#actually now i want the librarian to meet the system

[benevolenterrancy]

~ Extremely Unwilling Magical Protagonists Attempt To Outrun The Plot And Not Fucking Die ~

(@takofukkatsumi this tag is from a while ago but it hasn't left my brain -- L-Space got very weird all of a sudden)

[faefaye]

Compatibilism

Shinkane Week 2024, Day 3: Space

Summary:

Soulmates, an inexplicable bond between two people known by how they share each other's pain. Under the Sybil System, it's an outdated concept, but that alone cannot stop the universe from working its ways. In such a world, Akane Tsunemori finds herself connected to a troublesome partner.

Link to the fic on AO3.

Akane is seven years old when she hears the word “soulmate”.

Until then, it’s a thing she knows like air or grass, something that exists but that people don’t talk about or care about.

That day, there was a black cat on the road and a car veering closer.

She doesn’t think before she runs forward, wrapping her arms around the little black thing. She stumbles and falls and just clears the road when the car whooshes behind her, so close yet so far. She lies there. Her body hurts but she feels her heart in her throat more until she hears Grandma’s voice, tight with worry.

A while later, when they’re inside the house and Grandma is washing the scrapes on her arm, she says, “You should take more care of yourself.”

She knows Akane too well to ask questions like “why”. She never shouts or screams either, but something about her tone and the way her hands tremble is enough to make Akane bite her lip, her eyes watering.

“I wanted to save the kitty,” she says weakly.

“That’s a wonderful thing,” Grandma replies after a heavy pause. “But it was very, very dangerous and you could have died. I know you don’t mind getting hurt, A-chan, but it’s not just about you.”

“Huh?” Akane looks at her with wide brown eyes.

“Your parents and I. We feel when you get hurt and we would be very sad if something happened to you. It’s good you want to help everyone. Never lose that, but you shouldn’t forget yourself.” Grandma kisses a bruise. “And maybe your soulmate is out there wondering why they’re getting hurt too,” she says as an afterthought.

Soulmate. She’s a curious child and she gets Grandma to tell her more in the days that follow.

Soulmates share pain, she says, because they’re two halves of the same soul connected through space, resonating with each other. Once upon a time, it was a celebrated event to find that person. But as something that didn’t abide by hues or Crime Coefficients, it became an outdated concept in the era of the Sybil System and the literature publicly available dwindled down to nothing.

As a librarian though, Grandma can beautifully recount several famous tales from history and art. A lot of them are romantic but there are a good number of other ones too.

They’re interesting stories. None of them really stop Akane from running headfirst into matters, for anything and everything that she wants to stand up for, but it does make her think a little about the mysterious someone on the other end of her actions.

---

Akane is eighteen years old when her soulmate becomes a rather persistent matter in her day-to-day life.

In the beginning, she puts down the barely noticeable ache in her limbs to all sorts of reasons—sleep positions, overexertion, cramps. But there are only so many times it could seem unremarkable.

And then one day she almost doubles over in class, saved from the teacher’s attention only due to Yuki and Kaori. She rubs at her sternum to ease the phantom pain and helplessly worries for her soulmate.

The resonance she feels is nowhere as bad as what the actual person goes through and yet it teaches her just how many nerves the human body possesses.

It makes her wonder now and then what her soulmate is really like and what they’re doing. Whenever she feels a little uncharitable about the pain, she reminds herself that it could be part of their job, like being a professional wrestler. She wouldn’t want to stand in the way of anyone’s dreams.

Yeah… she hopes from the bottom of her heart that they’re living a life they sought.

It’s all she can do.

---

Akane is twenty years old when she meets her soulmate.

“Meet” is perhaps a charitable word, because the first sign of any such connection is when she shoots Enforcer Kogami in the back with a paralysing shot and her entire body seizes in response.

She can’t even scream at how her muscles twitch in ways she didn’t think were possible, going on for hours and hours, and his steel-blue eyes lock onto hers all throughout until they’re both crumpled on the floor.

He gets the luck of being unconscious. She wishes time would stop again less painfully so she could unravel what just happened— but there’s something to be done still.

Her memories following that are vague, but she remembers the victim falling over—not dead, not how the Dominator had taken the other life—and Ginoza’s sharp voice.

She gazes at him unseeingly for three seconds, then the world tilts sideways and goes black.

---

Soulmates. Karanomori confirms it when Akane wakes up after hours of unconsciousness. “The effects of the resonance were likely magnified by proximity and attacking your own soulmate,” are her words.

It continues to feel unreal but she watches Kogami train and her own knuckles start to hurt, she learns that he became an Enforcer more than two years ago—when she was eighteen—and there’s no way for her to deny this truth.

It’s clear the entire Division 1 knows but no one brings it up, other than Ginoza with his frequent warnings about not getting too close to her subordinates. Akane is glad society under the Sybil System ignores the concept. Even so…

“What do you think about soulmates, Kogami-san?” She gathers enough courage to ask him once when they’re on the balcony together for a break. It’s the first time either of them have ever brought up the word between them.

He pulls out the cigarette from his mouth and considers her, and she has to fight to stay calm. It’s such a silly thing but with how old-school Kogami is, she wonders how his insight will compare to what she only knows from Grandma.

Grandma, who told her not to think too much about it, but that while there’s no rhyme or rhythm to the connections to human eyes, undoubtedly they’ll meet at least once and have a life-changing influence on each other.

Life-changing is a heavy adjective to imagine with someone she’s known for a few weeks, although they’ve worked on enough incidents together that it feels a lot more.

“Well, for one, I’m sorry you got such a poor roll of the dice.”

“I don’t think so,” she says before she can think. “I’m glad for it.”

He remains still. She doesn’t look away from him. Though it wasn’t intended, she can stand by what she said.

Kogami’s kind words about her first day is the only reason she’s still here, continuing to believe that there is some good she can do. His support and guidance is why she can keep improving herself.

Huh, maybe that itself was life-changing, wasn’t it…?

“I think it doesn’t matter beyond what we make of it. After all, there’s no compulsion in the bond. It exists as a signboard at most,” Kogami answers her question at last, dispelling the awkward silence, then adds teasingly, “Although if it’ll prevent you from shooting me again, I’ll take it.”

She ends up shooting him again, this time to save his life from Ginoza's Lethal Eliminator, this time trembling and hurting as well but managing to stay on her feet.

Later, when they chase Makishima in the factory, she threatens to shoot him and he knows it’s not an idle threat.

The pain binding them has never factored into following their ideals.

---

Akane is still twenty when she parts ways with her soulmate.

When she wakes up among the golden hyper-oats, it's twilight. A drone beeps next to her, scanning her and relaying her location to the team.

As far as she looks, in this field that keeps stretching on, she’s the only figure.

The weeks that follow are a haze of exhaustion, her grief and regret buried in the routine tasks of reports and investigations.

It's only when Ginoza joins them as an Enforcer that she finally permits herself to think back to that day in detail. What did she miss? Where did things go wrong?

…what could she have done differently?

At the end of her musings, she's only left with a sinking feeling that maybe there was no other way. She doesn't believe in fate but this was a destiny carved out by human hands from the beginning, and she can't imagine a universe where they could all be the people they are and have things happen otherwise.

It’s an odd sort of comfort, even if this is an ending she struggles to accept.

---

“At any rate, this is truly goodbye. Whether I survive or die.”

She can’t forget a single word from that unexpected phone call.

Kogami is undoubtedly far away now. Whatever happens to him, the news might never reach Japan.

But she’ll still know.

Signboard indeed, she thinks when the first time after that incident, she feels a familiar pain that is not her own.

She hopes it doesn’t get worse than an ache. She hopes that free from the leash of an Enforcer, he could finally find peace.

More than anything, Akane once again hopes from the bottom of her heart, now knowing the person on the other side, that at least he is living the life he sought.

[quokkaholic]

Playlist🖤h.j

(Its Han. He’s the angel🤭)

Warnings: cussing, drinking (will update as I write more. pls lmk if I miss anything)

Synopsis: you and Han spend the evening getting to know each other at the bar and discover your shared interest in music.

Chapter 3

Igual que un ángel

——————————-

“So what do you do?” He inquires

Oh so he can know your job but you can't know his? You hold back your urge to tease him about it because it seems like it could be a sore subject for him.

“I’m a graduate student studying library science! I also work part time at my local library as a media specialist in music!”

He quickly responds with reverence in his tone.

“I didn’t know you had to go to school for that let alone get a masters degree. You must be genius. What does it mean?”

It’s refreshing to meet anyone, let alone a man, that is taking a genuine interest in you and doesn’t get intimidated by your education.

“I do all the normal librarian stuff with books and community work but I also manage a music database with songs, related information, and music history. The database is actually what you're writing your thesis on. It’s a massive project so my collaborators and I will be working on it for a long ass time. It’ll be constantly updated as more music is made!” you gush.

“So it’s never done?” He points out and it triggers you to snicker.

“The point isn’t for it to be done, it is a living document. The point is to compile music and music information for people to access freely. Right now it’s similar to a group Spotify that everyone in my library system can access, but the information will hopefully eventually be free and accessible to the public!”

“Wow! Actual genius!” He seems impressed by your work. He’s almost bursting at the seams with enthusiasm to share with you his own passion for music. Right before he’s about to get too lost in the excitement about it, a thought seems to bring him back down, and he asks if you have included K-pop in the database. He must be worried we’re overlooking his culture.

“Oh so far we have prioritized songs in English but next in line is Latin music because it’s more relevant to our community. I’m working on it now since I have a previous interest in it. The database is definitely biased in its early stage due to humans working on it. We don’t really have anyone into K-pop in our team.” you confess.

“Is that why you’re in Korea?” He seems a little stoic about it now.

“Oh fuck no, I’m here on vacation! I love traveling and my bachelors degree is in cultural studies!” you don’t want him to think you're taking advantage of this interaction for work purposes.

“We are also integrating Ai because of the sheer volume of information we have to process. So it’s totally possible no actual person will ever work on K-pop beyond being the checks and balances to AI, but it will most certainly be included!”

You're worried I’ve scared him off with all this geek talk and academic jargon and quickly pivot the conversation.

You guys spend the rest of the evening absolutely spilling our guts to each other probably due to the lowered inhibitions. You chat about your families and friends, all sorts of favorites from anime to seasons to hobbies. You talk about your youths and our rebellious teenage phases. He jokes that mine hasn’t ended and gestures to your visible piercings and tattoos. He claims he has some as well; they’re just hidden. It’s definitely the alcohol, but you have to fight your mind to maintain concentration on the conversation rather than imagine what art he has hiding under his button down. To rein yourself back in, you show him pictures of your sweet baby kitties who you miss so much. We talk about our travels and share photos of our destinations. There are a few guys that keep making appearances in the photos. It’s enough times that you have to ask about them.

“My brothers,” he says almost as if it’s obvious.

“That quite a few brothers” is all you can think to say in response.

“Found family I think is what it’s called”

“Oh I completely understand” you say as you pull up a photo of your best friend since she came to your elementary school.

“We’ve lived as sisters since we were like 10. Mymother is a single mom to me and my siblings, my bestie’s family stepped in to fill in the gaps.”

Han seems touched by the sentiment. you're glad we both cherish the fact that family isn’t just who you share blood with.

Even after we finish the soju and share plates of snacks, we never run out of things to gab about. you finally think to check your phone, and you're instantly awestruck. It’s half TWO IN THE MORNING! “Han look at the time!” you implore exasperatedly as you point the phone toward him.

“Holy shit” he simply breathes out as his jaw drops. Our surprise turns to amazement and then embarrassment. Han, for a final time, beckons the barkeep and speaks to him in Korean.

“Is he bringing the checks?” you question and Han just nods his head as he sips the last bit of his water. It was so easy to lose track of time while talking to him not to mention the bar is nowhere near empty. Koreans really don’t fuck around when it comes to night life. When he said shit you realize that was the first time he cussed all night.

“I should have asked way sooner, but did I offend you with your foul language? I noticed you don’t really say bad words.”

“Oh no! you're just used to avoiding them to remain professional i guess. I like that you can curse freely. It’s refreshing.” As we talked the bartender brought the check, just one. Before you can object, Han has already paid the tab, and we exit the bar. 

“Can I escort you back?” He requests.

You're reaching in to your bag to grab your earbuds for the journey,

“I couldn’t ask you to do that! You’ve already been so kind to me, Han. You paid for our tab, thank you so much for that, and made this a fun evening. I’m sure you have work in the morning, I’ll be okay.”

Now he’s the one blushing. He’s trying to play it cool, but he can’t even make eye contact when he says,

“I want to. You didn’t ask, I did.”

How could you ever say no to him?

“Okay but just to the station”

As you go to put the earbuds up he puts his hand over mine. Does he want to hold hands? What so you have to lose, you move your hand to go for his but he swiftly grabs one of your earbuds and places it in his ear.

“Maestro” he says in a posh accent and with an airy hand movement gestures to your phone. He wants you to play DJ. Why do you feel like this is a test?

“What do you want to hear?” you ask.

“What do you have?” He responds and you can't help but roll your eyes.

“Just name any genre or mood or, fuck it, specific situation, and Ipotentially have a playlist for it”

“You like rap?” What a silly question.

You tilt your phone screen towards him and begin to type a rap in the search bar of your playlists just so we could see the sheer volume of them you have.

“You want female rap? hype rap? early 2000s rap? Emo rap?”

“What about rock?” He retorts.

“You like classic rock? New age? Rock songs that are nostalgic to me? Rock that makes me speed in the car? Punk rock?”

He really thinks he’s stumped you with his next request.

“What about country?” He says with a playful and slightly competitive glance.

“You like old country? Gay cowboy country? country about hating your husband? Country songs so sad they should be banned from Spotify?”

He has turned this into a little game we are both utterly enjoying. Once he’s exhausted all the main genres, we’ve made it to the station. Neither of us are even toying with the idea of him going home anymore as we wait for the train together. He circles back to when you said scenarios and wants to know about those playlists. you show him your playlist for grocery shopping and shower concerts, but also the more obscure ones like walking through the streets of London and night out in Madrid. He stops you when he sees the one I’ve created for this trip.

“Oh that one’s not finished yet” you try to steer him away from it, but he’s not having it.

“That’s the one  waInt.” He states as the train pulls in. He sits beside me, you can't ignore the warmth of our shoulders touching. The silence between us is comfortable as we both slightly tap our legs and bounce our heads to the music. He leans in close and puts his lips next to your ear to whisper as to not disturb our fellow passengers. He wants to borrow your phone for a second. Feeling his breath on your neck, all you can do is nod in response. You assume he's gonna change the song or something. you don't want him to feel like you're watching his every move, so you close your eyes and try to take in the song. It’s taking him longer than I’d expect, but maybe he’s just not used to your phone or navigating in English. The song never changes and he hands the phone back to me. The ride is not long at all, and soon we are at your stop. Han gets off the train with me, but you stop at the stairs.

“Thank you so much for your escort, but I cannot allow you to walk me to the hostel.” you say putting your foot down.

“You’ve already come this far. I know you have work tomorrow; you need to get home!” you warn in a cheerful but serious tone grabbing his shoulder. You can’t help but mom him a little. Even though we are basically still strangers, you want the best for him, and that means at least a few hours of sleep before work.

“I’m going home! But first can I maybe get your number?”

He implores with a coy look and big eyes while holding out his phone with both hands, and it’s already open to the create a contact page. you enter your name and digits and snap a quick picture from that silly angle where all you can truly see is our foreheads. That causes him to giggle a little.It sounds so good every time. You hand the phone back.

“Thank you yet again for this Han. I had a wonderful time with you.”

He responds with something in Korean and bows slightly to you which you return. When you look up he’s headed to another platform and all you can do is turn around and walk to your hostel with a giant, stupid grin. 

——————-

A.n. Thank y’all so much for reading this. Writing this has made me feel more connected to my fellow STAY 💜 also I fear this is going to be quite the long story. Maybe one day I’ll add it to ao3 or something

-Mo🩵

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Masterlist

[starlessmistake]

The problem with S&B S2's magic system

(And why it weakens one of the best moments of the series)

Before I start, I just want to preface with the fact that I am talking about the show only here as it's own entity. I know that some of my complaints can be said of the books as well. However from S1, the show substantially altered the concept of amplifiers, so clearly they're not above making changes to the way the magic system when it suits them.

Diving right in to my analysis...

S1 for all its faults does a solid job of setting up the magic system within Ravka. The grisha orders are presented as being very strictly defined with no suggestion that there is any choice involved in a grisha’s sub-order.

(This is in contrast to the books where it is established as early as Alina’s carriage ride with Fedyor and Ivan that a grisha’s sub-order is more of a specialisation that they have some choice over.)

This strict delineation has consequences for the plot of S1.

In S1E3 we meet Genya and are given a fairly comprehensive overview of her powers. As a tailor, her main power is in modifying an individual’s appearance. This includes being able to mend surface level injuries.

In S1E5 when Marie is attacked, Genya is unable to heal Marie’s wound and Marie subsequently dies. This in many ways is the trigger point for the whole second act of the first season. Marie’s death is what causes Aleksander to leave Alina alone in his War Room, and therefore what gives Baghra the opportunity to convince Alina to flee.

(The show then goes on to never mention Marie’s death again, but that’s a separate rant of mine.)

Genya not being a Healer (or at the very least, not knowing that she can heal) is important to the story of S1 and established concretely to the audience.

And then we have S2…

S2 makes the decision to expand on the magic system by blurring the line between the various orders. This is not necessarily a bad decision in its own right – many stories successfully add nuance to their magic systems as the audience grows familiar with how it works. However I would argue that the show does not manage to do this successfully.

We are first introduced to this change through Alina’s travels to Novyi Zem and aboard Nikolai’s ship. Characters like the librarian and Tamar tell us that other countries do not distinguish between grisha in the way that Ravka does. Which is fine in theory, except this is one of the many, many things that we are told and not shown.

None of the non-Ravkan grisha actually demonstrate any powers outside of their one specific sub-order. With the possible exception of Sankta Neyar who uses a form of blood-bending. However we are explicitly told that this is because there is iron in blood and not because she can control blood itself. Therefore her powers still fall neatly into what we might expect of Durasts.

So who doesn’t fit into a neat box…? You guessed it - Genya.

Genya gains all kind of powers this season. First of all is healing. In S2E4 Genya is able to easily heal Baghra’s broken wrist -  something that goes well beyond Genya’s established powers in S1. The show could have possibly explained this by having Baghra amplify Genya, but that’s not what happens as Baghra doesn’t touch Genya while she’s working.

The fact that Genya has the capability to heal is not in itself a problem – given what the show clumsily tried to establish earlier in S2. However, the problem is that Genya should not know that she has these capabilities. Because she explicitly didn’t know about them in S1, and nothing has changed between the seasons to give her this information.

Now that we have all that established, let’s talk about the scene I referred to back at the start of this rant.

In S2E5 Genya and Baghra find Alina’s underground hideout. In one of the best scenes of the series David asks Genya how she managed to find them, to which Genya replies that she was able to follow David’s heartbeat with the help of Baghra’s amplification.

This is such a powerful moment due to Daisy and Luke’s fantastic acting, but it’s undermined by the writing. This reveal about Genya’s Heartrending should have been a great shock – to the audience and to Genya – a discovery of an unknown power that she was only able to tap into in her most desperate moment to find the love of her life.

But because we have already seen Genya’s unexplained ability to heal, this reveal instead comes across (at least to me) like Heartrending is a power that Genya has always known about, she merely forgot to mention it earlier in the show.

And so a fantastic acting performance is hampered by weak writing. It’s far from the only such moment (believe me, I could rant for hours about S2’s writing). But this one particularly frustrates me, because it would be so easy to fix! All the writers would have to do would have Genya not heal Baghra’s wrist, or have Genya only be able to heal Baghra’s wrist with the help of amplification.

(rant over. thanks for reading)

[wrose-writes]

Greetings and salutations!

You can call me Rose, pleasure to meet you (probably)

My main blog's @theroseempress, I mostly live over there but I decided to make a side-blog for writing stuff in order to make it easier to find.

Also I have a Wordpress: carolinaauthor, if you want to read actual writing pieces that's where I put them.

oh yeah here's my Big WIP Intro Post go check that out! (this is currently outdated but it's still somewhat accurate ahaha)

anyway time for 'current list of my main projects with Quick Descriptions'! If any of these catch your interest feel free to ask about them or ask to be taglisted for the rare occurence of me talking about my writing on my writing blog!

current list of my main projects* with Quick Descriptions-

WishWIP- Currently my 'main' project, which really needs a proper name with how much focus I've given it by now, this is just the main character's name with WIP after it. Anyway I want to make this one into a comic because I apparently don't have enough to do already. The plot is currently going through scripting in a libreoffice doc . Also this is the second fall in a row where I have become suddenly interested in this project so that's. odd. Basic Quick Description- Wish is just trying to find Someone for perfectly innocent reasons when she runs into an evil magic eating Creature, Song, who is a Very Normal and Not Being Chased By Assassins At All Girl, and the plot, in rapid succession. 'hey what if we went to the Library and you were my bodyguard?' Song suggests. 'no reason for that last part really just Girlish Worries.' she says, normally and casually. Wish looks very suspiciously at her but agrees nonetheless. You can find stuff for this one in #wishwip. Main Cast**- Wish, Song, Lyric, Rhythm, also a whole bunch more people who only show up in the second arc and might kind of be spoilers IDK so they're not here.

Libraries- Probably my other main WIP! Born from me thinking intensely about libraries for no apparent reason. In case you couldn't guess, there are libraries in this project. Except they're called Libraries. Capital L. Also all of the Librarians (capital L) have magical abilities and are very badass. As well as being libraries, the Libraries double-function as how churches used to. I have a whole note doc of worldbuilding on the Libraries can you tell. You can find stuff for this one in #libraries. Basic Quick Description- Sori is a Librarian and quite content with her life as such. And then Firefly shows up, followed somewhat laggingly by the plot. This... has consequences! Anyway now Sori, Mikka, and Firefly are going on a quest oh my. The inciting incident happens surprisingly far into this book, so I have to be unfortunately vague about the plot as to avoid spoilers. Suffice it to say I like this one ;). Main Cast**- Sori, Mikka, Firefly, Tai and Nin, Ashe, Caro, another guy I've forgotten the name of and don't feel like looking up atm, and Renna.

fallenstars- Another more recent WIP of mine. I really like a lot of the worldbuilding and plot in this one, it's one of my more recent projects and I rotate the main four guys in my head pretty frequently with varying velocity. (Fun fact a fair amount of the main four for this WIP's characterization was born of me playing with the incorrect quotes generator, which should give you a pretty good idea of what they're like.) You can find stuff for this one in #fallenstars. Basic Quick Description- A long, long time ago, the stars fell from the heavens. A slightly less long time after that, Rekha and Ven found them. Or at leas they think they did. That's what the ~expedition~ is for! Featuring; most of the cast being a little (or a lot) unhinged, most of the cast being a little (or a lot) traumatized, and certain members of the cast being very badass. Also magic. (hard magic systems my beloved). Also names. Names are important. Main Cast**- Vivian, Arielle, Jai, Mirren, Rekha, Ven, Sapphire/Saph, Auburn, and various other people also.

sky pirates- *faux grumbling* I read ONE TWENTY PAGE PAMPHLET about pirates... Anyway yeah this one's pretty self explanatory. Sky pirates. That combined with another idea I've had for a year or two, where people hunt through dangerous ruins of skyscrapers for useful stuff to sell (that one never went anywhere because I had no plot) (now I have a plot) You can find stuff for this one in #sky pirates. Basic Quick Description- Lute (who is Completely Normal) and his crew are just going about their normal scrapper life and doing normal scrapper things (supposedly), when suddenly a girl runs away from the army and runs into them. (they help. they're polite like that. also they (for good reason) don't like the army). And then they discover she can manipulate the Mist. And then they discover a bunch of people want to steal her. And then she explains she needs to get to an old ruin for Magic Reasons. And now they're going on a quest. Main Cast**- I didn't remember naming anyone in this, but apparently the crew (Lute, Vanya, Blake, Robin, and Chess) all have names. Nobody else though. I should really get on that.

