#also those weird little red thingies on her hair are gone. never actually liked them that much

[starrysharks]

heavenly virtues - medical malpractice, 1st degree murder, and breaking and entering

[stories-by-rie]

Chapter 2 - Heart of Silver

Four years before Evelyn gets herself cursed, she meets Ariel for the first time; and a second time, featuring a stinky Mare.

words: 2665 || masterlist

It had all started in a club. It was a tiny one, close to the university, with mostly students working and partying there. For many, it was both a good way to earn a bit on the side, and to get the mind off nearing exams. The music was mostly pop, with some nichey songs in between, mixed in a way where no one could really complain.

    For Evelyn, it simply was too loud. She could feel the bass in her heart. The room’s air was hot and heavy, and smelled like alcohol and sweat. People were screaming over the music, laughing, possibly also being aggressive. 

    Her phone buzzed in her hand.

    Mareike wrote, just leave, come over to mine instead, we’re having chocolate cake and watching old horror movies.

    With a sigh, Evelyn typed her answer, I promised Kyla, I should at least stay a full hour. She held onto her first beer, but people pushed from all sides, so she slipped up anyway and felt the grip on her bottle lessen. Really, in such situations one had to set priorities, so she focused on the bottle, stumbled over someone else’s foot, and saw her phone fall to the ground. Over the loud noise, she didn’t hear it hit the ground, but she flinched nonetheless.

    “Very sorry!” she yelled to whoever she had run into without even looking up, eyes on the ground. As she reached out to it, she saw her hand shaking slightly. Too much noise and too many people.

    Her phone buzzed on the ground, the blue light showing her just where to reach.

    “Broken?” A voice asked and when Evelyn looked at her phone, it indeed had a thin line running through the display.

    “Just the display, I hope. Sorry, again.”

    “No problem. You should have stuck with simple mobile phones, they don’t break that easily.”

    Evelyn finally looked at the person who held a flip-phone in one of their hands, an alarmingly blue cocktail in the other that was only overshadowed by the bright blue of their hair.

    “That’s so 2009,” was all Evelyn could say which was not a good thing for small-talk, but she blamed it on her anxiety or the alcohol.

    “You don’t look like you want to be here,” the person said, tilting their head in a way that made the colourful lights reflect in their glasses for a moment.

    “I really, really don’t want to be here.”

    “Then why are you?”

    “My… my friends are somewhere-” she pointed in the general direction of the dance floor where it was impossible to single out any familiar faces in the mass of dancing people.

    “Ah,” was all the other said. For some reason, Evelyn was certain she was understood despite her stammering.

    “I’m Evelyn,” she mumbled, ignoring the buzzing in her hand again. She wasn’t sure if she would meet the other again, if in any way exchanging names would matter. But she felt compelled to.

    “Ariel. I use they/them pronouns, if you were wondering.”

    Evelyn replied with a smile. She had been wondering.

    “That’s a nice name.”

    “Thanks, I chose it myself.” Ariel grinned and drank a bit of their cocktail.

    And -- really, this could only be blamed on Evelyn’s anxious state paired with the alcohol -- she blurted out, “Ariel as in the Little Mermaid?”

    Ariel nearly choked on their drink and shook their head. “Curses, no!” Even if they looked a bit amused and somewhat quieter, though enough to be heard, they added, “Ariel as in the Sylph in The Tempest by Shakespeare.”

    Evelyn smiled and put the phone in her jeans pocket, held onto the bottle in her hand instead.

    “Why are you here?” she then asked, even if it was probably a dumb question. Most people did come to party after all, but Ariel seemed to have come on their own and at least that was a bit unusual. 

    “I am glad you asked. I heard there’s a Mare living in the air vent in the restrooms. I came to kick it out.”

    “By yourself?” Evelyn nearly dropped her beer again.

    “Well, I hoped I would run into someone who is better with those creature thingies than me, but if this turns out to be fruitless, I am willing to drag the Mare out with my own hands.”

    “Don’t do that! A Mare is much stronger than you and would cling to you instead! You would not even notice, just feel the pressure on your chest and suffer tremendously from bad dreams every night- that’s- that’s really not how you’re supposed to handle Mares!” Evelyn had spoked too fast, stumbled over her own tongue in haste to keep Ariel from making a mistake, and only now that she saw their -- victorious? -- grin, did she notice what she said. It felt as if she had walked straight into a trap.

    “Sounds a bit like you know your fair share.” The way Ariel said it, they did not sound in the least surprised.

    “You knew.”

    “What are you in for again?”

    “Psychology.” Evelyn took a step back, clutching her beer tighter.

    Ariel followed her, narrowing their eyes. “Liar.”

    “I studied Mythology and Mystical Practices before, but I didn’t graduate, so it doesn’t mean anything.”

    “You still have the knowledge, though.” Ariel looked smug, sipping on their cocktail and Evelyn knew that they wouldn’t relent. But it really was not in her place to help.

    “If there is a Mare in the vent, you should notify the building’s janitor, so that they can then call a company that specialises in this. The insurance might not cover the victims’ therapy if the whole situation isn’t handled following the book, so. Please, really, don’t mess with it. Sometimes it’s better to just leave these things alone.”

    Nausea spread in her stomach. It was time to go. She really had indulged her friends for long enough, wherever they might be amusing themselves. Her heart beat in an unsteady rhythm, calling for sleep or distractions. She turned around, looking at the green exit sign, but Ariel kept talking. 

    “I already did notify the janitor, but he didn’t take me seriously. So I then contacted the owner, but he would not even talk to me. That’s why I decided to take the matter into my own hands and you will help me.”

    “I absolutely will not.” The thought alone made her skin itchy, made the air in the club even harder to breathe. She looked down at her phone, several messages demanding to be read. She quickly unlocked it and opened the group chat.

    I’ll head home, hope you still have some fun! Had a nice evening ^^

    To Mareike’s messages of, r u home yet? just send an emoji that ur fine, she replied with a sparkles emoji.

    “I’ll go,” she said, looking up to Ariel, but they were already gone. A hint of guilt crept into her bones – maybe she had been too harsh? But her heart beat so fast it made her cheeks feel hot, so she really needed fresh air. She put down her beer on a nearby table and fought her way through the sweaty bodies until she saw the night sky above her. The summer heat was not much better.

    The second time she met Ariel was roughly two weeks after their first encounter, on campus during lunch time. Ariel was sitting – lounging – on a bench under some birches. The small leaves were barely enough to provide shelter from the staggering sun. Evelyn really just noticed them because their iced coffee fell right out of their hand, rolling all the way down to her feet.

    “You lost something,” Evelyn said and held out the cup to them. She felt more than uncomfortable the longer she stood there, but she had started it now, maybe feeling still a bit guilty for the last time. The lid had kept most of the coffee inside but some of the cold and slightly sticky beverage still dripped down her fingers. Ariel pushed up their heart-shaped sunglasses, their own glasses underneath, and looked at the cup quizzically. Since they had last met, Ariel had gotten deep shadows under their red-rimmed eyes.

    “You look awful,” Evelyn said, forgetting about the existence of her verbal filter.

    “Thanks, it’s the exams.”

    “What do you-”

    “Doing my Masters in Curses.”

    “That’s a thing?”

    Ariel froze a bit and then mumbled, “I am sort of making it a thing?”

    They finally took the iced coffee out of Evelyn’s hand, took off the lid, chugged it all at once and threw it into the bin next to the bench.

    “Sounds very cool. And useful,” Evelyn mumbled and nearly missed how Ariel’s eyes shut again, only for them to flinch back awake. “You seem incredibly tired, though.”

    “It’s the stress, don’t worry. It’s giving me bad dreams, is all.”

    They looked each other in the eyes, communicating silently that they both knew that the other knew. It was Evelyn who finally broke it.

    “You can’t be serious. You really went into that vent to get the Mare alone? You can’t just do that.”

    Ariel just shrugged and let the sunglasses drop down again. “Well, actually I could. It wasn’t even hard. I just climbed from the toilet seat to the air vent – which is much smaller than it looks in movies, by the way – and crawled through it following the snoring sounds. Then I saw the Mare – which was the ugliest thing I laid sight upon so far, by the way – and hunted it through the maze. Just that I kinda lost it after ten seconds or so. I swear I could still hear it, but it was just too dark and I didn’t really think to bring a flash-light. Damn, it really scared the shit out of me, because I kept turning around? But there was nothing.”

    “That’s because the Mare climbed onto your back and stuck to you then. I told you that would happen, but you didn’t listen. So of course you are tired now, you’re haunted by it.”

    “Ah, right. You did say that.” Ariel rested their head on their hand and pouted. “That’s the bad dreams then.”

    “Yeah. Mares eat good dreams, so you only have the bad ones, and more of them to fill the blanks.” Evelyn sat down next to them, a little helpless.

    “I never have good dreams, though. Just weird ones. The kind where a giant slug comes and eats my master thesis and I give it strawberries as a thank. I miss the slug, I used to call it Bob.”

    Evelyn raised an eyebrow at them, uncertain if they were being serious, joking, or if it was the lack of sleep.

    “Well, maybe you will get lucky and the Mare will lose its sanity and leave you alone soon.”

    “That can happen?”

    “No.”

    Ariel groaned and stretched, only to slump down again. “What do I do now?”

    “Hire a company to get rid of it. Just know that no insurance company is gonna cover it, because you dragged the Mare into your bedroom yourself. You basically asked it to come inside.”

    Ariel pulled a face and sighed heavily. “I can’t afford that. Can’t you come?”

    “If you study curses, haven’t you covered mythological practices in your bachelor's too?”

    “Not really. Just in theory. In more practical terms, I already only focused on curses back then. I want to be a curse-broker, so I never bothered with anything beyond ghosts. You seem to be able to, though. You never once mentioned that you wouldn’t be able to help me, just that you didn’t want to.”

    Evelyn didn’t answer. They were right, of course. She had learnt everything she needed to know long before she had entered uni for the first time, growing up as the daughter of the owners of a company specializing on mythological creatures. Studying that at uni was supposed to only give her the licence to work in the field, she hadn’t gained new knowledge at any point.

    “Have you ever considered that I might really suck at dealing with creatures? I might make the situation worse for you,” she then mumbled, staring at the blue sky behind the birch leaves. She said it barely loud enough to be understood.

    “Do you?” Ariel worked through their bag and pulled out two lollies, offering one to Evelyn.

    “No,” she replied truthfully. “I am really bad with curses, though.” She unwrapped the lolly and put it into her mouth. “Curses are more my sister’s expertise.”

    Something in her voice must have betrayed her feelings. The hurt, the anger, the resentment. It was all she had to say to be understood. Ariel stayed silent for a long time as they sat on that bench, letting the lollies turn their tongues green. When lunch break was over, students walked over the campus to different buildings, but they stayed seated. 

    “She’s not dead, tho, is she? Wait! Did a Mare kill her?” Ariel then suddenly asked, their voice a bit shrill that it made Evelyn giggle.

    “Nah, don’t worry. Mares aren’t high class enough to kill you. Maybe the after effect of the insomnia would in due time, but I don’t know many cases in which it went that far,” Evelyn explained and bit on the lolly stick after the sugar had dissolved inside her mouth. “My sister’s fine. She went abroad.” Evelyn then frowned as the trees’ shadows moved with the sun, the bright light blinding her now. They had sat there for a while. “To the USA. I haven’t seen her in a while, it’s been one and a half years.”

    “You were close?” Ariel asked softly. Evelyn heard how they were more serious now.

    “Yeah. I mean. I am pretty sure that I am always closer to people than they are to me. But we got along well. We were a good team. She got this really good research opportunity in Philadelphia though. It’s good she went.”

    “But you still miss her.” Ariel handed her a new lolly with a grin and she accepted.

    “Yeah, I do. Of course, I do.”

    “Hm.” Ariel unwrapped their second lolly as well, eyes still droopy from their accidental nap. “Is she the reason you don’t go in the field anymore?”

    “More or less,” Evelyn started, and the fear of oversharing hit her. But Ariel had asked, in some way at least. “After she left, I tried to make up for the gap she left behind. It did not work out well. I messed up this one job and no one got hurt, but it just reminded me that I was kinda raised into it all and it felt wrong so I left.”

    “Huh. So you dumped your whole study subject?”

    “Yeah. I worked without a license. My parents covered it all up, which just felt even more wrong. I should have had to face the consequences, or at least my parents. I should have gotten banned from field work anyway, so leaving was the only choice to make.”

    “Do you miss it?”

    “Sometimes. A bit.”

    “I have just  the thing. Back at home there’s a Mare that I can’t afford to kick out professionally. It’s kinda stealing my sleep.”

    Without Evelyn noticing, they had come closer, a slightly mischievous grin on their lips. There really was no way to say no to them now. At some point she must have said something close to a yes, because Ariel was dragging her down the stairs towards the town and their apartment where the Mare occupied their bed. Evelyn wondered every now and then if all that conversation had been some detailed plan to lead her into that trap until she followed Ariel home to help them with the creature. But then again, she somehow had also followed Ariel into that new, quite weird friendship between them, so she did not actually mind that much.

----

previous chapter || WIP intro || masterlist || next chapter

[thedarkrose17]

Landing in a strange world was weirdly normal at this point for Noctis. But landing in a strange world with one of his friends not so much.

Prompto looks at the Regalia and sighs.

"You think there's a gas station around here?"

Noctis shrugs, leaning against the car.

"Where even is here?"

Prompto swallows and looks around for any signs with text on, hoping to get a hint. Nothing.

He checks his phone. No signal. Weird. It looks like nowhere on Eos he's seen before.

"No signal." Prompto looks at Noctis and sighs. "Any bars for you?"

Noctis grabs his phone and checks. "Nothing."

"Shit." Prompto groans.

He feels his anxiety easing as he hears footsteps approaching. A person! Finally!

They could figure out where they were, get the Regalia in a garage and maybe call Cindy to get her to tow them back to Hammerhead.

Prompto takes a deep breath and turns to face the stranger, a greeting on his lips. It dies the moment he sees said stranger.

The stranger looked human-like but not fully. Black cat ears sat on top of black and grey hair with an orange lily in it, a tail flicked to the side. His eyes were normal minus the glowing yellow hue.

The stranger had a weird get up, black almost robe-like open top, black pants and boots and two circular shiny things on each of his sides, strapped down.

"Um." Prompto blinks. That was straight up a cat man. "...Do you know where we can find a garage?"

Noctis stood up and looked at the stranger. Said stranger looked flustered as he looked between Noctis and Prompto. Was he turning red?

"Um...To fix the Regalia." Noctis adds, gesturing to the car.

"Oh...the vehicle! Cid can help. He's the expert. Can't say he's ever seen something like this though. Hells I haven't." the cat stranger says. He has fangs. Actual cat fangs.

"Cid?!" Noctis shares a look with Prompto as Prompto utters: "Is Cindy here too?!"

The stranger watched them in complete confusion. His face screamed who's that?

"Who are you?" Noctis asks.

"Solis. Solis Octavia" the cat man introduces himself. He bows, it feels so formal. He looks embarrassed almost when he notices the boys didn't return the gesture, his ears droop down and his tail curls around his waist.

Prompto and Noctis couldn't help but stare. This was just a cat that could talk. A disaster of one at that.

"Solis huh? I'm Noctis. You can call me Noct." Noctis rested a hand on his hip, using his free hand gesture to Prompto with his thumb. "That's Prompto."

"Hey." Prompto offered an awkward smile. "So um where are we?"

"Eorzea. In Thanalan." Solis replies.

The boys blinked and shared a look.

"I've never seen that on a map of Eos." Noctis muttered while Prompto looked close to a panic attack. Where the hell were they? "Can you help us push the car?"

Solis nodded and the three pushed the car until they reached Cid. To the boys' surprise it wasn't their Cid but another one called Cid Garlond.

Through him they learned they were in another world while his crew seemed to marvel at the Regalia. Cid promised he'd try to fix her.

* * *

Prompto and Noctis headed off with Solis to find out more information while they waited.

Sadly they didn't learn how to get back home but they learned something concerning.

"There's been metal men around. There's reports of people saying they're Garlean made." Solis says.

Prompto frowns and speaks up before Noctis has a chance to.

"MTs?"

"Did they follow us?" Noctis asks.

"Em-Tees?" Solis asks in confusion.

"They're magitek soldiers. Robots. Made of metal by the Niflheim empire. No one's inside them."

Prompto swallows and nods.

"They sound like they scream when they go down. Super creepy."

Solis' body stiffens. His tail swishing side to side, eyes wide.

Noctis had been around enough cats to know that was a sign of an afraid one. He resisted every urge to reach out and pet the cat man who was the exact same height as Prompto. It seemed weird.

"We'll take them out. They're easy." Noctis says, offering a smile.

Solis blinks and nods. He punches his fist into his hand and grins, showing off his fangs.

"They don't stand a chance."

* * *

The Regalia's gone by the time they get back. Hidden from the prying eyes of a cat woman reporter trying to get a scoop.

Unfortunately for the boys, she tracks them down and offers to give them more information to all their questions for a price. An interview with Prompto and Noctis.

So Noctis somewhat reluctantly agrees.

* * *

Noctis and Prompto come out of their interview with her and head over to Solis.

"So...How was it?" Solis asks.

"It wasn't an interview." Noctis sighs.

"It was an interrogation." Prompto mutters.

Solis snorts.

"It can't have been that bad."

"Trust me dude. It was." Prompto sighs dramatically.

* * *

True to her word, the reporter gives them more information, sending the trio to Gridania to talk to her sources about MTs.

After talking to said sources, Solis tells the reporter about a person seeing mts near Bramble Patch in the east shroud.

Prompto and Noctis listen completely lost on the places but it eventually doesn't stop the pair bolting off before Solis has finished speaking.

He sighs and chases after them, catching up with them in the east shroud. It's dark and dangerous, granted it's also dangerous in the day for anyone clueless about their surroundings or inexperienced.

He pants and is ready to warn them about running off until a creature growls in the darkness and stops him.

"Holy shit! A daemon!" Prompto yells.

Solis takes the circular things from his sides. While he's never fought this thing he's fought things similar.

"Let's go fellas." Noctis smirks, leading the charge.

Prompto hums and summons his gun, he fires off a starshell bullet, lighting up the area as Noctis warp strikes.

He rushes around firing as Noctis attacks. Almost stopping as he glances at Solis attacking.

The cat twirls and spins, colours coming off him as he throws the circular thingies around and at the enemy. He should really ask what those are called.

"Prompto!"

Prompto blinks and looks at Noctis who grins and throws him his sword, Prompto catches it with ease and throws his gun to Noctis.

The pair attack and finally finish off the daemon.

They bump forearms together and Prompto does his cute little victory cheer that Noctis adores but refuses to admit.

"...What's with the weapon change?" Solis asks.

"Link strike." Noctis replies. "We have a few."

Prompto nods and puts the sword back in the armiger, Noctis doing the same with his gun.

A stomach growls and the duo turn to their cat man teammate.

"...All that fighting made me hungry." Solis says, looking embarrassed. He rubs the back of his head sheepishly.

Noctis' stomach growls next, followed by Prompto's.

"Same here dude." Prompto mutters.

"Lets go set up camp." Noctis suggests.

"For once you're actually down for it. Ah, if only Gladio could see you now." Prompto jokes, gently elbowing him.

"...Sometimes it's not all bad." Noctis quietly admits.

* * *

They set up camp on higher grounds away from hostile creatures.

Noctis makes onigiri that would probably impress Ignis while Prompto makes and hands out coffee.

He sits next to Solis with a quiet oof before speaking up.

"I've been meaning to ask you dude...What's those circular thingies on your waist." Prompto asks.

"Chakrams. Blades are on them. They're what we dancers use."

"Dancers with weapons?! Dude, that's sick!" Prompto grins. "It was super cool seeing you spin around and all these colours come off you as you throw them."

Noctis heads over and sits next to Prompto. He offers the blonde a smile as he hands out the onigiri to the other two boys.

"Dude! He's a dancer with cool bladed circles!" Prompto excitedly repeats to Noctis.

Noctis can't help but smile.

"Is he now?"

He goes quiet for a moment before offering his thanks to Solis.

"What for? All I did was stop you two from becoming lost." Solis smirks. He laughs a little when Noctis calls him a smartass.

"No I mean you probably have shit to do yet you're helping us."

"It's nothing."

"Don't you have a life?" Prompto asks before covering his mouth. "Fuck! S-Sorry that came out wrong."

Solis offers them a warm smile and fiddles with a ring on his hand with a gem in.

"Is that-" Noctis gets cut off.

"An eternity ring." Solis answers, a blush dusts his cheeks as he says it and a fond smile crosses his lips.

"You're engaged?!" Prompto asks.

"Married actually."

"Won't your wife be worried about you?" Prompto asks.

"Husband. He's an adventure too."

The boys glance at each other. Maybe there's hope for them. Granted neither knows the other's feelings or even has the balls to confess yet.

"I get the feeling maybe there's some unsaid feelings between you too." Solis says, resting a hand on his jaw. He smirks. "Cute."

Noctis and Prompto turn scarlet. Prompto stutters gibberish while Noctis tries and fails to deny it.

Solis laughs, his fangs are more visible when he does so.

"Whatever it is..I hope you two can figure it out."

"....Sooo…" Noctis speaks up, changing the subject. "What's your husband like?"

Solis beams and rambles about his husband, a tall viera (bunny person as the boys come to learn) with green hair and heterochromia.

Seeing him light up like that makes Noctis wish that one day he could gush about Prompto like this to anyone who'd listen.

The man sounds completely smitten and honestly Noctis wants that freedom too.

He flops back in his chair, looking up at the sky sadly. Maybe if they can get home, somehow he'll confess.

Prompto places a hand on his arm and offers a weak smile.

"We'll find a way home. You always have."

Hearing that makes Noctis smile. Prompto has a point, he always does end up back home.

* * *

"It's good we took care of the daemon but there weren't any clues this time either." Noctis sighs.

Prompto puts an arm around his shoulders.

"We'll find something. We have to."

Solis joins them moments later.

"I told the reporter about what happened. She's hunting for more leads so we'll have to sit tight for a while."

"...I'd rather go for a walk. Take in the sights."

"Me too." Prompto moves his arm from around Noctis. "We won't leave the city. Promise."

"Ok just don't-"

They head off before Solis finishes.

"...Run off," he sighs.

* * *

He finds them at a stall, the lady behind offering them glamours for free to change their clothes.

Prompto tries one and horns appear on his forehead and a spiky tail appears from his lower back. The cropped top and tattered pants with open toed shoes are a surprise for the blonde. He's yet to notice the horns or tail.

Huge surprise for Noctis judging by how red his face has turned. He can't seem to speak let alone stop staring at the blonde.

"Um...W-What is this?"

"Au ra starting gear sir. Would you like to try another?" the lady behind the stall says.

Prompto nods awkwardly and takes another, using it. He looks human to his relief, the only change is his outfit. A white and black shirt with a deep v, white pants and thigh high boots.

Noctis still seems flustered by that as he takes a miqo glamour and uses it, turning into a cat person. Prompto squeaks in surprise, he blushes muttering Noctis looks cute making Noctis choke out a "W-What?!" flustering Prompto more.

Solis looks at the pair and sighs. Truly they're hopeless. Even more so as they awkwardly get two more glamours for their friends.

He's barely known them for a day and yet he can see their pining. And here he thought he was a disaster.

"When's the wedding?!" he yells, teasing. He might cackle when he notices the boys turn a deeper red.

"Fuck you that's when!" Noctis yells back, flipping him off. There's no malice, just a flustered prince and his best friend internally dying next to him.

Solis can't help but laugh more.

[abloomntime]

A Bloom In Time Ch10 Fixing One Problem At A Time P2

The silence went on for a long time while the red headed woman laid down on the bed. Blue eyes blankly staring off at nothing, have a numb glazed over look. Her mind a complete blank as she laid upon the bed just ....staring and doing nothing. After a little bit one of the children pulled the blanket back over her to be nice, but she didn't even react when they did do and just continued to lay there. She had reacted quite strangely after Hattie told her she had been frozen to death for over a thousand years-

"W-Wha-....." The older woman blinked at the concerned looking children who looked like they were scared to continue the truth. "T-That's ridiculous! I-I couldn't-....There's NO WAY!!! I w-w-would still be dead then if that's the truth!"

"I told you! Snatcher brought everyone in the mansion back to LIFE when he broke my 'magic thingy'," she explained for probably the FIFTH time already. Even Snatcher being an old noodle, understood what she said the first time...But maybe it was just because he was out in the world for those thousand years and got to see things develope on his planet, while Poppy was a frozen statue along with a whole bunch of other people for a long, long time. So she guessed Poppy WOULDN'T know much of her surroundings after so long. But she gave up saying time piece and said magic thingy instead cuz that's what she kept calling them anyways. "You were probably a frozen statue along with everyone else. But now you're free! You're ok."

Yeah she was......But what about everyone else? Her parents. Her friends. All the adorable little children who'd come and buy flowers from her. All those innocent people in her village. Her precious little flowers. That flower stand she worked SO hard to get when she was still a teenager. She worked so many nights and days in her father's potatoe fields, and fruit trees, constantly getting sweaty and dirty, sore all over and covered in sunburns from the heat...Just to be paid a few pons at a time until she had enough to buy a small space in the square and begged her father to help her build the small stand to hold all her flowers so she could sell them. She was proud of her work, and felt liked she earnt the right to have what she always wanted.To bring the happiness to everyone giving them the gift of the beauty of flowers....And all of that was just now-....Gone. Completely utterly gone. One thousand YEARS gone. All because of one woman. Poppy didn't have any energy to cry. Maybe because it was shock. Maybe because there was too much emotions swarming in her head right now. Maybe it was because she had trouble processing this entire thing but she just laid there staring quietly at the wall. Yeah...she was ok...they didn't have a chance. The two children had been worried after almost twenty minutes of the grown woman doing this and Bow once asked after a while if she wanted more cookies. Still more silence. At one point Hattie left real quick to grab herself a cookie or two remembering she didn't get to eat breakfast at all, and came back to the same thing s before with Poppy staring at the wall blinking every few seconds, and Bow now sitting on the giant trunk at the end of the bed with her head in her hands.

"Anything?"

Bow shook her head. "No. I said her shoes were dry now, but she still didn't move." She nodded towards the now dry shoes laying a little ways from them. "I don't think this is good.''

Hattie hummed and took a bite of the chocolate chip cookie in her hands. This was a problem. She must've been upset, or maybe she was just tired?? She didn't know, she wasn't a grown up.....Her eyes widened with a sudden realization. Grown up problems required ANOTHER grown up right?? Well who was the best grown up she knew who always dealt with problems? A certain purple noodle ghost of course!! She smiled and snapped her fingers Bow jolting at the snap sound before watching as Hattie shoved the rest of the cookie in her mouth and bounded over to the bed chewing said snack. The Hat wearing gal popped her head right in front of Poppy's blankly staring one and smiled widely!

"Hey! I know who can help! Snatcher can!! He's really, REALLY old too and he should what to do!! He's ALWAYS having problems!!" Poppy still remained quiet....but ever so slowly her eyes steered down to the little girl and Hattie nearly jumped back. Well at least she caught some kind of response outta her. "Come on! He had to deal with being frozen and Vanessa just like you!" .......He did? Did that mean that.....whoever this snatcher was....he was....like her? .....But then how was this ghost this child's father? Nothing was adding up. But Hattie didn't stop and only persisted by reaching over the bed and tugging on Poppy's upper arm trying to get the grown woman to budge. "COME ON!! Don't be a lazy peckneck! Grown ups are so weird!!"

.......Silently, the still blank faced woman slowly sat up startling the little girl into letting go and falling on her behind. The two children watched her as she numbly pushed herself up half way from the bed, blanket half falling off and giving Hattie a look. It wasn't too blank anymore, still dead panned but she saw some kind of spark behind them now.

"How can a ghost help me? He's already dead isn't he?," she asked in almost a whisper.

Hattie blinked and shook her head, "I just said he's really old! Maybe he can help you? I don't know. But come on! I can't help but I know he can!"

She still stared silently at her for a long time ...before sighing. She didn't see why not. She already met her queen turned into a monster, and two aliens. Why not a ghost too? It's not like her situation could get any worse either. A thousand years frozen, brought back to life, lost everything, alone.....And no way back. Whoever this snatcher ghost was, he sounded like a decent spirit at least if he took care of this child who was kind enough to rescue her.....So he couldn't be all bad right? She's never met a ghost before.

With another sigh she looked to the child. "I really don't have much of a choice do I?"

Instead of answering, Hattie got up and ran towards the pillow mountain where Poppy and Bow had left her umbrella laying there, they would need that if she wanted to get them both down to the Subcon Forest in one piece. Poppy sure took her time shrugging off the blanket, and putting on her now dry shoes, which Bow was nice enough to fetch for her. Hattie came back and encouraged her to hurry before running back over to the telescope. There was a reason this particular telescope was in her bedroom, and that being because it lead to her favorite place in the whole time n space places she's been. She looked through the seeing eye hole and sure enough, Subcon forest showed up right in front of her and she smiled. The trains tracks small but a little visible at least, and for a brief moment she wondered if Snatcher had actually been able to get them all to the train station yet. Sure it was at least three miles, but she was sure if they ran (Snatcher made them ran) or if he just got tired of yelling at them to run and just teleported them there(which was also very likely), he'd already be back! Which was exactly what she was hoping. Bow was sure coming this time too because the curly hair girl was already grabbing the extra umbrella and politely encouraging Poppy to numbly step off the bed and slowly follow her over to Hattie who just now looked up to them with a bright smile.

"Did you see Snatcher?," Bow asked.

Hattie shook her head. "No. This telescope isn't strong enough to see that far to the ground. We have to go look." She smiled as Poppy had finished putting on the other shoe and shuffled up to the girls who offered her hand. "We have to go down there to find him! You can hold my hand if you want."

Poppy rose a brow at her, not taking her hand. "Another transportation spell?"

The child again shook her head. "It's not a spell! My Telescope teleports me! We can teleport you too!" Without asking she grabbed Poppy's hand and tugged her right next to Bow who already posted her daker blue umbrella at the telescope that jumped a little bit, already charged up and ready to go. She pointed her umbrella at the telescope and made sure to increase her grip on Poppy's hand with her insane alien strength. Didn't want her to accidentally slip away and hurt herself. "Watch this!"

Before Poppy could protest or do anything, with a stretching lightheaded feeling they were already used too by now, the telescope teleported her down to the purple spooky part of the planet and she shot down in a beam of light. A few seconds later she landed in a random part of the subcon forest with dead trees and glowing mushrooms everywhere-....Oh wait! This was one of the dirt paths leading up to Snatcher's home. She breifly wondered if this was the same path Snatcher started marching all those people down. After a moment, a flash of white light popped in the sky above her just a little bit and a moment later a WHOOSH noise sounded out as Bow popped open the umbrella and soon the small child was floating down to the dirt path a little ways in front of her. Smiling, Hattie ran towards the spot Bow was floating down to and watched patiently as her feet landed safely on the dirt and the other girl closed her umbrella looking around the familiar forest of dead trees, fog, and lots of creepy purple colors. Very homey.

"Do you think he's here?," Bow asked blinking and looking down the path most likely towards the ghost's home.

Hattie nodded. "Yeah. I can tell." She looked around and then up towards the tops of the trees with a smile. Usually there was crows in the trees or spiders low to the ground when there wasn't anything bigger or more dangerous than them. Which the only thing it could've been was Snatcher or Moonjumper, but since it was still daytime(around maybe early noon), there was only one other person big enough to scare the spiders bigger than herself. Snatcher of course, he was already scary and it was easy to tell if he was here by the forest's aura. "Come on. I'm sure, he's really close, Poppy!" He ran a little ways down the path before slowing......and walking.....before stopping completely and turning around. Bow was still standing where she landed and was looking around too.

"......Miss Poppy?," she called out looking around the trees that silently stared back, no answers except for the spooky sounds of the wind rustling through the dead branches, and the creaking would. And maybe a frog or owl here and there. Her face immediately became worried as she glanced around more and her eyes became wide. "....MISS POPPY?!" She called louder and still received no answer as Hattie made her way back up to her and the panicked child looked at her. "Where did she go?!"

Hattie looked just as worried and confused now. "But-....She was just here!" And Snatcher's traps weren't anywhere around this area, she was just holding her hand a minute ago. "What happened?!"

"I don't know! I thought you had her!"

"But she was right behind me!"

"No she's not!!"

Hattie snapped her head back around as the creepy woods still silently mocked her back. Where did she go?! She was right here beside her! She held her hand all the way down, and she's transported people just like her and Bow to her ship and back all the time. Unless-....Space traveling was always easy when she transported Cooking Cat or Conductor, but they were the same size as her....Poppy was a full grown woman the size of Snatcher in his human form...She would've weighed more than Cookie or Donductor or herself. And transporting someone by holding her hand was different than giving her the umbrella to take her away like last time.....OH NO!! Hattie's hands suddenly gripped her hat and panicked. She must've accidentally let her slip from her and hadn't noticed because of the light and fast travel!! Immediately the worst case scenarios played in her mind. She could've gotten hurt! What if she fell into the swamp!? What if she accidentally came across the fire fox spirits or cursed headless statues?! What if she got stuck in a tree?! Or....HOLY PECK!! What if she fell into one of Snatcher's traps or ran into him and she wasn't there?! Snatcher wouldn't know Poppy would've been taken there by them!! She'd be doomed to sign his contract if she didn't find her before she did!! Or get to Snatcher and explain to him what happened first!! She hopped from foot to foot real fast before turning to Bow panicking even more!!

"W-We gotta find her come on!!"

