#for my hungry trash pandas

[madllamamomma]

The Visitor~ Part 11!!!!!

[WARNING: This content contains physical abuse, mental abuse, violence/gore/graphic depictions of being physically ill.]

The Smoldering Phoenix~

Door after door after door…behind every handle was the same. No Rhemi (at least not their Rhemi). All the searching began to feel like it was going to take an eternity to get through all these doors. Still without any success, the past Rhemi silently searches for her living counterpart with Muriel and Asra trailing behind her, helping with the search. Along the way, they both got to see more of Rhemi’s memories. Slowly but surely, the picture of her youth in Charlés was becoming more and more clear… 

It seemed like Rhemi’s young life was rather lonely and isolated. Just as Martin said, she was an only child, and there weren't really any children for her to play with. Florence and Martin were barely around at that time and added to the solidarity. From what Muriel and Asra gathered, her parents were doing their best to play their own political games in order to gain favor within the court and most importantly, the King. Strangely, the years before Rem’s sixth birthday seemed to be all but gone, the earliest memory she had was her father attempting to change her eye color. After that, those younger years were still rather hazy amidst all the ash and smoke. Some years were completely missing, while others were spotty. But from what they could see, most of her days were filled with utter monotony. Lecture after lecture, piano lesson after piano lesson, embroidery session after embroidery session, boring art class after boring art class, hours of staring at the same damn fruit bowl when she wanted to draw the mountain tops outside—the poor thing was forced to sit in her seat for hours on end, and whenever she’d fidget or even twirl her hair, she’d be scolded harshly, and even punished by her governess. She was a horrid old retch of a woman who wore nothing but dark drabby prudish clothing that covered up every inch of her skin except her head and boney wrinkly hands. Her hair was always pulled back in a very tight neat bun on the back of her skull and other than a stray vengeful smirk here or there, she hardly ever smiled, which added to her unattractiveness.

The only times Rhemi had any fun was when she read her story books in her spare time and played on the grounds of the chateau. All alone of course. Sometimes servants would play with her, but after a while they had to return to work, they did have jobs to do after all. A handful of times she snuck to the front gates and watched the commoners as they walked by, until she was caught by the groundskeeper that is. After that, she was forbidden from straying even past the inner gardens close to the manor. It wasn’t so bad at first, but places start to lose their intrigue the more you stare at the same exact bush for months on end with nothing really new happening. So then, she learned that she had to just play pretend, diving deep into her imagination, where in her mind she had hundreds of other kids to play with and she was the most interesting girl in the world, and everyone wanted to be her friend and she had wings on her back so she could fly where every she pleased. 

Back in the lonely classroom, she’d often stare out the window to the outside world, longing to be anywhere else but there, only having her imagination to comfort her. As the time went by, that beautiful chateau started to become less of a home and more like a gilded cage. The small bird could only dream of soaring through the sky, high above the gates and into the snowy mountains in the distance. Perhaps she could see all the wonderful places she read about in her books, like Prakra, the Salty Sea, the Steppe, or even beyond that.

An interesting memory that Muriel quickly noted was Rhemi sneakily spying on her father one drizzly afternoon during one of her free days. This was when Beatrix was rather young, so she didn’t stray far from her master. Rhemi watched from afar behind a house plant as he read his dozens of books, conducted spells, and even made potions and elixirs for the court. Finally, one day when he wasn’t there, she crept into his chambers and pulled a couple of books out of his library about magic and hid them in her toy box under all of her stiffies. Her father always brought something pretty and expensive back from his trips with the king, soon the gifts started to pile up higher and higher—a perfect hiding spot. Although they were rather advanced books and it took her a while to get through each one, she still read and reread them even though they were over five hundred pages long. The text behind their leather bindings made something inside the child catch fire every time she cracked open one of their covers. Once she was finally finished, she’d carefully put them back exactly where they were found; her father never seemed to have noticed. Apparently she was always a bookworm at heart.

Despite her intelligence, she apparently had a difficult time concentrating. Not that she couldn’t concentrate at all—On the contrary, when she got into a particular subject she found interesting, she did remarkably well, exceedingly even. She’d actually become somewhat obsessive with it—But on the other hand, with things she didn’t find interesting at all, it was like literally pulling teeth, which was rather baffling. All she had to do was, ‘just try harder... ‘Just applied yourself’…. ‘Just pay attention’... ‘This is quite simple, just sit down and focus for a few hours, it’s not that difficult…’, That's what everyone always said anyways. They never could see how the poor thing was working as hard as she possibly could. She desperately wanted to learn her lessons and wanted nothing more for them to stick, she really did. But it was as if there was an invisible force in her brain that would push it all away. It was frustrating, infuriating even, not only to her tutors or her parents, but for herself. Once she overheard her parents arguing loudly over her academics. Martin mostly seemed to have just pushed the blame on Florence, even though he was the one who hired their governess and wrote the lesson plans, yet oddly it was still her fault. Poor little Rhemi cried her little eyes out as she clutched to her favorite teddy bear and she sat at the top of the stairs hearing them shout back and forth. It made her feel like she was just a disappointment… a failure of a daughter. She even started to feel like her parents were unhappy all because of her. The daughter of the King’s right hand man was expected to be better than this. It was hard enough that she was so unsightly that she barely came to court events other than piano recitals where no one could see her from afar, let alone be deemed an utter nitwit. Such pressure at a young age can honestly make something dark fester inside. Makes sense why always seemed to have to prove herself, as if just existing wasn’t enough, always had to feel useful, never could take a compliment because she never believed them.

Really, it was never her fault. Sometimes people just learn differently. If anything it was the adult’s fault for not seeing her struggle. Perhaps it wasn’t a lack of noticing, it just was a lack of understanding… And no one seemed to understand that. Not to mention her school days never seemed to have any room for playtime. Because of her poor marks, her father and governess doubled down and forced a very rigid and aggressive course leaving barely time for lunch let alone bathroom breaks. Stuck in an airtight schedule with the same boring routines and lessons taught by the same old crotchety governess who seemed to hate the girl for no good reason.

The woman’s name was Madame Le Beau, ironically enough. At first Rhemi wanted nothing more than to make her happy, she was smart and knew a lot. Rhemi wanted to be smart like she was too. But over time her admiration turned to pure spiteful animosity. Why was this woman in this field, only the gods knew… maybe once she was a good tutor, but now she had paper thin patients. 

Eventually the old bitch’s patients grew even thinner and thinner, and the poor girl found it harder and harder to learn under such stress. One day, the reprimanding escalated from just purely verbal to physical punishments. It started with her governess grabbing the girl’s head, forfilly turning her head back to her work any time she looked away like to the window or out to even a wooden plank on the floor. The force of the old woman twisting Rhemi’s head back would sometimes hurt her neck and leave marks. From there, it just got worse and worse. The miserable old shrew eventually found a skinny wooden ruler, sometimes she popped a good one on her head or shoulders, but then she moved down to smacking the back of her hands. 

Anytime she made even the slightest mistake, —WHAMMM!! She’d left marks all over her poor little forearms and hands until she started to tremble from the pain. After this started, Rhemi would panic, finding herself caught in between fight or flight, and instead go into a frozen state, unable to make any decision, making her teacher even more furious.

Finally, on a particularly bad day, she had had enough of the old woman’s bull shit. For the very first time Rhemi felt her magic erupt within her like a boiling geyser. The old woman’s ruler suddenly burst into flames along with Rhemi’s papers she held in her hands. It nearly roasted her wrinkly arthritic digits. Shocked and applauded, she threw the burning ruler and parchment to the ground. Eyes wide, Rhemi grinned in delightful surprise, feeling a sudden surge of happiness in the sudden chaos. Deep down she wanted this to happen, it’s exactly what she pictured in her head, and as if it were a dream. The old woman hollered at the top of her lungs, “YOU—You-you little demon! You’re a little demon with bloody demon eyes!!”. As terrible as it was, it was kinda hilarious to witness. She wailed all the way through the hallway, down the stairs and all the way out of the manor. Rhemi ran over and pressed her little face to the window and watched as the women ran cowardly away towards the gates. She never felt someone being afraid of her before, half of her wanted to cry, while the other half revealed the sort of power that came with her fearful reaction.

After that day, Rhemi never saw Madame Le Beau ever again. Her father was of course furious and she was grounded for nearly a month. More than anything he seemed mortified that she had such raw magical abilities at such a young age and just wanted them to be sealed away. But that wasn’t really possible. To punish her, they took away her favorite books and toys, took away her dinners for three days, forced to stay in her room where she was made to write on a blackboard, “I will not disobey my governess. I will not use magic.” 500 times each day for a week, and she had a terrible slap across the face. She even had to write the old bitch an ‘apology’ letter. Well, really her mother wrote it and Rhemi had to copy it word for word so it was in her own writing... but deep down Rhemi didn’t seem to care about what happened. She was sorry she was in trouble, she was sorry she had her books and toys taken away, she was sorry that she had to go to bed hungry, and her poor hand felt so cramped by the end of each day, but she wasn’t sorry about what happened to the governess that day. Muriel could see the look in her warm velvety red eyes, and knew this look all too well… the young child was jaded. ‘An eye for an eye’… that’s what the ancient laws always said. At least that’s what Madame Le Beau taught her during one of her lessons. So why didn't it apply to this situation? Because she was just a child and the governess was an adult? But why did the old woman seem to have all the power?… Sure didn’t seem like she had any power when Rhemi burned that ruler now, did she? Besides, the old hag deserved it. Maybe that’s why she felt the way she did when the old woman ran down out of the chateau. For the first time in Rhemi’s life, she felt the power she welded. 

And it felt good.

Being grounded wasn’t all that bad though. The 500 sentences each day was atrocious, and her stomach would hurt most of the night, but being all alone wasn’t too different from her day to day. It's not like her life wasn’t already boring as it was. She was already isolated, her only friends were in her mind, and she could easily entertain herself. Writing stories of her own on the other side of the blackboard then erasing them the next day so she won’t get into trouble. Looking out her window towards the gardens and watching the servants working, she’d pretend that she was watching a creature with bright wings hide behind the bushes and avoid being detected. And even trying to use her new found magic. Other than chaining the child to the bed, it’s rather difficult to take those things away. Besides, it was better than being in that godforsaken classroom.

Despite this being a rather difficult time for the Alarie household, after the burning papers incident, Florence started to spend more time with her daughter. Perhaps she realized how much Rhemi needed a parent, not just some overrated nanny. Especially when her morals were becoming rather questionable the older she was getting. Muriel also noticed something shift within her mother around this time as he continued to see her throughout Rhemi’s memories. Something in her appearance started to look… different. It wasn’t aging per say, and she wasn’t becoming ugly or anything like that. It felt something deeper than that. Her skin had become paler and the bag under her eyes started to become more pronounced as if she never got enough sleep. She’d look more and more exhausted as the years went on while she became thinner and frailer, her very soft features becoming slightly sharper... Was she sick? She never told Rhemi if she was…There were no memories where anyone talked about her being sick so far. And well, Martin never seemed to have even noticed either. He was always too ‘busy’ with his duties from the king anyways.

On one particularly gloomy spring day in the afternoon a few weeks after the incident, Phara showed up in the garden with Florence. After that, she became Rhemi’s tutor. The girl’s dull life seemed to completely change—Once terribly abysmal days stuck in a cold dark dank classroom filled with long winded lessons, countless tears, and utter misery, were now replaced with warmth, wonder and joy. Phara was a total opposite from that frumpy old woman in every way imaginable. Phara on the other hand was rather talented at making learning enjoyable and engaging for young Rhemi and she loved spending time with the woman. She had more of a hands-on approach with Rhemi, mixed in with traditional lessons that worked for her. Sometimes she made lessons a game, some of the lessons she conducted in the gardens or outside, but rarely were they in the classroom all day. And if they were, she always made a fun activity to do together. Eventually, Rhemi’s mother started to join their fun too and Florence started to smile more and more.

Even her father noticed Rhemi’s stark improvements, even in her worse subjects. At last he was happy with his daughter. He praised her and showered her with beautiful gifts. And for once Rhemi felt her father’s approval. Eventually, he relinquished his daughter’s lesson plans completely to the Phara. He’d never admit it, but she was even more knowledgeable than him in most subjects (other than playing the political game, she had no interests in such things). She was a highly sought after scholar after all, she taught many of the Parkan princesses back in the day before coming back to Charlés.

Right at the start, Phara and Rhemi just clicked. As the time went on, Phara and Rhemi grew rather close. She was honestly another mother figure, and sometimes even her father figure. She wasn’t at all like her own mother, she was almost the complete opposite in fact: tall, confident, loud and outgoing, vibrant, and strong. The only things that Rhemi knew about her father was he was an important magician that worked for the king, he loved giving lavish gifts, was obsessed with her good grades, he enjoyed collecting books, he was constantly too busy or to tired to really talk to, and that she had to walk on eggshells when he was around…

 They did however play chess together. It was usually a monthly or biweekly occurrence. It was the only time he made for her in his busy schedule. Which made it at first very special, but he never relented, always went all out to try and win. Sometimes he would explain his movements or why hers weren as effective, but half the time he expected her to learn by trial and error. She then grew to hate chess. Funny enough he was always too focused on teaching her an obscure lesson through chess, but never bothered to notice that she never even wanted to play in the first place. After a while she’d just let him win and give up about half way through, which frustrated the magician. Other than that, Rhemi knew nothing really anything about him. She had no idea what exactly he did for the court, or where he’d go on his travels. He never really said. So having another stable adult there like Phara next to her mother felt rather comforting. She made her feel like becoming an adult wasn’t all that terrible. Most importantly, Phara made Rhemi feel like she was worth a damn. Not because she was the daughter of an important nobleman, or that she was just intelligent, but because Rhemi was just Rhemi. She saw her. Finally, an adult who took an interest in what Rhemi liked. 

As time carried on, Phara could see the child’s potential and started teaching Rhemi more and more magic. Rather than only suppress her talents, she wanted to nourish them and make them stronger. She even said that she had never seen such raw talent. Usually the best course of action is to use them and gain more control, just like a toddler learning to walk. Knowing that she’d never get Martin’s approval, ever the bold woman, she even took her student off the grounds for the first time. For the first time Rhemi went to the local markets where the common folk lived. It was much louder than she’d thought it would be, but she still loved it. On another outing, Phara took her to see other children her age. They were local Thoritian children, some were even Phara’s own family. One child Rem really took a liking to was a girl with pretty curly bluish hair a few years younger than her. Her eyes even matched Rhemi’s brownish-red, and she always made her laugh, and she had the cutest dimples in her cheeks.

Then on the third outing, Rhemi met Ezavior in the town square market. A vendor was selling various animals, but he was the only ferret. Wne their eyes met, there was an instantaneous connection. Phara had to practically rip her away from his cage and Rhemi quietly cried on the way home. Then for her birthday that year, there he was, in the beautifully wrapped present box. 

Now, instead of spending her nights alone having teatime with her now hundreds of stuffed animals, playing pretend with her humanoid bird imaginary friend named ‘Dee’ (Admittedly that one was just weird and kinda sad), and reading her fantasy books for the thousandth time. She had that sweet adorable little spunky ferret. Rhemi and Ezavior would stay up late as she practiced some spells under her covers or even read to him until they both fell asleep. She loved her little companion, and he loved her too.

But not all of these days were so wonderful. When Martin was home, it seemed like all he and Florence did was argue, bicker, and fight. But then he seemed to flip a switch and showered her gifts and brought exotic foods and clothing. Either way, the tension in the air was always so tense and palpable. Sometimes Rhemi’s stomach felt like it was twisted when there was a lot of fighting. So she started to stay in her room more often in her downtime. Eventually the gifts and grand gestures seemed to have meant very little as time went on, after a while, they just felt like a show, and honestly it was. Not facing the reality of his marriage crumbling, Martin started to go on his travels for longer and longer, staying away as much as he could. He always said that, ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’. It’s too bad no one told him otherwise because that's when Florence drifted further away from him, but drew closer to Phara. Finally, Florence stopped showing up to the court events all together and stopped wearing her stuffy uptight clothes and let her hair down (literally). 

It wasn’t clear how or when the affair started, but it had to be around this time. There were too many signs. Outside looking in, it was obvious how they acted around one another, stealing loving secret glances, passing notes to one another and giggling after reading it, then quickly burning to before any servant noticed. They even spend the night in each other's rooms. Rhemi clearly had no clue, she just thought they were best friends. From her understanding, that's what all girl best friends did at least that's what happened in her books. She even nearly caught them both in the act after having a nightmare, but luckily for them, she didn’t know any better by their disheveled panicked state. The poor thing just thought they were having a slumber party. She read something about that in a book once, where girls spent the night at other girls' houses and they stayed up late talking all night and had lots of snacks, and slept in the same bed, then had breakfast together before their parents came and picked them up.

Only after she got older did she know what that all meant. Infidelity was very wrong, but how could she judge either of them? The marriage between Florence and Martin was obviously over within a few years before the affair, yet Florence still stayed. But why?... “Well. she wasn’t the only one in a gilded cage.” Muriel thought to himself.

Strangely, the memories in Charlés led up to the day before her eleventh birthday, but then they just suddenly stopped. After this, her memories went straight into Vesuvia when she was well over fifteen. Nothing about how the three of them got there, nothing about when they changed their names, nothing about what happened to Ezavior and nothing about how her mother died. Other than the very broken memory of Rhemi helping Muriel and Asra in the cave as children, there was a large gap of years that were still completely missing. Muriel and Asra were beginning to wonder if these memories were lost forever to the flames that caused such damage everywhere else in her self-consciousness. Some memories were absolutely petrified, so maybe they went with them.

______

Now deep into the third floor, Muriel, Asra and the past Rhemi had now combed through at least five dozen memories at this point. But still no Rhemi. Currently, they were in a string of memories of Vesuvia in her teens and even her early twenties. It’s odd. This version of her was completely different from her bright eyed bubbly self from her childhood and even herself now. Just like before, the years closer to her death weren’t found quite yet, nor the years after she was brought back to life… But as they looked on, many of these memories started to make Muriel realize how much Rhemi really was like his old self. She was rather awkward and had a lot of social anxiety when meeting new people. You never would have thought that with how she interacted with customers in the shop. But in these years she hid a lot of her feelings, was harshly passive aggressive, she was highly jealous and selfish, and most of all deeply angry and hurt. Even the current Rhemi had a hot-temper, and she was prone to melancholy sometimes, sure, who isn’t? But this Rhemi had a sense of deep seeded visceral anger and insecurity that was totally foreign to the woman he knew now. But he knew that feeling all too well. Anger always was a byproduct of something else. 

As Muriel opens another burnt unlocked door, he stops for a moment to study it. This one was probably the most colorful one he had seen so far, and the front of the door was embellished with a familiar looking gold fox mask. Despite his form being changed back into a human’s, Muriel still could use his nose to smell and other heightened senses to seek out Rhemi. But unfortunately there wasn't any sign of his beloved. He glances over seeing that the other two were still busy looking in the other doors. Quietly, he slips inside and takes the time to watch this one play out, finally getting a moment to himself.

The memory starts, the mountain man finds himself transported into Nadia’s palace with hundreds of people present. The poor thing sighs defeatedly and curses under his breath, this wasn’t at all the solace he was hoping for. About to reach his hand towards the door handle, he turns away from the crowd of people hoping the next door would be better. But he then realized that this memory was during a masquerade. The palace was also noticeably more tackily decorated and lacked the charm that it had now. Over his left shoulder, Muriel could hear Rhemi’s very distinct giggle. Quickly, his eyes search for her, but he finds it difficult among the sea of people in various masks and fancy clothes. But he then finally sees her sporting a blue and purple silk outfit, and bird mask. It didn’t look like her style, as if she borrowed the outfit from someone else.The hermit could feel his fits tighten and his shoulders tensing up as he saw who was standing in front of her–a blonde-haired man in a red jacket and white trousers, accessorized with various metals across his chest, wearing a white and gold goat mask with long horns poking upwards… and with a brand new golden arm.

Muriel made a low grumble that radiated in the small room as he saw the ex-count’s face again, especially as he gazed at Rhemi with somewhat hungry eyes. It was like watching a snake about to pounce on a trusting mouse. It was obvious that she didn’t really care what he was talking about, but she smiled, batted her long eyelashes and laughed at his jokes anyways, even if it was in a polite way. “Wow… could I be so bold, my dear?” The count asked. Before she could answer, the Count gently reaches for her right hand and he brings it to his lips, shooting her a very charming look. She gave him no resistance as he pressed a firm yet soft kiss on the top of her knuckles, making her flounder in place uncontrollably with an unsure expression. 

Furious, Muriel reached out of instinct to his beloved and wanted nothing more than to break his jaw. But once Muriel reached out, he was instantly pushed back with the forcefield, a very sobering reminder of where he was. He stood there clenching his fists so hard it hurt, but then he took a very deep breath. “It’s just a memory… It's just a memory. It’s. Just. A. Memory.” He repeats to himself in his head. “He’s in the Devil’s Realm. He’s in the Devil’s Realm. He’s in the fuckin’ Devil’s Realm….” He then says out softly loud trying to ground himself.

“... Has anyone told you how beautiful you are?” The count continues to say, softening his eyes as he lets go of her hand. In the moment, a servant comes by with a silver platter holding dozens of glasses of wine. He quickly grabs two, one in each hand, as he looks at her longingly and hands her a glass. “… And you’re a delight to talk to.”

“Hmmf… you mean she’s good at listening…” Muriel mutters to himself, folding his arms loathingly.

“Oh.. Umm.. I’m just–” She starts to say something while staring at the glass. But then her gleaming eyes glance back up at his face as she realizes what he had just said. “Wait...You really think I’m beautiful?...” He nods with a chuckle, finding her shock at his statement amusing. With her warm cheeks, she peers back at him and she sheepishly reaches out for the glass with a flirtatious grin. “Thank you–” 

“—Ohh! If it isn’t Count Lucio!!” A woman with long short black locks wearing a falcon mask interrupts, wearing a beige and blue outfit that was really beautiful on her. She gives the count a short bow before just waltzing over standing in between Rhemi and Lucio, casually cockblocking. “So good to see you, Sire!~” It was Phara. Well, by this time she was called Athena.

The count turns his head hearing his name. “Ahhhh! Yes!!…. Ummm… you!” Lucio greets half annoyed. Obviously he had no idea who she was or even what her name was. Funny, she worked for him occasionally and was in the castle at least once a month.

Rhemi suddenly shrinks into herself as she hastily hides her hands behind her back pretending she wasn’t about to take the cup. Athena then smiles as she gracefully trundles her way over to Rhemi’s left side. “—Oooo~!! Thank you, sire.”  The woman swiftly takes the glass of wine that was offered to Rhemi, and downs it in a few gulps. “Ahhhh! I was rather parched.~” She says wiping her upper lip dry then places the now empty glass back to his gold hand smacking her lips satisfyingly.

“… Uhh…. Yeaaaaaaaaaahhhh….” The count blinks rapidly, confused by this random woman’s audacity and he glares a bit at the empty wine glass. He then fake coughs making nodding gestures to tell her to get lost. But she ignores it, her smiling growing ever wider.

