#There isnt a way in hell I'll be able to tag all of this

[bellysoupset]

yo dude i know you just worked your ass off on that vince fic (i can tell bro bc holy shit, like i genuinely think thats my new favorite all time fic i'll go back to for years to come), but rn im just so 🤩🤩 rn with the idea of the football boys playing a game, like maybe a little for-fun game of football, maybe they go to a recreational basketball/baseball field to play a little game that isnt football in their freetime, and someone gets hurt or sumn? damn idk what it is with me and suggesting seeing these boys hurt but GODDDD ITS SO 🤩🤩🤩🤩 (also probably vince wouldnt be the hurt one, as he just got absolutely smushed. he may not even be in said setting bc he's still having to not do anything due to the last fic, if everything is in chronological order)(IH MY GOD WHAT IF VINCE WAS STAYING WITH JONAH AND LEO AND LEO WAS OUT PLAYING THE GAME WITH THEM AND COMES HOME HURT AND THE TWO ARE LIKE "damn not you too")(if you decide to go thru with this ask, please dont feel rushed bc i dont want you to get burnt out yk? take your time 💪💪💪)

"Finally, I see the sun," Vince groaned, causing Leo to roll his eyes.

"It's been literally ten days, you drama queen," he said, removing his baseball cap and pushing his hair back, away from his sweaty forehead, then planting the cap back down, this time facing back.

"Ten days of captivity," Vince said, dramatically rubbing his good hand over his face, "is good to be out of jail."

"I'd like to think my food is a little better than jail's," Leo scoffed, turning around and walking backwards towards the field, "are you sure you wanna stay and watch? Doesn't sound very fun to me."

"I was going stir crazy in that apartment," Vince winced as the limping pulled on his wounded side. He was definitely dosed up on painkillers, but there was still a dull throbbing on his side that the drugs couldn't chase, made worse by all the hopping around, "even sitting and watching you guys play is better fun than watching another episode Rachel's bad romantic decisions."

Leo grinned, turning around so he could run ahead and join the remaining guys on the field and Vince took his time limping towards the bleachers. His shirt was covered in sweat by the time he sat down.

He didn't know all the players. Leo, yes, Spencer and Mikey from the team too. The other people he didn't know, it seemed they were an weird rag tag team of people's various acquaintances. By the way Leo waved to some of them, he guessed they were colleagues from the law firm.

It didn't matter, Vince was just overjoyed to be out of the fancy apartment and smelling freshly cut grass, with the sun shining down on him. He had not been made to sit around, there was too much energy running through him during all hours of the day and the worst part of this whole accident had been no longer being able to hit the gym or the field or, hell, he'd even take Wendy's hot yoga classes at this point.

"Hey!" Luke's voice startled Vince and he turned on the hot stone bleachers in order to see him. Luke jogged closer, "good to see you out of bed."

"You have no idea," Vin nodded, studying his best friend, "you good? Bella said the bug was brutal."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Luke had a huge smile on, much like Vince he hated lying about, although he looked a little paler than normal and his voice was scratchy, "wish us luck."

"Make them cry, captain" Vince teased, raising both thumbs up, his left one cradled in his chest since his arm was still resting on the sling.

Lucas tipped his baseball cap in a cowboy-esque way, "you got it, man."

They were playing baseball and Vince didn't much care for it. It was much too american for him, aside from football he had always been more fond of soccer, something he had in common with Jonah. In fact, Jon had proved to be a bit of a soccer addict, Vince had found in the past week living with him and Leo. He knew all the leagues, yelled at the TV and got sullen when his team lost. It was quite amusing to Vin that, for once, he wasn't the one with the blood pressure skyrocketing through the roof.

He leaned back lazily, barely paying attention to the game, enjoying the warmth. Now that he was sitting down for a bit, the ribs' aching had quieted down.

For the next two hours he watched his friends sprint across the field, shouting at each other, ignoring the yelling from the opposite team. Vince blamed it on the drugs and the sun scorching down, but he was feeling sleepy in no time. He cursed at it, it was such a bummer that everyone else was right and he needed to rest, when all he did was rest now.

"Time!" he heard Lucas say, voice booming. He had that characteristic about him, where he could speak loudly and be heard by everyone without looking like he was screaming.

The group dispersed and Luke jogged back to where Vince was sitting, Leo close behind him.

"Are we winning, son?" Vince teased, causing Lucas to chuckle and shove his knee.

"Didn't make 'em cry, yet, but we're winning," he said, competitiveness rolling off of him. He glanced past his shoulder and frowned, "why are you pouting?"

Vince looked away from Luke, to Leo, and raised his eyebrows. As Lucas said, the blonde had a big frown on and he was squinting at the grass. He angrily rubbed at his forehead, "I don't... I don't feel so good."

"Shit, LU-" Vince shouted, using his good hand to shove Lucas' arm, who leaped forward just in time to catch Leo as his knees gave up.

"What the fuck?!" Luke squealed, his voice breaking. He grabbed Leo by the armpits, manhandling him to sit on the edge of the bleacher's step, "Leo? Leo, c'mon, open your eyes-"

"Not fainting," Leo slurred, pushing Lucas' frantic hands away from his face, "nauseous."

Vince grimaced as he scooted closer, having to prop all his body weight on his right arm in order to lower himself to the step under his, where Leo was sitting. He grabbed Leo's shoulder and then moved his hand up to his neck and cheeks. Despite the fact his cheeks were blazing red and his hair still damp with sweat, his cheeks were dry and his skin felt cold, "oh kid," Vince sighed, "I think you got heatstroke."

Lucas, still looking nervous, cupped Leo's face too, hunching on himself to look him in the face, "aww, why didn't you say anything?" he asked.

Vince watched as Leo's throat bobbed dangerously and he glanced at Luke, "I think you better move..."

He barely had time to say this and Leo was folding in half, vomit jetting out of his mouth and covering the grass under them. Lucas jumped out of the way just in time, but not quick enough to avoid getting the tip of his sneakers covered in orange sick.

"Shit, Leo..." Vince sighed, holding on the back of his friend's muscle shirt, "okay, get it up, you'll feel better in a bit... Luke, can you drive us back...?" Vince voice trailed off as he realized that Lucas had a hand holding Leo's shoulder, but the other one was firmly pressed to his mouth, eyes shut, face pale, "uh... Luke?"

"Sorry-" he said in a muffle manner, then let go of Leo and staggered away from them, bracing against his knees and retching.

Leo groaned, almost falling off since Luke had let go of his arm and Vince squeezed his shirt a little tighter, "don't worry about him, he's fine..." he said, while Leo coughed up another round of brown liquid, "you're fine, right?!" Vince said a little louder and Luke raised a hand, thumb up, while still gagging mercilessly.

Leo spat, then leaned back and almost fell, his head meeting Vince's wounded shoulder and causing him to bite down a scream. He breathed through the pain, as the poor man groaned and leaned his head against his bicep.

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

"It's okay, you can't help it," Vince said, voice strained, "we're going home, just- Here," he winced, reaching back to where he had been sitting and grabbing a water bottle, "take some sips."

"Won't stay down-" Leo groaned, taking the lukewarm bottle and then looking up as Lucas' heaved again, this time managing to bring up a pathetic amount of puke, "is he okay?"

"He's fine," Vince said, rolling his eyes, "drink your water."

Ahead of them Lucas straightened up, belching deeply into his fist and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, walking back to them, "sorry..."

"Since when you get sympathy sick?" Vince asked, while Leo took the smallest sip of water, gagging around the bottle's finish.

"I guess I'm not feeling a hundred percent still," Lucas' cheeks turned pink and he rubbed at his chest, "I'm better now, don't worry."

"Not worried," Vince lied, while Leo let out a moan again, hugging his stomach.

"This is awful, I feel really dizzy..."

"You just need to lie down in a cool place, get some electrolytes in you," Vin rubbed his nape, then glanced at Lucas, "can you drive?"

"Yeah, of course," the brunette nodded, although Vince wasn't feeling very reassured by how milky white Lucas looked. Sadly, there was no other option.

"C'mere," Lucas said, carefully side stepping the puddle on the ground and looping an arm around Leo's waist, "lean on me."

"I'm sorry I made you sick..."

"That was on me," Luke waved him off and Vince gestured for them to go ahead, since getting himself out of the bleachers was a struggle on its own.

By the time he reached them, Leo was sitting inside Luke's car, with the a/c blasting, while Luke was leaning outside of it, an arm wrapped around his stomach.

"I'm fine," Luke said preemptively, "I should've listened to Bell," he let out a sick burp, spat on the gravel and kicked the little rocks to cover up the mess, "really, stop looking at me like that."

"I'm just worried," Vince shrugged, or tried to, only to hiss as it pulled on his shoulder and ribs, "I can call Wendy if you can't drive. She's got the day off..."

'I can drive," Luke shook his head, "I just overdid it with all the running around and the mess..." he gagged fruitlessly against his hand, "I'm good."

"Clearly," Vince agreed sarcastically, then limped to the backseat.

Leo was slumped on the passenger seat, head leaning back, taking some deep, measured breaths.

"Hey, kid," Vin reached in and squeezed his arm, "just hang in there, this is going to pass soon."

Leo nodded, but he still looked dangerously pale, lips pressed in one thin line.

The drive was uneventful, Vince glancing nervously from Leo to Lucas and wondering how their evening had downgraded so quickly. Just as they got close, Leo suddenly hiccupped, slapping a hand over his mouth as a burp slipped out and with the other one he pushed Lucas' thigh "pull over-" his voice was muffled, punctuated by another belch at the end and Luke cringed, turning on the sign and pulling to the side of the road.

At least it was an uneventful Saturday, so the street was almost empty. Leo pushed the door, but didn't even have time to get out. He stuck his head out and coughed up another stream, letting out a whimper.

"Aw, kiddo..." Vince sighed, shoving himself in the space between the driver's seat and passenger one, so he could grab the back of Leo's pants and keep him sitting down. Lucas was no help, despite the guilty expression he had on, he had pressed his forehead to the steering wheel and was gulping nervously.

"It hurts..." Leo groaned, coughing and panting, "my head hurts so much."

"I know, I'm sorry," Vince said unhelpfully, rubbing his back, "get it up, Leo..."

He heard another pitiful whine and then more hurling, followed by a sigh, "I think... I think I'm done."

Or empty, Vince thought, keeping his hand on Leo's back. He glanced at Lucas and cringed. His friend's face was firmly in the gray territory, jaw clenched.

"Take a deep breath, I bet the carsickness isn't helping your situation," Vince said, squeezing Leo's bicep and fighting the anxiety inside of him. He hated not being able to help. He should be the one driving.

"I'm good," Leo slammed the door shut, "I just wanna get home."

"Just a couple minutes," Luke mumbled, his voice all thick and weird, "sorry, I-"

"It's okay, Luke," Leo said tiredly, "Jon gets sympathy sick too, I get it..." he rubbed at his forehead, "just drive, please?"

Once they finally arrived, without another incident, Vince almost groaned as he realized now there was twice as much walking around to be done. He sucked it up, carefully stepping out of the car and offering his good arm for Leo.

"Lean on me, kid," then to Lucas, who was just stepping out of the car, "no. You're not coming in, you're going straight home. Shooo."

"How do you intent on looking after him...?" Luke frowned, despite the pained lines on his face, "Vin, I can-"

"I'm fine," Leo groaned and while Vince could feel his grip was a little too tight for someone who was fine, he knew Lucas wasn't going to be any help, "go home, Luke. I'll text you later."

"...Promise?" Lucas glanced between the two of them, torn between wanting to help and feeling too sick.

"Yeah, we're fine," Vince nodded, ignoring the throbbing on his side, "go home. C'mon, Leo..."

The blonde waved one last goodbye to Luke, then slumped against Vince. Vin could tell he was trying to be mindful not to rest his full body weight on him, but he was doing a poor job of it. He bit down a groan, wrapping his good arm around Leo's waist and resting his back against the inside of the elevator.

"Shitty day," he groaned, causing the blonde to let out a tired chuckle.

"That seems to be a pattern lately," he mumbled, face pressed to Vince's bicep, "it's not as bad as it was out there."

"Good, you just need to rest a bit," Vin reassured him, breathing deeply through his mouth as pain spread all the way up his shoulder. They all but stumbled inside the house and Leo headed straight for the couch, while Vince braced against the desk near the front door and took deep, measured breaths.

"Vin? Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he lied, wiping the sweat from his upper lip, "probably just due my meds... Sit down and turn up the A/C, I'm gonna get you some water."

He didn't dare walking all the way to the bathroom to grab a washcloth. Instead Vince filled up Leo's gym bottle with cold water and then wet a dishcloth, deciding he'd rather face Jon's judgment than to walk all that distance. He limped back to the couch and met Leo's worried gaze, "I'm fine," Vince said, handing him the bottle and sitting down too, "here, lie down."

"You don't look very fine," Leo grumbled, but he was too lethargic to do anything about it. He took a gulp of the cold water and let out a relieved sigh when he rested his head on Vin's lap and the cold dishcloth met his forehead, "this feels much better."

"Uhm," Vince smiled, moving on the couch so he could put his feet up the coffee table. His sprained left foot was killing him, "c'mere, kid."

Easy like that, all the times he had done this to his own sisters came rushing back and he found himself playing with Leo's hair, combing the blonde strands and scratching at the scalp, "you're due a haircut," Vince mumbled, eyes slipping closed as he felt Leo relax against him.

"Jon says longer is hotter," he said quietly, "I've always wanted this, you know?"

"...What?" Vince frowned, opening his eyes and glancing down. Leo seemed almost asleep, the stress taking it's toll on him, "Leo?"

"Family," Leo sighed, cuddling closer and moving the wet cloth to cover his eyes, "it's almost weird to have it."

"Oh..." Vince's heart dropped and he squeezed the blonde's shoulder, fighting a smile, "well... Get used to it, Leo. This is your life now."

[artificialwizard]

Venting and rambling about ai art discourse

Feel free to ignore this + this isnt an invitation to argue back and forth with me about ai

My tag system on main for years now has been

#art = abstract art

#representational art = all non-abstract art

( + #dreamscape = art that can't be neatly categorized as abstract or representational + art that reminds me of dreaming )

Bc at the time I created this tag system i was very fed up with abstract art and modern art being dismissed as Not Real Art by some assholes and i wanted to put abstract art first in my space and have representational art be the one that needs a descriptor to differentiate it from "normal"/"real" art

Currently holding myself back from doing something similar to be petty about the never ending ai art backlash/discourse

Haven't been posting my abstract art or ai art online much lately but i still make a lot of both (+ getting back into writing and prob won't be posting much of that either). Sharing art online, other than with close friends, seems like hell to me rn.

Maybe someday i'll start posting my art again it just sucks that anytime i go on any social media from discord to youtube theres an 80% chance i see people shitting on the artistic mediums that i'm most passionate about

And its not like the ai hate train has slowed down the rancid attitudes around abstract art lol, not that I'd stop making AI art if abstract art was more respected

Abstract art is the easiest and most rewarding way for me to express myself creatively and it gels so well with my perfectionism issues bc perfection is Not the point (except when it is, but then its an artistic choice not a constant obligation for every piece). A piece about grief doesnt need to have perfect straight lines or symmetry, the art can be messy if it suits the tone I'm going for.

And AI image and music generation is very exciting to me! I've always been curious about what it would be like getting to see the creation of a new way of making art and its been very cool being able to somewhat follow AI innovations since 2018 and then get to experiment with it myself once more ai tools became accessible!!

Whether im the ai art im making is abstract or representational, i love not having full control over the result! I love bouncing ideas back and forth with the AI. I love having to combine my visual art skills and my language/description skills.

I use midjourney et al. the same way I'd make my OCs in dressup games while brainstorming ideas. Mindless doodling that can often lead to writers block breakthroughs.

I also use midjourney et al. to make quick vent art when I'm feeling strong emotions just like I'd do in my sketchbook or in my digital art apps.

And sometimes i'm using ai to spend hours trying to make something very specific i want to create.

Idk its all just tools to me. Midjourney. Paint Tool Sai. Pen and paper. I get the same joy/relief out of making art with all of the above

Im not aiming for fame or money, i make 0-200$ a year from art, usually 0. I just want to have a little corner of the internet to share my images and reach a handful of ppl who appreciate them and want to discuss abstract & ai art with me thats it. Im not coming for your art job, i dont allign myself with corporations aiming to further disadvantage workers in artistic industries or artists who freelance

Anyway reason #2 i slowed down on posting art is grief has been kicking my ass these past 4 years. Lots of deaths in the family + death of a friend. some relationships were fractured and im grieving those as well.

Reason #3 is started full time library job in november 🎉 its wonderful and its exhausting and im still finding my rythm after years of being chronically un(der)employed and/or in college, but hopefully once life settles down more ill have more and more time to spend on art and writing

Havent vent posted in ages and it feels weird doing it on one of my art blogs so im going to end this with two of my recent(ish) pieces on grief, first made in onelab (not ai, android art app i make 80% of my digital art in) and second in midjourney

Thanks if u read all/most/some of that :)

Think i just needed to be like "man this sucks" so i can move on to "anyway! Art time >:)"

[deadbeatbirdmom]

@alullinchaos there's an official answer to your question from @incredibly-unprofessional in the tags where I'm reblogging from! I'll copy paste here with a bit of editing so it's easier to read, for the benefit of @starlightsaphron who might be interested too:

#I DIDNT SEE MY TAGS GETTING POSTED AW GEEZ GUYS 🥺🥺

#but yeah ok i have an answer for this! when she follows blake on the boat she doesnt specifically KNOW shes going to menagerie #all she knows is that blakes going on a boat far away and hey if tagging along with blake on a boat gets her far away from her dad so be it #and ik what you guys will think 'wouldnt she likely know where shes going by like whatever the boat says or boat ticket is??'

#and for that i always got the notion that the boat is like one that stops at multiple places #like it stops at menagerie those that are leaving get off/then it goes to mistral those leaving get off/goes back to vale ect... #like maybe weiss just gets like a one way ticket that gets her anywhere

#and then she finds out when her blake and sun (after he reveals himself in thay sea beast fight) are talking and ask her where shes going #who knows if weiss would know exactly about menagerie like maybe the name but not much else about it maybe its not studied a lot

#but yes my idea was that in order to disguise herself she cuts her hair short in so shes like barely recognizeable #like if you guys remember the short hair weiss edits people did? thats the vision!

