#I say this but they figured out the basic snap trap so I had to buy the plastic kind with the easier to trip trigger

[doberbutts]

I would feel bad for the mice that get caught in my traps if it were not for the fact that I have now killed 3 in the span of 2 hours to the same trap. I feel like if you keep sending members of your family out to forage for food and they keep going "ooo! Yummy peanut butter :)" to the same very obvious trap in the same location, at some point that's kind of on you.

So now my reaction to walking into the room and seeing the exact same trap with yet another mouse inside is "...idiot" instead of "poor thing".

[sunflowerwinds]

OKAY I really love your sevika fics and your pinned says requests open and I apologize if THIS IS WEIRD but I have an idea - thigh riding with sevika CAUSE LIKE SHE HAS 😭 REALLYNICE THIGHS LIKE REALLY NICE THEYRE SO MUSCLY oooooh

a little help | s.a

summary: you’ve been feeling a bit more self conscious about your body which seems noticed by sevika. you agree to help her workout but what you don’t expect is to get something out of it too.

pairing: fem!reader x sevika arcane

contains: mature content (18+) MEN & MINORS DNI, talks of body image and weight insecurity, restricting food consumption (only happens once), smut including thigh riding (as requested 🫣), shower sex, fingering (r!receiving), body worship, SO MUCH PRAISE!!!

word count: 3.7K

a/n: i sort self inserted due to the fact that i wrote this when i was extremely insecure. i hope everyone enjoys! thank you angels <3

When Sevika asked you to help her ‘workout’, you assumed that meant just being her spotter at her little makeshift gym in your home.

As you stepped into said gym in your basic loungewear, you glanced over at Sevika’s stretching figure. Your eyes linger down her revealed toned body, a cropped tank top covering half of her torso and a pair of running shorts hugging her bottom half.

You were shamelessly gawking at her toned figure but snapped back into reality when you heard her clear her throat. Your eyes shot to hers, your cheeks hot from the attention.

“You ready?” Sevika hums as she flexes her open-finger gloved hands.

You nod but your brows furrow before pointing at the different equipment setups.

“Where do you want to start?”

Sevika motioned to the flat weight bench, tilting her head at you.

“Hip thrusts, baby,” she leans down to peck your lips. “It’s leg day.”

You glance at her legs subconsciously, admiring her tight and toned quads. You swore leg day was every day with how perfect her legs looked but you wouldn’t argue. The day that happens, you’d hoped someone would shoot you.

You wait patiently for her to grab her barbell but when she doesn’t move, you frown.

“Do you want… me to grab it?” You point to the silver bar, on the verge of moving your feet.

Sevika shakes her head and holds her hand out to signal for you to stop. You were confused. Why did she want you here?

As Sevika situates herself in the hip thrust position on the flat bench, she grins at you as she pats one of her thighs: “You’re going to be my weight today.”

You stare at her, the heat in your cheeks heightens in temperature.

“What?” Your voice is soft, uncertain of what you heard.

Sevika, annoyingly cocky, glances down her lap, eyebrows raising at your taken-aback state.

“You heard me. Come on, baby.”

You hesitantly stride over to her, now up close and personal with your girlfriend. Your eyes carefully trailed up for her strip of stomach, the intention of her abs and v-line making your head spin.

“I-I don’t know. Are you sure? I don’t want to hurt you.”

Sevika couldn’t help but chuckle at your words. A frown settles on your lips at her soft laughter.

You have been having a lot of weight and body image issues lately. It came and left in waves; attacking you when you least expected it. You always tried to hide it from Sevika, knowing how she would react. You were aware of the strength that Sevika held. It was obvious in her figure how much muscle she carried.

That, on most days, was enough reassurance that you weren’t too big for her. But on uncomfortable days like today, it was harder to see how she could be okay with how you look; that she truly enjoyed seeing you in this body you were trapped in.

You should’ve seen this coming as your first mistake was eating a much smaller breakfast than you usually did. Sevika had a permanently confused expression during the duration of you two eating together domestically at the dinner table.

“Everything okay, baby?” A simple question but her eyes were locked on the small portions on your plate.

You panicked as you were the worst liar in the world. Sevika knew this. She’s testing you, your mind shouted.

“No, yeah. I’m okay. Just not super hungry this morning,” you tell her as you look down at the plate, avoiding her intense gray eyes.

Sevika, everything but convinced, eyed you simply pushing around the fruit and eggs on your plate. After breakfast, Sevika became more touchy with you. It wasn’t helping as much as she thought it was.

It made you aware of the skin you were in and you wanted to burst into tears. You were relieved when she said she was going to change into her athleisure for a quick workout session.

Now, here you were just as afraid and self-conscious as before.

Sevika’s mechanical hand reaches for your waist, careful to not tug you too harshly, a more worried expression on her face.

“Angel, you won’t hurt me. Trust me.”

A lump settled in your throat. You didn’t mean to tense but you did the second she touched you. Sevika’s brows twitch at the sight but she’s patient with you. Carefully settling yourself on her lap, you place your hands on the exposed skin of her torso to steady yourself. You blush at the feeling of the muscles contracting at the touch.

Sevika assists you by holding your hips firmly. The cool metal sent shivers up your spine, staring down at her awaiting figure.

“I’m not too much, right?” You question insecurely.

“No,” she retorts, raising her brows as she begins to lower her hips so your body moves with her. “You are just right for me, baby.”

A heat trickles up your neck to your cheeks and the tip of your ears at the gentle praise Sevika is giving you. You weren’t really sure what to do in this position other than stare at your girlfriend underneath you. The sight of her abs contracting underneath your palms that were laid gently on the skin excited you in the most raunchiest way.

Was this view supposed to be so lewd? Or were you simply obsessed with her?

Both could be very true.

“See?” Sevika spoke up, snapping you out of your lust-driven stare. “This is easy. I could go all night with you on top of me. You should know this by now, my love.”

Gods, you swore your cheeks had a permanent blush burned into them from her alone. You knew she was referencing the many times you’ve blissfully rode her until you were shaking and begging for more, more, more. Sevika was more than cocky about that.

“Sev,” you shake your head, allowing yourself to take in the teasing that you knew was out of love.

The gray-eyed woman merely chuckles at your admirably shy state. No matter how many times she would praise you, kiss you, fuck you, you managed to be so timid around her. She knew the grasp she had on you but if you only could begin to understand the place in her heart she held for you.

She was more than elated to be able to constantly remind you of this. To be rid of those horrid thoughts that would make her perfect girl forget how much she means to her.

“If you could only see how beautiful you look. Not just right now, every single fucking day.”

Sevika’s hands, the cold contrasting with the warmth, lightly held you in your place as she continued to do her usual hip thrusts. There was not even a droplet of sweat on her body and you were in awe.

“You’re beautiful, too, Sev.” You try to discreetly shove the attention off of you.

It would never work in this situation.

“We’re not talking about me right now,” she shakes her head as she routinely does her hip thrusts, a soft grunt leaving her distracting lips.

“Doesn’t make it not true, though, baby,” you hum as a matter-of-factly.

The woman underneath you was an extremely expressive person. Her face said what her mouth didn’t so when you locked eyes with her after refusing the praise, you knew you were in for it.

Her gray eyes were dilated with what you could only assume was frustration. Guilt flooded your system as you opened your mouth, ready to say a thousand apologies.

“I’m so—”

Sevika cuts you off abruptly stopping her hip thrusts and a stern expression. “No. No sorries.”

“Sevika, I’m fine. You really didn’t have to do this.” You sigh and shake your head, feeling embarrassed once again that you were feeling so ridiculously insecure.

Sevika’s brows rise at your words, sniffling her nose as she shifts her hips so that you lean more on your weight on her lower abdomen. You let out a noise of surprise at the jolt and your hands now rest more on her ribcage.

She speaks gently, rubbing her both hands over your waist, and asks a simple one-word question: “Shower?”

The atmosphere in the bathroom was… eerily erotic. Sevika had detached her mechanic arm before the shower as she didn’t want it to rust so she was slowly removing her clothing with one hand now. You were reluctant to remove your own loungewear but you knew you couldn’t shower with your clothes on.

Sevika’s thick fingers hooked on the waistband of her shorts and leisurely tugged them down her meaty thighs. You blush as her underwear tugs down a bit to reveal her strip of hair above her pubic bone.

The shower head had already turned on, allowing the cool water to pass and the hot to follow. You took your time removing your pants, letting the fabric hit the ground along with Sevika’s. Your eyes catch her own as she tugs down her underwear now. She jerked her head towards her taller frame, hoping you’d come closer to her.

The two of you carefully removed each other’s clothing as you refrained from glancing at the slightly cracked mirror above the sink. Sevika, to no surprise, kept her gentle and loving composure as she traced her fingers over your skin after every removal of clothing.

Every stretch mark, bump, dots of cellulite, marks, and clumsy bruises was touched with worship. No one had spoken a single word through the entirety of it. You both hopped in the shower once the steam began to fog up the mirror, careful not to slip on the tub or curtain.

“What happened?” Sevika hums as she reaches for the soap.

You knew what she meant, pushing a few wet strands of hair out of your face. What triggered this rotten feeling?

“I don’t know. One of those days, I guess.” You respond with a sigh.

Sevika nods in understanding, squirting some of the soap on the loofah that was hanging on the small shower caddy.

“Do you think my scars are ugly?” Sevika questions, loofah in hand.

Your neck nearly breaks as you look up from the base of the tub to meet her mesmerizing gaze. You shook your head rapidly as your eyes followed the blue scars that began at the apple of her right cheek tracing down the side of her torso to her hip bone.

“No, of course not.” You frown.

“Why is it different for you then, baby? Hmm?” She questions as she begins to scrub at your neckline.

The question made you think for a moment. Sevika was patient with you as she continued to wash your upper body.

“It’s… easier to be mean to myself than nice,” you respond carefully looking up at her as you swallow the lump in your throat.

Sevika couldn’t believe her ears. Her eyes round with affliction at your words.

“Baby.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

Sevika shakes her head as she shushes you, scrubbing down your body with nothing but tenderness and consideration. You refrain from making eye contact with her, afraid you’ll burst into tears at the vulnerability.

“You always tell me that I don’t need to go through things alone. The same goes for you.”

You frown at her words, hit with the obvious hypocrisy. You couldn’t even conjure up an argument as she was right.

“It feels different,” you attempt as you watch her kneel down to scrub at your legs.

Sevika hummed a disapproving sound, glancing up at you as she stood back up on her feet. You avoid her eye line as you let the water rinse the suds of soap off of your body.

“Angel,” she sets the loofah aside, cupping your face with her hand. “You deserve to feel just as good about yourself and your body just as much as me. No matter what your mind is making you believe.”

You knew she was right. It is just so much easier to belittle yourself than to accept praise.

“I know. I’m… trying.”

Sevika leans down to kiss you gently, humming against your lips. You eagerly follow her lips reaching up to cup the sides of her neck.

“Baby, I love you,” she pulls away lightly to whisper against your lips breathily. “More than anything.”

“I love you more.” You whisper with a soft laugh, already feeling more joyful than just a few seconds ago.

Sevika beams at the clear sign of your mood changing, lifting you out of that evil lingering in your mind. You detach your lips with a soft smack to grab the loofah and start to scrub at her body just as she did yours. Sevika carefully watches you with attentive eyes.

As you scrub the thin layer of grime and sweat from her workout, trying your hardest to not get distracted by her sculpted figure. Sevika’s palm carefully moves down from your soft shoulders.

You shiver at the feeling of her thick fingers lingering down your body. You try not to make it obvious how much you wanted to shove her hand in between your legs but you inching forward into her body gave that away.

“You’re so beautiful, baby,” she praises as her fingers trace to the soft of your stomach.

You suck in a deep breath as you mutter a ‘thank you’ in response to the sweet words. Sevika leans in closer to you, your hand nearly dropping the loofah when she just barely brushes her fingers right above your cunt. Your eyes flutter as you angle your hips, looking up at her with a dazed look.

“Can you touch me please?” You whisper.

Sevika attempts to hide her glee but she smiles as she cranes her neck down to place long, loving kisses on the length of your neck. “Of course, baby. Just relax. Let yourself feel good for me, okay?”

You nod rapidly at the words as she uses her middle finger to tease through your folds. You gasp softly as Sevika carefully slides her thick finger into your warm cunt, the water from the shower head dripping down her strong forearm. It was surprisingly beautiful sightseeing her inside of you.

Your hips grind down on her finger as she slowly pumps the finger in and out of you. Goosebumps rose to your skin at the stretch of her, whimpering as she slid another finger into you. Her pointer and middle thrusts in and out of you, her lips littering every patch of skin she could access in lingering kisses.

“There you go. Just needed a reminder about how fucking beautiful you are, hmm?” Sevika breathily questions against your cheek, another sloppy kiss to your skin.

You nod at her words, a hand tightly gripping Sevika’s bicep to keep yourself grounded.

“Yeah, I did. I love the way you make me feel, baby,” you use your other hand to pull her into a soft kiss.

Sevika inhales deeply as she moves her lips against your own, greedily fucking her fingers into you. She couldn’t get enough of the addicting feeling of your walls clenching around her. You ghost your lips over hers to softly moan into her hot mouth.

You couldn’t believe how much she was reaching with just her fingers.

“Sevi, can I—” You shiver at the feeling of her curling her fingers inside of you, your moaning cutting you off. “Can I ride your thigh, please? Been thinkin’ about it since watching you workout earlier.”

The muscular woman lets out a low chuckle at the question, kissing your temple.

“How could I say no to my perfect girl?”

“You can,” you quip, muttering a curse under your breath as she picks up her pace.

Sevika smiles softly at your words, tilting her head to force eye contact with you. You flush underneath her stunning gray gaze, overwhelmed with the amount of love radiating from her eyes.

“Fuck, I love you,” she kisses you softly, heavy breathing against your lips.

You follow her lips with a soft ‘hmph’. “I love you, Sev.”

Sevika slows her fingers that were inside of you to carefully remove them. As much as you knew she had to take them out, you loathed the empty feeling.

She held her fingers up to her lips to suck off the arousal before the shower got to them.

Sevika could consume you until her last breath.

She helped adjust you so that her leg was placed in between your legs. You sigh at the pressure against your clit, the tight skin that you had been craving against your skin.

You shiver as you rut your aching clit on Sevika’s muscular thigh, hands gripping onto her broad shoulders. A low moan leaves your mouth as you try not to become too greedy with your movements. Sevika’s head buries itself into the crook of your neck, placing ever-so-soft kisses on the damp skin. The hot water was pattering and trickling down the length of her back.

She was holding you up solely by her leg strength, an encouraging palm on your waist.

“You’re so beautiful.” One kiss to the length of your neck. “My beautiful girl.” Another behind your ear.

You preen with a soft gasp as her grip tightens on you, helping you grind down on her thigh. Your hands glide up to cup underneath her jaw, silently begging to see her face. Sevika detaches her lips from your skin to press her lips to yours, humming against your mouth.

The smacking of your messy kisses and Sevika’s tongue swiping over yours and into your mouth caused your cunt to clench around nothing. Your legs were burning at this point from how much you were feverishly grinding your hips down on her.

“Baby,” you whine against her lips as you grip her face to keep her close to you.

“Yeah?” She taunts, brushing her lips hungrily on yours.

“I wanna cum. Please,” you beg.

There was a familiar tightening feeling in your gut, tilting your head back to rest against the tile as you shakily kept your movements going. Sevika stares down at you with a mix of love and lust, watching you get yourself off on her thigh.

