#I'm being normal about Snatcher again-

[witch-sweets]

You know ive been thinking lately and honestly gfb didn't have to make Snatcher an actual human design they could've just shrouded him in shadows or use a silhouette instead they gave us THIS peckneck who I've analyzed to death

From the small hints of purple and gold on his outfit

the fact his hair looks like Snatcher's neck floof

those GOD DAMN BOOTS THAT GO OVER THE PECKING KNEE-

This Peckneck is literally the best pre-death Snatcher design that gfb could've given us and I'm so glad he exists-

[hillnerd]

Waking Up - Ch 14

AO3   FFN      Beginning of story | Previous Chapter

chapter word count 14,143

I've been having a hard time, y'all. But I'm back!

LOADS of thanks to the amazing beta @abradystrix for her help

Previously in 'Waking Up':

Hermione was having a very tough time of it, plagued with feeling useless and then the nightmares of being unable to save Ron. She stares at Ron's blood covered clothes Fleur gave her until she falls asleep- Ginny has been mad with Hermione for not doing enough for Ron in her depressed state (even has a row with Hermione about it). Hermione accidentally left out the blood clothes and Ginny discovers them- now they both have an idea of what Ron went through with the Snatchers

Kingsley came with a book of criminals for the trio and Ginny to identify.

Gin is also mad at Harry for letting Ron sacrifice himself in his second C.R.E. (combat readiness exam).

Ron and Hermione spend a lovely evening together- but the next morning he looks at the criminal book and sees the Snatchers- he's obviously disturbed by it, but shares nothing and says he's fine. Then he tells Hermione a secret- he's found her parents. She bursts into tears

Chapter warnings: cannon level violence, mourning, descriptions of cannon dead characters, medical care, ptsd symptoms, cursing, creepy imagery, mention of blood and having trouble breathing

CHAPTER 14: C.R.E. #3

Ron stroked a hand down Hermione’s arm and watched the gentle rise and fall of her ribs.

He’d told her about her parents. To his relief, she wasn’t angry with him for his interference, but he hadn’t expected her to cry quite so much.

She tended to get a bit weepy at times, so if she didn’t curse his bollocks off, he’d expected a tear or two. He thought she’d cry for a moment, then turn this revelation into action and plans. Instead she’d vehemently wept until she was listless and barely able to speak, finally dozing off, tears tracks still on her face.

He had hoped to relieve the stress from her, but now he worried it had only been amplified. She still had dark bags under her eyes, and despite his proddings, continued to remain rail thin.

He gathered the wadded money from the bed and stashed it away in his bag.

Treading as silently as he could, he got his Auror training books and began his path downstairs. He still had eight hours to go until the third C.R.E. that evening, and could use the time to study.

He’d only made it a few steps down from his room when Ginny turned the corner.

“Oh good, I caught you,” she called up. He quickly shushed her, and hurried down the stairs to meet her.

“Hermione’s sleeping,” he said, putting a finger up to his mouth.

“Sleeping in again?” His sister’s eyebrows creased.

She began pushing past him, but he caught her arm. “Don’t wake her.”

She stared daggers down at his hand, and he quickly let go.

“We can’t let her stay in bed all day,” said Ginny, wrapping her arms around one another. “She needs to keep moving.”

“Normally I’d agree but…” He wanted to explain it to her, but somehow it didn’t feel right to tell anyone about Hermione’s parents yet. It was Hermione’s secret. They hadn’t even told Harry yet.

“There’s more going on than you know,” he said, hoping to mollify her.

“More secrets,” she muttered.

If he didn’t know her so well he probably wouldn’t have seen it. She was good at looking tough. Her arms were crossed, her jaw clenched, but there was a slight wobble to her chin. “You keep so many secrets…”

He gave a shrug, not sure how to answer. He did keep a lot of secrets. He had to, especially when they weren’t his own. He understood it had to hurt Ginny being on the outside of so many of his, Hermione and Harry’s secrets, but it wasn’t like it was something new.

“You’ll know everything soon enough,” he said.

Ginny shook her head and gave a wane laugh. He waited for her to say something, but all she did was give a sniff and look away.

“You came up here for something, yeah?” he gently asked.

“I just came up to wish you well on your exam tonight. I didn’t want to miss you.”

“My exam isn’t for eight more hours…”

“I’m going out, and don’t know when I’ll be back.”

Ron’s eyebrows rose. She’d been quite clannish with Harry whenever he was about, especially in helping him prep for the Combat Readiness Exams.

“Where are you going?”

“A few places,” she said with a shrug. For the first time in weeks he really looked at his sister.

In many ways, she looked the same as she always did; long Weasley-red hair well maintained, face freckled and a touch ruddy as she grumped around, short as fuck but physically capable, stubborn set to her jaw. She looked normal and fine, but…

It wasn’t like with Hermione, where he could see her falling to pieces and barely looking like herself. The only physical difference between Ginny now and before the war was that she had a few small scars on her arms she didn’t talk about, but who didn’t have those anymore? Emotionally, though… She was closer to tears than usual during the week. Right now she looked ready to cry or hex something.

“What is it?” he asked. He didn’t ask if she was okay. They’d had a bit of a silent mutual agreement to not ask those sorts of questions of one another once she hit puberty; not so directly or sincerely, anyways.

She opened her mouth, but stopped herself and bit her lip. Her hands began twisting in front of her and he was inexplicably reminded of her in first year. She’d come to him and Harry, wretched and afraid, trying to tell them about the Chamber.

“Did something happen?” he pushed, hoping this wouldn’t provoke her temper.

“No… I just…” She rolled her eyes. “I’m worried about you.”

“I’m fine,” he said, trying to laugh, despite the fright of seeing his sister looking at him so desperately. For some reason her eyes began to gloss. Shit, why was he having to deal with so many crying women in one day!?

“Ginny, seriously. You don’t have to worry about me. Why—?”

“You’re not fine!” she growled. “You’re not! You… You… You came back from the war hurt, and are taking on so much, and not sleeping, and—”

“I slept great last night, actually.” Well, for a bit, anyways. He startled himself awake before sunrise, but before that, it had been a pleasant sleep curled up next to Hermione. “And everyone came back from the war hurt.”

She shook her head. “You sacrificed yourself at your exams!”

“Come off it— that wasn’t for real— it was only an exam. I knew I was safe,” he lied. He’d hoped he’d been safe. “And I did well for myself in the exams. I’ve… I’ve actually been great in them so far.”

For the first time, he believed it. He’d been cheered by his whole team after the second exam, and had led them well. He’d held his own in his duel with the sadist Musaad in the first exam.

Ginny was still looking like a pot about to boil over.

“If you want to help me, stop grumping at me and Harry and Hermione and just… I dunno, help a bloke out,” he said with a hopeless shrug. “You can worry all you like, I can’t stop you, but right now? This is putting way more stress on my plate.”

Whatever fire had kept Ginny going left her. He worried she’d start crying on him, but she didn’t. His sister was tough like that.

He caught her hand and gave it a squeeze. As tough as she was, he could see the rough swallow she was taking.

“I need to get going,” said Ginny, freeing her hand with an impatient shake.

Ron gave a silent nod and followed her down the stairs. He caught Harry’s wary look as they came into the living room.

“Good luck with the exams,” she said, not looking at either of them. Whatever had passed between the couple the night before was far from resolved.

Ginny walked out of the house, marching across the yard with purpose.

“You know where she’s going?” asked Ron, casting a sidelong glance at Harry. He shook his head in answer. “She can’t Apparate… So it must be Luna’s, yeah?”

“Yeah, probably,” Harry croaked. Upon closer inspection, Harry looked like utter shit, with big bags under his eyes and a tight-lipped frown.

“She’s been in a right snit,” Ron said with a snort. “Thinks I’m as helpless as a newborn unicorn.”

Harry gave a wry smile. “Well, maybe not helpless… but she berated me about you for a few hours last night.”

“About me?” Ron asked, giving Harry a wry once over. He watched his sister’s form get smaller and smaller as she tramped across the sunbleached field. He could see their mum feeding the chickens and waving Ginny goodbye. “I can’t figure out why she’s being like this now? I mean, I’m a bit less useless than I was in Hogwarts, and she never gave me grief then.”

“Yeah, well, she didn’t have a dead brother then,” said Harry, giving a curse and wincing apologetically at Ron. “I didn’t mean to say it so… I’m sorry.”

“S’fine,” Ron said, though hearing it said so bluntly made his chest feel heavy.

“I got like, no sleep,” Harry continued, looking guilty.

“I know my brother’s dead, Harry,” said Ron, a bit more harshly than he intended. In a much softer tone he continued, “So give us some insight into the mind of Ginny, then.”

“Er…” Harry cleaned his glasses. “The gist of it is, you’ve done a lot of getting hurt over the years, but you were always okay so she basically forcefully ignored it. After the Battle of Hogwarts… It’s harder to ignore, I guess.”

“Well, it’s not like you haven’t been walking headlong into danger more than me,” said Ron.

Harry looked uncomfortable and stared at his shoes. “You’re a lot worse for wear than I am.”

“Come off it,” Ron said with a snort, taking in Harry’s exhausted face and dark eye circles. “Have you looked in a mirror?”

“Have you?”

He had. He didn’t like the giant divet in his arm, or the myriad of tiny burn scars, or how his nose had an almost imperceptible curve to its bridge from getting broken so many times. He tugged his sleeves a bit further down his wrists to cover the swirling scars up and down his arms.

“Ginny’s worried I keep letting you get hurt,” said Harry.

“There she goes again. Letting me,” Ron snorted.

He knew Harry’s guilty face, and his friend was practically pickled in guilt. In those times it was best to be blunt, and assure him in no uncertain terms he was dead wrong.

“Look, if I don’t want to do something, I don’t. I’ve gone into all sorts of action because I wanted to. If you weren’t around, I’d still be doing that. My whole family too. Blood traitors, through and through. And when it comes down to it, Ginny knows that.”

Harry nodded, looking entirely unconvinced.

“You lot need to stop hovering over me. I’m okay,” said Ron, giving his best nonchalant look. “You, however, look like you just got trampled by a herd of Hippogriffs… Take a nap or something.”

Harry didn’t argue and slumped up the stairs, to which room, he didn’t know, leaving Ron alone.

Being alone was both a boon and a bane. He could revise and not worry about helping others. Of course, it also meant he had time for his mind to wander to the book of Snatchers he’d had to look at earlier.

Having to think of what they did to him was like a fish knife to the sternum, but what was worse was the look on Hermione’s face. She could tell something was up. She was watching him with her all too perceptive gaze and had talked to him like a scared rabbit.

He was so weak that mere photos of them made him shut down. He hadn’t cried, thank Merlin, but he’d felt the want. Then there was the deep pool of shame, dark and spiralling. It was like the pond he’d saved Harry from in the Forest of Dean, but with no end and no air— just frozen depths, a spinning sensation, and the painful burst of suffocation.

Ginny wasn’t there for the Snatcher book, but she could still sense his weakness. Why else would she be so weird with him? And Harry too! They’d never bothered worrying about him before; not like this.

He was so pathetic he could feel it burn through him.

“Ron, could you get the door please?” came his mother’s call.

He spied her through the kitchen door window, arms loaded with sheets she’d gathered from the line and a basket of eggs.

He quickly made his way to the door, and sucked in his stomach as he held the rickety wood open and his mum wedged through.

“Thank you, dear.” She bustled to the table, looking about to spill the basket of eggs until Ron intervened. She smiled at him then looked around the room. “Where did everyone go?”

“You saw Gin, off to Luna’s— then Hermione and Harry are napping.”

Her mouth thinned, but she said nothing and began more properly folding laundry.

Ron found his Auror books and began revising, every once in a while sharing a handy sounding spell with his mum. She didn’t seem particularly interested, but she listened to him, nodded and dutifully kept all her housework to the living room and kitchen to keep him company.

“This one is a trap spell that acts like a slingshot,” Ron reported to her as she ironed a shirt with her wand.

“One of those Muggle toys?” she hummed.

“Yeah. The person steps on where you trace the spell and they go flying backwards. Doesn’t send them far though… Probably not the handiest of spells.”

“Your father had a similar spell he did when we’d go to the coast with you. Kept you children from going too deep into the caves there.”

“And here I thought we’d come across an ancient cursed cave,” Ron said with a small laugh at his younger self. “Lucky we didn’t split a head open.”

“Oh, we thoroughly cushioned your fall,” she said, straightening his hair. “You need a haircut soon dear.”

“Not today, though. Loads of revising,” he said, ducking away. He didn’t want to be shorn any time soon.

“The twins had one of those slingshot thingies. Your father gave it to them, of course. Do you remember it?”

It took a moment before the memory clicked into place. “Oh yeah, at the beach! George would gather ammo, and Fred kept aiming pebbles at the seagulls. By the end of the trip the gulls would start scratching, pecking and pooing at any redhead they saw. It was like the seagulls had formed their own little anti-redhead alliance,” he chuckled.

“Bill was attempting to work his charm on this Muggle girl, trying to impress her with his 'worldly' beach knowledge. But as soon as he started chatting, a gang of seagulls descended upon him. Scared the absolute shi— stuffing out of a Muggle girl Bill was trying to chat up. Bill ended up stealing a beach umbrella from someone and trying to use it as a shield, loudly cursing Fred, who just put on a hat and kept pelting pebbles at the gulls. I’d never seen Bill lose his cool like that,” Ron was all out laughing, but cut it short when his Mum only gave a small pained smile.

He ducked his head and began looking for any other spell to talk about. It was the first time he’d mentioned Fred to his mother since his death. In a way it’d felt natural to talk about him. Nice. It felt a bit wrong for someone so funny and infuriating to barely be talked about…But it also brought the sharp pain of absence. Discussing him was like treading carefully between laughter and tears.

“I’m glad you remember,” she said, a tightness in her voice. “Tell me what other spells you’ve found, dear?”

Her indulgence was quite the relief. Having someone there made it easier to focus. He’d never been very good at revising on his own. He could do it, of course, but his full attention would putter out after about twenty minutes unless it was something with a looming deadline. It was strangely nice spending time with his mother like this. He’d not done it nearly enough as a kid.

He’d been revising a few hours by the time Harry arrived, thankfully looking somewhat rested. Ron shared his notes and the two enjoyed a late lunch. Hermione didn’t join them, and Harry did what he did best and avoided talking about it.

Ron had almost given up on seeing Hermione when she showed up, red sleep creases down her cheek, hair looking more a prickly burr than a bun.

“Alright?” he quietly asked, trying to sound nonchalant, and fairly certain he failed miserably.

She nodded and sat beside him, leaning into his side.

“Have you found any useful spells?” she asked, looking over his notes.

He cheated the parchment her way. “A few.”

She hungrily took in his notes, looking much more herself. “You could’ve woken me to help you revise.”

“I could’ve,” he breezily agreed, pointing to the parchment. “There’s a telescope spell to see long distances, and then there’s this one I’m particularly happy with finding.”

The Auditory Enhancement Spell, or the eavesdropping spell as he liked to call it, would be a handy thing they could have used in all their past adventures.

“Oh, if we had that in Hogwarts…” she smiled, shaking her head.

“Would’ve been dead useful.”

“Who knows what other trouble we would have gotten into by hearing even more snippets of secretive conversations.”

“Loads!” he laughed. “And with this, there’s no need for extendible ears.”

“It also might be helpful with my—” she cut herself off. He knew what she meant. Her parents.

“Should we tell?” he asked at a low volume, eyes flicking to Harry.

She shook her head. “Tomorrow.”

He agreed, though keeping it a secret was going to be difficult. He’d kept secrets from Harry before, of course— the Order had forced him to a few times, but in those instances they usually were miles apart without having to share the same room. Ron had gotten okay at keeping personal secrets of his from Harry, but that was different somehow.

Hermione’s curly topknot tickled the side of his neck as she laid her head on his shoulder. Her hand found his and gave a squeeze, and he knew she was thanking him. She didn’t say anything, she wasn’t even looking at him, but he knew. He squeezed back and gave a small kiss to her temple.

Dinner was a quiet affair, with Ron and Harry revising away, sharing the odd spell with one another. Hermione compiled their notes into one easy to read compendium, and his Mum fed the distracted trio.

“It’s nice to see how you all worked together in Hogwarts,” Mum noted, getting a grunt from Ron and some polite smiles from Harry and Hermione.

As the clock struck six, Hermione wished them luck, then kissed Ron on the cheek, and they made their way to the Ministry. The Ministry was more crowded than usual, with a crush of post-work Floo traffic making its way through the halls.

They were both more and less anonymous than usual— more people could see and recognize them thanks to the sheer numbers, but the crowd made it easy to dodge people by ducking behind a random big-hatted warlock for even the most determined gawker to manage even a hint of a conversation.

They’d queued up to weigh their wands when a bright flash of light went off, temporarily blinding Ron. He whipped out his wand when another flash burst forth. And another. It was a veritable storm of light, blinding and disorienting.

Harry groaned.

“Reporters,” he said under his breath.

“Mr Potter! Are you excited for your final Auror exam?”

“Mr Potter! Can you give us a smile for the paper?”

“Mr Potter! What is your response to the accusations you’re mentally unqualified to join the Aurors?” came a somewhat familiar voice.

That’s when Ron saw her.

“You!” he rumbled, pointing a finger at Rita Skeeter’s face. “You get away from him!”

Ron stood up to his full height, occluding his much shorter and slighter friend behind him. Skeeter’s Dumbledore tell-all must have set her up well, as she was dressed lavishly with gold bejewelled rings on every finger.

“Well, well— if it isn’t Ron Weasley,” she said, not intimidated in the least. An inlaid diamond in her tooth sharply sparkled as she gave him a delighted smile.

“It’s Ron Weasley!” one of the reporters gasped.

“Mr Weasley! How have exams gone so far?”

“Mr Weasley! Hold up your fist again? We didn’t get the photo of you trying to punch Rita!”

“Mr Weasley! Are you joining the Aurors to avenge your brother’s death?” asked one of the others.

Ron let out a raspy, “What?”

“Has Hermione Granger finally thrown you off for Harry Potter, Mr Weasley?” Skeeter’s voice rang over the others.

“Back off!” Harry growled, putting an arm around Ron’s side.

He barely felt his friend's hand pressing into him. The two were a pair of gasping fish as light after light flashed and question after question struck them.

“Mr Weasley! Over here!” came another cry. “Mr Ron, sir! This way!”

His wide eyes vaguely shifted over to see Robbie, waving them over, face barely visible beyond the crowd. He was at a door with a sign that read in bold red letters:

‘SECURITY- NO ENTRY WITHOUT PERMISSION!’

They quickly followed him and let out relieved sighs as the din of reporters was finally muffled by the shut door. Ron leaned his back against the door and shut his eyes, wishing he could shut off his brain with the same ease.

The reporters were like a herd of Inferi, if Harry’s descriptions were anything to go by; absolutely horrifying and unyielding… That they’d dare to ask something so intrusive about Fred was disquieting, and Skeeter’s question about Hermione especially stung. He could feel the unrelentingly cold metal of the Horcrux snaking around his neck, and hear it telling him how Hermione wanted Harry… How weak he was.

The discomfort was that he had been weak. He’d been a stupid jealous sod and left them… And when he got back the locket had been able to burrow itself back into him. He could feel the crunch of the snow and warmth of the blade in his hand as he’d nearly stabbed Harry with Gryffindor’s sword.

“Thanks,” Harry panted to Robbie, bringing Ron to the present.

He cut his eyes to Harry, who was warily watching him.

“Yeah, thanks, Robbie,” said Ron before looking around them to see cleaning supplies and a crusty looking mop. “Is this a broom cupboard?”

“It is…” said Robbie, a blotchy blush of embarrassment staining his cheeks. “I couldn’t think of another place to weigh your wands in privacy, so I conjured the sign and waved you over.”

“Nice,” said Ron. He gave Robbie a pat on the back and the young man went scarlet. “Is there a way to get out of here unnoticed?”

“Sorry,” apologised Robbie. “You’ll have to go out there again to reach the lift, but at least you don’t have to wait in line with them next to you as I weigh your wands.”

“Any reprieve is a good one,” said Harry, handing his wand over.

Robbie made short work of weighing it before taking Ron’s wand.

“Soon you’ll be an Auror and can use a private entrance, instead of this main one, Mr Ron. But until then, if you ever need some privacy, I’ll arrange it.”

“We appreciate it.”

“It’s my pleasure, Mr Ron!” he said, a broad grin on his face. He held onto Ron’s wand a bit too long before fumblingly handing it over. “Best of luck on your exam, Mr Ron!”

“Thanks, Robbie,” he said, trying not to roll his eyes as Harry sent a cheeky grin his way, the little shit.

They opened the door to a less prepared group of reporters, who only managed a few questions before they got to the gold gated lift.

The light glinted off of Skeeter’s expensive robes. She had a satisfied look on her face as she watched them ride down the elevator. He didn’t know why she looked so happy, but anything that made her give that delighted look couldn’t be good.

“You alright?” asked Harry.

Ron sighed and leaned against the back of the elevator. “Not how we wanted to start the evening, was it?”

Harry gave a muffled ‘mmm’ of agreement.

Once they got to the Auror locker room, they received a much quieter, but much more friendly, greeting from their fellow recruits, though Kevin’s enthusiastic pat on Ron’s shoulder left his fingers numb for a full minute. Theold was sitting in the corner looking bored, picking his teeth with a toothpick, but he deigned to give them a nod.

Claudia finished tying her shoe and gave them a friendly wave.

“Hi Ron, hi Harry. You doing any better?” she asked, giving Harry a sympathetic look.

“Fine, thanks,” Harry grunted, avoiding her gaze, grabbing his uniform and quickly disappearing into a changing room.

Immediately Ron’s hackles began to rise. Why was she looking at Harry like that?

Ron changed into his uniform and thought back over the last day. What had Claudia seen that would make Harry so embarrassed and go into ‘lizard hiding under a rock’ mode?

He tried to catch his friend’s eye once they had changed, but Harry’s face was squarely facing the ground as he took the time to double knot his shoelaces, something he never usually did.

“Want to tell me what that was about with Claudia?” Ron quietly asked as Harry realised there wasn’t enough shoelace to triple knot them.

Harry shook his head. “S’nothing.”

Oh, it most definitely was something.

Ron wanted to kick himself as he realised the issue. He’d forgotten to ask about Harry’s lack of Patronus in the second exam. It felt nearly impossible to keep his mind on everything he needed to. Hermione was a distraction in a myriad of ways, from being gorgeous and dead sexy, to worrying and infuriating— she always managed to leave him preoccupied. His family was its own tangle of problems. And finally he was a selfish coward who was too preoccupied with some scary memories instead of watching after his best friend properly. He used to be better at this, hadn’t he? Or had he always been such a pathetic friend?

Claudia and Vyse had been there when Harry couldn’t make a Patronus, not Ron or someone else he knew. Had they told him it was okay? Maybe made a joke to put him at ease? Or had they looked at him with pity and disappointment? Harry hated that more than anything.

Harry had been doing okay the last few days, the incident where Harry had destroyed the Quidditch shed notwithstanding. And the Dreamless Sleep potion issue too… But other than that, he was okay, right? Ron would know if his friend wasn’t okay, wouldn’t he?

He stared at Harry, willing him to say something, but his friend remained silent and began fiddling with his wand holster instead.

Pushing Harry to open up and speak never worked in private, but in front of a group of people so nearby it would be impossible. He would have to wait. Hopefully whatever happened would not affect Harry’s performance in this exam.

Neville emerged from one of the changing rooms and gave Ron and Harry a small wave. With relief written all over him, Harry genially greeted him and gave a forced smile as he wedged past Ron to escape.

“Hi Neville! What have you been up to?” Harry asked. He pointedly ignored Ron’s unimpressed eyebrow raise.

“Er, since yesterday?” Neville asked, smiling, but clearly overwhelmed by Harry’s uncharacteristically enthusiastic and direct attention. “Not much. Kipped a bit, met up with Hannah to revise.”

“Hannah?” Harry asked. “Hannah Abbott?”

“The same.” Neville’s face took on a glowing flush.

Ron and Harry caught each other’s eyes, and both carefully schooled burgeoning teasing smiles into something more solemn.

“Well, that’s great,” said Harry.

“Yeah, Hannah’s always been nice,” added Ron. “Glad you’re, erm… revising together? At night?”

Harry gave him a poke in the side. Ron swatted the back of his head in retaliation, but grinned. If Harry was willing to interact with him at all, they were okay.

A bashful smile and a ducked head were all they received from Neville before the Locker Room door opened with a large bang.

All eyes turned to the door, and quite a few hands went to wands. Ron’s eyes cut to Harry, but his friend was thankfully calm with his wand only at his side.

It took a moment for him to recognize the bedraggled woman standing in the door.

“What time is it?” demanded Ramona, hair a snarl, and shirt covered in some sort of congealed yellow gunge.

“Two til,” said Vyse as he entered the door she’d frantically just come through. He’d barely made it on time himself, but got his clothes at a leisurely pace. “Is that your vomit?”

Ramona ripped her shirt off, not seeming to care that everyone was around her.

“Fuck!” she cursed, frantically looking through her bag, still in just her bra. “Does anyone have an Alice band?”