Under her mask, Rhemi had the sourest pointed expression as her fake Aunt tenderly held her stiff shoulders. Despite the girl’s protest, the woman did a great job ignoring it as she gave the count a very sharp look with her fierce yellow eyes with a wide fake toothy smile. “Oh! Rhemi, my sweet!! This is Count Lucio!”

The girl turns her head slightly to Athena matching her toothy fake shit eating grin as she discreetly nudges her abdomen. “I know who he is... We were already talkin—” 

“—Count!!…” Athena sharply cuts her student off, pulling her even closer. Rhemi grumbles and tightens her fist at her sides looking rather mortified. “... Have you met my lovely sixteen year old niece?? Her name is Rhemi…She’s also my apprentice!!”

“-Athenaaa!!!” Rhemi harshly whispers through her gritted teeth dropping her lips into a deep frown.

The count smiles back towards Rhemi with an eyebrow raised looking her up and down again. “Well actually we were just having a wonderful private conversa—” But suddenly his words died as he realized the word ‘sixteen’ was highly emphasized. “-Wait… you’re…?!” He squawks rather loudly. The poor girl looks like she just wants to disappear from this earth, praying no one else was witnessing this exchange from afar. His silver eyes widened wildly and sweat dripped down his temple and he finally caught onto the death glare Athena was giving under her fake smile and why. He takes a step back placing the empty cup down on a nearby planter as he nervously fumbles, “Si—sixteen?? Ya—ya d-don’t say!! Hahah!!… Oopsies! Is it–heehee!!—is it getting hot in here??” An anxious chuckle erupts behind his lips, but then sinks lower under the woman's rather unenthusiastic stare. 

“Indeed…” Athena hisses, continuously wearing that large smile so she didn’t make a scene.

Then clears his throat wiping the sweat off his forehead, pulling off some of his makeup, and downing the rest of his own drink in one large gulp. “... Ohhh!! Is that Valerius calling me over that way?? I’M COMING, VALERIUS!!~ Hahaha!!” Consul Valerius just stands in the far corner staring at the Count with a confused and annoyed look and he shrugs and shakes his head. The count then places his empty glass down to the planter next to the other and hastily shakes Athena's hand and limply shakes Rhemi’s wrist with his thumb and pointer fingers as if she had a disease. “—Weeeeelp!! Lovely to meet you both!–Been a pleaser!!—Do hope you both enjoy the party!! But duty calls!!—Ta-Ta!!” He hastily blurts out as he finally makes his escape looking utterly mortified, disappearing from the memory.

Muriel couldn’t help but snort at Athena’s protective nature, liking the deceased woman more and more. Then a sad feeling washed over him. She always tried to engage in conversation with him back in the colosseum. At the time, he never thought it was worth trying to get to know her, then he completely forgot all about her. Only now in this moment, he really was regretting it.

Under the mask, Rhemi’s skin was completely crimson from the utter embarrassment, but Athena just glared at the count’s direction with disgust. “Hmmmf…. Connard…” The woman muttered.

“Why’d you do that?? We were just talking!!” Rhemi shrieks, finally pulling her shoulders away from her guarden’s grasp.

“And he is nearly double your age, Rem!” She replies, swiftly grabbing the crease of Rhemi’s elbow and spins the girl back round so she’d look her in the eye. 

“…. What??” She scoffs sounding rather bratty as she pulls her arm free again, then folds them quickly and gives a sassy pose. “…He just said that I was pretty… What’s the problem with that?!”

“Rhemi…. mon petit oiseau. That isn’t the point… How many times have I told you that–”

“–We were just talking!! Last time I checked, I wasn’t a child anymore!! Yet you treat me like a freakin’ infant!!! And I was handling myself perfectly fine! Then you had to just charge in, ruining everything all of a sudden!”

Athena sighs exhaustedly, “Rhemi… sweetie. He thought you were a lot older—”

“–So? Isn’t it a good thing he thinks I’m mature? And I am mature for my age…”

“You’re sixteen, Rhemi. You should be treated like a sixteen year old. Not a grown consenting adult!” 

“—Yeah? Well–You made me look like a goddamn fool!! Now he’s gonna tell his friend over there how freakin’ ridiculous I am… I’m going to be the butt end of everyone’s jokes!! I’ll never be able to show my face anywhere now!”

“What do you mean??... Don’t be ridiculous! You’re wearing a mask—” Athena’s face softens and she tilts her head seeing Rhemi’s eyes becoming wet under her mask. She really did feel deeply embarrassed, but really, it should have been the count to feel embarrassed in this situation. The girl’s shitty attitude would normally make any parent react poorly, but being the graceful woman that Athena was understanding. “... I never meant to embarrass you… and I know you want to be seen as an adult.  But… this isn’t the way to do it.” The girl flares her nostrils and sneers, her gaze towards the marble floor. Athena then lovingly tucks stray hair out of Rhemi’s face placing it behind her ear, and runs her finger under her jawline and turns her head back towards her. Empathetic to her feelings, she cups her adopted daughter’s face. “We need to be careful with anyone of nobility. I know it’s been a long time, but it doesn’t mean we’re completely safe…. Besides… Your mother wanted me to–”

Rhemi suddenly swats Athena’s hands away with a hard scoff having just enough with the mention of her mother. “ —Ya know what! Whatever….” She dismissively mutters, ripping herself away and she walks the opposite direction.

Athena’s shoulder drops, feeling defeated despite her good intentions (and not really doing anything wrong). “Rem!! Where are you going??”

“To get some punch!!!” She half shouted waving her off. “… And away from you!” She grumbles under her breath.

The poor teacher pulls up her falcon mask and rubs her now throbbing temples as she pushes out another tired sigh. “… Les dieux m’aident avec cetted fille….” She mumbles under her breath. Deciding to let the child cool off, Athena pulls her mask back down as customers approach the booth. She was selling various masks for the ball. She then suddenly disappears from the memory. 

The hermit pounders about exiting the door yet again, but finds himself stuck as he watches Rhemi stomping furiously over to the refreshment table, grumbling incoherent things under her breath and doing her best to keep eyes dry. It seemed like she really was always a bit of a hot head, but even more so then.

She stood there angrily for a moment, then placed her back against the nearby wall, watching the dance floor come to life as a lively waltz began. Now looking like she felt awkward and confused, Rhemi shrink into herself contemplating whether or not Athena was valid as she interrupted Lucio’s flirtatious conversation. It’s true, Rhemi did look a lot older than she really was, and that kind of attention and admiration must have been rather new and exciting for a young girl to feel at that crucial age. She often felt so plain compared to other women. It also sounded like Florence had already passed away, poor Rhemi must have felt so lost without her.

In the midst of her deep pondering, out from the left corner, a boy in his late teens or early twenties came into view. He was tall, had brown hair, wore a blue and silver outfit and sported a wolf mask. He had a shitty grin as he reached out for her hand. Once she notices him, she shutters as she retracts herself out of his reach, taken off guard by this sudden person invading her space. Realizing what he wanted, she then shakes her head with a fake grin, trying to let him down easily. But for some reason he stayed. Refusing to take the hint, he smiles stupidly rolling his eyes at her shyness, forcefully grabbing her left forearm rather tightly, “Come on, pretty little pigeon~” Her eyes widen by that phrase and she visually holds her breath and stiffens as a thousand different emotions run across her face. “Come ooooon! Dance with me–” This random boy demands, tugging her towards the dance floor. For a moment she just pulls back resisting, but then he tugs even harder as he moves his other hand towards her waist. “Don’t worry, I’ll show you a good time, little wall flower–” Suddenly her brow furiously furrows; she lunges forwards baring her teeth, she hisses and spits at him like a rabid animal and she finally manages to pull her arm free. Automatically, he retreats his hands as he scowls, disgusted by her strange out of pocket rejection. “–Da fuck is your problem, bitch?! Fine! Be that way…” He grumbles walking away. Rhemi stares him down, puffing out her chest as he walks out of the memory. Once out of sight, she finally relaxes and starts breathing again, lightly rubbing the wrist where he was pulling her. He did handle her rather roughly, and her skin burned.

“Well…” A familiar airy chuckle emanatest behind a fox mask standing a couple of feet right next to her, laughing at her strange yet affective surliness. And a young Asra appears by the food table. “… That’s one way to keep ‘em away.”

Muriel then can’t help but smile as he sees his young friend. This was around the time he became a gladiator and Asra was on his own, and he stopped seeing each other for a good while.

In typical Rhemi fashion, her bottom lip popped out a bit and she gave him a quick glance looking him up and down, sneering prudishly. “Hmmf… Too bad it didn’t work for yo—” Suddenly Rhemi notices his unbuttoned satchel that hangs from his hip. It was filled to the brim of yummy finger foods swiped from the grazing table. Her face softens and an eyebrow raises rather amused. “Wait…. Are you…? Stealing food from the buffet??” She whispers, stepping a few feet closer. She leaned in, covering her mouth with her left hand. 

Asra’s body stiffens like a board and his eyes fly open as they dart left and right auspiciously and a small knowing grin creeps into the corners of her lips. “Whaaaaat?? Nooo!” She could see his cheeks warming up and he cracks a nervous but cool smile tugging his bag behind his back, and quickly closes it. He clears his throat as he casually pops a cucumber sandwich into his mouth, enjoying the crunch, trying his best not to look suspicious. “Who’d do such a thing??”

The young Rhemi stares up at him, leaning her weight into the wall again as she smiles mischievously and raises an eyebrow. “Yeah… Riiiiight…” Asra then sees a nearby guard with a wary expression as it beamed on the young magician. Quick to notice the guard walking over, Rhemi giggles and trundles over to the table and grabs a small sandwich. Effortlessly, she makes herself look natural as she stands next to Asra’s side, obscuring the bag from view as the guard passes by. “...Don’t worry…. Not a rat.” She whispers. As the guard finally turns his attention away and moves towards some rowdy dancers in the other room, the young magician relaxes and leans lazily on the table. He was rather close to her now, but she didn’t seem to mind at all. The teenager then spins around whimsically, suddenly handing her a cup of wine that he had apparently swiped off of a servant’s silver platter. She stares at the glass rather surprised by his quick hands. “I’m actually only sixteen...” She says pushing the glass back towards him.

“So am I~” He chuckles and lies (he was a year younger than her), pushing it back towards her. “... But I’m not a rat either.” He gave her a smooth wink with a smoldering grin as he took a long sip of his own wine cup.

She smiles cutely as she takes the cup discreetly and sips it, pretending that she knew what she was doing. Taken off guard by the bitter taste she grimaces as she looks at the red liquid disgustedly. How could a liquid be so dry?? 

“GAH!! Thought it was gonna taste better.” He laughs at her childish expression and she hands him back the glass as he gulps it down without flinching. The two stay there for a moment listening to the music playing, and she finds herself staring at his fluffy white hair feeling like she’s seen it once before.  “Say—Have we… met once?” She asks as she lifts her mask up to reveal her face. “I feel like I’ve seen you before… Maybe at the beach—?”

Asra looks down at her with his head tilted, gazing at her rather dumbfounded and he blushes even harder, completely forgetting what she had just asked.

“Ummm….” She shrinks into herself under his purple gaze and she slips the mask back over her face. “Do I…. have something on my face?” She anxiously mutters as she rubs her mouth with her sleeve.

“Hmm?? OHH! N-noo!!” He finally answers, still staring stupidly with stars in his eyes. “... Sorry…. You're just… you have really pretty eyes.” She looks back into his gaze, feels rather flattered and smiles creeps back into her face. He places the cup down at the table and bows a bit rather courteously. “I’m Asra… Asra Alnazer.” Then he lifts his mask to reveal his pretty face, decorated in light purple shimmering eye shadow and a plum bronzer to emphasize his beautiful features. “And you are?”

As he stands back to his feet and she returns a curtsy with a cute laugh. “Rhemi…. Rhemi Niamh.”

As the band then changed to a folk song, Muriel knew exactly what song this was. It was one of Rhemi’s favorite northern dances. And he could see as her face brightens and she sways and hums to the rhythm. Asra smiles softly and gives her another half bow, “Well, Rhemi Niamh… Would you, um…. Would you like to dance with me?”

Rhemi bats her eyelashes staring at his open hand, unsure how to feel about it. “You don’t have to… if you don’t want to… We can just keep talking… I just… don’t want to stop talking to me… You’re the only person I’ve enjoyed talking to all night…”

With that, she grins even more, gracefully giving him her hand. “You know what…. I’d love to, Asra.” 

His face lights up and cheeks brighten as he gently holds her hand leading her to the floor. As the next part of the song starts, the two dance, they were fantastic together. They lit up the dance floor with their skillful movements, matching one another’s energy completely. Muriel smiled a bit, he knew Rhemi was a good dancer, he didn’t know she was that good. By the end of the dance the two huffed and puffed and laughed as the crowd all clapped. As the musicians continue to the next song, it seems to be a slower waltz, and the two nod and bow to begin again. Asra leans Rhemi back towards the center of the floor and they take their positions. 

Finally she asks, “…. Say… aren’t you that kid that keeps giving out fortunes behind our shop?”   

“Ohhh…I–.. Uuuuuhhhh—”

Asra’s words fade as the lights die and Muriel ducks out the door right before the memory ends. There was some smoke inside this memory, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as others. As the lights dim signaling that the memory was over.

Muriel takes in a large breath of air before opening the door back towards the hallway. As he shuts the door to this memory, he realizes that the hallway was empty. Next to this door was another one that was an ugly green and jagged door that was cracked. Asra must have been in there. The mountain man then ducks inside of it quietly and stands by his friend and they both watch this memory. 

Rhemi and Asra were in their late teens, maybe early twenties. Either way, it was a few years after the masquerade when Asra started living at the shop. They were both in the reading room in the back and it seemed to be about an argument. 

The apprentice sat in the chair watching as Asra got dressed. “So… You’re going out to hang with them?... All night??” She asks as her nails dig into the wooden table as a thought crosses her mind. This must have not been too long after she went to the colosseum, her hair was short and she even had the same lapis blue strapless shirt, but without the overcoat.

“Yeah!” Asra replies excitedly as he hastily throws on a pretty shirt that clearly belonged to Athena. Despite his chipper attitude, Rhemi seemed keen on being opposed to him as she scowled there, pouting as he tried to decide on which scarf to wear. “... We met the other day and we talked for hours!! We had a lot of fun! They wanna learn magic too!! Rem! You wouldn’t believe how funny they are! We had such a good time— probably the most fun I’ve had in a long time!” He says without thinking how it sounded as he brushes his hair in a nearby mirror, (which he almost never did).

Rhemi furrows her brow even more and shrinks into herself with a huff resting her chin on her knuckle. “Oh really?... Didn’t realize how bad you had it here…” 

Finally noticing her poutiness in the reflection, Asra smiles, rolls his eyes and sighs as he places the hairbrush down then turns to face her. “Oh come on, party-pooper. You know what I meant! I always have fun with you~… I’d think you’d like them! I mentioned you as well and they said they’d like to meet you…you’re more than welcome to come out with us–”

“–Yeeeeeeeaaaah…”  She quickly shoots down with a snooty tut. “..Hard freakin’ pass… no thanksss.” Her head turns away to face the other side of the room spitefully.

Feeling somewhat guilty and also amused with her scornful jealousy, he snickers to himself. He looks at the back of her head a bit longer before thinking of what to do. Finally he walks over, then lazily drapes across the reading table, laying right where she was sitting. There wasn’t any way she could try and ignore him now. He smiles charmingly as he strikes a playful pose with his shirt unbuttoned and looking rather dashing as he lays on his side and uses his arm to prop up his head. “Ya know…For someone who is as talkative with random people in the shop or in town, you’re reaaaally bad at making friends~”

Unable to look away from his bare chest, she silently flounders in her chair for a moment as she looks away trying her best to hide her blushing and fumbles her words. “Yeahh–Well….” She pauses for a moment thinking of a comeback. In an instant, as if she flipped a switch, she snaps herself out of her sudden flustering as a mischievous smirk twitches up in the left corner of her lips and she leans into him, just inches away from his face and bats her eyelashes as she whispers sweetly. “... Who needs more friends when I have you?” 

Asra flutters his long white eyelashes slightly jolting at her sudden shift. He swallows hard as she sensually wraps her hands around the collar of his shirt pulling him closer. Pink stains his face and he holds his breath as she slowly leans into him looking rather seductively.

Muriel tries his best, but you could see him tense up uncomfortable with her being so familiar with Asra. It stings seeing the love of your life being cozy with anyone other than yourself… Let alone, with your childhood crush. He wasn’t a jealous person, but it still wasn’t easy to watch, and it honestly made him very confused.

The teenaged Asra softly closes his eyes as he parts his lips leaning back into her. A devilish expression takes over her face as she smiles wider and her eyes have a wild twinkle in them. Suddenly, in one movement, she scoots her body over to the right, shoving the poor thing to the ground. He lets out a soft but distinctive, “–Ooof!!!” as he crashes rather unceremoniously to the wooden floorboards chest first.

A gitty yet cruel giggle emits from her lips. “... God knows you're enough of a handful.” She snickers with an eyebrow raised as she leans her arm on the table triumphantly as she peers down at her white-haired friend. The poor thing lays there on the floor for a moment looking rather embarrassed. 

Muriel couldn’t help but chuckle to himself a bit but makes sure that his friend or the other Rhemi doesn't see him. He even said something similar once before about having friends… His friend stares at the memory looking like he was dumbfounded as if he was watching this for the first time. 

Finally, the young Asra gathers himself and stands to his feet and dusts himself off. He then holds the back of Rhemi’s chair firmly, as he leans towards her face with a half crossed expression. He seemed a bit flustered and a bit hurt, but he doesn’t lose his smug smirk as he pulls the chair closer to him. It seemed like he wanted to ask what that was for, but then seemed to decide against it. “Soooo… You really think that I shouldn’t have other friends?” He asks, returning to the conversation. 

“... Never said that…” Her reddish brown eyes darken as her brow furrows and her smirk falls as she turns away from him sheepishly. “....Ijustdon’tunderstandwhyI’mnotenough…” She mutters that last part under her breath.

His shoulders hike up as his smile falls. “Okay then…. You are passively aggressively implying that…” He leans in closer and scrunches his face and his eyelid twitches a bit still holding his now fake smile somehow.

“—Holyshitmotherfucker… –Asra, you can do whatever you want…okay?? You’re a grown ass person aren’t you??” She barks as she crosses her legs and arms away from him and she looks to the floor a bit childishly and waves her hand dismissively. “—Just go on and have fun with your new friend. Don’t worry… your old friend will just be here waiting…”

“The hell is your prob–” Asra stops himself from snapping back as he takes in a breath and stands back tall as he rubs his irritated face thinking about how he wanted to frame this. “Rem… I am inviting you to come with us! I genuinely think they'd like to meet you, and I think you’d like them too!… So, you’re not being left out–”

“—Oh yeah!! Riggggght! How could I possibly not want to go?? ” She scoffs sarcastically. The chair drags on the floorboards as she stands up from her chair and gives him a sneer. “... Because this friend of yours is totally gonna buy that I’m not a third wheel, or not think that I’m a weird sheltered freak that likes only books and spells, ooooorrrr not think that I talk too much or too little!!” 

With a defeated expression, Asra glares at her as he deflates into himself. “Rhemi you’re not–”

 “—And they’re definitely gonna believe that I wasn’t a last minute pity-invited… Because they totally ‘want to meet me’!!” Rhemi's face falls into a tight frown as she folds her arms and sticks out her bottom lip as she leans her hip against the table. “…Don't be full of shit, Asra… It’s just insulting. If you’re gonna go, then just go!” She waves him off dismissively.

Asra stares at her tilting his head and sighs hard, unsure what to do. She could be so difficult sometimes. 

Now that he watches this memory again, Asra had forgotten how jealous and possessive she could really be back then. ‘Was she really like that?’ He thinks back to himself. He didn't remember it going exactly that way. He remembered it more fondly, like she was being cutely clingy, but this was nearly a decade ago, he could only guess that details can become so muffled sometimes. But this was also her memory, not his. 

Back in the memory, the young Asra inhales and lifts his hand towards her about to say something. “Rhemi—”

–WOOOSHHHH!!!!!

But suddenly the other Rhemi rips the two out of the room with her wings and slams the door kicking up a cloud of ash. Dazed, the two blink rapidly swatting away the smoke as she walks away in a huff. “Hey…” Asra grumbles a bit. “We were watching tha–”

“—Yeah.... It’d be great if you two were actually helping and not snooping…” She says snarkily without looking at either one of them. Her voice was heavily irritated as she just kept looking in another door, then shuts it. “These ones are open too??” She grumbles to herself. “… No wonder Rhemi got overwhelmed…”

The two friends look at each other upset at not finishing the memory, but as they both thought about it, she was right. This wasn’t the time to reminisce or eavesdrop on her memories. This was about finding their Rhemi so she could wake back up. 

Opening a violet door, Muriel sees a younger twenty-year-old Rhemi as she is being scolded by Athena and she rolls her eyes hard. “You’re not my mother, Athena!! YOU’RE NOT EVEN MY AUNT!!” She screams to her guardian. Athena stares at her with hurt eyes and Rhemi starts to recoil into herself immediately regretting what she said, but doesn’t seem to take it back. This seemed interesting, but Muriel starts to shut the door, not sensing anything. It didn’t help that this whole place all smelled like Rhemi. Not to mention that the other Rhemi’s scent was rather overbearing.

The ghostly apparition seemingly grew more and more impatient and frustrated as she opened and closed the other unlocked door. “... GODS! This one too?! That little brat is really starting to piss me off!”

“Who?” Muriel asks.

The dying spector huffs as she shuts another door angrily. “... This may be confusing… but— There's…. There’s another Rhemi here…” the two friends quickly shoot glances at one another both with matching wide-eyed expressions. “…She’s a kid…. eleven years old, wearing a fancy pink dress–.”

“—Has a hole in her chest..?” Muriel interjects.

His words finally grabbing her attention away from the doors, she stops in her tracks and looks at him with her sickly red eyes. “... How’d you know that?’’

Asra rubs the back of his head and groans. “She was giving us the run around for a while…”

“Yeah… before we ran into you…” Muriel adds, folding his arms.

“God….DAMNIT! YOU DIDN’T THINK TO MENTION—?!” Smoke and fire billows out of her mouth as she stifles a cough and slams another door closed and she clutches her fist so hard, it tries to fall apart again. But then she takes a deep breath trying to calm herself, and uses her magic to repair herself once again, and she walks back over to the pair, hands clasped together. “...Well?... Where was she??” 

“… Same memory where we met you…” Muriel grumbles back not appreciating her tone. 

The red veins in her face start to glow brighter bellowing hot coals, obviously on a short fuse.

Asra darts between the two as they begin to banter back and forth. These two fought before, but nothing intense like this. It reminded him of their argument back in the colosseum cells, and he shrinks into himself unsure whether or not to intervene or to let them resolve this themselves.