Mercy City- Was my main WIP for a while, I haven't worked on it for a longer while though. I still like it though. it's nice. I want to put Caden in a salad spinner desperately (smug little bastard) and I regularly make angsty head AMVs for Kiseki. Felice my beloved. You can find stuff for this one in #mercy city. Basic Quick Description- The world is made up of Resonance and we can manipulate that. Everyone is born with an affinity (can manipulate a certain bit of Resonance without needing to know the formula for it) except sometimes they aren't and even more sometimes they're born with Too Much Affinity. Too Much Affinity is bad because you blow up. Kiseki has so far avoided blowing up, and his sister Felice (who has No Affinity) would like to keep it that way. And then the plot happens. whoopsies. Main Cast**- Felice, Kiseki, Caden, Sophie, and a lot of other characters but I'm trying to keep it more to the main cast so probably just these four? idk. there's more guys tho.

mecha project- A project born of me smushing my appreciation for mechs, space, and academy settings into one place! I'm less 'actively working' on this one and more 'actively imagining it as a TV show'. We'll see if that ever happens to it! (probably not) (but you never know) You can find stuff for this one in #mecha project. Basic Quick Description- space. mechs. people go to mech academy. fights in space. bad guy wants to take over universe. different visually appealing species. the main character is part dragon. one of the antagonists wants to dissect him (For Science). this is partially inspired by my dislike of the voltron reboot thingie that i watched like six seasons of and then bailed on. also that one time i wrote out a whole rewrite concept for high guardian spice. anyway mechs in space. Main Cast**- there's people but none of them have names. yet. ahaha. did i mention the main character is part dragon.

The Golden City- The oldest project on this list! I recently discovered the plot to this thing is a lot longer than I'd previously thought, so right now all I'm doing with this WIP is rotating it at high speed in my head while trying to figure out what the next two thirds of the story is about. You can find stuff for this one in #the golden city or #tgc. Basic Quick Description- Felix is just going about his normal life and definitely not being a criminal, except oops, he's been arrested now, oh dear, and how he has to go on a quest to Not Be In Jail >:(. Also people are blackmailing him to essentially cause a civil war. He's doing his best, guys, be nice to him. Main Cast**- Felix, Helen, Shannon, Florian, Tay (Taylor), Bricriu, Nikolai, Nerium, Iris, Raz.

keyWIP- a concept that was born entirely of me thinking about keys for too long. I'm not really actively working on/thinking about this one at the moment, but I like the idea (and Melody) so I'm keeping it here in the event I get more interested in it. You can find stuff for this one in #keyWIP. Basic Quick Description- There are keys that can open any door to any other door and also shapeshift! Conor gets harassed by the Scholars' Council into inviting all the people who have keys to come tell the Council that because [SECRET PLOT POINT]. To the surprise of both Conor and some other people, this actually works somehow. Things proceed to escalate rapidly from that point. Main Cast**- Melody, Kit, Conor, Shalom, Hope, Adora, Varian, Jasmin [redacted] (so yeah this cast list is just all the people with keys (excluding Conor)).

If any of these project descriptions catch your interest, please feel free to ask to be on the taglist, which will mean I'll tag you in the rare posts I make about my WIPs!

Or just send an ask about something you're curious about, I don't bite and I love talking about my little fictional guys :)

(*what I'm currently working on changes very suddenly and frequently so I can't really tell you that, but this should at least give you an idea of what I'm doing).

(**trust me, there's very probably more, I just listed the main people)

[lunaremy]

My favorite headcanon is that nothing humbles black more than receiving an actual, wholehearted compliment.

Like, a backhanded compliment? Lol, perfect little ol' me saw what you did.

Straight up insult? Haters gonna hate.

But a genuine "I appreciate you" is like hitting him with an EMP. Just shuts him down

Aww....guy spends ages seeking validation but when he finally gets it, it just nukes him. i had to make a silly little book club to make this very slightly self indulgent story work so dont mind the 3 silly goobers....maybe ill draw a design of them later

Magpie, Illya, and Zeph.

That's the only thing Black knew about these folks. Their name.

Other than the fact that they had all taken an interest in his book meeting at the local library, though.

I'll bestow my perfect taste in literature upon you, he boasted. It'll blow you away.

Right now, he seemed a little blown away at the moment, unlike the group of three that conversed casually at his table.

"You ever read 'The Moonlight Shines Upon Us'?"

"Yeah. Everyone's read that."

"Cuz it's good. The plot twist at the end made me cry so hard..."

"I could see it coming from a mile away."

The girl in the glasses, sporting a garishly pastel-green bob cut.

The guy with dark hair and ridiculously huge pants that remind Black of some dazzlingly out-of-date trend from a few decades back.

The shorter fella that seemed to be accompanying Magpie, their hair in two childish braids.

And Black. Black, who had barely uttered a word throughout this entire meeting.

"There's this really underrated book that I think you all should check out."

They all turned to him.

He's perfect! This is just what he wanted.

"It's called 'Daughter of a Woman Scorned'," Black stood up to search the shelves for one of many copies, before returning to the group with a book in hand. "Really good. Really dramatic."

He pointed at Magpie. "And you won't be able to see what's happening in the story till' it hits you."

The group voiced their intrigue as Black placed the book on the table; Magpie was the first one to reach for it, and she began reading at, quite frankly, an unreasonably fast pace.

Only a few minutes or so had passed, and she was already around the fifth page despite the book being relatively large.

"What's it like?! What's it like?!" Illya perched herself above Magpie, trying to get a glimpse at the pages.

"Yo, Black! Can you find that book for all of us?"

"My pleasure," He says as he leaves to find copies of the book. They usually tend to be bundled up next to each other on the shelves, thanks to the meticulous and careful work of the librarians, so Black was quick to find and return two different copies of the book Magpie was reading.

Damn. He fumbled earlier, failing to grab a sufficient amount of books. But, because he's otherwise perfect, the group didn't notice because they were too enthralled in his legendary book recommendations!

The other two sit down and read as Black observes them.

"Magpie don't spoil the story," Illya mumbles, her nose deep in the book.

Black silently finds another book for himself, one he hadn't read before. He decides that he'll be fine if this book doesn't meet his absurdly high standards today.

This goes on for a good while.

"Wow." Magpie is the first to speak.

"Got something to say?"

"This book is PHENOMENAL, dude. You've got GREAT taste."

Black swears to whatever god there might be that his systems short circuited for just a millisecond as soon as he processed the sentence.

Quick! Say something! Before everyone realizes that your internal processor may or may not have started an electrical fire!

"Yes,"

There's an abnormally long pause.

"I am."

Metaphorically he was shitting himself.

That sentence made absolutely no sense whatsoever and there's no way to ignore the fact that his new group had noticed his absolute buffoonery. If he's not perfect, then what is he?

"A damn genius, that's what you are!"

Black attempted to feign indifference by hiding his face within the book he'd been reading for the past hour, but of course, it was all too easy to see him absolutely losing his shit, heat literally radiating from his face.

"Listen, I gotta drop Maggie and Illya off at their home so i can make it to my band gig on time. We gotta meet again!"

"Yeah. How does the 16th sound? At noon? We'll bring lunches!"

"Sounds great!" Black's voice is a little muffled from within the book.

"Next time, you should let us read that story you're holdin'. The cover looks interesting!"

"Don't worry, I will."

From the corner of his eye, he sees the group smile and wave goodbye as they exit the door, seemingly in a haste.

Reasonably, he knows it's because they're running late for a band gig or whatever.

But....

_______

"Yo, White."

"Sup, Black." He stops in his tracks. "You look kinda jumbled up. Bad day at the library?"

"No," The thought of the sincere words caused him to stutter again. "Just kinda...weird."

"Like what kind of weird?" As White knew, weird ranged from 'a little peculiar' to 'a lead for a world-ending conflict that's been lying dormant until then'.

"Like....social weird."

Not that White would understand anyways, but it didn't hurt to confide in him.

"Oh?" There's a weirdly passive aggresive look in his eyes. "So you can't handle someone else being just as important as you?"

Black does not respond.

For the record; no, he can't.

[my-brothers-corrupted]

JJ and the Other Order - Part 2/3

Part 1 here l Part 3 here

tws for discussion of trauma and anxiety, bugs, guns, and violent fighting

nikkilbook asked:

Puppy for Jackieboy

“Yeah, maybe JJ should have thought of that,” Jackie grumbles, sinking down over the old cafe table. “Should have got me a puppy instead. Should have got me a corgi.”

Max sets a cup of coffee down in front of him and leans down to kiss his face, mumbling something into his ear. Jackie tilts into his face and hums back at him, wrapping his hands around the coffee. “No, I’m okay. Let’s just find him.”

“I’ll come with wherever you’re going,” Max replies warmly.

Jackie looks like he has mixed feelings about that, but all he does is squeeze Max’s arm, rubbing his face into his sleeve for a moment.

the-earnest-system asked:

Now we’re getting somewhere!

Quintrell sits down at one of the tables inside the abandoned cafe, locking her arms over her chest again. Jackie glares back at her and she lifts her chin to his gaze, scowling. Chase looks between the two of them and throws his hands up.

“Is there really a need for that?”

“Yes,” says Quintrell, at the same time Jackie says, “Seems that way.”

Quintrell sniffs and throws her white-blonde braid back over her shoulder. “Ask me anything, but let’s be quick about it. If JJ’s not here, whether or not he meant for us all to meet, well - I think it’s likely he walked himself right into the belly of the beast.”

Anonymous asked:

First of all I love this au and am beyond thrilled it's back. Secondly am I crazy or weren't there 5 books, I remember 1-4 getting compiled but not 5. I never read 5 because I couldn't figure out how :( but I'd love to so I can catch up to what's happening now.

-🌙

Thank you for asking! Unfortunately I was never able to compile chapter 5 - it would have taken hours and hours, and when I compiled chapter 4, it got very few notes and no comments, so I have not had the motivation to put in that much (really tedious) work to have it available. Chapter 5 starts in March of 2021 if you want to go back and look at the blog archive at all.

And if you want a lowdown on what happened, here’s a summary…

After Anti died, Jackie burned his body and organized his siblings to get back to Ireland. Actually, he first wanted to get back to England, but JJ had to reverse time after they attempted to go there because the magicians in the country were hostile to him and Marvin as unregistered magic-users.

They found their way to Ireland and were homeless for a while, living mostly in an abandoned house or sometimes an old bus. After JJ began having severe psychotic episodes, they were forced to seek real help. JJ was in a psychiatric facility for several days, where he struggled with the containment but benefited from actual psych care and regular meds for the first time in years. Social workers and doctors at the hospital helped all of them find an apartment to share. Jackie started working in AV for a theater, Marvin worked as a librarian, and Chase sold Marvin’s roses in the street whenever he could.

Throughout most of Chapter 5, Henrik was in a shut-down, numb silence, pretty unaware of what was going on around him - his brain’s best defense as he tried to process the torture Anti put him through at the end of Chapter 4. When they eventually settled into a feeling of safety, he came back to himself slowly. They definitely all have PTSD, but Henrik’s may be the most debilitating.

Marvin had a hard time after killing Anti: he felt that his brothers had abandoned him, in a way, by leaving him to kill Anti himself, but at the same time, he insisted on being called Blue for most of the chapter, because he was harboring a lot of anger at the original Marvin for failing to save himself or the others. Marvin began lashing out at the others, even putting his hands on JJ at one point, until he decided he couldn’t be around them anymore. He left for a while, which was hard on them, but in that time, he found the Lapwings, the magicians of Ireland, who knew him as the magician who used to be their leader. Marvin gradually re-discovered himself and made peace between the Marvin and Blue parts of himself. He became the leader of the Lapwings again.

Chase was able to make contact with Stacy, who had fled with them when Anti started coming after all of them. Marvin and Chase had helped her find a safe place to hide with the kids in Sweden, but Marvin’s mirror portals allowed her and Chase to travel between Sweden and Ireland so he could reconnect with the kids. Izzy had developed magical abilities of her own because of the trauma of the night they ran away from Anti and he came after them. She’s now able to glitch the way he did, but it’s more under control now that her life has stabilized and her dad is back. Hunter is also doing well. At the very end of the chapter, Chase tells Stacy he still wants to be with her. She turns him down, but gently, and they’re finally able to understand exactly where the other lies and to become parenting partners again while also moving on romantically.

Henrik and Chase also settled their own relationship, acknowledging that they were co-dependent and resolving to do better while still supporting each other. Henrik was having difficulty becoming a doctor again because he’d developed triggers related to blood and injuries, and he admitted that he may not be able to work again. Chase talked about wanting to become a nurse because of the things Henrik taught him.

JJ dealt with some grief over Anti’s death in a different way than the others, still seeing Anti as his brother, but learning to acknowledge all the ways he hurt him. He started going to a support group for the Deaf community, began going to his church again, and was preparing himself to start working soon.

For most of the chapter, Jackie would bury his own needs and focus instead on everybody else and on making sure they were cared for financially. But on his own, his mind was constantly wandering to Max. He would have reached out sooner, but he was guilty over the way he abandoned Max in Peru and scared of being rejected by him. With some help, he was finally able to call Max and let him know he was free of Anti. Max didn’t believe it, but he came when Jackie called anyway. Max was still traumatized by the last time he was left, and he told Jackie that he needed Jackie to prioritize him for once if he wanted to be with him. Jackie struggled with the idea of putting anyone in front of his siblings, but he was finally able to pursue Max whole-heartedly and agree to spend time away from the others.

Oh, and they found the house they used to live in before Anti came! It’s a house in a mirror dimension Marvin made. Anti burned most of it, but there was enough for them to repair, and they found cats living in the forest, which they named Peanuts and Jam.

The chapter ended with JJ looking around at his much happier siblings and going back to visit some of the miserable moments in their life, thinking about how things will turn out okay after all. He had the option to spend a little more time with Anti, but chose to let him go, and he no longer visits Anti through time travel. They’re all learning to live in the present.

The end!

[for what its worth as of 25th of dec 2023 chapter five HAS been compiled -🪷]

[next post is a full summary of mbc which will not be included because it is giant, but is available here: https://beerecordings.tumblr.com/post/717415550174871552/have-you-ever-made-like-a-mbc-summary-if-not]

Anonymous asked:

No offense to any of the bros, but i am really glad Max is here to help today. :) World's greatest detective is on the case!

“Oh, wow,” says Max, apparently touched. “That’s nice, thank you. Sure, I’m happy to help.”

He sits at the table in between his in-laws and his partner, the odd one out in a pair of look-alikes.

“Are you actually quintuplets?” asks Quintrell.

Marvin shakes his head. “We’re two sets of twins and then JJ.”

Not true, but much easier to explain than quintuplets - or the truth, of course. Besides, they look less and less like each other or Jack these days.

“So he’s the ultimate little brother,” Quintrell grumbles. “Figures.”

scunneredzombie asked:

Hi Quintrell, it's interesting to meet you. Right time and place, it's definitely JJ's intent. How long have you been working with him? Is this magically related or something more worldly?

She lets a slow breath slide out of her. “I met JJ a few weeks back. Found him snooping, actually, around… our building.”

“The building where the British Magical Society headquarters,” Marvin cuts in.

She purses her mouth, but nods. “Yes.”

“You’re one of them,” says Marvin. “The red scarf. You’re part of their order.”

She wraps her hands around the cup of coffee set in front of her, refusing to break eye contact, though her chest rises with a careful breath. “Yes.”

Anonymous asked:

Is Miss Quintrell able to see us? I quite like your scarf!

Chase reaches out to adjust a camera carefully, while Quintrell squints at you suspiciously. “I can see that there are cameras.”

“They’re made from old magic and corrupted tech,” says Chase. “They’re secure, though, don’t worry. Nothing we talk about will get back to… anyone you’re working against. The cameras have always been on our side.”

Quintrell plays with the end of her thin red scarf. “JJ turned them on for you, I know. We’ve been talking about this day for a while, just… he always said it had to be the exact right day. When everything could come together. But it can all be done in a day - he insisted that too. We can get rid of the source of the corruption, and start cutting down the rest of it from here. From today.”

Anonymous asked:

Hey Quintrell, just checking:

do you have any injuries at the moment? And do you think that your location is secure

-🪷

She shifts, touching her body like she might find an injury there after all. “No, I’m not hurt. And this location - there are no magicians here?”

Jackie and Max shake their heads.

“As long as you’ve never gone up against the Magical Society before yourselves, this place should be fine.”

“JJ has a key to the apartment,” Max muses at Jackie’s side. “He could have been coming and going from the mirror quietly. He stops by frequently enough.”

“I always tell them they can come and go,” Jackie agrees. “But he wouldn’t bring dangerous attention to the place where we live.”

nikkilbook asked:

Could you explain what a changeling is, Q? That’s what Mateo and Cedar thought JJ was, back on the train. I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume it is NOT an infant/adult swapped out for a fairy baby and/or bundle of sticks. Because those are usually just out to play tricks on people or score some human food and milk, and aren’t actually dangerous in and of themselves. Usually they’re just curmudgeonly and, you know, taking the place of a human. Not really something to go all martial law over, ya know?

“JJ and I talked about this,” Quintrell mumbles.

“And he told me his magical signature was wrong somehow,” says Marvin. “Is that - ”

“Yeah, look - just listen,” sighs Quintrell, touching her forehead. “Okay, okay. Most magical societies track when someone with magic crosses into their territory. Just like with countries, some are unconcerned with this, and others are extremely controlling. Our magical society has become more and more controlling as the years have gone on. The point that we’re at - it’s just not right. Creighton’s a tyrant. He runs the society with this tiny group of over-powered magicians who lord over everything, especially who’s allowed to come in and out of the country. They charge exorbitant fees for magicians to become registered with them, and they hound and drive out anyone who doesn’t. Sometimes they even punish trespassers themselves.

"Now, JJ’s English through and through from what he’s told me, but his magical signature… it’s really odd. He doesn’t read quite like a human magician. He told me he was… tainted, I guess, by a magical creature. So when you see someone whose magic is part human, part magical creature - in this part of the world, we call that a changeling. And it’s considered an abomination.”

Henrik’s rubbing at the scars along the side of his face. “It is unfair to call him tainted. He is nothing like… our monster.”

“His words,” says Quintrell. “There is something about him that is not quite human. He told me a magical creature really did steal him when he was born, anyhow.”

Marvin scraping at the table, eyes distant.

“Besides,” Quintrell adds. “JJ’s magic is strong whether it’s human or something else. If the others got their hands on him, I don’t know what they would do. The things he’s capable of are dangerous in the wrong hands.”

“They came after me the same way,” Marvin mutters. “Talking about my signature being abnormally strong - I have two magics, you know. If I wasn’t the leader of the Lapwings, I think I may have never been allowed to come and go from this country.”

nikkilbook asked:

Two magics? Is this because of the bull crap he pulled in Singapore, or something else?

Marvin grins and shakes his head. “Nah. Just the fire and the plant life. Most magicians only get one gift. It’s pretty rare to have two - but I don’t think Jack knew that when he created me, so I got whatever he wanted me to get.”

scunneredzombie asked:

This seems like a big endeavor Quintrell. Are there more people helping, or just you two? And forgive if this is prying, but considering JJ is already a powerhouse, what magic are you bringing to the table?

“Oh,” snorts Quintrell, with a sudden laugh, a noise that seems out of custom for her, the sort of laugh that’s likeable because it’s so ugly. “You’re teasing me? No, I don’t bring anything like that to the table. I’m his informant and not much else. As for others involved, I don’t know if he’s alone or not, other than me.”

“But you are a magician, right?” asks Chase, frowning at her. “Come on, now you have to tell us.”

“It’s worth very little in most circumstances,” she sighs. “Just translation.”

Marvin gapes and throws his hands onto the table, deeply offended. “Translation? That’s brilliant. Of anything?”

“No, it’s not brilliant,” she protests, though now she grins, revealing these over-sized canines between the rest of her teeth, less like a vampire’s and more like something her dentist has probably had to shave down. “Because - oh, say something in another language.”

Marvin says something in Spanish off-handedly. The moment she turns her attention to him, her eyes light up with a ring of bright gold, the same way Marvin’s glow blue and JJ’s shine silver. Her magic smells like dusty wood. With her white hair and her eyes alight, she’s suddenly elfin, and maybe even a little ethereal.

“Can’t do that in my day-to-day life, can I?” She shrugs. “I can only translate with other magicians. Forget making translation my profession or working in the refugee camps where they speak fifty languages or anything like that, I’d be glowing all day long. Even translating ancient languages - I’d have no proof of anything! Sure, I can read anything you could find in the pyramids, but what am I going to tell the archaeologists when they ask me what code I used to crack it?”

“But you can talk to JJ,” Jackie reasons.

“Yes, we can communicate just fine.”

“Hm.” Jackie sits back, re-appraising her. “Okay. So you became allies.”

“Right.”

Anonymous asked:

Hey quintrell, when you refer to the “source of the corruption”, are you referring to the departmental corruption of the British magical society or the corruption that impacted JJ and the rest of these guys?

do you think they’re connected?

-🪷

A

“I don’t know anything about your ‘corruption, or JJ’s,” she says. “It’s none of my business, and he hasn’t said a word about it other than mentioning being marked by whatever creature left a mark on his magic. All I know is that he doesn’t like bullies.”

the-earnest-system asked:

So you and JJ are trying to make the British magical society better?

Quintrell takes a drink from her cup of coffee. “JJ wants lots of things. Yes, to improve the order, but - it’s more than that. He wants a rebirth. The old things can’t just become better, some of them have to be destroyed.”

Marvin and Jackie exchange looks at the table beside her.

“Creighton is cruel, I know that, and I was sick of watching him treat every magician in this country poorly. You must keep in mind, magicians are exceedingly rare. How many do you have in Ireland, Marvin?”

Marvin thinks for a moment. “Less than fifty, certainly.”

