#aoife watches stuff

[black-cat-aoife]

"Du bist Psychologe? Du wolltest doch Zauberer werden. Der Martin hat das doch auch geschafft"

Dialoge schon mal A+

[crystalninjaphoenix]

Remember Me?

Switch AU

A JSE Fanfic

I almost forgot to queue this for today XD But luckily I remembered just in time! Did you guys think that everything would be alright for the Switch guys once they escaped IRIS? Well someone is here to remind them that he exists! The group is hiding out somewhere new, and have brought Will and Michelle to stay with them, just in case. They decide to test some spells Marvin can do with his cards, and everything seems to go well until a certain gray man interrupts them... Been a while since I've written Distorter, I've forgotten how fun he is fjdkaslh Anyway, have fun reading :3c

More of This AU | | First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Read on AO3 under CrystalNinjaPhoenix

———————

Anti paced back and forth in front of the sofa. Jackie, sitting there, watched him walk back and forth, moving his head but nothing else. “You look as nervous as the day you adopted Will.” He laughed. “I-it’s funny that you’re once again anxious to see him.”

“Of course I am.” Anti shook his head. “IRIS had me convinced for a bit that he didn’t even exist. A-and I... well, it’s not... We’re on the run! I want to see Will as much as you want to see Michelle, but do you think it’s safe? What would IRIS do if they found them?”

“I don’t know if IRIS cares about children,” Jackie said slowly. “I-I hope they don’t. But honestly, I think they’ll be less safe on their own. Besides IRIS and Distorter, there are all the normal things that are a threat to eleven- and nine-year-olds. Like kitchen appliances. That’s an exaggeration. I know they’re smart enough to not mess around with that. But you know what I mean.”

Anti nodded. He continued to pace across the living room. The group had found an apartment to rent in this new city. It was small for them, and more expensive than the hotel room they’d stayed in for the first two days, but they needed more space with how many people they had in the group. Even with Aoife insisting on returning to and staying in Mirygale, they still had eight people—and now ten, with Rama picking up Will and Michelle. 

The apartment had two bedrooms, one with a queen-size bed and one with a bunk bed and a single twin-size bed. Jackie and Rama claimed the former, while Marvin, JJ, and Schneep shared the second. Anti and Jack were stuck on the sleeper sofa in the living room. Stacy was the wild card, not sure where she wanted to stay, but eventually decided on buying an air mattress and sleeping in the room with Jackie and Rama. Right now, all the others were crowded into the two bedrooms, wanting to give Jackie and Anti space to reunite with the kids. 

Jackie fiddled with his hoodie strings. “Do you think we should get some new phones soon? I-I’m really nervous about Rama going off on their own... I know we have the flat’s landline, but... it’s different.”

“We only have so much cash,” Anti said. “I wouldn’t put it past IRIS to track card purchases or withdrawals, so I don’t think we should get more until we absolutely have to.”

“Yeah... and do you think we’re getting to the point of ‘absolutely have to’ yet?”

“No. We can put off the phone purchase. And when we eventually have to buy stuff, we should take out small totals a little at a time, adding up to the big withdrawal.”

Jackie tilted his head. “You, uh... Do you have practice with that? When you... were on your own?”

Anti paused. “I never got to the point of people wanting to track my cash. But... well, uh... When I was desperate, I used... cards. And I learned that... big purchases wouldn’t go through.”

“Oh, Anti,” Jackie breathed.

“I-I regret it now,” Anti said quietly. “Like I do most things from my past.” He looked at Jackie nervously.

Jackie sighed. “Well... that’s bad, but I guess people could get new cards. It’s not the worst thing, huh?” He smiled. “Don’t worry, Aodhán, I know it’s different now. I just... I hope none of us have to resort to that.”

“We won’t,” Anti said firmly. “I promise. If I promise anything, it’s that we’ll never be desperate enough for that.” He looked away. “I... promised myself that. For Will. W-when I adopted him.”

Jackie nodded. “I-I think I understand that now,” he said quietly.

“...and I’m glad you do,” Anti said, even softer.

They fell silent for a few minutes, until there was a knock at the door. Anti immediately hurried over to open it, hand instinctively going to his pocket—even though his pocket was empty, no knife inside to comfort him with its defense. He pulled the door open a crack, and saw Rama on the other side. And with them, two little faces. “Hi, Uncle Anti,” Michelle whispered. She glanced around conspiratorially, like she was pretending to be a spy. “Can we come into the secret place?”

“Of course you can,” Anti said, and opened the door wider so they could all come inside. Jackie stood up, Michelle rushed at him, and he hugged her tight. They started to talk, Rama joining in, but Anti’s focus wasn’t on them. He closed the door, and looked at Will. Had he always been this tall? He was just about the height of Anti’s shoulder. Anti stared at him, and cleared his throat. “I-I don’t think we’ve really, uh... H-hey—”

Suddenly, Will rushed forward and wrapped his arms around Anti, squeezing him tight. Anti gasped, unsure how to respond to this. Will wasn’t normally a hugger... he would, the same as any other kid, but... Anti didn’t expect it right now. But here he was, and he could feel some wetness getting on his shirt from where Will’s face was buried in it, and a similar wetness was coming to his own eyes. “I... I missed you,” Will breathed.

“...I missed you too, bud,” Anti said, wrapping his arms around Will and hugging him tight in turn.

The two of them stood there for a while, just holding each other. Until, finally, Will wriggled out of his grip. “Um... so.” He fidgeted awkwardly. “R-Rama didn’t explain much. Just that we were like... on the run. A-are the police going to get us? Or... the gray man?”

Anti winced. “Maybe the second one. But we’re actually more worried about... D-did they tell you about IRIS? About... where I disappeared to?” He hesitated to share this. But he wanted to be honest with Will. If the height was any indication, he’d grown up quite a lot. He wouldn’t share everything. There were some details a child didn’t need to know. It probably wouldn’t help Will to hear about some of the ‘tests.’ But he deserved to know the big picture.

The two of them sat down on the sofa and talked. Jackie and Rama got up, showing Michelle around the apartment, small as it was. After that brief tour, they went into the bedroom with the queen-sized bed and started blowing up a second, smaller air mattress for Michelle to use when she wanted.

“Do you get all this?” Anti asked, finishing off his explanation.

“It’s like a science fiction show,” Will said. “So... this IRIS company wants to get the gray man. Distorter?”

“Well... I think so, at least?” Anti said. “But it’s more complicated than that.”

“They want to test what he does and that means testing you guys, too. I get that part.” Will nodded. “And JJ has magic, which they’re curious about too.” He paused. “Do you... do you think that means they’ll come for me and Michelle, too?”

“I don’t think they care about kids,” Anti said, repeating what Jackie said earlier. “But there’s a chance that something will happen while you’re on your own. You know?”

“Like... Distorter,” Will said quietly. He pulled his feet onto the sofa and folded his legs.

“Yeah.” Anti nodded. “Has he... been bothering you at all? Have you had any bad dreams?”

Will narrowed his eyes. “What’s the password?”

Anti smiled slightly and leaned over. “Minecraft,” he whispered.

Will nodded. “No... I-I don’t think so. But I do think that... I’ve been remembering stuff while I’m asleep. Stuff about when Michelle and I were in his house.”

Anti sat up straight. “Oh? Do you... want to talk about it?”

“I-I don’t... think so...” Will trailed off. “Um... things were weird in there. The rooms kept changing. Michelle was freaked out. I-I tried to keep her... keep her safe.”

“I see.” Anti nodded. “That’s... very brave of you. I-I’m proud you did that. Now... i-it’s time for the rest of us to keep you and her safe.”

Will smiled slightly. “Th-thanks, Dad.” He looked around. “So, uh... a-am I sleeping with you on the sofa? Like when I was little with nightmares?”

“Probably,” Anti said. “But Jack’s also been sleeping on the sofa. We don’t have much room, so it might be the three of us sharing it. But if you’re not comfortable with that, we could buy another air mattress today for either you or Jack.”

“Um...” Will thought about it. “I-I’ll try it for tonight. But only if I get to be on the edge and you’re in the middle.”

Anti smiled. “Hey, I don’t blame you for not wanting to sleep next to Jack. He’s a kicker.”

“What did you say about me?” Jack walked down the hall and poked his head into the living room.

“I said you kick in your sleep, dumbass,” Anti said.

“Hey, well, you toss and turn and hog the blankets.” Jack looked at Will. “Hey, Will.” Sam hopped out of Jack’s hoodie pocket and flew over to Will. “Ha. Sam’s happy to see you, too.”

“Wicked.” Will grinned. “Where’s Sam sleep?”

“Well, they don’t really sleep at all, but I make a little nest for them out of my hoodie and they rest in there when they want,” Jack explained.

“Aww.” Will’s grin softened into a smile, and Sam landed on his shoulder.

Anti felt his eyes start to water again, but he took a deep breath and pushed that back. “Are you hungry? We have some groceries. Not much, but we could make mac and cheese.”

“Ooo yeah!” Will’s eyes lit up.

“Ha. I’ll get started on that, then.”

———————

Marvin sat cross-legged on his bed, staring at the cards before him. The joker cards were face-up. He’d made sure to carefully scratch away the fake X over the runes over the past couple days, and now the angled spirals were in full view.

Schneep rolled over on his own bed nearby, peering down at Marvin; he’d taken the top bunk on the bunk bed, while Marvin had the single twin bed. Jameson was left with the bottom bunk. He’d tried to sleep on the top bunk the first night they were here, but he’d had a terrible nightmare, tossing and turning, and the other two insisted that he take one of the beds on the ground for the rest of the stay here. Marvin couldn’t climb up the ladder to the top bunk, so Schneep was left to sleep there for as long as they stayed in this apartment, and Jameson decided to claim the bottom bunk, as he feared Marvin might also have trouble with the lower bed. “Marvin?”

“Oh? Did I wake you up?” Marvin asked, looking up at him. “Sorry ‘bout turnin’ on the light. I wanted t’look at the cards, an’ the light from the window jus’ wouldn’ cut it.” They had the curtains drawn all the time, afraid that someone would be able to look in and somehow let IRIS know where they were.

“No, I was waking up anyway,” Schneep muttered. “Mein Gott... my sleep schedule is fucked.”

Marvin laughed. “I think all of ours are.” He looked down at the cards again. “Did you talk to Michelle and Will at all when they showed up yesterday? Or were you sleepin’ the whole time?”

“I think... I was sleeping the whole time,” Schneep said slowly.

“T’at probably isn’ a good sign,” Marvin said. “You’ve been sleepin’ so much lately.”

“My body needs to recover, I suppose.” Schneep sat up. “Perhaps I need to get out of the house. But...” He trailed off.

“Afraid?” Marvin asked. “Me too. Stacy and Jack are real lifesavers, bein’ brave enough to go out.” He paused. “Maybe... maybe I coul’ be brave enough to try, too. If I... can figure something out wit’ t’ese cards.”

“Hm.” Schneep leaned on the guard rail around the edge of the top bunk. “I would go with you, if there was some magic to protect us. What are you thinking?”

