#anyway the horrors of having younger siblings and them getting to the point of harder problems on school

[dan-crimes]

Me when my sibling has Algebra homework and someone has to help 😨

[sylverstorms]

Cassandra x Maiden ----Anonymity Ch. 8

Ch.1      Ch.2      Ch.3      Ch.4      Ch.5      Ch.6      Ch.7

It has come to a point where you can’t even pretend to yourself that you don’t care for her.

All the time you spend with Cassandra every evening has made certain feelings impossible to deny, though you are too scared to name them all.

You don’t name the smile you can’t contain when she excitedly pulls you to the armory to show you her collection of blades –and explains, in a very animated fashion, about the optimal use for each one. You don’t want to know what the stutter in your heartbeat means, every time she genuinely laughs, pale neck thrown back, nose slightly scrunched and all. 

And it’s not just Cassandra you grow a tad closer to.  

Bela comes to you whenever the two of them have argued and goes ‘Tell my sister’ this or that. Daniela is apparently not allowed within a twenty meter radius of you, but she approaches to poke and prod at you whenever she wants to annoy Cassandra. She never manages to do either, because the middle sister always swoops in, fuming, dragging her away by the hood of her robes like a kitten.

Lady Dimitrescu is the only one as distant as the day you first saw her –and it’s probably for the better. You don’t see her much, anyway, not with how Cassandra takes you to empty castle wings to have you all to herself.

Tonight is different.

After dinner, Bela leaves with her mother and you go to help the other maids present clean the table. But your lover steps in the way and grabs your elbow, instead, hurriedly pulling you along.

“Do not tell me you’re seriously thinking to make me wait longer.” she says.

Of course, you promised to watch a movie you found on your phone with her and she’s been buzzing with impatience since.

That is, until a certain redhead blocks your way. 

“Daniela, move.” Cassandra huffs. 

“What are you doing? Take me with you.” the younger sister replies, brimming with childlike curiosity. 

“No. Go bother Bela.” A shooing motion is made. 

“Bela’s no fun. I wanna come with you and Alexia.” she drops your name so casually it’s startling.

“Wait give me a moment to think about it –moment over. No.” Cassandra states, fast.

But Daniela shoots forward and grabs your arm like a koala. Your eyes go wide at the same time as Cassandra’s, for different reasons.

The brunette immediately grips her sister’s robes, none-too-gently. “Don’t touch her, she’s mine!”

“If you don’t take me along I’m telling mother where you found that music player and phone!” Daniela answers, her hold enough to cut off your blood flow.

You send Cassandra a pleading look before they break your arms with how they’re tugging at you.

“On one condition.” the elder sister holds a finger up to her sibling’s face. “You sit next to me and you don’t move around.”

“…she’s warm, though.” Daniela says, all but pouting. “Mother says sharing is caring~”

“Find your own human.” Cassandra growls out as the three of you make your way to the main hall and the couch adjacent to the fireplace there.

“You and Bela have gotten the prettier ones!”

“You snooze, you lose.”

Cassandra quite literally pins you to the arm of the couch with her body, to keep Daniela as far away from you as possible. Even as the movie starts, you can feel her sulking by your neck for not being able to touch you the way she wants.

You are not as focused on the movie as you are cute way she plays with your hand throughout its duration.

-

-

It’s getting harder and harder to remind yourself of what they are.

Especially when, ten minutes after the credits have rolled, Daniela is still crying over the death of the protagonist. Even Bela comes to the hall and asks Cassandra what she did to her.

By the time she’s done dealing with her sisters, your lover comes to you sporting a headache.

“We’re leaving this wing right now.” Cassandra says and that is about all the warning you get.

The next second you feel a rush of air and your stomach leaping to where your heart is supposed to be; Your eyes only make out a blur and an augur of black flies.

When she comes to a halt you crash into Cassandra’s side with a gasp. Your arm aches from the pull. The world spins for ten solid seconds.

She laughs by your ear. Low and satisfied as it is at your disorientation –it reminds you of drinking wine by a fire in the heart of winter— you can’t help but bask in the timbre of her voice so close.

“Ugh, why is it so cold in here?” she complains in that same quiet tone you love.

It is very cold compared to the more lived in parts of the castle, but your body is warm enough from your sustained proximity and the rush of adrenaline she always causes in you.

“Oh, well, I can bear it for a little while if it means we won’t be interrupted.” Cassandra trails off and lifts your chin with a chilled finger.

Your lips meet and slide together in a practiced tango. Her manicured nails run over your throat and shoulders, making you shiver for reasons that have nothing to do with the temperature.

Both of you are starting to get really into it when Cassandra walks you back into the nearest wall. It happens to be a window, covered by a flimsy curtain. You have half a mind to realize it’s probably been forgotten slightly ajar, judging from the frost that graces your shoulder, but you have more important matters to focus on, like the brush of her tongue over your bottom lip.

Until Cassandra braces her bare hand over the unseen opening, to box you in like she usually does.

And-

She shrieks.

She jerks away so powerfully her back crash-lands into the painting on the far wall, knocking it down with its frame broken. You’re left there still and mute, watching in frozen horror as her face distorts into pure, raw anguish.

“Shut it!” Cassandra screams at you. “Shut it now, now!”

Your nerves suddenly kick into overdrive and you pull the window closed like your life depends on it.

What just… happened...?

In slow, cautious steps, you approach her. She’s clutching her hand like a wounded animal, baring its teeth to hide its vulnerability. It is the first time you see her like this. Void of control, bent over in hurt. Gasping.

Something in your chest breaks.

You look at her hand, to find her pale skin nearly crystallized, grey and breaking apart —like cheap china, like weak porcelain— into flies that drop to the floor, faintly twitching.

You thought… you thought they could just control the insects. That dissipating into swarms was just a trick allowed by their mutation. But now you realize, the flies are her body.

All this time trapped under the looming terror of the daughters… and escape was as easy as opening a window on them.

“Cassandra…?” you ask in a wavering voice when the initial burst of rage leaves her form.

She looks up at you, torn, when you hear the heavy sound of heels rapidly approaching.

“Cassandra?!” a different voice calls, this time, deep and authoritative. When Lady Dimitrescu rounds the corner in her immense height, your instincts scream to run.

But one look at Cassandra makes you stay.

Alcina halts for a moment to take in the scene. Then her lips curl downwards and bladed claws extend from her gloves, easily half your body in length. 

Oh my… God…

“What did you do to my daughter?!” she demands and advances on you, but Cassandra gets in front of you before she can truly threaten your life.

“I brought her here, mother. It’s my fault.” she hurries to explain.

Alcina stares at you like she wants to crush you underfoot… but then softens, somewhat, at the look her daughter is giving her.

“Come with me. Now.” She says in a stern motherly tone that leaves no room for objections.

You clutch Cassandra’s uninjured hand, silently asking if she’ll be alright. She turns, looks at you for a moment, then nudges your head with hers.

“...I’ll see you later, Alexia.”

But, as it turns out... “later” is subjective.

 -

-

 In Alcina’s Private Chambers…

It is not often that Cassandra is reprimanded by herself. 

She has never before been the only one at fault. She’s used to having her sisters beside her while Alcina scolds the three of them… except this time they’re outside the closed door and she is there to face their mother’s ire alone.

She can’t stay still under that yellowish-grey, narrowed gaze. Her fingers fidget with the edge of her robes’ sleeve to keep occupied, while Alcina takes that deep, calming breath she knows heralds no good things. Ever.

“Cassandra. Do you understand the severity of the situation?”

“Yes, mother.” She keeps her gaze downcast.

“Even if the maid didn’t harm you on purpose, she now knows your weakness. Yours and your sisters’. You were careless to allow this.” Cassandra feels anxiety rise up from the pit of her stomach and threaten to swallow her whole at that tone.

“I know, mother. Forgive me.” she replies quietly.

She wants to say that Alexia won’t use this knowledge against any of them, but she cannot bring herself to lie to Alcina. Because the truth is, Cassandra doesn’t know for a fact that she will not.

Why was that window open? Why?!

“You didn’t let me fix your mistake. I assume that means you will do it yourself?” her mother asks and Cassandra’s gaze snaps up.

What…?

At first, the temptation to chain Alexia up and watch as her blood drained from her lithe body had been sweet and strong. But now, at the thought of killing her –losing her— in whichever way, Cassandra is sick to her stomach. It is strange, because she feels like she is hyperventilating when she isn’t breathing at all and the world has tilted and—

Please don’t.

“Since when did you ever hesitate to kill, Cassandra?”

“…If.. that is what you ask of me…” she replies but she doesn’t sound like herself at all, not even to her own ears.

“How can I ask that of you and break your heart?” Alcina throws her arms up in exasperation. “I should have stopped this months ago but I thought it a fleeting fancy. I never imagined you would end up so attached.”

“I’m- I’m not-” she tries to protest, but her mother is having none of it.

“You’re not? You’re with her every day and she barely sports scratches anymore. Your eyes follow her everywhere when she’s in the same room. You instinctively lean closer whenever she comes over to refill your wine. Do you think I do not notice?” Of course. Of course she noticed.

Cassandra swallows, silent.

The memory of laying, too weak to move a single finger, on her deathbed along with Bela and Daniela pierces through Cassandra’s brain like a bullet. Her hand gives a violent spasm and flies break off to buzz frantically around her as she drops her forehead into her palm.

She’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown and it’s just so difficult without her sisters there. They’ve always been together, since the very beginning.

They were born together, learned to control their powers together, they died together-

Alcina is on one knee in front of her the next millisecond, stroking her hair and gathering her into her arms.

“Shh, calm down, my love.” she coos. “I’m sorry to be so harsh on you. I only want the best for you three.”

Cassandra doesn’t talk because she can’t, because she cannot wrap her head around what that flash inside her brain was.

“Oh, my Cassandra. I will not harm the maid if it will harm you, too.”

She waits for the eventual ‘but’.

“But I cannot let this dalliance continue any longer.”

It’s probably for the best. Her mother knows best. It is true, after all, that she has not been acting like herself, lately. So, yes, this decision is for her own good.

But.

Cassandra’s heart has the same reaction upon hearing it as being exposed to sub-zero winter air.

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

A Failed Betrothal (Part 3)

There were a lack of stuff to read so I posted this instead.

[Masterlist]

(Part 1)(Part 2)

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PART 3

The next day was weird to say the least for everyone but for Marinette, it was another can of worms that she wished she didn’t open. For one thing, Chat Noir’s feelings obsession for Ladybug switched from one black-haired girl to another which unfortunately was Ladybug’s civilian form. Which meant Marinette had to deal with Adrien’s Chat-Noir-level flirting and bad pick-up lines.

Perfect, just perfect.

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Everyone thought that a declaration speech of ‘being soulmates and the only one for him’ in front of the whole class from the ‘love of your life’ would warrant a ‘blushing to death and stammering’ or ‘outright fainting’. Not a facepalm, a groan, “Why me?” and a “I am sorry but NO. I don’t feel the same way about you”. Marinette vaguely wondered if there was some kind of rule for interesting events and confrontations to happen during lunch break while the class waits for Mme Bustier to start the lessons.

Marinette went to sit in her seat next to Chloe in the back row where she and her friends had been exiled to. The class was in stunned silence and questioning about whether or not they had fallen into an alternate universe or dreaming. Nathaniel and Alix tried to hide their snickers. Chloe just started outright laughing, turning very red in the face.

Marinette felt a nudge from Plagg in her bag. Looking down, she saw them holding up her phone to show Lila’s gaping face of horror with a wicked smug grin on their face. She looked through the photos to see everyone’s faces of confusion and shock at her rejection. Eyes wide and jaws dropped on the ground. Different shots of her classmates in the same state. She smirked and showed them to Chloe who calmed down enough, letting out the occasional giggles and took the phone with glee.

“Thank you, Plagg. Here you go.” she whispered, giving them a camembert macaron.(Tom had started experimenting with camembert in his recipes. Plagg is his first taste tester for all of them, making Tom one of Plagg’s favourite people.)

Adrien didn’t take the rejection very well.

“But we are meant to be. You are a designer and I am a model. Our partnership is the one to be envied by many for the ages.”

“And by that logic,” The designer turned to her main model for her MDC website, “Chloe, my love, will you be my one and only? For our love shines so bright ,paralleled only by a thousand suns.” Using the same voice Plagg does when they go on one of their love odes about camembert before losing her straight face and giggling.(Plagg doesn’t know whether to be offended or amused.)

Setting Chloe’s laughter off again. “Mariiiii,...stop….I can’t..*gasps*....I can’t…”

Nathaniel and Alix, finally lost control and joined Chloe in death by laughter. Adrien was flustered, turning red in the face either from anger, embarrassment or both.

“But Chloe isn’t a model.”

Marinette decided to put a stop to this, just on the off chance that Gabriel finally decides to akumatized his own son. She recomposed herself.

“She is the main model for my website and we have a partnership. You, however, work for your father. So does Miss Rossi. Does that sound like the partnership to be envied by many for the ages? Hmmm, Agreste? Anyways, like I said before, I have no interest in dating you.”

“Why not? We are friends and sometimes, friends like each other enough to date each other.” Adrien angrily asked.

“Because-”

“Because, Adrikins,” Chloe cuts in, “friends having to date because one of them is interested in something more makes no sense and is fucked-up. Marinette doesn’t owe you anything. Besides, she already has a long distance boyfriend who lives in America.”

“WHAT!?” Adrien shouted.

“What?!” The class had snapped out of their stupor. Since when had Marinette gotten over Adrien and had a boyfriend?

“What?” Marinette looked at Chloe with wide-eyes. Last she checked she was still single so what the hell was Chloe playing at. For Kwami’s sake, she hadn’t been on a date since the one with Luka which went awkwardly before they agreed that they think of each other as siblings and it will be best to stay that way.

Chloe gave her a look that said ‘I will explain later.’

“Oh yes, they met online a few months ago and now they are all lovey-dovey together. It’s just so ridiculous, so utterly ridiculous how disgustingly in love they are. They have video call dates at least once a week and somehow make it work despite the time differences. He once came all the way to Paris just to see her. He brought her some special flowers that apparently meant-”

Marinette slapped her hand over Chloe’s mouth. “Well, Chloe, Queenie, as much as I love you as my friend, you can stop gushing about my love life now. Because class is about to start.”

She said through gritted teeth as Mme Bustier finished taking her sweet time and walked in. Sadly, Alya wasn’t done with the conversation ,“Wait a minute, since when did Chloe and you become close enough that she is modeling for you? And a boyfriend? Why didn’t you tell me, Girl? I thought we were friends. What about Adrien, he just confessed to you and you had been crushing on him for so long” Many girls gasped, angry that Alya broke the unspoken girl code.

“You have a crush on me?” Adrien looked hopeful. Like a lost kitten that had been stuck in the rain, was let into someone’s home.

“I had a crush on you,” Marinette corrected him, emphasising on the past tense, “and Alya had no business of sharing that information to the entire world despite us not being friends anymore.” She glared at the journalist who at least looked ashamed.

“You wanted to date Kagami so I moved on.”

One of the reasons anyway. I found out that you were my partner who had no concept of boundaries. You are a coward who only wants to maintain the class peace at the price of my mental health, she thought.

“Instead of continuing to pursue you.” She hoped the ever dense and oblivious model would get the hint she gave him. Tikki ,just this once, Grant me that ladybug luck.

“And Mme Bustier, it is time to start the lessons, don’t you think? Instead of focusing on the class drama to gossip about later on.” Marinette glared at the teacher, reminding her to do her job.

“Oh. Right.” Mme Bustier tried to regain her ‘perfect teacher’ image after getting embarrassed at being caught, “Right. Class, turn to page-”

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As soon as the bell rang for the end of school, Marinette dragged Chloe all the way to her room. Alix and Nathaniel followed them because as far as they know, Marinette had no boyfriends and they were as curious to find out what scheme Chloe had cooked up this time. They were as complicated and crazy as Ladybug’s. No offense, Marinette.

“Okay, Queenie, you have to explain why I now have a devoted American boyfriend who I am so in love with.” Marinette crossed her arms with a frown aimed at Chloe. The kwamis got out of their respective hiding places and went to the tray of food set out for them.

The trapdoor to her room opened, revealing the rest of their friend group before Chloe said anything.

“Did we miss anything?” Kagami asked as Longg and Sass joined the other kwamis.

“Juleka said something about an American boyfriend and how he sounds so romantic. Does that have to do anything with the text Alix sent us to come here?” Luka added.

“To recap, Adrien made a love confession to Marinette,” Alix started, biting into some of the delicious pastries the Dupain-Chengs gave them, ”in front of the entire class after an entire day of flirting and bad pick-up lines.”

“Wow, even after having his memories erased of being Chat Noir, he is still after Ladybug.” Luka chuckled, with the others joining in.

Marinette whined, “It was easier when he was Chat Noir. But now as Adrien Agreste, teen heartthrob, it is going to be much more difficult to get into his thick head that I don’t see him that way and it is going to get harder, now that Alya outed my old crush to him.”

“Oof. Sucks to be you.”

“So, our Mari-bug rejected him. He threw a tantrum and sulked, so like Chat Noir, how did we not notice?,” Alix continued, “After demanding reasons why they can’t date, Chloe gave Marinette an American boyfriend who she was in a long-distance relationship with. Speaking of, why did you do that?”

“I have known Adrik- Adrien since we were in diapers and I know how that mangy cat works. He grew up on Disney and had all those fairytales stuffed into his head. If you had told him that you were just not interested in dating at the moment, it won’t work because he will try his hardest to ‘woo’ you, because he still has a chance. He won’t push his luck as much if you were off the market.” Chloe explained.

“I am sure that, judging by the fact that Chat Noir still tries to date Ladybug despite her saying she is in love with someone, Adrien might try to get more proof of this boyfriend to make sure Marinette is just not pretending to have one.” Kagami pointed out.

“Ahh, but luckily I have a back-up plan. I have a friend, Tim Drake. We met at a few galas when we were younger and kept in touch. He also owes me a favor.”

“I hope this Tim Drake is cute.”

“He is and he’s older than you by two years and,” Chloe typed something on her phone, “A fellow caffeine addict so you can bond over that. Here’s a picture of him and his brother.”

On her phone were two extremely attractive and fit young men dressed in expensive suits at what looked like a gala, the older one had a charming polite smile with bright blue eyes, looking somewhat interested at what someone off-screen was saying despite looking like he will fall over any moment. His brother, however, looked like he would rather be anywhere but where he was. He was tanned and had green eyes that promised murder for daring to even breathe in his direction. Marinette noticed that he looked a little familiar but she can’t place why.

“Tim is the one that looks like he hasn’t slept in days and that’s his brother Damian next to him.”

“Wait a minute. That’s Tim Drake and Damian Wayne. The sons of Bruce Wayne, the billionaire co-CEO of Wayne Industries, which Tim Drake is also co-CEO of.” Nathaniel said with wide eyes and looked at Chloe, “You are using your favor to give our Mari here a fake boyfriend.”

“Of course, only the best for our Mari-bug.”

“Chloe, no, he is probably busy as he is with running the company. No need to get him involved in petty teenage drama.” No matter how much she doesn’t want to date Adrien, bothering a busy guy to be her fake boyfriend is not worth it in Marinette’s opinion. Which, of course, gets overruled by the overprotectiveness of her friends.

“I, for one, think this is one of Chloe’s better plans.” Kagami commented, the others agreeing with her. Traitors.

“Hey!” Chloe exclaimed, an offended look on her face, “Anyways, I will call him later.”

“Children, you better go home now before your parents worry.” Sabine’s voice came from below, “Remember we are also going through some drills tonight so try not to be late.” Having a former assassin for a mother is handy when you want to train a team of teenage superheroes.

“Bye, guys. See you later.”

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“Just because you have been trained since birth does not excuse you from the drills. You also need to get used to the black cat.” Lady Mǔ lǎohǔ reprimanded her with her arms crossed. When Ladybug started her new team, she was the first permanent member but as the team got bigger, she stepped back to be back-up and mentor for the team.

“Yes, Maman, I know but I am nearly finished with this commission. I will catch up with you later. Promise.” Marinette stretched, looking up from her latest project. Plagg was napping in the little basket she had made for all the kwamis to sleep in which fit all of them and had some extra space for Nooroo and Dusuu after they had been retrieved.

The reason she had Plagg instead of Tikki who was with Alix was because of the new tactic the Miraculous Team came up with. To keep the balance the Ladybug and Black Cat must be active at the same time but with Adrien gone, someone must wield the ring until a new permanent holder is found and it was not a good idea for both of them to be on the same person at the same time. The team decided to rotate using the earrings and ring between them with Marinette using other miraculouses when the others have them. It also had the added bonus of making it harder for Hawkmoth to find out who has them at any given time.

“See you later, 灵儿 (líng er, means intelligence). I will give you 15 minutes but that’s it. Don’t be late.” Sabine sighed and got out the skylight and went towards the safehouse where the Miraculous team met to get training. (It is one of Sabine’s emergency safehouse to use in times of emergency and it had the required space to train 6 teenagers. Chat Noir never came to training, lazy cat.)

Marinette never made it to the warehouse.

Because a few minutes after her mother left, the skylight opened to let in five figures dressed in dark colours to easily blend into the shadows like they were trained to be. Too bad they weren’t as quiet. Marinette immediately summoned a bo-staff to defend herself.

One of them lunged at her and she retaliated by hitting the end of her staff to their middle, coupled with a couple more blows and landed one that knocked them out. The others threw throwing stars which she dodged by jumping back. Which landed her to be trapped by the two assassins, whom she didn’t notice, had moved. She cursed in every language she knew as she struggled against them. It led to no avail as she was badly out-numbered. There was a prick on her head and her world went black.

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Plagg awoke to a loud commotion. Irritated, they poked their head out to see their new temporary kit knocked out, tied up and hauled away. Recognizing the kidnappers as assassins of the League of Shadows, they scowled. Ra’s Al Ghul was going to pay.

Plagg may not act like it much but the black kwami was patient and smart. Smart enough to leave a note with an explanation somewhere visible with the messy aftermath of a fight before trailing the assassins. Oh, Roarr’s tiger was going to be pissed once she found out what happened. Wherever they were taking Marinette, it would be best to have a kwami of destruction to help her escape. The night made Plagg almost invisible and allowed to move unseen. They caught up easily and hid in their holder’s midnight hair. Now, their patience came into play. It was a matter of waiting for the right moment to pounce.

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(Part 4)

[thekillingjoke-haha]

Just You And Me

Summary: Sam and Dean are on there second hunt to find John. They need help from the one person who hates Wendigos the most Y/n Winchester

Prequel to What's Worse Then Wednesday?

