#I thought I couldn't become more of a grey blob

[natstolemysocks]

WHY IS THE LVL 99 REAPER GEAR MY SKIN COLOUR

I LOOK LIKE A SHADE

THIS THING HAS AN OPEN CHEST BUT YOU JUST CAN'T TELL

[writingontheclouds]

Chapter 4: How To Finally Get the Girl

The finale of my fic "How You Get The Girl" that I started in 2019 when I was a wee fresher in college. It is finally over. *phew* I hope this story stops haunting me now.

Read it on AO3.

...

The clock in her room read 7:39pm when Lily watched Isis disappear into the horizon, soaring higher and higher above the identical houses of Cokeworth.

She wasn't sure which part of her brain was working overtime when she thought of sending a letter through Isis. Or when she thought of the idea. She just remembers Sirius holding her by her shoulders and shaking with excitement at the idea as he exited her room and her house and disapparated from her front yard with a distinct pop.

She should have checked around if anyone saw him disappear. She should have berated him for being so careless in a muggle neighbourhood, *her* neighbourhood, as he apparated back at the same position exactly 12 minutes later with a grey owl sitting gleefully on her shoulder, playing with his black hair. But words suddenly seemed foreign to her.

Despite her newly found resolve and the shadow of a black haired boy peaking behind her shoulder, she had hesitated. Multiple times. Her quill broke twice. Isis fluttered around her room from her bed to the shelves. Sirius paced the small length of her bedroom muttering, "Good god woman, you don't have be Shakespeare."

She couldn't shake the guilt looming in her stomach, making her nauseous. *What if he truly has moved on?*

Sirius had been ecstatic, almost jumping off the walls of her bedroom as Isis flew out her window. "He's going to come as soon as he gets it, I promise."

Lily knew Isis was pretty fast, even for a magical owl. And after conveying her urgency in getting the letter delivered as soon as possible, Lily was almost sure she saw Isis' eyes become determined. She loved a challenge, that feisty little thing. Lily promised her an entire box of her favourite treats and off she flew, feathers fluttering to an inch of her face.

Her mother came in announcing dinner just 10 minutes later, asking Sirius to join them. 30 minutes and multiple pointless conversations later, she was ready to stab herself in the thigh with a fork.

"So there is actually a magical giant squid that lives in the lake at Hogwarts?" Her mother asked, absolutely aghast.

"Oh yes, my mate James and I arm wrestled one of his tentacles last year," Sirius responded as-a-matter-of-fact. Even Petunia, whose usual response to any time Hogwarts came up on the dinner table was a scowl, looked shocked.

"You what?" Her mother asked, looking at her for confirmation.

"They did," Lily told her mother nonchalantly, moving the contents of her plate from one corner to another, "Though they mostly just annoyed it. It got bored and dumped them on the shore and went back inside."

Almost an hour later, she couldn't take it anymore and went outside for fresh air. Surely Isis must have reached James by now? He was in the middle of London, not a cave up in the mountains.

It was 10pm when Sirius joined her outside on the front yard, after relaying some more Hogwarts stories to her mother.

"Maybe Isis is having a hard time finding him," He said softly, sitting down next to her on the grass. She just hummed in response, her heart hammering against her chest.

By 11pm, even Sirius seemed to have ran out of reasons. Isis should have reached James by now. Hell, she would have reached London by now if she had taken the train. And she was a witch. If only she knew where to go IN London. She could have just run around Leicester Square screaming his name like a deranged pelican.

At 11:58pm, a sudden movement caught the corner of her eye and before she knew it, a grey feathered blob landed directly in front of them. Isis looked ecstatic and proud. And as happy as Lily was to see her, her excitement lasted for 2 seconds exactly until she noticed the empty talon.

Her heart sank into her stomach. The answer was staring right in her face.

"Lily, maybe he got stuck-"

"Don't." Her voice was barely above a whisper, and her vision started to blur. Sirius wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and she hid her face in his shoulder. “Don’t."

"I'm sorry."