So beautifully obscene for her.

“You can cum for me. You’re doing so good, angel.” She taunts, muttering a curse at the sight of your ruts weakening.

“Sevi, please.” You whine, becoming more and more frustrated.

Your orgasm was teasing at your lower spine as you tried to pick up the speed. The inner part of your thighs were burning now, eyes prickling with tears. Sevika places loving and long kisses all over the soft of your face.

“Okay, baby. Keep moving those perfect hips for me, okay? I’ll help grind them down so you can cum for me.”

The subtle sneaks of praise weren’t helping with your need to cum. She made you feel like the best version of yourself while learning to feel it on your own.

You mutter a breathy ‘okay’ as you keep going, nearly losing balance as you feel Sevika’s strong palm gripping your right hip. She, too, lifted her knee slightly upwards to apply more pressure to your aching clit. You moan loudly at the feeling, nodding rapidly at the pleasure.

“Fuck, you sound so pretty. My perfect girl.” Sevika lowly moans at the sight.

The water made your body glisten like a painting hung up in a museum. She shook her head in disbelief at how someone could be so many beautiful things all at once.

“So good to me, baby,” you whisper as you cup her neck.

“You deserve it. Every fucking good thing.” Sevika breathily pants as she listens for your moans pitch change.

Your hands loosen from her neck to completely wrap your arms around it, burying your face into the crook of her neck to silence your breathy and whiny moans. Sevika presses loving kisses on the side of your head as she continues to assist your hip movements.

“I’m gonna cum,” you pull away slightly to whimper in her ear.

Sevika felt a shiver run down the length of her broad back at the sound, eyes shutting to take it in. She continued to shower you with kisses along with the water that was lukewarm at this point.

“Yeah? Cum for me, baby. Cum all over my thigh for me.”

You hold onto her tightly as you whine against her slightly scarred neck, sloppily kissing the skin. Sevika moans softly at the feeling, craning her neck upward. The water from the showerhead fell over her face, dribbling past her open mouth and over your head.

You nearly slip as your orgasm rips through your lower abdomen, lathering the toned quad with your cum. You pant hotly against her skin as your hips slow down to not overstimulate your throbbing cunt.

“Sevi,” you shiver as you keep your grip around her neck.

Sevika hums as she mindfully removes her thigh from in between your quivering legs. She held you up by the waist with her arm as you both swayed underneath the borderline-cool water.

“Was that good?” She questions lovingly, waiting for you to pull away when you are ready.

You snort with a shake of your, muttering a ‘fuck you’ playfully against her skin. Sevika chuckles lowly as she feels your head tilt up to kiss her jaw.

“You know, technically, I made myself cum.” You tease, nosing underneath her jaw.

Sevika’s brows furrow at your words, looking down at you with an offended expression. You beam up at her, tilting your head to the side.

“Oh, so what was me fingering you then?” She remarks.

“Okay, you helped a little,” you continue.

Sevika, unsatisfied with your answer, leans down to bury her face into the crook of your neck to tickle at the skin with her nose. You laugh at the feeling of your girlfriend’s smile on your skin, gasping when the sudden ice-cold water runs over your bodies. Sevika curses as she releases your waist to reach for the knob to turn off the water that was prickling your skin.

The two of you hop out of the shower mere seconds after being hit with the freezing water, unable to detach yourselves from one other. After drying off and putting on some everyday clothes, Sevika and you settle into your shared bed. Your limbs tangle as you find comfort in each other’s warmth.

Every lingering thought of insecurity was suppressed for the time being. With each passing day spent with Sevika, you were bound to never have to feel that way again.

TAG-LIST: @eilishxo @ivyfalsegod @archangeldyke-all @auraclus @lavenderbabu @thewonderlandish @elliessgfsstuff @devilsangelxxx16 @hwasddeongbyeoli @saturnknows @scp116 @iwillpokeyouwithmyknife @cicato @angelcorner @doppelman @suui3 @vaneplvblog @naomqq @lovinglynny @gravegoer @sapphicarribean @yaeil @ladycupa0-0 @cherry-n-cheeks @k4tz4 @vqmpxre @lanaismotherrrrrrr @chaostudi @lazycat-things @satansfinest9 @soodle-noup @themostlesbianever @hafisjfjsit @cucumbernimbis @maaaaaaaaaaari @amoraeu @angelynn-nicole @mall-fountain-daydream @iamaboringrattat @slingshotsniperking @thesevi0lentdelights @bilsvlt @thalchmy @chatimfinnacrashout @luizadms @peanutbutterprincess @ivana1999999-blog @strawberrykidneystone @halle5s @foreingersgod @tyra-is-so-delulu @fuzzycucumber @biblicallyaccuratemusclemommy @xoxomymyy @hearts4joongie @srtctra @hellokittyfeenie @pookiewookiebazooka @debs171110 @lesbodietcoke @hearts4caitlin (TAGS CONT. IN THE COMMENTS)

[roachspeaks]

YOUR WRITING IS AMAZING 💞 i beg you to write some headcannons about the sawyers family with their s/o, in tcsm. with the new characters from the game if you can (sissy and johnny)?? thanks🫂

Sawyer Family x gn!reader basic hc’s

Omg this took way to long, writers block is a killer. I’m gonna admit I had to do some research and read some fics to get to know some of the characters I don’t usually write, but here we go<3

Disclaimer: the Sawyer family tree is so very very confusing, so the characters I went with: Bubba, Johnny, Sissy, Drayton(who is gonna be the older brother but more father figure bc his role is confusing), and Nubbins,

If I missed anyone, let me know and I wasn’t completely sure if you wanted this fluffy or smutty, so I went safe. If you did want smut, ask me please. And it shall be done:)

Bubba

•The sweetest boy, always reaching out to you for affection.

•He’s a big hugger, and a bear hugger too. Sometimes forgets how much bigger he is than most other people, but how can you say no? Even when he’s knocked the wind out of you with those big arms of his.

•He’s a simple man, he could die peacefully and fulfilled in your embrace.

•PRAISE HIM!

•He corrects himself on accidental roughness, tell him he’s doing such a good job and he’ll melt.

•Sometimes he gets easily frustrated because of people not understanding his intentions, so be patient with him. Reward him with hugs and cuddles and he’ll be satisfied.

•Late night talks! Even if it’s more enthusiastic grunts and whines. You’ll both be lying in bed and he’ll just be babbling happily about his day, or about how much he loves you with the widest grin on his face.

•He’s never really had a ‘relationship’ before, so there are times when you have to remind him what’s appropriate in front of the family and what’s not.

•Like sometimes he’ll get really excited, and start kissing you all over.

•But it’s at the dinner table, and some people in this Texan conservative household don’t want to see that PDA.

•His brothers and sister just love teasing him left and right about you, and he couldn’t care less. He loves you, and he’d tell the whole world if he could.

•The warm humidity of Texas is all he’s ever known, so one night there’s a weird and sudden cold snap, and he is absolutely freezing. You aren’t allowed to move from being his personal heating pad.

•But you aren’t complaining, trapped in a pile of blankets with the man you love isn’t the worst way to go.

•Sometimes he’ll go hunting in the forest and bring you back wild fowl, or something other than what the Sawyers all usually eat.

•Sure he wants you to be part of the family, but he notices the way your face scrunches up at the prospect of eating other people.

•It confused him at first, then it clicked that you didn’t like eating people. Like how he didn’t like his vegetables(or that’s how he thought about it).

•So he brings you other more humane alternatives.

•He hates rain and storms, they confuse him. As nobody took the time to explain to him what was happening, why everything was so loud and dark.

•It takes a lot of convincing and encouragement until he’s not cowering in fear at the thunder and lightning(thinking of making a one shot about this tbh).

•To sum it all up, he’s hopelessly in love, and he’d do anything and everything to protect you, and make you happy. He loves the feeling of your soft skin on his. Even if you have rougher hands, it’s nothing compared to his, and he loves it.

•Be gentle with this man, love him to death I beg<3

Johnny

•He’s a cocky bastard, even before you were officially together he was treating you like you were married to him under the state.

•Has absolutely no shame, and he will make out with you in front of Sissy to make her annoyed.

•He’s hyper fixated and persistent, meaning he will get what he wants eventually. So it’s better not to fight him on it(whatever it may be).

•Just like with Bubba, he is teased RELENTLESSLY. More so about how soft you make him. Or how whipped he is for you.

•Whenever he does something remotely sweet or nice to you in front of his siblings(and sometimes even his father and mother) he’ll get a sharp whistle and a chorus of teasing and laughter.

• “Wow Johnny, you really are just a softie huh?”

• “Shut it..”

•He’d never admit it to his family, but he would do anything for you.

•Any guy(or girl frankly) makes the mistake of catcalling or harassing you? They’re dead on the news the next morning.

•As I said even BEFORE you guys were officially dating.

•And he’s a jealous jealous man, so even if it was a misperceived or imaginary threat, it’s enough for him to kill them.

•He tries to be normal for you at first, tries to ignore the taunting from his family that he’ll slip up and scare you away.

•Then he quickly discovers your a freaky little thing by nature, even if your a little freaked out at first.

•Because who wouldn’t want a boyfriend so obsessed with you that he’ll murder for you?

•He likes it when you touch his hair, especially when he’s all sweaty from one thing or another.

•He won’t make you eat people, sometimes he doesn’t either. Not because he’s disgusted by it, more so because he gets bored of just one thing.

•The type to decide when you wake up, whether he’s up before you or not. Sometimes he’s clinging onto your midsection telling you ‘just five more minutes’ for the next hour and a half,

• Other times it’s a note left on your nightstand after he’s left to do farm chores, saying ‘If I see you up before 11 so help me god’

Sissy

•She personally lives for the thrill of bringing you(male, female or other) back home to her family. Specially her daddy.

•She doesn’t hide anything about her life from you even from the beginning. Meaning she expects the same blatant transparency.

•Loves annoying her brothers, mostly Johnny.

•She refuses softness in front of her family because as stated prior, she knows she’ll be made fun of excessively for it.

•That’s not to say she isn’t clingy and all over you.

•She is, it’s just much less ‘lovey dovey’ more ‘this person is mine, touch them and I’ll kill you’.

•She loves when you treat her, growing up she was often overlooked by her family, or even underestimated.

•Buy her something pretty, or something like a plant and she’ll be even more in love.

•She’s never liked loud animals, but she likes cats. Despite her family’s protests, onetime when she was a kid Nubs tried to kill a cat for lunch, she beat him silly. Saved the poor orange kitty and fed it for years.

•Her favourite colour is orange because of that.

•She sleeps like she’s constantly taking up to much space, she curls into one side of the bed and tries to keep there.

•It would be greatly appreciated if you pulled her close, let her uncurl from her little self created ball.

Drayton

•This man has his moments, and I’m not completely sure how I feel about him.

•The Sawyer family often picks on each other and teases each other but Drayton and Nubbs often take it just a little too far.

•His younger siblings are constantly poking fun at his attempts at leadership, and I feel like that makes him a deeper character then I’ve really thought about before.

•He’s a classic older cowboy type, a gentleman with a very stereotypical older brother vibe.

•He tries to keep his family safe, and that includes you when you find your way into his heart.

•He isn’t exactly ‘sweet’ but he can commit to sentimental gestures if that’s something you like.

•The occasional bouquet of wild flowers on your nightstand, or a kiss on the cheek before he goes out for work in the morning.

•He often judges himself too harshly, his decisions and his ability to lead his family, just tell him he’s doing good. He’ll melt in your hands like putty.

•His siblings often make risky choices just to show they can, and it stresses him out(more than he’ll show or admit).

•He can be bad at minding his manners, especially when people are riling him up.

•All he needs is someone to come home too, someone who can appreciate him for all he does and all he tries to do.

(His is really short but I’m unfamiliar with his character😂)

Nubbins

•He’s definitely the most openly clingy if the bunch, he’ll stick to your side like he’s glued there.

•Whether you’re going for a drive into town, or just getting up to go make something for yourself, he’s on your tail.

•He loves being pressed up against you, barely(if any) space between your bodies.

•It makes him feel safe.

•Drayton, Johnny and Sissy often tease him for being dumb, but he’s not dumb! You don’t think so..right?

•Unlike many of the others, if he needs your reassurance, he’ll ask you for it.

•He loves it when you run your fingers through his hair, or down his back.

•He tries to be polite, at least after you teach him what exactly that means.

•He’s very possessive, some days when there isn’t any work that needs done, he’ll just hold you hostage in your bed.

•He loves sunrises, sometimes he wakes up at a specific time just to watch them(his internal clock).

Some of these are shorter than others, if you want anymore specific head cannons let me know, or any other characters<3 have a lovely day.

[joshfutturman]

'hunted'

oneshot - derek has a vivid dream in which he's being hunted. (for a writing group im a part of, basically he has a memory in the form of a dream from the timeline of the movie!) (1k words) character - derek danforth (the beekeeper) tags: angst, nightmares, cussing, brief drug mention

.・。.・゜✭・. .・。.・゜✭・. .・。.・゜✭・.

derek wasn’t normally the type to get too many nightmares. he would never really remember his dreams at all. when he went to bed at night in whichever bedroom in his house he desired, beside whomever he desired, he was knocked out like a light. that’s just what happens when you have all the money you could ever dream of and stink of privilege, that was derek danforths life. .・。.・゜✭・. .・。.・゜✭・. .・。.・゜✭・.

it wasn’t like he never experienced stress. in reality derek was more stressed than he would ever let on. running his business wasn’t easy despite what people would say. a nepo baby who never had to want for anything. legitimacy and morals aside, derek worked his ass off. danforth enterprises was what it was today because of him. not anyone else. not his mother. and certainly not his father.

so it was no surprise that his nightmare that night rattled him.

from the get go, he felt a swirling sense of paranoia invade its way around his skull like a ghost as he slips into the nightmare. it seeps through every crack, every crevice it can worm its way into. that same fear spread down his limbs and across his back, making his shoulders grow tense.

this didn’t feel like work stress, it felt worse. it felt more intense. it felt more threatening. more than just mindless work shit was on his mind. why couldn’t he place it?

derek felt cornered, sitting in his mothers office. his eyes dart between the windows and the doors. it felt as though the walls were closing in, threatening to crush him. he shrinks back into the chair, his hand coming up to pick at the side of his face - a habit his mother loathed and never kept quiet about.

but mom wasn’t here. no one was. it was just derek, alone.

his phone buzzes and he jumps in his seat, frightening him more than it should. shakily, his hand reaches out to pick it up, holding it so tightly that he might snap it in half if he’s not careful.

there’s breathing on the other end, and that causes his back to straighten. “who the fuck is that?” he spits out, feeling his breathing pick up pace.

the other line stays eerily quiet and this freaks him out more. fuck. were they already nearby? his eyes dart towards the windows again, expecting to see a figure only to be greeted with. . . absolutely nothing. an impending sense of doom spurs in his mind, unsure of where to go to alleviate it. he felt trapped, cornered. and derek didn’t like that. he didn’t enjoy feeling like a prey animal, when all his life he always presented as predator.

“i said who the fuck is that?!” he calls out again, gripping the arm of the chair.

still nothing on the other end. until.