“And it’s less than two hundred, here, probably closer to one hundred. We’re not talking about a whole government here, we’re talking about a cult run by a power-hungry control freak with old fashioned beliefs about any minority you can think of - especially outsiders. JJ wants Creighton gone, full stop, and the rest of his posse has to fall into line or go too. He says he has found a way to get rid of him, now, I don’t know. I was just supposed to take him to our headquarters. He’s talked about this one day for weeks now.”

“Henrik, you good?” Chase mumbles to his brother. Henrik is leaning his head into his hand, eyes hidden from your view, half slouched over the table.

“Fine,” he mutters.

Marvin looks at Henrik too, mouth tightening. “Creighton sounds too familiar to us. I’m not surprised that JJ… well.”

“Would want him gone,” Jackie concludes. “Plus he’s always been so indignant about anything unjust in the world. And with his power… maybe he decided to do some good with it.”

“Yes, but how much does he take after his older brother?” Marvin returns, only a little teasing. “He can’t play the hero on his own - he could get hurt.”

“You think he’s gone to the headquarters himself?” asks Chase uneasily.

“He doesn’t know how to get there without me,” objects Quintrell. “He’s managed to locate some of our buildings in the past, but the main one is very well hidden.”

“Unless he has been through this day before,” Max says.

“And I’ve already shown him there?”

“But if he was going to go alone, why would he tell this girl to wait for him here?” asks Henrik, pulling himself out of his own brain with a heave, rubbing at his head.

There’s a pause as they all look around at each other.

“Cause he’s not trying to play the hero,” says Chase. “We’re his back-up. We’re going after him.”

the-earnest-system asked:

Not sure why he wouldn’t just ask you to back him up if that were the case. Or tell us to tell you

“Did he not tell you to tell us?” asks Jackie. “I was not at the house this morning and I have lost the plot.”

Marvin huffs. “Technically he told us not to follow him. But he also said it was a little dangerous.”

“Oh, so we’re definitely following him.”

scunneredzombie asked:

JJ you mad man, he prepared a whole storm of you to just go for it. Well, better go after him then - he seems to think you lot will fix the problem and he’s usually right about things. Quintrell will probably have to lead you all there, but what do you do after that? Do you know ways to get in undetected, Quintrell? Or did you and Jameson have a plan already set out?

“I’m supposed to lead a whole group of strangers to our most secret hideout?” Quintrell demands. “If the lot of you fuck this up, I’ll take JJ’s head off at the shoulders.”

“Charming,” says Henrik. “We just want to help .”

She gets up, glaring at all of them yet again. “Look, I’ll take you, but are you sure you can handle yourselves in there? Only one of you is even a magician.”

Jackie gets up from the table too, putting mugs away. “Everyone in this room has committed murder,” he says finally, voice calm. “The magician, only once, and that makes him the best of us. We can handle ourselves.”

She must not find any lie in his voice. Her arms uncross.

“Okay,” she says. “Only because of what JJ promised me. If it doesn’t come true, you’ll all have to answer to me.

"Grab what you need. We can take a bus downtown. The building is occupied only by four magicians: Creighton and his three lackeys. One is gone from the country this whole month. I can get in and scope the rest of the place as needed. I’m allowed in there, but not into the most secret part of the society - never mind that I’ve been a magician my whole life. I’m not powerful enough for the likes of them. Let’s just hope JJ’s on the upper floor and find out what his stupid plan is.”

nikkilbook asked:

Hey Q, how techy is Creighton’s little enclave? Are he and his merry band a bunch of Luddites, or do they have internet and security cameras and various other things our favorite genius hacker can sneak into and maybe sync us up with?

“There’s some security cams outside,” she says uncertainly. “But then - ”

“Oh, oh!” cries Jackie, suddenly vibrating with enthusiasm. “This is the thing, okay, this is the whole thing!”

“Yelling, yelling,” Henrik begs him. “Jackie - ”

“Magicians are terrible with technology, they really are! I had to totally revolutionize the Lapwing base for Marv, because magicians - like, there’s no reason for it, they just have this aversion to tech. It’s part of the reason Anti was always evading them, he could poke holes in anything they put together and they wouldn’t even notice. So if they have security cameras, they’ll be nothing against me. I bet their wifi is named ‘super secret Hogwarts knock-off.’ I’d love to hack it! I’ll get my computer!”

He takes off up the stairs like a shot.

“I’m just going to put the groceries away,” says Max mildly. “We’ll be down in five.”

He joins him upstairs, smoothing down his hoodie for a second, pressing himself against his chest as Jackie yanks at chargers and cords. “Juice Box, how we feeling?”

“Good, actually,” he says, jubilant. “We’ll go get JJ and it will be great! I’ll kill anybody who’s touched him, I swear, I - ”

“Jackie,” says Max, pulling at the cords of his hoodie. “Jackie.”

Jackie doesn’t look at him, but he stops squirming quite so much, and his hand reaches out to pluck Max’s sleeve. “Uh-huh.”

“It’s great that we’re going to go get your brother, but this is that adrenaline thing we’ve talked about, where you’re only interested and engaged if - ”

“Someone’s in danger,” Jackie grumbles. “I know. But he is in danger, can we just get through that and talk about it later? It’s not like I can do anything about it.”

“I don’t know. Before Anti you were excited about so many things.”

“I still get excited,” says Jackie weakly. “Into the Spider-verse.”

“That’s true, we love Spider-Man,” says Max, and kisses him. “Get your headphones for the bus, yeah?”

“Okay.”

the-earnest-system asked:

What did JJ promise you?

Her gaze turns mean again. “None of your business.”

Chase snorts. “We won’t be much help with it, then.”

She ignores him.

They’re at the bus stop fifteen minutes later, and Chase sits beside Henrik at the stop, looking at him rubbing his head. “Seriously, man, you okay?”

“Fine,” Henrik says.

“I know sometimes public transport…”

“Let’s just get this over with.”

“We could get an Uber.”

Henrik feels a lurch in his gut. “No. Bus. We should all stick together anyway.”

scunneredzombie asked:

Henrik, are you feeling triggered? If you are you really need to let the others know. Just like adrenaline affects Jackie, it probably affects all of you.

“It’s not about adrenaline,” Henrik mumbles.

Chase waits for him to talk more, but when he doesn’t, he turns back to you. “Schneep is kind of more of a home-body than the rest of us.”

Henrik massages his head.

“There’s just a lot of strangers around, in public,” says Chase.

Henrik swears under his breath. “Yes, Chase, we get it.”

“Sorry. You know you’re - ”

“I know I’m safe,” says Henrik loudly. “I know.”

Chase scoots closer to him, hunkering down so they’re mimicking each other, side-by-side on the bench.

Anonymous asked:

Just curious, I don't suppose any of you have kept in touch with any of the Ipliers, have you? Shep and a few others did seem kinda decent at the end there

Jackie struts back and forth in front of the bus stop, humming to himself. “Oh, yeah, I remember! At the end they were pretty okay. I got on already with Shep. And they let us stay at the house for a couple days while Marv and I recovered from the first time we attacked Anti.”

“Problem is Dark,” Marvin interjects. “We can’t risk the chance that they might make another play at Dapper - er, JJ, again. They were way too interested in his magic. And Dark runs that group, no question about it.”

“Maybe Shep got away, though, like he wanted,” Jackie says, a little dreamily. “He chose to stay with Dark, but he talked about a life for himself. Maybe I could look for him in a city somewhere.”

nikkilbook asked:

Psssst, Jackie, hi! It me! I’m gonna distract you for a second because I seeee those descriptors, happy wedding!!! When did you get married, how was it, show me your ring! Show me a picture! Lemme see, lemme see—

Jackie starts all but purring, stopping to stand beside Max, rocking on his heels. “Oh, did we get married? I had forgotten.”

“Sure you did,” says Max warmly.

Jackie preens and pulls a necklace out from under his hoodie, where a silver band dangles proudly in the light. With his other hand, he holds up Max’s, showing you the same ring on his hand.

They’re the same rings Max bought in Peru, the day he gave Jackie up for good. Now, Max is looking at Jackie intently, his warm brown fingers wrapping gently around Jackie’s gloves, clinging to him, somehow, but not tight. Just secure.

“It was a really small thing,” Jackie says, almost in a hush, like he’s telling you something secret. “Just my brothers and us. Because Max’s family wishes he were straight. But Marvin did the flowers for us, in the garden, so you can just imagine - arches of hibiscus and lavender. And everything bright and warm. And we went to India for two weeks after, and just… yeah. We did get married. Huh, tiger?”

Max gazes at him, humming a soft agreement. “We did. You proposed.”

“Both times.”

“Both times,” laughs Max. “Yes. Years ago and then last year. You proposed to me.”

The bus is pulling up, and they don’t let go of each other’s hands as they get on. Luckily it’s not a crowded time of day, and Jackie, Max, Quintrell, and Marvin sit down in the front. Henrik beelines past all of them without waiting for anyone’s approval and seats himself firmly in the back. Chase gives Marvin a look full of meaning and follows after his twin.

scunneredzombie asked:

Aww Jackie you’re being adorable right now, it’s really nice to see you so happy - to see you and Max happy together.

Max snorts and covers his mouth, shaking his head. “Adorable, that’s the word I was going to use.”

“Can it, Deshmukh, I am not cute,” warns Jackie, shoving him into the window of the bus. Max fake protests, starting to push him back, and pretty soon they’re just straining against each other and laughing.

“But we are definitely cute,” Jackie adds.

“Nah, we’re hot. You should see us in our fire get-up.”

Jackie flushes red. “I like you in that.”

Max cracks up and shushes him, whispering something about being in public.

i’m just going to keep the boys on the bus for anybody who wants to ask them any questions that are not plot related, and then on saturday or sunday i will move plot along and we’ll go try to find JJ!

Anonymous asked:

How have things been recovery wise for everyone? A few of you were in therapy, one or two on meds. Are things okay concerning mental health? Have you made any realizations/breakthroughs you hadn’t before about the time you were trapped? I saw Chase refer to it as a cult. was that difficult to come to terms with for everyone?

It’s a big question and they sit with it for a minute, apparently considering. Quintrell seems to have decided to continue minding her own business, as she doesn’t look up from her phone.

“I think it’s been complicated for everyone,” says Marvin eventually. “We all have picked up some bad habits, and some good ones. I’ve really benefited from EMDR therapy. Talk therapy wasn’t really helpful, but just going back and actually processing some of my fucked-up, broken memories… letting it all come back with someone there to help me through it, yeah, it helps. Always wipes me out for the whole day, of course. But at a certain point you have to start wrapping your brain around some of the shit that’s happened to you.”

He ducks his head. “Then again, I sometimes keep making bad decisions, and then… it’s like, no matter how far along I get, I’m always just Blue again, the second I realize I fucked up. And then it’s like… sometimes feels like… like maybe I’m not getting better at all.”

Chase chatters in the back of the bus, swinging his legs back and forth. “I really like being away from Anti, and just realizing how much I hated him was so big for me, because he always forced me to feel like I loved him. So even after he was gone, I was glad he stopped hurting all of us, but I thought that I missed him. And as time has gone on and I’ve worked through it, I’ve realized I really don’t miss him, at all. He really altered my memory from the constant hypnosis and amnesia right before he died, when he was trying so hard to keep Dapper and I. I still get blanks in my memory and I don’t know that those will ever go away. But I love just feeling alive again and being a part of the world! I love seeing the kids, I love working, I love going out with Ash and feeling like a normal guy and somebody just - just loved, all the time. Everybody in my life is nice to me now, isn’t that crazy? I like it, I like being free of him. My depression still kicks my ass sometimes, but that’s really been coming and going, and when it’s gone, it’s gone! Right now it’s gone. I’m happy. Thinking about making some big decisions in my life, just… embracing the independence.”

He smiles at Henrik, kicking at him a little, trying to keep him out of his head. “What about you? On a normal day, not today.”

Henrik sighs. “Good. I’m good.”

Chase frowns at him and then makes a motion, like he’s asking for more.

“What do you want me to tell them?” Henrik asks, looking suddenly tired. “I stay in the house all day and work? The nightmares still wake me up twice a week at least? It’s fine, I’m well enough. This time last year, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to work at all. I was just…”

“In bed,” Chase mumbles, made sullen by the topic.

Henrik puts his chin in his hand, turning to look out the window. “I couldn’t take care of myself.”

“You’re a lot better than that now.”

“Yes,” agrees Henrik, a little dully.

“You just need a change,” Chase powers on. “Seriously, I think we should talk more about you coming to be a doctor with me at the hospital.”

Henrik glances at him uncertainly. “It would be good to work together again… right?”

“Totally,” says Chase, turning his whole body towards him. “Wouldn’t you like that? We could ease you back into it. The hospital’s great, Schneep, I have a lot of friends there! They’d love you too.”

Henrik gives him this tense, uncertain smile.

“How are you, Jackie?” Max asks, setting his head on his shoulder for a moment. Jackie looks back at him, focusing on his face.

“Good, yeah. I’ve made leaps and bounds. It was the fear, for me, that was the big thing. The longer we were safe, the more the feeling faded. And I used to think that feeling was ‘angry.’ But then I got settled and realized that feeling is 'scared.’ That was my realization. Now I don’t even want to hit anybody anymore, most of the time. I don’t snap at the others, because I don’t feel that they’re in danger all the time. I feel steady when my things are where they should be and everyone does what they’re supposed to.”

Max grins. “Yes… but then that means that when things aren’t where they should be, or we’re running late to work, or you’re too sick to make me dinner one night…”

Jackie scowls. “I don’t like that.”

“And then we kind of end up with Red again.”

Jackie grabs his chin with a little too much intensity. “I want you to have what you need and not get hurt by anyone, ever.”

Max takes his hand and kisses him again. “We work through the difficult days and the thrill-seeking. You’re still my man, even when you’re down.”

Jackie gazes at him fondly, stroking his chin. “Yeah.”

the-earnest-system asked:

Is there something you’re specifically afraid might happen, Scneep?

This deep laugh bubbles out of Henrik, raw and unintentional, and you see him grip at his throat for a second, laughing too hard, while Chase looks disconcerted. “Henrik,” he says.

“Something specific,” Henrik says. “As if! Wouldn’t that be manageable, if I could be scared of something specific? Of something realistic? Or feasible, even? If I was scared of something in specific, I could combat it. I could check if it was really there. I could have safeguards. I could rationalize through it. If I was afraid of something specific, you could teach me to pet a spider and show me that see? It’s not so bad. The fear was not worth having. You touched it. It doesn’t hurt.

"No, I’m not scared of something specific, ever. I’m just scared. People, fences, being outside too long, being thirsty, being trapped, dogs, crowds, porches, dirt on face and hands, my own scars - ”

“Working yourself up,” whispers Chase, touching his hand. “I’m here with you. Count your breaths.”

And Henrik’s quiet for a few minutes, staring out the window.

“My heart rate leaps and I’m there again,” he says finally. “For no reason, for everything. I’m lying on the porch and I can’t move and I hurt all over, and the monster is coming back again whenever he feels like it. I really am trying everything I can to escape my own head. But every day, I feel like a victim. A torture victim, a cult victim. It’s so tiring. And then I make everyone sad around me, and that’s tiring too. Sorry… I’m sorry.”

Chase just frowns at him and holds his arm.

nikkilbook asked:

Hey Jackieboy! I’m glad you get excited about Spider-Man. I know you weren’t sure about liking things for yourself before, so I’m glad you’ve got one of your things back.

I did want to say, just as something to keep in your head, that maybe you could go into this using your awesome brain looking for solutions that don’t end up with somebody dead. You save lives now, right? You’re a firefighter, a hero to so many people, even if they don’t know you. Judging by what you said in the kitchen, the people you’ve had to kill in the past still weigh on you. Sometimes that is the only—and even sometimes the kindest—solution, but you don’t know if that’s the case yet. There are other ways to assist JJ, and I think the ones where no one ends up dead or bloody or broken are worth looking for. You don’t have to wash more blood off your hands. That’s not the only way this can end.

I believe in you, Jackie.

“Yes, please no killing,” says Max, blinking like he’s been smacked in the face.

“I was just trying to express that we are all unwitting bad-asses,” says Jackie.

“You said you’d kill anyone who touched JJ.”

“Hmmm, well. I would.”

“Jackie.”

“But I won’t if there are alternatives,” he says earnestly.

“Sometimes you get worked up.”

“Well, grab me and call me Juice Box and I’ll come back to you.”

He says it so honestly that Max can’t help but smile at him. “Okay.”

Jackie looks down at his hands and sighs. “The adrenaline thing has been a problem for me, sometimes. Had a problem for a while there where I was going out to pick fights for whatever reason I could find. Oh, I think you were there for some of it. I just - I spent so much of my life anticipating danger every single second, I think my brain sometimes wants there to be some just so I can kick it’s ass and then go rest. It’s better these days, mostly, but sometimes I still get myself into some dangerous situations. And then when there isn’t that adrenaline, I get… sick.”

“Numb,” Max suggests.

“I get numb, I rock for hours and get frustrated over little things. I like when something’s going on. Max is good, helps keep me occupied.”

Jackie looks at Max. “Although you have your own shit too.”

Max rubs at his arms and hums. “For the sake of full disclosure. Yes. I worry about you not coming home. I don’t like thinking about living without you again.”

“There’s nothing in the world could stop me coming home to you. Could bring my monster back from the dead and he couldn’t stop me.”

“Does it haunt you? The people you killed?”

Jackie blinks at him. “Nightmares.”

“Yeah?”

“Sometimes. But they’re dead now, it’s done. It was Anti’s fault.”

scunneredzombie asked:

Henrik, you deserve to get that piece of yourself back. The trauma you went through doesn't define you. And you are also not defined and decided by what Chase needs. You also have needs, you are also a life that's worth being lived. You can call him every day if you have to, but I really think you and your mind need this. Sometimes doing what's best for ourself means spending time away from those you love. Video calling and texting and regular phone calls would be there to keep you two as close as possible. You're Chase's twin, yes, but you're also Henrik, your own person.

“I just think we could make some changes,” Chase is saying, on the other side of the bus. “Like, I know you like the therapist, but maybe we need some new meds or something, and if you won’t come work at the hospital with me, let’s at least work on getting you out of the house a bit more - ”

“Chase,” sighs Henrik. “We’ve been through this so many times.”

“Yeah, but you never want to do anything new! Can’t we just, like, go for walks out in the real world sometimes?”

“You know how that makes me feel.”

“Well, talk to me, man, I just don’t want you to get stuck. Isn’t there anything you do want to do?”

Henrik tenses slightly, looking over at his brother. He readjusts in his seat, eyes flicking away and then back to him. He reads through your message.

“Mh… there is kind of one thing I want to do,” he hedges.

“Okay, tell me,” says Chase, pleased.

“It’s just, I don’t know if it would work with your schedule.”

“Dude, I’m sure we can figure it out.”

Henrik stutters out a breath and fiddles with his phone. “I’ve been talking to the Ravens.”

Chase sits up straight, surprised. “Really? From Peru? That’s incredible that you even got in touch with them again.”

“I memorized some phone numbers,” he says. “Look, I trust them a lot. And they asked me if I would come out there again.”

“No way!” Chase grips his arm. “Holy shit! We should! We can go to Peru properly, instead of as hideaways!”

“Yeah?” Henrik flushes red. “I’d love to go with you.”

“I mean, money’s kind of tight - ”

“They said they’ll pay my way.”

“Schneep! This is amazing. Why did you think we couldn’t make it work?”

Henrik clears his throat. “They want me to go for six months.”

Chase pauses.

He scrunches up his face a little bit, tilts his head, frowns. “What will you do for six months?”

“They want me to be a volunteer doctor. In the mountains. Where we, uh. Yeah, in the mountains. A doctor.”

Chase is looking at him, expression shifting rapidly. Finally he just looks away, evidently trying to put his thoughts together.

“You could come with me,” Henrik says, trying to muster some enthusiasm. He really does want that. “You can be my nurse again.”

Chase looks back at him, bewildered. “Henrik. Of course I can’t do that.”

“Oh.”

They look at each other like strangers, brows knotted up.

Anonymous asked:

You don’t need to escape your head, Hen. Your head is just you. Try to see it on the outside, yknow? Your brain suffered a lot, you suffered. And even though you know your safe, your brain still thinks danger is everywhere. You could have died, and that hurts any human brain. Have compassion for… you, your brain. You have a body and your body isn’t at fault. You’re right to want someone to blame for the horror, make sure that your own mind isn’t taking the brunt of that blame. Idk, thinking of my brain as someone who went through the same exact thing, but doesn’t feel safe is good at getting me to be nice to myself. You comfort Chase all the time, you would probably comfort another trauma survivor. Talk to your body like a friend. It was a big help for me in therapy. Slowly learning to tell my brain ‘I’m sorry you’re hurting, I forgive you,’ because really it’s me telling myself that. I think hearing ‘you’re safe, I’m sorry’ from yourself will help with that constant fight or flight sensation.

Henrik sighs out again, more like he’s reminding himself to breathe than anything else, letting himself slump against the window and the side of the bus.

“I get so much good advice and talk so much with my therapist,” he says. “Still my brain keeps acting this way.”

He looks glumly at his reflection in the window for a moment. “My brain shut down,” he says quietly. “Do you remember? I was far away for so long. It protected me. It tries to keep me safe. It just lost track of what’s safe and what’s not. Yeah. I guess we’re both just… surviving.

"I mean, if I stay at home all day, I won’t get tortured again.” He taps his own head for a second. “Perfectly rational - completely ineffective. Please muster some courage, gehirn. I know you can do great things when we’re well. When I’m home alone, maybe I try what you said.”

scunneredzombie asked:

Chase and Henrik, do you feel like you absolutely totally could never spend time apart, or does 6 months of daily phone calls sound no bueno at this point in your healing? I know it’s be hard no matter what, it’s more a logistical “Are we healed enough to try this” question.

“We could spend time apart,” says Chase, voice small.

“We do spend time apart,” agrees Henrik. “We worked really hard to spend time apart.”

“Six months - ”

“It’s a long time.”

“But if you want to do this, I want it for you. I just…”

“What?”

“I don’t understand,” says Chase tightly. “I’ve been trying all year to get you working as a doctor again. And now the Ravens call and you want to go? To a whole different country? You told me you were scared to try doctoring again, but for them - ”

“Chase,” says Henrik. “I hate your hospital, okay? I’m sorry. I could never do that. I could never - never be normal. The Ravens, they know who I am - they pull me through my worst times. Just talking to normal people around a water cooler? Please. They’ll read me for a freak in two seconds.”

“No, man, I had the same fears! I was going to help ease you into it! Why couldn’t you at least try? Like, fuck, are the Ravens even going to pay you?”

“No, it’s volunteer work. What’s wrong with that?”

“Henrik, it sounds like an adventure, but I think you’re just trying to stay in your safety bubble. And what if you get there and you’re just as triggered by blood and medical shit as you are here, and I’m not there to help you?”

Henrik’s eyes water up for a second before he blinks it all away. “I’m not that pathetic,” he croaks.

“I never said -

"If you’re worried then come with me!”

“Henrik, fuck! You know I can’t.”

“I know you like your job, just - ”

“It’s not the fucking job!”

“What, then?”

