#IT WAS LIKE SQUISHY FAKE GRASS
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heartonxions ¡ 10 months ago
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THE FUCKASS SNOWFALL THUS MORNING WAS SO BAD THE TEXTURE WAS ABSOLUTELY HORRIVLE I ALMOST TATARTED CRYIBF
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handmade-witch ¡ 10 months ago
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Be Mine - Happy Valentines Day 💝
Pairing: Mattheo Riddle x Reader
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[[AN: I absolutely cannot resist writing Mattheo as a big softie for the reader so that's what this is.. enjoy 💓]]
Read Blaise's story here <3
Read Theo's story here <3
Read Draco's story here <3
Read Enzo's story here <3
"Everyone is starting to talk about what they are doing for Valentine's day." You say as you walk through the halls of the castle, hand in hand with Mattheo. It's a statement but it holds an unspoken question.
"Is that so?" He's looking straight ahead but you swear you can see a mischievous glint in his eye.
"Yeah. It's unfortunate, really, that no one has asked me to be their Valentine." You fake a pout and Mattheo quirks his eyebrow at you.
"I assumed your boyfriend would be your Valentine?" He, of course, is referring to himself.
"I had assumed too, but he hasn't asked me yet so I guess not." You shrug and it's hard to hide the smile on your face from teasing him.
Now it's Mattheo's turn to fake pout. He stops walking, pulling you to a halt. He grasps both of your hands in his as he looks at you, batting his eyelashes dramatically as he says- "My love will you be my Valentine?"
"I'll think about it." You smirk, dropping his hands and beginning to walk away.
He rolls his eyes in response. "Well it would be a shame if my date idea didn't get used. Might have to ask Theo so it doesn't go to waste."
You facade breaks and you burst out laughing at the thought of Mattheo taking his best friend on a romantic date meant for the two of you. "Fine. I accept. I'll be your Valentine."
"That's what I thought." He says smugly, holding your hand in his again as the two of you continue walking.
•••
On Valentine's day, Mattheo approaches you at breakfast, brandishing a bouquet of your favorite flowers.
"Happy Valentine's day my love." He presses a kiss to the top of your head as he sits beside you.
"So what is the plan for today?"
"Mm's suprise." He garbled, already stuffing his breakfast into his mouth. You laugh.
"When do I get to find out this suprise?"
"You have to wait for lunch time."
•••
Trying to sit through your morning classes is painful as you wait in anticipation of Mattheo's suprise for you. You bounce your leg as you watch the clock tick by agonizingly slow.
When lunch finally arrives you practically run out of the classroom, dodging other students. Mattheo is standing in the hallway, hands shoved casually in his pockets as he waits for you. When you run up to him he holds up his scarf to you.
"Gotta keep up the suprise." He smirks at you.
"Oo kinky." You tease, turning around to let him drape the wool over your eyes.
"We will be circling back to that later." He hums lowly in your ear while he ties the scarf in a knot behind your head.
"You better not be leading me to my death." You mumble, suddenly disoriented by your lack of sight.
Mattheo led you through the halls of the castle. The cool February breeze on your face signals that he's led you outside.
"Matty where are we going?" You whine. You feel the ground beneath your feet shift from hard pavement to squishy grass.
Mattheo stops you, placing his hands on both your shoulders. He stands behind you, pulling off the scarf from your eyes.
When your eyes adjust to the light you gasp softly. The two of you are stood in the grass near the Black Lake. A blanket is laid out in the grass, filled with countless different types of food. Pastries, cookies, candies, fruits, and more. Mattheo hugs you from behind, wrapping his arms around you and resting his chin on your shoulder.
"Do you like it?" He hums.
"Did you do this?"
Mattheo pulls away, turning you so he can look you in the face. His eyebrows draw together. "No Dumbledore did," he deadpans. "Of course I did it!"
You laugh, taking his face in your hands and kissing him. "I love it." You whisper against his lips. Mattheo chases the kiss, holding your waist and pulling you flush against him.
"As much as it pains me to stop kissing you," he says breaking away from your lips, "I would like us to enjoy the amazing effort I put into this date." You smile, rolling your eyes playfully at him. He takes your hand and leads you to the blanket. The two of you dig into the snacks, laughing and smiling as you two enjoy eachothers company.
Mattheo lounges backwards, laying his head in your lap and looking up at you lovingly.
"Play with my hairrr" he whines, grabbing your hand to place it on his scalp.
Your fingers brush through his dark curls. Mattheo closes his eyes in contentment. "God when did you become such a softie." You shake your head affectionately at the boy laying in your lap.
"Shut the fuck up." He grumbles. He twists his face to try and hide the heat rising to his cheeks.
"Make me." You snort. Mattheo's eyes snap open. He quirks an eyebrow and smirks at you.
"Must you make everything sexual?" You scold.
"Of course. It's part of my charm sweetheart." He grins and closes his eyes again, relaxing.
"Debatable." You roll your eyes. "You're lucky I love you."
He hums. "I am pretty lucky aren't I?" You swear you can feel your heart melting in your chest at his words. "So about that blindfold..."
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phoenix-positivity ¡ 7 months ago
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Hey,
I am struggling with PTSD and my anger. It led to some destructive things lately and in the past. I need advice or reassurance for how to deal with it.
Thank you
Hi, I hope it's okay to answer this publicly so I can share the answer with others as well. If not please message me and I'll take it down.
I just made this 'masterlist' of anger worksheets
Intense anger is a valid emotion. Just make sure you are not hurting yourself or others when expressing it! Take a step back from the situation that triggered the anger and try to let out the anger in healthy ways. Please walk away from other people if you feel like you might act your anger out on others. When at work you can excuse yourself to the bathroom, or if possible you can go for a walk outside. Let others know you need some time alone to collect your thoughts if they follow you. In the worst case scenario it's still better to storm out of a room in angrily than to let the anger explode in the room with other people. You can always apologize for storming out later when you've calmed down and are ready to communicate your feelings calmly. In digital environments, remove yourself from your computer/phone/game console until you are in a calm state of mind again. Anger prevents us from making rational decisions. Honestly the key factor in avoiding conflicts is to step away from the interaction when anger arises. That's not a weakness, that's the reasonable smart thing to do.
My favourite ways to let out anger: breaking harmless things such as twigs, ripping out grass in a field, ripping up carton or paper, kneading/tearing into this big stress ball I have, biting down on a towel or chewlery, punching something that will not hurt your hands when punched and will not cause property damage (a mattress, a really squishy plushie or just a boxing ball). Refrain from causing damage to yourself, others or objects that do not belong to you. (and preferably only damage objects that you acquired with the intention to destroy like carton boxes and twigs you found outside).
Also never underestimate the power of just straight up screaming (I also tried to learn grunting for this purpose but you need to do this safely not to damage your vocal cords). You can scream into a pillow or inside of your car as to not bother or worry other people. You can also 'fake scream' by opening your mouth and screaming silently. This still puts tension on your vocal chords which can bring the same relief as actually screaming without the sound. Singing can feel just as good as screaming, especially if you can let out lyrics that you really relate to. Just simply listening to heavier genres of music with angry lyrics really helps too. (I have a lot of songs on my blog tagged with 'trauma song' if you need inspiration for some good angry songs) Moving your body to music that expresses your angry feelings also helps let out that pent up energy. Doing exercise also helps some people (think jumping jacks, squats, push-ups, going for a run outside) Also to come back to the vocals, hissing, snarling and growling like an animal are also really good ways to express intense anger, but you might want to be alone when you do these. Making art really expressively can also be a great outlet for anger.
There will obviously be situations where you can't remove yourself from the situation immediately and have to survive a small moment before you can leave the situation. (think about car rides, being behind a register at your job, etc) This is going to sound childish but counting to ten does help. I usually count in a different language so that I need to focus on the numbers more. It's not going to take your anger away, but it's mostly so to give yourself some room to try and calm down from the impulsive thoughts and actions you might want to do. I repeat mantras in my head that go somewhat like this 'stay calm, stay reasonable, don't lash out at, calm down, take a breathe, stay zen' just to prevent my anger from escalating in that moment and by holding myself accountable for my actions. I remind myself I'm not allowed to damage other people's properties (or other people, ha) and that it will get me in trouble. I also try to tell myself that acting on my angry impulses will not solve the situation and will only add fuel to the fire. Then as soon as the opportunity arises to find a quiet place to calm down I will take it and do some breathing exercises until my head is capable of having more reasonable thoughts.
You are not alone in your feelings of anger. Feeling angry doesn't mean you are a bad person, but you are responsible for your behavior when you are angry. Our feelings of anger can never be the reason others (or property) ends up hurt. (the only case where I would argue otherwise is if you are in a physical fight where you got attacked and are defending yourself, but even in these cases running/escaping/hiding would be safer because fighting back can aggravate an attacker even more)
Also if we do end up causing damage during angry outbursts we need to take accountability and apologize. (I put a link there to a worksheet for how to write a good apology) And the other party is not required to forgive us even if we are remorseful.
I hope some of that was helpful for you!
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rainbowxocs ¡ 2 years ago
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My Bio!! Written By Alice!!
Name: Alice ThoroughGood!
Alt Name: Ana ThoroughGood.
True Name: S_______
Old Patient Number: Patient 0.
Username: @fakeana0
Old Titles: Puppet.
Nicknames: Anabanana, Fake Ana, Hero.
Chronological Age: 24.
Age: 18! I think.. I dunno.
Pronouns: She/Her!
Sexuality: um.. pansexual? I think?
Gender: Trans Girl! I think!
Species: Mimic! Tho I’m not a bad one I promise!!!
Mimic Information: Alice currently has made her own form, however she is technically mimicking Daisy’s.. um.. let’s just say “body”..
Medical Stuff: Uhhh.. I have issues and problems… But I dunno what they’re called.. Hypothermia….? Snowblindness…? frost.. Bite..? Autism….? Anxiety?????? No wings,, dissociation,,,, post traumatic… whatever,,,,,, uhhhhh Probably more…
Religion: Uhhh I dunno. I use to believe in the cultivator I guess.. since he took me under his wing.. but honestly.. he was dead to me a long time ago..
Job: I don’t have a job at the moment. People don’t wanna hire me cause of my face haha.
Lives in: I use to live in Level Ten, but now I live in Wisconsin with the other patients.
Languages: Fae, English, ASL.
Height: 5’7”
Ethnicity: Fae.
Accent: Stilted, Awkward.
Voice Claim: Rei from Evangelion.
youtube
Powers: Ice and Snow Manipulation, Shapeshifting, Psychic Damage, Teleportation, Speaking to Plants/Fungi, Noclipping, Talking to Animals.
Weaknesses: General Fae Weaknesses. No none special weaknesses.
Alignment: Lawful Good.
Text Color: Blue.
Favorite Animal: Polar Bear, Olm, Opossums!
Hobbies: uhhhh…. Drawing and Crafting..? I like.. to play the flute as well.. and I do Ice Skating.. and I play the Kalimba..
Favorite Drinks: Hot Chocolate , Chocolate Milk.
Favorite Meals: Chicken Soup, Waffles, Cinnamon Rolls.
Favorite Snacks: Snow, Sticks, Grass, Tree Bark, Raisin, Mint.
Favorite Dessert: Christmas Cookies, Snow Cones, Snow Cream, Cinnamon Rolls.
Favorite Flower: Snowdrops, Poinsettia, Holly, Mistletoe.
Scent: Tv Static, Freshly Fallen Snow, Flowers.
Handedness: Left Handed.
Blood Color: Glittery Black.
Birthday: January 1st 2000. (Daisy says I’m a goat..?)
Theme:
Playlist:
Fun Facts: I like math, and I like.. TV.. shows.. like.. I love Lucy and the Moomins.. I like.. spelling too.. and I like movies like the last unicorn, Alice and wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz.... cause it’s relatable.
Special Interests: Um.. dunno… I guess.. Mimicking?
Stims: Squishy Icecube, Fidget Jewelry, Shakers, Snowglobes, Sensory Jars.
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Stimboard: LINK
Moodboard: LINK
Fashionboard: LINK
Soul: Inkcap Mushroom
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Comfort Objects: Blanket, Snowglobe, Music Box, Mimikyu, Djungelskog, Blahaj, Flute, Paper Snowflakes, Heffalump Plush, Snowman Plush.
Family:
Camilla Liddell (Mother by Proxy.) She.. wasn’t really my mother at all..
The Cultivator (Father Figure.) :(..
Radio (Father Figure) :)
Daisy, Daisy, Bell. (Twin Sister, by Proxy.) :(…
Mouse ThoroughGood. (Sister Figure.) :) Mouse is one of my best friends.. I trust her with my life..
Friends: Eyeris, Grat.
Models:
(Normal, Vessel, Halloween, Retro.)
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Brief Personality: Alice is incredibly awkward, It’s hard to have a true personality when you have been mimicking people for your entire life. But overall she is very sweet if a bit clingy, She doesn’t mean any harm to anyone she is just trying to figure herself out and who she truly is. She does have a bit of.. anger.. boiling underneath the surface however..
Brief Backstory: A long long time ago, deep in the feywild. A mimic was born. All mimics are born as a blank slate of sorts, ready to mold themselves into whatever they see around them. This mimic, was the same. She would copy rocks and trees and mushies, whatever was around her. She called it her “job”, which the adult mimics were amused by.
One day, while this mimic was wandering the feywild not paying much attention to her surroundings. She accidentally slammed her face into a tree, the mimic dizzily rubbed their head as they looked around. This wasn’t the feywild, this was human territory.
The mimic panicked and turned to go back before she heard a sound. It sounded like a child crying. The mimic cautiously followed the sound until she came upon a house in the middle of the woods, she snuck over until she found where the sound was coming from.
It was coming from a little human. The mimic peered in through the windows of the house, barely being able to peek through the wooden planks that boarded up the window. There was a girl, crying and clutching something that the mimic did not recognize.
The Mimic decided, that this was going to be her new best friend. She would visit the human everyday, watching her play, the mimic would shapeshift into different animals and show them to the girl. She liked making her smile and laugh.
One day, the girls mother abandoned her. The mimic tried everything to help the girl escape, but it was no use. She was too weak. She wandered through the forest around the girls house trying to find something to help her. Until she came across an adult fae!!
She ran up to him excitedly. He didn’t seem surprised to see her for some reason, but she brushed that off. She told him about the girl who was trapped, and how she wanted to help her.
The adult knelt down, softly rubbing the mimics cheek. “You want to help so bad, don’t you?” He said, comforting the mimic. She nodded
“Can I tell you a secret?” He whispered. The mimic nodded more enthusiastically. “I have a plan, to save that human girl. She will be alright, I promise.”
“But… If you want.. I have something you could do for me.. Do you want to help?”
The mimic nodded even MORE enthusiastically. The adult reached out his hand and shook the mimics, some sort of glowing aura came out of her, and slowly turned into a mushroom. The adult put it on his keychain and stood up.
He grabbed the mimics hand and took her under his wing. They did save the human girl and the mimic became her official mimic, and the adult fae’s vessel. She took her job VERY seriously. She did everything for the fae, anything he wanted. She was his obedient mimic.
[THIS PART OF THE BACKSTORY HAS BEEN REDACTED DUE TO TIME TRAVEL BULLSHIT, CHECK BACK AFTER THE MYTH IS DONE. ALSO, SOME OF THE THINGS BELOW THIS LINE MIGHT ALSO BE CHANGED DUE TO SHENANIGANS]
After Daisy lost her humanity, The Mimic’s life changed dramatically. The whole world had changed, really. It wasn’t exactly the best change.. but she trusted Daisy, and she trusted Cultivator. She knew that if she just trusted them, everything would be okay.
That was until, Camilla took over the operation. Camilla ruled over this new place with an iron fist, and Cultivator retreated into the background. Camilla had a way of manipulating both Daisy and Cultivator in a way the mimic hadn’t seen before.
But with the two of them distracted, they did not notice the mimic as much. Which was fine with her, she knew they both had important jobs to do. So, she did the next best thing, The mimic could help Camilla!!
She would help Camilla with the people, and she would protect Camilla. She wouldn’t admit it to herself, but she hoped that maybe Camilla would see her as a daughter, like how Cultivator had taken the mimic under his wing.
One day, while Camilla was working on terraforming a new area of this dimension. The mimic was working hard to help, trying her best to impress Camilla. She actually managed to get some words of praise from the woman, which delighted the Mimic.
But, unfortunately, the mimic accidentally called Camilla mom. She genuinely didn’t mean to, but that made Camilla.. snap.. a bit.. She began to scream at the mimic, she had never seen Camilla like that before, it was like she was unhinged.
The mimic tried to calm her down, but Camilla grabbed her by her hair and dragged her into an area she had never seen before, a deep dark forest. Camilla told her that she wasn’t going to let this happen again, she was going to make sure she got the job done this time. She wasn’t going to let her slip through the cracks this time.
The mimic was so confused, she didn’t understand what Camilla was saying. She tried to fight back against her but suddenly she felt her vision turn white, something in the mimic. snapped.
Camilla had cut off the mimics wings, she had brutally attacked the mimic before abandoning her there, however, the mimic survived. When she finally woke up, she was in a pool of her own blood, and completely disoriented.
For the next few weeks, the mimic tried to find a way to escape. But wherever she was, there was no exit. Her magic was so weak, she couldn’t even teleport out of this place. If she could just explain to Camilla, she was sure she would let her out.
She would let her out right?
She had to let her out.
Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, months turned into years. She didn’t know how long she had been here, snow began to fall, covering the forest and making it difficult to see.
She was so cold, and so hungry. There was no food anywhere, she had to resort to eating tree bark and snow. She was absolutely freezing. She could barely see. She felt herself going slowly insane from the loneliness.
After many years, the mimic became completely unrecognizable. She had gone completely insane, It had been eight years of nothing. Just snow. All snow. It’s all snow.
Until one day, The mimic was wandering, talking to herself. But she heard another voice.. actually, she heard a group of voices.. She began to follow it into a corner of the forest, reaching out her hand, she saw static consume her hand before she clipped through an invisible wall.
She was free.
She had finally escaped.
The walls around her began to freeze, slowly consuming everything she touched. She walked through the different levels and winding turns, the snow followed her wherever she went. She couldn’t escape it.
The Mimic followed the corridors until she found herself in an infinite Swedish shopping complex. She began to freeze over it as well, until in front of her a girl fell from seemingly out of nowhere, into a shelf, collapsing onto the ground.
The girl laid there motionless, The Mimic cracked its neck towards the sound, stumbling forward, shuffling towards the girl before completely freezing. Its eyes locking onto something on the shelf behind the girl. The mimic seemed completely terrified of a bulbous stuffed teddy bear behind the girl.
The girl raised her head ever so slightly, looking between the mimic and the bear. She reached up and slowly squished the bears head, showing the mimic it wasn’t dangerous. The mimic still looked absolutely terrified.
“…pred..ator…. G..onna….e…at me…” The mimic squeaked out, she hadn’t talked in years. The girl, seemingly also having a voice that hadn’t spoken in a very long time replied. “No mouth, can’t.”
The mimic tilted its head before slowly petting the bear. The girl moved to the side so the mimic could sit down with her and the bear. The girl looked at the mimic with a kindness they hadn’t felt in a very long time.
The mimic stared deeply into the girl. Avoiding showing her face fully, as to not hurt her. It grabbed the girls wrist and began to freeze it. She needed to keep her, she needed to make her stay. The girl didn’t try and get away, being slightly suicidal already. She just calmly talked the mimic down.
“That’s rude.” The girl said. The mimic explained how this was the only way she could keep her. The girl moved away her hand and gently told the mimic that she would stay as long as she could. She didn’t need to keep her like that.