“The problem wit’ the cards is t’at it’s easy to mess them up,” Marvin said. “Knock one out of place, and the spell will end. So I was t’inkin’ if I taped them down to a board of some sort... we have packing tape an’ a cutting board t’at coul’ work.”

“You checked?” Schneep asked, the corner of his mouth twitching.

“Yes. But it’ll be awkward walkin’ around wit’ a cutting board. So I want t’be sure the combination works.” Marvin hesitated, then pushed aside the jokers. He wouldn’t need those for this, he was pretty sure. Maybe if he used the eye-like runes on the red fours? Somehow?

Schneep climbed down from the top bunk. “Should I ask the others if they want to go out for fresh air?”

Marvin nodded. “Go on. T’ough I don’ t’ink I can handle too many people at once.”

“I’ll talk around.” With that, Schneep headed out into the hallway.

Marvin frowned, biting his lip. The name of the game is hiding... Maybe these ones on the black eights, then? The rune on them means ‘darkness’ or ‘secret.’ Maybe if he used them to cover the eye runes... and then used the ace of clubs or ace of spades...

In the living room, Stacy was busy making a sandwich for lunch, while Anti, Jack, and Will played a card game on the counter. Anti was pretending to sneak a peek at Will’s cards, which made Will grin as he made sure to hide it. “Hello, you all,” Schneep said. “Marvin is thinking about doing some magic to protect us while we are out. If he succeeds, would any of you want to come with the two of us?”

“Huh?” Anti looked over. “Like, where would you be going?”

“...we did not talk about that,” Schneep said slowly. “We only vaguely mentioned going out... Well, it is circumstantial based on if he can figure something out, anyway.”

“Uh... well...” Anti looked at Will. “It has been a while since I went on a walk or something. But...”

“Y-you can go out if you want, Dad,” Will said.

“Are you sure?”

“Mm-hm. I can hang out with Uncle Jack and Stacy.”

Anti still looked uncertain. 

“How about I go ask the others first?” Schneep offered. “They are all in the bedroom.”

“What, you don’t think me or Jack will want to go out?” Stacy asked jokingly. 

“...Do you?”

“Nah, I go out often enough.” Stacy shook her head. “But it’d be nice to be asked, you know?”

“Yeah, I feel the same,” Jack said. “I’m good with staying. If Anti goes on whatever walk you guys are going on, I’ll stay here to watch the kids.”

“Got it.” Schneep nodded, and went back down the hall towards the second bedroom.

Inside, JJ was entertaining Michelle with some magic tricks. The two of them were sitting across from each other on the floor. JJ was causing small flurries of crystalline magic to appear on the floor between them, growing like a flower and then shrinking, only to grow again in another formation. Michelle was laughing, asking him to do one that looked like a star. Meanwhile, Rama and Jackie were sitting on the bed together, snuggling. Jackie lifted his head. “Yeah, Volt?”

“Marvin thinks he may be able to come up with some sort of protective spell so that we can walk about at our leisure,” Schneep said. “If he came up with something, would you all want to come on a walk or some such?”

Rama shook their head. “No, I drove a while all yesterday, I’m tuckered out. Jackieboy?”

“Maybe...” Jackie said slowly. “Maybe, uh, Michelle can come?”

“Huh what?” Michelle looked up. “Where are we going?”

“Probably just around outside,” Schneep said.

“Oh, there is a park nearby you can visit, maybe?” Rama said. “A small one, but it does have swings for the kids. Maybe you can take Michelle and Will with you, Jackie. If Anti wants to go with and bring Will, I mean.”

“I think he wants to get out of the apartment, but is worried about Will,” Schneep said. “Bringing him along might be a good solution.” He looked at JJ. “Jamie? What about you?”

Jameson shook his head. I don’t think... I’m ready for that. As he signed, his hands shook slightly. But if you and Marvin are, I’m proud of you guys. He smiled a little.

Schneep smiled back. “I am too.”

“Aw, t’ank you, Jems.”

“Gah!” Schneep jumped into the air—literally, grabbing onto the side of the doorway and bracing his feet against it to keep him suspended two feet off the ground.

“Oh, very impressive!” Marvin was suddenly behind Schneep, holding a handful of cards.

“What the—Marvin?!” Schneep gasped, and dropped down to the ground. “What are you—h-how did I not hear you?!”

“I t’ink I found a combination t’at works.” Marvin held up the cards. “But it’s six cards. T’at’s quite a powerful spell, an’ it seems the tiniest movement will upset it. But hopefully once we tape them down, it’ll all work out.”

“Are you going to cover the cards in something?” Jackie asked. “Because it seems like a bad idea to just apply packing tape directly to their surfaces.”

“...I woul’ve t’ought of t’at eventually, I’m sure,” Marvin said slowly. “In any case, anyone who wants to try t’is out wit’ me shoul’ gather together, I need to see if t’is’ll effect multiple people at once.”

The people interested in going outside gathered in the living room, where Jack and Stacy watched and reported on if the cards were working to truly make them disappear. They found that the cards provided a circle of invisibility—an “AOE effect,” as Anti called it—and if you got too far from the cards you would no longer be invisible. They also found that using half the cards would still provide invisibility, but in a smaller radius—and sound would still be heard, whereas sound in the six-card’s circle would not be heard by people outside.

Having determined all this, they went about trying to find a way to keep the cards secure in one position. They settled on putting the cards on a cutting board, wrapping it and the cards in saran wrap, and then covering that in packing tape. Luckily, all these supplies were on hand in the apartment, thanks to Stacy and Rama going shopping. “I think the tape was one of your guys’ suggestions, though,” Stacy said once all was said and done.

And with that settled, it was time to actually test it by going outside. Anti and Jackie were coming, along with their kids. Obviously Marvin was too, and Schneep—though he was a bit paranoid about it. And with it starting to get late, he insisted that they postpone this until tomorrow. The others agreed. Marvin was starting to feel fatigued, anyway. And going tomorrow would allow them all time to mentally prepare. Going outside while IRIS was looking for them was nerve-wracking to Jackie and Marvin—and Anti too, though he tried not to show it, for Will’s sake. But all of them were determined to try. Not just for fun. But because if they were going to eventually drive IRIS away, they’d need to sneak around them or confront them or something.

The group had dinner, then all went to their separate sleeping areas for the night. The cutting board with the cards was left at the end of the hall near the bathroom. Meaning anyone who wanted to go to the bathroom would be temporarily invisible as they passed into its circle of effect, but there wasn’t really anywhere more convenient to put it. So it was left there until the morning.

———————

A morning which dawned bright, but quiet. It seemed not many people were taking advantage of the sunshiny day. Then again, this apartment wasn’t in the best part of this city. It was clear that the neighborhood wasn’t maintained that much, judging by the chipped paint and faded signs and general grime of everything. But it was better than being in IRIS.

The six of them—Marvin, Schneep, Jackie, Anti, and the two kids—set off around midday. Schneep had the cards and cutting board shoved into a backpack on his back, so the others tried to stick close to him. Luckily, today was a good day for Marvin, so he was able to keep up... though he grumbled about how IRIS still had his cane and the wooden one they picked up from a petrol station felt less good in his hand. Jackie patted his shoulder and assured him that the park Rama had spotted wasn’t too far.

The park wasn’t as good as the ones they were used to back in Mirygale, but after so long being  stuck in IRIS’s clinical rooms, and then being cramped into a small apartment, any amount of greenery was amazing. The small square of grass was walled in by a waist-high brick fence, and had a couple trees growing in lines down the middle and sides. There was an iron swing set and sandbox for the kids, along with several benches. And though the swing set had rusted chains and the benches had rotted wood, Michelle and Will were excited anyway. “Dad! Dad Dad Dad, can you push me when I swing?!” Michelle asked, tugging on Jackie’s hand.

Jackie smiled. “Of course, pumpkin.” He looked at the others. “Uh... sounds like you guys will have to hang out close by.”

“I can... go on the swings too,” Will said. “And Dad can... push me.” Clearly, he didn’t want to admit how eager he was to swing.

“Yeah, I’ll do that, bud,” Anti chuckled. “No problem. Just know you won’t get too high. You’re getting pretty big.”

“That sounds like quitter’s talk.”

“Ha! It sure does.”

Schneep glanced at Marvin. “I suppose that means we will take turns sitting on the last swing in the set?”

“No, I’m takin’ it th’ whole time,” Marvin said, hurrying to catch up with the others. Schneep burst into laughter.

The kids took their places on the swings, and Anti and Jackie pushed them. Michelle yelled and whooped in delight every time she reached the height of the swing arc. Will was a bit more subdued but he still couldn’t keep a big grin off his face. Marvin sat in the last empty swing while Schneep leaned against the pole supporting the swing set and watched the kids go. The ground was plain dirt under the swings, and their feet occasionally kicked up dust, but that was all part of the fun.

It was nice.

So why did Schneep have a creeping feeling that there was danger around the corner?

He shook his head. No, he was just being paranoid. There were no problems. They had nothing to worry about.

After a while, Jackie took a step back. “Alright, pumpkin, my arms are getting tired. I’m going to take a break for a bit. You can push yourself, right?”

“Yeah, Dad!” Michelle said cheerfully. She kicked her legs back and forth, keeping up the momentum. “I’m gonna go to the mooooon!”

Jackie laughed fondly. “Anti? Wanna sit down for a break too?”

“Nah, I’m not a pu—coward,” Anti said, and Will giggled.

“Jackie, you have to be careful not to leave the range of the spell,” Schneep said. “The benches are too far away for you to sit on.”

“Oh... yeah, you’re right.” Jackie paused. 

This rule about staying so close to the spell seemed stupid, didn’t it? It wouldn’t hurt if he was visible for a few minutes. 

Jackie shook his head. Even if the rule was a little too strict, he wouldn’t want to upset his friends by breaking it. “I’ll just sit down over here,” he said, walking a few feet away from the swing set and sitting down on the grass. “I’m still in range here, right?”

Marvin glanced back at him. “I t’ink so. You sure you want to sit behind the swings?”

“Well I’m not sitting in front where shoes can go flying off,” Jackie said. “I learned that lesson when Michelle was little.”

“Mm. Good point.” Marvin shrugs and turns back around. But Schneep looked uneasy. He didn’t say anything, but Jackie could tell.

It’s fine, though. Nothing was going to happen. This was the better place to sit anyway.

Jackie watched Michelle swinging from behind. Her long hair was pulled back in a ponytail that swayed in the wind, and she continued to laugh and shout. It was so good to see her again. What was he thinking, staying with IRIS? Did he really think it would be better if she didn’t see him? Or... did IRIS just convince him it would be? Was he just that scared? Looking back on it, being trapped with Distorter had really messed him up. Once IRIS was taken care of, maybe he should ask JJ or JJ’s magician friends if the magic community had therapists as part of it. Because though he’d tried normal therapy, it was difficult to really explain everything when he was trying to hold back on the supernatural elements...

Do you remember the house well, Jackie?

Of course he did. There was no way he’d ever forget it. The oppressive air in there, the way he felt dazed and confused all the time, and though it was a small house, he never really seemed to know where he was within it. And all the things Distorter had done... 