“... Ya’ didn’t think to stop her??” Rhemi shifts her weight onto her left hip and folding her arms tightly to mirror the tall man’s posturing.

“... N-... NO! We didn’t…” Muriel growls back with a hint of an animalistic bearish groan under his words.

A bit of hot smoke blows out of her flared nostrils and the embers on her body burn brighter. “And why the fuck not?!” 

Muriel blinks a couple of times, dumbfounded by her audacity and he stands over her casting a dark shadow over her. “We tried!!! Besides—we had no idea where we were or what was happening here until you decided to finally show up!... And what’s your excuse?? You said you've been here for almost four years! You were in there before we were—Why haven't YOU caught her yet??”

The dying Rhemi opens her mouth to rebuttal, the argument ceases as she has a surprise coughing fit followed by a dry sounding heave. Hastily, she covers her mouth with both hands before she turns her head away from her guests and her face twists sickeningly. Luckily, she manages to hold it all in as she runs over to the guardrailing because the second her head leans over, a plume of hot smoke pours out of her like a old sickly dragon. She coughs up what looks like hot coalish embers before a wet substance finally shoots out of her mouth. A sluggish tar expels from behind her lips, unable to stop herself, she spits it out and it falls to the bottom floor with a disgusting squishy sounding plop. Her nails dig into the wooden railing as her legs start to give out and sink down to the floor.

All the frustration in Muriel’s face evaporates as he quickly comes to her aid. Gently he steadies the poor thing’s shoulders and even holds her hair as she continues to expel this fiery ash and sluggish tar. It stinks of death and burnt coal, but he doesn’t budge from her side as he tenderly comforts her while she continues to retch and vomit this disgusting filth. 

After getting it all out, she stands there for a moment. Trying to catch her raspy labored breath, she leans all her weight on the guardrail trembling. With her pride wounded, she tries not to look either of the two in the eyes and she attempts to hide her blushing cheeks (but it’s not like anyone could tell from the broken blood vessels and embers in her face). She wanted nothing more than to continue that argument with Muriel, but she knew he was right. Besides, the moment is gone, and she was just angry and wanted to project her frustrations anyways. Vexed, she shakes her head and slams her frail fist into the rickety handrail, but as soon as she does, she finds herself even more exhausted, so she hangs over it. “FUCK! That little shit!!” She shouts with her raspy sick voice. Sluggishly her fist unclenches as she finally catches her breath and she rests her forehead to the railing's wood.  “... I wasn’t supposed to be here this long…” She mumbles under her breath.

Carefully, Muriel tucks her thin brittle hair behind her ear as he beams down at her with his concerned gaze, his hand still firmly anchored to her shoulder. “... You… ok, Rem?”  

Regathering their remaining strength, the other Rhemi glances her red eyes up at him. Once she looks at his handsome face, the anger dissipates and she feels her face heating up again, but this time for a different reason. She blinks a few times, taken aback by his sweet concern, her eyes then follow his arm to where he was connected to her. “Uuuuhhh…” She utters awkwardly, her voice still hoarse. 

Realizing themselves, his arm detaching from her shoulder and the two of them backed away from each other awkwardly without another word. 

Muriel grimaces at himself once again. He kept reminding himself that this wasn’t his Rhemi, so part of him felt like he was somehow cheating on her. But he also couldn’t help it. He loved Rhemi with every fiber of his being. And even though this wasn’t exactly his soon to be wife, he couldn't escape these feelings. Even this version of her now, he has this intense indescribably emotion. He never noticed it before, and if he did he thought it was an annoyance, but now he wasn’t so sure.

The other Rhemi quickly rubbed the back of her neck and poorly pretending not to care. But feeling the intense love in his eyes and in his caring touch was affecting her. Even though she was dead, these sudden emotions were strong and honestly felt rather overwhelming. Despite all her past relationships, this feeling was foreign to her.

With a painful labored inhale, she straightens herself back up and sighs, “Come along…let’s forget about the brat for now…” With a wave of her hands she summons a bit of her magic and a strange humming rings all around them. With a flick of her wrist, she makes the three of them suddenly transport to the second floor. With the sudden shift and movement, the two guests stood there, feeling slightly dazed and nauseous for a minute, leaning onto the wall so they could get equilibrium back. The unfazed other Rhemi starts walking deeper into the mansion, not waiting for her guests to get their footing.

Once Asra gets back to his feet again, he shakes his head, helps Muriel to his feet and runs up to the other Rhemi. “So… Who is she?”

“Who?” She replies horsley.

“That other… other Rhemi, the little Rem… is that our Rhemi?” 

“Oh... She’s... umm… She…. ahhhhhhh…?” Thinking for a moment how to explain it, she stops mid stride and pinches the bridge of her nose, causing Asra to nearly crash into her. “... Ya know what? She doesn’t even matter right now. That's a more complicated answer than I feel like explaining…” She says starting to walk again.

“Ummm….. Vague…. But oooookaaaaay…” He replies feeling unsatisfied with that answer. “Then why are you upset at her opening the doors?”

Rhemi huffs, not wanting to answer any more questions, but now it was inevitable. “I used to be able to lock them back but lately… I can’t.”

“Well… is that why were you haunting Rhemi?” Muriel asks rather surly sounding. 

Rhemi scoffs. “I wasn’t ‘haunting’ her… Between that brat and her I’ve been kept here like a prisoner!! So if anyone is to blame in all of this it’s your Rhemi!!” Muriel’s brow furrows as she snarkily moves. Knowing that they were not pleased with that answer, she rolls her eyes and continues. “…. But to answer your question, I was trying to get her to remember things slowly. But then, as you have seen, that little shit kid has been opening the doors all at once… the little shit started doing that back when you went to the south for some reason…. Now with memories coming back, and the tar going crazy…”

“–The tar?” Asra interrupts.

“... What tar?” Muriel asks firmly, not liking the sound of this.

“Look, I don’t know! It's tar! It’s just kind of always freakin’ been here!... Sometimes it comes from the walls, the doors, or even the ceiling. Sometimes it comes out of me—But other than that glob, I can’t find it lately.”

“What do you mean you can’t find it lately?? Where would it go??” Asra asks, looking all around expecting something to possibly jump out at him.

“I don’t know!!!” She squawks exhaustively, rubbing her face with both hands, overwhelmed with these questions. “–It used to just sit around looking gross!! But then, it decided it had a mind of its own and it started to move by itself!!”

“What do you mean ‘a mind of its own’?!” Panic starts to resonate in Muriel’s voice along with the anger. He then glances down at the bottom floor looking for the blob of tar that she just vomited, but to his dismay, it was no longer there. It did however leave a rather distinctive black sticky looking splatter down on the shredded carpet down below. 

“UUUGH!!! It’s hard to explain!!” She shouts as smoke bellows out her throat again and she stops for a moment to breathe again. She sure did that a lot… “It doesn’t matter why the tar is moving! The point is …The tar… may… have taken your Rhemi in a dream… and… now I can’t find it anymore–”

“–What?!”

“… Are you serious??” The two half shout simultaneously looking completely mortified.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE? WE’VE BEEN HERE FOR HOURS NOW!!” The magician shrieks, his finger entangles in his curly white hair. “WE WOULD HAVEN’T HAVE BEEN JUST FUCKING AROUND IN MEMORIES!!”

“Tsssh.... She could be anywhere! Including the memories…” She answers with a casual huff, as if she was annoyed that they were so emotional with this revolation. 

“… Is that why you asked us to come here?” Muriel asks, but Rhemi just pretends to not hear him as she continues to walk away. This was exactly why she didn't want any questions. Unsure whether to keep her silence, she stares at the floor until something black catches her eyes. They were faint, but she could see it, a pair of dirty little black footprints. She looked closely, as there were more, the brat finally left her some breadcrumbs. The past Rhemi smiles to herself, seemingly having another clue again. But then a frown returns as she realizes where they were leading down towards a particular wing that was otherwise obscured from view and hidden. A sickening feeling returns to the ghost’s dead intestines as she slowly realizes that the wing was no longer hidden and the footprints lead right down it. The past Rhemi then sprints down towards a different wing of the mansion, following the trail and leaving Muriel and Asra in the dust.

“Hey!” Muriel grumbles, shrugging looking confused. He watches as she starts to turn down a random hallway without even a glance. The pair then gave each other knowing glances before they followed, they almost had to run to catch up with her. When they finally did, the hermit, now heavily irritated that she blatantly ignored him, stomps over to her with his large feet. “....Hello??” He grumbles following her just a few feet away behind her. Suddenly she stops in her tracks as she stares down another hallway that branched off this wing. “... You even listen-…?” His words die as he see what she was staring at. Down this twisted wing rested this hallway where what looked to be a heavy volt door rested. Inside, the hallway was completely different. No carpet, no wallpaper, no nothing. It was a dead end with gray and dimly lit walls that split off into two opposite directions like a T. The heavy volt door layed on the ground in shambles, left over black tar dripping from the hinges. “...Ing?..” He quietly finished his sentence. 

The past Rhemi shakes her head slowly as she just stares at all the damage taking a step closer. “No no no no no…. Noooo! Fuck! This is bad!” Her fingers lightly brush against the broken steel then she shrinks back into herself. “.... When did this even happen?….”

“.... What’s this place??” Asra mutters as he finally catches up with the other two. He too runs his fingers over the broken vault door. The metal was twisted and jagged as if there was an explosion.  

“... Suppressed and repressed memories….” As she takes another step, a disgusting sounding squish emanates under her foot. She glances down retracting her foot back in disgust and sneers. “... And that little brat just opened them all up.” She could only watch as the small glob of tar sluggishly slinked towards the inside of the volt. 

“…. Don’t think this was her…” Muriel mutters scanning the reminisce of the tar all around, he then crutches down looking at the busted door. The vault actually looks like it was broken from the inside out. It was just like the front doors were, but strangely, this appears like the tar went back inside of this place. “... Guess we found the tar…” He says as he slowly stands back to his feet.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck FUCK FUCK FUCK! SHIT SHIT SHIT! These memories aren't like the others!” The dead Rhemi mummers with a look of panic.

“What do you mean??” Asra asks, looking back at her.

“These memories are locked up for a reason!! They have no order to them, they’re just chao–” A large rumble shakes the entire manor, killing her train of thought.

All they’re eyes travel over to the interior of the vault where the movement was emanating. The rumbling grew louder and louder. It confused Asra and Muriel at first, but then they realized–These were footsteps. 

All three just stared in silence, frozen, waiting for whatever was coming to show itself. From the left corner a huge black oozing hand-like thing dings its digits into the gray hallway wall with a low inhuman gurgling grumble. Sluggishly it comes out revealing its disgusting self. The three are helpless but just watch this monstrosity and they collectively breathe as he slinks itself into the center of the gray hallway. It had multiple heads in its body, but the main one on top was clearly Martin’s silhouette with his neatly kept slicked back hair. It had to be about well over twenty feet tall and had hundreds of hands, but only had four limbs which it walked on. The inhuman noises were accompanied by strange voices which muttered to themselves. There were more than a dozen voices, they didn’t quite sound human, but they were saying some terrible things.

Asra steps back with his fists at the ready. “What–What is that??” He whispers to his friends. 

“... Trouble…” The dead Rhemi answers.

The monster’s neck cracks sharply as all its eyes beams straight at the three of them. It hisses and stares for a moment unpredictably gazing at them. The other Rhemi takes a single step back and the monster charges straight for them on all fours grunting and growling wildly.    

“RUN!!!!” Muriel yells, reaching out his arms to pull Asra and the past Rhemi into his chest to protect them from the charge. But no one was able to react in time, and before any of them knew what happened, they found themselves swimming in the black liquid, choking on the disgusting substance. 

They were all swimming inside of its body.

✨To be continued...

(Jesus Christ. I am sorry for making this update so long! I had a few weeks that got super hectic for me! I am still trying to get this out there on a regular basis, but as life keeps showing me, shit happens and I can not make promises! But anyways..)

Thanks for reading my hot garbage!

[luvvixu]

mind over matter pt. 4

synopsis: witness how your marriage was bound to fall apart with you on the front seat and your husband gojo had missed the show—now, he gotta figure out the story on his own.

content: arrange marriage au, angst, husband!gojo, mean!gojo, mention of blood, strong languages, some unsettling scenarios, emotional trauma, read at your own risk

a/n: ok, im such a bad author now huhu, i always broke my promises about updating the new chapter :((( should've just wrote in advance but i'm afraid i don't have that enough free time oqsjjanswjaj anyways, here's the anticipated chapter!! THANK YOU FOR Y'ALL PATIENCE <3 MWUHEHEHHEEHHE

previous / masterlist / next

the next day comes and you've got yourself some visitors. megumi, yuuji, nobara, maki, and inumaki was in your room and they were all seated around you as you talk.

panda and your two third years were not around at the moment because this is a non-sorcerer hospital and people would freak out to see a big ‘talking’ panda. during your two third years, they were out of town and were on a mission but they still text you to get well and even send you some fresh flowers.

“wait, i still can't believe that he's your husband.” nobara couldn't explain his shock at the revelation. out of all, she didn't think that her goofy teacher was someone's husband.

you chuckled at her reactions as you turned your gaze on megumi, who's still his mouth hanging. “megumi, i thought you're getting a hint?” you tease the boy. although it was true, you actually thought he already had an idea because you've known him for almost his entire life and even once lived with you as a kid.

“no…” was only his answer.

“so, gojo-sensei was the one you're talking about when you said that he was a busy man. most of his job requires being out of town. but he never fails to shower you with love and he is making sure that you two would still communicate despite his busy schedule?” your eyes widened when yuuji literally just said what you had said from before, word-by-word!

“i—i supposed he is.” everyone in the room sweat dropped at your answer.

what do you mean you supposed?!

“y/n-sensei, is it okay if we ask your baby?” maki chooses the gentlest approach because she heard that post-pregnancy can make the mother quite crikey, sensitive, and is prone to depression. but to her relief, you respond to her warmly.

“oh, the baby is being treated since they're premature. i really can't wait to meet them once i get better. but right now, shoko was the only one who had seen my baby.” you smiled softly at the thought of your baby.

“gojo-sensei still hadn't seen the baby?” maki’s eyes went wide.

you nodded. “yeah, he said we should go together so i must heal quickly for that to happen.”

the door suddenly opened and it revealed your husband with food in his hand. you smiled at the packages not because you're hungry, but because you had finally persuaded satoru to go out and leave you even for just a few minutes.

how did you do it? well, you just give him an earful after what he did yesterday night and he's like;

“i don't know how you did it but you should've just gone to the convenience store or the hospital canteen just for an oatmeal and eggs. and look, i'm not upset over the fact that you just had the ‘very easy to get’ food delivered on this doorstep. what concerns me is you seem not to trust me very well to handle myself— well in fact i've been doing it since i was a kid and blah, blah, blah, blah…” it was your turn to yap but a little longer than he did. you even probably bought up some of his minor mistakes like not taking out the trash on random sunday night.

and he was like, “i'm sorry. i won’t do it again ( •̯́ ^ •̯̀)”

“y'all done backstabbing me?” satoru teasingly smiled at you all.

“oh, we're just getting started. so why don't you take a seat and hear us out?” you patted the empty space of your bed beside you.

satoru playfully huffed and gave the foods to his students and let them distribute it themselves. sitting beside you, he gave you the separate plastic with food and helped you feed yourself. the two of you had your moment with you telling satoru to just let you be and stop feeding you like a kid, but satoru was like nuh uh—and it goes on and on.

meanwhile, the students watch you two with surprise in their eyes. they still couldn't digest the fact that you two had managed to hide your marriage for like five years or so. and out of all spouses out there, they couldn't believe their eyes that you married a guy that is a total opposite of you.

“i still cannot really believe that you're married and have a baddie wife.” nobara almost never tears her gaze towards you two.

“yeah, much more is that they look so in love!” yuuji agrees to what nobara said as his words made you two stop bickering instantly.

like a cold water being poured, you two were suddenly experiencing a reality check that this so-called in love was very far from the two of you actually is. coughing slightly to hide his awkwardness and nervousness, he just let himself chuckle. while you? you're an expert at this, you maintain a smiley expression and wordlessly (and also forcefully) agrees to what the boy said.

“oh my, do we?” putting a hand on your cheek, you smiled with your eyes closed. your act looks so legit but satoru has seen this multiple side—he knew this facade was all fake.

maki suddenly puts herself into attention by calling your name. “anyway y/n-sensei, i've noticed you two don't have a ring—” before she could even finish her sentence, you already beat her to it.

“that's because the two of us, mostly him, are constantly fighting curses and both involve using our hands when we use our techniques. it would be risky to wear it and we're scared that we might get it lost or damaged.” you explain meticulously.

you watch the students agree to your explanation, while satoru is looking at you with meaning. you stared back at him too, hoping that he would get your telepathic message.

“alright guys, your y/n-sensei needs to rest now. we'll just see you guys soon or you can all just drop by tomorrow after your training.” satoru called everyone's attention by clapping his hands then started to playfully shoo the students.

you watch them pack their things and wave you a happy goodbye, in which you return their enthusiasm as well. when they all left, you let out a sigh and started to gently lie your body on the bed. satoru, who was done cleaning just now, sit at the end of your bed and carefully massage your legs.

“did you have fun with them?” you just lazily hum at his question and proceed to rest your eyes.

“i…i'm surprised you managed to convince them about our marriage.” satoru continued quietly.

opening one of your eyes and looking at him, you said, “of course, i've been doing it to a lot of people for the past five years.”

that alone made him shut up.

satoru looked down to his hands, which were still busy massaging your legs. you've noticed that his eyes were casted down and his behavior was somewhat familiar to you, he's feeling something that is related to guilt and regret.

clicking your tongue, you're in no mood to deal with his behavior today. so to find a solution to this problem, you just put yourself to sleep and let all of this just go on without a single care.

it has been two days and you're getting better day by day. today was probably the bestest day so far because you're about to finally see your own baby!

“calm down, mama. do you want your stitches to open again?” shoko holds your knees to stop it from shaking anxiously as you were currently sitting just right outside the neonatal intensive care unit (nicu) where your baby was.

you understand that the doctors need to prepare the room first before you all come in, but you wished that they speed it up.

“but sho, i'm finally seeing my baby!” you squeal at your friend who just ruffles your hair and tells you to be patient—in which you definitely can't.

meanwhile, satoru, who was standing beside you while you and shoko were sitting together, has been eyeing you since this whole waiting. he understands that you're excited about seeing the baby because he is too, he is excited. but he couldn't help but to feel a sensation that you would rather share your excitement with others than him.

he knows that he sounds ridiculous and undeserving to say that in the first place after what he did to put you through, but he still couldn't help it and he wouldn't even dare to say it to you.

the door of the nicu just opened and it revealed the doctor who was wearing protective gear to keep bacterias and viruses from entering the room and harm the baby. before he lets you all in, he first instructs you all to change the same gear as him and then proceeds to give you all some explanation in which you actively listen and take notes.

and after that, he finally lets you go inside.

the moment your eyes traveled on a crib, you saw your child laying down there with some breathing apparatus that is connected to their little body. you could feel your eyes swell with hot tears as you inch yourself towards the bundle of joy who's their crib was also protected with glass and only small holes on both sides were there.

satoru and shoko watched you with pure warmth at your sight—it was a nice scene of mother's love. finally, a tear escapes your eyes the moment you get a whole view of your child.

“isn't he pretty?” shoko said beside you, someone who you didn't notice had come near you.

you gasp, “he? m-my baby is a boy?” your cries go even harder, but it was just pure happiness. you couldn't bring yourself to tear your gaze away from your child even though he looks fragile for being premature but you love him dearly.

“can i touch him?” you look at the doctor who assisted you earlier without caring that you might look like a crying mess. you're far more thrilled to be with your child than to be pretty at this moment.

the doctor smiled at you and he agreed. he pointed out the small hole on the side, telling you to stick your hands out to feel your baby. you do what he said with your shaky hands, and when your fingertips touch his warm skin—you feel like you could die from the burst of euphoria.

“my b-baby, my baby is n-now here!” you really can't hold your emotions back as you keep on passing your fingers through your baby's arm until it reaches his closed hands where you slightly and gently open it for him to grab index finger. and when he does, your smile becomes even wider.

“hi baby~ this is me, your mommy. it's so nice to finally see you.” you whispered softly, hoping that despite the glass, he could hear your words.

this is the bestest day of your life. your baby was here and that's all you need.

the scene continues to unfold with you still getting emotional and shoko was just watching you with a smile on her face. while satoru, the father of the child, the husband of the mother, was a little distant but he could still see the baby. he was all quiet and couldn't bring himself to utter a word but he's not speechless.

his eyes behind those glasses were trailed on the child, but most of his gazes were on you. satoru watches you become all smiley—this is probably the happiest smile he had seen on your lips for the past years of your marriage.

and he would absolutely never forgive himself if he breaks it—but he already did.

shoko notices his odd behavior and promptly leaves your side for a while (but you're busy having a baby talk with your baby to notice her leaving) to go talk to him.

“what? you're just gonna stand there and watch y/n?” yup. still the same as before, hostile towards the man. satoru let out a sigh and didn't give her attention. instead, he walked towards y/n and just focused on his family.

“you’re so tiny!” you continue to cooed at your son who keeps on moving slightly which is a good sign that your son is responsive and fighting. you also noticed that satoru was now right beside you and is looking at your son too with adoration tinted in his eyes.

“i don't think i could let myself be away from him anymore.” you said. your cheeks were now hurting from constant smiling but you don't mind.

satoru only looks at you briefly because his attention was now on his son, fully. “hello, it was nice finally meeting you.” his eyes trailed on his own flesh and blood with the most care of all.

on the other hand, you're not dumb to not notice that satoru was acting hesitant towards this scene and you knew what his reason was. you think that satoru thinks that he was undeserving to be here, and you're correct about his assumption.

but as a woman who grew up with an experience of being inside a shattered family, you absolutely would not want that to happen to your own child. and as much as you would also like to satoru be away at least for now because you're still that sensitive about what he had said during those conversations in the clinic and hallway, you respect his role as a father.

you'd give him a chance to prove his worth as a father to your child, but he's far worse to have a chance to prove his worth as a husband to you. if he messes this up real bad and without any proper explanation, this will be all over—satoru would no longer have you and your child as his own family.

“stick your hand on his hole, that way you could feel him.” you guided his hand towards the hole that you had said before and watched his hands turn shakey as he reached for the baby.

once satoru had finally experienced a skin-to-skin touch with his baby, he wanted to cry so badly but he didn't allow himself to, at least not yet. he felt like this was one of the best moments in his existence.

satoru would like to punch himself for questioning the baby for his plans as he seemingly thinks it would affect him. but just when he look and touch his baby, all of his recollection about the mixed emotions he felt when the baby is on the board has suddenly vanished and it was replaced with gratefulness and adoration for both of you.

it was like a full 360 degrees turn was done after the early birth of his first born. plus, he had seen you be ever so happy that you are with him. and deep inside him, satoru deniably hopes that this kid, this child, can at least help him save this marriage that was destined to fail and doomed.

because he now finally realizes that you're slowly wrapping him around your tiny fingers.

your tears had made him be a better person, your recent experience had made him behave. it almost cost you and your baby's wife just for him to realize the importance of your five years of marriage, and he's planning to tell you that soon.

