#anyway the horrors of having younger siblings and them getting to the point of harder problems on school
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tlbodine · 8 months ago
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Overthinking: Let's Get Invisible
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Let's Get Invisible is the #6 Goosebumps book. I remember reading this one as a kid around the same time as I read Say Cheese and Die, and I think I blurred the two together in my head because now, having recently re-read both, they each definitely felt like they were "missing" parts I was sure were there (but were in each other). Anyway.
This one is a bit different from the others we've read. It's certainly not the action-packed adventure romp we had through the Curse of the Mummy's Tomb. Instead, the horror here is more psychological. Addiction metaphors, in my children's book? It's more likely than you think...
First, the Plot: Our narrator is Max, who's recently turned 12 and, during a dreary rainy birthday party, explores the attic with a few friends and discovers an unusual mirror. If you stand in front of the mirror and pull the light cord, you disappear. When the cord is pulled again, you re-emerge.
Max and his friends return time and again to play with the mirror and experiment with it. They begin to challenge each other to see who can stay invisible the longest. Because being invisible makes you feel strange -- light, kind of fuzzy in the head, like you're drifting away. And the longer you stay invisible, the longer it takes for you to come back.
In the midst of this is Max's little brother Noah, but everybody calls him Lefty because he's left-handed. Lefty is hyperactive, clumsy, and wants to be in the middle of everything Max does. So little wonder that Lefty would spend time with the mirror...and take things too far. He stays longer than he should. He wanders away from the room and causes trouble at a family dinner. He suggests they use it to prank teachers and spy on girls.
One by one, Max's friends who use the mirror seem to start acting different. A little colder. A little meaner? And there's just something...strange...about them. Wasn't that haircut shaved on the other side before?
While invisible, Max encounters his reflection and discovers that his mirror-self wants to switch places with him. In fact, mirror-people have already swapped with his friends, and he's the only one left!
Max resists, but it's ultimately Lefty who saves the day by inadvertently lobbing a softball at the mirror, shattering it. Max is returned to normal. His friends, presumably, switch back with their true selves trapped in the mirror. Everything is great and normal...except that Max notices Lefty is suddenly starting to play catch right-handed.
Overthinking It: I don't know whether the drug metaphor was top of Stine's mind writing this book, but it's impossible not to see it. The narrative is simple and clear. First, it starts with boredom, curiosity, and novelty. Then, once Max has gotten a taste of invisibility, he fixates on it, lying awake in bed thinking about it until he climbs back up into the attic to try it again. We see the peer pressure of friends urging him back into trying it again after he's resolved to quit, despite his worries about the effects. We see it affecting the personality and priorities of the people around him, replacing his friends with strangers who share their face but none of their soul.
How is that anything BUT a metaphor for addiction?
And then of course there's Lefty, who fulfills a classic drug-story motif: the younger sibling who initially isn't allowed to participate, who then tries the drug and gets addicted harder and faster than anyone else, leading to scary consequences. I know you know the type.
There's something else chilling about Lefty, though.
I think there are two ways to read the ending, and both are horrifying.
The first idea is that Lefty has been replaced by his reflection at some point during one of his long, deep stays in the mirror world. When he breaks the mirror at the end, HE gets to stay behind (because of distance from the mirror? because he's the one who broke it to begin with?) and Max now lives the rest of his life with an impostor, knowing that his real brother is trapped in an interminable in-between place that is now unreachable.
That is some grade-A cosmic horror, right there!
The other way to read the end is arguably even more intriguing. What if Lefty was already a mirror person? Hear me out. Why does their family have this mirror up in the attic to begin with? Lefty is the only left-handed person in the family, as we're repeatedly reminded, and he's a pain -- he's loud and clumsy and obnoxious. Perhaps when the mirror broke, he IS returned to his body after being trapped who-knows-how-long in there?
I don't think that was the intended interpretation of the ending...but it certainly could be?
Anyway. I anticipate this book to be pretty divisive. On the one hand, it's the longest book in the entire series and essentially nothing happens in it. It really is 139 pages of kids standing on front of a mirror, daring each other, and feeling weird. Reading it is kind of like being the sober person in the room with people doing drugs or getting drunk for the first time. You are bored and they can't shut up about what they're experiencing!