Keep thinking about that.

He didn’t want to. But he couldn’t stop. His thoughts were dredging up old memories and images against his will, and he was falling downwards into a deep expanse of them, feeling almost physical pain as they invaded his mind. The freezing, the burning, the drowning, the blades, the chemicals—No! Stop! Stop this!

I can make it stop. Just... smile for me.

A gray fog started to seep into his mind. Jackie started, scrambling to his feet, a warning shout forming in his voice—

Or I can make it worse.

And instantly, he wasn’t outside anymore. He was in a kitchen in a plain, ordinary house, lying on the cold tile floor, his vision growing fuzzy as he stared at all the bottles of household cleaning chemical lying on the floor next to him, the taste of them still choking his throat.

Your choice.

The fog returned, and instinctively, instantly, Jackie ran into it.

“Jackie?” Schneep turned to look at him. He’d stood up. “What is it? Did you want to... leave or something?”

But Jackie didn’t answer. He only stared, his eyes glazing over... and dripping blood.

“Shit!” Schneep cursed. He rushed over to stand in front of Michelle. “Marvin! Anti! He’s here and he’s got Jackie!”

Anti’s head snapped over, and he immediately rushed into action, grabbing Will and pulling him off the swing. “Schneep you protect the kids!” he hissed.

“I’m not going to hurt the children.” That was Jackie’s voice saying that, but... the words clearly weren’t his. “I like the kids. We had fun together. And I’m a better father than you were, anyway, Aodhán.”

“Don’t you dare make Jackie say that!” Anti snapped. Michelle had also scrambled off the swing, and now she and Will were staying behind him, staring with wide eyes.

Marvin got off the swing and reached into his jacket pocket. “Volt, where is he?!” He asked, pulling out his cards.

“I—” Schneep’s head darted around wildly. “I-I do not see him!”

“Of course you don’t.” The corners of Jackie’s mouth were pulled upwards, forming a smile that was not his. “You think I have to be nearby to affect you all? I’ve been in all of your heads for so long now, I know the way in no matter how far apart we are.”

“You’re lying!” Anti shouted. “We know there’s a limit to your range!”

“But it’s one that can be widened with time.” Jackie’s body took a staggering step forward. Schneep and Anti spread their arms out, trying to block his way to the kids in unison, while Marvin scrambled through his cards, fanning them out and staring at the runes. “And like I’ve said, I’ve been with all of you for so, so long now. I don’t have to see or hear you to know where you are. So good job on the little spell of yours. It will work on IRIS, but not on me.”

Marvin’s face went pale. “You—I-I won’ let you—”

“Yes you will.”

And suddenly, Marvin was not out in the park. He was back in the house on Aspen Street, back in the basement... back in that box. Held up by strings, listening to applause as his body shook with pain, his leg in agony.

Anti yelled out in shock as he saw Marvin collapse to the ground, cards spilling everywhere as blood started to pour from his eyes.

“You too.”

And then Anti was not in the park, either. He was young, stuck in his childhood home, freezing up in his attic room while the sound of loud shows on the TV blared through the floorboards. He was young, but getting older, the room shifting to a bar that reeked of a sharp scent—

He stumbled, breathing heavily. No! No, he wouldn’t fall. He wasn’t there anymore. He was here, in the park, with his friends and his son. 

Schneep had gone to help Marvin up, but he spared a glance to Anti, watching as blood trickled from one of his eyes as he fought to stay standing. “Dad?” Will said, clinging to his side. “C-come on, Dad! Don’t—d-don’t—” The boy couldn’t finish his sentence, trailing off in fear. Michelle was frozen in place, staring at Jackie.

“You... bastard,” Schneep growled, looking around for any sign of Distorter. “In front of the children?!”

“It’s upsetting for me too,” Distorter whispered through Jackie’s voice. “To know that they’re upset. But don’t worry. I can make sure they’re happy afterwards. They’ll forget all their struggles and they’ll just be happy.”

“That isn’t fucking healthy for them, you—Show your face, coward!”

Jackie’s forced grin grew wider. “No, I don’t think I will. It’s not cowardice to try and avoid a fight, you know. It’s just common sense. Besides... it’s not fair that you’ll be the only one fighting. It’s not fair that IRIS fucked your head to make you into their special weapon.”

Schneep winced. He looked down at Marvin, limp in his arms, and tried to shake him awake.

“How does it feel, not being able to know what’s inside of your body? How does it feel, knowing that when IRIS finds you again, they’ll do all they can to beat your personality and will out of you?”

“Shut up!” Schneep shouted, his voice cracking as tears came to his eyes. “Get out of my friend’s head!”

“Why? He wanted me here. So I listened, like any good friend would.”

“He would not want you to control his every action!”

“Ohhh, but Volt.” The nickname sounded wrong as Jackie said it, used in a different inflection than Jackie would usually use it. “That’s so much easier than not doing it yourself. And I’m so much nicer about it than IRIS is. So you should really let me try it out on you—oh no wait, that’s not even an option anymore.” Jackie—Distorter giggled. And then suddenly lunged forward.

Michelle shrieked. Schneep managed to scramble backwards, pulling Marvin with him, and Will pulled Anti back as well, causing him to gasp in shock. Distorter laughed again, and lurched at Schneep and Marvin, practically falling onto them. Schneep’s reactions kicked in. He pushed him away, grabbed him, and shoved him to the ground, pinning him down. And there he froze, conflict in his eyes.

Distorter grinned, the expression unnatural on Jackie’s face. “Are you going to shock your friend?” he whispered. “This is fully him, you know. It’s not like there’s a ghost in his body. It’s him. Are you going to attack him anyway, like a good little weapon?”

Schneep flinched, drawing back a bit—but then Jackie’s hand shot out and grabbed Schneep’s wrist, pulling him back. Distorter made Jackie press Schneep’s hand to his own chest, continuing to grin the whole while.

“Fucking do it, then. It’s what you’ve been made for, after all.”

For a moment, everything was frozen. Schneep was in shock, finding himself unable to move.

“Y-you...”

Schneep looked towards the sound of the voice. And so did Jackie, Distorter turning his head curiously.

“Y-you...” Anti said again, struggling. “You... fuck... right off.” He shook his head. “You... do not control me. You... cannot control Schneep. You... fuck off. Jackie. Jackie!” He shouted. “Tell him to fuck off!”

Distorter laughed through Jackie’s voice. “Are you serious? Oh, what are you trying to do, Aodhán?”

“Don’t you fucking call me that,” Anti hissed. “He’s not me anymore. And you are not me anymore, either. Do you understand that?”

Distorter blinked. “I was never ‘you,’ what the hell are you talking about?”

“Oh no, but you wanted me to be. You wanted me to be whatever you are—whatever you had been before. The man who did something unspeakable and then ended it for himself. That’s what you wanted me to be. You want me to hurt my friends, and then myself. You told me as much.” Anti’s unbleeding eye flashed with rage. “Well guess the fuck what, bitch? I’m not going to let you. Because you do not control me. I’m done letting you control me. I know I’m more than that now.” He staggered forward towards Schneep and Jackie, collapsing to his knees next to them. “And if I can fight you off, then Jackie definitely can. Because he’s so much stronger than I am. You hear that, Jackie?! If I can do it, you can do it too! A-and if you can’t do it right now, that’s o-okay! Because m-me and Schneep are here to help you!”

The glazed look in Jackie’s eyes flickered. “A-An...ti?”

Anti looked past the two of them. “You too, Marvin! You’ve been through so much with this fucker, you can pull through this, too! W-we’re here o-on the other side, w-waiting to help you.”

Marvin blinked slowly. The blood trickle coming from his eyes seemed to pause for a second. 

Jackie made a choked sound. His back arched, eyes rolling back. Schneep scrambled away to give him space. “Y-you think that this... this...” Distorter hissed. “This power of love bullshit will overcome me?”

“No... I know it will,” Anti growled. “Because I know what you really are, Distorter. Not who you are—or should I say, who you used to be. I know what you are. I know what overcame him. I know because I’m very familiar with it myself. And that’s why I know you can’t stand up against this.”

Michelle took a few steps forward. “D-Dad...?” She whispered. “I... um...” She hesitated, unsure what to say. “I... love you.”

Jackie’s eyes welled with tears. Tears that spilled over the edge, washing away the blood. He suddenly gasped as the glazed look in his eyes disappeared. “M-Michelle? G-guys?”

Michelle ran forward, toppling over on top of Jackie and hugging him tight. Jackie let out an “oof!” as his breath was knocked out of him, then sat up, hugging Michelle to his chest.

And a second later, Anti saw the images taking up half his vision—images of his past—fade away, along with the pressure and fog trying to fill his mind. Marvin suddenly sat upright, gasping for breath. Schneep looked back and forth between them all. “Is... i-is it over?” he asked hesitantly.

Jackie wiped the blood from his face. “I... don’t really know what just happened, but... I guess?”

Marvin groaned. “Fuckin’ hell... why now? Bastard.”

“He wanted to remind us he was still watching,” Anti muttered. “If he wanted to put up more of a fight... he could have. But this was just him testing the waters.” He looked around uneasily.

Schneep cleared his throat. “Should we... reconsider taking care of IRIS first?”

“I think we need to ask Jackson and the others about that,” Anti said. “And for that... we need to get back to the apartment.”

“I woul’ be ready for t’at,” Marvin said, gathering up his cards. “But... we can’ jus’ stay in the apartment all the time. Even if... Distorter is out here.”

Jackie looked at Michelle. “You ready to go back yet, pumpkin?”

“I, uh...” Michelle bit her lip, considering that. “I-I liked swinging. And I like being out here. And he’s gone now, right? So... maybe we can just... be out here for a bit longer?”

“Y-yeah.” Will nodded shakily, holding onto Anti’s hand. “Let’s just... hang out for a bit.”

Anti chuckled. “Well, who are we to deny kids what they want? When it’s something like this.”

“...I suppose that Distorter is not likely to be back,” Schneep said slowly. “But he still may be nearby. A-and that...” He trailed off.

“We can’t let him control us, Henrik,” Anti whispered.

Schneep took a deep breath, and nodded. “You are right. I suppose we can stay out for... a bit longer. But not too long.”

“We need t’see if t’ere’s a laundromat nearby,” Marvin said, putting his cards back in his pocket. “Look at us. Me an’ Jackie covered in dirt.”

Anti laughed. “We’ll look around on the way back, I guess. Might be hard to use one if we’re still invisible to others, but hey, for the future. Now... what are we doing while out here?”

“I have an idea!” Michelle raised her hand. “Let’s draw stuff on the ground. We can do tic-tac-toe or something!”

Jackie smiled. “That’s a great idea, Michelle. Or what about hangman?”

“Yeah!”

Anti sat down on the ground. “Games it is, then.”

And so, the next hour or so passed by playing small games, drawn in the dirt, and also by swinging and going on walks around the park, looking at the trees and picking up interesting rocks. Distorter had slowly faded from their minds... but the memory of the encounter lingered in the back of their thoughts.

