#King didn’t even put his contact info

[inksandpensblog]

The difference in production quality is really something.

[starlightsuffered]

Forget the Past

Info - angst Fic, some dub con, ascended Paul, unprotected sex, political marriage, technical cheating, yearning, Fremen reader, mention of having children

I spat blood out of my mouth as I was thrown to the floor of the emperor’s palace. Emperor, that very word sent chills through my bones. He was not my leader, not my king, and definitely, not my emperor. I had sworn it since that day he had declared it. I would not bow to him.

I tried to struggle to my feet. I didn’t think the emperor himself would deign to see a single lowly Fremen that had been caught, but I didn’t want to kneel regardless.

I was harshly pushed down every time I tried to lift myself on aching ankles. I was covered in muck and blood. Sand must’ve been in every crevice of my body. I wanted to wash off in the Fremen pools, and sleep, but my entire life was about to change. I’d been captured and there was nothing I could do.

“Y/n,” said a gasp. I lifted my head and locked eyes with him.

It had been half a decade since he’d taken Princess Irulan’s hand and declared a Holy War. He’d tried to contact me. He’d tried to send messages to me. I’d ignored everything he’d done. He would not be the saviour of my people. He was our next oppressor.

He was still beautiful though he was not the boy I’d once known. His dark curls and piercing eyes still made my heart pound a little faster. I couldn’t believe he’d known who I was under the blood and rubble. Yes, he’d tried to contact me, but that had stopped years ago. I assumed now he rested with his empire and his new wife.

“Take her to the bath house,” Paul said with a flick of his fingers.

“But your Greatness, Emperor, she is a traitor. She is one of the ones who does not follow your golden path to paradise,” argued the guard. They should have known better.

“LISTEN!” The bene gesserit gift of the voice echoed through the room. I hated that awful power. He was more foreign than he ever was when he used that manipulation tactic.

“Take her to the finest bath chamber we have. Give her a robe and clothing, but watch the doors. Do not let her escape,” Paul said, and with a flash of his robe, he was gone.

I was treated kindly. Their fingers did not dig into my skin. I was not shoved as I had been before. The fear and awe of the Emperor was great and fierce enough to have them obey even when out of his eye sight.

I remembered when he’d been a younger man. His large eyes and cautious ways had made me fond of him. He had let me teach him so many things. He had been so willing to learn. Now I assumed he thought that he knew all and saw all.

I bathed in the luxurious water. I couldn’t believe he’d wasted so much on me. I normally would have refused but men were stationed outside my door to make sure that I did as I was told.

I attempted to use as little as possible. It was not Fremen to use water so lavishly. I was disassociating though. I didn’t feel like I was truly in my body. All I saw was green eyes and sharp cheekbones.

I put on the silky pink robe. It was the softest thing I had ever worn. It was also short, and much of my legs were exposed. This too I was not used to. Baring your skin to the Arrakis sun was foolish, but here….. perhaps this place, this palace was more like Caladan.

I remembered how Paul told me it poured water from the skies there. He had promised that one day he would take me there and show me. There were a lot of promises he hadn’t kept.

I smashed my fist against the cold stone wall in defeat. I hated that I still thought of him. I hated that I gave him the time of day even in my mind. He had utterly betrayed me and I doubted he’d given it a second thought. He was the Messiah after all, they didn’t have regrets.

“You’re even more beautiful than the day you left me,” said a voice. It was calm and deep.

I turned to see Paul in the door way. He was in white robes. He looked older, though nothing much had changed about his face. It was his aura.

“I never thought I’d see you again my angel,” he said in a breath. It was the most unsteady he’d sounded this entire time.

He was rushing to me then as if he could not hold himself back. He had me in his strong grip even though I struggled. He was looking over every inch of me. I realised he was making sure I was okay and uninjured.

“Unhand me,” I snarled.

“Y/n, my love, my love,” he gasped. He was pressing his forehead against mine. I didn’t like how I was instantly pulled into his gravity.

“Y/n,” he crooned again. His hand curled into my hair.

“Let me breathe you in.”

“You deserve to breathe in smoke and choke,” I spat.

“My love, it’s me, it’s Paul,” he said. It wasn’t him. It was someone different. It was the Emperor, I didn’t know him.

“You are a married,” was what I raggedly said, though so many other things mattered so much more.

“You know I don’t love her. You are my only,” he told me earnestly.

“Yet there is a wedding ring on your finger.”

“She lives a life of celibacy, as do I. I have saved myself for you,” he whispered. His eyes still were trying to search mine. He was looking desperately for some part of me to tell him he wasn’t crazy for continuing to love me.

“Die,” I growled.

I turned around and made my way to the door. Paul let me go for a moment and then his body was behind me again. His hand was flat on my stomach.

“Paul,” I said with a warning in my voice.

“Please, she means nothing to me,” he promised. “She hasn’t known a moment of my tenderness, not like you have.

I thought of the Fremen lovers I’d taken to blow off steam, to release tension, to forget Muad’Dib, to soothe my wounds, to be held for once in a long while. I didn’t feel a moment of loyalty to them in this moment, but I wished they were here. I needed someone, something to distract me from the light that was Paul. I was an insect careening towards brightness though it was bound to be my downfall.

Had he really stayed loyal to my memory? Had he truly never touched Irulan the way he had me? If this was true, why could he not have loved me enough to not become what he was now?

“I will love you as long as I breathe,” he murmured into my neck. His hand moved lower.

A horrible noise echoed in the chamber. It was me. I was moaning. My body seemed to think it belonged with his. My brain screamed at me as I leaned back against him.

The heel of Paul’s palm was rolling against my clothed pussy. My trembling hand reached up and grabbed at the back of his neck.

“I could snap your neck right now,” I whispered.

“My love,” was all he said in response.

“Paul,” I tried to say. It came out as more of a warbling hum.

He was lifting my robe. I felt the press of his length. I was panting. I knew he’d stop if I used our old safe word, but I couldn’t manage it. How many nights had I craved one more touch from him.

“I never got to say goodbye,” he moaned. His lips were peppering along my throat. My pulse fluttered.

“Oh my darling, let me have you once more?” He pleaded.

“You’re despicable,” I huffed.

“You’re everything,” he responded.

I couldn’t help the way my body melted into his. I was rolling against his hand. I let him push down his pants and rub his member against my wet folds. I wore no panties under the robe.

“May I?”

“Who am I to turn down an Emperor,” I panted.

I was glad I was backed up against him. I didn’t want him to see my eyes as he pushed inside me. It was like every taste of him, every memory, every delicious feeling came back with him.

“You feel like heaven. You are bliss,” he murmured in my ear. He pumped inside me.

I closed my eyes and let go. I let the sounds I wanted to make fall from my mouth. I was keening as he held my hips possessively. He was snapping in and out as he mumbled praises against my skin.

“Perfect, what I was made for. You should be empress. Bare my children, be my goddess,” he pleaded. He didn’t use that harsh Bene Gesserit power on me, but he just pleaded.

Pleasure was erupting over me on chills. I imagined we were back in the dessert. We belonged to one another again. He was on the good side.

It was like we had never been separated. I was part of him again. We were one. I was shaking with the weight and glorious gratification of the connection. If I believed in connected souls, it would have to be us.

“Paul, Paul, Paul,” I repeated.

“I knew you missed me. I thought of you every night. Every time I chastely kissed her goodnight, I imagined it was you, and I imagined it was more than chaste.”

I felt tears fill my eyes. He had to go and ruin it. He had to bring the present into the past. I felt some of the warm light fade.

“Muad’Dib,” I sobbed, unable to call him his other name.

“Call me yours,” he pleaded. My mouth stayed shut.

I tried to lose myself in the lust again. I closed my eyes again and leaned back. I began to speak. I said all the things I’d imagined I’d say if things had been different.

“I stayed up nights thinking about how much I loved you. I didn’t mind the sunshine if I was able to wake up and see your face more clearly,” I mumbled.

“Y/n?” He asked.

“You made me giggle, smile, dream, and more. You made me feel home in a person and not a place.”

“Oh y/n,” he shuddered. He began to move faster. Despite myself, pleasure overwhelmed me. I arched and let out a whine.

“I love you. I never stopped, I never will!” He promised me. He rolled his hips and played with my clit to make it all feel more intense.

“I loved you like the moon loves the stars. I loved you like a flower loves water. You were part of my soul. I wanted to bare your children. I never wanted to imagine a life without you.”

“Yes, that is exactly how I feel. Oh, darling, I’m so close!” He gasped.

He was holding me tight and reverently as he pounded inside me. His lips were attached to my neck. He let out a pant of pure lust and need. His warm seed began to fill me.

I couldn’t help but fall over the edge too. I was doused in swirling stars once again. Once again the world was beautiful as we reached our heights together.

I heard the wetness as he pulled himself out of me. I stepped forward robotically and turned around. Paul’s eyes were glazed over with a film of pure love and satisfaction. This nearly dopey expression, the one I recognised from when we used to make love, fell when he saw the look in my eyes.

“Y/n?”

“Go back to your wife,” I said in a full tone. He was understanding now that everything is said had been past tense.

“Y/n!” His voice was shrill and worried now. He had truly become so haughty he hadn’t expected another rejection.

“Forget the past, Emperor,” I finished with a mock curtsy.

[fallingdown98]

FHJY Called Shot

Mostly making this post so if this is right i can say I called it. Obviously, thanks to the preview we know that the Bad Kids are gonna have to do the "Last Stand" exam. I'm aware that on a meta level, this was always going to happen because of how production works but I think this may also relate to some of the Teachers being in on the conspiracy w/ the RatGrinders + Ankarna. In on the conspiracy in this case, does not necessarily mean bad guy though because I have an inkling based on absolutely nothing that this conflict may involve more than just one conspiring group. Might even be willing to think the teachers may be the ones putting the RG up to the shit theyve been doing. Specifics under the read more because i have a lot of thoughts. Listed in most sus to least sus but worth noting

Porter - First to mention the Last Stand, Warhammer = Akarna’s Scales theory, Rage, his Giant lineage (Through Earth Genasi), Ancestral Paladin relates to prior point, Steering Fig away from Cass, “Barbarian” healed Ragh post prom before he was able to see Kalina (Also, didn’t use Lay on Hands which we now know he would have had access to), Paired with Jace Stardiamond (AKA another sus mf), unsurprised at the carnage on the first day of Freshman year

Jace - Current VP so has power even if he keeps claiming he doesn’t want it, Seen most w/ Porter (See above), Ragh saw him talking to Arianwen (And Kalina) post prom (Aka I think Spy’s tongue curse will lead to this), first to inspect the hellmouth magic FY and recognized both the divine and Nightmare King stuff, Yolanda specifically said she would go to Jace over Grix with the Lucy Info, Speculation: Divine Soul Sorcerer, Of Note: Would have had most contact with FY Villain Penelope Everpetal as she was also a sorc, Also also I DO NOT trust the fact that he put Riz on the faculty we still need to check those school Bylaws

Henry HopClap - Not on OG FY Faculty Roster, Grix’s hard drive, His connection with Ruben, Could have encouraged Gorgug w/ the intention/assumption he’d fail and thus would have to take The Last Stand, Frosty Faire Fest had some clearly evil artificing with the wires thing and would have the most knowledge in this regard

Zara Sool - Also not on OG FY Faculty Roster, Showed up at Mordred during Baron’s Game (I know they said in AP that it was a riff on Horror Movie Monsters but she was still the only one without a direct connection to the Manor), Lover of Celestial (Could be either pro or anti Ankarna), Also seen with Sus Porter, Agreed w/ Porter against Cass

Rogue Teacher - Sometimes the simplest answer is the correct one, Maybe the Rogue teacher has put KLCK up to some amount of her plot or assisted in some way leading to Teach finding Student rather than Vice-Versa. 

Bobby Dawn - This mf is last just cuz we already know he’s up to some shady shit and I can’t wait for the Bad Kids to murder his pompous ass, Probably the one to expel Kristin which gives him both satisfaction but also leads to Last Stand

TLDR: I think there’s a conspiracy within the Faculty and that it’s possible Porter, Jace, Henry, Zara, and/or the Rogue Teacher are all working together. If they are pressuring the RatGrinders, that would give added motivation to fuck over the Bad Kids for a good grade. Also think something catastrophic will happen at the Last Stand and that it was part of the plan since day 1 (Im aware on a meta scale this may just be me overthinking and we just needed to give a reason to use the cool battleset)

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Xander's Basic Info

Name: Alexander Luciano Fletcher

My faceclaims for Xander were really easy to come by and, after a bit of consideration, we have James Dean (Rebel Without A Cause) for the 60s, Jason Bateman (Teen Wolf Too) for the 80s, James FGranco (Freaks and Geeks) for the 90s, and Hero Fiennes Tiffin (After) for the present day.

Nicknames: Xander (so much it’s practically his name now), Xandie (ah, yes, the nickname bestowed upon him by the psychopath I used to love writing, Hornet), Alex (only his mom really called him that), Lucky (his close guy friends gave him the nickname after the gangster Lucky Luciano)

Age: 20

Date of Birth: January 30

Zodiac: Aquarius

Birthstone: Garnet

Nationality: Italian-American

Sexuality: Straight

Birthplace: Oviedo, Florida

Current Residence: Pasadena on the Gulf, St. Petersburg, Florida

Occupation: Mechanic and Sparx’s leader

Talents/Skills: Can take apart any vehicle and rebuild it from memory, 

Birth order: Oldest of six - the rest are half-siblings

Siblings: Donald “Donny” Frances (15), Betty “Millie” Millicent (13), Woodrow “Woody” Edward (12), Anita “Bee” Beatrice (10), and Philippa “Pippa” Bryony (7)

Parents: Andrew Lewis Fletcher and Emilia Celeste Bandoni

Step-father: Hamish Alton Sallow

Signature:

Height: 6’1”

Race: White

Eye Color: Hazel

Hair Color: Dark blonde, but tends to look darker during the winter and early spring

Glasses or contact lenses: Refuses to buy any despite needing them

Distinguishing features: Stab wound scar on his abdomen and multiple tattoos on his arms - most obvious being a dragon that curls around his left forearm and some barbed wire on his right bicep.

Mannerisms: Constantly fidgets with the ring Juliet gave him - even after the breakup - and he always scans a room as he enters it - something he learned after nearly being shot multiple times.

Health: He smokes despite his lungs being shitty and drinks a lot more than he should

Hobbies: Basketball, hunting, football, singing, though he would never tell a soul about it, and repairing vehicles, particularly motorcycles and his “special project” - a 1934 Ford Fordor Deluxe sedan - more infamously known as the car Bonnie and Clyde were in when they got into their shootout with the cops.

Greatest flaw (in their opinion): Attachments, especially when it comes to Juliet. In Xander’s eyes, his attachments make him weak. His step-father used his love for his siblings against him until the day he moved out of the house and, although deep down, he doesn’t like it, he uses that same tactic against others. He figures that, if he knows what people care about most, he can control and manipulate them to do what he wants. What he doesn’t always remember, however, is that his own weakness is plain as day for anyone who so much as looks at him. 

Best quality (in their opinion): Xander sometimes claims that the best thing about him is his love for Juliet, but if he had to be honest, he would most likely say the way he can alter his personality at the drop of a hat to blend in with the people he’s around.

Biggest fear: Hornet Admitting defeat. Regardless of whether or not he’s down and bleeding with no visible way out of whatever situation he finds himself stuck in, Xander will fight to find a way out, even if it puts himself and those around him in danger. For him, admitting defeat is worse than being shot or stabbed or basically any other outcome. He’s a fighter to the bitter end, even to his own detriment.

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Favorite ice cream: The Void (black-colored vanilla ice cream with cherry swirls and vanilla cookie pieces)

Favorite color: Yellow, ironically. Juliet asked him what his favorite color was on their first date, but he didn’t have an answer. She instead tried to guess and, when she guessed yellow, he went with it. Now, it truly is his favorite and he has her to thank for it.

Favorite number: 6, the number of kids he would like to have someday

Favorite songs: Don’t Matter by Kings of Leon, Achilles Come Down by Gang of Youths, and Icarus by Bastille

A place they want to visit: Athens, Greece

[cold-arrow]

Doctor’s Notes, Book 7 part 7 A Court of storms

| Storming the seas | Summary, Things of note since last entry: The library, discussing what to do next, the airship. Lady Silverhand, Sending a heads up, Whalebone Isle Hellenhild, the Morkoth. The enchained king of Storms.

| 1 / 1 | To say it took a while for us to settle on what to do next, would kind of an understatement.

Omrick wanted to chase after Ymira.

While Lym thought it be wiser the try and find the Storm king first. And as per usual, I was torn between the two…

Chasing after Ymira seemed like the most logical next step. We would need the Korolnor, in order the restore the Ordening.

But the prospect of fighting a…     an Ancient Blue Dragon. Probably, one of the most dangerous blue dragons here on the Swordcoast.

I… didn’t really like our odds, no matter how we’d put it. The plan was to ask the firegiants for help, to maybe kill the dragon. But after Lym reached out to them, I’m not that surprised that they didn’t really care much for the help of us smallfolk.

Let alone the fact that it would likely take at least week, if not more, to even get to and find her liar.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Before we even had the discussion, we decided to do a bit more research at Dave’s library. We needed more info about Ymira, ( if possible, ) after the all she’d done at the storm giant court. So I asked around a bit, but… none of the boys seemed willing to help out for some reason. Just idly standing about, while one of the headed of?

In order to fetch Jarvis apparently, for it seemed that researching dragons was a bit of a sensitive subject. Especially, because some of them might perhaps have agreements, or arrangements with Dave. Which is something we could possibly intervene with, should we go after one. He oh so subtly hinted at such. And that we’d definitely wouldn’t find anymore info, on that matter of dragons, further back in the library. Vaguely gesturing at one of the shelves. So after he left, we went to check said shelves. And found a book.

It seemed like a rather dull thing a first. A… chronological account of every dragon in the past dozen centuries or so, if not more. It was a rather thick and heavy book, that would liekly take days to go through.

But at some point, one of us mentioned the name Ymira, and the book suddenly sprang to life. Flipping through it’s pages and revealing an entry about a particular blue dragon.

The Doom of the Dessert, and the… sculptor of statues? I think. Going on the describe, and elaborate a bit on it’s nature and known info. And it’s place of residence within the eastern deserts.

That her lair was located within an old, half buried amphitheatre, not far from ancient, abandoned dwarven city. It sounded quite similar to Gauntlgrym at first glance, except for the fact that this city wasn’t forgotten. It simply had crumbled, and succumbed to drought and famine before being abandoned .

*

In hindsight, it doesn’t really seem so surprising, now that I think about it. If the city was indeed located near the liar of an ancient blue dragon, I wager the ambient elemental influence of her presence alone, would be enough to turn any city into a dried up husk.

Nevertheless, after we made this discovery, that is pretty much what led to our discussion. And if we should indeed go after this ancient blue dragon (Ymira) , first or not.

Cause while trying to find the storm king’s ship   Somewhere  in the trackless sea, might also be a bit of a time investment and undertaking as well. it seems a lot less scary than the prospect of facing a dragon. No matter how Omrick worried theorized about how well protected the ship might be.

And, thanks to his prior accomplishments, he’d already secured us a ship. Which upon contacting the frost giant captaining it, revealed that he’d made an rather important discovery. That he wanted to talk about, in person…

Lym tried to get some more details out of him, but he seemed akin to a frost giant version of Angelo, in terms of his ability to grasp magic. And magical communication…

| 2 / 3 | now with a destination in mind, the Whalebone isles, for that’s where Hellenhild and his ships are currently anchored after scouring the Trackless sea. We decided to grab the airship, to head on hover there. Or, that was the plan at least.

Seems the ship had been detained due to some random nonsense about not having paid, anchoring tax, or the entry fees or whatever. It wasn’t that hard to read that the guard was just making stuff up, and spouting some nonsense, and large sums to scare us away. But after inquiring a bit further, he revealed that that the LA, had been in charge of the matter of its detention. Which I suppose is just Lady Silverhand;s way of being  Tsundere   coy about missing us, and our rapports.

--

So we paid her a quick visit. And informed her of some of our findings, much to her delight. Or confusion, I should say.

I’m not even sure if she believed all the things we explained to her, despite them being true, about what had happened during our visit to the Storm giant court. But nevertheless she didn’t really question it either.

Simply being satisfied, I think, that she was a bit more update on the matter. Though, that still wasn’t really an explanation for the recent Fire giant incursions. And attacks that had been happening.

Which was news to us as well. Guess the fire giants aren’t as disorganized or in disarray as we thought. A new commander must have been elected, by force no doubt.  And has has likely taken it upon himself to further elevate the fire giants claim on the Ordening.

* Maybe it’s the same individual seeking to gain revenge for Duke Zalto. To help relly the giants for his cause. Not sure though.

But I guess Tartha wasn’t lying when she said that the fire giant were having issues with her command, until now. She definitely seemed interested In fighting Ymira though, when we mentioned it to her. And has taken those few loyal to her, to head out to the Anauroch desert. Which, part of the reason why we decided to check on the Frost giants first, was because of the amount of time it would likely take for the Fire giants to even get to the desert. The place isn’t exactly close by for them either.

Nevertheless, with her curiosity sated, we were free to leave Waterdeep once again with the airship with Lady Silverhand’s permission, and headed on out.

| 3 / 3 | Took quite a few more days than expected. But eventually we found the Whale bone isles that Hellendhild mentioned. Located directly west from Waterdeep apparently.

What we thought were initially just birds circling the isle in the distance, turned out to be… much larger “birds” the we expected. Their actual size becoming more and more apperent as we closed in on the island.

I thought one roc was bad. Three of them, is a whole different story.

Fortunately though we saw that several frost giant ships were docked by the island, and after a quick Sending. We were told that “we should probably be fine to approach the island” …

I don’t like the way those giant birds eyed us at all, when we made to land. But praise the Allfather that they didn’t end up attacking us.  

--

We met up with Hellenhild, who had some rather interesting news to share. His fleet had spotted a peculiar ship, sailing the Trackless sea. A human vessel, one that was in the shape of a squid, or octopus. One likely big one ( but only just barely) to possibly transport a giant.

And he was willing to escort us to its last seen location. Guiding and aiding us in tracking it down.

--

Sure enough, after a few more days of travel, we spotted a sail poking out of the sea. It’s peculiar shape and design becoming evident, from our vantage point high up in the sky on the airship.

And there, chained down like large piece of cargo, was the storm king. Lying Unmoving, unblinking within the middle of the ship. As if catatonic almost.

I highly doubt that those chains binding him are regular ones. But from the looks of it as well, if we were to remove the chains, it would likely comprise the entire integrity of the hull of the ship, as they seem to be somehow keeping the ship together.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the ship was specially built, just to transport him. But there is very little space left for anything else on the ship as well. I doubt there’s much room for that many crewmembers. So that’s a positive at least.  I hope.

