#creatures from mum's basement

[ryemackerel]

Me infodumping about my headcanons of musical themes for the Eddsworld gang, specifically the ships!!

Get ready for me to go absolutely silly over TomMatt’s music because AGAHHAHhh I love them so much.

For context! This is based on my TomMatt Spotify playlist @starrixle helped out with!

Pictured above: Two gay guys, who are very stupid silly, take a selfie together, circa 2017. Original post!

First things first: This goes for all of my character playlists, but I always go by a certain genre, mood, and/or instrument I associate with each of them!

For example: I see Edd with a lot of songs from the mid to late-20th century! He loves artists such as The Smiths, Tears For Fears, and Beach Boys. Outside of that, he even loves a lot of Indie genres, like Mac DeMarco and Vacations. I generally describe his music taste to be very calm and easygoing like his personality, and a lot of guitar or keyboard songs, since those are the instruments I generally see him playing.

In this case, for Tom and Matt as individuals:

Matt’s songs are very lightweight, romantic, and daydreamy. A sort of echoey, floating feeling amidst the clouds. He’s the kind of guy who expresses his love upfront to the people he adores and cares about, and a good amount of his playlist has songs with the main theme being love and romance. Some of his songs can be rougher and louder, reflecting more of his love for rock when he was a teenager, but as he got older, he’s generally more lighthearted. I associate a lot of his songs with guitar since he’s the guitarist for The Creatures, and the guitar fit his personality a lot to me. :-] He has a good amount of Soul and R&B. His playlist has artists including Thee Sacred Souls, Common Saints, Steve Lacy, Ginger Root, Frank Ocean, and TV Girl.

Tom’s songs are generally heavier, rougher, louder, and harsher, with a lot of metal, rock, and grunge genres, though with the occasional ska, which shows more of his sillier side, and hip-hop and rap. Tom is usually very concealed and closed off when it comes to expressing his true emotions, but compared to his playlist, his music is very loud and outspoken; either it’s a weighed down feeling in your shoulders, or calmer and more relaxed, yet rough. I highly associate Tom with the bass (also a bassist for Creatures), and there are a good amount of bass-heavy songs in his playlist. I associate him with artists like Deftones, Whirr, Alice In Chains, Type O Negative, SOAD, ATCQ, MF DOOM, and Radiohead. (THANK YOU STAR for introducing me to Deftones and Whirr LOL)

Tom and Matt are almost opposites of each other, with Matt being more upfront and lighter, and Tom being concealed and heavier. And it’s clear that, yeah, evene though their personalities contrast each other, and their main music tastes are different, I still LOVE seeing how this works thematically, and specifically how they get along in the first place.

Tom and Matt together:

A TomMatt song I associate with this segment :) Listening to it right now as I’m typing this!

I associate a lot of what TomMatt is with harmony. This warm, soft embrace, quieter and calmer, but full of rhythm and energy. You feel like flying into space, and the guitar echoes and sustains throughout the air, flying skyhigh, but the bass settles it down, keeps it grounded to make sure it doesn’t fly too far away. They both play together, a melody of highs and lows, both intertwined into one.

Tom and Matt have kinda almost this harmonious relationship with each other, where one of them helps the other realize their own qualities that they never realized before, and helps one other realize things that the other loves about them. They love each other dearly, and as they’ve grown older, they’ve learned to love themselves.

Tom doesn’t open about his issues a lot and closes them off out of fear of burdening others. He insists he’s able to manage these issues on his own without anybody’s help. He doesn’t see himself as anything special, a nobody or “just another problem for someone to deal with.” Especially as he’s grown into his 20s and started taking on harmful coping habits, he’s constantly beaten himself up.

And you can imagine how Matt would react knowing all of this. He never saw Tom as a burden, a nobody, or a problem, but someone that he just genuinely loves to be around. He sees Tom as his whole entire world, and constantly expresses it multiple times, over and over again.

“You’re everything to me, Tom, and you mean so much to me. I just want you to remember that, okay? I love you.”

Tom doesn’t always express his happiness out loud, but being around Matt has helped him realize that “Hey, maybe there’s some good things about me that people love about me. Maybe shit isn’t all so bad.”

Sometimes, there’s moments where Tom slips back into that mindset. Sometimes, he doesn’t understand why Matt would love him for simply “being himself.” The things he hates about himself feel so much more amplified than the things people appreciate him for. Tom sees Matt, who loves every single part of him, and he asks Matt, “Why do you love me so much? Don’t I just stress you out more?”

“Well, you feel hurt, right? I can’t just leave you be when you feel hurt all on your own.”

“You should be spending time with else. Don’t put all of your energy just on me, man. Go with Edd or Tord, maybe they’ll make you happier.”

“But what if I want to spend time with you? You make me happier.”

“…

Do what you want.”

Sometimes, Tom never understands Matt. He sometimes accidentally says things that hurt her, and he sometimes stresses her out with his issues, so why would she want to spend more time with him? But you know, no matter what, he appreciates how much someone is willing to stick around and never give up on him.

Even Matt has her own shit. She can be really fun to be around and loves talking to other people as much as she can, but there’s times where being out overwhelms her. Whenever she’s out in public, her anxiety can skyrocket. She picks up on every little conversation others say around her, and she constantly thinks about what others feel about her. She can have a good day, but as soon as she feels like her surroundings overwhelm her, she shuts down.

Tom doesn’t always know how to help or what to say, since he isn’t someone who uses a lot of words to help others. But during those quiet moments, the best he knows what to do is take Matt into his arms, and embrace him, so so tightly.

“(Hugging Matt) …Had a bad day today?”

“…”

“Hey, hey�� It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. Just breathe.”

“Today could’ve been a good day.”

“It’s okay to have a bad day. We all get those sometimes.”

“I missed you a lot.”

“(Hugging her tighter) I missed you a lot, too.”

I love how well the guitar and bass work together, just like Tom and Matt together. A lot of their music I associate with Steve Lacy, BADBADNOTGOOD, Tyler the Creator, Childish Gambino, and Piero Piccioni. Some of the songs I’ll list below shows a lot of bass and guitar, and also some orchestra, which I associate with Matt. :)

Some by Steve Lacy was the very first song I thought about when I imagined what Tom and Matt's duo theme would sound like. A lot of Steve's discography is what I see being TomMatt's genres :-) Lots of bassline and very funky guitar tunes. Again, very lightweight and enthusiastic, but also relaxed and calm. I imagine them playing together in almost all of these kinda songs. <3

Some other songs I absolutely ABSOLUTELY love and associate with TomMatt:

I'll end off this post for now because I don't want to make it TOO long HAHAGAA But this is just a little insight to my TomMatt brain! This is solely based on just my headcanons and roleplays of them with the help of my partner. Been wanting to talk about my thought processes behind all my other Eddsworld playlists, so hope you enjoyed this super long one! GAHHA

[maxxiskindaweird]

fan edit for, @ryemackerel !! i waned to keep the sillies as gifs, but my program was being a meinie :((

[saeranchoi24]

Intro to this unhappy ending

A scientist was experimenting on SCP 3456 when it suddenly ran out of the lab room and ate everyone alive , ripped them to shreds leaving only bones and blood scattered on the walls .

The people outside remember there being anguished blood curdling screams which terrified them . They also remember seeing the beast outside killing the guards one by one they all fell down.

.....

No one has seen the creature since that day ... but reports of uncertified deaths coming in each day .., one had recently from a young girl.

Chapter one: christina

She was fourteen at the time when she heard about the incident and her parents thought it would be best to move out the country but little did her parents know that SCP 3456 already had a liking for their child which caused them to panic even more . she started to gain migraines and consistent nightmares that left her terrified . in these nightmares would have this 10’8 cre

ature, claws reaching 3ft , teeth full of skin and bones plus blood on its face, skinny figure that would appear and tear the roof of its hinges and look her directly in the eye and the bodies of her parents looking at her as CRACK went a bone and a screech of pain as her mothers torso was broken in half . and each time this would end with the same thing the monster saying ‘im not far away watch closely’ she woke up in sweat , she started to cry heavily thinking that it has my family. So she ran to her parents bedroom and thought “ thank god it hadn’t reached them yet” . she continued to have nightmares about this unholy creature until one night … She went to sleep with the same monster but ………………………….. This time the only words written in her parents blood with the mutated corpses in front of them “ you should look out your window , WAKE UP '' she woke up screeching but this time her parents didn't come to check on her .. “weird” she thought . she sneaked around her house to her parents room. Her worst nightmare was there right in front of her parents in cold blood laying on the ground with a smiley face engraved in their faces .

A common thing with SCP 3456 always leaves its victims in cold blood with a smiley face engraved on them , behind the bodies … There it stood looking down on the mere human with all might and left a permanent scar on dead parents. It only ever attacks young people, no other types of people, only young people.

Chapter two: news report

News of two people died in a home in Washington DC at 3:00 am . no one knows what happened however we have got names of them. If you know anything that can help in this case please contact us at 07346291092 or call the police station . stay safe out there may linda and rob paterson rest in peace and lets all pray together in hopes of finding this criminal . Just in they have a daughter that miraculously survived she is in a care home unresponsive . The care workers are trying their hardest to make her cooperate with them so they can find this murder and again please contact us if you know any information on the case. Another case in a young girl …

Chapter three: george davidson

I heard about this creature when my mum mentioned it . I only just left school when I saw my mother sprinting to me. She said , “ Sweetheart, we need to pack for something , you are not going to school for a while.” I never had the chance to disagree before she dragged me away . For the next few months we hid in our basement, we padded out the windows and never dared to make a sound . We only went up to go to the bathroom or if we needed to get supplies , but she always went up so I had to go with her to the bathroom . Few months later I believe it was , I’m not sure I lost count after the first four weeks , I asked her about the situation of why we are down here . She looked at me as if she just saw a ghost , she shouted “ don’t question me ever again , do you understand me ?!” I nodded so I didn’t risk any more arguments . I woke up with this loud thud above me. I didn't want to go up there just in case my mother was testing me again… turns out it was the biggest regret of my life to date.

17 hours have passed, and my mother still hasn't come back… I'm slightly concerned because there appears to be a vile smell of rotting flesh and a fruity undertone. I should maybe go up there and see what happened… maybe this whole thing will come to an end. Right?

Chapter four: last known sighting of george davidson

‘As I walked towards the door to the upstairs the floorboards creaked beneath my feet. I could feel my heart rate increase and begin to shake uncontrollably , I never questioned it. This was the norm for me. I suffer from severe anxiety attacks so it seemed fine till I opened that door. The putrid smell of rotten meat and fruity undertones was somehow a lot stronger than it was when I was downstairs. I began to wander around the halls sneakingly just in case my mother was testing me again. I entered the front room and when I told you what I saw shocked me to my inner core, I'm not exaggerating. I'm dead serious. Blood splattered on the walls , my mothers head was attached to a string and dangling from the ceiling , her body parts spread apart like a surgeon about to perform an c -section procedure on a pregnant woman and finally her organs set out on a table like a buffet at a restaurant . The closer I looked I realised that the organs were spread out to spell a message out …. YOU’RE NEXT written on the table . I ran out of the house so fast lightning mcqueen would be looking like a fool , I sprinted like the cheetah I am to a neighbours house. When I got there I knocked on the door praying someone was in the house, no no no … no one was in damn it. I kept running for what felt like hours till I found someone… I shouted at the top of my lungs “ HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!”The man turned around. It wasn't a man, it was the thing that me and my mother both heard upstairs in the living room. Cracking its bones as it took a stare into my soul before screeching like a banshee and charging at me. I didn’t have a chance to run away, it got me….’ This was the last heard/ sighting of George before his corpse later showed up in front of his grandparents house . Mr and Mrs Davidson are heartbroken to see the sight of the beloved daughter and grandson now dead . That's all folks for now till we get more information John has the weather.

Chapter five : The finale

Finally it was all over. That beast that killed hundreds of children has been captured and is now in captivity with the on site officers at SCP foundation . The families of the lost souls are now mourning their children's deaths at the ST Johns church where hundreds of funerals are held .

Although that's what everyone had hoped to happen . SCP 3456 has once again escaped and went out on a murderous rampage wiping the whole city out with only a few left; they soon began to lose all hope and some even considered begging the creature to kill them. Some have even ended their lives just to be with their loved ones.

[characterdigital]

Reflection:

Before this course I wasn't too unfamiliar with drawing, but It wasn't until I had to go through the process of character illustration that things got really hard. I wasnt use to such a long process to create a character, I usually just draw a character and then make up a story about them. Something else that was really hard was doing the backstory, I kept getting carried away and writing to much detail. For example:

"Setting (+Patchy’s home environment): For the whole of Patchy’s life (Or Ian as he was known when he was a boy), he had lived on the outskirts of a suburb, the kind of suburb to have a neighborhood watch and to have small parties on the street when their favorite sports team won a game. The house he was at didn’t help improve his life, rather it made his life a struggle. Because his mum was such a big smoker for his whole life, the walls were stained brown. When Patchy (Ian) was only 10 years old, he was locked in his room for biting his nails. When the biting continued (Because locking him in his room did nothing), his mum put bitter gel on his fingers, he bit the skin around it causes her to finally lock him in the basement. Because of her smoking habits, she ended up going to hospital, completely neglecting the fact that she had a son. When she got home, she stopped caring, so the house turned damp and moldy, the kitchen grew a thick layer of rotten food, the bathroom never got washed and most of the house had pills layering around. The basement wasn’t any better. It was wet, cold and had a rat family living in the walls. Patchy (Ian) stuck to a corner, where water slowly dripped down from outside. Over the years he was down there, he tried his best to ration whatever food his mum had stored away in case of an emergency. But that food only lasted a few months. Rats, and whatever other creatures that were hiding were the only good source of food that kept him alive."

That was seen as too much detail and then having to tone it down to something a lot smaller and pretty much narrowing it down to important things, I found that very hard. Although coming up with the backstory I enjoyed because I love that sort of thing and I think its so interesting to be able to make a character from nothing and then to have a full poster, backstory. Although the feedback that I got about pretty much everything really helped to make my work better and having the outsider view made me see what the parts that didnt look right were. The things that I did learn, I had someone already previous knowledge about but getting a more in depth look into what I already knew and ways that I could make it better. The part that I did enjoy the most would have to have been the backstory stuff, I enjoy writing and creating characters on paper so I was able to do those things without really needing to have a break because I felt like I was on a roll. Overall this course helped me to understand the whole creation of character illustration and how its a lot of trial and error with what works and what dosent.

[steveshairychest]

By some miracle, Eddie is alive. He's standing in the middle of Mike's basement covered in dirt and his own blood and smiling so wide, his new sharp teeth on full display. No one questions how he survived or if they should be wary of him, they are just so happy to have him back. If they catch him eating a small animal in the backyard, they don't mention it.

Things continue as normal. Eddie holds hellfire in mike's basement, he drives Dustin home and sometimes has dinner with him and his mum; which he ends up throwing up in the front garden because his body can no longer handle normal food. No one hears him when he sobs in his car, mourning the loss of his old life. Eddie and Steve start to grow closer, they have beers at Steve's house (Steve pretends to not notice that Eddie never drinks his beer) and some nights they stay up late talking about things they've never told anyone. Eddie tells Steve that dying was the most peaceful thing to happen to him.

Robin notices their new found closeness first. She watches the way they gravitate towards each other, the way Steve always has a hand on Eddie, like he needs to reassure himself that he's real, not a figment of his imagination. She understood. She finds herself reaching out to touch his arm, his face, his hair, anything to remind her that he wasn't a hallucination. Robin smiles softly whenever she catches them blushing and quickly looking away from each other, they obviously can't see what she does.

Eddie helps them with their new plan to defeat vecna and get rid of the upside down. He tells them he can feel vecna in his mind, can feel where he is in the upside down and they use that to their advantage. No one notices the way Eddie stares at them, no one notices the way he sits at the back of the room and just watches them softly like he's trying to memorise their faces, their laughs, everything about them. He doesn't tell them the truth, not even when Steve touches his hand so gently and asks him if he's okay.

And then when everyone is celebrating their victory over vecna, over the destruction of the upside down, Eddie feels himself going with it. He is a creature of the upside down afterall. Steve notices first. He's standing right there when Eddie drops lifelessly to the ground, his eyes glassy and his hands weakly reaching for Steve's. "What's going on?!" He smiles softly at Steve, at Dustin, at everyone.

"It was nice to see you all one last time." He whispers, he can no longer feel the grip Steve had on his hand, he can no longer feel.. anything and then he's gone. For real this time. They all know it. Just like the demogorgans had fallen still the moment El destroyed the upside down, Eddie lies motionless in the dirt, no longer tethered to the world that brought him back to life.

[15-dogs]

hugger |n.s.|

pairing: newt scamander x reader

summary: you begin to develop feelings for newt, your employer, and accidentally do the one thing he hates: hugs (super super fluffy! pining, friends to lovers, takes place in between fbawtft and fb:tcog)

warnings: extremely minimal swearing, getting injured (nothing serious!), a niffler giving birth (?)

guide: (Y/N) = your name, italics = flashback

word count: 2.1K

a/n: this was supposed to be a blurb LMAO i rewatched fantastic beasts and unearthed my 8th grade crush on him which gave me this as a product! i hope you like it!!

