#collecting misfit toys au

[eleanor-bradstreet]

Hi Eleanor! Do you have any bridgerton fic recommendations? Love your writing!!

Hello Nonny!

I'm so pleased you enjoy my stories, that is sweet of you to say! Thank you! 💙 As for fic recommendations, build your blanket fort, get a beverage and prepare to never emerge because boy do I ever have some for you...

Do you want to feel like an artist is painting a mural across your heart, swirling colors of intense emotion from lust to anguish to redemption to joy, all of it blending perfectly into a sensation of bone-deep satisfaction? Then you need to check out the works of my dear friend @thebabblingbrookenook Masterlist here.

Brooke has crafted some of the most unique and heartfelt Benedict and Anthony stories out there, mostly modern AU and x Reader, delving deep into character psyches in a variety of breathtaking scenarios. I don't know if I can pick favorites, but don't miss:

If The World Was Ending - an apocalyptic Benedict love story

His First Muse - the most beautiful examination of Violet and Benedict's relationship you'll ever read

Wide Open Spaces - for some sultry Benedict friends-to-lovemaking

The Viscount Who Loved Me Too Much - an ongoing Anthony multichapter romance that is sure to surprise and delight

Or if your tastes are skewing a bit more...carnal, you must know about the incomparable @fayes-fics. Benedict smut queen and creator of the A&B manbread sandwich, her catalog offers so many steamy encounters with the two eldest Bridgerton brothers that you are at risk of developing bedsores while you enjoy them lefthanded 😉 But lucky for us, she plies her skilled pen to sweet romance and heartwrenching emotions as well. Masterlist here.

There are literally, literally too many jewels to highlight in the treasure trove of Faye's stories, but I highly encourage reading:

Lessons - the A&B throuple series of your dreams

Double Bind - an A&B love triangle series Faye sweetly crafted from my greedy little prompts

Second Son - a beautiful G-rated story of Benedict finding love and self-worth

The Things We Do For Love - Anthony. Benedict. Orgasms. Emotions. Just read it.

I have to cut myself off because I could list these forever...

Then if you're in the mood for some Viscount served up piping hot, pay a visit to our darling Bridgerton smut auntie @colettebronte My talented friend practices her own kind of alchemy, blending no-holds-barred kinks with fantastical settings and even a dash of history to create stories that are completely unique and entirely incendiary. The steam is....burning, the sweetness is real and the characterizations are always on point.

Her entire collection should be read, Masterlist here, but personal favorites for me include:

Lord Bridgerton's List - Thigh Riding - Just, read the whole List. Trust me.

The Queen and the General 4 - A powerplay threesome with Anthony and Simon. Need I say more?

Rise and Breathe - healing heartbroken regency Anthony through kink? I cannot wait to see where this series goes...

All The Time in The World - an apocalyptic Anthony series that I am salivating for more of!

I know so many talented fic authors, I could turn this answer into a novel. Search the #fic rec tag in my blog to see them all, but I would be remiss not to highlight these other incredible stories and authors:

@queen-of-the-misfit-toys is a stunning Bridgerton family writer, who knows how to make your jaw hit the floor, either from the delightful filth of her smut or the most heartbreakingly beautiful angst you could imagine. I recommend The End of All Things

@the-other-art-blog Just knocked my absolute socks off by imagining the most perfect origin story for My Cottage here

@fiction-is-life Is taking my prompts for angsty Benedict and delivering with a stunning series starting with Touchstone of Our Character

@urchintoast creates wonderful, lively imagery and has written some heartfelt and adorable Anthony and Benedict stories. I highly recommend Fear

And dear lord, the sweepingly beautiful, searingly sexy, deeply moving Don't You Remember by @captainbucky-yt is my most favorite Benophie retelling

I could type my fingers to stubs if I told you about all the fics I have loved, so please take this as a springboard and go enjoy everything these Bridgerbuddies have to offer 💙

Dividers by @firefly-graphics

[ammonitetheseaserpent]

Here’s a masterpost of all my AUs (that I��m keeping) bc I have so. MANY. For the sake of organization I’m gonna divide them into categories:

Amphibia

Scrap-Metal Calamity AU - Mr. X stumbles upon remains from the Cloakbot and uses them to build robots of the Calamtrio to track Anne & the Plantars; they malfunction and gain slightly more… violent intentions. Might do something with this. https://www.tumblr.com/ammonitetheseaserpent/682867934941642752/so-last-night-i-had-a-really-weird-dream-that-one

Eye For 7 Eyes AU - Marcy’s soul gets separated from her body when possessed by the Core. Later on, she gains an opportunity to return the favor. I’ve got a few ideas for this one. https://www.tumblr.com/ammonitetheseaserpent/687632572839346176/another-au-outline-thing-this-one-for-the-eye

Calamity Spirits AU - The gems house spirits who are basically angels of the Guardian, and who provide the girls with an extra bit of challenge, as well as an extra bit of power. Hmmm I’ve got some art ideas. https://www.tumblr.com/ammonitetheseaserpent/687901959418757120/heres-an-official-outline-for-lynxz-studios-and

Brutus Marcy AU - A one-off concept where the stabbing in True Colors gets a role reversal. I’ve uh. Got an animatic in my head for this one. https://www.tumblr.com/ammonitetheseaserpent/679475910403047424/brutus-marcy-au-idea-for-march

The Owl House

Collecting Misfit Toys AU - Where the Collector bonds w/ the Grimwalkers and the spirit of Caleb and starts helping them behind Belos’s back. https://www.tumblr.com/ammonitetheseaserpent/687953936112582656/remember-that-post-i-made-about-that

Spy-Team Stowaway AU - Team RED steals the Collector’s disc after Hollow Mind and, after finding out who he is, does their best to keep him away from Belos. Not sure how much I’ll do with this concept, but it’s fun to think about. https://www.tumblr.com/ammonitetheseaserpent/687879461419581440/tossing-this-au-idea-into-the-masses-team-red

Tide of Tied Minds AU - King experiences the whole TTI visit/connection with the Collector sooner in the story, and so gets more time to bond with them. Comes in the form of a fanfic; first chapter here: https://www.tumblr.com/ammonitetheseaserpent/694878021337989120/tide-of-tied-minds

Sky And Earth AU - Far-off future scenario that focuses on King’s children and grandchildren and their conflicts with the Archivists. Definitely more to come. :3 https://www.tumblr.com/ammonitetheseaserpent/719983575039131648/moar-info-for-my-far-off-future-au-and-my-titan

Crossovers

Marsh Mystic/Double Agent Marcy AU - Andrias decides to use Marcy as a scout for other worlds. He sends her to the demon realm first - where she immediately gets picked up by another manipulative tyrant. Definitely have more to cover w/ this (aka Season 3). For now though, main infodoc is here: https://www.tumblr.com/ammonitetheseaserpent/687530350699855873/haiii-i-realize-i-probably-put-my-revamped-marsh

Platinum Web AU - Smaller AU scenario where the Collector and King end up in the ENA universe; the Collector meets ENA and Moony, and King initially ends up in Hourglass Meadow w/ the Shepherd and her dogs. Help me I’m now brainrotting over the character dynamics I set up https://www.tumblr.com/ammonitetheseaserpent/714281713996627968/screw-it-little-tohxena-crossover-scenario-the

The Wing Clowder AU - Owl House characters as cats in the Warriors universe. Not as invested in this AU as in others, but I might do a thing or two with it. First post here: https://www.tumblr.com/ammonitetheseaserpent/720127619217211392/decided-to-build-on-some-ideas-for-a-warrior