Ten years ago John had his first encounter with a wendigo a family went hiking with a full group of fifteen and no one has came down from the mountain in almost a month. Having asked a more experienced hunter John wrote down things he needed to remember as he went up the mountain a bag with Molotov ,lighters,and flare-up. It took almost a week to find the small mine shaft his brown eyes widened at the seen. Male and female limps were torn of and only some still had enough meat and clothing to be identifiable. Some bodies were on hook that resembled mountain climbing gear. None of them moved except for one. Stepping closer a six year old girl was hanging from her binder wrist her eyes look into his scared before gazing over down a tunnel a thick trail of blood went down it as tears spilled down her face. "Mommy and Daddy are gone. I next." Her voice cracked and a unhuman beastly type growl echoed. "I'm gonna get you out of here, darling." That's how John Winchester met his adoptive daughter Y/n.

Its been seven years since then and the little family the Winchester's made for themselves was falling apart. It broke John's heart that he pushed away his youngest son when he wanted a way out of this life, but when his adoptive daughter wanted to hunt more big league he almost blew a fuse. Y/n was young really fucking young to be hunting on her own,but it could have been worse she could have cut off contact with John and Dean. Now two years later John's missing and the siblings need each other.

The h/c teenager hissed as she cleaned the deep cuts on her shoulder looking into the bathroom mirror. A fucking blood suckered clawed at her shoulder taking advantage of the other two she beheaded. The burner phone on the back of the toilet rings as she grabbed it putting it between her ear and none injured shoulder. "Kinda busy Dean-o." She mumbled slipping the antibacterial cream in the cuts making the surface pink. "Dad went on a hunt and hasn't been back yet. I got a call last night and it sounds Ike somethings under it." He said the sound of baby let be know he's in the car. "Send it over to me and I'll have it back to you by the hour. You leaving New Orleans?" She ask starting to Butterfly stitch closing up the cuts. "Yeah left about two hours ago heading to California." Pausing and shacking her head. "No no no no no! You're not involving Sammy! He got out the life let him stay away and safe." Y/n finished up wrapping her shoulder as she walked out the bathroom to put on a shirt. "I need to,n/n. I won't keep him long we are just gonna check out the place dad was last at. The question is are you coming." Licking her lips she sighed. "I can't I'm in New York right now just took care of a nest in Brooklyn. I won't make it cross country for a couple of weeks." Dean let out a heavy breath. "I know,but I also know you're avoiding Sammy." Maybe the youngest wasn't the only one heart broken after one of her protectors,her best friend left in a huff and hasn't answered a single call.

The silence was drawn out as Dean's phone buzzed against his ear. "There your voice-mail put it through a gold wave. Sounds like a vengeful spirt bring rock salt for the shotgun." Dean chuckled. "Thanks baby sis...wait did you put me on mute to ignore me!?You bit—" That's when the line went dead. The h/c girl giggled as she layed on the stiff musty motel mattress. Her eyes closed,but her mind ran ramped.

The woods they were dark and seemed to loom over her. It was so quite no sound came from anywhere not even the wind dared blow. Crying filled the the air it was that of a child. It grew closer till it disappeared all together the claw marks on the trees marked the familiar place the blood soaked leaves crunched behind her causing the teen to go stiff. She knew what was behind her it was the same thing in every dream for ten convective years even if she knew her body wouldn't allow her to act she was that same scared little girl paralyzed as the horror show continued. The creature yelled,but it echoed in all directions. "HELP US!" Dean and Sam's voices shocked her awake her body pinned in fear as she looked at the Wendigo on top of her. It successfully restricting movement if her whole upper body. Blinking hard it was gone and air filled her lungs like rushing water. It meant nothing...nothing at all.

It's been almost a two weeks since Dean's call. He often text since Sam tried to high jack his phone last time he tried calling. Sam and Y/n didn't exactly end on the best of notes. "Come with me." Sammy looked at a younger Y/n who shook her head. "No. I can't leave dad and Dean. Not like this." The dust has settled after the heated argument between father and son and the rules were clear the moment he walked out those doors he stayed gone. "Don't call him that." His mood seemed to shift back to angry,but something else was there. "Call him what? Dad?" The young girl was confused now. "He's not your dad." It wasn't a secret that Sam harbored negative feeling against his sister they were never anything serious,but he still somewhat loved her just not like a sister. "You're not apart of this family you can get away,but no you're going to stay here and become their weakness!" He points at John and Dean who were just behind her. "I'm not a weakness! I got their back like they've got mine. That's what's family's for!!!" She shouted her eyes welling with tears not letting them fall,but they slip out at his next words. "Your family is dead! Did you save them then?! Maybe if you did we wouldn't be stuck with you!!!" The room was still no one dared breathed Dean stared wide eyed at his baby brother as John grew tense grasping the neck of his beer bottle in a vise grip while same looked like a deer in headlights. A sniffle brought the three men's attention to the girl. Tears streamed down her face before she used a open palm to whip her face dry. "Just go. Cause that's what you do best you runaway from your problems and wait til Dad or Dean can fix it." The thirteen year old snapped at him as she pushed on him as he just stumbled back. "You're nothing,but a coward and a pathetic one at that. I don't want to loss the little family I got for myself you're so willing to walk away from them it shows how different we are...nothing,but two strangers." He stood in the doorways as the h/c teen grabbed his packed duffle bag and threw it into his torso making him fall to the ground.. "So just FUCKING LEAVE!!!" With that she slammed the door shut. What Sam couldn't see as he drove away from the dingy motel was the mess he left behind. A father struggling to keep his kids safe,a brother torn between hunting and normalice,and lastly a adoptive sister that can't help,but be different. Sam Winchester left his family in a worse state then imaginable.

Sitting in bed I looked at my phone hoping it rang or buzzed with a incoming message that said they were fine. Y/n jumped as the screen lit up the name Batman lighting the screen. "About fucking time you jackass!" Her words were harsh,but the relief filled her voice. "Yeah we just got out of Stanford campus heading to .... now." Dean said the sound of cars and wind slightly muffled his voice. "H-how's Sam after...after you know?" One thing that Winchester’s hated was emotions and even if they weren't blood she grew up the same. Nature and nurture going toe to toe. "I don't know. You can always ask him yourself you know." The h/c teen laughed as she ran her hand down her face. "Dean-o he's the same shaggy haired asshole that said I wasn't family. I'll give him a chat when we're cheek to cheek in hell." And another thing Winchester’s sure knew how to hold on to a fucking grudge. "God you sound like Bobby said if he ever saw dad again he'd be looking down his shotgun barrel." They both chuckled as the faint sound of a ding of a convince store rang out. "Well tell Samantha same goes for him." She picked her nails as she decided to get up. "What are you morons hunting anyways did dads ex-marine crap give you a clue?" The crunch a gravel on the line grew louder. "It just had coordinates,my name,and a note saying safe place with your name." Dean opened the car door and got inside as Sam approached him. "I don't know Dean I don't have a safe place in the middle of nowhere so keep me updated,Batsy." Sam looked over at Dean who switched hands to the furthest from his brother. "Copy that talk later,Robin." That's when the keep away match started.

"Dude what the hell I want to talk to Y/n." Sam huffed as his brother closed the flip phone dropping it on the floorboards next to his feet. "Your chances of talking to her are zero to none,man. Sammy she'll talk to you when she's ready." Dean sighs as he starts the car. The youngest huffed he will admit he was a shitty brother that night and everyday following he didn't like it,but he ignored her calls for a months till they just stopped.At first he was still heated,heated, he felt guilty,then he was too busy. Sam tried calling,but it disconnected immediately meaning she blocked him. He thought he'd see her when Dean broke in but finding out she's been taking her own hunts scared him shitless. And from what Dean told him she started after the first month she trained harder taking own bigger hunts with Dad before doing normal ones alone. Sam realized by leaving he took away her only need for normalice,her want to have something other then hunting. He took her slice of the apple pie for himself.

The brothers were in the fucking woods in jeans and flannels walking with a makeshift search party for a missing kid. They were in a abandoned campsite after they lost their supplies. The signal was shot and Dean's phone was useless in most areas. He sent a text as it waited for any signal to send. "' Going in the woods with unknown creature. You know the coordinates I'll call if we need you'" That was a bit of a lie. He knew what it was before nightfall,but he didn't want her to have a panic attack he wouldn't be there to help her. The guide Roy? shot blindly in the woods after something rustled and growled like no animal. The boys ran after him as he got snatched up into the treeline which made them quickly escape back to the camp. As Haley and her brother Ben slept Dean had first watch they weren't prepared and this was the last creature he wanted his sister to hunt. Not after last time.

Dean was on a hunt with Dad and Y/n while Sammy stayed at uncle Bobby's for exam week or some shit. John never told them what they were hunting they had to discover it themselves. The hunt that was suppose to last three days,but took almost a week the tried tracking it yet nothing came up,but more missing persons. The trio decided they'd go back into the national park when it was daylight again,but they didn't need to wait that long. That night they slept Y/n sharing the bed with Dean as dad slept in the bed to the right of them it was probably the quietest night they've every had so the fact that something breezed in under their noses scares them most. Dean rolled out of the bed to the bathroom closing the door after he turned on the light it illuminated the pale skinned beast in the corner. It creeper closely to the only adult in the room gazing at his body before turning to the smaller figure in the bed breathing evenly. It crept onto the bed leaning over her body the old motel mattress creaked as it settled onto her. The weight of the creature was crushing causing her breath to come out in a hissing wheeze as her e/c eyes opened before they filled with shock. Going to scream the crushing weight on her chest pushed all the air out along with breaking a few ribs. Her hand wiggled out from under him as she wiggled her arm to hit the lamp off the table it broke onto the ground and John shot up with his gun and Dean busted out of the bathroom both froze before jumping into action the young boy running to get a lighter while John shot at it just to get it away from Y/n. The boney supernatural creature screeched getting up allowing the girl to try and roll out of the bed it struck her back blood soaked her clothing as she fell coughing roughly knowing the fall made one of the ribs stab into her lungs. The males in the room were able to set the monster ablaze quickly getting out of the room John holding his daughter. Y/n was in shock like many victims they've seen that monster was her nightmare and it casual gazed at her having the ability to kill her at any moment. After going to the hospital she stayed at Bobby's for almost a month to recover physically and mentally. Wendigos are her yellow eyes.

The next day as the followed the tracks of the Wendigo a sigh left Dean's lips as he tried to call her it rung for awhile before dial tone at least it went through,but she must have been busy. About to hand up the girl took off running after the beast made itself know Dean ran to keep up with her Sam yelling for him to wait as he stayed with her brother. She managed to trip as he went to pick her up he was hit over the head as she screamed for help as he started fading in and out and the voice-mail ended with Cries of help.

Y/n sat in her car waiting for a update text form Dean she started driving close to where he was,but didn't involve herself yet she almost got a room at the motel when her phone buzzed with a text. It was a update to come if he ever called to head over and help with a thankful sigh she back tracked from the motel and went to the dinner as she left her 0gonw on the table to order food it vibrated with a incoming call. One missed call and a voice-mail. As she grabbed her bagged lunch she grabbed the stuff off the table going back to her car as she got in the driver's seat she opened her phone to see a missed call and a voice-mail. Dean never sends voice-mails so Y/n opened it and she almost broke her foot as she hit the pedal to get to the woods. "Dean wait up~*crackle of leaves and grunts*~Come on we gotta ge—~*Female Screams followed by a thud*~ DEAN!!! *Inhuman roar before cut off*" Y/n almost had a panic attack in the car,but the adrenaline made her move faster that was sent five minutes ago. Taking a deep breath she began calling any hunter supernatural or not that knew the area well enough. "Hello?" "Hey this is the ARIA. I'm F/n F/L/N you have been hunting in the area for forty years are there any identifying landmarks within those woods? So incase of emergency?" The old man happily spoke about clearings,cabins on the edge,river,and a abounded mineshaft and where they were. She quickly thanked the man before hanging up she pulled out a satellite gps as she got looked over were she needed to go. Grabbing a backpack she loaded it with everything she needed as she took off into the wood watch as she got closer and closer with each click.

Sam's eyes fluttered open as he grabbed his bearings. Dean was next to him which mean he got captured not long after Dean and got taken. Haley,Ben,and Tommy were to the right of him they were stuck as he tried to move or at least hit Dean and wake him up. His brothers eyes sluggishly opened as he looked around before turning back to Sam in shock. The heavy foot steps creeped closer as the half clothes supernatural being looked down at them even though they were hanging on meat hooks. It moved down the line of people about to grab Tommy when a soft cry echoed in the cave. It turned around and listened closely. The brothers strained their ears to hear what it was. The Wendigo sprinted off to investigate when something else came into the Winchester’s view. Y/n stood infront of her brothers mud,sticks,and leaves on her body to mask her sent. Walking forward with a knife she cut Dean down before doing the same for Sam. The oldest went to cut down the siblings as Sam stopped his sister. "Y/n how did you get here? You shouldn't be here the monster is a—" She cut him off with a anxious smile in her face. "A Wendigo I know,but you guys needed a hero so I'm here." Dean came over to them as he stood next to his taller brother. "Sammy's right though,N/n. You got to get out of here after what happened last time. This thing is different from the last one it won't sit still for us to shoot it." He had a point, but he knew that was years ago he was still scared he couldn't protect her. "I got this I can defend myself. Get these people out of her I can distract the man eater." Handing them both a flare guns She turned towards the opposite tunnel the beast went into. "That leads straight to a river follow the flow and after it stops you're only two miles from Baby." About the protest they hear a growl. Y/n quickly sprinted further into the cave making enough noise to cover them escaping.

"OH OH HERS SHE COMES WATCH OIT BOYS SHE'LL CHEW YOU UP! OH OH HERE SHE COMES SHES A MAN EATER!!!" She sung running lighting flares leaving a trail as she ventured deeper. Y/n pulled the rubber top igniting another about to drop it when a snarl came form behind her. "Well hello beastie." She didn't turn around evening her breathing before spinning. The red light illuminated the monster in a devilish glow she wasn't a scared little girl anymore she was a Winchester and Winchester’s chase after their demons. "Just you and me now." A roar sounded throughout the damp cave. The boys turn to look back they both wanted to run back,but both of them would have pit her in more danger they were injured and a extra body to look after would put her at risk. They saw the orange hue of flames and the sound of glass breaking. Standing anxiously waiting for her to come out they were thrown back by the force of a explosion pressurized by the small space. The rock of the cave entrance was about to crumble when a head of h/c hair running out with a limp as it collapsed dust clouded the scene before them they could tell if she even got out until it settled. The youngest Winchester stumbled forward as she smiled at her brothers blood coming from her head and her split lip. "That was awesome. I did a Indian John's." Dean ran as fast as he could capturing her in a bone crushing hug. "Do some shit like that again I'll kill you then myself." She giggled as she hugged him back. "Sorry can't hear you. Explosion ya know deafening me." Y/n joked as her brother pulled away from the hug. Sam walked over slowly almost testing the waters. "Hey Y/n." He said shaky as he looked down at her. She's grown alot since last time he saw her she had more scarred and hard exterior. "Heya Sam." Her e/c orbs looked up at him they were uneasy as she smiled at him before hugging her as well. "I missed you,Jackass." Her voice was muffled by his shirt as he returned the hug. Their relationship will never be the same they both had Dean as a buffer between them,but for right now in this moment it was just the two of them Just you and me against the world.

[samwontshare]

Black Widow Review I guess

Was Black Widow the send off movie for Nat that I wanted to see after Avengers 1 first dropped? No.

Did I really enjoy it anyway (with some criticisms)? Yes.

Here’s what worked and what didn’t work for me.

What worked for me:

-Yelena and Nat’s relationship carried this entire movie. It was start to finish a truly beautiful sister movie. Their relationship is so genuine and they have such a great connection on screen. The bickering! The older/little sibling dynamic is so powerful in this movie. Yelena’s need for Nat in her life, and Nat who suffered so much trying to just escape but her younger sibling was left behind. This was so painful and real for me as a survivor of childhood domestic violence - where my older sibling would often leave to protect himself, but then I was left behind to survive. It took me a long time to have empathy for him and his very real need to protect himself. Because we both were just trying to survive and it wasn’t our fault. I saw myself in Yelena and my brother in Nat’s decision to leave the Red Room. For them to come together to take down the Red Room together is just some beautiful, cathartic shit.

-Yelena. Every. Single. Thing. About. Yelena. The acting was just stunning - that Yelena has this childlike quality to her because for the first time, she can be a human being. She has beautiful character moments: fogging the glass, playing with her beer bottle, her enthusiasm for the vest with pockets she purchased AND modified thank you very much. Do I feel they dulled her trauma to keep the levity? Yes, but she still has some stunning moments of vulnerability - especially when she took her fake family to task and called out Nat for saying it wasn’t real. This was just *chef kiss* THE HEAD TOUCHES OMG.

-The found family dynamic. I think some folks might baulk at the forgiveness shown to the parental figures, but for me this rings true as someone again who experienced childhood violence. What’s often hard is that you feel such justified anger toward those who hurt you and didn’t protect you, but for many people (though not all) there is still a need to be loved by those people and you might still love them despite everything because there were good moments in all the horror. What I think actually made this work is that Melina and Alexei both took steps to correct their ways - they immediately helped the sisters. It spoke a bit on generational trauma - particularly re: Melina. Was it perfect? No. Do I think it will work for everyone? No. But I didn’t mind it. Damaged people trying to do better is my jam. And I was just happy Melina lived.

-The opening credits is one of the best things Marvel has ever done. Chilling.

-The humor. This shit was funny.

-The way it centered Yelena and Nat, women supporting women, and said fuck off to the male Avengers.

-This is unpopular but I was fine with Taskmaster. I remember Taskmaster from the Deadpool comics so I get why people are mad, but to me it threaded a nice loop in Nat’s story. Nat’s desperation to leave the Red Room and end her violence meant killing an innocent child - was it heroic? No. Was it human? Yes. Taking the time to make some amends there felt like nice closure, even if Antonia falls into one of my biggest issues with the film (see below).

-I’m glad Dreykov was an unexplained Bond villain with his ridiculous sky lair that everyone should have known about after NYC. Dreykov was symbolic for every shitty male abuser that’s plagued women. It ain’t about him. It’s about what he represented.

What didn’t work for me:

-How WOC showed up in the movie felt super uncomfortable. We see a Widow of color starting the movement to free the others, but she’s quickly dispatched and the job is taken over by two white women. There is a really horrifying scene where another WOC is forced by a white man to kill herself to further Nat’s horror about the situation. The only time in this movie WOC are on screen it’s to 1) die and 2) literally be brainwashed into servitude. There’s no agency for WOC in this movie and it sucks A LOT.

-That sort of plays into my other big problem with the plot and that was the whole brainwashing storyline. It fell really flat for me and I’ve been trying to figure out why. The movie started out really strong with the absolutely horrifying story of Nat and Yelena’s childhood and the opening credits that pull no punches about human trafficking and the literal child torture that takes place in the Red Room.

But the MCU once again proves it’s not ready to tackle deeper issues in their totality - they have to walk it back so it’s still the quippy, action oriented formula that makes every one a blockbuster. So instead of a story about the horrors of the Red Room and psychological conditioning of young trafficked girls into trained killers - and more importantly how those women still maintain their agency despite this, how they are survivors and how they break the chains of the Red Room to take their power back (a story much more grounded in real abuses), they put a sci-fi veneer over it.

Suddenly they’re trained assassins who are brainwashed into being trained assassins…? As if the horrors of the Red Room aren’t enough without the total removal of agency (and it’s handled with so much less grace than say Bucky Barnes’ experience, who breaks his own conditioning). The Widows spend the entire movie as nameless victims waiting for rescue and get absolutely no scenes of agency even when they’re freed.

To me, it undermined the whole trafficking commentary. They remained nameless. They remained victims. They remained waiting for rescue. But at least they’re not forgotten? Yeesh. It flattens the experience of real trafficked people and their resiliency. I think there was a way to both honor survivors and honor those who didn't survive and the movie didn't get that balance.

-I think a lot of other people have already pointed out that this movie feels like Black Widow 2 and we’re missing parts 1 and 3. Telling this story now is a let down. That Black Widow’s only movie is about passing the torch after she’s already dead is a disappointment (and that’s not a criticism of Yelena - who is pure gold in this movie). I left the movie still feeling like Nat herself was hollow, that she didn’t get the earnestness of Yelena’s character. She had an endearing moment of watching spy movies and a beautiful childhood opening and then she gets lost in her own movie bouncing from one fight to another. It was sad as hell. I wanted this to be about her time in the Red Room, her escape from the Red Room, her experiencing what it means to have freedom to decide.

-They really ruined that beautiful moment of Yelena mourning Nat with Val showing up. Look I don’t care if it would’ve been predictable, that movie would have hit harder if Nat whistled back. They didn’t even have to show her. It could have just ended that way.

Overall, I enjoyed it as a movie. I don’t know that I enjoyed it as Black Widow’s ONLY movie.

[nobody-wants-ice-cream]

Everything Wrong With The Umbrella Academy. Episode 2, Run Boy Run.

Link to the first episode!

Same disclaimer as last episode: This is all in good fun! I wanted to do a really nitpicky re-watch of the series and found some really cool and interesting things I didn’t notice before. This is meant to have a Cinema Sins-esque tone. However, I did take off a lot more sins than Cinema Sins would have because I do genuinely like the series and the people that made it possible. So all of the good things got one sin off and all the bad things got one sin added. This is a really long post, so grab some popcorn. If there’s anything that I missed, feel free to add it!