The shorthaired young men all looked at her in a clueless state, while Claudia checked her bag. “Sorry, I don’t.”

“Of course you don’t!” she snapped, crumpling in front of her bag.

“Maybe we can transfigure you one,” said Neville.

Ramona took her tracksuit bottoms off and thrust her legs into the uniform trousers, not answering him. Her hands shook as her hair flew around her face.

Not wanting to deal with her attitude being worse than usual, Ron grabbed the old wand care magazine he’d read before the first exam and did his best to transfigure it to look like one he’d seen Ginny wear as a kid.

“Here,” he said, tossing it to Ramona who barely managed to catch it, her face all puzzlement.

“You’re a liability to all of us if you’re in a snit,” he explained. “Fit ok?”

She tried on the band then nodded.

“Crisis averted, then,” he said, doing his best not to sound too cutting. He probably did; he wasn’t particularly good at holding back his venom.

It was strange to see Ramona so clearly rattled. She was always one of the earliest to arrive, and revising until the last minute. The thought that she randomly overslept didn’t seem to fit with her character. If he liked her he might have thought about it longer, but he was thoroughly distracted from any Ramona-related curiosity by the voice of Auror Sealy-Pearce.

“Recruits,” she said. All eyes turned to her. She stood in the doorway, posture straight and cornrowed bun as tight as ever. “Follow me to your final C.R.E.”

The recruits quickly complied, Ramona hurriedly putting her hair in a ponytail as they walked, her elbow nearly hitting Neville in the chin.

Unlike the other Combat Readiness Exams, they were in a small dark room, barely bigger than his parents’ living room. A map was spread across a round wooden table lit by one bright lamp above it. Auror Musaad was standing in front of it along with another Auror who looked vaguely familiar.

The man beside Musaad was of average height, had close cropped hair with M-shaped hairline and a roughly kept goatee, but had a clear air of authority. He squinted around the table as if the dim room was bright.

“Come round the table, recruits,” ordered Musaad. They shuffled into place, eyes nervously dancing from Musaad, to the map, to the stranger beside him. “This is Head Auror Gawain Robards.”

Robards nodded around the table, dark blue eyes flitting from recruit to recruit, spending more time on Harry, who clenched his jaw and looked away. Then they landed on Ron. He spent even longer on him, and Ron’s cheeks coloured under the scrutiny.

“For your final physical Combat Readiness Exam, you will be dealing with a hostage scenario,” said Musaad. “You will stage a rescue mission to retrieve the hostage from a small group of wizard operatives.”

He tapped the map with his wand and a portion of the map shaded itself light blue. “Their exact location is unknown to you, but according to intel, they are in a highly armoured room in one of the buildings further South into the city square. Your first objective is to rescue the hostage.”

Sealy-Pearce tapped the map and a ghosty image appeared above the map, showing a faceless cloth dummy in a robe. “The hostage will be an animated dummy. Once you reach the dummy, tap the pendant around its neck with your wand and it will act as a portkey for only the dummy, removing it from the scene.”

“Use discretion, especially before the hostage has been secured-- any spell that’s too explosive could risk the ‘life’ of the hostage. After the hostage has been safely retrieved, spread your team out and capture the enemy. In a real scenario you would do this so they can be extracted and interrogated.”

“You all are wearing the same safety vests as before, as will the enemy, so don’t be afraid to go all out,” said Musaad, his eyes catching Ron’s. “Any questions?”

“How do we capture and transport the enemy?” asked Harry.

“You can capture or overpower them however you like— when they have been effectively disabled you can tap the badge on their shoulder to send them to headquarters— or if they were given a blow too devastating, their vests will transport them back here automatically,” said Musaad.

“Will there be booby traps or battle bots?” asked Ramona, looking at the small city map.

“There might be a few traps, but there will not be any battle dummies.”

Relief passed through Ron. At least they didn’t have the bots on their tails.

“Wait, what time of day will it be?” asked Ron, remembering the night scene they’d stumbled into during the last exam.

“Daylight,” said Robards, speaking for the first time. His voice was rough and clipped, but he had a small hint of a smile on his thin lips.

Musaad looked around the table, but no one else spoke up. “Take a moment to plan, then.”

Ron and Harry’s eyes met, then passed over to the Aurors, who were clearly not going to leave.

“Okay,” said Harry, leaning over the map. “We don’t know which of these buildings the hostage is being kept in, so that’s the first thing we need to figure out once we get there.”

He duplicated the maps and gave a shrunk version to each of them. Ron attached his own to his arm guard above his watch.

“We should split into a few teams so we can more quickly find them,” said Harry.

Ron looked at the variety of alleyways and small buildings. Splitting up was well and good, but… he took a breath. “We also need a way to communicate beyond Patronuses. Those draw too much attention and are too unreliable.”

Ron knew he’d have to pay for it later, but he had to say it. The Patronuses had been a spectacular failure for them in their last C.R.E., sending Bots and explosions their way, bringing far too much attention to their locations, and then Harry couldn’t even create one when needed, for whatever reason.

Harry stilled, and his jaw twitched.

Harry never did well when his pride was wounded. Ron had kept it vague, but even hinting at something like Harry failing at a Patronus in front of everyone would sting his pride and guilt, and make him shut up like a mollusc. It was worth it so they had a plan, but Harry wouldn’t feel that way until Ron apologised in private.

“Right… Any ideas?” said Harry, pointedly avoiding Ron’s gaze.

“How about coins, like with the D.A.?” said Neville. Harry and Ron nodded, but the rest of the room looked confused. “We had coins that would heat up and display times and messages on them for meetups. It’s how we coordinated the help at the Battle of Hogwarts.”

“Brilliant!” said Claudia.

“My girlfriend came up with them,” said Ron, feeling chuffed as the table further voiced their appreciation.

“Anyone have coins we can use?” asked Harry, bringing them back to attention.

“I have a lucky one in my shoe we can replicate,” said Vyse.

“But what if we lose them?” asked Ramona. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to use something like our watches? Coins are fine if you need discretion, but watches are easier to see and not lose.”

“Everyone wearing a watch?” asked Ron, holding his own out. All but Ramona held out their wrists. Kevin and Claudia transfigured part of her shoelace and Vyse’s lucky coin into a watch for Ramona, while Harry Ron and Neville did the spell on all the watches.

“Are you ready then?” asked Musaad.

Ron and Harry looked around the table; everyone nodded.

“We’re ready,” said Harry.

Musaad pointed to the door behind them they’d entered through.

Ramona was the first to the door, opening it to a blindingly sunny day that left Ron squinting. The sunny old city street had cobblestones and rows of tightly packed light plaster and stone buildings, some of them brightly painted.

It was disorienting to be in such a sunny place, when their bodies knew it was late at night, but he supposed that was the point; it was just one more disadvantage as they went into an already unpredictable situation.

It had the look of an old city. The cobblestones were worn, and the buildings had scrapes and marks that spoke of hundreds of years of use, but it was oddly empty of people.

“Which way should we go?” asked Claudia.

It took a moment for Ron to realise she was looking between him and Harry, waiting for an answer. In fact, all their nervous gazes were upon them.

Great.

Harry ignored them all, looking at the map, brows creased and jaw set, fully in a brood.

Even better…

“Fastest members should scout ahead,” said Ron. He tried to say it with authority, but his voice went embarrassingly high at the end. They were all eyes and clearly wanted more information. He looked down at the map. “So how about Harry and I scout Southeast, while Ramona and Claudia scout Southwest— the rest can bring up the rear and split as you like. We can signal through the watch if we find something.”

To his relief, no one argued, though they didn’t seem particularly eased by his plan. Leadership settled oddly on him. He wasn’t charismatic or inspiring like Harry, and didn’t have an air of resolute intelligence like Hermione… He had to be grateful they listened at all.

“Also, daylight means we can be spotted more easily, so stick to the sides of the buildings.”

“Should we disillusion ourselves?” asked Kevin, nervously shifting his weight side to side as if he was ready to roll out of the way of a spell where he stood. He was definitely an easy target with his wide frame and slow speed.

“I dunno… If you’re close to an enemy and need to be quiet, it’ll be hard to communicate quickly without being able to see each other well. So do so at your discretion?”

He’d botched any sort of calm he’d hoped to create.

Claudia was nibbling at her lower lip, Kevin shifting, Neville pale and Vyse looking enviously at his lucky coin on Ramona’s wrist. Theold and Ramona were the coolest of the bunch, but he could see their shoulders were up to their ears in tension.

“You’re all good at what you do. If we stick to the plan and watch each other’s backs, we can’t fail,” said Harry.

And like that, Claudia gave a smile of relief, Vyse Kevin and Neville nodded, and even Theold and Ramona’s postures eased.

For a specky scrawny git, he had an air of command Ron always found enviable. He could give a look and a few empty words, and everyone around him was reassured.

Ron couldn’t blame them: Harry’s tenacious certainty made him believe anything was possible too. He didn’t have time for panic when he was running after a self-assured Harry.

Nerves somewhat assuaged, the groups split. Ramona and Claudia sped to a few streets over, while he and Harry took to the left.

Ron did a ‘Captionem Deprehensio’ to check for traps, but none came up, while Harry cast a series of ‘Hominem Revelio’s at each building. He didn’t say anything to Ron or even look at him. His wand movements were so sharp each one could be heard as it whipped through the air, and he scowled at each empty building so intensely Ron wouldn’t be surprised if the buildings wouldn’t pick up and move away to avoid his glare.

“Did the building do something to you?” asked Ron.

Harry cast a dry sullen look his way, which made Ron’s eyebrows arch up into his fringe. Ah.

“Look, I’m sorry about the Patronus thing,” said Ron, hoping to get this over like ripping off a plaster.

Harry’s glare softened into a flat pinched look that fell into something resembling shame.

“No… No, it’s fine. You’re right. They draw too much attention, plus there might not be time to think of something happy.”

“I mean, it happened to all of us at Hogwarts last month,” Ron said with a shudder at memory. Had it really only been a month? He could feel the chill of the Dementors looming over them, a great tide ready to suck down their souls.

“And me the other day,” said Harry, looking at the ground.

And there it was. Ron thought he could let it go unsaid, but Harry had been pushing uncomfortable unsaid things recently. It was probably more healthy, but Harry had been so reliably tightlipped in the past.

Harry gave an aborted gesture with his hands then let them fall. It was so rare he wasn’t able to do something right. When it did happen, he lost his footing entirely.

It made sense, in a way. Harry had always been the one to rise to any challenge, to excel in the face of adversity. He had grown up with so little to rely on, with only himself as a constant, navigating a world of loss and uncertainty, so if Harry fucked up the one sure thing in his life was taken away. Add in the relentless pressure of being a leader, the weight of expectations resting on his shoulders— being ‘The-Boy-Who-Lived’ and the ‘Chosen One’ — it had to take a toll. Ron did what he could to provide more stability in Harry’s life, but he’d mucked that up too much for him to say he was good at it.

“You know, no one thinks less of you for the other day,” said Ron, trying to catch his friend’s eye.

He had such a pained look of self loathing Ron wished they could trade places for a moment. Hating himself and not measuring up was part and parcel for Ron— but not Harry.

“No one,” Ron emphasised, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Remember, not everyone knows how to do a Patronus. But I do, and Neville does, and Hermione and Luna and the whole D.A.— thanks to you.”

“Thanks to Lupin.”

“Sure, him too,” said Ron, feeling a pang at the thought of his kind teacher, dead, face slack, blood trailing down his side. “If we need to make a Patronus we sure are peppering ourselves with happy thoughts, huh?”

Harry snorted, and a tiny twitch of a smile pulled at his mouth. “Homenum Revelio.”

The building was empty as well.

Ron took a step forward, but his nose painfully collided with something hard.

“The fuck?” Through watering eyes he squinted ahead, and rubbed his smarting nose, but nothing was there. “What’d I walk into?” He and Harry cautiously stuck out their hands to find an invisible wall in their path. Their fingers could trail along it, but any push was met with complete resistance. They knocked, but oddly no sound came from the act.

Ron looked at his arm. “This is the edge of the map. Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing— but it looks like they’re not going as large-scale as last time.”

“Probably means we need to show more close combat skills then?”

“Get to employ the classics; duelling and dumb luck,” Ron chuckled as his watch warmed.

‘On Silvano- 1 person in building. Can’t see a hostage. Holding for backup -Ramona’

Harry squinted at his map. “Down five streets, right by two.”

Not wanting to be entirely winded should there be a duel, they jogged instead of sprinting, and checked each building along the way, but all were empty.

Ramona and Claudia were crouched behind a pile of wooden crates, eyes trained ahead.

“What’ve we got?” asked Ron as Harry began to do a ‘Hominem Revelio.’ “Wait! Don’t do that!”

“Why?” he asked, wand still poised.

“We shouldn’t have done it before… I’m so stupid!” Ron wished he could kick himself. “They can feel the spell swooping over them and will know we’re here, if they don’t already. We can’t use that if we want to surprise anyone.”

“Did either of you do that spell?” asked Harry.

“No, we just saw the person with their back to the window for a bit,” said Claudia.

“How should we check for more people if we can’t do ‘Hominem Revelio’?” asked Ramona.

“Use our eyes, for one,” Harry said, looking to the top of the four story building next to them. “We can have someone go up there to scout from above.”

“And then there’s the eavesdropping spell,” added Ron. “We can do that to listen into the building and get an idea of how many there are.”

“Then we should save the Hominem Revelio for the last second, when we know we’re about to head in,” said Ramona. “I’ll message the others about which spells to use.”

Their wrists all heated with her warning;

‘Don’t use Hominem Revelio unless about to actively engage. Use eavesdropping spell to check for people.’

Ron cast the eavesdropping spell and an unnatural cacophony of minute sounds flooded his ears, from the sound of the building settling to a person shifting on some squeaky floorboards. “Team One is in place,” said a woman’s voice.

“Have they spotted anyone near them yet?” replied a man.

“No. Only a matter of minutes, I bet.”

“Hnf,” he grunted. Then the two lapsed into silence.

Ron reported what he heard to the group. “Do you think there are others in the room you couldn’t hear?” asked Harry.

“Maybe. It was pretty quiet in there, though,” said Ron, looking around the building. “‘Team One’ could be another team about to set up shop here, or could be another location entirely.”

Their wrists heated.

‘Spotted three on balcony at Vezina. -Vyse’

Vezina was several streets over.

“Those must be part of ‘Team One.’ If they have more people, they’re more likely to have the hostage,” said Ramona. “Should we just leave this group, and head there?” asked Claudia.

“This group could come in as backup over there. Better to take them out here,” said Harry.

“Won’t Team One come here the moment we attack?”

Ron shook his head. “They need to stay with the hostage, so they probably won’t. This pair can easily be mobile, but the others probably can’t.”

After a minute of planning, they were ready to go. Kevin and Neville would meet and hold with Vyse and Theold at the other location. Ron had good long-distance aim, if his spellwork on a broom was any indication, so he would scout from the roof and back them up if needed. Harry, Claudia and Ramona would enter the building after he finished scouting.

The three waited at the door to the building. Harry clapped a hand on his elbow, giving it a squeeze before Ron Apparated.

He’d never been the quietest at Apparition, and this time was no exception. A crouched hooded and masked figure on the roof immediately turned to him, wand drawn.

“Shit,” said Ron.

‘Guy on the roof! Go in!’ he messaged through the watch.

Ron put up a shield just in time to reflect an explosion beside him. The blast pushed him behind the wall of the rooftop entrance and left his ears ringing. An onslaught of explosive spells followed, shattering plaster and splintering wood around him. He tried to Apparate again, but he was abruptly stopped by an Anti-Apparition ward.

The spells hailed down, almost as unrelenting as a Bot’s. If he showed so much as a hair around the corner he’d be blasted clear off the roof! That’s when he noticed the top of a fire escape ladder. The small bit of building protruding for the entrance to the roof might shield him from the man long enough to escape.

But he didn’t need to just escape, he needed to take the masked figure out and back up his team. He looked to the ground, and a piece of plaster was nearby. Perfect!

Idea in mind he put a shield up and scrambled for the ladder. The loud sound of the spells retreated behind him as he scrabbled and no spells hit near him. He must have just been out of the man’s sight-lines.

Down a flight, he entered the building through a window that was thankfully already open, as were all the windows. The percussive explosions stopped. The man must have discovered his absence.

In the distance he could hear spells flying in the other building.

“Hurry up, Weasley,” he whispered to himself.

He did an eavesdropping spell and could hear the man’s footsteps above, creaking on the old rooftop. The floor was thin.

Ron crouched into his steps, slowly resting his foot down heel first and applying even pressure until he’d taken each minute step. He wasn’t the best at sneaking, but he was okay at it from years of trying to avoid his family’s prying eyes. He continued until he was directly under the man.

Ron took the piece of plaster he’d grabbed on the roof and floated it out the opposite window, willing it to arc up onto the roof and fall in front of the rooftop door.

The man might expect Ron to come at him next through a door or come back up the fire escape. But he wouldn’t expect him from below.

‘EXPULSO! PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!’ cried Ron.

The spell ripped a hole through the floor, and his spell struck true. The man fell to the ground with a thunk.

He ran up the fire escape to the roof and saw the lights of spells in the room. He could hear Harry’s bellowed spells coming through the open door, and saw the two hooded figures behind an upturned table, using it to shield them. It would be difficult to hit them and not the recruits. Difficult, but not impossible.

He knelt down as the hooded man had, rested his wand on the edge of the building and cast a telescope spell. He took his aim, carefully, knowing a hair too high and he could hit Harry or the other recruits. His lungs expanded, he held his breath and muttered ‘Stupefy.’

The man dropped to the floor.

The woman looked to her partner’s fallen body, giving Harry just the opening he needed to disarm her, before another recruit had her in ropes.

They all paused their movements to take in the scene.

Was that it? Was it over?

No other spells came, and there were no movements.

The recruits went to inspect the body on the floor, looks of puzzlement on their faces. Ron grinned and stood up.

“Harry!” he called across the alley, giving a wave.

Harry looked out the window and confusion turned to a beaming smile.

“This you?” he asked, pointing to the stupefied body.

Ron nodded. He gave a turn and Apparated into the room. “Oh good, that worked! They put up an Anti-Apparition ward the moment the action began.”

“What happened to the person on the roof?”

“Petrified him.”

“You took out two of them, then!” said Claudia, awe written all over her face. Harry smiled and gave him a pat on the shoulder, while Ramona had a scrutinising look on her face. Ron’s cheeks began to heat.

“Should we send them back then?” he asked, hoping to get the attention off him. He probably should’ve liked the attention, but he just felt weirdly hollowed out from it.

“No, we need to see who they are first,” said Harry, removing the prone figure’s masks. Ron didn’t recognize either of them, but Harry and Claudia seemed to.

“They’re the Aurors Vyse and I duelled at our first C.R.E.” said Claudia.

“So we’re not fighting recruits or some other hired force— we’re fighting full fledged Aurors,” said Harry, before tapping their badges to send them back to Headquarters.

“I’ll get the bloke on the roof,” said Ron, Apparating over. He removed the man’s mask and recognized him as the Auror who fought Theold in their first C.R.E. This was definitely not their best team, even though they were clearly skilled.

“Are we going to be seeing Musaad and Sealy-Pearce in the field?” he asked the still petrified man. Every bit of him was still as he looked at Ron. “Look to the left to answer no. Now answer the question.”

The man stared ahead.

“Would you tell me even if it were true?”

The man’s eyes went to the left.

“Of course not,” spat Ron, hating every moment of these C.R.E.s.

He leaned down and tapped the Auror’s return badge- making the man disappear in a fast snarl of magic.

"We might be seeing the likes of Musaad later," Ron said as he joined the others in their room, his voice tinged with a mix of anticipation and nervousness.

Ramona gave an involuntary shudder beside him, her eyes flickering with unease.

"Kind of makes me long for the bots," said Ron with a half-hearted laugh, attempting to lighten the mood, but the others remained silent, their minds preoccupied with the impending mission.

Not wanting to be spied on as they made their way to the other group, they cast a disillusionment charm on the table from the upstairs room and used it as a shield. The enchantment rendered them nearly invisible, ensuring that no one ahead of them would be able to see their movements unless they were at ground level. It was a tight fit, especially with Ron trying to crouch behind the table. He was over a foot taller than the girls, and almost twice as wide as any of them. They moved at a snail’s pace, but finally arrived at Vezina Street.

Vyse, Theold, Neville, and Kevin were waiting behind a green building, their wands at the ready.

Harry cast a muffliato around them, something Ron wished he’d had the foresight to tell the others to do.

“Good idea— if we know the eavesdropping spell, they’re certain to as well,” said Ron.

"There are three out front on the balcony, fifth floor, and at least one inside. We've been holding in place so they don't spot us," reported Vyse, his eyes scanning the area for any signs of movement. “We all tried an eavesdropping spell a few times, but I don’t think it worked. I haven’t heard them speak once in twenty minutes!”

Ron checked for booby traps, which there were none of in the immediate area, then set to work with his eavesdropping spell. There were faint sounds of people restlessly waiting: a cough here, a fidget there. His brow furrowed in concentration as he strained to pick up any clues.

“Maybe three or four inside— hard to tell. They’re not talking at all.”

“Anyone on the roof?” asked Harry, his gaze sweeping across the yellow twelve story building, as well as the nearby buildings.

“If there is, they are dead silent,” Ron replied with a shake of his head, casting the spell once more to confirm. “Same across the way. Green building seems empty.”

“Then you and I should go up the green building — get an eye on things.”

“Maybe a few of us will join you,” said Ramona, eyebrows furrowed. Ron and Harry looked around the group, and all were looking at them in varying stages of upset. “We’re all trying to become Aurors. We should continue to be part of the plans.”

Harry looked like he wanted to argue, but Ron spoke before his friend could voice his objections. “What were you thinking?”

“A few of us go up the green building and stay at the same level as the hostage room. We’d have good visibility and be able to cast some heavy spells across the way at them as you did last time,” Ramona explained.

“If it’s clear, Ron and I can work our way down the hostage building, while the final team works their way up,” said Harry.

“Yes!” Ron grinned at him. “With that middle team, we’d be hitting them from every angle! It’ll help if we’re facing the likes of Musaad.”

“I got a few interesting spells I’ve been dying to try out on that bastard,” said Theold, twirling his wand, smirk on his face.

“Perfect,” said Ron. “It’s just a matter of who wants to go where, then.”

After a discussion with the team, they decided those with strong aim and good blasting spells would be best on the middle level. Those with strong short-range duelling skills or strong shields would probably be best for the street-level team.

Claudia, Ramona and Kevin claimed the street level, where they would work their way up the building. Neville, Theold and Vyse would take the middle floor.

Plans made and agreed on, they split into two teams, the street level team putting on Disillusionment Charms before they went into place.

Dust particles danced in the air, caught in the rays of sunlight streaming through the half open windows.

Vyse halted, signalling the group to crouch, and they formed a huddle. Neville kept a watchful eye on their flank and cast another muffliato.

"We've got company," Vyse whispered. "The three guarding the balcony are back and there are about five inside.”

Ron nodded, his mind working quickly. He turned to Theold, whose arms were crossed.

"Hey, Theold, got any of those interesting spells you mentioned?" Ron asked with a hint of mischief.

Theold raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "You bet. Why?"

Theold's smirk grew wider as Ron explained his plan and Theold went to the window, clearly relishing the opportunity to showcase his skills.

Neville and Vyse took their places at the middle floor.

“We’ll signal you soon,” said Harry as they departed.

They slowly ascended a dilapidated staircase, trying hard not to make any sounds. Ron glanced at Harry, who was a few steps ahead of him. His friend turned back, green eyes shining with determination and resolve, just as they had countless times before, as he gave him a small smile; a quirk of the mouth that meant ‘glad we’re in this one together.’ It was a sight Ron had grown familiar with over the years, and it never failed to bring him comfort.

Harry’s mythic presence had a unique way of bringing comfort to everyone around him, but as Ron looked at him now, the aura of the chosen one, the 'he's the one' shine, had somewhat dimmed over time for Ron. In the early years of their friendship, Ron couldn't help but be influenced by the legends, the comics, and the tales of "The Boy Who Lived." It was almost impossible to shake that preconceived image of the larger than life hero. On their first train ride to Hogwarts Harry was a far cry from the story-books; he was waif-like and swimming in oversized clothes, and had a hungry, yearning look every time he saw families and friends. His every move and look screamed of loneliness. He was just some little kid who needed Ron’s help.

At least, until he stood up to Draco Malfoy's cruel taunts on Ron's behalf — in that instance, the sweet, needy, ordinary kid Ron had come to know transformed into "The Boy Who Lived." There was an undeniable fire and strength in Harry that made it difficult for Ron to fully grasp who he was. That was a Harry that could change hearts and minds, could take on dark wizards, and who didn’t need Ron at all.

But then Harry was back to being Harry. There was only one thing Ron could give him— himself— so he gave himself fully.

By their fourth year he’d seen Harry nearly die enough times to know he wasn’t some untouchable power; the kid had vulnerabilities just the same as anyone else, and most days he was ‘just Harry,’ the sarcastic kid who had trouble making small-talk with people, with giant eyes that could have so many emotions in just one look. But even with it being ‘just Harry’, there still remained a nearly unshakable belief in his friend's abilities.

