#been feeling the stabby thing in them like when you get a bad headache
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since you said crossovers were okay can we see some of that fashion buddies crossover you mentioned awhile back?
(Man, copypasting and editing this on my phone turned out to be a pain in the ass.)
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There are rumblings of a strange new monster wandering about the jianghu. It appears to be a woman dressed in scandalous black clothing with gold armor, except it can't be an actual woman because the scout reports say that she can grow taller than the trees or smaller than a bird, that she can fly on insect wings and shoot lightning from her hands.
A joke, the great sects think. A tale created and spread by drunkards.
Until a group of Lan disciples are the next to cross her path.
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Janet van Dyne is having a very, very bad week. She's lost count of the number of magical or technological portals she's been tossed through in her lifetime, so at first she'd been grateful to at least have ended up on Earth this time.
And then the first group of people she had come across had promptly run screaming.
What Mandarin she's picked up on both her jobs is no help, since no one gives her time to speak before they attack, and like hell she's just going to stand there and let herself be stabbed.
Which has only led to this. Staring at a drawing of a snarling face under the hooded visor of her costume.
She groans and pinches the bridge of her nose to stave off a headache, then considers her options.
She's been (guiltily) stealing food in her small form already... maybe if she could nick some clothing, it would be easier to hide...
The only problem being that she would also need to steal a basin so she could particle-treat them to change size with her (no naked escapes, thank you very much), and that would be noticeable.
She's still deciding what to do when two young men, a grouchy looking one Steve's size in greens and greys and the other more placid one in the white and blue of the last group to try and kill her, enter the inn through the doorframe she's currently hiding on.
And they have swords like that last group.
Shit.
Time to go.
She slips out of a gap between boards and heads for the edge of town, but only a little ways away from the inn, she starts feeling inexplicably exhausted.
Maybe the sleep deprivation is catching up to her. Holes in trees and cracks in walls aren't exactly comfortable.
Without meaning to, her flight path starts drifting lower as the sleepiness gets worse.
-and then she's startled back to fully awake when she's snared right out of the air by a net with glowing threads.
"Fu-" <<Hey! Let me out!>>
The kid holding the net looks a year or two younger than Nadia and Ying, and... oh, damn, he's wearing the same colors as tall, dark, and grumpy back at the inn. That can't be a coincidence.
<<You don't look all that scary for a monster,>> he says, tilting his head.
Oh, thank God. Finally, someone who talks first instead of going right for stabby things.
<<That's because I'm not a monster,>> she replies, retracting her visor into her hood and yanking it back to uncover her hair, ears, and face.
<<But you are magical?>>
She briefly debates how much she should explain, then settles on keeping it simple. <<I was a science experiment.>>
That seems to be good enough, as the boy puts the net down on a table that passers-by are unlikely to notice, letting her start untangling herself.
He sits down and rests his chin on his fists with a grin she knows all too well promises mischief. <<So does that mean you don't want to use your giant size to crush thousands of innocents into soup?>>
<<Alright, one: That's morbid. And gross... Are people really saying that?>>
<<Among other horrors.>>
She groans. <<Great. No. Literally the only two things I want right now are a bath and some sleep.>>
Before he can answer, there's a commanding bark of "Huaisang!" from the street, and the kid winces.
<<Friend of yours?>>
<<My older brother,>> he replies, then scratches his cheek in thought. <<Can you hide in my sleeve?>
<<Your collar would be easier on both of us,>> Jan says. She's still wary, but seeing as he seems willing to risk trusting her, she'll go along.
She flutters up to settle between the third and fourth layers, hiding under his hair and tucking her wings in to curl herself up small.
<<All set?>>
She hopes she's not making a huge mistake. <<Let's go.>>
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Ight, I'm going to sleep
#my eyes are really fucked up now for some reason#been feeling the stabby thing in them like when you get a bad headache#maybe I'll get into the eye doctor soon so they can check it out#i dunno#anywho#gn loves#rest well#ily!!#pedigree rambles
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Guardian rewatch: episode 10
The tone of this recap is going to be the crackiest so far. The production quality plummets dramatically here, in a way which is as unintentionally hilarious as it is endearing. I have very little of import to say on events of this episode, and there is nothing much for me to hyper focus on, so a lot of this write-up are snark and bad jokes. Apologies in advance. I would not be getting annoyed at a show I did not care about.
Day two of the Road Trip starts with Zhao Yunlan waking up with a splitting headache and his own jacket draped carefully over him. I choose to believe Shen Wei left it there.
Zhao Yunlan wakes up - and discovers that Wang Zheng had slipped a sedative into the party’s water, effectively knocking them all out. He even discovers that she left her doll-body behind as a decoy; thankfully, it’s still Li Siqi and not the blow-up doll from the previous episode.
With the daunting realisation that he’s been betrayed, Zhao Yunlan instantly spirals into hurt and anger, and this is the moment Shen Wei chooses to appear out to nowhere. He enters offering comfort, his entire focus on making Zhao Yunlan feel better by assuring the man that his subordinate is not one of the bad guys, but rather one of the self-sacrificing ones. How SID manages to function when it’s full of people with non-existent sense of self-preservation is beyond me.
“Professor Shen, why are you okay?”
Zhu Hong narrows her eyes. Zhao Yunlan’s look is the one of vulnerability, not suspicion, almost as if he is silently asking to please not be betrayed by his newest partner.
“I didn’t drink the water she gave me.”
Another thing I would like to question here is the reasoning behind Shen Wei waiting until the morning with this. He knew that Wang Zheng was about to do something, since he refrained from drinking the water she offered. Everyone else being unconscious would be a perfect opportunity for him to go full Hei Pao Shi on her, or follow her quietly, or do literally anything but wait for the morning.
“What is your purpose of coming here?” Shen Wei asks because he needs to know how much Zhao Yunlan knows. He does so with a perfect set of puppy eyes.
We cut to Wang Zheng entering the chamber which houses the pillar/totem, and witness the absolute devastation of her hearing her love’s voice for the first time in a century, as he mistakes her for the enemy and calls her a rat.
I should say that while I’m not always on board with Li Siqi in this show, props to her for acting her heart out opposite a literal pillar. Her reunion with Sang Zan is incredibly touching; she really is wonderful here.
Flashback 1. The execution of Ge Lan.
This method of execution seems so inefficient, I actually tried to find if it has any legs in history. As my research yielded exactly no results, I am guessing this is the producers showing hanging without actually showing hanging. They kind of accidentally made the whole affair infinitely worse. People are weaker than gravity, the angle offers no possibility of the neck being broken, so this would be a very slow, and very painful death. Yikes, is all I can say.
Flashback 2. The montage.
Sigh.
This imagery is so carelessly contemporary it’s killing me. I’m not saying it’s completely impossible for the heart shape to have been known to represent love in this fictional tribe on a fictional planet. I’m just saying it’s a boring shorthand for romance, made worse by the fact that so much of the show’s imagery is otherwise fairly intelligent. I am not angry, I’m just disappointed.
Wang Zheng and Sang Zan’s reunion triggers another earthquake, which is felt all the way back in the village, and shortly thereafter Zhu Jiu interrupts the couple, knocking Wang Zheng out. This - her being knocked unconscious - cuts to Zhao Yunlan wincing while clutching at his temples, which almost implies that he can feel it when his people are in danger. Which would be very cool if true.
Shen Wei, in the meanwhile is remarkably good at keeping his Professor’s mask on the whole time, offering enough information without betraying his own knowledge or motives, but it is clear by now that Zhao Yunlan starts to see right through it.
The chief sprints into action when Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng arrive, instructing the two to join him in investigation. Shen Wei opens his mouth to volunteer to come with, but ends up hesitating before saying anything out loud.
Zhu Hong, too, makes a move to go after the three men, but is firmly instructed to say behind and look after Shen Wei. She proceeds to loudly explain that this is the wrong time and place to be fussing over this guy.
Shen Wei looks like he has no idea what to do with this display of emotion.
Zhao Yunaln whispers to Zhu Hong to watch the professor for him: which could equally be him manipulating the Yashou into staying, or a sinking realisation that Shen Wei will actually try to join them either way, or genuine desire to find out what the professor will do next. Or, indeed, a combination of the above. Zhu Hong will attack her task with conviction.
Sure enough, Shen Wei finally voices his desire to go with the group. Zhu Hong reminds him that he has his own people to look after and instructs him to return to the house with barely contained resentment.
Shen Wei will predictably try to sneak out very shortly afterwards, and will be, equally predictably, caught by Zhu Hong. Why the man who can teleport would not just teleport out of the house before proceeding on foot is anyone’s guess.
“He surprisingly views you as a good friend”, says Zhu Hong when she stops Shen Wei from leaving. “You surely noticed it, right?”
He certainly did, although he will always have trouble realising that he is actually cared about in a way which is anything but casual.
Shen Wei obediently sits down and follows Zhu Hong’s instructions as she attempts to hypnotise him. Those instructions are anything but subtle.
“Professor Shen, look at the flame closely”.
Meanwhile, the other party has successfully deduced the location of the Hanga tribe cave/shrine, and heads there, only to find no visible entrance. Thankfully, gaining access to the mountain is not particularly hard for the party. Mostly because this part of the mountain is made of foam.
This is where I want to metaphorically pat Guardian on its non-existent head, cooing, “Oh, Guardian. Baby. What have you done.”
On the bright side, this is also where Guo Changcheng accidentally shocks Zhao Yunlan with the Fear Stick, and Chu Shuzhi literally gives him a thumbs up. Those two are a duo for the ages.
Youchu appear to fight our heroes, and after the first wave is eliminated, Zhao Yunlan decides to go inside, leaving the other two fend them off near the entrance. Considering that the beasts are all hiding inside the cave, rushing in without backup seems incredibly ill advised. Zhao Yunlan instructs Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng to run away if the danger becomes too great. Which he must know surely that they would never do: his department does not leave people behind, and his subordinates will never abandon him.