#she wouldnt have time to cut it on the boat so when they set foot off the boat sun would give her his cloak thing he had on the boat #BECAUSE HES A LIL GENTLEMAN (she is sweating like HELL under it they are on an island but yknow its the thought that counts)

#another reason for cutting her hair is like also the risk of like 'what if people recognise me and send me nack to my dad for reward money' #but for thr most part i dont think the citizens would do much to her like siem side eyes and maybe some comments at first

#in this weiss is actively helping the belladonnas and menagerie against the white fang like shes forging her own path away from her father #standing up for what she feels is right shes earning menagerie citizens respect so those stares and side eyes lessen with time

#i like to think maybe older citizens who emigrated to menageire who maybe worked in the mines with her grandfather would trust her quickly

#and by the time the belladonna house fight is done menagerie is basically like 'fuck the schnees EXCEPT THIS ONE RIGHT HERE SHES COOL'

#but yeah she would be a target for the wf like its fuel to the fire for their reaosning to take down the belladonnas it doesnt phase them #'ofc we are protecting this girl HER DADS TERRIBLE if our daughter trusts her so do we' theyre not gonna hold her dads actions against her

#abd in regards to like jaques i imagine ok first off he takes his time getting to vale cause he doesnt really care that much hes that bitch #like 'oh in all the chaos it was hard to enter vale airspace because of the grimm' (and probably some jab at ironwood he cant help himself)

#like that's why shes able to leave before he arrives cause he takes that long in getting there #and even then jaques would likely put in like the teeniest bit of effort trying to find her for images sake

#But I do imagine he could just be like 'she's missing but presumed to maybe be dead' and milk that for what it's worth for publicity #Plus with Ironwood calling back his people from mistral so nobody gets in and out there would be no way for Jaques to know where she is

#i have so many more thoughts about this but i ranted about it all in the bees discord like MULTIPLE DAYS WORTH but still thank u guys 🥺🥺 #credit isnt just on me since i was bouncing idea around with with meena and riley on discord so THANK U OOMFIES 😚😚

Thanks for sharing what you and your friends came up with, incredibly-unprofessional! I've gotta encourage you to write it as a fic, it's a great AU.

Question of the Week: What's your favorite AU that you've created? (shout yourself out XD)

[niko-jpeg]

WiP and Draft Post

All of the fics will be under the cut and there will be a brief description of each if you want to skip it. They will be organized from shortest to longest, and none of them are really heavily edited so if you find some mistakes, I apologize. Word counts are all estimates (except the first one). I didnt steal this idea from @psycho-chair you stole it from him.

Just comment which one(s) you liked and I'll write more! If you want any of these in a separate post for any reason, I will post them in separate posts.

Total Word Count: 17,659 FUCKING YIKES BESTIE

1: SOUL FUSED CHAPTER FOUR

Notes: Dont worry, SF is not cancelled. It is not discontinued. Its just on hold while I do Fail Boat stuff and get my life together.

Words: 59 (yikes)

Date: December 2021

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Error had mixed feelings about Killer and Nightmare’s little gang of misfits. They were just kind of… there. He honestly had no idea where they came from or why they suddenly were a big part of his life, but he liked to think it was for entertainment value and not at all because he was getting attached to them.

2: UNTITLED 1

Notes: I genuinely dont remember writing this. I think it was supposed to be about Chara getting up to ghostly shenanigans or something, but I dont remember anymore.

Words: 100

Date: September 2021

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“Hey kiddo.” Frisk looked up from their book at Sans, who was sitting on the other side of the couch, just moments ago taking a nap. Toriel had asked him to look after Frisk (and Chara) while she went on a trip to Soia City, which was roughly a ten hour drive from the small town at the base of the mountain where they lived. She claimed it was so they wouldnt get lonely, but Chara suspected that the true motive was to make sure the two kids didnt burn the house down. Its not like Chara could if they wanted to, they mooched off of Frisks life force in order to even exist. They had even figured out how to momentarily manifest into a physical form, almost like a ghost for a few minutes.

A lot had happened since the monsters had resurfaced.

3: SPLATTERS OF INK CONCEPT

Notes: I have no idea where I was going to take this, but I guess it was just supposed to be a fun little short ft. some characters I have a very big soft spot for. Mew if youre reading this I am so sorry I have no excuses.

Words: 100

Date: November 2021

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Before the Story: Basically just introducing the characters and how they were made. Airbrush is introduced the most as one of the Inklings who had a parental figure growing up. Airbrush asks Ink about the possibility of others like him existing. Ink vehemently denies it and changes the subject.

Reconnection (Airbrush): Airbrush was just sitting under a tree minding his damn business when a group of boys came and harassed him. He flees the situation and PJ finds him in the forest, looking to recruit him into a group called "The Splatters". The Splatters pick up after Ink and Error in secret, as well as get other "Inklings" to safety. The reason they hadn't been able to get to Airbrush was because Ink found him first. Airbrush says no and continues on with his day, though PJ doesn't leave him. They send Gradient in to try to convince but he has a breakdown halfway through his speech and gives up. Dizzy doesn't even try. It's Reimancy who gets through to him.

4: TRUST FALL CONCEPT

Notes: Okay so this one actually has a trigger warning! Mentions of eating disorders and a suicide attempt. Just an idea and excuse to write Dadmare lol. Of course, its at Cross' expense.

Words: 400

Date: December 2021

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A set of three oneshots surrounding Cross and his time joining the bad Sanses. He's stuck with this idea that he needs to be perfect and any slip up he does is a weakness.

PART ONE: Perfect.

The first Oneshot is about how He develops this awful mental state where he starves himself and forces himself to throw up any food the others try to get him to eat, patrols the castle instead of sleeping, and takes any thing he does wrong personally.

One day, Dust or someone snaps at him and tells him he'll never be perfect and to just get over it after Cross starts venting to Dust about how awful he feels about not being perfect. Cross takes it the wrong way and tries to stab his soul, Nightmare stopping him at the last second.

Nightmare isn't negligent, he just hoped Cross would be able to work it out either on his own or with the others, since his relationship with his team was kind of… shaky to say the least. Nightmare forces him to fess up about his eating disorder and his various other issues and it's basically just pure fluff and comfort from there. Horror essentially force feeds him so at least he has something in his system, Nightmare officially places him under "Suicide watch" (meaning hes not allowed to be alone for about a week and if he's caught by himself then the watch time gets extended) and Horror goes mother hen mode on Cross.

PART TWO: Challenge.

The second one is focused on developing Cross' relationship with the others. Killer and Dust get into a fight and Nightmare forces them to do team building games like the flying hula hoop and the pillow pile game. Cross is still recovering from the whole ordeal the previous week but still participates because Noot Noot mom told him too.

Killer gets on friendly terms with Cross and the team gets to know Cross a little better than "Nightmares little weird guard dog".

PART THREE: Trust Fall.

Basically a big ol chapter full of fluff and Nightmare teaching Cross it's okay to trust others and that he belongs to the bad Sanses now and will always have a home with them no matter what. 5: ANOTHER SHOT PROLOGUE

Notes: This was a little Oneshot au I whipped up a few months back but never did much with because life. The idea was Niko moved to a big city and nearly forgot about the World Machine until they get back in contact through their phone and they go on another adventure. Also the Author is Niko's dad in this, though thats part of the mystery they're trying to figure out so shhhh ;)

Words: 1,000

Date: August 2021

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As the light faded away, Niko stepped out onto the plush carpet of their room, a triumphant smile gracing their features. They had done it. With the help of the Player, they had saved the world and given everyone the happy ending they deserved. The sun was back for good.

Niko blinked a few times, adjusting to the lower light levels of their room. Everything looked just as they had left it, tidy and neat. They always tried to keep it clean, it made their Mama happy when they did. It was the most they could do for her.

Niko flopped over on the neatly made green covers of their bed, situated in the far left corner of their room and glanced out the window. It appeared the sun was just beginning to rise in the distance, painting the skies a soft purple. They sighed and sat up, fidgeting with their scarf. It was weirdly quiet.

“Well, obviously. The Player isn't here.” Niko mumbled, a regretful feeling washing over them. They probably weren't ever going to talk to them again. But, they had their own life, as did Niko. They just dearly hoped they wouldnt forget the god of that world. Or the world itself, for that matter.

Niko jumped off their bed and ran to the desk on the opposite wall of their bed, an idea hitting them like a train. There was a way to remember. They pulled open the top drawer and pulled out crayons and some paper, flicking on the lamp and plopping themself down on the cream carpet and pulling the crayons out of the box.

They drew the first people that came to mind, which were (for obvious reasons), Rue, Proto, and Cedric. They drew themself golding the sun next to the siblings, all of them smiling. Niko wanted to draw the Player, but couldn't quite picture what they would look like, so instead they drew the World Machine. Well, technically they drew the reflection that the Entity borrowed to talk to Niko. It could contact the Player any time it wanted.

The rest of the colorful cast Niko met along the way soon followed. Kip, Silver, George, Calamus, Alula, even Prophetbot were down on paper by the time the sun was fully risen and Niko’s mother was knocking on their door and asking them to get up.

“Coming mom!” Niko called, springing up and flinging the door open to greet their mama. Their mama seemed surprised at their enthusiasm to start the day.

“Well someone seems excited. Have a good dream?” Their mother asked as Niko got up on their toes and nuzzled her. “Did you… sleep in that?” She asked, stepping back to observe in better detail what they were wearing.

“Actually, I didn't sleep! Well, very much. Instead, I went to a really cool world where the sun went out and I had to fix it, and I got help from the people of that world and a god named the Player and-” Their mother laughed awkwardly. “I’m sure you did. It sounds very exciting, my child, but please, lower your voice. You’re being awfully loud.”

There was something stiff and unnatural about her reply. Did she not believe that Niko had done all of that? But they had! They even had proof. “Why dont I make pancakes? You can give the extra leftovers to Mrs.Fideli later too. Maybe you can hang out with Sona while you're there too.”

“Yeah! That sounds fun!” Niko replied, brushing off their mothers strange behaviour. Maybe they could tell their mama all about the adventure they just had over breakfast! That would be the coolest!

____________________________________________________________________________

“...and then I said goodbye to the Player and walked back into my room!” Niko finished, taking another bite of pancake. Niko’s mama sat across from them with a weird expression on their face. It looked to be a mix of confusion and alarm.

“That's very… interesting, sweetie.” Niko’s mother got up and turned the corner, entering the kitchen and grabbing a few pancakes, placing them delicately on a ceramic plate, coating them in foil and handing them to the child.

“W-why don't you go give these to Mrs.Fedeli. Please be back by noon if you choose to stay with Sona.” Niko grabbed the plate and nodded, grinning and giggling. “Sure mama!” They jumped out of their seat and ran to the door, tossing it open and running though, shutting it less than gently on their way out.

Their mama sighed shakily and wiped her hands on her yellow apron, watching the door for a few seconds before going to Niko’s room across the house. It was a relatively small cottage, meant for a small family obviously.

She pushed the door open gently, stepping inside and looking down at the floor. Crayons and paper littered the floor, just as they had that morning. She picked one up gently as if afraid it would explode and took a closer look at it. Despite the fact it was an eleven year olds drawing, it was obvious what the drawing was of.

She sat tentatively on her knees and looked through all of the drawings. They were all exactly what her child had described. And before her, HE had described.

She placed the drawings back on the ground and pulled out a simple flip phone, dialing a number and holding it up to her face.

“Hello? Yes it's me, Shara. I was wondering if that apartment on the eighth floor was still open…”

“Niko?” Niko looked up from their book at their mother, a little concerned about the resigned tone in her voice.

“Yes mama?” Their mother sat on the couch next to them and folded her hands neatly in her lap, shifting uncomfortably. It was around one in the afternoon, yet the pancakes from that morning still sat cold and now soggy on the table.

“A recent… event had transpired and, because of said event… we…” Their mama’s voice wavered a little. “What does ‘transpired’ mean?” Niko asked.

“It means something has happened… and… I’m so sorry, my child, but we’re moving.” Niko tilted their head at their mothers words. “Moving?”

“Next month. To the big city a few hours away. Permanently.” Niko froze. It took a few seconds for Niko to truly process what she was saying.

“What?!” Niko shouted, confusion painting their face. Niko’s mama looked away, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

“I’m sorry this is so sudden, but… we have no choice.” The perfectly good day Niko was having was shattered by this news. It was so sudden.

“B-but?! But mama, we can't just LEAVE!! What would Dad think?!” That small, innocent comment about their father caused their mama to burst into tears. “M-mama?” Guilt welled up inside them.

Their mother sobbed into her hands, ignoring the child's now frantic questions. "Mama?! Are you ok?! Mama!!"

"It's for the b-best…" Their Mama whispered, continuing to son inconsolably. Niko ran out of the room and out the front door to their neighbors house, knocking frantically on the door.

Sona answered the door and Niko did their best to explain what was happening. After failing, Niko dragged Sona's mother to their house. Now knowing that their Mama was being looked after, Niko booked it to the middle of a wheat field and broke down in a panic themselves.

They shouldn't have brought up their dead father. They really shouldn't have…

6: THE SILVER LINING PROLOGUE

Notes: This was supposed to be a reader insert a little bit like TGBM but with an actual plot lmao. I didnt get very far before I decided I had better things to do.

Words: 1,000

Date: September 2021

_____________________

You pressed your face to the glass of the window, staring out into the never ending sea of trees. You had seen nothing but them for the last few hours. It was starting to get a little repetitive.

You reminded yourself once again that this was now your reality. Why the new boarding school you were going to was in the middle of the woods was beyond you. The memories of the last few weeks played through your head once more, reminding you once again, that you brought this upon yourself.

“It’ll be worth it,” they said. “You’ll make lots of new friends and go on so many neat adventures!” they said. You somehow doubted their claims, but it's not like you really had a say in what your future held anyway. You were getting shipped off to this new school on an ancient looking bus regardless if you wanted to or not.

The chatter around you made a nice background noise to your thoughts. Every once in a while you could faintly pick up bits and pieces of people's conversations. There was a lot of talk about the new English teacher and plenty of excitement about the new term to go around. And then there were scrubs like you, huddled together to talk about what maybe to expect. You weren't sitting with them not because you were anti-social, but because you had no idea they were all sitting up front, and by the time you had made the realization that the newbies were sitting up front it was already too late to move.

“Attention all passengers! We will be arriving in five minutes, please be prepared to retrieve your things and report to the gymnasium in an efficient manner. Your dorm assignments will be posted on a wall in alphabetical order and you may pick up your schedules there as well.” Someone up front instructed. You sighed and picked up your bag, shoving your phone deep into a pocket in the front and pulling off your headphones. You had stopped listening to music when you ran out of songs on your playlist a half hour ago but didn't bother to take the headphones off. In hindsight, that probably made you look like an edgy anime protagonist, but oh well.

“Who do you think is going to go missing this year?” An older student asked another student behind you. You perked up and turned your head to hear better. “I dunno, probably one of the newbies.”

Go missing? You didn't read about people going missing in the little pamphlet they gave you before you got on the bus. You strained to hear anything more about the matter but the two guys behind you had already moved on to talking about the new teacher. Apparently getting a new teacher was a big deal? Why?

The bus skidded to a halt in front of the school building, which looked surprisingly normal. The students at the front of the bus timidly disembarked. You watched everyone get off, a few asking if you wanted to go first. Every time you decline, deciding you’d rather watch to see what the others would do first. You had read that this was a relatively small private school. It was supposedly a “second chance” school for people who had gotten kicked out of their previous schools. It was weird though, because they also noted it would not tolerate bad behavior. Even weirder was the fact that you were not in need of a “second chance”. You just moved a lot and your parents wanted to give you a consistent place to make friends and go to school. Even if said school was in the middle of the woods.

“Oh my god Stacy, LEAVE ME ALONE!” You jolted a little at the loud voice coming from two rows behind you. “But Cirrus, you're the only one here I know!!” Two kids about your age (you could guess the girl with long brown hair and pale skin was Stacy and the boy next to her with darker skin and white hair was Cirrus) hurriedly went down the aisle. Cirrus, the boy, seemed rather annoyed with Stacy.

“Yeah, only because you got us expelled last year from Foxfield! I don't want any trouble this year, ok Stacy?!” You got up behind them and followed, realizing you were now the only ones still on the bus. “It's not my fault we’re both freaks-”

You followed them off the bus and onto the gravel pavement below. You joined the crowd of people into what you could assume was the gym, given its size and the basketball hoops hanging from the ceiling. Cirrus and Stacy were still arguing in front of you, their conversation still centered around the topic of getting expelled from their old school, apparently for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and blowing something up.

The list of dorm assignments was on the opposite wall to the outside entrance. Cirrus, Stacy and you all seemed to have the same idea and casually walked over to the paper covering the wall with the other students.

You scanned the paper for your name and found it next to another name. Shit, guess you were going to have to put up with a roommate. You took a closer look at the name and blinked in surprise. “Cirrus Featherduster” was the name next to yours. You thought it was safe to assume that the Cirrus on the paper was the same one standing next to you. You checked the number and sighed. 305. Of course you were on the third floor.

“YES!! I’m not paired with you!!” Cirrus exclaimed, causing Stacy to jump. “Well, yeah. They would know better than to put us back together I hope.” Stacy spat, punching his shoulder. “I did get paired with… someone named ‘(Y/n)’ though.”

“That's me.” You said, poking Cirrus in a non threatening way. This time it was his turn to jump. “Dear god! Don't scare me like that!!” He hissed at you, swatting your hand away. “Nice to meet you and all, but geez dude!”

You grinned at him and he grinned back. Looks like he might be entertaining to mess with. “Hmph. I have a roommate too. What floor are you on?”

“Floor three I think?” Cirrus looked over the page again and shrugged. “I think thats what the ‘3’ in the number means.”

“Oh cool. If thats the case we’re on the same floor. HA! You cant escape me!!” Stacy laughed maniacally while you and Cirrus stood there for an uncomfortable amount of time. “Y-you done?” You asked after a solid minute. “Yeah.” Stacy snapped out of it and shrugged.

“Okay that was weird. Anyway…” You turned to Cirrus. “Since we’re roommates and neither of us really know what we’re doing, wanna get our schedules together?”

“Sure, why not?” Cirrus replied, grabbing your arm and dragging you along to the table to the left of the list.

“HEY!! Wait for me!!” Stacy called, speed walking to you and Cirrus all while complaining about how you were no fun.

7: CHAOS ENSUED.

Notes: I had a funky dreamand Error was there for some reason, so I decided to make something of my ability to remember my dream details very vividly. So I gave said dream a comprehensible plot and this is the result. I have no excuses.

This is supposed to take place in a multiverse where the XEvent was kind of… diverted I guess. Ink decided to opt out of the little “game” in favor of screwing with Error and forming the Star Sanses as an officially recognized group. Cross still is “not adopted” by Noot and crew, but they totally adopt him this time around. He's their baby brother lol.

The Reader is a creator who got pulled into the multiverse by an experiment gone wrong of sorts, but all that gets explained later. They gain the ability to do that stupid Gacha trope of their creations coming to life. There are a few other creators who got pulled in too, one of which is a big character in this. Reader is on good terms with both Nightmares Gang and the Stars, but more neutral than anything.

Sorry for the long explanation lol

Words: 2,000 words

Date: October 2021

___________________

Ink and Error had made a truce ages ago. Well, less of a truce, more of an agreement. A truce implies that they started getting along. Despite everything, Ink was still insistent on annoying Error and Error was still insistent on being a baby over it.

The multiverse had adjusted well to said truce, despite the balance of Positivity and Negativity still a little all over the place. Dream was stubborn, but Nightmare was more so. But at least the Creation-Destruction ratio was somewhat balanced.