“have you finally decided what name we should give him?” shoko asked you and she didn't fail to see your eyes sparkle at the mention of name.

ah yes, baby names.

that was something that a mother and father should decide together because it comes very crucial because the name that your baby will get is a symbol of you two's relationship. but the thing is, you and your husband hadn't talked about a single thing or just anything related to this matter.

that's probably why you're still embarrassed whenever you think about nanami accidentally seeing you open a website into one of the school's computers about unique baby names with its meaning.

you're four months pregnant at that time and you're spending your free time in a teacher's lounge. you're very invested in your mini research to the point that you didn't notice an old friend peeking at your screen. you actually only notice his presence when you're about to stretch but accidentally bump his torso, and to your surprise, he was there.

and then the rest becomes a story and history. nanami helped you pick baby names for both genders or even unisex until you came out with…

“kazuki. let's name him that.” a soft smile was decorated on your lips as you watched satoru, who's looking at you, plays with the hands of your son.

“kazuki…that's a nice name, y/n.” satoru said happily. however, you can see his disappointment behind those words and you know why. you didn't even invite him to search for your baby's name because why would you?

“does it have any special meaning?” shoko asked you.

you nodded and said, “of course, kazuki means hope of peace—and i really need that.”

taglists: @mistymuii @kalopsia-flaneur @sherryuki-callmeyuki @aish777 @tttttttf @slyhersophia @rirk-ke @labelt-san @shinruo @testrella @sad-darksoul @kurookinnie @mountvesuvu @chwesuh-imnida @cole-silas @elernity @maddie-jayne @yozora7154 @kawaiivillainess98 @forourpoets @aishies-stuff @numblytemporary @souyasplushie @catarinemirandax @aerithsthingss @h1gh4ru @ssetsuka @jskodn @khoiyyu @the2ndl @vebbiewuzhere @kouyoumarryme @dreamyescapesfromreality @local-mr-frog @haesify @blkmystery @bleppt @leavem3al0n3 @arminloverlol @megumisthirdog @shirabane @sheismaryy @tragicgirl444 @vampsins @miizuzu @kurobo @anxious-chick @p1nkliquor @mshitachin @chxrv @lolsasuke @username23345 @netyxms @lvstru @roscpctals99 @buttermilktea11 @berenevenstarzetaestelar @jiupark @hotsauce247 @veryverysadauthor @skepticalleo @opentheyoor01 @slowlyshycomputer @babybarbs12 @thickemadame @yaninnaacu @foggypostshark

[part 5 will be just there right around the corner — ©luvvixu2024]

[heartfullofleeches]

Hey how about Everglades darling x Raccoon yandere 🦝🦝🦝

The trash panda fell in love when the Everglades darling fed them So they wouldn't have eat out of the garbage 🥰🤣😆🦝

Raccoon Hybrid Yan still digs through their trash, but now they do it to locate the precious artifacts Everglades Reader throws away-

-

Equiped with your phone and a backpack full of whatever you might need during your exploration, you step out the front door for another exciting day in your never ending search of the evasive beast known as the twenty foot python. Marching down the steps, loud banging catches your ear from the side of your house where you normally leave your trash bins.

Not again-

Pocketing your phone, you race down the short flight to locate the souce of the banging before they're able to run off. Rotten fish and discarded trash crunch and squelch beneath your feet as the grass of your lawn parts way to the gravel of your driveway. You hate to waste the gifts you've received from those you met in the swamp, but the smell from your kitchen was starting to act like a beacon to your house.

"Hey!"

"Shit-" Dangling legs desperately kick at the sides of your trashcan, puffy tail thrashing as they wipe at the air searching for ground. Wrapping your arms around their waist, you lift them over the side of the bin - releasing them as the smell of decay assaults your nostrils.

Pinching your shirt over the bridge of your nose, you peal a chip bag from their ear. "If you're hungry you can just knock on my front door. What happened to all the food I gave you two nights ago?"

"Oh, that's back at my tent! Don't worry, I'll ration it! I'm not looking for food this time, just things you don't need anymore that you won't mind me taking!"

Looking at their clothing, you notice something familiar about the stains on their shirt.

"Is that the shirt i threw out last night? I've been using it as a rag for weeks."

"Yeah....But since you threw it out I can keep it, right?"

"Get inside the house. We're getting you a bath and some new clothes. Might also need to invest in some locks for my trashcans."

[monochromer0ses]

caelus bf hcs

caelus x male reader

warnings: caelus and stelle are implied as siblings

notes: i didnt think id have this much hcs on caelus lmao

•you buy him gloves that look like little raccoon hands

•he gets pouty a lot if he hasnt seen you in literal months

•(his words)

•(its not true, its only been six hours)

•likes you wearing his jacket

•doesnt matter if its too big or too small

•he'll make you wear it anyways

•caelus actually has pretty small hands which is why you constantly call him your little trash panda

•(definitely not because he literally goes through trash every day)

•will never get tired of calling you his boyfriend

•oh caelus is hungry? "boyfriend! lets get food!"

•caelus is tired but doesn't want to move to his room but welt is making him? "boyfriend, carry me to my room, pleaseee?"

•and so on

•boyfriend might as well be your name at this point

•is very talkative when hes tired

•too bad you dont understand because hes mumbling everything

•annoys dan heng talking about how cute and handsome you are

•has very thorough talks with stelle about how cute their respective partners are

•speaking of

•definitely have double dates with march and stelle

•most of which include shopping and caelus and stelle holding yours and marchs bags

•definitely doesnt understand why you get so many clothes

•i mean boy has one set of clothing and probably thinks that's all he needs

•was very confused at the idea of a relationship at first but now that hes learned a lot he loves being in one

•loves kissing lmao

•not even heated kissing

•(though he does love that too)

•but just any sort of kisses

•mostly forehead kisses though

•if youre taller than him he'll either force you down to his level or will not hesitate to grab a chair

[nerdieforpedro]

Hey Nerdie!! Doing some Pedro Scout duties this weekend and I wanna know:

which Pedro Boy is your favorite to write/read for?

Have a great weekend!

xoxo

Me at how long this ask took, not only because I’ve been busy but also because this is such a complex question! 😭😭😭 Well for me anyway. Most people can give a simple answer 😆 Not Nerdie.

As far as reading for Pedro boys, I enjoy reading about all the Pedro boys, except Maxwell Lord. He gives me the ick. Everyone else I'll read in droves. I will say.... and don't tell the others, I may have three that I both enjoy reading and writing about:

Dieter Bravo - The crazy little trash panda who may indulge in drugs, booze, and mindless sex from times to times. Also has lots of crocs and robes. Because he's into so many things and people you can write him however you like. Weird? Sure!, Wild, of course!, Sad, yes! Artsy! Of course! All sorts of things. Dieter can be all the things you want and might need, he wants to be everywhere and no where at the same time. Confusing? Yes, but Dieter's a mystery that's a hell of a fun time to try and solve. 🤗

Din Djarin - The Mandalorian in all his Beskar clad glory. Stoic, yet his compassion runs deep, Din is perfect for those who want a soft touch or not. No kink shaming here - I myself may have written about that cool beskar against the skin. But Din is also a loving father and loyal friend which are wonder themes to be explored. He also is just a badass bounty hunter rolling around the galaxy earning credits. Many things. Many things for the lovely Din. 🥹

Frankie Morales - The most grounded in reality, a veteran just trying to make it work in both in life and over the fucking Andes! A pilot with a heart of gold, a filthy mouth that does wonderful things and gives us so, so so much to work with and curls that have your fingers wanting to twirl. He might be a bit too easily talked into things, but that's fine. Most of our fics (or mine) may have Frankie talking the reader into things or vice versa but don't be fooled. Our pilot can sweet us but also be stern and have a firm hand, just because. Sometime's Frankie may have an issue with drugs, other times he's a single father. @avastrasposts has a cowboy Frankie and I for one would like to see some chaps on the man. 👀

Special mentions:

A. Marcus Pike - The first Pedro character I wrote for. He is soft, not quite as soft as Dieter or one other character to be mentioned. But he loves food, music, basketball and love. So sweet, also looks great in flannel and jeans with his gun. Also the leather jacket. 🖤

B. Javier Peña - He grew on me. I wasn't always a huge Peña fan, but now that I've been writing him again, all he wanted to love on a special someone. And to fight crime, but we saw all that in Narcos. I enjoy Javi P smut, but even more than that, I like the soft Javi different writers give us like @javierpena-inatacvest and @undercoverpena The man's seen a lot of death, violence and darkness. Let him cuddle a bit after a stiff drink or with something else stiff. 😆 (Nerdie is horrible for that joke)

C. Javier Gutierrez - Tied with Dieter for the softest Pedro boy (in my opinion) but with a bit of a temper. Javi G is a teddy bear, cuddler, movie marathons, vacations and maybe secret room vibes. What's in that room is up to you. But those golden waves will forever say summer, warm vibes and an excellent shirt collection. Also random massages - I dunno why but I just see it (for all readers). Javi G will rub sunscreen, oil or whatever else you want him to on you. Just ask nicely or not, maybe he's into it in your fic. Other times Javi might be telling you what to do because he's got the money honey. Don't look a golden bear in his mustache too close unless you're gonna work hard for that marmalade. (I will not apologize to Javi G for the Paddington references. I enjoyed myself too much 🍯 He would want me to smile to stay bonita.)

D. Pero Tovar - He's grumpy, filthy, sore, hungry, looking at his friend William like he's insane because he is and just wants to get paid so he can get the hell out of here. Pero is an entire mood. Does all of it apply? No, mainly because we're not in the 11th century and thankfully I'm not friends with ponytail clad William. Pero in his time or ours, usually is still pretty grumpy, sometimes downgraded to annoyed or surly, but usually a man of few words and a scar over his left eye. It's fun to have him annoyed and have him maybe annoy people with his gruff personality. He makes me giggle.

Thank you so much for this ask and sorry again that it's late. I had a lot to say about each main man and the side ones. But they're not really on the side, more like side by side? Anyway,

Love Nerdie 💖

[thefireintheshadow]

hello…this is your friendly neighborhood trash panda brainrotting all over the place.

if you’re wondering who I resurrected from, here is my ao3 page. nice to see you again.

i love everything hermitcraft, traffic series, empires, and everything those creators make. and everything that you wonderful people create about those things.

please feed my brainrot i am hungry nomnomnommm…

[dangerous-disposition]

WIP Wednes-eekend: Strap Collection Edition

So I'm taking a break from big projects so for this WIP Wednesday/Weekend Cycle, I'm only working on Steve's Strap Collection fics!

All WIPs are smut so... children begone....

The Rules

Post the file names of up to 5 of your WIPs for people to send you asks

Post a snippet of one of those WIPs

When people send you an ask with the name of one of your WIPs, write 3 lines of that WIP.

(Optional) Post the lines you wrote.

You can send multiple requests especially since this is going on through the weekend!

The WIPs

"breakfast" SNIPPET POSTED

nile SNIPPET POSTED

notes that broke bee SNIPPET POSTED

notes that broke sandy SNIPPET POSTED

somno my beloved SNIPPET POSTED

The Snippet

Steve pulled away just a bit, barely putting an inch of distance between their lips, and said a bit breathlessly, “We should eat some breakfast.” “Mm-hmm,” Eddie agreed, and part of him definitely wanted to eat the waffles Steve had prepared. But Eddie was thinking about something else he would like to get his mouth on. It was just his luck that Steve loosened his hold on Eddie, probably to let him go sit down at the table. With a quiet hum, Eddie hooked his thumbs into the waistband of Steve’s boxer briefs, sliding them down as he got to his knees at Steve’s feet. Steve was still wearing the apron, still covered up and hidden from Eddie’s hungry gaze, but it was still so perfect. “Eds, what’re you doing?” Steve asked, even as one of his hands found itself tangled in the messy bun Eddie had put his hair into. “Choosing my breakfast,” Eddie said cheekily, lifting his hands to hike the apron up. The moment Eddie’s eyes landed hungrily on the thick patch of dark hair between Steve’s thighs, he let out a soft sound and kissed Steve’s hips.

The (no pressure) Tags

@scarcrossdlvrs @patchworkgargoyle @thefreakandthehair @starrystevie @starryeyedjanai @stobinesque @vecnuthy @legitcookie @inairbinad @simplebtromance @manda-panda-monium @spicysix @yournowheregirl

and the enablers: @lets-try-to-be-normal-otakus @sentient-trash

[littlelesbolucas]

Playhouse, lunchbox, ice cream

-Papa (to learn more how to take care of my baby)

HI PAPAAAA! I wuv u🩵

Playground- favorite little shows/movies/games/books

Ummm bluey, Thomas the train, strawberry shortcake (the 2003 cartoon) tmnt, most board n kids card games. Oh! A good card game is I think called trash pandas it's really fun. Or anything unusual that looks interesting as long as it's not potty or poop related. Yuck. Too many games about toilets n poop. I really like Dr Seuss books. They're all funny, n goodnight moon, Thomas the train books, oh! N the very hungry caterpillar. Books like that.

Playhouse- do you have anything you're scared of when you're little? (ex, the dark, thunderstorms, a certain movie)

Horror/thriller movies, also movies- violence thats beyond kid violence (like tmnt), tight spaces (unless we're playing hide n seek)

Ice cream- Do you like playing outside or inside?

Inside unless there's snow or were going swimming

[xxemosceneacidscumxx]

Jeff the killer x FEM! Reader

~ A Blinkless Gaze~ Part 8

The next day a woke up to what smelled like food. "Morning Sunshine." Jeff said. "Morning sleeping beauty." I said. He chuckled. What's that I asked after I noticed him cooking. "Racoon." I raised my eyebrows. "Oh" "it was all I could find, here this is for you." He said handing me some juicy delicious trash panda. "Thanks" I said taking a bite.  Kinda tasted like chicken mixed with ham. He Began to eat his. "So what's the plan?" "I know a place, we just have to go deeper into the woods, and then we'll cross dimensions, to slender's realm." I looked at him hella confused. "Dimensions?" "You'll see." Uhhhm "ok" I said. We finished eating and he picked me up, tossed me on his back, and started running again. We ran all day, stopping to use the bathroom, we ate one more time and then we rested. The next day we got up and and ran for a few more hours. "Ok we're here. He put me down, Pulled out his knife, and a piece of blank paper. I watched as he slit his finger tip. "Jeff what're you?-" "I'm fine, I'm just doing the thing." "Uhm ok" he wrote a circle with an x in the middle and then put it down on the ground with a rock on it so it wouldn't blow away. Then he started singing. "Slenderman, Slenderman. All the children try to run Slenderman, Slenderman

To him it's part of the fun Slenderman, Slenderman Dressed in dark, his suit and tie

Slenderman, Slenderman You most certainly will die" I just stared at him. Suddenly he grabbed my hand and stepped on the circle, and I saw I white light for a few seconds and then were were in a different forest. "How the hell?" "I don't know how it works, but I know it does, this place is all forest, and there's a mansion here that I stay at. I've asked about if I could bring you, and they said I could as long as you we don't break up or anything." "Oh, that's interesting." "Yeah, but it's gonna take a few days to get there from here, but we don't have to worry about any cops or shit like that." I let out a sigh of relief. "That's good." We walked for a few more hours. "Jeff?" "Yeah?" "I'm hungry." "Ok, stay here, I'll catch us some food, if you see anyone, explain that you're mine, and if that doesn't work, scream." "Ok" I said getting a little scared. He left, and was gone for what felt like hours. I was sitting and nearly dozed off and then I heard a clicking noise behind me. I turned around and saw a guy with stitches all over, bright green eyes, and light brown sides wept hair. "Who are you?" He said pointing a pistol in my face. I was so scared that I was shaking. "J- Jeff brought me here, I'm his wife." He put the gun on my forehead. "Like I'm supposed to believe that, how'd zalgo find a way in here?" "I don't know who that is." Suddenly his whole demeanor changed to like 20x more violent, and his voice was a little deeper sounding, "listen here you lousy spy, you tell me how the hell you got in here you little bitch!" I just stood there, shaking."answer me." "JEFF I NEED HELP JEFF" I shouted before he put his hand over my mouth. "You can drop the phony wife act." I started to cry. Suddenly the man was tackled by Jeff. "Get that gun outta my wife's face, Liu!" Suddenly his demeanor changed again. "Wait, so this actually is your wife????" He said as they stood up. "Yeah, dude" Jeff Said. Liu looked at me. "I am SO sorry." He said clapping his hands together. "Uhm it's ok." "So what's your name?" "I'm y/n" "I'm Liu, and my alter is sully." Ohhh split personality. Makes sense. "So what're you doing out here?" Said Jeff. "I was looking for you, where the hell have you been?" "It's a long story." Jeff said rolling his eyes. "Well, wanna tell it?" Liu asked sounding a little annoyed. I stared at him for a sec. "Well, I was running from the cops, and I heard these dogs and they were chasing this little kid, so I grabbed the kid, and the cops caught up to me in the process, so I played crazy, and got thrown into the funny farm, where I met y/n." Liu chuckled. "Jeez" he said. Man am I hungry. "So uhh how's about that food?" Jeff gasped a little. "Oh! I forgot, I caught us a deer." I looked at him in disbelief. "You caught a deer? By yourself???" He chuckled. "What? You think I'm weak?" He said jokingly. "No" I said rolling my eyes. The three of us walk up on a dead buck deer. I stared at it. "Why you staring at it like that?" Liu asked me, sounding totally puzzled. "He caught a BUCK deer all by himself..." I said staring at Jeff. Jeff stopped building the fire, to look at me and flex his muscles. I shook my head at him with a giggle. "So, where you from y/n?" "Heavensport Alaska" (I said Alaska because I really wanna move there one day, but you can change it in ur brain) "ooooh Alaska. We're from Wisconsin" Liu said pointing at him and Jeff. I cocked my head to the side, confused. "Were you guys friends or something?" They both Started a howling laughter. "What?" I said wanting an answer. "Liu's my little bro" Jeff said finally starting the fire. I widened my eyes, totally shooketh. "Really?" "Yup" liu said now helping Jeff skin the deer. I watched as Jeff gauged out the antlers. I yawned. "Listen, y/n, why don't you rest a little before food, this shit'll take forever" I yawned. "Ok" I said laying down. I thought about the new possibilities of coming with Jeff. I wonder what's happened to my mom. Is she disappointed? Will I regret this? No, stop this, this is silly. I thought falling asleep.

[lionadventuresstudios96]

My Disney Film Idea: UnLucky

So I thought of this for A Disney film idea, this one here being titled UnLucky

Plot Synopsis:

The Story is about Lucky (how original) a black cat who has a hard time fitting in because he has bad luck not to mention he's bad luck himself (That's what he and everyone else believes). But then one night, Lucky decide to make a wish upon the wishing star, he wish to be more than an unlucky black cat and as a result brought forth a helper or messenger from that star with a white cat named Estrello (who is the constellation Felis) and so Lucky with the help of Estrello and his friends

Characters:

Lucky- First off is my main protagonist is Lucky, he's a friendly individual, but can also be tired of being something of a jinx. He is kind as well, helpful, but can be easily frustrated and sometimes prone to lashing out if angered too. He doesn't like his bad luck and often tries to work around it too, with varying degrees of success. He can be a bit of a perfectionist at times but if anything goes right or according to plan, he's still accepting of it. His likes include, his friends, walks in the city, fish, things going right and four leafed clovers, but his dislike includes being unlucky, sometimes being reminded that he's a black cat that brings bad luck, his friends being hurt (in any way) and things going wrong.

Estrello- Now our secondary protagonist, is Estrello, he is the "Helper of the Wishing Star" and is the constellation Felis, but in life he was once a black cat, and when he died not only he was reborn into a star/constellation, but (much like Jack Frost) his fur changed from a black to white.

Berald - he is relatively laid back, a bit hungry, along with kind, but he can be easily startled and can also be incredibly dangerous if he needs to come to his friend's defense. Supporting and loyal, he is a good cool older brother figure for Lucky. Berald's likes fishing, sleeping, laying about, hanging out with his friends too, and helping out Lucky. His dislikes include being startled, being hungry, falling asleep (primarily a concern in fall since he hibernates in winter), his friends being hurt and Lucky being upset of picked on.

Ari - Ari is a smart aleck girl, who has a lot of things to say, not all of it is useful at times. Empathetic as well as intelligent, she is easily one of the smartest in the group but can sometimes feel isolated due to being the only human in the group. She is willing to help Lucky out with his goals too, that is if being a jinx doesn't affect both of them first.

Katie - Katie is an enthusiastic energetic Red Panda, who despite being born a red panda she's actually raised by raccoons (in fact Katie introduction, she was in a school trash can.). She is able to find common ground with Lucky and often comes to help him circumnavigate what life throws at him too. However, she also has to deal with the stigma that many raccoons have to face as well due to her history with them.

Leona - Leona is a Lioness, who is something of a prima donna. She can be self-centered and often thinks only about herself and is well known for her sharp tongue and brutal honesty. However, she does hide a softer side and even this mean girl can be nice at times. She is also protective of those she does care about and despite some of her jabs at Lucky and other students, she mostly resorts to rude comments but is still able to act cordially with him. However, she is more than able to back up any threats she makes, so her bite (and scratch) are far worse than her bark

Maya - Maya is a generally level-headed, athletic and cool jaguar who is a friend of Berald as well. At first, she was somewhat feared by Lucky too, but she is generally cool around him. She is also one of the few students who is also not afraid of Leona either. When she finds out about Lucky's jinx, she is initially unsure what to think, but she soon comes around and begins hanging out with him as well, though she is still getting used to this. Maya is also one of the top athletes in the school, and wishes to join a sports team too (either swimming or wrestling).

Principal Pongo- The strict yet fun principal of the high school, Pongo serves to help make sure all of the students get a good education and takes his job very seriously. One of his favorite means of passing the time is to visit the library to find a good book to read and bulk up on knowledge and sometimes likes to party as well. He hates being called a monkey and dislikes students or teachers speaking out of line. He is also initially unaware of Lucky's bad luck but when he finds out, he decides to try and find ways to help out without interfering in the students' lives. He also takes student safety very seriously too.

Cast:

Jeremy Shada as Lucky

Todd Haberkorn as Estrello

Bryce Papenbrook as Berald

Jennifer Paz as Ari

Ashly Burch as Katie

Stephanie Beatriz as Maya

Tia Ballard or Mandy Moore as Leona

Samuel Jackson as Principal Pongo

So, what do you think? Leave a comment down below and a like too.

[madllamamomma]

The Visitor~ Part 10!!!

Part 10~

[WARNING: Contains various abuse, blood & slight gore.]