---

It took a very long time to convince Sirius that she was fine. Or, it took a very long time to tell a convincing lie to Sirius that she was fine. But he finally departed around 1am, with a promise to take her out for ice cream the next day to cheer her up.

She had already planned not to leave her bed for the next 3 days, to sleep as much as she could and to be awake as less as she could help it. But unfortunately, the world seemed adamant to not let her have her way, because despite her plans to be unconscious, but she was still wide awake at 2:30am.

Lily rolled over for the hundredth time, facing the pink wall of her bedroom and closed her eyes. She tried to go to her happy place, back to Hogwarts and its hallways and her friends, when a light tap sounded behind her. At first, she thought she had imagined it, the silence of the night deafening her and playing tricks on her mind. But the tap happened again, and again, and that's when her heart sank and her mind took a much darker turn.

She had heard of the rumours of muggle borns and the news of the 'disappearances', and suddenly, each name she had read in the newspapers flashed at the back of her head as she grabbed her wand, remembering every hex in the books. Tomorrow, she was sure, her name would be added to that never ending list. She slowly pulled the curtain above her desk to peak out at the offending noise.

But there, floating right outside the window in the middle of the night, was a boy holding a lit wand with a goofy grin. A grin she unfortunately knew way too well.

"POTTER!" she whispered angrily, half on instinct, but the sound wouldn't reach him. She put her wand aside and slid the window open.

"Potter! What in Merlin's pants are you doing?" she hissed, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"Can we talk?" he asked, his voice barely audible over the wind.

"You are floating outside my window," she stated, still processing the sight before her.

"Yes, I'm on my broom," he replied nonchalantly.

"You are floating outside my window on a broom," she repeated, her tone incredulous.

"Great observation skills, Evans," he remarked, a hint of a grin tugging at his lips.

"You are FLOATING outside my window IN A MUGGLE NEIGHBOURHOOD on a BROOM.”

"Oh. Yes. That. Uhh," he stuttered, looking around nervously, "Can I come in?"

"Can it not wait till tomorrow?"

"I would highly prefer today.”

"Today, right now? As opposed to today noon at Diagon Alley with butterbeer?"

"Today, right now.”

She sighed impatiently, backing up and gesturing him to come inside. While James was ambling his frame into her very small window, knocking down books and pencil stands as he came inside, alarm bells were ringing in her head.

"SHHH!" She shushed him, and he stopped for a second before continuing to get his other leg inside the window and pas her study table.

Bollocks. He was here. The reality of the situation was settling in now. What did he want to talk about? Did he want to apologise? Tell her thank you, but no thank you?

She glanced down at her worn out blue pyjama set, deciding she didn't care how she looked. Even if it wasn't, she wasn't going to change to be let down. How pathetic would that be?

"Cute room, Evans." He said once he had manoeuvred his broom inside her room and started inspecting everything.

"You better have a very good reason for this, Potter."

He just looked at her bemused, eyebrows raised, reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of parchment.

"Oh, I have a very very good reason, Evans."

"Look-"

"Oh no, here is where I will talk and you will listen." That shut her up real quick.

"So, I was sitting in this quaint little restaurant in the middle of muggle London, on a date with this wonderful girl. She's pretty, funny and she loves Quidditch- and guess what?- she supports Puddlemere, I was sold by then and the date had hardly started. She's a splendid conversationalist, did you know? We didn't have any of those awful awkward silences, those are always a deal breaker for me. So we laughed all through the main course-"

"-I'm going to toss you out the window if you've come here to tell me about your new girlfriend-"

"-I swear the manager wanted to throw us out of there-"

"-You have Sirius to discuss the nitty gritties about your dates-"

"-and we were waiting for desert, when I look out the window and to my surprise, I see Isis there."

He looked right in her eyes, and Lily was sure he could see the blush colouring her cheeks despite the low light in the room. Hell, he could have spotted it from a mile away on his broom at this point.

He took a step in her direction, and she instinctively look a step back.

"Yes, Isis with a letter. She singlehandedly unleashed havoc in the restaurant, you should have been there, there was spaghetti flying around and people were slipping on spilled pasta sauce, all for a letter. Clearly, someone asked her to deliver it urgently.”