In this C.R.E., Harry’s legendary status wasn’t what made having him there such a comfort. No, the comfort he derived from Harry was knowing that he had a friend who could practically read his thoughts, who trusted in him more than Ron did himself, and whose unwavering determination had always been a source of strength for Ron, especially in moments like this, when the stakes were high and the tension thick in the air. He was the friend who had seen him at his best and worst, but still kept him around. Harry still had a mythical glow about him, but it had little to do with ‘The Boy Who Lived’ and everything to do with him being Ron’s best friend.

Harry did another Muffliato as they reached the roof. They checked in every way they could, but there didn’t seem to be any surprise Aurors or booby traps. It was remarkably straight forward. Ron didn’t trust it.

“Ready?” asked Harry, looking across the way to the empty roof across the alley, shifting his weight.

Ron gave a shrug. “If you are.”

‘Showtime -Harry’

A moment later Ron and Harry walked down the street with their wands pointed high, and expressions haughty.

“Hey Musaad! Enough of this sneaking around! Come on out!” came Theold’s voice from the street.

With swift precision, two masked Aurors flew out on brooms, aiming their wands at Harry and Ron who simply stood there, wands aimed at the sky.

The Aurors wasted no time and threw vicious spells through the air that blasted the ground apart, and decimated the side of a few buildings— but still Ron and Harry stood, no spells cast. No matter what they threw, the Aurors couldn’t land a hit.

From inside the enemy’s building Ron and Harry watched the perfect images of themselves, standing in the streets pointing their wands at the sky.

“Wow! How did he make us look so real?” asked Harry.

“No idea— some sort of illusion charm?” said Ron. “Bit creepy to look at ourselves, innit?”

“Try seven of you,” Harry said, with a dry look.

“Oh yeah… I’d not thought about that battle in a while… Well, at least we’re not in skivvies like yours were,” he sniggered as they continued their way down flights of stairs to the hostage room.

After climbing down four flights, they checked outside to see how the distraction was going.

The Aurors finally hovered their brooms near the static Ron and Harry. They’d just landed when the cobblestones beneath the enemies' feet transformed into a row of mini trampolines. The cobblestones bounced and jiggled, sending the enemies off balance and making it difficult for them to keep their footing.

Laughter erupted among Ron and Harry as they watched the unexpected spectacle. “Quite the dance party you’re having!” Theold’s voice laughed.

“Who knew he had a sense of humour?” said Ron as he and Harry continued down the stairs.

The duo moved stealthily as they got closer to the hostage room. Ron couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement mixed with adrenaline as they neared their target.

They entered a room on the sixth floor. It had peeling green wallpaper that reminded him a bit of Grimmauld place before they cleaned it. He cast the eavesdropping spell again.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me— they’re in clown shoes!” said a man’s voice.

A set of other Aurors were laughing.

“Ohhh he’s going to be so mad after this!”

“They’re thoroughly distracted!” Ron smiled at his friend.

“Good,” said Harry before telling the teams they were in position.

The watches warmed.

‘In position -Claudia’

‘Ready -Neville’

‘In Five -Harry’

“Four…” Harry counted the second.

He dropped the Eavesdrop charm, as it was about to get loud.

"Three... two... one..." Harry counted.

Their spells burst through the ceiling, catching most of the enemy combatants off guard and sending down a cloud of dust. Harry deftly disarmed the nearest enemy, while Ron stunned another through the hole in the ceiling.

“Accio hostage!” Harry shouted. The hostage dummy flew to him and he deftly tapped its pendant.

Through the door burst Claudia and Ramona, protected by one of Kevin’s strong shield charms- and through the windows came a barrage of spells from Neville and Vyse.

The room erupted into chaos, a cacophony of flashing lights and deafening blasts. Shattered glass from the windows scattered like glistening confetti, catching the sunlight as it danced through the haze of dust and smoke that filled the air. Some of the action had spilled into the hall, and suddenly Harry jumped down into the room to join the team.

The air was thick with dust and Ron could barely breathe, let alone see through the hole in the ceiling, but the room fell away and he was at Hogwarts.

The wall wrenched open, masonry falling, everything exploding. Fred’s face was staring just past his ear, hint of a smile on his face, but eyes oddly blank.

Ron couldn’t move as he stared at his brother’s eyes, willing them to blink. He was unable to say or do anything as Percy’s wails rang through his ears. Bits of blood sopped onto the large masonry that now scattered across the floor. The blood wasn’t pumping from his brother’s skull, it just spilled like someone had overturned an open can of sauce, liquid slowly looking for the easiest path down. Fred wasn’t blinking. His brother wasn’t blinking. He was dead. His brother was dead.

Something painfully struck Ron and he went flying backwards. The wind was partially knocked out of him and he saw peeling green wallpaper.

He spluttered and tried to orient himself.

He wasn’t at Hogwarts.

He was in this stupid Combat Readiness Exam.

How long had he been out of it just staring into nothing? His heart felt like it was pounding out of his chest, and his shoulders and back ached. His left arm began seizing.

“Fucking bollocksing shitballs!” he muttered.

Ron stumblinging went back to the hole in the floor, ready to drop down it when a large plank of wood slid in front of it. He gave a futile kick, but it stayed firmly in place. He turned and saw a figure standing in the doorway across from him.

Ron, his heart still racing, raised his shaking wand, but he was quickly disarmed, his wand flying at the wall.

"Nice try, Weasley," the enemy taunted.

Ron rolled towards his wand, his left hand couldn’t grip it.

He braced for impact when the masked figure went stiff and fell face first to the floor.

Neville stood in the doorway, his wand still raised.

“Okay, Ron?” panted Neville.

Ron nodded and rolled over until he was sitting. His left arm felt numb and he couldn’t make a fist.

“We’re down to three,” said Neville. “They’ve retreated into that green building, so we’d better go before they disappear.”

Unable to form words, his eyes drifted to the window. Everything still felt slow in him.

“Ron, are you alright?” Neville asked again, this time coming into the room and putting a hand on Ron’s back. He shrank away.

“Don’t touch me, I’m fine,” he growled, before standing up. “I’m fine…”

He wiped his face off and tried to take some breaths. It was hard with the dust still lingering in the air.

“Let’s… Let’s corner them, yeah,” Ron panted, lurching to the window, determined to ignore the stare he felt Neville giving him. The Auror’s brooms from the trampoline spells were still abandoned on the street, feebly bouncing as a tied and gagged Auror continued to spring up and down.

He could still help.

“Accio broom!” he heard Harry shout. He looked down to see Harry, his wand pointed out the other window. His friend grabbed the broom as it neared him and quickly flew to the green building.

Ron Accio’ed the other broom.

“Are you sure you’re good to—” Neville began, but Ron ignored him. He jumped from the window with the broom, flying over to the green building.

The other recruits were running across the street to the building, while someone, he wasn’t sure who, was aiming spells into the green building from the floor below.

“Third floor!” he heard Kevin cry.

Harry started throwing spells and dodging them with quick turns of his broom.

Ron flew to the fourth floor and entered the window, grip on the broom tenuous as he pointed his wand with his good hand. He wasn’t sure he could get away with a ceiling hole again, but just as he was about to try, the floor began to shake and move. It lurched and twisted and Ron’s tenuous hold on the broom broke. The broom rolled away from him and fell through a growing hole at the back of the buckling floor. Planks popped up with thunderous cracks until the splintered boards all blocked the door.

With a curse, he ran for the window and held fast to the sill as the floor continued to move. The outside wall of the third floor began to buckle outward into the street.

“GET BACK!” he bellowed down at the recruits.

He tried to levitate the wall, but it was crumbling too fast and pieces were raining down on the street below.

Recruits scattered, and Vyse tripped, falling to the ground. Ron spelled the falling piece of wall so that it landed with a crunch only a few inches from him.

Harry dove down, getting Vyse onto his broom and quickly dodging the rest of the wall.

“Accio broom!” said Ron, hoping the broom wasn’t stuck. It nudged its way out of the debris and came to him. He put a leg out the window and jumped down to join the others.

Far enough away to not be hit by pieces of stone and plaster, he watched as three figures stood in a tiny three walled room that was growing metal arms like a squid. The tentacles undulated and crashed into the green building’s walls with giant claws. The Squid room shook with each step and he saw three Aurors inside: Musaad, Sealy-Pearce and Head Auror Gawain Robards.

Recruits all cast spells, but they were easily blocked when the Squid grew a fourth wall. The Aurors were almost entirely blocked them from view, except for the small red circular window at the front of it.

The squid-room became hypermobile and crunched its way down the building before swinging itself with surprising agility to the next one, breaking building windows and bending wrought iron balcony railings like licorice wands.

Ron flew after the room and cast some spells after it, but the room was unaffected. All the recruits’ spells bounced off it like water off a duck’s back. The Squid weaved away before doing a spectacular dive directly into the ground. Cobblestones flew in every direction as it buried itself, and finally the Squid disappeared.

Ron landed near the newly burrowed cavernous hole, hoping to see or hear something. Though he and the other recruits shone their lights down into it, there was no sign of the Squid, or the three seasoned Aurors.

“Follow them?“ asked Theold as Harry joined them. Harry was panting, and covered in dust, except for his eyes thanks to his glasses. Harry gave a rough cough.

Ron kept back a moan at the thought of continuing. Every bit of him was aching, he was parched, there was an incessant shaking happening in his left hand he couldn’t seem to still, but worst of all he couldn’t stop thinking about his dead brother. He’s been so good at not thinking about the dead. He tried multiple times that day, but somehow Fred had broken through.

“I think we all need a moment to gather ourselves before we keep going,” said Neville.

His eyes cut to Neville, who looked straight at him. Ron crossed his arms, hiding his trembling left hand deep in the space between his ribs and elbow.

Ramona transfigured some cups from the wrought iron railings that had fallen to the ground, and each recruit filled them with water. It cooled his parched, dry throat, but had an unfortunate metallic taste to it thanks to the cup.

Vyse cleaned out a gash on Kevin’s forearm and waved his wand over it with medical authority Ron had only seen with Madame Pomfrey.

A few of the other recruits splashed water on their faces, getting rid of the detritus and dust settled on their features that made them all look like they’ve been mining for dust balls.

Ron washed off his face then sat away from the group. He looked at the map and pretended to think about the next move the Aurors might make. All he had the wherewithal to do was breath and will his hand to work properly.

Neville came and sat beside him.

“Feeling alright?“ asked Neville, wiping himself with a conjured handkerchief and only managing to wipe a small streak of the dirt off of his face.

“Smashing, why?“ asked Ron, daring Neville to say out loud what he was thinking.

“Just wanted to check,“ said Neville with a small shrug. He carefully watched Ron, but didn’t say anything else.

Without another word, Ron stood up and walked away, angry that his uniform’s trousers didn’t have deep enough pockets to hide his hands in.

He hid in an alleyway, when Vyse approached him, a good natured smile on his face.

“Neville said I should check you out?”

“What? No!”

Vyse watched him with a tilted head.

“I’ve been a mediwizard for a few years now,” he said as if that were an answer.

“Good for you.”

“Won’t be long at all,” said Vyse, waving a wand over him and doing a small series of diagnostic spells. “I need to look at your eyes.”

He lit his wand. “Pupils even… Follow my finger with just your eyes?”

Ron followed it, and must have done it right because Vyse gave a hum of approval.

“Your hand always tremor like that?”

Ron clenched his hand into a weak fist. “Not always…”

“But it’s not new…” Vyse gave a hum. “Okay if I touch your arm for a moment?”

Part of Ron wanted to punch him in the nose and give him a two fingered salute, but he managed to swallow the impulse and nodded.

The recruit pushed the hand back and forth. “Make a fist again?”

It took a moment, but finally he was able to make a tight one.

“Okay… I think I should wrap your arm for the rest of the exam. It’d need to go up your arm and under your clothes. You okay with that? You’ll need to take off your arm guard and shirt.”

Unable to think of a reasonable excuse, Ron acquiesced. His cheeks flamed as Vyse gave a small ‘oof,’ but otherwise didn’t comment on the scars. He conjured some fabric and wrapped it up Ron’s left forearm, then put a few flexible bandages in random places around his shoulder scar. “Okay… All done. Feel alright?”

It ached a bit, but Ron was surprised at how the compression eased the deeper trembles up his arm. The shoulder had a small hint of relief too. He hadn’t realised how much it had been hurting.

“This is helping,” said Ron.

Vyse smiled.

“Good. I put some kinesio tape on your shoulder. It helps with overworked muscles. Bet yours have to do a lot to make up for the missing chunk here,” he said, finger floating above Ron’s splinching scar.

Not wanting to be looked at another moment, Ron put his shirt on.

“I’m not a Healer, but that looks like something you should talk to one about. Have you seen one?”

“I was cleared for combat…”

“Yeah, that standard ain’t very high,” Vyse snorted. “Old war wounds left to fester can get nasty…”

“Noted,” said Ron, not able to say more.

“Thanks for helping me not get crushed by the building,” smiled Vyse.

He left it at that and moved on to treat a few other cuts and bruises for the bunch.

After a few minutes of rest, the recruits reconvened to make their plans. Ron struggled to think of much besides unblinking stares and pooling blood.

“Where were you?” Harry quietly asked as Ron joined the group. “I saw Vyse go in the alley after you, but didn’t want to hover…”

The tremors in his hand were becoming less visible. If he kept himself to the left of Harry, he might not see.

Ron smiled at his friend. “It would’ve been fine if you came… I just got thrown into a wall earlier and Neville was worried. Vyse said I have some sore muscles round my shoulder and bandaged me up.”

“That’s all?”

“Gave him a nasty shock with all my scars,” Ron added. “If we keep having reporters about, my scars might become more famous than yours.”

Harry gave a snort before pulling the attention of the group.

“Alright… First off, excellent job! We’ve gone toe to toe with actual Aurors and not lost one of us,” Harry smiled.

The group elbowed each other and gave small whoops.

“So what next?” asked Ramona. “Follow that room thing underground?”

The group was quiet and Ron had trouble clearing his mind. His hand was imperceptibly shaking and he could still picture Fred’s blood coagulating on the ground.

“Even if we find the room, what are we supposed to do? That thing didn’t let one spell through,” said Kevin.

“We need to test it for weaknesses,” said Ramona.

“And let it pick us off one by one?” Theon asked.

“Well what do you suggest?” she bit back.

“We need to find it first,” said Harry. “Locate the room, and only engage if it comes at you. If we can track it some way…”

“Like a tracking spell!” said Claudia. “I do those all the time, at my job.”

“Teach us,” said Harry with a grin.

Claudia began teaching them how to cast the inconspicuous tracking mark, and Neville suggested they do the same to the underside of an Auror’s shoe, should they emerge from the Squid.

“I don’t think all of us should go underground,” Ron finally stated.

“Why not?” asked Neville.

“The Squid room was able to move easily. For all we know it could pop in and out of the ground every time we corner it, so we need people above and below.”

“Okay then, half above half below,” said Harry.

“Plus we saw what the Squid did to the building over there. Whoever goes underground might need bailing out,” said Kevin.

“Message through the watch if you need help.”

The recruits split, with half above ground, and half going below. Claudia, Ramona and Harry volunteered for below ground, and Ron quietly followed Harry. Hopefully his brain would stop being sawdust soon.

Harry took his broom and gave it to Vyse. “We’ll keep Ron’s broom, just in case we need to pop up to the surface and they put another Anti-Apparition Ward up.”

Ron shrunk his broom down, then they all Apparated into the hole.

He had worried the underground system might be too low for him to walk, but was surprised at the sheer scope of the underground area.

It was fully built of stones and bricks, with high stone trusses supporting it and a trickle of running water on the ground. It had to be three stories tall.

“It’s massive under here!” he let out as he lit his wand. “What is it?”

“I’m guessing this is either an ancient water reservoir or sewer,” said Ramona.

“Let’s hope it’s a reservoir! Last thing I want is to duel those Aurors kneehigh in shit.”

She rolled her eyes as Claudia and Harry laughed, which made him feel marginally less on edge.

The air was damp and cool, like one of the caves Ron had explored on the coast when he was a child. There was no nervous sense of adventure and fun here, though. The blood still pumped hard in his ears, but a slight breeze, from where he had no idea, was cool against his sweat covered forehead. His arm ached, but he could feel his fingers flex with more give.

They pushed forward and water ran down the middle of the tunnel, forking in two directions.

“How is there no sign of the thing?” Ron asked, looking about the unmarked tunnel.

“Let’s split up,” said Ramona. “Claudia and I can go this way, you two can go the other.”

They agreed and quickly took to their tunnel. They walked for what felt like ages, but the tunnel did nothing but occasionally narrow or expand.

“I didn’t say earlier, but good job on the distraction idea,” said Harry. “I can’t believe we took out all those Aurors without losing any of ours.”

“Yeah…But I’d feel a touch better if it weren’t those particular three Aurors left.”

He’d never seen Robards or Sealy-Pearce fight, but Musaad was absolutely mad with deadly instincts. Robards he’d heard Tonks and Moody speak of before as no slouch. Then Sealy-Pearce just gave the impression that she could break anyone in two easily.

“Well, we’ve got twice as many people as them, so I think we’ll manage,” Harry replied. “At this point, we all have proven ourselves well enough to pass, I think.”

Ron wished he could feel as confident and sighed. The map didn’t seem to align in any discernible way with the tunnels.

“Was Neville okay back there?” asked Harry.

“Er, yeah, why?” Nerves began to tingle at the back of his skull.

“He looked worried and wanted a break.”

Ron gave a shrug. “Seemed fine to me. Probably just a bit knackered after running between buildings so much.”

“I guess…”

They slowed as they came to a fork in the tunnel. The water was growing deeper and wider, nearly touching the walls.

“Which way?” asked Harry. His wand light barely penetrated the dark underground.

They had to ease their way against the sides of the rounded tunnel to avoid sodden boots. Harry could comfortably do this, but Ron was left ducking his head a couple of inches. The walls were filthy and covered in rusty coloured dust that smeared their clothes.

Considering the massive size of what they were tracking, there was little sign of it. The smell of dank human waste hit him as Ron went by a pipe. He let out a sound of disgust, but crept closer to the source of the smell. The pipe was unnaturally bent, and there were some scrapes on the ceiling leaving it dust free.

“This way! The Squid must’ve struck the pipe!” Ron exclaimed.

The pipe was slowly leaking what could only be centuries old excrement, so he quickly crept past it. It was a tight fit, and his head was practically scraping the dirty ceiling. He slipped and sent a small cloud of dust balls Harry’s way.

Harry hacked then sent him a dirty look he cheekily grinned at.

There was a rattling sound bouncing off the walls, and rhythmic taps of dripping water.

A foreboding feeling started at his arms and worked its way up his neck.

“Harry?” came a voice. They both turned to the sound of the feminine voice.

“Was that—?” asked Harry.

“Harry?”

That was Ginny’s voice! What was Ginny doing here? Her voice was there, clear as day, but there was no sign of Ron’s sister. It had come from a different smaller tunnel.

“Gin?” Harry called out, going down the tunnel a few paces.

“Harry… I don’t think—” Ron began.

“Harry?” came Ginny’s voice again.

They slowly crept down the tunnel, wand’s light being eaten up by the darkness.

“Harry!” They swung their wands and there was Ginny, covered in blood, reaching towards them.

----

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Welp! I was hoping to have this all be in one chapter- but when it was up to like 20k and I wasn't done yet I knew I needed to split it- but! Most of chapter 15 is written! :D

Thank you so much to all of you who review- it really helps inspire me to keep writing. Please let me know what you think! :D

[down-with-the-mafia]

hmmm some random ahit holiday headcanons

- The mafia celebrate a holiday called Fishmas. It's basically Christmas except everything is fish themed. Their holiday lights are shaped like fish. It never snows in mafia town and I'm pretty sure the only trees there are palm trees, so they decorate the palm trees with lights and garlands and stuff. It's chillier than usual in winter even if there's no snow so they might dress a bit warmer than usual but probably not heavy coats or anything

- the people originally from the island don't celebrate that, though, it's just the mafia. Mu used to celebrate a holiday called Star Day with her family. It was celebrated winter solstice (the longest night of the year) and is usually spent stargazing with friends and family. Stories would be shared about constellations, like legends and mythology and stuff. Mu doesn't really celebrate anymore because she doesn't have a way of getting decorations and if she tried to throw a party of any kind the mafia would ruin it, but she might still try to give little gifts to the coffee clerks and stuff.

- idk what they'd call it but I think the owls would like. get a week off of work and school and all that to spend at home with family. Probably a lot of bird food, like idk birdseed pie or something. Conductor spends the holiday with his whole family, they all get together (his brothers, kids, grandkids, etc.) and eat a big meal. They don't really give gifts other than the food, but Cond usually tries to release a holiday movie before then and he'd watch that with his family. It's cold so they hang out around the fire place. Cond probably drinks too much =/

- Penguins just celebrate the new year. Celebrations are pretty much the same as normal (as in our world I mean), but again I think Grooves releases a holiday movie. He gets very dressed up and throws a big party. He would absolutely have those sunglasses that say the year on them. He gets gifts for like, all the penguins, and they all get gifts for him too. How do they determine the time (for midnight) if they're on the moon you ask? Um lol idk I don't care don't talk to me

- Subcon has a very old holiday called Day of the Frost that is based on an old legend that was probably true about a being with ice powers that covered the world in ice and snow. (Very old legend, started long before Vanessa was born, I say it's probably true because someone before her probably had ice powers, maybe even her ancestor or something.) Because of the legend's nature being kinda creepy, the holiday generally has a campfire story kinda tradition (except it's more often around a fireplace instead of a campfire). Snatcher owns a lot of old books that were common day of the frost stories, and he still reads them sometimes around the holidays.

- it does snow in Subcon in winter, but it's usually a pretty light snow (what with the constantly burning forests and shit lol) unless it's near Vanessa's manner, where it gets pecking blizzards. The fire spirits have trouble burning bright enough to die in the cold, but they try to burn as bright as they can, so they might stay indoors or huddle up close to each-other by a fire.

- Alpine celebrates Twilight Fest, which is about celebrating their history and the Twilight Goat through spending time with their community with games and treats. At home, they'd probably eat a lot of soups and pastries, and common festival food would include a lot of sweets and maybe some kind of nut coated in cinnamon or caramel or something. Like Star Day, it can include star gazing and discussion of constellations, but it's usually a bit more focused on ringing bells and playing songs.

- The ocean would be frozen over in winter, so boats would have a hard time going anywhere lol. The Walrus Captain and the seals wouldn't have work because of that. Not sure if they'd have a specific holiday, but they'd get a break from work. I could picture the seals making snowmen or something tbh.

- I think the metro also just celebrates New Year? A lot of the stores probably go on sale for people to buy gifts. A lot of winter-specific foods and drinks at the restaurants, like hot chocolate with peppermint or something. Timmy just goes to McDonyald's to eat chicken nuggets because he doesn't care but Bow would probably love the holiday drinks. A lot of holiday decorations all over the place, lots of pretty lights and stuff.

- Hat and Bow din't really celebrate any winter holidays back home, but they're happy to join their friends to celebrate whatever on this planet. Some of these take place over multiple days, so they have the time to celebrate a buncha stuff. I imagine they'd both prioritize spending time with Mu, just so that she has someone to talk about the island's old holidays with and have a little mini celebration or party. Maybe they'd also get cooking cat, and they'd bake holiday treats together. Hat and Bow could maybe try to get some decorations together for Mu's cave.

- Not sure about badge seller and tourist. Idk if badge is even from that world?? They feel like they might be from another dimension so idk if there are holidays there lol. I can't really picture them celebrating much. Tourist might celebrate something but idk what, he'd probably enjoy travelling around and seeing the winter holidays all over though.

- Hat and Bow like the holiday lights, they put those around the ship. Maybe they give Rumbi a silly little Santa hat or something.

[muffy-official]

I kinda haven't had doodle ideas for a bit

Been mostly writing which I hope is enjoyable as I'm trying my best. I'm better with this format and would struggle if I wrote a whole story

But I thought that there may be times where things seem more normal even if just for a while. Playing fetch with those 4 big grunts she warmed up to over time, those being people she can seek out if she's being threatened with very horrid things

Or sitting around with some grunts that don't happen to dislike or be creepy around her, discussing when to go scavenging for things in groups again, play cards if anyone earned a pack or happened to own one or even found a full one, mending eachothers injuries doctors have missed, etc

Or when Gooseberry wants to do more normal things to have fun before the party poopers and "child snatchers"(reagents) are being let into the trial. Maybe checking places together and Phyllis generally having a walk with one of her goslings(Gabby), holding her hand, humming tunes while Futterman keeps rolling his eyes in silence due to how many goslings she has at this point, but with Gabby the mass adoption of people(the ones who lived as they didn't break rules to become worthy that is)seems to have halted for at least a good while

Sometimes she might also just go sight seeing in the environments if given the chance before trials start. Sometimes staying longer at certain places in the fun park for the carousel and docks to look at the "seagulls" and marine life based things, feeling quite saddened at how much dead fish there are even if her nose got blind of the smell over time. Looking if that kiosk near the entrance has something interesting she could take, looking at signs, hearing the imitation of sounds to make this place seem more real, look at the ship from afar as she knows she's not allowed in there, downstairs at least she isn't, seems like he doesn't want her to see this again perhaps as she's thrown up there as a reagent in response to the gruesome things that were done to those two men. Looking at the two men hanging by their wrists, tempted to let them down if the tubes weren't in the way, but even then she'd be too scared of consequences. Roaming the trainyard by herself too. Checking her surroundings at all times to not get dragged into Francos grasp again, because he feels entitled to it when she doesn't have to get teeth without trying to feel nauseous during it.

