#and immediately spawned a whole story inside my head

[mxtantrights]

Bounded by shadow and blood (2)

azriel x magic!fem!reader

You set your bags down on the palace steps. It’s weird. Something is definitely wrong. Its not like you were expecting a warm greeting home but you were expecting a little something. 

The towns people were normal. They all greeted you like everything was fine, and that’s probably because everything for them is fine. Projected security and all. 

You handed out the treats to the children and talked with some of them. Specially your favorite of them all, Semaj. He had missed you while you were gone, and you had missed him all the same.

“Hello?” You call out.

If everything were normal, a palace person would have greeted you already. Someone might have actually greeted you in town before you made it up the steps. 

You push open the door and find it to be empty inside. Empty and quiet. Which is unusual for a place that holds at least fifty people inside at all times. 

You grab your bags and head inside. 

First you go to your room to drop off your bags. It’s quiet the whole way there too. Two long hallways then a right turn later. You haven’t seen or heard anyone.

When you drop your bags off you leave you room immediately. Closing the door behind you, you wander the halls. Checking in each room and finding no one. It was almost as if no one had ever lived here.

There is one room that should be busy. You make quick work to get from the east to the west side of the palace.

The council room. 

When you reach the double doors you halt. That bad feeling you had intensifies. You pull on both doorknobs with both of your hands and yank the doors open.

At the sound screech you don’t flinch. But at the table filled with council members you do. They all look at you, bewildered, shocked, confused.

“Nice of you to show your face.” Cyril says.

Cyril is the oldest member on the council. He practically raised you and your brother. You parents were too busy ruling over the people to actually raise their children. 

Cyril was the man who should have ruled. Your father’s oldest friend with a penchant for people and solutions. He never had kids of his own, always claimed that you and your brother were enough to last a lifetime. 

You smile at him, “You’ve grown older since I last been home.”

“Watch your mouth, I have embarrassing stories of you.” He answers. 

“While it’s good to see you two catch up, we have urgent matters to discuss.” Another council member says.

Cyril pushes out an empty chair. For you, you think. You close the doors behind you and walk over to it. You take a seat and set your hands on the table like you were trained.

“Welcome back to Sangri, princess.” Another member greets you.

You smile, “it’s good to be back, but I’m only visitng.”

“I fear that the days of you coming and going will soon be over princess.” Cyril says.

You look at him, confused. “What do you mean? Where’s my brother?”

“We don’t know. We haven’t seen him since he left on a expedition a month ago.” 

“A month?!” You shout.

You try to compose yourself. A whole month has gone without anyone seeing your brother and you’re only hearing about it now? You can understand that he was on an expedition but you should have been told of it beforehand. Now he’s gone and— 

“Princess, we fear the worst.” Cyril speaks. 

The worst that could happen to your brother would be death. But even that would be hard to do because he’s not built for it. You’re not fae, you’re blood benders. It would require a lot of knowledge and power to kill a blood bender. If even a drop  of blood remains in their body, they can be resurrected. 

“Have you searched for him? Have you sent out an inquiry to his last location?” You ask.

“All have been done, no word.” A council member says from your right. 

You sigh, “okay so then what does this mean? Do we disintegrate the monarchy? Is there a cousin or a spawn I don’t know about?”

“No, princess. There’s no one else.” Cyril says.

“But you.” Another voice adds.

You look around the room in shock. No. You weren’t made for this. You were specifically not made for this role. All your life you’ve ran from it. You let your brother have it because he’s oldest and he knows best. He doesn’t mind the boring and stiff lifestyle. 

“I’m not going to take the throne.” You speak plainly. 

“Not right now. Within the charter the council has three months to rule on it’s own before appointing a successor.” Cyril explains.

You begin to shake your head, “Cyril, I am not taking the throne ever.”

“You must.” A voice says.

“No, you haven’t proven my brother dead. And if I were to take the throne and he were still alive we’d all be in breach of the charter.” You argue.

They had thought that you didn’t read the charter. You hated it, absolutely loathed it. But Cyril always made sure you knew exactly what your role could be.

“We think within that time we will have evidence that your brother is dead.” Another voice says.

“Well I don’t. And I’ll go and find him myself if it means I don’t take the throne.” You respond.

“You are free to do so, princess. But you must return if we find something or the three months have passed.”

You get out of your chair, the wood screeching against the marble floor. You don’t say a word to anyone as you walk out of the room. 

You should have never returned home.

-

Nesta isn’t interested in the conversation happening around her. Not for nothing, she wanted to be. She just couldn’t get you out of her mind. No she didn’t know you, but she felt like something about you was off when you first met. 

She couldn’t see your ears.

“There aren’t any humans in Prythian, right?” She asks out loud.

The conversation being had stops. All eyes on the table are on her. It’s not like she isn’t used to it.

“Of course not, you know that.” Mor answers. 

“She’s talking about the women we saw at dawn.” Cassian explains.

“I just don’t get it. She didn’t smell like fae either.” Nesta goes on.

“Maybe she’s Illyrian.” Feyre tries.

“No, I know what they smell like. We all do.” Nesta counters.

“Why does it matter to you so much girl?” Amren asks.

Nesta looks at her. She’s right, it shouldn’t matter to her. There are more important things to care about right now. Like the battles that lies ahead, an unknown enemy. She just can’t shake the feeling that this woman is a part of it somehow.

“It doesn’t.” Nesta lies.

Amren hums her response and goes back to drinking her wine. Everyone at the table starts dispersing and talking amongst themselves again. Nesta doesn’t, she can’t. 

She leaves the dinner table a few moments after that, no one stops her. When she leaves the room she runs into Azriel, on his way in from a mission no doubt. She passes by him and thinks to self that maybe she could ask for his help. 

She turns around before she can think against it. 

“Azriel?” 

He turns around without a word. He looks tired, and if Nesta weren’t so suspicious and inquisitive she would let it go. But she isn’t, she can’t.

“There’s some information I’m looking for…”

[feroshgirlsims]

Chapter 8.3 - Flesh of My Flesh

VLAD

Vlad talks over pancakes. He explains the pointy-eared man. He explains the light and the smoke and the way he’s noticed a glimmer popping up in the corner of his eye. He explains his theories, his anxieties, and the worst part of the whole thing—his attraction because it was inconvenient to be turned on by someone who might be imaginary.

They don’t dismiss him. They don’t argue.

“The world is a complicated place,” Nikolas says.

“You have systems,” Josef says, “You need to use them. You need to be tethered, or else you’ll float away.”

It’s the same thing he’s been told since he was a child. Vlad finishes his plate and curls up with his father on the couch while Nikolas gets a fire going. “I’m tired.”

“Of course you are,” Josef rustles Vlad’s hair, “Since you was a baby you never slept. You been riding all day and thinking non-stop. You need rest. You get cranky if not, hell, we all do.”

“But it’s not just sleep,” Vlad insists. “I feel on the cusp of something big. Like something is about to shift and I’ve just been waiting my whole life for it. But now I’m tired of prowling and pacing and waiting for it to come.”

“Soon,” Nikolas soothes when he sits down. “You just be patient. World is complicated, but things become clear when they’re meant to. In the meantime, I ever told you about the time I was chasing a target, and they ducked down a mine shaft?”

He has, but Vlad lets his grandfather tell it anyway because it's a good story.

---

It takes a few more days before Vlad feels like he’s back to himself. They’re strange days. He sleeps a lot. He hears his parents argue, not the usual shouting obscenities and making idle threats, but the hushed whispers that tell him it's about something real.

He meets William for that barley bale.

He manages to turn in the bare minimum of his assignments—mostly perfunctory since he intends to cheat his grades, but it’s a good exercise. 

And he does catch up with Alice. He wishes he’d done it sooner. Yes, he’s still seeing an attractive pointy-eared man who might possibly be imaginary, but keeping track of her requires his undivided attention. 

Like now when she was supposed to meet him at the Commons over an hour ago. Vlad can tell she was here because she’s forgotten her headphones.

It was something other sims noticed, too.

—To their detriment.

He finally locates Alice in the graduate dorm study room. “Greetings, Magpie. I’m sorry I was away for so long. I wasn’t feeling well.”

She whirls around, “Oh shit! What time is it? How late am I? I’m sorry! Are those my headphones?”

“Yes,” Vlad says, handing them over. "And don’t worry; I entertained myself. What are you doing?”

“Nothing!” She groans. “Well, not really nothing. I need to research that secret society I’ve been tracking, but I don’t read or do books. I mean, I can, but it’s hard.“ Her head dips, and she tries to avoid his gaze. “I usually use a voice reader for anything long or listen to audiobooks, but for whatever Watcher-forsaken reason, the research machine doesn’t have a headphone jack or even Bluetooth. So now I’m stuck.”

“Would you like help?”

“I’m not stupid,” she replies fiercely.

“And you like books,” he adds, arching a brow. “You simply use an alternate method to read. I think you need an assistant. And as it turns out, I love traipsing through endless reams of text and boring books.”

Immediately, her eyes light up. “So, I’m the boss of you?”

The delight etched across Alice’s face at the idea of being in charge of him is enough to send Vlad into the stratosphere. It also spawns a fantasy that makes his pulse race. Something inside him unwinds and stretches. It wraps fingers around his rib cage and peers out past his heart, pleased and bound. 

“Yes, I do very well with specific instructions. Feel free to demand whatever you want.”

PREV | NEXT

(Part 4 of 4)

[sacred-stanning]

Chapter 19 Part 2: Defending Rausten

So this map is a defend map, and you need to keep L'Arachel's uncle safe. The other green units can die without you losing, though if you keep enough of them (4, I believe) alive until the end, you do get a reward.

Most of our units start in the center of the map, around the Regent.

There's a wall not far down from the start, and units can head either right or left. Left leads to an exit to the outside area at the bottom of this photo.

The next photo is left of the one above. The exit to outside is visible here, and already we can see one enemy unit despite the darkness. There are a whole bunch more outside the castle gate too, including the boss who is down to the left, somewhere around where the cursor is in the photo.

Moving up from the photo above, we can see a room with a locked door and three chests inside. There's also a hallway that continues up from where the green units are standing.

I will be skipping the treasure chests pictured here. From what I remember, it's basically impossible to have one unit hit up this room and another one with three chests that's off to the right. So to get both sets of chests, you really need to commit two units to the job, and I just don't feel like it.

Further up, we see two more green units, and a little room to the left where 4 of our units are hanging out.

(Challenge: Come up with a story that explains why L'Arachel, Cormag, Gerik, and Tethys were hanging out in this room while everyone else was in the main throne room.)

To the right is another exit out of the castle after a long hallway. Enemies come from this way too.

Here's the hallway that goes off to the right. Some enemies start in the hallway, and I think more spawn in the outside section, though if you don't actively send anyone in that direction, they aren't very relevant.

And moving the screen down along the right edge of the map, we see the other treasure room I mentioned, which I will be hitting up with Rennac, and a final exit below the two green units. Some units start in the dark around here, but not many. And later some units spawn from the entrance below the two armors, but it's only thieves at first, and other units don't show up until much later, at which point you may have finished the map already.

I mentioned a couple times above that some enemy units on this map are not very relevant. The thing is, this map is a defend map with a turn limit, so it never goes on for very long, but it also has a boss, and defeating him ends the map immediately.

So it's not usually too hard to avoid a fair number of the reinforcements from the lower and upper right because they have to travel so far to get to where your units are concentrated, and the map may end before they get there.

The real big chokepoint in the map is the lower left entrance near where the boss is. That's where most of the reinforcements come from, so I've found that I usually end up sending the majority of my units down there. Even the 4 who start in the upper left room usually can join the group at the main entrance below once they've mopped up some of the units who start near them at the top.

I feel like this map might be a bit more challenging and interesting if there were another opening in the upper right so that the units coming from there could head more directly for the throne room.

At any rate, here's Riev, the boss, declaring that the people of Rausten, who worship "stupid gods" should start wishing for a "miracle that will not happen".

He also promises revenge on Mansel (L'Arachel's uncle). Apparently, Mansel had Riev punished back in the day.

Actually, I just looked up the English script, and it looks like Mansel is called a "Pontifex" in it, not a Regent like I've been saying. And Mansel "excommunicated" Riev is what happened.

Going back and looking at the Japanese script, I can see they do use the word 教皇 (kyoukou) for Mansel, which can be translated to "Pope" or "Pontifex". And Riev says that Mansel 破門 (hamon, literally "break gate") him, which does mean "excommunicate" or "expel".

Lute had been looking forward to arriving at Rausten's Castle and having a chance to relax, but now she felt absolutely unable to relax. What was she supposed to do?

Along with most of the army, she had been dismissed while the princes, princesses, and generals had their meeting with the Pontifex of Rausten.

"Pontifex...That's such an interesting word. And it's a political position that only exists in Rausten," she found herself thinking, wishing she had time to look up the history of it. "But I don't have time for that now!"

The irony of the situation! She had some free time, and here she was in the library of the castle, but she was too aggravated to actually look at any of the books around her! She had gone to the library simply to think.

"I need to analyze the situation," Lute thought. "I can't make a good decision on what to do next without good information at hand."

She closed her eyes. What did she know now?

Known Facts 1: Syrene had thought that she had presented Vanessa with a "Pegasus Pledge". (<- Based on conversation with Syrene) 2: A Pegasus Pledge is an item exchanged as a type of vow for "Hippolyta Marriages". (<- Based on the book of Frelian customs) 3: A Hippolyta Marriage is a special type of marriage that exists in Frelia where two Pegasus Knights marry each other. (<- Also based on the book of Frelian customs)

Lute felt herself relax a little as she explored these facts. Facts were good. They were reliable.

"Now," she thought, "What are the unknown factors that are making me nervous?"

Unknown Factors 1: What does Syrene think about me? What does she think about me proposing marriage to her sister, even though I didn't, and she knows now that that wasn't my intention...Wait, this is complicated 1: What does Syrene think about me? 2: What does Vanessa think about me? Wait, did Vanessa think I gave her the Talisman as a Pegasus Pledge? Wait, is that two questions? Maybe I should categorize...ugh! 2: What does Vanessa think about me? Does she see me as just a friend, or...?

Lute felt embarrassment. Then she felt irked that she felt embarrassed.

"I'm taking notes in my own mind! What is there to be embarrassed about!? Be thorough, Lute. Write down everything!"

She added to "Unknown Factors #2".

2: What does Vanessa think about me? Does she see me as just a friend, or as a romantic partner?

And then she added a final note to the list of unknown factors. 3: What do I think of Vanessa?

Lute paused.

Did that one really belong in unknown factors? Surely she should know her own feelings.

Lute, eyes still closed, put her hand to her chin and rested her head "What is something that people who feel romantic attraction do?"

"Kissing?"

She nodded to herself. Yes, that definitely was something.

"I will be methodical about this," she continued to think to herself. "Who can be my control subject?"

Lute started going through her mind for someone to measure against.

"Axe boy?" she thought, her mind first alighting on Ross. "No, he won't do. I'm not even friends with him, and he's loud and I find him annoying. The differences in how I feel about him versus Vanessa are too clear."

She thought a bit more. "Artur?" Her childhood friend came to mind. "Yes, Artur should work! I've been friends with him for a long time. I like him, but I'm sure I don't feel any romantic attraction towards him. He'll make a good control subject."

"Now, as for the experiment. My hypothesis is that I am romantically attracted to Vanessa. To prove this, I will imagine romantic situations with both Vanessa (my experimental subject) and Artur (my control subject). I am predicting that, if I experience the same emotions towards both of them while imagining the situations, then that means that I only feel platonic friendship towards Vanessa. However, if I experience strong emotions only when imagining the situations with Vanessa, then that means that I do feel differently about her."

Lute mentally patted herself on the back. This was a good experiment! This was the way to do things in order to come to the best conclusion! She felt the joy of a methodical system that would reliably provide new information.

Lute brought Artur's face up in her mind. She then imagined her own hands reaching up to touch the face. Then she imagined opening one of her hands and shoving a spider in his face--

No! No time for this! It was fun to experiment with Artur's reactions to seeing bugs, especially when there was screaming involved, so her mind had gone in that direction almost automatically. But this is a serious experiment! "Stick with the plan, Lute" she thought to herself.

Again, she imagined putting her hands up to Artur's face. She brought her own face in close and kissed him.

Nothing. Or not nothing, exactly, but it was like kissing her grandmother. With someone she didn't like, it might have been gross to get in so close to them, but she could tolerate it with Artur. However, it was clearly not exciting in any way.

Next, she pictured Vanessa's face.

Already, something was different. She felt...warm. She felt her heart beat harder.