“G-GET BACK-K HERE Y-YOU LITTLE S-SHIT!!” A glitched screech echoed through the Doodle Sphere as a very pissed looking Error chased Ink, who was grinning like an idiot. Ink had, yet again, successfully broken into the Anti Void and stolen one of the various not voodoo dolls Error made. This one was of a human. Upon closer inspection, it was a human both of the gods knew very well. And Ink was threatening to show it to them.

“I’M GONNA TELL (Y/N)!! I'M GONNA TELL THEM YOU LOOOOOOOOVE THEM!!” Ink taunted, sticking his tongue out. Error screeched some more and shot some strings at him. The protector dodged with ease and continued running around and evading Error’s attacks. This was basically routine. Ink’s new purpose in life was helping Dream fend off his brother and his gang. Oh and also harassing Error. Just for fun.

Speaking of Dream, the golden demi-god himself teleported into the Doodle Sphere in hopes of getting a word with Ink. Following closely behind him was a human. That human being you.

You were one of the few people allowed into the Doodle Sphere, the reason being you were a Creator. A few years ago, you had been involved in… an accident of sorts that sent you and a group of others through time and space, landing you in the Omega Timeline. Core had discovered you and the others on the outskirts of the main town and offered you a home until you figured out how to go back to your home world. You had personally befriended Ink a few months into the stay and shortly thereafter made friends with all of his friends too. You even managed to get yourself off the “destroy on sight” list of the supposed bad guys, who kidnapped you by accident once or twice thinking you were someone else. Who that someone else was you never quite figured out though. You suspected that Error grew fond of you the first time you got kidnapped and set up a second time to talk to you again. How sad.

Anyway, you jumped through the portal Dream created and landed firmly on your feet. You grinned at the sight before you, stifling laughter in your hands. Error had Ink tied up and hanging from the ceiling by blue thread, gripping tightly onto a plush doll of sorts. From a distance you couldn't quite figure out what it was, but didn't really care. Dream sighed and facepalmed, mumbling to himself about how he should've known. “(Y/n), can you break them up please?”

You nodded and ran ahead to the pair.“Error! Ink!!” Error whipped around with a panicked look, hurriedly opening a portal and tossing whatever he was holding through it. “(Y/n)! W-what a lovely surprise!!” Error greeted in a strained voice, his cheeks turning a shade of yellow. It was no secret he was a respectful simp for you. Everyone kind of just knew.

“Nice to see you too! Um, can we steal Ink real quick? Dream wants to talk to him.” You asked, nudging the tightly contained upside-down bundle of chaos. Ink smirked evilly and giggled maniacally. You shot him a weird look and he continued cackling. “Error, you should SEE your face right now!”

Error’s face turned four shades yellower. He began glitching like crazy and buried his face in his scarf. He looked like an angry kitten. With a wave of his multi-colored hand, Ink dropped face first onto the floor. “Take him. I got what I needed from him anyway.”

The Glitchy god of destruction opened a portal and stepped though, glancing over his shoulder hesitantly. He looked as if he wanted to say something. You waved to him and he smiled, glancing at the floor and mumbling into his scarf.

The portal closed and you shrugged, offering your hand to Ink, who was just sitting there on the floor giving you a smug look. “What?”

“Nothin’.” He replied, taking your and pulling himself up, before promptly dragging you back over to a very impatient looking Dream.

“Ink, what did you do this time?” Dream asked, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. Ink smirked and nudged his best friend's side playfully. “I decided I was going to bully him into telling you-know-what to you-know-who.”

Of course, you knew what that meant. You weren't the oblivious idiot that Ink seemed to think (or hope) you were. He was trying to get Error to confess to you. For the last year and a half since you had met him at Nightmare’s Castle, he had done his diddly darn best to talk to you at every given opportunity. Both you and Ink had picked up on the fact that he got all blushy faced when you talked to him and he always seemed to be in the same general area as you at almost all times, and Ink was not gonna let him live it down any time soon.

Dream rolled his eyes and sighed like an annoyed parent. “Ink, you have to stop. He’ll let them know when he wants to. You shouldn't push it.”

Ink pouted for a second, his eyelights turning blue for a hot second before switching back to the usual combination of yellow and green and random shaped. “So what did you call me for?”

“Ink. My friend. My best friend in the whole world. The chaotic to my neutral. You’ve been

ignoring me for the last week. I am now forcing you to participate in an obligatory hang out session with Blue and I. (Y/n) can come if they want to.” Dream stared Ink down menacingly. Why did he have to say the nicest things in the scariest ways?

Ink cowered and nodded reluctantly as you smiled nervously. Were they really going to drag you into this? Dream turned to you for your answer.

“I… I think I’ll pass. I have some house work to do today. Sorry.” You apologized. Dream looked a little disappointed but nodded. “That's ok. We’ll have to hang out together sometime else though!”

You smiled and agreed, opening a portal to the Omega Timeline and stepping casually through, waving to your friends. The portal closed behind you and you began down the streets of the refugee timeline, waving to people you knew and making your way downtown, walking fast, faces pass and your homebound-

You arrived at your house and pulled your key out of your pocket, stuffing it in and twisting, the tell tale sound of the door unlocking greeting your ears. You pushed the door open and stepped in the paper cluttered house. It was small and only one room, but it was home. You had done your best to make it look like the room you used to have before the accident.

You plopped down at your desk and pushed aside some papers, pulling your laptop from the mess and opening it. Sure, you had house work to do, but more importantly you had some art to make. Digital art was your only way of making things and not having them spring to life. You had learned your lesson the hard way when you drew one of the inhabitants of the OT and you suddenly had a bitty sitting in front of you on your paper. You gave the bitty to one of Ink’s friends, Fresh, who promised to take care of it. Sometimes you wonder whatever became of it.

You opened your art program and began doing some warm up doodles, completely oblivious to everything that was about to go down.

____________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, halfway across the multiverse…

Error sat on his beanbag chair, holding the small plush doll that Ink had tried to steal. Thankfully it was unharmed. He stared at the little doll, a faint blush on his cheeks. God he was such a simp-

He tucked it safely in his arms, wondering what the human was up to. They were interesting, so if he had to guess something equally as interesting.

The god of destruction leaned back, thinking about the first time they had met. It had been when they and the others had arrived. It had been a regular ol day of sitting in the Anti-void, eating stolen chocolate and stalking whoever he deemed worthy. Ink had suddenly burst through a portal and landed face down on the ground a few feet away. At that point they had started visiting each other in their domains, normally just to annoy each other. While neither of them took it seriously anymore, at the time it really was kind of hostile. The ink stain had practically dragged him by the scarf to the Omega Timeline. There, standing shyly in the corner, had been (Y/n). They looked worried and sick, but when they started talking, Error practically crashed. It was the same voice as the creator that had just suddenly disappeared. Then again, there were 17 others with them, all of which matched the voices and descriptions of the creators.

Error had gotten to know (Y/n) a little bit better beyond ‘holy hell it's the creators’ when Killer kidnapped the wrong human. They had to stick around for a while as they sorted the whole thing out, and Error had actually grown quite attached to them. They were funny and not afraid to kick people out windows who needed it. That was the day Nightmares Gang learned how aerodynamic Killer actually was.

When they were returned safely, Error had actually been a little sad. They had become rather good friends by the end of the accidental kidnapping session. From then on he had made it a point in his life to drop by and say hello every once in a while.

Sadly, ‘every once in a while’ became almost every week and he realized he was kind of obsessed with the human. Respectfully, of course. Not in a weird or creepy way. There was just something about them that was so… endearing. And that was the moment he realized he 100% screwed.

Well not quite. It was Ink finding the doll he had made of them (so they’d always feel close by) and connecting the dots that really meant he was thoroughly fucked. Ink didn't let him live it down since.

A tug on one of his strings pulled him from his thoughts. He knew that tug. Nightmare was requesting his presence, once again. Error signed and planted a small kiss on the dolls cheek, placing it gently on top of the Bean bag next to the Ink plush and the plush he made of himself. He ripped open a portal and jumped through, wondering what Nightmare could want this time.

Inside the meeting room was Nightmare, Horror, and the newbie Cross. The latter was curled up on a chair and looking sleepy.

"Ah, good. You're here." Nightmare looked up from the first aid kit that he was rummaging through. "I apologize for calling you out of the blue, but would you be willing to do a favor for me?" At least he was being polite about Interrupting his train of thought. "Cross is developing insomnia again and we ran out of melatonin. Can you run to a random timeline and steal some?"

Oh yeah, hadn't Dust made a comment about Cross practically refusing to sleep because of frequent nightmares? Error had almost forgotten it had been so long. The glitchy god sighed and nodded, ripping open a portal before he could even question why they needed it in the middle of the afternoon rather than nighttime. He wasn't opposed to running errands for the gang, but sometimes he wishes they would do it themselves. Eh, maybe he could drop by (Y/n)'s side of the OT and see if he could catch them out and about. That would be nice. He wanted to ask them to hang out sometime soon anyway, so maybe now was his chance.

Meanwhile, Dream was thinking. That wasn't a very uncommon occurrence. He did most of the thinking for his team anyway, mostly because he was the only one who had more than seven brain cells. Well, none of them have brains, but that's besides the point.

One of the things that came to mind was how he wished that Ink would stop harassing Error. Sure, it was frustrating to watch him uselessly try to make moves on one of his ‘beloved creators’, but he really did need to lay off.

“DREAM, ARE YOU OK?” Blue asked, bouncing down the stairs and landing not so gracefully on his face. Oh. Right. The hangout session. He was sitting on Blue and Honey’s couch next to Ink, so was jotting something down on his scarf.

“Yeah, I’m fine!” Dream smiled hurriedly in an attempt to reassure his friend. The blue soldier nodded and grinned, clearly glad to see them. “ALRIGHT, IF THAT THE CASE, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO TODAY-”

“Lower your voice Blue.” Honey called from upstairs. Blue lowered his head and looked a little guilty. “We’ve been working on that for the last week. It's not going very well.”

“Maybe we could help you then!” Dream suggested, jumping up from the couch excitedly at the prospect of helping his friend. Ink looked up in confusion. “What's wrong with the way you talk?”

“My bro thinks I’m too loud, SO I'M GOING TO WORK ON IT AND BECOME THE QUIETEST IN TOWN!!!” Blue exclaimed, jumping up and down. “Well clearly you’re not trying all that hard.” Honey came down the stairs, looking tired and grumpy.

Shame danced across Blue’s face as he grabbed Dream’s hand and walked out the door. “Sorry bro.”

The protector jumped up to follow them, exchanging a worried look with Dream.

8: SECRET SANTA THING

Notes: This was made for the secret santa thing for @skyedancer2006 but I decided I didnt like it very much. So, uh, merry late crisis I guess.

Words: 2,000

Date: December 2021

____________________

Another cold breeze swept over the hill and through the village, ruffling the grass and pages of Nightmares book. Nightmare shivered, pulling his legs closer to his chest and shuddering a little. All day, the weather had been nothing but overcast and ominous. Yet Dream had still insisted on going into that dreadful village.

Nightmare sighed, a puff of air forming where his breath met the cold air. He hoped Dream would get back soon. When he got back they could huddle together to share warmth and wait out the cold together.

The purple clad twin looked back down at his book, focusing on the words of the page instead of the chill in the air. Dream had brought back the book from one of his trips to the Village a while ago, but he never bothered to read it. It didn't seem too interesting, but now that he had started it he couldn't stop. Sure, the writing was a little questionable at best, but he was already invested in the characters.

He flipped the page, losing himself in the plot of the book. It was about a group of friends trying to track down a dragon and kill it so they could be famous. So far, the plot had been giving him the vibes that they were going to end up defeating the dragon brutally with the power of friendship, since that's just kind of how these things go.

Nightmare set the book aside, giving up on reading it in the pitch darkness that was the night. The lights from the distant village illuminated the distance slightly, casting a warm glow over the field in front of the twin’s tree. Faintly, he could see the silhouette of his twin hiking his way across the field separating the Village from the Tree of Feelings.

Nightmare waved, getting to his feet and wincing. His legs were numb with cold and he couldn't feel his toes anymore.

Dream waved back, making a gesture for Nightmare to come to him. Confused, Nightmare padded down to the base of the hill where Dream was standing with his hands on his hips and a grin across his face.

“Greetings?” Nightmare greeted, approaching his brother. The others' eyelights shone in the dark, as opposed to Nightmare's darker cyan ones.

Wordlessly, Dream grabbed his twin's hand and pulled him towards the village, a grin still plastered to his features.

“Wh- hey! Dream, what are you doing?!” Nightmare asked, trying to pull his hand from his brother's grip. Dream continued to pull him along without as much as a glance back.

Dream pulled him into the Village, the paths almost barren. In the distance, quiet music could be heard.

“Dream, what is going on?” Nightmare asked again, still receiving no definitive answer. Nightmare was getting a little uneasy about the whole situation, the Village was rarely ever almost empty. Then again, he wouldn't really know. He tended to stay away from the village.

Dream continued to lead him down the path, eventually leading them to the town square. Nightmares' eyes widened at the sight of the normally plain looking square now transformed into a bustling market of sorts, stalls lined up around the sidewalks and the music significantly increasing in volume.

“Okay for real, What is going on?” Nightmare asked, interest (and confusion) piqued.

“Well, today is the Winter Solstice!” Dream explained, wrapping an arm around Nightmare's shoulder. “They have a festival every year to celebrate it for some reason. Do you know what else is today?”

“No…?” Nightmare replied quizzically, shooting his brother a questioning look. Dream laughed and bonked him on the head with his fist.

“It's our birthday silly! And here's my plan on how we’re going to celebrate it!” Dream reached into his pocket and pulled out a large stack of G and thrust it into Nightmares hands. “I'm going to get you a gift, and you're going to get me one, then we swap at the end of the night or when both of us are done, since I know you aren't particularly fond of it here.”

Oh. So that was what today was.

“Wait, Dream, how did you get all of this?” Nightmare asked, staring down at the stack of G in his hands. It had to be at least 100.

“Why do you think I've been spending so much time here? I've been doing simple chores and things of the sort. Pays really well and they usually give me extra because I’m ‘sO dArN cUtE’. They treat me like I'm five sometimes and it's a little weird but whatever, G is G.” Dream explained, pinching his cheeks at the mention of him being cute.

Nightmare laughed, feeling bad for taking what Dream had worked hard to earn. But the logic checked out, so Nightmare went with it. “Okay… do you have anything in particular in mind that you would want?”

Dream shook his head. “Nope. See you in like, 30 minutes?”

Nightmare nodded and Dream sped off into the crowd, probably trying to lose Nightmares gaze. The cyan eyelighted twin sighed and skipped off, looking for something that would appeal to his brother. He had heard of birthday celebrations before, but never actually taken part in one.

Nightmare hummed along with the music being played by a group of musicians at the center of the square, the upbeat tune bringing the whole setting to life.

The stalls were selling an assortment of interesting things, ranging from food to cloth, and occasionally other random items. One caught his eye though.

A dimly lit stall in the corner was run by an elderly looking Rabbit monster. They were selling an assortment of blankets, some patterned, some plain. Nightmare considered for a moment, before continuing on.

“Child.” The Bunny called. Nightmare turned back to the bunny, confused. Was she talking to him?

“Yes, you. Come here.” The Bunny confirmed. Nightmare tentatively approached the stall, nervously fidgeting with his hands.

“Yes ma’am?” Nightmare asked politely, praying he didn't do anything wrong or offensive by just being here. The Bunny squinted at him and chuckled.

“You’re related to that other Skeleton child, correct?” She asked. Nightmare nodded, wondering if she was going to hurt him.

“Heh. He's a sweetheart. Here,” The Bunny reached over to a simple fuzzy green blanket, holding the folded fabric out to Nightmare. “Give this to him next time you see him.”

Nightmare took the folded blanket in his arms, admiring the fuzzy fabric. He knew technically the Bunny had given him it for his brother, but it was the first time anyone in the Village hadn't just looked at him weirdly and moved on with their lives.

“I- I will.” Nightmare promised, bowing to the bunny quickly out of respect. “Thank you.”

The bunny smiled as Nightmare turned to the crowd pushing his way through to look at the other stands. He stopped and bought a cupcake for Dream as well because while the cyan eyelighted twin did not like sweets, Dream had quite the sweet tooth. He still had a lot of G left but opted not to use it. He would give it back to Dream when they met back up.

Nightmare found the place they had started and Dream was already there, holding something behind his back.

“There you are!” Dream greeted, bounding up to his twin. Nightmare kept his gift behind his back as well, smiling at his brother.

“Wanna trade?” Nightmare asked. Dream nodded enthusiastically, declaring he would go first.

Dream pulled from behind his back a strange line of light cased in glass balls. Nightmare looked at them strangely and asked “What are those?”

“They're magic lights! You can put them on the tree and read at night! I saw them earlier today and knew that you would like them.” Dream replied bashfully, holding them out for Nightmare to look at.

“How do they work?” Nightmare asked, taking one of the warm glowing balls in his hand.

“Magic.” Dream replied smugly, wrapping them around Nightmare's shoulders. “And now I wont lose you in the dark!”

Nightmare smiled and pulled the blanket and boxed cupcake from behind his back, holding them out for Dream to see. “It's not much, but…”

Dream took the blanket and rubbed his face against it, purring. “It's so soft!” Nightmare smiled at his twin and took the blanket from him, carefully wrapping it around Dreams' shoulders and tying it like a cape.

“Now you won't be as cold as I was while I was waiting for you!” Nightmare smiled, petting the fabric one more time. “Holy cow that stuff is soft.”

“You were cold?” Dream asked, frowning.

“A little, but it's fine. Oh, here's your cupcake. I didn't really know which to get you so I got a vanilla one.” Nightmare gave the cupcake to Dream, who looked a little guilty.

“How about we head back now?” Dream asked, already taking Nightmares arm and pulling him away from the village at last.

They climbed the hill and Nightmare set up the lights, wrapping them around the banner they tied to their tree mom. It illuminated the area with a warm glow, making the area seem a little less lonely.

Dream had split the cupcake between them and wrapped them both in the blanket so they would both be warm. The snow had started shortly after, littering the ground in piles. Both of the twins were thankful for the blanket and each other to keep warm.

After all the snow had set, the skies were not so gloomy anymore. And with the help of the lights, Nightmare could finally read to Dream while they both tried to sleep. Maybe things were going to be okay.

9: TO THE LOST, FORGOTTEN, AND UNNAMED

Notes: This I plan on continuing and its based on a post Alex and I made because at this point we're just writing buddies and great friends. The idea is Nightmare has had 4-5 other teams that werent the Bad Sanses we know now. Cross wasnt aware of this and becomes invested in their now long past lives.

Words: 2,000

Date: January 2022

___________________

“Hey, can you do me a favor?” Dust asked from across the room. Cross glanced up from his phone and sat up, knowing Dust was likely going to send him down the hall again to get more pins. He had been working on a sewing project all afternoon and somehow STILL kept running out of pins. Thankfully for him, he had set up shop in the living room on a folding table right across from Cross, who had been mindlessly browsing Reddit or something.