There may even be times where instead of the usual uncomfortable situations even if gentle, those two might have little fights like children do. Standing back to back during a trial, trying to listen out for hiding reagents, Gabby exclaiming to better not throw her over his shoulder again if he wants to have his hearing in tact for longer(as she'd scream in response to panicking too much, loud enough to make his own ears ring for a bit) only for him to cover her mouth with a arm to shush her, not caring about lipstick stains(even blood to be fair) in the moment, because to be fair he'd forget due to how frequently her nose bleeds and it going all over her mouth often, claiming he can't think, because she's too noisy. With her giving a muffled counter argument, saying his sleeve makes too much noise. Either both going silent or laughing a bit over that which reagents who have seen those two team up before(even if Gabby keeps getting dragged or carried away from whatever she was doing to come and assist against her will)might see as "odd" as they've mostly seen the other things happening more frequently. Not normal and more wholesome things like this. Even Gabby is surprised she's even able to share laughs with someone who's been quite creepy around her since they've seen eachother again in Sinyala, but maybe it's just something nice like they've had as kids messing around on new orleans streets, even if that was pretty short lived many years ago

With Coyle she'd be on alert at all times, it feeling off if he's doing anything remotely normal that isn't torturing, violating his prisoners, scorching mannequins and corpses, you name it. If she's being told to come here, to be told to come and help checking rooms for abnormalities, she'd feel quite scared to be honest, especially when the prod points the way to where her scar is before gesturing her to move over. She'd even panic when he decides to hold her by the shoulder to move, she'd be scanning the room for big grunts she could run to if she feels horribly unsafe, gripping her weapon, especially when entering dark areas, even if doing this might cause her to get slapped across the face next time as a light punishment. She even did the same in the docks whenever Franco got a little too grabby and/or vocally uncomfortable causing discomfort whenever she manages to break free from his grip if he happens to lock her in in a hug, or other ways to make it harder for her to leave. Saying things such as "I didn't say you could go!!"/"Did I say you could go??" If she runs, all pouty, maybe even a little angry/upset, but oddly enough seems to forgive without understanding why she's running away or refusing to understand why.

Besides her stance with more normal moments still having her be not used to it and feeling nervousness or even slight unease as her mind keeps thinking there has to be a catch even though there's none, it'll be quite a learning curve regardless on who it is really. Just to learn making being stuck in this hellhole more bearable.

It's also possible that for a long time she thought she'd get slapped by most men here when she says something wrong or stands up for herself, expecting it even thanks to grandpa. Possibly confusing Franco more than Coyle who seemed to not care, maybe even like it when she already positioned herself as if she was truly expecting to get struck down. Even with some male reagents she learned to know before her transfer to expop she was like this, confusing them and having them tell her they won't cause harm, but that seemed to have not sticked well enough in her thoughts once the change happened

[a-crash-in-time-collection]

Chapter 55: What Remains Of Moonjumper

Randy wanted to just pretend everything was normal and move on. It wasn't. Even if he wasn't brought back to life as part of a prophecy that didn't seem to involve him in any other way, he still came back to life after decades of being dead… But the prophecy made things more complicated. As well as what he came back as. Like it or not, accepting the role or not, he was technically a deity now. Maybe even a proper god in some fashion. One with powers beyond his own understanding… powers under his control.

He didn't know how they worked. They seemed to just, happen sometimes, like with the strings. He learned to control those more easily, but it still felt odd. He didn't want to fire a spell by mistake at someone or something. It seemed like magic didn't require a spell or specific hand movements after all. Or at least, most magic. He could just be in a casual conversation with someone and turn them into a mouse or something for all he knew, just because he happened to point his finger at them.

He had to at least get an understanding of his powers. And if he was going to be forced by the role to play the part of the new 'Moonjumper', it would be good to know. He was able to get a spellbook form Snatcher to try out some, try and learn everything there was to learn… but it seemed harder than it appeared. Some spells he got in a simple snap, but others he struggled to get anything done. He would be sitting on a log concentrating on the area in front of him for minutes and not a single spark of magic would be seen.

Macbeth tried to help him where he could, at least at first. Macbeth had a little understanding on the topic of magic, he always had it even if he rarely showed it. Randy remembered Java spending his teens trying to understand all he could do with it to help the clan and himself. Randy remembered being there for moral support back then… Now here he was in the learning seat, with Java being the one to guide him and be there for support. Java could at least offer tips, even if they didn't help.

He did get called away to help check on the state of some of the station's machinery, so Randy had been alone for a little bit now. He should have been fine, but he found himself seemingly getting worse. He tried to do some spells that he had done earlier but now they didn't seem to work at all. He tried to calm himself by stating it would be fine if he didn't get them working but how could he be sure of that? What if his clan needed this new magic of his and he failed them? He couldn't fail them again…

"Come on, just a little fire, that's all I'm asking." Randy stated as he snapped his fingers near a log on the ground, trying to set it ablaze. It was getting colder and colder with each passing day. And even if the heating system of the station was working, who knew how long it would last with the systems exposed… He paused when he thought he heard footsteps, floating up and keeping his hands close to him. "Who's there?" He called as he glanced around the environment. "I heard you!"

"Oh, forgive me if I started you, deity of subcon." A voice called, Randy let out a small shout before turning to face the voice's owner. It was a figure in a red and purple outfit, seemingly glitching inside of reality itself. Randy lowered his guard a little. He overheard the toppats talk about a similar figure before. "It's an honor to finally see you."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not someone grand." Randy said as he floated down back onto the log he had been sitting on, brushing off some of the snow for the guest that had arrived. "I was selected to be this from what I can only assume was some lottery-like system, I'm not a deity or deity material." He said as he glanced at the spellbook nearby, picking it up and glancing at the cover. "Look at me, I can barely cast a spell. Which granted, is better than this morning but, not exactly deity stuff."

"Oh, well do you think the Moonjumper gained or understood his powers overnight?" The hooded figure asked, his head and mask tilting to the side as he walked over and sat next to Randy. Randy gave a bit of a sheepish nod because well, yea. That was what he assumed. Everytime he looked into the original Moonjumper, it seemed like he had everything done. Like he was perfect… Something Randy could never be. "Nonsense. It might have came more naturally to him, but It still took him quite some time to become the legend people knew him as." He chuckled, almost nostalgically.

"Well, I'm sure he wouldn't be happy if he saw me as his replacement." Randy said, resting his head against his hand as he thought. He didn't know what it was about the strange person that made him feel more.. open to speak his mind. But he wanted to get these thoughts out. He had been hiding him from the clan for a while. He was Randy Radman, leader of the party era. It seemed like it would be odd of him of all people to be struggling with something.. "He would be so disappointed in me…"

The hooded man glanced to the side for a moment, as if in a bit of thought. "I wouldn't be so sure about that, my friend." Randy tilted his head as he looked over, seeing the man reach for his mask a bit. That left Randy confused as he didn't understand why the person would do that… But pause when the mask was removed just enough to see a face similar to the one he learnt to see in the mirror. "You never know who may be listening after all." The figure said with a smile. "Or, what remains of-"

"Moonjumper…" Randy finished, not fully listening to that last sentence from the surprise. He backed up. "F-Forgive me, I didn't know it was you. I mean how was I supposed to know when you were… dead.." He paused as he finished the sentence. He quickly pinch his skin, hissing a bit at the pain that came from the contact. No, not a dream it would seem. But that just raised more questions. "How are you here… I was told you died. Was murdered, even? How are you here now? Was it because of me."

"I'm not… him.." The hooded figure stated as he put the mask fully back on with a sigh. "When Moonjumper died, the means of his death as well as the magic inside of him caused pieces of that magic to split into four, locking themselves to different things across this world. I am simply a Badge Seller that happens to be one of the four." He glanced down at the ground. "And while I may have a lot of his memories and share the most physical traits with him, I am no Moonjumper, nor will I ever be."

"Oh.. I'm so sorry to hear…" Randy said as he floated back over. He brought down his hat (Java had kept it all these years) over his eyes a lot as if ashamed to show his face to the one he felt deserved it. What was such an existence like? Was Badge Seller jealous of him? He seemed genuinely friendly, at least from what he could get of this conversation… "If I could help I would, honest. For you and the others…" He glanced in the woods around them. "Are they around?" he asked.

"Oh no, not now. Although I suspect they might be soon." Badge stated, Randy could hear the smile in his voice. It made him feel more calm.. more assured. Even if the idea of the other pieces worried him, just a little. He glanced back at the book he had dropped, picking it back up and dusting off the cover, Badge walking over and taking a closer look at it. "You know, I may not have the magic myself anymore, but I can at least try to help."

"Well, that would be appreciated…" Randy said with a small smile. He felt this was all a bit sudden if you asked him. Maybe the Badge Seller had been waiting for a chance to speak so he had his thoughts clearer compared to the toppats. He couldn't say for sure. Besides, he couldn't think of an excuse to disagree if he wanted to. He did genuinely want to learn all of this after all… "I was practicing the levitation spells mostly, along with summoning spells. Stuff that can help the orbital station."

"Of course, you care a lot for your clan after all, it is natural." Badge stated as he opened the book and went looking for the spell. Like he had read this one before. Maybe he had, or at least had the memory of doing so. Snatcher did say it was an old spellbook he was giving him. One he wouldn't care as much about if it got ruined due to Randy messing up a spell or two. "They’re all tricky at first, it takes a lot for them to become second nature."

"Umm.." Macbeth's voice suddenly called, drawing attention to the returned Elite. "What happened while I was gone?"

"Oh uh, I met Badge, that was your name correct?" Randy quickly asked, getting a nod. "Good. And he says he can help with my magic."

Macbeth nodded, giving a suspicious brow raise to Badge as he walked back over, Alexsandera poking their head out of his hat. Badge gave an amused chuckle at the man's look. He was sure the prophet had it long figured out by now, but what's the harm in not speaking right away if Randy wasn't going too?

Even with the help of someone who should have a better understanding of Moonjumper's magic than most people on the planet, Randy still found himself struggling. It was less of a struggle, but still a struggle nonetheless. There was also now a sense of pressure to prove himself despite knowing Badge wouldn't judge him for any failings he may have. It was just the knowledge of being in the presence of someone who was once part of something greater than you ever would be… it almost made his heart hurt.

Badge was sweet with helping with the spells, offering little tips for certain spells that helped him get an understanding of them all. Like starting with smaller things to levitation and pretend they were leaves and he was the wind. He was a very clucky wind, but he started to get things off the ground. It also helped when he realized his strings were decently strong, so he didn't need to replay purely on levitation if the need came around. It did feel refreshing in some strange way.

Despite all that, Randy could tell by how Bagde spoke how blurry the memories were. He could almost sense guilt…

"Hey, Badge, have you been feelin' alright recently?" Randy heard Macbeth ask while he read over the details of the spell he wanted to try next. Badge didn't respond verbally, but he could see the hooded figure nodded from the corner of his vision. He knew Macbeth wouldn't take that alone as an answer. He got that from him. Before Macbeth could ask any further though, they heard footsteps. "Oh, Hattie." He called, making Randy glance over. "What brings you out here, we're barely still in our section of the woods."

"I was in the cockpit of the station when I thought I spotted something with a telescope I found. Also, Hello Badge!" Hat Girl said, waving to the piece who had a wave back, Randy smiled at the two, before he paused. Now that Hat Girl mentioned it, he thought he heard something moving around earlier. Or maybe not heard but, sensed… Kinda thinking about it now, he was sure he sensed Badge before he heard his footsteps too. "Uh, Randy? What's with that look on your face? You look."

"Hello?" Randy called into the woods, floating up to try and get a look around.

"Oh, is someone else here?" Badge asked as he took the book from Randy's hand, placing it on the ground. The group took a moment to listen around. They couldn't hear footsteps but they could hear the movement of something. Hat Girl and Macbeth looked at each other and gave a silent nod before Hat Girl went to where they heard the rush of wind, Badge following behind. It didn't take both of them long to see the red cloak hiding behind a tree. "Oh, Autiomaa. It's so good to see you away from the desert."

"Its so… wet and cold." Autiomaa spoke, a shiver in their voice as they came from behind the tree. Randy and sand creature locked 'eyes' and both floated back in a bit of surprised. Randy didn't know what to expect from the other Moonjumper pieces, but he wasn't expecting this. Autiomaa slowly floated over, their movements slow and each one with some hesitation. "So… this is what we used to look like.. Or what, he used too look like." Autiomaa stated. "I never thought I would actually see the story complete…"

"Please don't describe it like that, it makes it all sound weird." Randy stated, Autiomaa giving a small nod as they floated back a little, the top part of their cloak forming closer like arms wrapping alongside oneself. They seemed to be very different from Badge in personality. More unsure, unknowing, shyer… Were these part of the original Moonjumper? Or was it just how this magic ended up forming. "Wait, you guys seemed like you met before, based on how quickly you found them?"

"Oh, yea. We first met Autiomaa not too long before your revival actually. Though I don't think I remember hearing anything about you guys meeting." Hat Girl said as she looked at Badge and Autiomaa. Badge gave a simple nod while Autiomaa glanced to the side. Hat Girl gave a frown as she read their body language, walking up and placing a hand on their 'shoulder' "Autiomaa, is something wrong?" She asked, the figure turning to face her. "You seem worried about something."

"I just… never left my home before." They said, "I know I should be here to help the new Moonjumper but… it's all just… so much.."

"Oh, dear, I know its a lot." Badge said as he came over, placing a hand on Autiomaa's other shoulder, patting it gently as the figure glanced up at him. Randy glanced to the side when he heard that. He didn't want these people going out of their way just to help him with things because he wasn't the best yet… something told him they would have come anyway. Maybe to see an imitation of their origins with their own eyes. "But it's good to be out. And now that you made this first step, the world will open up more."

"If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure me and Rand have an idea of what yo' feelin'." Macbeth said, turning to Randy with a smile. Randy gave a small nod. They did both come back to life on a whole new planet. That might as well have been what Autiomaa did if he was reading the situation correctly based on the words being read. Autiomaa gave a small nod as they glanced at him. "Although, you maybe should grab something to rest in. I'm not sure how well sand and snow mix together."

"I mean, Autiomaa appears to be magic sand so I think they should be fine, maybe?" Randy asked, tilting his head before pausing as he glanced up at the sky, his eyes widening a bit. "Wait, is it already sunset? How didn't I notice? Was I that focused on things?" He said, Macbeth giving a shrug as Randy took a breath, shaking his head. His magic did seem to get better during the night so maybe this was a good thing.. but he knew an all-nighter could easily throw off his mental health.

"Do you have a place to stay the night, Autiomaa?" Hat Girl asked, the being of sand shaking their head a bit as she nodded. She supposed that made sense. Autiomaa probably wasn't used to needing to seek out proper shelter. The whole abandoned village was their home after all. It did make her feel a little bad, so she hummed before snapping her fingers as an idea came to mind. "Well, since you're here to check on Randy, why don't you stay with us Toppats for a bit? We have some empty space."

"Hattie, you can't make calls like that." Macbeth said, crossing his arms a bit as she looked over, giving him a tiny glare. "It's not that I don't agree but you should at least ask your fathers first."

"I was going too. I don't think they would even mind." Hat Girl said, shrugging and beginning to head back to the station, pausing and jestering for Autiomaa to follow. They didn't follow right away, glancing at the ground, their cloak moving slightly further over their non-existing face. Randy paused as he floated over, offering the creature a smile. Hat Girl glanced at Badge meanwhile. "You can stay with us tonight if you need to as well. It's getting cold, I'm not sure you have time to set up a tent."

"While that is kind of you, I already found a place. Snatcher is letting me stay in his forest, maybe he'll let Autiomaa stay as well? We can ask tomorrow." Badge stated. Macbeth paused as he tuned into what Snatcher was currently going on about. Seemed he was currently trying to get through some mental runt spry up a bit by his conversation with Right not that long ago. "I know he isn't the friendliness on paper, but I doubt he would try to take Autiomaa's soul. " Badge stated, making Autiomaa gulp at the mention.

"Let's just head back to the station." Randy told Autiomaa. "We got some good food… if you can eat!"

He spoke with a chuckle as he began to lead them to the station, the cloak-figured following behind. Maybe he could think of all this a bit more clearly tomorrow…

Randy tried to get his thoughts in order during breakfast the next day. Java almost always made it himself in his room so it wasn't out of the norm that it took longer for them to show up during the morning. Two people who were parts of the deity whose role he was thrown into were nearby. Two out of four who had thousands of years to ponder what the next Moonjumper was going to be like… He wanted to just be calm about it. Be Randy. But deep down he couldn't. He was sure Java noticed but chose not to make a big deal about it.

"Oh, hello Radman." Burt said as he glanced behind him, giving a small nod to the Moonjumper. The screen of Burt's computer was staticy. Looked like when a TV had issues with the signal. Was that how modern computers work? He floated closer to get a better look, Burt stepping to the side slightly to allow him too, sighing as he took a sip of the coffee he had. "It just was broken. Could be due to the electrical storm above but its not really lighting or anything, beside that one strike early in the morning."

Autoimaa ended up staying in Burt's office during the night. Burt hadn't been using it much since most of his communication systems were still broken and he had been more occupied with his relationship with Fredrick, he just needed to print some stuff the 'following' morning. When Randy had approached the office with Macbeth that morning, they saw Hat Girl and

Platinum outside, Autoimaa floating in the doorway looking almost ashamed. He could hear Burt mumbling a bit under his breath. That got him worried as he got up to the door, Autoimaa moving aside so he could look in.

"Maybe my magic messed things up? I'm sorry if so." Autiomaa said, little hands made of sand touching the tips in shame. Burt just gave them a look like he wasn't sure they were behind it. Randy paused as he thought about Burt's words. There was an electrical storm going? He hadn't heard anything about it all day. And during winter? He knew it wasn't impossible but.. it gave him a friend feeling. "I just.. wait.." Autioama floated up beside Randy as a feeling entered. "Do you think-"

"SURPRISE!" A figure suddenly appeared on screen, making both figures dart back with a shut, Randy readying his strings on impulse. "Woah woah, too loud?"

"Hydartic?" Platinum called as he rushed in, a smile on his face as Randy took a second glance, Autiomaa catching their breath as they seemed to put the pieces together. Platinum looked at the figure and saw the mask he wore, tracing the left side of his face. They were a similar shape. Similar color as well. The being had a red and yellow outfit just like him. Platinum gave a smile. "What are you doing here? Did you get caught up in some storm by mistake again?" He asked, tilting his head.

"Oh, no. I uh.. May have neglected to tell you guys about something about me and well." Hydartic glanced awkwardly at Autiomaa and Randy, Autiomaa giving a friendly wave as Randy floated over. Hat Girl and Platinum looked at each other, seemingly not surprised. "Guess you already figured that out on your own time then.." He chuckled awkwardly before looking at Randy. "So your the new Moonjumper in the forest, huh? Gosh I, didn't think the day would actually come, but here you are."

"You are a lot more laid back then I expected. Well, all of you seem to be." Randy stated as he paused, glancing over at Burt. "oh uh, are you ok? We didn't get you scared or anything, did we?"

"I watched horror game playthroughs, I'm immune to jumpscares." Burt said, taking a sip from his coffee mug as he began to head out of the room. "Tell me when your friend is done haunting my system so I can get back to work." He stated, a hint of a smile on his face from the absurdity of it before he left. Platinum gave a shrug as Hat Girl came over as well to get a better look at their friend. Hydartic let out an awkward cough at first, like he hadn’t really planned this all out. "Huh, oh yes he's in there."

"Ah, I was wondering where you were." Badge said as he came by the doorway. Hydartic let out a quiet grone only verbal to those close to the moditor, making Randy pause. Do he and Badge not get along? What was that like? And why? Was Hydartic more disconnected from the Moonjumper identity compared to Badge and Autiomaa? His personality sure seemed to scream that.

"Hey, I'm only here because the captain convinced me, and Anamund happened to be passing by to make the storm in the first place." Hydartic stated, his head turning to the side at the mention of the sea deity. Hat Girl and Platinum both glance at each other, remembering the vision of the deity from the storybook. Pleading for the Moonjumper to not let fate take them… Hydartic glance around the room and rose a brow. "So, has Legends not shown up yet? He's the one who lives closest to the place."

"Legends is a statute, he can't exactly move." Badge stated, resting a hand to his mask. Hydartic blink as he let out an awkward chuckle, taking a few steps back on the screen. Randy paused. He put together the context clues to figure out what they were talking about. But that sounded like a cruel fate, to be stuck in stone for eternity… that was something he would only wish upon the worst. "He would be here if he could, but if Randy does decide he wishes to see him, he must go to him."

"I'm not sure if Legends likes me." Macbeth spoke up. "I ran into him once in Subcon and we didn't have a good talk."

"Wait, how many of the Moonjumper pieces did you met Mr. Macbeth." Hat Girl stated as she glanced over, tilting her head confused. Macbeth just gave a silent nod. "Was that a yes? Did you really just answer with yes?" He gave another nod. "Sometimes I wonder if letting you experience the internet was a good thing?" She jokingly said with an eye roll before she glanced back at him. "But I guess that makes sense. You and Randy are close so it makes since you would run into them all."

"Yea, but, let's get back to what we were talking about… Is there a spell to turn Legends into anything besides a statue?" Randy asked, turning to Badge. Badge seemed a bit surprised, as if he hadn't thought of that, but shook his head. He supposed that made sense. If there was a way, they probably would have casted it on him long ago instead of letting this soul go on like this… "Can I at least visit him? See if there is anything we can do to at least try and help him?" He questioned.

"Well, good luck while you do." Hydartic called as Badge nodded. "Would join you but I can't exactly go into subcon, not any electrical stuff there. Or at least not enough for me to jump into. And the trees block the storm."

"Wait, give me a second!" Platinum said, before leaving the room. They all waited a moment, Platinum coming back a few minutes later with a phone. "I spoke with Blake, they said you could use this." He said as he placed it near the monitor. Hydartic took a glance at it, before taking a step back. A bright bolt of energy came from the computer to the phone the second Hydartic disappeared from it, Platinum picking it up to check on the electrical spirit. "Does that work for you."

"Yea, just, don't rotate the screen a lot. I can get sick easily from that kind of thing." Hydartic stated as he sat in the phone corner. Platinum handed the device over to Autiomaa who seemed confused about it, Badge giving a nod before beginning to head out of the room, glancing back at the others. "Yea, we're coming, you don't need to give us that look!" Hydartic called, rolling his eyes while Badge simply chuckled. Hydartic glanced at the others. "I just don't like being in a rush, what can I say?" He stated.

Randy rolled his eyes a little at Hydartic, before heading out of the room to follow Badge. He was interested in this Legends now. He wondered what Macbeth and him could've talked about for things to turn south. He just didn't expect any piece of Moonjumper being something that would get under Java's skin.

Randy hadn't been back in subcon since he first left. He hadn't needed too, and rather stayed with the clan. He was surprised by how little the forest had changed. Sure there were lots of little fire or light magic dotted about, supposedly to melt any snow. But he thought it would be more wintery… Guess Snatcher really didn't like the cold. Not that he could blame him after hearing about what happened between him and Vanessa. It's a shame too, Winter was such a lovely season…

The bits of lamps and other sources for the magic would slowly start to fade, allowing some patches of snow to settle in some areas. It got Randy a little worried when he thought about it. Was Legends freezing? He didn't know if Snatcher had known of the living staute's existence. Could he even feel cold? Or heat? Or anything… Was there anything Randy could do to help? He glanced over at Macbeth a bit unsure, to which the conductor just gave him a silent nod. He could worry later.

Eventually, they got to where the statue layed. Only a single, glowing lamp being the source of any warmth or light around it. Badge went over to a stone near the statue, and knocked on it. Not too loud, but not too quiet.

A confused, almost yawn like noise seemed to come from the statue. "Badge?" a voice came from in. Randy pause. He was expecting the statue's eyes to at least light or something as he spoke but no. If it wasn't for the ability to speak, you never would know it was alive… Despite that, he could almost sense the statue’s sleepness fading, and his focus locking right onto him. "Oh, so he's gained his form at last." The statue spoke pleased. "And Macbeth, you're next to him without fear."

"Well, I wouldn't have been so paranoid in the first place if you told me it was Randy." Macbeth stated, rolling his eyes as he sat down nearby. Randy paused as he remember the day he got back to the toppats. The mentions of him supposed to be the prophet for the second coming… Legends must be how they figured that out. Did he not know more? Or simply chose not to tell them. "I could have mentally prepared myself better, I wasn't in a good state when we reunited. You had an idea what was going to happen, I can tell."