The Fox & The Bear~

As dawn breaks over the city, three friends, Muriel, Asra, and Julian find themselves scrambling to prepare for a half-baked makeshift ritual. Quickly, Muriel summarizes to Asra and Julian what has been happening within the realms of dreams, his father teaching him how to navigate within its confines of it, and the ghostly apparition of Rhemi’s past self that kept haunting her own dreams and how it was her presence that they felt reaching out to them a moments ago.

As time went on, after hours of waiting patiently for Rhemi to wake up on her own, it seemed like she was incapable of it. Even after using smelling salts it seemed useless, it was like she was lost within her own dreams. Perhaps that’s why the ghost of her former self was reaching out to Muriel and Asra with her magic, she had to be asking for help. And it seems like Muriel was the only one who was capable of pulling her out of the dream realm… or at least, he could try. 

—––——––——

“... Do you really have to do this all alone, Muri?” Asra asks with a pleading look as he places a few half shards of broken clear quartz crystals around Rhemi’s shoulders and head. “...What if we just try to use the old spell to make her forget again?” He continues as he places an even smaller one on the center of her forehead where her third eye would be. 

As Muriels collects myrrh and incense, still mostly scattered on the floor, as he purposely keeps his eyes away from his friend refusing to look at his sad face. “...Think that’s not gonna work… Besides, it’d be a disservice to her now… And didn’t she need to be awake for that?” Asra pauses his work for a moment, dropping his shoulders in frustration. Muriel was right, but Asra still loathes the idea that his other best friend could be doing something reckless. Just ignoring his protests, Muriel continues to scrounge for ingredients from the sea of mess that was now the shop after last night. “... Anyways, you should really stay here with Ilyan and Rem. My father said that only Leapers could go into other people’s dreams… Don’t know if–”

“—But do you even know what you are looking for?” Asra interrupts as he stands to his feet staring straight through the mountain man. “... Maybe Rhemi has regained her memories! You said yourself—Before going to the south after Lucio, you barely knew her!! What if she reverted to her old self, and she's unrecognizable to you??” 

A large sigh emanates from his lips as he finally looks him in the eyes, feeling a touch annoyed with his persistence and constant questioning of his understanding of his fiancée. “…That doesn’t—”

“—AND! What if you get lost?” The magician starts to pace behind his tall friend as anxiety courses through his veins. Poor Julian is helpless but to watch his partner panic. “You two were not always close as you are now. And!–…And what if this vision of Rhemi is really just some kind of trap or an evil spirit wanting to trick you??” Ilyan finally reaches out for his partner’s wrist, stopping him from his panicked aimless movements and gently massages his hand to calm him down. He knew how worried he was. Everyone was worried. But you could see how Asra’s heart seemed to physically ache as he placed his other hand on his breast, rubbing his sternum.

The Kokhurian sits there for a moment pondering these questions. Asra was making some good points. Most were really stupid ones, but others were good. As Muriel thought about it more and more, doubt started to creep into his mind. What if he didn’t know Rhemi as well as he thought? What if he did get lost somehow? He wouldn't be stuck per say, he could always wake back up, he always found his way back to his body; that did not concern him whatsoever. However, he did want to find her as swiftly as possible so she’d awaken. With thoughts swirling around in his head, the Hermit exhales hard as he places a stick of lavender incense in its holder. “.... What would you even do if you came?” He finally replies and Asra stiffens for a second, not sure how to answer. “... This isn’t the Arcana Realm, or this world. Even I don’t understand all the rules yet.”

“Well….” Asra pauses for a moment, thinking quickly as he rubs his opposite shoulder sheepishly chewing on his bottom lip. “.... Two sets of eyes are better than one! I can help you look for her. –And! I can reach out to Ilya with my magic if we need to be woken up at any time.”

Muriel shakes his head slowly in silent protest, still not like this idea in the slightest. “Don’t need two people getting stuck there…”, He growls as he lights the incense with a long match.

Clutching the container still, Julian then realizes that perhaps he really could be useful and he sheepishly comes between the two long time friends. “Well…” He starts, and the both stand there quietly, staring at the doctor’s hand for a moment as he holds up the smelling salts container and wiggles it a bit. “I uhhh,.. I could wake you both if need be. No need for any spells or anything like that. Right? Seems simple enough for me to handle.”

The hermit stares hard at the small container in Julian’s long fingers and ponders a bit more and starts to rub the back of his neck. “...And if you fall asleep?” Muriel finally grumbles trying to look annoyed.

Julian stifles a chuckle as best he could showcasing his signature toothy smolder. “This is….ahhh–well… This is not the first time I’ve pulled an all-nighter.” Giving Asra a knowing look and the magician scoffs a bit rolling his eyes. “I’ve worked nearly seven days straight once!”

“He did…” Asra says with a slightly annoyed tone hiding a tiny grin. “... Had put a sleeping potion in his tea to finally get him to sleep…”

The doctor’s smile falls as he looks into his partner’s eyes. “Goddamnit—Knew you lied about that…” he grumbles pouting slightly. “I almost broke the record, ya’ know!”

“... The hell do you mean ‘record'?!” Asra snaps back with a dumbfounded look on his face. “You were becoming delirious, Ilya! I found you at your desk, a filthy mess and sticking leeches to your face because you said, ‘they sucked out all the sleepy!’.. !!” He finishes that last part of the sentence with air quotes.

“You ruined a perfectly good experiment!”

“Experiment?!––” 

Tuning out of the two of them bickering like an old married couple, Muriel thinks hard for a little while longer and they both go back and forwarth with their banter. It's one thing for him to risk going into the dream realm, he’s been there before so many times, it’s another to bring another person in, let alone Asra, one of his dearest friends. There was even a possibility that he could even get stuck there, he wasn’t a Leaper like Muriel. But he did have a strong magical aura. So perhaps he could make it back on his own? If not, surely Muriel could go back and get him if he got stuck… Right? Finally as they grow silent, he looks between the couple, still not exactly sure how he feels about the situation.

Muriel opens his mouth to start saying something, but just before he can, Asra lets out a deep tired sigh, very lightly wraps his hand around Muriel’s thick left wrist with tears in his eyes as he pleads. “Muri…. Please. I…. I should have done more to prevent this. I feel like this is partly my fault, I brought out the portrait–”

Muriel’s eyes soften and he tilts his head sadly. “No… Asra… it’s not–”

“–Please, Muri. Let me help you!... I care about Rhemi too...”

With his brow raised, feeling his heartbleeding for the magician as he finally understood. This wasn’t about him being afraid of him being lost. This is about him feeling guilty in all of this. Asra did everything he could to bring her back. So it makes sense that he was so willing to bring her back now. Muriel cocks back his head and closes his eyes tightly as he breathes hard through his nostrils with a low irritable grumble. Then he rubbed his tired face hard before finally uttering, “....Fine…”. Asra’s eyes light up as his friend begrudgingly agrees as he opens his eyes grouchily and pushes his hair out of his face. “Just... Just stick close… and you are to follow my every word.”

Asra nods his head in agreement, dry his eyes once again, finally feeling relieved. “Of course I will.”

“… Have to come and get you I suppose.” He adds folding his arms and scratching his scruffy neck looking up towards the ceiling, trying to think of a game plan.

“… Umm… yeah, sure—okay.” The white haired magician blinks a few times with a shrug agreeingly not really sure what exactly that meant.

“…. And umm…..” The hermit’s cheeks suddenly turn a bit red as he realizes that he left out a crucial detail and his eyes dart down to the floor. “D-…. Don’tbealarmedthatI’mabear…”

Nothing could be heard inside of the shop other than the ugly old coo-coo clock’s TICK TICK TICKing, making the silence all the more awkward. Asra and Julian gawked at Muriel with rather strange expressions on their faces and he just shrinks even deeper into his shoulders.

“Da– what???” Julian finally sputters out.

——–––—–————————

“…You ready, Muri?” Asra asks his friend, as the two get settled into their hastily crafted makeshift cots from the pillows and bedding from upstairs around the couch next to Rhemi. It seemed to be easier to leap into her dreams if she was right next to him. So maybe it will be the same for Asra, and perhaps this would make it easier to bring Asra into Rhemi’s dreams too.

As Muriel lays his body down, he shifts a pillow or two around to make sure he’s comfortable, not wanting to wake at an inopportune time because of one misplaced pillow. Once he finally was pleased with his positioning, he then looks back towards his friend and nods very seriously, “… Ready.”

The red haired doctor then steps over with his long bird legs, and kindly hands them both a quickly concocted sleeping potion Asra made from the few remains of ingredients that were left on the floor. It doesn’t smell the best, usually there is a flavoring or some kind of flavoring agent to mask the bad taste from the raw ingredients, but this will just have to do.

Before putting his drink to his lips, Asra reaches his cup full of the dubious liquid out toward his friend to gesture a toast and Muriel looks at him with his eyebrow raised. “... To Rhemi?” He says with a wary expression forcing a small hopeful grin, obviously unsure how this all was going to work out.

Julian brings in his cup of a fruity smelling, yet highly caffeinated tea with a hopeful smile. “To our Rhemi-Dear.” 

Muriel’s face then softens and he cracks a small reassuring smile as he lifts his own cup towards his friends and replies, “…To Rem.”

The three ceramic cups meet with a satisfying CLINK before they all shoot their liquids down quickly. Julian sat there happily enjoying the wonderful warm tea, exhaling joyfully after his long sip. However the other two weren’t so lucky. They grimace hard and coughed from the pungent yet overly sweet taste of the elixir. It was disgusting. Asra nearly choked on it and Muriel forced a burp so he didn’t bring it back up again, and both of them stuck out their tongues with a “Blehh”, in unison from disgusting grittiness it left on their teeth.

Disgusting… but hella effective. As soon as the doctor collected their cups back, the two instantly started to feel their eyes and their bodies becoming heavy and tired. The two friends lay their heads down and start to drift to sleep, lulled away by the lavender incense and the myrrh as the potion kicks in. As soon as Muriel shuts his eyes, he starts to feel his hands and feet transforming into claws and feel his body grow larger and being covered in thick fur. The last thing he could hear from the real world was Julian's faint whisper, “Good luck…”

————

Looking around with his emerald eyes, Muriel feels the cold tundra under his paws, realizing he’s in the fields where Rhemi normally met him. ‘Good… it worked…’ he thinks to himself. Knowing what he must do, he dashes over the hillsides not wasting any time. As he seeks out his friend's aura, he starts to smell a familiar scent of sandalwood and lemongrass. Just as he gets over the hill, he then sees that there rests a purple doorway.

Conjuring his magic, he opens it up with ease, hoping that Asra would be waiting just on the other side of it. But he’s somewhat surprised to see the old wharf of Vesuvia. With a sigh, he stepped into the portal warily, everything looked completely different than in his memories, everyone and everything was so loud and busy, people would shove you around, step on your toes, gawk at your towering height, etc. But here things were rather still and bright, the colors were highly saturated as if he was walking into a vivid painting. Oddly, no one seemed to be bothered with his presence, as they calmly walked about somewhat ignoring this massive bear in the middle of town square, which was concerning at first, but he honestly preferred it after a while. If only people were like this in reality… As the bear continues to walk the streets, he starts to wonder if he should even be here. Perhaps it was better to just leave Asra here in the safety of his own dreams, God only knows what he may be bringing him into. But as soon as the idea flickers in his mind, he hears a stir coming from under a small cloth with a few skinny sticks keeping it up. It was a short tent–a very sad, short, little tent. He suddenly remembered that pathetic thing. Asra made it for him and Muriel so many years ago when they lived here on the streets. In fact it was made about a couple of weeks or so after they met, but Muriel quickly outgrew it in a few months after hitting another growth spurt.

With a few large sniffs from his large black nose, the creature under the cloth scurries a bit, and slowly pops out only his brown nose to investigate. The scent of sandalwood and lemongrass filling the air. The bear backs up as he waits for his friend to come out watching as this little orange nose sniffs the air, yet still refuses to come out. Losing his patients, the bear gently rips the cloth off of the skinny sticks revealing a fox with purple eyes and white eyelashes. 

Frozen stiff for a moment out of the shock, the fox’s ears pin back and his fur raised as he backed up carefully, still sniffing the air. With a grumpy sigh, the surly-looking bear plopped to a seat just waiting for the fox to understand that he wasn’t in any danger. Eventually, realizing who this bear was, with its peaceful yet grumpy demeanor, he immediately calmed himself and drew closer and nuzzled up to him a bit.

“Come on…” Muriel instructs, but all that comes out is a low rumbling growl that cracks like distant thunder. The fox tilts his head and makes a few chirping noises in confusion. The bear then huffs again, thinking, ‘Of course he can’t understand me…', he then just points with his nose out the portal, making it more apparent.

All the fox can do in response is to squeak, chirp, and whimper, and is surprised by all the new noises coming from his mouth. But regardless, he follows him closely, and evenly exiting his own dreamscape walking back into the Steppe.

With determination and focus, the two walk out of the field, ignoring all of Muriel’s own dreams and into a gray void solely following the scent of ash and decay. Asra can feel Muriel’s magic as he opens another doorway, this one into a portal with a mixture of burning wood, decaying ash mixed with freshly cut apples, jasmine, and pumpkin bread. The bear looks down to the fox jerking his head towards the opening, gesturing him to jump inside. The fox takes a step back, rearing his behind up for a dismount, then hastily jumps through the doorway without a sound. Happy to see that it worked, he looks back letting out a happy chirp. The bear starts to feel a bit more relaxed, and he finally enters himself. They soon find themselves in another desolate landscape with nothing around by gray and white. 

The two trot onwards still following the scent until they approach a large wall. Muriel recalled encountering a wall such as this one once before with Rhemi at the Steppe when she was having a bad nightmare. The wall was translucent and acted like a force field, it felt like cold stone when touched and on the other side was a set of doors of some kind, just standing there on their own. Two large wooden doors lay on the ground and they were broken and half burnt, looking like something bursted from the inside out. But whatever it was, it didn’t seem to have left much of a trace and the fire damage looked like it was old. Since it was left wide open, you could even see down in the entryway into some kind of hallway, and it seemed to be quite sizable on the inside.

Muriel focuses his energy and magic onto Rhemi’s aura and tries to open the wall up rather than having to muscle his way through like last time. He really didn’t want to wake up for any reason either, and slamming yourself into a wall doesn’t seem the proper way to do that. It took a moment, but finally part of the wall crumpled in and broke open. Luckily, it wasn’t very hard to get open this time. In fact, it even seemed to have welcomed him in, which was relieving yet highly suspicious at the same time. However, the moment after two warily enter, the wall ominously hums before it starts to shift the transparent stones back into their places, mending itself back together asif not wanting anything else to enter. Muriel looks back at the translucent wall squinting his eyes, gazing at it suspiciously not fully knowing what that exactly meant.

As the two trundled on inside, it became rather apparent that this wasn’t like any dreamscape Muriel had ever been to, it was strange even for them. It was reminiscent of how the Arcana realms were, the colors were oversaturated than the normal world, yet at the same time it felt hazy. Looking all around inside, it seemed like they walked into a chateau or manor of some kind, but it was impossibly larger than any mere home. It had boundless doors unlike anything they had ever witnessed. It was much too vast to exist in the real world with its unconventional size, it could probably house three of Nadia’s castles comfortably inside of it. However, it felt more organized in a way, dreams and the Arcana realms both have a sense of randomness and nonsensical fluidity; one minute you're in one place, the next you can be transported somewhere completely different. But this place felt like it was grounded in structure and it was very detailed, but still couldn’t have been real.

As the two animals proceed cautiously, they make their way to the heart of the manor, which could only be described as a large dilapidated grand gathering room or ballroom. Remnants of a large grand piano sat sadly in the corner, a handful of fancy couches with missing legs and chairs with boring colors scattered about, and a heavy oak table rested along the far wall with pieces of dishes and cups scattered about its surface. Above, they saw broken large gothic-style windows above that were impossibly tall and long, housing fractured yet pretty stained glass with various colors. Outside were purpley-red sky with swirling gray clouds accompanied by low howling winds that added a layer of eeriness. Fire must have broken out at one point, it was evident from the charred black burns all on the furniture, the walls, and even parts of the ceiling. Some of the pieces still smoldered and had hot coals that burned. But upon closer inspection, it seems like there are various wild flowers, ivy vines and other pretty greenery that were somehow taking root in some of the ashes, making these ruins oddly beautiful yet still creepy.

The grand ballroom was connected by two long mirroring hallways that had three stories and branching off of them were small wings and corridors like streams to a river. The main set of stairs split into three as they cascade along the sides of the ballroom. The top floors had rickety wooden railings that overlooked down to the bottom floor and on the ceiling above hung the skeletons of what were once fully embellished crystal chandeliers.

Trying his best not to get distracted, Muriel decided to not waste time and started off going to the left and up the staircase to the second floor, sniffing for the other Rhemi’s scent. Asra followed closely, finding himself marveled at this strange manor panning his little neck left and right trying to take it all in. ‘No wonder Rhemi is lost in this dream’, The fox thought.

The wooden floors under the ripped up carpets creaked and groaned with every step as they walked along the corridor. The wallpaper seemed to change colors the further you went, however the floral pattern remained the same dark black damask style. He also couldn't help but notice the various designs, colors, shapes and sizes of doors as they passed them by, no two seemed to be alike. More interestingly, he noticed the ones closer to the grand ballroom were badly burnt and damaged to match the rest of the ballroom. Some of them were burnt beyond any kind of repair with their doors completely being totally eviscerated. Inside their rooms held nothing but the destroyed furniture, ash, and wildflowers. While some doors had varying degrees of damage, others doors were shut up and locked tight, a few even being hastily boarded up with various chains and locks, and even had signs that read, ‘No Pas Entrer’ (Do Not Enter in Charlésian). Most doors however were held with normal locks while a handful were open and left slightly cracked with nothing behind them but empty small, but clean rooms. The further they got away from the more damaged area, it seemed like the doors became more pristine and untouched by the flames. But still, most were locked up tight, and not another soul was in sight. Rhemi had to be here. She must be in one of these rooms… But which one? It didn’t help that her scent seemed to be everywhere in this place.

Undeterred by the challenge, the fox and bear straight away try the handles to the closed doors, attempting to find any that would turn for them. But as they soon discovered, neither had opposable thumbs. With a quick glance to one another, they both think for a moment before getting creative. They pawed, clawed, bit, and even attempted to break down the doors. After a while of futile attempts, a confused Muriel plopped down on his ass and stared at the door he was trying to break. This one was orange and yellow, and despite his immense weight and it being made of just wood, it didn’t budge. But of course they were normal doors, this wasn’t the real world, so physics doesn't work the same way as the real world. Realizing this, he lets out a heartfelt huff as he starts to feel like they’d never succeed. Until…

CLICK!!– the sound startles him as he turns his head toward the fox who was about five doors down. At long last! Somehow Asra gets his teeth around the bronze handle of a sage green door and it opens outwards. 

CREEEEEEEAK—

The door swings open, the pair eagerly ready to see what was hiding behind them. But to their utter surprise, out walks a child in a pink foreign dress was pressed tightly to her chest as if she was holding something behind her small palms. 

Startled at the sudden sight of a living being in this desolate place, the two animals quickly exchange rather bewildered looks, then stare back toward the girl. She shuts the door using her back pressed to the front of the door, wearing a rather blank expression, and they had no time to look to see what was on the other side, but it looked like there was sunlight behind it. Strangely, she didn’t seem surprised nor afraid at the sight of them, not even joyful or well… anything for that matter—just rather indifferent as she stared back expressionless. Upon a closer study of the child, they start to notice that she had brownish-red hair and large burgundy round doe eyes. It's Rhemi!…. Or at least her child self? She must have been no older than ten or eleven. Oddly, she didn’t smell like the one they both knew and loved. She definitely didn’t smell anything like the dead Rhemi who stunk of  burning flesh and ashy decay, so it couldn’t have been that one. This one smells like fresh apple blossoms and jasmine tea like Rhemi always did, and yet, something was off, it was like the scent didn’t quite fit her. It was like a child who doused herself in their mother’s perfume, it was as if it was too mature of a smell for a mere young girl to be wearing. It was also lacking a certain warm undertone that she always had. The part of her scent that reminded Muriel of a warm hearth, and felt like home. But why was that sense of home missing from her?

With her same blank expressionless face, she bravely approaches the two creatures without an ounce of fear in her eyes, still cupping whatever was in her hands tightly to her chest as if she had a secret she wanted to share.

Rather curious, Asra steps closer and sniffs her clenched hands with intrigue. Her gaze drops to him and she kneels down to his level and she starts to reach out her hands towards him. He eagerly awaits for her to reveal what she was hiding and the purple eyed fox brought himself even closer with anticipation. She sluggishly opens her hands, proudly showing him her treasure that clanked behind her palms like small stones; it was about five bloody teeth. She even opens her mouth a bit, displaying that a couple of her teeth on both rows were missing, leaving her gums bloody and red.

The fox’s eyes widen and ears pull back as he steps away with a small foxish ‘eep!’ The bear furrows his brow and his body stiffens in disdain, but he hardly moves. Nearly everyone dreams about their teeth falling out, but it was still rather alarming to see someone’s teeth instead of his own. But he’s seen worse, much worse in fact. However what really drew his attention was something other than the teeth clanking around her little palms. Now that her hands were away from her torso, he saw that there was a gaping hole in the center of her little chest. It wasn’t graphic or horrific or anything, it was just… well, a hole, perfectly spherical, about the size of a coconut or grapefruit, that went straight through her, light even shown through from the other side.

Asra glances his purple fox eyes towards his bear friend not knowing what to do and he can’t help but sit there helplessly shaking his head with a sharp shrug… Was this their Rhemi? Did she somehow revert back to a child? Or was this just another vision? Or a dream version?… If so, what did she want from them?—And where was their Rhemi? –Nothing felt like it made sense. But really, when does it ever really make sense in a dream?

Just as a soft grunt leaves Muriel’s lips wanting to attempt to communicate with her, the girl stands back up to her feet and slightly turns her face away from them. Taking a single tooth and holding it with her thumb and index finger, she blows on it gently and a shiny bubble forms around it, delicately encasing the bloody tooth. It floats in the center and even spins in circles inside of it. Slowly, she let it go and the bubble whisked away down the corridor. One by one she blows the teeth away whimsically, the bubbles gently blowing in their own direction down the hallways and even falling down to the first floor or floating to the third like they all had minds of their own. For a moment the two animalistic apparition’s eyes follow the bubbles as they float away into the distance of this fractured chateau seeing where they’d land. Once they slightly touch any surface, they pop satisfyingly, the tooth vanishing alongside their bubble that encases them. Once the last bubble disappears, the two friends both shake back to their senses, and glance back to where the young Rhemi stood. But she was gone.

Panicked, not wanting to lose her, the two look around ferociously, finally finding the girl sprinting towards what looks to be one of the burnt doors closer to the center of the manor. With a swift wave of her hand, a drearily looking red and purple door unlocks with a satisfying CLUNK and she pulls it wide open making a terrible sounding CREAK resonate from its rusty hinges. For a moment, she stares and waits before calmly stepping inside. Asra and Muriel quickly race towards it before it can close back shut, making the old floor underneath them shake violently; trying to get to it before losing her.