To no one’s surprise, the cave is crawling with Youchu. Zhao Yunlan goes on the offensive, kicking the feet out of the monster, but failing to incapacitate it. I am going to do my best to ignore how the scale of the beast fluctuates as it falls down, and focus on Bai Yu’s excellent reaction when his character realises that he is about to very much die.
Luckily for our protagonist, Hei Pao Shi sends a ward his way with a note, warning him of the danger ahead and ordering him to return. Zhao Yunlan makes no move to do as instructed and uses the upper hand he’s gained on the Youchu to get out his gun. Before he can fire however, he once more experiences the painful flashback of the devastation this gun carries, and freezes.
This is when Shen Wei shows up in person, jumping in front of the gun and gutting the beast.
The jumping in front of the gun part of the action is sweet, because it indicates, albeit indirectly, the absolute trust Shen Wei must have in Zhao Yunlan’s instincts, knowing that the man will not accidentally shoot him in the back.
The gutting itself happens in reverse grip, with Shen Wei being easily within reach of the beast’s long stabby claws, and as such really questionable to me in terms of logic. I would have not minded it if he had been moving through the space in front of the beast, slicing it while passing through. That would be at least an indicator of both speed and dexterity enough to make me believe Shen Wei made a clever avoidance of the claws. But he doesn’t: he just materialises dead-on in front of the monster and the later just.. lets itself be killed.
Let’s just say that maybe the beast is supposed to be deliberately slow here, and park the long essay in regards to the bladework until the next episode.
“Chief Zhao, are you alright?”
Everything about Hei Pao Shi in this moment screams of Shen Wei-ness. Well, maybe not the sword. But the obvious concern, the tone of voice, the general air: it’s all Shen Wei. It’s remarkable that Zhao Yunlan does not see it. Or maybe, I suppose, he does, without even realising it. His cheeky grin suddenly appears; the corners of his eyes crinkle, as he goes into a very long-winded, almost flirtatious away about thanking Hei Pao Shi, teasing him for not always arriving on time.
Unperturbed, Shen Wei chides Zhao Yunlan for not listening to his warning, and Zhao Yunlan defends himself in a very playful kind of manner, adding that he’s not leaving his people behind. To Shen Wei, this is to be expected, so instead of arguing he goes into a lot of detail on how the road ahead is dangerous, as if he is not really expecting Zhao Yunlan to accept help.
He is wrong of course: proud though he may be, Chief Zhao knows when he is outgunned and outnumbered, and only grins, happy for the Envoy to join him on his mission.
Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan exploring the cave is interspersed with pretty damn harrowing scenes of Zhu Jiu torturing Wang Zheng as her trapped lover screams for mercy. It’s a lot; in fact it’s so much even the cave ghosts attempt to intervene, because while they may be very much pro-murder, they are evidently anti-torture.
As the two keep exploring, they bump into another three of the beasts, which Shen Wei slays in three slick moves. It’s actually pretty cool, despite slightly sketchy teleportation effects.
“Wow!”
(Apparently, this “wow” made Zhu Yilong corpse so much he nearly laughed his mask off. Which sounds adorable)
Shen Wei proceeds to inquire Zhao Yunlan about the gun, party to confirm that it is indeed the dark energy weapon he knows, and partly having noticed that the other man failed to fire it. I wonder how many times Zhao Yunlan froze in the past, considering how easily he once again slips into his mask of playful deflection, claiming that he never planned to fire the gun at all. It’s almost tragic how this person keeps feeling like he needs to prove his own capabilities over and over again.
Interestingly enough, in this particular case Hei Pao Shi actually does own up to a weakness. It’s calculated: he knows this is something Zhao Yunlan must already be aware of, but still, “full disclosure” is not something Shen Wei usually does when it comes to his own capacities.
What he admits to, on the other hand, does not seem very consistent with the rest of the show. He says that he can only use half of his power above ground, which - okay. But he also states that he can’t spend a lot of time here, and I am a little bit… confused? He lives above ground. He spends absolute majority of his time here. I really don’t want to think of this as a writing inconsistency, so please let me know what I have missed; I’ll appreciate it.
Hearing the admission, Zhao Yunlan grows serious for once, asking which they they should be going next. Shen Wei barely smothers a smug smirk seconds before he scries the surroundings with unbelievable panache.
Show off
Unfortunately, his search does not yield any result, as whatever readings he is getting are muddled by the Hallow. Luckily for them, and to Shen Wei’s great dismay, Zhao Yunlan has the Dial on him which he is uses as a compass.
Shen Wei’s wordless reaction conveys a million questions from “what the hell?” to “are you completely stupid?”
Instead of asking any of those things, he settles for a more neutral “I’ve told you not to use the Hallows.”
“You are very much like a friend of mine”, remarks Zhao Yunlan.
Which is, incidentally, also the title of this episode.
Even behind the mask it’s clear to see Shen Wei’s blind panic as he realises he may have just blown his cover sky high. Fortunately, Zhao Yunlan reads the reaction as bashfulness rather than existential despair, and laughs it off.
Now that they know which way to go, they finally make it to the chamber which houses the pillar/totem, which now has Wang Zheng tied to it.
This show sure does like tying their characters to totems containing souls of people significant to them, huh?
In all seriousness though, as parallels go, this one is… uh… unparalleled.
(I am so very sorry.)
Zhao Yunlan makes a move towards his trapped subordinate, but Hei Pao Shi, again in a way which is extremely Shen Wei-like, grabs at his arm, stopping him in his tracks.
Zhao Yunlan obediently halts, and calls Zhu Jiu out, correctly guessing that the Undergrounder lured them here deliberately. Shen Wei, on the other hand, relays in a hushed tone information what he had observed so far: namely, that the Hallow stored here is the Dire Awl, and that something is incredibly fishy about Wang Zheng.
As he does so, he is staring at Zhao Yunlan’s lips. It is neither the time, nor the place, but hey, I’m not complaining.
They have a brief discussion about the next moves, in which Shen Wei just says he would like to try something, and Zhao Yunlan nods, letting him do it without asking for any details.
Flashback 3: the Backstory.
We hear the full tragic tale of Ge Lan and Sang Zan: how they met, representatives of the warring sides of the conflict, two people from two different worlds; how their love did not stop the awful bloodshed; how it could not be enough to overpower the politics; how it lead to Ge Lan’s death, and, finally, how Sang Zan could not bring her back to him. They hear how the man changed once he lost the only person he cared about.
Zhao Yunlan is visibly moved by this story, recognising echoes of it in himself.
“The most basic dignity of a man is to ensure that the person in his heart stays safe. If the person I love gets destroyed in my own hands ruined under the system I established myself, it’s very likely I’ll hate these people more than I hated the former tribe leader.”
How much did he harden after his mother was taken away from him? How much of his initial hatred of all those from the Underground stems from that day? And, of course, how much will it break him when he will not be gifted this dignity in his own future?
Shen Wei is near vibrating with how much his very soul resonates with the tale he has just heard. He, who has met someone from the other world, who was lost that person, is visibly weighed down by his own memories.
“That’s right. Even if they’re cut into a myriad of pieces, the hatred would be hard to dissolve.”
Zhao Yunlan stares at the other man, astounded, wondering what hardships and losses the Envoy endured in his long and eventful life, as the episode draws to a close.
And I am left here trying to soothe my aching heart, bruised once more by this show’s relentless fatalism.
Next up, episode 11: Oh Boy Do I Have Sword Opinions
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Notes.
Look. It’s been a long week okay. Besides, I am basically marathoning my way through Zhu Yilong’s entire filmography.
The normal service in terms of analysis will hopefully resume next week.
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brainwashed!raelle pt.3
(pt. 1) (pt. 2) cw: torture, violence, a lil slappy a lil stabby.
Raelle leaves the room and Scylla crashes back into her seat, flooded with relief. Relief that Raelle’s alive; a little fucked in the head, but alive.
She also can’t be that fucked in the head if she remembered her favorite color. Scylla had barely been able to stop herself from crying in joy when Raelle had corrected her planted mistake.
It means Raelle’s still in there somewhere.
She sends a small thanks into the air for Izadora and her brief lesson on memory modification.
Now she just has to figure out how to get her out how to unpick the knot that was planted in her head.
Raelle is frustrated.
The headache doesn’t go away and each time she’s brought the meal to her prisoner, it just gets worse. Especially when Scylla looks up at her and asks about two people named Abigail and Tally.
The moment those names leave Scylla’s mouth, a strong throb of pain makes her double over as a wave of nausea washes through her.
Scylla pulls against her chains in an attempt to get closer to Raelle to soothe her pain but Raelle reads it as a threat and scrambles back a few feet, hand clutched at the back of her neck where her skull meets her spine.
“Why can’t you understand I’m not trying to hurt you?!” Scylla says out of frustration. “I’m trying to get you to remember!”
“There’s nothing to remember! I don’t know you! I don’t know anybody named Abigail or Tally either.” Raelle insists and hurriedly leaves the room again, trying hard to ignore the way her head surges in pain.
And yet no matter what her mouth and brain says, she still finds herself in Willa’s office while her mom is out of the safehouse.
She doesn’t know what she’s looking for exactly but she’s rifling through mission reports and blueprints scanning for mentions of the names Abigail and Tally or even Scylla when she comes across a file labelled Ramshorn, S. — infiltration and recovery.
Reading Scylla’s dossier is strange. It feels a little like she’s encroaching on something she shouldn’t be, like she’s found a secret that wasn’t hers to learn just yet.
She gets to the actual updates and reports and her headache becomes splitting. her vision blurs and when she reaches up to wipe her nose, her hand comes away bloody.
It’s then that the door opens and she looks up to see her mother standing in the doorway.
Willa’s face is a combination of surprise, disappointment, and enough rage to make Raelle a little scared.
“Raelle.” She says in that way that moms do when they know they’ve caught you doing something you shouldn’t. She drops the bait, staring straight into Raelle’s eyes as if saying, go on, tell me your excuse.
Raelle fumbles, of course, there’s a headache that rivals Zeus’s flowering in her temples. With her eyes darting back and forth from her mother to the paper in her hand, Raelle finds herself stuck between fury and confusion.