“i’m coming.” is all the voice says.

derek holds back a gasp, the voice confirming his fears.

he swallows hard and prays his voice not to shake, “fuck off. you can fucking try, bitch.” derek growls, but it’s clear to anyone who knows him just how much he’s rattled. before the other person can reply, he presses the disconnect button and throws his phone across the room.

breath escaping him, he pants, raking his fingers through his hair.

no one would let anything happen to him, right? there was no way. he was too important. there were so many people he could pay to protect his life. he could hear his fathers words ringing in his ears, ‘i told you so.’. derek lets out a whine and covers his ears.

no, no, no. this wasn’t happening. this absolutely fucking wasn’t happening right now.

every creek within the old walls had him jumping, completely on edge. his heart races away from him. he’s seconds away from calling for his mom, hands aching to grip onto something real, something that could ground him. he feels pathetic for wanting his mother, but something deep inside him tells him that not even she could make him feel better.

and he’s glad no one else can see him like this. he’d never act this way in front of anyone. derek wasn’t known for his calm and collected manner, but he tried to never show weakness in the form of fear. he kept it bottled up, hidden away until he could get his hands on something that made him feel at ease, usually in the form of that sweet white powder he loved so much.

so now, completely alone, he comes undone. he can feel tears form in his eyes as he grits his teeth. derek wasn’t ready to die. he had his whole life to live. who’d provide for his mom when he was gone? no one else could do the job like him. they’d just fuck it up. she’d lose her position and it’d be all their fault.

derek didn’t want to die. he couldn’t. silently he begs for more time.

until he’s ripped from his sleep with a gasp. derek grips the sheets as he sits up, gasping for breath over and over. for a few seconds, it feels like he’s still in that office. but after a few blinks, his surroundings come back to him. he’s home.

but it doesn’t feel the same. it doesn’t feel safe. he doesn’t feel so untouchable now. he almost feels. . . vulnerable.

he grabs at the bedsheets beside him and realises that no ones there. he suddenly regrets sleeping alone. he releases shaky breaths from his nose and reluctantly lays back down. gathering the duvet against him, he wraps himself tightly within it and lays with his back against the headboard, eyes scanning the room.

his bedroom suddenly felt too big. his eyes move between each object as if looking for any form of a threat. did the curtain just move? fuck. he was losing it.

the digital clock on his nightstand blinks: 3:21am. it was a long way to go till morning. and derek couldn’t bring himself to move.

instead, he sat like this until the sun crept into his bedroom, bringing a small sense of safety. but that feeling of unease stayed in his mind, pricking him whenever he got too comfortable. no time to relax, always on high alert.

he realises he isn't as untouchable as he once thought. and that thought. . . fucking terrifies him.

derek wasn’t ready to die.

.・。.・゜✭・. .・。.・゜✭・. .・。.・゜✭・.

‧₊˚ dedicated tags: @helen-on-earth @fatinhadesiners06 @boonam @sun-spider13 @laurrrelise @sammygirlism @sleepyhutcherson‧₊˚ ily all sm!! thank you!

.・。.・゜✭・. .・。.・゜✭・. .・。.・゜✭・.

[fashionteahouse]

Heya! Came across your work just recently and you’re doing awesome!!

I was wondering if we could get a Leah x fem! Reader who’s also a shifter but not apart of the pack. They’re basically a lone wolf and their first encounter with the pack was when they got too close to the territory. They both end up imprinting on each other but Leah refuses to acknowledge the bond so r isn’t exactly invited to stick around. This is around the time where the newborn vamps are running around so r ends up getting attacked while out in the woods on their own. The rest is up to you if you’d like. Thanks if you write this

hii thank you sm <333 and yes working on this now ! hope you enjoy :)

out of the woods - leah x fem! reader

The leaves crackled from their brittles state. The young wolf huffed out through their large nostrils.

Learning your surrounding, you sniff in.

Hearing a howl in the distance, your furry ears twitched as it sounded close.

Hearing ruffling, you prepare to lunge for attack, smoothing your vertebrae to steady.

The dark eyes stared back at you. Frozen but still cautious. They weren’t a threat. Other wolves jojn her, but, the reunion was cut short when another howl rang out.

The slimmer wolf, who entrapped you, soon turned and went off. You stared at the very place they were. You knew it was a girl, but, you wondered why they left so fast.

You felt a spark, almost like a rebirth moment. You had so many questions but you turn around, going in another direction.

Leah pushed on with her paws, she could smell the cold one now. She seen flashes of hair, flowing back in the wind. She growled with such ferocity, dying to sink her teeth into the cold one.

Leah let her mind wander as the water soaked her body.

She kept shaking her head, thinking, “This weird. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Her mind kept going back to the wolf she saw, they were close to La Push territory.

She knew you weren’t a new wolf. She recognized the familiarity of your form, however, she didn’t recognize the longing feeling to see it again. She wasn’t going to let it consume her, choosing to stuff it in the deep back of her mind.

You went by the same place, over and over. You didn’t want overpower the territory, you just wanted to see if you would have another run in with the wolf you saw.

You had plans to go a little further, this day. Just to see what happens. You smelt a sickly smell. As you take a sniff, you hear the whoosh of something zooming past you.

You snarl at the figure that stood before you, snapping your teeth at it. Taking an arm off, they hiss. Another one emerged from the side of you, trapping their arms around your neck.

You shook your body, slamming the vampire that was on you. But, the one-armed vampire came running. Another wolf takes their head clean off, leaving the vampire’s knees to kneel the headless body on the ground before falling all of the way.

You had the chance to behead the cold one, watching the woman set fire to the bodies. She heaved as the fire’s shadow hit her face. Trickles of wolves began to appear. Leah let them throw the rest of the parts in the fire.

“Are you okay?” she asks you. You so badly wanted to bathe in the liquid of her voice. You nod once you phase out. She made it easier, you noticed.

“What were you doing around here?” she asks.

“Was looking for you.” you say. She was beautiful than you could ever imagined.

She chuckles humorlessly a bit as she then says, “Why?”

“I see you when I close my eyes.” you admit, stepping forward.

Leah was lost for words. She didn’t know what to say, she just looked at you.

“Im Y/N. I felt a spark between us, I feel a connection between us.” you say, a big sheepishly, but you still felt bold.

“Impossible.” she whispers.

“Leah! We gotta head back.” a tan boy says.

Leah turns her head from seeing what he wanted. She takes a good look at you.

“You think I will see you again?” you ask her.

“Maybe. Do you know my scent?” she teases, walking slowly backwards, still waiting for your answer.

“Of course I do.” you said. It was true. It smelled like home. She was home. Leah blushed for the first time in a long time. She used to hate it. This time, she grew to love it. She liked the promise that hung in front of her. To always feel it.

[storm-angel989]

hey!!!

so I had this dream last night. basically Val's daughter is in high school and the school has to go on lockdown because someone died in class. in my dream they had a seizure but you don't have to explicitly state the cause of death if that makes you uncomfortable, I completely understand that. anyway, after that, Val gets a call from her daughter and she's sobbing saying someone died in her class. that's where my dream ended, I just need answers, like how he'd react. thank you!!!!!

Hi friend,

This is one of those stories I hesitated for a while on. Lockdowns are a terrifying reality, and one of my worst fears is being in Valentino’s position. That being said, I didn’t want to let that fear hold me back from writing.

Take a peek below and I hope it's the answer you crave!

<3 Mandy

My memories of the event were hazy. 

Watching my classmate fall to the ground. Being shoved alongside my peers out of my sixth period English class. Dodging the rush of the principal, the school nurse and a host of other adults. 

Practice lockdown, practice lockdown.

The words on the loudspeaker blared alongside sirens. I covered my ears and closed my eyes as I tried to fight against the worst of the thoughts. In the darkness, my VoxTech watch sat silent against my wrist, wired to shut off as soon as a lockdown was announced. 

My first day of preschool, my Uncle Vox had snapped a simplified VoxTech watch onto my wrist with explicit instructions that if I needed help, the only thing I had to do was press their picture on the watchface and they would come. Two days later, we sat down as a family and redefined what the word “help” meant and when it was appropriate to call them. Apparently, my teacher making me write my name wasn’t a good enough reason to call Uncle Vox in the middle of the work day. 

Now in highschool, the technology evolved but the core protection of the device remained the same. With the fiercely terrifying hellscape we lived in, my Uncle Vox made sure that my watch would do nothing but protect me. Wrapped in the darkness of the classroom, the seconds ticked by. Without my watch, I lost all sense of time, panic growing as each second painstakingly passed. As soon as the all clear was announced, we were pushed out of the building. I pulled out my phone and joined in the chorus of classmates phoning their parents. Not far away, an ambulance sat and I watched in horror as a stretcher draped in a white sheet vanished into the awaiting back.

“Bebita? Is everything okay?” My fathers voice on the other end. “Princessa. Where are you?”

“Daddy, I think she died,” I choked out. “Something really bad happened, I…”

“I’ll be right there. Stay on the phone with me, mi amore,” he told me calmly. “Uncle Vox will be there in a moment and Daddy is on his way.” 

I knew my Uncle Vox could travel using technology, and for the first time in my life I was grateful for his sudden appearance. I felt myself collapse in his arms and the next thing I knew, he was guiding me towards my fathers limo. My Dad stepped outside and my Uncle Vox handed me over to him. 

“Bebita, princessa, shush. It’s okay, Papi is here, come on now, let's go home,” he said softly. “Come now.” 

In the limo, wrapped in his arms, all the tears I fought to hold in silence during the lockdown flooded out. Sadness for my friend, trauma for being trapped for hours in silence and without any way to contact the outside world. I could feel my body begin to shake and my father wrapped his red jacket around me and tucked my head into him. “Daddy’s got you, baby.” 

“Uncle Vox, I can’t lose my watch,” I choked out finally. “I can’t, there was no way to tell time, no way to contact you, I couldn’t…I can’t be trapped like this again!”

“Okay, okay baby, we’ll figure it out, just take a deep breath, calm down,” My Uncle Vox said gently. “I promise you I’ll fix it. And I promise you’ll never be disconnected from us again.”

[sawturn77]

𝑶𝑪𝑬𝑨𝑵 𝑬𝒀𝑬𝑺 (𝒇𝒖𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒐 𝒎𝒆𝒈𝒖𝒎𝒊 𝒙 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓)

05:

MASTERLIST.

05: what am i to you?

warning: y/n and megumi are awkward asf, nobara is a huge tease and the #1 wingwoman, y/n’s deeply in love and refuses to acknowledge it, kinda ooc megumi?

trap #1

the two of us stood behind nobara and yuji, watching as they competed for everything. who could get the most points, win the most prizes, and get an item from the claw machine before the other. part of me wishes that me and megumi could be that close, but the other part of me wishes me and him weren’t practically 4th wheeling. “ha! you’re such a loser, yuji!” “no way! you cheated! y/n, megumi, beat nobara at the zombie game, please!” the pink haired guy begged. i gave him a helpless look, while megumi just shrugged. before i knew it, a hand came to my back and pushed me towards the claw machines. it didn’t take me long to realize that nobara had pushed both me and megumi. “y/n’s much more interested in the claw machines, idiot! her and megumi should busy themselves with that!” she smirked triumphantly, sending me a wink and a thumbs up. i had no choice but to nod. i began to browse the claw machines as megumi followed suit. none of them really piqued my interest. well, in truth, all of them did, but i didn’t have enough tokens to even attempt at one. i was never very good at claw machines, but the excitement and anticipation that filled my sense as i hoped to get what i wanted was nice. i peer over my shoulder, noticing that megumi was staring at one machine in particular. a…hello kitty claw machine? “you like hello kitty, megumi?” he turns to me, looking a bit embarrassed.

“not really…but you do, right?” my face heats up. of all things, i didn’t think he’d remember something as embarrassing as that. i can just imagine him remembering the posters, figures, and plushes that were in my room when i was just barely a teenager. i mean, i still have the merch. how could i get rid of something so cute. my eyes leave the ground, landing back on his figure. he glances at me, inserting a coin. gosh, i’d never hear the end of it if nobara and yuji found out. im sure my face was beet red the entire time. his slender fingers wrap around the stick. he looks focused, his stormy eyes fixed on a specific plush, and his lips pursed into a frown-wait, why am i thinking of him like that. it’s not like his lips look so soft…i think he might taste like blue raspberry lollipop he had earlier. snapping out of my thoughts, soft material was slowly pushed into my hands, careful not to startle me. they were cute, too cute. the mymelody and kuromi plushes were small, but bigger than my hand. my lips parted, but i couldn’t find it in me to say anything. i looked up at megumi, who was walking away. really?!

————

trap #2

after about thirty minutes, i had softened around megumi, and im sure he had loosened up too. we had played nearly every game, from racing to basketball to shooting games. we did it all. and to think i was overthinking for nothing! all i had to do was say, “maybe we should find something to do until yuji and nobara are ready to go” and it was basically a walk in the park from there! my eyes landed on the one game we hadn’t played yet. another racing game. two motorcycles were stationed in front of the screens, one pink and the other one red. i didn’t know if i should suggest playing that one, since the both of us were already pretty tired. i didn’t get the chance to ask megumi about it before yuji and nobara popped out from somewhere, jumping on the motorcycles and spitting cocky presumptions at each other. “you dare to still challenge me, you fiend!?” “i’ll win this time! prepare to lose, nobara!” the brunette turned towards me and megumi, who were standing behind the pair in embarrassment. “oh, y/n, megumi! i haven’t seen you guys at all! wanna play with us?” “there’s only two motorcycles..” megumi reminded. “well, yeah, but two of us can ride the same one while you two ride another one!” my cheeks came rosy. “the second person doesn’t have a purpose..” “who cares! it’s about teams!” nobara gets behind yuji on the motorcycle with a mischievous grin. why’s she so happy about this?! clutching the plushies that had been in my arms the entire time, i turn to megumi, who was standing behind me. with a sigh, megumi gets on the motorcycle and i follow suit. just when things weren’t as awkward anymore..

“y/n!” nobara whispers my name, wrapping her arms around yuji’s waist and resting her head on his back. she winked at me. i quickly made a ‘x’ with my fingers in response, only for her to hold her fist up to me.

awkwardly, my arms inch around megumi’s waist. he stiffens, but soon relaxes. i rest my head against his back, burying my face in his light cologne. i didn’t want to watch nobara and yuji giggle in my face. i’ll be sure to hit them.

————

and trap #3.

“oh, would you look at that! it’s so dark outside. a lovely lady like y/n should NEVER go home by herself at night.” my eyebrow twitches at her. she’s actually unbelievable.

“i was already planning on taking her home.”

i want to pass out. did i just hear him correctly?! THE megumi fushiguro said he was going to take me home. nobara gives him a quick nod and thumbs up, pushing yuji in the direction of their houses. yuji waves, but then it’s just the two of us again.