“It’s my girlfriend, jackass,” says Chase. “Schneep, fuck’s sake! I want to be with her.”

“Oh, Ash,” says Henrik, and he turns away to do that same eye-roll as before. “Ash, of course, what was I thinking? By all means. Ash.”

“Schneep, I swear,” Chase says, a warning there. “I swear.

Anonymous asked:

Hen you don’t have to be jealous of Ash. You know good and well Chase loves you too, I know you do. No one is being chosen over anyone else, I’m certain that’s not what Chase is trying to communicate. You both want to do something important to you but they contradict. That’s all it is. The things you find important should be important to each other, and I know you two would love each other the same even an ocean away. You are allowed to do separate things but never stop loving each other. I know it’s more complicated internally than that, I know. But the scenario has arisen for you to finally each do something you care for, and even if it means doing it apart physically, you both know you’ll meet back at home and still have your twin.

“Oh, jealous!”

Chase starts laughing bitterly as Henrik protests.

“I’m not jealous!”

“I’ve told you that before and you denied it. Took the cameras two hours to fucking peg you for it - ”

“I am not jealous.”

“You can’t stand her, and you know what, it’s totally unfair to her. She has been an angel to you.”

“She thinks I’m your damaged twin psychopath,” Henrik snarls.

Chase’s teeth grit together again. “No, she fucking doesn’t. She’s good to you - ”

“Condescending.”

“I can love you both,” Chase snaps. “So stop being a baby, Schneep, for fuck’s sake.”

“I’ve held my tongue about it for months,” says Henrik sharply. “About her.”

“Oh, really? If that’s holding your tongue, I don’t want to hear you talking.”

Henrik says nothing, arms crossed, looking out the window. They’ve caused enough of a commotion at this point that Marvin is walking back towards them, frowning. “Guys, geez.”

the-earnest-system asked:

Do you not like Ash?

Henrik stares out the window as Marvin comes to stand over them like a referee, and Chase stares at Henrik, daring him to answer.

“Ash is fine,” says Henrik coldly.

“Fine,” snarls Chase. “She’s - ”

“You know what, Chase?” says Henrik, whirling on him, and that’s when Marvin pushes between them, grabbing Henrik’s arm, pulling him back from his brother. “She is fine. She’s fine. I don’t dislike Ash, I don’t hate her, I’m not jealous. I nothing Ash. She’s boring.”

You’ve never seen Chase make exactly the face he makes in that moment, something hurt and furious and thrown onto the floor like a rag-doll all at the same time.

“That’s enough, Henrik,” says Marvin firmly. “You are overwhelmed, you’re triggered - ”

“Don’t make excuses for me,” hisses Dok. “You want to talk about a safety bubble, Chase? Your little veterinary girlfriend with the trust fund and two brothers who live in Dublin and work in finance, who loves roadtrips and Overwatch - ”

Marvin yanks Henrik away from Trick, pulling him sharply to the other side of the bus and sitting him down.

Anonymous asked:

You alright Chase?

Chase sits in the back alone, folding his arms around himself. He glances out the window, back to you, and then up at Jackie, who’s looking at him with a thumbs up. Chase thinks about giving him a thumbs down - he knows Jackie would come sit with him and probably squeeze him til he bruised - but this is a damn bus, and they’ll be there in five minutes, and he thinks he better just take a second to be alone. He gives Jackie a thumbs up.

“I knew he didn’t like her,” he tells you finally. “Never thought he’d say it out loud, though. And it’s worse because… she does think he’s kind of weird, and - and… I don’t know. She’s nice about it. But she doesn’t know how to handle him, and he doesn’t know how to handle her.”

A shadow falls on his face and he closes his eyes. He starts playing with something in the inner pocket of his jacket, and for just a second you catch a glimpse of it - a small black box.

“How am I supposed to do this without him?” he whispers to himself.

the-earnest-system asked:

What kind of romantic relationship would you want for Chase?

“I don’t know,” he says.

He’s managed to work himself up properly now, and Marvin is shushing him and petting at his hair, not so different from what Chase did for him an hour ago. “What do I know?” Henrik says, voice angry and tremulous at the same time, eyes full of tears. His breaths come in ragged pulls for air. “I don’t get what anyone wants from a romantic relationship. What’s so great? What’s so worthwhile about any of it?

"Chase knows the risks anyway, and he still wants some girl who’s not good enough for him, just because she’s pretty and nice to him. He’s always falling in love. What about the last girl, who pressured him to have sex and scared the hell out of him? And Stacy, who nearly destroyed him? Why does he give them the power? He should stay home with me. I can’t watch my brother try to kill himself again over a girl - ”

Henrik chokes on a sob and Marvin grabs him, pushing the camera slightly away, whispering to him to come back on him, to focus on something concrete, to breathe.

“They’re fine, Henrik,” Marvin is telling, slightly laughing in this confused, horrified way. “She’s good to him, and she knows he’s been through some shit. Chase can decide what he wants. You’re catastrophizing, you know? The sort of illogical leap your shrink schools you on? They are just fine.”

“Max knew Anti,” Henrik is still explaining to you, as he clings to Marvin’s sleeves. There’s about five other people on this bus and they’re all pretending not to notice any of this. “Max knew Jackie before Anti, saw Jackie during Anti, all of it. Max knows. The Ravens know. But Ash - she’s just some person, she’s normal, she’s boring, what does she know? She’s going to realize, one day, how fucked up we all are, and then she’ll hurt my brother. She should go away.”

Henrik presses his face into Marvin’s stomach, whimpering. “I take care of my brother. We’re not normal. Nobody else knows, just us. Just us.”

scunneredzombie asked:

Don’t let yourself get stuck in the ‘no one understands but my family’ again Henrik. Hey, have you thought about ever looking into support groups for people who have gone through things exactly like you have? Cult survivors, torture survivors. I think it would let you see that there are people who get it who aren’t ‘us’. Anti used in-grouping on you guys a lot, so thinking this way in extremes makes sense but it’s not helpful to you.

“Oh, right, like any of them would know,” Henrik begins, but Marvin cuts him off.

“Schneep! There are people who get it. The cameras are right, you can’t talk like everyone else is an outsider. That’s how you wind up with - ”

Henrik looks up at him darkly, rubbing tears from his face. “With no friends, stuck at home?”

“With depression,” says Marvin carefully. “Listen to them for a second, Henrik. Anti was the one who taught us that other people are outsiders we can’t trust. We don’t have to live that way. There are good people in the world.”

“But not ones who understand.”

“Ones who understand parts of it, Schneep, big parts, the abuse and the cult escape and even the torture, my love. The PTSD and the terror. I know what it’s like to have your brain telling you the rest of the world wants to destroy you, but you can’t let yourself come to believe that, treasure, you just can’t.”

“I don’t want to talk anymore,” whispers Henrik.

“I’ll get you an Uber when we stop and you can go rest at Jackie’s.”

“No!” cries Henrik instantly, looking up with his face red. “No, I am damn sure not staying at home while you go marching off to get JJ without me. What if he’s hurt?”

“Chase is a nurse, Henrik. You need to prioritize yourself if this is overwhelming.”

“No, I’m going,” spits Henrik, positively sulking now, clinging to Marvin’s shirt. “I’m going to get my little brother.”

scunneredzombie asked:

Have you worked on loving yourself as Blue too, Marvin? Do you feel more whole after the therapy you’ve had, more connected to yourself and ok in your body?

Marvin sits back heavily beside Henrik and sighs out, rubbing his brother’s back.

“Blue,” he says, thinking it over. “Blue is… my magic. My protectiveness. My secret. My ferocity. My care-giving. My survival instinct. Yes… I think I feel more whole, more at peace with the Blue parts of me. I’m so glad to have had that part of me that helped us all get free of Anti - that killed him in the end. I have just had to learn to balance those parts of me with the ones that help me function in the rest of the world, the ones that recognize that not everyone is a threat.”

Marvin looks pointedly at Schneep, who ignores him.

“I like to get massages,” Marvin says after a moment. “Does that sound silly? I like to get massages and feel my whole body like one piece. And feel solid and safe. And I like my EMDR therapy where I just feel whatever I feel, and Blue can come out as much as he needs, and talk about how he protected me and what scared him.”

Marvin looks down at his free hand, humming.

“And I think I’m very beautiful again,” he adds softly, and smiles at you so brightly his whole face alights.

And he is.

the-earnest-system asked:

Oh chase buddy what’s that box? You haven’t even told her about the magic stuff yet

“Alright,” snaps Chase. “I already got it from Henrik, I don’t need it from you.”

He gets up and goes to sit next to Quintrell, who looks at him and then back down at her phone.

“You regretting taking us with you?” asks Chase.

Quintrell chuckles. “You think I don’t understand crazy, over-powered, magic-entangled families? Please.”

Crazy isn’t generally considered a nice word in their family, but Chase thinks he can let that one slide.

Anonymous asked:

Sounds like a story, Q darling 👀

“One for the ages,” she says, and then slides down in her seat to bury herself in her phone.

“Oh, come on,” laughs Chase, trying to recover himself. “At least give me a hint.”

“I told too much to your little brother already.”

“He can be very persuasive.”

“He thinks he’s cute, that’s the problem.”

“That is the problem. You should see my older brothers try to tell him no.”

She grins at him with her malformed canines. “Pansies.”

“Definitely.”

She scrolls through something on her screen.

“You’re not the only one with a monster for a brother, that’s all you need to know.”

scunneredzombie asked:

I love that you love so easily Chase, genuinely. You have so much hope in people, and that’s a virtue. I think that, after what Anti put you through, if you think you love someone that much I totally trust you. I hope we do get to meet Ash, she sounds nice despite her normal person syndrome. (kidding)

Chase manages to laugh, running his fingers through his hair. “I like that she has normal person syndrome. She feels like a new start. She just likes me how I am. And it doesn’t hurt that she has no shortage of sympathy for the shit I’ve been through.

"Anyway, she’s a special person. Whip-smart but really sly, my Ash. And she’s got this particular way her mouth curves up when she grins, and you just - she just - she breaks through clouds like the sun does. I like Ash a lot.”

Anonymous asked:

if you don’t mind me asking, what’s JJ been up to since we last saw him… aside from planning to take down a group of magicians

-🪷

“JJ,” says Jackie, stuffing his own phone in his pocket. “What has my JJ been up to? He’s a little church-going citizen, he made some friends at his Deaf support group, he worked in a wildlife preserve, then a movie theater, then a college, then an aquarium. He likes to roast nuts and bake with Chase, he goes swimming in the pond outside our house, he listens to all sorts of different music, he draws really well - obsessively, sometimes - and every now and then I think he needs to prove his independence, and he’ll run off with some friends or disappear for a day or two with no warning.”

Jackie taps his chin thoughtfully. “We all consider Jam to be his cat now. I like to come by his room when he’s reading and find him there, stretched out on his bed with the cat on his chest, and I’ll ask him what he’s up to, and he tells me about his book - Death Comes for the Archbishop, the Just City, Fifteen Dogs. He and Henrik like to argue about literature at the kitchen table. JJ puts caramel in his coffee. He has a sweet tooth. He talks about Anti sometimes, and then we all start talking about things we remember from that time, things we usually keep quiet, and we all get some stuff off our chests. He takes a new anti-psychotic and it makes him less twitchy than the other one, so he finally looks at rest when he’s sleeping. He wears gauges again.”

Max watches fondly as Jackie recites these facts about JJ like he was born knowing them.

Anonymous asked:

We got an update on everyone but JJ so, well, has he been healing and processing things too? I know it was still difficult for him when we left off. Still seeing the Deaf group, going to therapy and all? How has he been with interaction outside the family?

“JJ sees a psychiatrist,” says Jackie. “And the same therapist as Henrik. But he says he worries the shrink thinks he’s always delusional. Sometimes JJ has a hard time talking only about the things that normal people know about. He doesn’t like that he can’t bring up the magic things. It messes with his sense of reality.”

Jackie looks down at his lap. “I thought he was doing really well. The others worry that he keeps quitting jobs, but I don’t care. He can come and go if he gets bored. Why does it matter? But then he stopped taking his meds a while back, and I felt scared-angry. And I grabbed him too tight and left red marks on his wrists, and I felt bad, but he was signing like he was going to hurt himself.”

He sighs deeply. “He says he wants to feel like himself again. But the meds are what stabilize him. He can’t stop taking them. I don’t know what else I can give him but medication and the chance to choose his life from here.

"He has a couple tight friends, but mostly he gets to know people and then drifts away from them again. He says he can’t be open with them the way he wants. He’s not ashamed to have mutism, but it doesn’t make it easy for him: there’s always a degree of separation if you don’t have a translator, and that feeling of being ostracized is very… he’s very sensitive to that. The feeling of being different. He doesn’t want to be in the attic listening to everyone else. He wants to be with people who hear him and see him.”

Jackie looks briefly proud. “See? He tells me these things. I’m a good big brother now.”

Anonymous asked:

also, chase, if im remembering right you were planning on showing ash the magic by taking her to the house and showing her

do you have, and I don’t mean to harp on it or demean you, but do you have a plan for what to do if it goes wrong?

-🪷

Chase puffs out a breath. “Damn… if it goes wrong. It’ll be over, I guess. I mean, I’ll start her with Marvin’s garden. Who can be scared of that? And maybe once she’s seen Marvin casting, I’ll take her to the Lapwings, who are nice. We just… have to break her in slowly.”

He pauses and wrings his hands together. “And if she goes, then she goes. I don’t want her to be wrapped up in all this if it’s not what she wants, anyway.”

scunneredzombie asked:

Henrik, you don’t have to do this. I know you’re upset and that you’re nearer to a mindset where all of you have to be together when someone is in danger, but… It’s not good for you. You’re hurting yourself right now. Do you feel that this is something you can push through, or will this set you back in therapy to the point it’s not a healthy action. Would your therapist let you do this if they knew how upset it’s making you?

And no, Henrik, going home doesn’t make you pathetic either, as an addendum. You’re not pathetic or cowardly or anything like that. You need to know your limits or you could retraumatize yourself. Like someone else says, you really need to be nice to your brain.

Henrik takes methodical breaths as he sees Quintrell pull the line for their stop ahead, looking up at Marvin guiltily.

“You want me to call you a ride?” asks Marvin, his phone ready in his hand.

Henrik shakes his head no.

“Schneep…”

“I’m not upset because of this stuff with JJ,” Henrik manages. “I just worked myself up talking to Chase. That’s separate, it doesn’t matter. And I - I’m not pathetic. I’m the one who fought against Anti before any of you were ready, me.”

“Okay, good,” says Marvin. “But would your therapist approve of this?”

“My therapist is not here,” says Henrik stiffly, and he rises to exit the bus. “Just let me do this. I will rest when we have JJ.”

Marvin looks at him sternly, getting to his feet, and he says something, then, that they try to save only for the most necessary occasions: “Ask your big brother.”

Henrik tenses and looks at Jackie, who’s already hopping off the bus, pulling Max along behind him.

scunneredzombie asked:

Oh yeah it was nice to suggest what your therapist would think, Jackie will look at you with big worrying loving eyes and stare at you like you’re the damsel of the hour and you’ll be so overcome with sappy brotherly love that you go right home

“No, no, no,” Henrik growls. “I am going. Jackie can’t boss me around.”

Categorically untrue.

They exit the bus and Quintrell starts leading them down a block, into a progressively shadier part of town as they go. There are restaurants and a park, then pawn shops and liquor stores, and before long they’re approaching a dry cleaner’s that looks like it hasn’t been open in about ten years.

“What’s the problem?” asks Jackie, as Marvin catches up to him and intertwines their arms.

“Your little brother had the start of a panic attack on the bus.”

“Well, he hates public transport, what did we expect?”

“He was rude to Chase.”

Jackie stops to look at Henrik. “Were you rude to Chase?”

The twins are ignoring each other, allowing Max to divide them on the sidewalk.

“Yes,” says Henrik sullenly.

“Chase, were you rude?”

Chase shoves his hands in his pockets. “Only a quarter as rude as Henrik.”

“You two can talk it out later. Apologize.”

Henrik kicks something on the pavement. “Sorry.”

Chase doesn’t answer.

“Schneep, you want to go home?”

“No,” snarls Henrik. “I won’t. I’m going to stay and help keep you dumbasses alive.”

“You won’t be doing that if you flip your shit inside a stranger’s magical house, Schneep.”

Henrik’s practically stomping his foot. “I’m going.”

“Figure it out,” calls Quintrell. “I’m going to step aside and see if everyone’s around. If they see me, I’ll have to make conversation, so just wait for as long as I take. Hopefully five minutes, we’ll see.”

She slips into the laundromat. Jackie approaches Henrik and wraps an arm around him conspiratorially, putting their backs to you and speaking to him in a low voice. Henrik slumps against his body for a second, mumbling back.

“You think he should come?” asks Marvin skeptically, turning to Chase.

Chase sighs. “If we send him home now, he’ll just flip out alone, and he’ll be telling us for days we don’t think he’s capable of anything anymore.”

“Yeah, that’s been tender.”

Jackie turns around with Henrik, releasing him. “He’ll come. No more arguing though.”

Marvin gives his big brother a look, but no one argues.

“So this is the place,” says Max, wandering around the cleaner’s. “Is there more to it inside?”

“We are all familiar with magic portals,” says Henrik, straightening his rumpled jacket. “The Ravens, too, hid in the open.”

Anonymous asked:

I wonder if it’ll be a mirror or if they use something different in Britain?

“Psst!”

They all look up as Quintrell beckons them, following her in and ducking into the dusty laundromat. No mirrors here - it’s just a dusty laundromat.

“Downstairs,” she says, and she leads them towards a set of stairs covered by a wooden slat, which she pulls away.

“I saw one of the three magicians in his study, just pacing,” she says. “The other two, I didn’t see, and I don’t know where JJ is. If they have him, they could have him in the second lower level - but I’m not allowed down there, and I’m not even sure how to get to it. Been a magician here my whole life, but I’m not elite enough for Creighton…”

She bounces down the stairs and turns to see why the others aren’t following her. “It’s through here.”

Jackie and Marvin gape at her at the top of the stairs. It’s a rickety staircase made of rotting wood, which seems to sway even with no air flow down here. Cement lines the floor beneath it, and though there’s only one flickering lightbulb, they can still see them: thousands of enormous centipedes, writhing over each other on the dark, cold floor, which is damp with mold and water. An open wire from the light hovers dangerously near a puddle of wetness at the corner of the room.

“Mission cancelled,” says Jackie, reaching back to cover Chase’s eyes like he’s hiding a nude video from a kid.

Quintrell rolls her eyes hard enough to rival Henrik. “It’s an illusion, geniuses. Get down here. All you have to do is reach out and touch it, and it will go away.”

scunneredzombie asked:

Well to be fair that illusion works fantastically. Almost no one would consider going down there.

“Yeah, I think maybe they can keep JJ,” says Marvin.

“Screw this, I’m from India,” says Max, pushing through them. “I’m not afraid of bugs. Ah! There’s one on the stairs!”

A centipede leaps up onto his shoe and starts its way up his pants. Max yelps and Jackie leaps down to him, quickly brushing it away - then he stops, blinking.

“Oh,” he says. “It does go away.”

Max clings to Jackie for a second, staring down at the bugs around his feet. He steels himself and reaches down - putting his hand right in the middle of the centipedes. “Whoa,” he says, apparently oblivious to the ones now crawling up his sleeve.

“This I must see,” says Henrik, and they all make their way down, even though it takes everybody a gut-wrenching moment to reach out and touch the things that aren’t real.

“The cameras say they can see them too,” says Chase.

“Here,” says Marvin.

He holds up his hand to you and you can see a centipede squirming on his palm. Marvin blinks at something he can’t see in his own hand, and then, in one motion, squishes it. But there’s no nasty crunch or guts running between his fingers. It’s just not there anymore.

You’re in a cool, quiet room with a large wooden door. Quintrell has already unlocked it with a small brass key she carries on her. Through the door, a whole home exists there beneath the laundromat, large enough it must extend beneath the other buildings too. It’s the layout of a completely normal house - if you made the house underground like a dwarf. A large gathering space invites the boys inside, rings of couches accompanied by a pool table and a bar, but there are hallways to the right and left as well.

“And we have no clue where JJ is,” breathes Marvin. “Is that right?”

Quintrell listens carefully, peering off to the right. “The magician’s in the study down there. We have to avoid him. He may be the most powerful one of all of them.”

Anonymous asked:

Getting past someone with a big group will be hard, is there an alternative path or a way to hide yourselves?

“There’s lots of paths, looks like, but where are we going?” asks Chase.

“We could split up,” says Marvin. “I’ll put some vines in the walls and start looking for hidden entrances. Jackie, you could hack into their system - maybe they have tech in the hidden room and you could find it? Or camera-views? Quintrell, could you talk to the other magician and ask if something’s going on?”

“Hm,” she says. “Possibly. He trusts me. But then he will know I’m here, one way or another.”

Anonymous asked:

Oh, thank you, Marvin! Very considerate. If you don't touch them, does this whole place look all buggy even now - never mind, other priorities. Is there any way to track magical signature? I guess they'll probably be hiding it, but now that we're in their base? By hacking, can Jackie pinpoint, like, any control room or way of seeing what's happening anywhere in the base?

“I think the illusion is only in that entryway,” says Quintrell. “It would take Mateos a lot of energy to keep the whole place buggy, so he only places them where needed.”

“I don’t have the tech to track JJ’s signature,” says Jackie. “But sure, if you want me to find out if there are cameras here or if the wi-fi extends somewhere weird, I’ll look.”

“I’ll take you to the records room to do that where they won’t find you, then,” says Quintrell. “Creighton says he doesn’t do paperwork on weekends.”

Anonymous asked:

It could be fine if he knows you’re here Quintrell, you could keep him distracted pretty easily while the others sneak about. But it depends if you think you having no cover is worth it in this one or if the boys will need your personal help as they navigate.

“Alright,” says Quintrell. “Give me one of your magic cameras and I’ll go ask him what’s going on.”

“We shouldn’t leave you all alone,” says Marvin. “I’ll wait outside while you speak to him, in case he gets angry. Must be a closet or something I can hide in.”

“What about us, then?” asks Henrik, crossing his arms beside Max and Chase.

“I’ll go with Jackie to hack,” says Chase tersely.

“We could look around while you distract the magician,” says Max.

“Okay, everyone just keep a camera on them. Cameras, tell us right away if someone gets in trouble,” says Jackie. “And no hero business - if you find something out, tell everyone.”

Quintrell takes Jackie and Chase back to the records room, letting them inside, and then she and Marvin head towards the magician, down the hallway to the right.

Max and Henrik look at each other, left standing between the hallways to the left and the right.

“Which way do you want to start?” asks Max.

“This is not efficient or safe,” says Henrik. “This cannot be what JJ meant.”

Anonymous asked:

I agree, Hen, though JJ really didn't leave a lot to go off of... He said, what, left, forward, right, and then stairs? And then not to follow him? But he also said not to look in the drawer and then you immediately did... Hen, if you were in JJ's position (as much as we know about it), how would you give instructions, knowing you were talking to the rest of your brothers?