“Sure.” Cross replied, shutting off his phone and standing. It may come as a surprise, but each member of the bad sanses had a sort of side hobby. Killer whittled, Horror cooked (though that was unsurprising), Cross played a few instruments, and Dust liked sewing of all things.

“In the closet there should be a clear box of thread. Might Have put it away in the basement though.” Dust informed around the pins he held in his mouth with his teeth, pulling a few out of the fabric he was working with. It seemed that he was making a sweater, but it was hard to tell from across the room.

“We have a basement?” Cross asked, doing a slight double take. He had explored nearly ever corner of the castle and never run across a basement.

“Yeah, its just storage though. You have to go in the broom closet on the ground floor near the entryway and pull open a hatch to get in.” Dust replied casually, shifting the fabric.

Cross hummed quietly, trotting down the hall for the third time that hour and pulling open the linen closet door, pushing the various boxes of supplies aside. Fabric scraps, boxes of bobbins, a dead bug or two… no box of thread.

“I dont think the box is in here.” Cross called down the hall.

“‘Kay, check the basement. Oh, bring a flashlight with ya!” Dust responded, seeming unbothered by the delay in thread.

Cross sighed and patted his pocket, double checking he had his phone on him. Skipping down the stairs, the oreo found the broom closet with relative ease. As Dust had said, there was indeed a trap door of sorts embedded into the ground.

The monochromatic X pulled the dusty door open with ease, another flight of stairs greeting him. Now he knew why Dust told him to bring a flashlight.

Flicking on the light on his phone, Cross descended the stairs timidly, each step giving a painful groan with the sudden weight. It was pretty clear no one had been bothered to upkeep this place.

The basement was musty and damp, as one could usually expect with a basement. True to Dust’s words, it appeared to be mostly storage. Boxes of… stuff piled high around the relatively small earthen basement.

Cross raised his phone light to get a better look at the surroundings. He could assume that the sewing supplies were with the creepy ass mannequin and piles of fabric in the far corner.

Cross strode towards the fabrics and shuffled through the mess, ignoring the way that the lifesized doll was positioned to “look” (despite not having a head) in the general direction of where Cross needed to be.

The box was near the bottom of the pile, but easy enough to dislodge from the rest of the supplies. Checking that the lid was shut, Cross began to walk back to the base of the stairs, glancing at the boxes piled high against the walls around him. If he looked hard enough, it almost looked like there was names or words written on the sides.

Cross stepped on something that wasnt the earthy floor of the rest of the basement, jolting him from his thoughts. The oreo took a step back, sticking the box under his arm and picked up what he had stepped on. It appeared to be some kind of… book?

Cross tilted his head and checked the back, taking note of how old the leather bindings and cover looked. There wasn't a name written anywhere on it that he could see. He propped the book open in his hand and turned to the first page, holding the light to the page.

Property of Cappri

The text was faded and smudged, but eligible. Cross’ bone brow furrowed. Who was Cappri? As far as the X was aware, Killer, Dust, Horror, Nightmare, Error and himself were the only ones in the castle. Maybe it was stolen?

Cross climbed back up the stairs, shutting the trap door with his foot and shutting the book with a soft thump. He would look at it later, right then he had a… friend? to deliver a box of thread to.

Skipping up the stairs once more, Cross deposited the box of thread on the folding table that Dust sat at. He thanked the oreo quietly and continued to sew, the now evident jacket coming together nicely from what Cross could see.

Cross shortcutted to his room and placed the black leather book on his desk, shooting Killer (who was unsurprisingly sprawled out on Cross’ bed playing on his phone) a look and retrieving his sketchbook from the set of drawers next to his desk. Horror and Error had helped him decorate and customize his room a few months back after complaining about how sterile and hotel room like his room was. And ever since he had strung up fairy lights, painted the walls brown and filled the shelves of his once barren bookshelf Killer had decided that the oreo’s room was the place to be and sometimes would go as far as to spend the night. And somehow, even when Cross set up a space on the floor for him to sleep, the eyelightless skeleton would always end up snuggled up next to Cross and under the blankets. It was like having the worlds biggest and most infuriating cat.

The night went on as usual. Horror made soup for everyone and Killer had to practically drag Nightmare away from his paperwork to eat. Dust finished the sweater, Cross accidentally dozed off on the couch, and Killer thought it would be funny to pour ice water on him.

Everything went normal until about midnight, when Cross excused himself from the group to go make a feble attempt at sleep. Only then did he remember the book he had picked up earlier.

Flopping over on his bed, Cross gingerly pulled open the old book and checked the front page for any more details on who’s journal it was.

Upon finding nothing, Cross flipped to the next page and began reading.

Day 7

Wow. Ive been here for a week now. Cant tell if thats sad or what.

The next part was ineligible

--. That stupid human (I think their name is Tris??) got in that asshole from Underfell’s way and the other newbie and I ended patching them up. When will they just give up? Its clear he isnt interested in making friends. I wish t----

More smudged text.

Cross frowned. From the way it was worded, in the context of whoever these people were living in the castle would make sense. But who were they? There wasnt a date or anything written anywhere he could see, so he would just have to keep reading.

He flipped the page, reading on.

Day 8

That stupid eyeless freak wont leave me the hell alone! What the fuck did I do to get his attention?! According to the others, hes been here for a while but no one knows where he ----

He just sticks to our “boss” like glue and leaves us alone most of the time, but all day he just kept ---------

I hate this god damn castle.

Day 9

The entirety of day nine was crossed out and smudged. The next few pages were ripped out or stained with time, making them unreadable. Clearly no one had bothered to take care of the book.

Cross pulled out a notebook from under his bed and flipped to a blank page, beginning to take notes of his thoughts and the people mentioned. So far he had Capri, the journal’s owner, the guy from Underfell, Tris, and the eyeless freak. He put “Name Pending” next to the two without specified names, unwilling to just call them those names. How would he feel if someone just walked around calling HIM “XTale Survivor”- oh wait.

By four in the morning, he had gotten through the whole of the journal and even translated a few strange entries from Wingdings to English. Still no name on the Eyeless guy though. After entry 43 the entries just stopped. Very abruptly. It was a shame too, Capri had promised to follow up on Scarlet (the Underfell Papyrus)’s backstory and compare it to their own au. There also probably wouldve been name confirmation for the eyeless one. Cross was pretty sure Nightmare was their boss, but some confirmation would have been nice.

A knock at the door jolted Cross from his thoughts, and only then did he actually check the time. 4:38 AM. Oh shit.

Cross tossed his books back under the bed and flew across the room, tugging on the lamp string and bathing the room in darkness, throwing himself onto his bed and pretending to be asleep. The light might have not traveled through the door and he may still have enough time to pretend he was asleep before whoever was on the other side of the door did so.

10: THE GOOD, BAD, AND MULTIVERSE PART TWO

Notes: Based around a concept I made when I first joined the fandom! You can read it here if you want: https://www.quotev.com/story/13951119/The-Good-Bad-and-Multiverse

Words: 3,000

Date: July 2021

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Your smile dissipated as your throat felt like it was closing. Even though you didn't turn around or see the guy, you had a pretty good idea of who it was. Sonder stopped too, looking at the figure that now was behind you.

You breathed a sigh and turned on your heel, a hand sticking out from behind a tree. A very bony hand. With, naturally, a pink whoopee cushion tied to the inside. You wondered if you should pretend to fall for it for the sake of comedy but Sonder didnt give you that option.

“Hello sir!” He called, bounding up to you and tripping over his own feet. Sans jumped out of the shadows to get out of his way and you realized that Sonder had fallen intentionally. You turned to Sans who was now staring at the face planted raptor.

“Hey kiddo. Your parents were looking for you before I left. Where ya been?” Sans asked, looking around the forest. He jumped back up to his feet and tilted his head. “What? I don't HAVE parents. The closest thing I have is the great Dr-” You stomped on Sonder's tail in a panic to shush him. The last thing you needed was the already self aware Sans asking awkward questions. “As for you, I… think I've seen you before?” There was something in his voice you didn't like, a ‘have we met before’ tone. His expression remained neutral as he looked you up and down, a hint of familiarity dancing across his face. You shrugged. “We’re tourists.” It wasn't a complete lie, as your ‘job’ according to Gaster was to explore the multiverse but be home by 7 so your parents dont worry.

Sans gave you a disbelieving look and asked with an obvious wink “Then whatcha doing all the way out here in the woods? Visiting the town wood be better.” You snickered and Sonder sighed. Quickly regaining his composure, he turned to you and replied “Y-yeah! We got lost, ain't that right (Y/n)?”

“Yep. In fact, we were looking for town when we wound up here! Crazy how bad navigation apps are nowadays!” You took the lie and ran with it, even going as far as to pull out your phone as subtly as possible and just hold it so it looked more realistic. Sans shrugged and waved you in his direction, you and Sonder following him as he began to lead you through the forest. He didn't say much after that, seeming to be thinking about other things. The deep green trees got lighter and lighter until...

“Woah.” The three of you broke through the mass of trees, standing atop of a hill that overlooked a quaint and simple town, Mt.Ebbot towering in the not too far off distance. Monsters and humans mingled amongst each other in the streets, everyone looking a little apprehensive about the weather. The sky was darkening still, the threat of rain hanging above the towns head as the townsfolk tried to do their thing.

“If ya dont mind me askin’, what were ya doing in the forest sir?” Sonder asked as the three of you began down the hill. “...” Sans didn't reply immediately.“I was looking for something, that's all.”

Sonder looked up at you and you shrugged. You may have been able to help pilot Frisk through the underground, but Sans was an enigma outside of the few interactions Frisk had made with him. You only did a neutral and true pacifist run, so you never had to fight him. Thank god. You had as much of an idea as Sonder as to what he may have been looking for.

Sonder struggled to keep up with you, so you picked him up bridal style. Much to your surprise, he was pretty heavy. You began to notice small details about the town the closer you got. A lot of the monster owned shops you could see were marked with the Delta Rune, characters you recognized were milling about, tending to their new lives, and much to your surprise, humans and monsters getting along really well. You certainly did not expect that, as most of the time you imagined the humans putting a little resistance against the monsters moving into their town. But, they didn't seem to have a problem. You smiled a little at the thought that maybe this timeline was the perfect pacifist ending you had worked towards.

“Here we are.” Sans did a small jazz hand-like gesture and you set Sonder down. “I forgot to ask, what’re your names? I could give ya some heads up on where the best places are if you’d want.” You smiled at the skeleton as he shoved his hands back in his pockets sheepishly.

“Oh! My names (Y/n), and this is Sonder. He's my… travel buddy.” Sonder shot him a toothy grin and Sans narrowed his eyes. “That's funny. I knew a kid ‘round these parts with the same name. Looked an awful lot like you. You sure you're not pulling my leg-” He stopped himself and sighed. “Nevermind. Stupid question, given I cant even figure out what the kiddo’s name was. We’re ya from?”

“We’re from…” You thought of a random legitimate sounding town name. “Valerian City! It's a bit far from here.” He shrugged casually. “I know. I live there too. The name Sans. Sans the Skeleton. You must’ve done a lot of walking to get here. Even more to get THAT lost.” You bit your lip in panic. Was he messing with you? “Most of us live out there actually. Most of the underground residents went there since it was bigger. But mostly out of fear of agitating the humans already here some of us moved to the city. I’m out here assisting Dr.Alphys move her research. Even though that's what I did last month. And the month before that. And pretty much every month since we reached the surface half a year ago. Makes me wonder how much research she actually has. She must have a ton. A skele-ton.” Sonder sighed and you suppress a laugh. “That pun sucked.” You commented bluntly, regaining your composure.

“Really? Then why are you smiling?” He shrugged at you and sighed. “Whatever. I better find Dr.Alphys. See ya ‘round kiddos.” He took a shortcut and you dropped your semi upbeat facade. “Holy shit that could've gone south so fast.”

Sonder nodded and looked up to meet your eyes. “I think he’s suspicious. We should probably hope he doesnt connect two and two. Sans’ are normally the first to pick up on strange multi-universal events. Closely followed by Floweys and Chara and Frisk duos. We should probably lay low.” You wholeheartedly agreed to that plan, and what better way to lay low than to further cement the lie you had just told the self aware skeleton.

And by that, you meant to be a literal tourist. This was, after all, your first time in an Undertale AU, so it only felt fair. Even if this wasnt where the main cast was, it would still be interesting.

____________________________________________________________________________

“T-that should be the l-last of it!” Alphys sighed, shoving the last box of information into the back of a minivan that belonged to her human research assistant, Coley. She had volunteered to drive Sans and Alphys out to Ebbotton an hour away to collect the remaining research. In fact, the human scientist was very insistent on letting her drive them and overjoyed when they showed her the CORE. All in all, Coley was very VERY over the top, but no in the same way that Undyne was.

Sans leaned against the red van, staring off into the still ominous skies. It was well past 6 in the evening but those kids from earlier were still there down in the town. Heck, they were visible from where he was standing! They were sitting at a park bench in the local park talking to each other about heck knows what. For whatever reason, the human, (Y/n)’s presence… it felt familiar. It was like a mixture of how it felt to be around that inkstain and his group, but more intense. And there was something else there, something like… familiarity?

“S-sans? Are you okay? You're not making a pun about the obscene amount of research I have.” Sans snapped out of his thoughts and turned to the other two scientists. Coley was shutting the car’s trunk as Alphys approached the skeleton.

“Hm? Yeah, just thinking.” Hew replied, relaxing his shoulders and closing his eyes. “A-about…?” He opened one of his eyes to shoot Alphys a look, but she wasn't looking at him anymore. She was staring at the sky along with him. He sighed and replied “I met some really weird kids in the woods. Claimed their names were (Y/n) and Sonder. Except, not the Sonder we know. He looked… so familiar. Same with the human. I can't help but feel I’ve… maybe met them before..”

“W-well, maybe they're f-from the city?” Sans nodded. “They claimed to be, but I would have seen the monster kiddo when we brought everyone back. He wasn't accounted for.”

Alphys looked thoughtful. “That is weird. Do you think they have anything to do with that… oh what did you call him?” “Inkstain?” “Yeah, him and his gang?” She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her snout.

“It's possible. Oh, speak of the devil. There they are.” Sans gestured to you and Sonder, who were hiking up the hill to where the scientists were. “Heya Sans!” Sonder called out, pushing his way up the hill with you slowly following behind.

“Hm? Oh hey kiddo.” The two of you made it to the top of the hill as Coley got in the car and rolled down the windows. “You heading back now?” You asked, watching as Alphys got into the front seat. “Yep.” He shrugged and pulled open the car’s door. Before he got in, he looked over his shoulder with a confused look in his eyes. “You kids should be getting home too. You have a ride?”

You bit your lip and shook your head. “No, we uhm, promised we’d call the person who c-came to drop us off! He isnt going to be here for a while, even if we do call now.” Yes, finally! All those years of lying to your parents about your sleep schedule and how much time you actually spent on the internet came in handy. It was a little rusty, but the lie seemed to convince Sans.

The driver of the car overheard you and piped up “Wait! Maybe we can give you a ride. Where are you going?” “Valerian City.” You replied simply, recalling your previous exchange with Sans. “Ohmygosh so are we! Would it be ok if we gave you a lift? I don't like the idea of leaving a bunch of kids here. There's room back there right?” ‘Bunch of kids’ your ass. You weren't REALLY a kid. Neither was Sonder. He was likely over 100 years old. You elected to not ask that right now, but keep it in the back of your mind.

Sans sighed quietly and replied simply. “Yep.” “Great! We better get out of here before the rain begins though. I’m Coley by the way, and this is Alphys, the royal scientist. And I take it you know who Sans is.”

You turned to Sonder, who shrugged despite being armless. Wow, you two sure did a lot of shrugging. That's what happens when you put two indecisive multiverse travelling weirdos into situations where they need to have a solid opinion on something.

You went around the side and opened the other door for Sonder, who gestured for you to go in first so you would get the middle seat instead of him. But you refused. He refused again. You gestured for him to get in. “Ladies first.” “Wha- children first!” “Im 200 years older than you.” And with that, you got in the middle seat, with the armless raptor getting the window (lucky bastard).

____________________________________________________________________________

A gold clad guardian, sky blue shaded warrior and what appeared to be an artist happened to witness the whole thing from a nearby tree, with the aforementioned artist looking highly offended.

“Inkstain?! Is that what they've been calling me?!” Pouted the artist, crossing his arms childishly and shaking the branch of the tree the three were sitting on. “Hey! Be careful.” The guardian exclaimed, gripping the branch tighter. “YEAH! NOT ALL OF US HAVE YOUR UNNATURAL BALANCE, INK.” The warrior exclaimed rather loudly, The artist named ink shifted his sash full of paint a little and sighed.

“Just be glad he's not calling you ‘overoptimistic ray of sunshine’ like he was doing to me

last week.” The guardian sighed. “OR ‘VIBRANTLY LOUD BLUEBERRY’.” The warrior added.

“I'm starting to get the feeling he doesn't appreciate our presence here.” Ink commented. The other two nodded in agreement.

“It's not that he doesn't appreciate it, it's just that he finds us a little… on the strange side. We should get going. It's going to start pouring rain soon.” The guardian commented. “Yeah.” The artist agreed, teleporting to the ground, the blue one following suit. The golden guardian was going to do the same but hesitated.

“Dream? What's taking so long.” Ink asked, gazing up at his normally bubbly and positive friend. Dreams' mind seemed to be elsewhere, his eyes off somewhere on the horizon. “Earth to Dream? Dream. DREAM!!”

That got Dreams’ attention real fast. Ink never yelled at him, and he jumped so hard he fell off the branch and onto the ground.

“OH MY GOD DREAM ARE YOU OK?!” The blue one was laughing so hard he fell over too trying to ask Dream that, and Ink followed in Blues footsteps, but snapped out of it fast enough to help Dream get to his feet.

“Hey, you good? Ink asked, a small smile lacing his face. “Y-yeah.” Ink squeezed his hand and let go, also helping the blue one stand as well. Shortly after, it began raining and the three teleported out of the AU, Ink thinking about the new AU jumper, Dream contemplating something, and Blue thinking about Tacos. Classic Blue.

For just a little while, everything felt warm. Like all your worries had passed on and the world at peace, even just for a little while. Sadly, you were being dragged out of this warm sensation by a couple of voices, all of which sounded familiar.

“...wake them up....” “....es…..” You felt someone shake your shoulder. Snapping awake almost immediately, you search for the source of the hand and see Coley leaning over you. “Can you wake him up?” She asks, gesturing to the skeleton you were leaning on for support. Wait hold up what-

You jumped to the other side upon realizing that the not so soft thing you had been napping on was Sans. Like you were minutes ago, he was fast asleep against the window. The sun was setting beyond the window and in the distance you saw Mt.Ebbot past the towering office buildings and such you find in cities, the skies turning a pale orange. Looks like the rain passed.