Hattie suddenly started running down the path again but this time in a state of panick and fear shouting for Poppy. Bow following behind repeating a chorus of 'oh, peck oh, peck oh, peck'.

***************************************************************

The silence of the forest was a sign of danger. As the monster made his way back within the gloomy depths of his home. Spiders cowered as they climbed up their webs in a desperate attempt to escape any terrible fate the ruler might decide for them one day. Crows cawed and took to the air and scattered, leaving multiple black feathers floating slowly towards the black cursed dirt. Even the fire spirits would put up barriers to keep him away if they felt like it. His power great and his famous dealings more fearful. The best way to avoid him was to just not enter the forest, but for those who do they should heed the warnings of silence, alerting the prescence of the dead king. Slithering through the trees like a snake, scowl on his face. Clearly not in the mood for ANY kind of adventures. He was tired, very cranky, and wanted to not be bothered. Which was a dangerous combo if a tresspasser wondered in at that moment. Which is exactly why he told the kid to wait until he came to check on her, he wanted some time to himself and to relax after a stressful day and a half. No doubt he would be scolded by Moonjumper later anyways.

"BOSS!! YOU'RE BACK!!"

The long ghost loomed out through the tree line and towards the lit inside of his home and immediately he was swarmed by his curious minions. Looking at him and most likely confused about the entire fiasco, but he was def not in the mood to explain himself especially to his subjects.

"Did you get those fools there already?,'' one asked as they toddled after him.

Snatcher waved him off. "Nah. Found one of those owls heading there half way through. Something about being needed on set. Made him take the rest of the pecknecks there. Good riddance!" He mumbled the rest the rest of what he said and sighed at the familiar trusty tree. It was good to be home after such a scattered day. ...AND OH!! What was this? There was a small bush on his chair, the bush stretched and made a sound just like a cat before purring and rolling onto his side. Snatcher gave a smile immediately at that, and reached a hand over. His clawed hand slightly shook before it made contact with the soft leaves of the bush cat's body. He carefully placed a couple strokes against the cat's side and Rough Patch started purring, tail waving from side to side as he did so....This...it...He felt like this wasn't real almost. It'd been so long since he had done this. Had a small peace of calm like this. His own little pet. Soon the other claw came down to grab the bush cat and ever so carefully he picked Rough Patch up like a father holding his newborn baby for the first time. Smiling still prominant on his face. "Hey there, Buddy. Were you good while I was gone?"

"Mow," he replied back still purring and blinking that innocent cat face at him.

Snatcher huffed and brought the plump cat in his arms, the red collar on him standing out against his green leaves, and settled down against the dark purple arms purring happily. Happy to just being pampered not caring who did it like any other cat. Snatcher happily smiled at the peaceful scene. THIS!! This is what kind of peace of mind he wanted. He wanted to sit down and read one of those books with his faithful companion for a couple hours before dealing with the kid or anyone else. Except that plan wasn't meant to be at all. It was almost like a snap. Like a sudden feeling you would get when you KNEW something was wrong but not exactly like that. Instead a small feeling began at the back of his mind before this particular feeling grew and all of a sudden his body froze.....Before the giant ghost suddenly shivered, fluffy hair around his neck and chest fluffing up with a weird static shock kind of feeling and he slowly looked over his right shoulder(if he still had a right shoulder). The static like energy feeling like it was on the right side of his body and tugging him towards that direction.....Making the scowl return and the spirit's eyes narrow to almost slits.

"Uh...Boss?"

.....Snatcher huffed and shook his head. More work. Great. Rough Patch meowed in slight protest as Snatcher shifted him from his new comfy spot in his arms, and placed the purring pet back onto his armchair, patting his head and watching for a moment as he turned a few times in a circle and curled back into a bush. Turning back to where the magic tugging was pulling him and giving a small growl. So someone triggered one of his traps eh? Bad for them. Because he was NOT in a merciful mood at all. The annoyance building up in him as he rose up and growled in the back of his throat. Now was definately NOT a good time for anyone. The minions could only watch as their leader as soon as he arrived took off in a flash of purple in the direction of the magical tugging soon disappearing from the line of signs into the trees and shadows. He would be there in a minute or two with his speed and sure enough- Dweller, subconite, and child alike could hear the familar rumbling of the ghost coming. Crows cawing out the warning sign as the forest quaked in his wake. .......And his scream tore through the woods.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

[etherealellaelf]

Disney Remakes: they’re not all bad.

I submit that some of the disney live action remakes are, regrettably, a bit off. But not all of them. A lot of them are really good. Here’s why.

-Lion King did really put me off with the lack of expressions. I’m not sure if I have much to say about it, lol I’ll have to see it and let you know. Honestly though I don’t think I can because I love the original Lion King so flipping much, it’s a masterful movie and part of its mastery is the beautiful hand drawn animation and its expressive characters. I can’t think I can watch a bunch of real lions just talking. Who knows? I’ll keep you posted.

-Alice in Wonderland, one of the first of them, had some really good feminist moments. I love the Hatter and Alice’s love for each other, I guess he’s like the only human in Wonderland so it makes sense. But I get some weird ideas because the denizens of Wonderland are supposed to mirror the characters in Alice’s real life, and since the only redhead in Alice’s life is Hamish, that weirdo who asks her to marry him and he’s a total jerk.... and the Hatter is a redhead too.... idk it’s weird. Also it’s weird if he represents her dad because number one he’s dead and number two it’s incest, but the Hatter does say a few things that her dad said at the beginning....hmmm... fishy. However I feel like I can rest assured because this might just be the case of “Johnny Depp came to shoot today in a homemade cosplay and nobody can stop him because he’s just a mad genius”, in which case why do they keep letting him do that??? I don’t mind the hatter’s design, but can you imagine Just Plain Old Johnny Depp In All His Sexy Glory as a mad hatter? It would have been fine. They had to give him a gap between his teeth, CGI enlarged eyes, crazy red hair, white and pink makeup... oh well, whatever, it’s fine. I like how Underland looks a bit more like Narnia than like a Tim Burton land; I honestly don’t know if they gave him complete creative control when it came to the CGI set design. It might’ve been cool to see that.

-Cinderella was wonderful, I thought. I really love how Cinderella and the Prince interacted a lot more, falling in love over a long period of time. In fact, I feel like it was a spiritual remake of Ella Enchanted(which, in my opinion, Disney really botched up because the book was just so amazing), so they did really good in my book. My brother, however, hates that at the end she just twirls in her tower and doesn’t do anything to save herself, when in the original she tried to escape. He thinks it’s really unfeminist and he doesn’t want his daughter to act like that. I agree on that mark, but I’ll let everyone watch it. Also they threw a little bit of the Beauty and the Beast original fairy tale in there when her dad, a merchant, asks what she wants and Cinderella asks for the branch that brushes his arm or whatever; similar to a single rose, when her sisters ask for riches. I also liked the handling of Lady Tremaine; it really humanized her and I felt for her. The stepsisters were silly as per the usual. The King went from a bumbling psychopath(the cartoon) to a very melancholy, concerned father, and I cried at his death scene. Bravo, Kenneth Branagh, bravo.

-I really like all of Beauty and the Beast, although I do think that they made Lumiere & friends a little bit too important in this movie. I needed more moments between Belle and the Beast that were in the animation! Evermore was breathtaking though, let’s be honest. Although let’s be honest, I REALLY REALLY wanted to see a shirtless Dan Stevens emerge from a wall of rose petals because that sounds absolutely magical and super HOT. I’m so mad they had to redo it. Also I like the subtle crush Lefou has on Gaston; I’ve always wondered if he liked him. I do wish that Josh Gad had toned it down with his fabulousness though, because although I love fabulousness I wonder if it was slightly offensive. I really liked Gaston, and I feel like he could have gone a little bigger and with more bravado, could have been from slightly comedic to VERY comedic, but I think that’s alright. He did a great job. And as for everyone complaining about the villagers being really nasty and openly evil towards Belle, I actually liked it. It’s clear in the cartoon that the villagers whisper behind Belle’s back, but I feel like she just has a small smidgeon of an idea that they think she’s weird. In this, they freaking ATTACK her. They’re like ‘We can’t have smart bicc’s in our town! Get out me town!” It is a bit on the nose sometimes but I think it works because it helps Beast and her relate to feeling like outsiders. I do think the Beast knowing how to read kind of gave them something in common as well, but I disliked how he scoffed at her favorite book, Romeo and Juliet. I wish he had been more understanding like, “There’s this poor girl whose library is like, seven books, and amongst those seven books, one of which is probably the freaking bible because they belong to a pastor, her favorite is basically a romance. She’s not well read; I’m going to show her the classics.” Which back then was probably, like, idk, Voltaire? Too soon? Eh I’m not sure when it takes place. I do wish he’d gifted the library to her though, that was a nice gift for her in the previous movie. (Here’s the thing; the Beauty and the Beast cartoon is basically a perfect movie and I don’t think anything can live up to it, but this one was good too. It wasn’t better, but nothing can be better than that movie. Except maybe the Princess Bride or the first Pirates of the Caribbean or the stage production of Phantom of the Opera. No, not even then.)

-Dumbo? I haven’t seen it yet, I’ll have to and update this.

-Okay so Aladdin is really good. I entered the film with the meme cringe in my mind, totally expecting it to look weird and bad, but honestly Will Smith was such a great actor! And I actually freaking cried so many times because number one: the genie was aladdin’s father figure that he never had! He taught him how to date! Number two: the genie got his true love as well, and you see her and their kids at the beginning of the movie! SPOILERS btw. Sorry. Also Number three: they picked Will Smith to play the genie because he’s HITCH of course! The matchmaker extraordinaire! (I just love Will Smith. I wish he would run for president; it wouldn’t be the first time we had an actor in the white house. Just kidding, I don’t want to burden him that way, and there are really smart candidates this year to choose from. I just am urging everyone to go vote, and no more harambe crap!!!!) Also Jasmine had a nice new empowering role in this movie. I just sort of wish Jafar had been more menacing and villainous. But his actor was fine, just a bit soft-spoken.

-Lady and the Tramp- I started it on Disney+, I need to finish it. I’m halfway there. 

-Christopher Robin is a gift; it’s both simple and complex. It has a lot of nice metaphors and I could feel my heart hurting for much of the film. Seriously good aesthetics as well, Director of Photography!!! 

-The Jungle Book is a really good remake! So much excitement, and I could totally see Bill Murray in Baloo. (I think it’s equal in terms of story to the movie Mowgli, although Mowgli had that nasty little surprise at the end, I’m still hurt about it.)(also in comparing, the CGI is similarly good, but Mowgli wanted to do a really ambitious face capture thingy and I’m not sure if it worked,(uncanny) but it was interesting! It was also a lot darker. I think they’re both good.) Ben Kingsley was superb, of course, as Bagheera, as always, and he has a really fatherly voice(I thought Christian Bale did well as Bagheera as well, but he was more of an action figure in that movie, less of a father/teacher figure). And John Favreau, as always, went the extra mile to bring the action, the writing, and the moral through, and made it super good for children at the same time!(the same cannot be said about Mowgli, as there were some violence/action things that go beyond ‘peril’, hence it’s PG-13 rating) My one discrepancy was the voice of Kaa. Scarlet did fine, but I always thought of Kaa as a boy. I think they could have found a slithery voice actor for Kaa. Benedict Cumberbatch did really well as Smaug, hissing and growling, and he could have done well. I also think that Tom Hiddleston could have done a great job; he has a really gentle and pliant voice that can turn menacing in the matter of seconds, and if it’s about the snake being sexy as Scarlet Johanssen(haha what??), I think that Hiddles can bring it.(I’m not quite sure what I’m talking about at this point so I’ll shut up now.) I do feel like Mowgli started shooting way before The Jungle Book was even a glimmer in John Favreau’s eye, and that kind of makes me want to root for Mowgli because I’m sure that different movie houses have people working in both, probably swapping stories with their friends, and I’m sure it wasn’t an exact copy, but I can totally see Bill Murray in Baloo’s face and that can’t be by accident. Just saying. Not calling Disney out or anything, but I’m sure they can take it, they have like a trillion dollars. Anyway. Still a good one.

-Haven’t seen Pete’s Dragon.

-101 Dalmations, I know this shouldn’t count but it just does. I loved watching this as a child. I’m so happy they didn’t make the dogs talk? Haha it usually works when they do, but it gave a lot of room for Doctor House and Mister Weasley to interact. Also Glenn Close is great. I think this movie’s a good example of a career woman who decides to get domesticated and her sista is like, “Girl, you can’t do this! We have to be strong women! You have to come back to work!” But Anita is all, “Girl, respect my decisions! Feminism isn’t forcing your girl to be exactly like you, it’s giving me the respect to make my own decisions. If I want to have a baby with my husband, that’s fine. I want to be a mom!” I feel like the “new” 101 dalmatians remake they’re gonna make, will have a different opinion. Similar to wicked and maleficent, it’s going to humanize Cruella, but I just hope that they’re nice to Anita. She’s such a smol soft bird and if she wants 2 billion dogs and one baby, that’s fine... ugh, that’s gotta be like so much dog poop in her house... anita what are you doing...

-Maleficent. Obviously I love it. I love how those arguing fairies are super incompetent at raising Aurora because they’re too busy fighting, so Maleficent has to swoop in and rescue the princess. I like how Maleficent is a fae and it’s so sad how there’s like this rape metaphor when Stefan cuts off her wings, and that would be reason to curse his baby, especially because they were in love and he betrayed her! Stole her wings! Married someone else! T^T Maleficent, you poor misunderstood fairy! I love her motherly relationship with Aurora. I love that she’s the one who kisses her forehead to wake her up because Philip met her just that day. However, I don’t like how they just shove Philip out of the way, because Sleeping Beauty is honestly so romantic, and I love how they dance together and everything. I also like the raven boi. I ship him and Maleficent so hard and I hope he doesn’t die in the sequel, I haven’t seen it yet.

-So technically the Parent Trap is a remake. It’s awesome. It gave my childhood so much romance and prank ideas. It’s much better than its predecessor, especially because the mom in the old one is, like, urged to look prettier by her butler(wtf?!?! YOu’re FIrEd?!?). I’m so glad we’ve come so far.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Are the remakes better? In some cases they are. I think Cinderella is better than its predecessor. I think the original Alice is very good, as a nonsense movie, and I feel like the remake is equally good, but they’re different movies with different motives and plots. The original Beauty and the Beast is my favorite and it’s perfect, so the new one isn’t better, but it is really great and I love it, too. Anyway, that’s all.

[takerfoxx]

RD Walpurgis Nights 8, Part 12

Then…

The further they got into Freehaven, the happier Kriemhild was that this was to be their new home.

It was…nice. Oh, it was beautiful. It was strange in a mystical sort of way. It was lovely and peaceful-looking and fascinating and just seemed like a wonderful place to live.

But overall, it was nice. It was pretty weird, but it wasn’t over-the-top with it. It was beautiful, but not intimidatingly so. It felt kind and welcoming, if a city could be said to be kind and welcoming. And as strange and wonderful as it seemed, it also felt like a place where people actually lived.

Most of the building were tall and pretty close together, but the place that they were led was wide and open. There was a large, three-story building that sat in a white-stone plaza. It had the same white walls and red roof that the rest of the place did, though it had a high tower in the front, and two more towers on either side. The area surrounding it reminded Kriemhild of a school, with sports courts, a swimming pool, a grassy field, a garden, and a concrete quad with tables and umbrellas.

“That’s it,” said the woman leading them. “The Freehaven Integration Bureau. That’s where you all will be staying for now.”

“For now?” said one of the girls. “Like, for how long? And doing what?”

“A little of everything. It’s there to help girls like you learn about your new life and get used to things. And it doubles as a school so you won’t lose out on your education.”

“What! Seriously? We’re supposed to be dead! We still have to go to school even though we’re dead? Like, how is that fair?”

“We’re not dead, don’t you believe it,” muttered another girl.

The woman smiled patiently. “This way, please.”

“Come on,” Kriemhild said, tugging on Homulilly’s hand.

After the bad encounter on that plane…helicopter…thingy, Homulilly had managed to get her hands on a pair of full-arm gloves, ones that covered her all the way from her shoulders to her hands. Personally, Kriemhild felt that she shouldn’t need them. After all, they had already seen several people just as weird as she was walking openly. Heck, Kriemhild herself was just as weird, and no one gave her any problem with her legs.

Still, that was Homulilly’s choice to make, so Kriemhild just held her hand and kept her near. She had a feeling that her friend was finding everything to be a lot scarier than she was.

One of the other girls, a white girl with long, blonde hair, kept glancing at them. As they entered the building, she sidled up to the pair.

“Hey,” she said. “You guys are witches too, right?”

Kriemhild brightened at that. “We sure are!”

“Cool! I was afraid I was going to be the only one. I like your…legs, by the way. Bet you can get some distance with those.”

“Oh, well, yes.” Gretchen bobbled up and down a bit. “It’s pretty exhilarating. What’s your thing?”

The girl smirked. She tilted her head to one side and tapped her neck. “You know, I think I’ll save that for later. But trust me, it’s a riot.” She stuck out her hand. “The name’s Lucy, by the way.”

Kriemhild had already started to bow in greeting, but then stopped. Oh yeah, that was how people from other parts of the world greeted each other. “Er, Kriemhild Gretchen!” she said as she shook Lucy’s hand.

Lucy stared back. “Krimpled Gretchen?”

Homulilly, who had been hanging back, suddenly looked up.

“No!” Kriemhild said with a laugh. “Kriemhild!”

“Uh, okay. Hey, is it okay if I just call you ‘Gretchen’? Because your first name’s kind of a mouthful.”

“You can’t learn her name?” Homulilly said. “Why is that so-”

“Homulilly, it’s okay!” Kriemhild said. She turned to Lucy, who looked a little taken back by the sudden antagonism. “Sure! I was actually thinking of just going by that anyway.”

“Er, okay!” Lucy coughed into her hand. “Nice to meet you!”

As she hurried away, Homulilly turned to Gretchen with a frown. “Why not just have her use your full name?”

Gretchen made a face. “Er, I was actually going to talk to you about that.”

“Huh?”

“I was thinking of just going by ‘Gretchen.’”

“What? Why?”

Gretchen shrugged. “Well, because I think it sounds kind of nicer. Besides, I already had like three people mess up ‘Kriemhild,’ so it’ll just make it easier.”

Homulilly didn’t respond. She just stared.

“But you can call me whatever you want!” Gretchen said hastily. “I don’t mind!”

“Huh,” Homulilly said. “You really rather be called by your second name?”

“Kind of. Yeah.”

“Oh. Um, okay. I guess I can get used to it then.”

Gretchen smiled and gave her hand a squeeze. “Come on,” she said. The ground was starting to get pretty far ahead. “Let’s go see what this new world has for us.”

…

Now…

All in all, Ophelia did not consider herself to be missing out on whatever biological functions she had lost when she ceased to be, well, biological.

Periods? That was one of the first things they learned to get their bodies to stop doing. Aging? Forever young, hell yeah! Boys? Girls were so much prettier and they had boobs. Injuries that didn’t just fix themselves in a few minutes? The constant risk of death itself? Surely, it need not be explained why neither of them were missed.

Still, if she were to be truly honest, the one thing that she couldn’t fault those she knew for feeling cheated out of was the opportunity to become a mother, even if it wasn’t something she herself felt strongly about. Sure, it was probably a lot of hassle and heartbreak and way too much responsibility with no real guarantee that things would even work out, but there really was something attractive about creating a tiny person, helping them grow and mature, watching them develop an actual personality and interests of their own, seeing them make the same mistakes that you once made and deal with problems that you once thought world-ending but now feel trite in hindsight. And as someone who knew enough about her past to realize that her own upbringing had been…spotted, she did at times wish that she had the opportunity to correct that karma wheel, to do the good by her own child that wasn’t done for her.

However, being a parent had several significant drawbacks that she also had to acknowledge, and one of them was having to deal with the fallout when your kid had gone and done something really stupid and gotten themselves into an incredible amount of trouble. And as she approached the Militia headquarters to collect a certain Kriemhild Gretchen and Homulilly, she realized that she had never felt more like a parent than she did in that moment.

A very angry parent.

On the bright side, at least they weren’t locked up. Instead, they were sitting together along the wall in the front lobby, with a slightly bored marshal standing watch over them. The two had their heads bowed, and Gretchen’s legs had twisted themselves into so many knots that it would be a wonder if she was even still able to walk.

As Ophelia entered the lobby, Homulilly reflexively glanced up. As soon as she saw who it was, her face reddened and she quickly looked down again. Gretchen just gave her the quickest of glances and winced.

Ophelia, however, did not immediately look away. She stared right at them, eyes narrowed, until the weight of her gaze literally started to bend their shoulders. Oh yeah, they knew that they were in trouble.

Then she turned her attention to the receptionist, who looked just as bored as her coworker.

“Hello,” Ophelia said, her tone cool and professional. “I am Ophelia, and I am here to collect the two smog vapors in the corner there.”

“Hmmm. Hoe-kay.” Not even bothering to correct her slouch, the receptionist tapped a couple keys on her terminal. A pair of marshal reports suddenly materialized in the air in front of Ophelia, one of them containing a very unhappy looking Homulilly and the other an equally morose Gretchen. Next to each of their pictures was a rundown of the charges, which amounted to misdemeanors for breaking and entering of the Freehaven Integration Bureau and participating in the sabotage of their security system, and another for absconding with a special case new arrival, reduced from a felony charge due to the new arrival’s quick return.

“Bail for the pair comes out to seven thousand talents,” the receptionist said. Ophelia winced. It was certainly affordable, but also far beyond the amount she was used to dropping all at one time. Another readout appeared next to the girls’ records, this one providing details of their bail requirements. “As the poster you will then be responsible for the defendants’ behavior until their court date, which you will be notified of within twenty-four hours. I assume that they will be in your care until then?”

“Oh, most definitely yes.” Ophelia pulled out her bank card and slid it into the glowing receptacle on the desk.

“Mmmm-hmmm. Mark here.” A flashing octagon appear at bottom of the holographic display. Ophelia pulled off one glove and stuck her thumb into it. The octagon turned green.

The receptionist swiped her hand through the hologram, and it all immediately collected into a tiny glowing ball hovering over her thumb. She picked up a data crystal and stuck the ball into it. The crystal started glowing orange.

“The defendants have been fitted with tracking implants, and will neither be allowed to leave the city nor enter the FIB protected zone until told otherwise,” the receptionist said as she handed the data crystal to Ophelia. “Any further misdemeanors in that time will result in immediate incarceration with a new bail of nine thousand credits, and another two thousand for each additional misdemeanor. Felonies will result in the complete removal of bail entirely until their court date, and will be judged alongside the current charges.”

“Okay, but what if they behave themselves and show up when they’re supposed to? Can I get my bail back?”

The receptionist shrugged. “If found innocent, then yes. But considering they were kind of caught red-handed, then that’s up to the courts.”

“Ah.” Ophelia cast a sidelong look at the two defendants in question. Both of whom, it must be noted, were finding the patterns of the floor tiles to be extremely fascinating. “I see.”

Moments later Ophelia was seven thousand talents poorer and a great deal angrier. She pocketed the data crystal and made her way over to the pair. The marshal standing watch over them simply tilted her head toward them and shrugged before departing.

However, Ophelia didn’t leave with them immediately. She had just paid a hefty amount of money for her moral high ground, and by whatever nameless prehistorical magical girl that had wished her world into existence, she was going to get her money’s worth.

So she stood there, looming over them with her arms crossed, the fingers of her right hand tapping out a rhythm against her bicep.

As cheery and flamboyant as Ophelia normally was, she prided herself on having a fantastic glower, which she was now turning the full force toward the two criminals now under her care. And they felt it too. Their heads remained bowed, but their shoulders seemed to drop a few centimeters, Gretchen’s legs untangled themselves to lay flat like soggy noodles, and the petals of Homulilly’s flower actually started to wilt.

Ophelia kept the heat on until their discomfort was as palpable as her anger. Then she kept it going for another thirty seconds.

“Okay,” she said at last, making Gretchen visibly flinch. “Let’s go.”

She turned and headed for the door. She didn’t need to check to see if they were following. She could hear Homulilly’s heavy footsteps and the patter of Gretchen’s legs.

The Militia headquarters was nestled in the heart of the city, sitting on the boundary of the FIB protected zone, so it was a pretty long walk back to Ladoga. Sure, they could have taken the roofways, or even called for a zipper. But Ophelia needed time to stew, so they walked.

And walked.

And walked.

Partway there, Gretchen suddenly cleared her throat. “Um, O-Ophelia. I-”

Ophelia whirled perfectly on her heel and stamped her other foot down, bringing herself to a sudden stop after a hundred and eighty degrees.

“What?” she barked.

Gretchen winced. “N-Never mind. Sorry.”

Snorting, Ophelia turned back around again and plodded forward without another a word.

Finally they left the tall buildings and narrows streets and entered the winding cobblestone paths and thick foliage of Ladoga. Ophelia remained silent as she led the pair all the way to the fence, down the front path, up the patio stairs, and opened the door.

Oktavia was in her mechanized chair next to the stairs, and Candeloro was sitting in her easy chair. The two of them immediately straightened up as the trio entered, their faces full of questions.

There would be plenty of time for that later. Her hand still on the knob, Ophelia stood to one side and motioned with her hand for Homulilly and Gretchen to enter. They did so as slowly and heavily like the soon-to-be condemned that they undoubtedly felt like. Once they were fully inside, Ophelia shut the door and locked it.

“All right,” she said to the pair. “Sit.”

Homulilly and Gretchen hesitated for half a second, and then hurried over to the couch. They sat down with their heads bowed and hands in their laps, exactly the same way as they had done on the Militia bench.

“So,” Ophelia said as she removed her hat and placed it on the waiting hatstand. She walked over to stand across from the pair with the tea table between them. “This is an unexpected turn. You’d think I’d be used to them by now, considering how our week has been going, but honestly the two of you getting yourselves arrested is a new one. I sure as hell did not see this coming.” She glanced over to her girlfriend, who was parked right next to her. “How about you, Oktavia? You see this coming?”

“Nope,” the mermaid said. “Absolutely blindsided here.”

“Completely out of the blue,” Ophelia agreed.

“No warning whatsoever.”

“We just-” Gretchen started to say.

“You just wanted to find Charlotte because you were worried that she would leave us and be gone forever,” Ophelia coldly finished for her. “You felt that if you could get to her, you might be able to talk some sense into her. But since you had no idea where she was, you decided to start using your friend Hitomi Shizuki’s powers for good and get taken straight to her. Do I have the right of it?”

Gretchen’s head dropped again. “Yes,” she mumbled.

Ophelia sighed. “Well, congratulations. It worked. Charlotte called about an hour ago, and she and Candeloro are meeting face-to-face tomorrow.”

“But…then it worked!” Homulilly said, perking up. “We saved the family!”

“Yes. It worked,” Ophelia agreed. “You know what else worked?”

“Uh…” Homulilly and Gretchen said in unison.

“You successfully getting that intern that you shanghaied into helping you fired! There goes her chosen career. And probably someone else as well once they’ve finished their investigation! You two now have a record, so that’ll make any future job prospects kind of difficult. You made Hitomi take you to Charlotte without even knowing where Charlotte even was! What if she was someplace incredibly dangerous? What if you had gotten attacked? And…” Ophelia pulled out the data crystal and summoned up the list above her palm. “Oh yeah, the FIB was really pissed about this one. You roped one of the newly arrived, someone who has already proven herself to be extremely fragile emotionally and possibly even mentally, into your scheme!” She closed her fist, banishing the floating readout. “Do I even need to list all the different ways this could have fucked her up in the long term? Say what you want about all the things she’s done, but I thought we all agreed that the best place for her was at the FIB, getting help! But as soon as she was actually doing that, you go and yank her right out! Do you have any idea how fragile the trust is between them and her is right now?”

Homulilly opened her mouth. “But-”

“Take the whole last week out of the equation,” Ophelia said. “Take yourselves and your history with her and put it aside. Now, think back to your own time in the FIB. Think about all the times you’ve seen the newly arrived and how messed up they were over losing their family, losing their homes, and oh yeah, having fucking violently died pretty recently. Now, imagine that you heard that a couple of jackasses from the town decided to sneak into where one of the worst cases was being kept and twisted her arm into using her powers to help solve one of their personal problems. What would you think of those people.”

Gretchen winced. “Well…”

“YOU’D THINK THAT WAS A REALLY FUCKED UP THING TO DO!” Ophelia all but roared.

“But we just asked!” Homulilly wailed. “We didn’t force her or anything.”

Ophelia fixated her glower upon her. “Oh yeah? So you didn’t use her history against her at all? I know you have your own issues with the kid. You’re going to tell me that you didn’t use any of that to help, ahem, convince her.”

To this she got no answer, which was enough of an answer for her.

Ophelia continued. “And here’s another thing: I know we’re all upset over Charlotte having come down with a bad case of the stupid, but it’s CHARLOTTE! Yeah, she can get really stubborn and pigheaded, but odds are that after she had some time to herself to cool down and think about things, she would have come back on her own!”

At this, Homulilly scowled. “Do you know that for a fact?”

“No, I do not!” Ophelia snapped. “Just like you didn’t know that your scheme wouldn’t have gotten all three of you hurt! Or that you wouldn’t have made things worse and driven her off completely!”

Okay, now Ophelia’s smoldering anger was starting to erupt into white-hot fury. So she plopped down into her big red chair and slumped forward, fingertips pressed into her temples as she slowly breathed in and out, gradually getting her emotions back under control.

Once she felt that she had cooled off enough, Ophelia said, “Look. I know you two had the best of intentions. I know you got good hearts and were only doing what you thought you had to for our sake. But good intentions and good results don’t necessarily excuse bad actions. And I’m betting you knew that going in. You probably told a lot of people that if you did get caught, you two would take all the blame. Am I right?”

Gretchen swallowed. “Yes,” she said in a small voice. “We’re prepared to accept whatever consequences you might have for us.”

“Me?” Ophelia sighed. “Aw fuck. What am I gonna do, ground you?”

Then Oktavia cleared her throat. “You know, you technically can.”

“Huh? They’re adults now! Besides, they’re not my kids, I don’t own them.”

“How much did you pay to bail them out?”

Ophelia hadn’t thought of that. “Huh. Well, that’s a good point. I guess I do own you now.”

Gretchen let out one of her frightened squeaks. Homulilly said nothing at all, though her face was now almost the same shade of white as Charlotte’s.

Ophelia mulled on that possibility for a bit, but then shook her head. No, grounding was for kids. This was an adult situation, which called for an adult response.

Besides, as pissed off as she was, she couldn’t deny the results.

“All right, I want you to understand that I am still very angry and very disappointed,” she said at last. “And I don’t like being either of those things, so that makes me frustrated on top of everything else. But I would be lying if I said that I’m also not…” she sighed, “incredibly grateful that you pulled it off. Despite anything I might have said out of anger these last few days, I wanted Charlotte back as much as anyone else, and it looks like that’ll happen.

Both of the girls started to relax a little, but they froze when they saw the look that Ophelia was shooting them.

“But that still doesn’t let you two off the hook,” Ophelia said. “So, here’s how it’s going to go: when we finally get your court date, you two are going to show up, apologize profusely, and accept whatever consequences they give you. Maybe they’ll just let you off with a warning and probation, though considering that the FIB is involved and they take this sort of thing very seriously, I really doubt that. So maybe you’ll have to pay a fine. Maybe you’ll be given community service. Hell, maybe you’ll have to do a little time.

Homulilly gulped. “We might go to jail?”

“Yah,” Ophelia said, staring at her. “That’s what happens when you fuck with the single most protected class in town. They’re probably going to completely revamp security in that whole zone, so future generations will have you girls to thank for the sudden lack of freedom.”

“We didn’t think of that,” Homulilly said, her petals wilting.

“Yeah. Hey. No shit.” Ophelia looked from Homulilly’s face to Gretchen’s. “So, we in agreement here?”

“Yes,” Gretchen said without hesitation.

Ophelia nodded. “That’s one of you. Homulilly?”

“Agreed.”

“Thank you. Now, after the dust have finally settled-”

“But,” Homulilly said, interrupting her. “I’d still do it again. If it meant getting any of you back, I’d do it again.”

Ophelia straightened up in her chair. Her fingers dug into the armrests. She said nothing.

Neither did Homulilly. She returned Ophelia’s stare without blinking.

While that was most definitely not what Ophelia had wanted to hear, she had to admit to being a little impressed. Homulilly had come a long way from the quivering little girl who hated to even go outside by herself. She had some real tough vapors in her gut, Ophelia had to give her that.

Ophelia considered making an issue of that little comment, but then decided against it. She had said her piece. Arguing further wouldn’t help.

“As I was saying,” Ophelia said at last. “Once the dust has finally settled, let’s also agree to put this whole dumb dumbness behind us. In the meantime, I have a lawyer to talk to.” She stood up and headed for the door, grabbing her hat on the way. “Jesus, I need leashes for all y’all, just to keep everything from devolving into pure anarchy! I’m supposed to be the rebel! When the hell did I stop being the rebel?”

With that, she was out the door, slamming it hard behind her.

…

Back inside, Homulilly and Gretchen finally let themselves relax a little. Holy crap, they knew that Ophelia was tough, but they hadn’t known her to be that scary.

“That…I guess it could have gone worse,” Gretchen said.

“Not by a lot,” Homulilly muttered.

“Still. At least she didn’t kick us out.”

Homulilly didn’t respond to that. The now very real possibility of going to jail was still looming all too fresh in her mind.

She glanced up at Oktavia, who was still reclining in her chair, watching the pair with a mixture of pity and disappointment.

“Well, don’t look at me,” Oktavia said. “I’m on her side.”