“Did he say that?” asks Max. “Jackie and I really missed the starting points here.”

Henrik’s already sweeping past him to the left. Three doors - he moves forward through the central one.

Max observes the place as they go, trying to remember how to see with a detective’s eyes, although that wasn’t the happiest time for him. Then again, it’s where he found Jackie.

The office - home? clubhouse? - of the magical society is done up with dark wood and paintings of countrysides on the walls. There’s nothing to mark it as particularly magical. There are meeting rooms and an entertainment center with big TVs, and a kitchen lined in gleaming silver appliances.

“Was the place in Peru like this?” asks Max. “With the magicians who protected you there?”

“No,” says Henrik immediately. “No, that place was a home. It was always full of people - kids, families. The young ones called their leader Mama. There was nothing fancy, but there were as many bedrooms as they could ever need, and a big table in the sun where everyone ate together. Pianos and a courtyard to kick a ball around. Nothing underground, nothing cold. Here, right.”

Henrik pushes into the door to the right and finds -

A bathroom.

He stands in the doorway, hands clenching together.

It’s clean, but not unused, a white bathroom with a big shower and a small closet for towels. The mirror on the wall is not large enough for anyone to go through, and there are extra paper rolls next to the toilet. Someone’s put a small statue of a bird in one corner. That’s all.

Henrik strikes the sink countertop with his hand, anger tightening his features. “Something is wrong,” he spits. “Something has not gone according to JJ’s plan. There are no stairs here. My brother - if they’ve taken him somewhere else, somewhere he didn’t expect, if he doesn’t have the energy to turn back time again - ”

Henrik pauses to close his eyes and breathe for a moment, turning away from your view.

Max examines the room carefully. He pulls open the towel closet to find that there’s nothing inside: the shelf is broken in half, and no one has bothered to repair it. It’s dusty and smells like mildew. The mirror opens too, and there is toothpaste and aspirin inside. Leaning down to look at the linoleum floor, he sees a scuffed mark on the ground that might be the edge of a shoeprint. Someone at an office might wear shoes into the bathroom, but why were they stepping so hard they left a mark here, but not in the hallway? He tilts his head. The shoeprint might even drag slightly. Like someone slipped or was pulled.

Max goes back into the hallway, but he doesn’t see any other right turns. There are no stairs.

scunneredzombie asked:

What do you think JJ meant, Schneep? He seemed to mean you guys should follow Quin and break in, but you know him very well and if you have theories we’d love to hear. Anything helps right now!

“No, I think we’re right so far, I think he wanted us to come here after him,” says Henrik. “And I think he would throw himself into danger without hesitation if he… if he knew we were coming after.”

His voice is fond for a second. “So adult now. But he has never lost the sense that we would drop anything for him and come running. Spoiled… No more banging on the attic floor wishing someone would come hold him. He knows he is loved, these days.”

scunneredzombie asked:

Wait, is something in the bathroom another illusion??

Henrik looks up with new eyes. Max comes back to the door beside him, glancing down at your message.

Schneep turns in a slow circle, eyes flickering. He touches the wall of the shower. Nothing changes.

“Touch it and it will go away,” he murmurs.

The back wall. “No. It would have to be somewhere hidden in the open. Somewhere no one would touch. Like… a broken closet.”

He opens the door to that dusty towel closet.

“Call the others,” he says.

Henrik touches the broken shelf. It disappears beneath his fingers, and there, descending into a dim corridor far below, is a long set of stairs.

Anonymous asked:

Ding ding ding!!! Henrik and Max found the passage! Head back to the main room, go left, take the middle door, then door to the right. :) How's hacking going? Did we start talking to the guy?

“Did they find something? Thank God. The boredom was killing me.”

“We’ve been doing this for fifteen minutes, Chase,” Jackie replies, his laptop on somebody’s desk. “Hey, are you seeing this? There is a camera in here, but look at the name it’s under.”

Chase, who had been rifling through a set of documents he definitely broke something to find, glances over at the screen. “It’s just a bunch of random letters and numbers, Jackie.”

“It’s the name of one of our cameras,” says Jackie. “Not one of the ones we brought with us, but one of ours nonetheless. Did JJ bring one with him? But he didn’t turn it on. The cameras would have told us if they could see him.”

“Whatever you say, whiz kid. Hey, is this weird? It’s an arrest record at the end of a report about how someone’s society fees weren’t being paid. I think they set this guy up because he wasn’t sending them money.”

“Let’s just get to JJ and figure the rest out from there.”

They take off towards the others.

the-earnest-system asked:

Schneep and Max found something! They went left, forward, and right and then found some stairs covered by an illusion. Like JJ said!

On the other side of the complex, Quintrell is stalking out of the study. Marvin slips out of his hiding place, which is, coincidentally, another bathroom. “So?”

“He lied through his teeth to me,” she says darkly. Her braid has started coming loose and there are curls flying around her face. “That’s all he ever does anymore. He says there hasn’t been anything strange here all day. He’s so reliant on his magic he can’t lie at all. Not to me.”

Marvin frowns at her. “Are you good for this? Like, head on straight?”

She turns to frown back at him. “Of course it is. Come on. Looks like they found something.”

scunneredzombie asked:

Oh man, getting closer! I really hope he’s okay. On a side not it’s so so good to hear he knows he’s loved now. I think he deserves a little spoiling. Ultimate little brother after all!

“We think he’s down here?” asks Jackie, checking with everyone around him, getting nods in return.

“These were his directions,” says Henrik.

“And I have never been told about this entrance,” Quintrell adds. “If they’re holding someone - and I know they have held people against their will before - it will be down here.”

“If you go down here,” Jackie tells her, “you go down here to fight. I don’t care if they’re your old allies or not. You aligned yourself with JJ, and he trusted you enough to connect you with us. I will use whatever force I haven’t to to protect my… ultimate little brother. Do you understand that?”

His seriousness has cleared away her veneer of irritation. She looks up at him with wide, surprised eyes, but when she nods, she means it. “I’m with you.”

“If anyone wants to turn back, do it now,” says Jackie, not unkindly. “We’ll come get you afterwards.”

No one moves, his brothers and husband circled around him. Jackie nods. “Kiss for luck?”

Max pulls him towards him just for a second, pressing their mouths together. “Let’s go, Juice Box.”

“Okay, then, tiger, here we go.”

He heads down the stairs with his computer in his backpack, and an old black fighting staff in his right hand.

Anonymous asked:

what's the guy's name that was set up?

“I didn’t recognize it,” Chase whispers. “A Greek name, I think. There were lots of files up there - money records, but also stuff about people’s families and where they lived, and info about the societies in other countries. I didn’t look through all of it.”

Anonymous asked:

(Marv? Are you able to quietly tell if the really dangerous magician might have done something. Like. Subtle to Q? Like seeing through her eyes or affecting her actions or anything?)

Marvin smiles begrudgingly, signing at you as Quintrell walks in front of him. “I have only the fire and the plant life. Magicians can cast other spells if they learn the correct words, symbols, or methods set in place by a magician who once had the powers they seek - I know, it’s a little complicated - but I don’t have access to any sort of mind-reading. Even if I could, I… have learned the dangers of that kind of power. I prefer to stay out of people’s heads.”

But he touches Quintrell’s shoulder anyway, pulling her back, just for a moment. “Hey. Are you sure he didn’t do anything to you?”

Quintrell shakes her head. “He never would. He doesn’t tell me the truth about anything anymore, but he would never use his power on me. He swore that a long time ago.”

Marvin doesn’t let her go right away. “Who is he to you?”

Her gaze falls to the ground. “Can’t we deal with the magicians down here first? JJ knows what he needs to know. That’s enough.”

Marvin lets her go, sighing through his nose.

Anonymous asked:

We're cheering you guys on!! Game faces on - but do remember you're here to save JJ and then take on the corrupt guys at the top. Probably plenty of people, if you run into more, are like Quintrell and are ready for a change. Step slightly and surely

The floor of the second level underground is smooth, blue, untiled concrete, slick enough you could slide on it in socks.

Jackie’s boots connect solidly, quietly, with the floor. He steps forward.

This is a smaller area than the one above them. There is a small office, and then a row of three empty cells, all of them visible through heavy glass doors. There are security cameras in each one, but the first two aren’t on. Makes sense - there’s no one inside those cells.

“That’s what you’ve said,” comes a deep, clear voice at the end of the hall. “But it doesn’t explain how you found this place.”

Silence in reply. Jackie’s throat tightens. He steps towards the cell at the end as quietly as possible, crouching down as he gets close, coming to a stop beside the third glass door.

“I don’t believe you for a second,” the voice continues, harsher now, probably spitting. “You’re playing games with me. If you won’t tell me the truth, I’ll bring someone down here who can take it from you whether or not you are willing to part with it.”

Jackie moves his head slowly, ducking forward just enough to see a man in a grey suit jacket moving inside the cell, bent over to speak to someone at a small silver table. He has an accomplice, a tall, hardy man with dark skin and careless, cold eyes, who’s standing, only half-engaged in the conversation, in the corner of the cell.

Jackie pauses to look back at Quintrell, holding up his hands to sign. “A white man in a grey suit,” he says. “And a dark man in the corner.”

She nods. “Creighton and Mateos,” she spells out to him. “The leader and the illusionist. See, this place is so exclusive even I have never been allowed down here. They should be the only two we encounter down here - and they are definitely at the top of the corruption. Old men, set in their ways, cruel men who chose every step they’ve taken. They deserve more than we could ever do to them.”

Jackie nods and looks back again. He has to verify that JJ’s in there, has to see him.

Anonymous asked:

Good luck everyone, keep each other safe

Jackie stares back into the room from the bottom of the glass door, feeling his friends around him. Creighton moves soon enough, revealing more of the table to Jackie, and he draws back his hand -

And strikes Jameson hard.

Jackie sees white in his vision, just for a moment, and he feels Marvin at his side, gripping his arm.

JJ’s seated at that silver table, head knocked against it from the force of the blow. His nice black jacket is torn, his backpack thrown aside and discarded. There’s a legal pad in front of him, an almost insulting attempt to force him to communicate, seeing as one of his hands is fully chained to the chair behind his back - and over his throat, there’s a band of silver, too thick for a choker, coated in markings Jackie has never seen before, and held together by a padlock better suited for a storage unit.

Jackie’s eyes water. He remembers what it’s like to be collared too.

“Marvin,” he signs. “We go in blazing. Bring the door down.”

Marvin smiles wickedly, a flame lighting up in his right hand, vines crawling into his left. As Jackie turns back towards the door, you see JJ raising up his head, his expression completely calm. Blood runs from his broken nose.

He sees you and he smiles.

Anonymous asked:

Fuck-a you, magical prejudiced ballsacks!!!!!

“You stole my line,” Marvin whispers to you, and then he gets to his feet.

The door goes down in a burst of ravaging vines and a little fire (mostly just for effect), but Jackie’s anger is a force of its own as he moves into the cell, that black staff flashing. As Creighton turns to look at him in shock, Jackie brings it down - but it never quite touches. Creighton’s eyes light up with a ring of cyan light, and Jackie feels a force hit him in the stomach and send him falling backwards. Marvin’s at his back, slashing a line of thorns across the room, but Creighton gasps and blocks these from himself too, letting the spikes embed in the wall around him.

“Marvin Ahearn,” Creighton breathes, and somehow the anger in his face grows even worse. “They told me you returned to your bog throne. I should have known the lot of you would turn against us one day.”

“Oh, you’ve got me wrong, old man,” says Marvin. His own amnesia doesn’t even factor in here. If he and Creighton were enemies before Anti, all the better. “There’s no politics to this: I’m here on a purely personal vendetta today. Step away from my brother.”

“You ally yourself with creatures touched by corruption. He’s no longer fully human.”

“You’re the only corruption here, Creighton,” says Quintrell, and despite everything, there’s a fervor to her voice, a delight, as she finally stands against him. “In your paranoia, you have driven away and excluded dozens of magicians who would otherwise have helped you. Now, you’re all but alone in this building.”

“Traitor girl, turning against me after all I’ve done for you? You should know better, Adrienne - and as you’ll soon find, I don’t need anyone but Cedar and Mateos.”

Creighton strikes. Quintrell is flung back through the air, and if Chase didn’t leap forward to intercept her, she would have been thrown against the cement wall. Henrik moves forward, trying to get close to JJ.

“The other one’s disappeared!” he shouts. “An illusion!”

It’s true, Jackie realizes: Mateos is nowhere to be soon. “Max, guard the door! He can’t leave without going through you, and if you touch him, you’ll see him.”

Max barricades the door with his hands out-stretched, waiting for a blow to come.

scunneredzombie asked:

Light it up red, team! Make sure you get one of them to tell you how that collar comes off. And remember one is an illusionist so don’t believe everything you see!

Henrik tries to push towards JJ, but he comes up against a wall of energy. He yells and pounds his fist against it - yeah, that’s real. “Let me to my brother!” he shouts. Creighton sneers at him and Marvin comes to his side, wreathed in flame.

“I don’t need to be able to get to you to hurt you,” he warns, and his flames begin on the other side of the cell, blue with heat and trickling towards Creighton. “You’re outnumbered, old man.”

“I will throw you all like ragdolls til your necks break,” says Creighton. “I’ll twist you into pretzels and mush you into meat pies.”

Chase is pressed back against the wall as if a door has appeared to crush him, and he gasps as his chest starts to feel tight, pressing his hands up to try and push it back. Jackie turns to look at him, only to feel his arm grabbed and twisted behind his back, making him shout and drop the staff. Marvin gasps as the same power tries to pick him up from the floor, but he grabs Henrik and stabilizes them both with strong vine, holding his brother close.

“Pretty cool, Magneto,” Chase manages to shout. “But you are bluffing and we all know it. See, we’ve been pinned down by magic before, and let me tell you something I know to be true: Jack always knew that five would be too many to hold at once.”

“He’s right,” says Max, realizing that there’s no power touching him. “You don’t have the strength to hurt us all.”

Re-invigorated, Marvin doubles his fire, and Creighton turns as the heat becomes painful. Jackie slips out of his power and grabs his staff, lunging forward, and for a moment, he’s able to connect: he strikes Creighton hard in the head, vengeance for JJ, and makes him yell out. Jackie’s shoved back a second later, but the headway’s possible with the right opportunity, and he’ll do it again, and again, and again, til this tyrant goes down.

Quintrell pulls Chase from behind the telekinetic door, and they move forward, dodging blows from forces they can’t see, like planks of energy being thrown towards them. Henrik begins feeling along the wall made by Creighton’s distracted concentration, and finally he’s at JJ’s side, grabbing his chair to try and pull him towards safety - but the damn thing’s bolted to the ground. “I got you, James, I’m here.”

scunneredzombie asked:

Could one of your cameras be with him, but in the hands of someone else right now? Someone who doesn’t know how to turn it on?

JJ looks up at Henrik, smiling softly, his one free hand giving a little wave. Henrik touches his face tentatively, trying to be sensitive of his bleeding lip and nose, his eye ringed in a bright red and purple bruise, while his cheek bleeds from a cut. He was struck more than once, maybe thrown around the same as they’re being thrown now.

Henrik tries to ignore Marvin’s fire and his siblings converging on Creighton, grabbing his brother chained wrist. He doesn’t have any way to break it, but he wants JJ out of here.

It’s as he’s looking down at him that he sees a small gleam of light. Adjusting his glasses, he sees one of the tiniest cameras Anti ever gave them, smaller than a gopro, clipped discreetly onto JJ’s pocket.

And it’s as he looks up that Henrik sees a man appear in front of him, a gun pointing at his face.

He freezes solidly, one arm still wrapped around JJ’s shoulder, holding his brother to him.

“Don’t you fucking move,” says Mateos, cocking his handgun. “Do you know how many of your friends I could mow down before they could do a damn thing about it? Do you want to die right here?”

Henrik closes his eyes for a second, stroking JJ’s arm. “Schneep!” he hears one of his siblings shout.

Anonymous asked:

The more hits to the skull the weaker his magic will get, I figure. Go nuts Jackie.

Creighton’s telekinesis is like being in the middle of an invisible tornado, and Chase gasps as he’s thrown to the ground for a second time, his chin striking hard against the concrete this time. “Ow,” he whimpers, but he pushes back to his feet. For all that the attack feels constant, the truth is, it’s a chaotic scramble from a cornered man: and they’re pushing through it, while Creighton is being cornered by the fire.

Marvin’s shoving him back against the wall with vines, managing to smack his head against the wall, when Chase hears Jackie cry out. Everyone seems to freeze for a moment, Creighton and his power included, and Chase turns his head to see a man he’s never met before pointing a gun at his twin.

“You back the hell off,” Quintrell snarls, and her own gun emerges from her purse, pointed unabashedly at Mateos.

Anonymous asked:

Stay on your guard everybody!! Invisible man makes for easy hostage situations too!!

“Good call,” Chase tells you shakily. “Good call, camera, that was - that was a very good warning that we did not manage to heed.”

“Adrienne,” cries Mateos, aghast. “Where the hell did you get that?”

“I’ve been willing to shoot you for a long damn time, Mateos,” she snarls. “You’ve hurt enough people in your life. Drop the fucking gun.”

Anonymous asked:

Yeah, that’s grounds to go apeshit on this guy, Chase

And Chase feels it then, that rage inside him, a fountain pouring out of him. He clutches his fists together, shaking.

He still has nightmares, sometimes, about Anti, but one thing he’s found is that they’re very rarely about himself. The problem is that all his memories of Anti - even the memories of being hit or cursed out or worse - they come with this syrupy sweetness that makes Chase want to gag. He’s never been able to muster anger for himself, and he’s stopped trying, too; it won’t help anything.

But he does nightmare about Henrik. About sitting in his bed, cold and alone, knowing that Henrik was upstairs being tortured, and not doing anything about it. He nightmares about Anti hugging him and telling him how good a pet he is, while Henrik watches on with fresh lacerations hidden underneath his shirt. He does nightmare about seeing Henrik on the porch, below his locked room in that mansion in California - and then about turning away, and going back to sleep.

He never got an opportunity to tell Anti how much he hated him for that. And now all that anger comes back, powerful as the day he realized it was there, and he wants to throw himself at Mateos like a wild animal, and punish him the way he wanted to punish Anti.

But something is not right.

Something’s not right.

Chase stares at that gun in Mateos’s hand - and then he grins.

“Yeah, right,” he mutters.

Anonymous asked:

not a real threat until we feel the gun you powerless illusionist fuck

“You stupid fucker,” says Chase, striding forward without hesitating. Matoes yells and re-cocks the gun. Re-cocks? Please. As if.

“You don’t know a damn thing about my family. Don’t you know my only name was Trickshot for years of my life? No. And you don’t know a damn thing about guns either.”

Mateos looks afraid of him, then, and it feels good, but better yet is the moment he realizes his brothers are in on the joke - Henrik’s posture relaxes with a gasp, turning to look at Chase in relief, and JJ - oh, JJ’s going to be in so much trouble when all this is over, because all he’s doing is giggling.

Anonymous asked:

Is the gun even real?? Well, your own gun is at least, the one Henrik has

“Yeah, it’s fake,” says Chase, pointing right at that black gun. “Worse than a movie prop. Dude, it doesn’t even have the right kind of barrel. Have you ever seen a single handgun in your life?”

“Cute trick,” says Henrik, reaching into his pocket. “The cameras are right, though - this gun is real.”

And suddenly they’ve got two guns pointed at Mateos, and Creighton is trapped beneath vine and flame, with Jackie towering over him, that black staff spinning in his hands.

“Gentleman,” says the older man, smiling as blood trickles from a bruise in the side of his head. “I’m sure we can make some kind of deal here.”

Anonymous asked:

creighton they'd call you a snake if it weren't an insult to snakes

“Am I being insulted on live television?” asks Creighton.

Jackie glances at you in triumph. “See? Magicians don’t know a damn thing about technology. No, you stupid fuck, those are magic cameras.”

“What do the lot of you even want?” Creighton demands, red in the face from his anger.

“Your reign is over, Creighton,” says Quintrell, turning her gun towards him. “You’re not going to lead this society with your exploitation and hatred any longer.”

Creighton starts laughing aloud. “And you think this will stop me? What are you going to do, kill me? You’ll be hunted down by the magicians still loyal to me in this country, the ones who know I do what must be done for this order. And if you don’t kill me, if you keep me down here, they’ll come for me anyway. All you’ve done is beat me in one battle! My power is political. It can’t be destroyed with a stick and one magician’s flowers.”

Marvin grows flowers in a sudden burst of color, close enough they threaten to suffocate Creighton. “You were saying?”

But Quintrell has turned to look at JJ with big, worried eyes, and Chase realizes Creighton is right - deposing him is more than a single battle.

“We need to get JJ out of his cuffs,” says Max, apparently thinking along the same lines.

“All of you stay back,” warns Mateos.

“Dude, we already decided your gun isn’t real,” Chase snaps. “Get on your hands and knees before my brother puts a bullet in your leg.”

It’s Henrik’s turn to cock his gun. Mateos looks at him for one panicked second, and then -

The flash of light that bursts up is so bright they all fall back, yelping and covering their eyes. Max feels himself shoved out of the way in the door, and he kicks out, managing to hit something solid, but Mateos is booking it down the hall already. “I’ll go after him!” Max shouts.

“Not on your own, Max, wait,” cries Jackie, but his husband is already running after him.

“Jackie,” says Marvin. “He can handle himself. We need you here.”

Anonymous asked:

max still good? no sneaky getaways?

Chase sighs, rubbing at his face. “This came in two seconds after that jackass slipped out. Sorry. He’s not armed though - it’s all just illusions, right?”

“Right,” says Quintrell, looking frazzled. “But Mateos and the magician upstairs… let’s hope Max catches him, that’s all.”

scunneredzombie asked:

JJ, are we dealing or killing here? You would know best

Marvin pins Creighton down, watching him carefully for any sign that he’ll try to escape, but they seem to have exhausted him for now. It’s Jackie who pulls the fancy lock-picking kit out of his backpack and strides over to Jameson, making quick work of the cuff on his locked hand.

“You,” says Jackie, freeing him, “are in so much trouble - ”

JJ hugs him tightly around the stomach, burying his face in his chest, letting Jackie hug him to his chest. When he finally pulls back, his eyes are shining.

“Knew you’d come,” he signs. “All of you.”

“JJ,” calls Quintrell, coming over to him hurriedly. “Great reunion and all, but what about Creighton?”

Jameson Jackson stands up, stretching his neck against the collar resting there.

“Yes,” he says. “Let’s begin putting the pieces together. Jackie, would you take the lock off this collar please? There’s someone else who needs it more than I do.”

Anonymous asked:

run like the WIIIIIIIND boi!!!! trust what you feel not what you see!

You see Max taking off after Mateos about as fast as a thirty-seven-year-old can go - but Max, unaccustomed to your presence, has not brought a camera with him. He runs upstairs and leaves your view.

Anonymous asked:

alright check in

how is everyone doing?