--

The plan of attack is, for Lym to polymorph herself into an eagle, and drop us of unnoticed with the aid of some invisibility.

should work in theory. I just hope landing won’t be too much of issue, if she’s can’t see herself.   | End of entry |               

[teenmomcentral]

Jenelle Evans‘ 14-year-old son Jace has been reported missing.

Jace— who grew up on Teen Mom 2— was listed as a runaway on Tuesday. The Brunswick County, North Carolina, Sherriff’s Office put out an alert out on its social media pages, urging anyone who sees Jace to call 911.

“BCSO Deputies Searching for Runaway Juvenile, Jace Evans,” a post on the BCSO Facebook page reads, adding that Jace was last seen leaving his school in Leland, North Carolina, around 2:45 p.m. EST on Tuesday.

TMZ broke the story, adding that they had contacted Jenelle’s mother, Barbara Evans for more information. As The Ashley previously reported, Jenelle finally regained custody of Jace from Barbara in March. Barbara had raised the boy since he was born, but after a years-long custody battle with Jenelle, agreed to give her custody of Jace. (As The Ashley previously reported, though, the decision was mainly due to the fact that Barbara could no longer handle Jace, according to The Ashley’s sources.)

TMZ reported that Barbara said she spoke to Jace on Monday night, and all appeared to be OK. (As The Ashley told you, things on The Land have been pretty terrible over the last week or so, with Jenelle and her husband David Eason fighting and taking their battle to social media.) 

Barb also claimed that she called Jenelle on Tuesday (before Jace was reported missing), but Jenelle didn’t want to talk to her.

In a statement to TMZ, Jenelle said that Jace only ran away because he got in trouble.

“As a boy mom, kids can act up and rebel as I’m sure the majority of us all once did as kids too. Jace, got in trouble at school, we decided to take his phone away and that’s when he decided to run off,” she told the site. “Jace is a good kid and we’re not dealing with anything that most families don’t deal with while raising children.

She also insisted that Jace taking off wasn’t due to her and David fighting on The Land in front of him.

“This has absolutely nothing to do with my situation with David, we do not argue in front of our children or fight in front of our kids,” Jenelle said.

“This is a teenage boy being a teenager mad that we decided to take his phone away.”

After Jace was located, David took to social media to insist that he did try to find the lad.

“Jace is fine, he has been found, everyone needs to calm down!” David wrote. “I was the first one looking for him so get off my case!” 

The Ashley’s sources tell her that this is not the first time Jace has left since moving in with Jenelle. There was at least one more instance, as well as several when he lived with Barbara.

The Ashley will update this story when more info is available. Stay tuned. 

UPDATE! David just posted a rant to Instagram regarding Jace.

"You want to come on here assuming all kinds of S**t about Jace… I’ve been out here running through the f**king woods for two-and-a-half hours trying to find him… I almost had a f**king heat stroke trying to find this kid. You know what they told me? ‘Go home, we have drones, we have helicopters, we have dogs, we have ATVs, dirt bikes, we’re gonna find him.’ They told me to go home and make sure he doesn’t walk in the door…

“I’m the first one that ran after his ass to try to find him…Don’t come on here trying to tell me what the fk you think is going on. Please. I do all the fking work around here, I take care of everything around here, and if you think I don’t just because of something someone might tell you when they’re mad, you’re f**king WRONG.

“And if you think you can assume some shit just because an article you seen because Barbara goes on the Internet saying something. She don’t even know what the fk she’s talking about,” David added. “You can’t fking take Barbara’s word for it, she’s selling articles for money. Gotta pay for your retirement somehow.”

[saffyspirals]

OMG! i love your writing. One of my top favorite blogs already(*´∇`)ﾉ. Do you think you can do another one like your last post but with tenjiku? If you don't want to just ignore this though. Hope you have a great day!

𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚎𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚘. (𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚓𝚒𝚔𝚞 𝚟𝚎𝚛)

( i read, re-read and edited this work a thousand times today, but i’m sure there’s still mistakes. sorry abt that my loves <33)

genre: hurt/comfort, fluffy (or cheesy who tf knows) ending.

word count: 1.9k

warnings: mentions of sex, reader is 18 like ran and izana, kinda sorta tsun! ran (he likes you, but doesn’t say it), koko might be ooc but someone had to play “that one guy” role, one (1) mention of reki kyan from sk8.

author’s note: hi!! top favourite blogs? thank you so much, that means a lot! wrote this in literally one sitting, i thought of how to start it, then took off running lmaoo

extra: this is about 100 words more than the first “sleeping around for info” fic i made; that’s because this has more words/description than actual dialogue. i hope it is enjoyable!

you don’t like being useless. not that there were many people who could confidently say that they did enjoy being so. your hatred of the trait stems from your mother, who’d drilled it into your head throughout your childhood, that useless is the one word that you should work hard not to be; people would leave you for better people, otherwise.

being useless sucks ass.

you’ve only been called it once in your life, by the very same mother who’d endlessly banged on about not being it. apparently, you were. “you couldn’t even be cute enough to make your father stay with me,” she’d said, before leaving for good.

without the right guidance, it was easy to stray and walk a less than traditional path. it was even easier to be picked up by a gang. although, you can’t say the one you’re with is all bad.

izana, the leader of tenjiku, the gang you belong to, had been the one to take you in. while he didn’t promise a life of luxury, he did promise security. “i’ll be your family, as long as you are of use to me.”

to be of use to the gang, you either had to be one of two things: a good fighter, or an excellent information gatherer. it’s no exaggeration to say that you wouldn’t be able to fight to save your life. you can hardly stand to watch izana and the rest of the boys when they fight. it’s too bloody, sounds too painful. so, you became an information gatherer.

the information you gather for the gang is nothing short of excellent. an unspoken rule in tenjiku (which you love), is questions are not to be asked. hence why izana, nor the other members have ever asked how you’re so good at getting the intel they need.

the way you gather information is simple. izana, or one of the four heavenly kings mention that they need you to find out something about a certain gang. you come into contact with a member of said gang (a low ranking member; one that hasn’t been properly trained to not give away gang secrets for anything), and offer sex in exchange for info.

you’ve been doing things this way for who knows how long. of course, it wasn’t the best method out there, but in order to stay useful, this was what you could do.

the boys never ask how you’re so good at getting what they want, and you’re sure as hell not planning to tell them, ever.

you weren’t planning to, but it’d been you who’d given it away in the end.

complete and utter exhaustion threatens to make you collapse, on the way home. you’re coming back from your latest customer’s house. the sex had lasted for what seemed like hours. and the entire time, he went too fast, too hard. despite your cries for him to take it easy, he’d insisted that the info he had for you, was good enough for him to do whatever he wanted.

it wasn’t. but that was, for sure, the last time you’d be seeing him again.

your mind fills with thoughts about what to do once you get home; soak in the tub, order some take out, get dressed into your comfiest nightwear, put on a good movie…

if you’d been paying more attention to your surroundings, maybe you would have seen the haitani brothers walking your way. maybe you would have been able to avoid them.

upon running into them, ran insists you join him and rindou for dinner, at twirling way’s kitchen, a local restaurant. you reluctantly take them up on their offer, knowing they’d realise something was up, if you admitted that you were tired, and just wanted to head home.

now on the way to the restaurant, you run into koko, who decides to join the three of you. not that you disliked the guy or anything, but he was a more curious being than the brothers. meaning, if your focus slips, even for a second, he’ll immediately recognise you’re exhausted, and demand answers.

koko is one of the few who ignore the unspoken ‘no questions’ rule.

“y/n, you’re so exhausted, why?” in the midst of stuffing fries into your mouth, you freeze; eyes darting to the left of you to koko, who’s wearing a cheeky smile. you’d been trying to finish eating quickly so you could just head home already. apparently, you were unable to pass off as just being a fast eater. “a new boyfriend keeping you busy, perhaps?”

you choose to stay quiet, finishing off the contents in your mouth before eating more.

“that’s disgusting,” rindou comments, you’re sure he’d been wanting to for a while. “and, you do realise that completely avoiding the question will get koko to press harder, right?”

“but there’s no way y/n has a boyfriend,” you meet ran’s eyes across the table. “i’d know about it for sure. she can’t hide anything from me.”

“y/n definitely has one,” koko nods confidently. he places a hand on your shoulder, it stiffens at his touch. “the air about her is different.”

ran opens his mouth to say something, but the words die on the tip of his tongue when he hears, “you’re right koko. i am seeing someone.”

if koko could only associate your exhaustion with having a boyfriend, what other choice do you have but to go along with it?

“really? how’d that happen?” to anybody who doesn’t know him well, ran looks neutral, and sounds genuinely curious to know the answer. to you (and you’re sure everyone else at the table), he looks irritated as hell.

“just did,” you reply, not wanting to concoct a whole story, only to forget details you mention about it later.

the lull in conversation that comes after that doesn’t appeal very much to koko. touching you again, he adds, “what’s his name?”

“none of your business.”

“you can’t even tell us something as basic as that?” ran jumps in. “is that because he’s not real?” it’s clear that he wants this to be true. you swallow the nerves threatening to spike.

“since you insist, his name is reki kyan.”

“that’s a fictional character.” ten times the amount of nerves come rushing back. rindou, who’d said that, pushes up his glasses. “should’ve picked the name of a guy who’s not as well known.”

he was right. but, you’d been counting on the fact that none of them would have seen it. as far as you knew, none of them were avid anime fans.

“yeah, well.” you huff, trying to stay cool. “excuse me for not wanting to rid my very real boyfriend of his privacy.”

“oh, give it up!” now that you’ve been caught, ran seems to have drastically cheered up. “there is no boyfriend, doll. i fuckin’ told you koko. she can’t hide anything from me.”

you’re unsure of what it is that comes over you. a storm of emotions attack you at once; rage, and annoyance are some of the identifiable ones. while you can’t identify them all, you’re sure they appeared because of ran, and his big, stupid, overconfident mouth.

“oh can’t i?” you slam your fist against the table. “well, what about that i sleep with rival gang members in exchange for your precious intel? did you know about that, huh?”

the tone you use is so childish, but the words that come out of your mouth is anything but. you take their stunned silence as a queue to grab your stuff, and leave.

————————

it’s days before you come into contact with any of the tenjiku members after that. ran, rindou, and koko show up at your house just as you’re about to leave for school one morning.

“seriously, i’ve got nothing to say to any of you.” you tell them, coming out of the house, and locking your front door. none of the boys stop you from pushing past them and walking on.

at the end of your driveway, you run into izana, hanma and sanzu.

“turn around, missy.” says izana, smile awfully polite. “unlock your door, and let’s all go inside and talk, okay?”

seeing as you can’t fight all of them off to get past, you do as your told; go back up the driveway, and unlock your front door, to let in the six boys.

they all make themselves comfortable on the sofa, save for izana who joins you on the floor.

“if you want to make it to school today, don’t beat around the bush. tell me exactly what’s going on.” he instructs.

you nod, inhaling and exhaling deeply.

“i’ve been sleeping with members of different gangs, in exchange for information. that’s how i’m able to find out whatever you want.”

“i was particularly exhausted a few days ago,” you look at koko when you say this, “because i’d just finished sleeping with one. he was…rougher than what i’m used to.”

“who is he?” ran demands. “i’ll kill him.”

“settle down. don’t forget, i told you — all of you — before we got here not to say anything.” izana reminds. he turns his head to you. “how long have you been doing this?”

“months, i don’t know.”

“why?”

the million dollar question. it’s a question you know the answer to. however, you’re hesitant to let them in on it. whether or not your answer would sound reasonable to them, would heavily depend on the amount of empathy they have. displeased by your silence, izana gestures for you to talk.

you have to hope they understand, then.

“izana, you said we’d be family, as long as i’m of use to you.” you start, eyes drifting to the ceiling. “i can’t help you with fighting. i can hardly stand to watch you guys beat up others. so, the only other way to help is by gathering intel. i don’t have any sources, any connections. sex is the only way anybody will tell me anything.”

“someone who’s not in my life anymore told me, that being useless is the worst thing i can be. if i am, i’ll be left behind, on my own.”

the silence that hangs over all of you is thick, and uncomfortable. but this time, you can’t go anywhere; this was your house.

“is it my fault you’ve been doing this? because of what i said when we first met?”

“izana, no of course it isn’t!”

“that’s right,” he states. “it’s yours.” he reaches out, and touches your hand, effectively drawing your eyes to him. “you’re stupid, y/n. the stupidest woman i’ve ever met, for thinking i’d leave you behind after asking you to join me.”

“i can’t tell you why i said what i did when we first met, because i don’t know. but what i do know is that you interpreted it completely wrong, and twisted it. don’t make that kind of mistake again, alright?”

you nod, blinking back unshed tears. izana turns to his subordinates sat on the couch. “it seems that they want to say something to you.”

“especially ran.” koko adds, smirk growing when his arm gets punched.

“it’s nothing.” ran insists. “just..you are stupid. but all of us still want you around.”

“what he means to say, is that we love you, y/n!” koko’s the first one to rise from the sofa, and join you on the floor.

from the boys, there’s a mixture of sounds of agreement, disagreement, and “whatever”s, regarding koko’s last statement.

they all manage to make you smile, despite the fact they’re not all able to openly tell you they love you. it doesn’t matter to you anyway. the point is, now you know they do.

people who love you, don’t leave you; it’s as simple as that.

you won’t forget it.

[igotathingforvampires]

Aro Volturi N.S.F.W Alphabet

CANON DIVERGENT.

Info on Reader: Reader is an Elemental Gift user like Benjamin

CW/TW: a SLIGHT MENTION of assault but NO DETAIL AT ALL (as a SA survivor I do not use this lightly but I do like representation and not having the survivor be that cliche broken doll we end abusers here thank you)

How you two met:

You…..oh you. You’re standing with the Cullens wondering how the FUCK you got here.

Why am I here? What’s with this tiny little kid who can touch me and tell me things. Awe but she’s cute.

You’re just a bored Vampire who knows Carlisle and is Esme’s BFF.

You’re a nomad, and a badass one, see your gift is the Elements like Benjamin, it’s why Amun has his eye on you and is freaked out.

You and Benji are buddies now. Benjamin specializes in Earth and Water. You specialize in Fire and Air.

So now, here you are watching a bunch of cloaked baddies stomping towards you. But Carlisle and you have spoken frequently, the Volturi aren’t bad.

However, they are cautious.

And caution bred by fear is something you know to be wary of.

So you keep yourself a bit behind Carly. Waiting and watching.

The leader— that must be Aro you think, flings his hood back and suddenly you feel your entire chest clench up and a yank within yourself towards him. “Oh what the fuck.” You growl. Glancing UP at the Old Gods you couldn’t help but snap at them “ARE YOU ALL KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?! HIM?!”

The platinum haired man barked angrily, “who dares?!”

Aro is too busy glancing at his brother Marcus who’s smiling. He nods at Aro and huffs a bit of a sigh.

The raven haired man turns ever so slowly, casting his red gaze over the crowd and it falls to Carlisle. “Carly.”

“Aro?”

“Who is that behind you.” Aro can feel his chest hurt like a chain is being pulled.

Carlisle looks confused and glances behind him where you are shaking your head face palming—looking embarrassed.

Edward and Bella are utterly confused, before Edward listens to Aro’s and your thoughts and gets a look of disgust, “REALLY.” He barks.

You feel the rage of a thousand suns consume you. “I CAN’T PICK IT YA KNOW AND HEY WHADDAYA MEAN REALLY —ASSHOLE DON’T TALK ABOUT MY MATE LIKE THAT!”

The entire field is utterly still as you’re heaving, standing on your tip toes in front of the bronze haired vampire pointing at Edwards cringing face, “but it’s—“ he starts, you let out a growl and sparks fly off you.

Edward shuts up.

“I will light your ass on fire.” You whisper hiss.

The Volturi are just tilting their heads like WTF.

Marcus is trying not to laugh, Caius has just become stunned glancing between his brother and the woman across the battlefield.

Aro is getting GIDDY.

“And who is the girl.” He asks.

You turn, your hips swinging with attitude and your arms crossing as you scoff. “Psh, get a load of this Mother fucker,” you whisper to yourself glaring across the expanse of space. “HEY. I have a name.”

------

-----

His First Impression:

Of course my mate swears like a sailor.

Is Aro’s first thought.

His next thought is that you’re awful adorable. Awe so lithe and cute and— Much too … hm, much too adorable to be mine I would think how In the —a violent wind kicks up and flames burst out from your body enveloping your form as you take a few steps forward.

Ah there it is.

“You wanna ask me my name— darling.” You smile wide at him.

“Of course,” his purr is laced with annoyance, but he’s far too intrigued. “Who might you be?”

“I’m y/n. No last name, my parents were assholes.” You shrug. “So, we doing this trial or we figuring the whole—“ you wave your hand between the gaping maw of land between you two, “bond thing.”

Aro pauses, a twitch on his lips, “after the proceedings cara mia.”

“Ooo… love me a man that speaks Italian—” You smirk, raising a brow and cock your head to the side.

Aro makes a stifled choked off growl as his eyes go black— thank God he lost the ability to blush as arousal slammed into him like a freight train.

You’re obviously annoyed, and have as Caius mutters ‘more balls than a Christmas tree’ and you are ready for this trial to be over.

Frankly so is Aro he wants to drag you back to Volterra and bring you to heel.

Not that he thinks that’s going to happen.

But he loves playing with fire. And you’re full of it.

He watches you glance at the Cullens and the half-breed. “Alright Nessie come on let’s show him what you can do kiddo.” You scoop the girl up and you and the Cullens walk over with Jake behind you.

-----

-----

When does he know of his feelings?

When within reaching distance you set Renessme down and pat her head, “okay tiny Loch Ness, say hello.”

Bella is panicking, but she trusts you it seems, she better, you have no qualms frying— sans mate— every vampire here. They do their little song and dance. Aro tries to talk about the danger and you feel your temper boil over.

“Darling.” You croon taking a step forward with a sharp but soft smile.

You remind him of a lioness, purring softly but ready to tear into him with one movement.

He raises a brow; you are in 6 inch heels putting you nose to nose with him. “Yes carissima?” He breathes deep and nearly groans out loud, you smell so good, like spring and a heady feminine scent like perfume edged in lilacs and lavender.

“Could you pretty pretty pretty please just keep an eye on little Nessie— I hate to tell you but she’s quite important to me and I can assure you she fits in with humans better than the Cullens do.”

“And if I don’t.”

You let flames dance in your gaze. “I’ll roast everyone here except your brothers and their mates and make you start the fuck over without me.”

Aro’s done.

Cupid has struck him in his dead heart.

He’s never been more terrified or aroused or enraged at once at your dulcet threat purred from such sweet lips.

He wants to grip you by your hair to him, pick you up and haul you to somewhere private and teach you a lesson.

He wants to fight you. And it’s quite clear you’re ready to rumble, though he’s not sure you’d let him win. Or that it wouldn’t end up tangling in a bed somewhere on fire. That’s fine too.

A manic grin spreads across his face, eyes going pitch black as he snatches you up by the waist and hauls you closer loving the startled look in your eyes settling into something dark and wanting. “And if I agree?”

The brothers roll their eyes.

Go figure you’d be as bat shit as he is.

“I’ll leave with you right now.” You give him THAT look matching his almost mad grin.

A low purr echos from him making Bella clap her hands over Nessie’s ears. “Una ragazza così meravigliosa, credo che mi piaccia come funziona la tua mente.” Such a wonderful girl, I think I like how your mind works.

But your plans to drag your mate off end as Alice shows up with her witness right when he’s about to whisk you off for some obvious adult time.

Both of you sigh put out and exasperated.

Yes you just about ended an entire potential threat with batting pretty eyes and coaxing the leader of the Volturi into some fun.

But now that’s ruined because of the psychic. Alice is looking rather embarrassed as the proceedings go. Given that she probably saw how everything was about to go down.

Aro can sense you’re as annoyed as he is, that and you’re not leaving his side. And you don’t mind touching him but you’re not because oh yeah he needs to focus. But oh he can see your hand twitching towards his own.

He can easily turn his gift off and so he does and grips your hand, quickly jerking you to his side.

Electricity lights along your skin at the contact and both of you jolt a moment and glance sideways looking amused.

This was going to be fun.

——

——

How’d you end up with the Volturi?

Alice and her witnesses ease their concerns about Nessie. Aro placates the Volturi as you linger back behind him a bit. Everyone just poof! Vanishes.

“So ah, can we get my stuff first before you whisk me off around the world?” You ask sweetly.

Aro’s a bit startled, “you wish to leave already?”

You realize he would be willing to stay for a bit and let you acclimate.

“Nah where you go I fucking go, come on baby. Let’s get the fuck outta dodge.” You give him a teasing shove as you walk by making Carlisle’s coven silently shake in mirth at his surprised expression.

Carlisle murmurs, “Good luck Aro.”

“Fuck off Carly.” The King growls back before following you.

That’s all they wrote.

You were in. And you made yourself at home quite easily.

Jane and Alec adore you— you saw them and just SQUEEd. “OMG they’re so DEADLY but so CUTE!”

Jane wasn’t quite sure what to do with you picking her UP and hugging her nuzzling your nose to her cheek, “she’s just a tiny tot of doom I adore it! We’re going to burn the SHIT outta people.”

Alec just sat starry eyed as you ruffled his hair, “I know boys don’t like being picked up.”

Jane had become a koala on you. And you didn’t mind.

Well. You’re Mama now. Aro couldn’t be more pleased as you continue to help develop their skills trying things outside of the box.

See, that’s also a sort of talent you have— you can help people learn how to use their gifts because of how you think. Not a gift per say, but certainly useful.

Jane it turns out can utilize the fire element.

Alec can utilize air.

With you knowing both you’re easily able to teach Alec how to hone his targets and even allow his gift to POP UP near someone rather than from his hands.

Jane is capable of setting shit on fire now.

Aro isn’t sure if he’s proud or worried.

Bit of both. But you are STERN with their use of powers. And when Jane set Felix’s foot on fire she was forced to shine everyone’s shoes in the Volturi in the afternoon and write 200,000 times at HUMAN PACE. “We do not light family on fire.”

She never did it again.

The inner coven loves you. Caius and you are besties Marcus is like a big brother always doting on you. Athenadora and Sulpricia are of course still together as companions, and don’t worry about his ex wife— they were on the rocks she’s ecstatic someone else can keep him in line.

The coven instantly takes to you, in fact you’re now basically Mother to everyone. Scolding, teaching, comforting, you do it all. But you’re also a leader and a ruthless one at that.

A perfect fit Aro thinks.

——

——

How’d he deal with his emotions?

You are driving Aro FUCKING CRAZY.

Literally mad.

You know how to push his buttons and you are not one to do as told. So for him, he who has anyone bending to his will to see you just cock a brow at him and laugh “awe.”

He wants to choke you half to death.

You are a Queen. He tells himself. It’s to be expected that you’d challenge him.

