorry, Lesser Dad....No-sleepitis is bad for you."

Despite what was happening, he gave a dry chuckle at the term. ''C-Can you-"

"I'll be fine. I defeated Ex-King Dad with friendship power!" He struck another cute pose. "I can be a great King-With-No-Lesser Dad for a bit-"

"And he'll be back before the party, party."

Rouxls gave an eye roll. There was no getting out of this, was there? He sighed and dropped eye level with Lancer. "I'll only agree to this if thou stays away from thine dungeon until mine return. Doth thou promise?"

"Yeah! I'll be too busy making the mushy party more fun anyways!"

He didn't know whether to be relieved or not, that still begged the other question though. What the hell was he supposed to do for ten days?

[weakeninghope]

Behind green eyes

Pairing: Ash Lynx/Eiji Okumura

Rating: Teen

AO3 link here

Summary:    “Ash, you deserve this. Me. Feeling loved. I feel protected when I’m with you, I feel like my soul is bound to yours, what do you think I’d do without you? I know that behind those green eyes of yours you hide a lot of pain, but there’s also the person I’m in love with, this gentle, loving caring person who’s dumb and hates pumpkins and mocks me for hating moths and…” Eiji kept rambling about how much he loved Ash and…

Notes:  Tada! I'm here again! I've written a longer piece this time! It feels rushed but I've had this idea in my head for a while and wanted to write about the girl, so here you have this piece of garbage. I feel like shit for having killed the girl even though this happens in canon but *sobs* KELLY ILYI'm gifting this work to my precious friend SabyPhantomhive because she has helped me with the beta, with the ideas and because i love her.Also I gave myself the rights to invent stuff and bend the canon please forgive me but I wanted to try it out!I hope everyone enjoys this, though! please, comments and kudos are really appreciated.See you in another fic <3 Also this contains heavey manga spoilers!

fic under the cut!

Ash knew he had a problem, he didn't want to let go. He should have accepted that Griffin left, that he had to leave, but he refused to. Griff was the only support he had ever had. His mother left after he was born, and his dad was not much of a dad. He preferred calling him “old man” because Jim had always neglected both Griffin and Aslan. That’s why when Griff turned 18 the two siblings started living together.

 Then everything fell apart. Griffin left. Ash killed for the first time. Was raped for the first time.

 Nobody believed him to be innocent until the truth about the Bluebeard of Cape Cod was found, but at that point, it didn’t matter to Ash anyway. He didn’t have anything to hold onto anymore, so he left for the streets. He was just a runaway kid, but he was better off on his own that in that cruel town full of garbage.

 Or so he thought until he turned 11 and Dino Golzine stripped him off the little remaining innocence he had. He began selling him as a sexual toy for old, perverted geezers as the likes of Dino himself. Ash felt terrified again, even more so than the first time. His abusers only wanted to take everything away from him; they even laughed when he started crying, sobbing, or inhaled sharply because of the pain he felt whenever they roughly pulled his blond hair.

 It was a never-ending nightmare that couldn’t possibly get worse.

 But it did when Dino brought him to his mansion and intended to turn him into his kind of “son”, if son meant sexually abused 14 years old who was forced to sleep with one eye open, gripping his pillow tight as if the sandman was going to enter his room.

 Dino wanted to make Ash his heir, or so he was mouthing about most of the time. Ash was pissed, hurt, but mostly pissed but because he had learnt that the only true emotion he could feel was rage. He was just angry, in those little occasions when he still had a little humanity left inside of him and could feel something, even if it was something feral as rage. It was still something.

 At least there was more than being beat up and forced to do things against his will in Ash’s life. It was truly saddening, that the only thing he could cling to was his street gang. Dino introduced him to one of the best street gangs in Manhattan, and contrary to what Ash thought, the guys were pretty loyal and hated the geezer’s guts, too. Downtown was in the palm of Ash’s hand and he would lie if he said he didn’t like -If that was the word- spending time with his mates. He couldn’t spend a lot of time with them because Marvin, the fat-ass, would show up and force him to return to the mansion.

 He would also rape him if he felt like it.

 In his world, every adult was perverted, sick in the head or overly disgusting. The only thing he had was remembering Griff and the people of his gang.

 Until there was a day when she came to his life.

 That day wasn’t anything special, he was just combing the area with his people because one of his friends had gotten his ass into trouble with some other gang and they had to look out for him.

  Fatal mistake. You must never let your guard down in Ash’s world. You don’t know how you could end up, and that was for both Bones and Ash.

 Bones had lost his teeth in a fight with the rival gang that had cornered him, and Ash had lost his cool temper when before he could even punch the guy who hurt Bones, someone knocked everyone out.

 It was a girl. Behind her there were another bunch of girls dressed quite similarly, but no one looked like her. The mysterious girl was wearing broken jeans, a large flannel plaid shirt and had light brown, short hair and ocean blue eyes.

 She looked,.. Incredible. The look on her face was so full of anger yet so full of life… Ash couldn’t believe himself.

 “This is our turf now.” the girl’s voice broke the silence and had everyone staring at her, agape. Excluding Ash, who was thoroughly examining her. “So you better leave. Don’t you think I’ll save your little friend’s ass every time he gets caught in trouble.” She chided, looking straight at Ash.

 Oh, so she was talking to him?

 “Excuse me, I’m sorry we interrupted your tea party.” Ash countered “Bones has his orientation up in his ass and lost himself. Besides, the ones invading your so called “turf” where the gang you just beat up, so congrats on that, I guess?” Ash mocked. He was going to have fun with this.

 “Hey” the girl said, stepping closer to Ash in that graffiti-filled alley “you better shut up or you will have your mouth up on your ass.”  The girl snapped. Oh, he liked her attitude.

 “Oh-“

 He couldn’t end his sentence. Marvin tracked him, -in the end, even though Ash tried to run away, Marvin always tracked him- and broke into their conversation. Ash knew that this would mean trouble because Marvin felt deep hatred and disgust towards girls, and seeing Ash practically one inch apart from one wasn’t going to be of his liking.

 Fuck. He had to get rid of the fat-ass, if he wanted to know more about that girl.

 Ash was already starting to give up the chase because Marvin was pulling at his t-shirt and he didn’t want his friends to suffer because of him again. They were the only good thing he had, he didn’t want them to die or something just because they were close to a street punk.

 And a murderer.