OFF.web AU - The plot of OFF but with ENA characters (with some liberties). Definitely gonna flesh this one out with what characters in which roles in which zones (plus I haven’t seen the entire game yet). Rudimentary plot outlined here: https://www.tumblr.com/ammonitetheseaserpent/716860260218994688/not-me-barely-starting-to-get-into-off-and-already

Jurassic Gems AU - Jurassic World is an ambitious park built by Greg. The CGs are dinosaurs made by InGen, the Homeworld gems are dinosaurs made by BioSyn, and chaos ensues. This is an OLDDD premise, one of the first AUs I made upon coming to this site, and I’m pretty sure the designs are the first things I’ve posted on my art blog. Putting here bc I’m thinking of maaaaybe reviving it. We’ll see *twiddles fingers together sinisterly*

[owl-house-words-suggest]

The very last thing the tyrant did spy

Was 6 haunting sets of flint-hard red eyes

[agent-cupcake]

i believe i am legally and morally obligated to ask how the wolves fit into this mobster AU 👀

~As thieves, of course! Have I ever mentioned my love of heist plots? For a while I toyed with the idea of an Ocean’s Eleven style rework of the Cindered Shadows DLC which was basically the prototype for this gangverse AU. There are ideas from that story that I think are great (Sexy powerful casino owner Rhea, Edelgard playing banker for the operation, Claude taking on the role of some super rich foreigner needing to secure his briefcase in the vault before dramatically feigning a catastrophic illness) but that is a tale lost to time.

~In our actual alternate universe, Yuri is the smooth as silk, multitalented and criminally inclined conman leader of the specialized group. Unlike the other house leaders, he’ll take his schemes to wherever the money is... but his true home is Fódlan City. 

~He grew up in the southeast area of Faerghus officially known as Cathedral Street and unofficially, and quite aptly, called Abyss. It was, at one point, a government funded housing project that promised affordable living and better jobs. But, due in part to the dysfunctional bureaucratic relationship between Faerghus and the city government during the recession, Cathedral Street became a trap, keeping the poor locked into dead-end jobs and unfair rental contracts. It became a place for misfits and criminals, pretty much disconnected from the rest of the borough and city for all that anybody cared about the abandoned project.

~The internationally famous thief known only as Aubin has a suspicious number of similarities with the old man who taught Yuri all the tricks of the trade in his youth. 

~For all of the shared quirks between the two, some people joke that the Mockingbird is Aubin himself.

~Although his one true passion is con jobs and heists, Yuri is willing to engage in all sorts of shady endeavors... Assuming there’s enough money involved. This includes, but is not limited to, brokering extortion, buying and selling information, fencing, arranging sales, and fixing any sort of “problems” powerful people might find themselves having. Yuri’s skillset doesn’t necessarily make him qualified for all jobs, but he has a special talent for finding the right people and organizing them together. 

~He’s got fantastic aim and an impressive collection of guns. Yuri’s not one for very much hand-to-hand but he’s always got knives and such hidden on his person. You know, just in case. He also has an impressive knowledge of first aid.

~Yuri is an enthusiastic supporter of both Dimitri and Claude and their efforts to knock down the corrupt elite and “clean up”... especially Claude weeding out the business of human trafficking. Very sportingly, Yuri swore to never steal from Claude’s casinos. He's nice like that.

~Yuri doesn’t see things in terms of conflict of interest because, professionally, the Mockingbird has no interest in politics. Personally, he just enjoys the satisfaction of seeing abusive scummy people getting thrown from their ivory towers. Especially when they come begging to him for help and can’t cough up enough money for his services.

~Physical objects don’t have much value to Yuri, even money doesn’t mean much to him to an extent. He knows how easily it can all be taken away, knows that in his line of work nothing is truly permanent, and he knows how to survive without any of it. 

~That said, he loves shopping. Especially at high end places. Clothes are a special weakness of his. Plus, he loooooves spoiling his mom with fancy nice things. The first thing he did when he began making money was give her the money to buy a nice house and car in her own name, assets that belong solely to her to both live comfortably and have as a security net. 

~He picked up the other three Wolves kind of by accident. For the most part, his job never involved any consistent cast of people. He had people he trusted and would hire for jobs, but they didn’t work specifically for/with him. But then Aelfric hired him to steal something and he wound up working with Balthus, Constance, and Hapi. Unlike most people, they weren’t bound to any group or organization. They were skilled, but underutilized. None of them would ever admit it, but they were all missing something.

~Also, Aelfric’s job ended up being a trick. He hired a skilled but inexperienced team so he could have useful idiots to throw under the bus after he got what he wanted. Unfortunately, it did not work out so hot for him. Fortunately, it brought together four useful idiots who formed an incredibly sought after criminal organization. 

~Before Balthus met Yuri, he was a disinherited alcoholic one binge away from being completely homeless as opposed to the almost-homelessness of working random jobs and couch surfing. He got picked up because he was good at punching and familiar with both the elite world and the criminal underbelly.

~He’s a terrible liar, but he is fantastic at intimidation and beating people up. He acts as a bodyguard and Yuri’s right hand man. Having something worthwhile to dedicate himself to actually helped him straighten out a lot. 

~Although he’s not the one who comes up with schemes or anything, his straightforward approach to problems often helps Yuri from thinking himself into a corner. Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to take it as it is, Yuri likes to overcomplicate everything.

~Constance is the demolitions expert who gets an uncomfortable amount of joy from her job. There is, as she says, an artistry to what she does. She is not a vulgar street thug with a molotov, she is an expert of the architectural and structural, a master manipulator of destruction and dismantlement. 

~The Nuvelle family was of decently high standing when she was young. Her father was on the local board working his way up. While he was in office, the topic of the “Brigid Deal” was hot. It had to do with government interaction with international businesses and corruption. When the Adrestian board had to start answering for this, they made Mr. Nuvelle their fall guy and called it case closed. There was rampant speculation about the accident that befell her family after the fact, especially when it was rumored that he had evidence of deeper corruption, but nothing ever came of it. The ensuing media circus and ruin deeply impacted Constance. She got a scholarship to go to school, but many people noted that despite her intellect, she was erratic and rather antisocial. There might be some deeper psychological reason for her love of demolition of structure and trauma inflicted by a corrupt system, but who knows.

~Hapi is pretty much the straight man to the rest of them. She doesn’t get carried away with the details, hyped up on violence, or frenzied by the idea of blowing something up. Sometimes it seems almost like she’s along for the ride, but she’s the only reason the Wolves don’t implode through their sheer quirkiness. 

~She was a teenage runaway who wound up in Abyss and fell into the criminal world kind of by accident. Even more than Yuri, Hapi harbors a deep resentment for the negligence of the government. 

~She’s a very skilled jewel thief, Hapi especially goes for ones obtained and profitable through unethical means. She’s also a decent pickpocket and knows how to run and/or spot a lot of typical scams. Despite her proficiency with guns, Hapi’s not really keen on the violence part and will always advocate for alternative methods to solving problems if it’s possible. 

[baka-monarch]

Oh god I just got a cool ideas(maybe fanfic potential?) for this cruelinnit au

———

Someone new joins the SMP! But as they look around, they found multiple buildings, all abandon with no one around...It’s strange since the member list says that everyone is on right now...So they continue to walk around, try to find someone. Until they found this young boy, sitting on a bench, listening to some music. The new member, happy to finally found someone, say hello to him.

“Oh hi! I’m Tommy”

Both of them introduced themself and have a pleasant conversation. Nothing seems strange about Tommy, he’s just a normal boy who seems to have a normal life. He like pranks, he likes music(specially his music disk), women, primes, nothing bad! Until them come to that subject.

“By the way...where everyone?”

“Oh! They’re all in my house!”

“Why’s that?”