She tried to imagine bringing her hands up just like before, but she started to feel embarrassed. The imaginary Vanessa face was looking right at her.

"I can't do this," she thought. "But I have to. It's not a proper experiment if I don't repeat the steps the same way!"

She doubled down and focused, bringing her imaginary hands up to imaginary Vanessa's face, and then bringing her own face in close...

"Stop this nonsense."

Lute heard a voice. It was her own voice.

"Why are you wasting time 'performing an experiment' for something you already know?"

Lute looked around in her imagination. She saw...Lute. There was a second copy of herself standing just a few body lengths away in the dark, backgroundless world where she had been trying to perform this experiment.

"Who...?"

"There you go again!" The other Lute sighed. "Asking questions you already know the answer to! I'm you! Who else would I be? Does someone else have access to your mind?"

Lute thought. Logically speaking, it was an undeniable fact that no one else had access to her mind. She was thinking inside her own head. There was no one else here.

"Good," other Lute said. "I would say I'm glad you understand now, but you already understood. It's a question of admitting what you already know instead of pretending you don't know."

Other Lute walked up to Lute and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"You like Vanessa. Romantically. You have felt that way for a while now. That's why you started researching Frelian customs! You were never interested in studying social customs before! You're interested in Frelia because you're interested in Vanessa! And you were secretly hoping to find out that it's ok to feel the way you feel after hearing Ross's story about his two aunts who were in a marriage-type relationship!"

Lute glared at Lute. "Stop pretending you don't know what you feel just because it's the first time you're feeling this way about someone and you're scared! By the stones, you're Lute! You're a genius! A mage extraordinaire! Stop acting like a scared child!"

Lute opened her eyes and other Lute vanished from her vision.

She was right. "No, not 'she'. 'I' was right," she corrected herself.

Lute half thought and half muttered to herself under her breath. "I like Vanessa. I..I think she's attractive. And I want to..." she swallowed "I want to kiss her. And hug her. And I want to feel her near me. And that's fine! I can do that!"

And then it hit her. She had missed an "Unknown Factor" when she was listing them before. This unknown factor was what made her so nervous about the situation.

"I don't know how people will view me for feeling this way, and I don't want to stand out and get bullied for being weird, just like I always was when I was a child."

Lute felt tears welling up in her eyes as memories of childhood ostracizing flooded into her mind, unwelcome and uninvited. She saw images of herself tripping (someone had tripped her). She saw images of bored faces listening to her talk, but not really listening. She saw a group of girls she had thought were her friends speaking in an exaggerated way about wyverns, in imitation of her. She saw them laughing, and remembered realizing that they were laughing at her. The other children in her village all thought she was weird, and as they all transitioned into adolescence, she had found that none of them wanted to talk to her.

Lute shook her head, as if shaking off the memories. She focused back on the issue of her feelings towards Vanessa. It wasn't actually that she hadn't put the pieces together before. She wasn't only just now figuring out how she felt about Vanessa. She had known already, but she had been afraid to admit she knew.

"I never heard of two women being in love and doing things like getting married until axe bo--Ross--told me that story about his aunts out of the blue. But now I also know that there is a tradition of doing this in Frelia. That means it's ok. It's ok for me to feel this way."

Lute sniffed and wiped below her eyes with the back of her hand. It had been a long time since she had allowed herself to cry. She looked around the library, suddenly feeling embarrassed, but no one else was nearby aside from two soldiers she didn't know who were using their time off to take a nap.

Lute stood up. She felt unusually decisive. She knew exactly what she felt, and that made the next steps clear.

"I need to find out how Vanessa feels about me." She pondered a moment. "And if I am to be strategic about this, I need to make sure Syrene doesn't dislike me trying to start a romantic relationship with her sister. If she is against the idea, that might make things complicated. Not impossible, but complicated."

Lute nodded to herself. She felt satisfied. She hadn't really followed through with the experiment, which under normal circumstances, would have bothered her. But she knew what to do.

"I'm going to go find Syrene and talk to her first," she thought. Then she walked out of the library.

I start off the map by immediately sending Tana off to the left to eliminate the sword guy we can see there.

Knoll walks off to the right, towards this dead end.

Before the map started, I gave him the Member Card (reveals secret shops) and the Silver Card (buy items at half price). There is a secret shop in this map, at the end of the dead end up and right from where Knoll is now.

As he walks that way, I also have him summon so that I can send a ghost unit down.

Here's the summoned guy! He's just a little dude!

The unit name is something like "ghost warrior". As you can see, when they're summoned, they appear with a weapon, and they do have some stats.

I think the ghost warriors get stronger as the unit summoning them levels up, and I think they might even be able to appear with weapons other than an iron axe, but they only ever have 1 HP, and 0 def and res, so they are guaranteed to die every time they're hit.

Vanessa also heads to the left to help out Tana. Once Tana moved over that way, more enemies became visible.

Duessel and Rennac go to the right and reveal some Axe Fighters.

It's also around this time that I realize I've forgotten to equip any torches or Torch Staves on anyone. Whoops!

Most of the rest of my units also head to the left. You can see Gerik, Ephraim, and Lute near Vanessa and Tana.

The top group, which is Eirika, Cormag, Seth, and L'Arachel, heads out of the room they started in, and Franz (below the two green units) runs up in their direction to help out.

Vanessa and Tana are out front, so they receive most of the aggro, though the green units also take hits.

A General with a Brave Lance attacks Tana, and another General attacks Vanessa. Vanessa manages to get a crit and finishes off the General who attacked her.

On the right side, both Axe Fighters go for Rennac. He dodges the first one, and then gets hit by the second one, but he does get a level up out of it!

Next time: I realize an error that I made that's even bigger than forgetting some torches...

[little-pondhead]

“Hey Danny, whatcha doing?” Jazz slunk into the kitchen, hang gripping an ecto-gun as her eyes darted from place to place.

Her brother, Danny, was standing at the counter next to a cutting board. “Oh, some food prep.” He shrugged, and sliced into the tofu block in front of him once again. The small, high pitched screams of the tofu split into even tinnier screams, which grated on Danny’s sensitive ears. Every time he cut the tofu into chunks, the screams would multiply, just like the scream cheese from Vlad’s favorite movie-Hotel Transylvania.

Jazz hummed, dropping low to the ground as the fruit bowl rushed her. She made precise shots to each sentient piece of food, making them drop to the floor instantly. Little spears whittled from toothpicks were stuck everywhere. Danny slammed a small paring knife into the core of a runaway apple sprinting across his cutting board before taking a huge bite and continuing his work. His sister started delicately picking up the fruit from the floor, frowning at the almost brown bananas.

“What are you making? And do you know if mom has plans for these?” She asked, holding up the bananas.

Danny slid the tofu out of the way and began chopping some green onions. “Oh, I’m just trying this new recipe Sam sent me. Don’t tell Tucker, but she got me hooked on this fried tofu dish so now I’m trying a soup thing. And no, I don’t think mom even knows we have bananas.”

“Well guess I’m making banana bread.” The two siblings moved around the kitchen in harmony, humming to the shitty radio on the table and going about their business. It was ten at night, their parents were gone for the weekend, and it was the perfect time to get some cooking projects out of the way. After all, if they didn’t learn how to cook, the Fentons would be stuck eating takeout for the rest of their lives. And while Jazz was better at baking, Danny had been getting the hang of cooking more complicated dishes with the help of his friends. It was nice, and the pair loved their kitchen time together.

“Can you hand me the rice noodles?”

“Yeah, but pass me the salt by your hand.”

“Ope, there we go.” Jazz opened the fridge to grab the eggs, dodging the roast chicken trying to defend its unborn. “So we have any walnuts?”

“Nah, we’re out.” Danny shook his head. “We have chocolate chips, but I don’t know if mom is using those for the next fudge batch.”

The cry of a carrot was suddenly cut off. “You ever wonder why the fudge is the only thing that has never come to life?” She wondered aloud.

“Nope!” Danny’s food prep was done, and most of the ingredients had stopped wiggling their protests. (Except the tofu.) With swift movements, Danny unscrewed the cap of his spare Fenton thermos and dropped a bit of everything in one by one. Uncooked rice noodles, miso paste and veggie base, soy sauce, cabbage, carrots, green onions, and tofu. He portioned out a decent amount into the thermos, and the rest was split between three clean mason jars he had off to the side.

As a finishing touch, he screwed on all the caps and slapped some pre-made stickers onto each container. The stickers had neon green writing and simply said ‘Good Soup.’ Jazz stopped sifting the flour and shot Danny a quizzical look.

“Sam has been watching a bunch of food videos lately.” He explained. “She follows this dietitian named Kylie, who does this mason jar noodle thing as a quick meal option during work. I don’t really get it, but Sam swears by the noodle jar, so now I’m gonna try it.”

Jazz smiled. The new school year had started, and with it came a new fervor from Sam about the group’s unhealthy eating habits. She’s been bugging the two boys for weeks about their junk food intake, and it seemed like Danny was taking to it better than Tucker. “Well, I didn’t see you put any grass in there, so I hope it tastes good.” Jazz glanced down at her bowl, still mid-sift. Her eyes widened. “Shit, how many cups was this?”

———

Later that week, Danny Fenton was spotted shoving a few blob ghosts into his thermos. A few students watched as he finally got them in, screwed on the cap, and shook vigorously like he was trying to play the worlds worst Macarena song. After a moment, he unscrewed the cap, plucked a plastic fork off his friend’s tray, stabbed the now-living noodles rising from the thermos, and slurped them down. Neon green broth and all.

“Did. Did he just…?” Kwan glanced at Dash.

The football player shook his head. “Nope, not today. Not doing this today. Let’s go, Kwan.” The pair took their lunch trays outside to sit on a bench, hoping to enjoy the sunshine.

“EAT METAL, BANANA-HEAD!” Jazz Fenton slammed open the school doors before sprinting past the jocks and wielding a gun. A loaf of bread was scurrying away ahead of her and leaving trails of crumbs all over the hallways. As her red hair disappeared around the corner, the mashed potatoes from both lunch trays suddenly began to shake and rise. The mere presence of a Fenton tended to bring food to life sometimes-they were that ecto-contaminated. Potatoes especially, for some reason.

“Fucking hell.” Dash hissed. He scooped up the living potatoes with his spoon and flung it into a trash can. “This is why I bully her brother.”

good soup

[forthesanityofstorytellers]

Footsteps of a Stranger

Written in 2019 to be part of an anthology that I don't think ever quite got off the ground. Spawned a good character, tho. Short story that I broke up into chunks for Tumblr. Inspired by the Noir Princesses art by Ástor Alexander.

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WC Total: 6289 -Part 1, 628 -Part 2, 1276 -Part 3, 1163 -Part 4, 686 -Part 5, 1851 -Part 6, 685

Warnings: Guns

Summary: A PI is on the case to discover who has been setting forest fires. And a clue presents itself.

The walk back was cold and lonely. Not many folk out this time of morning. Not many with a reason to be. A small pair of squirrels were slung over my shoulder by the tails, my only show for the whole night. Not that it mattered. I was the only one eating wild game. Thomas was a lamb and did his best to eat clean.

The rain was clearing, a fog spreading across the streets as the sun came up. My office loomed from the mist, a solid brick blending into the shops around it. It was the closest thing I had to a home out here, the private office doubling as a bedroom with a rollout.

I got there first, dragging the rain in behind me. It may have finally stopped, but I was soaked through and couldn’t stop the parade of water leaving a dark stain of evidence as to my path.

My coat added a sloppy circle around the coat rack as I slung it into place, hanging the squirrels above it and sliding my rifle against the doorframe. I nabbed a dirty towel from a nearby chair and wiped down, squeezing the rest of the rain from my black hair. The sun finally rose outside the window, golden light catching in the thick fog. I could barely see the street below. I switched on the nearby radio and began to change.

Danny Kaye was finishing up Civilization when a knock came at the door. I closed my private office and went to answer. The man standing opposite was shorter than me, clean-shaven with brown hair dangling down to his cheekbones while his baby-blues stared up at me.

"Morning, Miss Becka!" he greeted me with a smile, placing his umbrella next to my rifle. He shook his coat off and slipped off his hat, placing them both on the coat rack. "How's things?"

I tapped the door with a knuckle, showing off the wide letters on the glass window that read “R. E. Beck”. “You know that isn’t my real name, Mr. Bayle. Just a bit of gobbledygook to throw off the fuddy-duddies and fat-heads so both of us can work and eat in this town.”

"I -- I know ma’am. And you know Becka is easier for me to say.”

I smiled and moved to one side. “I suppose Matoaka is a bit of a mouthful for you.” He nodded his thanks, ducking as he squirreled his way inside. “Although you’ve been working with me long enough to have figured out how to say it by now, haven’t you, doll?”

“You would think so,” he said, immediately going to the desk and eyeing the papers. “Yet ‘Rebecka’ has always rolled out easier.”

I swung the door closed, Thomas rifling through the papers. “Good job staying on the beam last night. How were the farmers?”

“Shaken, but good. No harm.”

“Close the case with them?”

He nodded, glancing up at me. “Easy as pie, boss. Especially since the pair attacking them are now both dead. Almost an open and shut case. They’ll be coming by to pay the last of our fee and give their thanks.”

“Then I’ll wait in the wings when they come, per usual.” I didn’t like the feeling of hiding, but this was part of the business. We got more clients once we made the switch and came up with a name that could be either of us, which meant more money came in on a regular basis. He never treated me like the other guys, mostly because he wasn’t like the other guys. He was fine acting the stiff gumshoe for the clients, and so was I as long as I got to wear the shoes.

I heard a shuffle of carpet by the door and started towards the back out of habit, assuming it was our client. They had us investigating a murder of an uncle, someone that owned a farm out near the border of cement and woodland. The police had written it up as a hunting accident, something I was able to disprove, mostly on the grounds that the uncle didn’t hunt and his farm was nowhere near hunting grounds. I had tracked down the triggerman and closed the case, but couldn’t shake the suspicion of something larger going on.

“Uh...Miss Becka?”

The stammer caught my next step, halting it from its goal. I turned to see Thomas kneeling by the door, poking at a small enveloped package. I joined him, giving it a quick check with my magic sense before touching it.

The contents were bits and pieces of a puzzle I recognized: reports about a recent string of farms closing down only to get bought by a local landshark company. Sitting next to them were pictures of several forest fires.

I dug around our desk, pulling reports I had already dug up on the fires. All began at night, with no specific start. There had been one a night for about three nights last week. They stopped as suddenly as they started. These new reports furthered a suspicion I was already building: the fires were in relation to the farms not selling.

While I stared, Thomas tossed another component onto the desk. A handful of reports from the company itself. Things I hadn't been able to get my hands on so long as I wanted to keep them clean. But these had showed up on their own.

I turned to Thomas. "Anything else?"

 He held up a single page with a handcrafted note. "Take a close look," he read aloud. "You might find someone you recognize." He hesitated. "Someone you recognize?"

 I looked again, asking idly, "What's the ink at the bottom?"

 "Uh…" he scanned it before flipping it around, "J.Smith."

 Hah. Anonymous. Luckily smoke never threw me from the trail. I scanned the pictures but found no overly familiar faces. A knock came at the door, and I barely noticed a poke at my shoulder.

"The clients," Thomas reminded me.

Ah. Right. That was my cue to keep up appearances and scram. I gathered the notes and envelope from my guy, taking it all into the back room to look over. "No new clients after them," I said over my shoulder. "Get the money and toss ‘em back."

 He nodded, the doors taking turns opening and closing.

I spread things out on the floor, crossed my legs and sat. Someone I recognize…? There was no one. Not anyone overly familiar. I recognized some of the faces from the ones in town but only from flashes of exposure. I wouldn’t say I knew them.

My eyes slid from the faces to the forest. Trees sat stacked on top of another, the trunks bitten away by flames. The empty husks sat in the pictures, black and white and grey displaying the cruel nature of life. Smoke was rising from the branches in thick, black clouds, and…

Wait a minute.

I peered closer.

Got up.

Grabbed a magnifying lens, I fixed it over the corner of the mess. Among the blackened tangle of branches was a different kind of limb−the kind that belonged to an earth sprite. Someone had caught an earth sprite in the fire and subsequently killed it. How did I miss this?

I shook my head. Doesn’t matter. I shuffled through the papers and found where this photo had been taken, gathering a few things I might need. I needed to see the site; if this was intentional, it was murder on a different level. And I was one of the only ones who could follow these tracks to the truth.