 “Kelly, what are you doing?!” A girl shouted.

 And everything happened within a second. Kelly shot Marvin on his right arm and grabbed Ash’s hand; everyone ran away and left Marvin there, cursing and screaming.

 That was something, Ash thought as he was running alongside Kelly. That was the first time someone stood up to him since Blanca started teaching him how to shoot and already defended him from Marvin; but Blanca was busy that week and had to leave New York for personal matters, so Ash was alone again.

  Kelly’s hand felt calloused. He was sure that she had fired a gun in more occasions than not, because she also looked older than him.

 Neither of them spoke for a while, they were still running until they crashed in a nearby park, which Ash assumed was a place Kelly knew. After all, she had been purposefully driving them both towards that direction.

 The park wasn’t that much of a park. It didn’t even look like one. There was grass, two or three trees and a lot of mud here and there. It was also quite small and it was located in a zone that wasn’t really transited. It was probably Kelly’s hideout.

 “Why did you bring me here?” Ash asked a few minutes after that, as if to break the silence. Besides, he really wanted to know why did she save him if she appeared to hate his guts (as most people did).

 “I don’t want more people to end up like me.” Kelly muttered under his breath. She was sitting in the grass, knees close to her chest, looking at the ground. The brunette was still panting, they had a really long run, even though nobody was chasing them. Kelly probably had to run like that in plenty of occasions, Ash suspected.

 “So now you’re a heroine and you’ve come to save me?” Ash mocked. He knew he shouldn’t have said that because Kelly had really saved him, but he was scared. Scared of attachment. Scared of having something more to hold onto.

 Because once you have something to treasure, you have something you don’t want to let go of, and Ash had had enough of this.

 “Shut up. I can tell you’re trying to be tough.” Kelly said lifting her head and inhaling a sharp breath, “That man, Marvin, wanted to abuse you, right?” She asked. And before Ash could muster up a witty response or the truth, she continued. “He won’t abuse me because he’s gay, I know him. But his brother had abused me a few times. He abducted me when I was 9, and one day, I killed him breaking a chair in his head and hit him until he was dead. After that, I stole his gun. Then I started living in the streets until I found the girls from my gang. Merry, the older one, taught me how to shoot. You know why Marvin looked at me that way? It wasn’t just because I am a girl. It was because he knew me, but he’s never tried to kill me since he wasn’t on good terms with his brother anyway. He probably hates my guts because he’s seen me with you.” Kelly rambled on. She really opened up to the blond.

 Her raw honesty and the pain in her voice ignited something in Ash.

 “I was raped when I was 7, and I killed my abuser when I was 8. Then I ran away from my town and old geezer Dino found me. Marvin is part of his people and he doesn’t let me breathe. Fuck, I am recently learning how to shoot thanks to a man hired by the geezer who is not that bad as for having been hired by that demon- and I’ve thought of killing him. Guess a murderer stays a murderer.” Ash bitterly chuckled the end of the sentence.

 “You’re talking to one of your kind, then.” Kelly chuckled, too. That was a beautiful sound.

 Ash was scared. They had barely met each other and he was already starting to believe he could like her. He felt something in her that he had never seen in anyone else. They had a similar past (sadly), but Kelly had a whole different attitude. She wasn’t a coward, she wasn’t scared, she wasn’t trying to put all her sadness inside her and play it off with an indifferent mask.

 “I see. That was a nice shot. I’ve barely started learning, but I bet I can shoot better than you.” Ash said, smugly.

 “I really doubt that.” Kelly cracked a smile while looking at Ash “Merry’s a really cool shooter and I’m a fast learner, you’d be surprised if I were to show you my full potential.”

 “Why don’t you show me, then?”

 “Why whould I?

“Because you told me I’d be surprised, and I want to be surprised.”

 “Nah, I don’t want to offend you by being better than you”

 “Then you don’t have to worry about anything because I assure you that you won’t be better than me.”

 And then Ash stood up and waved Kelly goodbye, since he had to reunite with his peers. As he was leaving the park, Kelly shouted to meet there the day after that at the same time, which Ash assumed by the position of the sun that it was around eight PM. Ash turned to look at Kelly’s dazzling smile, nodded and proceeded to return to his hideout.

 The day after that they met again, and Kelly was wearing the same clothes. Maybe she didn’t have a spare, or she just liked wearing that like Ash liked wearing his grey hoodie, who knows. Kelly was waiting for him with a smirk, twisting her gun in her hands with practiced expertise. Ash then confirmed that she was older and had experience with the usage of guns.

 Maybe he’d had to ask Merry to help him while Blanca was away.

 Or maybe not he thought as Kelly’s demanding “Get your ass down here!” brought him to reality. He had managed to escape from Marvin and the geezer and he was there, with someone who claimed to be a better shooter than him.

 “I’ve brought my gun.” Ash said “I don’t let anyone hold it.”

 “And would you let me hold it?” Kelly asked.

 “I don’t even know your name.” Ash countered. Their dynamic was entertaining and fun, he wasn’t used to that.

 “Excuse me? I’m the one who doesn’t know your name.” Kelly asked, pretending to be hurt.

 “Really? I thought everyone knew me because people use to hate my guts.” Ash let go.

 “Why do you think people know me, dude. They hate my guts too. I’m Kelly. Kelly Momsen, even though you know that already.”

 “Ash Lynx. And now could we get started?”

 Kelly grimaced but didn’t say a word, just piled up some junk for them to shoot at. Ash lost track of the time they spent there shooting stuff and laughing. He was genuinely having fun and he probably blushed a little bit when he looked at Kelly from the corner of his eyes and saw that focused expression of hers he knew he wouldn’t be able to take of his head anytime soon.

   Since that day, they spent three days seeing each other, because then Blanca would come back and Ash would have to follow his training again, but he always had some time to see his gang members so he could maybe pile up some time to see Kelly. Their activities together weren’t always shooting or talking about their past; he learned a bunch of new things about Kelly. The brunette was 15 years old, roughly a year older, even though she looked older than what she was. She was scared of thunderstorms because when she lived alone on the streets she felt like she would die any minute if a thunder struck her; she had an unbelievable weakness for cats (Kelly Momsen, the tough gang leader who could beat you into a pulp without even batting an eye, loved cute kittens. It was a fact). Kelly, too, learned things about Ash.