The fury wins out in the end, because she is still Raelle Collar after all. Rage is embedded in her veins, no matter what apparent fuckery has been done to her brain.
“Mom, I know who she is.” She says, but her voice is less furious and more unsteady than she’d like. “She knows who I am.”
Willa seems to be collecting her thoughts before taking a couple of steps towards raelle.
Raelle instinctively backs up towards the bookshelves in her mom’s office.
Willa stops and says, “Raelle, come now, don’t be ridiculous. she’s an ex-associate that we’re punishing for leaking valuable knowledge.”
There’s something dark and untrustworthy in Willa’s eyes. Something that tells Raelle she’s only telling half-truths like she’s always done. Always half-truths.
Raelle tries to dash towards the doorway and book it out, but she barely gets three steps past her mom when there’s a thumb to her forehead and she’s knocked out cold.
It’s irritatingly familiar.
Scylla wakes from an uncomfortable nap to the sound of her prison door being opened. It’s weird, seeing as her daily visit from Raelle had already happened and her next one wasn’t due for at least another twenty hours.
A spark of hope strikes at the sight of Raelle coming in again and a million thoughts of salvation flood her. Maybe whatever work had been performed on Raelle had been undone, maybe Raelle uncovered her memories, maybe she was simply just strong and capable enough to break through the illusions.
All of it is shut down and smothered the moment Raelle’s eyes meet hers.
Empty.
Fuck—
is the only thought that doesn’t even make it past her lips as she’s met with a rough backhand slap that almost draws blood.
She finds that the pain from the slap isn’t what hurts the most. It’s the fact that Raelle doesn’t so much as even flinch when she strikes her again.
This time it is enough to draw blood; the impact splits her chapped lips and Scylla finds herself wincing at the pain which only makes it worse.
She’s busy blinking the blur from her vision when Raelle takes two steps back and shakes her hand off like she’d just touched something unsavory.
Willa steps in behind Raelle with a smirk and Scylla’s so angry that she pulls against the chains with an angry scream.
“What did you do?! You can’t just fuck with someone’s head like that! You can’t make her into someone she’s not!”
She receives nothing in return other than a calm smirk from Willa, so she turns her attention back to Raelle.
Kind, soft, gentle Raelle who’d never hurt her before. Who’d touched her like she was made of the thinnest glass. Who ran her fingers along Scylla’s spine like she was afraid Scylla would come undone if she pressed too hard. And she begs.
“Raelle please, this isn’t you, they’ve done something, you have to listen to me. You have to remember, I’m—“
The next hit is a straight on punch to her cheek, sending her back in her chair and tilting back; the only thing that stops her from collapsing back onto the ground is hand that Willa places against the back of the chair as she walks around Scylla.
Willa leans down next to Scylla’s ear and she can hear the smirk in her voice when she says, “Now now, don’t strain yourself too hard to convince her of things. You are the one who killed her friends after all.”
“Fucking bold of you to think you can stop those two annoying shits from finding you.” Scylla bites back, missing the small pinch of confusion that briefly flashes on Raelle’s face.
Willa’s smile drops and she returns to her full height, “My daughter’s going to teach you what happens to a traitor to the cause, Ms. Ramshorn. Unless you tell us what you learned from the army before you double-crossed us, you’ll find I’ve told her there are no limits.”
The realization. The reveal. Daughter. Scylla’s caught between laughing at the situation and wishing that her arms were free so she can throttle Willa.
What kind of mother abandons her daughter and then sends a terrorist cell’s agents to steal her away from the army?
And on the matter of her punishment: it’s a trick, of course. Scylla never properly learned any secrets. She’d been sent in to learn how to all the tips and tricks of how to be a Necro and assigned the task of delivering Raelle shortly after.
Raelle’s been ordered to beat and/or torture nonexistent secrets out of her.
It’d be laughable if she couldn’t feel the remains of her heart being ground into dust.
Willa leaves not too long after that, leaving her alone with Raelle, who just stands across from her, eyes calculating and fingers splaying out every so often before tightening back into a fist.
“Raelle, I didn’t kill your—“
The sudden slap stings and reopens the just-clotting gash on her lip. Scylla tilts her head back to the singular light in her cell and breathes deep, the taste of copper heavy on her tongue.
It was better when Raelle looked like she didn’t know her. She doesn’t quite know how to deal with the raw hatred in her eyes now.
So she stays quiet, she lets Raelle watch her until she apparently can’t stand the sight of Scylla anymore and leaves, slamming the door behind her.
Scylla just sags in her chair and stares up at the ceiling of her cell, letting the light burn into her retinas so that she doesn’t have to see the hate in Raelle’s eyes when she closes her own.
Sometimes she wishes she had been found and killed in that fucking garage.
Scylla wakes up to water being thrown in her face, because of course.
Raelle’s looking at her with a quirked eyebrow and steely eyes that are almost grey in this light.
“You’re going to tell me everything you learned about Alder and Bellweather.”
“Mm,” Scylla hums, running her tongue over her busted lip and stretching against her chains, “Bellweather like the mother of your friend who I killed?”
Raelle grips the back of her head, threading her fingers into her hair and pulling hard enough for Scylla to wince, forcing her to look her dead in the eyes.
“Answer me.”
“Harder.” Scylla sneers up at Raelle, shit-eating grin on her face as she stares the only person she’s ever loved in the eyes and resorts to the last weapon in her arsenal of defense: humor.
Too bad Raelle doesn’t seem to appreciate it as much as she would’ve several months ago. No, instead of smirking back and kissing her like Scylla so wishes that she would, she pulls away and tightens the chains to Scylla’s arms, binding them uncomfortably behind her back.
And then launches a punch straight into her stomach.
“Fuck, shit, why don’t you just climb inside my brain and take your information?” Scylla gasps, struggling against the tightened cuffs, “Oh, that’d be too simple of an answer, huh? To find nothing there. Because I didn’t kill Tally or Abigai—“
Gods, is she sick of being slapped.
It carries on the same way for at least a week. Scylla loses count by the fifth time Raelle comes around, this time with tools. And it’s nothing like the girl she remembers, like a core part of her has been surgically removed.
Scylla makes some passing comment about Willa being a bitch and gets stabbed in return. It takes her much too long to grapple with the fact that there’s a knife sticking out of her, she’s too busy trying to find a gap in this fucked up persona that’s taken over Raelle’s body.
She wishes her tormentor didn’t have her Raelle’s eyes.
She wishes a lot of things, now that she’s not even afforded a real meal.
She wishes she could have her mom’s chicken noodle soup one last time.
She wishes this Raelle wouldn’t bind her hands so fucking tight.
But what the fuck does any of it matter when she can barely open one of her eyes and the other one can’t stay open for longer than a minute at a time?
She fights back at first, making snide remarks and off-color jokes until Raelle hits her hard enough to knock her out.
Rinse and repeat, the same cycle until Scylla’s too dizzy to keep her head up and is chuckling mindlessly at the birds flying around in her vision.
Scylla’s never been this tired in her entire fucking life and she’s been on the run since she was born.
At some point, she wonders why she’s even trying to stay alive. She’s run for so long, fought for so long. And for what? She has no family, no cause to fight for, not even a single person that’s noticed her absence and cared.
But she does admit to herself that should this be her end, at least it’s in the hands of the woman she loves. The woman she betrayed and left to become… this.
She figures it’s a fair trade, as Raelle brings her fist down hard against her cheek. She’s hitting hard enough bruise her own knuckles and Scylla thinks passingly that she’d still very much like to bring said knuckles up to her lips and kiss them until they’re okay again.
It’s probably the delirium from lack of sleep and blood loss, really.
And nothing at all with how Scylla’s been imagining where she’d be right now if she had just taken Raelle and ran all those months ago.
Unconsciousness seems unavoidable now, but Raelle forcefully pulls Scylla’s gaze to her own again, physically tugging Scylla away from her daydream of dancing in a kitchen with Raelle.
“Tell me what you know.” She doesn’t even sound like she’s upset with the fact that Scylla’s two seconds away from dying.
It hurts to laugh, but Scylla breathes a small chuckle anyway. “I love you.”
The look she gets in return from Raelle is so full of blind rage, confusion, and annoyance that Scylla almost feels shamed.
Because she doesn’t deserve to hear it back. Because Raelle’s only in this situation because of her. Because her parents gave their lives for hers and all she’s done with it is ruin the life of the only person she’d ever wanted to save.
“It’s okay,” Scylla says more to herself than to Raelle, who’s just watching her, “you don’t have to say it back.”
She’s fading fast. Part of her wishes that her last breath could be of the sea air, that she could be laying in the sand. But she is looking at Raelle, and that’s more than she thought she’d get when she still believed she was being shipped off to prison.
It’s not a bad way to die at all.
So she takes a final, shaky breath, trying to drink in air that her lungs don’t seem to care for, and smiles at Raelle, “I chose you and I don’t regret it.”
The last thing she sees is a wince of pain and horror trigger on Raelle face as she brings a hand up to the back of her head. Then the door to her cell bursts open, letting in a stream of light and loud commotion as everything fades to black.
#raylla#jenn writes#a couple of notes here:#no i don't think willa would actually be this evil#it's just fun to have a Villain#i don't like writing raelle hurting scylla like this can you tell#NEXT INSTALLMENT LAST ONE and also the only reason i started this drabble bulletfic anyway#okey byeeee#brainwashed au
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It’s Not Rabies, It’s . . . Ch. 1
Summary: There was an old phrase that the Jims believed in wholeheartedly: “If I cannot find trouble, I will create it.”
Or: King gets a crash course in parenting in the weirdest way possible.
A/N: This was a suggestion-request from the anon NightFall on AO3. Which resulted in this story and since this one was getting a bit long it inspired a bit for the Visitation Day on Sunday which will be a lot less angsty.
Chapters: 1, 2, 3
Chapter 1: I’m Sorry, You’re Dying
It was another slow day in the city, typical city crime mixed with the fact that Anti was busy stalking Henrik and Remus had a bout of food poisoning. So not a lot of bot supervillain crime was being done.