“Denied again?” you asked Newt. He gave you a curt nod as he paced towards the Kelpie pool. 

You frowned; he always seemed to get quieter after he returned from the Ministry. It had been his third attempt to regain his international passport and, of course, his third run in with his brother, Theseus. And you knew how complicated their relationship was. Newt never really talked about Theseus, except for the offhand comments he would make about him.

So far, all you had gathered about the mysterious Scamander was that he was tall, an Auror, and quite the hugger. You nearly burst out laughing when Newt had mentioned that last little fact about his brother as if it were reason enough to dislike him.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Scamander, but that just doesn’t seem like something to hate a person over.”

Newt exhaled in quiet laughter as he pet a Mooncalf, grabbing some treats from the bucket he held. He flashed a kind smile at the Mooncalf before turning off and dropping the bucket to the ground, staring you down from across his basement.

“You haven’t met Theseus, then.”

Newt refused to meet your eyes as he joined you in caring for the Leucrotta. You chewed your lip— perhaps you were making a mistake, talking to him so plainly. He was your employer, after all. You weren’t there to help him make nice with his older brother.

Yet, you continued to speak as if you were a personal acquaintance of his. “What I’m trying to say is you’re an incredibly kind, sweet person, Mr. Scamander.” 

That got his attention. His head slowly raised to meet yours, and when he saw you were already looking at him, he looked away. But that did not deter you. 

“You refer to yourself as these creatures’ mother!” you announced with playful exasperation. That got to him, a soft, harmonic chuckle escaping his lips. “You have such a big heart. I suppose I’m just a little shocked that hugging is the disqualifier.”

Newt’s smile faded as he processed your words. You saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed, thick with emotion. He then shook his head as if it would drive the feelings away, pointing you off towards another creature in need of care.

“Well, what are you going to do?” you prodded, making your way beside him. “Try again?”

“Yes,” he stated with a nonchalant shrug, “that’s exactly what I plan on doing. And I’ll keep at it until I get that ban lifted.”

You snorted. “I can see why you were a Hufflepuff— dedication like no other, Mr. Scamander.” 

Newt glanced up at you with a lopsided grin that had your stomach flipping for a moment. The tips of your ears began to heat up and you prayed to Merlin that your hair covered them.

You had known for a while that you had feelings for Newt. It started cultivating inside you with every adoring smile, every impassioned statement, every quiet appraisal. It had soon grown too big to go unnoticed and you knew you were in far too deep.

“Quiet now, quiet now,” Newt whispered to the little Bowtruckle, “mum’s here.”

You were padding down the steps from his apartment, reading the instructions on the back of a potion vile. He had advised you to get it from his medicine cabinet for your headache but you weren’t entirely sure that you picked up the right one.

“Mr. Scamander…” your voice trailed off at the sight of his maternal tendencies.

“I know, I know,” he cooed, “but change can be a good thing. On you hop.” He continued to pet the small and pouty thing before placing it into the makeshift nest he had created, where it was welcomed by the rest of its friends.

That small moment, seemingly insignificant, had caused you to completely fall for Newt. His soft, green eyes fell upon you with a gentle, questioning look at the potion you held. You nodded, answering his silent question without actually telling the truth because, if Newt could be as seemingly perfect as he was day in and day out, you could suffer with a headache for one day.

“Prepare the ointment, please.”

You raised the large container of ointment that you had mixed together in preparation for Newt’s return. “Don’t have to ask me twice, Mr. Scamander.”

He nodded his head towards a desk where you placed the container down. 

Newt began to take off his trademark royal blue coat, flinging it onto a desk as he conversed with you about your work. “How has Molly been?”

You eyed the pregnant Niffler which was milling about in its cage. “Quite well, actually. She’s due any day now.”

“And the other Nifflers?”

“Niffler-y, as always,” you joked, earning a smile from the sandy haired man before you.

“Lovely.” Newt finally turned around, examining your state. “You’ll join me, won’t you? Kelpie’s are easier with two people.”

“Right, yes, of course.”

“Brilliant.”

You undid the buttons on your blouse with haste so that you stood in your pants and camisole, pulling your hair from your eyes as you prepared to hop into the pool. It wasn’t like it was the first time you’d done this, but each time had your nerves thrumming with anxieties that something would go wrong.

You spun around as you took a step towards the edge of the pool, standing shoulder to shoulder with Newt. He extended his hand without looking down, taking yours in his perfectly rough ones, your mouth instantly going dry. Newt looked over at you, so incredibly close that your noses nearly brushed against one another. He nodded and so did you, both hopping backwards into the pool.

Your camisole popped up from the sudden force and Newt quickly looked away as you tucked it back in to the best of your ability. As soon as you were done, you splashed some water his way, striking him in the chest. His eyes went wide with amusement as he did the same to you, hitting you square in the face.

A small wave knocked the two of you back under, the Kelpie swimming its way towards you. You and Newt managed to grab a hold of it, barely staying on as it bucked you two up and down. 

After about the third time the Kelpie lept from the water, you cemented your grip. You let out a loud whoop as the cold air kissed your wet skin, Newt also cheering beside you. The Kelpie dove deep under the water, preparing to rocket you two up. As it breached the water, Newt sent you a disarming smile that had your hands subconsciously loosening. As the Kelpie snapped back under the water, you were thrown off, your body just narrowly missing the stone columns of the pool and splashing with a loud crack in the water.

“(Y/N)!” Newt cried out. His voice was drowned out by the water and by the fact that the pain from the fall had you slipping in and out of consciousness. It was the last thing you heard before you passed out, deep under the water.

You awoke to smell of a savory broth soup flooding in from the room over. You looked around the familiar space, soon realizing that you were sat on Newt’s couch, a blanket tucked firmly up to your chin. Your cheeks grew warm as you inhaled the scent that was distinctly him, scolding yourself for the childish crush you had developed.

You adjusted yourself, sitting up to see a tray of tinctures on the table beside you with a note that read, “Please take these when you wake! Newt.” You followed his orders, slugging them back with a wince at each unpleasant taste.

But then you heard a strange noise from the basement. It was a mix between a squeak and a whine, concerning enough to pull you from your cozy spot on Newt’s couch. You stood up and peered around the corner, hearing a soft, offkey hum ringing from the kitchen where Newt most likely was cooking his dinner. The sound of his voice warmed your heart and you almost, almost, got up to speak with him but you figured you had caused him enough trouble for the day. So instead, you headed into the basement by yourself.

You gripped the railings on the stairs with immense force, hoping not to fall over. Your body felt sore which you could only attribute to your accident earlier. You stopped at the bottom of the steps, peering around when you were met with a pained cry from the Niffler cage. You ran up to it to see Molly the pregnant Niffler whimpering in pain as another Niffler nudged at her stomach.

“Oh, Merlin,” you muttered, “you’re about to give birth, aren’t you, Molls?”

As if Molly could understand you, she let out a loud squeal.

“Oh, Merlin. Time to put that Hogwarts education to the test, I suppose,” you mumbled to yourself to give yourself the confidence you needed to deliver the little Niffler babies.

You snatched the pair of gloves from beside the cage and tugged them on tight, casting a spell so they’d perfectly fit your hands. You unlocked the cage to take Molly out, moving her into a small tray with bedding in it.

“Okay, Molls, you got this. Mum’s here.” 

You rubbed her stomach in small circles, feeling the baby— no, babies— squirm around. One thing was for certain: you needed Newt.

“Mr. Scamander!” you called upstairs. No response. “Mr. Scamander, please!” Still no response. “Merlin’s beard, Newt! Get down here!”

No later did you hear heavy steps growing louder behind you. “(Y/N)! You’re awake! Are you okay-”

You didn’t have time for his rambling. You sent a panicked look over your shoulder, meeting his wide eyes. “Molly is giving birth. Triplets.”

“Merlin’s beard.” He ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it in contemplation. “How’s she doing?”

“She’s a fighter, I’ll tell you that.”

“What can I do to help you?”

You whipped around. Apparently you’d be delivering the babies. You took in a sobering breath, steadying your shaking hands.

“Something shiny, some snacks, and a towel.”

Newt scrambled around the workspace as fast as he could, dropping the items in front of you. You laid out the towel and snacks beside Molly, massaging her stomach as you felt the babies start to move more than before. It was time. You pulled the shiny object out from behind your back, dangling it above Molly’s head as she delivered three adorable Niffler babies, so distracted by the object that she didn’t realize that she’d given birth. You escorted the babies onto the towel, allowing them to nibble on the snacks as you stripped the gloves off.

“Merlin,” you murmured to yourself in astonishment, “Merlin! I just…”

Newt’s smile was so big it nearly split his face. He nodded, sharing in your excitement. “You did,” he assured.

Completely forgetting about professionalism, you hopped onto him, engulfing him in a tight hug while you laughed melodically. Newt’s thin frame stiffened in your grasp. You gasped, jumping off of him with your hands up.

“I am so sorry, Mr. Scamander. No hugs, I forgot.”

Newt simply stared at you, searching your eyes. You gulped as he took a step closer to you.

“Theseus tends to believe that a hug is just as useful as an apology, so I don’t quite like hugs for that reason.”

“Oh.” You didn’t know what else to say.

The corner of Newt’s lips twitched upwards, looking around before meeting your gaze. He took another step forward before taking you in his arms. You began to wonder if he could feel your heart pounding in your chest, whether he assumed it was from adrenaline or knew that it was him that drove you mad.

“You should be proud of yourself!” He pulled away to look in your eyes, his arms slinking downwards to rest around your waist. “And, please, (Y/N), no more with the Mr. Scamander business. I’d like to think that we’re well acquainted enough for you to call me Newt.”

If professionalism was damned before, it was most certainly damned now.

Merlin, he was so close, you couldn’t help yourself. With your arms wrapped behind his neck, you pulled him into a long overdue kiss. Your heart thundered in your chest but you were too focused on the way his lips melted perfectly into yours, the way he kissed you back with such hunger and vigor that you had to hold onto him tighter, the way you began to smile as he attempted to figure out where to place his hands. 

You pulled away a moment later, Newt following your lips with unpleasant surprise. All you could do was let out a soft chuckle as your cheeks turned pink.

A teasing grin grew on his lips that had your stomach flipping. “I’m positive now that we’re well acquainted enough for you to call me Newt.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

general taglist:  @pandaxnienke @lunalovecroft

[nanoland]

Every Wickedness, by TJ Land

the title: Every Wickedness

the deets: M/M, paranormal romance + action adventure, novel-length

the blurb:  

In a city in which all manner of supernatural creatures live side by side, Vex, an affable, middle-aged demon, has abandoned Hell in favor of a cozy suburban home. He has a quaint garden in which he grows carnations; a lovingly-furnished living room where he often enjoys a nice cup of tea with Gramiel, an angel and his best friend; and a basement in which he keeps the remains of all the people the two of them have murdered.

the link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09QV77LTV

the extract: 

Dean was ninety percent sure that the guy sitting at the next table was a demon.

No obvious tells. In a café stuffed with supernatural types – three besotted fairies on a date, clasping hands over their tres leche, their wings throwing off sparkly dust every time they giggled; a troll doing the crossword over by the window, his massive stone shoulders blocking out the sunlight that would otherwise have blasted directly into Dean’s eyes and exacerbated his hangover; an elf mum and her perfectly-dressed children, bitching out the waiter because the dragon’s tears used to prepare her tea had allegedly been mixed with, God forbid, tap water – he was pretty low-key.

“Your coffee, dear,” said the elderly waitress, setting it down in front of Dean, and he flashed her a smile before returning his attention to his neighbour.

He was, Dean guessed, about forty, although if he was a demon that estimate would likely prove off by several hundred years. Pudgy. Short. Cute, in a shifty kinda way. Black hair with a pronounced widow’s peak. Nice, dramatic eyebrows, with those little flares at the end Dean always found appealing. Cupid’s bow mouth.

But no horns. No tail.

Was he hiding them with magic?

Probably. People were weird about demons. While all the immigrants from Hell Dean had met were powerful enough to deal with any outright aggression they might encounter, most just wanted a quiet life.

The thing that made Dean so certain he’d guessed his neighbour’s species correctly was the tattoo on his wrist.

Scratch that – tattoos. He’d just reached for his latte, allowing his sleeve to fall back far enough to reveal a second black snake curled around his left wrist. Like the first, it was moving, gliding up and down his muscles with a grace and fluidity that told Dean it was no ordinary charmed ink.

Lots of supernatural folk had familiars. Only demons were so possessive as to keep theirs locked in their own skin.

Two familiars meant power.

And now Dean was interested.

“Staring is rude, darling,” the demon rumbled.

Ooh! Deep, deep voice. Very nice. And a faint Liverpool accent. Bonus.  

“Should I stop?” Dean asked, grinning into his coffee.

The demon finally turned to look at him. Wow. Eyes exactly the colour of fresh blood. And… holy shit, a third snake slithering around by his collarbone, bigger than the other two, most of its slinky black length obscured by his shirt.

Three familiars. For the first time, it occurred to Dean that he might be in over his head.

“No,” said the demon, and smiled toothily.

the cover: 

[exasperatedtinagoldstein]

Part 3 of “The Blame He Bears” storyline

“So long as I have my case, my creatures, and you I’ll be home.”

Disclaimer: as always I don’t own characters or the world.

Note: so I know I’ve posted several of these, so I apologize if they haven’t be great/what you expected I’m still learning I promise it’ll get better. This one focuses on Newt and Tina actually discussing life and little bit of Newt not shouldering his burdens alone. They may seem a little out of character so just a heads up. Also this one is long. I apologize now for the length. I hope you enjoy!

Every time she thought her worry could pass he just kept proving her wrong. Ever since Newt and Jacob had come back from getting the Hippogriffs settled, Newt had been quiet. And not his usual “I don’t know what to say so I’m not going to say anything at all” quiet that he has when there are more people than just her or his family present. But a more serious “I’m going to hunt down the person who did this to you, Thee, I promise” kind of quiet. A quiet Tina was confident she didn’t like. Mrs. Scamander kept looking between her sons. Tina could tell it was killing her that Theseus was hurt. Tina also knew not being able to talk to Newt wasn’t helping situation. Tina made her way over to where Newt stood by his mother. She herself had taken up residency by the door when Newt and Jacob returned, letting Newt be the comforting presence for his mother again. As Tina approached Newt, his mother turned to look between them.

“Newt, why don’t you and Tina head home? Only one of us can be here over night.”

“Mum-“ Newt started to protest.

“Newton Artemis Fido Scamander.” Eleanor Scamander’s tone was not one to be messed with. Newt shut up real quick when his mother started in with his full name. “Take your lovely girlfriend home. Check on your creatures and get some sleep, sweetheart. Please.”

Newt mulled it over before speaking again. “10 more minutes that’s when visiting hours end. We’ll leave then.” That seemed to appease Eleanor as she nodded. Newt turned to Tina then. “I sent Jacob and Lally on ahead when you were in the loo. I hope that’s alright.” He looked at her through his unruly hair. Tina smoothed it over before speaking.

“That’s perfect, dear. Absolutely perfect.” Newt gave her a tentative smile in response and returned to his vigil at his brother’s side. When the ten minutes were up, Newt and Tina took turns saying good to Mrs. Scamander.

“Make sure he sleeps, Tina dear.” Eleanor said as she pulled back from Tina’s hug.

“Mum, I’m a grown man.” Newt griped at his mother causing both women to give him a look of disapproval. “Who has proven I can barely function without proper sleep I know I know.”

“And that means sleep in a bed, Newton. Not that hammock in the basement.” Eleanor said.

“Mum!”

“I promise I’ll get him to sleep. No promises on the bed though, Mrs. Scamander.”

“Tina, earned the right to call me Ellie a long time ago. You know that.” Eleanor said, giving Tina a motherly smile. Tina sheepishly nodded and ducked into the hallway to give Newt a second with his mom. “You better marry that girl, Newt.” Tina could hear Ellie say as she hugged Newt tightly.

“I know, Mum. I hope to.” Tina smiled at Newt’s response. They had briefly discussed marriage right before his father passed. Then life threw them a whole host of curveballs and Tina thought any and all plans for the future had been pushed to the way side. They had each other and right now that was enough.

“You’ve got my rin-“

“Shh, Mum! Tina can probably hear us!” Tina chuckled loud enough to make it clear she could, causing the mother and son to hastily say good bye. As they strolled out of St. Mungo’s, Newt took hold of Tina’s hand and led her to an alley. Once they were hidden from sight they apparated to another alley at the end of Newt’s street. As they began walking, they didn’t let go of the other’s hand. Tina even moved a little closer to rest her head against his arm.

“You know if you’d just ask we would get her off our backs about it.” Tina said in a quiet voice.

“Ask what, love?”

“Me to marry you.” Tina stated plainly. She looked up to see Newt blushing wildly. She let out a little giggle as she continued. “It might also help with getting our home bases a bit more lined up.”