Run Boy Run 

Grace started the Herr Carlson record before the kids even arrived. How are they supposed to learn if they miss the first few seconds of it?  What is the point of the record if they’re not even around to hear all of it?+1

The kids all have their hands on the chairs except for Five, showing that he will do something out of the ordinary. -1

Diego is causing property damage to Reggie’s chairs and Reggie allows this. Be consistent, show! Is Reggie lenient or strict? You could make the argument that Reggie doesn’t care about the chair because he’s rich. In that case, sinning for capitalism.+1

Klaus is already into drugs at the age of 13. We can see him rolling a blunt, and doing it quite well, presumably. +1

Ben is straight up allowed to read at the table. So then what is the point of the record if the kids don’t have to pay attention to it? +1

The kids expressions when Five stabs the table. The ones that we see are pure gold. Especially Klaus’s. Well done Dante Albidone. -1

Diego’s side eye when Five starts arguing with Reggie. This is the perfect expression for “my sibling is about to get in trouble”, so props to Blake Talabis. -1

Vanya’s side eye is also good. TJ McGibbon did well. -1

We see Five jump faster than a bullet, but he’s significantly slower when jumping across the table. +1

Reggie is a dick to Five, who just wants to explore his powers. We know that it’s dangerous because we see Five getting stuck, but Five doesn’t think that that is really a possibility. Reggie only talks in confusing ice and acorn metaphors. +1

Five’s face when Reggie presents the ice and acorn metaphor. -1

Vanya and Allison both give Five a look in this scene. This is what makes Five hesitate. Two of his siblings tell him it’s a bad idea, but he does it anyway because he’s a stubborn bastard. +1

Grace’s face drops when Five starts running out the door. Allison and Vanya also look absolutely horrified. -1

“Run Boy Run” is a little on the nose. Especially once you remember that The Boy is Five’s hero name in the comics. +1

No one cares that a 13 year old popped into existence out of nowhere when Five starts traveling into the future. +1

Easter egg! There is an ice cream cart outside the academy. If you’ve read Dallas, you know why I think that’s significant. Also, it happens to be my icon. -1

Five’s look of complete disbelief and horror when he is faced with the apocalypse for the first time. -1

“Vanya! Ben!” This has created a lot of curiosity in the fandom. In the comics he left before they were named, but in the show it looks like he chose to keep Number Five. Why? +1

The apocalypse looks very believable. -1

Title screen umbrella! -1

The awesome scene with Ellen Page and Aidan Gallagher continues in the next episode. -1

Where would Five have heard that rumor about Twinkies having an endless shelf life? It’s not like he was very exposed to pop culture as a kid. +1

Vanya doesn’t keep her Violin in the case. She leaves it proped on a chair, which is basically begging gravity to come and fuck up your instrument. +1

Five plays the pronoun game and doesn’t tell Vanya about Dolores. +1

The last thing Five heard for 40 years was Reggie’s stupid metaphor. That’s a sin for the metaphor and a sin for Five’s pain and suffering. +2

Vanya gives someone with a thirteen-year-old’s liver a few shots worth of hard liquor in a tall glass. +1

“You think I didn’t try everything to get back to my family?” This quote is Five at his core. It shows his exact motivation. Aidan Gallagher really could have screwed up with this line because it’s so raw, but the delivery doesn’t suck. Well done. -1

Is that liquor real? Aidan Gallagher’s face suggests that it is and he only takes two sips of it. Also, Five takes a sip when it’s just a bit, pours more, then takes another sip, and doesn’t drink any more of it. Sin for showmakers possibly giving a kid real alcohol and sin for Five only taking a sip after pouring a lot out. +1

However, if the alcohol is fake, which I really hope it is, sin off for Aidan Gallagher’s acting. -1

Five expects Vanya to believe his crazy apocalypse story. I had a hard time believing it when we were shown flashbacks as the audience. It wasn’t until they brought in the Commission that I actually believed it. If Five had explained the Commission, just like he did to Luther, then Vanya would have had an easier time believing him. +1

Vanya calls Five crazy and then expects him to not be hurt and want to stay in her apartment. +1

Vanya takes the pills after an emotionally charged scene. Pills-foreshadowing. -1

Five’s hands are shaking when he’s looking at the eyeball. This shows both his uncertainty, with this being his only clue, and shows that he is unwilling to leave his sister again even after she called him insane. -1

Mary J. Bilge. -1

The Lunar Motor Lodge has rates by the week, day, and hour. The Commission is super sleazy for putting Hazel and Cha Cha in a place that also rents by the hour. +1

Hazel and Cha Cha are an underrated duo. The “It smells like cat piss” dialogue is honestly really funny. -1

Obvious villains are obvious. I know they’re meant to be obvious, but it doesn’t change the fact that a show with a lot of subtlety just kind of thrust Hazel and Cha Cha in there with no subtlety at all. +1

Hazel stores the briefcase away and throws a screw, foreshadowing that this will be an important detail later. -1

No one, including police, notices the blinking and beeping, neon green tracker. +1

Patch is sort of right. Five made a jump in the middle of two of the local hires, which caused them to shoot each other. -1

“The guy had an eclair and the kid had coffee”. Patch’s side eye says that she thinks Agnes is getting her story mixed up. If we didn’t see what happened, then the audience wouldn’t believe Agnes either. Great acting Ashley Madekwe. -1

Agnes doesn’t stay in the back room. She crawls out so her head can dramatically pop up over the counter after Five leaves. This is a stupid decision on Agnes’s part.+1

Agnes is seen handling American money. Somehow we as a fandom didn’t notice this. Klaus also uses American money to buy drugs later in this episode. Sinning the showmakers not specifying which state at the very least, but reluctantly because I know that’s a reference to the comics. +1

“What other detective”. Camera cuts to Diego exiting Griddys. -1

Diego is a vigilante. What he is doing impedes the law. In this instance, we want him to stop Patch’s investigation because we know that the answer leads back to Five, which would be bad for the plot. However, Patch’s annoyance suggests Diego has done this to her before. How many murderers have gone free because Diego intervenes in Patch’s cases? +1

Diego did not consent to being searched and having his personal belongings taken. +1

Ebay exists but there is no internet or smartphones. What? +1

Diego thinks that this looks like a botched robbery. No way in hell does this look like a robbery of a doughnut shop in any universe. A bank robbery, yeah sure, but not a doughnut shop. What kind of doughnut shop has the kind of money that requires multiple guys with very large weapons, Diego? +1

The way Patch is described to Five by Diego in a later episode does not match the personality she actually has. +1

A whole crowd of people had nothing better to do than to watch the cops investigate a murder scene in a densely populated city. +1

Is Luther hitting his head after he wakes up a character choice? He does it again with the model airplane. After the low ceilings on the moon for four years, you would think that he would learn to duck. +1

Emmy Raver-Lampman gives an amazing performance when talking to Luther about Claire. -1

Allison has multiple posters of herself in her room. I am sinning for her younger self’s narcissism. +1

However, this narcissism goes hand in hand with Allison as a character. Props to the set designers for making these posters and hanging them up. It adds detail to Allison’s room and really shows who she was as a character. -1

“When Claire was little I used to read her books about the moon. I’d tell her her Uncle was living up there” Allison doesn’t remember that Luther was on the moon and therefore shouldn’t know about her divorce in the first episode, but says this in the second episode. +1

Luther looks so genuinely happy at being Claire’s personal superhero. -1

The ghosts torturing Klaus. +1

That fucking animal print thing Klaus is wearing. +1

Robert Sheehan is very, very attractive. This makes up for the monstrosity Klaus is wearing. -1

“You know you talk in your sleep.” “Oh there’s no point. You’re out of drugs” I love Ben as a character so much. -1

“Shut your piehole, Ben. Said with love” smooch. I love this line. -1

“I’ve got a crazy idea. Why not try starting your day with… a glass of orange juice or some eggs”. Justin Min’s delivery of this line kills me every time. -1

Pogo is really vague about why the papers in Reggie’s box are important. If he said something about the papers detailing the Academy’s powers in explicit detail, Klaus would have tried harder to get them back. +1

We don’t see Klaus pull out the Red Journal in episode one. +1

“Liar” “Drop dead” “Low blow”. This is an iconic interaction for a reason. -1

Pogo knows that Klaus can talk to ghosts, but remains offended when Klaus tells a ghost to shut up. +1

“Really awful, terrible, depressing times” Reggie is a dick to his children. +7

Vanya sleeps with the door to her bedroom open, even though we saw her close it. So she must have gotten up to open the door and didn’t notice Five was gone. +1

Where did Five go all night? Did he sleep back in the Academy? It couldn’t have taken him this long to get to the MeriTech building, so what happened to him? He changed to a clean uniform, so presumably he went to the Academy, but why did the show vague this? Did he walk into a department store and buy/steal a clean shirt?+1

Only the plot relevant person notices Five. The front desk girl doesn’t question why he’s there. And that is her literal job. I would know, I run the front desk at a medical office. If you don’t greet the patients then you’re not doing your job, front desk girl.+1

“Must have just [click] popped out.” iconic.-1

Five decides that violence is the best course of action to get the information he needs, directly contradicting “I know how to do everything” +1

The 1938 fingerprints may be Five’s. However, police usually discard this kind of evidence because there is a very reasonable doubt. Not to mention that anyone could have touched the knife. It’s a public place. Forensic evidence is not as reliable as it is portrayed in the media. +1

Diego is an asshole to everyone, but especially to Patch. She’s right, Diego is obstructing justice. How many murderers have gone free because Diego interfered in an investigation? +1

Diego’s boiler room is way too big to be a boiler room. +1

Luther’s reflection in Diego’s mask shows that Luther wants to know what it would be like to be number two instead of number one. Luther can’t lead for shit and subconsciously wishes that he didn’t have to. -1

With an aerial shot of the Academy from the outside, we can see that Reggie never bothered to take the laundromat sign off the mansion or that Reggie sold ad space on the mansion exterior. +1

Reggie is a dick to animals. See: the animal skeletons and the taxidermy. +1

Part of the mansion is painted an ugly neon green for no reason. +1

“Sorry I left without saying goodbye”. The “both times” is unspoken. -1

Vanya apologises for calling him crazy and being dismissive, but still suggests he needs mental help. He does, but maybe suggest it later when he isn’t convinced you think he’s insane? +1

Five lies to Vanya about something stupid. If he said that he was having Klaus help him with the apocalypse, I don’t think she would have minded. +1

Why does Five have so many toys in his room? Including a baseball? +1

Klaus comes out of the wardrobe as loudly as possible. The mansion does not have sound proofing (see: I Think We’re Alone Now dance party). There is no way in hell Vanya didn’t hear him. +1

This is the last time Vanya and Five interact. +1

Five’s room is more childish than a thirteen-year-old’s room should be. It honestly looks like he was the favorite because his room has so many toys in it. Like Reggie wanted to win his favor or something. Sinning for the weird set design choice and for Reggie being an asshole. +1 

The fake circumstances in which Five was born in their cover story gives me immense joy. -1

In one camera angle, if you look carefully they cut two takes of “what a disturbing glimpse into that thing you call a brain”. In the one where we can’t see his face properly, Aidan Gallagher is openly smiling. Corpsing. +1

Robert Sheehan is funny. -1

Syd the tow truck guy doesn’t really look like Sean Sullivan (actor that plays adult Five) enough for Cha Cha, a trained assassin, to not see that he isn’t their mark. +1

Hazel eating a sandwich in this scene. Also the “Italian for dinner line”. -1

And Cha Cha sees the differences between Syd and Five later! +1

“Time travel’s a bitch” “Especially without a briefcase” There's other time travel methods than briefcase or being Five? Elaborate. +1

Patrick is a dick to Allison. We understand why later, but really Patrick, you’re going to be an asshole when her father just died? Don’t get me wrong, Reggie abused the hell out of her, but still! Patrick should have let Allison talk to Claire. +1

Vanya tries to comfort Allison even though she knows nothing about the situation other than that it happened. She’s never even met Patrick! +1

Allison is clearly trying to get away from this conversation with Vanya, but Vanya presses on. +1

“Well if I wanted advice, Vanya, no offence, it wouldn’t be from you”. This is why Vanya doesn’t take Allison’s advice about Leonard. Also, Allison is a dick to Vanya. +1

This scene with Allison and Vanya is interesting. Allison is projecting her pain and taking it out on Vanya, who really should have seen and heard what happened enough to leave her alone. Both of them are the bad guy here regardless of how you slice it. I am sinning the show for this moment because they really tried to villainize Allison for this scene, but she does have some well thought out points and is in an emotionally compromised state. Or in other words, the fight between Allison and Vanya is stupid. +1

Grant/Lance/whatever gave Klaus and Five valuable office time. Doctors do not have time for this sort of crap. Shouldn’t this guy have patients? +1

Aidan Gallagher looks to the actor playing Grant/Lance/whatever as if he’s waiting for him to say his line. I see this all the time with younger kids in theatre, but they can get away with it if their character has a reason to look at that character. That being said, Five would have no reason to do this.+1

The sound effect that plays when Klaus slaps Five is really out of place. +1

Seeing Robert Sheehan slap Aidan Gallagher. -1

Klaus pauses as if he’s listening to Ben before he picks up the snowglobe. -1

The snowglobe. Robert Sheehan pretending to be Klaus pretending to be Five’s crazy dad. Acting. -1

Five looks like a proud grandfather when Klaus gets Lance to show them the records. -1

Five doesn’t pay Klaus for that brilliant acting. Also, how was Five planning to give Klaus $20. He doesn’t have any money nor do we ever see him with money. Five is a cheapskate. +1

Klaus calls Five “old man”. I thought that was just a fandom thing lmao. -1

“You must be horny as hell”. Great Klaus line, but super weird that he’s saying it to someone that looks thirteen. +1

Klaus is wearing the shirt that goes with his nicest outfit underneath Reggie’s pinstripe suit. -1

“Goodbye Dolores”, a song from the soundtrack, starts playing when Five starts talking about Dolores. This is good placement of that song because we later learn that he left her in the apocalypse when he left to work for the Commission. -1

Five is a dick to Klaus. Klaus is really trying to connect with his long lost brother, but Five jumps away. +1

That taxi driver doesn’t freak out and cause a car accident when a random kid appears in his car. +1

Also, how did Five pay for that taxi? Did he jump out of the moving vehicle too? +1

Leonard is so obvious from the start. So charming that he’s slimy. +1

Vanya can’t see this and is actually attracted to him. This may go back to that conversation with Allison when she asks if Vanya has ever been in a relationship. For all we know, the answer is no. +1

Leonard took three years of German in prison. I don't think American jails are that nice. +1

Leonard picks up another person’s instrument without their consent. As a musician, this is very, very painful. +2

Diego is paranoid, but also observant as fuck. -1

But how did he get his weapons back from the police? Are knives open carry in whatever state this is in? There are some states where Diego’s harness would be legal so it’s possible. I’ll have to look into this. Sinning the show for being vauge as fuck. +1

Luther didn’t notice the boiler room door open. +1

Diego throws weapons on his siblings. +1

Reginald Hargreeves died March 21st. The funeral is on March 24th. This is way too soon. It should have been a week or two not two days between the date of death and the funeral. Especially considering Luther suspects Reggie was murdered. And if you say that Reggie, Pogo, or Grace bribed them, then I’m sinning for bribery.+1

Diego eats a raw egg. Salmonella headass. +2

David Castaneda eats a raw egg. Why did you make him do this? It adds nothing to the character other than making Diego look dumb as hell. +1

Vanya interrupts her student while he’s playing and doing well. Whenever my teacher does that I get a minor heart attack. +1

Leonard is already lying to Vanya. He manipulates her by saying his Dad was into music and that's why he’s taking violin lessons. +1

An actual place named “Bricktown” in a place called “The City.” Sigh. +1

It is four o’clock when Leonard takes his lesson, but then after the lesson we cut to night time. What happened in those couple hours, show? Are you really saying that these characters did nothing interesting for all that time? +1

Emmy Raver-Lampman clearly isn’t smoking. Which is fine because she’s a Broadway actress and needs her voice/lungs for that part of her career. It’s weird because it shows that Allison isn't smoking. +1

Pogo scolds Allison for her language. Allison is an adult, Pogo. +1

Klaus made a drink at a young age and Reggie didn’t stop him. Or talk to him. He recorded Klaus drinking, but didn’t care. +1

The showmakers show us Allison’s face for dramatic tension instead of showing us the tape. This was a good choice and I feel it helped the narative.-1

They show a sign “Gimbel Brothers Seniors Tuesdays 10% Off.” after Five walks by. -1

The most awkward and dopey smile in existence when Five finds Dolores. -1

They play “Goodbye Dolores” after he finds her. That could have worked if they transposed it to the major key. Hello Dolores. +1

“Goodbye Dolores” transitioning into “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen. -1

This action sequence is great. -1

Hazel’s wrist splint. -1

Five cuts Cha Cha with a trowel. -1

The dual screen thing is cool. -1

Five literally jumps over a stand and somehow doesn’t get shot. Hazel and Cha Cha have Stormtrooper aim. +1

How did Hazel and Cha Cha leave? You would think the police would notice someone leaving through the back. +1

Similarly, how did Five and Dolores get out of this? Did he wait until he could jump and teleport outside the store? Can he teleport that far? +1

How did Diego get another police scanner so quickly? Unless that’s the scanner Patch confiscated? +1

“I gotta show you something” +1

Once again, Five should be a lot sweatier. What are these magic, sweat absorbing things you can buy in a department store and where can I buy them? +1

Five sees an eyeball and immediately picks it up for no reason. He doesn’t even know that’s Luther’s body yet. He just picked up an eye for no reason. +1

Five as a thirteen-year-old boy saw his siblings' dead bodies. Sinning for trauma. +1

Aidan Gallagher portrays this trauma well. -1

Overall Review: 

I love this episode and had a hard time finding things wrong with it. I genuinely like this episode and I think that it could have stood alone as the pilot. 

Some acting things I noticed, David Castaneda, John Magaro (Leonard), and Ashley Madekwe were the standouts this episode. All three brought something interesting to the table this episode and I look forward to re-watching their scenes. I wish Madekwe and Magaro all the best as I know that they probably won’t be returning for season two. 

The plot thickens! Hazel and Cha Cha were introduced in a very obvious way compared to the subtle way they introduced Leonard. There is a reason I adore this episode, and it’s not just for Klaus slapping Five (though that is part of it). 

Total: 52

Sentence: We saw Diego eat a raw egg. That’s punishment enough for this episode. 

[gingrrfrog]

these nights (4)

word count: 5.6k :/ kinda long sry

warnings: angst

summary: jeno, yejin, and jaemin were a team. they told each other everything, they trusted each other. jaemin nor jeno would lie, right? right?

a/n: hi idk how many of u like this but since the c*ronavirus has me locked inside my house im just gonna write until this is over :/ hehe enjoy also here’s a masterlist I concocted just for timeline purposes :] 

After an hour of chatting, Jihyun finally decided that she was hungry. They both argued over who should cook, Jihyun’s reasoning being for coming over unannounced while Yejin’s reasoning was that Jihyun was the guest—and she would be a horrible host if she made her cook. The bickering ended instead with her calling her sous chef, Taeyong, secretly while Yejin was in the bathroom. Yejin begged, the last thing she wanted to be was a nuisance during but Jihyun only assured her by informing her that Taeyong lived in this same building, asking a small favor before ordering him to shut the restaurant down due to the snow outside.

“You really didn’t have to do that, Unnie. I really could’ve made us something to eat.”

“And I’m telling you that Taeyong owes me a few favors anyway! Plus, it’s not like he’s far from where you live and he lives right upstairs. I promise you it’s fine.”

Yejin sighed heavily, “you’re unbelievable.”

“Believe it or not, it’s not the first time I’ve heard that.”

Yejin could only laugh as they continued to talk. Yejin opted to sit on the floor criss-crossed as they talked about littler happenings in Jihyun’s pregnancy. Yejin looked at the coffee table while she spoke, noticing a few incriminating photos from the night before, haphazardly shoved under magazines.

Fuck you, Na Jaemin. She hissed to herself. After this, she was never letting Jaemin clean anything. It’s almost as if he planned this. Just then, Jihyun reached over to take the magazine after noticing Yejin’s attention was on the magazine.

“Is there something on the magazine? Oh pictures! Oh—pictures��“

Yejin could do nothing but watch in horror as Jihyun stared at the polaroid in her hands. It was almost like staring at a car crash, she wanted more than anything to look away, but the picture of Jeno’s dick in her hand almost demanded her attention.

“Holy shit, is this Jeno?”

Yejin blanched, her hands catching her hand in pure, unadulterated embarrassment. If she could call Jaemin right now she would scream his ear off, “I am so fucking sorry.”

“No it’s—“ Jihyun tried her best to stifle a laugh as she placed the polaroid back on the coffee table. “It’s…reassuring to know that Jaehyun and I aren’t the only one who do this.”

“But you and Jaehyun oppa don’t keep the photos stupidly hidden under a magazine,” Yejin groaned, her head still hiding in her hands. “I’m going to fucking kill Jaemin.”

“That’s very true. If anyone saw me naked Jaehyun would skin them alive from pure jealousy,” Jihyun failed to hold her giggles back any longer, pulling at Yejin’s arm. “Don’t be embarrassed! I’m not embarrassed! Shocked, maybe, but it’s healthy!”

“You have an amazing body—“ Jihyun mentioned, laughing harder when Yejin screamed out in pain, covering her ears from anymore bullying.

“I need to see your naked pictures now, then,” Yejin said out of nowhere. “There’s no way I can go through this embarrassment on my own.”

“First of all, I have nothing to embarrassed about. Secondly, Jaehyun has them under lock and key, I don’t even get to see them.”

Yejin blinked, “he keeps your photos under lock and key?”

“Ah, well, the disgusting ones are on an old phone, but there’s more to the old phone that made Jaehyun lock it up. It’s not just my asshole on display. However, if you want a conception story for this,” Jihyun pointed to her belly, “there’s an hour long video on that phone.”

“Oh, Jesus, gross,” Yejin meant to say internally, but it came out as a whisper as Jihyun threw a pillow at her.

“Gross?!”

“I don’t really want to think about Jaehyun oppa that way! It’s weird,” she mumbled. “As beautiful as you are together, he’s not my type.”

“What is your type then?” Jihyun asked, taking another pillow under her chin, “dopey eyed and nagging?”

Yejin snorted, “yeah, actually.”

“And you couldn’t find it in one so you gathered two?”

“Jaemin wasn’t planned, it just kind of happened.”

“I’ve heard that one,” Jihyun grinned, running her hand over her stomach, causing Yejin to laugh.

“I’m serious! I thought he hated me at first, Jaemin. He only glared at me for the first two weeks, but he had to get used to me. Jeno was the only person I knew in Korea when I got here, and I followed him almost everywhere. Jaemin had the key code to our apartment then, and I was always there when Jeno wasn’t, and he kind of had to settle for me until Jeno got home from wherever he was.”

“Jaemin has always been like that as a kid, especially if it was towards Jeno.” Jihyun took the time to reminisce of Jeno and Jaemin when they were younger, always offering fleeting touches whenever they were around or always searching for the others hand when they were far. “Jaemin is possessive, just like Jaehyun, but he likes to pretend he isn’t.”

“What about Jeno, then? What was he like as a kid?”

“You’re going to hate this, but Jeno was a normal kid. He played video games after school, he ate played outside with Jaemin or whatever friend he had at the time, and then he went home. There really isn’t a difference from the Jeno you’re seeing now and the Jeno then.”

“Can I ask you something?” Yejin sat up on the couch, next to Jihyun’s head as she peered up at her. “I guess I’m just a little confused, and I know that this all works with families and stuff, but did you really grow up with Jaehyun and his brothers?”

“I did. I mentioned that I was always with my dad during his jobs, and he was Jaehyun’s dad second-in-command at the time. I was always at their house, playing video games with Jaehyun because he couldn’t go outside a lot because he got sick easily. I played with Jaemin when he got older and I babysat Jisung when he was born. Jaehyun and I grew up together but we didn’t realize we had feelings for each other until we were fifteen…”

“Well, I didn’t realize I had feelings for him until I was fifteen. Jaehyun said he always knew, but I think he’s a liar.” Jihyun laughed.

Yejin smiled fondly, “that’s…kind of amazing. It all makes sense now, I guess, but what about Jeno?”

Jihyun hummed slightly to herself, “Jeno’s family…it’s a little difficult, I’m sure you gathered that already. Jeno’s dad died pretty young, and Jeno’s mom left after that but you know all about his sister.”

Yejin blinked. She racked in her brain for a mention of a sister—Jeno had mentioned his parents several times, about how his father died and his mother left, this was knowledge she had gathered from Jaemin. But a sister? Jeno nor Jaemin mentioned a sister.

Jihyun looked up from her hands to see Yejin contemplating and trying to remember. Jihyun bit her lip and sat up quickly, her head spinning.