That mixed with over two feet of snow kept a good number of people indoors. King especially didn’t want to deal with Dark mother henning him, was sitting in the main common room of the heroes’ base next to Yancy. He was communicating with a couple of people on his phone.
But because there wasn’t anything big happening in town, the Jims were bored. And bored Jims led to only one thing: trouble.
There was an old phrase that the Jims believed in wholeheartedly: “If I cannot find trouble, I will create it.”
It was a surprise when RJ and CJ came bursting into the room with Marvin hot on their heels. None of the other heroes had even seen them come into the base, but that was nothing new.
“Hey dumbasses, let’s not play with cursed shit,” Marvin ordered.
“Look out Jim, I’ve got a stabby,” RJ held up the spike in his hands, the thing looked like it was made of stone with some runes carved into the side of it.
And what would happen next would become the single most preventable accident that had happened in the base for the past seven years.
King and Yancy were used to sudden bursts of noise. Between Wil and their siblings, King especially was good at tuning out background “white noise” as King called.
So King hadn’t even realized the Jims had run in, hadn’t seen RJ get closer until he accidentally stepped on his cape. King startled, pulling on the cape as he rushed to stand and scurry away from the Jims.
But it wasn’t fast enough, RJ tripped and slammed into King. In actuality RJ just tapped him with the thing but as if it was triggered to go off, the center of the spike detached and violently stabbed into King’s chest and punctured all the way until there was about an inch sticking out the other side.
RJ and King looked at the spike in horror and then at each other before King slumped to the ground like a marionette with its strings up.
Instantly the other heroes rushed to King’s aid. Marvin doing his best to stabilize him, fearful of taking the spike out without killing him. He wasn’t moving, the young man was barely breathing.
It was so bad Iplier thought he was already dead when he checked for a pulse.
Iplier stared at King in shock. “His heart’s still beating.”
“Vat?” Henrik asked in surprise. He was in the room already preparing for the postmortem surgery to remove the spike.
“He’s not dead so we need to work fast,” Iplier realized, calling in for anesthesia and all kinds of help.
They worked quickly to stabilize King’s condition and eventually pull the spike out. Marvin and the Host, or just the Host because he quickly pushed Marvin out of the room, helping to make sure there wasn’t a magical infection of some kind.
When King woke up, his chest was killing him. “Ughhhh.”
Scratch that. It felt like he was hit by a truck, died, was drop kicked out of Heaven, and sent back to Earth. Everything hurt.
“Congrats,” Iplier started. “You are no longer dying.”
“Fucking thanks, I guess,” King groaned.
“I take it you’d like a higher dose of morphine,” Iplier asked.
“Pllllleeeeease!” King groaned.
That got a slight chuckle out of Iplier.
The next week was absolute hell. The first two days after he got out of the hospital he was fine. He tried to take it easy around the park. He didn’t want to overexert himself and damage his heart again. But after that second day he had a constant shrilling migraine. It hurt to be outside, hearing people talk felt like his brain was being stabbed. He felt too exhausted to move, he couldn’t even think about eating without wanting to throw up.
Virgil was the one who found him on that absolutely dreadful third day, shaking on his floor.
Iplier was called back in and King went right back to the hospital. His heart was fine and thanks to the Host he hadn’t even gotten scars.
After checking his symptoms, Iplier got worried and furious. He proclaimed it to be rabies, something he’d warned King about since day one.
King didn’t remember being bitten, but knew it could have happened literally at any moment he’d been outside.
For a week, since he’d been stabbed, he lay on a hospital bed, 100% certain that he was going to die in an agonizingly slow fashion.
Then one night, while Yancy had fallen asleep watching over him, King went to sleep. He began having a weird dream where he was walking through a field and came across a dismantled house. The only thing left standing apart from the frame was a single interior wall and a mirror.
The young man looked at the mirror, shrinking back from the mangled, hideous image he saw . . .
And then he was awake. His headache, gone.
It was euphoric.
All the pain he’d felt in his body had simply vanished. He wondered if he’d died, looking over to see Yancy still slumped uncomfortably in a hospital chair.
King was about to call out to him, to ask if he had died, when something in his bed bit him.
He screamed in pain, almost throwing himself out of the bed. Yancy startled awake.
There was something in King’s bed, still under the sheets. It was about the size of a wiffle ball and it was making little growling noises.
The young man threw off the covers and he saw that there was a drawing pressed flat to the bed, and it was moving, as if King had trapped something under a cup and then lifted it to get a better look, allowing it to escape.
Darting quickly the figure moved along any connected surface, hitting the wall and moving around. As if the figure was frantically searching for something.
“What is that?” Yancy demanded.
“I don’t know,” King admitted.
The Host chuckled, suddenly appearing in the room, he was careful not to use the door, “Yancy and the King of the Squirrels should greet the newest member of their family.”
“How’s that thing ours family?”[1] Yancy demanded.
The Host reached up and the figure particulate jumped him and the chittering, echoing scream died down as it just started devouring the Host’s aura. Which would have been a problem if they weren’t doing the equivalent of using a thimble to drink out of an ocean.
The Host had a smile on his face. “They have a diet that consists primarily of aura but in a couple months they should be on solid food. And they are King’s child.”
“My what?” King screamed. “I can’t have kids, not on my own, and I can’t have them in a day.”
“The King of the Squirrels was hit by a soul splitter. Normally a soul splitter would kill a human, or splinter them, but the King of the Squirrels is lucky that he was not human. So the soul splitter merely snapped off a portion of the King of Squirrels’s soul to create his child.”
“So they’re a part of me,” King asked, hesitantly reaching out his hand and the figure snapped onto King’s hand. He felt a tingling as the figure began trying to consume his aura before standing calmly on King’s shoulder. “You got your own name little buddy?”
“Lunky,” the Host introduced.
“Lunky?” King smiled, the figure turning to look at him. It almost sounded like they were purring. “That right or is Uncle Host playing a joke on me?”
Lunky went back to exploring the room. Now that there was no danger, reality clouded around King’s mind.
“What am I going to do?” King panicked a little bit. “I can’t take care of a kid! I can barely take care of myself.”
“Youse[2] got this,” Yancy reassured. “Youse are the most responsible ‘a all’a us.”[3]
King did feel a little better but at that moment Dr. Iplier walked in and saw all of them standing up.
“What the hell is going on in here?” Iplier demanded, leaving the door open. It was an action that immediately caught Lunky’s attention as they realized there was a world beyond the four walls they were in.
“Surprise, I’m not dying anymore?” King tried.
“Ahh, Iplier has made a mistake,” the Host grinned as Lunky’s figure stretched vertically and grabbed onto the door.
“Oh no!” King realized, as Lunky was already speeding along the walls, looking for aura to eat. They were following an old trail that Anti had left a couple hours ago, following it to Henrik’s office before doubling back and slipping through the sliding front door that activated as Lunky neared them. And with that he had escaped the hospital before Yancy could make it down the hall to look for them, cursing as he went.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Accessibility Translations
1. How is that thing our family?
2. You’ve
3. You’re the most responsible out of all of us.
#Superhero AU#Masks and Maladies#Markiplier#King of the Squirrels#Yancy the Prisoner#the Jims#ahwm Yancy#the Host#Dr. Iplier#Lunky#accidental stabbing#magic kid#no mpreg#I mean it!#footnotes
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My thought process as I watch season 7 of GoT
-S07E03
-Can Cersei please shut up god, I’m so tired of listening to her talk
-Qyburn can suck a dick
-i have never hated a character more in my life
-this is painful to watch
-oh no not the ince*t, god anything but that, I’m so over it
-STOP KISSING
-no one cares if you're the queen stop fucking your brother
-i would love to see cersei burned by a dragon
-brooding buddies ahaha
-this scene is so pretty, the way his cloak blows in the wind is *chefs kiss*
-tyrion and jon interacting makes me happy
-“are you trying to present you're own statements as wise wisdom” PleaSe
-don’t make me think about robb and rickon PleaSe
-fucking lord baelish ugh
-sansa and her quick fire wit
-there are some chars i cant stand listening to
-ooh is it arya, please i hope it is,
-its bran instead oop, didn’t expect that,, hug it OUT
-bran is so pretty wow
-this is so sweet, the way the snow enhances her hair is *chefs kiss*
-oh no is Sam gonna be in trouble for helping jorah
-this is nice
-i hope sam doesnt get kicked out of the cidatal
-GO SAM
-ive heard so much about Casterly Rock and this is the first time I’m seeing it and tbh the hype wasn’t worth it
-SECRET TUNNEL!!
-pointy stick go stabby stabby
-FUCKING EURON AGAIN I SWEAR
-canny hack it, am not enjoying this
-for fuck sake the lannisters are at highgarden and for why
-I still don’t know if i like Jamie Lannister or not
-they aren’t gonna kill ornella, i hope not
-they really think they're gonna win how embarrassing
-she really just drank the wine
-the fact that jamie is jofferys dad still grosses me out
-S07E04
-pretty op scene
-Tom Hopper in game of thrones whaattttt
-Oh my god, every time i see cersei i wanna take my eyeballs out
-i don’t trust baelish with bran
-i don’t trust baelish period.