 Except the thing about the pumpkins. Screw him if he was ever going to tell that to anyone. Griff had already laughed at his face when he told him what happened that night. (He then ruffled his hair and whispered a soft I’s okay, Aslan, you’re safe now accompanied by one of Griff’s sweetest smiles). Griff’s smiles were always the sweetest. Hell, he really missed his brother. He didn’t want to let go of his hand when they parted ways… but he had to, there wasn’t any other option.

 A strong, growing fondness for Kelly was starting to grow inside of Ash, until the last day they had agreed to meet, Ash found Kelly’s corpse on the park. The green, almost yellow-ish grass was now red, stained with the blood of the person he thought he liked.

 Ash didn’t have to turn around to see who had committed such atrocity, but he did nevertheless to glare at the bastard.

 Marvin.

 I killed your little girlfriend. He said.

 It was his fault. Ash knew Marvin liked to follow him around, and he let himself grow attached to Kelly. And because he was this selfish and spent time with her…

 -

 “I couldn’t save her.” Ash said, his eyes saddening. Remembering this story always made him feel like shit. Sure, Marvin was dead (not by his hands, he couldn’t avenge Kelly) but he was dead, and Eiji was in his life.

 He didn’t know if he had to feel relieved or scared now that Eiji was in his life. Because back then, with Kelly, he thought he liked her, like, really liked her, because Kelly was amazing, but with Eiji, Ash knew he was in love. Ash’s eyes were welling up with tears. Why did everyone close to him had to suffer? He had lost count of how many times he had to ask himself that question.

 Eiji gazed at Ash, concern written all over his deep brown eyes. He was going to apologize again for asking about the girl, huh? Japanese people are always apologizing.

 “Are you feeling bad for me again?” Ash asked “The world won’t let me mingle with normal people anymore.”

 He was about to correct himself because Kelly wasn’t normal at all, but then Eiji had to intervene.

 “If me being here is a burden to you…” Eiji muttered. Ash was done with making Eiji feel bad. He should’ve gone to Japan before, or maybe he shouldn’t have met him in the first place. Ash didn’t deserve Eiji, and Eiji didn’t deserve this suffering.

 Ash had fallen for Eiji when he noticed his warmth; the warmth in his eyes, in his touch, in his promised forevers… in Eiji himself. Eiji Okumura was the definition of warmth.

 “No, it’s not that- forget it, I don’t want to fight.” Ash sighed. He had already fought with Eiji and felt bad enough for having lashed out at him once, he didn’t want it to happen twice.

 “Ash.” Eiji said, determined.

 Were they really going to fight again? The night before Ash was going to settle scores with Arthur? Please, no.

 “Stop acting like you’re the only one who feels this.” This?

 Shit.

 “What?” He asked. Bewildered. Eiji was much more keen and sharp that what he looked like, so… what if he knew?

 “This. Between us. I love you too, you know. You don’t have to act like you’re pushing me away to protect me.”

 “I… Eiji…”

 “Ash, you deserve this. Me. Feeling loved. I feel protected when I’m with you, I feel like my soul is bound to yours, what do you think I’d do without you? I know that behind those green eyes of yours you hide a lot of pain, but there’s also the person I’m in love with, this gentle, loving caring person who’s dumb and hates pumpkins and mocks me for hating moths and…” Eiji kept rambling about how much he loved Ash and…

 Well, you’re screwed. Ash thought. And so am I.

 “Eiji, you know what happened to that girl who was close to me, and she belonged to my world; which means that I can’t be with anyone, no matter from which world they are. You don’t belong here.” Ash bitterly let go.

 That was wrong and would probably make Eiji angry. Again. He was going to screw up again.

 Eiji stood up and sat at the couch, besides Ash, and put a hand on Ash’s trembling shoulders. Then Ash grabbed Eiji’s Hand and clasped it tightly.

 “Eiji. Don’t let go” He whispered against Eiji’s shoulders. The I love you was left unspoken as Eiji pressed a chaste kiss on Ash’s blond, beautiful hair. They didn’t have to say it. Eiji said it because he knew Ash was repressing his feelings, but between them, they really didn’t need to say it.

  –

Ash knows he has a problem, but... he dies letting Eiji go, because this is how it should be. Because he shouldn’t have even tried going to Japan. All the soft kisses and touches and embraces they shared after that night shouldn’t have happened. He shouldn’t have let himself attached to Eiji, but…

 Their souls would always be connected.

 –

Eiji knows he has a problem, he thinks, staring at Ash’s computer, but how was he supposed to let Ash go if his soul would always be with him?

 He still remembers the day he knew Ash had died. He still remembers how much he had hated Lao and how much he still has.

 But… he knows he can’t keep hiding Ash’s pictures forever. Because…

 Ash is alive inside his soul, after all

[searchforthescars]

Litany - Chapter 10/12

Hi, guys! I’m stressed about the first week of class, so here’s a thing to distract me.

@bombshellsandbluebells lent her stellar editing talents to this piece so thank her for helping me <3

Also on Ao3

We were inside the train car when I started to cry. You were crying too, smiling and crying in a way that made me even more hysterical. You said I could have anything I wanted, but I just couldn’t say it out loud. Actually, you said Love, for you, is larger than the usual romantic love. It’s like a religion. It’s terrifying. No one will ever want to sleep with you.

Then

“Otan!” Emori shouts, banging her way into the basement, nearly falling down the last two steps, her feet sliding in her too-big boots. “Otan, get your ass out of bed! I hit the jackpot!”

“‘S too early,” Otan grumbles, pulling the moth-eaten blanket over his head. “Why are you so loud?”

“I’m not loud,” Emori says. “You’re hungover.” She pulls out a package of day-old buns and a jar of generic peanut butter. “I got breakfast!”

“Breakfast?” Otan sat up. “Thought we didn’t have money for that.”

Emori shrugs. “Made a deal.”

Otan looks at her mistrustfully, but shuffles out of bed nonetheless, wrapping the blanket around his shoulders like a cape. She slaps some peanut butter on a roll and takes a big bite, hoping it will soothe the ache in her stomach.

“Don’t forget about me,” Otan grumbles.

Emori give him a cheeky smile. “Couldn’t if I tried,” she mumbles around a mouthful. “Make your own breakfast. And clean up. You smell like alcohol.”

Now

Otan seems to know that Emori is going to leave, even before she says anything.