Sulpricia finds it HILARIOUS and you two are besties. Fuck that’s all he needs. She is ever so encouraging of your independence.

He often finds himself in Sulpricia’s study pacing rampantly, “what am I going to do with her?”

“You know you like it.” Sully says lounging back on her couch. “If you didn’t you wouldn’t be so utterly ass over tea kettle.”

Aro is not good with his emotions when it comes to jealousy. And he is JEALOUS.

You’re perfect to him, utterly beautiful, you are the sun and he Icarus stupidly flying as high as he can towards you in hopes to reach the light.

You’re also inclined to let him touch you whenever you want to express things without using words— and you’ve learned to let him speak to you telepathically as well.

So often you just sit with your pinkies touching on a couch and have back and forth silently except for the occasional twitch on your lips at a humorous comment.

You’ve managed to make him huff a laugh occasionally.

But he is utterly posessive. He does not like it when men stare too long, admiring is one thing, but nothing escapes Aro.

So when a lower guard had been in trouble for an infraction and when you had disciplined him the utter disrespect for a concubine replacement was across Aro’s mind and…welll—

Guard died.

You had just looked startled and gave a ‘oh well’ kinda shrug before touching ARo’s hand. Feel better baby?

Yes you called him baby in private, so modern, and he would NEVER admit he loved it. Baby, darling, love, honey, the list went on and each one twisted his insides into ribbons of absolute adoration.

You had actually taken to the bond so well Marcus had informed him that it was practically cemented.

His only hang up was himself.

——

——

Who does he ask for help?

Didyme is no longer there— his dear sister, a deep sorrow as he was accidentally responsible for her death.

Marcus however is always there to be the voice of reason, and he sits Aro down and listens to his brother spill his guts. Aro is terrified, he is well aware he is THE monster that makes OTHER monsters keep in line.

But for you to look at him like that? He could never bear it. His heart would break.

Marcus sighs, “Aro come here.” He drags his brother to the training grounds.

Where Aro get’s to see his mate literally tear apart the entire guard with blades…. Did his eyes deceive him— were those made from vampire ash and fangs?!

You pause your onslaught, “oh hi darling!” You prance over and smile, “like them? My witch-smith friend made them for me! Fucking bastards kept coming for me after awhile and ya know I just hate the idea of wasting shit.”

Marcus glanced at Aro and gave him a I told you so.

“Everything okay?” You ask looking concerned. You are dragging him along as he partially willingly let’s you take him to his sister’s gardens. “What’s wrong?”

And so, he exhales and does the one thing he’s never done with his gift.

He touches your hand and shows you his own thoughts.

He expects your recoil. Expects you to shun him. Expects your hatred and braces himself for it.

You gasp and when he’s about to drag his hand away and you grip him tighter. “No don’t…let me…” and so you watch— thousands of years of memories over the course of a week or two. Asking silent questions as the images play, getting silent answers in return.

And so, in return, you show him your human life— a life that had been riddled with abusers, torment and lack of love, the iron in your spine that had solidified your creation when you had dragged yourself from an open alley way at dawn into the sewer system after being left to die being drained by a nomad after a brutal assault. You shared with him that it had taken a lot for you to even move after what had happened.

Esme had found you.

And so your friends made sure you were okay even if you didn’t follow their diet.

You both spend time going over your pasts, Aro gently asking questions and you doing the same to answer as best you could.

It was why Rosalie and you got along so well, there were some experiences one could only understand by going through it. And you both had learned how to cope with the trauma you had.

Aro is patient, both of you taking time to feel through each others wounds, taking time to rework into each others personal space.

Marcus is stunned to tell Aro that the bond is nigh unbreakable after this exchange.

The Kings magically -coughs- big brother Marcus loses his shit finding out and Caius leads the search party with Demetri— cough cough— find the nomad and he’s now in a box limb free 15 feet below the dungeon with a tube connecting him to the surface, his tongue removed and he only gets blood once a year. *Jane lit them on fire multiple times to practice her accuracy and aim*

You find out of course, and smile through the dry sobs as all three embrace you like a big protective group hug. For the first time in a very long time, it’s safe.

Truly safe.

——

——

What happens when he tells you?

Aro is a man of few words, and honestly not much is needed between you two with the ability to go back and forth with his gift.

So in the middle of a walk in Didyme’s gardens he merely grabs your hand gently and kisses the top of your fingers.

And you’re flooded with his emotions.

The warmth and tenderness and absolute adoration is almost enough to restart your dead heart as venom pools in your eyes. “Aro…”

He loves you, loves you more than his own life, would give anything for you to make you smile.

This isn’t the love that is complacent, to just sit idle and rust away, he wants to chase you for eternity, whatever it takes to keep you at his side.

And you flood him right back— lowering the barriers you had and after a moment he merely leans down and presses his forehead to your own, giving the two of you time to just bask in the warmth of affection that’s swirling back and forth akin to the waves of the tide under the moon and sun at twilight.

——

——

First Kiss?

The leaders of Volterra were in the throne room, the Queens having their own thrones behind their husbands but visible carved in different woods to represent their personalities with different intricate features much like the brother’s thrones holding different crowning points but all the same color.

Your own is the same color as Aro’s throne, but mingled with mahogany accents. Ruby red stones slotted at the top with a crescent moon and sun carving emboldened with gold spiked halo.

Caius' mate's throne is a pale color, affixed with branches and beautiful earth like tones, complimenting her grounded nature.

Marcus’ Witch Mate is merely embellished in a ash throne, deep red almost black gems and the symbol for the overall witch and vampire alliance above her throne.

With all three positions of Queen in Volterra taken up by a true mate, it is the most stable the Volturi have been in several millennia.

But that day in particular was rough, there were a few traitors that had been brought forward— and one of them had managed to get loose from Felix as Aro had been gaining information lunging for the King’s throat.

You moved so fast no one even saw you as you streaked forward like a ghost and lobbed the vampire’s head off holding a blade made of vampire teeth expertly with an animalistic snarl.

You had positioned yourself in front of Aro, crouched, blade poised and your eyes wide and wild, teeth flashing with a dangerous snarl.

Marcus’ witch had already shielded Aro but paused when she saw how enraged you were. Athena and Sulpricia had faltered, Caius looked utterly proud.

You spun round, dropping your blade— knowing Felix and the others had everything in hand as Aro had reached for you, the two of you locked in an embrace, his hands holding your face still as your own hands grasped his wrists. Foreheads pressed together—

The coven was used to this, a private conversation but you could feel the utter terror that had gone through him when he saw you out of the corner of his eye. If anything had happened to you—he was almost angry at you.

But he could easily sense the rage that had consumed you at the thought of someone hurting him. Despite knowing the guard and Jane would Never allow it, your instincts had taken over.

No one would ever take from you again.

And you had been frightened.

Behind that rage when he got past it was utter fear that he’d be gone and you’d be all alone again all the tender memories would be the last you’d have of him as you gave a dry sob before the venom dropped from your eyes— a true show of vampiric emotion that was a rarity.

“Carissima, no. I’ll not leave you that easily.” He murmured and not giving a flying fuck about anyone in the room kissed you full on the mouth gathering you up in a tight embrace.

“I’m sorry,” you whispered half broken against his mouth. “I’m sorry-“

“I know I know, shhh cara mia shhh,” gathering you up he merely flitted out of the room leaving the others to deal with the issue.

Tons of snuggles. He had bundled you up to him in his private rooms and merely kept your hands together enjoying the shared emotions knowing the other was close and safe.

Aro knew exactly how to calm you, he merely showed you all his favorite memories, of the coven, of his travels, the antics his brother’s got up to. He replayed the moment he first saw you.

That always made you laugh of course she swears like a sailor.

——

——

First Time?

It’s in an elevator.

Okay so here’s the thing. The Volturi have these massive events, and your official coronation happens at one of these.

Aro is so proud.

And so fucking jealous as you are danced across the floor with other vampires— who are oh so respectful and as they should be as Aro watches from the upper floor like an angel of death.

You look stunning, your smile lighting up the entire ballroom, friends from near and far are there— even then Cullens— God bless Carly he even had animal blood brought for him.

You’re dancing around with Nessie laughing and watching the girl child giggle like a fiend before handing her off to the Shifter Aro hated the smell but it was what it was.

Over the course of the evening he was getting awful tired of sharing you. And as the evening wound down to an end you both were just going to take the elevator back up to the private rooms as the Ballroom was on the top floor of Volterra.

The energy crackled in the small space and you both glanced at one another. It was like a short fuse had been lit on a stick of dynamite.

We’re so not doing this in an elevator are we?

You didn’t realize you had said it out loud even as you both gravitated towards one another and his hands tangled into your hair sending gold pins flying to the ground as his mouth found yours and you let out a deep moan as his tongue swiped your lips before you happily opened them.

“We’re going to be patient. Cara mia. ” He said sternly more to himself than you— then groaned when your teeth tugged gently on his bottom lip knowing it drove him crazy. “Sarai la mia morte. Sulla mia tomba scriveranno 'ha giocato con il fuoco ed è perito felicemente’” his voice became heated as his hands moved over your form, “non mi importa più, vieni da me mia fiamma, brucia con me.” You will be my death. On my grave they will write 'he played with fire and perished happily'. I don't care anymore, come to me my flame, burn with me.

His hands were gripping your backside and hauling you up, pressing himself firmly between your thighs before grinding against you. But when his teeth scraped your neck your brain shorted out—

“Oh for gods sake Aro just fuck me already—” your hands were scrabbling at his waist coat and shirt pleased how easily the buttons pinged off the walls of the elevator.

Your mate let out a pleased noise, one that was utterly inhuman when your hands tangled into his raven locks and knocked the golden V pin to the floor allowing the ocean and pomegranate scent of his to curtain you from the world as he bent his head down and kissed you as if it were the last thing he would get to do just then. Right before he smacked his hand against the emergency stop button jolting the ride to the private floor still.

If you thought his kisses were something to be swooning over— because he always knew what you needed.

Well his gift extends to much and he is in tune with it.

Your mind is his favorite place to be, and he brutally uses what he knows to his advantage as his fingers skim up your legs flinging your skirt over your thighs to teasingly grind himself against you till you’re almost clawing at him half feral.

“My pretty little mate—“ he croons at you, “you looked so beautiful cara mia,” kissing down your throat before biting marks into your flesh licking them before continuing on as his teeth jerk the fabric of your bodice and sleeves off not even bothering with his hands. “E tu sei tutto mio, cazzo.” And you’re all fucking mine.

You were busy molding your hands against his form, loving how it was just ratcheting up his half mad with desire motions, twitchy, greedy, desperate to touch, “What was it you joked about that one time?” He was referring to a memory with your best friends over drinks.

You gulped and shivered a bit. “I believe I said sometimes a girl just wants to ahem— get slammed to a wall and fucked stupid?”

He smirked as his hands tore fabric off you letting his fingers to glide along your skin, allowing your own to do the same and showing you know exactly what he liked through the bond of touch.

If you’d been human the air would have left your lungs as he pressed his body tight to your own, pinning you in place letting you feel what you did to him, the hard length of his cock pressed into your belly. “What do you say we take care of that, hm?”

You’re speaking in tongues before he even takes you fully, and roughly, there’s no slow tender love making and frankly you’re just glad for it.

His wild smile sliding into a predatory proud smirk when you’re just a mess; whining at him, begging, pleading, twitching against him and oh you’re just so pretty when at his mercy.

He literally has the tongue of the devil.

“Did I finally break you little one?” He croons despite his rough movements sending you into another shockwave of bliss as your nails make claw marks in the wall.

Fuck he had— you’ll do anything if he’ll just continue.

Your submission is like a drug, he’s mad on it, hands digging against you, making small fissures of cracks along your hips that make you groan gleeful as you push closer for more of his touches.

“That’s right bambi, give me everything.”

That’s all you hear before he’s fucking you into the wall of the elevator, sinking his teeth into your shoulder and neck just to relish in the pain and pleasure filled noises that escape from you as you beg for more, more, just please give more it’s all you want.

“My good bambi.” He growls as he begins it all over again, rumbling in your ear as your try to escape the onslaught of sensations— but happy you can’t as his grip has you immovable. “You’re not escaping me just yet.”

You’re both a mess, not that either of you care. Adjusting yourselves as best you can—

You’re lucky his private rooms are close and he simply carries you and flits you both into his rooms; you both end up continuing what was started.

——

——

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

He is a touch telepath, he knows exactly what you need.

But he also surprises you with what you didn’t even know you needed.

Snuggles, so many snuggles— Aro is not a tactile person— but with you?

Forget it.

He’s practically melting into your form and trying to fuse himself to you.

Massages, nuzzling your hair, biting.

Lots of biting— but not hard bites, love bites. Pressing his teeth to your skin to leave little imprints that he just can’t get over. You always poke fun at him for it.

Plus let’s face it.

Bite = Love.

He and Caius are on one mind with that.

He also took a note from Marcus and you both enjoy the heat of the baths together after a particularly long rough romp.

Which turns into a bath romp.

Because ahem *REASONS*

“I’m King I don’t need a reason to have you— now come here.” He’ll huff imperiously when you giggle at him as he drags you close into his embrace kissing you.

Okay he lies.

You looked too pretty in the bath.

Aro can’t help himself. That’s the reason.

——

——

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

He is SHOOK when you tell him your favorite thing about him is his hands. You never feel misunderstood.

Even in the rare fights you simply huff and reach out to him, wiggling your fingers with a pleading glance; or if he won’t take your hand you’ll walk over sit in his lap and headbutt your forehead to his like an angry cat.

But usually Aro will take your hand and you both have a deep understanding of where you’re both coming from.

After a few moments it’s settled.

You kiss his hands, he knows you love how he plays you like a finely tuned instrument when alone.

Love when he delves his fingers into your hair and cradles you close even if you’re in the throne room— he’s the fucking king he can do what he likes damn it.

But Aro is startled by this— everyone hates touching him even though he can control his gift, they seem to think that— aside from his brothers and sister in laws— that he just loves to dive into people’s minds for funsies.

No it’s awful. Plain awful. He can barely stand his own mind why would he want to traverse someone else’s?

But that brings us to what he likes about you— he LOVES your head space. When he’s stressed it’s his favorite place to be because you have a vivid imagination, as a writer as well you show him stories you’ve thought of and worlds you’ve created with vivid detail. He finds it quite amusing to use watch your thoughts too on a daily, you like it simply because he’s close.

But aside from that it’s you.

Just You.

Just ALL of you.

He can’t pick don’t make the man pick, he would just keep you near him for eternity which you seem to have no issues with.

———

———

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically…I am a disgusting person…)

He is quite a posessive person.

Two Words:

Breeding Kink

You’re his and his alone, so the idea of ah— claiming you that way just sends him off into the ether.

The fact that you both have a breeding kink and literally can’t have kids is a GREAT thing because you’ve literally sat there a absolute mess after round five and thought out loud as he tenderly cleans you up, “shit thank god we can’t reproduce because I am 100% sure that’d have knocked my ass up—” which has had him shaking in mirth having to pause to control himself after a few moments.

Beg him for it.

Make that whining needy noise in the back of your throat at him for him to finally give you what you need.

He’ll just lose it, pin you by the throat and well— you’ve broken a few beds this way.

He has no shame.

Just glances at the bed, hits speed dial to the furniture store and orders a new one.

His only other favorite thing with C as he soon found out from O (you’ll see) was he adores when you swallow down everything he gives you. That’s got him rumbling in Italian about what a good girl you are and how much you please him.

———

———

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

He’s a MASSIVE Pleasure Dom. And when I say Dom.

HE GOT DOM ENERGY.

With very mild Sadistic tendencies. (Thanks a lot Caius ya pervy fucker)

However he is also a very sincere soft streak when you’re a very good pet.

He picked up pet play from his sadistic brother hearing him call his amore Bunny. One day down the rabbit hole that is Google and he was hooked.

But he calls you Bambi. It’s an Italian term for baby-girl.

It also works because you become like a damn deer in the headlights when he pulls the Dominant voice on you.

It thrums with a low purr and has the capability to just make your brain go wait what?

HE’S A FUCKING SWITCH.

You had been pissed as shit at him. “I don’t know whether I want to strangle you or fuck you to death!” You paused because you had literally throat pinned him to the wall, the stone crumbling beneath him, feeling the muscles of his neck working as he swallowed nervously.

You were about to let go but saw his eyes had gone totally black and expectant and startled but excited.

He was just as fucking confused as you both calculated in a matter of seconds what had happened.

You were first to catch on. “Oh?….OH...….oooooohhhhhhh ….. you….you son of a….” You sputtered as he got a sly grin, “you can’t just look at me like— you are so ill behaved!!”

He wasn’t far behind and raised a black brow at you looking mischievous, “…..and what are you going to do about it mia regina?”

Next thing he knew he was face planted on his office floor with your boot pressed on his cheek making him groan low. “Gonna make you regret mouthing off to me is what I’m going to do my Aro.”

Edge him. Don’t let him touch you all day till he begs. He loves when you exert your authority especially on him? Oh forget it.

Queen Slay.

Literally you are his Queen and you are the only one who get’s to fucking tell him what to do.

And you ruthlessly do so when he’s in the mood. All you hear is “mia regina?” He’ll croon at you, as your hand comes up and drags him to you by his tie.

“would you like to be of service to me Aro?”

Magic words. He’s done, let him have you and he will literally just focus on your pleasure.

Worship Kink.

You had dropped to your knees at his desk and laid your head in his lap and he almost lost his god damn mind. You purred at him, “il mio maestro”.

Aro .exe has stopped fucking working.

———

———

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

Thanks to the tactile telepathy as well as the fact that he and his brothers have slept their way through history, Aro is a very mixed lover.

When I say greedy as a lover, he wants your pleasure for himself. And will literally drive you to it till you’re sobbing for mercy.

He has none.

But he does take pity on you when he knows you’re truly at your limit with touch.

You weren’t inexperienced but his own experience blew yours out of the damn water. Can literally have you on the edge in mere minuets. And is SMUG about it.

Fucking smug bastard just watching you with that smirk on his face and a ‘well?’ Kinda expression.

You have to beg if you want it.

You have to plead, you have to let him hear you or he’ll just keep going and I quote ‘hmmm I can’t hear you cara mia, you’re being so quiet you know that makes me want to fuck you harder, come now, let me hear you— don’t make me have to drag it from you baby girl. You know I love to hear your sweet sounds.”

Could probably kill you if you weren’t already dead with what he can do with his hands.

His tongue is even better.

When asked which you preferred you had just panted desperately after a hard orgasm, “any. All. Both. God just…holy fuck.”

He cracked up over that. “My poor baby I broke her.”

————

————

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Loves having you in his lap.

Prefers to see your face and eyes, seems to need it.

But occasionally he just loves gripping your neck from behind and feeling you gasp against his grip as he slams into you roughly.

Adores anything that has you clinging onto him for dear life.

Likes being in a position to mark you. Favorite thing ever.

You had once tested his patience (willfully hoping for this outcome) a bit too much and he had pinned you completely immobile to the desk of his office and fucked you within an inch of your immortal life gagging you with his black tie.

“you just have to test me don’t you mia regina?” He had growled in your ear leaning over you, his hand crunching the ornate wood to splinters as you keened and whined for him to keep going. “Such a ill behaved thing you are, should just keep you here like this for when I please hm?”

He was not joking, you were kept there quite happily under his desk sitting at his feet your head on his lap waiting and absolutely willing.

He could feel your hands grip his thighs, “quit that I know what you’re trying to do and it’s not going to work—“ his voice teetered off in a guttural growl as he looked down.

You were biting his shirt looking up at him already nudging yourself between his thighs your teeth digging into his trouser zipper and tugging down.

his hands were gripping your hair jerking you up to kiss him deep, a growl against your lips, “Fucking damn it— come here.”

When you can get him to swear which is rare— yeah…

He didn’t exactly sound angry.

But he sure fucked you like he was though.

“This is what you were after hm? You brat!” A harsh laugh as he pinned you down a bit harder, “fine then I should ensure you’re good….and….sated…shouldn’t I bambi?”

———

———

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

Very sincere.

Teasing but only in a very sexual way.

Borders on humiliation but he respects you too much.

Very serious though when he focuses on you.

He’s focusing on all the sensations you’re sending him, letting you know what he’s feeling as well which just sets you into the damn ether.

———

———

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

It’s ARO.

The man is vain.

The man is neat.

Clean and pristine.

He’d give a regal huff of annoyance, “I am not a heathen darling.”

———

———

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

Ohhh you wouldn’t know it but he’s such a god damn romantic.

He is. And he MAKES time for you. The schedules are changed so you have time together more often— something that was never done before.

Operas, romantic walks out in Volterra at night.

Sightseeing.

Your favorite was your trip to Germany in the winter with a big cozy cottage and a big fire and lots of bedding to ahem— destroy.

Aro has penguin brain.

He brings you small gifts that made him think of you— you have a bracelet that has special charms he had custom made for you, a lochness monster for when you met, a castle obviously for Volterra, a doe, different tiny items that speckled through your life, each one means something— you hardly ever take it off.

You have a collection of very sparkly stones in many jars that he found on his missions.

They are actually gemstones— insert eye roll— they set off pretty prisms through your shared rooms.

“Aren’t you going to make jewelry of them?” Aro asks.

“No darling they are perfect just as they are.” You smile.

Aro actually has the literal voice of a damn angel.

He sings to you in Italian, soft dulcet sweet tones and dances you around your rooms teasing you relentlessly.

Aro writes beautiful poetry. He will at least write one every few months when inspiration comes to him.

You have your own private box at the opera house. As well as being allowed to fund artists across the world, you’ve found incredible talent on broadway and other venues.

Flowers. Aro ensures care for a private greenhouse for you on the roof, each flower has a meaning, and they all bloom year round given the proper temperatures on the greenhouse. “Why would I send you flowers when they die so easily.” He asks kissing your cheek as you smile over the new blooms. “This is everlasting, much more fitting.” He muses.

All his poetry is in a beautiful book Caius got you for your birthday.

———

———

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Why would he do that when he has you?

He is a patient man.

He can wait.

And he has pristine control over himself.

He is too old for pre-pubescent raging hormone crap.

But he will legit melt for you if you do it for him. Prefers it slow, enjoying your touch and loves to watch as you take instruction.

You’re such a good girl for him.

————

———

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

Aro is a kinky bastard.

MASSIVE Pleasure Dom.

Worship Kink.

Edging.

Controlling Orgasms *you don’t get to come till he gives permission*

Collaring *your Volturi necklace is LITERALLY on a collar*

Overstimulation. *his gift allows him to know when you’re pushed to hard and when you can take a bit more. When you’re craving that over stimulus, he’ll give it happily. Knowing he can turn you into a babbling speaking in tongues, drooling, eyes rolling back mess just— just— GAH.*

Breeding Kink *Aro has a true breeding kink, ask him to fill you up beg him for it and he’s going to lose his mind.*

Gagging. *he loves to gag you, but also loves being choked by you or you grabbing onto his tie.