-imagine giving a kid a dagger that almost killed him i-
-i don’t want meera to leave
--alot of people died for bran ouch
-wait bran died, hol up, does that hes ACTUALLY the three eyed raven this time
-ARYA JUST GOT HOME
-they better let arya in
-Arya gone ahah
-sansa and arya moment, reunited at last
-this moment is kinda sad tbh
-this is so wholesome
-its sad again, i wish robb and rickon were here too
-”its wasted on a cripple” i bby noo
-brans wheelchair is so nifty
-i love podrick payne
-okay but theyre outfits are kinda bomb
-thats a lot of fucking dragonglass
-secret cave what will it hold
-the children and the first men are smart
-yess queen fight with them, wait bend the knee i- nevermind
-ion like this, does she really think he’ll bend the knee and the north folk will be happy
-what now
-oh no shes angry and doubting tyrion that cant be good
-jon is so pretty
-Daenerys’ shoulder broche thing is so cool, i want one
-brianne and pod training together is so nice
-im so proud of arya, what a bad bitch
-seeing arya ad brianne train has me shook
-”I’m a Bastard” me too jon me too
-ITS THEON I MISSED HIM
-uh-oh jon doesn't look happy to see theon
-are they gonna hug
-NO THEY ARENT FINNA HUG, pleas no fighting
-im glad he isnt killing theon
-the queen is gone?! Miss thing where did she go
-i can't get over the fact that tom hopper is in game of Thrones
-Fuck the queen especially Cersei
-its gone all quiet that means something bad is gonna happen oh no
-this shit gives me anxiety
-thats a lot of dothraki
-"we can hold them off" my guy no you cant
-she brought her dragon good luck holding them off now pahahah
-is this where jamie dies, I wouldn't be mad :|
-miss thing its over for them
-everything is going up in flames i- why are they still fight back at this point
-if ser bronn dies I'm gonna be mad
-sliced off the horse leg and for what
-deadass though if bronn dies I'm done
-i have so much anxiety oh no
-thats a big fucking arrow
-tyrion looks so sad oh no
-jamie is gonna die if he does boost soon
-I dont want the Dragons to get hurt ahhh
-i love bronn but king this ain't it
-HE HIT THE DRAGON THAT DANI IS ON I- THIS ISNT GOOD
-he blew the arrow thing up instead
-jamie leave youre going to die
-mayhe I don't want him to die just yet but he should listen to tyrion and fuck off
-ser bronn to the rescue?!?!
-im so stressed out ahaha
S07E05
-canny hack it they almost drowned
-jamie 'the twat' lennister
-tyrion walking through the aftermath makes me uncomfy, feels bad man
-dragon said rawr
-what the fuck kinda option is bend the knee or die
-tyrion murdered his dad and he'll do it again
-Just bend the knee it literally cant be that hard
-is she gonna feed them to the dragons
-oh my God she is, wait shes gonna roast them, that's definitely far worse than bending the knee
-ashes to ashes ig
-Cersei should be worried, Dani has three dragons why do they think they can win
-cersei gives me a headache
-jon is so pretty and for what
-mister dragon needs to chill
-is he gonna eat jon
-oh hes letting jon pet him alrightie
-it's kinda creepy seeing it up close ngl
-"gorgeous beast" PleaSe
-figure of speech yeah sure right mhmm
-didnt you want jorah dead like three seconds ago
-i fucking hate those ravens
-thats a big mountain
-thats a lot of dead folks oofdt
-oh sam
-hes a smart wee lad
-i hope they listen to sam, hes making very good point
-some of these measter are dickhead
-im so tired of bending this fucking knee
-what the fuck is a wet nurse
-how are you gonna bring a wight to the capital
-this is whisky business
-trusting a stranger is never a good idea but okay I guess
-the minute jon leave everyone starts shitting on him, what arseholes
-sansa is so pretty
-im so confused what is happening
- Ion like this
-oh no is jamie gonna kill tyrion
-not tyrion making jokes as if he isnt gonna die
-wheres gendry i miss him
-look at my mans I love him
-he looks so good,, look at him king shit
-pop off gendry with your big hammer thing,, I was not expecting that
-not miss thing tryna get bronn killed for betrayal i- 🤚🏾hold up
-IS SHE PREGNANT AGAIN OG MY FUCKING GOd,, shes really ginns have another ince*t baby i 💀,, cut the fkn camera
-gendry you had one job
-"youre alot leaner,, you're alot shorter" I king PleaSe pahahaha
-tyrion is so pretty
-jon you need to return cause like, I dont want you to die
-wait is sam leaving,, bye big library
-what is lord baelish up too now,, I'm sus
-only copy of what,, what is he doing
-is arya finna break into his room
-i dont like this,, he probably has whatever arya is looking for on him
-he hid it in the mattress that smart ngl
-what is lord baelish plotting,, it's making me unsettled
-"you need to convince the one with the dragons or the one with that fucks her brother" paahahah I cant pLease that's so fuunny
-tormund and jorah fight let's go
-"were all breathing" I mean ya I guess pahaha
-gendry is so pretty
S07E06
-they look so tiny against the snow
-"down south the air smells like pig shit" "you've never been down south" "I've been to winterfell" "that's the north" "pfftt" I love that whole interaction
-does tormund wanna fuck gendry i- pahahah
-hes allowed to be mad at you for selling him
-jorah and jon are having a moment bless them
-arya reminiscing about her dad is so cute and it makes me sad
-oh no they're arguing
-"beloved Joffrey" ouch
-we were getting along so well,, and lord baelish had fucked it up
-"gingers are beautiful" yes they are my guy yes they fucking are
-dws tomund what dick is 🤚🏾🤠
-uh babies tormund chill out
-the way Jon's jacket coat thing puffs out is so funny
-i really hope Jon's not in love with Dani
-cersei wants to murder alot of people
-wait why cant dani have children
-they looks like ants in the snow
-is that a polar bear,, NOT A POLAR BEAR I REPAET NOT A POLAR BEAR
-THEYVE GOT FLAMING SWORDS
-mans is gonna get eaten alive
-hes gonna die out here and he doesn't even care,, or maybe he wont die i ??????
-where did they get a flaming sword from
-lord baelish needs to stfu
-what is baelish planning
-its gone all quiet again
-jon said slice and dice
-that a loud fucking screech,, oh no I hear rumbling that cant be good
-go gendry go!!
-theyre running across a lake what if the ice breaks,,
-gendry is a fast little fuck huh
-im so stressed I dont want anyone else to die,, especially gendry
-theyre gonna freeze to death
-oh no thros froze, feels bad man
-where did he get a flaming sword,, it pretty poggers
-ive got anxiety
-not sansa going back to king's landing
-miss thing, honey, sansa it's never safe
-yall Danis coat is so pretty
-how to train your dragons type beat
-well done hound you've provoked the dead
-wheres dani and her dragons when you need her
-if tormund dies,, oh nooooo
-someone should help him
-this is so sad
-sis came through what a queen
-the king Walker is gonna throw the ice spear and kill the dragon oh naw
-the stress is coming back
-he just killed on of her dragons,, I'm so shook
-jons gonna drown
-okai hes still alive but how long still he freezes to death
-miss thing you're literally gonna freeze to death dont try to fight
-seeing uncle benjen die, saving him,, that hurted
-the CRUNCH of Jon's coat oft
-shes not gonna kill sansa right?!?
-arya gave her the dagger but now what?!?
S07E07 (this should be good)
-bronn I'm offend men with dicks are just as good with men without them
-the dothraki really just fight for fun huh
-THEON!!!!
-not the brothels 🤚🏾🥴
-the wight doesn't enjoy that box
-cersei you wont be killing anyone,, miss thing needs to SIT DOWN AND STFU
-god I don't wanna deal with any lennister,, apart from tyrion
-i love podrick
-maybe I dont like ser bronn
-im sus,, something bad might happen,, its gone all quiet
-here comes miss thing and euron
-im gonna be sick with anxiety
-does everyone just have a permanent from on their faces or what
-i hate when she speaks
-dragons as a means of travel is so handy
-ats a big fucking dragon pahaha
-constant state of stress
-euron shut the fuck up
-euron is gonna get punched in the face if he doesn't shut up
-sit down euron or fuck off
-cersei shut up for two seconds
-does whe really think the army of the dead is a bad joke,, MISS THING COME ONNN
-does miss thing believe them now after almost being attacked by a wight
-100,000 AT LEAST oh no
-euron is scared lol hes definitely gonna die
-"until the dead is defeated they are our true enemy" Miss thing we've been trying to tell you
-oop mans already been pledged and miss Cersei is pissed
-honestly fuck the Lannisters
-everyone is pissed at jon for not lying lol
-tyrion don't talk to cersei,, that's a bad idea just waiting to happen
-oh lord am stressed
#game of thrones#incorrect quotes#theon greyjoy#jon snow#S7 recap#jamie lannister#cersei lannister#tyrion lannister#podrick payne#brianne of tarth#ser bronn#sansa stark#arya strak#daenerys stormborn#daenerys targaryen
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Carson Drabble - since it's not whumpy enough I've decided to give Carson CRippLing ViSioNs
Carson walked into the bookshop ten minutes late, a little out of breath. He weaved through the shelves, passing a few customers on his way toward the back office. Muffled voices drifted out through the closed door, they sounded... tense. When he opened the door they were gathered around the old oak table.
"This is a police matter." Riley snapped, sounding as if she had said it several times already, leaning over the table toward Daniel.
"And this is my bookstore." Danny said with that casual stubbornness that drove people crazy. He had his arms crossed and feet propped up on the table as a display of how little he cared about their "procedure".
"Finally. It was getting awkward." Riley breathed as she looked up at him, dropping whatever arguement they'd just been having.
"No kidding." Daniel muttered.
Carson took a seat between them and reached for the stack of books Danny had set aside. They were researching what looked like ritual remains at a crime scene. Candles, blood, trace metals, the whole shabang. He hadn't done much ritual magic himself but he at least knew how it worked and what to look for. He looked up to see Danny staring at him.
"What was it this time?" He asked.
"Nothing, just didn't sleep well." Carson deflected.
Daniel just barely caught himself before he said that he knows what it sounds like when he "doesn't sleep well" and nothing happened last night. Which brings them to this morning. "Come on, I want to know, what was it? Stop me when I'm close, cat, bird, squirrel, raccoon-"
Carson groaned in frustration. "It was a baby possum okay? Ugh you suck, Danny." He said with an anger in his voice that wasn't quite genuine. His friend smiled smugly.
Riley had taken it upon herself to start skimming through one of the books in the pile. She noticed that Carson did look especially tired when he came in. Small beads of sweat formed on his brow which, unless he ran all the way to the bookstore, didn't make much sense in the growing cold outside. She figured it was best not to join in on Daniel's teasing and got straight to work.