“I’m sorry,” Gretchen said. “We didn’t-”

“Ugh,” Oktavia said, making a face. “Let’s wait until we know what’s going to happen before we get to that. Though, uh, Homulilly?”

“What?”

“Now that you also did something really rash because you didn’t want to lose someone you loved, how about you give Hitomi a break if she ends up becoming a part of our lives in the future?”

Homulilly slowly breathed out. “I already talked to her about that. We’re fine. No more grudges.”

“Okay, good,” Oktavia nodded. She touched the control panel on her armrest, moving her chair in motion toward the door Ophelia had just stormed out of. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m headed to the studio. Ophelia did all the yelling despite promising that I’d get in a lick or two, so now I got all this angry aggression to burn off. I’m thinking…thrash metal.”

For the second time in half-an-hour, the door slammed. Homulilly and Gretchen were left alone.

Alone…with Candeloro.

Candeloro, it should be noted, had been sitting in silence the entire time. She had stayed silent during Ophelia’s entire lecture, she had stayed silent when things had gotten heated, she had stayed silent when Homulilly had started to talk back, she had stayed silent when Ophelia had left, and she had stayed silent when Oktavia had chimed in with her own piece.

But now that the two of them were gone, she finally raised her head and turned toward Homulilly and Gretchen.

Unlike Ophelia and Oktavia, she didn’t look the slightest bit angry. Quite the contrary, she was positively beaming. It was the first time Homulilly had seen her happy since…their graduation day, actually.

“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m not mad at you,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “Thank you. Thank you so…”

She couldn’t finish the sentence, but she didn’t need to. They understood. Homulilly and Gretchen exchanged a quick look. Then, as one, they got up and went over to where Candeloro was crying and embraced her.

“Do you want us to come with you?” Gretchen whispered.

Candeloro shook her head. “No. She said she just wanted to talk to me. But, um, when you talked to her, did she say why she…”

Homulilly shook her head. “She doesn’t really believe that you’re Candeloro. She thinks that you’re just Mami Tomoe.”

“I thought as much,” Candeloro sighed. “How did you get her to change her mind? About talking to me, I mean.”

Gretchen winced. “Um, guilt trip, basically.”

That made Candeloro laugh. “I guess I can’t argue with the results.” She wiped the tears away from her eyes. “I just hope that I’m as effective.”

Gretchen sat up on Candeloro’s armrests. “You know her better than anyone alive,” she said, squeezing Candeloro’s shoulder. “Well, I mean, better than anyone living…existing…you know what I mean! Just make her see you as you.”

Candeloro swallowed back the lump in her throat. “What if I can’t though? I do know Charlotte, and you know how stubborn she is!”

Homulilly sighed. She straightened up on the other armrest. “Then…I don’t know. I guess if she won’t listen now, then just say something that’ll get stuck in her head, something that’ll make her change her mind later. I mean, Ophelia did say that she might just need some time to think about things.”

“I hope so,” Candeloro said softly. “I don’t know how I’m going to face all this without her.”

…

The next day…

The first time Candeloro and Charlotte had gone on a date, Candeloro hadn’t even realized that it was a date until about a third of the way in.

It had been a few months since her friends had bound together to intervene in her cycle of depression and drunkenness. Getting her to get off the drink had taken a lot of coaxing and support, but they had succeeded. Unfortunately, it hadn’t done much for her feelings of shame and self-loathing, and since she no longer had anything to drown them with, they had filled her every waking moment, until it had started to become too much of a chore to even get out of bed.

That had been when Charlotte had stepped in. One day, she had told Candeloro that they were going for a walk, and that was that. Candeloro had been fully prepared to ignore her, but Charlotte had insisted, coaxing her out of bed, to get cleaned up, to get changed, to eat a full breakfast, and then to go with her out the door. And Candeloro had gone along with it mostly because she couldn’t summon up enough willpower to resist. What did it matter?

The walk had ended up being a lot longer than Candeloro had thought it would be. Instead of around the facility grounds Charlotte had led her all the way out of the protected zone and down to the town square. Charlotte had talked nonstop, going on and on about their classes, about some new book she had read, about something funny that Oktavia had said, about some weird alien fact she had just learned about.

Candeloro hadn’t been very responsive at first. She was mostly just humoring Charlotte, after all. But after a while Charlotte ended up saying a few things that she found interesting. Then she began to respond. Then she began to engage. And before too long, they were having an actual conversation, like they used to have before Candeloro had made her big mistake.

By then Candeloro had started to feel much better. And by the time they gone out for lunch she almost felt like her normal self again. But it wasn’t until they had stopped by an ice cream stand and walked along the boardwalk while the sun set over the beach that Candeloro became aware that this walk was becoming a lot more intimate than hangouts they had had in the past. Furthermore, Charlotte was holding her hand.

Right about then was when she started to put things together.

It was one of her happiest memories, in part because for the simple fact of being their first date, but also because it was a time of pure happiness following the darkest point in her life. The town square always had a special place in her heart after that.

It was darkly fitting then that after being the place that her relationship had begun it would end up possibly being the place that it shattered to pieces.

The town square was a large, open plaza that lay nestled in the stretch of flat land between the foot of the hill and the beach, ringed with a short brick wall with a wide fountain in the middle. It was a popular place for town events, concerts, holiday celebrations, and pretty much anything that would require a large outdoor crowd. During the summer, the fountain would essentially become a small water park, with people splashing in the shallow water and playing among the shooting water jets. In the winter, magic would be used to make it snow in the plaza, the fountain would be frozen over into an ice skating rink, and a massive Christmas tree would be placed in its center.

Despite being in the dead of tourist season, the place was actually much less populated than usual. The storm had chased off most of the visitors that had been unlucky enough to be caught when it had hit, and had discouraged new ones from arriving. There was still a fair amount of people wandering about, but only about a third of what there normally would be. Candeloro was perfectly okay with that.

Candeloro got there at about 11:50, a full ten minutes before Charlotte said to meet her.

She stood at the entrance to the square and looked around. Per usual, people were going about their pleasant day: strolling, talking, laughing, flirting, playing, and overall just enjoying the sun, all of them completely unaware that an extreme anomaly in this world of freaks was among them. Had they known what she was, what had happened to her, she would no doubt would be swarmed by throngs of the curious, and that was if she was lucky.

On the one hand, she was thankful that nobody knew. That kind of attention was the last thing that she needed. And yet, on the other hand, she couldn’t help but be a little resentful. Her entire world had been upturned, both without and within, and here everyone was just having a nice time while being completely oblivious to the turmoil she was having to deal with. She knew it was unfair to be upset about that, but there wasn’t a whole of fair happening to her at the moment.

There was no sign of Charlotte, so she walked around until she found an empty bench and sat down. And then she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

It was only ten minutes, but the perception of time was a subjective thing, and every second seemed to crawl at a snail’s pace. She could feel her hair growing. She was aware of every itch on her skin, most of them concentrated on her new arms. She tried to lay her hands on the bench’s boards on either side of her, but that felt awkward and unnatural. She then placed one on the twisting metal armrest and the other across her lap, but they wouldn’t stop twitching.

She checked the time. To her dismay, it had only been two minutes. She had worked entire full time shifts that hadn’t felt this long!

Speaking of which, she still hadn’t figured out what she was going to do about her job. She hadn’t officially quit yet, and she certainly didn’t want to, but she kind of had to, didn’t she? There was no way she could hide her new condition from her coworkers, but she also couldn’t let them in on the secret. They had already called the house twice inquiring about when she was going to come back, the first time genuinely concerned and the second a little more on the impatient side. Ophelia had taken the call both times, letting them know that Candeloro was feeling out of sorts.

She needed to let them know that she wasn’t coming back, but she really didn’t want to. They needed to know so they could find a replacement. It wasn’t fair to keep them short-handed for so long. But she felt that if she cut that part off from her life, then she would lose her last bit of her old life. Her sense of self was gone, her wife was gone, and now she was going to lose her job and all her friends there as well, one that she genuinely enjoyed. It wasn’t fair at all.

She checked the time again. 11:46. Bleh.

Wasn’t time supposed to go faster here than it was in the world of the living? Apparently, her entire life as Candeloro had been squeezed into only a few weeks over there. She wasn’t really clear on what the exchange rate was, but that meant that this infuriatingly long ten minutes was contained within the tiniest fraction of a millisecond over there.

And that meant that her new existence as Mami Tomoe had lasted only a handful of seconds probably, if that. Someone alive somewhere on Earth had probably felt a sneeze coming on when she had made the change that still hadn’t come out yet. Or maybe it had. She didn’t know.

11:48

What if Charlotte didn’t come? What if she changed her mind at the last minute? Somehow, that would be far worse than if Charlotte had shown up just to tell her that she didn’t love her anymore and didn’t want to ever see her again. At least that meant that she cared enough to do it in person. But to have Charlotte simply disappear out of her life without so much as a goodbye? That almost made Candeloro regret not just simply letting her get eaten by the karnuk. At least then she could have been recovered and not turn her back on everything once she was hauled out of the beast’s stomach.

Almost.

Candeloro’s legs started bouncing. She was wringing her fingers together and couldn’t stop. Charlotte wasn’t coming. Candeloro was going to lose her without even being given the chance to fight.

Then a tingle went down her back.

It was sort of strange how it felt to be joined to someone on a spiritual level. She and Charlotte spent so much time together that they didn’t even notice the feelings of peace and contentment that the other’s presence brought them, but the longer they spent apart, the more that the other’s absence gnawed at their minds. Spending a few hours on their own to go to work or run errands or anything like that wasn’t a problem. But after a day or two feelings of unease would start to grow, like a persistent itch that they were unable to scratch. The last few days weren’t the longest period of time they had spent apart, but they had been by far the worst. At least with the other instances Candeloro knew exactly when she would be back with Charlotte and still talked to her daily. But the constant yearning for her while not knowing if her wife was ever coming back and knowing how much she was repulsed by her had been absolutely unbearable.

But by the same token, it did mean that they both instinctively knew when the other was near. Candeloro remembered stepping off the elysian from her trip to Ordo’s Furnace and entering the Freehaven skyport. Even though she hadn’t been told where the others would be waiting for her, her head had turned automatically in their direction as she had passed by a junction. And sure enough, there they had been, with Charlotte standing in their midst like a pink-haired angel.

Candeloro did not hear Charlotte’s footsteps over the sound of the fountain. She did not see her coming. But she still knew.

Sure enough, a moment later the space next to her was filled. Candeloro glanced over. There she was, wearing tight white pants that ended right over her calves, a pink-and-black striped shirt, and pink sneakers. She had on a pair of large-lensed sunglasses and was wearing a backpack.

Save for the backpack, all of that was part of Charlotte’s usual fashion sense, and none of it had come from their closet or dresser. Charlotte had bought new clothes. She was truly prepared to leave.

Candeloro swallowed back the lump she felt forming in her throat. Charlotte was there, but she wasn’t saying anything. She wasn’t even looking at her. She was just sitting there with her hands on her knees, gaze directed out toward the horizon.

Finally Candeloro couldn’t take it anymore. Someone had to be the first to break the silence. “You came,” she said softly.

Charlotte winced visibly behind her sunglasses. “Yeah.”

“I was starting to think you weren’t going to show up at all.”

“I…” Charlotte sighed. “I almost didn’t.”

Candeloro swallowed. “Why? Because…I’m not worth it? Because you still think that I’m just Mami Tomoe, that I replaced Candeloro?”

“That’s…I don’t know. Maybe.”

Candeloro looked down at the ground. “I’m not, you know. I’m not just some…”

Her voice trailed off. This wasn’t working. She had worked on what she had wanted to say, had rehearsed it in her head dozens of times, but now that she was actually there, now that Charlotte was finally here, she couldn’t seem to get the words out. Her throat felt thick, and her chest seemed to tighten every time she tried to talk.

The two sat in silence, watching everyone around them as they had fun. For once the place wasn’t oppressively crowded, likely due to the aftermath of the hurricane, but there still was a lot of people milling around, the sound of their voices talking and laughing mixing with the crashing of the surf and the calls of the gulls.

It all seemed so…normal, as if nobody was at all aware of the changes that had happened in Candeloro’s life. And how could they? To them it was just another pleasant day out in the sun. How could they know that the ninth official de-witching was among them? How could they not that only a few days prior, the two of them had done battle with the alien sea-monster that had caused the beaches to be closed? How could they know that one of their most tight-knit families was on the verge of falling apart?

Change. Change and fear. It really came down to that. Their life had been one where change had been gradual and only came when expected, and fear had been practically non-existent. But throw one major curve-ball at them, and things just collapsed. It really made her question how strong those bonds had been to begin with.

“So,” she said. “Do you, uh, want to go first, or…”

Charlotte sighed.

Then she suddenly stood up, making Candeloro jerk away a bit.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Charlotte said.

…

Spying on someone in Freehaven wasn’t exactly smiled upon. Stalking was, of course, illegal, but keeping an eye on someone wasn’t, not really, though where the line between one and the other wasn’t all that well defined. Still, following someone that really would rather not be followed could get you into big trouble with the marshals, assuming that you didn’t get found out and beaten senseless first. With death a non-factor and most injuries barely worth remarking on, bodily violence actually ranked far below harassment on the felony scale, so that was always something to keep in mind.

That having been said, while stalking was a bad idea, there was nothing stopping the gang from keeping an eye on things. And since Homulilly, Gretchen, and Oktavia weren’t in any position to go anywhere at the moment, Ophelia had become the designated scout.

She stood on a rooftop in the shade of a potted palm tree, chewing on a stick of taffy as she watched the town square. She had on a pair of contacts that functioned as adjustable binoculars. All she had to do was think it, and they would zoom in and out on anything she wanted.

“Okay, Candy’s still just sitting there,” she said into her phone, which was sitting on the pot and was on speaker. “No sign of our little runaway.”

“What’s she doing?” Oktavia’s voice asked.

“I just told you, she’s just sitting there, looking all nervous! And…”

Suddenly she caught sight of a very shapely brunette with a pair of equally lovely redheads, all of them wearing the absolute minimum of clothing walking by, and judging by the way the brunette was hugging the pair of redheads close to her it was pretty evident that their shared relationship was a few degrees beyond being simply friends.

“-oh, hello!”

“What? Is it her?” Gretchen said.

“No, I know that tone,” Oktavia growled. “Ophelia! Stop checking out girls and do your damned job!”

“Sorry, sorry.” Ophelia refocused on Candeloro. “Okay, still no sign of…hang on.” She turned her attention to one of the side entrances to the square. “Oh, wait, wait, wait, there she is. The jackass is in the house.”

“Is she with anyone?” Gretchen said.

“Nope. Just her, and a really stupid pair of sunglasses.”

“I don’t think anyone that wears your kind of hat is in any position to make fun of anyone’s taste in fashion,” Oktavia said.

“Shut up. My hat may be stupid, but I rock it.” Not today though. Her big, red slouch hat was too much of a giveaway, so she had on that baseball cap she had gotten from the Aurora Borealis. “Okay, she’s seen Candy. And…yup, she’s heading right for her. This is happening.”

Ophelia watched as Charlotte walked over to where Candeloro was sitting and took the seat next to her. Unfortunately their backs were to her so she couldn’t make out much beyond that.

After a few seconds went by Oktavia said impatiently, “Well? What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Ophelia said. “They’re just…sitting there. I don’t even think they’re talking.”

“What? Why not?”

“I don’t know. Awkwardness, I guess. And…okay, no, now they’re talking.”

“About what? What are they saying?”

“How should I know? I’m like half a kilometer away!”

“Just move and download the lip-reading app! It’s not that expensive!”

“No! I told you, I’m just keeping an eye on them, not…okay, wait. They’re getting up together. And now they’re leaving the square.”

“Where?” Homulilly’s voice demanded. “Where are they going?”

“Hush. Let me…let me see…”

She tracked their movements as they moved from the square and started heading up the hill. It was one of the center streets, so it was wide enough for her to keep them in sight.

Then she saw where they were heading and sighed. “Uh-oh.”

“What?” Oktavia said. “Why uh-oh? What’s going on?”

“I’m about to lose them.”

“You know that already? Why?”

“‘Cause they’re heading straight for the Rising Gardens.”

…

The Rising Gardens was located a little bit up the hill. It functioned as a nature walk, but also had kind of a twist, in that it was sort of a three-dimensional hedge maze. The whole place was a tiered structure made of wooden mesh and had went up about four stories, and those four stories were crammed with vines, flowers, fungus, shrugs, ferns, grasses, and even tree trunks that extended down through all four stories to rise up and spread their branches over the gardens. The paths were winding, rising up and down via random staircases, and no matter where you went you were surrounded by exotic plant life. Special hidden devices filled the maze halls with sunlight, and enough separation had been enforced between the roots, trunks, and vines to keep the interior from feeling claustrophobic. Non-pest insects such as butterflies, moths, and bees flitted everywhere. It was a wonderful place to just go and let yourself get lost in.

“Homulilly and Gretchen said that they found you in Old Town,” Candeloro said as they walked along.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Figured it was the best place to lay low while I figured things out. Still not sure how they managed to find me.”

“Well, uh…” Candeloro wondered how much she ought to reveal. Her younger friends’ legal troubles weren’t exactly appropriate conversation material.

Then she sighed. Oh, to hell with it. Charlotte ought to know what they did on her behalf. “Well, basically they broke into the FIB and convinced Hitomi to take them to you.”

Charlotte came to a sudden stop next to a vibrant patch of pink-and-violet orchids. “What.”

“Yes. And they apparently botched their return and were arrested.” Candeloro made sure that she had a good view of Charlotte’s face. “Ophelia was on her way to go bail them out when you called last night.”

Sure enough, Charlotte looked positively horrified. “Homulilly and Gretchen broke into the FIB, absconded with Hitomi Shizuki, and got themselves arrested? Them?!”

Candeloro shrugged. “Yes.”

Charlotte’s face seemed to go to war with itself. Her mouth kept forming itself around words that seemed unable to emerge while her cheeks, brow, and eyes tightened and loosened in response to the many conflicting emotions she was probably feeling. “But that’s…they couldn’t have…don’t they get how-”

Candeloro laid a hand on Charlotte’s shoulder. “I don’t think you’re in any position to judge them,” she said. “They did it for you.”

Her face falling in defeat, Charlotte sighed. She gestured helplessly and shrugged.

Then she glanced at the hand on her shoulder. She didn’t say anything, but her face did clench up.

Wincing, Candeloro moved her hand away.

“Sorry, it’s just…” Charlotte motioned toward Candeloro’s arm. “I’m not really, um…”

“It’s okay, I get it.”

Shaking her head, Charlotte started walking again.

“They said you had a flight out of here,” Candeloro said after a bit.

“I did,” Charlotte said with a nod. “Still do. Just…rescheduled. For later today.”

Candeloro winced. “Why? I mean, I understand if you needed some time to yourself. But why were you leaving town?” Well, it was time to broach the question that had been hanging between them from the start. “Does me being…this really repulse you that much?”

“I…” Charlotte pressed the fingertips of her right hand against her forehead. “Ah, damn it. I guess there’s no gentle way to put this. Mami, you scare me.”

Candeloro wasn’t sure what hurt her more: the idea that her own wife was scared of her or that she was still thinking of her exclusively as “Mami.”

“I mean, a witch turning all the way back into a Puella Magi? That’s…you have a better chance of going full witch than you have of that! It’s such a remote possibility that it’s not even worth thinking about, it should have never had happened! But it did. And now you’re here.”

Candeloro shot her a look. “Me being…?”

“Oh, don’t start that. You know exactly what I mean. You being Mami Tomoe!” Charlotte threw her hands up in the air in dramatic fashion, scaring away a few pigeons that had been nesting atop a nearby vine-covered statue. “Mami Tomoe, Puella Magi! The one who got caught up in the Incubators’ stupid system and turned into a witch! The one that’s supposed to be dead! The one that Candeloro was made from!”

Candeloro winced. Thankfully no one had really taken notice of Charlotte’s outburst, or if they had, they were making sure not to pay attention.

To her credit, Charlotte also seemed to notice that she had made a poor decision, if the grimace she was wearing as she looked around was any indication. She lowered her arms and stuck her hands into her pockets.

“So, is that what you think?” Candeloro said after they had walked a ways. “That I’ve…replaced Candeloro? That I’m really not her?”

Charlotte huffed. “I can…accept that you think that you’re Candeloro. I can accept that you might have your memories.”

“I do. And I can prove it.”

“You don’t need to-”

Candeloro took a deep breath. Then she said, “Your name is Charlotte, but your fans call you Charlotte Walpurgis, a name that Ophelia dared you to take because you refused to believe your publishers would take it seriously, and you ended up owing her ten talents when they didn’t even bat an eye. We all went to school at the Cloudbreak Public University, and you used to get into fights with Oktavia because she wouldn’t stop playing her keyboard when you were trying to sleep. You got a Masters in Classic Literature and figured that was enough to get yourself a job at the library.

“You like listening to vaskergoros folk and vekoo jazz, but can’t stand heavy metal no matter what species it comes from, despite going through a very loud punk phase when you were in your second-to-last year. You go into weird fits whenever you come within spitting distance of cheese, something we found out when you literally dove over the lunchline back during our first year and had to be dragged out by your ankles. When we got our parrot, we all threw dice to decide who got to name him, and you won and named him ‘Cheese’ as a joke. You’re allergic to green beans for some strange reason. You and Ophelia once spent an entire month waging war on one another for no logical reason whatsoever, and it only stopped when Ophelia accidentally hit me in the face with a snowball she had been keeping in the freezer. You once tried to prank Oktavia and I into going on a terrifying ride at Sardi’s Land of Miracles, only for it to backfire and you passed out on the ride. We had to replace the kitchen window once when you started showing off throwing darts during a barbeque. You’ve been arrested twice, once during our FIB days for getting drunk and breaking into the pool after hours to go skinny dipping with your friends, and again two years after we all graduated when you, once again, got drunk with your friends and broke into the FIB pool to go skinny dipping. Oktavia was with you both times. And they say I have a drinking problem. You flunked Physics our Senior year and begged Ophelia to tutor you so you could get through the makeup course. She waited four years to call in that favor, and to this day I cannot get any of you to tell me what she made you do, I just know it was kind of illegal and Oktavia was involved somehow. Also, you enjoy having me tie your arms to the bedframe whenever we make love, and having me leave a trail of kisses all the way from your forehead all the way down to your-”

“Stop it,” Charlotte growled. “I get it.”

“I just wanted to prove to you that I’m still me.”

“So I’ve heard. Homulilly even told me that you’re still using her name.”

The constant attacks to her identity were making Candeloro’s stomach sour. “But?”

“I can’t accept that she is the one in the driver’s seat. That you’re really her, instead of someone who just slipped back into your skin and took over.”

“Why?” Candeloro demanded. “Why are you so sure?”

Then Charlotte was taken over by a rage and fury so pure and so hot that it made Candeloro recoil. She had seen Charlotte angry before, but never like that, not with her face twisted up in hate and grief.

“Because she felt you coming back,” Charlotte snarled. “She was terrified of you, terrified that you would wake up and take away everything from her! Remember? Do you remember the day I went to talk to Hitomi Shizuki and learned everyone’s old names? Do you remember what happened that night?”

…

Then…

“Candeloro? Are you all right?”

It was late evening. Most of the household had gone to bed, though Charlotte doubted that any of them would be doing much sleeping. There was just too much weighing on their minds. Hell, Charlotte had learned exactly nothing of her own past, and she was expecting to be kept up for several hours through empathetic insomnia alone.

As if only to prove her point, instead of going to bed after undressing, Candeloro was standing at the window, staring out at the neighborhood. Ladoga was pretty quiet as far as streets went, and most of their neighbors had turned in for the night as well, so most of the lights were out. They had always liked how the neighborhood looked at night, with the heavy foresting and curving cobblestone streets and the graceful, elfin streetlamps. At night, when the lights went down, the streetlamps went on, and the night insects came out, it looked like something out of a fairytale. When they had first moved in, the two of them would often just spread a blanket on the roof and lay there in each other’s arms, listening to the sounds of the night. They still did that on occasion, when they mood took them.

But that look of peaceful allure wasn’t what she saw in Candeloro. Instead, her wife looked pensive, almost haunted. It was pretty troubling.

“Candeloro?”

Instead of turning to her, Candeloro continued to stare out the window while saying, “Do you know what the strangest thing about all this is?”

Charlotte pursed her lips. “Uh, the fact that one of Gretchen and Homulilly’s old buddies just so happen to show up right on their graduation day and not only knows most of our old names, but major details about our pasts as well? Because that’s pretty damn strange.”

“I mean besides the obvious.”

After mentally sifting through just about every possible answer to that question, Charlotte shrugged. There was so much strangeness going on that she didn’t even know which one to pick first. “Okay. Shoot.”

“It’s that…it’s despite the fact that I am still technically dead, I’m the one that feels haunted. I mean, that’s strange, right? According to every objective scale, I am a ghost.” Candeloro laid the end of a ribbon against the glass. “But I can’t shake this feeling that the dead are watching me. Calling out to me. Isn’t that weird?”

Charlotte pursed her lips as she thought on that. “Nah,” she said after a bit. She shook her head. “It’s not weird at all. I mean, if you think about it, you’re not the dead one.”

Candeloro glanced at her from over her shoulder, her face troubled. “How do you figure?”

“It’s just something I read in a book once. You can’t be dead in your own world. Every world has its own version of alive, and when you stop being alive in that world, you go to wherever you’re supposed to be next, right? So if this world was made specifically for people like us, then according to the law of the land, we’re the alive ones. But our past selves?” Charlotte shrugged. “Well, they up and died in that other world. So they’re dead and we’re not. What you’re feeling is perfectly logical.”

She actually got a small laugh from her wife for that. “Oh, good Lord,” Candeloro said with a roll of her eyes. She left the window to finally head over to the bed. “Leave it to you to try to take apart an existential crisis with literal terminology.”

“Yeah, that’s me. ‘Charlotte Walpurgis destroys identity angst with facts and logic!’”

Candeloro made a face. “Is that from something? Because it sounds insufferable!”

“Ah, I got it from this anti-witch idiot’s channel on GalacWork. Most of her holos have stupid titles like that. On the one hand, they really are as stupid as they sound. On the other…comedy. Gold.”

Candeloro shot her a very familiar look.

“Yeah, I guess now’s not the time,” Charlotte sighed. She held the bedcovers open, letting Candeloro slide in. “Sorry.”

Candeloro laid her head back into the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. “Do you remember back at the FIB, how we’d sit around talking about what kind of people we might have used to be, making up lives for our past selves, that sort of thing?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Remember how I told you that I would have given anything to know my story? To know what happened to me, what that car and all those tea pots were all about?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, now I do know! About the car at least. And I can find out almost everything I ever wanted to know! I can ask you her name right now and I’ll find out.”

Charlotte pressed herself close to Candeloro, nestling her chin on Candeloro’s shoulder and wrapping her arms around her torso. “But…you don’t want it anymore?”

“No,” Candeloro said after a pause. “No, I do not. In fact, I kind of wish that I didn’t learn what I do know. It feels like everything I learn wakes her up a little bit more, and if I keep going she’ll…” Candeloro shivered.

Charlotte’s brow furrowed. “She’s dead, Candy.”

“I know. But…”

“She’s dead. Her story’s over. And everything that’s left of her is living a perfectly happy life in you. And if you ask me, she probably prefers it that way.” Charlotte slipped an arm behind Candeloro’s head and gently turned her face toward her. “So stop worrying about something that’s not going to happen. Worst that could happen is that maybe we’ll have to go into therapy for a bit if spiritual dissonance starts to happen. And that happens all the time. Trust me, you have nothing to worry about.”

…

Now…

“So what am I then?” Candeloro demanded. “Some kind of parasite?”

“No, you’re the host,” Charlotte said flatly. “I fell in love with the parasite. You know, seeing how I’m one myself. Then you exterminated her. Took your body back, took your name back, took back everything. Well, fine. It was yours to begin with. And if the others are so willing to just let you slip in and replace her, then that’s on them. But I don’t have to be a part of it.”

Candeloro slowly breathed in and out. “Charlotte, that might the single ugliest thing I have ever heard you say.”

“I tell it like it is. And you’ll notice that I’ve done most of the talking here. Weren’t you supposed to try to convince that I’m wrong, that you really are still Candeloro, just with some kind of expansion pack or something? Some kind of upgrade? Candeloro+ or something? Candeloro MK II? Candelmami? Mamiloro?”

“Stop it!” Candeloro cried. “Stop it right now! This is tearing me up enough as it is, and you’re making jokes?”

“Then get on with it already!” Charlotte said with an impatient roll of her wrist. “Convince me!”

At that moment, a trio of girls appeared around the corner, oohing and aweing over the flowers. Candeloro and Charlotte froze in place and then tried to look inconspicuous. If the trio had noticed the argument taking place, they made no sign as they walked right past them and headed up a nearby stairway to the upper level.

Once they were out of sight, Charlotte sighed and said, “Well? Go ahead.”

Candeloro opened her mouth…and then closed it again. She looked down at the ground, tears prickling her eyes.

Charlotte tilted her head to one side. “Well?”

“That…That’s just it,” Candeloro said, her voice shaking. “As terrible as it is, I’m not sure you’re wrong.”

…

“Well?” Oktavia demanded. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, because I can’t see them!” Ophelia snapped back. “They’re way deep in the maze!”

“Then follow them!”

“No, you pushy voyeur!” Ophelia said down with her legs crossed Indian-style and her arms folded. “I’m going to sit here and wait until one of them comes out! That’s it! Go read a book or compose a diss-track if you’re so bored!”

…

“Okay,” Charlotte said after the silence between them had gone on long enough. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

Candeloro tried to wipe her eyes with her fingers but found them too stiff and too shaky to really do the job without potentially jabbing herself in the eye, so she used her wrist instead. “Right after…right after the change, the whole, um, Candeloro and Mami dichotomy was…pretty stable, I guess. I still had my sense of self, I still had my old impulses and reflexes and tics, I just had this part of me opened up. A-And while all those memories were…painful, I figured I would get used to them in time. And while we were on the Aurora Borealis I had too much on my mind to really give much thought to sorting that out-”

“You mean me,” Charlotte said.

Candeloro sighed. “Yes, you. Being rejected by my wife was a little distracting, yes.”

“Fair enough.”

“Besides, the memories were all fresh then and hitting me all at once. I thought that once I was home, once I was someplace familiar, things might…settle into place.”

Charlotte frowned. “I’m guessing that they didn’t?”

Candeloro shook her head. “That, or they decided to settle in the worst way possible.”

…

Then…

“Only thing is, he won’t tell us the last part! How do you make it? I have to know!”

Despite having spent most of the day walking around in a silent, robotic trance, that actually managed to pull Candeloro out of her funk, at least enough to feel a small trickle of amusement. The recipe that the marshal was referring to actually was not one of her own, or Charlotte’s. Rather, it had been a fairly standard recipe that Ophelia had read out loud to Cheese from a cookbook in a vain attempt to break him of his swearing habit. The marshals could probably just search up the name of the cookbook and get the rest without trouble.

Then Cheese, who had been happily walking back and forth across Ophelia’s shoulders as she talked to the marshal, suddenly took notice of Candeloro.

Candeloro was admittedly not all that close to the family bird, at least not as much as the others. Oh sure, they liked each other well enough, and she did her part to help take care of him, but he always seemed to prefer the company of the two other couples than to her and Charlotte, which had been fine with her. He was great fun to have around, but he tended to be pretty needy when it came to attention, and he had almost developed a bad habit of chewing on her ribbons until they managed to break him of it.

Still, they did get along just fine, and she was honestly glad that he was okay. However, as soon as he saw her, he suddenly straightened up, all of his feather flaring up. Then he started flapping his wings in agitation, squawking loudly.

“Cheese! Hey! Knock it off, you asshole!” Ophelia shielded the back of her neck with one hand while shoving the other arm against Cheese’s legs to get him to step on so she could get him away from the back of her head. “Jesus, what has gotten into you?”

Candeloro said nothing. She was wearing a pretty bulky hooded jacket and had her hands nestled in the front pocket, so if anyone who knew her saw her they wouldn’t notice that something was amiss without taking a really good look.

But still, Cheese somehow knew that something was off.

“Wonder what got into him?” said one of the marshals, who had been in the process of leaving when the bird’s fit had brought her to a stop.

“He’s…moody,” Homulilly told her. “Sometimes he just throws temper tantrums for no reason. I’m surprised he didn’t act out when he was staying with you girls.”

“Well, he was kind of a handful, but I thought he’d calm down once you all got back.” The marshal shrugged. “Animals. Who can tell, eh?”

Candeloro glanced at her and shrugged.

Then she did a double-take.

The marshal was a witch. Physically, she looked to be a short, petite girl with dark skin and straight black hair. A jagged blue line divided her face in half, starting on her forehead over her right eyebrow to zigzag down between her eyes, over about two-thirds of her nose, past her mouth, and down her chin to disappear into the collar of her uniform. Everything on the left side looked perfectly normal, but the entire right looked like it had been carved from an opal. The color seemed to change as she moved, sometimes being marble-white, then sea blue, then pale green, then blood red. The part of her lips on the shimmering side also changed color, but to whatever the opposite her skin happened to be at the time. One dark eye looked perfectly normal, while the other was jet black with a bright golden iris.

Although she knew what she would find and dreaded it, Candeloro’s eyes went down toward the marshal’s arms. Most of them were covered with the thick brown sleeves of her uniform, but she could still see her hands.

They were blocky and made of yellow-painted steel, with gleaming pistons running down her arms into her wrist and across each finger and cables stretching from jutting poles, like a construction crane arm.