Wax Play *you’re a fire elemental user, bringing candles into play is just oh it’s nice. * Prefers to have it done TO him. Your air element gift also allows you to cool the wax quickly and give new sensations.

————

———

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Aro is private, he prefers somewhere comfortable to take his sweet time with you.

Rooms Private, hotel, somewhere he can just lavish you and enjoy everything you can give him.

He’d rather take the time to find a nice comfy setting.

But every blue moon— he’ll just look at you in that specific dress molding to your thighs.

He will drag you into an alley way and just rail the shit out of you keeping you quiet with a firm grip over your mouth as he hisses the dirtiest things in your ear.

You two once had a quick rendezvous in a changing room at a theatre. -shrug- it was empty oh well.

———

———

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

“Master?” You bat your eyes at him

His nostrils flare as he breathes in and just knows exactly what you want and you smell so fucking good.

The tone you use.

He knows. You want him. That’s it.

Unless it’s a trial— and DO NOT DO THIS BEFORE TRIAL.

And if you happen to when he takes your hand send him your fantasies after seeing him standing there all regal and watching his mouth form syllables so well and how much better it’ll be with his mouth— ahem— busy somewhere else.

He will be so mad at you.

He’s glaring at you behind a mask of calm and you can feel the fucking tremor in his limbs.

You just bat your eyes innocently at him and smile.

His face: you’re in SO MUCH trouble.

Brat energy??? During Trial?!??! Now is that the time to give brat energy!!???

Oh. Oh. oh you are so in trouble. When he gets done with ripping some poor idiots head off— okay not really they broke the rules— stalks over to you; grabs you by your oh so pretty collar, “come with me bambi.”

And just pulls you along to your rooms with you giggling the whole way and practically prancing behind him like a— well like a doe prancing into a lions den.

He’s tossed you over his shoulder once and just flitted out of the rooms into your private chambers, hurling you onto the bed before ripping into your clothing. “You best be ready for your punishment.”

“Oooohhhhhh absolutly master.”

“that’s my girl.”

The coven just rolls their eyes. Aro is less manic with you there and you surprisingly bring ease to the coven— so ya know what if that’s what does it whatever.

————

————

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Humiliation. No.

Impact play is one thing, but to intentionally hurt you no.

If he does impact play one hand is always touching you to ensure you’re okay.

————

———

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Giving? The man has a wicked tongue.

His oral game is LEGIT.

Will have you in a puddle of twitching ecstasy in mere moments of teasing because he knows where to touch and that’s not just his tongue but his hands.

Will kiss you all over before even getting to the ahem— final destination.

You’re either ready to combust or ready to strangle him when he finally just begins to devour you.

Eats pussy like a man starved but has all the time to enjoy.

Smug as Fuck.

Expect him to just watch you as you’re coming back down from the absolute height he threw you up to and glaring down at his smug grin as he waits before beginning all over again.

Will go all night if you’ve been ill behaved.

Your record is 20 before you BEGGED for a break.

He finally took pity and gave you a warm bubble bath and snuggles and praises.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like receiving, however it was more just a “hm, that’s nice—“

But with you.

Especially when you had decided to walk into his office, lay your head in his lap as you had sat yourself under his desk so he could work while he played with your hair (you have a comfy cushion there who was he to argue if that was the best way to be close and he could get work done??!!)

But his work was abruptly halted when you had nuzzled his cock through his trousers dragging your mouth wide as he became painfully hard in record time.

“what is it you think you’re doing bambi?” He purred looking oh so curious.

“Nothing.” You muffled around him as your teeth found his zipper and trouser buttons with a rather feral sound.

Upon finding out you had no gag reflex and having your nose buried in his pelvis as you moaned around him he was done for and he didn’t even care.

Work was forgotten.

Loves when you pleasure him, but of course has to be in control for the most part.

Buries his hands into your hair and loves throat fucking you, praising you the entire time. “What a good thing you don’t need to breathe dolcezza.”

You had hummed around him ecstatically.

The reward for this is always drool worthy.

Play with yourself as you do and let him see you do so keeping your clothing out of the way and you’ll have him break finally, that cool haughty composure cracking as his gaze goes just utterly uncontrollably wild, his hips moving a bit harder.

————

———

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

You both fuck rough.

But you both also love the slow and sensual moments too.

Especially if you have the time to just drown in one another.

It just depends on the situation.

Rough And Fast:

Slow and Sensual is how it usually starts off, he’s so attentive, so soft and cherishes you, that is till you growl at him for more and he has of course no other option but to give you what he wants.

You’re his queen after all what kind of mate would he be if he didn’t give in?

But has today been exceedingly trying for either of you?

Or is your mate quite amped up from a particularly rough trial?

You’ve been pestering him haven’t you? Hmmm.. yeah buckle up.

You’re in trouble and therefore need to relearn where your place is— it’s in your bed, beneath him losing your mind out of pleasure.

And he is all too happy to provide that lesson if you seem to forget.

You try to forget often. You damn brat.

Slow and Sensual

However sometimes he just wants to be gentle. And frankly so do you, you want to just bask in the bond you have and slowly explore all over again despite knowing you have memorized one another to heart by now.

Doesn’t matter, you still find things that surprise you, things that make you smile.

Places that when touched cause a jolt— well that’s new.

“I could spend my entire life mapping out your body carissima.”

“that’s an awful long time in bed.”

Aro would just smirk kissing down your sternum, “oh what a pity— I suppose my brothers shall have to cover for me hm?” Bite marks being pressed into your flesh, “I plan on leaving so many of these that I forget where they are so I can find them later.”

“Such an evil overlord.” But you’re giddy, he’s going to make your entire world tilt again with those slow careful hands of his and you’re going to enjoy every second of it.

———

———

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

You’d be surprised that such a patient man could be so damn impatient for you.

He’s not as impatient as Caius but not AS patient as Marcus.

So it’s a toss up when he’s twitchy during trials and catches a glimpse of you floating down the hallway in all your grandure and he mentally tosses a coin.

Nope he can’t take it that flash of leg just set him off.

“Excuse me I do belive I remembered something that needs my attention.”

The others just inwardly roll their eyes.

Next thing you know you’re gagged by his tie in his office pinned over the desk with his teeth buried in your neck and frankly you expected this you wore that damn skirt with the slit in it to tease him.

Seeing this just makes him let out a feral noise and a laugh at the end, “oh you planned that hm?” He nibbles the outer shell of your ear, “missed me did you?”

You can only nod as he continues, eyes rolling back as he knows exactly what you’re needing and it’s certainly not gentle right now.

“I have exactly fifteen minutes before my brothers come looking for me— think you can be a good girl and make me come?”

You smirk against the gag in your mouth before purring at him; and it’s off to the races.

He’s in trouble quite often for this— but who’s to argue with him.

He’s king he can do what he wants…. At times….

Okay most of the time.

Plus he’s always in a MUCH better mood.

I wonder Why.

————

———

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

While Aro does love to experiment your safety is his utmost importance.

But he’s a curious bastard and you are right behind him on that scale so sometimes your games become a bit risky.

Never life threatening but oh boy do you two get a grin and just glance at one another, “you know we haven’t done that yet.”

“No…. No we haven’t….”

And that’s how it usually starts.

The worst thing you two can realize is you both utter “I don’t know”.

Well now you have to know if either of you are able to ahem— arrive— under rather dire circumstances such as utilizing your gift (don’t worry your gift doesn’t hurt him he knows how to use fire too surprise surprise.).

You almost had a heart attack though and nearly killed him after.

He just cackled that manic laugh that had you joining in after hitting him several times.

———

———

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

Need I say more than one word?

Vampire.

Aro takes his time most occasions, his slow, slow sweet time.

Now— you’d THINK that the rougher encounters would last a shorter period.

You’re wrong.

So wrong.

He lives for it you’re going to be so happy you’re a vampire and can’t really get sore except for when you both leave cracking handprints on one another.

————

———

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Sensory.

Crops, leather gloves, feathers, ben wa balls are huge and he likes that they are silent but give you that teasing sensation. Wax candle play is huge for both of you and you enjoy long luxurious heated baths and sauna sessions with one another.

Ooooo he loves it.

Leather gloves area huge thing for him but not for what you’d think— he likes to challenge himself.

Sure he can know what you’re feeling but he wants to be in tune with your physical responses as well and so occasionally he dons them just to test his knowledge.

Damn smug overlord is just as good and you hate it and now he’s smirking at you while popping his jaw with his hand on his elbow waiting for you to come back into your body.

“Shut up.” You rasp as your head spins.

“I didn’t say anything.” His raven hair slides across his face as he grins wider.

“Your SMUGNESS IS LOUD ARO.”

“Me?! Smug! Why I never…” -cue the dark chuckle before he starts it up all over again, “maybe once more to ensure you remember it’s not just the gifts edge hm?”

“Ohhhh I’m going to die.” But you reach for him biting his leather clad hands.

“No you won’t.” He hums happily, “I won’t let you. You’re not allowed to leave me bambi.”

————

————

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

HE IS SO DAMN UNFAIR.

But so are you.

He’s not as bad as Caius but he is close, and he only does it with LOOKS.

His eyes are utterly expressive, as is that mouth of his, so when he glances at you in just the right way you can feel it drop down in your gut and sizzle.

And he does it during trial. Oh but when you do it you’re in trouble. Psh.

He’ll tease you and brush your hand as he walks by just to know that you’re basically twitching from frustration at the end of the day and about to boil over as he leans down and licks your neck. “Bambi, awe, was I too mean to you? Hmm I should make it up to you shouldn’t I?”

He always makes it up to you.

The man has the best ways to use his mouth aside from running the coven and giving orders.

————

———

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Aro was quite clear studies, and private rooms were to be soundproofed.

He’s loud, swearing (which he normally does not do), praising mess of a man, it’s needed.

And you love it.

You can practically feel the vibration in his chest when he purrs at you, less growling, he’s not as violent unless you get him too worked up.

No no no, he loves making you melt, and knows exactly what to croon at you to make your mind go blank.

———

———

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

He’s more posessive than Marcus. And that bleeds into a protective nature.

A bit controlling, but he knows very well he can’t do that to you as he had to Sulprica. BUT it doesn’t stop him from trying as gods forbid anything happen to you.

Less Jealous than Caius.

But his ah— mood swings can cause for quite an interesting feat.

Since Marcus and Caius were always the brunt of the bashing and warfare, and he the brains behind the operation, many seem to think he has no bite marks on his body due to not being in the fray.

No.

The problem is Aro becomes too violent. Especially because of his talent when touching his victims it tends to become a frenzy. Once he had decimated an entire coven single handedly because the rage they had was swamping him.

His brothers had to pin him down and try to relay calm emotions— his sister Didyme thankfully had been the one to bring him back.

You yourself are now that calm place.

At one point, a guard had been careless enough to have thought about you in ah— that way— Aro was aware you were quite beautiful, your personality no nonsense and many of the guard and lower guard considered you a maternal figure almost otherwise a very good friend.

But this guard.

Ohhh he coveted. What was not his.

But what was worse, was that on the way to the throne room he had spoken to you rather crassly, you merely ignored him; he wasn’t even worth your time. But he had glanced you over as if you were a rather tasty morsel, the imaginings of you spread out beneath him had Aro’s hands cracking his wrists.

You saw the change slightly as you were behind him. His spine went poker straight. “You dare.” It was worse, the guard had actually tried to think of how to lure you away to him— you were a queen so surely infidelity was expected—

The rumble in his chest was a whole new sound you’d never even heard.

Both Marcus and Caius were sitting straight up and narrowing their gaze at Aro before Marcus flitted over and guided you to Aro’s throne placing you on it and standing protectively in front of you.

“Marcus?” you peered behind the eldest king and he hushed you gently.

The guard was torn apart in mere seconds.

It was utterly ruthless and with no mercy.

“People tend to forget Aro is only about a thousand years younger than I.” Marcus muttered.

You blinked. Aro was at least five thousand meaning that Marcus was Six, Caius being the youngest at three.

Aro speared the entire guard with a terrifyingly cold glare before flitting over to you, gripping your head back by your hair and sinking his teeth into your shoulder and neck with a low growl.

The sentiment was well understood as the entire guard backed the fuck away from the dais— he closed the wound before his head shot up and he snarled at the coven tucking you into his embrace your face buried into his robes. “She is mine.” It was a quiet, soft voice that spoke.

“Aro.” you muffled tugging his sleeve and looking up at him.

He showed you “what he had seen and tilted his head. Would you mind cara?”

You lit the bastard on fire with a scowl aimed at the body winding your arms about Aro’s waist and nuzzling into his solid form.

A soft kiss in your hair, his body relaxing. “That’s my bambi.”

———

———

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

Aro although he is lithe and tall….he’s not exactly easy to handle.

9” decent width, knows how to use it.

Be forewarned, he knows what he’s doing.

Tactile Telepathy, good luck remember to keep your head on straight.

————

———

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

It’s less of a wistful like of yearning.

And more a burning bonfire of desire always in the wing of his mind ready to take over the forefront.

One glance at you and he wants you— granted he thinks it might cool down over the centuries but when you look at him like that and bite your lip and grin.

Nah.

Nope. This isn’t going away. Not at all.

He of course has excellent control so he is able to push other desires to the back of his mind, but once finished you are certainly at the front of the line.

Super high.

You both are insane.

You can be sitting reading and next moment with one small brush you’re gone from the library and you’ve tackled him through the doors of your rooms and pinned him to the floor.

Insatiable.

Good luck!

————

———

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Aro LOVES resting with you.

He likes to just lay with his hands on your body and watching your thoughts, you’re his favorite mind to go through and he just adores it.

You both can spend hours like this if you were allowed—

He likes when you drag your fingers through his hair.

Makes him melt.

Kiss across his eyes and kiss his hands as he brushes your mouth with his fingers trying to learn you all over again.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get enough.” He murmurs to you lazily. He has you nestled in his arms your head tucked under his jaw.

“That’s fucking fine by me.” You giggle.

He rolls his eyes and huffs a soft laugh kissing the top of your head. “Of course she swears like a sailor…”

[anime-lover-forever-1127]

Nothing {Klaroline}

Nothing

*****

Disclaimer - (Cause fanfiction is tricky ground and I hope not to offend the creator of the original story and get sued)

I do not own "The Vampire Diaries", it belongs to its original creator Kevin Williamson, Julie Plec, and L. J. Smith. Nor do I own "Originals", which belongs to it's rightful creator Julie Plec, Michael Narducci, Leslie Morgenstein, Gina Girolamo. This is only a fanfiction that I was inspired to write by the original work. Please support the official release of "The Vampire Diaries" and "Originals". Most of the media - such as the art and illustrations, gifs, video's, etc. used in this fanfiction - are from the web. Thus, most of them aren't mine (because I really, really can't draw) unless mentioned. To fit the story, images are also edited by various apps and websites. So they aren't mine, just edited.

Also if you own a picture or Video that I found online, and you either want your name added, or me to take it down. Please contact me and we can talk it out. P.s. I also ask that you do not copy my work and publish it onto any other website.

If you're gonna use my idea, please ask me (If you ask nicely, I for sure, will agree). If I don't contact you within a week, then just assume I'm giving you the all clear and go for it. Just remember to credit me and the story you are getting the idea from.

Warnings: Hayley Bashing, Tyler Bashing, Spoilers for TVD 4x06

Info You Might Need To Know: "Speaking",

Word Count: 2.9K

Requested By: No One

Summary: Who wanted someone to smack Tyler when he threw the glass at Caroline during 4x06? Well I decided to have Klaus do it for us!

*****

Today's Special

Be Careful

how you treat a good woman. She will love you more than anything, treat you like a king, be more loyal than the rest, have your back no matter what, put up with you shit for way too long, always be there when you need her, take you back a hundred times... Then one day she won't anymore. Everyone has a breaking point even the best of us!

~Unknown

-o-

A Real Man

Never hurts a women. Be very careful when you make a women cry, because God counts her tears.

The Woman

came out of a man's rib, not from his feet to be walked on, and not from his head to be superior, but from his side to his equal. Under the arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved.

Unknown

*****

Caroline walked into the Lockwood mansion to find Tyler in a daze, with a bottle of scotch in his hands. Hayley was lying next to him, asleep on the couch.

The sight filled Caroline with sadness, had Tyler really grown that close to the girl?

"Tyler." Caroline called, a bit cautiously, as if approaching a wounded animal.

Tyler stared up at her, "It's just us. Paying our respects to Chris." he said, taking a swig directly from the bottle.

"Tyler, we didn't have a choice." Caroline tried to reason with him.

The hybrid glared at her, "I told him we had his back. I told him if he helped us he'd be free."

"But we needed to help our friend." Reminded him. This wasn't about a hybrid, it was about Elena. She wished that there was another way, but that was the only way to save her childhood friend. She wasn't going to choose a hybrid she just met, over a girl she's known longer since pre-school.

"Yeah," Tyler scoffed, "we helped our friend by handing over another friend."

"Chris wasn't..." Caroline protested, but was cut off by Tyler.

"Chris was a friend, Caroline. He's like me. He's part of my pack. All he wanted to do was be unsired by that disgusting piece of..." As Tyler trailed off, Caroline felt a flash of anger rise up inside of her.

But before she could tug on that thread, Tyler sighed. After a moment, he looks at Caroline. "How did you even get Klaus to agree to give up one of his hybrids?"

Caroline felt dread fill up inside of her. A voice in the back of her head couldn't help but point out that when she was with Klaus, she felt safe, content, happy. Yet with Tyler...

"I agreed to go on a date with him." Caroline answered.

Tyler nods and silently gets up.

"I just thought that it might help keep up the ruse between you and Hayley." Caroline tried to defend herself. But she couldn't help but feel angry. He and everyone else had continued to throw her onto Klaus' path, for their own gain. But now that he'd actually grown to care for her. Made her feel special. It was supposed to be her fault!

Tyler makes a show of pouring himself another drink, and looks up at her with angry eyes. He then throws the glass at her, but Caroline flinches, causing it to miss her head and hit the wall behind her.

The loud noise causes Hayley to wake up and in a daze she tries to assess the situation. "What the hell is going on?"

"Nothing." Tyler answers without looking at her. "Just celebrating the life of a fallen hybrid friend."

Tyler stares at Caroline's sad and fearful face with not a look of remorse or regret for his actions.

The vampire-wolf mix, still angry, grabs another glass full of scotch and chunks it at her head. Caroline, still in shock at what was happening, was frozen in heels and closed her eyes, waiting for the glass to hit.

But it never came. Instead she felt a warmth envelope her back. "Really? This doesn't look like nothing to me." A quiet voice comes from behind Caroline, one that sends pleasant shivers down her back. "Is that how you celebrate a fallen friend? By abusing someone who stands by you?"

Caroline opened her eyes to see Klaus has an arm protectively around her, well his other hand couch the glass of scotch, not a drop spilled.

Klaus had only just arrived and took in the situation. From the angry hybrid, to the broken glass behind Caroline, he didn't like what he saw.

But what he hated the most was the tearful look on his woman's face. How she just stood there. He really needed to convince her to get out of this small town, and he needed to do it soon. It would take decades to undone the damage these people had done to her.

Tyler flinched as he felt Klaus' dark eyes bore into him. Even if Klaus had figured out his plan. He had a feeling that look was more because of what he just did to Caroline, then him breaking the sire bonds.

Which scares him.

Because the death for his first crime would be quick.

But for the second, Klaus would ensure he suffered, slowly, and painfully.

Klaus let's go of Caroline and takes a threatening step towards Tyler, but is stopped by a gentle hand on his arm.

"Klaus, it's fine." The baby vampire tries to plead with him.

Klaus turned to her outraged, but Klaus couldn't figure out if someone had thrown fire or oil onto his fire when he saw the defeated and disappointed look on her face.

It was like she had just accepted that this was how she would be treated. That this was her place.

The very thought outraged Klaus, yet he still forcefully pushed his anger down for now, for her sake at least.

"No, it's not fine." Klaus tells her with a firm voice. "You would never be treated that way. You a Queen... fit for a King..." he says, moving a curl out of her face. Everybody could hear the meaning behind his last sentence.

Tyler growled, his eyes flashing golden, "Don't touch her!"

Klaus' eyes flashed amber as his own wolf rose to the challenge issued by the mutt. He instantly slammed Klaus into the wall by the neck with one hand; his posture completely relaxed well Tyler desperately pawed at his wrist, struggling for air.

Hayley, who had only been watching up until this point, stood up and tried to help Tyler. But the second Klaus' eyes landed on her, she flinched and lowered her neck. Her wolf instantly submitted to the alpha in the room.

Klaus takes a sip, the scotch still in his hands, "You know. You should really keep your mouth shut. But since you clearly can't do that, let me help you." Klaus says, his pupils went into a miosis as he compelled the baby hybrid. "You will stay quiet, and won't speak until spoken to. Also, you will answer any question asked of you truthfully. Understood?"

Tyler, who had stopped taking vervain, was forced to comply.

Klaus then set the now empty glass of scotch on the table and walked right back up to Caroline.

The blond took a step back, but Klaus stopped her by placing a hand on her lower back, well his other hand gently moved her chin so her eyes stared into his own.

As soon as Caroline's eyes locked onto Klaus' blue eyes, Tyler, Hayley, everything faded into the background until it was nothing more than white noise.

"I mean it. You're a queen who should never be treated in such a way ever again. You are strong, brave, and loyal. None of your friends deserve you." Caroline opened her mouth to protest, but Klaus stopped her by placing a finger on her lips, silencing her. "You may not realize this today. But in a year, or maybe in a century, you will. And when that day comes, you'll know that my doors are always open for you."

Caroline paused, her brain automatically processing Klaus words as she struggled to decide if he was telling the truth.

Did her friends drive her loyalty?

She had stood by them no matter what... yet... They had thrown her at Klaus without a care for her well being. Sure it had turned out well, but the night at the bar when they tried to kill Kol. He could have easily killed her.

But one thing was for certain.

Tyler.

He didn't drive anything from her, and she intended to give him nothing more.

Caroline turned to her soon to be ex-boyfriend. "That's it Tyler. I'm done. No more games, no more distractions. If you want to take on Klaus. Fine. You can go on that suicide quest by yourself. You won't have me to fall back on when your plan fails, because we all know it will; and play your shield any longer. Do you understand me. We're over. And I mean it this time."

Klaus watched with a smirk on his face, pleased to see his baby vampire stand up a little bit straighter. This was defiantly a good start at building up her confidence. If nothing else, at least the mutt was good for one thing.

Caroline's eyes widened as she suddenly realized she just blurted out in front of Klaus that the whole break-up between Tyler and her was all fake.

At the look on her face Klaus let out a chuckle. "You knew?" Caroline accused, whirling around to glare at him.

Klaus smirked, happy to see her fire back. At least she wasn't scared of him, as she was with Tyler. And that pleased him quite a bit.