TAGLIST: @kasumitenbaz @morgyyyyyyy @fillmeup6969 @maya-maya-56 @sad-darksoul @jinxed-jk @liiwrites @we-loveebony (OPEN)

[chocottang]

every ship needs a mermaid au

basically uhhh golden is a sailor with the animatronics and cami is a mermaid who lured golden and almost killed him if it werent bc his team were there to snap him out of it. then they meet each other again bc owynn (who is out to get them) kidnapped cami and tried to use her luring-song-power-thingy against his enemies. so when owynn catches up to them, golden notices that cami is trapped in the ship and frees her in the middle of the chaotic fight. bc hey she may be evil but thats kinda just her nature, its not rlly cool to kidnap ppl.

the animatroincs go in their merry way after defeating owynn but one night golden realizes cami is in their ship now!?? she explains that mermaids are only in coastal waters and not the fucking open ocean where owynn brought her. she has no idea where she is or how to get home. so she grabbed onto the animatronics' ship bc she figured that they would eventually go back the same way they came from, and thus would pass through the mermaid waters where she had tried to kill golden, aka her home. golden takes pity on her and decides to let her stay without telling the rest of the team bc..well she did try to kill him lol, theyll probably think she has lured him again and is going to attack them. so now they get to spend time together and fall in love yippieeeee (she apologizes for the attempted murder and thanks him for saving her dont worry)

uhh design notes!! i based cami's design on a dugong, an aquatic mammal that is believed to be the animal sailors confused for mermaids, intead of a fish bc im annoying. dugongs dont have dorsal fins, but i decided to add some representing their forelimbs bc i thought it looked cool lol. the green is algae growing on her skin! to add some color. the little green thing in her hair is supposed to be a seashell thats holding up her hair, and its the color of her og hair. made her little ponytail look like a fin bc i thought it looked cool. her nose is based on the general shape of a dugong's face, and with their big ol circular nostrils which i find adorable. dugongs have limited vision so it doesnt bother cami to cover her eyes. and yea, no eyebrows, kinda makes her look stupid djskdj

i dont have a lot to say abt goldens design, i loosley based it off of a pirate, even though he isnt one. he loves music so he always carries a guitar with him. the green matches with cami and the yellow is based off his og sweater vest. and uhh i think thats it lol thats all the rambles i have for today

[phoebepheebsphibs]

.Dead asleeP.

Title: Chapter 3: N3 Prompt: You were peacefully sleeping when you suddenly wake up to the sound of a heart monitor steadily beeping somewhere nearby, and realize you are in the med-bay with no memory of what happened prior to this. // After watching movies with your siblings all night and passing out in the tv room, you wake up to find that you're alone. What happened? Fandom: ROTTMNT Word Count: 5806 Author: PhoebePheebsPhibs Rating: Gen Characters: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, & Raphael (disembodied voices) Warning: Derealization, nightmare-ish stuff (Leo is stuck in a dream) Summary: Leo deals with the inconvenience of being stuck in a dream and getting reacquainted with the 'ghosts' that follow him. Notes: More chapters to follow (3 more, to be exact)

@shr00mi3writefight @tmnt-write-fight @that-0n3-shr00mi3

Posted to AO3 <-

Leo strode through the maze of death fairly easily. Yes, there were traps and snares and mystical kitchen supplies, but for the most part he went through unnoticed.

"I don't remember it being this easy," Leo muttered.

"It wasn't," a voice reminded flatly. "Remember, everyone stay together. Draxum said something about drifting off --"

"So... what happens when I reach the center of the maze? Do I win, or...?"

"I'm not sure," one of the voices mused. "Just let us know if you feel any different, okay?"

"Okay," Leo nodded. "So... how do we know each other? Outside of the dream world?"

"We're very close. We're family."

"What do you mean?" Leo half-chuckles. "I think Splinter would tell me and my bros if we had any extended fam."

"What?"

"Or are you, like, my turtle parents? You mentioned... I think you said 'Barry', as in Baron Draxum, so maybe you're other mutants or something? Or... are you related to Drax?"

 Leo turned left, then right, then left again. He could almost see the center of the maze coming up. But the voices were quiet. Leo could sense their discomfort.

"What? What? Hey, what did I say?" he asked nervously.

"...It's nothing. You just kind of... glossed over the obvious."

"Obvious?" Leo questions. "How? I basically went through every option!"

"I think all we can tell you at this point is that we're family," one of the voices stated. "I don't think you'd be able to hear anything more detailed than that."

"Why not?!" Leo grumbled, kicking at a stone angrily. "Why can't you tell me?!"

"We're not the ones doing it!" another voice chimed in. "We've been TRYING to tell you everything this whole time, Nardo!"

"You haven't told me anything! And nobody calls me Nardo but Donnie!" Leo snapped back.

And then the realization snapped him right back in the face.

"...No one but Donnie has ever... Family, you said you're... obvious... Oh my gosh, I am so stupid. Donnie... is... is that you?"

Silence.

"H-hey, Don-Tron, don't go silent on me now! I figured it out! I know who you are, I know -- I-I'm sorry for getting mad! Please, d-don't leave me again! Come back! Donnie? M-Mikey? Raph? Are you guys..."

Leo came upon the end of the maze, a giant statue of gold at its epicenter.

"...there...?"

The center of this maze was not the same as the real one at all. For one thing, it wasn't in the center of the maze at all. Either that, or the maze had been carved in half. Just beyond the statue, the Hidden City and its magical town square awaited him.

His eyes glossed over. He felt so tired and sluggish. Leo's mind was cleansed, his memories of the pizzeria and the events prior were wiped clear.

"...Oh, hey! The Hidden City! I've always wanted to sight-see here!"

Leo ran out of the maze giddily and approached a brochure stand.

"Excuse me, do you have any sites you'd recommend for a bona fide hero like myself? Maybe something exciting, or daring, or maybe even a relaxing spa?"

"First time here?" the Yokai asked from behind the counter.

"No, no no no no no no no no no. No." Leo huffed and puffed out his chest proudly. "It's my eighth time!"

"It's your 13th time, dum-dum."

Leo looked around nervously.

"Did you hear that?"

"Oh-ho, no, we're NOT going through this again..."

"Hear what, kid?" the Yokai asked, shuffling through supplies as Leo whirled around in circles, anxiously searching for the source of the apparition.

"That voice, I --"

"Leo, long story short, you're stuck in a dream-world that's all fake. We're trying to help you escape."

"But, what --"

"Every time you get to a new area, your memory restarts."

"And we can't tell you who we are for some reason because... uh... mystic curses are weird?"

"But what, kid?" the Yokai gruffed.

Leo looked back at her, confused. He blinked, trying to process it all. There was a flood of emotions running through him, each one tethered to a soul that was not his own, but strangely connected to his. Frustration, hope, irritation, redundancy, resignation --

"Um... never mind. I think I just went temporarily insane."

"Oh, COME ON!"

There was the frustration again.

"Look, do you want the brochure or not?" the Yokai stall-keeper growled, waving the paper in Leonardo's face.

"I'll take it," Leo said quickly, snatching the map and walking away briskly.

Once he was out of earshot of the Yokai, Leo hissed at the ghosts.

"Okay, weird brain ghosts -- what is going on?!"

"We've already told you. THREE TIMES OVER BY NOW," one huffed with exasperation. "Okay. Just... calm down, we all need to calm down... Alright. From the top. Leo: you are trapped in a dreamworld. Nothing is real, but it's trying to keep you here. It's TRAPPED YOU. We used a magic spell to infiltrate your dreams so that we could help wake you up!"

"How?"

"Well, first off we had to draw these really cool symbols around your bed and --"

"N-no, I mean how am I supposed to wake up?" Leo corrected.

"Oh. Well, according to Mikey -- er, according to the most mystically-inclined of us, we help you get through a certain amount of dreams like levels in a video game."

"How many?" Leo asked.

"Um... I... don't remember. Barry said it had something to do with the whole... sleep cycle?"

"Oh, he was referring to REM and NREM, which means there will be five. Or, well, three now that we've gotten through two of them already," a ghost with a nerdy voice interjects. "Sleep comes in cycles, you see. It starts off with awake-slash-alert, and progressively gets deeper and deeper. After awake and alert, then comes N1, then N2, N3, and finally the REM, which stands for 'Rapid Eye Movement'. Rem is when you have dreams."

"And NREM?" Leo asked, curious. "What's that?"

"NREM is 'Non-Rapid Eye Movement'. It's just dreamless sleep, a time when the body rests and rejuvenates itself, repairing and regrowing tissue and rebuffing the immune system. Studies show that 75% of sleep is NREM. An interesting science fact, but REM periods are short, though the longer you spend asleep, the longer the REM periods will be!"

"Does that mean that the longer it takes us to get him through, the harder each level will get?" a nervous voice asks.

"...I hadn't thought of that."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Leo asked, stuffing the brochure into his fanny pack. "Let's get going! Uh, do you guys know which way I should head?"

"Ooh, ooh, I do!" a cheery voice chimed in.

Leo watched with bewilderment as a fluttering golden light sparked before him, flying away and leaving a trail of shimmers in its gentle wake.

"Um... that was you, right?"

"That was Mikey. Uh, the mystically-inclined-light-guy one. He just ran off. He's not s'posed to, though."

"Not supposed to?"

"Well, Draxum said that getting off track would cause us to lose sight of what we're here for and pull us into the trap, but... if he's just looking for the way to the next dream, then I think it should be okay..."

"Cool, cool. Just so long as I'm not actually losing my mind... What do you mean by 'ran off'?"

"I mean that little beam of light WAS him."

"I thought I couldn't see you?" Leo wondered aloud. "What changed?"

"Mikey's been doing stuff like that the whole time. Anytime you see a golden light, that's him. You can't see what we actually look like, for some bizarre reason. You walk right through us."

"Have I been... walking right through you this whole time?"

"...Kinda."

"What does that even feel like?"

"Honestly, it doesn't feel like anything. And... I can't speak for the Mikey or Donnie, but it makes ME feel... lonely."

Leo swallowed sadly.

"...Sorry."

"Hey, it ain't your fault!" the voice kindly said. But their voice cracked, the vocal pitch shifted.

Leo felt a stifling, a sick knot in a stomach. The holding of breath, the looking away, a telltale sign that something was not as it seemed. Leo felt as though they were hiding something. Leo felt like there was a lie hidden somewhere. He tried to ignore it, and instead chased after the light, following the trail into the city streets. There were so many stalls and colourful people here, each one a personality extreme and boisterous. And each stranger Leo would have loved to get to know. He was a people person at heart, hence why he always took the role of 'face-man'.

"I didn't know that about you," one of the voices murmured.

"Didn't know what?"

"Oh did I forget to mention we can kinda read each other's' minds?"

"Wait, for real?!" Leo shouted as he stopped right in the middle of the street. "Are you kidding me?!"

"I never kid about ESP."

Leo fidgeted with his sash, adjusting and readjusting it as he swallowed the information given so nonchalantly to him.

"So what did you just hear?" he inquired.

"The people-person tidbit."

"Oh. Okay," he mumbled. Out of all the things he could think of, that was not the most embarrassing. "Now it's my turn! Think of something!"

"Well, uh, it... it doesn't really work like that..." the other voice responded.

"Oh, what? Boo! Totally unfair!" Leo complained. "How come you can hear my thoughts, but I can't hear yours?"

"Well, first off, we can't hear ALL your thoughts. Just the ones where you think to yourself, like a conversation. Secondly, you might not be able to read our minds, but you can feel our emotions."

"Huh?" Leo's stride slowed a bit, as he tried to understand.

"You can sense our presence, though you can't actually feel or see us," voice A explained. "Before, you could feel we were with you without being able to see or hear us at all! And Mikey -- the light guy -- said that you 'felt him' earlier. He'd made a beam of light around himself for you to follow. When you touched the light, you were actually holding his hand. You seemed to know who it was, and you even said his name! Mike was so excited..."

Leo slowly continued walking down the pathway, following the glittery sparkles that illuminated the path.

"...Can you do that?"

"Do what? Make light?"

"Yeah, can you make a light thing?"

"Why?"

"...No reason," Leo lied.

"He wants to be able to touch you, too," voice B snitched.

"Wha-hah-hat? No!" Leo opposed, laughing like a nervous wreck.

"I never kid about ESP."

"Narc," Leo grumbled.

Leo felt a swell of warmth. The sting of tears behind your eyes. Pride, longing, love. And then regret.

"Sorry, Leo. That's not my specialty."

"Specialty?" he probed. "What does that mean?"

"Mike-- The 'light guy' is good at magic and light-related stuff. The, uh... 'Narc' is good at bein' smart beyond all reason and buildin' all kinds of things! Me, I'm good at bein' strong. The tank, the shield... I can't make a light thing because that's not what I am."

"Oh."

"Are you... disappointed?"

Leo stopped again, and turned around. He tried to imagine a face to look at, to direct his thoughts.

"No! I mean, I'm a little bummed that I can't... y'know, feel you or whatever. But you sound really cool!"

"You think I'm... cool?"

"Yeah, dude! You sound like my brother, Raph. He's cool like that, too -- always strong, brave, working to make sure we're the heroes Splinter always knew we could become. And now I'm friends with a fricken' tank?! He would be so jealous; do you know how awesome that sounds?!"

Leo felt a short-lived pride. A small semblance of reassurance, a twinge of nostalgia. And then sadness.

"Thanks, dude."

"What's wrong?" Leo asked, reaching forward instinctively. He couldn't feel anything, but he sensed the loneliness the 'Tank' had mentioned earlier.

"Nuthin'. C'mon, let's hurry up and find Mikey before he gets too far ahead."

Leo walked along the streets. He noticed that the light was starting to dim. He also noticed that the dimming of the light made the other two ghosts -- Narc and Tank -- uneasy. He could hear soft whispers that they kept to themselves, thinking that maybe he couldn't hear him.

"Do you think that maybe he's lost? Does Mikey actually know what he's doing?"

"Of course he does. Draxum told him how the spell works --"

"But are we sure? I mean, I don't want to doubt Mikey's abilities -- but this is Leo's life at stake here."

"Keep your voice down! He might hear you..."

"Raph, this is a big deal. Leo has been comatose for seven whole days with no sign of recovery. I... I don't want to lose him."

"We won't. I'm sure we won't."

The two were eerily quiet. At first, Leo was afraid that they'd gone again, left him alone in the silence. But then one of them -- the Tank -- spoke up.

"We're still here, Leo."

"Oh, thank Pizza Supreme," the slider muttered under his breath. "You had me worried for a moment."

"You think we'd leave you?"

"I-I don't know," Leo admitted. "I... I'm not sure why. But I felt like... maybe? Like it happened before..." Leo stalled, slowing to a stop as foggy recollections came back to him. "I thought... I remember.... you left me? Or you went silent..."

"We didn't mean to," Tank responded. "The first time, you sorta... disappeared. You vanished, and Mikey had to search for you for a few minutes before we found you again. The second time, we were still with you, but once we came into the new dream, it was like everything reset, and we couldn't reach you anymore. We keep having to fight to reach you."

"Why?" Leo asked. "The light guy mentioned a curse, I think. Is that part of it? Part of whatever's keeping me trapped here?"

Tank considered it deeply before answering.

"I don't know. Mikey would know better."

"The light guy?"

"Yeah, the light guy."

"Where is he, by the way?" Leo wondered, looking around.

The streets were getting busier. The sparkles getting dim, almost completely faded.

"Well, that's not good."

"What do we do?" Leo asked. "How do we get out of here?"

"Follow me," Narc said quietly. "I think I can find 'Light Guy' using my ninpo."

"How am I supposed to follow you if I can't see you?" Leo reminded, not even considering to skimp on the sass.

"But you can hear me. Follow my voice, okay?"

"Got it," Leo said with a nod.

Narc started to talk. And talk. And talk.

Wow. Okay. He liked to talk a lot. Leo started to groan from all the things he went on about. He spoke of science, the stars, astronomy. He talked about black holes, and the theories behind what would happen if you stepped inside one. He spoke of the different classifications of stars, such as red giants and dwarf stars and why they twinkle or change colour in the night. He talked about the moon, and how he was convinced that there was a secret second moon.  Narc mentioned his favourite conspiracies. He spoke of the rewriting of history, the possible faked moon landing, the mysteries behind the Lost Colony of Roanoke. He talked about Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Jersey Devil, but he refused to touch the subject of aliens for some reason. Instead, he brought up biology. Microbes, bacteria, germs, single-celled organisms. The mitochondria were the powerhouse of the cell. Red blood cells, white blood cells, bone structure, muscles, how hair and nails were made of the same thing, melanin, mutations, and so forth.  To say he touched a bit on the subject of botany would be an understatement...