"It's ok, Java. Things turned out." Randy said, glancing behind him before looking over at Legends. He floated up to the statue, taking a look at the stone body. It was almost uncanny how this statue was in detail. Especially since it was techally one of his own body… He gently placed his hand along the ridge of his hand, his hand glowing slightly. He sensed confusion from Legends. "There's gotta be some way to get you to be out." He said. "Or able to move, you don't deserve this."

"The body of mine was carved while Moonjumper was still alive. No spell for freeing will help, and you can't bring to life something that has already gained life." Legends stated. He could hear that tone in his voice. The type that usually came with a reassuring hand on one's shoulder. He never usually noticed tones so clearly before. Maybe it was just a thing of Legends. "There is no need for you to fear, second coming. I am perfectly fine where I am, to help those who may be lost."

"Wait a second, Hydartic. Randy, are you ok?" Autiomaa called as they glanced over at him. He looked over and gave a nod, Macbeth rushing over with a worried look. He floated a little lower to the ground. Macbeth took his hand and led him to a nearby log to sit. Hydartic gave a worried look from the screen as Badge and Autiomaa both wandered over. He knew they were still in Legend's sight as well. "Are you… what's the word? Light headed? Like when you don't have enough energy or something?"

"Man, I used to wonder why we didn't just land it Subcon, and I'm kinda glad we didn't." Hydartic whispered up to Autiomaa, who just gave a confused look. Well, as confused as sand could get. Randy glanced over at them slightly, as their words settled a fact into him. He was standing before all that remained of the deity he was now replacing. It made his head go fuzzy, as if just the knowledge was affecting the mortal side of his brain. "I mean, I don't know if I would

have-"

"I don't think it's that." Macbeth stated, before turning to Randy. "Dad," He whispered. "What's wrong?"

"I just, still don't know what to do." Randy signed as he admitted it. "I know I don't have to play the role of Moonjumper right now but, what if I need to one day?" he asked as he glanced down, looking at his hands. "I don't need every trick in the book but, just seeing all the Moonjumper's magic could become, even after his death." He shook his head a bit. "I still don't get why me. I'm happy to be back, more than anything, but why was I, out of all the souls, selected?"

It was quiet for a moment, before Badge sat beside him, resting his walking cane between his legs as he turned to Randy. "None of us know why you may have been picked, or what may be coming next." Badge Seller stated, jestering for Randy to glance up at the sky, at the lunar horizon. Those towers of ice and fire off in the distance, faintly glowing in magic. "But you were selected for a reason. Maybe it was your heart. Maybe you have skills beyond what even you know about."

"I could barely handle finances.." Randy chuckled as he shook his head. "No, not even barely. How can I handle being a deity if I can't do that?"

"You should see the modern state of our planet's finances, there's no deity that can handle that." Macbeth stated, before shaking his head. "And yes, you weren't great with those, even I can say that. But you were tryin', tryin’ to do everythin' right by the end." Macbeth stated, sighing as he thought about the long nights for Randy back then. He had bags under his eyes more than Macbeth thought he did back then. "Who knows, maybe that natural goodness is why you were selected."

"There's no need to feel pleasure now." Legends spoke up, his voice still as clear as when they were closer to him. "If the time comes for you to be 'Moonjumper', we will all be here to help guide you, but you should allow yourself to rest and enjoy the time you had lost. Even the originally had a life as just 'Moonjumper' outside of being 'THE Moonjumper." Legends claim, Badge and Hydartic nodding, Hydric adjusting his sleeves at the mentioned. Randy gave a small nod as he thought about it.

"We could help you with a few small spells now?" Autiomaa offered. "If that will help. I knew that was what you were doing before I interrupted yesterday.."

Randy gave a small smile. "Maybe a few will be nice…" He glanced to the side as he thought. "Yea, I think I would like that." He stated. He held his hand out, and try the summoning spell he was taught. After a few moments, the spellbook appeared in his hands, though it had a small bit of fire on one of its corners. Macbeth quickly threw his hand over the flame and got it put out. "Opps, sorry. Didn't know that spell could be…flammable." He said, glancing to the side slightly.

"I don't think it's supposed to be normally." Hydartic stated as Autoimaa tried placing the phone somewhere nearby so they could have their 'hands' free. Hat Girl came up and adjusted it, making Hydartic shout. "I forgot you were with us, yea, staying behind to see how it would go without you two, right." He rested a hand to his chest, feeling his beating heart. The people nearby gave a few small chuckles. "That's what I get for scaring everyone all the time, huh? Not fun when it's me."

"Eh. that's how these things tend to be," Platinum stated as he sat nearby the group. "Now, I gotta see this. You don't see a deity being trained every day…"

The spellcasting was so.. strange. By all accounts Randy should be the most stressed he should have been in his life. And yet here he was, making mistakes during the spell, listening, and starting to feel more… normal about them. They were just giving him an idea of what to do next time. If there was a part of the spell he was struggling with. If there was some part he was putting too much or too little into. All while in front of the remains of what was basically a god watching him. None-judingly.

Autiomaa and Hydartic were the most helpful, in a way that might be supringing. Their magic was more specific, Hydartic being all things electrical and Autiomaa focusing on the sand and by extension, the earth. And while the spells he learned from them may not be the most practical in the long haul, especially if he ever had to take the role he was assigned, it gave him a better mental understanding of the spells. Made it easier for his mind to start pieces together what to do without every step being spelled out.

Not to say Badge and Legends weren't helpful as well. It's just both didn't have the exact means of casting magic themselfs, so it was harder to show what they were trying to share. He was still grateful, though. For all of them.

"I think you've done well enough for today." Badge said as he watched Randy float a piece of glass around his hand carefully. "It took Moonjumper many days to gain his full power. Trying to rush it will only lead to bad things." Randy glanced over and gave a small nod, Macbeth garbing the glass before it could risk falling on its own. Badge gave a simple hum, a sudden hum, as he glanced to the side. "Did you all hear something?" He asked as he stood up from his seat. "A small sound?"

"A bushcat maybe?" Hat Girl asked, glancing around before pausing. Flapping. "Oh, maybe a bat? But it sounds… slower then bats normally fly." An amused chuckle filled the air, and Hat Girl turned around to face Legends. She let out a shout when she saw an eye staring back from atop of the statue's head, looking at her. Platinum and Macbeth jolted up, and Randy tilted his head. "It's that butterfly." She said, before pausing as she noticed another. And another. And one more. "There's four-"

"Oh, their kinda cute.." Randy said as he floated over. The Butterflies flew over to him as soon as he was in their sights, all resting on him. "Oh, uh, hello, little…uhmm.."

"The original left them for the second to name." Badge explained, making Randy glanced over confused. "He didn't want to get too attached… When he knew the arrival would involve a group that would come to this planet via more… violent, means, he wanted a safe place for them. As well as to avoid any conflict or harm from the arrival… That clearing and the area around it would be the same as the rest of the forest attached to Subcon were it not for them and their magic. They were the… only living things he ever created."

"Wait, so they are the reason we have the clearing?" Macbeth stated. "But then why haven't see seen more of them, even if it's just four…" He paused as a fifth seemed to appear, right in front of his eyes. Almost made him jump. It flew towards Randy, briefly seeming to vanish from reality before reappearing as it landed on his finger. He looked at Badge. "There's… way more than five and we just haven't seen them because they can do that." Badge nodded as Macbeth held his breath.

"Their main purpose is to keep the barrier up." Badge explained. "But they can also heal, levitate things, even alter time temporarily… that was likely how most of your clan avoided death."

"Well, thank Moonjumper for his foresight." Hat Girl said. She never thought about it. Back on that day where they first got on this planet, when her Papa told her Dad no one had died in the rumble. Looking back it should have been impossible… Now she wondered how long they may have been stuck in time, the little bugs getting everything near death away from it.

"Wait… I got an idea… Java, toss that broken gear I made." Randy said, glancing over at his son. Macbeth seemed a bit confused but nodded. Randy pointed to it. "Heal, or in this case, fix." Randy said, and one of the butterflies flew over, magic coming from its eyes as it floated around the gear. It stopped, and then was pieced back together. The bug floated it over to Randy, who took it with a smile. "Its great! It's not a perfect repair but, the bugs. They can help us fix the station!"

"Oh yea! Surprised they weren't doing that before now that I think about it." Platinum stated. "Then again, I suppose if they did that the whole prophecy might have gotten on shaky legs." He said as he walked over to the butterfly, letting it land on his hat.

"Huh, yea, that is a good idea." Hydartic stated. "Hey, speaking of the station indirectly. I know I kinda burst in unexpectedly but, I don't really have an option to stay in a tent while here like Autiomaa."

"I mean, I don't think Dad would mind." Platinum stated. "You just gotta not possess the damaged hardware, or our work stuff."

Hydartic gained a smile as he leaned back on the screen. "I can't make any promises, kid."

The two laughed a little as Hat Girl gave a giggle. Her eyes drifted down slightly… with the creatures help, their time there really was limited… of course it was going to be like this in the end but…

Did she have time to do everything she wanted with everyone? Spend all the time she wanted with them before she was gone forever? She doubted it.

She paused however as she turned her attention over to the Three Moonjumper pieces that weren't bound to an electrical device, them all chatting… They all seemed so hopeful, so happy despite the circumstances each seemed to face. None of them seemed to have it too easy…

She supposed she was lucky…

Maybe they all were.

Randy was, at the very least.

What bad thing could happen to him now?

[kafus]

Well I woke up to the wind howling and a locked ankle and saw your message for asks, I'm so sorry you're going through a pain episode again and I hope it cools down soon. About Coliseum not having plot: it's actually really clever of them to involve it on such a base level that it's not written anywhere. Wes used to be a snatcher, had a change of heart (the premise of the plot) and ran off with their snatcher to fix what he did wrong while also fighting the organization he helped steal pokemon for. It's not explicitly there unless you look at it which I get is a gripe in the community but having a plot exist so loosely makes the story telling work through the cast of people. I really loved that game because it allowed me to bring my beloved Sapphire pokemon to life. No worries about replying either, just wanted to help in some way distract you.

oh i hope i did not give off the impression that i'm unaware of the story that is present in colosseum - it's not that it literally has no plot whatsoever, i was using exaggerative wording. Events Happen, there is a setup and rising action and a conclusion, and like most silent pokemon protagonists there is characterization implied about wes through the events of the game and what other characters have to say around him. i read the dialogue when i play pokemon games and i think if anyone missed the general plotline of colosseum they probably... weren't reading. which is uh. common for pokemon fans LOL. but i moreso mean that despite being a much more linear pokemon game than what was normal at the time, with a pretty high stakes and elaborate premise, it doesn't really deliver on following through on that linear story in a satisfying way, at least imo. characterization is thin (partially because of... weirdly wonky translation?) and most of the plot and characterization has to be imagined or filled in by the player, which again isn't unusual for old pokemon games, it's just unusual considering what colosseum was going for as a much more linear and standard JRPG experience.

THAT ALL BEING SAID for one im fully aware my thoughts r subjective and two i love colosseum and i criticize it with love. orre is awesome, the skeleton of a plot that is there is super cool, and i personally enjoy filling in the gaps even though i think it's an odd choice that i have to do that, i enjoy it every time anyway. and all the stadium games were indeed amazing for that, being able to bring the 2d pokemon sprites to life on the big screen. i think colosseum is a beloved game by the people who have played it for a reason and i wouldn't have so much to say about it if i didn't appreciate it immensely.

sorry for such a longwinded answer to your ask i just genuinely think the topic is interesting so i have a lot to say lol. btw i hope ur ankle feels better :(

[echantedtoon]

A Bloom In Time Ch35 Epilogue

(Hey everyone. I just wanted to thank everyone who read this far and liked my story enough to read it to it's end. I had a lot of fun writing it and it makes me happy knowing some people loved it enough to read it fully. Thanks to everyone for reading this, faving it, or leaving a nice comment. If you liked this consider checking out my other works. And thank you to GearsForBreakfast for creating such wonderful characters and giving me the opportunity to make this wonderful story. )

Ah. Cupid's Day.  The day everyone expressed their love to one another whether it be platonic love among friends and family, or for lovers to have a nice relaxing day out on a date with their spouses. Usually Snatcher would absolutely despise this day because of the implications of love to him was even more exhausting than usual. Yes, he'd tolerate the kiddos giving him small trinkets or pictures he'd hang on the fridge or on the walls of his tree home, but very evilly and totally not because he actually liked them ok! It was on this day he had a very special surprise planned out for a certain red haired fireball of a woman. All he had to do was wait for the right time to show her is all.....

Which was easier said than done.

The first thing that happened when the day started was him getting bombarded by Hattie and Bow rushing in and shoving cutesy pictures and hearts in his face with big smiles on their faces. Of course being the most evil of evil rulers he was, made a big groaning scene about it before taking them, reluctantly of course, and very VERY menacingly hanging them onto the wall above them to show everyone how evil he was by keeping something so mushy around him and showing he didn't care. Of course he hadn't spent all month hurrying his minions into working faster to put the last finishing touches on his very evil surprise for Poppy just to have it spoiled by these two, so to distract them all he gave them some of that mail Poppy had insisted he'd take to give to all the minions and dwellers running around. That should keep the two of them busy and running around for a good while before they went back to that ship! Good thing they didn't bring Poppy with them into the forest. He wasn't sure how'd he be able to get her distracted enough to finish his work....That didn't apply to a certain witch though when he paused when he saw Hazelle pop up.

Snatcher frowned. "What are YOU doing here?"

Hazelle smiled having a cute home made card in her hand. "Can't a friend visit a friend, Snatchy? And truth be told I came here to see how you were doing after the whole incident was over."

He huffed and turned away. "I'm fine. Just....working on something before the end of the day's over."

Hazelle nodded looking over the cards in her hands. "That makes sense. If that's all then I'll be hopping over to Moonjumper now."

Snatcher snapped his head back around to her. "WHAT?!"

"Calm down. I promised the girls I'd give him the Cupid's Day card they made for him and drop off Timmy for their sleep over."

"WHAT?!," he demanded again narrowing his eyes at her and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Snatcher, he was grounded for a long time and he's just a kid. He didn't know any better. One sleep over with his friends isn't going to hurt Poppy or you. Get over it."

Snatcher grumbled under his breath but didn't comment anything else when she tucked the cards away. "Well I'm off. But if you want to see me again, I'll be dropping Timmy off later at the ship."

Snatcher didn't say anything as Hazelle teleported away and he turned back towards his destination. He had work to get done and a limited time to do it in. The day went by realtively normally and fast, the girls came back a little while later with enough leftover mail to give the minions for Winter Solstice gifts. So he dissmissed them and off they ran. He guessed to go back to the ship and telescope jump around the planet to deliver more of those home made scribbled cards to those birds and cat. Whatever. It'd keep them out of his hair at least for a long while. It certainly took a lot longer than he suspected to get done, but when the last mushroom was replanted, and the last minion patted the dirt in the right place he nodded. It was ready. Of course living in a dark forest, he couldn't tell how late or early it was in the day, nor could he from space, so when he teleported himself to the kid's ship he was a little surprised to find not only Timmy there but the weird blonde girl that once upon a time made an alternate reality to get rid of all bad guys.....So naturally he frowned seeing the two of them huddled in the living room watching TV on top of a bunch of pillows with Bow and Hattie. Mustache Girl...Was that her name gave him a frown back and Timmy looked slightly nervous seeing the spook there. He also guessed he just must've missed Hazelle dropping him off because he was standing in front of Poppy holding a pretty shining flower in a small pot in one hand and a red scarf in another. Poppy was already holding a small cactus like the one you'd find in gift shops and a basket that smelled of delicious food. She smiled upon seeing Snatcher.

"Ah was wonderin' when you'd show up!," she greeted.

"Uh yeah. What do you have there?," he asked gesturing to her the objects in her hands.

"Oh these?" She held them up. "Cookie stopped by and asked if Mu could join the lil get together for the night. Somethin' bout her n' that loud mouth bird havin' dinner ah think. So I said I'd watcher her too! She was nice enough to give us some more food and this cute lil guy!" She smiled at the small cactus. "Ah never tried growin' a cactus before so it'll be a real fun experience." She called Bow to come over to take the basket of food from her and intrusted her to put it away then turned back to Timmy. "Watchin' him too! Now ya'll said ya wanted ta tell me somethin'?"

Timmy gulped and nodded. "Y-Yes, ma'am. I uh-...W-Wanted to apologize for what happened. I'm r-really, really sorry." He held up the shining Twilight Flower. "I got you this straight from the Alpine Alps. Hazelle helped me pick it out, yeah."

Poppy regarded him for a moment, before smiling and shifting her cactus into her other hand, reached down to pick up the decent sized bright flower from him. "Now ain't that sweet? Now ah got two plants I never had before! ....Apology accepted." 

Ah. She always did like kids. So of course she would forgive Timmy easily. She blinked again when he also held up the neatly knitted red scarf. "Moonjumper asked me to tell you that's he's sorry too, and that he hopes you'll forgive him so you all can maybe be friends. He made this for you."

Poppy blinked at the scarf, but before she could even respond a dark arm shot out and snatched the red scarf right out of the boy's hand and up to the scowling face of Snatcher as the yellow orbs laserfocused on it. "I'll be the judge of that.." For the next few minutes Snatcher spent looking throughly at the red scarf, as if sensing every fiber. Scanning it long ways and up and down, back and front, and tugged a few strands here and there. After a bit he looked back to Timmy with a supicious face.....and slowly held it out to Poppy. "I don't sense any magical hiddden energy in it. It's safe if you're going to accept it."

To his surprise Poppy did take it from him and looked at it for a moment, then to Timmy with a serious face. "When you go back ya tell him I accept his apolody and gift, but it's gonna take a while before I decide if I really forgive 'em." Timmy nodded and she nodded back. "Good now go play and behave with the others. I have something to talk with the purple onion for a minute." 

As Timmy ran back over to the other children Snatcher raised a brow. "You have something to tell me?"

She nodded. "Yep. Hold these for a minute." She shoved the small plants into his hands and turned to walk off towards the door to the kitchen. She had a certain something to give Snatcher on this day. As a thank you for everything he's done for her, as you all might remember a certain gold skull that was found along with the other gold that Poppy and the girls found hidden in the attic. Well Poppy remembered Snatcher getting the girls those skulls in the attic as gifts and since this is Philip now, what better gift to get him than a golden skull? She wasn't sure if the skull was a real skull before that R.King turned it to gold with the gold potion but she didn't have enough time to think of any better gift when the girls suddenly left to go around handing out those home made cards they made to everyone without telling her. She should really stop sleeping in so late, but as she entered the kitchen she caught sight of it real quick. It was decided the golden skull would be the thing to be left behind and was hidden under Hattie's bed for safe keeping when they had left for Express Town a while ago, so she spent a good amount of time polishing it and cleaning it up until the golden skull gleamed at her, catching the reflection of the adorable picture the girls gave to her on the fridge. It was a messily but cute drawn picture of her and Snatcher holding hands, with the two of them holding either of their hands as well. Smiling, she held it behind her back and exited. Snatcher's face looked to the door as Poppy came back out smiling from ear to ear, one hand behind her back as she walked up to him. "Ah got somethin' for ya."

"Oh really?," he asked surprised, "You didn't have to. I had enough of this mushy love to last me for eternity."

She chuckled. "Well Cupid's Day is 'bout celebratin' the people ya care about right? That means good friends too." She finally brought it out and Snatcher's eyes instantly widened at seeing the shiny golden skull she held up to him. "So here's ta good friends. Happy Cupid's Day, Snatcher!"

Snatcher stopped and just stared at the shiny thing showing his relflection in it for a solid moment...before he took it into his free hand and stared at the beautiful gold skull with wide eyes. "It's......." He looked at her. "T-This is incredible. Where'd you get this?"

She bashfully shrugged. "I-It was in the attic when we found all the other gold. I was savin' it for an emergency but I thought I could use it for your gift instead. A-As a thanks fer everythin' ya did for me."

He still stared at her for a moment before a small yellow flush dusted his face and he cleared his throat. "W-Well it's very .....nice. Thank you I guess."

Poppy giggled. "Your welcome. It was the least ah could do."

Snatcher rubbed his thumb over the shiny gold for a moment, before looking back at her with a small smile. "Well....I happened to get you something too."

Poppy blinked in surprise at his words. "Wait. Really?"

He nodded. "Yep. But I can't show you here. You'll have to come back with me to my forest.''

Poppy looked a little skeptical at that and rose a brow. "Back to the forest? Ain't it too dangerous?"

"Not with the contract, and my minions know to not cause trouble." He smiled that usually smirk. "As long as Im in the forest you'll be fine. Besides you'll love it."

".....What 'bout them?," she asked nodding to the kids watching the tv.

"They'll be fine being along for a little while. Won't you?" The children either hummed or nodded not looking up from the funny penguin cartoon they were watching. "See? Sides. It's not like they weren't left alone before you came along for a while. C'mon. I swear you won't regret it."

Poppy still didn't look too convinced but in the end she agreed and so the children were made to PROMISE to stay there and behave while they were gone and they were teleported just as Poppy grabbed onto Snatcher's arm. The familiar purple came over here along with the weird feeling that came with it, before she looked up as the purple disappeared and soon found herself back in the familiar scene of the nightmarish forest. Poppy shivered at the sight of it all and all the minions or dwellers than happened to stand around stop and stare at her. Snather cleared his throat to catch her attention and he gestured for her to follow him up the pathway towards his tree home. Poppy rose a brow noticing he still had her plants in hand, but followed none the less. Snatcher flew right into his home, Rough Patch giving a lazy meow from the chair he laid on before yawning and turning the other way to sleep again. The golden skull was placed right on top of his shelf next to the sewing kit. He gave one last look over and smile before exiting the home and going outside and staying towards the left side of the home. Poppy was slowly walking her way forward blinking at him as he just floated there seemingly waiting for her to get closer. When she did, he smiled and silently pointed to the ground. Poppy blinked and looked to where he was pointing, eyes widening as she saw a small pathway of small bushes leading off somewhere into the woods. And soon enough Snatcher started floating down that way, giving one look back to her as her signal to follow before he disappeared between the trees. And of course, Poppy followed. Into the woods following along the bushes as she slowly took her time walking and walking......And walking. Slowly but surely, a few glowing mushrooms popped up here and there starting with the smaller mushrooms Hattie and Bow would use to bounce on before they became bigger. And bigger. And BIGGER until the bushes disappeared and there was nothing but lots and lots of beautiful glowing mushrooms everywhere. In all shapes and sizes and colors. She gaped at the beautiful glowing blues, greens, and reds of all the polka dotted fungi everywhere glowing in the moonlight and lighting up the place. There was a clear path between all of them replacing the one the plain bushes made and she continued down it still no sign of Snatcher anywhere either, not that she noticed. She was too busy admiring all the beautiful sights around her. Before the path took a corner and of course she followed it. And she stopped DEAD. A soft wind blew through the trees as multi colored petals blew towards her and to her feet a few purple, yellow, and red ones floating by her head. Her blue eyes widened and her jaw dropped as the sight of what she was seeing hit her with the force of a meteor from space crashlanding into the dirt. 

Snatcher finally popped up as he floated next to her gaping frozen self with a proud grin. "So. Do you like it?"

IT. WAS. ROSES!! RAINBOW ROSES!! All the colors of the rainbow sitting right there and multiple of them blooming beautifully in the moonlight. Some of the petals on the ground in a beautiful arrangement of color. Shimmering in the moonlight like a rainbow on stems. She still gaped at all of them and Snatcher only smiled prouder. Yes. After making that owl cough up the location of these wild roses (an oasis not surprisingly in a desert) and taking the ones in her shop for good measure too, Snatcher had a peck of a long time just gathering them and digging(having his minions carefully dig) them up by the roots and teleporting every single one of them back to his forest. But the extra work was worth the look on Poppy's face just now. Poppy still stood there stunned for a long moment. Before pointing and looking at him....then back at the roses gesturing with both arms then back to him again still totally amazed and shocked.

"HUH?!"

"What? I promised a garden and I delivered a pecking good garden! You got your regular bushes, mushrooms, a couple exploding apples, and even a nice flower section all of your own. Your welcome.~"

"HOW?!" She looked back at the beautiful batch of roses. "W-WHERE THE PECK DID YA EVEN GET THESE?!"

He shrugged. "Some small corner in the desert. Nothing too hard to find really. Do you like it?" 

"YES!!" Her shocked face was replaced by a wide smile and sparkling eyes. "PECKIN' YES!! T-THIS IS INCREDIBLE!! I-......Ya never cease to out do yerself ya purple onion."

He shrugged again. "Well...you did give me a gold skull. I say we're pretty much even." He handed back the two small plants he'd been holding on since she asked him to hold them back on the ship. "Here. What's a garden for if you don't plant anything in it?"

She blinked at him for a bit before taking the twilight alpine flower and cactus. "Will these even grow here?"

"Anything will grow here if I want it too. Sides, with your skills you could get anything to grow here regardless."

Poppy smiled at him before turning around and starting forward. The two then took a moment, Snatcher helping her dig two holes a little a ways from the roses so Poppy could carefully put her two new additions into her new garden and carefully pat them in. Smiling as a mother would smile at her children when she was done, even if the bottom half of her dress and hands were all dirty afterwards. She took a moment just....staring and smiling at her new beautiful garden and Snatcher stared at her with a bright smile on his face seeing her smile so genuinely after so long....before frowning and looking down.