"Oh of course I know. His plan was idiotic and half baked at best. Did they forget I can compel them?" Klaus asked, as he revered in the fearful look that appeared on Tyler's face. "I thought the sire bond would be fun, but I'm not above compelling them. Plus, I have other hybrids of course." He was almost offended at their surprised look. Please, did nobody teach them how to fear them? It appears that between Mikael and Esther, and their arrogance alone, they had grown cocky and forgotten that he has centuries on them. Of course he would have backups. Well it was more like these twelve were the backup.

Klaus smirked, "These ones were just the ones I created as a result of the scraps of Elena's blood I had left over. Or did you all suddenly forget it only took a sip of Elena's blood to turn Tyler. And I left with four pints of her blood."

"Now, how should I punish you?" Klaus asked.

Tyler used this to get around the compulsion. "You took Caroline, isn't that enough?"

Klaus raised an eyebrow. "You and your friends are the ones who kept putting her in my path for your own selfish gains. But unlike you idiots. I'm not blind. I know her worth. And once she chooses to come to me, I don't intend to ever let her go."

Caroline couldn't help but smile. He understood her. He knew exactly how used she felt every time her friends pimped her out.

"Now Tyler, you're immortal. Which means I can draw this out as long as I like. So how about you take a page out of Katherine's book and go on the run. I'll even give you a head start. You're going to need it. Because unlike her, you don't have any of her cunningness or resourcefulness. Nor do you have my older brother protecting you. But who knows, maybe if my Queen is feeling merciful. I'll give you a quick death. But I will give you a month at most. You won't survive any longer than that."

Caroline couldn't help but feel a flutter in her chest at his tone, and a warm feeling growing between her thighs at his tone.

He really was the Alpha Male.

Hayley stepped forward, "Please-"

But before she could even get a word out, Klaus shut her up with a predatory look. Like a wolf ready to pounce. "You. You are the traitor aren't you?"

Hayley stepped back and tried to deny it, but Klaus wasn't having it.

"No. But you aren't anything more. No way you're the real mastermind behind this. Your to dumb." Klaus said, "But of course me and my brother already figured that out. So we tracked him down and Kol will be dealing with Shane-"

"Shane?" Caroline asked. Klaus turned around and nodded at her, of course she could be the only one to interrupt him and get away with him.

The only exception to all of his rules.

Caroline shivered, "He always felt like a creep to me."

"You have good instincts. You should trust them more often." Klaus told her. He then returned to his explanation, not at all minding the fear in Tyler and Hayley's faces as they waited. "And of course, we will be finding a way to ensure Jeremy's tattoo never sees the light of day again."

"You won't kill him will you?" Caroline asked, still having the need to defend the people she knew.

Klaus sighed. "I know you wouldn't like that. So as soon as my brother can help the Bennett witch grow sober again from using expression, the first thing she will do is find a way to remove the tattoo and end the line of the brotherhood of five forever. So the cure will become nothing but a myth." Klaus told her, everything was set in stone. All that was left was to carry it out.

"But don't you need the cure for more hybrids." Hayley tried desperately.

"It's fine. I already have enough hybrids." Klaus shrugged casually. "They all willingly transitioned." Klaus a added for Caroline's sake.

Caroline's glare on his back softened, "So they're all willing?"

"Of course love." Klaus answered. "Not turning every moon is a huge selling point. Once they knew that, they were rushing to make my list."

"As for the doppelganger blood. I honestly don't care at this point. I'm willing to wait till the next one appears." Klaus sighs.

"But Elena's the last one." Caroline argued.

Klaus raised an eyebrow. "Are you forgetting about the Gilbert boy already?" he reminded her. "Plus, even if he doesn't have any children. I have a back up plan. 300 years ago I had another Petrova bloodline secured as soon I found out it was still ongoing. That line continues to this day. In fact, with modern technology I've compelled the women and men to give up some eggs and sperm to be preserved. Just incase of any accidents."

Caroline stared at him amazed. They all really had been underestimating them. Of course the Originals and Klaus had been treating them with kid gloves, her especially. They've been on this earth for 1000 years of course they've learned how to stay 20 steps ahead of everyone else.

*****

After that, that last absolute bahamut of a 'one shot'. I thought something fun and short would be nice for my brain. But this did end up a lot longer than I originally intended it to.

Anyways,

KLAROLINE FOR LIFE BECAUSE I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP!

[avaritia-apotheosis]

Double Double

Summary: Four times Danny met his doppelganger in person Prompt: Danny and Phantom are twins, and get into ghost hunting shenanigans together. Do their parents and the rest of Amity know about them being biologically related to each other, or do they mistake the duo as something more? (Phantom is still a ghost) (PR009)

For: @amabsis

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38270092

Note: many creative liberties were taken with this prompt

***

One.

THE FIRST TIME THEY MET was at the NASA Explorer Camp hosted at the Houston space center. Danny—then, a small boy of eleven—had begged his parents for the entire year to let him go. He made straight A’s, was in the 90th percentile for all of his standardized tests, helped around the house when his parents were engulfed in their lab experiments, and didn’t pick a fight with Jazz all year.

He even saved up enough money to go too! Birthday cash from his relatives, Christmas checks, the odd jobs he managed to snag from the neighbors, money hoarded from previous years, loose change from the washing machine, and recycling all those aluminum cans, all culminated into a whopping $105.13 he carefully saved in an old tin lunchbox with a spaceship design painted on the front.

It wasn’t enough. His hard-earned savings didn’t even cover half the cost of camp. His parents, though, said that all his efforts were enough to convince them and they ended up paying for the entire trip, plane tickets and everything. Then they deposited Danny’s savings into a checking account and told him—with all the gravity of a priest anointing a king—to keep his newly minted debit card safe at all times and to spend it wisely.

Danny was over the moon.

So there he was at the Houston Space Center, hands gripped firmly on his luggage, and absolutely giddy with excitement. Head craning this way and that way, trying to take in all of the new sights and sounds and—

Then he was looking at himself.

Except….not?

Well, it was him, Danny would know his own face anywhere. The black hair, the blue eyes, the freckles, the upturned nose. But the thing is, Danny’s 100% sure he put on his favorite white t-shirt that had the blue NASA logo on it, not a black t-shirt that had a picture of all the different rockets NASA shot up into space all lined up together.

He pointed at his look-alike.

His look-alike scrunched his face together and pointed back. “Um, hi?”

Danny blinked. “You…”

“Look like…me…” said his clone.

And that was the first time Daniel “Danny” Fenton met Daniel “Danny” Jackson.

Two.

The second time Danny and Dan met after explorer camp was during spring break.

Explorer camp was a blast, especially with Dan around. (They had to play a very intense game of rock-paper-scissors to figure out who got to keep “Danny” and who had to go by “Daniel.” The whole ordeal was a lot harder than it was supposed to be, considering that Fenton and Jackson tied fifteen times. But Fenton, being the superior “Danny” eventually won out. Jackson, put out and still not wanting everyone to call him Daniel, said that he’d just stick to being “Dan.”) More than once, people asked them if they were twins—which they replied with an eerily similar shake of the head—and they got a few of their camp leaders making jokes about the Parent Trap.

When camp was over, the two of them decided to exchange contact info, and they chatted on and off on AOL.

But this was talking to Dan in person. Which was infinitely better in Danny’s opinion.

Dan’s family were passing by Amity Park on their way to visit some relatives in the next state over. They would be staying at a hotel for a day and that was more than enough incentive for Danny and Dan to work their charms (read: beg) their parents to let them hangout together for a few hours at the mall.

They hung-out at the food court and spent a good hour just sitting and chatting at a table. Dan’s family were eating at a table nearby, close enough to keep an eye on them, and Jazz was browsing at the bookstore right outside the food court.

It had been more than half a year since they saw each other last and they wasted no time catching up. They launched into a fast-paced summary of events, full of stutters and repetition and wild gesticulations. Stories that were told in the chatroom were given more detail, their dark heads leaned together. Eventually, conversation wound down to the recent video games they played, Dan’s birthday party which was five days ago, and their friends.

“You know my friend Sam—the witchy one—said that we might be doppelgangers.”

“Dopple-what? What’s that?”

“It’s kinda like an identical twin, except you’re not related at all.”

“Kind of like a clone?”

“Think so, yeah.”

“That’s awesome.”

“It is, but…” Danny bit his lip. “I think she might’ve been trying to scare me by mentioning that. Did you know that doppelgangers are supposed to be, like, bad luck? If you meet your doppelganger in real life, it means that you’re going to die soon.”

Dan frowned. “Huh.” Then brushed it off with a wave of his hand. “Meh, it’s probably fake. I don’t believe in all that superstitious mumbo jumbo stuff anyway. I mean, we’ve met a bunch of times and we’re still here.”

If Danny were a normal kid—and he was a normal kid, albeit with not-normal parents—he would have brushed it off too. Though considering that his parents were building a portal to some ghost zone in their basement right now…

Well, best not to think about it.

Dan was right, it’s not like either of them are dead.

Three.

The third time they met, Dan was again in Amity for vacation. There was a space and engineering summer camp held in Amity and Dan was hard pressed to let the situation pass. The Fentons even offered to host him if he wanted to stay in Amity for a few days longer after camp ended.

They may or may not have lagged behind the group during their tour of the facility.

And they may or may not have gotten lost.

And they may or may not have taken a shortcut through a section of the facility that was still under construction.

Who's to say?

The important thing to take away from this entire experience is that Dan and Danny were walking through a hallway where the ceiling was still half-finished and undergoing repairs. Whether through fate, providence, human error, superstition, or pure bad luck, one of the poles that held the light fixture up snapped, swinging down and nearly taking out their heads if not for Danny’s quick instincts.

He threw himself and Dan down onto the floor, his heart pounding in his ears and his mind cycling through thoughts of oh-shit-oh-shit-oh-shit-oh-shit.

Dan verbalized Danny’s thoughts for him. “Oh shit.”

The two of them slowly got to their feet, eyes wide at the swinging light fixture that nearly killed him.

Danny absentmindedly rubbed his neck. The lump in his throat was hard to swallow.

“Maybe—” Dan let out a shuddering breath. “Maybe your friend Sam was onto something, there. About the doppelganger thing.”

Maybe. And wasn’t that a terrifying thought?

That left the million-dollar question: who was the omen— and who, the victim?

Danny took Dan’s hand and tugged him along. “Come on, we better go before other people come.”

Four.

Danny found out the answer to that question when he was fourteen.

His parents finally built the Fenton Ghost Portal; their magnum opus, their life’s great work, their pride and joy— only for it to not work.

It befuddled them for a very long time. They followed the blueprints. They double-triple-quintuple checked their calculations. Everything should be working.

Eventually, they figured staying at home and staring at blueprints all day weren’t going to help, and Jazz decided that a change in scenery might help them. A few hours later, his parents were off to go shopping for parts that might help with the portal, Jazz had a tutoring session to go to, and Danny was left alone with a broken portal to hell in his basement.

Like any sane and rational-minded 14 year old, of course he brings his friends down there to see it.

Well, to be honest, it was Sam’s idea.

Danny would rather be as far away from the portal as possible, thank you very much. It gave him the heebie-jeebies.

“Smile!” Sam said. Danny gave a lopsided grin as the camera’s flash went off. He blinked away the strange floating particles, getting his vision back in order.

“Are we done yet?” He called out.

“Yeah, that’s good enough for me.”

“Great. Danny stepped over a large cable. “Let’s get out of here and go get a Nastyburger or something, I’m absolutely starving—”

He stopped. There, embedded on the wall was a control panel with two buttons. One On, the other Off. It was currently set to ‘Off.’

For geniuses, his parents were kind of dumb sometimes.

He quickly poked his head out of the portal. “Hey Tuck, mind double-checking that the portal is deactivated out there?”

“You got it!” Tucker sent him two thumbs up before going to the external control panels and the power generator. He pulled out a few cables, checked the gauges, all the while narrating what he was doing to Danny.

When Tucker was sure that the portal wouldn’t turn on with Danny inside it, Danny slapped the ‘on’ button inside the portal and booked it out of there.

Sam tilted her head. “What are you up to?”

Danny shrugged. “I think I figured out how to get the portal to work. Ok, let’s turn this thing on for real this time.”

Cables reattached, generator running, and the switch flipped to ON, Danny brought the portal to life with an earth shaking flash of green light.

The trio yelped, arms thrown up to shield their eyes from the onslaught of light.

And then—

A voice.

“...Danny?”

Echoey in quality, slightly muffled, but still so very familiar. He would know. It was so similar to his own.

But that was impossible.

Slowly, Danny lowered his arms. In front of him was a boy. White hair when it should have been black, green eyes when it should be blue. At least the freckles were still there. A long black coat was draped over his shoulders, the ends of it billowing from the strange winds that came from the portal behind him. (Though upon closer inspection, it looked more like a lab coat that’s been dyed black). The boy was glowing. The boy was floating. But the strangeness of it all aside, Danny wouldn’t be able to mistake this person’s identity.

After all, it was his own face.

“Dan?”

“In the flesh.” Dan dropped to the ground, a sheepish smile on his face. “Guess we pushed our luck a bit too far, eh?”

Bonus.

“Careful, Phantom. If you stick around for too long your head will get too big for the portal.”

“Oh just chill out, will you Danny? You can’t blame me for wanting to enjoy all this good attention now what with all the bad press we got at the start. Besides, ghost hunting is hard, I deserve some praise.”

Danny rolled his eyes, before speaking once more into the Fenton Phones. “The girls only like you because you look like some edgy white haired anime boy.”

“Danny I am an edgy white haired anime boy. I even died.”

“The day you’re considered edgy is the day my dad decides that brownies aren’t his favorite food anymore.”

“So…never.”

“Not in a billion years.”

Danny’s life had gone from strange to downright weird after he turned the ghost portal on that fateful day. Not only did he learn that one of his friends died—the details of it all were fuzzy, even to Dan—but that ghosts were definitely real, and that the majority of them seemed to think that Amity Park was in dire need of scares.

(“That’s probably bad,” Dan had said after the third ghost attack. “I think I might have accidentally led them to the location of the portal.”

Danny shrugged. “And I’m the one that turned it on, and my parents were the one who built it. No need to place the blame on one person.”)

Dan had no desire to visit his family for some odd reason and he liked Amity Park well enough to not want to see it burn, so when Danny said that he was going to start ghost hunting Dan jumped at the chance to join him.

Which meant telling the Fentons about Dan.

Boy, was that an experience.

The long and short of it though was that Dan’s powers made it infinitely easier for him to fight ghosts than anything the Fentons could invent. Their anti-ecto weapons could only do so much once a ghost just flies out of range, and humans don’t have the luxury of just flying across the city at breakneck speeds. Dan (or Phantom, as he now called himself) was the muscle, the powerhouse. The Fentons provided the tech, ground support, and any and all information they had on ghosts—because while Dan was a ghost, he knew very little on what that actually means.

Sam and Tucker weren’t about to be left out in all this excitement. Not if they could help it, anyway. They, like Danny, were part of the support team. Working crowd control, providing extra firepower if Dan needed it, and doing some minor investigations if they suspected a ghost to be at work.

Through the comms, Dan said “You’re always so mean to me. You might wanna talk to Jazz about working through your self-loathing.”

“One: Jazz isn’t a licensed therapist, she just reads books about psychology. Two: make enough jokes about us being the same person and someone is bound to end up believing it. ”

Dan hissed. “You see…about that…”

“Please don’t tell me this doesn’t have anything to do with why Wes has been stalking me for the past couple of weeks.”

“Ok then, I won’t.”

“Dan!” Dann pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re a real piece of work, aren’t you?”

“What can I say? I’m one of a kind.”

[thedelusionreaderbitch]

Kaz Brekker x Reader - Your What?! Part 1/2 (Soulmate au)

A/n: So I can't believe I'm doing this but... This a soulmate au! With Kaz fucking Brekker! I'm just going to cry in the corner now... I also decided to split this into two parts, so part 2 will be out tomorrow!

Warnings: language, mentions of trauma, mentions of the menagerie, mentions of death, I think that's it? You have been warned!

Summary: You and the crows are on a mission and your soulmate mark starts burning

All rights go to Leigh Bardugo, Netflix, and you! I just own the plot!

Soulmates are the bane of my existence.

You can say otherwise, tell me that I live in a wonderful world to have a chance to even meet my true love or whatever. Personally, I think it's bullshit.

Come on! Most people probably don't even meet their soulmate because the whole system is stupid! Maybe it was different billions of years ago when people couldn't have the same initials but now it's not about the initials.

It's about the pain.

Knowing the initials is just a slight sign to help you along your journey. The pain where those initials are is what it really is.

When your soulmate is hurt or in danger you mark will burn. Depending on the level of how much pain or danger they will be in it could feel like a mosquito bite... Or feel like your getting stabbed multiple times.

In my opinion well really... I don't give two fucks about it. It is what it is but the worst part about soulmate marks is when the person dies.

So when your soulmate is going to die, or is VERY close to death your soulmate mark fill start to flicker. Apparently it's worse then the normal pain you face with soulmates. When the person dies though...

In the case that your soulmate dies, the mark will slowly fade away causing you excruciating pain that could last YEARS. (Dramatic I know.)

That's what I used to think anyways.

When my sister finally escaped the menagerie I was ecstatic, but then she got dragged into the whole 'ice court heist,' so that was fun. In the time that everything happened I eventually got dragged down with her when Ketterdam was on lock down looking for criminals.

Then I found my soulmate.

Kaz fucking Brekker. Or Kaz Rietveld would be more correct, I guess.

After the whole heist was finally over we decided that fine, we could bond and we did. Being us, we didn't tell anyone not to stir up trouble, (we both had enemies) and because Inej Ghafa was my sister. Her and the others would be very protective of me.

Not like they can stop me though.

"Y/n." I snapped my head to look up to Kaz and he raise's an eyebrow at me.

"Don't kill Pekka." I roll my eyes at him. Since Kaz did tell me about his past I told him if he wouldn't kill Pekka I would.

Or at least his son.

I sigh. "Fine but don't expect me to give him a fucking birthday present."

"I never said you had too." Kaz says blankly and I almost grit my teeth together at the thought of Kaz having no emotions. Wow, people really don't know him. Though I guess that's the point.

The Crows and I start walking towards the warehouse-club and Kaz walks with me step by step. That must means he's worried because most times he doesn't even look at me when we're on a job to not show weakness.

Shit.

I brush my hand quickly up against Kaz's gloved ones and I give him a nod.

A promise.

A promise to make it out alive as long as he does. I step back and lower my pace so I'm not leading with Kaz anymore and I fall into pace with Inej and Nina.

My mind goes to when Kaz found out I was his soulmate. I had found out on when he went on a mission one time and I just... Didn't tell him.

*Flashback*

The walls of the Crow club all the sudden become suffocating as I stare intently at Kaz. I spin on my heels and dash out the doors tears filling my eyes. I don't even know where I'm running, I just needed to escape out of the Crow Club.

I need to escape the disappointment.

I slide down onto the wall of the alleyway feeling like a fool. How could I have ever thought someone like Kaz could love me. Regardless of the soulmate mark he didn't even know about.

I sense a someone is in front of me and I go to lift my head up and a man has me at gun point. I go to grab my knives. Shit. I curse every saint ever in existence. They aren't there. I don't even have a gun.

Bare fists I guess it is for me.

We turn in a circle and he clicks the safety off his gun and in a split second I duck when I hear a short, boom!

I growl in pain as a bullet goes through my shoulder and he goes to shoot again and...

BANG!

The man drops dead to the floor.

I turn around and behind me is Kaz holding a gun, but his face is in pain and worry is there as well, spread across his face more plainly then I had ever seen before.

"Your my soulmate." He mutters and I barely hear it. My chest heaves and I just nod my head not being able to speak.

He come's over and pause's right in front of me, just a foot away. Slowly, he takes off his gloves and he nervously takes my hand and laces our fingers together.

Then we start walking back to the Crow Club.

To a new future. Together.

*Flashback over*

"What do you even have against Pekka Rollins anyways, Y/n?" Inej questions me as we speed-walk to the warehouse where some Dime Lions are stirring up trouble.

My brain scrabbles to put something together but I have always been a efficient liar. No offense to my sister she's fantastic at what she does, but lying had never really been her thing.

"Rollins is a barrel boss." I shrug my shoulders seemingly uncaring even though there is so much more layers to it. But I guess I'm not lying.

Yet.

"So is Kaz." Nina points out but I already planed for that response.

"And we're dregs. Pekka is a big barrel boss, he scares off people from coming to the dregs. It's a problem and it's getting on our ass's." I grumble.

"I didn't know it mattered to you that much." Inej states. I wanted to scream in her face. He killed Kaz's brother! He almost killed Kaz! He creates monsters where ever he goes and tries to control them like caged lab rats! But I couldn't do that, so furiously I snap at her.

"Well it should to me, it's my job."

Nina and my sister both look at me weirdly, oh crap. They don't know I have basically the same authority as Kaz. Fuck.

*Flashback*

"Why give me a promotion? Isn't there other people who could use it? Who would do better than me?" I ask Kaz as he goes through the papers on his desk.

"I wouldn't trust anyone else to do it." He looks up to me and starts to get out of his desk. He goes to the door but before he can open it I grab his arm.

"I basically have the same power over the dregs that you do. I don't think that's a good thing."

Kaz just shrugs his shoulders and opens the door.

"What's a king without his queen Y/n?"

*Flashback over*

"Wait what?" Nina asks confused.

At least it goes off the topic of me hating Pekka Rollins with everything I have. Internally I sigh at my foolishness, I had only accepted Kaz's request recently, so no one really knew who was helping him out all the time.

*Flashback*

"Nemesis." The man whispers as I circle around him using the blinding light and the darkness to my advantage.

"Yes, and I get to decide if you live or die. Tell me, did you kill that little girl - Oh what was her name? Sarah was it?" I say loudly my voice confident and dangerous.

"No-no!" The sleaze ball yells and I throw one of my knives at his hand. The knife goes through his hand sticking it to the wall. The man screams out in pain.

"Liar." I hiss.

"Fine! Fine! I killed her!" He manages to scream out. "I killed her." He sobs as he says those three words again.

"Good." I say as I secretly pull a knife out behind my back into my right hand.

"I will grant you mercy." I whisper into his ear.

"Oh thank you!" The man sobs. "Thank you!"

I quickly slit his throat and he chokes on his blood for a few second and horror frames his face, before he falls to the ground.

Dead.

I hear a click of a cane and I whip my head around to face the one and only Dirtyhands.

"You know killing him was accepting my offer, right?"

"I know." I don't have to look at him to know a small smile that has become reversed for me, is sitting on his face.

Then I remember what he said to me when he first gave the offer. I turn to face him as I try to hide my smirk, and I look at him right in the eye.

"My Crow king."

And I turned and walk away.