"Man, you would really like my brother Donnie," Leo noted. "He's totally into this stuff, too."

There was silence. Leo felt an awkward tension.

"Ahem. So, uh... do you guys like Jupiter Jim?"

There was a stifled cackle from Tank.

"Yeah. Yeah, we do. But not as much as Lou Jitsu!"

"Seriously?" Leo gaped, excited beyond measure. "I LOVE Lou Jitsu's films! And you may have figured it out by the genetic resemblance, but in case you didn't, did you know that --"

"Um, guys?" Narc piped in. "Have we been here before?"

Leo looked around at the stalls. There was a florist pop-up stand, a shoe shop set up against a stone cavern wall, a water fountain, a park bench, and a few other stalls that all sold shady-looking mystic trinkets.

"...I don't think so?" Leo offered. "It doesn't look familiar..."

"I could have sworn we came this way before..."

"Do you think we've gone in circles?"

"I thought so... But it's Leo's dreamscape. If he says no, then.... Let's just keep going for now, Mikey's trail is getting cold."

Leo followed the sound of Narc and Tank talking. He joined in, each one speaking of their favourite Lou Jitsu film.

They passed by a fishmonger, a jeweler, and a children's school for wizards.

Narc mentioned how some dreams hold deeper meaning, and some things represent deep-rooted fear or a danger. He mentioned how dreams were often used to predict the future, and how some people can even see future visions in their sleep.

They passed by a series of diners and Yokai eateries.

Tank wondered where Light Guy was. He started to worry about what might have happened to him. Tank seemed like the worrying kind. They discussed how someone could get lost inside Leo's mind. It unnerved him to think that there was a person snooping around his subconscious.

They passed by a florist, a shoe shop, and a water fountain.

Wait... didn't they just...?

"Do you guys see that?" Leo asked, pointing. "We passed that flower stand already, right?"

"I TOLD YOU we were going around in circles!" Narc whined.

"Wait, so we must've taken a wrong turn somewhere!" Tank deduced. "Maybe we try retracing our steps?"

The group go back the way they came. Past the flower stand. Past the diners. Past the wizard school. Past the jewelers. Past the fishmongers. Past the shady-looking trinket stands. Past the park bench and water fountain. Past the shoe shop. Past the flower stand...

Uh-oh.

"Wait, how does that work?" Leo wondered aloud, pointing in the two directions they'd come from.

"A common nightmare is going round in circles, moving around but never getting anywhere," Narc offered. "This might be something of that nature."

"Uh... what exactly happens in those kinds of dreams?"

"You never get anywhere, as to be expected. They represent psychological distress, usually related to interpersonal problems, work-related issues, or basically anything that revolves around a stressful or anxiety-inducing situation."

"Well, it's a good thing I don't have any of those problems!" Leo exhaled with relief.

The nagging feeling of swallowing your words, hiding the truth, lying. Leo could feel it in the others.

"What? What are you guys not saying?"

"Huh? Nothing! Nothing at all..."

"Uh-huh. Right. Anyway, Narc, how do we break out of the loop?" Leo asked.

"First off, hate that nickname. Second, try doing anything out of the ordinary? Maybe try... going off the path?"

"Alrighty then, let's think outside the box!" Leo whooped, jumping over the flower cart and racing away.

He could feel Tank and Narc close behind him as he ran in odd zig-zaggy patterns. He bobbed and weaved through the crowds, trying to maneuver through them as he searched for a new path to take. The crowds parted. There was a florist pop-up stand and a shoe shop.

"What the what?!" Leo yelled, throwing his fists in the air. "This doesn’t make any sense! How am I supposed to escape this dream prison thing if I can't escape a single avenue?!"

Leo started running again. This time, out of pure anger. He ran and ran and ran, hearing Tank shout after him. He ran and ran and ran, ignoring Narc's scoldings. He ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran.

Leo ran out of breath. He collapsed to his knees, laughing over the thought that he couldn't breath when he couldn't feel the effects of breathlessness. It didn't hurt his chest. It didn't even feel tight or constricted. He wasn't even tired. He couldn't feel anything other than despair.

Leo happened to glance down at the cobblestone path beneath him. There was dust, dirt, pebbles... and a sparkling glitter trail, just faint enough that you would miss it if you weren't a few inches away from it. He pressed a finger against the sparkle. It grew brighter against his fingerprint. Hmmm...

"Tank?" Leo called out. "Are you still there??"

"I'm here!" Tank shouted back, running up towards Leo, his voice gaining volume as he did. "What is it?"

"You said that Narc could make anything, right?"

"Yeah?" Tank confirmed slowly, his tone sounding wary. "Why?"

"Can he make something that can make these brighter? Or track them like a metal detector?" Leo asked, holding his finger up in the air.

"Well, 'Narc'?"

"First of all, you don't have to call me that, you know my name. Don't call me Narc. Secondly..."

There was a pause. Leo could faintly feel something like a soft breeze around his hands. He looked up in expectation to see something holding his hand, lifting them up to inspect. But he couldn't see anything. It made his heart sink.

"...I can work with this."

There was a rush of wind, a burst of electricity, and Leo had to cover his eyes or else he would be blinded. When he opened his eyes again, there was a strange bracelet-gauntlet-wristwatch-thing on the ground before him. It was glowing purple, and looked like it had been made from tangible light, like a hologram.

"What is this thing?" Leo asked, picking the device up and examining it thoroughly. 

"It's an enhancer; specifically it enhances ninpo. It is locked on to 'Light Guy's signature, so it will not only follow his magic trail, it'll also enhance it! And if he made it to the exit, then hopefully it lead us out of this loop."

Leo smiled as he placed the device on his wrist. A surge of something strange and powerful coursed through his veins, up his arm, and filled his lungs. It was exciting, brilliant, clear and logical, cutthroat but loving in its own nerdy way.

It was Donnie.

"...Don...?"

"Hmm?"

"This... Donnie, is this you?"

A pause, baited breath, terror and desperate hope fogging up the air with a tension so thick that not even Leo's odachi could carve through it. He could hear the audible gasp of shock from Tank, but the silence from Narc Donatello was deafening. Leonardo heard him take a deep inhale before answering.

"...You're not going to faint or get a memory wipe again, are you?"

"What does that mean?"

"This isn't the first time you figured out who I am, Nardo."

Leo swallowed.

"The last time... I forgot you?"

"I think you figured it out just as we were entering a new dream, so that might have been the cause."

"Oh. But.... it is you, right?"

Leo could feel the breeze around him shift, encompassing his arms and shoulders. He reached out for it, trying to grip it in an embrace if he could.

"It's me. It's Donnie."

Leo tried not to cry. But all he wanted was to hold Donnie close, hold him tight, say he was sorry for forgetting him, not recognising his voice or mannerisms at all. He wanted to apologise for so many things, he wasn't even sure what. There was a bubbling force in his stomach, urging him to say sorry for leaving them and the invasion and everything he was responsible for.

But instead, he just hung his head sadly.

"...I'm sorry, Don."

"It's okay, Nardo. We just want to help you get better. To get out of this."

"...So does that mean that 'Tank' is... Raph?"

"That's me," Tank Raph said, and Leo could hear the smile in his voice.

"So... so who's Light Guy?"

"You... you can't figure it out?"

"Well, I was gonna say Mikey, but Mikey can't do all that magic stuff you guys mentioned!"

There was another silence. Leo sensed their confusion, the withholding of information.

"What? What aren't you telling me?"

"Leo... how do you think I was able to make the wristlet?" Donnie asked.

"I dunno, brainpower? Imagination? We're in the dream world, after all."

"Yeah, but we can't actually do anything in here," Raph told him. "We can't affect the world around you, we can't even interact with you."

"So... so then how did you make this?" Leo asked, turning his wrist over to inspect the bracelet.

"With my ninpo.... But you don't know what that is, do you?"

"...Um... Yessss, I do?" Leo tries.

"You're lying. You don't know what that is. You can't even hear me say the word, can you?"

Leo squirmed uncomfortably.

"You said you'd only been to the Hidden City eight times when you've actually been here thirteen. In the last dream, Hueso said you saved the world, but you were confused by what he meant."

"Leo... what's the last thing you remember?" Raph asked nervously.

"The... the last thing I remember?" Leo reechoed. "Like... from the dreams?"

"No, from real life."

"I-I'm not sure," Leo whispered. "The dream world feels real, I can't really tell when the memories end and the dream starts... was... we had a sleepover... was that real or a dream?"

"We've had a lot of sleepovers," Donnie chimed in. "Are you thinking about the one you dreamt of? With all the snacks and pizza and--"

"And Raph exploded the Vitamin Water?" Leo finished. "That... that was a part of a dream?"

"Yeah. Leo... what was the last big mission you went on?"

"Uh... the Shredder?"

"Which Shredder mission?" Raph asked.

"What do you mean, which one? We... we got rid of him..."

"...Did we work with Big Mama to banish him?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Who's the leader of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?"

"Who? Is that like, some off-brand version of the Mad Dogs?"

"...Who is the leader of the Mad Dogs?"

"Raph is."

"..."

"...This is not ideal."

"Why? What's not ideal?? What aren't you telling me... is Raph not the leader anymore? What happened to Raph, why can't he lead??"

"Nothing happened to Raph, he just... Never mind. We need to find Mikey."

Leo wanted to keep prying, find out what was so devastating that no one would tell him... But the glowing device on his wrist began to glow, and the sparkles that had all but disappeared from the ground began to brighten, and by contrast, the rest of the Hidden City began to dim.

"There! Follow that glitter!"

Leo ran after the path, going in circles at least twice before the glittering specks led away from the path, down a different and unseen lane. Leo could feel a strange emotion rising up slowly. One that was lost, scared, feeling hopeless... but strangely tired. The exhaustion that weighed down this soul was crushing, Leo almost felt like he too would fall asleep if he wasn't wary. There was also a strange cloud of confusion surrounding the feelings. Leo could feel this person was lost, not just physically, but also mentally. They felt... Leo wasn't sure how to describe it. They felt like everything they knew was slowly fading away.

Leo pushed past a group of Yokai and saw the sparkling light that had attempted to guide him before, only now it was alone, laid limp on the ground, and growing duller by the second.

"There he is!" Donnie yelled. "Mikey!"

Leo felt the ghost of something move through him, purple light surrounding the small star on the floor. The light fluttered before suddenly vanishing completely. Leo gasped in terror before feeling something like a warmth over his shoulder.

"Mikey?!"

"He's okay," Raph soothed. "He just came out of the light form. Donnie has him now."

"Is -- is he -- what's going on, why was he on the floor like that?! Could you see him, why did he feel like -- like he was -- like he --"

"He's alright, just semi-incapacitated," Donnie informed them. "Angelo, wake up. Angelo?"

"This must've been what Draxum was talking about when he said not to get sidetracked," Raphael realises.

"Meaning?" Leo interrogated. "Sidetracked from what?"

"From you," Raph whispered. "If we stay away from you for too long, we'll 'lose sight of what we're here for', and become trapped just like you."

Leonardo heard a soft mumble, followed by a growing sensation of comfort. Mikey was waking up.

"Mmmm....? Wha... wha' happ'ned...? Who... who are you?"

"What? Angelo, it's me! It's Donnie!"

"Why... why couldn't I hear your name?"

Leo felt sickness rising in his stomach. Donnie and Raph felt like they were going to puke. Mikey's head was fogged up and cloudy, heavy with confusion and riddled with sleepiness.

"What's going on?" Leo asked. "What's wrong with Mikey?"

"I-I don't know -- Mikey, look at me. Do you recognize me?"

It became quiet for a moment. All eyes (invisible and not) were frozen to the spot where Mikey was found. Leo could feel the fear rising, the worry in Raph and the burning anger over the situation growing in Donnie. But then he felt clarity in Mikey, and the drowsy spell that had been cast over him dissipated.

"...D-Donnie...? Raph?" there was a sudden joyful gasp. "Leo!"

Leo blinked, expecting to feel or see something, a hug or a smile. There was nothing.

"L-Leo? Are you okay? Wait, why can't I touch you -- what happened, why are we... we..."

Mikey's voice softened as the memory came back.

"...Oh. Oh, I'm sorry, I --"

"You don't have to apologise, Mikey," Leo whispered, looking down at his hands.

"You know my name?"

"Yeah, I know who everyone is. But what happened to you?"

Mikey hummed quietly, groaning as he apparently sits up or stands with Donnie's assistance.

"I... I remember trying to lead the way out, but I went too far ahead. I almost made it to the next dream, but then -- then I forgot where I was, why I was there, I even forgot you guys, and the more I forgot, the s-sleepier I got..."

"That's why Draxum told us to stick together and stick with Leo," Raph reminded him. "We might've lost you. But we know what not to do now."

"You said you almost found the way to the next dream?" Donnie reiterated.

"Which way?" Leo's voice was filled with hope. He wanted to get out as soon as possible for his brothers' sakes. He couldn't bear the idea of them getting hurt because of him. Again.

Again? What --

"The way out is over there!"

Mikey's voice interrupted Leo's thoughts. He took in a deep breath before standing up and looking around. Up ahead, there was a small avenue that led to a cave tunnel.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive!" Mikey assured him. "A-although, somebody's gonna hafta carry me... m-my legs aren’t exactly working right now. I think I used up all my mystic powers."

"Raph's gotchya, big man," the eldest brother stated, noisily hoisting Michelangelo up and walking towards the cavern. "Come on, guys, we're halfway through this trial!"

Leo and Donnie followed after the duo into the cave. It grew dark, cold, clammy. Quiet and calm. Leo appreciated the calming atmosphere, as he felt anything but calm.

"You okay?"

"Are you asking because you can read my thoughts?"

"Guilty. Is it about what happened to Mikey?"

"Sorta. I mean, I'm upset over what happened to him, but mostly I'm scared. Is that what it's like when I enter a new dream?"

"So far, yes."

"And that means that soon, I'll forget again. I'll go full Groundhog Day."

"But we'll remind you of everything again."

"...But it hurts you," Leo whimpers. "I know it does. It hurt me to see Mikey so confused like that, even if it was only for a short minute. And I don't want to be stuck feeling alone anymore."

"We won't let you get lost, Leo," Donnie promises.

He can almost feel him take his hand, before realising it's just the hologram wrist tech he has yet to remove.

"But there's more... you guys aren't telling me something. You keep skirting the subject, avoiding things, pretending like there isn't an issue when I can clearly tell that there is!"

"We're just trying to not overwhelm you."

"Overwhelm me how? I mean, some witch or a crazy new mutant must've put a weird sleeping beauty spell on me, right? What could be more overwhelming than that??"

"...That's not what happened."

"Say wha?" Leo questions. "What does that mean --"

"Guys! Up ahead!" Raph shouts. "Do you see that light?"

Leo runs up ahead to see what Raph's commotion is about. As he does, a familiar drowsiness sets in. The light up ahead grows brighter, more vivid. Leo can hear noises and sounds like joy and excitement and cheering... The light soon becomes too bright and his eyes close to keep from going blind.