[marsmarbles]

Okay okay this may seem random, but what are your OC’s favorite movies/shows?

Elio watches a lot of shows and movies, but I think his favorites would be Adventure Time, My Little Pony, Star Wars, and Marvel(not sure which movie of those franchises specifically).

Quacey doesn’t watch a lot of shows or movies. He probably gets that feeling after leaving a movie theater that’s like “I just lost 2 hours of my life I’m never gonna get back”(but even if he enjoyed the movie). He might not go outside very often, but he doesn’t spend that time watching shows and movies(he would watch documentaries tho). Elio tries to get him into the stuff he’s into, but Quacey doesn’t get it.

Aoife and Yvaine watch true crime shows together. Yvaine and Roi are horror movie junkies and often get everyone together to watch all the classic slasher films. I think they all collectively like scary movies. Quacey probably tries to guess what happens next and definitely questions a lot of the logistics behind everything.

Zenith watches whatever they’re watching through the ring camera he secretly set up in their house(this was intended to be a joke but I feel like he would actually do this. He just wants to feel included).

[holocene-sims]

character asks tag

thank you @changingplumbob & @feroshgirlsims for tagging me!!

this went around a hot minute ago, so i do not remember who has or has not done this, so feel free to ignore if you aren't interested or already did it, but i'll tag: @igglemouse @queeniecook @dandylion240 @nectar-cellar @vercosims & anyone who wants to!

✨ which OC is the first at a movie theater opening night for a movie they've been excited for?

henry! he spends a large chunk of his weekly screen time on letterboxd and running his movie review blog, so i think it's safe to call him a movie buff. and honestly, i think he'd be seated front row on opening night for any movie, not just the ones he's excited for. he has a stake in seeing terrible movies, too, if only because the internet loves a spicy review, right?

also, this means that soobin counts here, too. she'd prefer to go see rom-coms exclusively, but if henry is willing to watch reality TV with her, she is willing to go watch what he wants in theaters.

✨ which OC is the pickiest?

i think it depends on the type of picky!

aside from the very obvious answer (grant's parents)...

shannon is the queen of picky eating. she's famously physically repulsed by coffee, and she's the kind of person who orders the exact same meal every time at a restaurant, no deviations. also, she does not do spice, like, at all. mild salsa is the upper range of her tolerance.

in terms of perfectionist pickiness, i think i'd have to give this to henry. especially when it comes to his art hobbies or his job, he's straight up compulsive about getting everything exactly right. he'll retake a photo a billion times just to fix one minor light imperfection in the corner.

✨ which OC is the most stubborn?

aoife, followed by grant. i mean, it is kind of the defining trait of the family, but these two get it honest. for better or for worse, they don't give up on anything. god forbid if they do, that means they've really reached the end of their rope.

colm should be thrown in this category as well. he's...i mean, he's just colm. he's quite the guy, and i think stubborn on purpose. aoife and grant don't necessarily mean to be stubborn, they just are by nature/upbringing, but colm does it because it's funny or out of spite.

✨ which OC looks like a pushover, but could actually kick someone's butt?

this is also an aoife thing! she looks harmless (hello, she is tiny), and generally, she is harmless, but if you give her a reason to be pissed off, i think she would be your worst nightmare. she wouldn't even need a weapon, but a wooden spoon is in her implement. anyway, #farmgirltough

✨ which OC is most likely to excitedly talk about hobbies?

i'm going to be so for real, all of them except grant's parents 🤭 it might just be me, the author, just being autistic lmao but i can't really envision anyone not wanting to do that, so i let my characters do it all the time tbh.

but it does exist on a spectrum. on one end, you have someone like grant, who will only do it with people who like the same stuff as him or explicitly ask him to talk about his hobbies. on the other end, you have shannon and colm, who will talk anyone's damn ear off 24/7 about something that interested them for 5 seconds the other night at 3AM. and then you have characters like henry, who does talk about his hobbies often, but mostly online. etc., etc., etc.

[cricrithings]

9 people to get to know better

Thanks for the tag, @bluespring864!

LAST SONG: I really don't remember. Last time I conciously listened to music was last thursday when I was out with friends in a really oldfashionend place we use to go to since the mid 90s (and it was oldfashioned then). The landlord has a radio station playing which plays only 80s and early 90s songs all of which we knew to the surprise of the kid of one of my friends. The last song I remember from that night is "Would I lie to you" from Charles & Eddie.

FAVORITE COLOR: Not good with favorites and I like so many colours. Blues (I'm wearing mostly blue) but also a big fan of red(s) and green(s).

CURRENTLY WATCHING: M*A*S*H, Ducktales, Sherlock Holmes (Granada, rewatch) and a Big Bang theory rewatch (after finishing Young Sheldon).

SWEET / SAVOURY / SPICY: Savoury or spicy. I'm not overly fond of sweet (if it isn't chocolate).

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Longterm realtionship since 1992 ...

CURRENT OBSESSION: Last one is/was Good Omens and some other stuff David Tennant did. Other than that I'm obsessionless atm which is always a bit ... sad? I miss the excitement.

LAST THING YOU SEARCHED: Who sang "Would I lie to you" ;)

I you like to do this I'm tagging @keinbutterdieb, @moun-chan, @zhivchik, @black-cat-aoife, @derjemand, @diamondcitydarlin, @cuddleswinchester, @cornchrunchie and @rebecca2525 and everything everyone! else who want to to this.

[khorren]

The Elder Dragon Saga was very much a Fae family - human - story, with supporting characters here and there. It took me the whole development of the saga (pretty much) to shape the story. Kensi and Ruby keeping the bloodline going in preparation for some major cataclysmic event, and the lines of all the Faes from the days of the Flameseeker Prophecies played their parts. I've been writing my own little version of GW2 Tyria since the game was announced, so it's been festering in my head for a long-ass time :)

In hindsight I should maybe not confused things with Cosima, and just let OG commander ride off into the sunset (whether season 4 or end of EoD), but oh well. Love my little Cos <3. Still, she's still "The Commander" and pushing whatever main storylines along. Despite ANet not pulling in Dragon's Watch, I'm still pulling in my guild of characters into the story.

Cosima reaches out to Aoife after the initial SotO adventures and wants to bring some of the guild into the mix. The Ulvstrom family have been a mix of doing their own thing and popping into the main story, or just off doing their own thing, and it's time to bring them in for a bigger cause. They're all chasing their own legends of course, but will come back to family stuff as needed. Between the Wizard's Tower and Amnytas there's just so much there that could be useful to them about, well, everything. An Ulvstrom is sent to each Bastion with some supporting cast helping out in other places.

[keyleth-clay]

Hii, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on a critical role/venture maidens crossover? 💖💖💖

Oooooooooh, well, I have a few ideas, but not much in terms of, like, specific plot stuff:

If I Had A Nickel For Every Time I Watched An Actual Play Group's First Online Campaign Where The Goth Elf Ends Up A Champion Of The Raven Queen, I'd Have Two Nickels - Which Isn't A Lot, But It's Weird That It's Happened Twice. (and by that I mean I would love for Arrnodel and Vax to meet.) EDIT: also a Two Nickels moment with Arrnodel and Fjord both being unwitting warlocks in pacts with a fuck-off giant snake patron and then end up changing patrons as a major part of their character arc.

Just... the insanity (and destruction) that would happen as a result of the Fate Maidens meeting The Mighty Nein, given that one of the M9's bffs is a Drow, and. Y'know. Everything with Kara.

Building off of this - adding Valerius and/or Gidget to Caleb and Essek and Veth's magic experiments and Wizard Hubris™.

I've only watched one episode of Favour so far, but I know for a fact that Aoife and Fearne would adore each other. Also maybe low-key distant relatives? ��👀👀

(Okay full disclosure this is just me taking my faves from each campaign and smooshing them together) But like I think that Keyleth and Sawyeh would have so much to talk about?? Like both of them being the youngest in their respective groups and having these expectations placed on their shoulders, and their respective elemental ties and how they feel about using those powers and their relationships with each particular element (Sawyeh generally being more drawn to fire on her own and water because of Persana [I still don't know how to spell the water elemental's name lol], and Keyleth being drawn more to air and earth [plus fire when she's pissed]). Plus throw Caduceus into the mix for some tea and meditation and growing up in an isolated religious/spiritual centre, and.... I'm gonna cut myself off here. 😅

HANG ON I JUST THOUGHT OF. PARALLELS. Rem/Isolde vs Allura/Kima???? Powerful WLW political leaders who are supporters of the party, one of whom is stabby and take-action and the other is a spell-caster and more cautious???? Is this something???? (I vote yes 🖤❤️🤍 💙💛🤎)

Also speaking of parallels - Ranna and Dorian? Enough said.

[chase-the-music]

Hello everyone! If you're here to watch me be unhinged about Ghost and make shitposts that tickle you internally you're in the right place!

I'm Chase, 34, any pronouns but mostly go by they/them, and this is my music-related sideblog! My main is @masschase so any likes or follows from there are me! I'm a writer, artist and roleplayer and singer, though I don't post my music at present. This isn't a dedicated nsfw blog but there is 18+ content. This blog is pretty disorganised at the moment but here's a quick guide to what I post, my tags etc.!

GENERAL:

My art is under #chase art tag when I remember and my writing is under #chase fic tag. Sometimes I post on other accounts and reblog here like when I was doing an October challenge.

GHOST:

I like to explore the lore of the fictional side of the band, the Ministry and so on so a lot of my posts are around that!

All my Ghost-related work on AO3 is here.

All my original Ghost posts go under #chase ghost tag, then I have tags for the ghouls, the papas, me being horny about the papas, and shitposts, I'll put all at the bottom. I also have Ghost OCs:

Cadence Valerio, Advocatus Angeli ⵜ⸸ Reference sheet here. ⵜ⸸ Ask blog: @ask-the-advocatus ⵜ⸸ All Cade content: #ghost oc: cadence valerio ⵜ⸸ Ship content with @nocturnal-bishop's OC Bishop Dante: #ghotp: dance (dante x cadence) ⵜ⸸ Full list of fics featuring Cade in chronological order here (most are to do with the above ship)

Smoke Ghoulette ⛧ Reference sheet hopefully soon! Her basic info is on this doodle. ⛧ All Smoke content: #ghost oc: smoke ghoulette

I don't have much content for my 3 other OCs Vigor(Ghoul- drummer, pyrotechnics, retired), Cody De Souza("Ghoadie"- the band's roadie) and Fragor(not sure if he's Ghoul or half-Ghoul, pyrotechnics) but I will eventually!

GORILLAZ:

Any lore/original posts to do with Gorillaz go under #chase gorillaz tag, shitposts/jokey stuff under #shitpostmachine, and I also have an OC who comes into the storyline from Phase 3/Plastic Beach onward:

Aoife Tūwhare ⋆༘ I should be getting a basic lore post and/or ref sheet up soon! ⋆༘ All Aoife content under #gorillaz oc: aoife tūwhare ⋆༘ Planning to put any ship content I make with 2-D and Aoife under #2deef

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE:

I don't post as much MCR stuff but I do have OCs! All original MCR posts under #chase mcr tag, shitposts under #planetary(go)sting, posts about my main Killjoy OC Sudden Dischord/Melody May will eventually go under #mcr killjoy oc: sudden dischord

All other music/band content I tend to just tag as appropriate! I'm still in the process of re-tagging older stuff.