“I kinda figured,” he says gently, ruffling her hair. “This life isn’t yours anymore, Em. I don’t know if jail did something to you, or if it was that kid, but…” He trails off, stares past her for a long moment. “You belong somewhere else now.”

Tears fill her eyes. She wraps her arms around her torso to keep herself from breaking. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Otan stuffs his hands in his pockets - a boyish, uncomfortable gesture. “I left you first.”

It hangs there. Brother and sister regard one another. Emori wants to hug him, but something in her balks at the idea. She can tell he wants to say something, but he won’t. Neither of them ever do.

She shoulders her backpack. She’s wearing John’s thermal sweatshirt. The fabric chafes against her neck. The sleeve bulges awkwardly over her bad hand. “I’ll call you,” she says softly.

Otan nods. She turns to the door. This feels final, like a door closing, a lock twisting shut and rusting there.

“Try not to forget about me,” Otan says suddenly, an echo of a past life, of a girl she supposes she isn’t anymore.

She smiles, carefully, but she doesn’t look back. “Couldn’t if I tried.”

John is standing outside the apartment building, pacing back and forth, running his hands through his hair. It’s shorter now, and he has more facial hair. It’s not a bad look, all things considered. She hopes it means that he’s taking care of himself, even though she knows there’s a high possibility that Raven just sat him down and chopped off his hair with safety scissors.

That’s not a bad idea, she thinks, absently fingering the dry ends of her long hair. Then, John turns to look at her, and she can’t think at all.

“Hey,” he says in a tone trying too hard to be casual. Despite herself, she feels a grin creep over her face. “What?”

“You came,” she says softly. “I didn’t-”

She’s about to say something else, but before she can take a breath, he’s running to her, sweeping one of her arms up over his shoulder and wrapping her in a hug.

“John,” she gasps, burying her face in his shoulder. His arms are tight around her, one around her shoulders and the other around her waist. She can feel him shaking.

“It’s okay,” she murmurs in his ear, squeezing his shoulder. “I’m okay.”

He nods into her shirt, then pulls away to look down at her. “Where’s your jacket?”

She curls her good hand into his sweatshirt that she’s wearing. “This is warm enough.”

He scoffs, shakes his head and starts shrugging off his coat. When he offers it to her, he doesn’t meet her eyes, but she puts it on anyway.

There’s a wall that’s gone up between them, swift and sudden. As quickly as he embraced her, he has shut her out. She fights the urge to do the same, instead choosing to lead him toward the train station, her backpack swishing against the cool nylon of John’s jacket.

They stand on the elevated platform nearly shoulder-to-shoulder. A neon sign hanging from the ceiling announces that their train is 30 minutes away and apt to be delayed because of an incoming storm. There’s a few people milling around, hiding in the shadows, sitting under the overhang, afraid of the promised rain.

A gust of wind blows through, whipping around the platform. Beside her, John stiffens, shivers. His closeness is terrifying; she has to stop herself from leaning into his warmth. His eyes are closed against the cold wind. When he opens them, they’re bright, as if with tears.

“What are you thinking about?” she asks, her voice creaking like broken floorboards. “What’s wrong?”

He looks away from her. “Nothing.” He shivers again.

“Do you want your jacket back?” she asks, already preparing to shrug it off.

“I don’t-” he starts to snap, then catches himself. “No.”

Impatience and anger rear their ugly heads in her. “What’s your problem, John?” she asks.

“Nothing!” His eyes are scared, his posture defensive. As thunder rumbles overhead, she realizes that he is afraid of her.

She backs up, standing under the overhang as rain starts to drizzle over them. John follows her, shoving his hands in his pockets so hard she’s surprised a seam doesn’t rip.

“John,” she says again, stepping forward and ducking to meet his eyes. “John, talk to me.”

“You can’t just stay when it works for you,” he says softly. His eyes are still bitter, but there’s sadness behind the blue fire. “You can’t come back and leave whenever you want. You freaked Raven out. Jasper missed you.”

“Oh, sure, this is about Raven and Jasper,” Emori scoffs. There’s a fist closing around her lungs. It’s wringing the life from them slowly but surely. “It couldn’t possibly be about you.”

“Shut up!” John shouts. She flinches back, and two bystanders turn to stare. The rain comes down harder. “You don’t get to blame this on me! You left me!”

“And now you’re punishing me for it?” Emori cries. “You said you understood! You said you wanted me to come home!”

“I didn’t say I’d make it easy,” he growls, taking a hasty step forward so they’re chest-to-chest. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t hate you for it.”

“Tell me to leave, John,” she breathes. Beg me to stay.

He kisses her instead. When they break apart, he makes a sound like a wounded animal. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re going to have to figure your shit out,” she whispers, her head spinning, her lips still feeling the ghost of his mouth. “I won’t let you talk to me like that again.”

He smirks down at her. “You going to punish me?”

The rain is pouring down now, soaking the pavement and sending wafts of mist under the overhang. Emori sees beads of it shimmering on her glove when she shoves his chest. “Shut up, John.”

He catches her bad hand, holds it close, lifts it to cup his cheek and kiss the wrapped palm. She feels her face fall and her eyes harden. “Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what?” John asks, kissing the palm again.

“That.” She tugs her hand free.

“It deserves love too,” he murmurs, reaching for her good hand. Emori doesn’t know what to say to that, so she says nothing. Instead, she takes off John’s jacket and hands it to him. She steps back into the rain, tips her head up to the sky, and lets the cold water sting her face like tears.

“You’re crazy!” John shouts. She tilts her head down to look at him. Her hair plasters to her cheeks. “Emori, get back here!”

“Or what?” She spins in the rain, laughing. Later, she’ll be freezing, shivering and desperate for warmth, but right now, she craves the cold.

I’m going to be okay, she tells herself as the train roars past, its push and pull of wind soaking her even more. This will all be okay.

They both cry on the train on the way home. Emori, from joy, the salt dripping into her mouth, mixing with the rain falling from her hair; John for reasons she doesn’t understand.

“What’s wrong?” she asks him, breathless, her tears giving way to a kind of soft joy.

He wipes his eyes, though there are no tears. He cries like she used to: silent and without a trace. “If you say ‘nothing’,” Emori says, teasing, “I’ll kick you into tomorrow.”

“I don’t know,” he says softly. The train is dark and empty. Rain lashes at the windows. Emori scoots over to be nearer to him. Despite her wet clothes, he leans on her shoulder.