"Now, you must know how that scared the living daylights out of me, because what could be so important that couldn't till the end of the night? It's a difficult time in our world, you know," James Potter continued babbling animately, his usual self, but Lily's heart was threatening to beat out of her chest, matching James steps, as he continued to step closer to her and she continued to backtrack.

"So, we ran out the restaurant before we were arrested, though what for I still have no idea, but I must be completely pale and speaking gibberish because Emily said she couldn't understand what I said, and frankly neither could I."

"So, with trembling hands, I opened the letter, a million different worse case scenarios playing in my head, and can you guess what it said?" He asked, holding open the parchment and Lily could make out her hasty scrawl.

"Uhh.." Lily's back hit the door to her room and she realised she had nowhere to go now.

"It was from this rather infuriating bird, with bright red hair and a temper to level the entire city of London, who does not lose a single chance to wound my ego, who has spent the last 6 years hating me and my guts, and if that was not enough, for some weird reason I've fancied all that time?"

"Now, I had imagined this particular scenario many times in my head. My personal favorite ending in passionate and wild lovemaking, but never had I imagined this happening on a letter that I thought was the worst news I'll ever receive, when I was on a date with another girl I was about to ask to be my girlfriend. Now do you understand my anger?" James had closed the distance between the two, and Lily could smell broom polish on him. And his cologne. She was pointedly trying not to think about his cologne. She was sure she was hallucinating at this point.

"Well, if you put it that way.."

"..yes?" He put the parchment back into his pocket, and rested his right arm by her head, boxing her in.

"..I might have not have thought this through." She whispered, looking into his hazel eyes, forcing herself to not glance at his lips.

"Of course you didn't," He whispered back.

Lily cleared her throat and looked down, arms folding around her chest defensively. She couldn't look him in the eye while saying this. "Look, James, if you flew all the way here just to say this, you needn't have come. I got your message, loud and clear."

"Message? What message?"

"It's fine, I'm happy for you."

"Happy for me?"

"Yes, I promise I will keep my distance at Hogwarts. She need not worry, neither do you."

"You know, for a brilliant witch, you can be so dense sometimes." Lily's face contorted, taking offence, and ready to spew out some witty come back that would be weirdly accurate, but he put both his hands on either side of her face, and tilted her head up slightly, ensuring their eyes met.

"Lily, why do you think I am here?" There was a tender intensity in his hazel eyes, a silent promise.

Lily's eyes widened, one hand subconsciously coming to rest on his arm, holding it there, holding her.

"I.." She stumbled, staring into his eyes, unable to come up with any response, much less a rational explanation of his presence here.

He waited patiently for Lily to reply, his thumb softly brushing her cheeks.

"You didn't reply." She whispered finally.

"This is something I wanted to tell you in person," he said, nudging her nose with his. "I also had to escort Emily back to her place."

"Out of all the times, this was the one you chose to be a gentleman," Lily replied, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm always a gentleman," he retorted with a playful smirk.

Lily actually snorted. "SURE."

"I could always go back, you know, if I'm not wanted here. I'm sure Emily would love a good night stroll-" James teased, backing away and turning towards the window. But Lily grabbed him and pulled him towards her, his arms instinctively wrapping around her waist.

"Just shut up and kiss me," she whispered, her lips a hair's breadth from his. James grinned, his eyes sparkling with mischief and affection. He closed the gap between them, his lips brushing softly against hers at first. The gentle touch sent a shiver down Lily's spine, her heart pounding in her chest. She felt impatient, and deepened the kiss and her heart actually skipped a beat when James responded equally enthusiastically. She forgot that she was in her tiny bedroom, that she was wearing her old battered night suit, that 5 minutes ago she wasn’t sure how her last year at Hogwarts would pass.

But he was here. It felt impossible, but he was here and he was kissing her, and by Merlin, it felt more glorious than she could ever have imagined. James's hands slid up her back, pulling her closer, while Lily's fingers tangled in his hair, those black locks that she had dreamed of running her fingers through.