You unbuckle your seatbelt and shake the skeleton gently. He opens an eye to glare at you for a split second before realizing the context behind you oh so rudely awakening him from his slumber.

He sighed and sat up as well as you jumped out of the car, stretching your stiff limbs and taking a look at the city. It looked like any ol city, plain and simple. Just, rather than humans littering the streets, there was an even mix of monsters and humans. You could feel the tension in the air here, as opposed to the smaller Ebbotton. Just an overall sense of unease that seemed to not exist in the town by the mountain.

Sans crawled out of the car and pulled out a ring of house keys, picking through them until he found the one he was looking for. “You kids know how to get home from here, right?” Sans asked, approaching an intimidatingly large apartment building. “Yeah. We live not too far from here.” Sonder commented, seemingly more calm than when you had left. “That's good. Maybe I’ll see you ‘round then. Until then.” He shortcutted out of existence and Alphys sighed. Coley smiled and waved you two off, allowing for you to turn a corner, out of sight from the monsters and humans.

“Thank god that's over and done with.” You muttered to your apparently older, smaller friend. He nods and sighs in relief. “That was crazy.” “For real. We almost got caught.”

11: UNTITLED 2

Notes: Okay if you made it here youre a fucking champ. Like bro. Thank you for reading all of that! Now for the finale and the reason I had to put these in order of longest to shortest. A sort of High school au- y'know what Im gonna let it explain itself.

Words: 7,000

Date: December 2021

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Long ago, two races ruled the earth. Humans and monsters. The peace they shared was unmistakable and refused to fade with time. However, a new race began to emerge. The Supernatural, as they were called, possessed great power that many could not even begin to imagine. Everything from creation to destruction, controlling emotions, right down to controlling time. Of course, they were feared and respected as gods. But after a war broke out between a few of the creatures, the other two races plotted to keep them all in one place and never allow them to leave.

And so, they built a city. The city was fortified with magic and the Supernaturals thrown into it, leaving them to live out their own lives. But as with many things, people began to forget these abnormalities of creatures even existed and acknowledged them as myths, beginning to inhabit the very city they were trapped in. To this day, humans and monsters share the earth and the Supernatural remain in the city, waiting for the day someone may set them free to wander the earth once more...

CHAPTER ONE:

“SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME THE WORLD WAS GONNA ROLL ME-”

Cross jolted awake, gasping as he shot up from his comfortable position hidden among the blankets of his bed. He reached onto the table next to his bed and fumbled with his phone, turning the volume down on the alarm. Kai had promised that it was a good alarm and would get him up instantly. While normally it was safe to doubt Kai, this time he had been right on the nose.

Cross sighed and checked the time. 7:00 AM sharp. Just as it was supposed to be. Ever since he had transferred to the new school with Kai, he had needed to get up an hour earlier every day. It sucked at first, but after the month that had passed it had become relatively routine.

Pushing aside the blankets, Cross planted his feet firmly on the ground and forced himself up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. His room was a mess as usual, sketchbooks and papers littered about with the occasional sock to go with.

Yawning, Cross threw on a pair of slippers and exited the cluttered room, walking down the relatively short hallway to the central area of the house. Xavier and Papaya were already awake and sitting at the table, 100% ignoring each other. The Penaloza family tended to do that to each other.

Xavier, Cross’ father, glanced up from his notes to smile politely at him. Papaya continued to pay no mind to him, staring down at the piece of toast as if it had personally offended him. Papaya was a year younger than Cross, but had a far bigger attitude issue than him. Don't get him wrong, he was a nice guy, but he tended to be a little impatient.

“He lives.” Xavier commented, looking back down at his notebook and tapping his pen to his chin. Papaya glanced up for a second before snapping his focus back to the toast.

“We leave in thirty minutes.” Papaya informed, finally picking up the food and taking a bite with a loud crunch.

Cross stuck his tongue out absentmindedly and wandered into the kitchen, pulling open the fridge and grabbing a bottle from the door. Cross sighed quietly at the ecru shaded liquid and pulled the lid off, pouring the foul-smelling, borderline paste into the measuring cup built into the lid.

Cross took a deep breath and took it like a shot, trying not to get it on his tongue. It never worked, but the effort was there.

The liquid was pure magic, intended to be absorbed by one's soul usually for medical reasons. Cross’ magic levels had always been a little low but the older he got the more easily depleted and naturally low they got. Last year, it had gotten so bad that Xavier had taken him to the hospital because he had collapsed and become unresponsive. It sucked, but it was better than being sick all the time.

Cross resisted the urge to gag and swallowed it, instantly feeling less groggy and dizzy. It worked like, well, magic.

Everyday had essentially been the same since Summer Break had ended. Get up, get dressed, still somehow nearly miss the bus, catch up with Kai on said bus, stumble through the day running on a sip of coffee Kai would sometimes let him have and the hope that art would be soon, nearly miss the bus again, come home, have dinner, go to sleep, rinse and repeat. And that was okay as far as the Penalozas were aware.

The Penalozas were a weird group to anyone who didn't actively know them. Three skeletons, two humans, no real parental figure (unless you counted Xavier, but no one really did) and a sketchy family history. But to the members of the family, it was all they had ever known. And they didn't really care enough about what a normal functional family was supposed to look like to try and change.

Cross meandered back to his room, still sleepy. Pulling off the oversized shirt, he pulled open a drawer and put on whatever his hand touched first, that being a long sleeved black shirt and similar black leggings meant to look like pants. He tied a scarf around his neck and shoved the textbook he had been reading the night before into his bag and slung it around his shoulder, grabbing a white sweater for some contrast and shoving it in as well.

He glanced at the mirror hanging on the closet door, staring unhappily at his reflection. Despite all of his attempts in the past, he still looked like a ragamuffin. He gave up around the time that Frisk, the youngest, made it to middle school a year ago.

Frisk was the perfect example of what a gifted child should look like. He had perfect marks in all of his classes and was very steadily building a resume and would surely become something great. Chara was a little tricky, but was also showing a lot of promise. Hell, even Papaya was starting to take going to college seriously. He had picked up a weird interest in engineering that Xavier had welcomed with open arms. Where as Cross? He was just plain ol’ Cross. The quiet eldest of the siblings who liked to draw and had only a few friends. Smart, but not that smart. Talented, but not that talented.

“Cross! We gotta go!!” Papaya yelled from the other room, pulling Cross from his thoughts. The oreo (what a shock it must be, but this name also came from Kai) shook his head and yanked open the door, meeting his younger brother at the front door. Frisk and Chara, the lucky bastards, started school at 9:30 instead of 8:00. And their school was closer and still in the town of Satellite rather than in the neighboring Yinmon City.

Yinmon city was a weird place. It seemed to have been themed completely on neon lighting and eyestrain disguised to look like your average city by day. A lot of strange myths and urban legends also arose from the city, none of them making very much logical sense.

Papaya opened the door and didn't bother to hold it for Cross, the two stepping out into the cool morning. Despite being September, the weather had begun cooling off early that year. Not that anyone was really complaining.

The bus stop was pretty far down the street from their house, and the bus’ arrival was a surprise usually. Sometimes early and the siblings would have to enlist on Xaviers help to get there (or if Xavier was busy skipping the day entirely), sometimes two hours late. But never on time.

Papaya walked ahead of Cross, leaving him to his own slow pace. He knew Papaya didn't mean to be cold or rude, but it was clear they didn't have the camaraderie they used to.

Cross shut his eyes and hummed a small tune as the pair walked down the bumby, sidewalkless road. It wasn't a poor neighborhood, but not close to a rich one either. Just below average, since the average had sidewalks.

The bus stop was relatively empty except for one person, who very energetically bounded up to Cross and swung an arm around his shoulder.

Kai had been Cross’ best friend since the empty socketed one declared it on their first day of school. Cross had been adamant against it, claiming not to associate himself with the other. Sadly, the determination in Killer’s protruding soul wasn't there for show and by the next week they were a very close knit pair. No, “Kai” was not his real name. No ones birth name is ever Kai. His very very dead name was, well, dead. Normally anyone outside of legal situations got clocked in the face if they called him his old name.

There were only two problems with having Kai as a best friend. One issue was the fact that he was in and out of hospital a lot thanks to his soul condition. The school board had almost not let him go to school because of how unstable his soul was. His life could go from dandy and fine to in a hospital bed in ICU in minutes sometimes. On the plus side, complaining about their soul conditions was a great bonding activity!

Second was the fact that he had no parents and was in and out of the foster care system a lot. Sometimes Kai would have to change schools mid year and he would always be moving a lot.

“Criss Cross! Long time no see~” Kai joked, nuzzling Cross’ face and smudging some of the dark liquid constantly pouring from his empty sockets on his cheek.

“Kai, you saw me yesterday. And the day before that.” Cross retorted, wiping the smudge off his face.

Kai dragged Cross under the awning, Kai grabbing his bag from the bench of the small bus stop and standing near the edge of the road, waiting for the slowly approaching bus in the near distance to arrive. It didn't take long for the cliche yellow bus to roll up to the stop and let the students on.

The bus was quiet, as usual. Two skeletons sat in the front and in the back (the one up front had a labrador service dog, Kai had him in PE and claimed he was a nice guy despite his scary appearance and hole in his skull) and a few humans here and there, as well as a group of bunny monsters that Cross knew from elementary school. Adi was the nicest by far, but they were not a bad group.

Kai and Cross took seats behind the scary skeleton, Papaya sitting across the aisle from them. Kai had taken the window seat, leaving the other with the aisle.

“Next stop, Elmore Street in Yinmon City.” The bus driver announced unenthusiastically, shutting the doors and stepping on the gas.

Kai pulled out a thermos full of coffee and offered some to Cross, who gratefully accepted. Kai liked his coffee how he liked his men. Very very hot and ridiculously sweet. It was always a shock that early in the morning, but not an unwelcome one.

The skeleton in front of them glanced back at them with one very large eyelight and watched them not so subtly. Kai began monologuing about how his night went, paying no mind to the scary skeleton watching them over his shoulder.

The scenery passed by peacefully, the relatively empty fields of the outskirts of Satellite subtly transforming into the wealthier housing developments of Yinmon. Kai continued to babble on, Cross occasionally engaging in the conversation. The neatly dressed skeleton watching them never broke his gaze, and inevitably Kai took notice.

“Hey pal, can we help ya?” Kai asked, stopping his tangent about basking sharks (why were they talking about basking sharks?). The other skeleton blinked a few times, then reached over the seat and grabbed Cross’ face.

Cross panicked, reasonably so, and tried to push the others enormous hand off his face. The other squished his cheeks with his fingers, mumbling under his breath.

Kai laughed hysterically as Cross shoved the others hand away and hissed.

“Your face is squishy.” The other commented in a low rumble. Cross withdrew into his scarf, face igniting in a blush. He knew he had squishy cheeks, but that didn't give anyone the right to squish them.

“What the hell?! Back off!” Cross snarled before the other could squish him again. The other looked a little surprised, but back to amused. Papaya glanced over at them and rolled his eyes, going back to staring out the window.

“The names Alex.” The bigger introduced, offering his hand to Cross. He took it carefully, not trusting Alex not to try and grab his face again.

“I’m Kai. And marshmallow cheeks over there is Cross.” Kai replied, reducing his laughter to giggles. Cross swatted at Killer playfully.

“Nice to meet ya’.” Alex pat the seat next to him and the dog jumped up next to him. “This is Ms. Fluffles. You may pet ‘er.”

Cross reached over the seat and patted the dog's head timidly. The dog licked his hand and wagged her tail. Cross smiled and scratched between her ears, the dog getting increasingly excited about the attention.

“She's a good girl, ain't she?” Alex commented, patting the dogs back. Cross nodded timidly and continued to pet her surprisingly soft fur.

“‘ad to get ‘er after I got this hole in my head. More of a seein’ eye dog than anythin.” Alex continued, nuzzling her face.

Cross muttered a thank you and withdrew his hand, remembering he was still holding Killer’s coffee. He took a small sip, the hot liquid burning his tongue.

Kai snatched the thermos from Cross and chugged, paying no mind to the fact he was probably not going to be able to taste anything for the next week.

Alex turned back around and leaned against the window, watching as suburbia turned into city. The school they went to (Elmore Academy) was in the center of the city. To some it may seem unreasonable, kids from Satellite had to go to the school, but because of weird zoning they were forced to go to the school in the city instead of the much closer local High School.

Cross pulled out his phone and swiped it open, pulling up messages and checking the one notification he had gotten. It was from Chara 10 minutes ago.

Chara: Hey nerd

Cross rolled his eyes and typed his reply.

You: What?

Chara began typing his reply immediately.

Chara: Frisk was wondering if he could borrow 10 G for a thing at school.

Cross wracked his brain for where he could have stashed his money. He trusted Frisk to have enough integrity not to steal his hard earned 15 G he got from chores (though if he did it really wouldn't be the end of the world).

You: Yeah, check inside the white blanket in the closet. Why does he need it?

Chara did not reply immediately that time.

Chara: He didn't say. But what he did say was “Thanks”. Don't die at school dearest brother, I would miss you.

You: You too, Poison Ivy Eater

Chara: please let me live that down

You: No :)

Cross shut off his phone and stared out the window. They were almost there, thankfully. It was inevitably going to be a long day, but that was fine. Once it was over, maybe he could talk Kai (and by extension Xavier) into hanging out after school in the city and catching a different bus home. Which shouldn't be too hard.

“Elmore Street up ahead.” The bus driver announced over the loudspeaker. Most of the people on the bus began shuffling about, grabbing their bags and preparing to depart.

Kai chugged the rest of the coffee and shoved the thermos into his bag. The pair looked over Alex’s shoulder at the oncoming bus stop in front of their school. The school doors were crowded with people of all different types, ranging from human to sentient fire. There were another one or two skeletons in there as well, if you looked hard enough. That wasn't hard to believe though, given skeletons were a surprisingly common kind of monster in the City. Legend had it that the princes of the country were also skeletons even though their mother was not. But, the royal family had long since died out after an attack on them hundreds of years ago leaving no survivors and the country began electing presidents instead.

Alex got off the bus first, followed by Papaya and the bunnies. The skeleton with his hood up sitting in the back followed at a distance, glancing over at the childhood best friends for a mere moment before continuing on. Cross led Kai off the bus and onto the sidewalk in front of the school, Kai grabbing hold of Cross’ scarf before entering.

Kai had been doing that since they ‘officially’ became friends (just as Cross had always been wearing a scarf). Kai found it easy to get distracted or lost even in a school as small as their elementary school, so holding onto someone who actually knew what they were doing was a big help in keeping Kai from running off and chasing squirrels.

The halls were crowded. As usual. The school was far too small for the amount of people in it. Cross squeezed through the crowd and approached the stairwell where Kai and Cross broke off. Cross waved to his friend and Kai let go of him, waving back. Cross ascended the stairs two at a time and stopped in the entryway of the slightly less busy and loud second floor. Mrs.Wells sat at her desk in the front of the class, grading papers by the looks of it. The other students in the class were doing their own thing, barely interacting with each other. The Oreo took a seat in the back corner of the classroom like the edgy wanna be protagonist he was.

Cross stared out the window into the wall of the building next to the school. It was a simple brick wall with absolutely no redeeming qualities or defining features. It was just a wall.

The bell rang eventually, spelling the beginning of the day. Most of the students had trickled in at that point, all of them pulling the text book out of their bag. Cross reached into his own, feeling around for the overly heavy book and pulling it out.

DRAFT SECTION: This will not be staying the same, as I think I'm going to save this whole interaction (s) for a later chapter so I don't overwhelm the reader.

Mrs.Wells stood and addressed the class, pulling out a dry erase marker and beginning to write the day's assignment on the board. She was a strong believer in textbook work and usually just made the students work on their own in the books. However, she was nice enough and let him draw during class. The only thing that kept him from liking her class was the fact that she was a transphobic asshole who refused to call him by his name.

Around half way through the class, there was a brisk knock on the door. The teacher got up to answer it and talked with whoever was on the other side for a moment, prompting Cross to stop reading about Passive Voice for a hot second to eavesdrop.

The teached closed the door and another student came in. Cross recognized him as the skeleton from the back of the bus earlier. He had his arms crossed and a mean smirk on his face as he surveyed the class.

“Dust, why don't you go sit in the back with the other skeleton, Violet.” Mrs.Wells pointed at Cross. Cross cringed at the mention of his dead name, but pushed his books to one side to make room for his new desk buddy. The closer he got, the more he realized how big the hoodie he was wearing was and how the only thing keeping his eyes from being covered was a hat underneath the hood.

Dust swaggered over to him and pulled a chair from an empty desk, and placed it on the opposite side of the desk, resting his head in his hands and staring contently at the textbook.

“So, Violet-”

“It's Cross.”

Dust seemed surprised for a moment, but continued.

“Whatcha readin’?”

Cross checked the cover of the book and showed it to the other. Dust seemed satisfied and studied Cross’ eyes for a moment.

“Dust, take your hood off.” The teacher snapped from the front of the classroom, sitting back down and going back to grading papers. Dust slipped his hood off and gazed smugly at the front of the classroom, still wearing the hat.

The teacher rolled her eyes and continued what she was doing, leaving Dust to continue staring at Cross. Cross continued reading, pulling out a notebook to take notes. He flipped to a random page, half full page and began writing a few things down.

Dust leaned forward and snatched the notebook away from Cross, reading the page. Cross panicked and tried to get it back, knowing full well what was on the rest of the page. Dust’s bone brows shot up and he held the book out of reach.

“Wow, you drew this? Nice.” Dust commented, pushing Cross’ desperate hands away. Mrs.Wells looked up from her work once more and scowled.

“Violet, Dust, behave!” She snapped at them, prompting Dust to argue.

“But ma’am! She drew this! Isnt it cool!”

“Its HE drew this and give it back!” Cross lunged for it before anyone could see the drawings inside. It was just a few simple drawings of flowers, but they still weren't meant to ever be seen by another (unless you counted Kai).

“Both of you, OUT.” Mrs.Wells violently gestured to the door and Dust grabbed Cross and dragged him out of the classroom, flipping off the teacher in the process.

Cross shoved Dust away once they got into the hallway and growled angrily.

“What the hell dude?!” Cross crossed (pun not intended) his arms angrily. He had never been in trouble with a teacher so bad to where they sent him out before.

“Sorry ‘bout that. Now we gotta go to the Principal's office. Oh what a shame.” Dust replied, handing the book back to Cross and shrugging.

“Wh- SORRY ISN'T GOING TO CUT IT BUDDY!” Cross all but yelled. What the hell was up with this guy?! He was already halfway down the hallway and at the stairwell, giving him an expectant look.

“Well, what are you waiting for, the flowers to grow? Get over here!” Dust asked innocently, beginning down the stairs. Cross chased after him and caught up to him, glaring at the others back. He hadn't noticed before, but the other was wearing a blood red scarf. Huh. Scarf buddies. To scarf or to not scarf, he was still pissed.