“Love, for you,” he murmurs, almost to himself, “isn’t the usual kind of love. It’s like a religion. It’s terrifying. No one will ever want to sleep with you.”

She frowns. As if of its own accord, her good hand flies up to stroke his hair. “I scare you.” She means it as a question. It sounds more like an accusation.

He doesn’t hesitate. “Yeah.”

She sighs. He stays there, on her shoulder. Her arm starts to go numb. She doesn’t ask him to move.

When they pull into the station outside their college campus - is it still hers, Emori wonders; is any of this still hers? - Raven is there, leaning against the hood of Bellamy’s car, arms crossed, good foot tapping on the ground. Her shadow is harsh in the street lamp above her. At the sight, Emori feels the knot in her stomach tense and tighten.

This is it, she tells herself as she shoulders her bag and shakes John awake. She won���t let me come home. Emails be damned.

Home. She nearly shakes herself, self-corrects. Come back.

“Hey, Reyes,” John says easily, not even flinching when Raven rockets straight past him to wrap Emori in a bruising hug.

“Don’t ever fucking scare me like that again,” Raven murmurs, rubbing Emori’s back with her hand.

Emori fights the urge to rest her forehead on Raven’s shoulder and cry. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, and waits for the rejection.

Raven pulls back just slightly and brushes a strand of hair from Emori’s face. “It’s okay. You’re home now. Lexa wanted to go through your stuff for clues, but I drew the line.”

John rolls his eyes. “You were this close to doing it, too.”

Raven shrugs. “Just wanted to make sure she was okay-“ She stops and twirls a lock of Emori’s hair in her fingers. “Wait, why are you wet?”

John snorts. Emori starts to explain, but is cut off when Raven hugs her again, then ushers her toward the car.

“Tell me later,” she says, fussing just like Otan would, like Bellamy would too, probably. “We need to get you dry.”

John mutters something Emori doesn’t hear. Raven does; she turns around in her seat and smacks him on the leg. John kicks her seat, and Emori retaliates by throwing the tissue box on the floor near her feet at John’s torso.

“I’ll have to tell Bellamy I did end up needing a car tissue box,” Raven says drily, and the three of them speed home. 

“Why did you leave?”

Emori jumps at the sound of Octavia’s voice. She’s standing in the doorway, arms crossed loosely over her chest. “Everyone was worried. You had all of this, and you threw it away. Why?”

Emori sighs and kicks her now-empty backpack under the bed. “It’s a long story,” she sighs.

“Is it?” Octavia steps into the room. She and Emori are about the same height, but there’s something about the younger girl that makes her seem that much more imposing. “Because from where I stand, you put yourself ahead of the people that love you enough to want to keep you here.”

Emori takes a careful step forward. “You’re telling me you wouldn’t have done the same if it was your brother?” Octavia frowns. “If it was Bellamy?”

“Bellamy wouldn’t have asked me to,” Octavia nearly snarls.

“That’s the point!” Emori shouts. “You have no fucking idea how damn lucky you are! Your brother would do anything for you.” She remembers Bellamy’s tirade in the alley, his furious face inches from her brother’s impassive eyes. “He would never leave you; he would never ask you to forget about the things you want to help him fix his mistakes.”

She’s run out of tears, but her throat feels tight as if she’s about to cry. “You don’t understand,” she says softly, a broken thing. Octavia’s eyes soften incrementally the longer she stands there.

“I’m sure your brother loves you,” Octavia says quietly. She looks chastised, or at least a little guilty. “In his own way.”

“He does.” Emori nods, sniffles a little bit. “But…”

Octavia cocks her head. A frown creases the skin between her eyes. Behind her, Emori sees another person’s shadow, hovering in the hall.

“He didn’t choose me,” Emori says, finally, throat tight. “There was something he wanted more.”

There’s nothing left to say. Octavia leaves the room with a soft sound that Emori doesn’t have the energy to identify.

The shadow in the hall is Bellamy’s. He enters the room quietly, gently. “I told her not to talk to you like that,” he says, apologetically.

Emori shakes her head. The lump in her throat widens. “It’s okay.”

“That was nice,” Bellamy gestures to the room, “what you said about me.”

“It’s true.” Emori’s voice cracks, because what wouldn’t she give for her brother to care just a little bit more and in a little bit of a different way?

“Oh, come here,” Bellamy murmurs, reaching for Emori, hugging her by the shoulders and letting her sniffle, once, into the soft cotton of his shirt. “It’s okay.”

She doesn’t have words for the comfort she needs, but Bellamy doesn’t seem to mind. She closes her eyes and tentatively hugs him back, her arms around his torso.

“Aww, you didn’t invite me?” Raven leans against the doorframe, grinning slightly. Bellamy reaches his free arm out for Raven, who joins the hug, resting her chin on Emori’s shoulder and placing her hand carefully atop Emori’s bad one.

“You okay?” she murmurs in Emori’s ear. When Emori nods, Raven squeezes her hand. “We’ve got you.”

“Damn right.” Emori can’t see over Raven’s head, but she knows that’s Jasper, and, judging from the footsteps, Monty too. The boys join the group hug, hanging on even when Bellamy staggers forward under Jasper’s exuberant weight.

Emori has to laugh at Bellamy’s soft oof. “I’m fine,” she says softly.

“We know,” Monty says, patting her awkwardly on the head, the only part of her he can reach. “Doesn’t mean we can’t be here for you anyway.”

Emori doesn’t know what to say to that either. She stands there, encased in a knot of her roommates’ love and care, and lets them decide when to let go.

Something has shifted in the house’s atmosphere. It’s as if Emori’s absence, however short, has torn a hole in things that is now mending. Emori isn’t sure how true that is, but she is sure that there have never been this many people in the kitchen at one time.

“Get out!” John shoves Bellamy away from the fridge. “Sit down on the bar stool next to Emori or get the fuck out of my way. Your choice.”

Bellamy retrieves a beer and hastens to the living room, where Octavia, Monty, Jasper and Luna are duking it out over Mario Kart. Emori smiles at John when his back is to her. Lexa lets herself in from the backyard and gives Emori a knowing look.

“You two would be cute together,” Lexa whispers in Emori’s ear. Emori swats her on the arm without thinking about it; Lexa’s surprised laugh carries through the whole house as she goes to answer the door.