“They all live there”

“You all live together? Then why there some house or random building around?”

“Oh it’s because it was their house, but they all move to mine”

“Okay?”

“Wanna met them?”

“Yeah! It be better to see new faces”

“Eheh...yeah”

So then Tommy show the new member his house, not so far from the bench. It was just a simple small dirt house, how everyone is living in there? The answer was the basement or... “The play room” as Tommy like to say it... It was at their surprise when they discover a giant hall with in the center a miniature environment with a small village.

“Oi! Everyone! I’m back! And there someone I want you to all meet!”

It was the shock...tiny people start to come out running out of their house or other place to run at the limit of the environment. They all seems exited and happy to see Tommy, keeping saying “Tommy!” “Tommy’s here!” “Hi Tommy!” “Welcome back Tommy” repeatedly. As the said boy was greeting everyone, the new member is there, watching in fascination and horror the scene that they have. So that’s where everyone were... they were all trap in here, in this child basement! But we’re they really trap? They all seems happy the be here...

“So everyone, I want you to meet (y/n), the new member!”

This said person come back to their mind by being introduce to those tinies.

“Hi (y/n)! Welcome (y/n)! Glad someone new here! Yay new people!”

“Um...hi?”

It was just so weird to see that...no not weird, creepy! It was like little kids, happy to meet new people while their parents is watching them smiling. We’re they always living like this? Living like they were under the order of this young boy? What are the building outside was for if they were so small?!

“(Y/n)? You okay?”

“Huh?! Oh sorry it’s just, I wasn’t expecting meeting so many people at the same time!”

“Yeah it’s overwhelming at first, got same experience”

Oh my god, they need to get out of here! It’s not safe to be with this child who have a sworn of tinies in his basement! They to find someone! Someone who could help those poor people living like this! It’s not right to live like this! They should all be free!

“I-I think I should go...I need to build my house and get some stuff after all”

“Wait! You havn’t got the welcome drink!”

“The what?”

And with that saying, Tommy give them a potion bottle. It was a lavender colour potion, wich is not like any potion that already exist.

“What’s that?”

“It’s the welcome drink!”

“Yeah but, what potion is that?”

“Oh it’s nothing, it’s just an ackward potion with no effect”

“O-oh ok...”

With no more question ask, the new member drank the potion...not do they know that was the worst mistake.

“Now your officially into the collection!”

“The what?”

“My collection!”

“What?!”

And with this statement, the member started shrinking. Going small like all the others in this little environment in this dark basement. They were experiencing the same thing that everyone here as been trough. They were all small to be at the mercy of this cruel child. But they were all liking him, even if a little mean sometimes... but now... they were part of the toy collection of Tommy, wich will be no turning back...

“Welcome to the collection :)”

———

Man I just turn this ideas like a actual oneshot fic! What is wrong with me?! I need sleep xD!

Also I think we should call it the “doll collection” au expect of “cruelinnit” au(but your the one to juge about it)-

Anyway hope you enjoooooyyyy :3

Holy shit I loved this-

Man- I hope (y/n) finds Tubbo (one of the few people not conditioned because trophy pet) so that they can come up with a plan together-

I love this so much 💗💗💗💗

Mcyt g/t tag list:

@nomynameisanon @trashpumped @loriepoptale @encaos @i-am-a-weeb @wyforyu-gaming @shy-septic-dragon @5unfl0writ3r @colorfulsiren @moonmwah @iwasgoingtohellanyways @echoslime @wilbur-simp @trouble-off-grid @the-misfits-system

[gruvia-galaxy]

Gruvia Fanfic Recs

I’ve seen a lot of people asking for Gruvia fanfiction recommendations, so I thought I would share some of my personal favorites.

Long Chaps/Slow Burns:

On-going/Incomplete:

She’s in My Court by be-dazzled

Boys Trip by Marshmallow Apples (def read this, it is SO good!)

Strong Tides by tobethefairybest

Jazz by adoranymph

Something Missing by SapphireRose578 *angst*

Midnight Memories by YoseiNoAme

Ending Scene by nap_princess *angst-ish*

School of Misfit Toys by may005

Fighting Fate by hikarijade13

Forgot to Remeber by annabethlove

Splash by EmeraldLily16

Banks by FantasticNic

Completed:

Heads or Tails & twenty twenty (sort of continuation) by zeldris

Make My Heart Beat by SnowLili

I’ll Keep Your Secrets Safe by Muffindragon227

Not His Fangirl Anymore by cecaniaC

Masquerade (book 1, complete) & Somewhere (book 2, incomplete) by Deathberry19

Consequences by FayeValentine00 *smutty-ish*

One Shots:

Shack Up by StoryQuipster *smutty-ish*

Clarity by randomteenager *angst with happy ending*

College (Ch.2 only) by DancingCrimson

It’s Suprisingly Difficult Kissing Juvia Lockser by MizWrite

Whitewater Ridge by Heart-of-Storms

Unbreakable Windows and Breakable Rocks by Megami.Ze

Written in Pen by Preussenlied

I Love You by SweetMemories1998

Of Fire(boy) and Water(girl) by idek.writings

Hair by nalujerzagruviagale

Back To Those Summer Days by thewritingstar

(The one where Gray leaves gifts for Juvia and the girls think they're from Lyon) by thewritingstar

A Clingy Gray by inspectingg

Authors Recs:

BonneyQ - aka the unofficial queen of the Gruvia fanfiction community. She no longer writes Fairy Tail fanfiction, but definitely check out her past Gruvia stories (if you haven’t already)— they are AMAZING. I didn’t include any of her works in my list specifically just because they are all amazing (and I figured a lot of people already know them).

zeldris - a super creative and original author. Their profile is au galore! I seriously recommend checking them out!

randomteenager - absolutely love their works!! :)

**please note that these are mostly fanfics/authors from outside of tumblr**

If you’re looking to find more tumblr fanfics and authors, check out my other account @gruviafanficsyo, which is a collection of amazing Gruvia fanfictions by talented authors from right here on tumblr :)

!!!! please lmk of any recommendations you guys have :) !!!

(Gruvia Angst recs here)

[yandere-wishes]

The soul of a killer (Twisted Wonderland Chat)

I made this in order to answer @twst-the-royals-au​ question. 

First, let me give you guys a history lesson on the city of misfit toys. Back when the city had just been inhabited and had only recently begun to grow in terms of economy, a number of serial killers were let loose through the city. They were known as the murderous eight, each member was rumored to have killed over 10 people along with other heinous crimes. Now back then the majority of the residence where either toymakers or scientists, neither party really fitting the mold of a killer and also not being able to efficiently track down the killers nor restrain them. The killings began to increase as the city was thrown into a fit of hysteria. Lucky one division (Divisions are companies that house groups of people. There are different divisions for different toys, games, etc. People in divisions usually have rankings of Scientists, researchers, maker, designer, and producer) decided to send some of its researchers to track down evidence and then had their scientists analyzed it to be able to get some idea of who these killers where. Now the "story" goes that the scientist was able to collect enough data on the murders so that designers could make an efficient trap for them. Once the trap was set they were able to capture 6 of the killers. Out of the other two, one was killed and one was captured four days later when he was breaking into the house of a single mother. The tremendous deeds of this division were written down in the City of Lost Toy's history...

But that's only half of the truth, after the division -newly named division 13- had captured there serial killers, they began to perform experiments on them. At first, it was simply sitting down with them and trying to comprehend what made them commit those lawless acts. But it soon turned into putting them in different environments and seeing how they would react. Like putting two of them in a cage and not feeding them for weeks seeing if they would kill and eat each other. Or seeing what effects different drugs would have on them. At one point a scientist and designer noted that the killers were getting weaker and wouldn't live much longer. That's when they decided to extract their souls and keep them in confinement jars. Only put them in bodies when they had experiments to perform. However one of the souls couldn't be confined, Killer 1's ( or "One" ) soul couldn't be confined. Not wanting the soul to escape, the scientist and designer decided to make it a host body and lock the soul within it. That "host body" ended up being London, who, since the day he was born had violence engraved into his soul.