-------------------------------------------------------

[Part 3]

[hikarimiyanaga]

Request : Hi, I love and enjoy reading what you write thus I want to pose a request that the Dimitrescu Family with a powerful blood magic S/O who can control people's blood (u know, similar to Skarlet from MK)

Blood Magic, it's one of the powers that I want to experiment with, in terms of writing.

Also, the knowledge/information I have about this is because of Avatar (I haven't played Mortal Kombat in a long time, forgive my broke self.)

I also accidentally deleted the request so it's like this.

I'm really sorry. I hope you enjoy it!

Alcina Dimitrescu / Lady Dimitrescu

As a magician, you were pretty powerful, as a Mage of Blood Magik, though, you were undefeatable.

When you came into the village, the weird parasites in almost everyone's body bothered the fuck outta you. Because why the fuck??

It was just sitting there and eating there soul?? You knew the consequences on messing around with Parasites like those so you wanted to leave immediately but you stopped when you saw Alcina.

This very tall lady who towers over you just stopped the world but then you just realized that you were actually the only one who stopped moving. You quickly turned away but felt it. You turn to her again and see the parasite. It was so deep within her.

"Fuck." You cursed under your breath but then you feel it. Not connected to blood but the energy and mana itself.

"Fucking hell." You use your magic to peek into the Megamycete and grimace.

"Fucking shit." As if third time's the charm, Alcina hears your cursing and looks at you. You clenched your fist and was just glaring on the ground?? What a weirdo.

"Mother, is something wrong?" Bela asks, as she was the one who accompanied Alcina for her little stroll around the village.

"No. Just that woman." You feel eyes on you so you look up to see Alcina staring at you. You huff then turn away.

Being a magician, you aren't actually a people person, you've always hated it when people knew what you were.

Your foes were the only ones who ever actually knew that you practiced Blood Magik... not that they lived to actually tell anyone else.

You try to leave, you really did but all those people. That giant woman, all of it just-

"Leaves a bad taste in my mouth, nothing else." You turn back, trying to excuse your good nature.

You spend days trying different scrying spells, revelation spells and cure spells to see if any would work on the Megamycete and who the fuck is actually using it.

"That fucking bitch." Not only have you seen Alcina's, the villager's and the other lord's memories but Mother Miranda herself. "She wants a daughter? All this for a fucking hell-spawn?" You never did like children yourself, they were too innocent, too goddamn corruptible and too gullible.

You sigh and make your decision. She wants a daughter? You'll give her a daughter. You put on your mask and get your potions.

You'll cure this village of those fucking parasites and diseases or you'll die trying. Most probably cure them.

It took literally a whole day just to get the goddamn parasites of the villagers and Karl, who was the only one of the four lords who volunteered when he heard what you were doing.

The next was Donna, who cried when you actually gave Angie a body. Then Salvatore was next, when you promised to be his friend.

Alcina was the hardest. She thought that if she accepted then her daughters would die and disappear. But you assured her and even showed her that you wouldn't let that happen. She was amazed by the other lords. Donna isn't sporting her scar and Angie is actually alive and in a real body. Karl doesn't have his powers anymore but his intellect is still intact and Salvatore was just beaming.

"How did you-?" You chuckle.

"Blood Magik. It's something that only some practice and even fewer get the hang of. And me?" You ask as the air suddenly gets heavier and everything quiets down as you let out your mana. "I'm the Master of it." Everyone looks at you when just as fast as it came, the tension was gone. You hold out your hand to Alcina. "So would you trust me?" She accepts and cries in relief when she hugs Bela, Cassandra and Daniela in their normal bodies.

Meanwhile, you grimace in silence as your organs will take some time recovering their usual functions... what? Blood Magik needs sacrifices and you would rather do it yourself than exploit other people.

And then lastly, Mother Miranda. You were actually afraid that she would try to fight you and you, with your organs all fucked up and your only weapons are basically your potions, were nervous. But she accepted and as you hand over Eva safely to Mother Miranda, you pass out and everyone panics.

Karl was absolutely fucking scared shitless and befuddled by your physical condition?? How in hell are you even alive?

You wake up three days later and Karl just gave up on trying.

You laugh at him and wheeze.

"I"m basically kind of an immortal too." He just sighs.

The next few weeks were spent inside the Dimitrescu Castle because that was the most comfortable house. The Beneviento House would be good too but Karl just felt that you would like it more in the Dimitrescu Castle. You agree.

As you spend more time with Alcina, you both just slowly but surely fall for each other.

Bela Dimitrescu

Hunting made easier. Brought to her by you and your Blood Magik.

With just one goddamn snap of your fingers and bam, a barrel is full.

This makes spending time with each other, a lot easier and longer.

She would listen to you tell your stories and you love it when she gets excited about books and such.

One day, you finally learn how to create a human body. There was a lot of things to do and spells to practice but you were determined.

And you finally achieved it. It took long enough but then you sensed it.

Mother Miranda stole a baby from a caravan??

"What in hell is happening?" You mumble as you gaze at the village. Then there it was, and it hurt the fuck out of your mana when the people turned into monsters.

"What the fuck!? Shit!" You curse as you feel the megamycete mutate. "Oh hell no!" You shout and use your magik to locate the shit.

"Die, asswipe!" You completely destroy it without batting an eye and you can hear Mother Miranda's shouts of agony.

You pant as you can finally feel the mana in the air be lighter. You go to the castle and as expected, everyone is in a bad shape.

It took months but you got them all back to normal, even most of the villagers.

Bela kept crying as you hug her, finally together with her.

Cassandra Dimitrescu

You met Cassandra while you were surrounded by Karl's werewolves. Dead werewolves. You were slightly out of breath and then your eyes met.

Ethan was about to chase her but you stopped him because she was the same as them.

"Why'd you stop me then?" You shrug at your brother who glares at you.

"We should just get Rose back and not kill anyone anymore." Ethan raises an eyebrow at you.

"What? You literally just killed like a hundred of these werewolves." You use your magik to get the blood off yourself.

"They attacked. I only countered." Ethan sighs as you just walk away. He follows you and as you get to the castle. You can instantly feel their energy.

"What the fuck? They're made of it?" You mumble to yourself. And just as Bela was about to push you and Ethan down, you counter her and made sure to not let her flies disperse.

'Shit. This is hard.' You think to yourself as you dodge both Cassandra and Daniela attacking you.

"Y/N?"

"Rose is in that direction. Just wait for me there." Ethan nods and quickly goes the way you pointed. You use your magik and they all freeze. "You guys are so troublesome." You sigh. "But then again, I suppose all good things are." You use your magik again and locate Alcina.

You made a deal with the Dimitrescu Head. In exchange for normal bodies, she'll have to let you, Ethan and Rose's part go. Ethan's outburst when he realized what they did to his daughter didn't help but you used that.

"You know I'm powerful, right? Trust me, you don't want to test my brother."

You leave the Castle with Ethan, unharmed but with a deal made.

It was the same with the other three houses and before you knew it, your niece was restored and you had to make eight people back to normal... It was hard but when you wake up, feeling groggy and disoriented with all of those people and your family, you think to yourself that it was all worth it.

You rebuild the village with all of them and actually get closer with Cassandra. She admires your magik and you admire her art.

Before you even knew it, you had fallen for her and even though she hasn't realized it yet, she has fallen for you too.

Daniela Dimitrescu

Being a powerful magician meant most of the world are after you.

That was how you found the village. It was isolated and so it was perfect for you.

As you were strolling along the village, late into the night, when everyone is asleep, you feel a somewhat murderous intent and you smile to yourself. Either you were too careless or someone was really good at hiding their intent.

When something was about to hit you, you quickly activated your magik but flinched when it didn't affect them, so you quickly turned and jumped back.

The person who attacked you was surprised as well that you could react like that.

"What? You dodged??" You sigh.

"I dodged because you were trying to kill me! Who are you?" Daniela smiles at you.

"Daniela Dimitrescu, I live in that castle. And you?" Why did this woman?? can you even call her that suddenly- You sigh.

"I'm Y/N... and something is really wrong with this village of yours."

"What?"

Before you and Daniela even knew it, you were both knee-deep in everything, you even saw the Megamycete together.

And call Daniela, good-natured because by then, she wanted to stop Mother Miranda and help everyone. So help you did.

You just couldn't say no to her, could you?

By the time, everything was over, you were already half-dead and Daniela finally realized she was in love with you.

It was a good thing that you have potions.

A/N:

I'm sorry that I have been gone for weeks now. College started then something happened that made me not want to write at all.

But I'm back, although I may be a bit slow.

I'm so sorry. I also closed off my requests since I'll be focusing on college and completing the Loving You sequel which is 70% done by now.

Comments and thoughts are always welcome!

Thank you for reading!

If you can, please buy me a coffee.

[themadauthorshatter]

It's been a while since I did one of these, and I'll be expanding over more of the series.

Here's Part 4 of headcanons I have for Never!Tedros!!

Even when she becomes the coven's new leader, Tedros still hates her guts and it definitely has to do with her treatment of Agatha and letting Dot get kicked out.

In retaliation, he asks Agatha to take her in, which she does, and explains what happened to Dovey, who allows Dot to stay, much to the annoyance of the Evil teachers and a lot of the Nevers, even Sophie.

They have they're confrontation at lunch and Sophie shouts at him that Agatha tricked him, too, lest he forget. He already knows this, but walks away anyway to be with Agatha.

They have some angsty-fluff moments with Tedros asking if she's afraid of him, which she claims she isn't because, no offense to him, he's all bark and no bite with her. He admits to knowing she'd tried using him, but also admits he's glad she gave up on that because it wouldn't have been a good thing if he'd figured it out and she lied to him.

During the bridge encounter, Sophie claims Agatha is the Evil one, and that Agatha is the witch, not her, even going as far as to say she and Tedros are the good ones and deserve an Even After together.

"At least I know I'm evil, you stupid girl."

I should mention Tedros takes a turn for the dark when he is confronted by Ravan, Vex, and other Never boys and dragged into a bathroom, so they can beat the crap out of him for all the stuff he's pulled.

Having been in Good for about a month, he's immediately overwhelmed by all the evils surrounding the students, even a few of Sophie's, which reveal her attacks and intentions for the schools.

Ravan goes to get a hit in with a weapon of some kind, but Tedros grabs it and stands up, angrier than ever before.

Anadil is unfortunate enough to see Tedros leave the boy's room with some blood on his face, but uninjured. He glares at her and walks away without talking.

She finds all the boys unconscious with scratches and slashes on their faces and bodies. The weapon Ravan had is now broken, having been used against them to the extreme.

Come the circus of talents, when Agatha comes in pretty as a picture, Tedros warns her not the stop him, and thanks her for being nice to him.

She sees why when she and a witchy Sophie go toe to toe.

Too bad Tedros attacks Sophie before they can start actually do anything.

I should mention that, as a sort of update on his talent, Tedros can USE these evils to his advantage and can force them into visibility, which is exactly what he does.

He shows all the students what they are on the inside, revealing the monsters he's scene since day 1 of arriving at school.

After a HUGE fight breaks out between Tedros, who is consumed and corrupted by the evils he's seen, letting them take over, and Sophie, who just gave up on being good like before.

Sophie attempts to kill Agatha, but she's caught by Tedros, who's grown shadow-esque wings and looks like some sort of demon dragon.

As he holds her, the two flying maybe eight feet off the ground, he admits he may have gone overboard and apologizes to her for almost dying.

He then reveals he knows about Sophie's plan to not only give the Nevers a ball, but also destroy all of Good and steal the Storian.

"What are you going to do?"

Tedros smiles. "Being a prince. I don't like Beatrix or a lot of other people in Good, but I like you all enough to know I don't want Sophie to end your stories."

"What do you mean? What're you-"

He sort of lands on the ground and lets Agatha stand, resting his forehead against hers. "Agatha, thank you for being in Good."

"You say that like I had a choice."

"No one ever said you had to be my friend, but you did, anyway."

He kisses her on the cheek and takes her to her dorm, which he locked from the outside, in the door, before taking off towards Evil, telling her to not stop him.

She gets to Evil by turning into a cheetah and, like before, tries to crash the No Ball to save everyone.

EVERYONE only believes her ehen Tedros arrives and attacks everyone, using the evils to his advantage.

When Sophie and Agatha are magiced away to Gavaldon, he only stands, emotionally empty as they vanish.

He's locked himself into his room and is sitting with his knees up and with his head resting against his knees.

Hates Aric.

Sleeps and stays in the Doom Room to avoid him, and the other boys because they won't shut up.

Does step up to be the leader of the boys, but does not order any kind of attack on the girls.

When the boys start getting rowdy, courtesy of one of the Everboys, said Everboy gets in Tedros's face when he confronts him. Aric backs up the Ever, and Tedros says nothing as he rams his fist into the Ever's stomach and swings an insanely hard punch into his jaw, which knocks him out instantly. The whole room is quiet as he basically demotes Aric as captain and gives the position to Chaddick; Aric is now responsible for disciplining anyone that steps out of line, which is nice enough, but he'd rather have the power to choose who gets the whip. With a low, "I want this entire castle spotless. You have the rest of the night and the weekend to do it," Tedros leaves, Chaddick following when Tedros asks him to very warmly, despite the scene that just unfolded.

When boys start refusing, Tedros hands them over to Aric, telling him that he can use any method he wants just as long as the boys are still alive.

No one refuses an order after an Ever and a Never leave boisterously shouting they're not afraid of a sewer rat like Aric and return quiet, pale, and injured from getting tortured.

Surprisingly, Tedros is the most collected with Tristan, almost returning to his Book 1 self, except more chatty. Tedros notes how Tristan smells a little different and that the redhead's been distant. Tristan denies it, spawning an evil for lying that Tedros sees.

He tells Tristan to keep his distance, and that he was one of the Everboys that was really nice to him; it's a small thing, but it means the world to him.

When Agatha and Sophie arrive, Tedros has locked himslef in his room. The boys are whipped into shape and don't really step out of line, all except Aric, but he tells the two strongest boys to keep Aric on a leesh if they have to.

Cue a lovely Tagatha reunion where the real Tedros comes back for a little bit.

She tells him about what the School for Girls are saying about him, even talking about how he rules over the boys with an iron fist, but Tedros states that if the boys wanted a different leader, they should've picked someone else to step up.

He tells her he won't hurt her, if they have to fight, but he will tear Sophie apart, so she'd better keep Sophie safe, if she cares so much about her.

Agatha leaves, apologizing for the fact that she might still love him. Tedros apologizes to her for the same reason.

Turns out the boys don't need to pick a new leader because the male teachers do it for them, and lock Tedros in the Doom Room.

He doesn't mind the other boys ignoring him. He doesn't mind the fact that he's not allowed to eat even when he tells the truth. He doesn't mind Aric being a dick or Tristan disappearing into thin air.

He minds greatly when he meets Filip, who has Sophie's evils and makes the mistake of trying to befriend him.

Just to put a target on his back, Tedros allows Filip to win. He wants alone time too, because he's been thinking about Agatha a lot.

Turns out not ALL the boys hate him, because Chaddick tries sneaking him food.

Tedros refuses and asks to be left alone.

A few days later, Filip finds Tedros lying on the ground, passed out and weak from not being fed. He wakes him up and tries to get him to have some lamb, but Tedros kicks Filip away

"Stop whatever game you're playing! I know it's you, Sophie!"

Filip blanches as he stands, flustered. "I... W-Who's Sophie? I'm Filip. Remember?"

Tedros glares up at him and scoffs. "You think I can't tell when you're lying? That I don't know when someone's trying to trick me!? Unless you're here to torture me or rub it in my face that I messed up and you have everything, go away and don't ever talk to me again, you witch!"

Filip(Sophie) is gutted by this, stunned as Tedros adds in a, "Speak of the Devil," as Aric strides in, armed with a whip.

Aric makes Filip leave and gets a few lashes on Tedros as he shouts that the prince is weak, a fool, and useless to eveyone, adding emphasis on weak if he can't even rely on his princess to save him.

When Aric's done with him and leaves, Tedros forces himself to his feet and unpockets a key he snagged off "Filip" when he kicked him.

He gets out and looks for Sophie, who's partnered with Hort for the trial by tale.

He finds Yara instead, heavily injured and dying as he rushes over to her side.

"I tried," she sobs. "I-I tried to get here sooner... and warn you, but he... he came out and-"

Tedros takes her hand, too upset to be angry. "Why, Tristan? Why be with the girls? I would've helped you!"

Tristan, Yara, holds his hand tightly and smiles. "You should've seen it. It was so pretty. And the girls were wearing blue for once."

Even though he has tears in his eyes and running down his cheeks, Tedros can only smile and shake his head. "You're a bloody fool."

"So... So're you."