The mimic, did not like the uncertainty of this. But the girl didn’t run away from her and didn’t seem to look down upon her. So she simply froze the ground beneath her in anxiety. The girl began to ask questions about where exactly she was, what any of this was actually-
The mimic answered as best as she could without letting her emotions overtake her. She explained her purpose to the girl, how she was a mimic.
“What’s your name though?” The girl asked. The mimic seemed to shake her head in confusion, explaining that she didn’t have a name. Not for a long while anyways-
“Everyone has a name. It doesn’t have to be your real one. I have hundreds of names.” The girl said. The mimic stared at her for a few moments.. before softly saying.. “Ana…”
“My name is M. It’s nice to meet you, Ana.” M said, shaking Ana’s hand. The two of them now surviving this strange place together. The two of them began to explore around. M eventually was able to convince Ana to have her own outfit, despite a lot of protests from the mimic. M didn’t seem to care that she was a mimic at all, which surprised Ana.
The two of them traveled together, helping one another survive. Ana was able to help M clip through the walls into the next section of.. wherever they were. But.. unfortunately they didn’t land in a “NORMAL” part of the labyrinth, they landed on a stage. The two of them got forcibly separated, Ana then was standing before some kind of weird creature.
The creature welcomed her to the GREATEST GAMESHOW OF ALL TIME!!! Ana could win whatever her heart desired!! IF!! She could win!!! :) The creature extended a gloved hand to the mimic and asked her to make a deal.
Ana, naively, accepted. And for the next few weeks was trapped in an endless quiz show of questions she didn’t understand. M, eventually being able to outsmart the creature, found Ana. The creature attempted to make a deal with M, showing her greatest desires to her with its magic. However M was unphased and went behind the podium in order to help Ana.
Ana.. was getting… TIRED.. very very tired.. When the creature asked her another incomprehensible question, the floor began to freeze underneath her feet. And then the walls. The creature began to panic, mimics don’t normally have that strong of a power. The creature tried to convince the mimic to calm down but the sheer amount of power the mimic had scared the creature. The creature broke the deal and threw the two of them out into the void- to god knows where.
The two of them fell downwards into…somewhere completely incomprehensible… Ana had never seen this place before. There was nobody around.. It looked so distorted and glitched, it felt like they weren’t suppose to be there.
The mimic fell to her knees, next to M and began to cry. The ground freezing beneath her. “I..I’m sorry- I..I’m so sorry- th..is is all my fault-“
Ana grabbed her hair and began to pull on it violently. “I-I d don’t even knnoww wh ere w e are… I d donntt know how to get back..” The mimic began to shake violently.
M scanned the room for immediate threats before sitting crosslegged next to Ana. She pulled out what looked to be a hand carved flute and began playing some calming music.
Ana, paused seemingly entranced by the music, she very hesitantly crawled over to M, placing her head on her shoulder.
“I wish I could freeze you so you could stay with me forever.. But I can't do that anymore.. It’s.. “wrong”..” The mimic said sarcastically.
M lowered the flute from her lips. “...l have trouble staying in one place.. If I do go, it won't be on purpose though..” M paused “You're probably the best person l've met in months.”
Ana looked at her like she had two heads. “But I’m a mimic.. I’m not a real person.”
“You got emotions don't ya? I didn't say Human. I said person. Don't let assholes tell you what you are, they just don't want to admit they're being dicks to someone for no reason.” M said.
Ana began to tear up. “I don’t.. think I even count as a person.. I don’t even know who I am- I don’t know my name, I don’t know my favorite things- I don’t know anything..”
M went quiet for a moment. “I don’t know how old l am.. No one ever named me either.. It's pretty easy to feel like you don't exist when you're so busy surviving that you never have time to live.”
M put her arm around Ana, rubbing her shoulder. “Not knowing who you are is an AMAZING place to start a story, and that's all life is, right?”
The mimic smiled, snuggling into M’s side. “Yea.. I guess you're right..”
M looked around and sighed. “I really have no idea how to get us out of here.. This place is a sensory nightmare and I can't tell what's a threat and what's just.. an object.”
Ana tilted her head. “Hm.? Is this.. overwhelming for you..? I've.. never seen this floor.. but this is pretty normal for the hospital..”
M gripped Ana’s shoulder a bit tighter. “The colors are kind of too much and the lights are too bright. That does happen sometimes I guess, but here,, it's like, constant.. I can't help but feel that Nothing here can be described as "Normal"”
Ana paused for a moment. “Hmm.. What is it like where you're from then..?”
M thought. “It depends on where you are, I guess. I travel a lot. But nowhere l've seen is this.. Barren. I've been to cities where steel buildings reach up to a blue sky, where there are thousands of people rushing about caught up in their own lives. If you pick the right road and follow it though, it always leads to a green forest full of wild animals, squirrels and birds and all sorts of creatures filling the place with a feeling of life. Or rolling hills covered in golden wheat or tall corn that people have spent years tending. Everywhere is different, but even in deserts you know there's a feeling of life.”
M looked at Ana, smiling. “l used to love watching the sky at night. If you were in a city and climbed up to a rooftop you could see bright lights reflecting everywhere, silhouettes of buildings outlined in the night... Or lying in a field of grass and wildflowers with no one around for miles, listening to the bugs singing and finding constellations in the stars..”
“If you're far enough away from everything the sky seems a deeper black than you could imagine, with bright pricks of white light shining out against the dark. There's always the one that shines brighter than all the rest, and if you can find it you'll always be able to find your way. People find shapes in the stars and give them stories, too.. I always loved reading about those legends.”
“There's lots of bad things where I'm from. It's not always safe, and it's not perfect. But there were always these quiet moments that made it worthwhile if you'd stop and notice them... People would be cruel or kind, but most people just. Live.”
Ana seemed to stare in awe at M. “You're very lucky.. to have seen all that.. I.. don’t think I’ve seen anything close to that..” Ana paused. “Why did.. you "throw it away".? Did.. something happen..?”
“My mind wasn't a very good place for a while.. I lost someone important and made a lot of bad decisions. I still had people that cared about me.. I cared about them too, so goddamn much but-“ M scoffed. “Fuck... I dunno...”
“I always found another way.. that was what kept me going. When someone gives you two options it's because they really don't want you to do option three. But no one can run forever. I was tired. Hell, I'm still fuckin tired. And l've never been this trapped before.” M said.
Ana paused, looking at M. Before hesitantly grabbing her hands. The mimics hands were freezing, but it was almost comforting.. “I'm.. not good with words.. but I think I understand you.. I.. was alone.. for a very long time.. cold... and alone.. I.. was trapped.. and.. I just.. wanted everything to end.. But.. I escaped.. and- I promise I'll.. help you escape too.. I pinky promise..”
Ana smiled. “That's.. a very important gesture in my culture... fae stuff...”
M looked at Ana, before shaking and collapsing into Ana’s arms. Ignoring the cold. Silent tears were streaming down her face, Ana wrapped her arms around the girl. “I've got you... I promise.. We're friends now..”
M shakily pressed a small stone into Ana’s hand. The mimic looked at it in confusion, it had a name on it that she didn’t recognize. “Is this a gift..?”
M nodded. The mimic looked back at it in more confusion. “Whose.. name is that..?”
M tapped her own chest, Ana’s eyes shined with recognition, and she began to cry. “O h…”
Ana fashioned the stone into a necklace and put it around her neck, whispering her own true name into M’s ear.
“T h a n k you… [redacted]” Ana said, hugging her tighter. “I prom ise.. I’ll p rotect it..”
M in return fingerspelled. “Of course, [redacted]”
The two of them held eachother, both of them finally feeling safe, even if it was just for a moment. They spent the next few days attempting to find a way out of.. wherever they are.
M began to chat with Ana about her adventures and other stories on their way around this place. Ana tried her best to explain how this world works though even she didn’t know everything.
M told Ana of how she had been to this world before, and how after thinking about it.. She’s realizing that someone needs to stop this place at its source. That being Cultivator and Camilla. Ana chimed in with Daisy as well, but M seemed to be incredibly hesitant at the mention of that name.
“Well, there has to be a way out if Cultivator created this, right? Maybe we could go chat with the higher ups..” M said.
“CHAT? With them? You can’t be serious-“ Ana said, shaking her head. “The three of them are incredibly dangerous- none of them listen to reason-“
“They are our best shot at this. I mean, all of them are just people no matter what power they have.” M replied. “Everyone has something they care about, know? There's always a reason behind the methods, even if it is built in insanity.. There's gotta be a way to get through to them...”
Ana began to freeze the ground beneath her, and slowly began to panic. “You don’t understand- We.. we can’t- we just can’t-“
M slowed down a bit, putting her hand on Ana’s shoulder. “Why can’t we..?”
“I don’t want to be trapped again- I don’t want to go back there-“ Ana said, her breathing erratic.
“Trapped..?” M said, softly playing with Ana’s hair in an attempt to calm her down.
“She cut off my wings- She trapped me up there- I don’t- I can’t-“ M cut Ana off by pulling her into a hug.
“I.. deserved it- I’m.. dangerous- I- know I need to go back there- but I- just I can’t-“
“Sometimes... A lot more times than we should be dealing with.. Adults mean "I" instead of "We". And when they make a sacrifice.. often times they're not the ones giving something up. It's not okay. It should never happen.. But it happened to you, didn't it? Sometimes kids make mistakes, and are told they're naughty, or wrong, or sick, because of something they can't control.. And they get hurt because whatever adult should have been making sure they were safe or okay, in some way, didn't.. It's never because of the child.. it's a failing with the people who are supposed to make sure we're safe.” M said.
“It’s not your fault, Ana.” M squeezed tighter.
The mimic broke down crying in M’s arms, completely shattering. M promised her that she was going to fix this, that Ana wouldn’t have to live in fear like that again.
Ana and M made a camp and went to sleep.. When Ana awoke, M was gone.. It was like there was no trace of her left.. Ana was completely alone for a week, wondering what she had done wrong to make her disappear like that.. Until, one day Ana heard a familiar voice.
“Ugh, what is it this time..” The woman paused. “Wait.. I know this place.”
Ana looked at her with tears in her eyes, completely confused. “M…ouse..?”
“A-Ana?” In the soft sunlight it was easier to make her out now. Mouse was different than before. she seemed older, a few inches taller and there was laugh lines around her mouth. She seemed well-fed, pulling into contrast the thin scared thing she was before. the gloves she once wore are now silver gauntlets. She had a harness that seemed to have potions hanging from it, as well as a hatchet and dagger made of some strange metal. her dark hair falls down her back in a braid.
She smiled at Ana. “You haven’t changed a day.”
Ana reached up and grabbed Mouse, pulling her into a hug, her hands gripping into her as if she didn’t want to let go, ever. “Y-you, where did you go?? You've been gone for a week. I-“ She hiccuped. “thought something had happened to you.”
“A.. week huh..? I’m sorry I scared you. I guess I have some explaining to do huh?” She hugged Ana tighter. “I didn’t mean to leave you, I don’t have much of a choice it’s complicated.”
“I- thought I wasn’t able to save you. I..” Ana began to cry. “I don’t know what to do.. I don’t know how I’m going to fix this..”
Mouse’s grip tightens. “It shouldn’t be on you to save everyone. And it isn’t. I’m here now.”
“It's been a while for me. and that's a long story I can explain. But l've had a bit to think about this and I think we should go find the source. Someone, and i think we both know who, is corrupting this place. And I think it's time we got some answers.” Mouse said.
“..So we have to go and see them then..” Ana whispered. “..Fine then..”
The Cultivators Demise.
12 notes ¡ View notes
bunny-hoodlum ¡ 2 years ago
Text
Rated E - Idle Hands Chapter One - official rewrite
Sharing this as a sample of the second and final rewrite I'm working on. Adding some new details and scenes, fixing phrasing and shiz, fleshing things out big time, and taking out stuff that doesn't actually make sense. After this, t'will be nothing but solely updates. (And yes, this is my 'icky fic' lol) 👉👈😶
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He laid on his side in the seclusion of his bed, erection in hand as he faced the wall, filling his eyes with glossy pages of softcore beauties from the gravure magazine he lifted from the convenience store near the train station.
Curvy beauties. Slender, tight-framed beauties. White skin. Glistening in oil. Just the barest hint of pink areola peeking from the edges of from their bikini, straddling a balance ball in a sheer bikini. Posing with a popsicle with her pink tongue pressed against the tip. A bookworm dressed in a virgin-killer sweater, her legs, exposed back and abundant side-boob daring him to pin her down. Large, soulful eyes, Fake innocent expressions. Sweetheart personas. The dreams of every hot-blooded carnivore.
Women like them didn’t exist out here. Not in this lame-ass commuter town of theirs.
God, he couldn’t wait to get out of here, get a taste of real women.
He was wasting his fucking youth here. His mind too, not that anyone believed he had much of one to begin with.
He imagined their squishy, supple softness, the snug wetness clamping down around his dick, the mewling moans or haughty taunts depending on the flavor he was in the mood for.
Innocent types might be his weakness, but he could go for an equally sweet and bitchy one too.
His back shuddered as imminent orgasm pooled in his groin, his hand picking up the pace, precum dribbling from the top, coating his hand with every fervent pass. His chest clenched around his quickening breaths, his imagination leading him by the hand, leading straight towards the edge.
Knock, knock, knock!
Cold blue eyes snapped open, annoyance burning like an icy fire. With a resigned growl, he wiped his palm across his bedding and sat up.
“Naruto. You can’t ignore me.”
The interior of bedroom was steeped in a sleepy overcast shade of blue, the early morning sun barely reaching the narrow clerestory windows.
Dirty old clothes served as his carpet until his drawers became empty, and every available surface was hidden beneath stacks of empty ramen cups, crumpled receipts and loose change, electronics and gaming consoles, stacks of games, movies, and ill-gotten pornos that a sixteen-year-old shouldn't have easy access to, among more curious and questionable things like balled up socks and loose dried leaves in between the cracks of his dresser like detritus in the gutters.
Beside his bed, his nightstand held a digital clock, a lamp, a paper towel roll with a dryer sheet tied over one side, and an incense burner with the stick burned down to its root, the ashes a reminder of last night's high.
The very reason he woke up so horny.
Naruto flicked on the floor fan and grabbed his preferred room spray, giving his hideout a liberal spritzing of cheap citrus. He then tugged his underwear and black gakuran pants, zipping them up as he ambled over to the front door.
The moment he unlocked it, it was wrenched open, revealing not just his one-eyed visitor but the natural world outside: winding dirt road bored by rough gravel, overgrown grass glinting with dew and hiding armies of droning insects, with a backdrop of densely packed deep green trees like a moss carpet stretched over frozen waves, the mountainside reached up to catch the lazy tendrils of springtime clouds.
Nothing particularly interesting to break up the monotony, not unless you were a fan of powerlines.
The crisp outdoors nipped his nostrils and the song of morning birds pierced his ears.
Disgusting.
He snatched the doorknob and wrenched the door back, glaring at Kakashi through the crack in the doorway.
“Yo. What up?”
Kakashi sighed. “Don’t ‘what up’ me. Grab your bag and let’s get going.”
Naruto stuck a pinky in his ear and twisted it like he hadn’t heard a thing Kakashi said. The door was wrenched wide open once more, Kakashi nearly bodying him aside as he entered, causing Naruto to scramble away.
“Alright, alright! Fuck, man.”
He didn’t try to stop him as he retreated to his rumpled bed, hunched over his knees as Kakashi surveyed the room from the threshold. It was almost imperceptible beneath his mask and eye, but he was sure Kakashi was grimacing.
“Where were you yesterday?”
Palms dampening with sweat, his right brow nearly betrayed him to stray high above his eye, his inner face confrontational as hell. He kept his expression stony calm. It’s what he learned those two plus years he was gone. Someone like him, who always gave away everything too easily, he managed to learn self-restraint and caution, but he’d be lying if he said he mastered it. He didn’t care that much. He wasn’t himself if he was careful all the goddamn time.
Which brings him to now, the very consequences of yesterday’s actions. Skipping out of town whilst on probation. That was very, very bad of him.
“Where? I was with Sasuke,” Lies. “Where were you?”
“Don’t turn this around on me–” Kakashi cut off mid-sentence, his one-eyed gaze zeroing on Naruto who in a moment of pure distraction, was flipping through the so-far immaculate pages of his porno mag. Kakashi crossed the dirty nest with some difficulty, and grabbed the porno from his hand. “You had an appointment. Remember? So many strings have been pulled for you and–”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, shut up! I know already, alright?! It’s been two fucking months!”
“Then get your bag. Where is it?”
Overdramatics defined his rigid, angry movements as he pushed up from his bed, shouldering Kakashi as he moved passed him. Dropping to his knees, he dove around, blindly searching, knowing exactly where his school bag was. 
And it wasn’t here.
“Well?”
“I’m looking!” Building frustration led him to toss aside whatever wound up in his hand at that moment, and whatever it was collided harshly and heavily, following by a shattering crash. The loudness and sense of destruction simultaneously lifted his irritation and exacerbated it, vindicating his ‘unhealthy form of self-expression’ as his shitty counselor so generously put it.
Can’t be bad if it makes him feel better, though, can it?
Naruto grabbed something else, but Kakashi was at his side in a heartbeat, anticipating his willful tantrum, his full lean into chaos, and intervened with a firm grip on his wrist. Naruto dropped what happened to be his misplaced utility tool set. That would’ve easily caused a greater crash. Dismay set in further at having been denied Naruto tore his arm away and proceeded to feign searching for his bag. “Can’t even destroy my own stuff.”
Kakashi exhaled heatedly at length. “You shouldn’t be destroying anything in the first place.”
There’s a lot of things he shouldn’t be doing. Yet he still does.
He was sure Kakashi could smell the weed buried underneath all the other caked-in scents of this place, but Naruto didn’t really care, because he stopped being scared of the man.
For all of his efficiency and hard-ass principles, the man had long bared his soft spot. He’d grown exploitable.
“Whatever. You won’t tell on me.” Another magazine had found its way into his hands as he raised it above his head, only to have it snatched away.
Naruto eyed Kakashi from the corner of his eye as the man retreated with the dirty mag, witnessing how even his chronically bored expression couldn’t mask the hint of perverse intrigue lifting his features.
Naruto’s nose wrinkled in derision. Wasn’t he an adult? Didn’t he have his own material back home?
Taking advantage of the moment, Naruto broke the silence. “My bag.”
Kakashi lowered the material, appearing startled as he narrowed his gaze, his scrutiny lackluster from being forced into the present. “Can’t find it?” His gaze seemed to fight with him, gravitating back to the magazine before he unceremoniously tossed it aside.
“Nooo. I can’t. Guess I’ll have ta go without it.”
“Where is it?”
Naruto threw his head back with a heated sigh. The vision of where he secured his school bag faded and morphed into a fake location. “It’s…” Stolen? No. He’d make sure nothing of his was ever stolen. “Over the Koyohashi.”
“What? Are you lying to me? How are you just remembering that now?”
“No, man! I had a really shit day yesterday, okay?! An’ I’m still waking up. Some punks from D High started to harass me and–” What else? “I threw it over. I had to fight them off and it got in the way.”
Kakashi sighed once more, this time even more feeling. He backed out of the doorway, descending down the two thin steps that lead up to the prefab mobile home that was Naruto’s exile.
Naruto rose to his feet, anxiety tipping inside his stomach like dark water as he stepped outside, closing the front door before following his so-called probation officer to his waiting car.
Their shoes crunched in tandem across the gravel path, and Naruto tossed a glance at the sizeable house next door, about twenty or so feet away, a heavy void growing inside his chest at the sight of it, pulsing with vague aches and bitterness.
He gets it.
Living at home was a fucking privilege and he lost it.