Dust tossed open the door to the guidance office and entered like he lived there, waving to the administrator at the desk. The administrator pursed his lips but waved back.

Cross pulled open the door a little more timidly, following closely to Dust, who seemed to know what he was doing. Maybe this wasn't his first time in the office.

He turned a corner and knocked on a door labeled “principal” and a goat monster answered. Cross had never actually met the principal and had desperately hoped he wouldn't have to.

“Dust? Why are you here again?” The goat monster asked, tilting her head in a confused manner.

“Teacher sent me and her out of the classroom.” Dust replied simply, gesturing to Cross.

“For the last time, I'm a dude! What part of that are you not getting?!” Cross snapped.

“Oh, a Penaloza. Come in, both of you.” She instructed, pulling open the door. Dust stepped inside confidently, leaving Cross to stumble awkwardly behind him. How did she know his last name? Had she met Papaya before?

The office was surprisingly cozy. Two plush chairs sat across from a simple wooden desk with a computer and name plate on it. The name plate read “Ms.Toriel”. Dust took a seat casually, as did Ms.Toriel. Cross awkwardly sat in the other chair, waiting for someone to say something.

“Dust, you know you can't just keep getting in trouble to be here, correct? It goes on your permanent record.” Ms.Toriel stated, leaning back in her chair and pushing her glasses further up her snout.

“As for you, I do not believe we have met. I am Ms.Toriel, principal at this school. As a random guess, are you Xavier Penaloza’s son?” Cross perked up at the mention of his ‘father’.

“Y-yes. How did you know?” Cross asked awkwardly. Ms.Toriel smiled warmly.

“We went to school and worked in a lab together for a while. He was a good soul. It really is a shame what happened though.” Cross stifined. What happened to Xavier's career as a scientist was never discussed among the family, but Xavier’s friends (the few that he still had) referred to it a lot.

“When I saw your name on the registration paperwork I almost couldn't believe my eyes. I had met you once before, but you were very young at the time. I was also surprised to see he seems to have adopted two other children. Human children, at that.” Ms.Toriel continued.

Dust listened intently, seemingly interested in what Ms.Toriel had to say about Cross’ family.

“Yes. Chara and Frisk. Chara is coming to this school next year I think.” Cross replied. Ms.Toriel nodded and glanced at the clock on the wall adjacent to the desk.

“I will allow you two to stay here until the next bell, and then you both will have to go back to your classes.” Ms.Toriel informed. “And yes, we can work on the puzzle if that is what you wish, Dust.”

Dust perked up and smiled, prompting Ms.Toriel to pull out a puzzle box and set it on the clear desk. Dust scooted his chair forward and Ms.Toriel dumped out the contents, the two beginning the puzzle. Cross sat awkwardly and pulled out a pencil from his pocket, pulling his feet up onto the chair and resting the notebook on his knees, flipping to a blank page.

He doodled a few random things as warm up and then began sketching the scene in front of him. Dust had pulled his hood back over his head at some point, making his face not clearly visible.

Cross’ stomach dropped, realizing he forgot his bag and books in his English class. Great. Now he was going to have to go back into the classroom and likely get yelled at by the teacher.

____________________________________________________________________________

The day passed by relatively quickly after the encounter with the principal. Kai and Cross luckily had art at the end of the day together (even though Kai wasnt a huge fan of art), so he got to tell his friend all about the strange start to the day he had. Kai himself had never actually met Dust, but had heard that he secretly did drugs under the table and slept around a lot. It didn't come as a surprise to Cross (since he had heard similar things), but what confused him was why he was so… adamant about going to Ms.Toriel.

“I dunno, maybe its because shes a nice person?” Kai suggested as they worked on their still life paintings of a pear. Cross shrugged and glanced back over at the table where the plastic pear lay. He must be really off his rocker, because the shading just didn't look quite right.

“Eh, I wouldn't worry about it. It was probably a one time thing. Both of you are gonna move on with your lives and forget the other ever existed.” Kai suggested, adding a few messy strokes of brown onto the table portion of the drawing and blending them with the lighter brown.

“He's on our bus. What if he tries to talk to me? He kept deadnaming me the entire time we talked.” Cross asked, sticking his brush in the water jar.

“Clock him in the face if he tries or something, I dunno.” Kai shrugged and speckled a few brown spots onto the pear.

“Excuse me, can I borrow some of your black?” A human asked from the other side of the table.

“Of course.” Cross replied, the palette he and Kai were sharing over to the human girl. She took some with her brush and put it on her own before sliding it back. Cross thanked her quietly and continued shading.

A sudden wave of dizziness rolled over Cross, causing him to hold onto the table for support for a second. Stools were never a very good balance keeper.

Kai glanced over at him, his soul flickering with concern. You could always tell how Killer was feeling based on the brightness and shape of his soul.

“I'm fine.”

The bell rang shortly after and they had to put their painting supplies away. Kai grabbed Cross’ scarf and they began heading towards the front of the school to hop on the bus.

“Hey, I was wondering, would you wanna stick around in the city for a bit? I heard the cat cafe just got some new cats that we haven't met yet.” Cross asked over his shoulder.

“Ask Xavier. I'm sure my fosters are fine with it, they forget I even live with them sometimes.” Kai shrugged. Cross nodded and pulled out his phone, quickly typing up a message and sending it, leading the two of them out of the school and into the sunny afternoon.

Xavier replied back quickly, giving the two the okay to hang around. Cross and Kai broke away from the sea of highschoolers and began to wander in the general direction of the cafe, passing the subway entrance.

“Welp. Wonder what the new cats are like-” Kai began, but glanced over his shoulder and stopped abruptly.

“Huh? Kai, what's the matter?” Cross turned and saw it too. Dust was very subtly walking in their general direction.

“Weird. I thought he took the bus home.” Cross pointed out.

“He DOES take the bus home. I think he's following us.” Kai hissed, pulling Cross by the scarf at a faster pace than before. “If he keeps following us, run.”

Dust barely acknowledges the fact that they sped up as the two rounded a corner and continued following the directions they had memorized to the Cat cafe. They may or may not have been there a few times.

Dust continued to follow them at a distance. It was unlikely that he had decided to go to the cat cafe that very day at that very moment as well.

“Okay, on the count of three, we start running and aim to be in the cafe’s back alleyway. Got it?” Kai hissed lowly, not taking his eyes off of Dust over his shoulder. Cross nodded and waited for the count down.

“One… two…. THREE!” The two took off in a sprint, dodging people and lamp posts and nearly colliding with a few people. They were close, they could tell.

Cross and Kai threw themselves into the alley, pressing themselves to the side of the building, panting.

“Is he gone?” Cross asked between breaths, clutching his chest.

The answer, as it turned out, was a no. Dust casually walked by the ally and stopped in the middle of the entrance. His right eyelight began to glow and he raised his hand.

Cross and Kai’s souls lit blue and they were thrown in the air by their souls. Dust approached menacingly with a cruel grin on his face.

“You should see the look on your faces right now.” Dust stated, lowering them closer to the ground.

“What's with the look? Did you REALLY think I was just going to let a cutie like you walk right by me without getting your number or somethin’?” Dust asked, marching up Kai and booping his nose.

Kai looked thoroughly confused, staring at Dust.

“What.” Dust stated more than asked.

“You have terrible taste is all.” Kai said matter of factly. Dust snorted and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, what of it?”

“Leave ‘em alone, freak.” A voice from the entrance demanded lowly. Cross turned to see Alex of all people standing menacingly at the entrance of the ally, Ms.Fluffles right next to him with her tongue lolling out to one side happily.

Dust gave Alex a weird look before smirking once more, placing his hands on his hips and sticking his tongue out tauntingly.

“Oh yeah? And what are you going to do about it?” Dust mocked. Alex seemed as if he were about to make a retort but stopped before it came out, his eye widening.

“What's wrong, big guy? You scared- Hey, what the hell are you looking at?” Dust waved his arms in front of the neatly dressed skeleton's face but Alex’s expression refused to falter. Cross turned to look over his shoulder curiously and his non existent stomach dropped.

“W-what is that?!” Cross exclaimed, struggling against the blue magic keeping him in the air. At the end of the ally, something that looked suspiciously like a dead boy lay. Blood was flowing from an open wound on its chest and a cloud of what looked like glitches covering one eye. Dust dropped the friends and took a step back, trying to process what he was seeing.

Kai made the first move and took a step forward and approached the person, nuding its side with his foot. Its eye shot open and it sat up suddenly, scowling at the empty socketed one.

“Can't you see I'm trying to nap?! Can you let a dude sleep in a suspicious ally way? For god's sake kid!” The seemingly skeleton yelled, pushing Kai away. Geeze, how many new skeletons was Cross going to end up meeting??

“Y-you're bleeding! We need to get you to a hospital- or something- what the fuck, I dont know, someone call an ambulance????” Cross stuttered, trying to organize his thoughts. To be fair, he had never seen blood that wasn't his own before.

“Im fine kiddo. Now fuck off before he gets back and ruins my nap oppertunities.” It said snarkily, rolling over and laying back down.

“Who?” Kai asked inquisitively, poking the person with his foot once more.

“He means me.” A voice said from above.

“Oh GOD DAMN IT REAPER.” The person shouted, taking a shoe and chucking it at the fire escape of the apartment next to the cafe. A figure moved to dodge it and caught it, tossing it back passive aggressively.

The person in the fire escape jumped down onto their level and stepped into the half light. They were yet another skeleton, but this one seemed different. Powerful, almost. They wore a strange black cloak with a hood over their head and a scythe rested on their shoulder. If Cross looked close enough, he could swear there were wings on his back as well. They looked like a stereotypical Grim Reaper.

“Who the hell are you?” Dust asked accusingly, stepping back and nearly onto Alex’s feet.

The newcomer rolled their eyes.

“Oh great, a bunch of teenagers. Who do you think I am?” The stranger retorted, pulling the scythe off his shoulder and leaning on it.

“A cosplayer?” Kai suggested inquisitively. The stranger stared blankly at Killer and sighed.

“Im the- y’know what, you wouldn't believe me even if I told you. Just get lost. I have a mortal to woo.” The cosplayer-strange-new-comer-person flicked his wrist and the group was sent flying back into the (thankfully) empty street. Cross landed on his butt in the middle of the street with an audible ‘oof!’, Kai landing beside him.

Dust and Alex had landed further back, both with confused expressions about what had just happened. Upon looking back at the alley, the two strange skeletons were gone.

“...”

“...”

“...”

“What the hell…?”

After a very very awkward bus ride back to Satellite, Cross had practically ran home and thrown the door open. He was 10 minutes past curfew and had a very high chance of getting grounded (because parents, am I right?). The Penalozas all sat around the table, generally quiet until Cross made his rather loud entrance.

“Ah, there you are. Why didnt you tell me the bus was late?” Xavier asked, his head placed on his hands.

“Uhh, things happened.” Cross replied, internally facepalming at how stupid he sounded.

“...I see. Well, come, sit. Your food is getting cold.” Xavier instructed, leaning back in his chair. The other children had clearly finished eating earlier and now just had to wait for Cross to pick at whatever was being served before being excused. Family rule.

Cross took his seat at the circle table sitting in between the kitchen and living rooms. Since their house was so small they had to keep the table small so they could all fit. The oreo glanced at what was on the table and sighed, dishing out a small helping of spaghetti. The less he took, the faster he could eat it and the sooner they could all go back to doing whatever they were doing before dinner.

Cross scarfed down the meal and pushed his plate away, signifying he was done. Xavier got up from the table first and sat on the couch, pulling out a notebook from what seemed like thin air and beginning to write in it. The other kids dispersed and headed to their rooms, the two humans sharing one and Papaya choosing to live in the basement as there was more room than if he and Cross shared a room.

Cross pushed open his door and stepped inside and around the sketchbooks littering the floor, flopping onto his bed on his back, subconsciously beginning to trace the jagged scar under his eye. He was still trying to process everything that had happened. It was such a strange day, having met two new possible acquaintances (well, maybe not Dust…) and then that whole thing in the alley. Who were those people? They seemed to know each other, and one had called the bleeding skeleton a ‘mortal’. Or at least that's what it sounded like. What had he meant by that?

Cross felt a soft buzzing in his pocket, alerting him of a notification. He reached into his pocket and pulled his phone out, rolling onto his belly and turning it on.

He seemed to have a notification from a new group chat he didn't remember joining. He opened the notification and read the message.

516 - 689 - 3393: Are we all here?

Cross furrowed his bone brow and pulled his other hand out from under his pillow to type a response.

You: Who is this?

Kai, much to his surprise, was also there and began typing after Cross sent his message.

Kai: Idk, all I can see is C is here

The 516 number began to type back.

516 - 689 - 3393: Its Dust, from earlier. I added Alex, Cross, and Kai. Are we all here?

516 - 774 - 8976: how did you get the numbers

516 - 689 - 3393: Elmore School’s database is easy to hack

You: oh.

Cross saved both the numbers in his phone and continued conversing.

You: Any particular reason you’re reaching out to us???

Dust: Yes. We can't just pretend like what we saw didn't happen and I have a proposal to make.

Kai: And what is that

Dust: We meet up after school tomorrow and look for those two people and get answers through any means. I dunno about you guys, but I haven't stopped thinking about this since we got off the bus.

Alex: Dude we literally just met.

Dust: Exactly. We do this one thing, then forget it ever happened.

Cross considered for a long moment, weighing his options.

You: I'm down if everyone else is. Got nothing better to do anyway.

Several people began typing.

Dust: Fantastic

Kai: What the fuck Cross

Alex: Eh, I'm fine with it too.

Kai: God damn it now Cross is gonna peer pressure me into this new fake investigation squad

You: You know it lmao

Cross smiled down at his phone and awaited Killer's inevitable (probably reluctant) agreement. Sometimes, silent peer pressure was the most effective peer pressure.

“You looking at hentai or something?” A voice asked from Cross’ door. Cross whipped around and scowled at Chara.

“No!” Cross tossed a pillow in his brother's general direction, the smug little shit sidestepping it.

“Bummer.” Chara took and running start and flopped over onto Cross’ bed, burying his face in the soft plushness that was his blanket.

“What do you want?” Cross asked, exasperated. Chara propped his head up with his hands and kicked his feet back and forth.

“To bother you. Duh. Xaviers too absorbed in his work to give a response and Frisk is doing homework.” Chara replied, rolling onto his back and splaying his arms. He was now in 8th grade and had entered his rebellious teenager phase. 13 year olds could be scary sometimes.

“And what about Papaya?” Cross asked, his phone buzzing.

“Whatcha talkin’ about?” Chara did his best blanket impression and looked over Cross’ shoulder nosely. Cross shut his phone down and pushed him off, flipping him the bird.

“Nunya. Leave me alone.” Cross requested, sitting up.

“Whats wrong sour pants? Are you mad ‘cause you dont know how to make friends-”

“Get out.”

Chara blew a raspberry and jumped off the bed, likely going to bother Papaya. Cross sighed and reopened his phone, reading over Kai’s “Fine I’ll help” quickly and shutting it off. It was almost dead, but he was too lazy to get up and attach it to its charger.

Cross flopped back over and sighed. He was tired, but it was too early to call it a night. So doodling it was.

The oreo pulled out the sketchbook he had shoved in his bag and flipped to a drawing he had started of a cat, silently wishing he had a reference. The night ticked on and by the time Frisk had finished all of his homework and was coming to say goodnight, he was already asleep. What a strange day it had been…

[holycrimin]

It hurts to love.

Karl heisenberg x male!reader

Tags: Hanahaki and angst

SFW

(Note: In this au, none of the main events happen with ethan, as he is not in this story. Also SPOILER WARNING.)

(Warning: probably shitty plot, but i'm trying my best ok)

[Your pov]

It all started a year or two ago, when mother miranda had found me lurking around the village. As i was not a local, she deemed me suspicous. However, before she had the chance to kill me, She had a spark in her eye. As if she had an idea. And before i knew it she was using me as some sort of vessel for her daughter, Eva. Although i am a male, she had seen something special in me apparently. I had also found out that her daughter had passed away and she was determined to bring her back.

It failed.

The experiment... failed.

I was no longer deemed useful.

She had proposed me two options. become a servant or assistant to one of the lords, or die. A slow, and painful death.

Of course I chose to be an assistant.

She was kind enough to let me choose who to work for, thankfully.

Lady dimitrescu was very much intimidating. And from what I've heard, if you mess up even just a little while working for her, you will be sent to the dungeons. Never to be seen again. And she isnt really fond of men, so I wont be choosing her.

Next up was Donna Beneviento. She was nice, although her doll 'Angie' is a little... how do I say this... creepy. It doesnt help that i have a huge fear of mannequins and dolls, so I dont think i'll be choosing her anytime soon.

And then theres Salvatore Moreau, dont get me wrong he's a great guy but.. he might accidentally drown me. I might be overreacting, but the guy smells. Although, I feel bad that he's treated so poorly by the other Lords, but i think it's for the best if i stay away from him.

And.. i guess my only option left is Lord Heisenberg. I just hope that he wont be that much of a hassle, even if he IS kind of an asshole...

A day before i start working at the factory, Mother Miranda forced us to spend the day together. To 'get to know eachother' I assume.

Lord Heisenberg looked pissed off, he wasn't really fond of me. He was more pissed off at Mother miranda though. Most likely because he was forced to spend time with me. I quickly learned what he called the 'basics of him'. Basically, common facts. Such as, the fact that he can bend metal and his deep hatred for Mother Miranda. that was basically all that he told me.

The following day was my first day at the factory. As we were walking along the factory, he stopped in his tracks. "Listen pup, there's rules." He practically growled. "First of all, Don't touch my shit. Second of all, don't go around the factory without me knowing. And third of all, Don't try to get to know me, we're keeping a proffessional relationship, got it?" He said.

"Uh.. y-yes Lord Heisenberg." I very nervously stammered, lightly blushing at the nickname he gave me.

"Good, now let's get to work."

Present day

That was around a year or two ago, and while i have gotten closer to the other lords, i never managed to get to get close to Lord Heisenberg. And..

I'm an idiot who fell for him... And... I know he'll never feel the same way. I've tried getting his attention, impressing him, but... nothing's working. Every time i try to get close to him, wether it's emotionally or physically. I get pushed away, literally and figuratively.

It's my fault really. I fell inlove with a man who was emotionally closed off. His charisma, his voice, everything about him just makes me fall more and more inlove with him.

I know i wont have a chance, hell, i dont even know if he's into guys... Guess i really am an idiot, huh?

Later that day, Lord Heisenberg asked me to help him with something. I agreed of course, and during that time I tried to know him more. "Jesus christ, are you trying to get me to open up or something? Cause' that's not gonna happen, so give it up." He spat out, "a-ah... sorry Lord Heisenberg.." I stammered out.

A few minutes of silence pass. Suddenly, he grabbed my hands. "I- ugh.. Just- you're doing it wrong. Here, let me help." He said, while holding my hands 'teaching me how to do it right'.

Of course my face started heating up, the feeling of his slightly roughed up hands on mine... it feels nice. Although this is probably the only time i'll ever get close to him.