“Like MACUSA would ever let you permanently move to London.” Newt said in a light tone.

“Well no I’m sure they would, but if I put in my transfer request. Or if Theseus can still help me with that j-“ Newt stopped walking then. Tina stopped a pace ahead of him to see his brow scrunched and he was shaking his head.

“You’re not transferring to the Ministry, Tina.” Newt stated. Not prompted. Not questioned. No he made it clear what he thought of that idea.

“Newt, I can and will do what-“

“I’ve been speaking with Achilles about what I need to do to be allowed back in New York.”

“You what?” Tina looked at him in surprise. Every time they had talked about the future before, it was always here. In London. Or in Dorset. Near Newt’s family. Where any future children could go to Hogwarts, much to Tina’s dismay about that. “Newt, we always talked abou-“

“I can do my work from anywhere, but MACUSA needs you, love. I won’t take you from your home. So long as I have my case, my creatures, and you I’ll be at home.” Newt stated boldly with a stupid grin on his face. Tina gave an exasperated sigh, which lost its effect as she was grinning as she approached him and planted a kiss on his lips.

“You should really talk to me before going to Achilles about these things, Mr. Scamander.” She muttered against his lips.

“It was supposed to be a surprise, Auror Goldstein.” He said as he pecked he lips again before pulling away and beginning their walk once more. “I’m surprised he didn’t say anything to you about it.”

“He’s a cheeky bastard like that.” Newt laughed at her then. A real Newt laugh. “You can talk about it you know?” Newt didn’t say anything, just gave her a skeptical look. “The mission, Newt. We can talk about what happened.”

“Tina-“

“No I know we briefly talked about it. But, darling, you can’t keep beating yourself up like this. I can tell you’re still mad at yourself about Theseus. And your fa-“

“Of course I’m still mad at myself about Dad!” Newt whispered harshly as they approached his front door. “I put a target on his and Mum’s backs!”

“Newt, he was an outspoken adversary of the pure blood community Grindelwald draws followers from long before you started fighting against Grindelwald.”

“That’s not the point, Porpentina.” Newt fumed as he headed toward his basement menagerie.

“Then what, pray tell, is the point, Newton?” If he was going to break out full names then so would she.

“Grindelwald planned an attack on my childhood neighbors! He didn’t do that because Dad spoke out against the Blacks or Malfoys. No he did it because he knew my family would go to help that family. He-“

“He did it to hurt you. And Theseus. And me. And everyone close to you, Newt. Yes he did it for that reason. But Newt, would your father have been the man you admired if he had sat at home and did nothing.” Tina argued as she followed him down the stairs. “Would Theseus be the brother you know and love if he hadn’t fought today?” Newt was silent as he turned to look at her with tears in his eyes. “You can’t keep blaming yourself, dear. It’s not you’re fault.” He collapsed into her then. His tears streaming down his face and his case falling to the floor. It was the first time since the aftermath of Leta’s death and Queenie’s betrayal Newt had really let himself cry. Not even at the funeral last year did he sob like he was now.

“I’m just so tired of fighting him, Tina. I’m so tired of him winning and hurting the people I love.”

“I know, Newt. Me too.” She said as she held him, feeling her own tears start to fall. “But we can’t give up. They wouldn’t want us to give up. Even on the rough days we have-“

“To fight.” Newt said from his place on her shoulder. “And we will. We always will.” They stayed like that for several moments, wrapped together on the steps leading to the heart of his work. A sense of calm and understanding settling between them. They were broken out of their trance by Pickett climbing out of Newt’s pocket and burrowing himself in Tina’s hair. “Pick, oi Pickett! Get out of her hair.” Newt tried to grab the bowtruckle only for Pickett to hide further in her hair and for Tina to move away from Newt.

“We are fine just like this. Aren’t we Pickett?” Tina put her finger up for Pickett to grab as she pulled him out of her hair and set him on her shoulder. She began to walk the rest of the way down the stairs when Pickett cooed condescendingly at Newt.

“You two are going to be the death of me!” Newt called as he bent down to grab his case. Tina ignored him as she headed over to grab the mooncalf feed. “You know Bunty already feed them while we were at the hospital.” Newt yelled as she walked into the mooncalves habitat. She rolled her eyes at him.

“Bunty may have, but I haven’t seen my babies in months and I’m giving them all extra food tonight.”

“You spoil the creatures more than I do, love.” Newt said as he began letting creatures out of the case. Tina ignored him so she could begin feeding the mooncalves. They worked in silence as Newt returned creatures to their habitats and Tina moved to feed the ones who hadn’t left saving any new creatures or returning creatures for last so Newt could help her. As she made her way up to the Kelpie lake, she felt a presence next to her. Smiling she held out a hand to her invisible companion.

“Hello, Dougal. How are you buddy?” Tina’s grin grew bigger as the demiguise appeared beside her. Dougal stuck with Tina and Pickett as they finished up their rounds. Newt had just finished up giving out fresh hay and food to the new arrivals when a head popped out of the case.

“Oh I see, now that the works done you’ll make an appearance.” Newt called to the creature who only had eyes on Tina. Tina walked over to the case to lift Teddy out. “You only come out when you can have your mum’s sole attention is it?” Newt said as he came to stand behind Tina and scratch the niffler’s head. “Well buddy I’ve got news for you. She’s staying upstairs and you are not.”

“Oh Newt!” Tina chastised. “He can stay with me. It’ll be fine.”

“Tina I’m trying to enforce boundaries with him. Boundaries I seem to remember a certain Auror requested right after this little bugger caused us to meet.”

“Well that was how many years ago now?” Tina said as she moved to go upstairs to her bedroom. Well a bedroom as her normal guest room was most likely taken by Jacob or Lally. “Newt?” She called.

“Hmm?” Newt hummed at her. Peering over her shoulder, Tina saw him pulling out his cot from the case.

“Where are you sleeping tonight?”

“Tina you know I’m going to sleep down here.”

“Where do you want me to sleep?” Tina asked.

“Your room should be-“

“Newt, you have three bedrooms. Two of which already have guests in them no doubt so that just leaves your room.”

“Then I assume you’ll stay in my room, darling. It’s practically ours to share already.” Newt clarified as he laid down on the cot.

“I’m not staying in your room while you sleep down here.”

“Tina I’m not sleeping upstairs tonight. Not with having new creatures here and-“ Newt stopped talking as Tina came over and transfigured his cot into a larger mattress on a simple frame. “Love? What are you doing?”

“If we’re sleeping down here, I’m at least going to be comfortable.” Tina was already getting under the cover Newt had pulled out with the cot as Teddy and Pickett were picking which of their humans to lay on. Teddy curled up at Tina’s feet as Pickett ran along Tina’s outstretched arm into Newt’s hair. Newt laid down beside her with an amused grin.

“What are Jacob and Lally going to think when they inevitably discover us in the morning?”

“That we’ve been together since 1927 and aren’t married yet because you’re too scared to ask.” Tina claimed sleepily.

“I’m not too scared. I’m just waiting for us to be on the same continent for longer than a day.” Newt replied as he wrapped his right arm around her waist and tucked her into his side.

“Mmm keep telling yourself that, honey.”

“Would you like me to prove you wrong?”

“Name a time and place and I’ll be there waiting to say yes, Newt.” Tina said as she looked up at him. Newt smiled and reaching into his pocket to pull out a ring.

“Alright then. Tina Goldstein will you marry me?” Newt asked with smirk on his face. Tina slapped his chest with a smile before nodding.

“Of course I will Newt Scamander.” Newt put the ring on her finger gingerly and brought her hand up to his lips. “As sweet as this is I would like a real proposal tomorrow.”

“Nope. This is it. You get a subtle proposal from our bed as we are surrounded by our creatures.”

“Fine.” Tina huffed in fake exasperation and looked at the ring. “This is your mother’s.”

“She and Dad decided you should have it right after they met you. It’s been in the Scamander family for generations but only Dad ever thought to use it as an engagement ring.” Tina smiled at his reply.

“I love it.” She leaned up to kiss him which he met with a grin.

“I’m glad.”

“You know your mother is going to hate this engagement story.”

“No she won’t. Theseus will. But Mum will love it.”

[whump-it]

Callum: Fever in Chains

TWs for sickfic, stress position, restraints and Hayden beyond horrid!

@haro-whumps @grizzlie70   @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @iaminamoodymoodtoday @burtlederp @my-whumpy-little-heart @pepperonyscience @faewhump @crowned-avery @whump-tr0pes @spookyboywhump @finder-of-rings @liliability @whumpfigure @girlwithacoolcat @tears-and-lilies @inpainandsuffering @whumpfigure @whumppsychology @ashintheairlikesnow @justabitofwhump

Follows on from this little piece!  https://whump-it.tumblr.com/post/614105812111065088/for-the-one-word-prompt-maybe-callum-with-a-fever

"You can lead a horse to water," Master Hayden said.  "But you can't make it drink.  Do you know what that means?  Or are you too stupid these days?"

Callum's eyes flickered open and closed.  They felt hot.  His eyeballs felt like they were burning.  He wanted to rub his head and check that the spot that always seemed to be bruised was still bruised.  When he moved his hand it was stopped almost instantly by the restraints around his wrists. His joints were aching and throbbing.

He choked on a sob.

"I'm sorry m...m...mmm...Master Hayden," he shivered, the tremor running from the top of his head right down to his toes.  He thought that he had been listening to a lullaby.  He thought that his hands were his today.  But they were stuck somewhere above his head.  He pulled again, pulled and got no more than an inch before they were stopped again.  He groaned and looked up, vision swimming a little.  His wrists were cuffed backed together again as they always were, the link between them jerking against a bar of the headboard, keeping them trapped up there. 

Hands in the air.  He sobbed again.  The lullaby came back.  Rock-a-bye.  He rocked his body back and for and cried with his hands shackled above his head. His mum would have sung that to him when he was ill. His mum would have cared.

His Master sighed, the noise loud and jarring as it pierced his feverish delirium.  Callum wanted the wash cloth back.  He wanted his Master to tell him that he liked him red and sweating with fever.  He wanted not to be called stupid.

He wanted to force his brain to remember what it meant when you led a horse to water.

He wanted his hands back.

“I’ll just go ahead and assume it’s your stupidity showing itself again,” Master Hayden said.  Callum groaned and rolled himself as far over as he could, trapped up by the headboard as he was, seeking the soft comfort of the mattress beneath him in place of the matted comfort of his teddy.  He wanted his teddy.

“I’m sorrry...” he muttered into the bedding.  “I’m sorry for being stupid but I don’t...I don’t...I...”

“I beg your pardon?”  The bed dipped and lurched and Callum felt seasick.  His brain told him that his body was going to tip.  He was certain that he was going to fall.  A bead of sweat rolled down from one shoulder blade to the other.

“I said I’m sorry Master Hayden,” Callum twisted back a little, forced his watering and hot eyes open to try to look at his Master.  “I said I’m...”

“You said ‘but’ you ungrateful little wretch,” Master Hayden grabbed a handful of Callum’s hair, and shook his head side to side roughly.  “But what exactly hmm?” 

Callum’s world lurched again with the violent to and fro of his head.  His brain felt like slurry, slopping uselessly against the inside of his skull.  He could barely think and he wanted his hands and his teddy and he knew that he was sorry but.  But.  There was definitely a but and the flame of fever across his skin and in his mind was working faster than his mouth could keep up with.  Words that should never see the light of day and could never be put back were pressing up against his teeth and his defences were coming down faster than he could prevent.

“But I try!”  The words burst out, a dam with weakened, crumbling walls.  “I TRY.  I try every day and I want to be better and do better but you never tell me how I should do it so that it’s right!” 

The silence from his Master was deafening.  The buzzing from his brain and his ears and his fever was louder.  It drowned everything out.  It drowned him.

“You won’t tell me!  You just hurt me and hurt me and hurt me...” a cough tore up his throat and Callum heaved over it, trying to get it out of the way so that it could stop choking him up.  “You don’t do anything to help me....”  He shrieked at the blow tht he hadn’t seen coming, the heavy handed thud across his right temple.  He pulled and pulled to bring his hands down so that he could protect himself but they remained stubbornly locked up around the headboard.  The effort of his pulling dragged him bodily up the bed, as he pushed himself up closer and closer to his hands.  He curled up as close to the headboard as he could while his Master beat him across the head.

“No!” he cried out, sobbing over the word, stretching its syllable out, multiplying them.

"No!?" Master Hayden threw his head down as though he was disgusted. As though Callum was disgusting. "Where on earth do you get the idea that you can say 'but' to me? That you can say 'no' to me? Me, who puts a roof over your head and food in your belly?"

Callum sobbed and hiccuped, ached and burned up with fever and pain, aches and stupidity. His hands were being moved. They weren't above his head. Hands in the air? No. Hands behind his back. Face pressed into the mattress. A knee in the small of his back as the cuffs were snapped together roughly before the pressure let up and he was dragged off the bed by the wrists. His shoulders lifted too high and the pain made him shriek and drop to his knees with weak knees and a fevered haze.

"Up." His Master's voice penetrated through the overloaded sensations but his limbs refused to work. His normally quick ability to move when restrained was dulled and sluggish. He tried. He screamed internally at himself to move but he wanted to sleep. He wanted to sleep and to recover from whatever was raging through his system.

As he struggled to get back to his knees, his Master sighed. Another sigh. Another mark against him. Something else he'd done wrong. The ever familiar feeling of a hand twisting in his hair registered just a second before he was hauled across the floor. 

“You can walk on your knees you little wretch,” Master Hayden said as he pulled Callum along next to him.  “Ungrateful creature.  You go ahead and have the all out stupidity to get ill.  You take up my time with helping you.  You let me put you in my bed and cool you down and then you answer me back.  I have never been as insulted as I am right now.  Hmm?  You know that?  Insulted.”  With the final word, they reached the basement door, the latch being thrown hastily back and the door swung open.  “Down.  And if you take too long I’ll just kick you down there.”

Through his haze of pain and fever, Callum edged his way down the stairs, moaning softly to himself, working his way along on his knees and his side, using the occasional press of his foot here and there where he thought that he would get away with it.  The one dim light that perpetually lit his rules seemed over bright and foggy around the edges as he got closer to it.  As he approached the centre of the floor. 

“Stay on your knees until I’m ready,” he heard his Master say.  His mouth moved before his brain could tell it not to.

“But my knees hurt so much Mas...” he was cut off swiftly by a thudding blow to the side of his head. 

“Let’s keep that stupid bruise of yours around a little longer shall we?”  Master Hayden hissed at him.  “Idiot.”  Callum sobbed and swayed on his knees.  His bruised and no doubt bloody knees, barely registering the sounds of chains being moved around behind him.  His world felt too unstable to focus on anything for too long.  Like a song that plays from one speaker to another, the metallic clinking of chain shifted from one side of the room to the other.  In one ear and then in the next. 

Back and for.

He listened and rocked a little in time with it.

Back and for.

Lost as he was in the aching rythm, he yelped then whined when his Master suddenly appeared next to him, one hand around his throat and the other around his tummy. 

“Face down, stupid,” Master Hayden whispered it in his ear as he lowered Callum to the floor.  Somewhere in the back of his fevereed mind, Callum felt gratitude that he hadn’t been kicked to the floor without his hands to break the fall.  He felt gratitude that he had been helped.  He felt gratitude that his Master was being so kind after he had made himself so ashamed upstairs on the bed.

“Thank you Master Hayden,” he croaked out, his voice cracking with his increasingly sore throat.  He starined to hear anything through the muddle of his mind.  To hear a word from his Master.  He yearned to hear a word from his Master.  Anything that might take the razor edge of his shame from him.  Instead he heard footsteps and chains again.  He felt something around his wrists.  Cold.  It made his body shiver and twitch and he couldn’t stop it.

“You can stay like this until I think you can be trusted not to be so rude and ungrateful towards me,” 

A swift and tight pull jerked Callums arms up behind him and he screamed and sobbed at the pressure on his shoulders.  A click.  A loud snapping sound that echoed through his skull and hurt his head.  A padlock shutting with a register as loud as a gunshot.  Kepping him tightly in place.  Chains from the hooks in the walls wrapped around his wrists and pulled taut. 

Face down and bawling his eyes out.  Arms up behind him to an almost unbearably painful degree.  No soft teddy to lean against.

Hands in the air.  Rock-a-bye your bear.  Bear is now asleep.

He wanted his lullaby.  His bear.  He wanted his mum. 

He wanted anything but silence broken by his own screams and cries.  Anything but the sound of the basement door as it shut behind his Master and left him there.