“Huh, what do you know?” a young man asks, kicking off his shoes and dropping a bag of potato chips on the counter. “She does have a personality.”

“Leave her alone,” John says, and then proceeds to glare at his back until he plops down on the rug in front of the TV.

“Who is he?” Emori asks, frowning.

“That’s Zeke Shaw.” The name sounds mean in John’s mouth. “I think he’s into Raven.”

“He’s cute.” Emori appraises him. His eyes are earnest and he has the set jaw and close-cut hair of a military man. He looks like he could handle Raven, or at least, make sure she can handle herself. “Objectively.”

“Well, yeah, but…” John sighs. The kitchen timer goes off. “I don’t want her to get hurt. Again.”

The set of his shoulders tell her the same sentiment applies to himself.

“I met Zeke when I came to find you in the city.”

Emori jumps at the sound of John’s voice from the bathroom doorway. She spits some toothpaste in the sink and rinses her toothbrush. “Oh.”

“I saw you watching him,” he clarifies. “Figured you should know he’s not a total stranger.”

“Only a slight stranger, then,” Emori says, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. John doesn’t return it, so she lets it drop and bends over to put away her toothpaste and hide the sadness of her eyes.

He won’t forgive you, she tells herself. Stop trying to earn it.

“Do you regret coming for me?” she asks, voice small, echoing slightly in the bathroom. She remembers holding herself up, arms stiff, mouth bitter, and remembers him tucking her into bed, holding her, lending her his shirt and some of his strength.

Her stomach rolls at the memory. That was where all the horrible things began.

“No,” John whispers, like it’s a bitter confession. “I don’t.” He laughs, sharp. “I probably should. But I don’t.”

She regards him in the mirror. It’s safer that way, a pane of glass separating the two of them, their words and all the things that split them before they even had a chance to come together.

“Can we start over?” John asks, in a rush. That question, and her answer, goes against both of their nature.

“Yes,” she says, and he smiles.

“You know,” Raven begins around a mouthful of food, “you’re pretty good at that.”

Emori looks up from Monty’s laptop. Or, at least, the shell of it. She’s installing a hard drive with more storage, although, from the looks of it, she should probably just build him his own gaming computer. “Oh. Thanks.”

“You should take a computer engineering class,” Raven continues, either undeterred by, or oblivious to, Emori’s standoffish reaction. “You wouldn’t be half bad.”

Emori gestures with her bad hand. “Can’t fix things properly with this.”

Raven raises an eyebrow. “You’re using it fine now.” She shrugs. “I walk funny. People might stare, but it doesn’t stop me. It shouldn’t stop you either.”

Emori blinks. She’d never considered that: that her appearance may not immediately disqualify her from something. After all, it had disqualified her from her mother’s love and from belonging. But maybe…

“Sure,” she says, genuinely. “I’ll look into it.”

Raven grins. “Hell, yeah.”

She does look into it. Fall turns into almost-winter, and she thinks and plans and crams for finals and works long nights to make sure she catches up from her unplanned hiatus. She even goes on a couple dates with John. They turn out better than the first one did; he takes her to the park for a chilly picnic, and they get tipsy and crunch fall leaves in their hands, their conversation evaporating with their breath in the air. He takes her dancing at some lame college event, and she surprises him, and herself, by wearing a dress.

Her favorite date is right before finals season: they stay in his room, and she helps him write out more poems to tape to his walls. There’s something strangely permanent about her writing in his space.

Love, for you, she writes, as careful as she can, is not the usual kind of love. It’s like a religion. It’s terrifying. No one will ever want to sleep with you.

He hangs that above his bed. Later, he kisses her as they lay below it.

The closer it gets to Thanksgiving, the more tense the house gets, thanks to finals and finals-induced stress. Jasper and Monty are at one another’s throats, John cuts back on the drinking to concentrate, but makes everyone miserable because of it, and Emori takes to sleeping in Raven’s room so Raven actually goes to bed at a halfway decent time.

“I like you,” Raven mumbles, half asleep. The clock reads 3:14 p.m. “You’re a good kid.”

Emori laughs drowsily. “I’m older than you.”

“Fuck if I know,” Raven says around a yawn. Emori’s heart warms.

The three-day break for the holiday is a welcome reprieve; even Jasper, an underachiever by his own admission, welcomes the break from studying. John wants to celebrate with a party, but they’re all so wiped out that they spend the day before Thanksgiving napping and watching the worst-rated movies on Netflix.

Emori didn’t even think they were going to celebrate the holiday until John hauls a massive turkey out of the freezer the night before.

“What...the fuck?” Octavia asks, eyes wide. “When did you buy a turkey?”

John shrugs. “You know. Whenever.”

“That’s Not an answer,” Octavia says. “And yes-”

“The capital letters are implied in your tone,” Raven and Lexa say in unison and in monotone. Emori hides a smile. Some things never change.

John bastes and roasts the turkey. Every time he says the turkey is roasting, Raven gets a shit-eating grin on her face that Octavia tries to wipe off by throwing pillows, papers and a magazine at her head. At some point between breakfast and a half-hearted lunch, Harper, Zeke, Luna and Bellamy come over, bearing mashed potatoes, corn casserole, green beans and pumpkin pie, respectively.

“What is that?” Lexa asks, poking Zeke’s glass pan with a finger.

“Corn casserole,” Zeke says, his head inside the fridge.

“Corn what?”

His head pops up almost comically fast. “You don’t know what corn casserole is?!” Lexa shakes her head. “Shame,” Zeke mutters, and spends the next five minutes unsuccessfully attempting to open his beer.

Monty tries to steal John’s steak knives three separate times. The fourth time, he succeeds, and Emori can’t suppress her laughter at John’s howl of rage when he sees his prize knife strapped to the roomba.

“GIVE ME THE KNIFE BACK!” he shouts. “Monty, I’m gonna drop-kick that piece of shit out the front door.”

“Hey!” Jasper picks up the object and cradles it to his chest dramatically. “Don’t insult Stabby.”

“If you call that thing ‘Stabby’ one more time, I’m gonna take you out,” Harper promises, stepping over Jasper and plopping onto the couch next to Monty. Emori wiggles her eyebrows at Raven over Monty’s head when the boy’s cheeks start to flush.

John doesn’t stop fussing over the turkey until Bellamy steals his apron and baster and shoos him out of the kitchen to set the table. He does, in proper form no less, and Emori sneaks behind him and messes up the silverware until John catches her.