Leonardo emerges from the tunnel into a large arena, the walls painted black with red pillars and humongous skulls decorating them. The grandstands are filled with Yokai, each of whom looks like they'd have a warrant or a bounty on their heads. The dust blows around the ground as three spotlights are shone directly onto Leo's face, his body encased with armour fit for a gladiator. A screeching whine of feedback echoes over a series of loudspeakers before Big Mama's voice shouts over the commotion and applause of the bloodthirsty crowds.

"LADIES AND GENTLE-GERMS, I GIVE YOU... THE NEXT CHAMP-I-ON OF THE BATTLE NEXUS, NIGHTMARE EDITION!"

[ashintheairlikesnow]

*soft chanting in the distance:* consider a beach day with the safehouse crew, consider a beach day with the safehouse crew, consider a

CW: Extensive scarring, some discussion of surviving noncon and the aftermath, weight gain as part of recovery, references to Vince's alcoholism, some references to consensual spice

-

"You're fidgeting," Vincent Shield says, eyes closed behind heavy sunglasses, lying with his fingers interlocking behind his head, the sun beating down on his body. He can feel the blanket of warmth from forehead through neck and chest, stomach, and finally his legs. His heels are just off the edge of the towel, dug into soft sand that heats his skin to something that isn't quite uncomfortable, isn't yet painful.

"Right, because this is shit," Jameson snaps back at him, sitting up with his arms around his knees, looking like an animal caught in a trap, ready to chew his own leg off and throw it at someone to escape. "It's hot. There's sun. Why the fuck am I here with you?"

"Because I invited you to the beach, you said no, then Nat said she thought it might be a good idea for you to get out and enjoy the outdoors and you basically threw yourself into the car," Vince replies, voice even, absolutely not amused. Beside him, a huge reusable water bottle sweats condensation as the ice inside it slowly melts. He used to bring vodka in bottles like this to the beach, clear as still waters, burning down his throat. His mouth feels dry just at the thought.

"Yeah. Well. Usually she's right about this shit, but everybody's wrong eventually."

Vince turns his head to watch as Jameson picks, uncomfortably, at the corner of his own beach towel, a riotous swirl of oranges and pinks that Nat has had for long enough that the ends are starting to unravel, with little thread like fringe. Other than his perpetual scowl, he wears swim trunks that go down to his knees and a long-sleeved rashguard shirt made of the same material, both in a deep blue. It's a color that suits him. Vince is afraid if he points it out Jameson will strip naked right here simply from spite.

"You're doing fine," He says, a little softly. "Nobody's looking at you."

"If they do, I'll fucking punch them."

"Jameson-"

"Fuck off, I will."

"Nobody doubts that. But maybe don't just assume you're the center of attention. I'm a goddamn movie star, you don't see anyone staring at me."

"I've seen at least three people stare at you."

"Yeah, because they think I look familiar, but they can't figure out why. With my hair grown out like this and the thirty pounds I've put on since I stopped trying to replace all forms of nutrition with booze, I don't look like me anymore. Besides, I've seen absolutely no one stare at you, so there you go."

"Fuck you." Jameson pauses. "And fuck them. You look better now than you did before."

Vince laughs. "Thank you. That's a rare compliment from the king of insults."

"Yeah, well. Don't get used to it." Some of the anger lifts in his voice, though, and Vince smiles behind his sunglasses as he sees the other man relax - maybe, just a little - and start trying to get his legs to cooperate and unbend.

Jameson had made his way to their little spot using his crutches for balance, but had nearly fallen twice. He isn't used to the softness of sand, the way he has to adjust himself to handle it. Vince caught him the second time or he'd have gone down right there in front of a group of people, not a single one of whom noticed him at all. But Jameson is convinced they did.

The crutches have their own towel, lying carefully side by side so sand won't get on them unless it has to or the wind blows it around.

"How can you stand it?" Jameson asks, after some time passes. The breeze is gentle, just a hint of cooler air coming off the water, offsetting the heat of the sun. Vince stretches his arms above his head, then pushes himself to seated and takes a drink of his water.

"Stand what?"

"Hardly wearing anything." Jameson gestures, and Vince looks down at his tasteful(ly small) green swim trunks. He's... never thought about that before. "Like. People can see your fucking... scars."

Right.

Vince swallows, hard.

He has new ones, from Owen, more on the back than the front. But there's a scar twisted down one side that wasn't there before. His neck has a couple, there's a nick in his jaw now.

Vince hesitates, then takes another drink. "Can I tell you something? Just between us?"

Jameson looks away, hunching over again. His own worst scars are on his face, a twisted that cuts into the corner of his mouth and curves it slightly upward, like he's always smirking. Another that breaks his eyebrow in two pieces. There's even some on the back of his neck that Vince hasn't really noticed before. "Yeah, sure. I make no fucking promises, though."

"Fair enough. The truth is... I don't really care."

Jameson picks at a thread on his towel again. "You don't?"

"Nah. I've been who I am for a long time, and... you know. This sounds really stupid, but-" Vince shrugs. He catches the flash of light off a phone screen as someone checks theirs a half-dozen feet away. He wonders if they're taking a photo of him. Doesn't this guy look like Vincent Shield? Remember, from The Weight of This Crown?

That had been a favorite. He'd played an adult version of one of the Princes of the Tower from the 1480s, a version where they hadn't been murdered but had simply been... kept. His character had gone insane in the tower and taken his brother into madness with him. Whole movie revolved around a murder mystery where there might never have been a body at all. Been some Oscar buzz around that one, though he hadn't won anything for it.

He missed acting. He'd been so damn good at it, he never stopped. But now...

"What?" Jameson frowns, looking more closely at him. "You stopped talking."

"Oh. Sorry. Distracted. Just... you know. I've had all my scars inside my head for so long, it's kind of nice to have some on the outside, ones I can't really hide anymore. I can't lie about them."

"Yeah, you can. 'Oh, I fell down'. There you go."

"No, I mean." Vince groans. "You're an asshole. I mean, I can't pretend I don't have scars at all."

He pauses.

"But... I killed him," He whispers. "I should... I should be marked, by that. Shouldn't I?"

"Don't look at me." Jameson tries to lie down on his back, but his legs won't unbend at the knee, so he just keeps them that way, feet flat on the towel.

"Right, but... you killed people."

"Had to." Jameson goes clipped, tense and snapping each word like a rubber band. "No choice."

"No, I know. I just mean... doesn't it feel like you should look like you've killed someone, once you have?"

Jameson turns his head to look at him, shading his eyes with one hand. "I do look like I killed someone. Actually I sort of look like I died and was brought back to life by a really lazy magician."

"... Never mind. Anyway, what I meant to say is just that I don't mind the scars."

Silence stretches out between them, then. The ocean is a constant rush of in and out, the gentle white noise lulling them both into a sort of doze. The sun beats down, and Vince feels like a cat in a windowsill.

"Do I really look better now?" He asks, breaking the quiet with his own insecurities. "I haven't had a regular stomach without a fucking... near-six-pack since I was... since I... since I was still acting with Owen, when we were kids. Now, I have..." He frowns down at himself, poking his stomach with one hand. "Whatever this is."

"Yeah, you do. Lot better, actually." Jameson snorts. "That is a normal human stomach, Shield. Also, you don't look like you're thinking about jumping off a cliff every fucking second of every fucking day anymore. It's an improvement."

"No, I just-... I mean-"

"Yes, for fuck's sake. You're still hot. I would still happily let you stick your dick in me and brag about bagging someone hot enough to look like a movie star." Jameson rolls his eyes. "Now stop fucking talking."

Vince swallows. "Jameson, are you..."

"Praying to the heavens that you'll shut the fuck up? Yeah, definitely. Actually going to fuck you? Absolutely the fuck not. I've got Allyn. I'm a one-Allyn man. Besides, you could never smack my ass and call me a good boy the way they do."

"... Jesus Christ." Vince feels his face burn, and not from sunlight.

"Exploring consent in sexuality is a normal part of recovery," Jameson says, like someone reciting a script. "Try asking about it in therapy sometime, Shield."

"... oh god no."

"Then shut the fuck up and let me enjoy my fucking beach day, asshole, or I'll tell you about which one of your shirts we used to tie my hands behind my back one time."

Vince takes another drink of water, and tries to pretend the last ten minutes never happened.

[tanadrin]

"fairly suicidal" anon again. This kind of got away from me and ended up significantly longer than intended. Apologies for that, and if it's too long/involved/whatever to read that's genuinely totally fine. (Which is to say: please do not think you have some kind of obligation or I will be Extra Suicidal if you don't respond or whatever. I've got at least a couple more years or one more massive life-wrecking trauma left in me.)

I think your response is pretty typical of people who are, at baseline, pretty happy and optimistic, and I'm sure there are people who haven't heard its like before and would benefit from it, but.... let's be honest that's kind of a generic autocomplete response, and in my experience it tends to come from people who can't or don't really model serious depression well. My model of the perspective you are coming from is something like: It would be terrible for the things I'm saying to be true, and they don't feel true to you, so surely they must not be true for anyone-- you don't want the world to be one where those things are true, and sometimes they are untrue, so, therefore, they're probably untrue basically all the time forever. Unfortunately. I'm aware that 40 years is a decent length of time. I'm aware that my perspective is fallible and limited-- this is the primary reason why I haven't seriously tried to kill myself!. However, looking at how the past 30+ years have gone does not fill me with optimism. In particular the past 15 or so years, where I've technically had the most autonomy, I just kind of... barely existed. I am still trying things to get out of the hole but this really could easily just continue until I die. It is an extremely possible outcome that I spend my entire life wishing it was either worth living or over already, and eventually it reaches "over already." I kept expecting that I'd surely snap out of it eventually, year after year, no one can spend that long in this kind of state, right? And then 15 years passed and I simply did not. It is not unrealistic to believe that that could happen 3 more times.

"Every day you are alive in the world, you have the opportunity to find pleasure" rings really hollow when my physiological capacity to experience pleasure and happiness is extremely minimal and has been tangibly shrinking for as long as I've been a conscious human being. It feels tone-deaf. I know what my baseline looks like. It is not good. If I was guaranteed to die tomorrow, then having lived my life will have unequivocally been worse for me than not having lived it at all, and it will have been objectively a mistake that I didn't pull the plug when I was 12 and first having suicidal thoughts.

If, upon turning 80, I figured out how to have a life that was just barely worth living, and then died a year later, that does not actually undo the years of unhappiness before that, and that is still a life that was, on net, not worth living.

My impression is that people coming from your perspective have brains that just fully shut down when considering this prospect-- that you fall into the trap where you believe that even one second of a-life-worth-living is worth any amount of suffering endured to get to that point. It might help to imagine a person who experiences one single year of a life worth living, followed by 80 years of a life full of incredible misery, and then dies.

The me who exists now matters; the hypothetical-unlikely-certainly-not-guaranteed future version of myself who is marginally glad they exist doesn't just automatically get to trump all of that just because that's sad to think about.

Yes, there is no one life "track" but there certainly are circumstances more or less prone to granting happiness-predicting things like enough money to live on, autonomy, fulfillment, etc. Again, there is no rule saying this current status of being perpetually unable to get my feet under me has to end. I have spent the actual majority of my life like this.

Being unable to get a job that pays enough to live on without also making me want to die (more) does in fact hinge pretty strongly on being able to get that special insanely expensive little piece of paper. It is the cost of entry for the vast majority of non-horrible jobs, that is just what the system looks like in the US. (please do not tell me "oh just learn to code!" If I was capable of doing that I would have done it). The material conditions of my life obviously aren't that bad in objective terms given that I'm capable of using my time to send messages on the internet (if they were much worse I would have pulled the plug years ago) so it feels meaningful that I still manage to be so miserable despite that, and plausible that improving them would not help even if it were possible.

There just... there is actually such a thing as a downward spiral where the baseline becomes worse and incremental improvements become progressively harder and more fleeting, as much as it is sad to think about. Sometimes you accumulate damage and get both farther from your goal and worse at making progress towards it, and it just keeps happening. The brain is a physical object that can, sometimes, Just Get Worse. One instance of trauma can make it harder to recover from the next instance of trauma that comes along, and so on. I am still trying, clearly, and I'm clinging to the idea that lots of weird unexpected stuff can happen, but "just hope for a miracle to happen such that these patterns completely reverse against all odds" is... at minimum that's a huge ask. Please recognize it for what it is.

I'm not really looking for answers or anything here (I wasn't before either tbc, I just thought it was interesting how different my opinion apparently was compared with other extremely depressed people), but I tend to really chafe at what feels like clueless forced positivity from people who Really Don't Seem To Get It, and I hope this information will, idk, provide a potentially novel perspective. Or maybe it won't! Sorry again that it was so long.

i've spent a big chunk of my life dealing with depression. i know it pretty well actually. and if i've won any insight from that, it's that in depression we very often exactly misconstrue the causal axis of our thoughts. we think things like, "i am worthless -> therefore i am depressed." but our feelings shape how we think about ourselves and the world; even things which seem like incontrovertible and inarguably facts turn out to be a product of our rumination: "i was depressed -> therefore i felt worthless."

i know this feels like a platitude. i know when you are depressed saying something like "nobody is worthless" or "it's never too late" feels like somebody blowing rainbows up your ass, some hippy dippy shit that doesn't mean anything. but as someone who has frequently felt worthless, and has frequently felt that they have fucked up their life beyond repair, who has seen other people going through it and come out the other side, i'm telling you: as a matter of both personal experience and accumulated knowledge about the world, "nobody is worthless" and "it is never too late" is not a platitude. it is a rational, reasoned judgement i have been won over to, and which i am totally convinced of. i offer it, not as a panacaea (we cannot reason ourselves or be cajoled out of depression; the thoughts are subsequent to the feelings!), but as (hopefully) the very mildest of analgesics.

i'm not a negative utilitarian. i don't think you can take all the bad and good things that happen to a person, assign them a numerical score, and subtract one from the other to determine whether their life was worth it after all. reading about rare medical abnormalities on wikipedia is itself sufficient to convince one there are certainly short lives full of nothing but pain. and observing people dying of degenerative diseases is enough to why there are points at which people make the rational decision not to continue living. but i also know that there are people who have convinced themselves their life is not worth living, because the pain of allowing themselves to be hopeful again, only to have to deal with crushing disappointment, makes it more reassuring to abandon hope altogether. and i have known people so trapped in the teeth of their suffering, they are unable even to do the one thing that may bring them some relief, until they make the conscious choice to believe that that feeling of despair is not in fact a reliable guide to truth.

we prefer certainty to hope; the sure knowledge we are doomed is often cognitively a lighter load than the uncertain possibility of future happiness. but i think it's worth it to keep hope alive. not because i am a sunny optimist who has never felt miserable, but because i have lost days, weeks, months, years to the blackest despair. i have spent many an hour carefully ruminating on the very clear and inarguably true things that made me feel that way, carefully laying out why life was not worth living and maybe never would be, specifically debunking all the bullshit people told me to try to counsel me out of my depression. and that feeling that was ironclad certainty in my mind at the time is, looking back, like a fading mirage. one should always at least consider the possibility that what feels to us like an immutable truth of our life is less substantial than it seems.

[electronicnutcycle]

“I think there is wrong with Summerville”|| Phoebe Spengler x FEM!reader

Descriptions: You meet a girl (aka phoebe) and hit it off about the machine she found but can’t figure out what it is during the last class of the day , and being a paranormal and horror fan you eventually figure it out , but will you ever get to tell her?....

pairings: Phoebe x reader (platonic for now)

warnings: Nothing but a story , which isn’t real and doesn’t follow the main movie storyline (kinda).