[ryemackerel]

whenever i listen to music i always have the tendency to imagine characters playing their respective instruments in songs. this song in particular, no fun by vacations, made me imagine their playing styles UGHHGHHH anyways

i remember coming across an old picture of actual matt (i think it was him anyway) playing guitar and i felt inclined to headcanon character matt can also play guitar :3 i can see him rocking out an electric guitar alongside tom and his bass.

i love to think when they were teens, matt and tom knew each other for AGES and became friends over their love of playing guitar and bass. they tried to make a band, but they really didn’t make it big, and instead just made music in matt’s old home’s basement. edd eventually tagged along since he knew how to sing, and tord knew drums, but they never became an actual band LMAOAO.

nowadays, matt and tom love rocking shit out as a hobby. edd still loves to sing, tord doesn’t play drums much anymore. edd sometimes annoys the other two to play guitar and bass to be his background instrumentals while he sings.

also this piece was my excuse to give matt the love he deserves and make him cooler . i love him

[ghost-strawberry]

Taking Control

Prompt by Dekalkomania for Phic Phight 2021. Danny hasn't been feeling himself, blacking out and having strange dreams. Unbeknownst to him, Freak Show's staff was not the only artifact that could control ghosts. Even worse, Jack and Maddie are the ones who get their hands on that object.

"I'm not sure Jack," Maddie murmured, distrust in her eyes. She picked up the object tenderly, examining it. It was some kind of orb, about the size of her palm. Shining red and encased in an intricate wire structure. Even through her gloves a cold temperature leeched out from within it. "This is a great opportunity Maddie! How often do we get our hands on something like this?" It seemed nothing could dampen her husband's elation when faced with such an interesting project. "Of course, it is wonderful to find an artefact like this, and I will take great pleasure in examining it thoroughly, I just wonder how dangerous it could be." She delicately placed the orb in a glass box and slid a heavy metal lid over. She crouched down beside it, staring at it through the glass. There was something... compelling about it. Maddie didn't believe in magic or superstition, she only put stock in that which could be clearly defined and measured with science. Ghosts residing in latter category. This object though, well, it was like nothing the scientist had ever seen before; she had only read about the like in damp ridden, old textbooks on the occult. The swirling crimson pattern seemed almost to move as she stared.

"Let's get this show on the road," she said, reaching for the controls next to her. Maddie deftly flicked several switches on the machine beside the glass case and twisted a dial, causing it to generate a smooth hum. Jack was almost bouncing up and down with excitement. Maddie smirked at his child-like joy whilst maintaining her concentration on the equipment. She had no idea what kind of results they would uncover. The object began to shiver in its cage and Jack observed the fluctuating results, taking notes. In her mind, Maddie dredged up all her limited memories on studying ecto-artefacts such as these and their possible abilities. She hoped it would be some kind of device they could use in their ghost hunting, perhaps to capture, or control the spectral beings? Wouldn't it be great to find something that could properly capture that ghost kid menace: Danny Phantom?

*

The infinite fog rolled towards him in voluminous banks, the insubstantial trees beside him were withered and twisted. Harsh rain lashed down, stinging his face and eyes. The dark earth trembled and cracked beneath his feet. A disembodied voice drifted through the haze. "What?" The rasping words crept out, "how did you get in here?" A face appeared, mouth malformed, twisted and confused. Glass eyes like an insects shimmered in and out of sight. A scent of fear suffused the air. Glowing ruby trails traced an outline around a familiar room. His lips moved of their own accord. "You requested it of me," came out in a drawl. "Turn it off! Now!" Before he could react, complete darkness fell.

*

Nightmares were nothing new to Danny. Something about having died, facing horrible creatures everyday and fighting fearsome ghosts did that to a boy. But this dream, this nightmare last night... it was... different. He shivered in his bed, pyjamas sodden with sweat. He tried to recall what the dream was about. He couldn't remember anything particularly scary about it, in fact, he could only clearly see one image, imprinted on his mind. His mother, wearing her usual blue hazmat suit and red safety goggles. Danny shook of the vestiges of the dream and swung himself out of bed. It probably didn't mean anything important.

*

"Hey Danny-o!" The jovial voice greeted him as he walked into the kitchen. The large, blockish figure of his dad bundled across the room, obviously excited about something. "Hey, Dad," Danny responded, in a monotone voice that was his attempt at expressing his disinterest in whatever crazy experiment his dad was working on. Needless to say, his dad wouldn't pick up on anything as subtle as that. "Got some big stuff we're investigating today! Can't wait to show you!" His white teeth gleamed as he spoke. "Now Jack, don't go getting Danny intrigued. You know we can't show it just yet, not until we know what it does," his mum calmly chimed in as she finished her bowl of cereal. That actually made this project more interesting to Danny. His parents were not the kind of scientists to adhere to any kind of health and safety, or to purposefully shut him out like this. Danny had been allowed full access around their laboratory and usually informed about all of their work since he'd been about ten years old. "So," he said, trying to show a natural curiosity whilst busying himself making breakfast, "what does it do?" "Well, it's basically-" his dad started, but was abruptly cut off by his wife standing up and sharply clapping him on the shoulder. "Basically sweetie, we don't know... yet. And we couldn't tell you anything because we don't know, right Jack?" She turned to look at him pointedly, hand still resting on his shoulder. Danny sat down and started to eat, not surprised. He would have to find out about this experiment another way. "Yes... yes of course." His dad grinned with the secret and shot a sly, deliberate wink to Danny. "Danny, would you be a dear and wash up our dishes from breakfast? We've really got to get to the lab," his mum asked. Before she had finished speaking, a strange rush of feeling rose up in Danny, his stomach turned over like he had butterflies, his hair stood on end. Without meaning to, Danny got up quickly, dropping his spoon which clattered noisily in his bowl. He snatched his parent's dishes from the table and began cleaning them in the kitchen sink. "Yes," the one syllable word dropped out of his mouth, in a voice that didn't seem like his own. It was as if he was watching someone else washing up, with his arms, from the confines of his own head. "Oh... thanks sweetie!" His mum remarked, in a surprised tone, "it would be nice if you reacted like this every time your father and I asked you to do something!" Danny's head nodded, his eyes in the sink and on the task, unable to look anywhere else. He heard his parents footsteps leave the kitchen and go downstairs to the basement. His thoughts tumbled over in his mind, his vision growing darker around the edges. This sensation, it was too familiar. Then, as swiftly as it had come over him, he was back to normal. The dishes lay clean and dripping on the draining board. Danny slumped down in a chair, unnerved. What was that all about? He ran his hands through his inky black hair, trying to make sense of the experience.  His mum had offhandedly asked him to do something, and he had been somehow forced to do it. Remnants of last nights dream came back to his mind, involuntarily. He racked his brains for an answer, for the familiarity of the sensation to explain itself. This must have had something to do with his parents' 'secret project'. He would have to go and investigate this for himself, now. Just as he reached for the power within him to turn into his ghost side, he blacked out.

*

"Maddie... Maddie... Maddie!" Jack shouted, either ecstatic or extremely anxious. Probably both. "Shhh Jack! I know," Maddie hissed through clenched teeth. She was gently shuddering with anticipation. Here it was, just as she had imagined, the ghost kid. In their laboratory! Dozens of mechanical objects whirred and ticked around the scientists. "Are you getting this data?" "Sure am," Jack whispered, pen flying across the page of his notebook, eyes darting to and from various devices and the floating ghostly child in the centre of the room. Maddie observed the phenomenon. It was, just hanging there, weightlessly, with a blank look on it's face. It's eyes were glazed and still and it wasn't exhibiting any of the usual traits they had associated with the ghost kid, namely being aggressiveness. In fact, it wasn't doing anything at all. The glowing, red artefact shimmered in her hand. It was obviously an ancient object used to summon ghosts. Since the phantom had appeared, the lab had grown cold; Maddie could see her breath drift in the air. In her other hand, she had an ecto-weapon directed at the ghost kid's head. If it noticed this, it made no sign. "What are you doing here?" Maddie asked, more steadily than she felt. "You requested it of me." The chilling voice echoed in the basement and reverberated in her mind. "What are you?" "A ghost." It's head slowly turned to look directly in her eyes. The unblinking, icy blue glare sent a shiver down her spine. She raised her weapon. "A human," it continued. "Now, that's not possible. A human can't be a ghost..." "Your son." These words from the spectre sunk into her chest, heavy. "No... no that can't be. You're not Danny, you're not my Danny. This is obviously a trick." Maddie turned towards her husband imploringly, eyes wide in suspicion. "Yeah, no putrid ectoplasmic manifestation is a son of ours!" Jack bellowed, as if he wasn't afraid, notes and pen forgotten. A solid thunk on the metal floor made them both jump. Maddie's eyes shot down to see she had dropped the artefact in her distress. The ghost seemed to flicker, it's face turning from Maddie, to Jack, then to the room around it. It appeared to regain control of it's limbs, it's mouth noiselessly hanging open. Maddie instinctively charged up the weapon and fired, but was left only with a black, smoking ring on the wall behind where the phantom had been. The lab was suddenly quiet. All of their equipment stood still. Jack moved quickly to her side, comforting her. "Don't worry Maddie, it was just trying to trick us." Maddie said nothing, only remembering in horror the look of fear and confusion on the ghost kid's face before it disappeared. In that one moment, it had looked too much like her son, like Danny.

[flour-cloud]

Henlo fandom! Now we explore that angst situation where Alcina is drunk by a excessive amount of maiden's blood and passed out in front of Donna's door. Mention of: self-inflicted pain, blood, tortures and loss of children.

It is a cold, dark night. When that forgotten-by-Gods village had a night with a full moon and shining stars? Something that was remotely...nice? Alcina was devastated by Ethan's murder of her daughters, she managed to survive by pure accident and the basements smell so good, that place looks so inviting and tempting: darkness, loneliness, silence. Peace. A dead woman rotten to the core clearly belonged to a place with that aura. A long,red,solitary tear run from her eyes to her neck all the way down that white, burned and ripped dress she loves so much. Alcina put her head under the blood line in a tub full of sanguine Virginis than she walks out the door. That disgusting human stole the body of her angels after the fight. If the vampire had a heart she probably would ripped it off her chest. The lady of the castle try to sit on chair made of iron spines in order to feel something different. Maybe that inflicted pain is the proof she has a heart,but one that does not pump anymore. If she peeled her skin maybe she would find crystals, something more noble than that rotten corpse that she is.That numb in her mind ... she was unable to say a single word about anything. The blood she drunk is restoring her body-structures and organs, but she has no urgency of breathing. Suddenly,when the moon reveals itself trough clouds Alcina decides to stand up and drink some more. Her head only reminds her how disgraceful that behaviour is.

So Alcina walks for minutes,for hours, ignored by monsters on the streets,by animals. And she passed out in a foggy zone she does not remember .

Angie opened the door.

"Mom! That tall busty woman smalls bad! Maybe is dead! Can we use her skin? May I have her claws? We can cut them off! " suggests the creature .

It is not usual that Donna moves to the front door from her chamber and her laboratory in the house,but when Angie calls mom should be there, no? A woman passed out at her door? A tall,busty woman? Maybe Alcina? That sounds bad. She paused for a moment and she looks down at her feet the big, stained and smelling body. "Call for help,Angie " Donna decides abruptly "no,darling, you can't have claws from her,she is alive. Very alive, stinky, but alive".

A bunch of clowns and creepy broken dolls help to transport Alcina inside.

Donna is disappointed when Alcina's blood stained the elegant sofa, she scrunch her nose a bit. "Now what? I am bored,mom". "Now we wait, Angie, come here" that authoritative and quiet calls is enough for the doll to obey happily.

Alcina opens her eyes.

"What happened?"asks Donna "miss, what happened?".

"I ... Bela,Cassandra...Daniela" the vampire tried to speak with a bit of fake confidence "they are gone. My precious angels are gone" more blood more tears more stains shaking in her big, massive body.

"Ethan" Donna is clever and fast in deduction "I have to give him the second piece of that baby".

"Miranda will scold you" a fake answer to something that was not a question.

"I am not afraid of her" Donna answers "are you afraid of Mother Miranda?"

"You should. She is immortal until we gave Rose pieces" tells the vampire. Alcina breathe instinctively for a moment and she looks at the veiled woman "she took you,darling,why disrespecting her?"

"Why fight to live without hope of a win? Why to live without the ones we love? We were chosen by mother's, but we are us, we ... feel. She doesn't. I am supposed to be grateful but Mother Miranda only expanded my sorrow."

The whole debate happened trough a doll. A demonic,creepy,doll that Alcina found incredibly creepy but well preserved. The lady scans the room with the eyes able to see in the dark: well dressed dolls with perfect hair and the finest jewelry on the shelves, the flowers and the toxic flowers on the table, the finest piece of furniture. That woman shows taste in art and wood pieces. Alcina looked at her hands: pale long fingers with nails painted in black.

Donna suddenly look distressed and she disappeared in the deep of the house. The conversation was too much for her fragile mind. She need some space and Alcina was not in the mood to follow her.

Time goes by, Ethan got the baby part, but Donna is still alive. Alcina hide while all happened.

Alcina does not know why that dolls were so fascinated by her. Not only Angelica was possessed and possessive, but she started to follow her with a big scissor in her tiny hand. The woman takes her up one day:"Mom she picked me,mom!"the doll screams from the top of her lungs.

Donna remained silent.

Alcina show a vague interest in the demonic creature, but she acts sweetly when the focus is on her: someone like her cannot be bothered by a minuscule doll.

"Are you afraid of heights?"

"I want your claws! Mama does not want me to have them, but they are beautiful and sharpened!" she laughed hysterically.

"You have to listen to your mother, sweet creature" she whispered "mother knows best".

"You have daughters! I remember mama told me about them".

"I had . They were killed by Ethan". It is the first time Alcina can say it out loud, verbally. That sentence sounds unbreakable and definitive, but true.

The doll sits on her shoulder:"You are so tall madame, I can climb you. I still don't get why you choose my door to pass out a week ago".

Ah,the voices shifting, Donna is back from darkness.

"Do you want to climb me specifically, Donna,or is that a little joke from your doll?". Alcina does not have idea if she was flirty and why. The artist does not want to makes Donna close herself again inside her dark mind.

Alcina thought about the last time she met the dollmaker, that elegant, dark and melancholic figure that speaks only by her doll. In the past week she saw Beneviento dress, the creative process of her creatures. "She has daughters that will never be corrupted by Miranda" she thoughts feeling the sadness arise in her chest.

Donna in her room is sewing faster than usual. She missed a point. She is distracted, she is afraid and that sentence in mind:"Do you want to climb me?" What does that mean? That woman has no shame literally and Donna does not want to be touched by anyone. Maybe Angie could do some work with her body and that vampire was enormous. Ugh. Too much to process.

Donna Beneviento decide she should do something about the vampire question in her room downstairs.

"I am sorry for the loss you experienced " Donna declared with her firm and soft voice "I want to give you something" . The creative act is sacred to Donna, she infused the presents with magic and dark force but the looks,oh, the details, the refined painting and the matching capes. Every doll has its own blade and insects made by gemstones on the dresses.

Alcina collapsed on her knees and then looked to Donna who keep an unreadable expression under her curtain. "You should stop drink this much, madame. I cannot stay here every night of my life listening to bad jokes about sapphic sex".

Donna run away and Alcina takes two big breaths in, two out. These dolls were identical to her daughters, it was a gift by Donna , a sign of her attention to the loss and mourning the woman faced.

No, her daughters did not die forever. She takes the dolls and cuddle them, she held them onto her chest.

What was that about sapphic sex? The vampire rolled her eyes.

Also Angie climb up to her. She wants to be cuddled and hugged.

"You'll may be my new second mum if you stop scaring mama Donna" she warning the woman.

"I am not scaring your mother and I was still drunk".

"Don't try to justify yourself!" That scream again from empty lungs not used to work properly. Alcina avoided a blade from Angie. "Mom appreciated you eradicated flowers Miranda gave us. Mom wants to be happy. Mom wants to be safe ".

Alcina ripped the horrendous flowers from the house and the garden one of the morning after she get drunk. Alcina as a perfect lady was not able to keep her hands out of Donna's house that was... dirty, if she had to say kindly. The lady decided that an act of good can do better than a dozens words of wisdom.

"I did it because it was necessary: if she wanted to be freed from Miranda's power the flowers are a first step".

"Mom knows that you are kind and considerate. Sometimes. When you do not eat human flesh, she doesn't like that behaviour ".

"It is not something I decided to start: It is a consequence of the mutation Miranda induced" the vampire defends herself.

"She knows,but she does not like it anyway" replied Angie" and she also think you two have two talk when she feels better". Alcina agreed

The next monday Donna feel better to face a conversation. At 9.00 in the morning,Donna shows up at the table .

Alcina looked at her:"How are you,darling?".

"Scared" answered Donna " and tired. Do you still have some jokes about sex? I find sex repulsive".

"I find sex interesting. But I am the one here who is trivial and coarse isn't it?" She smiled " so you are interested in me but not in sexual situations. Ok" she sipped a little of blood tea.

Beneviento didn't expected that fast acceptance for her condition about their relationship. Relationship? Oh God. She looked at Alcina.

"Is that ok for you?".

"Incredibly ok" answered the vampire lady "you host me in your home, you gave me your couch and you use your magic for me without doubting a moment. If I have to renounce sex for all of this...fine. your doll is far more interesting to me than a vagina".

"Thank you". The only thing miss Beneviento was able to think about was "thank you" like a broken neon.