But on the other hand, the implications of this one are very spooky, especially because everything is left open-ended. We know nothing about the mirror's origins, its long-term effects, or anything else. This one will get under your skin, if you let it.
If You Liked This, THESE Will Really Give You Goosebumps:
Like many Goosebumps books, this one has a lot in common with a Twilight Zone episode, "Mirror Image." No invisibility here, but lots of mirror people stealing identities.
If the idea of mirror people taking over your life appeals to you, or you're intrigued by the idea of a mirror world in general, may I suggest MirrorMask (2005), about a girl who grew up in the circus but wants to run away and join the normal world. Instead she ends up trapped in a mirror dimension full of weirdos and has to fight to get her old life back. It's a weird Alice in Wonderland kind of story and a lot of fun, just trust me on this one.
R.L. Stine himself admits that Let's Get Invisible was directly inspired by the 1990 film Flatliners, in which med students try to get a glimpse of the afterlife by stopping their hearts and then having a friend bring them back. As they try to stay under longer and longer, their experiences become more vivid, and harder to let go of. They remade it in 2017, although from what I hear the remake doesn't do much for the story.
Speaking of Kevin Bacon (he's in Flatliners, work with me), may I suggest Hollow Man (2000), a take on the general conceit of The Invisible Man where a scientist becomes invisible and then begins to lose his humanity in the process.
For another young adult novel about invisibility that goes way harder and gut-punches you repeatedly (but in that good way), try Robert Cormier's Fade about a boy in 1930s Boston who learns he can turn invisible...and witnesses things he wish he hadn't seen.
Going in a different direction, if you like the idea of supernatural horror drug metaphors, try out Talk To Me (2022), where teens discover they can briefly commune with the dead by using a mysterious plaster hand. Just trust me on this - watch Talk to Me and read it side-by-side with Let's Get Invisible! and report back on how many plot points they share. It's a lot.
All right. That's all for me on this one. Next up, it's time to get slap-happy, if you know what I mean....
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dan-crimes · 2 years ago
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Me when my sibling has Algebra homework and someone has to help 😨
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sylverstorms · 4 years ago
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Cassandra x Maiden ----Anonymity Ch. 8
Ch.1      Ch.2      Ch.3      Ch.4      Ch.5      Ch.6      Ch.7
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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.
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samwontshare · 4 years ago
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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.
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nobody-wants-ice-cream · 5 years ago
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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. 
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deadlygoddess85 · 5 years ago
Text
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
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/ 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 · 6 years ago
Text
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.
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365daysoftododeku · 6 years ago
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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.
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tuaparadis · 6 years ago
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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.
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therealfluke · 5 years ago
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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 !
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melodiouswhite · 6 years ago
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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.
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today-we-will-survive · 7 years ago
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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!
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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.
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angelkurenai · 8 years ago
Text
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.
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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.
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josephkabox · 8 years ago
Text
Joseph Kabox - Origins
For this story as a pdf, go here.
Lambholt, Province of Kessig, Innistrad
Joseph gasped as a boom of thunder ripped him from his sleep, if he really was asleep. A cold sweat clung his clothes to his skin, but the thunder was not to blame. The child could feel his heart racing, his blood pumping, but the storm mattered little as he felt his lips shape a simple, silent word.
"Monster."
The boy looked cautiously around the room, the only light coming from beyond his door, perhaps from the living room beyond. His poor eyesight didn't help the situation any. Turning to his nightstand, he grabbed his spectacles and rolled out of bed.
The room was dark, but with is glasses, he could make out the shape of his younger brother sleeping on the bed across the room. Had he not heard it? His heart still raced as he dropped to his knees to look under the bed.
Nothing. His head turned once more to his brother, making sure to look under his bed as well. As barren as his own. Standing up, he moved to the closet. Putting his hand on the knob, he turned it as slowly as he could. The click sounded loud in the quiet room, but luckily, no monster lurked within.