Tristan apologizes for hiding the Storian away from Tedros, and thanks him for being possibly the only boy in the school for boys that was really nice to him, even though he defected to the girl's shool, in the end. With one last smile, Tristan dies, Tedros setting him down and backing away before shouting and releasing a sort of shadow-y energy, sonic boom that flattens a bunch of trees. He screams, he cries, and he basically mourns the fact that he lost someone he genuinely cared about and saw as a friend, maybe even a brother.

Even though he's weaker than before, tired, emotionally drained, and barely able to stand, Tedros still finds Filip, who's revealed to be Sophie, and, too tired for words, smirks as she tries to explain herself to a very hurt Hort, who she picked as her partner.

"Look who's putting her lessons to good use."

She turns on Tedros and shouts she always tried to help him, even when it would result in a punishment, and where he got worse she got better.

Tedros snickers and asks why she manipulated Agatha and lied to the boys, even Hort, who's her friend. On skaky legs and with unfocused eyes, Tedros murmurs, "You can take the witch out of Evil, but there's no taking the evil out of a witch. No wonder Agatha hates us both."

Just as he falls, Agatha races out of the trees and catches him, apologizing that she hadn't been the one to take the potion and help him and admitting she never hated him. She actually never stopped loving him and believes that he isn't so evil he can't be loved by her.

Tedros asks how she knows, considering the events prior, and Agatha shakes her head; if he was truly as evil as he thinks, she would be dead, her and Sophie both, and both schools would've been destroyed. He can think all he wants that he hates both schools and everyone inside them, and that he's an evil force of destruction that will never sit a throne, but Agatha knows the truth:

He loved going to both schools. He loved being around people, more specifically people who showed him the most minimal shred of kindness, regardless of whether or not it was genuine or out of obligation. He loved being the only one up at night and enjoying the silence of both schools, loved pulling pranks that were harmless, save for causing gray hairs. He loved being friends with Chaddick and Tristan, who took him in and showed him how great it was to even have friends. He loved the lessons in good and the trips between both schools.

Most of all, she knows he loves her, even though she tried tricking him into falling in love with Sophie so they could leave.

Tedros can't help but cry and not seeing any evils grow from Agatha, knowing everything she said was true and that he's an idiot for needing it spelled out for him.

They kiss, ending the conflict between boys and girls, and getting their Happily Ever After. Hort does a good friend move and looks away to give them some kind of privacy, but Sophie is frozen, realizing that regardless of whether she's good or evil, she's not getting Tedros. His heart belongs to Agatha, who feels the same way.

When Evelyn Sader appears with the Storian, bringing back Rafal and dying in the process, Tedros still tries to fight him.

He gets his ass handed to him, and gets that gash in the original story.

When they're sent to Gavaldon and found by Callis, who tends to Tedros, Agatha guves her the run-down, including the fact that Tedros is indeed a Never and the Prince of Camelot.

Callis sighs at this and admits he's good at being still for her, considering how he was so fitful while unconscious. Agatha then admits he sleep walks.

With that in mind, they check and find him awake and staring at Callis, holding a hand out to her as Agatha shakily introductions them.

They trade introductions, Callis at least because Tedros is back to being quiet, and Callis returns to patching him up.

Tedros is quiet as she finishes up, though only breaks his silence with this:

"You're so lucky to have such an amazing daughter."

Sorry this took sonlong to work on. I'm trying to sort of clear the clutter in my Drafts so I can work on more new stuff. This was really fanfic-y, too and I deeply apologize for that😅

Either way, I hope you guys enjoyed this!

[justasimplesinner]

Almost forgot about this!

Can I request headcanons of Venom, Carnage and Spawn getting the most sincere, loving kiss and "I love you" from their male s/o.

(Can you even kiss Spawn🤨 I mean I did see some official art of him with a venom mouth, so I guess)

okay, i did my fair share of research about Spawn but that motherfucker has a history so complicated and so detailed i'm not nearly as knowledgeable about him as the other two, so i'm sorry if my take on his character sucks. if ya'll got any tips on how to write him, please share

and, as i promised before, i'm making this request GENDER NEUTRAL fo everyone to enjoy

Venom not knowing how to handle love hcs:

Venom is a simple creature. they take what they want whenever they want, they're not afraid to destroy whatever stands in their path - in short, they're not exactly a good creature. not necessarily bad but not necessarily good either. their life wasn't exactly filled with love and affection. Eddie's might have, but the alien itself finds love a pretty foreign concept. but thry know when they feel love, and it certainly is around you

it's not like it's their first time being kissed. you've kissed them before. they know how it feels to have your lips against theirs, and it feels good. but you've never kissed them like that. you've never looked at them like that, never cupped their face like that, never... never said it out loud. they don't find words nearly as meaningful or powerful as actions, but hearing that from you... it's different. it was different. something changed and it was a good change. it felt like they were truly allowed to feel. you made them feel something. you always did, but not so much. you made them feel guilty, you made them feel happy, sometimes you even made them feel angry, but this time, you made them feel... loved

it takes them a moment to calm down the emotions raging inside them. it's like they didn't know it meant so much but their heart did, their soul did, and they understood the true significance behind your words. they now understood how it felt to be loved. this is something new to them, so don't be surprised if they practically pounce on you, engulf you in their body, lick you all over like an excited puppy. they can't quite handle that feeling yet, so you have to deal with all that

Carnage not knowing how to handle love hcs:

while Venom is a simple creature, Carnage is an even simpler creature. they just don't care. they don't give a shit. they do whatever the fuck they want whenever the fuck they want. they don't give a shit about morals, they don't give a shit about feelings, they don't give a shit about others. and then you made them care. you made them want to do something good. just for you, of course, not for some fucking society. you made them want to protect you, you made them care about someone other than themselves and Cletus, you made them scared for your well-being. and let me tell you, it was fucking hard for them to accept and handle all that

they have no fucking idea what love even is. they heard about it but they laughed at it. they stopped laughing when they met you. you made them scared, you made them feel guilty about some things, you sometimes made them hurt because you didn't accept all their advances (and those advances include but aren't limited to: being gifted dead animals, being randomly picked up and taken to the roof of one of the highest buildings in the city and basically being endangered in at least one way). and if that wasn't love, they didn't know what was. if that burning need to be around you, to be with you wasn't love, then nothing was. but, despite realising that this might've been a deeper feeling than just "tolerating" you, they never really admitted it. they never said it. but most importantly, they never expected you to say it

what you said, what you did, hit them like a ton of bricks. all at once. just like that. three simple words. just a stupid fucking "i love you". and it made their head spin. it made their heart beat faster. you didn't just "tolerate" them either. you didn't put up with their bullshit because you thought you had no choice (although you really didn't), and all that affection you spoiled them with wasn't empty or out of pity or some shit. you looked at them, you saw the true monster that they were, and yet you had it in you to love them. for all they were and weren't, you loved them whole. they won't just let you go after that, you're tied down for life. you're fucking theirs now. and they're going to show you just how much they love you back

Spawn not knowing how to handle love hcs:

Spawn has his experiences with love. well, he has Albert's memories of love, at least. he knows how it feels, and for him it feels meaningless and hurtful. it means pain and disappointment and wasted effort. in the end, it means nothing. he doesn't trust anyone, he doesn't feel for anyone, he doesn't love anyone. anyone but you. you don't bring pain or disappointment. of course, sometimes he hurts because of you and sometimes you hurt because of him, but that's normal. he feels for you, but he wouldn't dare call that feeling love because it'd feel insulting for you. in his eyes, love is nothing good, it's all bitter, no sweet. so he tries not to label that feeling

he recognizes the gestures you do as some from Albert's past, as the gestures he did for his wife and his wife did for him once. and it... scares him. it does. Albert has loved and lost, and he doesn't want to repeat that story. he doesn't want to depend on you, he doesn't want to seek you out, he doesn't want to associate happiness with you, because what if you left? what if you were gone? what would he have then? nothing. but it's too late already. it's too late, and he realises that the second you cup his face so gently. he realises that the second you kiss him, despite him not really being able to kiss you back. he realises that the second you say that wretched word, "love", right to his face. because he realises that he fucking loves you too and it's utterly horrifying

he will be still for a moment, he won't say it back. instead, he'll look at you and ask you why. you will have to make him understand that love doesn't only bring pain and guilt and disappointment, and that love doesn't always end in a disaster. worst part is, he immediately believes you. he doesn't even question it, because he... trusts you. love is trust, and he trusts you, he... loves you. it's terrible but he's never felt better. he's never felt more like he belonged somewhere than when he pressed his forhead to yours and held you close. and in that one moment he decided that, even if it was going to hurt in the end, he wanted to love you like this forever

[writing-the-end]

LoL Chapter 55- Hell’s Chosen

Masterpost

A Wizard Hermits tale (AU, designs, ideas belongs to @theguardiansofredland)

The hermits discover a dark past to their paladin knight, does this change their perspective of him, or will it save their unlikely ally? 

Warning: Some description of wounds (i think)

________________________________

All eyes were on Wels. Very few had a look of knowledge. TFC, for one. But Tango’s visible confusion gives way to a much softer, quieter version of the hellfire wizard. “Helsknight? You mean the marauder from years ago? But he died.” 

“You’re right, he did. And I killed him. I buried him so deep inside me, and vowed to do whatever I could to be a better man. When Helsknight died, Welsknight was born.” Wels’s fingers are tight in the bloodstained fabric, knuckles turned white as he’s forced to relive, to speak of his dark past. 

“No no no no. You’re joking, right?” Doc shakes his head. Even he feared Hell’s chosen knight. Wels can’t possibly be that same person. Wels, a quiet, collected paladin with the heart of gold and courage of a lion. “I mean...no one ever told the story of Helsknight with a tail.” 

“Less limbs to get cut off if it’s protected by armor.” Wels points out, flicking the lionesque tail. “You want proof? What was the last time anyone ever saw Helsknight?”

Doc cocks an eyebrow, then waves his hand. “Hels and his band of bad guys attacked one of Ventus’s- the God of Judgement- temples. But the attempt was failed, and Helsknight himself was left behind as he bled out...from his neck…”

The entire group stares as the scar that Wels reveals, running from his collar to his clavicle. TFC doesn’t stare like the others. He’s known all of this the whole time. Tango shakes his head. “But you’re nothing like Helsknight. He murdered and killed for fun, to cause chaos and bring hell onto Lairyon. Wels, you’re…” 

“A changed man. Just like Apatia can be- if you give him the chance. Like the woman who healed me did, like X and TFC. Tango, if you don’t let Apatia give his chance to change and rectify what he can, then you can’t let me be any different. You can’t be a hypocrite and pick and choose.” From between Wels and Tango, Apatia groans. The blood has stopped, Ren’s work healing leaving a sloppy open wound behind. 

Apatia was pale, paler than he already was. Almost the same color as Grian, as the latter continues to recuperate from the torture he faced. But unlike Grian’s shallow, soft breaths, Apatia’s runs ragged and harsh. His jaws are clenched, fighting off the pain. With the remaining bandages and healing salve, Wels wraps up the stump of Apatia’s tail fin. 

Tango and Doc are still quiet, trying to comprehend the news that’s been delivered to them. It all makes sense, but their eads still struggle to put the two completely different personas together. As if they’re different people all together. 

Everyone knows who Helsknight is- was. He appeared as if from nowhere, like a demon spawned straight from hell. And immediately, he began reeking havoc. His band of villains attacked and raided. They were more than just some lowly bandits, or even a mafia. Helsknight was a villain, killing without mercy, without remorse, and without discretion. It wasn’t until their botched attack on that temple that ended the reign of terror that Hell’s chosen knight left on Lairyon. Just as quickly as Helsknight appeared, he faded into nightmares and horror story. Kids were told to watch out for the knight with one eye, because he’d pluck out their own to replace his. 

But Welsknight? He’s calm and collected, if a bit snarky. Even when battling even the husks, he always hesitates to strike a killing blow if there’s a potential to save the life instead. Wels is jovial, and a great baker, and tells great stories. Sure, he’s a great knight, but Tango once saw Wels cry over a dead fish he found at the beach. He’s a paladin, not a barbarian. 

Helsknight supposedly died years ago. Welsknight joined the hermits a few years back. Though there’s a span of time in between the day Lairyon celebrated the defeat of Hels and Wels following TFC back to Eremita, it begins to all make sense. There's a reason why Wels never talks about his past. Never visits home. Never explains how he got many of his scars.

Like puzzle pieces, it all falls together and paints a picture. Doc’s jaw clenches. As much as he hates to say it, or even think it, Wels is right. If a monster like Hels can become the man before Doc today, then maybe, just maybe , theres hope for Apatia. 

So long as he lives. The hermits are so focused on Apatia, their argument on whether he should live or die, no one notices Grian rouse from the darkness that still grips him. No one noticed the sky open up, both in Grian’s eyes and the sky beyond the windows. No one notices him weakly clamber out of bed, nearly falling flat on his face, and walking over to join them in the group. 

“What are we on about?” Even when he speaks up, the other hermits are so used to his voice that it hardly registers. 

“Welsknight was once helsknight, and whether we should save Apatia’s life or not.” Tango shrugs, his red eyes glaring down at Apatia with distaste. He still hates the man, but at the same time… they’re supposed to be the heroes. 

“As your resident healer, I think we should. But...I’m not sure why he’s here in the first place.” Ren looks up, realizing who is speaking, and scoops Grian into his arms. His tail wags loud and heavy, banging against the other hermits with every oscillation. 

“Welcome back to the land of the living, my dude!” Ren only sets Grian down when TFC reminds him that Grian is still working towards regaining his life, his color. He’s still slightly unsaturated, his skin missing the tint of pink, the red of his robest boarding the color of dried blood. Ren sets Grian back on the bed, trying to force the angel to rest. But now that Grian’s awake, he’s ready to cause trouble and start his day- even though he has no clue what time it is. 

“What’s going on? I...I don’t remember much. When did you guys save me? Why is Apatia here? How did you find me?” The questions fall like rain in a storm, impossible for the hermits to catch every last drop. 

It’s TFC that manages to slow the downpour. “Hold on, hold on Grian. Why don’t we start from the beginning? We’ll fill you in on everything, in time.”

----------------------------------------------------

All the hermits, once again under the safe canopy of the massive oak tree in their guild hall. Grian is wrapped in a warm, soft blanket- knitted by Stress- and a mug of warm apple cider rests in between his pale hands. “I can’t believe you guys came for me.” 

“Of course we were gonna save you, Grian.” Scar practically laughs at the mere idea of leaving him behind. But for Grian, who’s been kicked out of so many guilds for his troublemaking, it really shows how much they care. 

A rumble of agreements follow, and after a few more minutes of quiet comforting, it’s Grian himself that changes the subject. “Dolios is getting more powerful by the minute. I could feel all the energy flowing through those leylines, into him and that monster, Eurynomos. We can’t delay this any longer. Dolios has to go down.” 

“But we don’t even know how. We can destroy as many crystals as we want, but he’ll just keep making more. He has more power than a bunch of lowly mercenaries. He even beat Apatia, one of his own Councilmembers. One of the strongest guildmasters in all of Lairyon.” BDubs points out. Everyone goes silent as they remember the man in their infirmary. The stranger- he’s not a hermit, yet he’s among them. 

Grian looks up, pale face and hollowed eyes alarming for the hermits. He hardly looks to be among the living, but less like a dead man walking like he was before. “Xisuma, your brother mentioned something about the ancient ones. DO you think there could be a clue for us there? In the past?” 

X sighs, leaning back in his chair as he considers the question. “If the answer to ending Dolios’s dark reign truly lies in the past, then we’d have better luck finding the answer ourselves. Thousands of years, eroded by time, by kingdoms and cultures rising and falling, not to mention the disappearance of the ancient ones. There’s a reason ancient magic is dead- because none of the books teaching it survived.” 

“There’s one person we know who has studied the ancient ones for years.” Joe’s voice cuts through the crowd, looking around. Every other hermit is lost and confused, but Joe can see the mixed emotions raging in Xisuma’s eyes. “Besides Ex can take care of the island, of Apatia while we’re searching.” 

“Ex chose to leave Eremita. Why in gods’s names would he want to come back, to help us?” X growls. 

“Because he’s your brother. He helped us save Doc. He’s been helping us, helping all of Lairyon- in his own weird, Ex way. He’s not the villain here, he’s your brother.” 

X clenches his jaw. The scar over his eye burns at the memory of their fight. The words he said to his brother, and the worst responded in kind. Xisuma still received letters from Ex, but he only opened them when Cleo’s cider had clouded his better judgement. And he never responded. 