[inquisimer]

Happy Friday! For DADWC: ‘Why must I be the one to hide?’ for the characters of your choosing?

happy happy friday <3 dusting off this prompt from who knows how long ago to share a bit of a newish OC who's going to feature in a ~secrit~ project I'm working on uwu

Tamsyn is an elven rogue who lives in Denerim and co-leads the rogue's guild from those side quests in DAO!

for @dadrunkwriting

~~~

Working the Denerim Market is something of a dance, and Tamsyn considers herself an expert.

Mick has taken some more seasoned recruits for a run at one of the vacated estates nearby. Without a Landsmeet convening, most nobles keep only a skeleton crew of servants on staff and most of those have deals with the Guild to look the other way while locks are picked and traps disabled. And the few that don’t—well, sneaking improves much faster when there are stakes to being discovered.

That leaves Tamsyn alone with the freshest bunch of recruits. A little over half the group once belonged to other guilds or freelanced and migrated to Denerim as word of their success spread; the remainder are a motley mix of kids—mostly elves—that Tamsyn herself had scooped off the streets. Left to the gutter by a society that couldn’t be bothered and was just waiting for them to screw up to justify the moral high horse.

They didn’t see what Tamsyn sees. She sees potential.

“The District is primarily human, at least the section we’ll be in today,” she tells them. One of their youngest recruits, a slip of an elfkit, is perched on a stool in front of her, rocking slightly on the balls of her feet as Tamsyn twists her hair into a simple plait. “Humans see pointed ears and expect a servant. Give them what they expect and they won’t waste the effort to look any closer.”

She taps the girl’s shoulder and hands her an apron that matches the one Tamsyn is already wearing. Her own scarred face is a slightly harder sell as a servant, but the day is overcast and the marks carved into her skin are less noticeable without the sun.

The other recruits are similarly dressed and looking an appropriate mix of nervous and excited. Tamsyn passes baskets to each of them in turn.

“The only people that doesn’t apply to are the guards. To shake their suspicion, you’ll need to establish what you’re in the Market to do—browse a shop, ask the stall tender questions, drop the name of your lord or lady. All of these things will legitimize you and like the others, they’ll move on to watching someone more suspicious.”

It isn’t the first time they’ve heard these things, but a bit of a refresher is always a confidence booster. It isn’t the first time she’s taken a batch of recruits on a training run, either. She hands off the last basket and gives each recruit a once over.

“Your picks are showing, Callum,” she says, smiling to ease the correction. The gangly boy flushes red anyway and scrambles to adjust his belt so his lock picks are properly concealed by his billowy tunic. “Good, better. Alright” —Tamsyn clasps her hands in front of her chest— “who wants to review the plan for me?”

“Oo, oo, me!!” Laurel’s pigtail plaits bounce against her shoulders in her eagerness. Tamsyn nods.

“Me and Cal are going ‘round the perimeter—I’m actin’ his servant, so I’ll have both baskets. We’re nabbin’ trinkets, stuff that can be flipped or melted down.”

She pauses and glances up at Tamsyn for approval. When she gets it, her smile multiplies and she continues on, lisping slightly against her teeth. “Rudy an’ Boyd are with you at the middle shops, goin’ after that stuffy bitch who—“

“Laurel!”

“—talks all funny. What?” She looks immediately defensive but relaxes when she sees that Tamsyn’s objection isn’t in anger, but amused surprise. “I heard you tell Mick tha’s what she is!”

“Quite right you are.” Tamsyn reaches out and tugs the end of one of Laurel’s braids. “Finish it off?”

“Oh—right! And Aoife will be under Gorim’s stall in case we need a quick distraction.”

The youngest recruit has donned her apron and now she pouts, folding her arms over her chest and dropping her chin against her chest. “Why must I be the distraction? I wanna do something important.”

Quick as a fennec, Tamsyn drops to one knee. At this angle, with Aoife perched once more on her stool, she has to tilt her chin back slightly to meet the girl’s eyes. She holds out a hand, palm up, for Aoife to trace in the way she knows is comforting.

“Why don’t you think your job is important?”

“I’m just hiding,” she mumbles. “And maybe running. None o’ the special stuff we practiced.”

“That’s true. But it’s still important.” Tamsyn folds her fingers around Aoife’s much smaller hand and squeezes. “I’ve done this a lot, and it’s much easier to be relaxed if I’m sure there’s someone waiting and ready to help us get away safely. And if I’m more relaxed, I’m less likely to get caught.”

Aoife snifles. “Like…me and sissy used to climb the Vhenadahl, but she’d only go really high if Soris was there. Like that?”

“Exactly. And we all have different things we do well, right? Like I’m pretty good at untangling knots. And Boyd is really good at reaching things without a stool.”

Aoife nods.

“So when we work together, we give everybody a job that suits them. Do you know why I asked you to be our distraction?”

She shakes her head and Tamsyn smiles, leaning in like she’s sharing a deep, wise secret. “Because the stall where you’re hiding belongs to a dwarf. So it’s extra short. But you’re small and fast, which means you’re perfect for that job.”

Aoife’s lips part in a perfect, surprised o and then she lights up like candles in a Chantry. “My sissy always told me being small was bad, but this time it’s good!”

“It’s always going to be good,” Tamsyn corrects gently, nicking the end of Aoife’s nose with one finger. “We’ll make sure of it.”

She straightens and grins around at the rough ensemble. “Ready, then?”

A chorus of nods, apprehensive but mostly eager, meet her words.

“Alright. Let’s head out.”

[nerd-party]

ill try to answer them all:

genevieve, and I like it!

Yep! I can't draw but I do acting and singing

Yes unfortunately

be on stage as a job

Will Campos waved at me once

not right now, my legs are too fucked

being overlooked: seen but ignored for someone else who is just as good/worse than me

Barret Wilbert weed

I can sing, do card tricks, and I can walk incredibly quietly (ninja style)

absolutely fucking not, just TRY waking me up before 10am at the weekend

Only for bf/gfs but I am down for a nickname

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA YES

I don't watch shows so I'll list one show and movies: good omens, red white and royal blue, the princes bride

not really lol

Me and my friends from all across my friend groups sitting in an oak tree eighty feet high, smoking weed and passing round a bottle of wine that never emptied. We watched the snow fall and the sun rise and it was literally perfect.

nope

nope again

nope x3

unfortunately I am a social butterfly but I wish I could just be on my own sometimes fr

yep! Never used to be but I guess I'm popular now

bite my nails

I always forget I have mascara on so I rub my eyes and I look stupid- I feel open to attack.

Jon if it's a boy, Elisa if it's a girl, and backup name of Ollie/Yasmin/Jasmine

dont have one but DAMN Andrew Garfield fine

music

Dogs but I do love cats

Literally tumbles my only social. I guess ao3?

@valkzzheart

brother, sister, mum, dad. Pretty standard shit

chocolate 🤤

Yep!

YES I LOVE ROLLERCOASTERS

yep, quite well

I have a. DETAILED PLAN. if y'all want me to tell it exactly lmk and I'll divulge my master plan.

yes, a few

Yep!

Pink/blue!

England!!! TOP BINS MATE OAYYYY

Any musical theatre artist!! Or Conan Gray

yes!! It's a big dream of mine but I don't wanna be super famous

Yes I love dresses but I wish it was warmer where I live so I can wear them more

popular from wicked / astronomy by Conan Gray

talking about it in person yes (especially with parents) online no, actually doing it would be a no

like 12?

Yes I do it all the time, Im in a shooting club

Nope!!

i love horror!!

According to my friends yes and I think I'm good too

one time I got really mad at my parents because I was sent away from the dinner table in my old home so I went upstairs and flushed a whole toilet roll down the bog

pretty exhausted

Yes I was actually

i never used to be able to dance but I can now

Biting my nails again

Yes!! I bleached it just so I could dye it

Blue

ferret

Onstage once yeah but it wasn't my fault (mic cut out, I got made fun of)

Yes!

lots!

My main friend group is GAE 🏳️‍🌈

drama

None

sometimes? It varies

pet sematary (1989) FANTASTIC

Not on TV but in podcasting: Normally 'Ly Oak-Swallows-Garcia-Li-Wilson-Marlowe-Swift-The-Unworthy is just like me fr

need to be at the top and extreme competitiveness I force myself not to think about, plus my extreme feelings about fairness

hiking the mountains and going around the world to beautiful places

If I would never die I would start committing crimes

singing aloud onstage and around the house to practice

who I became friends with would change ASAP and my class too

yes absolutely

Late October

My room with all my DND stuff

Did my singing competition auditions!!

an astrophysicist

A stable career and a consistent home life

I usually speak up, I don't think I have a moment like this

I have to get better at everything.

I feel like that already with how many extracurriculars I'm doing bruh 😭

seeing the sights bro

Houses for me and my friends/family, stable education funds for me, my friends, my kids, my family and all our kids. Keep people safe from bankruptcy

The past, instantly. Live in the 80s and 70s forever

a love of acting and helping others

same one from earlier- hanging with the boys committing crimes!!

The woods would be nice but if get bored. The city

Nope. There's no afterlife. It just ends.

my year 6 teacher was the GOAT

playing Lego with my friend from nursery, Aoife.

Einstein so I can get his last words

I don't really know yet. I've laughed so hard I've cried but it's not the same

that some people are gonna think others are better than you and you just have to deal with that. Favoritism is everywhere and fairness is irrelevant.

Nothing.

kill some people probably /hj

run away/defy authority unfortunately

yes, because no matter what people say, looks matter especially early in life. If youre pretty at school you aren't bullied and people like you. I want to give my kid the best chance. (not saying this is a good thing, I hate this but it's the truth)

idk just kinda happened one day

impending doom and my immense hopelessness and just. General sense of emptiness and failure.

exist.

hey that wasnt 100 you skipped 2!!

100 Questions!

Thought these might be fun? Ask me some and I’ll try(I can’t promise) to get something up for you later! these questions aren’t my own