.You had met Phoebe when she first moved here , you were late for class

.But that didn't matter as much too you , neither did school or good grade as you were more interested in the paranormal and horror anything , and it wasn't like you weren't smart you just didn't care about to getting to class on time or getting straight A's

.And as you sneak past the distracted teacher and slump down on a chair at the back at the class

.As you put you're backpack on the table , you look at the girl next to you , She had short , curly hair and had circular glasses that she back up her nose bridge every so often

.While you stared at her for a second too long , she didn't seem to notice as she was tinkering with some type of machine that you stumped you , even though it looked like you'd seen it before

."what is that" you asked trying to not seem like a creep "pardon?" the girl answered genially , like she had just snapped out of her own world

."I asked you about that machine , what is it?" "well , um i don't really know what it is yet , but I'll eventually figure it out" the girl replied back with a little more confidence "can i have a look?" you asked "yeah , sure" the girl said while sliding the machine across too you

.As you inspected the machine , you had this feeling that you had seen it before and that it looked eerily familiar , "i don't know why , but it looks really familiar , like I've seen it before but i don't know where" you had mumbled while racking you're brain "well , i gue-"

.The girl was about to say something before she was interrupted by the loud ring of the bell , when i registered the bell had rung and as i got off the chair and i spun around "what were you going to say by the way?" i asked "it doesn't really matter” the girl mumbled “ well , can I at least know your name” I asked with my hand raise to insinuate a handshake “the names phoebe” phoebe chirps while multitasking shaking and putting the machine in her bag

.”well , my names y/n and it’s a pleasure to meet you , hopefully I see you again but I best be going” you replied back with a wave as you begin to walk out the now empty classroom

.It was the last class of the day and as you walked home , you’re house is a few miles away but your mum was working and you’d had missed the bus , but too distract you from that you had begun to scroll through paranormal forms and wiki’s to maybe further the investigation of finding out what that machine was or just straight up find out what it was

.And find out you did , because you had just gotten home it was already dark and as you basically flew up the stairs to avoid your parent(s) and to get to your crappy family computer, and a few hours went by you had fortunately figured it out what it was

.It was a original ghostbusters trap and let’s just say you were a little giddy , especially too tell phoebe tomorrow and as as you ate dinner , did your night routine and got into bed you did some more info about the original trap and apparently it went missing a few months after one of the original Ghostbusters, Egon Spengler unfortunately passed away , which phoebe is maybe related too and maybe found it in the dirt farmers house somewhere

.And as you finally drifted off to sleep , you had this weird feeling , like you had chills even though it was July

.But you just brushed it off , everyone gets chills every once in a while it’s normal , right?...

part 2?

[nomoreusername]

Who To Trust (Part 2)

Pairing:Minho x female reader

Summary:After Aris's betrayal the main person you expect not to understand shares some great advice and something more.

"I can't believe it. He was my friend,"I mumbled to myself.

I had figured out that Aris had run off with Teresa during the middle of the night. All because the traitor left a note saying he had to help out an "old friend" and to just keep going forward without him. Honestly, I would prefer if he just lied. Because while I usually hate those, he was supposed to be my friend. Not someone who revealed he was disloyal when it was too late to do something about it.

"And after I stuck up for him. He made me look like such an idiot,"I continued, pacing back and forth. Everyone else was a good few minutes away. Obviously, nobody stopped me from leaving. I have Aris to thank for that. He basically spat in my face. After I had looked after and cared for him in my own, weird way, got stabbed making sure he didn't get attacked, and swore up and down that he was a good person, this is what he did.

"They were just starting to like me. We were all becoming friends,"I scowled, referring to the Gladers.

"How could Aris do this?"I asked the air, feeling a single tear run down my face. After all we had gone through he had still deceived me. We had almost died several times. Our friends had lost their lives. Despite the horror show it was, we went through it together. The Scorch was something we did without the other girls. We had actually really bonded, and I started to like him and think he was one of my closest friends.

Now he might kill Thomas.

And the entire time I swore he didn't have any ulterior motives. Why? Because I was a gullible moron who just wanted a friend out here.

"That stupid, dumb, idiotic, jerk,"I listed, pulling at my hair.

"That's a good way to hurt yourself,"a voice pointed out. I looked up to see Minho, making my stomach twist in knots. I just knew he was coming to taunt me and rub the fact that he was right and I was wrong in my face. Him opening up with something that sounds like he cared about me was extra and unnecessarily cruel though.

"If you've come to point the finger at me for knowing about all of this you can save it. I don't need your accusations,"I snapped.

"But-"

"Shut your trap. Don't you think I feel bad enough? I was stupid enough to think I could trust someone who had been lying. Aris might be ready to murder Thomas, and I defended his sorry self. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever felt the pain of losing someone who's alive? Because I-"

"Y/N, stop talking for five seconds,"He interrupted, now extremely close to me. So close I could make out every detail on his face, every perfect imperfection, and it made me nervous in a different way. My stomach was still in knots, but the reasons for it had definitely changed.

"I'm sorry I thought you were one of them, okay? But taking what I said to heart won't do you any good. It's not fair to blame yourself. You don't deserve that,"He whispered. "And you don't deserve to pull your hair out either,"He added, taking my hands away from my head and putting them in his.

Despite the fact that I was literally fighting to survive I couldn't help but say one thing.

"I think I love you."

"You think?"

"Just shut up, and tell me if you love me back."

He looked at me without saying a word. Then, he crashed his lips against mine. I froze for a millisecond before kissing back with everything I had. He snaked his arm around my waist as we fit together perfectly. While I hadn't imagined my first kiss being with someone that I swore I hated, this was better than any fantasy my mind could come up with. He was better than whatever I could imagine. Despite everything that was happening nothing had ever felt so right before

Still, we needed to breathe so only when we were on the brink of running out of air did we pull apart.

"Does that answer your question?"

[biggerbetterbat]

WITH YOU [34] OLD AQUAINTANCE

Daryl Dixon x OC!Charlie Reed

Summary: The prison is under attack. There’s also an unexpected comeback of people that were considered dead.

Warnings: language maybe? death?

Song: MARINA Lies

Words: 2,731

A/N: I just want to end this season…

"Beth!" Maggie called as they ran out of the building with guns. They saw Carol on the ground covered with the body of Axel that was now basically a bloody sack of bullets. "Carol, go!"

Suddenly everything became quiet, no more bullets flying through the air, however, something else brought their attention. Roaring of an engine. Charlie furrowed her brows, worried that maybe it was Glenn coming back. But the car wasn't similar to the one he took. A mini van stormed through the gates and stopped on the field. It didn't belong to them, so there was only one option - more people of the Governor.

But the reality was much worse.

Around twenty Walkers marched from the inside and basically trapped Hershel on the field. The whole shooting brought Walkers from the closest area and trapped Rick outside of the gates. And there was still an asshole on their watch tower who trapped them from helping the other two.

In span of the moment, Charlie aimed at the sniper and pulled the trigger. Everything happened so fast that she couldn't even point a moment when the idea was even born in her head - she did that on impulse.

When the Governor was gone all five of them - Charlie, Carl, Maggie, Carol, and Beth, ran to help Hershel. Reed dropped her gun aside and took out an axe, deciding it would be much more convenient. She heard a scream and stopped in her tracks, looking in the direction of where Rick was.

While she thought Grimes would die just there an arrow cut through the air.

Charlie stood frozen. Her heart both hammered in chest and stopped the beating. She blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. The figure of Daryl didn't disappear or transformed into a Walker - like it used to in her nightmares. It was him. She would recognize him everywhere, even from the distance. The way he moved and how precisely he used a bow, so the arrow didn't go through the head of Rick, but just the Walker. Charlie felt all the muscles relax as soon as her brain understood that Daryl was back.

But there was no time to think about it as she saw Glenn driving back with Hershel and Michonne. And once they passed the gate, Charlie and Carl closed it behind them. At that moment, she could see what the Governor did to their home. Walkers, once again, overran the fields, so there was just one layer of separation from them. Axel was dead on the ground, and whole peace they had was gone.

"We're not leaving," said Rick.

"We can't stay here," Hershel shook his head, still on shock after what had happened.

"What if there's another sniper?" Carol asked. "A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds."

"We can't even go outside," Beth cried.

"Not in the daylight."

"Rick says we're not running, we're not running," Glenn argued.

"No, better to live like rats," said Merle from behind the cell's doors.

Charlie sent him stare full of hate.

"You got a better idea?"

"Yeah, we should have slid out of here last night and lived to fight another day," he said, leaning on the doors. "But we lost that window, didn't we?"

"We?" Charlie asked. "Last time I've checked there was no we."

"Better check again, baby," Merle smiled. "I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now."

"We ain't scared of that prick."

"Y'all should be," Merle's smile dropped. "That truck through the fence thing? That's just him ringing the doorbell," he said. "We might have some thick walls to hide behind, but he's got the guns and the numbers. And if he takes the high ground around this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to."

"Let's put him in the other cell block," Maggie said to Rick.

"No," Daryl argued and her head snapped to him. Charlie felt relaxed that he was back, but still mad that he even left on the first place. So him just casually speaking on an important issue - no matter if he was right or wrong, made her annoyed. "He's got a point."

"This is all you!" Maggie yelled. "You started this."

"What's the difference whose fault it is? What do we do?" Beth silenced her sister in a desperate voice.

"I said we should leave," Hershel shook his head. "Now Axel's dead. We can't just sit here."

Rick turned and started walking away.

"Get back here!" Charlie yelled after him not realizing that she did until the moment all eyes were on her. "You're slipping, Rick. We've all seen it. We understand why. But it's not the time," she said. "This isn't a democracy, remember? So get back here and do...something! We've all placed our lives in your hands, so do something."

After a short while, Rick came back inside with Carl by his side. They were watching the area, trying to judge the danger. "Eyes open, head down. Field's filled with walkers," he commanded."We will keep Maggie on watch."

"I'll get up in the watch tower, give you a chance to fix the fence," Charlie proposed, already looking for her gun.

"We can't access the field without burning through our bullets," Hershel said.

"So we're trapped here. There's barely any food or ammo," Glenn said.

"Been here before," Daryl answered. "We'll be all right."

"That's when it was just us," Charlie mumbled under her nose, but Glenn heard.

"Before there was a snake in the nest," he nodded.

"Man, we gonna go through this again?" Daryl asked angrily, apparently hearing what they were saying. "Look, Merle's staying here. He's with us now. Get used to it," he leaned slightly to Glenn and then looked at Charlie. "All y'all."

He was the hurt one? He was throwing a tantrum? He wanted her to accept the presence of the man who was making her uncomfortable from the very beginning, kidnapped their friends, gave Glenn a black eye, and could be the one shooting bullets at them?

And why he was mad at her? Daryl decided to leave without even saying a word. One day he was a part of their group, and the second he was gone. Charlie couldn't even trust Daryl now, and he wanted her to trust Merle.

There was something different about Daryl. Something that Charlie couldn't quite place. Whatever it was, it made hers heart clench.

"I can't kick him out," Rick shook his head.

"I wouldn't ask you to live with Shane after he tried to kill you," Glenn said and pulled some nerve in Rick's body.

"Merle has military experience," Hershel said. "He maybe erratic, but don't underestimate his loyalty to his brother."

"Well, you don't know him then," Charlie said angrily to Hershel. She remembered how he was humiliating Daryl, making him do the dirty work. There was no such a word in Merle's dictionary as loyalty.

"But you do," the man nodded his head.

At the same time, a woman was wandering through corridors carefully approaching the cell she knew her best friend would be. He was sitting on the bunk bed, inspecting his arrows, and trying not to think about the presence. "Haven't had a chance to say I'm glad you came back," Carol said.

"At least one person," he mumbled still not looking at her.

"Everyone is relieved," she argued.

"Not everyone..."

"He's your brother but he's not good for you," Carol said. "Don't let him bring you down. Look how far you've come."

"Will she ever forgive me?"

"Of course she will," Carol smiled. "She's just young and stubborn."

Charlie was sitting with her arms crossed and brows furrowed, kicking her feet. He raised his eyes and smiled as wide as he could, which only made her annoyed even more.

"Why so angry, baby?"

"I'm just wondering..." she opened her mouth. "Why is it that good people dies all the time, while people like you...don't."

He snorted. "Ya' made ma little brother weak. He came back to ya like a puppy." he teased.

"Have you made him a man yet?"

She looked at him, still not understanding what he was talking about - or not wanting to understand.

"You are the most disgusting piece of shit, Merle."

He chuckled.

"If ya dun want ma brother, I can gladly have ya," he licked his lips. "Show ya what real man feels like."

"Listen to me." she clenched her teeth."Your brother is a good man, and just because of him you're here. Alive."

Merle snorted.

"And to your information, the night with Daryl was the best of my life." she lied.

Merle opened his mouth, clearly shocked and he didn't expect this answer. He would say something if not the sudden move outside.

"Are you alone?"

"Open the gate!" the woman begged.

"Are you alone?!"

"Rick!"

Oh here we go again...- thought Charlie once she saw the woman with blond curls. Rick pushed her around as if she was a doll, but he wanted to make sure she's not dangerous. "Hands up! Turn around! Get down on the floor. I asked if you were alone," he leaned in. "Welcome back."

As soon as she entered the prison, Andrea hugged Carol tightly and gasped as she saw Hershel's leg - or its lack. She looked at Charlie and Charlie looked at her, no one moved. They parted their ways in a...tense atmosphere and never actually were friends.

"Where's Shane?" Andrea asked and the silence was also an answer. She looked down. "And Lori?"

"She had a girl," Hershel answered. "Lori didn't survive."

"Neither did T-Dog."

"I'm so sorry," she said looking around.

"Are you, though?" Charlie asked.

"Charlie," Glenn whispered and touched her wrist.

Andrea looked around and then her eyes fell on Carl, but as she took a step in his direction he took a step towards Charlie. His face wasn't exactly welcoming as if he was judging if he could trust her again.

"Rick, I...You all live here?"

"Here and the cell block," Glenn said.

"Can I go in?" Andrea asked, pointed at the doors.

But Rick stepped on her way. "I won't allow that."

"I'm not an enemy, Rick."

We had that field and courtyard until your boyfriend tore down the fence with a truck and shot us up," Grimes answered with a firm voice.

Charlie furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Glenn who just slightly nodded. "He said you fired first," Andrea said.

"Well, he's lying," Reed answered. "He killed an inmate who survived here. He was one of us."

"I didn't know anything about that," she furrowed her eyebrows. "As soon as I found out, I came. I didn't even know you were in Woodbury until after the shoot-out."

"That was days ago," Glenn said.

"I told you, I came as soon as I could," Andrea explained. "What have you told them?" she turned around to face Michonne.

"Nothing," she shrugged.

Something must have happened in the Woodbury, or maybe even before that. Two women knew each other good, at least that's how it seemed. Michonne was clearly hurt by Andrea and even though she was relieved to see her, there was something in her eyes.

"I don't get it," Andrea said. "I left Atlanta with you people and now I'm the odd man out?"

"He almost killed Michonne and he would have killed us."

"With his finger on the trigger! Isn't he the one who kidnapped you?! Who beat you?!" Andrea gasped, pointing her finger in Merle's direction who was out of his cell. "Look, I cannot excuse or explain what Philip has done..."