".....Listen, Poppy." She looked back up to him and he felt worry pool in his gut. "I know I....made mistakes when we first met again and if you....really want to live somewhere else or even break from the contract I'll respect your choice fully."

"....That's so sweet of ya but.....I'm not planning on going anywhere for a while."

he snapped to her blinking. "Wait. Really?"

She nodded smiling before looking back to the roses. "Ah really don't where I'd go if I did. Never did have any interest in travelin' 'round. And...A-And I think I enjoy havin' the safety of a purple onion." She shrugged. "Maybe things will change in the future but right now....I'm happy and content at this moment." She looked at him, moonlight making her blue eyes shine. "Thank you."

He felt yellow flush through his face again and he quickly turned away. "Y-Yeah. Well you know where to find me if you ever change your mind! I-It's not like Im super attatched or anything you know! You're your own person after all! You can make up your mind any way you want!"

Soft hands grabbed his neck fluff and yanked him down to eyes level with those blue eyes suddenly and Snatcher didn't have any moment to react before a pair of soft lips gave him a quick peck on his fanged mouth. And he froze! Poppy pulled back and stared at him for a moment....before snickering. His mouth had dropped wide open, eyes small as a dime, and his entire face a bright yellow. The fluff around his neck fluffing up to new heights as he just sat there. OH PECK!! OH PECK!! OH PECK- POPPY KISSED HIM!! LIKE REALLY R E A L L Y KISSED HIM!! LIKE-....A REAL ROMANTIC KISS!! Her snickering brought him out of his stuper as he sqawked like a bird and immediately pulled away. And Poppy opened the flood gates to laughter as she snorted and laughed at his flustered state.

"Y-Your- AHAHAHAHAHA! *snort* F-FACE!! I-IT LOOKS LIKE A JACK O LANTURN!!"

"WELL!! I THINK ITS TIME TO GO!! AFTER ALL YOU'RE BABYSITTER ALL NIGHT!! AND IM NOT HELPING!!,'' he yelled out as he began floating away.

Poppy reached out for him before stubbling to her feet still laughing and chasing after him. "W-WAIT!! I DIDN'T MEAN IT!! AHAHAHA!!"

"YES YOU DID!! BACK TO SPACE WITH YOU!!"

"HAHAHA!! NO I DIDNT!!

"YES!! YOU!! DID!!"

The red head chased the flustered ghosts back towards the tree home. A gently wind blowing more petals to the ground.

[crescentblossom66]

Ghostly Troubles (Snatcher x Reader)

You hated this weird silence that slowly build up further and further as the evening went on. You could just about see the sun slowly setting between the thick branches of the old trees. Normally the two of you read in comfortable silence, but today he appeared...strangely distant. Normally he was really focused on his book and the ghost always looked like he had a good time when he read his law books, however, he had a frown on his face that could chill the blood of even the bravest of man.

“Is something wrong?” You just had to ask him, he jolted a bit and his goofy, wide smile returned when he looked at you.

“Nope, I was just contemplating about what I should do to the next unfortunate fool who enters my domain.” A blatant lie to change the topic to divert attention from the real issue, nothing new with him. Even the minion had noticed that something had been off, but were to afraid to ask him directly.

You sighed and moved closer to him, “I know that trusting someone is really hard for you, but I'm trying to help you. I won't push you to tell me where the problem is just...we're all getting worried because you behave strangely.” In the recent days he had acted less...enthusiastic? The usual extravagance in the way he threatened those that trespassed into Subcon Forest was all but gone, and his whole demeanor gave off the feeling that he was troubled by something.

You could see how hard this was for him, as he sighed deeply and placed down the book, he felt a bit colder than normal too. “Look...I'm just a bit...worried is all.” You tilted your head, while he actively avoided eye contact with you. Worried? About what? About you being the same as...her.

“You know that I care about you, I would never treat you like a possession, you're my partner, not an obedient dog.” You gave him a hug, burying your half your face in his fluffy neck fur.

“That's not it, y/n. I know that you're nothing like her...thank the stars for that.-” He shook his head at the bad memory. “-I'm worried about you...dying.” You sat up straight again.

“I don't plan on dying any time soon...when I'll die I'll still be with you, so you don't have to worry about me leaving, I'll just be a ghost, like you.” He nodded, and reached for your hand.

“I just don't want you to have to go through the same pain I did. My death was a slow and painful one, one I'd only wish for my worst enemies.”

“I don't know how I'll die or when my time comes, and I don't know if it will hurt or not..but at least I know that I won't be alone when it happens. I really hope that Vanessa will rot in hell for what she did to you.” Your eyes glistened with anger, but softened when they looked into the bright orange ones of your lover.

“True, I won't simply let you get away from me, you'll spend your days by my side for all eternity, won't you?” He gave you a kiss on the forehead.

“Gladly.”

[katz-cradle]

TALK ABT HAZED MEMORIES!!!!!! *STARES AT YOU*

Ahaha I don't know if u want like a specific stuff, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned the story before of "getting these bitches therapy since they 1: need it. 2: I love them all to hell and back, and 3: that getting help and being being doesn't only imploy certain types of bad and that anyone can fix their behavior and actions if they try hard enough. And only other stuff happens ig" but I'm also using this as an excuse to talk about the planets and species sorry,,

Put it all under the cut bc itz long,, hope it's good ^w^

The planet ahit takes place on is called Ninrao, no reason I chose that name it just sounded nice. The planet runs on anarchy, probably the only planet that works on anarchy that is (somewhat) peaceful.

The planet is very medically advanced yet has very little technological advances, its also quite small (while the planet is bigger in my idea its still relatively small compared to others). The planet is made up of 7 main-ish areas, such as the canon areas (ie- mafia town {also known as Aurora Island}, the place where dbs is {unnamed for now}, subcon kingdom/forest it's basically the same area now, alpine skyline and nyakuza metro) but there's also the original mafia town (which is unnamed rn also) and the Luxyren Kingdom aka where the Prince/Snatcher comes from (shouldn't technically count but there's still like 1 and a half ppl there so).

The moon that goes with it is called Lotune. Lotune is a very cold place that is basically soley inhabited by the moon penguins, it's also one of the very few moons that inhabited but we'll talk about that later.

The planet that the Remphs (again will talk about them later) live on is called Ixion, it's a very technically advanced planet it's main city is basically a sci-fi area, tho every other area is very forest and earthy. Ixion has a president (or ruler? Idk) named Cassia (she's unimportant rn :))

Ixion also has a connection to- on wait that's classified, whatever anyways onto the species!

The Remphs as talk about above is the species that Hat and Bow are apart of! They're a species that are able to control and protect time since they can withstand it and it's drawbacks. They're also the only species that can travel galaxies far away from their own.

The Remphs' are very secretive and rarely leave their planet, the only time they do leave is mostly the children when they are studying on about other planets (which is what H&B were doing!) some do leave the planet tho, and if they do they're seen as outcasts and disgusting traitors and are to never be realized as ever having existed getting rid of any and all evidence of their existence. If they dare come back they are killed. :)

Oh! And a bonus of the fact they are naturally very strong and also have acidic spit <3

Now onto the species of Ninrao;

Humans are the most normal and uncommon species on Ninrao, they used to be pretty common yet their two kingdoms both fell (thanks Vanessa's mental issues and N-.. You.), the only civilizations are the Aurora Island (don't worry the previous lives there didn't die or anything they just went somewhere else) and OG Mafia Town, they did have one is the desert but like,,,, that one just disappeared and nobody has tried to check on it since.

Humans have magic, elemental and non elemental magic the elemental magics are fire, water, plant, electric, and ice. The only non elemental magic I have rn are puppeteering and servent magic (I've only started working on it 2day so I don't have a lot for now sorry)

Humans also have pointy ears (as seen in my mb & mu designs) , their ears make it easier to hear from distances but it makes them sensitive to loud noises like yelling and fireworks. Humans are also very connected to their souls of course everybody has one but humans are the most connected to theirs, it's the host of most of their magical abilities. Removing a soul from a human is horrific and painful both to see and experience (gee I sure hope no ghosts do that to scare ppl hm)

Oh yes speaking of which let's talk about ghosts, ghosts are mostly made up of humans, ghosts are normally small little noodly creatures sometimes called dwellers, the dwellers cannot speak unless they have a host to due so. The hosts are things such as dolls and game consoles things they can mess and/or communicate with. They however cannot posses humans or any other species no matter how much the movies say so.

Ghosts don't remember their pasts, the most they remember are a few small snippets and vague feelings about stuff, they can remember however if they meet somebody or go to locations that they have memories from. Also they can eat and vaguely taste said food, not important to what I was saying before but yeah.

I'm gonna start making these shorter so I don't just like kill u with my talking, okay next is uhh Moon Penguins!

The Moon penguins are based around dancing and music, that's their entire culture and identity! They're very good with the cold, living on a coldass moon it just makes sense for Ninrao cold to not bother them. They live on both Ninrao and Lotune being able to survive both climates.

The Dust Owls, commonly also called the Express Owls live mainly in the desert and use the Conductor's train to get places (hince both names), they generally have bad and/or sensitive eyes normally needed glasses. They can fly short distances/heights, their insides are also akin to engines. They're naturally clumsy and commonly get stutters or other speech problems

There's also Phoenix's but they're unimportant rn ;) just know they're very closely related to fire spirits and are rarely seen by others (outside the nomads since they live near them)

Anywho the Anthro Cats are similar to normal cats, able to see in the dark and have very sharp claws, either being super tall or short. They have a good sense of smell and hearing (not as good as humans but still)

There is one other species, being connected to the Remphs' and possibly the Moon Penguins buy that's classified so I'd rather not waster ur time

There's the gist of the species not really a lot else to not that I have for now,,, besides the fact that the Ninrao species have a harder time having kids together plus hybrids but they ain't too special just a mixture of both of the parents species

Wowie I've rattled on way too long about this haha oops,,, welp I'm not talking now <3 hope it's good

[cishetamine]

gremlins (1984) letterboxd review (crossposted)

This is a terrible movie. Why?

Well, someone in it says “mangy curr” unironically, which admittedly is kind of camp. But check out the rest of the dialogue:

re: ppl being depressed on christmas: “While everyone else is opening up their presents, some people are opening up their wrists”

the part where the science teacher is explaining pupation to the kid like “it might look dormant, but inside it’s going through changes” and the kid is like “Like my mother,” as in MENOPAUSE

basically whoever they hired as the script doctor for this deserves a Razzy.

astonishing that this movie contains a white woman who wants to do unspeakable things to this kid’s dog !!! like holy shit i believe the rumors now .. no like actually did they realize what they were writing………

although it’s maybe bad that she doesn’t respect The Spirit Of Christmas(jewish-coded ?) & lives alone weigh a bunch of cats(lesbian-coded; possibly acephobic ?)

I want to know what age demographic this is targeted at. Which i guess i could find out by looking up the film rating—ah, PG-13, but like, ppl apparently criticized it at the time for being too graphic for the kids at whom its sense of humor appears aimed. so i guess it makes sense that i was also confused!

Also wait this is making me wonder. Did kids used to just go to the movie theaters by themselves when they were younger than 13?? Bc i thought the purpose of 'PG-13' was "u gotta be older than 13 to see it without an adult".

But what kids were even seeing movies without adults before they could drive in most of the US in the 1980s?? idk i wasn't alive then but i assume most ppl had to drive to the movies——ok maybe SOME ppl lived in walkable cities……i guess the stranger things kids could've biked, but then again they aren't real, so.

anyway, right, gremlins. The sequence where the Designated Hottie describes how her dad died is hilarious bc it's trying to be sad but the way he dies is——ok no u have to like pull up a clip on youtube bc it's definitely not worth seeing this whole movie over. Like i would bet $5 that it's on the tvtropes page for Narm.

Note btw that the great thing about making bets about whether something is on tvtropes is that i literally can't lose bc if it's not there already then i could jus make an account & add it there. Although in a way, me making a tvtropes account would be a much larger loss for my sense of self-respect

Also i'm still mad that i got tricked into watching a christmas movie bc normally i would not be into that!! except i didn't know it was a christmas movie!!! damnit!!

Found myself thinking, like, "You know, in a cronenberg film, the gremlins would escape & eventually spread to blanket the whole country & then the world! Like in scanners or the brood or videodrome—or, indeed, in plenty of other horror movies—especially those that anticipate a sequel! Like that one version of little shop of horrors before they changed the ending, or uh, presumably various zombie movies, i think. How does invasion of the body snatchers end again? Or uhh, the original The Blob?"

& i think that kinda describes my relationship to cronenberg as a director, i think?? like, i don't his movies are necessarily Super Great or My Favorites or whatnot—but they definitely have affected me enough that i keep thinking about him & about them & about his particular authorial sensibility, even if i disagree with decisions he's made!

which i think basically encapsulates my relationship w/ any Art that's influenced me significantly. Like there's not much stuff that i'm like "WOW i LOVE this this is PERFECT IN EVERY WAY"—it's more about "omg even where this book/painting/musical/opera may be flawed, can we please talk abt whether you think those are actual flaws or not, & u think they actually add to the story. Please please pretty please"

Also—the colors/lighting in this made me yearn sooooo hard for the days when EVERYTHING was shot on film. fuuuuuck. Like, this has a bunch of dark scenes that are lit almost more like a b&w chiaroscuro noir film rather than a color movie—so u get these spots of rly rich orange & teal & purple & blue & it WORKS?!?!?

which feels kind of insane to me honestly. like, Family Movies don't have beautiful lighting deign anymore (although cartoons have taken up some of the slack here—e.g., that Hilda show had a rly excellent color scheme in its backgrounds!)

anyway i'm just getting all weepily nostalgic for analog film, don't mind me!! getting half-strangled by a stray reel All those indoor shots where they're not afraid to let some light from outdoors filter in through the windows——i am dragged off the stage That soft focus on subjects, as opposed to that hypershallow depth of field that's gotten oh-so-popular these da——muffled sounds of struggle

[small gremlin pops back up onstage speaking in my voice] Also almost forgot to say: Good puppets! Very expressive, as others have mentioned! We need to bring back puppets tbh. Also ventriloquism(not that cringe racist guy from the bush admin tho.) I'm talking REAL ventri—

[roof caves in right on top of GREMLIN PUPPET, which miraculously manages to sidestep all the falling debris, but then one more tiny circular chunk falls out of the ceiling & GREMLIN immediately gets melted by the sudden sunlight like a cute vampire]

[wattpadscapcons]

I'm going to request some headcanons of Yuki!Sora with a S/O who was a middle school classmate of theirs, that at the beginning didn't recognize them (bc being in another body and all that jazz), but eventually discovers what happened to them.

ah, I'm assuming that I should label this under Yuki then.

I had to look up the ages for those in middle school or rather "Junior High School" for this to be a little more accurate to the character's ethnicity and country. I tried to look up earlier information for Yuki and got a whole lot of nothing so this is what I came up with instead.

=

Sora!Yuki w/ Middle School Classmate S/O

Finding out later

- The chances that the two of you would be able to meet again were rather low, and yet that luck of Yuki's seemed to surprise him

- He was just glad to see someone from his past had survived

- He couldn't really stop himself from saying,

"It's nice to you again! It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Do I know you?"

=

He has to take a second before he realized the very obvious problem here. His new appearance. Of course you wouldn't recognize him like that, Sora looked nothing like him.

"I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else."

"You'd be surprised just how many times that happens."

"Believe me...I know."

=

- His luck had him running into you to the point where you started joking about him "stalking you", after a while though, you got used to it and just asked him to start hanging out with you

- It's not like his luck would stop the sort of creepy coincidences from happening anyways

- From there it just escalated until you two were dating

- He really hated pretending to be Sora but he sucked it up for a while, as it was nice having you around again

- It was kind of weird that your new "girlfriend" seemed to know more about you then "she" was leading on, but for a while you chose to ignore it

- Until he started talking about school, specifically your middle school and events that took place there that she couldn't have possibly known had he not been there

=

- "Ok, this is just getting plain creepy Sora."

"What do you mean?"

"Did you even go to [Redacted] Middle School?"

=

He couldn't stop himself from saying the very thing that would cause himself to have to come clean about his identity.

"Yeah. Class of [Redacted]. Ms. [Redacted] was my teacher."

"That's not possible."

"What-"

"That was MY class, and I never saw you before a few months ago. I don't get whatever kind of prank this is but it's not funny."

=

He almost went with the out you gave him, but decided against it. It wasn't right that he was lying to you all the time.

"I have a really crazy story to tell you."

"......"

=

- To say that you didn't believe him at first was an understatement, until he showed you the friendship bracelet you made for him. You almost used pepper spray on him, thinking he was some sort of obsessed stalker instead of a "body-snatcher".

"Where the hell did you get that?"

"You gave it to me."

"That's not..."

"Think about it. What reason would I have to lie to you right now?"

"......Tell me something only he'd know then."

"I know that when you were 15, your parents separated. You wouldn't talk about it with the teacher, yet you still told me."

"Anyone could know that if they check the city's archives."

"Ok, age 13, you who ruined the competing class's projects for a science fair and got away with it because I refused to tell the principle it was you and not Kira."

"........"

"Believe me now?"

=

- "This is still really creepy Yuki. You pretending to be someone else..."

"Sorry, I felt it'd just be more complicated if I told you."

"Oh and looking like an obsessed stalker would be any less complicated? I almost pepper sprayed you."

"........"

"You should thank your luck that I still like you."

"Huh?"

=

- Accept it and move on Y/N, weirder things could happen, like robot bears tearing your hometown apart and kidnapping people

- At this point, Yuki being like that should be considered normal, the world went to hell after "the biggest, most awful, most tragic event in human history" occurred

=

Finding out Early

- He made the mistake of calling you by name. He was just happy you survived the whole ordeal, that he forgot for a second that he "wasn't himself" and that you wouldn't know him from looks alone

"Hey, Y/N! Over here!"

"Huh?"

=

- Seeing him again in Sora's body certainly would leave you a little bit confused that's for sure, since the last time you saw him he certainly wasn't a woman

- The fact that they knew things from back in the day that you did with him had red flags showing fast, and you were getting more and more uncomfortable by the second

- "Just who are you? How do you know so much about me?"

"Ah, you wouldn't recognize me like this...."

"Huh?"

"I'm Yuki....Maeda Yuki."

"There is no way in hell you're Yuki."

"It's a long story, but please believe me."

".....Do you have any proof?"

"I have something you gave me a long time ago."

=

- Yuki luckily had many of the trinkets from his life hidden for safe keeping a long time ago. Just recently had he went "home" to recover them all before he just so happen to come across you again. One of those just happen to be a friendship bracelet you made for him back in the 7th grade

- He did have to bring up some events during your shared school years to actually convince you fully but to say you were horrified by that eventual revelation was a nice way of putting it

- Moving past the whole body-switching thing was a bit of a struggle since you accidentally called him a girl on occasion. He can ignore it though, he still gets confused in the mornings for at least a few minutes when he looked the mirror

- How you got together after that was a mystery, his luck just kept you around him long enough for something other than a weird rekindled friendship to develop

[ahit-cut-content]

Cna you explain more about shame frost and the Moonjumper part of the story? I've seen it pop up here and there but I'm confused on it more than anything

Ok so Shane Frost is the person who made most, if not all, of the concept art for subcon forest. In it there was a character called the MoonJumper who was one of the 3 main characters for subcon, the other two being Queen Vanessa and the Snatcher. MJ was cut from subcon, his backstory being merged with Snatcher to create the subcon we see in the game. However, a year or two after the game’s release Shane Frost started posting small comics about how his version of subcon would have gone.

It is all very interesting but it is important to note that it is not canon to the game, just how the original concept would have gone in his mind. I will try to summarize the comics to the best of my understanding.

In it, the prince is simply a painter who is in love with princess Vanessa. Vanessa is also in love with him, but her mother is unhappy about it. She also seems to be abusive, threatening to lock her in the basement again if she goes near a white tree in their yard that is surrounded by ice cold flowers.

The Snatcher is a shadow left behind by a time traveler. He now spends his days taking things from people, hence the name the Snatcher.

MJ is a being of nightmares from a cold place at the end of everything where there are no stars. He seeks out warmth and love, destroying them bit by bit. MJ attacked Vanessa in this way, taking her love and warmth and leaving a bitter cold behind. He then learned of the Painter, named Neth, and jumped from Vanessa to him. Taking full control over Neth, he then set his sights on the rest of subcon, turning it into a fozen place where only spirits remained. Eventually something sealed him behind the moon, but the damage was done. The only thing that can defeat MJ is green fox fire, a fire that burns even in the cold depths of space.

Hat kid seeks out the fox fire to defeat MJ. During the confrontation on the moon, MJ takes Hat Kid, intending to snuff her out like all the rest, but he is stopped by Neth, who will not let MJ take anyone else, like he had taken Neth. Neth was being controlled by MJ to take over subcon, and is used as a sort of body/anchor for MJ. Neth asks Hat Kid to do what he could not and defeat MJ. Hat Kid exits the place MJ had taken her and fights him. She almost fails but Neth, puppeted by MJ, snaps the threads connecting them with the green fire. He then falls down to subcon, burning up on reentry and subsequently destroying MJ.

Subcon is free’s from MJ’s influence and returns to being a normal forest, Vanessa is also freed from her old lady shadow form and is back to normal. Neth survives the fall, but without his legs and memory. He is then found by the fox fire he named starlight years ago, and given what MJ wanted most of all, love and warmth freely given, not taken.

This is how I have come to understand the story, and I hope it is satisfactory.

[shadowthrone-ammanas]

I finished Nyakuza Metro and thought of this request! In the middle of Empress stealing all of Hat Kids time pieces, she goes to Subcon to unwind because she's upset about the whole thing and Snatcher sees upset Hat Kid and is just: Excuse me Kid, I'm the only one around here who's allowed to make you upset what's going on? So she tells him and now Snatcher has to go meet this Empress and let her know that bullying Hat Kid is His job. (It's not that He CARES About her! Nooo!! That's Ridiculous!)

First off, isn’t the ending of Naykuza Metro the single most disappointing ending since Mass Effect 3? I am so salty about it, I wanted to fight the Empress, it looked like we were going but nope we get a stupid cop out instead (and if that pun was intentional on Gears For Breakfast’s side then it’s not funny >:( ). Second, thank you for the request!

Good Kitty

Something was up. Hat Kid was in Subcon Forest but she wasn’t bothering Snatcher or seemingly even looking for him so she could. Instead she was just meandering down the path, her head hung low, hands in her pockets and idly kicking a stick along. She looked upset about something. What though? Well only one way to find out.

Snatcher teleported to pop up in front of her. “Boo!” he shouted loud enough to make her jump a little.

She gave him a disapproving look as he laughed at her fright as mild as it was. “Hello to you too Snatcher,” she said, her tone borderline annoyed. That wasn’t like her. Whatever was bothering had to be pretty serious.

“Hey kiddo,” he said grinning down at her. “What brings you to my forest?” He’d long since given up trying to tell her that their business was concluded, it only ever seemed to make her want to stick around more often and longer.

Hat Kid shrugged, kicking at the stick on the ground again. “It’s just a nice place to walk around and stuff.”

“Uh… ‘nice’? It’s a haunted forest full of dead things. What part of that is nice?”

“The haunted part.” Now she did smile up at him, only a little though. “It’s also the only place I can walk around aimlessly where there aren’t a lot people.” Implying she probably wanted to be alone, giving Snatcher a perfect opportunity to just leave her to it but…

“And why would you want that?” He was curious. What could’ve possibly brought her down. “Don’t you normally make a habit of annoying as many people as you possibly can?”

“Yeah but uh… I’m just really frustrated right now. And I hate it.” She stomped a stick, breaking it in half with a snap. “The stupid pecking Empress is sending her stupid pecking peck-neck goons to take my Time Pieces every time I find one in the Metro. And I can’t do anything about it because she’s got like I don’t even know how many goons, certainly more than I can take on by myself. If it was just her, I would beat the living shit out of her and make her regret ever crossing me. But I can’t and it’s not fair.” Her eyes were filling with tears of frustration now.

Snatcher grimaced. “Whoa kid, calm down there. No need to start crying or any of that.”

“Sorry.” She sniffled. “I just… really hate it and don’t know what to do. But I have to do something because I need my Time Pieces.”

“Well… good luck with that.”

“You’re not even going to offer to help me?”

“Nope, the fact that you thought I might is honestly offensive. I don’t care about your stupid problems and I certainly didn’t ask you to spill them to me. So yeah, good luck with that kiddo.” With that he teleported away.

-

 The Metro was bustling and busy with life. What little plant life there was, was all heavily manicured to match an aesthetic. Obnoxious neon lights were everywhere. And the place smelled horrible; a mix of trash, unwashed bodies, cats, trains, and the various food carts scattered about the place. Snatcher hated it.

He was half tempted to pop out his Hat Kid disguise – complete with dweller mask to hide his ghostly features – and raze the whole place to the ground. But that would take too much time and effort to be worth it. Besides he wasn’t into expanding his territory, he just wanted to keep and protect what he had. Taking over more would both make that harder and be pointless. So, grateful the mask would also hide his sour expression so he didn’t have to control it, he started wondering around to listen to conversations.