All in all, the girl’s witch remnants were striking, but hardly noteworthy. Candeloro encountered people just as strange every day, and not too long ago would have been thought of as just as odd. But seeing the girl had jogged something inside her, something from a long time…

…the massive crane-arm slammed into the steel girders that Mami had been standing upon. Had she not leapt off when she had, she would have been crushed into a pasty smear.

Still, she had dodged just in time. Unfortunately, she had been rather high up at the time, and didn’t have destination in mind when she had jumped; she had just been trying to get away from the witch’s attack.

And once she was in the air, there was nowhere to go but down.

Mami had been nine stories up the skeletal network of catwalks and girders, a little more than halfway to the witch’s head. And with the structure lacking walls, ceilings, or more importantly floors she found her trajectory headed somewhere hard, painful, and quite possibly lethal.

Arms and legs flailing at nothing, she started to fall.

“KYYYYUUUUUUBEEEEYYYYYY!” she screamed as the girder and pipes whooshed past her and the concrete floor rushed up to meet her.

“Your ribbons!” Kyubey called to her, speaking in her head like he always did. “Use them to break your fall! Hurry!”

Her ribbons?

Oh, right. She had those now.

Mami thrust a hand out. In response, a yellow ribbons materialized, one end clutched in her hand and the other wrapped around a girder. With a painful jerk her trajectory was suddenly redirected as she stopped falling and started to swing out.

Too late she realized that swinging outward when surrounded by so many steel beams was just as potentially lethal as falling straight down.

Her ribbon hit one such beam and she was sent hurtling. In desperation she created another and managed to pull herself out of the way before smacking headlong into a girder.

Then one of the witch’s crane-arms came down, hitting where the ribbon was connected and severing it.

Mami was again tumbling through the air, but this time had half-a-second more to react. She thrust her hands right in front of her, created a spiral of ribbons between her and the beam she was about to fly into. They absorbed her momentum, slowing her down. Then, before she could be hit again, she thrust another ribbon at a nearby girder and launched herself through an opening in the beams, sending her safely outside of the witch’s body.

Her landing was still rough, but not nearly as painful as it would have been otherwise. She tried to stand, but her legs buckled under her, and she fell fully onto her back as the world spun around her.

Adrenaline was still coursing through her veins, and her heartbeat was pounding away in her ears. This was only the third witch she had fought, and it was easily the craziest. The other two hadn’t come nearly as close to getting her as this one had, nor had she had any kind of escape quite so…thrilling.

“Uh, hey!” the marshal said, suddenly breaking Mami from her trance.

Mami stared back at her. “Huh?”

“I asked you what was wrong. You just…started staring at me. Are you all right?”

Mami didn’t answer. She just stared.

“I said, are you all right?”

A fluffy white blur was bounding toward her. “Mami! Are you all right?”

Mami shook her head to get everything to stop spinning. Then she looked up.

Things were still…weird. The “sky,” if it could be called that, was in actuality a canopy made up of blue balloons painted with white clouds that clustered tightly together. The “sun” was a massive yellow spotlight that was pressed through the balloon, which sent a single glaring beam straight down at the witch, which was a bit on the…large side.

Most of the witch looked like the steel gridwork of a skyscraper still under construction: fourteen stories of girders, beams, and catwalks. Twelve construction cranes protruded from its edges, four on each edge, which were surprisingly fast, considering their size. And suspended on a crisscross of cables top and center was a huge dome-shaped magnet, such as the kind used in junkyards.

Stuck onto the magnet was a metal ring, which in turn suspended a glass bowl the size of a house, full of some kind of clear liquid. And floating in that liquid was the witch’s head.

Half of it looked like a child’s doll, with dark plastic skin, dark straight hair, and a dark plastic eye that swiveled crazily in its socket. But the other, divided from the plastic side with a jagged line, gleamed like mother-of-pearl, its colors constantly changing. Its mouth was open, and it seemed to be reciting an endless deluge of mathematical equations in a disconcerting monotone voice, which were broadcasted throughout its labyrinth courtesy of the megaphones stuck through its body’s framework.

Mami leapt to her feet. “I’m fine,” she said as she started running toward the witch again. Climbing its body so as to get a clear shot at the head hadn’t worked, but she was already formulating another plan. “Kyubey, you said that the weapons conjured up by my ribbons are limited only by my own understanding of those weapons internal workings, right?”

“Correct,” Kyubey said as he bounded after her. “That is why you have had so much success with muskets. Their mechanisms are simple and therefore easy to replicate.”

Mami nodded. She deftly dodged two strikes from the cranes as they tried to impale her and darted into the gridwork. “Okay. But is there anything that says I can’t make something similar to the muskets, only…larger?”

“Nothing at all. Why?”

This time, instead of heading upward, Mami went inward, heading to the center of the structure until she was directly beneath the suspended bowl that held the witch’s head. There were still plenty of beams crisscrossing between her and it, hence her previous attempt to get closer.

But even if she had gotten close enough to get a clear shot, she doubted that she would be able to do much damage. She didn’t know how much in common with real steel its body had, but it was probably close enough to blunt her bullets, magic though they were.

“Because sometimes, you don’t need to get closer,” Mami said as she backed up until she found a point of trajectory that was relatively clear of steel beams. Then she held out a hand. “Sometimes you need to get bigger.”

As was the case whenever she summoned up her muskets, her ribbons twisted around each other, only this time there were many, many times more of them, and they took on a much, much larger shape. When the thing solidified, she was holding into the grips of a cannon that any battleship would be proud to display on its prow.

Mami took aim. Then she fired.

Her gleaming, golden cannonball shot straight and true. What steel beams and cables that did get in the way were shredded in its wake without stopping its momentum. It struck the side of the glass bowl, covering it with cracks and sending the magnet swinging.

The cables holding the magnet snapped, and the whole thing fell: magnet, bowl, head, and all. It struck several of the beams along the way, each one shattering or denting it a little more. Mami rushed out of the way to avoid getting hit by the glass shards.

The witch’s head wasn’t nearly so lucky. By the time it hit the ground, it was already a cracked and broken mess, one that fell to pieces upon impact.

Then, just as the other two witch labyrinths had, this one shimmered and fell apart, and Mami found herself standing next to the steel factory in the city’s industrial zone where she had tracked the witch.

And sure enough, at her feet was a jet-black grief seed.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Mami knelt down and picked it up. Using that giant cannon took considerably more magic than her muskets, so this would be of great help. Still, the cannon made for a great finishing move. She should probably keep using it. Though she probably ought to come up with a cool name for it though. Something like that was too good to go unnamed.

“Uh, hello? What’s up? You’re kind of freaking me out.”

Ursula the Construction Witch’s patchwork brow furrowed in concern. She waved her mechanical crane hands in front of Mami’s face. “Hellllloooooo?”

Mami jerked abruptly out of her stupor. “I, uh, s-s-sorry…”

Then Homura took her by the arm. “I’m sorry, she’s been feeling a little out of sorts. She got real seasick on the way back and spent the whole trip throwing up, so she’s still a little woozy.”

Ursula took a reflexive step back. “Ah. Say no more. Hope you feel better.”

“Right!” Homura started to move Mami toward the front door. “So let’s just get her inside so she can get her inside and-”

“Wait, hold on.” Ursula suddenly moved herself in front of Mami. She leaned for a closer look. “Have we…met? Because I am getting the weirdest sense of déjà vu right about now.”

Before either Mami or Homura could respond, the marshal that had met them at the door called out, “Sully, seriously? Of course she does! Their photos are all over the house!”

“Nah, that’s not it. I swear we’ve met…”

Mami’s tongue felt like it was glued to the top of her mouth.

Then Ursula shrugged. “Oh well, probably just ran into you…somewhere. Sorry about being weird.”

“No problem!” Homura said with a nervous laugh. She started leading Mami away again. “Um, thank you for looking after the house! Owe you one!”

The others quickly fell into place around them and moved Mami fully inside the house. Once she was inside, the spell broke, and she start trembling.

No, not Mami, she thought. That’s not my name anymore. I am Candeloro. She is Homulilly, that is Ophelia, and Oktavia, and Gretchen. Get a grip. Just because you killed that witch years ago is no reason to…”

“Okay, what just happened?” Ophelia said. “You all right?”

Swallowing, Mami managed a shaky nod. “I am. Sorry.”

“You sure?” Ophelia said, not looking in the slightest bit convinced. “Because-”

“Just a weird. I’m fine. Really.”

But she wasn’t. She was very far from being fine.

…

Now…

“Okay,” Charlotte said. “You’re telling me that seeing this girl not only triggered flashbacks to when you killed her, but it also triggered a full-on identity crisis?”

Candeloro sighed. “Yes, Charlotte. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Ah.” Charlotte’s hand fidgeted, the fingers tapping out an anxious rhythm against her thigh. “That…Wait, just seeing her face kicked this off, but hanging out with the others didn’t? I mean, you knew them when you were all alive.”

Candeloro fell silent.

“What?”

Candeloro slowly breathed in the humid, earthy air. “That’s just it. Once that one happened, the others did so as well.”

…

Then…

“I’ll…I’m just going to go take a nap,” Candeloro said as she wearily made for the stairs.

“Anything I can get you?” Ophelia called after her.

Though she was grateful for the offer, Candeloro just shook her head. After her little episode, all she wanted was sleep. She started up the stairs, one hand laid flat on the bannister. She reflexively tried to wrap her whole hand around it before remembering that she didn’t have that level of flexibility anymore, so she settled for just stiffly curling her fingers around it.

As she walked upward, she heard Ophelia say to Homulilly and Gretchen, “Um, let me know if anything in your room is out of place, I guess. I’m going to go check on the garage.”

Candeloro paused halfway up. She glanced down to watch Ophelia walk into the kitchen.

Ophelia, Witch of Flames. Ophelia, whose lifestyle was as eccentric as her choice of dress. Ophelia, diligent engineer and accomplished dancer, who paradoxically balanced a juvenile sense of humor with a strong sense of personal responsibility, whose attitude was so childish in some ways while being the most grown-up of them in others. Ophelia, to whom Candeloro had lost her virginity during a very poor string of bad decisions but still remained one of her closest friends years later.

But that wasn’t all she was.

Candeloro started up the stairs again. She tried not to look at the framed pictures that hung on the wall to her left, but one did give her pause.

It was all of them back during their time in the FIB, long before any of them had really figured out who they were. That had been a very chaotic time for all of them. Everything had been so new and fascinating, but also kind of scary, full of new surprises and strange oddities.

Everyone looked pretty much the same as they did now, thanks to the benefits of never aging. And yet they all looked so different, mainly due to their evolving tastes in fashion. Candeloro herself had on a pair of black shorts and a midriff-revealing top that she was kind of embarrassed about now. She was of course comfortable with her own sexuality, but it had been a long time since she had felt any need to flaunt it. Her final two years there had been kind of a wild time.

Of all of them, Charlotte had probably changed the most. She had really been into some…very interesting kind of music back then, and was wearing a leather jacket with several band patches sewn on that was probably still at the back of their closet, a pair of faded jeans with a studded belt, and a shirt bearing the main character of a cartoon famed for its racy humor. Her hair was also much different, in that it had been gelled up into some kind of hawk. Also, she had on way more makeup back then, especially around the eyes, and had a lip ring. Candeloro had actually liked that lip ring, though Charlotte had stopped wearing it when it had accidentally gotten caught on Candeloro’s lip when they had made out just a little too enthusiastically.

As for Oktavia, well, she hadn’t gotten her cap then, but she looked more-or-less the same. For some reason she had never deviated from the short, boyish haircut she had shown up with. Candeloro supposed that having short hair made all her time in the ocean easier. At any rate, here she was just a pair of aviator sunglasses and shirt decorated with colorful seahorses.

As for Ophelia, this had been long before she had settled into what would become her trademark style of dress. Instead, she was wearing a simple black tee-shirt, a pair of cut-off shorts, a dark blue denim jacket, a pair of calf-high boots, and black baseball cap bearing the logo of a wrestler she had been a fan of. She was standing with one foot resting on the edge of a low wall, one hand on her hip, and the other touching the brim of her hat as she half-grinned at the camera, her fang showing prominently.

Candeloro stared at her in particular. In her mind, the denim jacket morphed into a green hoodie, and the cap was replaced by a long, flowing scarlet ponytail tied back with a black ribbon.

I’m Kyoko Sakura. Thanks. If hadn’t come by I would have bit it.

Mami reached up and gently pressed her fingertips to the image of the hat, so that Kyoko’s face stood in stark relief.

You saved me. Wow. I never knew there was such an amazing magical girl here in Mitakihara.

Her eye twitched, and she hastily moved the rest of the way up the stairs.

Unfortunately it was too late. Now that her mind had focused on that particular set of memories, they wouldn’t shut up.

So long as we’re talking about selfishness, I wanted to ask you: may I please become Mami-san’s student?

Mami quickened her gait, as if moving faster would allow her to outrun the downpour of memories that were threatening to bury her.

If that’s the case, I’ll be fine then. Ever since I was small, I watched my father and thought about how I wanted to bring happiness to everyone. I guess my wish to make my father happy was the first step towards making that a reality. To protect the happiness of everyone, that’s my wish.

Her hand didn’t tremble in the slightest as she tore the door to her (and Charlotte’s) room open and bolted inside. She slammed it shut and collapsed with her back to the door.

They’re gone. It was my wish. I just wanted them to have happiness, but it broke him. He found out what I did and it broke him!

Her legs buckled out from under her, and she slid down to the floor, her fingertips digging into her temple and forehead.

Huh? What the hell do you know? There’s a difference between losing your family in an accident and losing your family because it’s your own damn fault! It all happened because of my magic! So you know what? I’m never going to use my magic for anyone else’s sake again! I’ve decided that all this power is only for me to use, for my sake.

Mami half-crawled, half-staggered her way over to her bed. She didn’t bother to undress before she hauled herself onto her side.

I’ve had it with you! Our partnership is now officially done!

Her hand instinctively reached out for Charlotte’s, but she then remembered that Charlotte was gone.

Being lonely is a hell of a lot better than putting up with you all the time!

Instead, she seized up Charlotte’s pillow and pressed it down over her head, but nothing would drown out the angry shouting echoing in her head, or the sound of fists connecting with flesh.

Now take that!

And that!

And that!

…

Now…

“Ah,” Charlotte said. “Well. Um, I don’t really know what to say to that.”

“Her father had just murdered her mother and sister before hanging himself because he found out about her contract,” Candeloro said flatly. “She was not exactly in a good place at the time.”

“No kidding. Was she the only one?”

Candeloro sighed. “No. Not by a long shot. It just kept happening.”

…

Then…

“Well, hey,” Oktavia said. “Look who’s up. How you feeling?”

Candeloro walked out into the backyard. There, Oktavia was lounging in one of the lawnchairs, reading a book. “Better,” she said. “A lot better.” She plopped down in the chair next to Oktavia.

“Well, sometimes all you need is a really good night’s sleep,” Oktavia said. “God knows, none of us were sleeping well on the boat.”

That much was for certain. “Can’t argue with that,” Candeloro said. “Um, hey, Oktavia. I don’t suppose you guys have heard anything about…?”

Her question trailed off, but Oktavia obviously knew what she was talking about. Grimacing, she shook her head. “No, sorry. Still no word from her.”

“Oh.”

“But don’t sweat it! You know Charlotte, sometimes she gets all moody and stubborn! Once she’s come to her senses she’ll come right back, probably on hands and knees just begging you to take her back!”

“There’s an interesting image,” Candeloro said dryly.

“Eh, it’s what I do,” Oktavia said with a shrug. “Besides, you know how love is. It-”

“-sucks!”

“Huh?” Candeloro said.

“I said love’s complicated, you know?”

“Really? I thought you just said it sucks.”

Oktavia shot her an odd look. “Nooooo. It’s messy sometimes, but-”

“-I can’t believe she would do this to me! Now! I thought we were friends!”

“Well, sometimes even the best of friends don’t always see the whole picture,” Mami said. “She probably thinks that she’s doing you a favor.”

Sayaka’s face twisted up in confusion. “Candy, what the hell are you talking about? Why would Charlotte be thinking that she’s doing me a favor?”

“But you know what the worst if it is? Maybe she’s right. Because there was a moment where…where I regretted saving her from that witch! Isn’t that awful? How could he love someone who thinks like that!”

“Don’t think like that!” Mami cried. “It’s not your fault. It’s not-”

Then she blinked.

Wait.

What?

Sayaka (no, no, no, no, no! Not Sayaka! Her name was…was…was Oktavia now!) was staring at her in bewilderment. “Er, Candy? Uh, sorry, I know you’re going through a hard time right now, but you are making exactly zero sense. The hell?”

Mami shook her head. “I…I’m sorry. I just had a really weird episode.”

“I can tell,” Saya…Oktavia said. “Um, do you want me to get Ophelia or something?”

“No,” Mami said as she hastily stood up. “No, I just…need to clear my…”

Then she quickly moved back into the house, all the while echoes continued to bounce around in her head.

Some hero! How could I think to be worth anything if I have that in me! How could I ever think I could be like you!

…

Now…

“And happening.”

…

Then…

Candeloro reached for the bathroom door. Before she could touch it, the door opened, and Gretchen stepped out.

The younger girl was obviously just freshly showered and changed, if her still-damp hair was any indication. “Oh!” she said, seeing Candeloro. “Sorry, let me get out of your way.”

“Not at all,” Candeloro said, moving aside so Gretchen could scuttle past. She was about to enter the bathroom herself when she heard Gretchen clear her throat.

“Um, Candeloro?” she said.

“Yes?”

“Are you…are you doing okay?”

Candeloro swallowed. “Well, as well as can be expected, given the circumstances. But I am fine, thank you.”

“Okay. It’s just that Oktavia said you, uh, had kind of a weird…”

“Yes. I had a strange flashback. Just…still need to sort these new memories out, I guess.”

“Okay, because if you ever-”

“I’m fine,” Candeloro said, and then she winced. That had come out a lot more harshly than she had wanted.

“Oh,” Gretchen said. “Sorry.”

“It’s-”

But Gretchen had already scurried off to her and Homulilly’s room.

Sighing, Candeloro went inside and closed and locked the door. She looked at herself in the mirror.

The face of Candeloro stared back at her.

She looked like a horror. Her eyes were sunken, her golden hair a frightful mess. And after snapping at Gretchen, she felt pretty horrible too.

Oh, Gretchen, Gretchen, Gretchen. The sweetest girl Candeloro had ever met. Even as she had grown older she had never lost her kind heart.

Of course, it had come with the territory. She had always been kind to a fault, selfless and caring and…

No!

No, she couldn’t go down that path again! She couldn’t let those memories creep up, memories like-

I’m sorry for crying.

No! Not again!

Don’t be. It’s a scary thing, the first time you get hurt. Now hold still. Magic might speed up the healing process, but we still need to disinfect the wound. This’ll sting.

Stop it! Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it!

I just wish I could be as brave and strong as you. Or Kyoko-chan! Or even Sayaka-chan! I just feel like I drag you all down sometimes.

Candeloro pounded her fists against her head. It did no good.

Madoka, don’t think like that. You have by far one of the kindest hearts I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. And I want you to stay like that. That is your strength.

Please, make it stop!

We’re in a fight against monsters, against curses born from the worst kinds of hearts. We need someone like you. So don’t ever change who you are.

Who you are.

Change.

Change…into a…

Mami looked back up at the mirror. Her face was no longer a mess, her hair no longer disheveled. Rather, she was properly made up, and her hair neatly tied up in a pair of drill-tails on either side of her head.

She jerked back in surprise and looked down.

When she had entered the bathroom, she had been wearing a pair of jeans and blue blouse. But now she was wearing her Puella Magi uniform.

Mami pinched the hem of her skirt with shaking fingers. Then she lifted her gloved hands and squeezed them. When had that change happened? She didn’t recall wanting to change into her uniform, and yet here it was.

She closed her eyes and gripped her hands into fists at her side.

Go away, go away, go away, go away!

When she opened her eyes again, her old clothes were back, and her face was a proper disaster again.

But so was the rest of her.

She sat heavily down on the toilet lid, her face buried in her unwanted hands.

“I’m Candeloro,” she whispered. “I’m Candeloro! The Ribbon Witch! I don’t want to be Mami, I don’t want to be Mami, I don’t want to be Mami…”

…

Now…

“And happening!”

…

Then…

To her complete lack of surprise and no small amount of irritation, Candeloro couldn’t sleep.

She tossed. She turned. She opened the window and counted backwards from a hundred. Nothing worked.

Tomorrow she was going to meet face-to-face with Charlotte. Tomorrow she might end up losing her wife forever. How the hell could her mind not obsess over that?

Finally she got up with a growl and left her room.

It was a little past two in the morning and the house was dark. She didn’t know if anyone else was asleep though. Ophelia and Oktavia were probably still up, playing some video game or watching a movie.

Even so, Candeloro kept her steps light as she tiptoed down the stairs and into the kitchen.

To her surprise, there was a light coming from the kitchen. Specifically, the refrigerator light. Someone had it open and was rummaging around inside.

The door closed with a click, and a dark-haired silhouette straightened up and turned around.

“Oh!” Homulilly said, jerking up. The cup of water she had in her hands slipped from her grasp.

She tried to grab it, but Candeloro already had it covered. A ribbon shot out from her hand to lasso the cup and jerk it back toward her into her palm with barely any spilt.

“Here,” Candeloro said, handing her the cup. “Sorry for scaring you.”

“It’s…okay,” Homulilly said. She tilted her head to one side. Though the lights were out, Candeloro knew the curious look she was wearing. “So, uh, the ribbon-whip thing. That’s…”

“My Puella Magi power, yes,” Candeloro said.

“I thought you had guns.”

“It’s…a little hard to explain,” Candeloro said wearily. She quickly changed the subject. “You can’t sleep either?”

“Not really,” Homulilly admitted. “I’m not surprised that you can’t.”

“Well, it’s not something you can face without having some kind of nervous breakdown,” Candeloro said as she went over to the fridge to remove a pitcher of cranberry juice.

“I bet. Mind if I turn on the light?”

“Sure.”

The kitchen light stung Candeloro’s eyes a bit. She blinked a bit and shook her head.

Homulilly was already sitting at the table, her cup nestled in her hands. “Just juice, huh?”

“Just juice,” Candeloro confirmed as she poured herself a cup. “After what happened last time, I’m staying well away from alcohol.”

“Hmmm. But, uh, you still kind of…”

“More than you can believe,” Candeloro sighed. She sat down across from Homulilly. “Thank you again, by the way. For what you did.”

“Of course. I just hope it was worth it.”

Candeloro nodded. “Me too. Um, hey, Homulilly. I hope I’m not prying, but may I ask you a question?”

Homulilly frowned. “Um, sure?”

“Say you were in Charlotte’s position, and Gretchen had turned back into Madoka Kaname. What would…how would you react?”

Homulilly sighed. “Oh, I’ve been asking myself that question longer than Hitomi Shizuki’s been around.”

“Oh. Um, and?”

Homulilly’s skeletal finger tapped against the side of her glass. “Gretchen is the most important person in the world to me,” she said softly. “If she…became her old self, and didn’t remember me anymore, or at least only remembered Homura Akemi, it would…it would hurt a lot.”

“Would you leave?”

“No,” Homulilly said after a pause. “Because…it would still be her, right? How could I leave her? And if she still…still wanted me around, even if it was just as a friend, then that would…” She swallowed. “That would be enough.”

Candeloro sighed and took a small sip. “Yes, you always were very-”

She blinked.

“Very…what?”

We need to talk.

Candeloro shook her head. “Uh, sorry, I just-”

What about, Akemi-san?

Oh no.

You put Madoka in danger. Your plan failed, and she was hurt.

“Candeloro?” Homura said in puzzlement. “Are you all right?

This is unacceptable. You are our leader. Therefore, Madoka’s safety is your responsibility as much as it is mine.

Mami grabbed her head. Not again. Not again!

Akemi-san, it was an accident! I did everything I could to look after her, but fighting witches is inherently dangerous! You can’t prepare for all-

Enough.

“Should I call for help?” Homura asked, rising. “Let me get Ophelia-”

“No!” Mami said hastily. “I’m-”

No life matters more to me than Madoka’s. I helped you convince Sayaka Miki to make a contract for Madoka’s protection. I brought back Kyoko Sakura for Madoka’s protection. If you cannot ensure her safety despite having all that at your disposal, then perhaps a change of leadership is needed.

“Uh,” Mami stood up, and did so too quickly. Her elbow knocked over her glass of juice, spilling it across the table.

“Oh, damn! Shit!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Homura quickly grabbed a handful of paper towels and began mopping up the spilled juice.

“I should-”

“No, I got it,” Homura said. “Look, you’re in a bad place. Let me help, okay?”

Mami nodded numbly. “Okay. I’d…better go to bed, before I knock over something else.”

“Okay. And, uh, Candeloro?”

“What?”

Homura smiled at her. “It’ll be okay. You got-”

-no right to be acting so reckless. So, keep that in mind.

But-

Keep it in mind, Mami Tomoe. Speak to no one of our conversation, do your job and keep Madoka Kaname safe, and we shall have no problems.

“-this, okay?”

Mami numbly nodded. Then she turned and practically fled back up the stairs.

Remember my warning, Mami Tomoe.

Remember my warning.

…

Now…

“Holy shit,” Charlotte said, staring.

“I know,” Candeloro groaned. “It just…I never know when it’ll happen next, it just happens! And the more time I spend around them, the more it happens!”

“Yeah, I bet. Jesus.” Then Charlotte’s brow furrowed. “Still, this just proves my point! We were better off without any of that! We didn’t need to learn our names or our histories or any of that! We should have just said ‘no’ and left Hitomi alone!”

“I know that, Charlotte! But we didn’t! We took that risk, we opened that box, and now we have to deal with the consequences.” Candeloro looked down at her shaking hands. “And they scare me. I don’t want these memories. I don’t want this name. I don’t want to feel like who I am is just…I feel like my entire sense of self is like water in a shallow glass bowl sitting on the tip of a pin, and the slightest push can cause it to tip over and pour me out! I thought I could just g-get used to having this part of me opened up, but it’s more than just remembering everything I used to be. Because whenever these memories hit, then…I don’t know, but my sense of self starts…flowing. I feel less like Candeloro and more like Mami, and it takes longer and longer to get it under control!”

Now Charlotte’s hands started to shake as well. “So you’re telling me that the Mami half is slowly taking over, and when it does there’ll be nothing of Candeloro left?”

“I don’t know! That’s the point, I don’t know how this works, I don’t know what’s happening to me, I don’t know how it’s happening, I don’t know where Mami ends and Candeloro begins or if there even is a divide, I don’t know anything!” Now the tears were flowing freely. “I don’t know, and it scares me, Charlotte! You talk about how much it scares you?” Mami slapped her new hands against her own chest. “What about me? It’s happening to me! And right when I need you the most, you’re just going to run off on me? How could you?”

“I…”

“We were supposed to be together forever! Together, keeping each other strong through the centuries. I love you. I love you so much that the thought of you leaving me hurts more than the storm inside my head. And I thought you loved me too! So why, Charlotte?”

“Because…” Charlotte was starting to shake with agitation. “Because…uh…”

Candeloro reached for her, but Charlotte flinched away.

“I can’t,” Charlotte said as she backed away. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But I just can’t.”

“But why? I need you!”

Shaking her head, Charlotte kept back further and further away.

“Charlotte,” Candeloro pleaded. “Please. Don’t.”

“I just…” Then Charlotte turned and fled, running to disappear into the mists. Candeloro was left standing alone, arms that she had never wanted still reaching out, with her eyes wet, her throat clenched up, and her heart heavy.

…

The Rising Gardens were intended to be lost in. There were maps you could pick up that would always keep you informed of your location and marked out the quickest way out, but Charlotte had neglected to grab one. And now that she really, really wanted to leave, she found that she couldn’t.

Every turn just led to more turns, every staircase seemed to just plunge her deeper into the woman-made jungle. It was like being lost in a real jungle, one just as thick and dark.

Come on, come on, she thought as she ran. Where’s the way out?

“Come on, come on!” she said out loud. “It has to be around here-”

Then she turned a corner and came to a sudden stop.

She was staring at Candeloro’s (no! Mami Tomoe’s!) back. Somehow, she had ended up just coming back around again.

Sensing her, Mami Tomoe turned around. Her golden eyes were wet and bloodshot from crying, and her face was scrunched up with pure misery.

Mami Tomoe saw her, and her eyes widened. With hope.

Before she could speak, Charlotte spun on her heel and headed back the way she came.

There had to be a way out! The Rising Gardens had exits on every level! So where were they? Where was the damned-

The next thing she knew, Charlotte was bursting into sunlight.

She was standing on the second level, staring out at Freehaven. Though the sun overhead was nice and warm, she was still shivering.

Charlotte started running again. She hopped off the gardens entirely and ran for the facility exit. As she did so, she had her new phone out, fingers hastily calling for a zipper.

…

“Hey, wait a second!” Ophelia yelped as she leapt to her feet.

“Finally!” Oktavia said. “What’s going on?”

“Charlotte just ran out of the garden!”

“Alone?!”

“Yes, alone! And she looks kind of terrified!”

“Huh? What, did Candeloro summon up those silver guns of hers and try to take her head off?”

“Uh, probably not? Can’t blame her if she tried though!”

Then Charlotte leapt to the street and kept running. Ophelia’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh, hell no,” she growled.

“You’re going after her!” Gretchen’s voice cheered.

“Damn straight. Candy shot her shot, now it’s my turn!”

Ophelia dove right off the roof she was standing on. She hit the street in a parkour roll and came up running.

Charlotte was fast. Her slender body and long legs were well-suited for speed. But she didn’t do a tenth of the cardiovascular exercises that Ophelia did daily. Ophelia’s toned legs became a blur as she took off like a rocket, weaving between what people she could and leaping fully over those that she couldn’t.

Unfortunately, Charlotte still had a considerable lead on her. And overhead, Ophelia could see the distinctive silver glint of a descending zipper.

Hell no!

“Hey!” she called as she shot toward the fleeing Charlotte like a bolt of lightning. “Stop!”

If Charlotte could hear her she didn’t make any indication. The zipper landed in a circular designated pick-up point and opened up.

Zippers were essentially egg-shaped shells that surrounded a ring of four padded seats, with a large luggage space on the bottom. But only Charlotte was in need of one, so only one side opened up. Charlotte zeroed in on it and increased her speed.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Ophelia snarled. She increased her speed…

…only to be brought to screeching halt when an entire bike team came riding right across her path. And wouldn’t you know it, there was a bridge overhead that prevented her from leaping over them.

“Shit!” Ophelia bounded upward, hoping to clear the buildings entirely before Charlotte got in.

She managed to reach the roof in a manner of seconds, but by the time she reached a vantage point, Charlotte had already reached the zipper and was climbing inside.

“No!” Ophelia leapt onto the road again, well past the bike team, and took off sprinting. “Charlotte! Stop!”

The side of the zipper closed up.

“Wait!”

Then it shot into the sky. Ophelia reached the pick-up spot mere seconds later, just in time to see it vanish over the rooftops.

…

Charlotte collapsed into her seat a panting, shaking, and sweating mess. “Go!” she shouted. The door closed shut, and the zipper launched into the air.

Oh God, she had not expected that. Having Mami Tomoe try to argue with her that she was still Candeloro? Yes. Yes, that had very much been expected and prepared for. But for her to say that she was still Candeloro, but the Mami Tomoe part was slowly taking over and for her to beg for Charlotte to stay and help her fight it off? That possibility hadn’t exactly occurred to her.

Still trembling, Charlotte leaned back…only to scowl. She quickly slipped her backpack off her shoulders and tossed it into the seat next to her before finally slumping back with a sigh. Why had she done that? Why had she run? That hadn’t been the thing that had stolen her love away from her and was wearing her face. That had been her love begging her not to let the thing take her away in the first place! That had been Candeloro all right. If Candeloro and Mami Tomoe were supposed to be the same soul, then Candeloro would be able to tell if it was Mami Tomoe lying. And she hadn’t been. That had been the truth.

Of course it was, said the irritated voice in her head, the one that had been yelling at her all week, the one she had been arguing with or trying to ignore. But you ran away anyway. You coward. You idiot.

“Shut up,” she muttered.

No! You know I’m right! You’re a coward and an idiot who ran out on her family and-

“I said shut up!”

“I’m sorry,” said the digitized voice of the zipper’s AI. “I didn’t quite get that. Where would you like to go?”

Charlotte sighed. She ought to have had this thing waiting with preprogrammed coordinates. “Freehaven Skyport,” she said wearily. “Terminal seven.”

“Acknowledged.” The monitor lit up with the flight route and estimated time of arrival, which was about seven minutes.

Charlotte slumped back into her seat. She blinked. And then she blinked again, slower this time. She hadn’t slept well at all the previous night for obvious reasons. Come to think of it, she hadn’t been sleeping much all week. And though she had expected to pass out on the elysian, she had thought that her nerves would have kept her awake until then. But her lack of sleep was catching up to her in a bad way. This was bad timing too. With such a short trip, nodding off now wouldn’t give her any sort of rest.

But surely it would be all right if she just closed her eyes for a bit…

…

The storyteller was confronted by the griever…

Charlotte finds herself in the inoffensive yet chillingly sterile waiting room of a hospital emergency room. She is sitting in one of the chairs, waiting for her name to be called. There are other people waiting in there with her; she can see them in her peripheral vision, can hear their muted conversations. But every time she looks up to focus on any of them in particular, she sees nothing but empty chairs.

She sits anxiously, hands clutching the sides of her seat. She can’t remember exactly why she was there, but she knows that it’s important. She is visiting someone, someone who is very ill, someone who isn’t expected to make it. She hadn’t been visiting them like she had promised, and that made her feel terrible.