The vampire nodded :"yes,I know, I am fabulous and awesome and I eat human flesh but darling,I would be too perfect If I didn't. You have fetus in the hall".

"It is an allucination" said Donna but she laughed "do you like it? Sometimes I call it Roger".

"You give your hallucinations names?"asked the woman.

"They were the only thing I had before your drunk depressed night walk".

"So I did the right thing somehow" decided the brunette, happily .

"No, but I am not in the position to criticise your choices ".

"You did it right now".

"I prefer to call what I did - exposing facts-" Donna take the tea.

Alcina laughed and also Angie.

"You have very strange reaction when you are afraid. So you need another mom for Angie?"

The dollmaker was quiet for a moment:"Yes. And weren't you the one who was happy with climbing up to each other?".

Sassy. Donna Beneviento is incredibly sassy when she feel enough strength and emotional involvement with someone. Alcina loves it.

"So can I climb on you?"asked Angie to Alcina" now you are my mom!" The little doll was delighted with her new person in the house.

Alcina gave to Donna a long,intense and funny sight. The question implied is clear to them both.

Maybe Donna also needed a mom sometimes. Maybe her damaged mind blurs the lines between the affection she missed and the affection she is getting,but that's not important. She is happy again, the house is full of living presences. A vampire. Oh,the irony...

The doll hugged mom Alcina strongly.

Miranda punished Donna for the misbehaving and the Ethan question, she suffered again and she came back home struggling to breathe properly because of the tortures she faced.

Alcina preserved her and protected her till the end of their time. The explosion and the mold died was a relief to both of them. Angie was broken,but Donna opened her single eye with the face covered in blood. She snuggled into Alcina arms for a moment covering her dress with stains, the vampire cleanse the veils in a fountain and put them back on Donna's angelic face, giving her a kiss.

"Sleep,darling, you are tired" Dimitrescu murmured while caressing the hair of the other woman on her lap "sleep,I am here. We did it. Ethan won".

"I want to be drunk right know" Donna declared and gives Alcina a kiss, a long, intense blood-tasting kiss.

"Nah,darling,better this way. I am sure tomorrow you will be at work for something that can climb up to me and I have a maiden to crush".

"Probably " answered Donna "but please,do not left the couch dirty. I have only one couch" and she fall asleep after a long time, hand in hand with someone who loves.

[mirkwoodshewolf]

You’ll always be my brother mine; Queen x reader

*Author's note*

Okay get the tissues out my fellow readers because this one WILL make you cry. For this is the LAST chapter with John Deacon in the Rock Angel's life.  After this, Deacy will only be lovingly mentioned but will not have another physical appearance. I also want ALL of you to listen to the music choices down below as well as watch the music video above (cause it will REALLY pull your heartstrings and set the mood for this chapter). Up next we're gonna make quite a huge time leap cause next chapter were gonna get into some current events that has happened with Queen/Rock Angel. So be prepared for the next chapter(s).

MUSIC VIDEO HERE

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@psychosupernatural

@simonedk

@ixchel-9275

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels

@queensdivas

@queen-paladin

@queendeakyy

@wormzteef

@bohemiansweede

@labessieisallama

@naturalswifty89

@starswin

@isabella-bby

@5sos-wdw

@geek-and-proud

@onebigfangirlworld

@ssa-sadboi

_________________________________________________________

*Nov. 28th, 1997. Deacy's POV*

I had only agreed to come here to do this one last thing. My last music video that I would ever do with Queen, I had already completed my last live performance with Brian and Roger along with Elton back in Paris but without Freddie it just wasn't the same. Now we were making the music video for a song that Brian had written years ago just shortly after Freddie died.

I was sitting by myself along Roger's bar area (we had assembled at his place to do a mock rehearsal of the song before recording tomorrow) with my bass guitar resting on my lap when Roger came in and said.

"You doing okay?"

"Define okay." I told him.

"You're right. Dumb question. But—in all seriousness John, it really means a lot to us that you agreed to do this video."

"All I keep hearing is Freddie telling me 'darling if you don't get in front of that camera, I'll kick your arse from here to Glasgow'." The two of us chuckled softly.

"Well the team's already to go for tomorrow guys, we'll start filming at 9am sharp. We feel good about this?" Brian came up to us and asked.

"Actually, we can't do this video just yet." I told them.

"Why not?" asked Brian. "It's not much like any of our previous videos have been. We're in the perfect location and we're willing to perform this live instead of going through playback."

"It's not about missing something Brian, it's—someone."

"Look Deacy. We all miss him, but he'd still want—"

"I'm not talking about Freddie, Brian." I snapped before taking a deep breath and calming myself down.

"John I don't even know if she'd be interested in wanting to return to work. After the trail she's been—" Roger said softly before exhaling deeply. "But I can give Jack a call and see."

"No need. I booked a flight to Montreux, if I can convince her, we should be back tonight. Late." The two of them looked at each other and Brian said.

"Alright Deacy, we'll let you go get her. But don't get your hopes too high if she says no."

"Believe me, I know what she's going through. I almost didn't want to do this either. It feels wrong even continuing without Freddie, but—with this being the very last time I'll ever perform for Queen. I need at least one more performance with the Rock Angel. You guys need to give me this."

"We are. Bring our angel home." Roger said as he clasped his hand on my shoulder. I nodded before packing my bass up and headed off for the airport.

After a 2 hour flight, I arrived in Montreux airport and got a cab to take me to the Kline vacation home. It was another hour, hour and a half drive but finally the driver pulled up along the driveway. It was completely silence in the front yard, almost like a graveyard.

I got out of the car and walked up the gravel road, up onto the sidewalk and finally up the few stairs before finally standing before the door. Taking a deep breath I knocked on the door and waited for a couple of minutes. Soon enough a young girl opened the door, she had long (h/c) and familiar (e/c) that she inherited from her mother.

"Uncle Deacy?"

"Hello Kelly." I greeted with a warm smile. She smiled at me and hugged me.

God she had gotten so big since I last saw her. She was really starting to look more and more like her mother each and every day.

"My dear Kelly, look at you." she looked up at me and said.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was wondering if I could speak to your mum?"

"Yeah, of course. She's down in the basement with the boys." Kelly allowed me to enter inside and the first thing I see as I walk through the door was old Sammy, the Kline family's golden retriever. Already he was showing signs of aging around his nose and eyes. But when he saw me, he raised his head up and I saw his tail wag.

"Hello Sammy. Long time ehh boy?" he stood up and walked towards me and nuzzled against my hand. I stroked down his head when Kelly said.

"That's the first time I've seen him move so much since Bucky died." I turned to her in shock. "Brain tumor. We had to put him down last month and it was hard for all of us, Sammy especially." I looked down at Sammy and he looked up at me with those sad brown eyes of his as he let out a sad, soft whimper.

I scratched through his head as I walked over toward the basement stairs. I opened the door and walked down the U-shaped half-pace staircase. All the while I could hear some orchestra music playing and the sound of some creature bellowing before finally hearing someone say.

"How fast are they?"

"Well we clocked the T-Rex at 32 mph." As I came down to the bottom of the stairs, there at a desk surrounded by books and wearing prescription glasses was my sister dear while on the leather couch playing on the big TV was a movie that I wasn't quite too familiar with.

"T-T-Rex? You said you got a T-Rex?" Georgie quoted alone with the woman on screen while the old man nodded.

"Say again?" Jackson quoted along with the actor on screen.

"We have a T-Rex." The old man repeated. The actor on screen then started acting faint while the woman tried to get him steady and that's when the old man said.

"Dr. Grant, my dear Dr. Sattler."

"Welcome—to Jurassic Park." The twins quoted along with the old man on screen. Then soon enough dinosaurs were shown on the screen and I'll admit it was quite a sight to behold.

Never have I seen practical effects like that when it came to dinosaur films. Whatever film this is, I'll have to check it out for myself.

When I turned towards (y/n) I noticed that she turned her head away from her books and paper just to watch the television. I shook my head at her. Some things never change. I even saw her mouth out the next quote that was spoken on screen.

"Some things never change with you sister dear." She turned around to face me, as did the boys and they raced towards me exclaiming.

"Uncle John! Uncle John!" soon I was tackled down to the ground by these big boys. I smiled down at them as the two of them talked over each other trying to speak to me.

"Well, well, well. Look what the cat threw up. And I see you finally cut that raggedy mullet of yours." My sister teased.

"Haha, very funny." I mocked up at her.

"What brings you around here?" she asked me.

"A brother figure can't see his surrogate sister anymore?" I asked as I stood back up with the twins still clinging onto my sides.

"Not that I'm complaining but, you haven't really came around since......" she looked away before grabbing the remote and turning the movie off.

"Awww mum! We wanted to keep watching the film!" the twins whined.

"Georgie, Jackson you both have seen the film over a million times. Besides you two got chores to do that you both forgot to do yesterday."

"But, but, but....."

"Now boys. You mind your mother and don't argue back with her." I lectured them giving them my father eye.

"Yes Uncle John." They both said glumly before they walked up the stairs.

"I swear they both got their father's handsome looks but their uncle Jensen's laziness." (y/n) complained which made me softly chuckle.

"They're little boys. And believe me it'll get worse, cause they're what seven now?" she nodded. "So yeah get ready. Ten is probably the age they'll really push your buttons."

"Well thanks for the heads up."

*My POV*

Now don't get me wrong, I love Deacy and I'm always happy to see him (on the rare occasions that he does come around) but this visit has something else written all over it.

"What film was that exactly?" he asked me.

"A Steven Spielberg masterpiece, Jurassic Park. Since it gets scary at around the middle part I don't allow the boys to watch this film alone without either me or Jack in the room."

"And what's with all the books? I haven't seen you this swamped since your first days as Miami's intern."

"Well—believe it or not. I'm finishing college."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. You see since I left college once I became the Rock Angel, and with me taking a step back from the spotlight for a while. I enrolled at a University here about to graduate with an English degree."

"I'm proud of you (y/n). Really I am. And—I know he would be too if he heard that." See there it was. The reason behind his sadness. Sometimes Deacy couldn't even say his name without feeling such agonizing heartache. His eyes that were once filled with light had diminished and rarely sparked up anymore.

"What about you? How are you and the other two aging Queens getting along?" I asked as I took off my reading glasses.

"We're getting by. Day by day. We're—actually about to do a video for a song Brian's made." Okay, I think I know where this is going.

"Deacy—I appreciate the offer but I just.....don't think I'm ready to get back into the limelight just yet. Plus I got school to finish up. And then there are the kids and Jack. The press made my life hell throughout the trial and I refuse to go through that again. So you can tell Roger that I'm not interested."

"Actually it wasn't Roger's idea for me to come down here and have you work with us again. Nor was it Brian's." I looked at him in shock.

"You mean you want me to be a part of this video you're doing?"

"Yes. They told me you might not want to but please, sister dear, for old time's sake. You wouldn't want to break an old man's heart now would you?" he proceeded with the puppy dog eyes and with that greying hair on his head it just made him look like a sad old puppy dog.

"Why must you always get your way?"

"Because I'm your brother and you fall for it every time." I sighed heavily and said.

"Let me get a hold of Jack at the hospital and see what he says." I stood up as Deacy came behind me and said in an alarmed tone.

"Wait? What happened to Jack? Is he alright? He didn't do anything stupid did he?"

"Deacy, Deacy relax. Jack's fine he's with our son."

"Wait you're....." it was then he finally noticed my body shape. The post-pregnant belly and weight gain.

"Was. Yeah. Just 2 weeks ago we had our new baby boy."

"Oh (y/n). Congratulations. But—then why is he......"

"The thing is, he wasn't supposed to come till next January. I gave birth to him prematurely by 2 months." I said sadly as I finally arrived at the phone and touched it.

"I'm so sorry poppet. Had I known I would've never—"

"No need for apologizes or sympathy Deacy. Like I told you once a long time ago about my parents. I didn't tell you so you have no reason to feel sorry for me. Besides our boy's strong. He's shown great improvement. Doctor says we could possibly bring him home come this weekend."

"That's good. But knowing Roger and Brian, they'll be wanting pictures of him shortly."

"And what about you? Don't you want to see a picture of your new nephew?"

"Of course I do." There was a bit of hesitation to the way he responded but I set it aside for now as he asked me, "What's the lad's name?" After he said that, it was my turn to hesitate cause I didn't want Deacy to grow sad again.

"You promise me you won't get too heartbroken when I tell you?"

"So long as you didn't name him Adam, Paul or Steve I think we'll be good." I turned to face my brother and I said.

"It was no difficult decision, Jack and I agreed that this name just suited him perfectly and we—we knew he would've loved it too. Our last and newborn baby's name is Freddie Mercury Kline." I immediately picked up the phone and rang the hospital for Jack.

After awhile of Jack and I talking back and forth between one another, he agreed that he could handle the kids for a couple of days, man down the house, and even look over my final paper that I have to turn in in a couple of weeks for a class.

"Thanks babe. How's our boy doing?"

'Ahh (y/n) you should see him, he's glowing like the sun right now. Maybe when we do get to take him home, we can even get the rest of the Queen family to see him.'

"We don't want to overwhelm him so much." I lectured.

'I know. But I think it's time we told the rest of Queen didn't we? Especially after who we named him after.'

"Well half the job is done. Only Brian and Roger need to know."

'Yeah. Hey can you give me regards to Deacy?'

"Sure thing love. We'll stay here till you get home."

'Baby you know Kelly's old enough to keep the boys under control till I come back.'

"I don't know Jack, I mean yeah she's a pre-teen but I don't....."

'Trust me (y/n). She's clever just like her mom. She knows right from wrong. The kids will be fine. But if it makes you feel any better, I'll head home right now so that way she won't have to be responsible for too long.' I rolled my eyes and said.

"Thank you Jack. I'll be back on Monday, I promise."

'Take as much time as you need. Besides, you need to catch up with the guys.'

"You're right love. I love you Jack, give my baby a kiss for me before you leave."

'Will do mama lion. Give the guys my love for me when you see them.'

"I will." We then said bye to each other before I hung up the phone. "Alright, Jack's on his way from the hospital, he said Kelly can watch the twins until he comes back."

"She's responsible that girl of yours. Reminds me of you when we first met. You made sure everything got organized and planned out accordingly. Hell you managed to keep the four of us in line." I smiled and gathered up my school stuff to take into the study room.

After turning the TV, off and putting my books away I called the kids into the master bedroom while I packed a weekend night bag.

"Okay now listen you three, mum's going away for the weekend with your uncle Deacy to see your other uncle as well as your godfather to do some work. Your father is on his way home from seeing your brother, and until he gets back you're in charge Kelly."

"What!?" the twins proclaimed.

"You heard her." Kelly sassed down at her younger brothers.

"Now you all know the rules, stay inside, no trashing the house, no answering the phone for any reason at all unless the caller ID says its your father or another family member. And absolutely; No one. Sets. Foot. In my study or studio or else." I firmly stated to them, especially the last part.

"We promise mum." They all choired out.

"Good. Now stay safe, and listen to your sister boys. I'll be back on Monday. Now come on kisses and cuddles." I knelt down and got a hug from my three big kids.

I even told them to give their uncle Deacy cuddles and kisses, which he happily accepted, before the two of us headed out back for the taxi car to take us back to the airport.

After a few hours in the air, Deacy and I arrived into London by about 7pm and this time I paid a cabbie to take us over to Roger's place. God all this traveling is really making me jet lagged right now. I only hope I have enough energy to record tomorrow.

The next day we were all in the recording studio to film the music video of Brian's song. I was sitting at the piano with Brian who was giving me the rundown on how to play the tune when it came for my appearance in the video.

"So—how have things been for you lately?" asked Brian. I looked up at him, "I mean it's just—you went underground after the trail and we—got worried."

"I'm sorry I worried you guys. I just......needed some time to myself and my family, that's all."

"No, no we understand. God what—what happened that day was extremely traumatic for you and—"

"Brian. Can.....can we not discuss anything regarding him. Please?"

"Sure, sure, absolutely." God sometimes I hate it when Brian wakes eggshells around me.

"I'm finishing up school."

"Really?" I nodded.

"I'm studying Creative writing. By next spring I'll graduate from college and finally get my diploma."

"That's wonderful news (y/n). I'm so proud of you." he wrapped an arm around me and gave me a one armed hug and kissed the top of my head.

"Also—there's.....a new Kline in the household." He looked down at me surprised.

"You mean—"

"Had him two weeks ago. Prematurely though." His brows knitted in that familiar sympathetic way.

"Oh (y/n), I'm so sorry. Are they....."

"He is doing just fine. Even for being born 2 months early, he's already got the Kline lion strength."

"I'm sure he does. What's the lads name?" I took out my wallet from my inner coat pocket and took out a picture of him from his incubator.

"Jack and I both agreed on the name together. Bri, meet your newest nephew. Freddie Mercury Kline." His eyes looked right at mine, with awe but also a hint of sadness. But a wide smile spread across his face as he softly laughed out.

"God what he would've said knowing that he got one of us to finally name our next kid after him."