The more he walked the more he hated both the Metro and the very sensation of walking, especially on concrete. How did people stand this? It made him want to pull his hair out. He was never coming back here once he’d finished his business. Mercifully, the Empress was a pretty popular talking point amongst the cats wondering about the place and they all had a tendency to gossip just a bit too loud - possibly due to hearing loss from being around and in the trains making all that horrible noise all the time – so it wasn’t too terribly long before Snatcher knew where and how to find the Empress. Which was all he needed.

Once back in the central area, finding the jewelry shop didn’t take long. Hanging around outside were what was obviously members of the Empress’ gang. Most likely there were more hidden around the place too. Not even Hat Kid could take on that many opponents. Snatcher could, he could take down everyone in this Metro if he really wanted to – as long as no one had a way to make him vulnerable anyway. But if things went according to plan though all he’d have to deal with was the Empress herself.

Inside, the Empress was standing at the counter. She looked up as Snatcher strode in. “I didn’t expect to see you back so soon,” she said, fooled by the disguise and mask. “But that’s fine. I just got word of another one of those hourglasses in Pink Paw Station. Go find it for me.”

“Hmm… I don’t think I will,” Snatcher said, using Hat Kid’s voice but changing it a little so that it would sound just wrong enough to give most sane people chills. “Instead I think I’ll…” Grinning wide under the mask, he lifted a hand to snap his fingers.

The door slammed shut hard enough to rattle the whole store. Next, he made the lights flare bright before bursting, shattering glass everywhere. He timed their bursting with pulling the Empress into his pocket dimension, surrounding them both in a void of dark purple. And to top it all off, he teleported to float behind her and took off his mask. He kept the Hat Kid form though, he needed it.

When she inevitably turned to face him, already rattled she hissed and back pedaled, her fur puffing up the rest of the way. He’d morphed his face so he had bunch of misshapen eyes, covering the entire top half of his face. Only two of which actually worked, the rest were for show.

Still using Hat Kid’s voice and altering it to sound wrong, he giggled. There were few things creepier than a little girl’s laugh especially when it wasn’t quite right. To add a little bit extra, he made it sound like it was coming from all around the Empress, making her glance around in fear.

“What are you?” she asked with an angry hiss as she turned her eyes back to glare at him. Her claws were out now too, they looked sharp.

“It doesn’t matter what I am, what matters is you.” He pointed at her. “You’ve been awful mean to a friend of mine and I don’t like that.” It grated to call Hat Kid a friend but for this little act of his, he didn’t have much choice. “I’m sure you’re smart enough to know who I’m talking about.”

The Empress hissed and lunged to claw him. It did nothing though so Snatcher just giggled again.

“Oh, silly kitty, that won’t hurt me. There’s nothing you can do that can hurt me. I don’t think there’s even anything on this planet that can.” Hat Kid was an alien so he was going to pretend to be one too. He needed to make sure no one ever connected this whole thing back to him. “So save yourself the effort and don’t try. Just do as I say and maybe you’ll get out of this alive.”

The Empress still looked angry but her fear was evident in the way her fur was still puffed up on its end, her tail curled. “What do you want?” she forced out through clenched teeth.

“I want you to give my friend back her Time Pieces, don’t interfere with her collecting any more, and once you’re done with that don’t ever talk to or have anything to do with her again.” To minimize the chances of her spilling the beans on this conversation. “I of course don’t expect you to do this just because I told you to so how about a little motivation?” He teleported to hover behind her shoulder again.

Before she could fully turn around, he pulled out her soul to hold in the palm of his hand. She froze solid for half a second before clawing at him again, more with desperation than anger this time. He ignored it.

“If you’re a good kitty and do as your told, I’ll consider giving you your soul back. If not, I know a guy who likes to eat souls who I’m sure wouldn’t mind being gifted one.” As he spoke, he bounced her soul up and down in his hand as if playing with a ball. “So is that enough to convince you?” He would’ve preferred a proper contract but other than snatching souls, contracts were what he was most well known for. And Hat Kid would certainly know it was him if he used a contract. This way even if she did find out about this, there should be some doubt about who was responsible. Her even suspecting it was him would be awful because then she’d think it was because he was her ‘BFF’ and that he cared for her or something when it truth it was because if he failed to make Hat Kid miserable no one else was allowed to either. That was his job and he was going to find a way to do it properly one day no matter how much she wanted to insisted they were BFFs and she loved spending time with him.

The silence stretched as the Empress glared at him, defeated but not yet wanting to admit it. But finally… “Fine,” she said. “I’ll give the brat back her hour glasses and then leave her alone.”

“You’ll order your goons to do so as well?” Snatcher wasn’t going to give her any loopholes. “As well as anyone else you might pay to deal with people you don’t like?”

She growled but… “Yes.”

“Very good. Now, after my friend has all her Time Pieces back, including the ones not yet found, I shall give you your soul back. If you break your end of the deal, I will not hesitate to give you soul to a certain soul eating ghost.” Meaning he’d eat it. “If you try to break it after you have your soul back, I will make your end a painful one and feed you soul to the Snatcher just because I can. Deal?”

“Deal.” Oh, no hesitation this time either, the Empress was a brave one as well as smart.

“I will see you later then. Remember to be a good kitty for your own sake. Buh-bye.” Snatcher lifted a hand to wriggle his fingers in a wave before transporting himself elsewhere, leaving her back in her jewelry shop.

For this drabble event.

[derl30]

ALTERED STATES REVIEW TIME!

OK, this tumblr is, today, a vehicle for me to review ALTERED STATES. And you (the one person who stumbled on this review two-hundred years from n- oh who am I kidding, when the aliens from A.I. who show up to thaw out Haley Joel Osment and the teddy bear who was the real hero of that movie find this) should be very excited about this. Because this movie is insane. And highly entertaining.

Yes, the movie poster looks like ass. If I told you this was a movie where William Hurt (not the William Hurt from that awful 90's Lost in Space remake, or the one who slept through an entire performance as Duke Leto in the Syfy miniseries of Dune. This is before the body snatchers got him) took ayahuasca and got in a isolation tank and it blew his mind so hard he started devolving into a neanderthal and creating dimensional portals and he couldn't stop because he was addicted to finding the truth of existence... Well you wouldn't get that from this poster, would you? So let's move on. Shall we?

The film opens in 1967 with William Hurt's character, psychopathologist Edward Jessup, already immersed in a sensory deprivation tank, whilst his colleague and “buddy” Bob Balaban (he's just Bob Balaban in everything I'm not giving you his character's name look it up yourself if it's bugging you so much) oversees.

Now, you may notice I put buddy in quotes. The reason for that is that Jessup is a self-obsessed ass who seemingly has no reason to be around other people unless he can expound to them one of his various monologues. Bob Balaban barely gets a word in edgewise throughout the entire film. Bob Balaban.

See, Jessup loves the sensory deprivation tank experience. Unsurprisingly, as it allows him to be completely alone with himself for hours.

Later, at perhaps the lamest party ever, a bunch of faculty are chilling out and listening to the Doors. Everyone we see is talking about Jessup. Why? Well, much as Jessup is obsessed with himself, everyone else seems to follow suit by being obsessed with him. One young woman, Emily, (Blair Brown) is introduced to him in this very shot below as he arrives at the party:

Notice how is framed in holy light? There is a closeup after, of him framed in blinding glowing light followed up with a zoom in on Emily's face, enraptured with this incredible dynamic man. So much so that the moment he tries to make a goddamn sandwich she starts grabbing his celery (get your mind out of the gutter) and flirting with him. Which for these two that means talking science, immediately. Talking more at each other than with each other. This is often the way with Paddy Chayefsky's scripts.

PAUSE

Paddy Chayefsky is doubtless one of the great American writers for the screen. He wrote Marty, The Hospital and Network (which is a fucking incredible piece of work). He got an Oscar for all three. He also wrote this movie (Altered States, remember? Good lord) and disowned it completely three weeks in to production. His scripts tend to have very intelligent, driven characters at the center, who monologue extensively at each other. These scripts are not attempting to sound naturalistic.

Ken Russell, however, directed the film. He, like Chayefsky, is top notch at what he does (Direct. I said he directed the film like a second ago, come on keep up). His films, like Women in Love, The Devils, (which was banned in several major countries upon release and has never been shown publicly in its full, uncut form (by the way it's a masterpiece)) the Who's Tommy, Gothic, and Lair of the White Worm are all fucking gonzo nuts. I mean like, when you gave this guy the reins, you were going to Overthetopsville and there will be no stops on this trip. And god bless! I love directors who GO for it!

You're getting the chance to make a movie. Stop hemming and hawing and hit me over the head with what you want to say! Film is a visual medium, USE IT!

I feel I might have made my feelings clear here. So, moving on...

Ken Russell and Paddy Chayefsky immediately started butting heads, right from the start. Chayefsky was a BIG deal, and he wanted control over the picture in a BIG way. Ken would listen to his suggestions on everything to lighting and set dressing, and politely tell him, “No.”, and continue being the director of the film. Chayefsky hated him pretty quickly.

He had much more control over films like The Hospital. Which, if you watch The Hospital, well, it shows. You've got great actors (George C. Scott, Dame Diana Rigg (Dame may be the greatest official title of all time)) saying great dialogue. But its just two very witty bitter people sort of expounding on topics and speaking at each other and suddenly admitting they are in love and discussing what drapes they will have to buy for their new home. It's utterly preposterous, and it doesn't work in the way Sidney Lumet got it to work in Network, by literally making one of the lead characters realize his life is turning into a ludicrous soap opera.

So of course Ken tried to humanize, naturalize, the dialogue sequences. And it works! The film feels more human than the Hospital or Network. Despite the fact that Jessup is literally becoming more and more inhuman throughout the film. One of the ways he does this is by having the character's eat, drink, and work on other things during the dialogue sequences. This is perfectly normal in film, it's called giving the actor “business” to do, during the scene. Chayefsky HATED this. “They are mumbling my precious dialogue! Chewing through it! Sucking it through a straw!” Sorry, Chayefsky buddy. It works for the picture. Chayefsky also felt the actors were too emotional with his dialogue. Right. See, they call that acting.

UNPAUSE

Which brings us back to the first meeting of Emily and Jessup at the party. They are eating during this important scene! I can just picture Chayefsky seeing this, and running to the studio brass to tattle and get Ken Russell fired (as he got Arthur Penn of Bonnie and Clyde fame fired before Ken Russell came on board).

Emily and Jessup are, true to Chayefsky form, extremely intelligent, driven people and hearing them discuss topics such as anthropology and schizophrenia is quite interesting. It's just that what is to come, film being a visual medium, will eclipse just about any dialogue, no matter how good, from our mind thingys.

The two give up on the science talk and go straight to banging on her couch. After, she asks what he was thinking about. His answer is priceless. “God. Jesus. Crucifixions.”

She smiles.

Bwahahaha! Oh Paddy Chayefsky, you sure know women.

He admits he used to have religious visions. She listens to him from the sweaty couch whilst he sits naked on the floor, and starts going on about his father's horrible death of cancer and his loss of faith. And he admits to her that he's a nut. Her response is to call him a fascinating bastard. I think Lucas may have taken notes for Padme and Anakin.

So naturally, they get married immediately.

But none of that matters because Jessup gets back in the sensory deprivation tank and has his first vision. A nightmare of his dying father and lost faith in christianity. It's pretty great, filled with foreboding hospital rooms, his father's face being covered in a burning Shroud of Turin, everything covered by horrible blood red clouds and then THIS FUCKING THING SHOWS UP AND ITS ALIVE AND WRIGGLING

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

excuse me...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

The many-eyed goat is slaughtered over a gold bible and suddenly Jessups screwing Emily again and we enter a blood vessel looking thing and the vision ends and he never mentions this again. Oh. Okay,

Emily continues on about what a nut Jessup is as they make marriage plans. Her monologue:

“You're an unmitigated madman. You don't have to tell me how weird you are. I know how weird you are. I'm the girl in your bed the past two months. Even sex is a mystical experience for you. You carry on like a flagellant... Which can be very nice, but I sometimes wonder if it's me that's being made love to. I feel like I'm being harpooned by some raging monk in the act of receiving God. (Emphasis mine)

"And you are a Faust-freak Eddie! You'd sell your soul to find the great truth. Well, human life doesn't have great truths. We're born in doubt. We spend our lives persuading ourselves we're alive. And one way we do that is we love each other, like I love you. I can't imagine living without you. So let's get married, and if it turns out to be a disaster, it'll be a disaster.”

It's a disaster.

As in, by the next scene. It starts off happy enough looking, they have kids and people are smiling. And hey, wow it's seven years later! But, well, see, whoops, they are getting a divorce. Well, not they. See, he is divorcing her because he considers the seven years with her a complete waste.

She still loves him, desperately. He doesn't give a shit about her or the kids. He tells Bob Balaban this, straight up. And then starts bugging him about deprivation tanks and Hinchi Indians in South America who have sacred mushrooms that can really fuck you up.

It's at this point you would like for Jessup to be hit by a Mack truck. But the movie continues on. By the way, this is one of the kids he doesn't give a crap about:

That's right. Drew Barrymore's first role is a kid that William Hurt doesn't give a shit about. Something that William Hurt would make a career out of with narcoleptic performances in Lost in Space and Syfy's Dune. So, Emily takes the kids to Africa for her anthropology work while Jessup goes to South America to go deeper into his own creepy mind.

The Hinchi Indians agree to allow him to participate in the drug ritual. They enter their holy cave.

This shot is beautiful. At this point the film becomes increasingly gorgeous. Ken Russell has started to go into overdrive, ladies and gentlemen. Buckle. Your. Seatbelts.

The Indians grab Jessup's hand and cut him, freaking him out. They pour his blood into the drug mixture. They begin to drink. Then he takes a sip. The intensity of the film here has quadrupled. The vision begins, fireworks going off all around him. He sees cave paintings of humans and komodo dragons and this:

The proper life he left behind with Emily. He's convulsing, sweating. The Indians are all around, masked. Snakes. He's laughing in pain. Energy spills from the void. A snake under the parasol strikes and begins to strangle him. He and Emily march toward a nuclear explosion as energy pours from the cut on his hand, becoming a lizard. From within a sandstorm, Emily watches him, naked. Jessup looks at her, entranced, as the soothing sands cover them both, slowly.

It's a beautiful sequence. A perfect film sequence. I can't overstate how strong the vision sequences are from this point forward. Great visual effects work and the madman mind of Ken Russell create something unforgettable, with it's own pace, independent from the rest of the film.

Jessup awakens with a komodo dragon laying before him, ripped to pieces. The Indians and the others all claim he killed it in rage. Jessup remembers nothing, takes samples of the drug to reproduce it, and goes back home.

Back home, Jessup keeps doing as much of the drug as he can and having Bob Balaban record results. They can't up the dosage any more so Jessup hops back in to the self deprivation tank to create a more extreme experience.

In his next session, Jessup states he is having a vision of early man, hunting a deer and killing it. Suddenly he states he is one of them, killing the deer. He begins to grunt like an animal. The two pull him out. He's incredibly pale, blood seeping out of his mouth. He can't speak, and has difficulty breathing. He insists they do an X-ray. It shows that there is a vocalizing lump in the front part of his throat. Jessup claims that his body had begun to revert to a simian state. The medical doctor agrees, stating the throat X-rays looks like that of a gorilla.

Luckily his throat returns to normal. So Jessup finishes up his day by having over a student of his and sleeping with her.

Our hero, people!

At this point we hardly feel sorry for him as his body suddenly begins to twist and bulge in the middle of the night, shifting in and out of neanderthal shapes. It's a horrific sequence, disturbing as hell. You certainly didn't expect the film to shift into body horror.

Jessup feels normal after a while. but sees visions of lava explosions, the birthing of the Earth all around him. Not a good sign.

He goes to pick up Emily from the airport the next day. She asks how he is doing.

“Oh, fine.”

Yeah right.

Emily has been told what Jessup has been doing and is worried, which of course pisses off Jessup even more. The guy is obviously obsessed with reaching the truth and root of existence, much as Emily surmised earlier, and we see he has no fear of even losing his own soul, again true to her word. The only thing that allows us to give a shit about him at this point is that Emily cares for him and she's decent people, okay?

So back Jessup goes into the tank with his ayahuasca or whatever it is. Alone. The tank door opens from the inside.

The hand that pushes it open is covered in thick hair. He's devolved.

Ape-Jessup escapes the tank room and chases a janitor around the building. Again, this scene is fucking freaky as hell. We can't get a good look at this screaming animal that was Jessup.

The janitor gets a guard to help and chases after him into the boiler room, where we finally get a good look at him when he assaults the security guard and escapes.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Ape-Jessup runs through the city at night, making his way to the zoo where he kills a antelope and eats it. The Ape-Jessup sequence goes on way too long, but is nonetheless unforgettable. The makeup is much more convincing than the above picture suggests, and whoever performed Ape-Jessup did an admirable job.

The cops find an unconscious Jessup in the zoo and bring him in. Emily picks him up and questions him. Jessup admits everything that he can remember. He also admits that he probably killed that security guard. And once again doesn't seem to give a shit. Prick. He calls it the most supremely satisfying time of his life.

Even Emily seems disgusted with him. But, she's also fascinated with what he's accomplished. As an anthropologist, his transformation fascinates her. And so, she agrees to help oversee his next session. Big mistake.

Before the big session Emily and Jessup romantically reconnect, and then into the climactic session we go!

Get your popcorn ready!

After a few hours in to the session, the video monitor shows Jessup begin to literally melt apart like goo, reverting to primordial ooze, the very beginning of existence. An attempt to open the isolation tank doors blasts everyone unconscious, as light and energy pour forth. Emily is the only one left. She sees Jessup's life energy pulse from within the tank.

Rain pours down around them. The pipes on the walls twist and turn like jelly. The ground is covered with a pool of swirling fog and energy. Emily advances toward the vortex of the tank.

In the emptiness of the beginning of everything, Emily seizes the energy before her and reconstitutes Jessup.

They take him home. While he sleeps, Emily rages over the fact that she loves such a insane bastard, and can't get over him. And, then, after Bob Balaban leaves, leaving Emily alone, Jessup wakes up.

He sweetly admits that the truth he learned was that there was no learnable truth, just unknowable horror, and all that's real is human experience. And he'll be a good boy from now on. Well too bad!

Because that horrible truth isn't done with him, and it's back to goo-Jessup! Emily tries to help him, grabbing him, but this in turn effects her, turning her into a shimmering lava form of herself. Both of them begin to self-destruct as Jessup, enraged, watching her in pain, struggles to retake his humanity, slamming himself into the wall, reforming himself through sheer will and physicality. He grabs her and brings her back, mirroring what she did for him during the final session. They embrace naked in the hallway. He finally admits, “I love you, Emily.”

Fade to credits.

Awww true love!

What can I say to sum up? Awesome 80's practical effects. Genius wacko go-for-it Ken Russell directing. Out of this world vision sequences. A awake and actually remarkable performance from William Hurt. An occasionally turgid but often fascinating script by the ever ornery Paddy Chayefsky. Whats not to like?

Well, the ending is a little rushed. The ape sequence goes on for a little too long and takes up perhaps too much of the films overall running time. The central love story is, well... a little hard to swallow, but hey, I guess there really is somebody out there for everyone. Even self-absorbed, deadbeat, cheating, sensory deprivation loving, ayahuasca dropping, Harvard teachers with a messiah complex!

And on that note, aliens from A.I. Artifical Intelligence, have a good day, and don't leave poor Teddy alone with no one to keep him company!

Sayonara!

[a-crash-in-time-collection]

Chapter 35: Ivy of the Swamp

(Quick note from Zoey: HEY- SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO COME OUT. Right as I was getting ready to upload this Saturday the power went out. And it didn't come back on until just now. So yea. If there are any major errors please let me know. Usually I like to do a final check before posting in case me or Sage missed anything but after days of not being able to post and having to do a bunch of overdue schoolwork tomorrow, I hope you cna understand why I didn't. Anyway, please enjoy.)

The swamp. Snatcher had spent what felt like years, but was only about a month or two, staring at the swamp when he had free time. It was a part of the forest he barely paid attention too before, seeing as he needed it only to throw bodies into. Plus the eternal screaming faces in the swamp water always creeped even the phantom out. Partly because he had a feeling he knew where those faces came from, and he didn't like it.

But ever since the reports of something being in the swamp, he couldn't just ignore it anymore. Only reason Mustache Girl was able to get herself out of the swamp when he threw her in was her timepiece. Whoever, or whatever this was clearly didn't have one of those. A thought that was all but confirmed when he went to do some death wishes with Hat Girl again. Despite the wish contract taking them to a past version of the forest, he caught whatever it was there.

How it apparently slipped past him for so long, he didn't know and he didn't care. All he cared about was grabbing it and learning its intentions. If it was something he needed to get out. He didn't even understand how it could still be alive. Whatever it was should have drowned long ago... He spent a few days trying to find out if there was any creature in his books that should be able to survive that cursed swamp, and nothing.

So one night, when he just couldn't get to sleep, he decided it was time to act. He grabbed a bag just to carry an energy drink with him. It wouldn't help him much, but he could pretend it would. He thought about just leaving without Shadow Kid, since it would take only one wrong move and he could lose her. But she woke up before he left and refused to go back to sleep knowing he was leaving. So with an annoyed sigh, he set out above the swamp with his child in tow.

He quickly glanced around the swamp in every way he could, one arm behind his back to keep Shadow Kid steady. He didn't trust himself not to go too fast and drop her. And even if he still did, this would give him a better chance of saving her before the swamp water claimed her. Although he really didn't want that to happen at all. And would do everything in his power to avoid that. Which made him begin to slow as the worry filled his mind.

"Papa, are you sure you're ok?" Shadow Kid asked, making Snatcher glance at her. Well, as much as he could from this angle, at least. She had a worried and slightly tired look on her face. Snatcher thought about just heading back to the trees and resting for the night, but he had already gone deeper than he normally did in the swamp area. "You look like you're worried about something. Don't be, maybe this is a swamp bush cat!"

"Well, that sure would be something." Snatcher said with a tired chuckle as Shadow Kid gave him a smile. He focused his attention back in front of them as he kept going forward. Occasionally a stray soul would manage to reach its arm out and go to grab his tail, but it was easy to dodge it or shake it off if it actually got him. "I'm not too sure about that though, little shadow. After all, they're called Bush Cats for a reason."

"Still." Shadow Kid said, crossing her arms a bit as Snatcher tightened his grip around her. Just slightly, just enough to where he was comfortable going a bit higher and a bit faster. "You never know. You didn’t even know we had those until recently!"

"Yeah. Can't wait for the day the fire spirits are gone and we can find bush cats everywhere instead of.." He trailed off. It was just at the edge of his vision, but he thought he saw something faintly come from the swamp, before diving back down. Quickly he turned and dashed forward in that direction. His efforts brought him somewhere new. "I don't think I've ever been in this part of subcon before." Snatcher stated quietly.

"Really? But you been here a long time!" Shadow Kid said, before pausing and pointing to the side. "Look Papa!" Snatcher turned to where she was pointing, and saw what appeared to be a small, broken house. Or maybe it was a shack with how small it was. It was broken and worn, but was also in surprising condition when you considered they were in the middle of a soul-filled swamp.

"Ok, now this really feels off." Snatcher said as he floated over, placing Shadow Kid on the ground of the building. He glanced around. On the window seal there was a single potted plant, and a bowl of what looked to be chopped-up cherry bombs. "Whatever this is, it's smart. I don't even know if I noticed any of these missing." He said as he glanced at the bowl. "Then again, I don't pay much attention to them anyway."

"Are they tasty?" Shadow Kid asked.

"No idea." Snatcher answered, glancing to the side as he laid down on the floor for a moment, just to rest. He wasn't really tired, physically at least. But staring at the swamp water felt like it was hurting his eyes after a while. Trying to notice even the faintest difference in them. He pause as he noted some fresh drops of swamp-water on the floor.

"Whoever they were, it looks like they were just here, Papa." Shadow Kid whispered, Snatcher giving a nod as he glanced to the edge, before floating above the building. Shadow Kid sat down as she watched him begin to scan the nearby area, being slow and quiet. Snatcher didn't want to alert whatever it was more than he likely already had. "Who would even want to be in the swamp anyway? It's creepy, even for us."

"I know-" He shut his mouth. He faintly saw whatever it was appeared under the house, before plopping back into the swamp. He even heard the faint splash it made. He brought a finger up to his mouth, making sure Shadow Kid knew to stay quiet. He began to scan the area, once again, before after a moment, giving a defeated sigh. He floated back to the house. "I don't think we can find it tonight little shadow, we should head back."

"But Papa, we're so close." Shadow Kid said, looking up at the ghost. Only to see him give a wink, and gave a small sigh as she nodded. "Alright then Papa. I guess we better head home, far away from here."

"But it is late, Shadow Kid. Ghost or not, you need rest as well." He said, placing her on his back and beginning to float away. He kept glancing behind him as he did, waiting. Once they were about six feet away from the house, he saw a small head poke out. Quickly, he turned around and dashed, grabbing the head before it could dunk under the water. "FOOL- OUCH!" He shouted, feeling something sharp stab into his hand.