Yet no matter the darkness and vitriol churning in his veins like pipes of toxic, ignitable gasoline, no matter how much he dug around in his heart for some kind of proof that his innocence remained, he always came up empty.
Remorse. Deference. A desire to repair what was broken.
All of that has been long beaten out of him.
The windows in the house were still dark. And his father, still asleep.
The only indication Naruto had to work off was that the old man kept his sedan in the garage.
Far away from him.
━━━━━━━━━
Naruto made it to class just before third period, with no teacher in sight to give him shit. Sasuke sat in the seat next to his, half-turned towards him and smirking knowingly.
Naruto tapped his knuckles to Sasuke’s extended fist-bump, nodding, with Sasuke nodding back.
Naruto slouched into his seat, one hand tucked in his pants pocket as he gazed unseeingly at the chalkboard. Three of their male classmates were surrounding their preferred slave by the teacher’s podium, her small frame limp with resignation as their leader gripped the back of her boy-cut head and used her as a chalkboard eraser, cackling their braindead asses off.
“Wanna go to Costco later?” Naruto asked with a dull voice.
Sasuke sucked air through his teeth. “Going to cut it close after Kyudo.” As if on cue, Sasuke produced a small carton resembling a juice box, which was in fact sake.
Just then, their teacher entered, her shrill voice cracking over the outrage possessing her body.
“Enough! Sit down!”
Her bullies released her and retreated to their seats, hands in their pockets. Hinata, with her white-dusted head ducked low, followed behind them to her seat.
The teacher treated it like she was participating in their stupidity.
Sasuke passed the sake box underhand, keeping it out of the teacher’s line of sight.
Naruto scoffed as he removed the straw packaging and slipped the box beneath his left sleeve, under his wrist. “Curfew’s just a suggestion, man. I made it out of town just fine yesterday.” Naruto poked the top with his straw and took a disguised sip, relishing in the heat warming down his throat. Nothing smoothed him out better than this, but no, this isn’t the ‘right’ way to treat his issues. Whatever. “By the way, you’re my alibi.”
“Again.”
“Yeah, I’ll go over the deets with you later.”
“Sure, sure. Then I’ll come up with something better after hearing you out.”
“Fuck off.” Naruto laughed, earning a glare from their teachers. “Why do you even bother? With Kyudo, I mean. It’s not like your parents come an’ see you.”
Sasuke shrugged and sipped his own hidden juice box.
“Could happen.”
“‘Could happen’.” Naruto mocked beneath his breath. Still, part of him didn’t want to knock his optimism too hard.
At least one of their parents had to give a shit.
━━━━━━━━━
Dude, I don’t know what to do. I’m runnin’ outta fap material.” Naruto took a puff from the cigarette they were sharing and passed it back to Sasuke. Not that it was too hard to get their hands on smokes when all the vending machines in town were from the 1980s, but still, they were teenagers. Their inclination towards austerity and their love of excess wasn’t exactly consistent. And anyone who expected consistency from them could fuck right off.
“What are you looking for this time?”
Pass.
“Somethin’ not A4 and glossy, y’know?”
Pass.
“Hn. When was the last time you peeped?”
Pass.
“Dude, that was so long ago!! There’s no one to fuckin’ peep on ‘round here! These girls are so lame, y’know? Don’t know how to dress, do fuckin’ make-up–”
“Where you expect them to shop?” Sasuke snorted. “We’re in the boonies.”
“You’re making my point! Their personalities are nonexistent and they get even worse when they’re drunk. They can’t imagine anything beyond the fuckin’ mountains, and they just gossip, gossip, gossip. They’re so fuckin’ boring, I wanna kill myself.”
Pass.
Sasuke sucked a pensive drag, his stare prodding him with unasked questions.
They sat at the top of the darkened stairwell, crowded by stacks of unused or broken desks and chairs, obscured in the haze of their chainsmoking. Two lone butts laid at Naruto’s feet a step down, and a third was soon to join them.
The roof was just on the other side of this door, but it was locked, barred from entry to all students. That might’ve been their fault. They never did clean up after themselves. And when a huge gust of wind cut across campus, on the day of the Sports Festial no less, a wall of trash could be seen pressing desperately against the net-wire fence.
The faculty had been thoroughly humiliated in front of all the parents.
Sasuke smirked wryly then. “You’ll never keep a girlfriend with that attitude.”
Naruto slumped against the wall, resignation weighing him down, like he were waterlogged.
Yeah, maybe he’ll never a get a girlfriend, even when he makes it out of here, none of those high class women are going to want anything to do with him. They might indulge in his brash, folksy charm, but then the fascination will wear off and he’ll just be a funny anecdote recalled at random.
“I don’t understand how you do it.” He envisioned Sasuke’s shameless body count, simultaneously impressed and nauseated by the sheer numbers the player already accrued. Sixteen years old. Truly, nobody at home was paying any damn attention, were they?
Right, so… Sasuke’s able to go anywhere he wants. He’s an Uchiha. His parents have money. Old money from the post-war days, selling munitions to Suna (who had kicked their ass in another minor conflict however long before). Regardless, Sasuke still partook in the occasional local girl when the need arised.
Sasuke shrugged. “Pussy’s all the same.”
“Tch. For you, it is. Spent up all that novelty early, fuckin’ normie. What’s the longest a girl’s asked you to go, huh?”
Sasuke held up two fingers.
“Hours?!”
“Fuck, moron. Twenty minutes.”
Naruto settled back down. “Oh. Well, that seems like nothing.”
“You’re not going to last two minutes your first time.”
“Heh. I’ll just choke my dick with a string. That shit works, right?”
“Gross. A string? Like your fucking shoestring?”
“Nah, man! Like her g-string.”
Sasuke choked on his laughter, cigarette hitting his airways the wrong way.
“Why’m I hanging out with you again?”
Naruto lazily tilted his head back and smirked. Sometimes he wondered why, too. “Cuz I’m fun.”
“Right.” Sasuke cleared his throat behind the crook of his elbow. “So… What are you going to do? About your fap material?”
Naruto shrugged. “Suffer?”
“Internet Cafe?”
“This shithole ain’t got one. You know that.”
“Could try the computer lab.”
Naruto’s brows raised at the fresh suggestion. “That is true.” Why hadn’t he ever thought of that? The internet… Yes! The advent of the information superhighway has been upon them for a few years now, but the hardware itself was still a luxury. Even the latest gaming console was more achievable than the OS itself. The only computer he technically had access to would be his dad’,s but no way he was sneakin’ in there.
Suddenly the very idea of internet porn, searchable and highly varied, made his body thrum with excitement. The back of his neck tingled at the thought of authentic moans recorded in real time.
He patted Sasuke’s chest as he stood up, gratitude and determination filling him up and giving him new life.
Sasuke stamped out the cigarette and followed right behind him.
━━━━━━━━━
Naruto was practically hopping on the balls of his feet, he was so excited! Like a kid in the candy store, he didn’t know what he was going to pick first.
Soft, steady clicks of a keyboard drifted from the open door, leading his eyes to the last person he expected to see here, her cropped bluish-black hair cleaned of this morning’s chalk residue.
Naruto clicked his tongue against his teeth, shaking his head as his shoulders hunched forward, with his hands in his pockets, blatantly advertising his disdain.
Really fucking sad how nothing’s changed for her in the two and a half years he was gone.
“People like her really gonna die the way they lived, huh?” He muttered, half to himself and half to Sasuke, earning a half shrug in reply.
Was she always like that? A crossdresser? Naruto had no idea. There was no indication that he could recall. He swore she wore sundresses and plain shorts in girly colors, but who knows. Maybe that wasn’t how she felt.
Still, if she wanted to be a boy and a weakling of one at that, then he really didn’t have any fucks to give towards her suffering.
She brought it on herself, not trying to fit in, be less… weird.
What the hell was she looking up anyway? What had her typing so damn fast?
Without a word to Sasuke, he made a beeling for Hinata’s row and stood behind her. She froze deathly still when he propped himself up by the table edge, hovering over her with no consideration for her personal space.
He read alout what he was seeing, in a monotone voice full of awkward full pauses.
Some sort of forum with a fast-moving chat box.
“‘I can’t recommend this tutorial enough… Sunny27, you’re so talented. I can’t wait to see what you make after you watch it… Epoxy is such a game-changer…’ The fuck? What nerd shit is this?” He glanced down at Hinata, only to find that she either mentally checked out or was ignoring him. He observed her taut posture absolutely radiating with discomfort and awkwardness and he scoffed. He scoffed at being so beneath her time she couldn’t even answer him, let alone relax around him. “Whatever, uggo.”
He pulled away from her and headed a row back, taking a spot next to Sasuke. He glanced up once more at Hinata ahead of them, expecting her to resume chatting with her friends, but no.
Instead, she started logging off and gathering her stuff. A hasty retreat if he ever saw one.
Naruto didn’t notice the sneer tugging at his lips, nor the pang emphasizing the emptiness in his chest. It was like a stone had been kicked down a deep, deep cavern, echoing, sending vibrations, mapping out just how far the hollowness had been carved deep inside him.
How did she have anything better to do that didn’t have to do with him?
━━━━━━━━━
Naruto didn’t wait around for Sasuke, and he didn’t go to Costco either.
Sometimes he watched him, standing there looking stupid in his archery garb, hitting whistling bullseyes like it was nothing.
His parents were really missing out.
Instead, Naruto went to retrieve his school bag.
Standing in front of a row of coin-lockers inside the train station, Naruto inserted the key and unlocked it. Reaching inside, he grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulders, then relocked their specific locker.
Blocky buildings boxed in by cars and glowing signs became shadowy silhouettes devoid of details as the sun dipped lower and lower, the densely forests mountains casting their long shadows upon the town valley.
As Naruto drew close to a traffic mirror, with its giant fishbowl lenses facing opposing sides of the street, the boxy corner of a black vehicle creeped into the reflection.
And it was stationed a little too close for his liking. Naruto pretended not to see it, instead staring hard into the windshield at the driver himself.
It wasn't Kakashi.
It wasn't his dad in another car neither, not that Naruto could reason why that'd be a possibility.
He hasn't wrecked the brand new sedan yet.
Was absolutely against his probation to ever drive again, so really, there was no risk of him making the same mistake twice.
Maybe.
That faded orange baseball hat, those opaque aviator sunglasses. Did he... know him? Kinda had a look he'd like to cop for himself, if, well... it didn't already look suspicious as hell. Like some cop in civvies that still looked like a damn cop-- Wait.
Panic jabbed like two fingers in his heart, adrenaline coursing through him.
He broke probation.
Did Kakashi rat him the fuck out?
Were they already onto him?
Was it over?! Were they sending him away?! Again?!
The car slowly rolled forward before stopping beside him. Naruto continued to ignore it, his mind jumping between a million different contingencies and instincts.
The hum of the automatic window descended before thumping softly into place, and the driver leaned his head out of the side, with his elbow perched over the door.
"Hey, loser. Get in."
His panic, his fear, his paranoia plummeted at his feet, leaving him cleaned out, nervy and a bit cold. Relief rushed in, but only conceptually. The absence of his worries itself a sort of relief. His heart rate began to slow as he turned towards that familiar voice, warm and brotherly.
The driver slid his aviators down the bridge of his nose.
"Think your pops will be happy to see me?"
In all honesty, he shouldn't be happy to see him. The advocator of his rehabilitation, the enabler of those boys' suffering like his own. He shouldn't be happy to see Obito, the one who promised his dad he'd get better and then apparently failed. Or, that's how that conversation should have gone.
Instead, the blame had solely been laid on Naruto.
Naruto grinned at the thirty-something year old Uchiha, a confusing myriad of emotions clashing inside of him like a tumult.
In all honesty, he never clicked with anyone better than Obito.
"What, you're not gonna ask if I'm happy to see you?" Naruto joked as he walked towards the rear passenger side, squeezing the handle as he opened the door. He slipped inside, appreciating the ride. Better this than walking past the manure stink wafting off the fields between home and town. The moment he settled in, Obito shifted the gear into drive and they were off.
"Oh, I know you are. Got you something,” Obito replied as he tapped the center console. Possessed by curiosity, Naruto leaned forward and popped it open, reaching inside. “Probation must be hell.”
“You would know, asshole.” Naruto dug inside and pulled out a dime bag of different size and colored pills, anticipation and longing filling him to burst. His gaze lingered on the pills, each one containing a different experience. They were like new worlds for him to explore, full of new sensations, a shift in reality. Anything was better than the one he's been living the past eleven years, that's for damn sure. "Man, I coulda done with some better weed if you were gonna come over,” He chuckled as he threw himself back, propping his feet on the console and he folding his hands behind his head.
Obito’s opaque stare bore through him from the rearview mirror. “I trust you.”
━━━━━━━━━
Naruto let Obito and his dad have their little reunion. He wasn't invited. Well, not when his dad hated his very existence.
Naruto flicked on his hot plate and filled a kettle from the sink with water. Then he grabbed his trusty pocket knife and slid a stool beneath the vent in the ceiling.
He twisted at the screws and the flap fell open, allowing him to dig around for a metal lunchbox he kept stashed away.
Sitting on his bed, he flipped it open, revealing bundles and bundles of tightly rolled ryo bills.
He retrieved the thickly padded enveloped he had hidden inside the lining of his school bag, the single character 'Ji' written on the front in janky arthritic strokes.
Naruto fished out the bills, quickly thumbing through the amount despite knowing the old creep never skimmed or missed a payment.
Taking a rubber band out of the small, cloudy plastic bag tucked in the corner of the lunch box, Naruto rolled the bills and added them to the rest.
The kettle whined into a piercing scream. He loosely shut the lid as he moved to shut off the appliance, thinking of all the things he wanted to do with his money once his probation was complete, where in the city he was going to live, what kind of apartment he wanted to have, and what kind of girls he was going to pamper.
He's not sure he can wait until graduation.
Sent away once, and he couldn't forget the taste of that freedom. Even at a place like that, so rampant with corruption and abuse that he couldn't wait to get out, to stop fighting for his own survival... More and more he found himself lying wide awake and... missing it.
Naruto slipped his hand into his pants pocket, sliding his roughened fingers over the various pills and capsules through the dime bag plastic, and he envisioned the future that he wanted to have.
The one that he would carve with his own two hands.
He just has to do a better job of not getting caught.
━━━━━━━━━ end chapter━━━━━━━━━
13 notes ¡ View notes
hakuna-my-ass ¡ 1 year ago
Text
Call me a bitch one more time
Maybe ill believe you
Call me a whore again
Maybe ill conceive you
Call me a slut to my face
Maybe ill believe you
Cause the way
I wade through the dirt
Is a pain
You cant see through
Call me your mom, call me your baby, call me your daughter
Call me whatever you want
I thank god im not your father
I would beat you, mistreat you, just like mine did
I wouldnt eat you, id leave you
To rot in your sins
Not here to please you, just deal you with the cards of your kin
Calling me your queen wont work cause bitch im a goddess
On the scene when i twerk
Cant help it im flawless
Tell me again how youre gonna cum all over my face
Show me again the way i feel pain
Tell me again about my ass and my titties
Like my uterus wasnt enough to give a buck fifty
Ya'll niggas iffy, filthy... long john? miss me!
Your bullshit squishy
According to the stars and the cards im a bull, hard headed
According to my pops, he's a dog, im hot headed
If i listened to any of you bitches id be mal tempered
I guess this is why rap was invented
Telling me i got legs for days when i got bills to pay dont distract me with your petty bullshit
I got brains for decades dont trash me ill behead you
Asking me for head? Youd rather be dead
Spitting on your grave, does that count?
Illy for years, been down south
Been in cuffs but i was rough before they tried to put me down
Like i cant fight, dont have might, i wear my horns like a fucking crown
Cause just like a bull i see red
But as a taurian i get paid diamonds, no respect
So tell me again how horny you are and how i make you
Show me again how you cum
And i may believe you
Born in May so its easy to distinguish sun from rain
All ya'll bitches run when you see me in pain
Cause my limit is about where my choker is
You helped me reach it so lets not forget i know how to choke a bitch
Like i said call me a bitch one more time
Call me dumb, ill show you whats mine
Cause none y'all have the stripes im covered in
Chinese eyes, my chinese sign starts roarin in this bitch
Y'all came straight outta hell
I came from something even lower
Learned and broke yall spells STOP FUCKING CALLING ME BROKEN
THIS BITCH IS BAD NO MAGICIAN COULD CLONE HER
They tried and failed not even the universe could own her
Put her in a ditch, shell make a pie and make you eat
Youll attempt to take everything
Fucking fakes nothing more than leeches
Got poems so old, damn i should start preachin
Cant say ive never been to church
The bible aint a secret
Y'all preaching to the choir
So i brought a choir just to sing this
Bring me down to the ground
I might believe you
Silencing me
Wicho irritating sounds
Yous a nuisance
Thinking yous all that?
But aint got time to prove it
GOD MADE ME BLIND BUT I SEE RIGHT THROUGH IT
The grass is greener where i smoke it
The waist got leaner
Now they tryna poach it
Taking credit for my successes, my strength, my will and why im the bestest
But i didnt see NONE of yall when I was in duress, hella stressed, just tryna make it out w me n mine
Yet over time i realised its just me and im mine
To make things CLEAR
Im not here to fall into your sextraps
Sextrolling while im rolling
Youre fucked cause i got strapped
Youve never seen a gem like me?
Thats common knowledge.
Oeh im so different?
Caught me yawning
Turned up the degrees to see where youre boiling
Dashed so fast couldnt even keep it a hunnid
Annoying. Disgusting.
As a vegetarian i dont eat meat
Why dfq do u think id wanna see yours when i open my feed
Yall aint got nothin better to do than to focus
On fucking
I got better shit and poo so i focus on commas
The only zeros im interested in are the ones on my bankaccount
I like danger and dangerous numbers that make me moan and shout
Not yo itty bitty dick wrapped up in clout
Next time you see me dont ask me how im doing cause good girls do it bad and bad girls do it badder and im the worst
Your sins cant make it better
ON GOD
Scratch that
Royal Deity
The unholiest chick with the most purity
Chique, fine and thick
But you wouldnt know bout nunna that
Intelligent, since we keepin it straight facts
Sharp shooter, never miss my aim
Even if i fail, still winnin this game
S/o to all the gamers, the players, the fakers
Addressin y'all as my main haters
Slapping my insecurities in my face
Like i might do somethin w it
Undress, heaving chest, make a mess in the kitchen
Callin me gay just cause yall aint got a pot to piss in
Mad pissed, yall blocked, try to mess with this bitch
On all fours like a horse come too close ill stomp ya face in
Insulting me vagĂŠe, she's not an animal, yall the pussies
Saying put it on my face
Like you got the right or earned it
Yall demands undeserving
High on supply i dont follow commands
Baby your stressed let me help you with that
Bitch please take a seat id rather do a handstand
Know your place before its too late and yo ass gets jabbed
Call me baby one more time i might believe it
Call me sweet once mlre and ill know youre deceivin
Call me your love, your honey, babycakes, babygirl
Havent been a baby since i entered this world
Tell me that you love me one more time and ill bust out my edges, limited edition blade collection
Jessica rabbit blasian
Blazing stages
Saying you wanna fuck
So i did
Sorry not sorry i fucked you up instead
Mustve been a slice of miscommunication
Over time i developed a bullshit translator
Not sick in the head, just sick of y'all
Planning me demise and downfall
Ik ben een lijdende leider, een overlevende strijder
Thats why i give myself errything i be wantin
Preparin myself for these scheming ass bitches that be hauntin
Mightve gotten startled in the past
But im badder and better so issa wrap
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altospaceangel ¡ 2 years ago
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There’s been a fun side effect (for me personally) of the stupid discourse that’s circulated in stupid circles around the Super Mario Movie and it is… “I know more than you.” It’s common knowledge that these reactionaries never actually care about “ethics in games journalism” or whatever pet culture war issue they’re picking this week. But they’re also from the demographic that considers “fake geek” to be a very serious insult. This is the first one of these petty little battles where I’ve played these games since my squishy baby hands could reach the buttons.