But he also remembers the moment, after years estranged, he laid eyes upon his twin brother, crammed into the bookstore he was running. The moment of relief, of happiness to see Ex alive and well. Their identical faces, like mirror images of one another. His hair pure white, like the bright sun in the sky. Even now Xisuma remembers how often he’d complain he could always find Ex hairs on his clothes. 

And that Ex helped them save Doc. All these years fighting, Xisuma can’t believe he’s going to be the one to concede defeat. But for the fate of Lairyon, he guesses he has to. He pulls off his mask, turning it over in his hands, running a thumb over the scratched out symbol. He swallows his pride, and stands. “I’ll get the letter to Phoebe. What’s one more stranger to the island?”

[drawlfoy]

Wonders of Ohio P.8

masterlist (read parts 1-7 here!) request guidelines

pairing: draco x reader

request: no ma’am this was spawned in the pits of my hell brain

summary: y/n’s family takes on a particularly mysterious exchange student, draco malfoy. fyi: this is NOT a non magic AU--draco is still a wizard

warnings: swearing, college admissions (ew), vague mentions of a car accident

a/n: hey...ahahahaha yeah so when i disappeared from the writing scene i was actually sitting on this chapter because i wanted to finish the entire scene up until draco came back home, but i haven’t quite figured out how everything is going to work in the middle of this story bc we’re getting into the thick of it. things are only going to get more and more wild and while i have the ending already written (oopsies), there’s still a lot to cover between december and august. i promise you it’ll be worth it tho--thanks so much for waiting!

word count: 2.5k

no music recs because i wrote this in november and i don’t remember ANYTHING!

tags tags tags (message me if you’d like to be tagged!) @icintliviinyiniilsiji @erisdogwood @loveissupernatural @gruffle1 @missmulti @cleopatera @hahaboop @accio-rogers @geeksareunique @eltanin-malfoy @war-sword @cams-lynn @itsivyberry @ayo-cowbelly @nerd-domland @yesnerdsblog @shizarianathania @evanstanfanatic @strawberriesonsummer @hariosborn @night-ving @straightzoinked @imintoodeeptostop @naiomimoonshard @jejegu @ophelia-enthusiast @alwaysbeanunknownfan

Y/N froze as she heard someone clear their throat behind her.

In any other situation, she would have fibbed, the lies rolling off her tongue and falling into a neat pile.

But this wasn’t just any situation. 

“Drac--uh, Draco,” she began, rather lamely. She wondered if he could see what she had been doing and then immediately stopped that train of thought--of course he could, she was sitting there crouched with his letters all over the floor next to her.

Y/N had never seen him look so terrible--his eyes were saucers and his fists were clenching and unclenching at his sides.

“What’s up?” she asked. Maybe I got really lucky and he hasn’t noticed yet.

His mouth opened and closed a few times as he seemed to agonize over what to say. 

“Give me those letters back,” he finally said. “And come into my room. We need to talk.”

She scrambled to get everything back into the satchel--honestly, how had all those fit into such a tiny bag?--and tossed it into his hand. He refused to make eye contact and instead yanked her into his room, shutting the door before closing the blinds.

“Uh...what’s going o--”

“Don’t play dumb,” he snapped. “You know what you read.”

She withered under his gaze, all of a sudden trained on her with a heat that could melt through iron. 

“Here’s how this is going to go,” he said tying up the satchel and tossing it into a drawer. “You’re going to sit right there and tell me everything that you know. And no lying. I can always tell.”

Something about the weight of his words told her that the last part wasn’t hyperbole. “O--okay. Um, I know that you’re kind of strange, and I know that your family definitely isn’t into politics because unless you’ve changed your name I haven’t been able to find shit on your family...I know that you’re here for some kind of punishment, or at least that’s what the letter said, and that wherever you’re from believes in, uh, magic, or something…”

Y/N had never been so scared of Draco as she was right then. He stood looming over her, his eyes calculating and cold. “You’re telling the truth.”

“Uh--how did you--”

“Is there anything else you want to know? Ask now or forever hold your peace. I promise I’ll take care of this.”

Y/N blinked. “What? What do you mean take care…”

“Don’t...just don’t ask that right now.” Draco’s demeanor made a switch from intimidating to exhausted. His previous towering presence looked more mournful than anything. 

“Ok,” said Y/N, willing to take something else over nothing. “So...why are you here? Where are you actually from? What happened to your dad?”

Draco drew in a few slow breaths. “My family’s name is Malfoy. I never lied to you about that. We’re from England, like you think. But we’re not really from the same world as you.”

He looked at her, gauging her reaction. When nothing came, he continued. “I’m...magic, as you would probably say. Like, wizards and witches and shit. Like the stuff all of you here celebrate for Halloween. Just more real.”

“You’re off your rocker is what you are,” said Y/N. “Magic isn’t real.”

“You’re right, it isn’t,” Draco replied, his tone wearing down. “Not to you. It’s very real to me.”

“Were you in a cult or something because that’s absolute batshit cra--”

“Oh my fucking God can you just listen,” he said in one long-winded breath. “Thank you. Not that it matters that much if you actually believe me and I’m not allowed to show you any magic--they almost sent me back home for spelling my hair neat that one time in the car with you--but you should believe. Did you really think you were just sick after Homecoming? Like, did you think that was the common cold or something?”

“Well…” Y/N trailed off as realization dawned on her.

“I don’t know how you got into that store, but it was magic. Whatever object you picked up did something to you. You would’ve died from muggle care--the only possible treatment was extracting whatever magic had somehow gotten inside you.”

“So you were the person in my dream.”

“Yes. Anyways. So back in England, my family got wrapped up in some...dark business with a very evil wizard. I had to do some things that I’d rather not get into, and those things were serious offenses in the eyes of the Ministry--which is like your government. I was sent here as a punishment instead of something more severe.”

Y/N snorted. “Assuming all of this is true, why did you get sent to America? Normally exchange students see trips to the US as a kind of vacation...but I do understand the part of Ohio being used as a punishment.”

His face was void of amusement. 

“I wasn’t sent here because Ohio is boring,” he said. “I was sent here to be forced to assimilate into muggle society--”

“Muggle?”

“People who aren’t magic. Anyways, that was the punishment. Having to live with and associate with muggles, far enough away from home that I faced no threat of vigilantism and couldn’t escape.”

“Oh.” Y/N deflated into her seat as it all began to hit her. So that was why Draco was so disgusted with her. There was a reason why some gut feeling told her that he would never see her like....that.

“Anyways, for the less exciting part.” Draco turned to rifle around the jewelry box they’d kept in the guest room. “It’s crucial to the safety of my people that you don’t know about us. Muggles get scared, and sometimes they hurt us. They nearly wiped us out a few generations ago.” 

He turned around, wielding a small wooden cube that glimmered in the light. “I’m really sorry, Y/N. I have to do this. If they know you know, they’ll send me away.”

“Do...what?” She stared up at him as he approached, holding the square out in his palms. “Draco, what’s going--”

“I told you I’d take care of it,” he said, his tone pleading. “I’m going to make you forget.”

~

Y/N eyes flickered open. It was chilly in her room--one look confirmed the fact that her window was wide open--but she had a thick blanket pulled over her. As she shed the last pulses of drowsiness, one thought bubbled to the surface: 

That fucker.

She sat up, threw the blankets off her bed, and started towards the guest room.

“Hey,” she said, yanking the door open and standing in front of a very surprised Draco. “Nice try. Are we actually gonna talk this through, or are you gonna put me to sleep again?” 

“Wha-”

“I remember everything, dipshit. Especially the part where you didn’t let me say my piece before you knocked me out.”

“I-”

“Try and steal my memories again and it’s on sight, Draco.” Y/N sucked in a deep breath and finally slumped down onto his bed. “You were saying?”

“How did you...er...you’re not supposed to remember me,” he said. “Do you have any magic blood in your family? Do you know?”

“Look around. If we had magic blood we wouldn’t be living in Ohio.”

“I’m not joking around.” He joined her and laid back. Y/N tried to not make a mental note of how a few strands of his hair brushed up against her cheek for a second. He smelled of peppermint and pine. “There’s no reason why that shouldn’t have worked. You definitely aren’t magic--I can feel it, no offense--and that Obliviation cube was explicitly created to work on muggles and wipe specific memories of magic.”

“I guess I’m just better.”

“Not funny. I’m definitely going to get sent to some random village in...I don’t know, Siberia for this. And your whole family will be obliviated. The whole point of me telling you was so I could get you to understand why I had to wipe your memory.”

“That’s horribly disrespectful, you know. Not even asking for my consent before doing such a thing? Try again.”

“I will,” he said, sitting up and grabbing the cube again. 

Y/N sprung up and scooted away. “Wait! Wait! That was a joke! Can’t we just talk this through? I’m a really good liar.”

“Lying doesn’t matter in front of the Ministry. They have their ways.”

“And what’s the Ministry going to do?” she asked. “Because, right now, it looks like I know about your secret and they’re not knocking down my door yet. Are they seriously going to break into my own home and perform some kind of lie detector test on me out of the blue? Are they really gonna cause a scene like that? No? I didn’t think so.”

Draco looked even paler than usual as he examined her from the other side of the bed, his adam's apple bobbing up and down as he swallowed. “I hope you’re grasping the severity of this. This isn't a fun little joke. This is the difference between my community living or dying.”

“I get that. But if I say I’m not going to tell anyone, then how is your community at risk?”

“You can’t promise me that.”

“Draco.” Her tone was strong enough to make him snap his head up and meet her eyes. “You saved my life. I’ve lived with you for almost 3 months. Trust me when I say I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. Swear on my life.”

The silence was tangible between the two as he stood there staring.

“You have to trust me,” said Y/N. “Please.”

Draco met her eyes again, a type of helplessness written so deeply into the etches of his face that he nearly looked like a different person than the proud, posh British boy that was usually him. “Okay.”

“Okay.” She let out a sigh of relief as he put the cube back into the drawer. 

“Don’t get too comfortable, though,” he told her. “Once I figure out how to fix this, I won’t need to trust you anymore.”

“You’ve been trusting me with your life since the moment you got into a car with me for the first time. Do you have any idea how many teenagers crash on the freeway? I don’t get why this is so different.”

He scowled. “I think it’s very obviously different.”

“I can pull up the stats for you real quick if you want. Just so you can grasp the severity of the situation that you’re minimizing right now.”

“Damn it, Y/N, you don’t understand!” Draco slammed his hands on the dresser, the wood making a loud smack sound as it connected with his palms. She jumped. “All my life I’ve been...You just don’t understand.”

“You have no other option, Draco,” said Y/N. 

“I...I know.”

~

The next few weeks were profoundly uncomfortable. If it wasn’t just for the fact that there had been a burglar turned home invader turned...whatever on the loose, Y/N was now dealing with the fact that her world as she knew it was turning upside down.

Draco was magic. He was different, and while this at first had been difficult for Y/N to believe, she began to realize just how much sense it made. The way the most ordinary of daily objects confused him...his discomfort with using the internet...his distaste for all of the people he met…either he was raised under a legitimate rock or he was telling the truth....

And perhaps the most conclusive revelation regarded his stance on his feelings towards her. After that night at Sylvia’s, Y/N had begun to think that there might be something there, or at least that something there might’ve been possible.

Now she knew that it wasn’t. And she had to be okay with that.

Draco was for the most part normal apart from the fact that his wariness around her was obvious. She could feel him keeping a close eye on her in the halls when she spoke with her friends. Sometimes he’d even level a look in her direction, a clear demand written all over his face: Not a word. You promised.

Evening teas stopped entirely. Draco ate in his room for breakfast and seldom said anything on the rides to and from school, and, to be entirely honest, it helped. She could feel her hopeless crush become weaker as the month of November wore on. Her giddy excitement towards a possible love interest was directed to the nervous dwellings on her UChicago application. 

Results were out on December 3rd, and she was absolutely buzzing. Fuck weird blond boys that came into her life and told her of an entire mystical and magical world out there--the gothic, hallowed architecture of UChicago was waiting for her. 

“Honey, it’s almost 5!” 

“I know.”

Y/N sat, cross legged on her bed, as she looked at the email she’d received moments ago from UChicago. In 3 minutes, the portal would open up. And her fate would be decided.

“Don’t open it yet, your father and I are coming!” Mrs. Y/L/N yelled from the kitchen. 

She smiled--for once, her father had managed to take a night off of work to be there for her. The only person missing in their home was Draco, and she supposed that he didn’t count anymore. At least not in the classic way. 

5:00pm.

“Hold on, hold on.” Her father’s voice carried down the hall, paired with the sound of feet thumping up the stairs.

Her parents appeared in the doorway, rushing to her and peeking over her shoulder.

“Are you ready to open it?” Mrs. Y/L/N asked, placing her hand on Y/N’s shoulder. 

“Uh...yes.” Her stomach flipped as she pressed her mouse over the blue hyperlink, directing the screen to show a login page. She wasn’t quite sure what it would look like--perhaps her decision would be right there when she logged in--but despite her racing thoughts, she input her portal information, pressed enter, and squeezed her eyes shut.

Dead silence.

“Honey.”

Her mother’s voice was strife with...some kind of emotion, whatever it was. Y/N dared to pry her eyelids open just a pinch, giving her just enough vision to read out the clear “CONGRATULATIONS” spanning the entirety of her page.

“Oh my god. Oh my god!”

The euphoria that followed was indescribable. Her father’s arms, encircling her shoulders in a way he hadn’t done since she was a child, her mother’s professions of how proud she was...incredible.

The only thing sullying it was a Draco shaped figure looming in the doorway once the hysteria died down.

“What happened?”

“I got into UChicago!” she exclaimed, her voice brimming with enthusiasm. 

He simply stared at her, his gaze cool and uninterested. Y/N felt all the joy drain from her face. “I hate to butt in, but I have some news too. I’ll be traveling back home for the holidays.”

“Oh.” Irritation was written clear as day across Mrs. Y/L/N’s face. “When will you be leaving?”

“Tomorrow.”

final a/n: heyyyyyy everyone let me know what you thought. what do you guys think will happen next chapter? how do you think this is going to end overall? ik this is a draco x reader but do you guys think that draco still has a ways to go before he can have feelings for y/n? or does he already have them? im inch rested please lmk your thoughts

also my endless apologies to ohioans i did not mean to add the slander in there ik that plenty of you are lovely people <3 cancel me if you wish 

[purekesseltrash]

My Fic List

Whelp, decided I should do one of these.  I have mostly written for Hockey RPF and BNHA, as you have likely already seen!

My BNHA Fics

Bury Them Deep

- “Shouji Mezou's entire life has revolved around being a goalie and playing hockey since he was five years old. After being drafted in the third round in the NHL, Shouji has two more years of college before moving on to playing professional hockey like he's always wanted. Or at least like he always thought he wanted. An injury that ends his season throws him into a tailspin, forcing him to take a look at his life and how he is going to live it, especially after meeting his fascinating new goth history tutor.”

(This bad bitch is 81k total and is chock full of my red hot hockey takes and midwestern references.  I love it very much and it is a sweet baby.)

The Rooftop Necromancy series AKA my black metal band AU:

Downhill from Here 

- “ Hizashi just wants to tour the country with his best friends with their metal band in their shitty van like they've been planning for years. He'd successfully hidden his crush on one of them for years, after all, he would definitely be able to make this work and keep things fun and uncomplicated. Until Aizawa decided to start acting weird. “

(In which I take you all on a nostalgic trip to 2006-2008 metal culture and you can see the black metal love song that my dumb ass wrote.)

The Perfect Mistake

- “ It wasn't as though Hizashi had planned on breaking up with his boyfriend while they were on tour in a tiny cargo van with no room and no peace. He would have much rather preferred to do it when they were home and he could easily go and crawl back into his mom's basement. But he didn't have a choice. “

(As relationships tend to do, theirs goes through problems.)

Rooftop Necromancy

-"He’d even ended up leaning into the crowd when someone’s elbow had connected solidly with his nose and thrown him back. They’d gone quiet as Hizashi got himself up to his feet, ripped off his now bloody ‘Within Temptations’ tshirt from 2004, whipped his hair back from his face and screamed, “That’s what I’m FUCKING talking about.” into the mic.

They went wild for it, cheering as blood ran down his nose, past his mouth and dripped onto the stage, leaving him feeling like an otherworldly monster performing an occult ritual. Metal, he thought dazedly to himself, why in the fuck had he ever stopped doing metal."

(I hyperfocused so hard at the idea of Mic as a metal head that I wrote this in seven straight hours and WROTE THROUGH THE ATTEMPTED COUP ON DEMOCRACY WITHOUT KNOWING IT.  It’s a bit rough, but it’s got some good parts and it spawned the whole damn series.)