"Probably something like 'about fucking time darling. I was beginning to think I'd been neglected.'" We both chuckled softly.

"That is something he would say. Oh and I bet he would've doted on this little chap, just as he had with all of your other kids." I nodded solemnly.

"God I wish he were still here." He placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and lay his head down on top of mine, his curls gingerly stroking my forehead and nose.

"We all do poppet. We all do." I sniffled softly but pushed back the tears.

"Alright, enough of this chatter. Now for this part of the song it goes like this right?" I said shrugging him off before playing the chords he had taught me at the butt-crack of dawn before we even came to the studio.

Finally we were ready to film the video. First Brian, Rog and Deacy got into position with Bri at the piano, Deacy on a stool with a bass guitar, and Roger in the back with his drumkit.

I couldn't help but be touched at the reminder of cups full of beer and a champagne glass sitting right along the piano's edge. It was—a nice little touch that Freddie would've appreciated.

This music video......I'll admit that this is probably my favorite out of all the Queen music videos. Because now people will get to see what it was like on a daily basis with us. Almost like they are a familiar face stepping into the recording studio.

The director called for quiet on the set and I stayed back for awhile until it would be my time to go up there and soon the director called out action! The camera's rolled and I watched as a camera crane came down from the ceiling at a slow pace.

I then saw at men on the mobile camera slowly moved closer across the studio to really give that first person POV as Brian sang the first verse and played the piano. Already hearing him sing this song made my heart .

*Brian*

A hand above the water An angel reaching for the sky Is it raining in heaven Do you want us to cry?

And everywhere the broken-hearted On every lonely avenue No one could reach them No one but you

One by one Only the good die young They're only flyin' too close to the sun And life goes on Without you

Next up was Roger. The cameras slowly came towards him as he played the simple drumbeat and he took over the vocals of the second verse. By that time, Brian had switched over to his Red Special and stood a few feet away from Deacy while I took over at the piano.

But to surprise the fans; I had a hoodie to cover my entire face as I now took over playing the piano.

*Roger*

Another tricky situation I get to drownin' in the blues And I find myself thinkin' Well, what would you do?

Yes, it was such an operation Forever paying every due Hell, you made a sensation (sensation) You found a way through (found a way through)

*All*

One by one Only the good die young They're only flyin' too close to the sun *Roger*

We'll remember Forever

When it was finally my turn, I took the hoodie off and proceeded to play the piano as I sung the third voice. My heart was heavy and my throat felt like clenching up but I kept my sorrow at bay in order to get this done in one take.

Cause I knew if I didn't, then there's probably no way I could keep my composure after three takes of singing this verse. Because all that came through my mind were the good memories of Freddie, and how I couldn't even believe that he was really gone. Even though almost 6 years have passed.

*Me*

And now the party must be over I guess we'll never understand The sense of your leaving Was it the way it was planned?

And so we grace another table And raise our glasses one more time There's a face at the window And I ain't never, never sayin' goodbye

By the end of it all, the video would show Queen and the Rock Angel singing the song with such sorrow but passion as we sung it in honor of our beloved Freddie.

Soon all four of us were gathered around the piano, Deacy still sitting on his stool, but Brian, Roger and I were gathered close together with music sheets in our hands. I stood by Roger and would sing the first line before finding myself unconsciously leaning against him for support.

Thankfully he didn't see anything wrong with it as he wrapped an arm around me and took the next part before Brian would be the one to finish it since he was the one to start it.

*All*

One by one Only the good die young They're only flyin' too close to the sun *Me*

Cryin' for nothing *Roger*

Cryin' for no one *Brian*

No one but you

The video would then close off as the camera would rise up over the four of us gathered around the piano. The lights shutting off and us acting like we were now leaving the studio after a hard day's work.

"Cut! Okay Brian, come and see what you like and what we need to reshoot." The director called out and both he and Brian began speaking to each other as Bri reviewed the footage.

As I watched Bri talk to the director, I felt a slight nudge at my shoulder and I looked up to see Deacy. His eyes were sad but the smile across his face held some warmth to it. I leaned my head against his chest and I felt his hand rest on top of my head, gently scratching my scalp.

"You still got it poppet."

"Singing to the kids still keeps my pipes in check." I felt him gently kiss the top of my head when the director called out.

"Alright Mrs. Kline. We're gonna runback from your verse, your hair got in the way of your face too much." I nodded and soon someone from the hair department came and brushed my hair back out of my face. As well as take a couple of hairpins to make sure the strands didn't get in my face again.

Deacy walked back towards his stool and Brian went to grab his guitar once again while Rog twirled his sticks.

"Okay playback from the third verse." The music picked back up and the cameras rolled and I sung the third verse once again, this time I could feel myself choking up as I sang the verse again.

This continued to go on with reshoots, trying to make this video even better. By the fifth time singing it, I needed to step out and take a breather because at this point I was just about to breakdown crying. Luckily for me, Deacy was right there for me the whole time till I calmed down and was ready to go back to recording.

Four hours later, the video was complete. Once the director as well as the boys were satisfied with the results, it was time to head home. Roger insisted that I stay with him the next couple of days (because he wanted to know more about his new godson) as well as catch up with one another. As I placed my coat back on over me, I heard Deacy's voice say my name softly.

"What is it Deacy?"

"Can I—can I talk to you for a moment? Privately." The look in his eyes were full of regret, almost like he didn't even want to tell me whatever it was he wanted to say.

"Sure Deacy, let me just tell dad to wait up for me." He nodded while I raced off towards Roger and told him that I needed to talk with Deacy.

From behind his new circular prescription shades (kinda similar to what ole Ozzy has), I could see that he must've known what Deacy wanted to tell me.

I walked back towards Deacy who took my hand and led me out of the studio and out into the abandoned hallways. No one was there but us two.

"Alright John Deacon, what's really going on?" he refused to look me in the eye.

"I—the reason why I wanted you to be a part of this music video was because I......I wanted to work with you. One last time." My heart slowly sunk. "Freddie he—he was what made Queen the way it was from the beginning. Without him there......th-there just isn't any need for Queen to continue on."

I remained silent as John confessed his heartbreaking news. I could see the redness of tears at the corner of his eyes.

"I just can't continue with all this. Not without him. This—was my last contribution to Queen. And—I wanted it to also be the last time I worked alongside the Rock Angel as well." He went silent again. "I'm sorry love." He sniffled.

I reached out and softly took his hands in mine. When he felt my touch, his eyes finally looked right at me. I looked at him with pure empathy before walking closer to him till I finally embraced him.

Play video

Oh my poor brother, I felt him tense up underneath my touch. It was almost like he was expecting me to go full on hysterical about him retiring from music forever.

"I was a fan before I met you guys. I've read every interview you guys ever did, seen all the concerts. And never have I seen a band be so involved with each other as Queen has. Like me, Freddie took you under his wing and allowed you to soar. You never just became the 'bass player', or the 'quiet guy in the corner'. No you, John Richard Deacon, are the most vital and important piece that was needed for Queen to finally rise to the top. And Fred saw that in you."

I cupped his face in my hands as I continued,

"If this is what will bring you peace, I'll understand."

"You knew my reason all along, didn't you?" he said. I only gave him a soft smile before I embraced him.

"You will always be my brother mine." He slowly raised his arms and wrapped them around my back and he whispered his last words to me.

"And you'll forever be my sister dear." We remained there in each other's arms. Embracing each other as tightly as we could, inhaling each other's scents, remembering each other's touch.

Because I knew that once we let go, this would be the last time we would ever see each other again.

Finally I forced myself to release him from my embrace. I looked down sadly trying not to cry in front of him. I felt his hand cup the side of my face and his forehead press up against mine.

Our noses softly grazing one another's until I finally felt him give me one final kiss on the cheek.

When I opened my eyes, I only saw his back and heard as his shoes clicked along the hallway. That image would forever be imprinted into my brain for as long as I live.

"Goodbye......my sweet, sweet John Deacon." I whispered softly. The tears then softly fell down my face as he finally turned left and disappeared from my sights, leaving me all alone in the hallway.

After a while I finally left the studio and met Roger at his car. The hidden tearstains still glistening on my face and the occasional sniffle coming out. He didn't say a word as he looked at me knowingly, I looked up at him and ran into his chest and softly wept into his shoulder.

His father instincts toward me immediately kicked in as he wrapped his arms around me and tried his best to comfort me. God I tried so badly to not let this affect me. I knew where Deacy was coming from and I do respect his decision, I truly do, but—I just can't believe that even after this I'll never get to see my brother mine again.

It was like losing my parents all over again, except this was much, much worse. This time he'll be so close yet so far away.

*FF to May 14th, 1998*

I had done it. I was a college graduate at last. Earlier today I had finally done the famed college graduation walk that all my previous friends in college got to do all those years ago, and I was an official college graduate.

(Y/n) Kline, Bachelor's degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing.

It was late afternoon and I was sitting up along the balcony of the vacation home with a glass of wine in hand. We all had just gotten back from a family dinner in celebration of my graduation, now I wanted to be at peace and watch the sunset.

Because starting tomorrow, I decided that it was time to head back to our home in London and I wanted to get back to work.

"Thought I'd find you up here." I heard Jack's voice say. I smiled as I turned towards him.

"I was wondering if you'd be joining me."

"Well you know as well as I do that if those twins of ours are left unattended during their bath, they'll drown the entire bathroom in soap again."

"God that was such a nightmare to clean up." I laughed as he came up and sat down close beside me on my lawn chair. I noticed in his hands he held some mail. "What all did we get?"

"Well some bills, junk mail, some congratulation cards from the family back home in America, as well as from Brian and Roger, and.....that's it." I extended my hand out and he handed me the mail and I began sorting out the business mail from the personal one.

It was then I came across an interesting letter. One I never though I'd expect to see.

"What's this?" I turned the letter towards him and that's when Jack's face went pale. For you see the letter was addressed to Jack but the place it was from is what had me curious. The letter was from the London Police Academy.

"Oh shit." He muttered.

"C'mon Jack spill it, what is this?"

"I really didn't want to make a big deal out of this, especially since these past few months were all about you."

"Jack." I warned him since he was getting off the subject. He sighed heavily before he took the letter from my hands and said.

"Okay. Do you remember when I had gone up to London, and I told you that I was just going up there to check on the house?" I nodded. "Well, I lied. The truth is—I went to apply for the London Police Academy because—I want to become a police officer, and eventually a criminal detective."

"Jack."

"I know I must sound crazy but, this was my decision. After what happened to us with—you know. For the past year and a half and then....dealing with the trail. It put all of us through hell. And I—I don't want us or for anyone else to go through the pain that we went through. That bastard nearly tore this family apart, and it was because of the law that he got away with it every time. Creeps like him shouldn't get off scot-free."

I hugged my husband as tightly as I could and I said with a wide smile.

"I'm so proud of you."

"Really?" I separated from him and continued.

"You're my husband and you've been so supportive of me for years. It's about time I was supportive of you in your dream career."

"Well I don't even know if I even got in, that's probably what this letter is."

"Then what are you waiting for? Open it!" I chuckled and opened up the envelope and soon took out the folded letter and read it to himself.

"I—I got in."

"Oh my darling that's fantastic! Congrats!" I hugged and kissed him.

"Well hold on, this just means that I'm a potential candidate for a chance at working for the London Police force. There's still like a six month process when it comes to actually getting in. Right now I'm just joining the academy for some training."

"Still, that's something to be proud of. Oh Jack, you're gonna be a fantastic officer. And soon a world-class detective. A regular Sherlock Holmes if you will." I teased the last part as I bopped his nose.

"I don't think I can be that good. But—I'll try my best. For you, for our kids, and for every other stalking victims out there. The law may have failed us, but I won't let it fail for those in the future." I smiled at my loving husband and cupped his face and kissed him. "Oh and there's something for you inside."

"Really? Another surprise?"

"Well it's more like a small package. And sadly it's not from me." I looked at him confused.

"Then who is it from?" he shrugged but led me inside back into our bedroom where the small package lay at the foot of our bed. I opened it up and inside there was a single videotape. It had no marking or writing on it to indicate what it was.

The two of us looked at each other perplexed before I went towards our VHS player and insert the tape into it. I turned the TV on and the screen was blue as the tape finally began to play.

Coming up on the screen sitting right on a couch was none other than John.

"Hello (y/n), Jack. And the young Kline cubs, if they are there." He softly chuckled with a slight smile. Jack sat down beside me on the foot of our bed as we continued to watch Deacy's tape. "(Y/n), my darling sister dear. I know that—my leaving from Queen may seem like another abandonment but I swear to you it's not."

"Seems like this is just for you both, I'll just—"

"And Jack you stay right there with her because this is for you too." Jack looked at the telly surprised.

"Holy shit that was creepy."

"Our Deacy knows all." I wrapped my arms around my husband's arm as Deacy continued.

"Now—I have known you both for a long time. And both of you have equally been such an important part of my life. So it breaks my heart to know that this—might be the last time we meet face to face. But there is no doubt in my mind that you both are going to change the world. (Y/n), my lovely Rock Angel, you continue to spread your wings and fly. I know that you're going to continue to be the brightest and biggest solo female rockstar this world will ever know. And Jack, my pupil, my dearest American friend. You continue to protect your family, because if there's one final piece of advice that I can give you, it's that family is forever. Friends may come and go, but family is forever. And I know that whatever you choose to do with your life, your wife is gonna be there to support you. You both were meant for each other. I love you both so much. Continue to love, to give, to inspire, and......be happy. Bye."

The screen went black for a moment before he came back on screen and he began to say.

"Kelly, Jackson, Georgie and—little baby Freddie." At that point I stopped the tape and I turned to face Jack. I could already see the faint tears in his eyes.

Play video

"So this is really it huh?" Jack asked. I nodded. "I—can't believe we'll never get to actually talk to Deacy again." I rested my head on his shoulder and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"This is just his way of grieving. Deacy's very fragile right now. You know how his childhood was, and losing Freddie at three years his father's age. It's like—losing two father figures to him."

"I know. It's just that....." Jack looked at me with tears in his eyes.

Jack really did look up to Deacy for everything. After all they've been through for over 10 years together, to Jack it was like he was losing a very good friend.

"I know my love, I know. But this is what Deacy needs. To be with just his family now, and not be reminded of the pain of losing Freddie. And who knows—maybe, and this is a slight maybe, we might see him again. But until then we need to respect his wishes." Jack nodded and the two of us cuddled close together as we were both thinking the same thing.

We hope that you're happy at home John Richard Deacon.

[auror-lovie]

I Loved You, Mr. Scamander; Chapter 3

━━━•✦.✧. Author’s Note.✧.✦•━

Chapter 3!

You can find the playlist link in my bio! If you want to be added to my taglist, just send me an ask or fill out the taglist form that is also linked in my bio!

━━━━━•✦.✧. Summary .✧.✦•━

Newt comes to terms with his feelings. Years go by, Theseus and (Y/N) part ways. Leta enters the picture and Paris seems to be calling them.

━━━━━•✦.✧. Warnings .✧.✦•━

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald spoilers!

Another Hamilton reference~! (It’s small, but you’ll catch it)

LETA REDEMPTION (Because all we really need is to talk things out like adults.)

I had to make up some wizard version of “distance bracelets”

In this house, we stan healthy mutual breakups. None of that over-dramatized stuff. (Although those types of breakups are usually the norm)

It’s a little sad.

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

“Just know that before Theseus… It was always you.”

(Y/N)’s last words echoed in his head for quite a while. What did she mean it was always him?

“It’s not like I liked her or anything.” He mumbled to the Bowtruckle resting on his shoulder.

Pickett chirped as if to say “Yes you do!”

Newt scoffed. “It’s not like I like the way her eyes light up like stars when she’s excited! O-Or the way she plays with the ends of her sleeve when she’s nervous! Or how I know she likes milk and honey in her tea…” He sighed and leaned against the wall of the shed.

“I don’t like her… I don’t wonder what it’d be like to wrap my arms around her when I finally kiss her. I don’t wonder what it’d be like to hold her hand and walk the town. And I don’t wonder what life would be like for us if I told her that I…” Newt ran his hand through his hair. “No… I don’t like her…”

He looked at Pickett, “I love her…”

The Bowtruckle nodded

“But she’s with Theseus now… And if he makes her happy… Then I’m happy for both of them.”

It took a while for Newt to come to terms with his feelings. A year to be exact. He had his research and creatures to keep him busy. Though it didn't help when his mind would wander to thoughts of (Y/N).

He had to face his feelings like a grown-up. Newt finally wrote her a letter, apologizing for his behavior on that day. To his surprise, she wrote back.

My Dearest, Newton

It’s been so long, but there was never a day where I’d hope and wait for one of your letters. I would've waited for as long as it took- forever even. Now, I would’ve written to you first, but that would’ve rushed things on your end and I didn’t want that. I wanted to give you time. Merlin knows how stubborn you can be.

Once again, I do apologize for not telling you that I was dating your brother. Like most important news, we wanted to tell you in person. I hope you can find it somewhere in your heart to forgive me.