“Charlotte? You can go in now.”

Charlotte sighs and stands up. She heads for the entrance to the hospital halls only to remember that she wasn’t sure of the way. Stopping by the receptionist’s desk, she turns toward the older lady that had called her name to ask her for directions.

“Excuse me, but which was to-”

Then she stops. The chair behind the desk is empty. Furthermore, all the hospital staff that she thought were working behind the counter are all gone.

Charlotte turns back toward the waiting room. As she does so, the muted babble of whispered conversations coming from the other people waiting dies off, as does the sound of the television. There is no one else there, and the television is off.

Blinking, Charlotte shakes her head and walks into the halls. As she does so, the conversations resume behind her, as does the patter of the hospital staff diligently working and the sound of the newscasters’ voices coming from the television.

As Charlotte walks through the halls, she passes many people. Doctors, nurses, security guards, midwives, patients, and other visitors, all of whom simply vanish the moment she gives them her full attention. She nods at the aging man at the security booth and stops to see if he knows the way, only to find the booth empty. She sidesteps a male nurse pushing a young woman in a wheelchair, only to see a solitary wheelchair sitting by itself by the wall. She approaches a nurse’s station with three middle-aged women chatting as they work, only to find the station unmanned. It is like she is trying to find her way through a world of ghosts. But who is the ghost? Is it the people that disappear all around her, or is she the one haunting the halls?

Finally she turns a corner and sees a recovery room down the hall with its door open. A bright line is shining out. That has to be the place.

Charlotte hurries toward the light. As she does so, the shadow people around her start to recede entirely, as does the rest of the hospital. She can feel the halls start to come apart around her while deep, loud rushing builds in her ears, like a consuming flood burst from a dam.

She hurries into the recovery room and slams the door. The rushing stops.

There are three curtain-shrouded beds in the room, two of which are open and empty. The curtain is drawn over the third bed, the one at the far end of the room. Behind it, she can see the silhouette of a young woman sitting in a chair.

Swallowing, Charlotte cautiously makes her way toward the curtain. She lays a hand on the curtain, hesitates, and then slowly pulls it open, half-expecting the woman to disappear like everyone else did.

She doesn’t.

The young woman is sitting in a blue chair next to the hospital bed, her legs crossed and hands clasped over her knee. She is wearing tight green pants and a frilly white blouse decorated with pink and blue mice. Her pink hair is done up in a pair of messy twintails, and her eyes are of the same color. Freckles dust her face, and she has a slight overbite.

It’s her. It’s clearly Charlotte. Granted, the woman’s skin is of a normal human hue rather than alabaster white, the freckles are new, their eyes are of different colors, and the other woman doesn’t have a tail, but other than that they are the same.

“So,” the other Charlotte says. “There you are. You kept me waiting.”

The spell of vague uncertainty that hung over all dreams broke then. In a rush Charlotte remembers everything. She understands what it is that is going on.

“No way,” she says. “Really?”

“Yup. Really really.”

Charlotte fumbles around until she grabs a nearby empty chair and sits down before her legs gives way beneath her. “But…I-I heard that the others, um, that the others-”

The other Charlotte crosses her legs and folds her arms over her chest. “Talked to their past selves in a dream or somesuch. Yeah, I know.”

“But…they all spiritual dissonance, right? Something that woke all that up? I never did though! So how-”

“Well, you know what they say,” the other Charlotte says with a shrug. “Sometimes you get woken up by the sound of your name, but sometimes you get dragged away by the irresistible need to slap a stupid bitch.”

“What?”

The other Charlotte stands up. She walks over to where the dumbfounded Charlotte was sitting and sticks out her hand. “Hi there. My name is Nozomi Momoe. You’re my witch, and you are also the idiot in the driver’s seat, because your stupidity was literally powerful enough to drag me back to life. Pleased to fucking meet you.”

Then before Charlotte has time to process that little revelation, Nozomi’s hand flies, striking Charlotte across the face.

Normally something like that would be enough to jolt Charlotte awake, likely with heavy panting and her illusionary heart racing. However, this was not that kind of dream.

“Got your attention?” Nozomi says.

Charlotte lifts a hand to her cheek. For a dream, the stinging sensation is impressively realistic. “The hell was that for?”

“You know,” Nozomi says with a derisive snort. She walks back to her seat and sits down. “All right, let me clear things up for you and answer everything you’re about to ask. Yes, I am your past self. Duh. Yes, this is really happening. Yes, we are the same person. Same soul, continuation of consciousness or whatever you guys call it. So when I say ‘I’ or ‘you’ or ‘we,’ don’t take it too literally. Yes, this is happening due to supernatural circumstances. No, I’m not telling you how. No, I’m not really real as a separate entity. This is all one big metaphor for how Nozomi would actually feel about what your dumb ass is doing right now. But yes, what I am saying to you comes from a very fucking real place. Are we clear?”

That…really did cover most of what Charlotte wants to ask, though not being able to ask them was kind of frustrating. Hell, she was still in need of a moment to really think on the whole “Nozomi Momoe” thing. “Wow, okay,” she says. “You’re…throwing a lot at me right now. And frankly, I don’t even know where to begin-”

“Great! Because I do.” Nozomi leans forward so as to glower at her more efficiently. “Why exactly are you listening to that big wad of dumb you got lodged in your head and throwing away literally the best thing to happen to you, to happen to us, to happen to me?”

Charlotte scowls. Oh, so that was what this was all about. “This is about Mami Tomoe, isn’t it?”

“Eh.” Nozomi waggles one of her palms. “Half right. This is about Mami Tomoe and Candeloro. Which, incidentally enough, do qualify as the same thing, if you want to get technical about it.”

Charlotte scowls. “I don’t have to explain that to you. I don’t have to explain it to anyone.”

“I am you, of course you don’t have to explain it! And you already had that whole deal torn down! What I want to know is why that even after realizing that you’re wrong, you’re still running away!”

“What, you expect me to be able to deal with…whatever that is? You expect me to be able to deal with any of this insanity?”

“No shit, I do! Because that’s what wives are supposed to do! Love and support in sickness and in health! She wants us to help her, she needs us by her side, and you’re just gonna go run away.

“Well, whatever. I owe you anything, and you don’t know-”

“Yeah, I’m just going to cut you off right there, Cheese-Brain.” Nozomi says, holding up a palm. “I do, actually. Been living through you for sixteen years now, so I know you pretty damned well.”

“Do you? Fine.” Charlotte leaned back in her chair, one arm draped over the back, legs crossed, while she gestured with the other. “Then by all means: explain it to me.”

“Fine. You’re running away not because you really believe that Mami’s gonna completely replace Candeloro, but because you’re scared of what she represents. Because all this time, things were set in a certain way, and you liked it that way! Sure, maybe all your friends had some kind of group dynamic back in the day, but who cares? Right now, everyone’s a witch, you’ve got a new group dynamic to which you are essential, and life is good!

“But then Hitomi Shizuki showed up and changed all that. Suddenly there’s new names being thrown around, reveals about past relationships. And things started to crack. They started to crumble. In just a few short days, people you thought you knew start making bad decisions, start drifting apart, started behaving out of character.

“And that scared you, didn’t it? Not just because it meant that this perfect life you’ve built was falling to pieces, but the thing you were dreading was coming back. Their past. Their group, the group that you were not a part of. And despite all evidence to the contrary, you couldn’t help but wonder, ‘Well, if they all do go back to being who they were, would there still be a place for me? Would they even want me?’” She snorts. “Talk about paranoid.”

“It’s not paranoid!” Charlotte shouts. “It did happen! One of them did come back, and she’s taking the place of my wife!”

“Yeah, Mami Tomoe did come back. She came back to save you, because you were in danger, and now that you wife is in the most trouble she’s ever been, when she needs you the most, you just selfishly abandon her? Because you were afraid that Mami would reject you?”

“No! I don’t care if Mami wants me or not! I care that the person I loved is gone!”

“She’s not gone, you idiot! But she is in the most pain that she’s ever in! She made a choice for your sake, and now she’s struggling with something big and terrifying, and instead of staying by her side like you should, you’re just going to abandon her and the rest of your family! You’re so afraid of change taking away everything you had that you’d rather throw it all away first, just because of a possibility! And you’ll run out on the woman you love more than anything in her time of need! She begged you to stay, she was weeping for you to stay, and you turned your back on her!”

Nozomi then thrusts a finger at the hospital bed next to her. And for the first time, Charlotte notices that it’s not empty. There is a body in it, that of woman. She is not that old, just a little out of middle-age, but she is so frail and withered that she could have been mistaken for being past eighty.

“I had a chance to save the only thing that mattered to me, but I refused to see the situation for what it was and lost our mother. Because of an assumption! So I will be damned before I let your fear hurt the ones that matter the most to us now! I’m not letting you run away!”

“I…” Charlotte struggles to find her voice. “But I…”

However, Nozomi is not letting her have the chance to speak. She thrusts her hand into the air, and suddenly the small space is filled with a burst of dark pink light. When it clears, Nozomi is wearing a sleeveless, double-breasted black tunic with gold buttons in the shaped of wrapped candy and a high collar; a tight black-and-white striped shirt under with frilly wrists; brown fingerless gloves; a knee-length pink skirt; black-and-white striped tights; and dainty ballet shoes. In her hand is a long black pole studded with pink polka-dots, topped with that wrapped candy shape.

Nozomi charges. Charlotte tries to dodge, but Nozomi thrusts her pole out, and golden wires erupt from the tip to ensnare Charlotte’s legs and yank them out from under her.

The next thing Charlotte knows, she’s lying flat on her back with legs straddling her chest, staring up at a face that looks so much like the one she sees every day in the mirror, only it is glaring down at her in pure hatred.

“No, you don’t get to run!” Nozomi screams. She strikes Charlotte across the face, causing her head to snap to one side. “You bitch!” She hits her again from the other side. “You coward!” She hits her again.

Then Nozomi is just raining blows down on Charlotte, from the left to the right to the left to the right again. “You! Won’t! Run! Away! If you do, I swear I will haunt you every time you go to sleep! I will make every second a waking nightmare! You can’t escape me, and you won’t-”

…

Charlotte jerked awake with a gasp. Her hands were in the air to ward off another attack, the screams still echoing in her ears.

There was nobody there. She was back in the zipper.

Charlotte slowly lowered her hands. Then she checked the time. To her shock, she saw that she had only been asleep for less than thirty seconds. The zipper was still moving above Freehaven toward the skyport.

Stupefied, Charlotte struggled to collect her thoughts. Though the details of the dream were swiftly fading away, the terror of it was not, nor was the sense of immense shame, guilt, and self-loathing.

She knew what had happened. She had heard of the others and their dream-meetings with their past selves, and how they had all made peace. And she had finally had her own. Only hers had been anything but peaceful.

And she knew exactly why.

Charlotte felt horrified. Oh God, what was she doing? How had things gotten this far?

“Wait!” Charlotte hoarsely called out. “Stop!”

The zipper paused.

“Cancel the trip! Take me back!”

“Trip cancellations incur a fee of-”

“I don’t care, charge me whatever, and just do it!”

The blue digital face shimmered, and the zipper turned around.

…

“Damn it,” Ophelia groused as she slouched her way across the rooftop. She kicked a pinecone that had somehow gotten up there. “Damn it, damn it, damn it. We were so close. So close. So-”

Then something zoomed past her head, something silver and shiny.

Ophelia froze. No, it couldn’t be. It had to be some other zipper. There were plenty of those coming and going all the time. There was no way it was…

She ran to the edge of the roof. The zipper had dove down to the same pick-up spot that Charlotte’s had departed from. Her illusionary heartbeat pounding away, Ophelia watched as its side opened up.

And then Charlotte stumbled out.

“No way,” Ophelia said. As she watched, Charlotte took off running, heading back toward the Rising Gardens.

Things still sucked a whole lot, but Ophelia couldn’t stop grinning. She pulled out her phone and reentered the group. “Hey guys,” she said. “Cancel the funeral. Guess what just happened!”

…

Sniffing, Candeloro slowly exited the Rising Gardens. She felt more miserable than she had ever felt in her entire life.

What was she going to do? What was she going to tell the others? Oh, they would feel bad for her, try to comfort her, say many bad things about Charlotte, but that wouldn’t change anything. She had gone to bring her back, to heal their family, but she had failed. In the end, Charlotte had rejected her.

Maybe she should just let the Mami Tomoe part take over completely. Mami Tomoe had never been married. Mami Tomoe hadn’t been abandoned by her wife. Maybe that would make things easier to-

“Candy! Wait! Stop!”

Candeloro made a sound not unlike air escaping a bike tire. She spun around, almost not daring to hope.

Charlotte was there, running toward her.

“What?” was all Candeloro could think of to say.

Charlotte looked like she was reaching out to grab her, but then stopped herself at the last minute. She looked at her outstretched hands, swallowed, and let them drop.

“So, uh,” she said as she stared down at the ground and shuffled her feet. “I…kind of just had a change of heart.”

Candeloro’s jaw dropped. “How? It’s been…like five minutes!”

“I know. But you know how your perception of time gets really weird in a dream and you could feel like it’s been hours when it’s only been like a couple minutes? Like how you wake up ten minutes before your alarm goes off and drift back to sleep and then have like this whole adventure that seems like it takes…” Charlotte seemed to realize that she was babbling and cut herself off. “Um, well, I kind of fell asleep in the zipper, and got yelled at by my past self, and she beat me up. Like, a lot.”

“Huh?”

“I finally met my past self,” Charlotte said. “You know, like the others did. And she was pissed.”

Candeloro had no idea what to think of that. “Really?”

“Yes. And…” Charlotte sighed. “Candy, I am so sorry. I’ve been an idiot, and a coward, and kind of a cruel one at that.” She ran her fingers through her sweat-soaked hair. “I don’t know what got into my head, I don’t have any kind of real excuse. I just got scared and freaked out and made a really, really bad choice.”

Candeloro was finding it very hard to put her thoughts to words. She was finding it very hard to have articulate thoughts at all. “Wait, are you saying…”

“I’m not leaving you. I should have never left in the first place. And…okay, this whole thing that’s going on with you still scares the crap out of me, but I don’t have the right to abandon you, and-”

The rest of her apology was choked off: not by tears, but by Candeloro’s arms. Specifically, the ones she had thrown around Charlotte’s neck.

“Thank you,” Candeloro wept into Charlotte’s neck. “I don’t know what I would have done if you had gone.”

“God, way to make me feel worse,” Charlotte muttered, but she wrapped her arms around Candeloro’s back as well.

It felt so good to be held by her again. Candeloro was still a little angry about almost being abandoned, but the relief she felt was so much more powerful.

But then she drew back with a sigh. “But you know I’m still messed up,” she said. “I don’t know even where to begin to fix this.”

Charlotte grimaced. “Yeah. I…I can see that.”

“I mean, there’s no one in Freehaven with any experience with this kind of thing.”

“Yeah, this is kind of way above their pay grade,” Charlotte agreed. “I mean, sure, they can help an angry teenager who lost her family or someone who’s not adjusting well, but this is kind of…”

Suddenly her eyes went wide. “Wait, hold on!” she gasped. “Maybe there is someone!”

…

“Okay, confirmed!” Ophelia said into her phone. “Huggies have stopped, and C1 and C2 are on the move!”

“On the move back home, right?” Homulilly said testily.

“Uh…can’t tell yet. They’re…oh shit.”

“What?”

Ophelia dove behind a planter. “They’re headed for the roofs. Almost got spotted just now.”

“But that means they’re headed back, right?” Gretchen asked. “You go to the roofs when you want to get somewhere in a hurry, right?”

Ophelia peeked out. Then she frowned. “No, wait, they’re going the wrong way for that.”

There was a heavy pause, and then Oktavia said crankily, “Well, then, where the hell are they headed?”

“I dunno. North…eastish? Hey, I’m gonna just tail them for a bit. I’ll call you when I have some idea of what’s going on.”

“Wait, what about-”

Ophelia hung up. And then she got up to follow.

Keeping up was a lot harder than it sounded. Sure, she could probably run either one of them down, but she didn’t want to catch up, she just wanted to keep them in sight, while making sure that she stayed out of theirs. So she had to stop periodically to dart into some kind of shade and hang back until she was sure that they weren’t going to look in her direction.

Fortunately, they didn’t think that they were being followed, so they weren’t glancing over their shoulders or anything. And before too long they came to a stop and dropped down to the streets.

Ophelia came to a stop too. She had figured out where they were headed, and now that she did it made perfect sense.

“So hey,” she said, reentering the group. “I figured out where they’re heading.”

“Well?” Oktavia said. “Where?”

“Probably the one place in town with anyone that understands what Candeloro’s going through.”

…

Despite living in Freehaven her entire life, Candeloro had only been to the museum a handful of times. There had been the obligatory trip back during her integration days of course, and the odd daytrip just for the heck of it scattered over the years. She had always enjoyed the visits and had learned much, but that sort of thing had always been more of Charlotte’s thing than hers, so she had never just gone on her own, and she certainly had never had a one-on-one conversation with the museum’s curator, Astrid.

Astrid, it should be noted, was not her usual calm, unflappable self. Granted, Candeloro hadn’t even seen her during every trip, so she supposed that she didn’t have much experience to really get a read on the older woman, but she had not expected to see Astrid as shaken as she was when Candeloro and Charlotte had shown up during what had no doubt been an otherwise uneventful day looking over the exhibits and answering menial questions about the artifacts and anxiously requested a private conversation on account that she was the only other person that had gone through the same thing Candeloro had that they had any sort of access to.

Still, she had agreed, and had asked her girlfriend to keep an eye on things while she took the pair to her apartment at the back of the complex. Candeloro hadn’t known what to expect of that. Maybe a place filled with as many strange relics of the past as the museum itself was? Or maybe the exact opposite, a place with minimal comforts and Spartan trappings.

As it turned out, it was neither. Instead, the furniture was old, yet comfortable and well-used. There were a great many colorful plants sitting on shelves, on windowsills, and in corners. Several paintings were hung on the walls: some of them landscape, some of them abstract, some of them humorous caricatures, even a couple of nudes. There were several open windows, letting in plenty of sunlight.

There were a number of cats wandering around. They immediately headed for the door as Astrid entered, but upon seeing Candeloro and Charlotte behind her they froze and then bolted, all of them leaping out of one of the windows, somehow managing to avoid upsetting the two potted plants sitting on the sill.

“Are those yours?” Candeloro asked.

Astrid started a little at the question. “What, the cats? No, they’re all strays.”

“Strays?”

Astrid shrugged. “We, uh, learned a long time ago that permanent pets…get kind of depressing after a while, so we just keep the place open to local cats and sometimes birds. That way, there’s always someone fuzzy and warm about, but they don’t, uh, you don’t come home to find their, er, bodies every few years.”

Candeloro had no idea how to respond to something like that, so she said nothing.

“Uh, sit down!” Astrid said, indicating the wooden dinner table. It was covered with a white table cloth and had a vase of yellow flowers in the middle, and its wooden legs were covered with years and years of animal scratches. “Can I get you guys something? Tea, maybe?”

“Thank you,” Candeloro said as she and Charlotte took their seats. “Ginger, please. If you have it.”

“Got it. Be right back.”

Astrid hurried into the kitchen. Candeloro tried to sit still as Astrid put the kettle on and moved around the cabinets. She must have used magic to heat the water, because the kettle started singing in less than a minute.

The Norse woman returned, carrying a tray with an old but quite charming blue tea set. She set it down, handed a cup in a saucer to each of her guests, and poured them each a cup.

“Sugar?” she said.

“No, thank you.”

Astrid nodded. “So,” she said, sitting down. “Let me see if I have this right: you…are a witch,” she said, gesturing to Charlotte.

Charlotte looked down at the pearl-white skin of her hands. She glanced over her shoulder to where her tail hung down through the bars of the chair’s back. “Looks like.”

“And…you are…not,” Astrid said with a look toward Candeloro.

Candeloro took a deep breath. “No. Not anymore.”

“But you were.”

“Until about a week ago. That’s right.”

Astrid slowly breathed out. “Right. When, where, and how?”

“During the storm,” Candeloro said. “That big one that hit recently?”

“Right. We lost some trees and had some minor roof damage. None of the exhibits were damaged, fortunately. But, um, was it the storm itself, or something that happened during the storm, or…?” Astrid rolled her wrist, indicating for someone to fill in the blank.

Candeloro sighed. “It was…a very strange combination of different things coming together all at once.”

Keeping her descriptions as short as possible, Candeloro told her of the events that had led to her transformation, from the sudden arrival of Hitomi Shizuki to the subsequent problems with spiritual dissonance that they all started to feel to the battle with the karnuk and finally her own change.

“I don’t know exactly what happened or who I talked to,” Candeloro said. “I just…know I talked to someone, and they gave me a choice. And I said ‘yes.’”

“Ah. I see.” Astrid slowly stirred her tea with a small silver spoon. “Mine was…rather similar, actually.”

“I know. Th-That’s why we’re here, actually.”

“I figured.” Astrid steepled her fingers and tapped the tips against her nose. “Okay. Well, this is…a lot to take in. Does anyone else know?”

“Well, there’s us two, of course,” Charlotte said. “And the rest of our Walpurgisnacht.”

Astrid’s brow rose at that. “You’re a Walpurgisnacht?”

“Yes. Us two, and two others.”

“Ah. Well, that’s four. Who else?”

“Two close friends who also live with us,” Candeloro said. “And, uh, Hitomi Shizuki apparently figured it out.”

“I see.”

Candeloro looked down into the murky liquid in her cup. “And…everyone on board the Aurora Borealis, I guess.”

Astrid’s fingers froze in mid-tap. “The aquatic research facility?”

“Yes.”

“Ah. Well.” Astrid slowly laid her hands flat onto the tabletop. “That is a lot of names.”

“I know,” Candeloro said.

“I assume you’re trying to keep this quiet?”

Candeloro felt her right eyelid start to twitch. “Trying to.”

“Understandable. I…imagine it must be…very stressful.”

“You imagine?” Charlotte said, her tone incredulous. “You went through the same thing! That’s why we’re here! She needs help! Advice! Anything!”

“Advice?”

“Yes,” Candeloro said. “Y-You see, I was friends with everyone in our Walpurgisnacht. And with our two other friends as well. I mean, back when we were alive, I knew all of them and they knew me. And…these flashbacks keep happening. They don’t remember any of it of course, but I’ll just be talking to them or even just look at them, and suddenly I’m back, reliving something significant about our past relationship, usually something tragic, and I feel…” One hand went to her temple, the fingers digging into her skin. “I feel like the other half of me is trying…trying to be all of me. I lose sense of myself, my name starts…” She slowly breathed out. “I don’t know how to handle this. I don’t know when the next flash will come or how hard it’ll hit. I just know it gets harder and harder each time to reestablish who I am.” She looked pleadingly into Astrid’s pale silver eyes. “But you had to have gone through the same thing, right? There has to be something you can do to help me!”

“I understand,” Astrid said. “But you have to understand…my change was literally centuries ago! And…I was a little preoccupied with escaping the Withering Lands at the time.”

Candeloro and Charlotte both stared at her in dismay. “So, you…didn’t have those flashes? You didn’t struggle with your sense of identity?”

Astrid let out a long, belabored sigh. “I…didn’t encounter anyone I had known in life. There was no one to trigger any of those flashbacks. Occasionally someone would say something or I would see something that would bring an old memory into stark relief, but those were rare. Besides, after Zoya and I had stolen that boat and headed off to sea, there was a very, very long and uncomfortable trip before we wound up in Freehaven. Let’s just say I had plenty of time and space to really sift through my memories and come to terms with myself.”

Candeloro felt a lump start to form in her throat. She stared back down at her reflection in the murky liquid. “And you decided to go b-by Astrid.”

Astrid shrugged. “My time as Sif was pretty miserable. Granted, my life as Astrid wasn’t exactly fantastic either, but it was at least better. It was an easy change to make.”

“Yeah, but she doesn’t want to make that change,” Charlotte said. “She wants to stay being Candeloro, at least in her head. So is there anything you can suggest? Any…tricks or some kind of meditation or something? I mean, part of your job is to help people like you!”

“Yes. Other runaway Void Walkers,” Astrid said. “There aren’t very many of the un-witched coming by Freehaven. In fact, you would make number two.”

“What about the others?” Candeloro said, perking up.

“The others?”

“Yes! The other…the other un-witched. You know them, don’t you? Can’t they help us?”

Astrid made a face. “Shared experience doesn’t necessarily mean we’re friends. Actually, you and I are the only humans that have done so.”

“So? I have alien friends.”

“So do I. But when they’re from species that don’t exactly get along with Freehaven, it makes establishing any kind of rapport a bit of a problem.” Astrid scooped up a spoonful of tea and slowly let it spill back into her cup. “Also, just because someone is on the record of having un-witched sometime in the distant past doesn’t mean that they’re still around. Two of them ended up becoming Void Walkers and have since been released.”

“Oh,” Candeloro said.

“Or at least that’s the official story anyway. And of the others…Filsa the nask ended up getting kidnapped and was never heard from again. Nitrogen and Blitzkrieg the calliopes…well, Nitrogen served as dance leader of her territory for a number of years before retiring. I suppose I could look her up, but she’s something of an attention whore, so if you want to keep your condition under wraps, she’s probably the last person you want to talk to. And last I heard of Blitzkrieg, she’s currently running a cult somewhere out in some remote territory where she’s worshipped as a god.”

“Oh,” Charlotte said. “Huh.”

“As for the others, well, Ostilk Misanti Viskero the andalite is apparently something of a recluse. She didn’t care much for the fame her condition brought her, and her current location is a closely guarded secret. And you know andalites and their secrets.” Astrid sighed. “Honestly, your best bet would be to contact Silvet the dockengaut.”

Candeloro nearly leapt out of her chair. Charlotte actually did so. “Wait, the last of the un-witched is a dockengaut?” Charlotte said, her voice cracking.

“Yes, believe it or not. And she’s actually on our side, as such things are judged.”

“What,” Candeloro said flatly.

Astrid spread her hands. “There are a small number of dockengauts that do not subscribe to their species’ predatory values. A few even defected after those videos went out. You know the ones, right?”

Candeloro shuddered. Apparently, once the dockengauts’ cannibalistic nature had been made known, several species had banded together in an attempt to intimidate them. The dockengauts’ response had been to send each and every one of them a video showing them devouring a member of each of the species that had allied against them, in graphic detail. Candeloro had never seen any of the infamous recordings, but apparently Charlotte had. And she had stalwartly refused to ever divulge what she had seen.

She glanced over to Charlotte. Sure enough, her wife looked like she was going to be sick.

“I see that you do,” Astrid said with a grim smile. “Anyway, believe it or not, there were a few dockengauts that didn’t care for that attitude, and ended up running away. One of them was a dockengaut witch. And she ended up, well, un-witching during her escape. I’ve only met her a couple of times, but she seemed…pretty decent. A bit shy, actually.”

“Excuse me?” Charlotte said. “A decent dockengaut? And she’s shy?”

“They do exist. Though the rest of their species tend to regard them the same way regard sociopaths. You know, as someone who is critically mentally ill. Anyway, last I heard she was working in Budbrekka. It’s a Norse encampment in the foothills far to the north, one of the last ones. I still try to keep in contact with them, as there aren’t many of us left. I can probably arrange-”

“No, thank you,” Candeloro said hastily. “I’m sorry, I’m sure…she is a very lovely…swarm of cannibalistic spiders, but I’d rather not talk to a dockengaut right now.”

“I thought not.”

Charlotte slumped back into her chair. “Well, I guess that’s that. I’m sorry to bother you.”

“Hold on,” Astrid said, holding up a hand. “Now, my experiences may not line up with yours, but I do pride myself as a practical woman. You have to be to last as long as I have.”

“Your point?” Charlotte said.

“It seems to me that part of the problem is that you’re too close to things that are closely connected to your past. You’re constantly exposing yourself to memory triggers, at a time when the wounds are still raw.”

Candeloro swallowed. “So, uh, what are you suggesting?”

…

When Candeloro and Charlotte got back to the house, they found everyone already gathered in the living room, waiting for them.

Candeloro entered first, with Charlotte nervously hanging behind. “I’m back,” she said as she stepped inside. “Well, we’re back, and-”

Then she saw all four pairs of eyes staring expectantly at her.

Candeloro paused, her hand still on the doorknob. She looked at each face in turn before sighing and saying, “Were you spying on us?”

“Yes,” Ophelia said without hesitation.

“So you heard everything?”

“No. Your talk was your talk, so visual only.”

“Well. Thank you for granting us that measure of privacy at least,” Candeloro said in a clipped tone. “Then I guess this part doesn’t need explaining.”

She stood to one side and motioned for Charlotte to enter. Wincing, Charlotte stepped inside the house.

“Um, hi guys,” she said.

“Hi,” Gretchen said. No one else returned the greeting. Ophelia and Oktavia both leaned back in their seats, Ophelia with her legs crossed and arms behind her head and Oktavia with her hands folded in her lap. Homulilly just sat with her arms crossed, waiting.

Her head bowed, Charlotte shuffled her feet. “I guess…I owe you some kind-”

“Motherfucking, bitch-ass traitor!” Cheese suddenly screeched from the kitchen.

Charlotte paused. “Okay. Harsh. But…fair, I guess.”

“Who taught him the word ‘traitor’?” Candeloro asked.

“I did,” Ophelia said. “Or rather, the last wrestling PPV I watched did. Major heel turn. I was pissed.”

“Right,” Charlotte said. “Um, so, like I said, I owe all of you a huge apology.”

“You mean for straight-up running out on us without so much as a text message?” Oktavia said.

“Yes. For that.”

“For abandoning your wife when she needed you the most,” Homulilly said.

“Also that. Yeah.”

“For completely shutting us out so that Gretchen and Homulilly had to go commit actual crimes and get arrested just to have some sense talked into you?” Ophelia said.

“W-Well, that wasn’t exactly-”

“Ahem!”

Charlotte sighed. “Okay. Yes. For that too. And everything else.”

“Okay,” Ophelia said. “Well, say your piece.”

Charlotte swallowed. “Look. I don’t…have some kind of well-reasoned, logical reason for doing what I did. I got scared. Like, really scared. I guess I really do have a lot of issues about, you know, our past selves, about how I wasn’t actually part of your group, and about any part of that coming back. Yeah, I know you told me that it doesn’t matter, but…I don’t know. I got a bad case of the stupid.”

“Mmmm-hmmm,” Ophelia said.

“Yeah.” Charlotte sighed. “And…when Candy changed, I thought that, you know, the Candeloro part was gone for good. That it was just Mami Tomoe that was left. I thought my wife was gone, and I couldn’t…”

“Okay, okay, question,” Oktavia interrupted. “Look, we know that already. We figured that part out right away. But why the hell wouldn’t you talk to anyone of us? Why wouldn’t you try to find out if you were right or not? Why just assume that it’s true and split? Wouldn’t you, um, want to at least verify before you lock all your friends out and throw your life away?”

“Ugh. I know, I know! It was stupid! I guess..” Charlotte shook her head. “I guess that…once I had calmed down and started to think about it, I guess I got scared that I was wrong. And if I was wrong, that meant that I turned my back on my family for nothing.”

Ophelia coughed into her fist. “Whichyoudid.”

“Ophelia,” Candeloro said, warning in her voice.

“No, she’s right,” Charlotte said. “But I just kept telling myself that I was right, that I really had lost Candeloro and that meant I was justified in leaving. You know, the universe had conspired to take away the person that I loved the most, so what did I owe it?”

“We’re not the universe,” Homulilly said. “We’re…us.”

“I know! I know! But…imagine if Gretchen had been replaced with someone else. Like, the girl you loved was gone and never coming back, but there was someone that still looked like her, that talked like her, that acted like her, but it wasn’t her, and everyone was openly accepting this new Gretchen in the place of the old one, and they wanted you to just take the new Gretchen when you knew that the one you loved was gone for good.”

“But…that’s not what happened!” Oktavia protested. Her tail started bouncing in its support apparatus, a tic that kicked in whenever she was agitated. “She wasn’t gone! She was just…you know, sort of expanded upon in a kind of disturbing way.”

“I know that now! And I guess I knew that then! But…oh, I don’t know, I was really scared that it was the way I thought it was, so I just kept telling myself that it was that way until I half-believed it!”

“So I guess Homulilly and Gretchen showing up at your hidey-hole wasn’t enough to make you think otherwise,” Ophelia said.

“No,” Charlotte admitted. She glanced over to where Candeloro was standing. “I mean, yeah, they convinced me to at least talk with her before I left, but I still went in thinking I was right.”

“And seeing how you kind of ran away after all that, Candeloro didn’t have much luck either.”

Charlotte’s mouth set in a straight line. “I mean, sort of? She told me some things that I wasn’t expecting, and it scared me, so that’s why I ran.”

“Huh? What’s that mean?”

“I mean she kind of showed me that I was being an idiot. Kind of hard to lie to yourself after that.” Charlotte ran her fingers through her hair while her tail roped itself around her upper thigh. “Also, it’s kind of hard to lie to yourself when yourself is straight up calling you out on your bullshit while she punches your face in.”

As expected, this pronouncement was met with mostly confusion from her housemates, mainly in the form of more blank stares and the scratching of heads.

“Huh?” Gretchen said, tilting her head to one side.

“You’ve lost me,” Oktavia added.

Charlotte swallowed. “Um, you know those dreams you guys apparently had back on the Aurora Borealis where you all met your past selves and made peace or whatever?”

“How’d you know about those?” Ophelia demanded.