Hands Up

- "But of course he had, they had always been able to read each other and what they meant. That had often been their problem, if he was going to be honest."

(In which they figure their shit out.  Basically it was written when I was thinking alot about how my own mental health had evolved through the years.  It’s basically the story of two people who are both very good for each other and also very bad and how they deal with that.  It’s probably the most personally meaningful thing I’ve ever written.)

The other BNHA fics:

Waking Up With Ghosts

-"Hizashi opened his eyes to a world that belonged to ghosts. His headphones were gone and the gray, grimy world that he felt more than saw was muffled and still. This was bad, he hazily thought."

In which we follow Hizashi shortly after the events of 296. How he's found, how he finds out and how he has to tell.”

(I fished this one out of the garbage of my Google Docs because I’d written most of it and forgotten about it.  I dragged it out, prettied it up a little and threw it up on AO3.  It is by far my most well read BNHA fic, go figure.)

Leave Her Johnny

-”Captain Hizashi Yamada has combed the Seven Seas looking for the elusive smuggler Eraserhead. He has spent years searching for him, tracking his movements and trying to anticipate where he would be next. But he had never considered what would happen when he finally found him. “

(I wrote a paragraph of this and was immediately like ‘I MUST CREATE THIS’.  I take some chances writing wise in this as the whole thing is done in a Victorian Era ish style of writing.  But I think it’s effective and the ending is likely one of the best that I’ve ever managed.  I’m proud of it.)

Gold Rush

-”"That earned him a laugh and Mashirao’s smile made something in his chest ache, something that made him want to hurt. Why had he ever left?

“I’m really not,” Mashirao was saying but Shinsou just shook his head and kissed him once, twice and wished he could take the sunny afternoon and make it stay forever. Make it stay forever like Mashirao somehow had, while the neighborhood had adjusted without Hitoshi’s permission.

“You are,” he said, “And I love it.”

I love you, he should have said.  But as Mashirao’s eyes softened and the blonde pushed him back against the bed, Hitoshi knew he didn’t need to say it."

(You know how sometimes you listen to a Death Cab for Cutie song about gentrification over and over until a fic comes out?  Because that’s basically what happened here.)

Black Sun

‘"But then he remembered the way that Shouji had eaten the night after, one hand curled into his hair as he hung back in the corner. Shouji hid when something was wrong, like a wounded cat trying to find a dark place to either live or die and he was being released tomorrow. Now was the time to push or he’d find Shouji right back on his bed, staring at nothing."

Something happened to Shouji on the beach. Tokoyami is sure of it.‘

(Aaaaaand Death Cab for Cutie strikes again.  But heyo, my first published ShouToko and it is SOFTTTTT)

In the Far and Mighty West

Mic came closer and despite himself, Shouta could not find it in him to feel afraid. “You won’t understand, not really. I’ll try, though. I’m like Pecos Bill or Paul Bunyan or a jackalope or that fish that your friend caught that he swears he brought in but that you’ve never seen proof of. I’m the herd of dogies moving sweet and steady in the right direction, I’m no stragglers to worry about, I’m that perfect dog that’s there to keep them in line. I’m that group of good friends that you would kill for, I’m the woman who you’re dying to come home to, I’m that promised home of milk and honey. I’m Mic.”

Shouta stared at him dazedly and licked his lips, feeling drunk and stupid as he stared at the man. “You’re… magic?”

“I suppose you could call me that.”

(Cowboy!Erasermic.  Inspired heavily by American Gods and my own love of folk heroes.)

In Your Violence

- “'Mezou frowned, eyes narrowing. “Are you trying to say that you’re scared that I’ll be killed by having faith in you?”

“It would be in your best interest to stay away from me,” Fumikage finally said, his voice falling flat and quiet. “I am destined to be a monster.”

'Mezou gets the call he fears, the one that says that Fumikage has lost control again. But this time it's different, in more ways than one.”

(I listened to Silence by Marshmello until I went insane in this is the result.  Featuring some of my super depressing headcanons about Shouji!  But it’s not awful.)

My hockey fics that I still like:

Hufflepuff Halfwit  

- ““Zhenya, the wind is coming from the west, I will not remind you again. You shut that window before the house stinks of factories!” She snapped and Geno stared at the owl as though maybe it would know what to do. But instead, it had given a little hoot and wiggled inside, only to drop it’s letter on the counter.

He turned his head very slowly back to look at his mother, who had suddenly gone very quiet. “It… just showed up, Mama. And um. It brought a letter.” He waited again, looked back at the owl who had begun to nose at the pirozhkis in interest and then looked back at his mother with the best puppy dog eyes he had ever attempted. “Can I keep it?”

(This is a part of my hockey/Harry Potter au that still legitimately haunts my dreams.  It’s basically a Sid/Geno in Hogwarts but I really love the world building I got to do with Koldovstoretz, the Russian school of wizardry.  Don’t read ‘On the Word of a Slytherin’ though, I’m not as proud of that one.)

The Prince  

- “What the fuck.” Matt breathed out, sitting back heavily onto his hotel bed as he stared at his phone.

‘This is Henrik.’ The text read. ‘I would like to meet you. I will book a room in Pittsburgh at your convenience. Let me know what time will work for you.’  - 

(Listen, it’s Henrik Lundqvist/Matt Murray smut, I feel like that is novel and interesting and worth your attention.  I wax poetic on goalies in this, as you do.)

The Zoo of Toronto 

- “No one missed it when a massive porcupine had shuffled in between the reporters with a single minded focus, pushing media away until it was able to grip onto Phil’s suit pants and try to pull itself up. He hadn’t been able to do more then besides pick the animal up before it could shred his pants to shreds and walk out of the locker room before the decision had been made with the Toronto media.

Phil Kessel was guilty.” 

(Not gonna lie, this is probably my favorite of the hockey fics I’ve written.  And it’s Phil/Carl, which is never found anymore but it was a good pairing.)

[bellatrixxue]

Xue’s Supernatural Dare: Wendigo (S1 EP2)

Hello, everyone? How did everyone feel about the finale? Yes? Yes? Oh. Oh. Oh my. Oh, dear.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell that half-assed homophobic chicken-shit fuckbucket’s not gonna stop me, since I strapped myself onto this roller coaster already and I promised I’m not getting out until the ride’s over, so here we go, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Also, those who are in this roller coaster with me, ready? Tag list is: @fangirlxwritesx67​ @amazingiam00​ @kalliravenne​ @indecisive20something​ @2musiclover2​ @impossibletosleepthrough @there-must-be-a-lock​ @wingedcatninja​ @arvit​

Oh my gods this recap is so cheesy I actually can make a fondue out of it. 2000s, everybody!

A WHOLE MINUTE AND A HALF FOR THAT FONDUE

FUCKJUMPSCARETITLEFUCKYOU

So we’re starting the episode with the murder scene first, eh? Is that gonna be a trend?

Oh come on, Chads, you’re out in nature and you’re playing video games? Absorb the nature...before it absorbs you!

Waitwait. Holy shit is that...is that Cory Monteith? Oh, bless his soul...

If the wendigo eats his dick as he’s peeing I’m immediately giving Jensen Ackles $100. For no real reason, I just feel like giving him money for already carrying the show on his back.

I can’t tell if it did or not, so I’m not paying yet.

Aw, Sammy...

"I should have told you the truth.” *Vine voice* BUT YOU DIDN’T

FUCKYOUINTHEASSHOhnightmare. Nightmare. So did he visit her at her grave or not? I need answers.

A week? Goddamn. Poor thing. That man-eating tree’s fucking good at his job, man.

“There’s nothing there, it’s just...woods,” Sam, I don’t know if Jess’s death hit you hard or if you got into law school by eating some ancient dick and/or pussy instead of earning that high score fair and square, but the woods “in the middle of nowhere” (your words) are known to be one of the top places full of weird-ass creatures. Even kindergartners know that.

Ehehehehehehehehe he’s so smol next to his lil bro my lil shit

At least you’re coming up with decent covers this time. No Agent Mulder and Scully ruining things for you this time around.

“Bull” oop-

Oh Dean’s a smoooooooooth operator. Good going, buddy.

AND HE GOT A COPY OF THAT DOCUMENT TEAM DEAN TEAM DEAN

Oh that death really got to Sam. I hope he doesn’t turn out to be a trigger-happy psycho. Or eat the man-eating tree and become one himself.

Oh, Haley’s a cutie! Which one’s her brother? Cory? Discount Enrique Iglesias?

Do you have a card for EVERY profession, Dean? And how do I get them too?

That is a very pretty car. I bet they wasted half the budget on that thing.

Okay, sonny boy, little bro, Broseidon, calm down.

Ah, fuck, Haley and Broseidon is gonna go into the woods, that’s more heads to worry about.

How the fuck does Sam find information this fast? I’m impressed, I take five hours to get to one article for my research paper. Or maybe I’m just lazy. So he really earned his law school interview without having to eat dick and pussy, huh.

Every 23 years? What is this, Pennywise? Are we going to see the wendigo do his best Tim Curry do his best scary clown impression? Honk honk?

“Whatever that thing is, it can move.” And the sun rises on the East, Sammy. Why are you so smart and dumb at the same time? Is this his character trait? It might grow on me.

Ahhh, so Sam’s go-to move at interrogation is doing puppy dog eyes and sympathize with the person. He’d make a good lawyer, shame that man-eating tree.

Go Grandpa Exposition, go!

Go Grandpa Exposition, go, give us information and none at all!

OH GEEZ THAT SCAR. PENNYWISE WENDIGO IS VICIOUS.

Skinwalker, Back Dog...Ooh, those all sound cool! I hope we get to see them soon!

‘Corporeal’ doesn’t sound like a real word, but then again, English doesn’t sound like a real language. Sorry. Moving on.

Sam’s gonna eat the wendigo with that attitude, Jesus Christ.

AND HIS BROTHER, AT THIS RATE. If the real villain turns out to be inside Sam all along I’m gonna flip. Is that why women keep dying and burning on ceilings where he sleeps? Is he secretly Lucifer’s spawn or something?

“Oh sweetheart I don’t wear shorts”. They queer-coded him from the start and they tried to make you believe he was straight for fifteen seasons straight? And some people bought that?

Oh, crap, another crappy death treatment for Cory before he got into Glee...No, I wasn’t into Glee, I just watched a few episodes and I might hate Rachel Berry...And Lea Michele...ahem...

Dean is totally flirting with Roy shut upppppppp

OOP AND THERE ROY GOES OH THE SEXUAL TENSION IS HIGH IN THESE WOODS TODAY

“It’s probably the most honest I’ve been with a woman. Ever.” See. Bi. Bi bi bi.

So...why the coordinates, Daddy Negan? Is this a portal to Hell? A place where man-eating trees grow?

*carefully places death flag on Roy*

Ooooh the campsite is very...haunted house-y. You know what I’m saying?

That’s not Discount Enrique Iglesias, but Pennywise wendigo, yes? Those things can mimic human voices, right?

*Google searches*...There are so many versions of this tale I can’t even confirm or deny it. Dammit.

Maybe Pennywise wendigo just wants some snacks and a nice phone and GPS? Maybe he misses his family in uh, Canada or something?

Daddy Negan’s journal is  a e s t h e t i q u e .

I’m so sorry, but the way Sammy smirks as he speaks with those dark, dark voids for eyes? My boy’s a demon. He’s a demon, I’m telling you.

At least Haley has some sense to her. *puts another death flag on Roy*

*PUTS YET ANOTHER DEATH FLAG ON ROY*

True, that. What the heck is Daddy Negan up to with all of this?

“Saving people, hunting things, the family business!” Okay, the way Dean said it gave me chills.

I can actually empathize with Sam here...As whiny and bitchy as he is, he has his reasons to be this way. I guess if I were in his shoes, I’d be less of a Dean and more of a Sam, too. We deal with our losses quite similarly.

Ah, the brotherly bonding moments like these little talks make the show worth it. It’s so heartwarming.

Pennywise wendigo! I didn’t miss you, why’re you here to burst my happy bubble?

I’m starting to see a slight parallel between Haley and Broseidon and Dean and Sammy. Hmm.

Nice meeting you, Roy. Zoop you go.

Haley and Broseidon are taking this rather well, I’m glad they do.

Okay, actual exposition time, thank you.

Whoa, Broseidon speaks! Donner Party! Please don’t remind me of that! Those poor people!

Hibernation and food storage. Delightful, just delightful.

TORCHING? *CALLS RAMMSTEIN*

Somehow, not being able to see the wendigo is scarier to me than what I will probably see itself. Limited budget horror can actually work well.

Oh, dear, Roy literally did a death drop. Badum tissssssssss.

FUCK IT TOOK DEAN THE ONLY CHARACTER I CARE ABOUImean I love you too, Sam! Come on, let’s find him before it’s too late!

A trail of M&Ms! Yes, Broseidon! And Hansel and Gretel refercalled it. Sammy, you and I share the same wavelength?

SHITSHITTHEYTRIPPEDANDFELLINTHEFUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Thank the gods the Pennywise wendigo kept them right there. Chances.

DISCOUNT ENRIQUE IGLESIAS IS STILL ALIVE GEEZ BUT ALSO PHEW

Ah, Dean Winchester, I love you so much that I can’t even begin to describe it.

Also how convenient that the flare guns are there. Deus ex machina!

Haley would bode well as a hunter, look at her courage, her will. There are more hunters around than Daddy Negan and the brothers, right?

Yeah, seeing the actual wendigo makes me less scared of it now. It’s unnerving, but still.

TEAM DEAN YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAW

Graphics are...alright, but it’s the thought that counts!

Running with the grizzly bear story. Smart Broseidon. Ben. Sorry, you deserve to be called by your real name. I think with practice they could become good hunters, along with their Discount Enrique Iglesias brother! Is there a fanfiction for that? Can I write it now?

...

I AM WILLING TO DIE TO PROTECT DEAN WINCHESTER I

Haley’s a lesbian, that’s why she kissed him on the cheek only. Headcanoned. Also I have a crush on her, she’s really pretty? Like? Heart eyes???

Ah, the siblings parallels again. Let’s hope neither of the two brothers end up in the bed like that.

“Man, I hate camping.” Really. Really really. Really.

“I’m driving”

...

SAM WINCHESTER I’M SORRY I EVER SPOKE ILL OF YOU I WILL PROTECT YOU WITH MY LIFE TOO I PROMISE YOU I WILL

It’s just a sassy bisexual brother and his little snide bisexual brother on the road to kill evil creatures and find their father and I love this show? Help? Help???

I really, really see the charm of Supernatural now! I’m fully invested in both brothers and their story, and I’m cheering them both on! Let’s get Daddy Negan back and get rid of that man-eating tree once and for all!

Six stars out of five!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This dare is introducing me to a whole new world, and I really, really am glad I took that jump a few days ago, man!

Thank you everyone for reading my ramblings, and I’ll see you in the day after with the next review! Thank you for sticking with me! Buh-bye!

- Xue

[inmyownlaine]

Cages: John Murphy x OC Fanfiction

GIF//

SPOILERS: If you have not finished the series proceed with caution!

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1664

Chapter: Two

Summary: After falling asleep, Aerie wakes up to a foreign source of light. The sudden disturbance of peace causes underlying issues to come to the surface. Murphy steps in, making matters worse.

────────────────────────────────────────────

Aerie didn’t remember falling asleep. Murphy was rolled up in a ball, turned away from her. She rubbed her eyes carefully, trying her best to keep the sand out. It was still dark, the sun nowhere in sight.

She loved mornings like these. The ones where it seemed like everything was asleep, even the earth itself. Where she could disconnect from reality and imagine herself in another universe. Aerie could encounter a million mornings like this and still feel the same exact way: completely at peace.

Aerie began to stretch out, her back craned with her chest pushing towards the stars. As she tilted her neck back, preparing to loosen the cramped muscles, a sudden flash of light exploded against the indigo sky. She straightened herself immediately, leaning forwards and scrambling to her knees.

She was no astronomer. She wouldn’t even consider herself knowledgeable about space. But she knew enough to reasonably conclude that this was no shooting star. It’s lasting glow remained in the sky as it slowly traveled to the ground, dipping and diving over the uneven terrain.

It was something foreign. Maybe even magic.

Eyes wide with horror and mouth clamped with fear, she nudged Murphy awake.. He groaned aloud and flopped on his back, sticking his arms straight up in the air. “What?” he grumbled, sounding eerily similar to a moody teenager.

Aerie didn’t even have to reply. Through closed eyelids, Murphy saw the incoming brightness. He threw his arm over his face, providing very little shade from the beam. “Aerie?” he yelled, almost as if he expected her to have any answers.