He sighed in relief, but he had one more place to check. He turned to face the back wall, a large window at its center, when his attention suddenly turned to the bedroom door beside him. It was quiet, but he could hear his parents talking beyond it, his father's tone harsh, as always, followed by the click of his crossbow. Why was he loading his crossbow? The boy dreaded the answer.
Slipping to the window as he originally intended, he pushed aside his curtain and looked out into the darkness, but saw nothing. Perhaps his dream had been just that. Though, part of him wondered if he had even been asleep. In his bed, he could hear the squish of boots and mud beyond the window, and faint whispers. He had heard the closing of a door, then the thunder brought him fully awake.
He pressed his nose to the glass, his eyes still unable to see into the darkness. He instead turned to the bed where his brother slept. He slept soundly, tonight anyway. He was always the one to wake easily, and though he thought he heard him roll at the sound of thunder, there was no sign anything else bothered him.
The voice of his distraught mother brought him back to the frightening thought of a hidden terror. He crept soundlessly to his door, peering only just out to the other room. His mother stood in her nightgown by the fireplace holding a lantern, but his father was dressed in his coat and boots, his loaded crossbow in his hand and loyal hound at his side. Was he going out into the storm?
"Please, it's pitch black out there and storming." His mother quietly pleaded.
"I heard the coop door shut, and I'm not about to let some beast eat our livelihood." He whispered his anger, so not to wake the children, but his authority came through regardless. "I'm not."
"Please. Don't make me beg. A few chickens are not worth the risk."
His father only shook his head as he grabbed his cap from its hook by the door and placed it atop his head. "I'm just going to take a look." He then grabbed the lantern from his mother's hand, forcefully tugging it from her grip. "I can take care of whatever's out there."
Without another word, he opened the door and slammed it shut behind him and his dog, leaving his wife behind. The hands over her mouth made it clear how she felt.
Joseph slipped back to the window in his room and peered out once more. In only a moment he could see the light of his father's lantern, but it's affect on the stormy night was little. When the glow of the lantern revealed the shape of their chicken coop, it appeared untouched, the door closed tight.
"Did you hear us?" Joseph turned with a small gasp to see his mother standing behind him, a somber look on her face. "He never listens. He cares more about those damned chickens than his own life." She walked to the window and peered out as well. "Or his own family."
Joseph said nothing. In silence, the two continued to watch.
His father opened the door to the coop, lantern raised in front of him. He stood motionless in the doorway, his dog growling behind him. He lowered his lantern, and the mother and son sighed in relief as he started to walk away.
As the door began to close behind them, the dog began to bark aggressively and lunged towards a gaunt figure that in turn lunged with lightning speed from the dark coop towards his father. The dog stood no chance as the creature knocked it away. Joseph's father loosed a bolt at the fiend, but after a lunge to his neck, Joseph and his mother gasped as they saw him forced to the ground, the dim glow of the dropped lantern showing only a growing pool of blood.
"Matthias, get up Matthias. We have to go!"
The young boy jolted awake as his mother shook him, a stuffed bear clutched in his arms. "Mommy?"
His mother had no time for words and simply grabbed his arm, pulling him from the bed and hastily rushing him and his brother to the front door.
Matthias cried in confusion, but his mother said nothing as she grabbed a key from a hook by the door. Joseph hurried alongside, speaking to his bother when his mother would not. "It's okay, we just have to go." The older brother could feel his own tears starting to well up, but could not bring himself to cry in front of his confused brother.
The mother was ready to open the door, when a sudden thought raced through her head. Letting go of Matthias' hand, she turned on her heal and ran to the fireplace, grabbing an old sword that hung above. Just as quickly as she grabbed the sword, she took her younger son's hand again and escorted the two boys outside.
In the pouring rain, their mother took them as fast as she could to the cellar door, hurriedly unlocking it and throwing open the doors before more or less shoving the two boys in. Closing it behind her, she used the locks within to keep it closed.
"Come with me, boys. Follow mommy." Pulling them close under her arms, she led them to a corner of the cellar, sitting them on the ground before moving some crates to make a wall around them.