Personally, I like to think that the other members of Lolicassé knew about this, and one of them spread rumors just to get back to London for some reason.

[dragonnan]

Fics for Christmas

A collections of fics I wrote either set during the Christmas season or carry a theme of family and friendship or are just pure fluff and humor.  Multi-fandom:

Have Yourself a Merry Little Psychmas (Psych) A Christmas gathering, family and friends, and some mildly drunken fluff.

Scary Christmas and to All a Good Fright (Psych) Christmas is a time for love and family. Why is it that, when things seem perfect, that's when everything threatens to fall apart?

Wibble Wobble Wibble Wobble To and Fro (Psych) Shawn pops by the station with his "kids" in tow.

Are You Challenging Me? (Psych) Channeling is a fine art. And, possibly, a misdemeanor. Literally based on real events - I’m not even kidding.

Three's a Crowd (Psych) Three guys, one meal, no problem. Right? Well, one of those men is named Shawn Spencer.

Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang and a Sha-La-La (Psych) At this point Shawn had been pretty sure he'd stopped speaking out loud. Aloud. Verbally... Pretty su... well, mostly sure. No, pretty mostly for sure because Mr. Surly, Silent, and Stupid chose that moment to cram a rag that tasted like month old 7Up in his mouth.

Hell's Kitchenaid (Psych) What happens when "academy training" is exchanged for "culinary school". AU. Very AU. And crack too. Crack with a side of crack and a dash of lunacy.

Of Bonding and Baking (MCU) Welcome to the Island of Misfit Toys. Here's a cookie.

Just Another Day in New York (Doctor Strange and Spider-Man) “Mr. Parker.” He addressed – not bothering to look up as he started to dig out his sling ring. Tension or not, he wasn't about to wander the city barefoot. Besides, there had to be a better spot for mental unburdening than a filthy alley. “Shouldn't you be in school?”

On Call (Doctor Strange) It's just an average week for Christine Palmer.

Cold Comfort (Sherlock) Molly and Sherlock are locked in a freezer. They need to stay close for warmth. Very close. For warmth.  No, seriously - that's the ooonly reason....

[sleepyfan-blog]

Blackmail

dreamswap by @onebizarrekai

Fandom: undertale AU, dreamtale

Characters: Dreamswap Blue, Dreamswap Dream, Dreamswap Nightmare

Warnings: Blackmail, Drueswap (maybe?)

Summary: DS Blue wants to make a deal with DS Dream.

Word count: 2,152

"Oh Dreamy-boy~! I hope that you're not busy, as you and I need to have a little chat." Blue sang, squatting on the open windowsill, grinning at the golden angel, his eye lights shining brightly with a genuine glee that sent a cold shiver run down Dream's spine.

"And why should I talk to you, Blue? You are a criminal - one raised voice or pulse of my magic, and you'll be thrown in the dungeon, while it is decided what to be done with you. I do have power restraining cuffs and chains that hold you, and given the crimes that I know for a fact that you have committed..." Dream threatened, turning to face the other with a scowl "And for your information, I have a great deal of paperwork to do, and am in no mood to entertain your nonsense. I will grant you a thirty-second head start out of here before alerting the guards to your presence. Starting-"

"I know why you won't kill Nightmare. Despite everything that you say to your loyal followers about how you will kill him when you capture him, you haven't yet. and I know that you've managed to capture him at least a dozen times. You've even had him in your grasp for months a couple of times, and yet he still breathes. Tell me, did your lackeys ever question you, or are they too blinded by your light to understand the truth?" Blue purred, cutting Dream off as he hopped down from the window and sauntered over to the powerful CEO. He draped himself across the back of the other's chair, one hand coming up to lightly cup the other's jaw, leaning so that he could whisper into the other's non-existent ears "You can't live without him."

Dream deliberately suppressed the panic clawing at his soul, so that it didn't affect his aura. The last thing that he needed was for this miserable, slippery outcode to know for certain that he had something on him, voice hard and implacable, not betraying the tumultuous feelings and thoughts he was struggling to suppress "I have been living without Nightmare as a permanent person in my life for over a hundred years, Blue. I can, and have quite handily, been living without him for quite some time. I don't know what you think you have on me, but you are wrong.Cease touching me, or I will break your hands."

Blue clicked his tongue condescendingly at him, shaking his head a little "My powers allow me to see parts of the code of the people and universes I interact with. I hadn't had the pleasure of meeting your other half until quite recently. He is in possession of one of my favorite toys - who I was unable to retrieve due to his and another's meddling. He's managed to acquire a pair of adorable misfits - I wonder if he'll find more. I am sure that there are more out there. But that's not the most important thing I discovered that day. I'm not quite sure how or why, but your life and his are bound together. If one of you dies, the other will die immediately as well. Given that the two of you have opposing but complementary powers, I suppose that the multiverse decided that the two of you had be closely bound to prevent one of you from killing the other... Perhaps for the emotional balance of the multiverse?" The outcode grinned as he waited for the other to respond.

Dream continued to suppress his emotional reaction. There couldn't possibly be a way that the other could prove a word of what he was saying. He was fairly confident that he could out bluff the other. "I have never heard of any other being's life being so closely bound with another's in the entire time that I have traveled throughout the multiverse. Why would anyone believe you? You are known to be a liar and manipulator.. Whereas I am the head of JR, and have helped millions of beings find safety and happiness." He was glad that he was able to keep his voice and aura calm and steady, though he had tucked his hands beneath his desk, as they had treacherously started to shake a little.

"If I was lying, then you would have immediately called the guards, no matter what I said." Blue retorted back "The fact that you're still talking to me - rather than trying to use violence proves that I am correct. Besides, though my lovely toy and that knife were able to escape, I did steal something from the three of them." He snapped his fingers, and Nightmare appeared before the both of them, struggling and cursing in the other's blue strings.

"I DON'T KNOW WHO THE FUCK YOU ARE, YOU SHITHEAD OR WHY YOU - of fucking course you work for Dream! What fresh hell did you pull this asshole out of? Ink wasn't enough, you had to find another fucking psychopath to add to your collection!" Nightmare ranted, starting to struggle more against the blue strings holding him captive.

"I work for myself, and I would have had him pay me up front before capturing you, oh guardian of negativity. No, I brought you here because I need to give him proof. Once he's made aware that I know his dirtiest, darkest secrets I'll send you off to an universe that you'll be able to run around in causing mischief for some time to come." Blue cooed, voice full of false sweetness. "What I need from you, Nightmare, is your soul." With a flick of his wrist, Blue dew out the other's soul - a violet colored apple, with blue and gold flecks in it. He then used his strings to pull out Dream's soul - which was a golden apple.

Dream hissed a little in pain - those bright blue strings dug painfully into his soul, and he had summoned his claymore on instinct "Stop this, right now! wh-what are you trying to prove?"

"Oh hush. I was just about to show you." Blue responded dismissively, lightly touching both Nightmare and Dream's souls, pulling out their code information - prompting nearly identical whimpers of pain and misery "let's see... power levels, abilities... Ah, here we go. Mortality and lifespan. See?"