“Word got back to me. Anyway, after I got into that zipper, I kind of fell asleep and, well, had one of my own. And it turns out my past self didn’t really approve of recent life decisions and decided to tell me. And she beat me up. Like, a lot.”

“Okay,” Ophelia said after a very long bout of silence. “Where exactly does the metaphor end and stuff that actually happened begin here?”

“I don’t know, it was weird!” Charlotte groused. “But that…that was kind of the wake-up call I needed. So that’s why I turned that thing around.”

“And that’s when you decided to go to the museum, to get advice from Astrid!” Oktavia said, her tail excitedly bouncing.

“Yeah.”

Gretchen looked up, her face hopeful. “But you’re back now, right? I mean, what you just said was extremely weird, but you two made up, so we can…start fixing things now? Go back…well, get used to how things are and be a whole family again, right?”

The younger girl’s voice was so full of hope that Candeloro hated herself for what came next. “Not yet.”

“Excuse me?” Homulilly said. In sharp contrast to Gretchen’s, her voice was full of steel and poison, the sort of tone that not lightly offended.

“Listen,” Candeloro said. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate how helpful and accepting you all have been. You’ve all been wonderful. But-”

“You’re leaving,” Homulilly finished for her. When everyone stared at her, she looked around at everyone and rolled her eyes. “What? That’s what she’s saying, isn’t it? We went from losing one member of the family to losing two! That’s the opposite of what was supposed to happen!”

Candeloro said, “Homulilly-”

“No!” Homulilly leapt to her feet and thrust an angry, bony finger at her. “Listen to me! Gretchen and I went and got ourselves into a lot of trouble for you, for both of you! We might go to jail! But okay, that would have been worth it if it got you and Charlotte to make up and everyone was home. But instead, you’re both going away! How is that fair?”

“Hey, I agree with the floral skeleton,” Oktavia broke in. In contrast to Homulilly’s cold steel, she sounded like she couldn’t decide whether to start yelling or burst into tears, but it was no less angry. “What the hell? We’re family! We’re a Walpurgisnacht! Our souls are literally connected! Now you’re just gonna, what, go away? After everything? Charlotte was the one that walked out on you! Why are you choosing her over us?”

Charlotte openly winced at that. “It’s not like that!” Candeloro said quickly. “I-It’s true, we do need to leave for a while, but we’re not going away forever! Probably not even a full year.”

While all this was going on, Ophelia was merely sitting still, upper body leaning forward with her skinny arms crossed over her knees, scarlet eyes boring holes into the two of them. “Explain,” her voice having all the steel of Homulilly’s and all the fire of Oktavia’s.

Though it was hard to keep her voice steady and not to trip over her words, Candeloro did her best to explain the slips of memory she had been experiencing, starting with the one with the marshal and then detailing the ones she had been having with all of her friends. She told them about how her sense of self was far more fluid than she would have liked, and how it was happening more and more often.

“…and the more it happens, the harder it is to regain my sense of self,” she finished. “And yes, you have all been wonderful, but staying here only makes it worse. These memories just keep getting triggered, and I don’t know when the next one will hit.”

“You know there are quite a few qualified people here in Freehaven to help with that,” Ophelia pointed out. Her anger seemed to have cooled, though the firmness had not.

“And none of them can help me with this!” Candeloro said, her voice cracking. “I’m sorry, but they can’t! Not even Astrid could! Besides, I can’t talk to any of them without risking blowing my secret!”

Homulilly inhaled sharply through her teeth. “Well, I mean, between us, Astrid, Hitomi, and like at least fifty people over in that science boat, I’d say that’s a ticking time bomb already.”

“Exactly! That’s another reason why I need to just…go somewhere else for a while. Wait for things to blow over.”

Ophelia tilted her head to one side. “And Charlotte?”

“Look,” Charlotte said with a sigh. “I got scared and did a bad thing. And this whole deal still kind of scares me. So, we both have a lot of things we need to come to terms with.”

Gretchen had mostly remained silent during the whole exchange. She had watched with a thoughtful look, privately musing over everything that was being said. And now she spoke, doing so carefully and with great deliberation. “So…you’re not really leaving us. You’re just getting some space to help you deal with these new problems so that when you do come back you’ll both be healthy.”

“Yes,” Candeloro said with a grateful sigh. Leave it to Gretchen to give things the best spin possible. And it wasn’t like she was wrong. “Thank you. That’s it exactly.”

However, Oktavia was less than mollified. “But what if you don’t?” she said, her voice nearly rising to a shout. “What if you don’t come back? What if you get scared like Charlotte did and you don’t ever come back?”

“It won’t! I promise-”

“No! No promises right now. You don’t know what’s going to happen, none of us know what’s going to happen, so don’t promise something you can’t keep! Like, half a week ago we were all set to have our family get bigger! Then all this shit happened, and now you have to leave! What if something new happens?”

“Tavi, babe,” Ophelia said, rising to go over to her. “It’s okay. You don’t-”

Oktavia swatter her hand away. “No! Don’t tell me it’s going to be okay when you don’t know it’s going to be okay. You don’t know that, no one knows that!”

“Oktavia,” Candeloro said. “I-”

Now openly crying, Oktavia roughly grabbed the controls to her chair and wretched it around. “No. I can’t deal with this right now. I’m…I just can’t. Not now.”

Everyone watched as she stomped off toward her and Ophelia’s room. A moment later the door slammed.

“Well,” Ophelia said after a long while. “Look. I’ll talk to her after she’s had some time to cool down. But tell me honestly: do you really have to go?”

“For a little while,” Candeloro said. “Yeah.”

Ophelia’s jaw clenched up. “But you are coming back? Once you two got all your issues worked out, you’re coming back to us. Right?”

Everything in Ophelia’s voice made it clear that they damned well better.

“Yes,” Candeloro said. “I swear.”

“I see.” Ophelia looked down at the ground, and then up at them. “You’ll keep in touch, at least. Right?”

“Of course we will! It’s not like we’re falling right off the map.”

“Heh. There’s probably places where you can literally do that.” Then Ophelia let out a long sigh. She walked over to the pair and laid a hand on Candeloro’s shoulder.

“Okay,” she said. “But you get better. I don’t care what you’re calling yourself when you come back, I know it’ll still be you. Just get yourself better, okay?”

Candeloro swallowed. She wanted to reassure her that she most definitely would, but she suddenly found herself unable to speak.

So she settled for grabbing Ophelia in a tight embrace instead.

There came a low patter of incredibly thin legs, followed by the steps of two perfectly normal ones, and soon two more pairs joined them. Candeloro, Ophelia, Gretchen, and Homulilly all stood there, wrapped up in each other’s love.

Then without releasing her grip or raising her head, Ophelia said, “Charlotte, you waiting for a written invitation. Get in on this!”

“Oh!” Charlotte said in genuine surprise. “Uh, right away!” Soon her arms were holding the whole group from behind Candeloro.

Then they heard a door open in another place of the house, followed by the whine-hiss of Oktavia’s chair. The mermaid herself appeared a moment later.

Everyone paused, and then turned to look at her. Oktavia’s eyes were red and wet, and her nose looked raw, as if it had been blown very hard recently.

She moved her chair closer. “Okay, look,” she said. “I’m still mad at you, and I’m still going to yell at you later. But I really need a hug too, and you guys don’t get to have one without me!”

“Well, come on then,” Homulilly said. Oktavia came in closer, and Homulilly and Ophelia both lifted her up by the arms and brought her in to join them, completing the set.

Candeloro sighed. Genuinely happy moments seemed to be hard to come by as of late, but this most certainly was one.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank-”

“-you.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it!” Sayaka said with a happy slap onto Mami’s back. “I mean, we’re a team, aren’t we? You woulda done the same for any of us.”

That much was true, but Mami still was grateful. She had gotten a little cocky during that last witch fight, and had nearly lost her head as a result. Had she been alone, she would have surely died.

But she wasn’t alone. Not anymore.

Madoka rushed up to her and clutched her hand with both of her own. “But please be more careful, Mami-san!” she said. “You scared me back there!”

“I will,” Mami promised. “I guess that just goes to show that even when you have a lot of experience, you can still get careless.”

“A hard lesson to learn,” Homura Akemi agreed. The dark and mysterious new member to their group held out her hand. There was a flash of violet light, and she was suddenly clad in her normal clothes again, her soul gem reduced to a small, silver ring. “Still, I am glad that you’re unhurt.”

Then she smiled. It was a rare thing for Homura Akemi to smile, but here one was. Mami just wished that she hadn’t needed to endanger her own life in order to see one.

“Come on, I’ll race you guys back!” Madoka took off running, heading up the road toward Mami’s apartment.

“Hey, Madoka! Wait up!” Sayaka ran after her. A moment later Homura followed.

Mami didn’t run after them. Let them have their fun. She would catch up soon enough.

Besides, it wasn’t like she was alone.

“That was a kinda dumb move,” Kyoko remarked as she started to walk beside Mami. “Seriously, what were you thinking, showing off like that? The kids are already impressed with you. No need to drop your guard like that.”

“I know. You’re right. I’ll…set a better example in the future.”

“Hmmm.” Kyoko pulled out one of those boxes of pocky she always seemed to have on hand. “Still, don’t tell the others I said this, but I’m glad you’re okay.”

She opened the box, and held it out toward her.

Mami blinked. She looked down at the pocky, and then up at Kyoko.

“Well,” Kyoko said, giving the box a jiggle.

Smiling, Mami took one of the candy sticks and bit into it. It was good.

“I’m glad you came back,” she said as the two started up the hill together.

“Hey, don’t go getting all sappy on me,” Kyoko said as she stuck a stick into her mouth. “I just didn’t like the thought of you going crazy all by yourself. You kinda go to pieces when you don’t have anyone around to watch you. It kinda sucks to be alone, you know?”

“I know,” Mami said. She looked up the hill at their juniors. “But I’m not alone. Not anymore.”

Her arms still entwined with those of her loved ones, Mami’s eyes welled up. Again her sense of self had shifted, but this time she didn’t try to fight it. Because there were happy memories mixed with the bad, and if Mami Tomoe and Candeloro were to be the same person from now on, then at least she was getting those as well.

…

So, um.

Writing this…was a journey, and if I do end up doing a look-back on the Hitomi/Mami arc, this chapter will get a very long section all to itself.

Jesus Christ.

Anyway, this is it. Epilogue goes up next week, hopefully.

Until next time, everyone.

[elsaclack]

imma just state for the record that while i really want you to get on writing the next chapter of the royalty AU, i also REALLY REALLY WANT YOU TO WRITE ANOTHER SEGMENT FROM YOUR OLD “JAKE CAN SENSE AMY’S FEELINGS” SOULMATE AU LAKSJDFLAKSDJF 😍😭💕 (idk if the old drabbles still exist online at this point but wow i think about that AU maybe once every 16 minutes, i’m a mess)

HELLOOOOOOO ERICA i’m not even sure if you remember sending this to me, it’s been sitting in my ask box for THAT LONG!!! but it’s been too long since i’ve been able to write anything i’m really REALLY proud of so i decided that tonight is the night!! and when i went to my ask box to knock out a prompt, this one literally started writing itself!!!!

lmao!!!!

SO YEAH u said another segment from the soulmates can feel each other’s emotions au and i thought what better segment to write than the one you liked the most out of the old ones that i STUPIDLY forgot to save/crosspost before i deleted!!! aka i rewrote it LMAO

it’s. Different than it was before but that’s because i had no idea what i was doing before and now i kind of have half of an idea about what i’m doing lmao it references one of the other one-shots and i’m about 95% sure i still have that one as a google doc so after i copy and paste this bad boy into a google doc, i’ll double check that i still have that other one too :-))))))))))))))

ANYWAYS THANK YOU FOR THIS AND THANK YOU FOR THE ROYALTY AU I PROMISE I WILL FINISH IT PLEASE ACCEPT THIS AS AN APOLOGY FOR BEING SO FREAKING LATE ON UPDATING LMAO

Amy’s front door is incredibly old.

There are places between the grains of wood in which the paint has seeped and morphed together before it dried, Jake notes.

He’s been staring at said grains for the better part of five minutes now - or, at least, that’s how long he’s been aware of the fact that he’s been staring at said grains. It’s really stupid, all things considered. Stupid that he’s paralyzed on her doorstep when he’s trudged across it more times than he can count. Stupid that he’s been standing her motionless for so long, he’s certain he looks like a weird stalker to any of her neighbors who might be looking through their peepholes out into the hall. Stupid that with every second that passes, the ice cream in this plastic bag melts a little more.

Stupid that every time he inhales, he feels her split and aching heart, feels her loneliness, feels her bitterness, all as real and intimate as if they are his own.

Something happened half an hour ago. He’s not entirely sure what - hasn’t tried sussing it out beyond the initial bombardment - all he really knows is that he was home, on his couch, content with his Jurassic Park with limited commercial interruptions, and then it felt like the whole earth was falling to pieces and he knew.

So maybe he is sure about what happened - she’d mentioned as she left the precinct earlier that she had dinner plans with Teddy tonight. And it’s odd, how beyond his immediate concern for her, he feels his own undeniable sense of hope rising. His soulmate - who doesn’t know she’s his soulmate - is single once again.

Finally.

Maybe, he’d told himself as he mindlessly snatched his keys off the counter and jogged out of his apartment. Maybe.

“Amy?” He calls as he raps his knuckles against the door. Her emotions flicker in a familiar rhythm against his breast - a split-second of surprise, a mix of confusion and apprehension, a lick of irritation. “Ames, it’s me. You home?”

(Of course he knows she’s home, but this is all for her benefit, he’s not going to come gallivanting in ten minutes into her single-hood toting ice cream and a declaration of his undying love and an oh, yeah, I’ve been meaning to tell you I’m your soulmate -)

Her apprehension and irritation are gone now, giving way to a much larger portion of pure confusion. “Jake?” he hears her voice moving, muffled, but close beyond the closed door. The light seeping out through the peephole flickers as her head moves by. “What are you doing here?”

“I was in the neighborhood,” he says as nonchalantly as he can. “Your drug store had a better deal on ice cream - two-for-one.” He hoists the bag up a little higher, as if the opaque brown plastic will back his claim. “I figured since I was already in the neighborhood, I’d come by with dessert.”

Her confusion grows more intense - the light has not returned to the peephole. “I told you I had a date tonight,” she says slowly.

He’s lucky she can’t feel his emotions - otherwise, she’d register the spike of panic jutting up in his chest. “Oh, that was tonight?” His voice cracks beneath the pressure of his scrambling ruse; the skin of his forehead is in danger of ripping for how grotesquely his brows have contorted into what he can only hope is an expression of shock. “I thought you said that was tomorrow!”

“No, tonight.”

“Maybe it really is time to invest in one of those planny-thingies.”

“Why, so you can keep track of my date schedule? And don’t pretend like you don’t know they’re called planners, you got me one for Secret Santa last year.” There’s a savagery to her tone echoed by a twist of pain in her chest; he opens his mouth, but her immediate pulse of regret gives him pause. “I’m sorry,” she says, now much quieter, and he can’t pretend to hide his concern any longer.

(It’s not like he’d have to work that hard to come up with an excuse - she’s practically an open book, especially to him, even with a closed door between them, and it certainly doesn’t help that he’s an amazing detective-slash-genius.)

“Are you okay?”

The pain in her chest seems to wrench a little wider, pierce a little deeper. “I don’t know,” she says, and the light in the peephole reappears a split-second before something solid thunks against the door from the other side.

(Her forehead, he’d be willing to bet.)

“Do you want me to leave?”

The part of her that seems to jump at that suggestion is a bit of a blow to his ego, but it’s nothing compared to what the skittish panic that flares to life the moment the question leaves his lips does. He hears her sigh again - hears the metallic sounds of a hand landing on the doorknob - hears silence. And then -

“No.”

- so small and quiet, he almost misses it.

“Do you want me to come inside?”

“I don’t know.”

And she really doesn’t, he notes.

“I promise I won’t judge,” he offers. “You don’t even have to tell me what happened if you don’t want to. If - if something, y’know, uh, happened. You don’t have to talk at all, we can just - we can sit and watch TV and eat ice cream and I can run my mouth until it’s just like white noise.”

She’s quiet as she deliberates. “What kind of ice cream?”

“Cherry Garcia, obviously.”

A pulse of gratitude and affection and something else he doesn’t exactly have a name for warms his chest as the lock on her front door slides out of place. “I just - I need to warn you,” she says before she opens the door. “Don’t say a word.”

She opens the door before he has a chance to clarify, and the moment she does he understands - it’s clear that she’s been crying. And he well and truly hates himself for the first thought that pops into his stupid reptilian brain:

She is the most beautiful person that has ever existed.

Her cheeks are red - rubbed raw from her swiping fingers and probably tissues to blot away any running mascara that streaked down toward her jawline. There are no tears glistening in her eyes or clinging like dew drops to her eyelashes, but the whites of her eyes are still a little bloodshot, and the browns of her pupils are intense pools of chocolate that seem to pierce his very soul in the brief split-second she allows herself to meet his gaze. Even her lips look darker than usual - probably stains leftover from whatever lipstick she’d so carefully drawn on just to haphazardly wipe away.

It honestly takes him a minute to even register the fact that her hair is thrown up in a knotted, wild bun, and that her frame is essentially hidden beneath the baggy layers of a massively over-sized Cheap Trick concert t-shirt and the rattiest grey sweatpants he’s ever laid eyes on. All in all, he’s very obviously walked into the immediate aftermath of an Amy Santiago break-up.

And she is the most beautiful person that has ever existed.

“I said don’t say a word.” she repeats, this time through grit teeth. He panics for a split second, ready to dump the ice cream on the floor and fling himself out the window if he’d subconsciously spoken that totally stalker-esque monologue out loud, before his awareness catches up to him and he realizes he’s been staring. Motionless and staring, actually. Or, well, more like motionless and gaping and staring. A quick assessment of her emotions confirms, she’s not feeling shock - she’s embarrassed and self-conscious. She thinks he’s judging her.

Well that simply won’t do.

“I’m just waiting for you to go turn the TV on so I can get spoons,” he says as he gestures toward the kitchen, hoping his bravado sounds more natural than it feels.

Suspicion has joined the maelstrom of emotions storming through her chest, but it only seems to manifest in her slightly narrowed eyes; she backs away a pace, and then two, before finally turning away and trotting out into her living room. He releases the breath still caught in his chest in one quick huff, and shakes his head as if to clear the cotton suddenly stuffed there as he makes his way toward her silverware drawer.

“It’s the third drawer to the right of the dishwasher,” he hears her call as he pulls the drawer open.

“I know,” he says, letting an ounce of indigence color his voice. “You think I don’t know where your silverware is?”

“I don’t know!” she says, and not for the first time he’s so grateful that she’s his soulmate - otherwise he’d be left wondering if she was kidding beneath the miles-thick layer of outrage ringing with her words, instead of feeling that little bud of amusement in the center of everything else. “Teddy never figured out where it was and we dated for nearly a year, you’ve only been over here, like, ten times!”

He’s also thankful for the wall standing between them at this moment - the wall that covers his involuntary wince, accented by stabbing the spoons through both pliant ice cream surfaces at the same time. “Well,” he says as he gracefully lifts both ice cream cartons and eases the drawer closed with his hip at the same time, “that’s the difference between me and Ted-odore - I’m a detective. I remember details.”

Her expression is equal parts disgruntled, thankful, and annoyed when he makes his way into her living room. “Teddy’s also a detective,” she reminds him as she plucks her carton of ice cream from his hand.

“Ah, but only I am an amazing detective-slash-genius,” he reminds her. They sit at the same time - her carefully, pulling a blanket from the back of the couch over one shoulder and folding a leg under her in one movement, him flopping back, the force of his body connecting with the cushions just short of hard enough to jostle the narrow table behind the couch.

It’s the end of the conversation for quite a while - long enough that they get through an entire episode of The Office without interruption, long enough that half of his ice cream is gone and his fingers are well and truly numb. It’s just long enough that he knows she’s absorbed in what she’s watching - her eyes never deviate from the screen, and the inner turmoil seems to quiet down to some distant back-burner in her mind. Just long enough, he thinks, for him to do a little surreptitious investigating from right here on her couch, without her ever noticing.

He turns to his right, away from her, pretending to cast around on the table behind the couch for a coaster upon which to set his ice cream. He already knows there’s a stack of three on the coffee table eight inches from his knees - the fourth is on the other side of the coffee table, beneath Amy’s quarter-finished ice cream - but he also happens to know that she has a nice set of geode-looking coasters stacked neatly on this table, equal parts artistic and utilitarian, and (if he’s not mistaken) identical to the ones he’d spotted at Captain Holt’s house some eighteen months earlier.

He pretends to grapple for them - they’re two inches to the right of where his hand is currently grasping - all while studying the scene laid out on the dining room table just visible from this angle. There are still dishes there - dirty dishes, if he’s not mistaken - which is, of course, highly uncharacteristic for the woman to whom they belong. It’s clear the meal was in progress when...something happened. Something abrupt and unexpected, something shocking - something that clearly rocked her to her very core, drudging up feelings of isolation and loneliness and a few others he recognizes from the dark weeks that followed his father leaving all those years ago.

He’s practically bursting at the seams with desperation to know why.

The light piano theme song plays over the end credits just as Amy loudly and pointedly clears her throat, and he winces as his fingers close over the coaster he was seeking. “You’re not as sly as you think you are, Mr. Genius,” she mutters as he rights himself on the couch again.

He sighs as he leans forward to set his coaster and carton on her coffee table. “You don’t have to talk about it,” he reiterates, and he knows from her quiet calm resonating near his heart that she truly understands that he means it. “I just - y’know, I wanna, um. Make sure that you’re okay, and stuff.”

She doesn’t look at him. The next episode is already queuing, seconds away from starting automatically, but her eyes are now glazed as she chews the inside of her cheek. Movement by her hip catches his eye - her fingers drum restlessly along the side of the remote, the only outward sign of her visceral inner turmoil, now back to center stage.

“I wanna talk about it,” she says haltingly, thumb mashing down on the pause button. “I do, I - I need to talk about it. I just -”

- don’t want to, he finishes in his mind after she falls silent again. Even if he didn’t have a front-row seat to the weighing of emotions happening in her gut, he could easily follow through her facial expressions - even the nano-expressions, the ones that really don’t even fully register before they’re gone, replaced by the next. 

“It - it sucks, okay?” she finally says. “This whole situation just sucks.”

He remains silent.

“We were, like ten minutes into dinner and everything was going fine. I was telling him about that perp Charles and I took out behind the bakery earlier, and how Charles refused to leave the scene until he’d sampled literally everything the bakery sold, and when I looked up I realized he’d spilled wine all over himself while I was talking but he hadn’t even noticed it because - because -”

She draws in a ragged inhale; he can feel it dragging like knives across his heart.

“I’ve never heard of a connection manifesting that late in someone’s life,” she says after a moment of composition. “I mean - I know it’s possible, obviously, I’ve read articles about it and everything, but I’ve never known anyone who’s had that happen to them. It’s always young kids to teenagers, that’s when it’s most common for the connection to start - Teddy’s thirty-seven years old. He didn’t think he was the receptive one in his partnership. He didn’t think he had a partner. But he does, and he felt them for the first time half-way through my story about Charles shotgunning a croissant. And it wasn’t me.”

The silence is thick and swelling in his head, and the temptation to scream the truth is almost overwhelming for all of two seconds. He’s not certain he would have been able to keep his composure, if not for her stark feelings of inadequacy roiling with her heartache radiating through his chest.

“That doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you,” he starts, far more tentatively than he would like. She rolls her eyes. “Hey, I mean it. There’s nothing wrong with you, Amy.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” she mutters, “you’ve felt your soulmate since you were seven years old. All I’ve had for my entire life is radio silence. Every single one of my brothers is the receptive one in their partnerships. I’m the only one of all my siblings. My parents had already met and were dating as teenagers when their connection started. I am literally the only person in my immediate family who doesn’t feel a connection. It’s not that outlandish to assume I’m the defect, here.”

“Maybe you’re just not the receptive one,” he counters, determination growing with every ounce of inwardly-focused disdain he feels pouring through her very veins. “Maybe there’s someone out there right now who can feel everything you’re feeling, who’s hurting just as bad as you are because you’re hurting so bad right now. Maybe there’s someone who’s been looking for you for his entire life, who’s looking that much harder so he can prove to you that you’re not defective, you’re not a mistake, you’re not worthless.” She’s staring at him full-on now, brows furrowed, intently focused on his every word. “You’re one of the kindest, most thoughtful and amazing people I know, Ames. Your soulmate is out there and as soon as you find each other, I promise, this will all be worth the wait. Don’t be so mean to yourself because some chump missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime so he can go out hunting for a soulmate while covered in red wine stains. Okay?”

She seems to hesitate, before the corners of her mouth twitch against a smile. “Okay,” she says softly.

He’s not sure how and he’s not sure why, but he does know one thing: something in the air has shifted.

He isn’t able to put a name to it until three weeks later, when he finds himself back in that very same apartment on that very same couch, the very same ice cream in his hands, the very same episode queued up and ready to start on the television somewhere off to his right. He’s paying it very little attention, in all honesty - he’s far too enthralled by the gorgeous woman in the red dress on the other end of the couch, toeing off her heels beneath her coffee table and settling in in much the same position as before.

(Save for the silky black curls swept over one shoulder so as not to drip ice cream in them, of course.)

He’s watching her shift, watching the kinetic energy burn through her rolling ankles and curling toes and twitching nose and drumming fingers. She seems intently focused on her ice cream - the very same carton from which she’d eaten the last time he was here - but he knows there’s a level of awareness of his gaze on her.

Just as she knows that he knows.

It hits him here, in this moment: she knew.

“You knew,” he says. Her eyes flick up to his face and all at once, his suspicions are confirmed. “You knew!”

“Knew what?”

“The last time I was here, before I left, I felt something change. I couldn’t figure out what it was, but now I know - you knew I was your soulmate before I left that night, didn’t you?”

It’s the first time they’ve really talked about it since their confrontation in the evidence lock-up - since the electrifying kiss that followed it - and as her smile blossoms, her amusement peaks. “I had a feeling,” she corrects.

“What gave it away?”

“What, you mean how did I know? The kiss was a pretty good hint -”

“Yeah, but you weren’t really shocked after that. I mean, you were, but - not about it being me. What gave me away?”

“I knew three days ago when we were raiding the warehouse and I got ambushed by that guy and you came flying in before he could even pin me to the wall. But I had a feeling after you gave your little speech about how I’m basically the greatest human being on the planet and you mentioned my soulmate feeling emotions that I know I didn’t put into words.”

“Damn it,” he mutters, letting his shoulders fall back against the cushions behind him. She laughs, delighted, and the sound is like pure sunlight bubbling between his ribs. “After all these years, I can’t believe I just straight slipped up. Right to your face, too! I’d always assumed it would be Charles who screwed up.”

A wave of surprise washes over her, but she suppresses it a moment later. “We’ll talk more later,” she says with a smile. “Right now, I wanna try something else.”

She leans forward to set her carton on her coaster and a second later she pounces, pinning him back against the cushions, hovering over him. Her grin has gone Cheshire and her fingers are closing over his before pulling his own carton out of his hand; he releases a breathless laugh as she leans away, just far enough to reach the coffee table, before resuming her position over him. “This is new,” he says.

“It is,” she confirms. “Also new? You feeling unsure of something.”

“Hey,” he snaps, “I’m always unsure of things. You’ve never known because I’m good at hiding it.”

“Not anymore.”

She leans down before he can respond, until her lips are a breath away from his. He can feel his heart tripping in his chest and he knows she can feel it, too - breathless anticipation radiates and sparks like a livewire between them, igniting every last nerve ending, like a fuse lit seconds away from exploding. “Whoa,” he chokes, hands fumbling before landing on her hips.

“Intense,” she breathes back, apparently to enthralled by the build-up to dare take the plunge. “Did it always feel like this?”

“Never actually done this before,” he mutters.

She pulls back an inch - just far enough for him to see her roll her eyes in accompaniment with her wave of exasperation crashing through his chest. “I just mean - this, us, our - our connection. Was it always this intense?”

“No,” he shakes his head, acutely aware of the fact that his hands are still on her hips and he can feel the heat of her skin through the red material. “N-no, never. I mean - when you were feeling something intense, it was kind of strong? But now that it’s a two-way street, so to speak, it’s - everything is way more intense. Especially this.”

She hums thoughtfully, gaze fixated on a spot on the cushion just over his left shoulder, before she suddenly seems to remember herself and where she is. He grins up at her when she blinks herself back into focus - and the twist of affection in her chest is almost cruel for how blinding and savage it is.

“Wow,” she breathes, lifting up a little higher to press her fingertips to her sternum.

“Sorry,” he mumbles a bit sheepishly. “I just - I’m really into you.”

“I can feel that,” she says with a laugh. Her hand falls from her chest much closer to his face than before; he briefly closes his eyes at the feeling of her fingers carding through his hair, part curious, part reverent. “I’m really into you, too.”

He grins again before lightly pinching her hip, laughing when she thumps both heels of her hands against his chest in retaliation. “I can feel that,” he echoes before bending his knees, bringing her teetering forward, back to her original position of a breath away from his lips. This time he cranes his head up to catch her before she can draw back; like both times before, the meld of her lips against his brings everything else to a screeching halt. Her hands splay out gently on either side of his face as his slide up the dips of her waist to skim up her back, thumbs sweeping out over the defined ridge of her lowest ribs.

She pulls away after an eternity, after a split second, lips dark and shiny as she gasps for air; she closes her eyes when he reaches up to move her hair back over her shoulder, so that nothing impedes his view of her face. “You were right,” she mumbles breathlessly.

“Huh?”

“You were right,” she repeats, with a little more conviction than before. “This was worth the wait. You were worth the wait.”

It’s the last coherent thing either one of them says until morning.

[nikokova]

Changes: Chapter 4

Hey everyone, it's me Nesa! I don't really know what to put in these intros anymore so I’ll just remind you that my asks are open for any questions about the story! I’m also trying the keep reading thingy this time because I’m actually on a computer for once, so let's all hope nothing glitches

BIG SHOUT OUT to @black-out-wonder for being my beta reader! I love and appreciate them so much<3 They also write, so you should go and check out their writing masterpost!

Prologue Previous

Summary: Logan Summers: One friend, a 4.0, and a huge secret. He wouldn’t have it any other way. Virgil Mathews: barely surviving high school, let alone possibly being moved away from his one and only friend just so he gets to experience what its like to “Have a family”. Patton Pennington: can’t remember having a friend in real life, hopes that his parents taking in a foster kid can change things for him. Roman Royal: Arguably the most popular boy in school, but when he hears that the high schools are merging next year, will he be able to mend his checkered past?

Pairings: Slow-burn Analogical and Royality

Warnings: Nightmare, anxiety, invading personal space, mention of past bullying, negative thoughts, food, an almost swear, alcohol mention, drunk person, child abuse, mental abuse, mention of physical abuse, bad writing, tell me if I missed any!

THIS IS A VERY HEAVY CHAPTER, PLEASE HEED THE WARNINGS

Word count: 1959

Tag list:  @zaisling @heir-of-the-founders @rainbow-sides @3-14l59265358979323846  @spazzz32 @sanderstalker @confinesofpersonalknowledge @phlying-squirrel @scorching-scotch @queen-of-all-things-snuggly  @theotherella @toujours-fidele @hamster-corn @misslilidelaney @alkimara  @ccecode @nienna14 @sylveon-lover-crazyfangirl1415 @smileydog101 @am-i-heaven-or-am-i-hell @an-anxious-acquaintance @a-wild-zaneta @starryfirefliesbloggo

***

It had only been two weeks that Virgil had been staying at the Pennington’s. But he felt right at home. The adults always asked before touching him and seemed to know when Virgil’s anxiety was becoming too stressful for him. They also bought chocolate milk, somehow knowing it was his weakness. The caseworker probably ratted him out.

It wasn’t a bad idea though, and after a couple days he started to feel more comfortable just living there. Of course, he still had the habit of asking if he could get something to eat or drink even though they would remind him every time that he didn’t have to. He was mostly just glad that they were patient and knew not to cross any of his boundaries.

The only person not so good at telling where his lines were drawn was Patton. It wasn’t that he didn’t try, he just got very excited and that lead to him tackling Virgil into a hug. Which gave Virgil a panic attack once, and Patton wouldn't stop apologizing for the rest of the day. Even after Virgil said it wasn’t a problem. Virgil actually enjoyed the hugs, he hadn’t really gotten any before. And he sort of wondered how Patton would react to that information.

Patton seemed to be happy almost all of the time, but Virgil knew it was just a front. He saw the moments when Patton’s eyes were glazed over as he stared at the wall. Virgil wanted to know what he was thinking about in those moments. What was making him sad? Honestly, Virgil had no idea why he seemed to have gotten so close to Patton so fast. He was almost the complete opposite of Logan, but maybe Virgil just needed a friend like that right now. One that might not be able to push all of his fears away with logic. But one that could feel with him and make him feel less alone. Maybe Virgil really did need a brother.

***

A scream pulled Virgil out of his dream with a jolt. Without thinking he jumped out of bed and opened the door to his room. He knew the scream had come from Patton, so he made it to Patton's room and slowly pushed the door open. The red-haired boy was curled together, his face in between his knees with his hands in his messy hair. His body was shaking, and Virgil couldn't tell if it was because of the sobs tearing from Patton's throat.

“Hey, Pat.” He hushed quietly, he slowly approached the bed that sat in the center of the back wall. “It’s ok, I’m here.”

“I d-didn’t do anything to him!” Patton gushed, rocking back and forth. Out of the corner of his eye, Virgil could see Ryan poke his head out of the parent's door. They nodded to each other and Ryan went back into their room. Virgil realized that it wasn’t the first time this happened…

“Of course you didn’t do anything, Pat.” Virgil hummed. He slowly set a hand on Patton's and started to untangle his hands from his hair.