Of course, she didn’t. Rooted to her spot, she squinted in the light’s direction, curiosity taking over her better instincts. Though she had never seen anything like this, it felt familiar to her. As if she had experienced this herself.

“What are you doing?” Murphy’s arm latched onto her forearm, tugging with enough force to move her a couple inches in the sand. It was then she realized how dire the situation was, clambering to her feet and retreating with Murphy back to the huts.

The commotion caused the rest of the group to come outside. They were clearly feeling the same way as Aerie: frightened, yet curious. Just as things were feeling safe, another freak phenomenon had to ruin what they were building.

“What’s going on?” Raven questioned, ponytail swinging from side to side as she frantically tried to look at everyone at once.

“Run!” Clarke replied, ignoring Raven completely and entering survival mode.

They had only gotten to the edge of the sand when the light stopped above the sea foam. It levitated before slowly descending to the ground. Everyone stopped, clinging onto one another for support. If this was going to end in war, they were going to fight it together.

The beam started to dissipate, resembling that of a tamed firework. Sparkles of gold and yellow swirled in a cylindrical pattern before finally coming together to form a silhouette. They started disappearing at the top, moving downwards as a body took its place. First a mop of curly brown hair, then a dark pair of eyes, warm enough to thaw the heart of any villain, outsider, or wrongdoer.

Aerie watched in awe as a man with a white robe stood in front of them, seemingly calm and inquisitive. It was a look she didn’t get to see much. He was always worried about protecting his friends and being the perfect leader. It was nice, for a change, to see him in a state of tranquility. No matter how anyone felt about his newfound beliefs.

“Bellamy,” Octavia whispered, face contorting into disbelief and sadness. Echo took a step towards him, but stopped herself after the first one.

He gave a small smile, nodding in her direction. It had been a long time since any of them had seen Bellamy. Aerie could sense the tension radiating from Clarke. The last time she was with Bellamy, she tried to kill him. Aerie questioned why he would return to a group of people that was so hostile towards him.

“Why did you come back?” Echo asked.

“Now you can’t transcend,” Aerie added. She knew that he wanted it more than anything. She remembered the look in his eyes when she left him last. It was full of hope that had been drained from his body long ago. Aerie was one of few that decided not to take that away from him.

“You can’t,” he corrected, hands folded patiently in front of his stomach. “You were saved by grace. But I believed.”

“So, what? You’re going to come here and rub it in our face?” Clarke retorted, arms crossed across her chest.

Bellamy wasn’t fazed. Instead, he stared at her deeply with his dark brown eyes. Lips pursed together calmly, studying the nature of a person that had lost everything. He knew it wasn’t personal.

“Madi is fine.”

Clarke’s lower lip began to tremble as she fell backwards, grabbing onto Murphy’s shoulder. He placed his arm around her lower back, eyes wide with surprise. Carefully, Murphy lowered Clarke to the ground as tears fell from her eyes.

“In fact, I would say she’s thriving. No more war. No more fear. It’s the perfect place for her.”

Aerie knew Clarke disagreed. The perfect place for Madi, in Clarke’s eyes, was with her. Yetshe couldn’t afford to be selfish. Madi didn’t have a life on Earth. There were no children for her to socialize with. There was nothing to help her grow. She would be the only human her age in a world of terror.

“And I forgive you,” Bellamy spoke, nodding towards Clarke.

“I don’t need your forgiveness,” she spat, the corners of her mouth pulling down towards her chin. “If anything, you are the one that needs redemption. I lost everything because of you. Everything!”

The birds scattered from the trees as she wailed aloud. Everyone standing had a story to tell. No one’s life was easy. But Clarke’s seemed to trump them all.

Aerie lost her parents in seconds, along with most of Skaikru when the Ark fell from orbit. She still wasn’t over it, and never truly would be, but at least her father wasn’t floated. And at least her partner wasn’t murdered. And at least her mother’s body wasn’t stolen. And at least she was able to transcend. The atrocities continued on for Clarke Griffin.

“Whether you do or don’t, just know you have it.”

“Out of all the things I want to have,” Clarke scoffed, “your good graces are not on my list.”

With that, she pushed herself off the sand and headed towards the forest line. Bellamy’s fingertips pulled towards her, but the rest of him remained. Raven chased after Clarke, calling her name as they disappeared into the trees. Silence fell as the rest of the group shared awkward glances with one another.

“Why are you here?” Echo finally asked. The sockets of her eyes were flushed pink, holding back a flurry of emotions. She made it perfectly clear how upset she was with Bellamy the first week Skaikru spent together. She couldn’t believe how he could betray the people loved.

But beneath all that rage, she was mostly hurt. Hurt that he chose faith over her. That she wasn’t his main priority in a world where everything was uncertain. In a time where everyone needed each other to get through. She felt used.

“I have unfinished business,” he stated simply. Bellamy’s head dropped, but beneath hooded lids, his eyes fixated on Aerie. Octavia noticed this immediately, a cackle escaping her lips.

“Of course,” she jaunted, throwing her hands in the air. “You came for your savior. Not your sister. Not your girlfriend. Her.”

Aerie scoffed in response, insulted by the obvious venom Octavia was spitting. She had every right to feel upset, but not at Aerie’s expense.

A tear trickled down Echo’s cheek as she bit the inside of her cheek. Fearing loss of control, she spun around and ran to her hut. Bellamy’s mouth opened, a silent battle raging in his head. He wasn’t allowed to love. It made him weak. It clouded his judgement.

It didn’t matter. The door slammed behind her, shutting him out for the time being.

“Save it, big brother,” Octavia grumbled.

“Knock it off, Octavia,” Murphy spoke up. It caused Aerie to tense up. She forgot he was standing beside her. Come to think of it, she forgot there was a whole crowd of people watching the dramatic scene.

“What? My own brother comes back to earth and instead of wanting to see me, he wants Aerie.”

“Well if I were Bellamy I would probably avoid you, too,” Murphy countered. “Who was the one that supported Clarke’s decision?”

She charged at him, but Levitt wrapped his arms around her torso, pulling her back as she yelled profanities at Murphy. He wasn’t the least bit fazed. Instead, he stood in front of her, arms crossed defiantly across his chest. Octavia continued to kick around in an attempt to free herself.

“Are you done yet?” Murphy asked, unamused.

Octavia let out a blood-curdling scream. It was something she had gotten particularly good at after becoming Bloodreina. There were a lot of awful events that spawned from that moment in time, but she did learn how to let out a gruesome battle cry.

Indra stepped in between the two, signalling for Gaia to help Levitt take her away. She did so immediately, trying to comfort her in the process. “It doesn’t matter!” Octavia yelled. “Bellamy died a long time ago! He died!”

Bellamy’s face scrunched together, an expression of anguish easy to see. He didn’t let it linger, relaxing his muscles quickly before addressing Aerie. “Is there somewhere we can go? To talk?”

“Yeah,” Aerie answered, already leading the way. Bellamy trailed behind, leaving the others to gossip among themselves.

“You and I have a lot to discuss.”

[snowdice]

Birthday Gifts (Part of the Road Trips and Everything In Between Series)

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Janus & Virgil, Janus & Remy

Characters: Janus, Virgil, Remy

Summary: Janus visits his 10-year-old brother before attending his sweet 16 party.

From the GRUMPY AFFECTIONATE STARTERS prompt list. @fudgingheckdudarino prompted “Listen, I enjoy this hug and all, but can you stop?” and “Hey, stop looking at me like that– I don’t like how cute you look.” I hope you like Road Trips and Missing Persons, but even if you don’t I think you’ll still be able to enjoy this one because it has little to do with that story.

Notes: Secret Agents AU (but not even subtly mentioned), implied child abuse (emotional)

This is set in the same universe as Road Trips and Missing Persons and is a prequel. You can read what’s done of that story below.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 My Master Post

Janus knocked on the door to the small house. It took a few seconds for the door to open, revealing a man who looked like he’d likely just rolled out of bed despite it already being 9am.

“Haven’t had your coffee yet?” Janus asked. Remy grumbled something in response and moved out of the way to let him in. It almost made Janus want to smile.

“Virgil,” Remy called up the steps on his way to the kitchen, “your brother is here!”

Almost immediately there were footsteps on the stairs and the next thing Janus knew, there was a 10-year-old flying at him. Virgil crashed into his side, pining one of his arms and almost bowling Janus over as his arms came around him. “Janny!” he said. “Happy birthday!”

Janus managed a half smile. “Thanks runt.”

He got a happy smile back and another squeeze.

“You going to let go now?” Janus asked after a few more moments.

Virgil shook his head. “16 years old means 16 minutes of birthday hugs.”

“I don’t think that’ll be happening,” Janus said dryly.

“But it’s the rules!” Virgil insisted. Janus started to try to squirm out of his grip, but he was strong for a 10-year-old, and Janus didn’t want to hurt him. He ended up wrapping his entire body around Janus’s leg like a vise. Janus gave up and attempted to move into the kitchen dragging him along. He did not get far.

“Virgil, would you…” he said. “Hey, listen, I enjoy this hug and all, but can you stop?”

Remy plodded back into the room, hand around a cup of coffee. “A little stuck there Janus?” he asked, amused.

“Remove your spawn from my person,” Janus growled.

Remy thought about it for a moment. “Nah,” he replied.

“It’s the rules,” Virgil repeated.

“Ugh, you’re both horrible. At least move to my arm so I can walk you leach.” Virgil complied, hanging off Janus’s arm as they moved into the kitchen.

“Want breakfast?” Remy asked.

“Is breakfast overly sweet cereal?” Janus asked.

“What else would breakfast be?”

“I want Coco Puffs!” Virgil said.

“…I’ll have Coco Puffs too,” Janus said. Remy went about ‘cooking’ them breakfast as Virgil continued to squeeze Janus’s arm just a bit too tight.

“So, what are you doing here this morning, Janus?” Remy asked.

“Well,” he said. “Since my birthday party is this afternoon and evening,” A whole painful 10 hours. “I figured I would come and visit Virgil in the morning.” He grimaced thinking about the imminent birthday party. He was already exhausted from planning the stupid thing. Or, more accurately doing his best to pick whatever options mom wanted for the party, so he didn’t get berated.

“Ah, yeah,” Remy said knowingly as he placed the bowls of cereal in front of them. “The Sweet 16 Party. Is there going to be a horse?”

“Mom’s paying for it. Of course, there’s going to be a horse.” Janus had never liked horses. He’d been forced to ride one and not allowed to get off when he was 4 or 5 and though it had been a docile animal, it had been far too big, and he’d been afraid he’d fall. He’d had nightmares about falling off things for months.

“Speaking of,” Remy said, seeming to think. “Did you drive yourself here?”

“Just noticed?” Janus asked.

“A bitch needs coffee in the morning.”

“Bad word,” Virgil identified through a mouthful of cereal.

Remy shrugged. “Emile’s not here.”

Virgil nodded. “Fuck,” he commented seriously.

“Good boy.”

“You’re parenting strategies are awe inspiring,” Janus informed Remy.

Remy just winked at him. “Well anyway,” he said, moving to grab something from the cabinet. “The two of us got you something that will go well with the car.”

Janus blinked at the honestly horribly wrapped flat present that was laid in front of him. “Oh…” he said. “Should I open it now?”

“Go ahead,” Remy said.

Janus easily was able to tear the wrapping paper off the present and looked at it. “An atlas?” Janus asked.

“For your car,” Remy said.

Janus looked up at him dubiously. “GPS systems exist,” he pointed out.

“You should always have a physical map with you. You never know when you might need one.”

Janus rolled his eyes, but he did smile. “Thanks,” he said.

“And I decorated!” Virgil said excitedly. He grabbed the atlas and opened it so Janus could see the inside front cover. He’d drawn all sorts of squiggly lines over it in crayon. “They’re snakes!” Then he turned to the next page. “And that’s me and you! And that’s dad and Uncle Emmy! Dad didn’t let me color on the map pages, but he let me on all the unimportant parts.”

“Oh,” Janus said, touching the purple stick figure that was meant to represent Virgil. “Now it’s a much more useful present.”

Virgil beamed even as Remy glared at him.

“Mark my words, Janus.”

“Marked, Remington.” A rouge Coco Puff was shot across the table to hit Janus on the forehead.

Virgil giggled and finally released his arm. “Hey Dad,” he said excitedly. “Can Janus take me on a car ride?!”

“I don’t see why not,” Remy answered.

“Yay!”

“I’m a pretty new driver I’m not sure-” Virgil turned to look at him with a wobbly lip. “Don’t,” Janus choked. “Stop that.” Virgil placed his smaller hands on top of Janus’s over the table. “Hey,” he tried and failed to scold. “Stop looking at me like that-I don’t like how cute you look.”

“Please?” Dammit.

“Fine,” Janus relented, “but only around the neighborhood.

“Yes!” Virgil said. “I’m going to go get dressed!” He shot off towards the stairs.

Janus and Remy watched him go. “Come for a movie tomorrow night,” Remy suggested.

“Why, so I can fall asleep on your couch? I’ll be exhausted.”

“That’s exactly why,” Remy said. “I’ll even let you pick the movie.”

“Fine,” Janus agreed, “but only because I have nothing else better to do.”

Remy chuckled. “Sure kid.”

Now with a follow up:

Birthday Cuddles

[vonbaghager]

just throwing my ideas onto my blog so they’re not buzzing around in my head anymore. DBD fan-killers: The Barber, the Abomination and the Ignited.

EDIT: And a new one, the Faceless.

The Barber, spawned entirely from a single mental image in which I imagined a killer that uses a straight razor as a weapon, cleaning it off by grinding it against a sharpening strop tied to the other arm.

Short lore blurb: Was an Old Time-y Barber, the ones that did both haircuts and surgeries. His own failing health had him search for occult methods to keep himself alive, using drawn blood as sacrifice. Eventually dove deep enough into occult lore to find out about the Entity, and became enamored with both the idea of eternal life in its realm, and with the creature itself. Strove to catch its attention by using the surgical prowess he’d learned to craft “masterpieces of agony” on unwitting victims, hoping that their pain and terror would draw the creature to him. Eventually, he received an anonymous gift: An immaculately-crafted straight razor that grew sharper as it cut flesh and bone until the victims didn’t even realize they had been cut until a single solid blow or attempt at exertion blew open all of their wounds at once.

Eventually fucked up and caught the attention of an Angry Mob, but by then had earned his place in the Entity’s Realm and fled into a foggy night, never to be seen again.

Base stats: 115% movespeed. 32 meter terror radius. Medium height (Freddy height).

Active Power: Masterpiece of Agony. Base cooldown: 5 seconds. Enter a special animation with a 1.5 second charge time, during which the Barber cannot make a normal attack but gains speed, up to 130% for up to 5 seconds. Lunging out of this state causes the Barber to madly swipe the razor out, striking every Survivor in the path of the lunge, afflicting them with a special status effect: Agonized. The Barber is greatly slowed for 1 second after the ability ends, whether he lunges or not.

An Agonized survivor’s bloodstains and grunts of pain are magnified until the status effect ends. If an Agonized survivor performs any strenuous action, such as fast-vaulting, dropping a pallet, or missing a check when repairing a generator, the Agonized state ends and the Survivor becomes injured while screaming in pain, potentially alerting the Barber. Being struck by Masterpiece of Agony while already Agonized harms the survivor as if they were attacked, meaning performing a strenuous action will drop them to dying. Agonized can be cured in the same manner as Deep Wounds.

Passive power: Sadist. The Barber’s movement speed and lunge distance is increased for every Survivor currently Agonized, hooked, or dead.

Unique Perks:

A Shrine to my Love: Your adoration for the Entity brings you comfort when you are closest to it. The cooldown of your missed attacks is reduced by [25/30/40]% while within 13 meters of the Basement. The wiggling of a survivor in your grasp has a [moderately/greatly/tremendously] reduced effect on your movement while you are within 13 meters of the Basement.

Serrated Hooks: You’ve made creative additions to the Basement, increasing the hold it has over its victims. A survivor on a Basement hook has their chance of escaping it on their own reduced [greatly/tremendously/completely], and is painfully aware of this fact*. A survivor pulled off a Basement hook is affected by both Hemorrhage and Broken for [16/20/24] seconds.

*the survivor receives a notification about the Serrated Hooks upon being speared on one, which lingers until they’re freed. Survivors rescuing their fellows from the Basement are also alerted to the Serrated Hooks.