"What's wrong mommy?" Matthias choked out behind tears. "And why do you have daddy's sword?"
His mother put a finger to his lips and kissed his forehead. "Shhh. Everything's going to be okay." She turned to Joseph and too gave him a kiss. "Just be still." After sitting between them, holding the sword at the ready, she looked up and grimaced as she heard footsteps walking across the floorboards of their home. "Avacyn, please. Protect my children. Protect my sons."
In silence they sat for what seemed an eternity, the youngest still none the wiser of why they were afraid. Warm in his mother's embrace, Matthias seemed ready to drift back to sleep, when slamming on the cellar door brought him back. He suddenly realized why they were afraid, and the thought made him clutch his stuffed bear tighter.
The slamming went on for only a few minutes more before the bolts gave way and the doors splintered open.
They could hear the vampire breathing. Such ragged breaths, made pungent by the smell of fresh and stale blood. His boots squished with the mud from outside, and they could hear him whispering madly to himself. Words of blood, of hunger.
The two boys held their hands over their mouths, afraid of any sound that may have betrayed their location. The steps grew closer to their poor box fort, and the smell made keeping their breaths much harder to keep. When suddenly the boxes began to be tossed to the sides, their mother began to weep.
"Please! Do not harm my children!" She squeezed the two boys tighter as she shouted at the creature, his pale skin and stringy black hair in clear view without the boxes to protect them.
The vampire stood anything but motionless. His breathing seemed to sway his entire body, and his tongue visibly licked the father's blood from his lips. "Your home." His voice was like wagon wheels over gravel. It was low, and seemed to pop as the air lazily drifted past his throat. "Such a state of poverty. I smelled chickens, but such a shamble…I never would have thought proper inhabitants."
The mother only squeezed her boys tighter, almost as tightly as she shut her eyes. "Please, I'm begging you. You already took their father. Don't take my sons."
The vampire looked down at the sword pointing up at him, the arm holding it rendered useless as she hugged the youngest son to her side, her other equally lame as it held the brother. He smirked as he used but a finger to push the blade away. "If you insist." With a growl, the vampire lunged at their mother, her scream cut short by death as blood splattered the two sons, rendered speechless by such horror. As he sated  his seemingly endless thirst, Matthias pushed his mother's limp arm away and ran, his bear friend still in his arms. With a stomach turning pop, the vampire pulled free from his meal and grinned at the young boy. "Don't run little one, I still want to play with you!" With inhuman speed, the vampire jumped from the mother to the son.
Joseph sobbed as he scooted away from his dead mother and listened to his brother scream. Joseph could feel his heart pounding harder than ever before as the vampire dropped his limp sibling and turned to look at him. Though he lunged at the rest of his family, the idea of Joseph being the last alive seemed to slow the vampire, as if wanting to savor his final kill.
Joseph saw his family's sword lying limply in his mother's hand. Mustering up as much courage as he could, he reached out and grabbed it, pointing the weapon up at his foe. The sword was heavy in his shaking grip, but he dared not drop it. "P-please…" Joseph begged. "Avacyn…"
The vampire shook his head. "No." He chuckled. "No Avacyn."
Joseph could feel his body heating up, his mind racing. He could hear the laughter, and yet it was like an echo in his mind, so distant compared to the emotions he was feeling and obscured by the deafening beat of his heart. He could feel his chest tightening, he could feel his entire body aching, and then, as the vampire lunged, he felt something snap. As if a cord had been clipped, he could feel his body coming undone, and though he screamed, the sound was as if he was under water. The vampire pushed away the blade as he had before, but as he touched the outstretched palm of the terrified child, both him and the vampire exploded in a flash of white light.
Only the sound of falling rain could be heard in the cellar.
The morning saw the end of the storm, but it took days for anyone to question the silence of the Kabox Farmstead. Eventually, a small band of investigators were called out to look into it.
The captain of the squad walked down into the cellar with a stern look on her face, a vampire attack coming as no surprise to her. "So, this is where it happened?"