"Papa!?" Shadow Kid asked worried, as whatever he had started to pull itself under the swamp more. He let out a growl seeing that, and tried to pull it back up. The feeling got worse as he did. How a bite to his hand hurt so bad when he was already long since dead, no idea. He didn't even have any blue stuff on him. "Papa! You need to let it go! I don't want you hurt!" Shadow Kid said, but Snatcher shook his head.

"Answer us!" Snatcher said as he finally pulled the creature from the swamp. Only to pause. "What in the.." He mumbled as he took in the creature's appearance.

At first glanced, the girl appeared to be a normal human child. Which, considering the location they were in, would have been weird enough. Her hair was a gradient of purple, blue, and white. It looked like it glowed despite not actually glowing. But her eyes... both turned from pinkish-purple to a cold blue. Ahd with the glare she currently gave the ghost, it looked like demonic eyes staring into his own soul. It crept him out, if he was honest.

He floated back over to the house, and as Shadow Kid slid down from his back, he began the process of trying to remove the child from his hand. The girl responded by biting in harder, making the ghost hiss again. Eventually, he was able to pull her off, and got her in the corner of the building so she couldn't run away. He glanced down at his hand, his wound healing already thanks to the ghostly magic. But the fact she even left a wound at all...

He paused as he saw Shadow Kid approach the girl slowly, the girl tilting her head as she looked at the two of them. He allowed himself to back up a bit. Only a bit. Just to give her more room to talk.

"Who are you two and why did you come to my place?" The girl asked, crossing her arms slightly as she backed herself in the corner, sticking her tongue out at the ghost faintly. Snatcher paused, her place? That couldn't truly be right, she couldn't live here. There was no way she could have survived all on her own. "This is the home of Ivy, and no one messes with it, unless they have my permission. Also, the big snake's hand tasted odd."

"That's my Papa you're talking about... and Ivy. Is that your name?" Shadow Kid asked, getting a nod from the girl. Well, that was one questioned answered. But there were still many going through the former prince's mind. He saw Shadow Kid give a smile, before she glanced at the small matters piece that was nearby and frowned. "Why are you here all alone?" Shadow Kid asked, glancing at Ivy. "Don't you have anyone else?"

"Yea, where are your parents, kid?" Snatcher asked. "They must be worried about you. Looking for you."

"I don't have one of those. I just woke up here one day and been swimming with the funny faces every since." Ivy simply said, pointing down to the swamp water nearby. Snatcher paused as he took in that information. That sounded so natural coming from the child. She had no idea how many people lost their lives too it. "Occasionally I'll sneak and grab some food but I can go very long without eating. Can you two?"

"Yes, but that's because we're ghosts. You're alive!" Shadow Kid said, clearly confused as she looked to her father for answers. Answers he didn't have because the word 'alive' made him note something. Shouldn't Ivy be older? She looks about the same age as the glimpse of her he was able to catch when they went to the contract time, and that was seven years ago. "You're suppose to eat like, three times a day!"

"Well. I don't." Ivy asked as she tilted her head. "I can go longer than three months without eating."

"But you're a living child, how is this possible?! How are you surviving the swamp, kid? Do you even know what's in that?" He asked, pointing to the swamp... he should stop referring to it as 'water' because there was no way in any lifetime that would count as water. Ivy just gave a shrug, adjusting the sleeves on her pink sweater-like outfit. "My. Brain Hurts... someone must have been here. You can't have been safe all alone here since you were a baby."

"I was never a baby?" Ivy responded. The ghost felt like a machine about to break in a million parts. He should know by now that on this planet, nothing was impossible. But that didn't change what all this girl was claiming would be impossible, even for this planet. No one stayed the same age forever unless you were dead. "I just, woke up one day. Like this." Ivy said, glancing down at herself. "I've been like this for... about a decade or two."

"That's so cool!" Shadow Kid said, giving a small clap as Ivy gave a smile. A look in the girl's eyes that said 'someone gets it'. "So, you can't get hurt by the swamp, at all?"

"You both can?" Ivy asked, confused as she went to the edge. She gave a smile as she hopped down, soul-filled 'water' splashing into the air as she fell in. Shadow Kid went over to the edge, a bit worried. But Ivy poked her head above the liquid just fine. It was then Snatcher noted the faintest glow where her body ment the swamp. "It's never done anything bad to me. Like, occasionally a hand or something will raise in the distance, but that's rare."

"I think there's a spell on you." Snatcher stated, the girl glancing up at him and tilting her head in confusion. It was the only thing he could think of. Who would cast that spell on her and leave her to fend for herself in a haunted forest, he didn't know. Plus, he didn't know any spells that stopped aging, so there was still that to be answered. "Normally that... stuff.. tries to drown anything dead or alive, make it a part of itself."

"I wonder who put that spell on you then." Shadow Kid said as she glanced down at Ivy, before letting out a small yawn. She shook her head a bit. "No, I wanna stay up. I wanna know more. I'm a ghost, ghost shouldn't get sleepy..."

"Trust me, I questioned that a lot when I first died..." Snatcher sighed as he picked Shadow Kid up in one hand, before pausing as he heard Ivy yawn, seeing the girl climb back into the home and head to the mattress. It was… in decent condition, could still be slept on. But it didn't look the most comfortable for a child... "When did I start carrying?" He asked himself as he picked up Ivy in his other hand. "You're staying with me until I get you a new bed."

"Hey!" Ivy called, and went to bite him once again, but he managed to move a finger up to her jaw to close it before she had the chance. He thought about leaving her for a moment, wouldn't be the worst thing he’d done. But that annoying soft spot that became a part of him wouldn't let him, so he sighed as he kept going. "I'll be fine, the bed isn't that bad anyway. Sure I get poked sometimes when I'm on it, but still-"

"I'm trying to help." Snatcher stated, glancing down at Shadow as she adjusted her position in his arm, letting out a small snore. He gave a soft smile at that, before glancing to the side. "And besides Ivy, there's a few more things I wanna know."

"Well, what if I don't have the answer?" Ivy asked, glancing at the ghost with a slight glare. As much as the girl didn't want to admit it, she was getting a bit tired and didn't know if she would be able to swim back even if she got out of the ghost's arms.

"Then I guess we'll just have to wait and see." Snatcher said, finally seeing the tree and heading to it, giving a small sigh.

He would only remember as he had a sleeping Ivy clinging to his arm in a way he couldn't get off that he could have just summoned a bed at the house. He let out an annoyed groan at the realization.

-------

The next morning, Snatcher had to quickly keep Ivy from running back to the swamp. Partly because he still didn't fulfill the 'getting a decent bed' thought in his mind, but mostly because he wanted to try and figure out what on earth the girl was. Was this girl even from earth. Or.. this earth? Maybe she fell from a spaceship like Hat Girl and just bumped her head and lost all her memory. And maybe her species just aged very slowly.

He did a few small spells on her, nothing major. Just small spells that gave a glow that would indicate something about the person it was cast on. They were all ones he made upon finding a 'truth or lie' spell. After bringing Macbeth back from the dead, he found himself messing with spells more. Not that any of that mattered when the spells didn't seem to work on Ivy, or at least didn't give him the clear info he needed.

The weirdest result was when he decided to try a spell to see if there was anyone she was related to near the area. A small glow simply went to the swap itself, before going right up into the sky. Snatcher knew for a fact it wasn't supposed to do that, even if the girl had no family around.

"Maybe she was born from a star?" Shadow Kid asked, Ivy giving a chuckle at the idea. Snatcher shook his head at that, although at this point, she might as well be. He couldn't seem to find anything on the girl afterall, no clue to what she even was. She seemed human in appearance, but the results from the spell indicated she was something else. "I mean, the light went up too the sky after it headed too the swamp."

"Who knows, sounds like Ivy there is just unique." Macbeth's voice suddenly called, the group looking to see the train conductor step into the tree. Snatcher gave a small sigh. He wasn't sure if he was relieved to have possible help, or should be annoyed by another distraction. Macbeth took his hat off as he glanced at the girls. "Why don't you go outside and play, me and Snatcher can talk a bit. You to Alex." He added as he glanced at the dweller.

"I have my eyes on you." Snatcher called as both the kids, and the few minions and dwellers that had joined them, headed outside. He gave a frustrated sigh before turning back to the toppat. "I have no idea what she is! Or how she got here. Who leaves a child alone in a place like this anyway?!"

"Don't know, but I want to punch them." Macbeth sighed. "You know, this is the one time your voice waking me up when I fall asleep turn out useful. Was in a weird dream early ;last night.." Snatcher tilted his head as Macbeth shook his. The train conductor picked up a book from the ground, being too look through it while keeping his glance at the children outside. "So.. anything you noted that you haven't said aloud."

"You should know me well enough by now to know the answer." Snatcher said, Macbeth giving a sigh as he leant against the wall a bit. "None of what I do makes any sense. I could use spells that have more direct answers but that would risk hurting Ivy..." He let out a small chuckle as he turned to Macbeth, who rose a brow. "Can you believe I used to try and steal souls from kids with how I'm acting now? It's like I'm different."

"If only you stop screamin' at the top of yo' lungs every time you get one." Macbeth mumbled, Snatcher crossing his arms a bit. The ghostly conductor soon closed the book with a sigh, shaking his head. "I.. didn't just come to talk about Ivy. She's still a reason I'm here but... well.."

"Did someone die in that training session you had to do conveniently the day I needed you to help me with the well?" Snatcher asked, raising a brow. Macbeth gave him a glare that would have killed the ghost if he wasn't already dead. The ghost gave a bit of evil laughter as he raised a dismissive hand. The fellow ghost shook his head. "Come on, don't take everything so seriously!" He chuckled. "But for real, what's bugging you."

"Badge Seller stopped by a few days ago, and somethin' felt... off about him." Mr. Macbeth said, glancing up at the ghost.

Before Snatcher could question the fellow ghost about what was 'off', there was the faint, yet sudden sound of a rush nearby. "Princess, wait!" They heard one of the minions call.

"Oh god..." Snatcher said as he went over to the group of minions, Macbeth following behind. The minions and dwellers were all there, Alexsandera heading back over to their adoptive father. But no sign of either of the two girls. "What happened? How did they run off in such a short time?!"

"They just... did." One of the minions said. "We do it all the time, boss."

"Yes, but I expect this beachoir from all of you. Not my little Shadow!" Snatcher said, taking a hand and dragging it down his face.

"Now you know how Reginald and Right Hand Man feel." Macbeth stated, glancing up at the ghost. He was worried, but the only hint of it was a look in his eyes. He began to glance around, checking the nearby bushes, letting out an annoyed sigh when his efforts resulted in a Bushcat running off. He turned back to the minions. "Which way did the girls go?" He asked, the group all pointing to a direction about east. "Great, stay here."

"Hey, don't tell my minions what to do." Snatcher commented, but his voice was slightly shaky. He was worried for his daughter, and for Ivy. He should have known the swamp-girl would be the type to run off like this. He needed to find them both and make sure they were ok. He did slow down a bit, not because he wanted to, but because he felt something. "Careful, there's fire spirits nearby. Their magic can hurt ghost like us."

"Huh..." Macbeth noted, as if a little surprised by the idea. Alexsadera glanced up at Macbeth, a little worry shown in their eyes as they shook upon hearing the creature's names. Macbeth sighed and allowed them to rest in his arms for a moment, before letting them head in his hat. "Don't come out until it's safe, Alex."

"You think these things would just finish killing themselves." Snatcher mumbled. "This is the last day I want to be worrying about them."

"It could have been your ex, just sayin'." Macbeth said, glancing at the ghost who gave him a sharp glare. The ghost rolled his eyes as he came up to a tree with some old, burnt signs pinned to it. "Probably best we split up. Cover more ground that way. Plus, I know from experience, kids are more likely to sneak away successfully when there's more than one person lookin' for them in the area."

"Really? Huh, might have to use that information and set up more traps... not for kids of course." The phantom ruler quickly added when Macbeth went to toss a rock at him for the comment.

-------

Ivy felt like she was in a trance at the sight. She had quietly convinced Shadow Kid to run off and have a game of tag, just the two of them. As much as she didn't want to admit it out loud, she was so excited about finally meeting someone around her age. And the forest was so much cooler than the parts she could see from the swamp. They both ended up laughing and playing for what felt like hours to them, but likely was only half of one at most.

But then they came across the glowing creatures. Fire spirits were what they were called, according to Shadow Kid at least. They were dancing around a campfire, trying to make the heat of it burn. Part of her termabled at the sight, but she didn't know why. They were so beautiful... She couldn't get her eyes off them. Watching the ashes from the fire dance around a bit in the wind, along with the embers that came off their tails.

She took a small step forward to them, but that was when Shadow Kid garbbed her hand and began to pull her back. She finally took her eyes off the fox-like creatures and glanced at the ghost child, who had fear in those yellow eyes. She was shaking a bit, despite the area being warm.

"Papa says we should never go near the fire spirits. Says they can hurt ghosts like me..." Shadow explained with a small shake to her voice. Ivy tilted her head at that. Ghosts could get hurt. Based on her understanding, ghosts were people who already died. Then again, her teeth apparenally hurt that long snake-like ghost. "W-We should go." She said, pulling Ivy back with her. "Papa is likely worried about us."

"He can worry a minute longer." Ivy said, shaking her arm free and quickly racing over to the fire spirits. Shadow Kid gulped as she saw her get closed, especially since the dancing of the creatures seemed to slow. The fire looked like it took a different... hue? She didn't know the right turn, but it suddenly seemed more red than before. "Hello!" Ivy announced when she was only a few feet from the glowing creatures.

They paused, and slowly glanced at her. The fire seemed to burn, and something about it felt... angry. Ivy took a small step back, but kept a smile on her face. A smile that disappeared as a long ribbon-like bit of fire came from the pit, reaching for her and quickly wrapping around, turning to smoke.

Ivy was confused, and about to let out a sigh of relief.... before the pain started. Despite not being fire, and not actually burning her skin, the smoke that suddenly wrapped around her tighter burned like it was still just a bit of fire. It felt like it was getting harder to breathe, a feeling she never experienced before. She glanced down at the fire spirits for help, but they had gone back to dancing around the campfire.

Shadow Kid covered her mouth as she heard Ivy scream again as the smoke became tighter. She didn't know what to do. She was shouting at herself internally to help, but she had no idea how to. Papa never taught her spells for dealing with fire spirits... or maybe he did. "L-Let Ivy Go!" She shouted, a few small sparks forming in her hand as she shot the little bits of electricity out at the spirits. They didn’t even flinch.

"S-Shadow!" Ivy was able to cough out as she glanced back at the girl, and Shadow glanced at the smoke that held her.

It was a risky and dumb move in hidesight, but in that moment something took over Shadow as she raced over, jumping right into the smoke that held Ivy. She was only in it for a minute at most to help her friend struggle free, but dear god it hurt. She felt like she was going to pass out from the pain alone as she grabbed Ivy's arm once they were free, running off.

She didn't dare look away or stop until the heat from the fire had faded, and she glanced over at Ivy. Her body was burnt, the burnt marks almost looking like they had cracks. Ivy let out a cough, what appeared to be speaks of light coming out as she did...

"H-Here.." SHadow Kid said, taking Ivy's hand and holding it with her own. She began to recite a spell Papa taught her under her breath, a faint glow coming from them as the burn marks started to fade from the girl's hand.

"...What were you thinking...?" Ivy asked. "You could have died. Or.. whatever ghost death is."

"I'm... I am the princess of this kingdom. One day I’ll be Queen, maybe..." Shadow said, a small whimper in her voice she tried to hide. She glanced up at Ivy, who was rubbing one of her wounds with her sleeve. "And a good queen doesn't stand by and let her subjects be hurt... And as long as you live in this forest, you are a subject..."

Ivy shook her head. She glanced up at the eternal night sky above, staring at the moon. It almost felt like the floating rock was watching them. Although Ivy had no idea why.

"I'm sorry... I should have listened to you." Ivy said, gently pushing Shadow Kid's hand away from her own, her body aching because of the movements. Shadow Kid just sighed. "Those things... it felt like they were reaching into my soul. Or, whatever they summoned did... It felt like..."

"KIDS!" Snatcher voice suddenly called, the girls looking over as the ghost dashed to where they were, worry on his face. "Oh Shadow you know not to run off like- WHY ARE YOU BURNT?! Was it those fire spirits? It was those-"

"D-Don't blame her... It's my fault..." Ivy said, standing up with a slight shake. Any anger Snatcher could begin to feel for the claim was quickly washed away by the girl's hurt voice. He began to cast healing magic on both, but his healing was never good. He spent too much time focusing on more evil spells. "S-She warned me, said we should head back to you. I didn't listen.. I-I wish I did."

Snatcher was silent as Macbeth came over, quickly beginning to wipe the tears that started to fall from Ivy's eyes again. Because his mind was filled with an anger he hadn't felt in a long time.

Oh if only he could have it his way. He would put those fire spirits through a slow and agonizing death. No, even that was too kind. Death was all those creatures craved. If he had it his way, he'd find some way to keep them alive throughout that long, agonizing process. Maybe use the painting spell. Keep them in pain for all eternity... He wasn't even sure if it was possible for those things to go to hell, after all. Might as well make sure they got the closest thing to it.

He snapped out of his mind when he felt Shadow Kid lean against him, yellow tears falling from her eyes and onto the ground as she sobbed. Snatcher bent down, shrinking just a bit, carefully wrapping his arms around her. His chest became a bit damp as Shadow Kid began to sob into it more. God, if only it was possible to never let her go...

He locked eyes with Macbeth, who had glanced up at him. His eyes had the faintest green glow around them, a faint glow coming from his hands he allowed Ivy to cling to him. There were no words shared between the two, not even a breath. But the look in each other's eyes told them they both had the same thought.

Those demons weren't getting away with this. They were going to pay.

-------

It took a little over half a week for both the girls to heal enough from their wounds to start running and playing around again. Well, physical wounds at least. Snatcher knew the event would likely stick around in the girl's nightmares for centuries to come. Well, at least for Shadow it would. Snatcher had no idea how long Ivy would live.

He knew he woke up at least twice a night from the nightmares that haunted him since that day.

He had been hesitant to bring Ivy back to her home in the swamp at all, especially so soon. The only pro he could think of from the situation was that there would be no way for the fire sprites to get anywhere close to her. The only ones that would have the chance were the ones him and Macbeth slowly drowned in the swamp once both the girls and Alexsandera had fallen asleep.

Apparently that was the closest Macbeth ever willingly went near water in his entire life.

It was almost scary how little the fire sprites actually fought back. Despite their screams of pain as the souls of the swamp tore at them, and broke into their very souls.

He still needed to look up the word 'Ezra', the last word they heard a fire spirit said.

Regardless, he would have kept Ivy safe at his home, or at the village, longer. But it was clear from the way she glanced at the swamp. She didn't dare run off, not again. But he could tell she was homesick.

So reluctantly, he took her back to her home. He did finally get her that bed, and made her have a first aid kit and some food in case anything happened. He was worried when he saw her fall into the swap, that this time she wouldn't make it out. But she came up just as fine as before.

"I still need to know how you do that." The ghost commented. Ivy simply stuck her tongue out at him, and he gave a brief smile at that. "Hey. I don't want you breaking into my forest and bugging me for every little thing. But if something major comes up, well." He shrugged. "I guess my door's always open."

"You don't even have a door." Ivy stated, a smirk in her voice as well as on her face. The ghost gave an annoyed huff, before letting out a sigh as he waved to the girl before leaving. "Bye Grumpy Noodle!" He heard the girl shout.

At least everything was... fine for now. He couldn't really say things were good, but they could be worse.

....Huh, he never did get around to letting Macbeth finish talking about the Badge Seller.

It was likely nothing after all.

-------

“You shouldn’t have to leave here if you’re not comfortable. Story coming true or not.” Hydartic stated above the sand being.

He felt… strange. He hardly left the electronics of the cruise ship in years. He felt odd when he was in this more…spirit-like form. The last time he was like it was the night Anamund got some of the toppats stuck in the Eversteads cave. He only came here because the cruise ship needed to be powered off for repairs, so it wasn’t like the captain would notice if he left.

“But… What if the fire does something?” Autiomaa asked, glancing up at the electrical being, rain falling onto their cloak from the storm above. This was one of the few times they saw one in their entire existence. “What if we’re the only ones who can stop it?”

“I don’t know… All I know is I don’t like this.” Hydartic said, shaking his head as he glanced to the side. “I keep telling myself I moved on from what we were before. But I can’t, partly because Badge just can’t let me-” He cut himself off. “Sorry… this is our first time meeting… I shouldn’t be getting mad around you.”

“Badge means well… I’m pretty sure he does…” The sand being said, glancing at the ground below.

“He does, don’t get me wrong!” Hydartic said. “It's just… we all know it's coming. But it, hurts to be reminded. Why can’t we just enjoy our last few moments of peace before everything… Wait…” He glanced up. “I didn’t notice the wind was picking up… Sorry Auto. I gotta go.”

“When will I see you again?” Autiomaa asked, a bit of worry in their voice, forming a sand-hand to reach out for the figure.

“... I don’t know… But we will again… our story says so.” Hydartic stated. “Just, if you do decide to leave. Beware the reaminds of Ezra’s greed.”

[bittybattybunny]

Poor hungry noodle had to eat raw and decaying meat for 2 centuries. I'm surprised he didn't became mad because of hunger

It's one big reason he's so grouchy he gets more lax once he has access to normal foods again!!!

Like during his time being human, he gets way more playful and less angry at every little thing and a little less tsun (only a little, he’s still a cheeky bastard)

Like it’s one of the reason’s he gets so grouchy and snaps is just he’s had to deal with a lot, not only that but he actually had a really hard time telling time was passing at all in the ocean. Like Hattie coming to him daily is what helps him kinda figure out days and weeks again.

here’s something from when he legally became Hattie’s dad showing his playful side when not constantly hungry. (this is in the timeline of the fic, about a year after living with them)

“that’s not it,” she giggled and grabbed the paper back, “It just explains a good deal on why you act like you do!” She admitted running off with the paper, “I’m going to tell Hattie!” She laughed.

        “Don’t you dare!” Snatcher gave chase. Running after the woman as she ran out the door of the house into the yard.

    “That man is dead! I’m just Snatcher now!” He growled as he sprinted after her. He tackled her to the ground, Wincing as they both landed in the dirt. He huffed as his hair fell in his face as he stared into her eyes.

    Eclipse gasped as she went down. Face to face now with the man and couldn’t help laughing in his face.

    “Do you think this is funny?!” He snapped.

    “A Little!” She admitted, “After all! The giant danger sea noodle is a lost prince! I know you always said you were a prince but, I honestly didn’t believe it!” She gave a loud laugh, pushing up on his chest, “Get off of me before someone gets the wrong idea.”

    “Wrong Idea?” He asked with a devious smirk, leaning down closer to her face, “Oh I’m sorry. Does the wolf not like the fact a Prince is looking solely at her?”

    He grinned like a devil watching her face turn red.

    “Get Off of me Snatcher Before I make you!” She covered her face with her hands, attempting to hide her embarrassment.

    “Are you guys sure you aren’t going to get married?” 

Both Snatcher and Eclipse snapped up, looking to Hattie who was standing a few feet away with her school bag. Beau stood with her watching curiously. Hattie’s face tired and confused as she stared at the two.

Versus this scene from going to the clothing store with Eclipse earlier on(timeline this was about a month after he became human so it’s about mid november):

Snatcher jumped, lost in his head, he hadn’t heard her and knocked over the display he was looking at. Wheezing as he tried to fix his mess. She tilted her head laughing, “Spooked the spook?” she asked with a sharp tooth grin.

She knelt down to help put the clothing back, “I’m serious though. I told you not to bother with price tags!” Like mother like daughter, she puffed her cheeks out in the same pouting method displayed by Hattie. She frowned at him.

Snatcher poked her cheek to deflate it, “Listen. Pufferfish. It’s fine. I just didn’t like the color that much.” he lied, “besides I should get something stretchier no?” he laughed standing up and cracking his back. He forgot how sore a human body can get, with gravity and all that. At Least he didn’t need to use a cane today.

Eclipse stared at him clearly not buying the bull, She stared at him with pursed lips before sighing. She gave a huge wide toothy grin “Well then! I’m going to buy it for you anyway!” she declared.

“Wha-?!” He turned to face her red in the face, “I just said no!”

“My money, Sea Noodle!” She grinned that sharp wolf smile, and waved her hand at him. “I can do what I want. After All we can just add it to the pile Hattie has for you!” She snickered, moving close. Standing on her tiptoes she got as close to his face as she could, “I make the rules in my house. Mister noodle.” She grinned, her canines sharply peeking from her lips. As Snatcher grew in color she backed off waltzing a bit away, “Anyway come look at this one!”

Sighing he followed after her grumbling. No wonder her kid was so persistently annoying! She got it from her mother! He never would have thought that from how their normal interactions went.

Food is a magic thing for a snoodle man. He loves food a lot in this fic!

also he’s a fucking junk food junkie

He’s such a bad influence for Hattie. eclipse may not make the most balanced (or fully cooked) food in the world. But they don’t really keep junk food in the house until he discovers how good it is.

He has to keep it away from Hattie tho or she binges it. Not that he doesn’t eat it all as soon as they get home.