“Jeno…Jeno hasn’t told you about her?”

“I mean no but maybe he forgot—or maybe we never got to it or maybe…” Yejin admitted defeat as she realized that Jeno never mentioned his sister and perhaps never made any plans to do so. Jihyun offered an awkward grimace.

Jihyun pondered for a moment, wondering how much she could say without offending the walls Jeno very obviously built. Should Jeno decide to tear the walls himself was one thing, however, it was not up to Jihyun to determine when and how. But, considering the hurt behind Yejin’s eyes, she gathered that it was now the time to play damage control.

“Please don’t be mad that he never told you. Jeno…he likes to be happy. He likes to feel loved and surrounded by the ones he loves—so please be understanding as to why he never told you. I don’t think he ever wanted to remember.”

“Jeno’s sister was my best friend in school. Like Jaehyun, we grew up together too and I considered her my older sister too. We were a set—Johnny oppa and Jieun unnie, Jaehyun and I. When I wasn’t at Jaehyun’s house, I was at their house after school while Jeno was always asking if Jaemin was with me. Jaemin was always attached to my hip at the time, so I guess that’s how Jeno and Jaemin got to be as close as they were.”

“Sorry, I just—“ Yejin shook her head as she tried to digest new information. Five years together and Jeno never gave a hint to a sibling. That being said, this opened a new family tree, one that was huge. “Jeno’s sister, Jieun unnie was with Johnny. Johnny’s first wife died before I got here, so that means Johnny—“

“Is Jeno’s brother in law? Yeah.”

“Then, all of Johnny’s kids are his nieces and nephews?”

Jihyun gave a sheepish smile, “…yeah.”

Yejin let her head fall against the couch, her hands on her face once again as she gripped her scalp, “what the fuck. What the fuck, Lee Jeno?!”

“This isn’t going well, is it?” Jihyun asked, her bottom lip in between her teeth as Yejin reappeared from her hands.

“What happened? Why isn’t she around what the fuck! Why didn’t Jeno tell me anything?!”

“It’s not his fault!” Jihyun quickly tried to explain. “A lot... a lot happened before you got here, Yejin. Jaehyun’s dad died earlier than we thought, alliances that we had were broken at Jaehyun’s sudden inheritance, it was a war we weren’t even slightly ready for.”

“What happened to Jeno’s sister?” Yejin asked again, noticing that Jihyun was trying to divert the conversation. Once the latter realized she had failed, she scooted closer to Yejin, taking her hands in her own and she stared at her with urgency.

“There’s only so much I can tell you, Yejin. Please understand, I was never supposed to tell you about Jieun unnie, that’s above my role. All I can tell you is that once we found out Johnny was a target, he took great care in making sure that she was safe. She took the wrong car that morning, and what was meant for Johnny landed on Jieun unnie.”

Guilt fueled in Yejin’s stomach as she realized she had pressed too hard, watching as Jihyun’s eyes watered at the memory she just barely managed to heal—only for Yejin to come and pick at the wound.

“Jeno lost everything after that. He wasn’t the same, nobody was. He left the day after the funeral and we didn’t know where he was, we looked all over Asia but we never thought he’d be in the states,” Jihyun explained quietly. “Before we could tell him to come back, he came back on his own...with you.”

“That...could be some explanation as to why Jaemin glared at you when you first came up. He was trying to protect Jeno from anything that could hurt him.”

“Jaemin thought i was going to hurt him?”

“...we all did,” Jihyun admitted. “I gave you the benefit of the doubt and thankfully it worked out for this long, but it took me a long time to get me to convince Jaehyun and Johnny oppa that you weren’t going to hurt Jeno. Meanwhile, you took care of Jaemin on your own.”

Yejin huffed, eyes pooling almost instantly as she crashed into Jihyun’s arms, “thank you for trusting me. I love Jeno, more than anything— I would never hurt him.”

She could feel Jihyun’s smile as she wrapped her arms around her body, patting her back, “I know. You don’t have to thank me, if anything, I should be thanking you. I was scared that Jeno would be broken the rest of his life, but you came and it looked like he got better...even now though, I can see that it still hurts him.”

“Regardless, I’m grateful that you were there, and although you had to find out in the most fucked up way, you never asking questions led Jeno to love and appreciate you more.”

“Does that mean that I should never bring this up?”

Jihyun sighed, “that’s a tricky question. I’m not in the position to say because it’s not my relationship and I know you’ll be opening a traumatic can of worms if you do.”

“Should I run it past Jaemin?”

“That might be your safest bet, but you’re not entirely safe from his defensiveness either, fair warning.”

Yejin sighed, still wrapped in Jihyun’s arms as she felt another member begin to squirm against her arm.

“Oh—someone’s awake.”

“She has really good timing.” Yejin mentioned quietly, lifting herself up from her Jihyun’s hold.

“She’s good at that,” Jihyun smiled gently.

Yejin took the time to lay down, watching Jihyun’s stomach stretch and pull as her baby practiced what seemed like yoga inside her. Yejin has never had information overload, but if she did, she imagined this is what it was like. Jihyun took her turn to sit on the floor then, resting her arms on the couch with her head resting against them as she carefully studied Yejin’s face.

“Talk to me, Angel.”

“I’m...just trying to process, I guess.”

“I’m sorry. I should’ve never said anything, this is my fault—“

“No, it’s not. I’m not blaming anyone but I’m definitely...upset that no one told me anything until now.” Yejin played with the frayed ends of the pillow she was laying on, staring blankly at the floor. “Jeno is the person I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with, Jaemin too, so how long were they planning on keeping this from me?”

“We all have our demons, Yejin.”

“But we also have people that help us fight them. I just don’t.. I don’t understand.”

“Is there anything you’ve never told Jeno?”

“I mean, I try to be as transparent as I can with him, because I expect the same thing but—“

“—you said try?”

Yejin chewed at her cheek, “maybe I’ve kept things from Jeno and Jaem too, but it still doesn’t reach missing sibling and family information level.”

“Like?”

“Like...I don’t know! Nothing important! Little things!”

“That’s subjective.”

Yejin huffed in disbelief, “I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to work on me, Jihyun unnie.”

“I’m not telling you to not be mad at Jeno. I’m just telling you, try to see why he hid it in the first place.”

Yejin grimaced, sitting back up and noticing that her stomach was fully growling at this point. It took a few more seconds for the door bell to ring, Jihyun turning her neck and chuckling to herself quietly.

“Looks like Taeyong oppa also has good timing.”

Yejin helped Jihyun get up from the floor to open the door. Yejin would only be around to thank Taeyong for coming all this way, to which she already had the entire conversation scripted in her head. Taeyong would say it was no problem and that he would do anything for Jihyun, while Jihyun would kiss him goodbye before Doyoung killed her for keeping him from his boyfriend.

The conversation went almost identically in real life, with the exception that Taeyong playfully whined from being discharged from work before greeting Yejin and kissing Jihyun goodbye.

“Let’s eat, hm? everything is better after a good meal.” Jihyun tried her best to comfort while Yejin gave her dull smiles and nods of affirmation.

Maybe this is the feeling of uncertainty and fear she was feeling the morning?

Jaemin 

Sometimes Jaemin wished he didn’t have the job he did. It was nothing against his brother, everything he started and created, and he definitely didn’t feel this disdain because of the danger that came with it. If anything, he wished he were a little further along, near Jeno’s league, doing things like staking out and shooting things…and…well…just doing the cool things that wise guys did.

But Jaemin? Jaemin is nothing but a dirty accountant and that bored him. He doesn’t understand completely why he’s here, sitting in the room along with his brother and Johnny, listening to them vent and scream to the other people on the phone about why a certain action is reckless and why Kun isn’t allowed to do x,y,z.

This is so fucking boring, and Jaemin is barely allowed to go out to take a piss.

During these times, Jaemin would usually entertain himself with Jihyun if she was home, taking time to bond with his soon-to-be sister and take advantage of her cooking, but Jihyun was over with Yejin doing God knows what and probably having ten times more fun than him.  Jaemin holds back a groan before Jaehyun gives him a look.

“Jaemin?”

“Yes hyung?”

“Have you gotten a call from anyone yet?”

“Nope, it’s almost like you forgot to pay the phone bill or something.”

Jaehyun smirked before going back to his call, “no—no Kun hyung, I’m not yelling at you, I just want an explanation…”

Jaemin cleared his throat as he heard the phone ring, noticing that Mark’s number was on. He answered it quickly, eager to talk to anyone that wasn’t himself.

“Hello?”

“Oh! Hey, Jaemin, I thought I called Jaehyun hyung’s line sorry—“

“Please don’t hang up,” Jaemin cried quietly. “If I have to listen to myself think one more time I’m going to kill myself.”

Mark laughed on the other line, bright and annoying as it always was, “well Jaem! I don’t really have anything to tell you really, but I can think of someone who does.”

Jaemin perked up on the other side of the phone as there was silence, a few shuffles, and then a familiar voice on the line, “Hello?”

“Hey stud,” Jaemin grinned.

Jeno scoffed on the other line and he could almost imagine the roll of his eyes, “behave—Mark hyung is right here.”

“It’s not like he can hear me, you’re the one making a big deal,” Jaemin defended. “How are you? Everything okay?”

Jeno hummed, “yeah. It’s pretty boring right now. The suspected building is an orphanage—we really aren’t seeing anything but a whole bunch of kids.”

Jaemin narrowed his eyes, “you think they’re doing work in an orphanage?”

“I’m not sure, I guess that’s what we’re here to find out. But what better way to recruit than build a false sense of family with illicit business.”

“You’re the one to talk.”

Jeno chuckled, “I know. Anyway, the phone service here is suspicious and goes in and out every two hours. It might be really hard for me to call Yejinie later…do you think you could tell her?”

“Of course. She might cry.”

Jeno whined, “why would you tell me that? I’m going to feel awful all day.”

“I’m kidding. Odds are she’s going to be pretty disappointed but I honestly doubt that she’ll cry about it—not over the phone at least.”

“Just tell her I love her and that I’m sorry. I’ll call her as soon as I can.”

“I’ll pass it along.”

“Thank you. And Jaem?”

“Hm?”

“I love you too.”

Jaemin’s ears burned before he could laugh and react, “I love you. Don’t forget to call.”

“I won’t. I’m nearing the end of the hour, service is about to shut off again.”

“Okay, okay—I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

Jaemin hung up the phone at the same time Jaehyun and Johnny had, both with grave looks on their faces. Jaehyun was the first to exhale and rub his face harshly before pulling it back, staring at the phone in front of him.

“I can’t wait til this blows over,” Jaehyun groaned.

“It’s only two more days, we should be good,” Johnny cleared his throat. He looked over at Jaemin and cocked his head, “did Jeno tell you anything?”

“How did you know I was talking to Jeno?”

“Do you usually tell anyone else you love them?”

Jaemin snorted and recounted the quick information he was told from his boyfriend, not long before Jaehyun nodded.

“It’s the same thing Mark just told me,” Jaehyun ran his fingers through his hair before glancing over at Johnny. “Hyung, what if we got this all wrong?”

Johnny shook his head, “it’s only 6:30. We don’t have the slightest idea as to what they do at night, and if we got it all wrong then we keep looking. That’s all.”

Jaehyun stood up from his chair and stretched his neck, “I’m going to take a break. Take one if you all need one.”

Without another word, Jaehyun exited the room as Jaemin watched Johnny sink in his chair further.

“Hyung,” he started, carefully. “Do you think we have it all wrong?”

Johnny used his knuckles to rub the underside of his chin, scratching at the prickly hairs that were forming as he stared at the wall mindlessly, “I don’t have a clue, Jaemin.”

Jaemin’s jaw tensed before staring at Johnny for a few moments, not long before he decided to take a break and call Yejin now that he had the change.

The call went as he expected, she was delighted to hear from him and disappointed to find out she wouldn’t be hearing from Jeno tonight. He had asked how it was going between the two of them, both Jihyun and the baby and Yejin recounted that it was going great, and that it felt nice to have someone around the two days that neither he or Jeno would be around. They chatted very little, as Jaehyun reentered the meeting room before Jaemin did, prompting him to end the call a little earlier than he would’ve liked.

So then, the cycle continued. Jaemin continued to stare at his phone in silence as Johnny and Jaehyun returned to arguing with whomever was on the phone at that time. Jaemin couldn’t begin to think how people in office jobs could do this—quite honestly, it made him sick to his stomach. Regardless, noon came around quicker than he thought it would, and they had delivered Chinese food considering his brother was being stingy with the food in the fridge. Hour passed quicker after lunch as they were allowed another break, but Jaemin took advantage of this to take a nap, falling asleep on the meeting room couch before being woken up two hours later, graciously as Jaehyun had let him sleep in.

Jaemin peeked at his brother through his eyelashes, watching as he discussed quietly with Johnny over the plan time and time again, feeling sick to his stomach as he felt a wave of deja vu hit him like a truck. Jaemin, when he was younger and before Jisung was born, was often attached to his father and always sat around in his office despite his father lecturing him on secrecy. Granted, at the time, Jaemin didn’t know anything that his father did, nor did he care, he just remembered sitting on the couch playing on whatever handheld device he had while he argued with his right hand man, who was then Jihyun’s father.

Jaehyun now looked almost identical to their father in his earlier years. The same frown, the same hand on his chin whenever he was thinking…even the way he stood over the phone to speak into it was the same, as well as the same curses and swears their father used to say. Jaemin closed his eyes all the way and pretended, just for a moment, that he was the same 8 year old boy taking a nap on the dusty worn out couch, hiding from his eccentric mother only for a second’s worth of silence. It didn’t work, however, as he heard his landline ring, and he was rushed out of his daydream.

He noticed it was later now, closer to dinner time as he reached to answer the phone. The number was Mark’s again, and he answered swiftly only to hear him cut off just when Mark answered hello.

“That phone cut off is a bitch,” Jaemin groaned, still somewhat bleary eyes and cranky. “How are we supposed to call them if someone over there is cutting off the phone lines every two to three hours?!”

“That’s what we were talking about just now,” Jaehyun sighed. “I feel like we have the right place, they aren’t cutting phone lines for no reason, much less a good one, so the orphanage has to be a front.”

“Unless they’re trying to save money?” Johnny pressed.

Jaehyun shook his head, “an orphanage? Cutting off service? Hyung, the orphanage should be the first place that has phone service, delivery calls, emergency calls, calls from adoptions agencies. There’s no reason why those phones shouldn’t and wouldn’t be ringing off the wall.”

“That’s what you would think.”

Jaehyun blew a short breath out of his nose before rubbing his chin, “yeah. That is what I would think.”

Soon after, dinner time came along but neither party was hungry enough to eat—just from the sheer anxiety from Mark’s incomplete call. More so because it’s been two hours, and he has yet to call again. A clean-up operation rarely goes wrong, especially if Mark and Jeno are behind it, but Jaemin still can’t help to feel a sense of unnerving fear to him, one that threatens the lunch in his stomach.

Ten pm and Johnny had left to his room, Jaehyun and Jaemin being the only two in the rooms, both waiting for someone to say something. After a few minutes, Jaehyun turned to Jaemin and gave him an awkward smile.

“You can go to bed, Jaem. I’ll probably be up late anyway.”

“I think I’ll stay here for a little bit, if that’s okay,” Jaemin returned the smile before Yejin came to mind. “But, I’ll take a break real quick. If that’s okay.”

Jaehyun nodded, “of course.”

Jaemin got up from his seat, freezing once he heard Jaehyun clear his throat, “hey, Jaemin? You don’t have to but—“

“Yeah, I’ll ask about Jihyun noona.” Jaemin smiled widely, relief washing over Jaehyun as he gave him a genuine smile this time.

“Thank you.”

Jaemin left the room for a bit of privacy, opting for the smaller meeting room and taking a seat in one of the armchairs. After a single dial tone, Yejin answered almost immediately.

“Jaem?”

“Hi Angel,” Jaemin smiled, fatigue flowing out of his fingertips as his heart beats happily. “How are you?”

“I’m good. Jihyun unnie went to bed kind of early, about an hour ago.”

“Jaehyun hyung asked me to check on her, is she okay?”

“You won’t believe it but she’s given birth and the baby has taken it’s first steps.”

Jaemin laughed, “you’re lucky I’m not my brother, I wouldn’t have found it remotely funny.”

“I wouldn’t dream of saying any of this to your brother in the first place,” Yejin laughed. “How are you, baby? Is everything okay?”

“Everything is okay here. I slept for a while so time went a lot faster,” Jaemin reassured, “it really is the most boring fucking job in the world. It’s like a call center but for illegal things.”

Yejin giggled, “when we’re old we can go to a farm. You, me, and Jeno raising chickens.”

“That’s all I want, let’s buy a farm house right now.”

“God no, if I’m around a farm I’ll kill myself.”

Jaemin grinned and played with the hem of his shirt, taking the time to listen to Yejin’s soft sighs before she continued, “have you heard from Jeno?”

“I haven’t. I’m sorry, baby. When he called the line went flat and I wasn’t able to talk to him.”

“oh. okay.”

“I’m sure I’ll talk to him tomorrow morning. He’s leaving the site tonight for another one, hopefully this one has better reception and I won’t have to play messenger.”  

“Hopefully. It feels weird not having either of you here, it’s too quiet—more so now that Jihyun unnie went to sleep.”

“I told you you’d miss us when we’re not around.”

“How was I supposed to know I’d miss your annoying whining?”

“You’re supposed to miss me, every single waking moment of your life.”

“You’re psychotic,”

“Psychotically in love…with you,” Jaemin cooed, laughing wholeheartedly when he heard her gag over the phone.

“Just now I was beginning to think I believed Jihyun unnie when she said Jaehyun oppa gave you a run for your money in affection. But you really are disgusting,“

“Babe he really does give me a run for my money,” Jaemin grinned. “It’s actually disgusting.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,”

“Yeah right, over his dead body. Major tsundere—maybe even abusive.”

“Now you’re just being an asshole—“

Jaemin jumped at the sound of the door swinging open, his brother shoving his coat on as he gave Jaemin a frantic look. “We have to go. Now.”

“What—?”

“Now, Jaemin!”

Jaemin scurried on his feet, “Yejin? Baby? I’ve got to go, okay? I’ll call you in a little.”

“Jaemin? Is everything okay? What’s going on?”

“I uh,” he cleared his throat and ran to grab his jacket before shoving it on with his phone pressed between his cheek and shoulder. “I don’t know yet, angel. I’m sorry. I’ll call you.”

“O-okay. Be safe, I love you.”

“I love you, sweetheart. So much.” Jaemin blew a kiss into the receiver before hanging up, shoving the device in his pocket as he caught the gun Jaehyun tossed him midair. Johnny had already started the car outside as he was being led inside.

“Hyung, what the fuck is going on?” He asked after settling in his seat.

“Mark called. He told me Jeno was bringing the car around when they flipped the car over.”

Jaemin felt his heart fall to his feet and the bile rise in his throat, “what? What do you mean? Who’s they? Is Jeno okay? Is he still there?”

“We don’t know. I don’t know anything.” Jaehyun admitted quietly.

Jaemin clenched his jaw, “what do you mean you don’t fucking know anything?”

“He’s at the hospital, unresponsive.” Johnny added sourly. “Your brother didn’t want to tell you that bit.”

Jaemin’s breath is shallow as he glared at Johnny through the rearview mirror, somehow also begging him to tell him that this was some kind of sick fucking joke. Jaemin tried to regulate his breathing until he got to the hospital, Johnny dropping both Jaehyun and Jaemin at the doors.

Jaemin pushed through people, causing his older brother to apologize for his behavior despite Jaehyun calling out for him to wait for him. He reached the reception desk and demanded for Lee Jeno’s room, only to make the nurse behind the desk stare at him in confusion.

“Are you fucking deaf? Lee. Je. No. Do I have to spell it out—?”

“Jaemin, take a seat,” Jaehyun suddenly said behind him, taking his arm and gently nudging him to the side before Jaemin snatched his arm out of his hold.

“No.This is all your fault, this would’ve never happened if-“

“Excuse me,” said Jaehyun suddenly, giving the receptionist a smile before bowing. He took Jaemin’s arm again, this time much harder as he pulled him in an empty hallway.

“Is that how you speak to someone who is trying to help you?” Jaehyun seethed quietly, glaring at his youngest brother as his grip tightened around his arm.

Jaemin’s jaw was set as he glared at his brother in return, tears filling his eyes as he refused to reply.

“Speak.” He growled, “you had no problem speaking up when you were in front of the nurse and you will do the same now if you had something worthwhile to say.”

Jaemin remained silent as Jaehyun let go of his arm, “that’s what I fucking thought. I give you a lot of slack because you’re my brother Jaemin, but don’t disrespect me again. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, hyung.” Jaemin spat, his eyes now on the floor as he watched a tear fall onto his shoe.

“You will stay here, I will go speak to the receptionist. If you make another scene, so help me God, Jaemin I will fuck you up myself. Do I make myself clear?”

Jaemin nodded, falling against the wall as he slowly slid down while bystanders walk past him.

He felt as if he had been staring at the wall for hours until he heard a familiar voice next to him. He looked up to see Mark with a grim look on his face. Jaemin stood up and Mark didn’t waste any time in taking his hands and bowing deeply. He was saying something but even then he could pinpoint what the words were.

“…so sorry, Jaem. It should’ve been me, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be like that, hyung,” Jaemin felt like he was speaking underwater, too calm and too distant. “I’d feel just as awful if it were you.”

“He’s okay, though.” Mark continued. Jaemin must’ve not been speaking this entire time. “He’s concussed, real bad. A lot of broken bones, but he’ll be out of surgery soon. He’s alive, Jaem.”

“Where is he?” Jaemin barely got out, surprising Mark.

“In surgery still, it’ll be a few more hours, but we can go to the waiting room,” Mark wrapped an am around Jaemin’s shoulder. “Do you want to call Yejin?”

Jaemin shook his head, looking at the time on his wrist before looking back at Mark, “no. She should get some rest, I’ll tell her tomorrow.”

“Are you sure? She’s probably worried right now.”

“She won’t sleep if I tell her tonight, it’s best if we wait until morning.”

Mark grimaced before nodding, leading Jaemin into the waiting room where Jaehyun and Johnny sat on the opposite side. Jaemin made sure he didn’t sit down until he glared at his brother once more, listening to Mark give him his entire story. 

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[deadlygoddess85]

Eternal Soul - Serie

- Part 2 - 

Chapter 2 - The Coven

Pairing: The witches x Hongjoong, Seonghwa, San and Jongho

Words: a lot

Genre: Fantasy - a bit of horror

Songs suggestion: The Queen of the damned soundtrack. 

Characters presentation - The vampires

Characters presentation - The Witches

/ CHAPTER 1 - THE BEACONING /

The sweet laugh of the chubby baby sitting on the toy plane made her chuckle. Even if she has been doing this for the past 3 years, babies are still her weakness. She loved them so much and this one, was a little cutie pie with the tiny aviator hat, the goggles, and the blue scarf around his tiny neck. He was having the time of his life with this toy plane.