“They turned Princess Peach into a feminist girlboss! It’s woke revisionism!”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing lol have you even played Super Mario Odyssey? Dude was expecting her to be trapped in a castle the whole movie! Look who hasn’t picked up a Mario title since SMB3 lol”
“How was she so good at the training course immediately! Mario is the hero who saves her, he shouldn’t have to learn from her! It makes him too unimportant to the plot! Mary Sue!”
“She literally says she wasn’t good at first, did you even watch the movie or just twitter clips? lol touch grass! She’s their princess and has lived there for years! She had time to practice, genius! Looks like someone’s never heard of Super Princess Peach (2005)! Also did you know there’s literally a game called Mario Is Missing lol this has been an option since the 90’s”
“Bowser’s supposed to be a villain, but they made him soft! They were too PC to have him kidnap her like in the games, so they added a goofy crush on her!”
“Listen, I know Paper Mario isn’t super canonical, but Bowser literally has a diary where he says he hope she likes him lol. And if you ever played a non-mainline game like Mario Power Tennis, Super Mario RPG, or even Mario Party, they cast this relationship much friendlier and sometimes even have him try to do nice things to impress her! Have you not played those games? Get back to me when you know the lore!”
In conclusion:
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cathartidaestimblog ¡ 1 year ago
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update 12/1/23!!: going through and reblogging lots of posts ive had saved for a while. most things will not be tagged. be careful !
info: - i try my best to trigger tag things that may affect people (tagged as simply [tag name], like #flashing) - i may spam reblog - let me know if i reblog the same thing multiple times, i dont like to have duplicates but i am forgetful :>
tagging system under the readmore (for myself mostly, but there is a list of potentially triggering tags that you can avoid if necessary ^^) (not fully accurate, i am constantly working on it :>)
my posts: cat speaks, cat stims, faves from saves ocs: ryuuto, nightstrike (a festival i invented for my oc world), toki, talos convian, kit, jason, ink aesthetics: angels, robotcore, fantasy, dark academia, lovecore, halloween, webcore, kittycore, petcore non-oc characters: hu tao, noelle (both genshin), binah (project moon)
type of post: stimboard, gifset, gif, video, audio, textpost, moodboard, long gifset, imageset, image (i also tag the number of gifs in a post, so #2 or #9 just refers to that ^^)
potential warning tags: flashing, eyestrain, glitch, fast, spinning, bright medical, medcore, gore, blood, needles (includes both sewing and medical), pills sharps, knives, weapons, swords bugs, insects, scorpions, spiders, snakes, moths, bees hands, people, eyes, hair horror, body horror, dolls, abandoned (i think thats the tag?) food, drinks, desserts, sweets, meat, chocolate, fake food crosses (like religious symbol crosses), alcohol, skulls, messy, smoking destruction, makeup destruction, cutting, carving, fire colors: rainbow, black, gray, silver, white, red, orange, gold, yellow, green, mint, teal, blue, lavender, purple, cream, tan, brown, pink
textures (?): bright, clear, dark, fur, glass, glow, holo, leather, lights, metal, metallic, paper, plastic, soft, warm, wood, squishy
studio ghibli: ghibli, ponyo, howls moving castle, totoro, soot sprites, calcifer, kikis delivery service, castle in the sky
video games: video games, minecraft, genshin, honkai star rail, pokemon, kirby
vocaloid (and similar): vocaloid, miku, luka, kaito, rin, len, meiko, teto, vflower, synth v, eleanor forte, ferry, eve, ghost and pals, team 6x111
sanrio: sanrio, cinnamoroll, pompompurin, hello kitty, my melody, kuromi
genshin: genshin, layla, diona, diluc, chongyun, xingqiu, tighnari, hu tao
pokemon: pokemon, vaporeon, sylveon, snom, lurantis, mimikyu, rowlet, polteageist, jolteon, pikachu, gengar, raichu, oshawott, tandemaus, sobble, silvally, furret, clodsire, galarian ponyta
unsorted fandoms: loz, mario, rosalina, cheshire cat, animal crossing, honkai star rail, silver wolf, stardew valley
nature: trees, outdoors, rain, storm, sky, clouds, water, ocean, snow, flowers, grass, ice, moss, leaves, sunset, night, frost, rocks, plants, winter
animals: cats, calico, tigers dogs, german shepherds, shiba inu, pitbulls, foxes birds, corvids, crows, ravens, blue jays, owls, barn owls, woodpeckers, geese, canada geese, macaws, ducks, muscovy ducks, penguins, puffins, mallard ducks, seagulls, doves, magpies moths, atlas moths, cecropia moths, death's head hawkmoths, luna moths, rosy maple moths bears, pandas, polar bears fish, koi, goldfish goats, deer, cows, bunnies, mice, opossums, hyenas, snakes
people (?): people, hands, tattoos, hair, eyes, makeup fursuits, handpaws, scalemail fashion, clothing, shoes, jewelry, gloves, rings, corsets, dresses, ties, earrings, flannel, skirts
food: food, cakes, cookies, pancakes, waffles, chocolate, berries, strawberries, peaches, whipped cream, desserts, sweets, fake food, marshmallows, fruits, candy, bread, peanut butter, cupcakes, oreos, cotton candy, meat
drinks: drinks, milk, coffee, boba, taro, tea, hot chocolate, milkshakes, soda, ramune
art: drawing, inking, paint, painting, paint mixing, sewing, brushing, brushes, sculptures, architecture, pens, pencils, writing, paper
slime: slime poking, slime stretching, slime squishing, slime pouring clear slime, cloud slime, floam slime, water slime, clay slime (also used for clay cracking)
technology: keyboards, typing, pc, controllers, tech, mech, machinery, machinery, gears, typewriters
fidgets and stimming: fidget toys, fidget spinners, fidget cubes, fidget tangles, body stims
other: city, streetlamps, anime, indoors, character i dont know, xenogenders, figurines, bandaids, powder, carousel, buttons (includes both sewing buttons and mechanical pressing buttons), hearts, golden hour, sparks, books, coins, swords, crystals, tarot, dice, mothman, bath bombs, chains, lava lamps, plague doctors, digital, melting, forging
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pinkseas ¡ 3 years ago
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HELLO TUMBLR USER AERI PLEASE TALK TO ME ABOUT MOSS
LISTENNNNNNNNNNNN listen listen listen okay so like. okay. i am not a moss expert (i should be. One Day.) i just... enjoy moss. its so. im so. looking at it from a more environmental perspective a lot of little bugs and lots of other plants thrive in moss, flowers peeking out of moss and mossy grass and mushrooms growing in moss??? chefs kiss. beautiful.
but also in terms of like... Maintaining Moss as opposed to grass? people with their big lawns and their perfectly green grass who use a LOT of good clean water and fertilizer just to keep their grass green... and then the Mow It they keep it all short and weird who hurt you. and ESPECIALLY golf courses ??? the amount of water and chemicals being used to keep real grass super green and healthy is like. Horrific.
as opposed to moss which grows easily and it gets a little bit of water and then its just fine! its vibing. crushed a little more easily which is sad but thats just life and also it still grows back very quick. moss is so cool. you can put a rock in there and the moss will grow on it. not into it, it wont hurt it, it will simply cling and then Embrace like a big warm hug. moss looks and feels like a big warm hug to me i think.
and the different kinds of moss !! still Not an expert but literally just outside my house like. in the yard there is moss that is soft and squishy and the reason i want a moss lawn so bad its just nice. easy to step on. i dont like the way grass feels most of the time but moss is softer and you dont have all the big separate strands its just moss.
and then out in the woods especially by water its different!! it feels bigger and thicker and more chunky, it usually grows a little taller and clings thick into the mud and dirt and thats really cool too !! the way it thrives and grows being different depending on where its growing is funky i think. moss on rocks thats growing on them but not fully grown, so its much more thin and almost web-like and soft and just a little more dry because its on a rock and not the ground.
its just so very nice i think. so many shades and textures and all of them are so funky and enjoyable. here is some moss now
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look at it... fuzzy rock. fake fur is Evil and moss isnt super fur like but its got the aesthetic. fuzzy and soft and fluffy the way fake fur Wishes it was. i wouldnt sit on a chair with fake fur but i would on one with moss.
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and this is just like little ferns !!! in my experience moss gets little twigs and stuff in it more than grass SOLELY because in grass its easier to see and pick up but if you step on a branch in grass it hurts and if you step on a branch in moss the moss Cushions You. you know there is a branch but no ouchie involved. i think i could step on a lego in moss and make it out unscathed.
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look at this. this is the dream. flowers growing so very easily in moss. you could put so many flowers in there. in theory moss could try to grow up the side of a house but i think there'd be ways to stop it and also itd be So easy to take down. you gently lift it away and just kinda... like that's It. you just gently take it away and then it's done no more moss on the house.
i am a Big fan of moss
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comfy-whumpee ¡ 4 years ago
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Clare
Northlight demanded that I write this piece for April. @iaminamoodymoodtoday, @wildfaewhump, @ishouldblogmore, @lektric-whump, @that-one-thespian, @raigash, @paingeneering, @whumpywhumper
Cool spring breeze flows through an open paved plaza in the middle of a university. It’s the kind of place where people assume you are just in the middle of a difficult study period if you sit in the middle of the grass in an old coat and eat pasta with your fingers. A good spot for Northlight, without many curious eyes, especially with the book they are pretending to read in front of them.
The pasta is cold but well made, with the strange uniform flavour that food of this time often has, bland cheese and weak herbs with chunks tomato poorly integrated into the too-smooth sauce. It is quick to eat, though, and goes down easy with the paper cup of water they’ve taken from the library along with the book.
As they look out over the rest of the clearing between buildings, they notice someone else sitting on a bench. They look young, with a halo of Afro hair and their nose deep in an electronic device of some kind.
They’re swaying. Back and forth on their bench, a slight motion like reeds in a summer breeze. Like a bobbing leaf on the river of time.
Northlight licks their fingers and gets up, leaving the tub and their water on the grass. They cross the flat stones of the plaza and sit down on the fake-wood bench.
“Why are you swaying, stranger?” they ask, when the student glances their way.
The stranger has dark eyes and a shy smile. They fix their gaze on Northlight’s brow. Their voice is like old paper against fingertips. “Because it feels nice.”
Northlight feels themself tipping to the side, a longer swing than the stranger’s, like a pendulum catching itself before it touches the sides of the clock. They can’t help it. Just talking about the motion makes their stillness feel cold and heavy.
A spark lights in the stranger’s eyes as they tracked the motion. Their smile pulls into itself, but Northlight recognises it as a happy motion. “I saw you doing it on the grass.”
They nod. They try not to look too hopeful. “It feels like the world moves with a current and I have to move with it,” they offer tentatively.
Their heart sinks as they see a lack of understanding deep in the stranger’s eyes. “That’s a pretty way to put it,” they offer politely. “Oh, um, my name’s Clare.”
They hesitate. Then they smile and nod. “I’m Aurora.”
“Nice to meet you. I haven’t seen you at the Network.”
Of course, they think Northlight is a student here. They plead ignorance. “The Network?”
“You know, for autism? It’s part of the DSN.”
Northlight blinks, mind searching for connections and finding none. “Or-tism?”
The stranger blinks back, though they’re looking out over the plaza. “You don’t know what it is?”
Northlight shakes their head, finding a ragged end of their hair and tugging it nervously. Have they given themself away as someone who doesn’t belong?
“It’s like… You know stimming. Swaying, I like that one too, and I um, I have,” suddenly Clare digs into their pocket and pulls out a strange, marshmallow-looking thing shaped like a spherical frog. “A squishy.” They pinch it between finger and thumb, and the frog distends. “Helps with, makes me feel less stressed.” They reach into another pocket in their jacket. “And this, this is my favourite, it’s for happy um, happy feelings. You can shake it and it froths up like this, and it looks pretty and makes a good sound and then you can listen to the bubbles pop.”
They shake the little jar and Northlight watches with wide eyes as a galaxy of glitter swirls around and disappears into thin white bubbles.
Clare has treasures. They reach into their inner pocket and take out Patience Penrose’s hair tie, winding it around a finger to feel the pressure, letting the stranger see.
“That’s cool,” Clare enthuses. “I had one when I was younger that was like a cat’s cradle, I would use it all day while watching things and it kept my hands busy, otherwise I’d click my pen nonstop. But I have a clicky thing now, I don’t really use it because I have my frog. Do you like clicky things? Here, it’s, um, oh here it is.”
They produce a small, round toy with a smaller circle in the middle. Northlight takes it and presses it down with a thumb, and it depresses with a silent but tangible snap.
They lift their thumb and it lifts too. They press down again.
“Keep – keep it,” Clare says. “I like asking about synaesthesia, do you – do you have that? Like when all the words have colours, or something else where you can see things or feel things that other people can’t…”
“Voices have feelings,” Northlight says. They know this one. “Nobody else can tell but they do.” They pause, then add, “Yours feels like paper. It’s nice.”
Clare’s mouth twist-smiles again. “Yeah, like that. I don’t know, um, if you are autistic, but I like talking about it, if you…if you want to hear more?”
A story offered is a rare and precious gift. Northlight tucks their new treasure into their pocket. “Yes, please.”
Clare isn’t a time traveller, but maybe... Maybe they have found someone like them after all.
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galactic-feelins ¡ 1 year ago
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Part 2: Ghosts Of Past And Ghosts Of What Could Have Been
Pov: Danny’s stuck dreaming in a memory he doesn’t recognize. What would normally be brushed off as fantasy, instead seems to answer too many questions to be fake.
It’s a late night after patrolling the town, I decided to hang out at the park to relax for a bit, and I’ve found some strange material that I’ve started fidgeting with. It had started turning up around in random places ever since the ghosts started running loose. It’s a little squishy, a little stretchy, but very durable. The strangest part is how even ghosts can’t pass through it. It’s not dangerous and it doesn’t hurt at all, it’s just way too solid. It’s like a bar of soap compared to raw Ectoranium. Sounds made up, but that’s life for ya.
As I was sitting on the grass, playing with this softball sized cube of mystery material, I had a strange feeling rush through me, but it wasn’t ghost sense so I ignored it. Just as I went to bite the material, I saw a spaceship in the sky. It sounds like a dream, and it sure didn’t look real compared to the vehicles mom and dad made for ghost hunting, but it looked the same texture as the material I was biting into at that moment. 
After a moment of staring in awe, I realized something and hid behind a nearby tree. Sure enough I heard a voice! Several voices actually! Ones I had never heard around here before! They said-… they were talking about-…
I couldn’t remember. It’s a blur. I don’t remember this! When did this happen? That night I fell asleep at the park! Or… I thought I did? The next morning I was in bed and it was… Monday? But that was Saturday night! 2 days later? 
Something’s wrong. 
Who were those people on the ship? One of them sounded young. Sounded… 14. How do I know that? Something must have happened. I need to retrace my steps somehow!
Back at the tree, I’m listening in on some conversation. They’re getting closer so I turn invisible and peak around to watch. The ship is gone but there’s a small ring of light I hadn’t noticed before. So far everything else is normal. There are 3 people walking away from where I thought I saw a ship, 2 of them in fur suits and the third is a 14 year old boy dressed like some cartoon character I don’t recognize. They must be cosplayers. That’s a normal enough explanation! Staying invisible, I attempt to follow them, listening in and hearing something about a “heart of the world,” or something like it. I start following closer and closer behind, believing I would lose them otherwise, but I feel a horrible chill that makes me gasp with that familiar vapor.
“Who’s there?” The boy whips around, startled by the sound behind him. I don’t know how to respond at first, but I don’t have to. Before I could say anything, one of those dark shadow ghosts pops up from where they weren’t looking anymore.
“Behind you!” I didn’t think before shouting. I forgo the invisibility as I instead rush between the kid and the duck guy, charging up a shot in my hand.
I hear a metallic sheen behind me now, and I could feel the kid whip back around to see the threat, but I’m focused on shooting the ghost and stopping it from lunging for the strangers. By now I’ve learned these ghosts are hardy and will recover even when they’re reduced to their cores, but I still didn’t have the best aim yet and only managed to hit its shoulder. Luckily it got knocked away with that hit!
Just when I was getting prepared for a brawl, the kid rushed forward with some kind of metal weapon and bonked it dead. “Woah…” I breathed out an exasperated reaction to… I believe it was a metal pole with a hilt, designed to look like a key. I must not have seen where he was carrying it, but it really is a strange choice for self defense.
“Thanks for the heads up,” the guy smiled, “but why were you following us?” His first question wasn’t even ‘why were you invisible’ or ‘who are you’ or anything like that. I don’t understand what’s with this guy! Before answering I check my hand to know how I look right now. Phantom. Great.
“W-well, I don’t know you!” I look away and put a hand to the back of my neck, flinching for a moment at the residual shock of a sensitive nerve. “Amity Park is my haunt, and I need to keep everyone here safe! I just, you know, uh… I-I didn’t know if you’re trustworthy, ok? I need to know who is or isn’t trouble so I can stop them before things get rough!”
“Your haunt?” The guy thinks for a moment before suddenly he beams. “Woah! So you’re like a guardian angel? That’s so cool! I’m Sora, by the way!” Suddenly he holds his hand out to me. This “Sora” character sure is friendly, huh? And a little too trusting.
“Phantom.” I take his hand and give the handshake a soft pat with the other hand. Looking at him a bit closer, and Sora looks like he would be in my class if he were from here. He was just 14. 
“So, are the heartless normal around here? You seemed to know what it was! How come?”
His curiosity is sickeningly sweet, but it’s infectious. “Heartless? You mean that weird ghost? The shadowy one? Well, I guess you could say they’re the new normal around here. They’re just a little weirder and more aggressive than the regular ghosts.”
The way he’s looking at me with those big shiny eyes, maybe I over estimated with 14! This guy is like a kid in a candy store, or one being read bedtime stories! “Ghosts? Is that how you turned invisible?”
“Yeah, I am a ghost. That’s why.”
“That’s so cool! But wait, what about the heartless?”
I don’t fucking know dude! I didn’t know there WAS a difference until now! I can’t be rude to the strangers. Luckily, the dog fur-suit guy spoke up, freeing me of these questions.
“Uh, Sora? I think we should focus and go find the keyhole!” He turned to face me, and it starts dawning on me his mouth was definitely moving with each syllable. That’s not a costume is it? “Uhyuk, it was great meeting you, Mr. phantom! You take care now!”
With that they turned to leave, talking amongst themselves all cheerful and happy go lucky. I have a gut feeling I can’t leave them alone, however, and I begin to follow them. I know my way around this town, but I don’t know what keyhole they could be talking about. As my mind wanders on what they could mean, I tune out their conversation. But something new catches my attention. They haven’t noticed me following them yet, but I sense something about them. 
That soft hum in my core next to my pulse, it’s still only the one core, yet I can feel more than us four here. Listening in a bit closer and getting a feel of the air, I find where that feeling is coming from. The dog and duck feel normal, if not for the fact they have a pulse that radiates energy like a core would, but Sora…
Before I could snap to my senses and stop myself, I’ve already placed a hand on Sora’s back. He shivers loud and comically, both from the cold and from being startled. “Sorry,” I say without even thinking or taking my hand away. Just as I thought, it feels as if Sora has several cores stored inside. They’re similar to the dog and duck’s cores, but cores all the same.
“What’s the big idea?” The duck quacks. “Are you TRYING to give people a heart attack?”