1. What’s your middle name, and do you like it? 2. are you artistic? 3. Have you had your first kiss? 4. What is your life goal? 5. Do you have any expieriences with a famous person? 6. Do you play any sports? 7. What’s your worst fear? 8. Who’s your biggest inspiration? 9. Do you have any cool talents? 10. are you a morning person? 11. How do you feel about pet names? 12. Do you like to read? 13. Name a list of shows that have changed your life. 14. Do you care about your follower count? 15. What’s the best dream you’ve had? 16. Have you ever kissed someone of your same gender? 17. Do you have any pets? 18. Are you religious? 19. Are you a people person? 20. Are you considered popular? 21. What is one of your bad habits? 22. What’s something that makes you feel vulnerable 23. What would you name your children? 24. Who’s your celebrity crush? 25. What’s your best subject? 26. Dogs or cats? 27. most used social media besides tumblr? 28. best friends name 29. who does your main family consist of 30. Chocolate or sugar 31. have you ever been on a date? 32. Do you like rollercosters? 33. Can you swim? 34. What would you do in the event of an apocolypse? 35. Have you struggled with any kind of mental disorder 36. Are your parents together? 37. What’s your favourite colour? 38. What country are you from/do you live in? 39. Favourite singer? 40. Do you see yourself being famous some day? 41. Do you like dresses? 42. Favourite song right now? 43. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable? 44. How old were you when you first got your period? 45. Have you ever shot a gun? 46. Have you ever done yoga? 47. Are you a horror girl? 48. Are you good at giving advice? 49. Tell us a story about your childhood. 50. How are you doing today? 51. Were you a cute kid? 52. Can you dance? 53. Is there anything you do that you can’t remember ever not doing? 54. Have you ever dyed your hair? 55. What colour are your eyes? 56. What’s your favourite animal? 57. Have you ever made a huge fool of yourself? 58. Do you have a good relationship with your parents? 59. Do you have good friends? 60. Are you close with anyone of the lgbtq+ group? 61. What’s your favourite class? 62. List all the tv shows you are watching. 63. Are you organized? 64. What was the last movie you saw? Opinion? 67. Which tv character do you relate to most? 68. What are some things that stand between you and complete happiness? 69. If you received enough money to never need to work again, what would you spend your time doing? 70. What would you change about your life if you knew you would never die? 71. What would you do differently if you knew that no one was judging you? 72. If you could start over, what would you do differently? 73. Would you break the law to save a loved one? 74. When was the last time you travelled somewhere new? 75. When you think of your home, what immediately comes to mind? 76. What have you done to pursue your dreams lately? How about today? 77. What did you want to be when you were a kid? 78. If you dropped everything to pursue your dreams, what would you be risking? 79.When did you not speak up, when you know you really should have? 80. Describe the next five years of your life, and your plans, in a single sentence 81. What would happen if you never wasted another minute of your life, what would that look like? 82. If you could live forever, how would you spend eternity? 83. How would you spend a billion dollars? 84. If you could time travel, would you go to the past or the future? 85. What motivates you to succeed? 86. What dream that you’ve had has resonated with you the most? 87. Would you rather live in the city or the woods? Why? 88. Do you believe in life after death 89. What teacher inspired you the most? How did they? 90. What’s your fondest childhood memory? 91. If you could have dinner with any one person, living or dead, who would they be and why? 92. What would you have to see to cry tears of joy? 93. What is the hardest lesson you had to learn in life? 94. What do you think happens after we die? 95. What would you do if you would be invisible? 96. What’s something you can’t do no matter how hard you try? 97. Would you want to choose the sex and appearance of your offspring? 98. How did your first crush develop? 99. Is there a feeling you are trying to ignore? What is it? 100. Do you live or do you just exist?

[black-cat-aoife]

Moritz und Bibi full length rap video wann?

[crystalninjaphoenix]

Exhaustion and Planning

Switch AU

A JSE Fanfic

A shorter chapter this week, partly because I was busy with family stuff for the holiday, and partly because it's basically just one long scene following up on the escape of last time. Everyone rests up in a hotel room, talking about what happened and what to do next. And yeah. They discuss Marvin's cards, Distorter and IRIS, and then decide to take the rest of the day off. Short but sweet. Enjoy!

More of This AU | | First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Read on AO3 under CrystalNinjaPhoenix

———————

JJ woke up somewhere... different. He could tell right away that he wasn’t in that awful room in IRIS. The mattress and sheets were softer, though still a bit stiff, and the light wasn’t that artificial white but instead a soft natural sunlight. He didn’t wake up right away. He was so, so tired. Despite hearing some voices around him, he decided it was better to drift off and rest some more. He didn’t feel any fear in this place. He felt... safe.

But he did wake up eventually, opening his eyes and looking around. This was a hotel room. He could tell right away, mostly by the thick curtains and a generic picture of a plant on the wall. He rolled over, still feeling exhaustion pulling at him, and looked at the rest of the room.

The place was packed. Marvin sat at a desk, shuffling his cards, Schneep and Jackie were relaxing on a second bed in the room, Anti had claimed an armchair and was fidgeting idly, and the other four who’d come for the rescue—Jack, Stacy, Rama, and Aoife—had piled onto a sofa and were playing a game with a normal pair of cards. Jackie was the first to notice JJ looking at them. He gasped, sitting up straight. “JJ! You’re awake!”

“Hah?!” Marvin spun to look at him. “Jems! Oh t’ank fucking god. W-we were so worried, wit’ the fever an’ the—the strange magic t’ing you did—A-are you alright? How d’you feel?”

JJ pushed himself upright, leaning back against the headboard of the bed. Tired, he said.

“Do you remember what happened?” Anti asked, leaning close.

...bits and pieces, JJ said slowly. There was... I made things... cold?

“It was amazing to see,” Schneep said. “When we explained it to Aoife, she said she’s never seen anything like it.”

Hello, Aoife, by the way, Jameson said, leaning forward to see her.

“Hi.” Aoife smiled. “I’m... probably going to have to leave soon. I have work.”

Anti laughed. “I can’t believe that you’re worried about work after getting knocked unconscious by fucking... crazy science people.”

“The ABIM stops for nobody,” Aoife said. “And I think... I think I should let the Magi know about IRIS. Maybe we can do something about them. It, uh... wouldn’t be good if they found out too much about us. I just know that they’d be too excited to examine magic.”

JJ shuddered. For a split second, he was no longer in the hotel bed, he was in a small metal room with a glass window, feeling his magic be pulled out of him against his will, feeling it shift and do things he didn’t want—

And then he was back.

“Jems?” Marvin asked quietly.

I’m fine, Jameson said.

“You are not,” Schneep stated. “But... none of us are. I-I know I am not.” He idly ran his finger along the side of his hand, where the scar remained. “So... let’s not pretend, yes?”

Jackie sighed. He pulled his legs close to him. “We all need so much help. But... I don’t think we can get it yet. We’re still hiding from IRIS.”

Yes, I was wondering, where are we? JJ asked.

“Hotel room in the city of Bellanathy,” Rama explained.”Big one. A suite.”

We’re not going back to Mirygale? Well... I suppose that IRIS would be expecting us to go there. What about the kids?

“I asked about them,” Anti said. “Rama apparently warned the babysitter ahead of time that she might have to stay overnight. So they just called her again and told her that yes, she’ll have to watch the kids for a bit.” He paused. “I... I-I hope that we can see them soon. We’re still... debating going to get them...”

JJ nodded slowly. He stared up at the ceiling. He was still very tired. All his limbs felt weak, like he’d been doing some intense exercises. Like he’d been running rehearsal for a show all day. God... doing rehearsals felt like a whole different world. He wondered if his crew was worried about him. Darla probably would be.

“Well, now that you’re awake, we should go get some food,” Jack said, standing up. Sam flew out of his pocket and landed on his shoulder. “You’re all probably really hungry.”

“Oh fuck yeah, I would kill for... most foods, actually,” Anti said. “Fast food, homemade food, anything that’s not a sandwich. Mm... we should get tacos. Oh no, curry. Oh no, sushi. Mm. Fuck yeah, sushi.”

“You know that we’ll probably be getting takeout, right?” Stacy said. “And you know that takeout sushi is, uh... less reliable than most other forms of sushi?”

“I don’t care. I’ll take food poisoning if it tastes good.”

“Well, if there’s germs, it won’t taste good.”

“I’ve never had sushi,” Marvin said. “Is it really all t’at great?”

“Celebration sushi!” Anti put his hand in the air. “I declare that we’ll have some fucking celebration sushi, if not today, then in the future at some point.”

Schneep suddenly laughed. The others all looked at him, and he shook his head. “I-I am so sorry, it is just... it is so good to have a discussion about food after the past... however long that was.”

“About a week and a half,” Rama said quietly.

“...that wasn’t as long as I thought it was, honestly,” Jackie said. “But still way too long.”

JJ went pale. It was only a week? They were only gone for a bit over a week? 

“...anyway, food!” Jack said. “I don’t think there are any sushi places around? At least nowhere that does takeout. And there’s a lot of us, so we’ll probably have to go somewhere cheap. Any requests?”

A short debate later, the group decided on a combination of Chinese food and burgers and fries, depending on who wanted to go get what. Stacy volunteered to go get some, as one of the few people who could drive in the group. When Rama halfheartedly suggested they go instead, Stacy insisted that Jackie needed them, and went out with a list of everyone’s orders to grab.

Everyone else shifted around. Rama and Jackie claimed one of the beds and immediately latched onto each other, cuddling quietly. Anti and Schneep moved over to the sofa with Jack where the three of them started debating whether or not to watch something. Aoife took the armchair, content to fade into the corner. And Marvin pushed the rolling office chair over to the side of the bed JJ was still lying in. “...how are you, Jems?” he asked quietly.

Very tired, JJ repeated. I have no idea what that was back there... 

“Me neither,” Marvin said. “But it was incredible.” He smiled. “You really saved us back t’ere, Jems. I don’ t’ink we would’ve gotten out of t’ere without you... at least not all of us. At least not unharmed.”

I don’t know what their plan was, really, JJ said. Maybe it wasn’t a good plan in the first place.

“Well... I s’pose it’s hard to come up wit’ a plan for somet’ing like t’is.” Marvin sighed. “Hey... Jems? I t’ink... I-I t’ink we had more help. Besides Jack and the others.”

JJ tilted his head to the side, curious. From who?

“I don’ know...” Marvin said slowly. “But t’is strange figure came into my room and... gave me a deck of my cards.” He held up his cards, fanning them out. “Not t’is one. But... on t’at was identical to it. I used the deck to escape, and I found where my cards were bein’ kept, and... they were the same cards. And when I saw them together... I knew what was goin’ on. I don’... know if I can properly explain it, but... Time. Time.”

Time? JJ asked.

Marvin plucked out two of the cards and passed them to JJ. “Look at the Xs,” he said.

JJ turned the cards so he was looking at the back. These were the joker cards. He brought them close to his face, squinting at the X part of the rune on the back... wait a minute. Something was different. Something about the foil...

“You see it, huh?” Marvin said, watching Jameson’s eyes widen. “The runes were sabotaged. Probably by Distorter. Once I realized t’at, I knew what the cards coul’ do. They’re time runes, Jems. I figured out how to use them to pause time for a moment to unlock all the doors on the floor. And I t’ink... I t’ink t’at figure was from the future, maybe. They brought me a set of my cards from the future so I coul’ get out.”

Jameson raised his hands to sign... but he was at a loss for words, completely shocked at what Marvin was telling him. In the end, all he could say was, What happened to the cards from the future?

“I have no idea,” Marvin said. “We left them in IRIS. Hopefully t’at figure picked them up again.”

And hopefully IRIS didn’t find them instead, JJ said, shuddering.

“In any case... I get why Distorter didn’ want me to have t’ese cards,” Marvin said quietly. “Imagine if I coul’ figure out how to go back in time... undo what he’s done. Bring back the people who’ve disappeared and died.”