Within seconds of opening the old leather-bound book, Carson got completely immersed in the text. It wasn't exactly an exciting read but he flipped through the pages quickly, only pausing to study certain diagrams. Riley noticed his lips moved slightly as he read over important parts. He probably didn't even realize he had the habit of mouthing the words as he read. It was kinda cute. But to be fair, his rapid page flipping and note taking was impressively methodical. She looked across the table to see that Daniel had been staring at Carson at the same time she was. They made awkward eye contact before returning to their research. Along with the books Daniel had a black notebook filled with handwritten notes that more or less matched the style of the old books they were looking at.
"Wow are those all your notes, Danny?" She asked, eyeing the notebook that was bulging with loose papers and crudely drawn symbols.
"Yeah, I write down everything that might be useful when I get new books in about magic. Some of it is just lore, but every once in a while I find a book that's actually legit. Oh, and it's Daniel." He said, despite the fact that Carson had called him Danny less than two minutes ago.
"So where are the books that you know are real?" She asked.
"Besides these? I imagine they're all on Carson's bookshelf at home."
"I already looked through those." Carson added, apparently more in tune with their conversation than they thought.
Daniel flipped through his notes until he came across a set of loose papers that looked related to the crime scene photo Riley provided. He grabbed the small stack and slid it over to Carson.
"I think I found something." Daniel said with a hopeful smile. Carson looked down at it and frowned.
"Um, Danny, this is your character description for Dungeons and Dragons." Carson said.
"Oops. Under that." He said. Maybe it was just Riley's imagination but it looked like Daniel blushed a little. As if it wasn't already obvious that he and Carson where total nerds. Not in a bad way but they did spend an awful lot of time holed up in this bookstore reading fantastic novels for "scientific purposes". Carson's eyes widened and his lips started doing that thing again like he was deep in concentration.
"Yeah, yeah this makes sense." Carson said after a moment. "Powering a circle is easy. It's directing the spell that's the hard part. So you found the body by the river, but the spell was set up in her apartment? They must have needed something there to make it work."
"Yeah." So far she had only shown him the photos from the apartment. The photos of the body were a lot more gruesome. "There's... more you need to know." She added.
Carson looked up, his brows furrowed. "I can't help if you're holding out on me. What else is there?"
Riley grimaced as she pulled another folder from her bag. "The photo of the girl in the center of the circle, see how her eyes are crossed out? And the dagger is standing straight up from the floorboards?"
"Yeah... you said she was dead. Obviously they meant to kill her using that knife." Carson said, a little confused. It seemed simple. They did the ritual, made a connection between the circle and the girl, and it's all stabby stabby from there.
Riley took out another set of crime scene photos from her folder and Carson immediately realized why she'd been hesitant to show it to them. His stomach flipped at the sight and he felt himself pale slightly. He's not squeamish but there is something distinctly wrong about seeing a person's face when they're missing their eyes. Without them it's just empty sockets. Empty...
When he looked at the photo his gaze naturally settled on the most gruesome part of it, the eyes. There was nothing there but he felt like she was... looking at him. A shiver went up his spine. He couldn't look away, not even to blink. Carson was dimly aware of someone saying his name but it was like the world narrowed until it was just him and the dead girl. It felt eerily like she was looking straight into his mind, or maybe he was looking into hers. It made his skin crawl. Suddenly the picture vanished and the room faded away.
He blinked and suddenly he was somewhere else. A walking path by the river. It was well lit but he couldn't imagine a young woman wanting to walk on it alone late at night. He felt troubled, no, she felt troubled. She looked over her shoulder every few seconds, clutching a small green purse to her chest as she walked briskly. Things started to blur and tilt as the connection got cloudier. He could feel his consciousness desperately trying to return to his body, but something kept him there. At the last second she turned, startled by something. But there was nothing there. She started running in a panic, stumbling off the path and onto the rocks, not because she was afraid, but because she couldn't see where she was going, he realized. She couldn't see because her eyes were being burned out of her head. A warmth grew from the center of her face, it burned right behind her eyes like a headache at first, the pain becoming more unbearable with each passing second. When the knife slid into her stomach it was almost merciful. She died before she could realize what was happening to her.
It happened fast. One second Carson was staring hard at the photo, perhaps looking for some small detail in it. The next his eyes were rolling back in his head. Eyelids fluttering shut as his body pitched forward. His head made contact with the table before he slid sideways out of his chair, knocking it over in the process. It all happened before Riley or Daniel could react. Luckily it was a gentle slide and he didn't hit his head too hard but now he was on the floor and--
"What the fuck?" Daniel blurted, abandoning his own chair to kneel next to Carson.
"Has he ever done anything like this before?" Riley asked with the dim hope that maybe this was some sort of totally normal magic thing she didn't know about. It wasn't
"No, never." Daniel's voice was grim. Panic welled up inside him but he fought it back down. He wouldn't be any use to Carson like that. "Hey Carson, can you hear me?" He asked pointlessly.
It was obvious his mind was somewhere else entirely as his body began to twitch. Random muscles flexing and unflexing. He started making small moaning noises that didn't sound like he was in pain but broke Daniel's heart a little to hear anyway. Without thinking he folded his sweatshirt and slid it under his head, moving to sit behind him so he could run his fingers through Carson's hair gently as his legs kicked and his hands moved spastically. Daniel and Riley had both gone silent so the only noise in the room was Carson's shuffling and ragged breathing. A small trickle of blood dripped from his nose and suddenly it was over. Carson's body relaxed into the floor and his breathing settled until it looked like he was just peacefully asleep.
Riley sat by his feet in complete shock, holding her hands up to her face, covering her mouth. Meanwhile Daniel started to try to wake him up gently. The whole thing couldn't have lasted longer than a minute but for Daniel it felt like forever.
"What just happened?" She whispered.
Daniel let one hand continue sifting through his hair and used the other to pat at his face which was pale and clammy under his hand. "Come on Carson, wake up. Open your eyes." He said.
Carson didn't immediately respond but he did make some feeble attempt to roll over onto his side. Daniel helped position him. The blood continued streaming from his nose until it threatened to stain the floor and Carson's shirt. There weren't any tissues around so he wiped Carson's face with his own sleeve. They took it as a good sign when he groaned and swatted the hand away weakly.
"Can you here me, Carson? It's Danny, I'm right here." He spoke softly, expecting Carson to be more than a little confused as he came to. When he finally cracked his eyes open the first thing he saw was books, then more books, and some shelves filled with books. It didn't take him long to figure out where he was.
Once Carson was awake Daniel stopped touching him and gave him some space, only helping when he wanted to sit up. Carson's head throbbed with the motion and he touched two fingers to his nose, frowning when they came away bloody.
"I'll go find some water." Riley said, trying to make herself useful. Carson caught her sleeve as she moved to stand.
"Wait... I... saw something." He said. "It doesn't tell us much more than we already know but, I did see that she died on the rocks, someone didn't move her there. And the spell was powerful I felt-" he stopped and shook his head as he remembered the pain and fear she felt. He raked his hands over his face and shuddered, as if checking that his own eyes were still there. He didn't dare look at the photos again to check, but one detail did stand out to him.
"What was in her purse?" He asked. The woman had been holding onto it pretty tight, maybe just out of fear, or maybe there was something important in there.
"We didn't find a purse with her body." Riley frowned, wondering why she hadn't thought of it before. Of course the young woman would have had some kind of bag with her. It wasn't much but it was something to look into.
"It was green." Carson muttered, staring off into what looked to be the Historical Asian literature section.
"Thanks Carson. I'll look into it. Let me know if you guys find anything out but there's no rush." She stood up and found that glass of water she was looking for then gathered her things and left Carson in Daniel's care.
Leaning against one of the tables legs, Carson signed, trying to make sense of what the hell was going on. He hoped this was a one time thing. A minor fluke on the universe's part. Magic was like that sometimes. But he couldn't help but feel obligated to solve this case now. He was already too involved to back out and even though Riley said there wasn't a rush, he knew that wasn't true. Two people already died in strange circumstances and if no other actually qualified magic users would step up to help, it was up to him.
"You okay?" Danny asked. Carson nodded slightly, careful not to aggravate his budding headache. "Let's get your face cleaned up then."
His nose had stopped bleeding but his face was still a mess of a combination of fresh, dried, and smeared blood. Carson didn't feel much like standing up but he took a few sips of water then braced a hand against the floor to push himself onto his knees. The floor wobbled under his feet but Danny was already helping him the rest of the way up.
He staggered to the staff bathroom at the back of the store and took a good look at himself. There were new dark circles under his eyes. He didn't know whether it was from using his healing skills that morning or the uh.. the other thing. The word "attack" came to mind, since that's exactly what it felt like.
"You should go home and rest." His friend said from the doorway. "I can leave the store for a bit and walk you home." He offered.
"No," Carson said, "we'll stay until we figure this out. Grab the books, we're taking this party to the couch." He said with newfound determination. The book store had a reading nook with a giant second hand couch, some beanbags, pillows, and a few decorative soft lit lamps. If he was going to lay down, which he definitely was, he might as well stay productive. Carson settled down in the corner, laying sideways to take up two out of the three cushions. Daniel returned with the large stack of books and set them down with a thud before settling into the other end of the couch. The spent the afternoon reading and taking notes in comfortable silence. Daniel didn't wake him up when Carson inevitably fell asleep with not one, but several books in his lap.
#drabble#OC drabble#whump#Carson Hall#Riley Miller#Daniel Hopkins#tired#weak#pain#headache#vision#collapse#convulsions#nosebleed#I'm really starting to ship Carson and Danny#How is he so oblivious#comfort#caring friend#painful visions are gonna be a regular thing now
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Things Forgotten Chapter 6
Link to Previous Chapter
Link to Next Chapter
A Story is revealed, a day passes, classes begin again and a Reunion Long awaited happens.