“There are 3…” I mutter to myself, but it seems they heard me. Sora turns to look at me sounding confused, and I meet and match his look. “You have 2 extra cores. One of them seems…” I try to find the words and shiver, retracting my hand and rubbing it slightly. “I hope that one’s ok. Are you ok?”
“Are YOU ok?” Sora responds by grabbing my hand and turning the question around on me. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost! What’s wrong? What’s a core?”
I pause for a bit trying to collect myself, but then a moment where I see the irony in what Sora said I can’t help but laugh! Never mind all that core stuff! “I know! I’ve looked myself in the mirror this morning and everything!” I continue to laugh, setting a hand on Sora’s shoulder for support. “Come on, let’s just find that hole you’re looking for! Where would something like that be?”
Dodging the question didn’t alleviate their concerns at all it seems, but it sure alleviated mine! There were more of those ghosts, now known as Heartless, blocking our paths occasionally, but it turns out that yeah they could defend themselves! In fact, those heartless cores seemed to fly off never to regenerate into more heartless, strangely enough. I began to learn more about these heartless, and learn things I should’ve known this whole time. Meanwhile, it seems Sora can’t stop thinking about what I could mean about him having multiple cores. I’m sure he’ll get over it!
Time seems to blur now. Maybe whatever we talked about here wasn’t important enough to remember? The talk of a keyhole stirs up a vague memory, but it’s so hazy. Backtracking a bit, I remember having to fight a really big ghost and needing some backup. I couldn’t remember any details, but now it seems to clear up again.
That ghost was another heartless. It has the strange symbol on its chest and everything, and it’s absolutely massive! The heartless here seems very lion like, sporting a fluffy mane around a mask-like face, but the limbs are disembodied and closer to raccoon paws with their hand like shape. Despite the combination sounding like it’d be relatively small, this behemoth stands hunched over at about 2 stories tall.
The heartless spins its hands around its large torso before they jut forward, the mask shaking to make a clattering shifty sound. It’s taunting us! Even Sora seems worse for wear at this point, and I can’t blame him. This thing is huge! It’s barely affected by any hits we’ve dished out! We rush forward again, Sora and his friends try to attack the legs while I try to fly up to see if there’s a weak spot somewhere. Maybe the mask is covering something vital?
The heartless winds up slowly to slam down on the ground, but this time we see it coming! Sora gets out of the way in time, and if I do say so myself I weave through the gap in the hands gracefully and effortlessly! When the hands slam down I swear I hear the duck faint again. Must not have gotten out of the way in time! Oh well, he’ll be fine, he’s done this 5 times in the past hour alone. Now that Sora is to the side of the hands, it seems he has an idea. Even from up here I can see something click in his head as he jumps onto the hand. Not to attack it, mind you, but it seems he grabs on and ride it when the heartless brings its hand back up!
“Clever clever,” I tease. “Just try not to get smacked off like a fly!” Sora joins me on the beast’s shoulder, noticing some discoloration on the back of the beast’s head and neck. I fly a bit higher to see if I could rip its mask off, but the mask seems to float a short distance away from where the face would be. Going back to the neck, I help Sora with blasting the discolored spot.
After a few good hits, the heartless hunches over in pain, the sudden shift catching us off guard. Sora got it worst of all, nearly slipping off. Seeing him about to fall I rush to catch him. “I’ve got you!” And I was right! He likely would’ve fallen if I hadn’t been there! From this vantage, Sora notices the mask is hanging parallel with the ground. He could probably stand on it! Noticing his thought process we rush over and find the face of the beast! Not so tough looking under that mask!
Turns out, beating it up in the face and shooting some fire and ecto blasts did the trick! Before we knew it, the heartless keened and fell to the ground, dissipating into smoke. Where it had been, a huge heart floats away.
“Wow, that’s one MASSIVE core! Don’t you think?” I turn to Sora to make light conversation, but he suddenly looks shocked and concerned by my question. “Are you ok?” I try to ask, just in case I’m seeing things.
“Are you talking about the heart?” His response is another question?
“Well yeah, these guys seem to have a heart shaped core, but it’s a core nonetheless! Right?”
My answer seemed to shake him up more. He suddenly holds his chest, staring at the ground as if trying to understand something. It finally dawns on me. If he’s calling those cores hearts, and he’s looking for the “heart” of the world, is he looking for the planet’s core? Outwardly I scratch my head with a frustrated groan. The heart vs core confusion probably means he’s also realizing something about those cores in him too. This night has gotten so complicated.
Suddenly I have an epiphany. “Let’s go home,” I say simply, turning to take his hand and heading out back.
“Wh-huh? But we haven’t found anything we’re looking for yet!” Sora sounds confused and alarmed, but I can’t blame him anymore. If I didn’t know about having extra cores in me I’d be alarmed too!
I simply turn to Sora with a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, we’re getting there! We’re off to Fenton Works, so be prepared for a mess!” Luckily that heartless was really close by! Just around the corner and down the block, actually! 
“Oh yeah! Just a heads up, I’m going to have to turn you intangible and invisible at times. You’ll see why soon enough, don’t worry!”
“You can do that?” It seems Sora didn’t know I could make someone else do what I do. 
“I guess it didn’t come up? Eheh, oops?”
Soon enough we get back home, and before Sora could try knocking on the door or ringing the doorbell, I grab hold of him and phase us through the wall. We’ve gotta hurry here, so I keep a tight grip on him as I guide him down to the basement lab, giving a sign to stay quiet. The duck and dog are too loud so they have to wait outside the house, but that’s ok!
Getting to the basement, Sora gasps as an unsteady feeling hits him. “I know,” I mutter to him, knowing full well how sickening the portal feels when you’re not used to being around it. The air is heavy and full of ectoplasm, and it’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s home. Even Sora seems concerned, knowing what I said about going home. 
I stop us in the middle of the room, holding a hand out towards the portal. ��So here we are! The portal to The Ghost Zone! A straight shot connection between Earth and the land of the dead!” Sora seems sick just looking at it, so it go to step in front of him. Maybe I can recollect his focus. “So, does this seem very ‘heart of the world’ to you?”
After a moment Sora finally shakes away the those horrible feelings the portal was giving him. “Actually, it does sound like it! But then, how do we get to the heart?” Sora begins to pace, watching his surroundings carefully. At least he’s not tripping on anything, unlike a certain someone I know. After a moment he turns back to me with curiosity. “Can you turn the portal off?”
Sure enough, the portal is too stable, and at best we can close a door on it. That door doesn’t block everything though, but that’s the best we’ve got. I shake my head with a shrug, but then a new idea occurs. “What if the world’s core is not just in the portal, but through it?” Before I could give Sora the chance to understand what I’m talking about, I fish out a fishing line for a rope, and dig out a protective helmet for Sora. “It’s risky business, but you should be fine going in for only a few seconds if need be!”
Sora goes pale! “I’m not going in there!” I can’t blame him, really. I can’t help but laugh a little at his reaction. Setting the stuff for that idea aside, I walk closer to the portal. Everything seems the same as normal, so I dip my head in to look around. Again, everything seems normal here! That soft hum of the portal around me is soothing in a strange and twisted way. The rush of ectoplasm feels kinda nice now that I’ve gotten used to it. It’s like floating in the ocean, heavy and vicious, but calm and soothing.
Then I hear something I’d never heard before, or maybe I have only once before. A shimmering sound from behind me, and a metallic sheen. I can’t see anything in the portal itself that could be making that sound, so I back out, just in time to hear a locking sound as my hand leaves the portal. I look back to Sora, and I see that giant key again. I don’t know where he’s been keeping if, but now he had it pointed straight at the portal.
“What just happened?” I look back at the portal, and everything looks the same. Sure it seemed to shimmer a little extra for a moment there, but everything is the same as always.
“Well, you were right! The heart was in the portal!” He just grins at me triumphantly, as if that answers my questions. “So once it showed up, I closed it! Now the world’s safe!” AND WHAT DOES THAT MEAN‽ 
With a job well done I escort Sora back outside and the three of them left. It seems the sun had already come up while we were downstairs, so I hurried back up to my room and transformed. Everyone’s going to be waking up soon, I can’t let them know I stayed up all night! So I rush into pajamas and get in bed to pretend I’ve been asleep… and then I woke up at 11am.
That next day is still blurry, but I had to apologize to Sam and Tucker for not coming home at the scheduled time. It really was my fault for ditching them, to be fair, but when we went to the park to make up for it, we found Sora again. The rest is still hazy, but I recall feeling very stressed trying to hide that I’d already met him the night before. I think he was there because he and his friends couldn’t easily leave in broad daylight, but I’m not sure anything super important happened there anyway. If I can’t remember it, it must not have mattered after all! 
But… what does that mean for the night before? As I think back on what that could mean, what those memories had and why I couldn’t remember before, I start to wake up again.
It Was The Night Of The Meteor Shower
Inspired loosely by a prompt, Danny’s friends and family did not survive the events of The Ultimate Enemy. Knowing what he could’ve been, he decides to find his own way through his grief. Although the ghosts of future are dealt with, he now uncovers ghosts of past, and it seems he misunderstood the ghosts in the present.
Pov: Danny going through quite possibly the worst week of his life whilst reliving the worst days of his life.
Link to prompt!
I’ve been thinking back on life lately. Like, was any of that a dream, or was it too real?
- - -
The lab in the basement was always a little unnerving to be in. Exposed wires on unfinished projects, cables running haphazardly across the ground, loose tools scattered everywhere, honestly it’s always been a mess at best. If this were a well known work place, our house would’ve definitely been condemned by now! Walking in now, I immediately regret my decisions up till now. Mom and dad’s latest project may be a bust, but they clearly haven’t cleaned up after they were done!
“Woah! Watch your step there!” Tucker jokes, but this isn’t the first time the floor has been covered in some mysterious substance, let alone a step on the stairs. At least Tucker and Sam seem to be enjoying themselves while I’m stuck with keeping them safe, but what are friends for? “Promise you won’t touch anything in here?” It may be obvious, but I have to ask!
Sam tisked at me sarcastically. “Psh, yeah, I was planning on drinking from mysterious flasks myself. Maybe chew on some cables or steal something radioactive.”
“Sam, I don’t think there would be anything radioactive in here! Danny lives just upstairs from here, wouldn’t he get poisoned if there was?”
“Cable,” I pointed out, just as Tucker was about to trip right over an extension cord, pulling him back for good measure. “Look, I know! Technology, cryptozoology, general weird cyber-goth stuff; I get it! But this stuff is dangerous! You’ve gotta trust me here!”
Sure, they understood of course, but it’s not like they were as serious about it. I’ve lived with this, I know how dangerous the equipment here can be, and I know you need to approach everything here with extreme caution. Maybe that’s why they figured they are safe here with me. Maybe they think I can protect them. I honestly have no idea where they got the idea I could protect anyone.
I could see Tucker shaking, trying so very hard not to pick up the gizmos and gadgets littering the lab to look at closer, but it’s for his safety he doesn’t touch them. I keep an eye on him the most, since Sam is only taking pictures with the camera she brought. I think she brought it so we could work on some project for school, but honestly making memories is more fun. Well, more fun when it’s not in your parents’ ghost hunting lab, anyway. I was watching Tucker lean to look at another side of some kind of circuit board when I heard from Sam again.
“Hey wait! Danny, you have a suit?”
“Ah- maybe? Huh?” Startled, I shot to attention to find Sam picking up a black and white jumpsuit. “Wh- hey!” 
I rush over to snatch it from her hand. It’s safe, clean in fact, and mostly unworn. The jumpsuit itself may not be dangerous, but it’s definitely a blow to an already fragile ego. I hold it out to try and fold it back up properly, but then I hear a click-snap. The camera shutter makes me flinch and I can’t help but glare at Sam.
“Oops?” Sam grins mischievously, brightly, and knowingly. “Hey! Maybe you can try it on!” I really didn’t want to, and she could see it. Sam followed up her request. “Please? I just wanna see it! I’m sure it looks good on you!”
I sigh, knowing defeat and knowing it’s a fairly innocent request. I can wear a jumpsuit fine, and I know it’s tailored to fit me. Heck, maybe it’ll be easier to prevent disasters if I’m protected too! So I step away to put it on over my clothes, listening in on their conversation about the portal itself. Ugh, the portal.
“So they really made a portal?”
“Supposedly, yeah! His parents really seem to believe it could work!”
“But why? We don’t even know if ghosts are real!”
I zip up the front and walk back over to rejoin the conversation, only to find Tucker leaning in closer. He seems to be listening to the hum of machinery. To be honest, it is a nice sound, pretty calming at times, but it can get annoying and usually indicates something live and active. I pull him away by the shoulder as I chime in.
“Well, I think they tried this in college too. Whatever results they found must’ve proven it in their heads that this could work.”
Sam starts snickering, but I can tell by the look she’s giving me that it’s not something I said. In fact, I know exactly what it is. Without saying anything, she walks over and rips off a huge decal of dad’s face from my chest. Honestly, good riddance. I’m sure dad wouldn’t mind a little defacing, as a treat.
“Oh! Idea!” Tucker snaps and points to me as he continues. “We should get a picture of you in the portal like that!”
“Oh yeah!” Sam chimes in. “Yeah in the hollow space there! With you in the suit, standing in front of all of this machinery here, it would look so cool and, maybe even professional!”
Well, it is an interesting idea, and it would look pretty cool. I agree! The jumpsuit has a hood and goggles to protect your scalp and eyes respectively, but we’re not doing anything except posing for a picture. It would look better without the hood anyway, so I leave it down. With that, Sam and Tucker get in position further away while I step inside.
I’ve never been so close, let alone inside of one of my parents’ inventions. Walking in feels surreal. The lights, dots, and lines running across the walls and ceiling are vast and interwoven, and yet so organized and strategically oriented. It’s like one massive circuit board with so many mechanical bits exposed. Clearly this part of the portal wasn’t meant to be seen. As I’m looking around, I feel something hit my foot as I try to take another step, sending a jolt up my spine in a panic. I feel myself lose balance and instinctively I stumble to catch myself. My hand lands on something, usually it would be fine to hold the wall, but in this case I feel something give under my palm. The hum of the portal grows louder, something whirs to life around me, and taking my hand off the wall reveals a button that reads “on” just below it. Realization hits, and I look to Sam and Tucker, but it’s too late. The last thing I see is their panic reflecting mine, before a sharp pain in the back of my neck introduces itself.
- - -
I woke up on the floor. Reality spun for a bit, and I wasn’t sure where I was. I could feel I was laying on some kind of concrete, and I almost thought I was in the lab again. It would’ve been an easy mistake, but I remember now.
I’m in a warehouse, in some city I’ve never known, and I am alone. Sitting up, I rub my hand through my hair, taking a moment to remember where I am and why. I am here because I, Daniel Fenton, am running for my life. Some strange ghosts have been popping up more and more frequently lately, and they’ve been chasing me far more aggressively than any ghost I’ve ever met. Not even Skulker is as bad as these guys! 
In the beginning, there weren’t that many, so they were easy to handle. It was always so strange that they made sounds but never spoke, and they seem to follow pure instinct and emotions. These ghosts don’t banter, have no obvious obsessions, and sometimes I see weird tattoos on them. In fact, there seems to be multiples of them, like blob ghosts. I could fight them off for a while, and I could stop them from attacking random people. A lot of ghost hunters got their infamy and fame for getting rid of these guys too, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. Now, however, it feels like swarms of them are tracking me down at all times. 
Just as I was thinking I could never get a rest from them, I feel a chill and see an icy trail of smoke leave my mouth. It seems it’s time to get moving again. I stand and slap myself in the face for a quick burst of energy before transforming. Almost as if on queue, the shadows cast on the ground rise into solid shapes, puffs of black smoke appear and strange knight looking guys drop in the smoke’s place, and all of their beady yellow eyes stare back at me with what I’ve come to understand is killing intent.
Knowing where they are now, I bolt in the opposite direction, flying straight through walls and ceilings, getting as far from my assailants as possible. These guys are persistent, but it seems most of them don’t know how to fly. Problem is, some do. Once I’m outside, I catch sight of some more of the strange ghosts, these ones winged and colorful. “Are the wings really necessary?” No response, as always. It seems there’s only about, say, 7 total? At least 3 different shapes at a glance. Since they’re in the air, it’s probably safe to say a few ecto-blasts should take care of them no harm done!
A bit of blasting, a bit of punching, a few scratches here and there, and the numbers start dwindling! Sometimes after hitting them enough, they’ll poof and turn into weird heart shaped cores, so I stuff them in the thermos! I can’t exactly dispose of them anywhere, not anymore especially, so this thing is getting a bit crowded. The good news is I don’t try to stuff every ghost I see in there. In fact, the number of flying guys has increased dramatically over time already, so I figured I gotta leave again. 
Of course they followed me. I tried to stop somewhere for a moment when I thought I got enough distance, but there they are! In the distance! Flying towards me! From this vantage point, it’s easy to see just how many of them there are total. I see the ones from inside the building scrambling out, and I can see many more from the shadows and side streets all skittering out as a crowd. “Oh boy,” here we go again.
- - -
Back then, I woke up to a weird feeling that has since become normal. Everything was light and tingly, and yet so, so weak. I could hear shouting, though too muffled to understand right away. When I finally tried to open my eyes, there was a red flashing, giving way to a green glowing light occasionally. When I came to, I saw Tucker and Sam’s faces, panicked and every crying, yelling and begging for me to say something or give a sign that I was ok. I didn’t feel ok, but I tried at least sitting up at the time.
White hair, white gloves, black suit. There might have been a decal, something tells me there wasn’t, but the decal looks cool enough it might as well have always been there. With help I stood up, and we found our way to a mirror so I could see the damage for myself. I was glowing, but not in a figurative way, but more in the way a hot iron will glow white with heat, or maybe how some toxic goo would glow like a vat of glow-sticks. There were my eyes, staring back like green neon signs on a horribly scratched up sign. As I began to panic, I watched my face twist in the mirror into something else, which only made me panic more. The more I panicked the less human I looked, and the less human I looked the more I panicked, but Tucker helped ground me again. Sam comforted me and had me take deep breaths. Before I knew it, I was myself again, black hair and all. Life had never been the same since that day. The way everyone else in Amity Park know it, that was the night of the meteor shower.
- - -
I finally found another moment’s rest. Ironically, it was the presence of another ghost that calmed my nerves. Unfortunately it was Skulker that decided to stop by.
“Well, you sure are far from home, aren’t you?”
“Can you really say I have a home anymore? You know what happened.”
Of course Skulker knew. He smiled knowingly before thankfully changing the subject. “Those shadow ghosts really have it out for you huh? They should really know their place!”
“Heh, yeah, I wonder what I did to piss so many off them off like this!”
“Oh, what didn’t you do!”
Admittedly, he got a laugh out of me. Feeling a bit more at ease, I sit down on a dumpster nearby. Skulker can make himself comfy on his own. I can’t help finding it strange that Skulker is the only other ghost I know that’s approached me so far. I have been running for a few weeks now, so I have gotten pretty far from the ghost portal, but even then there are other ghosts out there! And yet, it almost feels like everyone’s avoiding me. Skulker is the only one that I’ve been able to confide in lately.
“So what do you think their deal is?” I don’t wanna change the subject yet. I have had plenty of time with these guys and I wish I knew what they’re doing.
“You think I would know? You think I would send them after you like that?”
“What? Nah! You hunt alone don’t you?”
“Exactly that, welp! I don’t need any hounds chasing you and herding you to me! I can and will catch you on my own terms!”
“Oh goodie. Always wanted to be mounted on a wall.” The sarcasm might’ve been lost on Skulker, but it helps me stay calm.