When they finally broke apart, both breathless, their foreheads resting against each other. Lily's cheeks were flushed, and James’s grin had softened into a tender smile.

"I’m getting this letter framed.” He murmured into her lips and Lily chuckled.

"I'm going to buy Isis the whole store."

[ask-the-crimson-king]

[Continued from here]

Zikar-Sin's brow furrows at Arrian's comment. As bad as they say? As bad as who was saying? He had thought that the other Legions considered Prospero to be a footnote, a tragedy among tragedies, never something of relevance or notice. He couldn't have been talking about his other brothers, could he? As far as he knew, the Legion had been mostly reclusive, keeping to their own since the Siege of the Fenris System. But that could be picked through later. For now, he had to focus.

"Stabilization efforts are still forthcoming, though we have experienced some recent... setbacks," he said, pausing. "Apparently the Imperium took exception to the work the Legion was doing and decided to try and destroy Prospero again. So we had to start over."

He enhances the projection of Prospero until the world is all that can be viewed. The surface was still craggy and grey, though at the center stood a palace of blackened rock. It looked like nothing more than a vague outline of a great fortress at the heart of a grey desert of nothing. A few other fortresses were scattered across the face of the world, though none of them were made from the same black rock.

"That is the Court of the Crimson King, my father's current seat of power and the Legion's base of operations on Prospero," Zikar-Sin explained, gesturing to the blackened fortress-blob. "All of these other fortresses are where various aspects of the rewilding project are being directed towards -- this one is where the cultivation of its once-native plants is being held, this one is where the plans are being drawn up for the re-introduction of waterways, this one is where the discussion and implementation of the actual animals and creatures is currently being debated, this one is urban development for once we actually can have humans safely inhabit the world, this one is the secondary defensive base and where some of the training for the new Spireguard is taking place, and this one is atmospheric control and restoration." He pointed to each of them in turn, occasionally gently rotating the planet in order to find them. He pauses for a moment.

"You... can manipulate the projections yourselves, if you need to," he says, though it sounds a little awkward to the ears of the sorcerer. "It's rather intuitive, really." He spins Prospero with an idle swipe of the hand, stopping it by pressing a finger to the surface.

"But, right, I'm getting a little off-track. Presently, the world does have an atmosphere, though it is very thin. Too thin for humans to live on comfortably if not for the will and intervention of Magnus, as you correctly noted, Apothecary Fabius," Zikar-Sin says with a nod. "Attempts to establish a better and life-sustaining natural atmosphere are underway, though they should be completed in the coming weeks, if all goes well. It has been planned to have it resemble the balance and make-up of Prospero before it was scourged and burned, which you can see here." He traced over a few symbols on the actual table itself, and a graphic materialized with a list of the various gases and compounds that once made up Prospero's atmosphere.

"Another challenge is going to be the recreation of rivers, oceans, and other waterways, alongside a self-sustaining precipitation cycle. Without them, perpetuating an ecosystem becomes challenging, as I am sure you very well know. There are also efforts underway to restore the soil to a quality that is actually sustainable for life, but that has been harried. Mostly by the fact that finding proper settler plant species can be challenging when you cannot venture far into real space without risking armed engagements." His face looks as though he has eaten something bitter as he says it. "We have the preserved seeds from right before the world burned, but nothing from before, so we need to find -- or create -- a suitable settler species to help get things started."

[The thread was continually being quite long, so I am making a new continuation post; prior reply found here.]

@the-consortium

"Most of the human crew have not exhibited many signs of change or mutation," Zikar-Sin said as he turned to begin leading Fabius and his... allies? Friends? Did Fabius Bile have anyone he called a friend? The sorcerer couldn't tell. Regardless, he began leading them down one of the many winding halls that made the ship seem paradoxically larger than it actually was. "Many of them have been the ones helping to ferry in the psykers from elsewhere in the galaxy to safety. Though there will be substantial mutation found among the mortal populace that will eventually inhabit Tizca, I can assure you."