The mother was incredibly pleased, and she promises to buy a lot of photos from this session. So, Nina made sure to make her baby look the best.

“Oh Nina! You are the best with kids!” said the woman picking up her baby boy.

Nina blushed, putting a strand of hair behind her ear “Thank you Mrs. Abbott. It’s easy to do my job with this munchkin” she said, playfully pinching the baby’s chubby cheek.

Mrs. Abbott looked at her watch and gasped “Oh my god! It’s already 9. I’m so sorry Nina, I didn’t know it was so late already”

“No worries Madam. You are my last client for today. Plus, we need the perfect picture for your little prince, right?”

The mother smiled, happy with Nina’s professionalism. The young woman walked them to the door and unlocked it

“Well, Mrs. Abbott, I will call you when the negatives are ready. We’ll schedule a new appointment to choose the pictures you want.”

Mrs Abbott thanked the photographer by giving her a huge tip and walked out the studio into the brisk summer night air. Nina looked at the woman walked away with her kid and she sighed. Her eyes went down to her hand on the 100$ bill the mother tipped.

“Thank you, Mrs. Abbott, you just paid for tonight’s rounds!” she chuckled.

The photographer closed the studio. She stopped in front of one of the mirrors in her shop and fix her make-up. She looked at her dress and smiled. She loved that dress; she remembered the day her mother gave it to her. The old woman had spent countless nights sewing the whole thing together as a surprise for her younger daughter.

Nina played with the hem of her skirt, her fingertip brushing across the embroidery details “I miss you mom!”

She wiped a small tear from her cheek and walked out her studio. She made sure the door was locked properly before she made her way to the Twilight Grove.

---

The Twilight Grove was already pretty crowed even if it was early in the evening. Jo, the barmaid, was busy trying to get all the drinks order out as fast as possible. She was thankful about her decision to have her hair into two pompoms tonight, with the crowd around her bar, it was super warm. She finished a batch of Cosmopolitans for a group of girls who were at a table in the middle of the place. Jo put all the cocktails on a tray:

“Marcus, cover the bar a minute, I’ll drop these cocktails to the girls over there!” she said taking the tray in her right hand and walking to the center of the place. Walking through the dancers was a hard maneuver but she managed to get to the table without spilling anything.

“Here you go girls!” she said giving the cocktails one by one to the customers. They paid Jo, but barely left any tips. The barmaid smiled anyway and made her way back to the bar. She noticed a man sitting alone at a table in a far corner of the place. It wasn’t the first time she was seeing him there. She got back behind the bar and continued taking orders when her sister arrived

“JO!” she yelled, making her way behind the bar.

“Nina! You’re not supposed to be here!” Jo said softly, hugging her sister. Nina took two bottles of beers, gave them to a cute man that was waiting and made him pay. She looked at her older siblings and winked. Jo shook her head smiling,

“Alright! We could use your help. Go see this man over there. He has been waiting for a while!” Jo said pointing at the strange customers.

Nina salute her sister like a soldier and happily walked to the stranger.

San was too concentrated on the crowd to see Nina walked to him. He got startled when he heard her sweet voice

“Hi Sir, we are sorry for the long wait. Can I take your order?” she asked smiling.

San blinked looking at the lovely woman in front of him. His heart skips a beat when she placed a strand of her dark hair behind her ear.

“Hmm…I.. I don’t – w-what do you recommend?” he studder. Nina giggle “Cute!” she thought to herself. She gave the cocktail menu to the young man and bent to his level to show him her selection.

“If you like sweet cocktails, I suggest the Blackberry Vanilla Lemonade. It is spiked with vodka. Very good! But if you are more strong alcohol, the Old Fashion is a classic here”

San’s heart skipped a beat again while having Nina’s face this close to his, he slowly inhales her sent, she smelled like fresh raspberries. He adjusted the glasses on his nose and gulped hard.

“I’ll- I’ll have the Old Fashion….please!”  

Nina stand back up and winked at him “Coming right up!!”

San sighed heavily and slightly loosen his tie. He has seen a lot of people in his long vampire life, but nobody like this young woman. There was something about her. He decided to concentrate on her and read her mind.

Nina got back to the bar and gave the order to Jo. She leaned on the bar

“He’s cute, isn’t he?” she asked her sister

“Who?” Jo asked while she was mixing the cocktail.

“The man over there” Nina answered

Jo lift her gaze for a second, looking at the mysterious man and she smirked

“Well you sure did a good impression on him. He is so checking you out!”

Nina stared at him with hungry eyes and bit her bottom lips. San saw the way the young woman was looking at him. He fidgeted on his seat, clear his throat, and rake his hair with his soft fingers, obviously uncomfortable with the situation. Nina came back to him with his cocktail

“Here you go Sir! It’ll be 7$ please” she asked politely.

San gave her a 20$ bill while trying to avoid looking at her in the eyes. “You can keep the change” he said, his voice was tiny, almost a whisper. The young woman cocked her eyebrow at the sudden change of attitude. She pouted going back behind the bar to help her older sister. San downed the cocktail in one shot, the alcohol burnt his throat for a mere second and he left the bar.

---

The place was silent, only the sound of her breathing and the humming of the refrigerator was echoing into the lab. The dark hair woman took a syringe in her steady hand and slowly pour the liquid contained in it into the petri dish. She looked at the result through the microscope and scribble the details into her notebook.  

“You are still here?” asked a male voice behind her. The woman took her goggles off and rubbed her eyes. She leaned her arms on the table and yawned

“Yes, I’m close I know I am, but I just can’t get the blood sequence right” she said softly.

The male walked to her and rest a hand on her shoulder “Andri, go back home! You haven’t slept in the last 48 hours. Get some sleep and come back in two days!”

Andri turned to face her colleague “But…”

“It’s an order! I’m your boss after all! GO!” the male ordered.

She sighed heavily. She knew too well she couldn’t win against her boss. She gathered her things, unwillingly, while her boss was watching her. She slowly walked toward the door of the lab

“Nobody touches my research please!” she said before her boss pushed her out the lab and locked the door. He waved at her with a big smile and she understood she had no other choice but leave and go home.

Although, she wasn’t in the mood to go home. She stopped by the lab’s showers, cleaned up and put on some clean clothes before getting out of the lab.

The wind was refreshing on her skin as she was walking toward the Twilight Grove. She walked pass a dark alley and heard a small whimper coming from the narrow road. She looked around her, hesitant, nobody was there, the street was empty. Andri made three slow steps in the alley

“Hello? Anyone there?” she asked. Silence, she was about to turn and walk away when she heard the whimper again. In a flash, Andri was pinned down by two vampires. Two vicious Nightshades trying to feed on her blood. Quickly, she reacted by focusing on her two sisters.

“Jo! Nina! HELP!”

Nearby, in the Twilight Grove, Jo and Nina suddenly hear an aerie voice calling for them. They both stop what they are doing and exchange a look. They automatically walked toward the exit

“Andri!” Nina shouted in the middle of the street.

“Where is she?” Jo asked her sister. They looked around; the street was empty. How was it even possible? A small fog-like smoke was hovering the ground, Jo saw, down the street, four maybe five vampires.

“Nightshades!?! What are they doing here?” her rhetorical question was only answered by the growl of three more vampires behind them. “We have to find Andri!” she told her younger sister.

Nina think quickly and she kneeled on the hard ground. She took a small piece of white chalk she always carries with her and started drawing runes on the hard ground, the fog covering the surface making it much harder for her.

“Cover me!” she told her older sister. Jo looked down at her sibling with wide eyes

“Are you kidding me?” The three vampires that were behind them tried to make a move toward the two sisters, but Jo quickly raised her hands in front of her and instantly the beast where violently pushed back by a huge invisible force. The three beasts were brutally shoved against the brick wall about 6 feet away.

“Hurry up!” Jo screamed at Nina on the ground. The young woman drew as fast as she could. As soon as the last rune was drawn on the ground, she put her hand together, gathering an imperceptible energy and with one huge flash she saw signs of her older sister. The vision was blurry, but Nina could see her. Andri was in an alley two blocks down surrounded by Nightshades. Nina quickly got up, she took Jo by the hand and start running toward the alley she saw in her vision.

“This way!” she said pulling on her sister to follow. Jo started running behind her younger sibling. Loud growls were heard behind them as more feral vampires gathered to chase them.

Andri was at the end of the alley, behind her a tall steel fence, in front of her; two Nightshades growling and hissing ready to pounce on their prey at any given second. She tried to use her powers but the previous attack by the vampire hurt her badly and she couldn’t concentrate enough to get her energy going.

As they were about to take advantage of the situation and attack, the two vampires burst in fire, right in front of Andri’s eyes. The beasts burned into aches in an agonizing moan as Jo and Nina ran to their sister.

“Are you alright?” Nina asked panting. Andri nodded before hugging her siblings, the little reunion was soon interrupted by more growls behind them. The three women were now blocked in the small alley, surrounded by 6 more Nightshades.

“Girls, I can’t use my magic!” Andri informed her sisters. Jo and Nina stepped forward to shield their kin from the menacing vampires in front of them. Jo remembered the last time she fought one of those in the past.

She recalls all the blood that was shed that day. She remembered how young she was, maybe 11-12 years old. She remembered; The whimpers of fellow witches agonizing on the floor as their blood was being drawn out of their bodies. The screeching sound of every Nightshades being slaughtered.

She was quickly brought back to reality when one of them didn’t hesitate to jump on her. The young women were trying her best to push away the beast hovering her body. Her muscles were flexing and trembling as the creature was putting all its weight on her poor arms. It snarled like a rabid dog a few inches only from her face.

“Nina!” she let out through gritted teeth, hoping her younger sister would help. But it’s only when she turned her gaze that she noticed Nina was already fighting two Nightshades. She cursed to herself.

Her muscles were about to give up, when suddenly the creature got pulled away from her. It took her a few seconds to realize what happened, but when she finally got up, she saw four men fighting the Nightshades. One of them, tall, black hair slicked back, perfect jawline, pale blue eyes, turned to Jo

“Stay back” he shouts with a stern voice. She didn’t try to argue and stepped back to protect Andri.

Nina wasn’t an expert at fists fighting but she could deal a good amount of damage while using her power of “Life link”. By linking her mind with the Nightshades, she was able to read them, and she was able to find their weakness more easily.

She has been able to stun one on the ground as another one stepped in front of her, punching her in the guts. The air got knocked out of her lungs. Nina dropped on one knee as she tries to catch her breath, at this instant, the feral who tried to jump on her got knocked down. The young woman lifted her eyes and saw the man from the bar, fighting the other creatures with a very skilled martial art.

The sisters retreated in the back of the alley as the four men were fighting the Nightshades away.

Soon, one of the creatures screeched signaling the others to retreat, which they did, leaving the sisters and the men alone in the small alley. The tall handsome one, walked to them.

“Are you girls alright?” he asked grabbing Jo by the neck and inspecting it carefully.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Paws down pretty boy!” Jo let out pushing him away from her.

“Seonghwa, my friend. Don’t be rude!” the voice was calm, eerie. It almost sounded like a melody to the sister’s ears. Another man walked towards them. Smaller than Seonghwa but just as beautiful. Deep brown eyes, silver hair, he was wearing an all-black Victorian Jacket with a dark blue embroidered vest and a black shirt. His fingers were decorated with many rings, and only the pinky of his left hand was painted in black nail polish.

The man stopped in front of the three women and politely bow,

“Please, excuse my friend. He didn’t mean to be rude. He is just…foreseeing” he said. “I am Hongjoong. Leader of this group.” He continued, bringing a hand to his heart as he bows again. “This handsome one is Seonghwa. There’s San” he said pointing at the man who help Nina “And that’s Jongho” he pointed at another man, roughly the same high. More muscular, short dark hair, cute features. He turned back to the sisters

“We are The Ateez family!” he said smiling “If I’m not mistaken, your girls are Moonlight sisters, right?”

Jo considered the man in front of her then those behind him.

“Yes, we are. And I’ve heard of your family.” She walked a few steps back shielding her younger sisters “You guys are vampires”.

Hongjoong chuckled “Indeed we are. Please come with us, your sister needs some medical attention and we need to talk about some serious issues”

Jo was about to protest but Andri winced in pain, she looked up at her older sister:

“Please Jo, let’s go with them.”

Jo’s stare went from Andri to Hongjoong and back. She nodded:

“Alright, we’ll go with you!”

The leader gave a small signal to the boys behind him and quickly Seonghwa wrapped his arms around Jo’s waist, San did the same with Nina and Jongho took Andri in his arms. Before the sisters could understand what was happening, they vanished from the alley.

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Stay tune for more chapters!!! 

All right reserved to DeadlyGoddess. DO NOT COPY or USE WITHOUT MY CONSENT.

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[sweetteaanddragons]

The Usual Way

Or: In Which Oromë is Spectacularly Late, and Finwe’s Family Aspires to Avoiding Becoming a Disaster

This is heavily inspired by my previous “In Which Oromë is Late” story, but diverges from it in that by the time Feanor has married Nerdanel, Oromë has still not shown up and discovered the elves. This is also heavily inspired by a line in one of my other fics. Which line will become more apparent as the story progresses.

Also: I have mixed the usage of Sindarin and Quenyan names on the probably faulty assumption that if the two peoples hadn’t diverged, the language they had would be something that was not quite either. Not being a linguist, I had no idea what those changes were likely to be so . . . here we are.

. . . .

Feanor is the one to find them because Feanor never lets little things like possible death stop him from being the one to go deepest into the woods, particularly when he has a new sibling on the way who will need food.

Nolofinwe is with him because he follows his brother everywhere he can, especially now that Feanor has gone and gotten married and shares a tent with Nerdanel instead of them.

It’s a tent he pitches right next to their’s, and he’s promised Nolofinwe that he and Nerdanel will keep following Finwe in their people’s slow trek across the land, ever in search of more food, instead of going off on their own as some do,  but it’s still different, and he hasn’t quite managed to reconcile Nolofinwe to it yet. He just needs a little more time.

All of that slips to the back of his mind the moment they find the camp.

It’s a much smaller one than their’s, just three tents pitched by a small stream that runs burbling through the silent trees. 

It’s also a much quieter one that their’s. No one’s fetching water from the stream. No one’s tending the fire that’s been allowed to burn down to embers. No one’s talking quietly within the tents.

There are hoof prints in the soft mud by the stream’s bank. There are other marks, shallower ones, that look like nothing he’s ever seen before, and suddenly the shadows between the trees seem darker than they were.

“Feanor,” Nolofinwe said, voice tight. “Look. The Hunter’s been here.”

“I saw,” he breathes, voice barely audible, just in case something is still lurking, but he has to know, so he still steals forward grimly to look into the tent.

Probably the grim Hunter has rode on. Probably he wouldn’t bother them anyway; he prefers elves who wander alone to elves who travel together, even if they’re only in groups of two.

Then again, he seems to have carried away the whole camp.

He’s glad when Nolofinwe sticks close to him.

The first two tents are empty of people, though there are blankets and food and a few other items they might take back, as sick as it makes him. They can’t afford waste.

The third tent is not empty.

The third tent has three children inside.

One is only an infant, tucked into the eldest boy’s arms. The third child is clinging on too. All three have wax or cloth stuffed into their ears, and the eldest boy looks at the others like he’s afraid if he blinks they’ll disappear.

His eyes go even wider when he sees them.

Feanor kneels down to put himself at their level, and Nolofinwe follows belatedly.

The eldest boy looks at them suspiciously for a long moment before slowly removing the blob of wax from his ear. He holds it ready to jam back in at a moment’s notice, though.

“I’m Feanor, and this is my brother, Nolofinwe,” he says. “What’s your name?”

The boy relaxes just a little at the mention of brother and even more when he hears the -finwe. Everyone knows of their father. 

“Maitimo,” he says quietly. He hugs the other two children impossibly closer. He does not volunteer their names.

“What happened?” Nolofinwe asks.

Maitimo promptly bursts into tears.

. . .

(The story, as it comes out later, is this: Maitimo’s mother had gone to get water from the stream last night and never returned. Her brother, who was the youngest boy’s father, had gone to look for her. He hadn’t come back either. At that point, the remaining adults had known better than to send anyone else. They had known.

But then the whispers had started.

And then the screams. 

Maitimo had blood on his fingernails from where they had dug into his father’s arm as he desperately tried to keep their last remaining protector from going outside.

His father had shaken him off.

Maitimo had clapped his hands over his ears before the whispers could turn their attention on him.)

. . .

Maitimo clings to his brother’s shirt as Feanor carries both of them back to camp, and he keeps a suspicious eye on how Nolofinwe is carrying his cousin the whole way there.

The baby in Nolofinwe’s arms frets.

But the middle boy, the one Maitimo calls ‘Laure in a soft, frightened voice - he doesn’t make a single noise.

Not once.

. . .

Their father looks older when they tell him what’s happened. The Hunter has grown bolder, and still they are no closer to finding a way to protect themselves from him, or any of the other horrors that lurk in the endless trees.

Nameless horrors aside, there are still three children that need looking after. Finwe manages to pry the names of the younger two out of Maitimo: Macalaure and Carnistir. His other question, if they have other family somewhere, fares more poorly. If there are others out there, Maitimo doesn’t know.

Feanor gets a curious look on his face as soon as it becomes apparent that they’re going to have to find someone to look after them.

. . .

(“Nerdanel,” he says, leaning against the tree that she is perched in the lower branches of, chipping stone into arrowheads, “you still want children, don’t you?”

Nerdanel does want children. She is, however, somewhat suspicious of her dear husband’s tone. “I do,” she says slowly, not quite committing to anything. 

“How do you feel about three?”)

. . .

The three children are absorbed into the camp easily enough. Maitimo follows Feanor around like a second shadow, and Macalaure toddles after, one hand clutching his brother’s shirt. Nerdanel binds Carnistir to her back the way the other women do and sings to him as she works.

Feanor works hard to make sure all the children have enough. He will not have another Findis. Maitimo helps him solemnly, bright and quick and always watchful.

He never lets Feanor wander into the trees for even two paces alone.

Macalaure still doesn’t speak, but Feanor returns from collecting fruit with Maitimo one day to find him hiding behind a tree one day while Nerdanel sings to the baby.

When she stops, Macalaure starts quietly humming the tune.

Maitimo makes a soft sound, and Feanor looks down and, for the first time, sees him smile.

. . .

He doesn’t plan on it happening again, because finding children in the woods is never something you plan on, but he isn’t entirely surprised either.

After all, the woods grow more dangerous every year.

It starts with whispers this time. Whispers of something new in the trees - something that looks like an elven child but runs with wolves and has blood on its teeth.

As it turns out, that story is correct in every particular except for the part where it claims the boy only looks like an elvish child. Standing across from the child now and seeing the wonder in his eyes as he takes in Feanor’s bright clothes, Feanor’s pretty sure that an elvish child is exactly what he is.

Feanor takes a cautious step forward.

The boy bares his teeth and growls before he takes off running through the trees.

. . . 

They can’t just leave him out there. It isn’t safe.

He folds up a gift of food in bright red cloth that Nerdanel has donated to the cause at the edge of their camp. Macalaure pats his shoulder and hums a questioning noise.

“I’m trying to bring you home a new little brother,” he explains, though he’s not sure if little is the right term or not. Maitimo has shot up these past few years, but Macalaure remains worryingly small.

Macalaure hums a happy note and offers up his small wooden horse to add to the pile.

. . . 

It takes three gifts of food to lure the boy into their camp, and it’s the growing chill of winter that finally drives him all the way in to the warmth of their fire.

Nerdanel wraps him him in a blanket, and his growl seems half-hearted. He curls into the warmth, and when they wake up in a morning, he’s still there, safe in the middle of the pile of warm bodies the children inevitably make.

. . . 

The boy doesn’t talk - or, no, as Feanor corrects the unwary sharply, he does talk, he talks perfectly well - he’s just speaking in the tongue of wolves instead of the tongue of elves. They’ve managed to teach him a few words already, but they can’t expect him to learn overnight.

Feanor listens to his growls and watches his body language and learns to speak his tongue while they’re teaching him their’s, just as he’s learned the meanings of every one of Macalaure’s wordless hums.

. . . 

(The full story never does come out, for obvious reasons, but they can guess the outlines well enough - parents gone, child left alone, and, by some miracle, taken in instead of eaten by a pack of wolves.

They do not guess the unthinkable truth: That sometimes, a child may be left deliberately behind during a particularly hungry winter.)

. . .

The child’s original name, whatever it might have been is lost. Maitimo calls him Celegorm after one too many days of him rising before the stars have reached the proper place in their dance, and for good or ill, the name sticks.

. . . 

Three years later, when Nerdanel announces that there’s going to be another baby, Carnistir’s eyes swing towards the woods as if he expects his new sibling to come toddling out at any moment.

“I’m having a baby,” Nerdanel clarifies.

Feanor whoops and picks her up to swing her, laughing, through the air.

He doesn’t see the looks that the older children share.

. . . 

Celegorm doesn’t think to be concerned and Carnistir is still too young, but Maitimo works harder than ever, and Macalaure - 

Macalaure goes and sits by his father’s feet and helps him work on the new type of bow Feanor has been crafting and then he says, “Will you still want us after the baby comes?”

Feanor drops the bow and turns to stare down at Macalaure’s hunched shoulders because he can’t quite believe that the small, scratched voice he just heard was Macalaure. Talking. Actually talking.

Then the rest of what he says sinks in, and oh. He knows that feeling. He’d turned every ounce of it into jealousy and fury and hurled it all at tiny Findis.

“Till the end of the world,” he promises.

Macalure talks more, after that.

.  . . 

The new baby is small, but not too small, and Nerdanel is tired, but not, the midwife assures him, too tired. Everything is fine. Everything will reamain find.

Finding children in the woods is much less stressful.

They let the other children hold the baby one by one.

“Small,” Celegorm whispers in an awed tone. Little Curufin has caught hold of one of his fingers and refuses to let go.

“For now,” Feanor agrees. “Let’s go show him to your uncles outside.”

. . .

Technically, Feanor doesn’t find the twins in the woods. Someone else does that part.

But. Well. Apparently the given assumption amongst Finwe’s people is that any unclaimed children found in the forest are now his and Nerdanel’s.

Neither of them is going to complain about it.

. . . 

(Two months later, Oromë shows up and tells them of a land where light shines like fire and the dead can still walk.

Feanor looks down at six of his seven children and immediately feels guilty for his heart’s pained twist.)

(Things don’t improve when someone brings up Miriel.)

. . .

A/N: The line this story was partially inspired from was Amrod and Amras’s comment from “Bearing Children” that they got their baby changeling in “the usual way.” Which . . . under the circumstances implied that the usual way was finding a baby in the middle of the forest, probably surrounded by dead people. And, in this AU, that is sort of the usual way for their family. Six out of seven definitely qualifies as the usual.