Running full speed into the room and making it just in time before the door swings back shut, they find themselves swallowed in a dark void with a single spotlight with the room mostly filled with smoke and smelled of a smoldering fire. Under the spotlight was the young Rhemi as she sat on the floor with her hands holding her little face. However, as they looked closer yet again, the hole in her chest was gone, and she had a completely different outfit and she seemed to be even younger than ever before, maybe seven or eight. Her front teeth were missing and she was wearing a doll-like dress that was white. And a beautiful woman with dirty blonde hair in a stylish updo and in a fancy blue satin dress sat by her and clasped her shoulder, worry painted on her face. Muriel lets out a grunt as he recognizes the woman from the portrait from dinner the night before. This was Florence, Rhemi’s mother. 

Muriel steps closer mumbling Rhemi’s name just for it to come out as grunts and growls, forgetting again that she couldn’t understand him. But as he approaches the two under the spotlight, he feels a strong magnetic force push him away. Taken by surprise, he tries a few more times to muscle his way toward them, but the spotlight seems to act like a strong force field, pushing outsiders away. He stops and sniffs the barrier to investigate and he soon realizes that there was no scent, nor a magical aura like the young Rhemi with the hole in her chest had. There was nothing but the smell of smoke that enveloped the room. We’re these just illusions? No… there would be a scent from magic… So what is this then?

He then takes a seat as he tilts his head staring at the younger Rhemi as she sits on the floor with her mother and he feels his chest becoming increasingly heavy as she lets out a painful whine.

“…It… It stings!! Ahhh—it… it hurts!!” She starts blinking rapidly at first, but then her eyelids start to swell closed and her face becomes feverish and hot. “…My—my eyes don’t work!! Mummmy!!!”, she starts to scream with such sheer panic in her voice as she rubs her eyes harder with one hand, blinding searching for her mother with the other.

Fear fully sets in as Florence clutches Rhemi to her breast pulling her hand away from her face. “Huush!! Shhhh!.. Rhemielia, Sweetie. I-It’s alright, baby. I'm here! Mummy’s here… J-just try and bear it a little longer… the spell shouldn't take—”  

“—OOWW!!!! MUMMY!! IT BURNS!!! PLEASE!! MAKE IT STOP!! IT HURTS!! MY EYES HURT!!” She suddenly starts to wriggle about clearly in an immense amount of pain while tears pepper the floor and she starts to kick her little feet and scream.

Sad whimpers spill out of the bear’s throat as he places his large paw on the barrier wanting nothing else but to comfort the little Rhemi as she desperately shrieks in pain. What was even happening to her? Why was she in such pain?

Finally having enough as her bottom lip quivers, Florence glances up pleadingly to someone out of view as she tries to stop her daughter from clawing her swollen eyelids with her fingernails. “Darling, you have to stop this! It isn’t working! Please!” 

A low distorted voice answers from the darkness, their words indistinguishable muddled muttering. 

Seemingly understanding what it had said, Florence shakes her head, her chestnut eyes wet, petting her daughter’s hair trying her best to comfort the child. “—She can go blind!! Isn’t her sight more important than changing her eye color for court?!” Rhemi cried hard into her mother’s chest as she tried to hold her down so she didn’t scratch her eyes or squirm aimlessly about.

Asra lowers his head as he watches little Rhemi screams in pain, his purple eyes start to ream with tears as he watches her helplessly. ‘Her… Her eye color?’ He thinks to himself. ‘Who would do that?? Everyone knows there isn’t a spell that could change your eye color that wouldn’t damage your eyesight, or worse. Who would do such a thing?? And to a small child for that matter???’

“—Darling, please!!! W-We’ll find a different way!! Please, this is hurting her!!” Rhemi’s mother begs as she starts to cry herself. “Now please for god sake, give her the counter spell!!”

With a defeated sounding huff, a dark figure creeps into view of the spotlight as it kneels beside Florence and Rhemi. Still indistinguishable, the dark smoky figure takes Rhemi from her mother’s arms and cups her small face rather gently with their right hand. With her puffy eyes now glued shut, the figure waves their left hand conjuring a purple and black magic to their fingers as they say a few words from a strong counter spell. Finally, the redness and swelling starts to dissipate, and she exhales a relieved sounding breath as her nose starts to run and she flutters her doe eyes painfully back open. The figure wipes away her tears with their thumbs, then slightly pulls down her bottom eyelids checking to make sure that the spell was completely gone. The poor thing’s sclera were rather painfully red with broken blood vessels around the irises. But she squints her eyes again. “... Too bright..”, she mutters as she shields her eyes from the overhead lights. With a flick of the figure’s wrist, the lights suddenly became dimmer, as she finally relaxed, but still squinting her eyes trying to see through them. Exhausted, yet relieved from the agony, her little body finally melts down into the figure’s hands. But as soon as the pain subsides, a look of guilt washes over her little face as Rhemi sobs into the dark figure’s hands and clutches their right wrist. “I-…. I’m sorry, Papa… I tried to be brave. I… I wanted to be good… but-…but it hurt, Papa!!!” She starts to sob again making her eyes even more painful. “I’m… S-Sorry…”

The dark figure starts to morph into actual human features under the smoky blob. His purple locks, his overly fancy linen shirt, and his blue teal eyes beaming regretfully into his daughter's sad face as he wipes away her tears as she continues to sob. “N-No… no, I—.” Martin abruptly stops himself mid apology, perhaps about to admit something he shouldn’t. He shakes his head, clears his throat loudly and his teal eyes turning somewhat colder again. “I-…It’s alright my little Pigeon. You did your best. We just need to try harder next time, yes??” 

She sniffles a bit and nods her little head, still shaking like a leaf. “M–Mmm-Hmm.” 

Pulling his lips tightly into his mouth he nods and forces a small fake grin as he wraps his arms around her tightly, her cries muffed by his velvet plum vest. “Perhaps… We’ll just try something else. Something else has to work…” He says patting her little back comfortingly staring off into space, his thoughts a million miles away. “I won’t give up on you, Pigeon.”

Florence sits there with tears sluggishly dripping down her cheeks as she stares at her husband’s face. A look of horror and twinge of scorn as she hears his words. Asra could only imagine what Rhemi’s mother must have felt. This was appalling. Putting your innocent young child in such unnecessary distress was unforgivable. The fox then could feel a low rumble vibrating throughout his chest as his eyes traveled over to see the bear. His fur raised, shoulder hiked, his eyes glare loathing right at Sir Martin’s face as he gnashes his sharp teeth at him. How dare he do this to her… 

Without any warning, the spotlight shuts off, the forcefield diminishes, and the two animals are left in the dark yet again. Both pairs of ears swivel as they hear a swift set of footsteps trundle behind them to turn where the door was. It flies open and the silhouette of the young Rhemi returns, the hallway lights illuminating the hole in her chest as she pauses there seemingly waiting for her guests to follow. The fox and the bear darted towards her, and as soon as they were close enough she took off yet again, this time towards a door with light blue and white trim around it. This one was just as badly burnt if not more than the first, however this one was one of the doors that were labeled, “Do not enter”, equipped with heavy chains, boards, and nails, keeping it locked up tight. But with another wave of her little hand, all the boards and chain effortlessly flew off the door and dropped to the ground with a heavy THUD and it swung open wide.

Tirelessly, Muriel and Asra sprint to enter the room, trying to catch the little flighty thing, but they find that once again the little girl has vanished. The door behind them CLICKS back shut leaving them in total darkness. The two of them coughed a bit as they sat in the dark, this room was still badly filled with hot smoke and embers, it made the fox and bear slightly choke.

They nearly jump out of their skins as another spotlight returns with a loud CLUNK, and they find a new young Rhemi yet again, maybe a few years older than the last vision, at least nine or ten. She sat on the ground in a cute pastel light green and lavender dress with lace ruffles and a large silk bow in her hair. This time however, she seemed like she was in much happier spirits as she sat on a pretty soft blue picnic blanket. The bear and fox had to squint their eyes at the swirling ash to see, but then they soon realized that she was holding a beautifully wrapped box with purple and gold wrapping paper and a blue bow that tied it. Suddenly two women appear side by side looking across from Rhemi as she inspects the box carefully. From the looks of it, this vision seemed much more relaxed than the previous one was. Despite it being so murky through the smoke and ash, it looked like it was bright and beautiful. All their feet were bare, their dresses loosened and more casual, and food was spread across the blanket with a small half eaten cake off to the side. Why was this locked up tight?

The first woman was tall, had beautiful dark skin like rich warm cacao, her eyes a golden yellow, her tight short curly hair tied up in an orange silk scarf and she wore a more traditional Charlésian linen dress, but had a dark green Throthian’s overcoat that was rich in texture and colors and she clearly no corset or petticoats as she lazily leaned to her side. She sat there trying to stifle a large smile as she watched little Rhemi stare at the present. Muriel then realized it was Rhemi’s Aunt Athena. But back then, her name was just Phara. And really…she wasn’t even her aunt. She was her teacher…. And her mother’s lover. 

Asra looks at the woman with a faint melancholy, it’s been about five years since his master died. And seeing her face still stung deeply. Just like Rhemi, he didn’t get to say goodbye, and the constant feeling of unspoken words still haunted him. 

Next to Phara was Rhemi’s mother yet again, but this time with her long dirty blonde hair loose and waves flowed freely down her back. She was wearing a much simpler dress than before made from light cotton material in a softer grayish white and blue shawl. Despite her beauty, her eyes seemed to have bags underneath them and she even looked a little pale… Was she sick?

Phara presses her lips into her mouth from the anticipation as her student still hesitantly stares at the box, finally noticing the small holes on the top of the lid; she ran over them with the tip of her index finger and she tilted her head confused. Then she nearly jumps out of her skin as it softly jostles and moves all on its own.

“Well… go on. It shouldn’t bite!” Phara says encouragingly. As soon as she spoke, Muriel then realized he remembered this woman. He knew her from back in his days at the colosseum. He thought she was just some random healer; But it was so long ago now and she did look differently back then. Maybe he put it out of his mind, he was fond of dissociating back then. Of course she looked familiar…

But the bear shakes himself out of his thoughts as watches on with Little Rhemielia. She seems to take a brave breath in as she carefully removes the lid keeping her distance. She warily flutters her eyes, not seeing anything inside and inches slightly closer. But then, a little furry orange and white head pops out with a little cute squeak as it sniffs cautiously in the air and Rhemi’s eyes suddenly light up with excitement. She inhales sharply as she scoops the little creature gently out of the box and squeals happily, “IT’S YOU!! IT’S YOU!!!” She says as she clutches the small adolescent ferret in her hands.

Recognizing Rhemi’s face, the critter quickly perks up and it happily crawls up her arm and makes little cute squeaking noises as it nuzzles up her cheek, his whiskers ticking her nose and he nibbles on her hair making her giggle. “REM-REM!” It says with a squeaky little voice in her head. Strangely, Asra and Murile could hear his little squeaky voice in their ears too, it was a high pitched voice, and it matched his whirry energy.

Muriel’s eyes widen and stomach drops as he realizes who this little creature was. It was Ezavior, her familiar. An epiphany creeps into the Kokhurian’s mind as he watches this scene continue to play out. He glanced at where the door was, and realized that there was no mere dreamscape anymore. These are her memories. Raw memories. That must be why they are all locked shut, these are the memories she didn’t remember. As his green eyes pan back over to the small ferret, he begins to understand why this door was nailed shut. Her panicked reaction back in the south started to make more sense. Some memories are more difficult to remember than others… he could understand that more than anyone.

Phara smiles brilliantly, clapping her hands together and her dimples proudly beaming, laughing jollily at Rhemi’s excitement. “Happy birthday, mon petit oiseau.” 

But Florence shoots her a hard look as she whispers, “... A pet?” Rhemi's smile fades as she peers over at her mother hanging into every word, the excitement pulled away from her. “... Phara, why on earth did you get her a pet??”

But Phara just smiles and shrugs as she takes a long swig of wine then pops a couple of grapes in her mouth. “Mmm! She saw him when we went to the market and she said he could hear him talk to her. Only familiars can be connected like that. So he isn’t a pet–” she says with her mouth half full, not caring for etiquette at the moment.

“But…  Martin! He would never–” Fear washes over her mothers face as she pounders about this more and more. “He isn’t going to–”

“Pffft!” Unfazed, Phara runs her hand up Florence’s thigh rather intimately, seemingly easing Rhemi’s mother’s nerves instantly. “... Martin hired me to help Rhemieilia control her magic, and a familiar is an excellent way to do that.” Florence’s cheeks turn a bit pink as she stares at Phara’s hand placement. Realizing herself, the Thorthian magician pulls her hand quickly away rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly hoping Rhemi didn’t notice. But even if she did, she wouldn't know what it meant. The affair must have started not too soon before this moment. They both looked rather guilty yet yearned for more.

Stifling a flirtation grin, Florence quickly shakes out of her thoughts back to the matter at hand. “... But he is going to ask questions, Phara. And I never asked permission if you both could leave the grounds… So she shouldn’t have been close to any animals to have a connection with, especially ferrets from the shopping district…. And my husband isn't the kind of person you just ask forgiveness rather than permission..” 

“... Ohh…” Phara's smile falls as she realizes Florence’s predicament, perhaps she overstepped. “... Flora, dear—I’m… I’m sorry. Perhaps it would have been wiser if I discussed this with you… I just thought it would be more fun if this was a surprise.” She says apologetically as she holds Florence’s hand discreetly behind their legs. “...Perhaps I overstepped this time?”

The young little Rhemi and Ezavior look at each other refusing to be apart, her eyes darting around the blanket as the gears turn in her head, quickly concocting a plan. A little cute grin creeps on her face as she slaps the blanket with determination. “I’ll keep him hidden!!” 

Muriel can feel the corners of his lips as they form into a small strange animalistic smile as he sees her light up. This version of Rhemi shared the same adorable excited face that his version had when she got all ecstatic about something. Her enthusiasm was always contagious to him, he used to hate how it made him feel before, but now… it was home.

 “–Papa doesn’t need to know!” She continued with a proud and rather serious looking expression. 

In awe Florence stares at her daughter with a bit of disappointment. “Rhemielia, sweety… we can’t lie about–”

“—It’s not lying… It’s just not telling.” She rebuttals almost scarily quick. “… You’ve said that before. Remember? When we went to the market?”

Florence and Phara both glance at each other, taken by surprise, a bead of sweat on their brows looking rather guilty. “-That's not exactly the lesson we want you to learn–” Phara replies with a scolding tone.

“—Please! Oh please!!!” Her eyes got even bigger and more pleasing as she desperately begged. “… Don’t take Ezavior away! I'll take good care of him!! I promise!!!”. 

“—Ezavior?!” 

“–Ezavior??” The two women exclaim in unison. 

Her mother can’t help but chuckle, shaking her head in disbelief and her forehead wrinkled as her eyebrows raise. “Y-... You named him already? You just met the creature!”

The child nods her head hard and adorably as she clutches him carefully to her heart and he snuggles up to her sweetly. “Yep! He’s got a name now—that makes him family!! And you can’t take away a family member!” She says sticking out her bottom lip in a cute pout dropping her chin. “Pweeeaassssse????”

Florances shakes her head again from her daughter’s whining, and searches for a responsible answer as she stares at Phara for a moment. The lady magician shrugs and whispers reassuringly. “I really do think that he would be good for her, Flora. She really does need something to help her focus her magic.” She leans in more just below a whisper, not thinking Rhemi could hear. “… Besides, the child doesn’t have any real friends she can talk to.”

Florence looks back toward her daughter, she watches as she gives Ezavior a baby carrot and he munches on it adorably. Slowly considering this situation, her mother leans her torso over and grabs the neck of the bottle of wine and takes a long swing from the bottle. “Yes… but what about Beatrix? The little beady-eyed gremlin would sniff him out rather quickly.” She says, whipping the wine off her lips with her forearm like a peasant.

Phara then scoffs and waves her hand dismissively making a minty green shimmering mist around her long neatly trimmed fingers. “Pshh!! Never you mind that wee-ugly beasty. I can whip something up and his scent will practically be nonexistent.”

Shaking with anticipation, the cute girl holds her breath as she sticks out her little bottom lip and pouts and looks up at her mother with her large pleading red doe eyes. “So… Can I keep him, Mummy? Pleaaaaassseeee?” 

A soft groan leaves her lips, placing the bottle back down to the blanket and she rubs her face and neck as she thinks on it for a moment, knowing she had little choice now. The corners of her lips then sprout a beautiful and dainty smile as she looks between Phara and Rhemielia and she finally gives her daughter a nod.

With sheer pure excitement and joy, Rhemi leaps to her feet as she squeals, “YESS!!! YES! YES! YES! THANK YOU, MUMMY! THANK YOU, MASTER!! THANK YOU!!!!” She wraps her arms around her mother and Athena’s shoulders for a quick hug before returning to dancing as the little creature squeaks happily along with her.  

The two women laugh at her pure childish glee as Florence leans into Phara’s shoulder trying their best not to be overly affectionate, yet they also can’t help but steal a loving glance or two. The young child clutches the sweet little ferret to her face and he snuggles his small head onto her right cheek. “–But! We need to eventually tell your father about him...” Florence quickly socks, pointing her finger.

Her words start to fade and the spotlight starts to extinguish like a dying fire. The last thing they could see was Rhemi snuggling up to the small ferret looking so joyous and grateful to finally have a friend of her own and the ash soon smothers out the bittersweet scene. 

Darkness once again chokes the room as the memory ends. The door behind them flies open as the young Rhemi rips out of the room and into the next one. Muriel can’t help but roll his eyes and drop his shoulders before he picks up his heavy limbs to chase after the small girl yet again. This time, she clambered up the stairs towards the third floor, and ran down the hallway in what felt like forever towards the least damaged area. Finally, she opened a slightly charred door that was painted crimson red and ashy black and hard scrapes and stitches woven into the wood. It was the least damaged of the three so far, and it was the furthest away from the ballroom. She then strangely hung onto the door, playfully swinging it back and forth as she waited for her guests to catch up. Her blank expression finally falls into a tiny wry grin as if this was some kind of deranged game of cat and mouse. Just like before, as they drew close enough, she ran inside the door. How was she this fast?? The two wondered, surprised by not feeling fatigued by all this chasing.

The two dash inside the new room expecting a very faded memory like the last with nothing but a spotlight. They were however dumbfounded when they found that this room housed a much more pristine vision. Instead of being in the manor, they found themselves back in Vesuvia in what appears to be the old cells in the colosseum. However the old arena wasn’t like it was today, half in ruin and the other part housing a shady market. No, this was kept up and furnished and fresh blood drenching the floors.

Muriel stops in tracks for a moment not sure what to think of this sudden transportation to such a dark time. It was almost exactly how he remembered this terrible place, he spent so many miserable years here and didn’t want to relive them. He snarls a bit showing his long teeth, what were they doing here anyways?? Rhemi never came to the colosseum… Well except for that one time–but it can’t be… or wait… was this exactly that time? Admittedly, he had long forgotten it himself (yet again) until this very moment, and wasn’t keen on remembering it either. This was so long ago now and it was such a low point in his life.

He hesitantly points his paws to head back to the door that happened to still be open wanting nothing but to escape. But Asra sleekly runs under his friend’s feet, racing to what the next vision had to share, too curious for his own good. Muriel unintentionally digs his claws into the ground underneath watching as the door shuts and he grumbles irritably before following his friend. 

Memorized by the clarity of this scene, the fox takes a seat as if he was watching on like a spectator at a puppet show on a street corner back home in the real world. Begrudgingly the bear follows suit, feeling himself shrink into massive shoulders wanting to make himself disappear. He never liked thinking back to any of his days here. And now he was forced to relive it.

At first there were no people, but only the stage of the cell without the onlooking wall, however there were noises all around and voices without any bodies to them. But soon Rhemi appeared holding the leather strap to her bag tightly and clasping a basket full of food and a bottle of mead. Unlike the child version of her they’ve seen so far, this one was about eighteen or nineteen. She had on some kind of creamy-white long sleeved linen overcoat with a bright lapis and gold strapless shirt poking out underneath and wore an embellished with a corset belt. She also wore a pair of brown pants that tied at the knees and flared out a bit and had on a pair of brown and gold sandals. Her hair was cut rather short, resting just above her shoulders. 

The nearly middle aged guard gives her a large over flirty toothy smile as he escorts her to the locked cell in front of the two animal specters, which curiously no one was in. Even more curious, the guard’s face didn’t have any defining details, all that the bear and fox could see were his piercing brown eyed gaze, and crooked yellow teeth. “… Your Aunt typically works with this one,” he says, trying to sound cool as takes the keys out to open the door and she tries not to sneer in disgust at the guard or the mess made down there by that day’s bloody events. “… He normally has the most wounds of the gladiators anyways.” He continues as he opens the door waiting only on the outside of the bars.

“Oh… thank you!” She replies with a slightly frightened look on her face slowly stepping into the cell, the basket in her hands jarring to tremble.

“You… uh…. You going to be ok in there, little Miss? Athena normally goes in by herself—”

“—I think I can manage then!” She arrogantly says with a fake smile, visibly getting irritated.

Suddenly a large human mass appears inside of the cell towards the back corner. He had long black tangly hair that covered most of his face, and was only wearing his gladiatorial tunic and a sad pair of sandals on his large feet. He must have just finished the fight not that long before, he looked terrible.

The bear gulps hard, feeling his cheeks heat up under his thick fur at the sight of himself and Asra sadly hangs his head as he glances towards his friend. He never saw him when was in the cells like this and it was worse than he ever could have imagined. 

Once the gladiator turned his head, his green beady eyes met hers, and both state for a moment a bit shocked at their sudden reunion. Rather relieved, Rhemi’s shoulders relax as she realizes who this person really was, but she acts annoyed and adds an unnecessary layer of bitchiness to her tone. “Huh… Well, well, well~ If this isn’t my lucky day! It’s Blanket-boy!”

Quickly, he shifts his eyes looking past her shoulder with a look of horror. “Y-...you?! …. W-Why–” He abruptly stops himself and turns his entire body away from her as he sits firmly on the small stool. 

His cell was considerably larger than the others, but it was noticeably just as tight when he was in it. There was almost nothing to furnish this cell either, other than a bed made of stray covered with a dark greenish black blanket (the one he always hid under), the small wooden stool, a bucket full of water, and a sad commode in the corner, there was nothing other than itchy straw, hard cobblestone, the iron bars and chains to keep him company.

“...Get out…” He gruffly snarls, clutching his bloody arm tightly as blood oozes from between his fingers. His eyes fixed back to the floor and his face twisted into a rather disgusted expression.“…Don’t need you…” He was somewhat cleaned up, the blood of his opponents was at least washed off of him, but his wounds were still freshly open and even started to drip to the floor.