*Flashback over*

"Well-" I start to say but I'm cut off from Jesper's very excited 'we're here!' Thank the saints though, because it gives me time to escape they're questions for now.

"You all know the plan."

Nina puts her hands on her hips. "Only the parts you deem important enough for us to know."

I nearly snort and a small smile grace's my lips. They really have no idea, well obviously some idea being that the ice court heist existed.

Kaz rolls his eyes and makes a go motion.

Inej goes to slip through the shadows but before she's totally gone I make eye contact with her before she leaves. It clearly says our conversation is not over and stay safe.

I suck in a breath, I always hate it when I have to say goodbye to anyone. Especially when that some person could die.

Running over to back of the warehouse, I pull my hood up trying to be the most concealed that I can be.

Wylan is going with Jesper to go make a distraction so they'll be going through the front doors. Nina will be going to go flirt to go get some extra info, perhaps steal some things on the way and wiggle her way into the top floor where the Dime Lions are. Matthias and Kaz will be going together with them posing as the warehouse-club guards. Inej will be going through the roof, while I'll be going through the back.

In the end everyone will get to the top floor so we can exterminate some Dime Lions, and get into the vault where a whole bunch of kruge is. Hopefully there will be enough so I can put my share's with Inej's so she can get that upgrade on her boat that she needs. It's not like I'm going to use the money to do anything useful, she deserved it and plus I intended to stay with this city.

I silently slide sneakily into the window, coming out of the other end with a knife in my hands. If I have learned one thing from living in Ketterdam, it's that you can never be too prepared.

I stay close to the wall as I see someone roll down the rope-ladder. I grin to myself,

Right on time Inej.

I climb up the ladder without fear of falling down even if the ladder was just made out of rope. I get to the top and Inej offers me a hand and I take it.

The top floor is basically empty except for some Dime Lions henchmen that are laying around, dead or knocked out.

Then, I guess there is also the vault full of kruge.

I look around the room everyone is here except for-

Kaz.

"Where's Kaz?"

Matthias looks a bit uncomfortable and guilty as he shifts nervously on his two feet.

"He said he had to take care of something and to just go."

I sigh, well I know he isn't in danger... Yet. My heart is screaming for me to go after him, but it wouldn't look good for Dirtyhands or Nemesis. Knowing Kaz he's probably fine, he would just want me to open this vault I guess.

The fact that my soulmate mark isn't burning is probably also a clear sign that he's fine.

Get yourself together Y/n.

"Can we open the vault without him?"

The others look mildly surprised at my response (excluding Nina, and my sister).

"You might be able to do it, your one of the best lock pickers there is. Only second to Brekker." Nina states.

I bit my lip and start to walk over to the vault. I let my hand fall over the lock. I let it feel the certain gears and the parts that make up the lock.

The shank of the lock would be easy enough to undo with some man strength to help pull that open. Though that would be the last step - I need to stop thinking too far ahead.

It's a very simple lock that any petty thief could probably do in 32 seconds flat. Besides the fact that it was absolutely ginormous to fit over a fucking vault.

"Inej I'm going to need some help!" I yell across the room to my sister who is in the shadows on a look out, to make sure no ones coming here.

She comes and strolls over to stand beside me. I put my hand up the lock, and I grab one bar and I move it to the side but I hold it there with my hands.

"Can you find the bar to the left and pull it up once?"

Inej does and I hear a huge click! ring through the room.

"We should wait for Kaz till we open it." Inej states and I nod my head in agreement.

"So while we wait." Nina start's talking... Oh no, that can't be good. "We should maybe share the fact that Y/n is Kaz's second hand!"

Angry courses of what! come throughout the room.

"The fuck does Kaz think with putting you in all that danger!" Jesper yells and I see Matthias nod along with him.

"I'm already in danger most of the times I'm Inej's sister!"

"You should have told us!" Nina shoots back.

"You guys are really talking about this while were on a heist!" I shoot back.

My soulmate mark starts to tingle a bit but I ignore it, being that this conversation will most likely take a lot of energy.

"It still puts you in unnecessary danger." Inej and Wylan point out.

Fury rakes through my body. Who are they to tell me that's it's 'dangerous'?! I live in fucking Ketterdam!

"I don't know if you haven't noticed, but I'm not a doll! I can take care of myself! And you can't say anything because 60% percent of you guys don't even fucki- Ahhh!" A string of curse leave my mouth as I collapse against the vault.

"Y/n!"

To be continued...

Words 2480

-thedelusionreaderbitch

Shadow and bone taglist: @kaqua @rika90 @thefandomplace

[lunar-wandering]

Lanterns and Lies

surprise!! here we go, the sequel to Glamours and Gauze!

Word Count: 7k

Read on Ao3

-

Macaque had lied, when he said the shadow lantern was gone.

When the Lady Bone Demon had caught him, she had made a specific note of needing the lantern.

And, well, Macaque wouldn't let that happen.

So he'd shattered it, again, and during the Lady Bone Demon's momentary shock, he'd taken the opportunity to gather the broken pieces and run.

One of her minions had cut him with the cursed knife while he was running away.

That didn't matter now though, his injuries had been healed, and the Lady Bone Demon had yet to make another move. For now, sitting on the roof of the noodle shop, he was safe.

He starred down at the shattered pieces of the lantern in his hands.

With a sigh, he carefully extended his magic, putting the pieces back together again, reforming the lantern. He held it gently in his hands as he looked around the roof.

Now where was he gonna hide this-

"Macaque, I brought plums!"

Macaque startled upon hearing MK's voice, he'd been so distracted focusing on putting the lantern back together, he hadn't even heard the other climb up the ladder to the roof.

The.....lantern....

Which he told MK was gone....

In a rush to avoid MK seeing the lantern, Macaque did the first thing he thought of.

He shoved the lantern into himself, letting it mix into his own magic. Not the smartest way of storing it, it was a highly magical item, who knows how it would act while in direct contact with his magic, but it was the first thing he could think of, and this was only a temporary measure, so it should be fine.

....Probably.

"Hey bud, what's up?" Macaque asked, turning around to face MK, who was setting a small bowl of plums on the ground. "...What are the plums for?"

"You said that if I brought you some plums, you'd tell me about the time Monkey King walked into a tree." MK said, "And I fully expect you to keep your end of the bargain."

"Yeah, yeah, okay." Macaque said, grabbing the bowl of plums. "Well you see, what happened was-"

-

"That had to be the stupidest shit you've ever pulled, Wukong." Macaque said, breathing heavily as he leaned against a tree. Wukong for his part, just smirked.

"I didn't see you try to stop me." He said, laughing as Macaque glared at him.

"I did try to stop you. Multiple times. But you didn't listen." He said, "You really need to stop picking a fight with every random person you meet."

"You're no fun at all." Wukong said, yawning as he stretched. Macaque rolled his eyes.

"Whatever." He said, "Anyways, we should probably head back to the cave, get some rest-"

"I'm not tired." Wukong said.

"You literally yawned a few seconds ago."

"Doesn't mean I'm tired. Besides, there's still more stuff to do." Wukong said, turning and walking off further into the mountain's forest, Macaque trailing behind him. As they walked, Macaque noticed Wukong start slouching, little by little. He didn't say anything though, knowing that Wukong would only deny it if asked.

It would be better just to watch and deal with the consequences when they came.

And oh boy, did the consequences come: in the form of Wukong turning a corner and immediately walking directly into a tree. The tree snapped in half, falling to the ground, with Wukong tumbling down after it. There was a loud thump, as dust and leaves were sent flying into the air. A few nearby birds called out in concern.

"Timber." Macaque said, a smirk on his face, walking over and crouching down beside where Wukong now lay on his back with a dazed expression on his face. "So. Not tired, huh?"

"Shut up." Wukong hissed, sitting up, pulling dirt and leaves out of his fur as he did so. "The tree just. Got in my way, that's all-"

"You're expecting me to believe that a tree got up and put itself in your path?" Macaque asked, "Wukong. I'm not stupid. Let's just hurry up and go back to the cave to rest already."

"I'm fine." Wukong said, moving to stand up, but wobbling a little, tipping backwards again-

Macaque caught him, keeping him from having another close encounter with the ground.

-

"I ended up having to carry him all the way back up the mountain." Macaque said, making little images with his shadows in order to give MK a better visual of what happened. "He ended up sleeping for like, 3 days. Took him still being tired when he woke up again for me to realize he'd gotten cursed. Wasn't hard to break it afterwards, but boy did Wukong protest the whole time. Practically had to tie him to his bed."

MK scribbled in his sketch book, and Macaque, out of curiosity, moved closer, looking over MK's shoulder to see a sketch of what Macaque had just described.

"....You're drawing this?" He asked. MK nodded.

"Yeah! I've got a lifetime goal of illustrating all of Monkey King's adventures!" MK said, pausing his sketching to show Macaque a quick flip through of the rest of the book. "...You got any other stories?"

"Lots." Macaque said, leaning back. "But you're gonna have to bring more plums if you want more stories. I'm not just gonna hand this info out for free."

"Of course, of course." MK said, standing up and walking back over to the ladder, mumbling to himself as he climbed back down. "I'm going to have to permanently add plums to my shopping list...."

Macaque stayed where he was, waiting patiently until he couldn't hear MK anymore, before letting out a relieved sigh.

That had been close.... No matter what, he couldn't let the others know that he still had the lantern. Revealing that would probably cause the others to push him away, they wouldn't trust him anymore, and he really couldn't have that. Hanging around them was the most advantageous position for him to be in right now, and he wasn't about to give it up any time soon.

...He still needed a place to hide it permanently, keeping it inside of himself probably wouldn't be a good idea in the long term. With that thought in mind, he mentally reached inwards with his magic, shadows starting to surround him as he prepared to take the lantern out-

"Hey, Macaque!"

Macaque startled again, the shadows that had condensed around him vanishing as though they'd been popped like party balloons as he whirled around to see-

Mei, who giggled at his shocked expression, holding up her phone and taking a quick picture of him before pocketing it.

"Would you two stop doing that?" Macaque asked, sighing as Mei circled around him.

"Hey, it's not my fault you didn't hear me coming." Mei said, giggling at the expression on Macaque's face. "Seriously, with all those ears you have it's a wonder you didn't-"

"What do you want." Macaque growled, "You wouldn't be here if you didn't want something."

"Wouldn't I?"

That. Wasn't a question Macaque felt that he could answer. He honestly couldn't think of a reason why any of MK's friends would want to be around him, but they hadn't really been pushing him away either....

Mei seemed a little concerned with how he'd suddenly gone silent though, so it was probably best to quickly change the subject.

"Ah, anyways, I have some stuff to do, so I don't really have time for you." Macaque said, walking past Mei and over to the edge of the rooftop. Distantly, he noted a weird tingling sensation come over him, but he ignored it, figuring it wasn't important.

"Oh, now that's a lie." Mei said, a smirk on her face. "You never do anything other than lounge around up here."

"Do not." Macaque said, crossing his arms. "I do plenty, you just haven't noticed."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

Macaque pondered for a moment on how best to answer-

And that was when his foot started sinking into the shadow underneath of him.

Outwardly, Macaque remained perfectly calm, not letting Mei in on the fact that anything was amiss.

Inwardly, he panicked.

That was definitely not supposed to be happening, why was it happening it shouldn't be happening why was he l o s i n g  c o n t r o l-

He was snapped out of his panic when he heard the sound of an engine starting up behind him. Subtly looking over his shoulder, he could see MK, ready to drive off, probably to deliver some noodles.

Macaque made his decision in a split second.

Turning and pulling his foot out of the shadow it'd been sinking into, Macaque jumped off the roof. Ignoring Mei's shout of "Hey, wait!", he slipped into the shadow of the tuk tuk, just before MK started to drive away.

-

Macaque hung out in the shadow of the tuk tuk for about 15 minutes before he actually bothered to wonder where exactly MK was going.

MK slowed down a bit as he turned a corner, and Macaque figured it was as good a time as any to ask.

Carefully, he materialized on the back of the tuk tuk, then, after making sure there wasn't anything around for MK to accidentally hit should he swerve, asked;

"Where are you going?"

MK's foot slammed on the brakes, the tires screeching and Macaque almost falling off from the sudden inertia. As soon as they were still, MK whirled around, staring at Macaque, shocked.

"How long have you been there?" He asked, and the expression on his face genuinely made Macaque laugh.

"Oh, not very long." Macaque said, "I was riding along in the shadow for the most part."

"...You can do that?" MK asked, "You probably save like, so much money when traveling then-"

"Bold of you to assume that I have any money at all." Macaque said, "Anyways, you didn't answer the question. Where are you going?"

"Why do you want to know?" MK asked, crossing his arms. "And why are you here anyways? Usually you just stay on the roof, what changed?"

"Nothing! What, can't I just want to go for a ride once in a while?" Macaque said-

And his hand started sinking into the shadow beside him. Swiftly, he pulled it out, rubbing it to get rid of the remaining tingles. MK watched this happen with a look of suspicion.

"...Uh-huh, sure, like I believe that." He said, tone as dry as the desert. "And anyways, I don't think you'd want to-"

And then he paused, looking as though he'd just been hit with some kind of realization.

"Actually-" MK started, "I think it would be good if you came with me."

He turned back around, taking his foot off the break and turning back onto the road, speeding up a little.

"You still haven't told me where we're going." Macaque said.

"Oh, you'll soon find out."

Macaque had a feeling he wasn't going to like this.

-

He was right. He hated this.

Staring up at a temple that quite obviously belonged to Sun Wukong, Macaque regretted every decision he had made in his life that had led up to this moment.

He regretted it even more when the monkey himself opened the front gate.

"Ah, there you are kid!" Wukong said, "I was beginning to think you'd never show up!"

"I'm only 2 minutes late..." MK muttered, and Macaque couldn't help but laugh a bit at that.

Sun Wukong was not, exactly, known for being very patient after all.

"Oh, I see you brought... an audience." Wukong said, finally noticing that Macaque was, in fact, also there.

"Audience? Please, if anything I'm the lead actor." Macaque said.

"Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that." MK said, and Macaque would've hit him where it not for the warning glance Wukong gave him.

-

Macaque ended up being dragged to MK's training sessions with Wukong, again and again. Some days it was because MK himself forcibly brought him along, and on other days it was because Macaque was simply avoiding Mei. (He denied the accusation that he was avoiding her when asked...and then almost tripped as his foot sank deeper into the shadows. Luckily he'd managed to blame it on a stray tree root, but he wasn't sure how long he could keep it up...) 

Over the course of said days, Macaque had tried multiple times to find a better place to hide the lantern than within his own magic. (He'd long since figured out that the lantern was reacting whenever he lied, thus messing with his own magic. He had no idea why it was doing this, but the why didn't really matter so long as he could find a way to stop it.) But of course, since karma was apparently out to get him, he was interrupted by someone every single time, forcing him to keep the lantern within himself, lest the others find out about it.

Honestly though, he was shocked that Wukong hadn't noticed, considering his golden vision and all, he should've been able to see the fact that the lantern's magic was contained within Macaque.

(Macaque had nearly panicked when, on day 2 of him following MK to his training, Wukong had leaned close to him with a contemplative look on his face.

"...Why are you so close to me?" Macaque had asked, and huh, how long had that slit been in Wukong's eyebrow? Had it been there for a while and Macaque had just never noticed or-

"I'm checking to see how much of the glamor you're wearing." Was Wukong's response, as he studied him. "You're still recovering, you probably shouldn't be using magic to cover all of it."

So....Wukong was concerned about him. Macaque couldn't really imagine why, but still-

"You didn't need to get so close to me- can't you obviously see I'm wearing it?" Macaque had asked, gesturing at his own face. Wukong, surprisingly, winced at that, finally backing up a bit.

"Well, I guess you seem fine." He'd muttered, turning away, "Don't know why I was even worried."

And Macaque should've been relieved, but for some reason-

For some reason he felt like something was wrong.)

-

Macaque relaxed in the shade of a tree, watching Wukong train MK. It was almost soothing to watch the mentor and student trade hits as they sparred.

But of course, being relaxed didn't mean that Macaque didn't notice things.

Like how Wukong was a full 2 seconds slower in blocking MK's attacks than he'd been when Macaque had stolen MK's powers. Which wasn't really something that would normally raise concern- he probably just wasn't being as serious as he would be when encountering an actual threat, but.

Something about it was making the alarm bells that had been constantly ringing in Macaque's head louder. (Something he, obviously, didn't appreciate. Loud sounds, even mental ones, weren't very pleasant for him).

Macaque, of course, was never one to miss an opportunity to call Wukong out.

Which was why it was so surprising when MK beat him to the punch.

"Monkey King, are you okay?" MK asked, and Macaque sat up straighter, paying more attention, because oh, he wanted to hear this.

"Of course bud! Why do you ask?" Wukong said, and despite the fact that his back was to Macaque, the shadow monkey just knew that the other was lying.

"Well I don't know, you've just- seemed off, is all." MK said, shifting back and forth as he seemed to contemplate what to say. "Like, a little slower maybe? And I haven't seen you use your cloud in days, which is kinda weird, since you normally seem to use it-"

Wukong stiffened, and it was at this point that Macaque got genuinely curious, deciding that he had to see what kind of expression the other monkey was making right now. So, he slipped down into the shadows of the tree, and reappeared out of MK's shadow, startling the both of them as he slung an arm around MK's shoulder. 

"Kid's right y'know." Macaque said, putting on a smirk as he looked at the other. "Even I've noticed, and I've barely even been paying attention."

That was a lie, and he barely kept himself from wincing as he felt the tingle of magic flow through his body.

Only for nothing to seemingly happen. That was...mildly concerning, he'd felt the flow of magic, so something had definitely occurred, he just couldn't tell what.

...Well, whatever. If he couldn't notice it then it probably wasn't important.

Macaque refocused back in on the subject at hand, studying Wukong's expression. Nothing he hadn't expected, the usual nervous smile and look in his eyes that indicated he was lying where all there.

Or, well, most of it was expected.

The slight twinge of fear was new.

"I'm telling you, there's nothing wrong!" Wukong said, taking a slight step back. "I'm fine, really!"

Both MK and Macaque rolled their eyes in sync.

"If you're so fine, then explain to me why you keep waiting until MK is almost right in front of you before blocking him?" Macaque asked, MK nodding along as he spoke. "Seriously, it's like you can't see it unless it's close-"

Both Macaque and MK froze, coming to the same conclusion at the same time. Wukong, seeing the expressions on their faces, scratched his cheek nervously, avoiding their gaze.

"Oh my heavens." MK said, "You need glasses."

"I do not-"

-

Tang had been having a peaceful day at the noodle shop.

Having, being the key word.

Because suddenly, said peaceful day was interrupted as Macaque appeared out of nowhere beside him. Tang barely kept himself from startling out of his stool. (He'd started to grow used to the shadow monkey's sudden appearances, but that didn't really make them any less startling).

Macaque, for a moment, looked confused as to where he was, looking around in surprise, before taking notice of Tang and schooling his features into something unreadable.

"Oh." He said, "Uh. Hello?"

"Hello to you too, Macaque?" Tang said, a little confused, before finally taking notes of one important fact.

Macaque's eyes were fully purple.

"...Ah." Tang said, "Not Macaque."

"Hm, smart man." 'Macaque' said, leaning back, "Nope, I'm not the original. Just a shadow clone, that's all I am."

"Why are you here? Is there trouble?" Tang asked, worry seeping into his voice. The clone just shrugged.

"Dunno." 'Macaque' said, "One minute, I didn't exist, the next, I'm here."

"How can you just not know?" Tang asked, blinking in disbelief.

"He probably created me on accident." 'Macaque' said, almost as casually as though he was reading out a morning newspaper.

"That can happen??"

"Well, not normally, but in certain cases-" The clone started, then paused, eyes narrowing. "Well, actually, if that's the case, he probably doesn't know I exist right now..."

"Shouldn't you... tell him?" Tang asked, and watched as the clone contemplated it.

"Well I mean, not telling him would be kind of funny." He said, before shaking himself out of it. "No- no, you're right, I should probably tell him."

The clone proceeded to go completely silent, and Tang watched him with thinly veiled concern. After about 2 minutes of silence, with the clone making increasingly dramatic facial expressions, Tang decided to comment again.

"...Are you actually contacting him right now?" He asked, and the clone broke out of whatever state he was in to glance at him.

"Hm? Oh- yeah." He said, "Mental connection, y'know?"

"Then how come MK doesn't ever-"

"Cause he doesn't know it exists."

-

Of course. Of course the lantern had made a clone.

That certainly explained why there hadn't been any obvious reaction after the magic tingle.

Although, it was weird that the clone had ended up in the noodle shop. Why on Earth would it have formed there?

(In all honesty, it was probably because, once again, Macaque felt safe there. But he never planned to admit that fact, not even to himself, so he slid that thought back into the deepest part of his mind.)

As it was now though, Macaque sat back under the tree, head in hands, mentally communicating with the clone as MK and Wukong continued to argue about whether or not the Monkey King needed glasses.

"C'mon!" MK said, stomping his foot on the ground, "Just admit that you're nearsighted already! It's obvious!"

"I don't need glasses!" Wukong said, hopping backwards as MK tried to tackle him. "I can see just fine!"

This statement was contradicted, as MK suddenly moved backwards, distancing himself from his mentor. Macaque could see Wukong squint, something he wouldn't normally do-

And then MK moved forwards, with a speed Macaque honestly hadn't seen him use before (and wasn't that funny, that somehow this argument was actually causing MK's speed to improve) and managed to tackle Wukong to the ground.

A roll of parchment fell out of one of Wukong's pockets.

"Oh?" Macaque said, standing up, temporarily blocking his shadow clone's messages out of his mind (it was fine anyways, it seemed to have gotten distracted), he walked over, picking up the roll of parchment. "What's this?"

"Wh-Hey!" Wukong said, looking up from his position of being pinned to the ground by MK, squinting his eyes as he focused on Macaque. "Don't- give that back!"

"Well now, if you're so pressed over it then I kinda have to look, right?" Macaque said, slowly unrolling the scroll despite Wukong's protests. MK, surprisingly, kept Wukong pinned, watching with curiosity as Macaque looked over the parchment's contents. "....Huh."

"What is it?" MK asked, and Macaque turned, holding out the unrolled parchment so that MK could see it. Wukong, at this point, stopped struggling, simply laying on the ground face down.

"Tell me, Wukong, why exactly do you need a map?" Macaque asked, crouching down in front of the other. "You planning on going on vacation again or something?"

"You're going to leave me again?" MK asked, and maybe Macaque was just hearing things (rather unlikely....) but there was almost a note of panic in MK's voice.

Wukong must've picked up on the panic too, as he quickly jumped into reassurance.

"Woah, hey, I'm not- I'm not vacationing any time soon." He said, attempting to shift around a little, before sighing. "...Could you get off me now, please?"

MK scrambled to get off his mentor, Wukong slowly sitting up and stretching a little. Macaque rolled his eyes at the display, shaking the map a little to draw their attention back to it.