[365daysoftododeku]

29th September 2019

Author: CrzA

________________________________________________________________

Wishful Thinking

The dorms always become livelier on movie nights. The entirety of the class works together for one common goal. They separate into teams, and Kacchan is always in charge of dinner, even if there are at least three other people around him to help him with anything necessary. Izuku knows better than most that his childhood friend really doesn’t like feeling like he isn’t up to a task on his own, but he will also be the first to admit that Kacchan has been getting better at accepting help from his peers. Except when it comes to cooking.

The only person he even trusts enough to touch anything at all is Tsuyu, and that’s just because she has first-hand experience in the kitchen from taking care of her younger siblings back home. Whoever else gets appointed to the dinner team usually just sits around after setting the table for the rest of the class. Depending on who it is—Kaminari, Ashido, Hagakure or Sero—, it usually means a healthy amount of chaos as some form of wrestling begins among them. There’s the occasional sword fight, but Kacchan tends to snatch the knives away from the ones involved before anyone gets injured.

Never mind the fact that he then proceeds to throw an explosion in their general direction.

While Kacchan and Tsuyu take care of dinner, Satou’s team—which is the only one that is always the same with Yaoyorozu and Uraraka as his helpers—prepares the dessert. Whoever remains has the simplest task: gather all the pillows and blankets in the dorms and haul them down to the common room, arranging the couches and armchairs so that they all face the TV. And after dinner, everyone does who wasn’t in charge of the food does their part in washing the dishes.

Iida mediates the crowd so that there aren’t fights over the comfy seats. After the first night resulted in a bloody nose and a swollen eye, he made sure to assign them fairly so that everyone got their shot at one of the couch cushions. As it seems, tonight Izuku and Todoroki have been given the loveseat, and he is doing his very best not to focus too much on the love part of it. He has been head over heels for his best friend for about a year now, and he still hasn’t gathered enough courage to tell him about it… He is working on it, slowly but surely, and one of these days he is going to confess; but tonight isn’t it.

For one, their entire class is right there. But even if that weren’t the case, when Todoroki is so close to him, Izuku can feel his warmth radiating off of his left side, his throat closes up and he can hardly breathe, let alone speak. It certainly doesn’t help that the class picked a horror movie for the night and he really doesn’t handle those very well.

So maybe when he starts to get drowsy right at the beginning of the movie, Izuku doesn’t fight to keep his eyes open on purpose. Because if he lets himself fall asleep, curled up under his All Might blanket, he will be killing two birds with one stone. If he is snoozing away through the entire movie, he doesn’t have to watch the scary scenes and get nightmares later on, and he also doesn’t have to think about how if he just reaches out with his hand, he could easily touch Todoroki’s, wrap his fingers around it, feel his warm skin…

His heartrate speeds up slightly, but his exhaustion must have been more severe than he anticipated, because he can feel himself slipping under anyway, the blanket of darkness spreading over his consciousness and making everything seem further and further away.

Perhaps he had truly been too tired to think things through, because Izuku did not account for the fact that he is most certainly the cuddly type. Lately he tends to sleep with multiple pillows, one of which is strictly reserved for him to hold on to through the night when he forgets to get one of his plushies out of the closet before getting comfortable in bed. For the longest time he thought it was a childish habit that he had outgrown, but ever since Uraraka had left one of her plush animals in his room and he found himself holding it when he fell asleep, he realised he slept a lot better like that. No point in trying to avoid something that clearly works, he thought.

But it seems he has grown so used to having something to cuddle with, that he subconsciously fell onto his friend. When he regains enough consciousness to be aware of his surroundings, he immediately notices that he has his arms tightly wrapped around Todoroki’s left one, the warmth so wonderful it takes every ounce of willpower he has not to squeeze it even harder. And if that weren’t enough, he appears to be holding onto his hand as well, their fingers laced together.

Izuku must have gotten into a more comfortable position without even knowing, seeing as his head is resting over the top of Todoroki’s stomach, his ear pressed to his chest so tightly he can hear the steady beats of his heart… ba-bump, ba-bump… His mouth gets a little dry, and anxiety grips at his own heart, but Izuku doesn’t dare move. He tells himself it’s because he doesn’t want to disturb his friends, the room deathly quiet but for the eerie music coming from the TV, but he knows, deep down, that he simply doesn’t want this to end just yet.

If Todoroki was uncomfortable, he would have said something, right? He would have just shaken Izuku awake and told him to move… But he didn’t… Though, Todoroki is kind, and he isn’t very good at expressing himself at the best of times, so what if he just doesn’t want to bother Izuku instead? Maybe he is counting the seconds until Izuku wakes up and moves of his own accord.

But he is already awake and refusing to move… This is selfish, he really should just—

A soft touch to the top of Izuku’s head cuts off his train of thought, and his breath hitches. He hears the distinct smack of lips, so quiet no one else must have heard it, but it is so close it reverberates all throughout Izuku’s body, fireworks setting off in his chest and sending sparks into his veins.

He really felt it, right? It isn’t just wishful thinking or one of those daydreams that seem so much realer in this limbo between being fully awake and half asleep? Butterflies swarm in his stomach when he hears it again, feels it again, firmer this time, as if the first had been Todoroki testing the waters and now he was really diving for it.

Does he know Izuku is awake, or did he only do it because he thinks he is fast asleep? Whatever one may be the truth, they both mean the same thing, don’t they? The gesture is clear, and Todoroki had always been one to express his feelings through actions more than words.

Izuku’s chest warms, and he is certain it has nothing to do with his friend’s quirk. He isn’t sure if he is going to be able to fall back asleep, but he most definitely won’t be moving until he has to. And if he manages to convince himself he really isn’t dreaming, he might just finally tell Todoroki how he feels a bit sooner than he thought he could.

________________________________________________________________

Would you like your work to be featured in the 365 Days of TodoDeku Project? Apply here! (≧∇≦)/

[tuaparadis]

Man or A Monster (Day 4: Death)

The Umbrella Academy Inktober 2019.

— Summary: Every single one of them knew the academy was broken. They never really knew how much until Ben died. Vanya didn’t have to rub it in, and she certainly didn’t have to let everyone else in the world know about it either.

or

The Hargreeves reacting to Vanya’s portrayal of Ben and his death.

— Disclaimer: I love Vanya! I love all the Hargreeves. This is not a Vanya hate fic, so if you try to promote it as such, leave. This is just how I imagine the Hargreeves’ reactions would be.

— Other: Reblogs appreciated <3 Also, read this on AO3

___

The last thing Luther expected himself to do was to sit in the corner of his room —away from his mirror at all costs— and read Vanya’s book.

After his accident, he had never considered coming out of his bedroom unless it was to use the bathroom or eat. He couldn’t bring himself to do anything anymore. He was never going to be the same ever again, there was no possible way to go back.

Maybe if everyone had stayed, he wouldn’t have almost died.

But deep down, he could only blame himself. He wasn’t careful enough on that mission, the others made their choice when they left. The world needed Luther and he had failed everybody. Including his siblings.

He was hesitant about reading the book. For starters, the copy he had was dedicated to his father, but he wasn’t going outside to buy one for himself. He knew Reginald would never read it anyway. Having nothing better to do that day, that week, that month, Luther had started the book. He didn’t agree with a lot of things, but he knew he and Vanya had a very different childhood.

What he didn’t expect to see was everything in Ben’s chapter. He was entitled to his own opinion almost every time, and he never backed out. That’s what made him a leader, according to Reginald. And even though he didn’t want to let Vanya’s view affect him, it did.

She had no right to talk about it like that. She wasn’t there. She didn’t see what he saw. What they all saw. And she didn’t know Luther’s intentions when he gave Ben that order.

Luther knew he pushed Ben a lot, and he knew how much the horror scared him. Everything he ever said or did to him was for Ben’s own good. That was how he saw it. What he didn’t know, was that when he ordered Ben to let the horror out, he also sent him to his death. He didn’t know.

And Vanya didn’t know the guilt he felt. So, of course, she had to claim that it was partly Luther’s fault her brother died.

He was mad now. Mad at Vanya and mad at himself. Because what if it was true? What if it was his fault? What if it was his fault that the family fell apart soon after? Was it all because of him? Because he wasn’t good enough?

Maybe his body looked the way it did because it’s what he deserved for killing his brother.

___

Ever since Diego landed eyes on that book, he knew whatever was inside it was going to be totally inaccurate.

Buying it only proved him right and with every chapter, he had to take a break. The chapter about himself gave him more than one reason to stab whoever agreed on publishing the book.

But Ben’s chapter just confused him more than anything.

There were some parts he didn’t disagree with at least. Blaming the leader. But Diego always wanted to be the leader. Would he be want to be blamed for Ben’s death just because of that title as well? Nobody would.

But some other parts were just… too far. He wasn’t mad when he read the part, he was furious. He knew Vanya and Ben were close at some point, but her portrayal of what happened on that mission made it look like they were strangers. Maybe they were, maybe they lost touch.

Diego wasn’t personally that close with Ben.

He tried to teach him how to throw knives at some point, so he wouldn’t have to use his powers to fight, it just ended with a bleeding wound on the side of Diego’s face, which left him a cool scar in the end. And now every time he looked in the mirror, he always saw a little Ben hopelessly trying to throw his knife at the target.

But it didn’t matter anymore, because Ben was dead and every time he looked at the scar, those nice memories he once had were replaced with Ben being ripped to shreds right in front of him. And Vanya, well, wrote what she wrote about that.

She shouldn’t have.

It was going to be hard to forgive her if he ever had the intention to.

___

Blaming others was something Allison did almost all her life, and she had no right to judge Vanya of doing the exact same thing. But it still caught her off guard seeing someone else do it.

Allison cared about Vanya, she always had, even though she was never the one to include her in things. She didn’t take the role of the loving sister as she wanted, and she never really understood why not.

She was upset and angry about everything in that book. The chapter about her fiddled with her career for a while, but rumors were spread and sooner or later, things were sorted out.

But she couldn’t blame Vanya for how she saw things. She was always excluded from everything, and she lost both the people that cared for her. No wonder she snapped.

It was always Five or Ben who invited her over to play games in the limited amount of free time they had. Allison didn’t know how much things shifted between Ben and Vanya’s relationship after Five’s disappearance. She did now.

And it made her think about her relationship with Ben. She knew he looked up to her, and she had noticed he was shy to talk to her at times. They hadn’t spent as much time together as the Holy Trinity Vanya, Five and Ben had, but she still knew him.

He felt like the only voice of reason in the academy at times and she trusted him with things she couldn’t tell anyone else, not even Luther.

Vanya’s new point of view on Ben really took her by surprise, to say the least. Seeing someone —who was the closest to Ben, mind you— talk about him like that just didn’t click. It didn’t feel right.

Allison would try her hardest to leave it in the past, but it was going to be hard. Harder than anything she’s ever done up to that point. Dealing with the reality of things was never her strong suit.

___

Klaus didn’t have anything else to distract himself with whilst in rehab, and Ben’s nagging about checking Vanya’s book out had lasted longer than a week.

So he gave it a chance.

He himself had always been intrigued to read it, but he knew Vanya had opened a can of worms in that book that he didn’t want to be reminded of ever again. That did not stop him from picking it up, sitting on a chair —with a ghost Ben behind him— and starting to read.

He hadn’t expected anything different when he reached the chapter about himself. He hadn’t been the greatest sibling, he was never rude to Vanya or anything like that, he was just… in his own little world most of the time.

Klaus didn’t want to read Ben’s chapter. He could tell Ben didn’t want to either, but both of them ended up scanning the entire thing.

The Ben in that chapter was not the Ben Klaus knew.

Sure, maybe death changed him, which it most likely did. He didn’t really know Ben when they were younger, only the dead version. And if he had to describe Ben the way he knew him in three words, it was would be ‘loyal little asshole’, which was the opposite of how he was described in that sorry excuse of a book.

Not only that, but Vanya’s view on his death just awakened something in him. Something that made him break the silence in the room by angrily throwing it back in the bookcase, which only made some other books fall down and join Vanya’s on the ground.

He respected the hell out of Vanya, and he was even jealous of her. She didn’t have ghosts screaming in her ear, she didn’t have to get locked in a mausoleum every week, she didn’t have to go on missions and kill people so she could come back home safe, she didn’t have to watch her brother die.

No, none of that. She just had to stay home, play the violin, help around with chores every now and then, join Grace when she cooked and play chess with Pogo. But, she was excluded and ignored and Klaus honestly felt for her. Nobody gave a shit about him either, he was useless on missions, so if anything, he could identify with her on that.

She still had something to say about Ben’s death, despite not being there, which just really upset him.

___

Vanya’s book was the only thing Five had left that reminded him of home.

It was the only thing that reminded him of his humanity, of what his life used to be. The apocalypse hadn’t been easy. Time travel was a bitch.

For him, it might have just been months since he time traveled, but for everyone else, for his family, it had been fourteen years. That was longer than the number of years he’d been alive for.

He missed a lot of things, according to Vanya. Taking his sweet time while reading everyone’s chapters, he landed on his own. And it really made him think about how Vanya felt about his disappearance even before he started reading. She meant a lot to him, and he meant a lot to her.

She lost her best friend, and she was never going to see him again because Five was going to be stuck here, alone, forever for the rest of his life. He would never find a way to get back. He had nothing and no one, it was just him and some mannequin he decided to hold onto, simply because it had a human face. How pathetic.

But at least Vanya didn’t have to live like that. At least she still had Ben, right?

No. Ben had died.

Ben had died, and Vanya was alone. Which made Five feel even more guilty about not listening to Reginald when he said he wasn’t ready.

If he was there, he would have grown up, and he would have moved in with Vanya, and help her out through her depression and be the best friend and brother he promised to be. And maybe if he was there, Ben wouldn’t have died.

He could have used his spacial jump ability to help the rest of the team escape before it was too late. Maybe he could’ve fixed everything if he wasn’t foolish enough to rebel against their dad.

There was something that confused him in regards to the book, though.

When he had left, when he had died for everyone else, Vanya was in mourning. But, from what he could see in Ben’s chapter when he had died, Vanya reacted differently. Maybe it was a new way of coping, but she didn’t sound sad. She was angry.

Five wasn’t there to watch him die either, so he couldn’t understand what Vanya was saying in that last part, or, well, trying to say. He could tell she hadn’t found the right words for it. But he was sure, without a doubt, that it backfired.

He liked the book anyway, but maybe it had another use for him. Holding onto it to read it over and over again was not going to make him time travel back, but maybe, he had a chance to. And he needed a pen.

He just had to find the right equation.

__

If Ben could interact with the real world, he would have picked up the book and thrown it against the bookcase the exact same way Klaus did. Not out of anger, not really. He wasn’t angry at Vanya.

He was just shocked.

There was no other way he could describe it. Except maybe being hurt. Yeah, he was shocked and hurt. Really hurt.

He had always encouraged Vanya to speak up for herself whenever she could. Even though he didn’t know what it was like to be a shadow for everyone else back then, he tried to support her as much as he could. Both him and Five did.

Five.

Vanya and Five were best friends. Ben was also a really good friend to them, but it was always Vanya and Five, at least in his eyes. He never complained though. He got it, sometimes things are like that, it was fine.

When they lost Five, his only thought was his sister. So he tried to be there for her as much as he possibly could. But as the days went by, she grew more distant, and eventually, she pushed him away. He didn’t blame her for that. However, she had no excuse to make him the villain of the chapter, as well as the rest of his siblings.

He wasn’t the one who pushed her away first. He didn’t ignore her first. He didn’t ruin their friendship for the loss of someone else.

And she really didn’t have to blame someone other than Ben for dying.

Vanya wasn’t there to see what happened. He was honestly glad she didn’t have to watch him die, however that didn’t change the fact that his death was his own fault.

Maybe, if he had listened to Luther sooner, he would have survived. Maybe if he hadn’t hesitated, he would have had time to calm the horror down before it ripped him to shreds, before he traumatized his family, having to watch it happen.

Before there was nothing left of him to even bury.

So yeah, he was upset about that. About the entirety of the book, honestly, or at least of what he was able to read before Klaus snapped and made a scene. And even after all of that, he still felt guilty. He didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to her, to anyone. He just really wished he could talk to Vanya, to clear some things up.

But he was never going to because Ben was dead. He was dead and there was nothing anyone could do about it, not Klaus, not anyone.

He was going to feel this way for the rest of eternity and there was nothing more horrifying than that.

___

That moment plays in my head every day I wake up, despite how blurry it is. I remember our mom telling me that the specific mission was going to be dangerous. Of course, I got worried but knew that there wasn’t too much to worry about anyway. The Academy was strong, the enemies were ordinary.

Our mom suggested I learn a new piece on the violin instead of focusing on my other studies for that day, to which my father agreed. So I did.

Missions always took at least a few hours, but this time they hadn’t returned the time they usually did. This was a wakeup call for my father. I remember him putting on his monocle and leaving the mansion. I remember him starting the car as I watched him from the window.

I remember hearing the car an hour later from the distance. I remember backing away and watching my brothers and sister as they entered the house. That’s when I realized one of them was missing.

When I heard the news from our mom that Ben had died, I didn’t know if I was stuck in a nightmare or not. I remember freezing in place, and I remember how an invisible bullet went right through my chest, and I remember having the urge to throw up all over the floor.

I hadn’t felt more grossed out in my life up until that point. I knew how vulnerable Ben was, and how eager he was to please my brother Luther and my dad. I didn’t know it would cost him his life.

At the same time, I felt like I was hearing the news of a stranger.

Ben had changed a lot. When Five left, he tried to talk to me, to make sure I was okay. But then he gave up on me. I needed time to heal and he didn’t give me enough of it. Ben had left me in a time of need and the abandonment was too much for me to take.

I had nobody. I was alone, and nothing has changed about that.

That didn’t change the fact that I was shocked by his death. He was still my brother, whether I liked it or not.

Everyone knew Ben didn’t like to use his powers. He was ripped to shreds by them and the thought, the image of it even right now, as I’m writing this, makes me feel like someone is twisting my guts and making a knot out of them.

He never wanted to use his powers again, he had told me so. And now that he had to, he died. Maybe if my siblings had done more work, if they had protected him, if they had tried harder, Ben wouldn’t have had to unleash the horror. Maybe he wouldn’t have died.

But the truth was that Ben had already died for me, four years prior to that, when he decided he didn’t care about me anymore.

[therealfluke]

hello hello ! wld j like to say that if ur already following me and ur like “why” it is because. this is may. i j reserved from my rph so the alias it went under was lucky. which actually,, so fitting w this theme (goes by a name that means an unlikely coincidence, last name is associated with luck, etc.). in addition, if “lucky” by britney spears immediately got stuck in ur head... that was the ultimate goal. also listen,,,, u r not the only one who hates my url. and finally! i saved the old posts on here and j made them private for posterity (obviously) and also,, my sanity.

‹ OLIVER JACKSON-COHEN, HE/HIM, CIS MAN, BISEXUAL. › levi “fluke” fisher is the twenty-seven year old from salem, massachussets / new york city, new york. when a friend asked them what they thought of the manor they said, ❝ IT FEELS LIKE I’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE. ❞ they claim final destination is their favorite scary movie, and if they were to die in a horror film they would form an alliance with the murderer, then annoy the murderer into killing him by asking too many questions. their fears include rats, isolation and living the rest of his life without muse d, and they don’t know we know, but… in spite of a promise he made to his family, friends and self, he has a baggie of heroin on him at all times so he can prove to himself he’s strong (which is a lie – it’s really for a ‘just in case’ situation) . hope they enjoy their stay. ‹ MUSE C from OTHERSIDE penned by, LUCKY, 20, EST. ›

QUICK FACTS:

full name: levi “fluke” james fisher

hometown: salem, ma // moved to new york city, new york at twenty-two

date of birth: march 10, 1992*

*does not perfectly reflect the below Big Three Zodiac Chart™ because that’s so much math

zodiac big three: pisces sun, scorpio moon, pisces rising (he is!! so ruled by his emotions!!)

gender & pronouns: cis man & he/him

sexual orientation: bisexual

occupation: museum night guard ( fired ) / leech off of his older siblings

mbti: infp

enneagram: 4w5

the song i listen to on repeat while i write the intro: “stars” - nina simone ( cover )

BACKGROUND INFO:

triggers: death (under mysterious circumstances, but officially dubbed murder), night terrors / hallucinations?, drug abuse / addiction ( oxy, heroin ), accidental overdose, death by overdose

it began with josephine (“jo”), levi, charlotte (“lottie”), and christopher (“chris”) – in that order. or, perhaps, that reverse order – see: chris was the oldest.

they were all born to very kind and lovely parents. the majority of levi’s memories with his parents take place in a large house they were intending to flip. given its size and the price it would sell for, they spent more than their fair share of time in there. that being said, because their parents were often busy flipping and marketing the house, they all relied on each other for fun, even in spite of the sizable age difference between himself (and jo, who i have forgotten to mention is his “younger” twin) and christopher.

the longer they spent there, however, the more uneasy they grew. i mean, it was basically its own version of the manor – it was also guillermo del toro’s wet dream. levi could’ve sworn he’d had some run-ins with spooks, but no confirmation was ever, nor could ever be, offered. so the manor feels... very normal.

anyway, when levi was eight, his mother and father met an untimely demise. a break-in gone wrong while the kids were with their grandparents, they were told. at the time, levi... was eight and, therefore, had no doubts. now, however, he mulls over the many possibilities – it was a big house, the likelihood that they really could’ve been in that wrong of a place at that wrong of a time felt very unlikely. some form of suicide? something otherworldly? they seemed about as likely. he’s pretty sure lottie and chris know the truth, but...

after that, they were sent to live with their grandparents. while not particularly ideal, they recognized that it was far better than the foster care system. however, these recurring spooks didn’t just stop when he moved. his grandparents and older siblings blamed it on childhood night terrors, jo believed him. 

as they continued into his teen years, they claimed it was sleep paralysis. he confided in jo, in secret, that they weren’t strictly at night. he knew very well that, if he shared that with his grandparents or older siblings, they would think he really needed help. maybe he did, he never truly learned.

when chris moved out to go to college, and when lottie followed just a few years after, levi found it was just jo and himself. their grandparents were beginning to go past old age and reach senility. they had bouts of forgetting. 

levi chose not to go to college, but insisted jo, who’d always wanted to go, go without him. she went to new york city, he stayed behind with his grandparents in salem up until their death when he was twenty-two. it was early in his eyes, but for, say, his brother, it was pretty record-breaking. 

when he was twenty-one, after the death of his grandparents, he left salem and all of its reminders of childhood terrors and lies. he found jo in new york and began living with her and working as a night guard at one of the many museums.

but a mere one (1) year later, jo, usually straight-edge, decided she would finally go to her first college party in celebration of being so close to graduating. yeehaw. levi was invited to go with her, but had been warned far too recently that, if he missed one more shift, he’d be fired.

on the topic of his night shifts, his terrors seemed to go away when he moved to new york. it seemed as though he’d left them all in salem, but there were definitely moments in a huge and empty museum that he could’ve sworn he’d seen something. anyway, back to the main point:

jo didn’t return until the next morning and, when she did, she expressed the excellency she had experienced the night before. she wasn’t afraid of telling him she’d tried drugs for the first time – no, that night, it’d just been weed. he’d tried weed in high school, trying to figure out if it would help with his terrors. for a hot second, it did... which is what led to his own demise.