“Well—I Can’t… ya see??” She starts leaning her body onto the cell door, crossing her arms and legs lazily just as Asra and Athena did, making the guard behind her become squished between the bar doors and the wall. “... ‘Thena’s out of town, and she sent me to come and taking care of the Scourge, so, lucky for you, here I fuckin’ am!–Because nobody else wanted this job!” She lies at that last part. Asra volunteered but Athena wouldn’t let him. Now that she sees who the Scourge truly is, she understands why. “...So, I suggest you just sit there all bruting-like on your little stool in the corner over there and we can just get this over with.” She huffs as she presses her body off of the bars, freeing the guard, and she waltzes further into the cell.

The gladiator makes a low growl as he scowls at her as she rummages for some bandages in her bag. Watching her feet as they trundle closer, he visibly becomes more and more uneasy. Yet again, she was here to heal him at his worst and he grabbed his arm even tighter, hating this entire thing. In a final act of protest, he pushes his stool with his uninjured leg in her opposite direction, making a loud dragging noise echo throughout the surrounding vacant cells and stops in her tracks.

Now actually annoyed, she throws down her arm, stomps her left foot down and scoffs, “...Seriously?” Placing her free hand on her hip sassily, he sits there silently trying to look as small as possible, refusing to look up from the ground. 

Watching from the outside, Muriel couldn’t help but feel like these versions of him and his fianceé were absolute strangers to him now. He’s not really like this person doing his damndest to disappear in a corner full of shame, not being able to look people in the eye for less than a second before shriving into himself. At least not anymore he isn’t. Of course they still had a lot of the same attributes, and still wouldn’t say he ‘loved’ being around people, but he grew past this sad untrusting version of himself who hid away in the forest and carried an immense amount of guilt. He now felt like he was finally becoming the Kokhurian man that he could be proud of.

“... You realize I literally can’t leave, right?” She lies again for some reason. “By decree of Count Lucio, all his winning gladiators must have their wounds mended and cared for after their matches. Meaning, I can’t leave you bleeding all over your filthy cell and get blood poisoning all over again even if I fucking wanting to! Not until I heal those gouges in your arm and leg that is.” 

The long haired gladiator stares towards the wall again, blinking hard and pondering for a moment, still not wanting anything to do with this.

Impatiently, she folds her arms tightly and starts tapping her foot.  “So…. Ya gonna let me get this shit over with?... Or am I gonna have to restrain you?” She says her hand summoning her magic, red, blue and yellow colors swirling around her hand menacingly.

Well… that looks familiar. The bear can’t help but think to himself. Now that he thought about it, she really could resemble Martin at times, especially back then with her uptight snotty, know-it-all attitude. He always thought she was such a damn arrogant brat back then. It’s funny though, even though he had chains around his neck, there was plenty of slack to reach her. He could have easily overpowered her just with his brute strength and could have physically thrown her out of his cell. And he knew what she said about Lucio’s decree was total bullshit, and yet he remembered how unwilling he was to fight anymore that day. Lucio had a few special guests that particular week, so he saved a lot of prisoners for him to fight all at once so he could impress his company. It was rather brutal though, the prisoners even turned on each other and it became a total blood bath. 

Finally the gladiator begrudgingly but silently agrees, as he lets out a sad tired exhale. He moves his long hair out of the way, turning his body more towards the wall to signal his defeat so she could get to work. 

“Hmmm…. That’a boy.” She says with a tiny smuggish smirk as she drops her hand dispersing her magic.

“Uhhh…. Shall I keep watch, little Miss?” The guard asks with a crackling hesitant voice, hiding behind the other side of the bars still.

A small grimace crept back to her face being called ‘little Miss’ a second time, especially by a wimpy creep like him who did nothing but stare at her rear and boobs. But as she turns to face him, stifling the urge to smack him, she smiles cutely and replies sweetly. “Oh, no, no~ You can leave us, I can take care of myself.” 

The guard looked her up and down unconvinced, looking a bit too long at her tits, “Ya’… sure?? He could try something funny…” He pretends to act brave, puffing his chest plate out to look good, but they all knew Muriel could squish him like a bug. 

Annoyed by this sad excuse for a guard, she continues to smile fakely as she grabs the cell door, “Oh yes~”, SLAAAM!!— She says, shutting herself in and giving him a fake flirtatious look as the bars still jostled around and rang. “Don’t worry about him, he’s harmless outside of the ring. Besides, I hate audiences anyways~” She continues, leaning her weight into the bars again, shooing him with her hand as she bats her long eyelashes. “You understand, right?” 

Finally the guard nods rather disappointedly and locks the door from the outside and walks away. “...Finally.” She mutters under her breath, and a hard sneer replaces her fake smile as she turns back to the wounded patient searching for some bandages again. Just utterly annoyed at this whole situation, even though she could have gotten out of it rather easily. However it was strange that she felt more comfortable being alone with a killer in chains than that guard. “... Got tired of that creep looking at my ass… He’s like… thirty!”

As she gathers her supplies out of her bag she continuously gripes and groans. “Uggggggh. Why the hell did I get roped into this shit??? ‘…Oh, Rhemmmmi, my petit oiseauuu~ Pleaaaase, could I ask you to do me this small favor? It shouldn’t take much of your timeeee~! And it would do you some good to give back to the communityyyyyy!’… PPFFFTT!! Community my ass…” She continues to mutter to herself impersonating Athena’s accent and raspy deep voice as she preps to heal these flesh wounds. 

The old Muriel glances back behind his shoulder, confused to whom she was talking to, and accidentally letting their eyes meet once again. “…What are you lookin’ at??” She hisses, sneering under his green gaze. Quickly he looks off anywhere else and he can’t help but instinctively rolls his eyes feeling utterly annoyed as he turns his chin away from her again. Standing over him, she tugs his large arm towards cuing him to finally let go of it, and she stops the bleeding from the main injury. Once that was under control, she then starts to stitch back some of the small wounds first with her magic to get them out of the way. “Wow… you sure have grown…” She mutters under her breath again, marveled at his immense size, but she doesn’t make it sound like a compliment, making him all the more self conscious.

Watching this from the outside, the fox and the bear can’t help but feel a bit awkward. This memory didn’t seem to be important, should they even be there to begin with? But neither of them seemed to be capable of walking away. And behind that child version of Rhemi ran in here. Maybe there was something they needed to know? What was young Rhemi doing anyways? Are these memories even important? Or is she really just messing with them as she just aimlessly runs around in this endless manor of memories?

As the memory continues, there was obvious palpable tension in the air as Muriel and Rhemi sat there for quite a few moments mending his wounds. The worst injury was by his left deltoid and ran along the back of his tricep muscle; it didn’t cut any arteries or tendons, but it was still pretty deep and was oozing and bleeding a lot, it could easily get infected if not treated properly.

“So…” She finally says breaking the silence and he sinks further into his stool. “... You’re the infamous ‘Scourge of the South’ that eeeeevveryone talks about, huh, Blanket-boy?” Annoyed, the tall gladiator just sits there trying to be still. Muriel could remember that she just wanted her to hurry up and leave already so he could be alone after those day’s events. “…Pfft. I was thinking you’d actually be a vicious monster…ya know? Ten feet tall, merciless, eats babies in one gulp… That's what everyone says about you anyways… But you already knew that, huh?.... Well isn’t this a freakin’ disappointment…..” Still, utter silence. Feeling still stupidly brave, she just decides to keep poking at this poor beast just to see what would happen. “...Still not a talker I see…. Guess some things don’t change… do they??...” 

Unhappy to still not get a rise out of him, her bottom lip sticks out a bit as she stares at him hard from behind and wraps the linen tourniquet around his upper arm. Then an idea creeps into her head. “...Sooooo….. Does Asra even know that you’re killing people for a living now?” The gladiator suddenly stiffens at his name, a low grumble escapes from his diaphragm and he slightly turns his chin towards her. A smile creeps into her lips, feeling the pot finally stirring. “Hmmmm! Who knew the boy who hid behind his blanket was such a cold blooded bastar—”

“—Do you ever stop talking?!” He finally growls under his breath, still looking anywhere but her.

An even bigger smile forms on her lips as he finally takes the bait. “Ooh-hooo~! So it speaks!... What—did I happen to hit a nerve there?”

Muriel turns back away from her towards the wall making her brow furrow. Disliking him trying to ignore her again, she pulls his bandage too tightly and he winces as pain shoots down his elbow and his wrist. “Oooooops~” She says with a false look of empathy, and bats her eyelashes again. “Do hope you’ll forgive me, blanket-boy~” a small bitchy grin creeps back into the corners of her lips.

“.... You’re nothing like the other woman.” He grumbles, sinking into himself as he places his hand on the tourniquet that she cruelly tightened.

“Ohhhh noooo~ What an insult. I’m sooo devastated!” She mocks as she stands to her feet walking within his view as she playfully cups her face as he glares past her shoulder with the gross look of disdain. “Whatever…”

Silence chokes the space once again, as she grabs some more cloth for his wounds on his leg and decides to keep pushing. “So… when did you start this career, eh?” She sits back to her knees in front of him to his leg and he tries to look away from her even more. “–Ohhh! Better yet—–How do you exactly apply for something like this?....” His shoulders begin to slowly increase higher and higher the more she pries. “... Does your resume include something like, ‘various experiences in viciously beheading and/or maiming?’... Or are you so illiterate you brought the Count a dozen heads to his table and got the point across–?”

“–ENOUGH!!!” His booming voice erupts. —THUDD!!

Finally having his patients tested far past its limits, the gladiator slams his fist hard into the solid stone wall, leaving a notable dent in the brick. The rumble echoes through the small enclosed space, making the empty cells’ bars rattle and clank all the way down the hallway. Taken off guard by his sudden burst of anger, Rhemi retracts her arms close to her body, actually feeling the twinge of fear at the sudden outburst. This is exactly what she wanted, but somehow she was still shocked once she got it.

 “...  Obviously…  don’t wanna talk to you… nor do I owe you any explanations–” 

She sits there on her knees and thinks about his words for a moment, and before she could stop herself, she blurts out, “... But you do owe Asra one.” His name stiffens the tall man yet again as he hears it leave her lips. Shocked at her own honestly, she stands to her feet as she looks down at him. “... He’s my best friend and I care about him… He talks about you all the time! Says he misses you and wishes he knew where you were! But little does he know that you’ve here doing the Count’s bidding!...” Shame is thrusted into Muriel’s shoulders like a ton of boulders and he sinks into his stool and looks to the ground. “...Athena told me you didn’t want Asra to know about this!.... Why? Are you too afraid he's gonna abandon you once he knows what you are? YOU CAN’T HIDE THIS!! And—I won’t let the likes of you hurt him!”

The fox’s whimpers sadly pinning his ears back as he sinks into himself even deeper as he watches his two best friends fight like this. He even didn’t realize that they knew each other back then. He never saw them act so cold and angry to one another, especially when his name tossed into the mix. Not only that, but only years later did he know that Lucio had lied to Muriel and him. For so many years, the blonde bastard lied just to get what he wanted from them.

“... Don’t think I care?” The Scourge finally whips his head around towards her with an angry expression somehow feeling uncharacteristically defensive.

She scoffs with a half grin, “Are you fuckin’ joking?..... Just look at you!! Look at where you landed yourself, Blanket-boy! Look at what you're capable of!!” She half shouts pointing to the oversized blood soaked ax that hung on the wall outside his cell. The blade is still damp with blood. “You're still a monster like everyone says, you’re just a pathetic one.”

The sad gladiator sinks back into himself looking rather shameful facing the wall again and lowers his voice to almost a whisper, “...... I—I’d never hurt him.”

“Not on purpose, maybe... But I know what kind of person you are. The quiet one that always faded into the background. Wanted to disappear. How fucking creepy is that? Quietly wanting people to forget you even exist?…. And for what?? Waiting for a reason to snap?! So what if you snapped around Asra then, huh?? What would happen then??”

“....You don’t know me at all…” He says firmly with his gravely deep voice, shocking himself for even engaging with her. Normally he wasn’t one for words, yet she really could get a stir out of him. 

“I know you well enough.” She raises an eyebrow pondering for a moment, then with a pointed look, she starts to grin knowing this was going to be her finishing move. “.... I know you’re too much a fuckin’ pussy to tell Asra that you’re in love with him.” 

His eyes widen wildly as he snaps his head around to look at her, rattling his chains loudly. Shocked to hear those words spoken out loud.

The two dreamlike creatures jolted out of their sadness, absolutely shocked at Rhemi’s words. Muriel had completely forgotten about this part, he must have sealed it far away quite a few years ago. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the fox’s purple eyes gawk toward him with his little mouth gaped open. All he could do was just look away, feeling a deep sense of dread sinking into his large chest. He never wanted Asra to know those feelings, and how was he supposed to explain himself after all this time? Those feelings were now old ones, ancient even, but at that moment, they were fresh and raw like the wounds on his body. Even now as he heard them again, they stung with harsh potency.

Rhemi raises an eyebrow looking rather triumphant with his reaction as he glares towards her with his mouth gaped open in shock.

“What?? You thought it wasn’t obvious?? You’re just as big of a puss-filled idiot when you were in that cave!! Holy shit!” She snorts as she gathers her things and turns to the cell door. She didn’t finish her job yet, he still had an open wound above his knee, but she didn’t care. It’s not like if she left it, he’d bleed out. It could probably heal on its own, he'd just have a bigger scar. What's one more at this point?

“….You're one to talk…” he finally retaliates, anger starting billowing up from his chest as he flares his nostrils. Rhemi stops dead in her tracks, turning back around and eyes fixed on the back of his head, totally taken off guard that he finally was coming back at her. “.... I could see right through you back then… you're not the only one —I know exactly what kind of person you are.” 

She sassily tilts her head and places her free on her hip. “Pfft! Oh really??”

“You… you’re no better–” he says with a long pause as he gathers everything he pinned up to give this bitch what she deserved to hear. “…You just are a liar…. A fake!... The kind of person who pretends to be confident and bold… Pretend to be a good person—but really your generosity is limited to how it benefits you!... Deep down, you're just a fucking coward and a bully!! Afraid of being the lowest one in the hierarchy.”

Bewildered by this sudden accusation, Rhemi parts her lips about to spit more venomous words into his direction, but then the gladiator stands to his feet and gleams down at her from his nearly seven foot gaze. Realizing that she’d never seen him stand up before, she witnesses his terribly immense height, deadly chiseled muscles as he leans over her intimidatingly. All the words behind her teeth instantly retreat back into her throat and she shifts her feet into a strong wide stance, summoning her magic secretly to her hands just in case she needed to defend herself. 

“...You dare call me a monster, but you should take a good look in a mirror! I’m forced to hurt people!!! I can at least admit that I hate myself, but you?!! You’re too afraid to even think about it!! SO YOU MAKE EVERYONE AROUND YOU SUFFER INSTEAD!!” It was evident that his words cut deep into her core as she gritted her teeth and puffed out her chest and she started to breathe shallowly. With a guttural scoff, he walks back over to his corner where his stool sat, shaking his head in disbelief. “....Don’t see what Asra sees in you. You think I’d hurt him?! NO!! Never!! But, YOU?!.... All you've ever done is cause him pain since you met him!”

Confused, she shakes her head mustering up the courage to finally reply. “The fuck is that supposed to mean, Blanket-boy?? I’d never–”

“—I never told him how I felt because he’s in love with YOU!!!” He says as he walks back over to her pointing his large finger towards her chest. But as soon as those words fly from his lips, he regrets even opening his mouth and retreats back into himself and a deep shade of red paints across his ears, face, and chest.

Rhemi takes a step back as her eyes open wide and the magic completely dissipates out of her hand. All of her venom and anger all but vanishes and is hastily replaced by confusion and dread. “....He…. He what—?” She mutters as her eyes flutter, not fully comprehending. “No…. He… he can’t….”

Suddenly a door flies open down the hallway that leads out to the center stadium, the pair’s attention being ripped away from their conversation towards the voices echoing down the corridor. As she listens carefully to these voices as they grow louder and louder, she shifts her head to peer outside to see who was coming. But her eyes widened as if she’d seen a phantom and fear completely consumed her. Quickly, she backs away from the cell bars, realizing it was too late to call the guard over so she could make her escape and she panics. She darts back and forth trying around the cell to find a place to run, she turns back to the executioner with desperation as she whispers demandingly, “Hide me….”

“Wha–?” He growls flinching back as she gets closer, returning to his quiet reclusive self. “... No...Get away–.”

“Hide me, Please!!!” She begs looking back towards the voices drawing ever closer.

“... Why?” He grumbles leaning down at her a bit, looking rather intimidating from his height and gritting his teeth. 

But instead of scaring her, anger flashes in her red irises and her teeth clenched together. She suddenly snatches the chains connected around his neck and yanks it as hard as she can, pulling his eyes to her level and she glares into his bright green gaze. “—JUST HIDE ME, YOU STUPID TALL FUCK!” She quietly squawks with her teeth gritting.

The hermit grabs her wrist to pull her hand away, parting his lips ready to tell her to go to fucking hell, but as soon as he inhales, he realizes her hand was trembling making the chains rattle and clank as tears ream her eyes. “P-Please!!!... Please for the love of the gods, hide me!….I promise… I’ll do anything!! W-whatever you want! Just–H-….He can’t find me! Please!!! Don’t let him see me!” Seeing her as she tries to hold back her tears from rolling down her face, his gaze softens slightly. She looked so utterly mortified. 

Muriel can’t help but remember how he felt back then… At that moment, he almost hated her… but he also didn’t like to see her beg like this. He knew how it felt to be afraid. Seeing her desperate pleas made him wonder how many people begged for their lives every time he went to the arena and he could do nothing but swing his ax down on them. But here, at this moment, maybe he could actually do something to help, even if it was her.

Keeping her eyes peeled towards the shadows of the approaching strangers, Rhemi whimpering becomes even quieter as she shivers head to toe ferociously. “—I—I can’t let him find me…. Please!!!” The old Muriel lets out a hard and heavy huff, and she begs one last time. “..PleaSS—MMMM–!!” 

Hastily as soon as the voices were around the corner, seconds within view, the gladiator covers his healer’s mouth with his large hand and shoves her behind him in the corner completely out of sight behind some hay. Dazed from his swift movements, she finds herself shocked how gently he handled her. Despite his size and swiftness, he was feather light to her skin. And to think, just a few moments ago, she was so completely relentless and cruel to him. Hearing the voices finally approach the front of the cell and their footsteps stop, she can feel heartbeat pound loudly and she instinctively clutches to the back of his large belt around his waist and attempts to be as still as she possibly can. As she stood there behind the giant gladiator, she could see out between his arm and torso, observing the party approaching without detection. Then her eyes scan upwards, she observes his various scars over his bulging muscles that hid under that tuft of long black hair, still taken by surprise that he even bothered to help her. Somehow she felt safe behind him, behind a man that everyone deemed to just be a deadly killer.

Obscuring her from anyone’s view just as Lucio comes around the corner with an entourage, the Scourge stiffens as he feels her small shaky hands hold onto him and he just whispers almost comfortingly, “... Hold still.” 

The Count trots over rather proudly and enthusiastically to The Scourge’s cell, seemingly showing the place off like a child showing off his new toys on the playground. As they all converse, it was evident that his guests were of a much higher rank than him from how he addresses them; Also evident from his apparent ass kissing. “And…Here is where we hold our favorite champion! This cell was specially made to house ‘em! I present to you, my best gladiator yet! The Scourge of the South!!!” Lucio so giddlily announces hoping that his victor would at least do something of amusement. But he just stood there in the corner, wishing nothing but death upon all these noblemen. Lucio coughs a bit awkwardly, turning his attention back to the foreign king. “…. This is the one you so enjoyed watching, Sire.” He says with a half bow pointing with his metallic arm towards Muriel. A few heavily armed foreign guards in fancy golden armor accompany his guests, crowding the small hallway. 

“Hmmm.” Says the man. He stood just under six feet, was swimming in heavy velvets, a silk cape, adorned with very fancy lace, and was dripping head to toe with various jewels. He was an older man that had grayish-blue hair to his shoulders in an overly ‘fashionable’ style that came to his ears into curls. He stood there staring inside as if he was watching an animal at the zoo as he covered his fat nose with one hand and held a half bitten apple in the other. He even had white powder face make-up with an ugly fake mole glued onto his left upper lip just above his pencil thin handlebar mustache. “…C'est encore plus laid de près, n'est-ce pas?” He says looking at a person just out of view still holding his nose in disgust making his voice sound nasally. “... Et plus grand aussi.. No?…”

“Indeed, my King.” A man says, as he casually comes into view, every other step you could hear a wooden cane striking against the brick ground.

The bear suddenly feels a cold shiver down his long spine recognizing that voice as he watches this replay in front of him now with such clarity. Back then, he assumed that Rhemi was afraid of Lucio, that was the only reason why she was shivering and clinging onto his belt like she did, but now… it makes more sense. 

Sir Martin stands next to his Lord, pulling him out a handkerchief from his breast pocket to press against his mouth and nose, eyes locked on the gladiator. “… What a filthy goddamn animal.” He mutters as he sneers at the mountain man behind the bars, not flinching at the smells. Already having enough, he waves his gloved hand at Lucio, gesturing to keep them moving. “Shall we press on, Sire? We wouldn’t want to spoil your appetite with the smell of piss, shit, and blood, now would we?”

“Mmmmartinnnn~ Where’s your sense of fun? I came here because I wanted to see The Scourge of the South and by the gods, I am going to see this ugly motherfucker up close! Haaa!” Said the king with a nasty chuckle as he threw the half bitten apple straight at the poor Scourge’s face. With a wet sounding THUD, the apple bounces off of his left cheekbone, not even bothering to bat it away, but he scrunches his face irritably. He pulls his right arm firmly on Rhemi’s shoulder, tugging her closer to ensure she wasn’t to be seen at all. The king’s once amused face melts into a frown as disappointment seeps in. “Hmmm… I was hoping he’d act like a monster down here as well…” Frustrated, he snaps his head back around to his host. “Luci!! Why does he not stir?.. Is he an imbécile?”

“Perhaps he is..” Martin adds as he stares at the poor thing with his icy blue stare.

Lucio glares at Muriel again, hoping he at least put on a bit of a better show as a bead of sweat drips from his forehead. But all he does is look away, not showing any interest in fighting anything else today. “Oh well…ummm— He-he-he must just be tired, your highness! He did go against over eight fighters today. And that took over an hour! He doesn’t look at it, but giants do get tired too after all… RIGHT??–”

Muriel finally gives him a glare and mutters, “Yeah… I’m tired.” 

“Ugh!! What a bore… But, no matter… I have lost interest. Come, come, now Luci! You promised us a good time!” The king says with an almost bratty demeanor as if he was a toddler who didn’t get what he wanted. 

“Yes, yes… Don’t you have anything else of interest to show His Majesty, Count?” Martin says to Lucio with an eyebrow raised annoyed. “… Or was this all that you had planned?”

“–Why, yes!!” The count’s voice cracks nervously. “Yes! Of course I have more!!” Lucio then hastily moves on deeper into the cells and keeps yapping all the way down the hallway talking something about his various animals that he housed in the neighboring cells.