How are you, Newton? Are you eating well? Taking care of yourself? (Your creatures are not the only ones that need care). If not, I’ll go and take care of you myself, like the old days- AFTER I scold you. Also, this may be a bit soon, but Theseus and I are still willing to meet up for tea. Let me know when you’re available.

With Love,

(Y/N)

Of course, he’d forgiven her. He’d done so the moment she left him alone in the hallway. And scold him? Who was she, Victoria?

Newt let out a soft chuckle as he set down her letter in a box. This box contained every memento he had of (Y/N)- from photos, to letters, to news clippings. “I’ll always forgive you…”

•✦.✧.🔎.✧.✦•

Theseus was a bit skeptical when (Y/N) decided to visit Newton a Saturday. Not that he didn’t trust her or Newt. It was out of the blue. For a year they hadn’t been in correspondence, but now they were acting as if they were never apart?

~*~*~

Newt and (Y/N) spent most of the day in his case. The hours ticked by as he introduced her to all the creatures he’d written about in his letters.

“Mummy’s here…” He cooed as he showed her the occamys.

(Y/N) giggled, “You’re their mummy?” “Of course I am. Being a single parent is hard!” He huffed. (Y/N) thought for a moment, then an idea popped into her head. “Then as your best friend, I get daddy rights.” She claimed. “Y-You can’t do that!” “Too late, Mr. Scamander. It’s decided.” “Says who?” “Says Pickett!” She replied, a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. Newt frantically looked around his coat. He patted it, trying to find his beloved Bowtruckle. “Pickett?” Her smirk turned into a soft smile. “Come on out, Pickett. Or your mum will get a heart attack.” She whispered to the creature hiding in her coat pocket. Pickett crawled out of her pocket and rested on (Y/N) shoulder. He chirped, making Newt look up. Newt let out a sigh of relief, “Pickett, don’t scare me like that…” He looked at (Y/N), “Consider yourself lucky, he never leaves my side... Commitment issues.” (Y/N) looked at Pickett in awe as he crawled onto her hand, holding onto her pointer finger. “Don’t worry. I won’t leave you…”

~*~*~

That day, Theseus had a meeting with Travers and Victoria. Before the meeting, he asked Victoria if this was normal and she explained that this is how they were. They could spend years apart but put them in the same room and they’d act as if they never were. By letter or being there in person, their friendship was set in stone.

After the meeting, Theseus had gone to Newt’s flat to pick (Y/N) up. Knowing both of them, he knew they’d spend the whole day with his creatures. He knocked on the door and waited. When no one came, he slowly turned the doorknob, not surprised to find it unlocked. He shut the door behind him and walked into the living room. “Newt? (Y/N)?” He called out. Silence. Muffled laughs could be heard from the basement. Theseus smiled. It felt good to know that his girlfriend and his brother were getting along. He made his way to the door of the basement. He opened the door and quietly made his way down the stairs. “Brother!” He cheered, but his brother seemed distracted. Newt was staring at something in the distance. Well, whatever he was looking at, it wasn’t in fear or wonder. It was something else. “Why didn’t you answer the door? I could’ve been a serial killer.” Theseus said as he continued down the stairs. “I was wondering if…” Reaching the bottom of the steps, he paused. Newt was leaning forward on the desk, resting his chin on his palm. Theseus knew that look. He hadn’t seen it on his brother before, but he had seen this look on himself. It was love. ‘What could he be looking at-’ He thought as he looked in the same direction as Newt. And there he saw it. (Y/N) was holding a bucket of food over the mooncalves crowding around her. “O-Okay everyone, listen to daddy!” The mooncalves looked at the bucket she was holding. She smiled and tipped the bucket, pouring the food in the spaces that weren’t occupied by a mooncalf. The herd turned their attention from (Y/N) to the food. Though one was still nudging her side. (Y/N) looked at the lone mooncalf and giggled, “Harold, I don’t have any more food. Go on!”

“Harold” stared at her for a moment before running back to the area with food. (Y/N) looked at the mooncalves before paying attention to the Niffler hanging on her shoulder. “And you, Niffler! You can’t go around stealing daddy’s wrist watch!”

Theseus could help but stare at the scene with the same look as Newt. His shoulders became more relaxed- putting aside what happened during the meeting. He shook his head, breaking from his trance and finally made his way over to Newt. He patted Newt’s shoulder, startling the younger Scamander brother.

Newt flinched before looking to whoever brought him back to reality. His face changed from annoyance to relief when he saw his brother standing there, “Theseus! I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I was calling out to you for the past ten minutes!”

“Guess I was a little distracted….” Newt said nervously.

“Thes!” (Y/N) called out, causing the brothers to look at her. “C-Can we get one?” She asked, walking towards them while cradling Niffler.

•✦.✧.🔎.✧.✦•

Soon, things went back to normal. Newt and (Y/N) were exchanging letters like never before. The universe seemed to be giving them a time of peace. Then again… there’s always an unsettling calm before the storm.

~*~*~

(Y/N) and Victoria walked into the Ministry's Headquarters one morning, chatting about new tactics to try out. Victoria recognized an old friend standing in front of the building directory booth.

“Leta…” She muttered. “Where?” (Y/N) asked, looking around the entrance hall. “Oh.” “I… I’m going to talk to her,” Victoria hesitated. How does one talk to someone they cut off and haven’t seen in years?

(Y/N) placed a hand on Victoria’s shoulder. “Hey… If you feel uncomfortable, you don’t have to force yourself into a situation if it’s going to cause you anxiety.”

Victoria stared at Leta for a moment before looking at (Y/N), giving a nervous smile. She stuck her hand out, her palm facing toward the ceiling. (Y/N) smiled and held her hand, interlocking their fingers. No words, but the message was clear: “I’m right here.”

The pair walked up to Leta, hand in hand, who was standing near a bench. Victoria took a deep breath and exhaled before tapping Leta’s shoulder. “L-Leta?” She stuttered. (Y/N) noticed this small sign and lightly squeezed Victoria’s hand. Leta turned around. “Yes?- Victoria?” Her gaze shifted to see (Y/N). “(Y/N)? What are you two doing here?” “We work here!” (Y/N) trying to make light of the situation. “I guess I’ll be seeing you two more. I started working here recently…” Leta trailed off. A moment of awkward silence passed and (Y/N) nudged Victoria’s arm. Victoria, finally finding the courage to say something, looked at Leta again. “Hey, I know we ended things on a bad note in our sixth year. And… I want to apologize for not being there for you. Newt wasn’t just our friend, he was yours too.” “Victoria, you don’t have to apologize-” Leta started. “I know I’m probably the last person you want to talk to or see right now, but all I ask is for your forgiveness. Maybe the three of us could meet up for tea?” Victoria said, her hand now shaking as she held (Y/N)’s. “Three?” Leta asked. Victoria motioned to (Y/N) and gave a shy smile. Leta hesitated for a moment. She could deny the request. She could make a scene. She could- but she wouldn’t. They were adults. Being petty and making a scene was childish behavior and she was above that. They all were. “Of course. You two are as inseparable as you were in school.” Leta said with a smile.

•✦.✧.🔎.✧.✦•

Years went by and Grindelwald’s members were getting stronger and smarter. They were using tactics (Y/N) and Victoria never heard of. Their mission assignments were rarely with each other. Even more so, they were far away from the other. Worried about each other’s well-being, (Y/N) had gotten them friendship bracelets. Each bracelet had a charm- Victoria’s charm was a crescent moon and (Y/N)’s charm was a star. Victoria had put spells and enchantments on the charms. It was to signal when the other was near and only activated when they were on missions. Despite the troubling times, (Y/N), Leta and Victoria repaired their friendship. They had tea, shopping days and sleepovers to make up for the lost time during their school years. As for Theseus and (Y/N)... There was trouble in paradise. They rarely spent time with each other outside of work. All they ever talked about was work: what their next move was, who was going on what assignments. They tried to make time for each other… They did... Warm hugs and passionate kisses turned into “Don’t go” hugs and “Goodbye” kisses. The mental stress and constant fatigue were straining both of them. It wasn’t toxic to the point where they were spitting out abuse, but the emotional neglect is what got to them. They loved each other, but the timing wasn’t right. Their break up was inevitable. With the war going on, they both decided it was best for them to stop seeing each other. If (Y/N) prided herself in anything besides her work ethics, it’d be her ability to keep her professional and personal life separate. Sure, Theseus and her broke up, but that didn’t stop her from working with him. She didn’t run away. (Y/N) continued to work by his side, always hoping for the best and a safe return.

•✦.✧.🔎.✧.✦•

With Grindelwald in the custody of the Magical Congress of the United States of America or MACUSA, things had finally settled down. It was Valentine’s Day and Victoria had decided to take (Y/N) out for dinner- a girl’s night out. “Newt ran into this muggle, or no-maj as they call them in America, and they had a suitcase mishap. Next thing you know, his creatures were out and about in New York! Not only that, but he also aided in the capture of Grindelwald.” (Y/N) praised. “Now you sound like his mum.” Victoria joked, sipping on her wine. “Mrs. Scamander? Oh, she’s such a dear. I love her!” “You had two chances to be her daughter-in-law, but I guess the universe had other plans.” Victoria shrugged playfully. “Vi! That’s uncalled for!” (Y/N) huffed. “I’m just stating facts, love,” Victoria said, her gaze following a couple being ushered to a table. Theseus and Leta- “Wanna just get take out?” She said abruptly. “I’m fine just sitting here, Vi…” Victoria eyed the couple as they sat down, “I-It’s no trouble. We can just get our food and eat it at home…” With furrowed brows, (Y/N) turned in her seat to see what Victoria was looking at. “What are you looking at-” “(Y/N), don’t” Too late. “Oh…” (Y/N) turned back and looked at Victoria. “I… I think I’ll take that offer on take out…” Victoria flagged down a waiter and asked if they could take their meal to go. (Y/N) sighed, swishing the water in her glass. “I never thought I’d need to do this again…” Victoria tilted her head to the side, “What do you need, dear?” “I… I need a week.” “Say no more, I’ll tell Theseus you need a week off.” Her week to get over Theseus was a bit different than her week to get over Newt. Mind you, she still punched a wall and wrote letters that she immediately destroyed, but she was an adult now. Meaning she could drink.

~*~*~

“Alright, stand all together! Mr. Scamander- Ah, not you. The younger one! Yes, you! Newt! Smile!” The photographer for the Daily Prophet ordered as the camera flashed. After the book release, they all met up at the Ritz for dinner. “Congratulations, Newt! I’m so proud of you!” (Y/N) cheered. “Thanks (Y/N). I couldn’t do it without you. You’ve been my motivator since forever.” Newt admitted shyly. “Ouch. I'm so offended…” Victoria said dramatically. Newt chuckled nervously. “Of course you all played a part in writing my book. Although, I did appreciate not getting a howler for my birthday.” He gave Victoria a look. “That one time was the most aggressive birthday greeting I’ve ever received.” “Take a joke, Newton!” Victoria grinned. “Since we’re here to celebrate, Theseus and I have something to say,” Leta announced to the table. “Leta and I…” Theseus started, holding Leta’s hands in his. “We…” “Theseus, if you don’t say something, I will toss this roll at you.” Victoria teased, roll already in hand. Leta rolled her eyes playfully before giving her full attention to the group. “Theseus and I are engaged!” This caused (Y/N) and Newt to choke on their water. Theseus and Leta were… engaged…? Victoria set the roll down on her plate and looked at (Y/N) and Newt. The couple took their reactions as a good sign. Theseus smiled and looked at Newt. “Newt… I’d like to ask if you’d be my best man.” “W-Well… Alright…” Newt mumbled. As for (Y/N) she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Years of being with Theseus and the topic of marriage rarely came up. But… Leta and Theseus were only together for a short while… ‘Why was it always Leta?’ She thought. Her breathing became shallow. There was this ache in her chest- she needed air, but her heart felt like it was racing a mile a minute. She felt like she was phasing out of reality. The surrounding noise became deafening. She felt dizzy and her palms started to sweat. All she felt like doing was getting out of there. Victoria noticed this. “Hey! (Y/N) and I have to run to the restroom. I seem to have stained my shirt and I need (Y/N) to help me wash it off.” Before anyone could say anything, Victoria held out her hand, her palm facing the ceiling. (Y/N) nodded and held her hand. The pair of them stood and rushed to the restroom. Little did they know, Newt noticed the signs as well. And all he could do was sit there. After all, Victoria knew how to calm her down. She always did.

~*~*~

Once in the restroom, Victoria locked the door. (Y/N) had flung herself into her friend’s arms and started to sob. “I don’t understand… Why Leta? I don’t hate her, but it’s always her…” (Y/N) cried and she hugged Victoria. Victoria sighed and rubbed (Y/N)’s back. “I don’t know either… She was always attractive and charming. Her hair was shiny and flowed nicely. Her personality was different from the stereotypical Slytherin.” (Y/N) sniffed and looked up at her friend in confusion. “With talk like that, it sounds like you fancy her.” She shrugged, “I did once, but that was a long time ago. When she hurt Newt… No, when she hurt you, that’s when I stopped. I couldn’t love someone who would ever think about hurting you or Newt.” “What about McLaggen-” “We don’t talk about the twat. He was an entitled prick that tried to shag me on the first date.” Victoria gagged. (Y/N) giggled. “I don’t even know why I’m crying. Theseus and I are friends. Leta and I are friends… So why does it hurt to see them already engaged?” Victoria held her by the shoulders. “(Y/N), my love, your feelings are valid. Even if you moved on it’s okay to relapse or reminisce once in a while. What you don’t do is spiral back into a corner of isolation. I understand that it happens, and those feelings are valid as well. I want you to know that I’m here for you. And so is Newt. We’ll be right here for you like we always have.” “Victoria…” She trailed off. “Ah-ah. Don’t go falling for me. Or I’ll show those Scamander brothers what they’re missing for not treating you the way you deserve to be treated.” Victoria teased, giving a wink. It always made her heart flutter when (Y/N) said her full first name. “Tempting, but what I was going to say was thank you. Thank you for being my best friend.” (Y/N) said before walking over to the sink to wash her face. “Don’t let Newt hear that. He’ll throw a fit and be all pouty.” Turning off the faucet, she flicked some water towards Victoria. “Hey watch it! Dry cleaning isn’t cheap!” Victoria exclaimed, trying to block the droplets of water. Giggling, she grabbed some towels and dabbed her face dry. (Y/N) sighed in content. “Okay, I’m ready to face them.”

~*~*~

“Victoria! (Y/N)! You’re back!” Leta cheered. (Y/N) smiled, “Y-Yeah. It was quite the stain.” “Hope you three didn’t miss us too much~” Victoria teased as they sat down in their seats. “Now that you’re here… (Y/N), I’d like you to be my maid of honor!” (Y/N) blushed. “M-Me? Oh, I don’t know…” If she were to accept, that meant she’d be close to Newt for pictures and seating arrangements. “Please? It would mean a lot to me.” Leta begged, her lips forming into a pout.

She glanced at Victoria before looking at Leta, “Only if Victoria will be one of your bridesmaids.” “I was already planning on it.”

•✦.✧.🔎.✧.✦•

According to the Ministry of Magic's Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Newt’s efforts in New York didn’t sit well with them. He was on a temporary travel ban and was there today to try and revoke it or to at least shorten it. To his dismay, it did not go as planned. Newt walked out of the meeting in defeat. He bumped in (Y/N), who held onto his coat. “Any luck?” She whispered. Newt shook his head. “No… The only way they would lift it is if I worked as an Auror, under my brother’s direction.” “Ah, I see.” She trailed off. (Y/N) looked around before saying anything. “I’m waiting to hear from Dumbledore about our next rendezvous.” “Newt!” Theseus called out, finally catching up to his brother. Newt turned to face Theseus, while (Y/N) let go of Newt’s arm. “You think I like the idea of Grimmson any more than you do?” Theseus spoke testily. Being out of breath didn’t help his temper caused by Newt’s actions. “Listen, I don’t want to hear how the ends justify the means, Theseus.” “I think you’re gonna have to pull your head out of the sand!” Exasperated, Newt replied, “Okay, right, here we go. What a selfish… irresponsible...” “You know, the time is coming when everyone’s going to have to pick a side. Even you.” “I don’t do sides.” “Newt.” (Y/N) said firmly. Theseus looked past his brother to see (Y/N) standing there awkwardly. She’d never seen them argue like this before. Newt took the small distraction and turned to go, but Theseus grabbed his arm to hold him back. “C’mere,” Theseus said as he pulled him into a hug. Newt didn’t reciprocate but didn’t push Theseus away either. “They’re watching you,” Theseus whispered in Newt’s ear. (Y/N) cleared her throat causing Theseus to pull away. Theseus looked at her, “(Y/N), I-” She held up her hand, signaling him to stop. “All the paperwork is complete. And I’ll make sure Newt gets home safely and doesn’t do anything to increase his travel ban sentence.” Theseus raised a brow in confusion, “There’s no need for you to-” “Theseus, Travers needs to meet with you immediately,” Victoria announced from behind. “I guess I’ll leave it to you. See you, (Y/N),” He said before leaving the three of them in the hallway. Victoria made her way to (Y/N) and Newt, making sure no one else was around to hear. “I can’t go with you this time, but keep me updated. Dumbledore is waiting for you.”