(OK! so from here on out, i’ll be talking about the other muses in the subplot. i’m gonna do my best to leave their story and keep their drug of choice vague! anyway!)

jo began falling deeper into the drug world after meeting and beginning to date muse b and eventually fell into harder tingz™. she never tried to pressure fluke into trying anything, but he witnessed the reaction to it. between that and having looked up to his younger sister ( by, like, two minutes ) for nearly the entirety of his life, he decided to try whatever she did. 

however, unlike her, he quickly escalated to heroin.

he started out smoking it... then snorting it... then began shooting it. he liked shooting it the best – not only because he reached the high quicker, but also because it required more of a ritual. as a fan of ritualistic behavior, the lead-up was almost as enjoyable as the high itself. unfortunately, it did leave him with many trackmarks and an even higher risk of reliance and overdose.

he didn’t go out to many parties after that. he preferred shooting in the company of the few, not the many. if his sister and friends did, that was their prerogative, but it was just... more peaceful...

suddenly, he didn’t ever think about the terrors or the lies or the shadows in the museum. he was eventually fired, yes, and had to start ‘earning’ money via asking his other siblings. 

when the topic came up between himself and his little group of friends on whether or not they should quit, he had no answer. 

in 2018, at twenty-six, his usual dealer had cut him off due to the money he was no longer good for. finding a much cheaper one, he took the same dose, but the amount of other chemicals it was cut with sent him to the hospital. given plenty of naloxone, he came out of it alive and clean and, due to the nature of it all, was deemed a fluke.

he didn’t take to that at first. he was lucky, yes, but a fluke ? it couldn’t have been that unlikely... especially when he fell back into it after finding another dealer and being totally fine. however, when he heard jo had overdosed and actually died ?

yes, he was a fluke.

he was so blinded with rage at muse a at first for leading his absolute crutch to her death, he was so blinded with rage at muse b for first introducing her to a world of harder drugs, he was so blinded with rage at himself for being the one who survived when she was the one who actually could’ve done something with her life.

so he embraced the word ‘fluke’ – he acknowledged that he was one during her eulogy, he told his other siblings he’d been the fluke at her wake. when he began saying it enough times, it caught on, whether he meant for it to or not.

he’s no longer so angry at muse a  and muse b for what they did. muse b wanted to get sober, after all, and muse a , much like himself, was simply an addict. they couldn’t help not being prepared to give it up. he’s still furious at himself.

now that they've all gone clean, however, fluke is somewhat more pleased. he’s fairly certain he’ll never not be in mourning. quite frankly, he’s fairly certain he’ll eventually relapse. even worse, in spite of the group promise, he’s brought contraband with him to “prove his strength” ( see: that’s what he tells himself ).

riffing off of that, in the manor, his terrors have begun returning and he’s unable to nail if it’s because of the similarities between it and the home he remembers so well or if it’s because he’s now sober of it it’s because... it’s just the manor itself. 

he’s still certain it’s all real.

TL;DR:

basically lived in a replica of the manor when he was a kid with his loving parents and three other siblings. is pretty sure he saw some paranormal stuff goin on. parents were “murdered” but he suspects something else. moved in with grandparents and continued seeing some paranormal stuff. only his twin sister, muse d (jo), believed that it wasn’t just night terrors. jo went to college, he stayed behind. grandparents died rip. he went to nyc where jo was and eventually met muse a and muse b when they all fell into hard drug use. almost died because of poorly cut heroin. jo died some months later. hates himself. rip. alexa, play “my heart will go on” but the recorder version.

PERSONALITY INFO:

sad boi energy

if u read thru this and didn’t think “why does she keep basing her characters off of characters from thohh” then,,, u should go watch thohh bc,,, it’s so obvious (we even over here picturing victoria pedretti as jo unless someone applies for her at some point afhsljk) hlfajdsa

has a terrible tendency to find someone to feed off of – someone to be codependent off of. without jo, he’s floundering.

is very * eyes emoji * at,,, many things. the explanation for his parents’ death? * eyes emoji * the spooks that almost everyone came up with excuses for? * eyes emoji * staying sober? * eyes emoji *

didn’t mean to start going by fluke, but started using the word to describe himself so much, it just happened organically.

i have stated before. that im bad at these sections. so feel free to j consult the zodiac / mbti / enneagram above haofuwdlijk

not rly personality but lil hc is that he goes back to that huge victorian house all the time and uses a ouija board to see if he can contact ANYONE :\ the ultimate eeyore :\

another lil hc is that he’s actually a v talented pianist. his mother sort of taught him the basics and he went on to learn classical through sheet music and schooling, then songs from rock bands/artists who incorporated keys in their music. brought the 7-octave keyboard his grandparents bought him... apparently doesn’t need it because there’s a huge piano hajfdkls

if u want 2 hear abt some of my paranormal hcs lmk i wld put them here but?? some r actually creepy (and/or involve blood) which we luv for me!!

FEARS:

rats: when he was living in that big house™, there were plenty of rat infestations. he often got those mixed up with his spooks™. there were also a lot of rats at his grandparents’ house and at his and jo’s apartment. it’s more of a general fear, but. (also... rat poison? drug abuse? symbolism.)

isolation: for an introvert, he’s really bad at being alone. for one things, he gets lonely which is very detrimental to his already fragile mental state, especially considering he’s pretty sure he’ll relapse. in addition, he’s much worse at dealing with any spooks™ that come his way when he’s completely alone. when someone else is in the room, even if he isn’t actively talking to them, at least there’s the comfort of not being alone in it all. 

living the rest of his life without muse d: even if she was the one who began their drug journey, she was the only person who ever believed anything fluke said – she was the only person he ever felt actually listened to him and cared about him with no ‘if’ or ‘but’ attached. he also always found her much wiser than himself and could’ve sworn she would’ve gone to rehab after getting well with muse a one last time. she was the one who was going somewhere and she was the one who loved him unconditionally. no wonder he’s got sad boi energy :\

WANTED CONNECTIONS:

his other brother and sister! i’ll probs send in wcs for them to the main, but if you think they wld sound cool, lmk. luv that. (update!! take one of them you cowards.)

the dealer who actually dealt him quality heroin

the dealer who dealt him heroin cut with god-knows-what

someone he accidentally starts to sink with himself

exes

fwb

ons

enemies (not super great at making them, but is still able to)

the new person he’s decided to latch onto

childhood friends (if there are other salem (or at least massachussetts) characters!)

idk!! we can also look at urs and/or brainstorm!!

ok ! like this or hmu if you’d like to plot !

[melodiouswhite]

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde rewritten - Ch. 30

30. Warnings and paranoia

After three weeks of physical therapy Hyde was perfectly fit again.

He decided to celebrate this the way he always did on Saturday nights. Tonight he had to avoid his usual pub though. He had been banned, unsurprisingly. But the brothel he usually visited had a bar as well, so why the hell not?

It was a fun night and for once he didn't get into any fights. Maybe people had heard of the beating he had dished out last time. Word did get around fast, after all.

But he had promised Jekyll not to get completely up the pole tonight and so he left it at a few drinks.

When he went home, he was therefore just a bit tipsy, not really drunk.

He was close to his Soho flat, when someone called out to him.

“Pssst!”

Hyde looked to the right. Someone emerged from the shadows of a narrow side street into the light.

A tall, thin working class boy – oh wait. That wasn't a boy. Hyde saw the flaming red pony tail and delicate features and realised that the stranger was a girl in man's clothes.

“Are you Mr. Edward Hyde?”, she asked. Her voice was smoky and neutral.

His alarm bells rang. How did she know him?!

“Depends”, he answered suspiciously, “Who is asking?”

The stranger shrugged nonchalantly. “Just a working class boy who wants to do him a favour. Now drop it, I know you're the man.”

“And I know that you're not a boy”, Hyde retorted, “You're a girl in drag. And since you know me for some reason, I would like to know you and your reason to address me.”

She laughed and threw her arms up in defeat. “You have me there. Alma Donovan, at your service. You're my half-sister's client.”

What?!

“Don't worry, she didn't tell me. I just know stuff like that.”

Was that so? He wondered, if she could read his mind too.

“But I digress. I'm here to warn you.”

“Really now?”, Hyde queried. “What do you have to say?”

“Just this. Don't come here next Friday night. For if you do, something terrible will happen.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

But she didn't explain herself. Instead she just said that she had to leave and vanished back into the shadows.

Hyde stayed behind, completely lost. Then he remembered, that he had been going home and finished his walk.

“Did you hear that, Jekyll?”, he asked, as soon as he was alone.

Jekyll appeared in the nearby mirror. “Yes.”

“Could you make any sense of that?”

The blond lifted an eyebrow. “I thought it was pretty clear. Don't go to Soho next Friday night.”

“Yes, but why?! What will happen, if I don't?! And how would she know?”

Jekyll considered. “I don't know either. But didn't she imply that Lady Summers is her half-sister? Perhaps she also has supernatural abilities, just of another nature. We should ask the Lady.”

Hyde scoffed: “Do you seriously think she will tell us anything?”

“She will have no other choice, now that we know she has a half-sister. I'm pretty sure that her lady-in-waiting is so too. They all have her eyes, but there is no way they can be her daughters.”

Alright. He'd do it. Because seriously. He needed to know.

Lady Summers was displeased, when Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde confronted her about their encounter the previous night.

Good grief, why couldn't Alma hold her mouth about it for once?! She could see, why the red-head had done it; to lessen Mr. Hyde's suspicions. But still!

Just as Dr. Jekyll had predicted, she now had no other choice than explain herself.

“Before I tell you, I want to remind you of the mutual silence article in our contract. Nothing I'm about to tell you four is to leave this room.”

Four, because Dr. Lanyon and Mr. Utterson were here as well. They already knew, of course. They had known her for a long time after all.

“Fine, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It's true, the young girl you encountered is my half-sister. My youngest, to be more specific. She's nineteen years old. And you're also right about Aoimoku. She's my youngest half-sister and almost thirty-one. That's why she calls me 'onee-san'. It means older sister, in a respectful manner. Almost all of my servants are my half-siblings, actually.”

“But that's quite an age gap, especially for siblings”, Dr. Jekyll objected. “And they all have different nationalities. How is that possible?”

She huffed: “Let's just say, my father was quite a ladies' man. And he had a weakness for the exotic. Remember, that he and I travelled around the world several times. That's why so many of them have supernatural powers, like I do. They just don't flaunt it like I do. That's why you never saw any of it.”

“But if they're your younger siblings, why do you employ them as your servants?”, Dr. Jekyll asked.

She shrugged: “I'm my father's only legitimate child. Thus I'm the mistress either way. At first I only took them in, because it was my father's last wish. But you must know, that in their home countries children born out of wedlock have a much harder life than here. They are ostracised. And if they have supernatural abilities, it gets even worse. Most of my siblings come from very religious and superstitious cultures. By taking them in, I became their protector and provider. And they appreciate it, believe me. But as much as I love them, I don't tolerate free loaders. They work for me partly out of gratitude and partly, because I expect them to.”

She bent forward.

“Alright. Now that I've told you, you might want to tell me more about that encounter with my youngest.”

Jekyll shrugged. “It wasn't much. She just emerged from the shadows, like in some Gothic horror novel. Then she inquired for Hyde's name, they had a short banter concerning her cross-dressing-”

“Of course”, she muttered, “She always walks around in drag, when she leaves Whitechapel. Go on.”

“Then she warned us not to go to Soho next Friday, or something terrible would happen. Hyde is confused about what it means.”

At that she snorted. What was there not to understand?!

“You and I both know the answer, Doctor: exactly what it means. Don't risk your health or life on that Friday night by going there anyway. Take her advice seriously, you two. Alma's prophecies are never wrong.”

Dr. Jekyll was visibly curious. “She can predict the future?”

The Lady nodded. “Yes. Quite accurately so, as I just stated. Her visions strike her at random, but they are never wrong.”

“She must make a lot of money with her predictions”, he mused.

But the Lady shook her head, recalling her sister's favourite pastime of … attacking men she didn't like with a knife. And mutilating them, if she got the chance.

“Not really. No one takes her predictions seriously, so she lives off my allowance and by winning bets. The problem is that my sister is … a bit off her hat, so to say. She and Mr. Hyde are very much alike. Actually, I'm surprised that she didn't assault you.”

She could hear the awkward sounds inside the Doctor's head and saw the other men look at each other uncomfortably.

That sort of softened her own embarrassment.

Later, after they were gone, she went up to her office to give her sister another phone call.

The young woman called her, before she could even dial the number. As often was the case.

“Hello, Luise”, a smoky voice with a light Irish accent said.

“Hello, Alma”, the German replied, “We need to speak about you telling my clients that you're my sister.”

“I'm sorry, Luise, but you know why I did it.”

“Of course I do, but do you know how embarrassing that was? To have to talk about my-our father's escapades?!”

“Sorryyyy! Not doing it again, cross my heart.”

“Uhuh. Anyway, do you think they will listen to your prophecy?”

A snort at the end of the line. “Please! You're the only one who takes my words seriously! They will ignore and forget my predictions, just like everyone else.”

“Why did you warn him anyway? You know what kind of man he is.”

For a while the voice on the other line was quiet.

Then she replied: “He will soon learn his lesson. Just because he won't heed my warning. To be honest, that makes it just the sweeter. Afterwards, he'll remember my warning. And he'll curse himself for not listening to me.”

“Ah. Insult to injury”, Lady Summers muttered. “And if I may ask, what exactly will happen?”

“That”, the younger voice spoke, “Is a question I can't answer. But you're clever, big sister. Figure it out.”

The Countess huffed. Sometimes her youngest sister could be rather vague in her predictions and she hated it. Alma's visions were detailed and sharp, she knew that. And still that red-haired bedlam girl refused to be clear at times.

Oh well. She would figure it out.

In the meantime she would keep an eye out for whoever had to be watching her.

Speaking of which …

There it was again.

The feeling of being watched.

But that was impossible. Her study was on the second floor and her table not visible from the outside.

Lady Summers slipped a hand under a fold of her own dress and revealed a rifle.

An M71/84*, a Christmas gift from Otto von Bismarck (ah, good old Bismarck!).

Excellent craftsmanship.

Tried and trusted.

And Lady Luise F. W. Summers was as good with firearms as she was with the blade.

However, when she stepped to the window, opened it and looked outside, she couldn't see anyone.

But instead of relaxing, she became even more nervous. Cavendish Square had many hiding opportunities in the dark.

She ducked behind the curtain and pointed her rifle to wherever someone might be.

The feeling didn't go away.

But she couldn't hear anyone's thoughts.

Perhaps the stalker was out of range.

Deciding that there was no use in hiding behind the window all night, she fired a warning shot into the direction of the trees.

Just for good measure.

And now the feeling finally went away.

Lady Summers closed the window and curtains and slumped against the wall in relief.

At the same time her heart was burning with bitter hatred.

Would she never find peace?!

---

*The M71/84 was a breechloading rifle developed in 1884.

[the-shipping-machine]

Their reality

Summary: apparently, in a different reality from ours, the drama of the “Little misters” is way more serious.

A/N: Okay, so there’s gonna be an alternate reality, so a bunch of characters has two versions. The versions from OUR reality would be in a normal font, and the OTHER reality would be bold. Got it? Good.

Mr. Brass stared at the two beings in front of him. He knew them, yet at the same time, they were complete strangers. 

The one was a teenager kid, with red shaggy hair and pale skin full of freckles, with a birthmark in the color of rust covering his left eye. If it wasn’t for the rusty birthmark, Brass could’ve never realized it was his younger brother- Mr. Smiles, but rather a younger version of their creator- Dr. [redacted] Wondertainment, due to the infamous shiny green leather jacket over a yellow and purple suit that the doctor used to wear. Perhaps in that universe, Dr. Wondertainment saw Mr. Smiles as “the perfect son” and treated him like one. The fact that it might be the truth made the automaton feel rather guilty towards his own Mr. Smiles, who was treated way worse than anyone could ever be treated- left alone to rust and rot in the darkness.

The other one, though... It was a sadder case. The long red hair tied loosely in a ponytail was a mess, and his greyish-pale skin was filled with scars and black marks. His joints seemed to be dismembered from his body, only to be connected back by some sort of a black parasite. He seemed like a zombie being possessed by a demon, or something almost indescribable. His eyes were pitch black, and dark ooze was coming out of his mouth.

“Redd,” Mr. Brass said, as he went closer to the second figure. So worried and terrified of his older brother’s fate in that timeline. “What happened to you?”

 That “Redd” quickly went behind his younger brother. An expression of fear was all over his face.

“Redd?” Mr. Brass asked again, looking into the creature’s eyes.

“Don’t take it personally, B.” Mr. Smiles said. “You didn’t do anything. Our Brass, on the other hand...”

“What did I...” Mr. Brass began to speak but realized that it wasn’t really him. “What did HE do?”

Redd quickly spit some of the dark ooze on his finger, then drew a symbol with it. Mr. Brass recognized that symbol and stared at it in pure horror. He never thought he’d have to see that bloody symbol again, except for his nightmares and worst memories. That symbol... was the symbol of The Church Of The Broken God.

“M-monster...” Redd said as he returned to hide behind Smiles.

“In our reality, you became their leader. Their god.” Mr. Smiles said.

“How stupid am I in your reality?” Mr. Brass asked, trying not to believe his ears.

“Sadly, not that much.” Smiles sighed as he looked at poor shaking Redd. “And at the beginning, we were okay with that.”

“Why would you be okay with this fucking cult?” Mr. Brass yelled, feeling his mechanical heart beating fast.

“Honestly, I don’t know.” Smiles said. “But... he did what his followers prayed him to do.”

“Does this has something to do with Redd?” Brass asked, confused and terrified.

“Yes. It has.” Smiles continued. “You see, Redd didn’t get along with one of his followers. What was his name?”

“S-S-Scott...” Mr. Redd answered.

“Yes. Thank you, Redd. His name was Scott.“ Smiles gave Redd a soft sad smile, and then returned to tell Mr. Brass about this tragedy.

“Scott prayed to Brass. He wanted Redd to die.” he continued. “I assume he wasn’t okay with that. After all, I know he cared about us, but... he wanted to be adored.”

“No matter what it costs?” Mr. Brass asked.

"Precisely.” Smiles said, as he closed his eyes and remembered that horrible day.

“Smiles, hide!” Redd told the child as he saw the hooded automaton getting closer, with cold expression on his face and a dagger in his hand.

“But, Redd-” Smiles said, only so Redd could cut him off by pushing him behind a big garbage can.

“Stay here,” Redd said. “That expression cannot mean well.”

He saw the tears in his younger brother’s eyes, feeling his fear and worries.

He went down on his knees and pulled Smiles into a hug.

“Please don’t go.” Smiles said, sobbing into his brother’s shoulder.

“I wish I could, but I can’t,” Redd said. “I knew this would happen, and I can’t let you get hurt because of my stupid arguments.”

He sighed and looked into the child’s eyes.

“Stay here,” Redd said. “Don’t you dare to sacrifice yourself for me.”

He got up and left, walking towards his hooded sibling.

“You know, usually I’d start with the whole ‘You know you don’t have to do that’ speech,” Redd said. “But I know you probably wouldn’t listen anyway, so...”

He looked into his eyes, a sad smile on his face.

“Let’s get this over with.” Redd said.

“Wow, you’re really going to fight me.” Mr. Brass said. “Foolish, but brave. Although, you could go the easy way and let me kill you quickly.”

“Let’s. Get. This. Over. With.” Redd said again, this time annoyed.

“As you wish.” Mr. Brass sighed. 

Redd never expected Brass to be strong. Or fast. Or smart enough to fight him with a dagger. But as soon as his hooded brother charged at him at a great speed, Redd realized it’s gonna be harder than he thought. He couldn’t block most of his attacks, and the pain got stronger and sharper as the battle went on. At one point, he realized he couldn’t feel his right arm for a while. When he looked, he realized that...well...his Right arm was on the ground.

Smiles was watching the entire fight from his hiding spot. Not blinking even once as Redd was beaten and stabbed.

“Stop it, Brass!” Smiles yelled, eyes filled with tears. “Stop it!”

Mr. Brass stopped, looking at the crying child. Goddamnit, he made his brother cry. He knew it was wrong. He knew he shouldn’t be murdering his older brother, but... he was tired of being this family’s disappointment. He finally found people who adore him, and he wasn’t planning on disappointing them.

He looked at Redd, who was trying to get up from the ground and trying to reach his hand, then back at Smiles.

“I’m so sorry.” Mr. Brass told the child, right before kicking the older one in the stomach, causing him to fall again.

And as Smiles kept yelling and crying for him to stop, Smiles began stabbing Redd over and over again. The screams got louder with each stab and the cries made the automaton’s heart to ache. He looked at Redd, who seemed to give up on his will to fight. He knew he’s about to lose.

Finally, Brass got up, filled with blood. He dropped the dagger to the ground and watched as Smiles ran over to his dying sibling.

“Redd!” Smiles cried as he allowed Red to rest his head on his knees.

“F-fuck...” Redd said, bleeding all over the place. “Guess...I guess I had it coming, huh?”

He coughed, causing blood to come out of his mouth.

“Redd, I told you not to go.” Smiles cried, holding his brother tightly. 

“I’m sorry...” Redd said.

The second cough was much stronger, and more blood came out.

“I love you, Smiles,” Redd said, trying to give the boy a soft smile. “I’m...I’m sorry I can’t be there for you anymore.”

“I love you too, Redd...” Smile sobbed as the bleeding man gave out his last breath.

Mr. Brass stood there, staring at his youngest brother crying and screaming. A part of him wanted to cry along, to show his regrets. He wanted to take that dagger and shatter his mechanical heart over this stupid fight. He just KILLED his own brother. His hands were covered in HIS blood. 

Yet... another part of him tells him to go. The job has been done. His people would be proud of him. He is an awesome god.

“You MONSTER!” Smiles yelled at him after a minute of silence. “You stupid, heartless, selfish monster!”

Mr. Brass remained quiet, allowing his brother to yell at him. He deserved it.

“You just killed him, Brass! I thought you cared!” Smiles screamed, tears streaming down his face. “Why did you do this? To have some sadistic idiots to love you? To be a god?!”

Brass couldn’t even look at him. He stared at the bloody dagger on the ground and listened.

“We are family. We are NOT supposed to murder each other, you freak!” Smiles sobbed. “I am not a god. YOU are not a god. There’s no such thing as a god, broken or not! So don’t say some stupid things like ‘my followers told me to do that.’ or something. Your followers are a bunch of fools!”

Smiles sighed.

“Just leave.” he said. “Please.”

Mr. Brass nodded. He put his hood back on and turned around, walking back into the mist, leaving the child by himself with his dead brother.

Mr. Brass couldn’t believe what he just heard. He KILLED his own brother in that reality. He sat in his own containment, looking at the floor and remaining in silent.

He...he can’t do this too, right? He’s not a monster...right??

“Brass?” he heard a voice from behind him. 