Dream swallowed hard, as written very clearly in Hands, was the fact that his fate and Nightmare's were tied together. That he and the guardian of negativity were unable to live without the other. Their spirits would cease to exist, and a new guardian or guardians would be created to replace them in Dreamtale. "S-stop this... R-right now... It... hurts..." Dream answered weakly, his voice trembling a little. It wasn't quite a plea, but it wasn't a demand either. "What... what is it that you want?"

The smile on Blue's face widened considerably and he purred in response "There, that's better! Now that I'm done with you for the time being, Nightmare, I will be letting you go. Ta-ta!"

"Wait, hold on, what the fu-" Nightmare hissed, his eye lights wide with worry and confusion as a portal opened up behind him.

Blue first dismissed the guardian of negativity's soul back into his body, and then flung the other through the portal with his strings "Oh, do be quiet. I'm done with you. For now at least. This is between me and the leader of JR." Blue closed the portal, turning to look at Dream again, still holding his soul in his strings, watching him with that unsettling grin on his face.

The CEO kept still, despite the instinctive desire to try to fight the being who was holding his soul hostage - but that wouldn't help the situation at all. "Just what is it that you are after? I dislike repeating myself. Unless of course, you're just enjoying holding my soul with your magic?"

"I want so many things, but to start, I would like you to tell your people that I work for you - that way they won't harass me when I am doing something that could be... Misconstrued as something that is illegal, as I would be doing it to help your organization. I also want to be paid to keep this information quiet, as I doubt that your followers will take very kindly to the fact that you can't actually kill Nightmare, since you've painted him as the true source of all negativity in the multiverse. Not that's actually true but that's a different issue and one I don't particularly care to try to correct other beings on." Blue responded, his smile widening a little further as he slowly released Dream's soul.

"How much money do you want per month? I will tell the accounting department that it is your salary for working for me." Dream responded, scowling a little as he continued to glare at the other, crossing his arms defensively over his chest, dismissing his claymore, despite wanting very much to run the smug glitch through and be done with it... One never knew how hardy outcodes were, and Dream sincerely doubted that a failed attempt at killing the other would mean that the other would ask for less, the next time that Blue worked up the brash courage to approach him like this.

"Oh, while I do like money, that's not the only form of payment that I want from you." Blue purred, leaning in close to Dream, lightly tracing a finger along the other's jawline, settling onto the other's lap. "Your magic is so warm, and your aura... It really does feel good. At least when you're in a calm or happy emotional state... I wish to experience that up close with you."

"So, what? You want to spend time with me while I am happy or calm? That is a... Strange request and not one I am sure I can grant you, given that you are blackmailing me so that you can continue to do illegal and immoral things throughout the multiverse, while being able to claim to do so under my banner." Dream responded through gritted teeth, eye lights flashing with fury. He shuddered a little at the other's presumptuous touch "What reasons do you have for touching me like this? Stop, now."

"Come now, surely you know that you're one of the most eligible and desired bachelors in the multiverse? Wealthy, powerful, a very popular image of an angel - down to the righteous fury and ability and willingness to smite evil and evildoers wherever you appear." Blue purred, his hands starting to wander a little before he pulled back, his eye lights shining with pure avarice. "But no. You're not comfortable enough with me yet, for the two of us to become better acquainted with one another like that. At least for now. I want an hour a day of your time, for every day of the week. Provided that you aren't on a raid of course, or badly injured. I'm sure that the more that we get to know one another, the more time that we will be spending together. during that time the two of us will talk to one another, explore different universes... Perhaps even have a couple of light and friendly sparring matches. I will find you when I have the hour to spend time with you - and I will do my best to come to visit you when you are alone. However if I do come and you are busy, it would be in your best interest to find a way to clear the next hour so that the two of us would be able to spend it alone... Unless of course, you'd like for me to give them an explanation as to why we will be spending time together. Not that I would tell them the truth. I want my monthly salary from JR to be... Oh, given my talents and information network - which I will share with you to an extent - ten thousand gold coins."

Dream twitched at the rather exorbitant price, before sighing. the bastard had him over a barrel, but Blue wasn't wrong in his assessment of his abilities, from what the CEO had seen of his skills and network of illegal contacts. "Deal."

"Wonderful! It's been such a pleasure doing business with you, Dream! See you soon~." Blue purred, pressing a light kiss to one of Dream's cheeks before teleporting away.

The CEO buried his face in his hands, elbows resting on the desk as he forced himself to go through a calming breath exercise. It wasn’t working, but he needed to get a handle on himself, particularly as he could sense someone coming. There was a knock on the door, and he heard a tentative “Sir?”  from the person behind the door.

He straightened, pretending to be the calm, confident leader that many believed him to be at all times.

[seeroftodayandtomorrow]

A Musical Affair

Summary:  Blaine's life has been shaped by scandal. Now his livelihood and, it sometimes seems, his sanity depend on him being as inconspicuous as possible. But a group of unusual friends cause his resolve to totter, and a beautiful singer might shatter it completely. Historical AU

Chapter 5

Read on AO3

The London daylight, though hazy as always, was harsher than the candle-lit parlor of the St. James residence. Blaine noticed very soon that the suit Kurt wore was the same one he had worn on stage, and that the collar was turned over and the cuffs were scuffed. He also noticed that his coat was too thin, and wished he could offer his own, like he would do with a lady as a matter of course.

They walked in companionable silence for a while, until Kurt put a hand into his suit pocket and pulled it out, frowning, with two folded five-pound-notes in it.

“I wish she would stop doing this,” he said, looking at the money as if it had personally offended him. Then he shrugged and put it back into his pocket. “Carole will be glad of it.”

Carole? Was Kurt married? He should be, of course, any lady would appreciate him, but Rachel had never mentioned -

Kurt must have noticed his face, because he laughed. “My stepmother. After my father's death, it got...hard for her. She takes in sewing, but...even living a semblance of respectability can be very expensive. I support her wherever I can.”

Blaine nodded, feeling a little awkward. He had fallen, it was true, and his financial situation wasn't what it had been, but still he had never even talked to someone who couldn't afford a second formal suit or a winter coat.

Or maybe he had. He didn't know how much his grandmother's servants earned, after all, had never even asked himself that question.

Even after shrugging it off, Kurt still seemed angry about the money. After a while, Blaine found the courage to ask,

“Is that-” he gestured in direction of the pocket Kurt had put the money in, “the reason you didn't accept Lady St. James’s invitation for so long?”

“It's part of it,” Kurt answered after a little hesitation. “I repeatedly told her not to give me money, but she keeps doing it. And I just hate to think she sees me as some kind of charity case.”

Blaine remembered toys and books, and later horses, carriages and musical instruments, given to him with a smile by his mother.

“Maybe,” he said hesitantly, “she doesn't mean it that way. I don't mean to say she should continue, especially after you told her not to, but – maybe that's just how she shows her affection. Maybe she just wants to support you, as her friend, just as you doubtlessly support her in other ways.”

The streets they were walking along and the houses they passed slowly became shabbier. Gone were the finely-dressed people strolling along avenues lined with grand houses. The streets became more narrow, the houses smaller. The grand, heralded carriages were replaced with simple cabs. Black-clad clerks and shop keepers on their break, boys running errands and house wives shopping made up the people they passed.

Blaine wondered how much farther they had to go.

“What's the other part?” he asked after a while. “Why you're uncomfortable visiting her?”

“You wouldn't understand.” Kurt walked a little faster, and Blaine wondered if he had offended him. either by the question or by his earlier remark about Rachel.

But before he could inquire or apologize, Kurt stopped walking and turned towards him.

“Actually, you might.” They resumed walking, and Kurt casually took his arm to steer him around a steaming heap of horse dung. Blaine felt his touch for a long time after it was gone.

“From what I know of your...situation,” Kurt said, “your place in society, in life, changed, and that of your friends and general acquaintance stayed the same. Is that right?”