Inside the apartment both girls dropped their stuff off in their respective rooms before sitting in the living room, with Katie pulling up the anime she was talking about for both of them to watch. Rachel was mostly silent through the episodes, giving a few comments on them here and there… before falling silent all together as confusion racked her brain.
“Hey… what’s wrong?” Katie finally asked, looking over to the blond.
“... Why… did you kiss Barry? I thought… didn’t you say once before… that you only thought of him as a friend?”
Katie was silent after that question. She glanced between the TV and her friend for a bit before sighing.
“... I had a nightmare about the New Year's Incident last night… with that creepy kid… breaking into Barry’s cabin and how the kid… the kid stabbed Barry…”
Rachel remembered that… she couldn’t remember everything that happened on that day… but she did remember how she, Barry, Katie and Nick all went up to Barry’s cabin to celebrate the New Year… only for it to go downhill from there.
They had arrived on New Year's Eve… a day before Barry’s parents would have been coming up as they had their own New Years party going on. They had been having fun and goofing off… when this creepy local kid popped up in the window while it was night time. He had a knife and at first seemed like he was trying to scare them… it worked so the kid backed off. They were all kinda scared but had picked up quickly what the kid was just trying to do, and choose to ignore him instead… after all the cabin had a silent alarm system set up in it and there were four people there.
Rachel never knew what changed in the kid’s mind… but a while later Barry’s phone got a notification that the alarm had been tripped and barely a second after that his parents called to make sure they were alright. Thankfully they did tell them about the creepy kid and the parents let the police know to head over. After the call Barry almost left the room to see if he could find where the kid was but everyone stopped him and convinced him to just wait… safety in numbers after all….
It turned out the kid had more than a knife with him as he also had a gun. Katie tried to talk the guy down… after all he was clearly just a kid… and he was shaking as he held the weapons. She had been hit in the face and told to shut up, in response Barry tried to stop him… but was hit in the gut with the knife… that's where it got a little fuzzy for Rachel… but she remembered when she did come back to awareness she was standing over the kid with a fire poker in her hands like she had just used it as a blunt weapon… and her hands were shaking hard and her breathing was erratic.
“... What…. Exactly happened in your nightmare?” Rachel asked hesitantly after the memories were brought up. Katie looked away for a moment before answering.
“It… wasn’t all that different except… Barry hadn’t been lucky that he was stabbed in a non vital area…” Katie explained, her tired eyes getting an almost haunted look. Rachel hesitantly placed a hand on the brunette’s shoulder in comfort.
Rachel knows that she’s not that good at comforting others… but she’s seen the others doing this often and it seems to work. Well… for the most part.
Katie closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before pulling up a forced smile and looking back to Rachel.
“So, enough about me… What do you think of the show so far huh? It’s really good right?”
Rachel didn’t say anything… this was so like Katie… trying to change the topic when she doesn’t know what else to say… or didn’t want to talk about it. Then again… it was probably better than her own response to usually clam up and say nothing at all.
“... the bugs going into the people’s backs… is kind of disturbing…” the blond finally spoke, after a while of silence between the two… it nearly made Katie uncomfortable with how long she took to answer but smiled when Rachel finally did.
“Heh, yeah it really is… but you have to admit little Geko is freaking adorable.”
“... I think Panju is a little more interesting…”
Katie snickered a little, causing a confused look to cross Rachel’s face.
“I’m surprised you like the stabby little guy! From what I’ve been able to tell from fanfictions the little guy is a fan favorite. I was expecting you to be more of an Oranju fan is all,” Katie laughed, causing the blond to glance away feeling a little embarrassed.
“... Panju has better dialogue… and Oranju is a little to mellow for the show… in… in my opinion at least.”
“Here, here,” Katie chuckled a little before turning the show back on for them to watch. Both of them having a little bit of a commentary going on through the episodes as they went. They only stopped once it was eight o’clock and Katie asked if Rachel was hungry at all.
“... what do you want?” The blond asked, her friend seemed to freeze in that moment with a ‘Shit!’ expression on her face.
“Uh…… Well what do you want?”
“... you asked…”
“...”
“...”
“We really fucking suck at dinner plans,” Katie groaned, flopping back into her seat with her hands over her face. Silence fell over the two for a bit before Rachel, surprisingly, spoke up first.
“What about pizza? Isn’t… that usually our default… when we have nothing planned?”
“Yeah well our usual Pizza place closed down and Domino’s is spendy after a while…”
“... I got paid this week…”
“... Well shit, we’re getting Pizza then I guess. You wanna do online ordering or phone calling?”
“...”
“Oh right… TO THE INTERNET WE GO!”
“... Are we going to pass the internet cat section?” Rachel asked with a small smile, knowing her friend was getting into one of her joking moods.
“And the music section while we’re at it!” Katie declared and hurried off to her own room to grab her laptop. It was after all… the only computer that was even in the apartment for the two. When Katie came back with the laptop she was already getting the website up. Sitting down beside Rachel the two started putting what they wanted on their order and finally choose their method of payment.
Now all they had to do was wait… and watch some more shows till then.
….
Nick was annoyed. He lost his computer rights and his parents were practically pushing the sleeping pills on him now since he snuck out late at night. A typical grounding for him by this point, but it was still annoying. He still had his phone access at least so he was able to do a bit of research but it was harder with the touch screen…. And now he was getting a call from Barry ruining his research.
“What do you want Barry?”
“Nick, what is love?”
“Oh my God are you serious right now?”
“I am Nick! I don’t know what to think anymore! First I think Katie just likes me as a friend, then she comes up and kisses me and now… Fuck man I have no idea what I’m feeling!”
“.... Then why are you asking ME this? I have no experience with girls besides Rachel and Katie…”
“You’re the smart guy!”
“Oh my god… This is like the time you ‘Turned Geology into Chemistry’ back in Middle School isn’t it? Look it probably didn’t even mean anything.”
“No see, she kissed me on the lips Nick! ON THE LIPS!”
“Well then why don’t you fucking ask her out instead of calling me? In case you didn’t realize it, but I’m grounded Barry.”
“... Alright I’ll ask her out when she’s done with classes tomorrow! Thanks Nick!”
“Ah wait don’t- And he hung up… Ugh why am I friends with that idiot again?”
Nick was getting a headache. First his own personal research project was hampered with losing his laptop privileges until he had to go back to school, then he got stuck having to use his phone… which doesn’t make it easier on him as he has to zoom in on everything, then his parents expect him to take his sleeping pills at exactly ten o’clock and don’t leave him alone till he does… and now he has to deal with Barry getting his first crush back.
“What’s next? The dead coming back?” Nick groaned and flopped back onto his bed. He pulled off his reading glasses and held his head in his hands. He just wanted his laptop back… he needed to find answers after all.
….
The next day came and Rachel was feeling a little better. The pain was dulled more now, her hand was still bandaged but thankfully not that bad anymore. Katie asked if she was sure she wanted to go to class today… but Rachel refused to stay at home alone, and also she herself was concerned for Katie who still seemed tired.
As they went to the college some of the students stopped to stare at Rachel, most out of concern from the bruises while others were confused. One of them, a young female with dark blond, pixie cut hair, came running over with a look of worry on her face and a notepad and pen in one hand. The girl quickly scribbled some words on it before showing it to Rachel.
You okay? What happened?
“... I’m fine Emily…”
Emily glanced down from the bruise on Rachel’s face to her bandaged hand. Rachel was glad she had decided to wear a scarf to cover the bruises on her neck when Eric tried to strangle her. Emily took her pen and notepad and began writing more on it before letting Rachel read it.
Don’t believe you… Did you get mugged? Did something worse happen?
Rachel was silent, but Katie stepped in.
“It’s… more of a private talk topic Em… let’s wait till after class alright?”
Emily looked like she really wanted to know as she opened her mouth for a second before stopping herself, looking away and sighing. With an upset look the blond wrote down an “Okay” before following through with the rest of her day with the other two.
After the first day of the new quarter finished Emily gently tugged on Rachel’s sweater to get her attention so she could read what she wrote.
If you’re ready. What happened?
Rachel read it but kept quiet… it was already hard enough telling her best friends what happened… but telling someone she wasn’t one hundred percent comfortable with was much, much harder. Katie almost seemed like she was going to tell for her… but clammed up… she didn’t really know what to say either. Their silence seemed to make Emily all the more worried and anxious.
“... it was a mugging…” Rachel finally said. “... I refused to let go of my bag… they beat me up… they left my bag behind... after taking the money…”
Katie bit her tongue from saying anything to blow the lie. But could tell from how Rachel couldn’t make eye contact with Emily that she felt bad for lying. It was also hard for her to even talk about it… and it didn’t exactly happen to her.
Emily seemed to buy it though… After all it was normal for someone to have a hard time talking about getting beaten, let alone mugged. The other blond then scribbled some more words as she held a concerned look.
What hurts? So I don’t accidentally cause you pain when getting your attention.
“... my ribs… hand… and cheek.”
Emily nodded, taking out a notebook and writing that down, most likely as a reminder.
“... On that note, how are you doing Em?” Katie asked as Emily finished. She paused for a moment before pulling her notepad up and writing on that again.
Doc’s say the worst is over. Not allowed to speak for a while though. Gotta recover from surgery.
“That’s great! Hey… We should totally get ice cream to celebrate.”
I got another class in 30. Tomorrow though?
“You got it Em! You in Rachel?”
“... Sure.”
“Fuck yeah!”
Katie was in a much better mood with that plan on her mind. Rachel was just glad she been able to keep her memories for the moment…. Or rather remember the past three days for once… and she hasn’t even taken her medication once since then.
… Why is that? ... Why… have the doctors been giving them to me if all they do is get rid of my memories?
….
On their way back to the apartment, Katie was so confused on why she got a call from Barry. Rachel could only pick up one half of the conversation but it seemed like even Katie was kinda confused.
“Uh… yeah I’m free… Wait a date? Whoa slow down there buddy… Date?”
“... Maybe it’s because you kissed him…” Rachel offered at the repeated word, surprising Katie a little but she ended up face palming herself.