-🪷

“Yes,” says Marvin quickly, looking around. “Pause everything, who’s hurt? I know I went down a time or two in the midst of all that.”

“Where does it hurt?” Henrik asks him, as Jackie works to pick the padlock on JJ’s collar.

“My ribs, but not broken. I remember broken.”

“And Chase, you - ?”

“I hit my chin pretty good,” Chase admits. “Bit my tongue.”

He opens his mouth and then looks startled when blood comes out. Henrik promises to look after everyone properly when they get home, but Jackie -

“Oh, you’ve strained this at least, Jackie!” cries Henrik, looking over his injured wrist.

“No, no,” Jackie insists, although he’s grimacing. “It’s just a bruise.”

“Jackie, it’s not. Isn’t it bothering you?”

Jackie looks tempted to flap his hands, irritated by the pain, and Henrik grabs him gently, trying to hold him still. “I’ll splint this with, uh…”

“There’s supplies in my backpack,” says JJ.

Henrik gets into his bag and finds a whole first aid kit waiting for him. He looks up at him in surprise, but JJ just smiles wearily, and Henrik, tempted to feel manipulated by the whole situation, instead feels bad that JJ has had to plan all this out on his own.

Henrik splints Jackie’s wrist and then goes to JJ, who’s holding his side tenderly, although it’s actually his back that’s been hit, in addition to the bruising on his face, and some of his fingers have been pulled back hard, maybe broken. His throat is pinched red beneath the collar.

“Did they do this for nothing at all?” Henrik asks tenderly, pulling his shirt up a little.

“I knew they would,” JJ signs, repeating that slightly sad smile. “It had to be done. Admittedly, it was a little more severe than expected, but it will only help my case in the long run.”

“Alright, that’s it,” says Jackie. “Talk, you little mastermind.”

“Of course. You all deserve that much. Thank you for coming - I could never have put this in place without you.”

And he gives you a wink too, his teeth gleaming as he smiles, only a little blood staining the bottom row. The others have evolved to look less and less like Jack as time goes on, but JJ really has started to embody Jack’s younger self in some ways - the gauges, the curly brown hair grown long in the front, the bright blue eyes with long lashes, and, of course, the hint of mischief which has come back to JJ so naturally. He looks well, somehow, even with his bruised face.

scunneredzombie asked:

Jameson J. you are a badass

“Thank you, my friend,” he says, straightening up despite his injured back and pushing his fringe to the side a little. “As I said, none of this could have been done without the performance of everyone involved, and you all answered my call without hesitation.”

“Even though you told us not to come?” asks Chase, bewildered. “Were you just trying to be a little shit?”

JJ grins. “Sorry. I found that just telling you point-blank to follow me into danger exacerbated the concern over my well-being. The best reaction needed a little more mystery and a little less panic. But you would never be able to resist coming after me into danger even if I really didn’t want you to follow me.”

“So you have relived this day before,” says Marvin.

“Only once,” he says. “To get the timing just right, and ensure that Creighton and Mateos would not kill anyone. It’s my fight and I knew you’d come to help me, but I wouldn’t risk your lives like that. Besides, I needed Adrienne to show me where this hiding place is.”

“You just used me,” she says, looking hurt and bewildered.

JJ turns to her, frowning. “Adrienne,” he signs, and Marvin blinks at the sign there. For a second, he thinks JJ has signed ‘password,’ but then he recognizes the A, combined with the way he intertwines his fingers. The word he’s signing is just 'word’ combined with her A. Marvin didn’t realize he had named her at all.

“If you came with me to this place, you would have insisted on coming with me, and then you would have been found out,” he says, stepping towards her. “We would have both been beaten bloody, and your chance to reason with Cedar would be lost.”

She looks at him, blinking rapidly, mouth tight. “It’s not your decision to make, to use my info to keep me safe. What if I wanted to stay with you?”

“I made you a promise,” he says. “Cedar doesn’t know you’ve turned against the order yet, and so he didn’t have the chance to control you. Now you and I can handle him together. You must trust me - and in fact, I know you do, because you came here with no instruction, with strangers, just because I led you to them. Adrienne. Thank you.”

Her eyes are that vivid gold as she reads his signing. She looks away from him and inclines her head, a tiny nod.

“I led you all together and gave you what you would need,” JJ continues. “But it was necessary that you all let me come here and be hurt before you could protect me.”

“I hate that,” says Jackie, looking angry now, but Henrik seems to have pieced something together.

“The extra camera! You were recording.”

JJ grins and pulls the little spy camera off his shirt, handing it to Jackie. “Could you download the footage before anything else, Jackie, please? We’re going to need it to discredit Creighton.”

It’s at this point that JJ turns towards the beaten leader in the corner, his posture changing and his smile slipping away. He lifts up his hands to sign, and without hesitation, the brothers hear Adrienne - Quintrell - start translating for him. Jackie glances at Marvin, who looks back at him curiously. It’s a weird moment for all of them, as they realize they’ve never heard anyone else other than the four of them translate for their youngest brother.

“Marvin,” Adrienne translates for JJ, her eyes blazing. “Please keep him gagged. Since he didn’t allow me the privilege of speaking, I won’t give it to him either - although I am a better man than you, Mr. Creighton, in every way.”

Creighton, bound in flowers, glowers at JJ with burning eyes.

“You don’t know who I am, Mr. Creighton, although I have encountered you many times in the course of my investigation. You see, I have been aware of the way you treat outsiders - and even your own magicians - for years, ever since, in an alternate timeline, you sent Cedar and Mateos to hunt my traumatized, refugee siblings and I just for entering your country. Because our magic looks abnormal to you, you converged on us without mercy. And it’s not even because you truly believed we ever represented a threat to you, Creighton: it’s because you crave, in every form, magic and power.”

JJ steps closer to him, head tilted ponderously. “And I am the most powerful magical creature, human or not, you have ever encountered. I would never have given you access to my reversal, Creighton, but I saw the delight in your eyes when I walked into your hideaway just this morning. You had caught something good, and you were going to pin me down and find a way to force me to use my power. You immediately collared my power, trapped me in a prison cell, and began beating me and exposing me to brutal illusions meant to scare me into complying with you. But I knew who you were, and you had already taken the bait I set. It was all recorded.”

JJ points at the camera in Jackie’s computer, and Adrienne continues without hesitating.

“This is the first of many pieces of evidence I will soon relay to every magician in this country. I came to you asking to be registered, polite and unassuming, even white and male, and this was your reaction. I have spoken with Magdalena - do you remember her, Creighton, or does the name mean nothing? A woman you and Mateos assaulted only two days ago, demanding she tell you where her son, a powerful magician, had run to hide from you. As we speak, she’s making a police report. Human police will be looking for you soon - there are cameras in her building that show you entering the place.”

Creighton shouts something muffled, shaking his head.

“You deleted the footage? That was clever of you. I went back in time after you had, of course, and retrieved it. She’s a seventy-year-old woman. You’re sick. And the records in this place will show a pattern of the same behavior, which I will provide to both police and the magicians of this society. Most of them hate you already. The ones who don’t will recognize that you can no longer lead, and you’ll be in prison for a couple years anyway. Those magicians who share the same views as you will recognize that change is coming whether or not they like it. The majority will outgrow the minority rapidly.”

The more she reads JJ’s words, the more Adrienne seems to shine: the glow in her eyes is vivid, and she looks at him unhesitatingly, translating his words like they belong to her too.

“You’re done, Mr. Creighton,” says Jameson, and though he’s so thoroughly in control of the situation, he doesn’t gloat in this moment. Maybe, for a second, he’s almost sympathetic. “I will be warning every other magical society in the world about your crimes here. Yes, we’ve been exclusionists for too long. We’re going to start reconnecting with the rest of the world, allowing in anyone who wants to come. I think it’s high time that the magical societies of this world start establishing rules about behavior like yours.”

JJ turns to smile at Marvin. “I already have an in with the Lapwings, I believe.”

“You mean to lead here?” says Marvin, almost laughing aloud he’s so delighted. “You fucking mastermind, you did this all on your own?”

“I do mean to lead,” says JJ. “We’ll hold an election, no more tyranny. But I didn’t do this all on my own - I had a lot of help.”

Everyone’s smiling at him, and Jackie’s laughing at how angry Creighton looks, and Adrienne glows - but this isn’t the end, and they know that.

“That magician upstairs,” says Chase. “Cedar? You said he was one of the magicians who came after us in the alternate timeline - and Quintrell, you said he might be the most powerful one of all.”

Quintrell looks at Jameson, and he looks back at her. “He is,” she says. “Yes… he has to be dealt with, today. He could still undo all of this.”

Anonymous asked:

Is. Is Creighton of sufficient age to be "OK boomer"d. Is that where we're at? Are the bros or Quintrell Gen Z enough to inflict an "OK boomer"

Chase starts cracking up, immediately distracted from the intensity of the situation, and even Quintrell covers her mouth with her hand like she’s trying not to laugh.

“Is he?”

“I mean, he’s got the vibes of a Boomer even if he’s not one literally - ”

“JJ and Quintrell are definitely young enough, right, and Chase is a dork, and - ”

“I think someone has to say it, I think the cameras asked for it and now we got to.”

“You are all morons. But you’re right.”

“Hit him, Quintrell, you do it - ”

“No, this man practically raised me, he deserves a lot worse - Chase, you - ”

Creighton manages to spit out the marigold in his mouth for a moment. “Would you all stop talking for five damn - ”

Marvin slashes his hand and the flowers burst back into place. Jackie shakes his head at Creighton as though hugely offended. “Um, okay, boomer.”

Chase is so delighted he might be crying a little. Henrik shakes his head at him, his mouth twisting up with amusement, and they look at each other with a little less tension in the air between them, smiling.

Anonymous asked:

You could go upstairs in waves, maybe. People as a distraction right in front of an attack swelling behind.

Max comes back a moment later, panting hard, but empty-handed. He looks confused for a second, and then just grins and shakes his head at them all laughing, going to Jackie, who wraps an arm around him.

“I’m sorry, darling,” he says. “Lost him.”

“You didn’t go play hero,” says Jackie, apparently inordinately touched. “He could have hurt you. You came back instead.”

“I can face anything in this world, but only with you next to me,” purrs Max. Marvin fake-gags next to them and Jackie slaps his head.

“Is that the play?” asks Max. “Just go upstairs and overwhelm him? He could have escaped already.”

“If Mateos has fled, all the better,” says Quintrell. “He’s hated by everyone but Creighton and Cedar, and he has no allies to help him outside of here. The police will be looking for him too, and even if he flees the country, he’s disconnected from his position of authority. But if he’s gone upstairs to get Cedar…”

“Quintrell,” says Jackie. “I think it’s time you told us what Cedar can do.”

She looks to Jameson, mouth drawn in a deep frown, eyes big. He nods as though she’s spoken to him and comes to her aid, holding up his hands.

“Cedar was born with the power of… perhaps mind control is the easiest way to describe it, though that isn’t quite right. He can insert thoughts into another person’s head. They only last a little while, but you can imagine the damage that could do.”

The mood in the room has taken a dark turn. “We don’t have to imagine,” mumbles Henrik.

“Between his thought-intrusion and Mateos’s illusions, they can create extremely powerful convictions in people,” Adrienne says. “I’ve seen them do it, they… they can convince you your whole family’s being tortured in the next room over. They force people to do things they would never do otherwise. Which is why I - I don’t expect anyone else to help JJ and I handle them.”

There’s a chorus of protest, but she shakes her head hard. “No, no - listen to me. JJ made me a promise, and I gave him what he needed in return, but the rest of you have done this just for him. Facing Cedar… that’s just for me, and I know he acts like a monster. I know he’s capable of doing monstrous things to you, and - though it’s none of my business - I know you’ve been through monstrous things in the past. None of you should have to go through it again.”

“James,” says Jackie softly. “Have you seen this play out already?”

Jameson shakes his head tightly. “No, only up to this point. It was too great a risk. If Cedar does gain control over me, I won’t be able to reverse anything he does to any of you. I know you all want to protect me, but I intend to do this, and I… I believe that Adrienne and I can handle it. Neither of us expect or ask that you will come with us to deal with him.”

Anonymous asked:

OI. Max. Good to see you, glad you're safe. But we TALKED about the buddy system earlier. You don't just LEAVE your CAMERAS-IN-LAW behind, dude!!! What if you DID catch Mateos and then Cedar just TOLD you you didn't, huh? That's what we're here for!!! Visual evidence and light chaos and assisting with interpersonal conflicts!! What the fu k!! Don't do it again!!

“Oh, my bad,” says Max. “We were in the heat of the moment, I - ”

“Here, I’ll check that he’s real,” says Jackie cheerfully, and he grabs Max and starts kissing him. “Hm, nope, that’s real - no, that one was okay - I don’t know, I think maybe - ”

“Jackie!”

Anonymous asked:

Is there.. I mean, do you two have a plan? Without pressing too hard... Do you believe, fully, that you'll be able to reason with Cedar, Q? Or a backup plan if things start to turn?

Quintrell steadies herself, straightening up. “I can reason with him,” she says. “JJ can help.”

“What are you intending to do?” asks Marvin, directed at his brother, but Adrienne continues.

“Cedar and I have been with Creighton since we were kids. He used to be torn up over the things he was being made to do, but as time has gone on, he’s… become the cruelty. But I know he’s still in there.”

Chase blinks, a slow realization coming over his face. “You’ve been together since kids,” he says. “He’s your brother.”

Adrienne gives him a look like he’s just told her his dog was hit by a car. She looks away again a second later, breathing in.

“Creighton took us in after our parents were killed… although the killer was never caught.”

She turns slowly towards Creighton again, nostrils flaring. “Wasn’t that kind of you? Wasn’t it a coincidence? The most powerful magical child in England… and you got the chance to raise him.”

There’s no guilt in Creighton’s gaze, then, no pity, no concern. He’s pure fury, staring her in the eyes. Jackie’s already locked the magical collar around his throat, and it’s a good thing, because there’s no telling what a gaze like that could do.

“You took my parents,” she says. “And then you took me and my brother, and you turned him into this. But he’s still in there. He’s never hurt me before, never commanded me. I still mean something to him. He’ll see that I’ve turned on Creighton. I’ll remind him of everything he used to hate about this order. And I’ll tell him who really killed our parents.”

She turns back to the brothers and Max, that fierce look in her face again, though her voice is small. “And then he has to see reason. If he doesn’t… he’s not my brother anymore. And I’ll kill him.”

Her hand goes to her gun, tucked back into her bag. “I’ll shoot him in the head, I will. Sometimes, that’s the best thing you can do for a real monster.”

You see Marvin staring dead-eyed at her bag, arms crossed over his chest. After a moment, he turns and walks out of the room.

scunneredzombie asked:

I think she does need to do it herself. All of you understand, you’ve been exactly where she is. You need to let her face her monster.

“He’s not - ” Adrienne almost snaps, breathes in, recollects herself. “He’s not my monster. He’s everyone else’s. That’s why I have to find out if my brother’s still in there. With JJ.”

JJ looks over at her, nodding his head. “Not alone.”

She gives him that same tiny nod back, looking up at him.

“How?” asks Henrik flatly.

“I can help make sure she gets through it safely,” JJ says. “And… I can show Cedar things he might not be able to see otherwise.”

Henrik frowns at him, eyes narrowing. “With your magic.”

“Yes.”

“Like… alternate timelines.”

JJ looks uncomfortable for the first time all day, crossing his arms over his chest. “Yes.”

“Can we talk in the hall for a minute?” Jackie asks.

“Fine, but I’m going to the other room,” mumbles Adrienne. “And don’t take too long.”

As they filter out into the hall, where Marvin stands with his back to them, she moves to sit at the bottom of the stairs, out of their earshot or sight.

Anonymous asked:

We've, ah... read some chapters in some other stories that are similar to the one you're going through now, Q, to put it loosely. We wish you luck, and, all the best. Sincerely. Whatever backup you can bring, please do. We're behind you. If there is something good to be found, I really hope you're able to find it.

Quintrell sighs on the staircase, kicking her legs. She has out-performed Max by bringing a camera along, but she looks pale and tired now. For her, the worst is still to come.

“It has to happen,” she says. “For a long time, it’s had to happen, and I’ve never been able to do it alone. I… have watched him be destroyed. I wish I had acted sooner. I just want this to be over with. I will always love him - but really, I promise, I will kill him if I have to. I can’t watch him hurt anyone else.”

She puts her chin in her hand. “It’s good to have as much back-up as possible, but if it was just JJ and I… this is just a lot of eyes witnessing… all of me. All of us.”

She looks down at her hands. “I told him things I’ve never told anyone. Now I just have to trust him… bastard.”

Anonymous asked:

JJ. Love you. This feels like... a lot. How's everyone feeling?

“I have to do this,” says JJ. “And I will.”

“Well, I feel that this is a bad idea,” says Marvin, voice cutting as he turns around. “JJ - ”

“I have to do this,” JJ repeats.

“No, here’s what happened, darling, let me lay it out for you: you found a girl with a horrible, evil big brother, and all of a sudden, you were committed to helping her. Now, that’s great, except that this isn’t about Cedar and Adrienne, this is about Anti.”

JJ is already denying it, but Marvin pushes on. “Because you have always wanted to save him, you always wanted there to be another way, you never wanted me to kill him - ”

“I knew who Anti was better than anyone, I knew he needed to die, I did love him but I know I shouldn’t have - ”

“And now you’re trying to live out that fantasy of ‘finding the good in him,’ JJ, but let me cut it down for you right now: you can’t save people who don’t want to be saved.”

JJ stares up at him, breathing picking up. He’s shaking his head.

“You can’t change people who refuse to change. Anti never loved you - ”

“Cedar is not Anti,” JJ snaps, harder now, insistent. “And she is not me. She is bolder than I am. She will kill him. He has never abused her or forced her into anything. He’s the little brother, a 20-year-old who was raised by a magical tyrant. Adrienne still holds power over Cedar. I swore to her that I would at least give her the chance to try to get through to him.”

“This is risky, JJ,” murmurs Henrik.

“None of you have to come with me,” JJ says. “Truly, I mean that.”

“Everyone calm down,” Chase says, pushing between all of them. “We’re all on the same side here. Marvin, maybe you’re the one making this about Anti - let’s all take a deep breath.”

Jackie stands back from them, watching the conversation carefully.

Anonymous asked:

Deep breaths for a second, yeah? Adrienne's life is not all of yours. And if we are drawing comparisons, Creighton was her Anti. Cedar is her all of you. There was obviously good still in all of you, we saw it every day and still do.

But the comparison isn't going to help anyway. JJ, is there a full plan beyond Adrienne talking to him? Are you waiting outside? Does Cedar realize you're a threat and immediately act on it? Is there any additional preparation you two can take to make sure you're safe and capable of doing this? Cedar's actual actions aside, this is a risky, scary, potentially retraumatizing situation to be in, and no one wants this to come to harm for anybody.

“I’ll be staying with Adrienne,” JJ says, reviewing the message carefully. “I promised. He needs to realize the take-over is already complete: there’s no point to him fighting. She and I have discussed what can be done, but she doesn’t feel that speaking with him beforehand will help. They both needed to be free of Creighton. Once he is, she hopes things will be different. But he’s very used to being able to tell everyone around him what to do, and I expect him to try it on anyone who helps her - which is why no one has to come.”

“The safest thing will be to go with as many people as are willing,” says Jackie quietly. “In the end, it was our unity - our numbers - that wore out the last mind-control we fought against. Chase is right, Jack made sure there were plenty of us. I will be staying with JJ… but no one else has to come, just like on the stairs, and there won’t be any judgement if you choose to stay behind.”

Max puts a hand in the air, and everyone turns to him. “I would not like to face this guy,” he says quietly. “I… have heard a lot about Anti’s powers from Jackie, and it’s upsetting enough. I don’t think that I want to know what that actual experience is like. I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about how that… happened to my husband for years.”

Everyone nods. Jackie touches his hip. “You can stay down here and keep an eye on Creighton, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I want to stay too,” says Chase, even quieter. Henrik turns to him, blinking in surprise, and Chase meets his gaze. “I’ve always felt that I was really susceptible to Anti’s powers. My memory has been fucked with enough. And I’ve been doing really good, lately. I don’t feel ready to revisit it.”

“I’ll be going,” says Marvin, a little coldly, and without waiting for anyone, he turns and stalks back down the hall, towards the stairs.

“Schneep?” asks Jackie.

Henrik looks around at everyone, gaze calm, if a little distant. For a second, he looks faraway, lost in something else.

“I was really helpless the day we defeated Anti,” he says. “And I don’t blame myself for that, of course - I had started fighting first, and that’s why Anti punished me so thoroughly. He made sure I couldn’t fight, when we reached the end.

"I have heard about how you all got to face those parts of yourself, the ones that he taunted you with, the ugly parts of you. I did not… get that. Or I was spared of it? I don’t know anymore.

"The point is that, although I have continued to struggle… I have a healthy body, in most ways, and I am stable for the first time in years. I am… a survivor, as well as a victim. Even if someone was able to control me again, it would not change who I am. It’s their action, not my weakness. I want to go with you. I know we will all protect each other even if one of us goes down for a couple minutes. I want a chance to fight, even if it’s not Anti, even if it doesn’t mean anything either way. I’m ready.”

Anonymous asked:

Ah, Q. I hear you. It'll be rough. But it's doable, and you're going to get through it, and people will be here to support you, no matter how it goes. You know who you are, and you know who he's become. Now's just the matter of making him remember who he can be. The rest will be on him.

She sighs out again, her hands a little shaky now, though her eyes never lose their determination. She looks up in surprise as Marvin stalks over to him, and for a moment, he looks angry - but when he speaks, voice tremulous, he’s just as determined.

“Hey, Adrienne, right?”

She blinks. “Yes - that’s my first name.”

Marvin nods sharply. “It’s really hard to kill someone who’s your family, no matter how many terrible, terrible things they’ve done to you or anybody else. I want you to know that you don’t have to. If you like - if it comes down to it - I could do it for you.”

It’s only now that Adrienne’s eyes get a little wet. She bites down on her lip, closing her eyes.

“Are you just wanting to kill him before I can talk to him?”

Marvin shakes his head, sucking in a deep breath. “No. It would be completely on your command. I would never wish - I would never want - you should never have to be the one to do that to your own brother.”

She coughs and rubs at her face for a second, hiding herself from you. When she’s ready to look back up again, she nods.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she whispers.

“Give me the gun, love.”

She pulls it out of her purse and hands it over, and Marvin’s hands wrap around it, steadying as he clutches it in his hands.

“It’s going to be okay, Quintrell. One day, it’s all going to be in the past.”

Anonymous asked:

Max. Chase. Really proud of you both. Thank you for considering your limits and not pushing through them, and for handling things down here.

Max grins weakly, watching Jackie with worried eyes, and Chase gives you a big thumbs up. Henrik hovers near to him, gaze low.

“Ah, Chase,” he says, a little less confidently than you expect from Henrik. “Um - it’s been a weird day, and JJ won’t… won’t let anything really bad happen, I think, but just in case, I love you a lot, and, um, I’m sorry for what I said about Ash.”