"Hey pet, you ok? Geez, you're practically as red as a tomato." He said, while still holding my hands. "Uh.. y-yeah..! Uhm... i.. i'm good.." i stuttered, feeling his breath on top of my head. He was bigger and taller than me after all.

"Well, whatever you say, pup." He shrugged as he continued his work. I got a little flustered on the nickname, i never got used to that..

After, he went and ordered me to get supplies fron the duke.

As i was walking along the pathway to the duke, a few lycans were following me. They didnt seem to be attacking, so i just left them alone. However when i reached the duke, the lycans were gone. How strange.

"Well well well, if it isn't Heisenbergs pet! What brings you here, young man?" He says, with a shit eating grin. "Ah.. well, i'm just here for some supplies is al-" i was then cut off with a series of coughs, "Oh my, are you alright?" said the duke, genuinely concerned. "O-oh i'm fine i ju-" i was then cut off by another series of coughs, but just when i stopped, a small white flower petal came out of my mouth.

"Oh dear, i hope this isn't what i think it is... Are you sure you are alright?" Asked the duke. "I.. i dont know," i pause and look at the small flower petal in my hand. "do you know what's happening..?" I questioned him, very much confused. "It may be something called the 'Hanahaki disease'. It was said to just be an urban legend. Where, if you were suffering from unrequited love, you would begin to cough up flower petals." He explained. "I didnt think it was real.." he muttered to himself.

"..." i was silent as i stared in shock and horror, I'm.. coughing up flowers..? Like actual, real flowers...?

From.. unrequited love.... i should've known, i... i should've known that he would never feel the same way.

How could i be so stupid, to think he would fall for a mere mortal like me. Or atleast.. i think i'm mortal. "Well," the duke spoke up, "luckily there are two ways you can get rid of the sickness." My eyes lit up, "the person you like, either loves you back," he continued "or, you can get surgery. Not only will it remove the flowers, it also removes all of your feelings for this particullar person permanently."

"Th-that's great! I can finally get this 'hanahaki' disease while also getting rid of my feelings for him-!"

"Him?" The duke asked as he cut me off, "do you mean Lord Heisenberg?"

"Uh-" as i think about him, i start coughing again. This time, blood was spilling over. And so were many petals. "Oh dear.. so just the mere thought of him triggers it..?" He said, concerned. "Uh... i'll just... take the supplies. Thank you though, duke."

"No problem, stay safe. But remember, the longer you wait around with the flowers still inside you, the worse your state will become." He informs me,

"I'll try to get the surgery as fast as possible duke." I said, waving him goodbye.

As soon as i walked out, those same lycans followed me all the way back to the factory. Strange isn't it? Anyway, when you finally arrived at the factory, supplies in hand, I hear Lord Heisenberg open up the door.

"Here, let me help you with those." He says as he starts taking some of the bags.

"...Why are you being so nice all of a su-sudden?" I stammer as i try to hold in a cough. "Would you rather not have me nice, pup?" he growled. As i opened my mouth to speak, i was interrupted but a fit of coughs. Blood spilt out as did the petals. Heisenberg didn't seem to notice as he was already far ahead.

I try to cover it up as much as i can as i try to catch up with him. "Jeez.. Finally, you caught up-" he cut himself off. "Why is there blood on your face?" He said, slightly concerned. I froze. "Uh.." that was all i could say. "Whatever.." he said as he wiped the blood away from my face. A faint blush spread accross my cheeks.

I excused myself to the bathroom as i felt another fit of coughs. More blood splattered out as well as more petals. God it hurts. I heard a knock on the door. "Hey pet, you've been there a while, you sure you're alright?" He said

"Uh- yeah, i-i'm fine..!" I said, trying to hold in my coughs. "Well just make it quick, we have work to do." "Yes sir..!" I reply back quickly, not wanting to upset him. I quickly cleaned myself up and walked out of the bathroom. "Took you long enough." He sighed, annoyed. He went ahead and grabbed his hammer, dragging it along the metal floors. It was loud enough for him to not hear you cough up more petals.

~later that week~

My condition kept getting worse and worse, to the point i was barely able to breath. I've consulted the duke, however nothing seemed to work. No matter how much medicine, herbs or other medicinal items i jammed into my body, it just won't go away.

I was asked to come over Lady Dimitrescus castle, i'm not exactly sure why. Maybe she heard of this 'hanahaki' disease?

As i make my way to the castle, lycans started to follow me. Even more than before, why was this happening?

I finally arrive at the castle, the lycans seem to be watching me very carefully. I hear the doors open, and out came a tall lady. "Ah, Y/N! I'm glad you came! Come in." She said, holding the door open for me.

I walked in and was immediately tackled with a hug. "Uncle Y/N! You came!" Exclamed Daniela, one of Lady Dimitrescus daughters. "Oh, uh... hello Daniela." I say, hugging back. I never imagined them to warm up to me. "Now now Daniela, me and your Uncle Y/N have something to discuss."

"Aww man... well, i'll see you around Uncle Y/N!" She waved goodbye to me. "I'll see you around, Daniela." I say as i wave back. As soon as her footsteps were no longer in range, i spoke up. "So.. what did you want to talk about..?" I carefully asked the tall woman, not wanting to be sliced to bits. "Well, as i said before, the duke has informed me of something related to your wellbeing."

"So... you've heard about this.. 'hanahaki' disease, i assume...?" I say as i tense up even more. "The duke told me about it, and when i asked why he was informing me about this, he simply stated it had something to do with you. So tell me, do you have it?" She asked me with a concerned expression.

"W-well.. I-.." i say, sighing. "Yes, as far as i know." I reply, not wanting to lie to her. "As much as i dislike that wretched man, Heisenberg, i must ask, is he the object of your affection?" I froze. "Well... uh-" i cut myself off as i break into a fit of coughs growing more and more violent than the last. "Oh dear- MAIDS!" She called out, panicking, as blood and petals fall out of my mouth. She patted my back as i continue to cough. "So... it is Heisenberg.. I am terribly sorry Y/N i did not know this would happen.." she said, apologetically.

"I-it's alright-" i break into another fit of coughs. But instead of petals, this time, there were fully grown flowers. "i.. i can't b-breath.." i say almost blacking out. The last thing i see and hear are the maids, Lady Dimitrescu shouting to get the duke, and the door opening to reveal... Lord Heisenberg..? "Goddammit, out of my way-!" Was the last thing i heard before blacking out.

•

•

°

.

.....

I woke up to the duke. I sat upright, "what... happ-" i was then cut off by the duke. "You're awake! Honestly, i.. didnt know if you would wake up.." he said sadly. "Thankfully, i was able to patch you up just fine. And after days and hours of research, i finally found an alternative to your hanahaki!" The duke said, switching from a sad, to a cheerful mood.

My eyes light up, "W-wait, really!?" I said as a smile creeps up on my face. The duke gives me a small bottle, "Here, take this. Free of charge!" He said as he smiles brightly. "Now, you should drink it as soon as possible. Lord Heisenberg is waiting for you outside."

"I will, thank you duke!" I said as i waved him goodbye. As I walked to the gates, I take the small bottle and drink it. Within seconds, the flowers were gone. I could finally breath again!

Walking out with a small smile, I saw Lord Heisenberg. "Oh, hey-!.. uh.. i mean, hey. You're awake, lets... get back to the factory..." he stammered out.

..

Was it just me, or were there tears on his face..?

The walk to the factory was silent, but as we walk up to the factory gates, he stops dead in his tracks. "Before we go in, I just uh.. wanted to let you know that the duke let me know about how you really felt about me." He said. "And.. after a long time of thinking about it.." he cuts himself off as his cheeks turn red,

"...I like you too." He confesses.

But,

I don't feel any different.

I don't have butterflies in my stomach.

I don't even feel my face heating up.

It was like...

I was never inlove with him in the first place.

"I... I'm sorry, Lord Heisenberg... but.. I dont feel the same way anymore. I think... it was that small bottle the duke gave me, but.. I am sorry, i don't feel the same way." "W-wait.. you're.. you're joking, right...?" I watch as his expression goes from flustered to heartbreak. "..." i grow silent.

"Let's... let's get inside... we'll catch a cold if we don't." I say, opening the doors to the factory, not wanting the situation to get more awkward. "...Y... yeah... just, gimme a minute.." he says as his voice was slightly shaking. "Alright.. just... please be quick, you'll get a cold." I said, walking in and closing the door on him.

[Heisenbergs pov]

"I... I'm sorry, Lord Heisenberg... but.. I dont feel the same way anymore. I think... it was that small bottle the duke gave me, but.. I am sorry, i don't feel the same way."

"W-wait.. you're.. you're joking, right...?" I say with my voice slightly shaking. Dammit.. god... fucking...

DAMMIT...!

Just when i thought i finally found the love of my life, he's stripped away from me.

"..." he was silent.

I could feel the heartbreak slowly filling me up.

"Let's... let's get inside... we'll catch a cold if we don't."

"...Y... yeah... just, gimme a minute.." i stammer while i try not to break down infront of him.

"Alright.. just... please be quick, you'll get a cold." He says, as he walks in and shuts the door. Heh.. it's cute how he still worries about me when..

Nevermind.

I need some time to thi-

My thoughts were interrupted when i started to violently cough. What i didn't expect though...

Was a flower petal.

"..."

"Heh..."

"So this is what he felt." I said, as i look at the bloody flower petal in my hand.

[chouchen]

Okay so first of all i am so sorry for anyone whos dash was flooded with the insanity i sent, i knew it was log as hell, but i just opened it on phone and i am slightly embarrassed! Maybe it should be tagged long post or something bc holy shit hh

Okay, so about chars in gacha: there are more types of chars than in genshin. Genshin only has 4 and 5 stars, while honkai has B, A, S ranks and also SP valks (which ill get to) B ranks are your starter valks, A ranks are 4 stars, S ranks are 5 stars, and SP valks are like... More farmable? They are made to rank up, it actually unlocks a lot of skills they have, and its relatively easy to do so. Also, contrary to genshin, another good thing about this games gacha for chars, is the fact that anything that isnt a '5 star', so an S rank, is completely free. You can farm for them on stages, or buy their fragments, or even get them from events when they first come out! Youll probably see that soon with the new valk, she's gonna be an SP valk, and youll get her just by playing her event, just like every other new not S rank valk that's ever come out. You'll also be able to buy her fragments and stuff, as she is an SP valk, and is made to be ranked up. So, any valk you get from gacha that isn't an S rank will not be limited. They will be available at some point in the story stages, or the shop, or in many other gachas for other characters ( but its best not to pull for them then, yeah? Theyre literally free, dont pull on an S ranker you already have to get an A rank, its not that shitty here, farm for them instead) so, thats about that i think. In conclusion, any char that isnt an S rank is fully free (esp as they come out) and available to rank up.

About ranking up in general. You can go from B all the way to SSS, right? It takes time, and is kinda hard to do sometimes. So, should you? Depends on who you wanna rank up. Anyone under S ranks is free to rank up bc their fragments are free to get, but not always worth it. Think of who you wanna use, who you should use, and act accordingly. I'll tell you, you should have everyone at least at S rank. S rank is the rank where they have most of their good/necessary skills unlocked, it should be the base (not for B ranks, the starter chars in this game are as useless as it gets) Which is why, if you get an S rank from gacha you should leave em like that! Unless you're rich and want your "5 star constellations", like a w-w-w-whale... Anyway, as I said, S ranks aren't free to rank up (most of the time) and take just as much to as in genshin, except its even more useless. There are some farmable S ranks in the store though! You can rank them up if you want! It usually helps more, as most of them are quite old by now, which is the reason they're in there, and need that to be useful still. But the ones that cost both of the purple things at once are still very much useful, and you should get them if you can! They're relatively new and very helpful! Another thing to talk about would be augmentations! Idk if you know about those yet, but some rly bad old suits were so bad and useless, that the devs basically remade them (which is sth im rly hoping genshins devs wanna do at some point too, its rly cool) Some battlesuits like rozalia, violet executer, the basic fu hua one i forget the name of and the long sworded mei i also forget the name of can be augmented, changing their entire kit, buffing them in a major way, and it even gives a new free skin if you get them to lvl 4 out of 6 aug lvls! Roza and VE are free in the store for that reason despite being S ranks, and can be upgraded, nay, should be upgraded to SS at least. They become kinda like SP valks. I like them though, they're some of my favourite battlesuits. And free! So if you ever need, lets say, a psy type lighting valk, and you dont have this games ei (HoT, surprisingly called Raiden Mei) look into getting Hawk of the Fog instead (the fu hua i mentioned). So in conclusion:

Any char that isn't an S rank you got from gacha is free to farm, and you should never pull on a supply just to get an A rank! That would be wasteful and dumb! But yeah, i get the genshin gacha has conditioned us to act this way ofc, but not in this game. Also, if forgot to mention, A ranks get their banners too, but why would you pull for them if they're free? If youre rich and cant wait for the event, i guess. But you dont have to pull on those, bc any A rank out there is free to grind for. And about ranking up in general: if its lower than S rank, go for it! If you use them a lot, go for even higher! If it starts off at S rank, maybe don't but who am I to say what you can and cant do. If you wanna do it just because, go for it i guess. Its gonna cost a lot for very little in return though. Exception from that rule is the farmable S ranks in the store! Rank em up however much you wish depending on who you use! And don't be afraid to get new chars by grinding for them either!!!! You'll have all A ranks that way sooner or later, and youll know what you want and who to rank up. Its free content, so why not right?

Oh also, i guess i should mention too, though ive already talked about it some: old characters are usually not worth it. And esp now, you should rly focus on getting the op new characters while theyre available, as youre still new, and while the story stages are real easy and even give you some characters instead of using your own sometimes, the abyss stuff gets real hard real fast, and practically impossible if you dont have the right type of damage on the right type of valk! And their gear, too. So, unless you wanna hold off on competitive crystal hunting, and focus on the story, you should think of who you wanna get first, and then who should get later. A little list of valks i have would be: Herrscher of Sentience (best valk in the entire game as far as physical damage and support goes from a single valk, also by far the most fun in my opinion, get her if you dont have her yet, she is indispensable and so much fun to use), roza or elysia from store for physical dps, HoT ((m)ei) or Mobius for lighting, N-EX or Herrscher of Reason for ice damage, Herrscher of Flamescion for fire, and then all the support for each of them from the store, such as starlit astrologos for physical, haxxer bronya for ice, fischl and rosemary for lightning, and phoenix for fire (or her counterpart i forget the name of (yin and yang lookin ass) but she's also from gacha only, so second best would be phoenix from the store)

Keep the questions coming and i will keep being a nerd!

ok so for example, i got the last "5 start" the blonde girl with a fucking HORSE ?? and i wondered if it was worth it to farm her fragments but now i sure won't and i'll keep farming for fischl !

this is me being annoying with more question but do you have any ideas for team comps ? i got the mecha bio psy stuff but valks also have light, ice and stuff and now i don't know what works on who @_@

[vanillamilkcloud]

UNDER THE TREE || RM

pairing: Single Dad! RM x Baker! Reader

word count: 2,497

tags: fluff, some cookies were burnt, flour got in some spots, theres hot cocoa, domestic as hell, christmas obviously.

summary: after a visit to their favorite baker, Namjoon cant wrap presents for his boys. so with snagging your number some previous hours ago he decides to call for some help.

Kids were always hard, no matter what anyone did to try and help. Especially having two and also being a single dad. Though Namjoon had a way with the two that almost everyone wished they had with their kids. He had coaxed the boys into waking up this morning only to have them instantly asking about going to the bakery. It had become a sort of routine, once a week he’d show up at the door and instantly Hoseok would babble about everything he wanted while Yoongi pointed to things while hiding behind Namjoon’s leg. 

And that was exactly your situation right now. Covered in flour, and some frosting on your cheek, standing behind the counter of the store.

“I want this and this and a cake pop and cake!” Hoseok giggled happily, his gloved hands pressed against the glass happily. Namjoon looked at you apologetically before glancing at what his son wanted.

“Cookie, you know you cant have all of that-” The blonde male had only started to speak before he saw you walking around the counter, handing the 4 year old a cake pop. At 8am, might you add. His baby voice was too hard to resist giving the sweets to him.

“Says who?” You gave an equal smile to the toddler’s as he squealed.

“Thank you noona!” He had already devoured the sweet in a happy fit of giggles. You couldn’t help but giggle at the bits of chocolate around his mouth. For a moment you had thought you heard Yoongi speak, only to be correct as he held his arms up. Namjoon chuckled softly. 

“Sugar, what are you doing?”

“I want up.” He murmured, taking his chance to hide behind you now. You shrugged then picked up the small boy. Yoongi had instantly nuzzled into your chest, his little cheeks red from the cold. It made you frown though you knew you couldn’t help it.

“Can I give them mini mugs of hot cocoa Joonie?” You asked, fluttering your eyes in that way you knew would make Namjoon give into you. He let out a small groan as you looked absolutely perfect to him right now, and like the kids were actually both of yours. But Namjoon hadn’t had the courage to ask you yet to see if this relationship could actually.. be something. He had to think about plenty of other things right now besides having his bed warm again, and the boys having a mom finally.

“Do you even have mini mugs?”

You grinned happily before nodding, walking behind the counter with Yoongi in your arms and Hoseok trailing behind you. It was a bit hard to lean downward before pulling out two baby mugs and some straws. You put them on the counter carefully. “I got them just for these two little dudes. Just make sure to bring them when you guys come.”

Yoongi made grabby hands at one of them, so you let him take the cup. His eyes held a type of curiousity you hadn’t ever actually seen in him. The boy was generally shy and quiet but you seemed to understand now how Namjoon managed to know what he wanted constantly. It was rather cute in your eyes as you could catch Hoseok almost drooling over all the pastries behind the glass, and then whining as he wanted up too. You couldnt carry the both of them though. 

Namjoon on the other hand, was more than happy with his open fawning over you. You were such an angel with the boys and it made him more than happy with his trips. Hoseok was more than ready to expose his dad though.

“Daddy staring!” He giggled brightly, looking up to his dad through the glass. It caused a chain reaction as Yoongi was more than happy to join in. “Does dada like noona?” 

A bright blush covered the male’s cheek in an instant. He was quick to recover though as you couldnt help but to laugh while filling up the two mugs, hanging mini candy canes off the edge. “No, I dont like _____ Sugar.” Namjoon replied.

“Not what Uncle Jinnie said!”

Namjoon facepalmed, shaking his head with a groan. He’d need to have a serious talk with that man later. “Uncle Jinnie tricked you okay? What do you want for breakfast?”

That seemed to change the topics easily, you placing the hot chocolates in Namjoon’s hands to cool off before letting the boys point while behind the glass. Both of them seemed rather happy to have your candy cane donuts, the one treat youd serve only on Christmas Eve and Christmas. Namjoon had asked for his usual strawberry bagel with cream cheese, so then you were free to go back to the kitchen once more. 

“Byebye noona!!” The boys called out, making you grin. 