A young cathar nodded to his superior as he prodded the fatal wound on the deceased woman. "A classic vampire attack. Must have started with the livestock, probably too hungry to think straight. The father came out to investigate, ended up starting a massacre."
The captain nodded knowingly. "This close to the forest, I'm honestly surprised a werewolf didn't get them sooner. Were there any survivors?"
"A dog. Found her lying beside her fallen master. Refused to move until it was clear we were helping."
The captain looked at the woman her associate was examining, the makeshift tomb of the basement keeping her relatively intact. The same couldn't be said of the husband. "And how many dead?"
"Well, there's the mother here, the father…"
The captain raised a brow as she looked at the scorch mark on the ground, following it with her eyes to see it end at the far wall. "What's this? Some kind of explosion?"
The younger of the two chuckled. "We think that's the vampire, ma'am. We found his skull embedded…"
"His skull?" The captain was surprisingly surprised.
"Yes, ma'am. We can't really explain it, mostly because nothing else seems to be touched by the blast, but whatever was sitting next to the mother just, well, blew up. Blasted the bloodsucker back and right into the wall. Not a bit of flesh left behind."
"Damn." The captain shook her head. "Avacyn above."
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fireandgloryrpg · 8 years ago
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Congratulations Dana and welcome! We’re so happy to accept your application to play Puck Cooper with the faceclaim of Charlie Heaton in Fire & Glory RPG! We can’t wait to begin roleplaying with you so please remember to look over our checklist! 
Out of Character Information:
Name: Dana
Pronouns:  she/her
Age: i’m 24 and my birthday is April 30th.
Timezone: EST
Activity: I mean right now my activity is about like a 5/10 because of work and the holidays but I’m definitely on once every other day or every three days so it’s fine it’s all fine.
Anything Else?: It’s great to be here amongus you again lmao.
Original Character Application:
Name: Puck Robin Cooper
Age and Birthday: June 1st, 1997. 20 years old.
Faceclaim: main fc: Charlie Heaton    Backup fc: Landon Liboiron
Heritage: Puck is a son of Hermes who’s mom named him after the fucking mischief elf from midsummer night’s dream because he is also a “merry wanderer of the night” .
ABILITIES: Puck has all the basic demigod abilities of being super strong, being able to heal faster, and having improved senses. Being a son of Hermes, he can run faster than most of his other demigod friends. Puck is also pretty persuasive when he wants to be but he tries not to persuade people that he actually like into doing things.
Affiliation: Puck is a member of the fifth cohort thanks to his older cousin who is a child of Fortuna vouching for him to the best of her ability. She was about to vouch for him enough to get him into the fifth cohort but that was good enough for Puck since he had a place to live and was still able to wander to the best of his ability.
Headcanons:
Puck lived with his mom in Bridgeport, Connecticut until he was 11 years old and went to Camp Half Blood after being attacked by empousa. Puck was claimed at age 13 by Hermes and one of his friends made a joke about how that explained why all of his candy had gone missing a few weeks previously. Puck remained at CHB until age 16 when the travel bug hit him and he left CHB without telling anyone. A few weeks later, he managed to get in touch with his mother and she begged him to go somewhere that would be safe for him so he took his things and headed to find New Rome where his first cousing was living as she had offered to his mother that she would take the teen in and keep him safe.
Puck is someone who can be very persuasive without making people do things for him. He’s not one to beg someone to do something for him, but he is one of those people who can say “wow it would be really great if you could give me some of your lunch” in a tone that would make you want to give it to him. There’s, of course, the option to say yes or no unlike if someone is effected by charmspeak. This is part of why Puck is so quiet.
Biography:
Puck Robin Cooper was born to Olivia Cooper on June 1, 1997. He was born nine months after Olivia had taken an end of summer vacation with some of her friends to Puerto Rico and just happened to meet up with another tourist. She had no way of knowing that he was a Greek god at the time and even if she did, she probably would have hooked up with him anyway because that’s just how she was at the age of 20 with no responsibilities. Puck was one of those children who had “sticky fingers” from a young age; occasionally leaving a store with a candy bar that his mom didn’t even notice he had until they were already in the car on the way home.