Blaine thought about it. He had been stripped of his birth, his title and his inheritance, and had been forced out of school. His friends had been sons of the peerage, just like him, and to his knowledge, all of them still were.

He nodded. “I never thought of it that way, but yes.”

“And may I guess that at least one of the reasons you are now joining Rachel's little collection of misfits is that you feel—or have been made to feel—not to fit in with your old group anymore?”

“You're right again.”

“So, with me, it's the reverse. The position in life of the person who used to be my best friend, my closest confidante, someone who was as dear to me as a sister—it changed completely. Her father was a simple shopkeeper, but with clever investing, he and his partner made a fortune over night. And then Rachel won the heart and hand of a knight, and now they are almost accepted in the highest circles, and I—I am still the same.”

For a while they walked in silence, while the houses around them became smaller and less well-maintained. Blaine didn't know what to say.

Was Kurt envious? It would probably be hard not to, but Kurt hadn't struck him like someone whose goals in life were money and position.

“I don't begrudge her any of this,” Kurt continued. “But she tries to act that nothing has changed, when it has - when she can't visit me, because - well, can you imagine Lady Rachel St. James in this environment? And I can hardly visit her, because I can't go through the kitchens because I'm no servant, but when I try to use the front door the butler looks at me like I was something the cat dragged in.”

He suddenly stood. “I'm sorry. Our acquaintance is hardly intimate enough for you to be burdened with these things by me.”

“No, not at all, I asked,” Blaine said quickly, and wondered if he dare say the words in his mind. “I would like to...achieve the level of intimacy that would allow me to know these things.”

Kurt's pleased smile showed him he had made the right decision.

“Well,” Kurt said, indicating a little tea shop in front of them. It was in a decent state compared to its fellows, displaying its wares in a big, clean window.

“We're here, I have a room above the shop. Maybe you could come upstairs for some tea and toast and we could work on...deepening that intimacy.”

Blaine wasn't sure if that offer entailed more than tea and toast, but he was about to enthusiastically agree when church bells began to ring.

He grimaced, then shook his head and said, “I'd really love to, but I can't today.”

“A warning from above?” Kurt asked with a wry smile.

“No.” Blaine laughed. “Just a reminder of the time. I'm expected at home.”

Clothes shopping with his mother; not a prospect he relished. But she had been happy lately, and she had finally convinced Grandmama that her prospects of marrying again were better if she had modern dresses that made her appear young and attractive. Blaine had had no idea she wanted to marry, but he was happy she was, for once, excited about the future, and had thought that sacrificing the occasional afternoon to help her make her purchases was a small price to pay.

He hadn't thought then that what he gave up would be an afternoon spent with Kurt.

“But—next time, yes? Please?” he asked, and smiled when Kurt nodded. He shook his hand, and then left, determined that somehow, he would make time.

After hours of shopping, which he mostly spent sitting in an armchair making pleasant conversation with the other clients and the seamstresses who were not currently occupied with his mother, he arrived home, bent under a load of hatboxes and bags full of buttons, lace and reticules. Grandmama must have high hopes indeed for a new marriage for mama, if she was willing to spend so much on what, he knew, she regarded as unnecessary frippery. Then again, there was no one who knew better than her how important it was to keep up appearances if one wanted to move in their circles. Blaine, however, couldn't help the thought of why it was important his mother have three new afternoon dresses and three new ball gowns, each of them worth at least a new suit and a warmer coat for Kurt.

But Kurt wouldn't take them from him, wanted to take nothing from anybody. Blaine smiled, filled with a confusing mix of emotions: shame, among them, for he had never hesitated to take his father's money, or now his grandmother's; admiration for Kurt's fierce independence; and exasperation, because why wouldn't the man accept a little help?

He chided himself for that thought as soon as he had it. He hadn't offered any help, and they were not in a kind of relationship where help could be offered or accepted. Blaine let his grandmother support him, but he didn't take money from complete strangers, after all. And even if it felt differently, and Blaine desperately wanted it to be different, he and Kurt were little more than strangers. He couldn't help him, not yet.

If help was even needed. Kurt hadn't mentioned anything about needing or wanting help, and Blaine could hardly let his own lifestyle be the measure of all things.

And he had seen Kurt's reaction to Rachel giving him money. He knew that was not the way into Kurt's good graces.

Smiling, he thought that maybe he didn't need a way into Kurt's good graces. Maybe he was already there. The way he had looked at him when he had invited him upstairs....he had not meant just for tea and toast, Blaine was almost certain of it.

And in a way he wished he had forgotten his filial obligations for a few hours and gone with whatever it was that Kurt had offered him, and he was determined to take care that one of the next Wednesdays would be fully his own, so if and when Kurt offered again, he would be at liberty to accept.

But on the other hand, he was glad they would have a little more time to just get to know each other. Assuming he was right regarding Kurt's...intentions, he didn't want whatever they were going to do to be like the things he had done in school: hurried hands in the darkness, and then ignoring each other until the need became to great. He didn't want that with Kurt.

But he didn't know what he wanted. He didn't know what he could want, what he could even dare to wish for. Was there more than furtive touches in the dark for people like him?

And was his time usefully employed imagining what he could or could not have with a person he had only just met?

Chuckling, he finally shook himself out of his thoughts. Realizing he was still in the hallway and had not even noticed the footmen taking his coat and his mother's purchases, he frowned: this infatuation had taken on excessive extents.

He might need a distraction. And, as little as all of them might want to face it: it was time he found an occupation for himself, something that would allow him to lead a more independent life. He might not be what he could call friends anymore with his former classmates, but if he could swallow his pride, he could still use those connections to find a suitable position.

He should write these letters right now.

On the way to the stairs that would take him to his room, however, he passed the little silver tray the post was put on, and on it, there was a visiting card:

On expensive-looking paper with a gold rim, the name Sebastian Smythe, Earl of Dalton, and as Blaine turned the card, the scribbled invitation to visit any morning this week.

[ammonitetheseaserpent]

Remember that post I made about that Collector/Grimwalker AU idea I had?

Welp. Here’s the outline!

Each Grimwalker is accompanied by the spirit of Caleb, who’s horrified and more than a little hurt at what his brother is doing. He tries to help each of them in any way he can - mostly trying to find out a reliable way to help get them out of Philip’s murdering range - but there’s only so much he can do as just a ghost, especially as his brother treads an increasingly wide circle around the Isles.

Caleb is also worried about what could come from Philip being allied with a being of such a high caliber of magic. Yet he feels for the Collector as well, seeing the hints that they’re a child who doesn’t understand a lot of things and has some pretty major insecurities.

The Collector sometimes likes to interact with the Grimwalkers behind Belos’s back, and this increases in frequency the more impatient they grow with their supposed ally. Some he genuinely bonds with; others he just likes to be around as an alternative to their stodgy “uncle”. They quickly develop a tendency to drop little secrets and hints about Belos whenever they’re alone with a Grimwalker.

The Collector is able to see Caleb, who’s a lot kinder and more genuine with the child than his brother is (low bar, but hey). Caleb occasionally draws parallels between the Collector and the Grimwalkers, pointing out that they may be more like the star child than he thinks. He also hints about his desire to help as many Grimwalkers as he can.

The more the Collector interacts with the Grimwalkers (and Caleb), the more they start to warm up to the fact that they’re individuals - and the more they start to rethink their alliance with Belos. Eventually they decide, ‘hey, Philip has enough pawns already, I think he can do without a few of these.’ Between the Collector and Caleb, a good number of the more recent Grimwalkers have an easier time escaping being offed by Belos.

[kapsbrakclapsback]

Dreammaker, You Heartbreaker (1/?)