“Th-then why does he hate me?” Patton asked, pulling his hands from his hair and turning his face to Virgil.

“Who hates you?” Virgil's eyebrows furrowed as he began rubbing Patton's back.

“Roman..”

“Royal?” Virgil asked, how would Roman and Patton know each other? Roman had been in Virgil's classes since middle school. But Patton nodded. “How do you guys even know each other?”

“Uh, we went to elementary together.” Patton sniffled, “He was always so mean to me, I don't know what I did though.”

“Probably because you didn’t do anything,” Virgil growled, trying to keep his voice calm for Patton. Whatever Roman did to Patton was unforgivable. Especially if Patton was still this upset about it after all this time. Roman had always seemed nice and had occasionally gone out of his way to help other people. It was a shock to hear what Patton was saying.

“Then why was he so mean?” Tears threatened Patton's dark eyes once again.

“Well, I don't know Pat. Sometimes people hate themselves, so they take it out on others. It’s not fair, but it’s important to remember that it’s not your fault that he treated you that way. You can’t take responsibility for someone else’s actions.” Virgil said softly, Patton let out a long breath and stretched his arms a little.

“Sorry for having a breakdown. Sometimes I just have nightmares about what happened.” He gave Virgil a smile. He was retracting back to his happy self. Virgil decided he would investigate further later on, so he could properly gauge how hard he was going to punch Roman. “Will you, uh, will you stay with me until I fall asleep?”

“Of course.” Virgil smiled and moved off the bed so that Patton could lay down. Once Patton was comfortable, Virgil sat down next to him.

“This is weird, but can you talk? Just like a story or something. Maybe a story of you and Logan!” Patton begged, Virgil rolled his eyes but nodded.

“Alright, so the first time we met he almost walked right into a pillar…”

***

“Boys, breakfast!” Cathy called, causing Virgil to jump and stab himself in the eye with his eyeshadow brush.

“Fu-crap!” He cut himself off. Cutting off his swears had become a habit since moving in. It seemed like Patton could hear him from any room and would tell him to watch his language. Not that Patton really had any room to talk. He sure was a sight late at night during a horror movie. He could scare off sailors.

Quickly he wiped the water from his eyes and finished applying his eyeshadow before stuffing his makeup into his bag and shoving it under his bed. He could hear Patton's door open and the steps skip down the hall. As usual, they stopped in front of Virgil's door. It was almost like clockwork. Around nine every morning they would get called down for breakfast by Patton's mom. Patton wouldn’t go downstairs without Virgil, and part of him was appreciative of this. It meant that when Patton's dads didn’t have to work, he didn’t come down to an already full table alone.

“You coming Kiddo?” Patton asked, the creak of the wood told Virgil he was shifting his weight.

“Yeah, one sec.” He made sure to brush off his clothes before opening the door.

“It smells like pancakes, think that's what she made?” Patton guessed,

“Probably,” Virgil shrugged.

Cathy was setting the table with pancakes as the boys walked into the dining room. Virgil eyed the chocolate milk and took his usual seat next to Patton.

“When are you going to work?” Patton asked, his mom had a wacky work schedule due to her being a waitress. Some days she didn’t go to work until eight PM and got back at two AM

“My shift starts at two today,”

“Pa’s teaching summer school?”

“Yep, and Tom is at work as well,” His mom responded, “I was thinking that you guys could walk to the library,” she added, pouring syrup over her plate.

“You can walk there from here?!” Virgil exploded, dropping his fork to his plate. His face felt ten degrees warmer when the others laughed.

“Yeah, you didn’t notice how short the drive was here?” Cathy asked,

“Well, not really. I was sort of panicking so it seemed really long.” Virgil shrunk into his jacket and a twinge of guilt appeared on Cathy's face.

“Well, you boys can walk up there if you want. Maybe your friend will be there Virgil. I mean, I don't want to push into your business. But if meeting up with this boy is what you enjoy, I wouldn't mind it. Ryan and Tim wouldn't mind either.” She explained, “The only day you can’t go is Saturday. As you know that's sort of our family day.”

“Th-that would be really nice. Thanks.” Virgil muttered, staring down at the food on his plate.

“You really like this guy, huh?” Patton nudged Virgil's shoulder with a mischievous smirk.

“Sh-Shut up!”

***

It was two weeks ago when his best friend had moved away, and he wasn't sure how it made him feel. Usually, Logan could pride himself on being devoid of emotions just like she wanted. Now, however, he was definitely feeling an emotion, even though he couldn't place which one it was. His chest ached, and he almost felt nauseous when thinking that he might never see Virgil again.

Whatever the emotion was it was illogical, and disrupting the time he had to study. Since Virgil had left, the amount of time he had left over to study now took up most of his day. The only day he did go to the library now was on Saturdays. Saturday just seemed to be the appropriate day to take a break from his endless studying. The whole first week after Virgil left, Logan continued to go to the library in hopes that his friend would be there. He found that being at the library alone did feel, quite lonely. It wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling to the nerd. He knew that he felt it often when his father was gone to work. Usually, he had Virgil to wipe the feeling away, but now he really didn’t have anybody.

“LOGAN!” A voice screeched, he recognized it as his mother. Most likely having drunk more than she should have. Not that it was something new, but he couldn’t stop the sudden increase of his heartbeat. His body started to shake, but he forced himself up from his desk. Too fast, pencils clattered to the hardwood floor. Should he pick them up? Or go to his her, he really didn’t want to go to his mom. What would she want from him? He had already made sure that the house was spotless. Perhaps something had occurred at work that upset her.

A door slamming open caused him to jump, and his head jerked violently towards his door. His mother's thin body was supported by the doorframe as her ice eyes stared him down. A sudden lump in his throat appeared as he tried to think of what to tell her.

“I called you,” she hissed, “why didn’t you respond?”

“I-I was, on my way.” He choked out,

“Oh?” The dark haired woman warned. “For 5 minutes?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take so long. I’m sorry.” The words fell out of his mouth. He felt like an idiot. He couldn't even speak properly. No wonder she hated him.

“You’re so ungrateful you know that? Your dad and I work tirelessly just to support you, and you can’t even simply respond to me?” Her lanky body made its way over to where Logan stood in the middle of the room. “You're so worthless. God, I wish I had never given birth to you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Whatever. Just go make dinner. I’m starving.” His mother then left the room, leaning more to one side than the other. Part of Logan wished she would fall down the stairs.

‘Wait, don’t think like that. She didn’t hit you this time. It would be rude to wish that. Don’t be illogical Logan.’

Thoughts spun around his head as heat came to his eyes.

‘Stop. stop. Stop. You're being stupid. Go do what she wants before you have to use the foundation you hide in that drawer.’ he told himself,

After a minute he was able to pull himself together enough to leave his room and hide away in the kitchen.

‘Today was a good day. Today was a good day. It could've been worse. Just don’t mess up, and everything will be fine.’

***

There is gonna be Roman angst in the next chapter. So. Stay tuned for that<3

[imagine-wannaone]

Let That Ship Sale

Lmao once again can’t title but I’m back, and the request was for an award show or something but the isac’s where the other day and wanna one has never gone and I like to dream okay so I hope this is okay, i could do another at an actual show w another member if you’d like idk. Also props to whoever can tell whoever the idols faces at the isac’s I edited out of the pictures (That I don’t own btw credit to owners) for the header board thingy belong to hehe.

Summary: All your fans are shipping you with Daniel and you can’t say you disagree.

 • The ISAC’s were always something you had mixed emotions about,  • Your group was pretty popular and didn’t exactly need the promotion, but your company was small so it was a good idea to go anyway, even if it was just to have a bit of fun,  • You enjoyed spending time with friends from other groups and sending your fans things you’d made, but you could be working on new songs and just the fact the day was so long,  • But at least you got to wear a tracksuit like damn,  • You were a self producing group who tried out most genres, generally more hiphop and R&B so you’d had many different clothing styles, but nothing beat the black tracksuit the event organizer handed you and the four others in your group,  • But at way too early o'clock (honestly any time before 11 am) you pulled yourself out of the car with your group and made your way to the stadium, you all had unique styles; braided hair or sunglasses,  • Wow y'all so beautiful and powerful looking I’m quaking,  • Y'all known for singing about important matters and independence and basically being badass and are actually rlly respected for it and popular,  • Don’t take no shit from no one, you’re out to win today,  • And to compliment your friends about all their comebacks and catch up of course,  • And then there’s the small matter of Mr Kang Daniel,  • One of the boys of the Monster Rookie™ group Wanna One that had taken the nation’s hearts pretty much overnight,  • The fans of your group and his had, continuously since their debut, been shipping you nonstop,  • And yeah, you thought he was cute and funny but you’d never even met; the most you’ve done was nod to each other or complimented his group on passing after a performance,  • And you’re slightly afraid that the shipping would now make it awkward for the two of you to meet and interact; afraid your Stan’s would take it way too far,  • You just hope you can get a ‘hi’ or a quick conversation in today with him, although you know it may be difficult,  • But your whole group is about not really caring about others’ standards, so you’re going have to remember that,  • The opening runs smoothly, and you manage to sneak up to where the fans are and hand out your lunch boxes yourself, although the rules say you really shouldn’t go to the fans area,  • (VIXX what trolls this year tho I love them)  • You’re sat with Irene and Yeri, Seulgi quite literally asleep on your lap and your members teasing your fans not 10 feet away and honestly wow,  • But then the archery gets called up and you have to slide yourself away,  • Which breaks your heart because yanno when a puppy is asleep on you so you can’t move?  • Like that,  • But you grab Tae, the member you’re going to do archery with, and wander off,  • You go second, so while you’re waiting you slip some black face paint out of your pocket, before painting some black streaks across Tae’s cheeks as she paints 3 down your face,  • Because how else you gunna show you’re ready for war?????  • As soon as your competitors look over to you they burst out laughing at the funny faces you pull, one of those competitors in waiting including Kang Daniel himself,

 • You make sure to send him a goofy fake scowl, challenging him, to which he cracks up,

• Omg a beautiful sight, Daniel smiling? Those cresent eyes? Soft cheeks? WoW,  • In essence - face paint is a very effective way to distract your competitors as well as amusing your fans,  • And you totally ace the archery,  • You walk away with a Silver medal and that’s totally good enough for you,  • But then an interview reporter grabs you and you’re whisked away,  • At this point you’re used to it, them Interviewers - they’re everywhere,  • “Y/N congratulations on the silver medal! It must have something to do with the face paint?”  • The lady smiles brightly and you laugh a little,  • “It must be, it was Tae’s idea to show we meant business,”  • The lady laughs at this, and starts to ask questions about your latest comeback and the paint, noting how you may have started a new fashion trend, the concept of your new song and making you rap a little bit of your verse, to which your fans scream,  • Wow we love a supportive family,  • They make your heart race as always as you wave to them,  • “One quick thing before you go, Y/N, I don’t suppose you’ve heard your fans talk about you and wanna ones Kang Daniel?”  • You’re heart drops at that and you blush, laughing nervously,  • “I’ve seen a few things, but don’t know a lot about it,”  • You’re such a great liar damn no one suspects a thing,  • “Ah, quite a lot of fans are shipping you; saying you’d make a very cute couple,”  • You know this is very much a breach of privacy and kinda rude, but you’re known for being quite laid back in your group, so you’re not thrown, although maybe a little lost for words,

 • And answers,  • And anything that won’t give away your small crush on the member of wanna one,  • “ Ah, I think our fans are right, Daniel is very cute and charming, although I’ve not really got the opportunity to get to know him yet,”  • Lmao smooth,  • Yeah right, you’re pretty obvious,  • Although you’re sort of mortified by the fact you’ve inadvertently just said 1) Daniel is very cute to thousands of people and 2) you basically ship the two of you,  • You do your natural thing and play it off as if you just told them your first name,  • You hear some laughing nearby and quickly glance to spot where you recognise Ong Seongwoo and Kim  Jaehwan slapping Daniel himself on the back, way too close, his cheeks bright red and a soft smile on his face as the cameras, no doubt, zoom in on him,  • He waves a little when he sees you looking,  • Wow what is a normal heart rate,

 • You laugh,  • At least you’re not the only one to get a taste of this embarrassment,  • You’re not alone in your suffering,  • And you nearly run away to hide when the interviewer motions Daniel to come closer and he actually complies,  • What a snake,  • He greets the interviewer and the two of you bow to each other all flushed, not knowing how to stand next to each other,  • It’s all very awkward wow,  • You know you’ve all been in the situation where you’re with that family member and they’ve already asked about school/work and now have nothing to say,  • yeah idk if that’s too specific,  • “Daniel, I don’t suppose you’ve heard about the fans shipping either? How do you feel about it?”  • You want to melt as Daniels eyes meet yours and a smile stretches across his face,  • “I think y/n’s music is incredible and she’s very cute and I’d like to get to know her more,”  • You’re dead,  • Daniels whole face is red as his eyes skim everywhere and he laughs a little,  • This is so weird and unheard of, don’t fans usually not want their idols to date? Aren’t there many things and rules about this?  • (y'all it’s stupid it’s their own life let idols date if they want)  • But here you are, stood next to your crush, both of you blushing messes, getting set up by your own fans,  • “Well that’s very interesting, make sure to get to know each other later,”

 • The MC/interviewer chirps and you laugh and stay cool as always, proud you haven’t let anything show except for maybe a slight blush,  • Daniel goes to leave but quickly throws his arms around you, giving you a hug at the speed of light before flying away,

 • You can hear the fans in the stadium squeal jeez,  • Wow, what just happened???  • You quickly jog back to your group who’s hanging out with GFriend and Seventeen after having to send some aegyo to the crowd,  • You nearly died of the embarrassment and cringe, but soldiered through,  • Let’s just say you get roasted,  • Apparently everyone in your group is a savage???? Do they hate you???? Wish for your torment?????  • Nah they’re just your best friends,  • And just when you’re forgetting about your interview ordeal, your group gets called for the relay race you’re all determined to conquer, having perfect harmony for the change over,  • While you may not be the tallest, you’re all fast as hell, having run away from your manager a couple of times,  • Lmao you just wanted boba tea,  • But you draw more paint, all slightly different, onto the others’ faces before heading over to the track to show everyone what running actually is,  • You run last, which is a lot of pressure wow,  • And your member is running towards you and they’re neck and neck with a member of twice like damn,  • But you take the baton smooth as hell and your legs move quicker than you can compute, almost leaving your torso behind as you focus your whole mind on faster, smoother, faster,  • As you’re speeding past you spot Daniel out of the corner of your eye yelling and you can hear your name and wow,  • Your heart starts hammering even harder and your head goes a little dizzy, your legs stumbling a little,  • But nah you don’t let no boy get in the way of your gold medal as you steam ahead and wow,  • 1st place what a gem,  • I mean it’s your 3rd gold medal in relay, you guys holding the title, just champs I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  • When sport 💪💪 is life ✌✌✌ can’t let anyone 👨👩 beat you 💃💃  • I hate myself,  • But then Daniel’s doing relay as well so you make sure to cheer equally as loud,  • Which is hard when you’re still catching your breath,  • Who needs Oxygen anyway???  • And the little shit has the audacity to, very obviously, send you a wink,  • An unmistakable wink,  • What sort of out of the world confidence does he have, he was in 2nd place as well,  • As much as you’re shook, it makes you a little soft, but no one will leT yOu lIVE,  • All slapping your back or ruffling your hair,  • The DeFianCe???  • But you go to get a water bottle and who do you run into?  • Yeah, Daniel,  • “Congrats on gold~”  • His soft tone,  • wow,  • His soft smile,  • Wow,  • The two if you actually talking?  • W o w,  • “Hey I’m sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean to put you in the spot and-”  • Lmao yeah, maybe you feel bad a lil for dragging him into what may be a nightmare of always being asked about each other,  • “No it’s okay, I’ve wanted to talk to you for a long time, I meant it when I said you where cute,”  • Wow you’re a goner for this rookie,  • “So did I,”  • Wow smooth, not awkward at all,

 • “I like the paint by the way, but it makes you a little scary when you’re not smiling,”  • Lmao the idea was for you and the squad to look scary and badass especially for the broadcast,  • Little do the fans know the next Comeback has a fierce concept,  • Lmao playing with fans wow that’s always fun 🙃🙃🙃  • “Here,”  • You bring your face paint tub out and hold it up for him, raising an eye brow in question,  • He laughs and nods goofily, to which you crack the paint out,

 • You run a finger from his forehead down to his jawline in neat straight lines doing down, his skin soft and warm, the look when he closes his eyes so innocent and pure,  • Get you a soft man,

• It makes your hand tingle and you’re heart race at the close proximity, standing on your tiptoes and resting a hand on his shoulder for support,  • It’s only when you’ve finished do you realise his is now pretty much identical to yours,  • WhoOps ACcIDenTS HaPPEn,  • But he still looks damn cute,  • And you know a fancam of this will be all over the internet later,  • Hey; you may even share it on a private account who can say?????  • And wow if you don’t continue to spend the rest of the ISAC’s together, taking stupid pictures with people and giving the internet a heart attack,  • By the end of the day it seems almost all idols have some sort of facepaint?  • A star or a couple of lines of just a smudge done by a member of their group,  • A trend starter?  • But you’re all leaving the arena with the SqUAD,  • But then a hand gently takes your wrist and Daniel leads you to the side of the corridor with your group mates sending teasing smirks over the shoulder to you,  • With a shy smile he holds out a piece of paper folded neatly and you can see the outline of numbers written on it,  • You laugh lightly, taking the paper and carefully tucking it into your pocket,  • “Text me when you get home?”  • You nod, knowing you’ll spend too long deciding whether to say 'heya’ or 'hi’ and then make a split second decision and put something else entirely,  • And Daniel is just way too cute for you to take,  • He makes a move to leave, eyes hovering over you, before slowly leaning over and gently placing his lips on your forehead, ever so sweet, before nodding, smiling quickly and sliding away

[lattetimes]

So How About Them New Episodes, Ammirite Ladies??

here’s what i thought of the new episodes via live reactions as i watching them!

overall, it was kinda underwhelming but there were parts that i really did like! and if you liked these episodes, that’s awesome!

MAYOR DEWEY WINS

was this title a reference to the movie/book John Dies at the End, cause if so then i’m shocked i caught that

apparently it is, would you look at that. btw i kinda liked the movie.

damn, Sadie took this hard. and Steven never told Lars’ parents. so i guess Sadie has to do that herself.

why tf does Steven care if Dewey wins?!

OH, IT’S BECAUSE HE DON’T WANT SHIT TO CHANGE AND HE THINKS HAVING A NEW MAYOR WOULD BE BAD WTF DEWEY DOES NOTHING

ok wow, there’s only 24 people in Beach City and he never noticed that Lars was gone!?

“is that why the donut shop was closed?”

“we’ll hire a new donut boy!” DEWEY. DUDE. ARE YOU FOR REAL?!

“high school mayor” lmao

how did he run unopposed for 10 years!?

LARS’ MOM KEEPS A SHITTON OF TOMATOES IN HER PURSE SHE READY TO THROW DOWN ALL THE TIME

i don’t like that Steven is so adamant on Dewey winning.

jesus, Steven, let Nanefua win. she’s obviously the better person for the job

“i’m done pointing my finger at you, and now i direct all my fingers on both my hands to the citizens” top 10 anime deaths

NANEFUA WINS, OH MY GOD YES

STEVEN, DUDE, REALLY?! LEAVE CONNIE ALONE!

“i don’t know what you’re talking about, but i need to get a new job” 2018 mood tbh

episode rating: 2 tomatoes out of 5. i can’t stand Steven in this episode at all. but hey, NANEFUA WON!!!!!!

RAISING THE BARN

....was Lapis’ main concern that Steven dropped his phone on Homeworld? not the fact that he was... idk... ON HOMEWORLD?!

ok Lapis is ready to bail immediately and tbh i dont blame her

did she just uproot the entire bard wtf?! 

BARN THE DIAMONDS, BARN THE DIAMONDS, BARN THE DIAMONDS!

episode rating: 1.5 barns out of 5. BARN THE DIAMONDS, BARN THE DIAMONDS, BARN THE DIAMONDS!

GEMCATION

^ mfw Amethyst basically spat an egg out her mouth (it was kinda gross)

well. Greg got some kinda house.... still don’t get why the crew is so against having Greg get a house

also, where’s Peridot?

“remove all shoes before entering” Pearl fucking THROWS A RANDOM ASS PAIR OF SHOES

OKAY PEARL SCREAMING “PARTY GUY, NO!” WAS ACTUALLY KINDA FUNNY

S H O W M E P A R T Y G U Y Y O U C O W A R D S

“Steven, you should join me. become a raisin” ok Garnet

did. did Steven completely cut Garnet off as she was talking about Pink Diamond and the Gem War with the whole, “yeah, yeah, i get it, Mom. i already heard this story” kinda thing? B R U H that ain’t okay

AND GARNET JUST SHUTS UP AND WAS LIKE “good, you understand”

PEARL WAS GONNA STRAIGHT UP ADMIT TO SOME HUGE THING AFTER HER “THERE ARE THINGS THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO EXPLAIN” LINE AND HE CUTS HER OFF WITH “CONNIE HATES ME”

WHY COULDN’T STEVEN AT LEAST TELL THESE FOUR THAT HE WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT CONNIE HATING HIM?!

I’M KINDA GETTING SICK OF SEEING STEVEN MOPE LIKE THIS FOR 3 EPISODES STRAIGHT AND I HOPE HE DOESN’T KEEP THIS UP FOR THE NEXT 2

OH NO, PLEASE DISREGARD ALL OF THE MESSED UP THINGS YOU SAW ON HOMEWORLD CAUSE CONNIE IS (rightfully) UPSET WITH YOU. LARS D I E D.

GUITAR DAD SAVES THE DAY

i love Greg Universe

how would you not notice if you aren’t getting any service on your phone? your phone tells you when you’re getting service or not

bruh you almost made your dad drive off a cliff for you to get phone service

Greg Universe is a ride or die kinda guy

this ending shot is cute, i’ll give you that. 

episode rating: 2 party guys out of 5. Party Guy should’ve bitten Steven’s phone and his shit attitude. also PEARL WTF ARE YOU TELL US ALREADY

BACK TO THE KINDERGARTEN

Connie i miss you

“of the three things i have to do in the sink now, this is the one i least mind you seeing” B R U H

 Peridot listens to country music, this is disgusting

HOLY SHIT AMETHYST IS TOSSIN’ PERIDOT AROUND LIKE SHE WEIGHS NOTHING AND I’M CRACKING UP

“can i bring my music?” “NO.” damn Amethyst you already threw Peri around like she ain’t nothin’, let her bring her music if it’ll help her

aaaay, they’re in the train again!

dang, Peri really loved the barn.

i kinda like that Amethyst is going around trying to figure out which member of the Famethyst came out of which part of the Kindergarten. kinda cute. 

so everything is seriously determined by the nutrition, right down to the style of a Gem’s hair? ...huh. iron deposits determine hair styles.

damn, Peri went with a sucker punch to the gut with her little speech about how Kindergartens kill off life and are just “lifeless husks” once all the Gems are done being formed. and Amethyst feels awful about it, dang.

ok. there’s a flower growin’ in the Kindergarten, and that should technically be impossible due to all of the nutrients in this one area being used up. this could be interesting.

ok, so now the trio is gonna farm & see what happens. ok, ok, i can roll with this i guess.

FARMING MONTAGE

look at them flowers

they proud

don’t make Peri live here

why the flamingo thingy taller than both of them

gods i didn’t need to see Steven happily showering

they’re talking about how the flowers are probs gonna look beautiful i bet they all died, they’re too positive about this. $5 them flowers are dead.

them flowers are dead,

...now they’re arguing, cause Peri blew up on them. alright. this ain’t good.

aaaaaaaaaaaand Peri crushed the original flower that grew here. both Steven & Amethyst made pained whimpers. ok. this ain’t good.

oh it’s a Gem creature- haven’t seen one of those in a while!

IT ATE PERIDOT HOLY FUCK

SMOKEY QUARTZ IS BACK

ngl i like Smokey’s theme music

btw there’s no dialogue from Smokey, just a quick 2 second thing

Peri doesn’t reform with a star on her

ok, that was kinda cute. and having a technician that also likes gardening is cute too

episode rating: 3.5 dead sunflowers outta 5. it was an okay episode & i did like it. 

SADIE KILLER

heh, i get it. cause lady killer.

oh god, that looks bad

WHY IS THAT MOP SO BIG

instead of reading off a long-ass list to the overly worked employee, just hand Sadie the list so she won’t fuck up?

“and a coffee. hold the coffee.” same tbh

oh. he’s in a band with the Cool Kids. WE GET TO SEE THE COOL KIDS!

“...i hope he [Lars] is safe and all, but working all these shifts by myself has been a huge drag” GIRL, LARS DIED IN SPACE AND IS STILL THERE

Steven stealing all the napkins is something i’d do tbh

man, i love the Cool Kids

is my girl Jenny rockin’ the bass? aaaaaaaaaaay!

Sour Cream, what the HECK IS RAP-A-BILLY?

“Doo-doo. Butt. The government corrupts” Buck is the voice of this generation

welcome to EB Games

they... they admitted to following her home from work....

“doo-doo. i think i broke your bed” Buck wtf

also, i guess them watching all of Sadie’s horror movies gave them inspiration to do that weird donut-brain-eating song. weird.

“we are the working dead, and we lurch for minimum wage” same Sadie

......ok, she’s freaking everyone out. and they look uncomfortable. Sadie, seriously stop. they’re concerned.

...she. put lipstick on her eyes.

see, if she wasn’t freakin’ everyone out with this, i’d say this song is a bop. 

ok they’re fine now & thought it was lit ok cool cool cool. i ain’t a big fan of the lyrics tbh, but i do like the song.

 “aww, doo-doo”

ok so Steven’s askin’ for advice on how to write horror-themed songs from Sadie. how about LARS DIED ON HOMEWORLD

SADIE’S ADVICE IS:

LOSE YOUR LIFE TO A BORING JOB

LOSE THE ONE PERSON YOU WERE CLOSE TO

LOSE YOUR MIND WORKIN A TON OF SHIFTS

GIRL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Steven puttin’ Sadie on blast, good lord he just sang an accidental roast tryin’ to sing shit like she does

HE STOLE ALL THE NAPKINS AGAIN

“you can’t help being cute no more than i can help being cool” Buck, you’re a blessing

“yoooooo, what if this is all a dream?” Buck, wtf?

oh. Sadie’s goin’ with them. okay. 

OH. SHE QUIT HER JOB. UM. OKAY?

episode rating: 3 funky riffs out of 5. Buck Dewey is great.

KEVIN PARTY

I DO NOT WANT TO WATCH THIS EPISODE, BUT IMMA DO IT ANYWAY

DIDN’T EVEN START THE EPISODE AND I STILL FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE

let’s just get this over with...

why’d Steven wait this long to track down Lion?!

siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh, here he is......

gods, i still hate him

stop being gross to kids, leave Steven and Connie alone ya freak

at least he knows they use they/them pronouns. 

how did he find out where Connie is? doesn’t she live far away from Beach City? did he track down these two kids just to “invite” Stevonnie?!

“no one turns down an invitation to a Kevin party” i sure as fuck would

lmao Kevin has an old phone

“your name’s Steven? weird, i thought your name was Clarence” OI, DON’T INSULT CLARENCE LIKE THAT

rude, Steven brought snacks and ya just toss ‘em into the void?

ok. he’s creepily obsessed with Stevonnie cause apparently they make parties and shit like that hella fun. um. stop? being obsessed with kids??

WTF WHY IS LION AT THE PARTY

Connie actually showed up. and had Lion the entire time. that’s. super fucked up. Lion is the ONLY way to get to Lars directly!

and also, there’s TWO KIDS AT A PARTY WITH OLDER PEOPLE?! NO ONE BUT DERRICK QUESTIONS THIS?

Kevin’s gonna try to get them to talk to each other... so they can form Stevonnie... so his party won’t suck...

also, he keeps calling them 7-year-olds........ siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh, ok Kevin.

KEVIN YOU IDIOT LET THEM TALK TO EACH OTHER SO HE CAN SAY SORRY DON’T GIVE HIM YOUR “COOL GUY” BULLSHIT

“i need those old people to whisper my name when they die” tbh goals

“who’s Sabina?” Kevin got all red in the face and almost lost his cool

so Kevin’s gonna try to make Steven look like he’s moved on from Connie or some shit. this won’t end well.

NO, NOT DERRICK’S JACKET

now we get a montage of 2 kids being uncomfortable surrounded by older people at a party they should’t be at, ok.

at least Connie looks cute. and she got a haircut! so cute!

NOT CUTE NOT CUTE NOT CUTE

GOD, I HATE KEVIN

Steven, what are you doing?

STEVEN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

ok, quick recap cause i didn’t mention this: Kevin thought Steven & Connie were dating, so, Connie only went to the party to see if Steven’s okay and if they could talk. Steven decided to follow Kevin’s advice for some reason, and Connie thinks Steve’s new BFF is Kevin, and Kevin has no concept of what friends are.

so. Connie didn’t text Steven cause she preferred talking face to face about this, and that texting him wasn’t good enough to work out these issues. very fair point. still don’t get why you legit stole Lion from him, but the not texting back thing makes complete sense.

ok, she rode Lion to his house while Steven, Greg & the Gems were away (the episode Gemcation). and that’s when she bumped into Kevin and got the invite. ok. now Kevin is slightly less creepy, but still disgusting nonetheless.

oh, yay! they’re talking it out! and Steven isn’t disregarding Connie’s anger!

yay! they’re friends again!

don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie.

LMAO GET FUCKED, KEVIN, THEY AIN’T FORMIN’ STEVONNIE

episode rating: 1 Lion out of 5. least fave episode, tbh. but hey, we got Connie back!

[thunderhel]

Also, Dex being hella doubtful of Nursey's abilities as a fighter and writes him off as lazy and/or pretentious and then watching Nursey fuckin slay all graceful and shit boi just swoons, but simultaneously Nursey writes him off as a grouch and an ass and then one day watches him work in his little workshop on something he really loves and is gone once he sees Dex smile really big and his eyes light up at making a successful thingy That was articulated horribly but I have lots of dexnursey feels

You didn’t ask this as a prompt but I just really wanted to write something for this AU so here we go. There will be a part two whenever I get the time/motivation. For now, have this weird rough little ficlet I wrote in like an hour.

For the Percy Jackson AU

The thing about Nursey was he was the worst.

The majority of Dex’s siblings liked to argue that this was a subjective opinion, but Dex knew it to be objective fact.

“Why does he bother you so much?” Gwen had asked, an active blow torch left dangerously unattended in her hands as she stared at him.

“Yeah, he’s actually cool?” Serena had then ventured, sharpening a blade and ignoring the daggers Dex was glaring her way. “Like, most of the Ares kids are horrible, but he’s actually really nice.”

“And you thought he was a son of Aphrodite,” Thomas interjected, dodging the actual dagger that Dex hurled at him as the rest of Bunker Nine laughed. 

That incident had taken place three hours ago, and Dex’s mood had not improved. It didn’t help that Chowder was just as enamored with Nursey as the rest of the camp.

“The reason I even thought he was a son of Aphrodite was because of how insufferable he is!” Dex defended for at least the twentieth time since Nursey had told the entire camp of his blunder. “They’re all full of themselves and crying and sighing over everything, and hiding in their bunks whenever there’s actual combat.” He waved his hands as they walked, jostling the half dozen swords in his arms.

Chowder ducked out of the way of a wayward hilt, raising an eyebrow at the display. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Nursey cry.”

“That’s because you’re too busy always crying to notice.”

“Hey!” Chowder grabbed the most precariously placed sword, drawing it from the group and whacking him across the back with the flat edge of the blade. “Don’t be rude when you don’t have a weapon.”

“I have like eight weapons,” Dex grumbled, shouldering his way roughly past two daughters of Iris making their way out of the arena.

“Yeah, but that’s too many,” Chowder countered, gesturing wildly with his stolen sword and nearly knocking another free from Dex’s arms. “So you can’t actually do anything with them, rendering you defenseless.” Chowder punctuated his point by slapping Dex with the sword again.

“Fuck! Stop that.”

A sudden shout drew Dex’s attention away from Chowder.

Five groups were currently engaged in mock combat in the arena, all flashing swords and bronzed shields flying between partners as they fought. Dex had never been much of a fighter. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy it, or that he couldn’t hold his own in combat, but his job was to supply the others with the weapons they needed, and to occasionally help the Athena cabin with battle plans. He had no live combat experience beyond a few training sessions a week in the camp.

The fact that children of Hephaestus were rarely chosen for Quests certainly didn’t hang off his shoulders like a boulder, that was for certain.

He liked watching others fight though, liked the sound of metal on metal and the cries of battle.

There was a reason he had never questioned his status as a Demi-god.

“So much for hiding in his bunk.” Chowder nudged Dex with his free arm, pointing with his stolen sword to a pair dueling near the center.

Dex recognized the one combatant instantly, a broad shouldered son of Tyche who everyone knew was deadly with his curved blade. The boy standing opposite of him took a moment for Dex to place, until he turned, sweeping a graceful arch with a dark and heavy looking broadsword.

Nursey was impossible to mistake, even under his plumed helmet and shining chest plate.

“Holy shit.” Dex wasn’t sure if it was himself or Chowder who had spoken, but either way the statement was appropriate.