Grasp of the Shrike: Yes, they will do. They will do nicely. The diamond atop the ring, as it were. You and the Entity become Obsessed with one survivor, clinging to them tightly and never letting go. The Obsession takes [0.5/0.8/1.0] extra seconds to unhook. Whenever the Obsession dies, another random survivor becomes the new Obsession after 13 seconds.

---------------

The Abomination, based on the video game archetype of “really fat guy with a grappling hook” that’s really just Blizzard but leaks into other games now and then.

Once a gluttonous ruler in the past, he wished for his feast to never end, sparing no expense to have food brought to him from all over the world even as his subjects starved in the streets. When death came for him, he fought with every fiber of his being to remain in the world of the living, tearing his soul free from death’s grasp and forcing it back into his bloated body. He continued to live, but did not belong, beginning to rot and decay even as he brought in the greatest doctors and surgeons to restore him, using the very people he neglected as replacement parts for his increasingly aberrant body.

Never one to waste food, the remains of those slain to restore him were added to his menu, and soon he discovered a love of the taste for the humanity he became further and further divorced from. Ironically, he became a much better ruler the more monstrous he became, if only because the healthy and fat citizens made for better parts and better plates, but eventually it was found out just where the criminals of this prosperous land were disappearing to, and the hideous ruler was threatened with a second death.

Knowing death would not let him escape a second time, he fled from his prosperous land, but soon encountered a problem: he had not stopped rotting, and without a supply of fresh parts, he would succumb sooner or later. He spent his every last coin and gemstone seeking a cure for this condition, slaughtering those he met upon the lonely roads as he fought to remain whole, and eventually he found a solution. He would never again taste the succulence of the world he was leaving behind, but the new world held a banquet for him that would never grow dull. He wished for a feast that would never end, and the Entity granted it.

Base stats: 110% movement. 44 meter terror radius. Large size (Plague height)

Active Power: Glutton’s Grasp. Base cooldown: 8 seconds. The Abomination is slowed as it lets down a lengthy meat hook and begins loudly twirling it around. Any survivor that comes too close to the Abomination in this stance interrupts it but is damaged by the hook as if attacked. Attacking while in this stance flings the hook up to 10 meters outwards, which is blocked by terrain. If a survivor is struck by the hook, they scream and are pulled 5 meters towards the Abomination and become slowed for 2 seconds. If the survivor is pulled directly adjacent to the Abomination, its middle splits open to unveil the Great Maw, which bites into the survivor, damaging them and causing them to become Mangled for 1 minute.

The hook can also interact with certain props. Striking a partially repaired generator stuns the Abomination for 0.75 seconds as a current runs through it but damages the generator as though it had kicked the gen, causing it to regress. Striking a dropped palette stuns the Abomination for 2 seconds as it pulls the wood into the Great Maw, chewing it to pieces.

Once per trial: The Abomination can stand over a survivor who has been hooked at least twice and use the Great Maw to swallow them whole, sacrificing them instantly and becoming hasted for 2 minutes.

Passive: Corpulent Corpse. The Abomination is considerably wider than other killers, making it difficult to sneak or dash past it if it’s in a narrow enough area.

Unique Perks:

Varied Diet. Even the most luxurious banquet can grow boring without variety. Each time you strike a survivor with your basic attack, gain a token, to a maximum of 4/6/8 tokens. Each token grants you 1/2/3% increased movement speed and vaulting speed. Striking the same survivor twice in a row causes you to lose 2 tokens. 

Hex: Abattoir. This Hex turns the lockers within the trial into deathtraps for your victims. An injured survivor hiding in a locker bleeds profusely, creating a noticeable pool of blood. If a survivor lingers in a locker for 20/15/10 seconds, they become injured, or are pushed into the dying state if already injured.

Starved Rush. The scent of their flesh, the smell of their blood, it calls to you, driving you into a frenzy the longer you go without it. You enter Bloodlust [slightly/moderately/considerably] faster and do not immediately lose it if you break a pallet.

--------------- 

The Ignited. Had the mental image of someone undergoing an Oni-style rage transformation, except they burst into flames.

There’s not much of a story for this one tbh. Probably someone who was burned at the stake and called down horrific vengeance for their unawful destruction, becoming what they were accused of (a vampire, a witch, a werewolf, etc). The alternate tale that I like more is that they were just a pyromaniac that finally decided to burn down their own house with them inside so they could feel what their victims felt.

Base stats: 105% movement. 16 meter terror radius. Medium size (Blight height)

Active Power, Kindling form: Choking Smog. Base cooldown: 20 seconds. Unleash a cloud of black smoke the Ignited can perfectly see through, but which is completely opaque for survivors. The smoke spreads outwards to cover a 11 meter radius, choking survivors inside of it, causing them to loudly cough. Survivors in the smog are Exhausted and slowed. The cloud lingers for 6 seconds.

Passive power (Cinder Form): Building Inferno. The Ignited is unaffected by the trial’s fog. The Ignited can interact with piles of tormented kindling that spawn throughout the trial, gathering energy from each of them. The Ignited can also gather energy by damaging generators and survivors, and hooking survivors. At maximum charge, the Ignited can activate the secondary power to explode into their Wildfire Form. All the survivors receive a notification when the Ignited enters Wildfire Form as it shrieks in agony and rage.

The Ignited in Wildfire Form has a terror radius that covers the entire map, moves at 130% speed, and becomes taller than the Plague. A pillar of fire and smoke travels up from its body to signify its position at all times. Wildfire Form lasts for 1 minute, after which it drops back to Cinder Form.

Active Power (Wildfire Form): Pyroclasm. The Ignited charges up briefly and then blasts an incredibly wide cone in front of it (roughly equal to its FOV but only 6 meters in length). Survivors in the area are damaged, generators in the area begin regressing, and dropped pallets in the area begin burning and will be fully destroyed after 5 seconds unless a survivor slides across them. Survivors injured--but not downed--by Pyroclasm gain a unique status effect: On Fire! Survivors who are On Fire glow softly with flame and their auras are revealed to the Ignited, shouting and screaming as long as they remain On Fire. On Fire lasts for 1 minute, until the survivor is put into the dying state, until they vault a pallet or window, or until they stop moving and spend 3 seconds patting themselves down.

Unique Perks:

Smokesight: The fog thickens in your presence, though it’s no impediment to you. The trial fog is [slightly/moderately/considerably] thicker, though you see through it as if it were two stages lighter.

Hex: Fear of Failure: To build a tower so tall just to see it fall before you, it is a feeling that can invoke despair in any, and one this Hex enhances to self-destructive levels. If you kick a generator that has been repaired above [75%/50%/25%] progress while your totem still stands, the last survivor(s) to work on that generator shriek in frustration and are highlighted for 3 seconds if they are within [24/32/40] meters.

Hex: Trap in the Blaze: Lock them inside. Seal the windows, bar the door. Let them burn. Let them burn. Let them burn. When the exit gates are powered, this Hex flares to life if there is a dull totem for it to inhabit. The switch to the gates is partially infested by the Entity, slowing all attempts to touch it. Interacting with the switch takes an extra [3/4/5] seconds. Abandoning the exit switch causes it to slowly regress.

--------------- 

The Faceless. what if there was a stealth killer even more humanoid than the pig?

Not sure of a backstory here. Either a member of an ancient species trying to avoid total extinction, or an envious human who altered their own bodies with strange chemicals, vile magic, and horrible operations until they could look like anyone they wanted. 

Base stats: 110% movement. 32 meter terror radius. Large size (Demogorgon height in true form).

Active power: Assume Guise. The Faceless loudly and grotesquely reshapes its body into the shape of a random survivor in the trial, letting all survivors within the terror radius hear the cracking and squishing just before the terror radius abruptly vanishes. The noises are noticeable enough to be heard a short distance outside the terror radius, akin to the Wraith or the Spirit vanishing. Any survivor within a 15 meter radius is briefly highlighted by Killer Instinct after the transformation is complete. While disguised, the Faceless has no terror radius and is treated by the game as though it were a survivor. If its aura becomes revealed by any perk or item, it appears as though it were a survivor, even if the perk or item reveals the killer’s aura only.

While it can crouch and sprint as a normal survivor, the Faceless cannot interact with props like a survivor can, with the exception of vaulting pallets or windows. It cannot open chests, repair generators, or sabotage hooks. When it assumes a survivor’s shape, it cannot copy any items they hold, nor can it pick one up or use them. If the survivor its copying is injured, it is not. Its voice as a survivor is ever-so-slightly distorted.

Assuming its true form is a horrid affair, stunning the killer for 2 seconds as it bursts from its former body. After transforming back, the Faceless is hasted for 4 seconds and Assume Guise is placed on a 10 second cooldown.

Active power (disguised form): Backstab. If the Faceless performs the healing action on a survivor using the secondary power button, it acts as though it’s healing them for 5 seconds, after which it suddenly strikes, afflicting the target with Deep Wounds and Hindered and beginning its transformation back.

Unique Perks

Hex: False Friendship. This Hex confounds and distorts your aura, leading your prey to blunder into your grasp. While the totem stands, any time your aura would be revealed, it appears as though it’s a survivor aura, and the survivor(s) reading your aura are highlighted by Killer Instinct for [8/12/16] seconds if they’re within 40 meters of you.

Subtle Sabotage: Your machinations are much more insidious than that of your brutish kin. After kicking a generator, the generator becomes Sabotaged for [60/80/120] seconds, regressing continuously even as it’s being worked on, effectively halving the speed it’s repaired at. A sabotaged generator loses this status if it fully regresses, or if the survivors working on it succeed [2/3/4] Great skill checks on it without abandoning it. Sabotaged gens are highlighted to the survivors, and survivors working on a sabotaged gen are aware of how much longer the status will last and how many skill checks are required to undo it.

Calming Emanations: Let them have their hope, if only so it’s more spectacular when it shatters. Each uninjured survivor reduces your terror radius by [18/20/22]%.

[whereflowersbloom]

Stars Aligned

It was a Christmas evening. They were spending the holidays at the farm, with ‘grandma’ Martha and ‘grandpa ‘Jonathan’. They insisted she should start calling them that. It was her second Christmas with The Kents. Her adoptive family, and they truly welcomed her like a real family from the first day.

The 8 year old girl had her hands around a mug of hot cocoa when an inexplicable feeling of anger hit her. It wasn’t explosive, rather passive. But it was there and self-reproach? This wasn’t coming from anyone around her. No, it was something of a more extraordinary nature. Perhaps her powers evolving? But deep in her heart, she knew it wasn’t it.

The adults were engaged in a conversation, about work, life in Metropolis, she didn’t care to follow. Her energetic brother Jon was too entertained opening presents. She looked at her mug, her marshmallows had melted. Then it struck her, disappointment,loneliness, all at once, not entirely whole and some parts that don’t fit anywhere. These feelings were overwhelming. Her eyes focused on Clark. She was still getting used to the idea of calling him dad. She stood, hesitating over whether or not telling him what was happening. Her dad’s warm, familiar smile gave her courage. She ran to him and threw her arms around his neck.

Immediately the whole family was concerned at her behavior.

-Clark, what’s the matter with little Rachel?

-Is she feeling unwell?

-honey, do you need me to...

Clark rubbed her back affectionately. “It’s alright. I’ll take care of it. Their adoptive daughter tended to repress her emotions, but he believed she was opening up to them, slowly.

“Maybe our little Rae, just wants more marshmallows for her hot coco.” He said, smiling warmly, taking her in his arms, carrying her to the kitchen.

“Hey, dad, that’s not fair!” Claimed Jon before they disappeared.

Raven calmed down eventually, and explained the best way she could this new experience to her adoptive father. Of course, Clark knew the nature of her empathic powers, however she was convinced this was completely different. She had found her place, was settled and happy with the Kents. The last thing she wanted was to cause trouble. Her kryptonian dad taught her not to fear her powers, but to take control of them.

“I don’t think it’s my powers growing or changing. This is different. I can feel it. Something or someone is connected to me now. It’s like he’s sharing his emotions with me.” She explained. There seemed to be no other reason for the emotions she felt. Not even her own. Clark recognized the worried expression on her face.

“Honey, I believe you. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” Clark smiled warmly and squeezed her small hand reassuringly. “ I have an idea of what’s happening. I think you’re experiencing your soulmate’s emotions.”

“A soulmate?” Violet eyes went wide as she questioned astonished. She was extremely lucky to have the Kents in her life. Now her adoptive father was telling her she had a soulmate. A fated partner. She was the devil’s spawn, only half human. Who could possibly accept her. Was life fooling her by giving her false hope?

“It’s extraordinarily uncommon, but I heard the number of cases have increased. You’ll feel the bond when they are experiencing intense feelings. It can be very difficult to handle at your age, but you have us.” Clark spoke calmly and quietly.

She was silent for while, lost in thoughts. “Dad, are you and mom Lois soulmates?” The girl asked out of curiosity.

Her father smiled brightly, his mind going back to old memories. “Yes, we are. Though the first time I was so alarmed and agitated, I shut it down for a while. It took us a few years to reconnect and accept it. Lois, nothing can stop her. Well, she’s always been Lois.” Dark shrugged smiling and ruffled his hair.

“An army brat. And you were a nerdy, brooding, farm-boy, Smallville. It’s good to hear you don’t forget there’s only one Lois Lane.” Lois was leaning against the door, smiling proudly at the scene. “Kent.” She added.

“Is this what I think?” The older woman asked her hands on her waist.

“I believe so. Our little Rae has a soulmate. She’s young , and the bond seems to be entirely emotional for now. But it will grow stronger certainly. “ Clark explained, thinking of the possible development.

“That’s great news, sweetie.” She approached Raven and rubbed her back affectionately. “There’s nothing to worry about. You can handle this. You’re a strong girl.” Lois poked her nose playfully.

“Well now, Martha is reading Jon a book story. Would you like to join them? I can get you more hot coco and marshmallows.” Her mom offered. Raven smiled happily and nodded enthusiastically. Feeling more hopeful, but a bit uneasy about her soulmates feelings.

“No sharing with Jon. That boy had enough sugar.” Lois warned before the girl left the kitchen. Wearing out an hyperactive half kryptonian wasn’t easy at all.

~~~

It wasn’t long before she started to feel her soulmate’s emotions almost daily.

She liked it but a part of her remained worried.

She remembered Grandma Martha’s words.

“Your fits of emotions aren’t your own. They come from your soulmate. He seems to have trouble dealing with anger and loneliness. When it’s too powerful, you feel it, too. Because you’re bonded. It will grow stronger with time, you may even hear his thoughts in your head one day.”

The girl sighed anxious. Raven was sitting on her bed, reading a book Lois got her for Christmas. One of dozens. As much as she loved hearing Martha read fairy tales before bedtime, she enjoyed having a book in her hands, on her own. She was grateful both, Lois and Clark encouraged her reading habit. However the calm only lasted a few minutes.

She heard the sound of quick footsteps. Oh here comes the hurricane. A young boy around the age of six, black haired and crystal blue eyes barged into her room at super speed. After turning five years old Jon’s superpowers emerged first was heat vision one time he was throwing a tantrum refusing to go to bed, second super-speed he was still trying to adjust it, they try to avoid superhuman strength after Jon destroyed several coffee tables and tableware, almost demolished the barn once but that was an unfortunate accident, flight has yet to make an appearance so naturally Jon asked his father or Raven to take him flying.

“Racheeeeeel. I want to go flying with you. Dad doesn’t want to. Please. Take me with you. Please Rae.” Jon, her brother pleaded incessantly with a mischievous smile. Speaking too fast and loud. Sweet Jon was overly enthusiastic, loud and talkative, caring and the most adorable boy. She had a hard time saying no to him.

She considered wisely the options for a minute. The farm is miles long, but she was concerned about the frosty winter air. She glanced at the window, snowflakes falling so much like stars, adorning the dark trees, Jon would love it, no doubt. But it seemed the wind was blowing too strong, perhaps a fearsome blizzard coming, she didn’t want Jon getting sick. Was it even possible for Half-Kryptonians to get sick? She wouldn’t risk his health. There’s no one else, not for miles. Jon loves it here, exploring the unlimited and fertile land. He’s been practicing each new gift that develops. Maybe she could persuade him to wait a few days. Jon looked at her with a little sparkle in his blue eyes and it was incredible how innocent and adorable Jon could be and melt away her resolve.

“It’s snowing heavily. What about we stay inside today and tomorrow we build a snowman and I give you my owes to build a snow castle together, as well?” Raven proposed, speaking softly as she tousled his unruly dark hair, a genuine smile broke over her face, warmth spreading through her at the thought that she had a family now. A real one.

“You pinky promise?” He asked with a new gleam in his eyes, smiling brightly and offering her his pinky finger to seal the deal.