That didn’t stop Puck’s mother from spoiling him to the best of her ability even though the two of them weren’t really that well off. When he went to Camp Half Blood, it was one of the happiest days of his life. Sure, he loved his mother more than anything but he wanted to go to summer camp and if it was somewhere that he wouldn’t get made fun of for his ADHD or get in to much trouble for taking candy, then that was on of the best things for him in his point of view. Imagine the weight off of his chest when he was claimed two years later. Finding out that his father was Hermes meant that there was nothing wrong with him when it came to his compulsion to steal little things. It wasn’t exactly the most normal thing either, but he still had siblings and other people he could ask for advice on how he could handle his compulsions.
Wanderlust was something that hit him harder than he could ever imagine and again it was something that he could blame on his father. The fact that he got attacked by another empousa? Totally his father’s fault and not his own for leaving the safety of Camp Half Blood without telling anyone about it. He’d heard about New Rome and Camp Jupiter before and he wasn’t too thrilled to go there to live with some cousin that he’d met all of two times in 16 years of living. Much to his surprise, he found his cousin to be entirely welcoming compared to some of the horror stories he’d heard from older campers at Camp Half Blood. In fact, a lot of people were.
Since coming to Camp Jupiter, Puck has done a pretty good job of keeping his head down and making only a few close friends. He’s usually seen as being quiet and reserved but he won’t hesitate to speak up if something happens to someone that he cares about.
Para Sample:
When Puck had called his mom from an old payphone in Massachusetts, the last thing he expected her to do was to send him off somewhere far away from home. It didn’t calm him down anymore to find out that the person she was sending him to was a cousin who barely made contact with the family only to find out that she was a Roman demigod all along. But much to his surprise, she was more than excited to welcome her younger cousin into her home.
His cousin had told him exactly where to go but she hadn’t warned him that people would be standing guard around it. Just his luck too, since he was being chased by a few of those dreadful things that had almost killed him the first time he’d ever seen a monster. Empousai. Just the thought of the name made him want to shudder but there was no time for that. He almost didn’t see the two other people coming until he heard the girl shout something about Edward Cullen.
Puck had heard a lot about Romans in his time at Camp Half Blood and that was the last thing he expected. The next thing he heard fit right in line, however. “Go back to where you came from, stupid graecus,” the man said just loud enough for Puck to hear, Clearly it was some poor attempt at a jab and Puck just gritted his teeth as he dodged another swipe at his head.
“You know what? As much as I would love to stay and chat, I really don’t feel like becoming a gyro for some fucking monster if you don’t mind,” he snapped right back. To his annoyance, the other demigod kept firing insults at him as he watched, struggling internally about whether to help the girl or keep up the arguing.
One particularly annoying comment about how he was the reason the monsters were attacking really got to him and Puck, for once, fired back in a loud voice. “Oh sorry! I forgot that I totally meant this to happen,” he stopped as other Roman spoke and caught his attention. Shooting a glare at the other young man, he pulled out his celestial bronze sword and raised his middle finger to the other. “At least where I come from, we don’t let someone fight on their own because we want to be petty.”
With a roll of his eyes and a few quick steps, Puck was quick enough to block an attack coming at the girl from another angle while the other monster kept her distracted. “Listen up, Twilight, I think your popularity has really run it’s course.” He was relieved at how easy the rest of the fight seemed to be with him actually having back-up. That didn’t mean that the others were going to forget about him being a Greek or anything right away anyway, that was pretty clear from what the guy said in a low voice. Puck couldn’t help but complain as he shuffled along behind the two Romans. “Don’t be an asshole. Please, just let me in? I’m hungry and tired and I was almost vampire dinner.” You would think that would earn him a little sympathy, but apparently he’d overestimated the humanity of the other man.
He stopped dead in his tracks when the girl cut off the asshole who seemed to hate him so much already. “What’s your name, Speedy?”
His heart lept a litte at the nickname and he couldn’t keep himself from smiling a little bit as he introduced himself, “Puck.”
“Cool . I’m Celia.”
Celia.
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