“Oh geeze… Barry… I…” Katie paused and glanced over to Rachel, who was curious on why she suddenly had her friends attention on her… before Katie looked away with a thoughtful look before sighing. “Sure, how about Friday for dinner?”
Rachel was surprised at this answer. She was honestly expecting Katie to say she was sorry and she just wanted to be friends… like almost every other time someone asked her out.
“Yeah really… I’m willing to give it a shot. See ya Friday.” Katie hung up at the end and turned to address the surprised Rachel. “... What?”
“... You said yes to a date…”
“Well… Might as well give it a shot you know. Besides unlike Eric, Barry is much nicer about rejection… I mean he’s dealt with me saying no multiple times before when we were in Middle School.”
“....”
“Besides… I’m not really sure… you know what never mind. It’s not that important.”
“.... Okay…” Rachel responded, she wasn’t going to push her friend on something she didn’t want to talk about.
“Come on, I gotta get ready for work. I don’t know about your work schedule but you should probably get ready as well.” Katie grinned as she dragged Rachel back home. The blond herself smiled a little, the familiar words about her smile coming to mind once more as she did. Soon after instead of getting the pang of sadness… she thought she saw a familiar hooded figure on the opposite side of the street.
Zack? She thought, turning her head entirely with wide eyes… only to see that she was mistaken and that it was just someone in a similar colored hood. She felt disappointment raising up and replacing that small sense of hope she had.
I… still don’t remember much about Zack… but… do I… really want to see him again? Even as she questioned that… she found herself glancing back at the hooded person in hopes that she had been wrong in thinking it was someone else… but the person was already gone, along with that small amount of hope she didn’t know she had left.
….
Nick was home alone now… and he snuck his laptop back. His dad wouldn’t be home for another four hours, his mom and sister were out shopping and knowing them it will be another two and a half hours till they get home… three and a half if they decided to get their hair done.
Dad should have thought harder on where to hide it. The sock drawer is literally the first place I looked this time. Nick thought with a smirk as he logged on and brought up the internet to begin his search anew.
Instead of typing in the Back Alley Murderer…. This time he began a new search topic.
Rachel Gardner.
There were a few different results… but he found the ones he wanted. From the time she had at the hospital… and an apparent time where a few months after she had been kidnapped from said hospital. This… this was new to him. Rachel was kidnapped a second time? Huh, the more you know.
Reading through he found that the main suspect was… Isaac Foster… the Back Alley Murderer… This was the first time Nick was able to get the guys name… and see a picture of him. Well… a kinda picture as it seemed really blurry as if the guy couldn’t hold still at all. This was seriously the best picture they could get of the guy?
Must have had ADHD or something… or just a major problem with sitting still… is his skin white or something? For sure his hair’s black… but seriously I’m having a hard time making out these details! Nick fumed as he studied the image for a bit. He decided to save the image and send it to his phone so he could try and pick out any characteristics later. After all he was pressed for time.
Acquired Blurred Picture.
Oh wait… they also had a police sketch of the guy. Might as well get that one as well. After all it had better details in it then the blurred one.
Acquired Sketched Picture.
After getting the pictures he continued reading the article, practically absorbing the information in it.
She was kidnapped from her room… her door was blocked from the inside well before the sound of the window breaking happened. All that was found in the room after they forced the door open was the chipped knife Rachel had brought in claiming to be hers. From the sound of it… she didn’t put up much of a fight to get away from the guy… rather she seemed to help him by stalling the orderlies and doctors with the blocked door.
He came to the end of the article and quickly switched tabs to the second article he found. He soon closed out of it as it didn’t provide any new information, he did the same with the third one but the fourth one… that one was about five months after the last one… and from the date on it about two months before she first went to their Middle School.
She and the killer were found trying to cut through an Alleyway to get away from pursuing cops… Isaac was killed on sight and Rachel was in clear distress after that… There’s not much else on what happened to her after that… except she was kept in the hospital for a while and never seemed to be found after that.
He tried to find any more articles for information… but none seemed to get past that point. He then tried looking up Isaac Foster… but found even less on him then there was on Rachel. That actually pissed him off… because it was almost like this guy didn’t exist with how little information there was.
“Who the hell were you Isaac Foster?”
“Better question is what are you doing with your laptop back young man?” The voice of his mother startled him… and made him glance from both his mother and the time at least twice before speaking.
“... You’re home early…”
“You’re avoiding the question Nicolas Sherman West.”
Ah, the classic full name… Nick’s mother truly was mad at him if this was going on.
“... You guys should know I’m always going to find a way to the internet. Though you really need to think of better hiding places. I’ve practically mapped out every hiding spot by now.”
His mom was angered at that moment… but was cut off from a coming rant when her oldest child walked into the room… and took the laptop from her younger sibling.
“What the hell Joan?!”
“Isn’t it obvious? You’re not supposed to have this idiot,” she responded while closing out of his tab and shutting the computer down. “So I’m gonna be the one hiding it now.”
“Right like there’s any place you can hide it.”
“There is one place that if you even think of touching you’re dead meat.”
Nick pondered what she said for a moment… before it rammed into him like a bullet train and his expression turned to one of horror.
“You wouldn’t…”
“Watch me.”
“Besides you’re not supposed to have it now anyways,” his mother supplied as the two women left the room with the confiscated item in tow. Nick knew where it was going to be placed now… but he really didn’t want to try grabbing it now.... Nor did he think he ever wanted to touch it again when he did get it back.
Now how am I gonna finish my research? Nick thought to himself before hitting his head lightly onto his desk.
….
The Reverend was settling down in his home for the night. Internally hoping that tonight would be like the other… no one getting the bright idea to sneak into his Church just to lay eyes on the resident ghosts. It was hard enough to get them to remain calm sometimes… having so many people in one setting in the middle of the night seemed to set them on edge or rather…
How interesting of you to show up once again after all these years Rachel Gardner. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Daniel would be much more excited at your presence… but Edward on the other hand surprises me a little more. I thought that he got over that crush four years ago now, the priest thought to himself as he opened the top to a snake terrarium and dropped in the proper amount of food to the two white serpents inside. The two snakes eating their food eagerly as their owner wheeled towards the small study of his home.
In the room the auburn haired boy sat at the table scribbling something into a leather bound book with some schematics and placement ideas for a new grave underneath it. He still wore the closed up jacket from the other day but it seemed as if… blood was starting to appear in a long vertical line on the chest. He seemed so engrossed in his writing that he didn’t even turn or even say a small greeting to the reverend, nor seem to notice the growing blood stain he produced. “Black” could only guess what had the kid so wrapped up in his own writing.
“Thinking about trying to find Rachel once again?” That caused Eddie to jump, a light blush on his face at being caught.
“NO!”
A quirked brow from the Reverend made the boy fidget a bit.
“... maybe…”
The priest sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. It was bad enough he had to find ways to keep Danny from going after the girl… and keep Cathy from purging the sinners that came to the confessionals. He really didn’t want to add more work to his already hectic life by finding ways to keep Eddie from sneaking away. He is just one man in a wheelchair after all.
“You know very well that you shouldn’t.”
Eddie was silent at that. He knew very well he shouldn’t… but he was just curious. After all… she seemed different after all these years… and he wasn’t dumb enough to not notice the pain she was in or the bruises.
The reverend had sighed at the silence and went over to the kid’s side to look at the schematics and placement chart. They were due to hold another funeral within the coming week after all and it was best to have a solid plan for the grieving family.
“... The placement around space H 9 seems more appropriate,” the elder offered, getting straight into official business and to remove the bitter look on the child’s exposed face. Eddie perked up at that and held up the placement chart he made.
“Personally that would have been my second choice, J 3 was more my first one. After all it’s a newer space and from the information on this person they had a rather extensive family…. Better location to move around and place the kind of grave stone they wanted.”
The two discussed the arrangements some more before coming to an agreement and the Reverend to decide to turn in for the night.
“... Oh and Edward.”
“Hm?”
“You’re ruining another lost coat. Make sure to properly clean it when you have the time and put it back in the lost and found.”
Eddie flinched before glancing down and glaring at the invasive red that made its way onto the… borrowed coat like it was the most hateful thing in the world. He took the coat off and underneath was his normal outfit… or rather the one he died in… right down to the large deep slash in his chest that stained the front of his white shirt red and even got a little on the overalls.
He hated it more then anything… except maybe the one who caused the death wound.
If I ever see Zack again… I’ll make him regret what he did to me.
….
A loud sneeze startled the few people who heard it. The one who caused it was so much more confused though.
I’m fucking dead how the hell can I catch a cold?! Zack thought with confusion clear on his bandaged face. Then again… many things about this afterlife didn’t make sense to the killer.
“Movies made more sense then this bull shit…” he grumbled to himself outloud. He really didn’t want to deal with anymore bullshit… after all he spent almost an entire two days trying to find Rachel. It was easier said than done really.
“Have a good night Derek!”
Perking up at the voice, Zack turned his head and felt his eyes widen as he saw the person he was looking for stepping out of a closing down Bakery across the street. Luck was finally on his side it appears.
He noticed rather quickly a bag of the baked goods in her arms… and the small smile on her face. It was just like how he remembered it. It sucked… but it looked really good on her. He watched as she started on her trek… to where? Hell if he knew… but he was determined to catch up to her by this point. He’s waited too damn long to find her and like hell he was going to let her get away that easily.
He was about to run across the road only to quickly pull himself back as a car raced by.
“FUCKER! CAN’T YOU SEE I’M….” Zack shouted only to pause then slap a hand over his face. “I’m fucking dead duh… I’m a dumbass…”
With that in mind he dashed across the street, not caring about cars this time and was quickly catching up to the blond… who seemed to have heard his oncoming footsteps and paused for a moment.
“RAY!”
His excited shout caused her to actually stop moving altogether and for her to slowly turn around with wide blue eyes.
“Zack?”
#things forgotten#chapter 6#satsuriku no tenshi#angels of death#ocs#rachel gardner#isaac foster#edward mason#fanfiction#things forgotten AU
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