I think there would be consequences for undoing so much time, JJ said. But... I agree. Time magic is incredibly powerful. He inhaled sharply. That must be why the black crystal ball has a bunch of time magic in it. I don’t know if it ever came in contact with your cards, though? In fact... I’m sure it didn’t. But... it has to be related, right?

“Maybe me bein’ from out of time, I have some of t’at time magic stuck on me,” Marvin mumbled. He went quiet for a moment, but JJ could tell something was troubling him. He reached over and nudged him gently, and Marvin took a deep breath. “Jems. The reason I... the reason I’m here. In t’is time. It’s... my own fault.”

JJ blinked. What do you mean?

“I-I was tryin’ to get somewhere, and—and I messed wit’ the time rune cards, and—and next t’ing I knew, I was in the future. I... sent myself right into Distorter’s hands.” Marvin laughed darkly. “It’s all my own fault.”

JJ shook his head. It sounds like it was an accident. If it’s an accident, no one’s at fault. 

“I know... but it’s... it’s funny, isn’ it?” Marvin said.

And Distorter didn’t need to grab you right away. He just did that. Because he sucks. And it’s bad luck you appeared in the future near where Distorter was.

Marvin laughed. “He does indeed suck, hm?” Marvin took his joker cards back and shuffled them into the deck again.

Jameson continued to stare at him. It’s not your fault, Marvin. None of this future business is. Don’t think too hard on it. You can’t dwell on the past.

“It’s hard not to, t’ough, hm?” Marvin mused. “Don’ tell me you’ve never dwelled on the past.”

Of course I have. In fact... I think many years in the future, I’ll still be dwelling on this IRIS situation. But the point is... JJ paused. The point is you have to be kind to yourself. I don’t want you to beat yourself up about this. It was a mistake and bad luck. You didn’t know that you'd be sent to the future. Much less that Distorter would be here when you arrived.

Marvin was quiet for a moment. “Part of me says t’at if I hadn’ made the stupid decision to mess wit’ the time cards, none of t’is would’ve happened.”

Maybe none of it would’ve happened to you, but how were you to know that? JJ asked. And I bet that Distorter and IRIS still would’ve messed with the rest of us. And... maybe it’s selfish of me, but... I’m happy you arrived here.

Marvin started, then looked at Jameson and smiled. “T’anks, Jems. I’m... I’m happy I’m here, too. T’is is a good time period. Maybe my life would’ve been very different if I’d never arrived. But... you’re right. We can’ dwell on the past. Even if I coul’ undo the mistake t’at brought me here, I don’ know if I woul’. Because it woul’ mean never meeting you.”

JJ smiled. Tears were welling in his eyes. That’s very sweet, Marvin. Thank you.

“O’ course.” Marvin smiled back. He leaned back in his chair and sighed. “Now I jus’ wonder abou’ t’at figure from the future.”

“Sorry, what?” Anti leaned over. There’d been a lull in the movie debate. The three of them had made a decision on what to watch (some dull action movie he’d never heard of) and they’d gone quiet while they looked for it on the hotel’s streaming TV. Just quiet enough for him to hear that. “A figure from the future?”

“Oh... yeah, I told ye all abou’ the figure who’d given me a second pair of cards,” Marvin said. “But Jems was asleep during t’at so I was jus’ catchin’ him up.”

“You didn’t mention the figure was from the future,” Anti said.

“Well... t’at’s only a guess, honestly.”

Anti frowned. “You know... there was one, uh... person? Who was sorta looking out for me. I didn’t actually tell you all during the fill-in on the car ride... but I called them Whisper. They were there the first time I was caught by IRIS, too.”

Jack perked up. “Whisper? That same person came to me. They were sort of a... vague shape of a person.”

“Really? I never saw them. I only heard their voice, and it was really... weird-sounding.”

“This Whisper person told us where the compound was,” Rama piped up, joining the conversation.

“That they did,” Jack said.

“...Whisper said to keep an eye on Jackson during the escape,” Anti said. “They told me when the escape would be happening, and to watch out for him. And... Jackson ended up being the one to get us out, but at the cost of, uh... fainting.”

Marvin’s eyes widened. “So... you’re sayin’ t’at the figure who gave me the cards might’ve been Whisper?”

“I didn’t put the pieces together on the car ride, but now that we’re a bit, uh, safer? I guess? Now that we’re safer, I think my brain is processing stuff better, and I think... that’s it.”

“Whisper is from the future...” Jack whispered in awe. “And... they’re helping us?”

Schneep frowned. “Perhaps Whisper is one of us.”

“Maybe,” Anti said slowly. “But... we’ve never seen them. And their voice is fucking... hard to describe. But not like how Distorter’s is hard to describe. My point is, we don’t know anything about them other than that they’re probably helping us. Probably.” His eyes narrow a bit in thought.

Marvin also looked thoughtful... but his eyes widened instead, not full of suspicion like Anti’s... but dawning realization. He looked at the cards in his hand. No... surely not...

Then the hotel door opened. Then shut. “Damn it!” Stacy cursed. “A little help?”

Jackie got up. “Hang on, we got you.”

Stacy had returned with the food. She piled it onto every surface. Mainly the coffee table, but also the desk, and the tiny table by the armchair. “I’m sorry if some of this stuff isn’t neatly stacked inside the bags or is a bit squished,” she said. “I didn’t want to do multiple trips or drop any so I carried it all up in a death grip.”

Anti laughed. “As long as it tastes good, I don’t think any of us care.”

It was at this point that Aoife had to go. “I don’t know if I’ll go back to Mirygale, but don’t worry, the ABIM has places for magicians to stay in just about every city,” she said. “If any of you ever need shelter, contact me, okay?”

Thank you so much Aoife, JJ said. Sincerely.

Aoife smiled. “It was no problem.”

“Well—I think there were a lot of problems,” Anti said.

“You know what I mean. Call me if you need help, Jameson, okay? You remember my number?” She waited for JJ to nod. “Alright. I’ll see you around sometime, then.” And with that, she left the hotel room.

The others all settled down to eat, the room silent except for the sound of rustling paper and plastic utensils. Soon, the food was all gone, as everyone absolutely devoured their meals. “Thanks for getting that, Stacy,” Rama said.

“Yeah, thanks.” Jackie nodded.

“It was no problem,” Stacy said, smiling.

“Alright... so.” Jack set his empty bowl aside. “...what do we do now? IRIS is going to remember all our faces. Even Rama, Stacy, and me. I-I know Aoife has the ABIM to back her up, so... should we go to them for help? Most of us aren’t magic.”

Schneep shook his head. “I... I-I am not sure. If the magicians are willing to help, I would accept it. But we cannot rely on them forever. I... I-I am tired of living in hiding.”

“Well we’d be doing that even if IRIS wasn’t a problem,” Anti said. “Distorter is still after us. We have to take care of him.”

Jackie shuddered. “I agree, but... how?”

“I don’t know. But he’s the bigger problem.” Anti folded his arms. “He got into an IRIS facility to grab me. He’ll break in again if he has to. IRIS can’t stop him.”

“Well t’at’s a bleak idea,” Marvin muttered.

“He’s right, though,” Jackie said quietly. “I don’t think IRIS is prepared for him. They told me they were working on ways to stop him, a-and I do believe that, but... I don’t think any of their ideas are... developed enough.”

“We cannot fight Distorter while we are being hunted, though,” Schneep argued. “I-I do not want to go back there! They want me to be some sort of—of super soldier for them. I-I cannot do that! I can’t!”

Anti hesitated, then reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. “I get that. I really do. But... they’re both relentless. And out of the two of them, I think... I think Distorter is the bigger threat.”

“You think that a single guy is a bigger threat than a whole organization?” Stacy asked doubtfully.

IRIS is going to be actively searching for us! JJ said. They found us in a hospital! They kidnapped us! They did— His hands shook. They did terrible things. 

“And you think Distorter couldn’t do all that, too?” Anti asked. He looked at Jackie and Marvin. “We know he’s willing and able to grab people.”

Marvin went pale. “Ah... t’at’s true, Anti, but... I don’ want to t’ink about t’at right now.”

“We have to think about it,” Anti insisted. “He’s not going to leave us alone. Just because he didn’t come get us while we were stuck in IRIS doesn’t mean he’s decided to forget about us.”

“Why are you being so insistent, Anti?” Jackie asked. “Doesn’t it just make sense that we deal with the organization first?”

“I don’t know if it does,” Anti said. “IRIS wants to learn more about Distorter. That’s why they kidnapped us—well, some of us. I think they had different plans for Volt and Jackson.”

“So you think that if we take care of Distorter IRIS will leave us alone?” Schneep asked, raising an eyebrow. “That won’t change this, Anti!” He leaned over and grabbed a floor lamp, pulsing with enough electricity to make the lightbulb flicker. “They’ll still be after me, and I’m willing to bet they will still be after all of you, as well! After all, what if we leaked information about their organization? They cannot afford the world finding out about their most terrible actions. They will want to take care of us, of the loose ends.”

“I know that!” Anti snapped. “But for all IRIS can do, they can’t affect our most important part.” He tapped the side of his head. “Our minds.”

“Oh thank god, I thought you were about to say something really immature,” Jack laughed.

“Jack, I care about you, this isn’t the time,” Anti said.

“You care about me?” Jack repeated, touched.

“I do, but again—not the time.” Anti stood up and walked to the center of the hotel room. “Think about it. As much as IRIS can do, they can’t physically control us. They can fuck with us psychologically, make our brains feel terrible, but they can’t make us their puppets. Distorter can. And unlike IRIS, we can’t look out for him. He can slip right in without us noticing. For all we know, he could be in this hotel room right now.”

Schneep looked around. “He is not.”

“How do you know?”

“Ah... I suppose we had no time to talk about it after you woke up,” Schneep said. “IRIS has fucked with my brain and body... but at least I am now immune to Distorter’s illusions.”

Anti blinked. “Man... I’m so fucking sorry, Schneep.”

Schneep smiled slightly. “Thank you.”

“Yeah...” Anti took a deep breath. “Well... Volt can’t be everywhere at once all of the time. Even if we stick together, you need to sleep, Schneep. And then Distorter could sneak in.”

“Isn’t that a bit paranoid?” Rama said tentatively.

“Maybe. But you get my point.”

I think IRIS also deserves some paranoia, JJ said. We can’t watch out for THEM all the time, either.

“Yes, but Distorter isn’t just going to kidnap us, he wants some of us dead,” Anti emphasized. “For all of IRIS’s evil fucking shit, I don’t think they wanted to kill us. At worst, they thought it didn’t matter if we died. Distorter actively wants at least three of us to pass away, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen—including controlling some of us to hurt the others.” He swallowed a lump in his throat. “That’s what he wanted me to do. He wanted me to kill you... and know that I did it.”

“Oh my god...” Stacy breathed. “That’s horrible.”

“Exactly.” Anti folded his arms behind his back and started walking back and forth in the small amount of clear ground in the crowded room. “IRIS is this fucking... dispassionate science organization, but Distorter’s beef with us is personal. And I think that’s worse. Because he won’t only hurt us, he’ll make sure it’s—it’s—agonizing.” Anti stopped walking. “We won’t just die, we’ll scream as we go.”

“He doesn’t want all of us dead,” Jackie said quietly.

“And? Is that fucking better?” Anti asked, matching Jackie’s volume but seething with anger instead. “Here’s a thing. If Distorter has taken a lot of other people to be his ‘friend’ over the years, where are they? Where did they go?”