“Saboteur,” he calls her, grabbing her around the middle and tickling her sides.

“John, stop!” she says, laughing, squirming away from him and nearly smacking her shoulder on the peninsula. She knocks over one of the bar stools and almost kicks a passing Zeke in the shins. “Seriously!”

John releases her just as the doorbell rings. “How many more people can we fit in this house?” he wonders aloud as Bellamy goes to answer the door.

“How many people can we fit at this table?” Lexa asks, gesturing to the makeshift banquet table that consists of the dining room table, two card tables, a large coffee table with cushions for sitting, and Raven’s desk.

“Hopefully three more,” Bellamy says, leading Echo, Clarke Griffin and Costia into the house. Echo immediately gravitates to Raven and Harper, while Clarke stays close to Bellamy and Costia hovers near John’s elbow as he carves the turkey.

“Can I have a drumstick?” she asks John, who nods. “I can help if you want.”

“That’s Emori’s man, Costia,” Octavia yells over her brother’s shoulder. “You’ve got your own woman!”

“And a fine one I am,” Lexa snarks. Luna swats at her. “What? I’m hot.”

Somehow, Bellamy and John navigate the chaos and get everyone settled at the table. They pause for grace - mostly for Zeke, Raven grumbles - then dig in. Emori stuffs herself on turkey and cranberries - and Zeke’s casserole, which isn’t half bad - and on the laughter and kindness of her friends that fills her to the brim.

“I want to try something,” John says softly, his head resting on her stomach. They’re in her bed, nestled under blankets, watching the first snow of the season from her window.

“Okay,” she murmurs, continuing to card her good fingers through John’s hair. When he lifts his head, her hand falls from the top of his head to the nape of his neck. “Whatever you want.”

He kisses her, soft, and she lets him; she tangles her good fingers in his hair again, but lets out a tiny huff of breath when his tongue swipes over her bottom lip.

“Sorry-” he says, breaking away. “I didn’t-”

“You’re fine!” she’s fast to reassure him. It’s like ripping off a BandAid, she realizes. “I wasn’t expecting it.”

“I said I wanted to try something,” he says, grumpy and cheeky.

She shoves at his shoulder as he moves closer. “Shut up,” she says, but she’s laughing right until the moment their lips connect. This time, he deepens the kiss almost instantly, and she lets him. She loses herself in it, in the soft way he bites at her lower lip, the careful press of his tongue, the gasp he makes when she sighs against his mouth.

“That was nice,” she murmurs when he breaks away, propping himself on his elbow and looking down at her. His hand strokes over her hair. “What was it for?”

He shrugs. Suddenly, he can’t meet her eyes. “What if you leave again?” he says, softly, the guilt in his eyes at that question palpable. “I want to do the things I regret not doing.” He winces. “That’s so fucking cheesy.”

Emori shakes her head. “No,” she whispers, shame and sadness piercing her heart. “It’s not.”

[ianfaulkner1-blog]

By Roxanne Reid The stories of Africa’s trees are also tales of its people and animals, from Herman Charles Bosman’s withaak to Rudyard Kipling’s Limpopo fever tree. Think baobabs that are 6 000 years old or marula trees long believed to have elephants stumbling away drunk. In these 10 stories about trees in Africa let’s root out the fables, facts and fictions about some remarkable African trees.

​1. Baobab bar The Sunland baobab in Limpopo is one of the world’s widest; about 30 people could join hands around its trunk. Radio carbon dating suggests parts of it are more than 1700 years old. Old baobabs become hollow and in 1993 Doug and Heather van Heerden, who own the farm where it stands, cleared out the compost build-up in the hollow. They discovered Bushman artefacts and tools that Voortrekkers used to fix their ox wagons. They turned the hollow space into a pub complete with door, railway sleeper bar and draft beer. ‘We’ve had 60 people inside the pub at once,’ says Heather, ‘but a big branch broke so now it’s open plan.’ In April 2017 another part of the trunk collapsed, though the oldest wood is still standing. ‘We’re hoping the broken trunk will start to grow again.’ Where: Sunland Farm, Modjadjiskloof, Limpopo. Sadly, as of May 2019 it is no longer open to the public. Factfile: Baobabs flower on spring nights and bats pollinate them.

2. Circles in a forest If you visit the indigenous Knysna forests on South Africa’s Garden Route you’ll understand what inspired Dalene Matthee’s book Circles in a Forest. Ahead of his time, her character Saul Barnard worries about the forest’s survival and the exploitative greed of timber merchants. Matthee died in 2005 and her ashes were scattered at a monument near an 880-year-old Outeniqua yellowwood. The tree towers above the canopy and Saul would be pleased to know it is now protected as a Champion Tree, which may not be damaged in any way. Walk one of the ‘Circles in a Forest’ trails nearby to immerse yourself in the forest atmosphere. Where: Krisjan se Nek picnic site, Goudveld Forest, Knysna. Factfile: Outeniqua yellowwood is South Africa’s tallest species, reaching up to 60m. In the past, the trees were used for ship’s masts. 3. Wonder tree The Wonderboom is a 1000-year-old giant wild fig. Over time its branches drooped to the ground and took root to form a circle of 13 daughter trunks – something not typical of the species. Voortrekkers rested under it in the 1830s. In her 1882 book In the Land of Misfortune Lady Florence Dixie noted that more than 22 ox-wagons and hundreds of people could shelter under it. The mother tree suffered some damage in the early 1900s when people dug holes looking for the Kruger millions. Today its crown is the largest of any South African tree – about half the length of a rugby field. It has been declared a Champion Tree in a Department of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries project that protects notable trees. Where: Wonderboom Nature Reserve, Pretoria. Factfile: Local legend claims it’s so huge because a tribal chief is buried under it. The summer fruits turn yellowish-pink when ripe. 4. Safe house poplar A skinny Lombardy poplar outside the safe house belonging to Ruth Fischer Rice was a beacon of hope for people on the run during apartheid. Ruth’s father, activist Bram Fischer, led the legal team that defended Nelson Mandela and his co-defendants during the 1963/4 Rivonia Trial. Although the prosecution wanted the death penalty, the team secured a sentence of life in prison. This changed the course of history, allowing Mandela to become South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994. ‘The people who stayed with us were mainly young men and a few young women referred to us by people we knew,’ Ruth remembers. ‘Some stayed for several months. There was surveillance but we were never raided. A storm-water drain ran from our street to the neighbouring [Johannesburg] Country Club, through which our son could lead anyone who needed to escape.’  ​Where: Corner of Lothbury and Fawley avenues, Auckland Park, Johannesburg. Factfile: The poplar tree is a fast-growing alien that sends out suckers – even from the stump after it is cut down.