He looked at the source of the voice, only to see the normal Redd. No parasites. No pale skin. No messy hair. No dark ooze. Just Redd.

Without a word, Brass got up and hugged him.

“You met them too, didn’t you?” Redd asked, trying to understand why is he hugging him.

“I- I don’t want to kill you!” Mr. Brass said in a sobbing voice. “I don’t!”

“I know,” Redd said. “You’re way smarter than their Brass.”

“But-” Brass said.

“No buts, man!” Redd said, cutting him off. “First of all, you’re not in that cult anymore. Second of all, I’m way stronger than you. Third of all, I’m the family’s disappointment. Not you.”

He allowed Brass to hug him and patted his head gently. 

“Anyways...” Redd said. “Wanna go eat something to make you feel better?”

Brass nodded and they both went outside.

They chatted and laughed all the way to the kitchen,

Neither of them noticing the hooded automaton with the bloody symbol on his cloak. But he noticed them.

He always will.

[today-we-will-survive]

Welcome to Camp Bangtan pt. 2

Summer Camp au!

Jungkook x Reader/Y/N

Fluff

Word Count: 2,743

Previous | Next | Master List

A/N: New parts every Tuesday and Friday!

He had to jog to catch up to Taehyung who was already halfway across the soccer field and on his way toward the tree line. Note this was not the tree line that the rest of the campers were disappearing into. By the time Jungkook got to him and the girls, they were starting down a path and the siblings were arguing about something quietly. Taehyung was about to start in when Jungkook caught up to them. All three froze but Taehyung quickly jumped back in. 

“Alright, Kook,” he said and clapped his hands together. His camera dangled from a strap around his neck. “First things first. Let’s get your stuff to the West cabins.” Then he paused. “You are in the West cabins, right?” 

Jungkook vaguely remembered getting an email the week before with his cabin and a list of people he’d be sharing with. He squinted his eyes. “I think I remember seeing a W in there somewhere. West blue, I think? Is that a thing?”

“Ha!” Taehyung smacked him on the back harder this time. Jungkook wouldn’t have been surprised if he had a permanent handprint on his back by the end of the week. “It’s most definitely a thing! It’s a wonderful thing! We’re cabin buddies, bro.” He laughed loudly then took his bag from him. “Awesome, that means you can help me deal with the East cabins.” 

They were following a trail now that led farther into the woods. A few paths forked off of it and they took the one veering off to the left. Before long, they entered a clearing with four cabins in each of the four corners. 

“These are the West cabins,” Taehyung said throwing his arms out to present them to him. The way he stood in the middle of the clearing with his arms up and that boxy grin on his face made him look like the ring-leader at a circus. Then he crossed his arms pointing at two cabins that were diagonal from each other. “Blue boys, blue girls,” he said then switched his arms. “Red boys, red girls.” Rosé giggled and looked down at the ground. “Don’t cross over to the girls’ side of you’ll be severely punished.” 

“Yeah, Taehyung learned that the hard way a couple of years ago,” Y/N said with a smile. 

“Hey, I was just seeing if Rosé wanted to go down to the water.” 

Now Y/N lifted an eyebrow. “At two in the morning?” 

Both Taehyung and Rosé looked down at the ground shyly. Obviously, there was something between them. “Hey, I learned my lesson,” Taehyung muttered kicking at the dirt. Then he lifted his head again and grinned at Jungkook. “Follow me,” he said then started for the blue boys’ cabin. He opened the door and turned around to glare at his sister. “No girls allowed,” he said dramatically then disappeared inside. Jungkook followed with a shrug. 

The inside of the cabin wasn’t anything special. There were three bunk beds lining the back wall and a small cot pushed into the corner of the adjacent wall. Sitting on the cot was a tired looking guy, his hair an odd shade of orange. 

“Ah, Sejin,” Taehyung sighed and lifted his camera to point it at the guy. “Another year, another chance to chip away at your sanity with my repertoire of awesome nicknames.” The guy rolled his eyes. “Which do you prefer?” Taehyung continued. “Little Orphan Annie or, my favorite, this is a good one, the Un-athletic Shawn White.” 

“You can’t do that this year, Taehyung,” Sejin said with a sigh of his own. “I’m not in a camper anymore. I’m a junior counselor this year. You have to show me some respect.” 

Taehyung laughed sarcastically. “Oh, a junior counselor? That’s exciting. Congratulations, buddy. So who are the unlucky campers that get to bunk under your thumb?” 

Sejin’s eyes darted to Jungkook pleading for him to help. “I think we are, Taehyung,” he said quietly, keeping eye contact with the counselor. 

Taehyung whipped his head around to look at Jungkook then back at Sejin, then back at Jungkook again. A small sound escaped his throat and a look of horror passed over his brown eyes. Jungkook didn’t know if Sejin heard the boy curse under his breath but he definitely did. 

“Alright,” Taehyung finally uttered. “Well, this…sucks. Let’s continue the tour.” Then he hurried back out the door. 

“You shouldn’t be straying from the group, Kim Taehyung,” Sejin called after him and Taehyung let out a growl of frustration just before the screen door shut behind him. 

Well, this was awkward. Neither Sejin nor Jungkook said anything as Taehyung continued to yell a string of curses outside. Finally, Jungkook let out the breath he’d been holding in and glanced over at the middle bunk in front of the window. “Is this one taken?” he asked Sejin. The orange-haired junior counselor shook his head silently then watched as Jungkook slung his bag and backpack up onto the top bunk. He threw his pillow and sleeping bag up with it then turned around again. “Alright,” he said clapping his hands together. “It was nice meeting you.” 

“You too, Jungkook.” Of course, he knew his name. “And welcome to Camp Bangtan.” 

Jungkook nodded back. “Thanks,” he said then hurried out the door before things could get even more awkward. Then again, that might not have been possible. 

Taehyung had calmed down by the time Jungkook made his way out of the cabin and back to him and the girls. Though “calm” couldn’t really be a word to describe Taehyung. Maybe, “calmer” was more appropriate. 

They backtracked to the main path after that and continued down the slope, away from the soccer field. While Taehyung fumed in silence ahead, Y/N and Rosé stayed back to explain a bit more about the camp to Jungkook. Apparently, Taehyung and Y/N were what you would call “lifers”. They’d been coming to Camp Bangtan since they were eight, back when it was an all-age camp. More recently it hadn’t been pulling in enough money to handle all ages so they had limited it to fourteen to seventeen-year-olds. Rosé started coming when she was thirteen, three years ago – the last year it was an all age camp. Lucky for Taehyung, it sounded like. 

As they followed a curve in the path, a beach appeared before them. Sand mixed with dirt and before long, Jungkook was standing on soft ground, looking out at a deep blue lake. He’d lived just outside of city limits in the country so he’d never seen this lake before. In fact, he couldn’t think of a time he’d ever actually seen a lake in person. His parents had always been pretty protective of him. Maybe they’d taken him to parks or lakes when he was younger but he couldn’t remember. 

“Causing trouble early this week, aren’t you, Taehyung?” 

Jungkook turned his head to see a guy and a girl, both older than them, coming toward them. They wore bright blue shirts with “Camping is IN-TENTS!” across them in day-glow yellow letters. A cabin sat nestled just in the trees behind them. 

“You know me, Geun,” Taehyung replied, enunciating the guy’s name weirdly. “Gotta keep you on your toes.” 

Geun stuck his chin out toward Jungkook. “Who’s this?” he asked. “Fresh meat?” His eyes narrowed at him. With his short, military-style buzz-cut and giant arms, he already looked intimidating. 

Taehyung nudged Jungkook forward and he reluctantly went. “I’m Jungkook,” he said sticking out his hand and trying not to look too terrified. The two counselors glanced at each other before the girl stepped forward and took his hand in hers. 

“I’m Kim Sungmi, craft counselor. That’s Geun. He’s head of the water games,” then she leaned in. “Don’t let him freak you out. He’s all talk.” Jungkook could feel his ears getting hotter as Y/N and Rosé chuckled behind him. 

“Yeah, I have plenty of ideas for torturing you kids this year so I hope you’re prepared to get wet.” 

Jungkook stepped back again. “That’s not at all creepy,” Rosé muttered and Y/N stifled another giggle. Geun threw them a glare and they quickly quieted down. Jungkook didn’t like this guy. 

“Anyway,” Taehyung said in an attempt to break through the tension. “We were just showing Kook around the camp.” Then he turned to the camper. “See everything you wanted to see here?” 

All eyes fell on Jungkook. “Uh…sure,” he said scratching the back of his neck. 

Taehyung clapped his hands together. “Alright then. Sungmi, it’s always a pleasure.” Then he looked at Geun. “I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with for The Pit this week.” 

Then Taehyung turned back toward the path and started up the beach. Before Jungkook turned to follow him, he caught Geun throwing a glare his way. Taehyung seemed to have a reputation here and Jungkook wasn’t sure what he was getting himself into. 

Y/N came up beside him. “If you couldn’t tell, Geun doesn’t like Tae very much.” 

“I noticed.” 

“See, Tae is a bit of a prankster.” A bit? “Every year he seems to find some way to sabotage one of the water events. It’s like an ongoing thing between the two of them,” she said rolling her eyes. “You’d think they would have gotten a little more mature over the years but they still act like children.” 

Jungkook chuckled and looked down at the ground. This girl was cute. Even if Taehyung was a bit nuts, as long as his sister was around, he thought this could be a good week. “So what’s The Pit?” Jungkook asked as they continued back and passed the trail leading to the West cabins. 

Rosé cocked her head forward to look at him from Y/N’s other side. “You’ll see,” she said with a twitch of her eyebrow. Surely, the look was more for dramatic effect than anything else. 

The Pit, as it turns out, was rightly named. They turned onto yet another trail, this one heading down past the cabins and deeper into the woods until they stepped between two trees and suddenly Jungkook was looking down at what could only be describe as an arena like the gladiators used to fight lions in. Rows of risers led down on a pretty steep slope and surrounded a big bonfire pit on three sides. In front of the pit and facing the risers was a stage. 

“This is where we get the privilege of watching all the counselors make absolute fools of themselves,” Taehyung said turning his camera on and panning across the space. Then he turned it toward Rosé and followed as she made her way down the stairs and onto the stage. 

Jungkook and Y/N stood back and watched Taehyung watch Rosé as she pretended to be Geun. She jutted out her chin and crossed her arms over her chest in an attempt to look tough. 

“What does that mean?” Jungkook finally asked Y/N. She chuckled. 

“Sihyuk and Jiyoung like to embarrass the other counselors by making them do skits relevant to the activities they have planned for the week. Taehyung always gives Geun a hard time.” 

“You don’t say,” he said sarcastically. Taehyung broke out in loud laughter and Rosé fell into him in hysterics. “Hey,” Jungkook yelled down to him and the two immediately straightened up. “Anywhere else you want to take me on this grand tour?” 

Jungkook didn’t know what it was but there was definitely some sort of look that passed between Taehyung and Y/N but then it was gone and Taehyung grinned back at him. “Not yet,” he called back. 

Before Jungkook could say anything else to Y/N, another trumpet sounded, this time from back up by the soccer field. “What is it this time?” 

People startled filing into the clearing making their way down the steps. The air filled with excited chatter as the campers found spots in the risers. A woman walked onto the stage and glanced at Taehyung before bringing a microphone to her mouth. The space was filled with her voice as it flowed out of two big box speakers on either side of the stage. “Everyone, take a seat,” she bellowed then turned to look at Taehyung who still stood awkwardly behind her. Rosé had already made her way off the stage. “I see you’re here to keep things exciting, aren’t you Taehyung?” the woman asked into the microphone. 

Taehyung smiled. “Gotta keep everyone on their toes,” he said and looked out at the crowd confidently. 

“Go take a seat, Taehyung.” 

The smile fell and he nodded before hopping down from the stage. He made a face at Y/N as she shook her head and the three of them went to sit next to Rosé on a bench near the fire pit. The woman continued talking to the rest of the crowd. “I see a lot of you are returning from last year but there are also a lot of new faces here.” As she said this, her eyes fell on Jungkook and she smiled. “And hopefully you will all listen to and follow the rules we have set to ensure a safe and fun week. It would be unfortunate to have to send any of you home early.” Why did it seem like she was saying all this to Jungkook? “But more on the rules tomorrow morning. Tonight is all about fun! So without further ado, here is my co-head counselor, Mr. Bang Sihyuk, to talk about this week’s activities!” 

She handed off her mic to the big man with glasses that stood beside her and stepped back to draw the attention to him. “Thanks, Jiyoung! Alright, listen up, campers,” he started, peering down at them past his large nose. “This week is all about fun.” Jungkook decided he was going to keep a mental running tally of how many times fun was mentioned by any of the counselors this week. “And when I say fun…” Four. “…I don’t mean the boring fun little kids have!” Five. “I mean the kind of fun teenagers have!” Six. “Fun that gets you down and dirty!” Seven. “”Fun that gets you scraped up and bruised!” Eight. By now everyone was yelling after each fun-filled sentence. The campers that had been there past years seemed to know where this was heading but the newbies like Jungkook just yelled along for the thrill. “That’s right,” Sihyuk continued. “I’m talking about The Annual Camp Games!” 

A cheer came over the crowd like a wave as the campers that had been there previous years shouted excitedly. Those that were new hesitated for a second before joining in the celebration. 

“What’s the Camp Games?” Jungkook yelled to Taehyung over the noise. He stopped clapping and pumping his fists to look at him and point at the stage as if to say, “he’s about to tell you.” 

“The Bangtan Camp Games,” Sihyuk continued, “as a lot of you know, is a week-long competition pitting the East Siders against the West Siders. At the end of the week, we’ll tally up the scores and the winning side will be crowned victorious.” At this, half the crowd applauded and cheered again. Taehyung sat beside him rolling his eyes. 

Jungkook leaned into him. “I’m guessing the East Side won last year?” 

“And the year before that,” he muttered in reply. 

Then Rosé peaked out from the other side of him. “And the year before that.” 

“And the year before that,” Y/N added. 

Taehyung glared at both of them then turned around. Jungkook turned with him, following his stare to a blond haired guy and a black-haired kid, both clapping and smirking in their direction. With a sigh, Taehyung turned back around. “Who are they?” Jungkook asked him. 

“Kim Seokjin and Jung Hoseok,” he said. “They lead the East Side to victory every year. Jin seems to have some sort of personal vendetta against us, specifically me.” Then Taehyung turned around again to look at them. “Or maybe it’s you this year.” 

Now, Jungkook turned around to find Kim Seokjin’s eyes, like two onyx marbles, focused on him. He was a gazelle and Seokjin was a lion stalking his prey. Jungkook felt a shiver run down his spine and he turned around quickly again.

[angelkurenai]

A thousand years - Gabriel x Reader

Title: A thousand years

Pairing: Gabriel x Angel!Reader

Warnings: None

Summary: You were in love with Gabriel ever since the beginning of time and you decided to escape Heaven together. However after the Apocalypse you lost contact for very long, until he ends up saving you in a hunt and staying in the bunker.

Centuries ago when Father created you, you never would have thought you'd end up in this place. You always knew your first priority would be humans, protecting them and caring for them the way he wanted but not the way the rest of your siblings, or at least most of them, did. You actually cared for humans, maybe having spent so many years on Earth actually made you more of a human than the angel you were. And you always knew that if you ever came to risking your life it would be for them too. And right now you that was the case as you fought alongside one of your most-loved brothers, Castiel, and the Winchesters. For humanity.

But what you had never imagined was that your last though, as you faced your possible death, wouldn't be humans and how much you could have done for them. It wasn't humans that you had actually fought for, you realized in that short moment, it wasn't your existence's purpose. Because your last thought wasn't humanity or the purpose you always thought would drive. Your last and only thought was of him. Gabriel.

And as you braced yourself, eyes shut tightly and a tear rolling down your cheek with the demon hovering over you and an angel blade in his hand you caught yourself whispering only four small words, almost like a prayer in hopes of him hearing “I love you, Gabriel.” you choked out in a very low voice tone.

“No!” Dean roared, unable to do a thing, or move a muscle as he was being pinned to the wall.

“(Y/n)!” Sam yelled, eyes wide like his brother's in horror and utter fear.

“Sister” Castiel said in a broken voice, he too unable to do a thing but watch in terror and pain as the demon took his final swing and-

Froze in place?

The three men looked with a frown along with the rest of the demons and you slowly opened your eyes when the impact you expected didn't come. You frowned as well as the demon struggled and groaned, trying to move. He cursed and shouted, trying to somehow undo what was going on but none of you had a single idea about it.

“Being a lil too dramatic, ain't ya?” a voice echoed in the warehouse as you all looked around, trying to find the source. As if your heart had not been beating fast enough before it now was on overdrive. You recognized that voice.

“But I'll tell you, I've dealt with enough drama queen in my existence. Hell, I've been one myself! But you- Oh you've taken it too far.” a shadow approached the demon, the rest only staring and waiting for him to show up so they could attack. There were too many around, enough to hold you back in the meanwhile but maybe if he helped... you could make this.

“What the hell is this? Who are you?” the one threatening you spoke with a growl.

“Don't you know you don't hit a lady even with a rose?” the voice growled, losing playfulness “Especially my lady. And now you've royally pissed me off, congratulations!”

And those were the last words you heard from him before you caught sight of him, more like managed to steal a glimpseat him, not that you needed another to verify your thoughts, before the fight broke out. You didn't have the chance to say much, your emotions were a mess anyway, because you were barely holding yourself together and trying to fight back to not get killed. But it was all even harder when he was a few feet away, going first for the demon that was ready to kill you before. He showed no mercy to that one, his angel blade finding the monster's chest in a second as his eyes looked fiercely back at the monster in a cold glare. He looked up when it fell dead on his feet, meeting your eyes just for a second as the fight went on all around you and you were able to whisper one word as a tear slipped from your eye. The exact same one that was in your mind when you thought it was the end of the line for you.

“Gabriel”

~*~

“So you've been alive, all this fucking time!” Dean growled, glaring at the archangel sitting in front of him calmly.

“Dean” you warned softly, handing them all their drinks “Please, no yelling.”

“No yelling?” he scoffed, this time not lowering his voice as he usually did when you spoke to him “This asshole lied to us for years, Castiel mourned him! And he just- he comes now and tells us he found us by accident and decided to show up and help cause oh surprise surprise he was freaking hiding all this time!”

“You can't take the trick out of a trickster, Dean-o.” Gabriel rolled his eyes, resting chin on his palm “Besides, I didn't do it for you, just so you know. Don't make me look like the softie here.” he muttered and a small smile tucked at the corners of yours lips no matter how much you tried to fight it.

“That role goes to you.” he added with a grin as Dean only groaned, rolling his eyes.

“Dean, enough.” Sam gave his brother a look as Dean threw his arms in the air.

The younger Winchester let out a soft sigh and looked back at the archangel “But- but Gabriel what we don't get here is-where have you been all this time? We looked for you and yet we- we didn't find you. It was like you were really dead!”

“Sometimes it's the most obvious we chose to ignore, Samish.” Gabriel leaned back in his chair, bring his feet up on the table and completely ignoring the look Dean gave him.

“Hey!” the older Winchester said but Gabriel just shrugged.

“Hello to you too.” he retorted before getting a chocolate bar out of his pocket and started unwrapping it “Anyway, as I was saying I was in a place nobody didn't even think to look. Safest place of all, but unlike Metatron's beliefs it wasn't heaven. Or... it kinda was for me. I was on Earth, dumbos, a small house in the suburbs of a quite town. Livin the life.” he grinned, eating the candy.

“You? Small house in the suburbs? Alright, who the hell are we talking to?” Dean scoffed and you gave him a look.

“Is that the point now?” you let a small sigh, sitting right next to the archangel.

“Who?” Castiel asked after a small pause as Gabriel raised an eyebrow at his brother “Who did you do it for? Come to help us.” he added as an explanation as Sam and Dean looked curiously at him.

“It's obvious.” Sam whispered with a small chuckle “You hugged her the longest! And you called hr your lady too!” he said with a victorious grin, sure he'd gotten it right.

“Any relation to Sherlock or Big Ben, Sammy?” Gabriel asked him with a smirk and a small chuckle left your lips as you glanced at the archangel.

“I'm right, ain't I?” he chuckled, his look completely different from that of disgust and disbelief on his brother's.

“We've known each other ever since the beginning of creation, we...” you bit your lip, staring down at your hands “We were-”

“Are” he corrected you softly, no hint of sarcasm or teasing. Purely honest.

“We are together.” you whispered with a small shrug and a shy smile, feeling your heart rate pick up when you realized nothing had changed for him. Even more so when nothing had changed for you either. Because your love for him was always there, just as were all the memories you shared and you held dear to your heart.

“Together?” Dean raised an eyebrow as Sam only looked amused. Cas on the other hand only had a soft smile on his lips.

“In heaven, that's why two would always disappear and I couldn't find you even if I looked for hours.” Castiel pointed out with a half-smile and Sam and Dean almost choked on their beers while you and Gabriel chuckled.

“Adult stuff, Cassie! Hope you know a thing or two by now!” Gabriel laughed and you bit your lip at remembering all those stolen moments, just the two of you, away from all the chaos of your family.

“Gabe” you giggled, hitting his shoulder playfully as he chuckled.

“Alright, enough. I don't need any details.” Dean made a face “So you're really-” he struggled to say it.

“In a relationship. Dating. Seeing each other. In love. How else do you want me to say it Dean?” you huffed, but ended up shaking your head with a smile “We were together for very long before the whole Apocalypse thing. And we- we just escaped from Heaven together. We ran away, just like we'd always thought and-”

“Got a house on the suburbs together.” Sam breathed out, completing your sentence “Wow, that's-”

“Just don't let anyone know, I got a reputation ok?” Gabriel asked, cutting Sam off and the younger Winchester only laughed; nodding his head.

“And what about all these years?” Dean asked, less annoyed when he noticed how you and the archangel were inching closer to each other, your hands softly touching as you tried to make it as less subtle as possible but failing “Did you know about this?” Dean asked, looking at you.

“That he was alive?” you asked “Yeah, I did. We just... lost contact, with everything that came up it wasn't safe. We didn't want to pick a side up there, you know it we did it all for humanity, but it was dangerous for us to be close. We... we thought that once that was over everything would be alright, so we put distance between us in case they wanted to use what we have against us. But... things took a turn for the worse and we just lost contact.”

“No matter how much we wanted to meet.” Gabriel added in a low voice, looking at you as you gave him a sad smile “That house is our heaven, nobody ever knew about it, and it's been warded. I went there in hopes she'd-” he stopped himself, clenching his jaw as you squeezed his hand under the table before he just shook his head and put on a playful smile “Doesn't matter anymore. That's how things are, and I see you guys got a really home-y setting here too! Good job on that.” he said teasingly, looking around the bunker.

“Well, it's pretty big too.” Sam suggested with a small smile, glancing at his brother who already knew where it was heading and would protest but... not for long because he knew it was for the best.

“And my bed's even more.” you whispered and a bright smile formed on Gabriel's lips.