"Hey, I'm not letting you off that easily." He said, "Explain the map. Now."

Wukong sighed again, avoiding both Macaque and MK's eyes.

"...Fine, so maybe I.....wasn't exactly on vacation...." Wukong muttered, "I was...searching for something. A weapon."

"...To fight the Lady Bone Demon, right?" MK asked, and Wukong looked at him in shock.

"How'd you-"

"Maybe leaving your successor alone when there's a powerful demon on the loose isn't the best decision, Wukong." Macaque said, rolling up the map and putting into his own pocket, before lightly rubbing his arm, a few specific... memories running through his mind. "Seriously, be glad she still hasn't gotten everything she needs."

"What do you know about what she-" MK started, then cut himself off, looking at Macaque as though he'd been given the answer to everything. "She's the one who hurt you."

Macaque didn't respond, turning around and walking away.

"Hey wait- where are you-" Wukong started-

"I'm going back to my spot under the tree." Macaque said, "You two can sort through whatever your 'vacation' was about on your own."

-

"...Huh." The shadow clone muttered, eyes closed as he seemingly listened in on whatever was happening to the real Macaque. "That's.....interesting."

"What is?" Tang asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Nothing really important." The clone said- and started melting slightly. Tang looked on in confusion as the clone suddenly panicked, stumbling over his words. "Wait- no I mean- it, it is important, but not really something I should be the one to tell you about?"

The melting stopped, the shadow clone returning to normal as he let out a sigh of relief.

"Does that....usually happen?" Tang asked.

"No." The clone answered, but didn't elaborate. Tang figured he'd just have to ask the real Macaque about it later. "...Anyways, do you think you could help the real me out with something?"

"Depends on what said something is." Tang said, crossing his arms.

"It's nothing bad, I promise." The shadow clone said, chuckling. "But, would you happen to know where I could buy a pair of glasses?"

-

"This is dumb. I look stupid."

"Aw come on Monkey King, I think you look cool!" Mei said, MK nodding along with her. "The glasses suit you just fine!"

Wukong sighed, sitting in the noodle shop with his arms crossed, leaning on the counter.

"What's with the sudden need for glasses anyways?" Pigsy asked, sliding a bowl of peach slices over to the monkey. Subtly, he also handed a bowl of plums over to Macaque, who was sitting slightly off to the side in the shadows.

Wukong stiffened, pausing for a moment before opening his mouth to answer-

"And don't lie to me." Pigsy added, and Wukong slouched a little.

(Macaque had to admit, it was kinda fun to watch the Monkey King basically get reprimanded like a child.

The only reason he didn't comment on it was that he was sure that if he did, he'd get the exact same treatment.)

There was a moment of silence, before Wukong groaned, laying his head down on the table, and muttering something that was too quiet for the others to hear, but nearly made Macaque choke on the plum he'd been chewing on.

"What?!" He said, in pure shock, "You- you're losing your powers?!"

Almost instantly, there was pandemonium.

"What do you mean you're losing your powers!" MK practically screeched, "That can happen?!"

"I don't know, but it's the only explanation I've got!" Wukong said, throwing his hands up into the air. "I can't use my golden vision or my cloud anymore- and I don't know why!"

"How, exactly, does this relate back to you suddenly needing glasses?" Pigsy asked, completely ignoring how the others where in varying states of a mental breakdown.

"I- I usually just use my golden vision to make up for it." Wukong said, "Like, magic contacts, you know?"

"...And now you can't do that anymore." Tang said, "Because you can't use your golden vision."

"......Yeah." Wukong sighed.

"Is there...anything we can do to help?" Sandy tentatively asked.

"Well, I was planning on going out and finding.... something." Wukong said, turning to look at Macaque. "Speaking of which, you promised you'd give me the map back once I got glasses, and I'm wearing them now so-"

Macaque tsk'd, pulling the map out of his pocket and tossing it over to the other monkey, who caught it and placed it upon the counter. 

"It's not like I can go and get it now though." Wukong said, the others staring over him to look down at the map. "Since I can't use my cloud anymore..."

"I have an airship." Sandy said, and Wukong turned to look at him in confusion. "We could use that, to travel there."

"What- no. No. Absolutely not." Wukong said, jumping up onto the counter (ignoring Pigsy disapproving glare), and staring down at the others. "In case you don't remember, you guys have something called mortality. I'm not going to just bring you guys with me-"

"Like you have much of a choice." A new voice said, and Macaque barely kept himself from startling as he suddenly noticed Red Son beside him.

"How long have you been there-" Macaque hissed, but was ultimately ignored.

"You coming too, Red Boy?" Mei asked, despite Wukong's faint protests that nobody was coming with him, thank you very much-

"I have nothing better to do." Red Son said, shrugging. "My parents went on vacation a little while ago, I've just been hanging around since then."

"So, we're all going?" MK asked, glancing over at Macaque, who, realizing he was being stared at, sighed, standing up and stepping closer to them, in the light.

"Fine, whatever." He said, "If you guys want me to go, I'll come, but I'm not happy about it."

The others stared at him, with a mixture of confusion and shock.

"....What?" Macaque asked, already dreading the answer. MK slowly pointed behind him.

"Has your shadow always moved like that?" He asked, and Macaque didn't even bother to look, instead immediately slamming his back against the wall to cover it as he threw a glamor over his own shadow. He wasn't sure what it had been doing that the others saw, but he absolutely refused to let it be seen any longer.

"...Whatever it was you saw, forget about it." He said, and while most of the others simply shrugged, accepting it as just him being weird, looking away-

The look in Mei and Wukong's eyes did not promise good things.

-

The first day on the ship, everyone was mainly focused on settling in, making sure all their stuff was where it needed to be, choosing rooms, so on and so forth.

And so, for the most part, Macaque was free from whatever Wukong and Mei were planning.

The second day on the ship, however.

The second day on the ship made Macaque wish the airship had a plank so he could jump off of it.

It had started small.

"Hey, Macaque?" Mei asked, grabbing his attention before practically shoving her phone into his face. "What do you think about this?"

Macaque could barely register the image in front of his face, but eventually parsed it out to be a picture of- a kitten??

"I hate it." He said, instinctively, and almost immediately started sinking into the shadow beneath him. Mei, being so close to him, immediately noticed, confusion flashing on her face for a brief second, before a smirk took over.

"If you say so." She said, and backed off, turning away as Macaque hurriedly pulled his feet out of the shadows before he could sink any further.

Some part of him hoped that would be the end of it.

As soon as he ran into Wukong though, he instantly knew that this wasn't over by a long shot.

"Macaque." Wukong said, leaning against the wall, and Macaque instantly noticed that his glasses were missing.

"You owe Tang 5 cents." Macaque hissed, it was well known that Tang had made the Monkey King promise to pay him whenever the monkey was caught not wearing his glasses. Macaque, of course, didn't really care, but he was looking for some way to distract Wukong from whatever he was planning to do to him.

"I'll pay him later." Wukong shrugged, and Macaque mentally cursed. "So. How'd you sleep last night?"

Macaque wasn't going to be led into the trap this obviously was.

"How did you sleep last night?" He shot back.

"I didn't." Wukong said, perfectly honest. "I did see you walking around for a bit though, so I'm curious as to whether or not you slept. You need it more than I do, remember?"

That.... was true. Macaque did need to sleep more than Wukong did, but-

"I slept just fine." Macaque lied, sighing as he felt the glamor over his ears fade away. Wukong crossed his arms, a concerned look on his face, but Macaque ignored it, choosing instead to walk into a nearby shadow to teleport to another location on the ship, throwing his glamor back on as he did so.

(He, in truth, was in the same boat as Wukong, both literally and figuratively. He hadn't slept at all, instead laying awake all night, worrying.

Wukong was losing his powers. MK was not nearly close enough to being ready. The others, outside of Red Son, might have some powers or abilities, but they are no where near close enough to being capable of beating the Lady Bone Demon.

He'd have to rely on the unknowns of this weapon Wukong was seeking out.

Macaque didn't like relying on unknowns.)

He emerged in the ships engine room-

And very nearly fell right on top of Red Son.

"Watch where you're going!" Red Son huffed, dodging out of the way and angrily brushing non existent dirt off of his jacket. "Seriously, what is with you guys and trying to knock me to the ground?"

"Maybe you just look very squishable." Macaque muttered, not really intending on giving Red Son a proper response. He actually didn't want to interact with anyone right now, especially not Red Son, so he turned, moving to leave the engine room-

"Not so fast." Red Son said, stopping Macaque in his tracks by grabbing hold of the back of his scarf. "I've got some questions for you."

Hm. That didn't bode well.

"What makes you think that I have any answers?" Macaque asked, only to be met by a deadpan look that promised-

That promised fire if he didn't co-operate.

If there was a list of things Macaque strictly didn't want, fire would be number one, at the top of the list.

"...What do you want to know?" He asked, slumping a little in defeat.

"Why you stayed." Red Son said, elaborating when Macaque only looked at him in confusion. "Your wound healed. You were perfectly free to go. And yet.... you stayed. Like you were....trying to protect something."

"Uh, yeah, myself, obviously." Macaque said, shrugging. "Hanging out around the Monkey King and his successor is the safest place to be after-"

"That's not it." Red Son said, and Macaque froze. "Sure, staying around them while you're weak makes sense, you'd need someone to protect you. But after you've recovered? Once you're strong again? Sure, I can understand you getting attached, but always staying around them is a little strange."

There was a glint, in Red Son's eye, and Macaque suddenly remembered a moment, yesterday, where Mei had dragged the fire demon off to the side to have a little conversation. He'd thought nothing about it at the time, but now-

"You say that you're protecting yourself....But at this point, somehow, you're mostly protecting them, aren't you?" Red Son asked, "Whatever it is you're hiding, you're hiding it to protect both yourself and them."

Macaque didn't answer, instead staring at the floor.

Whatever Mei and Wukong had been planning, Red Son was in on it.

And he was very clearly not as interested in taking a subtle approach.

"Your powers have been on the fritz lately." Red Son said, almost like it was an afterthought to his whole theory. "Don't think that we haven't noticed. It's different from Wukong though, in that you're not losing your powers, if anything, it's like they're getting stronger, almost as though they're being drawn from a different source-"

Macaque didn't want to stay here any longer.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He lied, and didn't resist as his powers fluctuated in response, letting himself completely fall into the shadow behind him.

-

He ended up falling out of a shadow on the ceiling.

Luckily, it was in his own room, so no-one else was there to witness it.

Didn't mean it didn't hurt though.

"...That's gonna bruise later...." He muttered to himself as he slowly pushed himself off the floor and stood up.

For a moment, he just stood there, slightly dazed.

And then he started pacing.

This was not good, the others were onto him, he wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer.

Not to mention the lantern, it's influence on his abilities was getting stronger the longer he left it inside himself. There was literally no telling how far it's influence would go.

(He'd already started noticing some strands of his fur turning purple. It wasn't anything that couldn't easily be covered up by a glamor, but the fact it was happening at all was incredibly concerning.)

He had to find another place to hide it. But where-

And suddenly, Macaque was struck by an idea. A rather bad idea, honestly, there was sure to be consequences from this, but it was the only idea he had right now.

-

The ship's clock struck 4 am.

Macaque slipped into MK's room, holding the faintly glowing lantern.

For a moment, he stood there, beside MK's bed, letting the lantern hover over top of him, thinking.

Maybe......maybe he shouldn't do this. He could probably find another way, something more reasonable than a hastily made, sleep deprived, decision. After all, the lantern had proven that it came with side effects, who knows how it'd affect MK?

Well. If he's actually being honest, he was hoping that the Monkey King Magic MK had would effectively cancel out the lanterns effects.

...He had no way of proving that it could do that though.

After a few more minutes of standing there, mentally debating, Macaque finally came to the decision that, yeah, this wasn't a good idea, he should just go back to his room and try to sleep for the few remaining hours of the night, come up with a better plan tomorrow-

A loud sound clanged from the engine room, and Macaque startled, barely keeping himself from squeaking as the sudden noise surprised him, squeezing his hands on instinct-

And snapping the lantern in half, the bottom piece falling and merging into MK's magic.

For a moment, Macaque just stood there in shock.

Then MK curled up, letting out a small noise of pain as little golden and purple sparks started shooting across his body, and Macaque panicked, reaching into MK's magic and hurriedly pulling out the other half of the lantern, shoving both pieces back into himself as MK started to stir.

By the time MK was sitting up, blinking his eyes open, rubbing his arms and looking around the room in confusion, Macaque was gone.

-

The next day, Wukong practically broke down Macaque's door, MK in tow.

"Mine explaining to me why there are traces of shadow magic all over MK?" He asked, before pausing as he registered the scene in front of him.

Macaque was curled up under his blankets, a pillow over his head effectively hiding him from view. The only part of the other monkey that Wukong could actually see was his tail, which was dangling over the side.

This wasn't really that weird, Wukong fully remembered that the other monkey was in no way a morning person.

...It was slightly more weird due to the fact that it was lunchtime.

"Is he...okay?" MK asked, leaning over his mentor's shoulder.

"You tell me." Wukong said, "You're the one with the golden vision right now."

Macaque's tail, which had been swinging idly, froze, and suddenly there was a mad scramble as he tried to pull all the blankets off of himself and sit up at the same time. Essentially, he ended up rather tangled, and was far too late to stop MK from using his golden vision.

-

At first there was nothing MK hadn't already expected. The bags under the eyes, the mussed up fur, the six ears and the scar. These were all things he knew that he'd find.

The purple streaks in Macaque's fur was surprising.

But not nearly as surprising as the lantern that lay intermingled with Macaque's own magic.

"What do you see, kid?" Wukong asked, and MK watched as Macaque sat up straighter, finally managing to pull the blankets off of himself.

"Nothing! He sees nothing! Right, bud?" Macaque asked, a panicked twinge in his voice, and-

MK could see the lantern flare, the magic traversing Macaque's entire body, before condensing around his arm.

Which proceeded to sink into the shadow on the bed.

"...Well." MK started, staring as Macaque pulled his hand out of the shadow and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "That's not something you see every day."

-

"So I was right then?" Red Son asked, "He's been storing the lantern within himself?"

"How'd you even know about the lantern..." Macaque muttered, from where he sat at the kitchen table, leaning back with his arms crossed. His glamor had been taken down, allowing everyone to see the purple streaks in his fur.

The lantern sat on the table in front of him.

"I have my sources." Red Son said, looking overly proud of himself. Macaque huffed, looking away.

"I thought you said the lantern was destroyed?" Mei said, using a spoon to lightly poke the lantern, almost as though it would grow legs and run away.

"Yeah, like, I saw you break it-" MK started, and then was stopped mid sentence as Macaque raised his fist, before harshly crushing the lantern, breaking it into pieces. A few of the others jumped. "What did you do that for-"

Macaque simply raised his hand, letting his magic call out, and letting the pieces slide back into their proper place. By the end of it, the lantern looked as good as new, as though it'd never been broken. MK watched the display with wide eyes.

"I did break the lantern." Macaque said, "It's just not that hard to fix."

"Regardless-" Wukong started, grabbing the lantern out of Macaque's hand, the lantern switching from it's usual purple to a soft golden glow as he did so. "You seriously should've told us that you have this. It would've saved you so much trouble."

"Would you have trusted me, if you knew I still had it?" Macaque asked, only to be met with silence. "...Yeah. Thought so."

There was a moment of silence as Macaque sat there, looking down, not meeting anyone's eyes. Then Sandy softly placed his hand on Macaque's shoulder.

"It's not that we wouldn't have trusted you." He said, gently. "We would've just taken a bit longer to come around, is all."

"Uh-huh, sure, keep telling yourself that." Macaque said, still looking at the floor, and thus missing the entirely silent conversation everyone else shared.

They all agreed they probably weren't going to get very far with this issue any time soon, by the look of things. (That didn't mean they wouldn't bring it up later, though.)

"If you thought we wouldn't trust you if we knew you had the lantern, then why didn't you just, I don't know, throw it away?" MK asked, and Macaque sighed, slouching down in his chair.

"...Lady Bone Demon wanted it." He muttered, and everyone immediately stood up ramrod straight.

"What?" Wukong hissed, staring down at the lantern in his hands as though he was seeing it in a new light. "Why- what could she possibly want with-"

"Don't know, didn't stick around long enough to find out." Macaque said, shrugging. MK and Red Son both looked horrified.

"That's how you got injured." MK muttered, "She must've captured you because she wanted the lantern...."

"The Lady Bone Demon has a cursed blade..." Red Son said, under his breath, only Macaque hearing him.

"Yeah yeah, I got captured, I got injured, whatever, it's all over with now." Macaque said, waving a hand around as though he wasn't making light of something horrifying. "Anyways, anyone else got any bright ideas on where to hide the lantern?"

"....Was that a pun." Wukong asked, "Seriously. You reveal that the Lady Bone Demon is after both you and the lantern and then you swap topics with a pun?"

"You got a problem with that?" Macaque asked, a smirk on his face. There was a moment of tense silence as the two of them stared at each other.

Wukong set the lantern back down on the table.

And then tackled Macaque out of his chair and onto the floor. Macaque let out a startled yelp as they went down, before quickly switching to clawing at the other as Wukong easily pinned him to the ground-

And then suddenly Wukong's grip weakened, and Macaque easily reversed their positions, pinning Wukong to the floor. For a moment the Monkey King looked confused, before a look of nervous realization appeared on his face.

"Uh- guys?" He said, nervously giggling as Macaque and the others stared at him in confusion. "Um. I think I just lost my super strength?"

[black-rose-writings]

Fate rant part 4 - The Butchered characters, the Adults

Now, the real rant comes: The butchered characters - those they chose to adapt anyway. Let’s start with the adults, cause there’s less of them.

Queen Luna

Luna is, in my eyes, probably the biggest offender in the way of butchered adults.

OG!Luna is a relatively minor character and she’s not a very deep one, to be fair. She and Stella’s dad (King Radius) got divorced either during season 1 or before that (I haven’t seen the original dubbing, but it’s somewhat confusing in english). We’re shown that this has had a big negative effect on Stella, especially their fights. But they both still love Stella very much and Stella loves them just as fiercely. She wishes they didn’t fight and at least tried to listen to each other (quite literally, through her Sirenix wish), which they do end up doing, but she’s never scared of them. She knows they love her and even when he father is under mind control by his new fianceé and orders her killed, she’s still willing to give her life for him, because she doesn’t believe for a second he’d do something like that of his own free will.

Luna and Radius and their broken marriage is always portrayed as them just not being very compatible as people.

OG Luna is also not the monarch of Solaria, she only married into royalty (though she most likely is a noblewoman, even if we’re never given her title).

Fate!Luna is... a bitch, in the worst sense of the word.

She’s the despotic ruler of Solaria (and presumably the surrounding realms to some degree as well), who is obsessed with maintaining the image of her own perfection, as well as Stella’s.

She makes Stella pretend that she hurt her friend on purpose instead of the accident it was, because she’d rather her daughter be seen as a terrible person than a weak one, who can’t control her magic. She puts incredibly high pressure on her daughter, pushing her to the brink of mental collapse and another incident.

Oh, yeah, and she covered up warcrimes, kinda, sorta, it’s confusing (we’ll get to the confusing part).

Stella’s dad is never mentioned as far as I remember (it’s been a while since I watched the show), but he appears to be either a doormat for Luna, divorced and no-contact because Luna is a sociopath bitch or just dead (may or may not have been natural causes, if you catch my drift)

Faragonda/Farah Dowling + Rosalind

The headmistress of Alfea.

I don’t actually have many complaints about her.

OG!Faragonda was shady as hell. She hid Bloom’s true identity from her for a good portion of season 1 and didn’t share information about Bloom’s family with her, basically ever, causing Bloom to seek answers elsewhere (leading her eventually into Darkar’s clutches) as well as making her draw wrong conclusions from the little information she is given and never correcting the wrong assumptions (Bloom believing Valtor was the last person to see her parents alive, though if we take movie info into account, he would have likely been captured prior to their disappearance and also the fact that Faragonda was there to see them disappear, but that is for another day). There’s also the matter of the Earth Fairies and Wizards of the Black Circle.

To be fair to OG!Faragonda, a lot of those shady moments are caused retroactively, through retcons in later seasons and the movies (though the movies have questionable canonicity), and the fact that she is the primary exposition source of the show, but not all of them. The prime example here is hiding any information about Daphne from Bloom in season 1, which is very intentional on the writers part, even though it was never quite explained.

Faragonda is generally shady and hides information from people/doesn’t tell them the whole story, if she believes they don’t need to know it. This causes plenty of problems for the Winx, especially in the earlier seasons, because they end up going into fights blind and/or severely unprepared.

In her own mind, she’s doing the right thing, but it inevitably causes more problems than it would have prevented.

Dowling isn’t much worse, to be honest. She’s shady, she hides information from people, if she doesn’t believe they need to know it (even if it may involve them) or if she thinks that info will make her look bad. Just like her OG counterpart, she believes she’s doing the right thing, but inevitably ends up causing more problems.

I also believe parts of Faragonda’s character were transfered into Rosalind.

The more witchy, manipulative parts. Btw, at some point in the OG show, Faragonda is revealed to have originally been a witch who decided to become a fairy instead (though we never see her with wings so who knows).

Now, the manipulative parts of OG!Faragonda are more implication than anything. They exist in large part because of the retcons making her an unreliable source (as well as her intended shady behavior) and the question of Why?

Why would she lie to Bloom about her parents or not correct her wrong conclusions? To keep Bloom under her control. To make Bloom hate Valtor, who based on the movie info at least, was not as bad as she made him out to be. But that’s for another day (and also largely fanon).

So, these parts of her got transfered into Rosalind. Rosalind who knows Bloom’s history and/or is involved in it somehow. Rosalind who manipulates people to keep the under her control, especially Bloom.

All three characters try to act as a mother/grandmother type mentor figures to Bloom, but with a lot of secrets and ulterior motives. They all believe they are doing the right thing and are end-justify-the-means people. They’re all female Dumbledore.

Honestly, I’m willing to say I think this was a decent transition. They could have toned Dowling’s shadiness down a little bit since they transfered so much to Rosalind (and do a better job writing the plot overall so it wasn’t such a fucking rollecoaster), but in principle, I think it’s good. Separating her into two characters works, partly because they both seemed to also absorb bits and pieces from the other two major female teachers, Griselda and Griffin, both of whom are absent in Fate, and partly because of the inconsistencies in OG Faragonda. They do both feel a bit hollow, sure, but OG Faragonda wasn’t exactly that solid, either.

Codatorta/ Saul Silva

This isn’t nearly as direct of a comparison, because Codatorta is a very minor character compared to Silva.

But he is the main trainer for the specialists.

Codatorta is a generic “tough love” martial arts teacher. Not much to say.