~*~*~

After the day’s events had passed, all Newt wanted was to return home and be in the comfort of his creatures. (Y/N) had tagged along, but he didn’t mind. She was the creatures’ father figure after all. The pair walked swiftly up the front step but paused outside the front door. The lights in Newt’s sitting room were flashing on and off. Newt opened the front door cautiously as they entered the house. They spotted a baby Niffler swinging from the brass cord of a table lamp, which caused the light to flicker on and off. The baby Niffler succeeded in stealing the brass cord before spotting Newt. It scampered away, knocking all manner of objects to the floor. (Y/N) had spotted a second baby Niffler sitting on a set of weighing scales, pinned down by gold-colored weights it was attempting to steal. Newt and (Y/N) looked at each other and nodded. They had a plan. The first baby made its way to the dining table. It caused a saucepan to drop on top of it, as it continued moving across the table. Newt tossed an apple into the opposite weighing scale, sending the baby Niffler flying into the air. She caught both baby Nifflers as they fell, then tucked them into her pockets. Satisfied, they headed toward the door to his basement but turned at the last moment to see a third escaped baby Niffler climbing onto a bottle of champagne on the counter. Inevitably, the champagne bottle popped and the baby Niffler zoomed toward them on top of the cork, soaring past them and down the stairs to the basement. “Bunty! Bunty, darling, the baby Nifflers are loose again!” (Y/N) called out. Bunty, Newt’s assistant, hurried into view. She was a plain girl who was crazy about creatures and hopelessly in love with Newt. She peeled off the Nifflers, from (Y/N)’s hands, with freshly bandaged fingers. She tempted the last baby Niffler- the champagne cork rider- with a gold necklace, then tucked all three into a nest full of sparkling objects. “Well done,” Newt said, smiling at (Y/N). She returned the smile. “I’m so sorry, Newt, they must have picked the lock while I was cleaning out the Augureys-” Bunty apologized. “Not to worry, dear. It was an accident.” (Y/N) reassured. The three walked together among the enclosures. “Hmm . . . I’ve fed nearly everyone, Pinky’s had his nose drops, and-” “-And Elsie?” (Y/N) asked. “Elsie’s droppings are nearly normal again,” Bunty said, matter-a-factly. “Wonderful. You can clock off now-” Newt looked at her fingers. “I told you to leave the Kelpie to me and (Y/N).” “That wound needs more ointment!” She argued.

“I don’t want you losing fingers over it.” Newt marched toward a patch of black water. Bunty trotted in his wake, following him like a school girl following her crush. “Seriously, you go home now, Bunty. You must be exhausted.” “You know the Kelpie’s easier with two.” She pleaded, really wanting to help. (Y/N) rolled her eyes. ‘Not to be mean, Bunty, but please leave…’ They approached the water and Newt unhooked a bridle hanging beside the pond. “Perhaps you should take off your shirt?” Bunty suggested, hopeful. Newt, oblivious to her intentions, replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll dry off quickly enough.” He smiled and jumped into the water. (Y/N) cleared her throat. “Come on, Bunty. Off you pop. Newt and I can take care of Kelpie.” She said with a forced smile on her face. Bunty, flustered, nodded quickly. “Y-Yes ma’am.” She stuttered before clocking off and exiting the basement. (Y/N) sighed as she waited for Newt to emerge. Newt burst back out of the water and Kelpie was bridled. Now docile, it shook its mane. “Someone needed to let off some steam. Ointment, love?” (Y/N) handed it over. Still mounted, Newt applied ointment to a wound on Kelpie's neck. When he dismounted Kelpie, he settled down next to (Y/N) to catch his breath. “Someone had fun.” She teased. Newt laughed, “You try holding your breath whilst holding onto Kelpie!” “I would’ve used the Bubble-Head Charm.”

He flicked water at her face, “I-I get it. I’m bad at Charms.” “Luckily for you, I received an outstanding in Charms~!” She claimed. “Y-You see, I would have thought of that, but Bunty… You know…” “Distracted you?”

“Exactly. Although… I wouldn’t mind being distracted by someone else…” He said, muttering the last part.

She heard that- “And who would you make this exception for?” (Y/N) asked, brushing his hair off to the side.

The tension was high. She knew it was a messed up thing for her to start falling in love with Newt all over again. She couldn’t help it. Love was selfish and so was she. She had loved Theseus with her whole heart. Only for the flames to be extinguished by the troubles of fighting a war that was bound to happen. Now that Theseus and Leta were planning to get married, she fell back to Newt.

He wasn’t taking the news well either. It seemed like he had no closure. Love was selfish and so was he. He realized that he was only infatuated with Leta. With (Y/N)... He knew he loved her. So much that there would always be a small part of his heart that held his love for her so close. And no one would replace that.

‘You…’ He thought.

•✦.✧.🔎.✧.✦•

Travers had called (Y/N) into his office. He leaned forward, his hands folded together. “I have a solo assignment for you.” “What mission could result in me going solo in a time like this?” She asked, feeling a bit uneasy. (Y/N) rubbed the star charm on her bracelet in a clockwise motion- signaling Victoria that she was being sent on a mission. “Since you and Newton Scamander are pretty close, I want you to keep a close eye on him. With his loyalty towards Albus Dumbledore, we can believe that Newt would go to him for a way to sneak under the radar to travel internationally.” Travers informed. “But sir-” “That’s an order, Miss (L/N).” He said, sternly. “Why do I need to go solo? You always encourage us to have a battle buddy. I request for Victoria Howard to accompany me on this mission.” “Request denied. She will be accompanying us to interrogate Dumbledore. Now, what is your assignment?” “To follow and keep an eye on Newton Scamander. And to report back to you if he’s seen breaking his travel ban or any other suspicious activity.” (Y/N) replied monotonously. Who knew that this assignment would lead (Y/N) to follow Newt and Jacob, his muggle friend from New York, to Paris?

[trashbaggage]

modern day frankenstein where victor college dropout “it’s called a gap year mum” has created a mad scientist lair in the basement of the building where he shares an apartment with five other guys out of shit he stole from the university’s chem lab and late night ebay bids to create life because of a boatload of unearned confidence plus a weed-hazed night of white boy faux-deep philosophizing that basically boils down to ‘we create our gods so do we not have the power to create ourselves??’

and can’t spell vicky without icky said “hold my ipa” and took that as a personal challenge ofc

he puts an ad on craigslist for an assistant ‘must be discreet must be up for whatever must bring own car batteries’ and gets igor who doesn’t even blink at a little corpse stealing (actually, he doesn’t really blink at all, creepy)(also he did think the ad was for something else i mean really v-bruh the wording was very misleading)

and mr. (not a doctor) ‘it’s my ci-vic duty to start shit’ gets everything set up, rips a few lines of coke/dorito dust/ritalin (gamer’s nose candy), slides the hunkiest freshest corpse they could find (8 ft tall? i see you girl) into a bath of monster energy drink and frost: arctic blitz gatorade, fucks around and finds out with some alchemical equations he scratched out at the height of his sleep deprivation, clips the jumper cables to the car batteries and the body’s nips —

(important note: oingo boingo’s ‘weird science’ has been playing this whole time, on repeat and very loudly, with one (1) ‘all star’ by smash mouth thrown in for flavour)

— and throws the switches

and thus adam chad is born into the world, and will very soon learn the meaning of ‘daddy issues’ as he follows victor the bitcher around, desperate for his approval, until he falls in with a group of lovable misfits and realizes he don’t need no man he’s an independent creature, and he gets a nice little apartment filled with plants that he pays for with his hand-knitted cat sweaters he sells on etsy and his onlyfans and he lives happily ever after while vick the dick dies in a *kim k voice* tragic keg stand accident the end

[life-rewritten]

Psycho but it’s okay Rapunzel and the cursed castle analysis

Sacrifice and Neglect 

Psycho but it’s okay episode 5, is titled Rapunzel in the cursed castle. There’s been many hints in the intro, the flashbacks, and also like I said previously the cursed castle also gave those vibes of  the fairy tale.  But first let’s look at Rapunzel and see what the show uses to foreshadow the story.

Rapunzel in the Cursed Castle

Rapunzel is the known fairy-tale told by the Brothers Grimm. Also, writers who loved to use violence and discomforting situations in their tales The summary of the plot of Rapunzel as followed.  

‘Due to her mother’s hunger and her father’s desperate need to protect her mother, Rapunzel ends up getting taken by a sorceress in order to pay for the fact that her mother ate some greens also named after from the sorceress’s garden.  She grows up to become beautiful and have extremely long hair. The sorceress panics and traps her in a castle with no way of escaping, the only way the sorceress visits her is by asking her to let down her hair. The prince however hears her singing and sneaks in and asks her to let down her hair they fall in love and plan a way to escape. Unfortunately, they get caught, Rapunzel loses her hair and is tossed out into the wild, the prince falls into thorns and become blind. The witch traps her self in the tower. Rapunzel and the prince however later find each other, her tears washes away the scratches in his eye and he starts to see, they live happily ever after.’

This is how the story is told in the show by Moon Young:  Because she is the Rapunzel in the story she tells it from her point of view.

‘A long time ago, deep inside the forest, there lived a little girl in a cursed castle. The girl’s mother always told her that she’s too special to live among everyone else outside the castle… However, the girl felt like she was imprisoned. So she prayed to the moon every day: ‘Please send me a handsome prince who can save me from here. Will he come today? Will he come tomorrow?’ The girl waited for him every day.’

 Zombie Kid & Rapunzel 

I want to first break down the theme of the episode that was shown in the tale of Zombie Kid in the previous episode and also shows up here. That’s the idea of being trapped by either neglect or being trapped by sacrifice. In Zombie Kid, the idea of neglect stems from the world neglecting the mother and the zombie kid because he’s different, his mum also neglects him by not giving him what he actually desperately craved warmth, she locked him in the basement and just fed him to stop his hunger. I want to pause there first so you see the mirror images and themes in Rapunzel that are also similar in this tale. This is the fact that a character  is so hungry that their hunger requires sacrifice, but it leads to neglect. In Rapunzel her mother’s desperate cravings leads to her father sacrificing her instead so his wife gets the food. But it leads to her feeling neglect and imprisonment because she’s all alone with no family but the witch. In Zombie Kid he ends up alone because his mum sacrifices herself when all he really wanted the most was her love and warmth, he felt neglected by her sacrifice.  The idea of hunger and obsession leading to people feeling hurt and alone is one of the important things to take notice of. This parallels to Gang Tae and his mum when she sacrificed everything for Sang Tae but neglected his feelings and wants, and also Moon Young because of her mother and her father’s decisions in the past.

Character Analysis of Rapunzel

THE FATHER

Next, we focus on the story again. And we are introduced in this story to the father in Rapunzel. His actions and his sacrifice is what leads Rapunzel to be taken and captured by the sorceress. He trades her for the vegetables to keep the mother happy. This is messed up when you think about it but it’s also quite telling for this show. I’m going to make a post on bluebeard later this week as well which also mirrors this same idea. First of all we know Moon Young’s dad has a disorder which causes him to automatically when he sees Moon Young to want to kill her. We are also hinted to that he could be violent and might have killed her mother because he feared her. Stay with me, the thing is I disagree with this. Because I think just like the father here who loved his wife so much, he’d sacrifice his daughter’s mental state, I think that’s what Moon Young’s father did too. Because he’s so in love with her mother, as told in the story of Bluebeard, because he saw her as an angel no matter what she did, I think he let her isolate Moon Young and groom her the way she wanted making Moon Young imprisoned in the castle he built for her mother. The signs are there that he was obsessed with her mother, he builds a castle so they can both stay there alone from everyone, he sees her as an angel someone who can’t do wrong, and I’m sure he’s trying to kill Moon Young either one because he realises his mistake and sees her mother in her, or two she was involved with the disappearance of her mother and he hates her for that. The father in Rapunzel does everything he can for his wife who is about to die because she doesn’t want anything but the vegetables found in the witch’s garden. For her to not leave him he goes and takes them and trades them with his daughter.

THE WITCH

We then focus on the witch in this story or the sorceress. Her anxiety about letting Rapunzel go into the world is heavy, she sees her as her possession and object, and grooms her up all alone. She refuses her to leave and makes it impossible for anyone else to get to her. This obviously shadows Moon Young’s mother. We are shown the scene where Moon Young’s mum takes a hair brush in the cellar and brushes her hair. This mirrors what happened whenever the witch visited Rapunzel. Moon Young’s mother calls her beautiful and tells her she’s her creature made just for her. She also shows up in the end of the flashback as Moon Young runs to go see Gang Tae. She makes her push him away and we know she threatens to kill him because of the previous tale Sleeping Witch. In Moon Young’s sleep paralysis nightmares her mother hovers above her promising to kill whoever tries to free her. This is what the witch does to Rapunzel. But just like Moon Young Rapunzel is delighted when a prince finds a way to enter into the castle. They immediately start making plans to escape. Unfortunately they are caught. I also mentioned this in my brain dump but the witch throws the prince of the window of the castle into a thorn bush that blinds him once she caught him and Rapunzel planning to escape. This is another proof that Moon Young is terrified that Gang Tae will die if he stays near her. 

So you may ask why is she not trying to push him away anymore. Because her mother is meant to be ‘dead’. I put dead in quotation marks because both me and Moon Young clearly feel like she is not, her ghost hunts both Moon Young and her father, and we know she disappeared, we’re not sure how. Moon Young’s flashback seems to show two different women being killed, and we don’t know if any of them is her mother. But Moon Young believes that her mother can’t harm anymore once she finds the prince again, just like Rapunzel she stays by his side and makes him be able to see. Metaphorically this is what Moon Young is doing for Gang Tae, she’s trying to make him see her beneath the assumptions that she’s unfeeling, she’s trying to make him see who she really is not who she made him think she was, she’s trying to make him see that he also can be free and heal. And the prince once he begins to see stays with Rapunzel and they live happily ever after. Except…

ROMEO AND JULIET

We are also told another tale and the previous fairy tales also allude to this. You can read my previous analysis to know more. We are alluded to the story of Romeo and Juliet, and also shown imagery linked to it by the balcony scene in both episodes 5 and 6. This is not a good foreshadowing to the story again. I mentioned that red shoes means that eventually Moon Young will choose to let Gang Tae go, we see that this was correct because she chose to let him go in the past to save him, I said that this meant that something will show up later that will cause our couple to be separated again. And this is shown through the shadowing of Romeo and Juliet. The idea that the families are against each other already foreshadows that the actions of her father and mother, will be negative towards Gang Tae’s family. And we already know something has happened to Gang Tae’s mother, there’s a murder that we’re still trying to unveil. I also said from the beginning that Moon Young tearing butterflies is because she was involved somehow in murder of the mother, because the murder is alluded with the imagery of butterflies. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the same butterflies haunting Gang Tae and Sang Tae is also Moon Young mother who is haunting Moon Young and her father? I already agreed to this that Moon Young’s mother was either a serial killer, or was not afraid to kill women who she thought were better than her, or obstacles. This is why she’s a great murder detective novelist. I’m now 80% sure she was the person who killed Gang Tae’s mother which means that once that is unveiled, Moon Young and Gang Tae will separate again because of trauma, anger and hurt. Just like in Romeo and Juliet, the teens are forced to separate that they choose death once they see freedom is futile. Though Moon Young mentions that, that could have been sorted out through communication if both of them chose to sleep.

What made me happy however is that Rapunzel is a happy ending, we are right now watching the part where the prince and Rapunzel reunited and started a family. We are seeing a found family with Gang Tae and Moon Young and her illustrator and manager. I can see the warmth return back to the cursed castle and Gang Tae has chosen to stay by Moon Young’s side, he is starting to SEE just like the prince.

Ps...

Before I go, I know this post is sooo long. Sorry there’s just so much to say. The imagery of the show mentions thorns again. I mentioned how in sleeping witch, thorns were disguised as a rose to make Beauty fall for the curse, in this story the prince was also tricked by the witch in disguise as Rapunzel and she led him to climb up until she pushed him to fall into the thorns. In sleeping witch thorns trapped her and made her succumb to her curse, in Rapunzel thorns prevent the prince from finding Rapunzel. I thought this was interesting, could the thorns represent the trauma that has scarred each of our character’s hearts, could it be harshness of the world stabbing them in the back cause they’re different, or could it just represent Moon Young’s mother in all of their lives, she is the reason why trauma, anger and pain is happening to the characters, and she might return again. I’m also scared how she could return because if there’s anything foreshadowed it shows that not all good things are good in this show, so she probably will be a disguise as something pleasant. Let’s keep our eyes out.

Okay this is my full analysis on Rapunzel, and I will try and do Bluebeard later this week. But again I’m enjoying this show, I find it surprising when I analyse and it makes sense, or when the show agrees with my theories. Can’t wait for Saturday.