“Maybe some day, but today is not that day! I need you in top performance before I can hunt you down proper! For now, I will help you in your time of need. Hunter’s honor.”
“Hunter’s honor…” I respond a little quieter, honestly not sure if that’s a thing. Something about it feels less like a promise, and more like camaraderie. I suppose I could have been considered a hunter, but, “I can’t be a hunter. I’m not hunting anything.”
“Oh, aren’t you? I believe I remember you were hunting for a solution to your uh… situation…”
My situation is not the same! I can’t say that, I couldn’t even bring myself to answer. My situation… it’s hard to explain, it was a stupid spur of the moment decision. Meeting clockwork, seeing Amity Park’s future, knowing what I could become, it’s all a mess I wish I could forget. I stare at a nearby wall, holding my chest, and feeling not only my pulse but a soft drumming of something foreign and new.
I failed to save them. I failed to save my friends from disaster. I don’t know what gave them the impression I could save them, especially if I was the one that put them in danger. After that explosion, there were no survivors of that accident. I saw some kind of light leaving their bodies, I could hear a soft hum from each of the lights. The hum was familiar, but much quieter than the one I’m familiar with. I was scared, and I didn’t want to lose what little what left of my friends and family. So I grabbed on. I rushed to scoop up those little lights before they flew away or shattered with how young and fragile they were. I held them close in grief, and then, they were gone. I could still feel them now, but they weren’t in my arms anymore. What’s left of everyone is right here, with what’s left of me.
“I can’t find a solution if I’m dead.” I realize my poor choice in wording immediately. “Gone. Turned to dust. Reduced to atoms. Nothing could save them then.”
“Well, you wouldn’t have to worry about your grief anymore if, you know, you weren’t conscious anymore? I could put your cores in a jar and put it up on my mantle!”
“Oh what are you, a heartless?”
A beat. A… Heartless?
“Oh, so the welp doesn’t know grammar either, it seems!”
I don’t respond, and he seems to catch on. Why did I say that? Why is it getting to me? What is a heartless and why does it feel familiar? I try to stand again, but my legs start feeling a bit wobbly, and my head gets fuzzy. A heartless. What is a heartless? Why do I know this? My energy is spent, and as the world goes dark I hear a vague shout, and I hit the ground.
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raspberryjellybrains ¡ 3 years ago
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Stargazing
Tags: minor character POV, Ruby-centric, samruby, one-shot, between season 3 and 4
Trigger warnings: mentions of blood and violence.
Author's Note: so. samruby. really quite insane if you're willing to think about it, right? there's so much to be explored, especially given that demons are just twisted human souls, which is SUCH a cool concept! which, of course, they barely explored. so here is my exploration of both samruby and this aspect of canon :)
// // // // // // // //
Sam went stargazing with Ruby, once.
Though, to say "went" implies that they weren't already out in the middle of nowhere. It just happened. One moment they were laying on a shitty mattress, relaxing into the softness of after, the next they were stumbling out into the field outside and falling into the grass. It was night, so the sweat on their bare skin cooled in place and chilled them but it was also summer, so they didn't mind it much. No one was there to complain about the mostly naked couple in the field, and both were too loose to really care.
The grass around them was soft and green with fresh growth, little bugs crawling up the dewy stalks that ended in wildflowers of all kinds. The beauty was not lost on Ruby, but all Sam's eyes registered was a sea of cool almost-black reaching like a thousand fingers up into the night sky. The sky itself was smoothly black but for the million billion pinpricks spread across, with the moon hanging achingly bright above. It was silent, for a moment, before Ruby spoke up.
"I missed this," She said it quietly, reverent and tentative and everything a demon shouldn't be. "There aren't any stars down there. It's just... redness and black smoke over top of it all. Just another way they try to break us."
She turned to see Sam's reaction, not really caring but looking to see anyway. Some soft, squishy part of her said she deserved to see the flinch as he thought about his brother. It was the same part that screamed she deserved whatever said brother would do to her for what she was doing to Sam. He didn't flinch; just turned to her with gentle eyes that shone black in the night, spangled with stars, just like hers. For a moment Ruby let herself feel as if they were equals, a righteous child being unwittingly prepared for a dark destiny and a demon reveling in and mourning her lost humanity, both laid low under the prairie's night sky.
"There's so many things. Things no one thinks about, that you take for granted that they use against you. Y'know... y'know the smell of rain? Petrichor, I think it's called? I missed it so badly. It rains down there. But... it's boiling or-or worms or blood, if they're feeling old fashioned, I guess." She looks to the side, reaches out to pluck something off the end of one of the stalks. It's a Black Eyed Susan which feels a little too on the nose, and besides. It's not hurting her. So she leaves it be and feels more words pouring from her, unbidden and tearing her up as they flow out, so she knows them to be true.
"And flowers. They have flowers but it's... they're not right, Sam, flowers aren't supposed to look like monsters and smell like corpses. It's... It's... they make you... they make you forget. All the tiny, beautiful things and they twist what you remember until you can't look at them the same, until you only remember that rain hurts and nature bites and the rest of the universe doesn't exist."
The tears are falling now, and for a moment her heart stops because they're hot and salty and she's facing the sky, so they must be falling from there. Her heart stops because that would mean she's back in hell and this was all a ruse, a new torture to get her in line by ripping apart her humanity, piece by piece. But it's not, she realizes, they're falling from her eyes.
She's crying.
Sam moves over, trampling grass as he does and she would be sad about that except now there's arms around her, holding her, tucking her into his chest, comforting her and fuck if that doesn't make her cry harder. This isn't sexual, nowhere close, and Ruby cannot bring herself to object because this is another one of the tiny, beautiful things they took from her. She can hear his infected heartbeat loud, solid, kind in her ear and it's a small, extra comfort Sam doesn't know he's providing. He does that, gives little pieces of himself to others as if they cost nothing, strings of kindness that just flow from every crevice uninhibited, encouraged. It's a bit warm for this, and they start sweating anew but it doesn't really matter because they stink like sex and sweat, anyway, and she can always lift her head to smell the fresh grassland air. This stench isn't oppressive, it's just human and there's nothing more beautiful than that in this moment.
"I'm sorry." Ruby feels him say it before she hears it, vibrating up his long neck and coming out deep and plaintive. She might've snapped, then, that she didn't want his pity. She didn't want to be looked at with dewy eyes and told she had been seen. But she did, so she cried harder and hoped he didn't misinterpret it.
He didn't.
"Thank you." She choked out. She didn't say "me, too", but it rang in the spaces between sounds anyway, hanging raw and bleeding between them.
They lay like that for hours, Sam drifting off at some point but Ruby stayed awake. A demon, she couldn't sleep, cursed forever with wakefulness like eyes peeled for danger, meant to protect you but it just drives you insane instead. Oddest of things, though, early in the morning in a field in Oklahoma, her eyes must've slipped closed and stayed that way because when she opened them again, the sun was rising. Ruby tried to be scared, but she knew it was just nature because in another life and another land, she was just a scared and sad little green witch, running from it all into the arms of a dark power that promised some of itself in return. She still felt connected to the earth and all its creatures, so they sung her to sleep, both of them heedless to the results of her plans. She woke up, and for moment felt human enough to watch the sunrise and think she deserved to see it and all the beautiful colors it created.
When the sun was high in the sky and she was tired of the day (which did not feel so kind as the night), she turned to her boyfriend, her savior, her job and woke him up gently.
"Rise and shine, Lazy Bones."
She shook him a bit, lightly, the pattern she knew would soothe him and he groaned a bit, something keening in the back of his throat.
"Yeah, I know. Up and at 'em."
Sam smiled a but at that, and she chose to believe it was her and not because he was thinking of Dean who seemed the kind of person that would say such a thing. She also chose to believe he wouldn't dismiss earlier out of hand as manipulation, looking at its mess as ugly and weeping, stripped bald in the light of day.
He didn't, though, is the thing. Even after Lucifer and the church, he didn't because he'd never seen a demon cry and, in the starlit night amongst flowers and cicadas, he knew his eyes had shone black, too. Even fake, that kinship felt right and even though the thought was unspeakably terrifying, he knew it to be true. He shared a moment of humanity with a demon, and it was beautiful.
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plxmisca ¡ 4 years ago
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Character Profile - Plumisca
Name: Plumisca Hashiyama
Alias: Sakura Serpent, Lady Plumisca
Age: 15
Birthdate: January 9th
Height: 154.2 cm
Weight: 47.3 kg
Gender: Female
Race: Oni
Affiliation: The Clan of Oni, Cassell College
Family:
Aso Hashiyama (Father)
Luphia Hashiyama (Mother)
Kirin Hashiyama (Little Brother)
Mikael (Adopted Dragon)
Love Interest: Ming-Z-Lu (?)
Occupation: Apprentice
Combat Style: Blade Master
Rank: S
“I’ll protect you, okay? I’ll protect you like my family once did for me.”
- Plumisca to Mikael
Plumisca Hashiyama is the apprentice of current Clan Chief Kaiba. She would one day succeed him and take his spot as chief, but a surprise attack on her secluded homeland had left Plumisca separated from her clan and lost in the outside world. As Plumisca struggled to grow accustomed to her new surroundings, she eventually raised a baby dragon of the Yalda species from birth, taking the creature in as her son and naming him Mikael.
Appearance
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Plumisca’s most noticeable feature are the two long horns that protrude out of her forehead. While almost all members of the Oni Clan display one horn, Plumisca displays two, which is an incredibly rare trait that only appears on one newborn once every 500 years. She also has eye-catching long hair that retains a pale pink color but eventually blends into a shade of purple at the tips. Her eyes are a pearl pink color, which matches her hair.
The traditional Oni Clan outfit is Plumisca’s standard uniform and outfit to wear and go about her day. The fabric is comfortable yet durable enough to withstand any vigorous training the girl goes through. Although members of the Oni Clan wear similar styles of the traditional clothing, they are free to customize the colors. When asked which colors Plumisca wanted, she replied, anything that would not allow her to get lost in the crowd.
Plumisca’s modern outfit was obtained from one of Tokyo’s shopping centers at a certain point after her unfortunate separation with her clan. She deliberately went with a saturated pink color to comfort Mikael, who was unhappily shedding his ocean blue skin for pink skin during his growth period. Along with her new outfit, she also sported a new purple choker that grasped her neck comfortably. Additionally, Plumisca was also seen wielding a brand new sword.
Personality
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When thrown into any situation, Plumisca is usually passive and soft-spoken. This irritates Kaiba, as he firmly believes such traits do not have a place when it comes to her future as the next clan chief. After becoming Mikael’s mother, however, Plumisca begins to slowly harden up, realizing that she would not be able to protect herself or her beloved child as the way she was. This change within herself allows Plumisca to also stand on equal footing when communicating with Ming-Z-Lu, who had tried to take advantage of her multiple times. Despite this, Plumisca still retains a kind-hearted nature above all else.
Due to the unfortunate events that happened during the surprise attack on her homeland, she has become needy towards certain people, even Ming-Z-Lu. Plumisca has a fear of being alone, but even so, she tries her best to be a capable mother for Mikael.
Powers and Abilities
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Way of the Warrior
Plumisca’s use of the blade heavily contrasts her gentle approach in life. According to Kaiba, Plumisca is ruthless with a sword in training and in actual combat. Her ruthlessness when it comes to fighting stems from the desire to end the battle as quickly as possible. This fighting style can prove to be detrimental, however, if Plumisca becomes too hasty. After a duel or slaying an opponent, she usually apologizes to them, regardless of the outcome.
Trace of Plum
Trace of Plum is a superpower Plumisca was born with. This power grants her the ability to grow plum trees at will. She can speed up the growth of the trees if she wants to as well.
EX Skill - Oni’s Illusion
A powerful skill that can bind anyone into an illusion, and is Plumisca’s preferred way of fighting despite the mental strength it requires. Depending on how strong she wants the illusion to be, she can also manipulate the five senses of her opponent such as smell and touch. Plumisca also has the ability to enhance her illusions to such a devastating degree that she is able to kill her target with an illusion if the target’s brain believes what’s happening in the illusion is happening for real.
Relationships
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Luminous
Out of the Cassell College bunch, Plumisca is closest to Luminous. The two met purely by chance in Japan and it wasn’t until Plumisca’s arrival at the college that they reunited. Things were awkward between them at first, but they slowly opened up to each other, eventually leading to the close friendship they have now. It was noted by Johann Chu that Plumisca seems to talk more whenever Luminous is around.
Ming-Z-Lu
Although she enjoys Ming-Z-Lu’s company, Plumisca actually has complex feelings for the boy underneath. For example, it was thanks to Ming-Z-Lu and all the times he dragged her to play video games with him that Plumsica became fond of gaming and even took it in as an occasional hobby. On the flip side, it hurts her knowing that the main reason Ming-Z-Lu chose to stay by her side in the first place is so he can one day force a deal out of her.
One thing Plumisca particularly does not like about him is his sick way of “comforting” her. There was a time when he’d rub her head affectionately and say to her with a fake smile, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from this cruel world. So you can run into my arms like the little helpless girl that you are!~”
Plumsica does not know where Ming-Z-Lu’s feelings stand with her. She cannot decipher whether the boy actually likes her and the way he treats her is just his twisted way of showing Plumisca his love, or if he’s merely using her as some sort of toy. She secretly yearns for his affection, but she doesn’t want to admit it.
Anjou
Anjou and Plumisca are on fair terms with each other. While they are not that close, Plumisca has shown her gratitude towards him multiple times for allowing her to seek shelter in Cassell College in order to hide from Osho’s pursuit.
Grandma Abe
While she is not Plumisca’s biological grandmother, the girl prefers to call Abe with that endearing term. It is thanks to Grandma Abe that Plumisca and Mikael have a home to live in, which is located at Ehime Perfecture.
Mikael
Mikael and Plumisca share a very close mother-son relationship. Even though Mikael was born a dragon, Plumisca chose to raise him like a loving mother. The girl had her doubts about adopting him in fear that she would only fail at her job, but her worries dissipated over time as she got used to raising him.
Plumisca is very protective of Mikael, and is especially suspicious of Ming-Z-Lu whenever he spends time with the dragon. This was also proven when Plumisca found it incredibly difficult to temporarily leave Mikael in the hands of Grandma Abe when she had to depart for Cassell College in order to hide her presence from Osho’s Blade.
In the evenings, Plumisca and Mikael love to talk about their shared dream of becoming travel companions once Mikael has grown old enough.
Caesar
Caesar and Plumisca are on neutral terms with each other. They only talk occasionally whenever Luminous is with them. Plumisca personally finds Caesar to be “too intimidating,” so she prefers to stay out of his path.
Johann Chu
Plumisca considers Johann Chu to be a quiet, but comforting friend. Whenever they are together, it is surprisingly Johann who does most of the talking. Their conversations mostly consist of Johann curiously asking the girl about her family traditions and her clan. Plumisca fondly remembers a time when she once helped him study for an upcoming exam.
NoNo
According to NoNo, she finds Plumisca to be “adorable and super squishy.” The time spent with NoNo usually consists of the red haired student parading the latter around college while calling Plumisca her new sidekick.
Chime Gen
Chime Gen was the first person Plumisca encountered after being washed up on the beach of Ehime Perfecture. There is not much to their relationship as they are merely acquaintances, but Plumisca noticed that Chime has shown interest in her on multiple occasions.
Kaiba
Kaiba is the chief of the Oni Clan and Plumisca’s dear mentor. She respects him to the highest degree and firmly believes that he is the strongest in their clan. Plumisca often worries that she won’t be able to live up to his expectations. When they are not busy training together, Kaiba displays a warmer exterior towards his apprentice. It is said that their relationship began when Plumisca was only five years of age.
Trivia
Despite her nature, Plumisca is unexpectedly very adamant about keeping her hair long. When asked multiple times by Kaiba if she wanted her hair to be cut so it wouldn’t get in the way when in battle, she refused every time.
She loves to stargaze on the nights when the stars shine the brightest. To her, the act of lying down on the soft grass while staring up into the sky is a form of stress relief that she likes to indulge in.
Out of curiosity, Plumisca once dyed her hair blonde, but was ultimately mortified by the result.
She enjoys eating sakuramochi.
Her favorite game to play is Mortal Kombat.
Not much is known about her family dynamic, but it’s assumed Plumisca had a positive upbringing.
27 notes ¡ View notes
mypoisonedvine ¡ 5 years ago
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Hiya! Could you maybe write a sad/angsty Jaskier imagine where the reader is dying from an illness or something, but when she dies she kinds of a transformation (like yen) where not only does she come back to life, but she’s even more beautiful. After years she eventually finds Jaskier and Geralt again and they reunite ect ect. Could you please make it really emotional? I’m in the mood to cry 😩
Hoo boy, I really ran with this one, because I actually had a vaguely similar idea before I got this ask and I ended up sorta frankensteining the two together into something hopefully enjoyable!  Sorry it took so long, but with a word count of 6k it’s not too shocking that it took me a few days!  Hope you’re still in the mood to cry!  I took a few liberties with the original prompt although I actually had a second idea that followed it more closely in some ways and less so in others.  Maybe I’ll write that one up someday as well but I don’t want to be known for killing readers lol so I’ll need to get some normal stuff out there in between.
Quick disclaimer, I sort of made canon squishy in this one… it’s supposed to be set after Jaskier breaks up with Geralt after the dragon hunt.  Theoretically, he heads straight back home and that instigates this whole plot.  The thing is that he and the reader would be 40 for that to really make sense.  So, I kind of left it vague…. depending on your age, feel free to imagine that less than 22 years have passed lol.  So, just a heads up on that.
WARNING: major character death, in fact it’s the reader and it is depicted graphically.  I would not recommend this story to someone struggling with suicidal thoughts because it does straight up describe you dying, all in second person.  If you think you would find that really disturbing and/or really enticing, please don’t read this!  The good news is, as is made clear in the original request, there’s a happy ending!
Never Really Over (a Jaskier x Reader oneshot)
Rating: T (violence but only implied smut)Word Count: 6kTaglist: never had one of these for an ask before but lol @100percentamess you asked to be tagged in everything so here’s your first!
You were cleaning out an old closet when you found it, tucked away under a floorboard.  When you saw the small decorated chest, you instantly remembered what was inside.  Throughout your childhood you had written him a number of love letters, confessing your undying commitment to him every few years like some kind of triennial tradition.  None of the letters ever made it to him, because you knew better than to dream of him ever returning the sentiment.  Even knowing that, you felt embarrassment burning in your chest when you remembered some of the ridiculous things you had written.  Julian, you’re the love of my life and I know that we’re meant to be together, shit like that.  
You had always wanted to get out of this town, see the world, experience life, but you never got your chance.  That made it sting all the more when you found the letter from him under your door so many years ago.  You didn’t even need to open the box to read it, you remembered it like you had it right in front of you: You’ve been my best friend my whole life and I’ve loved you like a sister.  I hope you won’t be hurt that I’m leaving, but I can’t stay in this place.  I need adventure, and I plan to find it while I tour the Continent with my songs.  If I ever return I’ll be sure to stop by… and if I become a famous bard, you can always say you knew me back when!  -Julian
When you heard a knock at the door you jumped, having lost yourself in the memory.  You slid the floorboard back quickly, and moved a rug over it to cover the cracks.  Running to the door, you swung it open and what you saw made you sure you’d gone mad.
It was Julian.  He’d barely aged, so much so that at first you thought he was some sort of corporeal memory of the day he left.  
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he remarked casually.  
~
“Julian-” you began.
“I go by Jaskier now,” he corrected.
“Unless you’re here to perform, I’m not going to call you by a stage name,” you frowned. 
“It’s not just a stage name: I’ve reinvented myself,” he boasted. 