5. Spring glory Zimbabwe’s musasa trees (also known as igonde, msasa and mutsatsa) drop their leaves in winter. Then, for just three weeks each September, the new leaves create a blaze of colour before they turn green for summer. ‘They are a variety of tones from palest blush to burnt orange and burgundy, with gold and reds in between,’ says artist Lin Barrie, who completed a series of paintings inspired by this spring colour. ‘Musasas were part of my early bush experiences, with branches to climb on, colour to marvel at and carpets of flowers and mushrooms beneath. My father was a keen walker and birder and as a child I often went with him on excursions to the musasas. They were the backdrop for birds like spotted creepers, owls and pennant-winged nightjars.’ Lin’s oils and acrylics of natural scenes are in collections around the world. Where: Mukuvisi Woodlands in Harare, Zimbabwe, in September. You can see permanent displays of Lin Barrie’s art at her studio in Borrowdale Brooke Estate, Harare, or at the Cape Gallery in Church Street, Cape Town. Factfile: The orange caterpillars of the musasa moth appear in masses in March to feed on the trees. 6. The lion fig ‘Just north of Busanga Bush Camp in Zambia’s Kafue National Park lies an enormous sycamore fig tree on elevated ground,’ says safari guide Isaac Kalio. ‘The local tree-climbing Busanga lion pride likes to rest in the horizontal branches, so although it’s a beautiful picnic spot you first have to check who’s there! It produces four fruit crops a year that attract many animals. Tiny wasps breed inside the fruit and are in charge of pollination. The sycamore fig has been incorporated into Zambian teaching about HIV/AIDS because just as you can’t tell by looking at the outside of the fruit if it contains insects, you can’t tell by looking at someone’s face if they are HIV positive.’ Sad news is that this particular sycamore fig tree at Busanga fell in April 2019. Where: 500m north of Busanga Bush Camp, Kafue National Park, Zambia. Factfile: The genus is 60 million years old and the sycamore fig was mentioned in the bible.

7. Symbols and stamps The quiver tree is Namibia’s national tree and a symbol of the south, where it grows in rocky areas of desert and semi-desert. It got its name in the 17th century when Dutch Cape colony governor Simon van der Stel learnt that the San hollowed out its tube-like branches to make quivers to stash their poisoned arrows during the hunt. The trunks of dead quiver trees were also used as natural fridges to store water and meat because the fibrous tissue has a cooling effect as air passes through it. A member of the aloe family, it is protected in Namibia. It featured on Namibian postage stamps five times between 1961 and 2010 and appears on the Namibian 50c coin. Quiver trees were declared endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2010. Where: Quiver tree forest 14km northeast of Keetmanshoop, Namibia. Factfile: The quiver tree can live 100-200 years but only starts flowering at 20-30 years and has bright yellow flowers in winter. It is well adapted to hot, dry climates but coming under increasing threat from climate change.

‘Yes, there on the grass, in the shade of the withaak, the leopard and I lay down together. The leopard lay half curled up, like a dog, and whenever I tried to move away, he grunted. I am sure that in the whole history of the Groot Marico there have never been two stranger companions engaged in the thankless task of looking for strayed cattle.’ Herman Charles Bosman, In the Withaak’s Shade ​

8. Oom Schalk’s tree When Herman Charles Bosman’s character, Oom Schalk Lourens, lay down to rest in the shade of a withaak (white thorn) tree while supposedly looking for lost cattle, he imagined the tip of his boot was a hill called Abjaterskop. Before long a leopard appeared on the hill and started sniffing his feet. Its breath swept over his face in hot gasps as he lay paralysed with fear. Then the leopard turned and lay down next to him half curled up like a dog. Bosman’s deceptively simple satire brings alive the scenes and characters of the hardcore bushveld and mampoer country of the Groot Marico. Sadly, this story from Mafeking Road ends with a red splash on the leopard’s breast from a Mauser bullet. Where: North of Groot-Marico town, North West. Visit the Bosman literary festival each October at the Bosman Living Museum in Groot-Marico, a replica of the school where Bosman taught in the 1920s. Factfile: The long thorns are whitish or bluish in colour, giving rise to the dual names of withaak (Afrikaans for white thorn) and blue thorn/blouhaak. White spiky flowers appear from August to October.

9. The manhood tree The most noticeable thing about the sausage tree is its sausage-shaped fruit, which can grow as long as your arm and weigh up to 10kg. ‘In some parts of Africa, people use the fruits to enlarge their manhood,’ says safari guide Livingstone Sana. ‘With the instruction of a traditional healer, a boy climbs up the tree and chooses a young fruit. He cuts a round hole in it to mark his size then leaves the fruit to grow. When it gets to the right size he climbs the tree again and cuts the fruit down without touching it so that it doesn’t continue growing too big.’ Where: Just north of Little Makolololo Camp, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. Factfile: The flowers, which open at night, have an unpleasant smell that attracts bats to pollinate them. 10. The tree of life The marula is called the tree of life for its many uses from food to medicine. ‘It’s a photographer’s best friend in summer when leopards climb it for shade,’ says Londolozi ranger Alistair Smith. ‘The growth structure provides comfortable platforms for them to rest. Other animals almost guaranteed to be near a summer-fruiting marula are elephants. Once they’ve eaten the fruit off the ground they often shake the tree so more crashes down.’ He adds, ‘Male and female parts are on different trees so Shangaan people believe a pregnant woman who wants a daughter should drink tea made from the bark of a female tree; for a son, she drinks tea made from the male tree.’ Where: Londolozi in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve, Mpumalanga. Factfile: The green African moon moth breeds on the tree. The fruit is made into beer and the ever-popular Amarula liqueur. That the fruit makes elephants drunk is a myth. Note: This article first appeared in British Airways’ High Life magazine with wonderful watercolour illustrations by Hazel Buchan. Like it? Pin this image!

You may also enjoy Magical treehouse in the Baviaanskloof Voices of Botswana: the tree man of Ngoma Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za