I’ve got chapter 1 of the Breakfast At Tiffany,s AU! It’s also on AO3. But here it is! Based on @takealottodragmeawayfromreddie‘s awesome idea. 

The lost man moves with a purpose, walking with a fashionable black evening coat paired with a coffee to-go and a Danish, the oil of the pastry leaving dark yellow-gray stains on the white paper bag. Sunglasses stand on the bridge of his nose, and no passerby can read his story from his eyes because of them. The city feels awfully tall as it surrounds him, but as big as the world around him is, he can still hear the soft taps that his slightly worn but high end shoes make on the pavement below him.

Maybe he’s been walking for hours, maybe minutes. We don’t know, and it’s not even clears if he knows. Nonetheless, he stops, sure in his halted step as he makes a sharp turn to face the large, shiny shop window. He takes a sip of the bitter coffee and just lets himself look.

Everything about it gleams. Tiffany's was like heaven as imagined through children's books, full of sparkle and shine. The shine itself takes on a new, indecipherable meaning in the kind light of the 7 am rising sun.

He takes a bite of his Danish and lets his head tilt in fascination, Let’s his concealed eyes scatter about the magic charm of it all. He wonders for a second if he should take the glasses off, but remembers that his hands are full and decides that he probably couldn’t comprehend Tiffany's if he got to view it in its unshaded glory.

This is god, he thinks. This is salvation, this is heaven. Nothing bad can happen here.

He gives himself a few more moments to heal, to let the power of Tiffany's and all of its glittering diamonds seep into his soul. Then, he pulls his eyes away from it, and begins the walk to his apartment building, falling into step with the collage of New Yorkers until he is more part of the pavement than he is an individual.

——

When Eddie got out of his impossibly bright yellow taxi and pulled out his suitcase (the rest of the boxes were to come later, he'd been told), he took a moment to stand on the sidewalk and just look.

He gazed at the way that the city popped and whirred to life around him, like some grey-brown toy store. Everything around him was tall, com the buildings to the pedestrians, but Eddie had been short for a long enough time to know that the feeling was to be expected in most new places. People of all types passed him as he let his gaze travel across every surface. Despite the circumstances, he felt freedom burn in his throat, felt it sear behind his eyes.

He heard the taxi drive away, but didn’t tear his eyes away from the cityscape. It was only when some gruff shoulder knocked against Eddie's, and he was pulled back to earth. After taking a moment to collect himself, Eddie walked out of the flowing sidewalk and onto the steps of the apartment building.

Before walking in, he reached into his pocket for the key that would let him into the set of hallways to get to his room. When it wasn’t in his right jacket pocket, he checked the left and then the right again. Panic grew, blossoming into a fire when there was no unchecked pocket and no key to the building, only to his apartment.

He took a breath in and another one out, but the effort was futile. He still felt like he was on the verge of combustion when he decided to just ring up a room to ask to be let in.

Eddie let himself into the lobby-of-sorts of the apartment building (it was a mostly blank room consisting of a board and a locked door), and tried to cool the panic stirring up in his lungs with a long breath. He took note of the inhaler in his back pocket to calm himself before settling himself before the board of his destiny, as his occasionally fantastical mind referred to it.

Sufficiently convinced that he could handle the next set of events, whatever the hell they were, Eddie stared at the grid of pearly white buttons. He let the pads of his fingers trail softly over them, the romantic streak in his mind looking at the possibilities hidden in it. His hand, of its own accord as far as Eddie's concern, drifted to the mid-left of the broad board. He took a look at the room number, just to be sure (it was E4, and the number/letter pair burned itself into his mind with a crisp harshness. He supposed it was a result of his heightened emotion). Finally, he put his index finger on the button and pushed firmly, leaving no room for hesitation.

The piercing, alarm like sound was unpleasant for him, but he persisted until whoever was on the other end answered back.

"Who is this?" asked a rough voice, raspy with sleep. Eddie smiled despite himself, glad that he actually got a response.

"Eddie, Eddie Kapsbrak. I just moved in, and I don’t have my building key. Could you let me in?"

"What time is it?" Based on the slow, fatigued rhythm of the voice on the other end, Eddie presumed that he had only heard about half of what he had said. A yawn could be heard through the rickety speaker, further solidifying the tiredness of the man in E4.

"10:30, if my watch is anything to go by," said Eddie, carefully stepping around his words, making sure they were slow and not too rambling. He still felt the panic itch beneath his skin, but began to put on the most calm, collected face he could.

"Shit! Do you have a bottle of water, by any chance? I have an appointment and I can't turn myself into a man worthy of New York this quickly without help."

The request was odd, but Eddie still peeked into his satchel to check, and smiled lightly when he found an unopened bottle.

"I’ve got water. Room E4, right?"

"Absolutely. Come on up."

Eddie heard a click, and strode towards the door, feeling optimism beneath his feet. He pushed the door to the building open with ease- it wasn’t not the grand, decorated door at the building's front, this one was thinner and had a weaker knob- and he held his case, letting it swing back and forth as he made his way down a hall and up a flight of stairs. He followed this pattern until he reached the fifth floor. He let his free hand trail on the painted white banister by his side, but quickly retracted it at the feeling of dust beneath his fingertips.

He stopped in place, holding his hand mid-air to figure out what to do about the dust. He could feel the tips of his fingers begin to itch, and he had read enough about dust to know its dangers. Before Eddie could take a second to think, he jerkily wiped it off on the front of his jacket, before realizing that he had basically just transferred the dangerous substance from his skin to another place on his body.

Idiot, idiot, idiot, he thought, berated himself with a venomous tongue. Eddie then used his palm to make brushing movements on the coat to get as much of the dust off of it as necessary before pulling out some hand sanitizer from a pocket inside his coat.

He put a copious amount of the aloe vera scented jelly on his hands, and scrubbed with veracity as he continued walking, stilted and distracted, his attention focused on purging the dust from his vicinity. His mind began cycling through the possibilities, but was interrupted as he gave a glance to the placard next to a door, and was shocked out of his illness infested reverie with the realization that he was a few rooms away from E4.

E1 may have looked the same as E2 which looked the same as E3, but E4 was an anomaly, a misfit among the uniform set of doors. First, there was a welcome mat, and a well used one at that. There were scrapes of dried mud, and the corner was stained with a faded crimson color, probably red wine. There were some words printed on it, but they were worn past readability. Eddie knocked three times, keeping a borderline musical pattern to them. He didn’t get a response for a long enough time that he moved his hand to knock again, but he was interrupted as the door was swung open, revealing the man who lived in E4.

Eddie found his breath taken away, but not in the way that he was used to. The man was dressed in a tuxedo shirt that was a few sizes too big (on second thought, it probably didn’t even belong to him) and a novelty sleeping mask pushed onto his forehead. The mask was rose pink with shiny gold eyelashes, and it must’ve been either a gag gift or a party favor. He was lanky, with wild, dark hair that curled around in effortless twirls. There was a smattering of freckles around his nose and cheeks, and he had cheekbones that made Eddie want to collapse in the middle of the hallway.

The amount of time it took for Eddie to find himself helplessly infatuated with him was about the same amount of time as it took for the man to collect himself from his slumber just enough to groggily open his mouth.

"D’ya have the water, Eds?" he asked, voice dragging and low.

"Don’t call me Eds," Eddie responded without thought, shaking himself a bit as he grabbed the water out of his satchel and handing it to the guy, who grabbed it with a heavy hand and casually beckoned Eddie inside.

"Hey, what’s your name?" Eddie asked, stepping in after him carefully, putting his satchel and suitcase next to the doorway.