“Jules, I’ve known you my whole life, and you’re the same you’ve always been,” you shot him down with an eye roll.  He smiled at you and it made your heart ache.
“You’re the same, too.  But you look different,” he observed.  You must have made a face of disappointment because he instantly corrected himself. “Not older, necessarily.  Well, not old.  You look different…” he paused, “but it suits you.”
“Don’t sound so hesitant,” you laughed.
“It’s just strange!” he defended. “But it’s good to see you again.  I missed you greatly.”
You sighed, looking away. 
“You don’t hate me for leaving, do you?” he asked nervously, taking your hand in his.  His touch shot through your entire body, and you wished he wouldn’t do things like that- things that were so unimportant and nonchalant to him but meant so much to you.
“I only hate you as much as I ever did,” you answered quietly, looking back at him.  He looked like he really needed to believe that you didn’t hate him, which was strange: normally he seemed to either not care what people thought of him, or maybe even thrive on negative attention.  He was always meant to be a star: a firm believer in the idea that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
“Strangely, I don’t find that comforting,” he replied with a chuckle.
“You best not come to me for comfort, don’t you remember how mean I am?” you smiled back.
“Yes, but never to me!” 
“Well, you left,” you responded, and the mood was dampened.  Regretting to have lost the energy, you piped up quickly with a question. “How were your travels?”
It didn’t seem to help.
“Oh, lovely,” he said, but his energy didn’t match the words. “Saw all sorts of wild things.  You’d have loved it.  We were going to make it to the coast- we never did.  But you’d have loved it,” he reflected somberly.
You sighed, imagining how incredible it would be.  To think that he thought of you in such interesting places made you wonder if he would be willing to go with you, like you’d always wanted.
“Maybe we should go,” you suggested hesitantly.
“No, you’d have a terrible time,” he deflected.
“But you just said I’d have loved it,” you remembered.
“I meant being there, but travelling?  You don’t have the constitution for it,” he scoffed.
“What I don’t have the constitution for is staying here,” you countered, sadness palpable in your voice.
“Well, now that I’m back I’m wishing I’d never left,” he groaned.
“Don’t be ridiculous.  Please tell me you won’t be staying long,” you replied incredulously.
“Best not to, I suppose.  Maybe I’ll go to the coast on my own-” he began.
“Take me with you,” you pleaded, gripping his doublet, having lost all sense of dignity, “I need to leave this place.  I can’t die in this town, Julian.  I need to see the world!  I’ve never seen the ocean, the mountains-”
“No,” he repeated.
“Please,” you begged.
“I don’t do that anymore,” he grumbled, turning away to pick up his bag and starting to walk away. “It’s over, alright?”
“What?”
“I was travelling with someone but… I guess I drove him as crazy as I always drove you.  And he told me to leave him alone,” he sighed.
You felt guilty for pressing on it, not realizing it was still a sore spot.
“You didn’t drive me crazy,” you comforted, “not really.”
“I think I’m just too much.  I’m too intense for most people,” he explained.
“Most people are terrible,” you groaned. “Remember how we talked when we were young?  How everyone was so pompous and ridiculous and fake?”
“Yeah,” he smiled a little at the memory.
“Well, we were right.  I mean, I know we were whiny little brats,” you smirked, “but this town hasn’t changed much.  All gossip and nonsense.”
“It’s not this town, it’s the whole Continent,” he corrected.  “Trust me, I’ve seen a lot of it, and people are the same everywhere.”
You didn’t say anything at first.
“Except you,” he added, ��of course.”
You smiled but it hurt when he said things like that.  All the “love you like a sister” crap that made being his friend so painful, and now more than ever you couldn’t escape from it.  Of course a part of you was glad to see him again, but now that he was in front of you, it was like not even a day had passed since he left: you still loved him so completely, so desperately, and so pointlessly.  
~
You heard him singing, ever so quietly, from around the corner.  You always thought he had a lovely voice but he’d never liked to play for you.  He said it gave him stage fright, something he failed to experience on actual stages.  You figured he was just holding out on you, for whatever reason.  You didn’t want to spy but also you couldn’t really help it, since you were visiting his family’s home and he had been silly enough to play a song with the door open.  He started and stopped and started over a few times, but once he got going for good, you were close enough to be able to hear the words…
She is the sun, bright and unforgivingBurning the grass and drying the rainI never looked at her, afraid to go blindI loved her light though she brought me such pain
She is the sun and when she walks awayThe world gets colder though the sky is in bloomAs the sun sets I ask if I’ve lost my chance foreverBut she could never stay and to the night I am doomed
“Ah, fuck, doomed doesn’t really rhyme with bloom, does it?” he interrupted himself.  You jumped a little, not realizing how entranced you were by the song, and you reached up to wipe a few stray tears from your cheeks.  You couldn’t be mad at him for singing a song about another woman when he didn’t even know you could hear, but you were angry regardless.  Moreso than angry, just sad.  Wasn’t love supposed to make you feel good?  Loving Julian was a thankless job, certainly.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked, and you jumped again, not even having noticed he’d turned the corner.
“Just mopping,” you blurted out.
He looked around for a moment with a raised eyebrow.
“…where’s your mop, then?” he (fairly) queried.
“Still in the kitchen,” you explained, “I’m planning where I’m going to mop.”
“I figured you could sort of just wing it with mopping.  Didn’t realize there was a pre-mopping phase.”
“Oh, absolutely,” you nodded, “it’s really important.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want to keep you.  Get on with it,” he encouraged, starting to go back into his room.
“Wait,” you prompted.  He stopped, turning back to face you. “I liked the song.”
“I was hoping you hadn’t heard that,” he replied nervously.
“Why?”
“I didn’t want anyone to hear it until it was finished,” he explained.
“And when it’s finished, will you play it at the local pub or something?” you asked, remembering his earliest performances when you were fifteen or so.
“No, too personal for that: I was planning to play it for the subject,” he explained.  You winced.
“I’m sure she’ll love it,” you responded quietly
“Yeah, the Countess is fickle and all but she usually spreads her legs for a good song,” he smiled mischievously.
Thinking of him with someone else, especially like that, made you want to vomit… then you would actually need to mop.  
“Why did you come here?” you asked him, finally, after wanting to understand for so long.
“I… I needed some time at home,” he answered, but you didn’t buy it.
“Why now?  And why did you come to my door?” you growled.
“Are you offended by that?  Am I not allowed to visit a friend?” he responded in confusion.
“I didn’t even realize we were still friends!” you admitted.
“Why wouldn’t we be?” he asked like it made no sense at all, and you were thankful you weren’t holding anything because you likely would’ve thrown it.
“You left without a proper warning, I didn’t hear from you at all for… a long fucking time, and now you have the audacity to come back!” you barked.  “I already gave you everything, and you threw it away, searching for adventure!  What could you possibly want from me now?”
"It’s just my selfishness, I suppose, but I wanted to know there was someone out there who still cared for me,” he defended.
"You’re asking me if I care for you?  Is that really what’s on your mind?” you asked incredulously.  He didn’t respond, seeming confused.You felt tears sting the back of your eyes, rage burning through your chest.  You were tired of lying, tired of running around and being his pet all so you could be near him when he wanted nothing from you but a reminder he wasn’t totally alone in the world after he’d burned every bridge- including the one you had been standing on, waiting, for all these years.
“Julian Alfred Pankratz, I will love you until the day I die.  I promise you that.”  You tried to say it with the anger, hatred even, that you felt, but most of it was lost as your voice wavered from crying.  You turned away and walked outside, sobbing so hard you weren’t sure that you would be able to walk home properly.  You did, eventually, and immediately crawled into bed and cried yourself to sleep.
~
Maybe it wasn’t even noon yet, but it felt like time for a drink.  The pub was empty, at least at first; halfway through your fourth mug, an old acquaintance, Viktor, walked in and sat beside you.
“Bit early for that, isn’t it?” he frowned.  
“Then what are you doing here?” you asked.
“Looking for you,” he answered.
You chuckled, considering how disappointed he must be to find you like this: eyes still swollen from crying, half-drunk, more cynical and calloused than ever.
“So, listen, I’ve been thinking,” Viktor began, and you fought the urge to roll your eyes.  Despite being nearly an old maid at this point, Viktor had always sought you.  You’d known him your whole life and he was always a pest: rude, aggressive, dull.  Dumb enough to think you hadn’t realized his feelings for you.  He had proposed marriage twice, never having much of a better reason than “we’re both still single and it would make our families happy if we married.”  And now here he was, bothering you while you were trying to have a drink in peace, presumably so he could do it all over again.
“I’m not here to ask you to marry me,” he clarified, as if reading your mind.  You perked up a bit at that.
“I’m finally too old for you?” you scoffed.
“Don’t be like that,” he frowned, “you’re not old.  It makes perfect sense to me that you’re unmarried at this age, even if everyone calls you an old hag and a spinster.”
Viktor had a way of trying to be nice but it always ending in an insult.  Not that it was news to you that people talked about you that way.
“And why do you think I’m unmarried?” you pressed.
“Because you haven’t gotten to know anybody well enough,” he posited. “Look, I’ve known you my whole life, so I always figured I knew you well enough for marriage, but I see that you’re right now.  We don’t really know each other that way.”
You nodded. “Good, you’ve come to see reason then.”
“There must be some way that we could, though,” he added. “A date; courting.”
“Courting?  I’m not fourteen,” you grimaced.
“Whatever you’d want to call it.  I’d come by tomorrow and we’d go for a walk.  And we’d talk about whatever we wanted to, and we’d see how we get along when it’s just us,” he offered.
“Sound boring,” you mumbled.
“Don’t be so mean,” he requested.
“I was always mean and you still fell for me.”
“I was always nice and you still ignore me.  If you would just stop chasing something you’ll never get-” he began, but as you looked at him he stopped and started over.  “You have to stop hurting yourself over people who don’t care about you,” he explained. “If you gave me a chance, you’d appreciate how nice it feels to know someone cares for you.”
I wanted to know there was someone out there who still cared for me, you remembered Julian saying.  Apparently everyone else wanted to be cared for, but you were too busy caring to consider your own feelings.  You were so tired of fighting for Julian and rebuffing Viktor and shouldering the burden of spinsterhood in a conservative town like this one.
“Alright, come by tomorrow, then,” you acquiesced.  Viktor smiled.
“You won’t regret it- you’ll learn to appreciate me,” he predicted as he stood up to leave.
“The beginning of every successful relationship,” you replied sarcastically, but he seemed to take you literally.  What a moron.  At least he was nice enough- and actually had the integrity and honesty to tell you how he felt… not that you felt particularly integritous after your confession to Julian.  But you were optimistic; maybe this was a step in the right direction.  So why did the idea of letting go of him, even when you had known you needed to for years, hurt so deeply?
~
You stayed drunk through the afternoon but stopped drinking after a while, so you could go to bed sober.  You stayed up later than normal, avoiding sleep and the torturous dreams of love that it always brought.  It had started to rain- downpour, actually- and the thunder would’ve kept you up anyhow.
You heard a knock at your door and answered hesitantly, unsure who would be coming by so late.  When you opened it you saw Julian, soaked through with rain, looking like a lost puppy.  Of course you wanted to invite him in from the rain but you were still angry so you let him stand out there a bit longer.
“What are you doing here?” you asked.
He looked at you, and when you looked back into his eyes, you saw it.  You understood instantly what was really going on.
“Oh, oh no,” you reprimanded as you stepped back, wagging a finger at him. “No, Julian- don’t you dare.”
“I can’t help it,” he defended.
“No, no, don’t you dare love me now!” you ordered.
“Why can’t I?” he asked quietly, stepping towards you, through the doorway and out of the rain.  You stepped back again, running into a wall and bracing against it.
“It’s too late.  Jules, after all these years…” you trailed off, but then shook your head. “It’s too late,” you repeated.
“It can’t be too late,” he refused, “there has to be another chance.”
“You ran out of chances,” you explained, starting to cry, “it’s over.  Julian, it’s too late.  At some point, it has to be too late.”
“There has to be another chance for us,” he asserted.  You sobbed when you heard him say that word, ‘us.’
“Jules, no,” you wept, “I waited for so long.  I thought that if I loved you hard enough, that you would have to love me back.  And you left.  Julian, you left.  I had to give up.  I had to let it go.  I had to stop loving you.”
“But you didn’t,” he remembered, and you watched as a tear ran down his own face.
“Because you’re my fucking curse!” you screamed. “You’re my ghost!  You fucking haunt me!  Loving you has taken everything from me!”
“I never asked you to love me all those years!” he countered, his voice raising but not matching yours.
“But you’re asking me to now,” you scoffed.
“I’m not asking for anything.  I just need you to know the truth,” he explained.
“Bullshit,” you spat. “You came here because I was always your back-up plan.  You tired of whoring around, and you decided to come back because I was the stable option, the safe option.  You never wanted my love, you just wanted my attention.”
“For a long time, I didn’t understand the difference between love and attention,” he responded with a quiet, somber tone.  Your anger subsided partially.  “I didn’t understand the need for loyalty or reliability.  And then I lost everything.  The first thing I thought of when I considered coming here wasn’t my family, my house, my culture.  It was you.  I wanted to go home,” his voice began to waver tearfully, “and coming back to you was coming home.  I lost everything and all I had left was you.  And it’s not because you were my second choice.  It’s because I’m a fucking idiot who couldn’t see how much I needed you until-”
“Until it was too late,” you finished.
“Don’t say that,” he pleaded, stepping towards you again, this time touching you, grabbing your arms gently but with urgency.  His hands were warm, even when they were wet with cold rain. “Gods, don’t say that, please.”
You looked up at him and cried; you cried because you knew that there was no ending for you but heartbreak. 
“The day I met you, when I was just a few years old, was the day my life was ruined,” you whispered. “Cursed forever to live a life at your beck and call, because I loved you with everything I had.  I’ve never been able to stop, even when I hated you and even when I needed to let you go and move on so that I could live.  Julian, I waited my whole life for you…”
“You don’t have to wait anymore,” he whispered back, leaning down as his face moved closer to yours.  You whimpered weakly, your crying beginning to soothe.  His hand wiped your tears away, and you rested your face into his palm.  His touch was so warm, delicate, comforting.  
“I love you,” he confessed, examining your face.  You nodded, still crying partially from the initial hurt and partially from a solemn joy of everything you ever wanted suddenly right in front of you.  He was so close now that his face was just a few centimetres from yours, you could even feel his breath, see every drop of water running down from his hair into his face.  “Tell me it isn’t over,” he begged.
“It was never over,” you reassured, closing the distance between you and kissing him softly.  You were both still crying, just a little, perhaps mourning all the time lost that you could never get back.  And yet, all the anger of the past and the fear of the future washed away, and all that was left was being together in this moment.  The hand on your face moved to hold your head and neck, and the other pulled you closer at the waist.  Feeling his body pressed against yours was like cozying up to a warm fireplace, his presence a golden glow against the cold, dark world outside.  You wrapped your arms around his neck, deepening the kiss and starting to fall back into his arms.  He held you tightly, the wetness of his clothes soaking through yours quickly.  You didn’t even gasp when he picked you up, too lost in the kiss and trusting him too much to be afraid of falling.  He carried you down the hall, kicking the bedroom door open but setting you down onto the quilt gently.
~ 
You awoke to sunlight streaming in through the window, and the feeling of Julian’s fingers running through your hair.  You turned to face him, appreciating how lovely he looked washed in the sunrise.  You indulged yourself in looking at his muscular shoulders and chest where they weren’t covered by the bedsheets.
“Good morning,” he smiled.
“I can’t believe that really happened,” you whispered, mostly to yourself.
“I can,” he replied. “It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” you answered, feeling yourself blush a bit. 
“We should go somewhere,” he suggested suddenly.
“Where?” you asked.
“Wherever you’d like,” he shrugged.  You ran your fingers down his chest, admiring the thick layer of dark hair, imagining all the places you could go.
“Take me to the ocean, then,” you requested.
“The middle of the ocean?  Or is the coast alright?” he smirked.
You laughed.
“I’m serious!” he defended. “I’m not opposed to sailing.  It’s rather peaceful.”
“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?  The water?” you imagined.
“Nothing quite like it,” he smiled serenely.
“Promise you’ll take me,” you demanded.
“I promise,” he whispered as he moved a stray lock of hair out of your face.
“Soon?” you pressed.
“There’s nothing keeping us here.  We could leave tomorrow if you’d like,” he offered. 
“Not planning on running off without me again, are you?  This wasn’t all some convoluted ploy to get me into bed?” you asked, mostly joking.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he laughed, sitting up and pulling you closer.  Soon he was hovering over you, and your legs wrapped around his waist before you could even think about it.
“Twice in a night didn’t satisfy you?” he smirked.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be satisfied,” you replied.
“And to think you accused me of wanting to run off!  I’m not sure I’ll ever get out of this bed, if you have your way,” he teased, leaning down to kiss your neck.
“I waited so long for this,” you explained, “I suppose my patience has run thin.”
“Then I won’t keep you waiting any longer,” he growled, and you bit your lip as you smiled.
You startled when you heard a knock on the front door.
“Who’d be coming by at this hour?” Julian asked with confusion.
As if to answer, you heard Viktor’s voice coming from across the house: “Are you all right?” 
“Fuck,” you whispered, rolling out from under him and hopping out of the bed.  Despite the commotion and the events of the night previous, Julian still took a moment to look you up and down as your naked form was exposed.  “I forgot he was coming over today,” you hissed.
“Tell him to bugger off,” he scoffed.
“Alright, but I need to get dressed and you need to stay hidden,” you commanded.
You searched for your clothing strewn about the floor, slipping back on your wrinkled dress and attempting to make some sense of your hair.
Dressed enough to answer the door, you shooed a half-clothed Julian into a corner where he couldn’t be seen from the entryway.  You dashed down the hall and opened the door, and Viktor was waiting on the other side.
“Viktor!  Good morning!” you said cheerfully, holding the door only enough to fit your body into it, hoping he wouldn’t see much of the messy room behind you.
“Isn’t that what you were wearing last night?” he noticed instantly.  You sighed, not realizing your plan wouldn’t last even through one sentence.  What you especially didn’t realize was that, upon understanding what most likely had happened, Viktor would push past you, entering in a rage.
“Wait, stop!” you protested, but it was too late.  Viktor stormed towards the bedroom, from which Julian had emerged and then immediately started to run away. 
“You,” Viktor growled as he pointed to the topless bard.
“Hey, long time no see!” Julian cheered weakly.
“Bastard!” Viktor bellowed, chasing Julian down and pinning him against the wall. 
“Stop!” you demanded, rushing towards them.  Viktor released Julian only for a moment to grab you by the collar of your dress, and you yelped.
“I’ll deal with you next, whore!” he spat, the back of his hand slapping you across the face so hard that you spun onto the floor.
Julian launched at Viktor, the two falling next to you on the ground and wrestling in a flurry of punches.  You tried to kick them off of each other but the fight grew more brutal quickly.  Soon Viktor had forced Julian onto the ground and was punching him over and over, each hit bloodying his face more and more.
“Stop, please!” you begged, but he wasn’t listening.  You were sure that he was going to kill him, and you scrambled towards your bedside chest.  Opening it, your dagger was laid right on top, and you wasted no time grabbing it and running over to the two of them.  You grunted as you swung the blade down, stabbing Viktor in the back.  He cried out, falling onto his side on the floor.  Julian weakly sat up, sliding along the ground to get away from his attacker.  You watched Viktor struggle for a moment and then relax, a large pool of blood already forming under him.  You rushed to Julian’s side on the floor, examining his face.
“I’ll be fine,” he reassured before you could even ask.
“It looks pretty bad,” you winced.
“You saved me- I thought he was going to kill me,” he groaned.