One of the crewmen saluted Zikar-Sin and his entourage as they went back, a smaller and bonier arm hanging over one ofhis shoulders holding a bag of tools. One of his eyes were missing, the socket now long since scarred over.

"Our first destination will be the ship's internal archive," the sorcerer proclaimed. "So that you are familiar with how to navigate it, at least. It exists as a literal extension of the libraries we keep on Sortiarius. The small library provided for you is paltry in comparison, of course. From there we will go to the observatory where I can give you a more firsthand look at the present climates of Prospero and Sortiarius, along with a look at their pasts for a point of reference. Afterwards, well... We can see what piques your interests."

[luciel-anciel]

Distant Memory (Dark Shadowpeach) (Part 1)

Part 2:

Prompt: Macaque, finds a simple yet efficient way to keep Monkie King, in place.

TW: Lying, Imprisonment, Implied Abuse and Mentions of Torture, Struggling, Possessive Behavior, Kidnapping, and Toxic Unhealthy Mindset.

A/N: Admittedly speaking, I've rewritten this numerous times but I'm not satisfied with it—I just hope that it's understandable tho.

The scene for this story is a very old draft from my archived notes and thought I'd use it for this request & revise it, or try to. I just enjoy, recycling old and abandoned ideas. Like, taking them and using them for certain aspects of my stories.

--------------------------------------------------

The tall and unkempt grass tickled the King's legs which caused him to giggle cheerfully, The breeze, wafting with the scent of peaches, brushed against his skin, and patches of light brown fur.

A soft smile appeared on his face, when he heard small monkeys, following his trail, then proceeded to roll around the tall grass and attempted to catch the sage's attention, by making high-pitched noises or, offered his favorite pink coloured fruit.

He chuckled in amusement and took one bite, the sweet taste overfilling his tastebuds, making him more energized and got encouraged to dash across the meadows, jumping through rocks and Landing on boulders, to avoid the mud getting to his feet. The others, soon, followed him closely.

Wukong, was having the time of their life and enjoyed the sense of peacefulness that this mountain gave off. They never felt lonely, with his companions, and people, from afar worshipped him. The city even made numerous adaptations about him, that he'd binge-watch all those cheesy movies and series with his successor, every night, or when MK, had time too.

Near the waterfalls, The chestnut-hued monkey stopped in his tracks for a moment and glanced on top, to stare at the blue sky, the clouds rolling by forming shapes, into abstract blobs. It was a beautiful scenery that most people took granted, and he was no exception, but times like this, He tried to remind himself that 'little things should be valued' or, tried to follow it, the best he can.

When thinking about his previous self morals, The Self-Proclaimed Sage chuckled, but not like his usual vibrant and arrogant one, This one was more vain and just, plain bitter. The Immortal being, cursed himself greatly for hours on end for falling for the, most gullible tricks and opened his dried-up, eyes.

Almost losing that spark in his golden pupils.

Wukong slumped down, and uncomfortably leaned against the cold and grey concrete walls, as what he saw, was just a distant memory but honestly speaking., The once great king contemplated, whether it was a memory or just a dream, either way, It was the only thing that kept him going....To see the outside once more and run around the meadow before the unfortunate happens.

It didn't matter how much time passed, The determination and hope, in his eye, refused to leave him. Monkie King, trusted his prodigy enough that he'll come and rescue him from this dark realm.

There, was a lingering fear that he'd become a forgotten memory or someone that never existed in the first place, but couldn't voice out his thoughts about that internal to avoid getting heard by someone with six ears.

"Just a little longer" The, Former Great Sage's stylish blonde fur, was now disheveled and unkempt, multiple strands of it were sticking out due to the lack of grooming. "Kiddo, will come and save me"

No sound was heard, not even a droplet of water leaking, only his mumble about hope  The cellar was dark and secluded. The only light source his captor was kind enough to give was a wax candle that would lit up, whenever a certain someone might appear.

Speak of the devil, A six eared Monkey phased through the dark apparition, as if he was part of them and was just a ghastky figure with no solid body, The wax candle, lighting up and illuminated his more prominent feature.