Silva is very similar, on the surface, but there is added layers of trauma and guilt that we never get to see with Codatorta because of his extremely limited screen-time.

I’d actually argue that he’s a good transition of the character, too. He’s not the same character, but the idea is the same, just more fleshed out.

Saladin + Paladium/Profesor Harvey

This one is going to be fun.

Terra’s dad has nothing in-common with OG!Flora’s dad except that they both deal with plants.

There are, however, unfluences from other characters, most notably Saladin and Palladium.

Saladin is the headmaster of the Red fountain. He’s a sorcerer and an old dude with a receding hairline. We know he was part of the Company of Light and that he probably banged Faragonda at some point. He’s also, funnily enough, related to OG!Flora’s love interest, Helia (either an uncle or a grandfather, it varies between dubs).

Palladium is an elf (very Tolkien-looking one, kind of a dork in season 1, but he gets a glow up between one and two and looks like a ginger Legolas from then on) who teaches at Alfea - I don’t remember his specific subjects (it changes a lot between seasons because Winx and consistency were never on good terms), but he’s involved with nature-related magic and/or spellcraft as well as potions.

You mix those two together and you get the middle-aged master of the greenhouses, profesor Harvey.

He’s not really a good transition of either, for obvious reasons, though neither of them were that solid on their own, either.

He is more of an original character, anyway, but you can see the influence of those two characters in him.

Sky’s parents

OG!Sky’s dad was king Erendor of Eraklyon. He’s kinda chubby, kinda mean and rude, but he seems to be a generally good leader to his kingdom, even if he sometimes overestimates their strenght, confident to the point of arrogance. Sky and him are at odds largely because he wanted Sky to marry Diaspro, presumably for political reasons. He accepts Bloom as Sky’s girlfriend on multiple occasions (ignoring the fact that Bloom is a princess in her own right since season 4), but because the writers have 0 original ideas, this is forgotten multiple times as well. According to the movies, he has a history with Bloom’s bio-father, which is largely ignored outside of that movie.

OG!Sky’s mom is largely a doormat to her husband for most of her appearances, though she seems to be somewhat more welcoming of Bloom/disaproving of Diaspro and over-all a nicer person.

Fate!Sky’s dad is not royal or noble as far as we can tell and his name is Andreas. He is just a soldier - a talented one and a war hero, yes, but just a soldier. He’s also apparently okay with mass murder, for which he earns a sword in the chest. Whooops.

And he also adopted Beatrix or at least raised her as a father, while letting his own son to be raised by his would-be killer, believing himself an orphan. Yikes.

Fate!Sky’s mom is nonexistent.

Bloom’s parents - Mike and Vanessa

Oh, boy, I’m gonna get mad. They’re probably actually worse offenders than Luna, because OG Luna was a pretty minor character. Mike and Vanessa are not.

OG!Mike is a firefighter. He’s brave and doesn’t hesitate to put himself in danger to help people. He’s a very rational person who has hard time accepting magic is a real thing at first, though he does accept it under the weight of evidence. He’s a bit of a dumbass when it comes to reading people’s emotions (and in general, actually), but you can tell he’s doing his best. He’s a generic “dad” character, basically, and he has a great relationship with Bloom.

OG!Vanessa owns a small flower shop and seems to be doing pretty well for herself. She was “bossbabe” before it was cool, lol. She’s basically a generic “mom” character, and has a great relationship with Bloom. She’s extremely understanding and supportive of Bloom and her interests, even if she thinks they’re a little childish.

They adopted Bloom and raised her as their own. They love her and she loves them back. I don’t think there’s really ever any argument betweent them and Bloom in the show or the movies.

Fate!Vanessa is kinda abusive and controlling and her husband is a doormat. She takes away Bloom’s privacy because she’s being an edgy and closed off teen.

Their “adoption” of Bloom was completely involuntary. Their real daughter, who was most likely going to die from a heart defect, was switched for Bloom. They never had any idea they were not raising their own child because, idk, why show healthy and loving adoptive families on TV, right? Drama is more important. Ugh.

[writtenonnapkins]

Recruiting Moony

Credit for Coops goes to @lumosinlove

It was way too early for Sirius to be walking into one of the Hogwarts locker room. Honestly, five A.M. was too early for any activities at all, but he was too full of nervous energy to sleep in today. 

Coach had asked the whole team to come in, despite it being off-season to review the tapes of some rookie they had recruited outside of the draft. Kingsley, the Director of Scouting, was also supposed to be at the mysterious discussion with the team.

In the locker room, every member seeming to be curious over what this was about. They didn’t usually have to view the tapes of any new team members, that decision was usually handled by the coaching staff and Scouters, so they all knew this wasn’t a normal meeting. 

Talker looked up from his conversation with Timmy when he entered, “So, Cap, what’s this about? I assume they told you more than us?” 

“Can’t say,” Sirius replied, “Just have to see what they have for us.”

“Ah-ha, a media answer! So you do know what we are here for, or rather who.”

The room had quieted down during Sirius and Talker’s exchange, listening in to see if they could get any new info from it. All of them were sitting up a bit straighter at the revelation that Sirius did, in fact, know a bit more than they did. 

“Common, Cap, give us a hint. Is he a risk? Old? Mean? Throw us a bone,” Talker pestered. He seemed to be the only one awake enough to do so at the moment, though the others were listening with growing interest.

“Stop bothering the Captain, Talker, you’ll know soon enough,” Coach said as he, the other coaches, and Kingsley entered the room, taking their places by the projector screen brought in after them. 

Kingsley set to booting up the projector while Coach attempted to wrangle the team into sitting down. 

“As I’m sure you may have noticed,” Kingsley began, “This is not our normal procedure when it comes to recruiting new players. But, we felt this was a special case that you all should have a voice in before we make an official offer.”

On the screen, a player profile picture popped up, and next to it a collection of videos, stats, as well as a separate pop up with Gryffindor Staff info. The team took in what they were seeing in stunned silence.

Remus. It was Loops. 

Sirius didn’t look away from the screen, afraid to make eye contact with anyone. 

“Uhh, is that Loops?” Dumo said with clear confusion on his face.

Kingsley continued on with his presentation as if not interrupted or impacted by the suddenly odd energy in the room. 

“Remus Lupin: age 25, so he would be on the older side as far as rookies go. Wisconsin Hockey starting left-winger from his freshmen year until Junior when he had a shoulder injury caused by a teammate causing him to be removed from the team and NHL Draft eligibility. A story I think you are all rather familiar with.”

Sirius looked around at everyone, mostly seeing faces of confusion still, and a few with understanding and excitement beginning to form. 

“What I think most of you are less familiar with, is what Lupin has been doing since then.”

“He’s been our PT Kings, we know. What are you leading up to?” Finn cut in.

“I’m getting there Mr. O’Hara. As you said, Lupin has been your PT since he was finishing up his last year of his Physical Therapy Masters, but I am not here to discuss his credentials in PT. I’m here to talk about Hockey.”

“Lupin was put on a strict PT and recovery program after his shoulder injury and regained most of his abilities within a year and a half after the injury. He says he has kept up with his PT since then, as well as various conditioning and weight training programs he put himself on as a PT.”

“Are you trying to sell us on Remus for the team? Cause he kind of kicked our asses a while ago if you remember, if you want him on the team we won’t fight. I would actually be thrilled,” Kasey said cutting off Kingsley once again. His point emphasized by nods and smiles from the other members.

Kingsley sure was taking his time with whatever his presentation included, and by now most of the team had caught on to what was happening. 

“I understand you think the entire explanation unnecessary due to your familiarity with Lupin, but it’s a unique situation and PR wanted you all to know the full story,” Coach explained. “I know it’s weird but it was deemed necessary.”

“How about I move on to some tapes,” Kingsley suggested, “These tapes are from Lupin’s junior year at Wisconsin, followed by some more recent tapes of Lupin running drills as part of PT.” 

The tapes began playing on the projector, ending the discussion, and captivating everyone in the room. They watched Remus skate smoothly around the entire of the opposing team, going fast than any player on the ice by far. He was yelling at his teammates as he skated by calling plays.

“I didn’t know Loops was captain,” James whispered, noticing the C stitched into his jersey.

The tape showed Remus calling for the puck before racing towards the goal, shooting it in before the goalie seemed to even process it. In the tape, Remus threw his head back and howled as his teammates swarmed him and the buzzer rang. 

“Moony! Moony! Moony!” was being chanted by the crowd before the tape cut.

Kingsley proceeded to play twelve other brief, but just as impressive, clips of Remus, commenting on different skills in each that the board and coaches felt would add to the team. 

Then more recent tapes began to play, these ones are clearly taken without Remus knowing as he skated through drills, just as fast and skillful as he had been in college. The hockey captain in Sirius immediately picked out not only his speed but also his control of the puck and balance as he skated. He was good; was still good. 

“Damn, when does he have time to skate like that?” Talker threw out. 

“Uhh, he comes here at five every morning. I always thought Moody had him organizing early or something until I saw the tapes,” Sirius confessed, “Turns out he was actually running drills for a couple of hours in the morning before he had to clock in. Been doing it for years according to Moody.”

“Cool, so what’s the hold-up? Should we vote on it? I think we are all good with Loops joining the team, as I’m sure you knew we would be.” Logan said clearly over, sitting in the meeting room. He probably wanted to go celebrate Loops. And probably make fun of him for the college team nickname they had just learned.

“Well, if none of you have objections, we will move forward with Lupin’s contract. Thank you for your time and input.” Kingsley said as he swept out of the room. 

The team all turned to look at Coach, silently asking him with grins stretched wide and excitement finally taking hold in their minds after the unnecessary long meeting. Honestly, while seeing Remus’s tapes was fun, did anyone really think they would object to Loops being on the team? 

Coach noticed the looks, and grinning back at them said “I believe Lupin is currently doing his regular drills on the rink if anyone wants to watch before conditioning starts.”

Before Coach had even finished his sentence, the team was racing out the doors towards the rink.

“Eh Moony! You think you’ll still howl when you get a goal even if we call ya Loops?” Talker shouted out at Remus who was, as predicted running early morning drills. Remus whipped around at the name looking shocked and mildly scared at all of them.

“I’m guessing they showed you the tapes then?” Remus yelled back as he skated over to them. 

“Oh yeah they did,” Logan replied laughing, “Can’t believe you’re the howler out of you and Cap.”

“Oh fuck off.”

[allysartstuff]

I am, once again, making troll centaur OCs for mine and @transmanbranch’s fan made troll tribes!

The first is Yolanda, a Tejano troll, mother to my OC Rosa and @/transmanbranch’s OC Pedro and ex wife to Ricardo. the second is Dougal, a Highland Folk troll who works as a care worker and protector to King Callum.

Some additional info under the cut;

Yolanda

At one point, she and Ricardo might have shared a love but it was pretty fleeting and a selfish kind of love. Not enough to support a marriage

Yolanda was at least attracted to Ricardo and was literally the only troll who wasn’t scared of him. Would probably best him in a physical fight (and actually did, once)

Yolanda did not enjoy being a mother. She is not good with kids and being stuck with two while her husband was out all the time was her biggest annoyance

Next to having her husband being actually home but not lifting a finger to help

Never really had that ‘special instant bond’ when both her kids hatched

Rosa was planned but Pedro was not

Yolanda finally filed for divorce, which was finalised quickly, and peaced outta there. Rosa would have been 5 and Pedro 3.

She spent years trying to make a name for herself but not putting actual effort into it and resorted to cheating and lying her way to a decent-ish living. She still acts like she’s rich and wears the most expensive clothing she can get.

Has a kinda sorta business making cheap jewellery but, again, not very successful, even if she did it the honest way.

She never contacted her family until Pedro became a famous musician. Yolanda would hit up Pedro for favours and always brag about how she influenced and inspired him (mind you, the last time Pedro saw his mother, he was three).

Even after all these years, Yolanda still bothers Pedro. He does not like her but can’t seem to fully get rid of her. He refuses to call her Ma, always by her name.

She currently has no idea that Rosa is still alive, let alone a trans woman and Rosa is equally ignorant. Pedro decides to keep it that way.

Hates Country Trolls with a passion (no real reason why she hates them, she’s always been a bigot)

She has the red colour condition on the worst side of the spectrum and constantly wears super dark sunglasses all the time, even in Tejano Town

Might have been sorely disappointed that her kids had all of Ricardo’s colours and not hers

Dougal

Dougal is a lifelong friend of Ada, also a former strongman but he retired early due to an injury to his left arm.

A usually stern and blunt man but is very chill and kind.

Despite being a teenage heartthrob at one point, Dougal is asexual/aromantic

He is King Callum’s official care worker. While Callum is very independent, he is still very much blind and needs some assistance. Dougal is almost always by Callum’s side should the king need him.

He accompanies King Callum during his stay at Trollstopia, mainly to carry out his duties as Callum care worker but also to make sure Callum didn’t stray too far from his kingly duties.

When he wasn’t doing that, Dougal would help out around Trollstopia with anything that needed to be fixed, befriending Branch in the process.

He has a very deadpan and dry sense of humour, making it nearly impossible for others to tell if he’s being serious or not.

[voidcat]

– pieces, scattered (around)

characters: oikawa tooru, you

info: comfort (maybe slice of life if u squint), 2.1k words

a/n: been listening to Last Words of A Shooting Star (Mitski) & Dreams Fall Hard (Car Seat Headrest) on repeat since yesterday... this is a cry for help-

By the time you hear approaching footsteps behind you, the cold has long past infiltrated your bones, making you unable to feel it at all.

You don’t bother to turn your head to greet him, already knowing how his steps sound and rhyme, years of unwanted experienceyou call that.

Just as you don’t bother to address him, Oikawa doesn’t bother to say anything as he sits down to your right on the dirty pavement. Vast, empty space all around the two of you, all kinds of trash and forgotten memories lying around, cast aside; it hasn’t been this full for years, and now, your presence and Oikawa’s break it, like a seal forgotten.

Knees to your chest, arms resting on top, and on them your head weighs down.

“A voice inside me told me I’d find you there.” Oikawa says.

His form seems more relaxed, not that you turn to observe how he sits, examine his posture, the way he rests his arms behind him, feet more scattered around.

“I didn’t think anyone would notice I was gone.” you say in a whisper. Not that you mean to, it’s just a tiring day.

You can picture him already, and yourself, in the familiar uniforms of beige and blue, hear a dry chuckle coming from his way, maybe turning his head to look at you and make a playful remark, or deciding to be serious like one of these rare times and reply with a short statement you’d not expect.

Oikawa doesn’t do any of these, instead he sighs out loud, resting his weight on his arms again, resting back, shoulders slopping, –with the sigh, you can hear all that weight he pretends doesn’t exist piling up on him, breaking that straight back everyone is so used to see and make him lose a centimeter or three.

“You always had a habit of being distant while your little friends were present, watching us or chit chatting.”

“Didn’t think anyone noticed.” You pause, “Then again, you’ve always been observant.”

“I’d prefer ‘You’ve always been better than others.’ but this works too.” You smile at this, it feels, normal, more than you could hope for.

Despite the minimum time you and Oikawa shared before, it feels like the calming sense of safety you get before you fall asleep, when it’s a sunny afternoon or a calm evening. And when you think about it, was there even a time it was just the two of you in a room, alone? You’d recall it if that were the case, because as much as you roll your eyes at what he said, he hasalways been something else, entirely.

“And what brings you to a forgotten sidewalk at this hour, when everyone else is back at the party thrown in, in your honor?” you raise your head then, as Oikawa stares straight ahead.

“What’s wrong with the hour?” his words come out, disinterested.

“You’re avoiding the question.” You state in a stern voice. Whatever peace you had a moment ago shattered.

He sighs, and you think you can hear the hint of a smile in it, “It’s not like I’d spend all my limited time back here at a stupid party.” He says as he shakes his head slightly.

You can’t help but raise an eyebrow at that, “Yourparty.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that it’s stupid.” He turns to you, a sheepish smile etched onto his face. “Besides, when’s the last time we shared some quality time together?”

“February 31st 2012, if I remember correctly.”

The small falls from his face, confusion clear until it’s wiped off with laughter, a genuine one you’re sure you’ve only heard from him once. Never in your life, you think, you cared about the honesty of Oikawa Tooru’s reactions and whether you could get one out of him yourself. Yet now that it has happened, you feel… content, accomplished, in a way.

Wiggling your index finger in the air, you put on a more dramatic voice: “Now now, don’t go soft on me and confess how you returned to see me. That would be a blow to the many devotees of the Grand King.” This only multiplies Oikawa’s laughter, to the point of making him tear up.

‘Nice one.’ You can hear in his laughter as he clutches his stomach and you direct your gaze back ahead, without realizing the smile on your face.

Soon later, his voice dies out slowly, without alerting either of you.

“I don’t get how you do it sometimes.” You break the silence after a while although your voice is barely louder than the wind.

Oikawa doesn’t glance at you, nor does he speak a word, –deciding to wait for you.

Head falling, resting your forehead to your knees, “How you can never falter, how you keep going and going, pushing, fighting… Just- how do you find that will in you, the ambition, the wish to do things?” hands falling to both sides, clutching at nothing, you stare at the tiny grains on the ground, in the cement.

“I feel like falling sometimes, you know. Or- wait, drowning. I’m drowning, until I let the water take me in, surround me completely and I feel comfort in it again. No more struggling, I am one with the water and it is with me. Doesn’t feel cold on my skin, it doesn’t feel like anything.”

Arms gathered front again, you itch your right wrist without noticing.

“In the air, when I’m standing, walking, sleeping, sitting, doing anything, I can feel my body. I can feel the air around me. It has turned against me. And the air feels hostile, sharp.”

“And the water-“ you raise your head and take in a deep breath, “the water is welcoming.”

“I feel like all I do is waste away my life, my time, and I don’t even feel bad about it. No guilt, not until the last moment. All these years have passed, I’ve come this far and- I’m still so utterly, completely lost.” The last part comes out in a sob and a choke.

Oikawa watches you the whole time, every time you breath in, he breaths out; whenever you sigh, he holds his breath, body never moving, eyes never blinking. Still, like he is made of glass.

The silence falls again, and heavy it does. Like glass shards raining down, pricking at your skin and only then Oikawa puts his hand on your right wrist before you can itch and pick again.

At the sudden contact, you look up, thinking you’ll be seeing Oikawa, but in his stead, stands someone you only saw from afar, maybe never saw at all. Without a mask he bothers to keep on, he seems foreign, a stranger.

The ‘Don’t.’ hangs in the air and in his eyes.

Only when you pull your left hand back to your lap, does he let go of your wrist.

“I know,” he begins “that no word of confirmation about how ‘you shouldn’t push yourself to be productive every day’ will help, or saying it’s alright to feel lost and look for something. You must know these already.”

“But ask yourself this: are you feeling this overwhelmed over these only because of yourself or does anyone partake in that? Would you feel like a waste if we weren’t forced to shoulder all these responsibilities and past hopes of our parents from our childhoods?”

“I-“ he cuts you off before you can speak up again, to further argue, to prove a point, your point.

“Look at Makki for once!” he sounds angry. “Unemployed, not living up to the dream life some would expect him to be, all these years of sweating blood and tears and he is not even mentioning the ‘s’ of sports.” Turning his body to you as well, he faces you fully, arm and hand gestures never stopping for a second.

“Do you think he is fully content where is? Do you think he doesn’t any days where he regrets the choices he had made, the paths he have taken? Do you think he never ever, not even once, considered Mattsun’s joke about selling foot photos for money?”

With each question he says, you feel yourself shrinking more, selfish, a part of you hisses; spoiled, another voice is about to join in –then you hear Oikawa’s latest words and get pulled away from inside your head.

“Did he seriously consider that?” you sound meek, frowning internally.

“Oh, he even designed a promo banner and opened a burner account. Took us quite the struggle to change his mind.” He says matter-of-factly. You giggle a little, missing the way he tilts his head watches you with another expression you wouldn’t decode.

This escape is short lived, not enough to distract you from all your worries and doubts.

Your smile falls back short afterwards, face returning to its default state, lips downward, a moody expression watching the world outside.

And a part of this world outside, Oikawa watches you, a lot on his mind and not a single one seems fit to be spoken out loud.

The stillness of your body bleeds into the scenery before him a little painfully.

Blending in without a bother, as if that is what you see yourself worthy of, where you’ve come from and where you’ll end up. Cold, gray stones that no one gives the time of the day, nobody bothers to keep them clean or throw their trash at. Just a place all too like anything else.

The sun is cold, the air hangs low, a gray filter pulled over the world,

He almost misses your words, embroidered into the idle day. “Why make us all have dreams,” you raise your head as you say the rest, a sad smile on your face “-if they’ll all fall, crashing down one day?”

“I’m sorry your bright young boy is dying.” You sing, done speaking and return to the lifeless state you were in, long before he got here.

“Then don’t.” Oikawa says.

“Don’t dream big, don’t force yourself, or force yourself into a mood you won’t fully fit in.”

“Isn’t it enough to crave a sweet in the middle of something and go get it in the evening? Is it not enough to get survive each day, remember to eat and drink, sleep and think?”

“I know” he turns to you then, “it must sound rich, coming from the guy who always preaches ‘Hit it til you break it.’ But that doesn’t necessarily mean breaking yourself in the process.”

Not meeting his gaze, you stay as you were, trying to shut him down, shut the musicdown, drown out the noises but there is no static noise tingling in the air.

Yet seeing how your posture has changed, shoulders tense and fingers no longer latching onto anything they come in contact with, Oikawa knows to keep going and speaking.

“No one truly knows what they’re doing, and whoever claims they do, is bullshitting.” thisearns him a smile and he returns it with one of his own although you cannot see.

“Dream small, take it easy. No big dream is worth breaking yourself in the process. Else, how can you enjoy it if you’re not there to live in it?”

You tense when you feel his hand on your back, a consolation, perhaps, an olive branch.

“Why did you come here in the first place, Tooru, really?”

“Honestly? I don’t know it myself.” The words come out of if without an ease. And why wouldn’t they?

For all this time you’ve known him, Oikawa had a way with words; knowing how to speak and in which tone, what to say and when.

Speaking was like breathing to him, like playing volleyball; almost on instinct and good at it.

And it was his turn to look ahead again, eyes focused on nothing, his hand already drawn back to himself.

“Even if there’s a reasoning within me, it’s not clear to me. But I am here now, I chose to come, and I would’ve left long ago if you truly wanted me gone.”

“Thank you.” You say when the night has fallen.

“Don’t thank me for voicing the things you already had here.” He taps the side of his head.

“It’s a pretty sky tonight.” You say in a whisper, “There’s nothing up there, must be light pollution.” He says in a whine and you can almost hear him pout.

“We don’t need to see them to know that the stars are up there.” You say to him then, and he meets your eyes.

‘I guess you’re right.’ is in the air, not needed to be spoken out loud.

And Tooru’s hand is holding yours again, fingers stroking over the nail marks you left hours ago, already beginning to heal.