“I couldn’t let you go that easy,” you smiled.  Julian closed his eyes, leaning his back against the wall as he sat in the corner of the room.  You looked at him with a smile: even bloodied and beaten he looked like everything you’d ever wanted.
You stood up and turned around, hoping to be able to care for Viktor’s wound, and everything happened so fast that you were on the floor before you realized exactly what had occurred.  You looked up just in time to see Viktor topple to the ground and die, a trail of blood behind him.  The wound in his back was empty, and you looked down to see your own dagger plunged into your gut.
“No!” Julian yelled, crawling towards you and examining the wound before grabbing your face. “No, no, no, no,” he rushed, tears running down his face as he scrambled around you to try to decide what to do.
“Julian,” you tried to soothe him, feeling a burning heat radiating from where you’d been stabbed.
“Oh Gods, I’ll go get someone- there must be a healer nearby-” he began desperately.
“Julian, look at me,” you requested, your voice weaker.  You felt so tired.  He obeyed, the fear in his expression clear even as you couldn’t see him that well through your tears.
“It’s over,” you whispered.
“No, no, it’s not,” he reassured as he shook his head, “it can’t be.  You’re going to be okay.  And we’re going to be together.”
"We were together, and it was beautiful,” you remembered, stopping to cough which sprayed blood from your mouth.
“It’s not over,” he repeated, but the way his voice wavered made it clear that he didn’t believe it entirely.  “I can’t lose you again.”
It was getting harder to fight to stay awake, and you didn’t want to fight anymore.  You felt like if you just let go, you could fall back into something warm and dark and peaceful.  And you were ready to let it wrap around you and take you home.  He grabbed your hand and held it in his, planting a kiss on your knuckles and holding your fingers against his forehead.  His touch kept you lucid a bit longer, but your fingers were already so cold…
“I kept my promise,” you whispered, a warm tear rolling down your cheek as you felt everything blur and soften, your vision narrowing down to a point even though you couldn’t tell if your eyes were closing.
“No, no, please don’t go…" Julian’s begging faded away into the quiet static of sleep.  
~
You startled awake, and instantly you couldn’t see or breathe.  Your body flailed against the oppressive darkness and you felt it moving against you, felt that there was something to struggle against.  Pushing back against the weight, your hands were suddenly cold and you remembered the feeling as air.  Sitting up, you were freed, coughing hoarsely as you breathed for the first time you could remember in a long time.  Opening your eyes, you saw you were on the beach, surrounded by and covered in sand.  You looked behind you and observed the hole you had just crawled out of.  Just above where your head must’ve been lay a pile of rocks, and remnants of dead flowers.  This was a burial ground.  Your burial ground.
You vaguely remembered dying, the sensation of holding Julian’s hand as you slipped away.  You could imagine it so clearly that it almost felt real, like you’d only let go of him a moment ago.  You reached down to your stomach where the knife had been, and found a bloodied hole in your clothes but no damage on your skin.  
You touched your hair and it was braided.  You looked through the sand and found flowers everywhere, even a bouquet.  You began to cry as you realized that Julian had kept his promise to take you to the ocean, and even gone so far as to prepare your body for a funeral and decorate your sandy coffin with flowers.
There has to be another chance, his words from the night before you died rang in your head.  You stood up, your legs still a little wobbly as you got used to walking again.  But quickly you were running, determined on your mission to find Julian and fix this for good.  You weren’t sure how you were alive, but you knew why: he and your teenage self were right.  You were meant to be together.  And now not even Death could stop you.
~
“Tell me the date,” you demanded as you swung open the door to the mage’s office.  He motioned to an astrological calendar on the wall, and you examined it.  
“It’s been exactly a year,” you realized aloud.
“Since when?” the mage asked curiously.
“Since I died,” you said casually.
The mage stood up, pulling out a chair and gesturing towards it.
“Please, have a seat,” he requested.
~
“I’m not sure I came back from the dead,” you groaned as you looked at yourself in the mirror.  You saw some features that you shared with your memory of how you’d looked before, but you saw yourself as a stranger.  Everything you’d hated about your face and body (and there was a lot) was gone.  No pockmarks from your childhood illness.  No wrinkles around your eyes and mouth.  Stronger jawline, bigger eyes, fuller lips.  Your hair was fuller as well, and even the colour was different.  It wasn’t like looking at an entirely different person necessarily, moreso just yourself with several minor changes that really added up, but it was quite the shock regardless.
“In my experience with resurrection, a physical change is normal,” the mage explained.
“You have experience with resurrection?” you asked incredulously as you turned to him.
“No,” he frowned.
You grimaced, looking back to yourself in the mirror, tugging at your skin as if the mask would peel off and you’d look like the old you again.
“So, you don’t know how or why you’ve changed?” the mage interrogated.
“Yes, of course,” you sighed.
“And you don’t know how or why you’re alive?” he asked.
“I don’t know how,” you answered, “but I know why.”
The mage waited for an explanation.
“Love,” you stated plainly.  “Do you think love can create miracles?”
He pondered for a moment before he replied. “Destiny gets her way,” he decided, “and even Death bends to her will.”
“I’ve always known he was my destiny,” you remembered.
“I have to say, I’ve had quite a peculiar day,” the mage admitted.  You glared at him.  “Not quite peculiar enough to compete with yours, of course, but peculiar nonetheless.  I don’t usually spend all day talking about destiny.”
“I thought that was normal fare for a mage.”
“Most people come here asking to either lift a curse or cast one.  Destiny is a rarer issue.  Just before you came in, I was discussing it with someone else- a witcher, if you’d believe it,” he recalled.
“I’d believe anything now,” you smirked.
“Say, do witchers normally have travelling companions?”
Your face dropped and you stood up from your seat.
“Tell me where they went,” you demanded.
“I try to offer my clients privacy, a sense of discretion-” he began, but he choked when you grabbed him by the collar.
“Tell me where they were headed, now,” you repeated through your teeth.
~
“You’ve aged more in the past year than you did in all our travels together,” Geralt observed.
“I lost everything,” was all Jaskier said.
Suddenly he looked to the horizon, not for any reason, just a feeling that he should.  Staring ahead he saw a silhouette begin to emerge from over the hill.  You looked back at him and you prepared to explain who you were, what had happened, why you changed (not that you understood all of that yourself).  Instead he started to run to you, and you couldn’t fight back your ecstatic smile as you began to run to him as well.  When you met in the middle he embraced you, spinning you around and pulling you into a kiss that made you feel properly alive again, more than before.
“It was never over,” he told you quietly as he pulled back from the kiss.  
“How did you know it was me?” you asked, running your fingers down his cheek. “You buried me.  I look completely different.  I don’t even recognize myself.”
“I could just… tell,” he shrugged.
“But how?” you demanded.
“Because it’s you,” he answered simply, using his hand to brush some hair out of your face. “It was always you.”
You kissed him again, with enough passion to make up for the all the time lost, and yet, brimming with hope and excitement for the future.
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bowieandqueen11 ¡ 5 years ago
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Ignored / Ben Hanscom Imagine
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Request: I know you've already done a Ben Hanscom x daughter reader imagine recently, but could you do one where the reader has 3 older brothers and she feels like they all ignore her for being the only girl in the house (mom left), but Ben tells her their not? 
Of course, love. Also I’m sorry for being away for so long <3
Comments are much appreciated!
The Hanscom boys are playing in the back garden, each smiling as they push back on one another and tumble, rolling and staining their shirts on the damp grass. They glance over to you, from where you stood on the patio, but only for a moment before they returned back to ramming into each other and starting to place their feet on the lower branches of the nearest tree. Glancing up towards the top of the shaking leaves, the light cascading through the thin sticks almost as bright as their shaking laughter, you wish they would let you climb that tree with them.
You, instead, turned in the opposite direction, going further towards the gate of rough wood at the edge of the Hanscom property, moving further away from the pool. The slight dampness of the concrete leaves squelching footsteps as you jumped down onto the stone path, wandering past the huge weeping willow flowing down onto the dank and squishy ground. Clusters of defiant daffodils reared their golden heads and there were smatters of fuchsia along side the scarlet and saffron hued primroses. Dad always was a great gardener, the flower beds a riot of May colour. You had always loved spending afternoons after school alone with your dad, your brothers inside watching television, your knees in the dirt as he cupped your hands around a Daffodil bulb. Ben always looked radiant, a bright smile on his face, no cares about the blue shorts that dug into the soil and stained with mud. He always looked so young, then, when he was out in nature - you always thought it was the closest you would ever see him as he was back when he lived in Derry. He didn’t exactly own many pictures of himself, but from time to time, when he had had a hard day and would slump down beside you in front of the fireplace, he would show you a glimpse of the photo booth strip he kept in his pocket, the last hint into his childhood he had.
‘Remember, Y/n,’ he would say, his arm wrapping around your shoulder, ‘that you are never as alone in this world as you think.’
You would never bring it up, especially so soon after the divorce, but you always saw the forlorn look in his eyes and the way his thumb would stroke over the red haired girl at the edge of the frame.
You sat down at the garden bench, fashioned a long time ago from a wind-felled tree, the legs being sections of the trunk and the top a fine long plank rendered a deep soulful brown by the varnish. You watched your brothers laugh and play from the corner of the garden. How could they be happy when you felt so sad? Part of you wanted them to feel your pain too, so you wouldn't have be so lonely with it, but part of you was glad they couldn't, it was private after all. Your eyes suddenly swam with tears and you hurried to scrub them from your face. Although your mum was never around anymore, you wondered if that girl, that woman now, with the hair as bright as fire and eyes as alive and burning as the sun would be able to understand what this pain felt like. Sometimes, before you fell asleep, you liked to pretend that she, that Beverly Marsh, would come in and press a kiss against your hair, telling you that everything would be alright. That you would be a family now.
You shake your head sadly, digging the heel of your hands against your cheek, a bird flitting past your vision and distracting you from your thoughts. Ben had always said that your Uncle Stanley loved birds, sometimes it was the only thing he could remember about him. You didn’t see, as you watched the wings soar through the blue, your dad removing his shades, enjoying the many pot plants that reached upward with broad and spreading leaves as he climbed down the few steps away from his desk and out towards where his children were.
He frowns as he sees you sitting of by yourself, looking wistfully at your brothers. Stepping down, he reaches to pick up a few straggling daisies from the shadow of the patio. They made such a fine bouquet. They weren't the small flowers that bespeckle the lawn each spring, but the large asters, the giant daisies, that grow a couple of feet tall in the summer sun, their smell unbashful and tart, cutting through the air as easily as lemon.
Just the slight of Ben’s brown dress shoes rounding the corner was enough to release the breath you didn't even know you were holding in. With the sigh, your shoulders relaxed as you glanced up at his concerned face, taking the flowers he held out to you.
‘Hey dad.’
‘Don't look so sad.’ He sits down on the bench next to you, poking your nose and pulling you tight into his side, brushing a strand of  hair away from the side of your face.
‘What’s wrong, sweetheart?’ He takes a fake whiff, doing an overdramatic grimace before saying, ‘I don’t smell that badly, do I? I know I’ve been working for what seems like five years...’
You only sniff dejectedly and bury your face into the side of his chest. Ben’s eyebrows furrow in concern, his large hand digging into your shoulder, squeezing softly. You bathed in his warmth and the smell of freshly laundered clothes, trying to stop the sobs from choking up your throat.
‘I don’t want to be the only girl in this family anymore dad. Everyone just ignores me. I just feel like I don’t belong.’
Ben stops for a moment, wondering how he could have been so oblivious to the obvious signs of loneliness he had once known so well. His mouth drops often slightly in shock, before he shakes out of it and gently pulls you away from him, tilting your chin until you were glancing up into his swimming eyes.
‘When I was your age, I had been alone for so long I’d gotten used to it. I forgot what it felt like, to be the only planet in a universe full of stars. To be in your own little bubble while standing in the middle of the crowd. I used to dream of finding someone who was like me. I dreamt of you, sweetheart, because, by god, if you don’t mean the absolute world to me. So next time you feel like this, you come talk to me, straight away.’
Please support me on Kofi! 
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soulangel ¡ 5 years ago
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Study Notes-Dean
Summary: When your friend asked you for your notes one morning, you didn’t expect to suddenly have a follower who almost always seemed to know where you were going to be. Maybe it was a good thing she asked for your notes though...he’s not a bad kisser.
Group: KHH Dean
Genre: Fluff
Warnings: None? Does kissing count?
Taglist: @moonchild-saturn , @delphinium3000 , @channiesmixtape , @squishy-yamdumplings​
Main Masterlist     KHH Masterlist
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     Why did you have to bring notes to your best friend at 7 in the morning? Why did it have to be on your only day off? And why were you dumb enough to step out into public in your pjs? ‘They’re just notes….why couldn’t she come get them herself?’ You wondered with a small scowl, the door jingling to the diner door you were told to meet her at.
    “Y/N! Over here!” She screamed for you, standing up from her seat to wave at you like a madwoman.
    You gave her a weak smile and then smiled to the front usher, silently telling them thank you for what little help they gave you before your friend started screaming. “You know you’re in a public place right?” You asked her the moment you were close enough she could hear you.
    She scoffed at your question and motioned to the clothing choice you just so happened to forget about in that moment. “Ummm….hypocrite much?” She mumbled back with a fake scowl on her face, giving her all knowing look at you the moment she stopped talking to see how you’d respond.
    You just shrugged and flopped into a seat beside her, not seeing the guy sat across from her smiling in amusement at the scene playing out in front of him. “I like the clothes. They’re pretty awesome.” He commented, immediately gaining a look of alarm from you, and a small grimace from your friend. 
    You glared at her and all but slammed the papers down on the table. “Are you KIDDING me right now?! You know how I feel about meeting new people like this!” You growled as you stood up to leave.
    She latched onto your arm and wailed, “wait please! I’m sorryyyyyy!” 
    The usher up front gave you three a glare and was about to walk up to your table when you raised a hand at them. “Hang on, I’m sorry for this scene.” You said softly, before turning to your friend with just as hard of a glare as before. “I don’t care how sorry you are, this isn’t happening again. Have fun with my notes.” You hissed and stalked off, leaving her alone with the guy all over again.
    The moment the doors dinged shut, the guy that sat across from your friend started chuckling. “She’s fiery. I like it. Now I see why you want her to meet new people.” He snickered while the blonde sighed and grumbled softly under her breath.
          xXx
    Maybe a couple days later you were stepping out of your last class of the day when someone walked up to you and gave you a friendly smile. “Hi! I think we might have gotten off on the wrong foot. I’m Hyuk, but most of my friends call me Dean.” He said happily, readjusting the strap to his backpack on his shoulder as he waited for you to respond.
    You raised your eyebrows in mild surprise and tilted your head up in a half nod. “Uh, hi? I’m late for my next class.” You replied with a tight smile, the expression immediately dropping as you turned to walk off in the opposite direction that he was standing . 
    Instead of leaving you alone, he started following you. “Actually from what your friend told me, you have free period next so you’ll probably be going to take a nap.” He stated, grinning when you turned to him with narrowed eyes.
    “You’re fairly annoying, you know that?”
    “You’ll learn to enjoy my company.” 
    “Keep telling yourself that Buddy…”
    Which he did. Over and over until one day-a week later-you managed to have a decent conversation with him without wanting to run away from him. Quite frankly it was surprising and a little unnerving how easy it was to talk to the guy, and you were questioning your sanity when you finally started wondering where he would disappear to when your free period would roll around and he wasn’t there to greet you at the door. ‘I’m going crazy’ You thought to yourself as you shook your head and started toward your usual spot.
    But when you got to the tree, you were surprised to see him already there with food for the both of you, his now familiar music blasting through the speaker he always insists you listen to so he can get feedback. “Is this new?” You asked him, tilting your head when you sat down next to him.
    He grinned and nodded his head at you. “Hell yeah it is! Listen! I’ve been playing around with the tune for the last few weeks now, and just recently got inspiration for lyrics.” He replied while showing you the tablature he wrote everything down on.
    You listened to the tune of the music, nodding your head a little as you read the lyrics he had on the notepad. “It’s really good Hyuk, sounds like you really like this person.” You smiled, immediately going back to the music playing in your ears while reading the lyrics.
    You listened to the tune of the music, nodding your head a little as you read the lyrics he had on the notepad. “It’s really good Hyuk, sounds like you really like this person.” You smiled, immediately going back to the music playing in your ears while reading the lyrics.
    You missed the small smile he gave you as his hand hesitantly reached out to wrap around yours. “I don’t think you know just how much.” He mumbled softly so you wouldn’t hear him over the music.
    You squeezed his hand for a moment before you grinned at him, seeing his look of adoration toward you. It took you a moment but when it finally clicked in your mind, you blinked a couple times and went to say something. Instead of getting words out, lips pressed against yours in a searing and heated kiss. You gasped in surprise at the feeling of the grass suddenly touching your back, wondering when he’d managed to push you down; not that you were complaining or anything, his lips were so soft. 
    Without thinking about anything else, you wrapped your arms around his neck and smiled a little, half wondering why it felt so nice to kiss him, and half wondering why you cared at this point since HE WAS KISSING YOU. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited to do this.” He whispered once he finally released your mouth to look down at you.
    You smiled and bit your lip for a moment. “Tell me how long then?” You asked softly, your hands slowly tangling in his hair.
    He smiled down at you and kissed all over your face, his body slowly crawling on top of you until he was practically laying on top of you, his elbows holding his weight up off you. You couldn’t help the giggles as he kissed you everywhere. “Hyuuuukkiiiieee!” You squealed, squirming underneath him until he stopped and stared down at you.
    He managed to run a hand through your locks, gently stroking your hair while gazing down at you with such affection, you had no idea how you could’ve missed the look before. “I’ve been in love with you since I first saw you with Y/F/N. I may have convinced her to steal your notes that one day so I could finally talk to you.” He confessed with a sheepish grin at the end, earning another giggle from you as you watched him explain himself.
    You leaned up to kiss him on the nose. “Then it’s a good thing you’re so insistent on following me around.” You mentioned, seeing the blush dotting his cheeks.
    He hid his face in your neck and wrapped his arms around you, resting his weight on your stomach and pelvis. You laughed out loud at his cute behavior and stroked your hands through his hair rhythmically, calming him down just a little while he smiled against your skin and gently nipped the flesh, hoping to get a reaction out of you. You squeaked and squirmed underneath him, earning a chuckle as he nipped your neck again. “Ticklish are we?” He asked while wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
    You giggled and pushed him off your body, giving next to no effort in the action. “N-Nooooo! Aaaah okay yes!!” You giggled more while twitching away from his wandering hands and lips.
    You continued moving around underneath him until you heard him grunt in response to you accidentally bucking your hips up against his. “Ack.” He grunted softly, wincing as you both immediately sat up in front of each other.
    You frowned a little and sighed. “I’m sorry if I hurt you. I don’t-I’m not….used to this.” You mumbled quietly, biting your lip nervously.
    He gave a tiny smile and kissed your forehead. “Want to give us a start to get used to this?” He asked you just as quietly.
    You looked up at him in surprise. “U-Us? Y-You mean…” You stuttered out, seeing him nodding along with you as you pieced together what he meant.
    He kissed you softly the moment you gasped in realization, moving up off you and slowly bringing you with him until you were sitting in his lap. You wrapped your legs around his waist and he brought his hands up to cup your face, thumbs stroking your cheeks gently while you two kissed like you were never going to see each other again. You only managed to break apart when you couldn’t breathe anymore, and even then Hyuk ended up dipping his head down to kiss along your neck. “Care to go on a date with me Milady?” He asked softly against your skin, smiling when you giggled at the feeling.
    You just wrapped your arms around him and pulled him against you. “Sure.”
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