“Henrik,” answers Chase wearily. “Of course I know that.”

He reaches out to hug him and Henrik hugs him tenderly back, even pressing a kiss into the side of his head for a second. Max makes a gesture towards Jackie too, but Jackie waves him off. “Don’t give me that look, Deshmukh, you’re going to make me feel sappy too, and you know I hate that. No goodbyes, don’t even kiss me: I’m going to be gone for fifteen minutes! Best case scenarios, guys, come on. We’ll go upstairs, guard Quin as she talks to her brother, and they’ll make up and go home. Then I’m taking you to dinner, tiger, and getting you about ten appetizers for the day we’ve had. I’m starving.”

He’s managed to make Max smile, and Jackie keeps blustering as he walks down the hallway towards the stairs, Henrik and Jameson coming with him.

“Ten appetizers and a lot of alcohol! We’re going to need it! Want to get you buzzed and bring you home - and when everybody else leaves, that room with the mirror portal in it? Yeah, we’re locking that for the night, if you know what I mean.”

“Jackie,” laughs Max.

“Okay, fifteen minutes! Be right back!”

He makes it to the stairs and his joviality slips away a little, though he keeps his head high. “Come on, guys, we’ve got ‘em on the ropes. Let’s finish this up once and for all.”

[favesgrave]

Tell me anything about your fan continuity- let loose

oh my god you've opened the floodgates so let's get into stuff BEFORE the autobot and decepticon war

so cybertron. good old cybertron. that's a lie it's not very good at all, basic case of the caste system and functionism and all that jazz. the current leader of cybertron is sentinel... who is also not great. he holds most of the power and even though the senate exists, they mostly are just there to serve out his desires. he has these delusions of being a god, putting himself on the same status as the original thirteen primes and because of this belief his people suffer even MORE

in my fc, megatron didn't willingly enter the gladiator pits. they were running low on contestants, so he was one of the bots they picked to fight. unfortunately, he realized he's good at killing things. fortunately, he also realizes he can use his popularity in the arena to his advantage. he catches the attention of soundwave, an intel agent from the elite guard. but soundwave doesn't actually care about what sentinel wants, not when he's been looking for a way to bring about his downfall. so the two become allies in secret, soundwave passing along any useful information to him

dont think i forgot about orion pax. because i would never. he works as a simple librarian (no iacon hall of records, no shady old man alpha trion) but he knows plenty about how dire cybertron's situation is and that leads to him wanting to meet megatron. ratchet's a little iffy on it, going "you can't just arrange a meeting with the mech actively going against sentinel and the senate. that's suicide" and orion basically says "lol watch this" and meets him in secret anyways. boom, megatron's got another ally

they steadily gain more and more people and become a rebel force. sentinel couldn't have ignored them even if he tried. he doesn't even know he still has people in his forces that are against him, people like shockwave and magnus. shockwave is a senator who fucking hates sentinel's guts. magnus also hates sentinel's guts. he's in the elite guard, but was sort of forced into it because hey, he popped into existence and after gathering his bearings they were like "hey you look like you'd be pretty good at fighting. c'mere. we're gonna train you. you're ours now"

shockwave's disloyalty gets found out. he's taken away to become an empurata victim. he was also going to be a mnemosurgery victim, but magnus blew his own cover to escape with him

anyways this war goes on for a bit, each battle becoming a little worse. and megatron's angry. he's so pissed because sentinel is letting all these people, his own soldiers, die! sentinel has the power to stop this and actually negotiate with them to create a better cybertron, but he doesn't. he doesn't even do any of the fighting himself. so megatron's becoming more and more angry, which does not go unnoticed by orion who's like "haha. you. you okay buddy??" and megs is like "yup!!! i am living the dream! dont worry about me best friend!" he's losing it actually

the war reaches its final battle when they storm the capitol. a pathway gets cleared for megatron, orion, and soundwave to make it to sentinel, who is completely out of tricks to use. before the battle, megs and orion had agreed to take sentinel alive but when megs looks down at sentinel and points his cannon at him, he just sees someone who never granted anyone else mercy. he saw someone who would never change, who would never feel any remorse. he thinks about all his friends who died in the mines, the pits, this war. and as soundwave blocks the door, he fires the killing blow.

this creates a rift between megatron and orion, one that only keeps growing larger. the tension only leads to more conflict, and more conflict leads to the autobot and decepticon war

[meaningofaeons]

!!!! fellow oi reader hello!! may i ask what ois you've read so far sorry for being so straightforward it's just that hardly anybody i know reads oi and it's kinda embarrassing for me ahahaha

gepard feels like he'll fit in so much as either the personal knight trope or captain of the king's guards. stelle could also be the personal knight i guess? but the kind where 'villainess needs somebody on their side so they take in a foreign traveler in to be their maid/knight/personal aide', except said foreign traveler happens to rifle through the trash of everything.

jing yuan already feels like the emperor in hsr, he's just so perfectly regal in that sense. yanqing could be like the captain for jing yuan's guards, or his (adopted) heir who first (sibling-like relationship) meets and bonds with the reader without yanqing or reader knowing each other's true rank.

will there be a magic system? there is the 'mischievous/sly wizard of the tower' position that could go to sampo. i know you'll probably only write for the characters you listed so i'm deviating because i have so much brainrot about this right now, but i'm imagining march 7th also as a novice wizard/magician who's a friend of stelle. herta would also definitely be a wizard of the tower, probably would own/be the head of it. himeko feels so much like the ally duchess/marchioness character, with welt being another duke/marquess (or himeko's adoptive father if you're into honkai impact 3rd lore) or even royal advisor maybe.

blade as the cold duke of the north fits so well - sad backstory, red eyes, dark hair, slightly unhinged personality - a perfect match! dan heng could be the 'mysterious librarian who was the only neutral/slightly sympathetic person to the reader, but also never helped them outright in the first life'. friends with march and stelle, of course. speaking of second lives...

will the reader be reincarnated with a 2nd chance at life fix-it story, with the previous memories of the original timeline's bad ending and character actions? there's so much potential for angst if any of the characters betrayed her or weren''t on her side originally and the reader doesn't know who to trust nor like or love.

sorry for this word vomit, please don't feel pressured, it's just that i love your idea and i've gotten so hooked on hsr!!

( ↀДↀ)✧ GASP (=^✧ｪ✧^=))ﾉ彡☆ HELLO FELLOW OI READER !!!!! HOW ARE YOU ???? I feel the SAME way, hardly anyone I know reads ois or manhwas of any kind so I'm stuck in my own little visual novel enjoying corner (≅ᆽ≅)

I've read tons!! I don't have my full list on me rn (I am at work ;m;) but I can name a few off the top of my head! some of these are less isekai and more reincarnation/time travel, but I'll list them anyways! I'll put them beneath the cut along with my comments on your ideas since it gets pretty long LOL

my next life as a villainess: all routes lead to doom, the villainess turns the hourglass, a stepmother's märchen/fantasie of a stepmother, who made me a princess, actually I was the real one, I fell into the world of a reverse harem game, death is the only ending for the villainess, I will master this family, the tyrant wants to be good, lady and the beast, taming of the tyrant, roxana/how to protect the heroine's older brother, the rebirth of a tyrannical empress, sister in this life I'll be the queen, the duchess' 50 tea recipes, father I don't want this marriage, how to be a dark hero's daughter, the villainess is a marionette, and many, many MANY more.

this is actually only a small part of my list! again, I am at work, so I don't have my full (and unfortunately sorta not updated) manhwa list, but I think this is a good show of what I usually read lol!

I'll start on your comments from the top! FIRST OFF, SAME BRAIN!!! (=♡ ᆺ ♡=) while gepard is kind of a shoe-in for the personal knight that falls for the mc, I was ABSOLUTELY hooked on the idea stewing in my brain about stelle being a knight of some sort as well, with the only conflict being "well there can't be TWO personal friendly knights that love reader..." BUT THE IDEA ABOUT HER BEING THE TROPE OF THE FOREIGN TRAVELER/BEGGAR WITH SWORDSMANSHIP TALENT TO BE THEIR KNIGHT IS ABSOLUTELY GENIUS I BOW TO YOUR BRILLIANT MIND!!!!!!!!! OR MAYBE SHES LIKE A DEPOSED NOBLE WHO READER GIVES A CHANCE TO *:･ﾟ✧(=✪ ᆺ ✪=)*:･ﾟ✧

I agree on jing yuan, and I think that idea sounds rlly cute for yanqing!!! (=´ᆺ｀=)

I LOVE your sampo idea too. I kinda get lucas vibes from who made me a princess minus the maliciousness and adding 100x more sleazy swindly-type guy vibes, he's totally a bastard when it comes to provoking the other love interests behind ur back... the march 7th idea is cute too! I could also see her as reader's maid! and yes herta 100% head mage of the tower thats so real...

I am not mega into hi3 lore but I DO know about the dynamic between welt and himeko!!! I would love her to have a role like duchess tuania in remarried empress, a master of the social world who aides the reader. maybe welt is her adoptive father and she's trying to earn his trust to take over the duchy, and she thinks he won't pass it on to her, but little does she know he thinks she's more than capable and is making plans to give the duchy to her soon!!!

BLADE RLLY IS A SHOE-IN FOR THE DUKE OF THE NORTH HUH... that guy covers all the bases. "the monster duke" of the rumors... I think that's def what his position will be. for dan heng, ONCE AGAIN YOUR BRAIN IS HUGE!! the quiet, scholarly-type ML who helps the reader in business dealings or things requiring an analyst type to help, like maybe information gathering... I think having him run an information guild as the trope goes would be a Bit much for dan heng since I don't see him as much of a leader in that sense, but I think he's definitely got connections to some underground info guilds (=｀ﻌ´=) maybe he is friends w stelle and march as you say, and he is a lower ranked noble who knew stelle and helps the reader as thanks for giving his friend a chance? :o cold, but he cares!!!

I would love 2 hear your ideas for kafka if you have any!!! you have such amazing ideas anon!!!!

as for the reincarnation thing, I'm still not 100% sure yet but I DO like that idea... I love the mc going from villain/ridiculed noble to execution to reincarnating and either taking revenge on those who wronged them, making their life better (and by extension the lives around them who they care for), or both!

thank you again for the wonderful ask!!! you should totally send another one any time!!! I look forward to hearing more of ur thoughts, oi anon!!!! (≗ᆽ≗)ﾉ

[luna-eats-books]

Library Tour

I don't know where to start this essay. My relationship to libraries goes back further than I know how to describe. I don't have a story about my first time in a library, but if I concentrate I can feel the crushed loops of carpet. Libraries are, and have always been, my favorite places on earth. It’s interesting that my feelings towards these places are mostly unchanged, feeling the same feeling of relief as I have always felt walking to the library on a Saturday morning. I have felt known and welcome at libraries, and I painted this zine in an effort to create a reciprocity. I want the libraries to feel known by me in some small way. The libraries listed here are the ones I spent most time in, I’m excited to add more to the list some day.

I remember my elementary school library in great detail. I put the dewey decimal system to use, and kept track of the sections of greatest interest to me: animals, mythology, poetry. I'm sure the librarian got along well with every child she met but I kept my eyes glued on her whenever we were in the same room, even as my teacher stood by the projector and explained how to look things up in an encyclopedia. I remember feeling like she set aside books for me. I have no idea if that actually happened or not, but it felt like everything in the library was a special treasure for me to discover, and she was the library's keeper.

She hosted a book club for 4th graders during lunch, in the quiet central courtyard of the "O" shaped school. The only door to the courtyard was nestled in the corner of the library. Extra time in the most special place, I could not believe my luck.

That was also the year I read the Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, so the idea of sitting in a shielded Eden kept me up all night before the meetings. The edition of the Secret Garden I bought from the grocery store (?) came with a key pendent on a chain. I wore it every day until one day I felt it slip off my neck into my lap. The clasp had worn through from how often I touched and adjusted it.

Books are emotional and intellectual freedom manifest, for me and for all the weird little 12 year olds across the world. For me, libraries were access to that abstract freedom, but they offered physical freedom as well.

Germantown Library was the first place I was allowed to exist without parental supervision or pressure. I'd get dropped off on a weekend morning, with the expectation I'd spend the day studying, and when my parents returned to pick me up in the afternoon I was sitting on a bench with a stack of books with me. As I got older, I got more "rebellious:" leaving the library to get lunch with friends, or go on long walks by myself, but I was careful to get back to the designated pick up spot early and wait on the bench as always.

July 2015, I walked up to McKeldin Library for a student assistant job. My freshman year of college wouldn't start for another 3 weeks, but I had submitted my application to the assistant job as soon as I graduated high school. Academic buildings line the perimeter of a green grass mall sliced with walking paths in every direction, but McKeldin sits regally at the head of the table, dwarfing the other buildings. I spent some amount of time in that library every day for four years, sometimes it was only a 20 minute powernap between classes but more often it was 4 or 6 hour shifts pacing the quiet aisles or talking to patrons. I feel so proud of contributing to a space like McKeldin. I'd obviously always loved books-- in fact I cried during the interview describing how important books have been to me-- but working at the front desk in particular exposed me to a sense of community and belongingness I had never experienced. I credit that time with my commitment to community building and collectiveness now.

The third and fourth libraries pictured above are newer to me, but no less important. Upon moving to a new state for the first time in my life, I cannot explain the relief I felt signing up for a library card (first at Chapel Hill Public Library, and two years later at the Durham County Library) and plopping into a quiet corner. I am so glad I made the decision to move to North Carolina, but I felt untethered. It was terrifying being in a place where I knew no one, I didn't recognize street signs or landmarks or even really myself. But inside a library, I knew what I valued, I knew why I made the decisions I did. Libraries have made me feel at home over and over.

Holding a book in your hands, knowing that there are innumerable books through history. Clay tablets covered in cuneiform script, stored in temples; board books with bright, round, early learner letters tucked in cubbies; imposing buildings with white columns and austere, scholarly works. They all lead me to the same feeling of awe! Standing in a space knowing you're amongst members of your community; people who care about the same things; breathe the same air; look up at the same sky. Saying to yourself "I'm home."

[farbeagle]

Now that my longest-ever fanfic is done and posted, I realized I needed to do one more thing to truly purge it from my system: Make a "meet the OCs" post!

Honestly do not care if anyone reads this, I just need it out of my brain

Let's meet those OCs!

Before we begin: I must admit to being generally anti-OC in my reading and writing. It's not personal, it's just that I came to read about a certain set of characters and their relationships with each other, not some strange character I've never heard of before. However, I feel like readers can tell when something is half-hearted, so I tried my best to use the OCs unapologetically and to not brush over them in the narration.

Let's begin

Jayce & Janiyah (he/him & she/her)

Janiyah is the older sister, slightly younger than Hassel. I felt bad for not giving her more of a personality, but her whole deal is kind of that she diminishes herself in service of the clan. She's supposed to represent Hassel's "bad ending," so to speak.

Jayce and Janiyah are both Blasian, or the Pokémon equivalent, and I based Jayce's personality in particular on the "Vancouver Asian" archetype— in love with the city, always getting bubble tea, avid mallwalker.

Most Picrew are not super compatible with wacky Pokémon character design, but I pictured them both wearing brighter colors and bolder patterns— Janiyah in particular wears a lot of orange and red.

NOTE: I got extremely lost in the "let characters of color have brown eyes, dammit" sauce and kind of forgot that making every single dark-skinned character have dark hair and dark eyes in a world where odd-colored eyes and hair are totally normal might circle back around to having weird implications. Fanfic is not representation, but I just wanted to point out that I knowwww I know okay I know.

Asahi (they/them)

Asahi is the most "nothing" of my OCs; essentially a lazy self-insert to imply more life in the Arts District. They were originally called "Ace," which is a placeholder name I use online, and they look almost exactly like me at age 19 or so. I changed their name because I decided having a character named "Jayce" and a character named "Ace" was unbearably Dr Seuss for a serious fic. Them saying "aces" to Hassel is a shoutout to their original name.

Brenna (she/her/any)

For having such a simple design, it was really hard to find a Picrew that captured the entirety of her essence. She has true brown hair and yellow eyes, for reference.

I made a separate post about her that you might be able to dig up, but the essentials are thus: she's a big ol' powerdyke, she LOVES clowning, and she absolutely despises Geeta

NOTE: Brenna's feelings are not a secret commentary on my own feelings for Geeta. I ADORE her. We shall have a summer wedding.

Joel (he/they)

I also couldn't find a satisfactory Picrew for Joel. He's a bit older than this image would imply and he ONLY ever wears his conductor's cap.

I did my best as an allistic to write him as autistic. He's an electrician and his special interest is model trains (stereotypical, yes, but that's actually the result of me projecting my own love of model trains onto him! I fucking love model trains).

Taiho (he/him)

Taiho is a young sumo instructor from Kanto. I didn't spend any more time on him than the others, but his lore just popped into my head, so he has slightly more backstory.

Taiho's dream was always to open his own sumo school and bring the art to as many people as possible. Geeta knew him previously and, when she became Champion, recruited him with the promise of helping secure a grant to open up a sumo school in Paldea.

Lennon (she/her)

Don't let the Picrews fool you, Lennon was a silver-haired anime girl from day one. Picture it in a gradient from silver to black, the silver gradually overtaking the tips as she got older.

Lennon is another placeholder name I use online. Tbh she and Brenna are tied for my favorite OCs.

Stan (any pronouns)

Stan is That Cool Librarian. We all know one. That's all I got.

NOTE: You may have noticed a discrepancy in the pronouns listed vs the pronouns used in the fic and I'm gonna be sooo honest with you: a bitch was just tired. My first pronouns struggle was trying to figure out if I should use "he" or "it" on Gyarados and by the time I got that worked out I was simply done. So everyone gets one unambiguous pronoun and that's IT.

I'm TIRED.

[thelazuliwitch]

Update!!! I have found a few prompts both suggested and floating around Tumblr, that have inspired me. Inspired by @the-geek-librarian, I maybe put them in a random generator.

Anywho! Here is a list of them I like though!

writing that says what your soulmate is most passionate about: BECOMING THE WIZARD KING~~~~

Each day on their arm (maybe wrist) is a particular event your soulmate will face today. (ex: Getting grimoire, family death, Wins a fight, meets soulmate…)

a meter/symbol/number of how dangerous or in danger your soulmate is (thinking maybe if I do this, then it's how the Heart Kingdom got their ranking system)

And whenever someone describes their soulmate, those words appear in on their skin

They don't see color, but they slowly unlock it as they get to know and fall in love with your soulmate.

Writing on skin and it appears on the other’s skin (but they can't write their name)

Feeling a tug from wherever their soulmate is and it's stronger tugs whenever their soulmate is in distress

Pain sharing (gonna include emotional pain as well) --- Also hear me out, I stick to Yuno and Noelles' POV only. Which I think adds a level of intrigue? But I may also include Asta and Lolopechka (who arguably seem a lot easier to write the povs of). I feel like this won't be a super long fic, I don't want it to be another one of my projects that look like they will be over 300k. So gonna aim for a nice 60k fic. And as for chapter length, maybe 3k? So 20 Chapters? That seems good. --- Also I think with Noelle, exploring how the royal family feels about soulmates is really interesting. Especially since her soulmate is going to be a royal from another land. Actually so is Asta's lol. --- Now the next question??? What are the other ships? The other soulmates?

Okay you think soulmate au for a fic, what has your favorite prompt been? Any fandom, but what was the soulmate system used that you just loved?

[projectcaramel]

Saccharine (1) ~ Satan x F!Reader x Lucifer

“I’ll love you like no one else,” Satan growls in your ear, one of his green-nailed hands seizing on your shoulder, even as you feel a second, gloved hand reach around your waist. 

“I’ll give you my everything,” Lucifer murmurs in your other ear, and you can’t help but tremble at the tension in the air.

How did it come to this?

You are the volunteer librarian at RAD, and it isn’t a rare sight to see the Avatar of Wrath in your little domain. He never goes without coming to the library at least once a week, and he usually stays in his favorite, quiet spot in the corner. That’s why it’s a little surprising when he suddenly asks you about something. 

“Hey... is there any possibility you have this book?” You look up to see Satan holding up his D.D.D. to reveal the horror novel that just came out a week or two ago—Raveimp. 

“I don’t believe so, no,” you reply, getting up from your chair nevertheless. “But I can see if Annis has ordered new stock. Wait just a moment.” You disappear into the storeroom, looking for anything that might have been dropped off that morning, but alas, there is nothing. It is a pity, since you had wanted to read Raveimp too. “Unfortunately, you’re fresh out of luck.”

“Dammit... I knew it was a long shot,” Satan groans, and you slide him a sympathetic smile. 

“Calixta Muninn is one of my favorite authors, so it’s a little agonizing to wait for her books.” Satan heatedly agrees with you. 

“Did you read Nightmare Ecstasy?” he asks, and you grin. 

“How could I not?” 

“I actually got a signed copy," Satan replies excitedly, and you nearly jump. 

"No shit, really?! You lucky son of a bitch!" Satan laughs while you almost swat him. 

"Yeah, she gave it to me as a gift." 

"A gift?" you nearly shriek before you suddenly find your eyes meeting those of a rather annoyed Vice-President, and you quickly hide behind your desk, terrified. 

“MC, what are you doing?” he sighs as he comes to stand next to his brother, looking down on you as usual in every sense of the phrase.

“My job,” you reply weakly. 

“Really.” He sounds unimpressed. “Because it seems to me that you’re hiding from me again.” 

“No?” 

“I think the better question is why she’s hiding from you,” Satan interjected, sounding a little annoyed. 

“That is a good question,” Lucifer muses testily. “Why are you hiding from me, MC? Is there something you’re ashamed of?” 

“N-Nothing! You’re just intimidating is all!” you rapidly lie, “I’m a meek librarian!” 

“I see. So when I tell you to give me your D.D.D., you’ll meekly obey then?” 

“NO!” you burst before you feel your face flush with warmth. You can feel Lucifer’s menacing aura. 

“MC, get up right now.” You can feel your death approaching as you achingly slowly stand up and look at the Grim Reaper. “Either give me your D.D.D., or I watch you delete all of them.” 

“All of them!” you whine, but Lucifer’s glare shuts you up as you slowly concede to the second option. Maybe you would be able to salvage something if Lucifer only watched over your shoulder. 

“Keep in mind...” You flinch as you realize how close Lucifer is to you. “If I find out about another one, a warning isn’t the only thing you’re getting.” You swallow as you tap open your file system and select each one. You can feel Satan watching too, wondering what on earth you have saved on your D.D.D. that Lucifer is so agitated about. 

“Please just this one,” you plead, looking back at the black-haired menace as your finger lingers on the one titled The King’s Pride. To your dismay, he selects it for you and deletes your hard work with a single moment, leaving you withering. “2 months worth of fiction... gone! Crook! Bully! Sadist!” 

“I don’t care,” he replies before he grips your shoulder with a bruising intensity. “Don’t do it again.” 

“But Diavolo said he was fine with it!” you complain. 

“Don’t,” he repeats, this time menacingly close to your ear. “do it again.” 