Nursey moved with a grace Dex wouldn’t have thought him capable of, at least not after watching him fall flat on his face every other day in the dining pavilion. There was no sense of uncertainty now, no fumbling to his footsteps as he stepped easily out of the way of the son of Tyche’s blade.

“Fuck, stay still!” The other boy hissed, his face flushed red and sweat dripping down his nose.

For as fast as he was moving, Nursey looked like he’d never sweat a day in his life. The smirk he had was dangerous, a hard edge that looked somehow deadlier than the giant weapon in his hand. He tossed it from one hand to the other easily in the blink of an eye, before swinging a wide arch down and crashing the blade against his opponents leg guard.

The son of Tyche gasped in pain, his leg nearly buckling under him before Nursey delivered another blow to his other side. His movement’s weren’t efficient, even Dex could see that from where he stood. Nursey took too many steps, tossed the heavy sword around like it was made of plastic for seemingly no reason at all.

When the children of Ares fought, the word that was always on the tip of everyone’s tongue was brutal. They were dogs of war, all teeth and ruthless determination that overwhelmed their opponents. Nursey was none of that. His moves were calculated and certain, precise and aesthetically different each time.

He was turning fighting into an art form, combining hard blows and delicate footwork with a dancers steps and swings of his sword that had to be for nothing more than pageantry. It was as much a performance piece as it was a display of power, and everything about it should have disgusted Dex.

It did disgust Dex.

He couldn’t look away.

Despite all of the luck on the son of Tyche’s side, three more blows landed on him without a single one being returned in the process. Around them, the other pairs had ceased their own fighting to watch, but Dex didn’t notice. Nursey lashed out in a spinning maneuver, planting his sword in the dirt and kicking the son of Tyche’s legs out in one smooth movement that by all accounts should have left Nursey flat on his back. Instead he righted himself just as easily, and was standing straight as his opponent collapsed in the dirt.

“KILL HIM!” A daughter of Nemesis cried out.

Nursey ignored the cry for blood, extending a hand to his defeated adversary to help him to his feet. Almost instantly the hard look of war was gone from his face, replaced with his usual easy smile as he chatted quickly with his opponent, like they hadn’t just been fighting. Like it had been game and not training for war.

“DEX!”

Dex jumped, fumbling to keep the swords from tumbling out of his arms at Chowder’s sudden shout.

“Camp Half Blood to Dex! I called your name like four times.” Chowder shifted the swords in his own arms, and it took Dex a moment to realize he was indeed missing a few. “You dropped two and didn’t even notice.”

Dex let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. Every part of him was on fire, his cheeks making a valiant effort to burn straight through to his teeth. He needed to dunk himself in the lake. If the nymphs drowned him then maybe that was just for the best at this point.

“Are you okay?” Chowder asked, swooping in far too close for Dex’s comfort, narrowing his eyes to scrutinize his friend’s face. “You’re all red.”

“I’m fine,” Dex snapped, turning sharply away from Chowder, and nearly slamming straight into Nursey.

“Easy there Poindexter,” Nursey teased, raising the hand not currently wrapped around the hilt of his sword. “You’re gonna take more eyes out than the Apollo cabin has hands if you keep swinging those swords around. Hey C!”

“Hi Nursey! Wow, you’re an amazing fighter. That was incredible!”  

Up close, Dex could see Nursey’s mortality, was once again reminded that Nursey only half god; the same as himself and Chowder and nothing more. He was sweating, though it only hung around his temples, and was just beginning to wet the strands of hair poking out from beneath his helmet. His breathing was quicker than usual, though his hands didn’t shake, even after such a hard workout and with such a heavy weapon in his hand.

Dex took just a second too long to respond, and Nursey smirked. “See something you like? I could always give you private lessons if you want.”

Dex scowled, his heart hammering against his throat for absolutely no reason at all. “You’re such a fucking showboat.”

Nursey shrugged and threw a wink at Chowder. Chowder, the traitor, laughed. “When you’re the best there is, you gotta find some way to keep it fun.” Nursey ignored Dex’s noise of disgust, and clapped him on the shoulder as he passed. “Have fun with…whatever it is you’re doing. We still on for the sing-a-long tonight, C?”

Dex pushed away, ignoring the goodbyes happening behind him as he tried to not drop another sword. His shirt was sticking to his shoulder where Nursey had touched him, the fabric burning straight through his skin and down to a pulse point he had somehow never noticed before. Chowder was somewhere behind him, or maybe he had gotten caught talking to someone else, but for once Dex was grateful for his friend’s over friendly reputation. As soon as he shouldered his way into the arena’s armory, finding it blissfully empty, he dropped his stack of swords on the closest available surface, and almost collapsed on top of them himself.

His heart was beating out a rhythm he couldn’t identify in his chest and he could still feel the imprint of Nursey’s hand and he could hear the growl of triumph he had made when the son of Tyche had hit the ground and he could see his perfectly white smile flashing beneath the polished silver of his helmet.

Maybe he needed to go to the infirmary. Maybe he needed to do some heavy praying tonight. Maybe he needed to sacrifice a goat or whatever the hell they used to do in ancient Greece when things got truly terrible.

Of one thing, Dex was very certain ,Nursey was the worst, and Dex was definitely in trouble.

[at-least-ill-die-a-lionturtle]

All of the questions. 💖

** Links are in bold **

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk? It depends on the cereal. Raisin Bran gets 50/50 milk-to-cereal ratio, while something like Fruity Pebbles gets a 30/70 milk-to-cereal ratio

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day? I CHERISH IT WITH ALL OF MY HEART AND SOUL

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books? Whatever happens to be the closest, flat object

4: how do you take your coffee/tea? I like my coffee as such: 50% coffee, 30% half&half, 20% sugar. Im going to assume this means hot tea, which Ive only had green. But I like my green tea with three sugars.

5: are you self-conscious of your smile? Very. I have bad gaps on all my front teeth

6: do you keep plants? No, but I really want to :3

7: do you name your plants? I will give them lovely names. Like Hamish, and Ludacris

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings? Music

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself? I DO, I do it all the time

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach? Mostly side and stomach. I roll around a lot

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends? Hey Karen, have you sent those faxes?

12: what’s your favorite planet? Mars

13: what’s something that made you smile today? A few things. My girlfriend, Rob Schneider, Achievement Hunter

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like? Like this, I’d imagine15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is! On Venus a day is longer than a year. The length of time it takes to complete one whole orbit around the Sun is 224.7 Earth days. However it takes 243 Earth days to rotate on its axis just once.

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish? Uhm… Lasagna? I need more time to think about this lol

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair? Ive dyed it blue before, it started off kinda dark and ended like a bubblegum blue. Next time I wanna dye it like this but darker

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up. The time during marching band when we did our invitationals. Me and a buddy were in charge of the water station, and the valve on one of the jug-thingies wasnt working right. I told my buddy, “Hey, it wont work right unless you flick it first.” And the band director of the band walking buy, he was like 70 years old, kinda sounded like Old Man Jenkins from Spongebob. He said, in a tone that he knew EXACTLY what kinda joke he was making, “It works when I flick it!” And we were literally rofl

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it? I keep a dream log, but I havnt updated it in years. Its not very often that I remember enough of my dreams to actually write them down. But I’ll go ahead and make posts with the two that Ive kept, here and here

20: what’s your favorite eye color? Greens and blues

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces. Ive got this Halo 3 messenger bag thats like a Desert Storm color. One end of the strap has come off, a lot of the ends are frayed, and one of the zippers no longer works.

22: are you a morning person? Ive always been a morning person, and I also used to be a night owl. But now I struggle to stay up past 10pm

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations? Watch Youtube and play video games

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets? Yeah (:

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into? My own home lmao

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit? My stupid fucking work boots lol Only pair of shoes I own

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor? Trident Layers Strawberry Citrus

28: sunrise or sunset? Primarily sunrise, but also sunset

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing? When @pizzaboxx​ attacks the patriarchy

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared? Yes, quite a few times actually. I almost tumbled down a mountain in a Jeep Wrangler when I was 7

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks. I think okay about socks. I like wearing weird socks, I have a pair of Captain America ones with little wings. I do sleep with socks. I mostly do yeah lol Im pretty much always wearing socks unless swimming or showering is involved

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends. Partook in some hooliganism at a Walmart, which included, but was not limited to, prank calling 9-11.

33: what’s your fave pastry? Bear claw and/or apple fritter

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it? Ive had an Orca named Oscar since I was like 10

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often? Nah, not really

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now? Faunts

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean? It kinda goes back and forth

38: tell us about your pet peeves! God damn, thats a list for another day lol

39: what color do you wear the most? Black and other dark colors. But Ive picked up a small array of light colored clothes over the last few years

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you? I own an Amulet of Stendarr. It increases your Block skill by 10%. Stendarr is the Tamriellic god of Justice and Mercy. He is the patron of cleric-type folks, as his devout followers, the Vigilant of Stendarr, travel the lands rooting out demons and undead such as vampires.

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving? Hm… I dont really know. My memory is shite and I havnt read a book in full in SO long

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it! Not really, never have really been to an actual coffee shop. FUCKIN LOVE WAWA THO

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with? Alex 

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything? I dont know if Ive ever truly felt like that. But Ive been close a few times.

45: do you trust your instincts a lot? Not a lot, but on occasion.

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of. I’m always on time with my jokes. I guess you could say I’m pretty pun-ctual.

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe? Fucking anything with cabbage. Oh, and candy corn. Fight me.

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today? I used to be really afraid of the dark, but not really anymore.

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought? I LOVE cds! And I’ll start getting records when I get a record player. The last cds I bought was a Weezer collection. It had Blue, Pinkerton, Green, Make Believe, and Red.

50: what’s an odd thing you collect? Nothing that I can think of, really.

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them? MY buddy Sam; You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far? None really. But Im sure something good will come around.

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them? No, no, yes, and yes. I really like Beetlejuice, and I LOVE Pulp Fiction.

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face? poop

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point? Im not really sure

56: what are some things you find endearing in people? The passion for something they love

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics? I ALWAYS dramatically re-enact the lyrics. HOW CAN YOU NOT?!

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why? Dont know about wine mom, but my friend Caitlyn is DEF the vodka aunt lmao

59: what’s your favorite myth? The American Dream

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves? I do, but I dont go out of my way to read it

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received? I honestly cant think of anything right now, for either situation

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind? I drink juice literally whenever possible, preferably apple juice.

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be? Leave them to be

64: what color is the sky where you are right now? Midnight blue

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with? YES. My group of friends from back home, and my baby sister

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like? Made of blue Morning Glory’s and pink Hibiscus

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? SO GOOD. I always feel in a better mood.68: what’s winter like where you live? One week of frigid temps and occasionally Fall like temps but mostly in mid to high 70′s69: what are your favorite board games? Battleship, Scrabble, hmmm. Thats all I can think of at the moment70: have you ever used a ouija board? Never71: what’s your favorite kind of tea? Sweet iced tea. Im also trying out some Scottish Heather tea right now and its quite delightful72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it? YES. I am so forgetful lmao73: what are some of your worst habits? Forgetfulness is the root of most, if not all, of my bad habits. So Imma go with that.74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns. Loud, but also quiet at times. Very laid back, but adventurous. Trust-worthy and reliable. Never afraid of a good dick joke.75: tell us about your pets! OKAY! First dogs, then cats. Otis is a momma’s boy and loves socks. Charlie is energetic but loves being lazy on the bed AND BORFS LOUD AT SQUIRRELS and will steal your food without a second thought. Sheep is blind and likes the bathroom. Izzy is hella stressed and barks at EVERYTHING. Bojack is a grandpa with literal Alzheimers and sleeps A LOT. Lady chews on EVERYTHING and often throws up stuff like string and leaves and loves to be held. Gizmo likes to jump up against your leg and rip apart your flesh with his little raptor claws. Dobby gets hurt and cold easy but plays SUPER rough and is a MAJOR GROANER when sleepy and stuff.  NOW CATS. Oscar is smol and cuddly and gets cold, but he PEES EVERYWHERE. NOTHING IS SACRED. Bones is also smol and very shy, doesnt like the other cats and REALLY LOVES Charlie. Frizzo is sweet most times but growls at everything and is an ASSHOLE to Bones and Carter. Carter stays away and hidden, she doesnt like the other animals. Will boop you when she wants attention. Lucy is our angry son, he is a super asshole to all the cats except Bones because thats his girlfriend, and is especially mean to Frizzo and Carter. He has an old man face when he’s tired.76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t? Going to bed lol Super tired, but I need to finish my tea.77: pink or yellow lemonade? Yellow78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub? I dont hate them, but I dont like them either79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you? Alex has done plenty of cute things for me, because everything she does is cute :380: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why? Fucking fake wood panels. We did not :P81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of. I dont know too much about any of my friends eyes???82: are/were you good in school? NOPE lol83: what’s some of your favorite album art? Really like the album artwork of Deep Blue by Parkway Drive84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones? I AM! I have a few specific ones planned, but also a bunch of inspiration here!85: do you read comics? what are your faves? I do not, but I really want to! I want to get into Spider-Man, The Flash, Ms. and Captain Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy, and anything Teen Titans related.86: do you like concept albums? which ones? I think this is a concept album?87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives? Good Will Hunting, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Her88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy? Expressionism and Impressionism89: are you close to your parents? LOL NOPE90: talk about your one of you favorite cities. FUCKING LOVE SAVANNAH. Its the perfect blend of historic and modern. Right on the beach/river. Lots of cool things going on. Also downtown is BEAUTIFUL.91: where do you plan on traveling this year? No idea lol92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch? DROWN IT.93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most? Varied lengths, and its really hard to tame my hair. Even with gel and shit. So I just let it do its own thing mostly.94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday? An old friend from Runescape95: what are your plans for this weekend? Not a got damn thing!96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot? I used to procrastinate them a lot, but Ive gotten better at it97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house? It changes almost every time I take it, but I think its ISFP? Taurus. Gryffindor but I relate to Hufflepuff as well98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it? Like over a year ago, I went with my buddy Sam and it was a pretty good time.99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them. Jesus Doesnt Mosh - The Ambulance Review, Engine 45 - The Ghost Inside, Broken Mirrors - Mercy Screams, Rise Against, like just in general; [This Is More; We’re What Separates the Heart from the Heartless; Amber; Some Kind of Hope; Sufferer/La Poderosa; Diamond; Ring Loud (Last Hope); D(I AM)OND; Built Upon the Sand; The Suspend] songs in brackets are by Stick to Your Guns. Im total trash, sorry not sorry.100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why? Easy, I would definitely go back five years into the past. It would be awesome to have my current knowledge so I could better prepare myself for my life today.

[vivicavira]

Tag Game

sooo i was tagged by some thicc bich @your-taxidermy :0

tag people you want to know better!!

Appearance: hm i’m real short like i’m 5’0 and a half. i have tiny hands and tiny feets. i’m hispanic (puerto rican and cuban) so i’m a little tan but still light skinned. i have a lil beauty mark on my right cheek. i have brown eyes and long eyelashes that instead of fuckin sticking up they stick out so you would never know my eyelashes are so long -_-. i have like brown…reddish…blackish..hair??? but then there’s some blonde?? idk it’s weird i dyed it red last year but my mama wanted me to go back to my original hair and go black soo now i’m stuck with whatever this is?? my hair is medium length AND WONT FUCKIN GROW FOR SHIT. it’s like wavy but straight?? idk man. i have tiny tits and my body is mostly legs which makes me want to cut them off :). i’m like skinny…but not?? it’s weird. my back has this weird natural arch (which i hate). my nose is like a rats from the side but isn’t that bad from the front?? my eyebrows are naturally thin and arched and let’s just say i always look angry… i have braces and…yeah. there’s nothing else really to me.

Personality: i’m gullible, easy to please with certain things, i’m a really deep thinker, i worry too much, i’m shy around people i think are cooler than me, i’m an open book but slowly i’m closing up more and more, i’m bipolar, i fall in love too easily, i’m actually rlly funny, i’m nice when i want to be, i’m constantly going between what i need and what i want, i like when ppl listen to what i say and take it in. i’m good at giving advice for some things. i’m super emotional and a lot of things get to me. it’s so hard for me to stick to one thing for a long amount of time. like i could be in love with someone but then one day my brain tells me “let’s stop loving this person for the little reasons that will mean nothing in a week. idc if they’re the only person that truly loves you. sounds like a you problem” like i ruin things for myself. it’s like my heart and my brain are two separate beings. i’m indecisive. i’m gentle and warm and soft with others and i’m aggressive, cold, and harsh with myself. i have extremely high expectations for myself and for (some) others which when i’m brought back to reality, i’m then disappointed always. i have trust issues when it comes to my heart.

Ability: i can sing (im self taught and never had any classes but i’m actually kinda good), i can draw sorta, i can dance (also self taught never had classes), i’m good at acting (this is my first year being in theatre but i’ve been acting my whole life with my sister. we used to do skits and stuff together but not like funny ones. like straight drama and tragedy. i’m good at making things make sense and wording things a certain way that just makes things click.

Hobbies: o god uh watching youtube, drawing, singing, acting, dancing, crying, being confused, and…tumblr

Experiences: i went to my first youth convention this year and it was rlly amazing. ummm wow i love how can’t remember any thing i’ve ever done?? trust me i’ve done a lot more o god. um oh!! we drove from florida all the way to new york and on the way we almost fell in a corn field in pennsylvania, we were about to sleep in a gross motel but there were roaches in the mattress so we somehow found a much better hotel and when we got to new york my mom pissed herself. i went to china town and the city and it was just such a good time. one time our car broke down on our way to north carolina and it was horrible. also hurricane irma was terrifying. i live in florida so where i live got hit hard. i’ve been through a lot of other shite but this is all that’s coming to mind rn for some reason.

My Life: for some reason my life is so depressing. my mom is always miserable and crying and sick and in pain. my sister is always sick and she’s rlly ill and has a lot of physical issues, my dad works like a dog but still doesn’t make enough money, my mom hates her job too. we’ve never owned a house, always rented. i go through my own problems mentally and emotionally. but my sister and parents are always fighting which makes me shake and scared and it’s hard to sleep. my parents aren’t very understanding (at all) and it’s just rlly hard. but other ppl have gone through and STILL go through much much worse. i have a more than sturdy roof over my head, good quality clothes, a warm bed to sleep in, a surplus of good food to eat, and for the most part love.

Random Stuff: i was in swim this year for my school and i fucking hated it but hey i got my varsity letter so whatever.

i’m horrible at math but i have honors english and i’ve always been on top when it comes to english and language arts but at the bottom with math of any kind. the only math i can kinda do is algebra 1 math.

i like every genre of music. like yes i even like this one country song. don’t judge. i mean i never listen to it but i like it. if you were to shuffle my songs 10 times you’d get 10 different genres. i just love music so much and i have a very strong passion for it. well i have a strong passion for the arts in general.

i’m a freshman but im supposed to be a sophomore but because my birthday is in november florida decided to hold me back in pre-k for an extra year just cuz of that??? it’s rlly dumb i hate florida.

i secretly would love to do cosplay in the future and go to those cosplay con thingies with some other friends of mine (none that i have rn would be interested in doing that in the future so i mean hopefully i’ll make friends like that and we’ll be able to ya know...do that stuff??

i like ensemble stars which i never post about for some reason idk

this is becoming wayyyyyy too long wow

i tag: @itsadarkparadize @hanaejun @lunar-intoxication @jjkboo @fictional-serial-killer @enaaaaaam @anonsx2 @sangweewoo @noodlesforlyfe @mangomud

i mean if you…if you want to of course…heh

[abloomntime]

A Bloom In Time P 10

The silence went on for a long time while the red headed woman laid down on the bed. Blue eyes blankly staring off at nothing, have a numb glazed over look. Her mind a complete blank as she laid upon the bed just ....staring and doing nothing. After a little bit one of the children pulled the blanket back over her to be nice, but she didn't even react when they did do and just continued to lay there. She had reacted quite strangely after Hattie told her she had been frozen to death for over a thousand years-

"W-Wha-....." The older woman blinked at the concerned looking children who looked like they were scared to continue the truth. "T-That's ridiculous! I-I couldn't-....There's NO WAY!!! I w-w-would still be dead then if that's the truth!"

"I told you! Snatcher brought everyone in the mansion back to LIFE when he broke my 'magic thingy'," she explained for probably the FIFTH time already. Even Snatcher being an old noodle, understood what she said the first time...But maybe it was just because he was out in the world for those thousand years and got to see things develope on his planet, while Poppy was a frozen statue along with a whole bunch of other people for a long, long time. So she guessed Poppy WOULDN'T know much of her surroundings after so long. But she gave up saying time piece and said magic thingy instead cuz that's what she kept calling them anyways. "You were probably a frozen statue along with everyone else. But now you're free! You're ok."

Yeah she was......But what about everyone else? Her parents. Her friends. All the adorable little children who'd come and buy flowers from her. All those innocent people in her village. Her precious little flowers. That flower stand she worked SO hard to get when she was still a teenager. She worked so many nights and days in her father's potatoe fields, and fruit trees, constantly getting sweaty and dirty, sore all over and covered in sunburns from the heat...Just to be paid a few pons at a time until she had enough to buy a small space in the square and begged her father to help her build the small stand to hold all her flowers so she could sell them. She was proud of her work, and felt liked she earnt the right to have what she always wanted.To bring the happiness to everyone giving them the gift of the beauty of flowers....And all of that was just now-....Gone. Completely utterly gone. One thousand YEARS gone. All because of one woman. Poppy didn't have any energy to cry. Maybe because it was shock. Maybe because there was too much emotions swarming in her head right now. Maybe it was because she had trouble processing this entire thing but she just laid there staring quietly at the wall. Yeah...she was ok...they didn't have a chance. The two children had been worried after almost twenty minutes of the grown woman doing this and Bow once asked after a while if she wanted more cookies. Still more silence. At one point Hattie left real quick to grab herself a cookie or two remembering she didn't get to eat breakfast at all, and came back to the same thing s before with Poppy staring at the wall blinking every few seconds, and Bow now sitting on the giant trunk at the end of the bed with her head in her hands.

"Anything?"

Bow shook her head. "No. I said her shoes were dry now, but she still didn't move." She nodded towards the now dry shoes laying a little ways from them. "I don't think this is good.''

Hattie hummed and took a bite of the chocolate chip cookie in her hands. This was a problem. She must've been upset, or maybe she was just tired?? She didn't know, she wasn't a grown up.....Her eyes widened with a sudden realization. Grown up problems required ANOTHER grown up right?? Well who was the best grown up she knew who always dealt with problems? A certain purple noodle ghost of course!! She smiled and snapped her fingers Bow jolting at the snap sound before watching as Hattie shoved the rest of the cookie in her mouth and bounded over to the bed chewing said snack. The Hat wearing gal popped her head right in front of Poppy's blankly staring one and smiled widely!

"Hey! I know who can help! Snatcher can!! He's really, REALLY old too and he should what to do!! He's ALWAYS having problems!!" Poppy still remained quiet....but ever so slowly her eyes steered down to the little girl and Hattie nearly jumped back. Well at least she caught some kind of response outta her. "Come on! He had to deal with being frozen and Vanessa just like you!" .......He did? Did that mean that.....whoever this snatcher was....he was....like her? .....But then how was this ghost this child's father? Nothing was adding up. But Hattie didn't stop and only persisted by reaching over the bed and tugging on Poppy's upper arm trying to get the grown woman to budge. "COME ON!! Don't be a lazy peckneck! Grown ups are so weird!!"

.......Silently, the still blank faced woman slowly sat up startling the little girl into letting go and falling on her behind. The two children watched her as she numbly pushed herself up half way from the bed, blanket half falling off and giving Hattie a look. It wasn't too blank anymore, still dead panned but she saw some kind of spark behind them now.

"How can a ghost help me? He's already dead isn't he?," she asked in almost a whisper.

Hattie blinked and shook her head, "I just said he's really old! Maybe he can help you? I don't know. But come on! I can't help but I know he can!"

She still stared silently at her for a long time ...before sighing. She didn't see why not. She already met her queen turned into a monster, and two aliens. Why not a ghost too? It's not like her situation could get any worse either. A thousand years frozen, brought back to life, lost everything, alone.....And no way back. Whoever this snatcher ghost was, he sounded like a decent spirit at least if he took care of this child who was kind enough to rescue her.....So he couldn't be all bad right? She's never met a ghost before.

With another sigh she looked to the child. "I really don't have much of a choice do I?"

Instead of answering, Hattie got up and ran towards the pillow mountain where Poppy and Bow had left her umbrella laying there, they would need that if she wanted to get them both down to the Subcon Forest in one piece. Poppy sure took her time shrugging off the blanket, and putting on her now dry shoes, which Bow was nice enough to fetch for her. Hattie came back and encouraged her to hurry before running back over to the telescope. There was a reason this particular telescope was in her bedroom, and that being because it lead to her favorite place in the whole time n space places she's been. She looked through the seeing eye hole and sure enough, Subcon forest showed up right in front of her and she smiled. The trains tracks small but a little visible at least, and for a brief moment she wondered if Snatcher had actually been able to get them all to the train station yet. Sure it was at least three miles, but she was sure if they ran (Snatcher made them ran) or if he just got tired of yelling at them to run and just teleported them there(which was also very likely), he'd already be back! Which was exactly what she was hoping. Bow was sure coming this time too because the curly hair girl was already grabbing the extra umbrella and politely encouraging Poppy to numbly step off the bed and slowly follow her over to Hattie who just now looked up to them with a bright smile.

"Did you see Snatcher?," Bow asked.

Hattie shook her head. "No. This telescope isn't strong enough to see that far to the ground. We have to go look." She smiled as Poppy had finished putting on the other shoe and shuffled up to the girls who offered her hand. "We have to go down there to find him! You can hold my hand if you want."

Poppy rose a brow at her, not taking her hand. "Another transportation spell?"

The child again shook her head. "It's not a spell! My Telescope teleports me! We can teleport you too!" Without asking she grabbed Poppy's hand and tugged her right next to Bow who already posted her daker blue umbrella at the telescope that jumped a little bit, already charged up and ready to go. She pointed her umbrella at the telescope and made sure to increase her grip on Poppy's hand with her insane alien strength. Didn't want her to accidentally slip away and hurt herself. "Watch this!"

Before Poppy could protest or do anything, with a stretching lightheaded feeling they were already used too by now, the telescope teleported her down to the purple spooky part of the planet and she shot down in a beam of light. A few seconds later she landed in a random part of the subcon forest with dead trees and glowing mushrooms everywhere-....Oh wait! This was one of the dirt paths leading up to Snatcher's home. She breifly wondered if this was the same path Snatcher started marching all those people down. After a moment, a flash of white light popped in the sky above her just a little bit and a moment later a WHOOSH noise sounded out as Bow popped open the umbrella and soon the small child was floating down to the dirt path a little ways in front of her. Smiling, Hattie ran towards the spot Bow was floating down to and watched patiently as her feet landed safely on the dirt and the other girl closed her umbrella looking around the familiar forest of dead trees, fog, and lots of creepy purple colors. Very homey.

"Do you think he's here?," Bow asked blinking and looking down the path most likely towards the ghost's home.

Hattie nodded. "Yeah. I can tell." She looked around and then up towards the tops of the trees with a smile. Usually there was crows in the trees or spiders low to the ground when there wasn't anything bigger or more dangerous than them. Which the only thing it could've been was Snatcher or Moonjumper, but since it was still daytime(around maybe early noon), there was only one other person big enough to scare the spiders bigger than herself. Snatcher of course, he was already scary and it was easy to tell if he was here by the forest's aura. "Come on. I'm sure, he's really close, Poppy!" He ran a little ways down the path before slowing......and walking.....before stopping completely and turning around. Bow was still standing where she landed and was looking around too.

"......Miss Poppy?," she called out looking around the trees that silently stared back, no answers except for the spooky sounds of the wind rustling through the dead branches, and the creaking would. And maybe a frog or owl here and there. Her face immediately became worried as she glanced around more and her eyes became wide. "....MISS POPPY?!" She called louder and still received no answer as Hattie made her way back up to her and the panicked child looked at her. "Where did she go?!"

Hattie looked just as worried and confused now. "But-....She was just here!" And Snatcher's traps weren't anywhere around this area, she was just holding her hand a minute ago. "What happened?!"

"I don't know! I thought you had her!"

"But she was right behind me!"

"No she's not!!"

Hattie snapped her head back around as the creepy woods still silently mocked her back. Where did she go?! She was right here beside her! She held her hand all the way down, and she's transported people just like her and Bow to her ship and back all the time. Unless-....Space traveling was always easy when she transported Cooking Cat or Conductor, but they were the same size as her....Poppy was a full grown woman the size of Snatcher in his human form...She would've weighed more than Cookie or Donductor or herself. And transporting someone by holding her hand was different than giving her the umbrella to take her away like last time.....OH NO!! Hattie's hands suddenly gripped her hat and panicked. She must've accidentally let her slip from her and hadn't noticed because of the light and fast travel!! Immediately the worst case scenarios played in her mind. She could've gotten hurt! What if she fell into the swamp!? What if she accidentally came across the fire fox spirits or cursed headless statues?! What if she got stuck in a tree?! Or....HOLY PECK!! What if she fell into one of Snatcher's traps or ran into him and she wasn't there?! Snatcher wouldn't know Poppy would've been taken there by them!! She'd be doomed to sign his contract if she didn't find her before she did!! Or get to Snatcher and explain to him what happened first!! She hopped from foot to foot real fast before turning to Bow panicking even more!!

"W-We gotta find her come on!!"

Hattie suddenly started running down the path again but this time in a state of panick and fear shouting for Poppy. Bow following behind repeating a chorus of 'oh, peck oh, peck oh, peck'.

***************************************************************

The silence of the forest was a sign of danger. As the monster made his way back within the gloomy depths of his home. Spiders cowered as they climbed up their webs in a desperate attempt to escape any terrible fate the ruler might decide for them one day. Crows cawed and took to the air and scattered, leaving multiple black feathers floating slowly towards the black cursed dirt. Even the fire spirits would put up barriers to keep him away if they felt like it. His power great and his famous dealings more fearful. The best way to avoid him was to just not enter the forest, but for those who do they should heed the warnings of silence, alerting the prescence of the dead king. Slithering through the trees like a snake, scowl on his face. Clearly not in the mood for ANY kind of adventures. He was tired, very cranky, and wanted to not be bothered. Which was a dangerous combo if a tresspasser wondered in at that moment. Which is exactly why he told the kid to wait until he came to check on her, he wanted some time to himself and to relax after a stressful day and a half. No doubt he would be scolded by Moonjumper later anyways.

"BOSS!! YOU'RE BACK!!"

The long ghost loomed out through the tree line and towards the lit inside of his home and immediately he was swarmed by his curious minions. Looking at him and most likely confused about the entire fiasco, but he was def not in the mood to explain himself especially to his subjects.

"Did you get those fools there already?,'' one asked as they toddled after him.

Snatcher waved him off. "Nah. Found one of those owls heading there half way through. Something about being needed on set. Made him take the rest of the pecknecks there. Good riddance!" He mumbled the rest the rest of what he said and sighed at the familiar trusty tree. It was good to be home after such a scattered day. ...AND OH!! What was this? There was a small bush on his chair, the bush stretched and made a sound just like a cat before purring and rolling onto his side. Snatcher gave a smile immediately at that, and reached a hand over. His clawed hand slightly shook before it made contact with the soft leaves of the bush cat's body. He carefully placed a couple strokes against the cat's side and Rough Patch started purring, tail waving from side to side as he did so....This...it...He felt like this wasn't real almost. It'd been so long since he had done this. Had a small peace of calm like this. His own little pet. Soon the other claw came down to grab the bush cat and ever so carefully he picked Rough Patch up like a father holding his newborn baby for the first time. Smiling still prominant on his face. "Hey there, Buddy. Were you good while I was gone?"

"Mow," he replied back still purring and blinking that innocent cat face at him.

Snatcher huffed and brought the plump cat in his arms, the red collar on him standing out against his green leaves, and settled down against the dark purple arms purring happily. Happy to just being pampered not caring who did it like any other cat. Snatcher happily smiled at the peaceful scene. THIS!! This is what kind of peace of mind he wanted. He wanted to sit down and read one of those books with his faithful companion for a couple hours before dealing with the kid or anyone else. Except that plan wasn't meant to be at all. It was almost like a snap. Like a sudden feeling you would get when you KNEW something was wrong but not exactly like that. Instead a small feeling began at the back of his mind before this particular feeling grew and all of a sudden his body froze.....Before the giant ghost suddenly shivered, fluffy hair around his neck and chest fluffing up with a weird static shock kind of feeling and he slowly looked over his right shoulder(if he still had a right shoulder). The static like energy feeling like it was on the right side of his body and tugging him towards that direction.....Making the scowl return and the spirit's eyes narrow to almost slits.

"Uh...Boss?"

.....Snatcher huffed and shook his head. More work. Great. Rough Patch meowed in slight protest as Snatcher shifted him from his new comfy spot in his arms, and placed the purring pet back onto his armchair, patting his head and watching for a moment as he turned a few times in a circle and curled back into a bush. Turning back to where the magic tugging was pulling him and giving a small growl. So someone triggered one of his traps eh? Bad for them. Because he was NOT in a merciful mood at all. The annoyance building up in him as he rose up and growled in the back of his throat. Now was definately NOT a good time for anyone. The minions could only watch as their leader as soon as he arrived took off in a flash of purple in the direction of the magical tugging soon disappearing from the line of signs into the trees and shadows. He would be there in a minute or two with his speed and sure enough- Dweller, subconite, and child alike could hear the familar rumbling of the ghost coming. Crows cawing out the warning sign as the forest quaked in his wake. .......And his scream tore through the woods.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"