Marvin shuddered. “I know where...” He whispered. “I remember sometimes... in my nightmares. They jus’... waste away. Until they can’ be of use to him anymore.”

“That’s fucking horrifying,” Rama said, face pale.

“I know,” Marvin continued, eyes distant. “I don’ know why he was more careful wit’ me... Maybe it was fun to have a friend from a different time...”

Anti looked at him, his expression softening. “My point exactly... We don’t want that to happen to you. Or Jackie. Or anyone else.” He took a deep breath. “Which is why Distorter has to be stopped.”

How? JJ asked.

“I—” Anti hesitated. “I don’t fucking know! But he has to be! Because you know what he does? He preys on our weaknesses. He picks at our insecurities and our fucking—our fucking worst thoughts, pulling us apart so he can weave us back together, making us the way he wants us to be. We can’t live like that! I know I’m fucking done with that. I’m not going to let his tricks work on me anymore. Because you know what? I’m not perfect. I’ve done some terrible shit in the past. Jackie knows all about it. He knows that Distorter trapped me in those moments. But those moments are in the past. I-I’m doing better. For Will. For you guys. And for myself.” Anti shook his head. “I’m not going to let that bastard take that away from me.”

There was silence for a moment. Then Jackie leaned forward. “I think you’re right, Aodhán,” he said quietly. Anti tensed for a split second at the sound of his name, then let out a breath and relaxed. Jackie continued. “We can’t let Distorter toy with us for any longer. H-he’s been doing this for years. But... I-I don’t know how we’ll stop him. He’s... he seems indestructible.”

“He is not,” Schneep said firmly. “I think—I think that electricity will stun him for a while.” He looked at his hands, flexing them. “But that is only a temporary solution... we need a permanent one.”

“Maybe we can trap him somewhere?” Stacy suggested. “I-I’m willing to be bait again.”

“We don’ know how long he’ll fall for t’at,” Marvin said. He paused, biting his lip. “Maybe... maybe we have to take care of him at the source. Completely uproot the problem instead of tryin’ to snip off the stem.”

What do you mean, Marvin? JJ asked.

“The house,” Marvin said. “T’is all comes from the house on Aspen Street.”

“That... is the main anomaly, according to IRIS,” Jackie said slowly. “What are you saying we should do, though?”

“I... don’ know.” Marvin shook his head. “But t’at’s where it’s all comin’ from, huh? T’at’s where it all started. T’at’s his domain.”

“I... agree,” Stacy said. “He was a normal man, and then something happened in that house. Something that made him do such... horrible things. And then... something that turned him into some sort of undead... mind... monster.”

The house is strange, JJ said. My magic was amplified in there. And everything seemed so... broken. Like there were actually a hundred versions of the house all existing in the same space.

“...interesting way to put it,” Anti said slowly. “I think it’s more like some sort of pocket dimension.”

It can be both, JJ said.

“Look, I agree, the house is probably where we go,” Schneep said. “But we cannot go there while IRIS is fucking hunting us down. If we get anywhere close to Mirygale, they will grab us again. We need to find some way to shake them off.”

“Well do you have any ideas?” Anti asked. “Genuinely. Do any of you have any ideas?”

Silence.

“Maybe... maybe we have to do what Schneep said they were scared of us doing,” Jack said.

“Hah?” Schneep blinked.

“We have to find some way to expose them and all their doings. Like, I know that probably won’t take them down forever. But maybe it’ll drive them out of the country, at least.”

“Long enough for us to deal with Distorter,” Anti said, nodding. “I get where you’re coming from.”

“They will still be back eventually,” Schneep said slowly.

“But it’ll buy us time,” Jackie said. “Time enough to figure out what to do.” He nodded along with Anti. Slow at first, then getting faster. “I-I think it’s our best shot. I mean... there’s no way that my credentials will work after they used me as a ‘subject,’ but we could probably break into a facility again.”

I... don’t think I can do that, JJ signed haltingly. Not... not now. Not... mentally. He shuddered. I think I’d just keel over and cry if someone said I had to.

“Jems,” Marvin said softly. He leaned over next to him, shoulder pressing against him. “No one will tell you to do t’at. Even if the rest of us want t’do t’at, we won’ make you.”

“Yeah,” Jackie said quietly. “We wouldn’t do that to you.” He looked at Schneep. “Or... you, either, if you feel the same.”

Schneep hesitated, then shook his head. “No. I would risk it if it meant getting rid of IRIS.” He laughed darkly. “Honestly there is not much else they can do to me. Physically, I mean. I was... close to ‘complete’ in their eyes.”

“That’s so fucked,” Anti growled.

“Oh I definitely know,” Schneep said. “But the point is... if we have to go back there, I will.”

“Even though they have that disabling signal?” Jackie asked.

“Even though.” Schneep nodded. “But... Jamie. If you cannot do it, you don’t have to.”

Jameson sighed. Thank you. You don’t think you’ll need me?

“We haven’t even come up with a plan yet,” Jackie laughed. “But when we do, we’ll figure something out. I’d rather you be comfortable than forced to do something that freaks you out because we’d ‘need you.’”

“Yeah, if you stress yourself out like that, by knowingly exposing yourself to something that makes you uncomfortable, you’ll just...” Jack paused. “You won’t have access to your full range of thinking. That’s what stress does to you.”

Jameson felt tears in his eyes. Thank you all. He sighed, and leaned back against the pillow. I’m still very tired. Do you all mind if I just... rest?

“Yeah. Get some rest, Jameson,” Anti said quietly. “I think we’ll just... take the rest of the night to rest. A-are we all good with that?”

“O’course.” Marvin nodded. “A lot happened. We’ll jus’... rest.”

And so, they all fell quiet once again. Letting the rest of the day pass.

[temptedfates]

* ✦  ゜。closed starter : for @feralghostwrites pairing : aoife moreira & isabella gusman

walking the aisles of the tiny grocery store , draped over the handlebar of a cart , aoife dragged her feet a little. it was around four in the morning so they were one of the only people in the establishment. the chill from the air conditioning caused goosebumps to rise on her skin and a shiver to periodically run down her spine. straightening , aoife tossed a box of sugary cereal into her cart. after a long night at work , it was sugar and carbs that they wanted to stuff their face with. passing the chocolate bars , aoife discreetly slipped couple into her bra , making use of the fact that the cashier seemed to be zoning out instead of watching her. it wasn't necessarily that they couldn't afford a couple of chocolate bars , more so that they didn't understand why they had to splurge on the overpriced candy. with the amount that she shopped at this particular store , she should practically have an employee discount.

picking up speed a little to combat her boredom and the sleep that was demanding she lay her head down on the floor and pass out , aoife sped the cart around the corner of an aisle , assuming that there was no one on the other side. when the end of the cart rammed into someone , aoife was both shocked and a little annoyed. ❝ fuck , sorry about that , ❞ the words were practically monotone , having only said them because it was expected in a situation like this. dark brown eyes looked up to meet the gaze of the other person who had interrupted her early morning shopping spree. it was the face of the person that made aoife take pause to appreciate their features. while giving them a once over , they leaned over the handle bar once more , not bothering to pick up the items they'd dropped on the ground with their carelessness. ❝ it's four in the morning , don't you think you ought to be home or something ? ❞

[khorren]

Other Aoife! She had a different path entirely. Same mother and father, and her only sibling was a younger brother, who left the homestead to join the Order of Whispers. Homestead is in the same place in a little village of a few other families. A lot of her young life was tending to animals and the farms and going on hunts, all things to keep their little community alive.

Baby Aoife was a strange little creature, her magic not lining up properly to that of her guardian tutor, but still they all soldiered on. Turns out she wasn't a guardian but later found out her magic aligns with that of a Revenant. It didn't really have a name til Rytlock popped out of the mists in Verdant Brink. Neat.

Like Original Aoife, this one also reveres Raven though the family at large still show devotion to Owl, and this Aoife wanted to learn more about Raven. Taking trips to the Priory when it was their family's turn to go trade in Lion's Arch, she would pester the scholars there for any information they had on the Spirit. Events happened blah blah demons blah blah, and she caught the eye of Havroun Weibe. She's very spiritual, but is not averse to just straight up bashing shit in the face if it will get things done. She'll tell you she'll be pragmatic and thoughtful in situations, but honestly, the unga-bunga is strong and she'll just twat shit in the face.

Despite living far away from Hoelbrak, she's attended many moots in her years as her family do like to make the trip over to the more populated parts of Tyria whether for trade or just to be around people in general, norn or otherwise. Because of training she's had with Weibe and also Moda the Quick, she was invited to compete in the Great Moot of 1025 AE and off she went down the path of Commander.

This Aoife doesn't have a guild backing her up, or an army of siblings. But she did make very good friends with a human dude called Sebastian. If non-romantic soulmates are a thing, this is these two guys. They are amazingly in sync and in harmony with each other, though their initial meetings were definitely frosty and borderline hostile. They would die for each other, they would live for each other. But there is absolutely no attraction and both of them have dreams of having their own children with a future partner. But god they're just…. they're lovely you guys. I don't write / develop these two enough, but the stuff I do have, man, they're great.

She mostly follows the path of Canon commander with 2 major exceptions: A lot of human related stuff she hands off to Sebastian. She wasn't involved with becoming a member of the Shining Blade, so she never took any death-oath, and secondly, she wandered off in Bjora to have a little corruption arc going on, so missed a large chunk of what was happening in Drizzlewood too, and Sebastian / Dragon's Watch took care of that. She's got a very strong head on her shoulders, and while Original Aoife relies a lot on the guild, Aoife + Sebastian just do a lot of stuff themselves, calling on Dragon's Watch when needed, but especially after EoD the pair just do a lot of stuff alone. Seb originally got involved with SotO stuff, but mostly stayed with the Astral Ward while Aoife dealt with demons and whatnot.

Tell us about your norn!!!

Talk all about them here, gush and ramble and show pictures, show them off! What spirit do they connect with, where do they live, what's their lifestyle, have they completed any moots? Are they canon-compliant or did you get silly with em? Tell us all about your amazing norn!

[redemptivexheroics]

Made It [Aoife/Lee] Continued...

@aquamanandfriends Continued From Here

Aoife watched as Lee made the drink and then, curiously, took the cup when it was offered. She wasn't much of a drinker, but when she did drink, she usually with for the hard stuff rather than simple beer. Though she wasn't opposed to beer in the slightest just wasn't her main go-to. "Cheers," she said as she held up the cup and then took a sip, letting the taste wash her mouth. She then took another sip. "That is really good, like amazing; you gotta teach me how to make this, thanks," Aoife said cheerfully before downing the rest.

[aoife1108]

“They might need it for other shows.”

“I said that four skulls ago.”

off topic #100