With that said, Lucifer walks away, leaving you alone with Satan again. 

“So you’re the DiaLuci fanfic writer he was ranting about,” Satan says, and you watch an evil smile rapidly widen across his face. “What do you say you and I make a deal?” 

Next >>

[mandalhoerian]

total eclipse of the heart | 1

❝ Once upon a time there was light in my life, but now there's only love in the dark. Nothing I can say, a total eclipse of the heart. ❞

Pairing: anakin skywalker x reader 

Note: fem!reader, jedi librarian!reader

Summary: Love is the death of duty, and duty is the death of love. This is the story of you and your fellow Jedi Anakin Skywalker orbiting around each other in this never-ending, all-consuming cycle.  

Warning(s): nothing else but pining and yearning lmao . also my amateur-ish 2016 writing + sun/moon dynamic GALORE . ur gonna be SICK of this imagery at the end of this. sue me. its not named the way it is for no reason HAHA

Word Count: 1455

1 | 2

If Anakin Skywalker is a star, colliding with swirling and thundering nebulas that shine upon his eyes; then you are a mere moon destined to never ever leave your planet's side. 

If Anakin is a star in a whole system, a sun; then you are still the humble moon in your humble life, which occasionally lines up with that sun to create an incredible sight to witness.

This is how your relationship is, actually. Your lives collide like hands of a clock when they have to, but this team-up never lasts too long in order with a Jedi's obligation to keep moving thanks to the raging war tearing the galaxy apart. 

A Jedi Knight and a Jedi Librarian don’t tend to cross roads often, and certainly mix like oil and water. 

Jumping around system to system wherever the orders of the Jedi Council took him naturally led to him barely ever around in the Temple and that had almost mythicized the person emerging as The Hero With No Fear adorning the headlines of HoloNet. General Skywalker quickly had become a walking beacon for attention with his brilliance in the battlefield and his unconventional way of practicing his profession. 

Maybe it was your peace-and-quiet seeking self (who just wanted to research in your own pace) being grumpy, but you wouldn’t say he is an outstanding example to look up to for Padawans and Younglings with the way he made them get used to the archives as the meeting point to gossip and share stories. 

From what Master Kenobi had told you in a passing conversation when you were complaining, it was his old habit to in the past as a Padawan to use the Archives as somewhere he could do anything other than reading because he found staying in one place stuck in a seat and glued to holobooks boring - boring! - so he had influenced others of his age to tag along in his shenanigans until he was banned from the hall for a limited amount of time. You’d asked Master Kenobi just what exactly he had done to piss your mentor off that badly but all you got was a half-tired, half-embarrassed smile before he’d scurried off Force knows where.

(You still couldn’t believe he found learning boring.) 

All things aside, you could do without picking up something something Skywalker being whispered about between preteens hidden behind shelves as you were buried in a new hyper-fixation, really. Years of getting used to quietness had brought annoyance lit like a forest fire as a downside when you were disturbed. It wasn’t him doing it intentionally as he was systems away, but if he were to pop out somewhere when you were in a particularly bad mood, you were sure you’d hurl your oldest trusty datapad at his head. Not a second wasted for the hesitation factor.   

It was a place to seek knowledge in serenity, and Skywalker had shoved his invisible hand in here and stirred the pot so irreversably that most of your time was spent patrolling around in the Archives like a dog to keep the young ones in line. “Madame Librarian alert!” line, referring you barreling down the corridors running on your tiptoes, had spread like a plague and even your former Master Jocasta Nu was amused by the inside joke that made your ears smoking red.   

It was annoyance at his shadow intruding on your relatively unaffected life by the war at first. Yes, it had all started with your one-sided animosity at him ——

—— only to be turned upside down on its after he had come to your rescue (our of nowhere, really) in what you knew to be a bounty hunter’s heist on the holocron vaults in the archives. You had no idea your body was capable of getting that red when he had all but manhandled you around to get you away from blaster shots raining down in intent to kill. Skywalker was all but taunting smirks and remarks in the action to turn the tide around and you were tight-lipped and shock-bound, the difference between you, the professionalism and the abilities, were the size of mountains. The gentleness and sweet concern for your wellbeing wrapping around you like a weighted blanket when the danger was over, though, was a contrast you weren’t even aware that you didn’t expect.

You honestly had no idea what had happened, you were left alone with the feelings you’d caught for him after he left like the whirlwind that he was.  

You took it as a lesson to learn from yet another piece of work you’d finished and used in training, made him to be a fleeting ideal and a funny what-if to be entertained in your mind, you reminded yourself every time you catch a glimpse of him here and there that the Chosen One had to be unreachable. 

You were sure your path as a Jedi was being tested on purpose by the universe as the time went on.

You did not like the fact that you had undeniable feelings for this guy. Not one bit. Annoying little moths bounced around in your stomach when someone muttered his name ever so softly in your library now, and the initial dislike was nowhere to be found -- on the contrary, you wanted to hear more about his newest victory. 

There was a reason why you were pursuing a life the Order, you had principles and it was simply no way in dead stars that you’d throw this all away for the unattainable Anakin Skywalker. A guy who has absolutely no interest for you, to top it all. 

You‘ve had asked yourself, Would I be willing to love him openly if he looked at me the way I looked at him?, a couple of times when your relationship were developing from strangers to colleagues. The Jedi in you knew it was not wise to think like this, to hope like this. 

Expectations that shouldn’t exist in the first place, you took as more lessons to overcome as Jedi. What were you going to do, keep being (barf) lovesick until the feelings decided to evaporate? Would they ever?

So you used them in your studies. Easy. It’s duty. 

In the meanwhile, you tried your best to hide even little things: the way you lingered on him when he wasn’t looking while randomly passing you by in the halls, the smile you faked to play the part when he waved at you from afar to say hello. The quiet daydreams that came over you while reading. You kept to yourself. 

At the end, It wasn’t the decision to stay away from him that hurt, it's the flashbacks that followed.

Anakin Skywalker is a star, you're a mere moon that chose to only shine with borrowed light, and you’d come to like watching him shine, from afar. And the point of no return for you was the moment you had discovered a stumbling flicker in the light of that star.

After the excitement would die down, you saw the way he would take in the clones' happiness and growing hope to win this war. You knew the way he would boast about it, being all prideful and valiant like the man he is; but later on, discovered him staring off tiredly into the blackness shining with an infinite amount of diamonds spread across, his sky blue eyes nearly ultramarine with not the lighting, but with the heaviness of his worries, hurting for others. 

Intimate moments like this in which Anakin looked more like a human than a supreme being got to you. In those, you resented unraveling him; what was hidden beneath the shiny exterior of The Chosen One. Yet you were drawn to his orbit just as much as you wanted to get away, and you shot off from the comforting confines of the archives and voicelessly floated beside him to be an unexpected yet welcome guest -- a conversation friend at most, maybe, voicing your opinions about... things. To lift the weight off his shoulders, anything not to see him in grief like that again. 

You let him in on your fears, your humanity behind the Jedi image, sometimes strategies you’d discovered belonging to the records of the Old Republic regarding the war — even when you knew whatever you blabbered about lecturing had nothing on his genius and was probably more boring than reading to him.

When your feelings roared behind your shy whispers that echoed in his ears, the anxiety that he had figured you out by now squeezed your heart in a durasteel fist, it was a warning that he’d try to pry and not a hair in your body would pick up on it because he overwhelmed all your senses already. 

But if you were good at something, that would be hiding away. Hiding away from yourself, from everything. In the Archives, and buried in the shifting pages of datapads and holoscreens.

But as long as you meditated, you were fine. Having feelings for Anakin was something you got used to overtime, you knew how to keep yourself steady, you’d normalized it.

You thought you knew everything about what this man could do to you by now. You were safe. 

But deep down you knew, you knew that only a fool would think they know everything rather than a wise man.

He loved a Senator.

[hollythehills]

Chapter One: Running On Carbs

First Fanfic guysss <3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was quiet. As usual.

You mean. You would hope so, right? It is a library after all. But there weren't many people there and although you enjoyed sharing your love of literature with other people you had to admit you liked it like this. There were no children running amuck, parents leaving them here in hopes that some poor librarian will feel bad enough to watch over them, or maybe even hoping that the child will sit down and read a book. There were a couple of teenagers out and about but they were always quiet, too afraid of drawing any attention to themselves. You tried your best to make sure they especially felt at home here, because this was your safe space when you were their age. Probably why you work here now.

But you're not complaining. After all, you were getting paid to read a majority of your day now that you mostly work front desk. Sure you have to deal with the occasional missing book or library card, or angry parent (always for the worst reasons, one time a lady came in demanding why you kept a copy of Catcher in the Rye, as if you specifically had any say in what the library did and did not carry), but all in all it was a nice gig. At that moment you were reading some fantasy trilogy that was just another euphemism for racism without actually including racism, a hierarchy within a hierarchy. But the writing style was easy to follow and refreshing so are you really to blame for becoming so immersed in your novel?

Unfortunately yes. The cough in front of you seems incredibly adamant on getting your attention. You look up from your book ready to help and are met with the gaze of...

Well actually it took you a second to realize you were actually meeting the gaze of anything. Instead of eyes you were met with eyesockets which would be surprising if not for the skeleton they were attached to.

Your eyes widened trying to take in the sight. The skeleton was incredibly tall and wore a beanie. He had on a sweater and some type of gardening pants. He kind of loomed over you in a way, he didn't seem to be trying to intimidate you, but he was absolutely having the affect.

You rose your chin and put on your best customer-service smile, "Hello, sir. How may I help you?", your voice carried to the skeleton clearly, without a hint of a waver.

Wordlessly, the skeleton placed a book on the counter and nodded to it. You caught the cover and it seemed to be a cookbook. You cocked your head, waiting for some kind of clarification. You hadn't ever seen this skeleton here but you assumed he had been here before with how confidently he walked to the counter. Perhaps he was mute, you thought.

You asked carefully, "Do you have a library card, sir?"

There was a pause before he cocked his head. Almost like a puppy. You were about to ask again before he finally spoke, "no."

There was another pause where you waited a moment for him to say more, but he didn't. He had an incredibly deep voice that reverberated through the small corner counter that you sat at and although it puzzled you that someone who probably didn't have vocal cords was talking you nodded and pulled out the forms from the shelf next to you.

"I can get a card set up for you. I'll just need your name and email."

The skeleton stared again, looking down at you from his spot in front of the counter. He seemed confused again so you explained, "The name is for our system, just so we have a clue about what person has what book." You looked up from the form, "If you want I can use a nickname, it doesn't really have to be your 'legal name'," you used air quotes, "and I promise I'm not a snitch." Your lips curled into a natural smile and the skeleton seemed to relax a bit, though he still seemed on edge. His hands were in the pockets of his rough pants, which made him seem even bigger than he was, almost puffed up in a way. Finally after a moment he said quietly, "don't have an email."

Oh.

"Oh." You said, very intelligently, "That's no problem, if you'd like I can put a phone number in the system too. Or we can set up an email now if I could help with that."

He nodded gruffly, muttering a thanks while you waved him into a room behind the counter. The room was open to the rest of the library, but it was a little more private and you figured the skeleton would like that better than the open counter. He followed and watched as you got up from your chair. He eyelights followed you to the doorway and he trailed behind you, careful to keep a bit of a distance.

"Alright," you sat down with a huff and a flinch at the dull sting in your lower back, it was sore from your mattress (which was beginning to show springs on the outside instead of the inside), you needed to get it replaced but you didn't have the funds for that right now. He seemed to notice with how he eyed you warily, and you quickly tried to wave his concern away, "Oh don't worry about me. Bad back."

He nodded, seeming to understand. It surprised you that he didn't ask any questions, though it shouldn't have considering he's said less than ten words the entire conversation. Maybe it was only because you were so used to the looks and the questions. It was probably a human thing, the nosiness. Heh. Nose. Skeleton.

"Alright," you repeated, shaking that line of thought away. "Do you have a phone with you?"

He raised his brow bone but nodded, "yeah."

"Cool, so open an internet browser and go to..."

The whole ordeal took about fifteen minutes, only because the skeleton, who you knew was named Oak now, didn't seem to completely grasp the whole technology thing. But you get it, technology on the surface is pretty different than the underground so you didn't make a big deal about it.

You led him to the desk to finally check out the books and after you do he stops for a moment.

"hey, uh. I just." He looks at the books and nods, "thanks. for all the help." He looks like he wants to say more, but he doesn't and you smile.

"'Course, hon. Glad to help."

That was the first time you saw him.

But it was not the first time he saw you.

He had been watching from afar. At first it wasn't on purpose. He saw you on the other end of the bread isle at the grocers that he frequented. That became his favorite grocers, because it seemed to be yours. He didn't know what it was about you. At first. He just assumed that he liked you physically. The way your arms looked like they knew how to kneed bread (something he had been doing a lot of lately, since he finally had the time), the way your nose was just a little too big to support those glasses you always wore so that they sat on the very edge. Your legs were big, strong. But they still had a jiggle to them. He knew you really liked bread, he saw you in a bakery once and he thinks he actually saw your eyes sparkle staring at all of the baked goods. He tried it the same day, a couple hours after you left. It wasn't creepy, he said to himself. It was just curiosity. The sour dough there was fine. He knew he could do better.

He found himself constantly thinking about you. Not in an obsessive way, it was very casual. When he was baking he wondered if you would enjoy the cupcakes or the macaroons or the banana bread he was making. During game night he thought about whether you were competitive or not. He hoped you were. Because he wasn't and playing was only fun if someone playing the game was actually trying to win.

When he was out with his brother he spotted you in a cafe. You were in a booth that would've perfectly fit him and his brother too. He convinced Poplar to come into the cafe with him, even though it was a little too crowded for his taste. There weren't a lot of people, but humans tended to stare at him and his brother, maybe because they looked a little menacing, o maybe just because they were monsters he could never really tell. He knew he and his brother were definitely tall, compared to humans. So that could be the reason. But to believe that it were the only reason is naive, he told himself. And he was anything but that.

He ordered a red eye, he didn't know what that was but...c'mon. It's pretty funny. The kid taking his order smiled when he said it, he was glad someone appreciated the joke because his brother surely didn't.

"Sans Please, We Are In Public." His brother huffed but there was a hint of a grin on his skull that Oak saw clearly. He chuckled gruffly and went to sit at a table that had a good view of you. You were cuddled into your booth, a book in one hand with your fingers wrapped around a mug in the other. The drink seemed to be very light in color and the empty sugar packets on the table told him that you liked your coffee sweet. He laughed a bit in his head, how funny is it that he baked all of these sweet things and doesn't like sweets. And here you are. A solution to that problem. It was funny, but just a thought, he told himself. You were just a little crush. He had heard people call it a 'hallway crush', when you see someone around you think is really attractive. And then you keep seeing them around, and now you know all of this stuff about them and you can't really do anything with it but you really want to get to know them better but you cant really work up the courage to just go up to them and say hi so. Yeah. A predicament.

Poplar nudged him. He sat across him in the booth, but because the booth is against the opposite wall from where you were sitting they both have full sight of you. Which means Poplar definitely saw his staring at you.

"She's Cute." He grinned at Oak, his eye-lights twinkling behind his thick glasses. Now that he was looking, Oak saw that his brothers glasses were really similar to yours, though yours were thinner than Poplar's. Oak's face dusted in a light blush, the color a rusty red. He nodded and hoped his brother would come off the topic.

He did not. "We Should Go Talk To Her."

Oak's face snapped up to meet his brother's face. That... didn't seem like a good idea. He knew that you were pretty nice for a human, but he had never seen you interact with a monster before and he did not want to run the risk of you somehow being a monster hater. What if you were a complete bigot? He had no way of knowing. All he knew was that you liked coffee and bread. He was sure bigots also like coffee and bread. Who didn't like coffee and bread? He eyed the book you were reading. Tales from the Cafe. Okay that wasn't a book that bigots usually read, but it wasn't unheard of. "uh. i don't know about that, bro."

Poplar did not look shocked. And that is because he wasn't. Oak was a homebody, it was very rare that he ever found interest in another person that did not live in their house. He did not have friends, and although he claimed that it didn't bother him, Poplar had the suspicion that he was a little lonelier than he led on. "Why Not? I'm Sure She'd Love Someone To Talk To Right Now." That was a lie. Poplar was almost certain that if someone had interrupted him while he was reading at a coffee shop alone, sitting a booth in a coffee shop alone, and sipping coffee alone and someone interrupted him he would be many things among perplexed. And he knew that his brother knew that. But he couldn't squander this moment of interest that he saw in him What if his brother had found a datemate? And Poplar did have to admit, you were quite attractive. He wouldn't mind seeing you around the house everyday.

Oak shook his head a little. "naw, you've got the wrong idea." His brother squinted his eyes at him. He looked away, "I mean. not completely wrong. i just recognized her from that bakery we started going to."

Poplar looked even more delighted, which Oak thought wasn't possible. He practically vibrated in his seat when he said, "Perfect! You Two Have Something In Common."

"i don't think bread is something really significant to bond over, paps."

Poplar lifted his brow bone, "Now We Both Know That Is Completely Untrue. You And Red Ended An Argument With A Focaccia."

"that was different."

Poplar looked smug, but didn't push it any further. His brother was a procrastinator, but he knew that if he really cared about something he would do it. Poplar cringed inwardly at the choice of words in his inner monologue, but he knew what he meant.

The coffee and treats arrived (coffee for Oak, treats for Poplar) and it turns out that a 'Red Eye' is just a black coffee with two shots of espresso. It was very good, Oak finished it all and hoped he wouldn't be too jittery later. His caffeine tolerance was pretty high but his anxiety was higher. He watched his brother eat the chocolate chip biscuits they bought. They looked pretty good, enough fluff and the layers looked decent. Poplar ripped off a small piece and handed it to Oak. He ate it, chewing thoughtfully. It was definitely shipped frozen, but otherwise it was fine. He nodded and Poplar smiled. Oak glanced at you. Still wrapped up in your book, but one of the baristas must have brought you some food while he was talking to Poplar because he saw a plate of three biscuits at you table. Chocolate chip.

They left before you did. You didn't see them, but they saw you.

And then Oak saw you at the library. He was only trying to find some books for his brother. It was his week to cook dinner and he wanted something different. Oak didn't see you until he was done looking through the library. You were just there. He wasn't even looking for you. But there you were, and he guessed now he knew one more thing about you. Where you worked.

You asked him for a library card. He definitely had his brother's card in his pocket. He wasn't a serious reader. But he guessed it was never too late to start.

You helped him get everything he needed, an email (which he definitely had, but now he had one especially for your place of work. you know. just in case), and he has his own library card now. He found out a couple of things that day.

One: You are definitely not a monster hater.

Two: He already kind of knew this from the cafe experience, but when you're reading you have no sense of your surroundings.

and

Three: He really liked you. And he didn't think it was just a little crush anymore.

[sophieswundergarten]

Okay, so, basically I accidentally came up with an idea where, instead of sending the kids, the adults decide to infiltrate Curtain's school as teachers. (Except, it's not the Institute. It's some weird K through 12 kind of school based on my vague knowledge of the public school system and what things are taught there)

Like, Mr. B and his group set up a little book club -type thing where it's just a place for concerned parents/adults/advocates for children to meet up and talk about the Emergency. (The kids have already been enrolled in Curtain's school at this point for various reasons)

Miss Perumal comes because she's got Reynie, and Moocho comes because of Kate. Milligan loves hearing stories about Kate but he feels super guilty about it because what if she's just reminding him of his own child that he forgot and he can't possible care about/interact with Kate because that would mean he was abandoning his actual child.

But, through Miss Perumal's connection with Reynie already being a student, they all get hired. Milligan as PE teacher, Rhonda for Home Econ, Number Two as Shop, Miss Perumal as Social Studies/Geography, Moocho as the... Cafeteria Head-Guy-Person? And Mr. B as the librarian.

Garrison is the slightly unstable science teacher and Vice Principle, Jeffers is the janitor but he's trying to get promoted to campus security (Ten Men), and Curtain is head of the theatre department/Principle.

Jackson/Jillson/Martina are all upperclassmen who have been attending forever and have basically finished their education but they stick around for Curtain so they just spend all their time TAing for various classes. And since they've been there since they were tiny they have to slowly learn from the other adults that Curtain isn't the End All Be All and if they get bad grades or even fail a class it has no bearing on them and their worth as people.

SQ is still Curtain's son, which gives him the privilege to take whatever classes he wants because he's super advanced in some areas but not others, so he's got classes with the Executive Trio and the Core Four.

He also loves hiding in the library and Mr. B loves that he does that, but Curtain's threatened that if he tells SQ he's his uncle then Curtain will fire all of them and they won't be able to help the kids anymore. Curtain isn't sure what all the adults are doing, but Mr. B had a Reynie-esque conversation with him about "Keeping your enemies close" so he's letting them stick around so he can watch them.

Once they're all there they of course start gravitating toward their respective kids (And Miss Perumal gets Sticky because he's so close to Reynie, at least, until his parents show up because they didn't deserve to be cut out of the show they're just having A Time Of It Right Now)

That's all I've got for now, I don't even know what half of all that is. I had it typed out in the tags but then apparently I went over the tag limit and Tumblr DELETED IT

Anyways, I'll add more if I remember it and I apologize for the horrible slap-dash writing. Here are the surviving original tags:

#The other adults can be there too #Like Mr. B as the bookish kid and Garrison as part of the STEM club #(they impeached her as president because she kept pushing them to do *slightly* illegal activities) #OR #Even better it's like all of them being school teachers of different subjects#Curtain's still theatre and Milligan's PE #But. Like. Fun PE where he makes up adventure scenarios to motivate students and plays fun music and gets them engaged #Mr. B's the librarian #Number Two's the shop teacher and she's scary good at it #Maybe she also helps with lunches I'm not sure #And Miss Perumal's the Home Economics teacher and she's fantastic but also teaches self defense because “It counts as Home Econ” #Wait maybe Curtain's the principle too but nobody listens to him and he just sends out crazed announcements through the PA system #And all the teachers listen politely and then are like “Anyways—” #Maybe Rhonda's the Home Econ teacher actually #And Miss Perumal's the geography/social sciences teacher #Actually that's much better#And she takes the kids on the best field trips #But she Rhonda and Number Two still teach self-defense #Curtain doesn't want them to but Milligan lets them into the gym after school's over and hangs out with them while they do it #Actually I've changed my mind Moocho is in charge of the school kitchen #And sometimes he sneaks Number Two in there and they experiment together #Mr. B is the absolute best librarian and he's just so nice and comforting and supportive #He teaches a course every semester about internet safety and how to properly fact-check things so you know what's true #He makes the library super calm and inviting and it's full of soft green plaid plush chairs #And they're not just in the open spaces either #There's lots of little hidden areas where people can go and sit and read if they don't want to be bothered #He lets kids take naps in there sometimes if they're having a bad day #And gives them tea and talks to them #And then of course his brother shows up and tells him off for letting a student skip class #And he apologises as bunch (But he doesn't stop doing it)

There should be more content on the systemic rivalry of Curtain as a theatre kid and Milligan as a