"Philip?" Charlie raised her eyebrows.

"But I'm here trying to bring us together," she ignored Charlie. "We have to work this out."

"There's nothing to work out," Rick shook his head. "We're gonna kill him. I don't know how or when, but we will."

"We can settle this."

"We do," Charlie said, pointing between herself and Andrea. "But we don't," she said pointing somewhere what could be the direction of the Woodbury.

"There is room at Woodbury for all of you," Andrea said to her.

"You know better than that," Merle scoffed.

Andrea seemed confused after words of the older Dixon, but at the same time she knew what he meant. Her sudden tension, made Charlie think about the situation a bit deeper. Andrea said that she came as fast as she could. But what was stopping her? Rick's group could leave the prison whenever they wanted, wherever they wanted. But Andrea was stopped by something; besides, she came here on foot. Her people had cars - they showed them. She came to them all alone, without supplies, a car, or at least weapon. It looked as if she sneaked out in secret.

"What makes you think this man wants to negotiate?" Rick asked. "Did he say that?"

"No."

Grimes spread his arms in powerless move and Charlie snorted. "Then what are you doing here?"

"Because he's gearing up for war," Andrea answered. "The people are terrified. They see you as killers. They're training to attack."

"Next time you see Philip..." Daryl opened his mouth for the first time. "You tell him I'm gonna take his other eye."

"We're taken too much shit for too long," Rick nodded. "He wants a war? He's got one."

"If you don't sit down and try to work this out, I don't know what's gonna happen," she tried to persuade Rick. But the thing she missed was the end of democracy. She knew nice Officer Rick, she didn't know the leader Rick. "He has a whole town. Look at you. You've lost so much already. You can't stand alone anymore."

"You want to make this right, get us inside," he answered.

"No," Andrea shook her head. "There are innocent people."

And with that Rick turned around and just walked away, ending the conversation.

Charlie tried to keep her distance from Andrea to prevent from unnecessary fight as it was the least needed thing. But apparently someone higher decided that this day would be peaceful for her. She understood that once she saw angry Daryl Dixon approaching her in fast steps.

At first he was just looking at her, fighting some internal battle inside. His eyes were observing her face carefully as if he could read the answer to his question without even asking it. "You told Merle that we had sex?"

He knew that she was angry at him, but he had to know why she lied. Once his brother patted his back with approval, and started talking of how proud he was of his little brother, Daryl knew something was not right. She wasn't talking to him, but he hoped that he would get this one answer.

"I told him that we slept together and we did," she shrugged with emotionless voice. "Not once, before we found this place. You laid next to me and I laid next to you. That's sleeping together."

He was looking at her, as she was looking away. Daryl was trying to process what she was saying and partially he was happy to hear her voice again.

"What?" she looked at him for the first time. "I did this so your lovely brother would just shut up."

"He will never shut up," said Daryl, shaking his head. "Now, he wants to know all the details."

"I don't care," she rolled her eyes. "Tell him whatever it's needed. If me sleeping with you will make him respect you, then do it."

Daryl looked her in the eyes and his heart ached. She was doing this for him, she even lied for him, just so he could live a peaceful life. Maybe that would be the end of their misery and she would finally forgive him.

"Lie if you must," she said and looked at him. "You're pretty good at it, right? You made me believe that you care for the group, so lying about that should be easy."

She didn't mean that, Daryl was probably the most honest person she had ever met. However, she wanted to hurt him to the bone. Charlie wanted to make him suffer, and she did because his heart broke a little after hearing those words. It broke even more when he was watching her leave.

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[onyxbird]

No Strings Attached

Summary: Jarett may not usually fight alongside his employers, but he knows them well enough to know when something just isn't right. They do this all the time, so surely they have some kind of strategy for if their cleric gets possessed, right? Pike has an unusual strategy for being in two places at once, and she trusts her friends implicitly. If only they had that much trust in themselves. Also on AO3.

Jarett darted behind the piece of broken wall Vax was already huddled behind and dropped to a crouch next to him. Every line of Vax's form screamed stress.

“Vax. Not to complicate this already terrible situation, but…” Jarett grimaced, trying to figure out the right way to explain.

“Yes?” said Vax, distractedly. He stared apprehensively at the spot where Percy had just unloaded several shots into a wyvern, but his eyes did not track its movement, as if he was lost in his own thoughts. A flash briefly illuminated the battlefield, its radiance casting Vax and Jarett into even deeper shadow, as Pike fired off a spell and sprinted for the next piece of cover as fast as her short legs could carry her.

Jarett hesitated, wondering if he was making a mistake.

Vax glanced over at him, eyes focused again. “Yes, Jarett, what is it?”

“I think there is something wrong with Pike,” he blurted. “She is acting strangely; she does not sound like herself. We must be on guard. If something is possessing Pike and pretending to be her, this could be a trap for us all.”

Vax closed his eyes and dropped his forehead against the stone in front of him with a soft thud. “Fuck!”

A slight scrape of stone on the other side of the wall made his head snap up again. He exploded to his feet, flinging three daggers in quick succession to bury themselves to the hilt into the monster's head. It let out an ear-splitting screech, clawing at the dagger buried in one eye, and Vax bolted, grabbing Jarett by the back of his collar and dragging him along.

Jarett stumbled scrambling to keep up, until they reached a larger, intact wall and Vax crammed them both into a shadowed alcove, Jarett first.

Jarett eyed him warily. “You do not seem as surprised as I expected.”

Vax cautiously peeked out of the alcove, checking for enemies, and at first Jarett thought he wasn't going to answer. Then, satisfied with his check, he spun back to Jarett and leaned in close.

“She's not here.”

“What?”

“Pike's not here,” hissed Vax. “Well, her body is, but—She's checking out that tunnel while we keep them busy, looking for any way to collapse that contraption and stop it. Astral projection. We were going to leave her safely behind, but she insisted we needed a healer and that they might get suspicious if she wasn't fighting with us.”

Jarett blinked at him, stunned. “But—” The distinctive warmth of one of Pike's group healing spells washed over him, and a cut over Vax's eye closed up. “—then who is that?!”

“Vex,” said Vax, miserably. “And me. Pike figured out a way to let us basically puppet her around while her conscious focus is elsewhere.”

The boom of falling rocks from the middle of the battlefield made Vax flinch, and he frantically grabbed for his earring. “Vex, did you get her—?” Jarett couldn't hear the answer, but Vax's relieved sag against the wall made it clear enough: Pike had escaped the impact.

They both poked their heads out of the alcove, scanning for enemies. Vax's daggers combined with Jarett's crossbow sent one of the still-flying wyverns crashing into the dirt. It didn't move again, and its rider tumbled across the ground.

Jarett ducked back into cover. “Why you?” Of all the questions spinning through his head, it was probably the one that mattered the least.

Vax rattled off the answer without hesitation—clearly, it had been a point of discussion. “Keyleth and Percy don't get on with gods; Grog knows less about magic than even I do and spends most of battle in a rage, and Scanlan—”

“Is Scanlan. Say no more.”

“Yeah, well—Shit!” A flash of panic crossed Vax's face as his eyes unfocused once more. A moment later he blinked and muttered, clearly not to Jarett, “Yeah, mostly got her out. Still got clipped by part of the swing, though. Should she heal herself or try to hit the fucker before he can get another swing in?”

…

Pike skidded to a stop next to Jarett, grabbing his arm and healing him. “Hey. More guys coming up from the south. Can you get to that gate and get it barred so we don't have more of these fuckers to deal with? Vex and Grog will cover you.”

A shower of arrows from above peppered their nearest enemies as the shadow of Vex on her broom swept over.

“Uh, yes. Yes, of course.” Jarett looked down into Pike's blue eyes. Vax's accent and manner of speaking coming from Pike's mouth in Pike's voice was somehow even more unsettling than the twins' imperfect imitation of her own. From the corner of his eye, he could see Vax clinging for dear life to the back of the wyvern vigorously attempting to buck him and his daggers off.

“Thank you, darling,” said Pike, now with Vex's forced brightness. “Clear path between the pillar to your left and the rider impaled on a tree. Hurry.”

Pike darted back behind a wall next to another guard and reached for her earring, her tone sliding smoothly back into a bubbly approximation of Pike's usual voice. “OK, guys, who else needs healing?”

Grog, currently smoldering and with a worryingly large hole in one thigh, said “No rush, Pikey, but I could use a little smidge when you have a chance…”

“Sure thing, buddy!” chirped Pike.

…

There were no wyverns left, and most of their grounded riders were down, too, when there was a distant boom and a slight shudder in the ground. Friends and enemies alike reacted in apprehension, trying to place what had happened and whether it boded good or ill.

“Oh, wow,” said Pike suddenly. “That's—Ooo, gosh, you guys have been having a time of it, haven't you? How's everyone doing?”

Multiple heads whipped around to look at her. She doubled over, one hand pressed to a wound in her side from a claw that had slipped between armor plates.

“Pike!” A swirl of black feathers plummeted from the air like a meteor to land beside her. “Oh gods, are you all right? I'm so sorry. I—”

Pike gently batted away his extended hand before it could touch her shoulder. “I'm fine; I'm OK. Save it for someone in worse shape.” She beamed up at him despite tears of pain welling up in the corners of her eyes. “You did great.”

“You're hurt.”

“No worse than normal for our fights; it just caught me by surprise just now. And we did it!”

Vax crumpled to his knees and wrapped her in a hug with arms and wings alike.

A small gauntleted hand poked out through feathers to pat vaguely in the vicinity of Vax's back. “Hey… hey, it's OK. You guys did great. I knew you would. I knew I'd be fine.”

Vax huffed a laugh that sounded more like a sob. “I didn't. Don't ever do that to us again. I thought we were going to get you killed.”

[a-chaotically-small-lunta]

Had another wild dream

There was a festival, the biggest one of the year. Where everyone comes together to celebrate. Everyone in this world has a hidden ability, like a talent but a bit more magical. This celebration shows off the most magical of them all, like the one who can take reindeer by just touching them, or the dude who can play any instrument without ever seeing said instrument before, etc etc. some are simple powers like reading fast, or able to draw anything, or even just a very good worker, but apparently I don’t have an ability and am seen as worthless. Anyway, There are many people who are invited to this festival, but in this world there are monsters, who trap and kill people in many different ways. This is important for later. Each person invited to the festival, if they are related to one of the performers, must help out in some way shape or form. Last year I tried and failed to help, by being the end flag for the army race, where the soldiers who are invited, race to see who is the fastest. I was told to hold the flag and change it when 10, 20, 30, minutes have passed, while also stopping the clock when the winner passes me. However they never told me that last part and I got in trouble. So this year they want me to just hold a plate of mashed potatoes and hand it out.

So while we are waiting for things to start we need to find our seats. Me and my siblings are sat somewhere up higher, however there are only three seats. So I’m told to just “sit near them” on the ground, but don’t literally sit on the ground cause it’ll make the place look bad. After I join the walk with my mashed potatoes, about half way through I’m out and tell the Sargent and he says “we’ll go get more from up front” which btw this walk is like walking around a mega church building. So yeah, I get pissed and walk back with everyone looking at me. I get back and decide fuck it I’m going to just sit and not do anything. So I climb in the seats where my siblings are, get yelled at by a dude who I have to pass by when getting to these seats cause “you should know better than to walk on my seat” bro it’s literally the only way to the other seats, if you know another path please show me. He just grumbles and says that I should know of another path. I ignore him and get to the seats and stand nearby cause my sibs are sitting there. The show starts then and that’s my siblings cue to leave their seats so they can be carried away to perform. So I’m left in the middle of the path that also acts as the stage and I just quickly get over to the side cause wtf else do I do. Only to get reprimanded by my aunt and mother that “I should be in my seat and not basically on the stage” I just glare at them and say “well maybe somebody should make sure there are ENOUGH seats for us then” only for them to say that there were and that I’m being unhelpful and just want to complain. I finally snap and just walk along the path/stage, backwards. I’m heading to my car and just running away cause I can’t deal with these shits.

Anyway, Remember the monsters? Once outside I see a few roaming around, they are different sizes and different creatures. I don’t care and just keep walking. Apparently last year I ran into one, it grabbed me and I thought that was it, but it just rubbed my head and cooed before putting me down, chasing another person, and then eating them. So I didn’t care cause I felt pretty safe around them, which is saying something when the step on a car and it explodes.

I’m making my way to my car when I hear that apparently my family is looking for me already. I’m like “shit” so start running across the town/city to get to my car. But once again the town is being swarmed by monsters. I get to an area where this grass tentacle monster thing is sitting, and there’s a group of others trying to figure out how to pass it with getting caught. I tell them just don’t get hit by the end of the grass thorn tentacle thing, cause that’s what’ll grab you, as I start causally climbing over the already grown tentacles. A few tentacles have fallen apart and I grab a few and say “check this out” before chucking them into a body of water. The tentacle then grow and form another monster, the exact same kind of monster that we just passed. I rub it’s little head and say it’s a good boy and needs to stay there until it’s big enough to leave the pond. The group is horrified that I just made more monsters and most run away from me in fear.

The more brave parts of the group quickly joins me and hopes I can get them to safety and I mention that the house next to the library has a spell on it that repels all monsters, and that I’ll be walking in that direction anyway so they can join me. Anyway we continue walking through the snow and crowds of people who are scurrying off to do whatever when another monster appears. This one is a classic giant who is seen chasing someone, he sees me and for a brief second considers going for me before returning to his original target. I don’t get to see if he successfully catches them or not.

Eventually we get to the house and I drop them off before going to the library cause it’s a bit closer to my destination. I get yoinked in by someone who is panicking cause there’s a monster running the library. I look over and it’s this little sand vampire lady monster. I recognize her cause a few years back she successfully trapped me in her sandpit. She started sucking out my youth before stopping and realizing that I wasn’t getting older, but she was still getting younger. She is confused and asks what’s going on and I just shrug and say that I have no idea but if she want she can keep trying until she feels she is at the youthful age she wants. She does and I still don’t age, I then tell her if she acts human and doesn’t attack anyone else, that I’ll help her maintain her youth…at least until I die. She agrees and starts to work in the library. She looks human but if you look closely you see her skin is actually sand. Anyway the person is freaking out and I just say hi to the librarian and ask how it’s going. She said fine and that she needs a little pick me up, so I allow her. Much to the horror of the other person.

We chat for a bit before another smaller monster runs in and grabs me and the shocked person shouting that another giant monster needs a sacrifice. He is this fur covered monster with horns and he rushes out, despite the librarian’s shouts. Then we see the a new monster, this giant tall skinny monster, their skin swirling with different darker colors (like dark blue, deep violet, black, and a hint of dark green too)

That’s when the monster carrying us puts us down and is about to shout at this bigger monster that he brought a sacrifice but freezes for two reasons, 1: monsters are not against attacking smaller monsters and mr fluff here was hoping to get on this big dudes good side but just witnessed the big guy rip another monster apart, and 2: he looks at me and says that I shouldn’t be there and that he messed up by bringing me. I’m still confused before it clicks in my brain. I’m not useless, I do have an ability and a very rare one at that. I have a monster ability, it’s why I don’t get attacked, it’s why I can walk by them, it’s why they hesitate and change their mind, it’s why their attacks don’t affect me and why I know so much about them despite not seeing some of these monsters. I stare at the monster who was holding me cause we both realized what I am, just then the giant dark creature is looking at us with bright violet eyes. I’m not scared and walk forward placing my hand in the middle of his face… I then wake up.