“Youll see me next week, this isnt bye babies!” You replied. Namjoon couldnt help but laugh as the two were instantly excited all over again. Except, he came here to do something too, so he came up to the window to your kitchen quickly.

“Wait, ___,” The blonde seemed shy, but you couldn’t help but to smile at him.

“Did you forget something?” 

He gave you a nod, and you looked at him curiously. “I forgot your number, can you give it to me again?”

The words that fell out of his mouth made you laugh, as you had essentially walked into him saying that yet you still felt dumbfounded. How was he that smooth? "Mm, give me your phone then, I'll put it in." 

Namjoon complied with the words as he was smiling happily; a few of the customers in the store seemed to only cheer for him. You wanted to run away from the situation but you couldn't deny him like that! On Christmas Eve either, you had no hope. Within a few moments you handed the phone back with a bit of flour over the case.

"Oh lord, I'm sorry. I didnt mean to get flour on it."

"Don't be," Namjoon grinned. "Im used to you leaving flour prints on what you touch by now."

He gave you a wave, and went back to his kids. You hummed softly as you went into the back of the store before finding yourself trying to quietly squeal. Namjoon had actually asked you for your number! What you didn't know was that everyone had actually heard your little squeal, and it couldnt help but make everyone laugh as you fawned over your crush. Everyone knew for ages that you both had a thing for each other and now it seemed to get somewhere.

After a long day at work, and perhaps burning a few things in your distraction, you’ve finally made it home. The call of your bed seems almost instantly heeded. But there’s other things you need to do.

Namjoon, on the other hand, is struggling to wrap presents. He had taken quite some time just to wrap simple box shapes and now this gift wrapping thing seemed impossible to him. There was blankets and stuffed animals to be wrapped still, along with pillows and bed sheets that Hoseok had wanted because of them being PJ Mask themed. It was also an issue of he didn’t happen to have enough paper to finish wrapping anything. The blonde combed a hand through his hair with a soft groan; He couldn’t leave the house to get any extra paper because then nobody was home with the boys. The male also didn’t want to leave them with anyone, so he scrolled through his phone contacts, clicking your name with a soft hum.

“Hello?” You asked, clearly a bit tired so Namjoon was almost tempted to hang up then and there.

“Hey _____.” He chuckled softly as he once again couldnt figure out how to wrap the damned elephant plushie.

“Oh, hi Joonie! What’s up?”

“I, um, well. I can’t wrap the kids presents so I thought you might be able to help. I don’t happen to have any paper or that left either, and I cant leave to get any.” Namjoon sighed softly as he tossed the paper in the trash once again, leaning against the sofa as he sat on the floor. “I swear I’ll pay you back for it, I just didn’t know who else to call.”

You giggled through the line, pretending to think in silence. It was almost audible how nervous he was. “I can come help. Can you text me your address then?”

“Yeah I can, thank you so much.”

The line went dead after that, as Namjoon sent you their address. He took the opportunity to go check on the boys. It had to be quick because Yoongi was a light sleeper unless Hoseok happened to move into his bed. Namjoon was certain those two would be inseperable later on, so he never bothered to seperate them. He opened the door quietly after making sure the hall light was off, only to chuckle as the boys were indeed under one blanket. With similar quietness he shut the door once again before walking to the kitchen and starting to brew a pot of coffee. The father didn’t happen to have any more hot chocolate either right now, as much as he knew you had a preference for the drink.

Namjoon let his thoughts wonder about you as he drew two mugs out of the cabinet, and not mini ones this time. The house was quiet besides the gentle christmas songs playing on the radio. Gingerbread had filled the air as hours ago the boys insisted to make gingerbread men for Santa, even left out with the milk on a plate with their notes. They were such precious things to him, the father felt a bit sad to realize that this is what their mother had decide to miss out on. But he also was happy because she wasn’t the type of woman to enjoy this type of stuff. She’d simply go about her business as she please. It was like a household housing two seperate families. 

The knock on the door pulled Namjoon out of his mind, and he quickly answered it before you could knock again. Snow had covered your hat, the bits of your hair that decided to peek out under it, and on your shoulders. He was quick to let you in, even taking the bags of gift wrap and tape and perhaps a gift for each of the boys.

“Thank you so much-” He smiled warmly, rubbing his temples as he sat the bags on the sofa. You shook your head at him.

“Don’t thank me you dork. I’m more than happy to help you with anything.” The words were perhaps a bit more implying than what either of you cared to admit, but Namjoon was still happy none the less. Once you were free of your extra layers you took out the rolls of gift wrap and tape. You also made sure to put your gifts under the tree too.

Namjoon watched as you didnt bother to speak in your focus now. He couldn’t help but to admire your small form in his living room, almost expertly wrapping each thing he had struggled with. You simply didn’t want him to notice the bright blush on your cheeks. It made you excited to actually be here as much as it didn’t feel the same without the boys. You had spent so much time around them as a group that you felt shy when you both were alone.

“Here’s some coffee, since the boys drank all the hot chocolate.” Namjoon’s voice made you squeak, and he couldnt help but laugh brightly. His grin made his dimples show; you wanted to kiss him right there but you knew better.

“Thank you.” You whispered. The girly girl in you was practically squealing with how close he was. A yawn passed Namjoon’s lips as your hands held the elephant plushie that he didn’t have patience for only about an hour ago. He looked tired, but he didn’t want to have you leave. Your fingers worked in a quick motion to wrap it like a giant candy. WIth the use of scissors you even made the ends all pointy. 

“Ill put them under, you can stay the night if you want.” Namjoon hummed, watching you look up at him curiously. The face you held seemed to depict that you were nervous to him. “I won’t do anything, at least right now.”

“What do you mean right now?” You looked more puzzled now. Namjoon facepalmed as he realized the words slipped before he had stopped it.

“Um, well, you see.” He started off, once again making you chuckle. You couldn’t read him often but this seemed to be one of the rare moments you could. Kim Namjoon was embarrassed and he couldnt change the topic. Hoseok and Yoongi were often his way of avoiding conversations like these with you. But they were fast asleep. “Consider it your Christmas present, but I’ve liked you for quite some time now. The boys even like you too. It means the damn world to me because I love those two to death and they almost always get excited as soon as I mention you.”

You couldn’t help but to blush with his confession, but it made you grin none the less. “Are we sure that isn’t because I give them sugar every time they come?” 

Both of you exchanged a bright laugh at the words. The boys were only 4 and 5, of course sugar could buy their hearts in an instant. Namjoon couldn't help but to smile at you in such a pure adoration.

“No, because they dont touch much of the pastries we have unless we make them ourselves, or we got them from you.” The father replied. “And also, I’ve known you’ve liked me for awhile.”

This was your turn to groan. “Since when!” You whined, rubbing your temple with your fingers.

“The squeal when you gave me your number. I had just gotten up to leave with the boys when I heard it.” 

You pouted softly, knowing that was probably the most obvious of times that you definetely had something for him. This you couldn’t try to deny either. “Okay fine, perhaps I’ve liked you for awhile now too.”

Namjoon smiled brightly, pulling you into a hug. There was something different about this though. It felt much more warm and loving than when he would be forced to hug you because of his kids. Only when you yawned did he realize you really needed to go to sleep, so he picked you up without a warning. The simple action made your heart swell as you realized this was probably one of the best things to happen just in time for the holidays.

[sinha-ri]

sO

*cLaPs*

Valdis and Lily- Another story/reminder for myself which i need to learn how to properly tag to remind myself and find this because I'm sure i lost one on Oliver.

Lily was just recovering from nearly dying at an actual clinic. Upon hearing/knowing this, the miliary was like "Wasn't that the one dude who's really good at halberd and did some hunting and sht?" And went to scout him. They were like "Hey, we heard ya almost died and your weak as sht rn with no home, no money, no weapon, your basically broke asf, so we want to help you. Fight for us, and we will give u all that AND protect you from the person you just ran away from. If you deny us, well we'll throw ya back with them."

And Lily, just fckin tired, was like alright fine. But whatever you just called me, dont anymore. My name will be Xavier. Before they were able to look at him well he cut above his eyebrow to hide his marks. He was like, I need about a month to get better.

They were like, a month? Bi- have you seen yourself? And your long deep cuts? We gonna give u 2 months to recover, after that you're gonna train with this Knight who is a general and you'll be his Lutenit. He was like alrite, my one request is to go visit this place to make me a weapon, i don't want yours. They were a lil salty but ranted him that.

2 months later, he's still weak and recovering but trains with thee Knight, who is Valdis. Valdis is like "Why do they want him? He cant even run without looking like he's gonna pass out and he keeps dropping his halberd. Why is he using a halberd? They literally dumped an emotional mess on me who gets frusterated way too easy and wont even let me touch him." Because he was given literally no information about him other than the military wants him trained, so he's like aight.

Eventually he feels like a total duck when Xavier (Lily) snaps at him and his wrists are bleeding cause his wounds are opening again. This is when he knew...he fucked up. So he tries to go a lil easier on him now knowing he's injured.

Months later, he did it! Xavier is a semi fuctioning killing machince who's wounds have healed. He's still quiet as hell, eye bags that indicate he hasn't slept for god knows how long, and terrible eating habits, but he can tolerate Valdis. Valdis then proceeds to try and make him less tense and just fckin relax, so he always jokes around with him and slowly tries to get him used to touch again. After a while tho he's like...o sht..am I gay for him?

So one day he takes Xavier to drink, he actually drinks which surpeised Valdis, but god did he get drunk real quick. Some lady was flirting with them and Valdis was like, Ay Xavier why dont ya hit her up? And so the lady takes him and then like, 1 minute later she comes rushing out and p issed and Valdis goes into the room like, wtf did u do?

And they basically had a conversation where Xavier was like "I've never done it with a woman cus im gay asf" and Valdis is like "Oh."

Another time skip and Valdis tries to get touchy (occasionally poking him, holding his hand/arm, brushing his hair with his hands) with Xavier and notices how he lets himself. Then they get a lil more intimate and kiss- and that goes on for a while without either of them actually saying the love each other (except Valdis but in his very weird Knight way)

Xavier is like "I'll date you but...you have to listen to anytime I tell you to do or not do something" and Valdis is all for it and respects anytime he says no, especially to way more intimate things because now that he knows him better, he has a better idea of what he's been through and how he's still mentally and physically recovering.

After a while of dating and Valdis trying to get to 3rd base but backing off anytime Xavier says nah, Xavier is finally like "Alright- I dont think i can do this anymore. I cant give you what you want despite being patient as hell and I'm just a wreck rn who isnt ready for a relationship and also any of us can die at literally any day so maybe after the war going on we can date again." And hes like, terrified by how Valdis will respond. HELL YA HE'S SAD/UPSET, but he doesn't show it and is like "Alright, if thats what ya want. But will ya still let me hug/comfort you?" And Xavier is just like daww alright, just cus its nice.

Weeks later, that's when a big battle/the last battle happened and Valdis lost sight of Xavier but only heard the news that the enemy finally surrendered. They made him stop and pull back before he can even look for Xavier. He hoped he got back okay, but when he got back he got the news that Xavier died. His weapon, some of his armor, and his body was missing, but someone witnessed when he was stabbed and they saw how badly he bled and fell.

Valdis never got his second chance, but knew how much Xavier was hurting anyway, so it got him 👏 fucked 👏 up. He hoped he was alive, but wished he wasn't because of that.

And when he found him again, he was so excited and grateful and he looked better! He was smiling, laughing, looked well rested and looked completely healthy! Valdis would only hear him laugh once every full moon, while here he was just so happy and relaxed and calm with a new haircut and everything.

But now, he was married and went by the name Lily.

He was ofc supportive and showed it, but it just fuked 👏 him 👏up 👏even 👏 more 👏because he was the one that got away due to terrible timing and circumstances.

Thoughts, questions, comments? (All/any appreciated)

[domikaa]

How far I'll go

A/N: it’s my very first song fic. I changed up the words to how far I’ll go to more of a hunt type of thing than the ocean. But I still don’t own anything.

Tagged: @winchesters-favorite-girl

Plot: the reader went to college because her brothers wants her to have a normal life. But the ‘family Business’ is in her blood keeping her from wanting to finish college. So she writes a song, and sings it in a bar that she knew her brothers would be at. Little did Sam and Dean there in for a surprise

Characters: brother!Sam&Dean, sister!Reader

I walked out of my car that I have parked, it was night time already. I had a plan a very good plan to tell Sam and Dean that I’m helping them with the family business. I grabbed onto the door knob and threw open the door and walked into the bar. And scanned the entire bar looking for my brothers.

Then I saw a tall guy, and I knew it had to be my brother Sam he’s like a skyscraper or more as a moose I guess. I started to walk in the opposite direction making sure we wouldn’t see each other.

“Okay just get up that stage and sing the song.” I whispered to myself, “and then get yelled at and most likely not give a jackass and bitch back.” I rolled my eyes. Trying to make it to the stage. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Sam and Dean just sitting down in a Booth. Weird.

I stared at them until I saw Sam turn towards me, I fell to the ground fast and hard. I groaned I crawled back up and looked over the table I hid behind and saw that he was not looking my way but at the waiter I dropped off some food and beer.

“Are you okay (y/n)?” I heard a voice I turned to the voice and saw a Jo staring down at me. I laughed nervously and nodded my head. She held out her hand and I grabbed it. I gave her a small smile as she lift me up.

“Yea I’m good, thanks.” I walked passed her and walked over to the stage. I tapped the ashes shoulder and whispered in his ear. “Can I sing?” He looked at me and then shrugged as he gave me the mic and gestured to the stage. I being a little geek that I am I took a bow and thanked him. I walked up the stage and faced the front. I scanned the bar again and stared at my brothers, they didn’t find out yet. I took a deep breath and,

“I’ve been staring at the edge of the roads. 'Long as I can remember, never really knowing why.” I sang, trying to make my voice loud so my brothers can hear, but it was no good. Everyone was talking. I rolled my eyes. And continued, this time a little louder.

“I wish I could be the perfect sister But I come back to the hunts, no matter how hard I try” finally I got some people looking at me, but some where still talking and making so much noise. I swear bars are stupid I’m trying to make a point to my brothers can you shut up.

“Every turn I take, every trail I track Every path I make, every road leads back. To the place I know, where I cannot go. Where I long to be” I glanced over at ash that was still behind me and he turned the music louder for me, as if he was able to hear my frustration in my voice so I smiled at him and bowed my head. I turn back to the front to see many I were now on me I start to smile I felt the rush.

“See the line where the sky meets the road? It calls me. And no one knows, how far it goes.” Jo stopped what she was doing and turned towards me, she then slammed on my brothers table and they looked at her then she pointed at me. My brothers turned to look where she pointed and once they saw me there face expression went from happy to upset. But I ignored it I had to sing my hearts out my feelings.

“If the wind in my hair on the road stays behind me. One day I’ll know, if I go there’s just no telling how far I’ll go” I started to walk feeling the beat, to music, the lyrics. But I kept my eyes on my brothers. As if I’m telling them how I’m feeling which I am.

“I know, everybody in this Business seems so good on this business Everything is by design. I know, everybody in this business has a role on this hunt. So maybe I can roll with mine” I pointed to myself and the to everyone. Jo smiled, ash finally walked in front of the stage and smiled at me. Helen leaned on top of the table to was at and smiled. They looked proud of me? Then I turned back to my brothers. Sam has a worried expression on, and Dean, dean had a very pissed off expression.

“I can lead with pride, I can make us strong. I’ll be satisfied if I play along” I gestured to myself I stomped on the stage a little and looked away from my brothers. I was clearly getting worked up.

“But the voice inside sings a different song” I turned back to my brothers to see Deans expression change to confused, I grabbed ahold of my shirt I was wearing and glanced to the ground.

“What is wrong with me?” I shooked my head a little, I took a deep breath.

“See the light as it shines on the window? It’s blinding. But no one knows, how deep it goes” I closed my eyes, and smiled, I don’t care anymore I’m going to help and they can’t stop me.

“And it seems like it’s calling out to me, so come find me” I held my hand upwards.

“And let me know, what’s beyond that line, will I cross that line?” I once again being a geek I jumped from the stage to one of the tables that was in front of my. Good thing no one was there.

“See the line where the sky meets the road? It calls me” I looked around me seeing everyone was dancing, and listening to me. I was so happy people was listening and I was singing my feelings out.

“And no one knows, how far it goes If the wind in my hair on the road stays behind me” I jumped back to the stage and got ready for the long note I have to do. I smiled once again,

“One day I’ll know, how far I’ll go” I sang the last note, and I held it for a good 20 seconds. I was now breathing hard. I was smiling. I heard claps and cheers. These are my people these are my family. We were hunters it’s in my blood.

I jumped down the stage and walked over to Ash and handed him the mic. I then walked over to my brother completely forgetting I was in hiding they thought I was in college still.

“So my big bros how was that song?” I said to them I looked at them and they gave me a firm look. I stood there and realized I just made a big mistake walking over to them. I nervously shifted awkwardly and rubbed the back of my neck. “Uh….” I stuttered I started to point in different directions and bolted to the door. I rushed out of the door and ran to my car. I went to grab my keys to have Dean turn me around.

“What are you doing here?” He asked me. I stared at him. “(Y/n)!” He yelled my name. I sighed

“I… you see…” I stuttered, “I can’t finish college okay!” I yelled in there face I pushed Deans hand off of my shoulder. I walked away and turned around. “I just can’t. Everyday I keep thinking will Sam and Dean make it out in this hunt? Will they live? Or will they die? Leaving me with no family. I’m off to college living a apple pie life while my brothers are living in hell.” I told them. Sam stepped forward and answered me

“But you are away from all evil, you get to live your life that we couldn’t that dad gave us.” Sam told me I rolled my eyes.

“Sam and me don’t want you too go through the path we went to.” Dean then said, I turned around.

“Well I don’t want to live a apple pie life! I want to be on the road with you two.” I turned around, I crossed my arms. “You know… saving people, killing things, the family business.” Dean and Sam stood there and glanced at each other, they sighed and Sam spoke up,

“Yea we get it. But we want you to go to college.” I uncrossed my arms,

“What? Did you not just hear a word I said? I just said I’m not finishing college.” I made my hands into a fist,

“Yea (y/n) we heard you. And the answers no.” Dean said. I gasped at them they are so stubborn. Well to back for them so I am.

“You just ignored the song to by the freaking way.” I pointed to the place. “And I’m not taking no for an answer. You maybe be stubborn but you have forgotten, I’m the queen of disobeying orders.” I pushed pass them and got into my car. But before I drove off, “oh by the way, Sam…. you should really turn off your GPS. Oh and Dean you should really teach Cas how to say no correctly…. because he’s not really good at saying it.” I smirked at them and wink.

“Wha….” dean manage to Stetter out. Sam turned over to Dean and back at me. He was lost for words to. How cute.

“(Y/n) you…. wait…. what?” Sam grabbed his phone and realized he didn’t turn off his GPS.

“Bye bye. See you later.” I waved to them and drove off leaving them standing there stunned that their baby sister isnt exactly how they left four years ago when she went to college.