As the guards stick very close to the king, Martin hangs behind him for a moment staring at the dingy cells hatefully. As he picks up his cane to follow His Majesty and his host, but he then stops on his tracks as his eyes flutter wide open and he whips his head back towards the gladiator's cell. He stands there for a moment staring into it, peering around wildly as if he sensed something he hadn't in a long time. He leans into the cell bars looking straight at the long haired Muriel. “You…Scourge.”  The tall man’s chains rattle a bit as his head moves and he green eyes look back from behind his disheveled unkempt long black hair. “… Anyone else in there with you?”

Muriel averts his eyes towards the floor without a word and with a single shake of his head, ‘no’.

“– Yoohoo~ Martin, my boy!!” The king shouts casually to his Chamberlin excitement returning to his voice. “… Come along! Luci here is going to show us some cheetahs and wolves!!”

“And lions!” Luico adds faintly followed by a small cough. “Umm.. my Lord.”

“Oooo~!! ANND Lions! Hee-hee-heee!!”

Martin’s eyes glance back over towards his party with an angry sneer then back at the tall gladiator and he glares back with his green eyes and a deep loathing seems to burst within him. At last, Martin released the bars and silently made his way down the hallway seemingly looking into every empty cell around as he left.

“Come along, you bloody ninny! You’re taking too damn long!!” The king whines.

“Apologies, Sire…”

Once all their voices dissipate, and the door to the cells shut once again, the long haired Muriel exhales hard, relaxing his entire body. 

Forgetting herself, Rhemi places her forehead on his low back as she feels herself getting woozy as she comes down from the surge of adrenaline.

 With her warm skull pressing against his spin unexpectedly, the gladiator very quickly releases her with a jolt and he blushes uncontrollably. He had forgotten how close she was to him. He sighs hard through his nostrils as he turns around, wanting to just be alone again. “…I…. I hid you…. N-Now get ou—” He stops mid word as watches her slump to the floor silently crying, her face in her hands and her knees to her chest like a little child, shivering uncontrollably. 

As the bear watches, he finds himself yet again wanting nothing more than to scoop her up into his arms to comfort her. Rhemi was terrified and sad, it is so difficult to just sit there and witness this with what he knows now. He takes a paw and reaches out for her, but feels the magnetic force field yet again.

The gladiator lets out another long sigh, grabs the basket full of food she had brought and he pretends to not notice her starting to hyperventilate. So he kneels, quietly eating, attempting to give the girl some dignity as she cries uncontrollably in the corner. After a while, the gladiator blindly hands Rhemi the linen napkin that rested at the bottom of the basket so she could wipe her wet face. “… Lucio’s gone now… Don’t need to be afraid–”

“–H- He’s.. no- not who I-I-...I’m—” She half shouts defensively as she picks up her head, but she suddenly stops herself. Seemling frustrated, she snatched the napkin from his hand and wiped away her tears. “Do—...Don’t you d-d-d-dare tell anyone a-ab-ab-about this…. P- pl-please.”

Silently, he nods his head in agreement as he turns back away from her. “... Now go—”

“Yeah… I know… but—Just…. Give me a minute, okay?” She says trying to still trying to soothe herself. “... I c-ca-can’t leave here like this. T-They’ll t-t-think you did something…”

“Fine…..” The man huffs, sheepishly adjusting his hips as he sits his ass on the ground. He wasn’t sure if she was lying just then or if she even cared about how the guards would think he'd done anything, but really it didn’t matter. She really wasn’t in any shape to leave anyways.

After a few minutes, she seemingly catches her breath and calms herself down enough to speak. She wipes her face and blows her nose with the napkin, as she finally stands to her feet, looking like she was feeling rather foolish. “T-.... thanks….”  She mumbles, her eyes and face still red.

Muriel just sits there silently, trying to act annoyed so she’d get the hint to leave. But her gaze seems to change as she watches him from behind sharing a piece of bread with a few mice.

“M-Maybe…. Y-…. You’re not as bad as I t-…t-thought.” She finally admits though her still shaky voice as she looks rather remorseful. 

Muriel doesn't remember this part so much, he thought she left immediately after Lucio came, but this seemed to be the clearest part of the memory.

He grumbles with a sad shrug. “…. No… just  as bad as you say… I kill to stay alive… That’s the worst kinda bad…”

Really regretting what she had said, she knelt down picking up the half bitten apple that the king threw at him. It was a perfectly good large expensive pink apple, looked to be imported, and he just threw it away. She strips away the piece that had the teeth marks with her magic and tosses it, and even divides the apple into slices. Walking back over to him meekly she handed him the now perfectly good apple, kind of like a peace offering.  “W-Whatever… I was just s-s-saying that s-sinced you helped me.” She says with a small grin and blushing, but only now did Muri see this.

The gladiator blinks a few times before accepting the apple, hoping that will be the end of it, but she unfortunately stays crouched down next to him digging a few rune symbols in the dirt. “I… I d-didn’t know that Asra felt that way about m-me.” Annoyed that she was still here, he doesn’t comment, he just sighs scooting away from her making his chains rattle and she frowns about feeling rejected and she furrows her brow again with a pout. “… Y-you’re still an idiot for n-not letting him know you love him.” She adds trying to lean into his gaze.

However, he does his best not to look at her as he turns away as his face turns pink yet again. “.... He… he knows I am not really good…. with….that sort of thing.” A rouge tear drips down and he catches it before she could see, and he abruptly stands to his feet clearing his throat and points to the cell door. “.... You can leave now.” He had no idea what made him say those things out loud, but they just poured out. And he was ready to be done with it all. This girl always made him feel so many different things, and he hated it all.

Rhemi can’t help but let out a chuckle with her eyes still a bit watery. “... As always, you’re a fantastic c-conversationalist.” She mutters sarcastically before calling over the guard to let her out. As she waits for the guard, she rests her head on the bars and she glances at Muriel one last time. “…. It’s not too late ya’ know. He should know the truth.”

“.... Doesn’t matter anymore… Probably gonna die here.” His eyes darken as he slumps back to the stool. He really did mean that, and she could feel it.

Rhemi frowns a bit again. Maybe there was more to this gladiator than just being the Scourge of the South, and maybe him being here wasn’t even his choice. “... Maybe not to you… But I’m sure he’d wanna know.” Silence still falls on the black haired gladiator, only the rattling of the chains can be heard as he shrinks into himself. Finally as the guard returns with keys in hand, he unlocks the door and it swings open making it squeak. She steps out and the guard shuts the door quickly, still afraid of the man behind the bars. She shoos the guard off again and stands there hesitantly for a moment with her back against the cell before turning her head slightly. “.... Take care, Blanket-boy… And.. maybe… don’t die here, okay?” 

Muriel just can’t believe he didn’t remember this last part. Perhaps then he was too tired, or perhaps he partly dissociated at the time. He did remember how cold and completely visceral she was at the start, but now he sees that she was just being protective to her friend. Really, she only met well. How was she supposed to know what was really happening? Muriel and Asra sure didn’t, so why would she?

As the memory seems to end, the old Muriel disappears and the fox and bear waited for the lights to go out just like the other memories, but nothing was happening. Eventually they heard a strange humming sound, and then they realized that Rhemi was still there, standing there motionless behind the other side of the bars. 

Suddenly her neck cracks loudly, contorting back around as she gazes straight at the two outsiders and she furrows her brow. The fox and the bear growl and yelp, stunned as she looks straight at them, the whites of her eyes were now completely bloodshot red, and the vessels in her face were broken and her skin was a sickly yellow. “Long time so see…” She mutters as ash expels from her lungs. A large smoldering bird morphs from her ashes and spills out of the memory and she flaps her wings hard, making the fox and bear tumble out of the room.

Trying their best not to cough from her pungent smell of death, fox and bear are ejected out of the hallway. The dead Rhemieliia shifts back into her human(ish) form as the door shuts closed behind her. For a moment she stands there looking rather annoyed at the door, trying as she might, the door wouldn’t lock back and she sighs defeatedly. “Damn kid…” She mutters irritably as she then turns her attention back to the two guests. “Took ya’ long enough, Bear-boy!…” The bear growls and grunts a bit annoyed with her all over again. She sent them into this crazy world, and didn’t meet them at the door. What did she expect? The bear just shakes his head and snorts, frustrated with the lack of communication, and she just tilts her head and thinks a bit. “Hmmm…” She mumbles. “Yeah, these forms aren't gonna work for me…” She says as she places her pointer finger into the crown on his forehead and she summons a bit of sooty magic. Suddenly, Muriel shifts back into his human form, wearing the same clothes he was even wearing that day. Satisfied, she smiles finally looking relieved. “That's better, huh, Blanket-boy?” 

Muriel looks at his changed form completely flabbergasted, only his father was able to make him shift forms before. “How? I didn’t think that I could–”

The past Rhemi opens her arms and gestures all around the manor. “This is Rhemi’s deep self consciousness, and this has been my realm for almost four years. So… I can change things if I want.” Her eyes then look to the unlocked doors, the dilapidated hallway and to her own form she shrugs with a small pout and scratches her face. “Well… Some things…”

The hermit then glances all around looking at the endless doors, it all starts to make sense now. Of course this was her self-consciousness, it didn’t feel like a dream realm and it didn’t feel like the real world either, because it was neither. This was her mind… That would explain the organization then. 

Muriel looks back at the woman’s sickly face and a torn expression washes over him. He wasn’t sure how to feel at this moment, on one hand, he wanted to take her into his arms and hug her tightly, but on the other hand, this Rhemi wasn’t his. He just glances to the ground sheepishly and rubs his opposite arm with his hand. “Sorry we’re late…” He finally mutters still wanting to hold her.

She rolls her eyes but keeps a smile, she knew how he must have felt confused about everything including her. But she was obviously relieved he was here, and she pats his arm kindly, silently thanking him. As she finally turns her attention to the fox her smile fades and she gawks at the purple eyed creature looking somewhat terrified. She leans into Muriel and whispers, “Why… Why is he here?” 

The Mountain Man quickly glances at this confused fox friend, then he realizes this was the version of Rhemi before coming back to life. Last time this version of Rhemi got into a huge fight with Asra, and they never got the chance to resolve it in person after he left Vesuvia during the plague. So no wonder this was difficult for the two of them. “He… He wanted to help… He insisted.”

The fox stares at her with such sadness in his eyes, he never saw her like this before. She had to suffer alone, and she looked like she was so tired. The past Rhemi inhales a deep breath and her left hand starts to crumble, she quickly catches the falling ash and hastily repairs herself looking rather embarrassed. The fox just whines a bit more and sinks into himself watching her falling apart like this. All he wanted for so long was to see this version of her, and now that he does, he feels this enormous sense of guilt. It was clear that she should have moved on a long time ago.

Finally, the dying Rhemi trundles over to the fox and she kneels down in front of him with a wary smile. She places her hand on his little jawline and he leans into her touch. Hesitantly, she places her opposite fingers on his forehead to make him shift into human form.

As Asra turns back to his human self, he stays sitting on his knees as he stares at the ghost of his childhood love. “Rem?” He murmurs horsley, still having her right hand on his face and he holds her wrist sweetly. 

She still smiles through her sad painful expression looking slightly nervous as she replies, “Hi-ya, Asra...” She whispers, not sure what else to say.

With tears streaming down his face, he quickly throws his arms around her shoulders hugging her tightly. She stiffens for a moment, afraid of her pungent smell or her ash leaving him a mess, but he doesn’t seem to even care and he chokes in his words. “I’m so sorry, Rem. I never should have left you.”

She relaxes her shoulders, then returns his embrace, holding him tightly back. “Sorry I made you both come here…”

Asra pulls away and looks straight into her eyes, shaking his head and wiping the tears away with his forearm. “You know we’d do anything for you.”

She smiles bittersweetly as a tear falls from her eyes and it sizzles as it touches her crumbling cheek. But then with determination washes over her sad expression, she stands to her feet and pulls Asra up as well. “Wel… Come along you two… your Rhemi needs your help.” She says letting go of her friend and she stands to her feet and walks down towards the hallway, deeper into the manor. 

Muriel and Asra start to follow behind her, passing many doors awkwardly feeling like there was something that needed to be said. Now that the two friends are back in their normal forms and able to talk, the magician has so much on his mind, but as he glances up to his friend, the hermit keeps his eyes away from him.

“Muriel, I…I—” he starts but he starts walking a bit faster in a huff. Asra’s brow lowers knowing that he was being avoidant, and just sprints up to him so he could catch up with him. “Can… Can we talk about what happened in there??” 

“… No.” Muriel sharply replies with a hard grumble, eyes still focused on the past Rhemi’s head.

“Wha–.... Why not?”

“… Is that even important anymore?”

“It is to me!!” Asra shouts somberly yet persistent, his hands pointing onto his chest as it still seemed to ache.

Muriel finally stops in his tracks, his shoulders drop and he cocks his head back, already tired from this conversation, but he knew there wasn’t any way to avoid it. 

Asra stops alongside him and he sheepishly rubs his upper arm with his opposite hand. “Muri—I… I didn’t… I never… I.. I don’t even know where to start….” He then runs his fingers through his white messy hair. “But… it was so obvious—”

“–Asra… Look…” Muriel says with a grunt pinching the bridge of his nose. “… I haven't …. felt that way in a long time… Besides, I’ve changed….We’ve all changed… a lot–”

“I know… I know that, but–” Asra smiles, hiding the pain behind his eyes. He struggles as he continues his confession having frequent pauses mid sentence. “Regardless. Looking back… I think I already knew that… You felt that way… yet I chose to say nothing. I… I even may have used it to my advantage to bring Rhemi back to life–”

“I know you did…” Muri blurts out before he can stop himself. Asra just stands there very still like a board. His tall friend’s cheeks stain red, not out of embarrassment, but deep seeded anger and hurt. “...I-I’m... Not stupid.”

Horrified at his own actions, Asra’s face twists in a sad expression. “When did you–?”

“ …As soon as I saw her being resurrected…” He admits sadly. “.. And after I made my deal…”

“And you still..?” Muriel’s emerald eyes pierce down the white haired magician with a long suffering look. Asra, glances down to the ripped up carpet below his feet and shakes his head regretfully. “I-… I’m sorry, Muri. I know how it feels when your feelings aren’t reciprocated. And you did so much—“

“Asra—“ he interrupts, letting out another frustrated sigh. “I-… I will always deeply care for you… And I got over it. But that wasn’t the only thing… You also weren’t…” He pauses for a moment trying to collect the right words and his face softens. “... You weren’t there for me. Took me a long time before I realized it… I was always there for you, but you… you didn’t always do the same…And that… wasn’t fair…” 

The magician shrivels into himself, his chest feeling so heavy, but he knows that it’s all true. He wasn’t always the best version of himself, especially after Rhemi died. After her death, he became obsessed with bringing her back to life, but once he succeeded, she just wasn’t the same. He didn't think that was even going to be a possibility. Then all he did was spend his time trying to find ways to revert her back to her old self. But slowly he came to the hard concussion that the old Rhemi he knew and loved just wasn’t coming back. For three years, he didn’t appreciate the people who bloomed in front of him. Rhemi was different, but she was just as special, just much softer than her previous self. Muriel was also becoming more reclusive, and if he was just there for him, perhaps things would have been different. Nadia was asleep for nearly three years and didn’t remember anything because of him. He regrets all the time wasted, and he really should have been all alone after all he’d done. If Julian wasn’t so persistent, he could have lost him too, then he really would have been alone. Really, back then, he was a bad friend, and they all suffered for it.

Muriel takes in a large breath as he tries to continue seeing the pain in his friend's eyes. “... Maybe in another lifetime we could have worked… but–” He shakes his head, not finishing that thought. “But... I deserved more than that. And Rhemi… Rem was there for me, and saw me–She made me feel like… Like I was important... She made me feel like I could have a better life.” He looks towards the ghostly version of his lover and shakes his head. “... You kept chasing after the person who wasn’t here anymore … and I… I fell in love with the person who was already there...”

Asra nods slowly and he chokes up a bit again. “You're right…” He says as he grabs his friend’s wrist apologetically and places his hand on top of his. “I’m sorry, Muri…. I’m sorry that I hurt you. And you are right. You did deserve better… I’m… I am just so sorry I never told you that you did… And… I am so happy that you and Rhemi found each other. I wasn’t lying when I said that you both fit together. I loved her… And I still do… But…I love that you two are happy… I.. I don’t think I could give either of you what you deserved.”

“... I know you never meant to hurt me… But… I still appreciate your apology. I know I don’t always show it… but it does mean a lot.” Muriel fights a smile as he glances over to the old Rhemi as she continues to walk down the hallway, seemingly searching for a particular door. Realizing the task at hand, he takes his Asra’s shoulders firmly as he stares deep into his eyes. “...Asra, I know you wanna talk about this more… and we can.. later… But right now we need to find Rhemi.” 

“Right…” Asra says with a small smile as he places his hand over his friends. At that moment he felt so proud of Muriel. He had really grown into his own skin and it took him such a long time to do so. But he was right, they could hammer this all out later. The truth still stings so deeply after watching that memory it was like all of his failures were being thrown back into his face. But right now, it didn’t matter. This wasn’t about him. This was about Rhemi. 

“... You two coming or what?” The ghostly Rhemi mumbles with her very sickly raspy voice, as she waits by a door tapping her foot and folding her arms tightly. This door was a mossy green and gray slightly burnt, but one of the most pristine so far. 

“Yeah! We’re coming!!” Asra replies, stifling his tears and wiping his face.

As he turns to follow along, Muriel reaches out for his shoulder one again. “Wait…” 

Asra turns and out of nowhere, Muriel wraps arms around Asra giving him a quick but warm bear hug. Taken off guard by his affection, he pauses for a moment rather shocked, but then he squeezes back as hard as he could. Muriel still had a hard time saying it, but he was still happy to have him in his life. He still loved him, but just in a different way now. And in that moment, that's all that mattered.

 As the pair separate, Muriel straights up his gaze locked to the door as he walks hastily to the ghostly figure. Ready to enter whatever memory he had to go through next.

“...I’m coming, Beautiful.” 

✨To Be Continued…

[YEAHHHHH I tried to trim it down I really did. I'm sorry! This bitch is long af... And I even tried to hammer it out as much as I could, but it is what it is. LOL HOWEVER! I hope you enjoy this chapter regardless, and as always,.. ]

Thanks for reading my hot garbage!

[twistedthings]

"No, I'm--" Connie started before he took a breath and sighed, shaking his head despite Santana not being able to see him right now. He supposed that could change with a video call and he had half the mind to do that, just to prove it wasn't a trash panda and to have someone sorta present outside of on the other side of the phone but Connie didn't switch the call over to video. Simply focusing on the images flashing across his TV screen with absent interest. "-- okay, Santa, you're starting to sound like my mom." Connie teased, rolling his eyes and shaking his head even though there was a small smile on his face at his best friends kindhearted lecturing.

In all of this Connie wasn't frightened or concerned for himself but for his sisters and his grandmother, for the people in his life that he cared so much for and couldn't imagine losing. That included Santana. "Alright, alright, I'll take it easy and make sure my doors are locked before my bodyguard gets here." He teased further, huffing a soft laugh before he decided to change the movie that was one, a horror movie but Connie hadn't been paying attention to it, the volume wasn't even up that loud. Still, he figured it was better not to have it playing when Santana arrived after she told him to watch something else. "I have some steaks I was thinking of making if you are hungry." He added because now he was thinking about food if only as a distraction.

" YEAH ? AND what are you saying ? that the trash panda didn't sound like a trash panda ? you think it was the boogeyman ?" she had to cackle. " you're probably watching too many scary movies, con. you gotta start watching disney movies here and there to clear the brain." it take long for santana to get up from her bed to start getting ready. she placed her phone on the dresser and put it on speaker phone so she was still able to talk to her friend. even though it wasn't a formal invite, hanging out with connie is what she loved doing and it didn't seem like any of them were doing anything tonight. " not this time. im going over there to protect you. cause you know, a killer on the loose or whatever." a sarcastic laugh had left her lips. the femme changed out of her uniform and into a fresh new set of clothes. " regardless i am on my way." santana grabbed her keys from the kitchen counter after leaving her room before heading out. "keep your doors locked. don't answer the door for anyone unless it's your grandma. you owe me if i find out it was only a raccoon or a stray animal."

[boyfeminism]

i hate being in a bad mood i want to chew metal

[fereldenturnip]

 Introducing my new Redbubble! 

This past year has been a wild one for just about everyone. I’ve decided to try selling my art in order to put $$ away in my “Transitioning!” fund. What exactly is that? Well, it’s proceeds that will go towards moving out of state, doctors fees, HRT, and potential surgery in the future. 

I’m not expecting massive sales, so please don’t let this post put any negative influence on you, my lovely followers. But if you see a sticker you like, that $1 I make will immediately go towards my Fund and I will cry happy tears into my shower :) 

I’ve started uploading some of my art (mostly TOG), but if you want to see a certain piece for sale, please send me a message and I’ll work on getting it up! 

I love you all and wish you the best!

-Turnip

[moneyfor-nothing]

Friend?

[ancientspaceraccoon]

Alrighty, here's some tips from your local trash panda!! :3

Gear tips:

- Try making a yarn tail, there are YouTube tutorials for them

- Make a mask just to try and have fun, it doesn't have to be perfect!!

- You can also commission a mask if you can

- Buy a tail (faux fur or ethically sourced!!)

- Try those paw gloves, personally they help with paw dysphoria

- Try to dress up in greys, blacks and whites to mimic your wolf fur

- Wear stuff with fur on the inside (I hope you get what I mean)

- Chew necklaces to help with biting urges

- Paper claws/claw rings

Diet tips:

- If you're able to, try researching wolf diet and eat things that can mimic those

- Dried mango gives a similar sensation to raw meat!

- Hunt for food (for example hide some snacks in your room and find them when you're hungry)

- Eat after doing something tiring/important to mimic the feeling of eating after a hunt

Quads tips:

- Always stretch first, trust me

- Curl your fingers so you don't break them

- Start with walking and build up over time

- Practice as much as you can

- If you're not out to your family, do it only when you're home alone/outside

- Start with just crawling on your knees and build up from that

- Wear loose clothing for practicing

- Try some other exercises to build up strength

Other tips:

- watch documentaries

- Make a den in your room/outside

- Practice vocals

- Hunt for plushies!

- Play tag with someone if you can

- Bite your siblings (just joking... Unless--)

- Watch the moon

- Go to forests

- If you can, go see a wolf at the zoo!!

- Don't let anyone else in your room as much as possible, don't let them get in your territory!!

Hope it helps, sorry if my grammar is shitty, I only speak Raccoon and fox

HELP PLEASE THERIAN TIPS NEEDED

Ok so I am a fairly new wolftherian and i need advice!!

So first of all I really want to make, a mask and a tail but I'm hopeless at craft so if you had some simple ideas on how I can make them it would be really appreciated.

I also want to start quads, I know they are really difficult so some beginner things I could do would be appreciated too, thank you ❤️

Also just some things I could do in general

Thank you so much for reading (⁠◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕⁠✿⁠)