"Did ya miss me, bud?" At every visit, Wukong wished it was his successor, MK, that actually came to rescue him instead of this sick bastard.

"Like, Hell I would" His captor, had a cocky smirk as usual, and  brought him a tray of food, specifically peaches but overtime, as the fruit was associated with the dark-furred monkey, The once great sage, began to loath it deeply.  "Just hearing you talk, gives me a headache"

The immortal being, wouldn't starve to death if he went on years, without having a crumb to eat but honestly, death was much better than having to see that coy smirk that bastard always had but knew he couldn't just give up on life even if he wanted to, He had to live, to see, to relive his old memories.

"Fiesty as usual. I, honestly prefer your more defenseless and unresponsive state."

There, were chains to keep the Monkey Demon captive and made sure to immobilize him, but to mostly make sure that he wouldn't beat Macaque to a pulp.

Of course, Simple chains, wouldn't lock this heaven wrecker down, for too long.

The problem, was the crown, painfully screwed on his head, It was a similar replica, to the artifact he wore when on a trip, with a monk. This one wasn't so painful as the original one but unfortunately, was enough to immobilize him for a short period of time.

The replica, was clamped tightly on his head, and would try to shrink by force, making it tighter by every passing minute, the bolts trying to pierce into his skull until a migraine formed.

What added pain to the bruise, was the mechanical crown, itself, was attached to a small device that sent lighting all over his body.

The shock, overpowered him, the excruciating pain, flowing all over his body, making it worse. It, was that single feature, which made it feel eerily similar to the original one, causing a surge of repressed memories to plague his mind. The represed memories, being his old companions.

It, was during those shock punishment, that made him remember them again, and this time. He, actually refused to repress the memories any longer and would, always remember them, not wanting his old crew to become a distant memory.

It was, some sort of coping mechanism, to help him deal with this .

But, that single second of invulnerability was enough for this bastard to seal him, and drag him away to the shawdows.

"Just screw off, Macaque. You're lucky that Red Boy even helped your sorry ass. If he haven't than you'd still be watching me like a creepy stalker"

Macaque paused for a moment, not saying a single word yet at that petty remark. Their steps were slow and it gave off a sophisticated vibe, per usual but they both knew it was all for show.

Just for the public eye, and to decieve others, wanting to represent himself as a misunderstood monkey, that was hurt.

But behind the closed doors, Macaque revealed his true colours behind, He was a cruel & heartless being. They, crouched down at Wukong's level and

kneeled down on one knee, tracing the long chain that wrapped around his 'beloveds' neck, with his tan-skinned fingers.

He, abruptly tugged on the neck chain which forced Monkie King to jerk forward, making him closer to Macaque's lips while he whispered in a low voice that was dripping with venom but was coated with sugar that can make anyone's teeth fall out. "Y'know, Maybe, You should stop those useless mumbling. MK, won't and will never save you" 

"And, You should know..This isn't love" Wukong croaked, feeling his throat dry since he hasn't drank water, knowing the liquid was drugged with chemicals or whatever potions.

"Love is just a selfish desire to have someone"

Oh how naive they were to trust this monster and Wukong sighed defeatedly, feeling frustrated, since he was one of the many people that fell to Macaque's charm, that single ounce of pity led to his demise as in this secluded room, The six-eared demon, was just a boy who cried wolf.

The dark-furred monkey kept on taunting him, knowing what type of strings to pull on his hostage.  "If his, Oh so great mentor can't even rescue himself, then what can a kid do? "

" That kid—is better than me."

The closeness, made Wukong feel his warmth, but it made him feel disgusted but the feeling wasn't mutual for the other male.

"Well, I'm better than both of you combined" Macaque, spoke with such ease as if capturing a male and taking their free will was normal.

"I doubt that. Just wait till MK comes here, and kicks your ass, and we'll never have to see each other again" The anthropomorphic monkey, sent another petty remark, but what triggered his captor was the sentence

"Never, see each other again"

This time, There was a long pause.

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