"Richie Tozier's my name, and breaking hearts is my game," slurred Richie, smiling to himself at some hidden memory, before uncapping the water and taking a deep, long drink. Eddie felt his heart twinge in an odd, bitter way.

Richie continued to drink, and Eddie took a look around his apartment.

E4 was as unusual on the inside as it was on the outside, as it was simultaneously cluttered and empty. There was a nice couch which had just been slept on, if the blanket and pillows were anything to go by, but it was paired with the oddest side table Eddie had ever seen. It was misshapen and crooked, like a shop class project gone wrong. Curled at a leg of the side table was a tan-colored cat, who slept peacefully.

"You have a cat?" Eddie asked, eying the pet with wariness, remembering a specifically scarring testimonial he read about a claw scratching out an eye that had made him swear off pets when he first read it in college.

"Yep. His name's Cat," Richie answered, putting down the bottle and moving to the other side of the living room. There, he pulled off the eye mask and placed it on top of a stack of newspapers.

"Short for Catherine? Nice pun."

"No, he’s just Cat. As in the animal. He’s a free spirit, doesn’t need a name. We're kindred spirits, him and I. I barely have a name myself," explained Richie, his voice becoming floaty as he became a bit more alert. He grabbed a hairbrush from the seat of a wooden rocking chair, and began to casually run it through his hair as he rambled.

"How can you barely have a name? Everyone has a name, whether they like it or not," said Eddie, following Richie as he moved to get something from his bedroom. He leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, as he watched Richie fish around for something.

"What if someone is called by everything but their name? What if people just point at them and start talking? They don’t really have a name," said Richie, as he found what he was apparently looking for at the bottom of a small basket. He held up the glinting slip of metal victoriously, and on second sight, Eddie realized that it was a jeweled clip.

"Well then, I guess their name is just 'Hey you', or the name that they introduce themselves as. You can’t just not have a name."

"Maybe so," replied Richie, lackadaisical and gorgeous in the pink lampshaded lights of his room. He peered into a mirror and slipped it into his hair, before grabbing a wide brimmed hat on his bedside table. An easy silence followed, before curiosity stirred in Eddie once more.

"So, what’s with the rush? What big event warrants all of..." Eddie trailed off, trying to find the right word for the flurry of hair clips and clutter that was this whole event, before finally choosing to make a noncommittal hand gesture as he said "this".

"I’m seeing Sally Tomato, and visiting hours are tight. He’s in Sing Sing right now, and I’ve got to give him the weather report," said Richie as he finished his sentence by moving into the adjoining bathroom.

"Sing Sing? The jail?"

Richie stuck his head out of the bathroom doorway to answer, and it was so cartoonish and peculiar that Eddie felt the corners of his mouth turn up, almost against his will.

"You know, I always thought that Sing Sing should be the name of an opera house," said Richie, and he then left Eddie's sight again. Eddie, however, could hear strains of an impression of an opera singer through the distance. It wasn’t a refined mimic, as the voice drifting through the doorways was more Richie's than anyone else’s, but it held an odd charm.

Richie then darted out of the bathroom, arms outstretched as he searched for something on the floor. He paused to look up at Eddie, staring bemusedly down at him.

"I’m looking for shoes, nice black ones. Shiny. You’ll know it’s mine if there’s a white line on the sole, it’s how I keep track of them at parties," he then dived under his bed, and Eddie decided not to contemplate on parties that required an absence of shoes and instead went looking.

There another stretch of silence, now accompanied with the musical sounds of shuffling through a messy bedroom, before Eddie spoke up again.

"You mentioned a weather report. What’s the deal with that?"

"Well, my good old friend Sally passes along messages with another one of my jail visitor friends. They’re always weird things, but never funny enough, which is a real shame. I mean, if you’re just going to tell each other the weather, might as well make it fun, right? But my little Sun-Dried Tomato wants me to quote verbatim, like some kind of fuckin' Latin teacher. It’s ridiculous, but what can you do? I mean, one time I- Found it! Got one shoe out of two. Any luck, Eds?"

Eddie tried to will the cobweb off of his left hand while making a sad gesture with his right.

"No luck whatsoever."

Richie, in that moment, seemed to be hit with some divine inspiration, looking past Eddie at a rickety wardrobe.

"Can you reach deep, deep in the clothes part of the wardrobe? I think Bev may have pulled something. That’s her usual stash space."

"Is Bev in Sing Sing too?" asked Eddie as he followed the instructions, his palm touching the (dusty, so ridiculously dusty) back wall of the wardrobe  as he fanned it across to find the shoes. Richie was laughing softly at something Eddie couldn’t decipher when Eddie's hand hit the trademark stiff leather of a nice shoe, and he grabbed it with confidence, pulling them out victoriously.

Richie gave a cheer, and Eddie threw it across the room. Richie's catch was successful despite Eddie's inability to aim, and Richie disappeared back into the bathroom. Eddie, officially in the bedroom of a guy he had just met, took a deep breath and looked around.

This was an unknown feeling, the feeling of newness as it crashed its waves on him. He breathed it in, let himself soak in the unfamiliarity of it, until he was interrupted by the squeaking of door hinges. He looked to the door of the bathroom, and felt himself drown.

If Richie was beautiful in sleepwear and an eye mask, he was absolutely breathtaking in his streetwear.

His outfit, a semi-casual suit with a wide brimmed hat, was a fascinating sort of elevated normalcy. Richie himself, Eddie realized, was a sort of elevated normalcy. He had routines and schedules and everything that made Eddie dread daylight, but every movement was accompanied by a panache that was addicting.

"Do I look okay?" asked Richie, doing a goofy twirl.

"Yeah, I guess," replied Eddie, closing his dropped jaw and trying to play it cool. Richie rolled his eyes, smiling brightly as he pushed past the blushing Eddie, who followed his path as it led both of them into the hallway.

Finally, there Eddie stood, a changed man in the cramped quarters of the carpeted hallway in his new apartment building, the man of his dreams on his way out. Richie's back was turned as he flitted down the hall, swinging a bag with one hand and adjusting his hat with the other, and Eddie called out to him.

"Hey, Richie!"

Richie turned around, somehow looking both hopeful and afraid.

"See you around," said Eddie, and he smiled as Richie gave a soft wave.

Richie turned back, and Eddie swiveled to the direction of his room, feeling something warm and sunny grow in him.

[ammonitetheseaserpent]

You can bet that the Collector comes up with secret codes with Caleb and the Grimwalkers, as an extra measure to make sure Belos doesn’t find out that his pawns have been talking with each other.

The Collector mostly treats it as another form of play, but it’s a form of play they’re really invested in (and does kinda see the importance of), so it works out.

[ammonitetheseaserpent]

In the Collecting Misfit Toys AU, the Collector stops the Draining Spell right in front of Belos, making him watch, to spite him. They make a big show out of it, too. Like:

“Oh wow, looks like the Draining Spell is going swimmingly. Would be a shame if someone- oops, my finger slipped! >:)”

[baka-monarch]

It is I, the anon that darkens AUs. Imagine: A normal sized Doll Dream destroying BBH's lab after making a potion so Tommy can be a giant. After all, BBH must have hurt (shrunken) Tommy because he wanted to be part of Tommy's collection.

(I don't really get the wording of this ask- but I think I know what you're saying?)

Yes!!!

Tommy must have wanted to be with his toys more if he's tiny now! Why else would Bad have shrank them?

Mcyt g/t tag list:

@nomynameisanon @trashpumped @loriepoptale @encaos @i-am-a-weeb @ludacris247 @shy-septic-dragon @5unfl0writ3r @colorfulsiren @moonmwah @iwasgoingtohellanyways @echoslime @wilbur-simp @trouble-off-grid @the-misfits-system